Lead Me To Light

Chapters

Chapter 1: Run away from Darkness
Chapter 2: Follow the Sounds
Chapter 3: Take a Whiff
Chapter 4: Empathize a Monster
Chapter 5: Taste the Memories
Chapter 6: Sleep Past Nightmares
Chapter 7: Welcome the Unpredictable
Chapter 8: Welcome the Beast
Chapter 9: Travel the Chill
Chapter 10: Light the Fire
Chapter 11: Ease the Pain
Chapter 12: Facing The Alphas

Chapter 1: Run away from Darkness

Chapter 1: Run From the Dark

Running, running was what Matt was doing. The year was 2012 June 13th, Friday, and behind him was a monstrosity. Or monstrosities a horde of the flesh craving, cannibal feasting undead humans were following him. Fortunately for him they were slow, unlike the movies where they would run. Matt was equipped with survival gear, and weapons...... mostly weapons. A machete was sheathed to his waist along with a magnum, and a Soviet AK-47 on his back.

As he was running from the abomination horde behind him, he pulled his machete from his waist as a few zombies were in front of him. One swing goes one head, and one hack splits a head separated brain functions from the zombies. Although the decapitated zombie's head still hungered for flesh. Matt kept running throughout the city he was in, and away from the shit hole behind him. He found a group of zombies in his pathway, too much for him.

He ran a different path as he bashed through a building door and quickly shut behind him, he pushed a nearby table in front of the door to block any craving undead from snacking on him. He found small safety as he stood still to take a breath on his quick pacing and thinking. "Fuck this shit." He said to himself as he heard growling near him. "Fucking shit, no where is safe." He quickly snapped his magnum towards the zombie close to him and to put it in plain words, "Popped his head right fucking off!".

After the kill, he replaced his used bullet with a fresh new one, set his gun back in place, and slumped to the ground. He gave a heavy sigh and started to really catch his breath now as he pulled out his machete. He took off his jacket as started to rub it against the hard steel metal surface against the blade, cleaning the mess he left on it before, now his making it less dirty than what it was before. He returned his machete to its place as he wielded his rifle and slowly walked through the building.

Numbers on doors were seen, mostly in the hundreds area. "Apartments." Matt theorized as he climbed up a number set of stairs, 5 levels he ascended and stopped at the 6th. The hallways looked clean, no clothes or blood splattered everywhere, and small scratches to the walls and floors. He walked down the hallway of rooms and homes with his rifle in hand, waiting for any surprise attack. He stopped at a random apartment as he aimed at the door knob and shot right through it, leaving a massive tear of wood where the handle was, making it easy to open.

He entered the building still with the rifle in hand as he rummaged through the apartment. It looked slightly nice, neat, clean. "Maybe one night here wouldn't be so bad." He thought as he looked for something heavy. A nice heavy table did just the trick as he placed it against the door. He took the door chain which was fortunately unused and took extra precaution using it as a temporary lock, you know like the ones you see in hotels. "Alright." He huffed, taking off his jacket, backpack, and guns and set them on a couch. He took the machete in hand for extra help incase any extra zombies remained in here.

He scanned the apartment, found a bathroom, a kitchen, and saw two other rooms, both looked to be bedrooms. He tightened his grip on the machete as he slowly opened the door to the first room. Inside there was a scene shocking to him that almost made him cry. It was a bedroom, but on the bed lied two rotting, and decaying corpses, together. One male, and the other female side by side with a hand held, together. Their skin was black like charcoal, rotting for a long period of time. Matt sighed as he walked over to the corpses to make sure they were really dead, sure enough they were. He took the bed's blanket and mummified their corpses and gently placed them to the side of the room. "Sorry, I'm gonna need this." He apologized, bowing to the dead couple.

He then proceeded to check the next room. Same procedure, weapon in hand and slow movement. The door open with a creak as he looked inside, tons of posters seemed to plaster all over the room's walls. "What the heck, is this..." Sure enough, this was a teen's room. Posters of anime and cartoons to even British TV shows were everywhere, action figures and plushies included. Matt walked further into the room, the bed was empty and wondered where the kid was. "Just like her........" Matt gave a heavy sigh as he concluded that the apartment was clear of undead.

After an hour of scavenging the house he found a few canned foods to dine and a small water bottle to drink. He found a few books at a bookshelf to keep him busy, after half a book he looked at his watch and found that the time was 8:37 pm. He sighed and closed the book concluding his read as he heavily plotted himself onto the master bed. Before he fell to sleep, he made a cross gesture with his hand and slowly fell to sleep, hoping for a peaceful night.

6 Hours Later

A loud banging noise woke up the survivor as he swiftly rose from the bed. The banging was then joined by some growling and scratching as Matt quickly ran to his weapons. He swiftly strapped on his gear, machete in one hand and magnum in the other as he watched the door. Eyes thin with concentration as his finger laid rest on the trigger, he pointed the gun straight at the door and hoped. "God, please land me some kills." He gave a shot, which returned with a growl of death as steadily and randomly aimed at whatever undead was outside.

But it made it worse, for how many more bullet holes the door had, made it easier for the zombies to break through easily. Arms punched through the door like the 'Finding Nemo' scene where a large amount of seagulls punctured through a sail. More bullets fired from Matt's magnum as he heard a disappointing clicking from his gun, who he had cursed and threw at a flailing zombie arm. He then pulled out his rifle as he rained soviet metal upon the undead with no mercy until the door completely fell apart, giving the zombies a way inside. After he emptied his first clip, he quickly replaced the magazine and began to become more accurate in his head shots.

After about a few more zombies the wave seemed to subside, he breathed heavily as he questioned how they found him so easily. He ignored the question as he knew he needed to leave and find a new saferoom. He took his guns, replaced any missing ammo in a clip he had lost, took his things, grabbed a canned food of pig tails and quickly left the room, continuing upstairs. During his ascendance, he quickly checked his watch to see that it was 4:29 am.

After about a few minutes of rushing up the stairs, he stopped at the 9th floor to catch his breath and hopefully a room to sleep in. He opened the door only to reveal another scenario. Another horde of zombies, waiting for him all caught his attention and ran straight towards him. He quickly shut the door and tried to retreat down the stairs, only to be cursed as another horde of zombies came sprinting up the stairs, hungry for him.

With no other choice he ran straight up the stairs, his cardio burned as he ran faster than a Olympic athlete until he finally reached the top, the rooftop that is. Flat, a massive cloth sign that said "HELP!" on it, and no where else to run or hide. "Fucking Shit." He said to himself as he pulled out his rifle and aimed at the doorway, waiting for the zombies to chase him. As predicted, they came, bullets flew as shells dropped and blood painted all over the roof as Matt lost all of his hopeful ammo. He took out his machete as he gripped it tight with one final say. "ALRIGHT YOU BASTARDS, DINNERS READY!" He ran straight towards the horde, machete ready and let the noise of ripping and eaten flesh devour his battle cry.

Princess Luna, princess of the night and co-ruler of Equestria sat on her balcony. Mind and breath silent as the silence flooded her ears, a soothing feeling until she heard a distant scream, making her ear twitch. She squinted her eyes towards the direction of the forest, the Everfree forest. "Something is array." She said, retreating to her chambers waiting for the sun to take its turn.

Chapter 2: Follow the Sounds

Chapter 2: Follow the Sounds

Darkness, darkness consumed Matt's vision as he felt nothing in his body. All he could do, was wait for Death himself to come and give him some welcoming tea. Well I'm dead right? Where is he? He started to feel something, it felt hard and rough against his back. He then felt something tickling him on his chest, he didn't know who was poking at his corpse, he just hoped to come back from the dead and eat his spectator. But then he could feel temperature, he felt a small gush of wind, and that was all that he needed to wake up.

His eyes slowly flickered open as it was mostly dark, but partially light. He rose up, as he found himself surrounded by trees and forest, as well as some mushrooms. He found that he still had all of his gear, his guns, his machete, backpack, and jacket still on him. "The fuck? I thought I died..." He stood up brushing off any remaining dust as he pull out his magnum. He popped out the chamber to find he still have all bullets in the chamber. He checked his rifle's magazine to find it full as a pig. Even his other magazines were full like a glass of milk. His machete too was clean and new looking.

He heard rustling behind as he sprung his rifle at the bushes and gave it a deathly concentrated stare. "Who's there!? Stand up now with your hands up or I will shoot without mercy!" He commanded his shouts at the moving rustling bush, but instead of words he heard growls. Crap......please don't be a walker. His finger was on the trigger and was about to shoot the bush as a shadowy figure jumped out of the bush.

In front of him was a large wolf, or puppet, or robot? Matt couldn't make what was in front of him because it looked like a wooden wolf like object growling with green ooz like saliva secreting from it's wooden teeth. The hell are you? The wolf lunged at him as he quickly pulled the trigger, popping the wolf like creature to a thousand pieces of wooden shrapnel except the head shaped in place as it landed on front of the survivor from the blast. He swiftly aimed at the severed head in case of any action.

The head of the wolf started to glow green as well as it's bits as Matt quickly added one more bullet towards the severed head, decapitating its entire system as all the wooden bits and such as the glow had dispersed. The human sighed as looked around the environment he was in. It was really dark. He placed down and opened his backpack as he pulled out a flashlight and duct tape. He ripped out a good foot of tape as he placed the flashlight on the side of his rifle and forcibly attached it with the tape, making a makeshift tactical flashlight.

"That'll do for now." He said with a small huff of accomplishment as he walked around with the barrel and light in front of him, ready for anything hostile. He ventured out in a straight random direction and was still surrounded in blanket of darkness as the trees above him shrouded his superior angle. It was quiet around him, like a library as he soon found a separated road of dirt and not grass. He followed it, hoping for anything. That is until he heard something growling behind him, it sounded like the wolf from before. He flung around and pointed his source of light at the wolf, but it wasn't a wolf, it was some sort of demon.

"What.....the.....fu-" Unfortunately Matt couldn't finish his question as the scorpion like tail from the creature lunged at his leg and impaled through his skin like a needle. He hissed and screamed in pain as he could feel a venom like substance being inserted into his body. He quickly reacted with his gun pointed at the demon's head and unleashed his bullets upon him causing the head of the demon to have multiple bullet wounds through the head. It bled, it stopped, and of course like any head shot, died shortly. His body shaking like an earthquake as feeling weaker and weaker until he took his last ounce of strength and ripped out the stinger, with only a teaspoon of energy left he made one final action, and stuck out his middle finger at his dead target before falling to the ground, letting his vision collapse in darkness.

Deep within the forests of Everfree laid a Zebra, Ponyville's distant and only shaman and potion brewer. She sat in her hut, balancing her head on the top of a long bamboo staff as she was upside down. (Yea, how a normal being can do that is beyond skill) Until a distant repeated noise broke her concentration as she tumbled down the staff. With a slightly annoyed expression she looked out the window. "What was that, was it a bat?" She listen closely as she heard a repeated small banging explosion noises from deep within the forest. "Thunder, could it be fire? This is dire." She quickly grabbed her robes as she rushed out of her hut galloping deeper into the forest. The noise had stopped as she only theorized that the banging noises had stopped as it was probably replaced with silenced flames.

Yet the closer she followed the theorized direction of the noise she saw no signs of flames but only a white light source. Last she'd known, fire light sources were red, orange, or yellow. . Until a shocking sight stopped her in her hoof steps, a massive adult manticore lied dead in its tracks as it's head was something unrecognizable. But next to it was a different being, unfamiliar to her memory of the forest. It looked like some sort of tall monkey like creature, like a story come to life. She found find the medium sized hole on it's leg and saw green venom spewing from the manticore's tail. She gasped in horror as she quickly picked up the strange being along with the strange metal object next to it and hurried to her hut.

Matt sat in eternal darkness, bored as he swore he died that time. "Okay what the fuck is going on? First I die at SF and now I wake up in some forest and get attacked by some piece of shit loin thing? So if I'm dead.....again, then when is Death coming?" He looked around, becoming impatient for his train to the afterworld as he began to become more frustrated. "Well!? I'm dead! WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU DEATH HUH!? WHERE ARE YOU?"

What in Equestria are you? Or should I ask who?

An unfamiliar voice echoed out, to Matt it sounded like a shaman or voodoo witch from African culture. "Who's there?" A voice, and human? When was the last time I've heard a voice like that? He saw a bright light as it bloomed like a flower, small petals of light dancing as he shun brighter and brighter towards the human. W-What is- But before he could ask, the light consumed him. Causing him to wake up, slowly like the last time but more painful as his whole body felt numb and weak. He breathed slowly, giving his lungs a fresh set of oxygen, pumping and beating his heart, proving that he was still alive. "Ugh God....what......happened?" He felt nothing from his body, his nerves lazy of any work as he pulled what little strength he had to look around with his head. He saw masks he'd recognize from a voodoo fiction or movie, he saw bottles of all shapes and sizes, a large metal pot, and dark wood walls with pale wood flooring. "Where am I? Dammit Death, not today huh?" He then heard voices outside, all feminine.

"So what is it Zecora? You said that you found something weird? I mean this forest is weird enough."

"I know what I see, and yet I do not know of thee. This creature is like us, only he stands like a bust. He was poisoned by a manticore, but luckily I had an antidote is store."

"Alright Zecora, tell me what he exactly looks like."

"I will princess. He stands like a dragon, but he doesn't fly like a pigeon. No fur on his body, but pale skin and his scalp furry. And like us, he wear clothes, which is a plus."

"It wears clothes? If it knows how to cover itself, does it know how to speak?"

"I have not tried, for he is asleep and his energy is fried."

The voices he kept hearing outside, they were actual voices. Not ones he'd recognize, new and intelligent voices. He needed to reach the intellectuals that saved him. He needed to know who saved him. He mined as much energy he could produce, his cells hard at work producing energy to make body move. Now moving is snail like movement, he was raising his arm and with a quick zap of adrenaline he flung himself off the bed, literally off the bed as all the energy he had produced had hit a stump.

Outside Zecora along with the Elements of Harmony were discussing the brewer's finding. But then they heard a loud thud on the inside, along with a small domino line of breaking bottles. All the ponies put their attention towards the inside of the hut as Zecora quickly reached for the door. She opened it to find the creature on the floor panting heavily, weak like a stick and mostly nimble. "Quickly help me get him up, I need to get a medicine cup." She ordered as the ponies quickly picked up the being and placed him back on the bed Zecora had made for him.

Fluttershy was the most curious and adored pony in the hut as she become extremely adored with the being. "Oh....why...what is it?"

"I do not know Fluttershy, for he is still weak, now he'll need this new supply." Zecora replied as she had a vial of pink bright liquid on her head. She brought the potion to the creature. "Twilight, an open mouth would be just right. I believe this is his mouth, from the nose to south." Zecora instructed pointed a hoof to where the creature's mouth was.

Princess Twilight nodded as she opened the creature's with her magic. Zecora gently poured the sappy, thick, syrup like brew down the creature mouth. She motioned her hoof up at Rainbow Dash who was holding the being's head. She complied to Zecora's hoof motion as she slowly brought the being's head up, making gravity to take it course.

As for Matt, he could barely see what was touching him. It felt really soft, gentle. He felt something thick running down his throat, it tasted sweet but bitter and he wanted to spit it out, but he couldn't. He only had a micro split in his eye and the last thing he saw before descending once more into darkness was .......rain....bows?

Author's Note

No Sexual Innuendoes intended.

Chapter 3: Take a Whiff

A/N: Not proofread, like the other chapters.

Chapter 3: Take a Whiff

All the ponies stood around grouped together giving strange looks to the creature. Zecora had explained as to how she found the creature: the strange sounds, the dead manticore, and the strange metal objects strapped to the creature. "As I told you before, I've never seen him in any country or store." She said slowly walking to the creatures, she had slight shiver to her hoofs. Not only her but the others ponies were slightly terrified of the creature, which is understandable due to it being completely alien from this world.

"Maybe its an alien." Rainbow Dash hypothesized as she tightly held Fluttershy in fear.

"Maybe its not. But it is definitely alien in a way, just not a sci-fi way Rainbow." Twilight deadpanned as the athlete gave a scour at the princess.

"Girls girls, I think its moving." Rarity pointed out as the strange creature started to wince and twitch.

Matt could breath, finally. He creaked open his eyes breaking the barnacles on his lids as the first thing he saw was wood. But clear with a light as his small bites of strength filled his body. He took that strength and moved around, as he pushed his head to the side to get a different view. He saw 7 blurs, all different colors. A blue one, a pink one, a white one, a purple one, an orange one, a blackish one, and a yellow one. "W-Wha-" He gave a few coughs as the blackish blur moved closer to him.

"Do not fear young one, for my antidote has won. But you need your strength now, moving you cannot allow."

"I....I...I.....can't....see." He said with the weakness in his voice. "Are....Are you God...?" He asked taking a weak shivering hand and tried to touch his god. But to only feel a soft coat of fur instead of skin. "S-S.....Soft..." That was the last word he said until he once more misplaced his strength instead of saving it.

"He could speak!" Rainbow yelled in small panic as Zecora quickly shushed the cyan athlete with a hoof to the lips.

"Shush little athlete! We don't want to him to wake up rapidly."

"Zecora's right girls, lets just wait it out until he's really ready." Rarity said carefully walking over to the strange being. "Now his voice was like a stallion, so that leaves us with a fact that he's a male right?" Everypony nodded with Rarity as Twilight walked next to the creature.

"Let me see what kind of creature this is." Twilight said casting a panel of magic over the creature and phased it through his body. The panel then vanished as Twilight's eyes shocked open as well as he mouth. "I....I don't know what it is." Everypony looked at her is small shock.

"No surprises there sugurcube, he's like from a fantasy or one of dem there video games Applebloom plays." Applejack stated as she placed a hoof on the middle of the creature. It felt hard like a rock. "This must be his chest, strong built this one is." Applejack eyed over to the contraptions of the creature, there was a long metal looking device that almost looked like an F. She looked at the metal object as she scooped it up with one hoof, noticing that it was quite heavy. "This darn thing was carried by that thing?" She asked pointing at the creature. "Why this contraption is heavy as Mac's plo-" She lost her grip, dropping the device as it borrowed gravity and dropped to the ground.

The device slammed against the floor with force as one end of the device flashed like a spell creating a deafening blast. With that the creature rose up with shock cold sweat as he held his ears in pain, along with a small pinch of panic. With small strength he peaked open his eyes and found his device on the ground, smoke fluttering out of the barrel. He rushed over to the mechanism and held it tightly by one of the stuck out branches.

"AGhh what in Celestia was that!?!?" A feminine tomboyish voice cried out in deafening pain.

Matt, who shortly recovered from the gunshot of his own gun, turned to find something he thought he'd seen from a fantasy or an anime. He saw a bunch of small bunch of little ponies, all who had colors of euphoria on them. "W-w-......what the f-fuck?" Even though the colors of euphoria were right in front of him, he felt fear and thought that this was all a dream. The orange one of the group stood up with a rattle as she looked at him with a death like glare.

"N-now Ah don't know who or what you are." She grunted, with the ringing of an explosion still in her ear. "But you better tell your pet there to shut the buck up!" She yelled with anger, waving her orange hoof with frustration at Matt.

"W-Wha........What are you?" Matt asked in complete bewilderment as he heard a small sniffling noise. He looked to his right to find another one of the strange bliss colored creatures, only it's main body was yellow and had pink hair. It was crying. She...she sounds just like her. But..... He paused his thought and looked at the other individuals. ....what are they? He took his rifle, strapped it onto his back, and walked towards the injured creature. But was soon interrupted as a blue winged creature with the familiar rainbow he saw sprung in front of him, hooves up look as if it about to box him.

"Who buddy, don't you dare touch Fluttershy!" Matt faced his palms towards the defending individual In peace.

"Relax I won't hurt her. I just want to see if-" He paused for a moment to take a quick look at the crying individual. "-if Fluttershy here is in real pain. I promise on my life miss."

"Let him Rainbow." The orange one granted for the Matt as the individual known as 'Rainbow' protested.

"But c'mon Applejack, I don't this.....thing.....one sort bit."

"Rainbow.....I know this may be hard even for me to say this but, I can see his honesty." She said truthfully, vouching for Matt who turned and nodded his head at her in thanks. Rainbow slowly flew aside, still glaring at Matt, as Matt slowly and gently approached the crying creature.

He kneeled down and gently placed his hand on the yellow fur of Fluttershy. "Hey.....shh it's okay. Are you okay?' he asked softly as Fluttershy hiccupped in her cries.

"I....*hiccup* I think I something bit me *hiccup* on my hoof." Matt's eyes widened as he looked behind Fluttershy to find a good round hole though the wall. He gave a heavy sigh as he looked at the rest of the creatures. "Hey where is my bag!?" He asked with threat as the black and white one walked over with Matt's bag in her mouth. He swiftly took his back, unzipped it, and pulled out 2 things: a small green bottle and medical tape.

Matt placed his medical supplies aside as he gently spoke to Fluttershy. "Okay...can I see your hoof?" She complied as she faintly gave her hoof to Matt, there was only but a scratch of his bullet as an injury. He gave a heavy sigh of relief. Thank God. "Okay now I'm gonna need some help. Who here is the strongest?"

"Me." Both Rainbow and Applejack said simultaneously as the two glared competitively at each other. But a snapping noise got their attention as Matt gave a glare at the two.

"Hey no time for rivalry, I'm gonna need you to hold Fluttershy down. The plan is I'm gonna pour this medicine to disinfect her wound and it's gonna sting." The two nodded with small hesitation due to the fact that it's gonna hurt, but if he was willing to help then they were happy to help. Rainbow and Applejack both approached each side of Fluttershy and held her down like a pair of cuffs. Matt opened the bottle of medicine as he gently caressed his hand on Fluttershy's crying cheeks. "Hey hey hey shh, can you hear me?"

She peaked open her eyes and gave a look at Matt. A feeble nod she gave to him as he gave a small sigh. "Okay Fluttershy I need you to be strong. First you're not gonna die and I promise that. Second I'm gonna give you medicine and it's gonna hurt. Can you be strong for me?" She gave a small whimper but gathered courage for a small nod. "Okay, now bite down on this." He said as he placed a roll of medical tape in her mouth. "I'm really sorry." He concluded, as he poured the medicine onto her wound.

Fluttershy's screams were silenced from the medical tape in her mouth as she could feel a unbearable burn. It kept stinging and singeing her wound like fire as Matt quickly took another roll of medical tape and wrapped it around her wound, sealing it for good. "Okay, you can let her go." He said to both Applejack and Rainbow as they released Fluttershy, causing her to react to the pain, holding her own hoof to try and ease the pain. She rocked back and forth in agonizing cruelty from the medicine as Rainbow had the instinct to help her friend, she held Fluttershy close with her wings as she continued to cry and scream through the makeshift gag in her mouth. "You can spit it out now." He told Fluttershy as he felt himself lift from the ground and slam against a wall, his face then met with a very, VERY, angry purple....thing.

"You've better not hurt Fluttershy or I swear to Celestia I will-"

"CALM THE FUCK DOWN!" He protested with gusto, silencing the creature. "I am NOT afraid to defend myself!" He said planting his hand on his rifle, ready to pull it out like a magic trick. "Now if we just calm down, this won't have to end in a bloody massacre." He said, giving a death like glare to his holder. She huffed as she released him, letting him down as he brushed off any dust. "Okay, first of all I gave your friend Fluttershy there medicine to help heal that wound of hers, so the least you can do is thank me."

"What was in that medicine?" The purple creature asked with a threatening tone at Matt.

"Just some antibacterial stuff, It's meant to clean the wound with a sting." He explained as the creature's scowl slowly lessened. "Look, before we get anymore hostile how about we just get along before I start a massacre in self defense." Matt suggested as everyone and thing nodded in the room.

45 minutes later

"Soooo let me get this straight. You girls are ponies minus the zebra there who saved me, thanks by the way, and I'm in some country that I've never heard before called Equestria. And that there are different species of these so called 'ponies' called Unicorns, Pegasi, and Earth ponies. And that you girls have two rulers in this whole damn country?" He asked after the whole group of ponies explain the small setting around him.

"Yes, well more like 4 rulers." The white unicorn corrected. "Twilight here is a princess and that makes her royalty, and her sister in law rules another part Equestria as well.

"Sooo four leaders slash rulers right? Is there no President or King around these parts?"

"So, last time I checked the last king was....destroyed to say the least." The purple unicorn said.

"Alright that's cool, I hate kings. And what are your names? Mine is Matt."

The unicorn stepped forward. "I'm Twilight Sparkle. The two Pegasi here are Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash." Matt easily differentiated which one was Rainbow Dash due to the rainbow hairstyle and knew who Fluttershy was easily. "The two Earth ponies here are Applejack and Pinkie Pie." Matt figured Pinkie Pie was the pink one (obviously) and the orange one with the apple tattoo was Applejack. "And this one is Rarity, also a unicorn."

"Well I guess it's good to meet you all but I have a couple of questions. First why do you all have tattoos on your uh....butts?"

"Well if you mean butts then you mean our flanks, and if you mean tattoos then you must be looking at our cutie marks."

Great....this definitely feels super cheesy.

"And what are these cutie marks may I ask?"

"They represent our special talents." Pinkie pie answered with a chime and a balloon in her hoof.....where did she get that?

"Alright make sense..... I guess. But enough about you guys, I'm sure you got questions about me and where I'm from." They all nodded even the timid Fluttershy wanted to learn. Matt gave a heavy sigh and sat down. "But first, do you girls have any uh....alcohol around here?" Matt asked around as he gave a hopeful look at Zecora.

"I do not have the stash or taste for alcohol, for it makes my head heavy like a cannonball."

"Damn....anyone have any booze."

"Matt, I have some whiskey back at the farm if you need some." Applejack offered as Matt gave a relieved sigh and smile.

"Thanks Jack, I'm gonna-" Matt was soon interrupted as Applejack cannoned her hoof at Matt's arm, causing it to numb for a bit.

"Agh for fucks sake, what was that for?"

"Do not call me 'Jack' y'hear?"

"Alright alright jeez, whatever keeps you calm." He said rubbed his arm to ease the pain. "Damn for a pony, you sure are strong as a damn forty five."

"F-Forty five?" Applejack asked in confusion as Matt shook his head.

"Nevermind, it's something from my world." He corrected as he stood up. "Alright, just take me to this farm of yours and I'll tell you all that you want to know I guess." he said walking to the front door, but none of the ponies followed him, he stood there confused as the group looked nervous and timid. "Well, what are we waiting for? I'm not just gonna wait here all day."

"T-Theres just one problem there sugarcube. Mah farm is on the other side of town, with a bunch of residents in the middle of all of it."

".....And?" Matt responded in a empty tone as the blue flier shot in front of him.

"And? AND!? And you're some sort of alien monster thing that nopony knows and everypony's just gonna think you're some sort of monster, or alien, or demon!" Rainbow Dash quickly and immaturely theorized as the man groaned in annoyance.

"I won't care, what they think is their business. I just need some booze right now." He said opening the door and taking a step outside, it may have been dark but it wasn't Earth nor America. He decided to take in a deep breath, his lungs filtering the cool, clean air as he exhaled in peace. "God it feels good to breath clean are, I'm been running from the dead too long." He said walking down the door stairs as the ponies behind him had curios and confusing looks on their faces.

Chapter 4: Empathize a Monster

Chapter 4: Empathize A Monster

"Matt wait up!" Pinkie said following the unknown species with a bouncing playful motion. She then bounced pass him blocking his pathway leaving Matt very flustered at her childish behavior.

"Pinkie will you please move out of the way?" He asked in a rough but calm tone.

"Nnnnnno." She squeed with her tongue playfully sticking out at the man.

"Why?"

"Because you don't know where Ponyville is silly billy." She pronounced stopping the man in his tracks, feeling embarrassed he gave a heavy sigh and buried the anger and annoyance he gave towards the pony.

"Y-Your right.....sorry." He said, looking away in embarrassment.

"It's okay silly, I forgive you."

"Thank you, now can we just hurry up and go through the town. I'm just really in the need for this booze Applejack is talking about." Matt said, craving the poison as if it were a drug.

"Goodness, it's as if alcohol is your blood supply darling." Rarity assumed as Matt gave a slight chuckle.

"Nah it isn't that Rarity, it's just that......I haven't had alcohol in about a year. And my place was completely on a new prohibition of alcohol." He said as he found the town a glance away, he gave a heavy sigh as he started to walk towards the town, only to be paused by a tap on his shoulder. He saw Rainbow with a concerned look.

"Hey man, you sure you wanna do this? The whole town's gonna think you're a monster."

"It's fine, it's not the first time I've been called a monster." He said, ignoring Rainbow's caution as he proceeded to venture towards the town. As he got closer, he could see blurry ponies in the distance, making gestures of horror and panic as he saw most of the figured blurs flee in panic and fear. Although Matt didn't care, he just wanted a drink. He could hear the panic from a distance, such as:

"RUN"

"It's a monster!"

"He's gonna eat us!"

"HEAD FOR THE HILLS!!!"

Entering the town he continued walking, ignoring the stares, jitters, and fear that the ponies spat at him. He kept walking as the group of ponies still stayed a distal point from him. He continued walking as more doors and windows slammed near him as he stopped and stared at Applejack. "So...where is this farm that you speak of Applejack?"

"I-Its just up the road, straight ahead. L-Lemme lead." He nodded gesturing his hand in a gentleman's fashion as Applejack took the lead. Eventually what felt like hours took minutes of just walking in an awkward silence, they reached Applejack's farm as there were many, MANY apple trees everywhere. "Welcome to Sweet apple acres Matt, I hope you like apples."

"I love apples, but god it's like Johnny Appleseed reincarnated into this world and started something here." Matt said admiring the apples flanking his sights from every angle.

"Uh Applejack?"

"Yes pardner?"

"I got two questions." He said as he slightly swallowed drool in his mouth.

"Shoot."

"First do you mind if I call you AJ?"

"Well mah friends call me that, but I don't know if I can call you mah friend just yet."

"Well then I guess time's just gonna have to take place there then. Second, do you mind if I can take an apple? Ts'been a while since I've had real fruit."

"Sure, we've got plenty to go around." She gladly accepted as Matt gave a nod to the apple farmer. He climbed over the fence separating the path from the apples as he looked up, his red delight was pretty high. He gave a few weak jumps to reach for it but no luck came to him. Rainbow Dash flew over to the man as she flew above him to reach for the apple.

"Stop, I wan't to grab that myself." Matt declared as he reached for his sidearm, although the ponies near him didn't know what it was.

"Hey man I can help, I mean it's right here!" She deadpanned as Matt continued to argue.

"Look Rainbow I got this, all I need is my finger." He said as he pulled out his magnum and aimed straight at the ruby fruit. But before he shot he aimed down for safety and looked at all the ponies. "So before I do this I would HIGHLY recommend covering your ears because this is going to be loud as sonic." He cautioned as all the ponies sat down and dammed their ears with their hooves from any source of sound, all except Rainbow Dash as stayed in the air stubborn with her hooves crossed.

"I doubt that thing is loud, you're probably just trying to freak me out."

"Alright your choice, but I still recommend moving away from the apple." He said pointing his firearm as the apple. Rainbow at least had some courtesy and moved aside as he lightly squeezed the small trigger on his gun. A loud boom emitted throughout the whole farm as something as fast as lightning rammed through the apple as the red fruit fell to the floor, with a hole through it's core. As it dropped to the floor, he walked over picked it up and took a massive bite through it, chewing as slightly drinking during mid-chew. He savored his first fruit after a whole year of loneliness, depression, industrial food, and endless death. The nice sweet and juicy fruit was completely enlightening his taste buds with the natural sugars . After the gulp, he was completely satisfied. But his euphoric feeling was interrupted as he saw Rainbow Dash on the ground holding her ears in pain.

"I warned you didn't I?" Matt said to her as he stood there watching her childish protest swiftly tide away from the gunshot. He shortly walked over to the pegasus and offered a hand to her. Rainbow grabbed his hand with her hoof as Matt pulled her up, making her stand on her three hooves. "You okay?"

"Ears are still ringing you bucker." She spat at him as Matt's eyebrows slightly ticked down.

"Well excuuuuuse me princess, but I told you to cover your ears. Your ignorance and childish protest was just in the way of my warning."

"Whatever, now I'm in the mood for some whiskey after what your thing did. What the hay is that thing anyway?"

"I will tell you, after some booze." He said as he looked at Applejack. Who nodded at the two and lead the group of ponies to the farmhouse a few hundred yards away. Applejack lead the group of ponies and man to the farmhouse as the farmhouse door burst open as a red stallion galloped through the door and ran straight towards Matt with a bull force. Matt looked at the galloping red stallion as a quick flashback image came to his head, an image of blood, a walking bull, and a women screaming. But the image distracted him as once he regained his consciousness he look back and at that very moment he face met with two hind leg hooves. And soon his vision turned to darkness.

"BIG MAC!" Applejack screamed at the top of her shocked lungs as she quickly rushed to the bleeding Matt. "Why'd you do that!?"

"Because he was gonna hurt you AJ! He had a weapon on him." Big Mac said pointing at the machete on Matt's side. "Ah couldn't just stand around seeing a weapon on the farm, and I know a blade when Ah see one." Big Mac said as Applejack got up a slogged him in the arm, hard.

"The poor thing just wanted some whiskey so he'll answer our questions for us Big Mac. Now help me bring him inside and grab some paper towels so we can stop this bleeding." Applejack said, biting the bag on his back and pulled him towards the farmhouse as Twilight offered help by lifting his legs with her magic. They brought him in as Applejack set his superior angle of Matt on the couch as Twilight followed suit as she placed Matt's bottom half on the couch. Big Mac brought a few paper towels that Applejack asked for as well as some band-aids. Applejack whipped off the blood from his bleeding face and applied a couple of bandage to some hoof cuts and plugged his bleeding nose with a rolled up paper towel. "Okay, just leave him here until he wakes up then we can ask him some questions. But first-" Applejack paused as she walked over to the cabinet full of bottles of various dark colors and liquids as she pulled out a square like bottle labeled 'Applejack Daniels' and placed it on the table. She also pulled out a shot glass and placed it on the coffee table. "Nobody touch that, its a pretty calm shot for us to gather some info on who or what Matt is."

The ponies nodded as Applejack gave a ursa major's glare at Big Macintosh who had his pupils cowardly shrink. "Big Mac, we're gonna need a talk." She said with death in her voice as she grabbed his collar and dragged him to the next room. His hoof screeching on the wood floor indicated that he pleaded for help, but the rest of the ponies all shrugged, much to ignore Applejack's wrath.

Author's Note

Another chapter. I know it's small but I'm having real life troubles right now, so it might be a while but please be patient. I promise I'll post the next chapter.

Also have a nice day.

Chapter 5: Taste the Memories

Chapter 4: Taste the Memories

Matt woke up, weak as his vision was blurred, all he saw was something spinning in circles like a wheel. He tried to breath but felt his nasal cavity dammed but flooded as well. He reached for his nose and plucked whatever shielded his nose. With his vision still blurred, he felt it for replacement for his vision as it felt soft. He guess it was tissue and theorized that he had a nose bleed. "Damn.....what happened?" His vision slowly aligned straight as he found the spinning object to be a fan. He looked to his side to find a bottle of whiskey and a glass, he eyes widened as he slowly reached for the poison.

He uncorked the lid and poured him a nice glass of a man's drink as he raised it up in pre-cheers. "To a life of stupidity and love." He said gulping down the whole glass in one shot, he gulped it and felt the liquid calm his nerves as he calmly placed the glass on the table. He exhaled a breath of nirvana as he reached for the bottle to pour himself another glass.

"So yer awake." Applejack said as she stood by the door, along with a familiar big red stallion. "You enjoyin yerself there?" She asked as Matt continued to pour another glass for himself.

"Yea, now I will answer your questions, but first-" He paused shooting the whole drink down his throat and slamming the glass on the table. "-why the fuck did that asshole kick me in the face?" She spat at the red stallion as Applejack stood in front of him in defense.

"Now calm down Matt you have yer poison." She said silencing Matt. "Look my big brother here saw yer....blade thing here and saw it as a threat towards me. He did what a older sibling would've done and protect their family." She explained as Matt gave a heavy sigh and poured himself another drink.

"Alright, as long as he protects family.....that's fine I guess. He better not shoot and ask questions later though." He said drinking only half of what he'd poured. "But I'm watching you Mr...?" He said wavering his hand fishing for a name.

"Big Macintosh, though some of mah friends call me Big Mac. And Ah mighty apologize for assaulting you like that." He said with a flat face as Matt chuckled as placed the glass on the table. He gave a weighty sigh as he gestured his hand for the ponies to come closer.

"Okay now.....first lets get your friends in on this." He said as he took a small sip of his whiskey. "I know you ponies are outside the room, now get in here. I don't bite.....unless you want me to." He said with a mischievous grin as the rest of the ponies he remembered entered the room, except for a small purple big lizard that followed Twilight. "Hold up, who invited him?" Matt ask pointed at the purple creature. "And second of all who or what is he?" He asked as Twilight stood forward.

"This is my assistant Spike, and he is a little dragon, and a child." Twilight quickly briefed as Matt looked at him with despise in his eyes.

"Look, my story isn't a jolly or sugar filled one. So he needs to get out and I want to make sure that no kids or children hear this story at all. Otherwise, I won't crack." The little drake groaned as he left the room, closing the door behind him. Matt continued to frown as he again looked at Twilight. "Twilight I have the feeling more spies are here, so is it possible to mute our conversation from outsiders?"

"Yea, I can put a sound proof bubble spell in the room." Twilight said as she shimmered her horn causing the walls, cracks, and crannies of the room to turn into a glowing purple.

"Alright....where should I start.....Ah yes.....'The Fall' as I called it". Matt said as he dunk down the rest of his drink. "Now let me tell you about myself first before I get into 'The Fall'. First my species, I am known as a human, but scientifically known as homosapien. Basically think of me as a tall fur-less monkey with only a patch of hair on my head. And humans didn't really think magic to be real to be honest, all we had was science and religion. Although I didn't really like religion as much.

"Now that the basic human lesson is over let me go to 'The Fall'. Now have any of you heard of things called zombies?" Matt asked towards the group. Pinkie's cotton candy fluffy mane turned to a more darker color as her hair went down and straight like a horror movie. She shivered at the word 'zombie' as she hid behind Rainbow Dash.

"Z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-zooooombiiieee? They're real?"

Matt nodded in confirmation as he poured himself another glass. "Yes Pinkie, zombies are real. And I hate them with a passion. And so did the rest of the world. It all happened last year in the year 2011 when a new breed of mosquito was found in an oversea country called Madagascar. The mosquito bit someone and caused their brain to crave human flesh and go insane. Over the following year governments fell, people died, and survivors fought for themselves as the infection spread throughout the world.

"I had to go through a lot of.....trauma and instinct to survive. Whether to kill my own kind, or to do the unorthodox, even.....no....no this is personal." He stopped as he took a sip of his whiskey. He placed it down as he slacked back and stared at the screen, he closed his eyes and bled out a single tear from his eye. That is until Rainbow Dash killed the mood with rudeness.

"Hey Matt, the zombie apocalypse can't be so bad right?" She asked with a nervous shrug as Matt's eyes snapped opened and popped a glare at the Pegasus who cringed back in fear.

"Rainbow.....if you had a daughter and she died.....how would you react?" He asked with a gripped fist and clenched teeth.

"S-Sad because I know I'll never see them again."

"Alright....but would you kill your own family if you had to?" Matt asked as the whole room fell silent, all ponies gasped as they placed a hoof over their mouth in shock. "Let me tell you something. The zombie apocalypse isn't like a video game, its real 'do or die' situations. My daughter was going to die because she was bitten by those....bastards. I held her in my hands and held her tight, she didn't want to become one of those things. And she told me to save her......but being that hero was hard. So I took the gun, I placed it to her head as I gently stroked her hair and I said these words "Honey......it's all gonna be okay, you won't suffer." and then I pulled the trigger. She was gone, dead, as I just blew her head off. And I will never see my daughter's beautiful face ever again."

A long silence fell to the room as he finished off the drink and stood up with a shaking hand. "W-Well you heard my story...well some if it, now I'm pretty sure you don't want me to fill your room in your life so I'll just be on my way. He said as he started to walk to the door, but was still barricaded by Twilight's magic. "You can let me go now." He said as all the ponies grouped around him, Fluttershy came close to him and gave him a caring hug. She cried, tears of sympathy came into his shoulder "You've....you've killed your own daughter..." She had nothing else to say. She cried for him, hard, as every pony in the room (except Big Mac) gathered around and gave a group hug, having Matt as the central branch. "I'm......I'm so sorry-"

"Please let go, I don't deserve this." He said, pushing away the ponies trying to comfort him. He picked up his rifle and strapped it around his shoulder as he gave an annoyed look at Twilight. "Now please, open the door for me. I want to get of your ha-........hooves as soon as possible." He said as Twilight shook in refusal.

"Why? Why do you want leave so badly. Do you want to die? Equestria has many dangerous beings out in the wild." Twilight persuaded trying to have Matt stay away from death itself.

"Look Miss Sparkle. I don't belong in this world or in this part of it. A town of ponies is not something completely attached with my familiarity of living with humans. And I'm not from this world and don't belong here. I'm a sheet with a picture of a monster on it displayed towards the town, their stares were glued to me. And plus.....I don't want friends." He said as he pulled out his blade and pierced his blade into the magic wall as he peeled off the magic, creating a small crevice from him to squeeze out of.

"Matt wait!" But it was too late as Matt quickly sheathed his machete and sprinted away with desperation of isolationism. That is until Rainbow Dash cut him off in a second, blocking his path.

"Damn that speed demon." Matt grumbled as he pulled out his magnum as fired at the air swiftly, causing Rainbow to hold her ears from the exploding pain in her ears. As Rainbow was stunned he simply ran past her without any lethal injuries. But his escape finally ended as he felt himself freeze in his sprinting position, unable to move as everything turned purple.

"Gotcha." Twilight said holding all of Matt's body with her magic. "You can't move so don't bother trying to escape Matt." She said with a glare, she gently placed Matt on the ground free to move but cuffed his feet to the earth. "Look we don't want you to be hurt. If anything you've suffered so much, can you let us help you?"

"No." He answered flat and swiftly. "I don't need help." He protested calmly as Applejack walked closer to the human as she wrapped a hoof around his hand.

"Look Matt, I was the same as you. Didn't need any help, but any help from mah friends did me a good one. Now let us help you." Matt opened his mouth in protest but Applejack quickly stuff his mouth with a hoof. "Now ah checked your items, and found you had no food. We could give you some and a bed if you stay." She offered as Matt sighed in small defeat. Applejack released her hoof as Twilight released his magic cuffs.

"Fine.....but not for long. Just for about a month." Matt demanded as the rest of the ponies sighed in relief. "But one move of any dissecting or experimenting and you'll earn extra sets of holes for eyeballs." He hissed at the group as he took off his backpack. "But I do have one question."

"What is it sugarcube?" Applejack asked as (once again) they all huddled around Matt.

"Where do I sleep?"

Author's Note

So here's another chapter of the fic, I tried to make it as sad as I could, inspiration came from "The Walking Dead"

Chapter 6: Sleep Past Nightmares

Chapter 6: Sleep Past Nightmares

Matt sat on a simple couch as the little child dragon known as Spike was near him on a separate sofa. He waiting patiently as the other ponies in a separate room were debating who he was going to share an estate with. The two were in an awkward silence, Matt simply just sat quite and stared at his hands, thinking. While Spike on the other hand was reading a comic book titled "Power Ponies". Matt then decided to pull out his guns as he started to take out the bullets in each gun, avoiding any future accidents. And after what felt like hours, he decided to break the silence.

"Sooo....Spike....right?" Matt asked the drake if his name was correct.

"Y-Yea, that's my name. Spike, Twilight's number 1 assistant." He self proclaimed with a pinch of valor. "And uh.....what your name again....sorry"

"Its okay Spike, My name is Matt, Matt Stine."

"That's a cool name." Spike complimented weakly as he continued reading his comic. The door to the debate room opened as Applejack stuck her head out.

"Matt, could you come in please?" Matt nodded and stood up .

"Can I come too Applejack?" Spike asked with excitement.

"Sure Spike, come on in." The two entered the room as Matt found all of the ponies with smiles at him, especially Fluttershy who had a bigger smile than the rest of the group. Once they all gathered around, Matt was ready to receive his caretaker. "Alright Matt, the one who you're sharing a roof under is.......

"M-M.......me." Fluttershy spoke up in a mild timid expression. "W-We all thought it would provide some therapeutic recovery."

"Therapeutic recover?" Matt was mostly confused, what kind of therapeutic recovery?

"I-I'll show you once we reach my cottage." She said as he flew up to Matt and took his hand. "Come along." She said slightly pulling Matt as he followed. After another basket of minutes of walking through the town, with a wolf's cloak over his head, the townsfolk fled from the 'monster'. But after that, the two led astray from the town towards a more isolated part of the area. Not too far from the town was a place more of nature and silence.

Fluttershy led Matt to her cottage. There was a small river along with a good sized house next to a forest. The house itself was surrounded by animals of all kinds and homes for them all. "Come on." She kept leading him inside the cottage as she stopped at her front door. "Well Matt, welcome to your new home." Fluttershy pronounced as she opened the door, inside was a flood of birds, birdhouses, friendly rodents such as mice, rabbits, and weasels.

"Woh.....you really love animals huh?" Matt asked, amazed with the flock of animals inside the house.

"Y-Yes, I-I love animals very much." A small chipmunk as hopped on top of Fluttershy's head as it squeaked in her ear. "Of course Nibs, I'll get you some more food. But just this once, no more until dinner okay?" The chipmunk nodded as Matt looked at her, confused.

"Y-You.....D-Did you just talk to the little guy?" Matt asked. He stared at her cutie mark to find three pink winged butterflies in a triangle formation. Although, the butterflies didn't really symbolized a communication between the two different mammals.

"Y-yes, it's my special talent." She claimed is pride.

"Doesn't really look like it." Matt said pointing to her cutie mark, investigating the symbolism of her mark. "But whatever, I don't really care. Where do I sleep anyways?"

"Oh follow me." Fluttershy led Matt to a separate room down the hall. The room was small but efficient, with a bed, a table, a chair, a drawer, and wardrobe. "This is your room, its not big but if you want, you could take my room if- eep!" Fluttershy was interrupted as Matt gave the shy pony a tight embrace of gratitude. He squeezed her like a pillow and set her down. After the surprise hug he set down his bag and other essentials (weapons) next to the bed.

"Thanks Fluttershy, I really appreciate it." Matt thanked as he took off his coat and flopped on the bed. He gave a very long moan of relaxation, burying his face in the pillow. "My god I'v never felt a bed so soooooooft." He rose up as he gave a long yawn. "Fluttershy is it okay if I take a nap? The whiskey is taking a toll on my eye lids." He said as he could feel small weights hanging down on his eye lids.

"Of course Matt, when you wake up I'll make you some dinner." She said slowly closing the door, but Fluttershy forgot one thing. She reopened the door to find Matt almost about to sleep. "Umm Matt? I apologize but I forgot to ask. What do you humans eat?"

"Anything pretty much, from veges, fruit, roots, and meat." Fluttershy froze at the term 'meat' and 'anything'.

"M-Meat? L-L-Like pony meat?" Matt realized that he had not told Fluttershy of human consumption. He quickly shook his head in deny as he quickly explained.

"No, no god no! Humans have never eaten hors..er....I mean ponies. Humans mostly just eat meats like chicken, cows, pigs, and uh.....other things that are orthadox towards humans. But those three meats are mostly eaten by humans back in my world.....well a fourth was added but I'd rather not say." Matt said, reminiscing the apocalypse and carnivorous survivors he put down. "But I can live without meat, don't worry Fluttershy. So long as I get protein."

"O-Okay Matt thank you, have a nice sleep." Fluttershy said as she closed the door leaving Matt to a hopefully peaceful slumber. She trotted over to the kitchen as something tugged on her tail to find her pet, Angel the bunny, thumping her foot in anger. He made multiple jesters and points towards the sleeping man as Fluttershy understood his language. "Angel please he's sleeping, and I'm trying to help him." Angel took a black crayon as he drew a question mark on his door and made multiple more jesters along with some squeaks. "From his words he said that he is called a human, and he comes from another world, although he doesn't know how he came here."

Angel was still angry (for some reason) and he approached the human's door to open it. But was stopped as Flutteshy immediately stomped her hoof in front of Angel with rumbling anger. Her eyes opened full like the moon as she stared deep into Angel's soul. "Angel, leave....him.....alone. He is a sad creature and suffered so much. If you don't be nice to him I will take away your special salad forever." Fluttershy stated in a very serious tone as Angel flinched, the horrors of his favorite dish becoming extinct. "Good Angel, now be a good little bunny and fetch me five tomatoes please?" Fluttershy requested as Angel hopped away with sweat dropped from his head.

"Hopefully Matt likes tomato soup."

"Hurry sweetie, we gotta go!" Matt said as he continued to fire upon the undead in front of him, clearing a pathway for him and his daughter. His daughter was behind him, she was scared for her life and all she could do is run, not fight. Only thirteen years old and understandably can't learn to fight yet.

"Dad.....I'm scared!"

"I know sweetie, just follow me and stay-" Matt was interrupted as a zombie ambushed him. Trying to bite him but Matt pushed him away, although the zombies strength was immense, Matt struggled to try and push the zombie away.

"Dad!"

Matt was forced to ignore his daughter's cry as he placed a hand under the zombie's jaw and pushed him away. He took his other hand and quickly reached for his machete and quickly shoved the blade up the zombie's head. As the zombie dropped dead he turned around to inspect his daughter only to find one of the many undead on top of his daughter trying to feed upon her. Matt quickly shanked his machete through the zombie's skull as he pulled his daughter up. "C'mon sweetie, we need to get inside the house!"

His daughter nodded as the two hurried to a building with a large red cross painted on it. The two ran until a large blue flash appeared in front of the pair. All of a sudden, a tall blue navy equine appeared before them as Matt aimed his rifle at the animal. But felt his rifle disappear into dust in his hands. He reached for his other weapons, but they were gone as well. "Sweetie get close to me." He said as he reached for his daughter but to see his hand phasing through his daughter. "Sweetie!?!?" Matt's daughter then disappeared into thin air as his tears emerged and flooded from his eyes, boiling with fiery anger towards the equine.

"Who are you strange one." The Equine asked as Matt clenched his fist in anger. He turned and swiftly launched a cannon fist at the equine, only to be paused mid-action by a blue force wrapped around his fist. He looked up at the equine to find that it had a horn and wings just like- "I will ask again, who are you?"

"I'll tell you if you bring back my daughter!" He hissed as the equine sighed.

"Your daughter was not real, not in your dream that is." She quickly stated as Matt continued to breath in anger.

"MY DAUGHTER IS REAL! DON'T YOU EVER SAY THAT AGAIN!"

"Mortal I know what is real and what isn't. And your daughter here isn't real in this world." She thundered her voice in the strange realm Matt was in. He realized the world around him, all melted, foggy, and transparent.

"Is.....am I dreaming?"

"You are. You were in a nightmare state but I stopped it, now I control your dream with my magic. Now who and what are you if I may ask."

"I could ask the same thing."

"But I have asked first."

"Touche." Matt sad on the floor which was nothing but air, the dream was in equal state as soon as this.....fantasy creature came to be. He didn't want to answer who he was exactly but-

"Mortal I know what you're thinking and it's not going to work."

"W-What? You can read my mind!? If you can then what number and I thinking of." He said as he held 3 fingers up behind his back.

"Three." He became frustrated as he continued changing them randomly behind his back without telling the equine but she kept getting the correct number every time, her wins were making the human impressed but annoyed at the same time.

"Okay well if you can read my mind, can you read my past?" He asked as he clenched up a fist.

"No." That answer had cooled Matt's scalding blood as he released his fist. He closed his eyes and with the power of his lucid dreaming, he summoned a piece of paper and a pen in his hand and wrote down a few words. After finishing his small letter, he folded it a few times and gave it to the equine.

"I think its time for me to wake up." He said with a smirk as he sat with his legs crossed. The navy blue equine looked at the strange letter, analyzing it at it's strange message.

Acronym,
FSPV
Try to find me, then we'll talk. I prefer for talking to be in person.

"W-Wha-" The realm shook three times with a long pause after the third with an echoing voice in the background. The mortal sitting before the Equine then vanished into thin air as the equine sighed in disappointment, repeating the phrase, "FSPV." She summoned a door in front of her and passed through it, leaving the dream realm.

"GUGHH!"

Matt woke up in a flash, breathing heavily with each pound of air rapidly processing through his body. He touched his head to find that he was sweating with a cool touch. He then heard a small cough behind him and looked to find a small snow white rabbit was standing on the headboard of his bed frame, and he looked irritated at the human. "W.....What are you lookin' at?"

The rabbit simply scoffed and faced away from him in a posh like posture. The rabbit then hopped out of the window leaving Matt confused. "......Whatever." A knocking came from his door, as he quickly stretched his arms and spine. "Come in." Fluttershy open the door with a tray of food balancing on her back. She had a weak smile on her face which Matt could easily read, him being a different creature from a completely different world.

"Good evening Matt, h-how was your nap?" Matt huffed and slightly chuckled "So far....best one in forever." He sighed in relief as he stretched his arms upward. Fluttershy set down the food tray as she sat next to the human.

"Why forever? Did you never have good naps from birth?"

"No no nothing like that. It's just that.... its been a long time since I slept like that."

"Why such a long time?"

"Well.....back in my world I had to be careful of my sleep. Like when to sleep, where to sleep, what to sleep with, and who to sleep with or near." He said as he gave a heavy sigh. "You see, the zombie apocalypse in my world made the human civilization crumble like a sand castle. The zombies flooded cities like water as the whole world became a frontier. Nowhere was safe, not even home." He paused and reached into his pocket, retrieving a small square dark brown object. "So every night, I had to find either a high place to sleep, a barricaded room, or set up alarms all around me whenever I was outside." He placed the brown object on the drawer next to the bed as he also noticed the tray of food. "Oh hey food, did you really have to?"

Fluttershy didn't respond, as she was still shocked from Matt's survival back in his world. "Um.....Fluttershy......you okay?" He sighed and patted Fluttershy's head which snapped her out of surprise. "Hey... its okay. I'm okay now, okay? I do realize that this isn't my world, that I have to adapt to it. But hopefully, I can live just like she wanted."

"S-She? Wh-" Matt quickly reached for the food tray and placed it on his lap. The tray itself was very unique looking, it was dark brown with a yellow square cloth clothing the tray. On top of the cloth was the small bowl of soup, a tiny plate with what looked like garlic bread, a glass of water, and utensils.

"Oh wow look at this its uh..... what is this." He weakly distracted his word 'she' and Fluttershy's question as he forcefully replaced her question with an answer.

"Oh! I made you tomato soup with some garlic bread." She said, proud of her culinary creation.

"Wow, fancy." He took a big whiff of the soup as the scent completely flooded his nerves with nirvana and euphoria goodness. "Whoa, this smells great." He took the spoon and placed a serving in his mouth, the sweet, hot, and summery taste filled his nerves with euphoric feelings, except there was one problem. It was too hot. He winced in pain (and pleasure) as he dropped his spoon back in the soup and coughed a bit. "Agghh *cough* *gough* that's hot!"

"I-I-I......I'm......sorry." Fluttershy whimpered as she slowly moved back in fear from the human creature. Matt looked over to her, his reread his reaction, looking at himself like he was about to become a demon. He quickly put his hands out in reassurance and gave a smile to the pony.

"No no it's okay. It wasn't your fault. It was my own for eating like a cannon ball." He said, taking the glass of water and drinking it down, attempting to nourish his burnt taste buds.

After the whole hot soup incident, and Matt finishing his food, Fluttershy decided to show Matt around her house. During her house tour, Matt studied, analyzed, and locked the various locations in the house. But mostly he loved how Fluttershy treated him, affectionate and kind in every inch of her soul. As the late night soon occured, and Luna's moon glowed in the sky, it was time for the two to go to bed.........until...

*knock* *knock* *knock*. Both the human and pegasus caught attention from the knocking which came from the front door."Who is iiiiiit?" Fluttershy asked in a happy sarcastic tone, as if she knew who was outside.

"I'm here for our little tea party Fluttershy. And tell the author to get moving, along with this story of his. And tell the reader to get to the next chapter because I'm back!"

"........what?" Said Matt in utter confusion.

I'm confused as well.

Author's Note

Took a while to finish this chapter but I've been hammering my own brain with a book, a book, and another book to get through school. I'll try to work on this story more as well as the Luna story. Though, that might take a while.

By the way, the chipmunk Nibs is a reference to a web comic. Here's a hint to which comic.

"Where's the Blacksmith?"

Theres your hint.

Chapter 7: Welcome the Unpredictable

Chapter 7: Welcome the Unpredictable

Discord, a name of chaos and disorder. Was sitting in front of Matt with a tea cup in one claw and a cucumber sandwich in his paw. Matt couldn't make of what this demonic creation was, but it was kind towards Fluttershy. He didn't know what to imagine anymore. "So......you're name is Discord right? From what Fluttershy told me." He said taking a sip from his tea, hot but soothing.

"Why yes and I already know who and what you are Matt, the human slash homosapien. The so called 'zombie survivor', monster, and the last of it's species." Matt raised an eyebrow in confusion, he opened his mouth to question how he knew when he never met him but found his lips literally turned into a zipper as he struggled to speak. "And before you ask or hit my head off for zipping your annoying questions, I spied on the conversations. Well...except the one at Applejack's house due to my wife calling me." Discord explained bluntly as he felt a small whip from Fluttershy's hoof, harmless of course.

"Discord what have I told you about spying? It's not nice to be spying on us, we all mostly trust you after you helped us defeated Tirek. " She said with a angry motherly look on her face.

"You're right Fluttershy, and I apologize.....a little bit." Fluttershy sighed but gave a hug to the demonic creature.

"I forgive you, but try harder. For me okay?"

"Of course Fluttershy." He said with a wink and a sip of the tea cup. Discord had mysteriously drank the ceramic from the tea cup and turned the tea inside solid, like polar opposites. Matt extremely confused made a cough noise through his nose and attracted both attentions from Discord and Fluttershy. With an irritated finger, he pointed at his mouth as Discord chuckled and snapped his fingers, dispersing the zipper into nothingness and releasing Matt's speech.

"Okay that's better." Matt started with a breath of fresh air. "Now if you don't mind me asking Discord, but if you know who I am already, who and what are you? And what can you do?" Matt interrogated the being as Discord simply giggled is delight.

"Oh well if you simply MUST know." The demon said as he floated up in the air. He snapped his finger claws and summoned a mug with his own face on it, smiling like a cartoonish sun. He gave the mug to Matt who took it in confusion and a raised eyebrow as a bright flash appeared before him. After the flash a massive neon sign appeared behind the creature with the name "DISCORD" representing it. "I am Discord, a draconequus, and best of all, I am the God of Choas!" He said with small fireworks blasting behind him like a parade.

"Uhhh.......God of Chaos?" He said as he set down the mug which image was changed to some text displaying "Chaos = <3". "What do you mean by chaos? Do you like cause death and destruction?" Matt hypothesized as Discord gasped and fake fainted in horror and offense.

"Gasp no Matt. I just break the rules of common or scientific sense. Like simply by the fly changing this apple's insides." Discord explained as he summoned an apple and peeled off the skin revealing a banana inside. "See, now this apple is a banapple!" Discord claimed and proved as he ate the apple peel and threw the banana into the trash. "Although for a while I did rule Equestria and plumaged it into chaos, creating no order or balance." Discord calmly claimed.

"Wait....what do you mean "for a while"?" Matt asked, quoting Discord.

"Well like I said I did rule for a while. Then both my wife, who wasn't my wife at the time, and her sister turned me to stone. But I came back years later to create more chaos but Fluttershy and her friends turned me to stone. Then my wife, who again wasn't my wife at the time, gave me a second chance and passed me on to Fluttershy who taught me some very valuable lessons. And after a day with Fluttershy I was reformed.....mostly." He said with a pinch from his fingers representing the childish behavior he still held.

Matt gave a long whistle of impression. "So if your wife beat you once, she must be powerful. When was this?"

"Oh simply thousands of years ago." Matt's eyes widened, he believed that he was lying but, Discord laughed at him. "And yes I'm serious, I'm older than you think Matt. I'm thousands of years old, at least one thousands and five hundred I think. I stopped keeping track of my age after one thousand."

"Wait then what is your life sp-" He felt his mouth concealed once again but with a massive bandage plastered over his lips.

"I think this introduction has best introduced the both of us, eh Matt?" Matt responded with violent attempts of removing the bandage. Eventually he ripped it out with a violent yank and scream of pain in the aftermath.

"AGGHH!!" Matt screamed as he threw the massive bandage at Discord who transformed it into a cookie and ate it. "Why you Little-!" Matt stood up and reached an angry hand at Discord who simply warped outside the building. "You son of a-!" Matt, filled with annoyance and anger, ran to his room and retrieved his machete to pursue Discord. His grip felt boiling hot with payback as he metal from his blade could feel the fire from within Matt.

"N-Now Matt-" Discord was slightly intimidated with a medium sized, sharp, scary, and murderous looking metal object. "-w-w-we don't have to-" But Discord quickly flinched and dodged a quick slash followed by a stab from Matt's machete. "-be violent now. We could just-" Discord paused as Matt catapulted an over-swing towards Discord's forehead. Discord quickly reacted by snapping his fingers, turning his metal steel machete into a whimpy balloon sword.

"What the f-" Matt reached for his side arm but paused and flinched easily as Fluttershy flew right in front of his face. She gave a wide, cold, and death like stare into Matt's soul as he felt his soul slowly withering away. His hand, shaking with fear, slowly moved away from his sidearm and down like a dog under a leash.

"Now Matt, I don't want you attacking my friends. Can you say you're sorry?" Fluttershy requested from the human as she had her eye staring into Matt's mortality.

"I-I.....I am sorry Discord." Matt said as he kneeled down in sorrow. What am I even doing? How is she making me do this? Matt thought to himself as Discord started snickering. But Fluttershy turned to Discord with the same look she gave towards Matt.

"And you! You better watch your chaos mister. Or else I'm going to tell Princess Celestia of your bad deeds." She said, crossing her forehooves and turning away from Discord. Who surprisingly instantly turned pale and placed his hands on her shoulders, massaging her and trying to calm her down desperately. But Fluttershy wouldn't budge for his fishing line of weak apologies towards her.

"N-Now Fluttershy I'm sorry for what I did. Can you forgive me?" Discord asked in a begging tone as flowers and candy appeared in front of the Pegasus....but she didn't budge.

"I won't forgive you until Matt here forgives you." She said pointing to the kneeling Matt. Discord grumbled in stubbornness as he stood on the same ground level as the human.

"I.....apologize for my actions Mr. Matt."

"It's......." He paused, asking himself if this god could be trusted or not. ".....fine...apology accepted." After he apologized, he stood up with his machete gave a heavy sigh. "Well I think I've had enough for one day Fluttershy, I'm going to bed. If you need me, wake me. And one last thing Discord, change my machete back and place it next to door if you could, thanks." Matt said, concluding his night as he walked to his room and closed the door behind him, leaving Fluttershy and Discord alone.

"Well then, he is the violent isn't he?" Discord asked with a sick dark smile on his face as Fluttershy sighed in disappointment towards the god. "Whaat? I apologized like you asked." Discord complained.

"I know, it's just...none of us have any idea what he feels right now. Back at Applejack's house where we discussed who he was staying with, we all discussed and question how he felt for k-......k....." Fluttershy paused, holding a hoof to her mouth to the horrors she imagined about Matt's decision. Her tears were peaking out her eyes as Discord became slightly curious and worried for Fluttershy. ".....n-nothing. I shouldn't tell."

"Why not? Is it really that bad?" He asked with an unnecessary smile.

"Yes.....it's really bad."

Matt sat on his bed as he reached into his bag. He pulled out a black, but thin rectangular object as he pressed a button. But nothing happened as he sighed in disappointment. "Damn...I could really use some music right about now." He placed the object on the table as he lied down and slowly fell asleep. But before he fell into a deep sleep he softly whispered in his head.

You better not chase me in my dreams Discord, or you navy blue pony.

Author's Note

Yes Discord and Celestia are married, deal with it.

Also deal with the short chapter.

Chapter 8: Welcome the Beast

Snaps, pops, and cracks were all the sounds that Matt created as he woke up, stretching and twisting his body. After the last crack he stood up from his bed and took the black square object from before. He placed it in his pocket as looked outside the window, behind the house was a empty plain field of grass. Nothing but isolation from civilization or natural mazes. He left the room and into the living room and looked for Fluttershy, but she was nowhere to be seen. "Fluttershy? Fluttershy where are you?" He searched the room but the butterscotch colored pony was nowhere to be found.

Suddenly, a small thwack was felt at the back of Matt's head as he looked behind him, only to find the angry snow white rabbit known as Angel with a familiar sour face. "Oh it's you....do you know where she is?" He asked bluntly as Angel reached behind him and pulled out a paper note that was twice his size. How the little rabbit had pockets or the ability to hide something like that was beyond Matt. Matt took the note and read it.

Dear Matt,

I hope that this is the language that you humans can write...umm....sorry if you can't read this. But I went to the flea market to buy some fresh produce for lunch, in the meantime can you please wait for me inside the house. If it's not too much to ask for.

Also my friends and I are going to discuss about something

discuss about your problems

-discuss about how we are going to introduce the town to you.

-Fluttershy

"Yeaaa....no. I am not going to wait here. It's beautiful outside and I deserve some fresh air." Matt proclaimed as he tossed the note in the trash bin, took his belongings, and simple walked outside and around to the back of Fluttershy's house. He felt something small trying to pull against his leg, but he ignored it and just wanted to be outside. He took his fire arms, machete, and bag with him and proceeded to reach the house's entrance. But a final miniature punch struck him in the foot. He look down to find Angel having a temper tantrum.

The snow white rabbit tried so hard to give the human verbal language of "GO HOME!" or "Don't Go Out!", but all attempts were swept away from Matt's ignorance. As for Matt, well he just kept walking and started thinking.

They want to help me.....but I don't need help........do I?

Matt continued to walk in the plain grass field, but his body became lazy to him. He gave a massive yawn and sat with his legs crisscrossed on the soft carpet like grass. But something kept nudging him under his foot. He lifted his foot only to find Angel still bounded to his foot, trying to drag him back to the hut. Matt, annoyed with the stubborn rabbit, grabbed him and put him to his faced with his teeth snarling out like a beast.

"Listen up you little shit!" Matt started with a ferocious growl, as Angel started to build up fear from the human. "Leave me be or you'll be in my stomach and molded in shit. I know it's your job to enforce her request, but now I'm going to corrupt that. Now leave now or else I'll turn you into stew." The darkness of his words traversed into Angel's thoughts as he unwillingly agreed to Matt's request. Matt let go of his prey and made him scurry off back towards the hut. The darkness of Matt soul then steamed off as his slowly laid back on the soft pillow like grass as he took a few deep breaths.

The grass mentally filled his mind with ease and peace as the smell of cleanliness and anti-pollutants. It eased him so much, it caused the nerves and muscles of his eye lids to slowly shut down and drift him into sleep.

30 minutes later

*tap tap tap*

Matt felt a disturbance against his forehead, something physical, but he ignored it. But the disturbance continued on and on and he began to build up a irritation to the physical annoyance. And after a few more taps he snapped, popping his eyes open, and took a quick deep breath to yell at his irritation but paused right before his scream. Noticing that it was Fluttershy who was disturbing his nap.

"Um....hello.....Matt...."

Matt slowly filtered his anger scream by exhaling slowly and regained his consciousness. He stood up to wonder what Fluttershy would do to him for ignoring her request. "Alright Fluttershy, can I ask why you woke me up? Or is this punishment?"

"P-Punishment? Punishment for what?" Fluttershy was confused as to why Matt thought he was to be punished.

"Punished for going out and not staying inside. Remember that note you wrote?"

"What note? I didn't write any note like that. I like seeing all creatures free and curious of any outside nature."

"Wait.....what? Hang on......" Matt thought for a second. He thought back to Fluttershy's hut and the only other intelligent being in that household was able to write. Or at least understand language. "Wait a minute.....does Angel know how to read?"

"Y-Yes."

"Then I think I found your culprit. He must've wrote that note to keep me isolated from the outside."

"Oooo that Angel, I knew he wouldn't like you." Fluttershy said in a fluster as her feathers ruffled up.

"Its fine, I don't expect him to. And I don't blame him."

"Well....i still don't like the fact that he's being a big meanie towards you. *sigh* Well....can I ask that you follow me Matt? You're not in trouble if you were going to ask."

"Alright, just let me get some defenses ready incase a riot or angry mob forms." Matt said as he predicted the riots in his head. Flaming torches, sharp pitchforks, and signs of denial and fear flowed in his mind as he turned off safety on both of his guns. He placed them aside and pull out his machete, and cleaned the blade for any fresh defensive or offensive actions from the town. "Alright lets go." Matt said as the two walked in the direction of the town.

The walk was mostly silent, but soon evolved into chatter and small gossip about their lives. Matt would talk about how easy human life was with technology that sounded like a fantasy to Fluttershy. And Fluttershy would fantasize about the easy life of magic here which sounded like a fairy tale towards Matt, but it was real. Matt would also talk about how music was so portable and light, along with memories with just a tap with a finger. As Fluttershy would also share of how strong imagination or tamable physics are in the world, especially when she told Matt that the pegasi control the weather.

"Wait hang on......you can control the weather? CONTROL THE WEATHER!?" Matt exclaimed loudly as Fluttershy squirmed down cowardly, holding her eyes closed with her hooves, from the loud voice Matt had within. Matt noticed how loud he was and how Fluttershy was hiding behind her hooves as he scratched his head. "Eh heh.....my bad. So what do you mean you control the weather?"

"I mean that uh...we...make it?"

".....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................What?" Now Matt was really confused. The skill of making weather was extremely impossible in his world, but possible in this. But Matt wanted to see this for myself.

"I mean we make weather. Like we hoof craft snowflakes, we can move clouds around, we make rainbows, we create wind patterns. In a long story short, we have a weather schedule." Matt stopped in his tracks, confused eyes and open mouth locked onto Fluttershy as a simple word emphasized his expression; flabbergasted.

After the walk of sharing, confusion, and bonding concluded with the entrance of the town. Although Matt stopped, a thorn at his side prevent him from further entering the town. Fluttershy who was worried for the human, flew in front of him and wondered what ensnared his steps. "Matt....is something wrong?"

"Something is wrong Fluttershy." He sighed, imagining thoughts of riots and anger. He could already see pitchforks and torches in motion, although he mainly imagined them. "Can you just tell me where to go so I can meet you there instead?"

"W-Why?"

"Because, I don't want to humiliate you or embarrass you in front of the whole town. Seeing as they view me with a scary and horrifying mask, but I don't care about them. Although I do slightly care of what I'm involved in." He said as he placed his hand on Fluttershy's hair and gently fluffed it. "Now can you tell me where to go?"

"O-Okay. There is this tiny bar not too far from here. Its a small building with a vinyl record and a white feather on the door. And the title for the bar is called Modal Feathering Soul."

""Modal Feathering Soul"? A strange name for a bar don't you think?" Matt asked, scratching his head.

"I....guess...but I know you'll like it. It was.....uh....my idea." Fluttershy said as she flew close to Matt's ear and whispered a few words. "Its just left from here and straight. Its at the edge of town, you won't miss it." Fluttershy said as she walked in the direction she instructed Matt to follow. Matt waited a few minutes until Fluttershy was out of his sight, making it easy for spectators to lessen hypothesizes of him as a stalker or beast.

After a few more minutes, he decided to walk in the direction of Fluttershy's path and search for the "tiny bar" she had spoke of. Unfortunately, it did not take long for inappropriate spectators to observe the beast. A few feebly yelped profanity or names at the beast, such as "monster" or insults such as "get out of our town", they never stopped. During the walk a pony called out to the monster, Matt heard the words "Hey Monster!" to his left to find two small ponies.

Both were unicorn colts and were contrasting in size and color. There was a smaller and chubby one with a baby green coat, orange mane and tail, a pair of scissors for a cutie mark. The other pony of the duo was a taller colt with a carrot orange coat, a swampy green mane and tail, and a snail as a cutie mark. The chubbier one of the due held an egg in it's magical grip as he made a sour face towards Matt, while the other one had a goofy smile on his face.

"Hey monster, we're sick and tired of you scaring our town." The colt held up the egg high and was ready to throw it. And so he did, but not as expected. The throw itself was weak as the unicorn failed to notice that the human was 10 yards away from him. And to make matters worse, the throw was so weak that it only flew 5 feet in front of him. The unicorn looked at his weak throw and then looked at the human, who's expression had no words to parallel. His eye brows scrunched together as burning anger attempted to weld them together.

The colt, realizing his mistake and the monster's anger, quickly turned to his companion in panic. "Quick Snails, get the rolling chair of doom!"

"Guhhh Okay." The orange colt used his magic and brought in from behind, a simple wooden stool on wheels. The orange colt then turn around and bucked the stool, causing it to roll towards Matt at a good speed. Although physics won this battle as well as the stool rolled slower and slower at Matt as it simply just patted his shin. "Uhhhh Snips....I don't think it worked."

"No it worked. It should have hurt him!"

Matt, who had an irritated face, reached for his machete and slowly pulled out the steel blade, imitating all spectators and the two childish colts in front of him. He gently placed the tip of the blade on the stool, then he quickly raised it up, and forced it down like a meteor. The blade stuck to the wood of the stool like glue, strong enough that he lifted up the stool from the blade and slammed it down on the ground. It shattered to chips and chunks as his invisible audience all gasped within their own homes.

Matt simply sighed, sheathed his machete, and continued walking in the direction of his location. Everypony in the atmosphere all felt chills crawling down their spines, the two colts turned to goats, falling down on their sides frozen as a popsicle.

As he was walking, he gave a pause to his pace. He stopped and looked around him, still seeing all his spectators and gave a devilish grin for all to see. "I hope you think I'm a monster! Because I wasn't the one who drew the first pen!" He announced, as he continued walking his path with the building mere yards away from him. He could see the bar Fluttershy had talking about, along with the very record and feather tied to the door. He walked up to it and gave it a gently knock.

*knock knock knock*

The door opened as Matt looked down, only to find a single whitish peach stallion pegasus with a jet black mane below him with half opened eyes. But for some reason, his eyes looked familiar, but he hasn't met anyone like him before. "Oh uh....hello." He welcomed, smiling as he opened the door wider. "Are you Matt?"

"Um yes, who are you?"

"Oh I am Jinuu Hane, pleasure to meet you. Please, come in." His accent, fast but strange at the same time.

"Alright....is Fluttershy here?"

"Yes, she is here, please come in." Matt entered the building and looked around him, and it was bigger on the inside. A whole zen garden surrounded him, looking bigger than a institution. Bamboo everywhere, mist slowly flowed around him, a large river surrounded him with koi freely swimming in the shallow waters.

"Please tell me this whole place is a wall paper."

"No, all real. I don't know why, simple." Jinuu explained as he trotted off to a small amphitheater. Matt, still dumbfounded, returned outside of the hut to check it's exterior size. And sure enough it was small as a shed, but bigger on the inside.

"Wah how......ugh magic is gonna destroy my knowledge of physics." He said, sighing heavily for his brain.

"Come Matt, follow me!" He heard Jinuu exclaim as Matt quickly rushed to catch up with the pony. As he reached the amphitheater, he noticed a few ponies sitting around the theatre. All had smiles on their face with a relaxed sitting position, and they all greeted him. Actually greeted him instead of fearing him.

"Hello, you're Matt right?" A dark blue pegasus stallion asked.

"Yea...." Matt answered confusingly, as he looked around the group and noticed a bright pink mane. It was Fluttershy and it seen a group of small animals were with her as well, but something was different. She was wearing a pair of white headphones as she slowly bobbed her head up and down, like a bamboo fountain. Matt sat next to her and attempted to gain her attention, but her eyes were closed and it imaged as if she was in a whole new world. "Uh...Fluttershy. You there?"

But no resistance came from Fluttershy, she continued to slowly paint the music's theme until Matt finally caught her attention by tapping her head. Her eyes opened slowly as she took off the headphones. She looked above to find a curious Matt, confused of where he is. "Oh, hello Matt."

"Hey Fluttershy.....can I ask where I am?" Matt asked, but felt a tap on his shoulder. By survival instinct, he snapped around and reached for his machete but noticed that it was Jinuu who caught his attention. "Oh shit....sorry. Instincts." Matt excused weakly as he calmed down his flinching rage.

"No no no its okay Matt, you are just you. And I am just me, but we are the same. I am just a normal pony and I can feel angry, but that's normal." His words, so single and formed in thin syntax, but it slightly made sense to Matt. "Now please sit, and uhh...... feel free to take a drink." Jinuu informed, pointing to a small table with a few drinks labeled in strange symbols.

Matt was about to walk to the drink table, but a bottle and small cup appeared in front of his face held by unicorn magic. He looked to his side to find one of the unicorns in the small bunch was being generous and got his drink for him. "Thanks." Matt accepted the gift with grace as he sat down and poured himself a drink. Matt took a sip and smiled, easily recognizing it as sake.

As Matt was drinking, Jinuu took his stand on the main stage which was fully decked with a bunch of DJ equipment. Big loud speakers, turntables, a few laptops, and even a professional looking set of headsets. "Soooo.... what are we-"

"SHH!" Fluttershy snapped, shushing him as he instantly shrinked into silence. Jinuu placed his headphones on his head, but very alien than what you'd expect. He had the headband part under his chin and wore only one muff.

Matt was still completely confused at what was going to happen.

Eh whatever, he still got his free booze. He was about to pour himself another drink but stopped as soon as music started to flow through his ears. Fluttershy and the rest of the ponies all were mesmerized and looked upon Jinuu, who had a flat, closed expression on his face. And then, the music started to play.

Author's Note

Yes I'm ending this chapter with some music. Deal with it

For those of you who don't know about the music. This is the soul touching music of Nujabes, one of my favorite DJs in history. His music completely touched my soul and changed my perspective of rap (which i didn't like before). If you haven't listened to his music please do.

May Nujabes rest in beats and peace. (Yes he's dead, it makes me sad, but I'm sure he's happy where he is)

Also if you're wondering why he kinda talks weird, here is why. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjOshjApono, I tried to make it as allegorical as possible.

This was like the only I found of him actually talking.

Chapter 9: Travel the Chill

Chapter 9: Travel The Chill

In the midst of the music being played, he felt a sense of smoothness inside his soul, like it had found what it was searching. His spirit and energy felt soft, as for the first time in a while, he gave a small. Although it was a weak grin, it still counted as a smile. Upon cracking said smile, a certain pink bony behind the bushes of the mysterious zen garden silently squealed "YES!", although nopony, not even Matt heard it.

He took a deep breath, and took his smile and aimed in at Jinuu. But he then noticed that every pony was looking at him, smiles painted across their face, real ones. No masks were present to project a fake smile as Jinuu had a smile aimed back at Matt. He then reached down below his turntable and pulled out a vinyl record and a microphone. He then waved over to a stallion and brought him up to the stage, the stallion had a beanie worn, and had a microphone as a cutie mark. His coat was dark brown with a jet black mane and tail, along with dark brown eyes. The stallion wrapped his hoof around the microphone and placed it near his mouth.

After passing a microphone to the dark brown stallion, Jinuu returned to his turntable and pulled out a black vinyl record. "Made this myself, just like everypony else who makes something else." Jinuu said placing the vinyl on his turntable. The music starting to play with a soothing and classical piano in the beginning, but took a hip hop beat afterwards. In the midst of the music Jinuu simply nodded at the stallion who nodded back, and aimed his attention at his small audience.

The small crowd including Matt clapped respectively at the singer, who soon returned the microphone to Jinuu and returned back to the small audience along with Matt. "Nice man....I...didn't know you knew those words here." Matt complimented skeptically as he gave a hand to the stallion in grace and friends ship. The two shook hand and hoof, as if they become brothers in mere minutes after introduction. "My name is Matt Stine, but I don't like formality so just call me Matt."

"Ye that's cool man, m'name's Merry Chord, but all mah friends just calls me MC."

"Ahh, so you're a rapper then?"

"Nao how'd you know dat man? Was it pretty easy t'tell?"

"Yea Kinda." MC chuckled at the human as he looked at the watch on his hoof.

"Aw man, time for me t'go. I'll catch ya later Matt, I'll buy ya a beer, a'ight?"

"Yea sure man, a'ight." Matt now rejoined by Jinuu and along with him Fluttershy, the three sat down as a pony brought them a tray of sake and white cookies as a compliment. Jinuu bowed his head and thanked the pony in a language Matt did not recognized. Though Matt didn't care, for once he was enjoying hospitality instead of brutality.

~~~Meanwhile~~~

Twilight was in her room pacing in circles. The human was the newest and strangest thing to ever happen in equestrian history, probably the entire world. "Should I?" She continued to ask herself the same question. Different in words, but parallel in the meaning. For hours she pestered herself until finally she decided. She levitated a quill with it's damp fresh ink and starts to write on a scroll. Several minutes pass, which turns to hours as multiple crumpled scrolls begin to pile like laundry. The once fresh wet inked quill, now dry as bones, rests on her table as she looks at her now finished message. She reads over it, evaluating and warding off any error she may have placed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Princess Celestia,

This is hard for me to write, I have discovered something strange in our world. A new species that I have never heard of over my years of research and study. My friends and I have found something called a 'human'. This human has speech capabilities as well as intelligence and self-awareness. Much like our ponies, he seems to be from another town or city. He claims that he is not of this world.

To further detail his description, he comes from a world of chaos and destruction with nothing left to live for. He has no means of harming anypony or innocents (thankfully) and is able to be reasoned with. His anatomy seems to be the body structure of a teenage dragon, but no scales. He only has skin and the only source of visible hair is his head. He seams to have appendages much like a diamond dog making him able to easily grip. But most importantly, he has no magic conjuring abilities; this making him no threat in magic. (hypothetically)

I would like to request a formal invitation to the castle of Canterlot and full protection from civilians. I would want you to meet him so he may be kept at peace from others, and hopefully become friends. He means no harm, but if startled he is able to prone in self defense. A few ponies from Ponyville had tried to trifle the human back, but he retaliated in self defense.

He may act and talk like a monster, but my friends and I believe he can be reintegrated into society. He has a story I hope he will share with you, I would tell you but I find it insecure to share his privacy. If you plan on talking to him one on one, he prefers alcohol of any type.

Please respond soon, Your student and friend-

Twilight Sparkle

PS: His full name is Matt Stine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Alright I think that should be good. Spike! Spike could you come in here please?" Scaly footsteps clicked against the glass floors of Twilight's castle as spike entered the map room.

"Yes Twilight?"

"Could you mail this letter to Princess Celestia?" She asked, holding the letter in front of Spike who takes it with a questioning look.

"Is this about Matt?" She nodded. "Are you sure? Alright then, but can you promise me that he'll be safe?" Twilight leaned down cheek to cheek with Spike and rubbed cheeks.

"Of course Spike, I promise." Spike then rolled the letter and blew an emerald green flame on the letter. The letter burns with a green flame until the dust then flowed towards the door and towards the outside.

"Now let's go find Matt and Fluttershy." The two set out to find the human. They noticed that nopony can be seen outside. None of the pegasi are setting the weather, none of the merchants are selling their product; nopony can be seen. "W-W......Where is everypony?" The two walked throughout town, still nopony is seen.

They continued walking throughout the ghost town until a single door open. Twilight remembers that building, she's been in there once. It was a new kind of bar that she was never interested in, but Fluttershy insisted an invitation. She remembers the inside being very peaceful but mysterious. A whole forest inside of a small hut seemed impossible. "Guess nothing's impossible..." Twilight silently commenting about the bar. Wanting to walk past it, Spike tugged her tail.

"Twilight, do you think Matt's in there?"

"We might as well start somewhere Spike. But I hope that Jinuu lets you in, because this is a bar." Spike frowned at the fact.

"Whaat? A bar? I'll pass on that Twilight, I'll just wait outside." Spike sat next to the door and pulled out a few 'Power Ponies' comics. "Besides, I've got some catching up to do."

Twilight giggled, "Alright Spike, just come in and call for me if you need anything." as she opens the door and walking inside seeing the absolute beauty of the bar, which was literally a massive forest. "Celestia cannot explain this one.....how is it so big on the inside but small on the outside." Suddenly she started to hear calming music coming from a distance. In fact was familiar, she chased the vocals down a dirt path and she appeared before a small amphitheater to see Fluttershy singing calmly. She was so happy to see one of her best friends breaking a barrier she couldn't have done alone. Having sight of Matt having a conversation, and friendly one at that, she slowly walked and sat next to Matt; who in turn had his backed turned to continue with his conversation.

~~~Meanwhile~~~

Sipping her tea, Celestia sat on her balcony enjoy her meal and watching over her peaceful land. Suddenly a scroll appeared before her from green flames. "A message from Twilight and her friends? Must be a new friendship lesson." Celestia unwrapped the scroll, reading it while searching for a friendship lesson. She started reading it again,

-and again,

-and one last time. She then dropped her letter, immediately running back in her castle. Rushing through the halls, thoughts of worry and anarchy began to race through her mind, until she reached her sisters room. She thrusts the doors open with her magic finding her sister standing in the middle of the room, almost as if she knew Celestia was entering already. "Luna we have a-

But she was immediately interrupted. "I know. I've sensed it for a while now sister. A strange new being in Equestria, am I wrong?"

"No you are right. But how did you know?"

"When I was scouting through the dream realm, I noticed a new door within the halls. I feared that the tantabus had come to haunt us once more. The door however was styled with metal and blood. I feared a new evil within our world, but as I entered the door ready for anything, the atmosphere was different." Luna shivered for a moment. "It was massive, a world I've never seen. Like Manehatten, but bigger and more advanced. But there nopony there, empty like a shell and cold like ice. I heard screams, a lot of screams and saw massive amounts of blood on walls. But then I found him.

"He sat down while surrounded by his own dead kind; holding a smaller one of his, it looked to be his daughter." Luna paused for a moment, with a gulp of sorrow, loosing her words to explain what she saw. "I cannot.....explain in words sister. Is it okay if I show you myself?" Celestia nods, knowing not what was is stored for her.

Author's Note

Finally I managed to make one chapter. I swear I'm hitting the biggest writer's block ever. I apologize if you aren't interested in this story but I'm doing my best.

Chapter 10: Light the Fire

Luna's horn glows with determination as she cast her magic on herself and her sister. "Quickly sister, to your own bed." Luna instructed making Celestia quickly teleport to her private chambers and attending her bed. She slowly slips into slumber as she could feel the tingly feeling of Luna's magic around her, until she felt levitation under her hooves and opened her eyes. Hey real one's weren't open, but her eyes within the dream realm did. She found an herself in an almost infinite hallway of doors. Luna appeared before her, welcoming her sister to her own realm. "Welcome back to the dream realm sister, how do you feel?"

"A little strange, I have not been here in some time." Celestia stated, slowly reaching ground of the hallway. "Now where is this door you gound?" Luna started walking.

"Come this way sister" Luna began walking down the direction of the metal door she spoke of. After some time, she found the door in full explained form. It was made of metal and strong like a prison door. The size was gargantuan like a ursa minor with groups of chains hanging from parts of the door like vines. Blood was splatted everywhere, from the door to even the floor of the realm itself; still wet like paint and reeked of decay. Luna began to glow her horn as the door slowly open with rusty screeches and cold mist pouring from within. "Let me repeat what I saw." Luna said.

Using her magic, she created a scene with a false image of herself and the human. She replayed the entire scene, from the human's escape, her first encounter with the human, and the slight hint to his location. "This is what he gave us sister. This FSPV is puzzling to me."

"Its confusing myself as well Luna. But I have just received a letter from Twilight, apparently the human is in Ponyville. She is requesting that we visit as soon as possible." Celestia informed, insisting to leave the realm immediately; Luna however stopped her in her tracks.

"Wait sister, there is more. Not in his dream, but in the bearers of the elements of harmony. I shall take us there." Luna opened a portal and the two walked through. Celestia found herself in a wooden house, a living room fully furnished with apple designed furniture. But the creature was sitting on a couch along with Twilight and her friends.

"Luna, is this still his dream?"

"No sister, this is their dream." Luna stated, pointing at the bearers of the element. "They all seem to continue the same dream over and over again about this creature. I saved this scene for more information about this creature with my magic. Now watch. "Luna instructed replaying the scene.

"Alright....where should I start.....Ah yes.....'The Fall' as I called it" Matt, drinking his whiskey. Luna stopped the scene. Shimmering her magic, she fast forwards to another scene.

"Let us skip minor details and show background."

"Now that the basic human lesson is over let me go to 'The Fall'. Now have any of you heard of things called zombies?" Celestia widened her eyes at the word.

"Zombies? You mean necromancy does exist? It was only a myth." Celestia claimed in shock. Her heart rate increased with fear.

"No sister, this is not from the cost of magic. It is from the cost of mother nature."

"-zombies are real. And I hate them with a passion. And so did the rest of the world. It all happened last year in the year 2011 when a new breed of mosquito was found in an oversea country called Madagascar. The mosquito bit someone and caused their brain to crave human flesh and go insane. Over the following year governments fell, people died, and survivors fought for themselves as the infection spread throughout the world.

"I had to go through a lot of.....trauma and instinct to survive. Whether to kill my own kind, or to do the unorthodox, even.....no....no this is personal."He stopped as he took a sip of his whiskey. He placed it down as he slacked back and stared at the screen, he closed his eyes and bled out a single tear from his eye. That is until Rainbow Dash killed the mood with rudeness.

"Hey Matt, the zombie apocalypse can't be so bad right?" She asked with a nervous shrug as Matt's eyes snapped opened and popped a glare at the Pegasus who cringed back in fear.

"Rainbow.....if you had a daughter and she died.....how would you react?" He asked with a gripped fist and clenched teeth.

"S-Sad because I know I'll never see them again."

"Alright....but would you kill your own family if you had to?"

Luna stopped the memory. "Be wary sister, for I fear he is slightly unstable. Killing as you know is absolutely unmoral. I would like to imagine his species was peaceful, but if government and society falls; nature changes. His instincts change from peaceful to savagery. But now for the most shocking fact." Luna continued the dream scene.

All ponies gasped as they placed a hoof over their mouth in shock. "Let me tell you something. The zombie apocalypse isn't like a video game, its real 'do or die' situations. My daughter was going to die because she was bitten by those....bastards. I held her in my hands and held her tight, she didn't want to become one of those things. And she told me to save her......but being that hero was hard. So I took the gun, I placed it to her head as I gently stroked her hair and I said these words "Honey......it's all gonna be okay, you won't suffer." and then I pulled the trigger. She was gone, dead, as I just blew her head off. And I will never see my daughter's beautiful face ever again."

Celestia stomped her hoof down. "That is enough Luna. Please, no more." Celestia sighed heavily in sorrow, she sat down placing a hoof on her forehead, thinking. "Twilight has told me that he doesn't intend on doing any harm. And with what we have just seen, he has lost his sense of society. But Twilight believes his views on society can be healed and so do I."

"Do you think so sister?"

Celestia nodded with a small smile. "I know it Luna. Twilight has never let me down before."

"And that's how I stopped the dragon from hurting my friends and covering Equestria in smoke." Fluttershy finished as she gave a smile with a *squee* noise.

"Wow....and I thought Godzilla was crazy." Matt stating while taking another sip of sake, pulling back immediately from the strong flavor. "Wooh this is some strong stuff. Haven't had sake in a while." He felt taps coming from his back, turning around he sees that it's Twilight. "Oh hey uh.....Twilight right?" She nodded.

"I uh....I just wanted to check up on you, seeing if you're okay."

Matt sighed, but gave a small smile. "I'm okay I guess. I really do like this place though. Calm music, nature, booze, and these ponies who find no intimidation from me." Matt took another sip of sake. "Honestly......I kinda feel at peace here." Jinuu heard that and walked over to the two and sat down with a big smile.

"It is good to see you in peace my friend. It is my main notion in here, to give peace."

"Well you have my thanks Jinuu." Matt says, shaking his hoof. "I really do appreciate all the booze though, haven't had it in a long time."

"It is free this time Matt, only for the help of my marefriend. Next time, you will have to pay. That is, the way I need to live." Jinuu says, with a small frown.

"Its alright, I understand when it comes to money." Matt gave a heavy sigh as he checked his pockets and pulled out a small white box. "You mind if I step outside for a bit?" Jinuu nodded. Matt slowly walked towards the exit, unknowingly Twilight was following him. Reaching outside, he noticed Spike next to the entrance with a pile of comic books. He waved to him but Spike didn't notice, focusing on his comics. Matt shrugged it and walked around the building until he reached behind the building. He opened the white box and pulled out a small and thin white cylinder and placed one end in his mouth.

From around the corner, Twilight was spying on Matt. When she saw the small cylindrical object, she recognized it as a cigarette. "His kind smokes?" She hypothesized as she summoned a paper and pencil and took notes of his nature. She took notes of all his movements, step by step. Starting from placing the cigarette in his mouth, pulling out a lighter and igniting the cigarette, and blowing out smoke.

"God what the fuck am I doing?" Mat said to himself.

You're drinking too much.

"Am I really dead?" Matt asked himself. "Is this really a dream?"

Twilight continued to take notes asking herself questions such as, "Is he talking to himself?"

Finishing his cigarette and thoughts, he stomped his cigarette on the ground and doused it with dirt to prevent any flames. He rubbed his eyes and gave a large yawn, fatigued from the alcohol. He turned to Twilight's direction; Twilight quickly fled his sight hurried back into the building to avoid his suspicion. He walked back inside the bar and reached Jinuu and Fluttershy who again welcomed him in compassion. "Hello again my friend." Jinuu greeted with a smile.

"Hi Jinuu, I'm going to go back to Fluttershy's place to get some sleep. Is that okay Fluttershy?" Fluttershy nodded simply with care. Jinuu slowly bowed down to Matt, bowing very formally and familiar.

"Hai, sou desu."

Matt paused at the words, his mind racing with different thoughts as well as understanding. Did he just-? Matt quickly looked away and shook his head in disagreement. No it can't be. Matt walked out of the enchanted building with his thoughts lingering in his mind, when he reached the exit his was stopped by Twilight who teleported in front of him.

"Where are you going Matt?"

Matt sighed, feeling slightly groggy from the alcohol. "Going home to take a nap. I love alcohol but my body, not too much." Twilight couldn't help but giggle at the human's struggle. "Ha ha very funny." Matt sarcastically stated. "Anyways why are you outside? Don't you wanna be with Fluttershy?"

"Well since you're feeling tired, I thought I'd walk you back to Fluttershy's cottage." Before Matt could even open his mouth, Twilight immediately stopped him in his words. "I'm not taking no for an answer Matt, I'm going whether you want me to or not." Matt groaned at her motherly like attitude and painfully agreed.

Suddenly, a loud scream echoed through the whole town. Both Matt and Twilight turned to the direction of the scream noticed a long streak of charcoal gray smoke. "Twilight, is that-"

"FFFFFFIIIIIIIIIRRRRREEEEEE!!!!!!" Somepony screamed from the distance. As if by instinct, Matt immediately ran towards the smoke. He arrived to a massive crowd all gathering in front of the burning house. A two story house, the inside completely engulfed in flames and cinders. Conversations flew around the fire, many were questions, while others were answers.

"How did the fire start?"

"Where are the fire ponies?"

"Their wheel on the firecart broke!"

"Somepony get some water to put it out!"

"I think there's someone in there!"

Matt bulldozed his way through the crowd reaching the front row viewing of the two story burning house. He noticed that not every part of it was on fire, but most of it. From this point, even though he was standing in front of many ponies that feared him; he continued to be himself. He turned to a pony next to him. "HEY! There's someone in there right?"

The pony now with mixed feelings of fear and panic from both the fire and the Matt stumbled his words. "I mean y- er- what a- wai- you're the- I mean why?"

Matt then grabbed the pony by his head and brought it to his face to face. "IS THERE SOMEONE ALIVE IN THERE OR NOT!?"

"YES!" The pony cried. Matt let go and turned back to the fire.

"Matt!" Twilight yelped from behind catching up with the human. "What happened?"

"I don't know, I heard of a fire and now there's one here. I heard that there's no fire rescue team or something coming." Matt explained while clenching his fist in frustration. His eyes lit up from an idea. "Twilight , do you know any spell that can stop this!?"

"I-I-I-I can't. This fire is too massive and too strong!" In a fit of anger, Matt reached around his back and retrieved his rifle.

"Screw this! I am NOT LETTING INNOCENTS DIE AGAIN!!!" He ran towards the front of the door and slammed his shoulder to the door like a battering ram. The door though made of woof, was stuck like a tightened bolt. He took his rifle, aimed at the hinges and fired a single bullet per hinge. With those removed, he kicked opened the door and ran inside the burning house. Smoke quickly flooded into his mouth, reacting to this he took the neckline of his shirt and muffled over his mouth to reduce the intake of smoke.

He could feel the intense heat of a burning oven all around him, sweat quickly built up as his oxygen was seeping away from him. He look around to see if there was any ponies inside. He found one pegasus lying on the ground, he quickly ran to the pegasus and picked it up. "I got you!" He ran outside with the pony in his hands and towards the crowd. "IS THERE A MEDIC OR DOCTOR ANYWHERE!?!?" He screamed desperately for assistance.

"I am!" A unicorn with a cream caramel coat and glasses approached the human and the pony. "Set her down on her back, I have my gear with me." Matt set the pony down as the doctor placed both his hooves on her chest and pressed against it multiple times. After that her opened her mouth his hooves and placed his lips on her, exhaling his breath to provide air circulation. The unconscious pony coughed out loud, heavily gasping for air as she was crying with pain. "Hey stay with me! You're okay! You're okay!" The conscious pony started crying quickly shaking her head in denial.

"N-NO! My daughter is still in there! She's upstairs!" She alerted, pointed upstairs towards a window. Through the glass showed a small unicorn foal, banging on the glass with a horrified and scared look. She kept screaming but no one could hear what she could be screaming. Matt quickly stood up and sprinted back into the fire with his rifle in hand. Right when he entered the building, burning debris fell down blocking his only entrance.

"Shit....." Matt grunted as he quickly looked around for the stairs. He found them and quickly ran up. He found the foal who continued to bang on the glass and scream in desperation.

"MOMMY PLEASE! MOMMY THE FIRE IS TOO HOT! PLEASE!" Lost in tears, she didn't know the monster was right behind her.

"Hey!" The foal looked behind her and instantly jumped back at the sight of Matt. "Don't be afraid, I'm here to help."

"B-But the fire-"

"Stop and don't worry. You're going to make it to your mommy." He walked up to the pony, strapped his rifle around hit back, knelt down and offered his hand. "Here, just take my hand." The pony sniffling through her tears, placed her hoof on his hand in small trust. Matt grasped her hoof and picked her up, carrying her over her shoulders. He slowly shook her up and down almost like a baby as she continued to cry. "Hey hey shhhhh it's okay. Tell me, what's your name?"

"*sniff* D-Dinky Hooves....."

"Okay Dinkie, do you know any other way out of this house besides the front door?"

"No, the only way out is the front door." Which was in flames. Matt gave a heavy sigh as he looked through the window Dinky was looking through before. All the ponies seem to be watching them, all with horrified looks. With another sigh he took a few steps back from the window.

"Dinkie."

"Ye- *sniff* Yes?"

"I need you to cover your ears and close your eyes. You or your mommy aren't going to like what I'm about to do." Dinkie complied by placing her hooves over her ears to block out any noise, and closed her eyes shut. Matt reached for his revolver and aimed at the window, he fired three shots through the glass, making it more fragile like wet sand. He held Dinky tightly against his chest and sprinted for his window with has shoulder as a battering ram. Breaking through the glass, he fell out the building and quickly turned his back towards the ground to cushion Dinky's fall. He felt gravity's bite at his back as multiple springs of pain twisted inside his back. The small specs of dirt and gravel scratching his skin and clothes leaving only minimal damage. Everything slowly started fading to black for Matt with his grasp of Dinky becoming weaker and weaker. With the smallest ounce of strength he had left, he whispered and murdered a few words. "C-Cath......ther....ine.......I.....I'm......sor.." And then blackness, he was gone.

Dinky quickly escaped from Matt's grasp to stand up. Feeling only minimal scratches, she mainly focused on the monster that saved her life. She shoved and pushed the monster lightly to wake it up. But he wasn't moving. "Hey wake up, please wake up!" He looked around to see her mother sitting down with a doctor. "Mommy help please! He's not waking up!" Both Dinky's mother and the doctor who aided her ran to Dinky. The doctor took out his stethoscope and placed the headpiece on what he guessed was his chest. But he heard no heartbeat, if there even is one.

"C'mon..... C'mon..." He moved the headpiece around to see if a pulse or beat was available. Until he felt a couple of faint beats coming from a certain area. "Is that it? Celestia help me that better be it!"

"S'cuse me coming through! S'cuse me!" The doctor looked to his side to find two ponies barging through the crowd. "Ambulance coming through!" The were towing a large white box carriage with a red cross on it. "Doctor Pulse! We're here as responded!"

"You two, help me get this......thing in the carriage! We gotta get it to the hospital!" He exclaimed, commanding his colleges with nervous looks on their faces.

"B-But Doctor, that's the mon-"

"THERE IS NO MONSTER HERE!" He screamed with boiled blood. "HE JUST SAVED TWO LIVES AND IS UNCONSCIOUS! I'M A DOCTOR DARNNIT AND I CAN'T LEAVE AN INJURED LIVING BEING!" He continued to scream with fire in his eyes. "NOW DO AS YOUR TOLD, PUT HIM IN THE AMBULANCE AND TAKE HIM TO THE HOSPITAL!"

"Y-YES SIR!" The two ambulance ponies picked up Matt and laid him down in their ambulance. They closed the ambulance doors and took towards to the hospital immediately. Twilight walked to the doctor and the two ponies from the fire in gratitude.

"Thank Celestia you're okay Derpy! Is Dinky okay too?" Twilight asked as the Doctor Pulse answered for them.

"They're okay your highness, Derpy just needs to rest and Dinky only has minor bruises." He turned to Derpy with a smile. "You're very lucky Miss Hooves. Now how are you feeling?" Doctor Pulse asked as Derpy coughed while trying to speak.

"J-Just a sore throat Doctor. And it hurts when I breath."

"Don't worry Miss Hooves, another ambulance is on the way for you and your daughter." With the reassurance of Doctor Pulse, almost all the ponies in the crowd calmed down. More emergency services soon arrived with firefighters to douse the fire, and another ambulance for Derpy and Dinky. An hour had passed as the fire site soon turned to nothing but ashes with firefighters and police soon secured a perimeter. Doctor pulse was brought to the hospital to tend to Matt, Derpy, and Dinky for proper care.

Author's Note

Alright here's another chapter since I had time to kill and words to type. It's not the best chapter and no other will ever be. It's just a lot of work on my shoulders and my sister just got engage, and I'm helping her with marriage stuff. So lots on my shoulders.

Chapter 11: Ease the Pain

Matt slowly creaked open his eyes and all he saw was white. Or in his case, white curtains, a white ceiling, while also laying on top of a white hospital bed. He felt nothing but only minor pain. He couldn't feel anything at all coming from multiple signals, he couldn't feel his arm but it was there in front of him, moving but not feeling alive. The same could be said for his back. He questioned himself if he was even conscience at this point or was he having another dream.

He looking around him as multiple packs of flora, balloons and cards were around him. He tested any other senses to be completely sure he was still alive or conscience. He tested his smell and all he could smell was the refreshing flora that was near him and a surprisingly citrus like aroma from the clean white marble floors of his room. He sight was completely fine as he could pretty much see the situation he was in, a bed with restrictions and casts around both of his arms and his right leg. His sense of hearing felt fine, although all he could hear was a mediocre beeping sound which he could only assume as a heart monitor, and a small chit chatter coming from outside his door. He was curious as to who was outside, but none of the voices he recognized. As for taste, all he could taste in his mouth was the same taste of alcohol, old and rancid from the lack of proper dental care.

Finally he tested his sense of touch, with only feeling the silkiness and smoothness on his neck from his bed sheets. Unfortunately like earlier, he cannot feel his arms and leg as well as his back. He assessed the situation carefully until he heard his door slowly creak open. He saw a familiar unicorn he had sworn he'd seen before. He came in levitating a clipboard and coffee around him, but he looked absolutely stressed with noticeable bags under his eyes and a five o'clock shadow on his chin. "Ah, you're actually stable and awake." He walked up to Matt and placed the coffee next to him, it was poured close to the rim of the mug so it looked like it was freshly brewed. "I'm very much happy that you're alive right now." He softly exclaimed with a happy and tired tone to his voice, like a frog was stuck in it.

"Wha.....Where am I?"

"Well......Matt is it? You're in the hospital after the whole mess we were in last night."

"W-What happened last night? What happened to my arms and leg? I can't feel anything!" Matt's toned quickly began to pace with no recollection of the past night. The unicorn placed his coffee on a table next to Matt as he dragged his hoof down across his face in stress make a notable 'Bwaugh' sound.

"Don't worry Matt you're okay. I believe by my studies are a few broken limbs and bones. The reason you can't feel anything nor any pain as because of our painkillers and magic currently healing you right now." The unicorn explained as he levitated his mug for a sip of coffee. "Might I say Matt, you were quite the challenge for me today since I had no idea what kind of anatomy had in store for me. And might I say that it was an honor helping you."

Matt had quite the confused look on his face. "H-honored? T-Thanks I guess. So how long am I gonna be in this bed till?"

The unicorn pulled out a clipboard hanging from the front of the hospital bed frame and took a look at his diagnosis. "Well judging from my medical experience and with the help of Princess Twilight Sparkle's books on primate and dragon anatomy, I would say about just one day and your bones should be all healed up."

Matt was quite stunned, bones healing at a rate faster than age. "Just one day and all my broken bones are good? How the fuck is that even possible? I thought I was gonna be stuck like this for months."

"You didn't know bones could heal like that? Don't you have magic where you come from?" Matt slowly shook his head in denial.

"No, what we do have is science. Magic was only a myth where I'm from. Science was the only thing we could use for medicine, and we as my kind's society came pretty advanced." The unicorn smiled in curiosity.

"Mmmm? Do tell, I'd love to hear this as a doctor myself."

"Well I would, but can you tell me how I ended up here? What happened last night?" The doctor explained the events of the heroic actions that Matt had performed at the burning house fire. He told him what he had done, and that the same doctor was there to tend to the victims' aid. He also told him how he ignored all fear from Matt and ordered the nurses and ambulance to tend to your care no matter what. For he sees no monster in Matt, but only a hero. Matt felt a small pinching pain, but could remember some of the details of the accident. "Hang on, where's my stuff?" Matt asked looking around the room with no sight of his weapons.

"Oh uh, Princess Twilight requested to keep them inside her castle upon inspection." Matt gave a deep sigh as he laid back on hi bed.

"Ah.....well good luck with the gun. That's all I need to say." After much conversation, coffee, and food; Matt could already start to feel the healing effects of medical magic as he started to feel his arms and legs again without any pain. He gently moved his fingers and arm and started to feel it again, the actual touch of his sheets felt soft and slightly warm. Through their conversations they started to know each other, although small and dry conversations could only spill out. They got to know each other's names more properly, interests, and hobbies; personal lives however were avoided and silent from Matt.

Matt finished his cup of coffee rather quickly, enjoying the taste of caffeine once again. "Jeezuz I thought I'd never taste this shit ever again."

"You mean coffee? You have coffee where you're from?"

"Have it? We all lived by it! It was the greatest thing to drink for adults, especially just to get through the day. I can't remember the last time I had coffee." With the coffee gone, the caffeine did it's magic as it cleansed his eyes from the inside out. "I'll tell you what though, do you guys have something called espressos?"

"Yea we do actually, though it's in another part of Equestria called Itrotly. Though they're the only ones to actually drink espresso, considering it's much more bitter than regular coffee here." Matt only chuckled with the idea in his head.

"Do they have espresso machines? Does anyone else here make espresso?" Matt asked desperately as he tried to endure the pain, leaning over closer to the doctor. The doctor in turn got a little nervous and confused as gulped.

"I-I think so, there is one coffee shop that has it. I'll tell you later though." A knock came from the door. "Hold on I will be there." The doctor said as he stood up. "I believe those are your friends. Would you like to see them?"

Matt crossed his arms and gave a heavy sigh. "Maybe, lemme think about it real quick. Can you ask them why while I think?" The doctor nodded, he opened the door and closed it behind him being greeted by Twilight and her friends.

"Ah Twilight, I assume you're all here to see Mr. Matt I assume?" They all nodded as Fluttershy stepped forward with streams of tears from her eyes.

"I-I-Is he okay? Oh please tell me he's okay doctor!" She pleaded as her face turned to desperation. The doctor put a hoof on her shoulder with a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry Fluttershy he'll be fine. As for your visit, he's currently thinking on it. Let me ask him really quick." The doctor opened the door and peaked his head out facing Matt. "Have you made your decision with their permission to see you yet?" Matt only gave him a simple nod. He turned back to the girls with a small smile. "Okay girls he's going to see you all, but I must tell you not to have him leave his bed or have any of you move him and damaged appendages around. Is this clear?" They all nodded as he fixed his glasses neatly. "Alright now I must attend to other patients, Nurse RedHeart should be here in about an hour to check up on him. Until then please watch over him.

All the girls walked in with low looks of sadness on their faces. They saw the broken and hurt human on the bed with a flat expression on his face. "Hey," was all he could say as Twilight walked toward him.

"Are you okay?"

He only slightly chuckled. "Yea." He said with a small grin. "Can't believe it, how many times did I almost die?" He stopped to count how many time, too many. "God......guess it was worth it." He said weakly as Rainbow Dash walked up to his face and slapped him. Soon all the ponies became shocked at her action.

"Jerk!" She then shocked everyone in the room by hugging the human softly to not injure him. "Don't you ever do that again." Matt, who lied there shocked with shrunken eyes stuttered to find words.

"R-Rainbow, why? I thought you didn't like me."

"No, I still don't like you. But not as much anymore!" She started sniffling into the human's chest as Matt could only lightly pat her on the back. He sighed heavily as soon all of Rainbow's friends started joining in to form a group hug. Deep down inside Matt's heart started to warm up, even with one arm down he felt like he could still hug all the ponies around him.

But he didn't.

"S-stop." He said flatly. "Stop please." There were slight sniffles from his nose, trying to hold back tears. "I-I can't feel this. I can't, otherwise. It'll jut remind me of my daughter and put me through more pain."

"But Matt, why? The more ya don't accept the fact that somebody is gone the more painful it's gonna be. Ah should know," Applejack said as she took off her hat and placed it on her chest. "I've lost people too, even in mah own hooves." Which made all the other ponies hug tighter.

"I-I.." He still didn't want to accept it yet. There was still an inch of rejection from all the kindness he was receiving. Suddenly all the ponies stopped hugging him when the door knocked. Through his tears Matt exclaimed "Come in." In came in a pair of ponies, a grey pegasus mare and a smaller purple gray unicorn foal both with small bandages and patches around them.

"Excuse me, are you Matt?" The pegasus mare asked as Matt nodded.

"Y-Yea. Who are you?"

"I know we weren't properly introduced but my name is Derpy Hooves and this is my little muffin Dinky." Derpy picked up Dinky and brought her up closer to Matt's face.

"Hi mister!" Derpy placed Dinky on Matt's bed by him. Dinky slowly slumped over Matt's chest and softly nuzzled her cheeks on him. "Thank you so much Mister Matt."

"F-For what? Forgive me but I don't kno-.........................You're the ones from the fire aren't you." Derpy nodded. "listen I don't want any praise for this, I don't deserve it." He sighed heavily and looked at the other ponies. "Besides, I'm still a monster to everyone out there."

"But I don't." Matt's ears twitch at Derpy's words, but his thoughts still stood.

"I do appreciate the kindness Derpy. But you're just one pony over....how many there are in this town." Matt started as his own hand. He stared at it for some time until his eyes began to shrank and began to clutch a fist tight. His breathing became swift as his heartbeat monitor became more active. Fluttershy being the first to react, she placed her hooves around Matt's fist. His breathing was paused as he took a long stare at Fluttershy.

Even though that a pony was a horse and that horses have solid hooves, her hoof felt soft and gently like a feather. Matt let out a large and heavy sigh as his monitor returned to his normal beat. He opened of his fist and gently grasped Fluttershy's hoof. He faced all the ponies and let out another sigh. "Listen girls, I'd like to be alone for a moment. Fluttershy, may you please stay?" She nodded with all the other ponies leaving the room and closing the door. Matt motioned his finger for Fluttershy to come a lot closer. She slowly put her ear near Matt's mouth as he began to whisper, "Fluttershy thank you, but I can't stay."

Fluttershy started to tear up and quiver her lips. "B-But you can't. I-I mean...."

"Fluttershy what good would I do here? Yea even though I saved those two ponies from a fire, that's something anyone could do. Heck you have a fire department in this town, that's their job. It also doesn't help that I'm a monster in this society, and that your town views me as some sort of beast or abomination that deserves to disappear. All I have on my hands and shoulders is death, death, and more death." He closed his eye, shedding one tear as he remembers his daughter.

"But please, if you see that none of these ponies truly mean that. Then you can stay!" From this point Fluttershy was streaming rivers of tears from he eyes.

"But why. Why do you want me here."

" *Sniff* Because I don't want you to die out there alone! Would you want to be alone for the rest of your life?!?"

"No I-... It's that.....I just don't want to be a pain or bother to you girls. You've given me so much but I have nothing to give back. And not only that but you-" He paused to say what he wanted, but through his will he went ahead and expressed his pain. "-you just remind me so much of her."

"Of who?"

"My daughter...... before she died. You act like her, timid, and shy of things, but also a lover of animals. She loved animals. But best of all she was always kind, no matter what." By this moment, Fluttershy's heart sank, feeling guilt and sorrow for the poor soul. She never meant to painfully remind him of his past or struggles. "I won't hold it against you though. It's not you're fault. But the more I stay here, the more pain I feel." He sighed again, heavier with his heart feeling the same pain from before, when he lost his family.

"M-May I a-ask you something Matt?" Matt nodded. "If you would want to die so badly and be alone forever, what would you're family want? Would they want you to die or live and be happy?" Matt paused immediately with his heart stopping. He never thought about a side conscience that wasn't his own being. He never asked himself this question.

"I.....I don't know. I never thought about that." He looked at his hand, a long good look to see that the invisible blood was still there. "I guess I was so blinded by anger towards myself, knowing that I failed to protect them...." Though his arms were cased, didn't mean they were restricted. He took this advantage and placed his hands together, taking a deep breath. "The question is, what do I do now? Do I simply move on? And how?"

Fluttershy wrapped a wing around Matt's back. The soothing silky texture of her wings touched Matt's heart with comfort. "It's okay Matt. I don't know the answer, but maybe we can help you find it. If there is anything you need from us, you could simply ask." The suggestion was kind and sincere to Matt.

Matt first separated his hands and then turned to Fluttershy. "May I be alone for a bit?" Fluttershy complied as quietly left the room, leaving Matt alone to think for himself. "What the fuck and I gonna do Catherine?"

Author's Note

Yup I'm back and after much struggle, I managed to make 1 fraking chapter. I do apologize for the inconvenience but like I said, I am trying my best. Thank you all and I love you all.

Chapter 12: Facing The Alphas

Matt pondered with his thoughts about the whole scenario. He's lost so much, and he didn't want to lose anymore. He thought more about his wife, and his daughter. He still remembers every detail of their deaths. He did what he had to do, for his and their sake. All the sins he committed were starting to crawl on his back, he shivered a bit at the thought. He checked the status on his injuries, he felt he was able to move his arms and legs again, but he wasn't sure. He attempted to move his leg which only resulted in only moving his toes.

His mind soon went to the very first ponies he met. He remember how nice and accepting they were, despite his appearance. A knocking came from his door. "Matt it's me." The doctor announced. "May I come in?"

"Yea." Matt said as the doctor from before opened the door and closed it behind him. "So Doc, I'm starting to move my toes again. Any news for me?"

The doctor began scratching the back of his head with a slightly nervous look on his face. "Well...... You got two ponies who want to visit you right now, or at least when you're able to move around." He approached Matt. "By the way, I don't know if I actually ever properly introduced myself to you." He placed a hoof on his chest in introduction. "I'm Doctor Pulse, but some of my friends just call me Pulse."

"Well thanks for saving my ass." Matt said giving a nod at Pulse. "So who are these visitors? Are they Dinky and Derpy? Because they already met me a th-" Matt was interrupted when Pulse held a hoof in the air.

"No I know they did. But these ponies are well.........they're pretty important to Equestria as a whole." Matt gave Pulse a raised eyebrow asking for more information. "Princess Celestria and Princess Luna are here to speak with you. They’ve heard of you and want to meet you face to face."

"Hmmmm well the fact that you called them by their title, they must be two of the other rules Twilight told me about."

Pulse nodded. "Correct. You’re pretty smart to figure that out.”

“Thanks man, I appreciate it. Go ahead and send them in, alone.” He said with a demanding tone.

“Alright Matt, I’ll tell them.”

Doctor Pulse left the room to meet his sovereign rulers outside. “Hello again princesses. The human Matt has agreed to speak with you two. He requested to speak to you alone in private.”

Celestia and Luna looked at each other and nodded. The doctor opened Matt’s door and let the two princesses inside, closing the door behind them.

Matt saw as the two large alicorns stepped forth inside his room, only to immediately recognize the navy blue princess. “Well well well, we meet at last.” He said towards Princess Luna.

“Yes, it is about time.” Luna responded as the two sisters stood in front of the human.

Celestia cleared her throat. “Well then, Matt Stine is it?” He nodded. “May I first say that my sister and I are thankful for your heroic and selfless actions today.” She thanked with a smile.

Matt nodded, not saying a word to let her finish. “Second of all, let me be the first to officially welcome you to Equestria. If you should already know, my name is Princess Celestia, “

“-And I am Princess Luna.” He nodded to the lunar princess.

Matt took another sip of his coffee; gently placing it down, he gave a deep breath. “So, why did you want to see me?” he asked, facing the two monarchs.

“To put it simply, we wanted to meet you. Seeing what kind of creature you were and ultimately judge if you belong here in Equestria. We want to get to know you Matt Stine.” Celestia said.

“Well first off, you don’t have to call me by my last name. Just call me Matt. Second off, did Twilight tell you everything I told them?” They nodded. “Alright cool, second off Princess...Luna right?” Luna nodded. “Did you learn anything when you invaded my dreams?”

Princess Luna smiled, admiring his memory. “We learned of what you told the other ponies. What monstrosities you have face and you had committed in your previous world.”

“Good….good. If you have any questions, go ahead and ask.”

The three awkwardly stood in silence, not really knowing what to ask or what to say. Princess Celestia was the first to speak up. “Matt, are you certain that what you speak of was real from your world?”

“What do you mean “what” was real?”

“These...zombies, are you sure they are real in your world?”

Matt glared directly into her eyes, and without a blink and second thought he said, “Princess, as if I’d lie about how my daughter died. I can most assuredly tell you that zombies ARE real.” He said with a serious tone in his voice.

“Well, in a way that makes me both relieved and timid.” Princess Luna commented. “We had already banned the use of necromancy in our world. I wouldn’t like to imagine what real necromancy would be in real life.”

“Well, our zombies didn’t come from a form of ‘magic’. In a long story short, a virus outbreak started out in a small country and spread to the rest of the world, crippling societies and even entire countries.”

“I see, forgive me if this offends you but that sounds a little fascinating, how harmful science can be.” Princess Luna commented with Matt raising a gentle palm.

“Non-taken. I sometimes think of it as natural selection, that my race was bound to die or go extinct. Just didn’t think I’d live through it though.” He said taking a sip of coffee.

Princess Luna was the next to ask a question. “Matt….you mentioned previously that you lost family.” Matt’s eyes went wide at the sensitive topic. He glared at the Luna, making her think of her next words carefully. “If you do not mind me asking, how did you lose them?”

Matt sighed and look down at his hand. He could still see the invisible blood that could never wash away. “Well I’ll start off with my wife. Her name is Catherine. She died from a gunshot wound.”

“What do you mean by a “gunshot” wound?” Celestia asked.

“You guys don’t have guns or firearms here? Nothing that uses gunpowder or sulfur?”

“Well the only explosive type of material here would be sulfur, but we use it for fireworks.”

“Well, what about bows and arrows?” The two princesses nodded. “Well think of a gun that fires a small metal tip of an arrow, but at the speed of the sound breaking barrier and with the capacity to tear through steel.”

“A projectile that can tear through steel?”

“In some ways yes. A lot of guns were different in my world, some weaker, some stronger. Be glad you don’t have any of them in your world, they cause nothing but pain and more pain,

“Going back to Catherine...she died from a gunshot wound to the head. We were scavenging for supplies when a group of rival scavengers tried to kill us for our supplies. Well...they got one of us.” He said with a small frown.

Both Princesses were shocked for this barbaric act. “More of your kind tried to kill you? Why? Wouldn’t it be best to work together?”

Matt simply shook his head. “My people had attempted to make communities and settlements to try and work together, but there are always people who are more selfish than others and committed evil acts to get what they want. My wife and I simply had what others wanted, and they weren’t taking no for an answer. We had a fight with them….and they got my wife.” He said with a deep sigh of grief. “I Didn’t even get the chance to go back and bury her.”

Celestia walked over next to human and placed a hoof on his shoulder. “Y’know, there is a saying around here that talking about your feelings gives some relief.” She said as Matt eyed over to Celestia. “How did that make you feel?”

He frowned at the monarch, not caring about her social status. “What do you think? I lost the love of my life, my best friend. I felt….horrible. But it only got worse. Next was my daughter.”

“You mentioned to the others that you had...taken your daughter’s life, am I correct?” She asked while hesitating.

Matt was tearing up a little bit while clenching a fist in regret and pain. “Yes…”

“If you wish to talk about it, why?”

“Well the zombie virus is...well..a virus, an infection. It turns living things into what it wants it to be, in our world’s case...zombies. That infection can be spread through biting normal people, turning them into zombies. My daughter….” He paused to swallow his pain. “My daughter was bitten by one of those fucking things.”

He coughed up some tears a little bit and took a distracting sip from his coffee. “She didn’t turn instantly, the virus takes time to turn its host into an infected. However, the process looked painful, as I’ve seen others turn right in front of me. I didn’t want my daughter to be in any of that kind of pain.”

“So I did what I thought was right. I made sure it was painless.”

“How so?” Luna asked, raising an eyebrow at his meaning of “painless”.

I gave her a drug that made her more relaxed and not feel any sort of pain. I embraced her, having her beautiful face hug my chest to distract her from the harsh reality we lived in. I brushed her soft...innocent hair and….and….I placed the barrel of my gun to her head, and made it quick.” Matt finished in silence. He closed his eyes, his thoughts instantly going back to that very moment he lost his daughter.

The blood. The blood was all he could think about as the images of his daughter’s blown head came rushing back to him. He immediately brought himself to tears and brought his blanket to his face, covering up snot and tears to avoid making of mess of his face.

Luna and Celestia stood in silence, observing this guilty and broken being, going through a hell they thought nopony nor creature should have to go through.

Celestia spoke up. “Have you killed anyone else Matt? From your world?”

Matt took a few minutes to swallow up his tears and snot before responding to Celestia. “Y-Yes.”

“Why did you kill others then? Did you enjoy it?”

“To answer you second question Celestia, I would never in my life enjoy the thought of killing and taking another’s life. I’m no savage. The reason why I killed others was a simple natural right, my right to protect myself and my family. In my world’s setting, it was a ‘kill or be killed’ scenario.”

“I see.” Celestia said, scratching her chin with her hoof.

“Twilight Sparkle has also told us that you intend to leave Ponyville and live in seclusion. To what ends do you intend?”

“I’ve done nothing but have the town fear me, and I have nothing in return. I feel like a squatter towards the town and Fluttershy.”

“Speaking of Fluttershy, does she bother you? She had told me earlier that she reminds you of your own daughter. Does it at all bother you?”

Matt sighed and looked outside at his window. He saw a little bluebird perched on top of a flower, tweeting away. He remembered that his daughter loved animals. “In a way….a little bit. It brings me a little bit of pain to remember her. However, it brings me a lot of comfort as the good memories of my little girl outweigh the bad memories.” He said, giving a sigh of relief and comfort.

“I see…” Celestia pondered for a minute before looking at the human again. “Matt, would you please excuse my sister and I for a few minutes? I want to discuss something with my sisters and the other ponies.

“Sure.” He agreed as the two alicorns began leaving the room. “It was nice to finally meet you Princess Luna, in real life and not in my dreams again.”

“It was pleasurable to meet you as well Matt.” she said with a smile and a nod.

With that being said, the two princesses left the human to himself once more. Matt wondered what was going to happen to him. I mean….like they seem collected and understanding. I’m hoping they don’t see me as a threat. He looked outside that same window, the blue bird was still there, perched on top of the flower.

He thought about his daughter and his wife, he misses them so so much. However, the thought of his daughter then turned to Fluttershy, the almost reincarnation of his daughter. She had a similar voice, a shy nature, and a similar passion for animals. He thought about her words, What would your family want?

Those words were repeated in his mind. He looked at his hands once again, he still saw the invisible blood smeared on his palms. He thought about his home, the one that was a professional civilization, and was now a barren wasteland, derived of reason and morality.

Right now, he’s in a new civilization. Not a human civilization, but a civilization who built a society and is a lot more moral. A lot of ponies here treated him like dirt, like a monster. However, there were those that treated him with nothing but kindness and took the chance to treat him like….like he was normal.

He didn’t want this, this whole world to be like his. Not the virus, but the society it had turned to. Perhaps this was fate, maybe fate itself was offering him a second chance after all he had been through.

Now he thought about what did he want? No not whiskey, food, or bullets. What did he want to do from here on out? He gave a heavy sigh, took his invisible blood soaked hands, and smeared them across his face. He took a whiff, trying to gain any remaining scent from his previous life. The smell of his daughter’s hands and the scent of his wife’s hair were still there.

However, he then began to smell something familiar. It was the smell of fresh grass, clean silk, and…..candy? It smelled….nice. Too nice to let go. It was from the ponies and their unyielding friendship.

He looked up at his ceiling, imagining that we was staring up at the heavens. He felt like he was look up at his late family and silently declared “I want to live...just for you two. I’ll live.” He answered.

Author's Note

Yup, after nearly two years I can finally update this thing. I'm back. Life sucks and is in the way, but I think I got inspiration back for this story.

I really do want to finish this, I really do.