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.