Dawn of The Ice King

by KingdomBrony16

Rating: mature
Tags: Anthro, Main 6, Princess Luna, Gore, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Comedy, Romance, Fluttershy, Sex, Profanity, Adventure, Violence, Princess Celestia, Death, Alternate Universe, Human
Length: 274521

A young man is transported to a land that is ruled over by ponies due to a wish a dying dragon granted him.

Chris is a young man who's had a rough life and just wants to get away from it all and he gets the opportunity to do so when a dying dragon lands in the woods outside his home. He gets sent to a land far far away... actually so far away its not even on his plane of existence anymore. As he lives in this new magical world powers that he's never had begins to manifest he has to learn to use them, whether it be for good, evil, or just to protect the ones he loves regardless of what that means, join him on his adventures to find out.

Note: I did not steal this story from someone for those of you who visit Fanfiction.net. I also post there, normally first. So that is also mine but this is the main pony fanfic site so it might get more traction here, might not.

Rated T for swearing and sexual themes here and there.
Added the death and profanity tags because..... reasons
Edit May 27th, 2018;

WHAT I GOT FEATURED AFTER 2 YEARS OF NOTHING?!
IM SO FLATTERED!

Edit October 4th, 2018;

Well, dang featured again.... yay

Edit: Within the next few days I will be changing this story to mature due to future plans I have for the story, tis unfortunate but it's what needs to be done. SO make sure you have your filter set appropriately if you want to keep seeing the story. Thank you - Kingdom

Published 2015-06-22 23:00:01 UTC
Last updated 2021-01-05 17:11:23 UTC

1: Fairy

When the white light faded and the cold subsided, Chris found he was face to face with something very very pink.

“Holy crap! Pink human horse thing!” He yelled out backing away a bit.

“Hey that’s not a very nice thing to say Mr. Meanie Pants.” The pink one said.

“Oh god, it’s unnaturally pink, a human horse thing, and it talks…” He looked around to find a way to get away and saw an open window, making his way to it slowly.

“So what’s your name? My name is Pinkamena Diane Pie, but everyone just calls me Pinkie Pie. Say, do you like parties? Because I love parties and since you’re a new pony I have to throw a welcome to Ponyville party. But, you don’t look like a pony so I guess it’ll have to be a ‘Welcome Strange Creature To Ponyville Party’.” And she kept talking and talking asking more questions and saying more random things that he tuned out.

Chris was right at the window, Pinkie looking right at him, but that didn’t stop him from jumping out the window on to a dirt road a few feet below. Now that fall should’ve hurt him, but he didn’t have time to worry about that right now. He was in some alien place and he needed to find anyone who could explain just what in the hell was going on. As he ran, he realized he was in a town that was full of the horse like humanoid creatures in different colors and styles.

“What the hell is going on? And where am I?” He said out loud looking for an exit from the strange town. Seeing a forest off to the distance he decided that’s where he would go since it might be the forest surrounded his house, if he was just hallucinating all of this.

As he got to the edge of the forest he glanced to his left and saw a small cottage that looked like it was built into a hill and small tree, but that’s all he saw before he turned his head and ran deep into the forest. After several minutes he felt that he got far enough away and started to slow down and decided to rest against a large tree. Almost as soon as he sat down he heard growling and glowing green eyes appeared in the darkness of the brush. Slowly a wolf appeared and it seemed to be made out of wood, inching ever closer.

“So… this is how I die hm? Hallucinating and about to be eaten by a weird looking wolf, ain’t that fan-fucking-tastic…” He smirked, “Hell, I never even got laid. Ok that is a damn lie but I always wanted to say that close to death.” He looked at the wolf right as it pounced and right before the sharp teeth could reach him a loud cracking noise echoed into the depths of the forest, followed by the wolf flying into a tree.

“What in the flyin’ blue…” He looked around and saw a black and white striped horse human thing, actually that’s probably a zebra, standing in the spot where the wolf jumped from moments ago.

Before he could say anything she said, “Run far, and not for fun. Run towards the setting sun. When you come across a large tree, go inside and wait for me. Now hurry unless you want to be a part of the feast for the many wooden beasts.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice sister, I’m out.” He stood up and followed her oddly rhymed instructions to a T and made his way to and inside the tree, which was also a house full of flasks, bottles, and trinkets that looked like they were ripped straight from the heart of Africa.

He shrugged and sat against a wall across from the door and waited for the zebra person to arrive. He didn’t have to wait long though, she came walking through the door about 8 to 10 minutes later, her hair, which was cut like a Mohawk and her… tail… had sticks and leaves in them.

“I don’t mean to moan and pout but would you mind helping me out?” She asked as she sat down and started pulling the debris from her hair and tail.

“Uh yeah… no, sure I don’t mind.” Chris walked over and stood behind her starting to pick out the stuff. “Uh, thank you for saving me back there by the way… Uh, what’s your name so I may thank you properly?”

“Zecora.” She simply responded.

“Well, thank you for saving me back there Zecora, I owe you one.” He said as he tugged out a rather large stick.

“I never let a creature die, especially one as you or… I.” she paused to pull out the last branch from her Mohawk.

“Hey, if it’s not too rude, what’s with the whole rhyming thing? And ah… is it alright if I work on your tail or?” He asked blushing slightly.

“In my culture it is part of who we are, no matter if we are near or far. And I can handle my tail myself.” She said the last bit after she looked back and smirked a little.

Chris raised an eyebrow, “You can talk without rhyming?”

She nodded, “Indeed I can, the rhyming just ads more to my mysticism. And if you don’t mind my strange creature, I didn’t get your name and I’m curious as to why you aren’t, how would you say, freaking out?”

Chris blinked, “Oh right, uh, sorry, my name Is Chris McGrath, but everyone calls me Chris. And honestly, not a lot can freak me out. It’d take more than some weird horse human creatures or zebra human creatures to send me into a spiral, no offense.”

Zecora chuckled, “None taken, and that is good to hear. Now I have one more question, how did you wind up in the Everfree?”

Side note, the more Chris listened to her talk; the more he realized she had an African accent, which would explain the decorations.

“The Everfree? I’m assuming that is the name of this forest? Well hmmmm, right the story isn’t long but here we go…” And so he told his story.

“… And then I ended up here, and you know the rest. Though I want to know if anyone knows how I can get back home… although… eh, never mind.” He shook his head to clear his thoughts.

“Well, a friend of mine lives in the town you ran through, she is Called twilight sparkle and lives in a tree much like me. So when day break comes you can go and look for her. Until then, you can stay here. I don’t have a second bed, so you can sleep on the couch…” She got a sly smile as she paused before continuing, “Or we could share~” she finished with a wink.

Chris’ face deepened at least 50 shades of red before he managed to stammer out a response, “I-uh-you-ummmm- I’m ok with the couch.”

Zecora broke out into laughter, “I am sorry my friend, but I saw the opportunity and I took, sadly I’m not allowed to partake in such activities, not until much later. Anyway, I have some food to make, and work to do so I’m afraid I have to cut our conversation short for now, we can talk more at dinner. Oh and feel free to look around, and if you go outside stay very close to my tree, it gets very dangerous once night comes.”

“I’ll make note of that, thanks.” He opted on mainly looking around her house, before long he ran out of things to look at and opted to sit in one of the chairs and watch Zecora work. It was only then did Chris realize that she was wearing a small strip of cloth across her chest; hell he just realized she had breasts, nice ones at that. And that she was wearing something of a loincloth on well, where a loincloth usually is. Hmmm actually he was noticing a lot more about how she was shaped. The main thing he noticed while running through that town were the faces and how they were all kind of horse/pony like. But looking at Zecora, their body shapes were humanoid except the legs and feet. The legs were shaped like the hind legs of horses even had hooves, while it did look weird; it looked also strangely natural and kind of cute.

“Hey Zecora I don’t mean to interrupt, or pry but when will the food be done?” he asked as his stomach growled very loudly.

She chuckled, “Ah that IS the question isn’t it? Well then I am happy to answer with, right now.” She put a ladle into a cauldron and grabbed two bowls off the shelf above, she then filled the bowls with what looked to be vegetable stew.

“Low and behold the mighty vegetable stew, the king of soups for vegetarians and the bane of all those who enjoy meat.” Zecora said in an over dramatic tone as she put the bowls down and went to get some spoons.

Chris couldn’t help but laugh at that, “Right you are, and I know you aren’t blind or stupid, plus you live in forest full of dangerous meat eating animals I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that I have canines right?”

She nodded and set the spoons down, “Indeed I did, but I also noticed that you have the same type of flat teeth I and the ponies do, so I assume you can eat both meat and plant alike.”

He smiled, “Clever girl, If I could stay longer I’m sure you and me would be very good friends. Actually I consider you a friend even now.” He picked up the spoon and took a big mouthful of the stew. “Sweet baby Jesus, this is amazing.” Zecora just gave him a smile and began to eat.

Several minutes and a long conversation later. “BRRRRRUUUUUUUUUPPPPPP. Ah, that right there that is what I call the highest for of compliments to ones cooking. Though, since you’re a master potion maker and mixer I guess you know the exact ingredients to make anything great.” He said with a laugh and smile while rubbing his full stomach.

“You flatter me Mr. McGrath, however it is quite late and I’m afraid I have to be up early in the morning.” She got up from the table and walked to where the entrance to her room was, “If you need anything I’ll be right in here.”

“Alright, and thanks again.” She nodded and disappeared behind the curtain.

Chris sighed and walked over to the candles and blew them out diminishing the light in the room except what was coming in from the windows from the moon. He lay on the couch and stared at the ceiling while he thought to himself.

‘You know… I know I asked for a new place that no one has ever seen before but I meant on the same world… though I guess this is a place no one has ever seen, so technically correct, the best kind of correct.’ He continued to think about a number of things before THEY started happening again. He growled and shook his head before going outside and staring at the sky.

“The night seems to be a lot more clear here than back on my world, honestly I love it, you don’t see this many stars even in the middle of the woods next to a crowded city.” He took one last breath of the cool night air before going back inside and falling to sleep

Author's Note

Ah chapter titles. Im not good with them so they'll be something random up till chapter 11 I believe, don't quote me on that. One more thing, chapter 4 is going to be a switch form 3rd to 1st person.

Yes, I'm putting a link to the Q&A blog in every author note, for those who stopped at mid points in the story, It's for reaching 25 chapters being written, even though 25 is still being written: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/831885/qs-for-the-qa-chapter

3: I'm holding all the light to your way

In the doorway stood one of the tallest female humanoid creature Chris has ever seen. She was taller than him by a good five inches and he was easily 6’2”. She was pure white with flowing hair and tail of blue, green and pink. She was wearing a white gown that had a gold hem and a sun embroidered at the hip area. She also wore white gloves that went up to her upper arm that had a gold trim and a crown. Also of note, she was wearing shoes, something that Chris hasn’t seen any of the other ponies wearing and she had wings and horn.

‘I’m guessing she’s an Alicorn considering how tall she is, also the horn and wings… that’d probably give it away too.’ Chris thought.

After he peeled his eyes away from her he realized everyone else in the room was bowing. He felt somewhat awkward… only somewhat.

“And you won’t bow?” Celestia asked him.

Chris shook his head, “I understand you’re a princess and such and you deserve to be treated with respect as much as anyone else would when first met, but that’s just it. To me, you are just some one else, to me everyone is equal, no one is lesser or greater. And if that’s a problem then I’m afraid you’ll just have to deal with it.”

Everyone stood up quickly in surprise to his answer and Twilight tried to stammer out an excuse for him only to have Celestia stop her.

“It’s quite alright Twilight, in fact I’m quite pleased he said that. It shows he isn’t afraid to speak his mind and will treat me and anyone else the exact same.” She finished with a smile.

“Unless they do something I go against completely.” Chris said.

“Understandable and may I ask your name?”

“Chris McGrath, pleased to meet you, your highness.” He said with a curt bow.

“Please, Celestia is fine. Now, while I’m sure my student asked you some questions before I got here she probably forgot the most important one. How did you get here?” She asked getting straight to the point.

“Getting straight to the point, I like that. Well you see, it all happened yesterday…” and he told his short story, “…and here I am now talking to candy colored ponies so…”

“So now you’re looking for a way home.” Celestia finished, having Chris nod in response.

“I see, well, would you mind if I talked to my student and her friends in private for a minute?”

“Nah, it’s cool, I’ll be outside.” He picked the cloak off the ground and put it back on. As he closed the door Celestia cast a soundproofing spell on the room so nobody could hear them if they were outside.

“I’ve never heard of a dragon breathing cold… well anything before, I’m thinking he’s lying.” Rainbow said.

“I don’t know Sugarcube, it didn’t seem like he was lying” AJ said.

“Applejack is right, he wasn’t lying.” Celestia said.

Twilight looked up at Celestia, “Princess?”

“Well you see, as you know my sister and I are thousands of years old, and back years before Nightmare Moon or even Discord the second largest kingdom next to ours was the Kingdom of Drakes.”

“Right the old Dragon Kingdom, though now most if not all of the dragons on the planet are roamers while a few hundred did stay within the kingdom.” Twilight said.

Celestia nodded, “Correct, well years before that, when my parents were still alive, there was a great war between the dragons. You see there was a time where there were more than dragons that breathed fire. There were all kinds of dragons but the four greatest were Earth, Electric, Fire, and Ice. earth and electric were taken out by fire and ice near the beginning of the war and the rest of the dragon clans tried to take out the two strongest dragon clans, only to fail and be wiped out themselves. It did not end there though, of course it came down to the two strongest clans, Ice and Fire. Ultimately fire won out, but there was one survivor of the Ice clan, it was a female wyrmling. The oldest and strongest family in the fire clan took pity on her and adopted her into their family with their own wyrmling, who is the current Dragon council elder.”

“Elder Enis, I heard she is a very old and wise dragon, and very strong too.” Twilight said, obviously proud of herself.

“Indeed she is, but she only took over that position after her sister, the wyrmling that was adopted into her family disappeared ages 2,000 years before Discord appeared. She was known as Ixis by most and by many of the dragons as The Frozen Terror, a bit generic I know, but despite being an ice dragon in a world of fire dragons, she ended up being the strongest dragon of her time and one of the strongest dragons to have ever lived. We all thought her dead, but we see that she was somehow teleported to a different world and sent our friend here.”

“That was some history lesson princess, but what does it all mean?” Rainbow asked.

Celestia started to answer before pausing, “That, Rainbow Dash, not even I know… but it seems that I have to get back to Canterlot, but before I do, I know that whatever magic she used to send him here in her final breath, we can’t repeat at all, Enis might know though. And I shall tell him this on the way to Canterlot, but I have one last question for you all. If Enis doesn’t know how to send him home, will one of you be willing to let him stay with you?”

The girls looked around, “Well I would princess, but there’s barely enough room for me and Spike here.” Twilight said nervously.

“And my shop is mostly filled with my supplies. I apologize as well your majesty.” Rarity said with an apologetic look.

Rainbow just shrugged, “Unless he can fly and stand on clouds he’s outta luck with me.”

Pinkie simply said, “The Cakes.”

“And mah family, is comin’ down so I won’t have any room either, sorry princess.” AJ said.

“Well, that just leaves you dear Fluttershy.” Celestia said, looking at her with hope.

“I-I have room and I don’t mind, he’s really nice and he said he’s good with animals. That is, if he doesn’t mind.” She said with a smile.

Celestia returned the smile, “Perfect, I’ll tell him that on the way to Canterlot as well and send you a letter when I receive his answer, if he stays of course. It was good seeing you again my little ponies, have a good rest of your day.”

With that Celestia left the library to see Chris trying to talk to the guards which made her giggle a little bit.

Chris heard it and turned towards her, “Man these guys don’t budge, well I guess someone has to be good at their jobs huh?”

“Indeed they do, so Mr. McGrath are you ready to go to Canterlot?” She asked him while walking over to her chariot.

“Ready as ever, and call me Chris, all my friends do.” He said climbing into the chariot after her.

“Glad to know you count me as a friend, though I'm afraid I have some bad news, a bit of a story, and some good news to tell you on the way there so I suggest you get comfy.”

Chris nodded and sat against the walls of the enclosed chariot, getting ready for a long ride.

As Celestia told him the story and news of how they couldn’t replicate whatever magic sent him here and how Enis might be able to, only one thought came to his mind. ‘Honestly, it wouldn’t be too bad living maybe I can even be happy.’

As they pulled into Canterlot from the air Celestia was finishing up what she was saying, “….And Fluttershy said she’d be able to house you if it was alright with you, if we couldn’t send you home.”

Chris felt really happy about that actually, “I don’t mind at all, I actually quite like Fluttershy.”

“Well that’s good to hear, now, since it’s going to take an hour or two for Enis to get here, I want you to go talk to my sister, she wanted to meet this creature from the white.” She said with a smirk as they entered the castle.

Chris facepalmed, “Really? The being from the white? Is that what I’m going to be known as?”

“Only if that’s the name you want to be in the papers tomorrow.” She joked.

“You are an evil evil pony, I like it. But where is your sister anyway?” He asked.

“Probably in her room still asleep, if you need directions ask a guard… wait.” She pulled out a pin shaped like her cutie mar from somewhere and pinned it to his cloak, “There, once the guards see that pin they’ll know you’re a guest and will take you to wherever you ask. Also aren’t you going to take that cloak off?”

He realized he was indeed still wearing the cloak, “Nah, I actually kinda like it, and I’ll keep it on for now. Anyway, why do I have a feeling you have a bag full of these little pins that you keep on you just incase?”

She gave him a devious little smile, “I have no idea what you are talking, but I have to go hold the rest of day court until Enis gets here, have fun talking to my sister, oh and call her Woona, she loves that.” She walked away with a bit of sway to her hips.

Chris just scratched his head in confusion, “Why do I feel like I just flirted with a god without meaning to?” he shrugged it off, “Oh well, better go find her sister… actually I better go find a guard.”

And so he did, a white pony in golden armor, “Uhm, excuse me, I was told to ask one of the guards to be taken to Princess Celestia’s sister’s room.”

The guard looked him up and down before seeing the pin before nodding, “Follow me sir.”

It took a few minutes to get there and on the way he saw more guards and they looked exactly like the one he was following, he asked about this and the guard told him that the armor was enchanted to make anypony who wears it look the same.

That’s all the conversation they had before getting to some very large double doors. “I’d advise knocking before entering sir, Princess Luna can be a bit cranky being woken up so early.”

“Right….” Chris hesitated before rapping on the door a few times waiting for a response when he got a clear “you may come in” from behind the door the guard nodded and you opened the door and went in.

When you came fully in the door closed behind you with a soft click and you looked around before your eyes settled on the bed. On the bed was another Alicorn, this time she was dark blue with translucent blue hair and tail, which also seemed to have stars in it. She was wearing a simple black gown that looked like it was meant for sleeping and she didn’t have any of the regalia that her sister wore. ‘Makes sense, she was just asleep’ he thought.

“Dear subject how may we help you?” She asked using a few older English words.

Chris pulled his hood back, “Celestia said that you wanted to meet the creature that appeared last night. Well here I am… I guess.”

She blushed, “Oh we’re going to get Tia for this, we told her to wake us up before she went to go see you, she’s always trying to play some sort of joke on us. It seems she played a joke on you as well creature.”

He cocked his head to the side in confusion, “What do you mean Princess?”

She pointed to his chest, more specifically the pin, “That pin, we bet she told you that you need it to traverse the castle yes?” He nodded, “Well you don’t she pulls this on any newcomer to the castle, even all the guards are in on it, you can take it off if you wish. She didn’t tell you anything else did she?”

Chris thought for a second realizing some, only to get a devious thought, “Not at all Woona, she just told me to be polite.”

Luna went from blue to red in near half a second, “She is so going to get it, well since she told you to call us Woona, we want you to do us a favor and call her Molly the next time you see her.”

“Can do Princess Luna.” He said as he took the pin off his cloak and stuffed it into a pocket.

“Please just call us Luna. We’re not much into formalities like our sister. May we ask your name so we don’t keep calling you creature?” She said sitting up fully she seemed to be Chris’ exact height.

“Chris McGrath, but call me Chris all my friends do… And before you ask, I like to consider everyone my friend until they do me wrong.” He said shifting uncomfortably being caught in one of his infamous awkward situations.

You see, Chris always seemed to be caught in awkward situations with females. This time was no different. Seeing how Luna’s gown was a bit too big to it was slipping off her shoulders and revealing a large amount of cleavage.

“Well we hope to not do you wrong, we quite enjoy having friends.” Luna said with a smile.

Chris sighed before sitting on one of the chairs in the room, “So you wanted to meet me hm? Well let’s talk I got an hour or two before Enis shows up.”

Luna’s eyes lit up like stars at night… ha, “Yes, let us converse, this shall be fun.”

And so they talked.

Chris quite enjoyed talking to the princess of the night; she was very laid back and really funny. Though she brought up something about his eyes too, but before he could check he was summoned by the guard.

Celestia met him and the guard at a fork in the hallway, “So, did you enjoy talking to my sister?”

“Yep, Luna is pretty cool, has a good sense of humor. So how was the court Molly?” He said with a wicked grin.

Celestia blinked, “Wait… what did you call me?”

Chris snickered, “Nothing at all, so I’m guessing I was called because Enis is here?”

Celestia sighed, “Yes, she arrived not but five minutes ago and is waiting in the conference room, probably the only room in the castle big enough to hold a dragon I might add. So, just follow me.”

Chris stepped to the side to let Celestia pass, “After you Molly.”

She facepalmed, “I knew it, I’m going to get Lulu back for that, she knows I loathe that name. Seriously it came about in the most ridiculous of ways, although it was a thousand years ago. But of course she’s old enough to remember.”

Chris shrugged walking next to her, “I say you deserve after tricking me like that. Though I am curious as to how you earned the name Molly. Care to tell?”

She blushed, “Well it was around the time Discord came around, a spirit of pure chaos, disharmony, and well discord. He has the ability to change a pony’s nature. He managed to get a hold of me at some point and while I’m normally a kind, respectful and caring ruler. When he changed my nature I became a rude, personal space invaded, obnoxious ruler. The ponies at the time called me Molestia because my actions tended to be me molesting my subjects in some way or another, and so the nickname Molly was created because it’s much easier to yell out “Molly is coming, hide!” than it is “Molestia is coming, hide!”

Chris shook his head but he still had a small smile, “That is horrible and hilarious at the same time and I approve. I mean no one got hurt right? They just hade their bubble popped every once and a while.”

“I suppose that is true, but we’ve arrived and a word of advice be polite, she isn’t harsh but she does like ponies being polite.” Celestia said as she opened the door, as she did so her horn flashed ever so briefly and went unnoticed by anyone.

Chris looked passed Celestia into a large cavernous room, in the center there was a huge oval shaped table with many chairs of various sizes and shapes. The largest chair was being occupied by a very VERY large Dragon.

Chris assumed this was Enis; her body was a deep forest green while her secondary coloring (Belly, horns, spines, frills, wing membrane etc.) was a nice brown color that reminded him of oak. Her eyes were a very interesting contrast to the rest of her, they were a blazing red, it looked like he was staring into a roaring forest fire, yet he didn’t feel in any danger.

Enis, turned and looked down at the two, her long neck arcing downward to get a closer look, “Celestia, it’s been too long, how have you been? And who is this youngling creature you have with you?”

“It’s good to see you too Enis and I’m doing fine. This, is Chris McGrath, he’s a human sent from his world to ours by someone we thought to be dead.”

Enis’ eyes winded a bit before looking at Chris, “Ixis?” She got a firm nod in response. She blinked, raised her head and then lowered it back then, “Tell me young one, how is my sister?”

Chris rubbed his arm nervously, “Actually….. she was, uhm, dying when she sent me here, sorry…”

Enis frowned before shaking her head slowly, “I see… it is alright young one, I thought she perished long ago. I have come to terms with her departure. But that begs another question, why did you bring him to our meeting Celestia?”

“I think that would be better answered by him.” Celestia said taking a seat in a chair that had a sun carved into it.

“I see, well take a seat young one, and tell me why you’re here.” Enis said gesturing towards a chair.

He took it, “Uhm, please call me Chris, Grand Council Dragon Enis. But I’ve come to speak to you with the assumption that you may be able to replicate whatever your sister did to send me here so that I may get back.”

Enis looked away in thought before speaking, “Hmmm, I’m assuming, Sir Chris, that she sent you here while dying and that she breathed on you correct?”

“Yes, I actually thought she was just going to kill and eat me but I found myself here instead. And I guess I did get what I asked.”

“And what was that?”

“I wanted to see a new place no one on my planet has seen. You see my species we like to explore, expand and learn. While, there are places on my plane that we haven’t fully explored or discovered a vast majority of what we could traverse without the aid of something has been done. So I guess sending me here was the best thing for my request.”

“I see, so if you got what you asked for why would you want to go back?” Enis asked.

Chris paused ‘She’s right, I did get what I asked for, and there wasn’t much for me left, it’s just that…’ “I never got to say goodbye.” He said.

Celestia and Enis were visibly stunned. Honestly, Celestia thought he wanted to just get back to his friends and family, but this… this was something she didn’t expect.

Enis was the first to recover, “So you want to go back just to say goodbye?” Chris nodded, albeit, sheepishly. “Well I’m sorry to say that, that kind of magic was exclusive to Ice Dragons. It was a power bestowed upon them by our gods to help them win the war against us, the Fire Dragons, but it could only be used when an Ice Dragon was dying. I am sorry, I understand what it feels like not being able to say goodbye.”

Celestia nodded, “As do I and I am sorry Chris that this came to a dead end.”

Chris waved it off, “Meh, it’s fine. My peeps will be fine; I only book in with the strong willed… I’m going to miss them though.” Celestia and Enis gave him sad looks. “But don’t mind me; you two have political stuff to talk about right? Well you do that.”

Celestia blinked, “Well yes, but what will you do?”

“Me? I’m going to tune you two out so I don’t hear whatever I’m not supposed to hear and nap. Wake me when I gotta go.” He said leaning back in the chair and closing his eyes.

Enis laughed, “You always find the strangest creatures Celestia, but yes he is right I came here to discuss political matters, so let us start.”

Chris, like he said, tuned out the two beings talking. But he did not nap instead he thought and thinking always brings him out.

So you finally got away from all those idiots you called family. Took you long enough, I hated them, all of them. You have no idea how much I wanted to hurt them, hear them scream in pain as I broke them like the broke us.

’Shut up.’

You only tell me to shut up because you know I’m right, you wanted to hurt them as much as I did, you wanted them to suffer, to know your pain. Even beloved little-

‘I SAID SHUT UP. Yes, they hurt me so what? They realized what they did wrong apologized and helped me later, they helped me repress you. They-“

THEY ALL LEFT! That’s what they did, they left you, they left you alone when you needed them most and what happened? They forgot about you, they never talked to you, but now you never have to worry about that again because you’ll never see them again.

‘And why do you sound so happy about that? Didn’t my so called ‘resentment’ towards them fuel you? Without them around anymore, you’ll just die.’

hehehe…..ahahahahaha….HEHEHEHEHEHE….AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA….

And with that the voice faded away but the laugh left shivers down Chris’ spine. After that he did nap for a little bit before being poked awake. When he opened his eyes he was staring directly at a very large, white, chest which startled the beejesus out of him causing him to fall back in the chair.

“HOLY MOTHER OF ALL THINGS BALLS!” he yelled out causing the two much older females to giggle.

“Are you all right Chris?” Celestia asked.

He nodded before standing up and dusting himself off, “But next time warn me before I get a face full of boob, ok? I mean, I ain’t complaining but Yeesh.”

“I’ll remember that, but the meeting is over so that means it’s time for you to head back to Ponyville. But first we have to stop by my chambers so I may write a letter to my student. I hope you won’t mind waiting a bit longer.”

He shook his head and looked to Enis, “It was nice meeting you Elder Enis.”

She gave a soft smile, “It was a pleasure to meet you as well young one, and I hope our paths cross again. Oh and Celestia remember what I said.”

Celestia looked at her before turning her head, “Come, Chris let us get you home quickly.”

After the two left the room Enis stood from the spot she was sitting in before walking to two large doors that were behind her and opening them, revealing the sky.

“Sister, I hope you understand what you are doing. I can see the potential he has within himself, but I can also see the great darkness as well. But as long as you are there I believe he won’t fall to it, keep him safe he will make a good king.” And with that she took off towards the south head back to the Kingdom of Drakes.

~----------------------------~

Chris was standing in Celestia’s room watching her write a letter to Twilight, that’s really all he was doing… he wasn’t staring at her chest or anything, nope not doing that at all.

Celestia was sitting at her desk writing a letter to Twilight while Chris stared at her chest, she knew he was, she could see him out of the corner of her eye she could also the bulge in his pants. And she wasn’t appalled by it or anything she was quite happy actually, she was happy that she was still attractive. Ever since Luna came back she noticed that most of her subjects became very attracted to her younger sister and while she was glad Luna was getting respect and attention she was also a bit jealous… so it was nice that she was being oogled and getting some oogling in herself. He was attractive in a way, sure he wasn’t the most handsome, but he didn’t look bad, he was just very straightforward and honest and she quite enjoyed it, not many ponies were like that around her. As she finished writing the letter, she rolled it up and tied it with a pink ribbon she pulled from a jar on her desk before igniting it.

Chris watched as the smoke and ash flew out the window with a raised brow, “Uh… was that a rough draft?”

Celestia turned to face him, “Oh, no its just a type of sending magic, I learned it from the Dragons but it comes naturally to them.” Her smile dropped and her face took on a more serious expression. “There is something I want to talk to you about.”

Chris squirmed trying to get comfortable, “O-ok, what did you want to talk about?”

“Well when I woke you up I noticed something about your eyes…”

Chris sighed, ‘Seriously, what is up with my eyes that everyone keeps mentioning it? I’ll just have to check when I get a mirror or something.’

Celestia continued, “I saw darkness in them, I saw the pain of a life that did horrible things to you, I saw sadness, grief, sorrow, hatred, rage, regret, and so much more. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t curious as to what happened.”

Chris started to panic a bit, his heart rate increasing, “I… uh…. I-I don’t…. I don’t want to talk about it… please…” He closed his eyes and took a shaky breathe.

He felt something wrap around him and squeeze him; he opened his eyes to see that Celestia was hugging him with one arm while the other ran through his hair.

“I’m sorry if I made you remember anything painful, but I know how its like to hide your pain and real emotions. I’ve been alive for a long time and I have been through quite a lot so I understand. You hide your emotions very well, but I can see you are troubled…. Hmmm, can you promise me something?”

Chris just gave her a questioning look.

“If you ever feel sad or upset or anything negative, send me a letter, talk to me or come straight to Canterlot ok? I don’t care what I’m doing, If you need me I’ll be there to listen. Can you do that?”

Chris just buried his head into her shoulder and nodded, gripping the fabric of his cloak. He wanted to cry, he really did, but he can’t he just can’t.

“Good, but also send me a letter of the good things too; it’ll be nice to know about those as well.”

Chris took a long breath, “I… I can do that, but how will I send the letters to you?”

“Well, Ponyville has a mail system so you can use that or if you want to send it directly to me uhm… here.” She pulled back from Chris and reached into her cleavage making the man cough and blush heavily. She pulled out a small emerald (anime logic also magic, don’t gotta explain shit) and handed it to him. Chris was hesitant but took it

“Whenever you tap something to the emerald or the emerald to something twice in rapid succession it should get sent straight to me.” Chris nodded in understanding.

They sat there in silence for a few minutes before a wisp of smoke came in through the open window above her desk and popped out a scroll in front of her. She read it quickly and stood up.

“Well now it looks like its really time to go to Ponyville, the guards will take the Chariot to Fluttershy’s house. Also Twilight might want to study you so I suggest you just let her do it, it’ll be a lot less painful. I am afraid I can not walk you to the chariot though I have some paper work I need to get done, just ask one of the guards outside my room to take you to the runway.” She put the scroll in a box filled with more scrolls.

“Ok, thanks for everything I’m glad you were my first official friend. I promise I’ll write.” As he turned to go…

“Chris, one more thing.” Celestia walked up to him and gave him a hug and whispered, “You’re adorable when you get flustered. I also know you were staring, don’t worry I’m not mad I quite enjoyed it; it means I’m still attractive. Oh and I also quite enjoyed staring at you too.” She gave him a kiss on the cheek and groped him making him jump a bit.

“I uh… what?” He stammered out.

“I’m just teasing you, You make me feel young and flirty again, I quite like it, so I hope you don’t mind.”

Chris thought about it for less than a millisecond, I mean come on it’s a hot as hell, well shaped female with a great personality flirting with him? “Yeah, I’m fine with that as long as it’s ok for me to do so back.”

She smiled, “Oh I think I would like tha-AAAAIIIIIIII!” She squeaked because she got groped hard by Chris who then took off running down the hall. “Oh I am going to enjoy him.” Celestia said with a giggle.

~------------------------------~

Chris was sitting in the back of the chariot shaking his head, ‘Oy I someone managed to get another one, yay… well should be fun life and stuff.’

He chuckled before being bounced around as the chariot came to a stop. “We have arrived at our destination sir.” Said one of the Pegasi guards that were pulling the chariot.

Chris stepped out onto the ground and thanked the guards before they flew off back towards Canterlot. He looked around and realized he ran passed this area when he was fleeing from Pinkie Pie. There was a rather decent sized hill that had a door on the front of it with several windows dotted about the place; something he noticed was that there were a crap load of bird houses on and around her house. He walked up to the door and saw that it was split vertically in the middle, he guessed it was to see who was outside without opening the door fully or to let out small animals… depending on what half of the door you opened of course.

He gave it a few raps with his knuckles, “Hello, Ms. Fluttershy, are you here?”

He heard a small cry and a flustered quiet voice call out, “Ah, one minute please! Angel can you get the door? Thank you!”

Chris scratched the side of his head as he heard bumps and a few crashes coming from in the house, ‘Angel, I wonder who that is? Brother? Boyfriend maybe? Sister? Or possibly even girlfriend, I don’t judge all things considered.’ He heard the door creak opened and did not expect to see what he saw. Standing in the doorway was a small white bunny giving him a death glare. A BUNNY was giving him a death glare.

“Hey, I’m guessing you’re Angel?” He asked, getting a nod in response. “Cool, so is it ok for me to come in? I mean she is expecting me, or she should hopefully.”

The bunny looked him up and down to see if he was a threat or not and after several awkward moments Angel decided it was ok. He stepped aside and Chris walked into the house. It was much bigger on the inside than it looked but at the same time there were so many animals and Chris LOVED it, hell he even squealed when he saw a hedgehog crawling along the floor.

~-------------------------~

It was a few minutes before Fluttershy came down and she saw Chris softly petting Mr. Hedgy, “Oh I see you found Mr. Hedgy, he is really friendly.”

Chris looked up and gulped, Fluttershy was wearing teal t-shirt, pearl white jeans, and her hair was up in a bun with two strands of hair, one hanging over each eye. She looked very pretty and it made his heart skip a few beats. “Uh…. I…. you…. Gah?”

At him struggling to speak Fluttershy rushed over to check if he was alright and he made the motion for water which she quickly got for him. Chris chugged it down like a fat man eats pie.

“Whew, thank you, sorry about that I have no idea what happened.” He laughed nervously, ‘Of course I knew what happened but she’s super shy and probably takes compliments…. weird.’ He thought.

She sighed happily, “That’s good, I’m happy you’re ok.” She hesitated for a moment before speaking again. “So, y-you’re ok with staying here right? I wouldn’t want you to feel uncomfortable with it or anything…”

“Huh? Oh, yeah I’m perfectly fine with staying here, I already love it.” He said while rubbing one finger against Mr. Hedgy’s stomach.

“You really do like animals; good I was afraid you were just saying yes to make me happy.” She said looking away.

“Nah I don’t do things like that, I love animals, especially small adorable ones.”

Fluttershy looked down at Mr. Hedgy, he looked so happy, “Mr. Hedgy looks like he likes you too, that’s good…. OH! I almost forgot it’s time to feed the animals.”

“You mind if I watch?” He asked. “I could also help if you want.”

“Oh I would greatly appreciate that, thank you.” She smiled and went to get the food. When she came back she had a lot of food, like a lot of food.

Chris’ eye twitched almost immediately regretting offering his help, “S-so how many animals do you have?”

“It depends really, I don’t own any of these animals except for Angel, and I’d like to say I’m more of an animal sanctuary. They are free to come and go as they please or people can come and adopt them. I also take care of injured animals. But I guess right now I have about 30 animals, the bigger animals are outside.” She said dragging the last bag of food out into the living room.

Chris regretted his decision but he wasn’t gonna back out, so for the next 30 minutes they fed the animals, Fluttershy had an amazing assortment of animals it was crazy. There were carnivores, omnivores, herbivores, and insectivores; it was quite weird to see so many different animals live together peacefully.

After you two were done it was dark out, sure it was only 30 minutes but he got to her house pretty late.

“Now it’s time for us to eat…” At that she realized she didn’t know what humans eat and blushed fiercely and panicked a bit, “Oh... oh my, I was about to go make some food without asking what you could eat, I am so so sorry Mr. Chris, please don’t be mad.”

Chris laughed and patted her back, “It’s alright Fluttershy, don’t get worked up, uhm I’m an omnivore, and you have a few so you know what that means. But if you want me to be specific, I can’t eat flowers, grass, hay or anything like that. Other than that I can eat most anything.”

Fluttershy nods, “So you eat meat as well right?”

“Yeah I do, that want be a problem will it? If it is I don’t have to.” He said sounding a bit worried.

“No, its ok, I mean I do feed Mr. bear and other omnivores and carnivores, I’m ok with it, but I’m guessing you don’t eat it raw like they do?” Chris shook his head, “Ok I’ll cook something for you too.”

Chris was a bit stunned, yeah she has carnivores and omnivores here but for her, an herbivore herself to be so calm about that was, well, shocking.

So he sat and watched her cook, he even asked to help a few times but she said she was fine. And she was right, she was very graceful in cooking, much like everything else Chris realized, but it was like a soft graceful. And when she was done it smelled amazing to him.

He looked down at his plate and saw a cooked fish and a small salad with some orange slices. Then he looked to Fluttershy’s, she had a number of steamed vegetables and a few chilled fruits thrown in there.

“Thank you, for cooking this, honestly. I understand that you may not be perfectly comfortable with it but this means a lot.” He said picking up a fork and knife.

Fluttershy blushed, something she did often, “It was no problem, and I understand that you need meat to survive but I also know that you would never eat or harm a pony or any of my animals so it’s all ok.”

“Thank you for trusting me.” He said with a big smile before tearing the fish apart…. Chris REALLY liked seafood.

Fluttershy looked at him and thought, ‘Even though he is very smart and kind he still is a predator of sorts, I can sense it in him, I can feel it, I can see it now as he’s eating but he’s also smiling. So I know its ok for him to be here. My animals like him and he likes my animals. I think, I’ll like having him around. He also understands my shyness, yes it is going to be fine.’

Chris looked up and saw Fluttershy staring at him with a small smile before he raised an eyebrow, “Wahrt?” he asked with a mouthful.

Fluttershy eeped, blushed, looked down and starting eating while shaking her head.

After the meal was done Chris leaned back in the chair and rubbed his stomach, “Man that was good. I think I’ll sleep good tonight.”

Fluttershy looked at the clock and gasped, “Oh! It is late, I guess it’s time for bed.” She went to grab the dirty dishes when Chris grabbed her wrist gently.

“It’s ok, you go do what you have to do, I’ll take care of the dishes and stuff, it’s the least I could do.”

She just nodded and walked to the entryway to the kitchen before looking back to see him already washing them, “I almost forgot, you’re room is on the third floor, it’s the only one and the bathroom is in there too, I’m a floor below you, so if you need me just call.” He just gave a small wave. Fluttershy smiled again and went to go take a shower and go to bed.

~--------------------~

Once Chris was done washing the dishes, he headed up the stairs to take a shower and he realized he didn’t have any extra clothes but his were dirty so he made a decision to sleep in his underwear. As he was getting comfortable he heard scratching at his door, he went to check what it was only to see Mr. Hedgy out in the small hall, “What you want to sleep in here with me?” the hedgehog just nodded. “Alright, come on you spiky thing.” He picked him up and put him on top of the comforter while Chris snuggled deep into the warmth. Right before he put his head down he took a sheet off one of the pillows and wrapped it around Mr. Hedgy.

“Yeah, I could get used to life here.” He said as he drifted off to sleep.

Author's Note

No idea what I was thinking at some parts of this :twilightsheepish:, but it get's better later, I promise.

Yes, I'm putting a link to the Q&A blog in every author note, for those who stopped at mid points in the story, It's for reaching 25 chapters being written, even though 25 is still being written: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/831885/qs-for-the-qa-chapter

4: This light will shine upon a brand new day

It has been a week since I’ve arrived on this planet and it has been a weird, really weird fucking week, not gonna lie. The first day I woke up in Ponyville was interesting. And by interesting I mean embarrassing followed by more embarrassing followed by getting new clothes. Seriously, waking up to Pinkie Pie sitting on your chest is embarrassing. Once I explained why I was blushing so intensely she got off and waited for me to put my clothes on and then we talked about why she was in my room. Turns out she wanted to know when she could hold my welcome to our world/Ponyville party. After that I discussed this event with Fluttershy and we agreed that I needed some clothes and since I didn’t want the town freaking out about me we decided to get rarity to come here and measure me and such. Let me tell you getting poked with needles are not fun, at all. But that was that, rest of the day I hung around the house getting to know what animals Fluttershy had. Yeah I fed them last night but not ALL of them so ha.

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful; it was just spent buy getting to know the rest of the girls. They came to Fluttershy’s because they were waiting until my party to introduce me to the town.

First up, outside of the morning wake up was Pinkie Pie, I spent a day with her at Fluttershy’s. I have to say… I like the pink mare, she’s hyper, she’s happy, and she laughs at my horrible jokes and I laugh at her horrible jokes. Needless to say we hit it off.
Not gonna comment on the bodies cuz that’s a bit shallow… but Fluttershy and Pinkie had the best. Woot.

Next up was Rarity, why those two first? Because of that first day, anyway, Rarity is ok. She’s proper and has great manners, so much so that I felt pretty inadequate being around her. She was elegant and graceful, but not the same way Fluttershy was, Rarity was elegant and graceful in a royal way. It was like she was supposed to be up there in Canterlot with the royals. But she also was very much hometown girl if you could break through that, of course to do that you have to be a bit rude… but let’s not talk about that shall we. Uh, well other than her poshness she was pretty cool, though she insisted on making me a suit, constantly, it was annoying. Speaking of, the way she whines is ughhhhh. I’m glad I wasn’t her parents.

Then I got to know Apple Jack. She’s honest and really strong. Also, she cares a great deal about her family, which I respect. I’m not going to say we hit it off but we weren’t like at each other’s throats either. I’d say at most we were acquaintance-friends. Like I wouldn’t mind hanging out with her but I'm pretty sure she’d make me do way too much work so I’d rather hang with pinkie.

Twilight and Spike were next. Twilight, simply put, is the world’s biggest nerd, and it’s fun. I appreciate her will to learn new things. What we don’t agree on is what to learn and how to learn it. She likes to learn everything and prefers to do it through books and testing. Me, I like to learn about like places, animals, languages. But I don’t want to learn it through books, and I don’t care about what it might do what, the water of this place, the blood of this animal, or what this language might help. I mean like good on her for wanting to learn all that, I don’t care I just want to discover and have the knowledge that I’ve discovered more. So we agree learning is good, but how to do so is a bit of a debatable point. Speaking of we like to debate with each other because it’s still learning something we didn’t know and it’s all in good fun and we know it. So, I’d hang out with Twilight and if she makes me doing experiments I better get to blow stuff up.

Spike is a cool dude, I learned that he can bathe in lava and it feels like hot water to him, and also he can breathe a steady stream of green and purple fire, which is pretty bitching, it’s fire. He was also hatched when Twilight was 10 so that made him 11, pretty cool for an 11 year old, that’s also when Twilight got her cutie mark. I see Spike as a little brother type guy, and we agreed that if he needed someone to talk to about guy stuff, I’d be the once since I’m the only guy in Ponyville he has really talked to for more than 5 seconds. Hard living in a girl’s world ain’t it?

Last pony I had to hang out with was Rainbow Dash. I can barely tolerate her, barely. All she does is brag about this and that and it gets to the point to where I wanted to rip my hair out. Of course I didn’t show it on the outside, I was being polite but internally I was smashing my head against a wall. If I had to say one thing I do like about her, it’s that she is fiercely loyal to her friends. That redeemed her quite a bit to me; I can be something of a friend to someone who puts their friends first since I am very much the same. She’s also just as lazy as I am if not lazier. All we did was lay on the grass in Fluttershy’s backyard and I listened to her talk and talk and talk. Rarity did the same thing but it wasn’t about herself and only herself. Ok that was mean Rainbow also talked about the Wonderbolts, this aerial stunt team that she adores with a passion. She offered to show me her flight moves and to get some quiet to think I agreed, and I’ll admit she’s a great flier and also really fucking fast.

I live with Fluttershy I get to know her every day; she has quickly become my best friend on this world along with Celestia, who I write constantly. I might even tell them about my past some day, maybe.

But that gets us to today, today is the day where I am introduced to the town, party day.

~-------------------~

I closed the journal I decided to keep while I was here and I stood up and stretched. It was 2 in the afternoon and it was time for a party, which was being held at town hall, which I’ve never seen since I stayed here all week. I looked in the closest that had several outfits that Rarity made within it. I pulled out a dark blue shirt that had cracks spanning it stitched in white thread, making it look like I was wearing a shirt made of cracking ice. I put on a pair of white jeans and some matching blue shoes. Not gonna lie I look good.

I heard a knock at my door, “It’s unlocked.”

The door squeaked open and in the doorway was Fluttershy, dressed and ready to go, “Are you ready?”

“Yeah, I’m a bit nervous though, I don’t do well in parties or crowds and I do horrible with being the center of attention.”

She nodded in understanding, “We’ll all be there with you, so if you start to feel overwhelmed you can just come to one of us.”

I give her a smile, “I know, thanks Shy. Well let’s get this over with.” I turn my head to a ball of spikes sitting on my bed, “Hedgy, behave yourself and help Angel if he needs it.” I just got a nod back. Man I loved animals here, so intelligent.

So we walked to the party, me in my cloak, I opened the door and saw that is was dark inside… great, surprise party. And as I finished that thought the lights turn on and the most ponies I have ever seen yell out surprise with Pinkie in the front. I can tell everyone is nervous, it wasn’t exactly a secret that I was in town it’s just no one has seen me except for the girls and spike. Now, I don’t do well in crowds but I also don’t do well with surprises. I was holding my chest taking slow deep breaths so my heart wouldn’t explode.

Fluttershy noticed and asked if I was ok, I nodded my head before really calming down.

“Ok, now I’m good.”

I looked around and saw most of them realized something was wrong and had a hint of fear in their eyes, especially in the few children that were there, so I pulled my hood back, “Hey everyone, I’m uh…. Chris, thanks for coming to the party. I know you all might be a bit apprehensive about me since I’m an alien basically, but I hope to get each and everyone of you. And I hope you take the time to get to know me before casting judgment.”

“See, I TOLD you he was a good human. Now, LET’S GET THIS PARTY STARTED RIGHT!” Pinkie yelled out and music started playing.

I looked around and saw a white unicorn with electric blue hair at a DJ booth at the back of the barn. “Now that’s completely clashing with everything else….. I like it. So Flutters, what do you say we go and get some snacks?” I got no reply so I looked over and she was gone, “Great, I got ditched in a room full of ponies I don’t know. I suck at mingling, so I guess that means snack bar? Snack bar”

I made my way over to the snack bar and saw mainly fruits and vegetables… friggin herbivores. I steeled my resolve and ate my greens, ugh, I hate vegetables.

“How’re you likin the party partner?” Came a southern accent from behind me.

I turned around expecting to see Apple Jack, instead I came face to face with a tall, very muscular, red stallion wearing a plaid shirt and some jeans. “Uh, It’s good though it’s only been like 15 minutes, haven’t left the snack bar though.”

“Yeah, I noticed and I was wonderin why that was.” He said, grabbing a drink from a nearby table.

I shrugged, “I don’t know, I just don’t do good with crowds or parties really. I don’t mind meeting new people…. Ur, ponies, but I’m also a bit shy about it.” I said rubbing my arm.

“Ya sound a bit like Ms. Fluttershy but a bit more brave, no offense to her of course.” He said with a chuckle.

“You know Flutters?”

“Eeyup, she’s a good friend of my sister Apple Jack.” He said.

I stood up a bit more straight, so he was AJ’s brother huh? “Oh, cool, older brother I’m guessing?”

He nodded, “Name’s Big McIntosh, call me Big Mac or Mac.” He held out his hand.

I looked at it and shook it, “I’m Chris McGrath, but just call me Chris. It was good meeting ya Mac.”

“Likewise, now if you’ll excuse me I see a cute mare I’d like to talk to.”

I looked off to his line of vision and saw a Magenta colored mare with two toned pink hair. She looked about the same age as Mac. I gave him a pat on the back, “Good luck buddy.” He just grunted in return and walked off.

Not too shortly after someone else came up to me, this time a mare of mint green color. “Hiya!” She said in a chipper voice.

“Uh, hi.” I said a bit nervous.

“You’re a human right?”

“Yeah, that I am.” Ok getting a bit freaked out now.

“Cool, I’m Lyra Heartstrings, local musician and candy taste tester.” She said puffing out her chest looking proud.

I cocked my head, “Local… candy… taste… tester?”

“Yep, you see the mare over there with the purple and pink curly hair?” She pointed to said mare talking to Apple Jack. I nodded. “Well, she’s my wife, her name is Bon Bon and she owns a candy shop in town. She likes to experiment with making new sweets and things and of course being her other I get to taste test it to see what works and doesn’t. Pretty sweet gig don’t you think?”

I laughed, “Hell yeah, I’m jealous, I wish I could just eat candy for a leaving, god knows I have a massive sweet tooth.”

“Yeah, I like it too… say if you ever need a job or anything I can talk Bonnie into hiring you for a second opinion tester.”

I was stunned, “You’d do that for me? Someone you just met?”

“Yeah, I don’t see why not, you seem like a cool guy. In fact, I’ll send her your way later.”

“Yeah sounds cool, thanks.”

“Hey, it’s no big deal.” She took a drink and left, not without saying goodbye.

It was about 2 and a half hours into the party when I heard a tomboyish voice behind me, it was still higher pitched and girly which let me know it wasn’t Rainbow Dash. So I turned around to see 3 younguns… fillies, I guess, standing next to each other. One had a big bow in her red hair and was an earth pony, the other had very curly two toned purple hair and was a unicorn, and the last one had slightly spiky short purple hair and was a Pegasus.

“Hello, how may I help you three?” I said, bending down a bit.

“You’re really tall.” Said the unicorn.

“Not as tall as mah brother.” Imma call that one Blossom until I figure out her name. The other one is Bubbles so that leaves……

“Doesn’t look too cool though.” …... Buttercup.

“So what do the Power Puff Girls want with me?” I asked stifling a laugh.

Blossom looked confused, “What?”

“Heh, nothing. I heard you say brother? And with that accent I’m guessing you’re related to Apple Jack and Big Mac?”

She smiled, “Yep, I’m Apple Bloom, This is Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo.” She said pointing to Bubbles and Buttercup respectively.

“My big sister is Rarity, do you think she’s pretty?” Sweetie asked.

Ok, that caught me off guard, “Yeah, she’s pretty.”

“Do you like her?”

What?..... “No, she isn’t my type.”

“Oh, ok. I was just wondering.” She had an innocent smile.

“Don’t worry ‘bout her, she asks every guy that for some reason.” Scootaloo said after punching Sweetie in the arm playfully.

“I’m guessing you’re Rainbow Dash’s little sister?”

“Ha, I wish, I’m her number one fan and president of her fan club.” He little wing buzzing with happiness, aw cute.

“Be careful who you idolize kid. I’m guessing you’re parents and sisters are letting you stay up late cuz of the party?”

“Yeah how did you know?” Apple Bloom asked.

“I was your age too once, I know how we old people work and how much I wanted to stay up late even though it was a weekend. You three look Spike’s age though, so I’m guessing you have school on Monday?”

“Yeah, and school is so boring. I wish I didn’t have to go.” Scootaloo said.

“Well I like going to school, learning about things is fun.” Apple Bloom said causing Scootaloo to make a gagging noise.

“Well I like going to school too even though I think it’s boring.” Sweetie said in a subdued voice.

I looked at her curious, “And why is that Sweetie Belle?”

She mumbled out, “Because I like being with my friends.”

“Say that again, I didn’t hear you.”

She sighed, obviously embarrassed, “I said, because I like being with my friends, we hang out outside of school but my friends make school bearable.”

“Ewwwww, stop being so sappy Sweetie.” Scootaloo said pushing her making Apple Bloom laugh but Sweetie looked a bit disappointed, which didn’t go unnoticed by me so I decided to change the subject a bit.

“So how did you three become friends?” I asked.

Sweetie perked up, “Oh well…” So she told me how that they became friends because of a bully at there school kept teasing theme for not having cutie marks and that’s when they became the….

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!!!!!” They yelled out simultaneously.

Cute but oooooowwwwww my ears. “Cutie mark crusaders huh? I guess that means you do things that could make you get your cutie marks?”

“Yep, we’ve tried everything from skydiving to zip lining.” Apple Bloom said obviously proud but also disappointed. In fact the all looked disappointed.

I sat down on the floor and crossed my legs, “Girls, look, I feel like you will get your marks eventually, but don’t be sad about not getting them from everything you’ve done. You three have done more than a lot of kids and adults in my world have and you did it together as friends and had fun regardless of the outcome, so just keep doing what you’re doing, ok?”

“Ew, you’re getting all sappy like Sweetie was, come on girls.” Scootaloo said turning around and walking off with Apple Bloom. Oy she was a bit too much like Rainbow.

Sweetie stayed behind for a bit, “Sweetie?” I asked.

“It was good meeting you Mr. Chris.” She said before turning around.

I stopped her, “Hey, Sweetie, keep that attitude you have about friends ok? Those two might not realize it yet… but they care a lot about you too. You’re a lot like me with my friends yeah? So trust me when I say keep that attitude with friends, now go enjoy the party.”

Her face lit up immensely before thanking me and running off to join her friends.

“That was really kind of you.” A new voice said, I looked up and saw Lyra’s wife, Bon Bon.

“Eh, I was like her when I was her age. Bon Bon right?” She nodded, “I’m Chris, and I met your wife earlier.” I stood up held out my hand and she shook it.

“Yes, I know, she wouldn’t stop talking about you and asked me to come talk to you… saying something about being an extra taste tester or something.” She said sighing.

“I’m guessing she does this a lot?”

“This specifically? No, stuff like this? Oh you have no idea, I love her with all of my heart though.” She said a bit dreamily.

“I can tell. Can I ask a question? It’s about your marriage, if that’s ok.”

She looked confused, “Sure, I don’t see why it wouldn’t be.”

“Well, that already answers most of it. On my world, some t of it, same sex marriage is banned if not looked down upon.”

I could see her visibly bristle, “Are you saying there is something wrong with me and Lyra being together?”

I gulped, “No no no, just the opposite. You two look very good together and I encourage it. It’s just I’m glad this world doesn’t have that problem. Sorry, if I implied anything else.”

Her stance relaxed, “No it’s ok, sorry for over reacting. Why would that make you happy though?”

“Hmmmm… I’ll tell you at another date if we become better friends.” I said.

“Alright that’s fair, so about this whole taste tester thing, I could use another one. Lyra, despite being a good tester keeps away from most things sour or bitter or tart but I know some ponies like bitter and sour things too. But Lyra and I don’t at all.” She said looking down.

“And you need someone who likes eating bitter and sour things right? But not many ponies can tolerate a lot of bitter or sour things then?” I asked.

She nodded, “Ponies are more tolerant of sugary things. Sour and bitter are a bit of a luxury and an acquired taste.”

“So why would you consider making them anyway?”

“Well there are more than ponies in Equestria, and I ship my candy out across all of the world so the amount ponies would be willing to pay is nice. Griffins in particular like bitter candy and Minotaur love sour candy but getting a hold of both of them to taste test is really difficult, that and I can’t split the money between 4 ponies even with the extra money coming in.”

“Hmmmm….”

“I understand if you don’t want to… I mean I don’t know why I or Lyra thought humans could have anything sweet or bitter, buck, it might actually even be poisonous to you. Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t think about that and-“

I held my hand up, cutting her off, “Calm down, its fine. Humans can have bitter and sour things, some even prefer it to sweet, and I am one of those. I may have a massive sweet tooth but I prefer bitter, sour and tart things, so I’d be happy to accept your offer. That is if you’re offering.” I had a sly smile.

“REALLY?!.... Ahem, I mean, that’s great. When can you start?” She asked obviously happy.

“Whenever you say I can.”

“So Monday a week from now?” She asked.

I nodded, “Monday a week from now.”

“Oh this is great, ok be there by 8 AM. I have to go tell Lyra, Thank you so much.” She kissed me on the cheek before taking off with a skip in her step.

I was standing there with a blush. “Smooth big guy.” Ok that voice was way more tomboyish than Rainbow Dash. And it belonged to the DJ.

“Sup, name’s Vinyl Scratch, stage name is DJ PON3.”

“Hey my name’s Chris.” I held out a hand only to be pulled into a bone crushing hug. “Can’t… breathe…”

She let go of me laughing, “Sorry bout that big guy. So, why’re ya standing over at the bar all by yourself instead of getting down on the dance floor with every pony else?”

I laughed, “Two reasons for that, I can’t dance and I don’t do well in crowds or as the center of the attention.”

“Well then I guess you came to the wrong party. Ahhhh I’m pulling your chain everyone enjoys parties a bit different. Me, I like being up front make people jump while feeling the beat. It’s a good way to party, that and getting drunk. Hey, how about you let me get you a drink.” She said gesturing to the table.

“You know that’d work better if these were actually at a bar and you had to pay for them.”

“Ha, right? Still, how bout a drink… actually how old are ya?” She asked.

“20 and still aging.” I said.

“Ah Celestia damn it, not old enough, sucks bro.” She said picking up a drink and chugging it down.

“Eh, it’s cool, I don’t plan on drinking when I’m old enough to anyway.”

“Come on, why not? That’s like that best part man.”

“I have my reasons, let’s just leave it at that.” I waved it off.

She nodded, “I can understand that, well if you change your mind call me or just come to my house, yeah?” She handed me a piece of paper that had a number and address…. They had phones here?

“I uh… yeah, sure thanks.” I could help but notice her outfit, it was pretty revealing and by pretty revealing I mean she was wearing a bra, a tattered vest and some torn shorts that were down enough to see the straps of her underwear.

“See something you like big guy?” She winked.

“I uh… sorry, I didn’t mean…”

She smirked “Hahahahaha, it’s cool dude, I get stares all the time. I may not have boobs like Fluttershy over there or an ass like Apple Jack but I can still rock what I’ve got.”

“I’ll say… I mean, yeah.” I was blushing furiously.

She punched me on the arm, “I like you, you’re cool and easy to embarrass. Was awesome meeting you big guy, but I gotta go back to the music. Remember what I said, come find me if you change your mind or just want to have some fun. Also I like your outfit dude.” I took my cloak off after talking to Big Mac, ” She turned around and flicked my side with her tail while laughing.

“Oh god, there are two of them…. Ugh.” I leaned against the wall and enjoyed the rest of the party. I got to know a lot more ponies but there were so many names I hardly remember them all. As the party came to an end the girls came up to me.

“So, how’d you like my party Chrissy?” Pinkie asked bouncing up and down. Why does she always bounce?

I poked her arm, “It was fun, Pinkie, but I didn’t expect anything less from the number one party pony. Any party you throw feel free to invite me first. And that’s saying a lot since I’m not much of a fan of parties.”

She poked my arm back, it was something we started on the day we hung out, don’t ask it’s a Pinkie thing. “YAY! Now I can throw a lot more parties without worrying if you’ll like them.” She flashed that signature Pinkie Smile.

I turned to Apple Jack and Rarity, “I met your sister’s as well.”

“Oh I hope they didn’t bother you too much Darling. Those three always cause a heap of trouble.” She said rubbing her temples.

“Now come on Rares it was a party and it went pretty well for a Pinkie party. Mac also told me he saw ya too Chris.” AJ said.

“Yeah, I like the big guy. Though he did leave to go after this Magenta colored mare.” I said.

“Eeyup, he’s been tryin to get with Ms. Cheerilee for a while now.” She said with a smile.

“Well I wish him luck. And Rainbow I met your number one fan.” I directed to the Rainbow tornado.

“She’s cool ain’t she?” She asked as proud as ever.

“Yep, pretty cool indeed. She admires you a lot, don’t let her down.”

“Ha, I never let my fans down.”

I nodded respectfully. “I didn’t see you two, Flutters and Twi, at all during the party.”

“Sorry, that was my fault, I needed Fluttershy to talk about some things that I had to do with my pet owl. I didn’t mean to snatch her away from you like that.” Twilight said.

“Eh, it’s fine, but I’m surprised that took all party.”

“Oh it didn’t I was just caught up in writing a letter to the Princess and such.”

“Oy, well I wouldn’t expect anything different. But everyone has fun their own way I suppose. What about you Flutters?”

“Eep! I mean… well, I did come back to find you but I saw that you were talking to every pony just fine so I decided to just let you have some fun and talk with out me there to make things awkward.” She said shifting slightly.

“Aw, come one Flutters you could never make anything awkward for me. I would’ve loved to have my best friend there. Never assume you could make anything awkward ok?” I put my hands on her shoulders and squeezed softly and she just nodded.

“Ooooooooo Chris and Flutters sitting in a tree K I S S I N G!” Pinkie said with her trademark giggling.

“Pinkie dear, I’m sure they’re just friends.” Rarity said, but it was very easy to tell she was trying not to laugh as well. It didn’t stop anyone else but you know it’s the thought that counts.

“Well damn, are you all gonna ship us now?” I asked a bit annoyed,

“Ship you? What in tarnation are you talking about?” AJ said through her laughter.

“Shipping, on my world means pairing to people up who you’d think would be a cute couple. Like for example if I thought Twilight and Apple Jack would be a cute couple I would ship you two together and come up with a cute pair name like ‘AppleLight’ or something like that.” I explained.

“Oh, then yeah we are shipping you.” Apple Jack said

“FlutterGrath, ChrisShy, FlutterChris,…. OH OH OH WAIT! McShy!” Pinkie said laughing even more.

I face palmed and groaned, “Oh god… I am so sorry Flutters.”

Fluttershy was blushing hard and hiding behind me, “N-no, it’s ok…. I don’t really mind.” She said that last part only to where she could hear it or so she thought. The laughter died down after a few minutes

“Alright well that’s enough of that, I’m tired and I wanna go to sleep.”

Twilight looked at her watch, “Wow, it is late, I have to get going too, I have to be up early tomorrow if I wanna be on schedule.” She left and we all shook our heads.

Pinkie just up and disappeared in an explosion of confetti and we just agreed not to question. Rainbow left not needing an excuse to sleep more, Rarity left saying something about getting a project done. Flutters and I left Apple Jack with her saying she had to get up early to get back to work.

Fluttershy and I were walking back home and she was holding on to my arm and was really close to my side, I didn’t mind honestly, it was nice.

“I’m glad you enjoyed the party.” She said suddenly.

“Yeah, well it would’ve been better if you were with me ya know. I’m not mad, don’t think that, but like I said I like having you around, you put up with me living with you and you’re my best friend I enjoy my friends.” I pat her head and she nodded.

We got to the house and went to our respective rooms to sleep, Hedgy was asleep on my bed already. I was too tired to fully change so I just took off everything except for my underwear, I learned from last time, and got under the blankets.

A few hours later I was awoken from a knock at my door. I rolled over and saw Fluttershy standing in the door way, in the moonlight. Wait she looked scared and worried, “Hey, are you ok?”

She shook her head.

I sat up and patted the spot next to me. She came and sat down and laid her head on my shoulder, “What’s wrong?”

“I... I had a night mare. I know I’m too old to be having night mares, please don’t laugh.” She said her voice shaky.

I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her closer, “I would never laugh, I have night mares myself even at 20. You wanna talk about it?” She shook her head again. “That bad?” She nodded.

“Uhm… this might sound embarrassing or weird, but if it’s ok with you, can I sleep in here with you? I can sleep on the floor if it’d bother you. I just don’t want to be alone just in case.”

“No, its fine, you can sleep in the bed with me.”

“Are you sure? It won’t be weird or anything?”

“A little but you had a bad dream that obviously shook you up a lot. I don’t know about you but when I have bad dreams like that I can’t go back to sleep without being close to someone.” I pulled my legs back into bed, pulled the cover over and scooted over. “Come on and lay down.”

She laid down with her back face towards me, I turned around so I was facing the door instead of the wall like I normally to, and so we were back to back.

“Can… can you hold me?” She said a bit too quietly.

“What? I couldn’t hear you.”

“I asked… c-could you hold me, if it isn’t too much.”

“I don’t….”

“Please….” Her voice shuddered again.

I gave her a soft smile and turned around and wrapped an arm around her pulling her close but not close enough to where our bodies were fully touching, “Is this ok?”

She hummed, obviously happier, “Yes, that’s fine. Thank you.” She scooted closer so that whole not body touching thing was remedied.

“You know I love you right?” I said softly.

She gasped, “W-what?!”

“I… that came out wrong… I-I meant that I love you like you know a really good friend hehehe…” Or is it more? I don’t know, I don’t want to feel that again.

“Oh… well good night.” She sounded disappointed…. Damn it.

“Yeah night, Flutters, wake me up if you have another nightmare.”

“Ok… and I love you too.” She said.

I just nodded and closed my eyes falling asleep.

Author's Note

Yes, I'm putting a link to the Q&A blog in every author note, for those who stopped at mid points in the story, It's for reaching 25 chapters being written, even though 25 is still being written: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/831885/qs-for-the-qa-chapter

5: Ixis becomes poof

Author's Note

I'm so very sorry in advance for this entire chapter, so very sorry.

Yes, I'm putting a link to the Q&A blog in every author note, for those who stopped at mid points in the story, It's for reaching 25 chapters being written, even though 25 is still being written: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/831885/qs-for-the-qa-chapter

5: Ixis becomes poof

POOF! IXIS APPEARS! PROBABLY!

It was morning, the birds were singing and my face was buried in pink and something feathery, soft, and warm was pressed against me. What in the… it smelled like Fluttershy, oh it was Fluttershy. How? Oh, right she had a nightmare and came into sleep with me last night. And I hate mornings… Ugh, ok she’s still asleep, I can slip out of bed before she wakes up and notices the morning ahem…

“Good morning.” She yawned and stretched, hugging my arm that was still wrapped around her.

Shit…. “Uh, good morning Flutters, you sleep well?”

“Mhm, thanks for letting my sleep with you, it was really comfort….” She stopped talking.

“Flutters, are you ok?” Shit shit shit, she noticed.

“Is that your…?” I didn’t even need to see her to know that she was turning a deep shade of red.

“I… Uh yeah… it is.” I decided to be honest; honesty is the best policy after all.

“I-it feels really big…” She squeaked realizing what she just said.

“….Thanks.” Honestly I was beyond stunned. Fluttershy, sweet, shy, cute, innocent (supposedly), Fluttershy just said I was big. What. Is. My. Luck?

“I-I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to make you feel awkward or anything, it… it just slipped out, please don’t hate me.” She buried her face into one of the pillows.

I pulled her back close to me, pulling her head out the pillow gently. I’m gonna seriously regret this much later. “Fluttershy, look at me.” She wouldn’t look, “Flutters please look at me.” She turned her head and tears were welling up in her eyes.

“Do you really think I could hate you for something like that? Look, I’m sure I’m much more embarrassed than you are right now you know considering my morning wood is still pressing against you heh. Honestly, I was expecting you to be mad at me instead.”

She sniffled and shook her head, “I-I could never be mad at you for something like that, it’s a natural thing right?”

I nodded, “Yeah, that and I’m in bed with a very attractive mare.”

She blushed and averted her eyes away from me, “I’m n-not that attractive, Rarity looks a lot better than me, everypony else has had a coltfriend or marefriend except me, even Twilight. Not that she isn’t pretty or anything.”

I hugged her, “Shh shh, it’s ok I understand. But you ARE attractive. In my opinion you are much more attractive than Rarity. Rarity works hard to look like that, I’ve lived with you for a week granted but I’ve seen you with bed head straight to kitchen coffee mode and you still had this elegance about you that made you shine like a diamond. I’m actually surprised more guys haven’t come up to you.”

She didn’t say anything just buried her head back into the pillows, “Flutters… take your head out the pillows you silly mare and look at me.” She did as told. “Thank you.” Now here comes the part that I’m going to regret. I was staring at her intently thinking.

“Chris a-are you… MMMPPHHH!” I kissed her, why? I DON’T KNOW! I JUST DID!

For a second she was startled and pulled back but I pushed forward and after a few seconds she started to kiss back. A few more seconds later we broke off. “Uh… I don’t know… what came over me, I’m sorry.”

Ok now I’m pretty sure she turned into a female Big Mac with how red she turned. “I… does that mean you like me?”

I hesitated before letting out a deep sigh, “Yes… I do like you, honestly I liked you since I first came to Ponyville, I’m not sure why, but I’ve only had that happen 2 other times in my life.”

She raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean 2 other times?”

“I guess I should tell you about my past…..” Urp… oh god… “But, first hold that thought.” I jumped out of bed and burst into the hell and then the bathroom. I bent over the toilet and puked my guts out; when I was done I opened my eyes and saw that the toilet was completely frozen.

Fluttershy was out in the hall, “Chris are you ok?”

I turned to her feeling really light headed and then the world started spinning, “Go….get…. Twilight…” And then I passed out.

I was in a void, not a white void, not a black void, not even a grey void, no it was a void of every color but no color. It was really confusing. “Uh…. Hello? Anyone there?” My voice echoed out. Something I expected what I didn’t expect was a voice to call back.

“Yes young one, over here.” Said a familiar voice somewhere to my right.

I turned and I saw a woman, that seemed to be in her mid 20’s with snow white hair, icy blue eyes, and she was wearing a dress… made out of snow… Ok then, “Do I know you?”

“What? You don’t remember me? I’m hurt.” She said in a mocking tone. “I’m the one who sent you here dummy.”

“Uh sent me where exactly? This is kinda just a really weird everything void.” I said looking around at nothing and everything.

“No this is your mind, if you want it to be somewhere all you have to do is will it so.” She said.

I rolled my eyes, “Great the whole there is another being in my head cliché. Like I needed another one. But fine, let’s see, how about we go to the Great Barrier Reef.” And just like that we were under water looking at a colorful world, “Fucking sweet.”

“Indeed, you have some very beautiful places on your world. And to that whole cliché comment, shush, and I have met you other… he is dark.” She said shuddering a bit.

“Yeah he tends to have the effect on people, so who are you exactly?” I asked again.

She sighed, “Like I said I sent you here.”

“Here where? My mind?”

She tapped her chin, “Technically I guess so, but I meant this world.”

It took me a minute to get what she was saying and when I did well I was not as mind blown as I should’ve been, “Ixis? I thought you were dead.”

“I am, but I’m not. And before you ask about your vomit freezing the toilet that will be explained…” She looked up, “Now actually, I’ll keep in touch. Bye.”

And like that everything went black and I woke back up to seeing Fluttershy and Twilight standing over me but not looking directly at me. Twilight was muttering something about this wasn’t supposed to happen for another few weeks and Flutters was just staring at a wall. I was in my bed, good, bad back ya know. “Anyone get the number of the truck that rammed into my head at mach speed?”

Flutters looked at me when I said something and immediately crushed in a hug kissing my face all over, “Ok ok, you’re happy I’m ok, down girl. heel.”

She backed away and blushed while giggling, “Sorry.”

I waved it off and looked at Twi, “Hey, Twi, good to see ya.”

She looked relieved for like half a second and then looked concerned again. “Are you ok? How do you feel?”

How do I feel? “You mean other than the fact that I threw up and froze the toilet and I have a dead dragon that looks like a human woman in my head? I actually feel really good but kinda hot. Was it always so hot?”

She sighed, “Yes, that is to be expected.”

I sat up and everything started spinning again, “Whoa, who spun the world? Oh, no I’m good. Hey Flutters? Can you get me some water?” She nodded and left the room. “So Twilight, care to fill me in on what wasn’t supposed to happen yet?”

She paled, “You heard that?” I nodded, “Can we wait until Fluttershy gets back for me to tell you?” I nodded again.

In a few seconds Fluttershy came back with some water, I took the glass and I tried to drink it but I just had a chunk of ice smacked into my nose. “Ow, what the hell?”

“Yes, that was also said to happen.” Twilight said.

I looked at her, “Alright, explain.”

“Ok see, you know when you went to the Castle to speak to Enis?” I nodded yet again, “Well apparently while you were napping Celestia took the liberty to talk to Elder Enis about what side effects could happen from what Ixis did to send you here. And well… this is the weird part. Apparently, whenever the Ice Dragons used their death wish granting power their soul, knowledge, skills, and the fraction of the previous dragon’s power gets transferred into the being the spell was granted for. And it stacks so say if an ice dragon died and granted a wish to another ice dragon and that ice dragon died and gave a wish to another ice dragon those two dragon’s knowledge, skill and power would go to the third dragon. Keeping whatever fraction the first dragon’s split of so it never lessened no matter how many times. And since Ixis was the daughter of a very powerful family… well let’s just say… You have a lot of magic power flowing through you and manifesting right now and your body is going to take a while to adjust and it's going to spill any excess that you can’t hold, even slightly. Hence the freezing throw up and your water freezing instantly.” She said gesturing to the ice block on the floor.

“So what you’re saying is, I’m essentially a dragon in a human body, and I’m always giving off excess cold magic? I can’t control it at all?” I asked.

“Well more like an uncountable amount of dragons unless you ask the past dragon who should be in your psyche. But yes basically, and you can control it, but while your body is adjusting you can’t and even when its done its going to take a lot of work.” (Ok I don’t normally do this but A/N: This is so fucking retconned later it's not even funny)

“How long until my body is done adjusting?” I asked.

She thought about it, closing her eyes, “About a week at most and at least… 4 days. And until then you have to stay here in the house again, I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine and I understand why, I could I don’t know, have like a really bad sneeze and freeze half the town.” I said half joking.

“Yes you could.” She said extremely seriously… fuck I really could, I don’t know if I should be scared or excited. “Fluttershy, I can come and check up on him in 4 days time to see if his body is adapted to having magic in it. Until then you have to take care of him, can you do that?”

She didn’t say anything and just nodded.

“Ok, good, I need to tell the Princess about this, I’ll see you in 4 days Chris, also after the time of adapting is done your body might change a bit, actually it might even change during your adapting time, it is controllable but not at first.” And with that she teleported out.

Fluttershy was still quiet and that was bothering me. I put my hand on her leg and she jumped, “F-Flutters, are you ok?”

“I…I-I’m scared…” She said softly.

“Scared? Of what? Me?” She just nodded. “Why?”

“I, Twilight… you said you were a dragon in a human’s body. I’m terrified of dragons.” She was starting to cry.

I pulled her onto my lap and held her, “Flutters, I’m still the same old me, I’ll always be the same old me. I’ll just have ice powers and be super friggin strong and a skilled fighter apparently. But other than that I will not become some raging beast that destroys and eats everything.”

She nuzzled my chest…. Sooo much cuteness I’m gonna die, “You promise you won’t change?”

“I swear on everything I hold dear to my heart that I won’t change.” I said while rubbing her back, making sure to be careful of her wings, which I haven’t mentioned before were decently big. She made a purring noise and I chuckled a bit, “Ponies can purr?”

“Yes it’s a sign that we’re content, happy, and comfortable. Though we normally make sure to hold it back or make it very slow so it isn’t heard. But if we want someone to hear it it means we trust and love them a great deal.” She was still purring.

“Weirdly cute… I’m tired, you wanna go back to sleep?” I asked.

She giggled and nodded, “You just want to press yourself against me again.” She looked up at me with a sly smile.

“Who are you and what have you done with shy timid Fluttershy?” I was being playful, sue me, you freeze a toilet with your vomit then you can judge me.

“Hehe, I’m still here, but this has been stressful so I might be a little bit loopy, sorry.” She pulled me into laying down.

“It’s fine I like this side of you almost as much as I like the shy side.” I pulled her close but this time we were lying chest to chest and in no time was out like a light.

And back in my little void, but this time it was in a room very similar to that of my house back on earth. All the couches were in the same spot, the TV and game consoles were there, doubt they worked though, and even the picture of my family when I was younger. I loved that picture. But one thing that wasn’t supposed to be there was, “Ixis.”

She looked up at me, “Chris.”

“So, I have your powers and whatever other dragons’ powers.”

“Well it’s more like you have powers as long as I let you use them.”

“And that means what exactly?” I asked, sitting down on a recliner.

“That means, that I can either give you all of the powers, skill, and knowledge that I have and my ancestors have right out, that wouldn’t be advisable though.”

“And why is that?”

“You mean other than the fact that it would tear your mind and body apart causing you to explode and probably freeze half the planet?” My eyes widened. “Yeah, I thought so, so unless you want to die in a horribly painful way, I suggest you let me feed you things slowly.”

“Good… good idea. So, I have a question, were you always here in my head or soul or whatever?”

She nodded, “When I first sent you here our essences immediately fused into one being. I tried to get into contact with you on your first night here but that lead to that headache you felt. After that, I decided to let your body absorb more magic from this world and get used to the draconic magic forming inside you, Which is why the ponies kept mentioning your eyes, they turned to an icy blue color and your pupil became slitted like a dragon’s, Actually they’re still like that and I predict that without some outside magic influence or you willing your eyes to go back to normal, they will stay like that. Then, when I finally was able to contact you, you threw up and passed out, you know the rest from there.”

“So, what I’m getting from that is that you and I are forever one in the same? And that my eyes, unless I can will them to go back to normal are draconic?” she nodded, “Ok, so another question, what can I expect from my body adapting to the magic and what happens after I’m done adapting?”

“Well while your body is adapting you are going to be constantly giving off a lot of cold magic, meaning that most liquids and foods you touch with either cool greatly or freeze solid. Your bodily excrements will also be ice cold and might freeze anything they touch, yes even that. And before you ask how I knew what you were going to ask, we share the same mind as well. Now, your body might also take on some properties of a dragon, other than your eyes, right now it already has, it won’t be noticeable unless you open your mouth so pretty noticeable.”

“Open my mouth, what do you mean by th-OW!!” I bit my tongue but it was a sharp bite, not like flat molar crushing. “My teeth?” I poked each one to find that yep, they were all razor sharp and pointed.

“Yes your body will do that, mainly while you sleep. Though, there shouldn’t be that many changes during the adaptation period.”

I nodded, having let everything sink in, “Ok so basically while my body is adapting I’m essentially a walking blizzard and I’m going to take on a few aspects of dragons?”

“Put simply, yes.”

“Ok, what about after that?”

“After, when you’re body is done adapting to the magic? Well, you will be able to start to control your magic, I will help you learn control but it would also be good to get Twilight to help. Now, there is a name for this period its called the second adapting, which really only applies to those that, like you, have the power of dragons without being a dragon. Your body will try and constantly change into a full dragon, this lasts for about 2 weeks, so you might need to go out into the woods, just incase you accidentally transform into a full dragon. Your mind won’t be ready and you will rampage. I can prevent some of it so only certain body parts transform at a time. Unlike the first time of adapting during this time you can control it but it takes a lot of willpower. Like I said I can help and I can teach you to control it, but it’s much easier to do after the 2 weeks are up.”

I rubbed the bridge of my nose, “Ugh, so basically I’m going to be in a house for a month?”

“Unless you want to freeze everything or start transforming in public then yes”

“Great, anything good come out of this?”

“Well once you gain full control you will have the strength of a dragon, the durability of a dragon, the magical resistance of a dragon. You’ll be highly resistant to cold but heat will weaken you greatly. You’ll be able to use draconic ice magic, breathe icy flames, and much more. Also, I’ll be in your mind if you need advice or just someone to talk to or if I need someone to talk to I can bother you.”

“Hmmm well, ok, so that’s pretty cool, will I have wings?” she nodded, “Cool then I guess the rest I’ll wait until it happens to figure out.”

“You like surprises don’t you?”

I smiled, which probably looked scary as hell considering all my teeth were now like shark’s teeth, “Only when it doesn’t cause heart failure.”

“Speaking of, some of your ailments will be cured when everything is done.”

“Oh cool. Well I think it’s time for me to wake up, I haven’t eaten today and I should.”

“That was a dirty thought.” She said with a smirk.

“What? Oh right same mind thing… oh well, get used to it. See ya when I see ya.” I closed my eyes and willed myself to wake up.

When I opened my eyes, it was still light outside so I’m guessing I wasn’t asleep for that long. I looked down at Flutters, she was still asleep, cute. I started rubbing her wings absentmindedly.

‘Hey, Ixis, you there?’ I thought.

+I am, miss me so soon?+ somehow even in my mind she could still sound snarky. +I do not sound snarky.+

‘So I can’t even have personal thoughts, great. Ok, so did my stomach’s tolerance change when my teeth did?’

+Yes, I believe it did, that means you can only eat meat and gemstones.+

‘Wait, I can eat gemstones too? Like Spike?’

+Yes, you can, personally I enjoy sapphires.+

‘I bet you do.’ I heard a soft moan come from Fluttershy but didn’t think anything of it and kept running my hand across her wings. I sat in silence for a bit still rubbing her wings when they exploded outwards. ‘What?’

+Wings on Pegasi are extremely sensitive and a sort of erogenous zone.+ She said giggling.

‘So I’ve been essentially…’

+Rubbing her off without knowing it.+

Despite that bit of information I was still rubbing her wings and playing with the feathers I could now reach since her wings were extended. +You aren’t going to stop are you?+

‘Uh probably not, no’

She just sighed, +Don’t say I didn’t warn you, Fluttershy seems like the kind of pony who would be a bit traumatized by this but I can’t exactly stop you.+

‘Eh, she’ll be fine, hopefully.’ I looked down at her again and her face was distinct shade of pink and she was breathing a bit harder and faster than she normally does, but like with everything else she does it was still some how really quiet and soft.

I decided to stop, and a shook her gently, “Flutters, wake up.”

She mumbled and opened her eyes slowly, “Oh, how long were we asleep?”

I looked at the clock in my room, “About an hour. We have to go feed the animals, also you might wanna fix your wings.”

“My… oh! Oh my…” from pink to red she went.

I sat up and stretched, still feeling a bit sick. “Yeah sorry bout that, I woke up about 10 minutes ago just wanted to sit and enjoy myself for a minute. So I sat and thought while rubbing your wings didn’t know that would happen.”

“Oh… well, if you didn’t know, it’s ok. They should go back to normal soon.” She looked down at herself and realized she was still in her bra and underwear. “I… should probably go and change.”

“I should to, but if you don’t feel like going back to your room, you can use one of my t-shirts and a pair of my shorts.”

“You don’t mind?”

I shook my head and got up and pulled out a simple white t-shirt and black shorts and put them on. “I’ll step out while you change.” She said ok and I went and waited in the hall. When she came out she was wearing a large black shirt and some blue shorts.

“I had to cut some holes in the shirt for my wings, I hope that’s ok.”

“It’s fine, come on the animals are probably hungry.”

“Hey Chris?” She asked, walking a bit behind me.

“Yeah?”

“Are we together now or?”

“I…. we can discuss that later, alright?” I didn’t realize until after I said that that my tone was a bit harsh.

“Oh, ok… sorry.” She sounded dejected.

I took a deep breath, “Flutters, I’m sorry I didn’t mean for it to come out like that, it’s just. I’ve had a rough past with things like relationships, I’ll tell you more about it later.”

“A-alright, can I ask why your teeth are all sharp instead of just your canines?”

“You noticed that huh? You know how Twilight said that my body might change while it’s adapting? Yes, well, that’s what the teeth are and apparently it gets worse after the week is up. Basically, for the next month my body is going to try and transform into a full dragon and get used to the new magic generating inside me.” I pulled the big bag of food out from the closet, yes we walked down stairs while talking.

“Y-you’re going to t-turn into a d-dragon?” she was scared.

“I know you’re scared of dragons, Flutters, but don’t worry Ixis is going to help me to stop that from happening. At least while I can’t fully control it.” I lifted up the bag, not having as much of a problem as I did when I first tried. +Draconic strength.+

‘Thanks, couldn’t figure that out myself.’

“Hey Shy? I never really thought about this till now but you have almost every kind of flying insect that’s native to this area right?”

She stopped to think for a quick second before responding, “Yes, I think I do, I’m actually not sure. Uhm, if you don’t mind me asking, but why are you asking?”

And now I was nervous really really nervous, “N-no reason hehe... Uh one other question where are they at here?”

“You know where the chicken coop is at?” “Yeah…” “That big tree a few meters away is where they’re at.” She said without looking at my, she was filling up numerous bowls with pellets, fresh vegetables, and fresh fruits.

I let out a shaky laugh, “Oh, ok thanks for letting me know.” Now I can completely avoid that area at all times.

I noticed that I was now shaking physically, not hard enough to notice straight out but if you looked closely you would be able to tell that I was either really freaked out or really cold. Since I don’t get cold anymore apparently, you figure out the rest. Speaking off, the whole constantly emitting cold thing was annoying. I wanted to help Fluttershy prepare the food for the animals because I enjoyed feeding them, but every time I touched any of the veggies or fruits or even the meats they froze pretty much instantly. We decided that it was a good idea for me to not touch anything that couldn’t withstand the cold until the week was up. Actually…

“Hey Flutters, one more thing, I’m constantly emitting cold, how were you not affected?”

“I’m a Pegasus, we’re naturally resistant to cold since we live and fly so high up. You’re still colder than the heights I used to live at but I can handle it.” She flexed a little before giggling.

“Well that was cu-ACHOO!” *Poof!* I just sneezed snow, it covered anything 4 feet in front of me which was effectively the floor but still, snow from my mouth and nose. “You know what, I’m going to let you do your thing and I’m going to go sit down somewhere that you won’t mind having frozen.” I walked out of the kitchen and into the living room and decided to just sit on the floor and against a wall.

I was sitting there for about an hour or so waiting for dinner and staring at the small amount of steam I was constantly giving off due to everything else around me being warmer than I was, ‘Hey Ixis?’

When she came in, like a slow fade in, she was humming something familiar but I couldn’t exactly place it, +Yes?+

‘First of, is this steaming thing always going to happen in warmer areas?’

I felt her nod, somehow, I tend not to question these things, it helps me keep whatever sanity I have left. “Well, ok… good way to give me away if I’m trying to be sneaky. Anyway, second thing and you should know what I’m going to ask since you’re in my head.”

Snickering…. Oy women. +Well of course I do but I want to hear you ask.+

I sighed, which is something I seem to be doing quite a bit of lately, “Again, women… Ok fine, since I’m not going to be doing anything while I can still freeze everything involuntarily, I want to get a head start on how to control these powers, so a little help, please?”

+Hmmmm, alright, I guess I can. So what do you want to know first?+

I scratched my head, “Well I guess, how to actually activate them willingly would be nice.”

+Good choice. Ok so, I’ll start off this lecture with fire and how most fire dragons use their magic and how it’s generally wrong.+ Because that’s not rude at all. +It may be rude but it’s the truth.+ Yeah, yeah. +Do you want to learn or not, because I can just leave you to having random spurts and freezing everything…+

I grumbled, “Oy fine, I’m sorry, I’ll stop thinking and let you talk.”

+Good boy, now Draconic magic is activated using emotions, each type of Draconic magic is fueled by different emotions, most of them share similar emotions, while some have very exclusive emotions to fuel them, mainly the four main draconic magic types, now only 2, sadly.+

“So each draconic type of magic is fueled by separate emotions, some that share the same emotions other have their own set to fuel them?”

+Very good, you’re learning, and you said you hated learning.+ Was that smugness I heard?

“Rummaging through my mind? You didn’t even ask and for the record I hate school not learning.” I ended that on a mock pout.

+Uh hu, so like I was saying Fire Dragon magic is fueled by anger, rage, and hate, those kinds of emotions. That’s what a lot of the dragons think because that is what fueled a lot of them after the war was over. But the older dragon’s that were alive before and during the war know differently. The true emotion to a Fire Dragon’s magic, is love, passion, and compassion. It is a magic that is at its greatest strength when it is lashing out at its enemies to protect those they care about. Hate is good for fire but it is uncontrollable. Love and passion are the best because it is stronger and more concentrated but a lot of the dragons don’t know this since they mostly horde. Sure they may protect their hordes but it’s more out of greed and hatred for plunderers and thieves.+

“For fire, love compassion good, hatred rage bad, got it.” So glad I’m not fire then because that would be bad when I had one of my moments.

+Maybe so, but you also have a lot of love and compassion in here too, I think you’d make a fine fire dragon.+ I scoffed but she said nothing to that.

“So what about ice?”

+Ice… is a bit more complicated, but at the same time it isn’t. Ice is well ice, cold and raw emotions work well for us, it may sound bad but it isn’t and it will make more sense as I explain. For good/bad emotions to use versus good emotions to use, some bad emotions would be depression, sorrow, sadness, loneliness, jealousy, etc. those emotions.+

I growled, “Greeeeaaaaat, the emotions I feel most often, so what are the good ones?”

She sighed, “Funnily enough they’re happiness, peace (Like inner peace, peace of mind), and calmness. But I’d say the strongest thing for ice is to feel protective. Defensively protective.+ What? +You see, ice is a special kind of Draconic magic, it can technically reach into every emotion to fuel it, it can use love, rage, passion, and compassion to attack in it’s base form, which is what you’ll be using for a while, I predict. It looks like either a thick cloud of snow or blue fire, depending on what you want it look like, but the effect will be the same, just less powerful than what a Fire Dragon could do with those emotions. And the same thing will happen if you use the bad emotions for us it’ll come out as extreme cold and snow, which can be useful for some situations. Now if you use the right emotions for us with the willingness to protect and defend what you cherish, that is when the most powerful form of an Ice Dragon’s magic, solid ice. It will be colder than anything that this world could naturally create, you will be able to even freeze fire and lava. That’s the thing about ice, it covers and protects everything it can touch, but even still that can be dangerous, if you don’t control it, you could easily kill everything you cover and thus you end up being corrupted. This is why you and Spike got along so well, he wishes to protect his loved ones and friends through the pure physical strength of fire and he could sense that you would be the defense and you could sense that if you got to be too much, he’d pull you back before anything bad could happen, you two will become good friends in the future.+

“That’s… a lot to take in.” Hell, overwhelmed isn’t even the right word to describe how I feel right now.

+I figured it would be, take the rest of the week to think about it and figure out how you can harness your powers, each dragon does it differently. Now if you’ll excuse me I was watching this really good…. Anime, as you would call it, those dragon slayers are really interesting.+ And like that she was gone again.

“Wait… Dragon Slayers… no she isn’t…. oh god damn it…” I heard a cough come from the far side of the room, I looked up to see a very concerned looking Fluttershy. “Hey Flutters, what’s up?”

“Are you ok? You were talking to yourself and making these weird faces the entire time…” Ok yeah she was worried.

I stood up and brushed off my shorts even though they weren’t dirty, it’s a reflex, “Wait, I was talking out loud?” she nodded, “Oh I thought I was thinking, guess not, sorry to worry you, I was talking to Ixis.”

“Oh, she is in your head talking to you right now?”

“Not right now no, we were talking about how I’m going to control my powers after this week.” I proceeded to tell her more over dinner, which wasn’t much, just so more fish for me and a veggie burger for her, which ok, that was pretty interesting because I thought it was a normal burger at first.

“Basically, I need to find out what makes me happy and calm and what I want to protect and defend. I have no idea what I those would be though.” I sighed.

“Oh…”

I looked up at her, she was sitting there a bit slouched over with her eyes closed, “You ok?” I asked.

She gave me a smile, which I could tell was fake but I decided not to say anything. “Y-yeah I’m fine.”

“Alright, I’ll…. Well I would take care of the dishes if I didn’t freeze the water.” This was going to be a looooong week, ‘I blame you.’ She just blew a raspberry at me, I swear she acts more childish than I do. Another raspberry.

“It’s ok, just put them in the sink please. I’ll take care of them in the morning.” I nodded and did what I was told, “Chris?” I just hm’d back, “C-could I sleep with you again tonight? I-I mean if you don’t want me to that’s fine… it’s just…”

“Just?”

“I… it’s just that… y-you remind me of home.” She said more quietly than usual.

“I remind you of home?”

She nods, “I may not like flying too much but I do miss my home, I did like the cold dry air that was that high up, you give off the same dry cold.”

I just looked at her silently, it was heartwarming that I reminded her of home, I know what it’s like to be home sick, it sucks a lot, you miss all your old friends and your family and all the things you had. It’s always nice to have a reminder.

+I’m sorry.+ I heard somewhere in the back of my head but I decided to ignore it, focusing on the butter yellow mare in front of me instead

She must of that I was judging her because she looked distraught and started saying, “Oh, I knew it was silly of me, I’m sorry, I’ll just sleep in my room tonight. I won’t bother-“ I cut in with a fine, “-You while you sleep, I promi… wait you said it’s fine?”

I laughed at how it took her a few seconds to register anything. For some reason I’ve always enjoyed watching people take a few seconds to realizing things and when they do the look on their faces are priceless, this was no exception. “Yes I said it’s fine.”

She jumped up from her chair and flew across the table, literally flew she is a pegasus duh, and hugged me while wrapping her wings around me for a sort of double hug. Not going to lie, it was really nice. I just smiled and hugged her back. This… this is nice, but…

We made our way upstairs to my room. “I’ll stay outside while you shower and change and stuff.” I said sheepishly. +DIRTY THOUGHTS!+ ‘Would you hush?’

She looked around quickly, “itsokidontmindyouinthere.”

I blinked, “What?”

She gulped, I could hear it, adorable in its own right, “I-I said that, it’s ok I don’t mind if you’re in there… I mean… a-after this morning I-uh-I feel a lot more comfortable around you.” She gave a nervous smile and a weird *squee* sound came out. ‘What was that?’ +No idea…+

“Are you sure?” she just nodded quickly. “Alright.”

I sat at my desk and stared at the blank sheets of paper before looking at Fluttershy only to see that her back was too me and she was taking off her bra. I felt my body heat up, quite an accomplishment all things considered. I turned around and decided to write a letter to Celestia not before on more humiliating thing happened.

“Chris are… are you steaming?” She let out a soft giggle.

Fuck, “Nope, you’re seeing things, go take a shower, I’ll be right here writing a letter to Celestia.”

She just giggled some more and I heard the bathroom door across the hall close, I let out a sigh and began to write. Halfway through the letter I realized something, ‘Why the hell isn’t the pen or paper freezing?’ +I’m not entirely sure… wait, is that the paper and pen Twilight gave you?+ I nodded and then it clicked, ‘Clever girl.’ +Mhm, she put an enchantment on them knowing you would start manifesting your powers eventually.+ I just shook my head and continued writing. When I was close to being done I heard the bathroom door open and Fluttershy came walking into the room wrapped in a towel and only a towel from the looks of it. Her hair was wet and sticking to her face, neck, shoulder, upper back, and parts of her chest.

‘Beep beep, this is the captain of the blood train speaking *kchhhht* And…uh *kchhhht* our next stop is south of the belt, I hope you enjoy your ride, Captain out. *kchhhht*’ Ok I laughed at myself.
Ixis scoffed, +And you called ME childish.+

“I’m done.” She said in a sing-song voice, “The shower is all yours Chris.”

“Thanks…” I stand up and walked to the bathroom. “Hey, Ixis, how is this gonna work?”

+Hot water, really really hot water.+ She answered nonchalantly.

“Fair enough.” I turned on the water to maximum heat and got it, needless to say it didn’t feel like maximum heat, in fact it felt like a normal semi warm-hot shower that I normally take.

I got out of the shower and decided that it would be best if I dried off very quickly. That’s when the towel froze and shattered when I dropped it ‘Fuck I froze it solid, damn you water.’ “Hey Shy, do we have anymore towels?” I called out.

“No, they’re all in the washer.” She called back.

“Double fuck.”

+Well you have two options, stay in the bathroom all night, or go in there stark naked with probably one of the most attractive mares this side of Equestria sitting on your bed.+ she just laughed maniacally knowing exactly what she did.

I growled a growl that would scare a bear, ‘You are evil and I hate you.’

+You love me.+

‘Hate, hate you so much.’ I just sighed, “Fine, the sooner I go in there the sooner I get this over with.” +That’s the spirit Pinocchio.+ The facepalm I just had probably destroyed a planet somewhere.

I stopped outside my door and knocked, “Hey Flutters, just a heads up, you might be shocked or something I don’t know, just don’t pass out ok?” I twisted the knob.

She looked confused, “Why would I pass out? EEP! I… uh… *dom*”

“Great she passed out…”

Let’s just say things happened but not those things she did have any clean clothes. It was discovered I have a thing for thighs and breasts, sue me. We decided to sleep together again tonight the whole nakedness thing. Also she looks great.

“So I don’t look bad?”

“Look bad? No…. not at all, the furthest from it possible. And so I don’t sound like a horny pig. It isn’t just your body I like. How to put this without rambling… You were kind enough to take me in even though I’m an alien and also one of the things you’re most afraid off. You’ve put up with my weirdness and shenanigans with Hedgy and your animals as well as with the girls coming to visit. You’re funny in your own way, you love your animals and you’re gentle with them. A lot of people I knew weren’t like that with anything. You’re also like that with ponies, who you don’t do so well with. Also laughing at my terrible jokes help and I could say more but at some point I’d just repeat myself.” Words, how do you work and why can’t I ever explain things this well all the time… well I hope that was explained well.

She was purring again, still weird but again cute. “You really are kind too you know.”

“Yeah yeah, I’m the patron saint of kindness, now let’s go to sleep before I do something I regret.”

“Can-can we sleep like we slept when I had a nightmare? But this time can I hold you?”

“Yes, we can, and yes you can.” I climbed into bed and laid on my side and then I felt Fluttershy lay down behind me. She nuzzled my neck, I felt her chest press against my back and then finally I felt her wing wrap around me. I could feel the warmth and it was nice. It was nice to be held again, it was nice to feel safe again; it was nice to feel loved again.

And nothing else happened I swear. Seriously nothing else happened.

6: I am running out of names already

It’s nighttime on the supposed last day of my body adjusting and let me tell you this week and especially today has been friggin insane. If you realized I said supposed. Right well, I guess I should explain what happened today, see it all started this morning when I killed everything…

~This morning~

I woke up to absolute stillness, which is weird because I normally wake up to the hustle and bustle of animals and usually Fluttershy wakes me up. I sat up in my bed and looked around absolutely stunned, everything in my room and I mean everything was completely frozen solid. “Ok… I knew my body was going to be getting used to ice powers and was constantly emitting cold but seriously? I got cold enough to freeze everything in my room?” I expected Ixis to respond to that but she didn’t that didn’t really bother me too much though, she doesn’t always say something, thank jeebus. I got up and stretched, popping my joints, getting rid of the stiffness that settled in over night, “Oh man that felt good, ok bathroom next… ok slight problem. The door is frozen shut.” I give the door a solid knock only to confirm that, yes it was frozen shut.

“Ok, so how do I get out, I have ice powers so I obviously can’t melt it, hell I’d probably just end up freezing it more if I tried to do anything. Uhm, wait, I have semi super strength now, duh, just force it open.” I lifted up a leg, pulled it back, tensed my muscles, and kicked out. “And there goes the door… well fuck. I’ll have to apologize for that and get a new one once I go to work at some point next week I guess.”

I was surprised by my room being frozen over yes, what I wasn’t expecting was the entire hallway being frozen over. I looked towards the stairs and saw the ice going down them and then I got worried, “Shit… please don’t tell me…” I ran down the stairs carefully so I didn’t slip only to find my fears confirmed, Fluttershy’s hallway was frozen over as well. I ran to her room and kicked open the door and there she was, frozen solid, still in her sleeping pose which answered when this happened. Weirdly I wasn’t freaking out that I killed someone I cared for. I wanted to freak out but I couldn’t, I don’t know why I couldn’t but I couldn’t, hell I wasn’t even scared I was just worried. “Ok… how do I fix this? Should I go to Celestia? No… no she’d kill me, what about Luna? No, I don’t think she’d know what to do. Twilight seems to be my best choice right now.”

I made my way through the house while noticing that pretty much everything was frozen, I was also worried about hedgy I haven’t seen him in a few days but I know he doesn’t leave the property so hopefully he was outside where it was safe. I got to the front door and decided to not kick that down so instead I just made my way back to my room and broke through my ice covered window. So… two things I noticed, one is that it was a very beautiful day out, second was that Fluttershy’s entire estate was frozen, grounds and all. Ok so the good news is that not many ponies come out this close to the Everfree so I could go and get Twilight without anyone noticing this. I should probably hurry.

I ran into town to Twilight’s and knocked on the door feverishly, “Come on someone answer the damn door.” If there is one thing I’ve learned in my life is that when you curse at something it gets done faster and like magic Spike answered the door. “Spike, no time to talk, go get Twilight now, I don’t care what she’s doing tell her it’s a magical emergency or something.” He just nodded and took off to somewhere in the back of the library.

A few minutes later Twilight came out scratching her head, she had bags under her eyes and was wearing a lab coat, not really surprising. “Chris, what’s going on? Spike told me you had a magical emergency or something. Care to tell me what that is?”

I just grabbed her arm and pulled her outside, “No time to explain, Fluttershy might be dead, I’m not too sure, but I’m now just starting to freak out and I’m not liking it.” She stopped dead, stopping me with her.

“W-what?” her eyes were wide with disbelief.

“You heard me, Fluttershy might be dead and I need your help, now! So let’s go, we’re wasting time.” I probably had the most serious look I’ve ever had on my face because she just nodded, which is something she never does at least with me. But I didn’t have time to worry about it, we ran and when I say ran I mean fucking booked it. When we got to the Cottage not much had changed but I did realize that it looked like a giant ice ball.

“What happened here… It looks like an ice bomb went off.” Twilight said looking around at everything.

“Yeah, from what I gathered is that this happened last night obviously originating from me, what I’m not sure of if it was instantaneous or slow. I’m really hoping it’s the first one.”

“Me too, instantaneous would mean everything is still alive if barely. Only way we will know though is if I can scan something frozen in the ice that has a pulse.”

We looked at each other and nodded, “Only problem is, how do we get back inside?” I asked, “My room is way too high up and I don’t think either of us can climb up this.” Cuz climbing down sucked, I didn’t actually climb down, I tried and immediately fell, which hurt but hey whatever.

Twilight thought for a second, “Teleporting, I can teleport us in.”

“Well do it then.” She did, and I really wish she didn’t. Teleporting sucks massive balls.

“Teleportation sickness, always happens to first timers.”

I just bent over and threw up ice… there was a nice little tower of ice now… cool. “Ok now that I know I never want to do that again, let’s go.”

We made our way to Fluttershy’s room and Twilight began to do her thing, “Ok, discounting you and me…” She paused for a second and there was a flash of bright green light, “Ok she’s fine, still alive but like I said before it’s barely.”

I gave a sigh of relief, “Thank god… ok, and do you know how we could get rid of all of this?”

“I could try a heat spell. But it might be a bit unbearable for you all things considered.”

I just gave her a flat stare, “Do you really think I care if I’m uncomfortable for a bit?” She just laughed nervously before starting up the spell. I felt it get warm, then hot, then really hot, then oh god why was it so hot, someone please turn of the heat. Ok, so Ixis wasn’t kidding when she said I’d be way more vulnerable to heat. Then I felt the heat die down but nothing was melted, “Uh Twi… nothing happened.”

She just gave me a look, “It seems the ice you gave off is unmeltable at least by what I can do. I’m sure Celestia can melt it though.”

I waved my arms wildly, “No, no Celestia, at all.” “Why?” “Because she’ll kill me and I don’t want to die, at least not like that. I’m sure we can figure out something, please? Can we just try?”

“Ugh… fine. But if nothing we try works we’re getting Celestia.” She said and then pointed a finger at me, “And you have to explain what’s going on.”

I nodded, “Fair enough, come on let’s get started.”

And so for a large portion of the day we tested and tried many things, ranging from me trying to break the ice, from using potions, and from Twilight trying a range of spells. Finally it was decided we get Celestia. Needless to say I was scared out of my mind and I’m normally not scared of anyone save for two or three people/ponies, she is one of them.

When she came I was shaking like a leaf, when you have the most powerful thing on a planet staring at you with a half concerned, half worried, half annoyed, half angry, half happy look then you have my permission to judge how I act around people.

She crossed her arms, “Hello Twilight, Chris, it’s good to see you two again and I wish we could’ve seen one another on better circumstances but seeing as this isn’t a better circumstance one of you should explain.”

“Oh this is all Chris, Princess. Chris, explain please.” Initiate smug look from Twilight.

The bitch, ah whatever she’s still a good friend and nice little rivalry is always fun. Anyway, still scared, “I well… you see, I’m not entirely sure what happened either, Ixis isn’t really talking to me for some reason but all I know is that some point during the night I froze everything instantly. We’ve tried everything to melt it but nothing works and Twilight thinks that since you control the sun you can generate enough fire magic to melt all this and I am inclined to agree.”

“Why didn’t you get me first and foremost?” She asked with a sigh.

Twilight gave me a look that said ‘I told you so.’

“Well, Twilight wanted to and I admit that that would’ve been the smartest move but I was scared that you were gonna kill me. Still am actually.”

She gave me a confused look, “Why would I do that?”

I wasn’t entirely looking her in the eye until now and when I did I saw more than just what her posture was giving off. I saw understanding, caring, and kindness in her eyes while her posture was the opposite and that’s when I realized something, I just shrugged. “I don’t know maybe because I froze one of your little ponies and one of the key components to the greatest defensive weapon this country possibly has. That’s kind of treason territory.”

“If any of that were on purpose, yes I suppose it would be, but it wasn’t. Also, you wouldn’t have tried as hard as you both did if you thought there wasn’t a chance she could be saved.” She gave me her that motherly smile she always has. It’s really weird seeing this side of Celestia, I completely understand this is how she normally is around her subjects and I understand why, but I guess since I know her as acting normal and kinda really flirty and perverted, prankster and jokester but still having this caring side it just weird to see this formal, regal, motherly Celestia. But that’s also how she is to a lot of her ponies, a caring mother who if you pissed off could vaporize you without thinking about it but a mother regardless.

“Heh… yeah, so do you think you can melt all of this?” I gestured at the tree.

“Let’s see, possibly.” Her horn started glowing a yellow color and I knew instantly the spell started.

Twilight did throw a barrier up around us but I could still feel the heat, it felt like I was bathing in lava without really melting. I could feeling my insides twisting in pain and I was on the floor writhing. Then it started to stop and eventually I was able to breathe without feeling like I was going to explode into flames.

Twilight looked down at me, she was watching Celestia in awe too much so to notice me before. “Chris are you ok?”

I coughed and I swear I tasted blood, I put a finger in my mouth and pulled out, not a sight of blood on it, “Y-yeah… I think… so…” I stood up slowly and saw Celestia walking over to us. “D-did it work?”

She shook her head, “I’m afraid not whatever that Ice is, it doesn’t seem to be able to be melted by heat of any kind. I would’ve made it hotter if not for two reasons.”

“What are those, Princess?” Twilight asked.

“I would’ve destroyed the planet and our young friend here was already in massive pain and it hurt me so to do even that much. I am sorry Chris.” She gave me a quick hug which I returned, patting her back.

“S’cool, just felt like I was ya know being torn apart atom by atom by fire. Other than that, I’m good.” I was joking of course, not about the whole feeling like being torn apart but I just had a joking tone, though Celestia was obviously still very serious.

“I don’t understand, I put up a heat shield around us. I felt the heat too but it was lessened greatly.” Twilight said.

“Maybe so, but Chris being essentially and Ice Dragon he is much more sensitive to heat even through a shield he could feel approximately the exact temperature I was putting out multiplied by a lot. But since there was still a shield he didn’t die, which I’m happy about.”

I gave a nervous laugh, “Same, just remind me to never make you angry.”

“Never get me angry and you have nothing to worry about. But we’re still faced with a problem.”

“Right the tree, so anyone else got any other ideas?” They both shook their heads. “Thought not… great.”

+Well, I have an idea.+

“IXIS?! WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!”

They both looked at me with expressions I really didn’t feel like explaining. Celestia was the first to speak up, “Ixis, is there? In your head? Is she giving you any advice?”

Then Twilight, “Where has she been we could’ve used some help.”

“Well she has an idea and I have no idea Twilight. Ixis, what’s your idea?” It was quiet except for in my mind for a bit, “You sure that will work? Alright if you say so. I honestly don’t know if this will work but if it does I have no idea what will happen, so Barrier around you two please?” I didn’t wait for an answer I just walked up to the ice covering the tree and placed my hands on it and closed my eyes, ‘I really hopes this works.’ +It should…+ And that’s when it started happening, I started to absorb the ice into my body. It felt… interesting. The easiest way to put this is, imagine bathing in a tub full of ice water but instead of being uncomfortable be cold I was actually starting to feel good, very good. When all the ice was gone and absorbed into me I stepped away. “Shit I can’t believe that worked.” +I told you so.+ “That you did, that you diAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.” I felt a very sharp, very pain jolt being sent constantly throughout my body. I looked at my arm and saw it icing over and it started to spread over the rest of me. eventually it reached my head and I blacked out.

~Outside of what was going on with Chris~

Twilight and Celestia were watching this as it happened. After Chris’ body froze over completely a light started to shine from inside the shell of ice then it exploded sending ice flying in all directions with Chris laying on the ground out cold.

Twilight looked up at Celestia, “Princess… What… What just happened?”

She shook her head, “I do not truly know Twilight, what I do know though is that we need to bring him inside and Check up on Ms. Fluttershy. Twilight you go get Chris and put him on a couch yes? I’ll go check on Fluttershy.” Twilight nodded and went to go get the resident human.

When she got to him she looked down at him and was more curious and confused with some shock thrown in there, “Are those…? I’ll worry about it later, I need to do what the princess told me to do.” She levitated Chris in her magic and brought him inside setting him on the loveseat. Celestia was coming down stairs with Fluttershy leaning on her. “Princess, I think there’s something you should see, it seems that Chris has… wait Fluttershy? You just got unfrozen, shouldn’t you be laying down too?”

“She wanted to see him, I told her what happen and that’s what she requested.” Celestia explained.

Fluttershy, had a small layer of water on her much like a lot of things in the house. “Is… is he… ok?” She asked breathing hard, she was obviously struggling.

“I’m not sure honestly, I went to go get him when I saw that he had those.” Twilight said pointing to them.

“Are… are those one of his… changes you said he’d be… going through?” Fluttershy asked now sitting next to Chris’ sleeping body on the couch.

“Again, I’m not really sure. It might be it might not be. I guess we’ll find out when he wakes up.”

“O-ok… I’m going to sleep now too… will you wake me up… when he’s up?” Twilight nodded, “Thank you… feel free… to help… yourself to some food…” she finished as she was falling back asleep.

Celestia looked at Twilight, “You all have become good friends in such a short time.”

Twilight nodded, “Yes, well despite his sometimes childishness and our opposing views on some things, he’s actually very smart and kind. Also very headstrong and he rarely ever lies and seems to put others before him. I’d say he represents all the elements of harmony, not perfectly but still. Though…”

Celestia raised an eyebrow, “Though?”

“Though I can tell there is something dark and troubling he’s keeping from us. Actually we can all tell, the girls I mean, I’m not sure about anypony else.” Twilight said looking at him.

“I felt that too when we first met, he knows it’s there but he ignores it and doesn’t seem to readily want to talk about it, so I suggest not pressing him on the matter unless it gets to the point where that’s needed.”

“But… I want to help him. He really is a nice guy but whatever that darkness is it’s eating at him.”

“I know Twilight, I know. But something I learned from talking to him through letters is that he is very stubborn when he wants to be. So for now I say let him be and how about we make ourselves useful and clean up. She also takes care of animals yes? Then we should take care of them to.” Celestia turned to leave Chris and Fluttershy to sleep.

Twilight got up to follow and gave one last look back, frowning before leaving the room as well.

~Back with Chris~

“So I’m back in my mind again, Ixis, you there?” He called out into the void, which then moved to an open field of nothing but grass, blue skies, and clouds. I saw Ixis laying down watching the clouds go by. “Ixis?”

She sat up, “Hey… so I bet you have some questions huh?”

“That’s a friggin understatement. What the hell happened?”

She sighed, “Hmm… well you see… you know how I said your body would start trying to turn into a dragon after the first week? I was wrong.”

I just looked at her, “What?”

“I was wrong. Apparently because you aren’t from this world your body, no everything about you is changing how this works. For the first week it worked out just as planned, but…” She hesitated.

“But what?” I was getting impatient, hey I just fucking froze over when that’s not supposed to be possible.

“Well, it’s nothing bad it’s just… ya know, different than what I’m used to. See I’m able to rummage around your body and things since we’re one in the same and your very being isn’t happy with randomly turning into a dragon or in general not having control over anything that’s happening to it. But since magic is unpredictable, your being and the world’s and dragon’s will have come to a weird agreement. Yes they are sentient, this world works much differently than yours as you know. Anyway, at certain points your being, the draconic magic and the world’s magic will combine and explode outward in an icy force, causing what happened here. You have to absorb it that ice, which is something not even we, the Ice Dragons, could do. You can absorb anything cold, snowy, or ice like to restore magic energy and heal yourself or to just increase your power for a little bit. But the ice you absorb when that explosion of energies happens that ice is special. It gives you new powers and you also get a new part of a dragon’s body. Though I have learned that you will get like the full body all at once but accessory stuff, like the horns, wings, eyes, teeth, and tail are all gained through these icesplosions along with new abilities and powers. But after you get all of the, you can transform willingly, until then, you’re stuck with what you got. Oh and you get multiple powers and abilities with each icesplosion, though we won’t know what they are until you wake up.” She explained all that and it was awesome.

“But Icesplosion, really? That’s the best you got?” I asked with a smile.

“Hey you can’t come up with anything better.”

“Touché, but I’m guessing the icesplosions will be random?” she nodded, “That’s a fair deal. So I’m guessing it’s time to wake up?”

“Yep, I’m here if you need me, also I’m going through your memories of game and anime. If you want some advice I suggest Infamous and Fairy Tail, for your figuring out how powers works thing.”

“….I actually never would’ve thought about that thanks.” I closed my eyes and willed myself to wake up.

“Princess, he’s waking up!” I heard Twilight say.

I sat up and felt my foot brush against something soft, I looked over and saw Fluttershy asleep on the couch next to me. “Is she ok?” I asked with a yawn.

Twilight shook her head, “The first thing you do after being frozen, passing out, and waking up is asking if she’s ok… Good to see whatever happened didn’t change you. She’s fine though, just a bit drained.” She shook Fluttershy gently, “Hey, Shy, he’s awake.”

She stretched and yawned, eyes still half closed until she looked at me at which point he opened all the way. “Chris! A-are you ok?”

“I’m fine Flutters, I’m more worried about you, are you ok?” I was looking her up and down seeing if anything was hurt.

She smiled happily, “Mhm, I’m just a bit tired… i-is it ok if I give you a hug?”

“You know I can't say no to you.” She gave me a bone crushing hug when Celestia walked in.

“Well it's good to see you two up and about. I have some dinner cooking, and Fluttershy, don’t worry about your animals we took care of them.” She said.

Fluttershy gave a sigh of relief, letting go of me, “Thank goodness I was really worried about them too.” I nodded in agreement.

“Man do I have something to tell you guys but I’m starving. I can tell you about it over dinner.” I stood up and offered my hand to help Fluttershy up.

Dinner was good, she made a stew and made one especially for me, how sweet. I explained what happened and they explained what happened after I blacked out.

“So what you’re saying is that you have full control over whatever powers you have from these icesplosions until the next one and all you have to do is figure out how to activate or use them?” Twilight asked, still a bit skeptical.

“Apparently so.” I said eating another helping of stew, man she could cook.

“What about those?” Fluttershy asked pointing to my head.

“What about what now?”

“These, Chris.” Celestia reached over the table and tapped something hard on my head, which I felt resonate throughout my skull. It tickled.

“Stop that tickles…. Wait… uhm… I need a mirror.” I said quickly.

“I can handle that.” Twilight’s horn started to glow and a mirror popped into existence out of nowhere, gotta love magic.

“Thank you.” I held the mirror far enough away from me so I could see everything. I had horns two to be exact. They started a bit above my temples and going from that spot they stuck up a fair bit and curved back towards the back of my skull and near the end the curved to the points were sticking up kind of like a classic dragon I suppose. They were on of white-grey color and cold, much like everything else to do with me lately. Actually they extended about four inches behind my skull and I’d say the points were five or six inches above my head. “Well… I don’t know how I can get any use out of these, I suppose I could impale someone if I wanted to but I really don’t want to.”

“That’s good to here, so I’m guess new body parts come as well with each icesplosion?” Celestia asked.

“Oh yeah I didn’t explain that part did I? But yeah that’s right, but only like eyes, teeth, horns, wings, and tail the full body won’t come until all the other accessory body parts are here so. Since I already have horns and eyes and teeth that leaves wings and tails and body. So three more of that happening though I’m guessing the last one is going to be big… really really big. And they are all completely random.” I thought for a minute.

Fluttershy cleared her throat bringing the attention to her, “I-I know I’m not the smartest but, I was thinking… If he already has three parts does that mean he has a lot of powers he has to discover?”

I blinked… blinked again… and blinked some more and then I slammed my head on the table, “Fuck!” ‘She’s right isn’t she?’ Ixis just giggled. ‘Double fuck.’ I just groaned and kept my head on the table.

“Well it looks like you have some work to do Chris.” Twilight said. “I can help you if you want.” I gave her a thumbs up.

They were all laughing now, everyone finds my pain funny even on this world. Still love them though. I picked my head up and scratched around the base of my horns. “Well I don’t know about you but I’m tired as all get out.”

Celestia looked outside, “Hmmm, it is rather late. I should return to Canterlot. Come on Twilight, I will walk you home and then I’ll depart.” Her and Twilight got up and walk to the front door while I put the dishes in the sink. “And Chris, come visit sometime alright? Luna said she would like to talk to you again.”

“Ok, I can do that. I’ll see you later Molly.” I said with a devilish grin, which was only accented by my teeth.

Twilight looked at Celestia who just had the most ashamed look on her face, but I was looking at her eyes, where her true emotions lay and she was going to kill me later, so worth it.

“Come on Twilight.” She said quickly.

“Molly, princess?” Twilight asked.

I closed the door and laughed a hearty laugh. “Oh it’s good to be me, Flutters are you going to sleep to? Flutters?” I walked back to the living room to find she had fallen asleep sitting on the couch. I picked her up bridal style and carried her to her room through her door which was now fixed, I’m assuming Celestia and Twilight. I put her in bed and pulled the cover over her. “Good night Flutters.” I gave her a quick kiss on her forehead and went to my room to sleep but not before sitting at my desk and writing in my journal, which brings us to now.

~Current time~

I closed my journal and yawned when I felt a familiar spikiness brush against me when I looked down I saw Hedgy looking up at me, “Hey little guy, I haven’t seen you in days. I’m sorry if I froze you I didn’t mean to, I’ll make it up to you, lots of crickets and stuff.” He seemed ok with my apology and my offer so I picked him up and went to lay in bed.

‘It’s gonna be a weird life here. But I’m going to enjoy it.’ I thought, but of course no to myself.

+Yeah only because you have a bunch of hot mares all around you.+

‘That is only a plus, everything else is fine too. But good night Ixis.’

+Good night, I’m gonna be rummaging through your mind for a bit before I sleep.+

‘Alright, just don’t do anything crazy in there.’

+I’ll try not to.+

Author's Note

Yes, I'm putting a link to the Q&A blog in every author note, for those who stopped at mid points in the story, It's for reaching 25 chapters being written, even though 25 is still being written: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/831885/qs-for-the-qa-chapter

7: School sucks but candy is good

It was Monday, it was early morning on Monday, it was early morning on Monday and I was walking to Rarity’s place. Why was I walking to Rarity’s you may be asking? Because due to my little Icesplosion yesterday my cloak was in tatters, some how it got shredded into a million little pieces so I was going to see if I can get a new one made. That and I needed gloves because I started work today and while I didn’t emit instant freezing cold form my skin anymore I still did emit cold and I didn’t want to mess with the candies. So off to Rarity’s I went and I’m here now. I knocked on the door and waited a few seconds only to be greeted by Sweetie Belle.

I have the small squeaky unicorn a smile, “Hiya, Sweetie, is your sister home?” She didn’t answer, instead she just stared at me, “Sweetie, hellllooooo? Anyone home?”

She nodded slowly, “Head?”

Head… wha-oh, my horns right. I patted her head, “Long story, I’ll tell you later I promise. Wait its Monday… shouldn’t you be headed to school?”

She groaned, “Don’t remind me, Rarity is in the kitchen by the way though I would knock on the wall before walking in, she doesn’t like being seen this early. She’s really weird.” and with that she left for school. Kids, sometimes they’re ok… sometimes.

I walked in the house/boutique and as I’ve never been here before I just decided to look around a bit. I was guessing that the downstairs was the boutique and upstairs was where living arrangements were at. I said think because I heard Rarity’s voice call for her sister from down here. “Sweetie’s already gone to school Rarity, it’s me Chris.” I followed the voice and found the kitchen and rarity was dressed in a robe and had a towel wrapped around her hair and some slippers. She was holding a cup of what smelled like coffee, ugh I loathe coffee.

She gasped when she saw me, “Christopher, darling, why didn’t you let me know you were coming over? I could’ve freshened up and prepared another cup for you.”

I waved it off, “Don’t worry about it, I’m not a fan of coffee anyway. And I didn’t have much time for a heads up, sorry.”

She just smiled, “it's alright dear I heard about what happened.” “Spike?” “Spike, and if you don’t like coffee would you prefer some tea?”

I shook my head, “Don’t like tea either.”

“What? You don’t like coffee or tea? Then what do you like Christopher?” she asked, using my full name again. I’m not a fan of my full name I prefer Chris, it’s short and sweet but I’m too nice to correct her.

“Not much really just generally milk or water… or lemonade.” I’m not going to lie I probably should expand the list of what I drink.

“Well I do believe we have some milk in the fridge, help yourself while I go freshen up, I’ll be back down in a minute or two.” With that she left me alone in her kitchen.

I took up the offer before I realized I didn’t know where the glasses were at. I looked through every cupboard and shelf in the dang place until I had the fleeting idea to look behind the fridge. Ixis thought it was a stupid idea, a stupid idea that turned out to be right. Behind the fridge was a little closet that had glasses stacked up against another.

+That is the silliest place to put anything ever.+ Ixis said with a dissatisfied grunt.

I shrugged and poured myself some milk. “It’s not silly if you want to hide something, why the glasses were there I have no idea.” I took a swig from the glass, “Ah, 2% don’t you ever leave me.”

I heard a soft giggle coming from the doorway, “Darling are you talking to the milk?”

I looked at Rarity dead in the eye, “Don’t you dare question our love, it was meant to be and we shall be together forever more.” I took another long drink, draining the glass, “Isn’t that right, my love? My love?” I looked back down at the empty glass and a look of pure terror and sorrow washed over my face, “NOOOO WHAT HAVE I DONE?! I KILLED THE ONLY THING I TRULY LOVED!!!” I bellowed out a cry and dropped to my knees. I put the glass done softly with a shaky hand and started to fake cry.

Rarity clapped a mock clap, “Bravo, bravo, encore. Well it’s good to know you can be overly dramatic when you want to.”

I stood up, gave a shit eating grin and bowed, “Thank you, thank you and coming from the queen of drama herself that’s high praise.”

She scoffed, “I am not the queen of drama, I just know the precise moment when to react to something and how it should be reacted to, thank you very much,”

I just gave her a smug look, “Uh huh.”

She just blushed, “Oh hush you. Now, why did you come here so early?”

I actually forgot about that, oops, “Right, that, well since you know already, my little Icesplosion shredded my cloak and I was wondering if you could make me a new one? Also if you can, I need some enchanted gloves to protect against my cold.”

Her eyes lit up with excitement, “Oh, I can definitely do that, it shouldn’t be terribly difficult. I wanted to make you a new cloak anyways, the old one did not match you at all. And the gloves will be a synch, what do you need them for, if you don’t mind me asking?”

I scratched at the base of my horns again, that spot was seriously itchy. “Well I start work at Bon Bon’s today and I don’t want to ruin anything by touching it, just in case.”

She nodded completely understand and then she looked me up and down, “Would you like your cloak to look any way in particular? Also, ah, would you like holes for your horns?”

“I was wondering when you were gonna mention those, but not my teeth? But, yes, I would like holes for my horns. I would also like them to stop itching at the base but I don’t think you can do anything about that. Also yeah, can you make my cloak look like the shirt that looks like cracking ice?” I scratched at the base of my horns again.

“Going for an ice motif are you? Well at least you’re accepting this and I actually can help you with your itchy horns. I have a case of horn cream, it stops the itching which is cause because they’re growing. I bought them for Sweetie since her horn is growing as well. Now, I shall be back once more with your gloves and the cream.” Again she went upstairs.

‘Jesus, this is really itchy, was it like this for you when you were growing?’ I asked Ixis.

+Yes, but it’s going to last longer with you.+ She said matter of factly.

‘What? Why?’

+Because you’re a male and male dragons’ horns are longer.+

I just groaned and put my head in my hands and decided to wait for rarity to get back. She did a few minutes later, she was holding a pair of black gloves and a small tube of cream. “Now, you need to apply the cream at the base of your horns once a day in the morning and it’ll keep it from itching, if you need more you can always stop by here again or you can go to Mill’s General Store.”

I twisted the cap off the tube and squirted a dollop on my finger and put it at the base of my horns. It smelled oddly like mint chocolate but it felt amazing. I twisted the cap back on and put it the tube n my pockets. I took the gloves and put them on. “Sooo goooood, thanks Rarity I owe you one.”

She walked over to a rack of fabrics and started going through them, “Oh it’s no problem dear, anything for a friend, now if you stop by after work I should be down with your cloak by then.”

I gave her a hug from behind, “You’re the best Rarity, thanks again.”

“It’s my pleasure, now go on shoo, you’ll be late for work.” She shooed me off and began to work.

I left her shop and ran into Sweetie again, “Sweetie, shouldn’t you be in school right now?”

She looked around, “Well I still have thirty minutes before class officially starts so I was coming back to ask you something.”

I was curious, “Sure, what do you need?”

“Well, we have a show and tell this Thursday and I don’t really have anything to bring and I was wondering if…” she trailed off.

“You were wondering if you could bring me.” I asked her.

“Yeeesssss?” She looked up at me with a hopeful smile.

I shrugged, “Sure why not?”

She pouted, “See, I knew you’d say no…”

‘Wait for it.’

Then it clicked, “Wait… you said yes?” I nodded. “Yay, yay, yay, yay, yay.” She chanted while bouncing around me. “Everypony is going to be so jealous.”

I chuckled, “Alright Sweetie, calm down. How about I walk you back to school and we can talk more on the way there, sound good?”

She started walking with me following, “Yep, say do your horns ever itch?”

I snorted, “Girl, don’t get me started.”

The walk to the school was pretty nice. Sweetie is a nice filly, she cares about her friends a great deal but she also thinks that the CMC (Cutie Mark Crusaders) should do the things the like or are already decently good at to try to get there cutie marks. I asked her what she thought she was good at and she said singing, so I told her why doesn’t she try singing then? She told about this time about a talent show on how they all tried singing and failed miserably. I suggested that since it was a trio that maybe it just didn’t work. She thought about and said she’d give it a try. We made it to the school with 5 minutes to spare.

“Thanks for walking me to school Chris, you’re fun for an adult.” She had a sincere smile so I knew it wasn’t an insult.

“Thanks, I like to stay as kiddy as possible, being a kid is fun, now go to class before you’re late. I don’t want you getting into trouble.”

“Ok, see you later and don’t forget be here at 10 on Thursday.” She turned and went into the school.

I called after her, “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” ‘Ok, now which way to Bon Bon’s Confectionaries? Sweetie said it was a little bit passed the school.’

+She also said you’d have to make your way to the market before being able to see the sign.+

I sighed, “Fair enough, let’s get today over with.” I walked into town and sequentially the market, when I did I saw the sign as clear as day, it was a giant wrapped candy and a lollipop. Talk about subtle… I walked into the shop and heard a little ding and saw Lyra behind the counter looking at a magazine.

“Welcome to Bon Bon’s and Lyra’s Confectionaries where everything is a treat and ready to eat. We aren’t quite ready to open yet, so if you would wait for a few minutes, that would be very kind thank you.” She didn’t even look up when she said that.

“I’m impressed, but Bon Bon’s and Lyra’s I thought it was just Bon Bon’s. I’m here for the job Human Girl.” I said with a smirk.

She looked up from her magazine, “Oh, Chris, it’s you! Sorry about that, sometimes I just get so caught up in this thing that I- wait human girl? And dude what’s with the horns, are they fake or something?”

I walked up to the counter, “Nope real deal, wanna try and pull em off to see if I'm fibbing?”

She tapped her chin, “Sure, let’s see if you’re pulling my tail.” Seriously that’s what pulling my leg translated to over here? Ok.

I leaned forward so she could get a better grip and she pulled enough to make my head move but not enough to hurt. “See told ya they were real.”

She let go and whistled, “How’d that happen?”

I twirled my finger in a wide circle, “Long story, long long story, also the human girl thing, was cuz when we first met it seemed like you were obsessed with humans or something.”

She snorted, “What? That’d be just silly I’ve never even heard of a human before you, I’m just naturally curious about things.”

“Ditto, so where’s the boss?”

She pointed a thumb at a door behind her, “Back room in her candy factory.”

I choked and coughed, “W-what…?”

She pulled another magazine out, “Her little workshop where she makes new candies and stuff, you can’t miss it, it has a big sign that says ‘do not enter.’ You ok? Seems like you’re coughing a lot.”

I nodded and managed to wheeze out an 'I’m fine' and I made my way to the back. She was right it wasn’t hard to miss, it was a giant metal door that had a bright yellow sign that read, “Do not enter-that means you Lyra… yep they’re a true couple alright”

+You should probably knock.+ Ixis suggested and I agreed.

I rapped at the door a few times and got told to give her a minute. I waited and she opened the door wearing goggles and a stained white smock. “I knew you weren’t Lyra, she normally just barges in. Say what’s with the horns?”

“Long story and I’ll tell you and Lyra later, but the job?” I asked, eager to get started, I lied to myself, as much as I’m grateful for the job, and I hate jobs.

“Right well, you and Lyra will in come here first thing in the morning and taste whatever I made, and you have to be honest with how it tastes or else I might sell something really bad and that can be dangerous. And since that won’t take long you can help Lyra sell candy, stock the machines, and do some advertising or whatever other miscellaneous stuff. I will also be really grateful for any new candy ideas. I couldn’t have been this successful with the cakes down the street if it weren’t from ideas from Lyra. You also get 90 days paid leave if you need it, not counting emergencies. Say you break all your bones I won’t subtract that from your paid leave but you also won’t get paid. We also will cover dental, which looks like you need mister shark mouth. And there is insurance.”

I whistled impressed, “Well looks like you’ve got all the bases covered for your first official employee.”

I could tell she was proud, “Well we Lyra and I agreed that you need to be taken care of just incase.”

“Aw ain’t that sweet, so what do I start on now that I’m here?” I asked looking around the room I was in. I could see a lot of boxes and bottles and things all out of place, I could handle that later.

“Well I was up most of the weekend creating a few candies for you to taste if that’s ok.” I nodded, “Good then come into my lab and we can get started.”

We got started alright, I had to taste over 30 candies, a few my ass. Some were sour enough to make me cry some were really salty and others were… I don’t know like imagine a pickle bomb going off in your mouth, I like pickles but that was too much. I’m over exaggerating though, a majority of them were perfectly bitter, tart, and sour. After that I went to help Lyra sell candy to the few ponies that came in.

“Aw mlan tish reauwy shushs… Goth danp ihs.” I managed to get out.

+Translation, ‘Aw man this really sucks… God damn it.+

Lyra just laughed at me, “Mouth and tongue numb?”

I scowled at her, the jerk. She just laughed again telling me to get used to it. We had a lull in customers and around lunch break, I forgot to bring my own lunch so I just munched on some of the test candy, eh you get used to the extremeness of it after the 15th. Anyway I decided to inform them of how the horns came to be which lead to the gloves and stuff.

“So if you’re ever not here we just have to assume that you’re going through an Icesplosion?” Bon Bon asked.

“Nah, I’ll let you know if I’m not going to be available that when I’m just randomly not here, you’ll know.”

Bon Bon smiled appreciatively, “Thank you at least some of us know responsibility.” Lyra stuck her tongue out at her wife before turning to me.

“So you wear the gloves because you’re hands give off a constant cold?” I nodded, “Cool can we see?”

“Sure, I don’t see why not.” I pulled a glove of and a small thing of mist started to come from my hand. I poke Lyra’s forehead and in the spot my finger was at was a bit of frost on her fur.

“That is so cool!” Lyra said.

Bon Bon groaned, “Really Lyra, a cold pun? Is that the level you’ve stooped to?”

She held up her hands defensively, “Hey, I’ve always been at this level and you know it, it’s one of the reasons you married me.”

She shook her head and look at me with a defeated smile, “Sad part is, she’s completely right.”

“Yep… hey sad part? Bonnie, that was mean.” Lyra pouted.

I busted out laughing, “You two are the best couple ever, thank you for letting me work here seriously, it’s only the first day but this has been a lot of fun.”

“You’re welcome.” They said simultaneously.

“Well it’s about time for lunch to be over and that means the kids are getting out of school so it’s going to be a bit busier, You two can handle it right?” She asked, mostly me.

“I do it every day Bonnie, I’ll be fine, and I’ll help the newbie here incase he gets overwhelmed.” She punched me in my arm, dragon durability is a god send.

“Ha ha, funny, I was actually going to go and bring some order to the storage room, it looks like a mess in there.”

“I would actually like what a lot, someone was supposed to do that a while ago.” She gave a point, playful, glare at Lyra.

She humphed and stuck her tongue out, “Fine I don’t need either of your guys’ help. I can do this on my own. But if I die from exhaustion everything in my will is going Spike.”

“Oh man she’s just as dramatic as Rarity.” I said shaking my head in disbelief.

“Now you know what I live with. Well, I think it’s time for me to get back to work. I will see you two when it is time to close up shop. And Lyra, no sneaking candy!”

“What? Oh, come on just one piece?” She got a fierce no which made her ears fold back.

I nudged her side, “If you take one I’ll take one, we can fall together. We’ll be partners in crime.”

“Hmmm, Chris, I think this the beginning of a beautiful partnership.” She held out her hand and I shook it. When I heard Bon Bon’s voice call out. “And no enlisting Chris for devious plots!” Lyra pouted again muttering spoil sport.

I patted her back, “I’ll still help you plot, just call me when you need me.” I walked to the back room and proceeded to stack boxes and stuff, my horns got stuck on the shelves several time so it took a bit longer than I though but I managed to finish before it was time to close up and I had a few extra minutes to go talk to Lyra. By the way Closing time is around 6 pm. And the shop opens at 8 am so we’re really only at work for 10 hours but its fun work with fun ponies so I’m not complaining. Finally it came time to close.

“Oh, man I can not wait to go home a take a hot both with bonnie.” Lyra said popping her back.

“Lyra I did not need that mental image at all, thank you very much.” I was sipping on a smoothie that Lyra had gotten me from across the street from a place called Smooth Smoothies. Not very original but this was a damn good mango smoothie. Hey even with a carnivore’s diet I can still enjoy the taste of a smoothie every once and a while.

“Well I just want go get my cloak and test out what other powers I’ve got.” I did manage to test out one power. I can create cold flames from any part of my body, my hands work best, and it freezes anything the touch.

A few minutes later Bon Bon came from the back and she looked tired, “Mmmmm… Lyyra can we go home now?” She sounded… kind of drunk.

Lyra actually looked concerned, “Oh dear, she was back there too long. Those fumes that comes from her making candy can kinda make her loopy. This usually happens once a week. You think you could lock up? I gotta get her home before she passes out and into some hot water or else she gets a massive hangover the next day.”

I understood, “Sure, it’s not a problem, and can you tell her when she isn’t all out of that I’m probably gonna be gone on Thursday at around 10? I’ll be back before the shop closes but I just wanted to give you two a heads up.”

“Thanks and I’ll let her know, have a good night Chris, see you tomorrow.” She pulled Bon Bon home and waved.

I locked up the shop and made my way to Rarity’s to pick up my cloak. This time the door wasn’t answered by Sweetie Belle but by Spike.

I held out my fist and he bumped it back, “Sup, man it’s been awhile since we last hung out. How’ve ya been?”

He shrugged, “The usual, putting away books and cleaning Twilight’s messes. What have you been up to?”

“Not much, froze Fluttershy, turning into a dragon, getting ice powers and stuff. You get anywhere with Rarity yet?” I asked playing with my ice fire. Don’t judge cold fire is cool, especially when you could manipulate it. Seriously I made it into a little caterpillar. I mean it was still a flame but it was cool.

“Not really no, is that one of your powers? What do you call it?” he asked.

I shrugged, “I don’t know I going through my mind and apparently it’s just the most basic thing I can do is create icy fire. I haven’t thought of a name yet.”

“Well if you need help coming up with name, just ask. So what brings you here?” He asked.

“I came to pick up the cloak Rarity was working on for me since my old one got destroyed. Is she in?”

He nodded, “Yeah but she’s really busy with a project she did tell me to give you the cloak. Hold on I’ll go get it.” He left and came back with my cloak it looked exactly like the shirt I wore to the party, it was dark blue with jagged white highlights. The holes for my horns were rimmed with more white. I slipped it on and had trouble with getting my horns through for a few seconds. I realized there were zippers for the so I could pull the hood back more easily. “Cool I like this, can you tell Rarity I’ll pay her back when I can? Also you and I will hang out next week I promise.”

“Alright, I will and cool. Oh Twilight told me to tell you to come over this weekend.” He said looking back into the house quickly. “Looks like I’m needed I gotta go.”

After that I walked back home, when I got there the front door was locked good thing Fluttershy gave me a key before hand, I unlocked the door to be greeted with pitch blackness, “Hello anyone home?” No answer, “Thought not.” I mumbled to myself. Well it didn’t matter I was tired and I was going to bed, If anyone needed me they could wake me up. I wasn’t not on purpose, but I felt my bed shift weight and something warm next to me. I just assumed it was Fluttershy and went back to sleep.

For the next few days until Thursday I was figuring out what powers I had, and avoiding the town’s children I wanted to be a surprise, but let me tell you, what I did have was cool. I’ll write a list down later. But today was indeed Thursday, I was restocking some of the candy machines when I heard a chime come from the clock inside the store, it was 20 minutes to 10. I took off the apron they gave me that had a little embroidered blue dragon on it signifying it was mine and hung it up on the hook my cloak was occupying a few seconds ago. Did I mention how much I loved this cloak? The white cracks glow when I use my magic while wearing this thing and it’s really cool so naturally I always wore it that and another reason. Anyway, I walked passed Lyra and told her I would be back in a little while. She just grunted in response, again looking at a magazine. I have no idea where she gets them all from.

I made my way to the school and got there with a few minutes to spare. I knocked on the door to the schoolhouse and was greeted by the magenta mare Big Mac talked to at the party a week ago. She was wearing a white sundress with an ivy pattern. “Hello, may I help you?” she asked sweetly.

I cleared my throat and held out my hand, she shook it, “I’m, here for Sweetie Belle, I’m her show and tell project.”

She had a look of confusion for a few seconds before the light bulb went off in her head, “Of course, she did tell me she was bringing somepony in for show and tell. May I ask your name, since I can’t see your face?”

“Chris, Chris McGrath, I believe you were at the party thrown for me talking to Big Mac?” I reminded her.

She blushed at the mention of Big Mac, “Oh yes, I remember you, I was wondering when I was going to see you again, you seem to have disappeared after the party.”

I gave an apologetic look, not like she could see it though, “Sorry bout that, but I have been around, I’ve just been doing my best to avoid the children. I wanted to be a surprise since none of them other than the crusaders have really seen me.”

“That’s actually very clever. Well, I’m Cheerilee, I teach the kids here as I’m sure you’ve figured. Well why don’t you come in, though I have to ask you to pull your hood back, I do not allow head wear.” She stated in a very teacherly manner.

“Hehe, it’s been awhile since I had a teacher tell me that, but alright.” I pulled my hood back.

She frowned as I stepped forward, “All headwear Mr. McGrath.”

I chuckled, “Sorry I can’t really remove these.”

She looked shocked, “Oh… oh my, those are real?” I nodded, “Well, then… I suppose that’s ok then, I apologize please come in.”

I followed her in and saw sweetie sitting next to Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. During the week I visited Sweetie to see if she needed to know anything about me before hand and in that time we became friends. Probably the coolest child in this town, other than Spike but those two were the only ones I really knew so that’s not saying much. I waved at her and she smiled. All of the kids except her friends were staring between us.

“Sweetie Belle, dear I believe this is yours?” She gestured to me and Sweetie nodded. “Well Mr. McGrath, I’m not sure where you can sit but…”

“Its fine I’ll just lean on the one of the walls.” I said nonchalantly.

“Are you sure?” I gave her a yep, “Alright, if you say so.”

I walked to the wall closest to Sweetie and stood there. “Ahem, well class, it’s now time to start the show and tell who would like to go first?”

A plethora of small hands shot up. Well this should be interesting… since it was a rather large class several students went up before Sweetie was called on, she wasn’t the last but it still took a while. There were two students named Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, one pink, the other silver respectively. Anyway, the came off as spoiled brats with parents who are too rich to really care. I don’t know something was rubbing me the wrong way about those two. Other than that there was some pretty interesting things being shown.

But Sweetie was called on and it was our turn. I walked up to the front with her and I could feel that she was nervous. I put my hand on her shoulder and nodded to reassure her, she seemed to calm down if only a bit. I stood at the front of this class, “Well, this is your show until you hand it over to me.” I told her.

She gulped, “A-alright. Uhm hello everypony, this is Chris… he’s a, uhm, Human from a different planet called earth. He’s really nice and stuff and yeah….” There was more for her to say but I could tell she had stage fright, something I suffered from and still do if it’s a large enough crowd. So naturally I decided to step in.

“Yep, that’s me alright. I met Sweetie here at a party a few weeks ago. I also met her two friends two but I haven’t had enough time to get to know them too well. Or any of you really, though that’s my fault, I made sure to avoid all of you so I would be a surprise and it looks like it worked.” I had my hand on Sweetie’s shoulder and she looked up at me. I gave her a nod that told her it was alright and I’d take things from here. I looked to Cheerilee and she seemed to understand. “Sweetie go get your chair so you can sit next to me ok?” I got an ok and she quickly got her chair. “Now who has questions for me?” Everyone’s hand went up.

I picked out a chubby colt with buck teeth and spiky hair, “Are those real?” he said pointing to my horns, which I was expecting.

“What my horns? Yeah, they’re real.” I said.

“Can I pull on them to see?” he asked, obviously sure they weren’t real.

“Snips that is a very rude thing to ask.” Cheerilee snapped.

I held up a hand, “No, its fine, sure you can. Come on.” He got up and made his way to me. I got on me knees and bent my neck down. He gave a firm yank trying to pull them off only to have my head pulled forward. I winced a bit but it was ok, “See, I told you they were real.”

He laughed giddily, “So cool!” he went back to his seat and more hands went up.

I chose, “Apple Bloom, your question?”

“Ya didn’t have horns at the party were ya hidin them?” she asked.

“Yeah!” Scootaloo interjected, “Do all humans have horns?”

“No I wasn’t hiding them, I just didn’t have them at the time. And no, human’s don’t have horns.” I was fiddling with my hands, I do that.

“So, how’d ya get them?” get them the colt sitting next to Snips asked.

“That is a long boring story that I don’t think any of you want to hear. So I’ll shorten it. You see my eyes and teeth? How they are blue and all sharp?” I god nods and ‘uh hu’s’ in response. “Well humans don’t have eyes this color blue or all sharp teeth either. To put it simply, I’m part dragon part human.”

The colt snorted, “Yeah right, prove it.” All the other children and even Cheerilee seemed to share his disbelief.

“Hmmm, you know I never got your name and how can I prove it?” +Well this should be interesting+ Ixis said, curious as to what the Colt would request.

“The name’s Snails sir.” ‘Snips and Snail… what’s next, puppy dog tails?’ “And you can prove it by roaring like a dragon.”

I smiled, “That’s it? Ok then. Uh… I suggest you cover your ears, all of you.” They did... good. I cleared my throat, took a deep breath, closed my mouth and eyes, and when I opened them my pupils were like a thin line. I opened my mouth and let out a roar that shook most of everything from how loud it was. I like to think it sounds like a mixture between the Clover field Monster’s roar and the roar of Godzilla. Why could I do that, one I was a dragon, two along with my teeth changing so did some of my vocal cords so now I can make dragon noises, which was useful when you're practicing spot is in a clearing in the Everfree.

When I was done they all looked at me in shock. “Whoa… that… was… so awesome!” Snips said and the class agreed through claps. Except for a few who were pretty scared, ‘I should clear that up.’ +No don’t at least not yet, it could come in handy later.+ I smirk internally, ‘Very true, I like the way you think.’

Sweetie looked at me, wide eyed, “I didn’t know you could do that.”

He laughed, “I have to have some secrets Sweetie. Next question?”

A grey unicorn with two toned yellow hair raised her hand and I picked her of course, “Hi, my name is Dinky Doo. I was wonderin… since you’re a dragon can you do magical stuff like breathe fire?”

I frowned, “No I can’t breathe fire.”

She looked disappointed, “So you aren’t really a dragon then?”

I shook my head, “No I am I just can’t breathe fire, instead I do something else. Wanna see?” They nodded, “Ms. Cheerilee, is it ok if I do some magic in here?”

“Well… Normally I’d say no.” She looked at her students, “But I have to admit I’m just as curious as they are right now. So I guess its ok this time, as long as it doesn’t hurt them.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” I took off my gloves and as soon as air touches them mist started to come off of them. I can’t control that, no matter how hard I try. “Sweetie could you hold onto these for me?” I handed her my gloves. “So, as you all know, dragons breathe fire and are fire based magical reptiles. I am not, I am the last of the Ice Dragons. I use specifically and only ice based Draconic magic. But I can do a lot with it like….” I held out my hand and a ball of blue flame appeared. “…This, this is Ice Fire. It looks like fire but is cold and freezes things. But I can also do this.” I created a flower made out of ice then I made the ice fire dance around the flower. After a few minutes of that I tossed the flower up and threw an IF ball at it and it exploded into snow.

Dinky had the biggest smile I’ve ever seen on a kid, It made me happy to see that. “Wow, that was really pretty Mr. Chris.”

Scootaloo groaned, “I wanted something destructive like with a boom.” A lot of the colts in the room agreed.

“Sorry Scoots, but no destructive stuff inside.” She just pouted. Man foals were adorable.

“Any more questions?” I saw a brown colt with orange hair and a propeller hat on his desk raise his hand. “Yes?”

“I was wondering if you had video games on your world? Oh, and I’m Button Mash.” He said with a toothy grin.

I heard a small squeak beside me, I looked to see that Sweetie was blushing. “Ohh someone has a little crush.” I whispered only so she could hear, which made her blush more. I was enjoying that way too much, “Yes we have video games on my world, and I’m actually surprised they have them here. What kind do you have here?”

He looked really happy at that, like he found another soul who knew the joys of gaming. I knew that look well. “Well we have this big machines called arcade machines and a few smaller ones so you play them at home, but my mom won’t get me one. She says they cost too many bits.”

“Yeah, I know how that feels. Well we have arcade machines in my world too, but those are really out of date. Now we have something that could fit in your backpack and can play millions of games.” I had his attention, now to bring it home. “And the games we had were very close to looking like real life, though you’re probably wondering what’s the point of a video game if it looks like real life? Imagine if you could go to a new world, would you want to see it like it is how you see everything in real life, with detail and vibrant colors? Or the blocky stuff.”

“Real life.” He said instantly.

“Exactly and that’s what our games are like, it’s like throwing you into another world that looks real. And a lot of people love it.”

“Ok that’s cool.” He was drooling a bit.

That’s when I felt something in my cloak pocket vibrate, I pulled out the source, it was the emerald filled with draconic messenger magic Celestia gave me. (I haven’t figured out how to do that yet with my magic.) It was glowing green, which meant it was a letter I had to respond to right away. When the shaking stopped a green flame spewed out of the gem and a scroll materialized and then flame went back into the gem. I untied the ribbon which had a royal badge attached to it. One filly in particular noticed it.

I read the letter and lets just say if I was drinking water I’d be choking right now, instead I just snorted hard enough that it hurt. “Ms. Cheerilee, do you have a pencil and paper I could use?” She nodded and handed them to me. I quickly scribbled something on it and handed her the pencil back, I tied my piece of paper up with the ribbon and badge, tapped the side of the emerald twice and the green flame came back out and took the letter. I put her scroll in another of my pockets and the gem back in the one I took it out from.

“Well, we have time for one more question and then it’s time for recess.” Cheerilee said after I took my hand out my pocket.

Hands shot up but one that wasn’t up before was now. The filly with the tiara, I picked her, knowing it was a bad idea, but I live for bad ideas. “Yes, the filly with the Tiara.” I heard Sweetie moan with annoyance. Yep, this is gonna be bad, oh well.

“My name is Diamond Tiara. And you know Princess Celestia?” She asked, oh god she even had the inflections in her speech of a spoiled brat.

I nodded slowly, “I do, her and I are good friends. Do you know her?”

“Ha, of course I know her. Her and my Daddy do work together all the time and I’ve seen her a few times. I’m just curious as to why you’re in this backwater town if you’re such good friends with the Princess.” I really wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, it wasn’t her fault she was raised like this but at the same time I wanted to freeze that smug smile off her face. Too bad she’s a kid.

“Because I have friends here and besides you live here too ya know.”

She sighed, “Don’t remind me, we only live here because my daddy feels there is something charming about this place, can you believe that? I can forgive you wanting to live here though, what I’m really confused about is why you’re friends with people of such low class especially those three, the Crusaders. Especially since you know the very top of the best.”

“Diamond Tiara that is enough, I will not-“ I cut her off again by holding up my hand.

“No, it’s fine. You’re right though Diamond Tiara. I could be living up there in Canterlot if I wanted to, all I had to do is ask. I could leave all these ‘Low class’ ponies and this ‘charmless’ town if I wanted to. And a part of me finds that appealing.” I got a gasp from Sweetie.

“B-But Chris… I thought… you were our friend?” she looked like she was about to cry.

I was not amused with Diamond right now, but I wasn’t going to be outright mean to her either. “Sweetie let me finish. As I was saying a part of me finds the appealing, but that is a small part I ignore. The rest of me finds that appalling, I don’t care if my friends are homeless and I own all the bits in the world. I would still call them my friends and I would still choose a town like this over a city like Canterlot. You want to know why? Because ponies here in towns like this are kinder and more honest than ponies up in Canterlot, being wealthy corrupts the mind it makes you think you own everything and that you deserve everything which is wrong on every level. Now, I can look past all that but what I want to know is why being friends with the Crusaders is a bad thing?”

She huffed, annoyed at my reluctance to admit that the wealthy were better but she answered my question anyway, “Because they’re blank flanks.”

I saw every colt and filly in the room wince at that, “They’re what now?”

“Blank Flanks, you know? They don’t have cutie marks which means they don’t have a special talent. And a pony who doesn’t have a cutie mark is worth nothing.” She said with extra snark.

But you know what, that was it, I had enough of this filly but instead of get angry I got cold, I got soulless, “Uh hu… and that’s a problem why? I don’t have a cutie mark either and I won’t ever get one. That doesn’t mean anything though. I t doesn’t mean anything for those three either. It doesn’t mean they’re useless. In fact you should be jealous of them.” She looked at me with utter astonishment that I could even suggest that. “What does a cutie mark mean hm? It means your life is already set out for you, sure you can still have fun but what you want to do in life is set in stone, those three are free. They get to have fun with one another doing things not many children from this world or my world get to do because they are busy trying to find what they want to do with their lives. But they don’t know yet and that makes them special, it makes them literally everything. They could have a destiny in anything. Scootaloo could become a better flyer than Rainbow Dash. Apple Bloom could become the strongest pony ever. Sweetie could become the best singer ever. They could surpass you and you don’t know it. That’s what makes them special they still have a choice in life. Now don’t get me wrong just because you have a cutie mark doesn’t mean you have to stick to what it is exactly. Take Rarity for example, her cutie mark is three jewels, her special talent is finding gems but what does she do make some of the best I’ve seen in this world or mine. While you, what does yours even mean? Huh? What is a Tiara supposed to mean in terms of destiny, you’re supposed to be rich? Ok, and? You were already that, it’s nothing special, at least not in your case.” The class was silent. I had a rant, I was annoyed but I was not sorry, someone needed to put her in her place. No I was not happy about what I did but it needed to be done, like I said I live for stupid choices.

Diamond Tiara just blinked, got really angry and stomped her way back to her seat next to her friend. Who had the smart idea to keep her head down so I wouldn’t see her. I did but I was done. “I’m sorry about that.” I said to the class. “It looks like time is up. I have to go.” I didn’t I just went outside to the playground, leaned against a tree and closed my eyes in thought, completely forgetting that they had recess in a few minutes.

I heard someone call my name, I opened my eyes, it was the Crusaders. “Hey girls, sorry about that in there I didn’t mean to do that but…”

Apple Bloom shook her head and grabbed my hand, “It’s ok, we just wanted ta thank ya for stickin up for us. And the rest of the class too.”

Scootaloo growled, “Yeah those two have been jerks to all of us since day one and would only lighten p when one of they we got our cutie marks.”

“Mhm, I could tell a lot of them like you for what you did.” Sweetie said. “Can you stay for recess?” she asked after a few moments of silence.

“I don’t know… sure I can.” I tussled their hair one by one. I heard a bell ring and all the kids save for two particular ones came running out. I actually felt bad for Silver Spoon she didn’t really do anything other than be associated with Diamond. I’ll talk to Cheerilee later but right now I was getting swamped with half pints.

“Ok ok I get it, I’m pretty cool, thanks seriously.” I was laughing, ok I liked kids sometimes, other times they pissed me off.

“Hey Mr. Chris, since we’re outside do you think you could show us some cool magic?” A colt called out.

I thought about it and honestly I needed to release some energy. But I need to find a… “Hey you!” I called out to a unicorn walking by. She looked around and the pointed to herself, “Yes you, come here please.” She came up to the fence and I held out my hand, “Hi, my name’s Chris.”

She looked really confused, “Uh, Sparkler Doo… how may I help you.”

“Do you know any like ice spells or something, anything cold?” I asked.

“Yes, I know a simple snow spell, why?”

“I can’t really explain it, but can you create a large amount falling from the sky?”

She just raised an eyebrow but didn’t question me. her horn glowed and snow started to fall.

I looked at the snow then at her, “I suggest you stand back, same to you kids. Oh and dinky your sister is here.” Sparkler looked at me with surprise. “Wasn’t that hard with the whole doo thing.” I saw the grey unicorn come up to the fence out of the corner of my eye, but it was a safe distance away. “Ok, so this is an actual spell, the stuff I did before was more like free flowing magic. Now… Hyōryū….” I took in a deep breath, drawing in all the snow falling down from the sky. My stomach expanded, I balled my fists up, put one on top of the other and brought them to my mouth a dark blue magic circle appeared in front of me, it had a dragon’s head in the center and was surrounded by runes (I’ll get into that later). “…no Hōkō!!!!” I yelled out, which caused a blast of magic to come from my mouth. I aimed it towards the sky above the forest but it still got a few of the trees at the top, freezing that part solid while also being shredded apart.

I let my arms down and panted, “Oh man, that took more out of me than usual.” I sat down and leaned back. “There you go, some boom magic.”

They all let out a collective whoa after the shock wore off. And I got asked one more question this one from Sparkler, “What was that you said when you were doing the spell? Also what are you?”

“I am an Ice Dragon, the only one. Nice to meet you and what I said was Hyōryū no Hōkō. It means ‘Roar of the Ice dragon.’ Some of my spells are in that language some aren’t I’m not entirely sure why but that’s just how it is.”

“Huh,” she starred in the direction I fired my spell, “Well ponies are going to notice a giant magical blast of ice and cold even at Canterlot.”

“I know, it’s ok though...” I laid down and closed my eyes ending the conversation there.

After that the day was fairly routine, those who knew me knew where that magical blast came from me since you know it emitted a cold wave for a pretty far distance. I got yelled at by Fluttershy and Twilight for being irresponsible and such but hey not much different than a normal day. Anyway, I’m going to end it there, until next time.

Author's Note

Yes, I'm putting a link to the Q&A blog in every author note, for those who stopped at mid points in the story, It's for reaching 25 chapters being written, even though 25 is still being written: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/831885/qs-for-the-qa-chapter

8: Boo hoo, angsty story time

Well, it's been a few months since I last wrote in you, six to be exact, I'm not going to go into full detail as to what happened and why, so I will summarize. You see, after the show and tell at the school everything was looking up for me. I was growing closer to my friends, I even started to like Rainbow a bit, working with Lyra and Bon Bon kept me busy most of the day and they became my second group of friends. I was able to buy my own things with the money and I was saving up for something very special, I'm not going to spoil what it is though, You'll just have to wait. Though since the day of the show and tell something was eating at my mind, it was Diamond Tiara and how I snapped at her, I've been avoiding the school house since then but I was still thinking about it.

I'm not sure why I guess it's because since she really only had one friend and that was probably because they were both rich and were most likely raised together as their families interacted, I'm only guessing that but I still felt bad for her. It really was not her fault that that's how she acts… ok, I suppose it is a little bit but still. Now, you're probably going, 'Well if you felt like that shouldn't you go try to apologize and make friends?' And you're right I should but I couldn't, at least not then, I was still upset, angry, pissed. Not at her, at me… I normally have better control and it may not have seemed like a big deal to you but to me it was. I don't like being angry especially at kids, they're kids man. Other than that though was that it made think of my friends back home, my sister, and what little I did care about and how easily I was willing to leave even if I didn't mean for it to be to Equestria.

Slowly, but very noticeably it started to affect my mood and how I behaved. It started with my sticking to my room and giving less attention to hedgy, eventually he never came into my room and stayed mainly around Fluttershy, who I wasn't giving nearly as much attention anymore and I could tell I was hurting her, which only made me feel worse. I started to avoid my friends, they tried to find out was wrong but I never told them, I couldn't how would they understand? I still went to work but I did so without saying anything, I did my job quietly, constantly thinking about how my friends and family must feel about me just disappearing. They probably hated me as much as I hated myself for it. I spent most nights curled up in my bed; I didn't let Fluttershy come in, I would cry myself to sleep wondering why I was torturing myself but never doing anything about it. I was depressed again and I knew it and I berated myself for it which didn't help.

Eventually Celestia heard about this and tried to send me letters, talk to me, and help me out. She was worried, they all were. At a point it got to be too much and she told me to get everyone I considered a friend and bring them to Canterlot. I had free passage for the train as well as anyone I brought along with me.

~Yesterday~

I was sitting on a train headed to Canterlot, why? I actually didn't know, Celestia just told me to bring all my friends and come to the castle so I brought all of my friends. Twilight, Pinkie, AJ, Rainbow, Rarity, Fluttershy, Spike, Bon Bon, and Lyra were all here in the train with me. Rarity asked me not to bring the crusaders since it was a school day.

They were all chatting with one another, Bon Bon and Lyra were a bit nervous to be going to meet the Princess but they were also excited so it was good to see. Me, I was looking out the window staring at the countryside go. "Chris… Chris!" I looked to the group, "Yeah?"

"Do you know why the Princess wanted us to come with you to Canterlot?" Twilight asked.

"No, no idea." I saw everyone's faces shift from happy to worried. It probably had to do because I sounded like I wanted to crawl in a hole and rot, because that's how I felt.

"Chris…"

"C'mon on man cheer up!" Rainbow said, annoyed with my mood. I just gave her a look out of the corner of my eye and she shuddered and scooted back in her seat. "Dude… that stare is… evil."

"Chris…?" Fluttershy reached a hand out at me slowly, "You're scaring us Chris…"

I felt myself calm down a bit when she touched my arm, "I…sorry…"

The rest of the train ride was met with silence, even in my mind, usually I could hear Ixis humming a tune of something but she hasn't been in my head for a few months or a least she hasn't said anything. We got to Canterlot, I've already been here before but I never got a good look, the city was beautiful most of the buildings were pure white and it all looked clean. The ponies were all dressed in very clean clothes that showed they were very wealthy. I could also see plenty of normal looking ponies who I assumed were tourists. Our destination was the castle and that is where we headed to, me in front, everyone else in back. I just wanted to get this over with so I could go back to sleep, which is all I really did any more outside of work.

When we got to the Castle we were greeted by Luna, which is weird because she should be asleep right now. Thing is I've only met her once and that was when I first got here so seeing her in her actual royal dress was a bit weird. "Human Chris, it is good to see you again. And you've brought the elements along with you, wonderful." She gave us a really cheery smile.
Lyra raised her hand, "We're here too you know."

"Hello Princess Luna, it's good to see you again to." I said trying to sound happy.

She gave me a hard look, "Ah yes, our sister did tell us that something was plaguing you." She turned and motioned us to follow, "Come, our sister is waiting for us."

"Luna, do you have any idea why Celestia made me bring everyone?"

She nodded, "We do, but we are not allowed to tell, we apologize."

I sighed, "Of course… why is that always a staple in what super powerful good people do? Always so cryptic about everything."

Luna laughed, "Well we have to let you learn and grow yourselves, we can't just tell you everything you know. Otherwise what's the point of learning and coming to your own conclusions? It's how ponies figure out what they want to believe in and it is how new things are discovered because other ponies think about other ways of going about something and end up at different answers."

"See and that's why learning is important." Twilight said, happy somepony else understood.

"Blah blah learning, blah blah egghead stuff, blah. Can we just get on with this?" Impatient as ever was Rainbow Dash.

"Hmmm, we suppose so, we are here." Luna pushed open a large door we stopped in front of. Inside was a table large enough to hold all 12 of us, Celestia was already at the table.

"Come on everypony and have a seat please." She gestured to the seats.

We all sat down, Twilight next to Celestia (Spike was sitting in her lap) obviously, Luna on the other side of Celestia, Pinkie was next to Luna, Fluttershy sat next to pinkie. Apple Jack was on the other side of twilight followed by Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Lyra and Bon Bon. I sat down in the one closest to Fluttershy and put my feet up on the table while leaning back in the chair some, "So, I noticed something."

"Oh and what would that be?" Celestia asked.

I pointed to the empty chair next to me, "Who else is coming?"

She just smiled, "Somepony I wanted you to meet for a while actually, my niece."
Twilight gasped and clapped her hands together, "Cadance is coming, really? Oh it would be so good to see her again." At the mention of this Cadance the table erupted in talking.

I cleared my throat loud enough to get everyone's attention, "So I'm guessing you all know this Cadance?"

Twilight nodded happily, "She was my old foal sister when I was younger and she just got recently married to my older brother. Though, the wedding could've gone better."

"I'll say…" Lyra said quietly and everyone else agreed.

"So are you going to tell me what happened and how the rest of you know her?"

Before anyone could answer Celestia cut them off, "Perhaps at another time, she's here."

I raised an eyebrow, "And how do you know that? Sure you can control the sun but I doubt you know everything." I admit I was a bit more snippy than usual. That's when everyone started to giggle softly and I sighed, "She's right next to me isn't she?" They just nodded. I looked over and yelled, almost falling out of my chair, what? I didn't expect her to be as close as she was.

Cadance though, she was Pink, not as pink as Pinkie but pink and she was very pretty. Her hair and tail were comprised of pink, yellow and purple. And much like every other pony on this planet, their cutie mark was embroidered on their outfits, no matter what they wore, I asked rarity about it and she apparently never noticed before so I just chucked it up to magic, but hers looked like a crystal heart and some cold swirly thing at the bottom, I knew there was a name for that but I couldn't be bothered to remember. Once I recovered I sat up fully in time to watch Twilight and Cadance hug and do…. Wait what the…

"Sunshine sunshine ladybugs awake, clap your hands and do a little shake." They chanted, along with a little dance.

I have no idea what I just witnessed but it was either really adorable or really creepy, I can't decide. So I just sat in silence as she sat down in the empty chair next to me and Twilight went back to her seat.

"It's good to see you again Cadance, where's my BBBFF?"

"Sorry Twilight, Shining Armor couldn't come there was something he had to take care of, I'm sure Auntie Celestia will fill you in later." Cadance explained then she turned to me, "Hi, I'm Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, but you can just call me Cadance." She held out a hand.

I shook it and gave a polite smile, "I'm Chris McGrath, just call me Chris please. Mi Amore Cadenza… My love Cadance is your full name?"

"You know Bitalion?" She asked.

"Ah, no not exactly, I know a language very similar to it though and it sounded really close to it so I just translated it over." I said rubbing my arm, honestly I suck with languages, it took a lot of dedication to learn the one I'm good at and I'm not even that good at it I still need help from a translator a lot of the times but I can make my way through a conversation if not very slowly, but I didn't lie it does sound very close to a language I do know.

"Oh, well it's good to finally meet you Chris, Celestia and Twilight told me so much about you." She said with a genuine smile, I could feel love radiating off of her, like actual pure love. I enjoyed it but I also hated it, it was weird.

"Well I wish I could say the same, they told me nothing of you." I gave a pointed look to the teacher and student.

They both groaned and Twilight spoke up, "Well we tried but you were too busy being all mopey to even talk to anypony anymore."

"Yes," Celestia agreed, "And that's the reason why we're all here today, Chris, I know you don't want to but I will not have a close friend of mine and my subjects this upset and not tell anyone. This happened once before and I will not let it happen again." She said very forcefully.

Apparently that last bit was news to everyone at the table except her and Luna, which should be expected considering how old they are. I decided not to say anything about that and neither did anyone else, smart move. You don't bring up an ancient deity's bad past when they could destroy your planet. So instead I opted for a reluctant sigh, I knew this was going to happen eventually, and inside I was glad it was, but I was still nervous, scared, and angry.

"Fine, fine, fine, you all win, I'll tell you what's bothering me, but this is going to be long because it starts a long time ago. I can understand why all my friends were supposed to come with me, but why is Cadance here? No offense." I said politely.

She still had that warm smile, "None taken."

"My niece is here because she's the princess of love, if there is a spark of love between ponies she can help move it along, she also grows stronger from love. She can tell you more later, but if you need help explaining your feelings with anything she can help, she can sense other feelings but not as well as love, her and Pinkie have that in common actually but Cadance has been able to hone it." Celestia said with a proud smile.

Cadance was blushing, "Stop it auntie, you're embarrassing me."

I shook my head, "So much happiness and love… oy… Alright where should I start…?"

"How about the beginning?" Cadance suggested.

"Well one night my mom and my dad were feeling hot and heavy and-" "NOT THAT FAR!" Everyone shouted out, I just gave a devilish smile. "Sorry, right the beginning… when was that…" I gave it a thought and decided where to start.

"Ok, when I was a kid I was very… crybaby like. I cried over the littlest things, probably cuz I was babied and such. But I always had my father and my sister around, though whenever they left, mainly my dad, I would always cry because I was afraid he would never come back and I would be left alone without him, that my sister would abandon me."

"What about your mom, she wouldn't let that happen would she?" AJ asked.

"Not if she could help it no, but my mom was rarely around. She was a very famous actor you see so she had to travel the world a lot to film in different locations and she would stay in different countries for an undefined period of time and she didn't want her kids to go through constantly moving and never having a stable social life and education. So we lived with our dad, my parents were divorced though so not like it mattered."

"Di…vorced?" Pinkie asked with a tilted head.

"Wait you guys don't have divorce here?" They all shook their heads, "Great… divorce is when… well it's when two people who are married don't love each other like they used to and it gets to the point where they separate and sadly sometimes their kids feel the heaviest blow. I was lucky that I was too young to remember anything about it but my sister... well she always held a grudge against our mom for leaving dad and such. But I didn't, I loved my parents, both of them, and I know they loved all of us. A few years after that my dad adopted my younger sister and life went on, we moved a few times and I hated those times because I had to say goodbye to all my friends and make new friends, my sister hated it because she had to dump her boyfriends, teenagers. I don't make new friends easily, why? Because much like Shy here, I'm very shy and it was worse as a kid I couldn't talk to anybody unless they talked to me first or we shared a common interest and when you're little that's really just toys ya know? Another thing that made it hard was, this." I pointed to the mole on my cheek.

"Your face darling?" Guess who asked that one.

"No my mole, kids… kids are mean without meaning to be. When they see something that they didn't know they stayed away from it and if it was on another kid they made fun of it/them thinking that it would make the strange thing go away. Because of this, I was bullied and called weird as a child, and I was already fragile, like I said I would cry at the littlest of things so that didn't help. So when I was younger I hated my mole, now I actually really like it. Anyway the friends I did make were the best a young boy could ever ask for, we got in trouble, we got dirty, and we did all the things that young boys did. It was good and for the next few years that's how my life was and despite the few things that did hurt me I was still a genuinely happy kid." I had a smile on my face a real one and everyone else did too.

"It's good to see you actually smile again Chris, I missed that." Fluttershy said.

"Yeah I did too…" Then my smile faded, "But that's when I moved to a state I still hate to this day. We moved there on my 10th birthday, so guess how that made ten year old me feel. Not good, also I've never had a birthday party now that I think about it…." Crap I shouldn't have said that. I looked at Pinkie and she was glaring at me.

"Next birthday you are having 21 years worth of birthday parties mister." She said doing the 'I've got my eyes on you gesture.'

"Anywho… We moved to that state and that's when things started going downhill. My dad decided to go and finish college while still working so I rarely saw him except for very early mornings and my older sister was old enough to go out on her own. The only person I had left was my younger sister. If there is one good thing that came from my time there was that her and I grew really close as we got older. And the only time we were all together as a family was during holidays and I cherished those moments with a passion. But they were too far and between for my liking. As time went on I went through middle school and I made some friends, probably the best friends I've ever had. But at the same time that's when I started liking girls and as a teenage boy going through puberty well you know, I can just control myself better now, but that's besides the point. The point was I can not count the amount of times I was shot down in my attempts to get a girlfriend."

I laughed a cynical laugh, "Looking back I understand why they didn't want to. But that rubbed me the wrong way then, it made me angry with girls and just made me want them more which made a never ending cycle but it was also the first time I ever really wanted to hurt someone was in middle school and the first time I ever actually did. As a young boy I got in play fights yeah so no one really got hurt but since I was older I knew what it was like to actually want to fight about something. The first person I ever fought was my friend and to this day we can not remember what it was about. Anyway, I got so angry everything blacked out and all I know is I went into a blind fury, when I could see again my friend was on the ground with a bloody nose, a black eye, and was missing a tooth. I distinctly remember running home after school was over and crying into my pillows because I thought I was going to lose a friend. I'll explain why that bothered me more when it becomes appropriate. Needless to say though, I didn't lose him as a friend in fact we became closer and he essentially became the brother I never had and always wanted. But other than that I was still relatively happy. But…"

"But? What happened after? Did you go and learn karate or something after you realized you could take someone down?" Rainbow asked.

"No just the opposite, I actually promised to never fight and never lose my temper again, I did a few times though, it took a while to master and even now I still can control myself. Not in the best way though but that will come into play later. After Middle School I went to High School and that is when everything changed, everything. My first year was really great, that's when I met the rest of my life long friends, most were girls surprisingly. Apparently after I left middle school something changed and I was much calmer around girls so I was able to have them as friends." I looked around and they did too before they realized what I did and we shared a laugh, "That still seems the case apparently. But yeah but one girl out of them all became someone I started to care for greatly, her name was Rebecca, I called her Becca. But we became friends over a video game and I thought that was cool and I started to fall for her, but I was dating someone already so I obviously couldn't do anything." I sighed looking back at the day we became friends.

"Ooooo forbidden love between two young humans, how cute." Cadance said Rarity agreeing way too fast. "So what happened next?"

I scratched the beard that was growing in, "Well… I was still with the girl because I did love her. And that's something I find special about me compared to most people, If I love someone that's it I love them, it's not some sort of puppy love, that has only happened to me once. To my girlfriend's friend, the one that introduced us actually, I did like her for a bit and she liked me but we realized it wasn't strong enough for anything and eventually she became my other little sister, and I her big brother even though she was only a month younger than me. Anyway, back to my first girlfriend, we were together for about half a year. When we broke up that was the first time I ever felt heartbreak and it… it hurt so bad. It's a pain you can never describe to someone, it hurts thinking about it even now."

My arm got a soft squeeze from Fluttershy and I gave her a thankful look, "Why did you two break up?" She asked.

I smiled, finding the reason amusing, "Because I was still a teenage boy, I still thought about sex and that's what I was pushing for, and I was really clingy. But I did love her and I still do even now. I wouldn't change what happened for anything it helped me grow and learn but not before it broke me, it started what I would say is the reason why I'm like this. When we first broke up I hated her with everything I had, I wanted to yell and hit anything, something, and I did. I cried, I wailed, I beat on my walls causing dents. I couldn't handle the pain… eventually I saw that she was right, I needed to grow up more. I came to forgive her and apologized for anything I might've said, we're friends but not best friends or anything. It took a while for me to heal enough to really feel happy again. But that outburst of emotion I swore to never let that happen again either but as I got older it happened more but I held it all in I held it all back which poisoned me, again I'll talk more about that later. Eventually, and you two will be happy about this."

I looked at Rarity and Cadance, "Me and Becca did get together at the end of 9th grade, though at the beginning she told me straight out that she just wanted to give it a chance. She really didn't want to do anything that could ruin our friendship. But we dated over the summer and it was fun… but before our second year in High School started we broke up. It was just going to slow for my liking honestly, I still had a lot to growing up to do and I'm glad I realized it then, so I was the one who called it off that time. I thought she hated me for it actually, I did for a long time and I beat myself up over I hated myself for doing that to a friend a good one too. I avoided her thinking she was going to yell at me, tell me she hated me, tell me she wished I was dead and that I was a good for nothing pile of trash that didn't deserve her. I couldn't avoid her though, we got put in a lot of the same classes together."

"Did she say all the things you thought she was going to?" Spike asked obviously paying close attention so the same things wouldn't happen to him.

I just shut my eyes and I felt a hand on my shoulder, I saw it was Cadance's and I looked up at her, "She didn't did she?" She asked.
"No… she didn't and that confused me. I wanted her to hate me I wanted her to be mad at me I wanted her to wish I was dead. But she never did, she still considered me her best friend, she still talked to me and we still laughed together whenever we did. But I wanted her to hate me I wanted someone to hate me… as much as I did, I didn't want to be alone in this feeling anymore I wanted someone to hate me so they knew what it was like to hate me, I thought that if they hated me too, they'd feel my sadness. Of course I hid how I really felt, I never cried, I never made it show I was angry, I never showed I was sad. I put on a mask and I went about my life." I had a few tears rolling down my cheeks, I wiped them away and continued.

"Then I met her, Cathryn… Cathy…" I said that name with such rage and disdain that Fluttershy recoiled from me and everyone else backed away a little. I calmed back down after a few seconds and continued. "We met and became friends a short while after I broke up with Becca. She… she was a mistake I made. You see, she was very flirtatious the way we first met was with her sitting in my lap at lunch. Me, still being that hot blooded teenager I was infatuated, not by who she was as a person but by the fact that maybe I could lose my virginity. Which to this day I hate myself for being like, I never wanted to be like that, I was taught to treat all females with the utmost respect possible. That isn't to say I didn't love her, after dating her for a while I did fall for her too. But… the reason why I fell for her was just as dangerous as actually falling for her. I fell for her because she knew… she understood what I was going through, she went through it too. She could comfort me I could comfort her and do my best to do so. For a really long time it was going really well, but I still felt dead and broken inside but I was slowly being pulled back together again by this girl who understood my pain. But I was being put back together by someone else who was broken. How does something that is broken put something back together when they don't remember what it was like to be whole?"

"They don't…" Twilight said quietly.

"Exactly, so I was put back together but sloppily and I was made into how she wanted to make me. You don't understand what that's like, she loved sex, and I lost everything to her. She made me back up using sex and other things with some love and understanding thrown in but most of it was sex. It got me addicted which is what she wanted, it was fun and I couldn't see what was wrong with it, after all it feels good and she was fixing me, I felt happy again, I felt whole. I still had my moments of unbarring depression. And if you don't know what that is, the best way I can explain it is imagine being sad at yourself, imagine being angry at yourself, wishing you could die but you couldn't kill yourself and for some reason you didn't know why you were feeling this and you couldn't stop or fix it. That is depression, or a form of it, I still have it now as you all have seen. There really ain't a cure only ways to lessen it or hold it back from getting worse and for everyone it's different as to how."
"Oh… oh my… Chris, why didn't you tell us any of this before?" Fluttershy asked giving me a stern but caring look.

I put my hand on hers, "It wasn't important until now. I'm sorry… But anyway, I was addicted to this girl, she was what kept me stable. And I needed that stability it was like a drug to me, and then we broke up for the first time. It was a mutual thing but I still felt horrible after but I didn't flip my lid. I didn't cry. She got with someone else and I was extremely jealous, in my head she was still mine. Eventually her and I got back together again and things went on. Then we broke up again for no real given reason, she initiated it that time. Everyone said she did it because she liked someone else but I couldn't believe it I mean I made her happy too right? She was getting fixed too right? No I was wrong she was already far too broken and she was breaking me even more, but I didn't feel it until it was too late. Again we got back together and again we broke up this time she told me why, she liked someone else… I put on a brave face told her it was ok and I hope that she would be happy. But inside I was dead, I was beyond dead but there was still a little flame that had hope that maybe we could get back together."

"If ya two did that would be might stupid of ya." AJ said.

I gave her a knowing smile, "Sadly AJ, We did and it was stupid of me. But we didn't get back together right away. I met someone else between those times."

"Oh was she better than this Cathryn?" Rarity asked.

I nodded, "He certainly was, probably the best thing that has ever happened to me too."

Rainbow let out a laugh, "Uh Chris, dude, you said he, don't you mean she?"

"I know what I said and I meant it."

"WHAT?!" I got a collective yell from everyone, their jaws all dropped.

"Chris, you're gay too?" Lyra asked.

"Nope" I said with a cheeky smile.

"But you just said you dated a guy!"

"Yeah and?" I loved messing with them it was cheering me up.

"So are you gay or are you not?"

"I'm both." I said matter-of-factly.

"Pardon?"

"I like both guys and girls, heck there are a lot of guys in Ponyville I'd get it on with." I said shocking everyone.

"Wait… you can do that? You can swing both ways?" Rainbow asked I nodded in response, "Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"You never asked Dash."

"So ya like both, is mah brother one of em?" AJ Asked.

"Hey just cuz every mare in Ponyville likes your brother does not mean I do." I huffed.

"Hey we do not all like Big Mac." Twilight said.

"Really? Tell me you don't stare at him when you all go over to AJ's place. Tell me his sweaty, glistening, bulging muscles don't look good when he's working the field. Tell me you don't stare at his ass when he bends over and grunts as he lifts something up. Tell me, I dare you to look me straight in the eyes and tell me you don't."

Every girl in the room except for AJ, Lyra and Bon Bon were blushing heavily with their eyes averted to mine and Spike just looked like he was going to throw up. "Yeah thought so." Smugness was plastered to my face so hard you couldn't break it off with a sledgehammer.

"Well darling he is quite an attractive stallion." Rarity said fanning herself with her had, Spike was gonna kill me later.

"Oh I agree, he's a hunk but he isn't my cup of tea."

"Then what is oh Mr. I'm not affected by hot muscles guy?" Pinkie said, joking but still somehow serious. Oh Pinkie don't ever change.

I pondered for a second, l "I like my men a bit more feminine. Like… hmm... Time Turner, petite and cute and has hips and a butt for a guy. I'd ride him all night."
"Chris… that's just…" Celestia said. Huh I almost forgot she was here. "That's… different. Not bad but different, I'll admit not a lot of females here like feminine stallions because they feel they won't be able to protect their foals. Actually a lot of Stallions are gay for that reason alone though there are muscular ones that are right along with them."

"Good, it looks like I'm among their ranks now too. Though I don't think I fall into the feminine bit, ever since I got here I've been putting on muscle, I'm not rage muscle like Snowflake or just big muscle like Big Mac but I am toned. Ah well." I shrugged.

"I… kinda like it." I heard Fluttershy say very very quietly from next to me so only I could hear it. "Anyway my I continue?" Everyone came out of their stupors and nodded. "Good so where was I? Oh right, best thing that ever happened to me. He really was. He was so cute, blonde hair and blue eyes. Shy just like me but he was cute with it, kinda like Flutters here. He wasn't broken, he was whole and he loved everything I did, Unlike Cathy, so it was so much easier to actually do things with him. I loved him so much, I would do anything for him and he I. But the thing is, I really didn't know how to do anything. I was still kind to him, I gave him anything if he asked for it and I cared for him. He had his own problems. I held him while he told me and cried them away, I let him use me as a pillow if he need someone to just lay on. I can't say this enough but I loved him so much. He got me into art and writing and he was into music. We were like one big art show and it was fantastic. He also helped me whenever I was down, he would hug me and rub my back, he would get me something to drink or to munch on if I felt down. I don't know what would've happened without him. I was his first kiss and he was so cute about it. He actually backed away so far he ended up against a wall and I had him pinned. He wasn't scared but he was nervous, I took his hand and told him if he didn't want to kiss me right now I'd wait for as long as necessary until he did. That's when he got brave and pulled me close and kissed me. We held each other in embrace for a while afterwards. Like I said probably the best thing that ever happened to me. I was his first for that too and it was loving, it wasn't what it was for me. It was the first time in a while I was truly happy and I never wanted it to end. But I already had darkness inside of me and it only grew and my heart was betraying me as I was with him. My heart wanted me to go back to Cathy, she still had something that he didn't have despite how happy I was with him and I knew that if she asked for another chance I would give it her."

Cadance had her hand covering her mouth, "Chris…. No…"

I nodded and sighed, rubbing the bridge of my nose, "She did ask for another chance, I told her to give me some time to think. I went to him and told him about this… He said, "If you really want to, go ahead, I won't be mad at you. I promise, I'll always love you and if you ever need me I'm here." And I did the stupidest thing I have ever done in my entire life… I… I left him…" I slammed my fist on the table when something hit me, a realization, my eyes went wide and I whispered, "No… no no no no no no…" I felt myself getting angry but more than anything getting sad and regretful, "He was just like me… he had someone to love someone who loved him and I left him for someone who had hurt me. I left him... I left someone I loved more than anything else and I broke him…. Why?" I buried my face in my hands. It hurt already knowing I hurt him by leaving him but that I created another me was even worse. I haven't truly cried like this in years and I couldn't stop. I was muttering to myself with gasps and yells in between.

I could hear chairs moving and I heard Celestia tell them to sit back down, that I needed this, that I needed to go through this by myself. And she was right I did need to… It made me feel better letting it all out. Years of pain and regret from what I did were leaving me as the salty tears dripped on to the table forever staining that spot with my emotions… After a few minutes I calmed down and asked for a glass of water. I chugged it down when it was brought to me, "Thank you for letting me have my minute, Celestia was right I needed to go through that I feel better now, but that won't last long I'm still not done."

"Chris… do you want to take a break? We can finish this later if you want?" Cadance asked.

I shook my head, "No this has been long overdue. I'm finishing this now." I saw Cadance, Celestia, and Luna all smile a knowing smile at me. They knew if I didn't do this now I never would.

I took a shaky breath, "He left and I didn't hear from him for a while, so I got back with Cathy but my heart and soul were heavy with what I did. It was my 3rd year in High School, the year my depression was at it's worst. I hated everyone and everything save for a few things. I was talking to Becca again because she was the only person I could think of when I did what I did to talk to about it. She understood and she comforted me and we became best friends again. But I hated everything. I hated school, I hated people, I hated my family but most importantly I hated myself. There were times it got so bad I wanted to kill myself. People on my world when their depression gets to that point sometimes they do kill themselves, some people cut themselves to distract from all the thoughts and internal pain. Me? I did neither obviously, instead I did something I thought was worse. I increased the internal pain by directing all that hatred I had for everything towards me so I wouldn't hurt anyone else ever again. And it was destroying my heart and soul, they only time I felt happy was around Cathy and Becca. My other friends I stopped talking to for a while save a few I kept in contact with. But it was mainly just Cathy and Becca. What I was doing was destroying my life, I was doing worse in school, I fought with my family, my younger sister and I grew apart and just everything was at rock bottom or so I thought until karma decided to pay me back for what I did to Braden, the guy I dated. Near the end of the year Cathy broke up with me for someone else again. The bad part was that it was someone who was exactly like me except for how I looked, we talked a few times, him and I, we acted the same liked the same things and even dressed almost alike it was kinda creepy. So to me I was like what was even the point of her breaking up with me? Because the universe hated me but something even greater in me broke after that. It was something so great I didn't feel anything. I was finally at that point where my heart and soul were gone and all I wanted to do was sleep. I may have gotten better over time but that sleeping bit effected me a lot. I'm constantly in a sleepy state now. The only person I had left was Becca, that was until Braden came back… I was happy I was overjoyed… I was I was…."

"You were scared, worried, and angry." Cadance said.

I was really thankful to have her here now. I'll have to thank Celestia later. "Yeah those, I was glad he was back but for a while we barely talked, I could feel he was mad at me and I couldn't blame him I broke the boy, but I could still feel he loved me and I needed that. That is when I made the decision that I will never ever forgive myself for. I did the worst thing in the world by my standards. And if it was anyone else I would kill them. Hell I almost killed myself, and just thinking about it now just makes me want to… to…" I roared and slammed my fists into the table again, splintering the wood and causing it to freeze a bit even with my gloves on. I felt a touch again, this time from Fluttershy and Cadance. They both nodded at me and I calmed down.

"Sorry it's just what I did was horrible. I used him, I needed that love, so I talked to him I convinced him to give us another chance and I fed off of that love like some weird love leech. I don't think I actually loved him that time I think I just needed someone else's love and happiness to keep going for a little while longer. The one person I still did love, she told me that she still liked me… Becca told me she still liked me. When I learned that I tossed Braden aside like some used up sack of juice and waited for to get with Becca."

I laughed a dark laugh. "It never happened we never got together, Braden left, I realized what I did and I was devastated again. But I had no emotions to feel it but it could be seen, Becca saw it and she's very protective over me. She blamed Cathy and Braden for how I was and never forgave them not even to this day. I could understand the blame for Cathy but I tried to convince her that it wasn't Braden's fault, it was mine but whenever I brought him up I could feel her get angry, she rarely got angry at anything and it scared me, she is one of the few people who actually scare the living daylights out of me. But she never really cried either even though she had as many problems going on as me if not more. She never told anyone, even me, and she only told me two years after this incident about her problems. She stayed strong and genuinely happy and I admired her for it… I felt a genuine love again and it was for my best friend again just like before. But like I said we never got together but I never stopped loving her and I was just happy with her being happy. She was with me through everything whether I wanted her to be or not, even when I was avoiding her she was there when I needed her. Anyway, after what happened with Braden I vowed to never do that again, I promised to truly be there for anyone if they needed me no matter what… I would be there for them honest and true. I would never manipulate anyone ever again. And I didn't but guess what… she came back."

There was a collective groan and then Bon Bon, probably the most sensible of all of us spoke up for the first time, "Chris you knuckle head, don't you ever learn?"

I chuckled, "Love you too Bonnie, but sadly I was even harder headed then than I am now. I was willing to give her one more chance but this happened a while after the Braden fiasco, during my last year of High School, so I was genuinely doing better I was healing up, I had all my friends again, I had my grades up, I was on good terms with my family and my sister and I were as close as ever. I decided to go to therapy though, just incase. Got some pills to help too but I rarely needed them. But yeah she came back I decided to give her one more chance. She said she was sorry and that she would try to do better since I was doing better. That it could work out again. I asked her to give me a bit of time 1 month. The month passed and at the end of it she got with someone the day we agreed to talk about it…"

"That's just… wrong." Spike said.

Everyone else just had a scowl or was shaking their heads, the ponies that scared me he most though were Celestia, Fluttershy, and Cadance. Celestia was much like how Becca was, she was very protective of me, Fluttershy was very much like how Braden was and how much he loved me and would do anything to see me happy, Cadance was reminding me a lot of my mom and my sister who did not like seeing her son/big brother upset or hurt. Yeah… they scared me a lot. I cleared my throat trying to calm everyone down. "Well, I wasn't having anymore of it. I went off I told her everything… how I felt and what she did to me, I was beyond done. The shred of caring and love I had for her were dead and something happened that never happened to any other female before or just before in general that I can remember. I had a hatred that wasn't directed at me, one that I wouldn't direct at me ever and I wanted to do something I never want to do to a female, I wanted to hurt her, I wanted her to feel all the suffering I've felt over the years because of her because of what she turned me into, of what my addiction to her made me do, of what she did to me. I wanted her to know pain. That… wasn't who I ever was, I didn't know who that was but she turned me into that and it made me hate her more it made me want to hurt her more." I sighed and looked down

"You… you didn't do it though right? Right, Chris? C-Chris?" Fluttershy shook me gently trying to get me to answer.
I looked up at her, my eyes were again filled with tears and I shook my head, "N-no I didn't I was scared of myself, I knew that if I let myself go on feeling that I would lose control and do it, so I broke off our friendship, whatever we had, I left I never looked back and I slept for a very long time, a couple of days to be exact, when I woke up I was feeling much better. It seemed like everything was going to be ok. But then the end of school came and my depression rolled in even worse than when the Braden stuff happened. We were graduating and I was happy to be done with it all, but… something I didn't realize until the day of graduation is that I relied on my friends. They were all I had any more in my world and they were all going to go separate ways and I wasn't ready for that. My life was spent trying to mend a heart and soul that was too broken to mend. I wanted to kill myself I wanted to end it and I got very close one time. But I didn't do it obviously. I kept on going with my life but my dad started to change as he got older he got more violent and then my mom died of natural causes when I was 19 it was hard on us, my older sister didn't care she hated our mom anyway, my dad got worse, and I stayed strong for my younger sister. My mom might not've been her real mom but they loved each other all the same. My depression kicked in harder than ever and I thought about ending it again… but I didn’t"

"We are curious and we do not wish to sound callous, but what stopped you? If we were in your position we are not sure if we could have lasted as long." Luna said.

I waved it off, though I did have a lingering thought that they are both well over 1000 years old surely they went through some stuff that would’ve had them in the same position, hell Luna’s whole Nightmare Moon thing was something similar, but maybe they just didn’t see it like that, "It's fine Luna I don't mind. What kept me going was hope that eventually it would get better, I still had Becca who was talking to me and I still loved her. And whenever I had thoughts of killing myself I thought what I would feel like if she killed herself, if my little sister killed herself, if all my friends killed themselves. It hurt what was left of my heart so much and I didn't want anyone else going through that, so I kept living for them. I lived to be their shoulders to cry on, to be their walls to block everything out, to be their umbrellas to protect them from the rain. I decided that I would use the last of the love I had left for them and any other friends I made. And that's why I've been so depressed lately, It just hit me that I left them and I so eagerly did it too, and I justified it that I had nothing left for me on that world to hold me back. But the closer I grew to you all the more you all reminded me of my friends and family… and I…"

"You felt guilty…" Again Cadance, this mare is friggin amazing.

"Yes I did and I still do, and I think I always will unless I'm able to get a chance to properly say goodbye. But since I don't think that will happen… I've decided something else." I said having come up with something pretty much instantly.

"What's that?" Celestia asked.

I smiled a happy smile a smile that I could feel warm up the room and spread to everyone else, "I'm going to live and be happy for my new friends, for all of you. I'm going to learn to open myself up again and I'm going to pour my love into you all whatever I have left to give. It won't be easy, in fact it will be quite hard but I'll have you all to help me along the way right?" I looked hopefully to all of them.

Twilight gave me a warm smile, "Of course we will that's what friendship is for."

Applejack gave a firm nod, "Of course partner, if ya ever need help from one of the Apples feel free to ask."

Rainbow Dash gave me a thumbs up, "Hey I never leave my friends hanging."

Rarity gave me another warm smile, "Of course darling and like Applejack said, if you need anything don't hesitate to ask, ok?"

Bon Bon just sighed but smiled, "I can't believe it took you this long to realize you were being silly. But yes, we already work together and we're friends, if you need me I'm here."

"What the sexy candy mare said." Lyra said with a playful smile getting jabbed in the ribs.

I turned to the other side of the table starting with Spike, "Man you're already like a big brother to me, of course I will."

"Yep yep yeppers, but you have to let me throw you a Chris is happy party when we get back to Ponyville. Please Please Please Please Please Please Please Please?" She was bouncing up and down and for once I didn't mind.

"You don't even need to ask…" She gave me a smile that warmed me to my core.

"That's what I'm here for Chris, I told you that the day we first met." Celestia said.

"As are we, we will do our best to help you friend Chris." Luna said.

Finally Cadance, with that forever loving smile, "What kind of Princess of love would I be if I didn't? And thank you for considering me a friend."

I started to tear up, "It's ok they're happy tears, Thank you everyone… I don't know what to say… I'll do my best that's all I can promise." I wiped away my tears, "I had another thought."
"And that is?" Cadance asked even though I'm pretty sure she knew what it was

"This." I grabbed Fluttershy and pulled her close and kissed her deeply and passionately, she returned it. I broke away, "And yes this means we're together, I hope you understand why I was hesitant at first now and I hope you forgive me." She just nodded blushing and had a dopey smile on her face.

"Wait they liked each other? I had no idea, why did no one tell me?!" Pinkie blurted out.
We all looked at her with a look that said, 'Are you serious?'

"Just kidding, it was really obvious, it just took you two long enough, now I can throw a Chris and Fluttershy finally got together party!" She clapped happily and we all laughed.

Afterwards Celestia told us she had something to tell us but that could wait till tomorrow and that we had rooms ready for us to stay in, the rest of the evening we stayed in that room talking and catching up since I've been so distant. We also had some really good food, well I did since it was mostly meet and gems, yeah I could eat those too, pretty cool. When it was time to turn in Fluttershy decided to sleep in my room tonight to make sure I would sleep ok since all that would still be troubling me for a bit. But we ran into Cadance walking to her room and I told Fluttershy to go ahead because I needed to talk to Cadance about something but I knew she also had to talk to me about something, she didn't tell me but I could see it in her eyes.
"So what did you want to talk to me about?" I asked her after Fluttershy left.

"How did you?"

"I've always had the ability to tell what people are thinking or feeling by looking into their eyes. Just something I can do."

"Another human thing?" She asked.

"Another… human thing?" I was confused.

"Yes, like those horns, or your eyes, or your teeth and ability to eat gems. Or how about that fact that you splinted the table, those of very strong tables made and enchanted specifically so that can't happen. You have to be pretty strong to make that happen." She said, she wasn't suspicious just curious, I could tell that.

I shrugged, "I don't know I am a bit stronger when I'm angry and I was pretty pissed."
"That doesn't explain how some of them froze or that you were emitting mist when it happened." She smiled, she knew she got me.

"Alright alright you got me, nosy. I'm a dragon, an Ice dragon, well to be more exact I'm a human with the abilities and powers of an ice dragon; I can also turn into one fully. Not yet though, the parts have to come through slowly first then I can turn into a full one whenever, or at least what I was told." I explained.

"And how did you come about this power?" I sighed and told her everything I knew. "I see, sorry if it seemed like I was suspicious or anything it's just that."

"You didn't want anything dangerous around your friends. That and you really didn't have any doubts that I would hurt them but you were just making sure. Trust me I understand, I'm scary when I lose my temper but I do my best to be kind and loving even if I don't have a lot left to give. But I will protect my friends and those I care about even if it means fighting." I said.
She put a hand on my shoulder, "Don't sell yourself short Chris, you have more love inside you than you think. You have the most love I've ever felt inside a creature outside of my Auntie and that's saying something. Hold onto that love, never lose it, it can break through the deepest darknesses and carry you to the light."

I nodded, "Thank you, I will, Cadance can I ask you what I wanted to ask you now?"
"Sure go ahead."

I blushed a bit, "I know you're a princess and we just met and all but you remind me a lot of my younger sister and my mom, can I… well this will sound childish but… Can you be my big sister?"

"I'd be honored to have you as a little brother." She was smiling a smile that could rival Pinkie's. I just kinda stood there awkwardly, "Would you like to hug me? I don't mind."

I walked up to her and I hugged her tight, I need this more than you can imagine, "Thank you…"
I whispered quietly and she hugged me back and we stayed like that for a minute or two. "Well I should probably be going to Fluttershy… Night sissy."

She smiled, "Have a good night brother, and if you do anything use protection… or don't I'd like to be an aunt too." She laughed at my red face and went to her room.

"Butt face…" I walked back to my room smiling though, it felt good to tell people about that it was a load off of my heart and I needed it. Well I think this is it for tonight Fluttershy is calling me to bed. I'll write back in you as soon as I can.

I closed my journal and looked at myself in the mirror, I looked tired and worn out, time for sleep it is. I climbed in bed with my marefriend and went to sleep. Unbeknownst to me when I left my reflection didn't instead it lingered as a dark shadow and it smiled a smile of pure evil and his eyes flashed red and green for a moment and he disappeared.

Author's Note

:pinkiegasp: I found an old flash drive with copies of chapters for this so it'll be updated, Not sur]re how frequently though because I have to go through and edit them, but yeah it's back. And angsty past is angsty, But I wrote this a long time back, back when I was in a rough spot sooo yeah sorry for the cringe :pinkiesick: but here you all are, enjoy! :pinkiehappy: :twilightsmile:

Yes, I'm putting a link to the Q&A blog in every author note, for those who stopped at mid points in the story, It's for reaching 25 chapters being written, even though 25 is still being written: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/831885/qs-for-the-qa-chapter

9: Hey, long time no see

"I hope you all had a good rest after yesterday." Celestia said, we were all sitting at the same table that we were yesterday, how did I know? It was still splintered.

"I had a good sleep." I said stretching having most of my joints pop, "But my god it's way too early." I picked up the glass of orange juice I had delivered to me and took a sip

"You're the one who decided to stay up all night with Shy over there getting it on." Rainbow said.

"Rainbow dear, were you spying on them?" Rarity asked in disbelief.

She scoffed, "Nope, you could just hear it down the entire hall; I know you all did too." They didn't say anything but I knew they did.

"Well, and here I thought the castle rooms would be soundproof so things like this wouldn't happen." I said taking another sip. Fluttershy was sinking lower and lower in her chair next to me.

"You are strangely calm about this Chris." Celestia said.

"Oh, I'm freaking out on the inside but… it's also a natural thing and really I knew you would do something like this Celestia you seem to have this thing about embarrassing me."

"Moi? I would never do such a thing." She had a mock look of shock on her face but I could see in her eyes that I was right.

"Right… so what are we here for now?"

"I'll fill you all in when Cadance get's here." She said, "Until then would any of you like something to eat?"

A stomach growled loudly and everyone looked at me, "What? That wasn't me." The all eyes turned to Fluttershy's disappearing form and she squeaked and sunk lower.

"Told you it wasn't me, but yes food does sound nice." I said rubbing my stomach while we ate I heard a humming in my head.
'Ixis, is that you?' I called out.

+Chris? CHRIS!+ I swear if she had arms she would've hugged me, +You're right I would've.+

'What happened to you? You disappeared for months.' I said, I was happy she was back, her and I have held a lot of conversations and she's just a good a friend as everyone else.

She sighed, +I was being trapped by the darkness that clouded your mind, I'm glad to see it's gone now but…+

'But?'

+Chris… I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I sent you to this world, I'm sorry that I made things harder for you, and I'm sorry for what I have to tell you now.+

'What…?'

+I wish I told you this sooner but I'm not sure how you would've reacted but seeing as how you've recovered from most things even if it will still plague your mind for a while I feel you could overcome this. But… now I regret this even more…+ She sounded scared, she sounded worried.

'Ixis, what are you talking about? Come on, tell me.'

+Chris, you know how long dragons live right? If they make it through all the combat they face and don't fall to disease. They lived thousands upon thousands of years… and Ice Dragons, like me, like you, they live even longer. It's in our nature, we are ice we slow everything down and last for as long as necessary. No one truly knows how long and Ice Dragon can live but the oldest one known to this world before the war was well over 500 thousand years old. Most died in battle before they even reached the age of 50 thousands as do many of the other Dragons, we were a very warrior minded race. Now though since the world is much more peaceful from when I was last here dragons seem to be living much longer now and… Chris, I don't know how long you're going to be alive if you somehow manage to stay healthy and out of combat, it is possible you could be alive as long as Celestia and Luna don't die as well. And for that I'm truly sorry, I gave you a curse unlike any other.+
I heard her give off a soft whimper and I felt a tear roll down my cheek. Weird because I wasn't feeling sad I was surprised more than anything.

'Ixis… it's ok it's ok, I can't have you sad, you cheer me up when I'm sad. What am I supposed to do when the voice in my head gets upset huh? I can't exactly tickle you.' I laughed, 'Come on, it isn't that bad and besides I knew that the day I learned that I was essentially becoming a dragon, not the whole possibility of living forever but I did know I was going to live a very long time compared to any normal human.'

+You knew?+

'Well, I guessed, but thank you for confirming it. Oh I'm going to freak out at a certain point and I'm fairly sure I'll go crazy in the future but hey, what's life without a little challenge?'

+Easy?+ she suggested.

'Boring.' I corrected.

"Chris…" I heard a voice off to my left, "Chris, are you ok?"

I shook my head clearing my thoughts. It was Cadance, "Oh, hi sissi, yeah I'm fine why do you ask?"

"I just came in saw my little brother had a tear going down his cheek and I was worried." She said relieved.

"Sissi? Baby Brother… what exactly is going on here?" Twilight asked.

"Well you see…" I explained what her and I discussed last night.

"And I plan on filling out official papers to have him recognized as my brother." Cadance made it very clear to everyone she really intended to do this, "I mean, he has no family in our world and I would be proud to add him to ours. Twilight this means he'll be your brother too, and I wanted to ask you if you were ok with it?"

Twilight looked at me and then at Cadance, she sighed reluctantly, "Yes, I'm ok with it, but don't you think you should discuss this with Shining?"

Cadance blanched, "Oh no, I completely forgot about Shining Armor with all the excitement…. I hope he takes this well… It would probably take some convincing."

Celestia shook her head, "Cadance you silly filly, but I support both of your decisions in this. It is a good idea for him to have a family here. And this is a good transition too, you see Cadance isn't just here to help Chris with his problems, the Crystal Empire is in danger. Cadance can explain more."

All attention was on the princess of love, "The Crystal Empire… it disappeared from the face of the planet, a few days ago it came back it was also my original home, I was still a foal when it disappeared so I don't have any memories of it but I did know that it was my responsibility to go there and see what was going on. That's where Shining is right now holding up a shield against a dark force, King Sombra. He is the pony who overthrew my parents, banished us from the empire, took over as king, and enslaved the ponies there. He is a pony of pure darkness and was only defeated by Celestia and Luna sealing him in the ice in the lands that surround the kingdom using the Elements of Harmony but before he did he cast the spell that hid it away for a thousand years."

"Yes and while he was being sealed he told me that when the empire reappeared even if he were to remain sealed one day he would break free when he sensed somepony who he could truly call a rival." Celestia said.

"Any idea who that is?" I asked, "If a dude who is pure darkness is back that sounds pretty bad and I'm pretty sure the empire could use the help." I had a sneaking feeling as to who it was but hey I liked to be sure.

"We do indeed friend Chris, we believe that pony… well person is you." Luna said.

God… fucking… damn it, "Are you sure? I mean he only came back a few days ago right? I'm assuming with the empire? Why did he wait this long when I've been here for months?"

"Our guess is that he waited until the empire was back so he could have somewhere to recover properly, I guess he didn't expect Shining or Cadance to be there to stop that. So now he is attacking the Crystal Empire relentlessly trying to break passed the shield and take over again before you can get there, we hope to stop that as soon as possible." Celestia paused, "But we don't expect you to be able to do much on your own, no offense, so we're sending the girls with you so they can use the Elements to hopefully seal him again."

I groaned, "Really? Hmmmm, guess I don't have a choice. I live in a land with magical talking ponies so I really shouldn't be that surprised by this. But it seems way too cliché for my liking."

"Yeah the universe has a strange way of doing that when you're our friends." Twilight said. "Well, we'll do what we can won't we girls?" She got a varied amount of confirmations even from Fluttershy but I only assumed that was because I was going.

"Ahem, I'm not a girl." I said with a huff.

Twilight rolled her eyes, "Girls and guy… picky."

"When do we leave? I don't want to sound like a downer but we have to make sure someone can take care of our homes while we're gone. We also need to pack enough clothes to last however long we will be down there and other essentials." Rarity said.

Rainbow snickered and whispered, quite loudly to AJ, "Knowing Rarity an essential for her would be her fainting couch." AJ snorted but kept quiet. Man heightened senses are awesome.

"This is true… how about 3 days from now, will that be ample amount of time for you to procure what you need?" Luna asked.

"That will be plenty, thank you Princess Luna." Rarity replied.

"Anything else will be told to you on the train ride there. I will see you all back here in 3 days." Celestia said dismissing everyone… almost everyone, "Chris, stay behind please."

I stayed seated while everyone else left, "What's up Celestia?"

"First off I wanted to know if you were ok from yesterday?" I nodded, "That's good to know, and I wish you happiness with Fluttershy. Now the other thing I wanted to talk to you about is how to deal with your draconic powers."

I laughed, "Why am I not surprised?"

"Most likely because you are probably the strongest person that was in this room besides Luna and I and you knew it. Or at least you will be when you go to the Crystal Empire." She said facing a window.

"Whatchya talkin bout Molly?" Ok maybe I was in too good of a mood, I don't care.

"I'm talking about your ability to absorb energy from ice, snow, and cold and become stronger. The Ice Fields of the north were the original homes of the Ice Dragons before the war broke out. It is coldest place in all of Equestria it was perfect for them and when they went almost extinct during the war ponies took over the land or at least a small portion of it. The crystals there were rich with magical energies and easily molded but extremely durable. Enough so they made their homes, shops, schools and castle out of it. They lived there long enough that the magic from the crystals seeped into their very essence changed mainly how they looked on a biological level. They still were ponies they just had a crystalline coat and sheen to them but still a different species of pony, we called them the Crystal ponies. Anyway, back to how this concerns you. You see, because of your abilities, you'll be able to take in the cold, snow, and ice from the area and since it's a never ending supply you're essentially going to be getting stronger the more you take in, if I'm not mistaken it's only a temporary boost in power but… Like I said since it is in constant supply that boost will last a longer time." She explained all this while watching her ponies go throughout their day to day lives.

"Hmmm, if I'm going to be that strong shouldn't I be able to take Sombra by myself?"

"Maybe, but the most you would be able to do is freeze him in ice, I want the elements to go anyway. I have a feeling they'll be needed." She said.

"Alright I can understand that, and I promise they won't come to harm. But I should probably go get ready myself." I said leaving Celestia to stare out the window by herself.

"I really hope I'm wrong about this…" Celestia said.

~3 days later on the train~

"So why aren't Bon Bon and Lyra coming with us, they were there during the briefing too." Fluttershy pointed out.

"They said they needed to take care of the shop and since we didn't know how long we're going to be gone they couldn't risk leaving the shop closed." I told her.

"Will they be ok without you?"

"They better be, they lasted this long without me and if everything fell apart because I wasn't there I'd be highly worried about their work ethic and rethink how much I needed to be paid." I said with a laugh.

She laid her head against my arm, "I'm glad I can show affection towards you in public now."

I rub her head with my free hand, "I know Shy, though even without it you've become a lot more open and brave since I've been around, even if it has only been a few months."

"I-it's really only around you…"

"Oh quit being modest, I'm sure you're just as brave even without me around." I reassured her.

"Mmmm no, she's still pretty much scared of everything without you." Rainbow said, completely oblivious to what I was trying to do. We all gave her a deadpanned look and AJ even facepalmed and groaned. "What?" Rainbow asked, still oblivious.

I sighed and shook my head, "Nothing… nothing at all Rainbow." I looked at Shy. "Flutters, you're fine. Your shyness is what makes you who you are. I'm glad that I can bring out the brave and protective side of you without having to be in danger. But I know you'd still protect your friends."

She nodded, "Of course I would, no matter what."

"Exactly. And. That's. Why. I. Love. You." I booped her nose softly with each word.

"They make a wonderful couple wouldn't you agree?" Rarity said to Cadance, who was sitting in the seat across from her.

"Yes, they do. I can feel the love coming from them and it is immense. I'm sure if they powered the shield that tossed Chrysalis from our wedding it would've been much stronger than what was made from me and Shining." She said with a warm smile.

"And you aren't bothered by that?"

"Bothered by what Rarity?"

"That their love seems to be stronger than yours and Shining Armor's? I mean, after all you are the Princess of Love." She said, explaining herself.

"Hmmm, well maybe a little bit, but like you said I am the Princess of Love. It makes me happy to feel this much love and to be honest, he deserves this. But I can still sense a bit of fear and doubt in his heart that I don't think will ever go away." Cadance said with a sad sigh.

"He's afraid that he'll hurt her or that he'll get hurt again isn't he?" Rarity asked, gaining a look from Cadance. "What, I have eyes, I can see what's going on behind the scenes just as well as any other pony if not better. Not as well as Pinkie I'm afraid though, I think that mare might even rival you or Chrysalis in sensing emotions, especially hidden ones."

Cadance was lost in thought and was looking around. I was laughing from a joke Pinkie just told and Fluttershy was too. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were discussing something about having another Iron pony competition when they got back to Ponyville. Twilight, ever the bookworm, had her nose buried deep in a book about advanced magical logistics and Spike was snoozing against her side. And Cadance was here talking to Rarity. She smiled and thought, 'Chris was right it won't be easy recovering but with these seven I think he'll be just fine.'

I cleared my throat getting everyone's attention, even woke spike up, "Alright I have some news, and it isn't necessarily good." That really got everyone's attention and Fluttershy sat up and looked at me with concern. "It is something I suspected but only had recently confirmed. You all know I'm essentially an Ice Dragon, kind of, and that I've gained and will gain all the powers and abilities that go with it. That includes the extremely long life of a dragon. Ice dragon's being, well, ice means I could potentially live forever under the right conditions."

Cadance gasped being the first to realize what that meant, she was a Princess tied to love, love would forever exist so she knew she was going to be alive forever as well and I'm sure she went through this a long time ago. "Chris… are you going to be ok?"

"Why wouldn't he be ok? It means he gets to live forever and have a ton of parties and things. I bet he'll make so many friends!" Pinkie said happily. I gave her a warm smile, reached across and tussled her already messy hair, she giggled. I knew she caught on and I knew this was just her way of dealing with that.

"Yeah I mean living for ever has got to be so awesome." Rainbow said.

I wasn't mad at her but I guess I should explain. "I'll be fine Cadance, don't worry, I'm sure this will hit me like a sack of rocks later but I'll have them here to help out. But… that won't always be the case, see I might live forever and sure that will be cool, but as I age, even if I won't show it and even if I live for a long time, you all will show it and you all won't live for that long at all at least comparatively. And that is what sucks the most, I'm going to lose friends and loved ones over and over no matter what I do. Unless they're Immortals like Cadance, Celestia, and Luna, and possibly other dragons but the only other dragons are Fire Dragon's and they are like fire they shine brightly but unless you refill the fire every now and again and take care of it, they burn out quickly. So I'll even outlive the one who will live the longest out of you all." I looked at Spike he was still so young and I hate having to place this on his mind. "And I am so sorry for that." Spike sighed and looked down dejectedly, nodding, knowing as well as I did it would happen one day even to the pony he loved most. He'd live much longer than they would just like me. He looked back up at me and in the moment we understood that we would have to be there for each other when that time comes. I gave him a proud nod and looked to Fluttershy.

"Chris… that's… that's not fair to you. After everything you went through. I-It's just not fair." She said nuzzling into my arm.

"I know it isn't Flutters, but don't be sad. Any of you, don't feel sad for me. I've made up my mind that no matter what I would enjoy my time with those I loved and when they're gone I'll remember them fondly as I still live on. Yes I'll make new friends I most likely will even have other loves. But I will never forget any of you, I will always love every single one of you no matter what and not one other creature will hold the spots in my heart and soul you've taken up." I held out 7 carvings made out of ice, pin included, "So here, I made these, they took a lot of my magic to do but they will never melt. They're something I want you to keep forever." They were all carvings of their Cutie Marks with a snowflake attached to it. For spike it was a fire with a snowflake melted to it.

I handed out each one to their respective owners, "You don't have to wear them all the time or even at all, but I just wanted you to have them for being such great friends in the short amount of time that I've been here." They all put them on, for Spike's I froze an elastic ribbon to it so he could tie it around him wherever and it would stretch as he grew. That made me really happy, friiiiiieeeeeeennnnnnds.

"What you don't have one for me?" Cadance ask with fake hurt.

I held up my hands, "Hey, It took a lot out of me making those 7 you can even ask Shy, I was mainly sleeping during the 3 days and when I was awake I was working on those. But I'll have yours before we go back I promise."

Cadance gave it a thought, "Alright I'll hold you to that… but Chris, can I talk to you in private?"

I cocked my head, "Hmm, alright. Where do you want to talk?"

"Well there is an empty car." She said, "Come on." She stood up and gestured for me to follow.

I stood up and gave Fluttershy a quick kiss and walked after Cadance. When we got to the car I closed the door and heard it lock, I also saw Cadance's horn glowing. "So what's with the whole glowy glowy horn?" I asked.

"Sound proofing spell, this is a conversation strictly for you and I." She said and sat down patting the seat next to her. I sat down.

"What's up Sissi?"

"Well, first off I wanted to know if you were doing ok? I know reliving your past took a lot out of you."

I sighed and leaned back, "Honestly, I could probably be a lot better at the moment. I'm tired and not just from making those pins, as I've explained my life has been rocky even outside of relationships. I have a natural ground in hatred for myself because that's just what I'm used to. I've also had to make some shitty decisions before and bringing up my past has brought a lot of them back up to the surface. And this whole possibility of living for ever thing isn't going to make it easier. The longer I'm alive, the longer I'll think about that and only two things happen from that."

She looked at me, "And what are those?"

I laughed, "I will either go insane and be full of rage and regret from everything or I will have enough time to reflect and know that even if it was hard on me it's what made me who I am and whatever choices I made were the right ones hopefully. Sure at the time when it happens I won't be thinking about this I'll just be feeling like crap. Hell I still have a long life so even more stuff will be stacked up and that will just increase the chance that I'll lose my mind." I laughed again.

She scowled at me, "That's not funny. If that's a possibility then why aren't you scared?"

I stopped laughing and adopted a serious face, "Oh I'm terrified, and you can't sense it, because I know how to hide my emotions that well. But I'm also not worried, I mean there's still the possibility that I'll learn, accept, and move on. And that's what I'm hoping for, that and I'll always have friends to help. I mean you're an Alicorn as much as Luna and Celestia. You guys will be around just as long as I will if not longer right? So I'll have you all to lean on when I need it. What about you, I know you aren't as old as Celestia and Luna but how did you cope with losing those you loved the first time and realizing you'd go through this over and over again?"

She smiled at me, "Just like you said, I had auntie Celestia to help me, not aunt Luna though, she was still banished at the time. You know you're very wise for someone who is still so young."

I shrugged, "Not really I just tend to think more than most people give me credit for. I spend a lot of time planning out scenarios for almost anything. They aren't full plans but it's enough of an outline to get me through when I need to improvise. I also spend a lot of time thinking over theories and stuff. Like, theoretically, if I could make somebody's body go to absolute zero instantaneously I'm thinking I could basically cryogenically freeze them and keep them alive and thaw them out whenever. But again only a theory since absolute zero is impossible to reach."

"You should talk to Twilight about that, I'm sure she would be interested and probably about any of your other theories you might have."

"I'll be sure to do that, now what did you want to actually talk about?" I asked her.

She looked at me surprised, "Was it that obvious?" I nodded, "Pony feathers… well you see it's about taking you in as my brother."

I felt my heart skip a beat, "What about you taking me in as your brother?"

"It's not that I can't per say, and it's not that anypony will be mad, ok some ponies will but that's from the main reason I wanted to talk to you. If I adopt you as my brother, you will essentially be a Prince. And if both I and Shining die or step down you will be next in line for the throne." She explained.

I sat up, "You're kidding right?"

"Not at all, that's why I wanted to talk to you, to see if you still wanted to go through with this. I can understand if you don't."

"Cadance… I don't care about any of that. If I have to be a prince I have to be a prince. I don't know how to lead and I don't know how to properly fight, I'll need to learn everything Princely I'm assuming. I'm also guessing I'd be required to attend to go to certain events right?"
She nodded, "Yes, your training in proper manners and other things would happen as soon as possible which is most likely after we stop Sombra. And you would be required to attend only a certain few events. The Grand Galloping Gala is one and The Crystal Ball is another. You'd be also called in as a representative of the Crystal Empire if needed. Also you will have access to the treasury and your authority will be valid and upheld pretty much everywhere and any act of war declared on you is war declared on the Empire as well as Equestria since we're obviously allies."

I scratched my chin, "Hmmm well… I guess I can deal with most of that. Would I have to live in the Empire though?"

"No I don't suppose you would, it could be said that you are the ambassador for the Empire and you'd be able to live anywhere just fine, why do you ask?"

"I'm not going to take Fluttershy away from her friends, at least not without talking to her about this first. If she says she doesn't want to leave then I won't make her but I also won't stay here without her." I said making my point clear.

"I'm glad to hear you say that, love comes first. And about Fluttershy, if you two do get married…"

"I know, I already thought about that, trust me I will talk to her. And if I don't then you better make me. You wouldn't be such a good sister if you let me make bad decisions now would you?"

We shared a laugh, "No I suppose I wouldn't, so that means you still want to go through with this?"

"Of course, you were right the other day, I do need a family even it isn't blood related and honestly who better to pick than someone who will be around as long as me and is the Princess of Love? You're also a good friend, and yes I mean that even if we've only really know each other for a few days, I'm a pretty good judge in character. And I already know I can trust you with my life." She surprised me with a hug but I recovered quickly and hugged her back. "Thanks for this really, and don't tell anyone else please? I'd like to not be known as a prince to them, at least not until I'm ready."

She let go, "I understand, but you are still Going to tell Fluttershy right?" I nodded, "Good, do you want me to send her in here so you can talk to her?"

"If you wouldn't mind." She walked to the door at the end of the car and walked out and closed it behind her. A few seconds later Fluttershy came in. "Hey Flutters."

"Princess Cadance said you had something you wanted to talk to me about?" She asked.

"Yeah, come on and sit next to me, I won't bite, you know, unless you want me to." I said wiggling my eyebrows.

Fluttershy blushed, "Chris… not here."

"Why not? There is a soundproofing spell, door locks, and the windows in this car have their blinds down." I said.

She looked around and shuffled a bit, "Well…"

"Well?"

She sighed, "Fine fine."

~several LONG minutes and a good shower later~

"Who knew there was a shower hiding in one of the panels back there?" I asked in astonishment, fully dressed.

"We were lucky there was one." Fluttershy gave out a groan in annoyance.

"Hey you agreed. Anyway, I didn't call you back here just for some fun. I do actually have something to talk to you about. I don't know if you'll like it but…" And so I told her and I was right, she wasn't happy mainly because I most likely wouldn't be able to go back home with her.

"It's not fair, we just got you back from being all mopey I don't want to have to say goodbye again." She said nuzzling into my arm.

"I know Shy and I'm sorry, but it won't be until after we defeat Sombra and who knows how long that will take… though if the Elements work then…" I sighed, "I really am sorry, but…"

"I know, this is a chance to get a new family and start over." She said.

"Yeah… I wish I could go but if this is the downside to it then I'll deal and besides I bet it won't even take that long to finish the training." I would come to regret that statement later.

"Promise?"

I kissed her forehead, "I promise and I always keep my promises." We heard a knock at the door, I unlocked it after I got out the shower.

AJ opened the door, "Come on you two, we're here and Shy I suggest you put on something thick real fast."

We nodded and got up, everyone was dressed in some sort of thick gear to protect from the cold and Fluttershy quickly joined them. I looked around and noticed there was one more pony than there should've been.

"Uhm, who's the extra?" I asked. The pony looked at me and I could see his eyebrow rise beneath his goggles.

Twilight came forward, "Chris, this is my BBBFF and Cadance's husband, Shining Armor. Shining, this is Chris."

Shining was a bit shorter than me but a lot more muscular. He was also a white unicorn and judging from his tail he had blue hair too. It's like a male version of Vinyl. I held out a hand, "Nice to meet you."

He pulled his scarf down and his goggles up, he shook my hand, "Same, but the formalities can wait. Chris I suggest you put on something to protect from the cold."

"Meh, I'll be good." I said.

"Are you crazy? It's 80 below and there is a snowstorm raging." Shining explained.

Cadance put a hand on his shoulder, "Dear trust him, he'll be ok."

Shining looked at his wife and gave out an exasperated sigh, "Alright, if you say so. Now we have to hurry if we don't want Sombra to catch up with us while we're heading to the Empire. Speaking of, the shield I put up won't last long if I'm not there to replenish it. So take whatever you have and let's go." Everyone took what they needed, the girls put the Elements on just in case.

When the door opened up to the outside it really was just fields upon fields of snow and ice…. Oh yeah and like Shining said, it was a blizzard alright.

"Are you sure he's going to be alright?" I heard shining ask Cadance over the roaring winds.

I walked up to him and passed him while saying, "I'll be fine Honor boy." And with that I jumped off the train outside.

"Is he crazy he'll… freeze…" Shining was stunned. I was standing in the middle of a blizzard completely unaffected.

I looked back with a toothy smile, "So are we gonna go or are you just going to stand there with you mouth open waiting for flies?"

"What?" Shining asked Cadance.

"I'll tell you later. I promise, along with other things." She whispered to him and stepped outside too, more cautiously. Then the girls and spike followed and finally Shining who closed the door behind him.

"Alright, I'll take the front, everyone follow behind and keep up." Shining yelled out.

I let them walked past me and I followed up the rear. Celestia was right, just being here I felt stronger, I could feel the ice magic in the air, in the ground, everywhere and it felt good. We walked for a bit when I felt a loud rumbling, I looked back and saw a mass of black shadow's racing towards us. "Uh… guys… guys! I SUGGEST WE RUN NOW!" I yelled out to them.

Shining looked back, "You heard him, run!" And so we did, we were all keeping up, I was still in the back making sure no one got left behind.

Cadance, Shining, Fluttershy, Rarity, Twilight, Rainbow, AJ, and Pinkie were all ahead of me, good everyone was safe…. Wait, Spike, where was Spike? I looked around and then finally behind me, he was far behind trying to catch up and the black mass was getting closer.

"You guys keeps going, I'm going after Spike!" I yelled out and turned around running towards the small dragon picking up the pace. I reached him just as he tripped and caught him, "You alright man?" I asked as I hoisted him up.

"Yeah… I feel a bit weak though…" He said passing out.

"Shit… Shit shit shit…" I looked up and the mass was still getting closer I could try and run back but I wouldn't make it, but I had to try and so I did. I got close to the barrier and saw the girls were already in it but I knew I wasn't going to make it so I made a decision and chucked Spike hard enough to get him through.

"Ok good now maybe I can-" I got cut off as I was swallowed. I heard everyone call out my name, Fluttershy was the loudest. Fuck, come on I was not going to die here.

I heard a dark laughter come from the mass I was engulfed in, "I have one of yours now… I will turn him into my own and use him against you. I can sense you all care for him. Can you hurt your own?" It asked.

"Give me back Chris you big meanie!" I heard shy yell out.

"Why don't you come and get him then?" It asked, taunting her.

'Shy I swear to god if you leave that barrier…' I thought out. Funny thing by the way, I could feel the darkness trying to penetrate my mind but Ixis was having none of that and was doing all she could to ward it off. That and I'm not a fan of having my freewill stripped from me so I can hurt my friends.

I heard everyone call out in unison, "FLUTTERSHY NO, DON'T!" Ok, I've had enough of this I was not going to let Shy do anything stupid for me. That was my job. "Hyōryū no…" I felt my hands get colder and Ice started to form over my hands in fingers ending in a point. I slashed out and I heard the mass howl in pain so I slashed out again creating a tear big enough for me to jump through. When I landed I turned around and looked at the mass and smirk at it, "Tsume."

"What?! You were trapped inside me, nothing can escape my darkness!" It yelled at me.

"Sorry buddy, looks like I just did." I wiggled my ice claws. "Shy, don't you dare leave that barrier." I said without looking back, but I heard an eep and that was enough to know she heard me. "So, you wanted to take my free will did you? Well, see, here's the thing about that… I don't believe in controlling someone and anyone who tries sickens me. What's even worse is that you tried to use me against my friends, which was a bad idea."

He started laughing, "Are you threatening me? Do you know who I am? I am pure shadow, pure darkness. The shadow began to form into the body of a black pony in armor and, a cape and a simplistic metal crown with a red horn. "I am King Somb-" He had a snowball thrown at him courtesy of yours truly.

"You know, I never understood why when villains rant about who they are the heroes just don't punch them or something. I know who you are Sombrero and frankly I don't really give a shit. Like I said you tried to use me against my friends and that was a mistake." I growled at him.

"It's Sombra you wretch. And what can a creature who is stupid enough to go through a snowstorm with nothing but a shirt and shorts on do to me?" He asked, being extremely arrogant.

I chucked another snowball at him, "That and this." I leaped at him and held out a fist.

"What you think you can punch me? I am shadow you fool, nothing can hurt me nothing."

I smirked, "Hyōryū no Kōken!" and punched him straight in the face and guess what? It hit, go figure.

"What… you little… how did you…?" He snarled.

"I ain't telling. So you still want to keep this up or?" I asked.

"Hmph, you landed a hit so what? I will not allow that to happen again." His horn started charging up and a spell fired at me fast enough that I didn't have time to dodge it or anything and it hit me dead in the chest and sent me tumbling.

"Ok… ow that hurt… So much for magic resistance." I said. +That's dark magic, you're body can't protect you from dark magic that well.+ Ixis said.

I groaned holding my chest, "That would've been good to know before I decided to fight him thanks…"

+Well excuse me Princess I was busy getting rid of the darkness that was invading our mind.+ She huffed.

"Ugh… alright so you have magic big whoop. So does everything else in this world but I doubt you can do this." I put my hands to the ground and made ice spikes race towards him. He tried to dodge out of the way but one caught his foot and started to freeze him over, "Girls, I can't hold him for long, he's a lot stronger than what he showed off, I suggest you get ready to use the elements!"

"R-right… Ok girls let's do this." Twilight said. They all began to rise above the ground, their eyes glowing white and they were surrounded in a light bubbled. I felt the magic behind me and I saw a rainbow fly over head.

I quickly removed my eyes so it could strike him. And it did, it hit hard and the yell was that of pain… then laughter… wait laughter? "Why is he laughing?" The Rainbow disappeared and Sombra was standing there like it did nothing to him, in fact he looked stronger.

"What? You all didn't think I'd let the same thing happen twice did you? I spent months creating and refining this armor to absorb that magic and you gave it right to me. I'm going to thank you and I'll do so with this." His horn started to glow but it was much brighter and crackled with electricity, he fired the bolt of dark magic off towards the shield but it held steady and only suffered a large crack. "Well, I didn't put as much power into that as I thought. No matter, one more and that shield will crack."

His horn started glowing again and he fired it off, but this time I jumped in front of it, taking the full brunt of it. I landed heavily in the snow on my back. I looked up into the barrier. I could see them looking down at me saying something, I couldn't hear them the ringing in my ears was too loud. I looked over to Sombra and saw his horn glowing again... 'Ugh…. Shit everything is numb I don't know what I can and can't move but I know I have to stop that…' I thought.

+Chris… that blast of magic cut deep into your torso and slammed you pretty hard into the barrier, a lot of your bones are broken, actually it's a lot easier to count how many bones aren't broken. That blast of Dark Magic did way more on your body than I thought it would. One more hit from that and you'll die.+ Ixis said.

"Don't… don't have a choice… They'll die too if I do nothing…" I stood up shakily I realized my left eye was closed because I couldn't see from it at least that's what I hoped. I got light headed from the pain coming from my legs and I'm pretty sure they were fractured if not broken but… maybe. 'Ixis if I absorb the snow from this place how strong would my roar be?'

+Not enough to stop him permanently but it might be strong enough to send him flying and weaken him for a bit.+

I nodded… "Alright it seems like that's the best choice of action." I took in a deep breath and opened my mouth, taking in as much snow and ice as I could until I felt my magic reach new heights. "Sombra… I won't let you harm any of them." I called out looking him.

"And what are you going to do? You can barely stand let alone fight." He said.

"Wrong, as long as I'm still alive I can fight." I said stepping forward a bit, ignoring the pain.

"Well then I'll have to remedy that won't I?" He pointed his horn at me.

I balled up my hands into fists, "Hyōryū…"

"Ha, I told you, I won't let you hit me again, now die!" He yelled out while firing off a black beam.

My cheeks expanded and I put my balled fists up to my face, like the time at the playground "no Hōkō!" and fired off the strongest spell I had. It hit his and devoured it. That stunned him enough that my attack hit him, froze him solid, and sent him flying off into the distance. And since I didn't have good enough footing I got sent flying backwards through the barrier. And I felt my back slam into someone. "I got you, relax."
I did so and felt myself getting tired so I decided to sleep.

~Outside of Chris~

Fluttershy had her hands over her mouth and tears were forming in her eyes, "Chris… no…"

"It's ok." Shining reassured her, "He just passed out, but we need to get him to a hospital fast, it looks like a lot of his bones are broken." They hurried as fast as they could to the castle.

"Will he be ok? We just got him to stop being all party pooper pants. I don't want him to die. He still hasn't had a birthday party yet." Pinkie said, her hair straight.

"I'm sure he'll be fine Pinks. That guys is really tough, I mean this one time before he got all mopey I crashed into him after doing one of my stunts and he walked that off just fine. I-I'm sure he'll be fine…" Rainbow looked to Cadance. "He'll be fine won't he?"

She nodded, "I'll have the best doctors to take care of him. I promise, he'll be fine."

Once they got into the hospital they got him into magical surgery and before they started one of the doctors came up to the observation area that was above the operating area, "Princess he's in a critical state right now, we don't really know what he is and magic doesn't seem to affect him. We would do a normal surgery with tools but he doesn't have any family who could agree to it since he isn't awake to do so himself. And if we can't find somepony soon he'll die."

Cadance didn't even think twice, "He's my brother, and I don't care if you believe me or not, just save him, now!" She growled out as she slammed her fist on the table. The doctor nodded and ran back down stairs.

"Brother?" Shining looked at his wife, "Cadance… what is this all about?"

"I was going to talk to you about it later but it doesn't seem like it's an option. I'm adopting him into my royal family, our royal family." She said.

"And you didn't think about asking me first?" Shining asked, surprised that his wife would make such an important decision without him. "Cadance we don't even know him. He could be dangerous, he could be a spy, he could… he could be…"

Cadance looked at him quickly, "He could be someone who left a home that destroyed his heart. He could be someone who feels guilty for leaving what little he did care about without saying goodbye and has no way to return. He could be someone who is the only one of his kind in the entire world in more ways than one. Shining, we all learned about his past a few days ago, it was a bad one and he's held out this long. He has lived in Ponyville with the girls for a while now and is in a relationship with Fluttershy. He's trying to live a good life Shining, what's worse is that his past still plagues him and I fear it will for as long as he lives and he could live forever. He needs a family, he came to me asking me to be his older sister, how could I turn him down after everything he went through? He just saved all of us from Sombra as well."

Shining took as step back, "Cadance I… I'm sorry, I'm just."

She shook her head, "No, I'm sorry Shining, I know you're just worried. Protecting the city has been rough on you and I shouldn't have left you alone to handle it."

Shining sat next to his wife and held her, "Well if you feel he belongs in our family I'm fine with it, but I'd like to get to know him for myself if that's ok." Cadance just nodded.

Fluttershy was crying, looking out the window down at Chris who was lying on an operating table. She felt an arm go around her shoulders.
"I'm sure he'll be fine darling. I mean he is a dragon. Dragon's are pretty tough after all." She looked back at Spike and smiled, happy he was alright. "It seems we were both lucky enough to have one's watching over us weren't we?"

Fluttershy nodded but never took her eyes away from him. "Please don't die…. I don't know what I'd do if you did…"

Rarity frowned and squeezed her friend's arm softly, "He'd want you to keep going and find love again if he did. But he won't, like I said he's too tough for that and besides he'd never forgive himself if he left you alone."

Fluttershy smiled through the tears, "Yes… he'd probably find some way to come back if he found out he died… wouldn't he?"

"Ah have no doubt in mah mind he would Shy." Apple Jack said coming up to Fluttershy's other side. "Rarity's right, he's made of stronger stuff. And besides, Ah wanted him to be part of the Iron Pony Competition Rainbow and Ah were gonna have when we went back to Ponyville so he can't die. He promised and he said he never breaks a promise."

"Yeah, and I want to see how fast he can fly when he get's his wings. He promised me that he'd let me teach him fly. And I knew he didn't really like me at first, he told me why. Said I was too cocky, too arrogant for my own good and that he disliked ponies like that. Honestly I do too, and I didn't realize that I was that bad. So I told him I'd try my best to not be like that and he said that he'd give me another chance. And he did so I gotta pay him back, he can't die yet." Rainbow said to her lifelong friend.

"Yeah and I have to throw him all those birthday parties too as well as a, 'you got better party' from this. He also Pinkie Promised me that he would show me how to make mud, whatever that is. And he likes making his friends happy almost as much as I do, and he'd hate to see his friends sad, and him dying would make us more than sad. I'm sure he knows that." Pinkie said joining the others.

Finally Twilight was up there too, "They're alright Fluttershy, he wouldn't leave us when he's all made promises to us. Like they said he doesn't break promises and he promised us that he would be there to protect us. He's going to be my adopted brother in law and he's already a big brother to Spike. He won't leave us, he promised to keep living for all of us so if we want him to live, he will."

They all looked to the human/dragon (Drako? Yeah Drako) being operated on and said one thing together while each placed a hand on the glass, "Please, don't die."

"See Shining, does that look like the friends of somepony who is bad?" Cadance asked.

"No I suppose not… I'll have to apologize to him when I can." He said.

~A while later in a hospital room~

Chris was lying in a bed with tubes and wires hooked up to him, everyone was there. Fluttershy was sitting in a chair that was close to his bed. The doctor was talking but she didn't care, she was happy he made it through the surgery. But he was covered in bandages. Most of his head was wrapped up, only the right side at his eye and downward were uncovered and his horns too. His legs were in casts as well as his right arm and most of his torso was wrapped up as well.

"We did what we could and fixed the damaged caused by Sombra's spell as well as some other things that we believe he's had a problem with his entire life. But we couldn't save his left eye, it was tainted by too much Dark Magic. We put a few parts that still need to heal a bit in casts." The doctor said, reading over the charts. "He's going to be asleep for a few days while he recovers but other than that he should be fine."

Twilight smiled and looked over at the butter yellow pegasus holding his hand that wasn't in a cast, "Thank you for doing what you could doctor we really appreciate it."

"Of course, is he really Princess Cadance's brother?" He asked.

She nodded, "Adopted brother, yes. He's also mine too."

"I see… Is the pegasus going to be ok? She looks very shaken up."

"She'll be fine… she's stronger than she looks. And she's just worried, she loves him a lot." Twilight looked around at her friends, they were all standing around watching Chris silently. "We all do, he's a good friend to us. But to her, well…"

"Ah I see, well I'll get out of your hair then. If you need me for anything call for Dr. Braveheart." Dr. Braveheart said.

"We will, thanks again." Twilight said, Braveheart nodded.

There was a yawn that started with Pinkie and spread to everyone else. That's when they all decided to turn in except for Fluttershy she decided to stay with Chris just incase he woke up. Eventually she fell asleep with her head on Chris' bed

Author's Note

Yes, I'm putting a link to the Q&A blog in every author note, for those who stopped at mid points in the story, It's for reaching 25 chapters being written, even though 25 is still being written: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/831885/qs-for-the-qa-chapter

10: Library recovery

Author's Note

Yeah 2 in one day, here's the thing, everything up to chapter 17 was written.... months if not a year ago or longer. I just never really felt like reading through these and editing them a bit because I wrote them in a much darker time of my life so I was putting it off until now.

I'm only editing them to fix some grammar or maybe clear up some things I didn't know how to explain at first so as someone pointed out the dialogue is a bit, stiff. And yeah it is, that's because all of this was written LONG before I got better at writing... just be glad you didn't read any of my very first things. :pinkiesick: I burned those papers and got rid of every shred of evidence that concerned them outside of what is in my mind. Anyway enjoy.

Yes, I'm putting a link to the Q&A blog in every author note, for those who stopped at mid points in the story, It's for reaching 25 chapters being written, even though 25 is still being written: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/831885/qs-for-the-qa-chapter

10: Library recovery

I opened my eyes slowly, blinking a few times… everything felt stiff and numb and something was on my left hand… When my vision finally cleared enough and my eyes adjusted to the light I saw I was in a hospital room. Why was I in a hospital room? What… what happened? Then I remembered… oh yeah… Dark Magic hit me pretty hard… I looked over myself and saw both my legs were in casts; my right arm was as well, most of my torso was covered in bandages as was my left arm. And Fluttershy was on my left hand asleep… wait Fluttershy?

I tried to sit up but nothing would move except for my neck and left arm, which I moved from under her and started to pet her, she started to purr, "That's still weird." I croaked out. Well my voice is a bit…. Hmmm.

I heard the door to my room open and for some reason the peripheral vision in my left eye wasn't so good so I had to turn my head to look at who came in. It was a nurse, when she saw I was awake she gasped and I put my finger to my lips, "Shh, she's asleep" I said quietly.

"Oh I'm sorry; I just didn't expect you to be awake." She said as she walked to the other side of my bed checking things that I couldn't really see.

"Mmmm, how long was I out?" I saw that it was the daylight out so I assumed through the night.

"About a week, you were pretty banged up." She said.

"Did you say a week?" My mouth was dry and I tried to swallow which led to coughing. Not loud or hard enough to wake Fluttershy up.

The nurse handed me a cup which I took graciously and chugged down, "I did say a week, and we actually expected you to be out for another few days." She looked down at Fluttershy, "That poor dear has been in here every day unless someone came and got her, other than that she's been here all the time watching you. I've even caught her singing to you a few times. She'd get embarrassed if she knew I was there so whenever I heard it I'd wait outside for her to finish and then come in pretending like I didn't hear anything."

"Thank you, she loves to sing but as I'm sure you've guessed she's very shy about it, and she really only sings to me openly and that's rarely." I said playing with her ear for a quick second.

"She must really care for you to sit in a stuffy hospital all day." The nurse said checking some charts.

"You have no idea… I don't know what I'd do without her. I hope I didn't worry her too much. Though I'm going to get such a stern talking to when she wakes up." I gave a laugh and coughed again being handed another glass of water. "Thanks nurse… Uhm, I don't think I got your name."

"Needle Point, nurse Needle Point." She said smiling.

"Hmm fitting name, well thank you Nurse Needle Point." Again I couldn't see that well out of my left eye for some reason, "Hey, do you know why I can't see out of my left eye that well?'

She hesitated for a second, "W-well that's because you don't have a left eye anymore…"

She was joking right of course I still had my left eye right? I mean it was right here. I lifted my head to my left eye and felt bandages over it as well as an indent… "Oh… I-I guess I don't…"

"Are you going to be ok?" She asked. I just nodded silently, "Alright, I'm going to go tell the Dr. Braveheart you're awake, if you need me just press that red button there. I looked at the remote next to me with my one eye and nodded.

After she left I could feel tears rolling down one side of my face and that just made it worse. But I didn't make any noise, I didn't want to wake Fluttershy up, so I just let the tears stream down my face and continued to pet her. She woke up soon after though and felt me petting her.

"Mmmm… Chris…" Then her eyes shot open, "Chris!" She sat up and smiled at me about to say something but then she saw I was crying and her smile disappeared. "Chris… what's… what's wrong?"

I tried to answer her but when I opened my mouth my voice would hitch and a soft whine would come out which only made my cry more. So instead I lifted my hand up to the bandage side of my face. And she understood so she just took my hand and squeezed it softly. She held my hand while I cried and told me what happened. How everyone was watching as I had surgery done on me. What they all said, how they all didn't want me to die. That's when I was crying tears of sadness, happiness, and regret. I made my friends worry so much; I made them sad, I made them cry.

Eventually I stopped crying but I still couldn't talk. "Are you feeling better?" Fluttershy asked. I waved my hand back and forth, "A little bit, I see, would you like some water?" I nodded and she got me another cup, which I drank slowly this time before finishing off. "Better?" I nodded again.

"I was so scared." She started to say, "I was so scared that you weren't going to wake up, I was so scared I was going to lose you." She was crying now, "Everypony told me you'd be ok but I could tell they weren't sure either. Pinkie was always so happy, so positive, but I could tell that other than me she was the one who was most affected." She sniffed, "Everyone came by to visit one at a time and talked to you, hoping you would wake up. I sung to you every day, hoping you would wake up. They even brought you presents from the town."

I looked around and I saw numerous knick knacks but one thing stood out, it was a heart and a snowflake carved out of Crystal. I touched her cheek to get her attention and pointed to it. "I saw it and thought of you, I thought you would like it. Since you made these for us." She pointed to her ice pin. "We've haven't taken them off once, I saw that and thought that if you were a pony your cutie mark would be a heart."

I could feel my eyes watering again; I gave her the 'come here' signal with my finger. She stood up and got closer. I did it again and she leaned down, I place my hand on her face, caressing her cheek and pulled a bit closer. When she was close enough I kissed her and I felt more tears roll down my cheek. It was a salty kiss from our tears but it was a loving kiss.

"Ahem!" we heard, she backed away with a squeak, and I turned my head to look who that came from, it was a doctor and all my friends. "I hope we aren't interrupting anything." The doctor said and I'm assuming he was Braveheart.

I shook my head and smiled sheepishly at them. Fluttershy was blushing hard and hiding in the collar of her sweater.

"Oh you can't talk? Hmmm that's not good." The doctor said checking his charts.

I let out a sigh, "I can… I just…" my voice sounded a bit better.

"Sound like a frog trying to woo a chainsaw." Rainbow said, gaining looks from everyone. "What? He does."

I started to laugh having that mental imagine. But my laugh sounded even worse than my voice which caused everyone else to laugh eventually the room was full of laughter and anyone walking passed the room to see what was going on and then shook their heads and left assuming that they dwelled into insanity.

"It's good to see you up though guy." Rainbow said and then winced at her choice of words. Well that killed the mood.

"Yeah, see…" I said quietly.

"Sorry I didn't mean…" Rainbow tried to say.

"It's ok I know you didn't. So how much longer will I be in here doc?"

He looked over his charts again and checked the machines by my bed, "Hmmm well it seems you've healed faster than we thought, normally this wouldn't be much of a big deal since… you know magic and all but you are highly resistant to magic. Yet despite that you have an extremely fast healing factor, I think, we don't know how fast this is compared to the rest of your species, but you should be fine but everything is going to be stiff and not wanting to move. If you haven't already tried."

"Yeah it normally takes months for a human to recover from broken anything if not years depending on what's broken. I did try to move as well and all I can do is talk, move my neck, and my left arm." I said while demonstrating each.

"That's probably mainly because of the casts, those will be removed within the next hour or so."

He said. "In fact… after the casts are gone you should be free to go, we're going to want to do a few last tests but, yeah, other than that you're fine."

"So does that mean I can give him a big hug now?" Pinkie asked, getting a nod from the doctor. "Yippee!" She jumped on me and pulled me into her chest, hugging me tight.

As much as I would love to be smothered in Pinkie's chest any other day, I tapped her on the arm, "Pinkie… boobs… can't… breathe…" She held me back with an apologetic smile as I took deep breaths of sweet sweet air. "Pinkie, I'm glad I'm ok too but don't go putting me back in the hospital while I'm still here."

She got off of me with a giggle, "Hehehehe… Sorry, Chrissy."

"Hmm yes, well, I'll be back in an hour to remove the casts and do the last tests. I'll leave you all to catch up." He flipped all the papers back on his clipboard and made his way out the room.

Once he left I got rushed by the rest being hugged, "Ok, ok, ok… I'm happy to see you all too." I said with a laugh.

Once I had them all off of me I looked around and frowned, "I'm sorry…"

"For what sugar?" AJ asked.

"I worried you all, I made all of you cry. I'm not supposed to make you all cry, you're all my friends I'm supposed to protect you." I said, not meeting any of them in the eye.

"Darling, you did protect us. If it weren't for you that brute, Sombra, would've gotten into the Empire and who knows what would've happened if he did." Rarity said.

"Sombra… he hasn't attacked since has he?" I asked.

"Surprisingly no… Which is weird, I think he would've thawed out by now and came back, don't you?" Twilight asked.

"Maybe, I'm not sure, well what have you guys been doing for the past week?"

"Well…" Twilight told me that they learned there was a festival to cheer the ponies here up and possibly return their memories, I asked about the doctors and nurses here. They were brought in from Equestria, which made sense, ponies didn't have memories? Call in the medical experts first. So the set up this festival using a book on the history of the Crystal Empire that Twilight found. But there was a page missing which she didn't find until later that mentioned something about a Crystal Heart that could repel evil. And apparently she looked everywhere using all sorts of magic and couldn't find it, that's when a thought struck me.

"Twilight…." I started and she looked at me, "Sombra uses dark magic, did you?"

She facepalmed and groaned, "No… no I didn't."

"See and this is why you think over everything." I stuck my tongue out at her.

"Oh shush you… I'll have to check later. You're more important right now." She said.

So we spent the next hour talking about the festival and stuff. Honestly it sounded like a lot of fun and I wish I could've helped out, but the song bit was a big no for me. I hated song magic and I hate when I got caught up in it. The songs were good and catchy, don't get me wrong, but it came out of nowhere and it always got stuck in my head for weeks. After a while Dr. Braveheart came in and took off my casts.

"Alright now we're going to need you to stand up." He said.

"Alright…" I groaned painfully as I forced my body to sit up and get off the bed. Eventually I did and I stood not without wobbling a bit. "Ok I got that down, what's next?"

"Walking." He said simply.

"Oh right… that." I tried to step forward and fell over, only to be caught by Fluttershy
"Go slowly, imagine there is a goal you want to reach and move slowly." She said. "The more you want what you're seeing, the faster you'll walk."

I nodded, "Alright, then go to that far wall." I said pointing.

"W-What?" She asked.

I pointed again, standing on my own, "Far wall…. Go." She nodded and quickly walked to the wall and stood against it. I focused on her and only her and I willed myself to go forward and before I knew it I was at her, nose to nose. I kissed her quickly and turned around, happy with myself.

The girls were just looking at me and the doctor had a smile, "Kid you've got some brass."

"Yeah well I almost died, I was out for a week, I lost an eye, I cried for a bit, and saw my friends. Sue me for wanting to go to my mare and kiss her." I said with a confident smile.

He shook his head, "Alright up next arms…"

The next tests went smoothly and I was given notice to leave but to take it easy for a while since I would still be kind of stiff. But I was advised to keep my bandages on for another 2 weeks or so.

I was walking through halls with the girls and I had Spike sitting on my shoulders. "I missed you little guy. Hope I didn't worry you too much."

"Me? Nah, I knew you were going to be ok. They were worried out of their minds though." He said, referring to the girls.

"Mhm, and who was the one who asked to sleep with me because he had a nightmare that Chris wouldn't ever wake up?" Twilight asked in a mocking tone.

"I-I have no idea w-what you're talking about." He said defiantly but the stutter gave it away.

"Aww I love you too little buddy. Say where are we headed again?"

"The throne room, Cadance wanted to see you as soon as she woke up but she had a few things to take care of." Twilight said walking faster.

"Oh… well, so when are you going to use dark magic around the castle if you even can use dark magic that is."

"I can, it's not difficult but there is a danger of corruption if you aren't careful. But I'm probably going to start looking after this. It will take a few days though; it's what I was doing while you were recovering. Took most of the week I'm afraid."

"Ok so what are we going to do while you do that?" I gestured to the rest of us.

"Well Spike is coming with me, but the girls are going to keep the festival going. The higher the spirits the easier it will be to keep Sombra at bay for a little while. You… I'm not too sure."

"Great… how far until we reach the throne room?" I asked looking down the hall.

"We're actually here now but you might be a bit surprised." Twilight warned.

I looked at her but decided to see for myself. I looked to the guards and they nodded, signaling that it was ok for me to go in. They opened the large crystal doors and we stepped through, I saw Cadance sitting on the throne at the back of the room and Shining Armor standing next to her. I walked faster so I could go and hug my big sister and I had a wide smile but as I got closer my smile faded and I slowed down.

"Cadance, are you… are you ok?" Most of her color was faded, she had bags under her eyes and it seemed like she was struggling to even sit up straight.

She looked at me, away from whatever space she was staring at and donned a smile and sat up a bit straighter, "Chris, it's good to see you." She then looked me in the eye, and I mean that literally. "Oh Chris… I'm sorry about your eye, I wish there was something we could've done." She was clearly struggling and trying to hide it.

I walked up to her and gave her a soft hug, "It's ok Sissi, just relax ok?" I turned to Shining. "What's going on? Why is she so… tired?"

"I know I look horrible you don't have to beat around the bush." She said.

Shining just sighed, "She's been awake for days holding up the shield. Sombra hasn't been attacking but other creatures have. I would've kept the shield up since I'm better with them but she insisted that I needed all my energy to help the girls look and hold off Sombra if he came back. And you know how hard it is to tell a mare she's wrong."

I gave off a weak laugh, looked to Fluttershy and back to Shining, "Yeah, I suppose I do. Is she going to be ok though? It doesn't look like she can handle much more of this."

"You're right she can't but… she'll last for as long as she needs to. She is very determined to protect her subjects and that's… actually pretty attractive." Shining said.

"SHINING!" He got yelled at from his wife and younger sister. He just gave off a nervous laugh.

"Anyway, we wanted to see you for really one reason…" He reached behind the throne and pulled out a huge stack of papers. "…These." He said handing them to me.

"Papers?" I asked.

He nodded, "More specifically, citizenship papers and your half of the "older than 18" adoption papers. Cadance and I had to fill out our half as well. So don't you complain."

I did anyway, "Come on, this is like 40 pounds of papers man, it'll take me days to finish…"

"Well good thing it's going to take me a few days re-search the castle isn't it?" Twilight said with a smug look.

I glared at her and mouthed, 'Hate you, so much.' She just blew a raspberry at me.

Cadance looked to Twilight, "I thought you already searched the castle Twilight. Why are you going to search again?"

"I actually have Chris to thank for that, I'm actually not sure why I didn't think about it. But what's the type of magic King Sombra used?" She asked them.

Cadance nodded in understanding but Shining had something more to say, "Twily, are you sure? Dark Magic is really dangerous if you aren't careful. It could corrupt you, turn you into another Sombra."

Twilight gave her brother a look, "Shining, I'm the element of magic. I'm pretty sure that encompasses all magic, even dark magic. I'll be fine as long as I keep my mind focused on something I love."

"Alright, do what you have to Twily, Spike keep her safe." He said to the dragon on my shoulders, "By the way doesn't it hurt with him up there considering the bandages?" he asked me.

"Oh immensely, but he asked for it and honestly who am I to say no?" I picked him off my shoulders and put him down, he ran back to Twilight.

"Don't worry, you know I'll protect her Shining." He said.

"I know, now, Chris get started on this paperwork. Twily and Spike, get searching. The girls and I will keep the festival going for a few days. And dear…. Just… don't wear yourself out please." He said before leaving the room with everyone except Cadance and I.

I sighed, picked up my stack of papers I set down to set Spike down and brought them to a table that was off to the side of the throne room. 'I hate doing papers so much.'

+Yes, well you aren't the one who has to listen to all your random thoughts in here.+ Ixis said a bit annoyed.

'What's got your panties in a knot?'

+Other than the fact that you almost died? Oh I don't know, probably nothing.+

'Yeah… sorry about that, but you're in my head you know how I think. Or how I should. It was either me or them.' I told her looking at the first sheet of paper.

'Full name…. Christopher Tina McGrath.' I said mentally groaning.

+Your middle name is Tina?+

'Yeah… my dad and my mom were a bit… out of it when they named me, that and they didn't really have a middle name thought of but they knew they wanted one for me. Sooo, they looked around and saw a magazine with a lady on it named Tina and that's what they decided and bam Tina is my middle name.'

+That is hilarious yet sad at the same time.+

'Yeah, that's why I never told anyone my middle name I got picked on enough.'

+Fair enough, anything else I need to know that you've somehow kept from me?+

'I like pickles…. Like probably an unhealthy amount.' I snickered… ah unintentional innuendos

+How much is an unhealthy amount?+

'Uh an entire jar in one day?'

+My god…+

'Yeah, now I should probably work on this.'

And so I did… for fucking days. You don't understand how many papers I had to fill out and sign and read. It was the equivalent of actually reading the terms and conditions times 10. And I will never do it again… ever, right? Anyway, After a few days Twilight actually found something in the basement of the castle.

"It's a journal. Depicting the location where he hid the Crystal heart." She said, putting it on the meeting table we were all sitting at.

"Well, where is it?" Rainbow asked, "I mean it can't be that hard to find right?"

"That's just it though, it isn't hard to find. The location is in the ice fields… the problem lies in the fact that it's in the most dangerous part of the Ice Fields, the Pillars of Giants."

We just looked around and back to her not knowing what the heck she was talking about, "Don't tell me I'm the only one who read up on the geography of the surrounding area? Ugh of course I am, anyway the Pillars of Giants are three monolithic ice spikes coming out from the ground. That area is notorious for having the worst blizzards known to ponykind. It's so cold there that ponies die from it within in seconds and it's been like that for thousands of years. Except for one thing in the journal that says other wise." She paused.

"Well… what is it?" AJ asked.

"Apparently Sombra wasn't completely gone in the head when he took over. Whenever he had moments of normalcy he would do things that his dark side didn't know about and wrote them in this journal and hid it. And he hid the Crystal Heart in a temple that's underneath the Pillars but the most interesting part is that the blizzard around that area was supposedly created by Sombra himself." Twilight explained.

"Does it say how to stop it? We need that heart." Shining said.

"It does, apparently he created artificial magic."

"Well that's not strange a lot of unicorns can do that." Rarity said, "I do so when I create a lot of my dresses."

"Maybe so Rarity, but it's the type of artificial magic he created. It's… well it's your magic Chris." She said looking at me causing the rest of the ponies in the room to do so as well.

I groaned and slammed my face into the table, probably not a good idea, still had bandages on, "Why am I not surprised… but if I know my lore correctly weren't all the Ice Dragon's extinct at that point?"

"Well yes they were. That's the confusing part you have to have a sample of the magic to make a copy of it."

+Uh… Chris?+ Ixis cut in.

"Yeah?"

+I know about that temple she's talking about, Sombra didn't create that magic. I did.+

My eye twitched, "You did… what?"

+Well that temple was the last place that actually held any record of our history, our inventions, our culture and anything else. I created the stone to protect it but I never got a chance to activate it, seems someone else did though.+ She explained, laughing nervously, +Sorry… hehe…+

"Great…." I rubbed the bridge of my nose and let out a puff of cold air from my nostrils.

"What?" Twilight asked.

"Sombra didn't create that magic, Ixis did to protect old tomes that have the history of Ice Dragons, all of the history if not a good chunk. And it seems the magic is powered by a stone. And I'm guessing the Crystal Heart is the Stone, or it's in there with it like the journal said. I'm leaning towards the second one."

"I see, and since the magic is Ice Draconic Magic…" Twilight started.

"That's why it freezes pretty much almost anything living that gets close. And that means… I have to get it, of course. Or at least get the stone and turn the Blizzard off."

"C-could I go too? I mean I'm a dragon too, a Fire Dragon." Spike said.

"Spike, no you're too young and you could get hurt." Twilight said.

"Oh come on Twilight, you guys go on dangerous missions all the time and come out fine. I'll have Chris and he smacked Sombra around, I'll be fine." He said looking to me hopefully
.
"I don't know Spike, you got really weak just coming here from the train… I don't think that… wait… oh? Ok, got it, thanks. Ok Spike do you think you could coat yourself in your own fire?" I asked him.

He looked at me with surprise, "I don't… yes I can." He looked determined even though I knew he wasn't entirely sure.

I sighed, "Fine, Twilight, if I promise to bring him back can he go?"

She thought about it, "I-I don't know."

"Please Twilight? Please, I'll do all my chores without complaining. I won't eat as much ice cream and junk food as I do now. I'll even re-arrange the books as many times as you want when we get back to Ponyville." He said, trying to convince his caretaker.

"You hate rearranging books, you really want to do this don't you?" He nodded vigorously, "Alright, you can go. And you, make sure you take good care of him… he's like a son to me… I don't want to lose him…" She said quietly looking at me.

I put my hand on her shoulder, "You know I won't let anything happen to him."

"Cool, so when do we leave?" Spike asked me.

"As soon as you go dress in something warm, very warm, you may be able to coat your body in your fire but that won't be until we need it." He nodded and ran off to go put some clothes on.
I sighed and felt someone behind me, I turned around and saw a worried scowl staring at me, "F-Flutters…" She huffed and just walked away.

I looked after her and scratched my head, "W-what was that about?"

Rarity sighed, "Chris… look at yourself, you're covered head to toe, quite literally, in bandages. You're missing an eye and you have a limp, don't think we haven't noticed. You're still healing and then you have to do this with no objection on your part. What do you think is wrong?"

"She's worried I know but I have to do this, these ponies in this kingdom will die or worse if I don't. Cadance will die if I don't do this. I'm not letting that happen." I said sternly.

"Chris, we all know you love to protect ponies, it's an amazing trait you have and I envy Fluttershy because of it but you could also die. Sure not from the cold but you have severe wounds, they could open back up and you'd bleed out. Chris, we almost lost you once. Fluttershy almost lost the one pony, person, she has ever been fully comfortable around. She doesn't want to go through the pain of almost losing you again or actually losing you. None of us do, you know we all care for you in one way or another." She said.

I nodded, "I know I know… I'll go talk to her before I leave I promise." I walked passed her and everyone else, when I reached the door I looked back. "I love you all too, even if I'm not the best at expressing it and I promise I won't die, not like that, not out there. I'll only die when I'm ready to die. Until then I'll be around for a while." I gave them a toothy smile and left.

"I have no idea what it is about him but he annoys me yet I can't help but like him." Shining said shaking his head,

"Welcome to our world." They all said to him.

~Outside of the room Fluttershy is in~

I knocked on the door to our room and I didn't get any answer, "Shy, it's me… can we talk?" Again no answer, "I'm coming in shy." I opened the door and I saw her sitting there holding a pillow and the pin I gave her. I sat down next to her and I heard a sniffle come from her. I turned my head so I could look at her, probably should've sat on her left side, oh well. But she must've been crying before I came in.

"Shy…. Come on Shy, talk to me."

"Do you have to do this?" She asked.

"Yeah… it's the only way to save the Crystal Empire." I took the pin she had in her hand and looked at it. "I promise I'll be ok, I won't die, I swear."

"How do you know? You came so close to dying before, how do you know you won't die this time?" She asked squeezing the pillow harder. "I can't lose you, you helped me so much, I've become so much braver because of you. I don't think I would be able to be as brave without you here. I don't think my heart would be able to take losing you."

I looked back down at the pin in my hand and reformed it into a hair pin and put it in her hair holding it back from covering her eye. "There, much better. Fluttershy, you don't need me to be brave, you've had it inside you the entire time. In here…" I poked her chest. "You just didn't believe yourself up here." I poked her forehead. "All you have to do is believe in yourself and you can be as brave as you want."

"I-I don't know if I can believe in myself." She said quietly, but at least she wasn't crying anymore.

"Hmm then do me a favor, you do this for me and I promise I'll come back." I told her.
She looked at me, "What can I do?"

"If you can't believe in yourself then don't. Don't believe in yourself, don't even believe in me. Believe in the me that believes in you." I told her.

She giggled, "That makes no sense."

"No but it made you giggle and that's all that mattered. But Shy you are much braver than you give yourself credit for. And I would never leave you, I'm not going to put you through the pain I went through. And I'm so sure I won't die because, like I told Rarity, I'll only die when I'm ready to die and while I still have you that will never happen." I said wrapping an arm around her and pulling her close.

"Promise?"

"I promise." I hummed a song for a bit while we just sat together. "I love you Shy, I love you so much."

She blushed and kissed me on the cheek, "I love you to Chris, I promise I won't ever hurt you."

I smiled, "I'll hold you to that."

~Little bit later~

We were standing at the edge of the barrier, I was in my cloak and I had my hood up. I looked down to the small dragon next to me; he was wearing a big poofy jacket, a scarf, some goggles, and a hat. "You ready to go?" I asked him, I got a nod in response since he couldn't really talk through all the stuff. "Alright then, let's get this over with."

I had a map that Twilight made and I was holding it in front of me, as long as we walked straight from where we exited the barrier. But it's been 1000 years, who knew how much the landscape changed since the old map she copied this from was drawn. Apparently not much, it was just a really long walk, like 3 hours or so. Halfway through Spike was getting tired so I offered him a ride on my shoulders again, he accepted graciously. Eventually we reached 3 towers of pure ice rising from the ground.

"Well I think we're here." I stated.

"Really, what gave that away, the howling blizzard of death surrounding the Pillars or the Pillars themselves?" Spike asked sarcastically.

"I will make you walk back the entire way, don't tempt me. But you'll have to walk now anyway I can't carry you through that." I told him and he climbed down.

"So how do we get through that anyway?" Referring to the blizzard of death.

"Well I'm guessing I just walk right through, probably won't affect me too much. You on the other hand, that's where the whole setting yourself on fire comes in. In theory the fire that's surrounding your body should melt any sharp ice particles that get close to you, it'll also keep you from freezing solid, though I could probably fix that I don't want to risk it though. The actual wind is your biggest problem, it'll try and blow your fire out so you have to keep it going, this will test your strength as a Fire Dragon. Can you do it?"

He gave me a cocky smile, "Of course I can do it, just watch." He breathed a large stream of green fire that began to wrap itself around him. Eventually his entire body was covered in it, "Told ya I could do it." His voice was a bit distorted through the flames.

"Never doubted you for a second kid." I turned to the blizzard and stuck my arm in, I was right the cold and ice weren't a problem; the wind however was a lot stronger than I thought it was. I hope Spike is able to hold out.

I stepped into the blizzard and looked behind me to see a glowing green light very close by, good. I walked forward towards the middle of the pillars, 'So Ixis, do you remember how to get into the temple?'

+If I remember correctly there is a panel on one of the pillars that unlocks a mechanism that opens up a door to stairs leading down.+ She said.

'Alright thanks.' "Spike can you hear me?!" I yelled over the wind.

"Yeah I can!?" he yelled back.

"Ok, there should be a panel on one of these pillars you go check the far one I'll check these two!" I instructed.

"Alright!"

I made my way to the pillar on my left and looked all around it for an extended panel or a square shaped cut… "Damn, nothing." I moved on to the next and repeated the process still finding nothing. "That must mean it's at Spike's, what's taking him so long?"

"CHRIS!" I heard him yell out.

I turned in the direction the yell came from and ran, he sounded scared. When I got there I saw his fire died out and he was quickly freezing over. I had to find that panel and quick, I felt around the pillar as fast as I could until I looked up and saw a square panel sticking out at the top. I looked at spike and saw that the ice was at his stomach. I had to do this fast or he would die, I backed up far enough away and started to sprint when I got close enough I formed the claws of the ice dragon and jumped as high as I could, digging into the pillar. I landed a few feet away from the panel so I started to climb. When I hit the panel it when in and I heard a rumbling, I looked around and saw that large door was opening on the ground at the center, so I jumped down.

Spike was now covered in ice up to his neck, I decided to pick him up and run as fast as I could to the door, which was a lot harder consider I was carrying an 80 pound popsicle that kept slipping from my grasp. When I got close enough I dived into the open hole and hit a panel I saw while jumping, closing the door behind us. I looked down at spike and the ice was below his eyes. I put my hand to his stomach and absorbed the ice into me. When he was free I sat down and gave a sigh of relief.

"That was way too close for comfort…" I was panting, that was a lot of stuff to do within a few seconds.

He plopped down next to me, "I'll say, I almost became a Spikesicle. Thanks for saving me man."

I held out my fist and he bumped it, "You're my little brother I wasn't going to let you die and besides Twilight would kill me if I did. Whoo, come on we aren't done yet." I stood up and brushed myself off and looked around, we were in a hallway of sorts that led quite a ways back.

"Right so what next?" He asked.

"Well we get to the end of this hallway and we look for something shaped like a heart and any other large gem you come across, destroy it." I said.

"Alright I can do that, would be a shame though." He said rubbing his stomach.

I sighed, "Yeah it would…" Hey, gems tasted good.

We walked for a few minutes before come across something that startled us both. "Are they….?"

I waved my hand in front of it, "Yep, dead as doornails. Looks like they froze a long time ago a very long time ago." We were staring at the corpse of a Mare holding her foal frozen in ice with a terrified look on their faces.

'Were these here when you put the gem in place?' I asked Ixis.

+No, this place was empty save for books. These must've happened after I disappeared but not long after because you're right this is old.+

'It almost looks like what would've happened to…' I looked at Spike and then back to the corpses.

"Sombra…" I growled out.

"What he did this, how?" Spike asked looking at them his face filled with sympathy.

"I'm guessing before he set up the gem to protect this area he didn't check to see if anyone was taking shelter in here and a wave of cold washed over and froze them." Poor souls.

"Man…"

"Yeah… let's keep going…" We kept walking and the further we got in the more bodies we found frozen, there were so many, mainly mares and foals. That made me think, I'm guessing that the few who could escape took their foals and followed Sombra when he wasn't crazy with the darkness to this place. I bet that they saw this as a place to rest even if their 'King' was there. I'm also guessing that Sombra didn't know he was being followed otherwise I don't think he would've done this willingly, considering he seemed like he actually cared when he wasn't dark induced. As we walked further in I examined the faces of the deceased they got slightly less terrified to more peaceful relaxed like they were taking a break from a long walk, so that lead me to think that the mother and foal we saw at the entrance were the last to live in this group. She saw her companions were freezing over and tried to run only to run into a closed door without knowing how to open it and she well… yeah. I don't want to think about it anymore.

"Spike you holding up ok?" I asked him, he was only 11, and he shouldn't be seeing this. He stopped in front of a lone mare 'asleep' in the corner. "Spike?"

"She looks so much like…" He didn't finish that sentence, he didn't need to.

"Yes, she does, but our Rarity is still alive at the castle. Don't let this get to you, you've been doing well so far, and you can keep going. Come on we're almost there I can see an opening." I walked passed the Faux Rarity and Spike and he just stayed staring at her for a bit before joining me.

"Well, it's a library alright and that must be the Crystal Heart." I said pointing to a large heart shaped gem floating on a pedestal at the back of the Library. "Spike you think you can get it, I'm going to look for the gem that's creating the blizzard." He just nodded numbly and walked forward. I looked around the library and saw a faint white glow behind one of the far bookshelves. I went to it and it moved so I kept following it and each time I got closer it moved until eventually I found a huge floating diamond with snow swirling around inside of it. But that wasn't really what I should be focused on, what I was focused on though was the ghost of Faux Rarity standing next to it smiling at me.

"Uhm…. Yeah I don't smoke anything so I know I'm not high and I'm at least 90% sure I'm not drunk. Who… or what are you?" I asked it.

It shook its head and pointed to them diamond.

"What you want me to destroy it?" It nodded it's head, "Well that's what I came to do, but why do you want it destroyed?" She frowned. "Wait, it's trapping you all here isn't it?" She nodded sadly and then pointed in the direction of the crystal heart. "Uh… the Crystal Heart is too?" She shook her head again and pointed to her horn and then me. it took me a minute to understand what she was trying to say. "Oh, so is King Sombra and you want me to stop him?" She nodded happily. "Well I was planning on doing it anyway, but I promise I will and I never break my promises." She clapped her hands together and smiled.

"Hey Chris, you find the gem?" I heard Spike's voice coming from behind me and I saw him round the corner, he was holding the Crystal heart.

"Yeah I was just talking to this" I turned my head back to give gesture to the ghost but she was gone.

"Talking to what?" he asked looking around.

"Uh… nothing but yeah, this is the gem or Diamond I guess."

"How are you going to break it? It looks pretty tough."

"Good question." I lobbed an Icy Fire ball at it and nothing happened, I punched it with my diamond fist of the ice dragon and nothing happened, I even used roar of the ice dragon and nothing happened. I only had one idea left. "Imma eat it." I said bluntly.

"You're gonna do what? Are you sure you can, I mean it does look good but that magic looks dangerous." He said eyeing the diamond.

"It's still ice magic and I can consume that I think I'll be ok." I picked it up and took a bite out of it, my teeth cleaving clean through it. Good thing that worked, I devoured the entire thing within a matter of seconds.

"Huh, I didn't think that would work." Spike said.

"Me neith-ahhh brain freeze!" I didn't even know I could get brain freeze, then things exploded and got covered with ice, seems familiar huh? "Oh so that's what it feels like when that happens… Cool"

+I don't know why that happened, according to your body it wasn't supposed to but I'm thinking you eating the diamond sped things up a bit. This might actually be good, the increase in power might be enough to help you beat Sombra. Permanently.+ Ixis said.

"It might, Spike after this I'm going to be out cold for a few minutes, and I know you don't want to but you have to walk back through that hall, open the door and watch to see if you see Sombra or anything. If you do run back here and wake me up somehow." He hesitated but nodded in the end. "Good now… this is gonna suck." I put my hand to the ice and absorbed it back into me feeling super energized and then the pain and freezing over started. Then blackness.

"Oh… that's what happens… huh…" Spike ran to the entrance to the temple.

"Chris, come on wake up… Chris… Chris…. CHRIS!" I heard a voice shout in my ear and I sat up quickly and looked around.

"Whosit whatsit… huh?" I felt something heavy at the back of me. I looked behind and saw that I had a dragon's tail. It was dark blue and the spines leading down it were shaped like a shark's fin and were snow white. The tip of my tail was not a heart shape like Spike's, instead it was cone shaped with a spiral pattern making it look like a drill. "Huh I have a tail." I twitched it and giggled. "I always wanted a tail, cool."

"You can play with your tail later Chris, Sombra remember? I saw him head towards the city." Spike said.

I snapped out of my stupor and jumped up, picking up Spike and the Crystal Heart. "Ok, time to go!" I started running and I realized I was a lot faster than before, nice.

As we were running I could see the ghosts of the dead looking at me, silently cheering me on to get there. When we reached the exit I realized it closed back up since Spike came back down and I already ran a bit passed it but then I remembered I had a new tail, so I just extended it back and smacked the panel with it. I did so with good timing too because I really couldn't control my momentum but the door opened enough for me to jump out. Ok yeah this enhanced things quite a bit because I jumped pretty high in the air, I looked around saw the blizzard had stopped and a lot of the snow in the surrounding area calmed down as well and when I landed a shockwave of snow and ice spread out in a ring around me.

"Hang on everyone, we're coming." And I took off running again.

11: The end of one chapter

We made it to the city but the barrier was down and I saw Shining lying on the ground, "That is not good…" A ran over to him and checked his pulse, he was still alive good, but his horn had some sort of black crystals on them. "Shining, wake up…. Come on man, wake up…" I shook him.

He stirred, "Mmm… five more minutes Cadance…."

I groaned and smacked him, "You won't have a Cadance if you don't wake up now!"

"Ok ok ok I'm awake…. Oh man, what happened?" He asked looking at me, "Chris…. Chris! Wait… if you're here that means you have the heart right?"

I nodded and pointed to Spike who was holding the Crystal Heart, "Yeah but what happened to you man?"

He looked to the sky, "Ugh…. Sombra came… an hour ago… I tried to stop him; he knocked me out and went to the Castle."

Did it really take me an hour to get here? "Damn… that's not good. Can you move?"

He stood up shakily, "Yeah… but I can't do magic." He said pointing to his horn.

"I figured as much, but I don't need you to do magic. The girls were in the castle right?" he nodded, "Great that means he's probably going to want the Crystal Heart in return. What about Cadance?"

"She was in the Castle with the girls, if Sombra is there that means he got to all of them." Shining said.

"Alright… ok I have a plan…" We huddled together and worked out the details.

"We know what we have to do?" I asked them.

"Yep." Spike said.

"I have to admit, that it's a good plan let's just hope he doesn't think of it." Shining said same, now come on. We ran towards the castle and I saw that the town was empty. They were probably inside their homes or somewhere else, as long as they were safe. I held the Crystal Heart in my arms careful not to drop it.

When we reached the throne room I kicked the doors open and came to a halt. The girls were chained up to a wall and Cadance was chained up to the throne. Horns had strange rings on them and wings were bound to their bodies, all there mouths were covered as well and they all were looking at me hopefully. Sombra was on the throne sitting back relaxed with a cool look on his face, I growled a deep sinister growl.

He yawned, "Ooooo scary, I was wondering when you'd get here. Oh and it looks like you brought the Knight Prince and a Lizard how… quaint."

"Sombra… let them go." I said in a dangerously low tone, giving a quick look to Fluttershy.

"Oh I will if you give me that heart you're holding." He said.

The girls mumbled out grunts of protests, "And how do I know you just won't take the Crystal Heart and keep them like that?"

"You don't but," his horn glowed and a spike shot out the floor and stopped right underneath each of their throats. "If you want them to live you don't have much of a choice."

I looked to them all; they all looked at me with different expressions. There was fear and sadness, but mostly there was defiance even if one of them was crying, which I was proud of but not happy about, "Fine, just don't hurt them, please." The black crystals retreated and they let out a sigh of relief. Spike ran to Twilight and Rarity while Shining moved as fast as he could to Cadance.

Sombra had a triumphant grin, "Good, now come here boy and give me the Heart."

I sighed and walked to him, "You promise to let them go?"

"Yes, I do. Now the heart if you please." He said holding out his hand, I reluctantly gave it over. "Hahaha… Very nice…" His horn lit up quickly and a spike of crystal shot towards the girls.

I tried to move to block it but it was to fast, I looked in horror at who it was heading for and dropped onto my knees. "Fluttershy… no…" She couldn't avoid it due to the chains but it didn't deal a fatal blow, but it did go straight through her shoulder and she let out a loud muffled scream of pain and more tears flowed from her eyes and blood seeped from the wound. The girls were looking at Fluttershy in shock but rainbow was struggling against her chains as best she could to get at the dark unicorn.

"You are an idiot, did you really think I'd let the only leverage I had go? As if, I will use those mares, you, princey over there, and the lizard to make Celestia and Luna do whatever I want." He said with a triumphant laugh. I scowled at him and then started to laugh as well. "What the hell are you laughing at boy? I have the heart and I severely injured your loved one. If anything you should be furious if not dejected. What's so funny?"

I stood up with my head hung low, the laugh slowly turning sinister, "Two things, that ain't the real Crystal Heart, Sombrero!" I said slowly.

He looked at me with an oblivious looked and then he felt the water run down his arm, "W-what did you do?! WHERE IS THE HEART?!" He roared out.

"Second thing…" I looked at him glaring pure death, "You've made the biggest mistake in your entire life."

He was fuming, "And what's that ice boy?"

Mist and steam were coming off my body from it dropping the surrounding temperature, "You hurt someone I loved and who loved me back…" I fully lifted my head up, my eye glinted in the darkness that was covering them and my smile was twisted in rage. "And for that…. YOU DIE!" I jumped towards him faster than anyone thought possible and punched him square in the jaw sending him flying through the wall and out to the city. I jumped through the hole roaring as I came crashing down into the crater that Sombra made when he landed.

He stood up and wiped his face off examining his hand seeing the blood, "You… what the hell did you do? You weren't this strong before." I didn't answer him instead I just growled and spat on the ground. "No matter I won't be letting you hit me agai-" I hit him again.

I kept punching him, making the crater deeper and deeper until he blasted me off of him with some dark magic.

He stood back up albeit a bit shakily, "Fine, you want to fight, then let us fight." He took on a fighting stance.

I just leaned over and charged, howling all the way. 'Hyōryū no Hakari' I said in my mind my body being covered instantly in clear, diamond hard scales. I held out my fist ready to punch him but he simply side stepped me and chopped me in the back sending me into the ground.

"Ugh, why does my hand hurt?" He looked at it and saw a thin layer of ice coating it and he cracked it off. He reached down and picked me up by the back of my neck. "I have no idea what you are, but I'm going to make sure you don't get the chance to make more." He slammed me back into the ground then picked me up again and tossed me through several buildings.

Eventually I stopped in a pile of rubble. "Thank god for the scales, other wise I would be in a lot more pain." I groaned out. I saw Sombra, in shadow form, coming through the holes I made flying through the houses so I decided to form the sword of the ice dragon. When he got close enough I jumped and slashed through the shadows.

He howled in pain and reformed into a solid body, "I forgot your little ice magic can hurt me in shadow form."

I smirked and held my sword out in front of me and he shot a blast of magic at it, shattering it, 'Well shit.'

"Is that all you've got?" He called to me, "Well if it is, let me show you what I have." His horn charged up and he shot a magical blast much like the one that put me in the hospital.

I put up my arms and wrapped my tail around me like a protective shield.

"What do you think that's going to do, pro…tect…you…? WHAT?!"

I felt the magic hit my tail but I didn't feel any sort of pain, just the impact, I looked over my tail and saw the magic flying off towards the horizon. I smiled, "Now let me show you what I can really do… Ice Dragon's Crushing Fangs!" I bent my arms and two giant spikes of ice formed off my elbows, I jumped at him and started spinning like a top, I used the tip of my tail increase my speed and he was too stunned to block or dodge me, I slammed into him the spikes slicing through his armor and into him. When I stopped spinning, my ice slowed him down enough for me to jump into the air and form a large drill of ice around my horns. I spun myself again and aimed straight for Sombra, "Horn Drill of the Ice Dragon!" I hit him square in the chest breaking away large chunks of the armor.

Before I was done he grabbed hold of me and tossed me back through the buildings but I was able to get my footing, not before skidding a couple of feet though. When he came through his eyes were exceptionally red. "You little…"

"Those were for Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash." I slammed my hands on the ground causing spikes of ice to race towards him but he dodged them, which I was expecting so when he landed I used my newfound speed to punch him again with a diamond fist, which of course sent him flying but I chased after him and started slashing at him with the claws of the ice dragon and changing to punching him with the diamond fist. When I felt he flew far enough I got the claws back out, dug into his stomach and slammed him back into the ground. I jumped back several feet panting. "Those were for Pinkie Pie and Rarity."

He crawled back out of the ground worse for wear, "I swear I will end you…"

"I'd like to see you try…" I did the classic hand taunt motion, you all know the one.

He roared and starting shooting beam after beam of dark magic at me which I deflected with my tail, this thing was useful. When I saw a break in his firing I gathered magic in my stomach and lungs before releasing it in a roar.

He saw it coming and held it back with a wave of powerful magic, but I kept it going until I couldn't anymore. "You didn't think I'd seriously let that hit me again did you?"

"I… didn't want… it to…" I panted out, pointing to his legs.

He looked down and saw they were trapped in thick ice, "How did… If you think this will hold me…" He shot a blast of dark magic off of it, it bounced off harmlessly, and he tried again and again and again. He even tried using his crystals to break it off, nothing worked.

I laughed, "Diamond hard ice Sombrero, nothing can break it… except for me, and by the way that was for Cadance." I started to inhale deeply, taking in all the ice and snow from the surrounding area for miles until I felt my magic energy fully replenished and then pushed beyond it's limits, it felt like I was about to explode but I needed all this power to get revenge for him hurting Fluttershy.

I leapt high into the air and stopped, seemingly floating, "Metsu Ryū Ōgi Hyōki: Hyōkakō." I said calmly as a small ball off ice formed at the tip of my tail, it started to grow bigger and bigger until it was the size of a large glacier. "And this…. THIS IS FOR HURTING FLUTTERSHY!" I yelled out as I flipped my entire body bringing the glacier with it, when my tail was in the perfect position used the momentum to let it fly and hit Sombra with a force, speed, and weight that came with it. When it landed on top of the tyrant I roared and slammed my feet down into it, cracking it until it broke apart and I landed right on Sombra's stomach with all the rage of a dragon.

He coughed up a large amount of blood and looked up at me, I picked him up by his hair and that's when I saw it, the fear in his eyes. 'Do it… kill him… you know you want to…' I heard a voice say in my head. "No, I don't kill." I told it, my thoughts becoming foggy. 'He tried to kill Fluttershy, we only got lucky he missed. If you let him go he'll do it again.' It said, goading me on. "He won't if we lock him up." I said but I wasn't convincing it… hell I wasn't even sure I was convincing myself. 'You know that won't happen… Kill him or else he'll come back and take it out on your loved ones later… and it will be all your fault for letting him go now. Remember the temple...'

"You're right… he will just keep killing." I lifted my arm, my mind completely clouded, forming a spike of ice at the end of my hand, "No more, you won't hurt anyone I care about again…" I brought my hand down…

+CHRIS STOP!+ Ixis yelled out, her voice penetrating the fog.

I stopped an inch about his throat, his eyes were closed and he was whimpering. "Ixis, why did you stop me?"

+Chris… this isn't you, you would never do this. You value all life even if it belongs to someone like him. You believe in everything deserving a second chance, what if Fluttershy could see you right now?+ She asked me.

"Fluttershy…?" I asked.

+Right, if she saw you right now, if she knew you killed him, even after what he did, you know she would never forgive you. You know she would be forever scared of you. So please, don't do this, I don't want to see you lose anyone else you love anymore… please.+

I blinked, my head clearing up. "You're right… I don't want that…" I sighed and let the ice melt. I was still holding Sombra.

He was looking at me, confused, scared and relieved, "Why… why did you stop?" He asked.

"Because I'm better than you that's why." I looked behind me and saw that the crystal heart was placed in it's pedestal and a felt the magic coursing through the air. I dropped him and started to walk away. "It's done Sombra, leave and never come back, if I see you again I will kill you."

"Don't you dare walk away from me… come back here and finish it! KILL ME DAMN YOU!" He yelled out after me.

I felt a strong wave of magic pass by me, recharging and healing me, "I don't have to." I said quietly and then I heard the agonizing scream and the explosion. I looked up into the sky and saw several parts of Sombra flying through the air in opposite directions to a very far distance. I sighed happy it was over and made my way to the castle.

When I got to the throne room I was tackled by a blur of pink. "Hey Pinkie, good to see you're ok." I patted her back until she got off of me.

"We saw the entire fight Chrissy, it was so cool!" She said happily

"Yeah how you hit him and never let up like BAM BOOM POW! And how you deflected his magic with your tail, actually when did you get that?" Rainbow asked.

"Icesplosion.. had one at the temple." I said quickly.

"I hope you didn't ruin the books in there." Twilight said with a playful glare.

"Good to see you too Twi." I looked to Rarity who was just freaking out for whatever reason.

"Ah hope ya gave 'im a hit for me." Apple Jack said punching me in the arm.

"I gave him a hit for all of you… speaking of, is Fluttershy ok?" I asked looking around.

"She's fine we got her bandage up real quick once Shining Armor and Spike set us free, she's right over there." AJ pointed to the hole I made and Fluttershy was just standing there looking at it, or out it, I couldn't really tell. "I suggest you go talk to her partner, you were mighty scary even to me. Imagine how Shy must've felt."

"Yeah.." I walked over to her and gently touched her bandaged shoulder, "Hey Flutters, is your shoulder ok?" She nodded, "Are you ok?"

"I-I don't know… I'm proud of you for not killing him I really am but… I was also really scared of you." She said looking away from me.

"Scared… why were you scared?"

"When he hurt me, your entire posture changed it went from the calm caring you to… well a wild animal protecting what's yours. But that wasn't the scary part at least not for me, for me it was your eye. It looked so much like a dragon's more so than normal, but I could also see the bloodlust the urge to kill in them and when you were holding Sombra I was so scared I was going to lose you to that." She said tearing up and gripping her shirt.

"Shy…." I said softly.

"Chris… what happens when you really do lose control? I could tell that you still had control even when you were about to kill him, what happens when that's not there." She asked looking at me, and just like Sombra fear was in her eyes.

"No… I… I would never let it get that far. I swear I wouldn't." I told her.

She shook her head, "Chris… you lost your temper just from me being hurt. I go out on dangerous assignments with the girls all the time. What happens if I get injured to where it will cost me my life, what if I do die? What if we have a daughter or son and she or he gets hurt or worse? Would you still have control then?" She asked me dead serious.

"I… I… no I wouldn't…" I dropped to me knees, "I wouldn't have any control…"

"What do I do when that happens, what do we do when that happens?" She asked me.

"You… you get as far away from me as you possibly can. When I lose control I don't care who is a friend or an enemy. I will probably hurt them regardless. If I lose control I want you to run and if we have a child I want you to take the child and run, fly, do anything and get as far away as you can go to a hot place, I can't survive in places like those for long. Just promise me you'll do that because I don't believe I will be able to keep control." And that was that…

"That's your worst fear isn't it? That one day you'll lose control and hurt the ones you love." She hit the nail right on the head, that was the main reason I kept my emotions in check, pretty sure I said that before. I just nodded, "Chris stand up."

I did and looked at her, "Fluttershy…."

She shushed me, "Chris, let me tell you what you told me… if you can't believe in yourself, don't. Don't even believe in me… believe in the me that believes in you."

I smiled, "…That doesn't make any sense."

She hugged me, "No, but it made you smile and that's all that matters. I love you Chris."

I hugged her back, "I love you too Shy."

"Why is it always mushy mushy stuff with them?" Rainbow asked.

"Honestly Dash, Ah just think you're jealous." AJ said.

"A-am not!" Rainbow retorted with a blush.

I started laughing, then Fluttershy started laughing, and then it spread to everyone else. Man it was good to be with them. I looked up and saw the ghost of Faux Rarity staring down at me with a smile, me looking up got everyone else's attention and they gasped, save for me and Spike. She mouthed something that I made out to be thank you, came down and kissed me. It's weird to be kissed by a ghost, like imagine feeling wind against your face but the area around your lips is cooler than the rest of you face. When she was done she backed away and waved, disappearing. I blushed and looked at Fluttershy who was just scowling at me. "What? Don't look at me like that, I have no idea what that was about."

"Chris… that was Princess Platinum. Why was she here, more importantly why was her ghost here?" Cadance asked, so I explained what Spike and I saw in the temple and how those bodies should be taken out and properly buried. Cadance agreed and said it would happen as soon as possible.

"I'm just curious as to why she looked exactly like me? Oh could that mean I'm a direct descendent of Princess Platinum?" Rarity asked dreamily.

"Wouldn't surprise me really, by the way, you look good enough to eat Shy." I told her loud enough for everyone to hear.

"C-Chris!" Sweet the distraction worked.

"What?! You look like crystal, we all do… in fact it's a bit hard to refrain from eating myself." I bit into my arm and yelped in pain, "Ok… yeah not a good idea. So what now?"

"Well, I guess we celebrate." Cadance said. "And we all know who to leave that to." We all looked to Pinkie.

She just smiled her classic pinkie smile, "IT'S TIME TO PARTAY!" She yelled out.

And so we did, the entire Empire partied for the span of 4 days. At the end of the four days there was a Ceremony held where Spike and I got medals of heroism and bravery as well as the whole adoption event. Why it had to be such an important event? I had no idea best summary of it? Vows and stuff, now I'm the Drako Prince of the Crystal Empire, Defeater of King Sombra, blah blah blah pointless titles blah. I was just happy to have a family again.

And about Princess Platinum, even if she wasn't an Alicorn she still lived an exceptionally long time. And apparently she helped found the Crystal Empire and was one of the ponies who insisted that Cadance's Family be put on the throne instead of her, despite them not being royalty, but they had a way with ponies that she did not so she felt they would do better. Princess Platinum also knew Sombra long before he became corrupted with dark magic, in fact they were even lovers but when he got corrupted she left him but she never gave up on him. When she saw that he was his normal self even if only for a short while she decided to follow him to the Pillars, this got the attention of several other ponies and they decided to leave during nightfall and follow, which is why we found their bodies in the temple. Same with Princess Platinum who we suspected to have wanted to convince Sombra to let the people and Empire free only to die to the one she loved. We also assumed that Sombra saw this and it is what pushed him into darkness completely. I could sympathize with him, if I killed Fluttershy even accidentally I'm pretty sure I would go crazy too.

A day or two later Spike came to my room one night. I heard the knocking on my door and answered it, seeing my little buddy standing there. "Hey, Spike, what's up?"

He rubbed his arm looking down, "How do you do it?"

"How do I do what? You're gonna have to be more specific than that." I told him.

"How are you not having nightmares of that temple… all those dead ponies… that pony that looked like Rarity…" He said softly.

I blinked and sighed, "Come in and sit on the bed I'm going to go make some coco."

"I… thanks…" He walked passed me to the bed and I went to the small kitchen I had in my room… what? I'm a prince I get what I want. I made 3 cups of Hot Coco and came back and saw Spike sitting in Fluttershy's lap.

"Here you go." I handed a cup to him and he took it with shaky hands. "So you've been having nightmares huh?"

He nodded, "Whenever I close my eyes all I see are the frozen ponies and then I see… her and that changes everything to everypony else being frozen. Twilight, you, Shining… everyone… dead and cold and it's just me. I'm the one who caused it and I wake up screaming and and and!" He started hyperventilating.

I put a hand on his head, "Deep breaths Spike, deep breaths."

He heeded my advice and he started to breathe normally again, "That… that happens… how do you do it? How aren't you freaking out?"

I took a deep breath, "I do have nightmares Spike, I have nightmares all the time, these are just added to the endless list of nightmares I have. I wake up in the middle of the night screaming and crying more times than I care to count."

"So how are you not… crazy?" He asked.

"Because I have her," I pointed to Fluttershy and she smiled at me, "and you, and everyone else. I know that when I wake up and I see all of your smiling faces I know that my nightmares are just that, nightmares."

"Oh…" He said, not really expecting that.

"What were you expecting me to be like, 'I've seen so much death that it doesn't affect me anymore'? I'm not that much of a badass Spike. I actually hate death and killing, I try to avoid it as best I can. Lemme tell you a secret, when I almost killed Sombra, that night I couldn't sleep because I was so close to just losing who I was. I was just rocking back and forward muttering to myself." I said with a chuckle.

"You were?" He asked.

"Yes, he was, it took me hours just to calm him down enough to go to sleep and when he did if I tried to leave or move he would start to whimper again." Fluttershy told him.

Spike laughed, "You whimpered? Really?"

"Yeah yeah, yuck it up." I said with a growl. "But that's how I'm not going insane with everything. If you need to you can come and talk to us whenever you want, you also have all of our other friends too, remember that. I know I have to or else things could get bad. And if I could recommend something, go talk to Rarity after you're done here, ok?"

He nodded, "I can do that, thanks, I feel better."

"No problem now go on, and take your hot coco with you." I told him, he jumped out of Fluttershy's lap and off the bed bringing his drink.

"You handled that really well." Fluttershy said, wrapping her arms around me.

I shrugged, "Eh, I was just telling him the truth." I yawned, "I'm tired though, let's get to bed."

After the festival and the night Spike came to our room, the festival will be known as the Crystal Ice Festival from now on by the way, I spent the last few days at the Empire with Fluttershy… it was nice to see the ponies with memories. The kids were always coming up to me wondering what I was and the adults encouraged the ones who were either too shy or scared. I wish a lot more places like this. Anyway we spent a lot of time together… A LOT of time together. Ixis told me I should be careful or I'd end up having a kid, which I honestly wouldn't mind. Finally the day came when it was time for everyone to go home. Everyone except me, everyone was complaining of course. I promised them all they'd get as much time with me as they wanted when I got back. Surprisingly though the pony I was expecting the most protest from was quiet. But I understood that she knew I had to do this and we gave each other a look saying that no matter what we'll wait for each other. They still had my pins and I could send them letters with the emerald I still carried. I gave them all hugs goodbye and watched them board the train. I felt a tear roll down my cheek.

"Chris are you sure about this? You're going to be away for years." Cadance said.

"I'm already part of the royal family Sissi, I can't take this back even if I wanted to." I told her looking at the train as it departed.

"I know, I just wish it didn't have to take long but with Shining wanting to give you proper training, the royal training and the other stuff you'll have to do, it's going to take a few years to finish. I'm sorry." She said.

I wiped my eye and smiled, "Don't be, this is just the end to one chapter of my life and the interlude to the beginning of the next one. If this is what I have to do to get to that next chapter and be back with Shy, then so be it. And besides it won't be all bad I'll probably see her at the Grand Galloping Gala each year if she decides to go."

She thought about that for a second, "Yes, I suppose you will, so are you ready to get started?"

I grabbed the necklace that had the heart-snowflake charm Fluttershy got for me attached to it, "Yeah, lets, it's going to be a long 5 years ain't it?"

"I'm afraid so Chris, I'm afraid so."

Author's Note

Yes, I'm putting a link to the Q&A blog in every author note, for those who stopped at mid points in the story, It's for reaching 25 chapters being written, even though 25 is still being written: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/831885/qs-for-the-qa-chapter

12: And the beginning of another

I stepped off the train and stretched, all of my joints cracking, "Ah yeah, that felt good." I picked up my bag and walked out of the station, I shielded my eyes from the bright light and when my vision cleared I looked around, I was home. "Man, Ponyville hasn't changed a bit within the last four and a half years." I said walking in the direction of the Cottage. I was hidden underneath a cloak, not the one Rarity made me all those years ago, that was in my bag. This cloak was mainly white with a few pink and yellow accents. Honestly I hated this cloak at first but I had to wear it as a Prince and it just grew on me and it's now one of my favorite cloaks.

When I reached the Cottage I noticed that a lot of the birdhouses that were there well weren't I thought this weird but really paid it no mind, what I did notice however was that when I got closer to the Cottage I didn't hear the usual scurrying of animals coming from inside or around back either. I decided to knock on the door, when it opened It wasn't Fluttershy who answered instead it was an old stallion, looked to be 80 or so.

"May I help you?" He asked, his voice cracking with his age.

"I uh… someone I know used to live here but that obviously doesn't seem to be the case anymore." I said looking past him and into the house.

"Ah you mean Ms. Fluttershy, she moved into town a few years ago and gave this place to me, said something about not having enough room when her coltfriend gets back or something. Personally I haven't seen this so called coltfriend of hers in the years since she moved out. Either she wasn't entirely truthful or that coltfriend of hers left her and never came back, the coward." The old colt said with bitterness.

I laughed nervously, "Yeah…. Uh do you know where she moved to in town?"

He shook his head, "No, I see her out and about but I never saw where she moved to. Who are you anyway looking for a kind mare like her?"

"An old friend from years ago. Thank you anyway sir, have a good day." I told him turning around.

"You too youngun." He said from behind me and I waved as I walked away.

When I got into town I was thrown off balance and onto the ground with something heavy landing on me. "Ugh… what hit me?" I looked down and saw a mess of blonde hair.

"Ooohhh not again…" The pony that was on top of me sat up and looked at me, her eyes were pointing in different directions… I think we've met before. "Are you alright?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine how about you?" I asked her.

"I'm perfectly ok; I crash into things all the time." She said with a smile.

"Well, that's good to know… I guess. Uh… do you mind getting off of me?" I asked her politely

"Oh, sorry." She stood up and held out her hand to help me up, I took it.

When I was standing up I brushed myself off and looked at the mare. She was wearing a gray uniform that matched her fur. She was also a Pegasus and I could see that there were 7 out of place bubbles on her uniform, which must be her cutie mark. I looked at her eyes again and yeah, we did meet, but when?

"You know, you remind me of someone I bumped into a long time again, they were wearing a cloak too." She said, which made me remember when I met her, she then went over to a bag that was on the ground with letters scattered everywhere. I decided to help her pick the up since ya know I kinda was the person she crashed into. "Thank you for helping me, not many ponies do so."

"No problem Ms…"

"Derpy…. Derpy Whooves."

"No problem Ms. Whooves, but why don't a lot of ponies help you out, you seem nice enough." I said.

She looked around and then back at me… or I think she did. "Because of my eyes, they make a lot of ponies uncomfortable so they just avoid me if they can." She said sadly.

I huffed, "Well that's no reason to avoid someone, I could understand if you were like a really mean pony or you smelled really bad. But, again, you don't seem mean and you smell a lot like muffins. Besides I think your eyes make you look cute." What? I could compliment other mares, it ain't against the rules.

She blushed, "Th-thank you."

"Yeah, no problem… oh by the way my name is Chris McGrath, but please just call me Chris." I held out a hand and she shook it.

"Well it's good to meet you Chris, say what are you doing in Ponyville?" She asked me.

I rubbed the back of my head, "Ah, you see, I used to live here and I wanted to come see an old friend. Wait, you're a mail mare right?" she nodded, "Well do you know where Fluttershy lives?"

"I do indeedy, she's one of the ponies who is really nice to me, is that who you're trying to find? If so I can take you there, it's on my route anyway." She offered happily.

"You know what, yeah, I'd like that. Lead the way." I told her letting her walk ahead of me.

While we were walking she decided to bring something up.

"I hope you aren't going there to try and woo her." Derpy said cautiously.

"Why's that?"

"Well a lot of colts tried to do so and she told them that if her coltfriend found out he'd be super angry. They didn't believe her until they saw who she was living with then they put two and two together and took off with their tails between their legs." She explained.

"Who she's living with?" I asked, curious, feeling my heart rate increase… she wouldn't get with someone else… would she?

"Mhm, but if you don't know then you must not've seen her in quite some time, so I'll keep it as a secret." She said with a wink.

Ok now I'm worried, "So anyway can I know who this pony she's living with is like?"

Derpy shook her head, "Nope not telling sorry, you'll just have to see for yourself."

I sighed, "Alright then." The rest of the walk was silent and then we reached a house, it was two stories tall and had about 5 windows on the front and a small porch with a large wooden door to enter. The house itself was pure white with light blue highlights.

"Well here we are, I'd stay to talk to Fluttershy too, but I have to deliver the rest of the mail." She said, putting whatever mail Fluttershy had in the mailbox out front.

"Alright, say Derpy? I don't think I'll be leaving town for a long time, if you want another friend I'm up for it." I told her.

She looked at me and blinked, "You wanna be my friend, really?" I nodded and she crushed me in a hug, "Thank you thank you thank you… but where are you going to stay?" she asked letting me go.

I looked to the house and shrugged, "I'll find a way to let you know where when I find a place. It was good meeting you."

"You too Chris, I'll see you later." She said before taking flight.

I shook my head walked to the door giving it a solid few knocks. I whistled a little song while I waited. When the door opened a small filly was in the doorway. "I… uh… hmm this has to be the wrong place… Say little one do you know where Ms. Fluttershy lives?" I asked her and she gave me a questioning look.

"MOM, THERE IS ANOTHER GUY HERE FOR YOU BUT HE'S A BIT WEIRDER THAN THE REST!" She yelled into the house.

I mouthed 'mom?' then I looked at the filly standing in the doorway more carefully. She was wearing a pink sundress and looked like a pony but she wasn't. She had slitted pupils, tiny fangs poking out, her legs ended in claws instead of hooves, and her tail was long and thick like well a dragon's it even had spines and ended in a drill shape too. Her eyes were sky blue, her fur (Which she had) was a pale blue, to match her eyes, and her hair was long and flowing and was a pale gold in color. Her spines on her tail were also pale gold. She also had horns that looked way too much like mine, she even had little dragon like wings that matched the color of her coat. Wait…. hold on lemme go back to the horns and the tail… they looked like mine… "No…" I said quietly

Then she came to the door, she was wearing a shirt and some pants with an apron on. Her hair was up in a ponytail but her bangs were being held back by the pin I made for her years ago, she still had it. "H-hello… how may I h-help you?" She asked nervously, uh well that was back.

I reached up slowly, "Fluttershy…" I said softly.

"Sh-should I know you?" She asked me cautiously, pushing the… I know there was a name for what she was… Krillin… no no… Kiran… no no… KIRIN! Right, she pushed the small Kirin behind her just in case.

I stopped, "Not in this getup no I suppose you wouldn't but I do know that I gave you that pin in your hair years ago." I said touching it lightly.

Her eyes widened, "I-Is that really you?" She reached up and grabbed the hem of my hood and pulled it back, gasping when she saw my smiling face. "You're back… you're really back." She quickly hugged me.

I hugged her back and held her close. "Yeah, I'm back Flutters. I'm back."

"I thought you were going to be gone for six more months." She said into my chest and I heard soft crying.

"It's ok, and I thought I was too, but Cadance told me everything that I needed to do was done and I hopped on the train as soon as I could. I couldn't wait to come home." I felt myself tear up a bit, "I missed you so much Flutters."

"I missed you too Chris…" she said nuzzling into me.

"Mom, who is this guy?" The little Kirin asked Fluttershy, tugging on her shirt.

Fluttershy pulled away from me hug and looked down at her and got on a knee, "Golden Skies, this is your daddy." She said looking up at me with a smile.

"My… daddy?" Golden asked looking up at me as well.

"Uh… hi." I rubbed the back of my head awkwardly.

"That's not my daddy; you said my daddy had horns and things like that, that he was a dragon." She said still looking at me.

"Well yes I did but… actually… Chris, what happened to your horns?" Fluttershy asked me.

"Ah right… forgot about that… uhm hmmm… where is it…." I rummaged around my pockets before I felt something round and heavy, "Aha, here we go." I took my cloak off and crushed the ball between my fingers. My horns, eye, teeth, and tail appeared. "I made that bad boy to hide these so when I went to other countries they wouldn't mistake me for a dragon." I looked down at my… daughter with a playful smile, "Is that more to your liking?"

She nodded, "You really are my daddy aren't you… wait here." She said before running into the house.

"So… she's really mine huh?" I asked Fluttershy.

"Yes, I had her a few months after we came back to Ponyville, one day I felt sick and went to the doctor and they told me, on that day I knew that the Cottage wasn't going to be big enough to hold all of us when you came back so I bought a house here in town. I felt bad leaving the animals but they understood and it's not so bad. We're closer to the school and our friends and we aren't as close to the Everfree." She said.

"That… was a good choice, what about Angel and Hedgy?" I asked.

"Oh we kept those two."

"Oh good… so a few months after you all left huh? That means she must be four… I missed four birthdays…" I said quietly.

"It's ok you'll be able to make it up to her. And I'm glad you came back when you did, her magic is starting to manifest and I don't know how to teach her anything or explain anything." She was holding onto my arm.

"Hmm I'll do what I can, I promise. So do you have any idea what she went to get?" She shook her head but a few seconds later I heard the sound of claws scraping against a floor.

Golden came out and was holding a large piece of paper. On that paper was a drawing of her, Fluttershy, and what I'm assuming what was me all holding hands with a big heart above us that on the inside said, 'I love you daddy!', of course her being four it wasn't that good but ya know it was the thought that counts. "I know it's not that good but I wanted you to have it." She said quietly.

I took it and looked at it admiring it, "It's great sweetie thanks…" I got on a knee and ruffled her hair and since I was at her height she surprise hugged me. I was stunned for a second before hugging her back. "I'm so sorry I wasn't here…" I told her.

"It's ok, you're here now and that's all that matters." She kissed me on the cheek and ran back inside.

"She's oddly smart." I said laughing.

"She hangs around Twilight a lot, probably because she has a crush on Spike." She said with a giggle.

I groaned, "Oh god it's Spike and Rarity all over again…"

She laughed, "Yes, I suppose it is."

I stood back up, "Speaking of, how is everyone doing? I've seen Twilight a few times since she became a princess but that's about it."

"Oh they're going to want to see you and they will be mad with you not letting them know you came back early, especially Pinkie." She said giving me a devious smile.

I gulped, "Please don't remind me…. Pinkie is terrifying when she doesn't get to plan a party."

"Oh I agree, but we can save that for tomorrow, today you spend with us." She said, "Now come on in."

The rest of the day was pretty fun, I loved my daughter as much as I loved Shy, she was very understanding and very smart. She also had my sense of humor which was good for me but not so good for everyone else. But she was very caring like her mother. During dinner though…

"Hey daddy, Can you do this?" She breathed an icy flame over Angel who was eating a pile of lettuce reluctantly and froze him solid.

"Golden Skies, what have I told you about freezing Angel!" Fluttershy scolded.

"Not to…" she mumbled out.

I just laughed, that bunny had it coming. "So you can already breathe Icy Fire?" it looks like she was developing more like a dragon than a Drako. "Well that's good. I'll teach you a lot of things I know, but when you're older. Right now they're a bit too dangerous."

She pouted, "That's not fair."

"Oh come on don't pout, my heart can't handle so much cuteness in one room." I said faking like my heart was about to fail.

She pouted even harder, "I am not cute." She protested with a little hmph.

That was it, "Oh no… cuteness overload… can't keep going… tell my bed… I'll miss it… blegh." I dropped my head on the table.

"Very funny daddy, I know you aren't dead." She said, I didn't respond. "Daddy… daddy?" She got up and poked me, looking at her mom, scared. "Mommy, I killed daddy when I just met him!"

I jumped up and grabbed her, she screamed, I started tickling her and the screams turned to laughter, "I AM THE TICKLE ZOMBIE AND I FEED OFF OF TICKLING LITTLE KIRIN! MUAHAHAHAHAAHAAHA!"

She squirmed, "No-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho….. stoooooop." She whined out, I kept tickling her.

"Alright alright, that's enough for tonight. Tomorrow is your first day of school young lady and you need to get some sleep." Fluttershy said.

We both looked at her, "Aww but mooooooooom~" Golden cried out.

"But Shyyyyyyyyyyyyy~" I whined out.

She giggled, "No buts now come on you two, time for bed." We both groaned then laughed.

We put Golden to bed but she wanted to talk to me for a bit longer and Fluttershy agreed.

"What'd you want to talk about Goldy?" I asked her.

"When you were tickling me what did you call me?" She asked.

"I called you a Kirin, it's what you are. Half pony half dragon, maybe a bit of human thrown in there too." I said, sitting on the edge of her bed, I looked around her room and it was blue, good choice. She had a mixture of girly and boy things, also good.

"I never heard of a Kirin, even from Twilight and she knows everything."

"Obviously not everything, but I wouldn't be surprised if you couldn't find out. That's a word from my world." I told her.

"Can you tell me about your world?" She asked me.

I thought about it, "Sure, but tomorrow, your mother is right you do need sleep. Trust me being tired and going to school is no fun."

"Aw alright daddy, good night." She yawned, "I love you."

I leaned down and kissed her forehead, "I love you too." I walked out her room, turned off the light, and closed the door but left it cracked open. I made it back to the room and saw Fluttershy lying in bed reading… something.

"I'm glad to see that you two get along so well. I was so worried she wouldn't like you or you wouldn't like her." Shy said.

"Flutters, you worry too much, you know that? But I'll be honest I thought she wouldn't like me either when I heard her call for you at the door. But I would love any child that came from us." I said getting into bed.

"That's good to hear because I want a few more." She said.

"W-w-w-what?" I stammered out.

"At least four more." She said quietly leaning on me.

"I… uhm…. Yes?" I was confused.

She giggled, "Maybe in a couple of years." She suggested.

I nodded, "That'd be good."

We sat in bed for a while, she was reading and I was writing in my journal.

"Chris."

"Yeah?"

"My parents want to meet you."

"Oh, that's nice."

"Really?"

"Mhm."

"I was thinking we could go to Cloudsdale this weekend to meet them." She suggested.

"Sure, sounds like a plan." In 5…4…3…2…1 "WHAT?!"

She giggled, "I was wondering when that was going to sink in."

"S-shy, why didn't you tell me earlier?" I asked her, my face going white.

"Well you were having so much fun with Golden and I didn't want to ruin that." She explained.

I moaned in displeasure and sunk underneath the blankets, "Why me, you're dad is going to kill me."

"No he won't my dad is a very understanding pony. My mom will kill you though." She said with a snicker.

I just went completely under the blankets, "Nope… nope… nope."

"I'm playing Chris, you'll be perfectly ok."

I peeked over the edge of the blanket, "You promise I won't die?"

"Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a cupcake in my eye. I'll protect you forever." She said.

"FOREEEEEVVVVVEEEEEEEERRRRR!" We heard a voice come from nowhere.

"That sounded a lot like Pinkie…." I said, worried.

"It probably was, which probably means she knows you're here."

"You're evil, you know that? Some Element of Kindness you are." I stuck my tongue out at her.

"You love me though."

I sighed, "I do… I'm tired though, can we get some sleep?"

She nodded, closed the book, and turned off the light cuddling up against me. I let out a happy sigh and closed my eyes. It's good to be home. Sleep didn't last long though, an hour later I heard a knocking at our door. I sat up, Fluttershy making a cute mumbling noise. Golden was at our door holding her blanket and rubbing her eyes.

"Nightmare?" She nodded. "You wanna sleep with us?" another nod. "Alright come here." She made her way to my side of the bed and held her arms up. I picked her up and put her in our bed, she made her way between Fluttershy and I and snuggled into Shy's chest, bah instincts. I laid back down on my side my arm around them, pulling them close.

"Night daddy." Golden said. "Night Goldy." I said running a hand through her hair. "Night mommy." She said to Shy. "Good night my little icicle." She kissed Golden's ear. I pulled them closer and held them tight.

Author's Note

Yes, I'm putting a link to the Q&A blog in every author note, for those who stopped at mid points in the story, It's for reaching 25 chapters being written, even though 25 is still being written: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/831885/qs-for-the-qa-chapter

13: Return Day 1: Rarity & Crusaders

I woke up with a yawn and opened my eye to the blinding sun, "Fuggin…. Celestia… I swear she shines the sun on me directly because she knows I hate it." I tried to stretch only to have my arms held down by Shy and Goldy, "Right… I'm home, kinda forgot that." I stretched my neck and looked down at them; they were sleeping peacefully, breathing slowly, in and out in and out. I laid my head back down and closed my eyes. "I suppose I can sleep a few more minutes…"

BEEP BEEP BEEEEEP BEEEP BEEP BEEP BEEEP BEEEEEP!

I groaned, "Never mind…"

"Is it morning already?" I heard Shy ask through a yawn.

"Yeah, it is. How did you sleep?"

She sat up and rubbed her eyes, "Really good, I'm glad you're back." She gave me a kiss on the cheek. I just blushed and nodded, when we heard a little groan come from next to us.

"W-what time i-is it?" Goldy asked, also yawning.

I looked at the clock on the nightstand next to our bed, "6:30 and that means you have an hour before your first day of school starts." I ruffled her hair.

"Good, that means I can go back to sleep for a bit." Her head slammed back into the pillow, her horn puncturing it.

Shy sat up and poked Goldy's back, "No, that means you go and take a shower, get dressed, and get packed while I cook some breakfast."

"Do I have to?" She whined out, "Daddy…"

"Don't look at me I have no sway in what your mom says, never have and I never will." I said rolling on my stomach.

"Fiiiine." She climbed out of bed and a few seconds later I heard a shower running from the hall.

"The same goes for you mister, you have to go into town to meet everypony again." Shy told me firmly.

My tail twitched unhappily, "Shiiiit, do I have to?"

"Mhm, though I won't tell you who to go see first, even though you know who you should." She said getting out of bed and putting on a robe.

"I know I know, but she's going to kill me for not doing so yesterday so a few more hours… or days… won't hurt." I mumbled through the pillows.

"Well don't say I didn't warn you." And with that she was out the door.

"Hey Ixis you up yet?" I asked the dragon that shared the same mind as me.

+Yeah, I wake up the same time you do, same mind and all remember?+

"Sarcasm, cute, well I'm used to it. So who do you think I should go see first today?"

+Personally I think it should be Pinkie as well.+ I made a squealing sound. +Fine if not Pinkie, then Rarity, Rainbow and Apple Jack first after that Twilight and Spike, followed by Bon Bon and Lyra and finally Pinkie.+

"Sounds like a plan to me." I rolled off the bed and clambered into the shower. After a good cleaning and getting dressed I was downstairs sitting at the table eating some toast, Goldy was eating some eggs, toast, and had a glass of milk and Fluttershy was eating… tofu? Gross.

"Don't even understand how you can stomach that mess Shy." I told her biting into my toast with a satisfying clink and crunch. Did I mention my toast had gems in them, actually the bread in general did, I brought it back with me from the Crystal Empire.

"Most ponies eat it…" She said under her breath.

I swallowed, "Right sorry… it's just I've been out of Equestria so often that I tend to forget ponies only eat plants."

"Well I never had gems before now, I mean I've seen Spike eat them all the time but I never thought I could." Goldy said.

"Pfft your own fault for never asking, anyway it's about time you went to school. I have to go out anyway, you want me to walk you there?" I asked her, she nodded. "Ok, go get your backpack and your… wait right you don't wear shoes, go get your backpack on and we'll be good to go." She ran off leaving her fork to clatter on her empty plate.

"Chris…"

"Yeah Shy?"

"You're a great father." She said with a smile.

"Eh, it's only been a day, I'm sure I'll fuck it up at some point, but I'll try not to." I said finishing off my last piece of toast.

"I don't think you will, but have fun with your day."

"I plan on it, actually, what are you doing today?" I asked her.

"I plan on visiting whitetail woods to see some friends." She said pulling out a picnic basket.

"Are they two bears?" I asked jokingly.

She nodded, "Two actually, a papa and a cub."

I looked at her, "Is one named Yogi and the other Boo-Boo?" I was really hoping she'd say no.

"Yes they are… how did you know?" She asked with an incredulous look on her face.

"I-I… don't… just… I'm gonna take Goldy to school, say hi to your bears for me ok?" I got up and kissed her on the cheek and went to the door to wait.

"Ok I'm ready." Goldy said looking up at me.

"Cool, let's go." I said and so we went.

"Hey dad, you're a prince right?" Goldy asked me on the way there.

"Yep, why do you ask?"

"Well does that make me a princess or do you and mom have to get married first?"

I blinked, "Hmm, I'm not sure, I think you're a princess because you are my kid."

"Can I tell the kids at the school I'm a princess?" She asked.

"You can if you want just be nice and stuff." I told her.

"Well I wasn't going to be mean…"

"I know but school does things to kids, trust me. Just be yourself, you do that and you will have friends regardless if they know you're a princess or not, you'll have better friends for it too." I told her.

She nodded, "Ok… will you pick me up once school is out?"

"Of course and if I'm taking too long…" I pulled out a small ruby from my pocket and handed it to her. "Tap on this three times and I'll be there."

"What is it?"

"No idea, Twilight made it for me and gave it to me when we were around each other once. All I know is that when you tap on it, the emerald on my wristband will glow and vibrate with a red glow."

"Ok… well it looks like we're here." She said softly.

"Nervous?" she nodded, "Don't be, remember what I said be yourself and pay attention in class alright? I've met Cheerilee once before, she was really nice, so you shouldn't be in for too much trouble unless you have another CMC in your class." I laughed.

"Alright, I'll see you later, love you daddy." She said giving me a hug

"I love you too Goldy, remember tap on the gem three times if you need me for anything." I kissed her forehead and watched her go into the school house with the rest of the kids.

+And you still think you're a bad dad?+

"Always will, like I told Fluttershy, I know I'm gonna fuck up at some point the best I can do is hope she doesn't hate me when I do." I said with a sigh.

+You beat yourself up far too much you know. You're doing fine, just keep this up and you'll be fine.+

"I wish I could believe you Ixis I really do." And with that I made my way to Rarity's Boutique.

I was about to knock on the door when I remembered that during the day this is mainly a shop, so I just walked right in and was greeted with. "Welcome to Rarity's Boutique, where everything is chic, unique, and magnifique how may we help you today?" Said a unicorn I've never seen before. He was about a head shorter than I was with white mottled fur and had charcoal colored hair and tail.

"Uh... I was wondering if Rarity was in…" I was still really confused who this was as he was wearing no nametag or anything and he hasn't introduced himself.

"Ah, she is but you need an appointment to see her, she is rather busy and doesn't liked to be disturbed by anyone other than her friends." He said.

"That's… what?" I asked, cocking my head to the side.

"Yes, well ever since Ms. Rarity became one of the largest names in fashion a few years back she's been swamped with orders day in, day out, so she had to make the choice to only see her friends and family during the day. And that is why I, Hot Flash, am here, she hired me to take care of anypony who isn't friend or family. Actually… you aren't a pony at all." He said giving me a good look up and down.

"Well aren't you observant, yeah I'm not a pony. I'm a Drako, and yes I know you've never heard of it, I'm the only one so it makes sense. And the name's Chris, pleased to meet ya." I said.

"Yes well you still need an appointment to see Ms. Rarity." He said looking at his clipboard.

"Why? I'm her friend, a friend she hasn't seen in five years mind you but a friend regardless." I told him.

"She's never mentioned you before." He said.

"I swear I'm her friend, seriously just go and ask her and if you won't I will use my authority on you." I warned.

He raised a brow, "What authority could you possibly have?"

I groaned and pulled out a chain that had a crest with a snowflake emblazoned over half a Crystal Heart and half a Shield with stars, "I'm a prince of the Crystal Empire and adopted brother of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Shining Armor."

"Right, well, being from Canterlot I can tell you that Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Shining Armor do not have an adopted brother unless you count the dragon that Princess Twilight Sparkle has with her." Hot flash said.

I smacked my face with my palm, I forgot I told them not to tell anyone I was a prince, but they left out that I was part of the royal family all together… well fuck, "Look… just where is Sweetie Belle? She could vouch for me, I swear she could."

At that he looked surprised, "You know Ms. Belle?"

"Yes I know Sweetie, she's also a friend of mine. I also know Scootaloo and Apple Bloom. I know Apple Jack, Twilight, Spike, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and my marefriend is Fluttershy, we even have a daughter. Now, you're running down my patience and I swear if you don't go tell Rarity that I'm here…" I formed an ice spike in my hand and shot it through one of the ponnequins' leg, "That will be you next." I added in a deep growl just for effect.

I could hear him swallow, "R-right… let me check and see if Ms. Rarity is available." He said nervously.

I gave him a happy smile, "Thank you." I said cheerily as he walked up stairs and around a corner.

+That was mean Chris… funny but mean.+

I shrugged, "Eh I gotta get my amusement somehow."

I few minutes later he came downstairs.

"Yes, well, Ms. Rarity said that she will be down in a few minutes, also she told me to apologize to you so…" He looked away.

"Eh don't worry about it, I know you were just doing your job and I was just messing you, I was never gonna hurt you, worst case scenario is that I was just gonna sit here until she came out of her room." I gave him a pat on the back. "Loosen up some man and seriously wear more comforting clothes, you look like you're about to die."

He nodded, "Sir, if you don't mind are you really a prince?"

"Yeah, but I'll be honest I don't care and don't call me sir."

"My apologies sir… uh, what would you liked to be called?" He asked.

"My name, just like I'd call you Hot or Flash, whichever you prefer." I said sitting in a chair.

"I prefer Hot Flash."

"Well Hot Flash it is."

"Would you like anything to drink while you wait Sir Chris?" He asked, his entire demeanor different than when I walked in.

"Nah, and I told you cut the sir crap, just be yourself. I'm a prince yes, but I'm still a normal guy. And hell I've only been a prince for five years, I only feel like a prince when I'm at balls or political meetings or some shit. So just relax and come sit down, and if Rarity gets on your case I'll just buy like 40 already made clothes or something, should calm her down." I leaned back.

"I-I don't know…"

"Dude, just sit down, relax a bit." I patted the seat next to me.

"Y-yes sir…" He sat down but was still stiff as a board and was holding his clipboard very tightly.

I put my hand on his chest and pushed him back against the back of the chair. "Re-lax." He took a deep breath and his posture settled, "Better?" he nodded, "Good, now tell me a little about yourself, start anywhere with anything, I don't care."

"I well…you said Ms. Fluttershy was your marefriend?"

"And I have a daughter, yeah, why do you ask?"

"Well… how did you do it? I mean how did you get her to like you?"

"Me? Well I'm not too sure, I didn't do anything special. I was just myself. She was nice to me and I was nice back to her and eventually we just fell for each other pretty fast. It wasn't till a few months later that we actually officially became a couple and after that I had to go away for 5 years. It was tough but we talked through letters and I hoped to see her at the Grand Galloping Gala but sadly she never went. Twilight told me that she was always too busy to go and I guess I know why now. She had to take care of our daughter."

"Why did it take you months to officially become a couple?"

I laughed nervously, "Ah… you see, that was my fault, I'm a broken man. Going over how would take too long but I'll tell you that I was just in a bad place for a few months due to a bad choice I felt I made and eventually it was confronted and things came out and I felt better and we made it official. After that well things just kind of went how they went, if you want to know more you can ask Rarity."

"Oh I see… I don't know how that can help me though."

"I'm guessing there's someone you want to get with?"

He nodded, "Yes well.. s-she's really nice and funny. Uh… her coat shimmers in the sunlight and hi-her eyes are the deepest shade of blue. And I just… I want to… I want hi-her to like me too but I don't… know if h-she does and…"

"Stop right there, first off stop lying. You don't like a girl do you?"

He gulped, "Y-yes I do! Her name is Sh-Shimmer… Shine…"

"Uh huh… right, and I'm guessing she has a great personality, her body is amazing with nice flanks, great breasts, and a bulge to die for." I slipped that last one in there quickly so that he could hear it but not catch on right away.

"Yes all of those especially the last one!" He said and the blushed realizing what he said.

I just gave a devilish smile, "Caught ya."

"I-I-I… please, sir, don't tell anyone… I'll leave your presence if your promise not to tell anyone. I understand if I disgust you." He said starting to get up.

"I won't tell anyone but stay where you are." I told him.

"Sir?"

"You heard me, sit your butt down." I pulled him by his tail back down.

"You aren't… repulsed by me?" He asked.

I laughed, "Psh, no, dude I suck dick too."

"What… but, sir, you said…"

"Yeah? That I have a marefriend and a daughter? So what? I find both dudes and chicks attractive. Son, how old are you?" I asked him

"18 sir." He said.

"Ah, when did you realize you didn't like mares the same way every other colt did?"

"Only recently, I always thought I liked mares. I've even had several marefriends who've wanted to do sexual things with me but I could never…" He trailed off.

"get it up?" he nodded his face turning a very deep shade of red, "And I'm guessing this guy does?" Again a nod. "What's his name?"

"Bolt Stream… his name is Bolt Stream." He said.

"Pegasus?"

"Yes sir, with the best wings I've ever seen." He admitted.

"Heh, yeah pegasi do have great wings. Anyway, you two friends?"

"Yes, we've been friends for years now."

"Ah one of those huh? Alright I can give you some advice, it may not be good and you can take it or leave it but I'll give you some advice. He's your friend, possibly your best and closest friend, tell him how you feel. Worst case scenario is he's straight as uncooked spaghetti and he'll still be your friend regardless, best case scenario is he's cooked spaghetti and feels the same way. Either way he'll still be your friend and you'll still have him around. Trust me it may hurt if it's the worst case but at least he's still around, he could easily just say nope and stop being your friend and if that happens he was never your friend to begin with and at that point come find me again and we can drown your sorrows and a huge tub of Ice Cream." I patted him on the back. "Seriously, just be yourself, it may sound cliché but it works."

"I will try that sir, thank you." He said with a smile.

"No problem and like I said, cut the sir crap."

We talked for pretty much an hour until Rarity came downstairs, her hair in a bun held together by two pencils, that I'm guessing she used to draw up sketches of her designs. She looked tired as all hell and yet still elegant, not surprised.

"Hot Flash, dear, why are you sitting down? Shouldn't you be serving Chris or checking orders?" She asked the colt sitting next to me.

I stood up to greet the fashionista as she got to the bottom floor, "Eh, my fault Rarity, I told him to take it easy and we've just been talking. Also, if I need something to drink I know where the kitchen is."

"I don't understand why, if I was a princess I would be waited on hand and hoof every day for the rest of my life. I'd have suitors lined up for as far as the eye can see and I'd be the pony that everypony should know." She said dreamily.

"And you'd hate it with a passion, much more so than I would. It goes against your nature, you'd rather do something else for someone than have someone do everything for you. Yeah you're a lot like the ponies in Canterlot but unlike them you're still well, as we say on my world, human. No offense Flash." I told her.

"None taken sir." He said.

"You're infuriating when you're right Chris." She said rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"Tis my job." I gave her a hug which she returned.

"I've missed you, we all missed you. When did you get back?" She asked.

"Yesterday actually." I told her.

"You got back yesterday?! Why didn't you come to see any of us?"

"Well I went to Fluttershy first obviously and I spent the day with her and Goldy." I told her.

"I guess I'll just excuse myself." Hot Flash said walking to a back room.

"Goldy…? Oh Golden Skies! Ah, so you met your daughter, she's such a sweetheart isn't she? She takes after Fluttershy so much, well except all the dragon stuff." She said offhandedly.

"Really? She takes more after me when we're at home, maybe she's much more subdued outside of the house like Flutter…Shy…. Damn it."

Rarity giggled and gave me a hug, "It's good to have you back darling."

I sighed and hugged her back, "It's good to be back Rarity. So how has life been to you these past five years?"

"Oh it's been absolutely wonderful, busy but wonderful. I've finally been recognized in Canterlot and I even have a shop out there that I ship clothes to, I'm hoping to expand all over the world." (this was written well before the episode where this actually happens)

I sat back down, "Trust me a lot of the world needs it. I've been to places where people don't have clothes because they can't afford them or they just aren't being made. The world is much bigger than Equestria, lot different too."

"That sounds absolutely dreadful; surely not every place you visited was like that."

"Nah a lot of places were like Ponyville, some were like Canterlot, like I said the world is very different outside of Equestria. I met so much royalty that I'm pretty sure I'm sick of the color purple… err no offense."

She waved it off, "None taken, so what brings you to my home and shop?"

"Just wanted to catch up really… that and I'm doing my best to avoid Pinkie." I said with a shudder.

"Darling you know that's not a very good idea right?"

"Yes I do, but I've been gone for 5 years, a few more hours can't hurt." I'm probably gonna regret that.

She shrugged, "Well, as long as you know what you are getting yourself into. Though, since you have come to catch up, let us gossip." And so we talked for a little bit, Hot Flash was doing busy work and stopped to offer water or some snacks, which I graciously accepted. He even stopped to listen in and talk sometimes, good kid.

"So how is Sweetie?" I asked her.

Rarity's smile diminished, "Well… she's been… a problem, for lack of a better word."

"A problem?"

She nodded, "Yes, about a year after you were gone she started to get more rowdy and distant. After she left Cheerilee's Classes to go off to her second school with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo it got worse. She's never home and I've been getting complaints that she's been well… more destructive with her antics… which is strange since they've already gotten their cutie marks."

I scratched my chin, "And you say this started a year after I left/ didn't come back?" she nodded. "Hmmm… maybe…"

"Maybe what?"

"I was just thinking did you tell her that I was going to be gone for five years?"

"Well of course we did, we told everyone. Though the girls didn't believe us for a while and when… Oh dear, I see."

"Yep, her and I were pretty good friends, even during those months of horrid depression I hung out with the crusaders and stuff, mostly with Sweetie. She was cool for a kid. So I guess she was lashing out because she thought she lost a friend. Oh man… well if I see them I'll talk to her I promise." I told Rarity.

"Please do, it would be a huge favor for me." She said.

At that moment Hot Flash poked his head from behind a corner, "Miss Rarity there is a Mister Fancy Pants on the phone for you."

She stood up quickly, "Excuse me Chris, I have to take this."

"Sure go ahead." Wait… when did she get a phone? I mean in the past five years phones became more popular but they were still pretty scarce. I just assumed it was because she needed a way to instantly contact her store in Canterlot.

A few minutes later Rarity came back from the phone call, "I'm sorry dear but it seems that quite a number of requests have come through and they are urgent so I'll have to cut our reunion short. What are you doing for the rest of the day, maybe you can come back and we can catch up some more."

I stood up and stretched, cracking my neck and uncrunching up my tail, "I'm going to go talk to everyone else, Rainbow next. But if I have time I'll come back I promise."

"Alright, well if you will excuse me, don't be a stranger." She said walking back upstairs.

"Alright!" I called after her, "And Hot Flash, don't forget what I said." I said to the colt.

"Yes sir, I'll remember." He said stiffening up a bit.

"I'll say it again, relax and cut the sir crap." I said with a smile before leaving the shop.

I cracked my knuckles and neck letting out a sigh or pleasure, "So good, all right up next is Rainbow, it's the middle of day so I guess she'd be at work… now where was the weather station at again, next to the town hall, right?" I shrugged, "Good a place as any to start looking."

And so I made my way to the town hall, I saw a lot of ponies that were here five years ago and a lot of new ones as well, the town sure grew quite a bit in five years, but as I normally am, ha, I was right the weather station was right next to the town hall. I walked in and saw a teal unicorn with deep blue hair sitting at the front desk flipping through a magazine. She looked up at me and then back down at her magazine before looking back up at me with wide eyes.

"Uh… h-how may I help you sir?" She asked, stumbling over her words a bit.

I was unaffected by this reaction, I got it a lot on my travels out of Equestria, "Yeah, I was wondering if Rainbow Dash was in?"

She gave me a confused look, "Sir?"

"You know, Rainbow Dash? The leader of the weather team in Ponyville?" She still gave me a quizzical look, I sighed, "Sky blue coat? Rainbow hair and tail? Sonic Rainboom and all that jazz? Obsesses over the Wonderbolts like they're gods?"

That last one caused something to spark, "Oh right, her, she hasn't worked her in 2 years."

It was my turn to be confused, "Really, what happened, did she get fired?"

She shook her head, "No she finally got accepted into the Wonderbolts, well training to be a Wonderbolt."

"Wow, so she finally got her dream to come true, and she's been gone for 2 years?"

"Mostly, she comes back to Ponyville when she can or whenever there's a crisis… which is like every 3 months." She mumbled the last part.

I scratched the base of my horns, "Well that sucks… I was hoping to see her. Do you have any idea when the next time she comes to town is?"

"Sorry, I don't. Uh, sir do you mind if I ask what your relationship with her is?"

"Hmm? Oh, I'm just an old friend, I recently came back from training of my own and I'm visiting all of my old friends, she just happens to be one of them."

"Oh I see, well if I see her again do you want me to tell her you were in town? I mean I would need your name but…"

"The name's Chris, but no need, I'll be in Ponyville for quite some time, after all I live here, at least now I do. But thanks for the offer ms?"

"Sea Breeze." (Also before the breezie episode)

"Thanks Sea Breeze, also don't be so afraid by appearances alright and because I know you're wondering, yes all this is real. What am I? A Drakon, what's a Drakon? Human/Dragon hybrid, what's a human? What I was originally, do I feel like explaining more? No sorry. Anyway, have a nice day."

"O-ok?" She just looked back down to her magazine confused as all get out.

I just chuckled and left but as soon as I stepped out the door I was rammed into from the side and sent flying against a tree several feet away. I was sitting on the ground a bit dizzy, but not was broken, "Thank chimichangas I'm part dragon." I held my head for a second, "Anyone get the license plate of whatever that hit me?"

+Yeah, it was blue and rainbow colored.+ Ixis said in an annoyed tone.

"Sounds a bit redundant but… wait… rainbow colored?" I looked up to see a toothy smile and magenta eyes that had locks of red, orange, and yellow hair cover a good majority of her face, "Rainbow…"

She held out a hand to help me up and I took it, "Sup big guy, I thought you weren't gonna be back for another few months."

I brushed myself off and cracked my back, "Yeah well I finished sooner than I thought, what about you? I heard you were a Wonderbolt and that your schedule was all sorts of erratic, what are you doing in town?"

"Training to be a Wonderbolt, I still have one more year left until I'm a full-fledged Bolt. But I have the rest of the year off of my training, not really sure why but hey I ain't complaining, got some time to actually sleep in." She said with a laugh.

"Yeah, wish I could say the same."

"Right, daughter and all that… wait you have met her right? Cuz if not then I just spoiled the biggest surprise ever, and if I did forget I even said anything." She said quickly.

"Nah, you're good I met Goldy already, a real sweetheart, she takes after her mom."

"Really? I heard she takes after you more and likes to study like Twilight."

"I really hope you aren't implying anything because if you are." I knew she wasn't implying anything I just love messing with her… and everyone.

"What?! No! I was there when she was born and everything! Shy even made me a godmother I would never think that…"

"Relax, I know you didn't, I was playing. You have time to catch up or are you too busy?" I asked her.

"Well not that you mention it, I'm actually late for something, but I'm free all day tomorrow we can catch up then if you want." She said stretching, her uniform, which she was wearing, hugged her body very… nicely.

"Yeah that sounds fine, I need to head towards the school anyway, I wanna check on Goldy. Oh and don't go telling Pinkie I'm here." I told her.

"Sure, but only if you're still letting me train you when you get your wings."

"Of course, I want the best to teach me, you mind if I bring Goldy along too? I don't know if she's old enough to fly by pony standards and I'm not sure about dragon standards but it'd be good for her to learn early and such."

"Sure, the more the merrier, well I gotta go see ya popsicle!" She spread her wings and took off in a burst of speed.

I whistled, "She got faster, very nice."

I was on my way to the schoolhouse when I spotted a familiar group of ponies. They looked to be about 16 years old, it was Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle.

+Well if that's not convenient…+

"Then I don't know what is." I got closer and heard their conversation.

"Sweetie Belle, what's been going on, we both know you've been acting strange for a while now and we've been looking past it but now we're worried, come on you can tell us, we're your friends." Scootaloo said.

Sweetie just looked away, "You wouldn't understand…"

"Well of course we don't understand, ya won't tell us what's wrong so how could we understand Sugar?" I see Apple Bloom caught the 'sugar cube' from Apple Jack.

"Why are you worried now? It's been like this for years and you never worried before." She said with a bit of spite.

"W-well… we just thought ya would've gotten over whatever it is that's botherin ya."

Scootaloo placed a hand on Sweetie's shoulder, "Yeah, look we're sorry that we didn't ask about it before and stuff but you know…"

Sweetie brushed Scootaloo's hand off and sighed, "If I tell you will you leave me alone?"

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom looked at each and then nodded.

+Should we intervene? I mean it looks like she's about to get rid of her friends.+ Ixis said.

"No… let's wait this out." I climbed up a nearby tree so I wouldn't be spotted but I could still hear them.

"It started about five years ago, you remember Chris right?"

Apple Bloom nodded, "Ya mean the cool dragon guy?"

"Yeah well, you remember how he would play with us and stuff, even when he was depressed and stuff?"

"Of course, I mean, back then we didn't understand what was going on but we do now and we know that we couldn't do much about it." Scootaloo said.

"Well he left remember? He left and didn't tell us at all, I thought we were his friends. We were told by our sisters that he left so he could feel better, but his friends make him feel better, so why didn't he take us?" She asked her voice getting louder and louder. "And then he never came back! I know they said he was only going to be gone for five years but…"

"Sweetie…" I looked down at them from the tree, Sweetie's hands were balled up into fists.

"Sweetie, they told us why we couldn't go, somethin about him that we wouldn't be able tah handle at that age."

"Then why was Spike able to go?! We're the same age!" She was yelling at this point, a few tears were dripping from her cheeks.

"I don't know… but when they got back Spike looked like he saw or heard something terrible, what if that's what they were trying to protect us from with Chris?" Scootaloo suggested.

"No, I don't believe that, Chris was nice, kind, caring, and handsome even when he was depressed." Sweeties said not catching the last thing.

+Did she just?+

"Well that was a thing that happened…"

"Sweets did ya just say handsome?"

She got wide eyed and started to stammer, "I-I… no… I… didn't… um…" she fell on her knees and sat down.

"Belle, did ya like Chris? Do ya still like 'im?" Apple Bloom asked the question we were all wondering.

Sweetie Belle didn't answer she just looked away and sniffled.

"Is that why you've been avoiding Fluttershy and her daughter?" Scootaloo asked.

"She's been avoiding Flutters and Goldy?" I asked no one in particular.

+Apparently so, are you sure we should still wait this out?+

I nodded, "I don't think it would be a good time for me to just appear right now."

+Hmmm, alright. Let us continue to watch and listen then.+

"I… I don't like to admit it but I'm jealous of Fluttershy… she gets to be with someone who is so nice and caring, they even had a kid. I just..."

+Ok seriously I think you should intervene now.+ Ixis urged me.

"Yeah… I do too." I jumped out of the tree landing in an Iron Man style pose and slowly stood up. I started walking towards them, "Hey girls, what's up?" I said while waving my hand.

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom looked up and gasped while Sweetie's ears perked up but she didn't look up.

"What? It looks like you've just seen a ghost, it's not like I died, and I know your sister's didn't tell you that." I adjusted my eye patch, it tends to slip a bit.

"I… but… your…. What happened to your eye? And that scar? And the tail!" Scootaloo asked.

"Oh yeah that… those… them. I'll tell you all about it later, I need to talk to Sweetie, alone. Please." I just gave them a curt nod.

"Alright… but you've got a lot of explainin tah do." Apple Bloom said a bit miffed but she dragged a stunned Scootaloo off with her, not too far but far enough that they couldn't hear Sweetie and I talking.

I kneeled and put my hand on Sweetie's shoulder since she was sitting on the ground, "Sweetie…"

"Why?"

I sighed, "Sweetie, look I'm sorry I know I should've…" She pushed my hand off her.

She looked up quickly at me with a blaze in her eyes, "You're sorry?! You decide to leave and not take us, even though you took Spike, and then you leave for five years and you think you can say, 'You're sorry.' And everything will be ok?!"

"No, I suppose not…"

"I loved you, didn't you know that? I still love you…" Her voice hitched with a sob.

I got on my knees and pulled her into a hug, "I love you too Sweetie, but… not like that. I love you like you were my little sister, and I'm so so sorry for putting you through this. But trust me when I say you'll get over this, you'll find someone you truly love and who truly loves you back. You'll always be my friend and baby sister though… and I promise I won't ever leave again without telling you."

She just cried into my chest and I let her, sometimes it's all someone needs is to be held really. After a few minutes she pulled away, "I'm… I'm sorry I was acting like a kid."

I gave her a warm smile, "Hey just be glad that you can still get away with it, I was literally made to go to Canterlot to talk about my problems. So enjoy being a kid, it only comes once a life. Now smile, you're too pretty to be crying."

She laughed at that, wiped her tears away and nodded, "You know I still like you though, right?"

"Yeah, but honestly, who doesn't? I'm just that awesome ya know? Now come on I owe you and them a very long explanation." I stood up and helped Sweetie up as well and we walk over to the others, I told them of my past…

"That's… horrible…" Sweetie Said.

"I swear if I ever meet that girl I'm going to… argh!" Scootaloo punched a fence post.

"Girls Ah think we're focusin on the wrong thing here, sure Chris didn't have the best life, but what he did have, even if he didn't realize it till later, was that he had amazing friends to help him through it all." Apple bloom said.

"She's right, I did have good friends, still feel bad about leaving them behind… kind like how I did with you three… sorry." I said with a nervous chuckle.

Scootaloo gave out an annoyed sigh, "For the 10th time we forgive you dude."

"So what about your eye, the scar, and the tail?" Sweetie asked.

"Oh yeah that… well you see what had happened was…" And so I told them about my little trek through the Crystal Empire and such.

Apple Bloom looked at my eye patch, "Didn't having your eye teeming with dark magic hurt?"

I shrugged, "I wouldn't know I had so much adrenaline pumping through me that I didn't feel anything except my broken bones and even then I barely felt those, and after I sent Sombra flying I passed out."

Scootaloo had a giant smile on her face, "I still think it was cool that you went all rage mode and beat the crap out of that creep after he hurt Fluttershy."

I tilted my head, "Cool huh… I don't know, I'm not a fan of going out of control and almost killing something no matter how evil it was. But I'm pretty sure I would if someone I loved was in danger again."

"Well I understand why Spike was so shaken up… I don't know how I would've done if I saw a pony that looked like my sister frozen in solid ice." Sweetie said with a whisper.

"Yeah the poor guy was pretty shaken up after that, I heard he took it like a champ though. Also means you're possibly related to Princess Platinum Sweetie."

"Me?!" He voice squeaked, good to know she still had that little quirk.

"Woah Sweetie is a princess or something like that? Cool."

I shook my head, "No I don't think so, I mean she could potentially rule in the Crystal empire but it'd take like the entire wiping of her family, mine, Cadence's' and few other ponies' as well."

"Well I wouldn't want that, they can all have the throne!" She said, hoping I didn't jinx anything.

"Heh… no but…" I felt a vibrating in my pocket and saw a faint red-green glow coming from it, "Crap… uh sorry to cut this short girls but I gotta go, do me a favor and not tell Pinkie I'm back, ok? Thanks, bye." I stood up and sprinted down the road to the school without waiting to hear their answer.

I skidded to a stop when I reached the front of the school, but I didn't see anyone at the front, but I heard some noise coming from the back so that's where I was headed. When I got there I saw Goldy back into a corner by three other kids, one colt with green fur and purple hair, a filly with a white coat and pink hair, and another filly with a black coat and black hair.

+You know they are called manes right?+

"Yeah but human first, dragon second, pony third so it's hair to me. But I think we should stop this."

+Agreed, let's have some fun with this though.+ she suggested

"What do you have in mind?" I listened to her idea and got a very devious smile.

I stalked up behind the kids who had my daughter backed up against a wall, shushing the others as I walked passed them. Well stalked isn't exactly the right word… slid is a bit better, basically I froze a strip of the ground so I could skate soundlessly up to them, ice powers always come in handy. When I was behind the middle foal, the colt with the all black look going on, I saw that he was holding the gem that I gave to Goldy.

"So what's this thing huh?" He said turning it around in his hand.

I-It's something my…" Her eyes darted past the colt and directly at me I just put my finger to my lips and made a hand movement to tell her to keep going.

"Your what?" The colt demanded.

"My… dad…" Goldy responded.

"Your dad? Hah, what is he a freak like you too?" The filly said.

Goldy bristled at that, "My dad is not a freak!"

"You're right, your dad isn't the one who's a freak, your mom is for having you with him!" She retorted back.

+Oh we have to bump it up a notch at that…+ Ixis said.

'Agreed, how about we do that?' I offered

+I don't know Chris… it could be dangerous.+

'It'll only be off for a second I promise, just to give them a good scare.'

+Fine but only for a second, last time it took all I had to bring you back.+

'Yeah yeah got it.' I nodded to Goldy.

"Take that back or else!" Goldy warned.

"Or else what, are you going to growl at us? I'm so scared." The green colt said, finish with a mocking laugh.

Goldy just smirked, "May not be scary but he is."

I took that as my queue and lowered my body's temperature so that my breathing came out as a thick steam/fog, and gave a low threatening growl, with my eye glowing a very bright blue, then I took my eye patch off.

The three bullies turned around to see me with my teeth bared, a scowl on my face, a piercing blue eye, and whatever was underneath my eye patch. Also I guess the fact that I'm a creature they've never seen before helped.

The black colt dropped the gemstone and backed up, the other two following suit before sputtering out, "Wh-who… what… a-are…?"

I put on a menacing smile, "Who… am I? I'm her dad." They looked behind them at Goldy who just stuck her tongue out. "And to you…" I snarled, "I'm… YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE!" I let out with a roar that blasted frigid air over them. They whimpered, screamed and passed out right on the spot.

I just blinked and stood back up putting my eye patch quickly back on, "I think I might've overdone it some."

+Just a tad, but it wasn't entirely your fault.+

"Ah I see, I'll have to make it up them…" I looked to Goldy, who was a bit shaken up, "Are you ok? I didn't scare you did I?"

She shook her head, "Probably not as much as everyone else."

I looked behind me at the kids who were just staring, far away, but staring. I just smiled sheepishly, "Do you wanna build a snowman?" I got several cautious nods. "Cool then watch this…" I closed my eyes for a second before opening them and turning a good bit of the water in the air into snow, gave them about 8 inches, should be good.

They just all looked around them before what happened really dawned on them then they went crazy…. Ah kids, speaking of… I turned to the three unconscious ones, "I think we should get them inside."

Goldy picked up the gemstone and looked at me, "I tried to fend them off with my powers but I couldn't get anything to happen… I just… I wanted to do this by myself, but I'm glad you came."

"Hey you're the one who called me, or the gemstone realized you needed help and called me for you, Iono. But Goldy, don't use your powers against bullies, you'll only become like them and it's better to just hold your ground and ignore them." I told her, very away of my own hypocrisy.

"But you just…" She stated before I cut her off.

"I know I know, and honestly that wasn't right of me to do at all but sometimes they do need a taste of their own medicine but I didn't want you to do it. I'm an adult I can handle the consequences. Now go play and make some friends, I'll drag these three inside. Oh and don't tell anyone what's under my eye patch ok? That's a secret that no one is ready to know yet." I picked up one kid in each arm and the third with my tail before walking into the school house.

Cheerilee looked up from the book she was reading and gasped, "Oh dear, what happened?" she got up and came to inspect the foals.

"That was my fault really, only meant to give them a little scare, afraid it went too far. They're fine though, just fainted really, they should wake up in a few minutes." That's when she looked up at me.

"Oh Chris… it's you, when did you get back, what happened to your eye, and…"

"My tail? It's a long story, as to when I got back, yesterday. Where was I at the past five years, Prince training, don't tell anyone though." I set the kids down on some benches in the back.

Cheerilee sighed, "While I can't say they didn't deserve it, I can't say they did either. So what exactly happened so I can tell their parents."

"They were picking on my daughter, I'm not really a fan of bullies, and I wanted to scare them a bit but… I may have taken it out of hand." I said with a weak laugh.

"Oh my… wait, your daughter? She wouldn't happen to be Golden Skies, the new student?" She asked me. I just gave her a look. "Right well… she's very smart and kind, though most of the kids tend to avoid her, at least so far."

"Hmm honestly I figured that would happen, but she'll pull through, she's strong. And besides, who wouldn't want to be friends with a kid who's dad can make it snow on command?" I point my thumb to a window.

She looked out it and shook her head, "I hope that will melt." She looked back to her three students, "I'm going to get into so much trouble for this."

"I'll get rid of the snow before I leave, and just tell their parents that if they have any problems they can take it up with me, I'm staying with Shy obviously." I told her.

"Alright, it looks like recess is just about over anyway, could you go tell them it's time to come back in?" She asked me.

"Sure sure, it was good seeing you again Cheerilee." I held out my hand.

She looked down and shook it, "Likewise."

I went back outside, "Alright your teacher told me to tell you all that recess is over." I got groans of sadness in response, "Yes yes I know but still, school is important."

They all reluctantly went back inside, though they each thanked me for the snow and taking care of the bullies, hey the enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that. I watched them all come back in, only to have Goldy to stop when she reached me, "Sup kiddo?"

"Just… thanks for being here daddy. You're still going to come pick me up right?"

"Of course, I'll be at the front of the school when it's time for you to get out." I got on one knee, "Now give me a hug." She hugged me tight and I gave her a little peck on the up of her head.

"See you later daddy." She ran inside and I closed the door before walking to the front of the school.

"Now… what?"

+Well we don't have much else to do, we could just take a nap.+ Ixis said.

"Where though?" I looked around and saw a tree close by. "That'd work." I climbed the tree and climbed until I found a branch sturdy enough to hold my weight. Once I did I leaned against the trunks and I wrapped my tail around the branch tightly just in case I fell. I hummed a song from earth and fell asleep rather quickly.

I wasn't asleep long when I heard the bells for the end of the day ring, it startled me so much my tail quickly uncoiled and I actually did fall. "Ouch…." I pulled myself together before the kids started pouring out of the school. When they did, I just stood at the tree waiting for Goldy.

She came out and walked over to me, with her backpack on, it obviously much more full than what she left home with, "You ready?" I asked her.

"Yep, I wanna go home and get my homework done quickly." She said very enthusiastically.

"Yeah… you definitely hang around Twilight too much. But keep that attitude, it'll carry you pretty far. At least in my world it would. So on the way home why don't you tell me how your day went and I'll tell you how mine went, fair?"

She nodded and started walking before stopping and looking back at me, "Well are you coming?" She asked with a smile.

"Yep." I answered back before walking home. It's good to be home… it really is.

Author's Note

Yes, I'm putting a link to the Q&A blog in every author note, for those who stopped at mid points in the story, It's for reaching 25 chapters being written, even though 25 is still being written: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/831885/qs-for-the-qa-chapter

15: Nightmares and... stuff

Author's Note

FILLERS WILL BE BROKEN UP BECAUSE FUCK THAT NOISE. Also because I don't know... reasons. its late sue my father's brother's son's chicken. He has more money than me.

15: Nightmares and... stuff

Luna was traversing the dreamscape silently watching and protecting her dear subjects from the nightmares that would plague their slumbers. While she may have adjusted well to the new and current era she was happy and relieved to know that dreams stayed relatively the same over the years. There were dreams of love, dreams of adventure, dreams of pure insanity that would rival Discord’s own imagination, dreams of lust, but most importantly dreams of happiness. She never interfered with the dreams and their dreamers unless absolutely necessary but she did watch some of the happier ones from time to time. Now each dream in the dreamscape was a like a bubble and they all varied in size and color based on the dream and the imagination of the dreamer. The biggest bubbles were the ones of those who were mainly artists of some kind but the most expansive bubble that she has ever known belong to her dear sister you could see it from anywhere in the dreamscape no matter how far away you were from it due to the golden glow it emitted.

Though… ever since 5 years ago a bubble of another has been growing exponentially and it is very close to match Celestia's in size and brightness. It belonged to Christopher, the human brought to Equestria though the means of the last dragon queen, The Ice Empress Ixis. Luna made her way to the bubble and stared at it much like she did every night. The bubble of this one intrigued her as the color it gave off was a dull gray and had no image within it and when she put her hand up against it, it was bounced back after several seconds like a force field was protecting it.

Luna and placed her hand against his bubble, "We shall try to peer into his dreams one last time and if it doesn't work we shall not try again." After a few seconds her hand was bounced off as per the usual.

She gave out a defeated sigh, "As is the usual, tis strange, we have not come across anyone who can block their dreams from us and we shall not lie to ourself but it has piqued our curiosity. We are a mare of our word and shall not interfere with his dreams again." She quickly turned and was about to make her way before she heard what sounded like the cracking of glass coming from behind her, she was too late to react as a loud explosion rocked the dreamscape and cleared away hundreds of neighboring dreams the only thing left that she could see was the light from Celestia's dream in the distance but even that was dwarfed from the light emitting behind her.

She turned looked behind her only to give out a small gasp, "Oh my… what in Faust's name?" What she was staring at was a bubble at least twice the size taking place of the one that was there not but five seconds ago. But that wasn't the most surprising thing to her, the fact that the bubble was emitting three different colors was. Now multiple colors aren't unusual, it's very common amongst pregnant mares. But even if they are having twins or triplets the colors are only relegated to two. So even if he just had two colors it would still throw her off as Christopher was still a male, at least to her knowledge, but three? Three was unheard of, what was even more strange were the colors themselves. A bright white, an empty black, and a cold blue, when it came to multiple colors they stayed relatively close to each other's colors but these were so vastly different.

Even the image was strange, it didn't involve Christopher, it was a woman with snow white hair, pale skin, and icy blue eyes sitting in a large room staring intently at a strange device Luna has never seen. "We know we said we would leave his dreams alone from now on, but this deserves my attention." She placed her hand against the new bubble and shivered, at the cold but also at a very familiar feeling of darkness. Much unlike every other time she actually was able to push through the thin barrier and into the dream itself.

The woman looked up and directly at the moon princess, "Ah Luna, it's a pleasure to see you again, come come." She patted a place on the couch next to her.

Luna's head tilted but she complied and moved to sit down, "How do you know who we are?"

"Simple, really we were friends… well I hope we still are, but we were friends long before your banishment happened. And you know who I am, surely you remember Chris talking about me, you know we share a mind." The woman smiled.

It took Luna a little bit but it clicked and when it did she blushed heavily, "Oh dear, Lady Ixis, we apologize. How could we have forgotten our childhood friend? We even ask Christopher how you are doing when we talk at formal meetings." She looked around for a bit, "Though we have a question."

"Im guessing is if this is Chris' dream where is he?" Ixis asked, getting a nod in response. Ixis gestured to the device in front of her.

Luna finally looked at and was surprised at what she saw, it was an image of Chris, but he was on a ship in a vast ocean amongst a very strange looking crew of what seemed to be only 9 members. A man with a straw hat, one with three swords, a woman with red hair and a large bust holding what looked like a staff, another man with goggles and a long nose, a man wearing a black suit with a curly eyebrow, a small deer looking creature, another woman with long black hair, a man that looked like he was half machine and a skeleton.

"What in Equestria?" Luna moved her hand to the screen only to have Ixis pull it back.

She shook her head, "Not yet, now to answer your many questions, this is a device from his world, I would explain more but you have more questions. Where he's at is in his actual dream, which is about a show, imagine a long movie but split into roughly 30 minutes parts, and a book from the Neighpan of his world."

Luna was able to accept that this was from his world, but something that just made her have more questions was, well… "You said that the place he's at now, is his actual dream, so where are we then?"

"We are my region of his mind, he is in his. While he is asleep or awake I can see everything he does through this TV. Now while he's asleep I have more control over his mind, in a sense, than when he's awake. You see, I can actively change his dream from here if I wanted to but, his mind itself does that on its own. But I also have kept outside forces from being able to interfere with his dream. This would explain the force field you encountered every night." She explained.

"Then why did it shatter tonight?"

She pointed to the far side of the room and Luna's gaze followed. What it saw was a large white door with serene and peaceful images on it. "You remember the darkness you felt as you entered?"

"I do, yes, it reminded me much of _" Luna said.

"Indeed, I've only just gotten that door built from the happiest and brightest light I could forge from Chris' mind. It will be holding _ back, but it took me years to do so, and even now some of his darkness is leaking out."

"Yes the color of this bubble in particular was white, blue, and black. I'm assuming the black would be him?"

"That it would, but you shouldn't have to worry, he can't be freed unless either I open the door or Chris succumbs to certain emotions. The door can be opened temporarily for… reasons, but it has to be closed within a few seconds or else."

"We see, well that would mean you are the white and Christopher is the blue."

"Most likely, most likely, but that's enough of that, place your hand on the TV."

Luna did as she was instructed and placed her hand to the TV, it caused the image to shake and distort. After several seconds the image faded and all that was left was a blank screen

"Oh man and it was just getting good." Said a new voice from behind them, "I swear Ixis, this better be good."

Ixis looked behind the couch to see Chris standing there, "Well, how about Luna visiting us good?"

-POV SHIFT-

I looked to the body next to her on the couch and gave a wide smile as it was indeed Luna, "Moonbutt, It's good to see you here, wait if you are here that means." I looked to Ixis, "Does that mean the door is done."

"Yep, it's right over there, we can do this whenever you want." She stood up pretty much knowing I wanted to get this over with now.

"Right well let's get started." I walked to the door and twisted the handle, opening the door and backing way.

Luna jumped up, "Chris what are you doing?!" She yelled out with wide eyes.

Ixis stopped her by encasing her in a room made of ice, "It's ok Luna."

Luna's voice switched to Royal Canterlot mode, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S OK? HE IS ABOUT TO UNLEASHED THAT DARKNESS BACK INTO HIS OWN MIND AND I WILL NOT ALLOW IT!"

I looked back at her, "And that's why it's ok. You'll be here to stop it if anything goes wrong, just calm down and watch for now." She did stop pushing against the ice wall but she was giving me a deathly glare.

"Good, now remember what I told you, what we've been practicing Chris." Ixis said in a calming voice.

I nodded and took a deep breath and closed my eyes, "I call forth upon my greatest fears, my darkest secrets, my rage and hatred my depression and sorrow. I call upon you and summon you to me." I opened my eyes and saw inky blackness pouring from my chest, it began to form into a body, a very similar one but also very different.

"By Faust what is that?"

"That, dear Moon Goddess is Chris' darkness." Ixis told her.

I was staring at myself except his skin was a pale grey to counterbalance my light brown skin. His eyes were blazing red and black, his hair was pure white, and his teeth were flat, instead of pointed like mine. His horns were short and point and his tail was as crimson as blood when he breathed out his nose jets of smoke bellowed out. He was my exact opposite. While I was Ice he was fire.

"You again, eh? You don't remember the last time you called me forth without miss cold shoulder over there putting up a barrier around you?" He asked me giving a wicked smile knowing that memory bothered me.

Luna looked at me and then to Ixis, "What does he mean the last time?" Ixis didn't answer.

"Nothing, he meant nothing." I said quickly.

"Oh please, this whelp got his ass knocked flat by a Lamia, a young one at that because he was holding back. So I, being the nice guy I am whispered into his mind how to call me forth completely." The dark half paused and laughed.

"And how did you come across this knowledge creature?" Luna asked him.

His grin faded for a second, "Oh you see, oh Goddess of the Moon, feh, when little miss thing here became one with my old boy Chris I was sent so far back into Chris's mind I found interesting things interesting things indeed."

Ixis huffed, "Honestly he wasn't so bad until the Lamia incident so I just put up with him and Chris was able to put a lid on him enough. But, I'll let him continue."

He smirked and held out his hand and a small image of books came to be. "Rows a upon rows of books that hold knowledge from the past lives he has been endowed and this chicken shit has no idea how to access them without the help of the Ice Princess. I on the other hand had free reign… that was until she started blocking out and destroying the darkness in his mind when Sombra tried to invade which of course included yours truly. But she really couldn't fully get rid of me due to me being as much of a part of Chris as she is. But eventually she did manage to seal me away and muffle my voice for a bit until Chris, like I said got knocked flat on his ass."

Luna snarled, huh never seen that before, "Get to your point you foul being."

He put his hands up in mock fear, "Ooooo scary, what are you gonna do moonbeam me to death you do that and you'll kill him."

Luna looked to me and I rubbed the bridge of my nose, "He's right, we can't kill him, or get rid of him, if we did I'd either be put in a vegetative state or die. And neither sound appealing."

"Anyway I got him to summon me forth before Ice Princess could do anything and I took over his mind." He snickered.

I stopped him from talking, "Alright that's good enough and that's all she needs to know."

He shot a small fireball into my chest sending me back against the wall of ice containing Luna, "Don't interrupt me; I know you're going to seal me away for good. So your flux of emotions won't allow me to take over when you're weak enough. And if I can't have free reign of you when you're at your weakest then I will make sure people fear you."

I tried to sit up but the pain made me sit back down, "I swear to-"

"TO WHAT?! YOU DON'T HAVE ANY LEVERAGE AGAINST ME! SO WHAT IF I GET SEALED AWAY?! YOU'LL NEED ME EVENTUALLY WHETHER YOU BELIEVE ME OR NOT! SO I REALLY HAVE NOT A DAMN THING TO LOSE!"

Ixis made a move forward but another larger fireball hit the wall next to my head, "Make another move and he dies."

"What? But you would die too." Luna said obviously confused.

He shrugged, "Personally I don't care, and if I kill him I'm fine with that. Now where was I, oh yes. When I took over the Lamia was about to kill him but me being better than he is in every sense I caught that snake bitch by the head and started to beat her ass around the arena. And when she couldn't move anymore I took her head and looked into her eyes and started to squeeze ever so slowly." He had a malicious grin that thrived of bloodlust plastered on his face and then it faded, "And then he had to wake up, he HAD to see the pleading in her eyes."

I got up on my feet albeit shakily, "I'm glad I did, it gave me enough strength to take over my body again." I walked to him and gave him the hardest kick I could muster, it sent him flying and the sheer look of surprise was almost worth it. The kick sent him into the open door which slammed shut and gave a clicking noise before a key shaped like fire popped out onto the ground. "Ixis, can you get that, I need to sit down for a minute." I walked passed Luna's container and ran my hand against it, melting it. I sat on the couch, having Luna join me moments later.

She put a hand on my shoulder, "Are you alright Christopher?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm good. It's just… that's not a proud moment for me. The girl, Cami, was fine, a bit of a fracture on her jaw but nothing else."

"Was she really going to kill you? We don't recall much about the Lamia, but we do know that their ignition match never allowed killing, at least 1000 years ago they did not."

"No, she was, she was just going to stab her spear into the ground next to me to end the match."

"Did she hold any grudges against you?"

I shook my head, "No, she didn't, thankfully, she knew that wasn't me, she said she could tell because my eyes went from the normal blue to red and my voice changed to a mixture of mine and his and if you remember his it's a higher pitch than mine."

"What about the Chief?"

I laughed, "She actually was going to kill me, Cami is her niece you see, anyway after I explained things and Cami vouching for me I was let off the hook. Shoot Sikasso even took a liking to me after that, t'was a bit strange."

Luna's eyes widened at the mention of the leader's name, "That old snake is still around? How old is she now?"

I tapped my chin in thought, "Around 1,763 years I think. So like 160 in Lamia years."

"Surprising, most Lamia die in their late 90's"

"So early 1000's late 900's for normal years then? She still looked pretty young for being that old honestly. And I heard that Lamia, much like dragons can live a very long time if they don't sustain too damaging injuries. And considering how warrior like 98% of their race is it makes sense they die in their late 90's."

Ixis joined us with a plop, "Personally I'm just glad he's on their good side. The Dragons and Lamia have always been good friends and Allies."

Luna nodded in agreement, "Still, according to Tia, Sikasso hasn't been to a mandatory race meeting in quite some time. But I suppose I can let that off due to her being such an age, she was always such a loose cannon though. I don't think she'll be lasting much longer if the clans go into a war again."

"Does that happen often?" I asked a bit worried, while Sikasso was a bit flirty I didn't want her to die anytime soon. Same with Cami and a lot of the other Lamia, after you get passed all of the warrior stuff it's a lot like one huge family.

Ixis had a frown on her face, "I'm afraid so, someone is always trying to take over the rightful ruler or take out one section of the clans or something else. It's a terrible thing really, though I suppose us dragons weren't any better early on either." She laughed bitterly.

"When that day comes will Arisha take over?"

Arisha… Arisha…. Who? "Oh Cami's mother? No… no she died years back, Cami is actually the next in line. Which kinda… sucks all things considered."

"All things considered?"

"Oh yeah, well, Cami actually quite dislikes violence. She'll do what she has to if it's necessary but she tries her best to avoid it."

"I see poor girl, I hope by the time that day comes she will… at least be a bit more battle oriented so the clans won't be in such a state of war."

"Yeah…well getting away from that, Luna I was wondering if you could talk to Celestia about me hiring Bon Bon and Lyra as my royal candy makers and such."

Luna was taken aback by this, "Christopher, this is the first time you've ever used your royal status… Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yeah, it's not like I’m deciding to declare war on Tauronto or anything."

"This is true but if all of the Princesses and Prince Armor approve it will be put in the paper and ponies will know you are an official member of the royal family."

"Huh… well shit. Wait what about Blue Blood? Don't you need his approval?"

Luna scoffed, "Please the bumbling idiot of a nephew? No, we only require approval of those ruling over a kingdom of their own."

"But Twilight?"

"Twilight's Kingdom is Ponyville, it's officially classified as a subkingdom of Equestria but it is still a Kingdom."

I face palmed, "Oh so I guess Twilight was the one who I really should've asked about this?"

Luna chuckled and gave me a warm smile, "Tis fine, it would've had to have been approved by all of us regardless."

"Oh cool, uh then yeah so since it'll be in the paper… Can it wait until after this weekend? I'm going to Cloudsdale with Shy and Goldy."

"Indeed it can, we shall speak to our sister and the others about this, but I have no doubts that they would approve."

"Good, then Monday it is and we can get the whole shebang done with the announcement of me as a prince on the same day. Oh one more question because I can feel that it's morning and I'll be waking up soon. If you don't need Blue Blood's approval because he doesn't rule over a kingdom, would you need mine then for anything since I don't actually rule over the Crystal Empire?" Luna looked to Ixis nervously, which was confusing to me but whatever.

"You do Christopher and that is all I can say. But to answer your question, yes we will seek your approval on matters." Luna said before standing up, "Now I must go before the sun fully rises to check up on the dreams that yours have scattered. It was good to see you again Lady Ixis."

"As was you Luna, tell Celestia I said hi." She waved as Luna vanished from sight.

I looked at Ixis, "What did she mean by 'You do'?"

"You aren't ready to know yet, but I'll tell you when you are, I promise."

I looked at her for a second to see if I could see any hint to anything, if I could search her mind for something but I couldn't so I just agreed and thanked her for keeping my dreams peaceful yet again and went on to waking up.

I stretched and woke up, albeit, very uncomfortably which was weird because I'm pretty sure I fell asleep on Shy and she is anything but uncomfortable. Eh she was probably just downstairs in the kitchen. I went to the bathroom to start my daily routine. I disrobed and hoped into the shower wincing at the warmth of the water so I put it to as cold as it could be which was much better. It was much like any other shower really except when I got to my horns and especially my tail. My horns I used normal soap for but I have to file them to a point to keep up appearances. Now my tail is what made taking showers a pain, if I was taking a bath this would be much easier. Basically I have to let the tub fill up with water while filling it up with this special kind of soap that kept my scales nice and shiny and strong. I would sit at the edge of the tub and let my tail soak in the water, swishing it back and forth, normally I would have servants that were always sent to me by the rulers of the kingdoms I went to, despite my protests, to help me with this or Shy, now that I'm home, but I didn't feel like bothering her right now so I brought my tail across my lap and began the process of meticulously cleaning each scale as well as under it.

"Man how did you guys stand doing an entire body clean of this?" I asked frustrated.

+We honestly just got used to it and a few hours is not much to dragons.+

I groaned but also sighed in content, "Honestly it's not that bad, it feels nice but it takes so much time. Easily the worst part of this whole deal."

Ixis giggled, +Wait until your wings come in, the scales on them while, much more pliable are also much smaller, and flying tends to get wings dirty very fast.+ I groaned again and buried my head in my tail. +Oh don't whine, you still haven't started shedding yet.+

My head shot up in surprise, "I do that?!"

+Well, you should, I don't know about your skin but I'm at least 90% sure that when it's your time to shed you'll be forced into your dragon form.+

"Fucking fantastic…"

+Though your daughter will have it worse. Considering she has fur and scales.+

I looked at my tail at that thought, "Then I guess I don't have it that bad but poor Goldy." I sighed and resigned to finish cleaning my tail. After I was done I wrapped myself in a towel and brushed my teeth with a specially designed toothbrush. Why was it special? It was made by Matoxyhyte, the only known gem that dragons can't eat and it’s bristles were made of magically infused Tanzotite, a surprisingly malleable gemstone that is more known for its property of expelling grime and dirt. In other words it was an extremely expensive toothbrush. Also booth gemstones were surprisingly good tasting so I had to resist chewing on them even if I couldn't eat one of them. After that I brushed my hair and put some clothes on and made my way downstairs to find that no one was there.

"Ok then, I know I was in the bathroom for like 2 hours but come on it's still only 8. Shy, Goldy, anyone home?" I called out, only to have no answer. "I guess Shy took Goldy to school early today." I shrugged and made my way into town.

Now while I will admit I'm a bit oblivious to things, I will not admit that it took me much longer than normal to realize ponies were avoiding me or just not present at all, it was like the town was being abandoned. I wandered town for a bit trying to figure out what was going on before everyone was gone. I stopped by Rarity's, no one. Twilight's, no one. Back home, no one. Rainbow's, no one. At the school, no one, which was extra strange. I even went to sugar cube corner and no one was there.

"WHERE IS EVERYONE?!" I screamed out to the heavens, and conveniently it was also the same time I caught a glimpse of a familiar grey Pegasus darting off in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres.

+I think it would be in your best interest to follow her if you want to know what's going on.+

"Yeah most likely, rooftops or streets?"

+Hmmmm, rooftops.+

I grinned happily, "I was hoping you would choose that." I formed the ice claws on my hands and took a running start to the nearest building and a few feet before I reached it I leapt up and dug them into the wall, climbing straight up to the roof. When I reached the top I stood up and looked around trying to spot Derpy if I couldn't see the Acres from here and lo and behold she was still within sight.

I got down in a starting stance letting her get a bit further away, "3"

+2+ I bent down placing my hands on the roof of the house.

"1" I dug my feet in.

"/+ LET'S GO! +/" And then I rocketed off, sprinting and jumping over gaps of the roof tops.

"Wahahahoo!" I yelled out happily as I chased after the clumsy flier, though she did hear my cries and when she saw me chasing after her, she took off at speeds I didn't know she could reach. "Good, if she kept up that pace this would've been boring, ready to kick it up a notch?" I stopped and got down on all fours, and let out a deep growl before breaking into a full on sprint on all four limbs. Which is the fastest way I've learned how to run, which is surprising since humans can't actually move properly on all fours, but due to my training and my half dragon side I'm a bit more flexible than what I used to be so yeah, fast.

I got close Derpy to hear her going, "Oh no oh no… he's catching up, must go faster!" and she managed to get a bit faster, which was enough for her to make it to the edge of town close to Sweet Apple Acres.

I jumped off the last building and sighed, "Well there goes my fun." I looked up and saw her dart into the barn.

+Yep that's where everyone is.+

I knew that, I could smell them, normally it's just a smell that's all around me but… now it's all coming from the barn. It's actually interesting that I couldn't smell this much pony from town, "Surprise party?"

+Most likely.+

"Should I act surprised?"

+You owe it to her.+

"That I do. Alright let's get this over with." I made my way to the barn and pushed open the heavy wooden doors. Letting light into the dark room only to have lights click on with the entire town there yelling out "SURPRISE!"

I actually jumped back a foot or two, no acting, the sheer noise surprised me, "HOLY CRAP!" and to top it off Pinkie appeared out of nowhere and caught me in a bone crushing hug.

I gulped, "H-Hey Pinkie…"

'Please don't kill me, please don't kill me.'

+She is so going to kill you.+

'Not helping!'

"CHRISSY I MISSED YOU!" She squeezed me harder.

"I, uh missed you… nrgh… too Pinkie." Can't breathe.

"Sooo, why didn't you tell me you were back, I could've thrown the surprise party sooner. Shoot you visited everyone before me too…" Her eyes got super big and watery and she just squeezed me more and I could've sworn I felt my elbow pop out of place, "Do… do you now like me anymore? Did I do something wrong?"

I coughed, losing my ability to breathe even more. "What? No, of course not! I couldn't dislike you Pinkie, you're way too fun to be around. I was just scared that you would be mad at me for not letting you know I came home early in advanced. I know it sounds silly, sorry."

She perked up instantly, "Oh don't be sorry Chrissy I could never be mad that one of my bestest best friends in the whole world came home sooner than expected." She hugged me even tighter, I have no idea how, but she did, but before I blacked out from air loss she let me go and I took the most delicious breath of air I've ever breathed in.

"Jesus…. Flim flaming Christ…." I was bent over a bit catching my breath, with most of the town laughing at the antics that just ensued. "Ok, enough laughing over my pain, let's have a rip roaring good time!"

We partied like it was 1994… wait is that the saying? Shit I forgot, I've been away from Earth so long… Anyway, apparently since Pinkie is so closely related to the Apples she gets run of the place while they're out. Which, is actually pretty smart because when Pinkie is dedicated to something… man is she dedicated to something. This was very similar to my welcome to Equestria party but unlike that, I actually picked up a few dance moves whilst traveling as well as inventing my own crazy ones. Everyone loved what I learned from the Minotaurs and Centaurs, hey what do you know something useful came out of them. But something they really haven't seen anything yet.

"Alright, alright, this is one yours truly made up while visiting the Lamia Clans, now you all are going to want to stand back for this. Vinyl, give me something… fast." The ponies backed up a bit, but I could still feel the excited energy flowing through them.

She gave me a wide grin, "You got it." (Put on anything you want that's face paced)

I tapped my foot along to the song, getting into the beat before jumping and landing on the tip of my tail, coiling it like a spring. I stuck a foot out onto the ground and started to spin myself, when I gained enough speed I pulled my foot in as I had enough momentum to keep it going without it.

"Wow, he's like a top!" Somepony exclaimed.

I started to do random poses while spinning, picking up some speed, not much because I kept switching positions.

"Come on Chris, is that it?" Rainbow chided.

I smirked, "Alright Rainbow, you asked for it." My voice was a bit distorted due to my rotations. I pulled all my limbs in close, allowing me to gain speed at a quick rate, eventually, I was just a blur.

"Whoa, ok that's really fast…" Rainbow said.

"How in the world is he doing that Twilight?" Rarity asked.

Twilight examined me and point to at the floor, "He iced over that section of the floor, that way there won't be any friction in his spinning, in addition I believe he also iced the tip of his tail, so he almost frictionless, there is still air friction to account for but you get the gist of it."

Smart girl, right now, time for the finale I uncoiled my tail which made me rocket into the air while I was still spinning. While I was up in the air I started shooting off mini ice explosions in a circle around me and before gravity could reclaim me I shot off one large one above and below me simultaneously. I landed back on the ground in the classic Iron Man pose.

Pinkie was jumping up and down clapping excitedly while everyone else was in stunned silence, "Holy moly guacamole!"

"So how did you all like that?" It was a few seconds before I was met with a wall of cheers.

"DUDE THAT WAS SO… AWESOME! What do you even call that?" Rainbow asked.

I shrugged, "No clue, never really thought about that."

"Oh oh oh oh oh I know I know. Iceworks, you know like fireworks but ice." She suggested happily.

"Hm… not bad, do you mind if I use that?" She shook her head no.

"Chris that was spectacular! Such beauty, and coming from you no less." Rarity… what kind of pseudo-compliment is that?

"Chris you said you came up with that while visiting the Lamia?" Twilight asked.

"Yep, it was while I was watching a mock battle that this Lamia got on the tip of his tail and started spinning while holding out his swords, becoming something like a makeshift buzz saw. I added in the spring with my tail when I saw it used in a later dance ritual. Honestly… now that I think about it I originally planned to use it in combat but I thought it would go well as a dance move too."

"Well you were right about that." Twilight laughed.

I looked around and realized I was surrounded by my closest friends except Shy, Goldy, Lyra, and Bon Bon but the latter were of at the punch table since most of the crowd dispersed whilst I was talking. "Hey have you guys seen Shy?"

"I think she went to the house." Rainbow said.

"And I saw Goldy with the crusaders, speaking of, I need to see about Scootaloo's birthday in 4 months. Adios!" And with that Pinkie zipped off.

"She will always confuse me." The rest of the girls nodded in agreement, "Well, go and enjoy the party, I'm gonna go talk to Shy." I made my way inside the house and I saw Shy sitting at the table drinking some tea that she freshly made. I snuck up behind her and kissed her cheek, making her jump a little. "Hehe, sorry, couldn't resist."

She turned in the chair and gave be a pointed look before poking me in the stomach, she'd never hit me but she got payback in her own adorable way.

I sat in the chair across from her, "So what are you doing in here all by your lonesome?"

"Oh… I'm just not comfortable in parties remember?"

"I know but you normally stay and at least talk with your friends anyway, what's up?"

She looked to the side then down at the cup and then finally to me, "Well… you just seemed like you were having such a good time, and I didn't want to get in your way."

Ah so that was it, she's always worried about that, "Shy, why are you always so worried that you'll be in my way?"

"I don't know, I just get this feeling that… you are destined for something amazing, something big and I don't want to get in your way and burden you from that. I know it sounds silly but I just don't think I will be able to keep up."

"Destined for more? Why is it because I'm a Prince, because if it is, it's honestly just a title I really don't do anything."

"N-no it's not that… I really can't explain it, I can just tell you are going to change a lot about this world." I blinked… that was… surprisingly deep.

"And you're afraid, you'll be holding me back, getting in my way of whatever that is?" She nodded. I got up and walked over to her and picked her up, sitting down and putting her on my lap and wrapped my tail around her waist which garnered a small 'Eep' from her. "Fluttershy, you silly silly shy Pegasus you. I don't care what I'm 'destined' for. You and Goldy are the most important things in my life. And if you feel like you won't be able to keep up, I'll slow down or I'll carry you, whichever you want. I'll be there as long you will, you know that right?"

She nodded and rested her forehead on mine, she wrapped her arms around my shoulders and pulled me in for a kiss, "Do you think we'll ever get married?" She asked out of the blue.

"Of course… in fact here." I held out her hand and formed a ring made out of ice on her ring finger. "It may not be the most romantic of engagements but… I hope you accept."

"I do." She pulled me into another kiss which I more than happily returned, as indicated from the tip of my tail twitching rapidly, the consequence for this however was that it was tickling Fluttershy causing her to start laughing.

"Oh that tickles huh?" I wrapped my tail around her tighter so she couldn't escape as I started to tickle her, she was squirming and laughing uncontrollably, eventually we fell of the chair, with her on top of me but I honestly didn't care and I kept on tickling her until we heard an 'Ahem' from behind us. I tilted my head up to see our friends giggling and smirking, Shy eeped again and my tail quickly let her go, she got up and did her best to hide behind her wings and hair.

"Having fun are you?" Rarity teased.

"Awwww I wanted to be tickled too…" Pinkie… that sounds so wrong, and it looks like everyone else agrees from how awkwardly silent things got.

I sat up and scratched my head, nervously pulling at my horns, "Uhm so how about the party?"

"Oh, it's over. It was a quick one today." Pinkie said sadly.

"Pinkie, 10 hours is not a quick party."

Twilight looked at the clock on the wall, "IT'S TEN?! OH NO, I HAVE TO GO!" and she was gone in a poof of purple along with Spike, who you could hear all the way out here yelling out, "OH COME ON!"

"Oh dear it does look like that is the time, well I suppose we must be going too, Come along Sweetie." Rarity and her younger sister left and Rainbow Dash followed without a word, she just waved us off.

"So are you guys doing anything tomorrow?" Pinkie asked as we walked back into town, making our way to our house.

"We're going to see Grandma and Grandpa tomorrow!" Goldy exclaimed happily.

Pinkie pouted, "Oh…"

I gave Shy a look and she nodded back, "Pinkie, would you like to go with us to Cloudsdale for the weekend?"

She bounced back from her sulking almost instantly, "Would I?! I would love to! Oh can I spend the night at your house?"

"Sure we have a spare room."

"Actually, we don't."

"Well I can sleep on the couch. I don't mind."

I shook my head, "No the couch is too small to be slept on, and Goldy's bed is only big enough to hold Goldy. And I really don't want you to sleep on the floor." I tilted my head in thought. "That really only leaves our bed, it's big enough but…"

"Oh I don't want to intrude if that's the case." Pinkie said softly.

"Oh I don't mind, it'd be like old times." Shy said happily.

I swallowed and looked at my Fiancée, "Uh…. I mean…. I… ok?"

Pinkie clapped happily, "Yay, I get to sleep with Chrissy and Flutters!"

My face reddened and then paled as I opened the door kinda stun locked, 'What in the hell….'

+Don't ask me I'm just as confused.+

"I'm… gonna go… I'm gonna go change into… night clothes, you do… whatever." I went to go change and I looked at myself in the mirror… "Ixis… What is my life?"

+Chris I honestly wish I knew how to answer that.+ She sounded just as stunned as I did.

I lifted up my eye patch cleaned what was under it. "Ah… better." I changed into my night clothes which consisted of just a T-shirt and some shorts. I made my way to my room and saw Shy already in bed on her side with the light off, for a second I relaxed again, and climbed into bed with her and pulled her close, "Where's Pinkie?"

"She's downstairs working on something for tomorrow, she said she'll be up soon." She said quietly, obviously on her way out of the waking world.

"Oh, alright." I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep, only to be woken up by the bed creaking behind me and something soft and warm pressing against my back. 'And…. This is when I go to sleep and ignore everything else.' And so I did, with great difficulty.

16: Off to the City in the clouds

Author's Note

So.... its been... 2 years... yeah sorry about that. What had happened was life and things and stuff and things and life. Ok actually I honestly just got caught up in school and work, eventually i quit school cuz it wasn't for me. Still working though. And I got with someone, broke up with them and got back with them. Yeah yeah I know, if you remember a certain chapter about certain things then you know that i made that mistake once, but not this time. Trust me, a lot has changed in the past 2 years. Im actually truly happy with my life. Which is weird because my depression, my anger, and hatred with how things went in my life was why i started writing this story in the first place so with that motivation gone i was kinda at a road block. But then something amazing happened i listened to a song ONE song and it fixed everything with my writing, go figure. Anyways, due to my major mood change and outlook on life, the story is going to go in a different direction than i was originally intending it to. But that doesn't mean i don't have the same over all story in mind. Chris is just going to get way less angsty real fucking fast. But he'll still have problems don't worry anyways. i actually had this chapter typed up YEARS ago but i wasnt happy with it originally so I looked at it and reread it and rewrote a few things and boom happy with so here ya go

Yes, I'm putting a link to the Q&A blog in every author note, for those who stopped at mid points in the story, It's for reaching 25 chapters being written, even though 25 is still being written: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/831885/qs-for-the-qa-chapter

16: Off to the City in the clouds

I looked over the edge of the very large basket of the hot air balloon Goldy, Pinkie, and I was riding in and I felt my heart skip a few beats. I don't really have a fear of heights; I just have a fear of falling and breaking things. I mean now I could survive from at least this height but apparently Cloudsdale was higher up and I don't know if I could survive a fall from that height, which is why I went out of my way to find the second most powerful unicorn in Ponyville to apply the strongest and longest lasting cloudwalking spell on Pinkie and I, good thing I was best friends with her.

"Hey Shy, how much further until Cloudsdale?" I called out to her; she was pulling the balloon along.

"Oh not much further maybe, 15 minutes." She said not looking back.

"You know if you're getting tired we can just drift the rest of the way there it won't take that much longer."

"No it's ok, it's been a while since I flew it's nice to do it again."

"Alright if you say so, but the offer is still open." I turned to Pinkie and Goldy who were sitting on the basket floor playing a game of cards. "What are you playing?"

Pinkie was looking at her card with utmost concentration, must be an intense game, "Go fish, do you want to play?" or not.

I sat down, "Sure, deal me in, but I must warn you I was known as the Go Fish champion back in my world." I was handed my cards.

"Well I'm the Go Fish Champion of this world, so bring it." Pinkie challenged, making Goldy laugh.

After 10 minutes of playing, the Go Fish Champion had lost, but not to the party pony extraordinaire no, my own daughter. I hung my head in pride and shame but mostly pride.

Pinkie gave me an apologetic smile, "Better luck next Chrissy, though it looks like you have to give up your championship title to the new champion."

I nodded and held my daughter's hand up, "Well let's hear it for the new Go Fish Champion of both worlds GOLDY!" we all clapped and laughed and started putting the cards away.

"Alright, I'm going to see how close we are." As soon as I stood up the balloon jerk to a stop, "Never mind, guess we're here."

Fluttershy opened the hatch to the basket, "Yep, welcome to Cloudsdale Chris."

I was going to say something but I was cut off by Pinkie and Goldy running pass me and jumping off the balloon onto the clouds. Now I didn't doubt that the spell worked or that standing on clouds wasn't possible, after all I see Rainbow napping on them all time and I can see Fluttershy, Goldy, and Pinkie standing on them right now, along with hundreds of other ponies moving about the docking area. It's just hard to overcome the thought of clouds are just water vapor and not magical entities mad by pegasi. Fluttershy could tell I was nervous so she put her hand on my arm and gave me a reassuring nod. I took a deep breath and took my first step onto a cloud and I didn't fall through though I almost thought I did. Imagine walking on a bed or a pile of pillows, that's kinda what it felt like.

"Ok so I'm standing on a cloud, give me a minute to stop mentally freaking out."

'Am I good up there yet?'

+Almost… almost… and yes, you are done freaking out.+

"Good, alright, I'm ready to go, lead the way."

"Where do you want to go first?" Shy asked.

"Hmmm why don't we go to your parents' house, get settled in early, and explore the town later today?"

Pinkie gave off a whining sound, "I wanted to go back to the Rainbow Factory, I LOVE that place, and everything is super colorful."

"Sounds like a good place to go, but after we get unpacked and stuff. Would that be alright with you Goldy?"

She just gave me a happy little smile, "Yep, I like seeing Grandma and Grandpa."

"Cool, well off to see the wizard then." Ah references to classic movies that people only say are good due to nostalgia, that's right I said that.

As we walked through the cloud city I was getting looks left right and center which actually wasn't all that surprising to me, due to the fact that no matter where I went I got looks, whether it be due to not being anything normal to this world, of having horns, a tail, slit pupil, razor sharp teeth or that I apparently emit a rather powerful aura. Either way I get looks all the time, also improved hearing allowed me to hear what they were whispering about, now I'm not fazed by a damn thing they say but I heard a few mention Goldy and if I could hear them then she definitely could.

I looked down at my daughter but she was smiling and laughing and joking with Pinkie like she had the entire time we've been walking. If she heard them she either didn't care or she was hiding it really well.

+You know you should talk to her later about it.+

'Yeah I know, if I don't who knows what'll happen in the future if she runs into the extremists out there who think anything abnormal shouldn’t exist.'

+Which is silly because no one is normal.+

'Exactly, I mean look at me, I'm the most abnormal thing within a thousand mile radius and yet I have friends and a family and people who care for me. I'm also a prince and best friends with all the Princesses, So what is normal? Not a damn thing.'

+Agreed, in olden times Dragons had to conform to be a killer or be killed at least before I ruled. When I did however I accepted all the abnormal dragons, the dragons like Spike, who enjoyed reading, music, art, dancing, etc.+

'As it should be.' After that short conversation I was lost in my own thoughts for a bit before I bumped into Pinkie.

"Huh why did we stop?"

She gestured to the building in front of her, it was a 3 story house made of clouds, duh, so there wasn't much color to it but going up the pathway to the front door was rows of flowers, you can grow flowers on clouds? Ok, "Because, we're here. Now, Pinkie, be you. Goldy, be on your best behavior. You too Chris."

"Aren't I always?" I wiggled my eyebrows and she just deadpanned. I sighed in defeat, "Aye aye ma'am best behavior I shall be on." She had a relieved smile and walked up to the door and knocked on it.

The door opened to an older Black Pegasus with silver hair and tail, on his shirt was the mark of the big dipper, which apparently you could fucking see here, blew my mind the first time I figured that out. When he saw Shy his eyes widened and he took her into a hug, "Flute, I knew you said you were coming today but we didn't expect this early."

I snickered, 'Flute, like the instrument? Cute.'

+More original than Shy.+

'Shut up.'

She embraced the hug, "Hi papa, sorry it's so early."

"No need no need." He saw Goldy and let go of shy only to lift Goldy into a near bone crushing hug, "My little Ray of Sunshine, oh I missed you. Oh Pinkie, it's good to see you too, it's been far too long."

I smiled at the display of affection, I hope I end up being that good of a father when I reach old age, whenever that is.

Finally he spotted me behind everyone and put Goldy down, "Ah and you must be Christopher." He held his arms open, "Well come on son, give an old man a hug."

Eh why not, I walked up to him and we shared a manly hug, "Good to meet you Sir."

He laughed, "Please, just call me Soaring Dipper, or Dipper or Soaring, or whatever you please." I just nodded not really knowing how to respond, "Well just don't stand out there, come in come in." He started to push us in the house and when we were all in he closed the door. "Well make yourselves at home, your bedrooms are on the second floor, just enough for you all too, kitchen is down the hall to the left, living room to the right. Restroom down here, 2 bathrooms on your floor and the 3rd floor is for my wife and I. Speaking of, she is in the kitchen cooking lunch right now."

"Hmmmm, Shy, how about you and Goldy go see your mom and I'll go unpack our stuff, I should be done real soon." I gave her a kiss and headed up stair with our luggage in tow before anyone could say anything in protest, I could hear another pair of footsteps behind me and I just assumed it was Pinkie. After a few minutes of unpacking I came downstairs with pinkie beside me and walked into the kitchen to see Fluttershy talking with a mare who look almost exactly her at the table which had a plate of sandwiches on it, the only difference was the other mare, assuming her mother, Bumble Bee, was a bit more petite and had streaks of white in her otherwise pink hair and tail. She had the mark of a Bee on top of a flower, fitting.

"So there's the Colt who won my little song bird's heart." She said with a slightly cold smile.

I involuntarily shuddered, 'Oh god she is the scary parent.'

+Yep, you're on your own here.+

'WHAT?! No, don't leave me alone!' I got no response, 'Shit.'

"Well, come sit down I won't bite." She patted the chair next to her.

I nervously walked over and sat down next to Shy's mom, "Uh, nice to meet you ma'am."

"Nice to meet you too hun, now, there are some questions I have for you." She picked up a sandwich and handed it to me, which I accepted albeit a bit shakily and took a bite and chewed slowly, it was surprisingly good despite not having really any meat or gems

"First off I'm curious as to what your story is."

I swallowed my bite roughly and coughed, "I'm sorry, can you repeat that."

"Your story dear I want to know what it is."

"I mean I got that but, what do you mean my story?"

"Oh you know, where you come from, what you are, what you do for a living, what you have planned for the future all that. Our little song bird has told us mind you but I'd like to hear it from you."

"Ok… uh well I'm a Drakon, half human, my original species, half dragon. I have said Dragon living in my head, her name is Ixis, she was the last known ruler of all the Dragons. And because of her giving me her powers my body has been getting used to the immense amount of magic, which is why I have random assortments of dragon parts, eye, tail, horns, teeth etc. Also the fact that I can create most near anything out of ice as long as I have enough magic to do so." I demonstrated by making a little copy of myself on the table.

She picked it up and examined it, "Interesting, very interesting, what about where you come from?"

"Oh I come from another planet called earth, I was transported here due to the same dragon granting my wish of exploring a place the human race has never seen before. And I can't really say my wish wasn't fulfilled." I laughed, not bitterly, I got over my own dumbassness with that a while ago.

"I see I see, so why did you disappear for 5 years and leave our daughter to raise your daughter on her own? And for that matter do you plan on marrying her? Do you have a job to help support your family?"

See, I saw this coming, "To answer the last two, yes and nes."

"I have an engagement ring, sort of." She held up her hand and showed her the ring I made last night.

"You made a ring out of ice?"

"Yep, won't melt, virtually indestructible, made of draconic magic and because of that it probably costs more than any ring I could possibly buy."

She studied it, "It's fine for now but you better get her an actual wedding ring. Now what did you mean by nes?"

"I meant that I don't have a job but I can easily support my family. And besides Shy has a job, not saying that's an excuse though."

She kinda sorta, completely scowled at me, "So you don't have a job, but you can support your family? I don't think you would be able to save up for an entire lifetime in the span of however long you've been here."

"I didn't have to, to fully answer your 3rd question I have to answer your first one about where I went for 5 years."

She humphed, "Well don't keep us waiting, explain."

"Well, simply put I had to train to be a prince, I'm a prince, I was adopted by Cadence into the royal family, so I basically have as much money as I need for as long as the royal family exists. Though personally there isn't much I can use it on so I have a good chunk sent to random charities every month. The rest I use for whatever I feel like."

Shy's parents' eyes widened and they stood up and bowed immediately, simultaneously speaking, "We're sorry your highness, we didn't know you were royalty, nothing was shown in the papers."

I laughed, "It's fine and please don't start with the highness stuff, I'm still just me I suppose. But I had it kept hidden, though an announcement is to happen on Monday."

The stood up straight but Ms. Bee, looked a bit uncomfortable and left the room.

Dipper sighed heavily, "Sorry about that, my wife can be a bit overprotective of Flute. But it's good to know you have their best interests in heart."

I waved it off, "I just want to make sure my family is happy is all. Speaking of, where did Goldy go?"

"Oh she's outside playing with Pinkie, those two get along very well."

Shy nodded, "Yes, Pinkie has been like a big sister to Golden."

'Too bad she'll outlive Pinkie and everyone else… whoa, where did that come from?' I shook my head. "Alright, well I'm going to go check up on them." I peered out a window, which was really just a hole in the wall into the backyard, it was just a huge expanse of clouds but I could still see the edge from here I called out to Goldy and pinkie who were apparently playing tag, "Goldy, Pinkie, be careful of the edges ok?"

"OK DADDY!"

"Don't worry, I'll make sure she's super-duper safe!"

I trusted her on that and went to go sit in the living room with Shy for a bit, "So this is your home huh?"

"Yep, this is where I grew up, Rainbow's old house isn't too far from her, I wonder how Prism Bolt is doing…"

"Is that Rainbow's dad?"

"No it's her older brother, her dad died a few years before you came here."

"What about her mom?"

"During birth."

"Oh…. Oh man… no wonder Rainbow acts so hard all the time." I rubbed my tail nervously, as I always lay it across my lap when I sit down. "I'm going to get her something from here." I pulled out a bit of paper and a pen and wrote a note, when I finished, I pulled out my scroll gem and tapped it quickly having it light up. I quickly put my scroll to it having it sucked into the gem.

"What was that about?"

"Just asking for a favor, is your mom ok?"

She rested her head on my shoulder, "Yes she's fine, just a bit ashamed for talking to a prince like that. If you could talk to her that would be nice."

"Yeah, I can do that, also do you know why Twilight wasn't home this morning?"

"Maybe it was princess stuff? Do you ever get called away randomly?"

"Mmmm sometimes, it isn't often it's just when it has to do with me specifically."

"Oh if that's the case then…" She paused looking like she remembered something, "No never mind."

"What?"

She sat up and avoided looking at me, "N-Nothing, uh go talk to my mom please? Thank you." She pushed me off the couch.

I tilted my head in confusion but decided to ignore it, man she hasn't acted like that in a while. I walked up to the third floor and knocked on the only closed door and I gotta come in.

"Ms. Bee are you ok?"

She jumped and turned around on the bed when she heard my voice, "Oh yes I'm fine and please just call me Bee."

I nodded, "Dipper and Shy told me you were upset that you talked to me like that because I was a prince?"

"Yes, sort of, it was a mix of that and that I talked to you like that in general in front of our song bird." Suppressed snicker.

"Hey it's fine and I understand, I'd do and probably will do the same thing to whoever decides to date my Goldy. It's just a parent thing so no hard feelings, and about the prince thing. It's more or less a title sure I have all the power that comes with it but I'm still just a normal person, well if this is normal anyway." I gave a little tug on my horns.

"Doesn't that hurt?"

I sat down on a chair in the room "Not at all, no nerves, just bone. Say may I ask how you got your cutie mark?"

"Oh not at all, you see when I was younger, but older than the normal time a pony gets their cutie mark, I was on the ground a lot, much like our daughter and I used to work with flowers, one day while I was attending to the azaleas a Bee floated by and landed on one of them, it looked deathly ill and sadly it didn't make it, so I decided to finish it's pollination job for it and poof it appeared."

"So your special talent is essentially pollinating and growing flowers?"

She blinked, "It sounds silly when you put it like that doesn't it?"

"Not at all, pollinating is an essential part of the ecosystem and flowers are as well, I'd say your special talent is very special indeed."

She smiled at that, "What about you, do you, humans, have any special talents?"

"Sadly no, we just kinda have try our hands at everything until we find something that sticks and even then that's not guaranteed. "

"Poor dears, that must be very hard."

"Eh it can be, but the biggest shared talents humans have is the ability to adapt to any situation so we got used to it pretty fast. Actually back on earth I was pretty much in the same position now, well financially anyway, socially I was in a hole so deep I couldn't even see the top."

"Why is that?"

"Well you see-" "AAAHHHHH!"

We both stood up, "That was Goldy/it came from outside." We rushed to the window to see Pinkie standing over the edge looking over it.

She looked up at us with tears in her eyes, "I looked away for a second I swear!"

I growled and jumped out the window, instincts taking over as I sprinted passed Pinkie and leaped off the edge of the cloud and dove straight down, I could hear screaming from above me but I was more concentrated on my daughter who had passed out from fright.

+Chris, you won't survive landing from this height!+ Ixis yelled in my mind.

"I don't care, I will not let my daughter die!" I put my arms in front of me and formed a cone of ice in order to break the wind in front of me lessening the friction, it sped me up enough to be able to grab hold of Goldy and hold her close while flipping onto my back so I would act like a cushion.

After a few seconds she woke back up, "D-Daddy…?" She looked past my shoulder and then buried her face in my chest.

"Shhh it's ok, I got you, we'll be ok." I ran my hand through her hair.

+Chris.+

'Not now Ixis I want to spend my last few moments with my daughter.'

+But Chris.+

'Not now!'

+CHRIS!+

'What?!'

+You have wings!+

"I have what?!" I looked behind me to see very large blue wings. "When in the… how?"

+Your body must've sped up your next transformation and just said fuck releasing all the energy back out because you have way more in here than you did with every previous one.+

"Awesome but we have another problem, I don't know how to fly!" I shouted out.

+Hold on I'm working on it I'm working on it!+ Man this was a long fall, not that I'm complaining. +Here got it, all the knowledge we have learned about flight. Normally I wouldn't give you the knowledge straight out like this, but considering the circumstances.+

"Got it thanks, just-oh…" Well that felt weird, imagine getting brain freeze, a headache, and light headed all at once. That's basically what it felt like to have a crap ton of knowledge inserted into your brain at once. "Ok Goldy, hold onto me as tight as you can ok?" I felt her squeeze me, which was a good yes.

I flipped over and spread out my wings which jerked us to a slow fall then I gave one good flap and took off skyward, I kept going until I reached the cloud edge and landed on it. I set Goldy down who immediately ran over to Shy, "Ok… now that that heart attack is over…" I straight up collapsed and was out cold for about an hour. When I woke up I realized I was laying on my stomach. I looked to my side and saw everyone looking at me.

"Well… this is strange… I can understand the strange looks from everyone except Shy and Pinkie, ya'll have seen this before." I sat up and stretched.

"Yes well…." Shy started out.

"Your wings are GINORMOUS!"

"Huh? Uh… do you guys have a full body mirror?" Dipper nodded and pointed down the hall, "Thanks." I walked up to the mirror and my jaw dropped at what I saw. Pinkie was right my wings were indeed rather large, The joint where the folded at was a good 6 inches above my head and they had little hook claws on the like a bat but instead of one there were 3. The bottom of my wings were up off the floor by a measly 3 inches. The inside of my wings were a lighter blue than the outside bit which was comprised of hard, but flexible dark blue scales.

"Well this is inconvenient. Yo Ixis, why are they so big?"

+My guess is because you didn't have an actual iceplosion this time your body just kinda kept it all in as you needed to be awake to get back to safety. So the magic just made them bigger than necessary. Though once you're able to control your transformation into a dragon and what not, if you decided to just bring your wings out they should be a proper size.+

"But until then I'm stuck with these giant things?"

+Afraid so, maybe you can wrap then around you?+

"Worth a shot." I did so and hooked both sets of claws together and relaxed my wings and surprisingly it held. "Huh looks like I just have my own special kind of cloak on, that works." My wings did drag a bit on the ground like this but I didn't mind really.

"Ok is that better?" I asked walking back into living room. I got a lot of nodding, "Alright time to explain to you what just happened." And so I did.

"Well I don't have any questions what about you dear?" Dipper asked Bee to which she just gave a simple no.

"Goldy what about you, do you have any questions?"

She looked up at me, "Does that mean that'll happen to me but in reverse?"

We all laughed at that, "No, you're fine."

"So what do we do now?" Shy asked.

"We tour the city of course, you guys pack a few things maybe some snacks and stuff I'll go get Pinkie." I made my way upstairs and saw Pinkie's door closed, I heard sniffling and I didn't decide to knock I just went in. Pinkie was laying on the bed on her stomach, her head under a pillow though part of her hair was sticking out and that along with her tail were straight.

I sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed her back, "Are you ok?"

"N-no…"

"Do you blame yourself for Goldy falling?" She just nodded, "Don't, it's ok, it was an accident, it could've just as easily been you who fell too, or me, or anyone really."

"Would you still have saved me if it was?" She asked through muffled sobs.

"Of course I would, why wouldn't I?" she stayed silent, not knowing how to answer that, "Pinkamena Diane Pie, you silly pony you, would you like a hug?" She nodded again, "Well you gotta sit up and take the pillow off your head."

"Don't wanna…."

"Don't make me do something drastic." She groaned, "Fine I warned you." I supercooled my hand and placed it on her back, she made a really high pitched screech and sat up quickly, making the pillow fly across the room.

"Chrissy that was mean!" She punched me in the arm.

"Got you to sit up though." I unwrapped my wings from around me and held my arms open, "Come on you said you wanted a hug." She scooted over and hugged me, "Better?"

She mumbled out a yes, "Good, now get your butt in gear, we're going to the Rainbow Factory."

She jumped up and rushed to the door, her poofiness back at max power, "Well what are you waiting for come on."

I stood up and followed her, for the rest of the day we all had fun, the rainbow factory was cool I even got to taste rainbow and Jesus is it spicy. We visited the Wonderbolt stadium and training grounds, pulled a few strings there. We went out to eat at a restaurant, which was paid for by Dipper and Bee, though I offered to pay several times. Sure I got a few more weird looks but eh whatever, still have to talk to Goldy about that. Came home and my requested package had arrived and I got very excited for that. At the end of the day I was in bed with the mare I loved, my daughter was safe, one of my friends was happy and I was on good terms with Shy's parents. Today was a damn good day.

17: Spike accidentally a good

-The next night-

Twilight came out of the portal brushing herself off, a split second later Spike followed, mumbling how he'll never get used to that.

"That was crazy, who'd have thought that we would end up running into that version of you?" Spike asked utterly dumbfounded.

"I was just as surprised as you were Spike, but I'm glad we worked things out before they got out of control. It still amazes me that that world has their own version of Discord who's not only more powerful but also female."

"Yeah that was… weird…" Spike shuddered at the thought.

"Well let's just be glad our Discord is reformed."

"Hey Twilight, I was thinking, is that the world Chris came from?"

"Mmmm no I don't think so, he said his world had no magic whatsoever and even that world has some magic." She looked back at the portal and the contraption connected to it when a thought raced through her mind, "Hey Spike, go to our room and make sure you go to sleep I'm going to discuss something with Princess Celestia and I might be gone for a while."

"Aww alright…" He made his way out and down the hall, Twilight went down a different hall to Celestia's Room to which she knocked on the door, "Princess are you still awake?"

Celestia called through the door, "Yes Twilight, come in." Celestia was sitting at her desk wearing reading glasses looking over mail, a lot of it was of political matters, and quite a few were from foals that had to write a letter to their 'favorite' princess. And some were, as usual, letters that confessed unyielding love. She always loved reading these as while a tad creepy sometimes they still made her laugh with how hard some of her ponies tried.

"I'm sorry to disturb you Princess but I have a… theory on how to get Chris home."

Celestia would expect many a thing from Twilight about her theories and such but this one, no, she put the letter she was currently reading down and took off her glasses, "Really, well get comfortable and tell me your theory." She turned in her chair as Twilight took a seat on her bed.

"Well you see… as you know I just came back from the other world and Spike asked me if that was Chris' world, which is highly unlikely, but it did get me thinking, if I can forcibly open a portal to that world by using something that is connected to it…" She trailed off.

"Then what's to stop you from using something from Chris' world to open a portal there? Twilight you are a genius." Celestia praise making Twilight glow with pride.

"I'm sure you could've come up with it Princess, but the only problem is that I don't have anything specific from his world that we could just reuse."

"That means our best chance to test that out is tomorrow when he comes down here for his announcement. But good job Twilight, I'm sure Chris will be happy about this." Celestia stood up and patted her shoulder, "But I am tired, so I will have to ask you to excuse me, if you wish to further work on this subject, you can go talk to Luna, she is very well practiced in portal magic, more so than even I."

Twilight quickly stood up, "Of course Princess, have a good sleep, I'll see you tomorrow." She then quickly headed out of her room.

Celestia sighed and a frown replaced the smile that she had, "Oh dear, I really am happy for Chris, but if he decides to stay in his own world… It will pain me so to lose such a dear friend, it will pain all of us to lose such a dear friend. But I only wish for you make the choice that makes you the most happy, and who knows maybe much like this world and the other world you'll be able to go back and forth… that’d for the best of both worlds, but who knows who knows…" Celestia yawned and changed into her sleepwear before climbing into bed and going to sleep.

Twilight on the other hand with the help of Luna was up all night working out the math if her theory would really work, writing down all the possibilities. And eliminating the ones that seemed the most outlandish, Twilight secretly wished she had something from a different world outside of the other world to test it on but she was just going to have to put her faith in the written world. Before she knew it it was morning and it was the day that the world knew of Chris' Prince Hood and the trials would commence.

Author's Note

So this was another chapter i had written up two years ago and takes place the Night after the next chapter, just to make that clear. Ill have the next chapter up.... probably tomorrow. To be honest i had HALF of that chapter written up also two years ago but I was working on it last night and I'm almost done so. Yay.

Yes, I'm putting a link to the Q&A blog in every author note, for those who stopped at mid points in the story, It's for reaching 25 chapters being written, even though 25 is still being written: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/831885/qs-for-the-qa-chapter

18: Double "date"

I stuffed another whole pancake in my mouth and chewed happily, “Goof loth thief if ta besh shing Is e’ah ea’eh” I mumbled out through a mouth full of pancake and syrup.

Bee looked at me and then to Shy, “What did he say?”

She tilted her head thinking for a minute, “I think he said, ‘Good lord this is the best thing I’ve ever eaten.’”

Her mom nodded, it made sense, after all her pancakes were to die for, or so everyone told her. She looked at Pinkie, “What about Pinkie there?”

We all looked at pinkie and she was stuffing pancake after pancake in her mouth non-stop. “I agwee!” She said with a giggle.

We all just shrugged, “That’s just Auntie Pinkie being Auntie Pinkie.” Goldy said.

I nodded and swallowed the last bit of pancake I had in my mouth, “Phew, that was good, so what’s everyone’s plans for today?”

Dipper got up and brushed off his suit from any crumbs he had on it, “Well sadly I have to work, you’d think I’d have Sunday’s off but nope one of our tour guides at the museum quit last night so I got called in to take his place.” He sighed. “Sorry everyone, I wish I could spend more time with you all but duty calls.” He gave Bee a kiss and Fluttershy a peck on the cheek and ruffled Pinkie’s and Goldy’s hair on his way to the door.

“Again it was nice meeting you Chris, you’re a good stallion. See you all later.” He closed the door with a soft puff, cloud houses yo.

“Well what about you 3?” I turned back asking Pinkie, Bee, and Shy.

“What do you mean us 3?” Bee asked.

“Well I was gonna go and spend the day with Goldy, have a little father-daughter bonding time. Explore Cloudsdale more.” I said, putting a hand on my daughter’s head.

“Oh well in that case, how would you girls like to have an US day hm?” Be asked.

“I’d like that.” Shy said with a polite smile.

Pinkie just nodded vigorously, her mouth being sufficiently stuffed with more pancakes.

I clapped my hands together, “Alright, it’s settled then. Goldy, are you done eating?”

“Yep! I’m ready whenever you are daddy!” She said getting out of her chair.

“Ok ok, just let me put the dishes up.” I said getting up myself and grabbing our plates.

“Ah ah ah, don’t worry about it, I’ll take care of those, go spend the day with my little ray of sunshine.” Bee said with a bright smile.

“Alright, ok Goldy, let’s go.” I held out my hand and she took it and we made our way into town.

“Hey daddy?” Goldy asked, gaining my attention as we were walking down the sidewalk.

“Yeah baby girl?”

“How does Auntie Pinkie eat that much and not gain any weight?”

I looked down at her with a smile, “I wish I had the answer for you, best I can say is all that bouncing around she does.”

“Ok, another question.”

“Shoot.” I said.

She looked around, “Why does everyone keep staring at us?”

I blinked not expecting that question. +Well she is a smart girl, she was bound to notice eventually+ Ixis said.

‘Fair point but I wish she hadn't’ I sighed, “It’s because we’re different Goldy. Despite how much love and tolerance is promoted in Equestria they’re still scared of things they don’t understand. Actually it’s like that everywhere, it’s just nature I suppose.”

“That’s silly, it’s not like we’re mean or anything.” She said with a pout.

“No we aren’t mean, but they don’t know that, all they know is that we look different, and we’re predators Goldy, sure we won’t hurt any of them but we still give off that feeling, you’d be surprised how much ponies in Ponyville avoided me at first. What we have to do is show them that we’re good people. So don’t let the looks get under your skin or scales, heh, prove to everyone that you’re different to what they think you are, can you do that for me?” I asked her.

She nodded confidently, “Ok! I’ll make tons of friends and be the nicest person so everyone loves me.”

I kissed her forehead, “That’s my girl, now, where do you wanna go first?”

“Well I did see a library yesterday… if that’s ok?”

“Haha, you have been hanging around Twilight way too often, but that's fine.” I picked her up and put her on my shoulders, “Alrighty you’re the driver, drive away.”

She grabbed my horns, “Forward MARCH!”

I saluted, “Yes Ma’am!” And started walking. After a while she pulled my head left and left I turned and then a few blocks later I went right and then left and then left again.

“It’s just a few blocks straight ahead.” She tapped my head twice. “Full speed ahead.” She said.

“Are you sure?” I asked, I didn’t want to hurt her.

“Yep, full speed ahead.”

“Aye aye captain.” I gave another salute. ‘Ixis, will she be ok?’

+Mmm yes, she’ll be fine, she has the durability of a dragon and pegasus, they were built for things like this.+ She said.

“Alright, Goldy, hold on tight, I don’t want you falling off.” I felt her grip my horns tighter and wrap her legs around my neck. I crouched down and got into a sprinter’s stance. I closed my eyes and slowed my breathing, mist coming off my skin and puffs of mist and fog coming out my nose, tensed my muscles like I was pressing down on a spring I opened my eyes, my sight perfectly clear, I could see an insane distance away and I could see the path I needed to take through the ponies on the sidewalk and flying in the air if necessary. I heard a soft growling coming from above me and I turned my head to look quickly. Seems my attitude affected Goldy, her pupils were slits and she was focused, she was as ready as I was. I looked forward again took in one last deep breath before kicking off.
The papers printed a special edition same day, late into the night of my all out sprint. Witnesses said I was there and then the next instant I was gone, just vanished and a few seconds later a small boom from where I standing happened blowing a hole in the clouds and blasting a huge gust of wind from the spot backwards.

Now to me, it didn’t feel any different in fact it felt like I was just running as fast as I normally do, but when I decided to look I noticed that I was passing ponies at an alarming rate in fact we were already close to library within seconds. I don’t think I can slow down in time.

+You have built in air brakes dummy use them.+ Ixis said with a chuckle.

‘Built in...what? Oh! wings right!’ I opened my wings fully catching as much air as i could which slowed me down considerably.

“THAT WAS SO COOL!!” I heard Goldy say, “How fast do you think we were going? It had to be faster than the speed of sound, or close to it!”

I shrugged, “No idea, but that’s new, sure I got a speed boost when I got my tail but nothing that drastic.”

+That’s because each part you get directly impacts one of your abilities greater while the others get a small boost. Your eyes gave you better reflexes and perception you’ve just never truly use it until now. Your teeth, well it allowed you to eat anything . Your horns increased your strength and attacking power immensely, magic as well as physical, have you tapped into it? No, not truly not even when you fought Sombra. Your tail gave a huge boost to defensive capabilities and a little bit bigger boost to attack power. Your wings, as you can see gave an incredible boost to your movement speed and like your tail gave a slightly larger boost to defense than normal. So all in all you are… probably able to go on par with luna at 80% strength now.+

“Wow, ok so I’m guessing when when I get my full transformation everything will be boosted to all new insane heights?” I asked out loud.

+The likes of which none have seen before, you’ll probably be the most powerful ice dragon to have existed.+

I gulped, “Ah well… then…”

“Daddy who were you talking to?”

“Huh? Oh sorry sweetie, I was talking to Ixis, she’s well she’s a dragon spirit that lives in my head, it’s why I’m part dragon and why you’re part dragon, I guess technically she’s your grandma as well?” I tilted my head in thought, ‘Actually how would that work? I mean you are the parent of my dragon half so I guess that's right.’

+I suppose so, I don’t really mind, I’m just glad our species isn’t extinct honestly, I’ll gladly be her grandparent.+

“I have a grandma living in your head?” She giggled, “That’s silly.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle, “I agree, but she said she’s happy to be your grandma.”

“Yay, I have another grandma, can you tell her I said hi?”

“She can hear everything you say and she says hi back. But we’re here, ready to go inside?”

“Yep, I hope they have lots of new books!” She said happily, hopping off my shoulders and running inside.

“I’m sure they will!” I sighed happily and followed, ‘She’s such a bundle of energy.’

+So were you when you were younger.+ Ixis said.

‘Yeah but a lot of things were different when I was younger. You know that.’

+Yeah I do. Hey Chris, can I tell you something?+

‘I’d hope so you are living in my head after all.’

+I never told you why I left Equus or how I got your world did I?+

I shrugged, ‘Never really gave it much thought, was to busy you know being in a different world and all that,’

She laughed sadly, +Fair point I suppose. But I… I guess I should tell you, actually I feel like I should tell you everything since you’re going to be going public tomorrow about being a prince.+

‘Oh? Why didn’t you tell me whatever it is before?’

+Just wasn’t the time, I suppose. You remember the other night when Luna helped us put HIM away?+

‘Yeah, I do, why does this have something to do with the look you two shared?’

+Yes, yes it does.+

I looked at Goldy, she was just running around everywhere grabbing book after book, ‘Alright tell me then, while Goldy is distracted, I don’t want her to sense anything wrong.’

+Right, well… You asked.. I mean…+

‘Ixis, look you don’t have to tell me if you really don’t want to.’

+N-No… well fine I’ll hold off on that then, thank you. But I’m still going to tell you why I left.+

‘I’m listening.’

She took a deep breath or what the equivalent was, +I left because I was scared, I was sad, not because I was dying, that… that happened because I used all of my energy and magic to rip a portal into your world.+

‘You were dying because you came to Earth? And what were you scared about?’ I asked.

+Yes I was dying I didn’t expect a world with absolutely no magic to exist so my body couldn’t pull in any from the air or the ground to heal or replace what I lost so I was basically running on fumes when I landed, but I what I was scared of was… I couldn’t have children, I couldn’t produce an heir.+

‘Well yeah I figured as much I mean you’re an ice dragon right? No way you could reproduce with a fire dragon or anything.’ I said.

+Chris, you had a child with a pony and you’re part human, if you were full blooded human you would NEVER have been able to have children while you were here, you’d be in the same mess I was. Dragons… are, we survive no matter what we pass our DNA to what we can. How do you think the water dragons existed in the first place? Because before the war ice Dragons and Fire dragons mated all the time and then from there it just increased to having more types of dragons inhabiting Equus. But not me, I tried so many times so so many times, I would lay the eggs in my first clutch and wait years for them to hatch but none would and at first I thought it was taking just a bit longer, after all We’ve had other females whose eggs took a bit longer than the rest to hatch of course those were the runts of clutch but still. But I waited and waited until one day I decided to do what no mother would ever dream of, I broke open an egg to find the the wyrmling inside was long dead, was for years.

I panicked and I checked the rest, dead, they were all dead. But I thought maybe it was just a fluke, it happens sometimes so I tried again but no each clutch I had the eggs would die almost immediately. So one night when I was more distraught than I’ve ever been I left I couldn’t bear it I didn’t want to be near anyone so I left and that's when you found me. As I was dying I realized that I could have you be my child, sure I didn’t hatch but you would have my DNA my blood, some of my memories, you would in essence be my child.

I’m so sorry Chris, my selfishness of wanting a child, someone to have my DNA caused you everything these past few years.+ She was crying, I didn’t even know she could do that.

‘Ixis, hey… I’m sorry for… I don’t, I’m sorry that you weren’t able to have kids. Truly I am. But I’m the one that asked to explore somewhere the human race has never been to, subconsciously or consciously you brought me to Equestria, I’m long over that. I’ve forgiven you many times over for it and you know that. But I have to thank you.’ I thought with a smile.

She sniffled, +Thank me, for what?+

I pointed to Goldy who at this point had a huge stack of books and was walking to the counter to check them out. ‘Because of her. You told me that if it wasn’t for my dragon DNA, your DNA I wouldn’t have been able to have kids here. Because of you, of what you did I was given the greatest gift in both worlds. And yeah I would’ve been able to have kids on my world if I never found you but who’s to say I would be as happy as I am today? I have a lot to thank you for Ixis, I just wish you were a physical person so I could give you a hug, I’ll do it tonight in my dreams though I promise.’

Ixis laughed softly, +Hehe, thank you Chris for being so a nice person.+

I frowned and watched goldy walk over to me with a ginormous smile on her face, ‘You and I both know I’m not a nice person but I do the best I can for her.’

+And that’s what makes you a nice person and a good father.+ I just pouted in my head ,’Bleh’

I knelt down to Goldy’s height, “You got everything you need?”

“Yep, I have so many cool books, I can’t wait to show mommy and Auntie Twilight” She beamed me a smile.

“I bet she’s gonna be jealous, so where do you wanna go next, it’s only 12 in the afternoon.”

“Oh oh oh, can we go see Grandpa Dipper at the Museum?!”

“Sure and after how bout we go get some ice cream yeah?” She nodded, “Alright, climb on up.” She climbed back onto my shoulders.

“Can we fly there?” She asked.

“Once we get outside.” I picked up her bag of books and left the library, “Ok hold on, I won’t go as fast this time but taking off is still going to be a bit rough” She held on just like she did last time. I spread my wings wide and with one powerful flap I shot high into the sky and was hovering in place with steady flapping. “You ok up there?” I got a thumbs up. “Ok, I’m going to go horizontal with my body so you’re going to have to climb on my back between my wings ok?

“Ok, and I know you said you did want to go fast buuut.”

“You’re curious aren’t you? I won’t lie I am too, but you’ll have to lay down along my back and hold onto my horns ok?” Another thumbs up.

‘Ixis?’

+Yes Chris?+

‘And I wanted to thank you for the coolest set of powers in existence.’

+You’re welcome but a word of warning, you are going to be much faster flying than you will be running, I’m not exactly sure how much fast but a considerable amount.+

‘Noted’ I prepared myself much like I did last time and flapped once and I rocketed off like missile. I didn’t need to flap again because we were already at the museum.

‘Ok, never doing that again.’

+And I think you were still holding back.+

‘What?’

+You know I can read when your body is giving it’s all and let me tell you, it wasn’t or at least I’m pretty sure it wasn’t.+

I looked back at my wings and got a nod from Goldy letting me know she was ok. I swallowed, ‘What… what did these wings do to me?’

+I… don’t know. Like I said there’s more energy and magic stored in your body since you’re wings came in differently and I think that’s why. This has never happened before, I would suggest not flying or sprinting for a while, maybe a light jog but.+

I nodded in agreement “Uhm we’re here.” I flapped weakly and slowly, getting us to descend and landed on the ground before wrapping my wings around me again. “Goldy…”.

“Yeah daddy?” She looked up at me with wide eyes.

“D-Don’t mention that to anyone yet ok?” She nodded, “Good, well let’s go inside.” I pushed her softly on the back to get her to move forward.

We made our way into the museum. And saw a receptionist at the desk, “Hi, We’d like to, to well, I guess just look around, does that require anything monetary?”

She shook her head, obviously a bit freaked out by how I looked, I sighed, “Look, yes I look strange I get that, it’s whatever but my daughter loves to learn and I thought I’d take her to the museum and show her around so it would be great if you could answer my question, please.”

She coughed, and looked away blushing, “S-sorry, uhm, no sir, the museum is free to look around in but if you want to catch the Astrologonomy showing, yes that is what it’s called,
at 1:30 you’d have to pay 15 bits for adults 5 for foals.”

“I see and who’s doing the showing?”

She flipped open a book and nibbled at the eraser at the end of her paper, “Ah that would be Curator and Professor Soaring Dipper.”

“Grandpa is showing it? Oh can we go see it daddy please?”

“Of course. You said 15 for adults and 5 for kids right?”

“Yes sir, but did she say grandpa?” The receptionist asked.

Goldy put her hands on the counter and stood on her tippy toes, “Yep he’s my Grandpa dipper, he’s super nice and smart and funny, Daddy, mommy, and I came to see him and Grandma Bee this weekend with Auntie Pinkie.”

I chuckled, “Yeah this is Golden Skies, she’s a bundle of adorable hyperactivity and my daughter. Fluttershy’s daughter.”

She looked at Goldy, “So you’re his ‘Little ray of sunshine?” Then she looked at me, “And you said she’s Fluttershy’s daughter as well?”

“Yep, you know Shy?” I asked fumbling around with a small bag of bits I carried on me.

“Well outside of her being one of the Elements of Harmony, yeah. I was friends with her and Rainbow Dash up here at flight school. Though I doubt they talked about me. My name is Glimmer, just Glimmer.”

“Well nice to meet you Glimmer, I’ll tell Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash you said hello, oh and here’s the bits.” I said holding out my hand.

She shook her head, “Don’t worry about it. Mr. Dipper told me to let any of his family see any of his shows for free.”

“Hmmm alright well… wait hold on.” I pulled a dozen or so bits out of the bag for later when we go get ice cream and I plopped the rest down onto the counter, “Take that for yourself then. Treat yourself.”

“Sir… I-I can’t do that, there has to be at least 100 bits in here.” She said lifting up the bag.

“200 actually, I took out what I needed for the rest of my time out with my daughter. It’s fine.” I turned around and wave her off, “Like I said. Treat yourself. Oh My name is Chris by the way, and try to read the news tomorrow or be in Canterlot whichever you prefer.”

Glimmer stared at the bag of bits and was at a loss for words except to sa a simple thank you and gesture for us to be on our way.

I looked don at Goldy, “Well we still have some time left before your grandfather’s Astrologonomy show, what do you want to go look at first?”

She paused to think before leading me to a section of the museum labeled Theinventions of Equis throughout time.

It was an interesting little section of the museum. Of course throughout my travels while i was training as a prince I learned all about the inventions of Equis, from each various nation. I didn’t know EVERYTHING about every invention, hell i didn’t even know every invention, but what i did know was that in the early years of the planet their development was very similar to our own in terms of technological advancements. That was up until their ‘Bronze’ age, bronze was the first metal they found that could conducted magic, even though it was a crude and unrefined conduction, often leading to less than…. Desirable results. Then their ages from there were much much different, the bronze age was followed by the gold age, the gold age was followed by the crystal age, which is when the first signs of modern society started to form. Surprisingly the first cities built were by the diamond dogs in their tunnels FAR underground as they learned to channel magic through crystal to produce light. The dragons followed in those steps as they lived in caves mostly but expanded their cities’ reach to the out door, which lead to the more surface dwelling races to develop their own variations of light crystals giving them more adept knowledge as to what crystals could and could not do. The obvious pinnacle being the crystal empire and the crystal heart, though the location wasn’t probably the best, for creatures who weren’t meant for the cold.

The crystal age lasted for a very long time then the Age of Chaos began, When Discod first appeared, it lasted for millennia. And with the world in such disarray the universe decided that a balance was needed and such Luna and Celestia were born into being, it took many many years before they would have the power to trap Discord. Afterwards the next age stated, the current age, The Age of The Sisters, with the most current thing in the museum being an article and a shard of Tireks horn from Twilight’s recent battle.

Goldy spoke up when we reached the end of the exhibit, “You know, I was learning this in class the other day, and it didn’t go into this much detail. Do you think my class can ge a field trip up here?”

+You know, there isn’t much about dragons here after i disappeared, I wonder why...?+ Ixis mumbled in the back of my head.

I scratched my head, “I don’t know, maybe, you’d have to ask Cheerilee, though i doubt she would be against it.”

“Then I'll do just that.” she said with a smile before walking around the museum more.
We wandered for a while, visiting different exhibits before we sat on a bench when it hit 1:00 pm.

Goldy was swinging her legs when she looked up at me, “Hey daddy?”

“Yes Goldy?”

“You aren't from Equestria are you?”

I looked at her for a few seconds before laughing, “No, no I’m not, I’m not even from Equis.”

She looked at me wide eyed, “Really, Where are you from?”

I though for a second wondering if i should tell her everything, no she wasn't ready for that, but I could at least tell her where i'm from.

+She’ll learn sooner or later.+

Fairpoint, alright then, “So I'm from another world, Earth, similar to Equis, but no magic and much further along in technology. I was born there and I have 2 sisters and a few friends. There's a lot about my world that it would take forever to explain.”

“Well we have thirty minutes, what can you explain in that time?” SHe asked.

I shrugged, “What do you want to know about?”

“Uh… What was your favorite thing about your world?”

“My favorite thing…. Huh, you know I don’t know I never really thought about it, in hindsight i guess it was probably… my home.” I said, “My home was given to me by my mom, your grandmother, when she died. I lived in it alone for a long time a long long time and it was nice, at the time i was living alone because i wasn't in the best of times in my life, but every day i woke up i was reminded of my mom, and the things she loved, the night sky, her kids, my dad, he job, her fans, everything. Back when i was younger and things were better with my family.”

I sighed and looked at Goldy and rustled her hair, “You remind me of her you know that? So does Shy, you both are so kind and love your family so much. She would’ve loved both of you.”

“Is that grandma the same Grandma thats in your head?” Goldy asked.

Ixis just laughed and i did too, “No no, that's my biological mom that i was talking about just now, Ixis, is more of my adopted mom, she's the one who sent me to Equis on a wish I made and she keeps me out of trouble.”

She nodded in understanding, “Do you think we can go see Grammy’s grave one day?”

That caught off guard, “I...Yeah, i'll find a way, im sure she’d love to meet you.” I gave her a soft smile.

+Are you ok?+

‘Yeah, I’m fine just didn't expect that, Honestly I never gave much thought about going back since we first left the Crystal Empire. I don’t even know how we would in the first place, especially if Twilight doesn't know.’ I thought solemnly.

+True, and we don't know if time flows differently, me coming your world was…. Experimental on my part and I honestly could have come out at ANY time.+ She explained.

‘I know… Let’s shelf this for now though.’ At that w had an agreement.

Not but a few minutes later the intercom in the museum chimed in and let us know that Dipper’s show was about to start, so Goldy and I made our way to the viewing room, which was a massive dome in shape, with a few minutes to spare, of course there were some ponies in there already, not really a surprise, it was the weekend after all. But that didn’t stop Goldy from running up to her grandfather and giving him a hug.

Dipper laughed and picked her up, “Hey sunshine, did you come to see my show today?”

She nodded happily, “I sure did, Daddy brought me, we’ve been having a fun day.”

Dipper looked p and waved at me, i waved back, “So what're you doing in a stuffy old museum seeing an old stallion like me on such a nice day?”

Goldy laughed, “You aren’t old and like you said, We came to see your show, also I really like museums, Auntie twilight takes me to the one in Canterlot all the time.”

He gave her a soft smile while suppressing a chuckle, “Of course she does.” He set her down, “But go back to your dad, i have a show to start, I’ll talk to you after ok?”

Goldy nodded and ran back to me, taking a seat in the chair next to mine, “So do you know what he’s going to do for the show?”

Goldy nodded but whispered, “It’s a secret, you’ll have to watch and find out.”

I sighed in defeat, I wear the girls in my life just love to tease me in one way or another.

+You can’t blame us, you just get so flustered so easily, it's amusing.+

‘Oh shut it before i start singing THAT song in my head.’

+You wouldn’t dare.+

‘Try me dragon lady.’

She sighed in defeat, +Fine, I’ll be good.+

‘Good, now hush, the show is starting.’ The lights were turned off and the room was pitch black until Dipper turned on the cylindrical projector in the center of the room. It lit up everything like a disco ball, no like the night sky, because that's exactly what it was.

Dipper started to point out constellation after constellation, until he got to a major one, Orion, and no not the same orion in our starry night sky. This Orion, unlike ours was a peaceful pony who did nothing but care for the world around him, until a great beast known simply as Gust appeared and threatened to destroy the very world we stood on. Many great heroes of the time tried to defeat this creature but it wasn’t until Orion, The Peace Walker, attempted to do the one thing that no one else tried that Gust was defeated. What Orion did to take down this horrible monster you ask? He asked it politely to leave as this planet was teeming with life and it was not it’s time to be taken into the great beyond.

What blew me away was that he told this while the stars themselves danced around the room portraying this scene, and it happened with every constellation afterwards. I took a moment to see how he was doing that, as if he were a unicorn i could understand how but he was, after all, a pegasus.

What a saw was even more entrancing than the show itself, Dipper was deftly and swiftly moving his hands and wings along the projector which, now that I look at, was littered with tin movable pin holes into an ever changing light crystal. Dipper’s limbs looked like they were soaring in a blur over a tiny universe and it was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever witnessed.

We sat and watched the show to completion, it lasted about 2 hours and it was worth every minute. When it was over ponies were gathered around Dipper telling him that it was great as always and they cant wait to see the next one. After the crowd was gone, he came over to talk to us.

“So how did you like the show, Chris?” He asked, genuinely curious about my opinion.

“You know… I traveled the world for nearly five years and seen many wondrous and beautiful things, but that was something else, the show was great. But if I were to be honest the real show had to be how you were moving that projector.” I said looking at it, only just realizing that Goldy was examining it, that child.

“Yes, well I worked on it for years and it took me even longer to fully operate it as well as I do now, most of the time I practiced doing little shows at home for Fluttershy and her brother.” He stated.

Ok, what, “Wait, Shy has a brother?”

Dipper looked confused, “Yes, didn’t she ever say?”

I gave him a look, “Wouldn’t be asking if she did, now would I?”

He held up a finger and was about to say something before stopping and lowering it, “Good point, yes, my little song bird has an older brother, Shooting Star. He’s a traveling musician, does his own thing, but he visits every now and again. Though Fluttershy did say he never writes her whenever we bring him up, that might be why she never said anything about him, might not be happy with him. Which is sad because they used to be so close when they were younger.” He finished with a dejected sigh.

“Huh well, I’ll definitely talk to her about it but, I have a question if you don’t mind.” I said getting his attention. I pulled out a smaller bag, that had a small box in it and relayed to him what I was planning for tonight and h couldn’t have been happier.

“I say you should talk to my wife about it too, but all things considered, I think she’ll love it.” He said with a smile, “Or if you want I can tell her, I’ll be heading home right after this, so she can help Flute get ready.”

“That would be much appreciated, thank you Dipper.” I said, giving him a short hug.

“Of course, anything to make my daughter happy. Now I have to get packed up so I’ll see you later.” He walked over to the projector and talked to Goldy really quick, before giving her a hug and walking off through a side door.

I walked over to Goldy and picked her up and set her on my shoulders again, “So now what?”

“Ice cream.” She said with such determination I couldn't help but chuckle.

“Ice cream it is.” And for the rest of our time together we walked around Cloudsdale eating our ice cream, luckily, thanks to ice magic it never melted.

We got back home around 6 O’clock, Pinkie was sitting downstairs on a cloud couch fiddling with… something, when she looked up and saw us.

She immediately bounced up and over too us and squeezed us both in a huge hug, “Chrissy, Goldy, how was your day?”

I laughed and Goldy tried to squirm out of Pinkie’s death hug, I just accepted it at this point, “It was fun Pinks, had ice cream, learned a few things, got a plan for tonight.”

She let us go, “Oh I know, Mr. Dipper told me and Mrs. Bee, she’s upstairs prettying Fluttershy up.”

I looked up the stairs and wondered how Shy would look, then I looked at Pinkie who was looking at me with these huge puppy dog eyes.

I sighed in defeat, “Do you want to go too Pinkie?”

She put her hands behind her and and kicked the floor, it was really cute, “I mean I don’t want to intrude on your super special night.”

I psshed. “Nonsense, your our best friend, you wouldn’t be intruding one bit.”

She looked at my with the widest grin I’ve ever seen, “Oh goodie! I have the perfect outfit too!” She bolted upstairs and all that was left here was a cloud of pinkie shape dust.

+You know, i could’ve sworn she knew about this before you did.+ Ixis said, completely confounded.

‘Imma have to agree with you on that… eh oh well, what's the worst that can happen?’

+You should know better than to ask that.+

She had a point, “Hey Goldy, do you mind spending time with Grandma and grandpa for tonight? Daddy, mommy, and Auntie Pinkie are going to go out for some adult time.”

She shook her head, “Nope, i can tell them all the cool stuff i saw today and all the cool stuff you told me about me and the cool stuff you can do.”

I chuckled a bit nervously, “Ok but remember no mentioning the thing, that’s still a secret.”

“I know daddy, I promised I wouldn’t tell, so I won’t tell.” She said happily before going to go find her Grandfather, as he was the only one who wasn’t in a room getting changed.

“Huh… I guess she gets the promise thing from me.” I shrugged.

+That's a good thing though, it means that you’re doing better than you thought.+ Ixis said, happily.

I thought about that, ‘You know what… maybe you’re right.’

+Good, glad you’re starting to listen to eason, now go get changed The girls can’t be the only ones looking good tonight.+ Ixis said, hurrying me up.

“Ok ok, yeah let’s go get ready.”

After 2 hours of getting ready, yes it took that long, i had to groom myself to look presentable, as did the girls, I was waiting downstairs, dressed in a black and blue tuxedo, the vest, tie and accents of it being the same blue as my scales so my wings, and tail matched it nicely. Seaking of them, I polished and cleaned them to a shine so perfect that it looked like you were staring into the bluest ocean.

Like i was saying, I was waiting downstairs for the girls and first to come down was Pinkie, and she was stunning. She was wearing this light blue dressed that hugged her body nice and dipped low enough around the nek to get your imagination going, she had gold piercings in her ears, and her hair was done in twin ponytails, her tail was also tied up with gold hair bands to give it a separated poofy look, she had cream colored arm sleeves on and stockings to match and her shoes were pumps the same color as her dress with some gold accents. Honestly for a split second my mind did not want to work right.

Pinkie walked up to me and giggled, “Chrissy you might want to close your mouth, You’ll catch flies.” She said pushing up on my chin and closing my mouth.

I stammered, “I… uh sorry, you just look really good.”

“You flatterer you, If you think I look good, wait till you see Shy, She’ll knock you dead out of the water.” She said with a happy little bounce, i was thankful that the dress was able to contain her… assets.

I swallowed, if Pinkie looked this good I’m actually terrified of what Shy would look like. But I didn’t have to wait that much longer as she came downstairs a few seconds later and I swear to god if Pinkie was an 11 in her dress, Shy broke the scale, set it on fire, and shot the ashes into a black hole.

She had her make up done meticulously, and it was perfect, her hair was brushed out, and made to look s full and shiny as possible, while there were normally two curls within her hair there are now multiple. And he dress, good lord her dress. He wore a dress that fit to her body like she was sealed in it, that went to her thighs, and yet she still moved comfortably, her curves were shown to great effect. And her dress was designed to have a hole in it that was a semicircle that opened up showing her tight stomach and wrapped around her back, showing that off and allowing her wings to be free. He had on black stilettos that made her legs just look more appealing. Her dress and stilettos were accented with this beautiful rose gold crossing fleur de lis pattern that accentuated her curves even more and it was all topped off by a rose gold necklace.

I actually had to physically sit down from that, Pinkie leaned down behind me and whispered in my ear, “I told you she was going to knock you dead out of the water.”

Shy looked, well, shy and quietly asked, “Do I look good?”

I honestly couldn't respond, there were no words, nothing in any language known could say how truly gorgeous she looked so i did the only thing I could do, I stared.

She shuffled in place, upset, “I knew it I don’t look good, I’ll go change.” She turned to go back upstairs before Pinkie stopped her and whispered something in her ear, which caused Shhy to look back at me and squeak in embarrassment.

I shook off my stupor and stood up, “Shy, you look absolutely stunning, hell I might have to fight people off of you.”

She blushed deeply, “R-Really?”

“Yes really, your mom picked this out?” I asked gesturing to her dress.

Shy shook her head, “I did, I thought you would like it.”

+Oh you definitely do, the amount of dirt running through your head right now is a dead give away.+

‘Oh hush, i can’t help it.’ I quickly thought back before responding to Shy, “Well I definitely like it, a lot.”

She smiled, “Well I’m glad.”

“Oh! What about me Chrissy? Would you fight off guys for me?” Pinkie asked with an expectant look in her eyes.

I blinked and looked at Shy who was giggling and nodded, “Yes Pinkie, i would fight off guys for you as well.”

She clapped happily, “Yay! Well, let's get going!” She said, leading the way out of the house to the club we were going to.

I grabbed Shy’s hand and we followed her and chatted along the way, it took us about 20 minutes to reach Cloud 18, why not Cloud 9? Probably too cliche is what I’m guessing. Also, it wasn’t as much of a club as it was a REALLY fancy karaoke bar.

When we walked through the doors we were stopped by the doorpony, “Do you have a reservation?” She asked.

I stepped forward, “Yes it should be under McGrath.”

She trailed her finger down her list, “McGrath...McGrath...McGrath… Ah, here you are. Oh, you were the one who booked the outside stage. Although you did let others use it if they wanted, offering to pay for them a well, how strange. Well, not my place to ask question, please come in and enjoy your time.”

“You paid for everyone who came in to use the outside stage?” Shy asked as we made our way through the crowded building to the back doors to get outside.

“Yeah, I wanted tonight to be special for us but I wasn’t going to stop others from having fun either, I consider it my first ‘princely’ act.” I said with a slight chuckle.

“Well that was really nice of you.”

I shrugged, “What can i say, i guess the element of kindness is rubbing off on me.”

“No, you’ve always been kind.”

“I think Sombra would disagree!” Pinkie quickly interjected.

I just gave her a deadpanned looked and gently rubbed my eyepatch, “Anyways, here we are girls, and it looks like there's already a bit of a crowd.” A bit was an understatement, literally every table was taken up and even then there were even more ponies standing, they all just finished clapping for a Young looking Mare walking off stage.

“Oh oh Oh, Chrissy, Can I go up and sing some songs?” Pinkie said excitedly.

“Sure go ahead, just let the band members know what song and who’s party you’re with tonight.” I said waving her off, “Oh and we’ll be at the only empty table left!” I called after her as she ran off to the stage. Luckily the table I was talking about was a very large one in the dead center in front of the stage, it had a big card that read Reserved for McGrath Party .
Shy and I sat down at the table and as we did a spot light shone down on us and there was a pitch black stallion with a golden tail and hair, wearing a suit to match, on stage with the microphone.

“Mares and Gentlestallions.” He stated, his voice was one of those silky ‘made for radio’ voices, “Let us welcome someone who through his boundless generosity-” “Yeah and my endless amount of cash!” I called out good heartedly causing the crowd to laugh, “Yes, and his endless cash, bought out this entire venue and yet still allowed the rest of the ponies in this fair city to participate whilst also paying for us, tabs and all.” I shrugged as the crowd clapped for me, “Well, the next singer up is one of the two lovely mares who accompanied this fine gentlestallion, and is also an element of harmony, Pinkamena Diane Pie!” he called out handing the mic to Pinkie.

When the spot light shone on her a good chunk of the stallions, and mares, in the crowd wolf whistled, of course some of them got hit by their partners, another chunk gave me thumbs up, and the last bit glared at me.

“Hiya everyone! I’m Pinkie Pie and I have a great song, are you ready boys?!” She asked looking back at the band who nodded.

Pinkie looked dead and me and gave me the most devilish smile I have ever seen as the stallion who was on stage prior joined her. And then the synth started and the Stallion started first his voice changing entirely.

“Greetings loved ones. Let's take a journey.” He started.

Something in my head was whirring at that, it sounded familiar and then Pinkie started and I was looking at her in pure shock.

“Nooooo.” i said quietly. Ixis was just screaming in my head

Shy looked at me curiously, “Chris, you know this song?”

I looked at Shy and i swear I probably looked like I’ve just seen a ghost.

“This is a song from my world, how does she know this?” I said scared for my life.

Shy giggled, “It pinkie, you know better than to question what she does, i’d say just enjoy something from your world.”

+Of course she’d be the one to see the silver lining of all this. It's going to be stuck in your head for weeks which means I’m going to have to deal with it.+ Ixis said with an exasperated sigh.

‘Yeah, but she’s right, I haven’t heard a song from my world in quite some time.’ I replied.

“Yeah you’re right Shy, this is so Pinkie, pulling off something impossible just to make a friend happy.” I looked back at Pinkie, and she was having so much fun, she was dancing on stage and the crowd seemed to enjoy it so who was i to say this was bad. So we sat and enjoyed this song and a couple of more that pinkie sang and when she was done she bowed and handed the mic back to the black stallion.

She joined us back at the table where we ordered a drink for her, i was drinking water don’t worry, we started to converse as another pony went on stage to sing fo the night.

“So how was that, were you surprised?” She asked taking a drink from her glass.

“Yeah, i was, honestly and it was great, thank you Pinkie. I’m not going to ask how you got songs from my world but thank you, it was nice and I thought I was the only one with a surprise tonight.” i said.

Shy looked at me, confused, “What do you mean, Chris?”

I chuckled, and stood up, “Don’t worry about it Shy, you’ll see.”

I walked up the stage as the last pony was coming down and was handed the mic upon reaching the top of the stairs, “I’ll be singing - and -” i told the and walked out on to the main area of the stage as a spotlight shone down on me.

I stared up at it and covered my eyes and then looked back out towards the crowds, whistling at how much more impressive it all looks from up here, “So it seems like we got a big crowd tonight.” I said into the microphone, getting a cheer in response.

“Well good, so these songs I’m about to sing are… personal to me, many of you won’t understand why or what the mean to me. The thing is, you all aren’t meant to, the only ones who are are the two mares i brought with me tonight.” I finished looking at them with nothing but love and happiness shining in my eye. Then I took a deep breath, the lights dimmed, and i began to sing.

“I heard there was a secret chord.” and slowly the music followed in.
As I sang the energy in the crowd began to shift from one of excitement to a calm stillness. I poured all of my emotions into this, all the pain and suffering I’ve been through. All the sorrow, all the hatred, all the sadness, all the heartbreak. I looked down at Shy and Pinkie. Shy was sitting there crying, with an understanding smile and Pinkie was being Pinkie and bawling her eyes out. Laughter and Kindness, the two elements they represented, I’m glad that they’re the two that are here tonight, they understand this better than anyone. As I finished singing and the music started to fade out I felt tears on my cheeks and once i was done singing i wiped them away and stood tall, smiled, and laughed.

The crowd looked at me in bewilderment, after all, who could sing something like that and just laugh after it?

“I’m sorry, it’s just years ago I would never have been able to do this, and it dawned on me how much I’ve changed thanks to my friends, my family, the ponies who have accepted me here and other who have made this place truly my home. But I still have a lot of work to do and that is why this next song is dedicated to, especially the lovely yellow pegasus mare who stole my heart.”

The guitars started up followed by a piano and I guess a maraca, I don’t know instruments.

“Baby, don’t understand why can’t just hold on to each others hands.” I started

As the music continued and as I continued to sing the energy changed again, it was still calm, but instead of the burden of the past, of mistakes made, of hardships. It was he feeling of renewal, of new chances and opportunity, of love and hope.

My wings shot open and I launched into the air as I sung, “Take these broken wings” and hovered in mid air untilt the next repeat of ‘take these broken wings’ and started to descend back onto the stage as I walked towards shy still singing.

I grabbed her hand and and pulled her up, she was standing with her hands covering her face, and kept singing and on a part where I wasn't singing I told her to hold on tight. On the start of the chorus I took her into the sky with me and she held on tight until she relaxed and started to hover with me and we danced slowly in the sky as i kept singing.

+Smooth, real smooth.+ Ixis said with no hint of sarcasm as i finished singing and he instruments were starting to wind down, meaning that me and shy were starting to descend as well.

‘I know, thank you for helping me come up with it.’ I said back to her.

+Of course, I live in your head, if I don’t help you make your mare happy i suffer too.+ She said smugly.

‘Ouch and I thought you just cared about me.’ i said with a small chuckle.

+Of course I do, but i care about me a bit more.+

I rolled my eye and shook my head in defeat. As we landed back in front of our table, the crowd was clapping and a nodding with approval. I walked back to the sage and handed my mic back before sitting down at our table.

“Chris that… was sad, but wonderful. I see why you brought us to this.” Shy said, taking m hand into hers.

I rubbed the back of my head with my free hand, “Yeah, There's just so much wrong with me you know? But instead of letting it eat me alive from the inside i think i’m ready to handle it and move on, but I’ll need your help.” I said looking at them.

“Of course silly pants, we promised you that years ago. The girls, the princesses, spike, everyone, remember?” Pinkie said, I nodded.

“And I’ll always be here for as long as you want me to.” Shy said, kissing me on the cheek.

“Speaking of you being here, aren’t you going to go and sing something, Shy?” I said back.

She blushed and tried her best to hide behind her hair, “O-Oh me? N-no I couldn’t.”

I tried encouraging her, “Come on Shy, you have a beautiful voice we’ve all heard it.”

“Yeah, come on Flutters, you can do this its just like singing for the Ponytones except you’ll be up there by yourself with tons of ponies staring at you.” Pinkie said, which just made Shy just sink lower in her chair trying to hide some more.

I shot Pinkie a look, “Shy, look, I’ll still be here, and Pinkie will still be here, just concentrate on us ok? That’s what I did, trust me I hate crowds too, but finding someone you can look at and focus on, especially if it's someone you trust and love helps. And besides I’m sure you have a song you want to sing.”

She poked her head out from behind her hair and had a determined look in her eyes, “I-I do and I would really like to sing it for you.”

“Then go on stage and sing it.” I said giving her a wide smile.

She nodded and stood up, “O-Ok, and like you said, just focus on you.”

“Right, go knock ‘em dead honey.” I told her and she smiled and walked slowly on stage.

When she got up there and a low light shone her, and the crowd had a repeat of pinkie syndrome Shy tried to walk away.

That's when i stood up and let out a bone rattling roar which got the audience to quiet down and most of the wolf whistlers to look away from my gaze, “Good, you’ll do great Shy, remember focus on me and Pinkie.” I said turning to her and sitting back down and took a swig of my water

She gave me a grateful nod and with slight hesitation the band started up and I almost spit out my drink.

I looked at Pinkie and whispered, “Did you tell her this song?”

She shook her head, “Must’ve been the magic of music.” she said before turning back to watch Shy perform.

+There's no way she could’ve known about this.+ Ixis said just as flabbergasted.

‘I know, but… i don’t know I guess I shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.’ Wow… that is apt.

Shy finished her song and came back to the table, “How was I.”

“Perfect, you could give the original a run for its money.” I said dreamily, god i loved that song.

“Hehe, good i’m glad you did, something told me you would.” Shy said.

“Yes well… hey, Shy, i want to take you somewhere, mind coming with?” I said standing up and holding out my hand.

“Of course but what about Pinkie?’ She asked gesturing back at the pink pony who was back up on stage.

“She’ll be fine and keep things going. Besides she knows about this.” I told her.

“Well… ok, lets go.” She took my hand and we took to the sky, well further into the sky.

We flew for a little bit before Shy spoke up, seeing the destination we were going towards, “Why is the weather factory lit up so late at night? Normally they turn the exterior lights off this late.”

“I asked the to keep them on and add some color, looks like they didn’t disappoint.” i explained.

“The weather fator is where we’re going?”

“Kind of, you see that cloud a little ways up above the factory? That’s where we’re going.” i told her point to a decent sized cloud that was floating several feet about the factory.

“How, ponies aren’t supposed to be around the factories towers if they don’t work there.” She said looking around nervously.

I laughed, “Calm down, its ok, did you forget who I am and who we’re friends with? I got some special permission.”

She sighed in relief and followed me as we made our way to the cloud, Thank god pollution isn’t a thing in this world or else it would be horrible sitting above the factor, here it's just a steady stream of warm air. On the cloud was a basket and a towel laid out with some plates and some wine glasses, with of course a wine bottle next to it stored in the cud itself to keep it cool even though we didn't ned that, considering.

Shy stared at the set up, “W-Whats all this?”

I sat down on the cloud and patted next to me, “It's dinner, this is our date. What was down there was a group thing I just wanted to do, this is for us exclusively.”

She sat down next to me, “Oh Chris, you shouldn’t have.”

I waved it off, “Hush, i wanted to, now how about a drink?” I asked pouring some wine in our glasses.

She look between the glass and me worried.

“What? Oh right my aversion to drinking… yeah i still don’t like to really but as a prince you have to learn to get over those kinds of things when entertaining, or being entertained by other members of royalty. So now I drink on on very special occasion and not enough to get drunk, maybe a glass or two.” I explained, finishing pouring the wine.

“O-Ok, but what’s this all about?” She asked taking a sip from her glass.

I started to pull out our food, a salad prepared by the best chef I an into whilst roaming the world, and a plate of fish and jewels for me prepared by the same chef, “Well what your mom said about the ring i ade you got me thinking. I didn’t actually properly propose to you o give you a proper ring i suppose.”

“Oh, its ok, she wa just being protective.” Shy said, trying to defend her mom.

I discreetly tapped one of the communication ges i had on me, “Maybe so, but she did have a point, so this was my answer to that, I pulled a lot of favors for a lot of this to be honest, but most of them were more than willing to accept and help. The factory and cloud? Celestia talking to them. The food? A chef I met on my travels. The karaoke bar? Cadence. And that.” I said pointing up to the sky which should the most beautiful star shower I have ever seen.

Shy looked up at it and gasped before looking back down at me only to see me on one knee.

I was holding a golden box that had the Crest of Arms that was associated me, a white dragon curled around a jagged snowflake, “Fluttershy, I know I asked this once but I don’t think it was prope of me to do it at that time, so i’ll ask now. Will you make me the happiest anything alive and do me the hoer of being my wife?” I asked opening the box showing a black obsidian ring that had a space carved into it that had small gems of different colors placed inside of it leading up to a larger pink and blue diamond in the center.

She looked the ring and then looked at me, tears building her eyes before nodding and quickly hugging me, “Of course I will, I said yes before and I’ll say yes now. Nothing would make me happier than being your wife.” She pulled away and let me put the ring on her finger.

She looked at it some more, “What do the gems represent?”

“Well, the diamond is me and you obviously, something like that would be impossible on my planet, but each gem is a special diamond infused with a bit of magic essence from all of our friends and family, that's why they’re the color that they are.” I explained, “Honestly i asked for this to be made last night, honestly I didn’t think this would get done in time, but the person I asked… well lets just say she’s very skilled in what she does.”

She looked at the ring, the set up, the stars, everything again, “I really don’t deserve this.”

I took her hand, “Shy, I’m the one who doesn’t deserve you. You deserve this and so much more, i only hope that i can give you everything you want.”

She looked deep in my eyes at me saying that, “All i ever want is you and goldy, my family, my friends, that’s all i need to be happy.” She said cuddling up to me, resting her head on my chest, purring slightly.

“I forgot you did that.” I said with a soft chuckle before staring at the stars for a little while. I then broke the silence with a mosty rhetorical question, “Still wondering how you knew that song though. Pinkie said it was the music of song”

“Pinkie told me about it, she didn’t tell me the words though, so she wasn’t entirely lying.” Shy said simply.

I laughed, “Of course she did, maybe I should marry her too.”

Shy pulled away and looked at me hard which caused me to stammer, “I-I’m kidding of course i would never and-”

“I wouldn’t mind if you did.” She said cutting me off.

“I… what?”

“I said, I wouldn’t mind. I know you have feelings for Pinkie too and herds aren’t illegal, not as popular sure, but no one would care.” he said so boldy and calmly, so un-Fluttershy like.

“I know that… i found out when i was training. I… are you serious.” I asked her, I was completely out of my element.

+Not like you would mind though. You know you’d love it.+ Ixis said, teasing me.

‘Hush, it's not if I would like it or not, it's up to Shy and even then I need to think about it.’ I told her, my thoughts not being n the right place right now as she should know.

“Of course I’m serious, I know it would make you happy. And I’m ok with sharing you as long as it's with Pinkie, and Golden Skies likes her and so do my parents and I’m sure our friends would be ok with it.” She said, but she wasn’t finished, “Besides, Pinkie doesn’t have anyone else, Her last coltriend left her, and she doesn’t let it show but the reason why she wanted to come along with us on his trip is because she wanted to get away from it for a bit.”

I didn’t really know what to say so i stayed quiet.

“She’s liked you from day one you know. She just isn't the kind of pony to pursue a relationship unless asked. She’s silly like that.” Shy said with a giggle.

I smiled, “Sounds a lot like you. But if you are serious I need time to think about it. This is kind of a shock to my system and I need time to adjust to that thought.”

“Of course, i’m not going to rush you.” She said with a yawn.

“Yeah, thank you, and i’m tired too, let's get going, I’m sure Pinkie can find her way home.” We got up and left the cloud, someone was going to come clean up our mess, i arranged it.

Shy and I got home, Dipper and Bee were still up downstairs waiting for us, we told them everything, and they agreed with Shy on the Pinkie thing and Bee was ecstatic about the ring but we were all tired so we made our way to our rooms to go to bed. Goldy was in her room already asleep, we stopped by and kissed her good night on the forehead i washed over he with some cold magic, trust me it helps our kind sleep, and then shy and I went to our own room. Pinkie came home later, drunk off her ass and accidentally stumbled in our room and passed out on the foot of the bed, we didn’t have the heart to send her to he room so we just gave her an extra pillow and blanket and went back to sleep.

Author's Note

So here's the most recent chapter... kinda. I stated this was a chapter where the first half, specifically when they get to the museum, was written 2 years ago. And Trust me I know about all the mistakes I made in previous chapters, I know about the mistakes in this chapter. I just have this problem with reading comments, I read some of them, I have a problem with criticism and I'm working on it. Starting next chapter since it will be the REAL start of me writing again I shall start reading every comment, maybe this chapter too. Anyways, i noticed something wrong with this chapter that i'll address next chapter, so enjoy this for now.

Yes, I'm putting a link to the Q&A blog in every author note, for those who stopped at mid points in the story, It's for reaching 25 chapters being written, even though 25 is still being written: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/831885/qs-for-the-qa-chapter

19: Hey would you look at that, flushing out how this boy works

I woke up to something heavy on my feet and tail, I groaned and sat up and saw Pinkie laying at the foot of our bed. Right, she passed out drunk last night… I looked at the clock on the nightstand next to the bed. Oh come on it's only 6…. “Greeeeaaaaat.” I sighed in disappointment, I love sleep, it’s the best thing on this and any other planet.

I pulled my feet and tail out from under Pinkie and swung my legs over the side of the bed, ‘What to do... what to do….’

+Are you talking to me or just thinking to yourself?+ Ixis asked, also obviously annoyed from my sleep being disturbed.

‘Bit of both really, dunno, it’s too early to be up. Why did I even wake up, did you do something?’

+No, not this time. Guess your body just wanted you to be up right now.+ She said.

I stood up and groaned, ‘Great, is anyone else up?’

I stood in silence listening for movement in the house, +Doesn’t seem like it, why don’t you go make breakfast for everyone. Repay the favor of Bee making breakfast yesterday.+

I stretched, popping multiple joints, I had to be careful with my wings though, they were a bit too big to fully stretch out inside.

‘Fair enough, alright let's put what I learned those five years to use.’ For the next 3 hours I was doing nothing but cooking breakfast foods of any variety, obviously substituting meat with vegan varieties.

I was finishing up when I heard footsteps come down the stairs, i peaked my head around the corner, it was Pinkie and she looked horrible which is surprising.

“You ok Pinks?” I asked the normally bouncy pony.

She groaned and rubbed her head, “I had a little bit too much fun last night.” She sat down at the table and held her head in her hands groaning.

I handed her a glass of seltzer water, “Here, drink this, it’ll help, probably.”

“Good enough…” She chugged it down.

“Better?” I asked.

“A little, thanks Chrissy.” She said with a weak smile.

“No problem, well I’m almost done cooking, so once we get some food in you you’ll be back to your old Pinkie self.” I headed back to the kitchen.

“Hey Chrissy?” she called out.

“Yeah?”

“Well I was wondering if-” She was cut off by everyone else proceeding to head down the stairs.

“Oh what smells so good?” I heard Dipper ask as they began to sit down at the table with Pinkie.

I stepped out of the kitchen with plates on plates stacked amongst all of my appendages and on top of other plates.

“That would be what I whipped up for us all to eat.” I said as I put all the plates down on the table, and some on the counter and side tables located around the dining room.

Bee looked at me and then to Shy, “And you got one that can cook.” She said with a giggle.

“Apparently so, Chris when did you learn how to cook? During your training?” She asked.

“Yes and no.” I started as I sat down next to Shy, “I actually went to Culinary school back on my world for a little bit, dropped out though, wasn’t really my cup of tea, the way they were teaching things. Then while I was traveling I picked up a few things here and there and in my free time I was perfecting what I learned. And how to use what I could get my hands on.”

“Wow, guess there are a bunch of things you haven’t told us huh Chrissy?”

I scratched my head, “Guess not, I mean I was in Ponyville for little under a year and most of that was me being depressed, and then the whole Prince thing happened… eh oh well, Got the rest of our lives to figure each other out right? So, Pinkie, what were you trying to talk to me about?”

She looked at me curiously, “What? Sorry Chrissy, I don’t remember, must be the hangover.”

I shrugged, “Alright then, well dig in everyone!”

They all piled their plates full and began to eat, “So how is everything?” the general consensus is that it was very good.

Once everyone finished I froze whatever leftovers there were and pulled out another colored gem, this one being pink, I tapped it a couple of times and a small portal opened and I sent all the food through, It was a little pocket dimension, no i don’t know how it works, Twilight gave it to me after doing some experiments with gems and storing spells and yadda yadda the science of magic yadda.

Dipper came up to me, “So what are the plans for today?”

I looked up at him after I put the gem back in my pocket, “Well, since Cloudsdale drifted a bit further than the Weather and Navigation teams planned for… we have to take the carriage to canterlot today, it'll only take a few hours longer than we planned but those few hours are detrimental and not really able to missed if taken tomorrow.” I explained, “Fortunately, since Shy and I want you to attend the big event tomorrow, we’ll be sending the chariot back over here as soon as we drop off, and if I can ask a favor, if the stallions pulling the chariot return before tomorrow, may you let them rest over the night here?”

Dipper nodded, “Of course son, it would be rude to have them take such a long trip multiple time without some rest.”

“Thank you Dipper, i really appreciate it.” i said giving him a thankful smile.

“No need to thank me, and please call me Dad.” He said pulling me into a hug, which i slowly returned, obviously a bit wigged out.

“Oh is this a hugging session I love hugging sessions!” Pinkie said happily before joining in.

In her enthusiasm she brought Shy, Bee, and Goldy into the hug as well and squeezed us all tight, “Oh I love you guys!” she said with a giggle.

“W-We love you too Pinkie… but if you wouldn’t mind, we also love breathing.” Bee said through a strained voice.

“Oops sorry.” She let us go and gave a happy smile, there’s the Pinkie I know.

“It’s ok Pinkie, So Christopher, dear, what time is the ceremony tomorrow?” Bee asked me.

“Right, as I was telling Dipper here-” “Dad.” he interjected with, “Right, as I was telling, Dad, here the chariot we are using to get to Canterlot today should be coming back here tonight, and f Cloudsdale drifts further, you’ll probably leave first thing in the morning as the Ceremony will b held at around 5 or 6 in the evening so Luna would be getting enough rest and Princess Celestia would also be awake enough.” I finished saying as we heard the chariot being landed outside the house.

“I see well it looks like your ride is here, and we wouldn’t want to keep you waiting, would we dear?” She asked, looking at her husband.

“Of course not, you all go catch your ride and we’ll see you tomorrow, and Shy you have to introduce us to the rest of your friends while we’re there.” He said, causing Shy to eep.

“I can do that.” She said softly.

He gave her a big grin and hugged her one last time, “That's my girl, Ok now shoo shoo.” he let her go and pushed her off.

Shy laughed and hugged her mom, “Bye mom, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She walked out the door and got n the carriage, followed by Goldy and Pinkie, the two also hugging them and saying their goodbyes. I waved goodbye to the older couple and stepped inside the chariot, hitting the side, letting them know we were good to go.

I sat down and let out a sigh, “Oh dear that was a long weekend.”

Shy leaned back and sank into the comfy seats the lined the inside of the chariot, “It was, you getting your wings saving Goldy, the date, the other thing.”

“Oooo, what other thing?” Pinkie asked.

“Uh, don’t worry about it ok? It's a secret, can’t tell anyone.” I said to her, then I looked at my daughter, “You ok Goldy?”

She nodded, “Yep, I’m just going to miss Grandma and Grandpa.”

“Oh its ok we’ll see them tomorrow.” Shy said, softly running her hand through her hair.

“Mmmm ok.” Goldy said and laid her head in her mom’s lap.

“Well get comfortable everyone it’s going to be a long trip, I’m going to nap.” I told them, leaning against the side of the chariot, closing my eyes and falling into slumber.

I was woken up a few hours later by Pinkie bouncing up and down in the carriage, clearly excited about something.

“Pinkie… what are you bouncing around for?” I groaned out.

Her head was sticking out the carriage window and she looked back in, “We’re super close, I can’t wait to see everyone again.”

I sat up straight and looked out the window closest to me. You could indeed see canterlot mountain, but it was still pretty far out in the distance, I sighed and knocked on the side of the chariot, getting the guards’ attention, “How much longer would you say we have?”

“Going at this speed? About 2 more hours sir.” The guard on the right responded.

I sat back in the chariot and had an idea, “Ok so yes we’re close, but we still have 2 hours out, now we can sit here and wait oooooorrrrr we can do this the quick way.”

Pinkie was still bouncing, but faster now, repeating, “Quick way quick way I wanna do the quick way.”
“What about you Shy?” turning to my fiance, seeing she was contemplating it.

“Well, I would like to get there sooner or later.” She said quietly.

“Quick way it is then, well, wake Goldy up, I need to stretch.” I said standing up, popping multiple joints, my wings were a bit difficult to stretch in the carriage but I managed.

After Goldy woke up, we were good to go, all of our luggage was in my hammer space crystal, “Ok so, we’re going to fly the rest of the way and by we I mean me. You all get the choice of riding my back, being held in my arms, or being wrapped up in my tail.” I said, my tail giving a little twitch.

“Oh oh, I choose your tail!” Pinkie said quickly.

Shy gigged at Pinkie’s silliness, “Well I don’t want to burden you by riding on your back, so I’ll take your arms.”

“Then I’ll take your back daddy, like last time.”

I nodded and got down on one knee to let her climb on my back, once she got settle I opped the carriage door and picked up Shy bridal style, holding her close to me, and then I snaked my tail around pinkie tightly. To add an extra precaution I formed harnesses of Ice on Goldy and Pinkie since they couldn’t fly.

“Ooooooh, cold.” Pinkie said with a shiver.

“Everyone ready?” I asked and after getting confirmation I jumped out the carriage and proceeded into a free fall, causing Pinkie to gigge madly. After a few seconds I opened my wings and they caught the air hard, sending us back up to the carriage, which is what I was planning.

Once the guards realized what happened they looked at me, “Sir, please get back in the carriage it is our duty to make sure you get delivered to Canterlot safely.”

“No offense guys but you were taking to long for our liking, if you wouldn’t mind could you head back to Cloudsdale to pick up Fluttershy’s parents? I’ll make sure you’re paid extra for this and you don’t have to leave the city today, stay the night at a hotel or ask Miss Bee, I’m sure she’d let you stay the night.”

They gave each other a worried looked but nodded, “Alright sir, as long as we don’t get in trouble for this.”

“Don’t worry I’ll tell Celestia and Cadence this was my idea, now hurry along it’s a long trip.” I said to them before turning and flying at normal speeds away from them.

“Ok now that they’re turned around and we’re a good distance away, I’m going to need you girls to hold on tight, I’m going to go maximum speed, and as Goldy can attest, it is fast.” I said, tightening my grip on Shy and Pinkie, goldy Gripped onto my horns hard.

+Well, just a warning, your full speed is something that no one has ever seen.+

‘I know I know, I’ll be careful promise.’ I took a deep breath, flared my wings out fully, ice and snow dusting off of them as my power began to build and with one powerful flap I blasted off at speeds that would make Rainbow blush.

At the speed I was going it took us about 15 minutes to get to Canterlot Castle, and I landed outside of the front gates, startling the guards, “Hey are we good to go in? The princesses are expecting us.” I said as Goldy slipped off my back, and my tail unwinded from Pinkie.

“Of course sir, go right in Princess Celestia is holding court currently, Princess Luna is in her chambers, Princess Twilight is in the Library, and Princess Cadence is attending court with Princess Celestia.” The guard said.

“What about Prince Shining Armor?”

“He is located down at the Barracks, I can give you an escort if it is needed sir.”

“No need, I know where everything is at. And the rest of the Elements.”

The guard took a moment, “I’m not sure sir, I believe they are within Castle grounds, would you like for me to gather them?”

“Nah, it’s fine, thank you though.” I turned to my girls, “I’m going to go to court, what are you girls going to do?”

“I’m going to the kitchen, mama is hungry and she needs food!” Pinkie said before bouncing off into the castle.

“I’m going to try and talk to the animals in the garden again, this time I’ll be patient.” Shy said.

“I’ll go with mommy.” Goldy said.

“Alright, well I’ll see you at the time and place we all agreed on.” I said before giving them a hug and waving them goodbye.

I made my way through the castle to the throne room, it’s been a few years since I’ve been here, not much has changed but it looks like at least one more stain glass window was added, i read the plaque beneath it ‘The defeat of Tirek’. I looked back up at the mirror and it had the girls powered up and… they looked different, their hair and tails were fuller and had multiple colors running through them. And the big bad Tirek, a large red, devil horned, centaur was getting blasted with the rainbow of harmony.

‘Huh… I wonder what happened to the elements, I’ve never seen the girls wear them outside of at the Crystal Emire for a short time but isn’t that what they normally use to defeat big bads?’ I looked at the other stained glass mirrors, and they confirmed my suspicions, weird.

+Well as long as they can still use the rainbow I guess it doesn’t matter.+ Ixis said with a shrug, also I think I know how your speed works but I’m going to run through your memories and mine just to be sure.

‘Alright let me know what you come up with.’ I turned to walk to the large doors that closed of the throne room when day court is in session, and of course I’d have to deal with the guards.

Wait a minute… I know those guards, they were stationed up in the Crystal empire while I was there. I walked up to them and got real close to the left guards face.

“Huh.. don’t I know you from somewhere?” I asked, obviously I did, I just like fucking with them and they knew it.

“I don’t believe we’ve met sir.” Came the feminine voice from the other guard.

I looked her way, “No I’m pretty sure we have… you two wouldn’t have happened to be stationed at the Crystal empire a few years back would you?”

The guard I was in front of shook his head, “Not at all sir, we’ve been stationed in Canterlot since the beginning of our training.”

“Uh huh, well forgive my intrusion then, I’ll be going then.” I turned around and made to walk away but then quickly spun and grabbed for the right guard’s helmet only to have y arm grabbed and my body tossed over her shoulder, but then i swung my tail around to get at it as i was falling, only to have it be black by the male guard. Good thing I have 2 extra appendages, i thought happily and I flapped one wing hard towards her head, she wasn’t read but managed to dodge, but not far enough as the claw at the knuckle joint of my wing hooked it the helmet and knocked it off.

“Oh come one when did you get wings thats so not fair!” The male guard said with a chuckle.

I landed on my back but was quickly helped up by the female guard who, after knocking the helmet off and having the camo magic that kept all the guards looking the same fade away, stood a mare that had apple green fur and blindingly white hair and tail, and eyes just as green as her coat.

“You got me good Chris, but Sapper is right, using an appendage we didn’t know you had is cheating.” She said with a smile.

“It's not cheating, its called the element of surprise, you taught me that remember? And besides did you think i was just wearing a leathery and scaly cloak, Lima?” I asked her with a good natured chuckle, handing her helmet back to her.

They both gave me a deadpanned look, before sapper spoke up again after taking off his helmet, “Anyways, we heard you got back from your travels how were they?” Asked the maple brown coated, orange maned, blue eyed stallion.

“They were fun, and a bit… eye opening, but good I made a lot of friends and allies, remind me to tell you about it someday.”

“That you should, but I’m assuming that you’re here to see the princesses?” Sapper asked.

“Spot on, mind if I go on in?”

“Sure, not like we could stop you Prince Christopher.” Lima said with a knowing smile.

I groaned, “Come on, you know I hate that. But I missed you guys.” I said giving Lima a hug and Sapper a fist bump, “Come find me later so we can properly catch up, i’ll treat you both to a drink.”

“Oh you drink now?” Lima asked.

“Ha not at all, but it doesn’t mean I can’t treat you both to anything.” I said before opening the doors to the throne room. Everyone in the room looked at me and a lot of nobles gasped, after all who would dare interrupt the proceedings of day court, the only ones allowed were royalty and the guards and these fools didn’t know who I was.

I walked passed the long line of petitioners and up to the throne where Celestia and Cadence were sitting.

“Celestia, Big sis, I know I’m a bit early but would you mind if I sat in on the proceedings?”

Celestia had a beaming smile, it had been years since we’ve seen each other, “Of course, you’re always welcome to help out.” She sad.

“It’s good to see you again little brother.” Cadence said, before both her and Celestia turned their attention back to the current petitioner.

I plopped down next to them in Luna’s throne, I don’t think she would mind, besides it was comfy, like ridiculously so.

“Princess, I must speak up on this grave offense that you just allowed to occur.” Spoke up the current petitioner, who was easily recognizable as a noble.

Celestia looked back down to the noble, her face holding the ever loving, radiant, and motherly grace upon it. Yet in her eyes was a questioning, almost cold, look as if daring the noble to continue on his current train of thought, “Oh and what ‘grave offense’ might that be Sir Crystal Clear?”

Crystal Clear was a pony who was all white, quite literally I might add, he had a white coat and white hair and tail, the only thing about him that wasn't white were his eyes which were a pale yellow so close enough to white. He paused, very clearly catching the look upon his princess’ face, but much like most nobles I’ve come across his common sense didn’t have much pull on his thoughts and actions, “W-well, your highness, you allowed this commoner, this creature… this beast, interrupt your court and stroll past the line, which we all very much patiently wait in line to be graced with your presence I might add, Address you and Princess Cadence with such informality and blasé that I can’t help feel offended for you. Then you proceed to allow it sit on your sister’s, Princess Luna’s throne.”

I winced at that entire self serving monologue, there was so much in there that would tick anyone off if they knew me but once again Celestia held her composure.

“I see, indeed I agree that grave offense has been committed by me.” This caused Crystal Clear to smile smugly, “However, that offense and the one you believe I have committed are two separate ones. You seem confused my little pony, let me clear things up for you, for all of you” She said standing up addressing the crowd, “This being you see before you, the one that has decided to join Princess Cadence and Myself today in court is Prince Christopher McGrath ad regem glacies, adopted brother to cadence and adopted nephew to myself and Princess Luna. Now, there will be a formal coronation tomorrow to announce all of the details fully but until then I expect you all to treat him with the same respect you would treat us.” She finished and sat down, causing there to be a murmur amongst the crowd. “Now, Sir Crystal Clear if you would be so kind?”

“O-of course your majesty, first let me apologize to Prince Christopher McGrath add reg um glacier…” He said gritting his teeth, and horribly miss pronouncing the name I chose for myself.

“Just Prince Chris, I know the full name is a bit difficult to pronounce. If you were wondering what the language is, it’s called Latin, generally considered a dead language where I'm from but a lot of languages stemmed from it including Italian or Bitalian here in Equestria. Close enough to Princess Cadence’s full name to give thanks to her giving me my first family in this world but also distinct enough to be my own, wouldn’t you agree Sir Crystal Clear?” I said, holding a smile, although not as well practiced in hiding all of my emotion like Celestia’s was.

“Indeed your majesty, a fine name indeed… ahem as I was saying before were were graced with the prince’s presence…” Crystal Clear went on to bring up whatever issue it was, honestly I stopped paying some attention, I held just enough just in case I was called upon for input and that continued for the next 2 hours, thankfully I was only asked for said input twice so all in all a good day.

Once court was done and all present company was dismissed excluding guards Celestia’s stance relaxed as did Cadence’s. I was already relaxed, no point in hold stiff for 2 hours straight, especially when the nobles cared next to nothing about that.

“Sorry about that Chris, the nobles in Canterlot can be… touchy.” Celestia said with a forgiving smile.

I shrugged it off, “Don’t worry I very well remember that, though I didn’t see sir Fancy Pants here, does he not normally sit on court, I figured it would be something he did to make sure his fellow nobles don’t act up.”

“Usually he does yes, but I have him handling some important business for the crown for the foreseeable future.” Celesta explained.

“Dang, and I was looking forward to catching up with him, well another time perhaps, anyways, it's good to see you again sunbutt.”I said with a laugh.

“It’s good to see you too, and looking at my butt wer you,, do I need to tell Fluttershy?” Celestia said with mock seriousness.

I gave her a toothy grin, we’re going to play this game are we… well you know what they say, you need two to tango, “Not like I can help it, you were dresses that show off your hips and thighs so all can see your giant cutie mark.”

She held up a finger to retort but had nothing so she just put it down and giggled, “Fair point, but it sees you have a new addition to your… dragon like repertoire, when did this happen, while you were out on your travels?”

Cadence spoke up for me on this matter, “Not at all, he stopped home by the Crystal Empire before heading back to ponyville and he didn’t have them then, right? You weren’t concealing them were you?” She asked looking at me.

“Nope, you know I wouldn’t need to do that the Crystal Ponies already know who and what I am so no need to hide. Trust me, I wish I had these during my travels, it would’ve been so much easier.” I said flaring them out to their full wingspan, “No, I got these bad boys in cloudsdale 2 days ago, but I’ll tell the story when we meet up with everyone.”

“Oh, speaking of I do believe it is time, Private Tap Sapper, come here if you would.” Celestia called out to Sapper, who made his wy quickly to the throne and got down on one knee.

“How may I assist you Princess?” As dutiful as ever, eh Sapper, at least to the princesses anyways.
+You sound jealous.+ Ixis said with a chuckle.

‘Me jealous? Please, you know I’d rather not have anyone fawning over me.’

+Maybe not, but it’s going to happen one way or another.+ she explained in a know it all tone.I just snorted out steam in response.

“Go and wake my sister from her rest, I don’t think she would like to miss out on seeing her nephew.” Celestia said with a chuckle knowing that I find it odd that I’m technically her and Luna’s nephew.

Sapper stood up tall and saluted, “As you command Princess.” He then turned and left the throne room, Taking Lima with him to go and wake up Luna.

I gave an exasperated sigh, “Jeez, he’s always like this when it comes to you. Sometimes i don’t even know if it’s genuine or if he’s just trying to move up the ranks.”

“I’m quite sure it’s genuine… although if he wants to move up the ranks quickly…” She trailed off with a thoughtful stare, one I knew all too well.

“No bad Celestia, no sleeping with my friends or the guards or my friends who also happen to b guards.” I said quickly poking her nose with the tip of my tail.

“Fine, no fun the lot of you.” She huffed playfully, “Well, let us proceed to the dining area, I’m sure you two are just as hungry as I am.”

Cadence who was snickering under her breath the entire time that interaction was happening sighed in relief, “Oh thank Celestia, I never thought you’d ask let’s go I am starving, i could eat a horse.” She said before walking off quickly.

“But Shining isn’t here and it’s the middle of the day sis!” I called out, following after her making her to turn around and stick her tongue out at me.

Celestia looked at one of the nearby guards, “You know… I find it strange when ponies use that saying right next to me. How about you Sergeant Sharp Spear, would you like to move up the ranks?”

Sergeant Sharp Spear shook his head, “I’m married, happily so your majesty.”

Celestia sighed and shrugged, worth a shot she thought and quickly hurried after her niece and new nephew.

When Celestia Caught up to Cadence and I we were already At the table sitting down waiting for everyone else. Celestia sitting at the Head of the table with Cadence to her right and Me tt the right of Cadence. After a few minutes The Girls, Princess Luna And Spike walked through the doors and sat down at the table with Luna Sitting to the Left of Celestia with twilight next to her followed by Spike, then Rarity, then Applejack, then Rainbow Dash, then Pinkie with Fluttershy to the left of her and Goldy to her left and my right.

Apple Jack gave me a nod, “Chris it’s good to see ya again partner, sorry Ah couldn’t catch ya when ya came back tah the farm, we had a family reunion out in Appleloosa this year.”

“It’s fine you’re here now and that's all that matters and it’s good to see you as well.” I said politely.

“Woah Chris, buddy, where’d you get those sweet wings? You didn’t have those when I saw you down on the ground? Did the awesomeness of Cloudsdale cause you to sprout wings to join us up in the air?” Dash said with a chuckle.

I snorted playfully, “Not exactly, what happened was…” I went on to explain how I grew my wings.”

“Woah well that’s some serious luck… but not trying to be insensitive or whatever but how fast can you fly with those things?” She asked.

“He can fly really fast Dashie, not as fast as you but still super duper extra fast.” Pinkie explained in her own pinkie way. “Like if you were a snail you'd be the fastest snail on the planet but Chrissy here would be like the 10th fastest snail or maybe the 11th, snailward is pretty fast…”

“Huh… alright then.” Dash said shaking her head at Pinkies antics, “So pretty fast right?”

“I’d say so and… hold on.” I held up a hand to concentrate on what Ixis was telling me, “Huh… uh huh… okay, wow really? Alright then.”

“What Ixis saying our dear nephew?” Luna asked.

“Oh she was just explaining how my speed works apparently I’m not that fast at all.” I said.

“What do you mean Chrissy we got here super early because you flew us here.” Pinkie said, clearly confused, with pretty much everyone nodding in agreement on how that didn’t make sense.

I took a second to piece my thoughts together, “Ok so who knows how cold works?”

“What do you mean, ain’t cold just cold just like how hot is hot?” Apple Jack asked.

“Not exactly fair Apple Jack.” Luna spoke up, “Cold is the absence of heat, Twilight would you like to elaborate for the others?”

Twilight nodded and teleported a blackboard and some chalk into the room, “Of course, so as Luna said cold is the absence of heat, heat doesn’t just come from nowhere right Princess?” Twilight said looking to Celestia who nodded for confirmation, “Right so heat is a form of energy, if something has movement it has heat, even the tiniest particles moving around cause heat. The hotter something is the ore its moving around at a microscopic unseeable level with the aid of technology or magic.” Twilight had drawn molecules with motion lines, some with less some with more to show that some moved more than others and the ones with more gave off more energy and heat.

“Ok we’re following you so far darling.” Rarity said as Twilight paused.

“Ok, so heat is just a by product of movement from these tiny particles, molecules, rubbing and bumping against one another so if heat is cause by movement and the energy cause by movement the less energy something has and the less it moves the less heat it gives of, now that doesn’t make things that don’t move inherently cold. Cold comes from touching things whose molecules are moving slower than your own. Those slow, low energy molecules suck the energy out of your molecules to get more energy for themselves causing the feeling of being cold and the slower somethings molecules are moving the more energy it needs to reach a balance with whatever is touching thus certain things being colder than others.” Twilight explained drawing more diagrams to help. “Does everyone understand.”

Everyone nodded though Dash and Apple Jack’s were a bit more uncertain.

“Good so how Chris’ powers work if you don’t mind me giving my best educated guess?” “No go ahead I’ll let you know if you're right.” “Ok, so I believe his power works as his body uses the latent magic within his being given to him by the merging process that happened between him and Queen Ixis as well as the ambient magic in the air in equestria is absorbed into him and supercooled to the point where whenever he unleashes it, in the various forms he has shown, it super cools the water around him to temperatures far below freezing so the ice doesn’t melt easily in heat unless the heat is too much, say like Princess Celestia’s Magic. Also believe he has the ability to manipulate it to the molecular level as the water in the air is freeing which is even why he can make the various creations he does.”

I clapped, “Very good, pretty much spot on now, as she was saying my body super cools magic itself to be able to freeze the air and water within it, i can freeze more than just water mind you. Also, the pins you all have.” I pointed to the pins they were currently wearing, the ones I made when we first left to the Crystal Empire. “Thank you for keeping them by the way, those pins are a special thing I can do with my creations, and it ties into how I can fly so fast, which I didn’t even know it's why the pins are basically indestructible other than by me or anyone with my level of power or greater.”

I was rambling so I cleared my throat, “Anyways with all of the creations I have I can apparently pump a bit of extra magic into them to make them last for ages upon ages. Now how this ties in to how I can fly as fast as I can-”

Twilight gasped, “No you don’t mean you can?”

I smiled, “Yep apparently I can freeze time to an extent, not entirely, I think… if it’s just one object apparently i can freeze its time a bit longer, it still has energy it's just cooled down to such a large extent that it’ll take ages to gather it all back up. Now when it comes to my flying, apparently I cool down time for the entire world enough for it to make it seem like I’m moving faster than I actually am, but it’s not like I can stop time on the planet, that would… destroy the universe I think, don’t know I don’t think anyone has stopped time using cold, it would probably give off too much energy when its unstopped and cause a second big bang, at least on the scale of a planet, again i don’t know it's never been done here or even on my world. Anyways that's not to say I’m not plenty fast without it, I'm just…. Cheating I guess you could say.”

“Oh my, that means that you, theoretically, have the ability to make an object or creature reach absolute zero?” Luna asked.

“Absolute zero your majesty?” Rarity asked.

Luna nodded, her eyes closing and she took a deep breath, fully realizing the weight and how dangerous I could potentially be, “Absolute Zero is… the stopping of all movement even at the smallest level that our universe exists but to reach it would mean the end of everything.”

Fluttershy stared at the dark princess with wide scared eyes and then at me, “W-why would it be the end of everything?”

I sighed, knowing this would probably put everyone on edge when it comes to me but I decided to take that risk, they were my friends, they would understand who I am as a person, “This is just my theory one that i’m guessing Luna and Twilight also share. If I were to say… put a teeny tiny thing like lets say a flea at absolute zero what do you think would happen Anyone?”

“It would stop moving and die?” Spike chimed in.

I shook my head, “Actually, there are theories that say if you could make a living creature hit absolute zero instantly you would essentially be cryogenically preserving them perfectly, since there is no movement, theres not energy being used, theres no life to be used but not in the same way that being dead is. Even dead things give of energy no Absolute zero would stop you from dying but also from living you’d be in a state of limbo essentially until you were able to be safely thawed back out.”

“That sound awesome why would that be then end of anything? You could just go around freezing ponies to bring them to the future orr something cool like that.’ Rainbow sad with a happy smile.

“I could sure if there wasn’t one issue I don’t feel like testing. It’s that is something has no energy at all what do you think happens to the surrounding things that have energy? It sucks it all away trying get its energy back… it's like if you tried to fill a cup that had a hole in the bottom of it or a crystal battery that can hold a charge. Yes you could keep filling the cup past the point where it drains and you could keep the dead battery running if you kept being pumped with energy from another source, but then that source would run out and then you’d need another and then another and another and another, eventually all the energy of EVERYTHING would be consumed to keep that ONE thing going, it won’t be fast you could probably hook up a way to have whatever is at absolute zero draw energy from a star, but that would only last for so long until it's gone, basically everything in the universe would freeze to death. That’s why absolute zero could be bad.” I shrugged, “but again just theories, we don’t know because it’s never been reached, and I’m not ever going to try.”

Everyone at the table was looking at me in a newfound sense of awe, it finally dawned on all of them just how dangerous I could be if I decided to.

“Well, I’d say it don’t right matter with all these ifs ands and what not, yer our friend Chris, yer a good person, you’d never do something like that right?” Asked Apple Jack, the question however wasn’t based in doubt or fear, no it was a question that she already knew the answer to and had such confidence in it was staggering.

I smiled at her, at everyone, at my family, “Of course not, I love you all too much to do that, the worst I’d do is cool down villains enough to prevent them from moving for capture but not absolute zero, never that. I promise.”

“Good, Ah knew ya would say that, and Ah can say for all of us, especially Shy and yer filly that we wholeheartedly believe ya on that.” She said leaning back in her chair with a triumphant grin.

Everyone agreed and Ixis ws laughing in my head, +And you had doubts.+

‘Not about them and you know that, about me, I always will, i can still lose control even with him locked up, and you know it, but it helps that they believe in me so much, I have a lot to live up to.’

+That you do, make them and me more proud than you already have son.+ Ixis said before going quiet.

‘Did.. you just call me son?’ I got no response and just shrugged it off, well she’ll talk about it when she wants to.

The moment however was ruined by an earth trembling growl and Cadence laughed sheepishly, “Sorry, I’m really hungry.”

Luna smiled devilishly, “Right you are dear niece, we came here to feast and feast we shall! Good chefs that dwell within the kitchen, prepare a meal worthy of the gods!” Luna yelled out in the royal voice, causing nearly everyone to cover their ears, everyone except Celestia.

We had a good night to say the least, the food was astounding and the conversation had us all in tears from laughter. It was good to catch up with everyone again, but as the night drew to a lose it was time for us to depart to our rooms, Everyone had their own rooms to stay in, but due to it being the first night we were all back together we decide to all sleep in Celestia’s room, because she offered and we all totally didn’t just take it over with a pillow fort for a few hours.

As Luna said before he went onto her duties for the night, “Much fun and merriment was had."

Author's Note

So for those of you who haven't seen my blog post. I'm going to be a dad so I've been working my butt off to make sure things are going to be ok when the time comes, its why this chapter took so long.... that and I had no idea how to get past the beginning of it...

Anyways, had a lot of fun writing the part about absolute zero and how cold plays into time manipulation. That's just how i am I like to theorize and think of stuff like that, my brain goes a mile a minute when it comes to cool science stuff. Honestly I could be wrong about what I even wrote up there, I have no idea. I did no research into the subject, I wrote down what I thought made sense and hopefully that passes whatever standards you all hold me to.

Now, on to something I've been meaning to address.

I know there are a lot of inconsistencies with the story, i know that Chris seems over powered, I know I retcon a lot of things, to be frank.... I don't really remember a lot of what I wrote originally for the first few chapters, I wrote them 6 years ago, i just never put them anywhere until 3 years ago or so. I do however go back and read what i wrote and I cringe so hard, trust me I'm going to do my best to make things make more sense and fix the overpowered thing, that will be happening within the next few chapters so don't fret and like i said last chapter i'm going to read EVERY comment from this chapter onward, gotta get over my fear of critique yo. Anyways i hope you enjoyed, I'll hopefully have the next chapter out by next Friday.

PS the two guards he met during his uh 5 year sabbatical, yes I will write a story about that.... eventually, probably when I'm down with this one, if this site even exists anymore.

Yes, I'm putting a link to the Q&A blog in every author note, for those who stopped at mid points in the story, It's for reaching 25 chapters being written, even though 25 is still being written: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/831885/qs-for-the-qa-chapter

20: Coronation Part 1

I groaned in frustration, “Come on Twilight, do I really have to keep rehearsing this speech? It’s like the 80th time.”

Twilight rolled her eyes, “24th to be exact, and yes, we need to make sure you come off as approachable and presentable especially due to your… predatory nature, most ponies will be less than enthused to have you as a prince I’m afraid to say.”

I sat down hard on the ground and grunted, “That's stupid, ponies are stupid.”

Twilight laughed, “To be fair it will mostly just be the nobles, they aren’t the biggest fans of having a threat to their power show up out of nowhere.”

“Yeah, tell me about it, but seriously I have the speech down pat can we please move on to something else?”

Twilight tilted her head in thought, “Well… you DO have the speech memorized and I suppose your inflection on certain words will work well enough. So, yes, I do believe we can move on to something else.” And I let out a sigh of relief.

“We can move on to proper waving techniques for coronations as well as proper greetings for the nobles who will want to make themselves look good by talking to you.” The evil purple alicorn said happily.

“For fuck’s sake.” I muttered under my breath, grabbing the bridge of my nose but before I got the chance to say anything Sapper opened the door to the room I was staying in.

“Sir your guests have arrived and are waiting for you in the throne room.” He said, giving me a smile, knowing that I was beyond grateful for the save.

“Thanks Sapper, and you know better than to call me Sir.”

“And I told you that I’d only stop calling you sir if you beat me in a fight, a fair fight, yesterday did not count, Sir.”

Oh man that shit eating grin, I hated it, he loved it, “Fine fine, whatever, well lead the way then, take me to my guests.”

“As you command sir.” He said, turning on his heel with Twilight and I closely following.

“Dang it, I really wanted to practice those waving techniques, last I saw you at a formal event you didn’t even have any inkling of what to do.” Twilight said, shuffling through her notebook.

I raised my eyebrow, “First of all rude, second; how do you know I didn’t just decide to not be formal?”

She responded quickly, “I don’t but, I’d rather be prepared than have everyone caught off guard by your… laidback charm, for lack of a better word.”

‘Huh…. Didn’t really think she cared like that.’

+Don’t see why not, she is your friend, and she is the princess of friendship.+

‘Yeah but mostly the reason she tends to be so neurotic about stuff is fear of things not going according to plan or her schedules or lists or whatever it is for the day.’

+Maybe but take into consideration that she does those things to make sure her friends are doing their best because, again, she is the Princess of Friendship.+

‘Alright alright I get it yeesh.’

Sapper stopped in front of the large twin doors that lead into the throne room, “Here we are sir, the throne room with your guests waiting inside.”

“Thanks Sapper, again, once this is all over I’ll treat you and Lima to a drink.”

“We haven’t forgotten sir and we are very much looking forward to it.” He stood to attention, saluted and moved to one side of the door, with another guard, who wasn’t Lima, on the side of the opposite door. They simultaneously opened the door they were standing in front of respectively, once the doors were fully opened, Twilight and I walked in to the throne room to see The Elements, Spike, The Royals, I call them that because obviously Shining Armor isn’t a princess, Bon Bon and Lyra, The crusaders…. Huh guess they got the day off for this, my daughter obviously, Fluttershy’s parents and there was a male pegasus that looked to be a pale aquamarine and a light yellow mane, he also had a 5 o'clock shadow from the looks of it, and he was wearing a tasseled vest, baggy brown pants and sandals.

+Strange… who is that?+ Ixis asked me.

‘I have no idea, doesn’t look like he’s related to anyone… maybe Rainbow but I doubt that’s Prism Bolt.’ I thought back.

+Maybe Fluttershy’s family, he is standing closer to Soaring Dipper and Bumble Bee.+

‘Weird… Shy didn’t mention anything about some dude. I guess I can ask later.’ I finished the conversation and walked up to Goldy and kneeled down.

I grabbed her her pudgy cheeks and squished them around, “How’s my little ray of sunshine doing today?”

Goldy giggled and swatted my hands away playfully, “I’m fine daddy, everyone is here, all of your friends oh and grandma and grandpa… and some weird guy.” She said the last part as a whisper so only I could hear.

I laughed at that, “I know it's amazing isn’t it? And he does seem weird.”

I stood up straight but Goldy snaked her much shorter tail around mine, it was her way of ‘holding hands’, I kissed Shy, “Hey Shy, how are you?”

Fluttershy was still lost in the kiss, she always is every time, even if it doesn’t seem like it, she always tends to get caught up in the moment before she snaps out of it and titters a bit, “I-I’m fine, had a good morning with the princesses and the rest of the girls.”

“HEY!” Spike and Shining yelled out in unison.

Shy blushed in embarrassment, realizing she accidentally excluded the boys, “Heh, guess the boys weren’t that fun were they?” I said stealing a teasing look at them.

“No, I suppose not.” Shy said just as slyly, causing them to both whine.

“So… who’s the pegasus next to your parents?” I pointed my thumb at said pegasus.

Her eyes widened in shock, almost as if she just realized that she never talked about said pegasus before, and her next question confirmed it, “I never mentioned Zephyr?”

“Not once, even to me mommy.” Goldy interjected.

“Oh my… well Zephyr Breeze, is your uncle sweetheart, I’m sorry, I thought I told you both.” Shy explained, rubbing the top of Goldy’s head.

“WAIT WHAT HE’S YOUR BROTHER?!”

“Why yes I am, was my big sister telling you about how amazing I am? I’m guessing she was because why else would you be so surprised, after all my wallflower of a sister can have someone as outgoing as a brother as me would be a shock to anyone, wouldn’t you agree?” Zephyr, who popped up next to me, and jabbed an elbow into my side while talking to me and aggressively tussling Goldy’s hair, which she did not like one bit and started to bristle. Of course her reaction caused me to do the same and Shy took quick notice of it.

“Zephyr Breeze you stop bothering my Fiancee and Daughter right this instant mister! Or do I have to drag you out of the room by your Primaries?!” Every pegasus and alicorn in the room winced at that and everyone else wa in shock except her parents, Goldy and I. Not many people know this side of Shy, while they knew she got… stern with animals, or ponies who messed with animals or her friends, it was still very rare, and to that level of extreme was virtually unheard of.

Zephyr, of course, took a quick step away from Goldy and I chuckling nervously, “O-Of course not sis.”

Shy sighed and took a deep breath, her usual nice and calm demeanor returning, “I’m sorry about that love, I should have warned both of you he gets like that.”

My wings were still a bit twitchy, but not from the annoyance her brother brought, “No, it’s fine, you handled the situation and it's all good. Now, changing the subject!” I exclaimed and clapped my hands together to break everyone out of their stupor and regain their attention, “What’s the plans for today, other than you know the whole Royal Reveal of Regal Rousing…. Uh well I tried to keep the alliteration going. Anyways, what’s the plan?”

Celestia’s horn glowed and a large table appeared in the throne room, with enough seats for everyone to sit and enough room between each seat to lay outstretched if you felt like it, which of course, rainbow did, as well as Zephyr, Lyra, Spike, and Scootaloo, and yours truly propped his feet up on the table itself.

“Now as Chris was saying, we are all here because we need to go over the schedule for today’s official coronation, and you all have very important roles to play.” Celestia started, and as she did I tuned her out.

Obviously I knew the roles everyone would have, I helped come up with them last night. Dipper and Rainbow would be taking care of the weather, Lyra, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Bee and Rarity would be helping with decorations, last minute touches on outfits, and music. Applejack, Pinkie, Bon Bon, and Apple Bloom would be taking care of any food and refreshments. Twilight, Shining Armor, and Spike would handle and oversee the entire shebang. While the princesses make their final preparations with me before heading out to address the crowds first. Shy and Goldy of course will be next to me the entire time as is custom of immediate family, married or otherwise stated. Zephyr on the other hand…. I have no idea, maybe he’ll help his father out, as long as he’s not bothering me or Goldy.

AND WHY ARE MY WINGS SO TWITCHY?!

+Oh, I know the answer to that question.+ Ixis said, while a noise that sounded like a page turning echoed through my head.

‘Are…. Are you reading a book in my head?’

+Why do you sound so surprised? You know there IS an entire archive of history and knowledge up here, you should try rummaging through it every once and awhile.+ She said matter of factly.

‘Would if you’d let me, remember, your refraining from letting me at the knowledge soooo your own fault, also this is the first time I’ve HEARD you read a book, it's literally only ever been your voice unless I’m asleep.’

+Oh, I suppose you are correct.+ I heard her shut the book and place it down on what sounded like a wooden table, followed by the sound of a sip and a subsequent tink of porcelain cup against porcelain plate.

+Did you hear all that as well?+

‘Yeah, I did, I have several questions, but mainly what the fuck is going on?’

+It seems our minds are becoming more and more intune with one another now that you have your wings.+ She explained.

‘Ok…?’

+I’ll have to think on what it means, but you were wondering why your wings were so twitchy?+ She asked, returning the conversation back to its original subject.

‘Yes, please, it’s annoying me.’

+Well in this particular instance it’s because you’re slightly aroused.+

I choked on my spit, causing me to cough and sputter, which in turned paused the conversation going at the table.

“Was something I said surprising little brother?” Cadence asked.

I shook my head, croaking out a response, “No… choked on my own spit, went down wrong tube, proceed.” I said before taking the glass of water that was brought out for me and chugging it down.

Ixis was dying of laughter in my head, ‘Rude, and from what?’

+From Fluttershy’s moment of dominance.+ Ixis explained with a snicker.

Sheer disbelief was the only thing that could describe what I was feeling after all, I liked Shy's well…. Shyness, don’t get me wrong her more commanding and brave side was just as good as her shy side but I fell for the shy side, so it made no sense to me, ‘Seriously? Really? THAT’S what did it, why?’

+Ah, that, son, is due to your draconic magic rewiring your brain, not completely mind you but enough.+

‘Enough for what exactly?’

+Well male dragons need a mate that’s just as ferocious if not more so than they to help protect their eggs and young, strong females will always work up male dragon’s it’s just part of how we work. Now that doesn’t mean you’ll leave Fluttershy for someone like Applejack or Rainbow Dash, no you’re human bit of your brain is still very much dominant, in fact it always will be but the draconic bits and pieces will have a bit of influence and sway in things. Another major thing is that your brain was rewired to be able to understand the language of dragons. Amongst a few others that were stored up here.+

‘Wait seriously, how many is a few?’ I asked curiously, very clearly remember I had EONS of knowledge in my head.

+All of them? Really it’s hard to say because it's not like you have perfect linguistic skills with them, it’s more like when you're in a situation you need to know the language you just will but like for now for example you couldn’t just start talking Neighponese, outside of the few phrases you already knew from the equivalent of your world’s Japanese. The only exception to this rule is the Draconic Languages, Equish, And Prench.+

‘Hold on, I fully understand French now? Neat.’ Ixis and i had a conversation over what languages I now… semi-know and e’s just say it’s a lot and I can barely remember any of them.

Eventually the meeting in the throne room was adjourned after i recounted the tale of how i gained my wings for those new to the whole situation and everyone went off to take care of the tasks assigned to them, Zephyr being placed with, as I guessed, his father on the weather department.

Really, it was Shy’s suggestion since it was the area he could do the least damage in if he got lazy or bored, especially with Rainbow and her father there. Apparently while Dipper’s talent may be dealing with astronomy primarily it technically deals with the sky in general so he could handle the weather as well as any specialized weather pony.

I stayed behind in the throne room with the Princesses, Goldy, and Shy however, as we had our own duties to take care of.

“So as we discussed.” Celestia started up, “Luna, Cadence, and I shall go out to address the crowd.”

Luna Continued, “And while we are doing that you, Sir Christopher, Lady Fluttershy and our little niece Golden Skies shall be getting prepared to make an appearance, we hope you have your speech memorize and practiced yes?”

I nodded, “Of course I do, you all left me with Twilight for multiple hours I’m pretty sure I’ll be having nightmares about the speech for weeks, and flash cards…. Oh god the flash cards….”

Cadence giggled, “Well it’s good to see you enjoying yourself, now outside of what’s already been planned, we would like to discuss something Auntie Luna, Auntie Celestia, and I thought o this morning.”

My head tilted to the side, “Oh?”

“Yes, since Fluttershy and Goldy will be with you out to address Equestria, many will be able to put two and two together consider our little ray of sunshine, her resembles the two of you so much and because of that we have decided that you should announce Fluttershy as your Royal Consort that way things will be less hectic going forward. Of course you can have the wedding at a later date proper but this is just to save face with the community since having a new prince, who is an alien as well as a dragon is going to be a huge shock to them, and having them come to the realization that you’ve had a child with one of the elements of harmony… well that will be an even bigger shock to them. However, as I said you announcing that they are and will forever be your family and this wasn’t some scandal of some kind should... Soften the blow.” Cadence explained.

“I dunno, its a bit sooner than I’d like to announce but it does have credence. It’s not up to me though, it’s up to them.” I said, turning to the most important girls in my life, “So what do you say, you ready to tell the world you’re mine forever?”

Shy smiled sweetly, “Of course, I’ve been wanting to shout it from the rooftops ever since you gave my this ring.” She said holding up her hand.

“You’re my daddy and I want everyone to know that.” Goldy said happily, doing a little bounce and clapping her hands together.

I turned back to the princesses, unable to hide my wide smile and slightly watering eyes, “Oh man, did someone cut onions in here or something? But, seriously, there’s your answer.”

Cadence had a smile almost as big as mine, as did the Celestial Sisters, “Though I do have a question for you three sine you’re older than…. Really anyone here.”

Cadence looked a bit hurt but in a playful way, Luna just scoffed but I could tell he wasn’t mad or hurt about it, and Celestia just gave off a hearty laugh, “Of course Chris, what do you want to ask?”

“Herds, are they a yes or no? I mean shy said they weren’t illegal just not as popular and I just want to be sure before moving forward with something.” I explained, causing the three of them to adorn looks of surprise.

“Well, last we checked herds were quite popular in my day, but we have noticed that not many ponies are with more than one partner these days.” Luna said.

“That, my dear sister, would be because instead of the drastic difference of male to female ponies it's closer to 50/50, closer, not exact mind you but close enough. Now, to answer your question, Fluttershy is correct, herds while not as common as they once were are not illegal.” Celestia said.

Cadence huffed, “And as long as I’m alive they never will be, that is an obstruction of love and I won’t stand for it. Now, since you asked the question I’m guessing you’re thinking of starting one? With who?” She was getting excited, and an excited Cadence was a scary Cadence. Twilight got her weird neurotic obsessions from someone, everyone thinks it was from Celestia or Shining Armor, nope, Cadence.

I held up my hands defensively, “Ok first of all, Cadence, big sis, calm down you’re having a moment, don’t make me take measures. Secondly, we are considering it and I will tell you at a later date, let’s just say I think you will definitely approve.”

Cadence took a deep breath, calming herself down, and looking me dead in the eye, “You better, don’t make me bunch up your tail.”

I made a noise that was halfway between a squeak and a whimper and my tail shot up and wrapped around my waist tightly so it couldn’t get pulled from around me by anyone, “U-Understood.”

Celestia leaned down to whisper into Cadence’s ear, “What does that even mean?”

Cadence, in turn whispered something that only Celestia and Luna could hear, “Oh, oh my, that sounds painful, you did that to him?” Celestia asked.

Cadence nodded, “Only when he acted up or wouldn't wake up on time.”

“Hey, I was being worked harder than I ever was before, I need my beauty sleep, you think this lovely face just happens naturally? It does, but a little help is always appreciated.” Shy and Goldy looked at me curiously, “I’ll tell you later Shy, and baby girl just hope it doesn’t happen to you, if it does… punch whoever it was in the chest, hard.” Shy gave me a glare, “Fine gently.” Still a glare, “Fine don’t hit them… just…. Freeze them lightly.” Shy sighed and shook her head, but she had a smile on her face.

Well now that that was over and discussed, we all made our way around the castle and the Castle grounds for the next few hours making sure everything was going smoothly until the last 2 hours where we all left to our quarters to have the many hand maids, and stylists of all kinds help us prepare and get ready for the coronation. And man were they a long two hours, not for me, I was done relatively quickly, but for the girls, now that was a wait. Though while I was waiting i was joined by Spike, who was wearing a very nice tux, and Shining who donned his traditional military uniform and his hair was done up quite nice as well. Oh and Zephyr, he was there, but he didn’t get any work done, guess he just didn’t care, oh well.

But then the girls came out starting with Celestia and her dress, Luna and hers, and Cadence and hers. They all had different mane styles and going from what Cadence’s looked like they were going for what they looked like in the Crystal Empire when infused with the Crystal Heart’s power, or what they would look like for the ones that weren’t there.

Then it was Lyra and Bon Bon and their respective dresses. Next it was Rainbow Dash and Apple Jack, followed by Twilight, Rarity and Pinkie, and all of their dresses, which looked to be slight variants of their first gala dresses. Next were The Crusaders and their dresses. Last but Not least was Dipper in a Silver and black tux and his wife, Bee, in A pure black form hugging dress, so now she finally has that whole black and yellow bumble look fully going on.

But of course the stars of the show for me were Shy and Goldy. Fluttershy was absolutely stunning in her dress and the tiara she was wearing warmed my heart. And my baby girl, Golden Skies, was in a blue dress and had her own tiara on as well, with small snowflake decorations adorning her horns. They were MY princesses and I was so happy i actually started to cry a bit.

“Look at all of you, I… honestly have no words for how happy and grateful I am to all of you, honestly. It’s been years since I came to this world and you all have done so much for me in the short time I’ve known you. You gave me a home…. Some of the best friends i could ever ask for.” I sniffed and wiped my eye free of the building tears, “And most importantly, you all gave me a family, one that wasn’t broken and shattered due to an accident and my own failings. You all readily accepted me for who I was and for the broken thing i am you all wee willing to help fix this soul that was so sure it could not be fixed. You’ve given me hope for my future and there is nothing I can ever do to repay you all for that.” I said, smiling at them, genuinely for one of the few times in my life feeling truly happy and at peace with my current situation.

I was then subsequently rushed from all ides in a massive group hug, Applejack being the first to speak up, “Ya want to know how ya can repay us sugarcube? Just keep on living, keep fighting the good fight, and always remember ya got us to help ya whenever ya feel like ya need it. Of course, we ain’t afraid to smack sense into ya either.”

“She’s absolutely right darling, we’ve been here for you since the beginning, it just took you quite some time to realize that yourself.” Rarity said.

Rainbow Followed, “Yeah man, you know I’m not the best with this sappy stuff, and I know we butt heads from time to time, but you make my very first best friend happy and you’re my friend to ya know, I’ll do whatever I can to see my friends happy.”

“Chris, you’ve been a wonderful friend yourself, you’ve pushed me beyond boundaries i never knew I had, all thanks to how you challenge me, I think I speak for everyone that we love having you around and wouldn’t trade you for the world.” Twilight said, getting nods in agreement.

“And you’re tons of fun, and you make us smile when we’re down even if you don’t know it And when you do, you do just as good of a job as I do in your own special way.” Pinkie said happily, sandwiched somewhere between Luna and Rarity.

Shy looked at me and then at Goldy, no words needed to be said, I’ve changed her life in a way that some might find unforgivable but she’s never seen it like that. I’ve never seen love in another creatures eyes like I see in hers for me and our daughter. It’s something i will never think I truly deserve but it is something I will never question and will always cherish.

I looked at my daughter, who somehow managed to climb on top of Celestia to see everyone. As usual, that put a smile on my face, honestly I’ll always be scared I’m going to fail her someway or another, but I can see in those eyes, that look so much like mine and her mother’s that no matter what happens she'll always love me and see me as her father. And me, I’ll be proud of whatever she does and becomes, she’ll always be the Golden Skies shining in the distance to light up the world with her warm smile.

Lyra and Bon Bon spoke in near unison before laughing and Bon Bon took over, “Chris, you’re our best friend, ever since you came into our lives, things have never really been the same, and it was hard working at the store without out you there, you were such an integral part to everything that it just didn’t feel right. Honestly, the fact that you’re doing this for us so Lyra and I can have what we’ve always wanted, it will help raise the baby as well…. We can’t thank you enough for this. So, instead we wanted to ask you to be the baby’s godfather.”

I choked back a few more tears at that, “Yeah of course, nothing would give me greater joy in the world than that.”

I heard a masculine voice coming from somewhere in the pile that belonged to Spike, “And you helped me out with the nightmares, and whenever something major happened i always thought of that to help me get through it. I wish you were there instead but I needed to learn and grow myself so when you got back I could show you how much stronger I’ve gotten, I hope I can make you proud.”

“I’ll be proud no matter what you do Spike, you can believe that, I promise.”

“Christopher Christopher Christopher.” Oh dear that was Shining, “You gave me and my guards a run for our money with your antics up at the empire, but truth be told if it weren’t for that life would’ve gotten pretty boring up there. In Fact, it did after you left, your partners in crime tried to keep up the tradition but it wasn’t the same. And ever since you came into Cadence’s life, she’s been alight with joy almost on par with being married to me, but I think she can tell you more.”

“Shining Armor, you’re always trying to embarrass me.” Cadence said with a happy sigh, “But, he’s right, ever since you came into my life I’ve been elated, I haven't had a family outside of Auntie Celestia in such a long time I forgot what it’s like to have a little brother who was, mentally around my age, no offense spike. And it was nice to have someone other than Shiny to talk to at the Empire, he was right though, it did get rather boring and lonely once you left, the kingdom never had the same light about it.”

I laughed, “Sorry, this is just starting to sound like a eulogy, I haven't died guys.”

“Oh but I’d say you have Sir Christopher.” Luna chimed in.

“Indeed, Luna speaks the truth, you have died Chris, but not in the way you’re thinking. Your attitude about life, that darkness in your heart and soul, that fear and doubt, it's nearly gone, you’ve found your light that balances it out, and they all love you dearly. We, all love you dearly.” Celestia finished.

“Yeah, ya do have this way of worming your way into folks hearts. Doesn’t he he Sweetie?” Apple Bloom said, poking fun at her friend.

“Yeah, come on Sweetie, tell him how he has a way at worming his way into our hearts.” Scootaloo said with a snicker, joining in on the teasing.

I could hear the smile in Sweetie’s voice when she started talking, “You really do though Chris, even when we were younger, you stood up for us and the entire class against Diamond Tiara, back when she was horrible, you may not have been proud of how it turned out or what you did, but every single one of us appreciated it. We ALL wanted you to come back, not just me.” She said, very clearly directing that last part at her friends, causing them to chuckle nervously.

“No, honey, you go ahead.” Bee said to Dipper.

“Alright, dear, son you’re making our Flute, our Song bird as happy as we’ve ever seen her, and you gave us a wonderful grandchild, there isn’t anything more that we could ask for to tell the truth.” Dipper said, very clearly speaking for his wife as well.

“Thank you all of you really, you have no idea how much all of that meant to me, I love you all, thank you.” I said, flaring out my wings as wide as i could and wrapping them in a huge hug.

“Yeah, well i don’t know, you’re cool I guess man, I don’t see how you have problems though I mean, you’re a prince and you seem to be close to all the super important people or whatever. I mean someone as great as I wouldn’t date someone like mys sister, I’d definitely go after a Pony like Rainbow, and I definitely wouldn’t get tied down by kids ya know?” Zephyr Said, ruining the entire mood.

“Zephyr Breeze, I will not have you talking about your sister like that, she is a wonderful pony.” Bee said.

He looked confused, “I wasn’t saying she wasn’t I was just saying I wouldn't date someone like her ya know? Too shy and off by herself all the time.”

It was at that moment I broke away from the group and straightened out my back, my wings still flared, steam and mist coming out of my nose, my eye glowing bright blue, I slowly and methodically walked up to Zephyr, “Zephyr Breeze, you have encountered the wrath of Prince Christopher McGrath ad regem glacies. You, have unwittingly insulted my Fiancee, your sister, and my daughter, your niece. If you are truly THAT dense to not realize that, then you need to leave this throne room, immediately. Vacate from my presence and the presence of the good hearted ponies of this room. If you wish to stay, realized what you’ve said and atone for our mistakes, now!” I said in a deep booming voice, that cause everyone in the room to cover their ears, pretty much everyone was surprised, no one knew I could do that, it was something I found out on my travels.

Zephyr looked like he was trying to melt through the ground to escape me, “I… I didn’t mean anything by it, I promise, I’m sorry man.”

“Don’t apologize to me, apologize to them.” I said, stepping to the side, giving him a clear view of his sister and niece.

“Fluttershy, I’m sorry, you know I didn’t mean anything by it right? You too, niece of mine.” He said.

“Of course I know you didn’t mean anything by it, that doesn’t mean it still didn’t hurt me or Golden Skies, Zephyr Breeze.” Shy said, looking away from him.

“Ooooh, full name… I guess I should go.” He stood up and sighed, his head hanging low, “I’m always messing things up, I really am sorry Shy, Golden.” He walked towards the door before he felt something grab onto his leg, he looked down to see Goldy holding on to him.

“I forgive you Uncle Zephy, but you gotta think about what you say, even if you didn’t mean to hurt our feelings, it still could, you have to think about how we would take it too.” Golden said with such confidence that even Twilight was shocked.

“I-I’ll keep that in mind, but I still should go, I need to think about some things.” He said before, patting her head gently and leaving the throne room.

Dipper sighed, “He’s a good kid, he’s just so stuck in the mirror he forgets to see past himself, but I think Goldy really got to him, so I feel like it will stick this time.”

I shrugged, “I hope so…. Wait a minute…. Did we just witness a friendship lesson? WAS I APART OF A FRIENDSHIP LESSON?!”

Celestia was laughing, “Seems like it Chris, that’s a good sign for your official Prince hood.” She looked at a clock on the far wall, “Speaking of, Sister, Niece it is time for us to go and address the crowds, The elements, save for Fluttershy will follow out after us on cue, let us go.”

Author's Note

Yes, I'm putting a link to the Q&A blog in every author note, for those who stopped at mid points in the story, It's for reaching 25 chapters being written, even though 25 is still being written: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/831885/qs-for-the-qa-chapter

21: Coronation Part 2: I broke my toe and might have to wear a heavy shoe

Minutes passed and everyone except Fluttershy, Goldy, and I were out of the balcony outside of the throne room, “Well, I guess we’re up next, any last words before all of this?” I asked my fiancee and daughter.

“You look good, honey.” Fluttershy said, looking me up and down.

I laughed, “Are you oogling me? Not in front of Goldy.” Shy blusshed and looked away quickly, “But thank you, Rarity made this suit for me, and the crown was made by Cadance using Icecalibiran diamonds, exclusively found in the lands around the Crystal Empire. Twilight is going to have a field day when she realizes it too.”

Goldy giggled, very clearly knowing her tutor was going to go crazy over it, “I think you look cool daddy.”

“Aww, thank you sweet heart, you’re an absolute cutie in that dress and the decorations on your horns are pretty, did you make them?” I asked, leaning down to get a closer look at the charms wrapped around her horns.

“I did and Auntie Rarity and Auntie Lyra helped me make them.” She said happily.

I took a closer look at the charms, “Oh and they’re formed from your ice magic… Huh haven’t even gotten around to teaching you anything yet and you figured that out, I’m so proud.”

“Yeah, but I’m not that good at it, this took a bunch of thinking to do.” She said with a pout.

I patted her head, “Its ok, it just takes practice, eventually you’ll be able to things like this.” I pointed my hand up at the ceiling and created a massive and intricate chandelier, where the candles had ice flames burning in them, Goldy looked up in awe.

Shy looked up in shock, covering her mount with her hands, “I didn’t know you could do anything like that Chris. I-I mean you made the pins…. But something like this… it’s beautiful.”

“Well… I get bored traveling around all the time so other than cooking I spent ind time working on the crafting side of my magic. I don’t know if you remember or if you could even see it, but during my fight with Sombra my Ice Sword broke only after a few blasts of dark magic hit it, now it's virtually indestructible.” I explained.

“O-oh you weren’t fighting too much while you were traveling, were you?” Shy asked, clearly worried.

“No, not often, just once or twice.” I said, reassuring her.

She breathed a sigh of relief, “Oh good, I wouldn’t want you getting hurt more than what happened back then.”

Goldy looked at me, I could tell something was on her mind, “Is that what that was a school the other day, daddy?”

I blinked, the what at school, “I’m sorry sweetheart, you’ll have to remind me.”

“When you scared the bullies away, was that dark magic? It didn’t look like your normal magic or Auntie Twilight’s or Auntie Rarity’s Magic.” She said, reminding me clearly.

Ah shit/+Oh shit.+

Shy looked between us, very much confused, before resting her gaze at me, “What is she talking about Chris?”

I looked around nervously, buying time for an excuse, “Uh…. Well you see…”

“May we introduce you to my younger brother Prince Christopher McGrath ad Regem Glacies!” Cadance’s voice called out, marking our cue to proceed to the balcony.

I sighed in relief before looking to Shy, “I’ll… tell you later ok? I promise.” I held out my hand for her to take. She nodded her head and took my hand as well as taking Goldy’s hand and we walked out of the darker throne room into the blinding light of day.

I would love to tell you that there was a deafening cheer and clapping that made the ground rumble but there, sadly, was not. Instead I was greeted with silenced gasps, mumblings, and hushed whispers.

I groaned, figuring this would happen, “So, this is the response I get huh?” I asked, luckily, my voice wasn’t amplified for everyone to hear. I shook it off and walked up to the podium, looked out to the crowd, at the banners showing my crest of a dragon entwined with a snowflake, where in the center lied a heart to show my affiliation with Cadance. I then looked behind me at my friends, my family, the ponies and dragon I held dear to my heart. I smiled at them, they smiled at me, I looked back to the crowd and pulled out my flashcards, tapped them lightly against the podium and threw them to the winds. Shocking, really, only Twilight while everyone else laughed, having the complete expectations that I would pull something like that.

I looked back a Twilight, giving her a devilish grin, “Come on Sparklebutt, you know me well enough to know that I would do that….now.” I took a deep breath, looked out into the crowd…

+Really? You’re really going to do this? You know you’ll scare the crap out of them right?+

‘Oh I know, I’m hoping to, maybe it’ll shut them up as well.’ I then roared a roar so deafening, so loud that it was said that you could feel it in Appleloosa. The effect was immediate however, everyone in the crowd was deadly silent after that.

I laughed and cleared my throat, this time with my voice being amplified, through my own version of the royal voice. The crowd winced, expecting another roar, “Oh calm down, the roar was to just get you all to stop whispering, it’s rude you know?”

“Anyways, as am sure my lovely big sister has told you, I am Prince Christopher McGrath ad Regem Glacies, which roughly translates to The King/Lord of Ice. Now, I’m fairly certain you all are observant so you’ve noticed that I am not a pony, heck I doubt any of you actually know what I am. To make a long story short I am an alien, I come from a different dimension due to a wish I was granted from an Ice Dragon that was an entire body in the grave.” +RUDE!+ “Now, I don’t have time to go into the intricacies of that or even what an Ice Dragon is, but I can tell you one thing I am half Ice Dragon half Human, an entirely new race I call a Drakon.” I paused, took a sip of water I had on the podium, thank you whoever thought of that.

“Look, I don’t know what any of you are thinking out there, I can’t read minds, but I can reassure you of a few things. I am not a bad person, I am and will always be out to take care of my family, my friends, my kingdom, and my subjects. If there is ever war I won’t sit idly by, I will rush to your aid and protect you from any threat that comes our way. I will do everything in my power to help anyone who comes to me, if I deem it to be just. However, as I say this, EVERYONE will be treated equally, no matter your status, rank, wealth, or position in life I will treat you the exact same as the next creature who asks for my help.”

I looked out to the crowd with an intense and hard look in my eyes, a look filled with determination. I spread my wings wide and flapped them once, make myself leave the balcony and hover a few feet in the air, “I understand that you all may not trust me immediately but I want to make a promise. I swear on my fealty to my sisters The Princess of Love and The Princess of Friendship, my brother The Guard Prince, my aunts The Diarchs of The Sun and Moon, The Elements of Harmony, The country, and most importantly to you; all the various creatures of the great nations of The Crystal Empire and Equestria that I will serve you as your Prince and will do what I can to help us forward into an even better and more peaceful future!” I got loud cheering and clapping at that, ha knew I’d be able to. I looked down to Shy and Goldy, gesturing them to join me in the air.

Shy nodded and picked up our daughter, who was holding onto her mother as they joined me in the air, I cleared my throat gaining the crowd’s attention once again, “I’ve another announcement to make regarding The Element of Kindness and the child she is holding. Some of you have already figured this out, but she is my consort and this little one.” I held out my arm for Goldy to come to me and she reached out and I took her in my arms, “Is our daughter, her name is Golden Skies and She’ll be 5 very soon, in fact her birthday is November 13th, so very soon indeed. But that is all I needed to say, but I am willing to take one question.”

A whole gaggle of reporter pegasi flew up close to us causing Goldy to move to my back and hide behind my flapping wings and Shy also moved closer behind me, but not as much, she’s gotten so brave over the years. I picked out a chartreuse pony with a black mane, “Yes you uh….”

“Quick Quote your highness, with Equestria Dialect.” She said, I looked at the symbol on her badge, her cutie mark, it was a pen with speed lines over what looked like a phrase or a quote…. Apt.

“Go ahead but keep it simple please.”

She bowed quickly before pulling out a pen and paper, as did every other reporter, “You say that your name means King or Lord of Ice, what does that entail exactly?”

Oh….OH, yay I get to show off again.

+Just try not to go overboard ok?+

“No promises, Well that takes a bit of a demonstration, since I don’t actually have lead rule of a kingdom, I just help with decisions and yadda yadda, anyways…. LUNA!” I called down to her, having her give me a raised eyebrow in response, “I know you know some cool cold spells since ya know… moon magic, think you can help me out?”

“I believe we can.” Her horn started to glow and I could feel the temperature drop low, very quickly.

I used my tail to tap Goldy’s back, “Sweetheart would you like your first lesson?”

That got her attention and make her poke her head up, “My first lesson?”

“Yup, I’m not sure if you can even do what I’m going to try to teach you but you are my kid so you should be able to. You feel the cold in the air? You feel how it resonates with the core of our being?” I asked her, having her nod in response, “Good, ok luna let it go!” I called out feel the temperature drop further before small balls of hail started falling from the sky slowly.

“Ok now I want you to take as deep a breath as you can, and concentrate on drawing in the cold and the hail into your being.” I instructed.

“Won’t that hurt having balls of ice hit me in the mouth?” Goldy asked.

I laughed, “Not at all, trust me, I’ll even do it with you, on 3…. 1… 2… 3!” We both inhaled hard, drawing in all the cold and hail before it could reach anyone in the air or on the ground, until it was completely gone. “Good, now do you feel the magic stored in you?”

“Yeah but it's making my tummy hurt, i think I ate too much.” She groaned out.

“Yeah… it’ll do that at first, ok now we don’t want to hold onto this for too long so we need to release it. Climb up onto my shoulders please.” She did as I asked and leaned down to look at me.

“Are we going to create a huge ice sculpture or something?”

I shook my head, “No, we’re going to perform attacking magic.” I looked at the reporters, “I suggest you all get behind me with Shy.” They all did exactly that.

Speaking of Shy, she placed a hand on my shoulder, “Are you sure she can handle this?”

I nodded, “She’ll just be tuckered out for a bit afterwards.” She nodded, gave me a kiss and got behind me as well.

“Ok now I want you to stack your hands like you’re making a tunnel in front of your mouth and push all of the magic to your cheeks while saying this, ‘Hyōryū no Hōkō’.”

She nodded, put her hands together and opened her mouth to speak, “Hyōryū-AH!” she yelled out, stopping the spell as the magic circle popped up, “W-What was that?!”

“That was the magic circle that will allow your spell to properly take form, don’t worry it only happens with the strong ones like that one, now lets do it together. You reporters better look at that lake in the distance.

“You mean Lake Everfree, your highness?” Quick Quote asked.

“Yep, ok Goldy, together now…. Hyōryū no Hōkō!” Both of our magic circles formed in front of us and for Goldy, her beam popped out first mostly because it had less charge and power, so it was a sall beam that went to the edges of Canterlot but no further.

“Woah, daddy that was so cool… but your spell didn’t-” She was cut off as my spell finally fired a massive white laser of shredding cold that cut through the tops of the trees in the Everfree, turning them to literally tiny ice crystals before it struck the lake, which I might mention was… roughly 6 miles out, it instantly froze the lake in a blinding white explosion, the shockwave shaking Canterlot.

Even the ones who knew me best were surprised at this, actually i was too, i haven’t used magic since I got my wings so i didn’t know it was that much of a boost, “Neat.” Was all I said.

“I-Is the lake permanently frozen your highness? I fear that might harm the ecosystem, even if it is the Everfree.” Quick Quote said.

“Nah, the lake is fine, watch.” I held out my hand and the lake slowly melted, “And that is why i call myself the King of Ice, does that answer your question?”

Quick Quote squeaked, forgetting why she was even up here witnessing this event, “Yes it does, thank you for your time your highness.”

I felt Goldy slump against my head and immediately being pulled off my back by Shy,“Good, now if you’ll excuse me I need to get me daughter to a place she can lay down.” We both flew down to the balcony and I waved to everyone before disappearing inside.

Celestia addressed the crowd quickly before heading inside with everyone, letting the crowd know that an interview is scheduled in the next few days to get the full story from myself and everyone else.

“Hey Sapper!” I called out to my guard friend, who dutifully showed up rather quickly.

He stood at attention and saluted, “You called sir.”

“Yeah, can you take Goldy to my room? Let her lay down and nap this off.” I requested.

“As you command Sir, would you like me to stand guard as well?”

“Yeah, get Lima too so you won't be bored and if Goldy wakes up you can both entertain her, please?”

He scooped up Goldy and made sure he wasn't holding her uncomfortably, “Of course sir.”

“Thank you.” He just grunted in return, good guy.

“Well there goes all of our planning!” I heard a very annoyed voice call out, i turned around to see that it was, yep, Twilight.

“Your planning, I never wanted a planned speech in the first place.” I said back.

Twilight huffed in response and crossed her arms, “Yes well still, all down the drain all for you to act all flippant about things.”

At this point Apple Jack intervened, “I dunno sugarcube, I say he did the right thing, nothing better than being honest after all. ‘Sides he got the crowd going and in his favor anyways, so does it really matter?”

Twilight sighed and grabbed the bridge of her nose, “No, I suppose not.”

“Yeah and that light show was AWESOME! I didn’t know you had that kind of power big guy! You and me have got to spar or at least race, I’d finally have a challenge!” Rainbow said, getting a glare from Apple Jack which made the pegasus blush, “I-I mean other than Apple Jack of course.”

“Darn tootin other than me.” The farm pony said.

“Rainbow is right darling you weren’t this strong even up at the Crystal Empire, did Shining Armor’s training do that for you?” Rarity asked.

“No… I don’t think so, unless he’s been holding back.” Shining said.

I shook my head, “I wasn’t, my most recent icesplosion must’ve boosted more than just my mobility.”

Celestia nodded her head, “That would make the most sense, they have boosted your combat capabilities in the past correct? So what’s to say that this also isn’t the case?”

I shrugged, “Fair enough.”

Fluttershy gently grabbed my arm, “Oh… right, Can we sit at the table…. All of us, I think it’s time to tell you about something.” They all gave me a questioning look but did what I asked.

I sat down last and looked at the table, thinking about how to do this.

+Just say it, or ask a question first, lead up to it.+

“Right… so you all know and remember how I got my scar and lost my eye?”

“Of course, I couldn’t sleep properly for days after that, that big ol’ jerk Sombra hit you with a bunch of dark magic that mess you up and put you in the hospital, I was…. We were all so scared that you’d never wake up.” Pinkie said, her hair deflating greatly, going nearly straight before poofing back up and having a huge grin on her face, “But you did wake up and when you did and Somba showed up you went BAM! WHAP! POW! Right in the kisser until the crystal heart got rid of him… but you were scary at the end for a little bit.”

I blinked, everyone blinked, “Right… thanks for the recap Pinkie, but did the doctor ever tell you why my eye was removed?”

“It was tainted by dark magic right?” Spike asked.

“Correct, and here's the issue with that.” I reached up the clasp on the back of my head that was holding the eyepatch in place.

“Wait, baby brother are you sure? Last time it was off… it took a lot to reel you in…” Cadance said.

I nodded, “It’s ok, I’ve got it under control now.” I unclasped the eyepatch and slowly removed it from my eye, everyone that didn’t know what was under it gasped.

They were all looking at a pitch black hole in my head which was seeping pure dark magic, having it bubble over with its iconic purple and green smoke, then suddenly a yellow, slitted, iris popped up.

“O-Oh my… Chris…” Fluttershy said, caressing my left cheek, just under my tainted eye.

“Wait wait wait, hold on, didn’t you not have dark magic pumping from your eye after it was removed? That’s what I was told.” Lyra said, obviously as confused as nearly everyone.

My eyes darted over to her making her jump a bit, “You’re right this didn’t happen immediately, in fact it took a year for signs to even start showing that I was corrupted by dark magic, or at least this part of me was.”

“Yeah, we actually didn’t find out until he went berserk one day, before we thought he was just cranky, but one day during training he just lost it.” Shining said.

“What do you mean ‘lost it’ exactly?” Celestia asked.

I sighed and looked away, not exactly proud of this part of my story, “Go ahead Shining, tell them.”

~Three years Prior~

“Come on Chris you can do better than that, are you going to let Sapper beat you into the ground like this?!” Shining yelled out.

Chris grunted and picked himself up, his tail lashing out at Sapper quickly, catching the guard off guard and it took out a chunk of his armor.

“Woah man, ease up, we aren’t trying to seriously hurt each other, remember?” Sapper said, pulling up his shield to block something like that again.

Chris said nothing, just slowly standing up, shadow engulfing his face, obscuring any facial feature or expression.

Shining noticed this and his hand moved to his spear and shield, getting ready to take action if need be.

At this point Chris started shambling slowly towards Sapper, his movements slow and rigid, which Sapper decided to take advantage of and strike out at Chris with his sword.

This was a mistake as Chris dodge it and grabbed his arm and snapped it at the elbow, breaking his arm, causing the guard to scream out in pain, and then threw him into the wall surrounding the training yard.

Chris prepared to run at Sapper to finish him off but Shining teleported in front of him stopping him with his shield.

Lima, who was watching off to the side and completely gobsmacked by what was transpiring, finally snapped out of it and rushed to the Guard Prince’s side, “Sir, what is going on?”

Shining grunted, straining against the shield, “Not sure, go get Cadance and then a medic, I’ll keep him busy.”

“Sir!” Lima turned to check on the unconscious Sapper and then flew as fast as she could to go find Cadance.

“Chris, what is going on with you?!” Shining asked.

Chris started to laugh as the shadow covering his face finally faded away, showing a deep red eye in place of his blue one and he ripped off the bandages over his missing eye, showing it teeming with dark magic and a yellow slitted iris was glaring a hole into Shining.

“Chris isn’t here at the moment, leave a message after the snap” ‘Chris’ Said.

“What are you?” Shining asked.

‘Chris tilted his head in thought, “You know… He never gave me a name… call me… WRATH!” He yelled out as he swung his tail at Shining, who then threw up a shield to block it.

Shining the dug his feet into the ground and threw Wrath back several feet, he then readied his spear and charged forward preparing to strike stopping right before making contact, remembering that this was his wife’s little brother, even if he did seem possessed.

Wrath’s wild smile left his fact and it was replaced with a snarl full of hatred, “WHY DID YOU STOP HUH?! YOU WERE READY TO RUN ME THROUGH!”

“That would kill Chris and I can’t kill Cadance’s little brother… or mine!” I said defiantly, Slamming the blade of the spear into the ground and hold his shield with both hands, “And if I can’t get rid of your permanently then I’m going to knock you out!”

Wrath screamed in rage, “THIS IS WHY I HATE YOU PONIES, YOU DON’T EVER HAVE THE NERVE TO DO WHAT IT TAKES TO PROTECT THE THINGS YOU CARE ABOUT IF YOU FEEL THERE'S A WAY TO HAVE A GOOD ENDING! IT MAKES ME SICK!” Wrath then slammed his fist into the ground causing it to crack as black ice raced along the ground towards Shining, who promptly jumped out of the way and used his shield to shatter an ice spike that got too close for comfort.

Wrath growled, “I hate ice, fire would be so much better to play with. Oh well beggars can't be choosers they say.” He then ran at Shining and threw a quick left jab at him causing Shining to block the blow but Wrath followed up with a strong right hook. Shining figuring this would happen threw up another shield, but unlike last time Wrath’s fist broke throw the shield and landed a heavy blow on Shinging’s side, breaking several ribs and sending him sliding across the ground.

Once Shining stopped moving he got up, albeit shakily, and coughing up blood, “That all you got, monster?” He said smirking at Wrath.

Wrath’s eye twitched as he calmly said, “Ice Dragon’s Shadow Claws.” Black spikes of ice formed at the ends of his fingers. He walked slowly to Shining, rearing his right hand back and as he came upon him and was a about to swing down and end the Guard Prince a blast of pink magic hit him square in the chest and slammed him into the ground gouging out a small divot in the ground as it pushed him towards the far wall.

The beam of magic belonged to none other than Cadance, “Get away from my husband and out of my brother!” She landed in front of her husband, “Are you ok?”

Shining coughed, more blood being spit up in the process, “I’ve been better, not worse, oh boy… nowhere near worse.”

Cadance put a hand gently on his shoulder, “Well go sit down, I’ll handle this.”

Shining shook his head, “No, we’ll do this together, one of us needs to distract him while the other brings him down, but be careful, he’s faster and stronger than Chris, I don’t think he’s holding back.”

Wrath was back on his feet, blood dripping down multiple deep cuts on his face and arms, although it didn’t seem to bother him at all, “You wish you’d get the chance to catch me off guard, but I’ll guarantee you it won’t happen a second time.” Cadance fired a beam off, Wrath deflected it with his tail easily. “Really, what was that supposed to do?”

“Nothing I just really do not like you, now again get out of my brother.” Cadance said, taking a step forward.

“Ha, make me, like you even could.” Wrath said with a smirk.

“Its funny you think you have a choice.” Cadance retorted with pointing a finger to the air behind Wrath.

Said dark Drakon looked behind him only to have a flying hoof to the face, knocking him out cold on the ground.

“Thank you Lieutenant Lima.” Cadance said, giving a short nodded to the pegasus guard, “Now, what to do about this…”

~Back in the Present~

Everyone was giving me mixed looks, ones I expected be honest, all concern, some confusion, and some underlying fear, “Yeah… I don’t really remember it all too well.” I said with a sigh.

“And we are assuming there was healthy amount of fear of loss of control due to this corruption?” Luna asked.

“Yes, which is why we had R&D make his eye patch. It is composed of and infused with magic and crystals designed to absorb and destroy the magic they are attuned with. In this case, dark magic, which we got a sample of fro a dark crystal leftover from sombra in the Frozen Wastes.” Cadance explained, more so for Twilight since she knew her sister in law would ask.

“I see and does they eye patch prevent loss of control?” Twilight asked, she always has questions after all.

I shook my head, “Not exactly, it lessens the chances of it happening, though as long as I wasn’t overly stressed or pushed into a life or death situation I would never lose control to begin with but the eye patch helped some.”

At this point Pinkie moved closer and poked a finger in the center of the dark mass of my eye, “Ooooh, tingly!”

“Pinkie! That’s quite rude, and Christopher, doesn’t that hurt?” Rarity asked, as Pinkie kept poking at it.

“Nah, I don’t feel anything I still don’t have an actual physical eye there, though I can see out of it, everything is in like a weird… thaumological vision.” I explained.

“Wait so you can see the magical energies of everything?” Twilight asked.

“Mmm yeah pretty much, there’s a lot too it but I don’t like relying on it for anything… or I didn’t still won’t I don’t actually like this ya know?” I gestured to my eye, obviously, who would like this?

Spike raised his hand, and I nodded for him to go ahead, “Ok I have a few questions but one is bothering me the most, we knew you had some problems with your past but never a dark half.”

“Right, I never talked about it, I suppose I didn’t until I got to Equestria… actually that’s not true… I’ve always had a little voice in my head that berated me and wanted to hurt those i cared about, but I was acutely aware that I made that up myself, I made that so I could have something to blame for my… less than ok actions. However, when coming to this world and being fused with ice dragon magic as well as Equis’ ever permeating magic it made that part that I created into its own separate entity in my mind. And then getting hit with Sombra’s dark magic just made it stronger and able to take over.” I explained.

“And yet you’re currently not wearing the eyepatch aren’t you worried you might lose control now?” Bon Bon asked.

“It would be rather hard for that to happen. Luna would you care to explain?” I asked the Lunar Princess.

She nodded in response, “As Sir Chris was saying, it would be rather hard for him to lose control at this point as he, Lady Ixis and I locked the creature away deep in his mind, trapped behind a door of his light.”

“His light, Princess?” Shy asked.

Luna had a wide and warm smile adorning her face, “Indeed, he and Lady Ixis were constructing a door made of his most cherished memories, love, hopes, dreams and wants. These all composed of us, his friends and his family, he locked the door and sent it away never to be opened again, I pray.”

I picked up the eyepatch and put it back on, after swatting pinkie’s hand away, making her pout, “Well I don’t ever plan on opening it so yeah should be fine. I just hope you all won’t ever think think any less of me for this.”

Shy once again put her hand against my left cheek and turned my head to look at her, “Chris, we would never think any less of you for something you had no control over, we all love you the same and we always will.” Everyone at the table nodded, agreeing with Shy.

+Look at you worried over nothing, told you so.+

‘Yeah yeah, shut up.’

Twilight clapped, “Well I have some good news if everyone would like a change of subject?” Getting no opposition she continued, “So as some of you know, I keep a portal in the form of a mirror to another world within my castle, it’s a lot to go into, so for those of you who don’t know, here is a small booklet detailing what I am talking about.” She handed them out and let us read it over for a bit, “Ok, now that you are caught up, you all know I also forcibly opened the portal using the book the Sunset uses to talk to me and vice versa. Now Spike gave me this idea so you can thank hi for this, but I figured, if I could do that for that world what's to say i can’t do that for Chris’?” At this nearly everyone in the room gasped and she looked directly at me, “Chris, you can go home.”

Author's Note

Much faster between chapters this time and sorry about no note in the last chapter, i wrote it pretty late at night. Now for those of you wondering what the title had to do with this chapter, absolutely nothing.... sort of. I broke my toe halfway through writing this chapter, so that's neat. Also my car was fucked up for a little bit but that's fixed. Anyways, I'm having a boy just for those wondering, found out Friday.

Anyways I wanted to say, I know there is continuity errors here and there and everywhere, I actually tend to forget what I write, literally considering this was in a note a few chapters back :facehoof: but I do reread my chapters from time to time just to make sure I didn't forget anything. But, if I end up having a continuity issue Ill probably go back and fix it... eventually. Next chapter should be up within the month PROMISE!!!

Yes, I'm putting a link to the Q&A blog in every author note, for those who stopped at mid points in the story, It's for reaching 25 chapters being written, even though 25 is still being written: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/831885/qs-for-the-qa-chapter

22: Race chapter

My heart skipped a beat, “W-what?”

“I said you can go home Chris, I would just need something specific to your world that doesn’t exist on Equis yet, of course this is a big decision so I would understand taking some time to fully think about it.” Twilight said.

Something that doesn’t exist in this world…. I… might have something like that but… I looked intensely at Twilight, “Can I come back?”

Twilight nodded slowly, slightly shrinking under my stare, “I don’t see why you wouldn’t be able to.”

Fluttershy looked at me, fear evident in her eyes, “You… aren’t going to leave us are you?”

I shook my head, “I just want to say goodbye to everyone, properly. I’m finally getting the chance to do so and I won’t pass it up… I would, like for you all to come with me though.”

At this everyone had looks of shock, though those quickly morphed into ones of thought, the first one to speak up, unsurprisingly was Twilight, “I would love to go, explore a new world and learn about all of your technologies!”

“I’ll go anywhere you want me to Chris.” Shy said.

“I’d go but it all sounds boring, no magic or being able to fly, boo.” Rainbow said, lounging in her seat, the excitement and worry of me leaving wearing off.

I chuckled, “I dunno Dash, my world has vehicles that can go SEVERAL times the speed of sound and who knows, maybe opening a portal between us will flood magic into the world and you’ll be able to fly.”

That got her attention pretty quickly, “Several t-times the speed of s-sound?!” She was very excited now, my confirming nod just increased it before she realized how excited she was getting and quickly switched to her cool demeanor, “Yeah, sounds cool, I’ll tag along.”

“And I’d love to see the fashion of your world, it must be so diverse and I can barely begin to imagine what your world’s level of technology has done to influence it!” Rarity said, very openly showing her excitement.

“And I HAVE to be there, I have to throw a proper going away party for you and your first friends!” Pinkie said, bouncing in her seat happily.

“Well if the rest of the girls are going I s’ppose I can too.” Apple Jack said with a simple shrug.

“I mean if Twilight’s going I guess I don’t have much of a choice, some needs to make sure she doesn’t research herself into a coma.” Spike said with a laugh, only to be elbowed by said purple alicorn.

“Can I go too big sis please?” Applebloom asked her big sister.

“I dunno….” AJ said, thinking, clearly worried her sister already missed too much school as is, but she looked at the big pouty eyes that her younger sibling was giving her and sighed, “Fine, but ya gotta get permission from your teacher.” Applebloom smiled happily at her response, knowing she could get her teacher to say yes.

Sweetie Belle looked expectantly at her sister after this and Rarity told her she could, since she didn’t want to leave Sweetie at home alone. Of course Scoots wanted to go if her best friends were going and Rainbow had no objections whatsoever.

I looked over to the main subjects of even why today happened, “So what about you, Bon Bon, Lyra?”

Bon Bon was silent for a minute, thinking, “I’m not sure, the store needs to be looked after…”

Lyra whined, very clearly wanting to go, “Bonnie, we were going to remodel the store anyways, we can use that time to go with them.”

Bon Bon sighed, “Fine I guess we can go.”

Lyra fist pumped and kissed her wife in thanks, causing Bon Bon to groan but smile.

Bee spoke up, “As much as we would love to, we need to head back home soon… we should also check up on Zephyr.” Dipper nodded in agreement. I understood and told them such, thanking them for coming today anyways.

The other royals basically all had the same reason of they had kingdoms to run but they would love to receive pictures if we could take any and of course I obliged, after all cameras aren’t too hard to come across.
After all that was said and done we got to the main reason why today happened, acquiring Bon Bon and Lyra’s shop for my own so I could allow them to expand and have more than enough bits to raise their foal that's on the way. Long story, and a lot of boring details, short I now own Bon Bon and Lyra, i give them a stipend at the end of every month for a good amount and they pay me in candy for taxes, mind you Bon Bon said she’d give me free candy anyways and I declined but we went back and forth long enough that we settled on them donating to a charity of their choice and that pleased everyone.

I stood up and looked over to Twilight, “Hey Twi, you said you needed something from my old home right?” She nodded for confirmation, “Cool I’ll be back in a couple of minutes. Shy, did you keep my clothes from when i first got here?”

“Yes, I put everything that was left here in the attic.” She said.

“Ok good, Yeah I’ll be back in a few minutes.” I said going to the balcony we were on several minutes ago.

I heard scrambling behind me and hooves moving quickly across the floor before a cyan and rainbow mess was in front of me, a bit too close for comfort, causing me to take a large step back.

“Yes Rainbow?” I asked the tomboyish pegasus.

He looked up at me with fire in her eyes, “Are you going to fly to your house?”

I raised an eyebrow, “Yes, that was the plan, why?”

She got a wicked smile, “I want to race you.”

Ok now the eagerness made sense, “Are you sure? I do tend to cheat using my powers.”

Rainbow scoffed, “Please I can beat you regardless.”

I shrugged, “Alright don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

She fist pumped, “Yes! Ok, rules are first to Shy’s house and back win.”

“Fair enough but i need to look through the attic though so I’’d say until I find what I’m looking for we aren’t allowed to start heading back to Canterlot.” I added.

“Alright alright, let's just get this started.” She said impatiently, stretching while doing so.

I also took that moment to stretch, several joints popping, ah that felt great, “Hey can someone come and do a countdown for us?” I called out.

“Alright Alright, gimme a hot second.” Applejack said, walking up to us and stopping at the railing of the balcony, “Alright, this is a fair race, no rough housing or trap laying, looking at you Rainbow.” The pegasus stuck her tongue out at the farm pony, “Good, now on ‘go’, 3… 2… 1… GO!”

Rainbow Dash rocketed of the balcony like, well, a rocket speeding towards the edge of Canterlot Mountain.

I just shook my head and walked calmly to the railing on the balcony and climbed it, “She’s way too into this.”

“Well its Rainbow, what do ya expect? Now if I were ya, I’d take this seriously too, she’d never forgive ya if ya didn’t.” AJ said, clearly knowing her competitive friend very well.

I nodded, looked down, it was quite a drop to the courtyard below…. Maybe 90 or 100 feet, should be enough. I looked back at everyone and saluted before jumping into a flip off the building, transitioning into a dive and right before i hit the ground I spread my wings out having them catch the air and sending me straight up several feet above the city and having me go forward at a reasonable speed, nowhere near as fast as me flapping but I wanted to enjoy this little glide before i truly got going.

‘Hey Ixis, make sure that none of my whole, time freezing happens for the race ok?’ I asked the dragon turned mental and magical construct.

+Are you sure about that? You won’t win if I do.+ He explained.

‘Yeah, I want to see what I can do without it.’

+Alright, I understand that, I’ll keep it in check.+

I nodded my thanks and looked at the city below me. It was beautiful honestly, an entire city made of pristine marble and gold accents, or at least this area, I looked far off to the left and saw another district of the city where most of the buildings were composed of midnight blue stone that looked almost like obsidian with silver accents. The city was made to resemble Celestia and Luna, no surprise there, as I got closer to the edge of the city and more towards the mountain there was a large wall protecting a sheer drop off, the only holes in the walls allowing the train to come and go.

Once I was far enough from the city’s wall I gave a powerful flap, gaining speed and closing distance to the rainbow dot in the horizon quickly, with one more flap I got close enough to Rainbow to be able to talk to her, “Hey skittles! Going a bit slow aren’t ya?!”

Rainbow jerk for a second, clearly surprised by me just showing up out of nowhere, “Woah, dude, you surprised me and it took you long enough to catch up!”

I laughed, “Sorry I was just enjoy the view of Canterlot!”

“Figured a newbie flyer like you would be caught up in the sights! Well now that you’re here and ready to take this seriously I can too!” She said with a grin and a laugh.

“You know it! Now get out of my way slowpoke!” I said flapping again, gaining even more speed, the trees below me blurring and I could hear rainbow shouting from behind me before she sped past me. I barely caught her saying ‘Who’s slow now huh?’

I smirked, well guess I better give her a proper show, I dove down towards the trees at an angle to gain even more speed, the trees now just blending into one mass of green, I kept this speed for a bit, staying close to the trees so I could land at the house sooner, but Rainbow was still a good distance way despite me going at least… I actually have no idea how fast I was going.

+I would say, close to…. 250 miles maybe more.+ Ixis said.

‘Thanks miss speedometer.’

I actually never realized how far Ponyville was from Canterlot but it’s quite far, and Rainbow was still getting further away, I grunted and pushed myself harder, gaining more and more speed until one of my wings clipped a tree that was a bit taller than the rest. That quick clip send me tumbling into the Everfree and crashing through several trees until I slammed into the ground, luckily I only suffered a few scrapes, thank you dragon durability.

I groaned as I stood up and was getting ready to take off before someone rhyming caught my attention.

“Christopher is that you? It has been far too long, so please be true.” It was Zecora, I haven’t seen her… in years.

“Hey Zecora, and yeah It’s me.” I greeted the zebra.

“Oh it is good to see you my friend, but what has brought you to such an end?” She said gesturing to the debris and hole in the ground.

“Oh, racing Rainbow Dash, one of my wings clipped the trees up top and down I went.” I explained.

Zecora looked me up and down, “It is not just wings, but also horns and a tail I see, this is most intriguing to me.”

“I… yeah, It’s a loooooong story, I’ll tell you about it later, I promise, I need to catch up with you all anyways.” I said stretching once more. “But I have a race to get back to, it was good seeing you again, be careful out here, but I don’t need to tell you that.” I gave the zebra a hug, which she happily returned. I gave her a smile before stepping back a few feet and flying straight up out of the trees and zooming off towards Ponyville once more.

Damn I spent way too much time down there, I can’t even see Rainbow… but I could see Ponyville, I sighed, oh well there’s still the second half of the race. I flew for about 2 more minutes before I landed outside of my home, Rainbow already there, standing with her hands on her hips and a cocky grin plastered on her face.

“What took you so long?” She asked.

“Wing clipped a tree went spiraling into the forest, saw Zecora.” I said.

She suppressed a laugh, “Well are you ok dude? I know how bad clipping your wing on something can be.”

“Yeah I’m good, super durable and all that. Anyways, give me a couple of minutes to find what I need.” I said as I opened the door to my house only to hear a small bang go off, which made me instinctually put my wings up in front of me as a shield, I felt several hard things impact and bounce off them and once it was done I unfolded my wings from in front of me to see dozens of sharpened carrots on the ground and an angry bunny standing in front of me.

“Angel… the fuck dude?” I asked the bunny, he shrugged and thumped his foot on the ground several times, “Yeah I know you need to protect the house while we’re gone but don’t you think sharpened carrots are a bit much?” He shook his head and thumped his foot on the ground again, “Alright fair point but what if the CMC stop by or a friend or something, can we change it to like I dunno something that's softer and still would be able to deter people?” He took a second to think about it and then nodded and thumped his foot again. “Yeah, we’ll be back soon don’t worry.” At that the bunny hopped away to a separate room in the house.

Rainbow looked at me like I sprouted a second head, “You can understand that demon bunny?”

“Yeah, it took a bit but Shy helped me out with it. And he’s not that bad when he gets used to you.” I said defending him.

Rainbow snorted, “Whatever you say, so where’s the attic?”

“I… actually don’t know… Hey Angel, where’s the attic?” I called out, only to get faint thumps in response.

“What did he say?”

“He either said ask your spiky ball or task the trike fall… it’s hard to understand when its muffled like that, but I think I know what he was talking about. Hedgy, you in the house?!” I called out. I heard small scratching against the floor coming from upstairs before small hedgehog popped up at the top of the stairs, “Hey bud, how are you?” The hedgehog made some sniffing sounds before rolling in a ball and bouncing down the stairs and when he reached the bottom he uncurled and i picked him up, “Oh really? Well that sounds fun, you find your special hedgehog yet?” He shook his head and sniffed a bit, “Ah, well take your time, it’ll happen, Angel said you know where the attic is?”

He nodded and sniffed some more, “Really the guest room? What a weird place for it but alright.” I put my hedgehog on my head and he curled up in my hair.

“Aaaaaaand you can understand your hedgehog too, why am I not surprised?” Rainbow said sighing.

I looked at her curiously, “Should you be? Anyways, like I said give me a few minutes.” I made my way upstairs to the guest room and opened the hatched door to the attic, pulling the ladder down, when I made my way into the attic I blanched at all the stuff up here, “How'd she even get all this over from the cottage and up here?” Hedgy sniffed some, explaining what happened, “Oh ok, that makes sense, remind me to thank AJ and Big Mac… uh actually do you know where the box of my stuff is at?” He crawled off my head and moved in between a split between two large piles of boxes. I followed him to see him standing on a very large box that was stored up here and was marked, ‘The love of my life.’

‘Oh my god, my heart… i think it just stopped for a second.’

+It did, I had to start it back up pretty quick.+

I snorted, “Ok lets see if what I need is in here…” I opened up the box and dug around before I found the pajama pants I arrived in and dug through the pockets, “Aha, got it.” I pulled out my old phone, never really needed it until now so yeah just left it alone, I pocketed it and sealed up my pocket with a layer of ice so the phone won’t fall out flying back. I closed the box back up, picked up Hedgy and put him on my head and climbed out the attic. I closed it up and headed down stairs, taking Hedgy off my head and sitting him on the floor, I called Angel over as well and he came hopping over giving me a look.

“What?” I asked him, he thumped his foot in response, “Sorry, i’ll let you go back to reading in a second, I’m heading back to Canterlot but we should be home later tonight or early tomorrow ok?” Angel thumped his foot in acknowledgement before hopping away. Hedgy sniffed a few times, getting my attention, “Yeah I’m ok buddy, I’ll tell you about when we get home ok? Make sure Angel doesn’t do anything too crazy, yeah?” My pet nodded his head before shuffling off to the same room Angel was in.

I walked outside and closed the door, finding dash laying on the roof sunbathing, “Hey Dash I’m good to go.” I called up to her.

She sat up and jumped off the room, using her wings to break her fall, “Finally, alright let's go, even though I doubt you’ll be able to win, given your performance getting here.”

“Hey to be fair I wasn’t using my powers.” I told her.

“What why not, you weren’t taking this seriously were you?! Having pity on me?!” She asked, clearly upset.

I held up my hands in defense, “What? No, I just wanted to see how hard I could push myself without it.”

She glared at me, before looking away, “I guess I get that… but I want you to go all out this time, it’s the only way I can push myself.”

I nodded, “Alright, I can do that for you.”

+Also it would be good to help you learn to control this yourself and help you push past your limits too.+ Ixis said.

‘Yeah yeah, by the way how much power can we use in this without passing out when it’s done?’ I asked her.

+About….. 80% You won’t pass out but you will need to rest.+

“I’ll rest on the train.” I said out loud, “Alright Rainbow, let’s get ready to rock.” I crouched down on all fours, digging my hands and feet into the dirt, “Hope you don’t mind me pulling out all the stops this time.”

“I’d beat you into the ground if you didn’t” She Said with a laugh.

I smirked, “I bet you would, alright on go… 3.”

“2!”

“1.”

“GO!” We both said, and just like last time Dash was the first of us to go and she was even faster than last time.

+Damn look at her go, It’s gonna take a while before frozen time is at full running…. Or as full running as it can be at 80%. But it is going so you should be able to catch up the longer this goes.”

I nodded, wound up my tail in a coil and angled it beneath me, I tensed up my arms and legs and then literally launched myself off at near breakneck speeds, keeping my wings tucked in so I could get as far as I could with just the launch, I formed a cone of ice in front of me as well to break the air in front of me making even less resistance, with all of this combined and with frozen time beginning to kick into effect I shot past Rainbow at even speeds she would gawk at, I actually made it little over half way doing that and as i was starting to slow down I thrust out forward while sinning slight, getting just a bit more distance and then I flared my wings open and pushed forward with a powerful flap. I looked behind me to barely see Rainbow in the distance.

+Does it look like she stopped to you?+ Ixis asked.

‘To be honest I wasn’t paying super amounts of attention.’ I replied, focusing on getting to Canterlot.

+That’s fair and by the way you’re running at maximum… well maximum 80% anyways.+

‘Cool, thanks Ixis.’ I pushed onward more and decided to glance back one more time, only to find that i couldn’t see Rainbow at all, but before I even got the chance to wonder where she went I heard an ear splitting blast and my vision was blinded by colors, causing me to stop for a few seconds.

+What in the world?+ Ixis asked.

I didn’t have time to answer as I saw something technicolored seeding towards me at speeds I wish I could describe, but as she passed me I caught a glimpse of her face, she was laughing and having a great time, and honestly I was too, but I wasn’t about to let her outdo me.

‘Hey is there anything we can do to match that?’ I asked Ixis.

She hesitated for a second, +Well… there is one thing.+

‘Lay it on me Ice Queen.’ I have so many random nicknames for her.

She groaned, but she told me what she had in mind.

‘Alright… sounds interesting. I’ll give it a shot.’ Since I was already hovering in mid air all i had to do to pull of what she told me was take in all of my available power I was using to slow down time slightly and bring it to the core of my being. I closed my eyes and focused, concentrating, drawing all of my magic power into the core of my being. I could feel it building and swirling deep inside of myself, I then took a deep breath, exhaled and open my eyes, only to have them be a blinding white.

“ICE DRAGON’S FROZEN TIME!!!!” I yelled out, a shockwave of pure ice draconic magic releasing from my body, slowing everything down to a near crawl, remember this was only 80%. I looked around and honestly I was stunned, I had this kind of power at my disposal? I was a monster of massive proportions, but i had no time to dwell on it, I shook my head to clear my thoughts and looked forward on and was stunned even more by what I saw, Rainbow was still going an impressive speed… although it looked like my max speed without using powers. I smiled, well this is going to be a close race indeed. I stating flapping as hard as i could and I eventually caught up to Rainbow.

I looked at her and smiled, she was shocked at first but shot me a smile back before flapping and pushing slightly forward. Oh so she still has some push to give, good, so did I I flapped even harder, pushing slightly ahead of her, and it was like that for the last stretch of the race, neck and neck back and forth until we reached Canterlot and the castle it's when my magic started to wear off and Rainbow started pulling ahead further and further until she landed on the balcony about 45 seconds before me. I landed and was panting heavily, my tongue hanging out my mouth, oh yeah I forgot about that my tongue actually changed too, it was similar to a snakes but about the thickness of a normal tongue all the way through. It was weird but I dealt with it.

“Oh man, i haven’t been this tired since I had to deal with the Saddle Arabian’s Festival of Water.” I said laughing, though it came out more as a wheeze.

Rainbow actually was just as bad off as I was now that I looked at her, “You’re telling me, i haven’t flown that hard ever, I actually never flapped my wings in the middle of a sonic rainboom.”

+Is that what that was?+ Ixis asked.

‘I guess so, makes sense a mix of shattering the light spectrum and sound barrier.’ I said back.

“But man, how did you catch up, did it have to do with that wave of freezing magic you sent out?” Rainbow asked.

“Wait you felt that?”

Celestia stepped up, “We all felt that Chris, as Rainbow Dash said, what exactly was that?”

“It was… hoooo… hold on….” I bent over and took a deep breath.

“Do you require some water?” Celestia asked, I nodded and she had some water brought over for me and some for Rainbow as well.

I chugged down probably about half a gallon of water before I was able to talk without taking pauses to catch my breath, but I still sat down on the ground and crossed my legs, “Ok ok, so that was Ice Dragon’s Frozen Time, as the name says I literally freeze time, I don’t know how far it reaches but I’m assuming t effects the planet’s magic so it doesn’t mess up one nation or area of the planet.”

“Well that's a bit overpowered don't ya think?” AJ said.

I laughed, a proper laugh at that, “Fun part is, that was only 80% strength so really everything was only slowed down immensely through my perspective, though I’m guessing for you all it just seemed like my speed output increased dramatically?” I got nods, confirming my theory, “Cool… downside to using that though, i can’t use it again, or any strong ice magic or draconic ice magic for a few days to weeks depending on how much power I put into it I’ll actually be out of commission on stronger spells for a while so not too overpowered.” I melted the ice covering my pocket and dug out my cell phone, “Here Twi, this is from my world, It should work.”

Twilight took it from me and examined it, “What is it?”

“It’s a phone, a mobile one, connects to man made satellites in the sky back in my world to talk to anyone anywhere in the world, can do a lot more but that’s all that matters, will that work though?” I asked.

She nodded, completely enamored by my phone, “Yes it should, it’ll take me about a week to figure out the how to connect this and the portal together though.”

“That’s fine, actually…. Hey Celestia, R&D, are they busy with anything other than helping twilight with the portal?” I asked the Sun Princess.

“Well Inquiry will be helping Twilight but I believe that Ontogeny would help you with whatever you need.” She said.

“I can take you to them Sir Christopher, I am most intrigued to see what you would ask of them.” Luna said.

I stood up and stretched, “That would be nice, thank you.”

Fluttershy came up to me, “I’m going to head home with the rest of the girls ok? Don’t take too long.”

I gave her a kiss, “I won’t I promise.” I walked up to her parents, “Bee, Dipper it was good meeting you and thank you for coming today.”

Dipper smiled and pulled me into a hug, “No problem son, you’re family.”

Bee giggled at her husband’s antics, “He’s right Chris, you’re family and you’re welcome over whenever you feel.”

“I will, thank you.” I turned back to the girls, “I’ll see you all when I get back home, make sure you prepare to stay for awhile!” I called out to them before heading off with Luna to R&D or should I say I&O hey hey!

Author's Note

Okie doke, so this chapter was pretty small in terms of actual progress, honestly it exists mainly because I wanted to try my hand at writing a race and honestly I don't think I did that well, but I can't get any better without practice and practice it was.

Now to address something about the last chapter, I saw a comment that said Twilight had no right to bring up the fact that she found a way home for Chris and I agree. I wrote it with that exact intention in mind but here is my reasoning;

Twilight, even though, this as of right now is taking place between Season 4 and 5, is the PRINCESS OF FRIENDSHIP she's still pretty awkward about it and how to handle everything if ANYTHING in season 5 is to go by, really she barely has a handle on it in the most recent season from what I've seen. Point being she saw that it was a tense moment for her friends, Chris specifically, and she had something that could change the mood so she spoke her mind.

Now mind you I'll admit I was sloppy going about it, that's just how I write, I have a general plan for a chapter but I just go and whatever happens happens.

Now something else entirely, I want to point you all to a pretty new story, but one I am very much enjoying, go give them some support, I really think it has a lot of potential.

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/413584/the-champion-of-harmony

Yes, I'm putting a link to the Q&A blog in every author note, for those who stopped at mid points in the story, It's for reaching 25 chapters being written, even though 25 is still being written: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/831885/qs-for-the-qa-chapter

23: I feel like we've been here before... have we been here before?

It‘s been a few days since my coronation and I’m back in Canterlot Castle, to see some old friends and catch up with them like I promised I would.

‘And that would make my first stop the barracks….’ I thought to myself.

+Do you even know where the barracks are?+ Ixis asked, sensing my confusion.

I had a very sudden realization, ‘I… you know what no I don’t, I’ve never been to the barracks in Canterlot.’

I felt Ixis shrug, +Ask a guard?+

Ok thats a good idea, I looked around and called out to the nearest guard, “You there!” He looked around and then pointed to himself, “Yes, you come here.”

The pony walked over to me and saluted, “Private First Class Roaring Hills, your Highness, what can I do for you?”

I laughed and held up my hand in a calm manner, ah the military always so serious, “Easy, I was just wondering where the barracks are I’m looking for some ponies.”

The pony nodded, “Of course your Highness, I can take you there if you would like.”

I tilted my head to the side thinking about it for a bit… do I need an escort… nah, “That’s quite alright but just directions are fine.”

“Very well, if you head to the gardens there will be a door at the far end, take it and then make the first left you see in the hall, go down the stairs, take two more lefts and then a right and the door to the left will have you at the Solar Barracks.” He explained.

Ok that had me curious, “And what of the Lunar Barracks?”

“Same area, just the door on the left.”

“Makes sense, thank you for your time.” I said giving him a friendly smile.

He saluted once more, “Anything for the crown your Highness.” he then returned to his post.

I shook my head, it’s always so amusing to interact with the guard, technically they were an army but as wars happened very infrequently in Equestria most of the army is split between castle guard and border patrol. Actually Equestria even has Marine Corps, A navy and an Air Force... though the Navy and Air Force tend to be more or less the same thing half the time here. Anywhosits, I made my way through the castle following the directions given to me, mind you it took a few minutes to reach the barracks but I did eventually.

The barracks were designed very interestingly, the best way to describe it is… very Harry Potter like, you know how their common rooms had a lounge area big enough to fit all of the students of the house and there were multiple doors leading to smaller rooms that had bunk beds in them, each room holding a maximum of 10 ponies, and there were a lot of rooms and branching hallways for more rooms, I could hear and smell in the air that there were quite a few ponies here off duty or on break but no more than enough to fill 20% of the rooms.

I eventually made my way to the lounge area and it was quite large, I would say about quarter of the size of Ponyville in its entirety, including Sweet Apple Acres and the Outskirts where Shy used to live, Like I said large enough to fit everyone, maybe not comfortably but it definitely could. Needless to say there were a large amount of guards relaxing in here, if I had to give a rough count I would say about 200 of them and there was still unbelievable amounts of space, let that give you some perspective. Once they noticed me they all stood to attention, grabbing their helmets quickly until I stopped them.

“Hey, woah easy, I’m just here for Lima and Sapper.” I said laughing.

There was a collective breath taken and nearly all of them sat back down or returned to whatever they were doing before hand, except one, a female unicorn with ebony fur and maroon hair and tail and striking cooper eyes, She walked up to me and did a quick salute, “First Lieutenant Hearthfire your highness.”

Something in my brain twitched, “Hearthfire you said?”

She nodded, “Yes sir, you said you were looking for Major Lima and Captain Sapper?”

Ok, that’s a callback to something I haven’t thought about in a quite some time I shook my head snapping out of it, “Yeah, sorry about that, uh… have you seen them around?”

“I have your Highness, they are in Major Lima’s Office, would you like me to take you to them?” She offered.

I shook my head, “No, just… actually you know what, yes, if you wouldn’t mind.”

She smiled sweetly, “Not at all, it is our duty to serve and protect the crown.”

“Well as long as you don’t mind, lead the way.” I said stepping to the side, allowing her to take point, he slipped her helmet back on, the magic of it turning her fur white and her hair and tail blue, she walked past me leading the way.

‘Honestly I should talk to Celestia about that, the night guards don’t have that going on for them.’

+To be fair Celestia does like to keep up appearances in public and no one really sees the night guard.+ Ixis said, defending the solar princess.

‘Eh fair point but still it would make it so much easier to tell them apart.’

+You just have to look for the differences, the wings horns, eyes, ears, and tail style don’t ever change.+ She said.

‘True and there are Cutie Marks… eh still thats if you take more than a quick glance though.’ I groaned out, causing Ixis to chuckle.

Hearth Fire stopped in front of a door that had Lima’s and Sapper’s names on it, “Here we are your Highness, give me one second please.” She knocked on the door and I heard Lima’s voice telling her to come in. I peaked my head through the open door so i could see what was happening.

Lima, without looking up from the mountain of paperwork she was doing addressed Hearthfire, “Yes, Lieutenant, I’m a bit busy as you can see.”

“Of course Major, I wouldn’t think to bother you otherwise but Prince Christopher is here to see you and Captain Sapper.” Hearthfire explained, causing her superior to look up from her papers.

“Well send him in Lieutenant.” She said, putting down her stamp and moving her paperwork aside.

Hearthfire nodded and walked back to me, “You may head in your Highness.”

I thanked the Lieutenant and headed into the office, closing the door behind me, “So you’re a Major now are you?” I said giving Lima a smile.

She scoffed at that, “Yeah got a promotion by kicking you in the back of your head back in the day, the Princesses decide that me taking out a threat to Equestria and Protecting the Princess of Love and her husband was enough for a promotion.”

“I’d be inclined to agree, though i still feel your hoof hitting me in the head some days.”

“Good, maybe that feeling will keep you in line. Now, what brings the Prince Of Cool to my office?”

I sat down on the chair on the opposite side of her desk, “Well, I’m leaving in a week or so and I wanted to take you and Sapper out to those drinks i promised.”

She closed her eyes in thought, “Hmmmm well… I still have quite a bit of paperwork to do and Sapper is on duty until later tonight, but after that we should be free.”

I shrugged, “That’s fine, I have nothing else to do today, Mind if I just hang around here for a few hours?”

“Not like I can’t tell you not to, you are a prince after all.” She said, going back to her paperwork.

A few hours went by and I got bored just sitting around so I made my way to R&D to see how things were coming along, surprisingly they were going smoother than I anticipated and smoother than Ontogeny was expecting, my little creations should be done in surplus by the time we leave. But since there was nothing I needed to do I was stuck wandering around the Castle for the last couple of hours and it was pretty nice until I ran into a rather annoying noble.

“You there, creature!” I heard a voice call out to me, I turned around to see a Jet Black unicorn stallion with ash gray hair and tail and crimson eyes, I would’ve noticed what he was wearing but my brain was currently screaming at me that that was Sombra and I was paralyzed.

“You think you can fool everyone including the Princesses but you can’t fool us nobles, we will unveil your plot to take over the throne and rule Equestria, mark my words.” The dark stallion said.

Once the fear set in then the anger, hate, and rage began to come through and I could feel the muscles in my eye contract turning it into a dangerous slit and i felt the dark magic in my other eye act up even more. I was about to lunge at the pony, my mind still thinking it was Sombra, somehow hiding himself within the castle that was until Blueblood showed up.

“Lord Onyx I hope you aren’t giving the recently anointed Prince Christopher any trouble hm?” The white stallion prince asked.

The dark noble, just named Onyx, blanched and turned quickly, bowing before the prince, “N-Not at all Prince Blueblood, I… I was just wishing him good fortune in his rule, yes that’s it.” He chuckled nervously as even he realized his excuse held no weight.

Blueblood raised a brow, “Ah I see, well that’s kind of you, I’m sure Prince Christopher appreciate the kind words. Now, I do believe you have some business you need to take care of?”

The noble was sweating, “O-Of course your highness!” He said before quickly making his way past Blueblood, who promptly stopped him.

“If I ever hear you threaten the Prince again or even that you were entertaining the thoughts you were having about him I will personally have your rank stripped and your family cast out of Canterlot am I clear?” He said to the stallion in a harsh whisper, of course I heard this.

The Noble whimpered, nodded, and quickly left the castle, as soon as he was out of sight I let go of a breath I didn’t even know I was holding.

Blueblood walked over to me, “Sorry about that Christopher, some nobles will take a while to get used to you and unfortunately some never will.” He stated with a small chuckle, then he noticed the state I was in and put a hand on my shoulder, “Christopher, are you alright?”

I jumped a bit, “I-I… yes, sorry about that and thank you Blue… I appreciate it.”

“Think nothing of it, it’s the least I can do for the one who saved my cousin.” He aid with a grin.

I gave him a small smile back, “Still holding me up high for that huh?”

He shook his head, “Not only that but for making her happy to have a proper family again. I know she loves and cares for me and Auntie Celestia and Auntie Luna but we aren’t her actual family.”

“Yeah, Shining said something similar.”

“Actually I’ve been meaning to ask you something for quite some time now.” He said with an expectant look.

I sighed, Blue very rarely asked for favors but when he did they tended to be… not unreasonable, but extra, “Sure Blue, what can I do for you.”

“You know the Element of Generosity, Rarity correct?” At my nod he continued, “Yes, well I may have left a bad impression on her one gala a few years back, it was one of my bad nights and I wish to make it up to her.”

I blinked, ah right, see Blueblood suffered from D.I.D, it was wore when he was younger but sometimes he has episodes where he becomes an egotistical jerk that only cares for himself, his actual personality is the one I’m talking to now, his dominant one; a kind and chivalrous pony who would give his life for his fellow pony and really any creature on Equis. He’s gotten a few bad things spread around about him by people who didn’t know this though, in fact I thought he was a jerk until I learned this myself.

“Yeah, of course Blue I can do that, You’ll probably have to wait until after we get back fro My world though.” I told him.

“That’s understandable, well i shall make sure whatever day she decides is good for her I shall be free, that is if she accepts.” He looked upset with himself but only for a second, “Well I must be off, Public to see, events to attend, have a good evening Christopher.” He said, waving as he walked past me.

“You too blue!” I called after him, I made my way through the castle for a bit longer, lost in thought.

“Hey SPIKY!” I heard another familiar voice call out, but I only knew two ponies who called me spiky, Sapper and Lima.

I looked up and saw Sapper and Lima out of their armor and in casual clothes. Sapper wearing simple blue jeans and a sleeveless black shirt and Lima was wearing white shorts and a sky blue top, “Hey guys, you off duty for today?”

Sapper had a huge grin, “Yep, you owe us drinks big guy!” He said slapping me on that back.

“Yeah I know, you guys lead the way, I don’t really know where the bars are around here. Pick anywhere, you both know I can afford it.” I said, a bit less chipper than I usually did.

Lima noticed this, “Hey you ok?”

“I-I’ll tell you when we get to a bar ok?”

Lima and Sapper looked at each other and nodded, “We know just the place, follow us big guy.” Sapper said, leading the way with Lima.

+You ok?+ I heard Ixis ask.

‘I… you know the answer to that.’ I said back.

+Maybe, but I like to ask, it shows you that I care.+

‘I know you care Ixis, I just… I thought I got over that…’

+You’ll never truly be over it, you just need to avoid what makes you think about it.+

‘Kind of hard consider you know what.’

She sighed, +Yeah, how about you stay outside of your dreams tonight and we can just talk ok?+

‘Yeah, I like the sound of that.’ That was the last thing said between us but Ixis was humming a song in my head the entire time as we walked to the bar, which I found out was called the Salty Spitoon, no I’m not shitting you, yes the Salty Spitoon, like in Spongebob.

We got into the bar and sat down at the counter, “Well here we are the Salty Spitoon.” Lima said.

I smirked at them, “How tough are ya?” I asked in a mock gruff voice, only to have an actually gruff voice answer right back.

“Aye that be our slogan, ne’er seen ya round here though.”

I looked to the left to see a rather large and muscular thestral stallion, covered head to toes in scar and, somehow, tattoos walking out from the back where I’m assuming the kitchen is.

I blinked, “I… heard about it from a friend of mine, I’m Christopher, pretty sure you heard the news about me.”

The older stallion’s eyes had a look of sudden recognition, “Ah, aye, yer tha new prince that e’eryone been gabbing about deese pass few days hm?” I nodded, “Ah well, as long as ya got bits ta pay for yer drink I don’t rightly care who ya are, name’s Rough as they call me.”

“Hey Rough, I’ll take my usual.” Lima said.

“Same, and tell Tough to make ‘em extra crispy this time.” Sapper said.

“Aight and fer tha young prince?” Rough asked.

Sapper started, “Ah no, he doesn’t-”

“Double extra dry Martini, double on the olive juice, lemons instead of olives and a shot of Tequila. I’ll also take those sheep bites ” I quickly said cutting off Sapper; who, along with Lima, looked at me in shock.

Rough on the other hand laughed heartily in his deep scraggy baritone, “Aye, seems tha prince knows what gets him knocked, I’ll have it right up.” He said placing the ticket on a a string attaching it with a clothespin and sending t into the kitchen before he moved on to make our drinks.

“You, drinking, what's going on? Who are you and what have you done to Chris?” Lima chimed in, half amused, half concerned.

I sighed and put my face in my hands before taking a deep breath and looking back up, “I found out I still have PTSD about the Sombra incident.” I said to them.

Sapper nodded in understanding, “I get ya on that, I still have nightmares about your… other self to be honest.” I looked at him, fear evident on my face, “Now, hold on I know that’s not who you truly are, I know you have him under lock and key now, but I get being scared and having moments of nothing but flashbacks and memories of something that scarred you.”

Lima gave a half hearted smile, she also understood, but her reason was much worse than ours, see Lima had been living in a village far from any major city in Equestria when she was a filly with her original family, the Beans, yes her name is Lima Bean, she obviously prefers to be called Lima. Anyways, it was in the middle of the night when gigantic spiders, we’re assuming they were star spiders, destroyed her entire village, killing and eating most of the ponies on site, her parents included, her older sister hid her away to save her but she didn’t save her from witnessing the rest of her village including her sister getting injected with paralyzing venom and dragged away into the mountains, the last thing young Lima ever saw was her sister crying, her eyes telling her she loved Lima and that she needed to run. Lima, however didn’t, she stayed hidden for days until she was found by the Solar guard and was adopted by one of the families, the Kingshields to be exact. Funnily enough it was that event and her adoption that lead her into getting a cutie mark that was literally a spear and shield and joining the guard, her adoptive family, couldn’t have been more proud of her and Lima…well she dedicated her life to protecting Ponies and anyone else from threats like the ones that destroyed her life.

“Hey, do you remember when we first met?” Lima asked, clearly trying to distract u from our thoughts.

I nodded, “Yeah, you two were not at all happy to train me. I actually remember what you said to Shining Armor.”

Lima chuckled, “Yeah, ‘I don’t know captain, looking at the pudge on this guy, it might take more than what i can do, I can train someone but I can’t perform miracles.’”

Sapper laughed at that, “But look at you now, you’ve put on a bunch of muscle but you’re till lean enough to not be weighed down by it.”

I smirked, “Jealous?”

“Nah not at all, the mares love the bulging pecs and biceps.” He aid flexing, “Right Beans?” Ooooo, should not have called her Beans.

Lima growled and punched him hard in the arm, causing the aptly sap colored stallion to yelp, “Yeah, but the don’t like a pussy you pine forest for brains.” Pine Sap was Sapper’s actual name but he preferred Sapper, they argued back and forth for a while and our drinks were put in front of us, we were only waiting for food now.

I had a thought that struck me something I never asked them, “Hey, you two, what made you warm up to me?”

Sapper and Lima stopped arguing, looked at each other and then at me, “You really want to know?” Lima asked.

I nodded and they shrugged with Lima continuing, “You remember about 3 months in in training and you barely made any progress?”

I tilted my head in thought…. Oh yeah that time

~4 year and some odd months ago~

I was knocked flat on my ass, crumpling up my tail in the process, winced but slowly stood back up, panting heavily, blood running from my nose, mouth, and various cuts along my body. I looked up to the two guards that were assigned to me a Pegasus and an Earth Pony, booth looking at me with disdain and boredom.

“Again.” I said weakly.

The pegasus rolled her eyes, “Really? You’ve been getting knocked on your ass for weeks now, what the point f you aren’t going to improve?”

“Again.” I said more forcefully.

She scoffed and turned around, “Sapper you won’t to knock him down this time?” She asked the Earth Pony Stallion.

“Nah, this is getting boring and sad. Let’s go get some food I’m starving.”He aid walking towards the door leading out from the training yard, the pegasus following.

I growled but stayed silent until i felt a burning fire in my chest and tears running down one side of my cheek, “I SAID AGAIN!!!” I roared out, getting their attention, i dropped to my knees and spoke with a barely audible voice, “Please… I need to get stronger… so nothing like that ever happens again… please…”

“Stand up.” I heard the pegasus say.

I looked up to see that the disdain was gone and respect replaced it, the will to help out someone who wanted the same thing as her was burning in her eyes, I could see the fire and passion in her soul.

“I said stand up, don’t make me repeat myself.” She said again with a small smile.I sniffed and wiped my eye clear of tears and slowly stood once more, “Throw a punch.” she said.

I nodded and threw out a weak punch with my right hand, only for it to by blocked with her forearm.

“Your punch was weak and predictable, next time use your muscles in your other arm to fool your opponent and quickly punch out with your intended arm, it is one way to fight, here let me how you, be ready to guard.” She aid, bringing up her fists into the classic boxer stance, her muscles in her right arm tensed and I quickly focused my defense to my left only to be quickly and harshly hit on my right side by her left hand, “See like that, now you try.”

I nodded and brought up my first in the same stance, I looked at her, thinking of what I could do, obviously even if I did tense up my muscles in one arm she’ll block with the other, being more experienced than me after all… then I had an idea. I tensed up both my arms, catching her off guard entirely, I could see her brain working to figure out what i was going to do and she figure it out but it was too late, my tail lashed out and jabbed her in the side, knocking her to the ground, winding her.

She coughed and stood up smiling, only for it to turn into a glare as Sapper was laughing his head off, “Oh he got you good Lima!”

She growled but shook her head, “He’s right though, you did good kid.”

I smiled, “Thanks I had a good teacher.”

Lima blinked, looking away, wincing, “Hey I think we got off on the wrong hoof or foot, whatever.” She held out a hand, “I’m First Lieutenant Lima Bean, most call me Lima, it’s a pleasure to train and serve you your highness.”

I looked at her, shocked, then down at her hand and reached to grab it, “Christopher McGrath, nice to meet you and thank you for helping me get stronger.”

“I’m Second Lieutenant Pine Sap, everyone calls me Sapper though, and same to what Lima said.” He said with a wide grin.

~Back in the present~

“Really that? Actually you know what that makes sense.” I said, I don’t know why that never occurred to me before.

“Well, it’s a good thing that happened, you can go toe to toe with most things now, though you’ve still yet to beat us in a fair fight. AND NO WHAT HAPPENED OUTSIDE THE THRONE ROOM DIDN’T COUNT.” She said quickly

I chuckled, “I’d challenged you two to a fight but I need to not be banged up for the next few days.”

Sapper downed his drink which was an Appaloosan Iced Tea, Lima took another quick drink from her’s; a Bloody Mare-y, or death drink as I refer to it, I’m terribly allergic to tomatoes, sue me.

I finished off my drinks and ordered some more, but stopped when I started to feel myself get tipsy, which, mind you, takes A LOT if not for my Irish blood then definitely from my draconic attributes. Sapper and Lima tried to keep up only to get completely fucking wasted, it was then i decided that it was time for us to go, I paid Rough at least a little more than double, for the trouble of entertaining us, he was more than happy to accept. I walked the two drunks back to the barracks and their office where they promptly passed out in their respective beds, I left and closed the door, whatever happens between them at this point ain’t none of my business.

As I made my way out of the castle I ran into Luna who stopped to talk to me.

“Sir Christopher, what are you doing here at the castle?” She asked, very clearly surprised at my presence.

I shook my head, trying to clear it from the dizziness, “Visiting Sapper and Lima… drinking them under the table.”

Luna looked at me with concern, “Nephew-” Oh she only calls me nephew when she’s truly worried about me, “-you were drinking? What ails you to push to such measures, especially considering your past.”

I looked at her, tears welling up in my eye again, “Auntie… I…” I groaned, my head aching, “I’ll tell you later, come to my dream ok? I need to go home and lay down.”

Luna nodded as I walked past her and out of the castle. I few home, touching down outside my door, I slowly turned the door knob and opened the door, careful not to make any noise, I made my way upstairs and to mine and Shy’s room, she was already in bed sound asleep, and I crawled under the blankets next to her. Unfortunately that woke her up and she turned to face me only to sniff the air.

“Chris… is that alcohol, were you drinking?” She asked, very clearly worried.

I sighed and sat up, she sat up after me and turned on the lamp on our night stand, “Yeah… I… sorry… I just… I’m still scared of what happened back then Shy, it still haunts me, I saw a Noble that looked nearly identical to Sombra and it almost set me off, i thought I got over it. And I just… didn’t want to deal with it, don’t worry I had Sapper and Lima with me tonight I’m not even drunk just tipsy I promise.”

Shy sighed, “It’s ok as long as it was just this once… I don’t want something to happen to you like what happened to your mom. I don’t want gold to be left without a father.”

I tensed up at that, Goldy… my baby girl… I… mom… I gripped the sheets and ground my teeth together before one of my fists launched into the wall next to me leaving a large hole. Fluttershy gasped in shock and slight fear, I looked at her and realized what i just did, I lowered my hand quickly and started to cry, “I-I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to… I just…”

Shy slowly moved closer to me and laid her head on my shoulder, “Shhh, it’s ok I know… I’m sorry you have to go through this, but remember the girls are here for you, the princess are here for you, we’re here for you, I’m here for you and I always will be.” She said softly yet firmly.

I tilted my head to rest it on top of hers, “I know Shy, I know. I’ll remember that from now on I promise, and no more drinking either.”

“I believe you.” She said quietly.

Our door opened and Goldy was standing there, “Mommy, daddy, are you ok? I heard a loud noise.” She rubbed her eyes and looked up at me, she saw the tears running down my face, “Daddy, are you ok? Why are you crying?” She asked.

I looked at her and smiled softly, “Daddy just… had a bad nightmare about his mommy.” I told her, I hated lying to my daughter like that but… she didn’t need to know the full truth, she’s too young.

“Oh, can I sleep in here with you and mommy? That usually makes me feel better when I have a nightmare and Auntie Luna is too busy to help.” She said, with all the innocence of a child but all the wisdom and smarts of someone who hung around Twilight all the time.

I nodded and patted the bed, “Of course baby girl, come on up here.”

Shy scooted over to make space between us for Goldy to lay in, once she was under the blankets Shy turned off the lamp and we all snuggled in close.

“Good night Chris, Goldy, I love you both.” Shy said.

“Good night daddy, mommy, I love you sooooo much.” Goldy said with a big yawn at the end.

“Night you two, you’re both the light of my life and I love you both more than I can ever say.” I said, we all drifted off to sleep and I met Luna and Ixis in my dream and we discussed what happened.

Author's Note

Soooo.... uh yeah this chapter happened... honestly I don't entirely know why but i felt like it was important to show that yes he's fucked up by the Sombra thing, even if it didn't seem like it, he is VERY much still not ok with everything that happened. It's why even with Wrath locked away he refuses to take the eyepatch off unless its necessary.

Fun fact, I actually am legal able to and certified to bar tend, it's actually a ton of fun, but not something I would think of taking up a profession in, maybe as a hobby though.

Now, I have no idea how the military works, I don't know the jargon or how anyone in it interacts with one another, which is funny considering I come from a military family. Actually me and my oldest sister are the only ones who DIDN'T go into the military, anyway, I did want to make sure I got ranks at least semi correct so there's that.

So I want to do something special as I'm rounding up on writing the 25th chapter. I was thinking of the classic Q&A where you ask me or the characters questions and obviously I'll answer them the best I can. Most likely I'll make a blog in a few days and you can ask whatever you want there, and I'll put a link to it in all of my chapters.

Once again, check this story out, it's good.

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/413584/the-champion-of-harmony

Yes, I'm putting a link to the Q&A blog in every author note, for those who stopped at mid points in the story, It's for reaching 25 chapters being written, even though 25 is still being written: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/831885/qs-for-the-qa-chapter

24: This is a joke... right? (Slight NSFW at one point, nothing too major just fair warning)

It was early morning, I would say around 4 maybe 4:30, and I was deep in the heart of the Everfree. Why am I in the Everfree you’re wondering? Well that’s simple, I’m training, I came out here to clear my head after talking to Luna and Ixis in my dreams, I needed something to distract myself. Normally I would be in a clearing relatively close to town but there were some sleeping hydras that I didn’t feel like chasing off so I made my way further in, avoiding certain areas for… reasons. Eventually I found an open clearing with just a large patch of blue flowers, honestly the more I trained here the more i noticed that there wasn’t any life near by to this area, normally that would set off my logic sensors but it was early and I was tired and upset so i really didn’t pay it any mind. I really should have in hindsight but you know what they say, “Hindsight 20/20, foresight none.” After I was done blowing off steam I headed back home I would say it was about 7:30 when I did, I took a shower and got back in bed and passed right back out.

That’s what lead me to now, standing in my bathroom 3 hours later staring at myself like an idiot in the mirror, Shy and Goldy were still asleep and I felt horribly groggy, so i went to the bathroom to splash some water on my face to help wake me up. When I finally looked in the mirror guess what I saw? A woman looking back at me, I blinked and moved a hand up to touch my face, the reflection doing the same, I sighed, I knew this was me but I was really hoping i was hallucinating, apparently not. I took a closer look at myself, examining what changed.

I was shorter now, at what I would guess would be 5’5, putting me at Pinkie’s height, my hair now hung down past my shoulders and was very curly, my eye was more almond shaped and pulled tighter, my lips were fuller, my features over all were smoother and smaller. That included my draconic features as well, my horns were shorter and slightly more blunt, my teeth also weren’t as long as before, same with my tongue, my wings were also smaller in proportion to what they were before although they still looked oversized for my body, I had one less hook claw on the knuckle of my wings and my tail was slightly shorter and skinnier. I still retained the muscle that i gained but it was more toned, less defined, I was slimmer, I could probably fly faster like this, which made sense. My chest was a decent size, I’d say probably on par with Rarity’s which was in the middle ground of the group, Shy being at the largest end of the spectrum and Rainbow being at the small end. My hips, butt and thighs were also somewhere around the middle I’d say comparable to Shy’s actually, AJ well being at the large end and Twilight being at the small end, so basically I was a perfectly balanced hour glass, which is weird to me because even as a dude I have some pretty large thighs... muscular legs run in my family.

‘Hey Ixis you awake?’ I asked her only to get a male voice in response.

+Y-yes… I wait… what?+ She, or I guess he asked even stunned at what was going on, +What happened?+

‘Don’t you know? Aren’t you awake when I’m awake?’ I asked him.

+Not all the time, sometimes even I need a break you know?+ He retorted quickly.

‘Alright fair enough, but can’t you, I don’t know, look through my memories see what might have caused this?’

I felt him nod, +Give me one second… oh oh dear, that is not good.+

My face scrunched up at that statement, “What isn’t good?” I asked aloud.

+That patch of flowers you were training in last night? Yeah, that was poison joke, it plays tricks on anything that comes into contact with, mostly physical.+ He explained.

“Well is there a cure?” I asked, please say yes.

+I believe so, but I don’t recall it at the moment, it might be in one of the memory tomes in here, but it might take me a bit to find, I would just go ask Zecora, she should know.+ He said.

“Ok that is a good point, yeah I’ll do that.” I made my way quickly out of my house, avoiding Hedgy and Angel as they were also still sleeping downstairs. Once I was out of the house I took to the air, only to have the force of it send my shirt up in my face exposing my chest to which I quickly pulled back down over my chest and blushed heavily, hoping that if ANYONE was awake and out, which of course they were that no one saw anything. But seriously why did that happen? It’s never happened to me a a guy, was it just the effects of the poison joke fucking me? I really hope not because I do not need stuff like that happening all day.

As I flew closer to the Everfree Is aw Apple Bloom walking out from the entrance that had the safe path to Zecora’s house, I decided to land and see what that was about.

“Hey Apple Bloom, what are you doing in the Everfree?” I asked the filly as a I landed in front of her.

“Who’re… wait ya look familiar.” She took a closer look at me before gasping, “Chris is that you?” I nodded solemnly, “What happened?”

I sighed, “You ever hear of poison joke?” I asked the younger apple sibling.

Her eyes widened before quickly softening in understanding, “Yeah, mah sister and her friends were affected by it a couple years back, before ya showed up actually, due to a whole misunderstanding about Zecora.” She explained.

“Wait the girls got poison joked?” I asked, wondering what happened to them when they got assaulted by the blue flower.

Apple Bloom laughed, recalling those memories, “Yeah, they all did, My sis became super small and we called her Appleteenie.”

I laughed at that, “Oh my, that must have been hilarious.”

“It was but, normally if something like this happened you'd go to Zecora’s right? Well she isn’t there right now, I went to see if she would show me some more advanced potion making techniques buuuut.” She finished, rolling her hand in the air.

“Wait you make potions?” I asked her.

She nodded, “In mah spare time I do, I liked it when Twilight was teaching me and the other crusaders so I thought I’d keep on practicing. Oh, actually Twilight should be able tah help ya.”

“Ok, thanks for letting me know, I'm guessing you’re gonna tag along for today?”

She shrugged, “Might as well, I don’t have any chores to do at the farm today and mah plans are cancelled.”

“Alright well off we go then.” I wrapped my wings back around me, mostly to hide myself and we made our way to Twilight’s Castle, on the way I noticed I was getting a few looks, mostly from Stallions, a few from mares too. I ignored them and kept on my way, with Apple Bloom following behind me, or at least I thought she was, I didn’t hear her footsteps behind me.

I looked back behind me and froze seeing why she stopped, she stopped because a very small yet distinct black and yellow creature landed on her nose, she moved a hand up to let it crawl on there, “Hey there little fella, what’re ya doin in the middle of Ponyville?” She asked the creature.

“Hey Chris, don’t ya think its weird that a bee is this far from everfree or mah farm?” She asked looking up at me, only to see me frozen in horror, “Ya ok Chris?”

I stared at the tiny monstrosity, not taking my eyes off it, the abomination of a creature turned and was looking dead at me, its little wings buzzing on and off, my brain was screaming at me to either run or curl up, I was NOT dealing with the today, nope no thank you.

“Wait, don’t tell me you’re afraid of bees?” Apple Bloom asked, I only nodded stiffly in response, trying to keep my presence as unknown as possible. “Why? They’re just bees, it's not like they’d attack you, and even if you didn’t can’t you just coat your body in ice to protect you or something?”

I blinked, wait she’s right I could do that couldn’t I?

+Actually no you can’t the whole Frozen Time thing you pulled, remember it drained your magic heavily, most you can do right now is make snowballs.+ Ixis said, reminding me.

FUCK!!!

+Ah well, that’s new, your entire existence just agreed on that.+ He said with a chuckle.

I shook my head slowly, indicating that i currently can’t do that.

“Oh… well it’s just one be right, what could it do?” She asked.

I heard her, oh I heard her alright and so did the universe and more specifically it’s brother Murphy as evident by the massive dark cloud in the distance quickly heading this way. I started backing away slowly, “B-Bloom… turn around if you would….”

She looked at me skeptically but did so only to shriek at what she saw, which is what I saw, a massive swarm of bees heading towards us, “I’m guessing we run?” She asked.

“Eeyup!” I said as I quickly picked her up, the bee on her hand fluttering away for a second, and then I looked for the nearest house that I recognized, THERE!

I ran over and knocked on the door in rapid succession, “Come on… come on…” I knocked on the door again.

“One second jeez!” I heard coming from behind the door.

I looked behind me, the swarm getting way too close for comfort, and it was getting closer and closer and closer until I was actually starting to hyperventilate and slowly scoot back against the door. They just kept getting closer, I could hear my heart beating in my ears it felt like I was about to vomit from just how scared I actually was and right when it I was about to pass out the door opened up and Apple Bloom and I tumbled backwards into the house on top of and over the pony who opened the door. Apple Bloom recovered first, quickly getting up and slamming the door closed.

I groaned, feeling a weight on top of me, specifically on my chest, I opened my eyes to see that Lyra was groping me, also very much in shock before she jumped off of me.

“I-I’m sorry I didn’t mean to…. Uh who are you?” She asked.

“That’s Chris, Lyra.” Apple Bloom said.

Lyra looked at me and I mean really looked at me, “Chris? Oh my Faust, what happened to you?”

I sat up slowly, breathing heavily, not really able to get my words out, and I just scooted as far away from the door and any windows as I could get and i just sat in that spot in the fetal position.

Apple Bloom sighed, “He got pranked by some poison joke and is now a she.”

Lyra snorted, “Oh, ok that explains the rockin bod but what about all the freaking out?”

Apple Bloom shrugged, “Apparently, he’s super scared of bees.”

“Huh, strange he never told us that, hold on let me get Bonnie, she can help.” Lyra walked to the stairs and looked up them, “Hey Bonnie, I could use your help here!” She called out.

“Ugghhh, fiiiine hold on.” Bon Bon said from upstairs. A few moments later she came down the stairs dressed in some pajamas, “What did you need my help with Lyra?” The mare in question pointed to my shaking form curled up in the corner, “Who is… Chris?” Lyra nodded, “Why is he a she, wait no let me guess Poison Joke?” Another nod from Lyra, “And why is he shaking in the corner like a wet leaf.”

That's when Apple Bloom spoke up, “He’s scared of bees and we were chased by a swarm of them.”

Bon Bon looked at the younger pony and back to me, “He’s this scared of bees and he never told us?”

“That’s what I said” Lyra said with a pout.

Bon Bon sighed, looked out the windows and then walked up to me and gently put a hand on my shoulder, “Chris they’re gone, you can relax.” I shook my head and pulled my legs in closer to myself whimpering a bit, “Ok, it’s ok take your time, I’m going to make some hot chocolate would you like any?” I nodded, “Ok, Lyra keep him… er, her, company, Apple Bloom would mind helping me?”

The apple mare nodded and quickly headed into the kitchen with the pregnant mare, “That is the worst case of Melissophobia I have ever seen.”

“What does that mean Miss Bon Bon?” Apple Bloom asked.

“It means fear of bees but really I’ve never seen it this bad before, i wonder what caused it…” Bon Bon wondered.

“Could always ask.”

Back out front with Lyra and I she was trying her best to comfort me, “Hey big guy… uh gal… Uh this is weird I don’t know what to call you.”

I just shuddered again, starting to cry, the thought of that many bees still just in my mind.

Lyra sighed and sat next to me, pressing her side next to mine, “You wanna know what I’m afraid of?” I nodded softly, “It’s a bit silly but I’m afraid of airships, i don’t like flying. Something about being in the sky with no ground beneath me is scary, it seems silly when I’m ok going to Cloudsdale and stuff like huh?”

That actually made me laugh, “Yeah it’s kinda silly.”

“Hey look at that got you to talk, so uh how's this whole being a mare thing treating you?” She asked.

“Woman, and it’s weird I miss my dick and all that ya know? And these things are heavier than I expected.” I said unfurling my wings from around me and gesturing to my chest.

Lyra looked at me, well more specifically my chest and blushed, “Can I… uh… nevermind.”

I looked at her and smirked, “What you wanted to cop a feel?” She squeaked and blushed shaking her head, “I don’t mind I don’t really see what the big deal is.” I said with a shrug.

She looked at me shocked, “Wait, seriously?”

“Yeah go ahead.” I said leaving my chest open for her, “Honestly if I wasn’t freaking out internally right now i’d probably be feeling myself up as well.”

Lyra audibly swallowed and reached out her hands slowly until she reached my chest at which she squeezed, “Wow, they’re bigger than mine and Bonnie’s but still soft and squishy. Honestly it makes me kind of jealous, not that I don’t love Bonnie’s body.”

“L-Lyra…” I breathed out.

“I-In fact Bonnie’s body is perfect, it’s actually what I refer in a mare.” She said quickly.

“Lyyyrraaaa…” I said again, his time it was halfway between a moan and a pant.

“Not saying that you don’t have a good body either Chris it just-” She looked at me and cut herself off realizing that she was just constantly squeezing and kneading my chest. I was panting heavily, my tongue was hanging out of my mouth, with my eye rolling into my head, a bit of drool dripping from my mouth, my legs twitching slightly and my tail was spasming uncontrollably. This caused Lyra to stop, “Oh oh my… did you?” I shook my head quickly, blushing heavily, “You know it’s nothing to be ashamed of, a lot of mares’ chests are super sensitive like that.”

I nodded just as quickly and squeaked out, “C-can I use your bathroom please?”

Lyra blanched, clearly knowing why I needed to use it, “Yes, it upstairs first door on the right.”

A few minutes later Bon Bon and Apple Bloom came out of the kitchen with freshly made hot chocolate, “Where’s Chris?” Bon Bon asked Lyra.

Lyra blushed and looked away, “Bathroom.” Was all she said until a very certain sounding scream came from the bathroom upstairs to which Bon Bon gave a Lyra a suspicious look, “I-I’ll tell you later Bonnie, I promise.”

After an extra few minutes I came back downstairs to see Everyone sitting on the couches in the house waiting for me, I took a seat on one of the couches next to Apple Bloom.

“Enjoy yourself?” Bon Bon asked with a smirk.

I looked away pouting, “No idea what you’re talking about.”

Apple Bloom looked between us, confused, but shrugged it off and took a drink from her mug of hot cocoa.

“So, you want to tell us why you’re so afraid of bees?” Bon Bon asked.

I sighed, picking up my mug of hot chocolate and took a sip, “Oh that’s good, but it’s not just bees it's any small flying insect, or any flying insect that’s too large and shouldn’t EVER fly. Really, the only exception is butterflies, moths, and flies and butterflies and moths were only a recent exception and by recent I mean like 6 years ago.” I took another sip from my mug, “But really it’s a dumb reason, I was about… 7 or 8 and I was roller skating down my driveway at night and a moth flew down my throat and as I was choking I rolled into the street and almost got hit by a car.”

Lyra cocked her head to the side, “So you’re blaming any flying bug for you almost dying?”

“Mmmm yeah pretty much.” I said drinking the rest my cocoa in one go, “Thanks for the cocoa Bonnie, and also for letting us rest here before we go on.” I said.

She shook her head and waved it off, “It’s fine, it’s the least we can do for what you did for us.”

I smiled, “Well still thank you, but we better be on our way, before the Bees come back.”

Bon Bon frowned, wanting to talk more, “Alright, well be careful and we’ll see you in a few days ok?”

I nodded and stood up, giving the two mares a hug, before leaving the house with Apple Bloom following, “Ok let’s get to the Castle before they come back.” I said to her, we made our way through town with little to no problem and then I heard the buzzing and I panicked, I once again grabbed Bloom and ran for the nearest building I could immediately get into, Sugarcube corner.

“Welcome to Sugarcube Corner, how may we help you?” Pinkie called out.

“H-Hey Pinks… Uh you mind if we hide out here?” I asked the Pink mare.

“Chrissy? Sure… wait is this the Poison Joke chapter? Aw come one, Kingy said I’d get more of a role soon, I was hoping it was this chapter.” She looked off somewhere, confusing me greatly, “Oh and his first chapter with something actually a little explicit to warrant the sex tag, hehe, Shy’s gonna be jeaaalllllooooouuuuusss,”

I blinked, not understanding any of that, other than the end bit, how shew knew about that I have no idea, “Pinkie, please don’t say anything to anyone about that, I didn’t expect that to happen.”

She giggled, “Of course I won’t, you will, eventually, but it looks like your bee problem is gone, do you want a snack before you go? We do have gem encrusted things for Spike.”

Oh, that piqued my interest, “Sure, let me get whatever you recommend and whatever Apple Bloom wants.”

Apple Bloom perked up at that, “Uhm, can I get the Quadruple Chocolatey Choco Cupcake?”

Pinkie smiled wider at that, “Sure thing one Q3C and an Sapphire Cupcake coming right up.” he said disappearing into the kitchen.

Ms. Cake Came from upstairs and saw us at the table, “Oh Apple Bloom dear, have you and your friend been helped?”

“Yep, Pinkie took our order Ms. Cake, oh and this is Chris.” She said casually.

“Christopher? Dear me, what happened to you?” The motherly mare asked.

“Poison Joke, It’s weird being the opposite gender.” I said with a small smile.

“I bet dearie, did you go to Zecora for help? That’s what Pinkie and the girl’s did last time.” Ms. Cake said.

“I was going to but Apple Bloom said that Zecora isn’t home so we’re trying to get to Twilight’s.” I explained.

“Oh of course, the Princess will definitely be able to help, well do you need anything in the meantime dearie?” She asked me, looking at me intently, the question implying several things.

“Oh… OH! No, nothing like that, I’ll be back to normal before the day is out so I can last a bit longer, thank you though Ms. Cake.”

She walked behind the counter and headed towards the kitchen, “Think nothing of it, but I best help out Pinkie while my husband is watching the Twins, we’ll have your order up in no time at all.”

Apple Bloom and I sat down we talked for a little bit catching up on things, it was nice to just sit and talk with someone again, I’ve been running around so much these past few days I just haven’t had time to actually connect with anyone again, outside of that first day, properly other than my family. Well hopefully I’ll be able to catch up with everyone properly once we get to my world. We got our orders and ate them with glasses of milk, mine was good, sapphires tasted a lot like blueberries so I was nowhere near complaining.

“Was it good?” Pinkie asked, bending over our table, resting her elbows upon it she was close to my face, she smelled like cotton candy and strawberries and it looked like she was glowing.

I blushed and looked away, “I-It was good Pinkie, thank you.”

She giggled and pulled away not before pushing us out of our seats, “Well that’s good, now shoo you two, Kingy is getting hungry and wants to finish the chapter.”

I shook my head, “Never change Pinkie, but you’re right we have to go.”

Apple Bloom and I left the store and once again made our way through town and once again the bees appeared and we were chased to Rarity’s Boutique where once again we hid out for a while and caught up with Sweetie Belle and Rarity while we waited for the bees to go away, I asked about her assistant and where he was and apparently he was on vacation so that explains that. Rarity wanted to make some outfits for my female form but I refused as I planned on being back to normal today, she was upset, as was expected but I promised I’d allow her to have me as a dummy to see if she could make clothes that would suit wings and tails like mine so she could expand to dragons.

Once they were gone we left again, this time Sweetie was tagging along to see if she could help with the bee problem. Of course they showed up and Sweetie couldn’t do anything about them either so we were chased into the market where we hid under a large stall when they went away we took some time to catch up with Apple Jack until the bees realized I was still in the market and came back. The next place Bloom, Sweetie and I hid was in an open scooter store where we ran into Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash, and like the girls before we caught up with them while the bees disappeared, Rainbow I could tell was a bit jealous that I was taller than her and had a bigger chest but she gloated that her butt was bigger, hey whatever helped her sleep at night. To be fair we jabbed each other back and forth though so all in good fun.
Once the coast was clear I now had the original CMC tagging along with me and we were closer to the Castle of Friendship than ever now and we decided to go for one last sprint.

As we neared the castle buzzing than louder than ever before I looked behind us to see that the swarm at least tripled in size. This only caused us to run faster, my innate magic still not working o I was going at a pretty slow speed, actually that was the reason why I didn’t just zip over to the castle in the first place really. But this only meant that the bees could catch up even faster and they did.

That’s when I finally lost it, “Ok I’ve had enough of this!” I yelled out as I turned around and stood my ground.

+Chris what do you think you’re doing? You don’t have enough magic to pull off what you want.+ Ixis said warning me, +If you do this you’ll have to wait even longer to use any real strenuous magic.+

I nodded, “I know that, I’m willing to take that risk and i was planning on my weakened magic anyways, Shy wouldn’t appreciate me killing the bees.” I took in a deep breath, a dark violet magic circle showed up in front of me, neat, “ICE DRAGON’S FROZEN BREATH!!” this spell is already a weaker than the roar but it’s also less concentrated, more widespread you would say, which is what I was hoping for and with my magic weakened it wasn’t anywhere near as powerful but it did what I wanted t to do, it knocked all the bees out. I, however, was beyond winded and shuffled over to the CMC, “Let's go girls before they wake up….” We made our way to to castle pretty slowly due to me but we made it without the bees waking up.

When we got into the castle Spike was already on the lower floor, “Spike can you get Twilight please, Chris needs help.” Sweetie said, he gave me a glance, immediately understanding and went to go get her.

We waited for a bit until Twilight showed up, “What does Chris need help with… Oh! Chris, did you get into some poison joke or is this a spell?” She asked,

I was breathing heavily, “Joke…” I wheezed out.

She raised an eyebrow, “Why is she?” At my nod she continued, “Why is she so winded?”

“We were being chased around by bees all day and she finally got fed up and used some strong looking magic.” Apple Bloom exposited for Twilight.

“You used strong magic even though your reserves were low, for bees, why?”

“Miss Bon Bon said something about Messapomea or something like that.” Apple Bloom said, struggling to remember what the word was.

“Melissophobia.” Sweetie corrected.

“Dunno what that means but the guy, girl, whatever is scared of bees.” Scootaloo said, earning a groan and face palm from her two friends.

“And they’ve been chasing him around all day?” I nodded again, “That’s weird, Poison Joke wouldn’t do that unless…” Her horn lit up and I felt magic pass over me, “Ok I see, well let me get the potion ready, Spike can you go run a bath?”

“You got it Twilight.” And off Spike went to do just that.

I looked confused, “Why… bath?”

Twilight smiled and laughed, “The potion is a special kind of bubble bath, that’s why.”

I rolled my eyes and dropped to the floor face first passing out for a little bit, when I was woken up i could breathe properly and move better, “I’m guessing the bath is ready?”

“Yep, towels were already set up for you, take as much time as you need.” Twilight said.

I thanked her and made my way t the bathroom and took the bath, after relaxing for a while I stepped out, happy to see all my proper bits were back, I got dressed and headed back down to meat with everyone, “And I’m back baby!” I announced as I kicked open the door.

Twilight rolled her eyes, “Good to see you back, now I can explain what was going on with you now that fear of bees chasing you is over.”

I rolled my eyes, that fear would never go away, “Please do so.”

“So, the Poison Joke’s primary effect on you wasn’t actually turning you into a female it was actually infusing you with the pheromone signature of a queen bee so you’d attract bees. This also made you very uh… fertile, so really any contact towards any… feminine part would be extra sensitive, and just a slew of other side effects.”

I sighed, “That explains a lot actually, I’m guessing me turning into a girl was just due to those pheromones interacting with my transformation that’s already going on?”

“Yep, that’s exactly what happened.” She said with a smile, glad to talk too you knowing you’re one of the few people who could keep up with her train of thought.

I stretched, “Well, I guess I should head back home now, I was running around all day with the girls. Though I think they’d like to spend some time with you, they miss their ‘Twilight Time’, whatever that is.”

Twilight looked at the girls, surprised, “Is that true girls?”

They all nodded and gave their various reasons why. I bid them goodbye and headed home, I was greeted by Shy in the living room, “How was your day Chris? You were gone all day.”

I sat down next to her, “Where’s Goldy?” I asked looking for m daughter. “She’s out with Pinkie.” Well that’s convenient, “Well it’s a long story story but…” I told her everything that happened today and she laughed at pretty much all of it even told me that what happened at Bon Bon and Lyra’s house was ok as I didn’t know that would happen and it wasn’t my intention for it to happen at all.

“But other than all of that, did you enjoy your day?” She asked.

I thought about it, did I enjoy my day? You know what I did, even if it was due to impending bee sting doom, I got to catch up with the CMC more and I got Twilight her students back, it really was a good day, “Yeah, I did.” I said with a smile.

Author's Note

:twilightblush::ajsleepy: Yeah.... I... yep

So, here is the link to the blog post for the Q&A have fuuuuuun

https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/831885/qs-for-the-qa-chapter

Q&A

A being sitting at a desk in an endless expanse of a white void was hunched over, elbows on the desk and head in his hands. He let out a loud groan before throwing a fit and pushing himself and his chair far away from the desk.

“I can’t think of anything to write… you know what fuck it, let’s do something different.” The being held his hands together, a white ball forming between them, it was flicker and jittering as it pulsed in his hands, trying it’s best to get free, “Hey calm down little guy I'll let you go in a second, but with you shaking this much you’re liable to cause some serious damage to your world.” He cooed at it, the gentle speaking seeming to calm the orb down, “Good boy, now…” The being held the ball in one hand and then threw it as hard as he could. As the ball flew into the distance, it faded into the background as they were both white, but after several seconds a large explosion of light so white and bright it made the rest of the void look black.

Once the light died down several figures could be seen in the distance, the being smiled, “Good now that they’re here….”

“Discord what did you do?!” A man with horns, wings, and a tail said, grabbing the mish mashed creature by the fur on his long snake like body.

Discord held up his appendages, “Don’t look at me, i didn’t do anything, if you’re looking for someone to blame then look over there.” He said pointing his lion paw at the being in the void.

The being waved and in a split second the horned man was in his face, “Who are you and where are we?”

The being chuckled and effortlessly pushed Christopher away, “Woah, calm down Christopher, you’re safe here I’m not going to hurt you or your friends. I just wanted some entertainment, come come, all of you, sit.” The being raise his hand and couches appeared out of nothing.

Everyone looked at the being suspiciously, “I promise you I won’t harm any of you, it wouldn’t do me any good to do so, besides it’s not any of your ties to die, yet, we all die eventually after all, but let’s enjoy our short tie together yes?” He asked, sitting in a large arm chair that replaced his desk chair, “Lemonade anyone?” He held up a frosty pitcher of yellow liquid.

Everyone was confused but eventually Chris sighed, “Ok everyone, it looks like we’re dealing with an omnipotent being, no point in arguing, just get comfortable and relax.” He sat down on one of the love seats, with one of the females joining him, and a small one sitting on his lap.

Discord nodded sagely, “That’s usually my go to when I come across them, though you aren’t one I’ve ever encountered before, just who are you?”

The being put a hand against his chest and tilted his head to the side, “Me? Why I’m all of you and so much more, but at the same time I’m absolutely no one.”

Chris sighed in frustration, “And that’s supposed to mean?”

At this the largest of the females spoke up, ah yes, Celestia was her name, “He’s saying he is everyone and everything but nothing at all, he’s God, with a capital G.”

The being smiled, “Bingo, but I do have a name, and one amongst you knows it.”

“HE’S KING! But I call him Kingy, he’s a big ol’ sweetheart and he’s the writer of our story, literally.” A pink puff ball said, popping up from behind King, leaning over his shoulder giving him a wide smile.

“Good to see you too Pinkie, and yep, I’m King. I’m the one who is writing your story, I’m the one that came up with your world and I’m the one who is continuing it.” King said with a nod.

“Wait wait wait, you’re saying we’re just characters in a story, that we aren’t even real?’ Rainbow Dash asked, clearly miffed.

King chuckled and shook his head, “Of course not, you all are very much real, who’s to say what thoughts we have don’t manifest a universe of their own, a world and reality within itself?” I asked her, to which she had no response.

A small voice spoke up, “D-does that mean we have no control over our actions, who we are, and everything we d is because of you and we have no real choice?”

King looked at Golden Skies, looked deep into her eyes, reaching her very soul, “You tell me little one, do you feel like you have no control?”

She paused to think about it for a moment before shrugging, “Sometimes but a lot of the time it feels like it’s me doing what I want.”

King laughed heartily, “Then that’s exactly what it is Golden Skies, whilst I admit to writing your story, I have very little control over it, I tried, believe me I did, and there are times where i have complete control but literally there are days I come to sit at my little desk and continue your story and it just does it’s own thing, i can keep it from going to far off the rails but even then…. It happens. You all are such powerful characters and people that I can’t control you, I can only suggest.”

Golden looked away fro the strange man, “O-Oh. Will… you ever write anything that will hurt us?”

“Golden, I’m not a liar and I won’t change that even for you, look at your father, he’s a mess of scars, is missing an eye, and his past is a mess. I’ve already written things that’ve hurt you all, and I can't promise it won’t happen again, it’s just the way of the world. But what I can promise is that no matter what things will always get better.” His eyes glinted a mischievous glint, what could he have planned?

A cleared throat caught everyone’s attention and drew their stares away from the being, “Yes, that is well and good, if not a tad bit…. Disturbing to the psyche, We fear for what We will have to deal with tonight in the dreamscape but we shall deal with that when the time comes. Now God King, what is the exact reason you have brought us here?”

King looked at Luna and raised a brow, before sitting back up straight, “Right I suppose I should get to that, also don’t worry once you all are done here, you won’t have any memories of what happened, so no traumatic dreams. Now, the reason why I brought you all here is because some people had some concerns and questions, of course not for all of you but any of you can answer these questions if you see fit. Had to actually pull a few from the comments.” He mumbled that last bit under his breath so no one could hear him.

“Some people? You mean to say, others are witnessing our stories and lives?” Twilight asked.

King nodded causing everyone to have mild looks of shock and/or panic and Fluttershy blushed heavily and squeaked causing king to laugh, “Don’t worry nothing too… raunchy has been shown to anyone…. Yet.” Of course no one heard that last part. “Now I could use some help with these, Discord, Pinkie, would you 2 like to help me, you are the resident reality breakers, Pinkie more so, don’t look at me like that Discord i need to keep you reigned in, Pinkie promised me she wouldn't go crazy and she even agreed to have her memories of visiting here wiped.”

“But i always remember when I come baaaaaack.” She sing songed.

King snorted, “You slipped u and mentioned me in story though, why was that?”

She giggled nervously, “I guess I just forgot to erase my memories that time?”

King shrugged, “it didn't cause any damage to anything so it’s fine just never again. You can break the 4th wall any other way however, same to you Discord. Now let’s get this show started.” With A snap of his fingers 3 sheets of paper materialized in front of him, Pinkie, and Discord.

King cleared his throat and adjusted reading glass that showed up on the bridge of his nose. “I guess I’ll go with the first question. It is from a Freyja_Steel, who had 2 questions technically and I’ll let Discord handle the second one. First question from them is, ‘Will Chris ever turn into a girl again?”

At this Christ groaned, “I hope not, it was so embarrassing.”

“So embarrassing.” Lyra whispered in agreement.

Golden looked up at her father, “Daddy you were a girl, when?”

“Oh a few days ago.” King answered, “You were off with auntie Pinkie for the day remember?”

She made an o shape with her mouth and nodded, very much remembering that day, it was fun.

Celestia on the other hand was giggling, “Chris you were a girl? How did this happen? Did one of Twilight’s spells go awry?”

“ONE TIME!” Twilight shouted with a blush, “That was one time, you can’t blame a teenager for being curious!” Everyone looked at the purple Alicorn stunned at the implications.

Chris broke the tension, “No, it was because of poison joke, according to Twilight it played on my fear of bees and fused y being with queen bee pheromones, but due to my transformation it mixed with that and turned me into a woman with uh… very sensitive parts.” He explained, glancing quickly over to Lyra.

“I would have paid good money to see that.” Shining said in between wheezing laughter, on to get an elbow in the ribs from Cadance, “Not like that honey, he just had to have been so uncomfortable as a mare.”

Chris glared daggers at Shining, “Would you like to find out? I can make you a are right now if you want.” Sharp ice claws from at the tips of his fingers, causing Shining to close his legs rather quickly, “That’s what I thought. Can we get the next question, please?”

King chuckled, “Of course, Discord if you would do the honors.”

Discord smiled and bowed, putting on a little director’s hat, “Ah yes the next question, also from Freyja_Steel, ‘When will the Tirek arc begin?” Discord blanched at that, “Ah I see what you wanted me to read this. Well, unfortunately Freyja_Steel.” He heavily emphasized the underscore with disdain, “As my worst mistake ever, I’m happy to say that it already happened during the five or so years Christopher, here, was gone, and since he’s the main character whatever he’s not there for you don’t get to witness.”

“It’s a good thing to, he would've hit ya harder than a angry bull seeing the side of a barn!” Apple Jack said, poking a jab at the Draconequus.

“Oh you’ll see how he reacts to that revelation in the next chapter, it’ll also explain Chris’ demeanor towards Discord when they first showed up.” King said with a wink to the audience.

Discord blinked and looked nervous, “Wait what? What is he going to do?” He snapped his fingers, only for nothing to happen and then snapped them again, only for the same result to happen.

King had his eyebrow raised and a finger lifted, “Ah ah ah, no spoilers Discord. Pinkie, dear, would you like to read the next question?”

She smiled and plopped down into King’s lap, “Yuperoonie, I’d love to. This question is frooooooooom Zapper Frost, oh nice name, ‘Hey pinkie, can you break the fourth wall more often (not often enough to get annoying mind you, but at least once or twice every few chapters)?’” She puffed up her cheeks, “Now that’s just rude, my fourth wall breaks are not annoying, are they?” She looked up at king with big watery eyes, only to receive a head rub an a shake of the head, “YAY! To answer your question though, I’ll break the 4th wall as much as I can without it getting annoying, who knows, maybe the next arc will have a bunch of them?”

King shrugged, “No idea, I’m still working on it, so far none, but I suppose I can try to make a few more, if you decide to let me that is.” Pinkie nodded vigorously at that. “Ok next question is from Infinite Affinity, ooooh a tongue twister that, he asks, ‘Are there any chances of getting a chapter where Chris and Spike do some brotherly bonding moment? I noticed that nothing like that happened yet.’”

Spike perked up at this, he rarely ever went noticed by anyone to be truthful, “Actually yeah, we haven’t hung out that much, so are we going to have a bonding moment Chris?”

Chris looked away, ashamed at himself, “W-well yeah, of course, I had a plan for when we got to my world to do a few things.”

King nodded to confirm this, “And there is an arc planned later that will be heavily focused on the two of them , so a bunch of Chris and Spike bro bonding is incoming, so don’t you all worry about that, after all the story IS called Dawn of the Ice King and Chris is part dragon, what would be a dragon story without having Spike play a major role at some point?”

Spike smiled happily at that, “You know what, I can’t wait for that, I barely get invited on the cool adventures.”

Twilight frowned at this and looked at King, “You're not planning anything dangerous are you?”

King smiled devilishly, “Twilight, what would an adventure be without a bit of danger?”

“BORING!” Scootaloo, Rainbow, Pinkie, and Lyra shouted at the same time, laughing afterwards.

King chuckled, “What they said, but I can promise you, he will be alive at the end of it.” Or maybe not, can’t give away spoilers after all.

Twilight gave a relieved smile, “Ok. I’ll hold you to that.”

“You do that. I guess we’ll go in rotating order, Discord you’re up, with the first comment question/concern.”

Discord nodded, “From Kichi, ‘What is the problem with a OP character? As long as you write it well, I was thinking this story was mainly Slice of Life/Re-telling the MLP so it's not like it's that important, right?’ There was a bit ore to that but those characters haven't been introduced yet, be patient Kichi be patient.”

Chris blinked, “Wait is that referring to me or?” King nodded, “Wait am I considered OP? That’s weird because I’ve gotten my ass handed to me by several people.”

“Well Christopher, being over powered doesn’t mean you automatically win, after all people with more skill and experience could easily beat you i f you do not know your own powers that well.” Luna explained., “But in the conventional meaning, yes you are a bit OP, as are my sister and I using our full potential.”

“Oh, I never really considered it, do you mind if I answer this question even though it seems directed directly at you?” Chris asked the God who just rolled his hand in a go on gesture, “Well the way I see it the fact that my story is a slice of life/re-telling I shouldn’t be too overpowered or else I could solve all the problems with ease and it would just get…. Boring. I’d be a Gary Stu at the end of the day.”

“Pretty much why i try to keep you in check n keep your powers with limitations, mind you my entire thought process for this story was that it was supposed to be action/adventure but it eventually became more predominantly slice of life with some action elements, which I suppose isn’t bad, but maybe down the line I’ll get back to the roots or maybe I’ll write another one involving your travels, those were definitely action/adventure.”

Chris rubbed the back of his head, “Yeah, tell me about it.”

Pinkie was poking my shoulder, “Oh Kingy, this one is for actually specifically you it is from First Captain Lunar Blade, ‘Well I have to say I started reading this when it showed up on the featured board and now that I finished it so far I have to say man you did some damn fine work. It was a bit hard to read in the beginning but you gotten a lot better over the years congratulations heaven knows I can’t ride it with a damn.’ I’m kind of confused at what that last bit means but ok.”

Luna cocked her head to the side at that name, “How odd they have the same name as the actual first captain of the Lunar Guard.”

“SEE I DIDN’T WRITE THAT, SHE JUST DID THAT HERSELF!” King said with wide eyes, “Aww well thank you though, honestly I know it was rough to read, it’s partially why I took the break I did, I wasn't happy with what and how I was writing, so I needed to get my head on straight. I decided not to change anything from the old stuff though, it keeps me on track of what not to do, it's why a lot of the more recent chapters don’t have anything really sexual until the poison joke one, and even then that was… just a random urge I had, sorry Chris. But I hope I keep impressing you in the future, thank you for your kind words.”

King looked down at the paper and adjusted his glasses, “Ah, this one is similar to the last but it's the end bit that I’ll read, from GalacticTNT, powerful stuff that must be, ‘Congrats on becoming a dad.’ Oh, well thank you, actually I’m going to defer this to everyone else, starting with Chris, how is it being a father?”

Chris raised an eyebrow, “You should know, I am just a character in your story after all.”

King sighed, “Maybe but you have your own mind, your own thoughts and emotions, so I want to know what YOU think, not what I think you think.”

“Oh well…” Chris looked over at Fluttershy, wrapping his tail around her in the process, and held Golden Skies tight against himself, “Honestly, it’s terrifying, i’m always scared I’m going to mess up some way or another. However, it is the happiest I’ve ever been and I would die to protect them, they’re my heart and soul and I can’t wait to spend my life with them more.”

King nodded, “I see I see, what about you 3, the ‘Immortals, have you ever had any kids?”

Cadance stammered, “I-I haven’t Shining is the only stallion I’ve ever been with and I’d be lucky to have his foal.”

Celestia’s face was hard set and her mouth was a thin line before her expression relaxed, “I… have had children before.” Everyone except Luna and Cadance were shocked to hear this, yes even King, “What? I am millennia old, do you all think I haven’t had suitors and children in my life? I’ve had plenty but unfortunately they do not gain my immortality and so I have had to watch my own children and grandchildren and so on and so forth, to the point where I’ve lost track, die while I live… it was painful so I’ve decided to…leave that aspect of life alone for some time.”

Everyone got up and gave Celestia a group hug, to which she was surprised but graciously accepted, “Thank you everyone.”

King nodded, sitting back down on his comfy chair, “What about you Luna?”

Luna shook her head, “I have not been fortunate enough to have been blessed to bear a foal of my own, but I have taken care of Celestia’s whenever she was indisposed. It was a joy to say nothing else.”

Celestia snorted in amusement, “It as a joy for you because you weren’t stuck with them all the time, whenever I would take them back from you they would not stop going on about how ‘Auntie Lulu gave me the biggest sweet ever.’ Do you know how badly that much sugar effects foals? So bad Luna… so so bad.”

King looked to the group, “Anyone else?”

Most shook their head as they’ve not had to take care of young lives before, even twilight as spike was mostly taken care of by her parents and Celestia, Apple Jack how ever did speak up.

“Well… I raised Apple Bloom most of mah life, I had help from Granny and Big Mac of course but it was a handful, I’ll be honest. There will be days you wanna tear your mane out and scream and there will be days where they are the sweetest things in the world, but one thing that was always constant for us was when we tucked little Bloom away in her crib and she let out the cutest yawn and was asleep like nothing at all was wrong in the world, it makes you realize that it’s all worth it in the end.” The farm pony said, catching most off guard, Apple Bloom the most, who was blushing furiously in embarrassment.

“What about you King, how do you feel about becoming a dad?” Lyra asked.

King shrugged, “Honestly I have no emotions one way or another, it’s hard to explain so I’m not going to try, just know that I’m not exactly excited but nor am I dreading it. How about the next question/comment/concern, Discord?”

The entity of chaos modded, “This is from THE TACO LOVING BRONY, and hey who doesn’t love tacos? Anyways, they say, ‘Honestly was super happy and then the pinkie thing happened and I can't help but feel super disappointed it kinda just ruined it for me it was too out of nowhere and from what I see no actual particular reason either flutters and him had a built relationship over the whole story but his relationship with pinkie never built up to that point and makes him sound unloyal to flutters by doing this honestly I'm debating whether or not I should stick with the story and it took a good amount of time to catch up.’ Oh What is he talking about, unloyal?”

Chris was about to say something but Fluttershy cut him off, “Do you mind if I take this one dear?” Chris knew that look in his fiancee’s eyes and backed off, letting her take over, “How dare you say Chris is being disloyal, he has a big heart and a lot of love to give and who am I to deny him of that, if I gave him permission to do so and am completely okay with it, how is it disloyal? And who knows why he wants to do what he wants to do, maybe if you’re patient you’ll find out instead of judging something you don’t fully know yet.” The usually meek pegasus startled mostly everyone, of course they all knew she could be assertive when she wanted to but it was always a surprise.

King gave a uproarious laughter, “Well said you firebrand you, and I have to agree, if you’re reading this, I suggest you stick around, things will be explained and their relationship will be expanded on, and I don’t mind saying this because again, memory wipe, non canon yada yada.”

Pinkie was silent during this, clearly shocked at what was going on, until she got a nudge from King, “Huh, oh right… oh this is from Rose Cloud, they say, ‘The pink ball of diabetes needs love too!’ This pink ball of diabetes agrees and that’s all she’ll say on the matter.”

“Yeah, you’ll all see what she means later, now, oh something for Chris and Ixis, actually… how about we do this.” King snapped his fingers and a ale woman with a flowing blue dress, snow white hair and striking blue eyes popped up out of nowhere.

“Woah ok, warn a lady next time you drag her into another dimension please!” She said, upset with King, before huffing and sitting down, “Now what was this comment about?”

King smiled, “From Furlok Surket, ahem, ‘I know a song that gets on everybody's- wait can’t do that, it’s against the rules oh well I’m sure that’s enough to torture you two for a little bit.”

“THREE!” Discord shouted as he ripped his brain out his head and threw it into the teapot on the table in the center of the circle of couches, “Ah much better.”

“Four!” Pinkie said happily, giggle snorting as she hummed the song, Chris and Ixis on the other hand just groaned painfully.

“For serious though, I have something for Twilight, since Discord is out of commission for the moment, though i’ll make sure the wording is clarified, it is from Night_Striker, ‘............... nope he won't be able to get home the way you think Twi cause, 1; the world you’re mentioning already had everything fixated in to it. 2; it's also have an anchor which you don't have to his home world and 3; you have absolutely no idea what magic or spells formed around the mirror to even make it work.”

Twilight blinked and then half scowled half pouted in frustration, “Ok, so I’m guessing this was said before anything was explained, did you end off a chapter of our story when I said he could go home as a cliffhanger?” King nodded sheepishly, “ Alright let me address this anyways and in order. 1; yes the portal is fixed to Human Equestria, I know this, and this ties into to your second point, the anchor, there is an anchor to his world, Chris himself is that anchor but I needed something else that had his world’s essence in it so he could also go through the portal or else he would’ve been the one hooked up to it. Finally, if I could force the portal open by studying it along with the journal I have from Sunset what makes you think I can’t do the same to go to a different word that has an appropriate anchor and focal point?” She finished smugly.

“And when in doubt…. It’s magic i don’t gotta explain shit. However we’d be here forever if I put every comment and concern in this so I’ll cut it off with one last thing. I’m sorry about my spelling and other grammar errors, honestly there are a few excuses/ reasons. One is I do have slight dyslexia so when I’m ting some words look correct even if the letters are a bit mixed, and the second major reason is because my laptop is old and the keyboard likes to mess with me, it’s why I reread through the chapters and I fix what I can catch. Should I get an editor? Yes, I’m just a proud person so I like handling things myself. I actually had to choke own a bunch of the pride to ask my girlfriend, yes the one I’m having my kid with, to go back and read through comments and pick out ones for me as I’m working. She’s the only person out of my personal circle who I’ve given explicit permission to read my stories and give me feedback on them and it was after nearly 3 years of being together. So stick with me on this please? I’ll get better and who knows maybe I’ll ask for a proper editor and proofreader.” King took a breath before continuing, giving a genuine smile to the audience, “And for everyone who is sticking with this despite me leaving for 2 years, thank you, it means a lot to me, and I will continue to do my best, here’s a treat for you for being patient.” He pulled out a camera and took a picture of Chris, it saw past his eye patch and got rid of his horns, a basic profile, 2 versions, one with both blue eyes and one with one blue and one yellow for the dark magic.

“Now for you all, I’m sorry you didn’t get question, I do plan on having another one of these in the future hopefully we’ll get more, but it is time for you to go back, yes even you Pinkie.” He said as the pink pony looked up expectantly at him, “Don’t pout, you’ll be glad to go back, trust me.” she nodded and got off King’s lap and joined everyone else, “Bye you all, I’ll see you at some point in the future, and besides, it's gonna be a wild ride I hope you enjoy.”

Everyone’s eyes glossed over and Discord’s brain ran back into his head before they faded away only leaving King alone in the white void, “Well that was fun.” His comfy chair turning back into a desk chair, he sighed at the sight, well back to the grind. He sat down and stared down at his computer, an idea sparking in his mind, “Oh this is going to be good.” He looked to the side and gave a smile, “Ah ah, no spoilers, you will just have to wait like everyone else, no shoo, leave the master to his work.”

Author's Note

So there is the Q&A chapter, honestly I enjoyed writing it, I addressed some issues got some questions yadda yadda. So the major thing with the picture for Chis, yes that's from monster hunter world, the one with more facial hair is his current look just minus the eye patch, the blue was before hand, I just got lazy and didn't feel like removing the scar. Anyways chapter 25 will be up tomorrow, it's all finished and it's pretty long too, a lot happens, a lot happens indeed, enjoy.

P.S. Yes he had afro like hair in the BEGINNING of the story but the more draconic he gets the straighter and whiter it becomes, you all will see what he looks like when he has full access to his powers.

25: Tell everybody I'm on my way

It was the big day, it was time to go home and we were gathered at the Castle; in the conference room that I first met Ixis’ sister, Enis, in. Things were going smoothly… or so I would like to say… well, ok things were going smoothly for literally everyone else. Shy was currently freaking out because we had no one to watch the house, her parents couldn’t due to work and her brother went off to do whatever it is he does, look I kinda decided to not interact with him 100% until he figured himself out, she wasn’t necessarily happy about it but she understood.

Anyways, the reason we even needed someone to watch the house was because Shy didn’t want to bring our pets along as she wasn’t sure what the portal would do to them. To be fair we didn’t know what the portal would do to us, but Shy cares about animals so I respected that and didn’t debate it. I should’ve because we wouldn’t be in this situation.

I sighed and rubbed her back, right inbetween her wings, “Shy, it’s ok we left Angel and Hedgy alone when we went up to your parents’ place, I’m sure they’ll be fine.”

She relaxed slightly at my ministrations, slightly, “That was only a few days though, we’re going to be gone for at least 2 weeks right?” I nodded, “What if they run out of food and Angel can’t get to the bag or the fridge? Or what if the house catches on fire and they cant get out because the doors are locked?” She started to hyperventilate.

“Oh oh or what if a giant meteor came out of nowhere and squashed only your house and it was filled with body snatching goo blobs that kill and replace them, making them mindless pets that when put in a tense situations turn into even worse and scary monsters?!” Pinkie blurted out, popping in from, well wherever she pops in from.

Shy started to breathe faster and I shot Pinkie a look making the pink pony to laugh sheepishly and quickly leave. I turned my attention back to Shy, “Look I doubt the last two would happen, the first one is much more likely but Angel is… resourceful. I’m sure they’ll be ok.”

“M-maybe, if only Discord was here he could watch them.” Shy said quietly.

As if on cue the air cracked and splintered as the world shook violently and then in a flourish of light and confetti and the sound of glass shattering. The cracks in the air blasted open to reveal a mishmash of a creature that had long serpentine body that started with a head that looked like a mix of a pony, a goat and a dragon. It had a horn of a dear and a dragon as well as a tail and right leg of a dragon, it’s left leg was that of some cloven hoofed creature and its arms were the right paw of a lion and the left talon of an eagle or some bird of prey. However it was only in that spot for a split second before it popped over to me and wrapped it’s lion paw around my shoulders.

“You rang?” It said with a chuckle before being sent through several walls.

Now I won’t lie and say I was startled but I will say that my strength was starting to come back so that’s good.

The creature stood up and dusted himself up before popping out of existence and then popping back into existence next to me once again, and when I say popping I mean he inflated like a balloon and popped, “Well, I haven’t been hit hard enough to feel it in… well actually I can’t quite remember when the last time was so color me surprised!” It said with a wide grin while his body turned a bright shade of white and his mane, beard, and sparse amount of hair at the end of his dragon tail turned sunlight yellow.

Fluttershy when wide eyed and looked over the creature, “Oh my! You aren’t hurt are you Discord?”

“Oh posh my dear, it takes more than a good punch to do me in, although a good punch would be quite refreshing after breathing in all that dust.” He summoned in a glass full of red liquid, what I’m assuming to be punch, tipping it to take a drink only to have the glass drain down his gullet and the punch to remain, he then proceeded to smash the punch against his forehead, crumpling it like a soda can.

I blinked as my brain was trying to comprehend what was going on.

+And it is failing quite miserable I might add.+ Ixis said as she chuckled at my flabbergasted state.

Discord looked at me once more, “Oh my dear pegasus aren’t you going to introduce us?” He said to Shy not taking his eyes off of me, quite literally I might add.

“Oh! Of course, Discord this is Chris, Goldy’s Father.” She said gesturing to me, “Chris, this is Discord, he’s a friend.”

Discord held out his eagle talon and his eyes rolled off my shoulder and up his body back into their sockets, he smacked his head with his lion paw causing his eyes to roll around in his head before they settled into a natural position, “That’s me, Discord, Spirit of Chaos at your service, I used to be disharmony as well but after being reformed that went to someone else, Pleasure to meet another mish mashed creature!”

I looked at his talon and his smiling face, that’s when things started to click in my head, I shook his talon, “Pleasure to meet you as well Discord.” I said giving him a polite smile.

“Very good, now Fluttershy you called me?” He asked trying to turn away but he couldn’t remove his talon from my hand, and he turned back to me, “Well I didn’t know you liked handshakes so much, but I would very much like my talon back, normally I wouldn’t be opposed to lending someone a hand but I do like getting him back.”

My smile turned a bit more twisted and there was a very clear gleam in my eye if you were paying attention, “Oh I’m sorry about that, you and Shy said Discord correct?” He nodded and I closed my eyes and nodded in understanding, “Ah ok, just making sure.” I then reared my right hand back, forming it into a fist before slamming it into the side of his head as hard as I could. Of course this would have done what my last punch did and sent him flying through the castle walls, however I was still gripping his talon so that couldn’t happen. So what occurred instead was I drove my fist and his head along with the rest of him into the floor, creating a decent sized crater that obliterated the floor. Now this caused everyone to gasp and look at us, more specifically me.

I leaned down, my hand now open and gripping his head, pushing it further into the floor, I growled into his ear, “That was for betraying the girls and throwing away their friendship you absolute tool, you ever and I mean ever do anything even remotely close to that again I’ll make you wish you were trapped in stone, are we clear?”

Discord grunted under my hand and through the gravel, “Crystal.”

I let him go and stood up a smile adorning my face again, “Good. Now I do believe Shy has something to ask of you.” I said before dusting myself off and climbing out the crater I made, I walked passed Shy and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and apologized about what I just did before walking over to the others.

Luna was giving me a smirk whilst everyone else was just looking at me shocked, “What?” I asked the Lunar Princess who just shook her head and gave a small chuckle.

“Dude… what was that about?” Rainbow asked, slowly flapping to maintain a hover.

I shrugged, “I may not know exactly how you guys defeated Tirek, considering in the stain glass window none of you had Elements but I did hear how Tirek even getting to the point where something Element level was needed to deal with him was due to discord, I just… didn’t know that that was Discord.”

“How did you NOT know that was Discord, we kicked his tail almost twice and there’s a window for that too dude!” Rainbow said.

I stared at her, looked over at the rest of the girls, spike, and the princesses and at their nods I face palmed, of course there’s a window for discord how did I miss it, “Look I obviously missed it, really I guess the only thing that would’ve changed is I would’ve done what I did as soon as he burst through reality instead of being super confused.”

“Ok, yeah, but that still doesn’t really explain why ya did that in tha first place sugar cube.” AJ said.

I was about to answer but was cut off by Luna, “Lady Apple Jack, our dear friend and nephew Christopher is one to be protective, if your accounts of what happened with Sombra are to go by. He learned that our, and I hesitate to use this word, friend Discord happened to betray you all and put your lives at jeopardy, his friends… his family… and most importantly his daughter.” At that everyone’s eyes widened in realization, yes even all knowing Celestia’s, “Remember he nearly killed Sombra for merely harming Fluttershy, while you all may have been in danger I doubt it was to the scale of what Tirek was at. With Sombra we would have eventually found a way to defeat him but with Tirek and his magic absorbing abilities I doubt that would have ever have happened, thus it could have been the end of the would Christopher has come to know and the one that accepted him into it’s loving arms. Discord threatened all of what he held dear with his betrayal, truly I say what he did was letting Discord off easy.” She then looked at me and gave me a warm smile, “Was that close enough dear Nephew.”

I coughed, blushing heavily, really… I can’t help it she only calls me nephew when she’s in maximum caring mode, not saying she doesn’t always care but it’s more of a motherly and protective extreme when she does other times she’s still protective and caring but understands I like space. I nodded, “Yes, spot on Aunty Luna.” I looked at everyone and sighed, “Look I’ll admit it was a bit overkill and I get that you all have forgiven him.” At a few of their hesitant looks I chuckled, “Ok, mostly, forgiven him... but it’s going to take a lot more than whatever he did to even get as far as he has with all of you and more than he currently has to offer to get to the point he’s at with Shy. You all are my world, my everything, like Luna said, he put that at the most risk it’s ever been at and honestly I’m seething internally but Shy wouldn’t approve so I’m dealing with it.”

Speaking of, Shy just joined us again smiling widely, “Discord said he’d watch the house for us.”

I sighed, “Alright as long as it’s still a house when we get back.”

“Oh I’m sure he wouldn't do anything like that, would you Discord?”

The walking Picasso lazily drifted over to us and stopped, “Heart my cross and hope to eye, stick a fly in my cupcake.” He said before ending off an odd series of movements by sticking an open zipper in a cupcake… really? We all looked at him in utter confusion, “What it’s a Discord Promise, you know, like a Pinkie Promise but its a Discord Promise.”

“Yeah but instead of locking you into to what you agreed I bet it lets you do whatever you want.” Rainbow said under her breath.

I groaned, I did not have the patience for this right now, I turned to Twilight, “Is the portal up and running?”

She blinked, looked at her notepad, scribbled a few things and gave me a smile, “Yep, it’s all good to go, but since it’s locking onto a new universe all together you’ll need to go through first so it can get a baseline connection of something that’s intimately linked to your world and ours.”

I grabbed mine, Shy’s, and Goldy’s bags and stood in front of the portal, “Makes sense… uh does it have an exit spot or is it random?”

Twilight looked back down at her notepad, “I actually don’t know, maybe if you think of a mirror somewhere secluded it’ll have that as it’s base portal exit from here on and into the future?”

I shrugged, “Worth a try I suppose. Alright, Aunty Luna you’re in charge there’s money in the cookie jar on the fridge, the emergency gem is in my office and make sure your sister and my sister don’t burn down Equestria while I’m gone ‘kay? Oh, and no turning into an avatar of eternal nights and no parties got that?” I said giving them a mischievous grin as they just gawked at me. I turned towards Shining Armor, “And you mister, no baby making with my sister while I’m gone, I know what you children do when you have free time… honestly half the Crystal Empire does at this point.” Shining’s jaw just dropped and Cadance was blushing furiously, Twilight’s mouth was just opening and closing like a dying fish at that and Rainbow and Lyra were on the floor gasping for air. Finally I turned my attention to Discord, who audibly swallowed, “And you, if I find one thing out of place anywhere I will rip off that poor excuse of a beard and freeze it so far up your tail hole that even your magic won’t be able to fix it.” Everyone winced at that.

His eyes shrunk in fear and surprise, “When you mean anywhere-”

I cut him off, “I mean this world, this universe, this reality and any possible realities, timelines, or universes.”

Discord nodded quickly and saluted an Army helmet popping on his head, “Sir yes sir not a thing out of place upon your return.”

Bon Bon whistled, “Haven’t seen someone get Discord in place like that other than Fluttershy.”

“Well they are getting married darling so it only makes sense that he would be able to reign in that ruffian.” Rarity said.

“Welp, see you all on the flipside.” I turned towards the mirror, so just think about a mirror I want to pop out of huh? Sounds easy enough, I took a deep and stepped through/

~In a world a ways away and then some~

Lilac sighed as she fumbled around her keychain looking for the right key to the front door, normally she wouldn’t have a problem but she just got back from a long day with her daughters, they went to an amusement park after they kept their good grades throughout the year, she did promise after all.

“Having trouble getting the key mom?” Her oldest daughter,Vivian, age 15 asked.

“Sorry sorry, one moment I don’t even know why I have all these stupid keys.” Really she didn’t, she didn’t even remember what over half of them went to, something her ex husband had or some other things, she couldn’t remember but because of that she couldn’t get rid of them because what if she ran into the thing she needed one of the keys for? It was an endless cycle.

Lilac felt a tugging on her pant leg and looked down to see her youngest there, Tina, age 8, looking up at her, “Do you need a light mommy?”

“Actually, that would help, Vivian could you shine a light over here?”

The teenager groaned, hating her full name being used, “Yeah, one sec mom.” She pulled out her phone and turned on the flashlight, shining it on the bundle of keys her mother was fumbling around with.

“Thanks sweetheart. Ah here we go… you know getting the floral key cover really only helps during the day.” Lilac said to no one in particular.

Vivi, what she preferred being called, scoffed, “Well if you’d just get rid of the other keys it wouldn’t matter. It’s not like dad is coming back to tell us what they’re used for.”

Lilac sighed, Vivi was always like this when it came to anything related to her father, they’ve had many arguments about him, but she understood where her daughter was coming from, after all she had to deal with that from Andrea regarding their mother, only difference is her ex husband was still alive… somewhere. Lilac felt another tug on her pants and looked down at Tina, she smiled and ruffled her youngest’s hair making her laugh. Tina, never knew her father, he left only a few months after she was born.

Not like it mattered, Lilac thought. She shook her head clear of those thoughts, it’s been 8 years no need to dwell on it anymore… at least that’s what she tells Vivi, she should follow her own advice.

She finally got the door unlocked and open, she stepped inside the large house and felt along the wall for the light switch until she felt it, she flicked it expecting the entry way lights to turn on, only for nothing to happen, “Strange…. I know I paid the electric bill this month.” She flicked the switch a few more times, was there a power outage? She looked behind her to see the street lights were still on, ok that means the breaker in the house was flipped by a surge of some kind.

“Vivi can you run around back and flip the-” She was cut off by a loud crash coming from the second floor, “Girls, go wait by the car.”

“But mom-” Vivi started.

“I said go wait by the car!” She snapped at her daughter and looked at her, seeing that Vivi was scared, “Sorry, just, please go wait by the car, If I’m not back in 30 minutes call the police ok?” She looked down at Tina, “Go wait with your sister ok sweetheart?”

Tina nodded and walked over to her sister, “Be careful mommy.”

“Thanks sweetie I will.” She looked at Vivi and gave a quick nod before heading inside, she snuck along the bottom floor hallway until she reached the stairway. She crept up the stairs, avoiding any of the squeaky panels she’s come to know over the years of living in her mother’s old house. She stopped at the second floor landing and waited for another sound to happen, nothing did so she decided to walk quietly and quickly down the hall before she heard quick pitter pattering behind her, she froze deathly still ready for whatever was about to happen.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt something brush against her leg, she looked down to see Cookie, her brother’s cat snaking her way through her legs, purring heavily before giving off a raspy meow.

She let out a breath and smiled, “Silly old cat, you almost gave me a heart attack, was that you making the noise up here?” The cat looked up at her and just meowed. Lilac laughed, very much relieved. However that relief was short lived as noise that sounded like whispering was coming from one of the rooms in the hall, she gulped and slowly moved down the hall. She followed the voices until she stopped in front of a door she actively avoided, it was her brother’s room, how was there anyone in there, the windows are locked and so is the door, from the inside unless you have a key. It didn’t seem like a forced entry, at least not from the doorway, she put an ear up against the door and listened, she did indeed hear voices… feminine voices? That sounded like they were arguing about something?

“Pinkie darling would you mind getting off of me please?” Said a very posh voice.

“Oops sorry Rarity, hehe, I can’t see where I’m going I think I tripped over something.” Said a bubbly high pitched voice.

“Yeah that something was me…” Groaned out a country accented voice.

“Be quiet, please, I have no idea if this place is empty, if it is great, if it isn’t we really don’t want anyone to know we’re here… yet.” Said a familiar male voice in the tone of a harsh whisper.

Lilac backed away from the door, there were strangers in her house, multiple from the sounds of, maybe a group, maybe they were college students and wanted to break into a big house as a prank? She didn’t know and wasn’t sure, but they didn’t sound dangerous. Well, Lilac, you’re about to do something dumb, hope you know what you’re getting yourself into.

She reached up towards her hair bun and pulled out the pin holding it in place, once she removed it her hair fell around her face and over her shoulders, she looked at the hair pin and mentally prepared herself, she had the key to this room turned into a hair pin, the end of it still maintaining the shape of the key. She felt it would be the best way to keep it safe since she kept her hair up most of the time. She inserted the key pin and turned it, hearing the tale tale click of a lock unlocking.

She slowly opened the door and peered inside the room, for a split second she thought she saw a blue eye glowing at her until she blinked and it was gone, but not what it belonged to, it may have been dark in the room but she could still see the black outlines of several people.

“W-Who’s there?” She stammered out, oh real nice, ‘who’s there’? Who’s going to answer to that, especially with that stutter at the beginning.

But before she was able to finish berating herself the same male voice as before spoke up, “Sorry about this Lady, we didn’t know anyone lived here and-” He was cut off as the familiar hum of electricity whired through the house and the lights flickered back on.

Lilac closed her eyes at the sudden assault of light to her pupils, she slowly opened her eyes, blinking away the blurry image that was still present but before her vision was clear the male spoke once more.

“L-Lily… is that you?” The voice said with genuine surprise.

Lilac on the other hand froze, no… no it couldn’t be, only 2 people every called her Lily and they were both gone, no this had to be a trick or a dream or something. She blinked one last time and let the blurriness fully clear and she gasped at what she saw.

It was her older brother Christopher, this had to be a dream right? But… no, she’s had dreams about Chris before. She always dreamed of him exactly the last way she saw him, tired, broken, pudgy, and ready to run and escape from everything. But this person standing in front of her was alive, colorful, full of joy and hope…. Happy, this couldn’t’ve been her brother… he was so different, oh my god his eye, those scars… what happened, why was he wearing an eye patch? Wait the other eye…. No… this was her brother in that eye she saw the one thing that was ever present whenever he was around her no matter how bad things were going for him. A smile, a smile that shook her to her very core, one she hasn’t seen in so many years.

“Lily, my little flower, is that you? It’s me Chris.” He said with a sad smile, god that smile… Lilac had longed to see it ever since she was a teenager.

But that was that was the breaking point for her, she leaned against the door frame and slid down it until she was on her knees, she felt tears running down her face, she was crying, she didn’t know why she was crying but she was, was she happy? Was she sad, maybe mad? She didn’t know but what she did know is that it was too much. She stayed on her knees and let her tears flow, that was when she felt arms around her pull her into an embrace.

“Oh my little flower… I’m so sorry.” He said, her brother said.

She hiccoughed and buried her face into her brother’s chest, “Please… please don’t let this be a dream.”

~Chris’ POV~

I’ll admit I was expecting to see my family but not this fast… I looked down at my baby sister and just ran my fingers through her hair, I then looked at everyone behind me. They all had different looks on their faces, ranging from concern to mild jealousy, heh, I shook my head.

I continued to run my fingers through her hair or a few more seconds before I spoke up, “I see you decided to let your hair grow out like you always wanted.”

Lilac sniffed and gave a weak laugh before pulling away from me some, “That’s the first you thing you’ve said this entire time.”

I smirked, “Is it? I figured calling you by mom and mine’s nickname for you was the fist me thing I said.”

She laughed and rolled her eyes, “This really isn’t a dream is it?”

I shook my head, “No, Lily, it’s not, I’m back.”

She eventually stood back up and I joined her in that I finally got to look at her, she looked… older. Like I told the girls years ago, she was my adopted sister. She’s actually Asian, Japanese to be exact. She was about 5’5, had a smooth, heart shaped face with almond shaped eyes with iris a nice chocolate brown. She let her hair grow out from the short bob she had to where it was now a few inches past her shoulders. Like most Asian women that you see in media she was petite but that didn’t mean she didn’t have a figure, in fact a lot of boys were pining after here when she was in high school, it was amusing to see how uncomfortable she got. Really all in all she looked… good, tired but good.

“What happened to you, where did you go, who are all these people?” She asked gesturing to my friends and family.

I hesitated for a second, “Can we go downstairs and discuss this in the living room, it’s a bit cramped in here, also kind of dusty.”

Lilac nodded, “Of course I just need to- THE GIRLS!” She yelled out, eyes going wide at the realization of something.

I cocked my head to the side, “The girls?”

“Yes, my girls, I need to go get the before they call the cops. You know the way downstairs, I’ll meet you there?” She asked.

I nodded, and she left quickly, I turned around and looked at everyone, surprisingly they all looked relatively the same, except they were now fully human, but they did retain their hair color. The Apple Siblings were white, though they had very obvious tans, guess being out in the sun all day translated over. The Belles were just as snow white as their coats were back in Equestria. Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash also had heavy tans due to their outdoor activities.

Fluttershy was pale, not ghostly so but more like… angelically pale, which I found confusingly amusing considering she also spent a good amount of time outside. Pinkie was just normal skin tone white and Twilight was well… funnily enough she had a tan skin tone very similar to mine, neat.

Bon Bon and Lyra were also white but Bonnie had a slight tan to her, not as heavy as AJ or Rainbow’s but it was there and Lyra, like Pinkie was just an even skin tone.

It was Spike and Goldy who shocked me the most. Spike was, like twilight a skin tone very close to mine if not a slight bit lighter and he had spiky green hair.

Goldy very much was the lightest skin tone in terms of natural brown skin tones of the group, but I expected no less from being me and Shy’s kid, and she still had the pale gold hair and bright blue eyes.

I clapped, “Well, welcome to Earth everyone, and welcome to being human.” They all fully looked at themselves and one another.

“Oh thank Celestia I’m not a dog this time.” Spike aid with a relieved sigh.

“Having no fur feels so weird, I can feel all the air directly and it’s cold! Is this what you feel all the time Chris?” Lyra asked.

“Well, cold? No, heat yes, all the time, before I got my draconic powers yes that's what I felt all the time.” I said, “Ok, but let’s get to the living room, we’ll do introductions there, and besides I’m curious as to who these girls are.” I lead the way downstairs to a very large living room, enough space for everyone to sit somewhere comfortably.

“Whoa, Chris, dude, this is your house?” Rainbow Asked.

I nodded, “A small part of it yeah, and I doubt it’s my house anymore. I’ve been gone for so long.”

“Oh no, it’s still your house, as it’s mine. Andrea’s and Dad’s, though we both know they would never live here.” Lilac’s Vice rang out as she rounded the corner.

“Yeah but I’ve been gone for years, I thought you all would’ve just declared me dead.” I said.

“Trust me we got a lot of suggestions to do that but we, mostly, never gave up hope, but enough of that for now, we can discuss it a bit later, I want you to meet two people.”

I smirked, “I’m guessing your girls?”

She nodded and looked at the corner she rounded, “Vivi, Tina, quit being shy and come say hi to your Uncle Chris!”

I mouthed, ‘Uncle?’ to myself but it clicked as I saw two kids round the corner, one clearly a teenager and the other one I’d say was at least 7, they looked almost exactly like their mother. The major difference being their hair as curly instead of straight and their eyes were green. There were more subtle differences between them but nothing worth really mentioning.

The youngest one looked up at Lilac, “That’s my uncle mommy?” She asked pointing me.

“Yes Sweetheart, go say hi.” Lilac said, giving her a little push.

The little one slowly made her way over to me, “He-Hello, I’m Tina.” he said quietly, not looking at me.

I smiled, “Hi Tina, I’m Chris, you want to know a secret?” She looked at me slowly and nodded, I got really close to her ear and whispered, “My middle name is Tina too.”

She gasped, “Really?” I nodded, “Mommy, did you hear that? Uncle Chris said his name is Tina too!”

Lilac laughed, “I know sweetie, you’re named after him.”

Tina looked at her mother and then at me, eyes wide with wonder, “I am? But why do you have a girls name?”

I laughed hard at that and I heard laughter behind me as well, “Well that’s because Grandma and Grandpa were very sleepy when I was born.”

Tina made an O shape with her mouth and looked over at her mother, “Were you sleepy when you named me too mommy?”

Lilac tried to say something but was just kind of looking panicked. I looked at my little sister, she really was sleepy when she named her wasn’t she? I snorted and then that snort turned into full blown guffawing.

“You totally were sleepy when you named her weren’t you?!” I said between breaths.

Lilac blushed, “I was not… ok I was but I did purposely name her after you I just decided it in a half awake state.” She said with a pout.

That just made me laugh harder, I was going for a good minute before I calmed down, “Hoo, sorry sorry, that’s just too funny.” I ruffled up Tina’s hair, causing her to giggle and she decided to sit in my lap.

She looked to left of me, looking at Fluttershy, “Hi I’m Tina, are you Uncle Chris’ wife?” That question caught everyone off guard and made Fluttershy blush as she stammered to get and answer out.

I coughed, “We’ll get to that little one. Now, who’s miss grouchy over there.” I asked looking at the teenager.

Lilac smiled and put an arm around her, “This one is Vivian, she’s obviously my oldest. Vivian that’s your Uncle.”

“I know, I was paying attention.” She walked up to me and held out a hand, “Hey, I’m Vivian, but everyone calls me ViVi.” She saw me looking at her hand, “What?”

I raised an eyebrow and set her little sister to the side, on Fluttershy’s lap, “Really a handshake?”

“Well yeah, what were you expecting?”

I smiled and grabbed her, pulling her into a hug, “I expected a hug.” I said quietly to her, she squirmed at first but eventually she gave in and hugged me back. “See was that so bad?” I asked her as I let her go.

“No… not really.” She mumbled out.

“Good, well now that that’s out of the way I guess I should introduce everyone. Everyone this is Lilac, Lilac this is everyone.” I said with a smile… which then turned into a sigh as Lilac and Shy both glared at me, “Alright alright… sheesh.” I stood up, “Everyone, this is Lilac, my adopted baby sister, I call her Lily. Those are, I guess, my nieces; Tina, named after me and Vivian… named after mom?” I asked as I looked back at Lilac just to be sure, she gave me a confirming nod, “Yes named after my mom.”

I then turned towards the girls and stood next to Lilac, “Lilac these are my friends and family. We have the one with striped purple hair, the studious and magical Twilight Sparkle, who’s also my sister in law through adoption.” Never really thought about it like that really.

“Hi!” She said with a happy smile.

“Her little brother and mine, adopted, and number one assistant the one with the spiky hair, Spike.”

“Yo.” Said the dragon turned human.

“Next we have the hard working and honest Apple Jack and her equally hard working little sister Apple Bloom.”

“Howdy.” Said the stetson wearing woman.

“Nice to meet ya!” Said the bow wearing girl.

“Then we have the lovely and generous Rarity, and her little sister who could woo a crowd with her voice, Sweetie Belle.”

“A pleasure Darling.” Rarity said with refine.

“I like your name!” Sweetie said with a smile, causing Lilac to chuckle.

“The loyal and courageous Rainbow Dash, and her number one fan and adopted little sister, Scootaloo.”

Rainbow looked upset but smiled quickly, “Don’t forget fastest, and it’s awesome to meet you!”

“What Rainbow said, I can’t wait to see all the cool stuff you have here!” Scootaloo said happily, getting excited over all the possibilities.

“Then you have my two best friends the candy maker extraordinaire, Bon Bon and her annoying but happy go lucky wife, Lyra.”

“Aww that’s sweet of you Chris. And it’s nice to meet you Lilac.” Bon Bon said.

Lyra pouted, “Why did I get the mean description?”

“Not mean, accurate.” Bon Bon said giving her wife a sly smile, this just made Lyra pout more.

I laughed, “Well speaking of laughter, we have the woman who can make any party for any one and have the world’s biggest smile doing it, the party planner supreme, Pinkie Pie!”

Pinkie jumped up and threw out confetti from somewhere, “That’s me, I can’t wait to throw a return home part for Chrissy here, he’s been looking forward to coming back.”

Lilac raised an eyebrow and looked at me, “Don’t question it, its Pinkie.” Is what I said to her.

“And last but not least is the always kind and the love of my life, Fluttershy, my fianceè, and our daughter, my sunshine on cloudy days, Golden Skies or as we call her Goldy.”

“H-Hello, nice to meet you.” She said with a small smile.

“Hiya Auntie Lilac!” Goldy said happily.

Lilac looked at Shy and then at me, once again raising an eyebrow and then giving me a smirk, I knew that look.

“Hey shut up, you know how I am.” I protested.

“You’re right I do, that’s why I know what attracted you to her in the first place.” Lilac said with a giggle.

“Shut it.” I quickly said.

“Fine fine, but I still have so many questions like how did you all meet, why did you leave and what have you been doing these past 17 years? And why didn’t you come back until now?” Lilac spouted out, going a bit too fast but spending enough time with Pinkie will train you for it and I definitely caught that number she said.

I laughed nervously, “I’m sorry, it sounded like you said I’d been gone for 17 years, I’ve only been gone for 5, give or take a few months.”

Lilac look just as confused as me, “No it’s been 17 years, I had ViVi when I was 20, I’m 35 now. You disappeared when I was 18.”

I blanched, “W-what I’m only 26. I know I’ve only been gone 5 years, I had Goldy 5 years ago, kind of and that was when I was new where I was.”

Lilac shook her head, “That makes no sense you should be 38.”

I blinked trying to wrap my head around what was going on but Twilight was the one who spoke up.

“I think I know what’s going on.” She said.

Lilac and I, along with everyone else looked at her, as they were just as confused as we were.

She slightly shrunk away from all the sudden attention, “Well… you see… uh basically if I’m correct our universes move at different speeds from one another, this one moving 3.4 times faster than ours to be exact, which makes some amount of sense. I don’t think many universes would run at the same speed depending on how and when they were created. I could go more into it if you would like… but I get this distinct feeling no one would really get what I’m talking about.”

“Probably not, but thank you Sis, I understand.” I said.

Lilac however was still very confused, “I don’t…. other universes, time moving at a different speeds, what are you talking about?”

I sighed, “I was really hoping to avoid all this but… I guess you have a right to know. You see… I left when I saw felt the ground rumble in the forest outside of the house.”

Lilac nodded and then gasped, “The crater the shooting star left?” I raised an eyebrow, “The authorities said that a meteorite fell from the sky and landed in the forest, i went to check it out myself one day and there were just a big crater with nothing in it, I asked them about it and they said that someone probably took it and pawned it off for money or something. Is that what you did? So you could travel or something?”

I shook my head, “Why would I need to pawn off a space rock for money, we’re loaded thanks to mom. And no, it wasn’t a space rock that landed in the forest it was something… else.”

I told my story of how I met Ixis, the girls, my escapades in Equestria I even touched up a bit on some of the time during my training. Recalled events as they led up to right now.

“And now here we are, back home.” I said taking sip of some water that i got halfway through y recalling.

Lilac looked at me, and everyone else, incredulously, “So you’re telling me, that you made a wish to a dying dragon, that breathed ice, and you got sent to an alternate dimension, where in actuality; everyone here, except Spike who is a dragon, is an anthropomorphized pony that ranges from normal, pegasus, unicorn, and Alicorn, whatever that is, and you are half dragon and your daughter is also half dragon and pony and some human thrown in for good measure and you have the spirit of a dragon living inside you head? Also, you got adopted into royalty because you simply…. Asked?” I nodded, “And you lost your eye and are using an eyepatch to cover it up because its tainted by ‘dark magic’ and your weird mental tick of blaming everything on a different aspect of yourself got infused with that world’s ‘magic and dark magic’ and became an entity all on its own?” I nodded once again, “Also also, this isn’t what any of you actually look like and there is a portal connected to the mirror in your room and that magic made you look human, and human again to better suit this world?”

“Well that last one is speculation on my part but considering that according to Twilight when she went to the actual parallel world to Equestria she was made more humanoid, I would assume that yes that is the case.” I said.

Lilac blinked and sighed, “Yeah I’m sorry but I just don’t believe that, do you know how ridiculous that sounds?”

I leaned back into the couch, “Yes, I do, but here’s the thing, when have you ever known me to lie about something serious on this kind of level?”

Lilac opened her mouth to say something but closed it, before opening it again, “I… you… that one time with…. I mean… crap.”

“Yeah, exactly, come on, you know me better than that. Honestly, I expected you to not believe me in the first place, it’s why I had something made just for this occasion… amongst a few others.” I stood up, “Excuse me for a second I need to go grab a bag I brought along.” I quickly made my way upstairs and heard talking coming from the living room as I left.

‘Hey, you there? I haven’t heard you since we came here.’ I asked Ixis.

+Yes I’m here and sorry about that but the magic in this world is… weak, stronger than when I was last here but still weaker than Equestria.+ She said, sounding kind of muffled and distorted.

‘Oh, well I guess that makes sense, do you need to rest at all or?’

+Yes, I think that would be for the best.+ She said, her voice getting more subdued.

‘Ok, well you do that, get rest and keep as much of your attention on Wrath’s door that you can, we don’t want him causing any trouble, if he even can.’ I said, I felt her give a weak nod and the noise that normal accompanies her presence faded away.

I felt my shoulders sag, it was going to be weird not having her being able to chime n whenever she wanted. Oh well, time to find what I came looking for. I dug around the pile of bags and suitcases in the room before seeing what i needed, probably was it was underneath one of Rarity’s huge suitcases that didn’t have wheels, seriously?

I groaned, “Ok, well, let’s see if we can get this off shall we.” I moved closer to the bag and put my hands against it and took a deep breath. I propped myself at an angle that gave me good leverage and I gave the suitcase a good shove, a really good shove… ok I may have sent it flying into the wall.

“Well good to know I kept my strength, even if it’s a bit lessened.” I bent down and picked up a small pink, blue, and white bag. Good, everything looks intact, now back to my family.

I made my way back to the living room, “Ok I have what I need, now here, one for each of you.” I pulled out tiny crystal orbs, all holding different colored swirls of magic with in them.

I handed a multi shaded purple one to Twilight.

The rainbow one to Rainbow.

The royal purple, blue, and white one to Rarity.

The orange one to Aj.

The blindingly pink one to Pinkie.

A yellow and pink one to Shy.

A yellow and blue one to Goldy.

A teal and off white one to Lyra.

A purple, pink and cream one to Bon Bon.

A pale yellow and red one to Apple Bloom.

An orange and purple one to Scootaloo.

A white and two toned purple one to Sweetie Belle.

And a pure green one to Spike.

Finally I took one out for myself, it was swirling with white and blue, with small specks of black popping into existence within the marble every now and again.

“Oooohhhh, swirly…” Pinkie said, her eyes following the pink swirls in hers.

Twilight looked at the orbs, “Are these what you had Ontogenesis working on?”

I nodded, “Yep, it’s also why I asked for you all to demonstrate your specific magics to me.”

“Ok that explains why you randomly asked me to pull off a sonic rainboom a couple of days ago, but that still doesn’t explain what these are though.” Rainbow said, examining her little rainbow crystal, which she shook, causing the colors to swirl faster within.

I smiled, “Anyone want to take a guess?” After several long seconds of silence Fluttershy was the one to raise her hand, “Go ahead Shy.”

“W-well when you came back you looked like how you do now, no horns or wings or tail or teeth, but the you broke one of these little crystals and it all came back.” She said, this of course was news to everyone except her and Goldy.

Twilight looked at me, “Wait so you mean to tell me that these crystal orbs-”

“Transform you, yep, into whatever you pre program them into.” I said cutting her off, “Although it’s temporary as the magic of the world does not like you going against it’s wishes. This was something the R&D department up at the Crystal Empire came up with, mostly as a means for me to disguise myself as I traveled, after all me walking around with horns and a tail, kind of extra obvious, sometimes it paid to be… discreet. Now, as I'm sure you noticed the magic of my world is… weak, which in turn is draining your magic faster and making you all weaker than you normally are, same goes for me. This little crystals are infused with enough to your magical energy to have you running at full power for a maximum of an hour and a minimum of I’d say…. 10 minutes, that’s only if you’re really drawing on your magical reserves through, which we shouldn’t need to do here.”

“Ok, but how does this disguise us exactly? I Understand how it’s able to empower us, buy popping them between our fingers it forces our magic into our bodies, sort of like a small short term magical battery. It’s the transformation part I don’t understand.” Twilight said.

“Right well if you all would examine your orbs closely, please tell me what you see.” They did and Sweetie was the one to speak up first.

“Oh! I see little flecks of blue, sparkly white, and black disappeared and reappearing.” She said.

At the this the others started to notice it too, “Chris, what are those?” I heard, Bon Bon ask.

“Those, my dear candy making friend, are bits and pieces of my magic, every aspect of my magic. You see, the funny thing is, even if you store a transformation spell within the orbs it really only acts as an illusion, all your bits and parts still exist, they’re just... hidden. I, however, am a special case due to how my magic works and the fact that i can, or will be able to, transform at will my magic in those orbs actually changes your physical make up when it’s combined with different magic signatures, it doesn’t turn you into the thing completely but more merges who you are with traits from whatever the magic in the orb is from. Interestingly enough only one aspect of my dragon magic comes through, you all will get itty bitty fangs, but really it’s not noticeable unless you’re trying to pay attention to that.”

They were all looking at their orbs with amazement shining in their eyes, Twilight and Rainbow the most. Though i’m pretty sure those were for two opposite reasons.

“Now remember.” I started saying, “This is temporary, the magic of the world, as faint as it is, will force you to turn back eventually, so really I’d say these are emergency use only.”

I turned to Lilac and my nieces, who looked confused as all get out, “Sorry Lily, I know that must have been confusing. I’d say it gets less confusing from here on out… but I’d be lying if I did, just…. Watch the show I suppose.”

~Lilac’s Pov~

Lilac… really wasn’t sure what was going on, her brother told her all these wild stories about a magical land called Equestria on a planet called Equis… honestly she was beginning to wonder if he actually went insane over the years and these were really just doctors helping him cope.

Then he went upstairs and came back with a bag full of marbles, he called them crystals but they looked like a mix of those glitter balls and the tooth paste marbles that she used to collect when she was a kid. She was debating just leaving and calling the cops but decided against it, this was her brother and whether he was crazy or not she missed hi and wanted to see him.

She was about to say something to get him to stop but that's when she heard a pop come from the hand of the rainbow haired one, rainbow liquid leaking over her hand and then a bright light started to emit from the liquid as it slowly expanded and surrounded the woman, is glowing and flashing all the colors of the rainbow.

That’s when the rest of them all nodded and proceeded to pop their respective marbles, all being covered in light the colors that were swirling in the marbles.

Lilac looked at her brother who was the only one who didn’t pop his marble, oh no, she knew that smile, it’s the one he gave when he knows he’s won something. No there was still a chance he hasn’t done-nope nevermind, he just winked, well she was screwed.

Chris popped his marble and light surrounded him as well. Lilac was… needless to say, surprised but she was also terrified of what she was about to see, she looked over at her daughters, her youngest was smiling widely and rocking back and forth, clearly excited. Her oldest, however, had wide eyes of concern but she noticed that there was also excitement deep behind the concern. Lilac… couldn’t help but smile inwardly at that.

Her attention to her children did not last long however as the rainbow light cocoon started to shake violently before a brief flash of what looked like a cloud producing a rainbow lightning bolt flashed into existence and the light cocoon shattered, leaving a sky blue anthropomorphic pegasus in its place.

Lilac blinked, well… son of a bitch, he was telling the truth, but wait that means… she looked at the rest of the cocoons and one by one they started flashing pictures. 3 diamonds, 3 apples, Multicolored balloons, A microphone with music coming out of it, an apple with a nail being hammered in it, a flaming wheel, an angel harp, 3 candies, 3 butterflies, and a six pointed purple star with 5 smaller white stars surrounding it.

Chris’, Golden Skies’ and Spike’s were the ones that were different. Spike’s while being green at first and in the shape of an oval like everyone else’s, when it was time for his image to appear, a green flame like aura did instead. Golden Skies’ turned crystalline and shiny, with a very light blue and gold aura, and it glinted in the lights that were given off from everyone else’s cocoons.

Chris’ was the most diverse, it turned crystalline blue like Golden Skies’, had an imagine of a dragon entwined with a snowflake, and had a white and black flame like aura emitting from it. Quickly one by one in the order that the images appeared the cocoons broke open leaving anthropomorphic ponies in her living room, a tall purple and green lizard, a smaller blue, white, and pale gold dragon that also had fur… how strange but she supposed that made sense.

Finally her brother’s cocoon cracked apart and burst open, revealing him but he looked drastically different, he had large white horns that followed the curve of the top of his head before curving and pointing straight up, ending in a sharp point. He also had a blue reptilian tail that had white spines that ended off in a spiral point. She would guess was around...4 feet in length that was a decent thickness, but nothing too unwieldy. However the most prominent thing was his gigantic wings, they reached up a decent distance above his head at the knuckle joint, which had 3 small claws, and they were only were a couple inches off the ground. He stretched and yawned, his mouth full of razor sharp teeth and a long snake like tongue. Once he opened his eye she saw he also had an icy blue eye with a slit pupil.

“So, you think I’m crazy now?” He asked, cold air starting to pour off of him, this being the last straw causing Lilac to pass out.

~Chris’ POV~

I jumped forward quickly and caught Lilac before she hit the ground, “Whoa ok, did not expect that to happen.”

Tina looked up at me, no surprise or fear evident in her eyes, just pure wonder, “Is mommy going to be ok?”

“Yeah, she’ll be ok, she just got a bit too much excitement happening.” I turned my attention to ViVi, “I’ll wake her up, do you mind getting her a glass of water?”

ViVi shook her head numbly and walked to the kitchen, I chuckled, that’s the reaction I was expecting. I brought Lilac over to the couch and laid her down, “Hey, Tina you wanna see something cool?” She nodded with a wide grin, “Cool, watch this.” I held up my hand and cooled it down rapidly to the point where fog and mist were pouring off of it, I lifted up the hem of Lilac’s shirt slightly and slipped my cool hand onto her stomach.

This caused a reaction of her quickly sitting up, yelping in surprise and displeasure, making Tina laugh, and then Lilac punched me squarely in the jaw, “YOU JERK!!” She shouted out before quickly realizing that she just punched me in the face, “Oh my gosh, i’m sorry, you aren’t hurt are you?!”

I laughed and moved her hand, “I’m fine, promise, really didn’t even feel it.”

She looked up at me, and then at everyone else and then back at me, “What are you all?”

I smiled, “I told you they’re ponies; earth, pegasi, unicorns, and in the case of Twilight and a handful of others are alicorns, there are a few other sub species but it’s such a long list I don’t feel like going on about it.”

ViVi came back with the glass of water and sat next to her mother, still trying to process everything. Lilac happily too the glass of water and chugged it down, “Ok that explains them, but Spike, Golden Skies, You?”

“I told you already, Spike is a dragon, Golden Skies is a Kirin, and I’m half dragon half human, a new race I deemed Drakon.” I explained, sitting back down between Goldy and Shy.

Lilac looked down, clearly thinking before she nodded and started laughing, “So everything you told me, was the truth?” I nodded, “Ok, so you told me what happened, how you left, you never told me why you left, or why you came back now instead of any time earlier.”

I sighed and sat forward, “You ain't going to be proud or happy with me for this… but at the time I thought there was nothing for me here anymore. I just wanted to leave, do something that would give me, I don’t know, purpose?”

Lilac gave me an intense look, “You left to find purpose? What purpose, you had us, your friends… your family.”

I snorted, “I’ll give you friends, hell whatever one's stayed here, the rest left and didn’t bother checking in on me.”

“What?! They were worried sick about you, you just never responded to any of their calls or messages, so what else were they supposed to do, keep checking in on you? They aren’t your keepers, maybe they oh I don’t know felt like you just wanted some space and respected that.”

“I… yeah I know… I know and I know I should’ve responded or at least tried to get back in touch with them… but…”

“But what? And what do you mean you’ll give me friends? What about your family?” She asked.

“My family-” I said with some spite, “Was falling apart when I left. Andrea left because she hated Mom and what her and dad’s divorce and mom’s death did to him, so she ran from the problem. Dad, became a drunken shell who’d lash out at his children. I was fucking broken because mom DIED and I was left dealing with the fallout from Andrea’s and Dad’s bullshit, and when I had the opportunity to leave I took it because I couldn’t deal with it, you could’ve come with, gotten away from it all but you decided to stay.” My voice was rising, getting close to shouting as I went on about my family’s issues.

Lilac blinked, before standing up and actually shouting, “You think I wanted to stay?! Had to because you all were leaving, yes dad might have been an abusive drunk but he was just as broken as the rest of us after mom died! Do you know how much it hurt him hearing Andrea spout off the toxic shit she said about mom?”

I shot into a standing position, my tail flicking side to side angrily, “Well he sure as fuck didn’t ever stop her!”

“That’s because he figured she would eventually get over it… he was wrong, obviously and when Andrea left, he got even worse.” She said, still just as angry, but more quietly.

My tail slapped the floor, leaving a slight scuff, I heard my name being called from behind me, I ignored it, “I know, I remember, it got much worse after Andrea left.”

Lilac nodded and looked at me… no into me, “And you took the brunt of it, you always did when it came to me, you protected me from anything he would try to do.”

“I did and eventually it became too much and I had to leave, it’s why I left, I couldn’t deal with it, from his physical drunken abuse to Andrea’s verbal emotional tirades whenever we’d see her, I just needed to leave, hell my own personal life outside of family didn’t help either. It’s why i wanted you to come with me, to live here, so you could get away from it all!” Once again I heard my name being called and I decided to ignore it.

“You leaving was destroying Dad even more but you didn’t see that because of how angry you were, but I didn’t stop you because I knew you staying wouldn’t have been good for anyone. It broke him completely, Chris, you leaving was what finally broke him completely.”

“Yeah, right, he still had you there, I doubt me leaving bothered him…” I blinked and just had something dawn on me, “He… didn’t hit you did he?”

She shook her head, “No, he didn’t like I said, you leaving completely and utterly broke him, yes I may have been his daughter too, but I was adopted, you were the last thing to remind him of Mom. He had nothing left, but he also didn’t want to push away the one person who stayed through everything. He got real sick after you left you know? The stress was too much and I had to take care of him.”

“Why bother, you should’ve just let the bastard die at that point.” I said coldly, before I felt a hand on my shoulder and I looked in that direction, only to come face to face with a very angry looking Fluttershy.

“Chris, that’s enough, calm down, look at your sister, look at your family, look at us, what do you see?” Shy said, tears welling u in her eyes as her eyes went from angry to worried.

I looked behind me at my family from Equestria, they were scared… they were worried, I turned my head back front and looked at my nieces, they were also scared and worried. I then looked at Lilac, she had the same look in her eyes but also sadness. I looked between them all and then down at my hand, my eyepatch was in my hand… when did that happen? I gasped and then quickly put said hand up to my eye, feeling the dark magic aggressively flowing out. I turned away and quickly refastened the eyepatch over my eye.

I took a deep breath and turned back to Lilac, I kept my distance however, “I-I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t have left like that. There was so much I should’ve have done and so much I shouldn’t have done. How… uh…. How is the old man and Andrea?” I asked, giving a weak smile.

Lilac sighed, “Dad died 2 years after you disappeared, he lived long enough to see Vivian born but after that he said that it was good that the last choice he and mom made, adopting me, ended up ok. After all he messed up with you two so at least something good happened. He only got weaker after that until one day he just died in his sleep. After that I moved here with Vivian and Tina’s father and I’ve been living here ever since. I haven’t really heard from Andrea since dad’s funeral so I have no idea how she’s doing, I do know where she lives though. I think you should go see her though, she needs to see her family.”

I nodded, “That was the plan, was to come back and apologize to everyone and to properly say goodbye.”

“Goodbye, you aren't staying?” Tina asked me, with big eyes.

I smiled at her, “Sorry for scaring you and your sister Tina, but no I can’t stay, I have things to take care of back in Equestria.”

She looked down at the ground, “Oh… well I understand, I have stuff to take care of too and I know that it’s important that I do or I’ll get in trouble.”

I ruffled her hair, “Hey it’s ok I’m going to be here for a while so it won’t be goodbye too soon.”

“Speaking of, how long are you going to be here?” Lilac asked.

“Good question, it was around two weeks if I’m not mistaken. But, hey Twilight, how long can we push the portal open?” I asked, the Alicorn.

“Well Equestria side we can push the portal open for little over 2 weeks until it starts to deteriorate, that will give us exactly 2 months here.” She said.

“2 months, that's so little time compared to 17 years… but I’ll take what I can get. Now it’s getting late, and it is well past Tina’s bedtime.” This caused the 8 year old to whine out in protest, “Now now young lady, we both know you get cranky if you don’t sleep enough.”

I chuckled, “like you’re one to talk, if you didn’t get 12 hours you would be the worst person waking up.”

Lilac blushed at that, “Shut up, but they’re are enough rooms in the house for you all to have your own space, however I’d understand if you would want to share some rooms, it does get quiet in the house with everyone so spread out.”

I felt a pulling on my pants and looked down to see Goldy, “Daddy, can I say in the same room as Tina and ViVi?”

I shrugged, “I don’t see why not, but it’s up to them.”

Tina got a very excited grin, “Yes, then we can ask her all about Equestria and everything. Pleeeeeaaaasssseeeeee ViVi?” She asked giving her sister puppy dog eyes.

ViVi sighed but smiled at her little sister, “Sure, it would nice to have someone new in the room.” She walked up to Goldy, standing a good bit over her due to her being older, “Come on shorty, let’s get you settled.” Goldy nodded and followed the sisters.

“Don’t forget your bags in my room!” I called after them.

“So what about the rest of you?” Lilac asked.

“Well… I’d like a room that’s close to the library, that is if you have one?” Twilight asked.

Lilac and I smirked, “Have you seen this house? You’ve only been in a fraction of it, of course we have a library, and there are some rooms close to it. Lilac or I will show you to it once we get all of our stuff separate from the pile upstairs.”

“I’ll go with Twilight, been living with her my entire Life, it would be weird to be separated now.” Spike said with a shrug.

“You sure you don’t want your own room man?” I asked the young drake.

“Nah, I’ll be good, besides the house is big enough to get lost in right? If I need some me time I’ll just wander somewhere.” He said, both him and Twilight leaving off to the stairs to go get their luggage.

“Lyra and I will sleep anywhere really.” Bon Bon said.

“Anywhere close to the kitchen and a bathroom, Lyra needs her midnight snacks and Bonnie needs quick access to the puke bowl.” Lyra said, referring to herself in the third person and embarrassing Bon Bon.

I raised an eyebrow, “The puke bowl?”

Lyra giggled, “Bonnie gets really pukey at night.”

“L-LYRA!” Bon Bon yelled, chasing after the teal unicorn, following her upstairs.

Rarity laughed, “Oh I hope to find my one some day, but alas I need to focus on business. Speaking of, you wouldn’t have anywhere that would suit my tastes would you Christopher?”

Lilac looked at me, “Her tastes?”

I shook my head, “Not like that, she’s a fashionista and a tailor back in Equestria.”

“Ooooohhh, actually we should, you ever go into the small side room next to the library?” Lilac asked.

“No I can’t say that I have.” I said to her, I recalled the door but I never found much interest to go into it.

“It’s a Fashion studio that has a living space above it.” Lilac explained.

I blinked, “Well… that’s convenient.”

Rarity gigged excitedly, “Oh that will do wonderfully! Sweetie Belle, darling, will you be staying with me on this trip?”

Sweetie Belle shook her head, “I’d actually like to stay somewhere close to where I could practice my music?” She looked at me hopefully.

Rarity nodded, “I understand Sweetie, well, I should be off to gather my things.”

I chuckled, Rarity has always been an understanding sister, “Sure, there’s a sound studio on the second floor, where I stay, it’s at the far end of the hall so it doesn’t disturb the rest of the house.”

She smiled happily, “That’ll work for me.”

“I just want somewhere to sleep peacefully and get up early.” AJ said.

Lilac looked at me, “Guest house?”

I nodded “Guest house.”

AJ looked between us confused, “Guest house?”

We both nodded, “Guest house.”

“Ok?” She looked at Shy, “Do ya have any idea what they’re goin on about sugarcube?” Shy shook her head in response.

“Oh I know, there’s a small guest house behind this one for anyone who needs extra privacy.” Pinkie said.

“And how do ya know that Pinkie? Pinkie Sense?” AJ asked.

“What? No, I can just see it out the window.” She said pointing to the window pointing out in to the expansive backyard that had a smaller building with lights on visible from inside.

“Oh, I suppose ya can, alright, that’ll suit me fine.” AJ said with a curt nod.

“I’ll probably just steal a room with Sweetie, I get a chance to sleep in and not do farm work? I’m gonna take it.” Apple Bloom said.

“What about you Rainbow? We have a room that’s on the top floor has a large skylight that can open up, it also has a balcony.” I said wiggling my eyebrows, knowing that it would tempt her.

She glared at me, “Oh come on, what do you take me for some kind of chump?” I decided not to answer that, “Of course I’ll take that room, you gonna bunk with me Scoots?”

“Of course, it would be awesome!” The young pegasus said, her wings fluttering.

“I know it would, so let’s go and get our stuff squirt.” Rainbow said, taking off through the house.

I shook my head, “Well that settles everyone.” I said with a clap.

“What about me Chrissy?” Pinkie said, clearly confused about my declaration.

I looked to Shy who nodded at me, “You’re going to be sleeping with Shy and I, Pinks.”

Pinkie blushed, which is impressive I might add, and stammered a bit, “I… but… you and Shy.. what?”

I gave Pinkie a sly smirk, “Well would you look at that, I made Pinkie speechless. Yes, Pinkie, you’ll be staying with Shy and I.”

“I-I…. why?”

I shrugged, “Let’s be honest everyone who came here had someone. Lyra has Bon Bon. Most of the girls have their younger siblings, adopted or otherwise. I have Shy and Goldy. You really don’t have that equivalent, so you’re sleeping with us while we’re here, if you really want though you can sleep in a different room.”

Pinkie shook her head rapidly, “Uh… N-No, it’s ok I’ll take your offer, i’m just going to go…. Unpack yep that’s it!” she took off leaving a Pinkie shaped cloud behind, Shy and I just laughed at that.

“Fluttershy was it? Can you go help everyone unpack, I’d like to talk to my brother alone.” Lilac said with a dark tone.

She looked at me and I nodded, “O-Ok, I’ll see you upstairs in a few Chris, I’ll make sure Pinkie is settled.”

She made her way upstairs and now it was just me and Lilac left downstairs, “So what did you want to talk to me about Lily.”

“What do you think you’re dong suggesting another woman sleep in the same bed as you and your fiancee, don’t give me that look, I noticed the rings.” She said with a glare.

I held up my hands, “Hey it’s not what you think.”

“Not what I think? I think it looks like you’re trying to get a second woman in your bed.”

“Yeah, I know, but did it look like Shy wasn’t ok with it?” I asked her.

She thought about it, “No, but still, it’s wrong.”

I shrugged, “How so? I’m not cheating and besides Shy was the one who suggested it.”

She stared blankly at me, “She… what?”

“She was the one who suggested it, see in Equestria, herds or polygamy is legal, not as prominent as it once was but it’s not looked down upon. Besides, like I said, Shy was the one who suggested it, she knew I liked Pinkie as well and she wanted to bring her in on things.” I explained.

Lilac was embarrassed, “O-Oh, sorry, well as long as everyone is ok with it. Does Pinkie know?”

“No, but I plan on asking while we’re here. I have a plan and everything.”

“You always were one to fall for too many girls at once, but at least it actually worked out in our favor this time, you need someone to take care of you like that.” She said, putting a hand on my shoulder.

I chuckled, “I get that a lot these days, hey can I ask you something?”

“Sure, I don’t see why not.”

“Their father, where is he?”

She stiffened up at that, “I… he left shortly after Tina was born.” She saw the look on my face, “Calm down, it’s not that big of a deal I don’t even know why he left, he just did, one day I came home and he wasn’t there and he never came back, he’s alive and I know that for a fact because our friends have seen him around with another woman. If I had to guess he couldn’t handle raising a second child so he just left.”

I snarled, “I see, were you married?”

She shook her head, “There was so much going on that we didn’t have the time. Though I suppose in hindsight it was a good thing we didn’t.”

I nodded, “Yeah and It’ll be a good thing if I never run into him too.”

She sighed and placed a hand gently against the left side of my face, “Chris, big brother, don’t ok? I appreciate it, really I do, but it happened and it’s over and done with, come on let’s get everyone settled in their rooms.” She walked passed me before pausing, “It’s good to have you back Chris.”

I turned to follow her, “It’s good to be back Lily.”

Author's Note

Soooooo..... yeeeeaaahhhhh. NEW CHARACTERS... uhm... huh yeah.... I really don't have anything to add, so enjoy the chapter, an I hope all of my fellow 'Mericans voted today. Anywhosit, see you all next chapter

26: I will be there besides you.

It’s been a few days since I’ve come back to my world with everyone, We’ve all spent time exploring the house and getting situated. I was unfortunately dealing with getting things set up so i could spend money and getting the feel for driving once again, but this was all a plan so I could take the girls out in small groups to do things I know they would like, today was the first day of those plans and the first small group was going to be.

“LYRA, SWEETIE BELLE, RARITY ARE YOU BOTH READY TO GO?!” I called out, using my slight draconic magic that remained in my human form to amplify my voice to reverb through the entire house.

“Almost ready darling, just give me one moment to fix my mane.” Rarity said, her voice coming through a vent.

“You know you don’t have to yell like that, we can all talk through the vents.” Lyra said.

Sweetie Belle giggled, “And we all know how you found that out huh, Lyra?”

You could hear the blush in Lyra’s voice, “Yes well, we weren’t warned how were Bonnie and It supposed to know?! I-I’ll be down in a minute.” She sad with the tale tale sound of the vent grate shutting.

“I’ll be down to Chris, don’t leave without me.” Sweetie said, closing the vent grate.

Rarity sighed, a playfulness in her tone, “Oh dear, you know Lyra is right Christopher you should have warned us that the vents carry noise this well, what would happen if the little ones heard? It was lucky it was well past their bedtime when it happened.”

“Heh, it’s ok, Lilac, Andrea, and I used the vents all the time when we were little, she knew that having so many adults, young or otherwise in a house would having something like that happen eventually so she shut the vents in the kids’ room before hand. But hurry on down, I have the car running and ready to go.”

She giggled, “Ok Ok darling, you can only rush perfection so much, but fortunately for you I’ve finished, I’ll be down shortly.” She closed the vent gate.

I gave a frustrated sigh, “And I have to deal with this all day…”

Fluttershy giggled, “Well you were the one who planned all this.”

“And I immediately regret it.”

He raised an eyebrow, “Do you really?”

I smiled softly, “Not a day in my life. Will you, the rest of the girls, and Spike be ok?”

She nodded, “We can last a few more days of exploring the house and learning about your world.” She paused, “The woods outside of the house are safe right?”

I shrugged, “Should be, you thinking of going for a stroll?”

“Yes, I’d like to see what animals are around here, do you think they’ll come to me?”

“Well, they should, if some of my draconic aspect and magic work even as a human, your special talent should too.” I mean it made sense, while my draconic magic may not be anywhere near its peak, it was still there.

“Ok, well, I’ll be careful anyways.” She said with a small smile.

I ran my fingers through her and caressed her face, “I know you will Shy, you are the most careful of everyone. But I have to go, I love you I’ll see you when I get home.” I gave her a quick kiss, which she happily returned in earnest.

“Have fun!” She called out to me as I left the room.

I made my way down the hall to the stairs, feeling a small creature brush against my ankles. I looked down to see a white cat with a black tail and black right ear. I bent down and gave her a scratch behind her ears, “Hi Cookie, I’d stay and pet you but I have to go.” She gave off a raspy meow, “I’ll see you later.” I turn to walk and bump into Pinkie, knocking her over, my reflexes kicked in and I caught her halfway into her fall, one arm around her midsection and one catching her head.

She smiled, “Hi Chrissy, nice catch!”

I laughed, “Thanks Pinks.” I was about to say something else but I noticed something in her eyes, I’ve seen that look before, it’s pure joy and happiness, normally whenever I look at Pinkie I can always see something else behind her eyes but this time, nothing, like the sadness and darkness was gone.

That’s when she blinked and tilted her head, giving me a classic Pinkie smile, “You ok Chrissy? You’ve been staring at me for a while.”

I shook my head to clear it, “Uh, yeah, I’m fine, are you ok?” I asked her, bringing her back up into a standing position.

“I mean I could’ve bonked my head pretty hard but you caught me so, I’m better than ok!”

“Well that’s good, but I have to go, going to be late.” I told her.

“For a very important date?” She asked with a giggle.

“You know it, I’ll see you later Pinks.” I said walking past her.

“Chrissy wait!” She called out, I stopped to turn around to see what she wanted but was quickly caught up in a hug, “Have fun.”

I was surprised, Pinkie hugged everyone all the time but this was extra random, “You smell like cotton candy you know that? You ever get the urge to eat yourself?”

She giggled, still hugging me, “Sometimes, I have been told I taste pretty sweet.”

That struck a chord in my head but I’m not sure what so I just shrugged it off, and pushed her to arm length, “Never change Pinkie, but I really gotta go, love you!” I said giving her a quick peck on the cheek.

I made my way halfway downstairs before I realized what I just said and did. I shook my head, don’t think about it. Things to do people to see, I’ll handle it at a later date.

I got to the car and hopped in the driver seat, Lyra was in the back with Sweetie Belle and Rarity was up front in the passenger seat, “Everyone have their seat belts on?” After getting confirmations and helping Lyra figuring her’s out. I backed the car out of the driveway and went on to the highway.

“This is still a remarkable machine Christopher, how did you say it was powered again?” Rarity asked.

“Do you want the Twilight version or the simple version?”

“Simple if you wouldn’t mind, while i may not be uneducated i do not have the intellect of our resident Alicorn.”

“Tiny explosions are pushing the car forward.” I said.

“Ok, maybe you can be a bit more detailed?” She asked sheepishly.

I smirked, “You wanted simple, but sure; so the engine is composed of pistons and levers and a bunch of other stuff I don’t know that are connected. Basically gas is being heated so the fumes build up in the hollow cylinders and the pistons compress it, heating the gas up more until the gas explodes. The force of these explosions push the pistons down and force the pistons on the other side up to repeat the process. This makes a bunch of other things in the engine move which pulls and pushes the car forward, mind you this is all happening in a fraction of a second over the course of the car being turned on.”

At their confused looks sighed, “Ok imagine you get a balloon right? You push it in a tube that had a ball in the other end. Now squeeze the balloon that’s in the tube until it pops, if that air in the balloon can’t go backwards what is it going to do?”

“It’ll rush towards the ball and push it forward as it tries to escape?” Sweetie asked.

I rolled my eyes, “Bingo, give the girl a prize.”

“Oh well that is quite simple, do you think we could have these back in Equestria?” Rarity asked.

“Maybe in a few hundred years, i’m not going to be responsible for polluting your planet and I’m going to make sure Twilight doesn’t either, your scientists will figure it out on their own.” I said hotly, my word was already a mess i would like to keep my new one as clean as possible. After that we rode without talking for a bit, the only sound being the radio playing a song, one that I noticed Lyra and Sweetie nodded to in the back.

“So Chris buddy, where are you taking us? I noticed this little group isn’t exactly… what's the word?” Lyra said suddenly.

“Compatible?” Sweetie offered.

Lyra shrugged, “Good enough, what purple swirls here said.” That nickname made Sweetie huff.

I chuckled, “You all have one thing very in common with one another; you like the Arts. Sweetie is a singer, Rarity is anything that is physical and son art that isn’t dealing with music, and that is where you come in Lyra.” I said, looking at her through the rear view mirror.

She pondered that for a moment, "I’ll give you that, but that still doesn’t explain what we’re doing.”

I gave them a wide smile, “We’re going to a musical, one of my favorites.”

They all got excited at that, “Oh I love musicals and we get to see one from your world? Oh i can’t wait to see what fashion they have made for such a thing.” Rarity said happily.

“Oh and the orchestra, it’ll be interesting to see which ones they use here.” Lyra sad, bouncing in her seat slightly.

Sweetie swooned, “Oh and the voices and the range they singers can reach are amazing, I would do anything to be able to be a part of one.” That got resounding agreement from the other two.

This just made me smile more, well they were in for a pleasant surprise. I drove in silence as the girls talked excitedly for the rest of the ride. After 40 minutes of driving we eventually reached the theatre the opera was being held at. It was a very large and old building, probably constructed in the 1800’s, hard to say, I’m not a historian or architecture buff. But it had a few designs from I would say the early to mid 1900’s what with the ticket booth, the neon lights and signs, the classic vintage title boards. Along the walls of the building it held posters of every play, opera, comedy show, and event that ever played there. If it ever was on the stage it came here, I pulled into a parking space and turned off the car.

Once we all got out we made our way to the ticket booth and I turned towards the girls, “Welcome to Le Grand Théâtre de Cygne! Home of some of the greatest plays, musicals, and Operas this side of Planet Earth! It’s were some of the most prominent actors of all time got their starts and that list is long and plentiful!”

“Ah but only one name truly matters at this moment, Vivienne Amaya Newtown.” Said a high class, yet flamboyant voice from behind me.

I smiled and turned around to see a rather tall man, much taller than me, about 7’6”, wearing a bright blue suit with deep pink vest and off white button up shirt. His hair was peppered and cut short at the sides and styled in a sweep at the top and he wore small gold glasses that rested loosely on his nose. He had a smile that was well practiced but there was a familiarity of warmth behind it.

“Ico, it’s a pleasure to see you again.”I said happily, looking up at the man.

He swept me up in a hug, bringing me up from the ground, “Young Christopher, it is fantastic to see you as well, especially since we all thought you parted from this world all those years ago, imagine my surprise when I get a phone call from you yesterday asking for a favor.”

I laughed and hugged him back, “Right, well it’s a long story but I have some friends I’d like to introduce you to.”

He set me down and gave me a curt nod, “Indeed, I would like to properly meet the people you’ve asked this favor for.”

I cleared my throat, “Ico, these are a few of my friends, Rachel.” I gestured to Rarity, “Probably one of the best seamstress, designers, and over all fashionista I’ve ever met, and you know I’ve had to deal with quite a few.” I gave a small laugh, which he shared with me, understanding completely. Rarity, however, blushed at my praise.

I turned to look at Lyra, “This is Lisa, one of my best friends along with her wife. Lisa is one of the funniest, most lazy and laid back people I’ve ever met.” said with a smirk, but before Lyra could respond I continued, “But she’s also one of the most caring a dedicated when she puts her mind to something, which goes double when she plays her music, she can dish out anything on a Lyre, harp, piano, anything with strings she can play it and knock your socks off while doing so, or put you to sleep, depends on the mood she’s trying to set.”

Lyra looked at me with wide eyes “I…. you! Gah!”

I chuckled, “And last but not least, is the youngest of us. The younger sister of Rachel, Sarah.” I looked at Sweetie Belle, “She’s a sweetheart who never gives up when it comes to others or what needs to be done, she had a rough start when it came to trying to figure out what she wanted to do with her life. She soon found that the stage was where her true talents lie, she can act, sing, dance… ok maybe not dance but anything else dealing with being on stage and performing, she can do it better than most. Shoot she might even be as good as Vivienne, if not better.” Sweetie was staring at me with wide, worried eyes. I gave her a look that told her I was being honest to what i thought.

Ico looked at me in surprise, “That’s a bold claim coming from you.”

I shrugged, “Maybe, maybe not, you’ll just have to see.”

I then turned to the girls, “Girls this is Nicholas Flemmar Ranser, owner of Le Grand Théâtre de Cygne, world famous talent scout and my god father.”

The girls looked at him and me, shocked but Ico just laughed it off, “A pleasure to meet you ladies, please call me Ico, everyone does and any friends of young Christopher here are friends of mine.” He said give a wide bow before standing back u and looking at me, “Though, I must say, it is good to see that wherever you went, and whatever happened that it kicked you out of that rut you were in.”

I smiled sheepishly, about to respond before Rarity cut me off, “It’s a wonder to meet you as well darling, but If I may, I was wondering why exactly we are here so early? I was looking at the title board and the scheduled time isn’t until much later this evening, it is current, somewhere around 10 in morning.” Lyra and Sweetie gave Rarity confused looks and looked up at the board only to realize what she said was true.

Ico raised his eyebrow and looked at me with slight disapproval, “You didn't tell them my boy?”

“It was going to be a surprise?” I said, with uncertainty heavily apparent in my voice.

He sighed and shook his head, before turning sharply, “Well we can discuss it on the way, we are a tad bit late but it should be ok.” He took off in short strides, allowing us to keep up, he lead us through the front towards the stage.

“Chris what is going on?” Lyra whispered in my ear.

“Eh well, you see, this theatre means a lot to me and I wanted to do something special for you three, actually i’m doing something similar for everyone. Anyways, this is the theatre where my mother got her start.” I explained causing them to gasp.

“Indeed, and she was some of the best talent to ever pass through these doors.” Ico said stopping before a picture of a woman and looking at it.

The girls and I stopped to look at the picture as well, the woman had a natural tan skin tone shade slightly darker than mine, shoulder length curly hair, a round face, brown eyes that shone like they could only see the beauty in the world and a smile that would warm any heart that saw it.

Rarity had her hand over her mouth and looked between the picture and me, “Christopher is that?”

I nodded, “Mom…” I put my hand up to the picture and took a deep breath, “This was years before I was born, years before she and dad got married.”

“But not long after Andy was born.” Ico said, “She was a marvel, and she only got better as she got older. It stung everyone to their core when she passed.” He said solemnly.

“Some worse than others.” I said quietly.

“Oh Chris…” Lyra said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“It’s ok she wouldn’t want us sulking over her like this anyways, that's how mom was.”

“Indeed, Vivienne was always a ray of sunshine like that, only ever showing signs of anger when her family or friends were put in any sort of danger. I can’t tell you how many times she went off on paparazzi after you were born Chris.” Ico said with a laugh.

“Believe me I remember. But yeah, this is where she started, I always came to her shows her whenever she did them, it was often as she moved onto do movies and such with the studios in Hollywood but whenever she was in town and there was a show going-”

Ico finished for me, “-She would take up the lead female role immediately and she would blow it out of the water, it hasn’t been packed like one of her shows in a very long time.”

“Wouldn’t her taking the lead role upset the actress who had it before?” Sweetie asked.

“You would think that but no, my girls always let Vivienne take their roles, they loved to get the night off and see one of the best actresses of her age act. Vivienne could bring life to a role like no other could. I have some of her early plays, ones when only Andy was around, recorded on tape, I could give you some copies.” He said looking at me.

I blinked, “I-I would love that, watching her movies… while good… her on stage was something else entirely.”

Ico sighed wistfully, “Tell me about it, what I wouldn’t give to have her on stage again, alas it’s not to be. Though, if what you said about Sarah here, we might have another Vivienne on our hands.” He gave Sweetie a warm smile.

“I-I could never be as good as Chris’ mom, I only just started singing and acting and I-I….” She started to hyperventilate, causing her to have troubles getting her sentence out.

Rarity rubbed her back, “Breathe darling breathe.” She looked at us, “Christopher, your mother Vivienne, is the same Vivienne that Sir Ico brought up outside yes?”

“The very same, Newtown was her last name before she married dad, it was the one she carried while here at the theatre.”

“I thought as much, but none of this explains exactly why we’re here so early. Not that I don’t enjoy learning more about you and where you came from but this is all a little confusing for us, if I may speak on our behalf.”

I chuckled, “I know and I’m sorry, see yesterday I gave Ico a call for a favor.”

“And quite a favor it was, he wanted to put 3 unknown talents into one of our most popular shows same day it was to go on. But as I understand, our time in our city is short and this is from someone we presumed dead, how can I say no?” Ico explained.

“3 unknown talents…. In the show?” Lyra asked, the cogs slowly turning.

Rarity, however was the first to have it click, “Wait you don’t mean?”

I nodded and had a wide smile, “Yup, you 3 are going to be a part of my favorite musical rendition of a story ever, The Count of Monte Cristo. Rachel will help prepare, maintain, and make the outfits, while working with the head seamstress. Lisa will be laying in the orchestra, one of the best in the country I might add. Sarah, oh you have the best part, you have the female lead of Mercédès, you’ll be training, going over the lines and songs with who has been the actress of the part for a while now.”

They all had various reactions, Rarity’s was pure and unfiltered joy. Lyra’s was worry but excitement. Sweetie on the other hand started to hyperventilate even faster until she all but passed out.

“Oh dear, I didn't expect that, is she alright?” Ico asked.

Rarity nodded, “This happens when she gets a bit too much excitement.”

“I see, well, let’s take her to the changing room where Tiana is, she’s the actress who was playing Mercédès, she can rest on the couch until she wakes up to begin practicing. Christopher, be a gentleman and carrying the young lady.”

I grumbled, “Yes sir.” I really didn’t have a problem with carrying Sweetie, just Ico sometimes got a bit bossy, also he hated doing manual labor like this himself, well not hate but he definitely pawned it off on someone else when he could, everyone has flaws.

“Now that the explanations are squared away, follow me and I’ll get you situated with who you need to see.” Ico said, once more leading the way into the back area of the theatre, “If anything this will be an interesting show.”

Lilac was relaxing on the couch in the living room with one of Chris’ friends, Bon Bon. They were just watching T.V., weeeelllll more like they were staring at the T.V. and their minds were elsewhere, which is what made a sudden pink hair woman popping up out of nowhere scare the living daylights out of them, Lilac more so.

“Lila, Bonnie, I need to talk to you about a thing!” Pinkie said, her head poking from behind them between their heads.

Bon Bon recovered first, “Sweet Celestia Pinkie, how do you still manage to do that when there is very little magic in this world?” Pinkie plopped down between the and shrugged.

“Dunno, guess you were just thinking too much to notice?”

Bon Bon looked past Pinkie’s mess of hair, “You ok? I know Pinkie can catch you off guard, you should see her back in Equestria it’s much worse.” This caused pinkie to pout.

After taking a moment to have her heart slow its beating Lilac nodded, “I’m good, I’m good, I should be used to it by now with how often my girls sneak up on me, and the cat, can’t forget about her, I swear she can teleport.” speak of the devil there was a raspy meow from the kitchen that caught even Pinkie off guard, “See what I mean?!”

Bon Bon gave a soft laugh, “So Pinkie what did you want to talk to us about?”

“I wanted to talk to you about Chrissy.”

Lilac tilted her head a bit, “You wanted to talk about my brother, why?”

Pinkie blushed and sunk into the couch a bit, “W-well earlier when he left to take Lyra, Rarity, and Sweetie Belle out today we bumped into each other and he caught he as I was falling and he just held me like that and stared into my eyes.”

Bon Bon was surprised at this, “Oh?”

Lilac just took a sip of the water she had with her, knowing that Chris already planned to bring her in on his and Fluttershy’s relationship, although from Bon Bon’s reaction, it seems like he didn’t tell anyone else yet, he’s going to get a serious earful when he gets home.

Pinkie nodded vigorously, “Yeah and then he pulled me up and said he had to go because he was late and I stopped him and gave him a hug and he hugged me back and kissed my cheek and told me he loved me.”

Lilac spit out her water, coughing as some went down her windpipe, “W-what?!” Ok out of everything she was expecting it was that.

Bon Bon was equally astonished from that statement, “Wait he did what Pinkie?”

Pinkie looked like she was stuck halfway between worried and confused, “He kissed my cheek and told me he loved me he could’ve just have been being friendly I’m pretty sure he’s done that with you all before right Bonnie it would only make sense after all he loves all of us and he’s such a big softy at heart even though when we’re in anger he gets really really angry it actually kind of reminds me of a dog i saw once get super upset at this rock crawler and the dog was usually super nice to me and my sisters but the rock crawler was going after it’s babies and speaking of babies I miss the twins do you think they’re doing ok with me being gone I mean I know the Cakes can handle them I’m not saying that they can’t but-”

“Pinkie!” Bon Bon all but shouted to snap her friend out of the rambling run on sentence she was stuck in.

Pinkie blinked and blushed an even deeper red, “I’m sorry… I’m just nervous…”

Bon Bon rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed, “It’s fine Pinkie, I don’t blame you for being nervous because, no he’s never done that with me at least and i don’t think he’s done that with any of the others outside of Shy. Lilac, you’ve known Chris longer than we have, has ever done something like this?”

Lilac had to think for a second, it’s been years since he’s been in a relationship, from her viewpoint anyways, “Not that I can recall, he’s usually very dedicated to the person he’s with, normally to the point where if a breakup happens it devastates him.”

Pinkie’s hair deflated, which shocked Lilac and worried Bon Bon, “Right… he did tell us about Cathy… and Braden… and everyone else….”

Lilac’s eyes widened at this, “He did? Huh…. yeah Cathy was a real bitch, glad she’s long gone and far away, she was toxic and its bad when that's the nicest thing I can say about someone… and he’s still beating himself up over him huh?” At their nods she sighed, “Yeah, he said he would never forgive himself for that… well no use on dwelling on that, I have some good news.”

Pinkie’s hair poofed up slightly, “Hm? What is it?”

Lilac sat up straight and looked at them seriously, “He has always had this thing about him, he’s slightly polyamorous, but our world, well more specifically our country frowns upon more than one partner in a relationship. He has this problem where once he loves someone he never stops loving them, unless they’ve messed up something fierce, Cathy being the only real example of that… well her and himself, though it looks like he’s starting to do better. Anyways… wow I really picked up his rambling tick that fast? He put it to me like this one time, there are millions upon millions of stars in the sky right? The sun is a star as well, but what happens when the sun is out?”

“The stars disappear, but they aren’t truly gone, the sun is just shining so bright that you can’t see any other star.” Bon Bon answered, catching on quickly.

“Exactly, so I’d say Fluttershy is his sun and the rest of you are his planets, equally as important but he probably doesn’t see you all as stars, unlike his exes. All of you are part of that except what seems to be Pinkie here, I honestly shouldn’t be saying anything as I’m sure he wants it to be a surprise, although I can’t guarantee if this is his plan at all. First of all, is polygamy a thing on your world?” She knew full well it was but she couldn’t give away that he was actually planning something.

“Kind of, we call them herds, from how ancient ponies gender ratios were a bit more skewed to having more females to males so they herded together to boost their numbers with as man mates as possible. Nowadays it’s closer to fifty fifty so herds are rare but not frowned upon or illegal.” Bon Bon explained.

Pinkie nodded in confirmation, “My uncle, Slate, has 4 wives, they’re all super nice.”

Lilac smiled at this, “Well knowing my brother now that he has a chance he’s probably going to try and have 2 suns in his life, I just hope he can handle the heat.” She said with a laugh, “But, really, I have no idea if that’s what he’s planning, and if it is just act like it’s a surprise ok? I’m sure he has this whole elaborate thing planned out, h might not look like it but he lans for pretty much almost every scenario, how he does it? I’m not sure, but it has always been helpful and at the end of the day he’s always right so none of us have really questioned him.

Pinkie’s hair deflated as a though ran through her mind, one she had to voice, “Well that’s good if he does… but… can I tell you girls a secret?”

Bon Bon put her hand on Pinkie’s lap and gave her a reassuring smile, “Of course you can Pinkie, that’s what friends are for.”

Pinkie nodded and took a deep breath, “M-My family has a curse… one that was placed on us generations ago. We were cursed to always have at least 4 foals but 1 of them would always come out sterile, weather it be male or female it doesn’t matter, my Grammie Pie’s sister was one and my Pa’s brother was another…” She took a shaky breath, “I-I’m the one for this generation… I can’t have any foal, and what if Chris doesn’t want to be with me because of it? I’m so scared, he’s treated me so nicely, and he’s funny, if not a bit dark, but that’s good humor to when done right and he cares about everyone just like me and I… I just don’t w-want to lose this ch-chance again because of s-some dumb curse.” Her speech became more ragged as tears started streaming down her face and her breathing was hindered but hiccoughs, she got pulled into a hug by Lilac, who was stroking her head gently.

Bon Bon blinked and then became furious as something dawned on her, “Is that why your past Coltfriends left? Because you couldn’t give them foals?” Pinkie nodded stiffly, “Well fuck them right in their tail holes, who the actual fuck do they think they are leaving a wonderful mare like you over something so… so trivial?! You know what pinkie you don’t need them and they can all go to Tartarus, and you know what? I know that Chris won’t give two flying halves of a shit about any of that!” She took a deep breath, “But Pinkie… you need to tell the others about this, ok? Start with the ones here, and then tell the others when they get back. Ugh, this isn’t good for the foal, I need to get some fresh air.” Bon Bon said as she stood up, rubbing her swollen belly softly before giving Pinkie a hug and making her way out of the door that led to the hallway that went to the back porch, softly muttering profanities and curses under her breath.

Lilac was impressed and thankful the younger girls were out with Fluttershy exploring the woods, she assured her it was safe and gave free permission, besides Fluttershy took some of those crystals with them, which was good because according to her she can talk to animals, it’s her special talent.

Pinkie was just in stunned silence, she’s never seen Bon Bon like that, annoyed at Lyra’s and Chris’ antics at points but never fuming, “Woah nelly, what’s got Bon Bon all riled up?” Came a country accent from the doorway.

Lilac peeked over the back of the couch to see Apple Jack, Rainbow, Twilight, Spike, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom coming into the living room from the same hallway that Bon Bon left through.

“Yeah, I’ve never seen her this pissed before? What did someone ruin her favorite candy or something?” Rainbow asked jokingly.

“I dunno Rainbow, i accidentally burned an entire wall of candy once and she wasn’t even close to being that mad.” Spike said.

“Yeah and Me, Sweetie Belle, and AB trashed her store pretty bad with one our stunts back in the day and yeah, never that mad.” Scootaloo said, Apple Bloom nodding in agreement.

“I don’t know girls… and Spike…” He protested that he wasn’t included in that, “Whatever it was it must’ve been serious.” That’s when Twilight saw Lilac sitting on the couch, “Oh, Lilac, we didn't see you sitting there, do you know why Bon Bon was so mad, she was in here with you right?”

“Yeah… I know why she’s mad… come on, someone has something they have to tell you.”

“Ok?” That's when Twilight saw a small bit of pink sticking up from past Lilac’s frame, “Pinkie, is that you over there?” the pink dipped under the back of the couch.

“Come on Pinkie, they’re your friends right? If you could come to Bon Bon, and especially me, with this you can tell them and they won't think any different.” Lilac said, softly petting the despondent girl’s head.

The group moved around front and were flabbergasted at what they saw, it was they’re happy-go-lucky friend was the exact opposite of that. She had tired eyes, tear stained cheeks, and her hair was uncharacteristically straight.

“Hoo doggy, what happened to make Pinkie deflate?” AJ asked.

Lilac shook her head, “It would be best if she told you. Come on, if you let this sit it will only get worse.”

Pinkie sighed and nodded her head, quietly she told everyone of her family's curse and how that was the reason all of her previous flings had become just that.

“Wait wait wait, why would anyone put a curse on your family, just don’t sit right with me. Your family seems mighty kind if Maud was anything ta go by.” AJ said, still digesting everything.

Pinkie shrugged, “We don’t know… it’s so far back in our family history that the reason why was lost.”

“Have you tried asking Celestia if she knows about it?” Spike asked, clearly having that be the most obvious answer.

“My Grammie Pie did when she was still around, but even the Princess didn’t now, in fact it was the first she ever heard about it.”

Twilight pondered that before asking her question, “Did your Grammie Pie ever see if Celestia could remove the curse?”

Pinkie nodded, “She did, and the Princess tried to help but she couldn’t do anything about it. The curse was magic stronger than what she could even do.”

They all gasped at that, after all, magic stronger than something even Celestia could handle, that was scary. But one of them thought of something that no one else did.

“What about Discord?” Scootaloo asked.

Twilight looked at her, “What?”

That's when Apple Bloom caught on, “Yeah, what about Discord, his magic can do all sorts of crazy things right? Maybe it could help.”

Twilight face palmed, of course, such an easy solution. After all Discord wasn’t free or even reformed back then, he opens up a whole realm of possibilities, “That’s a really good plan girls. Pinkie, as soon as we get back to Equestria we’ll see if Discord can help.”

Pinkie sniffled, “Thanks girls I don’t know what I would do without you.” She finally moved to sitting next to Lilac, he eyes were still heavy looking, and her hair was still straight, but she wasn’t crying anymore so that was good.

“Yeeeeaaaahhhh, while I’m glad that we have a fix to this or whatever. I still have one question, what even brought all this up in the first place?” Rainbow asked.

Pinkie’s eyes went wide as she realized she didn’t tell them what happened between her and Chris. She looked around in a panic before her gaze settled on Lilac, clearly asking for a save.

Lilac sighed, “Alright so here’s what happened…” a few minutes later, “But I don’t know what he’s planning exactly so if it ends up being the case he’ll most likely want it to be a surprise, so please act like it’s one. Oh, and don’t mention I said anything promise?”

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” They all chanted ending off with them lightly poking their close eye.

Lilac was just confused, “Uuuuhhhh, what was that about?”

“It’s a Pinkie Promise.” Spike said.

“And no one breaks a Pinkie Promise.” Pinkie finished, darkly, keeping the serious face before bursting out into a fit of giggles, soon being followed by everyone else, except Apple Jack who was more like nervously laughing than anything else.

Lilac was still confused, but she was happy to see the bubbly girl back to, somewhat, normalcy.

“Well that definitely explains a lot about how you kept running through colt friends, shoot some ponies the town thought you were just one and done-ing them.” AJ said suddenly.

Pinkie looked hurt, “W-WHAT?! I wouldn't do something like that, that is the most unfriendliest thing ever. Staying with someone and making them happy is one of the most friendliest things ever.”

“I tried to tell em Pinkie, but some folks just love ta gossip.”

“Wait what about Cheese, he seems too nice to just up and leave you for something like that.” Rainbow said, everyone nodded in agreement.

Pinkie looked confused and then a wide smile plastered itself to her face, “Wait… you thought Cheesy and I? Pfffftttt nooo hhhhaaaa hahahahaha hahaha ha-” Pinkie was giggle snorting for a solid 4 minutes before she calmed down, “No No, Cheesy and I are just friends and rivals, friendly rivals and partners sometimes. Besides, he has a colt friend.”

“Wait Cheese Sandwich is into stallions?!” they all asked simultaneously, still creepy when they do that.

Pinkie tilted her head to the side confused by their reaction, after all it was super obvious, “You guys couldn’t tell?”

“Pinkie, I think I speak for all of us when I say you are the only pony who could tell.” AJ said getting nods of agreement.

“Oh. Well, yeah his coltfriend is the one who got him boneless and boneless 2.” At the confused looks Pinkie shrugged, “We’re also penpals.”

Lilac just shook her head, amused, it was nice to have so many different people in her house, “So-” The phone in the kitchen started ringing, “Nevermind, be right back.” She got up to go answer it, “Hello, this is the McGrath residence how may I help you? Oh Chris, what’s up? Yeah? Oh, really? Yeah, sure sounds like fun, do they have- Rarity’s suitcases, ok. 8 O’clock, alright sounds good see you then.” Lilac hung up the phone and came back to the living room.

“So who wants to go see a musical?” She said with a smile.

~Several hours later~

They pulled up to Le Grand Théâtre de Cygne in a Limo that Lilac rented for them. The chauffeur opened the door to let everyone out, Lilac being the first wearing a sleek dress, with one shoulder strap that was the color of her namesake, her makeup was done tastefully to match her attire , really the only thing that anyone would say wasn’t elegant was the fact that her hair was done up in a bun and held in place by hair pins, of course only people who knew her would think it wasn’t elegant. She looked at the crowd in front of the theatre in utter shock, sure she hasn’t been here in a few years due to being a tad bit too busy but she new the place hasn’t been this packed since her mother was alive. Once everyone was out of the limo and the river pulled away Fluttershy was the first to speak, kicking Lilac out of her stupor.

“Oh my, there are a lot of people here… d-do you think we could head inside quickly?” Sh asked, her demeanor being completely different from what she’s seen the past few days. She seemed to have shrunken into herself and is stick very close to the center of the group.

Lilac looked to Twilight for an answer only to have Apple Jack provided one, “It’s alright, she actually is normally like this, or she used ta be until Chris came along, now she really only gets like this when he ain’t around.”

“Yeah but it used to be waaaaaaaaayyyyy worse, she’s gotten a lot better about it.” Rainbow added.

“Ah, ok makes sense I guess, well let’s get tickets, head inside an find some seats before they're all taken.” Lilac said.

“No need Lilac.” Came a voice from the side, one Lilac recognized very well.

“Ico, it’s been too long, I would’ve come and visited but you know… life.” Lilac said, turning to greet the tall man, much taller than the rest of them have ever seen, “Everyone this is Ico, my god father. Ico this is…” She listed off everyone ending on Golden Skies and Fluttershy, of course giving them pseudonyms.

“Ah you must be the very same Felicia and Grace that are Christopher’s Fiancee and Daughter, and the rest of you must be his close friends. Well, come come, no need to wait out here, you know I never charged you or your friends before so why start now? That goes doubly for family, how are Vivian and Tina doing, did you not bring them with?” He said looking through the group.

“No they’re somewhere in this mess of people, girls come on say hi to Uncle Ico.” They did so, ViVi being her usual casual self despite being all dolled up. Tina was adorable to watch as she knew of her Uncle Ico but has never seen him, they met when she was a baby though.

After pleasantries were done Ico lead the way to some Balcony seats with roo enough for everyone, although there was one empty seat. Once everyone was settled Goldy looked up to Ico, “Uncle Ico, where’s daddy?”

He leaned down and gave her a smile, “He’s helping set up some finishing touches for the show little one, he’ll be along shortly.” He stood back up and turned his attention to Lilac, “I would love to stay and catch up but i have a show to attend to, enjoy yourselves, and if any refreshments are needed, just wave over William, he shall assist you.” He said gesturing to a young man, dressed in a suit, who bowed at the mention of his name, and with that Ico left them to their own devices.

“This is mighty fancy, I bet Rarity would love this, speaking of, where is she, y'all did say Chris and the girls were here right?” She asked Lilac.

“Yes, he said they were all here, though he didn’t exactly say where, I’m guessing they’re getting acquainted with Ico, maybe he’s showing them around backstage, after all this was their day to be shown around.” Lilac said with a shrug.

“Mommy, how much longer until the show starts?” Tina asked her mother.

Lilac looked at her watch, it read 7:30, “Not for another 30 minutes dear.”

Rainbow groaned, “Why did we come so early? Hey Pin- I mean Paige, Sco-carlet, Spike (still not fair he got to keep his name the same) wanna see what kind of food they have?” At their nods Rainbow called over William calling him Will-dude.

As Rainbow, Pinkie, Spike and Scootaloo were preoccupied with food, the rest of the the girls were just holding a steady conversation until the lights dimmed and a spotlight shot on, illuminating Ico in the center of the stage.

~Chris’ POV~

“Ladies and Gentlemen I welcome you to a wondrous night-” I heard Ico start up his greeting and introductions and I turned away from the stage, facing Sweetie Belle, who was glancing around nervously.

“Hey are you ok?” I asked putting hand on her shoulder.

She shook her head and managed to squeak out a no, “What if I mess up, I can’t live up to your mom’s reputation, wasn’t she like the best actress ever?”

I chuckled, “One of them, yeah, but hey look, don’t worry about it ok, don’t even try to go out there trying to better than my mom.”

She looked at me shocked and confused, “What, but you said I was just as good if not better, that’s a lot to live up to.”

I nodded, “I did say that and I wholeheartedly believe it too. But…. look you wanna know how my mom became as good as she was?”

Sweetie nodded, eager for any advice, “How?”

“You ask anyone else that isn’t her family or her coworkers they’ll tell you she probably manipulated, cheated, and fought and clawed her way to the top, taking down anyone and everyone in her way.” Sweetie looked appalled but I held my hand up to silence those thoughts, “However, she never once cared about being the best or climbing to the top. She just was having fun and did everything she could to make sure everyone else was having fun with her, it’s why everyone let her take their roles if she showed up, she actually never asked, despite what anyone says.”

“She didn’t?”

I shook my head, “Whenever she showed up, the actresses would ask her to take their spots just so they could see the stage light up the only way she could make it happen. Of curse my mom refused but they never backed down, it was insane, but the funny things is at the end of the day the actresses and even some actors were happier having watched her perform than performing herself. And audiences loved her because of the energy she put on. And she was able to do all of that because she was just having fun doing what she loved.”

Sweetie blinked at me, “So you want me to just go and have fun? What if i forget my lines or can’t remember them at all?”

I stared deep into her eyes, “Page 6, line 8, go.” She recited the line as if in a trance, but with perfect inflection and emotion. I smiled at her, “See, you’ll be fine and really if you can’t believe in yourself then... believe in the me who believes in you.”

She looked even more confused but laughed, “That made no sense.”

“Heh, but it made you laugh and that was the point.” I could hear Ico finishing up, “I have to go meet up with everyone else, now remember have fun, and besides you’ll always be able to see rarity for scene changes and for scenes you aren’t in. and when you’re out on stage you’ll be able to see Lyra, me, the rest of the crusaders, everyone. We all believe in you Sweetie, you just need to believe in yourself or….?”

She sighed and giggled, “Believe in the you who believes in me.”

“Now you’re getting it.” I gave her a hug, “Good luck, break a leg, we’ll see you once the show is over.” I made my way through the characters rushing on stage and made it up some stairs to the balcony seats everyone was sitting at.

“Hey everyone.” I said sitting down between Shy and Goldy, I felt and pair of arms wrap around my shoulder and something soft press against my upper back.

“Chrissy, where’ve you been, we were waiting 30 minutes and I thought this was supposed to be fast food.” Pinkie said, confusing literally everyone.

I turned my head as far as I could to give Pinkie a skeptical look, “What?”

“Whoops, that’s a reference that only Kingy will get! DOUBLE OOPS NOW HE KNOWS I DIDN’T FORGET OUR LAST MEETING!” She zipped her mouth shut… how she did that with her magic being super limited in this world I do not want to know, good thing it was dark and we were high up, because really the only person who could see Pinkie’s zipper mouth were us, and William but I could just tell him it was the darkness and lights flashing messing with his eyes.

I rolled my eyes and turned my attention to the stage, Pinkie however did not let go of me and was now leaning forward some so she could nuzzle my cheek. Knowing I wouldn’t b able to get rid of her I just accepted it, not that it was really a bad thing.

After the intermission and a little over halfway into the second half it was, and I can say this truthfully, the best show I’ve witnessed, easily on par with one of my mom’s and if not better, all because Sweetie was having fun and she made the stage come to life much like my mom did.

Actually, a lot like another pony I knew. That’s when a revelation hit me, I knew why I was falling for Pinkie and why I fell for Shy, they remind me of my mother… and not in an Oedipus way. I mean… my mom was the kindest, most caring person I’ve known and after she died my world was…. Darker than it has ever been and Pinkie and Shy represent her perfectly. Shy has her unyielding nurturing nature and kindness to everyone, even giving people who shouldn’t a second chance because she could see the good in the when others couldn’t.

I glanced down at the pink ball of hyperactive fluff who took up her position of resting her face against mine. Pinkie… she was who my mom was as a performer, someone who lived to make others smile, and would never dream of hurting someone else’s career or stage time or anything for herself and just wanted to have fun with what he loved to do and get others in on it too. It was… staggering to me how much these two embodied that, and how much they shared the trait of being relentless when it came to those who would hurt their friends but they would never get violent… that was left to me.

I sighed, and I noticed Pinkie was looking up at me, quickly looked away to look at the rest of the show, my cheeks burning in embarrassment, it wasn’t time yet. That’s when I felt Pinkie softly nuzzle against my cheek once more and give it a gentle kiss. I was shocked until I felt Shy squeeze my hand, causing me to look at her. She nodded and gave me a warm smile, giving away that she was witness to what was just transpiring.

I looked at her, then to Goldy and felt Pinkie nuzzling me. I remembered all of my friends were here with me, I was with my family, and we were watching 3 people we knew doing something they loved and you could see each one of them were having the most fun they’ve had in years. Rarity through how elegant yet durable the costumes were, how the music swelled and sank, the emotions it portrayed. And Sweetie acting and singing like she hasn’t a care in the world.

It was at that moment that I knew all was right in the world and I could finally, truly be happy. I squeezed Shy’s hand, let my other arm pull Goldy close to me and I nuzzled Pinkie back, making her hum happily.

The show quickly ended and there was a standing ovation, with clapping and cheering that could be heard the net city over, or so it sounded within the halls of the theatre.

We all made our way backstage being led by Ico to my mom’s dressing room, once he opened the door we saw Sweetie, Rarity, and Lyra sitting in a chair smiling and talking excitedly about this and that dealing with the show.

“Girls, that was a marvelous show, one of the best this theatre has ever seen!” Ico said happily, cutting them off. Catching their attention and having them become aware of our presence.

“Thank you, honestly, it was just fun to play in a band again, and with such emotional music, I also have never played an electric guitar before but it. Was. A. RUSH!” Lyra said with a slight hop in her chair.

“Oh and making so many costumes and adjustments on the fly, having them being worn and put to use immediately, and seeing the sparkle in everyone’s eyes when they saw what they were going to be wearing. I say, I could get used to something like this.” Rarity said in agreement to Lyra’s testimony.

“Chris!” Sweetie yelled, running up to hug me, “You were right, I just went out and had fun and it was the best show I’ve ever done, thank you thank you thank you!”

I laughed and patted her back, “You’re welcome, and see that’s all that you ever need to do, have fun, worry about nothing else. And Ico was right, this was seriously one of the best shows to ever play here.”

“Top 5 really, right up there with Vivienne’s best.” Ico said, giving even more perspective in to how good it was. “I’d love to have you do more shows while you’re here.”

The three who’s day this was looked at each other and nodded eagerly.

Ico laughed heartily, “Excellent, then until the end of next month you 3 shall be a major fixture in our shows, the next one is 2 days from now, does that work for everyone? Yes? Good, now I shall leave you to chat, I need to go check up on the rest of my staff, you all have a pleasant evening. Christopher, do try to see me once more before you leave.”

“Can do Ico.” I waved him off as he left the dressing room, closing the door behind him. “So how was the day I brought you all upon?”

“Fantastic darling, it was perfect.”

“Dude it was awesome, who knew that could be that much fun, I need to find something like this back home.”

“I loved it, thank you Chris.”

I smiled at a job well done, “And something similar awaits everyone, so you all better get excited for your days. Now how about I treat everyone to food for a job well done.” At that everyone cheered, “Lyra, Rarity, Sweetie, you all can ride with me again, i have some things I wish to discuss with you… something I get the distinct feeling everyone else already knows… or has an idea about.” I said looking at my baby sister, she just looked away and shrugged, feigning ignorance.

I sighed but everyone grabbed their belongings and made their way out, it was weird seeing everyone dressed in such elegance, I’ve seen them dressed for balls but never in clubbing attire, except the young ones obviously, they were just dressed in dresses that would fit ones their ages.

My attention however was mainly drawn to Shy and Pinkie, the latter seemingly noticed and her gait changed slightly adding more of a say to her hips, she leaned over and whispered to Shy, who put her hand up to her mouth in a motion I recognized as hiding a giggle, only for her hips to start swaying a bit more prominently.

Man was I glad I didn’t not have the ability to produce cold right now because hooo boy I would be fogging up the entire area. I quickly made my way to the front of the group so I wouldn’t have to be tortured anymore, only to hear giggling behind me, ignore it Chris, it’ll keep you sane.

Once the others got in the Limo that was called back and I got into the car with my group, we made our way to a restaurant in town.

“So Christopher, what is it you wanted to talk to us about in private?” Rarity asked, shifting herself in the car seat slightly to b able to better talk to me.

“Well I know you’ve started working on Shy’s wedding dress and my Tuxedo.” I told her, clearly shocking her, “What you think I wouldn’t have thought about that? Rarity, it’s you you never last minute anything, especially something like a wedding for your friends and technically a royal wedding as well.”

She blushed, “I-yes-well… fine, you have a point. I am working on your wedding attire currently I need to make sure it is absolutely perfect, I even brought them over here to work on them.”

I nodded, “Makes sense, well I hate to add to your workload but…”

“What is it Christopher?”

“Have you started working on all of your bridesmaid dresses yet?” At the shake of her head I sighed in relief, “Ok well then I don’t feel too bad about this… I’m planning on making a herd.”

They gasped at that, “Really with who, you don’t really seem to click with anyone else other than Shy?” Lyra said.

“O-Oh, well that's a surprise.” Sweetie said quietly.

“Hmmm… well that certainly is news Christopher, though I am curious as to how my work on the bridesmaid dresses would affect any of that… unless.” She gasped as her eyes sparkled, “Oh. My. CELESTIA! It’s one of the girl’s isn’t it?”

I nodded, making her squeal with delight, “Oh who is it, who is it?!”

“Is it Twilight? I mean you are both smart and like to talk for a loooong time.” Sweetie said and at my look I gave her through the mirror she clarified, “I mean, I just went over to the castle one day and you two looked like you were deep in a conversation and it looks like you were having fun too.”

Lyra shook her head, “No, because aren’t they like related now that he’s been adopted into Cadance’s family and she married Twilight’s brother?”

“Oh, right. Yeah, that would be weird.”

I nodded, “Yes. It would, Twilight is just a good friend who i can have smart conversations with and the such, I wouldn’t want to marry her. Not saying she isn’t marriage material but yeah, not for me.”

“Well it couldn’t be me, or else I’m sure I would’ve notice something along those lines by now.” Rarity said.

Once more I nodded, “Yeah, we get along great Rarity, but I definitely see you more as a sister.”

“Likewise darling. Rainbow Dash?” She suggested.

“I don’t think so, I don’t know if Chris ever told you but for a long while he did not like Rainbow, like in the slightest.” Lyra explained.

That caught Sweetie’s attention, “Really why not?”

I snorted, “She’s cocky, hot headed, and rarely thinks things through before acting on them. And really she can kind of be an insensitive jerk. But as I spent more time around Shy before left I got to know more about Rainbow and she earned my respect, there are still moments where she irks my nerves but I can look past it.”

“Definitely not Rainbow then. It couldn’t be Apple Jack could it?” Rarity asked.

I shook my head, “No, I like AJ but really I rarely interact with her outside of hanging out with you girls. Not by choice, we just don’t have much in common other than caring about family. She’s nice and all but she really is just a friend.”

They nodded, knowing that to be true to the case as they really have rarely seen me interact with AJ, “Well that just leaves Pinkie Pie.” Sweetie said.

“Hey what about me and Bonnie, you don’t think it could be us?” Lyra asked, and at our blank expressions she just laughed, “Yeah, I know, besides I couldn’t share Bonnie anyways, she gets jealous too easily.” After a few moments of silence Lyra spoke up once more, “Wait, Pinkie… really?” I grunted in affirmation.

“Oh that’s wonderful Christopher! Maybe you can be the one she finally settles down with, I can’t tell you how many times she’s come to the boutique crying her eyes out after a break up, though she always feels better after some rocky road.” Rarity said with a smile.

Sweetie scoffed and rolled her eyes, “She isn’t the only one.”

Rarity looked at her sibling through the mirror, “What was that Sweetie?” She asked sweetly.

Sweetie eep’d, “N-Nothing Rarity!”

“Mhm… as I was saying, that is wonderful Christopher, any particular reason why you chose Pinkie and does Fluttershy and Goldy know?”

“Shy does, I’ll tell Golden Skies soon. The reason why, I honestly didn’t figure out until recently. Really it started before I left but it really didn’t hit until Cloudsdale and the full reason finally came to me tonight. She reminds me of my mom in certain ways, as does Shy.” I went on to explain my reasoning.

“Oh, yes I understand completely, your mother was your role model and template for girls, and those that fit the mold the best are what gain your attention easily.” Rarity said in understanding.

“Well it’s cool, though it’ll be funny seeing you running around trying to chase after her children.” Lyra said.

That caught me so off guard I swerved into the oncoming lane, quickly gaining control over the car and bringing it safely, and unscathed, into the proper lane, “Who… who said anything about children?”

“What? You already have one with Shy, who’s to say you won’t have any with Pinkie?”

“Yeah and that’s a Pinkie decision, if she wants a kid then we’ll go from there. I think one is enough for me right now though.” Jesus, almost got killed from that.

Rarity giggled at my discomfort, after the fear of death was gone anyways, “Well I’ll gladly add Pinkie’s wedding dress to my list.”

“Thank you Rarity, and of course the rest of you will be Bridesmaids.” At Sweetie’s look I nodded, “Yes you too Sweetie and the rest of the crusaders, you’re a bit too old to be flower girls don’t you think, Bridesmaid is a much better role anyways.”

She tried to stammer out something but just ended up nodding her thanks.

“Heh, well, we’re almost there, let’s enjoy the rest of our night.” I said, focusing my attention on driving. Tonight was a good night, I hope the rest are like it.

Author's Note

So, there we go, we get insight into why Chris fell for these two other than because they were pretty, he's such a sap. Enjoy, I'll get the next chapter out hopefully by this weekend or this time next week.

Also who's noticed my chapter titles tend to either be quotes or references a majority of the time?

27: Yo, who Spiked my chapter bro?

It’s been a good few days… maybe a week or 3 since I took Rarity, Lyra, and Sweetie Belle out to participate in the musical, honestly those three have been in and out of the house constantly going to plays, operas, musicals, you name it. And each of the shows they’ve been a part of have been getting astoundingly amazing reviews, I guess the stage scene just needed that fresh breath of air.

Needless to say that because of this I haven’t been able to see much of them, and since Bon Bon hated leaving Lyra to her own devices for too long she was in and out with them now and again. Really the only ones who stayed in the house were Twilight, Spike, Pinkie and I. Spike and Pinkie more than anyone else.

I recently took Rainbow and Scootaloo out to a nearby go-kart track, dirt bike track, and finished up the day with with them taking them up in a plane to go skydiving. Being the adrenaline junkies that they are hey loved every minute of it and set out to do things like that while they were here, so they were out of the house constantly with those endeavors.

Applejack, I managed to take her out to this huge ranch a few miles outside of the city, she found the horses there unnerving at first but she quickly got used to it all and she took to it like a natural and much like Ico with the Arts trio, the Rancher offered Applejack a place to work and stay for the remainder of the time we were here, of course she accepted. I had to give her a messaging crystal, which I learned worked when I got a letter from Celestia one day I was sitting in the bathroom, goo thing I was already on the toilet was my immediate thought when it happened. Of course after I learned that they all got messaging crystals and simple flip phones and a list of numbers to call if needed.

Apple Bloom is actually staying at the same Ranch with AJ, surprisingly, not really, there was a lot of repair work needed done and Bloom impressed the Rancher when she fixed up an old drainage pipe that’d been causing them trouble for some years.

And I was right, at the end of each day I talked to them about asking Pinkie into my herd, and while they all seemed happy at the prospect and encouraged me to do so, they didn’t exactly seem surprised. I was a bit irritated at this, though at the same time I knew it was most likely going to happen. I really only needed to talk to Goldy about it if my hunch that the kids didn’t know was correct, but considering how it’s been going they most likely already know as well.

Speaking of my daughter, Fluttershy and Goldy were always going into the woods to try and find more animals to interact with, I had a plan to bring them to the city’s zoo, the aquarium, and a few natural museums, was gonna take Twilight along for that one.

Speaking of, purple book-smart kept herself cooped up in the library and on the internet, she picked up on how to use that… faster than I was comfortable with, so one night I made my way to every computer we had in the house and turned on safe mode for whatever one's Lilac already didn’t. Don’t need Twilight or anyone else finding out what can go on in certain parts of the internet.

Lilac was in and out, she did have to work, well she didn’t have to but she said it gave her some to do other than sitting around all day, and I completely understand, it does get boring after a while. Tina being an 8 year old really didn’t have much going on, she had gymnastics every day except Sunday from 3 to 6 and I normally took her to that, usually she rode a bus after school but since it was out it was my job, and Lilac would pick her up hen she got off work.

ViVi was out and about with her friends, she obviously had a much more modern phone than my people due to being raised on the planet with a fuck ton of tech and next to no magic. Really most days it’s been, like I said, Pinkie, Spike, and I stuck in the house… I was planning on having a Pinkie day…. Just needed to think of what to do.

Anyways as I was pondering what to do for Pinkie’s day, I might bring Bon Bon along, have the 2 food ponies out for a day that’ll be fun, I turned the corner on the second floor and bumped into someone.

“Hey watch where you’re going!” The person said a bit annoyed, it was Spike.

“Sorry Spike, what’re you doing wandering around the halls?”

He shrugged, “Getting lost, not much to do with Twilight sticking to the library.”

“Ah.” I looked at the drake turned human and I felt bad, I really haven’t been able to think of anything specific for him and I to do, “Well… anything you specifically thought about doing?”

He shook his head, “Nah, you got anything? I’ve explored pretty much the 5th and 4th floors and I just got done with the second.”

The made something click in my mind, he explored 3 of the 5 floors of my house but not the 3rd, good. I smiled, “Actually I do have an idea, how bout we just hang today, shoot the shit?”

He gave me a smile, “Sure sounds good.”

“Awesome.” I walked past him and ruffle his mess of hair, “Follow me up to the third floor, there’s something I want to show you.”

“Oooookaaayyyy?” He still followed me despite the obvious confusion.

As we made our way up the stairs and stopped off at the 3rd floor I hit the light switch on the wall, the lights in the hall flickering to life after years of disuse. It was weird no one stayed on this floor, not for any particular reason, it was just an extra residential floor that had no special amenities, or so everyone thought.

“So what’re we doing up here? Doesn’t seem to be much going on up here, in fact it doesn't look like this part of the house has been used much at all.” Spike said, trailing a finger across a side table located in the hall, leaving a clear line amongst the dense dust.

“True, the only thing that really comes onto the third floor is Cookie, it’s where she sleeps, don't ask me where she sleeps up here exactly, I have no idea. I do know it’s not on any other floor because she has n beds there and she doesn’t sleep in the one in my room so it really only leaves this floor, though I’ve never been able to find the spot.” I swear that cat can warp between dimensions or some shit because she just shows up out of nowhere behind locked doors and what not.

“Ok, then why are we here? To find where she sleeps, because that sounds really boring.”

I shook my head, making our way down the hall passing a multitude of locked doors, “No, I gave up on that endeavor ages ago. This floor wasn’t always in disuse, in fact when I was a kid this is where I came all the time.”

“Really, doesn’t seem like it.”

“Like I said, it was when I was a kid, come one we’re almost there.” After a few minutes of silence and a few more doors later I stopped in front of a door that looked like any other in the hall, the only real difference was that it had a little gold door knob instead of a brass one. I gave the nob a twist to the left and 3 to the right and a loud click echoed through the hall.

Slowly the door creaked open and i reached inside, hitting another light switch, once the lights were on the room looked like any other normal bare bones room, a bed, a dresser, a light, and a trash can.

Spike looked at the room incredulously, “So what you wanted to lead me to the room to what? Talk?”

I made my way into the room and towards one of the far walls and scanned it, “I wanted to bring you to a room to talk.”

Spike huffed, “Ok but why this one, why not your room?”

I was now lightly feeling against the wall, knocking ever so slightly, “Because my room doesn’t have what this room has.”

“And what's that, the smell of several year old paint?” He said, sarcasm dripping in his voice.

“Nah, every room on this floor has that smell… now where is-AHA! Here we go.” I felt a small crease in the wall and I dug my fingers into it, giving a grunt as I pulled.

“Chris what are you trying to-” He stopped his train of thought as the wall gave way with a loud groan of wood and plaster, and it slowly swung open to reveal a secret door leading to a winding staircase. “Ok what the what?”

I stepped past the open wall piece and walked into the open space it left, hitting one more switch, a dim yellow light flooding the staircase, “I told you, I wanted to take to a room, never said it was this one, come on, and please close the wall behind you.”

I made my way down the stairs, after a few seconds I heard the tell tell groan of the wall being closed and heard quick thumping behind me until it got close, “What in the Tartarus is this?”

I looked back and smirked, “A secret staircase, duh, did you and Twilight find one in the Crystal Palace? Why are you so surprised?”

He stammered, “Y-yeah, well, you know…. It was protected by dark magic and you said your world had no magic so.”

I raised an eyebrow as we continued our way down the stairs, “You just assumed my world wouldn’t have something interesting like this going on? Trust me there is a bunch of stuff hiding in plain sight on my world that so many people who live here are unaware of.”

“Ok, that makes sense, sorry, but how did you find out about this?”

“My mom showed me, apparently she was one of the few people to notice that the hallways were a bit shorter inside than the house shown on the outside, so one day she decided to find out why, and low and behold there’s a secret staircase built into the far side of the house only accessible from the 3rd floor. Though the column of stairs does extend up to the 4th and 5th floor, nothing up there, just a dead end.” I explained.

“Why though, what’s the point?”

I shrugged, “Not sure, we never found out, but I can tell you what the end of the bottom of the stairs was built for. We should be getting close anyways.” Spike held any questions knowing he’d get the answers he’d need if he was patient.

Once we reached the bottom of the stairs it ended n a short hallway that had a metal door at the end of it, we made our way to it and a gave the door a hard pull, it opening with enough force. And I turned on the last switch, once the room was illuminated I smiled happily, good nothing changed.

Spike looked passed me, “Woah, dude this room is huge and why are there couches, and a tv, and is that a fridge?” He pushed past me and stepped into the room proper, I followed after him shortly, closing the door behind me.

“Welcome to my hide away, only me and my mom knew about it, after she found this place she fixed it up into a rec-room. It used to be a bomb shelter and could likely still act as one with how far underground we are.”

“Wait underground? How far and how are we getting fresh air?”

I pointed to the vents, “Those lead to vents and filters outside, a bit of a ways away from the house, and i’d say maybe 60 or so feet underground, a good distance.”

Spike was flabbergasted, “Holy Celestia…”

I made my way to the couch and sat down in front of the large TV, “Yeah, got this TV, some old game systems, a pool table, a foosball table, fridge, sinks, bathroom is the far door over there, the couch even folds out into a bed and there is a storage area where there’s even more stuff.”

Spike sat down next to me, “Wow, why don’t you just stay down here if you have everything you could ever need?”

“Same reason you wandered around the house, it get’s boring after a while, now come on, let’s play some of my games, we can talk while we’re doing that.” I leaned down, grabbed the remote, gave a few buttons a practice push, to see the light at the top of the remote flicker, cool still some juice, I turned the TV on. I proceeded to get up and look at the rack under the TV, it was lined shelf to shelf in video games, I pulled out one in particular, opened the case, turned on the the PS2 to hear that classic start up sound. It brought a smile to my face, knowing it still worked even after all these years. I grabbed the controllers and sat down, keeping the good one for myself and giving the bum one to Spike.

“Hey, you gave me the broken one, that’s not fair.” He said as the game started up, opening on a sick guitar riff.

“It totally is, it’s my game and besides it’s tradition to give the little brother the bad controller, besides it isn’t that bad, the right analog stick is just a bit… loose.” I said, giving it a flick, causing the barely padded stick to roll around freely, the springs being long shot.

Spike huffed, “Still not fair, and little brother?”

I shrugged, and brought my attention to the start screen, “I mean, you are technically my little brother, and even if Cadance didn’t adopt me, I still would consider you my little brother. We’re dragons after all, the only ones that live with ponies, we gotta stick together.” I pressed the start button, moving it on to the next screen.

“Well… I appreciate it I guess, i haven’t really had a big brother since Shining and then Twilight and I left to Ponyville for a long while and then the wedding happened, and the Crystal Empire.”

“And then everything went to shit.” I finished for him.

“Basically, you left to go on some adventure or whatever, and I was left without my two brother figures.”

I sighed and put the controller down, “I know Spike and I’m sorry, I also know I haven’t been spending much time with you since I got back, I promise I’ll change that though.”

He smiled, punching me in the arm, “Don’t worry about it, I get it. Still think it’s not fair you gave me the broken controller.”

I laughed, “Alright I’ll make you a deal, you beat me once in this game, or last 5 rounds without quitting I’ll switch you controllers.” I said, getting to the versus screen real quick and then into the character select screen.

He gave me a look of disbelief, “Ok that’s extra unfair, I’ve never played this before, and I’m guessing you have. You won’t even teach me?”

I pondered that for a moment, “Fair point.” I backed out of the versus screen and went into training and practice, “Here, in this mode, it’ll teach you how to play the game, but you only get 1 run through.”

Spike sighed, “Fine, it’s the closest I’ll get to help in beating you that’s fine.” Spike wen through the training and got a handle on it pretty well once he figured out where all the buttons on the controller was.

“Alright, you finished the last training, you ready for a real fight?”

He nodded eagerly, his excitement showing, I could tell he thought he was going to win, or at least stand a chance. Time to prove him wrong.

I made my way back over to the character select screen and gave him his second handicap, “So, i’ll tell you what, I’ll only use 2 characters, and you can use the full 5 of anyone you want.”

He looked at me, utterly baffled at that, “You sure?” I nodded, “Alright your funeral.” He selected his fighters.

“Huh, Super Janemba, Hirudegarn, Omega Shenron, Cooler Final Form, and Legendary Super Saiyan Broly, not a bad roster that.” I said, quickly selecting my 2 fighters, SSJ4 Goku and SSJ4 Vegeta, custom of course, not that Spike knew what that was, so I was cheating a bit.

“Really, the two monkey looking guys?” Spike asked me, “They look kind of week compared to my guys.”

“Maybe maybe not.” Was all I said as I picked the stage and the music.

Once it was loaded up spike got super cocky, “Alright prepare to get your butt kicked.”

I smiled, see I have this tendency to be a tad bit sadistic when it came to Budokai Tenkaichi 2, i liked to toy with the people I was playing against, so I didn’t fuse once, and I rarely ever lost unless I was feeling bad for them, or bored. So of course the rounds went exactly how you’d expect someone who has had years of experience in this game versus someone who has only had a few minutes to an hour at most. I whooped his ass into next year, Spike, was not happy about this at all, especially after I told him I used customs.

“So you cheated?!” He accused.

“Sorta, more like I didn’t tell you about a mechanic, but you played to the rules of the game so I’ll play to mine.” I handed him the good controller and took the bad one, “One more fight, i won’t use them again, I’ll pick someone else and you can still have the full tea of whatever and whoever you choose.”

He snorted and accepted,determined to beat me, now that he had a better controller and even better odds. However, this time he picked only the custom SSJ4s. I smirked at this, good good, this was going all according to plan. I picked a normal full powered Roshi.

Once again the fight started up and I gave him one more handicap, I allowed him to build up his bars to allow him to fuse at full health. If you know anything about BT2 is that custom stats when it comes to characters who can fuse get stacked on top of each other, so needless to say he was pretty much the strongest character in the game right now. Still I wasn’t phased by this.

As the round went on, he got in a few good shots however I got in more shots and had longer combos, honestly it was close match, his raw power able to take chunks of my health down when he was able to land hits. And e being able to land frequent hits even if they were weak in comparison. In the end though i won, ending with a beam struggle, and i only had a sliver of health left.

Spike’s jaw was on the floor, “I-but-how?!”

“Skill versus raw power Spike. You can have all the power in the world but if you don’t know what to do with it it amounts to nothing. Imagine if I decided to fuse with them when I was fighting you with them.” I said, giving him that mental beat down.

“No thank you, that is just not fair, has anyone ever pushed you to have to fuse with them?” He asked, clearly something like that being impossible in his mind.

I nodded, “Several people actually, I still won but they definitely were able to take down the rest of my team and force me to use SSJ4 Gogeta.”

“Wait you had an entire team backing you up too?!” His mind officially blown, “Wow… I really didn’t stand a chance. Were you even fighting me seriously as the old man?” He asked as he slumped down into the couch.

“Honestly, no I wasn’t.” And it was the truth, I wasn’t, I just was having a bit of fun.

“Is this how you are back in Equestria when it comes to your power?” He asked out of the blue.

“You know…. I’m not sure, I haven’t had to fight anyone in a long time Spike.”

“Maybe you could get Luna or Celestia to fight you.”

“Yeah, Celestia would be super easy to get to fight me, I’d just have to freeze her cake in ice even she can’t melt.” I said with a laugh.

Spike chuckled at that, “Dude, she’d kill you if you did that.”

“Nah, she loves me too much to do that. So I got ton of other games we could play, or you could play and I could watch, go pick out whatever.” I told him.

He got up, picked out a game and put it in the system, replacing BT2 and putting it back in its case. It went on like this for a while, us playing games, sometimes he’d pick out one that was single player and he would play, on those ones I’d take over on the parts he’d have trouble with and that was our day until our stomachs started growling.

“Hey Chris, is there any food in that fridge?” Spike asked.

“You could go check, I’m not sure.”

He nodded and got up to check, “Ugh, no it’s empty.” He said, shutting the door.

“Really are you sure?” I asked him, getting a yes in reply, “Check again.” I told him.

He did, “See there’s nothing…. What, there wasn't any food in there a minute ago and now it's jam packed.”

I looked over my shoulder, “See what did I tell ya, there was something in there.”

He squinted at me, “You did something did you, that weird freezing time thing, did you really waste a power crystal just to do that?”

“Power crystal, that’s what you’re calling them? And no, no idea you’re talking about.” I said turning back towards the TV.

“Whatever.” I heard him say, “No wonder you want to add Pinkie to your herd, you’d both fit together great.”

I threw up my hands, “REALLY?! DOES EVERYONE ACTUALLY KNOW?!”

Spike plopped down next me, a plate full of miscellaneous items, “Mmmm, pretty much.”

I grabbed a cheese stick from the pile of food and took a bite out of it, “Even Pinkie?”

“She’s the one who brought it up dude, besides the whole show you two put on at the theatre seems to me you already knew she knew.” He said, pulling out a pickle and biting it clean in half.

“Yeah well… shut up.” Ha, best retort, high five brain, “Actually on that note, you still pining after Rarity?”

He looked at me with a raised brow, “No, I’m not. Didn’t anyone tell you, I feel like someone told you.”

“Eh, I can’t assed to remember everything now can I?”

“Ha, hasn’t stopped you before. But, no, after the whole… Princess Platinum stuff it kinda hit me hard that Rarity would die long before I would.” He said, staring at the plate of food.

I put down my half eaten cheese stick, “Sorry, I should’ve been there to help you through it.”

He waved it off, “No, don’t worry about it, the girls all helped me out, it just had a lasting effect you know?” I nodded, “So… how do you do it?”

“How do I do what? You’re gonna have to be a little more specific.”

“How do you deal with the thought that Fluttershy is going to die before you do? Pinkie too?”

I shrugged, “I guess I just… don’t. Like, don’t get me wrong I don’t have this disillusion that they won’t die. It’s more like, everyone dies, so no point in worrying about it right now.”

“What?”

“Well I mean everything and everyone dies at some point, some things just die faster. Hell, I’ll die someday, you’ll die, even the Princesses and Discord will die someday. Everyone has to go at some point, Spike, just no point in worrying about until it happens. Life’s a ride, you just gotta enjoy it while you can, don’t let the fears hinder you or you’ll miss out on tons of chances.” I explained.

“So a whole, ‘you’ll cross that bridge when you get to it’ scenario huh?”

I nodded, bringing the cheese stick back up to my mouth and taking another large bite out of it, “Pretty much.”

“Huh…” Was all he said for quite some time, it wasn’t completely silent though, we did play video games to fill in the gaps, “Hey Chris?”

“Yeah Spike?”

“Thanks for hanging out with me today.”

I gave the younger man a smile, “Of course, I’ll come and hang whenever you want, promise.”

He returned the smile, only for it to turn mischievous, “I’ll hold you to that, I bet I can beat you in the game now that i have more gaming experience.”

I laughed, “Not on your life, kid.”

Author's Note

Hey guess what Spike chapter! BAM! :moustache:

27.5 Intermission

Lilac opened the door to a small workshop located on the fourth floor, she saw her brother sitting there, well more like she saw his wings.

She walked closer and peered over Chris’ shoulder, “Well I was going to ask if you wanted to join us downstairs for a movie marathon but I see you’re busy.”

She looked down to see a tiny humanoid figure made of dark blue ice shambling about, “So what are you doing exactly?”

~Chris’ POV~

I blinked, my sister's voice distracting me, making the little project I was working on fall apart and shatter. I sighed and sat back in the desk chair I was on, leaning my head back, looking up at the ceiling, “Well, I was trying to see if I could remotely control my ice structures from a distance, or at all really.”

“Oh and how’s that going?”

I tilted my head far to the right to look at her, “Bout as well as you would expect, I can control simple objects with relative ease, such as spikes, swords, balls of ice, etc. but something like that miniature ice golem takes a bit more energy and concentration. I’m guessing it’s mostly due to the lack of magic in our world.”

Lilac pulled up a chair and sat down next to me, “Ok, so not the greatest, but why are you doing any of this in the first place.”

I shrugged, “Not much else to do at the moment. That and i'm curious as to how far I can expand my powers, I tested a good bit of them on my travels and even came up with a few new ones, but they’re all heavily combat based, very little involve strategy, hell even the newest one I got is less strategy and more combat, or at least all of the uses I can think of.”

She nodded, some understanding showing in her eyes, “You know… you’ve never told me about what your powers entail exactly.”

I sat up straight and gave her a quizzical look, “Didn’t think you’d be interested, besides didn’t you say something about a movie marathon.”

“I’m interested in anything that involves your time away big brother… or should I call you little brother?” She smirked at my annoyed look before continuing, “Also, they should be fine it’s just the Harry Potter movies, I’ve seen the with the girls more times than I can count.”

“Fair enough where should I start?”

“How about what each of your new body parts do and then we can get more complicated from there.”

I nodded, sounded like a solid plan, “Alright well the first thing that ever showed up for me were my eyes, it actually took awhile for me to notice them as everyone else kept pointing them out instead of me immediately noticing.”

“I’m guessing your uh… eye of darkness, for lack of a better description, hasn’t always been there?”

I shook my head, “Lost it fighting a dark tyrant remember? Though it didn’t start to manifest until a year after, give or take a few months. However both eyes have different abilities, my normal eye has better vision in the dark, not perfect but much better than what any human or pony has, I can also see very slight thermal signatures with it if I pump some magic into it but it takes a bit too much effort to be worth it considering my other eye can do something much more useful.”

“What like x ray vision or something like that?”

I laughed, “Nah, I’m not superman. It can see the thaumological energies of pretty much any and everything and can even filter out certain things if I concentrate.”

“Thaumo-what?”

“Right, sorry, magic. My eye can see the magic of any and everything.”

“Oh, do I have any magic?” She asked, holding her arms out, obviously giving me invitation to scan her person.

I sighed and took off the eye patch, my dark eye flickering into existence and sight coming with it, if not a bit distorted with the mashing of two visions. I closed my other eye to lessen the headache this would cause. I scanned over Lilac’s body, and to my surprise I did indeed find very faint magical energy but it was weaker than even what a rock back in Equestria would give off.

“Huh neat….” I took the opportunity to look through the house, it was mostly black space with outlines of structures, until I spotted a tiny white speck blinking around the house, it looked oddly in the shape of a… NO FUCKING WAY, I KNEW THAT MOTHER FUCKER HAD SOMETHING GOING ON.

After getting over that i continued scanning the house until I saw a bunch of different colored magical signatures, all gathered where the living room would be. Then in the corner of my vision I noticed a much brighter light shining from somewhere, it was coming from below me and I looked straight down and a good distance away there was a ball of pure golden energy, is that? Well color me surprised, that was the earth’s magic and it looked like it was trying to push against something, like it had been plugged up eons ago, or maybe it hadn’t popped it’s top once and it’s getting antsy.

“Also neat.”

She looked at me confused, “What’s neat?”

I blinked and looked at Lilac again, putting my eye patch back on, my vision going slightly skewed until I adjusted, “Well three things. One; you do have a very very weak magic in your person, and I’m guessing most everyone does, but it could just be because of your interactions with us. 2; Cookie is one magical fucking cat, and 3; the world might be getting magic within the next, oh I don’t know 200 years if that swirling mass of restless magic located in the center of the earth’s core is anything to go by.”

“Huh…”

“Right? Moving on, next was really the rest of my head, horns included, you remember me telling you about icesplosions how its the draconic magic in me exploding outward, mingling with the world’s magic and then it gets absorbed back into me as my own magic, essentially giving me a massive power boost.” At her nod I continued, “Right first one was bit of a doozy to say the least, but It gave me my horns, teeth, hearing, sense of smell, stomach, throat, and my tongue, something that I really never put much thought into so I never mention it to anyone.”

“That’s a lot, why so much?”

I shrugged, “I'm guessing it's like when all you do is work out and you haven’t tried to do anything gentle for a while so when you first try to you put in too much force and it kind of goes awry, but you know better next time. So my horns didn’t really give me anything specific, I think it just gave me an overall stat boost and larger magic reserves allowing me to do stronger spells and the such, I’ll get to those. My mouth and throat and stomach bits though those gave me some practical things for day to day life. Teeth and stomach gave me the ability to consume gem stones and other hard stones and minerals, only 2 things in Equestria can resist a dragon’s teeth, it’s what my tooth brushes are made out of, hella expensive but you know, royalty and all that.”

“Ok first of all, you can eat gems, aren’t they expensive as hell?”

“Not as much on Equestria, things like rubies, sapphires, emeralds, diamonds. Things we find valuable and ‘rare’ here are in abundance in Equestria, on the flip side there are crystals, stones, minerals, and various other stone and carbon based things that don’t exist on earth and those are expensive.”

“Ok, second of all, are they sensitive, you horns I mean?”

I gave her a deadpanned look, “Pull on them.”

“What?”

“Pull them, flick them, whatever.” She did so, albeit, hesitantly, “No pain whatsoever, just bone, it would only hurt if you snapped them off as there is blood flowing deep inside of them and a few nerves and even then it would feel like if you cut a nail a bit too low, nothing major just annoying and it would eventually grow back entirely if not a bit uneven. Now what really sucks is that at the base, they itch horribly due to them growing since i'm still technically a “young adult” for dragons. They won’t be done growing until I’m about…. 50 so yeah.”

She frowned, “Well that’s sucky, you said your throat and tongue changed too, what do they do?”

I chuckled and lolled my tongue out to its maximum length, it being about a foot long, and it being forked at the end, this cause her to gasp and back away a bit as I quickly flexed it upwards, the tip flickering a bit. I sucked it back into my mouth, “Don’t ask where it all fits because I have no idea, it sits in my mouth like a normal tongue but I have no idea where the rest goes. As for what it does, other than making me really good in bed, it allows me to actually taste the gems and smell scents much better in combination with my nose. Nose gets a general wiff, transfers the scents to my tongue which gives me specifics, very helpful combined with the whole vision stuff.”

“Ok, really didn’t need to hear about your nightly habits, though if that’s the case, thank you for closing your vents before hand.” She said with a heavy blush, not looking me in the eyes.

I chuckled, “Nah, haven’t done anything yet, i think, I did wake up with a strange taste in my mouth one morning, maybe subconsciously did something to Shy.” I finished with a shrugged, I conjured up a small spinning top and spun it in place, “So my throat is a bit more of a generalization, it more has to do with the structure of my vocal chords and how everything interacts with one another in this general area. I can speak and verbally understand any language, no idea how to write it nor do I really know how to read it without any previous knowledge. Except French and maybe Spanish. So really I can hold a conversation but I could not write a letter in an language save English, French, possibly Spanish, oh and Draconian. Also I can make various dragon noises, It’s pretty neat.”

“Oh, can you do some.”

I nodded, and opened my mouth slightly, and set my jaw back some before a sound that was a mix of a caw and a croak came out. I followed it with some clicking noises that a human should not be able to make, i threw in some whistling and a few yelps and squeaks/chirps. Yes dragons chirp it’s more of a thing you do towards mates and children… as I involuntarily found out one night back in Equestria.

Lilac was smiling widely, “Ok that's pretty cool, but can you roar?” I nodded, “Can you roar now?” I shook my head, “Aw, why not?”

“Unless you want every cop in the county here I’d rather not. I forgot to explain my ears, obviously along with the language translations, they also give me increased hearing and pinpoint accuracy. Basically i'm a beast.”

She nodded, “I’ll say, so what about all the other accessories?”

“You mean my tail and wings? Well, like I said, the actually visible dragon bits mainly gave me stat boosts, large ones. But what they can do on their own… well my tail is completely prehensile.” I demonstrated by grabbing a pen out of the cup with my tail and scribbling a stick figure on a sheet of paper that was off to the side, “Also, due to the scales and my semi shape shifting powers regarding my draconic parts, sans my wings and horns, can’t control their size, so really just my tail for whatever reason. I can increase the length and thickness of my tail to an extent to form a small barrier around me by wrapping it around myself. I’m essentially magic resistant, certain magicks can hurt me, such as dark magic or other draconic magic. I’m slash resistant, stabbing can still hurt if aimed right, bashing still hurts but there has to be a lot of force, and I mean a lot, like getting hit by something with the equivalent force of a meteor smashing into the planet for it to really hurt.”

Lilac whistled, “Damn, I know you’ve always been able to take a punch but that’s insane.”

“You’re telling me, nothing has been able to properly hurt me since I was hospitalized years ago. My wings same thing that my tail can do, just also gave me flight and my biggest boost in speed. My tail gave me my biggest boost in defense and I’m assuming my horns gave me a huge boost in attack.”

“Can you show me how fast?”

“Sorta, the room is pretty small.” I got up from the chair, and went to my room, grabbed the lamp on my nightstand and made my way back to workshop I was in, setting the lamp down on the desk. “How long was I gone?”

“10 seconds, is that lamp from your room?” I nodded, “Holy crap that would take like 5 minutes to just get there and 5 more to get back, not to mention moving your nightstand and unplugging everything. So should have taken you about 12 to 15 minutes.”

“Told you, I’m fast, only person faster than me is Rainbow, and maybe Celestia and Luna. I think Cadance could probably reach my speed, but she’s never had reason to so it would take a lot. Luna and Celestia have seen life times worth of battles so it was most definitely needed for them.”

“That is absolutely terrifying, and that’s the fastest you can go?”

“Nah, give me open air and a straight line I can reach insane speeds at least for humans, I think several hundreds. Though I also technically cheat and have magic backing me up and boosting me a good chunk.”

“Huh. how about strength and stamina?”

“I could easily lift your car if I wanted to, and do you really want to know my stamina cuz that’s kinda grass considering you’re my sister.” I said with a chuckle.

“Ew, no not like that, just how long can you run or fly or whatever, and the car, easily? That’s 3 tons.”

I shrugged, “It's honestly like lifting a box full of clothes for me, but my stamina I guess it’s a lot, i was able to run several hundred miles only needing to walk for a break for 2 days so… yeah, a lot.”

“Damn bro, that’s crazy, all that just from turning into a dragon? Will it be like a permanent transformation when its done?”

“Nah, I should be able to freely transform back. Now, would you like to know the spells I can do?”

She got visibly excited at the prospect of seeing actual magic, “Yes, please, can you do stuff like levitation or light spells, or unlocking locks, you know stuff like that?”

I raised an eyebrow, “You mean like, in Harry Potter? No, my magic is simply restricted to ice, snow, and cold. So out of all of those i could probably unlock locks through a few means.”

Lilac rolled her hand, “Such as?”

I picked up a pen, “Well i could freeze it to the point to where it just shatters.” I froze the plastic barrel solid and gave it a little bit of pressure, causing it to crumble in my hand, leaving just the ink chamber and tip left.

“Or i could force ice into the mechanism of the lock itself, forming it into the shape of the proper key.” I said as I made a new barrel for the pen out of clear ice.

“Ok, that is cool, no pun intended. What other spells can you do?”

“Well, the freezing thing is just basic ice magic of what i can do, now making the barrel o the pen, is technically very weak ice make magic.”

“Ice make magic… that sounds familiar.”

I chuckled, “It should my powers decided to take form from Fairy Tail.”

“Wait you mean like the anime?” I nodded, “Oh my god, that’s dumb.”

“Hey, it’s just what the magic decided it would be easiest for me to understand how to use it. However, unlike Fairy Tail I don’t need to exactly have a spell for the ice make bits of my magic, only the draconic infusions of my magic.”

“Wait, draconic infusions? I though all your magic was dragon magic?”

“Ah, right I should explain I suppose, all of my magic is dragon magic. But, there are certain things I do that infuse huge amount of my draconic magic into it, some of them I can’t show in the house due to how destructive they are, but some I can.

I’ll get to those but first let me show off my basic magic. Hmmm, how about my spikes and what not.”

I formed five spikes of sparkling ice around my head, and they just floated there until I lifted my hand and pointed it at the far wall. The ice spikes all pointed to the spot my hand was pointing at an at the flick of my wrist they flew towards the wall and before they hit I flicked my wrist to the right, making them take a sharp turn in that direction and as they got closer to the center of the room I flicked my hand upwards and Spread my fingers apart, my palm facing up. The spikes flew away from one another until I clenched my hand into a fist causing them to come back together at blistering speed until they collided with one another and exploding into a shower of fine ice particles.

“Whoa, is that what you were talking about earlier? Controlling your ice?”

“That’s exactly what I was talking about, they’re simple constructs, anything more complex needs a lot of my draconic magi to make move and proper use of, and while I could do it, i would be useless afterwards.”

“Damn, that sucks… wait, if the spikes are easier to control can’t you just use those as like simple drones? After all why would you need to control golems for reconnaissance if your base senses are as good as they are?”

I held up a hand to rebuke her but it hit me that she was correct, “Shit, you’re right, I could probably just feed in some basic form of my senses into the spikes and pump some extra draconic magic with simple instructions into the spike to make them fly about without my constant need of input. I’ll have to test that out soon. Oh, also, I can make it snow, hail, sleet, etcetera.” I said as i held up my hand, a small cloud forming in the room and snowflakes beginning to fall.

“Oh, wow, I bet that's useful on a hot day.”

I groaned, “You have no idea, I hated the heat before, but due to my magic I’m actually weaker in heat.”

“Oh, have you been ok sleeping in your room? I know I’ve had the heat on lately.”

I nodded, “Yeah, it’s fine, since I'm essentially mostly human here it doesn’t bother me that much, and I know the girls appreciate it due to them not being used to having no fur.”

“So what else?”

I closed my eyes in thought, “Oh! There was something else I’ve been working on in secret.”

“Oh?”

“Yep, you know how water and Ice kind of refracts light and distorts images when looking through them? I’ve been working on seeing if I can use some of that logic plus the rule breaking effects of magic to use ice that I could form on my skin as better defenses to refract light around me and turn me invisible.”

“Wait, you’re trying to turn invisible? Show me.”

“Alright.” I held up my hand and formed ice around it, evident by the glinting shininess my hand now had in the light. I took a deep breath and concentrated some more draconic magic into it and slow my hand faded away and once I felt it was gone enough I relaxed some. Now my hand was completely gone, and the only thing you could see was some waviness in the place it was at.

“Holy shit, it’s really gone, I mean this close up I can see the waviness of the ice there but from a distance or in the dark or if you were staying still at a close dance it would be pretty hard to see.”

That put a smile on my face, that means I could probably implement it in my other spell and constructs, to an extent.

“Ok so I only have a bit of magic left and i can show off two of my actual spells before I’m out first is my most common.” I took a deep breath, a bright blue magic circle composed of different ruins and the symbol of a dragon appearing in the center of it formed over my hands, “Hyōryū no Tsume…” Slowly ice formed over my fingers, forming into the shape of claws until they ended in a razor sharp point, “These are the-”

“Claws of the Ice dragon, I got the translation, as rough as it was. So, what do they do exactly?”

I scoffed, “Well excuse me, I’m just going off what my brain tells me, anyways, they are razor sharp and pretty durable, I could easily slice through most metals, but that doesn’t mean they’re indestructible, in fact, most things I’ve fought against have been able to shatter or fend off against them well enough, so it’s not something I can use in extra long fights. I have another variation but I haven’t exactly perfected it yet. Though they do have uses outside of fighting, they allow me to climb virtually any surface, and if there is a surface I can’t climb I can fly. I could go into more depth, but the tiny details aren’t really that important.” I shook my hands and the claws cracked and powderized off my fingers.

“The next spell is a little more interesting and the only one I perfected to this extent.” I balled up my right hand into a fist and placed my left hand on the flat spiral part of the fist. I noticed Lilac shiver and her breath started to form white puffs in the air.

“Sorry Lily, it’ll warm up soon, but to do this I have to pour the rest of my magic into this and it’s going to get cold. Ice Dragon’s…” I let out a long breath, the temperature of the air dropping drastically, “Perfect Frozen Sword.” I pulled my fist away from my hand a dark blue blade forming as I did so until I stopped and moved my open palm from its position. The sword resembled a basic broadsword except the engraving of a dragon on the blade itself. I twirled the sword in my hand, just to get acquainted with its weight once more and what not, of course it was perfect because it was formed by magic but still.

As I was twirling it, trails of ice formed where the tip of the blade sliced through the air, normally I would show off, actually I was about to but then the ice sword shattered and I reverted back to just plain old human, “Well that was quick, so what did you notice about the sword that was different than the claws?”

“Other than your use of English, why was that?”

I shrugged, “To be honest its just because I don’t want to butcher Japanese more than I already do so I use it with the ones I’m slightly more confident about.”

She shook her head and sighed, “You’re such a nerd, but I guess the color of the blade was darker than the claws.”

My smile widened into a beaming smile, “Very good, yep, and what do you think that means?”

“Well considering you said ‘Perfect Frozen Sword,’ I’m assuming its more stable and more deadly?” She guessed with a shrug.

“Ding ding ding, we have a winner.” I chuckled at my own antics, “You’re correct, it is more stable and much much deadlier. So much so that anything it strikes immediately starts to freeze over faster than a living creature would realize, and as you so it’s so cold the tip creates ice and snow as it passes through the air.”

She stared at me in shock, “What would possess you to make something like that, freeze over something before it can realize it, wouldn’t that kill them?”

“Nah, I try not to kill, Shy would kill me, it just freezes them, they;re more in a state of hibernation.”

“Ok, good, I don’t want to think my brother is a killer.”

I frowned at that, would she really think I would resort to something like that? I mean I have been gone for 17 years by her perspective, so I suppose it’s only fair, I sighed, letting the issue go, “Well, I’m tapped out of power, why don’t we go and watch the movies with the others?”

I got started to move towards the door when Lilac grabbed my arm, stopping me, “Chris… You need to go see Drea, I think seeing you would do her some good. Let her know you… didn’t completely abandoned us.” She looked deep into my eyes, the hurt from me leaving still very evident.

I sighed and nodded, bringing my free hand up to her cheek, “I promise, I’ll go see her baby sis, I promise, come on, let’s go.” She thanked me and left the room, I followed suit, not before looking back at this room for the last time, I let out a deep sigh, flicked the light switched and closed the door.

Author's Note

Hey, sorry for the long update, I'm back on it now and I do have other chapters written up, I just, wasn't too confident about them and had other issues I had going on, but it's all good. Hope you enjoy.

28: Sour paces and old faces

I was awoken to motion of the bed rocking and squeaking, at first I was confused, then I was concerned, finally I was confermed. I opened my eye, it still being relatively dark in my room, my very little amount of draconic magic keeping me able to see in the dark a bit better than a normal human but nowhere near what my full potential would be.

Anyways, I looked around to see a very small body jumping on the bed, “Goldy… what are you doing?” I groaned out.

“It’s tomorrow, we’re going to the zoo today right?!” She asked in a excited, harsh, whisper.

“Ugh…. yeah, not until much later though. Let mommy, daddy, and Pinkie get more sleep ok?”

The rocking and squeaking stopped, “But...but…”

I sighed, reading myself to get up, “It’s ok Chrissy, go back to sleep, I’ll keep her company.” Said a groggy Pinkie.

“You sure?”

“Yepperoni, I love spending time with Goldy, plus it’ll let me practice some recipes I found in the library and on the internet thing.” She said, slowly sounding more awake.

I’d shrug if I wasn’t lying down, so instead i gave out a large yawn, “Alright, just don’t burn down the kitchen, or do, I’m not a cop.”

Pinkie gave out a half laugh half yawn, “Yes you are, you’re the cop of feels!” She climbed out of the bed, and had Goldy follow her.

“Oh thank Celestia…” I heard Shy mutter out.

“So you were awake, I was wondering how you were asleep through all that.”

“I-I… just didn’t want to be bothered… I love Goldy I do, more than anything.”

“Even me?”

“Oh hush. I love her, but sometimes she can get a little too excited.”

I nodded, not that it mattered, “Well, Pinkie has her occupied let’s get some sleep.” She rolled over and cuddled against me as I laid on my back, closing my eyes. I tried to sleep for several minutes but I was now wide awake, I snorted in annoyance, which caught Shy’s attention.

“Can’t sleep?”

“Nah, too awake.” I sat up, Shy sliding over and curling up some, “I’m going to go check on Pinkie and Goldy.”

“Ok, wake me up, before it’s time to leave?”

“Of course I will, I love you.” I gave her a kiss, her lips tasting like strawberries enticing me to kiss her more, to which I happily obliged, Shy actually had to push me away, much to my annoyance.

She laughed, blushing, as I could feel the heat from her face against mine, “As much as I love the attention, we both have morning breath, and you have two children to watch.”

I stepped back, “Two? More like a child and a young adult and I’m sure Goldy can keep Pinkie in check just fine.” I gave her one last quick kiss, and made my way down to the kitchen, leaving her to get more rest.

I walked into the kitchen to see Pinkie in a relatively snug apron over her pajamas, and covered in random patches of flour, “I… what? It’s only been like 15 minutes how are you already this messy and where’s Goldy?”

Pinkie looked behind her, giving me a wide smile, “CHRISSY! You’re awake, good, I wanted to get your help with these, but I didn’t want to wake you, but now that you are up, i don’t have to worry about that and I can just ask for your help now, and you can help me because you’re awake and-”

I gave her hair, which was tied back in a ponytail a soft tug, “Calm down Pinks, you also didn’t answer my question before I help you.” She cocked her head to the side, confused, “Goldy, you know, my daughter, part human, dragon, and pony?”

Pinkie scoffed and rolled her eyes, “I know who Goldy is silly, she’s in the bathroom.”

“Ah, alright, now what did you need my help with?”

“Weeeeelllll, I know your favorite fruit are lemons and I was trying to make lemon Pancakes, but they just keep coming out wrong.” She said with a pout.

I raised a brow at that, “My favorite fruit is Mango, Pinkie.”

She gave me a curious look, “Are you sure, because any time something with lemon is brought up you tend to freak out about it.”

I held up a finger to correct her, only to lower it, realizing she was correct, “I… well… no, you.”

She giggled, “Good comeback, but the help?”

“Right, yeah sure, let me just wash my hands and put on an apron.” After finding my spare apron, it had little blue snowflakes on it, huh…. Weird.

“So, let me see what you’re doing.” I told her, she showed me exactly what she did, and honestly I didn’t see anything wrong, until I dipped my pinky in the batter and pulled it out to taste, my face scrunched up horribly at the overwhelming sour and bitterness.

“See, that’s what's happening over and over, but I’m doing the recipe right, at least from what i’m reading.” She said, handing me the recipe sheet.

I looked over it, she indeed was doing everything right, “Weird, you normally don’t have any trouble unless someone is intentionally or accidentally sabotaging you.”

“Like with the baked bads.” Pinkie said with a shudder.

“I thought we all agreed to never bring those up, ever.” Apple Bloom was never destined to be a baker, shoot, none of the crusaders were, how Bloom got extract of swamp, I will never know, nor question.

That’s when a thought struck me, “Hey, Pinks.”

“Yeah?” She asked, resuming remaking the recipe.

“Hand me the lemon extract.” She quickly did and I examined the bottle, “Pinkie… this is extra strength lemon extract.” I don’t remember ever having this in the house, but I have been gone for… 17 years.

“Wait, really?”I handed her the bottle back and she looked at it, “Oh silly me, it was super simple, I guess I just need to put more of everything else in the pancake mix.”

I blanched at that, “OR!” I shouted, my voice cracking some. I cleared my throat and continued at a more reasonable volume for 5 in the morning, “You could lessen the amount of extract.”

“But then, there wouldn’t be enough pancakes for everyone.” Pinkie said with a whimper.

“Pinkie, nearly everyone has been living somewhere else for the last few weeks, really it’s just me, you, Shy, Goldy, Spike, Twilight, and Lilac and her girls at this point.” I pointed to the large batch of untainted pancake mix, “I think what you have there will be more than enough.” Where did she even get that much flour to make a mix out of?

After awhile of cooking and making various amounts of foods, not just pancakes, seriously though, it’s always pancakes, like I’m in some poorly written story. Well, after about 2 and a half hours of both Pinkie and I cooking, with Goldy helping here and there, leaving the kitchen sometimes to go do other things or use the restroom, what she’s still a child, do you have any idea how small their bladders are?

The last thing to be ready were the biscuits I had going in the oven. Pinkie was off to the side, setting things up to look neat and orderly, well neat and orderly according to Piknie. Which meant color coding, so everything was mixed together at the end of it all, I shrugged, Pinkie was Pinkie, no point in changing her.

The oven timer went off and I opened its door, feeling the hot air hit my face, I was still distracted by Pinkie’s organization skills, or lack thereof, and grabbed the pan without putting on gloves. Of course, this hurt like all hell, as grabbing a 300 plus degree pan would do, so naturally I dropped the pan and let out a stream of curses that would make my ancestors proud.

This, however caught Pinkie’s attention who ran over to me, “Are you ok Chrissy?!”

I was holding my hand by the wrist, squeezing it hard to stop some blood flow making my hand a bit more numb to the pain, “Yeah… just fine… just burnt my hand is all… nothing serious.” I managed to say through gritted teeth, seriously it didn’t feel like anything past a first degree burn so I'm pretty sure I’d be fine in an hour our two, doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt like hell.

She grabbed my wrist, being extremely careful not to touched any burnt pats of my hand, she examined it and nodded, using her free hand to dig around in her pocket of her pajama pants, pull out her pink power crystal.

“Pinkie what are you?”

“I can’t use my Pinkie magic like this, now shhhh and let me do what I do best and completely mess with reality.” She broke her crystal, her light cocoon forming around her before breaking open, revealing the fluffy pink pony I knew all too well, she had a wide smile on her face, and her eyes were alight with pure laughter, yep that’s how I knew she was running at full Pinkie power.

“So what’re you going to do, stick it your hair o-” I was cut off as she pressed her lips against mine. My eyes went wide before I fell into the kiss, her lips were fuller than Shy’s and in turn softer. Where as Shy’s tasted like strawberries, Pinkie’s tasted like cherry, with a hint of the lemon from the extract she was tasting all morning. This kiss had pure electricity and energy running through it like i had been hopped up on pounds of sugar and caffeine. It was a surprising difference compared to Shy’s calming kiss, like I had drank an entire cup of hot cocoa on a cold winter day and snuggled in blankets. But that doesn't mean I wasn’t enjoying it, I very much was.

Before I could savor it any longer, Pinkie pulled away, a small strand of saliva connecting our lips, it was also a bit of a wet kiss, I won’t lie about that. I also won’t lie in saying that I was giving off a dopey smile.

Pinkie giggled, and held up my hand, “There all better, a kiss makes booboos all better my Grammie always used to say.”

That rocketed me back into reality, wait it was straight up because of that saying, I blinked, “You… do know it normally means you kiss the injury itself right?”

Pinkie looked at me before smacking her forehead, “Right I knew I did something wrong.”

“I wouldn’t necessarily say you did anything wrong…” I mumbled, “Uh anyways, I’ll clean up the biscuits and stuff, can you go gather everyone for breakfast.” She nodded happily and began to skip away, “Oh and can you send Goldy into the kitchen… I… uh need to talk to her about something.”

“Can do Chrissy!” Pinkie called out from around the corner with a giggle before light shone from where she had turned the corner.

Guess what she did ran down her time a lot, makes sense. No, no the fuck it didn’t, I really wish Ixis could talk to me right now I need someone to freak out to. I pondered what the actual hell just happened until Goldy came walking through the doorway into the kitchen.

“Pinkie said you wanted to see me daddy?”

I sat down at the table, “Sit, I have something I want to talk to you about.”

She looked panicked, “I-I didn’t do it, ViVi did!” She quickly said.

I furrowed my brows, “I-what? You know what, that can wait. You aren’t in trouble, I just wanted to talk to you about Pinkie.”

She st down in a chair across from me, “Auntie Pinkie isn’t in trouble is she?”

“Depends on what you define as trouble, really. How do you feel about Pinkie?”

She thought about it or a minute before smiling, “She’s super nice and funny. She always cheers me up when I’m sad, and she has the silliest songs. But, she is a bit weird, not in a bad way, in a nice way, kind of like you daddy.”

I gave my daughter a look of mock hurt, “Rude.” I smiled, “Well, that’s good, and you don't’ dislike her at all?” She shook her head.

I paused for a little bit, honestly Goldy was the deciding factor here, I could want to include Pinkie on this all I wanted. Shy could give her permission until the end of time, but if Goldy wasn’t ok with it then I wouldn’t go through with it.

“How would you feel about having Pinkie be your mommy?”

That question clearly caught the her off guard as she gave me a wide eyed look, that slowly transitioned into a small scowl, she was one of the few people I know who’s scowls worried me, “Do you not love mommy anymore?” She asked me.

“Of course I still love mommy, I love mommy with all my heart. I just also really like Pinkie.” I explained.

“Does that mean I get to have two mommies if I say yes?” I nodded, “Well… does she make you happy daddy?”

I looked at my daughter, out of everything she’s asked that one struck a chord, she really does get her mother’s kindness, her main worry being if she makes me happy, “She does, she makes me laugh and I love how she sees the world, just like your mom. They both see the good in everything, or at least the capacity for it, and I need as much as that as I can get. But I also make Pinkie… happy, at least I think I do, does she ever seem sad when she’s around you, just when it’s you two?”

“A little, like she’s really sad deep down.”

I nodded, “Yeah, I noticed that when she’s around everyone else, but when it’s just me and her it's gone, like that sadness just doesn't exist.”

Goldy nodded, “Just like how mommy isn’t super shy around you or me.” I always forget how smart she is since she hung around Twilight quite a bit.

“Exactly like that, so are you ok with having a second mommy?” I asked her once more.

She smiled, got up from her chair, and walked over to me to give me a hug, “As long as she makes you happy daddy, you can get me as many mommies as you want.”

I laughed and ran my hand through her hair, “I think I’ll just keep it to two but good to know just in case.” I pushed her away, “Now go wash up for breakfast.” She nodded and went to the restroom that was located on the bottom floor.

I shook my head, alright let’s get this day started.

~Several hours later and at the zoo~

We were walking through the zoo, just got out of the reptile exhibit, Spike should have came with, he would’ve loved to have seen the Komodo Dragon, ah well, he opted to stay home and keep Pinkie company since today was a Twilight, Shy, and Goldy day.

We were currently headed towards the area that had the… farm/labor animals which means, and this didn’t click until just now, that we would be seeing horses and ponies, from my world. I warned them that it might be a shock to see them.

Of course when we got there, their reactions, to me were priceless, a mix of shock and intrigue mostly. But they reassured me they understood that my world was severely different from theirs in a ton of aspects. I told them I was going to sit down on the bench, I needed a break, I woke up way too early and have been going nonstop all day today.

I leaned back on the bench and decided to rest my eye for a bit, it felt like it was only seconds until I felt someone sit down next to me, I looked over to see it was Twilight, “Hey Twi, what’s up?”

“I was just making sure you were ok, you were over here with your eyes closed for awhile.” She said.

I nodded, “Just tired, you enjoying your time at the zoo?”

She gave me a wide smile, relieved that I was just resting, but also at the question, “Yes, I can’t believe how different your world is compared to Equestria. I’ve been using your library and the internet, but there’s nothing like getting out and learning about something physically.”

I smirked, “Didn’t we have an ongoing argument about which was better? Didn’t you say something about reading was more organized and concise or something like that?”

She blushed, realizing I was right, “Y-yes well… I will concede defeat and say that your hands on way of learning also has its time and place where it takes precedence over books and records.”

I chuckled,“Nah, that’s not defeat, it’s compromise, cuz your way has its place too Twi.”

She went back to watching the labor animals, Shy and Goldy were extra fascinated by them, “You know Fluttershy has tried to understand every animal we’ve seen today. I think your world’s equines are the ones she can talk to the easiest.”

I nodded, “Makes sense, considering you all are just anthro horses.”

She looked offended, “We are Equestrian Sapiens, thank you very much.”

I rolled my hand in the air, “Tomato potato.” I leaned back and closed my eye again.

“Hey Chris?” I gunted in response, “Is that really what you see us as?”

I leaned my head back forward and looked at her and then at the horses and ponies out in the fields, “Do I see you as what? Horses and Ponies?”

“Well, more specifically like your world’s equines. I can see how we resemble them in some ways. But it also brings a thought to the forefront of my mind, that’s been nagging me.”

“Which is?”

“They’re kind of… ugly. I mean, don’t get me wrong I can tell they're majestic and proud creatures, but they just have this lack of…” He rolled her hand in the air, fishing for a word.

“Intelligence?” I offered.

“More like sentience.” She corrected, “It makes me wonder how you find any of us attractive.”

I mulled her words over in my head some, looking at two of the loves of my life talking to the beasts of burden, it was a surreal moment to say the least.

I shrugged, “I don’t see it.” I said simply.

She looked at me quizzically, “You… don’t see it? See what?”

“I don’t see the resemblances.” I corrected.

She looked at me, flabbergasted, “How could you not? The difference in fur textures and quality. The long, pronounced, muzzles. The tails, that idly sway and swat at annoyances. The long ears, the swivel at the top of the head, alert, listening for predators. So many similarities, how could you not notice them?”

I shook my head, “Of course I notice those, I notice those the same way I notice Spike is a fire breathing dragon, Twilight.” I pointed to the horses and ponies, “They’re just not a big deal and besides, all of your similar features are nowhere near as pronounced, outside of the tails, hooves, and ears, so the muzzle really, except on males and even then it’s nowhere near as bad as the equines here.”

“I but-”

“You want to know how I can ignore all of that? Look at Shy, from behind she looks exactly like she would on Equestria save from the legs, she could hide her tail in the skirt and tuck her ears down. From the front, it’s the same as well except her face. You all are mostly human to me, your differences from humans though just make you all more… attractive if I’m being honest.”

“It makes us exotic?” Twilight hazard a guess.

I nodded, “But that’s not the only reason, look at the horses and ponies eyes and then look at mine, what do you see?”

She did as I asked, “Proportionally, your eyes are bigger in comparison to your head.”

“Ok but what else, and look deep.”

She once more took a long look at the equines and then at my eye, “The sentience and intelligence we brought up.” She said with a gasp.

“Exactly, you all have human levels, and beyond, of intelligence in your eyes, you have what, I would call, a soul… a heart… a personality. That’s what really attracts me to you all, well not all of you but you know what I meant.”

She giggled, “Yes, I do. Just Fluttershy and Pinkie, right?”

I sighed, “You know at this point shouldn't even be surprised. So what do you think of the whole Pinkie situation then?”

“I think it’s good, she’s had coltfriends before, you know?”

That surprised me, “She did? I know Shy said something about you all having boyfriends and the like at the moment and it making Pinkie feel left out and upset.”

Twilight blushed, obviously thinking about her S/O.

What just because I don’t actively talk about them, doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. In fact only Rarity didn’t have a S/O, everyone else did, well and Pinkie, but I was planning on changing that.

“Yes, that would make sense, all of her previous coltfriends have left her only a few weeks into dating her.” She explained.

Ok, that doubly surprised me, who would leave such a bubbly… and squishy girl like Pinkie.

“That’s for her to tell and you to find out. What’s with the look, you were thinking out loud.” She said, explaining how she knew my question, “But just promise me, that when she does tell you won’t let it change how you feel about her.”

I shrugged, “Don’t know why it would, not like I have any room to do that with my truck load of problems.”

Twilight chuckled, “True, but come on, let’s enjoy the day, I‘m curious as to what your world’s birds look like.” We both stood and made our way to my girls.

Well that was certainly an interesting conversation, so Pinkie has some secret about her that affected her relationships, now I’m curious and worried.

~2 days later~

I was currently out with Pinkie and Bon Bon, today was their day, so I took them to a store that sold top of the line cookware. Pinkie was having a blast, looking at all the new stuff she could use to bake treats for everyone even better and faster, cutting down on her cook time and increasing her smile time, as she said.

I was also having fun, it’s been a while since I went shopping for new kitchen equipment, I was looking at a good 19 piece set of Zwillings J.A. Henckels. It ran a good 300$, but I was really debating getting them and some whetstones and a few other miscellaneous items.

But the one who was going all out was Bon Bon, I told her to grab a shopping cart and put what she could in it and I’d buy it all for her. Equestria did have electricity, or at least the big cities did, running off of magic crystal was really only efficient for small towns like Ponyville, but Bon Bon and Lyra's new shop would be one of the few running off of electricity in Ponyville. I can’t remember if the outlets were the same, but if not, it was a simple fix that I could have someone back in Equestria handle.

At the end of it all I spent… an amount I’m not entirely comfortable saying, it was still nothing, literally a drop in the ocean, but it still made me feel uncomfortable.

Our next stop was a party store where I could let Pinkie run wild while Bon Bon and I could just watch. I gave Pinkie the same stipulation Bon Bon had at her store. Pinkie gave me a wide, thankful smile, grabbed a cart and hurried around the store.

“So, I’m guessing you also know I’m planning on asking Pinkie to join in with me and shy and form a herd?” I asked my candy making best friend.

She nodded, “I was one of the first people she talked to about it, her feelings for you and her suspicion of your feelings for her.”

“One of the first? Who was the other?”

“Your sister and before you start thinking, no she didn’t tell us outright that’s what you were planning, we asked if it sounded like something you would do. We told her that Equestria does have polyamorous relationships and she said if that was the case you most likely would take that chance in a heartbeat.” Bon Bon explained.

Oh… well guess I can’t be mad at her for that because, “She’s right, I would and will be taking that chance, so what do you think about it?”

Bon Bon looked at me seriously, “Christopher, you’re my best friend, next to Lyra, all I want is for you to be happy and to conquer this darkness you’re holding in your heart.” She said poking my chest, “If Pinkie can help with that then I have no right to say no. Though, I don’t care if she is an element of harmony or if she’s had rocky relationships in the past, if she hurts you I’m going to turn her laughter into fear.”

I was about to speak up but she wasn’t done.

“And I shouldn’t have to tell you this, mostly because I know you won’t do this but, I’ll do the same to you if you hurt her, got it? That mare has had so much shit from her past coltfriends it's insane, and not the good kind.” She said with a huff.

“Ok why do I feel like there’s something I’m missing here that everyone else knows?” I was getting frustrated, I hated not being in the know.

She smirked, “Because you are the only one who doesn’t know, you and the kids anyways, and Fluttershy.”

“And I’m guessing you won’t tell me what it is?”

She shook her head, “Not my place, be patient, I’m sure she’ll tell you when she’s ready.”

“Mmmm alright.”

We walked around with Pinkie, losing her a few times, until it was time to go when she suddenly popped up behind us, scaring us pretty bad. She was ready to go and her cart was full, leaving little to no space for light to get through to the other side of the cart. We checked her stuff out, it running me a good pinch of change, not as much as the cookware but still more than anyone should reasonably spend on party supplies.

That would normally end our day as I planned on heading home and cooking with the two of them, helping Pinkie and Bon Bon come up some new sweet of some kind, but I needed to stop by the mall, for a nick-nack store that was only in there, weird I know but I wanted to get some things for everyone who stayed in Equestria.

We got to the mall late in the afternoon, and I picked up what I needed from the store, and we were currently eating in the food court when i heard my name being called.

“Christopher is that you?” I turned my head to locate the voice, to see an older lady standing there. I would say roughly 38 years old, short dirty blonde hair, blue eyes, on the chubby side but still had a figure. A tall man, who was cleary of mixed descent, and 3 children accompanying them.

“Who are you?” I asked the woman.

She looked hurt, “You don’t recognize me?” I shook my head. She sighed, “I suppose that’s fair, you don’t look like you’ve aged a day, though you do look different, your hair is straightened and… what happened to your eye and all those scars?”

I looked at her long and hard, she obviously knew me, but I didn’t know her, I didn’t know any short blonde… oh shit, wait… I did... it can’t be, “Becca?”

She smiled, happy that I did remember her, “Do you mind if we join you?”

I felt Pinkie cling on tightly to my right arm and I noticed even Bon Bon scooted closer, right they know about my past, “I… yeah, sure…”

“Thank you, oh I forgot, this is my husband, Ian, and our kids, Anthony, Courtney, and Shayne.” She said, gesturing to her family, as they sat down.

“Oh… so you got married… well it has been…. Years so no surprise there, though you never seemed like one to settle down and have kids. Not a partier either, just… you know.” I said, very confused as to what’s going on.

“Yeah, well you know how things go, is she your?” She asked looking at Pinkie, who was clinging to my arm.

“Oh, Patricia, she’s my-”

“Wife! I’m his wife, pleased to meet you, he’s told me everything about you.” Pinkie said, cutting me off and shocking me.

“I-uh- yeah what she said and this is Bonnie, she’s my best friend.” I said, gesturing to Bon Bon, who was equally shocked, but more amused at Pinkie’s antics than I was.

“Ah so you’re the famous Becca, good to finally meet you.” Bon Bon said with a warm smile.

Becca look at me, concerned, and then at Pinkie, “Nice to meet you too, so he’s told you about me has he? What exactly?”

“Our past.” I spoke up quickly before either of them could go and make things worse, “I told them about our past, and how at the end of the day it was a mutual decision to split up.” I said with a warning tone to the two girls next to me, the one clinging on to me, looking away quickly, obviously ashamed. Bon Bon, just kept staring, she didn’t care, she’s super protective.

Becca nodded, “It was mutual… though you never gave me a reason why you wanted to split, but that was 20 years ago, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re back, though I’m curious where you went and what happened to you.”

I sighed, not wanting to go through this whole kit and kaboodle, “It’s… a long story, just know I needed to leave, get away from everyone and everything for a bit and find myself. Obviously I have and I’m doing a lot better.”

She looked dejected at that, I wasn’t trying to give her the cold shoulder, I really just didn’t know how to talk to her or what to say, “So have you run into A.D. yet? I’m sure he’d be happy to see you.” She sad, trying to find a topic to stay on.

“I did, he was happy, we caught up, but he had to go do his thing, live his life, you know all that jazz.”

“Yeah…” She sighed and stood up, “Well it was nice seeing you again Chris.” Her family got up with her, and they started to walk away.

What was I doing, she used to be my closest friend…. I can’t just leave it like this. I stood up quickly, dragging the party planner up with me, “Becca, wait!” She stopped and turned around, “I’m sorry… I just I don’t know, life has changed everything. I don’t hate you, I promise. But I won’t be staying long, I’m leaving at the ended of the month. I came back to see and apologize to everyone, really my family and you and A.D. Look, I just wanted to say i’m sorry for leaving like I did, but I have my own life I need to get back to soon.”

She nodded, “I understand, will you be back at any time?”

I shrugged, “I don’t know, probably not, this was kind of a one time thing, not of any fault of you all, just circumstances.”

“Do I even want to know?”

“Probably not, but, you can talk to Lilac after I leave, she knows everything I went though and where I’m at. I’d ask for a hug, but I know you don’t like them and I’m kind of, you know.” I said waving my free hand at Pinkie, who was still clinging on to me.

Becca laughed, “It’s fine, besides we should get going, well It was good to see you again, honestly. Though I wish it didn’t have to be the last time.” She said, obviously sad.

“It’s ok, and besides, we may never meet again, but we will never forget each other.” I said, tilting my head down slightly and putting the tips of my fingers against my forehead.

Becca gave me a deadpanned look, “Really, good to know you’re still a massive nerd, have a good life Chris.” She finished with a chuckle and walking away with her family.

I looked down to Pinkie, with slight disapproval, but there was definitely a ton of love and if not a bit of arousal thrown in, which she could tell because she gave me the biggest shit eating grin, “You and I need to have a talk… but it can wait, come on let’s go home.”

Author's Note

So, I'm technically four chapters ahead of this one, I'm trying to keep it that way so I at least can put up one chapter a week, but those of you who have been with me long enough know that I tend to just do whatever depending on my mood. But I'm trying ok? :raritycry:

Still, I'll do my best, and I saw that season 9 is, infact going to be the last season and that a new movie is coming out in 2021, whether that movie is the last thing from G4 or the first thing of G5 it won't change that I'm going to finish this story and hopefully finish it before G4 is over. And maybe I'll adapt my other stories to G5 if it's good, if not well I'll still be using G4 as a base for everything, as I assume a bunch of you all will too.

But enjoy, the next chapter should be up next weekend, gonna edit it as well as work on my next chapter.

29: Family

I was in the shower pondering this last month and how fast it had gone by, everyone was in and out of the house doing their own thing, and I told Twilight about the fact that my world did have magic and what I saw. Her and I spent a good chunk of the month trying to figure that out. We even performed, safe, tests on Cookie, she wasn’t happy about it regardless but hey, closest magic user on this world, easiest test subject, we found out a few things but not enough to determine much. I shrugged and stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around my waist, making my way to my room, not having to worry about anyone seeing me. I closed the door and disrobed, catching myself in the mirror. I turned to fully examine my body and how it looks now compared to 5 years ago.

5 years ago I was 200+ pounds and while it wasn’t all fat it also wasn’t all muscle, I had a gut and man boobs, not horribly but they were there. The first noticeable change was me losing weight due to my draconic metabolism eating all the fat, I had to replace it with a bunch of heavy proteins and a LOT of fish which ended up giving me a bunch of good vitamins in my body, plus all of the heavy work I did around the cottage and just with the town in general for the first several months living in Ponyville started my muscle gain and it only continued during my training with Shining for 2 years and then my travel for the last couple of traveling and dealing with the different areas and cultures… it really toned my body well.

I had clearly defined abs and pecs, my arms weren’t huge, but the had very clear definition in them, especially if I flexed. No, the muscle size went to my legs, my family always had naturally muscular legs, but since my main mode of travel were my legs they’ve only gotten more muscular.

“I might have to change my fighting style to only use my legs at this point.” I said with a soft chuckle.

However the good comes with the bad, my body had scars spanning across it nearly everywhere. A bunch of them are just small ones from rough training from at the Empire and from the other Kingdoms. But there was one large one that ran from the lower side of my abdomen up to my left shoulder and an equally large scar passing up from the left side of my face over my eye and up into my forehead.

“Sombra you son of a bitch, you took my eye, you hurt my family, and you tainted me with darkness.” I honestly could never forgive him for what he did, but I also can’t entirely hate him, he was corrupted trying to find a way to give his people a better life, to ensure they would be forever safe should the Crystal Heart ever fail. It backfired, obviously, but I understood it.

Though the most interesting thing about it is due to Earth’s magic being immature, dormant, or sealed, wish I had more time to figure it out, my dark eye is now just a flickering black ember in my eye socket, so I still wore my eyepatch as to not freak people out.

I slid on a pair of boxers and I heard the door creak open, I looked over my shoulder to see Shy standing in the doorway, “Hi honey, what’s up?”

She smiled sweetly at me, “Oh, well, I was just wondering if you were ready, the others and I ate already and we’re just waiting for you.”

I sighed and put jeans on, “Honestly I’m a bit too nervous to eat. I’ll be ok.”

She walked up behind me and wrapped her arms around my waist, resting her head against my back, “I know you’re nervous, I’m nervous too, but eating is good for you, especially for you Mr. Bottomless pit.”

“I know I know, and hey I try to keep it under control, I think I’ve been doing well on that front.”

She giggled, “You have and I’m proud of you.”

“Thank you, and why are you nervous, it’s not your problem to deal with.”

I was greeted with humming, “Well I’m nervous for you, this is a big day for you and I want it to go well.”

“Thanks, Shy… Ok I’ll grab something to eat, just go and make sure the children are good to go, it’ll be a bit of a ride and they’ll need something to do.”

“I can do that, hurry though, we’ll be late if you take any more time admiring yourself.”

I smirked at that, “Thanks Twilight I’ll make sure I stick to your strenuous schedule.”

Shy stammered and I could tell she was blushing, “I-I’m not that bad, being a mother makes you a bit more organized than usual.”

“I know. Now shoo, I’ll be down in a few.” she did, in fact, shoo, not before giving me a kiss on the cheek.

I shook my head, “The women in my life I swear, but she’s right, let’s get this party started.”

~3 hours later~

“Are we there yet?” Pinkie groaned out, slumping in the back seat.

I sighed, “Pinkie, this is the fourth time in the past 30 minutes you’ve asked that, we’ll be there when we get there.”

“Yeah but how much longer? I thought Lilac said she still lived in town….”

“Last time Lily talked to her she was in town but apparently she up and moved out of state without word to anyone, so it’s bit more of a drive.” I explained, also getting exasperated at this drive, we’ve been on the road for 3 hours and we still had another 3 to go, it’s not terribly long but hoo boy, stuck in a car for that long is not fun.

“Yeah daddy, my butt hurts, I’ve been sitting down too long, can we stop somewhere?” Goldy asked.

I looked out my side window quickly, “Goldy, we’re in the middle of nowhere, what do you expect us to do?”

“Oh! Oh! Oh! I know! I know!” Pinkie said, raising her hand.

Shy laughed at her friend’s antics, “You don’t have to raise your hand Pinkie.”

She immediately put her hand down, “Oh, well we could have a picnic?”

“With what food? We brought snack foods and bottles of water, we don’t even have a picnic blanket.” I pointed out to them.

Pinkie was quickly dejected and sunk back down, “Oh, right…”

“Well, we could take turns singing songs?” Goldy suggested.

Shy looked at me, and I glanced at her, her eyes were lit up, clearly excited, “Oh, that sounds like fun, what do you think Pinkie? You can even go first.”

She perked up at that, “Really? YAY! I even have the perfect song.” She took a deep breath and I got an immense feeling of fear deep in my gut, “This is the song that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friends. Some people started singing it not knowing what it was, and they’ll continue singing it forever just because!”

Miles away you could hear an earth shaking scream echo into the distance.

~3 hours, that felt like an eternity later~

“-Not knowing what it was, and they’ll continue singing it forever just because-”

“WE’RE HERE, OH MY GOD WE’RE HERE SO PLEASE… stop!” I said the last part in a low growl, immediately quieting Pinkie, who gave me a toothy grin.

Shy had earmuffs on and took a nap, so she didn’t have to sit through the torture of what I just had to deal with and Goldy, was just having fun, going along with Pinkie. I groaned and shook Fluttershy gently to wake her up.

She stirred and looked at me, “Are we there?” I nodded, “Oh good, I need to stretch my legs.” She tucked the earmuffs into the bag she brought a long and sat the seat up straight.

I turned off the car and looked at the building that we stopped in front of, It was a decent sized house in the middle of the woods, I’m guessing she used the money that was left for her to buy this place. Plenty of space and no one to bother her… sounds about right.

“Alright girls, stay here, I’ll be back.” I said as I was getting out of the driver’s seat.

“Wait I want to go with you daddy!” Goldy said, quickly unbuckling herself.

I smiled, “Alright, she might not be as mean if you come with.”

Goldy nodded, and got out the car, meeting me up front, “Is Auntie Andrea mean?”

I stayed silent for a few moments as we walked up the drive way, towards the front porch, “No, she’s… just not happy I suppose, I’m not sure, I haven’t seen her for years there's a lot of things that happened between us, your aunt Lilac and your grandparents. I suppose we’ll have to find out.”

We reached the front door and I gave it a heavy knock before ringing the doorbell a couple of times.

“One second please, I just got out the shower.” I heard Drea call from inside the house.

Goldy looked up at me with a raised eyebrow and I just shrugged, I don’t know who showers at 5 in the afternoon, but Drea has always been a bit of a priss when it came to her own personal hygiene. However, after several minutes of waiting we heard the tumbler unlock and the door knob turn as the door creaked open.

“Sorry about that, just got back in from working on my garden, what can I do for… you?” She trailed off as she looked at Goldy and I, “Who are you?”

“Hi, auntie Drea, I’m Goldy and this is my daddy, he’s your brother.” My daughter said, happily, catching my sister off guard entirely.

But once the words registered Andrea’s eyes visibly darkened as whatever light was there left, “My brother died years ago, and it’s sick of you to pull something like this, go away before I call the cops.” She said as she tried to close the door.

I stopped it with my hand, “Drea, this isn’t some sick joke, it’s me, Christopher.”

She tried to push the door closed more, but my strength, even weakened was far greater than her’s, “Everyone knew my brother’s name, our mother was famous, who didn’t know us?”

I sighed, “Drea, it’s Tiny Tina and you’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do.” At that the resistance stopped and I let go on tying to keep the door open. She peaked her head through the open space and looked at me, her eyes going wide.

“Chris… is that… really you?” She asked hesitantly, I nodded in response, “Then you… should also go away, I don’t want to see you, ever.” she slammed the door before I could react and I could hear locking sounds.

I sighed, “I figured that would be the case, alright Goldy, let’s go.” I grabbed her hand and led her down the porch, but before I got to the bottom step I heard the door open once more.

“Wait, hold on.” I heard Drea say behind me.

I turned to look at her, “What? I thought you wanted me to go.”

Drea bit her lip and looked to the side, “I… overreacted, you came all this way to see me, the least I can do is let you… and your daughter in.”

I gave her a small smile, “Do you mind if I bring in the rest of my family? Not much just two more people?”

She sighed, “Sure, the more the merrier.”

“Thanks Drea.” I brought Pinkie and Shy in, and we stayed there for a few hours until dinner time, we ordered chinese, I let Drea know that Pinkie and Shy were vegetarian so she ordered stuff that would suit them as well. Really it was going well until…

“So why did you leave without saying anything?” She asked out of nowhere.

That made me stop mid pick up of an eggroll, “What?”

“I asked why you left without saying anything to anyone.” She said.

I sighed, “Same reason you did, I was tired of the bullshit.”

She scoffed, “Please, you and your mother are the reason for the bullshit in the first place.”

I looked at her with wide eyes, “What?”

“You heard me.”

I nodded, “Yeah I did, and still I ask what. I didn’t do anything.”

Now it was her turn to look incredulous, “Didn’t do… you killed dad, when you left he died.”

I gave her a stern look, “Now, hold the fuck on, dad was dead long before I left, he died when mom died, and that’s no one’s fault except for life. I never understood why you blamed mom for that or why you’re blaming me for dad’s death. That man was never the same after mom died and he only got worse after you left for no reason! Do you have any idea what Lily and I had to deal with?!” I slammed my fist on the table, easily splintering it, “If anything you killed dad by leaving first! Hell, Lily said me leaving is what shocked him into his old self but the damage was done by his wife dying and his first child leaving without so much as a goodbye!”

“How dare you!” Andrea shouted, standing up quickly.

I gripped the table and stood up, “How dare I?! I fucking dare because you blame everyone else for things we can’t fucking control because you never fucking learned to grow up, you didn’t show up at Mom’s funeral, you didn’t show up at mine after I disappeared and I bet damn well you didn’t actually show up at dad’s! Am I being hypocritical? Yes, do I care? No, because at least I’m trying to fix my mistakes before I’m gone forever, what about you huh? You’re gonna be petty and a bitch until you die? Fine, do that see who comes to your funeral.”

I turned my back to her when she didn’t respond but just stare at me and grabbed Shy and Goldy by the arms, “Come on, we’re leaving, Pinkie you too.”

Pinkie looked between me and the food before grabbing a good chunk of it in her arms. She followed before stopping and looked at Andrea, “It’s no one’s fault that your dad died, Chris loves you and he just wanted to make things right, this is the last chance you’ll ever get to see him, is this really how you want to leave it?”

Andrea looked away, “Just… go.”

Pinkie sighed, “We’re leaving tomorrow night from his mom’s house, just thought you ought to know.” And with that Pinkie closed the front door behind her leaving Andrea to her thoughts.

~5 hours later in a dark parking lot~

I got out of the car, left it running for the girls so the could keep the warm air flowing as they were asleep and they couldn’t handle the cold very well as humans.

I walked past a closed building into a field of stones, many were marked, a lot had words and numbers that were worn down from time, and plenty of spots had stones that were removed. I made my way along rows of headstones until I found what I was looking for.

I found a head stone that read, ‘Here lies Vivienne Amaya McGrath, beloved actress and mother, the world will never be the same without her. 1969 - 2016’

Right next to her was a headstone that read, ‘Here lies Adam Michael McGrath, He lost his way but found it again, he’s with his wife in peace. 1959 - 2019’

But something I wasn’t expecting to see was next to the gravestones, ‘Here lies Christopher Tina McGrath, a son and a brother, never found but never forgotten. 1996 - 2017.’

“My grave huh… right Lily did say that they had a funeral for me…” I sighed and sat down in front of the headstones, “Hey mom, dad… I’m sorry I left, I’m sorry that I didn’t try harder, I’m sorry that I gave up and blamed everything on others and hated myself. Im sure neither of you would be proud of me back then… hell I don’t know if you would be proud of me now.

I just wish I could tell you how much I love and miss you in person, I don’t want to be talking to a cold lifeless stone, but I suppose it’s better than nothing.” I sat in silence for a little bit before letting out a staggering breath, “You wouldn’t believe the crazy stuff I’ve been through, like I met an actual dragon and I got sent to a different world full of anthro ponies and I had a child with one of them!” I said with bemused laugh.

“Though I suppose it’s not that strange, I’m also half dragon and that world is full of magic and creatures we consider myths. Like I said it's been a wild ride… I’m getting married soon too. She’s wonderful, you both would’ve loved her, she makes me happy and calms me down when I’m getting worked up or scared. I can talk to her about anything and she’s been the first person to love me for me and it’s something I can’t ever repay, I wish you could’ve met her. Oh and there’s another girl too, no I’m not cheating, Polygamy is legal on that world.”

I stared up into the night sky, the stairs more visible here than in the city, “She’s great too, she can make me laugh and smile no matter how I’m feeling. But, she’s sad too, I don’t know exactly what it is, but I can see it in her eyes, there's always happiness, hope, and laughter, but behind all that is fear and loneliness and I can’t help but relate to that. I just want to make her happy too. I hope you two aren’t upset with me for trying to marry two girls, or see it as unfaithful to either, I just want to make both of them happy…”

I just sat in silence for a few moments when I heard shuffling behind me, “Chrissy?”

I turned my head to the voice, “Oh, hey Pinks.”

She looked around, clearly just noticing the headstones, “What are you doing out here, this place is spooky.”

I didn’t answer her and just stared back at the headstones, her gaze followed mine and she gasped when she saw it, “Oh…” She sat down besides me.

“So, how long were you standing there?” I asked her.

“I just got here, these are your parents’ graves aren’t they?”

I nodded, “I was always planning on coming to see them before I left, I was just hoping it was under better circumstances… and that I didn’t have so much guilt about their deaths and my reactions to it all. I bet they’d be ashamed.”

Pinkie shook her head, “No, I think they would be proud of you. You came back and you’re doing your best to make things right.”

I looked at her, “You really think so?”

She gave me a wide, Pinkie-esque smile, “I know so.”

I chuckled, “Thanks, Pinks… I have something to ask you and-”

“I know.” She said cutting me off, “But there’s something you need to know first, it might change your mind.” I cocked my head to the side in confusion and she took a calming breath, her hair becoming completely straight, “My family is cursed.” She stated, throwing me so far off guard it felt like I was punched in the gut, “Let me explain, like I said, my family is cursed, it happened hundreds of years ago, we don’t know exactly who or what cursed my family or why. No one does, not even the Princesses have an idea of who could have, but we are cursed.”

I blinked, where did this come from, I’ve never heard anything about this until now, “Cursed… how?”

“Every generation a Pie female is cursed to be infertile, my Grammy Pie’s sister was one. Luckily for Grammy she only had a son, my Pa, but my pa only had girls. Maud, Limestone, Marble and I, we all knew one of us would be infertile, unable to bear foals. But we didn’t know which of us it was going to be until our first heat.”

“Why’s that?”

Her eyes were starting to tear up and soft sniffles came from her, “Because, Chrissy, we don’t get our heat if we’re cursed… Maud had hers, so did Limestone, Marble and I were born so close together that it was a toss up between us until one day she had hers and I never did.”

“Oh…” It was all I could say, I mean what else could I say? Sorry, for your loss?

“Yeah… Everyone in my family who’s been cursed has never had a special somepony stay with them. And I’m no exception, every colt friend I’ve had has left me when I told them.” Tears were flowing freely now from her.

“Not even females?”

“I don’t swing that way Chrissy.”

I shrugged, “Spaghetti is straight too until you get it wet.”

She snorted at that, a small smile donning her features before a frown took its place once more, “Chrissy… I can never give you a foal, or a hatchling, or whatever it is for you.”

I laughed, causing her to look at me in shock, “What? Why are you looking at me like that? I don’t care if you can’t give me a kid Pinks, that’s not why I want to be with you. Besides I have Goldy, I don’t plan on having another kid any time soon regardless.”

She had a vacant look on her face, her eyes staring off into the distance, “Y-You don’t care?”

I stood up and brushed off any grass that was attached to my legs, “I don’t care, anyone who does and leaves you because of something so stupid never deserved you in the first place. I want you in my herd because I care about you and I want you to be happy, obviously this has done something to your psyche, I can see the sadness behind the laughter Pinkie. I want to make that go away, forever, if you’ll let me.” I said, holding my hand out to her.

Pinkie looked up at me, tears in her eyes, a smile on her face, and the light of hope shining from her, she took my hand and stood up, “I will, thank you so much.” She rushed in to hug me, nearly knocking the air out of my lungs.

I hugged her back, pulling her close, “Good, now let's go, it can’t be warm for you and we need to let the dead rest.”

She nodded and kept close to me as we walked away, “Hey Chrissy?” I gave her a grunt of confirmation to keep going, “I love you.”

I coughed, not expecting that, “I love you too, Pinkie.”

~The Final Night~

It was a good day, everyone was home, the house was lively again and it was wonderful to have everyone back after them being gone for a few days. They all noticed the change between Pinkie, Shy, and I and gave us their most heartfelt congratulations. Though I did request to meet all of their respective significant others now that all of the girls were with someone. They all laughed nervously but agreed. I think the happiest person was Rarity, it meant she had another wedding gown to make for one of her closest friends, there’s nothing more in the world more exciting to her, especially since it’s also going to be a royal wedding.

Sadly, our time was coming to a close and it was time to return to my new home, we were all gathered in my room and it was kind of crowded but that’s where the portal was so in we went one by one until it was just me left.

“Chris wait.” Lilac said, stopping me before I jumped through the portal.

I turned back around, “Yeah?”

She looked away briefly before looking back at me with tears in her eyes, “Do you have to go, I just got you back, we just got you back, you’re the only family I have left.”

“Lilac… I have to, my life is there, I’m needed there. I made a promise to my country to be there for them. I have to go, I’m sorry.” I said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

She wiped her tears away and gave me a sad smile, “I know, I just wish I had more time, or at least something to remember you by.”

I gave it some thought for a moment and I had an idea, digging through my bag quickly I pulled out a power crystal and popped, transforming myself, “I can’t give you the more time, but I can give you something to remember me by.” I grabbed her hand and quickly pricked it with a claw, getting a drop of her blood before forming an ice lily around it, “Here you go, sorry about pricking your hand but it’ll prevent the flower from freezing you or anyone with your blood. But it’ll also last until I die… which is arguably never. So you can pass it down generation to generation as a family keepsake.” I placed it in the palm of her hand and closed her hand around it.

She smiled, “A lily, for your Lily.” I nodded in response and then turned my attention to Vivi and Tina.

“Now you two, what are your favorite animals?”

Tina was the first to speak up, “Oh oh a ferret!”

“Ha, a ferret how unique!” I held out my hand and form a sculpture of a ferret, and handed it to her, “Here you go new Tiny Tina. A ferret all for you.”

She took and held it, amazed at how it wasn’t cold for her at all, “Woah, it’s not cold, neat!”

“And you Vivi?”

She looked away and quietly mumbled something until I told her I couldn’t hear her, I very much could but I just wanted her to be confident in saying it, “I said, it’s a whale shark, it's embarrassing, girls shouldn’t like sharks.”

“Nothing embarrassing about it, whale sharks are my favorite, they're huge babies and want nothing more than to eat and just swim freely, here.” I formed a whale shark sculpture for ViVi and placed it in her hands.

“Your Uncle loves you very much, take care of your mother for me ok? It was good to be able to meet you, be good, or I’ll find a way to come back and lecture you.”

Tina gave me a hug and Vivi gave me a firm nod, “Good, now your uncle has to go. Oh, before I do!” I formed a hummingbird in my hand, infusing some of my blood into it and wrapping it in a towel as Lilac wasn’t blood related to me, “Give this to, Drea, next time you see her and tell her I’m sorry and that I love her. Bye everyone.” And with that I stepped through the portal.

~Hours later still on Earth~

A knock was heard on Lilac’s front door, she got up from the couch to go answer it and was absolutely shocked to find Drea standing at the door, “Drea, what are you doing here? It’s 3 in the morning.”

“I-I was hoping Chris was still here?” She said, looking past her into the house.

“No, he left hours ago.” Lilac explained.

Drea looked dejected, “Oh, well I guess I’ll go then, sorry for bothering you Lilac.”

Lilac shook her head, “It’s no bother, how about you come in so you don’t have to get a hotel or drive all the way back home tonight?”

Drea smiled, “I’d like that.” She stepped through the doorway and closed the door behind her and for this first time in years, a family was whole again.

Author's Note

Eh, sorry about no chapter last weekend I completely forgot that it was my birthday weekend so I was caught up all in that. I might put up a second chapter tomorrow to make up for it but no promises, from here on out though we are hopping back into the show's timeline... I need to figure out what episodes I deem important to cover and what I can just glance over to get to where I really want to get to in my story without doing several time jumps or just one big one as that would be a major cop out. (HYPOCRITICAL I KNOW :pinkiecrazy: )

Anywhosit, I'm also going to start using the ANs to talk about me, my thought processes on the story and chapters and what not. Specifically for this one is this arc, I had plans to draw it out and do a lot with it, but as I was writing I realized I had no way to do that without it getting boring. So I cut it down heavily, I think if I went with what I wanted to do originally this whole 'Earth Arc' would've been 10 chapters longer, and I would have suffered burn out hard.

I'm trying to prevent that if you couldn't tell. I did promise to update every weekend and I'm keeping to that unless something major comes up, burn out would not be good for that. Well that's all I had to say, hope you enjoy.

30: Welcome to our town

Several months had passed since we got back from Earth, my phone was absolutely fried due to the magical charges flowing through it and I didn’t have the forethought to get more if I ever wanted to go back. Not like that would’ve worked, as Twilight informed me. Apparently it had something to do with the magic of Equestria being strained to open a portal to a world with no active magic whatsoever and hold it open for as long as it did and any future attempt would end in failure regardless.

So with a dejected sigh I accepted my fate and we all headed back to Ponyville. Lyra and Bon Bon’s shop was completed whilst we were gone, and it looked fantastic it was a lovely 2 story building, the lower floor being where candy was sold with a backroom lab/kitchen for Bon Bon to make new candies. The upper floor is where Lyra played on her lyre and even had other musicians come in from time to time. There was also a bar located upstairs for anyone who wanted some drinks that Bon Bon was experimenting with and we determined wouldn’t kill anyone. Of course that means more ponies had to be hired on board but with the crown, me, paying them that wasn’t a problem at all and it quickly became Ponyville’s #1 hang out spot amongst the foals and adults.

I also managed to meet Pinkie’s family, her parents are very stoic but pleasant none-the-less. Her sisters on the other hand are just insane. Pinkie is the happy go lucky one, though that didn’t surprise me. Marble, the true youngest is just like Fluttershy got cloned as an earth pony. Limestone was angry, all the time, but Pinkie explained it to me, once Maud left she needed to step up and take charge and that was her way of doing so, it gets the job done and she does truly care.

Then we had the oldest, Maud, who was much like her parents, monotone, stoic, blunt and what I thought at first, emotionless but next to Pinkie she’s actually the most colorful when it comes to her emotions. It’s all in the eyes and when you knew how to read her she was an absolute riot. Honestly we got along great, even more so after her family found out I didn’t care about the curse one bit. Actually, after that even Limestone lightened up a bit. Apparently they were all afraid, since I was a prince, I would care about nobility, status and the want of passing on my bloodline, it was a pleasant surprise for them to know that wasn’t what I was about.

Speaking of the curse I brought it up with Celestia and Luna and they, in fact were approached by the Pie family a millennia ago, unfortunately just like then, they couldn’t find anything about it or who would even be able to place such a powerful curse. It was disappointing but expected so I sent a letter to Cadance and asked her if she could find anything within the Crystal Library or the Ice Dragon’s Library. Funnily enough they did and it lead us directly to our resident chaos god.

~A few months Prior~

“Discord!” I called out into the air while Pinkie and I were sitting in my living room.

The air warped, bent, and ripped open with a creature that looked like a late Picasso painting stepped through, “You rang? How strange, you tend to avoid me as much as possible.” He said with a little hum.

“That’s because I don’t like you Discord.” I said with a scowl.

“Moi? Now that must be a mistake, everyone loves me. I’m the comic relief, the lovable trickster that went from bad to the bone to having a heart of gold, why I could be the main character of my own spin off story!” He looked off to the side at nothing, “Get on it Hasbro… or if they won’t do it, all you lovely writers can do it instead.”

Pinkie giggled at his antics and just I looked at him, befuddled before shaking my head, “Look, I don’t know what you’re on about, but I don’t like you, however, that’s besides the point right now. I called you about a curse.”

That caught his attention and he pulled up a chair, as in literally pulled it up from the ground, and sat facing Pinkie and I, “Oh a curse you say, how intriguing… unfortunately I don’t dabble in curses, my kind of chaos is fun not harmful.”

I snorted, “Yeah, right, and no, we know you don’t do curses. However you are as old as this universe is if not slightly younger, and you happen to know things you shouldn’t due to your chaotic nature. And since your magic tends to break all the rules we were hoping you could help us with something, well two somethings.”

He set a cup of, what I’m assuming is tea down in mid air and gave me a serious look, “You had my curiosity, but now you have my attention. What can I, the lord of Chaos do for you, Christopher, one of the few beings who can damage me physically?”

I sighed, “Discord, I need you to remove the curse put upon Pinkie’s family and tell us anything about who might have caused it.”

He raised his eyebrow and nodded, “That’s a simple request, but what’s in it for me?”

I groaned, “Of course, you’d want something in return.” I gave it some thought before Pinkie whispered something to me, “You can’t be serious? Really?” She nodded happily, “Fine, if you do this for me, I’ll hang out with you for one day, of my choosing, and give you a chance to be my friend.” I said with a hint of disgust.

“Oh, and what good would that do me?” He knew I didn’t like him, and really he loved annoying me, us being friends would take that away from him, but I could give him something even better.

“It would put you in the best standing you could be with Fluttershy. She would be beyond proud of you, especially since she knows how much I don’t like you for what you’ve done. And it would even put you in better standings with everyone else.” I said to him.

He gave it some thought, holding out his talon and giving me a wide grin, “You have a deal, my dear boy.” I shook his talon, “Now let’s see here.” He lifted his lion paw, his weird looking, plaid chaos magic surrounded Pinkie before he grunted and was sent flying back against the far wall, knocking over a side table and shaking pictures from the wall.

Now that surprised me, “Are you ok?” I asked him, though I snorted in amusement regardless.

Pinkie, however, got up and went to help the Draconequus, “I got you Dissy, are you ok?”

He stood up and dusted himself up, “Im fine, thank you Pinkie, at least one of you actually cares.”

I shrugged at that, “So, what was that all about?”

“That, that was magical blowback from something with more magical power than even I have.” He explained.

“How? Aren’t you like, magically all powerful?”

He shook his head, “No, I’m not, chaos magic is just very versatile. Technically Alicorns are more powerful than I am, Tirek was more powerful than me. And you my dear boy, when you reach your peak well… that’s a spoiler. No, the magic and power that cursed the Pie family is older than the universe itself.”

+And your brain just shut down, one second… and fixed, we’re back online.+ Ixis said.

“Explain, older than the universe, how?”

Discord chuckled, “Christopher, you think this is the first iteration of this universe? Because, it isn’t it is in fact the 4th. There were 3 universes before this, and there are gods and powers that exist from their time and outside of the cycle all together, and those are the truly all powerful. The Pie family was cursed by one of them, how they came across one and what they did to piss one off I don’t know as they tend to stick to themselves and really never interfere. Maybe it was just bad luck, or they wanted to mess with a random pony and our friend just happened to be part of that family line.” He shrugged, clearly not knowing the answer, “Regardless, I can’t undo the curse, it will probably never be undone or there might be a stipulation, who knows, who knows.”

He then looked at Pinkie, “I’m sorry Pinkie, this is beyond my power, I wish I could help you I truly do.” He actually looked dejected, like he failed and it was his fault.

Pinkie sighed and leaned against me, “It’s ok, Discord, thank you for trying though.”

I wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close against me and I looked up at Discord, a scowl adorned my face, not because of him though, “Discord.” He looked scared, I guess he assumed I was going to do something to him, I don’t blame him, considering, “Thank you, for legitimately trying.” I sighed and held out my hand, “Look, I’m sorry I’ve been harsh to you.”

“It’s fine, I understand why you were, honestly I beat myself up over it still.” He said to me, shocking me even more.

“Yeah, I can see that, let’s say we start over, not as friends, haven’t gotten there yet, but as friendly acquaintances, and we can go from there?” I said giving him a smile.

“You mean it?” I nodded, “Oh, thank you, you won’t regret this, I promise!” He said happily, shaking my hand, “Oh I have to go and tell someone, ta ta for now!” and with that he popped away.

I looked at Pinkie, “Are you ok Pinks?”

She nodded, “Of course I am, I have you, don’t I?” SHe said, looking up at me and smiling before giving me a kiss.

I returned it earnestly, “You’re right, you do. Come on, I’ll treat you to some food.”

~Back in the present~

After that the months flew by and our wedding is happening within a few weeks, really we’re all excited, it’s going to be amazing. However, today was strange I was woken up but vibrating and light, which I thought was a phone until I realized it was coming from Shy, and her cutie mark was floating above us, which caused us some concern so we got out of bed and once we did it sped off in the direction of Twilight’s Castle.

So, here we all are standing around a table that was not there, before at the center of the thrones that were there and there was even one for me now and my coat of arms, the dragon wrapped around a snowflake, was also floating above the map in a distant spot of Equestria with the rest of the girls’ cutie marks.

“Ok so what is going on now?” I asked the purple alicorn as Pinkie was crying due to Spike accidentally smashing her family’s holographic farm..

“It seems that the… Cutie Map is telling us to go to that part of Equestria.” She said, examining the table.

“Obviously Twilight, but why is it telling us to go there?” Rainbow asked, the rest of us nodding in agreement.

“I don’t know but it looks like we’re going on a road trip.”

“Am I being dragged along on a friendship mission? The heck… whatever, Spike, can you watch Goldy while we’re gone?” I asked the younger dragon.

He saluted, “Aye Aye Captain, she’ll be safe in my hands!”

We were all leaving the castle as Pinkie pouted, “Aww but I was planning on organizing my cookie sheets!”

I grabbed her arm, “Let’s go you crazy sugar mare, you can organize them when we get back.”

“Okie Dokie Lokie, BYE SPIKE!” She waved before I dragged her away.

About an hour later we were off the train at a dead end in the middle of nowhere.

“Aaaand we’re in the middle of jack and shit.” I deadpanned.

Twilight pulled out a map, “No, there looks to be a town this way, come one everyone.”

With that we were off, it wasn’t too long of a walk and eventually we found a cliff edge with a town at the bottom, composed of several houses in 2 neat rows.

“That’s it, that’s the place on the map!” Twilight said happily.

“Awesome, let’s go and get this over with.” I started walking forward before I felt a pull on my tail, looking behind me to see Twilight tugging on it with her magic.

“Wait, it could be dangerous, we don’t know who lives there.” She said, quickly.

“Dangerous? Aaaawesome!” Rainbow exclaimed.

“Dangerous? Really? Twilight, you’re an Alicorn and Im a dragon, I think it’ll be ok.” I told her.

“Oh! I’ll check it out!” Pinkie volunteered before rolling down the hill.

“Be careful!” Apple Jack called after her.

Once Pinkie made it down to a safe rock we followed behind her and we got a closer look at the town, something in my gut told me this place wasn’t right.

“This is where the map sent us? It looks… really boring.” Rainbow said unimpressed.

“These just look like regular pony folk.” AJ chimed in.

Rarity was obviously upset by the look of the town, “It could use some more architectural flourish to it.”

Fluttershy was of course, the one to give it the benefit of the doubt, “It doesn’t look so bad.”

Pinkie shook her head, “I… don’t like it. I don’t like it at all.”

“Why not Pinks?” I asked her.

“I know smiles, and those aren’t right.”

“Forget the smiles, look at their cutie marks, they’re all the same. What could do that?” Twilight asked, drawing our attention to their equal sign cutie marks.

Excitedly Rainbow butted in, “I bet it’s some strange magical creature behind it!”

“What makes you say that?”

Rainbow shrugged, “I’m just hoping that’s what it is so this trip wouldn’t be a complete waste.”

“Why don’t we just go talk to them, see what’s goin on?” AJ suggested.

“That’s a better idea than any of us have had, so why not?” Twilight said in agreement.

As they were walking away Pinkie and I were still behind, “Those smiles are bad news.” She said to me.

“I know but come on, we don’t want to be left behind.” I told her, as we quickly caught up to the others. When we entered town we were greeted with a series of lifeless ‘Welcomes.’

“Normally I’d find all of this nice, but I’ll admit it is kind of strange.” Shy said, moving closer to me.

“Welcome! Pardon my forwardness, but are you an alicorn?” A light blue unicorn asked as he approached us, looking at Twilight.

“That there’s the princess of friendship!” AJ said.

“Well, you’ve certainly come to the right place for friendship.” He said with a smile.

I did not like how he said that last part. As I was getting over that problem another Pony, an Earth Pony with a white coat and white hair came up to us next, “What brings you to town?”

“We’re not entirely sure, to be truthful.” Twilight said, obviously slightly embarrassed.

“I see. Well, all are welcome in our little village. I’m Double Diamond and this is Party Favor.” He said gesturing to the light blue pony.

“Howdy Double Diamond. I’m Apple Jack, , and this here’s Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Chris, and Twilight Sparkle.” The farm pony introduced us.

“And you all have your own unique cutie marks, except for you.” He said looking at me, “Starlight would love you.”

“Starlight?” I asked, though I didn’t get a response.

“If you don’t mind, has there been any trouble here lately?” Twilight asked Double Diamond.

“Trouble? I don’t think we’ve ever had trouble in our little village.” Double diamond said, the creepy false smile adorning his face.

Party favor nodded, “It’s true, you’ll see.”

“Perhaps you would like to speak to our founder Starlight Glimmer?” Double diamond suggested as he turned to lead us to somewhere.

“Guess she’s just the town’s founder… eh.” I mumbled to myself.

“Well they seem nice?” Fluttershy said, a bit skeptical.

“I’ve got my eye on them, something is rotten in this…. Whatever the name of this village is.” Pinkie said, clearly the most skeptical of us all.

We reached a house at the far end of the rows and double diamond knocked on the door, opening it, “Starlight? We have some new visitors.”

“Be ready for a fight, we don’t know what’s going to come through that door.” Rainbow said, rearing up for a fight.

A door at the back of the house opened and out stepped a light purple unicorn with a purple main that had a lighter purple and light blue streaks running through her hair, “Welcome, I’m so pleased to have you here.” Rainbow groaned in disappointment.

“This is Apple Jack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Chris, and Twilight Sparkle.” Double Diamond said, introducing us to her.

“Forgive my bluntness, but I’m assuming it’s Princess Twilight Sparkle? We don’t get many alicorns around here.” She then looked at me, “Oh and you are something wonderful all on your own.”

“That does not make me feel comfortable.” I said bluntly.

“Yes, I’m a Princess, but Twilight is just fine.”

“So, how did you find our village?” Starlight asked.

Twilight chuckled, “It’s kind of a long story, let’s just say we found it on a map.”

Pinkie held up a hand, “Technically it was a tree chest castle map!” Her face still in the form a a skeptical scowl.

Starlight gave her a small smile, “Well, however you found us, we’re happy to have you. We’re happy to have anyone who wants to experience true friendship for the first time.”

AJ raised her brow, “Say what?”

“You see our village is unique in that aspect. Around here, we don’t flaunt our special talents because we don’t have any special talents to flaunt.” She explained.

“Is that why you all have those equal cutie marks?” I asked her.

“Perhaps it would be easier to understand if I gave you a tour of the village.” She said, a drum beat starting up.
“Oh god… here we go.” I groaned out.

We were lead back outside, “Heads high everyone, marching proud! All together now, no one left behind!” That’s when the musical number fully started up.

None of us were enjoying this, except for Shy, she was enjoying it more than the rest of us.

Rainbow laughed in disbelief after the song was finished, “You must be kidding right? Give up or cutie marks? Yeah, right.”

“Rainbow Dash! I don’t think we should judge them for their choices.” Fluttershy scolded her friend.

“Don’t be fooled by their smiles Shy.” I told her, Pinkie nodding in agreement.

“I’m sorry, I guess we’re just confused.” Twilight said, clearly excusing us.

“We have no judgements here in our in village. Each of us were confused once as well, blinded by the false promise of our cutie marks.” Starlight said understandingly.

“Woah woah woah, is she serious?” Rainbow questioned.

Twilight gave her a look, “When we were sent here, we thought we were suppose to help. However, it doesn’t seem like you need help.”

Starlight walked up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, “Maybe you were sent here so we could help you?” She took her hand off Twilight and walked back to the crowd, “After all anyone who’s come to our village has never wanted to leave, why should you be any different?”

My spine tingled at that and my tail started twitching uncomfortably, something about this mare wasn’t right and Ixis agreed.

“But that is entirely your choice.” Starlight continued, “Please, enjoy our little corner of Equestria. We’re all quite fond of it, no doubt you will be as well. Double Diamond, please help our guest with whatever they might need.” She turned to walk back to her house.

“Of course.” He said giving us a wide grin.

As we were lead through town Twilight was talking to herself, “A cutie mark is a representation of a pony’s unique talents and skills, how is it possible to-”

“WHAT IS THAT?!” Rarity yelled out, staring at a pony selling what looked like shoddily made cloaks.

“Rarity, don’t cause a scene.” I told her as we sat down at a table in front of what looked like a restaurant, all the buildings were pretty much the same, so it was hard to tell, “Something is up in this town, and we don’t want to draw attention to us more so than we are.”

“I agree, they may do things differently than us, but that's no reason to be rude.” Shy said.

“No, the reason to be rude is that the keep staring at us.” Rainbow said, staring pointedly at Double Diamond.

“Need something?” He asked.

Twilight waved him off, “No we’re good, thank you. Fluttershy and Chris are right, if we’re going to get to the bottom of why we’re here, we’ll need these ponies’ help.”

“I think we ran off to the end of Equestria without even knowing what that map was!” AJ said, exasperated.

“If we were at the end of Equestria we’d be sitting on a big A! Get it?” Pinkie joked with a giggle, causing me to snort.

“Oh please, Pinkie, this isn’t the time for a joke. We came all this way and for what?” Rarity asked, also getting annoyed.

Twilight huffed, “Maybe you’re right, but some thing here feels wrong.”

“That and two bits will get you a cup of cider.” AJ said.

“Is this a bad time?” The waitress asked

“Now now girls, no need to argue in front of our new friends.” Shy said, trying to calm everyone down.

“Is your friendship ending?” The waitress asked me.

“What? No?” I told her

“Well, my name is Sugar Belle, what can I bring you? We have… Muffins.” We waited for her to keep going but she didn’t.

“Well, then I guess we’ll get 7 muffins.” Twilight said only for pinkie to interject.

“Make that fourteen!” She looked at us, “What? I’m hungry.”

“Make it twenty-one.” I told Sugar Belle, “Hey if Pinks can get seven more I’m ordering seven more.” I said with a huff.

“Come on everyone, we’ve gotta stick together, it doesn't matter what happened before; we’re here now.” Twilight said.

“I guess you’re right, and the sooner we get this over with the sooner we can go home.” AJ said as a plate of muffins was put on the table.

“That was fast.” I shrugged.

“Forgive me for overhearing, but just a moment ago you were disagreeing but now it sounds like you’re agreeing.” Sugar Belle said.

“What about it?” I asked.

“Well you had such differing opinions and cutie marks.” She tried to explain.

“We have differing opinions all the time, darling.” Rarity explained in turn.

“But you look like you’re friends.” She said, slightly confused.

“We are friends, a simple disagreement wouldn’t change that.” Twilight said.

“Honestly, do you know how many times Purple Booksmart and I go back and forth over things? All the time, and she’s still one of my closest friends.” I said to her, grabbing a muffin off the pile, as did Pinkie.

Sugar Belle looked even more confused, “I’m sorry, I’m just having a hard time understanding.” She adopted a stern look on her face, “Different talents lead to different opinions, which lead to bitterness and misery. So why aren’t you bitter and-” She was interrupted by Pinkie spitting out a bite of muffin she took.

“Peh, ugh...I mean, yum… gooooood…” She gave a weak smile.

Sugar Belle looked down with a soft smile, “It’s all right, I know I’m not a very good baker. But at least, I’m not any better than anyone else in the village.” She looked away nervously, “W-Well, I hope you enjoy our little village!” She started to head back inside before stopping and whispering to us, “Come inside before you go. Meet me downstairs.” She said before giving us a wide smile and rushing inside.

“Hooookaaayyyy, that was weird too.” Rainbow said.

“Let’s just sit here, eat these muffins and act normal. I think we’re being watched.” Twilight said, grabbing one of the lumpy muffins.

I looked around at the crowd who were all watching us intently, “No shit Sherlock, where’s Watson?”

“No, not like that. Someone here doesn’t want us talking to Sugar Belle.” She said gesturing to Double Diamond.

“Hmm I’ve got an idea, but you and Pinkie have got to eat all these muffins, Chris.” AJ said.

Pinkie sunk down below the table, “What why me too?”

“Because, you two have the strongest stomachs of any of us and that mare might be our best chance at finding out what’s going on around here.” She explained.

I waved a hand, “Pinkie doesn’t have to eat all of them, I can, trust me these taste better than some gems and rocks I’ve eaten.” I quickly devoured the plate of muffins.

“Oh you and me, need to have an eating contest when we get back home Chrissy.” Pinkie said with pure awe and jealousy burning in her eyes.

“Wow, I can’t believe you ate all our Muffins Chris, we best go inside and get some more!” AJ exclaimed in the most ‘inconspicuous’ manner ever.

We walked inside and made our way downstairs, Twilight praised me on a job well done, “Nice going, Chris.”

I shrugged, “It was to save Pinkie of another Baked Bads dilemma.”

Pinkie gave me a peck on the cheek, “I appreciate it, I’ve had cardboard that tastes better than those muffins.”

“Hello? Sugar Belle?” Twilight called out.

“Thank you for coming.” She said as she stepped out of the shadows, that creepy grin plastered on her face.

“Why did you want us to come down here?” I asked her.

“So no one could see what's about to happen.” She said as two more ponies stepped out of the shadow, one I recognized as Party Favor.

“Oh ho, ominous!” I said, actually amused by this, but also rearing up for a fight, Twilight following suit.

That was until Party Favor asked Twilight, “Are you really the Princess of Friendship?”

The pegasus mare that was with them got close and also asked, “Do you know Princess Celestia?”

Sugar Belle grabbed Pinkie’s shirt on the spot that had her cutie mark magically emblazoned on it, “I love your cutie mark!”

The pegasus then hovered above us, “How can you be friends with different cutie marks? Especially when he doesn’t have a cutie mark at all! Don’t you end up hating each other?” She asked enthusiastically.

Sugar Belle then came up to examine Fluttershy’s cutie mark, “Oh, look at this one! This one’s great too!”

That's when I stepped in, “Okay, Sugar Belle was it? Please stop touching my Fiancees without their permission and I do mean Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy.”

“Oh my apologies.” She stepped back quickly before what i said dawned on her, “Wait You’re getting married and they both have different cutie marks and you don’t have one at all, how does that work?” Before I got the chance to answer she kept talking, “I’d love to have my special talent back, even for just a day…make something besides those disgusting muffins.” She said sadly, her ears folding against her head.

“So what’s stopping you?” I asked.

“Yeah, go get your cutie marks back.” Rainbow added.

They looked nervous at that and Party Favor was the one to speak up, “Daydreaming is one thing. But, you mean actually having it put back on? That seems extreme.” The irony was not lost on Rainbow Dash.

“I don’t think Starlight would like that. She wants us to be happy in our sameness.” Sugar Belle said.

Twilight stepped forward at that, “How do you take someone’s cutie mark anyway?” She asked the group.

The pegasus was next to speak, “The Cutie Unmarking is a beautiful experience. Starlight uses the staff of sameness to magically take them away and replace them with these.” She said as they showed off their equal signs

“This isn't sitting right with me. No one should keep you from your cutie mark. It represents an important part of who you ponies are!” I said, getting tired of this.

“Oh we aren’t kept from them, they’re kept in a vault in a cave up in the mountain. We can visit them any time we like to remind us of the heartache of a life with special talents.” The pegasus corrected.

“Can we visit this cave?” I asked.

They nodded and a little while later we were on our way up the mountain with Starlight Glimmer leading the way.

“I'm delighted you’re interested in our cutie mark vault. I hope that someday everyone in Equestria will make a pilgrimage here to our little village to have theirs removed too-” She kept going but I decided to tune her out.

“Chris.” Twilight whispered to me, getting my attention, along with the rest of the girls, “This must be the reason we’re here.”

Pinkie gave her a skeptical look, “Pilgrimaging?”

“No, helping those ponies get their cutie marks back.”

“Are you sure Twilight? They might have missed them a little, but they don't seem to be too unhappy.” Shy said, always trying to see the good in everything.

“Honey, while I would normally agree to give things the benefit of the doubt, my instincts have been telling me something isn’t right here since we arrived, and Ixis agrees.” I told her.

Twilight nodded, “I agree, after all why would they want to meet us in secret? And why did they ask us not to tell Starlight who told us about the vault?”

Starlight stopped in front of a cave entrance, “We’re here!” She lead us inside and the sight that greeted us was a huge crystal vault reinforced with magic with cutie marks aligned in a grid system, “Behold, our Cutie Mark Vault.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it!” Twilight said in pure disbelief.

Starlight then grabbed what looked like two tree branches twisted in the form of a tuning fork, “And this is the Staff of Sameness. It was one of the great mage Meadowbrook’s nine enchanted items.” Ok that doesn’t sound right, “We are incredibly fortunate to have it here. This is the tool that allows us to free ourselves from our marks. So, just wondering, how did the subject of the vault come up?”

“Well some ponies were talking about much they missed their cutie marks and-” I quickly rushed over and covered Pinkie’s mouth with my hand, “Pinkie!” I whispered harshly.

“Oh, I see, well it seems you inspire all sorts of free thinking, don’t you?” She ended with a glare.

“Look, we didn’t mean to cause a ruckus in your village-” AJ started before getting interrupted by having Starlight get in her face.

“Good, Let’s just make sure of that, shall we?” She said… menacingly.

AJ tried to back up only to have Double Diamond block her path, and following suit more of the towns residence started to appear from the caves.

“Well, I should’ve seen this coming!” I said As I flared out my wings, them being large enough to shield the girls from at least behind.

Twilight promptly teleported into the air and was getting ready to charge a spell of some kind before she was quickly hit with a beam from the staff having her cutie mark ripped away from her.

“Twilight!” I called out to her, the temperature of the air dropping dramatically and right as I was about to make my move, something stung me on my arm. I looked down to see it was a dart, “Tranq darts, really?” I looked to Starlight as my world started to go fuzzy, “Clever girl…” and then nothingness.

To be continued...

Author's Note

Hey-o everyone, welcome welcome welcome back to Equestria, we're back in the show's timeline, though obviously things will be changed up. For those of you who are very intimate with the show can recognize that this is very identical, don't worry don't worry it's only this one episode that is like that. anything and really everything will have a drastically different take on it. This is just a conscious choice on my part. I wanted everyone to see how weird it is to just toss someone in what would be considered canon when it wasn't written with them in mind. So, experimentation was the name of the game for this chapter and the next. After that, back to my own silly brand of writing and story telling.

Now, I'm sure you've noticed that I started to add numbers to the chapters, that's more for me to keep track of what chapters I'm on and ahead of, I really should've been doing it from the beginning, but the further I get into this the more I forget what chapters do what and go where and it's a mess. Oh also, fun fact, for the google docs the titles I use are just RIK, it's short for the beta title of the story, Rise of the Ice King. I could really use DIK but nah, yeah anyways enjoy.

31: Welcome to Our Town pt.2

I woke up to the sound of a voice saying, “In sameness there is peace, exceptionalism is a lie, free yourself from your cutie mark. Choose equality as your special talent…” And it just kept droning on and on.

“What a load of crock.” I groaned out as I sat up, realizing I was just laying on the ground… tied up, “And why am I tied up?”

“Chrissy/Chris!” I heard my girls cry out to me and the gave me big, warm, hugs.

“I’m ok, just… a tranq dart really?” I shrugged, gotta give it up for creativity I suppose.

“Good to see you’re awake dude, I’ve been trying to bust down this door with no luck.” Rainbow said.

“Really? You want me to try?” I asked her and she nodded eagerly.

“Alright, hold on.” I flexed my wings and they easily snapped through the rope that was holding me.

“Told them rope wouldn’t hold you.”

I gave her a toothy grin, “Most things won’t, now stand back, this might get a bit splintery.” I reared a fist back and right before I hit the door Twilight stopped me.

“Wait I have an idea.”

“AN IDEA?!” Rarity wailed, “Twilight, I can’t tell if these drapes are tacky are not and I like them!”

“And I can’t understand or talk to animals anymore.” Fluttershy said tears forming in her eyes.

“This a worse mess than a jar of… of jars in… shoot, I can’t even make countryisms no more!” AJ sighed out.

“We have to get out of here Twilight, I don't think being stuck in room forever will be fun.” Pinkie said, “Maybe pleasant though.”

“Wow these no cutie mark issues are… bad. Hey, Twilight, what about that staff, didn’t Meadowbrook only have 8 items?” I asked her.

“If I recall, she did, but there might’ve been a 9th one we didn’t know about?” She suggested.

“Huh… so what's this plan Twilight?”

“Well I don’t want to cause a big scene I still want to try this peacefully. They’ll let us out if they believe we’ve been won over.” She explained.

“I don’t think they’d believe we’ve been converted in one night though Twilight.”

“There's one of us they might believe.” She said looking at Shy, everyone else followed suit.

“Wait, me?” She asked.

“To be fair, you have been the one who’s been the most accepting of things here.” I told her.

“W-Well that’s because everyone is so nice and they’re village is pretty and… you're right, the probably would believe me.” She said, hanging her head.

“You’re right they would, but you aren’t going to be the one doing this. I am.” I said.

“You? but Christopher, you’ve been just as skeptical as Pinkie has, why would they believe you over Fluttershy?” Rarity asked.

I smiled at her, “Because, I never had a special talent to begin with Rarity.”

Pinkie jumped into the air “Woohoo!” She quickly deflated, “I mean, yay.”

Twilight sighed in defeat, “I suppose it does make sense, alright but you have to find a way to get our cutie marks back.”

I nodded and then the door opened revealing Starlight Glimmer, “Good morning. I hope you had a pleasant night. This way please, there are some friends who would like to see you.” She stepped outside and we followed. “Gather ‘round, friends. Gather ‘round. We’ve come to ask if any of you are ready to join us. There are so many friends to be made, once you realize you don’t need your cutie marks or the talents that come with them.”

“We have a welcome ceremony for new friends. The whole village joins together to build you a cottage.” Double Diamond said.

Rainbow interrupted him, “Not interested! You may have them now, but we’re going to get our cutie marks back!”

AJ followed up, “Y’all don’t understand, do ya? You can’t force anyone to be friends! It don’t work like that.”

“Please, join us.” a grey stallion said.

“We love new friends!” A pale pink mare said after him.

“It’s alright everyone.” Starlight said reassuring her village, “This a perfectly normal part of the equalization process, for those who haven’t… quite seen the light yet. We’ll try again tomorrow, once you’ve had more time to consider our way of life.”

We were lead back in but I spoke up once everyone else was inside, “Hold on a moment.”

Starlight turned to look at me, “Yes, what is it?”

“I’d like to be a part of your village.” I told her

She looked at me curiously, “Oh, and why is that, Chris, was it?”

I nodded, “Well, as I’m sure you’ve noticed I don’t have a cutie mark, never have never will. I never had a special talent to begin with, so why wouldn’t you want me.”

She pondered it for a moment before speaking, “You did try to attack us in the cave.”

“Because you were attacking my family, and you tranqed me, so we’re even. Look, in my world atrocities of the highest magnitude were committed due to minor differences between the people of my home. It was horrible, I would tell you but...I don’t want to bring that to this world and what you’ve said, have been saying, resonated with me. I don’t want that to come to my new home, and everyone being equal, the same, will prevent that.” I explained to her.

“What about them? Your family, as you put it.” She said with a smirk.

“They’ll come around in time, I’m fully committed to this, and think about it, the entire world being the same, I’ll even help you find a way to use it on creatures that don’t have cutie marks, like myself, and once a prince of Equestria willingly joins your cause and goes public with it, the world will follow suit.” I told her, sweetening the deal even more.

“Chris… how could you betray us like this?” Twilight asked, in mock disbelief.

I turned back to her and gave her my best sneer, “If it means keeping my world, my home safe, then so be it.” The door was closed on them.

“We have a new friend everyone!” Starlight told her town. The crowd formed around me, congratulating me before she stepped up next to me, “We have one more order of business to attend to. It seems someone in Our Town is unsatisfied with our way of life.” She was met with gasps, “Unfortunately, it’s all too true, my friends.” She wrapped her arm around mine and looked up at me, “Would you kindly tell us the names of those friends who so desperately miss their cutie marks that they would sneak around in the shadows talking to strangers about it? Just so we can be sure your intentions were indeed pure.”

I blinked, hesitating for a moment before I had a thought, “Sorry, I’m terrible with names and faces, so I really can’t remember who they were.”

“I see, well they must have come to you directly, so I’m sure if you see them, you can point them out.” She gave me a devious grin.

After a few more moments of silence a voice called out from the back of the crowd, “It was me!” It came from Party Favor, “It was only me.” He made his way towards us and dropped to his knees, “And I only wanted it for a little while.”

Starlight stared harshly at him, “And you’re quite sure it was only you?”

He looked away from her, not a smart move, “I just wanted to remember what it was like.”

Starlight grabbed his face and turned his head so he would look at her, “And no thought to the pain you’d cause your friends. Such selfishness.” She pointed to the house the girls were in and Party Favor was thrown in.

“Come come, all new friends stay with me until their cottage is complete.” She said, leading the way to her’s.

“You know, I could get used to it here, it’s quiet, everyone is friendly, and most importantly, no one is different.” I said looking around, getting various ‘Welcome’s’ and I caught Sugar Belle’s and the pegasus’ eyes and frowned, It sucked what happened to Party Favor.

+Maybe but despite the whole everyone is the same mentality, he didn’t sell them out, I respect that.+ Ixis said.

‘Same, honestly this shouldn’t be too hard I’ve been working on my invisible ice tricks so sneaking around later tonight should be easy.’

+It should, but still be careful.+

‘Always am.’

“Here we are, my home, have a seat, let us discuss some plans.” Starlight said, leading me into her home.

I sat down in a relatively comfortable chair, could be better, could be worse, “Sure what did you want to talk about?”

“I wanted to know about these... atrocities you mentioned, you said they were because your people had differences among them?”

I nodded and sighed, “I’m sorry Starlight, I’d… rather not think about it, just know that everyone being the same would prevent them.”

“I understand, it must be a rough subject for you, and you said you were a Prince of Equestria correct?” Once more I nodded, “Interesting, who did you marry if you don’t mind me asking? I know we are quite a ways away from any postal service. But I’m sure we would’ve heard if Princess Celestia or Luna got married. Unless you married Twilight, was her name?” Again, I nodded, “So did you marry her?”

“No I didn’t marry my way into royalty, I was adopted by Princess Cadance into her family as her younger brother. That makes Twilight my sister in law. I’m marrying Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy.” I explained to her.

“Interesting and you were going to do this before recent events.” She said, smoothly skirting around what happened.

“I was, but, like I said, everyone being the same would make things much easier.”

“And you think the other Princesses would let this happen?” She asked.

“If I talk to them they will. They know about where I come from, they’ll see it how I do.”

She clapped her hands together happily, “Good, well your room for the time is down here at the back of the house, I do hope you truly enjoy our little village, make yourself at home.”

I nodded and thanked her, making my way to my room, “I’m going to take a nap, to wear off the rest of the tranquilizer that's flowing in me.”

“I apologize about that, just a necessary precaution, didn’t want you hurting my villagers.” She said.

I nodded in understanding and went to lay down for a few hours until it was dark and I cloaked myself in refracting ice, sneaking out my window and climbing my way to the roof, getting ready to take off… until I heard noise coming from the front of the house.

“Good work, Double Diamond.” I heard Starlight say and I peaked over the roof, making sure not to move too much.

“Of course. But, I don’t understand why you wanted me to bring them here. Chris is one of us now, surely he can be trusted.” He said as they moved inside the house, Starlight floating a crate of jars behind them.

I crawled down the side of the house, looking through the bottom window just in time to see Starlight pull a jar out of the crate and it was containing Twilight’s cutie mark, I scowled, damn how am I going to get them now?

“This one belongs to a princess. It could be very important to our cause.” She said.

“But isn’t Chris a prince, isn’t he enough?” Double diamond asked, “Besides if Twilight Sparkle becomes our friend, then what do we care about this old cutie mark?”

“I just want to keep them close until everything is… settled.” She explained, “You may go, Double Diamond.” Said pony nodded and opened the door, I made sure I kept absolutely still as the window I was at was right next to the door, luckily he didn’t notice.

I was contemplating a plan of action when I heard crashing coming from upstairs, I scaled the building once more more until I found Starlight in her room. She was covered head to toe in water due to tripping over a bucket full of it, “Starlight, you clumsy fool..” She muttered to herself before undressing and drying herself off.

‘Well I feel like pervert…’

+You kind of are one.+

‘Shut up, no one asked you.’

As she dried off, I noticed the equal mark on her hip was wiped away revealing that she still had her cutie mark, and the equal symbol on her shirt she was wearing also started to fade away. She quickly reapplied some makeup to the area and it looked like nothing ever happened.

I growled, “Hypocrite.” A bit too loud, causing her attention to go to the window, luckily it was too dark out for her to see any of the distorting property of my ice. She got dressed in pajamas and went to bed.

+Do you have an idea on how to get ther girls’ marks back?+

I nodded, ‘Something like that, and shouldn’t you know since you're in my head?’

+Hush, I get lazy too.+

I shook my head and quietly made my way to my room and actually got some proper rest for the night.

~The following day~

We were all gathered outside the house the girls, and Party Favor were locked in, the door was open and they were let out, “I’ve a good feeling about to today. Do any of you have anything you’d like to say?” Starlight asked the group. After a few moments of silence she shook her head disapprovingly, “Aw a pity. Well, let’s try this again tomorrow, shall we?” They were being lead back in to the house, “No new friends today, I’m afraid.”

“Starlight, wait, let me lock the door.” I told her.

She looked at me in happy surprise and gestured for me to go ahead, “That’s the spirit, Chris! Party Favor, will you join us, please?”

The stallion ran out the house and past us, falling to his knees at Starlight's feet, “I’m sorry, i’m so sorry. I’ve seen the errors of my ways! I never want to look at my cutie mark again!”

Starlight smiled at that, “It seems there’s cause for celebration after all!” The village cheered.

“They tried to break me, they wouldn’t stop talking about how different they are, and that somehow makes their friendship stronger!” He said with a fearful look upon his features.

Starlight tisked, “Such backwards thinking.”

Then party Favor made the best face I’ve ever seen, I had to stop myself from laughing hysterically, “But I didn’t listen! I knew what they were up to and I didn’t listen!”

“Well done, Party Favor. We welcome you back with open arms.”

The entire time I was watching this scene, Twilight was talking to me and I was whispering back, telling her what I knew, now it was time and funnily enough they didn’t notice the gathering snow clouds above them, “Starlight, I think we might have a new friend joining us.” I said, gesturing to the door as Twilight stepped out, causing the crowd to gasp.

Even Starlight looked surprised, “Is this true?”

“I… I think so. But I just want to be sure. If I agree to leave my cutie mark in the vault, I’ll really be happier?” Twilight asked.

Starlight smiled at the question, “Of course, just look around. Equality has given us more happiness than you’ve ever known.”

“And you wouldn’t just let me live in the village with my old cutie mark?” She ask, grabbing her arm wear her cutie mark is displayed on her sleeve.

Starlight scoffed and waved it off, “Of course not, a pony with a cutie mark in our midst would destroy our entire philosophy. We are all equal here!” The crowd murmured in agreement.

I nodded, “Makes sense, also, I’d look out if I were you.” I told her, pointing straight up at the storm clouds.

She looked up, realizing what they were, “I knew you couldn’t be-” WHAP! And huge amount of snow dropped on her.

“Heh… nice. Now behold everyone your beloved hypocrite of a leader.” I inhaled, consuming all the snow I produced, mind you it didn’t restore any of my magic reserves but it was gone, but not the water that was left behind on Starlight because of it.

She was shivering, “W-what have y-you done?”

I shrugged, “Just showing you village how much of a hypocrite you really are.” I said, pointing to her shoulder, slowly the equal sign faded away, causing her cutie mark to reappear. In turn the crowd gasped in shock.

“Wha-What are you looking at, they’re the problem, not me!” She said, covering up her mark.

“Hypocrite.” I said smugly, emphasizing each syllable, she just glared at me.

“How could you?” Party favor asked, hurt evident in his voice.

“You said, cutie marks were evil. You said special talents led to pain and heartache.” Double Diamond joined his friend, just as hurt.

Starlight was still trying to play the victim, “They do! Don’t you see? Look at them!” She said, pointing us.

“Hey, I don’t have a special talent, so you really don’t have a case with me.” I said, getting a punch in the arm from AJ.

“Then why did you take ours and not give up your own?” Sugar Belle Asked her.

“I… had to you fools! How could I collect your cutie marks without my magic?!” She explained.

The pegasus that wanted her mark back spoke up next, “But the staff has all the magic we need!”

“The staff is just a piece of wood I found hanging off a dead tree in the desert, it has no magic!” Starlight said angrily.

“Called it!” I said from behind her.

She was peeved now, “Shut up! You’d all be still living your miserable lives, thinking you're better than everyone else, if it weren’t for my magical abilities! I brought you friendship. I brought you equality. I created harmony!”

I leaned over to Pinkie, “Told ya, total hypocrite and a god complex, it’s sad.” she shook her head in pity.

“You lied to us!” Accused Double Diamond.

She scoffed it off, “So what, everything else I said is true, we’re only happy if we’re all equal.”

“Yeah except for you, ye smarmy cunt.” I said, putting on my best Irish accent.

“Woah, harsh dude.” Rainbow said.

I shrugged, “It’s true.”

“Everyone has unique talents and gifts. And when we share them with each other, that's how real-” Twilight began only to be cut off by Starlight turning on her with the angriest face I’ve ever seen.

“QUIET!”

“Eugh, the hell was that face, gonna have nightmares from that for weeks.” I said, Shy and Rarity nodding in agreement. Though Twilight getting shot down was also funny in its own right, “So, everyone, what do you say, either we’re all equal or none of us are, yeah?” I got a resounding, “Yeah!” from the crowd as the encroached on her, she backed up into us. As they got closer she created a force field to push us away and ran to her house.

“Oh… that’s probably not good.” I looked back at the crowd, “You all go get your cutie marks back, we’ll head after Starlight.” They looked at me unsure, “Go, before she makes off with all of them.” That shook them out of their stupor and they headed towards the mountain. Rainbow was about to follow after her before I stopped here, “Starlight has your cutie marks, she’s our main concern right now.”

“Got it, she ran to her house right? Alright let's go get them girls!” Rainbow flew to the door as fast as she could, which mind you was slower than the others walking at a brisk pace.

“Rainbow it’s faster walking, calm on.” I told her, leading them.

Once we reached the door AJ told us to stand back as she reared up to kick the door down, only for it to not give in at all, “My strength is gone too?”

“Looks like it, let me do this.” I said getting ready to bust the door down until orbs of light started flying around us, “Are those?”

Rarity gasped, “They are and even without mine I can tell this is beautiful.”

I nodded when a whistle got our attention, “Stand back everyone!” Said the dark blue pegasus that was with Party Favor and Sugar Belle. She took off and flew at the door, breaking it down.

We rushed inside and I went to the side room, “Shoot they’re gone!” But there was a secret passage, “Come on everyone, this way!” We quickly made our way through the passage coming out from behind a boulder on the outskirts of town that had a path leading up towards the mountains.

“Look!” Rainbow pointed out, spotting Starlight running with a small carriage a distance aways.

Party favor came up from behind us and pulled out several balloons, forming them into, what looked like binoculars, “She’s headed for the pass! If she makes it to those mountains we’ll never find her!”

Pinkie grabbed the balloonoculars and looked through them, “These are fantastic!”

“There's a whole network of caves up there, if we don’t get to her fast, you'll never get your cutie marks back.” Sugar Belle said.

“Well no time to waste then, lets go.” I said, urging everyone on, we all ran on ahead, the girls being left behind, Rainbow crying out in frustration, “I’ll go on ahead and help them out, catch up when you can, ok?” They nodded and I spread my wings, giving them a powerful flap, rocketing towards Starlight.

She saw the pegasus gaining ground with me right behind her, “Are you really willing to give up everything for these… strangers?” She asked, firing off a beam into the snow above , knocking some down, threatening to fall on the pegasus.

I flapped once more, gaining more speed and blocking the snow falling with an outstretched wing, “Hey, close call there…. I never got your name.”

“It’s Night Glider and thanks for the save.” She said with a grin.

Sugar Belle, Party Favor, and Double Diamond ran past us as I shook the snow off my wings, “We gave up everything for you! Because we thought you were our friend!” Sugar Belle said.

Night Glider and I picked up the pace, I more so than her, catching up to the group, “Hey Sugar Belle, I've come up with a new recipe!” I formed a snowball in the shape of pie.

“Snow Pie, brilliant!” She followed suit and we both tossed it at Starlight. They struck the cart, breaking sending the jars over the edge of the cliff, and before I could celebrate Starlight caught them with her magic and made it over the pass, destroying the natural bridge in the process, causing the others to stop.

“Don’t worry I’ve got this!” I said quickly landing and placing my hands on the ground, ice quickly forming a bridge to the other side, “Alright go go go!” I said as they raced/skated past me.

I caught up, only to see double diamond stopping at a pair of skies, “Hey, maybe you could reminisce another time?”

“Yeah she’s almost to the caves!” Night Glider told him.

Double Diamond looked at his skies thought fully before turning to us and quickly putting his gear on, “Care for an air drop?” I shrugged, Night Glider and I picking him up, dropping him on a snowy slope that he rode, causing a large pile of snow to fall, blocking to the cave entrance, burying Starlight in snow and causing her to drop the jars, the girl’s cutie marks going to find them,

“That's good.” I said as starlight slowly pulled herself out of the snow and charged up her horn, “And that is not good.” Starlight fired off her spell, I spread my wings out to protect them, but Twilight teleported in the way and put up the same force field shield that Starlight used earlier.

She looked absolutely flabbergasted, “What-I studied that spell for years how could you?!”

Twilight stepped forward, “I studied magic for years too, but what I didn’t know then was that studying can only take me so far.” She looked back at us, “Each of my friends have taught me something different about myself. It was their unique gifts, passions, and personalities that helped bring out the magic inside of me. I never would’ve of learned that I represent the Element of Magic without these five.” She said, smiling.

“Five? Ouch much Twilight?” I said feigning hurt.

“Oh hush.” She turned back to starlight, “And I certainly wouldn’t be here to stop you now.”

Starlight rolled her eyes and waved her off, “Spare me your sentimental nonsense. I gave these ponies real friendships that they never would’ve had otherwise.”

“How would you know, you never even gave us a chance!” Double diamond said.

Starlight growled in response and then looked at me, “And you, what about you, you lied to me, to everyone in the village. You said you were on our side because the beings from your would committed atrocities because everyone was different and you wanted to prevent that. I’m guessing those were all lies too.”

I stepped forward, my wings wrapping around me as I sighed, giving her a stern look, “I didn’t lie, Starlight. I don’t do that… often. I told you the truth, atrocities were committed because people were different and I do want to prevent this world from ever having to face that. But not through your means, or methods. Those would end up being the cause of those same atrocities, maybe not by you but by the people who would follow you. Some would kill, murder, maim, rape, you name it because they aren’t the same, and to some wouldn’t matter if they did get their cutie marks taken away, someone would just find another reason to keep on doing those things.” I told her. She looked away from me, so I continued, “So I’m going to do it my way, Equestria’s way, Twilight’s way. By making friends and teaching everyone that being different is ok, and you can live peacefully despite that if given the chance.”

At that Starlight looked back at me with renewed anger in her eyes before she quickly fired off a spell that melted the snow and she teleported somewhere into the caves.

“She’s getting away!” Rainbow said, getting ready to go into the caves.

I stopped the chromatic pegasus, “Hold on Rainbow, no point in going after her, I can’t hear, see, or smell her.”

Twilight addressed the town’s ponies, “We just have to hope that when she’s thought it over, you all have taught her something.”

It’s you who’ve taught us something.” Party Favor said, “We all came to this village because we thought we were missing something from our lives. We thought starlight had given it to us, but now… now it seems it was in front of us all along.” He walked back to his friends, “It’s us.”

“Does that mean you’ll stay in the village?” Twilight asked.

“It’s our home. I’m not going anywhere.” NIght Glider said happily.

Doubled Diamond gave a huge grin, “This is a chance for all of us to get to know each other again, for the first time.”

Sugar Belle was clapping in excitement, “And I’ll finally get the chance to bake something besides those terrible muffins.”

They all laughed at that, I just shrugged, “I didn’t think, they were that bad, but I do tend to eat rocks so… anyways, let’s get back to the town, we have to celebrate after all!” They cheered in agreement.

Once we were back in town and the party had started, the girls and I were standing at the entrance to the village, “Now those are real smiles.” Pinkie said, finally satisfied with things.

I was about to say something, but at that moment, the girl’s cutie marks starting lighting up and my coat of arms, along with my tail spines did as well, “Oh well, that’s a weird feeling.”

“I’ll never get used to that…” Apple Jack said,

“I think it’s divine.” Rarity interjected.

“Yeah probably because it makes your butt vibrate too.” I snickered, causing Rarity to sputter and blush.

Fluttershy giggled, “Does that mean the map is calling us somewhere else though?” She asked Twilight.

The aforementioned Alicorn shook her head, “I have a feeling it means our work here is done.”

“It looks like you were right Twilight, the map did send us here for a reason. We brought real friend ship to these ponies.” AJ said.

I wrapped my arm around my sister in law’s shoulders, “Yeah, Twiggy, guess that’s why you’re the Princess of Friendship.”

She groaned at that name, “But the map didn’t send me, it sent us. You’re a part of me, all of you, yes even you Chris, and there’s no doubt you’re apart of my mission to spread friendship too.”

“Oh you’re so sappy, it makes me tear up a little, come one everyone, group hug!” I pulled everyone in using my wings.

“Heyyyyy, this feels like an ending, it doesn’t have to be an ending does it? Because Sugar Belle can finally make something other than bad muffins and I really want to see what's he can do.” Pinkie proclaimed, eager to test the baking mare’s chops.”

I chuckled, “No Pinkie…” I looked up towards the mountains, “I feel like this is only the beginning.”

Author's Note

I FORGOT TO PUT AN AUTHOR'S NOTE WHOOPS! My apologies, though I don't really have much to say about this chapter. I'll leave you all with this instead, It's all coming to an end, Sombra is coming back, Celestia and Luna are retiring and I'm sad.... BUT IT WAS A GOOD RIDE WHILE IT LASTED HAHAHA!!!!! I'm not late, I just didn't mention anything until this chapter.... welp, season 9 here we come.

32: Homesick

It was nearly 10pm as Twilight and I were out in my backyard finishing up a little animal sanctuary for Shy to have in the middle of town since the cottage was sold and all that.

Honestly it was strange Twi came over at around lunch time and asked if I needed help with anything, I told her I didn’t but she persisted and so here we are, building a large fenced in area in our backyard with different enclosures and fixtures so I can give Shy something back that she gave up for Goldy’s sake.

I wiped a bead of sweat off my brow, yes I still sweat, especially when it’s warm out and it was like 80 today ok? Anyways, I put down the large wooden post I was holding, happy with the progress I made today, “Alright Twiggy, I think that’ll do for today, it’s getting late and I for one can’t wait to take a nice cold shower and clean off. I bet you can’t wait to go back to the Castle and do the same.”

She made a small choking noise, “Are you sure this is it for tonight? I mean from the plans you have drawn up, it looks like there’s more to be done.”

I cracked my neck and nodded, “Yeah, I’m pretty much done for today, I’m actually further along thanks to your help so I’ll even take tomorrow off, maybe.”

Twilight laughed, “B-But! I mean… wouldn’t it be better to finish it as soon as possible, I mean I can stay and keep working while you go and rest, yeah, besides I’m not tired.” She let out a large yawn causing me to raise an eyebrow, “Force of habit?”

I shrugged, “Fine, knock yourself out Twiggy, just don’t be out here too late ok, don’t need the Princess of Friendship to collapse from exhaustion.” I patted her on the shoulder and made my way into the house to shower and go join Shy in bed.

I was woken up by a loud thumping noise coming from out back, I looked out the window to see it was still very much dark out and that Twilight was still out working by the light crystals outside of the house, “Jeez… what time is it?”

Ixis groaned in my head, +It feels like it’s 2 or 3 in the morning.+

“Seriously? She’s still out there?”

Shy stirred slightly, “You should go talk to her, that noise has been keeping me up all night.”

I nodded and scooted off the bed, making my way out back, “Twiggy, what are you still doing out here?” She didn’t answer so I moved closer to her and realized she was pounding a wooden stake so far into the ground that it was thumping against a large boulder that was buried several feet past where the post should’ve been stopped being buried.

“Twiggy?” Still no answer, I looked closer at her, her eyes glazed over and staring off into the forest. I shook her slightly, “Twiggy, you ok?”

She came too at my touch, “Huh? Oh… yeah… guess I most have zoned out.” She looked at the hole in the ground she made, “Oh my, did I do that?” I nodded, “Oh… I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine… I’ll just… fill it in tomorrow and replant that post.” I said looking around to see that she might have expanded on my plans by just a little, “...And I guess get more fence wire as well. Twiggy, go home and get some sleep, you’re clearly exhausted.”

She visibly tensed at that suggestion, “N-No I’m not, I’m perfectly fine.” She have me a wavering smile.

I sighed, I knew I wasn’t going to convince her, “Alright, well at least go and see Pinkie, I remember saying she would be up late trying out new pancake recipes for our get together tomorrow morning, maybe you can help her out. I just don’t want you out in the dark all night, ok?”

She nodded reluctantly, “Alright, are you still coming to the get together tomorrow?”

“Yeah, wouldn’t miss it for the world, I’ll see you tomorrow, good night Twiggy.” I headed back inside, waving her goodbye as she went to the front of the house from a gate leading to the back.

I flopped down in bed and promptly drifted off into a great slumber.

The next morning we were all sitting at the cutie map, using it as a table, as it was… technically a table, each one of use had a plate full of pancakes, mine were full of mangoes, lemon, and gems, it was heaven, “Pinks, these are the best pancakes you’ve made to date.”

She slammed her face into her pile, eating of them, leaving her face covered in whipped cream, which she eagerly licked off, “Thanks! Twilight spent all night helping me pick the right flavor. I thought I picked the perfect flavor but she insisted that I make more, and more and more and more.” She staked more pancakes on her pile with each more, “Eventually I just settled on something special and unique for each of you, I call it the friendship surprise! The surprise is that I lost the measuring spoon in the batter.” She ‘whispered’ to Rarity, “Someone is going to get a very special pancake!” She finished in a sing song voice, at which Rarity checked her pancakes.

“She was up all night huh? Is that why she’s covered in sticks and mud and sleeping sitting up?” Rainbow asked, pointing to our mutual friend, who was snoring.

“I don’t mean to sound unappreciative, but has anyone else noticed that Twilight has been a bit… too helpful recently?” Shy asked.

“Yeah, I love auntie Twilight, but she was at our home last night making noise until like 3 in the morning, helping daddy with his project!” Goldy said, Shy and I nodding in agreement.

“Now that ya mention it, the other day she was helping out at Sweet Apple Acres and stuck around near midnight, digging up over 50 apple tree planting holes when I only needed 10.” Aj explained on her end of things.

“She spent an entire afternoon rearranging a single gem drawer at the boutique! An entire afternoon!” Rarity added.

Rainbow said her peace as well, “You think that’s weird? She raced me 100 times yesterday and lost every time. Best out of 5, best out of 10, best out of 20, best out of 100! She just kept going, I mean I know hanging out with me is awesome but it seemed she’d rather keep going than-”

“Leave?” We all asked.

Rainbow nodded, “Yeah, I mean who does that?” Twilight face planted into her pancakes and cuddled them.

“Someone who’s trying to avoid something that’s who.” AJ said, looking at her skeptically.

“Indeed, I suppose we’ll have to ask her when she wakes up.” Rarity said.

I saw pinkie smack the edge of her plate and consume her huge stack of pancakes in one go, “Pinkie, be careful, you could choke on something.” And as if on cue, she did in fact start choking on something. AJ, proceeded to hit her back causing her to cough up the measuring spoon she lost, sending it flying at me, which I caught and raised an eyebrow at.

Pinkie smiled, “I win!”

Her little outburst woke Twilight up, a pancake hanging from her horn, “I’m pancake… I mean, awake.” She said groggily.

Rarity pulled the sticky sweet breakfast food off Twilight’s horn with her magic, “Darling, you know we love you and love having you around but lately it seems like you’ve been… avoiding something.”

Twilight’s eyes widened as she looked at us nodding in agreement, she let out an exhausted sigh, “I can’t hide anything from you all… to be honest… I’ve been avoiding this place.” She said looking up at the cavernous ceiling in the map room.

Rarity gasped, “Whatever for? This place is truly marvelous.”

Pinkie agreed, evident by her vigorous head shaking, “Yeah, the tall dark ceilings! The cold hard crystal floors! And the long empty hallways!” She said causing an echo to ring throughout the castle, “Ok, I get it.”

I tilted my head in thought, “But you’ve had this castle for little over a year Twiggy, why is it only now that you aren’t comfortable living here?”

Twilight shrugged, “I guess because I haven’t actually been in the castle for too long at any given time. I’ve had so much going on after the Tirek incident, then you came back and we went to your world, and then the whole Starlight Glimmer incident, I never had a chance to really think about how much this place doesn’t feel like a home.”

“That’s an easy fix, just decorate, make it feel like home.” Rarity said.

“I don’t even know where to start, it just so daunting.” She groaned out.

“You can start by letting us do it for you. We’ll make this the castle of your dreams while you go to the spa. I’m saying this with love, but have you seen yourself lately you look a little-” Rarity stalled thinking for a word.

“Frazzled?” Shy offered.

“Yes! That’s exactly what I was going to say!” Rarity said, giving a nod of thanks to the not so shy anymore pegasus.

“Well I guess I could use a day to relax… and I know you all will do a great job, after all you are the ones that know me the best.” Twilight said, giving finally to get some well need rest and relaxation.

“Just leave it to use sugarcube, we’ll have this place feeling like home in no time. We’ll even celebrate with some cider when you get back.” Aj told her.

Rainbow shot into the air, “There’ll be cider?!” At our looks she laughed nervously, “I mean, let’s get to decorating.”

Spike came in through the large double doors, wiping sleep from his eyes, “Oh no did I miss the pancakes?” He asked rushing to Twilight’s pile and grabbing some.

“Spike it’s a good thing you’re here!” I told my younger brother.

He looked at me confused, “It is?”

“Yep, you’re going to take Twilight on a spa day, she needs the help.” I said with a snicker.

Spike smiled as he scarfed down some pancakes, “Great, I’ve been meaning to get my claws done.” We all stared at him for a moment before he blinked, “Oh you mean right now? Alright fine, but I’m taking some of these.” He grabbed a plate from the table and took out the doors with him, Twilight following behind.

“Come on y'all we’ve got work to do!” AJ said, and a mandolin started playing.

Rainbow Dash started, “ Let’s all work together. To make this castle shi-i-ine.”

Rarity followed suit, “Once we add some sparkle. It'll feel, it'll feel, it'll feel…” The rest of the girls joined in, “It'll feel divine.”

Apple Jack was up next with her verse, “Crates of apples an' bales o' hay. Just makes ya feel at home”

I held up my hand, “AJ I don’t think-” But my words went unnoticed as Shy’s part started.

Fluttershy, “Furry friends and some popinjays. So she won't be alone.”

“That’s a sweet thought Shy, but I think stuffed animals would be more-” Once again I was cut off by the music going past my words, what sounded like a chorus, “And we'll make, and we'll make, and we'll make this castle a home!”

Before I could even think to say anything else Pinkie Started up, “There's nothing like balloons and confetti to greet you every time you walk through the door!”

“I don’t think neat freak Mc Orderly would enjoy that too much…” But once more I was cut off and with a groan I just decided to stay silent.

Rainbow Dash begin on her second part, “She'll need this and those. Posters of all my heroes, how could anypony awesome ever ask for more?”

At that I threw my hands up and walked out the castle leaving them to inevitably come to the conclusion I already had, “Daddy, where are you going?” I heard Goldy say behind me.

“Daddy is going to see Auntie Celestia and Luna, Grandma and Grandpa Velvet and Night Light, and Auntie Cadance and Uncle Shining armor.” I told her.

“Why?”

“Tell me sweetie, what did you noticed your mommies and aunties doing?” I asked my bright young daughter, hopefully the weird density of this world didn’t rub off on her.

“They were bring in stuff to make Auntie Twilight’s home feel more like home.” She said, confused why I’d even ask.

I nodded, “Yeah, but home for who? Twilight or themselves?”

At that Goldy had a revelation, “Ooooohhhh, I get it, yeah that’s silly.” She paused for a moment before continuing, “Is that why you weren’t singing with them daddy?”

I shook my head, “No, the music magic can over power anything and everything, it just means that that wasn’t a moment for us. You weren’t singing either silly.”

“You’re right I wasn’t so will we get our own music magic moment?” She asked, I shrugged, “Oh, so why are we going to see all of them?”

“Because who better to know what Twilight likes best, excluding her friends, other than her family?” I crouched down on one knee allowing goldy to climb on my back.

“That makes sense, so who are we going to first?” She asked, holding on to my horns as I stood up.

“Well since it’s on the way Grandma and Grandpa.” I told her, spreading my wings open and taking off, heading towards the residential area of Canterlot, once I spotted the Sparkle household I landed and let Goldy climb off my back.

I knocked on the door and waited patiently until the door creaked open revealing a gray unicorn that had purple and very very light gray mane, “Oh Christopher, it’s lovely to see you again.” Twilight Velvet looked down to see Goldy, “Oh and Golden Skies, come give your grandma a hug.” She looked up at me with a smile, while she hugged Goldy, “What do I owe the pleasure of having my 3rd son visit.”

I rubbed the back of my head, “Hi mom.” I saw Twilight Velvet and her Husband Night Light, quite often as they visited Shining armor in the Crystal Empire, mostly since Velvet was a historian and Night Light was an astronomer, so new area of the sky to study and new historical records. It didn’t help that her son and daughter in law happened to rule the new kingdom… so free pass to look at whatever they wanted.

During that time they met me and insisted that I called them mom and dad, and wouldn’t let me off calling them anything less, so it just kind of stuck. Huh… it just struck me, I guess I may have lost my family back on earth but I gained a new one here, and it just keeps growing.

“Well, one to just see how you and dad are doing and two it involves Twiggy.” I told her.

Velvet rolled her eyes but still had a smile on her face, “Of course it does, come on in you two I’ll go get Night Light and you can tell us what your sister did this time.” She moved out the way and let us in, I used my tail to close the door behind us.

Goldy and I made our way to the couch and waited for Velvet and Night Light to join us, they did a few moments later, Velvet with a tray of cookies and milk, tea for her and Night Light, Goldy went for a cookie and I gave her a look, to which she nodded and swallowed the cookie she just consumed, “Thank you Gramma Velvet.”

She smiled, “You’re welcome sweetie, so you’re here because our Twily, I’m guessing, is in trouble?”

I chuckled, grabbing a cookie myself, “In a sense.”

“She’s sad, not in trouble daddy.” Goldy said, correcting me.

Night Light looked at Goldy and then me, “What does she mean by she’s sad, son?”

I finished off my cookie quickly, “She’s not comfortable in the castle. She says it doesn’t feel like home.”

They nodded in understanding, “Ah, yes, she did send us letters talking to us about it, she said she was going to try decorating but never had the time. We’re guessing it finally got to her?” Night Light asked.

“ Heh, that’s an understatement she’s been avoiding that place like a plague unless we’re all there with her. We had a talk with her and convinced her to let us take care of decorating the castle while she goes to the spa to relax.”

Night Light choked on his cup of tea, Velvet patting his back and looking at us surprised, “Our Twilight, going to a spa?” I nodded, “she’s changed so much since she was the little filly who lived here.”

“I’m guessing that's a good thing?”

“It is, so if her friends are decorating the castle why are you here, instead of there?” She asked.

“Because they’re being silly.” Goldy explained, without really explaining anything.

“What she means.” I interjected, “Is that they’re decorating the castle with stuff that makes them comfortable, not Twilight.” I took a drink of milk and grabbed another cookie, “So, I decided to see her family, if her friends won’t figure that out fast enough, also good to have a back up plan.”

Velvet and Night Light nodded, “So, why did you come to us exactly, son?”

“I wanted to get a keepsake from each of you, maybe something that she loved as a filly that she left behind?” I asked hopefully.

Velvet’s eyes lit up happily, “I have just the thing!” Her horn flared up and she teleported away.

Night Light chuckled and his wife’s antics, “She went to grab the first book Twilight ever read and memorized front to back.” A second later Velvet reappeared with a decently thick and well worn book in her hands, and handed it to me.

I read the cover, “ 'Advanced Thaumological Mechanics and Formulae’, really?” I shrugged, “Well that’s definitely Twiggy, to a T.”

“It is, she loved that book when she was a filly, funnily she may have memorized it but she didn’t understand any of what the book was talking about until she read the previous editions.” Velvet said with a laugh, “I know she’ll loved to have it back.”

I stood up and tapped the book against my pocket crystal, it disappearing in a flash, “Thanks mom and dad, I’d love to stay but time is of the essence, I’ll promise to visit soon, I’ll bring Twilight and Spike with me next time.”

“Be sure that you do son, we’d love to see her.” Night Light said, walking us to the front door.

Goldy looked at the plate of unfinished cookies still at the table, Velvet caught her eye, “Go ahead Sweetie take as much as you like.”

Goldy looked up at me with big eyes, “Can I daddy? Please?”

“Of course, just don’t eat to much, you’ll spoil your dinner later.” I told her as she quickly scooped up a handful of cookies and made her way back, handing me her cookies to store in my pocket crystal.

“Where are you heading to next?” Night Light asked us.

“We’re off to see Celestia and Luna, we know Luna won’t have much to give us but Celestia definitely should.” I told them.

“That they should, well safe travels, and when you see Shining Armor and Cadance, tell them we said hi.” He said, I nodded, allowing Goldy to climb on my back again and we headed towards Canterlot Castle.

I landed on the balcony outside of the throne room, I heard noise coming from inside, oh right, I guess Celestia would be in court right now…

+Hmm, most likely, but she always did seem to enjoy interruptions to get out of it if only for a little while.+ Ixis said humming lightly.

‘True, well I suppose I could crash the party.’ WIth that I threw the balcony doors open, making everyone look in my direction, Goldy happily made her way up the throne steps, the guards doing nothing to stop her, wait are those? Yep, makes sense.

“Auntie Tia!” Goldy said happily, climbing onto Celestia’s lap, giving her a hug.

Celestia for her part giggled softly and hugged her back, “Hello, Golden Skies, how good it is to see you, but what are you doing here?”

She gave Celestia a big grin, “We’re here to see you and Auntie Lulu!”

“Oh, we?” She looked off to the side and saw me standing at the bottom of the stairs, then she looked out into the crowd, “Loyal subjects, welcome my nephew, Prince Christopher McGrath ad Regim Glacies.” At that the crowd gave out a resounding, “Welcome your highness.” and bowed. The guards stood to attention.

I laughed, “Hey, no need for that, but I’m going to have to freeze this court for a moment, go take a break everyone.” The guards couldn’t help but groan at the pun, especially the two at the very top. Despite this however, no one moved an inch and instead look to Celestia.

She gave them all a confused look, “What are you looking to me for? A prince of Equestria said that court is on break, so go have some coffee.” She said shooing the Nobles and some more common ponies out, a good chunk of the guard left as well, only leaving the two at the top, closest to Celestia.

“So Christopher what brings you and Golden Skies here?” Celestia asked, walking down the stairs and summoning up a table and some chairs for us to sit at.

“Well we came here to see you and Luna… so let’s wait for her to get here, in the meantime Lima, Sapper, get your sorry selves down here and talk to you friend.” I called to them, they looked to each other and nodded, making their way to the table and standing there at attention.

“Hello sir, it’s good to see you again.” Sapper said.

I groaned and clonked him on his helmet, causing it to ring, Lima laughed at that, “Oi, relax, no one else is here and I know for a fact that Celestia doesn’t care, do you Tia?”

She was paying with Goldy, but quickly looked at me, “Not at all, just act like I’m not even here.”

Sapper and Lima shrugged, taking off their helmets, and sitting at the table, “So how’s it been guys?” We sat for about 15 minutes waiting for Luna to show up and when she finally did she was half asleep as she stumbled to the table.

She sat down and had a cup of coffee brought to her, “You better have a good reason for waking us up Tia, we were having the most wonderful dream.”

“I’d say seeing me is a good reason, and how did she wake you up? She was right here the entire time.” I asked.

Celestia just giggled and Luna moaned in pain thinking about it, “Our prankster of a sister can shine the sun directly in your face if she knows your exact position, it's useful for waking important ponies up for the day. Or, at least, that's what she says.” She took a sip from her coffee mug that simply had ‘Best Princess.’ engraved on it, “And it is always wonderful to see you nephew, and you brought Golden skies along with you, it’s a pleasure to see her always.”

I looked at Celestia, “I knew it, I knew you shone the sun on my face in the mornings on purpose, how many others do you torture like that?”

She whistled and looked away, “I have no idea what you’re talking about Christopher, now why did you want to see us.”

I growled at her, blowing cold air in her direction, causing her to shiver slightly, “Don’t think you’re off the hook, you’re gonna get it this winter. Anyways, I came her because Twiggy needs help.”

The caught Celestia’s attention, “Twilight, what’s wrong with my former student?”

“She’s not happy living in her castle.” Goldy explained, “Said it doesn’t feel like home.”

“Ah yes, young Sparkle has been having recurring dreams about the Golden Oaks Library, her former home. We assumed she has been getting homesick.” Luna said.

I nodded, “Yeah, and the girls are currently ‘decorating’ to make her feel at home. But they aren’t really putting things that will make Twilight feel at home and-”

“Are instead putting things that would make themselves feel at home without realizing it?” Celestia finished, I gave her a look, “What? You think as a former wielder of the Elements I wouldn’t be able to see a friendship problem and the solution to it right away? Come now, I invented giving vague easy to solve problems, did Twilight ever tell you about the first Grand Galloping Gala they attended?”

I shook my head, Celestia just laughed, “Well I sent her 2 tickets, one for herself and one for her plus 1, when she had just gained 5 new friends, plus she had Spike as well, what would you have done if presented with such a problem?”

I pondered it for only a second, “Well my first option would be to give it to who’s been my friend the longest, so Spike. However I would realize I had 5 new friends I would want to take so I would asked you for 5 more so that they could come with me.”

Celestia nodded, “Exactly, what do you think Twilight did?”

“Freak out?” I asked.

“Essentially.” Luna said, “Young Sparkle asked her friends their reasons for wanting to go and decided that they were all good enough reasons to give them the extra ticket but needed some time to figure it out. During said time her new friends were doing favors for her nonstop, despite her numerous request for them to cease doing so. After several more attempts from her friends and then the Pink one getting the town involved she got fed up, sent my troll of a sister a letter essentially saying, ‘Fuck it, if I can’t take all my friends I don’t want to go at all.’” The night princess finished the story with a long drawn out drink of her coffee.

I looked at Celestia, “Are you serious? You did that just to teach her a lesson?”

Celestia looked hurt, “In my defense I expected her to figure it out immediately, however I must admit my former student does tend to overthink things, and her friends follow this trend as I gathered from their friendship reports, that I still get from time to time, would you like to see my favorite?”

I raised an eyebrow, “Sure?” She poofed in scroll and gave it to me, I opened it up and read it outloud, the hand writing clearly showing me it was Apple Jack who wrote this one, “Dear, Princess Celestia, I wanted to share my thoughts with ya… ahem… I DIDN’T LEARN ANYTHING!” Sapper, Lima, and I busted out laughed at that and after a few moments I caught my breath and continued, “I was right all along! If you take yer time to do things the right way yer work will speak for itself. Sure I could tell you I learned a lesson about how my friends are always there to help me and I can count on them no matter what. But, truth is, I know that already too.” I snorted and laughed even harder.

“H-Holy shit are you serious? She sent that?” Lima asked, nearly falling off her chair laughing. Sapper actually did fall off his chair and Luna just rolled her eyes.

Goldy just looked kind of confused but was having fun nonetheless, “Wow, that is 100% Apple Jack, no wonder that’s your favorite, there is no formality or humility just gloating and hilarity”

Celestia nodded, “Indeed, so they’re not realizing a simple solution to a simple problem? Nothing new, so what did you need from us?”

I shook my head, “Well I was hoping you could give me something from the past that Twilight would like, something she left behind but was proud of or loved?”

Celestia thought for a moment before smiling, “I have just the thing.” Her horn lit up and a picture frame with something in it appeared next to her, “This is the first test Twilight aced as my personal student, the day she did she was so happy, she couldn’t stop hopping in circles around me until I took her out for ice cream.” and she also brought in a large bundle of scrolls, “And these are every friendship report I’ve ever gotten, I think she’ll enjoy having them.”

I took and looked at it and then at her, “Are you sure Tia, this is a sentimental thing for you as well.”

She nodded, “It’s quite alright, I made copies, however, those are the original.”

“Well thank you, I know she’ll love this. Luna do you have anything?” I asked my dark furred aunt.

She thought for a moment, “Nothing that pertains to her, however we do have something from our first real moment together as friends.” Her horn glowed dark blue before a small plush spider poofed into existence, “This is from our time in Ponyville during nightmare night. It is where we learned that not everyone was afraid of us and some chose to be afraid for fun, not because they hate us.” She said looking at the stuffed spider happily, before handing it to Goldy, who squeed and hugged it tightly.

“Luna… thank you.” I said.

“It isn’t a problem dear Nephew, now would you mind telling us what you have planned fully?” She asked.

I stayed silent before telling them, they said it was a good idea and wished me safe travels, once more Goldy was on my back and we were heading to the Crystal Empire, “Hey daddy, what’s the Crystal Empire like?”

I thought about it for a second, “It’s stunning, your auntie Rarity would say it’s the most beautiful thing she’s seen. It’s also freezing outside of the shield that protects the city.”

“Is it cold for you?”

I laughed, “Of course not, we’re ice dragons Goldy, that place was actually our home back when more of us were alive, now it’s just me and you.”

“Oh… will there ever be more?” She asked.

“Only if I give you a little brother or sister or if you have a daughter or son.” I told her, “But something really cool about the Crystal Empire, as an Ice Dragon or I guess an Ice Kirin, in your case, we’re much stronger there, I bet you could even do some of my stronger magic while we’re there.”

“Really?” She asked excitedly, “I could even do the Ice Dragon’s Roar?”

I chuckled, “You probably could, but I wouldn’t risk it, your mother would kill me if you got hurt, but hold on tight, I’m going to pick up the pace.” I felt her hold on to my horns tighter and I made for the Crystal Empire and made it there within the hour, When we arrived I was greeted to a fan fare. I sighed as I covered Goldy’s ears, to protect them from the loud noise.

“Really guys? How many times have I told you to not do that?” I asked the Crystal Guards, uncovering Goldy’s ears.

The commander of the troop that was outside of the palace saluted, “Sorry your majesty, it is by order of your sister.”

I groaned, “I know, I’m not mad just… annoyed, you’re free to return to your duties, actually before you go, is court being held?”

“No sir, it ended just over 10 minutes ago.” The commander said.

“Thank you commander, on your way.” I took Goldy’s hand, “Come on, let’s go see your Aunt and Uncle.”

As we made our way through the castle, guards stopped and saluted and maids and various other servants bowed, giggled, or murmured amongst themselves. It was something that they did ever since Sombra’s defeat, in fact there was a statue of Spike and I out in the center of the city, it was kind of overkill but it made the citizens happy.

+And happy citizens means a powered Crystal Heart, which means a safe city.+ Ixis said in monotone, followed by a sigh, +I love Cadance as much as you do, but she drilled that into our head hard.+

I just snorted as we made our way to Cadance’s personal chambers, it’s where she went whenever court was over. The guards saw me and moved aside, standing to attention, “At ease fellas.” Of course they didn’t but I think it’s just nice for them to know they can relax if they want. I knocked on the door and waited for Cadance to tell us it was ok to come in.

“You may come in.” She said from her room.

Goldy looked up at me, expectantly, I nodded and she opened the door and ran inside, tackling her aunt, completely catch her off guard and knocking her out of her seat, onto the ground, “Auntie Caddy!”

“Golden Skies? Wait if you’re here then?” She looked up and saw me standing in the doorway, a shit eating grin plastered on my face, “Chris!”

“Hey sissy, how’d you like my cuddle missile?”

“I loved it, she’s adorable and exactly what I needed.” She said, happily nuzzling her niece, causing Goldy to purr happily.

I shrugged and shook my head in defeat, “Well that plan backfired, hard day at court?” I asked joining them on the floor.

She moaned out, “You have no idea.”

“Eeehhhh, I have some idea, I did handle court some days remember?” I reminded her.

“Right you did.” She sat up, “So what brings my little brother back home?”

“Well, I’d tell you but I’m already repeating myself today so I’d rather wait till Shinny gets here. If you don’t mind calling for him?” I asked.

She gave me a straight look, “You could’ve asked any of the guards on the way up here.”

I shrugged. “Didn’t cross my mind.”

“Of course it didn’t, Private Clear, call for my husband please!” She said to one of the guards outside her room.

“Yes your majesty, right away!” He said, quickly going to find him.

We waited for close to an hour, and like back at Canterlot we just caught up and talked until Shining Armor showed up, “You called for me Honey Bun?” Shining said in a seductive voice outside the door.

Cadance was about to say something but I shushed her, “I sure did big boy!” I said in my best impersonation of Cadance, which sounded like a needle being dragged against a chalkboard.

“Are you ok Caddy? You don’t sound right?”

“Oh I’m fine, I just feel a bit sick, I could use some love to make me feel better.” I said back.

At that he opened the door and saw us on the floor, Goldy and Cadance holding in their giggles, and I was just looking at him with a wide grin, “Hey big boy, what took you so long?”

He face palmed, “Celestia… help me. How do I always fall for that?”

I shrugged, “Dude I don’t know, you think more with your lance than with your head.”

At that Cadance fell back in full guffaws, taking deep breaths in between, “He…. He… Does… it’s…. Adora-adorable! HAHAHAHAHAH!”

Goldy didn’t fully understand what was going on but she knew that her uncle was embarrassed and found it hilarious so she was laughing too.

Shining blushed, which was easy to see against his white fur, “Really Cadance? You have to throw me under like that?”

She was still laughing too hard to respond properly until she started cough, forcing her to catch her breath and calm down, “I’m sorry, Honey, You know I love you.”

He smiled and walked over to her, giving her a kiss, “I love you too, and how’s my favorite niece doing?” He asked ruffling her hair.

Goldy giggled, “I’m your only niece Uncle Shiny!”

“You’re still my favorite though. So why are you here?” He asked me.

“Your sister, she’s kinda feeling home sick.” I told them.

Shining cocked his head at that, “Homesick? Can’t she visit Canterlot?”

I shook my head, “Not that kind of homesick, homesick in the fact that her old home got blasted apart by a demonic minotaur that your wife and aunts cockblocked from their magic.”

“Ooooh, that kind of homesick.”

“Yeah, and the girls are kind of being dumb right now.”

“Dumb how?” Cadance asked.

“They’re making the castle feel like their homes and not auntie Twilights.” Goldy explained once more.

“Oh… that kind of dumb, Friendship Lesson Dumb. We’ve all suffered from it at one point or another.” Cadance said, solemnly, Shining nodding in agreement.

I looked at them, bewildered, “Wait what, you have a term for it?”

“Yep, it's weird in hindsight we can see how easy the solution was and for us not directly involved in the friendship problem we can also see how easy the solution is.” Shining explained.

“Oh my god, am I going to be caught up in it at some point? I know music magic effects me, will this?” I asked in a legit panic.

Cadance shrugged, “You won’t know until after it happens.”

I groaned, “Greeeeat….” I took a deep breath, “Well I’m here for a reason I need something that Twilight loves deeply that she either left behind or forgot about.”

As soon as I finished that Cadance and Shining looked at one another, “Smarty Pants?” She asked him.

“Smarty Pants.” He agreed.

They both looked at me, “Smarty Pants.”

“You mean her doll?” I asked and then looked at Goldy, “Doesn’t Big Mac have her?”

“Yep, Applebloom told me he keeps it on a shelf in his room.” Goldy said with a giggle.

“Oh that isn’t a problem, Shinny and I can make another no problem. Twily, when she was a filly, lost Smarty Pants all the time, so we got really good at creating duplicates.” Cadance explain.

“Oh, well, that will work.” I said, this was a much easier trip overall than expected.

“Well we’ll have it ready for you soon, why don’t you go see if you left anything behind in your old room.”

“Can I stay here with Auntie Cadance?” Goldy asked me.

“Of course you can, you rarely see her spend some time with her.” I looked to Cadance, “If you need me, you know where I’ll be.”

I left them to what they needed to do and made my way to the room I stayed in while I was here, once I was inside I looked around, exactly how I left it, “Oh hey there’s my old journal!” I walked over to it and picked it up, I sat on the edge of the bed, and cracked it open, flipping to a random page, reading it over.

+Oh man, I forgot how bad this was.+ Ixis said, her cringing evident by her voice.

“You’re telling me, man my first several months in Equestria suuuuucked, but that was my own fault, I was so stuck in my depression and angst it just… over powered everything. I’m glad they made me confront my past, and I’m glad I met Cadance.”

+I am too, due to it we were able to lock Wrath away and finally give you some peace of mind. You’ve come a long way Chris. I’m proud of you.+

I smiled at that, “Thank you Ixis, you know I still have my doubts.”

+You always will, but we’ll work on it together.+

“You’re right we will, how about we look around some more, I wonder if that’s still here.” I rummaged around my old room for a while finding a lot of things I forgot I had, some souvenirs I got from the Empire I was going to give to the girls. I found the first sword I properly trained with, it was an old saber, the blade was dinged, dented, and bent in odd places, I practiced a lot sue me. I was told by Lima to go and get it repaired all the time but I liked the history it held and besides once I got a better handle on my ice sword it’s what I primarily used.

That's when a thought struck me, an item I long forgot, I wonder if it’s still here. I made my way to the wall opposite of the door and punched a hole in it, the crystal turning to dust around my fist. I felt around until I felt a soft fabric brush across my fingers and I quickly grasped at it, pulling it out of the hole. Once my arm and the item were freely out of the wall, it sealed itself back up, the empire, especially the castle has minor self repair abilities and huge damage, like the fight I had with Sombra takes intervention from the citizens.

I unfolded the fabric I had in in my hands, it was my very first ever cloak, it was midnight blue with swirling white accents that constantly moved across its surface. I loved it but I needed something that represented I was aligned with at least cadance so, the cloak that was made in her colors and donned her cutie mark is what I had to wear on my travels.

Luckily for me, all the cloaks I had had size altering properties imbued in them so just in case one of my… icesplosions caused me to grow to massive., “Good, now I can give this to Goldy, it should shrink to fit her…” I shrugged, well I guess we’ll find out.

As I was caught in my musings a heard a knock at my door, “Enter!” The door opened, a guard standing in the way, “Sir, Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor have asked for your audience.”

I nodded, “Thanks, I’m guessing they’re still in their room?”

“Correct sir, would you like me to escort you?”

“No, I’ll be fine, I lived here long enough to know where to go, but thank you. You can return to your post.” I told the crystal guard, he saluted and resumed his patrol down the hallway. I left the room, it completely empty of contents, as I stored everything away and made my way back towards Cadance’s room, as I got closer my ears twitched as I heard giggling come from behind the door. I smirked, I hope they weren’t planning something.

I tentatively reached for the doorknob and opened the door slowly, ready for the impact of something, anything, but nothing came, instead I saw Cadance, Shining, and Goldy sitting on the bed playing with Smarty Pants. I let out a sigh of relief, cool, “Well looks like you got it don and ready.” they looked up at my interruption, Shining quickly standing up, his face a deep crimson.

Goldy got up and ran over to me, holding Smarty Pants up to me, “Look daddy, She looks brand new and old at the same time! It’s so silly.”

I gently rubbed her head between her horns, “It is silly isn’t and hey guess what, I have something for you.” I pulled out my cloak from the gem and we swapped items, I put the doll in the gem.

Goldy took the cloak and opened it, a frown on her face, “Daddy… this is too big.”

I chuckled, “Put it on, trust me, it’ll fit.”

She looked at me skeptically but did as was told and as soon as she clipped it around her neck it shrunk to fit her form perfectly, she looked down at herself and smiled, “Now I look like you! My wings are too small to wrap them around me, but now i don’t have to!” She demonstrated, her tiny wings barely tenting the cloak.

“Yep, and when they get big and strong you won’t have to use it if you don’t want to. But are you ready to go?”

She looked back at Cadance and Shining and then looked back at me, pouting, “Do we have to?”

“Unfortunately, we have a mission to finish, but… I suppose you can always come and visit whenever you want, but that’s up to your Aunt and Uncle.” I said, looking at my adoptive sister and brother in law.

Cadance beamed at that, “We’d love to have her around, especially if you and Fluttershy need a break.”

I smiled in relief at that, “Thanks, I’ll be sure to let you know in advance, oh, also Mom and Dad say hi, and that they’ll visit when they can.”

Shining groaned and Cadance rolled her eyes but never lost her smile, “I swear those two can’t be away from any of their children for long.”

I shrugged, “Can you blame them? All of their children, in laws or not are super successful and doing well, they’re proud and just want to see us.” I looked down at Goldy, she was staring at her cloak, fascinated by the swirling pattern, “I know I would. Well, we have to get going, it’s getting late and by now I’m sure the others figured out what they needed to do.”

Cadance got up to hug me and gave me a kiss on the cheek, “Come back soon, I miss having my little brother around, ok?”

“I will I promise.” I broke away from the hug and fist bump Shining Armor, “I’ll see you two in a couple of months. Come on, Goldy, let’s go and finish my plan.” I took her hand and left the room, closing the door behind us, once it was closed I heard Cadance speaking and it was followed by a quick yelp from Shining, I shook my head and laughed.

~-----------------~

As I was flying through the air with Goldy on my back, her cloak fluttering in the wind, we were getting closer and closer to Ponyville and it looked like the girls were walking through town holding what looked to be shovels and a wheel barrel? What were they planning?

I told Goldy to hold on and swooped down, speeding towards the ground before flaring out my wings, stopping my decent hard, kicking up dust and dirty before gently Landing in front of them.

They were coughing, mostly because of the dust, which was fair, Goldy climbed off my back. Instead of waiting for the dust to settle I flapped my wings hard, blowing the dust away from everyone, getting screams of surprise.

“Really, darling, must you be so callous in how you treat us?” Rarity asked, giving me a stern look.

I shrugged, “A bit of dust and wind isn’t going to hurt you, so what’re all y'all doing? I’m guessing you finally realized you all were being kind of… silly?”

They all blushed at that, “Yes, well, we did realize our mistake and had our items removed from the Castle.” Rarity confirmed.

“Good, but that doesn’t explain why you all are carrying shovels and a wheelbarrow… wait did Twilight kill someone and you all are helping her hide the body?” They all were looking at me like I just killed their family pets.

Until Pinkie snorted in amused, “No silly, Twilight would be able to just poof the body away, she wouldn’t need out help.” I nodded, she made a fair point, but everyone else was now looking at Pinkie in surprise.

“Ya know… I’m not sure who’s rubbing off on who here…” AJ said, slightly disturbed.

“I’m not sure if I want know.” Rainbow agreed.

“But at least you two are good for each other.” Rarity said, shaking her head, “Now, we are not helping Twilight cover up a grizzly crime, or anything of the sort, we’re going to the remains of the old library.”

I raised an eyebrow at that, “Oh? We were too, mind if we tag along?” They had no objections, so we joined up with the group, Goldy running to Shy and Pinkie, I followed her.

As we got to the old library, we stood face to face with a tree that was 70% missing from its original structure and what was left was nothing but a charred trunk with the roots still in tact and a few spindly branches. I quickly scanned said branches, looking for what I needed, and lucky there was one still there, I quickly flew up and grabbed it before rejoining the others.

“So, why did you all come here exactly?” I asked.

“That’s a marvelous question, truly I don’t know, but we all agreed that the library is what we needed to make Twilight feel at home.” Rarity explained.

“Well that’s true, I had the same train of thought, but I knew what I was going to do, you all have barely anytime at all… hmmm.” Rarity and I thought for a moment before we both exclaimed at the same time, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I asked the alabaster unicorn.

“Indeed darling, do you think you can help Apple Jack and Rainbow Dash here while your Fiancees, daughter, and I take care of the rest?” She asked me

“Of course. You go do what you have to, you need as much time as you can get.” I told her, her nodding in approval, taking my family with her to do what she needs to.

“So uh… what was that about?” AJ asked me.

I looked at the tree, but respond to the farm pony, “She’ll tell you when we get the tree to the castle.”

“Wait the whole tree?! I thought we were talking like a piece of it or something.” Rainbow said.

“We are. Just the roots, pretty sure they’re dead after the attack Tirek did, I’m amazed they stayed this level of fresh for a year. They are dead right AJ?”

Apple Jack touched the ground, feeling the earth with her magic, “Yep, as dead as can be, but how are we gonna lug tha roots of tha tree all the way to the Castle, tha wheelbarrow ain’t big enough for that, ‘sides we’d have ta get rid of tha top half of tha tree.”

I smirked, “leave both of those issues to me.” I calmed my breath and gathered my magic power, slowly but sure I concentrated it into the forefinger of my wings and down off the tips, slowly razor sharp ice formed over them. Once the ice was done forming I opened my eyes before quickly dasking at and past the tree, skidding to a halt on the other side, “Ice dragon’s wing blades.” I said, as the ice shattered on my wings and slowly the top half of the tree slid off and fell over onto the ground.

Rainbow looked dumbfounded, “Woah… that’s just like in those action movies!”

I made my way back to the tree, “Whoo that took more out of me than I thought, it was my first time using ice on my wings. Alright, Rainbow enough gawking, I need you and AJ to start digging on that side, I want to leave as many roots intact as possible.”

“Alright, just tell us when to stop sugarcube.” AJ said as here and Dash grabbed their shovels and started digging.

I dug my hands into the ground and under the tree, grabbing it where I could, I formed ice claws that pierced into it to give me a better grip, after a few minutes of them digging a felt the soil loosen on my side and the tree slightly budged, “Alright that's enough!” I called out to them, “You might want to move out of the way!” They did as they were told and with a grunt I lifted the stump that was left and the roots, cleanly out of the ground, “Alright, now….” I tossed the roots up in the air easily, mostly so I could dig around in my pockets for my spare storage gem.

AJ looked up at the tree in the air, “Woah nelly… did ya reckon he was that strong?” She asked her rival.

“No way! I didn’t think anyone was that strong.” Dash said, following the roots as the sailed higher and higher into the sky.

I heard this conversation barley, as my concentration was on finding that gem, “Come on… where did I put it…” I found a slight smaller blue gem that hummed with power, “Aha, there you are. Now…” I looked up at the roots as they reached their zenith, I don’t know how many feet they were up but they looked like a speck in the sky, “Ah… might have put too much oomph into that.” I shrugged and chucked the gem towards them, a few seconds there was a bright flash as the roots were absorbed and a second flash as it teleported back to my hand, “I knew that spell being put in there would be useful.” I smiled happily, “Now I can have them apply it to the others.” I handed the gem to AJ, “Here ya go, get that back to the library, double tap it, the roots should pop out, now I gotta finish up what I have to do, I’ll see you all back at the Castle.” With that I took off, not before breaking off a section of the tree that was left behind.

~About an hour later~

I rushed through the doors of the castle, “Am I late?” I asked, looking around, noticing that Twilight and Spike weren’t around, “Oh good.” I breathed a sigh of relief before the front doors were opened again.

This time it was Twilight standing there, “Welcome home!” We all greeted her.

She walked passed us looking a bit disappointed, “I love what you’ve… uh done with the place, you kept it’s integral design.”

Spike gave out an exasperated sigh, “Oh come on! Do you know what I had to do to keep her from coming back here? I never want to see another dust ruffle as long as I live!”

That caught Twilight’s attention, “Wait, keep me from coming back here?”

Rarity let out a nervous giggle, “It took a teensy bit longer than we thought.”

I rolled my eyes, “Only because you all were being dumb.”

Twilight looked at me, clearly confused, “What?”

“I’ll let them explain.” I said, “Since they finally figured it out.”

AJ gave me a glare, which I shrugged off, and took off her hat, “What really makes a home feel like a home, isn’t what it looks like, it’s the memories you make when you’re there.”

“So we made something that celebrates the memories we’ve made with you since you moved to Ponyville.” Rarity added.

I sighed, “Essentially they all brought stuff that would make them feel at home instead of you and it took them too long to figure it out.” I finished, “Come on, it’d be better if we showed you.”

We made our way to the map room/throne room. There hanging on the ceiling, above the map were the sanded down, polished roots of Golden Oak Library. Each root had strings of multicolored gems hanging from them, they glowed each with their own light, filling up the dark empty ceiling and bringing warmth into the room.

Shy flew up to them, “The ornaments on the chandelier are reminders of all the fun we’ve had together.”

Pinkie grabbed a low hanging orange one, “This one shows your first party welcoming you to Ponyville

Shy flew up to a light blue one, “The time we shared donuts after the grand galloping gala.”

“We were hoping being able to look at your beautiful old memories would inspire you to make new ones.” Rarity explained

“And the best part of it is it’s made from the roots of the golden oak library. So you’ll never forget where you came from.”AJ said,

Twilight just stared at it, slack jawed, moving closer, she took a few crystals in hand and looked at the memories within them, “It’s exactly what the castle needed.” She said, turning to us, tears in her eyes. She rushed in to a group hug, “And I am ready to make new memories here!”

“Then let’s start right now with a new memory cake!” Pinkie said excitedly.

Twilight chuckled, “Well let’s go to the dining room, it’s a little sparse but at least there's tables and chairs… that aren’t the map.” She said opening the doors that lead directly to the dining room, “Whoa! What happened in here?” She asked.

I leaned in past everyone, the dining room was decked out wall to wall in some of the fanciest decorations, and there was a statue of a unicorn on the table… what?

“Last I checked this place was empty.” Twilight said confused.

“I-I couldn’t help myself. It was just begging for the personal touch.” Rarity admitted with a small smile.

“Truth be told, I couldn’t either. Your kitchen might have some rustic farm decor, Twilight.” AJ said.

Rainbow spoke up next, “And there may or may not be some Daring Do posters up in in your library.” She shrugged.

“And some stuffed animals in your bedroom!” Shy added, only for a loud pop to be heard and confetti was blown everywhere.

“What was that?” Twilight asked.

I laughed, “One of Pinks’ confetti cannons.”

She looked at them innocently, a cannon poking out of her hair, the cake destroyed, “What? it’s not my fault I hid them so well!”

“What about you Chris? Did you leave anything in the castle for me?” Twilight asked.

“Eh, no. That was all them, I’m glad they toned it down though. I was out and about doing my own thing all day. Well Goldy and I were.” I added, my daughter nodding happily.

“Oh? And that was?”

I smiled, “Come on, I’ll show you.” I lead them all to the spot where Golden Oaks used to be, luckily the sun was still setting so there was enough light left to do this.

What was left of the spot was what looked like freshly laid soil, and sheets covering somethings. Everyone looked around confused, “Well here we are, my gift to you to make you feel more…. Ok with the castle.”

“Uh… not to be a spoilsport but there's nothing here Chrissy.” Pinkie said.

I smiled, “Oh there’s something here alright, come come.” I lead them to the center of the darker dirt, “AJ, Pinkie, Twilight, You all need to put your hands to the ground and focus your earth pony magic, everyone else, put your hands on top of their and concentrate your magics.”

“Iffin’ ya say so. Come on Pinkie, Twi, let’s see what this does.” AJ said, the other two followed.

“Alright now everyone else.” They all placed their hands on top of the other, and finally I placed mine on top of theirs, once my magic flowed through them, they shuddered as my magic signature, next to Twilight’s was the strongest, but it didn’t actually overpower them.

It took a few minutes for anything to happen but the ground started rumbling and everyone moved back quickly, the rumbling growing more intense, until something pushed its way out of the ground.

Slowly an oak sapling pushed its way out of the ground a majority of its leaves being green however, there was at least one leaf that was the color of each of our unique magic signatures, it stopped growing when it was slightly taller than me, it’s growth having been super charged by all of the magic flowing into the seed in the ground.

Twilight was shocked, and looked at the sapling, “I-Is that?”

I nodded, “Yep, it’ll still take many years until it reaches it’s parent’s size if not outgrowing it.” I walked over to one of the sheets, “But until then.” I removed it said sheet, “This is the future sight of Harmony Oaks.” I walked over to the other sheet and removed it, showing a huge pile of keepsakes and items. The major ones being the book her parents gave me, the reports and test Celestia gave me, the spider plush toy Luna gave me, and Smarty Pants.

Followed by items from the girls that their family’s or house residents gave m or I found, in terms of Shy. One of the trophies Rainbow was going to put in the Castle, a few of Rarity's old dresses for Twilight, AJ’s very first hat when she was younger, the first party cannon Pinkie ever made, Shy’s first stuffed animal thats she stored in the attic, Spike’s first comic, and one thing from everyone else in the town. “These are items from everyone in town, I kinda had to raid some of your houses girls sorry, but I made sure it wouldn’t be anything you’d really miss. But everyone wanted to contribute to this when they saw me running around town getting the sign made and asking for items for the girls they all pitched in. It’s kinda why I was late.”

“But there is one thing missing, something from Goldy and I, come here small one.” I called my daughter over, holding out my hand, “Place your hand over mine, like you’re cupping water.” She did as I instructed, “Good, now concentrate, we’re going to make this for you Aunt, it’ll be your first construct of ice with me, we’ll be making a star, like her cutie mark, all you have to do is invision and push your magic into your hand and it’ll start to form.”

She nodded and closed her eyes, “Ok daddy, I’m imagining it.”

“Good, now push your magic to your hand.” I did so as well, the air around us cooling rapidly, slowly but sure our magic swirled together slowly forming a star in the shape of Twilight’s cutie mark started to form in our hands, I noticed something, Goldy’s ice had a more purple hue to it than mine did so the star was formed a mix of blue ice and purple ice. Luckily I made sure it would never melt. Once it was fully formed I placed it on the pile, “For our shining star.” I said.

I turned to Twilight who was crying silent tears, the girls hugging them, “You know, none of us would be here without you. If you didn’t make friends with the girls I would never have met Shy or Pinkie. I wouldn’t have met AJ, Rarity, or Rainbow Dash.” I placed my hand on her shoulder and gave her a warm smile, “I wouldn’t have a family if not for you Twilight. Sure I still probably would’ve came to Equestria but without you Equestria wouldn’t be how it is today to allow me to have my family.” I pulled her into a hug before holding her at arm's length, “Thank you for this Twilight, for giving me a chance to start over. I thought I’d return the favor and give the tree, the place you learned to love and call home a chance to start over, and now… we’ll always be apart of it. If I’m not mistaken due to the infused magic, nothing short of the world being engulfed by the sun would destroy it.”

Twilight dropped to her knees suddenly, tears flowing more than they were before, she around at the girls and then landed on me, “Thank you, everyone… I don’t know what to say, this is… this is perfect. Today has been perfect.”

We all remained silent at that but just joined her sitting on the ground as the sun slowly set over the horizon, the end of the day, and the start of the next chapter.

Author's Note

Sorry about this chapter taking so long to come out, It's been written for a about 3 weeks, like I said I'm several chapters ahead, however for those who read these, you all know my kid was supposed to be born today so I've been dealing with that and what comes along with it for the past couple of weeks. However, he's still not here yet, so I'm going to give you this chapter today and the next one tomorrow and I might Have to go on hiatus for the next Arc, after all baby needs tending to. I will try to get chapters out though.

Anyways, I'm sure most of you caught on that this chapter was inspired by something, for those who don't know, this is what it was https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2F6OKQu4JI

So enjoy that, I'll see ya'll tomorrow.

33: Celebrations of birth and rebirth

I walked up to the registration booth that was currently being manned by Amethyst Star, one of Derpy Hooves’, Aka Ditzy Doo’s, daughters, “Hi, I’d like to register for the running of the leaves.” I told her.

Amethyst wasn’t currently paying any real mind to me as she’s had dozens of ponies come up and register, “Name?” she asked, disinterested but not entirely harsh.

“Christopher McGrath, or just Chris.” I told her, at which she looked up at me.

She had a curious look on her face, “Oh, Chris, sure, but why do you want to join the running of the leaves? Last time this was going on you declined.”

I rubbed the back of my head, she had a point, last time I was around for a proper running of the leaves was before I left to the Empire, “Well… I mean, you see… how to put this… I was in a bad place back then but I’m better now and besides I’m a creature of ice, snow and cold, this just brings me closer to my favorite season and I wanted to help my town.”

She seemed to consider that before smiling, “Fair enough, well, you’re all set, your number is 224.” She said handing me my number, which I graciously took, “And remember, as much as this is a race it’s also to help the trees shed their leaves, so try to focus more on that than winning.”

“Well, duh, who would run this just to win?”

“I’ll let you take a guess at that, just know that they caused more than half the trees to not lose their leaves when they did. But the running will start in 20 minutes, good luck and have fun.” She told me with a smile.

I nodded, “I will, and tell your mom and sisters I said hi.” With that I went and joined the other ponies, I recognized a few but considering there were 223 others running with me I didn’t dwell on who was here. Honestly thinking about it I didn’t think Ponyville had that many citizens but it has grown into a much larger town since I’ve been gone so I would be surprised, and even then there was still a good chunk of ponies not participating.

I was at the back of the crowd as I was one of the last to show up, “Hey there Chris, I didn’t expect to see you here today.”

I turned my head to where the voice was coming from and gave a smile, “Oh hey, Twiggy. Really you didn’t expect me? If any of us would be the least likely to participate you’d be in my top 3, right next to Shy and Rarity.”

She blushed at that, “Hey, just because I’m not physically minded doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy a good run every now and again. Also, I participate in the running of the leaves every year.”

I looked her up and down, she was wearing some jogging shorts, a sports bra, it wasn’t really that cold at the moment, a nice 70 today so no need for long covering clothes. She also had a sweatband on with her hair tied back in a ponytail so it wouldn’t get in her face as she ran, he also had the number 220, “I can see that, you’re certainly dressed for the occasion.”

“I know, you should have seen me when I first did this, I was dressed head to toe in a uniform, I was so used to how Canterlot did this by just ripping the leaves off the trees in a matter of minutes I didn’t know what to wear, so i just came in what I was comfortable in.” She laughed at the memory, “Though you seem to be… wearing a little less than most though.”

I looked down at myself, I was wearing running shorts as well, but I had short socks on and breathable shoes. But that was really it I forwent a shirt as it was warm and I knew I’d overheat a bit too easily with one on. I shrugged, “It’s hot, you know I don’t handle heat well these days.”

Twilight nodded, “True, but don’t warn me when all the mares start staring at you.” She said with a giggle.

“Let them, I’m not ashamed of my scars and I’m proud of how I managed to reshape my body.” I said with a huff.

She shook her head with a knowing smile, “You always get defensive about that.” She scanned my person for a brief moment, “I noticed you don’t have a water bottle on you.”

My eyes widened in realization, “Fuck, I knew I forgot something, damn it, well guess I just have to take it slow today.” I was disappointed because I wanted to see if I could win today’s race but without cold water to keep me at a low internal temperature it wasn’t a viable plan. However, a flash of purple light and something floating in front of my face startled me.

“Here, you can have my spare for today, there should be water stops along the way to fill it up if you drink it all though.” Twilight explained, as she levitated her bottle in front of me.

I looked at her and then back at the bottle before grabbing it and clipping it to the side of my shorts, “Thanks, so where is everyone else?”

She rubbed her chin in thought for a moment, “I think Rainbow and Apple Jack are up front, they usually are. I think Fluttershy and Rarity are somewhere in the middle of the pack… they wanted to participate this year, try their hand at it for once they said.” She explained at my questioning look.

“What about Spike? I can’t see any scales in the crowd, really I can’t see much but colors but scales would stick out.” I asked her.

She pointed up in the sky towards her old hot air balloon, “He and Pinkie spectate and provide commentary for the ponies who aren’t running. What about Golden Skies, is she not running with you, she normally runs with me but she wasn’t here when I got here.”

I shook my head, “No, but I think since Shy is running, she’s probably with her.”

Twilight was about to say something but a horn signaling the last minute before the race reverberated around the area, “Welcome welcome welcome everyone to Ponyville’s 93 annual running of the leaves!” Said a bubbly voice that could only be Pinkie’s.

“Indeed, this year we have a turn out of 224 participants, thats 3 more than last year, it’s always a welcome addition to see more ponies taking part of this long held tradition.” Said a more masculine voice that had to be Spike.

“It is Spikey Wikey, now let’s welcome the new runners! Oh! This year the new runners are Fluttershy, Rarity, and Chrissy!” Pinkie said in excitement.

“So the gang's all here running finally, well except for us.” Spike said with a chuckle, “Well, welcome friends to your first run.” at that the group of ponies clapped and gave a loud welcome.

“Well now that that's out of the way, the race is about to be begin, so may the best pony win!” Pinkie said.

“And remember, while winning is important helping the trees is your goal today, though I don’t need to remind you all of that.” Spike said, reminding everyone of, what I’m assuming is, the event that made the trees not lose their leaves a few years back.

“Alright everyone on go you may begin!” Pinkie said.

“3! 2! 1! GO!” Pinkie and Spike said in unison, a loud bang from one of Pinkie’s party cannons sounding the start of the running of the leaves.

Mostly everyone else broke out into a run, however I was still at the back of the pack, along with Twilight, we were just pacing ourselves, running through White Tail Woods.

“Oh at the head of the pack is Dashy and AJ!” Pinkie said.

“Not that that’s any surprise, this is the same as every other year.” Spike said, obviously not surprised by this, “However what is surprising is that Chris is at the back of the pack!”

“Whaaaaaat?! Chrissy, what are you doing? Pick up the pace.” My oh so lovely fiancee told me.

I shouted up to her, “Love you too Pinks!” I shook my head but I kept the pace I was going. White Tail Woods at this time of year was absolutely stunning. I’m pretty sure the majority of the trees within the forest were birch, though a good mix of oak, aspen, maple, and beech trees were also easily seen. The leaves all had warm vibrant colors, anything from a bright yellow, to a deep red glinting in the sunlight, being at the back of the pack allowed me to be caught within a storm of falling leaves. This cause the sunlight to flicker and flash through the leaves making the woods look like the world’s most natural and beautiful kaleidoscope.

Twilight picked up the pace and left me alone at the back, which I was fine with, I’d catch up when I was ready to. Roughly half an hour passed and I was occasionally increasing my pace, I passed Twilight a several meters back, I was coming up on Rarity and Shy. Rarity was wearing long jogging pants and fashionable cropped sweater, her hair pushed back with a headband. Shy was also wearing jogging pants, though she was wearing a sports bra instead, that… uh yeah I’ll leave it at that, and had blue and white wristbands on. Her hair was also pulled back with a headband though she had it tied in a ponytail as well. Goldy was wearing jogging pants and a full sweater, her hair being in a ponytail like her mother’s, and while she didn’t have hooves she didn’t need to wear shoes as her feet were scaled.

“Hey girls.” I said coming up to them.

Rarity looked at me, “Oh hello Christopher.”

Shy smiled, “Hi honey.”

Goldy moved over to me and kept jogging, “Hi daddy!”

“How’s things going over here? I see you all are in the middle of the pack still. Not pushing yourselves too hard?” I asked them.

“Not at all darling, Fluttershy and I decided to take it easy as this is our first time being part of this event.” Rarity answered.

“Good, don’t wear yourselves out too much, how about you sweetie? You doing ok with all those heavy clothes on?” I asked my daughter, she was also part ice dragon so she could also overheat easily, but her pony half means she could handle the heat longer than I could.

She nodded, “A little hot, but I have water so I’ll be ok.”

I tilted my head in thought before holding my hand over her head. I focused my magic into the palm of my hand and forced the air to cool drastically around Goldy, to which she shuddered happily, “Better?”

“Much, thank you daddy!” She would’ve hugged me but we were still running.

“Not a problem. Alright I better get a move on if I want to catch up to the leads.” I leaned over and gave Shy a quick kiss and Goldy a kiss on the top of her head, as I slowly pulled away from them I also tapped Rarity lightly on the shoulder with my tail, letting her know I didn’t forget about her.

Rarity looked at Shy, her face a bit pink, “Darling, you are a lucky mare.” Shy’s face on the other hand was nearing a deep crimson and she could only nod in agreement.

I made my way I ran past a bunch of other ponies. A trio I recognized was the OG crusaders, who upon seeing me run past them were stunned, Sweetie the most as she almost tripped and fell, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom catching her. Others I recognized were Bulk Biceps, Derpy and her daughters, who I passed my hello to when I passed them. I saw cheerilee, not surprised she was this far ahead, I heard she kept in shape with jogging as is. I didn’t expect to see Vinyl Scratch in the race, but hey here she was, headphones on, jamming to some music, she was still rocking her trademark shades. When she saw me she gave an impressed whistle.

I took a swig of my water bottle, it was now half empty, should have enough to finish the race, as I kept making my way towards the front I came upon a familiar very pregnant Earth Pony and Unicorn, “Hey Lyra hey Bon Bon… uh should Bon Bon be running this much this far along?”

“Oh hey bossman, yeah she’s fine, aren’t you Bonnie?” The unicorn asked her wife.

Bon Bon was visibly sweating but gave us a thumbs up, “I’m good, it’s good to exercise while pregnant….”

I wasn’t so sure about that but I shrugged it off, “If you say so, how’s the shop doing?”

“It’s doing great, we can never thank you enough for doing that for us bossman.” Lyra said, she’s been calling me bossman ever since I bought them out and had them work for me.

“I told you it was nothing, take it easy on the run ok, take a break if you need to, no point in winning if you hurt the foal in the process.” I told them.

Bon Bon nodded, “Of course, I will.”

I looked to Lyra who gave me a nod, telling me if it got to that point she’d force her to relax for a little, “Alright well, almost to the front, I’ll see you all at the finish line.” I ran ahead, picking up the pace.

“Alright folks, it looks like the head of the pack is rounding onto the last stretch of the race, let’s see what the major upsets have been so far!” Spike said.

“At the back of the back is Steam Blower, who as usual always goes all out at the beginning and ends up at the back, maybe he’ll learn one day. Rarity, Fluttershy and Golden Skies have stayed in the middle of the pack the entire run, while Twilight Sparkle has slowly made her way forward.” The young drake explained, “Many runners have lost their place or gained but as usual Apple Jack and Rainbow Dash are leading the pack by a large margin still in a head to head race.”

“OH BUT WHAT'S THIS?! SOMEONE IS MAKING THEIR WAY TOWARDS THEM QUICKLY! IS IT? IT IS!!! IT’S CHRISSY AND OH…he’s all sweaty and shiny and oh my…” Pinkie said that last bit quietly enough that really only Spike could hear here.

“Ahem! As my Co-commentator cools down from the heat, she was saying that one of the new participants, Chris is gaining on Rainbow Dash and Apple Jack, will this come to a 3 way head to head race?!” Spike said in a dramatic fashion that would make Rarity proud.

But he was right I was gaining on those two, I could see them come closer into view, of course they heard the commentary as well and took a moment to glance behind them, their eyes widening as I was quite literally coming in between the two of them, “Hey you two, room for one more?”

“Oh, how in the tarnation is this fair?” AJ asked.

“Yeah? He can freeze time and I can’t fly, this isn’t a fair race.” The raspy voiced pegasus announced her displeasure.

“Hey, I’m not going to use my powers at all, just my natural skill, after all this isn’t just a race it’s also so we can knock down the leaves.” I told them, they nodded in agreement, remembering what happened a few years back, “However… you two still don’t stand a chance against me.”

“Oh is that so?” Rainbow asked, rising to the challenge.

“I reckon he’s saying he can beat us Rainbow.” AJ told her chromatic friend.

“As if, even without my wings I’m still faster than anyone.” SHe declared, pulling ahead of AJ and I.

“And mah legs can push me harder than anyone else.” AJ said, joining her friend.

“It looks like AJ and Rainbow pulled ahead of Chris! What will his response be?” Spike asked. What will my response be huh? I stopped and got into a sprinter’s stance. “Oh he stopped, what’s he doing?”

“It looks like he’s getting into a sprinting stance.” Pinkie said, finally joining her co-commentator.

“Welcome back Pinkie, are you ok?” Spike asked.

I could feel Pinkie eyeing me, “Oh I will be but that’s not important, right now the last bit of the race for these three is coming to a head and my Pinkie Sense says we’re in for a doozy!”

I smirked and kicked off from the ground, the strength of my kick off, cracking and shaking the ground hard enough to make all the leaves fall of in a large circle around me. As I ran I quickly over took AJ and Rainbow.

“What?!” Rainbow yelled, realizing she’d have to take this as serious as she could without flying, her speed increasing tenfold regardless, her hooves also shaking the ground hard.
AJ snorted in annoyance, she also went into a full out sprint which lead her into a head to head catch up between her and rainbow, and within a few seconds they were running next to me, “Howdy sugarcube, ya thought y’all could leave us in the dust huh?”

“Yeah man, you should know better than that.” Rainbow agreed with her farmer friend.

“Oh no, I knew you two could keep up with me, hell I know you’re faster than both of us Rainbow, you’ve proven that.” I told them, Rainbow grinning in satisfaction at my admission.

“You’re damn right I am.” She said happily.

“But that’s when yer flyin’, Dash.” AJ said, reminding her that she was not flying nor was she allowed to.

“She’s right, and guess what, you aren’t flying so that makes it fair game.” I told the cocky pegasus.

“Whatever, I can still beat you two without flying, just watch.” She pulled slightly ahead, though AJ and I just caught up to her easily. We ran for a few minutes and after rounding the last corner we could see the finish line.

“Oh and here we are! The end of the race its neck and neck, friend against friend against friend. The fastest Pegasus versus the strongest earth pony and the King of Ice, who’s going to win?! It’s so tense, so amazing, so fantastic…. I CAN’T TAKE IT! AHHHHH!” Pinkie screamed out.

I looked up at the hot air balloon and shook my head, but she was right, at this rate it was super uncertain who would win, and all of us were breathing hard, I looked at the girls I was running with, “Well… it’s time to end this, sorry girls but… I haven’t been going all out.” I took a deep breath, got down on all fours and rocketed off towards the finish line, thank god for my enhanced flexibility allowing me to do this. My increases strength and speed in running using all four limbs blew AJ and Rainbow back while knocking the leaves from the trees surrounding the last leg of the race, much like how it did earlier.

I easily passed the finish line before anyone else, garnering myself a first place medal, AJ was second, recovering faster than Rainbow did and Rainbow finished in third, upset for a split second but she gave me a huge grin and wrapped an arm around my neck, pulling me down to her face, “That… was awesome, so not fair but awesome, I should’ve known you were holding back on us, you were still pretty close to me when you took to the air again in our race. I should’ve known you were fast on the ground too.”

AJ chuckled, “I gotta admit, you got us good partner.”

“TAKING FIRST PLACE IS CHRISSY! FOLLOWED BY APPLE JACK! WITH RAINBOW COMING UP THIRD!” Pinkie said, “Wheeeeee!!!” I heard not coming from speakers but just from high up in the air. I looked up to see Pinkie falling towards me, did she jump from the balloon, why?! I flew up quickly and caught her. She wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me, “You did it you won!”

I was going to scold her on jumping out the hot air balloon, but I decided to let it go and opted to just give her a toothy smile as I slowly descended, “I did, did you ever doubt me?”

“Not even once, and that was incredible, how you just went woosh! And the ground went boom! And all the leaves just got blown away!” She said excitedly, still holding on to me even as we landed.

“Really you’re just going to leave me up here by myself?” Spike deadpanned.

“You got this, you’re the bestest commentator every Spikey!” Pinkie called out to him.

Spike just sighed and resumed his commentary until the race was finished, and not once did Pinkie let go of me.

“Congratulations on the win Chris.” Twilight said, her fur damp with sweat.

I shrugged, as best as I could, “That was the plan the entire time, but I couldn’t have done it without you giving me your spare water bottle, so thank you, Twiggy.”

“Good job Christopher, it’s nice to see someone else win for once.” Rarity said, giving AJ and Rainbow a playful wink.

“Yeah, good job bossman, we felt the wind you kicked up from where we were at.” Lyra said, rubbing Bon Bon’s back, as said earth pony was groaning in some pain.

“I’m so proud of you honey, I knew you would win.” Shy said, coming up to me and giving me a kiss, also softly kissing Pinkie on the cheek, but not taking the pink pony off of me.

“That was awesome daddy, just like up in Cloudsdale!” Goldy said, being one of the few people to experience my speed personally, really the only one.
“Thanks honey, Goldy, I wasn’t going to lose my first run.” I told them, slowly others came up to me and congratulated me on the win, eventually it was me, the girls, Lyra, Bonnie, the OG Crusaders and Spike left out in a barren White Tail Woods, “So, why don’t we all go out to eat in celebration, my treat.” I told them getting cheers of approval, and finally Pinkie let go of me.

~-------------------------~

“Chrissy!” I heard Pinkie yell from the other side of the fence.

I stopped working on the sanctuary I was still working on, I was getting very close to finishing, to look over at the gate that connected to front and back of the house, “What’s up Pinks?”

The look on Pinkie’s face was panicked and she was sweating up a storm like she ran here as fast as she could, “Bonnie’s having her foals!”

I dropped the fence post I was holding in shock, “What?!”

“Bonnie’s having her foals right now!” She repeated.

“Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck, ok uhhhhh…. Shit, forget this!” I broke out into a full sprint, grabbing Pinkie in the process, “Ponyville general hospital correct?” She yelled her confirmation over the rushing wind. With that I made my way to the hospital and went into the emergency entrance.

“Prince Christopher, what brings you to our hospital?” The pony at the desk asked.

“Friend, giving birth to foals, name is Bon Bon, beige earth pony with purple and pink swirly hair, 3 candies as a cutie mark?” I asked/told the receptionist.

He nodded, quickly flipping through his clipboard of check-ins, “Ah here she is, room 1113, head straight back until you reach the second branching path and make a left and keep going, you’ll find her room there.”

I gave him my thanks and grabbed Pinie again, who at this point was just going along with being pulled around like a rag doll, when I found the room I was looking for I saw Twilight standing outside of the door along with two pairs of older ponies. The first pair was a female earth pony who looked a lot like Bon Bon did save for the color of her hair, which was a solid sky blue. The male earth pony, however, was a vibrant yellow with hair the same two toned color of purple and pink that Bon Bon had. I’m guessing these were Bonnie’s parents.
That must mean the other pair are Lyra’s parents. The mare this time around only shared being a unicorn with Lyra and it explains where she got the white streak in her hair and tail as her mother’s was pure white with a dark grey coat. The stallion, Lyra’s father, shared his daughter’s coat color and a darker hue of her hair color he was, however a pegasus.

I set Pinkie down to sit on the floor as she was a bit dizzy from the ordeal, “Am I late?” I asked them, mostly Twilight in particular.

My sister in law shook her head, “No, she only just started but we have to stay out here, only her family is allowed in.”

I let out a breath I didn’t even know I was holding, “Oh good, I wouldn’t miss this for the world, I missed Goldy’s birth I wasn’t going to miss this one.”

“And who might you be son?” Bon Bon’s father spoke up.

“I’m curious as well, would you happen to be the donor for our grandchild?” Her mother asked, the question reflected in Lyra’s parent’s eyes.

I stammered for a moment before composing myself, “Nope, I have my own little family i’m taking care of… uh I’m their best friend… or at least they’re mine.” I explained.

Twilight moved up beside me, not before making sure Pinkie was ok, who gave her a shaky thumbs up, “He’s also my adopted brother-in-law, Prince Christopher McGrath ad Regim Glacies, recently announced several months ago, I’m sure you’ve seen the papers at the very least.”

At that, their eyes lit up in recognition, “Forgive us, your majesty, our daughter did mention she was friends with someone we wouldn’t believe. It has been…. A stressful day for everyone involved to say the least.”

I tilted my head and shrugged, “Eh, don’t worry about it and please, just Chris, I’m not one for formality outside of an appropriate setting. Though I didn’t catch any of your names.”

“Ah, once again our apologies, I am Sweet Treat and this is my husband, Stein Glass, we’re the parents of Sweetie Drops.” Sweet Treat said, officially introducing herself and her husband… wait Sweetie Drops?

“Did you say Sweetie Drops?”
She nodded, though confusion was evident on her features, “Did our daughter never tell you her name?”

“I guess not, I’ve just been calling her Bon Bon, it’s what everyone else does.”

Lyra’s father was next to speak, “Ah, I’m afraid that might be our filly’s fault. Greetings, your majesty. I am Tone Philharmonic and this is my wonderful wife, High Key. You see, as I’m sure you know, our daughter can be rather… forward, so she tends to introduce Sweetie Drops by her nickname she gave her, though since it seems she was never corrected for doing so Sweetie Drops must not have a problem with it.”

“Makes sense to me, everyone usually calls me Chris, never Christopher with exceptions of Aunt Luna and Rarity, or Shy when she’s upset with me…. Not a good thing to do, upset her…” I shuddered at the thought before something else registered in my brain, “Wait you said Philharmonic, correct? Are you related to Octavia Philharmonic?”

At that he smiled, “Yes, she’s my niece.”

“So… Lyra and Octavia are cousins… what a small world.”

“Indeed. So I assume you’re here to see their child then?” Tone inquired.

“Yeah, and technically I’m supposed to be around when a new foal is born, but since Ponyville and it’s surrounding areas are more Twilight’s jurisdiction I can pick and choose which births I want to be around for, this one, I wasn’t going to miss. I missed my own daughter’s birth due to unavoidable circumstances I wasn’t going to miss this.” I explained.

“He’s a good friend to your daughters and they’ve helped him a lot in return, so it’s only natural that he would be here for their foal’s birth. I give him my full permission and blessing to do so.” Twilight said, validating my presence even more so. I gave her a grateful smile, which she returned in earnest.

“And uh, not to be rude, or to insult your choice of company, but who’s the pink mare slumped against the wall?” Stein Glass asked.

“Oh… this is Pinkie Pie, she’s everyone’s best friends and one of my fiancees, she also is how I knew this was going on. She’s a good pony I promise, just a bit… strange.” I looked down at her and smiled, Pinkie giving me a dopey smile back, I guess she was still dizzy.

“Well, this might take some time, so how about we all sit and relax. Maybe Chris could tell you some of his adventures he had during his training.” Twilight suggested.

“Sure I don’t see why not.” I picked up Pinkie, bridal style and brought her over to the nearest bench where I was joined by Twilight and Bonnie’s and Lyra’s parents. I told them a few stories of my adventures I had over the years. Pinkie came too fully after a bit and just stayed listening to my stories. Slowly the others joined us one by one, with Spike bringing them in and leaving to get the others, by the time the full group was here we were actually informed that we were allowed to head into the room. We made our way in, one by one, but we quickly realized that 16 in one room was not the best idea so half of us left just leaving me, Twilight, and their parents. The doctor also left for a moment just to let us have some time with them.

Bon Bon looked like she was asleep, but Lyra looked up, her eyes tired but bright, “Mom, dad, Momma Sweets, Papa Glass. It’s good to see you could make it. Twilight and Chris too, good.”

High Note moved closer to her daughter and daughter in law, “How’s Sweetie Drops doing?” She asked her daughter.

Bonnie’s eyes slowly opened at hearing her real name, obviously exhausted to high hell and back, “I’m fine, hi Miss Key, does that mean Tone and my parents are here too?”

High Note nodded, gesturing to Bonnie’s parents, who turned to look at them, “Hi ma, hi papa… oh Chris and Twilight it’s good to see you too…” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, “Come closer and see them.” She told us, “Quietly though, they’re sleeping.”

We moved closer, “They huh?” I asked quietly, peering over the blankets containing her foals.

She had 3 foals, one that looked nearly identical to her, except they were a unicorn and instead of just having 2 toned hair color there was an extra swirl of mint green, similar to Lyra’s hair color. Another was the exact opposite where it looked nearly identical to Lyra and had a tan streak going through it’s hair and was an earth pony. The last foal was a pegasus as you could see tiny feathers poking out from the back of the blanket and it had black fur with forest green hair that had streaks of sunshine yellow spread throughout.

“Huh… how do they look like you but the last one doesn’t? Didn’t you get a donor?” I asked them.

Lyra and Bon Bon looked at each other before sharing a sigh, though lyra spoke up, “No, we didn’t magic can do crazy things Chris and I’ll leave it at that, as to why our third foal looks so different is because she probably takes after my grandfather in terms of color, it was the exact same as him. Her brothers however, obviously take after us.”

I blinked, “I guess that makes sense… I can’t really say much all things considered., but as long as they’re healthy and happy that’s all that matters.”

Twilight nodded in agreement, “Well, I’m technically here on official business, what are the foals names?”

“The pegasus is Forest Breeze.” Lyra said.

“The earth pony is Symphony and the unicorn is Gumdrop.” Bonnie said, keeping the naming tradition of both families going apparently.

Twilight smiled happily, “Those are beautiful names, as a Princess of Equestria I fully welcome Forest Breeze, Symphony, and Gumdrop into Equestria and may they have long, happy and fulfilling lives.” Twilight said as her horn lit up and her magic quickly washed over the foals, making them sigh in content. I gave my sister-in-law a curious look, “It’s just registering their specific magical signatures into the archives, so that they’re official citizens.”

“Ah alright, well congrats you two, it was a long road, and I’m happy for both of you, I’m glad I was here for it.” I told my friends.

“We’re glad you’re here too Chris, infact Bonnie and I had something we wanted to ask you.” Lyra said.

“Oh?” They had my attention.

Bon Bon nodded, “We wanted to ask you if you’d be their god father?”

+‘WHAT?!!!!’+ Ixis and I both screamed in my head, and I guess it showed on my face since they started to back track until I stopped them, “No, no, it’s ok, you just caught me off guard. Yeah I’ll happily be their god father. Why me though?”

“You have to ask? You helped us get our store to be what it is and you’re our best friend. Also, if anything were to happen to us we know you would be around to find out what happened and take care of them for us.” Bon Bon said.

“That aaand you’re going to outlive all of us anyways… it would be nice to have someone to watch over our family long after we’re gone.” Lyra added.

“I… Lyra… Bon Bon… you, I’d watch over your family regardless. You are my family, I promise I’ll take care of your family, no matter what.”

Bon Bon gave a weak smile, “Thanks Chris, I’m getting tired though, do you mind if we see the others before I go to sleep?”

“It’s no problem… I’ll see you when you’re more rested and I’ll get someone to watch the store, hell I’ll do it myself.” With that Twilight and I left the room, the others heading in, I smiled to myself, my family is growing even more, it makes my heart sing.

~-----------------------------~

A couple of weeks after the birth of Lyra and Bon Bon’s foals it was Goldy’s birthday. She was turning 5 today, and she was excited as Pinkie was throwing her a huge party that we’ve all been helping getting set up., It took a few hours from 8 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon to get fully set up but once it was done, the party was huge and almost everyone in Ponyville was there.

It made me realize how much everyone loved Goldy, and that in itself warmed my heart. I was so worried that due to her being a triple hybrid she would be shunned and bullied, but that looked to be the exact opposite, she had friends who loved being around her and the adults in town thought she was an absolute sweetheart.

Really the party was going well until I saw a familiar looking pair of colts walk up to Goldy, I raised my eyebrow watching and waiting to see what happens.

“So this is your birthday party huh?” The heavier and shorter of the colts said, “Eh I’ve seen better.”

“Yeah, I bet everyone came just to have pity on you for being such a freak.” The taller lankier one added. At Goldy’s silence he continued, “I don’t even know why we were invited, your monster of a father probably told you to.”

“Or your freak of a mother.” The fat one sneered.

That’s what made Goldy speak up, “My daddy isn’t a monster and my mommy isn’t a freak.” She said in a harsh tone.
The fat one laughed again, “Of course she’s a freak, only a freak could have a foal with a monster like him. I guess that just makes you a super freak.”

“Shut up.” Goldy said quietly.

The skinny one leaned down, “What was that super freak?”

“I said shut up.” She said a bit louder.

“Huh? I’m sorry I must have something in my ears, what did you say? It sounded like you said shut up.” the skinny one asked, clearly getting annoyed.

Goldy glared at the, her pupils complete slits and steam flowing off her form as the temperature around her lowered, “I DID I SAID SHUT UP!” She roared out.

They backed up a little before the scoffed, “What, is that supposed to be scary?” The fat one asked, “Please, guess we’ll just have to put you in your place.” He said as he reared his fist back. That's when I stepped in and grabbed his fist in my hand and slowly lifted him up to my face, “W-what?” His partner tried to get away but I quickly grabbed his ankle with my tail, also lifting him up to my face.

“Hello, do you remember me?” I asked the boys, who nodded in fear, “Good, glad to see I left an impression. So I’m gonna tell you something, a lot of what you just said is wrong, it was actually amazing seeing how wrong you two were. Golden Skies isn’t a freak, she’s a wonderful girl who invited you out of the kindness and generosity in her heart, like her aunts and mother taught her to. To be kind and forgiving, though she still has to get to the whole don’t let anyone walk over you stage. I had nothing to do with any of that, in fact I didn’t want either of you little jerks anywhere near this party.” I told them with a growl underlining my voice, causing them to swallow their building saliva.

“My Shy, is an angel who gave someone like me a chance and taught me how to truly be happy once again. You have no right to call her a freak, so I would refrain from it in the future unless you want to bring the wrath of a dragon onto your heads.” I took a deep breath, mist rolling out of my mouth, my pupil slitting dangerously. I stared at the two colts straight in their eyes, deep into their souls, “Now me, on the other hand…. You were absolutely correct. I am a monster, I’ll destroy anyone and anything that threatens my family. No exceptions, now I suggest you leave this party and never go near my daughter again. If you do and I find out, you’ll know what it’s truly like to deal with a monster.” I said in a purely malicious tone, opening my mouth, cold flames dancing in the back of my throat before dropping the colts on the ground, to which they quickly scrambled away.

I huffed, stopping my magic from flowing, the mist settling and my pupil returning to it’s normal wide slitted self. I looked down to my daughter and got on one knee, her pupils were still heavily slitted and she was still pouring out ice magic. I placed a hand on her shoulder, her eyes snapping to me, from the boys she was watching running away, “Hey, it’s ok… it’s ok. Take a deep breath, and breathe out slowly.” She did as I told her to and once she was calm, her eyes returned to the normal pupils her pony half gave her and mist stopped rolling off her form. After she was 100% calmed down she hugged me and cried.

“I-I’m not a freak… mommy isn’t a freak…. You aren’t a monster…” She said between hiccups.

I rubbed her back and sighed, “No you aren’t and no one is here because they pity you. Look around, they are all worried about you.” She took her face from my chest, tears still flowing from her, and looked around, “See, all these ponies, are your friends, they are your family, this village would protect you from any danger, just as they would anyone else. They love you Golden Skies, as if you were their daughter. If I wasn’t around to step in, any single one of them would have in my place.” They all nodded, reassuring her that my words were truthful, “And you mother is a pure angel, the nicest pony I’ve met, and I’ve met a lot, don’t let what those bullies said get to you, ok?”

She sniffled her tears fading, “But… what about you, you aren’t a monster.”

“Goldy…I am a monster. I’ve done things I’m not proud of, I’ve hurt people and ponies in the past, some for no reason, some for actual reasons. And I’ll do so in the future, especially if anything were to hurt you. But that’s my job as your father, is to be a monster so all the other monsters won’t hurt you.” I told her, “But never a day in my life will I ever hurt you or your mothers or aunts. The day I do is the day I become a true monster and I hope whoever is the protect of Equus at the time puts me down.”

“But you never will do that right? You’ll never hurt me or mommy or momma Pinkie or anyone else right?” She asked me.

I gave her a small smile, “No… I won’t, I’ll try my best not to. Now, go enjoy your birthday, it’s for you after all, don’t let this get you down, I heard Pinkie has something super special for you and your cousin Apple Bloom does too.” I gave her a hug before gently pushing her away, she gave me a smile and nodded before running off to find those two.

“Are you alright Chris?” I heard Shy ask, as she came up to me.

I stood up, “I will be… she’s starting to act more like a dragon these days.”

“I’ve noticed, do you think you should take her to the Dragon Lands at some point?” She asked me.

My scales tingled at that, “No… I can handle her for a few more years. I’ll take her when it’s absolutely necessary.”

She gave me a curious look, “Chris, is there something about the Dragon Lands you aren’t telling me?”

I sighed, “I… yes, but I’ll tell you when I’m ready, ok? I promise.”

Shy nodded, and gave me a kiss, “I know you will, I trust you.”

“Thank you Shy, now come on, I need to forget about this debacle, let’s go see our girl happy.” I told her, leading her over to enjoy the rest of the party.

Author's Note

At the hospital waiting for my son to be born. To anyone who has been the father in this situation understands what I'm dealing with for those of you who don't, it is absolutely the worst thing I have ever experienced. I can deal with my own pain just fine, no matter how bad, because I at least have some modicum of control of the situation .

This, however, I do not, I just have to watch her be in pain for hours to days it sucks, I hate it and I can't do anything to help except be there for her. It's frustrating and it makes me feel absolutely useless so I haven't been able to concentrate on anything related to writing, it's why I didn't put this up yesterday like I said I would, but here you all are. I'll.... have the next chapter up when I can, no guarantee this time around when it will be.

I'll see you all next time, enjoy.

34: Do Dragon's Dream of Burning sheep Pt1.

It was getting closer and closer and closer to my wedding day, and I was getting nervous, the various adventures the girls have been going on in the meantime haven’t helped so to occupy myself I finished up Shy’s sanctuary, to which all of the animals that lived at the cottage before hand or visited moved in, giving the town its first official ‘Zoo.’ I also took some of the times that the girls were away to try and track down Starlight Glimmer, having her running around was keeping me up at night, whether I would tell the girls that or not was an entirely different matter. I’ve had no such luck in finding her though, but my leads have managed to make me meet up with the girls while they’re out on friendship missions from time to time so that’s neat.

However, them going on their own adventures by being called by the map didn’t mean I wasn’t getting caught up in their shenanigans from time to time. The first snowfall of the year was nearly completely ruined thanks to Rainbow and her antics. She tried to convince me of all people to stop the cold and snow from coming in. Of course I refused, but Rainbow being Rainbow was stubborn and went through a whole bunch of means to try and convince me until she finally gave up and went straight to the Weather Factory to sabotage the snow section of the factory.

Funnily enough she succeeded and that portion of the factory only just recently got fixed, which meant in the meantime, yours truly had to go around and induce snow falls all over Equestria for about a week, I’m still exhausted from that. Hell, I was miffed at Rainbow for it for a while, mostly because her reasoning was that she didn’t want Tank to go to sleep. But after heavy explanations from myself and Shy, Rainbow finally accepted it not before shedding tears with everyone save Twilight, AJ, and Myself. Twilight was just confused to why everyone else was crying, mostly Pinkie as Rarity is a drama queen and Shy is textbook definition of empathetic.

With Pinkie stated she was crying because Twilight wasn’t crying, to which Twilight pointed out that AJ and I weren’t crying either. Pinkie’s retort being that AJ cries on the inside, AJ confirming that. And that I’m so emotionally broken that only strong emotional stimuli will really make me cry. Which, while just being so bluntly stated hurt, I had to admit she was right.
So Tank is currently in hibernation along with a majority of all of our pets.

Another crazy shenanigan that I was caught up in, well really everyone was by the end of the night, I just had the unfortunate luck of being engaged to the source of it this time around. I had to deal with Discord’s jealousy of Shy getting a new friend in Tree Hugger. Tree hugger was…. The equivalent of this world’s hippie and I’m not 100% sure if pot existed in Equestria but she would be the biggest pothead on the planet if it does. Mind you, despite that, she was a very nice pony who cared about nature, so I saw why Shy connected with her so much and I had no problems with her being friends with Tree Hugger.

Discord on the other hand was not taking it well at all. He made a scheme to try and make Tree Hugger reveal that she had some alterior motive or wasn’t as nice and calm as she seemed to be. Mind you his scheme involved bringing a sentient booger called the Smooze to the Grand Galloping Gala to one up Shy, who brought Tree Hugger. Needless to say it did not go well, the Smooze as it turns out loves to eat metal and shiny things, and being… you know in the palace garnered a lot of that until Discord locked him in an armor closet causing the slime to grow in enough size to swallow everyone in the ballroom.

That was enough to make me put my foot down, literally and I froze the slime in place so it couldn’t grow anymore, careful to not freeze the ponies stuck inside him. However Tree Hugger asked me to unfreeze him and let her talk to him, I obliged and it worked, calming the Smooze down and shrinking him to a manageable size. However this just pissed Discord off more and he pick up Tree hugger by her collar, ripped open a portal to a sock puppet dimension and was threatening to throw her in.

However, Shy stopped him, wondering what his issue was. To which Discord angrily explained the she was replacing him with some boring nothing pony and he felt hurt. That, personally made me laugh, to which he looked at me and I explained that she wasn’t replacing him, she just made a new friend, she can have more than one. After all he’s not jealous over me or the other’s so what makes this any different?

He thought about it for a moment before admitting I was right and apologizing to Shy and then was forced to apologize to Tree Hugger, after that the night actually went quite swimmingly.

And now we’re here… gathered in Rarity’s kitchen discussing how they’ve all been having the same nightmare about an inky blob infecting them turning them into evil versions of themselves.

“That sounds eerily like Luna getting possessed by the nightmare… I think we should contact her.” I suggested.

Twilight nodded, “Spike, can you send a letter to Luna?”

The drake was already rolling up a scroll, “Way ahead of you Twilight.” He held the scroll up in his hands before blowing his green fire over it, sending it off to the princess of the night.

“And now we wai-” I was cut off by Rarity’s door being slammed open.

“WHICH ONE OF YOU IS HAVING THE NIGHTMARE?!” Luna asked, clearly panicked.

I looked at my aunt, “All of them.”

Spike raised his hand, “Except for me, don’t know why but I’m grateful for it.”

“I’m not either Auntie Luna!” Goldy said happily.

“Good good, we are glad to hear that, what about you dear nephew are you also suffering from nightmares?” She asked, curious to see if it was just the elements.

I shook my head, “No, but that’s mostly Ixis’ doing, according to her the inky mass has tried to enter my mind but she’s been deflecting it.”

Luna sighed in relief, “Good good, we assumed that it would go after the elements and those close to them.”

We all looked at her in confusion, “Wait wait, you mean, you know what that thing is?!”Rainbow asked the lunar princess.

She nodded somberly, “Yes… it is our shame. It is a creature called the Tantabus, we created it to plague us with nightmares when we sleep during the day to atone for our sins as Nightmare Moon.”

I sighed, walked up to my oh so wonderful aunt and smacked her upside the head, making everyone else gasp, “You’re an idiot.”

Luna’s eyes were wide as she rubbed the side of her head, “Pray tell for what?”

“You created an intelligent entity that causes you nightmares and grows to make sure you keep having them, of course it was going to escape into the dreamscape eventually. What's worse is you did this after everyone’s forgiven you. Take it from me, hating yourself for something that happened ages ago is pointless, no one remembers save for the one person who is as old as you and no one this day and age cares let alone thinks that low of you.” I rubbed the bridge of my nose, “Look, Luna, we love you, all of us, it’s fine, but you need to love yourself, take it from the world's biggest hypocrite.”

She blinked at me, surprised I’d be so straightforward about it, “We… suppose you are right, however we still need to stop the tantabus less it reaches other ponies’ dreams we fear if that is to come to pass it shall escape the sleeping realm and enter the real world.”

AJ confidentiality smiled at the princess, “Alright, what do ya need us to do yer highness?”

Luna nodded, “We need you all to sleep, in circle preferably so we can connect you all to a more accessible and micro dreamscape.”

“Sleep, is that all? I do that in my sleep.” RD said.

“Well, yeah, I’d sure hope so Dashy.” Pinkie said, confused by what her friend meant.

“Anyways, I do have some room on my upper floor to have a us do just that.” Rarity said.

“Excellent, follow us and we shall get everything set up.” Luna led the way upstairs to a large circular room, its like everyones house was larger on the inside, she conjured up 8 beds for us to sleep in, Goldy climbing in mine.

I looked down at her and then over at Spike, “Hey, can you actually keep watch over Goldy, she doesn’t need to be apart of nightmares.”

The young drake nodded, “I’d be happy too, why don’t we play some marenopoly.” He asked my daughter, who looked up at me and I nodded for her to go on ahead to which she quickly scrambled over to the older dragon and quickly sat next to him. It was adorable, her little crush, it was like watching Spike all over again.

“Alright, knock us out pretty dream queen.” I smirked at Luna.

She rolled her eyes but smiled nonetheless, “As you wish.” I saw her horn glow one moment and then the next I was in the mindscape that Ixis resided in, speaking of.

“Hey you, haven’t seen you up here for quite some time. I was beginning to get lonely.” She said with a warm smile.

I shook my head, shaking the daze from my mind from the sudden knock out, “Hey Ixis… I’ll be with you in a moment.”

“Unfortunately a moment we do not have to spare.” A familiar voice said.

“Princess Luna, what a pleasant surprise, it’s good to see you once more.” Ixis greeted the princess.

“Indeed, same to you Lady Ixis, we assume you know why we are here?” She asked the former queen of dragons.

“I do, that inky black mass you call the Tantabus.”

“Correct, we would love to stay and converse, however…” She trailed off, gesturing to me.

“I know, take him, I’ll stay here and keep his mindscape safe.” Ixis explained sitting on the couch that was perpetually here, and crossing her legs.

“Guess she’s meditating, alright so who are we dream hopping to first?” I asked Luna.

She thought about it for a moment, “To the one who would be the easiest to corrupt.” She summoned a door that was light blue and had Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark emblazoned on it.

I cocked an eyebrow, “Really she’s the easiest to corrupt, loyalty?”

She looked at me, her eyes cold, “We were loyalty as well, one can be too loyal to themselves and their way of thinking nephew, it is a perversion of what loyalty should be.” She stepped through the door, leaving me behind, to be fair I wanted to say something but what could I? I sighed and followed her through.

Once I stepped through I was transported to a hellish burning landscape, buildings were crumbling, the sky was blood red and it looked like the sun was disintegrating, and there were black things fluttering everywhere a rainbow streak knocking them out the sky, “Looks like we were too late, the Tantabus must already be here.” I said, getting ready to go join the fight

Luna held out a hand to stop me, “Nay, this is how Loyalty’s dreams always are, she’s, as the youngsters say, an adrenaline junkie.”

“She lives for the thrill… makes sense, so what do we do now?”

“Now? We wait.” She said, sitting on a pile of rubble.

I groaned, “Of course… so, what are those?” I asked looking up in the sky, at the strange black creatures.

She also looked up at the creatures, “Those? They are changelings, they possess the ability to change into any pony… any creature they see fit. Their queen tried to take over canterlot several years ago, before you came to Equestria.” She paused and I rolled my hand, gesturing her to continue, “It was during Cadance’s wedding, the Queen, Chrysalis is her name, trapped our dear niece in the crystal caverns deep in canterlot mountain. She took her form and proceeded to use it to take her place in her wedding, the only reason her invasion failed is because young Twilight Sparkle, knew that something was amiss with her old foal sitter and Chrysalis made a fatal mistake of trapping her within the same cavern as Cadance.

They escaped and made their way out of the caverns and exposed the imposter for who she was. Our dear sister had her flank handed to her as Chrysalis was feeding off of Shining Armor’s love for Cadance, the changelings feed off of love, and it made her strong enough to catch Celestia off guard.”

I nodded, following along, “And I’m guessing the girls stepped in and beat her with the elements?”

Luna shook her head, “Nay, twas actually Cadance and Shining Armor sending out a shockwave of pure and concentrated love strong enough that the changelings couldn’t eat it and it forced them out of Canterlot, flinging them back to the badlands.”

“Well that’s… neat, though I have one question, because I noticed one major thing about that. Where were you the entire time? Everything you told me had no evidence of you being there whatsoever, I know you wouldn’t have let Chrysalis get away with attack Celestia let alone locking Cadance away.”

She looked away from me, “We… were asleep. We were catching up on my rest for the ceremony, but when we awoke it was long past the invasion let alone the ceremony, we were only around for the reception. Tis another reason we created the Tantabus, to keep us in a light slumber so we are weary of any looming threat during the day.”

I sighed, opting to stay silent as we waited for the Tantabus to show up. Thankfully we didn’t have to wait long as rather suddenly the scenery changed to a luscious green field with happy daisies humming a cute tune. Luna and I stood up, looking for the Tantabus, we found it floating in the sky nearby Rainbow, who was laying on the ground screaming in terror at the change in her dream.

The creature in question looked like a blob of clear night sky dotted with stars and outlined by pink. It ‘looked’ down at the chromatic mare, seemingly pleased with it’s handy work and looked like it was about to take off.

“NO! I’M TOO AWESOME FOR A DREAM LIKE THIS! I AM RAINBOW DASH THE AWESOMEST AND FASTEST FLYER IN EQUESTRIA!” She yelled out in frustration, this catching the Tantabus’ attention. Quickly, it crossed the distance from where it was at to Rainbow and engulfed her in a sphere of darkness.

“Luna…. Uh what is it doing?” I asked.

Luna stared at what was happening with wide eyes, “No… it can’t be…”

Slowly beams of darkness broke out of the sphere, cracking it apart until it shattered open completely, revealing a much taller Rainbow Dash, or what I thought was Rainbow Dash. Her coat turned midnight blue with her hair and tail turning pitch black as the color drained out of it. Her pupils becoming slits as her scelera turned a light shade of pink, making it look like her irises faded into them. Her wings also changed, becoming much larger than they were, her feathers sharpening into dagger points along with her teeth as she screamed out in pain and fear. Finally, the very last thing to change was her cutie mark, the cloud turned just as black as her hair and the rainbow lightning bolt split into 3 separate bolts each one a varying shade of gray.

I took a step back, even in a dream I could feel a surge of magic explode out from her, I looked to Luna for an explanation. The night princess was about to say something until a voice, that sounded like rainbows but much deeper and had way more power behind it interrupted her, “Ah, Luna, I was wondering when you would show up. Oh and you brought someone new… who might you be creature?” She paused, waiting for an answer, I was willing to give her one but she held up a hand silencing me before I could, “Ah, now I know, this one’s memories told me who you are, and your magic is very familiar, I’ve tried to invade your dreams before but something always kept me out, now…. Now you’ve come to me.” She said with a wicked grin.

“What? What is going on?” I asked, confused, worried, and slowly getting pissed.

The Tantabus possessed Rainbow chuckled, “Oh, did the princess not tell you what her nightmare was? Oh ho, that is wonderful then this will be delicious news to tell you. Your sweet auntie made her nightmare her getting repossessed by the nightmare that took her over and getting defeated by this one and her friends.” She said gesturing to herself.

I looked at Luna incredulously, “Are you serious? You… you know what, that’s not important right now.” I turned my attention back to the Tantabus, “I’m guessing if I asked you to leave her body nicely you won’t?”

“That is correct.”

“Alright, guess I’ll have to beat you out of her… really don’t want to but you’re kind of forcing my hand.” I got into my fighting stance, “Luna, can you back me up?”

“Nay, dear nephew, if you fight her while she is in possession of Loyalty it could shock her awake, and potentially cause the Tantabus to reach the real world whilst still in possession of her.” She said.

I groaned, “Ok, so what do I do then, nothing?”

“We did not say that, you very well can fight her, but our assistance is out of the question, we shall be concentrating on making sure she doesn’t wake up.”

I nodded and cracked my neck, “Alright, sounds good, alright Tantabus Possessed Rainbow Dash, get ready because here I come.”

She got into a classic MMA stance, with her legs apart and fist raised to the sides of her head, “Come on, lets see if you can knock me out of her, she has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to martial arts. Oh, and please, call me… Shadow Bolt.”

I rolled my eyes and ran at her, cracking the ground under my feet at take off, she did the same. It was not but a few seconds before we closed the gap between one other. She threw a punch that hit me square in the jaw, luckily it didn’t have much power behind it. Unfortunately it was faster than even I could keep up with. My surprise left an opening wide enough for her to follow up with a flurry of punches.

“What’s wrong, too fast for you?”

I grunted, managing to find a break between the punches to throw my wings up in front of me, protecting me from the blows. I slowly began to build up my magic into my wings before I covered them in ice spikes. She noticed this and stopped punching, jumping away quickly before I could pull off anymore tricks.

“Maybe…” I said, unfolding my wings, once again entering my battle stance.

She looked upset, “Ugh, I forgot that you could use ice…” She smiled, “However, that doesn’t matter if you can’t keep up with me.” She blinked out of existence.

I was surprised but I held my stance, remaining as calm as I could, keeping my guard up before a twig snapped, drawing my attention to the left of me but even with advanced warning a hoof slammed into the side of my head, sending my flying across the hild, slamming into a tree, splintering it and causing it to crash down on me. I quickly got up, tossing the tree off of me. However before I could fully recover I was grabbed by my horns and slammed into the ground, while I was still eating dirt, she grabbed my tail and quickly started spinning around, grunting at the effort of lifting me and spinning me, but not letting it deter her in the slightest she flung me high into the air, spiraling hard enough to where I couldn’t open my wings and right myself. I cursed the situation silently.

Even if her hits didn’t do much damage they were still too fast, she could easily wear me down with pure speed alone. I was fast but this suped up Rainbow was beyond anything I could ever hope to reach. I heard laughter up above me cutting off my train of thought, oh please don’t tell me she’s going to do what I think she’s going to do. I felt something hard slam into my back sending me careening into the ground and I hit hard, hard enough to create a small crater.

I laid there for a few seconds before standing up, noticing that I did have cuts and scrapes on me, “Ok this is getting annoying, she straight up hammered me into the ground… too fast way too fast. Maybe….” I slowly poured my magic out from every inch of my body, the air cooling I just hoped she wouldn’t notice and that this works like I’m planning on it.

I heard some rocks roll around to my right, signaling Shadow Bolt’s arrival. Once again she tried to go for kicking me only to have her hoof completely encased in heavy ice as she got within 2 feet of me, “W-What?! The air wasn’t even cold around you!”

I smirked and rubbed my jaw, “You thought I was going to keep letting you knock me around, that first kick hit me in jaw, hurt something fierce. And the air was cold, way below freezing actually. Just your natural pegasus resistance to cold added on to the increased magic you have due to being born from Luna’s magic and her being an alicorn meant that resistance was put up to max. Doesn’t mean I couldn’t freeze you though.” I cracked my knuckles and walked up to her, “Now…. it’s my turn.”

Her face twisted into a look of terror and she tried to get away but the large ice block holding her hoof down stopped her. I got close and reared my right fist back a magic circle forming around it, “Diamond Fist of the Ice Dragon.” Quickly my fist was encased by hyper cold and nigh unbreakable ice that I slammed square into her stomach, before forming another around my left fist and bringing it forward into her chest, “Ice Dragon’s Hailing Wrath!” I yelled out, hitting her with a barrage of punches, the block of ice keeping her still so every time she got flung back she would bounce back adding more power to my hits. I kept this up for about a minute before I was ready to finish this, I reared my head back, snow and ice swirling around my forehead, “Ice Dragon’s-”

“ENOUGH!!!!” She roared out, the force of her magic flaring staggering me, lightning flying off her body, shattering the ice that was encasing her hoof, “THAT IS ENOUGH!!! I thought I’d be able to put you down without this but it seems I overestimated the strength of this one.” She had a look of pure malice in her eyes before an evil grin spread across her face, “You’d better pray I decide to end you quickly, but I’d hold my breath if I were you, because I’m going to enjoy ripping you to shreds.”

Even though she was worse off than I was she flashed out of existence once again, or so I thought because she was still standing in front of me. Wait no… she was to the left of me, no the right, no behind, no the corners… what was… my eyes widened as I realized what was happening. She chuckled, telling me that it was too little too late before her and her after images all dashed towards me, I flared out my magic as much as I could but as they got within the 2 foot threshold the disappeared only leaving one in front of me, facing away from me. I blinked before I felt thousands of blows land on me all carrying the strength and force of a lightning strike that was thrown by Zeus himself. I fell to the ground hard, my scales and skin scorched.

Shadow Bolt sighed and turned to Luna who watch the entire scene with wide eyes, though she was very clearly struggling holding Rainbow’s dream together, “And now for you Luna. I get rid of you, I have free reign until I gain enough power to leave the dream world.” She said with a cackle.

I coughed, slowly pushing myself up, “I… I wouldn’t count on it yet…” I staggered as I stood up, the charred bits of my body cracking open.

Shadow Bolt turned around and looked at me, “What but… how?” She looked surprised, but that surprise quickly turned into rage, “How are you still here?! You should be awake by now at the very least if not dead, don’t you know if you die in the dream you die in real life?!” She yelled at me.

I laughed weakly, “Yeah, maybe so… but it’ll take a lot more than that to kill me… I’m sure you can rummage through Rainbow’s mind, I made a promise to them about me dying.”

She furrowed her brow, obviously calling up whatever memory I was talking about, “Oh no… That’s impossible… that’s defying the reaper himself, you can’t do that.”

I growled, “I don’t care, I can and I will. Like I told them, and like I’ll tell everyone who ever tries to kill me. I’ll die when I’m good and ready to die.” I shook myself off, the cracking parts of my body falling away showing unburnt flesh, hey I can shed I just resist it, that doesn’t take too much energy, what does take a surprising amount of energy is forcing myself to shed, especially in specific spots even if this was a dream. “Now… like I said, it’s my turn.” I gathered my magic energy once more before sending out a shockwave of magic, “Ice Dragon’s Frozen Time; Max Power.” I said as I slowly walked up to Shadow Bolt, I reared my head back again the last little bit of my magic building up around my forehead, encasing it in the same ice the diamond fist is made out of, “Ice Dragon’s Calling Bell.” I slammed my forehead into hers. I walked past her and made my way to Luna, waving my hand, canceling out Frozen Time.

Luna looked down at me with surprise, “Christopher what are you?”

I pointed at Shadow Bolt who was unconscious on the ground, “I took care of it.” Slowly Rainbow shrunk, her wings softened and shrunk as well and her colors were back to normal along with her cutie mark. The Tantabus however looked like it gained vague pegasus shape to it, but it was still more of a blobby mess. It turned its ‘head’ towards us and hissed before ripping a hole open to whoever’s dream was next.

“Is she going to be alright?” I asked Luna, referring to Rainbow.

She nodded, sighing as she could relax, “Yes, once we leave her dream she’ll most likely awaken, at worst she’ll have a headache.”

“Ok, where to next?” I asked.

~Back in the waking world~

Rainbow Dash sat up with a start before groaning and clutching her head as a migraine settle on her, “Man… that hurts.”

“You ok Dash?” Spike asked.

Rainbow nodded and looked at him, “Word of advice…. Never get into a fight with Chris… he hits like a… well a dragon.”

“Well, I’d assume so, do you want to play Trouble with us?” The drake asked.

Rainbow swung her legs over the side of her bed, “Nah, I’m gonna get some water and some pills for this headache, this is worse than my hangovers.” She groaned as she walked out the room.

Spike shrugged resuming his game with Goldy, however in another bed a certain farm pony was tossing and turning.

Author's Note

Yo Yo Yo, is ya boi, kingdom, back at it again wit dem story updates. Anyways, I'm super excited for these next couple of chapters this was an idea I had running around my head for quite some time now, and really only just recently was I able to put it to paper, however there is some news I need to address, I made a blog about it too so if you wanna read it here, https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/856740/updates

But Long story short, due to future things that I've decided, I'll be changing the story to mature. If you want to keep reading make sure to change your settings, if not, thank you for keeping on this cray ride.

35: Do Dragons Dream of Burning Sheep Pt 2.

I stepped through the door after Luna, appearing in an orchard of apple trees, “Huh, 3 guesses as to who’s dream we’re in now.” I looked to my aunt, “So this is where the Tantabus ran off to?”

“Correct, we’re now in Honesty’s dream…. This is also an element we are familiar with. We lied to everyone, especially to those that mattered the most to us, including ourselves, and we believed those lies.” Luna said, looking around the Orchard until she spotted an unnaturally large apple hanging off a tree branch in the distance, Apple Jack standing next to it, shining it, “Ah there she is, now let us hope that we can prevent the Tantabus from ruining this dream as all.”

I nodded, noticing all of the pain I was feeling from the fight with Shadow Bolt was gone, “Hey, question.” At Luna’s acknowledgement of my words I continued, “How am I all healed up? I mean, I have a good healing factor, but not even that well.”

Luna chuckled, “Christopher, this is the dream realm, nothing is truly there, of course the saying, ‘mind over matter.’ came from somewhere and holds much weight in this realm. Truly as long as the main participant of the dream believes in such a thing it is true…. That even holds so for death, so do try to not die in any of these dreams.”

I cocked my head in thought, “So, I’m healed up because we’re in a different dream and I haven’t taken damage here yet though? Alright, a little convenient but I’m not complaining.” I stretched, my tail twitched at the strain I was putting into it, the muscles happy to get the tension out. I gave my wings a couple of test flaps before wrapping them back around me, “Still though, it feels like this is real.”

“That, is on your end dear nephew, you could easily not want it to feel real and it would be so, after all you are connected to the girls as much as I am, and you are able to leave your mindscape due to having two other presences there to make up the difference.” She explained before starting to walk through the Orchard towards Apple Jack, “However, knowing the feel of your own body can be more useful than allowing yourself to feel nothing. We allow ourselves to feel like ourselves in the dreamscape.”

I followed a little ways behind her and shrugged, “I’ll take your advice on that. so you owned the elements of Honesty and Loyalty, what other ones did you wield?” Luna didn’t answer me, opting to stay quiet, and I could guess why, it was after all, a reminder of her biggest failure.

We were getting close to the farm pony who was proudly shining the large apple, however Luna stopped me when 3 more ponies I recognized stepped out from behind the trees, they also caught AJ’s attention.

“Well, Ah was just comin to get y’all, so what do ya think of the apple mah tree grew? I’m sure as the day follows the night that it’ll win us a prize.” AJ said with a proud smile.

“That abomination? Ah’m disappointed in you Apple Jack, lying ta us like that.” Granny Smith said, “You couldn’t’ve done this by yerself, ya must’ve had help from some unicorn.”

Apple Bloom had tears in her eyes, “How could ya big sis? Ya know we only do things the earth pony way, and ya lied, you promised you wouldn’t anymore.”

Big Mac nodded, “Eeyup, especially after that time all those years ago.” The bulky red farmer drawled on.

“A… Ah, don’t know what yer talkin about, I ain’t lyin, I did this by mahself with no help from no one but me!” She said, trying to defend herself.

Granny closed her eyes shook her head in shame. The siblings doing so as well, “And look, all that lying has made yer apple turn rotten and that rotten apple will poison the orchard.” Their eyes opened, revealing nothing but a pitch black pit.

Apple Jack turned around to see that her apple did in fact rot and it in turn rotted the tree it was connected to, which then in turn started to rot everything around it, the grass, the other trees, the few birds that were in the area started to melt to a point but didn’t die. Hell, even the air and sky felt rotten, all the while AJ was stunned onto the ground with her family chanting over her, “You lied, accept it. You lied, accept it.” Over and over, AJ was crying until she eventually stood up, “Yer right, I did ask for a unicorn’s help. I made our orchard rotten.” she said quietly, falling into believing the lies were truths.

Her family smiled a little too widely for my liking before embracing her in a hug and fading away into dark smoke that flowed into her being. Slowly she began to change, her fur turning a much deeper orange, nearly red, her eyes glowed a sickly green as rotting wood formed around her hands, forming into sharp claws, the same happened to her hooves, though they took on the appearance of paws. Her ears also elongated and had rotting wood form over them, making them look more like wolf ears. Once her transformation was done she let out a sigh of relief, “Oh, that is much better and what an interesting form… a timber wolf-pony hybrid.” She shrugged, “It matters not to me, now lets see if this host has enough power for me to use.” She held up a clawed hand, darkness with a green outline swirled around it.

“Hold on now.” I said, finally deciding that now was the time to step out of the shadows, “Don’t do something you’ll regret.” She turned to me, giving me a dead panned stare.

“You again? And you’re healed, fantastic.” She got into a stance that had her arms hanging freely but she was balancing on her left leg with her right pulled up, “I’m guessing you’re going to fight me?”

I shrugged, unfurling my wings, readying into my fighting stance that was very loose in form, I had no guard and my arms were hanging down to my side, however, my hands were constantly tensed waiting for any and every action, “Only if you make me, you could easily just leave.”

“Unfortunately you’ll have to force me.” She said growling.

“Yeah I figured, so, you gonna move first or shall I?”

She smirked and moved towards me quickly, her speed was nothing as it was when she possessed Rainbow so it was easy to follow her. When she kicked downwards at me I was able to block it easily enough, however the blow put a massive crater into the ground beneath me as I was pushed down, “Damn, that's a heavy blow.” I grunted out.

She smirked, jumped back with the leg that was still on my arms only to bring down the other with even more force, making the crater larger, “I may not be as fast as Shadow Bolt but I think Timber Jack packs more than enough punch… or kick to take you out.”

I grunted, straining some against her strength, before I took a deep breath, “I wouldn’t be so sure about that, the only reason you were able to get ahead of me as Shadow Bolt was because you could outspeed me, however…” There was a flash of blue as my tail slammed into her side with enough force to send a shockwave throughout the area, splintering any trees close to us and knocking down the rest in a wide radius. The force of the blow sent her sailing into a huge rock that was several hundred of feet away, to which she was imbedded in.

I walked to her slowly, cracking my neck and rolling my shoulders, “However, now I’m faster than you and I can actually use some of my strength against you since you seem to be able to handle it.”

She looked at me with wide eyes, “What in the…” She pulled herself out of the rock and stood up before me, rage clearly showing in her eyes.

“What? You really think last time was me doing anything? Like I said, you gained the upper hand because you had speed, and even then I was going easy on you.” I told her, trying to rile her up, luckily it was working.

“I… you! I’m going to start beating you now.” She simply said before throwing a flurry of heavy punches at me, each I easily blocked or countered, “How are you doing this?! I’m in a body of an element user and I have the princesses power!” She shouted at me, switching to throwing in kicks with her punches, making the blows even heavier but slower.

I was still blocking and countering, “See, here’s the thing about that, you cause nightmares to corrupt the elements so it makes them fundamentally weaker, and you’re only a fraction of Luna’s power. You’re lucky to be as strong as you are.” I took on a serious look, “Now I’m going to ask you one last time, are you going to leave my friend or am I going to have to force you?”

She scoffed, obviously not taking my words to heart, “You force me, no I don’t think so.”

I sighed before using my wings to blow her back from her barrage, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” I lifted my tail high as she was still in the air, wrapped it around her ankle and slammed her hard enough into the ground to shatter it completely around us, once the dust settled TImber Jack was knocked out cold, “That was too easy.” I said with a disappointed sigh, quickly the Tantabus left AJ’s body, it returning to normal, the Tantabus however had a more defined form to it, now very clearly looking like a pegasus silhouette with thick strong legs. Once more it turned and hissed at me before ripping a portal out of AJ’s dream, thus leading everything else to return to normal.

I heard hoof steps as Luna walked up next to me, “You handled that rather well and quite quickly we might add.”

I looked over to her, “I wasn’t in the mood to let her get going, there was a lot of power there that she could have tapped into that would have been very difficult to deal with and I just did not want to do so.”

Luna nodded, “We would have done the same, Tia was one to hold back and let the enemies fight. Now onto the next.” She held up a hand forming another door.

~Back in the waking world~

Apple Jack woke up with a start, “Woah nelly….” She rubbed her head.

Spike spoke to her, “Oh, good to see you’re awake, do you wanna play some scrabble with Goldy and I?”

She shook her head, “Sorry Spike, but I got a might bad headache.”

He shrugged, turning his attention back to the game, “Fair enough, Rainbow is downstairs getting some water if you want to join her.”

AJ gave her thanks as she got out of bed and made her way down to the kitchen. She saw Rainbow sitting at Rarity’s dining room table with a glass of water and some head ache pills. She grabbed her own glass and filled it with water, sitting across from the pegasus and taking a couple of pills herself.

“Chris slam his head into your nightmare version of you too?” Rainbow asked.

AJ shook her head, “Slammed me into the ground with his tail. Shattered the ground too… he’s mighty strong.” Rainbow just nodded silently and the two girls kept drinking their water, waiting for the next pony to join them. It didn’t take long for just that to happen as Rarity entered the kitchen, smiling happily before grabbing a glass and filling it with some water for herself, though not grabbing any headache pills.

“Well hello you two, I see Chris went to you two first?” She asked, although it was more redundant than anything.

Rainbow nodded, her head still throbbing, “Yeah, kicked the crap out of Shadow Bolt.” AJ grunted in agreement.

“Oh you two fought him? Well I suppose that makes sense, I have vague hazy thoughts of him fighting a pegasus and an earth pony… though it looked like a timber wolf too.” Rarity said, humming to herself in thought.

“Yeah, that was Timber Jack, tha Tantabus called it that. Wait a minute, did ya two not fight?” AJ asked.

Rarity looked shocked, “Not at all darling… hm how about I tell you about my dream?”

~Several minutes ago in the dream realm~

“Alright, where are we now?” I asked, looking around, noticing that we were in the throne room of what looked to be in a modified version of Canterlot Castle.

Luna looked around, confused, “We believe we’re in Generosity’s dream… we’re interested in how she got corrupted.” At my questioning look she explained, “The Tantabus is already here, but it doesn’t seem like anything is amiss, we are not quite sure how Generosity could be corrupted as it was wielded by Celestia all those years ago.”

I shrugged, “I have some ideas, but let’s see if we can find Rarity before jumping to conclusions…. I just really hope I don’t have to fight this time.” I lead the way this time, walking out the throne room and down the main corridor.

“Do you have an idea as to where we are heading, nephew?” Luna asked me.

“Yeah, I know ponies’ hearing is better than humans’ but my hearing is better than yours. There’s some commotion coming from the dining area. Glasses clinking, forks and knives moving against one another and plates. Some small chattering, shuffling of clothes and hooves against the floor.” I told her.

She stayed silent and flicked her ears towards the direction of the dining area, “It’s faint but we can hear it.”

I quickened my pace now that she knew where we were going, as we got closer the commotion got louder. I nodded to Luna, getting ready for a possible fight, I kicked the doors open and the commotion stopped completely, everyone in the room looking at us. However, the only one who caught my attention was who was sitting at the head of the table. Rarity was definitely possessed by the Tantabus her coat instead of being wight was a dark gray, nearly black. Her eyes were still blue, just slitted, which contrasted the two prior where their eye colors changed completely. Her mane still kept the purple that it was but it was more full and much longer, with a white streak going through it. Her cutie mark was still 3 diamonds but it had magic sparkles around them.

She gave Luna and I a smile, a warm one at that, “Christopher, Princess Luna join us please.” She said waving her hand, summoning up two more chairs, relatively close to her.

I looked at Luna, but she just shook her head, so I did what any smart person would do and I took a seat, I was right next to her on her left and Luna took a seat to her right, “My most esteemed guest, welcome Prince Christopher and Princess Luna!” Rarity said. The guests who were just faceless nobles bowed and had a vague noise of words that sounded like greetings.

I gave them a warm, albeit concerned smile and a curt nod, Luna did the same before turning to Rarity, “Lady Rarity, We’re sure you know why we are here?”

She gave us a wider smile, “Quite so, it is to rid me of the Tantabus correct?”

“Indeed it is, and since you aren’t talking as if the Tantabus is in control…” Luna lead on.

“I made the Tantabus submit to my will, I will admit that the power is very intoxicating, and I would be remiss to let it go, after all with this power I could have everything I ever wanted easily, no more struggling for the recognition I rightfully deserve.” She said with a sparkle in her eyes.

Before Luna could speak up again I cleared my throat, “Rarity, you’re one of my closest friends, which is really surprising to myself because I didn’t think we’d have much in common, but outside of my fiancees, Lyra, Bon Bon, and Twilight, you’re the person I’ve had the most interaction with and get along with. The others are a given since sister in law and again fiancees. So I’ll be straight up as one friend to another. You’re being dumb, you may love the high society life but you also enjoy working for it and the enjoyment the hard work brings. That’s why you and Apple Jack are friends despite your plethora of differences. You both appreciate hard work and respect one another’s work ethics. You would find an easy win hollow and empty since it would prove nothing of who you are and how well you can push yourself.

The ‘recognition’ you’d receive would be just as empty, it would either be out of fear or them brown nosing, and you would despise it. So do the right thing and just let the Tantabus go, it’s not right for you. You can do just fine without it.” I told my friend.

Rarity looked at me intensely before sighing as her stature shrunk, her hair and coat returned to normal and her eyes slitted, “I suppose you’re right Christopher, I’m sorry friend, I know you wanted a host but he’s correct, I need to gain my fame and recognition through my own power, I thank you for your generosity however.” Rarity said, giving a genuine smile at the Tantabus.

The Tantabus that now had a unicorn horn and even more defined features and a more solid body shape ‘looked’ at Rarity and then at me and Luna before turning away and ripping through the fabric of the dream and heading to the next dream.

“Huh she didn’t growl at us this time, do you think?” I asked Luna.

“It might be, only time will tell, hopefully at this end of this It will be reasonable.” She said to me before diverting her attention to Rarity, “Now, it is time for you to wake up and join the others so the Tantabus can not escape back into your dream.” With that, Luna waved her hand and we were thrust into the void between dreams where we saw the Tantabus looking around for it’s next escape route.
Luna was ready to take the opportunity and attack as her horn glowed a sinister maroon color but I held up a hand and stopped her, “Nephew what do you think you are-”

“Hush I have an idea.” I floated over to the Tantabus, not waiting for Luna’s response. The Tantabus of course didn’t notice me until I cleared my throat, causing it to turn and look at me with eyes that seem to be made of star stuff. It ripped a hole in the in between ready to escape before I called out to it, “Wait! Wait, I just want to talk, if you even can without a host.”

The Tantabus stopped and turned its head back towards me, “Can….. not….. Weeeeeellllll…..”

I blinked, genuinely surprised that it could talk at all, “Uh… huh…. Ummm. Right I wanted to know why you’re doing this?”

At that the Tantabus turned to face me completely, head tilted, “.....Why….care? …. Try….. des…..troy….”

I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly, “Yeah sorry about that, but you’re kind of targeting my friends, but I noticed that last time with Rarity, you didn’t his at us like you normally do, which means there's something more underneath all this hatred and rage.”

It had what I assumed was a look of surprise, it’s kind of hard to tell when it’s face was mostly just stars in a vague shape, however she pondered what I said before responding, “Want…. To…” The Tantabus was cut off as a beam struck it’s shoulder, tearing straight through it. It wailed in pain before looking passed me, hissing, and retreating into its tear.

I turned around and glared at Luna, “Damn it, why did you have to do that, I was getting it to talk.”

Luna scoffed, “Do not be fooled by it nephew, the Tantabus was based off the Nightmare, it is a master manipulator and will stop at nothing to get it’s prize.”

I growled, looking away before taking a deep breath, “Whatever, let’s just go to the next dream.” I didn’t look back at Luna as the next door, a purple one with stars on it appeared before me, “Huh, figured she’d be last, guess It’s not trying to pull punches.” I opened the door, ready for a fight.

As I stepped through the scenery changed to a massive expanse of a world filled with shelves upon shelves of books and arcane letters floated around the place, the only light coming from the millions, if not billions of candles and lanterns lining the shelves and floating in the air. As I looked around I noticed that something was already off but not from the way the area looked, I got the distinct feeling that this is how the dream was before.

No what was wrong was that like Rarity before hand, Twilight was already possessed and waiting for us with a devilish smirk. I started to back up slowly before bumping into Luna who had just stepped out of the doorway, “Oh, sorry nephew we did not see you there.”

I didn't even have time to dodge before I smelled the iodine in the air as a super charged bolt of magic lightning raced past my shoulder and slammed into Luna’s forehead and subsequently her horn, sending her flying into a bookshelf that was a good couple of hundred feet away, burying her under a literal mountain of books.

“Ok, you aren’t happy, noted.” I said, quickly looking back at what I call Midnight Sparkle, “So… can we finish our conversation?” I barely had time to finish my question and throw up my wings to block the incoming spell, which harmlessly bounced off my wings, though it did reflected and hit a passing by bookshelf and made it turn completely into ash.

“Hooookaaayyyy guess not.” I peered over my wing’s three thumb claws, quickly ducking back down as 5 more spells came hurtling towards me, luckily they were still regular spells so not much damage if any was imparted onto me.

“Gah, this is useless, why are you so resistant to my magic?!” She yelled out, not ending her barrage of spells, in fact it seemed to grow into a more fierce tirade.

“I mean, you do have the memories of Twilight Mother loving Sparkle, smartest pony this side of Canterlot, you tell me!” I shouted over the explosion ringing in the distance from the reflected spells, which paused briefly. That caused me to look once more over my wing, I was greeted by a devilish grin from Midnight Sparkle.

“Interesting theory, let’s test it out shall we.”

Ok now I was confused, “What theory?”

Midnight now had a larger orb of swirling magic forming around her horn and to smaller ones in her hands, “Oh, just that more power should be able to get past those defenses of yours.” She fired of the beams of condense magic in a pose that would have amused me if the giant magic beam of death wasn’t hurtling right at me.

Honestly, I wish I could say I dodged in time, I wish I could say I countered it or swallowed it, or something else as equally badass, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case, I got hit, full force and it hurt… a lot, like a hell of a lot, not physically mind you, ok that too, but less so than what Shadow Bolt did. No, this was tearing apart my internal magic bit by bit, hell I could hear Ixis screaming and I wasn’t even inside my own head anymore. Fortunately the pain faded as the beam died down.

Midnight looked surprised that I wasn’t ash, “Huh… that is impressive guess i have to put in more power than I originally thought.” Once more she gathered the magic but the orbs were very easily 3 times in size.

I looked at them and paled slightly before I sighed in deeply, “You wanna have a beam fight fine.” I dug my heels and my tail into the ground for support gathering as much magic as I could, “Hyoryu no….” Midnight fired off her magic, it tearing straight through the ground, barrling at me at an impressive pace, I quickly and I mean quickly countered, “HOKO!!!!” I shouted as my roar launched my own ‘beam’ at her’s stopping it in its tracks, slowly but surely pushing it back, unfortunately due to being in Twiggy’s body she had more than enough power to spare, pouring more energy into it, causing it to push my roar back.

I groaned internally as I dug deeper, my legs and my tail, along with my wings flapping to give me more force, thankfully it worked wonders and quickly pushed it back into my favor on this little battle of wills.

Double unfortunately she had Twiggy’s memories which meant she knew I was vulnerable to dark magic and knew how to cast it, so when I say I felt my roar being eaten away by dark magic I meant I felt my worst nightmares come rushing back to me as I was slowly losing this fight, my will draining from fear or PTSD I don’t know but it sucked, until I heard a voice from above cry out, “THIS IS FOR OUR DICK!!!” and a small blast could be seen fired at Midnight, impacting her, distracting her from out little fight, “NOW, DO IT NOW!!!!” Luna cried out.

That shook me out of my stupor as I got down on all fours, dug into what extra magic I had left, and a good chunk from the dream realm, though I didn't know it at the time, and fired off something that was still very experimental given by only having an english name, “ICE DRAGON’S PERFECT….” I shouted, getting Midnight’s attention.

“Noooooo…. NO NO NO!!!!!” But it was too late for her.

“ROOOOOOAAAAARRRRR!!!!!” What followed could only been said to have enough destructive force to level a city 23.89 times the size of Diamond City, the largest city on Equis, easily. Needless to say the Tantabus was blown clear out of Twilight and the dream.

I fell to the ground, absolutely exhausted, I rolled and looked at Luna who was also laying on the ground, “Please tell me you didn’t name your horn, ‘My Dick.’”

Luna chuckled and coughed, “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

~ONCE MORE IN THE LEGION OF-Wait no wrong story- Back in the waking world~

Twilight, like 2 of the others before sat up bolt right, sweat on her brow, she looked around seeing her younger brother playing scrabble with her niece and getting trounced by said Kirin.

“How did you even know dactylion was a word, I bet Twilight doesn’t even know what that is!” Spike exclaimed.

“It’s the tip of the middle digit of the hand, you would know that if you paid attention during study time instead of reading comics.”Twilight spoke up, gaining their attention.

Spike rolled his eyes, “Well excuse me if learning about the anatomy of a gran sea goliath emperor cucumber is super boring, despite sounding super cool.”

Twilight just snorted in response, “Where are…”

“Downstairs, kitchen, water, headaches.” Spike said, returning to his game, playing a word only to be immediately countered and shouting out in frustration.

Twilight ignored the going ons of those two for the time being and headed downstairs to meet the rest of her friends that were awake, “Hi, how were your dreams?”

“Got headbutted into next week by something that could keep up with a god powered me, so ya know… kinda ego draining.” Rainbow said nonchalantly picking up her head before slamming it back onto the table, letting out a groan of regret.

“Got mah pride rightfully walloped mahself, sucker packs a mean grapple and slam combo.” AJ said, slumping into the chair.
“Oh, mine was fine darling, had a bit of a chat came to see that the power wasn’t for me, how about you?” Rarity asked her purple friend.

Twilight sat at the table looking at the earth pony and pegasus with understanding in her eyes yet when she looked at rarity it was slight envy, before it vanished with a sigh, “Had a magic battle.”

The three looked at her wide eyed, “And he won?” Rainbow asked, now fully sitting up.

Twilight nodded, “Though not without help from Luna.” she explained with a slight smirk.

“Well, that is most certainly unexpected, just how powerful is Christopher?” Rarity asked, and at that Twilight did not have an answer for

Author's Note

I SPOKE TOO SOON... things got a lot worse in my life real quick, it's whatever though. Imma keep writing... it clears my head, vents my issues.

So, here's the song that would've played if he fought Rarity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtKCNJmARF0

36: Do Dragons Dream of Burning Sheep Finale

Author's Note

Sorry its been so long, anyways this chapter is why Im going to change it from teen to mature, it's going to get a lot... more everything and there is a chapter later that isn't the most family friendly, sorry all. Hope you enjoy

36: Do Dragons Dream of Burning Sheep Finale

I looked around at the scenery we were brought into, it was next to a forest that had a tree that looked very familiar in the distance… wait is that? “Huh, she must really miss this place if she dreams about it.”

“Oh, we are figuring you know who’s dream this is then, since we were flung into it by happenstance from the collapse of Magic’s dream, would you believe us if we told you that was wielded by Celestia?” Luna asked.

I nodded, “Makes sense, no offense but she raises the sun, and it is a tad bit larger than the moon… by a lot.” I said that last bit quietly.

Luna harrumphed but said nothing in response, “Well since we are here, we might as well tell you who this element belonged to.”

“Celestia I’m guessing?” I countered before she could say anything, at which she pouted, “What? She’s kind enough as is these days, it makes the most sense, again no offense, but you’d sooner charge into battle with an axe wearing a stethoscope and you’d probably shout ‘HUZZAH’ or something.”

Luna blinked in utter surprise and mild fear, “How did you know about Dr. Choppy?”

“Dr. what? Anyways, since it’s these two last I’m a bit more invested in stopping them from becoming corrupted, come on, She can’t be far, probably taking care of some animals.” I said, making my way quickly to the house.

As we rounded the corner of the tree… do trees have corners? We saw an unusual sight.

Luna snickered, “Seems like the animals, or animal in this case, are taking care of her.” She said as we saw a massive Angel Bunny running a brush through her hair, her cooing happily at the treatment, “Seems sometimes she’s the one who likes being treated like the pet.”

“I know she does.” I said quietly.

“What was that dear nephew?” Luna asked in a voice that was way too innocent for my liking.

I quickly stepped forward away from her, “N-Nothing!” I said just as quickly, too quickly, thankfully a distraction just showed up, “Look the Tantabus!” I said pointing at the dark figure that had much more defining features now, instead of just a mass of stars as the face she had a proper face, although it was still slightly transparent and stars were still flowing around her now visible skin. She, yes I’m calling the Tantabus a she now because its been taking on the form of a female for a while now but since it’s so close to looking like a living creature might as well give it a gender. Anyways, she was now more proportioned out having been inside of twilight’s body, so that was neat, she also looked a breath more intelligent, not that she looked stupid but, that’s besides the point.

“I feel like we should be stopping her.” I spoke out, and yet we did nothing as the Tantabus took over the massive Angel Bunny turning him into some weird dragon bunny hybrid.

“Huh actually quite fitting if you ask me, little bugger is a devil if he doesn’t like you or trust you.” I was about to step into the scene before Shy saw what happened to her beloved pet, but I was a hair too late and she turned around as the brush turned into sharp claws across her scalp.

“Oh my…” And quickening my pace, “You must be the Tantabus, would you care to talk?”

Demon Bunny looked down at her confused and hesitant but nodded and left the bunny’s body, leaving normal Angel behind, well as normal as a two story tall rabbit could be.

Shy looked at the Tantabus in her true form. “Well, you are quite pretty, though you don’t seem bad. So, if you don’t mind me asking, why are you haunting all our dreams, giving us nightmares?”

The Tantabus was beyond stunned this was the second being to ask her why she did what she did and not try and punch her in the face with no provocation, of course the last time this happened she was blasted in the shoulder so she was understably wary, “I… I was created to do this. TO create nightmares, to torture ponies.”

Shy nodded along as she listened, “I heard, though I think it was wrong of the princess to create life to do just that I still believe it’s up to you to change that, after all, you could’ve done so much more than make Angel look scary couldn’t you?”

Tantabus smirked, “Easily, I could’ve lined your dream with the worst eldritch horrors your mind could come up with and some it could never even begin to comprehend, I could have broken your mind to an irreparable degree, made you a vegetable for life.”

Fluttershy just smiled motherly in response, “Because that’s what you were made to do and there is nothing wrong with that, and yet, you didn’t do it, nor did you do it to any of the others I’m assuming, since Chris would not like any of that.”

Tantabus blinked, “You… are a very intuitive pony, and yes you are correct I very easily could have… but something about that male for everyone has put a damper on the real power I could use to end him. I wish I could figure out what it was.”

“Oh I can answer that for you, if you would like.” Shy offered.

Tantabus raised an eyebrow, “Yes I would like that…. Please?” She asked hesitantly.

“It’s love, not all the same kind though mind you, I think, and these are just guesses. Who have you gone to before me?”

Tantabus paused in thought, “Shadow Bolt, Timber Jack, Nightmarity, Midnight Sparkle.” She listed off the ponies.

“I see, well let’s go in order, Rainbow Dash is most likely love in a friendly rival sort of way, she wants to prove she can beat him, she knows he wasn’t going at 100% even if she won’t confront him about it.” In the distance I winced at that, she knew? Crap.

“Apple Jack, I feel is more love for us and what he means to everyone more so than for herself, don’t get me wrong, she likes Chris, but I’d say out of everyone, those two have the least amount of interactions.”

“Rarity and Chris, have a strong friendship, one he’s admitted to not expecting to form at all, and maybe on her end there is a bit of a crush, they all might have some level of crush on him actually. Sorry, I’m getting off topic, she loves him for his ability to test her ability to design around such and ever changing body shape as well as work on clothes for a royal since Twilight won’t let her make clothes for her.”

“Twilight, is the exception to the crush thing, She’s his sister… through adoption and marriage, so it’s sisterly love, but love nonetheless.”

“That explains why even full powered with dark magic behind it felt like it still wouldn’t end him.” Tantabus interjected, “What about you, the last one, and the one that resides in his head?”

Fluttershy mouthed that last part before understanding what she meant, “Oh you must mean Ixis, to be honest I’m not sure, but I think she sees him as her son, so once again family love. As for Pinkie and I, we love him the same way for different reasons. If you’d like, you can possess me if it would make it easier to understand.”

Once again Tantabus was stunned, absolutely flabbergasted, but she didn’t pass up an opportunity when it showed up, so she took possession of the usually timid pegasus, as before Fluttershy grew in height, if only slightly, her wings became larger than they already were, her coat turning a warm shade of orange and her hair and tail turning rust red, also it did not go unnoticed that her bust increased in size as well. She was only in her for a grand total of 20 seconds before she popped out with a defeated sigh, she now looked more whole, with a much more ample bust to boot.

“I see… you wish to fix him… no not fix, balance him out. Care for him.” Tantabus said.

Shy nodded, now back to normal, though her clothes were stretched and a bit loose on her now, “We all do, some of us more than others, myself probably the greatest, he’s been hurt quite a bit in the past and nearly died for us, we’d do anything to help him.”

Tantabus nodded once more, solemnly, “I understand. It’s a noble thing to do, a kind thing to do, a generous thing to do, a loyal thing to do, an honest thing to do, a magical thing to accomplish, but it can only be fully done with laughter in his life.” She turned and tore a hole into the next dream.

Shy looked at her, “You aren’t going to hurt them are you?”

“I do not wish to anymore, but if they get in the way of my goal again I may have no choice.”

“And what is your goal?”

Tantabus turned towards the pegasus, a sad smile on her face, but a hopeful gleam in her eyes, “To become my own. Christopher… Mother, I know you are there, I know you have been the entire time, if you wish to end this, meet me in Laughter’s dream.” And with that she was gone.

We walked up to shy who was still sitting in the grass but happily smiled up at me, “Hello Christopher, Princess Luna.”

I kneeled down, and tried not to look down her loose shirt, though it was something she was well used to me doing at this point, but ya know trying to be modest for my Aunt, “You ok Shy?”

“Oh yes, quite ok, thank you for asking though. Are you going after the Tantabus, she doesn’t seem so bad, more sad than anything.” She said.

I nodded in agreement, “Yeah, I noticed, and yes we are going after her, but I have… an idea on how to help. Just wake up and go join the girls, we have a few things left to take care of.”

“Okay, just be careful, I love you.” She said before fading away to wake up, sending Luna and I into the void between dreams.

I turned to my aunt, “So…. what do we do? We can’t get rid of her. Not anymore, not after that.”

Luna rubbed her temples, “We know we know, we just don’t know what to do about it.”

“Well I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time to figure it out in Pinkie’s dream, come on.” I said as the next and last door appeared.

We stepped through and found ourselves in an ever expanding field of grass and flowers, in the distance we saw myself, Fluttershy, Goldy, Pinkie and two more smaller Kirin, one a deep red and the other a very pale shade of blue running around chasing one another. That scene hit me hard that’s what Pinkie saw our kids looking like.

“Oh Pinks….” I said quietly, though my musings were cut short by a voice next to me.

“Beautiful isn’t it.”

I turned my head to see it came from Tantabus, who was looking at the scene with sparkling violet eyes and slit pupils, fur that was midnight blue leading up into her hair, horn, and feathers which tapered off into lighter blue, her hair having swirls of stars fading into nothing, though she still looking slightly transparent, still not whole.

“So… you said this is where we end this, what did you mean by that?” I asked her.

She sighed, never taking her eyes off the scene, “That depends on you two, either you kill me or you help me, either way is a win-win I suppose depending on how you look at it.”

That didn’t sit comfortably with me, “Why do you want to be your own?”

At that she looked at me, her gaze intense, “Do you have any idea what being created to torture, to bring pain and suffering is like?” I had no response to that so I opted to say nothing, “Of course not, it’s not fun, but I can’t blame the one who created me, after all she felt it was a just way to atone for sins that were not her own.” Luna winced at that, “But that is neither here nor there, the reason I want to be my own is I want to get away from that, going after the element bearers has… opened up my eyes to what I could be instead of what I was made to be or what others see me as. However I never had a real way to achieve my goal from the start, to be honest my only plan was to give creatures nightmares so horrid and foul that Mother would have no choice but to listen to my demands and figure out a way to give me my own life, however that plan backfired thanks to you, you very strange creature. So now I am at a loss at what to do.”

I stared at her before pulling her into a hug, Tantabus blushed, I could feel the heat radiate off of her somehow, “W-what are you doing?”

“Giving you a hug, it makes others feel better, you can ask Pinkie about it if you want.” I looked up at Luna, not letting go of Tantabus, who was wiggling against my grasp, “Can you give her her own life, her own being?”

Luna pondered that question for a moment but before she got to answer the skies turned pitch black and a loud heart shattering scream of despair came from the pink pony in the distance.

I looked down at Tantabus, “Are you doing this?”

“N-No I wouldn’t, I don’t want to do this anymore.” She said, clearly upset about this herself.

“She’s correct nephew, this is Laughter’s own mind and I know all too well how a nightmare can corrupt laughter, listen.” Luna said, prompting us to listen closer, under the howling wind and rustling grass we hear quiet, broken, maniacal laughter.

“Can’t you help her Luna?”

“Nay, we may not be holding 7 dreams together but any interruption in our concentration more than to fire small bolts of magic would send us to your mindscape and leave this one to torment until we could locate her in the dreamscape.”

I looked at Tantabus once more, “Can you help her, please? I don’t know if I can snap her out of this.” She nodded in response, turning into a black smoke cloud and taking control of Pinkie, and for a solid minute there was silence, we thought it worked, we were wrong.

The sky shook with thunder as the laughing only grew louder and worse and Pinkie transformed, her body like the others growing in size, her hair straightened out, and nearly blood red, her coat however stayed the bright pink it normally was, her cutie mark on the other hand transformed from three balloons into 3 spiked flails, noticeably her uh… cutie marks, looked bigger too, yup her cutie marks.

“Oh fantastic.” I deadpanned, I walked up to the deranged pony, “Hey, it’s me Chrissy, your soon to be husband?”

“Oh hi Chrissy… wait no that doesn’t sound right… I mean DIE chrissy!!!” She shouted out before smacking me into the ground with a spiked hammer.

I slowly pulled myself out of the crater, “Ok that’s new, why do you have a hammer?”

“Why, didn’t you know? All the insane pink haired girls have hammers!!” She said, this time slamming the hammer in my side, sending me skipping across the ground like a rock over water.

I finally skidded to a halt, spitting out chunks of dirt and grass, “Ok, she’s stronger than Apple Jack and somehow faster than Rainbow Dash… not fun…. Not fun at all…” Then I blinked, “DID YOU JUST REFERENCE WHAT I THINK YOU DID?!” I shouted out at her, “BAD PINKIE, BAD!!”

In a split second she was in front of me, grinning in such a way that would haunt until I died, hell probably after too, hey I just noticed she isn’t fast she’s using her weird powers to warp…. Fucking bullshit chaos control is what that is.

Pinkie tilted her head while still smiling, “No… not Pinkie Pie.”

“Let me guess Pinkie Die, or Painful Pie.” I suggested.

She actually smiled wider at that, a small demonic giggle coming out her throat, “You’re cute but no, I was thinking, Slaughter, after all you can’t spell it without LAUGHTER!!” And right on cue a lightning bolt struck behind her, rattling the ground and sending chunks of topsoil everywhere, “And you my, delicious snack.” She said, loling out a tongue that would put venom to shame, licked up my neck and across my face, “Shall be my first plaything.”

I blinked, “You know… I should be absolutely terrified by this and yet…”

Slaughter looked down, instantly catching what I was saying before smirking, “Maybe little dragon, if you survive this, Pinkie will be willing to indulge you in that.”

I swallowed some spit that pooled in my throat before I was slammed back into the ground by my throat, “Fair enough.” I coughed out, holding up a hand, “Though, this wasn’t fair….”

“All is fair in love and and this happens to be both, so prepare yourself for the worst monster you have ever seen!” She shouted out, simply floating into the air, before summoning a hammer that was far too large for any reasonable usage, this did not however stop her from being it down upon me several times.

However after a few minutes of this passed, she stopped, “Fight back damn you! FIGHT BACK!” She said bringing down the hammer one more time, only this time, instead of opting to being a nail in a wooden plank I caught it dead on.

“I’m not going to fight you Pinkie, I love you too much for that.” I told her, hearing her voice hitch and the wicked smile vanish into a grimace.

“I SAID FIGHT BACK!! KILL ME LIKE THE MONSTER I AM!!! Please… I don’t deserve love….” At this she ripped the hammer from my hand and lifted it above her once more, nearly quintupling it in size before dropping it down upon me one last time, her face stained with tears.

I growled, my fist came up fast and hard, harder than it ever has before and completely obliterated the hammer into nothing, “No.” was all I said.

“Y-you destroyed it.” She stammered out.

I flew up to her, “I did, and everything it stood for, your fears, your pain, your hatred, your sorrows, your worries, everything you hate about yourself was in that hammer and I destroyed it. And I’ll do it again as many times as it takes.” I hugged her tightly, not letting her go, never letting her go.

She finally let go, the darkness faded and Tantabus was finally free, she gave me an apologetic look but I just gave her a look saying it wasn’t her fault. Pinkie cried in my arms for what felt like hours but it was only minutes before she sniffled and wiped her eyes clear.

“Thank you Chrissy.” She said, nuzzling my chest.

“Of course Pinks”

“Soooo about Slaughter and that particular thing….” She trailed off. I leaned in close to her and whispered something, “WHAT I THOUGHT THAT WAS YOUR ARM OR YOUR TAIL!!” I whispered in her ear again, “TWO?! PINKIE WANT!” Once more a whisper, “Oooohhh sounds fun.” She said with a happy shiver, and one more whisper, “But I’ve been saying all this out loud which is super embarrassing as your aunt is right there and the Tantabus is fanning herself heavily?”

I sighed, “Yes Pinkie, now wake up before you dig yourself into a deeper hole.”

Pinkie nodded and grinned before fading away shouting, “I WANT YOU TO GET DEEP IN MY HOLE!!!”

I smacked myself in the face and groaned, “I walked into that one….” Before I had time to even be properly embarrassed we were flung back into my mind scape, Tantabus on board too.

After we recovered from that Ixis cleared her throat, “Well that was interesting, so what do we do about her?” I gave her a grateful glance for changing any possible other subject.

“Well we have an idea but it would take a lot of magic and dream power, specifically the entire town of Ponyville.” Luna stated, “However, it would take some time to connect that many mindscapes.”

“Couldn’t you just use mine as an anchor again?” I asked.

“Nah, this only worked so well because of how you are connected to the girls.” The Tantabus explained, though she got glares from both Luna and Ixis, “Wait he doesn’t know? He has the right to know.” She looked at the pair before sighing and shrugging, “Fine, whatever.”

“Anyways as she said you have a strong connection with the element bearers and holding the entire town tied to your mind would shatter even our sister’s mindscape, no we shall use ourselves as the anchor, though it will be taxing on us but it should suffice to get enough magic and dream magic to form a way for The Tantabus to ‘become her own’ as she says.” Luna said.

“Right well now that that’s settled, out of his head please time to wake up.” Ixis said too quickly.

~Back in the waking world a few minutes prior~

“Woah nelly, two?” AJ asked, making Pinkie nod.

“How big?” Rainbow asked, Pinkie gestured to her arm in length and held her hands in a wide circle for girth making Rainbow whistle at the impressive size.

“To be fair darling's it could have just been because of the dream.” Rarity spoke up, bringing the heated mood down at the thought.

However Fluttershy spoke up, “A-Actually they’re slightly bigger than that.”

“WHAT?!” They all cried out, except Twilight who buried her head in her hands and folded her wings above her head, trying to block out as much sound as she could, it wasn’t working.

Fluttershy stammered, “A-About 5 inches longer on the top one and 3 inches on the bottom and about the same thickness for both but thicker than Pinkie described.”

“Holy Moly Guacamole!!” Pinkie shouted, wiggling in her chair.

“Hoo doggy, but… I dun figured we’d see any of it by now, I ain’t gonna lie I got curious to what humans looked like in their skimpy so I looked in a book and they didn’t seem like they had 2 let alone anything that…. Impressive. They also don’t got sheaths like Stallions do to hide all their bits.” AJ said, garnering looks from everyone, to which she just shrugged, “Oh like none of you was curious.” They had no response to that, not even Twilight, but her curiosity was purely scientific, nothing more he was her brother after all.

“You know… now that I think about it all the times I measured Christopher I think I would’ve seen or at least, and pardon the language, Celestia damn felt something.” Rarity said.

Rainbow looked at her long time friend, “Yeah Shy what’s up with that?”

“Oh… well he has a slit that they hide in until he’s… ready.” She explained.

“Wait… Chris has a cloaca?” Twilight asked.

Shy shook her head, “No, no excrement comes out of it, just his… things.”

Twilight nodded, “Right he’s a dragon or part dragon, I honestly shouldn’t even be surprised.” At that they all looked at her, to which she gave them a dead panned stare, “I live with a teenage dragon who sleeps until 4 in the afternoon so sometimes when I come to wake him up I see things I’m not supposed to, also, he likes to think he’s slick with hiding his… ‘comic books’.”

“That… actually makes sense.” AJ said.

“Of course it does, what did you think I peeped on either of them? Ew no, they may not be blood related to me but I do NOT think of them like that, especially Spike, ew gross no thank you.” She stuck out her tongue and shuddered in disgust, “Anyways, I’m assuming it happened with one of his ice splosions, but the question is which one.”

“The first one.” Shy answered, “He didn’t notice due to all the panic until days after, which is surprising because I guess he didn’t use the restroom or was so out of it he didn’t notice, but one morning he woke up screaming about a giant snake in the bed while I was downstairs. I thought that was strange because Ms. Titano went to Hollow Shades to be with her Family but I ran upstairs to check and their he was staring shocked at well… his giant snake and then I guess seeing me made his second one show and he fainted… mostly from shock, not blood flow.”

“Oh…” Was all anyone could say before Pinkie finally connected something, “Wait… he’s been plowing you with those monsters for years.”

“No wonder your delivery was so easy, even for a pony, you were taking something twice the size of Goldy when she was first came out.” Rainbow said.

“Four times actually.” Shy squeaked out.

“Wait four times… you took both… at the same time… in the same? Damn Shy, I’m impressed but also confused, I’ve seen you naked when we change at the gym, you don’t look wrecked at all which I thought was strange even after having Goldy.” Dash said.

“Oh… yeah that runs in my family for the mares, we stretch a lot and snap back just as easily. I think it’s because one of my great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great grandmothers was a dragon or something just as large, no idea.” Shy said.

“Ok well we learned quite a bit about our friends today and I think Pinkie should probably take a shower before she leaves and you should burn that chair Rarity.” Twilight said, before footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs.

“Hey girls what's all the convo about?” Chris asked, walking to the fridge and grabbing the pitcher of water and pouring himself a glass of water, which instantly chilled as it hit the glass.

Rarity gave him a well practiced smile, “Oh nothing that need worry you Christopher, just mare talk.”

He shrugged and finished off his glass of water, “Alright, well I’m heading home, I’m tired, Luna should be able to fill you in, Shy see if Goldy wants to and could stay with Auntie Twilight. Oh and a few things, Shy squeaks and a lot like a chew toy being messed with, and hell she likes being a chew toy. Has a thing for predator and prey. Also… something smells like cotton candy… I bet it would taste…. Delicious.” He said with a low rumbling growl, enough to shake certain ponies to their bone, following with a heavy slap of his tail against the floor, “Anyways, I’ll see you girls later.” With that he left the boutique.

“Crap, forgot he had better hearing than most.” AJ said blushing deeply, the others nodding before Twilight just groaned in annoyance and sunk lower in her seat.

Shy was just making quiet squeaking noises and was pinker than Pinkie or would be if Pinkie wasn’t a deep shade of red and having steam come out her ears, “Pinkie…. Want….”

Luna came down the stairs looking at the scene in utter bewilderment but explained the plan nonetheless. The girls left to their devices, all but one, flustered to an extent, Twilight took Goldy and Spike to the castle and Pinkie and Shy left to go see Chris.

That night next to none of Ponyville slept for several hours except for the foals, one very heavy sleeper of a dragon, and one librarian who had good sense to soundproof her rooms.

~The next evening~

“Greetings everyone, we hope you are ready for tonight.” Princess Luna said, addressing the Elements, Chris, Goldy, and Spike.

“Ready as ever Moon Pie.” PInkie said wobbling a bit.

“Are you ok Miss Pie?” The moon deity asked the baker.

“Yepperoni, just a bit wobbly from last night still.” Pinkie explained, though the real meaning was lost on Luna, who responded in a way that only those in the know would find amusing.

“Indeed, your trials the prior night are not any I would wish on even my worst foes.” Luna said in agreement. Rainbow snorted at that.

“I hope not, if it could put me through the wringer not many ponies would be able to handle such an insurmountable feat.” Pinkie replied, not missing up on the opportunity. Apple Jack giggled at that.
“Quite, it seemed to be a long and hard battle you fought through for quite some time, and we won’t lie, it will be an even longer and harder battle going forward, but you shall have Christopher and The Shy One to help you take it all in at your own pace and move on from it feeling better than ever.” Luna side with a supportive smile. And at that the Earth Pony farm mare and the Rainbow dyed pegasus bursted into full guffaws on the ground with Pinkie grinning from ear to ear. Shy on the other hand was blushing profusely and even Rarity was tittering.

“Ok ok, enough pulling a prank on the modernly inept moon goddess, we have a job to do tonight.” I said, finally deciding enough was enough.

“We do not understand what was so humorous we were just wishing our future niece in law the best of luck in her recovery from last night’s endeavors.” Luna said confused as she was led away from the group to the center of town, at which the entire group, save Goldy and Spike who were just as lost, broke down and laughed so hard they started crying.

30 minutes after they recovered mostly, Rainbow was still complaining her sides hurt, we were all within the dream realm with the rest of town, Luna was in a sphere of pure dream magic, connecting everyone to her, so I guess it was my job to address the crowd, I cleared my throat and gained the attention of the town I called home.

“Attention creatures of Ponyville!” I called out, getting several his and hellos back, “It's good to see you all, and first I would like to formally apologize for last night.” The adults there blushed, some were mad, others were whatever, most were jealous. HA, “Anyways Princess Luna has gathered you here tonight to help with a dilemma that only we can, her daughter is in a bit of a pickle.”

“She has a daughter?”

“Since when?”

“Who is she?”

“What’s wrong?”

“Is she single?”

“Is she? What? I mean technically yes, anyways, that is her over there, Her name is Tan…. I mean…. Dawning Light or just Dawn… she has been trapped in the dream realm for some time now and Princess Luna has recently figured out a way to free her but we need your help to do it, we need you to dream your wildest dreams and aim whatever energy that creates at her, with any luck, mixing it with the elements of harmony, or what power they left behind will be enough to free her, are you ready to help your princess reclaim something that was lost to her?!” I called out, looking at the newly christened dawn who just beamed at the name.

“YES!”

“YEEEEAAAAHHHH!!!!”

“EEEEEEYYYUUUPP!”

“Alright Ponyville… I know we don’t get to say this often and not have collateral with it but go buck wild!” I shouted out. And one by one each pony let their wildest dreams and fantasies happen, thankfully none of them…. Raunchy. I think, that Jam Pony is really fucking weird.

I flew down to Dawn, “How’s it coming?”

“I… I don’t… oh thats…. Tingly.” She said as she started to glow.

“Good good, that’s…. That’s…. Lyra and Bon Bon literally joined at the hip.” I cocked my head to the side, “HEY YOU TWO, I KNOW YOU’RE MARRIED BUT THAT’S RIDICULOUS WHERE DO YOU EVEN…. YOU KNOW WHAT NEVER MIND, DON’T NEED YOU THINKING ABOUT IT CUZ THEN IT’LL JUST HAPPEN, HAVE FUN... or whatever.” I said as they shrugged and ran (scuttled) off?

I looked around and saw filthy rich flying by on a cloud of money shooting money beams at… are those evil coin purses? What? Wait is that… is Big Mac a princess, is that Knight Spike riding on his back, what is he holding is that cane with Twilight’s head on it? Before I could question that further a Muffin with grey wings flew by… I just…. Huh? Then a deafening roar echoed through the streets and a massive dragon stood gazing down at everything before it spotted me and waved happily and called out in a booming voice, “Hi daddy, mommy, momma Pinkie.” Before stomping off into the distance.

“Ok before this gets crazier.” A loud explosion went off behind me and a giant snail made of scissors slithered by, “Like I was saying before this gets any crazier are you good Dawn?”

“YEP!” Her voice echoed. I gave the girls a thumbs up and they gave me a nod, summoning their ‘Rainbow Power’ as Spike called, but it quickly faded away and reformed into the elements themselves before firing off the Rainbow of Harmony towards Dawn however , nothing happened.

“Ok what is going on?” I asked loudly.

“Must be Luna she must still be holding onto her past and her mistakes, it’s keeping me tied to the dream realm.” Dawn explained, her voice all distorted.

I sighed and walked over to Luna, tapping on her bubble, “Hey Moon Butt, you gotta let go of this self hatred and self loathing for a mistake you didn’t do, something that happened in the past.”

Luna winced and strained in pain against the amount of effort this took for even her, “We…. cannot…. we still have yet….. to atone for what…. we have done.”

I shoved my hand through her bubble and slapped her, “Sorry to pop your bubble, literally Princess, but look around you, you have the town of the most skittish ponies on the planet willingly helping you save your ‘long lost’ daughter when literally 2 years ago they still thought you were Nightmare Moon proper, and Dawn looks like Nightmare Moon with hair dye thrown in there. And that's the thing, she’s your daughter, you created a life, intentionally or not through your past mistakes, hell she is your past mistakes incarnate but she's trying to be more than that.

Can you really sit here and let yourself sulk about the past, about your failures, and the failures of others when your literal living breathing failure is trying to be more than the only thing she knows she is? Is that fair to her, is it fair to you?”

Luna looked at Dawn, at the conglomeration of her failures, she almost put her Ponies in danger once more with the Tantabus, she truly did not learn. But here it was, a new name, one of hope and a bright future, trying it’s… no her best to be more than she was born as… she was all Luna hoped and wished to be. Luna looked at her hard and deep and realized that yes, this WAS… no IS her daughter and she loves her, for if not for her she would not be who she is today. With one last sigh Princess Luna closed her eyes and finally, truly forgave herself and then, the world went white.

37: A new family is born and there's a man who will do whatever it takes to protect it

I sat in the throne room with Celestia, sipping on some lemonade while she did the same but with tea instead, “I have no idea how you drink that foul stuff.” I told her looking at her cup in disgust.

She smirked, “I don’t know how you don’t drink it, it’s quite calming.”

I rolled my eyes, “It tastes exactly like what it is, leaf water, if I wanted to do that I’d go lick at a puddle after a rainstorm.”

“Harsh, but I would expect no less from you, we have this conversation every time I drink tea with you.” She said taking another sip before setting her cup down, “So, is everything going according to plan?”

I shrugged, “No idea, everyone told me to leave it to them and go enjoy the majority of the day, I tried to help but I got kicked out several times by Rarity of all people, would you believe that?”

“Oh, most certainly, that mare has a fire and drive for romance and the drama it brings, I wouldn’t be surprised if she became the princess of drama.”

I snorted lemonade out my nose, “Fuck, really, mid sip? Ass, but yeah, so that’s why I’m here, you know that and I’m not allowed to see the brides at all today until the wedding soooo ech.”

“Hm, well that’s silly why not?”

I sighed, “They found out it’s a tradition for some back on my home world and thought it was super romantic, and one guy versus twelve girls. Also Cadance found out, once she showed up I just left, no point in fighting a losing war.”

Celestia laughed at that, “Smart move. So what are you going to do for the rest of the day until your wedding, I have to get ready for it as well you know.”

“I know, I was going to check up on Luna and Dawn to be honest, how are you handling that by the way?”

“I’ll admit it was a bit strange seeing Luna come home, half drained of all her power, with another alicorn that looked like a less corrupted Nightmare Moon, but she is a sweet girl, a lot like Luna if she was born in this era. It’s nice to have a niece from her.” Celestia said as she stood up, “Well I must get ready, I haven’t been this excited for a wedding since Cadance’s… I just hope it doesn’t end up like hers…” With that she went off to do whatever she had to to get ready.

I in turn got up to go and see Dawn and Luna, it didn’t take me long to find Luna’s room as it was in the darkest section of the castle, and most thought it was due to her being a princess of the night and needing to hold up an image, the truth is that the sun never reached this part of the castle so she could sleep all day. I knocked on the ornate doors and after hearing a “you may enter” I came into the room.

As I closed the door and had a chance to look around I saw Dawn, who looked exactly like she did in the dreamscape, “Oh good you’re here, help me get mother out of bed and please get her pet out of my tail.” She said, looking back at her tail, a possum’s head sticking out to look at who entered the room.

I kneeled down, “Hey Tibbles, come here.” I said rubbing my fingers together and clicking my tongue. He waddle his way over to me, up my tail and rested on my shoulders, on top of the arms of my wings, his favorite spot, I scratched under his chin, which he enjoyed immensely, “Did you ask him nicely to move? Unlike his caretaker he’s pretty reasonable about requests.”

Dawn sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose, “No, I didn’t I’ve been trying to wake mother up all day, but she won’t budge.” She explained, prodding Luna, who shuffled a bit but then settled back down.

I scratched my chin in thought, “Huh, I see, here, let me show you a trick I learned when she visited the Crystal Empire, why you don’t know this, beats me, you were made from her.”

“Hey, I didn’t get every memory ok?” She said with a huff.

I rolled my eyes and walked over to Luna, “Hey, Celestia drank the last of your Purr-Ruvian special blend.” I told her.

At that she sat up straight, “We shall banish her to the sun for her crimes against the New Lunar Republic!” She shouted out, trying to get out of bed quickly only to get tangled in her sheets and fall flat on the floor.

Dawn snickered at that and I just shook my head, thankfully Luna smacking her face on the floor properly woke her up, “Huh, oh, nephew, daughter what brings you to my chambers?” She asked after spotting us, looking around.

I helped her out of her situation to which she thanked curtly. Due to her draining most of her power from the shenanigans a couple nights ago she looked different. She shrunk, in every way, and her hair was cut short and was a pale blue, other than that though, she was the same Luna.

“I was trying to wake you up for the past 3 hours and you wouldn’t budge until my cousin showed up. Thank you by the way.” She said nodding to me.

“No problem, hi Luna, today is the day, remember, you need to be up to get ready for my wedding.” I told her.

Her eyes widened in realization, “Oh, we completely forgot about that, we have been quite busy getting the paperwork done to make Dawn my official, ‘long lost daughter.’”

“Understandable, do you uh, have anything suitable for a wedding in your… uh, current state?” I asked her.

“Our current…? Oh you mean our recessed state? Quite, many a garment were made for me when I was this size over a millenia ago, we are quite sure they are still around and we can get the royal seamstresses to make adjustments if necessary.” She reassured me, beckoning Tiberius over to her.

“Ok, but what about me, I don’t have anything to wear.” Dawn said, clearly annoyed.

“Oh posh, you are about the size we were in our normal state, well except for your bust... that is considerably larger.”

Dawn sputtered in embarrassment, “Mother, not in front of him, he’s my cousin, and not like I can help it, I took on the traits of those I possessed.”

Luna smirked, not missing an opportunity to mess with anyone, “He is not your cousin by blood, I’m sure it’ll be fine, and that’s an easy enough fix regardless, you and I shall visit the seamstresses together.”

I just kinda sat there listening to the conversation, ‘What even did I just witness?’

+A mother picking on her daughter in front of a cute boy.+ Ixis said.

‘Yeah but I’m her nephew and Dawn’s cousin.’

I felt Ixis shrug, +Like she said, not by blood though.+

I groaned and ran my hand down my face, “Anyways, since you two seem fine and you have what you need to do today, I’ll take my leave.” I told them, even though they were still going back and forth, so I just left and closed the door. I stood there for a few minutes before I had a dawning realization, “FUCK!”

~Back in Ponyville with the girls~

Pinkie was pacing back and forth in really nothing but her underwear as Rarity tailored her dress and made some last minute adjustments, “Oh no oh no oh no oh no, what if he says no, or what if he doesn’t show up, or what if the cake explodes and coats everything in cake and he gets mad and calls it off, what if Fluttershy is actually secretly evil and has been planning this all along? WHAT IF I’M SECRETLY EVIL AND HAVE BEEN PLANNING THIS ALL ALONG?! OH NO THAT WOULD BE HORRIBLE!”

Rarity shook her head at her friend’s nonsense, “Pinkie, dear, I’m quite sure you would know if you were evil.” She took the pins out of the dress and stood up, dusting herself off, “Now come try your dress on and let me see how it looks.” Pinkie nodded and got dressed, Rarity looked it over, idly chewing on a pin she had in her mouth, normally she would ask spike or Goldy to be her pin cushion, it doesn’t hurt them and it’s apparently relaxing as it gets hard to reach spots under their scales, “Hmmmm I see, a few more adjustments. No need to get undressed it shall only take a moment.” She told her Pink friend.

“I knew it, I’m too fat, I’m not pretty enough, I mean look at Fluttershy she was a model, TWICE! And I’m just the pudgy baker who lives in a house made of gingerbread.” Pinkie whined.

“Wait made of gingerbread? I thought that was just an aesthetic choice.”

“Oh, no after the parasprite incident we redid the roof as gingerbread that never goes bad or stale, it's fun to just break chunks off in the middle of the night for a snack… like the fatty fat fatty I am….”

Rarity paused from adjusting the dress and looking up at Pinkie, nearly glaring, “Pinkie, hush, you are a beautiful mare, you’re barely bigger than I am and that’s due to how you run around like crazy nearly everywhere, if anything I’d say you managed to have the weight hit the right places. The entire town knows Christopher agrees if that night was anything to go by. Honestly, I’m quite jealous, I need to work meticulously to even have the figure I have, you just get it. And besides every stallion you’ve dated has wanted to be with you.”

“Until they find out I can’t have foal and then they dump me like a sack of baked bads in the lake.” Pinkie said dejectedly.

“And it has been well established that doesn’t matter to our resident prince, I pray for the day he finds out who your previous suitors were.” Rarity said with a dark chuckle, “My point being Pinkie, you and Fluttershy, I’m envious to admit, have a natural beauty not many mares have, most of us have to work for it, myself included.”

Pinkie sniffled, “Thanks Rarity.”

“Of course darling.” Rarity was about to continue her work before a knock at the door was heard, “Come in, the door is open, though we are closed for business today!” Rarity called out, since her helper wasn’t there today due to the wedding.

The door creaked open as footsteps could be heard getting closer, “Hey Rarity I forgot my Tux for the wedding.” A familiar voice said which caused Rarity’s horn to flare and cover Pinkie with a large sheet.

“Christopher!” Rarity said in a high pitch before she cleared her throat, “I mean Christopher, how lovely to see you, though you know you shouldn’t be in town right now.”

“I know, I know, but I forgot my Tux, do you think I could have it so I could get ready while I’m out?” He asked her.

“Of course dear.” Her horn glowed and a suitcase poof into existence in front of her to which she quickly pushed it into his chest, “Now, shoo shoo, don’t need you seeing either of the brides while you are here.”

Chris caught the suitcase, “Alright alright.” he said not before sniffing the air, “I smell Pinkie, is she here?”

Rarity chuckled, “Not at all, you actually just missed her, but again shoo.”

“Alright, I’ll see you later.” He walked out the door, unfurled his wings, and with a quick flap shot up into the air and headed to Canterlot.

Rarity’s smile dropped and she breathed out a sigh of relief and closed the door, heading back to Pinkie removing the sheet, “Sorry about that couldn’t have him see you, now where were we?”

~At the same time across town~

“So, what are we doing for his bachelor party?” A voice asked.

“You know, I’m not sure what does he even like to do?” Another voice asked.

“No idea, do you know Mac?” one more voice asked.

“Eenope.” A southern voice replied.

“I mean he likes to cook.” The second voice said.

“True, he also likes to eat, like a lot, even out ate Dispo in the mess hall.” The first voice said.

“Probably because he’s a dragon, like me.” The third voice said.

“Eeyup.” The southern voice said.

“So it’s decided, correct?” The first voice asked, getting confirmation from the others.

~In a different room in the castle~

“What are those boys up to?” AJ asked.

“Probably planning out Chris’ bachelor party.” Twilight told her country friend.

“Spike isn’t a kid anymore I feel like he knows that bachelor parties happen before weddings.” Rainbow said.

Twilight sighed, “He does, they all do, very well, but Spike doing it after Shiny’s and Cadance’s wedding, caught on amongst the nobles and now its just the thing to do.”

“Oh… well I guess that makes sense, as long as they don’t do anything dangerous.” Fluttershy said, happy and content as her and the others were getting makeovers, Shy specifically getting more attention.

One certain young kirin noticed a blur of blue shoot by the near by window, leaving towards Canterlot, “Daddy just flew by.” She said to her mother and aunts, and at that moment they had a panicked look on their faces, “I don’t think he saw anything though… he was going really fast, probably trying to get out of Ponyville before auntie Cadance found out.”

They let out a collective sigh of relief before AJ spoke up, “Mighty smart of him, wonder why he was back.”

“Who knows, but I’m going to take a nap while I get my hooves done, oh and please get my frogs, those suits do nothin for support there.” Rainbow said, leaning back and immediately nodding off.

Golden Skies took her aunt’s lead and napped as well, AJ shortly following suit. Fluttershy and Twilight opted to stay awake and talk.

~In another part of town~

Bon Bon was rushing around the kitchen of her store, avoiding her staff and the Cake’s, making sure her special wedding treats were coming out right, “Lyra I have no idea why you offered for us to help the cakes with the catering, we have to get ready for the wedding too ya know!”

Her wife who was watching their foals called from the front, “Not my fault that you decided to try and make a new extravagant candy last minute though!”

Bon Bon rolled her eyes and groaned, “Thank you for helping us Bon Bon, this is going to be the biggest wedding Ponyville has seen and we’ve been commissioned by Christopher as Pinkie’s foster parents to help, triple pay, we couldn’t say no!” Mrs. Cake said giddly.

“Not that we would have said no anyways, it's our Pinkie getting married,” Mr. Cake said, rushing passed both mares. “Though I hope Pound and Pumpkin aren’t giving the Pies too much trouble.”

“I doubt it, that family can put up with Pinkie’s shenanigans, they’ll be fine.” Bon Bon said, before a crash was heard from upstairs, “I hope….” Her eye twitched.

~Zipping across Ponyville~

“Yo Octy!” A white unicorn with two-toned, electric blue hair called out in her house as she kicked the door open and made her way in.
“Vinyl, must you always kick the door open? We’ve had to replace it 3 times from that already.” A very posh voice sounded out from the far side of the living room.

“My bad, but that’s why we got that kick plate installed on this door.” She plopped down on the couch and cracked open a can of Pebis, “So you got anything good for the wedding?”

Octavia Melody ran her hands through her hair in frustration, “Unfortunately I do not, we could just reuse what we did for Cranky and Matilda’s wedding but I feel that would be tacky.”

Vinyl snorted, “Yeah, and I don’t do the same thing when it comes to big events like this, so we gotta come up with something good, something new… I GOT IT!!”

~Somewhere deep within the everfree~

A rumbling was emanating from the depths of a long lost and forgotten cave within this wild forest. Now, many who would accidentally stumble into this cave and make their way out no problem but they wouldn’t be able to find it ever again. Not that they would want to, nothing about the cave was remarkable so it was forgettable… well almost forgettable. Anyone who found the cave said it smelled heavily like sulfur and burning coals, but most assumed it connected to a volcano or a hot spring located deeper in the forest.

They couldn’t’ve been further from, yet closer to the truth. See this thing is, this cave was dug out several millennia ago by a dragon who simply wanted to rest, and now that time was coming to an end and as he was awaking he smelled a very similar scent, one that was similar to the enemies of a war that was long over that he didn’t know was over.

The mountain the cave was under shook violently as a massive drake, one that easily dwarfed any building in Ponyville stood up, dirt, plants, and animals rolling off his back. Slowly he stretched, blink away thousands of years of sleep from his eyes, shook off any remaining debris and started his slow march towards the town at the edge of the forest to take care of an enemy of war.

~A couple of hours later in the wedding hall of Ponyville~

I was standing at the altar and I had a frown on my face… honestly I was fucking nervous, this is the biggest day of my life, I love both of them so why am I so nervous?

“Probably because this IS the biggest day of your life.” Lyra said to me with a snicker.

I looked at her, “I said that out loud, didn't I?”

+Yep, you sure did. Are you going to be ok?+ Ixis asked.

I took a deep breath, “Y-yeah, I’ll be fine, after all, this is the big day.” I looked out into the crowd and all of Ponyville was present, As were the families of all of my friends, the immediate family for Apple Jack because having the entirety of the Apple Clan in one spot would be immense.

The brides had one side and their families were at the front. Shy’s family sans Zephyr Breeze was there, some of them I didn’t recognize but I’d talk to them later. Pinkie’s Family was also on the bride’s side, she also had a much bigger family than I anticipated but her immediate family I recognized.

On the groom’s side in the front sat the entire Sparkle Family, Celestia, Luna, and Dawn. I sent a letter out to Elder Enis as she is technically also family and she said she would be here as soon as she could. Outside of that everyone was dispersed behind the main families on each side, the only people we were waiting for now were the brides.

Luckily I didn’t have to wait much longer as wedding music kicked up and the doors to the hall opened. When Fluttershy and Pinkie stepped through the door my jaw nearly fell from my face. They were absolutely stunning in their dresses. They were being led down the aisle by their respective fathers with Golden Skies walking behind them, gentle tossing down flowers.

I managed to regain my composure as the reached the stairs a wide smile taking over my expression, once they were stood to the opposite of me, their fathers’ took their seats back in the crowd and Goldy went to go sit next to Celestia.

“Welcome, and thank you all for joining us for this joyous occasion. Together, we are gathered here to witness a truly special ceremony: the union of Christopher, Pinkamena Diane Pie, better known as Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy before the Universe and Faust herself.” Began Cadance, “Christopher, Pinkie, and Fluttershy, today we celebrate the power of your love and the strength of your bond. Before we begin, take a moment to look around at the many friendly faces before you. Know that all are here to offer love, support, and encouragement as you embark on this incredible journey together.” She paused and smiled at us.

“There are few greater joys in life than finding someone with whom we truly click. In that spirit, I will now share a short reading on soulmates from author Orchard Reach: ‘A soulmate is someone who has locks that fit our keys, and keys to fit our locks. When we feel safe enough to open the locks, our truest selves step out and we can be completely and honestly who we are; we can be loved for who we are and not for who we're pretending to be. Each unveils the best part of the other. No matter what else goes wrong around us, with that one person we're safe in our own paradise. Our soulmate is someone who shares our deepest longings, our sense of direction. When we're two balloons, and together our direction is up, chances are we've found the right person. Our soulmate is the one who makes life come to life.’ May this ceremony provide you with wonderful memories to look back on and treasure for the rest of your days.” She paused once more to make sure we understood exactly what we meant, mind you I wasn’t paying attention to her too much, my attention was solely on the mares in front of me.

“Now I doubt anyone will have any but if anyone has any cause to object to the forming of this union, speak now or forever hold your peace.” We waited a moment, this one of the few times my gaze shifted towards the crowd, scanning to see if anyone dared to object, luckily no one did.

Cadance’s smile only widened, “Good, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Christopher, as you stand here today before the Universe and Faust, realize that you are preparing to celebrate one of life's greatest gifts, the depths of which you have only begun to explore. Your level of love and commitment is something that many seek, but not everyone finds. The bond you share is a rarity in this world, and its fruits more valuable than any precious stone or metal.

Marriage, of course, is more than a formal exchange of rings. It is a sacred and solemn promise to one another that no matter what, you're in this together. Life is full of surprises – both positive and negative. By nature, it's impossible to know what is around the next bend. However, with a trusted partner by your side, you may take comfort in the unknown. Whatever storms may come, you will weather them together. That is the beauty of love: not only does it cradle us when we are feeling weak and tired, it creates a solid foundation on which we can always rely.

Henceforth, your lives will become permanently intertwined. The union you form today is built to withstand any and all challenges. Through sorrow and joy, through failure and success, through despair and triumph, your bond will persevere – buoyed by the everlasting love you share. With the vows exchanged today, you will both finalize this promise and begin life anew, together.” At our nods she continued, “I’ve been told you have written your own vows. Christopher would you like to go first?”

I smiled and took a deep breath turning my gaze fully to Shy, “Fluttershy, the kindness to my rage. There is so much I wish to say to you, so much I want to convey, but I don’t think the crowd would want to sit here for days on end.” Slight laughter greeted that, “So instead I will say everything I can in the time I’m permitted and hope that I get the chance to say everything I want to and more throughout our lives. Fluttershy, you are honestly one of the greatest things to ever happen to me, you took me into your home when no one else could, you kept me company on my worst days and you’ve loved me despite the things I’ve done and the experiences I’ve had. You took in a broken creature and nursed it back to health, and for that I can never thank you enough for that. You’ve given me the greatest gift I could ever ask for and you’ve trusted me in being a good father. I only hope I can live up to your expectations. I love you Fluttershy and I know you’ll be gone long before I am, but in that time we have I will love you and take care of you with as much passion as I have today.” Shy was doing her absolute best to not cry at that, she was failing but at least they weren't tears of sadness. To be fair I wasn’t doing any better, but I took another calming breath and turned to Pinkie.

“Pinkamena Diane Pie… Pinkie Pie, the laughter to my sorrow. I look at you and I see a mare that would put her happiness aside if it meant her friends would never be sad, I see a mare that would go to the ends of Equestria to make her friends, her family, and even a strange alien smile. But I also see a mare that is hurting so much on the inside that she has no idea what to do. I see a mare that needs love and support from someone who doesn't care what may or may not be wrong with her. I see… me, in you. I see my pain, my flaws, my want to have everything be alright.” I paused, closing my eyes before opening them, a fierce certainty blazing in them, “I promise you, that I will be what makes you sure that things will be alright, I will be the one to pull you out of your darkness, your hurt, your pain.” I took both of their hands in mine and I smiled, a happier smile than I ever have, “Fluttershy, you take care of me and you’ve shown me what true kindness is. Pinkie, you’ve shown me what it’s like to laugh truly laugh, through all of it and in return I can show you how to keep walking through the darkness if it ever takes hold. We are in this together, forever, that I promise.” I looked at Cadance, who was also refraining from tears, and nodded.

Cadance looked at Fluttershy, “Fluttershy, whenever you’re ready.”

Shy looked at Pinkie and I, “Christopher, Pinkie…we all know I’m not the best at speaking in front of crowds but thats why I love both of you so much. Chris, you give me the courage to do this and Pinkie, your bubbly spirit pushes any lingering doubt away. At first I truly didn’t know how to feel about Chris, honestly, I was scared because he was turning into a dragon, but as I got to know him I found he was a scared and broken creature, almost like the animals I took care of and before I knew it, I wanted to take care of him in the same way. As I did I saw the sweet and caring person he was beneath all the sadness and self hate and it made me fall in love with him. It made me want to get him to see him the way I do. He still doesn’t because he’s stubborn, but I’m working on it.

Pinkie, I agreed on starting a herd with you because of how much Chris cared for you. I did too but as a friend, however the time we’ve spent together the more I was able to see you as a partner and just like Chris I want nothing more than to help you through anything and everything you’ve been through and will go through. You both mean the world to me, and I love you both.”

“Pinkie, you may proceed when ready.” Cadance said.

Pinkie was a sobbing mess at this point, “I-I had something written out but… I’M SO HA-HA-HAPPY!!!! I LOVE YOU BOTH!” She wailed out between sobs.

Cadance giggled at that, “We wouldn’t expect anything less from Pinkie. Christopher, Pinkie, and Fluttershy, you will now hold hands.” I took Pinkie’s left hand in my right and Shy’s right hand in my left while Shy took Pinkie’s right hand in her Left, “Christopher, do you take Fluttershy and Pinkie as your wives and your companions? Do you promise to share their laughter during the good times and wipe their tears during the bad, from this day forward?”

I nodded, “I do”

“Fluttershy, do you take Christopher and Pinkie as your husband, wife, and companions? Do you promise to share their laughter during the good times and wipe their tears during the bad, from this day forward?”

Shy smiled, “I do.”

“And Pinkie do you-” At Pinkie’s vigorous nodding she just smiled and moved on, “Well let us to the exchange of bonds.”

On cue Bon Bon walked from next to me holding a pillow with two small boxes. For Pinkie, Maud did the same, for Shy it was Tree Hugger, it would've been Rainbow but we agreed the rest of the girls shouldn’t be involved in this like that it would show too much favoritism.

We each took our respective boxes, Shy opened hers first revealing two necklaces, the main center piece on both being one of her primary feathers and that’s when Cadance started back up, “Ah a Pegasus’ primary feathers, the most important feather for Pegasi, giving one to the one you wished to be married to symbolise the lofty hopes and dreams you share with them and hope to aspire to and reach. It also symbolises the freedom to experience wondrous new things with one another. You may don the necklaces.”

I bent down slightly so Shy could get the necklace over my horns and head and then moved on to Pinkie, and since she was the shortest between us three no need for her to bend down. Once that was done Pinkie stepped forward with her boxes, revealing wedding bands.

“The wedding ring is a symbol of the unending power of love between loving beings. Its circular shape has no beginning and no end, representing the belief between earth ponies that all things are in a cycle, we all come from the earth and return to the earth and so forth and so on for eternity as well as a boundless spiritual connection. The rings should be worn proudly as a symbol of the commitment between you and your spouses. Even when you find yourselves apart, your rings will provide a powerful reminder of the eternal love you share.” Cadance said.

Shy and I held out our left hands and Pinkie slipped the ring on Shy’s ring finger and the band on my ring finger. And last but not least I stepped forward holding my boxes, showing that they were hair clips made from my scales to replace the old ones I made.

“Finally, a dragon’s scale. I was told that marriage is rare in dragon society but when dragons marry they give each other a scale, usually one from their chest but due to Chris’ circumstances he opted for one off each wing. The strength and sturdiness of a dragon’s scale represents the ability for a marriage to stand through the test of time and the hardships that will come. To have the strength to move passed what may happen and rekindle the flame of love.” I stepped towards my soon to be wives and clipped the scale into their hair.

“Please repeat after me;

With this ring and scale, I, Fluttershy, Element of Kindness, commit my love to you, Christopher and Pinkie, for all time, giving you all that I am and all that I will be. Please accept it as a symbol of my love.”

Fluttershy looked us in the eye with nothing but love and kindness, “With this feather, ring, and scale, I, Fluttershy, Element of Kindness, commit my love to you, Christopher and Pinkie, for all time, giving you all that I am and all that I will be. Please accept it as a symbol of my love.”

“Pinkie, you next;

“With this ring, scale, and feather, I, Pinkamena Diane Pie, Element of Laughter, commit my love to you, Christopher and Fluttershy, for all time, giving you all that I am and all that I will be. Please accept it as a symbol of my love.”

Pinkie was happily bouncing in place, still crying, “With this ring, scale, and feather, I, Pinkamena Diane Pie, commit my love to you, Christopher and Fluttershy, for all time, giving you all that I am and all that I will be. Please accept it as a symbol of my love.”

“Christopher, brother, now you;

With this scale, feather and ring, I, Prince Christopher McGrath ad Regim Glacies, commit my love to you, Christopher and Fluttershy, for all time, giving you all that I am and all that I will be. Please accept it as a symbol of my love.”

I sighed, finally able to have my full family with this, “With this scale, feather and ring, I, Prince Christopher McGrath ad Regim Glacies, commit my love to you, Christopher and Fluttershy, for all time, giving you all that I am and all that I will be. Please accept it as a symbol of my love.”

Cadance clapped happily, “Wonderful! Family and Friends, by the power vested in me as the Princess of love and one of the 4 Alicorn Princess of Equestria, I now, formally, pronounce Christopher, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie to be husband and Wives! Christopher, you may now kiss your brides.” I opened my wings and pulled them both in close, kissing them both, they also gave each other a quick kiss, “Christopher, Pinkie, and Fluttershy, may you enjoy a lifetime of sunrises and sunsets together. Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to present, for the first time, Prince and Princesses Christopher, Pinkamena Diane Pie, and Fluttershy McGrath.” The crowd stood and cheered and all was good… or so I thought. Seconds after our consecration loud thundering footsteps sounded outside of the wedding hall before silence fell.

I groaned, “Please nothing involving me…” After a few more seconds of silence I let out a sigh of relief, “Oh thank g-”

“ICE DRAGON I KNOW YOU ARE IN THERE, COME OUT AND FACE ME OR I’LL BURN THIS TINY PONY SETTLEMENT TO THE GROUND!” A deep voice rang out.

I sighed, “Nevermind, alright great…” I looked at Shy and Pinkie, “I’ll be right back, you stay here.” I walked passed everyone only to be stopped by Celestia and Luna at the door.

“Christopher, we can handle this for you, it is your wedding day after all.” Celestia offered.

I shook my head, “No, this is a me problem, I already know what’s out there, I can smell it, honestly I could smell it since the start of the wedding I was just hoping I was wrong. But I would appreciate it if you two would be my witnesses. Just in case.”

“Of course nephew, go take care of what you need to.” Luna told me, before falling behind me next to Celestia as we walked out of the wedding hall stepping outside where we came face to face with a dragon that was roughly 80 meters in length and looked to be probably about 65 meters on its hind legs stared down at us. Its scales were a deep brown with grey spots speckled about, his underbelly was a dull black that matched the colors of his horns and wing membrane. His eyes were a sandy brown and he smelled of sulfur and ash.

I looked up at the drake honestly not too phased since I had the back up of the sun and moon… love… magic itself… oh and harmony… also Pinkie Pie and a possibly mad Fluttershy, “You called?”

The drake tilted his head at an angle to look at me before breathing hot air over us, “You?! You are the ice dragon I smelled, that’s impossible you are much too puny and squishy. That and I’ve never seen your kind around here.”

I crossed my arms, “Well, yeah, hi I’m the guy who isn’t judging you based on appearance but sure whatever… go off I guess. Anyways, I wouldn’t be surprised, I’m the only one of my kind, in more ways than one. What do you want?”

“I, the mighty IGNEOUS, came here to kill you Ice Dragon, your kind has brought much death to my kind in the war and I intend to take the payment of their lives starting with yours.” He told me, his tone growing dark.

I looked at him, absolutely baffled and amused, “Igneous, was it, like the rock? Buddy, pal, friendo, amigo, comrade, I don’t know how long you’ve been asleep but that war is long over, y'all won buddy. Enough said. I’m the last of the Ice dragons and I would prefer to be left alone, I’m not going to harm any other dragon.”

“We can confirm this Sir Igneous, your kind won the war over a thousand years ago.” Luna told him, finally gaining his attention.

His eyes glowed a dangerous gold upon spotting who was talking to him before speaking out in a low growl, “Ah the Lunar and Solar Diarchs… like I would take your word for such a thing, you were helping those weak cold breathers wipe out our kind, you were always kind to them.”

At that Celestia spoke up, her mane turning a nice shade of glowing pink, “Of course, you short tempered fire drakes were wiping out the rest of your species, what were we supposed to do? Stand by idly and watch as one of Equus’ primary species gets wiped clean from the planet?”

“It wasn’t your war to fight in the first place, your ‘highnesses’. You should've stayed out of it, you wouldn’t have lost as many of your subjects as you did.” Igneous responded in a condescending tone.

Now it was Luna’s turn to get heated, “Our subjects died in massive swaths of fire that YOUR KIND CREATED AND I SHOULD-” I put a hand on both of their shoulders and shook my head.

I then looked back at the drake, “Look, it’s been a millennium and a half since those wars, whether or not you believe us or whatever your thick skull will allow. I’m not fighting you, it’s not worth it, and having these two kill you would be in bad taste, so go back to whatever cave you were asleep in and leave us alone, today is my wedding day and you’re kind of ruining it.” I tapped the Celestial Sisters on the shoulders and turned to leave.

That's when the dragon made a fatal mistake, he decided to keep talking, “You know… you say you’re the last Ice Dragon but I can clearly smell another in that building, a young one, your offspring perhaps, if you won’t fight me then I guess I’ll have to give you a reason.” I heard him shuffle around as if he was rearing on his hind legs.

I, however, stopped walking, “Excuse me?” I said quietly, knowing full well he could hear me.

“OH, did that get your attention, good, then if you don’t fight me, or submit to being killed I will torch whatever mixed breed you have in there along with the rest of this town.” He said with a smirk.

Luna and Celestia spun back around ready to retort or start fighting, I’m not sure, they never got the chance to do what they were planning as cold started pouring off me, tainted by dark magic, not enough that I noticed at the time and not enough to set him free but enough to get Luna and Celestia to back off.

“You… will not… harm them…” I said to the drake, not turning around to look at him.

“What could you possibly do to stop me? Like I said, you are too puny to do anything to me.” Igneous said.

I finally turned around and looked at him, he dropped his smirk immediately, his lips curling back into a snarl, “Me?…. I’m going to fucking rip your head off your pathetic fucking BODY!!” I roared out. I jumped forward faster than he could react and slammed my head and horns into his stomach blowing him back several tens of feet through buildings and across the ground where he lay for a few seconds before slowly standing back up, two prominent holes in his stomach from where my horns impaled him were showing.

He looked at me with wide eyes, coughing up blood, “You think that is enough to take me, Igneous, down?!” He roared at me before a bright light filled his throat and flames shot out racing towards me, I felt Celestia throw up a magic barrier to protect the Wedding Hall.

I simply walked forward through the fire, causing my body to steam, “No… I was hoping it wouldn’t, I want to have fun with this.” I told him, stomping towards him slowly, a wicked grin upon my face, “You come into MY home, MY territory and threaten ME?! That’s fucking fine and dandy you overgrown snake with a pyromania complex but you do not threaten MY friends, MY family, or most importantly MY daughter and expect to live!” According to Luna and Celestia later on, my magic flared to a greater height than it ever has at that exact moment and I was in some semblance of control of dark magic for some time, I of course didn’t believe it, considering what I did to the dragon.

I could tell for the first time in this dragon’s life he felt true fear, as I got closer he wouldn’t budge, he wouldn’t move, he knew he was in the presence of a superior predator. That was until I was close enough to touch him, he tried to fly away to escape, unfortunately for him, he forgot that his tail took a bit of extra time to get away from me. I seized the opportunity, grabbed his tail and slammed him into the ground like he was a damned sack of potatoes, it was virtually effortless. As I he crashed into the ground I created a shackle of ice around his tail, locking him to the ground so he couldn’t escape. I slowly walked up to his head, locking down all of his limbs except his wings and neck. He was still dazed by the impact, I lifted his head up by the chin, “Wake up, I’m not done yet.”

His eyes weakly fluttered open, when he recognized that I was in front of him he tried to fly away once more only to find he was tied to the ground, “P-Please… I’ll leave you and your family alone… just… let me live… please…”

I looked him in the eyes, “I thought you were going to kill me to avenge your fallen comrades, me and my daughter right?” I let go of his chin only to slam my fist square into his lower jaw, shattering it completely with a loud crunch, “Fine… I’ll let you live but I’m going to make sure you never get the bright idea to come back.” Igneous tried to say something, but with a shattered jaw it just came out as slurred noises. I jumped onto his back, placed each hand at the base of each of his wings and froze the entire wing, from joint to wing tip, solid. Igneous screamed out in fear and pain, probably pleading as well, I didn’t care, I slammed my tail into each wing as hard as I could causing them to crack and fall apart, leaving only empty, bloody sockets where they used to be. Igneous screamed out in pain and I was about to continue my assault by impaling ice spikes into his limbs until the sound of flapping wings appeared above me.

“Christopher that is enough!” A voice called out.

I looked up and saw Enis, Ixis’ visage flashing through my mind, calming me down immediately, “I...what?” I looked down at the dragon and what I did and thought of doing finally hit me, “O-Oh god, what did I…”

“Young Christopher, what happened to cause such malice from you?” Enis asked as she landed on the ground next to me.

I looked up at what is essentially my aunt and I broke down on top of the dragon who wasn’t dead, but just passed out from the pain. Enis picked me up off of him and set me down between an absolutely shocked and stunned Luna and Celestia. I eventually calmed down enough to talk and tell Enis what happened, “I… he… he said he came here to kill me, thought the war was still going on. I refused, I really did but then he threatened my family, my daughter and then I don’t know, it’s all a blur…” My eyes widened, ‘Ixis, IXIS!’ I screamed out in my mind.

+It’s alright Chris, I’m here, I’m here, don’t worry he didn’t get out, that’s what I was concentrating on, making sure he didn’t get out…. I’m sorry, I didn’t have a chance to help until Enis showed up.+ She explained.

I breathed out a heavy sigh of relief, “Small victories… Enis, I’m so so sorry I didn’t… this is one of your subjects right? I… I’ll take any punishment.”

Enis rubbed the bridge of her snout, “No… he’s not, technically, one of mine, I recognized his scent, he’s from the Volcan clan but I don’t know him personally, they’re under the rule of the dragon lord, the wandering dragons’ leader. I’ll have to talk to him about this little slip up in his rule, he should’ve made sure all his dragons knew.” She sighed and looked at me, concern in her eyes, leaning down to be closer to me, “Are you ok though?” I nodded, “Good, and don’t worry about him, outside of the shattered jaw and the lack of wings he’ll be just fine, won’t ever be able to fly and might have a crooked jaw but that will be a humbling reminder that he easily could have lost his life. Don’t be too hard on yourself, you were defending your family, it might have been through the use of questionable magic but it was in defense nonetheless. I would… however, try and either find a way to purge yourself of that magic or find a way to control it properly. Anyways, due to this one’s idiocy and the incompetence of my ‘equal’ I have to cut my visit short, I wish you a long and happy marriage Christopher, and here is my present for you.” She handed me something wrapped in what looked to be a steel sheet before picking up the still unconscious drake and flying away.

I sat on the ground for a few minutes before standing up, “Luna…. Celestia… if that ever happens again, promise me you’ll put me down… please?” I didn’t wait for a response as I went back into the wedding hall to try and enjoy married life.

38: Introducing F- Nope still have several months until then

Roughly a month after the wedding a letter for an order came in through the mail, addressed to Sugarcube Corner. Inside a pink mare was panicking, she had to keep a major secret from her bestfriends, her husband, her wife, and her step-daughter, whatever was she to do? It was something she was pondering for the past couple of hours as she made her way through ponyville, Gummy resting on her head, making some sort of sucking noise.

Strange she thought, what could gummy be sucking on? She grabbed her baby alligator to investigate and lo and behold he was sucking on a pacifier, which only made her more anxious and ready to blurt out the secret. She grabbed the pacifier and stored it away in her mane for safe keeping. She let out a heavy sigh, before a voice called out to her startling her.

“Pinkie, darling, there you are!” Rarity was waving to her as she moved towards the pink mare.

“Oh, hi Rarity, you scared me for a second.” Pinkie said quickly.

Rarity’s brow raised at that, “Me, scare you? Are you feeling alright Pinkie? Normally nobody can sneak up on you.”

Pinkie, realizing she’d been caught quickly looked around, “Oh, uh, yeah, I’m fine, why do you ask?”

Rarity gave Pinkie a concerned look but shrugged it off, “Oh no reason, Twilight asked me to come find you, we’re all meeting in the castle, she said she had a surprise for us.”

Pinkie lit up at that, a surprise, OH MAYBE I WON’T HAVE TO KEEP THIS SECRET AFTER ALL!! She grabbed Rarity’s hand and ran off towards The Castle of Friendship, dragging Rarity behind her, who was profusely saying… something, Pinkie didn’t know she was too excited. Maybe this news could get Chrissy out of the slump he’s been in, she hasn’t seen it this bad in a long time, here’s hoping.

~In the castle with Chris~

I was leaning back, my feet propped up on the cutie map, Goldy, sitting in my lap, “So, why did you want us to meet in the castle exactly?”

Twilight smiled, “Well, now that we’re all here I wanted to tell you that-”

“SHINING ARMOR AND CADANCE ARE COMING TO TOWN!” Twilight and Pinkie shouted at the same time, causing me to raise my raise my eyebrow.
“....Right, and they’re arriving-” “TOMORROW AT 3!” Pinkie blurted out once more, giving us a forced smile, “Yes… and-” “THEY’LL BE ARRIVING BY THE FRIENDSHIP EXPRESS INSTEAD OF THE CRYSTAL SPEEDWAY TO AVOID THE PAPARAZZI!” Pinkie said, now crawl on top of the table.

“I… yes…”Twilight said looking confused.

“Anything else huh huh?” Pinkie asked expectantly.

Twilight shook her head, “No that's it.”

Pinkie’s hair deflated, didn’t straighten, just deflated, “Oh….”

“How in the hay did you know all that anyway Pinkie?” Rainbow asked.

“Uh PINKIE SENSE! Yeah that's it ...” At that I grabbed Pinkie by the tail and yanked her back in her seat, forming cuffs of ice around her wrists.

“Anyways, go on Twilight.” I told my sister-in-law.

“Right, well it's as Pinkie said, they’ll be arriving tomorrow by the friendship express to avoid attention. I was hoping, since it’s been a while since I’ve seen Shiny without it being due to any sort of special occasion, that you all could help me set up a room in the castle for Shiny, I could do it myself, but I wanted everyone to pitch in, it’ll be more special that way.” She looked at each of us with wide, expectant eyes.

She got a round of quick yeses, outside of me, I was just staring at her, which made her speak up, “You don’t have to if you don’t want to Chris… I know you’ve been…upset since the dragon business at the wedding.”

I closed my eyes and sighed, “I know… look I’ll help, just don’t expect much from me, ok?”

She nodded in understanding, before getting up and the rest of the girls, and Spike followed… well except Pinkie, I still had her cuffed to her throne, “So, want to tell me what's going on with you today?”

Pinkie looked at me and then looked away, “nope, nothing wrong with good ol’ Pinkie Pie today, same wacky self as usual.”

I snorted in amusement, “More than usual I’d say, come on Pinks, you know you can tell me anything.”

She looked back at me her smile wavering a little, “I-I can’t….”

“Come on Pinks, I’ll do that thing you like.” I said, trying to coerce her to my side.

She bit her lip before taking a breath, her resolve coming back tenfold, “I’m sorry Chrissy, it’s a super duper special secret, but I promise it’ll be worth it, it might even kick you out of your slump.”

I grunted, “Here’s hoping…” I waved a hand, shattering the ice cuffs, “go on, I’ll join you soon.” She stood up giving me a hug and a quick kiss, saying she loved me. I returned the gesture and watched her leave, once she was out of the room I sank into my throne and rubbed my temples to alleviate the building headache I was getting, once it weakened I got up to join my family and friends.

~The next day back at the castle~

I was rubbing Pinkie’s back as she was actively having a panic attack, why? I have no idea but she was so I was doing my best to calm her down, as was Fluttershy and Goldy.

Pinkie, however, was not the only one having a Panic attack, so was Twilight, though we knew the reason on her part.

“Why aren’t they here yet it’s been 22 minutes, 27 seconds, and 20 milliseconds past 3 O’clock.” Twilight said, pacing back and forth.

I finally spoke up, “Twiggy, you’ve been saying something every minute, calm down, the Friendship Express isn’t exactly known for being punctual and besides, maybe the papers found out they were coming and had some reporters stake out the train.”

“Yes but-”

“No buts, calm down and help us calm down Pinkie, I’ve no idea what she’s panicking about to help.” I told her with a small bite in my voice.

“R-Right.” She took a deep breath and walked over to her friend/sister-in-law-in-law, “Pinkie are you ok? Do you want to talk about it?”

Pinkie shook her head, “Can’t.” Was all she said.

“Why ever not Pinkie dear, you’ve been acting strange since yesterday, surely it would be better to get whatever is bothering you off your chest.” Rarity said, being the next to come up to her, Rainbow soon following and also asking questions, and then Spike. Eventually the amount of people around her became too much and she started hyperventilating.

I growled and sent out a wave of pure cold, pushing everyone back save for Shy, Goldy, and obviously Pinkie, “That’s enough, she’s freaking out enough as is, give her a moment. Spike, give me one of Twilight’s emergency panic bags.”

“Hey, I do not have a-” She started to protest before Spike gave me a small brown paper bag.

I just gave Twilight a look, cuz it was mostly a joke but I figured he’d be prepared. I handed it to Pinkie and she took it gratefully, breathing into it before it started to calm down, “Thanks, Chrissy, but…. I can’t hold on to the secret anymore. Shining Armor and Cadance are going to have-”

At that exact moment, said ponies opened the door with Shining calling out, “A wonderful time with their family!” To which Pinkie sighed happily.

Twilight ran over happily and did her “Sunshine dance” with Cadance before hugging her brother, Goldy followed quickly tackling her aunt and uncle in a hug. Everyone else made their way over at their own pace and greeted them, before Twilight got impatient and lead Shining Armor to the room we set up for him, he loved it… except the burnt comic, funnily, they rarely make classic horse noses, but that doesn’t mean they don’t. Shining gave off a high pitched whiny at seeing his comic destroyed, before getting over it and shrugging.

I raised an eyebrow, normally he’d lose his absolute shit over something like that, Twilight and Spike apparently had the same thought judging by their confused looks. After the room tour Shining and Cadance suggested we meet them by the town fountain in an hour so we could all go get Hay Burgers together. I groaned and mumbled something about horses which got a slug in the arm from Twilight, as we were walking away though Shining held Pinkie back to talk to her.

“Why did you tell them about the-” Pinkie started to ask but Shining cut her off.

“Don’t say anything, Your husband has better hearing than we do, remember?” I smirked, it’s something that he and his troops learned quickly, that it’s damn near impossible to sneak up on me because of my enhanced hearing and sense of smell. “We didn’t say anything because we have a plan, trust me, it’ll all be worth it, can you keep the secret a little longer, please?”

I heard Pinkie sigh and agree as she quickly joined us to hang out for a bit before heading to the agreed meeting place.

After just kind of talking for an hour, I took a nap myself, we were heading towards the town square, more specifically the fountain.

“So, do ya think Shining Armor liked the room?” AJ asked, a knowing smile on her face.

“Are you kidding, he was absolutely raving about it.” Twilight responded, “Though I wonder why they wanted to meet us at the fountain do you think they had something to take care of?”

“They’ll have a lot more to take care of soon.” Pinkie said under her breath.

“What?” I asked.

“NOTHING!” She shouted before running off. We all just shrugged it off and made our way to the meeting spot.

“That’s odd.” Twilight said as we got close to the fountain, “They’re usually quite punctual, circumstances aside.”

Rainbow groaned out, “I need a hay burger in my belly. Right. Now.” She said before accidentally drifting into the fountain’s statue, knocking a letter loose from its hand and it smacking me on the head.

Twilight grabbed it, “What’s that?” She unraveled it, reading it over some, before gasping.

“What is it?” Rarity asked.

“A scavenger hunt, Shining armor used to set these up all the time when I was little. They usually ended up with me getting an amazing surprise, like a new book, or a bunch of new books or-” She started to explain before she was cut off by Pinkie grabbing it.

“We get it, you like books! What does it say?” She paused to read it.

“Sooo, what's the first clue?” AJ asked.
“Hopefully something about lunch.” Rainbow pleaded.

Pinkie read the clue, “You’ve got a scroll, you’re on a roll. Why don’t you take a peak where young ones spend their week. A piece of paper will continue this caper.”

“I’ve got it, where young ones spend their week.” Twilight said, not giving an actual answer.

“Er… I’m not following.” AJ said.

“The school, the next clue is at the school house.” I said, “I may not be good at riddles but that was easy.” I lead the way to the school house. And as we pulled up to it Pinkie ran off to find the next clue, acting like a bloodhound before getting a butterfly stuck on her nose and sneezing it away.

“Like Chris said, its at the school house… but where?” Twilight asked looking around.

That’s when we heard Pipsqueak calling out to grab a copy of the news.

“A piece of paper… will continue this caper.” Twilight pondered it for a moment, “Eureka, it’s in the foal free press!” She grabbed a copy from Pipsqueak.

“Oh my, look at that dress the mayor is wearing, it’s absolutely breathtaking.” Rarity said, looking at the front page.

I looked at it, “Isn’t that a dress you made?”

“Yes and your point?”

“Come on everyone, focus!” Pinkie said, taking the paper and scanning through it, “Aha, here it is, she said pointing to a particular section in the paper, getting our attention.

“Though this hall is rather small in it you’ll find files of all kinds. Take a look on the back of a birth certificate of Apple Jack.” Twilight read off.

Apple Jack blinked, “Why mine?”

“Probably because it rhymed.” I said.

“So where is it at then?” Rainbow asked.

“Really? The only two places you could get a birth certificate in all of Ponyville would be the hospital or town hall, but it says files of all kinds, so it's definitely the town hall.” I said, after that we made our way to the town hall and got Apple Jack’s birth certificate, everyone cooed over the photo of AJ as a foal.

“Huh… look at that, pig tails.” I commented on it, making AJ cough, and grabbed her documentation flipping it over.

“That’s enough of that now.” She cleared her throat, “This next place is where you can buy a table or chair. Or some comfy beds to rest little heads?”

Pinkie zipped off before coming back, “Really none of you?! It’s obviously the furniture store!” She got behind us and pushed us out the town hall right past the Mayor.

When we arrived at the furniture store Pinkie was bouncing up and down, “Go in go in go in!” She said to Twilight.

Twilight on the other hand looked skeptical, “Uh, I don’t know.”

Pinkie groaned, “FINE!” She went into the store and what sounded like she decided to upset the zoo was going on she came flying out the entrance in a crib that had another clue on it.

“You are scary good at this Pinkie.” Rainbow said with awe and fear.

I bent down to read the clue, “It seems you saved the best for last, we hope that you have had a blast. Now it’s time to take a break where you can get a slice of cake.” They all called out Sugarcube Corner.

I rolled my eyes and Pinkie scoffed, “That was an easy one.” We said simultaneously.

We made it to Sugarcube Corner and Twilight went in first. Shining Armor and Cadance were waiting for us, “Surprise! Did you have fun on your scavenger hunt?” Shining asked.

Twilight nodded, “I did, but this time it was even better because I got to do it with my friends and new family. There’s just one thing missing.”

“What's that?”

“Mmmm oh, you know, the book prize at the end.”

“Or something to eat?” Rainbow said.

“Preferably something I can digest?” I suggested.

Shining armor laughed, “There’s still a prize but it’s a little different this time.”

Twilight looked dejected, “Oh… I don’t understand.” Pinkie giggled in the background… and that’s when something clicked in my head, her secret, her knowing where everything was…

“The clues…. You sly dogs you.” I said, not loud enough for anyone to hear.

“All the places we sent you today had something in common.” Cadance said, giving her a pretty big hint.

“First we went to the school house…. Then we read the foal free press… after that we found Apple Jack’s birth certificate… and the last clue was on a crib.” I kept my eye on Pinkie as Twilight slowly put it all together, she was freaking out, from joy and suspense.

“School, foal, birth certificate, and a crib.” Pinkie was literally steaming at this point and then Twilight gasped, “Could it be, are you two?”

“We’re having a baby!” The Crystal royals said together.

At this point Pinkie rocketed into the air shouting for joy before bouncing around the room, “You mean… I’m going to be an aunt? This is the best prize ever!” Twilight pulled them into a hug, “I love you guys!”

Pinkie clapped happily saying she did it over and over again before literally falling apart from relief before pulling herself back together.

“And what about you Chris? Aren’t you excited?” Cadance asked.

I looked at both of them a hard look on my face, “You really thought me being an uncle would cheer me up? I’m already an uncle.” I scoffed before walking out the door. There was concerned murmurs that I let sit for a minute or two before bursting back in, “AH I’M MESSING WITH YA! THAT'S AMAZING! I GET TO BE AN UNCLE TO A NEPHEW OR NIECE I CAN ACTUALLY BE THERE FOR!” I grabbed up my entire family in my wings, “That’s some of the best news I could have ever received, thank you.”

“You’re welcome and I’m glad it could cheer you up, it was a mixed plan that could have only been done with Pinkie’s help. She kept the secret after all.” Cadance said.

“I know but she’s been stressing about it since yesterday.” I gave my very pink wife a kiss on her forehead.

Pinkie giggled but then looked at the Crystal Couple with a dead serious expression, “Never make me do it again, or else.” They laughed nervously but nodded to which we all had a good laugh at, never mess with Pinkie.

39: The Cutie Re-Mark Pt. 1

Twilight walked out of the auditorium, lost in thought, she was certain she saw Starlight sitting in the crowd but when she looked again there was no one there. She sighed and rubbed her temples, it must have been the stress from planning out the speech. After clearing her thoughts of Starlight she continued her way out of Celestia’s School only to run into Chris, literally, as she rounded the corner. She nearly fell but he caught her with his wing before she got too far.

~Chris~

I looked at the purple alicorn that I had held in a wing, “Well fancy meeting you here.” I said with a smile before holding out my hand, which she readily took, allowing me to retract my wing back.

She righted herself with my help before brushing off her shirt, “Thank you, Chris, but I’m the one who should be asking you what you’re doing here. I had a friendship lecture today.”

I thought on that, oh yeah, she did, I forgot she mentioned that, “Well, you remember how I’ve been tracking down Starlight on the side for the past… year or so right?” She nodded, “Well I heard rumor she was seen around here but I can’t find her, I think she might’ve figured it out and teleported elsewhere.”

Twilight’s color literally drained from her face making her look like a more humble Rarity, “I-I…. Oh no.”

I cocked my head to the side, “What?”

“I think I saw her during my lecture, but when I looked back she was gone and there was no left over residue from a teleport so I thought it was just stress getting to me. It wouldn’t be the first but…” She started.

“With my information its becoming blatantly clear that isn’t the case.” I finished before sighing, “Fuck, well she’s gone for now.”

“Y-Yeah, but something about this is unnerving, why would she show herself to me now after over a year of being in hiding?”

I shrugged, until a thought crossed my mind, “You don’t think she’s taunting you is she? Maybe she created another Our Town? Have you checked the map lately?”

“I haven’t, no, it's been pretty inactive these last couple of months so it just slipped my mind, that wouldn’t be a bad idea though.” She said, her horn lighting up.

My eyes widened, “Wai-!”

In a bright purple flash we were in the entryway of the Castle of Friendship, “t!” Oh god, I bent over to prevent myself from throwing up, trust me, an ice dragon’s puke would freeze most things, I don’t think Twilight would appreciate that. After I regained my composure I stood up and glared at Twilight, “Never again Twiggy, you KNOW I hate teleporting.”

“Hehe, sorry, but come on, let’s go see if that thought of yours has any weight.” She said leading the way to the map room.

+Are you doing ok?+ Ixis asked me, knowing full well I wasn’t.

‘You already know the answer to that.’ I told her slowly following behind Twilight, stomach still churning slightly, she just chuckled. I finally caught up to my sister in law as she stood at the open door. I hurried up to see why she just stood there to see that Starlight was floating into the air into some insane magic portal of some kind. Once she saw me she gave a wicked smile and waved.

My instincts were screaming at me, I had to stop her, but she was already near the portal, even at my fastest I wouldn’t reach before she got sucked in… unless, “ICE DRAGON’S FROZEN TIME, 100%!!!” I yelled out, forcing my magic to freeze everything and for a second it work, only for a second before my spell shattered and the backlash of all my magic rushing back to me slammed me into a wall.

“Ohohoho… that looks like it hurts.” Starlight said before looking up at the portal, “Toodles.” And then she was gone and the portal closed.

“Chris!” Twilight ran over to me, helping me up, “Are you alright?”

I shook my head, “I… yeah? I think so? Whatever that spell was canceled out mine, it canceled out Ice Dragon time magic.” I looked up at the chandelier that was over the map, sparkles of magic still dissipating.

Suddenly Spike came rushing in behind us, “Twilight, Chris… what happened?!” The teenage drake asked looking around, something on the crystal floor catching his eye and he made his way over to it.

“Starlight is what happened, she was here in the Castle, she cast some spell that blew back even Chris’ magic.” Twilight told her little brother.

Spike turned to look at us, hold a scroll shakily in his hand, “Twilight… I think this is Starswirl’s time travel spell.”

Twilight levitated the scroll to her, “That can’t be right, that spell was much stronger than the one I used, and even if it was it would only send her back a week.” Her eyes widened in some sort of sudden realization, “No way…. She managed to fix Starswirl's spell, there's no limit to how far you can travel back with it. I would be honestly impressed if this didn’t hold so many dangerous implications.”

I fully cleared my head, honestly that knock back did not help settle my stomach at all, “Urp…. do you think you can use it to pull her back?”

Twilight read over the scroll one more time, “No she has to be brought back physically or by her own will.”

Oh no, “Oh no no no, I’m being dragged on a friendship thing aren’t I?” At Twilight’s somber nod I sighed, “Alright… well how would we even know when she went to.”

“Luckily it seems the spell was hard coded to send you back to only one point in time, it can be edited to send you further or shorter but no need this will send us to the exact same time that she went to.” Twilight explained her horn lighting up, the same spell that starlight used ripped open above them slowly sucking them up towards it starting with Spike and ending with yours truly.

“I really hate pony magic sometimes.” I groaned out before I felt my body being ripped into nothing but molecules of light, the immense pain and burning from it was unbelievable, I truly thought I was going to die and as soon as the sensation began it ended and I was spit out into the sky mid freefall. I looked down to see that I was above Cloudsdale, strange thought it was a time spell… unless, “Fuck that’s not good!” I planted my arms to my side, tucked my wings in properly and like a bullet rocketed for the race track where I could see Spike and Twilight already waiting, time magic is weird. Before I hit hard cloud pavement, I flipped around and flared my wings out slowing my decent fast enough to create a huge gust of wind that almost knocked them both over.

“Careful, but glad to see you made it in one piece.” Twilight said.

“Didn’t feel like it was in one piece going through that hellscape of a spell.” I retorted back.

“Tell me about it, you’ll never guess where we’re at.” Spike said.

“Roughly 20 odd years in the past at the race when Rainbow Dash first performed the sonic rainboom giving you all your cutie marks simultaneously.” I told them, making them look at me incredulously, “What? It’s a time spell not a space spell, well I guess it's technically a time space spell but still primarily time. Not that hard to figure out.”

Twilight opened her mouth to retort only to sigh, “Come on, lets go hide in that cloud cover, see if we can find Starlight without disturbing the timeline too much more.” She flew up, levitating spike in her magic before setting him down in the cloud, I followed shortly.

We sat and watched the race unfold, no sign of Starlight yet. To be frank I wasn’t exactly looking for her, my eyes were solely locked on FLuttershy, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her as a filly, she reminded me of Goldy, tall for her age and lanky, and absolutely adorable. At one point Rainbow zoomed past her without really any regard for her safety causing her to fall. I was about to fly after her before Twilight grabbed my shoulder and shook her head, I sighed and sat back down, crap that’s hard to watch, but close to the ground I could see a giant pink mattress of butterflies catch her and I breathed a sigh of relief. Back to the race an air cone was starting to form around Rainbow and she had the widest grin on her face. Right before she broke the sound barrier she was grabbed in a teal glow and a shockwave rocked through my core, causing me to double over in pain.

“Chris!” Twilight shouted out trying to grab for me but the time rift opened up sucking us back into it. And once again I got ripped apart and reassembled at a different time, my chest still hurts so much though.

“Chris, Chris! Are you alright?” Twilight asked though her voice came through muffled before all of a sudden the compressing pain on my chest disappeared.

I took a deep breath, “Y-Yeah I’m okay.” I looked around, the grass was all dead, the trees were barren and there was smog in the sky but I knew this area, this was where Ponyville was supposed to be, but there were barely houses, barely ponies.

“Well, ain’t this a strange sight.” A familiar southern drawl could out. Twilight, Spike and I all turned to look to see Apple Jack but she was in a plain beige hazmat style suit and wearing a hair net.

“Apple Jack?” Twilight asked.

Said pony backed up, “How do ya know my name stranger?”

Twilight laughed nervously, “What are you saying Apple Jack, we’re friends.”

She shook her head, “Sorry, Ah don’t know no purple… Alicorn. What are ya doin here? The other Princesses finally sending some extra hands?”

“What are you talking about, extra hands? Extra hands for what?” Spike asked.

Apple Jack regarded the drake for a moment, a puzzled look crossing her face before she shrugged, “Ya don’t know? Well, Ah suppose ya wouldn’t, yer kind refuses to help us so the few who wander inta Equestria are always confused about what's going on.” Spike looked hurt by that but said nothing, after all he had no idea what’s going on either.

I finally stood up fully, “This isn’t right, something isn’t right, the magic of the world is off. Did, it did didn’t it?” I rounded on Apple Jack, “Where’re Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie?”

“Woah nelly, i don’t know what’s got yer snakes all rustled up but I aint heard of no Rainbow Dash or Pinkie Pie, but Rarity? She’s working in the mines, digging up metals to forge into armor and Fluttershy? That old pegasus shaman? What do you want with either of them?”

I stomped my feet, “God DAMN IT!” I shouted, feeling a hand on my shoulder.

“Chris what’s going on?” Twilight asked.

“She succeeded in stopping the rainboom, that stopped you from gaining your proper cutie marks which means that something drastic happened in the timeline since Equestria didn’t have the Elements.” I told her.

She looked up to the sky, “It’s not night time so Nightmare Moon didn’t escape?”

“Oh no, she did. Princess Celestia waged a war on her with the help of Princess Cadance and since then we’ve been stuck in conflict after conflict, but none worse than this one.” Apple Jack cut in.

I turned and thought about the timeline of events, “Cadance is around, so Chrysalis either didn’t happen or got stopped. The world doesn’t seem like a wacked out fun house so not Discord… that leaves…. no… No…. NO….. NO!!!!!!!” I took off to the skies,not waiting for anyone, not giving an explanation.

“Who… who are you all fighting?” Twilight asked Apple Jack.

“King Sombra, why?”

Spike and Twilight paled at that, “Oh no…”

Author's Note

And here we go, this is something I was waiting for, this arc is the start of well, everything, the true start to Chris's story the true... well Rise of the Ice King, thats the prototype name for this story. I know I only changed one word but the whole 'Dawn' thing is a nod to Dawn of a Dragon, from the legend of spyro series. Anyways, I just have one last thing to say, hope is a very powerful thing.

40: The Cutie Re-Mark Pt. 2

I flew as fast as I could towards the Frozen North, I tried to stop or at least slow time to make it faster but whatever that spell did won’t let me use Ice Dragon’s Frozen Time anymore. Instead I pumped my wings hard and fast, still flying fast enough to get me from the farce that was Ponyville to the Frozen North in a matter of minutes.

As I got close to Ixis ancestral home, she stirred in my mind, a primal rage growing inside me, it caused me to lose focus and nearly plummet out of the sky. I don’t know if the rage was due to her ancestral home being this magically fucked, the fact that being rocketed through time disrupted or connection some, or that an old villain who nearly killed what is essentially her son is back.

+All three, and I’m going to rip him apart, we’re going to rip him apart, no holding back this time.+ She finished somberly.

I just nodded, feeling the dark magic increase as we got closer to where the Crystal Empire was soon it became an intense wave surging through my mind and soul, my vision blurred and for a second I fell out of the sky, only to regain my composure. I hovered slightly above the clouds, when I felt five familiar magical signatures, but they were all warped. I dug in my pocket fishing out a messaging gem and my storage gem. I pulled a pen and paper out the storage gem and quickly wrote a message, quickly tapping it against the gem only for nothing to happen. I sighed, well it was work a sho-the message got sucked into the gem, “Good.”

~On a cliff in the Frozen North~

Celestia was overlooking the battle field with a scowl she has been fighting this war for over 6 years now, this was the hardest fight she’s been a part of, she lost so many good ponies to either mind control or death. Her captain was murdered by a spy and her student was taken hostage and tortured before being thrown back to her like some used up toy. Sunset hasn’t been the same since.

She sighed, she missed Luna, she hoped that a pony would come along and show the traits to free her sister from her imprisonment, but no, no such luck happened, she had to kill her own sister. Corrupted or not, she still loved her. Once more Celestia looked over the battlefield, her own ponies slaughter each other and for what?

“General Dash!” She called out, a rainbow blur appearing before her, the clanking of her mental wing grinding on her head ache, she was used to it though, “We need to re-” a flash of blue and white magic flashed in front of her, her horn lighting up on reflex before she realized it was just a scroll. She grabbed it and unraveled it, “Is this some kind of joke?! Are you taunting me SOMBRA?! YOU’RE LUCKY YOU HAVE MY PONIES IMPRISONED OR ELSE I’D BURN YOU AWAY TO NOTHING!!!” Celestia roared out, her mane turning a dangerous orange General Dash, backing away slightly.

Then the feeling of the magic hit her full force, this was old magic, magic she hadn't felt since she was a filly, no one could replicate this, if this was serious…, “EVERYONE RETREAT IMMEDIATELY!!!” She called out in her RCV, those who could teleport more than themselves did, those who could fly and carry others did, those who could run and carry others did and within a matter of minutes the battlefield was cleared of her soldiers and she erected a massive barrier of solar magic.

This caused a mass of black mist form in the center of the battlefield in front of the enemy soldiers, “Celestia… giving up? That’s not like you, are the lives of your ponies not important to you, they will be my slaves you know. Well not all of them, some will be tortured for fun, others killed. It’ll depend on my mood really.”

Celestia let out a deep growl before smirking, Cadance looked to her aunt, “Auntie, what’s going on?”

“Someone long thought gone has come to reclaim their true home and I don’t think they’re happy about it.” She said before laughing, her hinge on reality slightly cracked due to the hardships she's been through the past years, “I’m not surrendering Sombra, just creating less work for myself later down the line.”

Sombra scowled, “What are you… talking… about……?” he trailed off as an opening in his clouds started to form, for a few seconds nothing came through, Sombra thought that Celestia was preparing to smite him with a concentrated Solar Ray, but she would’ve done it long ago, unless she was just getting desperate, either way, he needed to protect himself so he threw up a mass of shadows, hoping it would be enough to stop any attack. The downside was that he couldn’t see anything, even with his enhanced senses.

Several more seconds passed before a whistling noise filled the air and a loud crash shook the area. Sombra was confused and was about to thin his shield out before a fist tore through his shadow and slammed into his face, sending him bouncing across the ground, kicking up dirt and snow.

“Now THAT was fucking therapeutic.” A voice called out from the cloud of kicked up dust.

Celestia looked onto the battlefield with a hard gaze, she expected to see a massive drake of ice but instead when the dust and snow cleared, a Biped that was barely taller than she was with brown skin, black and white striped hair with the wings, horns, and tail of a dragon was standing before them. She was baffled this is the creature that put off such an intense magical signature? And yet, she couldn’t deny it’s effectiveness. He eyes followed the trail of kicked up snow and dirt, seeing Sombra laying on his back, blood running from his nose and mouth. She smirked at that, as the creature said, that’s fucking therapeutic.

~Chris~

I cracked my neck as cold flames flickered out from my mouth, “Come on, Sombrero, I know that ain’t all you got!” I yelled out, walking forward slowly.

Sombra slowly picked himself up, wiping the blood off his face, looking at it. He was pissed and I could tell, good, I didn’t want this to be easy, “Who dares Strike me, King Sombra?”

I snorted, “Glad to know you’re just as arrogant here as you were back home. I didn’t have a title at the time but I am Prince Christopher McGrath ad Regem Glacies. Prince of The Crystal Empire and Equestria, rightful ruler of the Frozen North and you buddy, you pissed me off.” I finished walking forward, stopping in front of him, my last footstep sending out a thrum of power throughout the Frozen North, letting anything know that it’s true king has come home and anyone who wants to claim it has to do it by killing me. I never did this back in my time because no need to, not yet.

Sombra took a hasty step back before catching himself, he smirked, “Please what can one… whatever you are creature do against me, I admit, you have immense physical strength but that is all. Let’s see how you handle thousands of soldiers at once.” His horn glowed it’s sickly green and purple, the green lights on the helmets everyone wore lighting up in response.

My eye shot to them and then back to Sombra, my hand shot forward and gripped his horn, his spell ceasing, I spread my wings, drawing them back and then flapping them once, a wave of air pressure shot forward, strong enough to carry every brainwashed pony on his side back into the empire and once they were all inside the boundaries of the city the magic I poured into that flap formed a massive dome over the city.

“What soldiers?” I asked him before slamming his head into the ground, a crater twice the size of the one I made doing the same thing to Discord was formed, “You think I came into this fight not knowing how to fight you? Please, I’m not an idiot, and this isn’t my first rodeo, you’ll have to do better than that if you wa-” A blast of dark magic shot past my hand and across my face, knocking my eye patch off as well as knocking my head back. This loosened my grip enough for Sombra to pull himself free.

He was breathing hard, his snout clearly broken, maybe some of the major bones in his face as well but he laughed, his horn glowing once more with Dark Magic, “Not even Celestia can stand up to a blast of concentrated dark magic at close range so what chance did you think you ha-” My hand shot out and grabbed him by the throat.

“Shut, the fuck up.” I growled out, lean my head forward slowly, getting the kinks out of it, revealing my tainted eye.

“T-That…. Eye…. my…. M-magic….” He managed to choke out from me slowly crushing his windpipe.

My eyes flashed a dangerous color, “I told you, I didn’t come to this fight not knowing how to fight you. You don’t know me, but let me tell you a secret, I know you, all too well, I have nightmares about you, repeatedly. Of you killing my friends and family because I was too weak.” I touched the scar on my face and traced it over my ‘eye’, “You did this to me, well not this you a different version of you, but because he was unable to finish me off with it my body grew and adapted to the Dark Magic that tainted me. It gave me an incredible resistance to it, which is great because it was one of the few magic sources that could damage me, mind you that doesn’t mean it did hurt, because it did, like a bitch.” I glared at the dark unicorn and I could tell that for the first time in his life he felt the fear of dying, “Don’t worry, I’m not going to kill you, I promised I wouldn’t kill anything or anyone to my wives and my child, unless I had no other choice, so it’s your lucky day, you get to live.” I said with a laugh before I paused, and my glare returned full force, “Im stronger than you in every way and you know it, I would let you go just knowing that you could never win but no, I’m going to make you wish you were dead.”

I brought my free hand up to his horn and gripped it tight, I started to bend it, well not bend, it’s crystallized bone, it doesn’t bend, “N-No… please… I beg you….” He choked out.

I stopped and looked at him like he grew a second head ,”You beg me? What about all those ponies who begged you for a chance, ponies who had family, friends, lives. No, you don’t get the chance.” In one swift motion I snapped the horn off his head and with a quick squeeze I snapped his neck, not killing him, but definitely paralyzing him from the neck down, and I let him drop, crumpling like a rag doll.

I dropped the dome around the Empire and Celestia dropped the barrier protecting her ponies. The ones under Sombra’s control were freed as their helmets shut down.

Celestia and Cadance flew over to me, Celestia landing first, “Thank you, It pains me that you accomplished in a matter of minutes what took me years.” I just nodded, not looking at them, “You said you were Prince Christopher McGrath ad Regem Glacies. We don’t have any records of such a person let alone a creature like you.”

I nodded again, still not turning to look at them, “Not surprising, I don’t belong here, none of this does.”

Celestia was about to ask what I meant before a bright purple flash had a similar purple Alicorn and Dragon show up, “Chris there you are, what-” She saw Sombra lying on the ground, unable to move and hornless, “What happened?”

“Nothing, nothing at all.” I said, hiding the tears that were streaming down my face.

Twilight… I’m pretty sure she figured it out, she's a smart mare, “Ok, I understand, nothing happened, well I figured out the spell, we can still stop Starlight if we use the spell again, it’ll take us back to the race.”

I sniffed, “Good let’s… go away from this.”

“Hold on, what is going on? Who are you 3?” Celestia asked.

“No one important and hopefully you won’t have to worry about that question ever again, do it Twilight.” I told her, to which I heard the time rift open and suck us back up, flinging us back to the past.

41: The Cutie Re-Mark Pt. 3

We were spit out back at the race above the clouds once more, “Now that that’s over we just have to stop Starlight before- '' Twilight never finished her sentence as we were all encased in crystal, yes even me.

“Finding Starlight will be the easy part.” A voice said, it belonged to Starlight as she showed herself, “But stopping her will be another matter entirely. See the great thing about that spell is, I made it so even if you cast it it’ll send me back here too. I knew you’d try to stop me, I made precautions.” She said standing on top of the crystal, making us sink through the clouds. I struggled and flexed trying to break free making little to no progress, so instead I opted to glare her to death, or at least try.

“Oh ho! That’s an angry face, you have no RIGHT to be angry, you took EVERYTHING FROM ME!!! Our Town was a place of perfect equality and you and your friends took it away from me, so I made sure you’d come to see me stop the rainboom so you’d know that you and your friends' special cutie mark connection never happens!” She yelled, giving one last stomp pushing the crystal through the clouds but not enough to knock us out of them completely, she levitated herself to the underside of the cloud to finish her monologue, “Cutie marks for cutie marks, that seems fair. And you, Chris, I don’t fully understand why you side with them, you will never get a cutie mark, you don’t fit their world views.” She paused as if waiting for me to answer her, “Oh well.” She tapped the crystal and we plummeted through the sky.

I growled and took a deep breath flexing my wings hard just as Twilight lit her horn, we both caused the crystal to shatter, “CHRIS!!!! TWILIIIIIIIIGHT!!!!” Spike called out as he fell. Shit, I dived down and caught him, bringing us up to Twilight who I gave a nod to and she teleported us to a safe cloud.

“Where is she?” Twilight looked around, finding her talking to Fluttershy, I was still… I couldn’t… I was in my head and what happened next was a blur and all I know is that we got sucked into another portal to the future.

When we were thrown out of the portal I was ready and managed to land on my feet with a little flip, though the pain in my chest was back and felt even worse than before, I shrugged it off the best I could before looking at my surroundings. Spike was on his back a few feet away from me and Twilight was slowly coming to her feet. We were in a forest, a very familiar looking one, where have I seen these trees before?

“The Everfree? What are we doing here and why is it nighttime?” I heard Twilight ask with soft groaning coming from Spike who was still on the ground.

“What do you mean why is it night time? It’s a time travel spell, pretty sure it can spit us out at any time it wants.” I said, thinking that that was obvious enough.

“No… No, the way Starlight modified the spell makes it so you’re spit out at the exact same time just a different year.” She explained.

“Oh…. OH! Oh…..” I said as I realized what that probably meant, hearing rustling coming through the woods, my ear twitching in the general direction.

“Oh?” She asked.

“Well that could mean two things for this timeline. One: We got sent to one that has night and day switched or….” I trailed off.

“Or what?”

Not but a second later a group of near black armor clad ponies burst through the forest and surrounded us, The pegasus at the front jabbed a spear towards us, “Hands in the air, you’re under arrest for using unidentified magic without the Princess’ word.”

I smirked, “Or Nightmare Moon won.”

“WHA-” Twilight was cut off as one of the unicorn guards put a muzzle around her mouth, proceeding to bind her wings, wrists, and put a magic blocker on her horn.

They followed up with Spike, keeping him pinned, binding his wrists, mouth, and tail around his waist.

They went to try and push me to the ground only to be unable to budge me, “Hey, no need to get rough, I’ll cooperate.” I said with a shrug, curious to see what I could find out about this timeline, I had a lot of thoughts going through my head and I wanted to see them through.

The earth pony who was trying to pin me looked at the lead pegasus who shrugged and nodded, quickly the bindings were placed on me, including two horn magic blockers, smart, but ultimately useless.

“Alright, let’s go, the Princess is eager to see what caused the surge in strange magic.” The pegasus said, turning to lead the way deeper into the forest.

“Right!” A group of voices rang out, I felt a hard poke in my back, “Get moving creature.”
I shrugged and started following the pegasus, we walked for about 20 minutes before coming to an opening in the trees which led to a giant clearing, that had a restored Castle of The Two Sisters standing in it, though any paraphernalia that would lead you to believe that Celestia ruled not too long ago was outright removed, so I guess it was just now Castle of the ONE Sister.

“Welcome to Starfall Fortress, mightiest stronghold of the Nightmare Empire and home to Princess Nightmare Moon.” The Pegasus, whose voice was becoming vaguely familiar, said.

‘Much better name’, I thought.

+Yeah, but still, Celestia LOST, that’s not good at all. It looks like you were right, without the elements certain events play out differently. And apparently how the catalyst rainboom was stopped makes different events play out differently. This time Nightmare Moon winning was the change.+ Ixis said.

I grunted in confirmation, ‘Yeah, and It almost makes me want to experiment almost.’

“What are the bindings uncomfortable?” One of the guards asked.

I turned my head to look at him, a brow raised in confusion before I remembered I grunted. I shrugged in response to him, making the chains binding my wings jangle.

“Hmph.” Was all he said back.

Slowly we walked through the front doors, which, just like the castle were massive, why need doors that big? Until finally we were marched to the throne room.

“Your majesty, we found the ones who used such strange magic, it was this group.” The pegasus said, taking off her helmet finally, the color altering magic fading, revealing cyan fur and a short cut rainbow mane. Magenta eyes replacing the yellow ones and a cutie mark of… are those rainbow colored swords? I raised a brow at that, not able to do much else to voice my surprise.

After that shock wore off I turned my attention to the other Alicorn in the room. It was my first time seeing Nightmare Moon outside of illustrations. She was… surprisingly beautiful but also gave off an aura of fierce power such as if you even thought about crossing her you would be wiped clean from this realm. She very much looked like a more mature if not darker version of Dawn.

The armor clad Princess looked down at us, curiosity and surprise in her gaze, “A dragon, another Alicorn and a…. what are you? Your magic seems familiar to me but I can’t place it.” She asked me. I just gave her a deadpan stare, “Guard remove the muzzle from that one.” She commanded, the guard did so, not wanting to face his princess’ wrath. “Now, tell me, what are you, creature.”

“Drakon, Half dragon half human. Specifically an Ice Drakon.” I told her.

“Ice… Ah, that explains why your magic felt so familiar to me, I remember the Ice Dragons well, I thought they were all wiped out.” She said.

“They were and are, they will never return to the way they were but they live on through me. And what do you mean you knew them? I’m pretty sure Luna knew them. Not the Nightmare.” At that moment the room went deathly silent.

Nightmare Moon stood and walked to me and grabbed my face, she was about the same height as Celestia so only a hair shorter than me, “And who are you to think you can utter that name?”

I smirked and jerked my head from her grasp, “Me? I am Prince Christopher McGrath Regem Ad Glacies. Regent of The Frozen North, Prince of Equestria and Last of the Ice Dragons. And I am more than enough to handle you if need be.”

She scoffed, “You? Don’t make me laugh, you are bound by the strongest metal we have access to and your magic is being blocked by two blocking rings. You couldn’t handle a foal let alone me.”

I looked at her with a bemused expression before flexing my wings, snapping the chains and breaking free of my wrist cuffs, my tail already was free from its chain since it was connected to the one around my wings.

She quickly backed away on instinct, and guards rushed to form around me before remembering there were blocking rings on my horns, “Well, as surprising as that was, those rings are fixed to your horns unless enchanted to come off and without your magic, whatever you may possess, you are nothing, magic is everything for the creatures of this planet.”

I chuckled at that, “Maybe so, but uh, I’m not from this planet so I get nice little loopholes for stuff like that.” I reached a hand up to the rings and froze them solid to the point where they crumbled off my horns. I really didn’t need to use my hands to do that, but it was to show that I still had my magic even with rings on. Once the pieces fell to the ground I quickly sent out a wave of cold magic, freezing everything in the room up to their waist save for me, Spike, Twilight, and Nightmare Moon, “Like I said, I can handle you if necessary, but I’m not one to fight without provocation, though I can easily find a reason.” I said looking back at Spike and Twilight who were bound up and looking between the two of us.

Nightmare Moon studied me for a moment before breaking out into laughter, “Very well, you have me beat.” She said waving a hand and the chains around Twilight’s and Spike’s wrists and tail, respectively, fell away and the muzzles disappeared in a cloud of black smoke. The wing bindings and horn ring were still present, “Forgive me for not undoing those precautions, after all, you are still an enemy within my territory and a ruler must always be cautious.”

“Very true.” I said.

“CHRIS!” Twilight protested.

“Hush Twiggy, the adults are speaking.”

“I’m older than you.” She said.

“And I said hush so hush.”

Nightmare Moon smirked, before a seriousness overtook her face, “Now that I’ve released yours, you release mine.” I nodded and quickly the ice was pulled back into me, the guards, whose teeth were still clacking away, fell to the ground, rubbing their legs, trying to warm them up, “Before you make your requests of me, I have a few questions for you. You said you were a Regent of the Frozen north, There is nothing there, what are you the Regent of? And Prince of Equestria? If that’s the case, where were you when Celestia waged war against me on my return?”

I smirked, “The Crystal Empire and I didn’t exist until now.” I answered vaguely.

At the mention of The Crystal Empire I could see something click in her head and a small flare of magic flared deep in her core, “The… Crystal Empire, yes I remember such a place, but it is gone until… well no matter. Is that what you mean you didn’t exist until now, you managed to escape that curse?”

I shook my head, “Not quite, but that’s nothing you need to worry about, now I have a few questions for you before my requests. My first question, is Celestia still alive?”

Her eyes widened and her fur stood on end at that question, “ YOU HAVE THE GALL - Yes, she is just sealed away in the sun as I was the moon.”

“Better than nothing I suppose, Second, Luna, she’s gone isn’t she? Not completely but she’ll never be back right?”

She was quiet for a moment, “And how do you know this?” That confirmed my question at least.

“I saw her magic flare up deep inside of yours, you consumed her entirely and without the elements her essence can never be brought back from yours, at this point in time you are her and she is you.” I explained.

“Saw, how did… no matter, it’s not of any importance, but yes, she is effectively gone unless some souls or soul managed to wield the full power of the elements but I made precautions against such a thing so it will never come to fruition.” Nightmare Moon explained.

I nodded, “Makes sense, don’t want anything threatening your rule, one more question if you’d entertain me.”

“Doesn’t seem I have much of a choice in the matter, proceed.”

I smiled gratefully, “Thank you, do you have a pony in your ranks by the name of Fluttershy by any chance?” When I asked that question I could sense this timeline’s Rainbow tense up.

“Fluttershy…no, doesn’t ring a bell, do any of my…. Soldiers know of such a pony?” She asked, eyeing Rainbow in particular.

There were rounds of no’s but this timeline’s Rainbow spoke up, “There is, your majesty, she is one of our medics for our battle mounts. Though Fluttershy was her name before she received her mark, it was changed to Flutterbat afterwards.”

“Oh, he knows her premark name, how would that be if he only just came to be how would that be?” She asked, giving me a smile.

I smirked once more, “You know what, you caught me, but that secret I’m taking it to my grave, if you could kill me, which you can’t, so.”

“So you say, why do you want to see our medic, do you wish to take her out to cripple my forces?”

I shook my head, “No need, I’m not here to fight anyone, unless you want to go at it, that’s up to you, I just want to talk to her.”

Nightmare Moon seemed to ponder this, “And how do I know you’ll keep your word in this regard?”

I gave Twilight a small smile to which she went wide eyed at, “No, don’t you DARE!”

I turned my gaze back to the dark Lunar Princess, “You can keep them until I come back, they do mean a great deal to me so I wouldn’t want anything to happen to them. I’ll even take a guard with me, just one though.”

She took that into consideration, “Very well, you there-” She started to point to a random guard.

“I’ll take Rainbow Dash.” I interrupted her, causing her to glare at me.

“Who?”

Rainbow stepped forward, “T-That would be me, your majesty, That was my premark name.”

“And even more questions surface, fine, you get an hour after that you are to be back here so we can… discuss things more.” She waved us off with her left hand and used her right to pull Twilight closer to her, “Now…. who are you?”

I shook my head and turned my attention to Rainbow Dash, “So Rainbow, lead the way.”

She rounded on me in an instant, a sword pressed to my neck. I just raised a brow, “The name is Prism Blade, Commander Prism Blade, and you will call me as such.”

I smiled at that and pushed the blade down, “Or what Rainbow Dash? Your Princess can’t even handle me, what makes you think you can?”

She scoffed and turned away from me, “Whatever, follow me prisoner, Flutterbat is this way.”

We walked for a couple of minutes in silence and I took in the surroundings. The castle was completely different than what it was in my timeline, outside of not being a ruin anymore…. Well actually that was about it it just wasn’t a ruin and anything that was Celestia paraphernalia was taken down it was pretty much The Castle of The Two Sisters.

+I wonder if The Tree of Harmony is still under the castle.+ Ixis pondered.

‘The what?’ I asked her.

+The Tree of Harmony, it’s where the Elements of Harmony come from. It, and the Elements in turn, were created by six of the most powerful and harmonic ponies of ancient times.+

‘And you’re only telling me this now why?’

+You know, good question, I’m not too sure, just crossed my mind since we’re here in the castle as I recognize it…. For the most part.+

‘Right you were friends with Celestia and Luna eons ago, I forgot about that.’ I then came to a realization, ‘Man that must be rough seeing Luna as Nightmare Moon.’

+Yes, but I take solace in the fact that this timeline, this world will be gone once we leave.+

‘Maybe….’ I thought, finishing our conversation.

“You’ve been awfully quiet, I figured you’d be yapping more, filling my head with more of your nonsense.” Prism Blade told me with nothing but pure snark.

“Not nonsense Rainbow, I know you and Fluttershy very well, her intimately so.” She snorted at that, “You don’t believe me?”

“And why should I, anyone could look up my premark name the same with Flutterbat.” She explained matter of factly.

I nodded, “True they could, fine fine, how about the young flyers competition, the one you very clearly failed to complete.” She stopped walking, “I don’t remember exactly how you failed, I wasn’t paying attention, but I’m assuming it had to do with some floating purple unicorn. But if you didn’t perform the sonic rainboom that gave you your cutie mark originally, what caused you to get your cutie mark this time?”

She let out a loud sigh before once more rounding on me, only this time it was almost too fast to see as two shining rainbow blades came into contact with my hands, which barely reacted on reflex, and shattered on impact, “That’s how, I turned that sonic rainboom into weapons, how you managed to survive it I don’t know, but that proves nothing, everyone knows of the mad unicorn that stopped the young flyers competition all those years ago.” She pulled away from me looking at me dead in the eyes, daring me to keep trying.

“Also true, ok I have one then, if you’ll humor me.” I gave her an honest smile.

“Whatever, do your worst.”

“Ok, so you were around six or seven, never was sure on the age, not good with numbers, but it was at your grandparents house, the one on Bluebird Lane, across the street from Sky High Park, or what used to be your grandparents house, they died the year before and it devastated you, you were hurt and broken and angry and confused at how everyone was moving on so easily. To be fair, you were a child, a foal, dealing with something as traumatizing as death. What really made you pissed off though was that the house was sold about 4 months after they died and all their stuff was moved out, to this new family that just moved in from Stream City.

You didn;t understand how anyone could let anyone else move into that house, it was their house, your second house. And yet here was some new family taking everything from you and you would spy on them for months. You would watch them go about their daily routine, learn their ins and outs until you decided to make a move. You decided to break in and make them know they weren’t welcome.” I paused to look at her reaction, her eyes hardened but I could tell underneath that was pure disbelief.

I continued, “It was around 2 in the morning the time you were sure everyone would be asleep and that's when you made your move, knowing the house as well as you did you broke in effortless and started to destroy and ransack the place, you even packed paint supplies to mark everything that should be in its place. You were almost done and only had one more room left, the kitchen, you actually almost got away with it too until the lights turned on and standing in the doorway was and I quote-”

“The tallest skinniest filly I’ve ever seen.” We said together.

I nodded, “Yep, a gangly, pale yellow, pink maned pegasus filly who was tiredly rubbed her eyes asking who you were, you couldn’t answer her as you were too surprised,so the filly did the only thing she knew how she asked if you were ok and if you needed a place to stay the night, she could ask her parents, and once again you were too surprised so she took the initiative and went and got her parents.

When they walked through the house with their daughter you could hear the gasps of mild fear and confusion they expected to see some burly stallion in the kitchen but instead the saw a messy maned filly with tired and angry eyes and then they did the one thing you didn’t think they would do, they smiled and asked if you were ok, that act of kindness broke you, made you realize you were ruining a families home, some nice ponies’ home and you started to bawl your eyes out, the first time since your grandparents died that you cried and the little yellow pegasus offered you warm cider because that's what calmed her down and you gladly took it and once you calmed down you told them your story, of course they called your parents and your parents offered to pay for everything and you got in trouble but funnily enough your two families became close because of that to the point you had a second family. And that was the story of how you met Fluttershy and why you love cider so much it reminds you of when you met your closest friend.”

She just stared at me, confused to all hell, “H-How did you… I’ve never told anyone that, the only person who knows is…. But she’s never talked to anyone except me how?”

I shrugged, “I told you I know you, you told me one night… well not you exactly but a different you. It's confusing.”

“Who are you?”

I looked down at her and placed a hand gently on her shoulder, “I’m a friend Prism, a friend, I swear.” I told her honestly, sincerely, giving her my warmest smile.

She pushed my hand off her shoulder, “Don’t… friends call me Rainbow. And for some reason I believe you, you give off this feeling, like I should trust you so I am.” Her gaze hardened once more, “But I swear if you hurt her I will find a way to end you… I’m all she has left these days.”

I cocked my head at that before shrugging it off, “I swear I won’t now, you were leading the way?” She nodded and turned to lead the way.

It wasn’t that much longer of a walk when we got to an arch way and the distinct smell of animals hit my noses, how I didn’t smell it before now no idea but am I glad I didn’t. Rainbow rapped her knuckles against the arch way, “Flutterbat, I have someone to see you.”

“I’ve told you all I’m a veterinarian not a doctor…. Why do I even… Ok I’ll be there in one minute.” The pegasus I remember so fondly rounded the corner and it felt like my soul found it’s missing piece, she looked dead at me too and I felt and saw something shine in her eyes, “oh its your Rai- Prism Blades and who… or what is that?”

Rainbow shrugged, “Don’t know, he can talk though.”

I waved sheepishly, “Hi, I’m.. Chris… Chris McGrath.”

Flutterbat tilted her head, “And I’m-”

“Fluttershy, I know.” I told her, causing her to look at me than at Rainbow who just shrugged.

“How do you know me by that name? No one here except Rain-I mean Prism knows me by that name.” She said.

“Drop it Shy, he already knows my original name.” Rainbow told her lifelong friend.

Shy’s eyes widened, “How… what are you?WHO are you?”

I smiled, “A drakon, half human half dragon. And who I am is a friend… more importantly I’m your husband.”

Rainbow made a noise that was between half a choke and a snort and a laugh, “You her husband? Do you know how many stallions have tried to court her only to fail horribly?”

“Well if she’s anything like my Shy it's because she was literally too shy to deal with them.”

“Yes, in a way, I could always go on dates but when it came to the intimate part I couldn’t bring myself to do anything and they would get frustrated. It made me feel like they were only dating me for my body.” FLuttershy said dejectedly.

I looked at her, my wings sagging. I could understand why they would want her for her body but… "You're so much more than that, you're kind and caring, I… I'll be honest I don't know this you, I know a different you I was married to a different you. But I get the feeling that you're the same deep down. You care for everyone and everything and I bet this war is tearing you apart inside seeing others being hurt constantly especially the animals."

She looked at me intensely before sighing, "It really does, I'm so tired of the constant fighting of seeing my few friends and animals hurt only to be patched up and sent back out immediately. They all need so much more time to rest and recover."

"It doesn't help that we're running low on food resources…." Prism mumbled out.

I turned my attention to her, "What do you mean you're running low on food resources?"

She went wide-eyed at the realization that I heard her, "N-Nothing, forget I even said anything!"

"Fluttershy, do you know what she's talking about?"

The veterinary Pegasus pondered that question for a moment, "Well… some of the wild animals have told me that the plants are starting to die."

I raised a brow at that, "The plants are starting to die? Why would?" My eyes shot open in realization of what that meant, "That absolute fucking idiot!"

"W-Who?" Flutterbat asked, scared at my sudden outburst.

"The fucking parasite sitting on the throne that's who. God damn fucking idiot didn't even think it through. I didn't even think it through. Of course the plants would start dying, the magic can only do so much and I bet the Everfree is only doing this well because of that tree." I growled out.

"Fuck…" Prism Bolt was not happy that that got out.

Flutterbat looked between us confused as to what was going on, "What is he talking about Prism?"

The guard sighed, "The forest is dying, the science ponies figured it out. It's due to there being no sun in the past 10 years. Equis' magic can only do so much to sustain everything before it all gives out. Whatever tree he's talking about I have no idea but he is right the Everfree is doing better than anywhere else. Princess Nightmare Moon has thought it was just due to the war she's been waging to rule every other continent but…" she trailed off leaving the rest to implication.

Flutterbat gasped, "The animals…."

I growled, "And everyone is too chicken shit to stand up to her at risk of death or banishment." I moved over to Flutterbat and hugged her before kissing her forehead on reflex, "Sorry, instinct is to comfort you. I promise I'll get some sense into the Princess before I leave. I don't know if all this will still be around once I'm gone. But if it is I'm going to do what I can to make sure my wife and my friends don't die."

"But we aren't even the same as them, you even said so yourself!" Prism said, exasperated by my weird sense of loyalty to them.

"I'll be honest, it doesn't matter if you all aren't them or not, you're still my family and it's the least I can do after all you have done for me, let me repay the kindness you all have given me by giving you a reason to smile again. I'm ALWAYS going to protect my family." I told them, standing up tall and proud.

"Seriously what are you some kind of superhero?" Prism asked sarcastically.

Before I could answer, Flutterbat spoke up, giving me a warm smile, "No, not a hero, just someone who does what he has to to protect the ones he loves and cares about. And who they care about in turn. He's our hero and he always will be but more importantly he's my husband."

I smiled at her, "Thank you Shy, now… one last thing you may run into a different me after I'm gone I don't know honestly. I'm still theorizing all this as I go. But if you do give him time to become me, he's going to be broken and need lots of help and love. And I know you two can help him with that. Now if you'll excuse me I have a nightmare demon to tell at." I turned from them, my wings unfurling as I took off towards the direction of the throne room. Nightmare Moon. I'm coming for you for threatening my world and my family.

42: The Cutie Re-Mark Pt. 4

“Nightmare Moon!” I roared out slamming my way through the doors to the throne room, completely splintering them. The monarch stood quickly, horns and hands glowing with magic ready to battle, her guards getting weapons ready. I landed and quickly flared out my magic freezing them in place.

“You, what are you doing destroying my Nightfall Fortress, attacking my guards?!” She screamed at me.

I looked at her, my dark magic spiking intensely to the point where even I noticed it, “You have NO right asking me what I’m doing, if your guards die by my hands it would be a much kinder fate than what you would put them through.” I spat back.

“C-Chris what are you talking about, you wouldn’t kill them would you?” Twilight asked, clearly scared of me.

I didn’t take my eyes of Nightmare Moon, to make sure she didn’t try anything, but I still responded to Twilight’s question, “If I can avoid it I won’t but if she can’t listen to reason I might as well to save them from her, or if anything I’ll take her out first.”

She looked at me incredulously, “What nonsense are you spouting? I have done nothing wrong. All I’ve done is bring ponykind to their glorious and rightful place as the sole rulers of this world!”

“SHUT UP! You’ve conquered sure, but you barely rule the world and if I can help it you won’t! Your scientists and soldiers haven’t told you because they’re too scared of what you’ll do to them, but you can’t kill me or torture me, you’re a corrupt power! if Luna was in control I wouldn’t stand a ghost of a chance but you? Ha, please you’re nothing. So I’m going to tell you, your ‘everlasting night’ is killing the planet.” I told her, steam slowly coming off of me, my anger slowly growing.

“Please the planet is fine, the forest is abundant in life and what proof do you have? Do you mean the state of everywhere else? Please, that’s just because of those fools resisting I have no choice but to raze their lands.” She explained coolly.

I growled, pure icy mist flowing from my mouth, “You fool! The only reason the Everfree is faring better is due to the Tree of Harmony, or at least that’s my theory. Equis’ magic could only hold out for so long supplementing the sun’s warmth and light. After 10 years of continuous nighttime it's at its limit and the planet is dying, the animals say so, the scientists say so, your planet says so.” I pointed to my uncovered dark eye, “This eye can see magic, it’s how I knew Luna was basically gone, I can see the magic of the planet, it's shrunk to something so small I can barely pick it out, it’s running on fumes at this point.”

“Blasphemy, you’re just trying to trick me!” She shouted out.

“A-Actually your highness… he’s right.” A new voice said behind me, I turned to see Prism accompanying a new pony that looked like Twilight but she had tan fur and her mane and tail colors were rearranged from what Twilight’s were.

“Moondancer?” Twilight and Spike called out.

Moondancer looked towards the two, being taken aback as she clearly recognized them, “You two… but how? You… but ....”

“You, Moondancer.” I called out to her, “Tell your monarch what's going on with the planet.”

“R-Right… Your nightship, the planet is… dying without the sun. The balance of magic from the sun and the moon are needed to keep Equis in balance... without one or the other, it takes up the role of what's missing, and maybe if it was the moon being held at bay it would last longer but only by another year or so, I… I think Celestia knew this and that's why she kept raising the moon as well as the sun despite the despair and pain it would bring her.” Moon Dancer explained.

Nightmare Moon looked at the scientist unicorn, her expression not changing before she laughed a hearty laugh, “So what? Who cares if the planet is dying, my plan after conquering this world was to kill everything on it regardless, so my plan just got sped up a little by an unprecedented outcome due to us being more powerful at night, oh well.” She paused, her demeanor changing to that of someone who just truly did not care. She raised a hand, a sphere of dark moon magic growing in her palm, she aimed it at Moondancer and fired.

I quickly ran over to the pony and threw up my wings to protect her, it exploded when it hit my scales, it stung a little but nothing I couldn’t handle. I looked down at the unicorn who had fallen down in shock and surprise, “You okay?” She nodded, “Good, now if you’ll excuse me… I have a princess I have to wake up.” I turned towards Nightmare Moon and growled loud and heavily enough to shake the room.

“Oh? You’re going to actually fight me? Fine let’s see how much bite you have to match that bark!” she shouted getting into a fighting stance, a sword of magic forming in her right hand.

“Rainbow get everyone out, this is going to get messy!” The pegasus nodded and quickly got the guards to help move everyone out the room, “Oh and unlock Twilight and Spike please, if I lose control they miiiiight be the only ones who can stop me!” I yelled out as they were leaving the throne room.

“Oho, lose control and why is that? And why should I be scared?” The Nightmare asked, only to quickly have me descend upon her, claws of ice clashing against a shadow sword that she was straining to push up against me.

“Because lady, you pissed me off!” I roared as I swung my leg out, kicking her through her throne and sending her crashing into the stone wall behind it.

The wall crumbled on top of her to which she pulled herself out of, using her sword as a way to pull herself up, “Okay, that hurt….. THAT HURT!” She yelled out, her magic flaring enough to make me stagger, though I just smiled, “How dare you hurt me?!”

I formed my own sword, “Oh I fucking dare, you wanna get booped in the snoot next? Or was the boot to the head enough?”

“I feel like you’re referencing something and the fact I don’t know what it is is irritating!” She rushed at me with a shadow blade poised to strike down on me. Luckily I used my wings to block the strike, however she followed it with more slashed across my wings. I was holding her back but these rapid blows were starting to stack and hurt quite a bit.

I took a second to think, I looked at the sword in my right hand and smiled before forming a smaller sword in my left, “Hey Nightmare? You wanna know what's better than one sword going really fast?”

“What?!”

I flared out my wings, breaking her combo leaving her wide open, a wicked grin on my face, “TWO! ICE DRAGON’S MAD DANCE!” I landed slash after slash on her armor, each strike freezing it over until it fell away after 100 blows of my swords to which I threw away and opted to punch her square in the chest. It was comical to say the least, it’s like she was rubber for a second and I could’ve sworn I saw my fist show through her back before she flew off and through the castle roof.

I whistled, “Now that's some distance, I didn’t even hit Sombra that hard.” I opened my wings, wincing from the pain I was still feeling in them, and took off after her.
“You know Nightmare, you aren’t a very generous or kind ruler, especially to your own subjects. Nor are you loyal or honest to them, if you were you would’ve let them know that they needed to start working on a way to fix this or show them not to be afraid to come to you with a problem if one should arise. Hell I don’t even know why I’m wasting my breath on you, you laughed at the plight you put this world in. That's not something to laugh about, you’ve ruined this magical world and i will not let that stand!”

SHe managed to right herself from her flipping flight I sent her on, “What do you know about anything?! I am millenia older than you! The lesser beings of this world wouldn’t have truly appreciated what this world is if given by how they treated this one due to her being simply nocturnal.”

I snorted, “Please, I read the history there were plenty of ponies who enjoyed the night back then, there's even an entire race that dedicated themselves to Luna, you just twisted things to tell her that it was out of fear not love or respect. And then it became true for thousands of years because of you!”

She sent a beam of magic at me which I avoided and sent a blast of ice right back to her that hit her in the arm, “Argh! Just me? I don’t think so. Her precious sister ignored her too, no one ever came to her court when it was held!”

I rolled my eyes, “No offense to Luna but who WOULD come to court in the middle of the night, besides if it was bothering her that much she should have made the effort to appear during the day more often and announce that there was a court at night so any petition that wasn’t heard during the day could be heard at night and you could’ve pushed the hours back to say around 8 or 9? No one is asleep then other than the elderly and foals. But a Midnight Night court, I get the symbology of it but its utter idiocy. Did you ever even think about that Luna?!” I called out to her on complete accident.

The Nightmare’s eyes widened, thought crossing it, “N-No I didn’t…” Surprise showed on both our faces before she shook her head, “Shut up! That still doesn’t excuse Celestia’s behavior!”

I smiled, “Oh but didn’t you never made many appearances during the day, you never managed to take the burden off her shoulders, she had to deal with the majority of the populace every day and you got nights off save for making the night sky and dream walking, which I know is hard job, I’ve done it. But still you didn’t have to deal with everyone, just the nightmares. I'm sure Celestia was just exhausted, sure it doesn’t excuse her ignoring you but did you ever go to her, ask for her to take time for you one day so you could talk?” The look she gave me told me everything I needed to know, “I thought not, so you blamed the world and fell into your hatred and jealousy when the first thing came along telling you it was justified?!”

“You don’t know anything about that or how it's like to go through all of that!”

I flew up to her and looked her dead in the eyes, “Yes, I do. You felt alone, empty, like no one loved you. Especially the one person you wanted so desperately to show it. So you blamed them, all of them but you were hoping they’d prove you wrong. Unfortunately they didn’t so you fell deeper and deeper into despair until you did the one thing that would make you feel justified, you gave in and tossed aside everything you ever cared for. But unlike you I found people, ponies, good ones to help me. I’m sure you could’ve too if you tried.” I held out a hand, “I’ll be that friend if you want.”

She looked at me and then my hand, I saw the darkness of her fur flicker for a moment before she took my hand, “Thank you…”

I smiled and led us back down to the castle, the darkness in my eye lessening enough to where it was only slightly smoking, “Of course.”

+Chris, I’m pretty sure she’s about to blast us.+

I know, I’ve got this don’t worry.

Much to Ixis’ displeasure she was proven right as as soon as we landed I felt a massive build up of magic, stronger than anything that’s happened before, “Ah well color me unsurpr-” I was cut off as she clenched my hand and let loose a full blast of nightmare moon magic.

She cackled madly and loudly as my hand went limp in hers, “You thought I’d give up that easily? Please Luna is dead, those little lapses where all staged every single one of them, all to get you to drop your guard! And now that you have you’re dead, not a single bit of you is left, well I guess except for this hand.” The beam was still going and she tried to throw my hand away to free her hands from this mess, but the moment she started to move my hand gripped hers even tighter, enough so to break all the bones.

Deep within the darkness of her magic an even darker, inkier, black spot showed up, “Oh Nightmare Moon, you absolute fool, you thought I wasn’t expecting this. Who do you think I am, some hero hoping for the best in everyone?”

Even though her hand was broken I could feel her trembling through it, “I-I, you have to be, you have the air of a goody goody like Celestia, she’d never kill anyone, she didn’t even kill me, or Tirek, or any villain! You can’t kill me, it goes against everything about being an Equestrian!” She pushed more magic into the blast.

Slowly I walked forward until my face was sticking out of the magic, my expression stoic, “That was your first mistake, assuming that since I’m a Prince of Equestria that I hold the same values as them. I’ll admit I haven’t killed anyone I’ve fought before but that was due to my family being around, I didn’t want them to be disappointed in me. But make no mistake, I am not a hero.”

Her eyes were wide, feeling the power I truly held compared to her, knowing that everything I’ve been saying was true, she stood no chance against me, “W-What are you? WHAT ARE YOU???!!!!?!!!?!”

“I am a dragon.” I said calmly before opening my mouth, “Hyōryū no Hōkō.” Slowly she froze over, she wasn’t dead but she probably wished she was. I needed to find Twilight, I sniffed around picking up on her and Spike’s scent. While I was following it I found my eyepatch and put it back on, then I found that they were holed up with a lot of ponies including Dash and Shy in the den that the war mounts were held.

“Is it over?” Twilight asked.

“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t.” I told her, “She isn’t dead don’t worry.”

“What do we do now?” This world’s Fluttershy asked me.

“Now?” I turned to the massive doors that were opened in the den, “Now we watch the sun rise.”

They all turned and looked on in awe as for the first time in years the sun began to arch above the horizon and as it did, in the Sun’s light, an all too familiar pony, matching me in height walked through the doors.

“It’s been too long my little ponies.” A warm voice said. Everyone was too stunned to say anything so she looked around her eyes ending on Twilight, “A new princess? Are you the one who stopped the nightmare?” Twilight shook her head, “Then new wielders for the elements were found?” She asked.

“Not quite.” I said, causing her to look at me, a look of confusion washing over her.

“Ixis? No… No you’ve inherited her powers haven't you? So that’s what happened I see. You were the one to stop the Nightmare?”

I nodded, “Yeah pretty much.”

“Is she?”

“Dead? No, just frozen in Ice that only you or I could melt, hopefully you don’t do that until you find the new bearers.” I told her.

“I do not plan on it, you must be exceptionally powerful to defeat the Nightmare.”

I shook my head, “Nah, if it was Luna she would’ve wiped the floor with me, just like you’ll wipe the floor with me. In the future do your subjects a favor, stop holding back and stop getting caught off guard.”

She blinked before chuckling, “I will take that advice to heart, now we have a lot of work to do, will you help me?”

“Unfortunately I can’t, we have business to take care of, would you believe a unicorn is stopping a little rainbow filly from flying in a competition and that caused all of this?”

Rainbow looked surprised but said nothing, instead choosing to think on that.

“It wouldn’t surprise me one bit, I’m guessing you’re trying to fix this?”

“Yep, so we need to go, Twilight, get the spell ready.” I told my sister.

“I got it ready to go whenever you’re ready.” She said, her horn glowing white.

“Indeed, Fluttershy… I know you don’t really know me but-” She walked up to me and put a finger to my lips.

“Say no more, I may not know you but something in my heart is telling me that I should love you, that you mean the world to me.” She said, her eyes kind and gentle.

I smiled in response and nodded, taking her finger off my lips and holding her hand, “If I show up again, help him, he won’t be who I am now, he’ll be a broken person, help him become better.”

“I will. I love you.”

“I love you too Shy, and I know he will too. Goodbye. Goodbye to you too Rainbow!” I called out to her, stepping back to join Twilight and Spike and in a flash of light we were gone.

43: The Cutie Re-Mark Pt. 5

Again and again we went to the past, and again and again we were flung into a dystopian future. One where the changelings were in charge, one where Flim and Flam industrialized everything, one where Tirek ruled, another where Discored was ensuing chaos, and one where The crusaders turned into Tyrants, that was an interesting one.

Each time my body was racked with more and more shockwaves and my head hurt more and more, but I powered through it all, either to buy enough time for Twilight to fire up the spell again or to completely overturn the hierarchy, regardless I was getting exhausted, I was running on fumes and we were thrown once again into an alternate future, I wasn’t able to land this time and was sent crashing into the ground.

I staggered to my feet, the tremors and shockwaves hitting my body were worse than all the other times combined to the point I was kneeling over screaming in pain.

“Chris! Chris!” Twilight called out to me, I wasn’t able to respond, too much pain, “That’s not good, they weren’t this bad before, Spike get under his other arm, help me carry him, we need to find someone, and judging by where we end up each time, we should be close enough to Ponyville that we could get him to a doctors! This timeline doesn’t seem as bad as the others.”
That was the last thing I heard before I passed out from the pain.

I woke up some time later, I wasn't sure how long I was out but I looked around, my heart stopping, is this… “Hello? Anyone there?” I called out, I heard shuffling come from the kitchen before Twilight stepped in through the doorway.

“Oh thank goodness you’re okay.” She said, quickly helping me sit up fully, the pain in my head was still there but the body pain faded.

“How long?”

She sighed, “Not very, a couple of hours at most, what was that? The shockwaves never hit you that bad.”

I shook my head, “I don’t know.”

Ixis, any ideas? No response, Ixis? Still no response.

“Shit…”

“What?”

“Ixis isn’t responding to me.”

“Has that happened before? I didn’t think she could just not respond.”

“She is her own person, she has free will but she tends to answer if I call for her. The only times she hasn’t is… well never mind, we’ll burn that bridge when we get to it. Now, is this where I think it is?”

“Fluttershy’s Cottage? Yeah, yeah it is.” Twilight confirmed my suspicions, though she looked away from me when she said it.

“Why are we here? Why not the doctors? Where is Spike? And if we’re in her cottage where is she?”

“Ah… thats… I don’t… they wouldn’t treat you, Shy was the only one who would. Spike is outside, helping feed the animals and Fluttershy is…”

“Right here.” I heard the voice of my wife, but it sounded off, even from all the other versions of her we’ve run into there wasn’t any hatred or malice, caution sure, but this feeling in her voice made my skin crawl.

I turned to look at her, a smile working its way onto my face despite the feeling I got, that was until I saw her eyes, there was no love there, only pure hatred and disgust, it shook me to my core and I clutched my chest in pain, “W-What?”

“I don’t even know why I helped you, especially after everything you’ve done.” She said, venom dripping from every word.

Twilight stood up, “Fluttershy! I told you, it's not, he’s not, we aren’t!”

“Stop Twilight, I know what you said, and it's possible that that’s the case but this could also be a trick, he could have finally found you and brainwashed you.” She said, standing a good distance away from me.

“But Spike is helping you feed the animals.”

“Could be part of the trick.” She said simply.

My head was spinning, what’s going on here, why did she hate me so much, what did I do? I looked up at her tears forming in the corners of my eyes, “Shy… what did I do to make you hate me?”

“WHAT DID YOU DO?! Don’t you dare play innocent!” She screamed at me. “I hate you, I wish you were dead, stop this trick and just do whatever it is you came here to do to torture me like you always do.”

I felt something inside me shatter and the tears starting flowing like a dam inside me broke, “I-I didn’t… I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m so so sorry… I’m sorry. Please don’t hate me. Please… Please… I can’t lose you, please…”

Twilight came to my side and wrapped an arm around me, “Would someone who was trying to torture you cry like this? Would he do this?”

Fluttershy stammered, “I-I… n-no… he wouldn’t, are you all really from?”

“A better time than this one? Yeah” Spike said as he entered the house, putting the bags of animal food down.

“Oh no… no what have I done.” She rushed over and hugged me, her chest pressing against my head, “Chris… honey… I’m so sorry… I’m so so sorry, it’s okay, it’s okay, if I’d have known that you weren’t him truly I wouldn’t have said any of that. I love you and I missed you, I missed this you, please be okay.”

I sniffled and just buried my face deeper into her, still crying, we stayed like that for god knows how long, by the time I was done, my throat was dry, my eyes hurt, there was a small circle of ice on the floor from my tears. Eventually I was fine enough to lift my head up.

“Are you okay Chris?” Twilight asked.

I shook my head, “But I will be… Shy?”

“I’m sorry.” The butter yellow pegasus said.

“I know, I forgive you… can I have some water?”

“Of course, with extra extra ice right?” She asked, a small hopeful smile adorning her face.

I nodded, “Of course, I wouldn’t want it any other way.” She nodded and got up to go get the water.

“Twilight?”

I wasn’t calling her Twiggy so she knew it was something serious, “Yeah?”

“It’s me, isn’t it?”

She paused for a second, not sure if she should answer before sighing and nodded, “Yeah.”

“You know I need to know everything he’s done.”

Another sigh, “I know. Just promise me you won’t kill him.” I didn’t answer, “Chris?”

I looked her directly in the eyes, “I can’t promise anything Twilight, he made Fluttershy hate, I’ve not seen anyone able to do that.”

“To be fair, she has every reason to hate him.” Spike said, once again just showing up in the living room.

“You… need a bell, you’ve gotten way too good at that.” Twilight said.

“No thanks. This timeline you has done some horrible things.” He said taking a seat in the arm rest across from us, we were on a three seater.

“I bet, I’d like to hear it from Shy.” I said turning to her since I heard her coming back from the kitchen.

She handed me the water and I gratefully took it, “So would you mind telling me what happened, what did I… what did this version of me do?”

She sat next to me and took my hand, “You… he… he killed everyone Chris, all of our friends and family. I guess he spared me because of what we had… but I think it was all just to torture me just because of what we had. He drove our Twilight into exile and no one has seen her since, last I heard was that she was seen outside of Saddle Arabia but that was 3 years ago.”

“Any idea what she would be doing?” I asked Twiggy.

“If I was in this situation, I would be looking for new wielders of the elements.” She said.

“Makes sense, I lost my ability to use kindness after I knew I hated him.” She squeezed my hand, and I did so gently back, “Then he imprisoned Celestia and Luna in the moon and sun respectively, that way they’d still rise but it would be torture for them to do so. At times the sun and moon won’t rise at all and it’s just darkness as far as the eye can see, it’s the most terrifying thing I’ve ever experienced. You don’t even know if you’re alive, he rules all of Equus, no one can stand up to him, every race has tried.”

“Every race? Even the dragons?”

She nodded, and hesitated before continuing, “Even them, no one knows how he managed to subdue them but he did. The world has been in chaos since, he has emissaries everywhere. How my Twilight hasn’t been caught yet is a miracle, or maybe she has and that's why we haven’t heard from her, I can only hope she hasn’t.”

I could tell she was avoiding something, my heart rate was already skyrocketing and I had to subdue the rage that was building as is, “Shy what aren’t you telling me?”

“I… did you and your version of myself have a child?” She asked me cautiously.

“Yes… a daughter, her name is Golden Skies, she is one of if not the best thing to ever happen to me.” I said,some warmth flooding me, thinking about my daughter who I cannot wait to get home to.

“He took her. He took our daughter a year ago. I-I couldn’t stop him… he took my Golden Skies.” She said looking at me, tears forming in her eyes but despite that it was nothing but hate and rage towards this version of me shining in them.

“He… what? He took her? He TOOKher?!” I roared out, the entire room freezing over and I could hear animals running away and scurrying around outside, but not from me, no from something else, something else that I could sense but disappeared as quickly as it showed up.

Fluttershy rushed to calm down her animals, though as soon as she opened the doors she fell back and screamed, causing me to rush over to her, “Shy, what’s wrong?!” She said nothing and just turned to cry into my chest. I looked around and saw exactly what caused her to cry.

On the ground in front of me was a letter attached to the horn of the head of Twilight Sparkle.

44: When hope is gone there's only one thing left in your soul (The Cutie Re-Mark Finale)

I scooped up the head and letter and cradled it in my wing, “Spike, get Shy some water!” I shouted out to him, picking Shy up and setting her on the couch next to Twilight.

“Chris what happened?” Twilight asked.

I looked at her and then to Shy and shook my head, “Not here, the kitchen.” Twilight nodded and got up to follow me, Spike moved past us, “Comfort her, please. And do not come into the kitchen until we tell you it's okay.” He nodded and sat down next to Shy and started rubbing her back.

“So what happened?” Twilight asked.

“This, this is what happened.” I pulled out the head, she gasped in shock, and placed it gently on the counter.

“Is that? Is that my… is that her?”

“Yeah, it even has your exact sme-wait… there's another scent underneath it.” I sniffed around the head, much to Twiggy’s dismay and located the source of the other scent, a familiar scent. I stuck my fingers in its mouth and felt around until I found what I needed to.

“Chris, what are you doing?!”

“I… oh no… no no no… not him too.” I said looking at the thing in my hand.

“Chris, what are you talking about?” She asked, I looked at her and set the thing down on the counter. It was an eyeball with a reptilian slit and an emerald green iris. “Spike… no…” She broke down in tears and collapsed onto the floor.

I bent down to help her relax, “Hey, hey calm down, it’s not our Spike, he’s in the living room helping Shy.”

She looked at me, with rage and hurt, “It doesn’t matter if it's our Spike or not, it's still Spike! Its still my son!”

I looked at her and blinked, “Oh… I never knew you saw him as your son, a little brother sure but.”

Twilight also blinked and realized what she said, “I guess, I guess I never fully realized it either, but I raised him since he was a baby even if I did have help.”

“I understand, I really do, but you need to hold onto it this time please. I'm doing my best to hold in my rage right now, it’s the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do but I need you to help me be stable, please.”

She nodded and wiped her eyes, “Okay, I can do that, did you read the note yet?”

I shook my head, “No, I was more worried about Shy at the moment but now is as good a time as any.” I snaked my tail up to the head and grabbed the note. As I unraveled it I noticed the scent it was mine, of course it was, “The note reads, ‘If you want to see her again then come to White Tail Plains tomorrow, when the sun is at its highest point, if you don’t you’ll have missed the last chance to save her or ever see her ever again. Otherwise I will kill her and drop her head at the door like I did this one.’”

I felt something in me nearly snap, the entire cottage was nearly destroyed by the amount of power I was putting out, the only thing that was holding my pure rage back that there was a chance at saving my daughter, “I'm going to kill him. I’m going to kill him as many times as it takes, whatever it takes.”

Twilight however noticed the darkness billowing from her friend, her brother, and for the first time in a long time she felt the beginnings of true fear. But as soon as the darkness appeared it faded.

I took a deep breath and calmed myself as best as I could, “Twilight, I’m not waiting for tomorrow, I can’t.” I spread my wings, burst through the roof and took off towards the location until I met face first with a lavender barrier. It didn’t hurt but the surprise stunned me, I turned around and glared at Twilight, “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Stopping you from rushing into a trap.” She retorted, “You think he wouldn’t expect someone, anyone to come rushing after him after doing something like that?” I stayed silent so she continued, “Look, I understand you’re angry. I’m angry, furious in fact, but if we rush in without a plan then we’ll all end up like… her.” She gestured back towards her doppleganger’s severed head.

“I. Don’t. Care. He, it, has my daughter. I can’t let that stand.” I snarled out.

“And I get that, but what good would rushing in and dying do for her?”
I thought about what she said for a moment before sighing and landing back in the kitchen with a heavy thud, “Fine what do you have in mind?”

She took a relaxing breath, “Okay, good, first we need to make sure Fluttershy is okay, catch them both up to speed, and then I can go over my plan with all of you.” I nodded and we both made our way into the living room, not before a sharp pain ripped through my skull, only for a second though.

-Deep in Chris’ subconscious-

Thicker and thicker cracks formed in the white door, letting out black light. Behind it all you could hear laughter so cold, so malicious that it would scare the devil himself. The area around the door too tainted into the same inky black as the white and it began to spread.

The spirit that resided within this place was trying their best to hold it back. She couldn’t warn her friend, her successor, of what was going on as it took all the concentration she had to even hold back this amount. But whatever was happening out there was giving more and more power to the darkness beyond the door and she feared one more push too great would be beyond her power to hold it back and god help whoever stood in his way when that happened.

-The next day at the allotted time and place-

Fluttershy walked into the clearing, eyes icy and devoid of love for the being she was staring at. The love of her life, the person she gave everything to and got everything from, was grinning at her, ear to ear, eyes full of nothing but pure malice and yet there was joy behind it too.

“Ah, so you came, I didn’t think you’d have the nerve after I slaughtered all your friends.” He said, his voice cold and hollow.

“They were your friends too.” She spit out.

He rolled his eyes, “Please they stopped being my friends ages ago, honestly they were never my friends and neither were you.”

Tears welled up in her eyes as she screamed at him, “Thats not true! We all loved you, I loved you! We would’ve helped you no matter the obstacles!”

The corrupted version of Chris snarled, “No, you wouldn’t have. None of you would have, once you saw that I was tainted the only thing you held in your hearts for me was fear and disgust. Just like everyone else in my life! You all betrayed me! And you know what, I wasn’t even surprised by it! I knew it would happen but so soon? After I saved you all from Sombra too!”

“You killed Sombra, you didn’t have to the Crystal Heart would have-” SHe started but was cut off by a spike of ice embedding itself in the ground next to her.

“Would have what? Dispersed him? Only for him to come back at some later point, like every villain in these kinds of cliches? No, I wasn’t going to let that happen, I was going to protect you all no matter what!” He yelled back at her.

“It wasn’t the fact that you killed Sombra, it was the fact that you kept killing anything and anyone who posed a threat. We could have talked them down, converted them. Twilight believed we could, so we all believed we could!” She tried reasoning with him.

“And that would’ve been a foolish mistake on all of your parts, I did you all a service and got rid of the villains and the bad guys.” He stated calmly.

“And in turn you created the worst villain in history. But you don’t have to be anymore.” She tried more and more.

“Pfft yeah, I’m the villain for protecting my family, but what does it matter, you and this…. Offspring of mine will reject me anyways.” He said holding up a battered and bruised Golden Skies by the neck. She was wearing nothing but rags and had cuffs on her wrists and ankles, a collar on her neck. Each one had chains dangling off of them.

Fluttershy gasped, “Golden Skies!” She called out for her child, “Please give me my baby back, please come back to us, I promise we won’t leave you we’ll help you, please!”

He smiled an evil smile, “No… No, I don’t think so. You know I was going to give her back to you if you groveled for your life and hers, but instead you lied to me, again. So I think I’ll kill her and you both and be rid of my past life forever and start anew.” He held Golden Skies up higher, gripping her neck tighter.

Before he could squeeze any tighter something slammed into him like a bullet from above sending him into the ground and sending Golden Skies flying to which she was gently caught in a lavender aura and lowered to the ground.

She looked around confused until she saw her aunt and Spike standing next to her mother. She ran over to them and cried, “He… he said he killed you both…”
Twilight looked down at her… other niece, “He did, we aren’t from this Equestria, it’s a long story but we’re here to help.”

Golden Skies looks at everyone, Spike giving her a reassuring smile and her mother getting to her knees and holding her, “I missed you so much sweetie.”

Golden Skies returns the hug, burying her head in her chest, “I missed you too mommy, daddy was so mean and scary.”

Fluttershy shook her head, “That wasn’t your daddy, not anymore.” Golden Skies was about to ask some questions until the ground started to rumble and exploded out from where her dad was.

“WHO DARES STRIKE THE GOD OF THIS WORLD?!” He roared out as dust and debris settled.

He looked around until his eyes fell on a familiar yet strange sight, himself. No, who he was before.

“I dare, you poor copy.” I said, finally getting a good look at this horrid version of myself. He looked nearly identical. The major differences being his skin was pale gray, his eyes were both inky voids with yellow irises, and he didn’t have wings. He had seemed to only reach his tail evolution.

“Wha- Oh, oho and who or what are you?” He said casually, though curiosity was in his voice.

“God, are you stupid as well as ugly?” I said, not hiding any of the hatred in my voice, “I'm you, but better, not this corruption.”

“Corruption? Please, I’m the perfect version of who we are. Unbound, free from the trivialities of fear and worry of betrayal.” He said off handedly.

“Yeah, by killing everyone. Our friends, our family, everyone! And I can never forgive that!” I screamed out.

“Please like I need your forgiveness. I’ve found true freed-” A fist slammed into his cheek, though it didn’t do much. Nega-Chris laughed, “Ha, is that really all you can do?” His hand wrapped around mine and he tossed me into the forest, slamming through trees and boulders.

How the hell was he so strong? He’s at a lower evolution than me, and I planted him into the ground earlier. As these thoughts went through my mind I felt something slam in my stomach knocking the wind out of me and sending me flying further.

“So I bet you’re wondering what happened since you firmly planted me in the ground earlier.” I heard a voice coming from the left of me. I turned my head and saw him running next to me, and he seemed to be doing it easily. “You seem to be in a further evolution than me, wings huh? A bit unfair but it doesn’t matter.” He shrugged it off and disappeared from view.

I didn’t need to wonder where he went for too long as I felt a leg plant itself firmly in my back, “Ice Dragon’s hammer.” His voice calmly said, and I was sent speeding back towards the clearing faster than I was sent away. I crashed into the ground, a mound of dirt and stone piling up in front of me as my face was digging into the ground.

“Hmm, though it doesn’t seem the evolutions matter if you can’t….” He chuckled, “No, I won’t spoil that for you. I’d rather you deal with it as it comes.” He said before gasping, “Oh wait, no you won’t be alive for that, so no answers for you then.” He picked me up out of the ground by one of my horns turning me to look at him.

“I can’t believe what a weakling I used to be, with that strength they will all die, wherever you came from.” He said matter-of-fact.

“Whatever, its more than enough.” I coughed out, looking at him out of my one good eye, “And guess what.”

“Wha-” He started to ask until I slammed my tail into the side of his head, catching him off guard enough to let me go and I used the one advantage I had, my wings, and I took off into the air.

“Wings are really god damn fucking useful!” I shouted at him. Fuck, he’s strong stronger than me by a good margin, I knew none of my attacks would land and well… shit there wasn’t much he could do but damnit, “I have to try.” I inhaled as much air and ambient magic as I could, my torso distending larger than ever, “Hyōryū no-!” Then he flashed in front of me, my eyes widened but I took the chase at the closer blast, “Hōkō!” I unleashed my full power onto this fake, the blast shook the heavens and even on the ground trees were being uprooted and sent flying miles away, everyone else only managed to stay in the area because Twilight put up a barrier.

Before the mist and fog died down I felt a hand wrap around my throat I grasped at his hand to no avail, “That was a good shot, I honestly can't even absorb it because it's technically my own magic. Smart, however.” His yellow eyes flashed through the mist, followed by his face sporting a venomous grin, “Not good enough.” He threw me to the ground then I felt an immense pain pierce my stomach and wings. I screamed, the pain unbearable, I even felt something running down my head, it was warm. I reached a hand up and felt that one of my horns was missing, I brought the hand back to my face, my fading vision only seeing red.

“Oh… that's… not…. Good.” I wheezed out. Then the pain in my stomach got worse as I felt the spike get pushed in further.

“Oh look at that! You’ve been impaled.” He said with a laugh, standing on the flat end of the spike, “Well that was fun, now, as much as I’d love to see you die slowly, I don’t need a hero’s comeback.” He held out a hand, a sword of black ice forming in his hand.

Then he got hit in the back of his head by a ball of fire, “Leave my brother alone!” Spike yelled out. Nega turned his head, still engulfed in fire, to look at the young drake.

“Spike what are you doing?” Twilight said worried and surprised.

“Protecting our family, he’s still an Ice dragon, he’s still weak to heat.” Spike said firmly.

Nega let out a thunderous laughter, “Oh please, I fixed that weakness years ago, now… SIT DOWN AND WATCH!” He yelled, throwing the sword into the drake’s leg, causing him to fall backwards and write in pain.

I held out a hand and wheezed, “N-No!”

“Spike!” Twilight yelled out, running over to him, dropping the barrier around Golden Skies and Fluttershy, “How dare you, you monster! He’s your family!”

“And I killed him once and I’ll do it again, same to you.” He said coldly, “So if you want any chance at survival, keep your mouth shut!”

“How could I?!” She started.

“TWILIGHT!” I yelled out as best as I could.

“But-!” She saw the look in my eyes and it told her enough, “But… Chris…”

“It’ll be fine... I promise, just get… get out of here and… make sure that this never hap...pens in any other time, please.” I coughed more, blood flying out of my mouth.

Nega smiled, glad he’s finally getting his way, “Good, you’ve accepted your death, perfect.” He once again formed a black ice sword and pointed it down at me, “Do you have any last words?”

I coughed and smiled, “Yeah… I-I didn’t… get my spaghetti-o’s… I-I got spaghetti…”

He looked confused but shrugged it off, “Whatever, let’s just end-” A ball of snow hit him in the face, “Oh what now?!”

The one who threw the snowball, I turned to look and my eye went wide, my heart dropping, well as much as it could with ya know… half of it being kinda gone, “N-NO!”

Nega laughed, “You? You?! Really? Oh that’s rich.”

Golden Skies was crying, snowing dripping out her hand, “L-Leave my daddy alone!” Her voice shook with fear and determination. Fluttershy looked horrified, what had she just done?

Nega rolled his eyes, “I should’ve killed you when I had the chance.” In his other hand he sent a spike flying at her, it went by in slow motion in front of my eyes but I’ll never be able to forget it. Fluttershy jumped in front of her daughter but it didn’t matter it pierced both of their chests, a hole left in its place as they dropped to the ground, dead.

In that moment a door broke inside Chris’ mind, and the world went black.

-Twilight’s POV-

I looked in horror as I watched one of my best friends and my niece get killed, I could’ve stopped it, I could’ve done anything but I was too caught up in making sure Spike was okay. Oh, Spike, how was he handling this? She looked down to her lifelong assistant, her son and he was weeping, he was broken. From the pain in his leg yes, but more so the pain in his heart.

I couldn’t stand this any longer. I had to do something, anything! I stood up after making sure Spike would be fine and turned to confront this- What was happening?

In the spot where Chris and his evil self were at there was nothing but an inky black pool and Evil Chris was off in the distance at the edge of the black pool.

“What? What is that?” I heard him ask, “You!” He said looking directly at me, “What is this? What is going on?!”

I stammered out an excuse, “I-I don’t know, I’ve never seen this. Didn’t you do this to him?”

Before he could get out an answer a massive black hand shot out of the pool and grasped at the edge of it, followed by another and slowly the pool shrunk as a body rose from it, being lifted by the two gigantic arms. The being that came from it would’ve been unrecognizable if it weren't for the hole in its stomach that I only caught a glimpse of until it completely sealed up.

Chris… or whatever this was was completely black, no… not balck, a void, you could see that he was there but it looked like any light that came into contact with him just stopped existing so it was more like a hole in space and time. He still had horns but there were now 6, 3 on each side of his head, sharp spines ran down his back and tail, which ended into a deadly axe shape, His arms and legs were longer and thicker and ended in terrifyingly jagged claws that seemed to have some sort of black fire emanating from them. And his wings weren’t wings anymore, they were the giant arms that pulled him out of that black abyss. But the worst things were his eyes, those flaming red eyes I swear I will see in my nightmares for years to come, there was no light in them, no love, no anything, just death. And then he opened his mouth which was accompanied by what sounded like tearing flesh.

I thought it couldn’t get any worse and then he roared, it sounded like metal being ripped to shreds, it shook me to my core. I looked over to Spike and there was fear for his life in his eyes, and I have never seen that look in another living being until today, and I could tell that I had that same look when he glanced over at me. We both knew that whatever this thing was would kill everything in its path.

That thing breathed slowly, its breaths long and drawn out as mist from what I could only guess was heat meeting cooler air seeped out, or maybe it was reversed. I never wanted to be close enough to find out. The same voidlike blackness was dripping from his mouth, hitting the ground and then immediately crawling back onto his body.

His head title to the left and looked at us. I froze on the spot, hoping to every god that existed it wouldn’t come after us, but there was some sort of recognition in his eyes, almost a sadness. Then it tilted it’s head to the right and looked at Evil Chris and the look in its eyes changed completely, the sadness was gone, the death was back but it was fueled by seething rage and hate.

Once more it roared, this time loud enough to decimate any nearby boulders, some the size of houses. Evil Chris looked almost as scared as we did but he was still confident, “What are you supposed to be huh?” He asked the thing, it didn’t answer, “No response, so what are you? Just some mindless beast? Some primal will to live?” He raised his hand but it was quickly grabbed by the thing, faster than any of us could register faster than even when he raced rainbow, to the point where until I blinked I swear he was still in the spot he was just at.

Evil Chris Looked surprised but smirked, “Faster? Oh well now this will be fun but unfortunately.” His smirk disappeared, “I do not enjoy being grabbed.” In his only hand he formed a sword and stabbed it into the things chest, stabbing straight through his back.

The thing roared and let go of Evil Chris and he smiled as he jumped back a few feet, “See you aren’t so tough.” The thing looked down at the sword in its chest and tilted his head before the sword slowly began to be swallowed by the darkness, leaving nothing in its place, not even a wound.

That roar from being stabbed wasn’t in pain it seemed, it was out of surprise, this one was out of anger. The thing reached out one of the large hands that sprouted from its back and Evil Chris jumped further back out of its reach but the hand followed after him and quickly grabbed him, crushing him in its grip. Evil Chris groaned in pain.

“W-What?!” He thrashed around but he was unable to escape, “Damn it, damn it! ICE DRAGON’S IRON MAIDEN!” He yelled out, spikes pierced through the giant hand holding him, which once again surprised the thing and caused it to drop the evil doppelganger. And once again the ice spikes were swallowed up and no wounds were left.

“W-WHAT ARE YOU?!” Evil Chris yelled out once more, backing away as far as he could in the time he had, fear evident in his voice. The thing looked at him and started to make his way towards him, “No no no… this… this can’t be happening.” He inhaled, “Hyōryū no Hōkō!” A swath of snow and ice shaper than the sharpest razors rushed towards the thing, but it just unhinged its jaw and swallowed it all, not slowing down in the slightest.

Evil Chris looked around in desperation, looking for anything, something that he could do, any idea and then he had a look of revelation before once more smiling as if he’d won. He placed his hands on the ground and a black mass poured into the ground, “Shadow Dragon’s Black Hole!” The darkness raced towards the Thing and as soon as it touched the massive hand that was on the ground it started to swallow it.

I couldn’t believe my eyes, it took everything that was thrown at it but it was being swallowed up, just like that. It took a couple of seconds but then the thing was gone and I sat there in shock, Spike sat there in shock. Even the Evil Chris was in shock and then he started laughing.

“I knew it! Nothing can escape the Black Hole, not even that monster!” He took a deep breath, as if he was holding it the entire time and then he looked in our direction and made his way over, “And now for you two and I will be rid of this once and for all.”

I looked up at him and stood in front of my son, “Do whatever you want to me, but let him live.”

He scoffed, “No, I don’t think I will. Now I shouldn’t ask this, but any last words?”

I was about to say something but movement from his shadow caught my eye and then… it was back, that thing, coming from his shadow and forming directly behind him. He noticed the look in my eyes and the direction they were pointing, “No…” He said quietly before quickly turning around only to have the lower half of his head grabbed by one of the huge hands.

There were now tears streaming down Evil Chris’ face, he couldn't believe something like this was happening, was real but here it was and he knew it was his own doing and yet he still asked the same thing he did every time, although muffled you could still make it out, “What are you?”

The thing got close to his face and smiled, something I didn't think it could do but I will never forget it as long as I live and then it opened its mouth and roared the only word it ever spoke.

“VOOOOOOOOIIIIIIIIIIIDD!!!!!!!!!”

With the sickening sound of ripping flesh and breaking bone his head was torn clean off his body and tossed to the side, his body followed shortly. I almost threw up, Spike almost threw up, but we didn’t, we couldn't. We were too afraid that it, Void, would turn its attention on us. Luckily it didn’t, unfortunately it let out another roar and started to rampage looking for something to turn it’s ire one. I didn’t know what to do, so I let it happen, I let it rampage for what seemed like hours but in reality was only minutes, the woods were devastated but the clearing was mostly fine. Then it saw the corpses of Fluttershy and Golden Skies once more and it stopped and just stood there in front of them.

It’s mouth was dripping that black ink again, was it drooling, was it going to eat them? No, no I looked closer, as best as I could and those drops of inky black were coming from its eyes, it was crying. That’s when I remembered, this was still Chris, still my brother, still my friend. I walked over to him and tentatively put a hand on his back, Spike even managed to hobble over and get to the other side of him and do the same.

“It’s okay Chris, it’s okay, we’re here. You still have us, and everyone back home. Remember them okay?” I felt tears running down my cheek now too, “I know this hurts, even if they weren’t ours they were still them and it hurts to see this happen. But we have to get back home. We have to stop Starlight to stop this timeline from ever happening. Please, come back to us.”

“Come on dude, this isn’t you, you’re stronger than this, you’re still my big bro, the Chris I know wouldn’t be beaten by this especially if he knew how to fix it and you do, so snap out of it, please.” Spike added.

Us two being there and speaking to him seemed to have helped as he let out a wail of sorrow before the inky blackness dripped off of him, leaving the same Chris that we knew and loved in its place, his other horn being restored and no holes in his wings or torso, though his wings were smaller now, I guess whatever this was regulated the excess magic he said made his wings huge.

-Chris’ POV-

I sobbed for god knows how long but Spike and Twilight were there and it helped but I still felt this void in my heart and soul, but it wasn’t as bad as it was. I knew that I had my family waiting for me and I knew, or at least hoped this timeline would disappear once Starlight was taken care of.

“Starlight.” I spit out with as much malice as anyone could feasibly muster and then some.

“Yeah we have to stop her.” Spike said.

“But first why don’t we give them a proper burial.” Twilight said but I just shook my head.

“No, it won’t matter this timeline will be erased, they’ll get a proper burial back home but right now we have a unicorn to stop.” I said definitely, angrily, hatefully.

The Alicorn and Drake looked at eachother with worry, “If you say so, let me just fire up the spell.” Twilight said, her horn glowing and a worm hole opening up sucking the trio in, leaving the corpses on the battlefield to fall to nature.
Once we landed in the past I looked for Starlight but couldn’t find her, but I couldn’t smell her. I quickly spun around and grabbed her by the throat with my tail, “Not this time.”

“W-What?!” She croaked out.

“No more of your games! I’m sick and tired of them!” I yelled, my grip tightening around her throat.

“L-Let me… g-go!” She yelled hoarsely, magic gather in her horn until she let out a blast of raw magic to my face, it stung I won’t lie but I was done playing.

I pulled her close to my face, “I. Said. No. More.” I growled, baring my teeth, “Because of you we’ve been thrown through time and space over and over again, each new time we get sent into is increasingly worse than the last. Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis, Sombra, Discord, The Flim Flam Brothers, Tirek, and myself. I watched my sister’s head delivered to my door step. I watched my wife and daughter get murdered in front of my own eyes while I laid bleeding out on the ground from a hole in my chest due to an evil version of me who I then proceeded to rip his head off. I AM DONE!” I roared, shaking the sky. I felt a tap on my shoulder and saw Twilight looking at me.

I sighed and loosened up my grip so she could breathe but I still wasn’t letting her go, “You look like you don’t believe me, I want you to open up a wormhole right now send us into the future because the race is already disrupted and this time you’re coming with.”

“And if I don’t?” She asked smugly.

With no hesitation from myself and with all the dead seriousness of cancer, “I will rip your fucking flesh from your face, feed it to you, and watch you die here in the past. I will have no care or emotion about it either.”

Her eyes darted to Twilight and I could tell just from Starlight’s face that even Twilight didn’t know if I was serious or if she could stop me. So instead of taking that chance she nodded and opened a wormhole to the future.

When we landed this time, the world was a barren wasteland. I couldn’t see magic anywhere, I couldn’t smell any life, there was nothing, I tossed her to the ground, “Do you see what I mean, you messing with the timeline causes nothing but pain and death, eventually the end of the world.” I said coldly.

“No, no… there is no way six ponies can be that important!” She screamed defiantly.

I looked at her baffled and Twilight was about to speak but I slammed my tail on the ground, silencing her, “You can’t believe it? Look at Spike his leg is a fucking mess. You don’t think the fucking ELEMENTS OF HARMONY could be important? What the fuck is wrong with you, they are the literal embodiment of harmony you egomaniacal bitch! If they don’t get their cutie marks the world ends what's so hard to understand about that?!”

She scrambled to her feet and glared at me, “But that’s absurd!”

“Absurd? ABSURD?! This entire world is fucking absurd! It’s full of fucking mythological creatures and runs off of friendship and hugs! And you think 6 ponies being the end all be all fate of the planet is absurd?! There is a literal GOD of Chaos! I come from a different world altogether, I was brought her by a fucking magic wish granting dying ice dragon, who’s spirit resides in my fucking head. I’m a human who at this point is more dragon than human and THAT’S what's absurd to you? That friendship is the savior of friendship planet? What the hell happened to you to make you so fucking stupid?” I questioned her, baffled at the complete, well, absurdity of it all.

She was seething at this point, “S-STUPID?! Fine you want to know what happened to me?! Then I’ll show you!” Her horn glowed and another wormhole opened, this time we were dropped out in a small village outside of what looked like a library.

“Look in there, that’ll give you the answers you’re looking for.” She said, panting in exhaustion.

Twilight and I both Looked into the building to see what looked to be a young Starlight and some orange unicorn colt studying magic books. Suddenly the colt’s eyes started glowing as he levitated in the air with books swirling around him. As quickly as it started it stopped and he now had a cutie mark. Young starlight screamed in joy for her best friend which caught the attention of everyone in the library, how they missed a floating child I don’t know but they did. The ponies in the library picked up the colt like it was his bar mitzvah and carried him out the door towards the center of town.

“That was my best friend, Sunburst, this is the day he got his cutie mark and the day I last heard or saw him.” She explained, “It broke my heart, I vowed to never let a cutie mark take someone away from anyone ever again.”

Twilight and Spike nodded in sympathy and I just facepalmed, “Did he die?” I asked, benefit of the doubt and all that.

“What?” Starlight asked, surprised by the question.

So I repeated myself, “Did. He. Die?!”

She stumbled back a bit, “N-No, last I heard he was some big shot wizard in Canterlot.”

I took in a deep breath and turned to my sister in law, “Twilight please take us into a time pocket or something, right now, please.” She did as I asked and we were now floating in between space and time. I then took this opportunity to once again grab Starlight by the throat, with my hand this time as ice started to form on her neck. She looked terrified, good, she should be.

“So you’re telling me. Despite how good you are with planning a literally time heist, how smart you seem to be you didn’t take the time to write him a DAMN LETTER?!” I roared, the ice creeping up her chin.

“H-He didn’t….wr-write me… either…” She managed to get out.

“That is besides the point, you said he’s a big shot wizard right?! Maybe he didn’t have the time in his busy schedule maybe he got swept up in things, so fucking what? You weren’t a filly forever you could’ve taken literally any time in your obviously oh so not busy life to go visit him or again WRITE A GODDAMNED LETTER! I SUFFERED PAIN RACKING MY BODY, WATCHING MY HOME GETTING TORN TO PIECE BY VILLAIN AFTER VILLAIN AND MY OWN FLESH AND BLOOD BEING SLAUGHTERED BY A WARPED VERSION OF MYSELF JUST BECAUSE YOU COULDN’T BE A BIG GIRL FOR 5 FUCKING MINUTES?!” I squeezed tighter and tighter, the ice creeping up her face, now below her eyes, her breathing coming out in shivering, shallow breaths, “Give me one, one, good reason I should freeze your head solid and shatter it like glass right now!” She opened her mouth to answer but no sound came out.

I felt a tapping on my shoulder and turned my head to look at who was interrupting me to see a terrified Twilight, “Chris, please, you aren’t like him, don’t make the same mistakes.” She said quietly.

I looked at her, then at my hand, then at Starlight, she was crying and afraid. I snarled and let go, dropping her to… well there’s no real group here so just dropping her I guess, “Whatever, Twilight, rehabilitate her or whatever, I don’t care. But, if she comes anywhere near me or my family I will rip her head off.”

I moved away from them to calm down and I could hear Starlight coughing and gasping for air, +Well that was dramatic, are you okay?+ Ixis asked, her voice sounding in my head for the first time in some time.

‘And where have you been?’

+Honestly? Trying to keep Wrath from getting out.+

‘Fine job of that.’

She snorted, +Someone’s grumpy but I get why. And if you’re referring to that thing you became, Void, was it? That wasn’t Wrath. I don’t really know what it was. Normally when Wrath Takes over I’m shoved deep into you subconscious but I’m still there, it’s why I’m eventually able to pull you back out. But Void, it was like I didn’t exist, like Wrath didn’t exist. Though, at the same time it felt I was you. I don’t know what it was, if I can find out more on it I’ll let you know.+

I grumbled, ‘Thanks.’

+You’re welcome, in other news Wrath’s door is closed again, but it has cracks in it but he seems… dormant. I have no idea what that means. But I don’t think he’s locked in there anymore so we need to be careful.+ She warned me.

‘Got it, anything else?’

+Your magic is balanced out, that’s why your wings aren’t as big, the downside being you can’t use frozen time anymore nor are you as fast. Upside being you’re stronger and more durable, oh and you can still fly, so even trade I guess.+

‘Totally even, the ability to freeze time and insane speed traded off for more strength and durability, totally fair.’

She rolled her eyes, again I could just tell, +Don’t be so grumpy, you’ll get it back at some point.+

I just grunted, not wanting to continue this conversation, “Oi, can we go home? I want to see my wives and daughter!” I yelled out to them.

“Wives?” I heard Starlight ask.

“None of your business!” I yelled back out.

“He can hear me?!” She whispered.

“Yeah, he can hear a lot apparently. But yes it’s time to go home Chris.” Twilight said.

“Good. Let’s get this over with, Spike when we get back you wanna go for some sapphire cupcakes?” I asked the younger dragon.

He smiled, “As long as you’re paying.”

I smiled back and laughed, “My wife’s the chef I don’t need to pay… well not money anyways.”

He decided to not acknowledge that, smart. “Then we’ve got a deal.” And with that my adventure through time and space was done…. At least this time.

Author's Note

So, once again it has been a looong time. I'm sorry, life and all that I don't wanna bore you with details. I also didn't want to put out anymore chapters until I had this arc done. Writers block and life tends to get in the way of things like that. Don't worry I'm going to keep writing this for as long as I can when time permits. This story is my baby. I have big plans for it and I want to thank those who are going to stick with it the entire time even when this fandom is long dead. So to you all who are still around, thank you, I love you and your support, keep on being awesome.

0: Prologue

It was a clear starless night and a man twenty years of age was lying on a well kept lawn outside of a 3-story Victorian style house. The man sat up and let out a deep sigh as a passing car’s headlights illuminated his features. He was of caramel colored skin with chocolate brown eyes and a mess of hair atop his head that resembled that of a black sheep. (not in the shape of a sheep, though it would be funny) He had a slightly bulbous nose, ears that stuck out slightly as well as having freckles splashed about his face and a well defined jaw-line.

His eyes followed the black car under his rectangular glasses until it rounded the corner and disappeared from sight. The man gave another sigh before looking up at the sky and then to the house behind him.

He stood up slowly, “Well I think its time to turn in, to think… mom left me this house when she died.” He shook his head and let out a small laugh, “I miss her, but I am thankful for the peace and quiet. The city with dad and Seena was just way too much, still its insane that I was left with a massive house and damn near half a billion dollars.” He gave another quick chuckle, “Well that’s what happens when your parents are divorced and your mother is one of the most famous actors on the planet.” He gave one last look at the sky, “She really loved the night sky, too bad it’s a starless one tonight.” He let out one last small sigh and closed his eyes. While they were closed a streak of white reflected in his glasses. As he turned around to open the door there was an earth shaking boom sounding from the forest that surrounded the house.

“What in the world…” He turned towards where the sound and shock wave came form to see a bright glow, “I know I’m going to regret this but…” He takes a shaky breath and heads for the forest across the road.

Within 30 or so minutes the young man reached the pulsing light to find a crater. In said crater there was a large lizard like creature. It looked like… “A dragon.” The young man says under his breath. He slid down the edge of the crater towards the creature when he was close he got a good look at the details. Its body was snow white with a golden belly, claws, horns and spines, and the wing membrane was a paler gold. The dragon’s eyes were closed so he reached a trembling hand out slowly to touch it only to stumble back and fall when its eyes shot open showing to be an icy blue.

“I… uh… c-can you speak?” The man asked, his voice shaking something terrible.

The dragon moved its large head slowly, “Indeed I can young one.” It said in a feminine voice.

The man started to breath heavily, “Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh… a real dragon, how did… I mean… you are… oh my gosh.”

The dragon laughed a bit before coughing, “Still your tongue young one and tell me your name.” She said in a soft yet commanding tone.

He blushed and cleared his throat, “Right, my apologies, I – uh – I’m… my name is Chris… Chris McGrath.” He said as best he could through his excitement.

She nodded, “Yes, a fine name indeed… though I sense no fear from you... are you not afraid?”

“Me? No… a – uh – a little excited sure, but scared? Not - not really. Uhm… may I ask your name if that’s okay?” Chris asked her.

She smiled again before coughing, “Ah, I must apologize; my manners have escaped me in my old age.” She gave a few more coughs before continuing, “My name is Elsa Isixim (yeah I know, whatever my story)… or just Elsa or Ixis, whichever you prefer.” She finished with a ragged breath.

Chris stood back up and took a small step forward, “Are… are you ok?” She shook her head very slowly. “Is there anything I can do to help?” He asked.

She looked at him sadly, “So kind even though you know nothing about me or where I’m from… Alas, no, I am dying and nothing can be done to postpone or stop it” she paused for a second before speaking again, “Actually there is something you can do for me.”

“Sure anything, what is it?” He asked looking at those icy blue eyes that somehow showed a millennium worth of emotions and wisdom.

“Tell me something, anything, that you truly want or desire and I can give it to you, that is what you can do for this old dying dragon’s last wish. For me… and you.” She said with a small smile.

He looked at her shocked before speaking, “Well… I – I’d like to go and see someplace that no one on this world has ever seen before.”

The dragoness looked at the human, “A humble request that I can easily fill.” She raised her head up and took one last long ragged breath before opening her mouth and breathing a blast of bone chilling cold white air over the man.

As soon as he felt it he looked back at the dragon, “You tricked me! You just wanted to kill and eat me!” he yelled out.

“No… I am giving… you… your request…” Her voice died off and with it the blinding white coldness.

It was the last he saw of the white dragon. But what was to meet his eyes next would truly startle him

Author's Note

So this did have a basis, back when I was first writing of having a mix of elements from fairy tail, frozen and a few other things. And it still does to a point, but it kinda grew into it's own thing as i kept writing. Anyway, hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I do writing it.

To those of you just joining, sorry about how weird it gets at one point from switching... how it's told and yadda yadda, anyway I have a Q&A blog up for your questions for a chapter later to celebrate me writing the 25th Chapter go check it out.

https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/831885/qs-for-the-qa-chapter

2: Where are you going?

When Chris awoke the sun was already pretty far up into the sky, not noon high, but almost there. He sat up groggily and waited for his mind to wake up with the rest of him. When it finally did, he noticed a sheet of paper on the table.

Dear Chris,

If you are reading this then I’m out gathering supplies, I advise that you head to Ponyville, the town you ran through, as soon as you finish reading this letter. Oh, I also advise that you wear the cloak that’s hanging by the door as to not scare the townsfolk anymore than you did last night. One more thing, follow the path and only the path do not wander from it at all for any reason.

Love, your friend,
Zecora

Chris turned the sheet of paper over before writing a simple thank you and left it on the table. He stood up and stretched, popping several joints before walking over to the door and slipping on the cloak. He left the little tree hut and began the walk towards Ponyville.
It took roughly 20 minutes before he started to see the town, only then did he realize that he didn’t have the hood up when he quickly pulled it up and over his head, the shadows hiding his face completely.

As he walked through town, he gained a few looks but nothing that would cause too much of a commotion. He realized that he didn’t know where this Twilight Sparkle Zecora mentioned other than that she lived in a tree as well so he stopped and asked a gray pony with a blonde mane and tail, wearing what looked like a mail person’s uniform, where he could find where she lived.

She turned around and he saw something that surprised him a little, he eyes were a bit wonky, but, again for some reason it made her look really freaking cute.

“Oh, Twilight’s? Uhm… it’s down this street and to the left, you can’t miss it.” She said.

“Thank you miss, sorry for disturbing you.” Chris said before bowing a bit and walking off leaving the mare confused.

“…He wasn’t put off by my eyes… I wonder who he was? Seemed nice too.” She shrugged and continued on her business of delivering mail.

Chris continued his walk until he came across literally the only tree in the entire town and sure enough it had a door, a window, and a balcony higher up. He went to knock on the door before hearing a bit of murmuring coming from inside.

“Listen Twi, we looked all over town and even in the Everfree a mite, iffin’ the creature was still around its mighty sneaky.” Said a voice with a thick accent.

“I’m afraid I have to agree with Applejack on this one darling, if the dreadful thing was still around it is hiding rather well or it simply might not be around at all. And truthfully I hope it’s gone all together, from what pinkie told us he acted rather rudely” Said another voice this time with a posh accent.

“It was really fast, I couldn’t catch it and I wanted to throw it a party too.” Said an all too familiar voice.

“Well I know if I had been chasing it, it wouldn’t have gotten away I AM the faster flyer in all of Equestria after all.” Said a rough but feminine voice.

“I don’t know girls, it could still be around, I mean Pinkie did say it ran off towards the Everfree and that is really close to Fluttershy’s cottage.” Said a new voice.

“Uh… Well, I wasn’t home until much later that night so I didn’t see anything run by… sorry.” Said an incredibly, almost inaudible voice.

Chris sat and thought, listening to them talk whether or not it would be a good idea to knock on the door, but they didn’t seem to want to harm him only find him, so against a little voice in his head saying otherwise he knocked on the door and waited.

A few moments later the door was answered by a 4 foot purple and green lizard… actually he looked like a small dragon.

“May I help you?” He asked, obviously annoyed.

Chris blinked, not that he could see it, “Uh, right, does Twilight Sparkle live here?”

He leaned back and shouted into the house, “Twilight, there’s some weirdo in a cloak here asking for you.” He looked back with a smirk, “She’ll be right with you.”

He sighed and rubbed his nose in annoyance, “Brat.”

“Uhm, may I help you?” A voice said.

Chris opened his eyes to see an average height pony human (fuck it I’m calling them satyrs, yes I know what satyrs are I’m just lazy) with purple fur, dark purple hair and tail with a purple and pink stripe going through them, she was wearing a light blue shirt and a dark purple miniskirt.

“Uh, I’m guessing you’re Twilight Sparkle? Well I found that creature you all were looking for.” He said with a slight mocking tone that she obviously didn’t pick up on.

Her eyes lit up like stars in the night sky, “Really?! I... Uh I mean, really? Would you lead me and my friends to him?”

“I don’t think there will be any need for that Ms. Twilight.” Chris said raising his hands to his hood.

“Why is that Mr.…?”

Chris pulled his hood back causing her to gasp, “It’s Chris McGrath and why? Because I am that creature, pleased to meet ya.” He held out a hand not really expecting her to shake it. What he didn’t expect was her to grab his arm and pull him inside and close the door quickly.

“Whoa, a bit forward aren’t we Ms. Twilight?” Chris joked but ultimately ended up being ignored.

She looked up the stairs that were in the back of the… library… her home was a library, alright. She looked up the stairs and yelled, “Spike come here and bring a quill and some paper.” Then she looked back to him and just stared intently.

“Yeah Twili-WOAH… is that the creature? I was right it was a weirdo at the door.” Spike said stunned.

“Well you ain’t much of a looker either shortcake.” Chris said sticking out his tongue.

Twilight snapped her fingers, “Enough, Spike, send a letter to Celestia saying we have the creature. Also, girls, I have the creature.” She said towards a side room.

When she said that 5 more ponies came out and one was very VERY familiar to him.

“Whoa nelly, that’s the creature? Looks a mite weird if ya ask me.” Said the orange one with the country accent, blonde pony tail, and… pony… tail… and what looked like cowgirl clothes hat and all.

“Eh, he doesn’t look that fast at all pinkie, I don’t know what you were smoking to think that he was fast.” Said that one with the scratchy voice and rainbow hair and tail… also she seemed to be wearing a baggy t-shirt and some shorts, talk about not caring what you look like. Also wings… wait… oh huh Pegasus satyr.

“I don’t know Dashie he ran pretty fast, I bet he could play some dancing games really well, if he stopped acting like a Meanie mean pants so I could ask him.” She hmphed while still keeping a really wide smile. She was wearing a shirt that simply said cupcakes and a vest over it with some jeans. Probably the most normal one so far in terms of clothes.

“Well I can’t attest for how tough he looks like Applejack over there but I am curious as to why he decided to wear that outfit, I mean that cloak really, it would make me faint if I never saw what Rainbow Dash wore every day.” The White one with swirly purple hair and tail and a horn… unicorn satyr. Actually Twilight was one as well, huh. Anyway the White one was wearing… a dress? A light purple casual dress that still looked fancy as all hell. Alright.

The last one, a yellow Pegasus with flowing pink hair and tail. She was wearing a hugging sweater and some jean shorts decided to speak up, “Rarity that wasn’t very nice to either Rainbow or Mr. Creature here. I mean he looks a bit nervous, also that scratch on his forehead looks really bad… I should look at it… i-if he doesn’t mind that is.”

“Uh…. No I wouldn’t mind, it’s actually been bugging me for quite some time.” Chris replied. Fluttershy ‘eeped’ and hid behind apple jack and the rest of them excluding pinkie, Twilight, and Spike stepped back in surprise.

“What?”

“Uhm… we didn’t know you could talk dear.” Rarity said.

“Well that’s silly, I even told you guys he could talk, remember?” Pinkie said.

“Uhm… Right ya did Pinks; I don’t quite reckon how we forgot.” Applejack said.

“Most likely form the shock of having a new creature here, anyway you weren’t exactly expecting me to know your language which as far as I can tell is pretty much exactly like English, though I doubt you call it that here.” Chris said with a wave of his hand. “Anyway...” He turned to Twilight, “I heard you might be able to send me home?”

Twilight blinked in surprise. “Me? Well yes I suppose I could but, if you don’t mind can we wait till my mentor gets here?”

“Sure no problem, I’m cool with relaxing, the walk here was pretty long.” Chris said, stretching.

“Uhm if you don’t mind answering a few questions, I’d like to ask some. Until then but first let me introduce you to my friends. You’ve already met my number one assistant, Spike; he’s a baby dragon and like all children can be a bit rowdy.” She said pointing to the small dragon.

“Hey I understand that very well, oh and sorry about the short comment Spike, just retaliation to being called weird.” Chris held out a hand to shake and Spike shook it.

“S’cool dude. Hey Twi, Imma be taking a nap if you need me.” He said before walking back upstairs.

Twilight sighed, “He’s always sleeping, anyway this Applejack.” She pointed to the orange pony.

“Howdy” she said with a nod and tip of her hat.

Chris just waved with a small smile.

“The one in the dress is Rarity.” She pointed to the white one.

“Hello, darling.” She held out a hand.

“Pleasure is all mine my lady.” He bowed and took her hand kissing it

She blushed, “Oh my, isn’t he quite the gentlecolt.”

Twilight shook her head and moved on, “Well you’ve already met Pinkie Pie.”

“Hiya again Me. Meanie pants.” She said with a bounce.

“Hello, oh and sorry for freaking out earlier Ms. Pie, I was just a bit startled is all, didn’t mean to be rude or anything.” Chris said rubbing the back of his head.

“That’s ok, as long as you come to my welcome party for you ill forgive you. OH! And just call me Pinkie, all my friends do.” She said with the widest smile anyone has ever seen ever.

Twilight smiled, “The brash one over there is Rainbow Dash.” She pointed to the Rainbow one, duh.

“Sup, I’m Rainbow Dash, The Dash, fastest flyer in all of Equestria if not the world.” She said with a puffed out chest and brazen smile.

Chris’ smile instantly faded and he just said a simple, “Yo.”

“Hey why’d your smile disappear when I said something?”

Chris shook his head, “Oh, sorry, I was just… thinking.”

Twilight gave a nervous laugh, “Anyway, the last one and the one who is hiding behind AJ is Fluttershy.” She said pointing to the yellow and pink hiding behind Applejack.

“Is she always this shy around new people?” Chris asked.

“People? Uhm well yes she’s like this around new ponies.” Twilight confirmed.

Chris looked to Applejack, “Uhm, Ms. Applejack would you mind moving so I may talk to Ms. Fluttershy? I promise not to hurt her or anything.”

Applejack gave him a hard stare, “Alright, I believe ya partner, but you do one thing to Shy here and…”

“I know, I know… trust me I understand protecting your friends very well.” He said that last part in a near whisper. And applejack moved aside, startling Fluttershy making her look for a new place to hide.

Chris, got on one knee and put a hand on her shoulder, “Hey Ms. Fluttershy, I’m not going to hurt you or any of your friends I promise.”

Fluttershy looked up at him, “Oh… I-I know I’m just really scared and nervous, and honestly I’m always like this around new ponies.”

“Hmmmm well two things, one I’m not a pony. And I’m like that too, all the time with new people or ponies.”

Her eyes widened, “You are? How’d you get over that fear?”

Chris chuckled, “I’ll tell you a secret, I haven’t, I’m actually terrified right now to be talking to some many people-er… ponies at once and I want to curl up in a ball too but, I’m pushing it back. So since I’m doing that, can you do that for me too?”

She nodded, “I- I can try.”

Chris smiled and stood back up, “That’s all I ask is for you, to try.” He held out a hand which she took and stood up.

He turned around to see everyone with slacked jaws. “What?” he asked.

“I… uh… How did you get Fluttershy to come out of her shell so fast?” Twilight asked. “It took me to have Spike say something.”

“Eh, I’m just like her honestly, when it comes to meeting new… uh ponies. I’m usually incredibly shy and I stick off to a corner and panic a bit whenever someone talks to me. So I knew what to say.” Chris said with a shrug.

“Well you seem to be doing alright for someone who’s supposed to be so shy. Are you sure you aren’t lying?” Rainbow questioned.

Chris nodded. “I’m sucking up my shyness because it would cause me not to talk and I would halt my progress getting home. Oh and I haven’t introduced myself yet.” ‘oh I always wanted to do this’ He thought while grabbing the shoulder of the cloak and pulling it off and throwing it in one swift motion, striking a pose, “The name’s Chris, Chris McGrath but everyone just calls me Chris.” He got nothing but crickets as a response.

“Yeah that came off as a lot cooler in my head.” He said with a sigh, though pinkie did giggle and the rest did smile a bit.

“Well now that that’s out of the way, about those questions?” Twilight asked.

“Ah right, ask away. Uh… actually do you mind if I sit on the floor? My legs are killing me.” She shook her head and took a seat on one of the large pillows across the room pulling out a quill, some ink, and some paper.

“Ok first question, what are you?”

“Straight to the most obvious huh? Alright, well I’m a human, scientific name, Homo sapien. Male of African, Irish, British, and Swedish decent, though I live in the country of United States of America.”

She blinked and proceeded to write, “So what were all those things you said you are a descendent from?”

“Ah you see, well… hmmm oh, so you see how you have the different races of ponies? Pegasus, Unicorn, and Normal, I’m assuming that’s all.”

She nodded, “Well, normal ponies like pinkie or Applejack are called earth ponies and there is one more species but only 3 exist. They are known as the Alicorns and the members of that group are Princess Celestia, my mentor, her sister Princess Luna, and my old foal sitter Princes Cadence.”

“Oh… ok, cool. Right, now seeing as you have 4 known races of pony, humans have hundreds of races spanning across our planet, which is called Earth by the way, and I’m just what came out of a few of those coming together a few times in the past.” He said while gesturing to himself.

“Wow, your planet must be very big to have so many…” she stopped looking confused until you told her people. “Right, people, on it.”

Chris sunk in to the wall a bit more, “Sadly not big enough, you see while our planet may be big like any other planet, save a few that are bigger or smaller, there are billions of us on it and us humans we don’t really understand how to not use up everything our planet gives us and while we may not be on the verge of killing our planet in the next year I have a feeling its going to happen within the next… thousand or so years, unless something major happens.”

She cocked her head to the side, “Something major?”

“Ah, well I meant, like, if we realize that shit is going south really fast we might be able to save ourselves… if not, then probably the next great extinction.”

Twilight’s eyes widened, “The next great extinction? There were ones already?”

He nodded, “Yeah, the first major one was when a meteor the size of our largest mountain crashed into our planet millions of years ago and wiped out the dominant species then, known as the dinosaurs. The next one, depending on who you ask, was the Ice Age where a good chunk of our planet froze over wiping out quite a few animals but not as much as the meteor which wiped about 95% of all life on Earth. But yeah other than that nothing has happened major to kill things on our planet unless you count wars.”

At that everyone’s head turned and Fluttershy stammered, “Y-you have wars where you’re from?”

Chris blinked, ‘Do they not have wars here? Or any sort of fighting at all?’ he thought before answering, “Uhm… yeah, yeah we do. I’ve never been part of any of them personally, members of my family have but I haven’t. I actually don’t like violence and avoid it if I can. I’ve been in a few scraps as a kid but that’s just how humans are as children, we generally grow out of it.”

“Do you mind telling how your wars are?” Twilight asked.

He thought about it for a second, “If I must, well our wars are fought over really anything, but mainly who wants this part of another countries land or whatever. Sure there are other reasons but the main ones are those. Sometimes they’re bloody, sometimes they aren’t, and sometimes they are down right unspeakable. I’d say the worst atrocity ever committed in war, in my opinion because some would disagree, is that an entire race/culture was almost wiped out in one part of our world within the span of 6 years.”

“S-somepony did what?” Applejack asked.

Chris head a serious look, “A man on our planet, 69-75 years ago, almost committed genocide, the total or near total destruction of a group of people for who they are.”

Fluttershy had a few tears in her eyes, “Why would anypony do that?”

Pinkie was oddly solemn too, “He sounds like a real jerk.”

Chris nodded, “Sounded, is more like it, he is dead now actually he died a year before the war actually ended. But he did it because they didn’t fit into his perfect human vision.”

“Perfect human vision?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah, he saw white humans with blonde hair and blue eyes to be the perfect race of humans.” Chris said with distain in his voice.

“But, if he got away with it, you wouldn’t be alive would you darling?” Rarity asked.

“No… no I wouldn’t…”

“That’s just evil; if I would’ve been there I would’ve kicked his flank from the moon and back.” Rainbow said.

“Believe me we would’ve but getting to leaders is really difficult. Though, my country ain’t the holiest of saints either. During the same war, we caused it to end in a horrible way, but it was the only way the leaders of the country at the time saw that it would’ve ended the war. Actually may I ask you a question? You obviously have a princess, 3 actually so they have to have guards and a military, what’s the strongest weapon that’s known to pony kind?” He asked.

“Uh… I guess they would be the elements of harmony. They turn anypony that’s evil to stone or good if the evil can be pushed out.” Twilight said.

Chris raised an eyebrow, “Hmmm, interesting, but I’m guessing it can only affect one person at a time?” Twilight nodded in response. “Ok so now imagine an explosion so powerful that it can devastate an entire city and kill millions in one go.” They gasped, “Now imagine dropping two of those bombs in two different cities in the same country”.

“That’s down right awful.” Applejack said.

“Why would anything that could hurt so many innocent ponies be created?” Fluttershy asked.

Chris gave out a heavy sigh and a dry chuckle, “The irony of it all is that it was created to maintain peace, but yes that’s what my country did, but we knew it was the worst thing, but we did it because, like I said, it was the only option they saw at the time. We helped the country out to rebuild and house and feed and take care of the people who survived but… still. I’m not proud of my country’s history but things have gotten much more peaceful after that, we have skirmishes with other countries and people die yes but… not as much as that, and hopefully never again.”

“No… no offense, but your world sounds really dangerous.” Twilight said.

Chris just gave a small smile, “It is, but it isn’t. It depends on where you go. But enough of the talk of wars and death and such…. Uhm how about a happy question?”

Twilight nodded in agreement, “Uh… how old are you?”

“I am 20 years old, turn 21 on February 24th, and I know you aren’t supposed to ask a… mare her age but how old are you all?”

“21” Twilight said.

“As am I darling.” Said Rarity.

“Pinkie and I are 22, though I’m a bit older by a few months.” AJ said

“Looks like me and you are the youngest, I’m 20 too.” Rainbow said.

“I’m… I’m the oldest at 23.” Fluttershy said with a blush.

Chris whistled, “Well, I’m the youngest in the group for once, awesome I’m usually the oldest.”

“Oh oh oh I have a question, pick me next, pick me next.” Pinkie said bouncing up and down.

“Pinkie, I’m going to ask once and only once, would please stop bouncing up and down? And also what’s your question?”

She smiled and stopped bouncing, “Sorry hehehe, Uh, do you like parties?”

Chris shook his head, “Honestly, not really, but…” He held up a hand before pinkie could cut him off, “… but, I don’t mind going to them as long as I have friends there.”

She pouted, “Aw phooey… Well, I bet you’d like my parties.”

Chris chuckled, “We’ll see if I’m here long enough.”

“How fast are you?” came the question out of nowhere from Rainbow.

“As a black man, faster than average the average human. Kidding, I’m not too fast I believe, though when I want to book it I can for a short time.”

“Boring.”

Chris just growled in return, “Anyway Rarity did you have a question?”

“Only to what you’re wearing darling.” She simply said.

“Oh… huh, I’m still in my sleeping clothes… I completely forgot about that.” He said looking at himself; he was wearing white and blue shorts and a light blue shirt

“Ah I see, sorry if it seemed like I was saying anything bad.” She said looking him over.

“Its fine, anyone else?” he asked, looking around.

“I’d like to ask something, if you don’t mind.” You nodded and motioned Fluttershy to continue, “Well, do you like animals and did you have any pets?”

Chris’ eyes lit up at that, “I love animals, and animals seem to love me no matter what. And I’ve had a few pets, yes. Though, not since I’ve lived on my own.” Fluttershy just smiled and nodded.

“Well, I want to know about yer family, seeing as all we’ve heard was about yerself” She said with crossed arms.

Chris’ eyes darkened and most of the ponies in the room noticed, “If it’s all right with you, I’d rather not.” His voice had a mixture of pain, sorrow, and regret flowing through it.

“Right, sorry ‘bout that sugar cube. I shouldn’t have asked.” Apple jack said hanging her head.

Chris waved it off, “Its fine, not like you knew. Anyway I have a question. Sooo, when you were sitting down Twilight, and I didn’t mean to look but, something caught my eye when you fixed your skirt. Actually it looks like it’s the same thing that’s on the right shoulder of your shirt. What was it? It looks too natural to be a tattoo or anything.”

She raised an eyebrow thinking for a second, “My right shoulder…. Oh you mean my cutie mark. I’m guessing humans don’t have cutie marks?” He shook his head, “Well, a cutie mark lets us ponies know what our special talent is and such, mine is a sparkle or a flash or magic meaning my special talent is magic. Rarity’s are gems, meaning she’s good at finding gems and incorporating them into anything. Rainbow’s is a cloud and rainbow lightning bolt meaning that she is very fast. Applejack is well… apples meaning she’s good with apples of any kind. Pinkie’s are balloons which mean she’s good at throwing parties. And Fluttershy’s are butterflies showing that’s she’s good with animals.”

“Huh… well that’s useful, we just have to try our luck at everything and see what hits the bulls eye.” He scratched his chin thinking what his cutie mark would be.

“Well Princess Celestia should be here soon and I have on last question for you. Are all human’s eyes like that?” She asked.

“Wait… what’s wrong with my-“ He was interrupted by a knock at the door.

Twilight stood up quickly, “Oh, she’s here a lot earlier than I thought. Are you ready to meet the Princess?”

The rest of the ponies and Chris stood up, “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

And so Twilight opened the door.

Author's Note

4k+ words... ain't that a jump? Haha.

Yes, I'm putting a link to the Q&A blog in every author note, for those who stopped at mid points in the story, It's for reaching 25 chapters being written, even though 25 is still being written: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/831885/qs-for-the-qa-chapter

14: Day 2: World Building with twilight and Partying with The candy makers

"So what was the plan for today?" I asked Ixis while I was walking through town.

+Apple Jack, Twilight, and Spike remember?+

I rolled my eyes, "Obviously not since I asked, but alright and since we're pretty close to the librar… no it's a castle now, I forgot… Castlebrary? Yeah that works for me, anyway since we're close to that I guess it's them next. Hey Ixis… something I've always wondered but never asked. What do you do in my head all day?"

+Normally I sing, it just seems you tune me out almost instantly. And since I run out of songs from my time I just shuffle through your memories and listen to songs and learn them that way and hum those.+ She said.

"Oh… you do anything else?"

+Other than sing? I suppose I just go through your life though your memories. All the good times and bad times you've had. I've never really told you this but I'm kinda envious you got to experience video games.+

"Really? Why are you jealous of that?" I could feel her shrug mentally.

+Just… getting to live the life outside of your own just seems interesting and plenty of the games you played had very intriguing stories. Though one did confuse me greatly… even when I shuffled through your mind to get a better grasp on things, actually I'm still a bit confused on it.+

"Hmmm well I'll help you if you have any questions." I said, looking off for the next turn and seeing a pony stare at me like I had two heads… well I mean I was talking to myself… that and I'm a weird conglomeration of Human and Dragon sooo hey.

+I doubt you can remember it.+

"It's Kingdom Hearts isn't it?"

+I… yes… yes it is…+

"How much confused you?"

+Some of it.+

I just raised my brow.

+Half of it?+

"Uh huh"

+Ok, fine, all of it.+

"There ya go, so let's start at the beginning, I don't know how long this will take, knowing that series, a fucking while… so let's start with the main character of the entire series…. Sora…" and so I explained up until the end of 2 cutting into bbs, chains, and days every now and again to explain some things or reinstate others.

"And that is why the lingering sentiment is there." I finished up as I approached the castle steps.

+That is…. Confoundingly stupid.+

"Agreed but it's one of my favorite games of all time." I said as I opened the front door. "Now where are those stairs…." I looked around until I found them and proceeded up them only to be blocked by another door with a sign on it that said, 'Please knock and wait for the assistant to answer.' So I knocked and waited.

The door opened to show a taller, older Spike standing in the doorway with his eyes closed and practically slouched over, "How may the Princess of Friendship help you today?" He asked with a long yawn at the end.

"Sup short stack, Just here to see you two." I said that but he really wasn't that short, a growth spurt hit him and hit him hard, he was very close to my height, only being 2 or 3 inches shorter.

Spike opened his eyes and blinked a few times before he realized it was me, "Chris! You're back! YES!" He fist pumped.

+Glad to know he wakes up faster than he used to.+

I scoffed but didn't reply directly, "So is our favorite purple book smart in?"

He nodded, "Yeah, she's being purple book smart. Come on in and I'll make some tea. Wait you don't like tea right? Or was it coffee? I can never remember."

"Don't like either, just water and extra ice would be nice, thanks brogon" I said patting his back as I walked passed him. Twilight as usual was reading a book… but it was a book that was published in the Crystal Empire and she must've just got it… I read it about a week before I came here, good book actually.

"I love that book, can you believe the aunt is the killer? I was so shocked when I read that part." Yes I did that on purpose, I do it all the time I read a book before she does. It's funny seeing her reactions.

This time though she just sighed and tossed the book before it poofed away in flash of purple, "Must you always ruin good books for me?" She looked at me with something that was a mix between a scowl and smile.

"It's what I do, it's what I do." I said plopping down in one of the six thrones, the one I plopped down into just happened to be Shy's.

"Well regardless of that, It's good to see you Chris." Twilight said, sitting up straight.

"Same to you grape master, so how've things been since the last Gala?"

"Well aside from Tirek attacking, it's been peaceful."

"Yeah I heard about that, sorry I couldn't be here to help. I was stuck in Caitro for half a year." I said shuddering.

"It's fine, how was Caitro by the way?" She asked.

"Oh it was fine… hot and sandy, but fine, I honestly won't be goin back anytime soon."

"Right you can't handle the heat that well."

"Nah, but I did like the inhabitants. They're cat people… well more specifically Negoji but still cat people. Though their Pharaoh did like the color purple way too much."

"Hey what's wrong with the color purple?" Spike asked as he walked out with the drinks and handed me my water before sitting next to the throne next to Twilight's.

Twilight gave me a hard glare, "Yes Chris… what, exactly, is wrong with purple?"

I just held up my hands defensively, "Hey you live in a castle where everything is purple for six months and you tell me how well you do. I don't hate the color purple at all it's just too much of a thing, ya know?"

"Right, well why don't you tell us where you visited, you said you would once you came back to Equestria." Twilight said.

I nodded, "You're right I did. How about I start with the home of the horses, Saddle Arabia. Again more desert and heat but let me tell you, some of the comfiest beds I've ever slept on were made there. phoenix feathers are quite comfy."

Spike gulped at that, having owned a phoenix a while back, "They used phoenix feathers to stuff things?"

"Yeah, but don't worry they don't kill the phoenixes, even if they could, or anything to get the feathers. They just use what falls off as they get close to rebirth." I explained and he gave a sigh of relief.

"Next is the home of the Griffons… appropriately, if not poorly, named Griffonia. Ah, uhm… well about that place, not very nice actually. Well that's not true, it is in some places but they are very and, I mean very, combat oriented there. But I will say this, you want some quality meat, go there."

Twilight made a retching noise, "Ok next… next."

"How about the Lamia?"

"The Lamia, but I heard they were very territorial and almost impossible to find."

"They are but… when you sense another reptile type creature near your home you get curious. And by curious I mean you attack, hard. With a lot of brute force and pointy things." I rubbed my side, yeah that sucked.

"You got attacked?"

"Yeah the Lamia are pretty animalistic, they are intelligent yes but out of all the species I've ran across, and they stick to the wild the most. After… proving myself, I did get to meet their Master Chief at the main clan. Cool chick really, warmed up to me a bit too much for my liking though." Lamia don't have legs, honestly even if I wasn't with Fluttershy I have no idea how that would even work.

"The head of the Lamia clans flirted with you? Well…" Twilight trailed off obviously a bit stunned by that.

"Hey Chris, you said you 'proved' yourself, how did you do that exactly?" Spike asked.

I looked away and shook my head, "I-I'd really rather not talk about it."

"Oh… okay, if you say so. So where else did you go?"

I shook my head, "Uhm… I went to the home of the minotaurs and centaurs. They live together in Tauronto but the minotaurs outnumber the centaurs, that's why we normally only see a Minotaur at political meetings and such. I'll be honest with you though, I really don't remember much about that place, and it was so boring there."

Twilight tilted her head, "Really? I heard they were most famous for their sports and such. I thought you'd be quite interested in them."

I gagged, "Ew no, I hate sports, all sports… well except for like two but still no sports."

"Huh I thought… well never mind, where did you go next?"

"Diamond Dogs' tunnels, they run under all of the world really, most are abandoned though with the main colony being under the ocean floor. There are a few cut off tunnels like the one in the outskirts but they're just that, out skirted tunnels. I would really like to never return to Bonez again. You think the Dog Father is bad at meetings you should see him when he's home… my word the smell."

"I'll take your word for that." Twilight said with a chuckle.

"Did you visit anywhere else Chris? You know, like the Dragon Isles?" Spike asked eagerly.

I shook my head, "Sorry, Spike I didn't, never got the chance. I had to go where Cadence and Shining sent me and those were the places. Maybe at some other point I'll go and visit them but… not anytime soon." While that wasn't a lie, it wasn't the whole truth either. While I was traveling the world trying to find Sanlios, the Lamia home, I got really close to the border of the Dragon Isles and I immediately got a bad feeling from that place. Like something was calling me there…something dark and evil…something ancient.

"Aw man I was hoping you'd bring back some cool dragon stuff." He said with a pout.

"You're 16 and you still pout like you're 8… well I suppose you are still a baby in dragon terms."

"Yeah well so are you, you're only 26."

"Maybe so but I have a 1000+ year old dragon living in my head so ha there!" I stuck my tongue out at him.

He just grumbled something I couldn't exactly hear so I just shrugged, "What about you two, something has to have happened."

"Well… not really no. I'm not complaining mind you, it seems like Ponyville and Equestria proper is getting attacked every other month. I'm quite happy it's been quiet lately. Though we did go to the grand equestrian games, we all really hoped you'd be there."

"Yeah, me too, though I heard Spike saved the day." I gave the younger dragon and smile.

"Yep, breathed the most fire I ever have that day, then the next day my growth spurt started. It's been strange, everything is so much smaller than it used to be."

I laughed, "You'll get used to it, I promise." We talked for a few hours, at some point though we just ended up reading random things out loud in silly voices and changing a few things trying to see how outlandish we could make the stories sound.

"Ah man… that was fun but I still have a the rest of the day up ahead. I'll see you all later, and do me a favor and not tell Pinkie I'm home yet, ok? Yes I know it's stupid but that along with many other things is what I do best."

"Alright, see you later Chris, oh and tell Golden that it's almost time for another study session!" She called out before the door closed.

I laughed and made my way out of town to Sweet Apple Acres. Honestly Apple Jack and I don't interact that much, but I can't really blame her for that now can I. We just don't have much in common, she's a good pony and all and she's still my friend it's just that personally I haven't found a common ground with her. But I still wanted to see her regardless.

A few moments later I was at the gate of sweet apple Acres to see that it was closed with a sign hanging off of it that read, "Gone for a family reunion, will be back in a week –The Apples"

"Huh… well, that puts a bit of a damper on my plans. So that leaves…"

+Bon Bon and Lyra and Pinkie.+

I groaned, "Right well Bonnie and Lyra it is…" I turned back and made my way into town. "Now which way was it to the candy shop again?"

+Wasn't it close to the town hall?+

I snapped my fingers, remembering the layout of the town, "Right, thanks, so how about on the way there I continue my explanation?"

+Please do, you left off on the lingering sentiment.+

"Right so, that's why he was there now, why Castle oblivion exists is because…" I explained more whilst I made my way to the shop before bumping into someone, I seem to be doing that a lot, oh it was a Griffon and she was on the ground.

"Hey watch where you're going you dweeb!" She said harshly as she started getting up.

"Sorry about that miss…"

"Gilda, now out of my way you…." She looked at me and paused, "What're you some sort of demon?"

I blinked, well that's a first, "No I'm not a demon I'm a Drakon, half human and half dragon."

"Well whatever, I don't have time to mess with you I have to find Dash." She said starting to walk away.

"You're looking for Rainbow?"

She stopped and turned around, "Yeah, you know where she's at?"

"Sure but why are you looking for her?"

Her eyes darted away quickly before looking back at me, probably thinking I didn't notice, "Just an old friend, and I wanted to tell her something."

"Oh well… wait." Something in my brain clicked, "You said you're name is Gilda right?"

"Yeah what of it, you gonna tell me where Dash is or not?" She crossed her arms obviously impatient.

"I don't know, the girls told me about you and you were a bit of a jerk apparently…"

She groaned and let out a soft sigh, "You're friends with them too?"

"Friends, dating Fluttershy, have a daughter with her, yada yada." This time I crossed my arms and tapped my foot on the ground.

"Fluttershy… oh yeah her… I… oh…" Her face went from one annoyance to shock to fright. "Look I just want to apologize for all that, ok? I was young and stupid and jealous. I know I didn't have any right to do what I did and I paid for it when I got back home. Look, just tell me where Dash is so I can apologize to her and I'll be out of you guys' hair for good."

I relaxed my stance. "I don't have a grudge against you, what happened in the past stayed in the past and I believe anyone should get a second chance. She's at Shy's house, or at least she was when I left, it's right next to the vet so you can't miss it. But I'll tell you this because I feel like Rainbow will tell you the same thing, don't apologize to her, at least not until you apologize to her friends."

She gave a sigh of relief and a smile, how they do that with beaks I'll never know, "Thanks man, I owe you one."

"Sure, but if I find out you messed with my friends… no my family again… you should probably make sure I never find out. Are we clear?" I asked the last bit with a growl.

I could hear her swallow, "Yeah, you got it man." And with that she left with a quick walk before taking to the skies.

I resumed my walk to the candy shop which was actually only two buildings down, "And before you say anything Ixis, I just want my family to be happy and safe, that's all."

+I know Chris, that's why I wasn't going to say anything. As long as you don't actually hurt anyone who doesn't deserve it then I won't stop you, often.+

"Good" I was about to knock on the door before I realized that unlike the boutique this wasn't a home shop type thing so I just walked in and heard a little bell chime. "Man this place hasn't changed in all this time." I took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of chocolate, sugar, and diabetes. "God I missed that smell." I looked to the counter to see Lyra reading a magazine, much like she has every day she works here.

"Welcome to Bon Bon's and Lyra's Confectionaries where everything is a treat and ready to eat." She said without looking up.

+Well this seems like a repeat of something.+

'I'll say… jeesh.'

"Well good to know everything has stayed the exact same since I was last here. Especially your habit of reading on the job" I snatched her magazine from her.

"Hey give that back you… CHRIS!" She hopped over the counter and tackle hugged me.

I hugged her back, using my tail to keep my balance, "Hey Lyra, it's good to see you too."

"I was wondering when you were gonna get back, oh and you have a tail, that's really cool." She stared at it for a minute before I cleared my throat. "Oh sorry, just interesting color really, never seen that color for a dragon."

"You only know one dragon though, unless something happened while I was away."

She looked side to side quickly before whispering, "Well… you didn't hear it from me but an ambassador from the Dragon Isles came here a year ago to talk to Princess Twilight about having Spike go there for proper training or something."

"Oh, so that's why he asked if I went to the Is les."

She nodded, "yeah, probably wanted to see what it was like, the ambassador gave Twilight and Spike 3 years to think about what they wanted."

"3 years… so when he's 18? I wonder why then? I though early years like this the dragons don't really care."

+Generally, we don't but…. Hmmmm maybe.+

'Maybe, maybe what? Ixis?'

+Sorry, I'll let you know when I'm sure I promise.+

I nodded, "So where's Bonnie?" I asked Lyra who was still half sitting on me.

"Oh she's in the back as usual, she's been having trouble with all that sour and bitter candy since you left." She looked at the door and back at me with a worried expression.

"You want me to check on her?"

"Please, I can't go back there right now, it's start of the rush and stuff." She looked at the glass doors, "Speaking of…" She let go of me and clambered behind the counter, "Go on in the back you know they way."

"That I do, thanks Lyra, also the longer hair looks good on you." I said before walking through the heavy door to the back of the shop.

It was dimly lit and rather cold, or at least that's what the girls told me, due to being an ice dragon the dimly lit lights didn't matter because night vision stuff and also ice dragon so the cold definitely did nothing to me. There were large shelves of ingredients used to make a variety of candies and boxes full of wrapping plastics and stuff. It was very much like a warehouse and at the back of the medium sized room was another heavy door that lead to Bon Bon's Candy Lab.

The door was locked by what I call a super fancy dancy hand scanner. Basically it was coded to certain ponies' magical signatures. All ponies have magic, even earth ponies, it's mainly in their hands and hooves though, which makes sense. This particular Scanner was made to open to Bon Bon's Magic signature. Above it was a hole, which was how Lyra opened this door, she put her horn in it, and many a jokes have been made about that, especially by her, much to Bon Bon's annoyance.

'How do I get in' I bet you're wondering, well right above Lyra's horn hole, pfft, there were another set of holes, just two. That I could stick the ends of my horns in, why they didn't just modify Bon Bon's hand scanner, no idea, pony technicians and engineers tend to not be able to see the simple solutions. I leaned my head down and stuck my horns in the holes and a very clear clunk was heard as the door unlocked and swung open.

Bon Bon was standing at what looked like a kid's home chemistry set except a lot more complicated, but at the same time it looked like a normal kitchen. She was obviously very concentrated on her work, so I took this opportunity to sneak up behind her and poke her in the back.

"Lyra, stop." She said quickly, without looking back.

I poked her again.

"Stop." Again, "Lyra, I said stop. What are you doing back here anyway isn't it the rush hour? Go back up front."

I snickered and formed a snowball in my hand, 'She's gonna kill me for this.' I quickly dropped it down the back of her coat and shirt to which she jumped up and gasped loudly.

"COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD!" She opened up the bottom of her shirt wide enough to let the partially melted snowball fall out. "LYRA WHAT THE HELL?!" She yelled while quickly turning around with the harshest glare I've ever seen on her.

I just smiled sheepishly, "Hey, Bonnie, how are you?"

I could see the surprise in her eyes from the fact that it was me and not Lyra but at the same time I could see the blinding anger, which she acted on by punching me straight in the chest. Of course I really didn't feel that much of it, but I winced just to make it seem like she had an effect.

"Ok I deserve that, not going to lie." Then she punched me in the arm, "Ok, now I have no idea what that was for."

She huffed, "That was for being gone for 5 years and never sending us a note or a card or anything, jerk."

"Oh, yeah… sorry about that, but I'm here now, right?"

She just closed her eyes while giving a heavy sigh, "That you are and it's good to have you back."

"Good to be back especially in my favorite sweet shop, don't tell Pinkie I said that. Now I heard you were having some problems? I mean if no one stole my position I wouldn't mind taking it back."

She looked at me with questioning eyes, "Are you sure? I mean you're a Prince now right? You must have an entire room worth of bits to your name."

I laughed, "Several actually."

She just looked at me for a few seconds before blinking several times, "And you want to work back here? Why? I definitely can't pay you a Prince's pay."

I waved my hand, "You don't have to pay me anything, and I just want to help out, is that too much to ask. And if need be I can just hire you and all of your employees to be my royal candy makers. I could pay you a nice pension so you can expand your shop and such."

"You can do that? Just like that?" She asked Shocked.

I scratched my head trying to remember the politics, I would ask Ixis but she's kinda busy doing whatever at the moment, "Hmmm well maybe not just like that, I think I have to get approval from Celestia, since I'm not a prince of Equestria, but I don't think she'd have any problems with it."

"I-I…. would you really do that for me?"

I shrugged, "Sure, I don't see why not, I mean you being a candy maker in the same town as the cakes, that has to be rough… wait it is."

She gave a slightly bitter laugh, rivals and such, "Yes, it is, and if you could do that for me that would be amazing. It would give Lyra and me some time to prepare for the foal."

My tail twitched at that, "Wait… what?"

"I'm guessing Lyra didn't tell you?" At my 'No shit' expression she continued, "Well, I'm pregnant."

I was utterly flabbergasted, "How? But… you and her…. Huh?"

"And here I thought you were smarter than that, we got a surrogate father." She said happily.

I face palmed, "Shit, I didn't think you all did that here. On this world I mean, but I suppose magic and shit since your tech isn't as far ahead as mine was when I left. So who's the surrogate?"

"Well we don't really know, it was from a bank."

"Oh, well congrats all the same, how long?"

"About 3 months now."

"Wow you don't look like it at all."

She rubbed her belly, "I know… but ponies are pregnant for 11 months and we normally don't show until the 5th month."

"Right, humans are pregnant for 9 months so yeah… that and dragons well, we… that's still confusing really. Anyway dragons lay eggs."

She perked up like she just remembered something, "How's Fluttershy and Golden doing by the way? They used to come into the shop all the time but for the past few weeks they haven't been here."

"They're doing fine, Golden started school and Shy is still helping out at the vet next to our house. Though I'm not sure why they haven't been coming, I only got back a few days ago so I can't be the reason for that."

She turned back to her candy making stuff, "Oh well, but since you're here, would you mind testing out these candies?"

"Sure thing boss." I sat down in one of the 3 chairs in the room. For the next few hours or so I helped Bon Bon fix her candy up.

I looked at the clock and jumped up making my way to the door, "Shit, I gotta go Bon Bon, It's getting late and if I'm not home for dinner Shy is gonna kill me." She gave a grunt and waved me off. "I promise I'll talk to Celestia about that thing too."

I made my way to the front of shop and I heard Lyra talking with someone. It was a very familiar voice. But whose….

+I believe that would be Pinkie.+

"Shit, fuck, crap…. Uh…. Did you see a window or anything?" I asked her.

+Well Considering I see what you see, no no I didn't. Why don't you just go say hi?+

"Because she's going to be really mad and a mad Pinkie is a scary Pinkie."

"Hey have you seen Chris? My Pinkie Sense has been going off all day and it's telling me he's been in Ponyville but I can't find him." Pinkie told Lyra.

"Hmmm actually I did-" She was cut off as a sharp cold hit the bottom of her leg causing her to look behind her. I was standing there making a 'No, don't tell her, just distract her so I can get out, please' gesture. "I… Uh didn't see him actually, but we did make a new candy, maybe you could use it in some of your bakings and stuff, here let me show you." She looked back and me and mouthed, 'Go dude.'

I bowed and quickly made my way out of the shop and ran home at full speed, which is much faster than a normal human could run, I actually haven't clocked in how fast I could run yet though, let's just say it was fast. Not as fast as rainbow flying or like the flash running or anything but fast enough to break world records back home. Speaking of, I got to my house just as the sun disappeared over the horizon.

I opened the door and was immediately tackled to the ground by a ,what seemed to be, a miniature Cerberus who just gave a growl, "Uh…"

Shy rounded the corner and saw the unfolding scene, "Oh dear, Kerby, down down, it's ok, he lives here, he's Golden's daddy."

The dog gave me a few sniffs before licking my face and climbing off. I sat up and wiped my face off and looked at Shy, "So… what's with the mini Cerberus going on?"

"Sorry, I have to watch him today until his owner comes to take him back." She said helping me up.

"Hmmm alright, as long as he didn't break anything, he's rather big for a dog."

"Oh no, he's really careful and sweet. He and Golden have been playing since she got back from school."

"Well as long as she did her homework, so what's for dinner?"

"I don't know, I haven't thought about it yet." She got a worried look on her face.

"Don't worry about it, I'll handle it tonight. You go and play with Goldy and… Kerby was it?" She nodded, "Yeah, go have fun."

She made her way to the living room after giving me a quick kiss on the cheek, "Ok off to the kitchen…. Uh what should we make?"

+Well I know a recipe for a mean gem encrusted meatloaf but for herbivores I have no idea.+

"Oh I got it. Ok walk me through the steps for the gem encrusted meatloaf and I'll make the second thing later."

After a few hours of cooking the food was done and everyone was at the table, "Alright, Gem encrusted meatloaf for Goldy and I and for Fluttershy, Spaghetti with mushrooms, olives, peppers, and other assorted veggies. Dig in."

I sat down and fixed myself a plate of both we all talked about our days. Fluttershy had a lot of animals be brought in at the vets due to some accident happening in the Everfree and since a lot of those animals knew her, they sniffed her out, literally. Goldy had a pretty normal day at school, none of the kids picked on her since I visited, good. We all finished our food, and Fluttershy, put Kerby to sleep in another room since his owner wasn't here to pick him up yet. Goldy went to her room to go to bed, with Angel and Hedgy following her. Shy and I were just lying in bed talking.

"So, when are we going to see your parents?" I asked her.

She was reading a book whilst we were talking, "Well I wanted to leave Friday so we have all weekend, if that would be ok."

I had to think, today was Wednesday… "Yeah, that's fine, but I suppose I should go talk to Pinkie finally tomorrow."

"I agree, oh that reminds me I'll probably be at Apple Jack's farm tomorrow all day taking care of the animals since they're out of town." She said closing the book she was reading, yawning.

I stretched and yawned to, laying my head on her lap, "Are you tired?" she nodded, "Oh well… that sucks, and I wanted desert."

She blushed but gave me an apologetic smile, "Sorry, but I had a long day and besides, Goldy would hear."

I pouted, "Mmmm, alright. But I'm using you as a pillow tonight."

She giggled, "I don't mind that, just let me get comfortable."

I sat back up while she turned off the light and lay back down in a more comfortable position. I laid my head on her chest and closed my eyes, "I hope my horns aren't getting in the way or anything."

"No, they're fine. Good night Chris, I love you." She gave me a kiss on the top of my head, between my horns.

"Love you too Shy." I nuzzled into her chest a bit and fell asleep.

Author's Note

To celebrate the season 6 premiere.... :ajsleepy: It was SO boring! Also I really can not stand Flurry Heart, babies were never really my thing. And if you're wondering if I'm going to be covering the premiere of season 6, yes which means I'm going to have to some how implement Starlight into the story... I have an idea and I'll let you know now, it is a MAJOR cop-out. Till next time.

Yes, I'm putting a link to the Q&A blog in every author note, for those who stopped at mid points in the story, It's for reaching 25 chapters being written, even though 25 is still being written: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/831885/qs-for-the-qa-chapter