Braeburn sighed as he opened the door to the boutique for Rarity. She trotted inside, snout aimed high. Braeburn stepped inside as well, the door closing behind him.

“Braeburn, I am going to ask you one final time...” she asked, having her back turned towards the stallion, “Did you hit Lyra?” Rarity turned her head slightly, still not making eye contact with Braeburn.

“Rarity, I swear.” He put a hoof to his chest, “I ain’t ever hit a mare, nor will I ever, hit a mare.”

Rarity whipped around and stared the stallion in the eyes. “I wish I could believe that, Braeburn.” A tear streamed down from Rarity’s eye, “I really do wish I could believe you.”

“Rarity please...” Braeburn begged, “Don’t go doin’ this. I swear, I swear Rarity. I never hurt no pony. Please...”

“I’m sorry Braeburn.” Rarity covered her face with one hoof, and silenced Braeburn with the other. “I just need some time...” Rarity choked back her tears.

Braeburn dropped his head in defeat, and stepped towards the door. He looked up from the floor to his sobbing marefriend.

“Rarity, I-” He stammered.

“Braeburn, just... Just go.” Rarity pointed a hoof to the door, while still covering her eyes with the other.

Braeburn silently left the boutique, the door closing slowly with a hollow thud. He stood motionless on the doorstep for a moment, hearing Rarity’s sobs becoming audible. Braeburn sighed deeply as a few tears of his own fell to the ground. He began his dark, cold, and lonely walk down the dirt path towards Sweet Apple Acres.

Not only was he alone, but the weather was quickly taking a turn for the worse; rain was beginning to fall, and the wind was picking up. After what felt like eternity, Sweet Apple Acres finally came into view.

Braeburn couldn’t stop his mind from racing with unanswered questions.

How did his relationship with Rarity come to this?

Were things over between them now?

What had he done so wrong?

Why did she refuse to listen to him?

Above all, why couldn’t she trust him?

Braeburn paused for a moment just outside the gates to Sweet Apple Acres when he heard a twig snap.

“Who’s there?” Braeburn called out, spinning around, facing the darkness.

For a moment, nothing but the sound of rustling leaves of the apple trees and distant thunderclaps were heard. Braeburn turned back around towards Sweet Apple Acres. He was horrified when a low, harmonic chuckle followed. Without any further warning, Braeburn was pinned to the ground, immediately being stared down by two glowing green orbs.

A flash of lightning revealed a tan stallion wearing a cowboy hat. The rain began to pour, turning the dirt road into mud.

“Wha- But how?” Braeburn stammered, staring back into the eyes boring through him.

The false Braeburn cackled again, “Perfectly to plan...”

“What in tarnation is that suppose ta mean?!” Braeburn tried to break loose from being pinned down into the muddy road.

“I have you, exactly where I want you...” The imposter pinned down Braeburn with more force. “...out of the way.”

Braeburn tried to squirm free, “No! Le’ me go!”

The mud assisted Braeburn in his struggle, and he managed to break one of his back hooves free. Without hesitation, Braeburn bucked the imposter off him with a direct blow between the hind legs. The imposter was sent into the air, crashing down in a muddy puddle. Braeburn quickly got to his hooves, and made a run for it.

“Oh no you don’t!” the phony Braeburn called out.

A barricade of green fire blocked Braeburn’s escape. He came to a skidding halt, and jumped to his left; Braeburn was halted again by the row of emerald fire quickly encircling him.

“Nooooo!” Braeburn screamed, as he was teleported away with a blaze of the dark magic fire.

The false Braeburn chuckled evilly. With the real Braeburn now out of the way, he was now free to unleash his plan...

“You see my friend over there?” Bronze pointed a hoof to Pin Stripe, who was chugging down yet another glass of cider.

Berry Punch sighed, “Yeah, I see him, Bronze. What about him?”

“He totally thinks you’re hot.” Bronze nudged the mare with an elbow.

“Bronze, I don’t have time for this.” Berry tried to turn away, but Bronze just held out a hoof, blocking her path.

“Berry, just go say ‘hey’.” Bronze gestured his hoof towards his friend seated at the bar.

She grumbled, “Fine. I’ll just say hi. But that’s it. I’m not doing anything else for you, Bronze.” Berry Punch started her way towards Pin Stripe.

“Are you really still on about that night with Carrot Top?” Bronze called out, rolling his eyes.

“She still hasn’t got over it, you know.” Berry called back with a glare.

Bronze bit his bottom lip and rubbed the back of his head.

Berry took a seat next to the brown earth pony, sighing just barely loud enough to be heard.

“Well, somepony looks tense.” Berry caught Pin Stripe off guard, almost causing him to fall off the back of his stool.

“Heh,” Pin Stripe casually scratched his temple with a hoof after catching his balance, “was a rough week.”

“Uh huh.” Berry raised a brow, “So how come you’re here all by yourself?”

“Well actually, I’m not here alone; I came with a few other guys.” Pin Stripe took a gander across the crowd of ponies, “They’re in here... somewhere.” He shrugged.

“Right...” Berry waved down the bartender for a drink.

“Well, it’s kind of a long story.” I shrugged, answering the anxious green unicorn.

“Oh, I see...” Lyra took a step back, looking rather discouraged.

I immediately realized how dismissive my last statement was.

Crap!

“Well, I guess I could tell you about it over a drink?” I quickly made the offer, “That is, if you wouldn’t mind me boring you with my story of how I wound up here.” I casually gestured a hoof towards the bar.

“Alright, well Pinkie, what do ya say we go shake our hoof-thang out on the dance floor?” Bon Bon nudged Pinkie with a hoof.

“Ok!” Pinkie hopped her way along side Bon Bon towards a corner of the bar, leaving me and Lyra alone.

Lyra snickered, her face flushing a bit. “No, I don’t mind.”

The green mare trotted along side me to the bar, taking a seat on the stool next to me.

“I’m Lyra, by the way.” The unicorn held out her hoof.

I chuckled, “Nice to finally meet you Lyra. I’m Davin.” I gently shook her hoof.

“You too.” Her cheeks revealed a faint blush, “So um, did you find your toolbox?”

Oh right! She was the mare who had my toolbox all along, while I searched frantically everywhere for it.

“Yeah I did.” I nodded, “I guess I should thank you for finding it for me. I searched everywhere for that thing, too.”

Lyra giggled, “Well actually, you just left it behind. By the time Bon Bon and I noticed you forgot it, you were long gone.”

“What’ll it be, you two?” the bartender asked, catching both mine and Lyra’s attention.

I looked to Lyra with a smile, “What can I get ya?”

She returned my smile, “Just a berry cooler, please.”

I looked at the Bartender, “A berry cooler and a hard cider, please.” I placed a few bits onto the counter.

The bartender reached under the bar and pulled up a bottle and a glass of cider, and took the bits I placed onto the counter. He gave me a friendly nod as he left to tend to another pony down at the end of the bar.

Lyra and I both took a sip of our drinks. Cider definitely wasn’t quite as strong as beer, but it’s probably the closest I’d get to a beer in this place. Whatever, I can’t complain; hard cider isn’t bad. I wonder what kind of reaction I’d get from the bartender if I had asked for a Budweiser. He’d probably give me a really confused look and ask me what the hell I’m talking about or something, I don’t know.

“So Pinkie, you going to go up and sing Equestria Girls again tonight?” Bon Bon asked, dancing to an upbeat song, badly being sung by a drunken mare on a karaoke machine.

“Oh, you know it!” Pinkie bumped into Bon Bon’s side.

“Well get up there!” Bon Bon poked Pinkie with a hoof and pointed to the karaoke machine, “I can’t stand listening to that mare butcher ‘Beyond Her Garden’; it’s driving me nuts!”

Pinkie giggled, “Okie Dokie Bon Bon! Time to sing-y, wing-y!” Pinkie hopped off towards the singing mare.

“So what do you do for work?” Berry asked, trying to spark a conversation out of Pin Stripe.

“I run a small hardware store near the center of town.” Pin tipped up the glass of cider to his lips. “How about you?”

Berry Punch smiled, “I run a fruit drink business. You see that bottle that mare is drinking out of?” she pointed towards a blue mare sipping out of a wine cooler bottle.

“Oh, that’s cool!” Pin Stripe’s eyes widened, “You run a winery?”

“Well actually, I’d like to say it’s more of a juice business,” Berry shrugged, “but it just so happens that there’s just a higher demand for alcoholic drinks.”

Pin Stripe chuckled, “I guess I can see why that might be...” He spotted a few other mares sipping out of wine coolers around the bar.

Berry Punch giggled as well, “Yeah. I’ll be right back, just have to use the little filly’s room.” Berry patted Pin Stripe on the shoulder and trotted off.

“That...” Pin thought for a moment, “...actually went alright!” Pin said aloud to himself, taking another sip from his glass.

“I’ll say!” Bronze took a seat on the stool next to him, “You even got her to laugh, bro! You’re in!” He gave Pin a nudge of his hoof, then waved down the bartender for a drink.

“Thanks Bronze.” Pin laughed.

“Hey, all I did was show ya the path.” Bronze leant a hoof around Pin’s neck, “You just have to walk it!” He picked up the full glass the bartender set before him, and took a long drink.

“Yeah, I know.” Pin Stripe rolled his eyes. “Hey, have you seen Davin anywhere? Kinda lost him in here.”

“Yeah, he’s over there;” Bronze pointed a hoof down the bar, “he’s probably hitting on some colt.”

Pin raised a brow at Bronze’s statement, “Don’t like him, do ya?”

Bronze scoffed, “Yeah, no.” He tipped the glass to his mouth again, gulping down the remainder of the cider.

Pin Stripe sighed, “Just don’t go doing anything extra stupid tonight, Bronze. Plus, you don’t even know him.”

“Oh, and you do?” Bronze slammed down the glass on the bar and crossed his hooves, his wings flaring out.

Pin leant back on his stool away from the pegasus, who received a few uncertain looks from surrounding ponies.

“Um, he’s a valued customer of my shop, and he seems cool.” Pin nudged his friend, “Just chill out, Bronze.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll chill out.” Bronze shook his head, waiving down the bartender again for another drink.

So through my half-drunken state, I managed to briefly explain how I wound up in Ponyville to Lyra. Of course I didn’t exactly say, I was a human before, then I died saving my best friends, and was re-awoken here as a pony; that would be a ridiculous thing to tell somepony, especially somepony whom I just met. I substituted out those few details for a half-truthful story about leaving my home, family and friends to find a place where I could be free to live my life.

It wasn’t exactly lying, but it wasn’t exactly completely truthful either. Nonetheless, I wasn’t prepared to talk about the real story with anyone or anypony yet.

“...So yeah, that’s pretty much how I ended up in Ponyville.” I shrugged.

Lyra looked me right in the eye, her own eyes watering as she took in what I had said.

“That’s... So sad, Davin.” She wiped her eyes with a hoof, “So you’ll never be able to see your friends or family again?”

“It’s something I guess I overlooked, when I made my choice.” I thought for a moment to myself, really analyzing what I had just said.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

“I’m so sorry to hear that.” Lyra put a hoof on my shoulder in attempt to make me feel some comfort, “It must be tearing you apart.”

I sighed, and looked the mare in the eyes. “It really is, Lyra. But I’ll be fine, I’ll pull through.” I took a deep breath and took a sip from the glass, which was half-full.

“Well if you ever need somepony to talk to, I’ll be your mare.” Lyra smiled confidently, then immediately put a hoof to her mouth in shock and her face flushed.

“I-I mean,” She stammered, “I’ll be there for you. To talk to I mean!”

I chuckled, and put a hoof on Lyra’s shoulder, trying to calm her down. “I know what you meant, Lyra. Thanks.”

Lyra smiled, and looked me deeply in the eye. Her smile dropped slightly and she inched her face closer to mine.

“Lyra! Lyra!” Bon Bon called from the dance floor, completely destroying the mood.

Lyra groaned, “What, Bon Bon?”

“Pinkie’s going to sing! Come dance with me!” Bon Bon smiled, not having a clue what she just interrupted.

Lyra turned to me, “You’re not going anywhere, are you?”

I quickly glanced over the crowd of ponies still having a good time amongst themselves. I simply shook my head no.

Lyra smiled, “Good. Wait here for me, ok?”

“Sure thing.” I nodded my head, and Lyra left her stool and joined Bon Bon on the dance floor.

Pinkie’s voice echoed through the bar, “Hey everypony! Hit it, DJ!”

A song started playing; one I knew all too well. I grumbled.

No matter where you are, Katie Perry songs will find you.

“California Girls? Really?” I said under my breath, facehooving with an audible ‘thunk’.

I turned around and faced the bar. My ears perked up when I noticed something different about the music. No, not because a pink pony of all things was singing karaoke, but because the lyrics altogether were different. I tuned myself into the song for a minute as Pinkie sang.

“Once you party with ponies, you’ll be seeing rainbooms!” The crowd began to sing along with Pinkie.

“Equestria Girls, we’re kind of magical! Boots on hooves...” I tuned myself out of the song the best I could.

Sure, yeah, it was a little different, but it still was catchy enough to stay stuck in your head; whether you liked it or not.

I rolled my eyes, and hailed the bartender, who trotted right over. “Hey man, this is a weird question, but do you have a pen or something?”

“Yeah, sure.” The bartender passed me a pencil from his pocket and placed it onto the counter. “Anything else?”

“Uh, sure. Another cider would be great.” I shrugged. The bartender chuckled and placed another glass onto the counter.

“Thanks bud.” I went to go grab the pencil with a hoof. I sighed when I realized what I just tried to do.

I sighed as I stared blankly at the pencil.

“...”

“Fuck, I miss having hands.”

“Look at that colt, Pin.” Bronze drunkenly pointed a hoof to the dark blue unicorn doodling something on a scrap of paper using a pencil in his teeth.

“Bronze, just let it go.” Pin Stripe quipped over his shoulder, irritated. He turned back to the pink mare sitting opposite to Bronze, “Sorry about that, Berry. You were saying?”

The orange pegasus grumbled, “I’m gunna go give that stallion a piece of my mind.”

Without Pin Stripe or Berry Punch taking much notice, Bronze slid himself off his stool and made way down the bar towards the stallion.

“God I suck at drawing with my mouth.” I looked at the terrible excuse of a drawing of my old white truck.

It seriously looked more or less like a really shitty kid’s attempt at a tractor. It was just bad. Maybe being drunk had something to do with it being so poorly sketched as well.

Yup, it definitely did.

Still, it was the only ‘picture’ I physically had of my truck, so I folded the napkin and placed it into one of the pockets. I glanced back up over to the dance floor, only to realize how drunk I really was. The room spun so hard, I almost fell off my stool.

“Whoa... No more cider for this guy.”

From that moment on, the rest of the night faded into a spotty blur.

...

...

A crowd was gathered around me, or rather, me and Bronze. He stood in front of me, looking ready to charge.

“Bronze, no!” Pin Stripe came to a halt between us, separating me from the angered Pegasus, “You’re drunk, pal. Let’s get you home.”

“No way! I got a bone to pick with him!” Bronze peered mercilessly over Pin Stripe towards me.

“Dude, cut it out. Let’s go.” Pin tried to reason with him, but to no avail.

Bronze charged through Pin Stripe, knocking him to the ground. I was ready for Bronze’s attack, and I charged towards him as well.

“You messed with the wrong guy, Bronze!” I drove my left shoulder up into the pegasus, similar to how a hockey player would.

Bronze was sent back flying, and crashed to the ground. A few bystanders gasped. Without hesitation, I galloped over to the Pegasus, and stood over him. I delivered a crushing punch of a hoof across his face, immediately drawing blood from Bronze’s cheek.

...

...

My head was splitting with pain. I couldn’t even hold myself up straight, it hurt so much. My legs gave out from under me, and I fell to the ground.

“Oh Celestia, this guy needs a hospital!” Pin Stripe knelt down to me, “Just stay awake Davin! We’ll get you some help!”

“What happened?” Lyra came galloping up to Pin Stripe and took one look down onto me. She gasped and covered her mouth with a hoof.

“Big Mac!” Pin hollered, “I need you over here!”

...

...

The lights on the ceiling were whizzing by above me, indicating I was lying on my back on some kind of stretcher. I turned my head to the side to notice Pin Stripe and Lyra galloping alongside, very concerned looks about their faces.

“Is he going to be alright Doctor?” Lyra asked, Pin Stripe nodding in agreement.

“Well, he won’t be able to use magic for a while if that’s what you mean.” The gruff voice of the doctor answered.

...

...

“Davin, which one o’ these ‘partments is yours?” Big Mac asked, acting as a prop so I wouldn’t fall to the ground.

“It’s number 15, Big Mac.” Lyra answered for me, opening up the door with my already obtained key.

“Ho, boy Davin. Tomorrow morning is not going to be kind to you.” Pin Stripe helped guide me into my room.

...

...

I awoke with the light of the sun beaming down directly on my face from the one only window in the room. My mouth was dry and still tasted of cider.

“Ugh, gross.” I grumbled in annoyance and shifted myself upwards.

Oh man, what a spitting headache. I hate hangovers.

I rubbed my head with both hooves, only to notice my head was bandaged.

“What the...” I traced the bandage across my forehead, only noticing a slight bump.

Huh, must’ve taken a fall or something last night and hit my head. No surprise for a drunken pony that still has trouble walking around sober.

I shrugged and sluggishly carried myself out of bed, and opened the door to the kitchen. I walked up to the table, taking a seat. I noticed there was a note left behind on the table; without a pause, I slid it towards me with a hoof and began to read it.

Davin,

I really hope you aren’t feeling too under the weather this morning. Last night was crazy! I let Pin Stripe know I’d stop by around noon today, to make sure you were alright, and to check your bandages didn’t somehow come loose in your sleep. The doctor said you need to wear them for at least one full day, and that it would be best if you stayed indoors. If you have any questions at all, (which I’m sure you probably will) or if you need anything, just let me know when I come by.

P.S. Whatever you do, DO NOT try to use your magic!

See you soon,
Lyra.

“Well that’s a bit unsettling!” I said aloud as I looked over the letter again.

A knock on the door rattled my brain, causing me to grunt in pain. I sheepishly looked over to the stove, as it was the only source of telling the exact time in my apartment.

12:03

“Great...” I hung my head and trotted over to open the door for Lyra.

Author's Note

Is it possible to be having way too much fun writing this thing? I keep pulling ideas out of nowhere. Seriously, I'm freaking myself out a little bit. Ok, I'll admit theres a bit of inspiration being put into this thing, mostly just personal experiences though.
Anyways, hope you guys enjoy this lastest chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it!

As always, feel free to express your thoughts and opinions!