An Echo of What Once Was

“Well that was awkward” Tony sighed as he opened the door to his home, followed by his girls, The Mane Six, Umbra, Eris and the younger immortals. “I still can't believe you set fire to table cloth” Tony added as he looked to Celestia.

“I don't want to talk about it” She said as she quickly vanished out of the hallway.

“Tia doesn't like centipedes” Luna explained.

“I noticed, but did you really have to toss one at her while we were about to eat?” Tony asked as Luna smirked victoriously.

“Yes… yes I did” She giggled as she followed her sister into the next room, the rest of the group followed save for Tony and Cadance, who stood in hallway not saying anything until Tony sighed.

“So where do we go from here Candy?” he asked her causing her to blush at the pet name he gave her so long ago.

“Um well I guess we have two options, we ca…”

“I want to be your husband again” Tony said, stopping her mid sentence and making her looking at him in shock at his quick answer. “But I can understand if you do… “

This time Cadence interrupted Tony by suddenly standing on her back legs, wrapping her forelegs around his neck and locking lips with the man, making the man blush brightly from the sudden action before he closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around her waist as her wings wrapped around his form.

“Took you both long enough” A smug voice stated as the pair broke their kiss.

“Buck off Umbra, we are busy” Cadance said waving her hoof in Umbra’s general direction.

“I know, I was just wondering if you guys wanted this?” She asked as she produced a familiar golden ring with Cadance's cutie mark on it made out of crystals. “I thought I should teleport back to the Crystal Empire and grab it off Molly as she was wearing it as a necklace. .. also she is in the living room” Umbra said as the ring was picked up in a baby blue aura and floated over to Tony.

“Well it was nice living” Tony groaned as Candy giggled before putting the ring on his finger.

“But your demise will be fun” Cadance said.

“Thanks love butt” He said making the Queen of love blush before she stole a kiss from Tony.

“I know you love my flank sweetie, almost as much as Tia’s big fat one” Candy said with a smirk.

“I BUCKING HEARD THAT!!!” Celestia said from the other room before Cadance giggled and returned to her normal standing position before leading him into the living room, moments before he sidestepped a large white blur, that proceeded to connect with Umbra.

“Tony you bastard!”Umbra shouted as she shoved the horny alicorn off of herself. “I'm going to bucking kill you fir that!” She growled as she summoned a long black scythe.

“Nope!” Tony shouted before he quickly exited the building through the window with A tall alabaster Alicorn and a very unhappy Unicorn chasing him.

“Get back he…”Umbra started before she was tackled by Nightmare.

“Umbra please don't” Nightmare asked as a flash of gold light occurred next to the couch, leaving a confused Tony standing there.

“Stop teleporting me around!” Tony growled before he was grappled by Molly, the mare nuzzled the top of the man’s head, who started to flail about as his oxygen supply was cut off by the mare’s massive bust.

“Can everypony stop trying to kill Tony?” Chrys asked as Molly noticed she was smothering her mate before she released him, making him gasp loudly and pant almost as loud.

“Sorry sweetie, I just got a bit over excited” Molly said to Chrys, who proceeded to pull the man onto the couch next to her.

“it's fine but let's try not to kill him, that goes for all of you” She said as Tony got comfortable on the couch.

“Chrys… it is fine, I have expected this to happen” Tony admitted as Molly straddled his lap and took his face in her hands before kissing him, causing him to blush brightly. “I honestly have been expecting worse to happen” He continued as Molly nuzzled his head and neck while her arms wrapped around his shoulders.

“I know what… I feel sorry about the prank we pulled… it wasn't nice” Chrys said as her ears flattened against her head while Molly looked at her confused.

“It's fine… look I am incredibly tired so I'm going to crash for tonight… if Molly would get off my lap” Tony explained moments before the Alicorn climbed off him and helped him to his feet. “Thanks, so yea maybe we can try this when I am not half delusional from being really tired and sore” He said.

“Have the numbing cream worn off?” Lucy asked concerned.

“No… it just did fuck all” He said before he headed upstairs.

“Numbing cream?” Umbra asked.

“Yea Tony is heavily bruised around his left side, where the dragon attempted to take a chunk out of him… it had some strange venom that caused some really bad cancerous growths on his organs, skin and bones which were immune to magic… he had to have reconstruction on his body and it has left him horribly bruised and in pain” Amber explained as all the people in the room frowned.

“But then how can he function in such pain?” Lilith asked.

“It takes a lot to put that man down, I remember when Celestia cut off his arm and he still kicked her ass” Luna said with a smirk as Celestia frowned. “But also he doesn't like ponies worrying about him in such ways, like when he got really badly sick, we almost had to strap him to a hospital bed to make him rest” Luna said with a soft smile.

“Buck… well I better go make him feel comfortable” Molly said with a smirk before she teleported away.

“Oh goddess, what is she doing?” Amanda asked before there were several loud thuds from the second floor followed by cursing and the sound of a window breaking, followed by a loud thud. After a few minutes, the front door opened and in walked Tony in his cargo, his torso was still bandaged but there were shards of glass and sticks in them.

“New rule, no teleporting in to or around the house for no reason, teleporting out is okay just not in” He grumbled as something caught the attention of all his girls save for Amber.

“Tony your right arm?” Chrys said as the man raised his arm and looked at it.

“Wait none of you noticed this until now?” He asked them. “Like honestly yea I was wearing a long sleeve top after my shower at the hospital and then wore my jacket but you didn't notice my hand?” He asked.

“No not really” Cadance said.

“Right well I'll explain in the morning” He before he headed upstairs, only to be followed by Luna and Cadance.

“See, he just well from the second story and it he is acting like it didn't hurt” Celestia explained as the two young alicorns and lilith looked shocked.

“Oh I forgot to tell you lot, It's Tony’s birthday on friday” Lucy stated.

“Wait what?” Chrys asked in shock as the others looked just as shocked.

“Yea he is turning twenty five” Lucy added.

“Wait… hold up, He is only five years older than us?” The young white mare asked confused.

“Yes Flurry Heart… sort of, as he has said, he was in this thing called Cryo sleep which stops one from aging” Lucy said.

“But… that is just weird that he is so young… and that he managed to gain such powerful mares in his herd” Flurry said.

“Well he is a fearsome warrior, a brilliant commander and… well, badass, like he took on Celestia with one arm.” Amber said as Celestia groaned in annoyance.

“Why do you keep bringing that up?” Tia asked as Amber smirked.

“Until someone does something worse.” Amber said with a giggle, Celestia was about to respond before she was cut off by a scream.

“TONY!” They heard Cadance scream moments before most were out of their seats and upstairs only to discover Cadance, Molly and Luna trying to ,what appeared be, helping the man up. Some of the herd frowned at this unnecessary scare until they noticed it, Tony’s bandages had turned a deep crimson, dark red blood was dripping from his bandaged chest while he did his best simply to breath as it seemed like something was crushing his chest.

“We have to get him to the hospital!” Luna said to Molly moments before the four vanished in a flash of pink light.

Not needing a second more, the magic users of the herd, teleported everyone else to the hospital also.

(A few hours later)

“He is stable at the moment, considering what was happening” Stripe said as he sat back down at his desk within his office, doing his best to not look at the worried expressions of the women in his office. “I should have seen this coming though” He sighed as he opened a old draw in his desk to reveal several dozen folders.

“What do you mean?” Chrysalis asked as Stripe pulled a folder with Tony’s name on it and placed it on the desk.

“Because this isn't the first time this has happened, this first happened the day he arrived in Sanctuary, after the incident with Princess Celestia, there was some left over magic from her around the wound but also there was a large amount of Your magic within him which was mostly around some freshly healed scars… these gave him a little boost in energy but the magic was also destroying him.” Stripe said as he sighed.

“Yes I remember that but we fixed it” Luna said.

“Yes, but the procedure requires a large amount of energy from the cause and a catalyst which in the previous case was Princess Luna’s magic, this catalyst kills or mutates the regular cells to accept the magic and stops him from dying… thankfully due to Tony’s recent metamorphosis and the scale we retrieved, we don't require any more of the donor’s magic but unfortunately we can't use any previous donor or Catalyst as the Catalyst this time so…” Stripe started only to be cut off by Cadance.

“I'll do it, if it means that I don't lose him again” Cadance said as Stripe nodded.

“Wait Doctor, what did you mean by His Metamorphosis? “ Chrys asked.

“Simple, from what Mr Ming explained to me and from what I have seen from Tony’s recent results, he has the ability to use high levels of magic and or use Changeling abilities” Stripe explained.

“WHAT!” Everyone shouted in surprise at the Zebra.

“Oww” Stripe said rubbing his ears as two of the Alicorns used their Royal Canterlot Voice. “What I mean is that he has most likely had the ability to do this since when he had his arm reattached but due to Tony having a moderate level of magic resistance, we could only check these things when he is badly wounded or we take some blood” He said rubbing his ears.

“Tony isn't magic resistant, we all have used magic on him on multiple occasions and that also brings up the question of why he was in this situation now instead of when he was teleported around.” Moon asked.

“First, all the magic users he interacts with the most are incredibly powerful and Second, using magic against him doesn't cause this because one, three powerful mares already did this procedure and the only reason it is happening again is because an even more powerful creature has caused this. “ Stripe said before he took a deep breath before continuing. “ And before you ask, you probably didn't sense any magic within him due to the dream suppressants he was prescribed which would have nullified any magic” Stripe explained as he looked at his paperwork.

“Wait… why would he need dream suppressants and who would make such a thing?” Twilight asked confused.

“It is something that is used at Blackwater as a way to stop the inmates from suffering nightmares and also stops them from using magic to escape… the reason Tony was prescribed them was because was suffering quite badly from nightmares from his time fighting” Luna explained as Stripe nodded.

“That guy has been through hell and back… I'll happy be when this procedure is done and he is back to normal” Stripe said before rising from his seat. “Now I need to take Cadance to Tony but only Cadance because any background magic from you lot could cause problems”. Stripe explained.

“What about you?” Dash asked him.

“inhibitor braces” Stripe said showing several silver bracelets on his arms before he exited the room with the Pink alicorn.

“So… Tony can use magic” Celestia said outloud.

“Before you add anything, I'm teaching him, not your student” Elise said.

“Twilight is the Element of Magic, she…” Celestia started but was cut off by the master sorceress.

“Will probably try to experiment on him” Elise said.

“No I won't! “ Twilight shouted in offense.

“Oh please, he is the probably the last of his kind… I have heard about you and I know that your thirst for knowledge is great” Elise replied with a glare.

“How about ya both teach ‘im?” Applejack said, getting annoyed.

“Fine, but if you try anything without his permission, you are dead” Elise growled causing Twilight to recoil slightly as Stripe reentered the room.

“it's done, he is healthy and the bruising is gone but his will be out cold until the morning, I have given Cadance the go ahead to take him home, so now I just need some paperwork filled out.” Stripe said.

“That was really quick” Twilight said.

“It is a very fast procedure but also incredibly painful, thus why I made sure Tony was on morphine before starting” He said as half of Tony’s herd teleported away, leaving behind Lucy, Amanda, Cloud, Amber and Mayli. “Um why is the Elements of Harmony here? Please don't tell me he is now screwing them?” Stripe asked pointing at the mares making them blush brightly.

“What no, what gave you that idea?” Dash asked.

“Well if you hadn't noticed, just about every Alicorn ends up with him” Stripe said.

“Well it helps when he is one of the few males that can get one off” Amber said with a smirk, causing the mane six to go bright red.

“So this reaction caused those growths?” Lucy asked as Stripe sighed.

“No, they were caused by… well our best guess is that whatever bit him was filled with a rage so strong that it manifested itself into a sort of toxin, and when it was introduced to the body… it was like a rabid growing cancer.” Stripe explained.

(A few days later)

“Oh god my chest” Tony groaned as he awoke to a tightness in his chest, numbness in his legs and right arm. “Where am I?” He muttered as he tried to sit up only to discover that a sleeping Dragoness was wrapped around his right arm and a pink haired, alabaster mare was lying on his body with her head just below his shoulders. “Okay so Molly and Amber have got me trapped” He said before feeling his pillow begin to shift, causing him to turn his head to see that Cadance was watching him with a soft smile on her face.

“Afternoon” She said as she poked Molly on the head with her wing, receiving a groan from the Alicorn before she tightened her grip on Tony. “Molly up or I'll chuck you off” Cadance threatened playfully.

“Do that and I'll send you to the sun” Molestia replied without looking up as she nuzzled Tony’s chest.

“Oh shit, I'm not bruised anymore” Tony said causing Molly to look up and smile at him.

“No you're not” She said as she placed her hands by her body and pushed her chest into the air, giving Tony a perfect view of her naked body and making his face go bright red. “Which means we can play” She said as she attempted to pull Tony under her only to stop when Amber growled and put her wing between the two.

“Not now, he just woke up and he is probably stiff” She said as Molly smirked. “Not that kind of stiff” She said before turning her attention back to Tony, who only just realized that the Dragoness was also completely naked.

“And I would like feeling in my legs and arm again” Tony added as the two reluctantly detached from him, in which he quickly climbed out of bed and stretched. As he stretched, several loud pops and crack could be heard from his joints. “Oh god that feels better” He groaned before he turned around to see the three watching him intently. “What?”

“it's just good to see you in a better state than before” Cadance said with a warm smile Tony nodded.

“Alright, well I'm gonna clean myself up” He said gesturing towards the bathroom. “So I'll meet you lot downstairs” He said before grabbing some clothes from his wardrobe before entering the bathroom but he wasn't alone for long as Molly entered in behind him and wrapped her arms around him from behind. “Molly, I'm not in the mood for sex” He said to her as he felt her nuzzle his neck.

“That's not why I came in, I came in to give you some needed affection and also to present you with this” She said as she moved her closed hand into his view.

“Oh no, I am not into fisting” He said as the mare giggled before opening her hand to reveal a pair of gold rings. “Wait what?” Tony asked.

“Tia had to head back to Equestria as she is the princess so she asked me to propose for her if you woke up when she wasn't here… and before you ask why, the girls and I thought it would be the best idea to marry you before something else happens” She explained to him.

“I don't think I have enough room on my hand for that many rings” He said as Molly giggled before both rings were surrounded in a pink aura before the turned into jewel encrusted bracelets. “Fair enough”.

“So, while you be Tia’s and my husband?” Molestia asked him.

“Sure why not” He said as the bracelets unlocked and attached themselves to Tony’s left wrist. “So what are the benefits?” He asked with a stupid smirk.

“Well apart from a lot of sex, plenty of cuddling, grooming, groping, love, affection, back rubs and hopefully foals” Molly said as she kissed his neck.

“But I hate being groomed, I end up smelling whatever you lot last ate… and when you do it after sex… I hate it more” He explained as the Alicorn giggled and nuzzled him.

“These benefits are non negotiable” She added before running her tongue up the back of his neck, causing him to cringe.

“Goddamn it woman! Warn me before doing that” Tony shouted as the mare giggled.