In the Eyes of Death

Chapters

Darkness
Official Inquiries
Have a Nice Trip...
Fitness
Bring Me Back To Life
In... inebri... Fuckit, I'm drunk.
The Morning After
Fiery Death
Stab in the Heart
Close Encounters of the Magical Variety
Those Eyes
Zero In
In the Eyes of Death
Foreword

Darkness

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, stuff happened and is already told in another story.

This is not that story. It’s related to it in some ways, but completely different in others. For starters, this isn’t Equestria. This is the Canadian/American border where World War Three had recently visited. The Canadians had turned off all resources flowing into the States and the States just wasn’t having it. However, since they had already deployed most of the American military into Afghanistan, they were left weakened just long enough that the Canadians could mount a full scale defence against the tyrannical neighbours.

Thinking about it now, I think the only similarity that our world shared with Equestria was how I had Rainbow Dash sitting in my pocket, rearing back proudly as she does. Granted, she was a tiny, three inch figurine that my daughter had sent me, but the thought remains. Dash had been with me ever since then, guiding me and my scope as I struck down enemy snipers with my own.

Today had been especially difficult, I had learned that a couple friends of mine on the opposite side of the border had been deployed to my battlefield. I’d already been ordered to shoot them both down as they tried to cross the barbed wire trenches. Still, Dash was there with me even after I’d put a bullet through their spine and ended their lives. She was still with me now even as reports of missiles were being screamed through the radios around me. She was with me as I followed the plumes of rocket exhaust as I looked up from my scope at the sight of hundreds of rockets being launched from the horizon, aiming in all directions.

Rainbow Dash was with me even as the rocket aimed straight for my front lines tilted and ripped through the air like a banshee out of hell to claim my life.

She was with me when the rocket hit the earth and exploded. She was with me while I burned.

She was with me when I died.

The sensation of wind ripping at my skin wasn’t exactly new. I’d been deployed from aircraft before, so I was familiar with the feeling of skydiving. What I wasn’t familiar with, was how I’d gotten into the air in the first place.

I was rolled from my laying position on my belly into a curled up free fall, back first and with limbs flailing free, in the air as my mind tried to figure out what exactly had happened to me, where I was and why I was falling. Had I been blown away by the explosion and left to fall wherever I happened to splatter? More importantly, with how close the explosion was to me, how did I even survive and how was I not bits and pieces on the ground?

Continuing my uncontrolled free fall in my state of delirium, I started to feel my back begin to heat up while streaks of flames surrounded me. I felt like screaming out in pain, and I would have done if it wasn’t for the fact that my throat felt like it’d swollen almost completely shut. Instead, the licks of flames merely ripped and tore at my skin, bubbling or just shredding it all together before they died away completely. How high would I have had to been launched into the air to achieve something like re-entry?

Now with less than optimal skin on the back of my body and the wind biting into the damage to add insult to injury, I took a few minutes to focus myself just long enough to work at flipping myself over and regain control. Just as the ground reached me.

Death is unbecoming of you. Get up, try again.

Darkness is really not that uncomfortable if you’re used to it. It can be cold, it can be warm depending on what you do with it. Darkness provides options to the mind, a mental security blanket to protect someone from… whatever it is I just went through. It’s like an open ended ticket to go wherever you want to go, do whatever you want to do and be whoever you want to be. Darkness is a fresh start.

Darkness can also be uninviting, scary and distressing. It can peel the flesh from your bones in ways that are only felt by you and remain unseen by other eyes. It can crush, it can consume. It hides and seeks and won’t give up till it’s taken everything from you. It’s binding, restricting and infinite. It’s the complete absence of light in every form.

It’s also itchy as hell. Or was that just my face?

Trying to lift my hand to scratch at my cheeks and forehead, I not only found that I couldn’t move, but I couldn’t actually feel my hands. Or arms... Or legs. I actually couldn’t even feel my torso. Or could I? I don’t know, I couldn’t be sure. I did notice, however, that as I tried to reach out and feel for something that I began to feel the fires of hell lick at my body again, covering everything that I could no longer feel. My hands, arms, legs, torso and probably like… seventy percent of my body were aflame and it hurt like a mother fucker.

Trying to settle myself down and ignore the pain as best I could, I tried to open my eyes and get an idea of where I was or what had happened to me but nothing actually happened. I felt like I had opened my eyes, I know my eyelids moved because of that feeling you get of the muscles in your face moving every time you blink or hold your eyes closed still seemed to work. I just couldn’t see anything…

From somewhere off in the foggy distance, I could hear a voice: female in nature and certainly adolescent in age. Maybe, late teens? “Oh my gosh,” she sounded like she was whispering, but I figured she was just a ways away from me. “What happened here?”

“I ‘unno, but it doesn’t look like a good time…” another female, higher than the first and quicker than the average person in terms of tempo.

“Whatever happened here, it looked like some poor creature was ripped apart!” the first one remarked as she grew closer towards my position. I’d still love to be able to see who was coming to my rescue…

“Uhm, I don’t know about you, but I don’t think it’s from around here…” the second one remarked as her voice stopped where they were. “Look, I think that’s what’s left of the main body!”

“What?” The first one questioned before she gasped. “Oh my gosh! Go get the guard to bring the princesses here! We need to get this into study!”

Study? I’m not a thing to be studied… Could the ladies have found something else? Something newer than me? It’s possible I suppose.

“Sure, I’ll be right back!” the second announced before the sound of the both of them took off hard away from my direction. I thought the first one was staying here…

“Hey, now you’re a strange little thing…” the first one remarked as her voice grew close to my ear. I thought she’d left? “Or… not so little…”

Okay, now hold on! I’m by no means a small guy, probably around 5’10 give or take and by no means am I a big guy, averaging out at about 170 pounds or so… Healthy and in shape. I took offence to what she said, but I wasn’t entirely sure why I did. Just the way she said “Not so little guy” irked me.

“Just what are you exactly?” she whispered again, her voice echoing around from all around me. I’d have liked to have moved, given her some indication that I was alive or look at her, but I felt like if I tried to move, something was holding my head still.

Letting out a low, guttural rumbling from my throat, trying to establish some means of communication.

“What was that?” the female inquired, stopping where she was to look around her. I let out another weak rumbling, feeling my stomach roll where it was and almost loosen up more than it ever actually should.

The sound of two women running towards me had me wondering who the second person was, since they were so quiet and seemed to follow the first one around like an obedient dog. Another groan from me and the female gasped, sounding like she’d jumped back in tandem with the second person.

“It’s alive!” she exclaimed in fear. A tingling feeling washed over my head and the sweet embrace of darkness greeted me again.

How long was I out? How long have I been gone? Where was I now, I didn’t feel the familiar stabbing of rocks under me and my face no longer itched. A prolonged self-examination and I could even feel my arms and legs now. Progress!

A groan from within and I opened my eyes. Darkness. Still with the darkness.

Starting from another groan, “H- hello?” I croaked out to the nothing around me. Clenching my fists, I tested my ability to feel my fingers but found that for some reason or another, they felt… wrong. Tiny and too smooth for them to be normal.

“Great, it’s awake now.” a male sighed before a pair of people walked off with what sounded like solid steel shoes on their feet. “Better go get the brains.”

“I’ll stay here.” a female remarked, sounding suspiciously military in tone. There was always something about a soldier’s speech that said, “I’ve seen things, I’ve killed people.” and she had it.

“Where am I?” I croaked out weakly, still unable to see anything. I lifted a hand to my face, trying to feel what was blinding me but found nothing over my face. That, and my hand felt really, really small.

“I am not at liberty to tell you, Prisoner.” the guardswoman replied simply. With that last word, I reactively snapped my mouth shut and remained completely silent. Not sure why I did that, but something hardwired into my mind told me to do that.

After a couple minutes of silence and me trying to feel my way around where I laid, I figured out that I was strapped down to a table of some kind. My torso and legs couldn’t move, but my arms were for the time being freed. I figured that wherever I was, I wasn’t going to have this much range of motion for long if the straps built into the table where my arms laid were any indication.

“It’s awake? Did it say anything?” the female voice from before asked, sounding eager to begin her tortures on me for my information. I wouldn’t give it.

“Yes ma’am. It seemed to have awoken and said hello.” the first guard replied, the male one specifically.

“It hasn’t said anything since asking where it was.” the female guard replied. The sound of a steel door rolling open told me I was probably in some kind of cage, since I could hear the three current speakers clearly and without that distinct electronic speaker system sound.

“I wonder why that is…” the first female wondered before the sound of her and the other woman apparently tied to her entered into my cell. “Look at you, this is astounding! Imagine all the things we could heal with abilities like yours!”

What? What abilities? I don’t have any abilities, do I? I turned my head towards the woman’s voice and tried to glare at her, if I could see her and her partner. Question: why was a teenager leading my interrogation?

“Don’t worry, you’re in good hooves now. We’ll take good care of you.” she added, giving me reason to pause as something hard, flat and rounded in nature stroked my forehead. Hooves? What the hell?

“You won’t get anything out of me. Return me to my country or kill me, those are your only two options.” I muttered with as much venom as I could pour into my words and laid my head back again to stare off into the blackness. “Keeping me in the dark isn’t going to do anything so you can turn on the lights.”

“I’m afraid we can’t do any of that.” The female replied, her voice rounding to the left of me before taking towards my feet and back up the right side. “We don’t know where you’re from so we can’t take you back. We don’t seem capable of killing you, so that’s out,”

“What?” I raised an eyebrow again, aiming my thought at the woman beside me. “What do you mean you don’t seem capable of killing me?”

“When my friend and I found you, you were in pieces in a crater. You had a rock spiked through your head, you should be dead.” the female explained calmly. “Yet, here you are, in mostly one piece and still growing. If we can learn how you do that, we can fix so many of our population!” the female announced eagerly. “As for the darkness, that’s not because the lights are out. You’re eyes are gone. You’re blind.”

“I’m what?”

“That rock spike destroyed most of your face, eyes included. They haven’t grown back in like your arms, legs or most of your lower body. Your face has been reconstructed, you’re just missing your eyes for now.” the female remarked as a tingling sensation was applied over my eyes and I felt my eyelids lifted by remained in darkness. “Looks to be growing back in, they’re just not entirely done yet. You’ll probably get your eyesight back once they’re complete.”

“Okay, hold on. What do you mean I was in pieces?” I held a hand up to stop the train of thought bearing down on me.

“I mean, we found only your head and a small portion of your torso on the ground in one piece. The rest of your body was… well it wasn’t pretty. Your dismembered limbs were found in a field a couple hundred feet away. Your lower body was found a good number of feet away from you with your stomach hanging out and your intestines stretched across the impact site. We thought some animal had viciously torn you to shreds and killed you.”

“So now you want to experiment on me? Don’t I get a say in this?” I demanded before an idea struck me. “Of course I don’t, I’m a prisoner of war.” I sighed and laid back in defeat, preparing myself for the endless cycles of being torn apart and let grow back to be shredded again. I wouldn’t put it past the enemy, whoever they were at the time. I remembered faint reports that a group of some religious type had been rounded up and exterminated. Of course, I couldn't quite remember who those people were or why they were exterminated…

“A prisoner of war?” the female reeled back in confusion. “Not at all! We’ve not had a war here in over a thousand years! Why would you be a prisoner of war?” she demanded in genuine confusion.

“What do you mean there hasn’t been a war in a thousand years? I was just fighting in a war!” I shouted back, feeling myself get increasingly heated. I could feel a surge of power in my veins, giving me power enough to sit up through the restraints and begin to tear at the leather bindings holding my legs down. “I was just there! On the front lines, killing people! Don’t tell me there wasn’t a war going on, you all launched missiles at every other country!” I shouted again as the female and her partner scurried from the room while the two guards likely stepped in to replace her.

“Halt! Do not attempt to escape or fight back!” The female commanded as I dropped from the table to my feet and aimed at the sound of the guards’ clinking armour. Strange armour, to say the least.

Taking off at a sudden sprint towards them, I figured death would be a better option than remaining in a country of lies and deception. Let them do with my empty shell of a body afterwards. I’d be dead then, don’t care what they do to me if I'm dead, right?

With a mighty roar, I lifted my arms into a wild haymaker before my advancement was cut short as I felt cold metal slip through my neck.

Death is unbecoming of you. Get up. Try again

“He’s awake again.” the male guard announced, sounding completely bored with things. I groaned in reply.

“What the hell happened?” I muttered to no one in particular. I still couldn’t see, but I was growing to expect that.

“You died. Again.” The female teenager replied with an accompanying sigh. “Decapitation this time.”

“This time?” I raised an eyebrow and “glanced” over towards the female. “What the fuck are you talking about, ‘Again’ and ‘This time’?”

“What, you don’t remember? This is the fourth time we’ve had to kill you in order to stop your rampages. The first time was Decapitation, the second time we had to cut off your limbs, the third time surprised us and I sent you into a wall where you basically exploded, and now this time, your head rolled.” The female replied casually, as though this was just another day for her. Of course, judging by what she was telling me, this could have been another day. “Now then, are you going to calm down and be civil?”

“No. Not till I get back to… my country…” I replied defiantly, crossing my arms over my chest. “I still don’t believe that you’ve killed me so many times and that i’ve come back just as many.”

With a commonplace chuckle, “Yeah, neither I. We’ve already done so many brutal things to you to stop you, I can’t imagine how you’re able to literally pull yourself together again and revive. I don’t think I can even call you immortal…”

“Immortality means I don’t age but still can be killed. You’re thinking Eternal…” I muttered back and let my head roll around the metal plate on which I laid. “Fuck, eternity is not something to look forward too.”

“I don’t doubt it. Living on past the end of the universe… Even after the immortal beings have all died, there’ll be only you…” The female sighed back in agreement with me before the sound of her crawling up onto my table had me pause at the heavy weight of four feet.

“What’s with you and your partner? Why do you two do everything and why is she so quiet?” I wondered as the surprisingly lighter weight than I’d have expected seemed to settle down on my chest.

“What partner? I’m the only one in here besides you. Even the two guards are just waiting outside the door.” The female replied in confusion as my hands went up to carefully touch her body.

Furry? The fuck?

“Why is your body fuzzy?” I whispered in complete confusion.

“I’m more curious about why you’re carrying a figurine of Rainbow Dash.” the voice replied, ignoring my question entirely as I continued to check her body. I had to be delirious, because I could swear that she was a mini-horse.

“That was from… I… Don’t remember… Why are you fuzzy?” I replied then reiterated my question.

“I’m not fuzzy, I’m furry. I am a pony, after all.” The female replied firmly, dropping my face to disbelief.

“I’m sorry what?”

“I’m a pony. I have no idea what you are, though. Allow me to introduce myself. Again. I’m Twilight Sparkle. Who’re you?” The furry thing called Twilight whatever replied, choosing now to get off of my chest and hop down from my table.

“I have no idea, actually…” I admitted after a moment of thought. “Did I have anything on me that looked like identification?”

“Maybe, I don't know. You have some kind of chain around your neck with small silvery plates. I had them taken for testing and it’s just some kind of strange metal.” Twilight replied before my hand was forced open and something was dropped into my palm.

“I have no idea what these are, I can’t see them.” I announced, trying to get a feel for whatever was in my hand. No idea.

“Well, how about we try again once your eyes are fully developed? I’ll tell you what, you behave and I’ll get you moved out of this cell.” Twilight offered as her voice told me she was at my feet again, likely aimed for the door. “You’re obviously sentient and intelligent so you have a choice whether to give up how you’re eternal. Frankly, your eternity probably makes you the most powerful creature on this planet… So I really don’t know what to do.”

“I’m… just gonna stay here then…” I sighed and remained where I was, for lack of options anyways. I couldn’t really walk given the blindness and it’s not like I had anywhere to go. “A blanket would be great, this table’s cold.”

“Sure, here.” Twilight replied, a smile on her voice as something heavy landed on me, covering me entirely to my neck. “Be back later.”

Official Inquiries

So, expositional update: I’m no longer in the dungeon as I was moved into a guest suite in some castle a few days ago. Castle plus dungeon equals monarchy. Monarchy means… some… eastern island country… Still can't remember things before… whichever death it was that put me here… Regardless, I’m still confined to quarters until something happens…

I’m finding that my memory is pretty spotty. Every time I apparently die I forget that I’ve died, plus about fifteen minutes or so. Explains why I can’t remember the deaths between the decaps in the dungeon. I still have no idea who I am and Twilight can’t read the chain thing I suspect were some kind of tags with identification on them. For now, they just call me The Human.

I’m missing important basic functions in my mind. I can’t do math anymore. Like, at all. Anything more advanced than five plus five just doesn't work in my head. Don’t know why and Twilight’s at a loss.

Magic. That’s a thing here! That tingling feeling I occasionally get is the physical manifestation of Twilight’s magic on my body. Apparently she feels something in me, but she’s not too sure besides it’s not biological in nature. Can’t possibly imagine what that would be, but I figure after time and mental recovery, we’ll figure it out.

I really cannot be killed. I even actually held both my own hands after they’d been separated from my arms and new hands grew in while the old ones were put in stasis. According to the pony, whatever gets cut off disintegrates and returns to the larger body. Same goes for my head.

They feed me, had to bring in special cooks from out of country to cook me meat since this entire fucking country seems to be ovo-vegetarian in nature, but they feed me.

I have had next to no other interaction with anything else save for Twilight. I still don’t believe that she’s a furry pony that’s small enough to comfortably rest on my chest, even if evidence proves me wrong. She visits me daily, trying to help me restore the fractals of my memory from before death or otherwise just providing social interaction while she tries to learn about me. Neither really works since I have nothing I can adequately tell her.

“So, are you ready to meet the princesses?” Twilight inquired as she helped me into some kind of suit that someone else had made for me. Didn’t even know anyone had been around to take my measurements.

“No, I’m blind and I don’t feel right in this suit. I feel like I’m supposed to be wearing something else… Something more… I don’t know, appropriate to me.” I groaned back but allowed myself to be stuffed into the suit. No idea if it looked good on me or not but according to Twilight, I was absolutely dashing.

“Something different? What else would you wear to meet a princess?” Twilight stepped back from helping me get my coat onto my shoulders without wearing it upside down.

“No idea, never met a princess before.” I remarked with a shoulder shrug.

“Fine, government official?” Twilight scoffed and helped me with my shoes with her magic. Probably. It felt like my shoes were getting tighter and since I hadn’t heard her move, she was probably using her magic.

“Something in me wants to say: Royals...” I replied slowly as the words formed in my mind. “Royal colours?”

“What, like a soldier’s formal uniform?” Twilight stepped back a step, holding me from finishing up my dressing. “Were you a soldier?”

With a groan and accompanied shrug to indicate I had no idea, I held up the tags in my pocket. “Would explain these.”

“So you’d feel better in a military outfit?”

“Probably? I wanna say army, so… I dunno… dark green?” I scrunched up my face in attempts to try and recover the image into my mind. I felt like I loved that suit, why couldn’t I remember it?

“If you’d like, I can do a bit of digging around in your mind to try and find the suit if you’ve ever seen it.” Twilight offered as she lead me to my bedside and sat me down. “It won’t hurt much.”

“Much, thanks for that. Can’t hurt more than every time I die.” I sighed and succumbed, flopping back onto the mattress. “Fine, go dig.”

“It’ll be just a moment.” Twilight replied as she climbed up onto my chest and placed her horn against my forehead. Oh, that’s right. She’s a fucking unicorn.

The unfamiliar presence in my mind told me that whatever she was doing was probably successful. I simply remained where I laid, for lack of options anyways, and let the creature on my chest do her work. I could feel her heartbeat against my own, feel her breath as she concentrated as it blew against my dark eyes.

“Oh, there it is.” Twilight suddenly announced with a slight squeal. “Looks pretty good, if I might say. Very formal.”

“That’s the idea, I think.” I grumbled back under the weight of the pony. Even when she was resting her entire weight on my chest, crushing the breath out of me, I could feel my lungs and ribs threaten to give under her but since it’d just heal in no time neither one of us were too terribly concerned. Except for the pain. That always sucked.

“Okay, got it.” Twilight rolled off my chest and hit the bed to help me back up again and stood me entirely. “Just wait here while I go get a friend of mine. She’ll be able to help make the changes.” and then a pop of air told me she was gone again.

A minute of standing still, completely bored and unsure of what to do with myself, a second and third pop alerted me to a new presence in the room.

“Are you sure it’s safe?” a female, proper voice whispered in inquiry.

“He’s totally safe. Mostly.” Twilight replied before adding the second part on as a second thought. “Don’t worry, I can stop him if he gets too rowdy.”

“Who’s there?” I asked, facing the general direction of the newcomer and since I couldn’t hear movement, I figured she was either light on her feet or just hadn’t moved.

“Oh, and he’s blind.” Twilight added as her voice moved towards me. “Can you do it?”

“It shouldn't be too difficult but I don’t think it’ll be very comfortable…” The other female replied, sounding concerned. “But, I think I can replicate the image.”

“What’s she doing? Who is she?” I wondered, taking a step back from the new one.

“This is Rarity, she built your current suit for you and she’s going to change it into your preferred attire.” Twilight explained at my right while a set of hoofsteps told me that Rarity was coming closer.

“Now, just hold still, Darling.” Rarity requested as she hopped herself up to place both hooves against the front of my thighs. “This may pinch some.”

A rippling tingle cascaded from my head and down to my feet, covering my body entirely till I found my heels being lifted for the shoe soles.

“There, not quite my best work given the circumstances but it shall have to do till I can bring the suit in for tailoring.” Rarity announced, hopping down to circle around me. “So, what do you think?”

“It’s clothes.” I replied simply as the sound of walking stopped in front of me. “I’m blind, I don’t know what it looks like.”

“Oh, right. My apologizes for the involuntary insensitivity.” Rarity gasped at the realization of her mistake and stepped back a few steps from me. “Well, if that’s all, I would like to be returned to the others.”

“Of course. We’ll see you all shortly.” Twilight replied and with a pop, Rarity’s presence was gone.

“Really? Blind jokes?” I raised an eyebrow at the small pony next to me but placed my hand on her head to let her lead me from the room and into that I figured was a hallway.

“You know that wasn’t what I meant. Come on, the Princesses are waiting.” Twilight groaned and lead me on. The number of footsteps around me told me we were probably being escorted by the guard but neither of us said anything the entire walk.

Eventually I was lead to stop before running into something and was turned to my right by Twilight. “Okay,” Twilight’s breathing was growing short and laboured. “All we gotta do is walk in there, meet the Princesses and not get you killed.”

“Would be great, yeah. Thanks.” I mumbled back as the volume of the doors swinging open assaulted me, making me grit my teeth at the hinges that needed oiling.

“Here we go!” Twilight nervously chuckled and lead me into the room sans guard judging by the number of footsteps. Everything was dark, so all I could tell was that the new room smelled like fresh air and flowers. Granted, I couldn’t tell what flowers they were but they were sweet. A gentle, cooling breeze wafted in around me, tickling the hairs on the back of my neck while I did my best to place foot in front of foot while my body defaulted to a sturdy march into the room. Twilight had to speed herself up a bit to match my pace but soon enough a small yank on my hand told me to stop.

“So, this is him?” A motherly voice questioned from above and before me. Not high up enough to warrant raising my head any further but high enough to suggest she was atop some kind of riser. “What is he?”

“He calls himself a human being.” Twilight reported while I stood at attention. I could only feel the gazes resting on me, all figuring they were safe to stare since I couldn’t see them doing so, but I felt it. “He seems to have been a soldier of some kind where he came from. A soldier at war, by the way.”

“Seems problematic.” Another voice, younger than the mother one but originating from the same direction replied in a low voice. “Is he hostile?”

“I’m standing here peacefully, aren’t I?” I replied calmly and without moving.

“Be that as it may, we can’t have a potentially violent threat running free our country.” the first one before me explained sternly. I could feel the glare she was giving me. “Are you going to be a problem, let’s put it that way.”

“I’m blind. I can’t fight very well if I'm blind.” I replied, removing my cap to show my white eyes. “Not yet anyways.”

“He’s not actually supposed to be blind. For some reason his eyes aren’t regenerating properly and I can’t figure out why.” Twilight announced, giving me news.

“I have eyes then? I thought you said they were still growing back.” I turned my head towards the pony next to me with a little more than anger in my voice.

“That was a couple days ago. You’re eyes have grown in, but they remain blind.” Twilight replied, aiming the comment my direction. Then, turning her voice towards the officials before us, “He’s also suffering from severe mental fragmentation. He’s lost most of his memory from before he ended up here and first died as well as, strangely enough, key parts of his memory for basic functions, like how to perform mathematics.”

“I wasn’t aware that could happen.” The younger sounding princess remarked curiously. As I stood where I was, I was beginning to smell the faint aromas of blueberries and strawberries in the room. I couldn't tell if they were nearby or if they were wafting in with the fragrances coming in from whatever open window was nearby. Since the room was still fairly warm, I could at least deduce that whatever country I was in was in the middle of it’s summer months as compared to the prolonged rain that my country seemed fond of.

“I wasn’t either, actually. Something like Mathematics would have been hardwired into his brain at a young age if his education system worked the same as ours. And yet, he seems to default to certain practices like whatever military training he has as evidence by his walk or stature now.” Twilight replied, her voice suggesting she was looking up at me.

Something about the area around me bothered me. I could feel something, someone familiar nearby. As though there was someone I had known for a couple years standing silently to my… left… While the princesses and Twilight conversed about my mental health, I turned towards the familiar presence and from the darkness, a pinprick of bright blue light appeared.

Turning my body entirely, I took off at a slow walk towards the light and noticed that it remained low to the supposed ground as I grew closer; approximately as tall as Twilight was if I had to guess. The room went entirely silent as they watched me kneel down at the light and reached out to touch it.

“What’s going on?” A voice before me asked, sounding slightly terrified as I placed a hand against a neck. Placing the other hand gently on the fur, I lifted my hands upwards towards that I figured was a pony head and ended up with both hands on the sides of her head and cheeks. “What’s he doing?”

“I have no idea, never seen him do this before.” Twilight replied from behind me. I could feel the presence of other bodies around the one before me but I paid them no mind as I sat back on my ass entirely and pulled the pony with me. “Are you okay?”

“Little freaked out, but yeah.” The pony replied, her voice tom-boyish in nature but with a distinctly hidden feminine tone behind it. At this point I had her before me enough that I could suddenly wrap my arms around it and pull it into a hug, feeling the familiarity of warmth, of family and friends. I felt like this pony had been with me for years through hell and high water.

“Rainbow… Dash?” I whispered to myself as I felt a fluid gradually run from my eyes. The body froze up in my embrace at the name but couldn’t quite escape from me.

“How do you know my name?” The pony demanded from my shoulder as she tried to push away from me with her hooves. “Let me go!”

“Uhm, I don’t know about ya’ll, but I think he knows her somehow…” a western country woman remarked from next to Dash, sounding concerned.

“He did arrive with a little figurine of Dash in his pocket…” Twilight put in from behind me as I worked at collecting myself from flashes of faces I didn’t remember. “Don’t know how he got it or where the figurine came from, but it seems he’s a fan of her.”

“I didn’t even say anything, how’d he know I was here?” Dash replied, looking over my shoulder as I just held onto her as gently and as tightly as I could. She had all the familiarity in the world contained within that little pinprick of light and I would be damned to let it go.

“I don’t know, maybe he somehow senses our presences since he’s blind?” Twilight suggested as her voice drew nearer to me. “Come on, let her go. You’re making her uncomfortable.” she requested, pulling at the shoulder of my jacket with her magic.

Reluctantly, I let her go and she quickly jumped out of my reach, landing near to where I could feel other bodies.

“Sorry… You just… have such a pretty light…” I mumbled back and composed myself by wiping my face off with the heel of my hand.

“A light? Can you see?” Twilight sounded eager again, her voice appearing before me. Save for the light of Dash, everything was dark. I shook my head in reply. “Then what can you see?”

“Nothing. Just a single mote of light where Dash is.” I replied and returned to my stance at attention. “Take me back to where we were please.”

“Oh, sure.” Twilight lead me by the hand to where we were, probably and turned me back to what I assumed was the front.

“So, what are your intentions for being here? How did you arrive here?” The motherly voice inquired, sounding soft to the ears as opposed to stern and fierce.

“No intentions. I shouldn't even be here. As for how I got here, I think I just dropped in.” I replied with a large breath to finally correct my behaviour.

“Explains the crater we found most of his body in.” An upbeat, higher pitched voice replied, the same one who’d been with Twilight who found me.

“Pinkie, I do sincerely hope you don’t actually mean you found him in many pieces… He wouldn’t be alive if he was.” Rarity remarked, sounding sickened from the thought.

“It’s true! We found his limbs a couple hundred feet away from his body! He even had a spike sticking up through his face! It was really gory...” Pinkie’s voice replied, sounding just as sickened.

“He’s capable of regenerating his entire body, we just don’t know to what extent yet…” Twilight explained with what sounded like a grimacing shake of ill memories. “It would seem that he’s actually eternal…”

“As opposed to immortal like Celestia and I?” the younger one replied curiously and I could feel a powerful gaze on me once more. “How thoroughly have you tested this?”

“We’ve killed him four times since he’s arrived. Twice by decapitation, dismemberment, threw him into a wall…” Twilight sighed back while the presences nearby all wretched to themselves. “He just keeps coming back.”

“Well, it seems we can’t necessarily permanently imprison him for all eternity. He’d go mad and likely break out and seek revenge…” the one called Celestia announced, sounding perplexed of what to do. “Luna, have you any suggestions?”

“Integration?” The younger one I figured was Luna suggested. I liked this idea, if at least until I could get back to my world. “I do have a slight concern, however.”

“What about?” Twilight asked as I simply sat down on the ground where I stood. Carpet? Probably a rug of some kind. Fairly soft to the touch but rough enough that it didn’t feel like it’d trap dirt. Coarse, but not unpleasant.

“His uniform reminds me of something from an old museum we had a thousand years ago… You say that his outfit was pulled from his memories, something he wore before he came here?” Luna inquired, making me wonder where they were going with this. A lack of verbal reply suggested that Twilight nodded back. “I wonder… It’s probably nothing. Please, disregard what I have said.”

“Any other ideas other than eternal life imprisonment or integration?” Celestia’s voice took to the area around us, addressing everyone present. “And you, human, do you have any preferences on what happens to you?”

“I‘d prefer to go home, all due respects.” I mumbled back unintentionally a bit more hostile than I’d intended and from the sounds the princesses were making, they heard it too.

“Well, until we can figure out how to get you home, you’ll have to stay here with us. Which brings us back to the original question: how would you prefer to be handled?” Celestia reiterated with a bit of scorn in her voice.

“Visitation?” I suggested back without a care in the world. “I don’t really feel like being entirely integrated into your country so why not just leave me as a visitor? A blind… visitor… I may need someone to help me get around...”

“Is there anyone you’d prefer to stay with?” Luna’s invisible gaze crowded me, filling me with a sense of danger.

“Don’t really care who I stay with, but I think a slower environment would work best. Big cities will probably prove too over-stimulating to me while I adjust to my heightened senses.” I sighed with my answer, feeling fairly tired despite the relative easy-going nature of the day.

“You seem to have some kind of familiarity with Rainbow Dash,” Celestia began, however the named female interrupted.

“I am not letting him stay with me! He creeps me out and I wouldn’t even know what to start with! No offence, Princess Celestia, but it’s not happening!” Dash finished defiantly and with a small hmph that others could have missed.

“Then why doesn’t he stay with me for a while? At least until he can get his bearings and survive on his own?” Twilight offered helpfully and stood within reach of my right side to place her head under my arm to get me to stand.

“Works for me.” I stand with a bit of assistance from Twilight and move into attention for final words.

“There we have it. The human will return to Ponyville with Twilight and live with her until such time that he deems he is fit to survive on his own.” Celestia announced, sounding glad to be over with this affair. “If there is nothing left, you two have some moving to do.”

With a salute, I turned completely around with surprisingly unsurprising practice and took off at a marching pace before Twilight sighed and caught up to redirect me away from not the doors.

Have a Nice Trip...

Author's Note

Okay, so obviously I'm doing something wrong with the ratings I'm getting. Please, help me improve and tell me how I can make this story and my writing in general better.

Have a Nice Trip...

“I’ve been wondering about something.” I began as I sat on my bed while Twilight searched the room for anything that could be called a ‘personal belonging’. “What do I look like?”

“Why do you ask?” Twilight’s voice ended up behind me but trailed along around my right till she was somewhere before me. “Kind of a strange question to ask, don’t you know what you look like?”

“I seriously don’t really know… It’s entirely possible that my appearance may have been changed since last I remember. So many deaths must’ve left some kind of physical scar on me, right?” I replied, my head turning to try and figure out where Twilight was.

“Okay, well…” Twilight’s voice startled me when she appeared directly in front of me. Hopping up, she used my knees to stand herself upright and get a closer look at me. “Silvery white hair? Is that normal?”

“No, it should be dark brown.” I shook my head in reply.

“Short enough that it doesn’t look shaggy but long enough to be pulled back and spiked?” Twilight detailed specifically, making me shake my head again.

“Should be short to an inch or so. Dress code and what not.” I explained and went silent again while Twilight examined me, making little noises as she did so.

“Scar running from your left jaw to your right eye?” Twilight seemed to lean back away from me with this one. I did actually remember getting this scar from whatever service I performed. Can’t remember the details like how or where I got it, but I do remember spending weeks in the hospital to recover.

“That’s normal. Should’ve lost my eye in that one but the blade didn’t cut deep enough to permanently damage my sight.” I nodded back and let Twilight return to her examinations. “I’d ask about the eye colour but it’s probably white, yes?”

“Yeah, typical of somepony who’s blind. Let’s see… Straightforward jaw, short neck by our standards… I notice how there aren’t any scars on your neck from the times we’ve cut off your head.” Twilight noted as I could feel her breath near the skin of my neck. Was warm and I could smell a hint of whatever she ate earlier in the day. Couldn’t identify it but it certainly wasn’t anything I have ever eaten.

“You say that so casually… ‘Yeah, we’ve cut off your head a few times, we’ve dismembered and exploded you a few times… No big.’” I mimicked in the best Twilight voice I could come up with, earning a swift punch to the gut for the trick.

“Well, I have been more exposed to biology than most other ponies. I suppose I have also gotten slightly used to the sight of gore because of your various deaths…” Twilight admitted as she went back to examining me. “So, what about your voice? Anything different about that?”

“Tenor and sexy as fuck? Nah, that’s all natural.” I grinned back with my best deep and sensual voice I could come up with. It failed, apparently.

“Okay, ignoring the ‘come-on’ in that… Uhm… you’re pretty bulky in terms of body size, I suppose that would be because of your training?” I nodded back to the question. “Okay, sickly white skin colour?”

“Not normal, but probably results from the first death…” I remarked and flopped back onto my bed while I tried to pull up relevant information on said first death.

“What do you remember about that?” Twilight asked as she hauled herself up onto the bed and sat down to my left.

“A sharp whistle… then an intense burst of sound...” I began, trying to piece everything back together. Funny, I could apparently piece myself back together faster than I could remember a memory. “A wave of scorching heat… White flames on my body… I felt sick all over…”

“Sounds like some kind of strange explosion… Don’t know about the whistling or the sickness, but the rest of it sounds like some kind of powerful explosion went off near you.” Twilight reported in attempts to help me piece everything back together again. It actually did help somewhat, as I could make out the feelings of that white flame on my body, the intense heat and the sickness I felt immediately after…

“If the explosion was somehow not just an explosion of fire, like if it was nuclear, then the radiation could’ve mutated me and changed my skin colour.” I suggested but from the silence I got from Twilight, I figured I somehow confused her about something. “What?”

“What’s ‘nuclear’?” Twilight inquired, sounding more than interested to learn about something new.

“I don’t know specifics, but all I know is that a nuclear bomb takes a payload of a split atom and detonates it. Or something like that. The resulting explosion is often enough to destroy a good portion of an entire country and creates nuclear radiation, something that is extremely toxic and causes cellular mutation and then, in larger quantities, death.” I explained to the best of my ability. I felt like I had fudged something up in that explanation, but I wasn’t quite sure where or what it was.

“Hold on, your species figured out how to split an atom? How’d you do that?” Twilight sounded dumbfounded. I shrugged and she groaned in irritation. “Well then, what do you know?”

“I know guns, I know martial arts, I have a pretty good idea of how jet engines work…” I replied right off the bat, somehow surprised I could form such a list so quickly. No idea where all that came from…

“What are jet engines?” Twilight inquired as it felt like she settled in for the learning.

“I’ll explain it if you keep packing.” I offered in turn. Twilight ‘ohh’d’ at the reminder of her prior task and hopped down from the bed to continue searching to get us on our way. “So, all I know is the Ramjet engine. The jet engine is used to propel an aircraft fast enough to achieve lift and fly.” I began, habitually taking to speaking with my hands as well. “The engine takes in air from the intake, usually at the front of the engine, and compresses it in a combustion chamber. Adding in a mixture of jet fuel and combining, the result is then introduced to a spark generator and ignited. The resulting explosion is controlled and funnelled out the back of the engine, which creates thrusting force all while driving a turbine to spin the air compressor.” I explained, all while drawing out a miniature, invisible picture of the engine in the air, figuring that Twilight was watching. Silently. Intently.

Why was there no sound in the room?

“How are you doing that?” Twilight whispered from directly in front of me, startling me and making me jump. Doing so set off a miniature explosion in the room, startling me yet again as my second jump was further propelled by the force of the explosion as I was sent face first and upside down into a wall.

Recovering with groans of pain from the both of us, I found myself sliding down the wall quite comically and totally defying the laws of physics till my head hit the floor and snapped my spine.

“Mother fucker!” I screamed out as my entire body first flashed in a new pain, then quickly went numb. Twilight, on the other hand, seemed to have had a better time as she audibly collected herself just as the doors burst open and the sound of a small stampede alerted me to newcomers.

“Are you alright? We heard an explosion!” a male guard demanded before the sound of hooves stopped around me, probably circling me to try and detain me.

“Ow, what hit me?” I muttered back as my body remained limp despite that I tried to fix myself. I could feel that my body wasn’t right. My chin was pressed against my back and I couldn’t feel my neck.

“Magic, I think.” Twilight reported, sounding like she was getting closer on unstable hooves. “It looked like you were drawing in the air with magic!”

“That I can tell you right, fucking now is impossible. Humans don’t have magic.” I pointed out as best as I could. “Now, would you please fix me?”

“Yeah sure, just a minute.” Twilight groaned as she rolled her joints, creating that unmistakable cracking sound that I often longed for, especially now. Twilight approached and squeezed through the guards with an ‘excuse me’ before flipping my body around to my back. Which meant my face was buried into the stone floor. “This is going to hurt.”

“Wouldn’t expect anything less.” I sighed back and took in as great a breath as I could with my throat essentially destroyed. I felt the semi-familiar tingle of magic on my head as it was yanked on with force, giving a solid and bone chilling crunch as my neck reappeared. With a second movement, Twilight stepped up onto my chest and gave a solid counter twist, creating that second crunch that just fucking hurt.

“I do not envy that guy in the slightest. I think I’d prefer to just die.” one of the guards remarked as I remained where I laid and let my spine reconnect. No idea how long it usually took for my body to actually regenerate after a death, so this was a new experience.

“So, you claim not to have used magic, yet we exploded.” Twilight recovered and curled up on my chest to watch my blank stare. “You also cannot be killed, I don’t suppose that’s typical for your race either.”

“No, no it is not.” I agreed with a heavy sigh, heavy because of the added weight. “And I’d love to go into more detail about that explosion, but i’ve got nothing till I can see again.”

“And since you don’t show any sign of regaining your eyesight…” the pony on my chest sighed in defeat as I felt the guards all vacate the room in silence. “Right then, once you’re able to move again we’ll be on our way. I still want to know about how you managed to perform that magic.”

“You know, I’m just going to take your word on this regarding the magic. I don’t believe you for a second but i’ve got nothing else going for me at the moment.” I found myself wishing that this paralysis would hurry the fuck up and fuck off… the floor was cold. “So, what did it look like?”

“What did what look like?” Twilight asked in a low octave of voice, her voice causing rumbled in her body which echoed into my own.

“The magic. I can safely say I’ve never seen any magic performed so I have no idea what it looked like.” I replied when a thought occurred to me. I can feel her speaking in my chest. I can feel. Testing, I worked on bringing my arms up and grinned when they obeyed. Testing my feet, I found that only my upper body had been restored so dropped back my arms again to continue resting.

“It looked like very old seal magic. Couldn’t really read any of the Arcanese but it looked unstable.” Twilight explained for me, but noticed the look of confusion on my face. “What?”

“What’s Seal magic?”

Accompanied by a groan of frustration, “Okay, Seal magic is a physical form of magic. It’s made up of different parts called Bindings, Keystones and Modifiers. The spell starts with a simple layer of basic functions, constructed from Keystones and modifiers, all held together with Bindings. For example, the telekinesis spell I use, that every unicorn can use, would be a simple Seal spell. Take the Arcanese Keystone for Force, then add on modifiers for Ascend, Descend, Forward, Backward and so on, then bind them all together with the generic Bindings, and you can lift anything to however strong you are.”

“I didn’t understand any of that.” I admitted low and slow as I tried to imagine what the Spell Seal would look like in my mind’s eye.

“Okay look,” Twilight sounded frustrated now and began poking me in the chest with a hoof. “Let’s use your jet engine explanation. You probably used the basic Keystones for Compress, Fuel, and Ignite. Then you would have added on modifiers for Repeat Indefinitely, Direction and bound them in whatever Binding spell would be required. Unfortunately, the spell probably destabilized and exploded because you didn’t bind them.” Twilight replied, drawing circles and shapes on my dress shirt. I took the vague images she drew and translated them into rough images in my mind, forming a general idea of what the spell looked like.

“So, if I was to use magic, I’d have to do it through this old method of Seal Magic?”

“Yes. And since Seal magic is extremely outdated, no one could teach you how to wield it.” Twilight concluded with what sounded like a smile on her voice. “Personally, it’s extremely exciting to find somepony who can use the old methods!”

“But I can’t use them, because I have no idea what I’m doing and can’t see what I'm doing it with.” I reminded the little pony with a finger up and tried to move my feet. Success!

Sitting up suddenly, placing a hand on Twilight’s back to keep from knocking her over entirely, Twilight let out a mild yelp of shock before recovering and hauling me to my feet. “Shall we get a move on?” I inquired, dusting my backside off before twisting my body to work the kinks out of my spine.

“Let’s get going!” Twilight announced and dragged me out of the room by the hand.

Four trains and an hour later. Wait…

“So.. are you going to fill me in on what the location looks like?” I half asked, half demanded. Four hours on a train had bored me almost to death, I could actually feel the weight of death bearing down on me again, just like when I was decapitated. Or exploded into a wall. Or thrown into a wall and exploded.

“What, the town or my home?” Twilight asked from my left. Even if I couldn’t see, I ‘looked’ around just out of habit and for something to do to keep my neck from stiffening up.

“Yes?” I replied sarcastically while Twilight kept my hand tingling with magic.

“Okay, well Ponyville is pretty… uhm… rustic, compared to Canterlot. Where Canterlot is all stone masonry and pavement and what not, Ponyville is more... dirt and thatch.” Twilight sighed as she fought for words. Never before had she had to describe an image like what her town looked like to someone and it showed when she spoke.

“Sounds… charming…” I groaned in disappointed disdain for the mental picture I had. Of course, my mental picture was all mud huts with thatch roofing and tribalistic residents with tribal tattoos on their bodies. Then something sparked my blind eyes.

A single point of light in the far distance and above me.

“Is that Rainbow Dash ahead and above us?” I asked, pointing in the general direction I thought was where the light was.

“Where?” Twilight inquired, trying to follow my pointing finger. “I don’t see her.”

“Well, she’s barrelling down on us pretty damn quickly.” I replied as I watched the prick of light draw nearer and nearer with incredible speed.

“Watch out!” Dash screamed just as the light struck into my chest at break neck speed. I was launched backwards and ragdolled a good couple feet while the light was thrown away from me before I eventually came to a landing. The next thing I knew, that familiar sense of death loomed over me.

Death is unbecoming of you. Get up. Try again.

Rousing myself from… death… I let out a groan more of frustration than of pain and rubbed at my blind eyes with my hand.

“Exactly fifteen minutes, just like I told you.” Twilight commented from overhead of me. “See? I told you he’d revive.”

“You’re taking bets now?” I groaned back and rolled onto my arms and knees before being helped up by Twilight and another who, after noticing the light, told me was Rainbow Dash.

“Of course not, I’d win every time and then no one would bet against me.” Twilight huffed back once I was to my feet. “Dash wasn’t convinced you would come back even after I proved you were dead.”

“And how did you manage to prove that?” I winced as a sharp shooting pain alerted me to something sticking out of my chest. Feeling the wound, I found what appeared to be a very... large… knife… “You fucking stabbed me?” I demanded and wheeled on where I thought Twilight was to try and smack at her. I missed and fumbled to the ground again.

“What? It’s not like it actually did anything, right?” Twilight just sounded like she rolled her eyes at me… did she just roll her eyes at me?

“No, but it fucking bloody hurts!” I shouted back and yanked the blade from my heart, literally, and gave it a toss away from me. “You may not care, but every time I die, I do actually feel the pain!”

“Did you just accuse me of having no regard for life?” Twilight reared around on me, or I think she did -it’s so hard to tell being blind, and planted her hooves on my waist to try and get closer to my face to look angry. An action that was completely fruitless.

“No, I’m accusing you of having no regard for my life.” I replied, twisting my body to throw Twilight back down again. “Seriously, if this is what I get to look forward to when living with you, I'm gonna be moving out pretty damn quickly.”

“It’s like watching an old married couple.” Dash mumbled to herself nearby to my right. The light in her, I still wish I knew why I could see a light in her, allowing me to pinpoint her exact location.

“Just give him a second, he won’t remember this when his brain resets.” Twilight sounded like she was grinning. “His memory loses fifteen minutes of events after death. Usually it encompasses the before and after…”

“Twilight, you remember how you timed my death?” I asked as carefully as I could while gritting my teeth. If I could see her, I’d give her a solid kick to the face.

“Yeah, and?” Twilight’s voice suggested a “What’s you point” kind of tone before she gasped, groaned and the sound of a pony walking off told me she’d left.

“There it is.” I smirked and turned to Dash’s light. “Dead for exactly fifteen minutes, right?”

“Yeah… Oh, you already went through the reset thingy?” Dash concluded and stepped next to me to take my hand in what I could only assume was some kind of feathery…. Thing. I had no idea what she took my hand with but regardless, she hopefully began leading me off in the general direction of wherever Twilight had gone.

“Which means I’ll remember everything she just said, yes.” I finally concluded before a thought struck my mind: something was missing! “Where is it?” I whispered, patting myself down as quickly as I could to try and find the item. “Where is she?” I whispered against, checking all my pockets but found myself lacking. “Where is she!”

“Where’s who?” Dash rounded in front of me with a voice of confusion, halting our progress.

“Can you see her? Where’s the little figurine of Dash?” I demanded, throwing my head in all directions as if I could actually see what I was looking for. Pointless, but at least it gave me some inkling of hope that it may have had some kind of indicator like Dash.

“Why do you even want something like that? I don’t even know where you would’ve gotten it.” Dash groaned in annoyance and started to walk off again while I continued the search.

“Please! It’s important to me!” I called back, dropping to my knees to try and feel across the ground towards the approximate area where we had just been and I was killed. “I have to find it!”

“Ugh, here!” Dash called back, turning my head over my left shoulder as she diverted her trip towards her right and stopped. “It’s right here!” her light began to move closer to me as I sat back on my knees, ignoring the gravel digging into my skin rather irritably. “I don’t get why this little thing is so important, but here.” she sighed and thrust the item into my waiting open hands before the light began moving away again.

“Thank you…” I croaked out and switched over to my backside with knees up clutching the small item. I still couldn’t remember why this little thing was so important to me but it didn’t matter, I felt significantly better with it in my possession. “I’m so sorry guys… I didn’t want to do it…” Where did that come from?

“Do what?” Dash asked with what sounded like not a care in the world, as though she was dealing with a depressed, rambling blind man of a whole new race from her. Oh wait.

Rather than give her a proper response, I simply kept muttering what felt like the right words despite not knowing where they came from. I could barely understand what I was saying, but all I know is I caught wind of the words Jeramy, Orders, and Gunshot. Yeah, that can’t have been good.

“Who’s Jeramy?” Dash inquired, alerting me to her remarkably close proximity to me. She heard that over everything else?

“I think… a friend…” I mumbled back and sucked back whatever was threatening to leak out of me before working myself to my feet with the figurine in hand.

“What happened to him?” Dash’s voice had softened at this revelation of information as she allowed herself to be my eyes and helped to lead me towards wherever it was we were going.

“Probably dead by gunshot. Someone, probably me, was ordered to shoot him down in whatever war I was a part of.” I sucked in a lungful of breath and pushed my hand clutching the figurine into my pocket for relative safe keeping.

“You were ordered to kill your own friend?” Dash’s walking sounds stopped as her voice dropped away behind me. “Why?”

“Don’t know details, but it was probably because he was on the enemy side.” I explained as best I could without actually being able to relive or recall the memories. “But, not to worry, it’s okay! I’m fine!” I forced a laugh out, though it sounded less of an attempt to calm my mind and more of a desperate cry for help. “Besides,” I found my voice higher than usual. “In all likelihoods, everyone I knew or loved is probably dead by now!”

“Well, aren’t you just a bundle of joy?” Dash groaned to herself before she dropped back long enough to stop the sounds of walking altogether. Suddenly, before I could ask, a weight was presented to my shoulders as something draped itself on my back and hung off me like a small child. “Look, I’m sorry for my behaviour. I can’t possibly imagine what you would have had gone through in your world. This talk of war, this talk of five deaths,”

“Six.” I corrected with a sorrowful sigh.

“Six deaths, it’s all so difficult to talk about because I have nothing I can relate to! Plus, you’re carrying around that little statue of me and I don’t know why and I can’t ask you, because you don’t remember why other than it was important to you.” Rainbow took off again, now resorting to rambling over my shoulder. I cautiously reached back and placed my hands under her butt, swinging her rear legs around my torso in order to properly carry her, despite the slight jump she gave when I did.

“It’s alright, I suppose I have been a bit of an asshole since getting here…” My voice came out in a sort of grumbling as the physical contact between Dash and I began to warm me from within and soften the cold heart within. “Six deaths, a whole new… world, I suppose… I don’t know my name, I don’t know my past… I’m blind…”

“It’s overbearing, huh?” Dash concluded for me and rested her head on my shoulder before giving me a bit of direction change by tugging on my shoulders. “I wanna apologize for calling you creepy for having that statue. It obviously means a lot to you so it’s not in my place to judge over what brings you comfort.”

“Damn, look at us getting all sappy now.” I chuckled with the thought, earning a smack to the back of the head from the pony warming my back. “But thanks, sorry I was so upfront and direct the first time…”

“Yeah, I was wondering about that actually, you said I had some kind of light?” Dash pulled her head from my shoulder to push it over and look at my face. “What was that about?”

“Everything around me is black. It’s like being locked in a dark room with no doors, windows or sources of light. There is something about you, and only you, that emits some kind of light-source. It’s just a little pinprick of light, but it tells me exactly where you are as long as you’re within view. I was able to pinpoint your exact location when you were about to crash into me before Twilight could even see you.” I explained and gave Rainbow a slight jostle on my back to get myself more comfortable and get her back in place over my shoulders.

“So… i’ve got some kind of beacon?” Rainbow asked in attempts to reach a suitable conclusion. “Can’t imagine why, I don’t have anything on me that could do anything like that.”

“Regardless, it’s a very pretty light. Light blue, like a little flame.” I mumbled back with the thought. Look at me, the hardened soldier is getting sappy again.

“So,” Dash’s voice suggested a mischievous grin. “Would you say that I… light up your world?” she chuckled and gave me a slight smack on the back of my head with a hoof. Once I nodded, “I know, I'm pretty awesome. I make everyone’s day better.”

“And not at all conceited in the slightest.” I added, earning me a third smack and a cheerful ‘Hey!’.

“Well, it seems our time is at an end.” Dash announced through a breath. “We’re at Twi’s.”

“Well, why don’t we hang out again later? You’ll have to lead me around and introduce me to people. I’d suggest you show me the sights…” I suggested and let Dash backflip off my back and land on her hooves.

“Right, maybe we should. How about… tomorrow after I’m off work?” Dash suggested with a knock against my leg with the hoof.

“Sure, see you later.” I nodded back and stepped up to where I hoped a door was. I was closer than I thought and ended up running into the door which I suppose acted like a knock. Dash ran off laughing to herself while the sound of something inside the building told me someone was coming to greet me.

“Well, it took you long enough to get here.” Twilight announced once she pulled the door open and helped me to my feet. “Come on, let’s get you settled. Oh, someone wants to meet you.”

Fitness

After meeting Spike the baby dragon, something I had to check for myself by placing my hands on his head and immediately feeling the rough texture of scales, and mapping out Twilight’s house, which was remarkably rounded, with only minimal injuries from tripping over the stairs up to the second room, I finally settled myself down on one of Twilight’s couches in her living room to let the soreness drink itself into my body.

“So, if it’s not unfair for me to ask, what do you look like?” I wondered aloud as the sound of four footsteps told me Twilight had approached and jumped up onto the couch next to me to settle in and do some light reading.

“Me?” Twilight was probably gawking at the sudden question. “Well, I don’t really know where to begin.” she added, giving me reason to sigh. “My mane is perfectly trimmed to remain out of my eyes, dark purple in base but with a pink and magenta streak through it. The same is said for my tail.” She apparently did know where to begin. “I have purple eyes and my horn juts out through my mane. My fur is a much lighter purple than my mane and tail and is kept clean at all times.” she added before stepping onto my lap and sitting to face me. “Here,” she finished, magically lifting my hands to her face to let me feel her face and head.

Slowly roaming her head, my hands slid along her muzzle, cheeks and up over her eyes to under her mane to her horn. Twilight gasped when I touched the horn which had me flinch away again and continued on over the crown of her head and to the softness of her ears.

Tracing out her head in my mind lead to tracing out her neck and further down, reaching her shoulders and to her forelegs. Her neck was about as wide around as a mini watermelon, give or take, and her shoulders rolled under my touch as she lifted her forelegs to let me feel them.

Taking one leg in both hands to create a feel for how big around they were, I had to estimate they were a fair couple inches around similar to my wrists; just large enough that I could barely touch my middle finger to my thumb. As my hands went down the leg, the width continued to get smaller till it ended at the hoof wall.

Taking the hoof in my control, I ran the palm of my hand over the wall of her hoof and noted how smooth it was and that it didn’t seem to have a spec of dirt on them. Running my thumb along the underside of her hoof, I seemed to have gently tickled a bit of flesh in the middle of the hoof, making Twilight slightly jerk away at the touch.

“Easy there, that’s sensitive material.” Twilight warned as I dropped her hoof to return to her sides.

Lifting her up under her forelegs, I pulled her in for an embrace to get an idea of how wide around her barrel was. I could touch both my elbows with my hands with plenty of room to spare. Letting her go again, I gradually ran my hand continually backwards till Twilight told me to stop; just at her flanks.

“Are you good?” Twilight hopped down from my lap to return to my left where she curled up with her book.

“Yes, thanks. I notice you seem to have a bit of a pudge going on near your stomach.” I replied and the comment earned me a smack on the leg.

“I do not!” Twilight defied angrily before turning her snout away with a huff.

“Your soft and squishy to the touch. Not fat squishy, but more like… untoned muscles. I don’t suppose you do any kind of rigorous exercise routines, do you?”

“Nothing more than occasionally running around or walking, no. Most of the time I prefer to lie down with a good book.” Twilight reported back, no longer sounding angry with my judgements.

“And it shows. It may be healthy for you to get some proper exercise in every now and then.” I suggested with a yawn and after ensuring that I wouldn’t clock myself on the couch by falling sideways, allowed myself to fall to my right and curl up on the couch. “I know for a fact that I’ll be getting an early morning workout in tomorrow…” I added in a grumbling tone of voice. The laying down and tired nature of me was soon cut short with the grumbling of my stomach, making me sigh at the notion of having to get up and find sustenance.

“I suppose neither of us has actually eaten anything today, have we?” Twilight remarked to herself and from the noises of doing so I figured she’d climbed down from the couch to make her way to the kitchen. “Can I get you something as well?”

“How well stocked is your fridge?” I called back and allowed myself to feel lazy while Twilight did the work. I was tired and sore from my deaths today so I was more than content just laying where I was, head resting on my arm.

“I’ve got a lot of vegetables,” the pony called back as she pulled her refrigeration device open to take a look. “Don’t know what suitable protein you’ll eat though…”

“Beans, eggs, nuts, cottage cheese,” I listed off without thinking. At least I had all that information left over from the first death.

“Don’t know what cottage cheese is, sorry.” Twilight remarked and began pulling things from the fridge to set up and start putting something together.

“Don’t worry, hated cottage cheese anyways!” I grinned to myself and drew in a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, then let it and most of my worries out in one fluid movement. “Could probably build some kind of salad with beans and nuts and other vegetables though.” I offered up in suggestion while getting myself comfortable, knowing I would have to get myself back up again in order to eat.

“What kinds of vegetables do you like in a salad?” Twilight called back, her voice aimed directly towards me rather than bouncing off walls to me.

“Iceberg and/or romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes, cucumber slices, shredded cheese, throw red beans in there I guess… Bell peppers except for the green ones…” I thought first to myself, then once more out loud for the chef to hear. I could hear the clicking of Spike’s claws as he went about his own business around the place, working on other things that an assistant would do; whatever that was wasn’t my problem. “Depending on the salad, you could also throw in peeled oranges into the mix…”

“Oranges, really?”

“Yeah, goes really well with grilled chicken strips.” I remarked before realizing I'd never actually get to eat something like that without having to source the chicken from out of country. “Which I realize is off the list of options.” I sighed and rolled onto my back. I suppose one benefit of being blind was that I could literally sleep anywhere that was comfortable, no matter what time it was.

“Yeah, sorry. I’d suggest that if you were able to do so to buy your own chickens and… prepare them how you like yourself…” Twilight remarked casually, up until her voice changed to one of disgust. “Or you could meet Fluttershy and have her prepare some fish for you. I know that's what she gives her carnivorous animals.”

“Fish is an option?” I asked back for clarification. Twilight ‘mmhmm’d’ in return as my innate soldier mentality kicked in and made me bored enough to get up and try to navigate myself into the kitchen. “Note to self then.”

“What’re you doing in here? I don’t need a bumbling blind human destroying my kitchen or getting blood on everything when he cuts off a hoof.” Twilight demanded as I approached where I remember feeling the counter was. Exploring the work top, I found the knife block I was looking for as well as a couple vegetables that felt distinctly like bell peppers.

“I’m blind, not an invalid. You may not realize this, but there is a difference. Blind people can live and operate on their own if they learn some tricks.” I explained and set the edge of the blade safely against my finger to guide my hand in cutting the stem out of the pepper and begin chopping it into strips.

“And I suppose you know these tricks?” Twilight guessed as she watched me slowly cut the pepper. “Apparently so…”

“When I was younger, I taught myself how to operate in the dark so I could go about my day if the power went out at night.” I explained and slid the cut pieces aside to retrieve the next pepper to keep working. “Seems it’s stuck with me.”

“Probably best you did learn such a skill at the time.” Twilight sounded like she was smirking. I think she was smirking. “Okay, I think that’ll be enough peppers, I don’t typically add these to salads anyways.” she requested once I reached for a third but was held short by a tingling. I retrieved my hand and instead snatched up a couple of the pepper slices and dropped them into my mouth, though one was left hanging out from my lips like a straw in a farmer’s mouth.

After a bit of nonsensical twirling of the strip in my lips and a slight giggling from Twilight, she lead me to the table with the bowl of salad in her magic. That, or she left it behind like an idiot. “Come on, let’s eat.”

The Next Morning

Shoulder rolling off the couch I slept on netted me the unpleasant welcoming of a morning faceful of floor and as such, jolted me awake rather suddenly.

Seeing as I wouldn’t be sleeping on the floor and it would take to much effort to try and fall back asleep on the couch, I just prayed that it was actually a decent time of the morning to get up and get started on that morning workout.

Navigating myself to the bathroom by finding the nearest wall and tracing it past the stairs up to Twilight’s room, I got myself cleaned up and mostly fresh in a few minutes. Stepping back out into the main room, I eventually found myself at what I hoped was the door out of the place and stepped through to an early morning air.

“Well,” I gasped to myself as the biting air nipped at my skin. “That’s fresh…” Pulling the door shut behind me as quietly as I could, I stepped out from the home a few feet before taking to a quick jog in place. I’d love to have warmed up with a proper run around town, but since I couldn’t see anything this would have to do.

Switching from jogging in place to mountain climbers to really get warm, I transitioned into a set of pushups and counted in my mind. Once I’d hit two hundred, I pulled my legs in as tight as I could to roll onto my back and work towards the same number of various styles of sit-ups.

Bringing my rear over my head to roll onto my feet in a low crouch, I could distinctly hear the sound of movement near to me but figured that it was just locals going about their day. Beginning a cycle of crunches, 500 in total at different heights each, I could clearly feel the pleasant burning in my legs and figured that my arms had had enough of a rest to start the push-ups all over again.

Crouching down low enough to plant my elbows into the crook of my knees, I let myself tilt forward onto my hands and balanced myself out slowly to keep from tipping over. Once balanced, I stretched myself out flat and began a shorter cycle of pushups carrying my entire bodyweight.

Fifteen minutes of working out in various forms, I ended in a sturdy Karate horse stance, arms at my side and fists at the ready. A good cool down for me was always running through various levels of kata before moving into a bit of Muay Thai shadow boxing. Standing up straight, I took to my personal favourite Kata, Enpi and began the routine.

Half way through, the sound of the door opening alerted me to someone from within approaching me, though they remained silent.

“What are you doing?” Twilight asked from in front of me and to my right.

“Karate Kata called Enpi for cooling myself down after a workout. It’s not about fighting or combo moves you can use to defeat someone, it’s about the perfection of the style and positions.” I explained as I continued without falter.

“Not you, I was asking Rainbow Dash.” Twilight replied. The comment did falter me and I froze in place to look over my shoulder to find the little blue light associated to Dash floating nearby and behind me, otherwise almost out of ‘sight’. “What’re you doing?”

“Well…” Dash’s voice sounded uneasy, as though she’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. “I was in the middle of a morning exercise with the human before you showed up.”

“This is news to me.” I announced and faced forwards again to resume my kata in otherwise silence. “You could have said something.”

“Yeah, but I figured you were busy with whatever you were doing. You looked so unbelievably focused that I didn’t want to disturb you. The crowd seems to be thinking the same thing.” Dash explained as her little flame drew closer to where I was, now in plain view for me.

Dropping the kata entirely, despite that I was right near to the end in the first place, I whirled around on the flame that was Dash for point of reference. “I have a crowd?”

My answer came in the sound of numerous confirmations of varying degrees from around me almost all at once. I let out a sigh of exasperation and dropped the firm posture of a soldier as I thought of what I could do next.

“I can’t really have been that interesting to watch. Besides,” I turned fully towards Dash. “I thought we were only meeting after you got off work.”

“We are, yes, but it still early in the morning that I have some time to kill before I actually have to go to work in the first place. I saw you here from overhead doing your workout, and after watching you for a while, I thought I’d join you.” Rainbow Dash admitted, her voice getting smaller as her words grew longer. “I didn’t say anything or announce my presence because I didn’t want to disrupt you.”

“Right…” I drew out with a long breath while in thought. “Then,” as a thought occurred to me, “Why don’t you join me for a run? I need a pair of eyes to keep me from running into anything and you’re apparently free…”

“You know, I’ve been thinking about your blindness actually.” Twilight spoke up over the sound of the gathered crowd dispersing.

“And? Have you some way of fixing it?” I inquired with a blank hopeful gaze and a raised eyebrow.

“No,” Twilight admitted, leaving me to groan back in despair. “But I have been thinking about this thing about a little flame showing you where Rainbow Dash is.”

“What about it?”

“Well, it’s been bothering me that you’ve only been able to see such a light over Rainbow Dash. I figured that it may actually be something similar to a… certain… biological system we ponies have…” Twilight began, sounding more and more distressed as she went on. Whatever this biological system was, she apparently wasn’t comfortable speaking about it.

“Go on,” I requested with a wave of the hand before crossing my arms over my chest.

“Well, when two ponies develop feelings for each other, they begin to… sort of… mix their souls together… It’s a magical defence thing that helps to show other ponies that those two are interested in each other, or are in a relationship. Problem is…” Twilight’s voice drifted away on the morning air.

“Marking should only occur between two ponies who’re attracted to each other. It doesn’t happen one-sided.” Rainbow concluded for the unicorn. “And since I have no attraction towards you, this shouldn’t even be a suggestion.” she added, aiming the comment at me.

“Exactly, and this is what bothers me.” Twilight spoke up again, sounding filled with enthusiasm. “Because as far as we know, Rainbow doesn’t see a similar light around or in the human, correct?”

“Nope.” Rainbow announced firmly and from the sounds of it, likely sat herself down to look defiant.

“Okay, so this is where my hypothesis comes in. The human seems to have a deeply rooted connection to that little statue of you,” Twilight began as her magic pulled me down to her level before I felt the figurine in my pocket move and be removed from my possession. “It is entirely possible that whatever reason he has for keeping that statue, is because of the sentimental value he’s placed over it.”

“Your point being?” I requested while reaching out into the air to try and retrieve the small item. The statuette returned to my outstretched hand and the tingle of magic closed my hand around it for me.

“My point being, what if I could replicate that effect for other ponies? I could theoretically make it so that you see a small light for everypony, allow you to ‘see’ everyone in some way?” the magician suggested with what sounded like a smile on her voice.

“Could you actually do that? Wouldn’t that take the manipulation of his connection with the figurine and disperse it among the populace?” Rainbow chimed in from my right.

“Technically yes; he’d very likely begin to feel similar, deep rooted connections to the entire town but you’d be able to see. It would take me a while to actually work out how to do it as a spell, but it should be possible. If you want me too, that is…” Twilight concluded as she turned the words on me.

“Vision at the cost of destroying the sentimental value of this figurine, or darkness for the sake of keeping something special…” I muttered to myself in my thinkings about my options. In all honesty, and I’ll never admit this to anyone, but I was leaning more towards remaining blind simply because I didn’t want to give up whatever connection I had to whoever gave me the statue.

“Look, just think about it for a while, come back to me when you have an answer.” Twilight suggested helpfully, placing a hoof on my shoulder for support. “There’s no need to rush. Besides, I still have to figure out if it’s actually possible to do all that.”

“I’ll be sure to do that, then.” I mumbled back then released a heavy breath before yawning.

“So, what are you going to do today? I’d suggest finding work, but I don’t know what kind of work we’d have in town for someone who’s blind.” Twilight wondered in complete disregard for the last topic of conversation. I suppose in all fairness we may have reached the end of such conversation, but Twilight drew up an excellent point: what would I do with myself until Rainbow Dash came to get me from work?

“I honestly don't know. Even if I was blind, I don’t think my usual activities would be viable given that I don’t think your world has firearms for me to practice on.” I slumped forward and crossed my legs where I sat, trying to think of something to do. “I suppose that this world has other blind people, how do they read?”

“We do have places to go that blind ponies can go to to be read too. There are also spells that unicorns can use to have a book read to them at home.” Twilight replied after a moment of thought. “I suppose another option would be playing music if you have the skill.”

“I don’t think I was very good where I came from, but I think I remember playing the guitar a bit…” I offered back in suggestion, looking up in the vague direction of where Twilight’s voice came from.

“Then try this!” Twilight announced and with a pop in the air, something landed in my lap which startled me a bit.

Feeling it out had me identify the item as a guitar of sorts, it certainly sounded like one when I ran my fingers over the strings, but had a slightly different sound than normal. Adjusting myself to get more comfortable, I picked up the guitar and flipped it over to suit my right-handedness and gave a couple random plucks of the… five… strings.

“Well, what’re you waiting for? Play us something!” a random female voice requested from before me. Apparently not all the crowd had gone.

“Give me a second while I figure out what I'm doing…” I requested in return and let my fingers and ears do the work. The random pluckings and scales gradually shifted into an acoustic rendition of Hallelujah with the remaining crowd offering up their hooves as drum machines to provide the beat.

The words came as easily as cutting my head off apparently did, which here means that I fumbled past most of the words save for the verses I could adequately remember. I could still get the chorus, but how hard is that to forget when it’s just the word Hallelujah repeated? Hell, it was so easy that I even had a herd of ponies acting as a chorus for the later repeats of the chorus. All in all, it sounded pretty amazing, even if I couldn't remember most of the words and just mumbled through it.

Still, it seemed to have entranced everything around me well enough that as my fingers ceased strumming, everyone’s voices fell away from melody in a gradual radiance.

“Despite there being not many words, that was beautiful.” Twilight announced, breaking the silence just before the crowd around us erupted into some kind of applause which took the form of whistling, cheering, and stomping on the ground.

“Couldn’t remember most of the words.” I explained and rested over the guitar in my lap, turning my head to where I heard Twilight’s voice while the applause died off and encore requests were made.

“So, think you’ll continue playing all day?” Twilight inquired, trying to be helpful.

“Probably not all day… I’m liable to get bored sooner than later and end up with nothing more to do…” I shrugged back and reset my position on the guitar, trying to see what else could come up and be played. Instead of playing anything particularly recognizable, I merely took to threading notes together in some semblance of quality of sound beyond just a mess of notes.

“Well, not that this hasn’t been fun, but I really need to get to work now.” Rainbow announced, her voice rising above my head in suggestion of flight. “I’ll come get you later, okay bud?”

“Sure, I’ll probably be around here when you do.” I nodded back and abruptly halted the finger movements to set the guitar aside and stand myself up. While the sound of wings and hooves told me everyone was leaving, I reached out towards Twilight in a silent request that she lead me back inside so I could attempt to try and piece together some other music I could play. With one hand tingling and the other grasping at the neck of the guitar, Twilight and I returned to the warmth of her home’s interior.

Author's Note

My internet is going in and out almost every couple minutes... If this posts, then fuck yes! That being said, I'll keep trying to post more chapters as I'm able to (thank god I've got these stories on offline mode, amirite?)

Also, if I haven't already made this clear, Soren's not meant to remain blind for much longer.

Bring Me Back To Life

Later in the Afternoon

I had spent the better portion of the day around Twilight and Spike, though I never directly got in their way as best I could. I had gotten accustomed to the guitar that Twilight had lent me and with Spike’s help, had managed to write out the entirety of Hallelujah for the sake of properly learning as a choir or something for future performances.

Having gotten bored of that activity, I began to regale both Twilight and Spike with stories of my own design; one being where there was a hub world that operated and played like a video game -I then went on to explain what video games were in my world and Spike instantly fell in love with the concept.

I still didn’t remember much else important from my past and as Twilight and I went on trying to restore my memory, the more I found it vanishing with the only comfort I truly had laid in the figurine of Rainbow Dash.

Speaking of Rainbow Dash, a knocking at the door alerted everyone within the building to the arrival of a newcomer.

“Hey, Twi. Hey, Spike.” Dash called as she let herself into the place. The door was still placed behind me so her voice had me twist around to greet her with a ‘look’. “Hey you.”

“Hi back. Done work?” I twisted back to normal as the sound of hooves told me she’d come around towards me.

“Nah, skipped work after cloud recycling duties were over- Of course I’m off work.” Rainbow snapped back but sighed immediately after. “Sorry, sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you. It was just…” she let out a groan of frustration. “It was hectic at work today, we’re preparing for the first big snowfall in a couple weeks time and we’re seriously behind schedule.”

“What exactly is it you do?” I narrowed an eye in curiosity at the light that was Rainbow’s flame. “Because I have no idea.”

“I work weather control. You want a warm sunny day, I’m your girl. Rain storms across the town, call me up!” Dash announced, sounding proud of herself. “On top of that, I’m aiming to join the Wonderbolts one day!”

“I have no idea what that is.” I replied, my voice dull and clueless as I was.

“Royal Air Force, sort of.” Twilight called back from the kitchen. She was apparently preparing something for Dash and I for our outing and I wasn’t allowed to know what it was until after she’d finished it. “They’re more of a show group than military installation.”

“So like the Blue Angels back on my world, got it.” my conclusion drew a sound of confusion from Rainbow, whatever that sounded like, so I added in more, “Celebrity Fighter Pilots who performs at stunt shows or air shows for thousands of people every year.”

“Oh, right, sure.” Dash didn’t sound like she understood anything I had just said, but passed it off regardless and hopped up onto my lap, her breath on my face suggesting she was staring me down. “So, what’re we gonna do together? Have a race? Work out? Oh! I know! There’s a-” Rainbow’s suggestion was cut off by Twilight who entered.

“How about you show him that little location by the lake nearby? The one with that single large tree you like to nap in? You could do some stunting for him, he’ll be able to watch the light in you.” she suggested as a relatively heavy object landed on the couch next to me. “And take that, I don’t need either of you coming back for a couple hours. I’ve got studying to do.”

“But… But Twilight! That’s not… that’s a…” Rainbow began to protest, however I cut both mares off by clamping my hand over Dash’s muzzle and stood up, picking the pony up, pegasus, like I would a small dog and carried her under my arm with the… basket? In my left hand.

“Come on, it’s apparent that Twilight Sparkle doesn’t want us here so there’s no point in sticking around. Besides, the location doesn’t really matter to me given that I can’t see anything.” I announced as I aimed us towards the door with a wriggling pony in my grasp.

“Hey! Let me go!” Dash demanded and squirmed free. The lack of landing had me conclude that she’d taken to her wings and was now flying alongside me. “Come on, it’s a ways away from here so don’t get lost.” she added in grumbling.

“You’re leading me, don’t let me get lost.” I retorted light-heartedly and shifted the basket from my left hand to my right as we stepped out into the mid-afternoon air.

~~~

A relatively short walk later and Dash notified me that we’d reached our location. Setting me down somewhere where there was shade, I set to the task of slowly digging through the basket to see what was inside and hoping for a blanket or something to lay down on.

“To the left,” Rainbow instructed from next to me, apparently watching what I was doing. “No, those’re the sandwiches. A little more left and down. You should feel it right there.”

“All I feel is the bottom of the basket, Rainbow.” I sighed back and continued rummaging. Of course, this was all in the idea that Twilight had packed us a blanket or equivalent in the first place.

“Yeah I know, I’m just messing with ya!” she burst into a short fit of laughter before collecting herself with heavy breaths. “Alright, I’m gonna go hit the water while you set up and get acquainted with that basket. Lake’s directly ahead of you if you follow the downward gradient of the hill we’re on.”

“Very well, don’t leave me to die out here. I’ll be more than a little put off if you do.” I requested as I began to just pull everything out of the woven container to get a feel for what it probably was.

“What, are you going to haunt me if I do?” Dash teased as her voice suggested she was getting further and further away.

“Better believe it. You can’t kill me, I’ll just keep coming back to terrorize you. And since I’ve seen things, I know I can make your life a living hell.” I warned in return, unintentionally making the warning more hostile than I’d intended to.

“Okay, geez, threat noted!” Rainbow’s voice suddenly took off to the air and disappeared altogether. Once I finally reached the bottom of the basket, I finally found what felt like cloth and worked at trying to spread it out over the ground once everything else was back in for safekeeping.

***

“Stupid Twilight, has to pack us a picnic and send us to the number one date spot in Ponyville…” Rainbow mumbled to herself as she glided on the warm air rising from the evaporating lake. “It’s not like I even like the guy, dude carries a statue of me in his pocket!” her continued grumbling was going to take a turn for silence as soon as she got high enough into the air to begin her suicide dive into the lake. She’d practised this particular move at least a dozen times already, in preparation for emergency landings into bodies of water. “I still don’t even know where he got that statue of me in the first place!”

Still, Rainbow Dash had to consider her earlier motivations for silently watching the human that morning and even going so far as to try and mimic some of his exercises. Apparently the soldiers on his world worked out just as hard, if not harder than the Royal Guard did here in Equestria and it showed in his physical capabilities.

Rainbow would never admit it to anyone if they asked, and certainly would never talk about this to anyone other than her pillow that night, but she had had trouble keeping up with the human when he was doing his push-ups only on his hands. Her limited range of motion from being a quadruped had stifled her ability to keep up during the squats and she’d already completed her morning wing-ups before meeting up with him.

Watching him had been a moment of endearment for her. She was completely aware that his working out, his glistening skin as he sweated and the overpowering pungency of his odour had actually managed to get her somewhat hot and bothered. That was the reason for her having such a hard day at work, not the coming snow storm. That was also the reason why, and thank Celestia that the human couldn’t actually see this, Rainbow had found herself blushing every time her eyes drifted south.

That being said, this coming drop into the cool waters of the lake would be a god-send to Rainbow; hoping it would act the same as a very cold shower.

That was the plan, anyways, if it wasn’t for the sudden crippling cramp that had Rainbow’s left wing freeze up and spasm.

“No, no no no no no!” Rainbow demanded as she began to drop altitude like a rock. “Come on, don’t give up on me now!” she pleaded as she fought to restore flight with her hooves by massaging as much of her wing as she could. Unfortunately, the cramp just had to have originated in the joint, right where it was impossible to reach without a second pair of hooves attached to another body.

Flaring out her good wing, Rainbow aimed herself towards the lake as best she could. She’d prepared for this, this whole dive was the culmination of months of emergency dive practices, so this would be easy. Right? Letting out a brief scream of effort laced with minute traces of terror, Rainbow’s ears caught the sound of a pair of miniature explosions from the shore where she’d left the human.

A body rammed itself into her though a pair of arms wrapped themselves protectively around her body and pulled her entire form into the chest of the arm’s owners, just as she was put on her back and skimmed across the lake a few feet before the combined weight of her and the human plunged them both into the cold waters, knocking the air from her lungs just in time for her lungs to welcome the cold embrace of watery death.

***

The scream was sudden and ear splitting. I had just a moment of time to look up and notice how quickly Dash’s light was falling, and judging from the scream, it wasn’t part of the stunt. Vaulting up from where I laid on the blanket, I don’t know what in hell possessed me to do so, but I thrusted my hands to my side like that of Ironman and let my will take over from there.

I took off like a rocket as my hands literally exploded off my arms, leaving them stumps which would be used to catch the light of Rainbow Dash just over what I hoped to god was actually the lake. See, thing is, I had absolutely no idea if she was going to crash into the water, or create a thunderous crater while the splatter of her body coated and fertilized the terrain. Therefor, I had only one option: to wrap her in my protective embrace as much as I could and allow myself to potentially suffer a seventh death if it meant saving her.

It seemed that we were over water as my head caught the surface of the cold fluids beneath us and flipped us over onto my back where we took to skidding over the surface for a couple feet before drag caught up with us and plunged us into the water. Keeping my hold on Rainbow’s body without hands was somewhat difficult, and I was sure that the both of us would end up covered in blood by the end of this, but as soon as we were no longer moving I took to paddling upwards towards what gravity told me was the surface as quickly as I could.

Breaching the surface with lungs burning, I hoisted Rainbow’s unconscious body high enough against my own that I could keep her head above water while being able to swim backwards with all the power that my soldier body could afford me.

Once my stump of an arm, correction, hand of that of a one year old, touched the sand of the beachhead, I stood myself up and carried Dash’s body further out of the water as the liquids drenching our respective coverings (be it fur or cloth) ran free to the point of dripping.

Laying Dash’s body down on soft grass, I placed my ear against her mouth to check for breath but found nothing. Setting her on her side, I extended Rainbow’s neck as much as it would go and placed my tiny hand against one of her nostrils. I seriously was not looking forward to this next bit but fuck it. Sucking in a deep breath, I pushed as much air into Rainbow’s nose as I could before moving to her back and trying to find where the air was being gathered; figured that was where the lungs were.

Hand over hand, I found the general mark and began compressions for a minute before checking for breathing. Repeating the back and forth of CPR regarding air supply and compressions, I soon had Rainbow coughing up water and spasming just as I was pushing air back into her lungs again.

Sitting back to let Rainbow recover, I draped my arms over my knees to catch my own breath while Dash collected herself and began her recovery.

“I-” Rainbow paused to cough up another lungful of water and mucus. “I thought I was going to die!”

“Nah, soldiers never let their friends die without a fight. I may be blind, but all I needed was a scream and the falling of your flame.” I explained and flopped backwards with arms wide open to ‘stare’ up at the sky and recover myself. “Lost my hands, though.”

“I see that, thanks…” Rainbow replied as her voice began to grow nearer and nearer. “Look, seriously, thank you for saving my life at the cost of your hands.” the weight of Rainbow Dash presented itself to my chest as she laid herself out on my body, her head right up near to mine; the breath from her lungs on my face was reassuring to say the least.

“Nah, losing my hands really isn’t that big a problem. They’re already growing back in.” I replied with the best casual shrug I could muster given the position. To add to my point I placed my hands against her back and began stroking her fur, both reassuring her and working the water from the hairs.

“But still, losing your hands can’t have been painless.” Rainbow whispered back as her rapid heartbeat paced against my own and seemed to be growing quicker. “So… let me thank you...”

“How do you plan to do-” I was cut short by a pair of lips against my own and my eyes expanded at the sudden motion.

Music of choice

As though on cue from some kind of dress rehearsal, my world exploded around me as colours and light flooded my vision all at once; the blackness of my world immediately and suddenly shifting into an explosion of white before my eyes managed to adjust to the new information and dimmed everything back down again.

The green grass.

The isolated oak tree off to my right with a picnic set out in the shade of is emerald green leaves. The brown of the bark as it sheltered the health from the weather of years gone by.

The brilliant blue of the water from the nearby lake that I’d just brought a pony back from and the fine sand that lined the beachhead for a couple kilometres in both directions before they shifted into sheer cliffs dotted with more trees.

The cyan fur covering the head of the pony kissing me and the prismatic hair weighed down by lake water. The remarkably larger flame that seemed to burn in Dash’s chest. Whereas the flame was about the size of my palm before, it now burned with the size of Rainbow’s head.

“Dash…” I broke away from the pony and stared directly into her eyes, her closed eyes, in astonishment. “Wait.”

“I’m sorry, I know I should’ve have.” Rainbow sighed back and turned away to stare at my left. “It won’t happen-” I cut the mare short with a hand on her mouth to hold it closed and turned her back to face me. Dropping my hand as her red eyes expanded, “You have green eyes.”

“And you have red eyes. And blue fur.” I replied just as slowly as Rainbow Dash had. “You look exactly like the figurine.”

“You can actually see me?” Rainbow gasped at the revelation and got up close to stare at my eyes. “You can see?”

“I can see…” I whispered back and sat up suddenly which catapulted Dash off me to look around for more detail. We were laid out on a tiny hill between the lake and the tree, nothing more than a mere increment in the terrain height. “This world… It’s…”

“How can you see now?” Rainbow demanded, pulling me from my thoughts and exploration though it didn’t work for long as I held up my toddler hands to grin like an idiot and burst into a fit of laughter at the ridiculous size they were at.

“Look at my hands!” I cackled like a child. “They’re fucking tiny! Like a KFC spork!” My eyes drifted down to my shirt and noted how the black material had been caked in mud and drying sand. “I’m a mess! Look at me! I’m a fucking mess!”

“How can you see again?” Dash demanded once again, taking my face in her hooves to stare me down with an angry glare.

“Who fucking cares! I can see again!” I declared with a maniacal cackling that would’ve likely sent me to the loony bin back on Earth, because fuck me if I was somehow still on Earth! This location was simply too breathtaking to be a Terran location!

Standing up, I took off at a dead sprint towards the tree just because I could see where the fuck I was going without tripping over something. Sliding to a halt next to the picnic, I aimed back towards the figure of a confused Rainbow Dash laying on the ground and took off in a runner’s sprint aimed for her. She let out a startled shriek when I dived over her and front flipped to land on my feet, but spun so my back was up and willed gravity to stop me sooner than I should with fists at my side.

A small explosion, the sound of a jet engine firing at maximum burn, put increased force on my arms and stopped me almost immediately. Standing to inspect what was going on, I held my fists up to find a pair of nearly white flames shooting out from rotating white holographic seals just over my closed fingers.

“Ooh, magic!” I grinned and raised both hands up to get a better look. They certain felt hot to my face and smelled like something burning and after a burst of will to increase the flame, the small engines obeyed and nearly cost me my arms at the sudden increased force applied to my tiny hands. “So that’s what it looks like!”

“You can use magic too?” Rainbow looked completely lost now, her wonderfully red irises wide with amazement.

Containing a deep laughter in my throat I aimed my fists to the ground and pushed the extra force into my arms again, making me shoot off upwards all at once. I felt like I was on cloud nine at this point and I would be insane to give up on this just yet. Circling around the lake a few times, I felt the force in my arms suddenly dry up just as I came in overhead over Rainbow’s position. The magic ceased and I plummeted like a rock.

I knew what would happen next, I’d hit the ground and put a spike my head again. I’d lose my eyes all over again and return to blindness.

So, here we go. I curled over onto my back at the last second and hit the ground feet first, digging out a good divot from the ground as I bounced back and flew for a few hundred more feet before hitting the ground again and getting stopped by the one tree in the area for a kilometre squared.

Ending up upside down in the tree I watched, watched, as Rainbow Dash galloped hard towards me, freaking out.

“Hey! Are you alright?” she called ahead. I was too elated to really feel the agony that would surely catch up with me in a moment, but I could definitely feel the familiar cold grip of death over my soul.

“Yeah,” I coughed back with a lungful of blood and probably my spleen, “Give me fifteen and I’ll be good.”

“Fifteen? Why-”

Author's Note

No, In case you missed it last chapter, Soren's not meant to stay blind. I can't write a very good story without being able to describe what's actually going on through the eyes of a blind character.

In... inebri... Fuckit, I'm drunk.

Death is unbecoming of you. Get up. Kiss the girl.

Feet? Check.

Hands? Check.

Arms? Check by extension.

Head? Checkerooni.

Okay, the important ones now: Eyes?

Opening my eyes rewarded me the sight of a trio of mares watching me from above. One blue, Rainbow Dash, one orange with a stetson and the other white with a purple mane and a horn, presumably Rarity. Eyes? Check, hahaha!

“Well, that was exciting.” I groaned as the fires in my body roared on despite being alive. “Definitely don’t wanna repeat that again but I suspect I will be in the future.”

“Incredible! You were right! He does have lovely green eyes!” Rarity announced, looking up at Rainbow Dash while the orange one merely stared at me in curiosity. “Just like the brightest jade!”

“I never said that…” Dash replied and disappeared from sight sounding cross with Rarity.

“Of course not, RD. That would just be silly for ya to use such frilly words to describe a stallion like him.” the orange one replied with that southern accent and a devious smirk.

Watch this: “Wow, ya’ll are gonna make me think ya’ll are comin’ on te me.” I remarked, mimicking the orange mare’s accent perfectly. This little trick always annoyed my squadmates… whoever they were.

“Woah, hold on there! Ah didn’t know he spoke like ah do!” the orange one backed away suddenly, letting me sit up once Rarity had backed away as well.

“I don’t, but I’m pretty good at replicating accents.” I explained in my usual voice and shrugged back in accompaniment. “What’re you two doing here?”

“My dear, we both heard a couple of explosions from this way and came running. When we got here, Rainbow Dash was trying to pull you out of the tree.” Rarity explained as she rounded in front of me to be seen and respectful. She certainly had a simplistic design about her, snow white fur with a very articulately cared for purple mane and matching tail. A quick glance backwards showed an imprint of three blue diamonds on her flanks.

The orange one was almost as simple. Almost. She was all orange, with a blonde mane and tail both tied up at the end. A brown stetson adorned her freckled head as her face grew ever more red as I examined her. For a flank mark, three red apples.

“What’re yeh starin’ at me fer?” the orange one backed away slightly, looking put off by my examinations.

“Dear Applejack, please think nothing of it. He’s never actually seen us before so this is like meeting us all over again for him.” Rarity gently knocked a hoof against her friend, acting as my mouth in this instance. Turning to me, she offered a hoof. “My name is Rarity. We’ve met before when I redesigned your suit.”

“A pleasure, I'm sure madam.” I replied, defaulting to propriety I didn’t remember I had by taking her hoof and lifting it to my lips for a respectable kiss. “I’d give you my name, but I don’t know it.”

“It’s nothing to worry about, dear.” Rarity smiled warmly and retrieved her hoof to set it back on the ground. “A gentlestallion by all accounts, I’d say.”

“Wouldn’t hold your bits on that, ah reckon.” Applejack replied, eyeing me over with suspicion. “But, ah’ll be nice. Ah’m Applejack. I run Sweet Apple Acres with my family.”

“Good to meet you.” I nodded back and spun on my seat looking for the third member of our troupe. “Where’s Dash?”

“Looks like she’s sulking behind that tree you broke in half.” Rarity remarked with a grin and pointed out the destroyed tree in particular. Upon a quick look, it seemed that when I impacted the tree, I had destroyed a good portion of the trunk and had caused it to nearly bend over under the breaks in it’s fibres. “I think you should see to her, she is the one who pulled your body from that tree.”

“I will do that.” I agreed and stood, spinning in place to get to my feet to approach the tree. Upon closer inspection, it seemed that Rainbow was busy raiding the picnic basket for food ahead of me and figured from the mild angry mumbling to turn back to Rarity and Applejack to motion for them to be on their way. Seemed I had a female to comfort.

“Stupid human, getting stuck in the stupid tree and then stupid Rarity and Applejack having to help stupid me pull his stupid dead body out again…” Rainbow muttered to herself as her body stuck out of the basket, her head buried for something that was stuffed inside. Lifting my tags from around my neck, I read the inscription and finally introduced myself to myself.

“Soren, actually.” I announced, making Rainbow jump out of the basket with a yelp. “Captain Soren Mercer, according to my tags.” I added in, offering a handshake in final formal meeting.

Rainbow simply glared at me as she calmed herself down from her jumpscare before she turned away entirely and returned to the picnic. “Well good for you. Aren’t you going to spend some time with AJ and Rarity?”

“Maybe later when I’ve got free time.” I sighed and sat myself down next to Dash and the basket, stretching myself out and crossing a leg over the other to stare out at the water. As the afternoon was growing on, the newly bent shape of the tree provided for a bit more foliage to cover the sky above and provide a bit more shade than before. “But right now I’m here with you. If you want AJ and Rarity to join us, I can call them back.”

“Do what you want, doesn’t matter to me.” Rainbow protested as she worked at trying to open a jar of… something brown and watery. “Stupid jar, open!”

“Here.” I offered, taking the jar from between Rainbow’s teeth. “Benefit of hands.” I explained and cranked hard on the lid to separate the pairing with a pop.

“Well then that’s one thing those stupid hands are good for.” Rainbow grumbled but took the jar regardless and tipped the contents directly into her mouth, chugging it down hard. “Stupid wing still hurts after that crash…”

“You know, there are other things that hands are good for.” I raised an eyebrow suggestively and lifted my hands to wiggle them in her direction. Before Dash could react negatively, I dropped my hands and leaned back on posted arms with a release of a heavy breath. “But, I suppose you wouldn’t want this ‘stupid human’ to help relieve you of your aches?”

She merely glared death at me as she tipped the jar back slowly this time, taking pull after pull of the drink in till half the jar was gone. This was no small feat, either. That jar had to have been at least a litre in volume and she’d drank half of it in two goes. I suspected it was alcohol and for that, I had to tip my hat at her, she could really hold her liquor.

With an uncaring shrug of the shoulder, I turned back to the calm lake before us before taking a first look into the basket to see what was actually in there. Ooh! Potato/egg salad! With a fork and the plastic container in hand, I set to quietly snacking away while Dash seemed content with drinking in silence, also staring at the lake where I’d saved her life not that long ago.

“You know,” Rainbow finally set the jar down with a bit of difficulty but managed not to spill anything. “I didn’t really need you to save my life back there.”

“No, but I’m not about to let a friend who can’t come back after death die so easily and to such a stupid death. If it was something like… giving your life for someone else, then I could totally see it being a respectable death, not falling to a watery grave because of a muscle spasm.” I replied around a forkful of potato and eggy goodness. It felt like it had been years since I had any decent potato or egg salads so I was going to enjoy every moment of this. “Besides, you can be as mad at me as you want, you’ve already thanked me.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m still trying to forget that.” the pegasus beside me growled back, though it wasn’t really so much of a growl when it was cute as fuck. “Don’t think for a moment that I kissed you because I wanted to. I only kissed you to thank you for saving me, nothing else.”

Where the fuck did that come from?

“You sure? Because you were blushing pretty hard if I remember.” I teased and wiggled my eyebrows at the now fuming mare fueled by whatever alcohol she’d already consumed.

“Ass.” Rainbow mumbled back under her breath and laid down with the jar to suck back more of its inebriating goodness.

Remaining silent while I ate and eventually finished the entire carton of the salad, I turned back to the basket to look for something drinkable and found a similar jar to Dash’s.

Breaking the seal on the lid, I took a whiff and almost lost it when I detected the hint of Rye whisky fermented with apple. Apple-fucking-whiskey! Testing the quality, I tipped back the jar to my lips and let the liquid splash into my mouth to savour the flavours before letting it burn it’s way down my throat. Oh, that was excellent!

“Damn, if this is what you’ve been chugging, I don’t know how you still have a liver after over half a litre of this!” I grinned and held the jar up by the neck as a toast to the pegasus who ignored me openly.

“What, big soldier boy can’t hold his liquor?” Rainbow teased back, almost challenging me. “Because you’ve got a long way to go to match me, skidrow.”

“What the hell is this skidrow thing?” I set the jar back down near to me and placed the lid over it to be safe. I didn’t want Dash knocking this thing over onto me as an attempt at drunken revenge for whatever I didn’t do.

“Oh you know, after your own crash landing, you kind left a massive skidmark on the landscape. Expect a landscaping bill from the town, by the way. For the tree too, this is a popular date spot for couples and I suspect there’ll be some angry mares coming for your bits.” Dash explained with a huff and dove face first back into her own jar to lick at the liquids inside. It was like a canine licking peanut butter from the jar… I couldn’t help but stifle a giggle to myself at the thought.

“So, if it’s just the two of us at the most popular date spot in town, does that mean we’re on a date?” I gave a sly smirk as Rainbow’s face turned from blue to bright red and she pulled her face out of the jar with a pop.

“Who’d want to go on a date with the likes of you!” She rose to all fours and was in my face with wings wide in anger. Or drunken heat… It’s entirely possible! “I’m out, don’t call me, I’ll not call you.” Dash added before taking to wing but crashed down when her wing spiked with a pang of pain again. “Celestia dammit!”

“Come here.” I requested calmly and got up onto my knees, pointing before me for Rainbow to obey. Dash simply glared at me before I glared back. “I said come!”

“Okay! Fine!” Rainbow groaned but complied and flopped down before me, head to my left knee and let her wings spread out limp to both sides. I rose up and threw a knee over her back, mounting her behind her wings which gained protest from the mare now under me.

“Shut up and put up.” I ordered while taking a firm hold of her problem wing in both my hands, grabbing it by the tendon in front and stretching it out entirely. Doing the same for the other wing had Rainbow shutter under me but she obeyed and remained where she laid, her head resting on the checkered sheet under us both.

Beginning near the neck, I began to task of massaging the muscles moving gradually down her spine and into her shoulders. Reaching a point in her spine, right between the shoulder blades, I felt what seemed like a portion of her spine out of alignment and placed both hands over the lump.

“Take a deep breath and let it out slowly.” I ordered and timed my brief chiropractic work with her breath, pushing the vertebrae back into place with a click as she reached the end of her breath which came out in more of an oomph! Continuing with my massage having checked for other spots out of alignment, I soon reached her wings and began to massage the joints there around.

Lifting the left wing up straight first and trapping it in my arms, I worked at kneading feeling into the limb again making Dash groan into the ground beneath me each time I hit a tense spot. Digging in with my thumbs drew exclamations of surprise from Dash as she attempted to arch her back away from me, but with her trapped under me like she was, I was able to work out the knot that had formed and had even managed to somehow bring proper tension back into the joint itself. Must’ve been an older injury that was never treated.

Letting go of the wing almost suddenly, the limb fell limp at my knee as I went to work on the right wing. Gaining similar exclamations of groans and uneasy moans from Dash gave me all the words I needed as I worked life back into the wing and let it go.

Continuing down her back slowly, I began to feel Rainbow Dash’s breathing begin to slow down to a much more calm pace while I worked and after a quick check, found her completely sleep under my hands. Removing my hands altogether, I removed myself from the pony’s back and return to my drink once I’d reattached the lid to Dash’s.

~~~

An hour, half the jar of whisky and another carton of potato/egg salad later and I found myself nearly at the point of dozing like Rainbow still was. Taking that as my cue to pack us up and leave, I gently lifted Rainbow off the blanket and set her back down on the grass itself, though for a moment she latched onto me to use my arm as a body pillow.

Working my arm free as carefully as I could without touching anything I shouldn’t, I set to carefully packing the basket away with the remaining food items around the area then somehow managed to focus long enough to fold and pack the blanket away on top of the food within the carrier.

“Oookay…” I groaned to myself and stood myself, only to stumble around a little. “Let’ssss… get back to Twinkie’s…”

Shaking my head a little to try and clear the fog, I bent down and picked Rainbow up to cradle her like I would a small child while the basket hung from my arm.

Taking a second to breath and let my body process and stabilize afforded me the reward of slightly better navigation as I stumbled back towards town.

All eyes were on the pair of us, with a couple ponies chattering away to themselves while openly staring at me. I suppose they would’ve already gotten used to me being blind and as such would’ve been more open about staring at me.

“I have a problem…” I whispered to the second version of me stumbling alongside me. I was pretty sure he wasn’t real but I figured he could still help in this situation. “I don’t actually know what Twinkle’s house looks like…” I grinned and giggled giddily at the stupid situation I was in. “Should ask a local.”

Approaching near to a couple of mares, apparently they all shared a similar body shape to Rainbow and Twilight, “Escuse me,” I first whispered, covered up a burp and tried again. “Escuse me, I’m trying to find Twiddle’s place…”

“Oh, you must be that blind human, right?” the one, pink in coat replied.

“Wasn’t aware another human was here…” I shook my head again to try and refocus my mind. “Would love to meet them…” I added in a mumble under my breath. “Uhm, yeah.”

“If you’d like, I can lead you there.” the mare with three cut diamonds on her flank offered helpfully, her horn lighting up blue to take my hand and get it tingling. “Come on.”

“Thanks sho much…” I began the arduous task of putting footstep before footstep to follow after the pony, my hand leading me as it trailed along behind the mare as she watched me patiently. “Sorry I’m sho… fucked up…”

“It’s quite alright. I’m used to working with ponies who suffer from some kind of mental inhibitor. It’s not typically alcohol related, though, but the idea remains the same.” the unicorn explained as she slowly walked ahead of me, keeping just close enough to have her presence felt.

Now that I could actually see the town, I found that my earlier predictions of the town’s tribal status was severely off point. It was still very much a hamlet kind of place, with white stone walls and thatch roofing, but the buildings all certainly looked sturdy enough; at least sturdier than I was at the moment.

Stalls lined the main street that my guide, my co-driver and I strode down with many a small horse operating and hawking wares of different sorts. Food, housewares or furniture, there was everything here.

Turning a street corner revealed to me a giant ass tree planted directly in the middle of the end of the road ahead of me.

“It’s just ahead of us now, not much further.” the mare announced calmly.

“It’s…” I mumbled to myself while my foggy mind tried to process what it was I was seeing. “It’s a tree-house?”

“Wait, you can see?” the mare suddenly stopped and let go of my hand in surprise. “I thought you were blind!”

“I was, then Dash kissed me and now I can see. Rescued her from drowning in the lake, lost my hands in an explosion and they were really, really small for a time but it’s okay now because they’ve grown back. I sorry I wasn’t completely truthful but I still hadn’t ever actually seen this town and oh my god your all so fucking tiny and adorable, you all maybe come up to my thigh and you can all sit comfortably on my chest like a small dog and it’s adorable when Dash and Twilight does it and I’m rambling now and I’m sorry…” I replied, my voice growing lower in tone and slower as I drew on as I surprised myself with the apparent capability of my lungs as I had managed to get all that out in one solitary breath.

“Well, I can’t say I'm not surprised and more than a little confused about most of what you just said, but I’ll just take your word for it.” The mare replied after staring at me during my monologuing. “Can you continue on your way on your own now?”

“Yes, thank you very much. If it’s the funny looking tree at the end of the street then I'll be just fine if not take a bit to get us there in my state of total inebriation.” I nodded back and hoisted Dash back up to my chest as she was beginning to slide out of my grasp with only one hand. The slight jostle seemed to stir the pegasus, but soon she curled back up into me and returned to slumbers.

“Then, perhaps I’ll talk to you later when you’re sober? You’re an interesting guy. I’m Amethyst Star, nice to meet you.”

“Soren Mercer, ex-military captain now confused and racially alone.” I replied as I narrowed my gaze in on the tree before me. “I would agree to meeting you at a later date, but right now I’m trying not to fall asleep with Rainbow Dash on my shoulder.”

“Of course, I will see you later then.” Amethyst nodded back before turning away to return to whatever friend she was talking to before.

Trudging on ahead, Rainbow Dash and I eventually found ourselves at the door in the tree and allowed ourselves inside with a groan to announce our presence.

“Oh, you’re back!” Spike noted as he entered into the large main room from the kitchen. “How’d it go?”

My reply came out in a series of nonsensical mumblings and ramblings, nothing of which was intelligent enough to be understood by anyone though Spike took the basket from me once I’d removed it from my arm to begin putting the remainders away.

“What happened to Rainbow Dash?” Twilight demanded as she appeared at the top of the stairs. Like she had said, she had purple fur but a darker purple mane and tail, trimmed along the bangs with a streak of pink and magenta running the length. The mark that apparently every pony had was that of a six point star with smaller stars circling the larger one.

“Sleeping, shhh.” I whispered back, holding a finger up to my lips as I approached my couch and temporary living space.

“Oh, okay. She can share my bed. I’ll take her now.” Twilight offered as her horn began to light up with a purple shimmer and Dash’s body began to float away from me. I held on and merely approached the stairs directly.

“I got it…” I mumbled back and took the stairs two at a time, shocking Twilight as she finally got a look at my eyes once our proximity was close enough.

“Your eyes! They’re green!” she exclaimed suddenly, making me turn to scowl and shush her as Rainbow stirred in my grasp.

“Yes, I’m not blind no mo’. Talk later, want sleep now.” I growled back unintentionally, it was supposed to be more of just an average comment but my tired voice was breaking through.

Stepping into Twilight’s room, I gently laid Rainbow down on the only bed in the room before making my silent retreat back down the stairs and to the couch.

“I sleep now, good night.” I announced firmly and shoulder rolled onto the cushions of the couch to drape my arm over my eyes for comfort.

I was out before Twilight could properly reply.

The Morning After

Shifting around in my waking sleep, I found that when I tried to roll onto my side that a weight had been presented to my chest and pinned me down. With a groan, I cracked an eye open to see what was going on and found that in the darkness, a solitary figure was asleep on my chest.

Spike. Spike was sleeping on my chest. Why was Spike sleeping on my chest when he had his own bed upstairs? Why wasn’t Spike in his bed upstairs and what was preventing him from being there?

Putting the thought aside, I gently lifted Spike up off my chest and moved him to another couch nearby without severely disturbing that force within me that would allow me to return to sleep. Making a quick stop to the bathroom via use of only one eye, I returned to my resting place and curled up into myself for warmth. Dropping my hand to the floor had my fingers brush up against something coarse, a blanket of some kind.

Peeking over the edge told me that it was exactly that that I had touched and worked at pulling it back up over me to cocoon myself with it.

Finally warm, I twisted onto my side to face the back of the couch and let myself drift away once again.

~~~

I suppose when you can’t die, you can destroy your liver with over a half litre of whisky and not feel bad about it. I used to be worried that my lack of any hangovers at all was a distressing sign for my system, but now, I was perfectly fine with waking up like usual and feeling fine. Freshening myself up in the easily found bathroom had me grinning since it no longer took me tracing the building itself to find the place. In fact, I was grinning since I no longer had to trace the building to find anything.

Stepping out of the bathroom after a scalding hot shower, having to dress myself in the suit shirt and pants from my formal military suit, I aimed myself towards the kitchen as Rainbow Dash entered into the place from above and looking worse for wear.

“Morning beautiful!” I gave a cheeky grin with my loud-as-possible-without-waking-the-landlord voice. I received a scornful glare from the pegasus as she groaned back and gradually descended the stairs to take her turn at the bathroom. “Sleep well?”

“Like a rock, thanks.” Dash growled back and disappeared into the bathroom while I took to the kitchen and began the work of forming some kind of breakfast. First morning I could see and I was going to do my best to show thanks for the hospitality from Twilight, but also for thanking Rainbow for restoring light to my world.

Starting with the best omelette I could construct, I added in barley toast, a fruit salad -at this point a weary and slightly confused Rainbow Dash came in to glare but silently help- coffee and tea for me, and squeeze some fresh juices, Dash and I had everything set out just as Twilight descended the stairs with a destroyed mane and grumpy eyes.

“Morning.” I bid welcome to the unicorn and sat at the table with Rainbow who was already threatening to tear into the food early but had so far stuck to the coffee.

“Mmhmm… Be right back, gotta pee.” Twilight mumbled before aiming back away from the kitchen at to the bathroom.

“Thanks for the mental image.” I called back and sat down with my tea. Wasn’t sure what it was but it was black and I liked it.

“Why the hell aren’t you hung over?” Rainbow almost immediately demanded once she set the mug of coffee held in her wings down on the table again, still glaring at me.

“I’d like to blame it on my immortality, but in truth i’ve never had a hangover before in my life. I’ve suffered alcohol poisoning at least… five times before, suggesting the amount of alcohol i’ve drank, but never had a hangover.” I replied and rested my elbows on the table with the cup of tea in my hands.

“Lucky fucking bastard…” Rainbow grumbled back into her mug, looking noticeably away from me. “So, any ideas about why you can see again?”

“In all honesty, only one.” I replaced my cup onto the table to clasp my hands together over my empty waiting plate. “You kissed me, I gained sight. Pure and simple.”

“So… what? It’s because you like me or something? Because the feeling isn’t mutual.” Rainbow continued to hide herself behind her mug as her face grew gradually more red until she held it out for a refill from the pot. Complying with her request, I mentally struggled for something to say, however the arrival of Twilight seemed to fill the need.

“I’m not completely confident you believe that, Rainbow Dash.” the magician began, walking into the kitchen to take a seat at the table between us. “Thanks for breakfast, you two.” she added, directing the comment first to me then to the pegasus of the room with glances.

Dealing ourselves out and getting situated, Twilight continued, “This whole ‘the human can see again because Rainbow kissed him’ and this thing about the light in Rainbow Dash leads me to believe that this interest is not all that one sided as we’re lead to believe.”

“Is too! I’d never like Soren, he’s so… Creepy! Look at him, he’s not even that good looking!” Rainbow exploded, whirling on the only other mare in the room with hooves on the table to raise herself up.

“Thanks for that, really boosting the self-confidence.” I glared over the spread before me while cutting into my omelette which I had modified with various sliced vegetables. “You’re welcome to leave any time, you know. You don’t have to stay here.”

“What? You don’t want me here? Then why did you bring me here in the first place? I never asked for you to bring me to Twilight’s!” Dash wheeled around on me this time, her fuming having turned into a full on rage.

“You were drunk, asleep and it was getting cold outside! I brought you here because I have no fucking clue where the fuck you live! I could barely fucking get us here!” I roared back, fisting my utensils and setting them against the table. “Sorry I care enough to keep you alive! I’ll remember next time to let you fucking die!”

“Fine!” Dash screamed back and leapt down from the table to bolt out of the place, wreaking havoc in the kitchen with her wake. “Fuck you, Soren!”

“Fuck you too Dash!” I called back before returning to a neutral sitting position with my lap burning from having tea spilled into it. “Fog Ducking Gambit!” I was near to the point of explosions and under normal circumstances would’ve taken my frustrations out on a shooting range or sparring ring but given I had neither, I was threatening hostilities within.

“So…” Twilight’s voice was calm, cool and collected, as though she hadn’t just suffered from a minor explosion in her kitchen. “Your name is Soren?”

“Don’t fucking start, Twilight! I am not in the mood right now!” I roared back before I could stop myself and stood from the table to change into yesterday’s pants.

Once changed, I took off out the front door and let the cold air begin to warm my spirits. Regardless, I needed something constructive to do so just aimed in a random direction and took off jogging. The act also gave me a chance to check out the rest of town and familiarize myself with where everything was.

~~~

Half an hour, give or take fifteen minutes, later I found myself at the set of a construction site currently in its framing stages. Wood framing, meant nails, meant hammers, meant beating on things with intent! Constructive use of my anger!

“Hey, you! Weird creature thing on two hooves!” a rough male voice called, obviously for me given a lack of options, and directed my gaze from the site to a large stallion currently on a slow collision course with me. Raising a finger to point at myself, “Yeah, you! Com’mere!”

With a shrug, I directed myself towards the pony without a horn or wings and stopped once we’d reached each other.

“Can I help you?” I looked the pony over, creme in fur with simple brown hair for a mane and tail. His flanks were stamped by what looked like a pair of hammers, crossed at the handle with a small handful of nails in a pile beneath that.

“Yeah, I was wondering what you was doin’ here at my site.” the pony remarked, looking me over just as I was looking him over. “Strange way of dressing yerself, just sayin’.”

“I just don’t have any other clothing other than yesterday’s clothes and my formal suit.” I turned back to the site and stuck my hands in my jean pockets. “What’s going in here?”

“Condominium unit,” the site foreman or whoever he was sighed back in what seemed like disappointment. “Nopony I know wants to work this site because it’s apparently so dangerous.”

“Aren’t there regulations and safety protocols in place for this kind of thing?” I raised an eyebrow to the pony next to me.

The stallion scoffed to himself. “Hah, no! No one in Canterlot wants to take the time out of their busy-ass life to regulate anything or send inspectors to ensure it’s all up to code… No pony’s got the time.”

“I’m no pony.” I offered with a smirk and turned back to the project ahead of us. “Used to be a construction worker for six years back on my world before I joined the army so I may know a thing or two.”

“I… don’t suppose yer lookin’ fer work, are yeh?” the pony chuckled nervously and turned towards me fully.

“I might be, maybe. Was thinking i’d do either this or join the guard…” I remarked and began drawing up a list of things to improve on. “Figured I’d have a better chance at this than being retrained in whatever melee weapons you ponies have…”

“Fair ‘nuff. We do sometimes use bows and arrows, but I don’t think they’re very popular.” the pony grinned and turned to the site once more. I shifted around on my feet as I thought about what would have to go into forging my own firearms: forging each piece specifically and probably myself, mixing the gunpowder and making the bullets myself, making the bullets and cases myself… Yeah, perhaps Construction would be the better choice.

“I’ll tell you what, I’m gonna check out the rest of town, see what other work may interest me. I’ll keep you in the forefront of my mind though.” I announced with a heavy breath and turned to offer my hand in a handshake. The stallion placed his hoof into my grasp and shook back, looking hopeful.

Taking my leave at another jog, I continued to explore the town finding everything from shops, a spa, some kind of weird carousel clothing store, a blacksmith that has my interest, a gym, a guard house and Sweet Apple Acres where Applejack apparently works. During that time, I also happened to spot Rainbow Dash blitzing across the skies to whatever destination she had, still completely ignoring me. All that being said, I eventually settled on working for the blacksmith while providing safety protocols and regular monthly inspections for the construction site.

“Well, I’m a tad disappointed to see yeh choose the blacksmith,” Nail, the construction site Foreman said, “But I’ll be glad to have some kind of safety system in place. Maybe I’ll be able to get a proper workforce in here again and start making some goddamn bits!”

“Depending on how I do at blacksmithing, I may end up working for you in the end. Regardless, I’d like to go through your site with you and your site superintendent soon to see what needs to be fixed to make this place safe.” I announced, putting my already pre-built list aside for the time being. I was due to report for early smithing training this afternoon and it had been recommended to me by my new boss that I fuel up for the job.

“Absolutely. May I be the first to say congratulations on yer new job?” Nail offered a handshake this time, completed by my end with a courteous nod and a warm smile.

“Thank you, have a good day then.” I bid farewell with a wave and left to return to Twilight’s for fuelling and to reveal the news. I also had to get her to show me to Rarity’s in order to get her to fashion me some new work clothing.

“Yeh, you as well!” Nail called back as I took my leave.

~~~

“Feeling better?” Twilight welcomed me back in so few words as I crossed the border that was the front door of her treehouse. “You both stormed out so quickly I almost thought you were going off for some kind of secret date.”

“No. I don’t see ny kind of public or private outing with Dash alone for quite a while.” I replied and entered into the kitchen to see about finding some leftovers from breakfast. “Did find a job, though.”

“Really? That was quick.” twilight’s voice raised in surprise from the living room and looked up from her book. “Where at?”

“The blacksmith with a part-time job working as a Construction Safety Inspector. Apparently there are no rules and regulations for safety on this world.” I explained as I pulled out the remains of the fruit salad and a small dessert fork with which to eat it. “Of course, that means that I’m going to have to take a couple days to actually inspect the sites and evaluate what needs to be fixed to make them safe and efficient.”

“Oh! I’m great at forming lists, rules and regulations! I can help!” Twilight offered with extra enthusiasm than normal and even went so far as to appear in the kitchen to hop up onto my lap to stare me down pleadingly. “Please!”

“Hey, I never said I was doing it right away! I still have to do some training with my full-time employer first!” I grinned back and worked at forming a mouthful of fruits into my mouth around Twilight, having to turn my head away from her to do so. “As it is, I’ve been recommended to fuel up before I report for duty this afternoon.”

“Aww,” Twilight gave a pout and hopped down from my lap once I had created space for her to do so. “Fine. But as soon as you’re planning to get started, you have to let me know!” she called back over her shoulder on her route back into the livingroom to return to her reading.

“Will remember to do that!” I called back and returned to my meal.

Once I’d finished, I dropped the bowl and fork into the sink and entered into the livingroom to approach Twilight and break her from her reading. “I need you to take me to Rarity’s. I need her to make me some new daily and work clothes.”

“Can it wait? I’m really busy with my studies.” Twilight pleaded with a small smile, looking up at me from over the top of the book. “You can see now, which I still want to know more about by the way, so you can technically navigate yourself right?”

“If I knew where I was going, perhaps. I took the liberty of sort of exploring the town on my own already, so I kind of have an idea of what I’m looking for.” I scratched at the back of my head, looking away from Twilight while trying to organize the town’s locations in my mind.

“Great, then all you need to do is find the building that looks like a carousel!” Twilight announced before shooing me with a wave of the hoof and returned to her book.

Frowning, my mind immediately spun through the mental map to the one building that matched the unicorn’s description: the one I had made the most fun of. No one would hear of this. Ever. Leaving the building, I mentally mapped out what direction I was aiming for and aimed towards said destination.

“Hey, it’s you!” a semi-familiar voice exclaimed from beyond my range of vision on my left. Turning to meet the newcomer, a pink furred pony with a purple mane and three brilliant-cut diamonds on her flanks approached me with a smile. “I see you’re doing better. How’s Rainbow Dash?”

“Nursing a hangover and a hate-on for me at the moment, but she’ll live.” I reported while internally attempting to recall a name. Nothing. “You’ll have to forgive me, I don’t recall your name.”

“I totally understand, you were pretty drunk last night.” The pony waved the bad manners off with a hoof and took to strolling alongside me, following me blindly. “I’m Amethyst Star, my friends call my Amy or Star…”

“Soren Mercer, nice to meet you.” I nodded back and stuck my hands into my jean pockets. My right hand began to subconsciously finger the figurine in my pocket, as it brought me comfort from whatever nerves I was feeling for whatever reason. “Where are you headed?”

“I’m actually off work today, so I figured I’d just see what your doing and where you're going. Might give me a brief glimpse into the daily life of a human in Equestria.” The unicorn announced eagerly. Whatever entertainment she was expecting from me, I probably wouldn’t be able to provide.

“Well, i’m making a stop in at Rarity’s to make an order for some new daily and work clothing then i’m expected to show up at the blacksmiths for my first day of work and training.” I explained as the peaks of Rarity’s shop came into view over the other houses and buildings around me. “You’re welcome to join me for the first bit but i’ll have to turn you away when I aim for work.”

“Sounds alright to me, I’ve been meaning to visit Rarity to place an order of my own. Congratulations on becoming a blacksmith apprentice, by the way.” Amethyst awarded me with a leap up onto my back to place a platonic hug around my neck before falling off again to stride alongside me.

“Thank you, but not only that am I going to be acting as a part-time safety inspector for construction sites.” I announced with a finger in the air to break the point into the conversation. “I’ll be responsible for creating a safety guideline for which the entire country will have to follow. Every month or so I’ll spend a couple days going around the area to make sure that all the sites are up to snuff or be shut down until they can be fixed.”

“Sounds like you’ll have yourself a handful in coming months, but I can totally see the reason why you’d want to do that job: I see all kinds of patients pass through with work related injuries due to unsafe working conditions.” Miss Star replied with a dour sigh and even more depressed gaze aimed downwards to where she was walking.

At the same time, my gaze was broken away by a poster hanging on by the edges of the page: an image of some kind of winged crest with a horn in silver and dark blue with the caption, “The old regime has failed, join the New Lunar Republic today!”

“What’s that about?” I wondered aloud, pointing out the page to the pony next to me. A quick glance in all directions showed that no one else seemed to pay the poster any further attention and some even went so far as to actively avoid it, bearing a wide berth around the poster as though it could inflict some kind of plague to anyone who even looked at it.

“Oh, that…” Amethyst sighed to herself, staring at the poster. Doing my best to not reveal that I’d done so, I checked out the look on the unicorn’s face and noted that it wasn’t one of hate or disgust like everyone else, but something like subtle pride. It was quickly hidden away and she glanced up from the page to me. “It’s just the rumors of some terrorist faction who’re trying to overthrow the princesses in order to emplace Luna as the solitary leader. Princess Celestia and Luna are both aware of them and neither is particularly fond of the group.”

“So, why does it seem like everypony is actively avoiding that poster?”

“They’re all afraid. Afraid of change, of a new government lead by somepony who used to be labelled the stuff of nightmares. Princess Luna only recently came back to us after her banishment and nopony seems to actually want her back. A thousand years of Celestia’s solitary rule and ponies have grown soft and comfortable with things as they are now.” Amethyst explained, her voice suggesting subtle rejection to the words she’d only just given me. I must’ve learned through my past to read between the lines and such a skill seemed to have stuck with me as it appeared to me that Amethyst Star had a much more intimate knowledge of this particular ‘Terrorist’ group than she was leading me to believe.

“I see…” I mumbled to myself and took off down our original path as we’d decided upon and left the conversation alone until such time as I could further… interrogate someone about this interesting subject. “Thank you for the information, it’s been very helpful.”

“I’m… not sure how, but you’re welcome.” Amethyst glowed slightly at the thanks as we approached Rarity’s front door and let ourselves in. I let Amethyst lead us in on the off chance that this was appropriate behaviour to barge into someone’s residence and place of work, as well as on the off chance that it wasn’t appropriate to do so.

A bell above the door announced our arrival, drawing exclamations of Rarity’s voice from some hiding place.

“Oh! Just one moment I’ll be with you shortly!” she called out from near to the back and the general direction of a set of stairs upwards. With a facial shrug towards the mare in the room with me, I turned and took a seat on a nearby couch while the unicorn took the opportunity to browse some of the display pieces on stands around the perimeter of the room.

A brief check around the room suggested that Rarity was aiming her clothing towards more sophisticated of events, from extremely fancy dresses to equally impressive suits; though there were significantly less of men’s wear than there was women’s. I suspected that I’d have to go elsewhere for any other kinds of suits if I wasn’t going to wear my army formals.

Most dresses never shared the same design twice, each one very much unique in nature though it may have shared a similar theme with others in its grouping. Plenty of rounded buttresses and flowing fabrics, some complex with high collars and padded shoulders showing utmost class and sophistication. Others were much more simple, singular pieces that I supposed would be used in fancy dates or dinner parties in order to make silent promises of a pleasurable night.

“I’ve been saving up for the last half year,” Amethyst began, looking over the sleeker dresses with a look of envy. “I’ve been waiting patiently and I’ve been planning. Today, it happens.” she added in a sinister whisper, not likely intentionally letting me hear her. From the looks of it, she was aiming her gaze at the infamous ‘little blacks’ that I faintly remember women wearing when they wanted something expensive or planned to distract. Of course, hers was more of a lighter blue but I estimated it worked the same way.

I had to wonder, however, how the male pony’s mind worked. From what I saw, pony bodies don’t change very much and there wasn’t much room for curves that would normally appeal to the male libido and thereby provide distraction. Perhaps it was something more… subconscious?

“Thank you for waiting, thank you very much. I apologize I took so long, i’m having troubles with some family matters upstairs.” Rarity sighed as she descended the stairs and made herself known. Amethyst and I both collected ourselves from our imaginings to bring our address to the unicorn. “Oh, Miss Star and the human! I was only expecting one of you!”

“Are you saying you don’t wish for my business? I think I saw a tailor for stallions somewhere around town.” I smirked and stood to offer a handshake to the white unicorn while Amethyst approached and stood near to me.

“Oh please, that is not necessary. I cater to my friends, and I’m friends with everyone so I cater to all.” Rarity announced proudly, fluffing herself up with enthusiasm. “So, what can I do for the both of you?”

“You go first, I suspect my order will take a bit more work over yours.” I offered, looking down at the pink unicorn and directing the comment thusly. I retreated once more to my seat before the mare could protest but gave in and turned with Rarity to the selection of slim dresses.

After a few minutes and picking out a couple light blues, Amethyst disappeared into the changerooms off towards the back of the building. No idea why a change room was important in a world of naked equines, but… sure. I’ll give it to them. At least it afforded me some privacy when I’d eventually go to try things on.

“Now then,” Rarity strolled enthusiastically towards me, high-stepping the entire way from the curtains which Amethyst now hid behind, to the couches where I sat and waited. “What about you? What can Rarity do for you?” she asked, rolling the first R in her name for emphasis.

“As much as your clothing looks fanciful and artistic, I’m just looking for daily and work clothing. As the weather grows colder, I’ll need appropriate clothing for that as well.” I explained, sitting forward and clasping my hands together over my knees. “And I’m not talking a couple shirts and sets of pants. I’m talking an entire wardrobe.”

“Oh… my… I see…” Rarity’s eyes went wide at the realisation for what she was potentially getting herself into. “Such an order would be…”

“Expensive and very probably boring for your skills. I assure you, i’ll be starting a new job with the blacksmith here later today so I’ll be able to pay for the entire order; if you decide to take me on, that is.” I replied, sitting back to hold a hand up to assure the pony. “I intent to pay for whatever parts of the order you can fill as you fill it, rather than all at once as I don’t know how much i’ll be getting paid yet.”

“I… uhm… I accept your proposal, but I ask that you let me design you some kind of fancy suit. Something other than that Military formal getup you had. I will give you a hefty discount for it in lieu of your current order.” Rarity suggested, sounding like she really needed me to take this offer.

“I… shall accept your terms and conditions on the premise that you’ve accepted my order.” I began slowly and worked myself into the reply, finalizing with a nod.

“Excellent!” the seamstress popped back into full enthusiasm. “Now then, I know I have some general measurements of you, but now that I’ve got you here, i’d like to take some more in detailed numbers.” I accepted with a nod and stood while Rarity magic’d in a tape measure. “Come darling, and prepare to strip!”

“I’m sorry?” I paused in following Rarity to a plinth on which Amethyst had been using to check herself out on.

“Mister Mercer, I require very detailed measurements and your current clothing is preventing me from doing so.” Rarity grinned suspiciously and lead me onto the stage. With a sigh and deciding not to argue, I pulled my shirt off and began working my pants off, leaving me in my skivvies. “Oh, u-uhm… I see…” she gasped once she got a look at my war damaged skin. Of note, I had a massive scar running from my right shoulder down to my left side and it still occasionally burned with a mild pain. “I think I understand why you wear clothing now.”

“Try going a day without your fur, it’s like that.” I replied and shifted my weight nervously while the lingering gaze of Rarity roamed my body. I could almost feel the burning intensity of her staring as she visually invaded my body and was growing more and more uncomfortable. Something in me wanted me to dress back up in as many layers of clothing as I could possibly find, but since nothing here would be human or male acceptable, I was stuck fighting the urge.

Rarity remained silent as her eyes latched onto my body, examining every little bit that she could before collecting herself and getting to work.

“Arms out.” she instructed, lifting my arms to model-T with her magic.

“Hot damn, that’s nice.” Amethyst whispered a little too loud to remain secretive as she appeared from the change room in one of the dresses she’d selected. Her latching stare was much more hungry-looking than Rarity’s had been, but she didn’t have to be professional so she didn’t seem to be so worried about the staring. “I’ve gotta say, Soren, it’s got to be illegal to look that good and hide it under clothing.”

“Thanks, I think.” I groaned back, ever more aware of the want to redress while Rarity worked around my chest with her magic. She began to move lower, checking my hips and thighs then down to my legs and so on.

“Hey, you wanna go get drinks after your off work?” Amethyst grinned wickedly, her mind clearly full of mal-intent.

“You just want me for my body.” I took the chance to lighten myself up and get over the awkwardness I was felling by grinning.

“Probably, I kinda really want your ass. It’s really nice.” Amethyst blatantly replied, making both Rarity and I falter with the announcement. “I bet you could do some amazing things to mine, too.”

“Well, I am completely uncomfortable right now.” Rarity announced with a couple of weak coughs as she fought to take my inseam measurement. I helped her out and took the top end of the tape measure and held it where it needed to be, keeping a few inches for sake of comfort.

“You and me both.” I muttered back, staring at the pink pony with great discomfort. “Can I redress now?”

“No, please. Not yet. I’m not done with you.” Amethyst replied, still staring openly and now with eyes moving quite obviously south. She completed the longing with a lip bite while Rarity gave me permission to dress again.

It only took me a minute, but I was once again fully dressed and feeling much more comfortable, even with Amethyst trying to perform a strip tease of her own and passing it off as just getting changed.

“Okay,” I began, eager for a way out and turned to Rarity. “With that out of the way, I’m going to go to work now!”

“Yeah! You work it!” Amethyst called out from the back, giving me the impression that she’d never let me live this down.

“Absolutely! I will let you know when you can start to expect the new outfits and I’ll send you the first bill in a couple weeks!” I was grateful with how Rarity seemed to be rushing me out the door, helping me get out of there as fast as I wanted to be going.

“I’ll see you later!” Amethyst called ahead with a grin. “If not, then I’ll dream heavily of you!”

“Yeah I’m sure you will…” I shook my head and turned towards the forge I was due to work at. Maybe I’ll be able to sweat this out.

Fiery Death

My afternoon consisted of spending most of my time practising my forging and welding techniques while my new boss, Crescent Rose whose butt print was that of a rose with its stem wrapped around the hilt of a blade, governed everything I did with an iron hoof. No seriously, she’d apparently lost a hoof in an accident and forged herself a replacement. She apparently has built it to act as a hammer if she wears the correct shoes.

That being said, I had been veering between “holy shit this is difficult work” to “holy shit this is fucking awesome!” every couple minutes. If it wasn’t for my military training and amazing physical condition, I’d probably have not survived the afternoon.

Crescent Rose was extremely rough around the edges, never mind that a lot of her dark red fur had been either trimmed to be drastically short or burned off entirely; she looked like a modern and non-feral zombie. A black mane kept short and pulled back with a small bandana with a small rose emblazoned on the forehead, kept whatever form of bangs she had out of her eyes as she beat away on whatever piece of steel or iron. A solid and stocky body, looming over the heads of even some of the largest stallions in this town, she stood with shoulders to my stomach and head level with my upper chest and neck.

Even with all that in mind, I suspect that she could actually be pretty soft-hearted if she wanted to or had the motive to show such a side. I had figured this when, during our dinner break, her sister had shown up and took a few minutes to shoot the shit; unaware that I was listening in for sake of gaining some insight into my boss’s personality. I had managed to go undetected by focusing most of my attention on a small chunk of broken off steel about three inches long and a whetstone with which to grind against.

That being said, using scrap material and old whetstones didn’t seem to bother my boss, further reinforcing my idea that she had a rather carefree interior when she wasn’t busy with work and I wasn’t wasting her time. My dinner break, my time.

Now, that in mind, I had opted to try my hand at applying the forge welding techniques I had learned only hours earlier to draw the small chunk of metal out into a small dagger blade; opting to create most of the final shape in the smithing process itself. Rose had entered into the forge somewhere near to the end of the break to watch, probably thinking she was being sneaky, and started giving further advice to me like when I should remove the piece from the heat or where I should strike with the hammer.

The piece now laid in a mostly finished state, only final grinding and polishing against the piece of whetstone I had and was wrapped in layers of leather in order to not only protect myself, but protect the unfinished blade until tomorrow when I could get at it again.

“Bright and early tomorrow morning! Forge gets fired up at sunrise, I want you here before then!” Crescent Rose commanded from within, but gave me a waved goodbye regardless before shutting the doors and locking up for the night.

Stuffing my hands into my jean pockets for the walk home in darkness, I noticed that only a couple other ponies were actually out and about and all of them wearing either generic guard armour or wearing very dark clothing and darting around past the guards.

Continuing down the street in plain view of the guardsponies, who all either eyed me over suspiciously or gave a curt nod in recognition, I ensured that while everyone around me was going about their suspicious activities that I remained in plain view to establish a potential alibi.

Apparently it was a good thing that I did when an explosion suddenly erupted from a couple streets ahead and to the left. Instinctively ducking to a nearby stall for cover, I remained there just long enough for my ears to stop ringing and my balance to return before taking off at a sprint towards the new blaze along with most of the guards galloping after me.

Many of the pegasi guards had taken flight and were streaming in droves towards the fires over the other buildings around them, sparking the idea that I could launch myself over the rows of dwellings with my own version of flight.

Was it a bird? Was it a plane? No! It was me! Leaping over a building in a single explosive bound! Using short bursts of my jet engine spell from my hands to not only launch me upwards but also slow my fall enough to land without breaking anything and repeating, I quickly caught up with the rest of the flying guards and landed with them in a stumble. Needed to work on that landing…

The building before us roared in flames with many ponies who’d probably been elsewhere volunteering to try and help put out the fires with buckets of water while pegasi, Dash included if the rainbow streaks were any indication, moved heavy storm clouds over the buildings to get the rain to try and put things out.

Noticing that the water was having next to no effect on the fire, I began to assume that the fire was a liquid based blaze which would mean that it would need… a Class… B extinguisher. Man, those years in construction really coming into play here…

“It’s not working! We need more water!” a pegasus stallion declared from above, black in fur with almost white mane and tail hair.

“Then get to it Thunderlane! Go declare a state of emergency at the weather station and get them cranking out storm clouds!” Rainbow’s voice demanded quickly and from out of sight. Couldn’t even see her inner flame.

“Shit, there are still ponies trapped inside!” A guard announced from near to me, pointing with a hoof as a single pony appeared at a second story window, beating on the glass with her hooves.

“Where’s your fire department?” I asked hurriedly given that everyone here fighting the flames seemed to all be volunteers. “Get them in there!”

“What’s a fire department?” the guard who’d acknowledged the trapped pony within asked back, looking confused. I gaped at the pony in disbelief before taking a deep breath and aiming myself at the door to the apparent banking establishment.

“Okay, then we’ve got a lot to do in coming months!” I mumbled to myself but loud enough for the pony to hear me and ignore me. I took off at a sprint and vaulted myself up towards the glass that the pony had been beating against with a burst of jet power. As I sailed through the air, I could already begin to feel the absolutely hellish heat of the fire within even before I curled myself up into a cannon ball and smashed through the glass.

With a new sudden hole, the fires rushed out above us with a mighty whooshing as I spread myself out over the pony and kept her covered with my now sizzling body.

“Geez, we should really stop meeting like this; ponies are going to talk!” the unmistakable voice of Amethyst Star announced with a giggle from beneath me.

Once it was… safer to do so, I stood myself up and hauled the pony to her hooves.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I demanded before reminding myself of why I had come up here to burn myself to death in the first place. Before she could reply, I held her short, “Never mind, tell me later! Is anyone else in here with you?”

“Not that I’m aware of, no!” Amethyst called back and accepted me picking her up by around her chest and under her butt to carry her to the window. “Uhm, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I can’t fly!”

“No, but the pegasi outside can catch you!” I shouted back and stood at the break in the window to get the attention of the ponies below. A pair of pegasi flew down, cowering back from the blaze behind me long enough for me to hand Star off to the pair and let her float down with their help.

Stepping back a ways, I was about to take a running leap out of the building when the sound of coughing barely alerted me to more ponies in the building. Shit.

“Hello?” I called out with as much of a drill sergeant’s voice as I could muster. “Is anyone still in here?”

“Y-yes!” A very weak voice replied from behind a wall of flaming debris. “Help us, please!”

“I’ll do my damned, ma’am!” I called back and approached the wall to fiery death to examine how I could try to get around it. It wasn’t happening. “Can you get somewhere safe?”

“I… I think we're safe here, for now!” The little feminine voice called back in fear.

“Then I have an idea, just wait okay?” I requested and back pedalled towards the window I had entered into where another pair of pegasi were waiting. Addressing the pair, “Get everyone back away from here, I’m going to try something dangerous to stop the fire!”

“Yes sir!” both ponies saluted back before floating back down to the ground to begin evacuations. Meanwhile, I stepped back away from the window till I was in the midst of the blaze and aimed myself towards the window with hands out before me. Felt like the blast portion of a galick gun blast…

Firing up my jet engine spell in both hands, I leaned myself forwards to try and counteract the force of the seal start up with my weight and feet which were beginning to melt and blend into the floor. Hurt like a mother fucker but if it’s rooted me, then it would serve to help my idea.

Being in an enclosed area while the engines fired up and began to power up, I felt the intense air around me begin to get sucked into the seals around my hands and then get fired out the other end and out the window. Leaning forwards even more, I pushed as much power into the spell as I could, hoping to draw out as much air from the building and get the fire moving with the airflow or eventually die out from lack of oxygen.

The flames coming from the seals began to shift from orange to white as the increased oxygen began to funnel raw flames past my hands, scorching my skin and grilling my fingers to an unpleasant black char. Grinding my teeth together against the unbelievable pain, I focused on the task of pushing as much of whatever magical energy in me I had left into the spell.

Soon the power left me drained and the spells dissipated. Fortunately, I had cleared out just enough fire and air that everything left burning in here was nothing more than small campfire flames and were easily controllable now.

Panting heavily from exertion and severe burns all over my body, I let my arms drop to my sides and began cracking the crispy skin from my hands, letting the fresh and regenerated skin underneath come forth. There was still plenty of bleeding wounds from where the regeneration hadn’t gotten to, but those would heal in time.

Sucking in a deep breath I ripped my feet from the floor, leaving most of my soles with the destroyed carpet and an ear splitting scream from my lungs hang about as I automatically moved to the debris nearby to begin moving it away.

“Are… are you okay in there?” I called out weakly and hoisted a beam out of the way with a little more than difficulty. With it not moving, I could only hear the sounds of heavy breathing and crying from beyond the blockade. This beam was not moving.

And then it did. Quite easily, in fact. Pushing the beam aside, I looked down to find the healthy body of Rainbow Dash at my side helping to clear away some of the fallen ceiling with her hooves.

“Our turn to be the hero, Skidrow.” Dash grinned back as I was moved out of the way by a trio of large pegasi stallions sweating profusely from underneath their armour. “We’ll take it from here.” she added as a fourth and fifth pegasi entered into the room to take me by my charred arms and airlift me from the building.

With me mumbling back about continuing to help but ultimately being ignored, I was taken out of the way of the residual heat and laid down on a stretcher before a blanket covered my body and a plastic mask was placed over my mouth to provide me oxygen by a squeeze bulb.

I don’t know what else happened to me since darkness rushed to greet me again.

I'm impressed. Get up. Try again.

Groaning came with the wakefulness that prevailed death number… whatever. The second thing to come was the sound of rhythmic beeping from my right and a distinct feeling of weight on both sides of whatever it was I was laying on. Muffled groaning came second to the beeping and every inch of my face and body either burned or itched like a mother fucker all at once. Opening my eyes, I let out a disappointed whine when my sight remained black despite everything. I was fucking blind again.

Rustling on my left told me that somepony was moving around upon noticing that I’d woken up and let out a tiny gasp. Sounded like… Twilight? Then who was on my right?

“You’re awake?” Yep, that was Twilight. The familiar feeling of my head tingling told me that she was doing something with my itchy face with her magic and I couldn’t help but wish she’d scratch the itch that was slowly driving me bat-shit insane. “Hold on, let me get these bandages off you, you probably don’t need them anymore anyways.”

Ahh, bandages. That would explain the itchiness and I hoped to oblivion for my blindness.

A minute of rustling and my head being moved forward to allow for access behind me and light began to gradually seep in through the cloth mummifying me.

Finally, the bandages on my head were completely removed and I opened my eyes to sight and gave a breath of relief. On my chest was Twilight, balling up the wad of cloth bandages before giving them a chuck into a nearby garbage can. On my right, still resting and curled up against my leg, was Rainbow Dash covered in soot and grime.

“How do you feel?” Twilight asked with a smile as she hopped down from my chest to return to where I’d felt her curled up at my left leg before.

“Like I just presented myself as a thanksgiving turkey to an oven.” I mumbled back and lifted my still bandaged hand to scratch at my clean shaven face. Apparently facial hair didn’t grow back in with the regeneration. Checking to see if I had eyebrows rewarded my face with the feeling of hairs being brushed against their grain of growth and told me that it was just facial hair that didn’t grow back. Checking the top of my head found myself bald and I sighed. Apparently hair growth was selective.

“A what turkey?” Twilight’s face dropped in fearful disgust, reminding me that they didn’t eat meat like turkey for the holidays.

“A thanksgiving turkey. I think something generically similar would be… end of Harvest?” I raised an eyebrow as I tried to make the connection. “Typical for humans would be to eat turkey, ham or sometimes chicken if the budget doesn’t allow for the larger bird. Massive spread for an entire family and extended family.”

“Right, yes I forgot you humans ate meat… We’ll have to remember to get you something appropriate for Hearth’s Warming in a couple months.” Twilight sighed and calmed herself down, resting her head on her crossed hooves. “So, you’re a hero now.” she announced with a warm smile.

“Don’t really feel like it.” I grumbled back and stared up at the speckled ceiling tiles. “I didn’t really do all that much.”

“That is straight up not true!” Twilight announced, standing herself up to hop down from the bed altogether and approached the curtain separating me from whoever was next over. “Let me introduce you to the ponies you saved last night!”

Drawing back every curtain in the room, I sat forward to greet five ponies all watching me along the same wall as me, and then five more across the room from me, all watching me with warm smiles. One of them I recognized as Amethyst Star, laying across the room from me directly. Next to me, on my left, laid a butter yellow pegasus mare with pink hair and small bandages on her face.

“Ten of you? I only remember… two…” I sat back and got comfortable again. “Amethyst and a small voice.”

“That voice…” the pegasus next to me began, “Was me.”

“Soren, you saved Fluttershy. She’s one of Rainbow’s and my best friends along with Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie Pie. By drawing all the fire out of the second story of the bank, you saved ten ponies by allowing the local guard, and Rainbow Dash, access to the building without them getting hurt.

“Thank you very much for saving all of us, we really appreciate it.” Fluttershy announced, drawing cheering from the other ponies who could do so and weren’t bandaged as heavily as I appeared to be. Amethyst merely watched me in silence, most of her upper face bandaged but her muzzle left free to contain a massive grin.

“The town wants to give you a medal for your heroics and a ceremony has been organized for the event. When you’re capable, we’ll be on-” Twilight began to explain with an accompaniment of notes of gratitude.

I cut her off, “I decline. I didn’t do anything in order to be labelled a hero or to gain any awards. I don’t want either.” I announced, silencing the entire room. “The thanks from everypony here who i’ve saved is enough. I don’t need, I don’t want a big event or any event. I’m a soldier, I do what I did because it was what I should do.”

“But, the rest of town already knows what you did last night. You should give them the opportunity to thank you for your heroics.” the unicorn mare before me protested, with Amethyst giving an agreeing nod.

“Then they can do so when they meet me on the street. I will not accept any rewards and I will not attend any events. That’s final.” I replied firmly, staring Twilight down to drive the point home. “Since I’m probably already healed, I’m going to work.”

“But,” Twilight began to protest further, however I held her short again with a hand and sitting myself up to begin the task of unravelling my body bandages.

Once I was unbandaged and dressed in a set of new clothing with a tag of Rarity’s butt print inside, I stopped at the room door to address everyone still recovering inside. “Thank you all for the thanks, that will be all.” I gave a curt nod before taking my leave, leaving Twilight to deal with Rainbow Dash who still slept on my vacant bed.

~~~

“Hey, Soren!” Crescent Rose yelled at me over the sound of me hammering a billet. I looked up from the swing and held my arm still to glance over at the pony as she entered into the forge. “You’ve got visitors!”

“I’m also in the middle of folding this billet, either you take over or they wait.” I remarked and went back to hammering down on the glowing red chunk of metal in my control.

“I’ll take over. You’ve got guards here to see you, it’s probably important.” Rose remarked and took control of the piece I was working on for me, leaving me to wipe my hands off on my apron and step into the shop portion of the building.

In the display room, looking at various pieces of weaponry and armour, stood three Guards in formal attire. When they noticed I’d entered, they all collected themselves and stood at attention.

“Sir, you are the human who helped rescue eleven ponies in last night’s explosion?” the lead pony requested, staring at me with the eyes of a militant.

“I am,” I replied and retrieved an already dirty cloth to further clean my hands off on. “What can I do for you three?”

“We heard you were a soldier in your past life,” I held the pony short with a hand.

“I’m happy here learning how to smith. Thanks for the offer.”

“Not the nature of our visit, but noted.” The Captain replied with a practised smile. “We’re here because we would like for you to lead us to the homes of two guards who lost their lives trying to rescue ponies in last night’s events. We… don’t really have experience giving loved ones the bad news. Since you’re the one who saved the ponies, we think they’ll take it a bit better from a hero.”

“You want me to be the messenger of death…” I concluded with a sorrowful release of breath. “I do have experience…”

“Will you do it?” The guard on the right, a bulky female, asked hopefully. “We would be more than grateful.”

“Fine, but only this once.” I announced and held a finger up to motion to wait. I turned back to the forge room. “Oi, Crescent Rose. The Guards want me to act the messenger of Death so i’ll be back in like… half an hour!”

“Consider it your lunch break!” Rose shouted back over the hammering of her hoof to the billet now being drawn out to length. “And make it an hour!”

“Got it boss!” I called back and removed my apron to hang on the wall nearby to where the rest of the tools hung in wait. I never liked doing the messenger of death bit, given that usually it was because I knew the person who’d died, but this time I could remain objective and hope that I had some kind of rehearsed line I would give.

With a nod, the trio of guards escorted me from the blacksmith and towards Twilight’s so I could change into my military formals before diverting to the families waiting to hear from their loved ones. I was about to destroy some lives.

Stab in the Heart

Being a messenger of death is never fun. It sucks even more when the one who answers the door is a young child. Those big innocent eyes as they look upon the face of a man in uniform and completely clueless about what was about to occur. When they switch to look at the three stallions in uniform standing at attention behind you just doing their best not to break down themselves. This was hurting them just as much as it was going to hurt the widow who’d just come down to check on who’d shown up.

“Lieutenant Guilty Spark, what’s going on here?” the mare inquired as her eyes met the face of the stallion behind me on my left, wrapping a forehoof around her child. “Is everything alright?”

“Ma’am, my name is Soren Mercer, ex-captain from my home world’s military. I have been requested by the guardsmen behind me to bring you some news regarding your husband.” I began automatically. “May I suggest sending your child inside?”

“What’s wrong? Is Blaze okay? Where is he?” the mare stared at me in confusion, switching between me and the ponies.

“Ma’am, it is my duty to inform you that at approximately eight-thirty last night, an explosion occurred at the Ponyville bank. It is unknown at this time if anypony was injured in the explosion. Guards and myself responded to the incident and did our best to put out the fires and save a handful of ponies trapped by debris on the second floor.” I explained, remaining perfectly still at attention while the stallions behind me threatened to break down. “It is my deepest regret to inform you that your husband gave his life in the line of duty trying to rescue to ponies trapped.”

The mare before me completely broke down, exploding into waterworks while her child looked up at her mother in confusion. A couple of sniffles from behind me told me that Guilty Spark had also broken down, probably due to having a friendly relation with the deceased.

“His sacrifice was not in vain as we not only put out the fires but saved the lives of eleven ponies trapped within. It is my understanding that not only did he die quickly and painlessly, but that a formal investigation is currently underway, lead by government officials from Canterlot.” Having given my speech, I stepped back from the door and let the Lieutenant approach and offer a shoulder to cry on before heading inside with the broken family with his superiors approval.

One down, one to go.

“Come on, let’s get this last one over with.” I announced and let the captain direct me towards the next unfortunate family.

A smaller house, looked to be at most two bedroom and maybe one bathroom, as though someone had taken an apartment suit and plopped it down on the side of the street and said “Fuck it!”

“I… I can’t do it, Captain… I can’t destroy her… Not again…” the second subordinate behind me announced, his voice shaking in fear at what he was about to be a part of. “I won’t be there to tell her her father’s also dead… I won’t do it again.”

“I don’t blame you lieutenant, I don’t want to be here at this filly’s house either.” the captain sighed as we stepped up onto the porch to gather ourselves. “But we can’t tell her nothing.”

“If you’d both like, I can do this myself. I don’t have any connection to whoever I'm about to destroy so I can do it cold, quickly and without breaking down.” I announced calmly, turning to address both ponies. “I will need the Captain here, however. A familiar face will help ease the pain.”

“I understand.” The Captain hauled in a deep breath before letting it go slowly and dismissing the second lieutenant. I stepped up to the door and pressed a finger to the buzzer before standing back with hands clasped behind my back.

The door opened and another filly appeared. Orange fur, short purple hair and no butt print. This one looked less clueless about what was going to happen when she saw our uniforms, but still remained silent.

“Morning miss. Is your mother home?” I asked as calmly as I could.

“No, it’s just me and my dad. Mom died a few years back.” the small pegasus with tiny wings replied, looking concerned as her eyes switched targets from me to the captain beside me. “Hey Captain.”

“Heya back Scootaloo.” The captain tried to offer a warm smile but ultimately failed in masking the pain in his voice. “Can we come in? We’d like to talk with you.”

Leaning down to whisper to only the captain, “You didn't tell me we were about to orphan a little girl…”

“You didn’t ask.” The Captain bit back bitterly before recomposing himself to address the small girl named Scootaloo.

“If you’re looking for my dad, he’s not back from his shift yet, but sure. You can wait in the living room.” Scootaloo backpedalled into the hallways of the small building and allowed us entrance.

“We’re not here for your father, we’re here for you.” I announced in a low tone and crouched down to get closer to face to face with the small pony while the Captain closed the door behind us.

“Why?” Scootaloo asked slowly, looking concerned ever more the longer she looked at us. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

“Scootaloo,” the Captain began, but I held him off with a raised hand.

“Late last night at approximately eight-thirty in the evening, an explosion went off at the Ponyville bank. Local guards and I responded immediately and began attempts to put the fires out and rescue eleven trapped ponies on the second floor.” I began but paused to take a deep breath. “Your father was one of the ponies stationed near the bank last night when the explosion went off.”

“Don’t say it.” Scootaloo’s eyes went narrow and she began making passes at backing away from me however tripped on a rug and ended up on her rump. “Don’t…”

“Your father died giving his life to save the ponies trapped on the second floor before I could clear out the fire. Thanks to his sacrifice, the eleven ponies are all alive and well and in the hospital.” I announced as the filly’s eyes burst into rivers of liquid pain. She collapsed where she sat and curled up into a small little ball of orange and purple. “Our deepest sympathies for your loss.” I stood and let the Captain take the task of comforting the pony, however she merely pushed him away and demanded he get out.

“Get out of here!” She screamed all while slamming her hooves onto the guard's armour to push us out. “Leave me alone!”

Getting ourselves out of there before either of us could sustain injury, we ended up on the doorstep and the door slammed shut behind us. I was about to say something when the sound of numerous glass objects inside were consecutively shattered against other things, accompanied by the wailings of the newly orphaned child.

Leaving the building grounds with the guard, we both let out sighs though they meant different things to us. The Captain’s was more mournful while mine was more exasperation. I was mostly just glad to be over this now.

“Well, with that over… We should get back to work.” I was already aimed back towards Twilight’s for a change of attire and the guard caught up quickly after realizing I had already left.

“Hey, thanks. For doing what we couldn’t. I know that it was my duty to break the news, since I was the commanding officer of the guards who’d lost their lives, but I didn’t have the courage to break the news. You did it so… heartlessly, tactlessly that I’m almost jealous.”

“Don’t be. Being heartless about telling someone that their loved one is never coming back isn’t something to be proud of.” I halted my advancement and turned to stare down at the guard. “I didn’t care that those parents were never coming back, because I’d never met those ponies and never achieved a level of familiarity like you guards did. You disappoint me that you asked me to fill in for you. You should have been the one to tell them.” And with that, I continued on my way, launching myself into the air with a burst of jet power to leave the pony behind.

~~~

“I do not envy you soldier types, having to play that messenger of death shit like that.” Rose sighed as she worked on sharpening a sword edge with me working on a second blade next to her. “I don’t know how you do it, able to go to a family and just utterly destroy them like that.”

“It’s not like we enjoy doing it,” I retorted and lifted the blade to check on how sharp I was making it by scraping my finger along its edge. “It’s a necessary evil when it comes to the military, of any world. Police officers have to do the same thing. I find it gets mildly easier by having a prepared speech beforehand, remaining completely professional and just getting it over with.”

“Sounds cold to me…” Rose muttered back and sighed while taking a moment to apply more grinding oil to our whetstones to keep the blades cool. “Do you remember how many times you’ve played the role on your world?”

“No, but we were at war. Stuff like that would have been done by correspondence during the war, or after when the left over officers had the duty to do it.” I explained and drew the straight sword back over the stone, slowly and carefully to ensure correct angle of grinding. “I remember doing it… at least twice before I ended up here.”

“Fucking sucks, all of it…” Crescent Rose lifted her blade to get another look at her handiwork before deciding it was acceptable and turned to examine my work. “You may need work in your forge welding techniques, but you’ve got sharpening and grinding down to a science, it seems.” she commended me on my craftsmanship as she took the blade in her hooves by the tang to stare down it’s length. “Well done, but I think we’re done for the day.”

“Excellent, my back is starting to stiffen up on me from sitting down so long.” I smirked and retrieved my project to set into storage for the time being before beginning the shop cleanup with the boss.

“Can I suggest getting a massage then?” Rose smirked back as I rolled my eyes.

“Would love to, but I'm broke as shit right now and I'm not confident in the ability of pony hooves to safely work my back.” I announced as I pulled off my apron to hang it on the hook next to the door into the display room.

“The masseurs do have specially designed soft sole shoes that they can wear. Just get them to use those and you’ll be fine!” Crescent strode alongside me and gave a casual nudge with her massive shoulder.

“I’ll think about it. I imagine that I'd be aiming for the spa across town, right?” I shrugged back and stepped out into the cool evening air. With Rose’s nod, “Thanks for the tip, I’ll keep it in mind when I get paid.”

“You’ll get paid end of next week, as agreed.” Crescent reminded as she waved me off then shut the door behind her and the sound of a heavy lock told me she’d gone.

Figuring I had nothing else left to do for tonight, I’d just head home to Twilight’s place and crash till tomorrow for the weekend.

~~~

Those plans about simply crashing for the night and taking it easy for tomorrow? Yeah, those went out the window as soon as I entered into the door into darkness. That darkness only lasted until the lights came on and nothing less than a hundred ponies all shouted “Surprise!”

I was seriously considering turning around and leaving to wander the town until daybreak, but something in my head was nagging me to stay despite hating parties and pretend to be sociable.

Notably visible in the forefront of the collection of pony bodies was those of Twilight and friends, including a still bandaged Fluttershy and Amethyst Star. The pink one with curly pink hair bouncing on her hooves with a massive smile looked ready to explode at any second and I was already making notes to refrain from interacting with her as much as possible.

“Look at him! He’s speechless!” Rarity announced, trying to cover up the slight scornful look I was giving everyone while I thought about walking off.

“That’s not what ah’d call that look, Rarity.” Applejack whispered to her friend, just loud enough that I could hear it. Rarity have a mild knock of shoulder against shoulder to correct Applejack and succeeded in silencing her.

“Well? What’re you waiting for? Come on in! This is a party thrown just for you!” The pink one announced, gaining a choir of cheering and enthusiastic whooping.

With an inward sigh, I reluctantly stepped further into the building and was almost immediately rushed by the entire conglomeration all at once.

“What’s this party for?” I nearly growled the question out, drilling daggers into Twilight since I figured this would have something to do with me being some kind of hero.

“This is our way of saying thank you for saving ponies at the bank! It’s also a Welcome-to-Ponyville party! Hiya! I’m Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie announced enthusiastically, practically bouncing through the ceiling at this point. My gaze switched back to Twilight and returned to a glare before returning to Pinkie.

“Thank you for throwing me this party. I’ll assume that Twilight didn’t tell you I don't like big events in my honour and we’ll just move on.” Swinging past Twilight, I grabbed up some clean clothing and escaped into the bathroom to change before returning to find alcohol. A lot of alcohol.

With a tumbler of whisky in hand, I turned to face the crowd of ponies all milling about in visitation before seven mares all approached me.

“Twilight, why did you go behind my back and get Pinkie to do this for me? I told you no events.” I demanded, the words dropping Pinkie’s ears as she realized how she’d been played by the unicorn and her efforts were unappreciated.

“Look, I understand that, but you’ve been a real grouch since getting here. You need to lighten up!” Twilight retorted while Pinkie recovered almost too quickly to bounce back into the crowd with Applejack and Rarity. “Fluttershy, Amethyst and I all agreed that this was the best way to thank you for saving their lives, even if you didn’t want it. You wouldn’t go to the award ceremony this afternoon, so we brought the ceremony here!”

“If I see even one glimmer from some kind of medal, I’m walking straight out that door.” I growled back, pointing towards the door out to the darkness of night. “I’m a soldier, not a child.”

“We still think that this is best for everypony…” Fluttershy mumbled back over the sound of the crowd around us.

“Fluttershy, I don’t mean to disrespect you or your friends, but I am the last person to deserve any kind of party.” I replied with a glance before aiming towards the front door and taking a leave of absence.

Stepping out into the cold night air, I lit up an engine seal in the palm of my hand for warmth given that I had no heavy clothing and was resigned to being stuck in a cotton t-shirt and jeans. Aiming the jet to the ground and adding the second one, I fired off like a rocket into the sky and got myself high enough that I was able to redirect myself towards the nearby lake and fire another burst to get me moving.

“You know, you’re being really rude to everypony back at Twilight’s right now.” Rainbow announced in a yell over the wind once she’d caught up to me. Her hair, like mine, had been pulled back by the air and looked to threaten to be torn off.

“Did you know that two guards lost their lives in that explosion last night?” I called back, getting closer to be heard. I didn’t have the vocal capabilities that Dash did, so this would have to suffice.

“No, I didn’t know. Is that why you won’t accept the award? Because you don’t feel like a hero?” Rainbow looked up at me as I now sailed directly overhead of her, keeping up with slow burns off my magic.

“That’s not it. I’m a soldier, I already know that there are due to be casualties in events of war or terrorist activities. It’s to be expected. I did my job, I helped save those ponies but I didn’t do it to be rewarded or recognized.” I explained and took a breath of the biting air. “The Guards who were supposed to tell the families came to me because they were cowards and couldn’t do it themselves. I had to the one to tell a mare and her child that their father would never return. I had to tell a pegasus girl that she is now an orphan because her father is dead. I’m no hero, Rainbow Dash. I don’t deserve recognition.”

“Soren, those families knew the risks of getting involved in the guard. They knew that one of them may not return.” Rainbow assured me with a small smile and lead me down to the lake side where we had regained my sight earlier.

“You think that this Scootaloo girl will understand that?” I remarked, sitting down on the sand to stare out at the water glittering under the early moonlight.

“Hold on, did you say Scootaloo?” Rainbow suddenly appeared in my lap, standing to stare me down with worry. “Don’t tell me her dad died…”

“He did, yes. She’ll be put into an orphanage because of my supposed heroics.” I remarked, resting back on my arms while Rainbow jumped to her wings and hovered in the air a bit.

“Dammit, Soren! You should have said something! You can’t just leave a filly like that alone no matter whether or not you know her!” she called out and took off into the air.

“It’s not like I knew you knew the girl!” I called back at the top of my lungs in the direction of Rainbow’s retreating flame.

I just can’t seem to catch a break with this one...

Close Encounters of the Magical Variety

Silently creeping through the foliage around me, ensuring that with every footstep I didn’t step on anything that would potentially give away my position. Not a branch, no fallen and dead leaves, nothing. Directly in front of me, plus about eight hundred meters give or take a few, was my assigned hit. I just had to get to the top of this hill, hide under all the underbrush with my spotter and get lined up. A quick check of my watch showed I still had half an hour to set up and sync up with the other snipers of this mission so I wasn’t in any real hurry.

Nearing to the edge of the path where the overlook revealed the enemy supply depot, I and my second got down on our stomachs, shouldering our weapons for the slow crawl to the edge for set up.

“Tombstone 3-2 reporting in position, over.” the whispering of the man in my ear told me that a second sniper pair had gotten into position and were already prepared to open fire. My partner and I were Tombstone 4-1 and 4-2 and just reached the edge of the cliff. While my spotter, whose face I couldn’t quite see with the shade and a particularly large leaf between us, brought out his binoculars to survey the area, I swapped out from my L96 to the .50 cal and popped the lens caps on the massive scope.

“Tombstone 2-2 reporting in position, over. Tombstone 4-2, you guys are late.” a female spotter noted, a slight chuckle in her voice as my spotter retrieved his own handset to respond.

“Tombstone 2-2, you actually just interrupted me about to report 4-2 in position so you’re the ones who’re late.” my spotter replied with a return chuckle.

“Uh huh, is that why your shooter was still opening his bipod when we reported in?” the female replied in jest before Tombstone Actual came over the radio to interrupt the banter.

“Alright, standard hit today. Your spotters all have your assigned targets and since everyone’s in position, we’ll be more than set for when they all show up at the same time.” Actual announced, sounding bored in his middle aged era. “Sit tight and we’ll be home for dinner.”

Sounds of ‘Copy’ came in from the other shooter teams before 4-2 gave our reply. Then silence.

Boring silence.

Extremely boring silence.

“Hey, 4-2. Pawn to Bishop Two, Queen’s level” 1-2 came in after a few minutes of boredom. Great, they were at this again. I couldn’t even keep up with either 1-2 or 4-2 in regular chess with a board, so how they could play 3D chess without a board was beyond me so I simply tuned them out and ensured that my rifle was up to snuff.

While the imaginary board game went on over the radio, sticking to a side channel to prevent irritating the other two teams, I continued to survey the area though my scope when something told me something was wrong. I don’t know what it was, but something felt off…

“4-2, shut it for a second.” I whispered, halting my spotter’s turn suddenly and turned my radio back to the agreed upon channel assigned to us at the briefing. “3-1, do you copy?”

“3-1. Send it.” came the reply from the remarkably large black man behind the scope to my eventual right.

“3-1, would you do me a favour and look over my quadrant from your angle a second? Tell me what you see?” I requested as I focused in on my assigned area, looking for what felt out of place.

“Copy that 4-1, what am I looking for, over?”

“I… don’t quite know. Something feels wrong here but I can’t put my finger on it. Requesting a second eye on the situation.” I replied with an unsure frown on my face. My spotter was already at work, surveying the area with his binocs to give me a third pair of eyes.

“One moment, 4-1, let me have a look.”

“Copy that.” I replied and turned my conversation to my spotter. “Do you see anything out of the ordinary?”

“Like what?” 4-2 requested and set his binocs down to glance at me in confusion. “I don’t see anything.”

“Exactly, where are all the guards? All I see down there are labourers.” I mumbled back and widened my view on the area to get a wider image to try and find any kind of guard, or even anyone with a gun.

“4-1, 3-1, come in?” 3-1 requested, setting my partner and I back to work.

“3-1, go ahead. What do you see?” I requested and out of curiosity, took a quick look at 3-1’s assigned area, then 1-1’s on my left. They had the same strange issue as well but didn’t seemed to have been phased by it.

“4-1, I don’t see anything wrong down there what so ever. I think the heat’s getting to you, over.” 3-1 reported before going radio silent. We still had about five minutes before the targets would show up, therefore we had a bit of time to go.

“Copy that, 3-1, thanks for the assistance.” I mumbled back mostly out of habit even though the radio hadn’t been turned on to broadcast my response. “4-2, tell me if you see guards down there.”

“I see guards down there. Some pretty nasty looking weapons down there as well. What’s wrong with you today?” 4-2 looked from his binocs to me in concern. “If you’re feeling compromised from something, we can get 1-1 to take our target while we retreat for medivac.”

“Nah, not necessary. I… I just don’t see guards or guns down there… All I see are labourers.” I reported back, still looking over the bodies of people working down below, unsuspecting of what was due to occur. “Maybe I’m right, maybe I am suffering heat stroke…”

“Let’s get you to the recovery base and get you hydrated.” 4-2 agreed and began the task of packing us up. “Tombstone Actual, this is Tombstone 4-2, 4-1 is suffering from severe heat stroke and is seeing hallucinations, Request permission to take him to recovery to get him fixed up. 1-1 can take our shot if necessary.”

“Confirmed.” Actual replied with a sigh of disappointment. Hey, in my defence I’d been out in the arctic for the last couple months and then I'm suddenly shipped to this fucking jungle. Never mind that I haven’t actually been back at base in… I can’t remember how many months… “Tombstone 1-1, 3-1, you two are to ensure that 4-1’s target is taken care of as soon as your targets are down. Clear?”

“Clear.” both 1-1 and 3-1 replied at the same time while I packed up my .50 cal and began inching backwards. “Heal quickly, 4-1. You’re the one who knows what you're doing out here.”

“Yeah, be back in a couple hours.” I nodded back for the sake of habit while my Spotter helped me to my feet and we began the trek back the way we came to base.

The radios were silent even after the time when the shots were supposed to have been taken. Instead of heavy gunshots all masking each other into one solitary sound, the unmistakable sound of carpet bombing told my spotter and I everything we needed to know. Tombstone 4-1 and 4-2 had narrowly escaped death by aerial bombing.

The blast waves were so great that they tore massive trees out of the ground and threw them around like plastic imitations. The blast was so great that it reached 4-2 and I almost a kilometre away while in recovery and knocked us both out.

Coming to with a heavy gasp, I bolted upright from my laying position but I was not where I remembered falling asleep.

“Where am I? What’s going on?” I demanded, looking around for potential attackers behind mostly friendly faces.

“Easy Soren, you’re fine. Your back at Twilight’s.” Applejack assured me, placing a hoof on my chest to push me back down to laying. “It’s the next day after the party you walked out on.”

“Which you’ll be apologizing to Pinkie for, by the way.” Twilight announced from behind AJ, glaring at me. What the hell was she glaring at me for? I told her no parties!

“How did I get here? I remember falling asleep at the lake.” I rubbed at my face but found that I was lacking feeling in most of my fingers. And my nose. And ears… “Why am I so numb?”

“After you walked out, Rainbow Dash followed you. She came back a couple minutes later talking about how Scootaloo’s now an orphan and that you were at the lake.” Rarity explained from Applejack’s left at the couch I laid out on. “When Applejack, Twilight and I found you, you were dead and covered in ice. We brought you back here to thaw you out and let you regenerate like you seem so fond of doing.”

“Okay, so that was… what… half an hour ago? Where’d everypony go?” I looked around at the three mares surrounding me and noted their raised eyebrows. “What?”

“You’ve been in a state of death for almost nine hours. It’s already a new day.” Twilight reported calmly. “When we found you and thawed you out, you didn’t seem to fully revive until just now when you awoke. Your body has been showing signs of trying to decompose and regenerate all at the same time.”

“Explains why my fingers and nose look necrotic…” I mumbled back and held up my hands to look at the black and dead fingers. “Okay, so why am I not regenerating properly?”

“I don’t know, this is entirely new to me.” Twilight shrugged back and hopped up onto my chest to settle down and lay on me. “Your body is still pretty cold to the touch, even through my fur so I'm going to try and warm you with my body heat.”

“No offence, but you’re like the size of a rottweiler. I don’t think your body warmth is going to do much on your own.” I groaned back with the heavier presence on my body adding to the already difficult task of breathing. Rarity and AJ both shared a look before climbing up behind Twilight to rest on my legs and lower torso.

“So we shall have to combine our efforts to properly resurrect you.” Rarity announced properly and settled down over my pelvis. AJ simply remained quiet and settled down for a nap over my legs, resting her head on her crossed hooves.

“Well great, now I’m not going anywhere.” I sighed and settled in myself, draping my arms over Twilight’s body which only made her shrink away at the action.

“What are you doing?” she demanded, sounding like I’d offended her or her ancestors.

“I can’t sleep very well with my arms at my side or above my head. Since you’re on my chest, where I usually put my arms, you’ll just have to suffer in silence.” I replied, my voice low and slow as I settled in for another sleep.

After a couple minutes of boredom and inability to sleep, “I heard there was a secret chord,” I began, low and slow.

“That David played and it pleased the lord,” Applejack continued with a pretty decent voice.

Rarity took over next and her voice was both unsurprising and surprising, “But you don’t really care for music, do you?”

“What’re you all doing?” Twilight smirked as she watched my face as we sang. Rarity and Applejack both continued on without me so I could explain.

“We’re singing. I can’t sleep and since no one is telling me to stop, neither can Rarity or AJ.” I remarked and joined in for the next couple verses.

Twilight gave a heavy sigh and joined in for the Hallelujahs following the verses I’d joined in on and soon the four of us had worked ourselves into harmonizing around me for the remainder of the song.

Once the song had run it’s course and we’d all returned to silence, all three ponies on my body settled back down for a nap. I returned my arms to lightly wrapped around Twilight’s body, making her give a small squeal before settling back down again.

“Twilight, darling,” Rarity began in a false whisper, poking the unicorn on the back with a hoof. “If you’d like, we can switch places. I’m curious what it would be like to be embraced like that.”

“Sure, we can switch.” Twilight replied, extracting herself from my light hold and stepped onto the couch long enough for Rarity to inch herself up and set herself down on my chest while Twilight took to my pelvis.

“Hello dear.” Rarity beamed and settled herself down, resting her head on my chest to stare at me. “Feel free to place your arms around me as you wish.”

“Okay…” I mumbled back and resumed my position with my arms wrapped around Rarity’s back. Her fur was significantly more soft that Twilight’s had been, as though she’d wrapped herself in the softest silk. Her body was also warmer than Twilight’s had been, not entirely sure why that was the case, but if it helps me regenerate faster then I wouldn’t complain.

“Oh yes, this is quite nice.” Rarity mumbled in mild bliss and turned to rest her the side of her head against my chest entirely, her ear pressed against my shirt and likely listening to the sound of my heartbeat. “I feel so warm… so… safe…”

“If it helps, you’re quite warm as well.” I muttered back and yawned heavily. Having spent so long partially dead or asleep, I wasn’t surprised that I was still so tired and was more than content to fall back asleep.

Except I couldn’t. Neither could Rarity apparently as she shifted a couple more times until she ended up staring at me with her big blue eyes.

“Can’t sleep either?” I asked in a true whisper given that both Twilight and Applejack seemed to have successfully fallen to slumbers.

“No, unfortunately I seem to have been well rested when I rose this morning. I find myself quite bored…” Rarity whispered back and shifted around on her hooves a bit before settling back down again. I could feel the sensation of her tail lightly swishing around over my hips and I wondered if it was brushing against Twilight or not.

“Well, I would have likely gone to the spa for a massage if I had any currency to my name. Since I don’t and I’m partially dead, I figure I might try out a bit of magic experimentation.” I whispered back and raised my hands to build the jet engine spell but held short of actually activating it and disturbing the napping mares.

“I was aware that you could fly, but I didn’t know it was with magic. Is it the same as our unicorn magic?” Rarity asked and twisted herself onto her back to look up at my hands with me. “I… suppose not. It’s quite extraordinary though, I don’t think i’ve ever seen any kind of magic like that before.”

“Yeah, and considering that magic isn’t a thing for normal humans, it only gets more extraordinary as it goes on. Twilight gave me a brief rundown of how it works so all I have to do is figure out the… keystones… and build new spells.” I explained and deactivated the spells in my hands, making Rarity turn onto her side to look at me properly.

“Well, Soren, I may not be as adept at spellcasting as Twilight, but I may be capable of assisting you in building your new magical incantations.” the white unicorn offered with a kind smile before turning onto her back once more. “So, how does your magic work?”

“According to Twilight it’s made up of at least three parts. The keystones, the bindings and the modifiers. The Keystones dictate what the spell is supposed to do, the modifiers tell the keystones how to do it, and the bindings keep it all from exploding.” I explained, rebuilding the jet engine spell again to show the different parts. “Since I was blind when I first built this spell, I am fairly certain that these larger spots are the keystones.” I explained, pointing out the larger glyphs that could have meant anything to me.

“Can you read those symbols? It’s nothing like I’ve ever seen in my life, even when I was in school.” Rarity asked, poking at the seal with a hoof though she just passed right through it. I poked at the seal with a finger and the seal seemed to expand into it’s multiple layers, the larger glyphs remaining behind everything else with smaller glyphs floating above them. The bindings floated over top all of that, still slowly rotating in alternating directions depending on which ring it was involved with.

“Nah, I haven’t foggiest idea. Twilight figured that it's using keystones whose words correlated to how jet engines work on my world. If I can figure out the other available words, then I’m sure I could build more spells.”

“Which necessitates the requirement for understanding a dead language.” Rarity concluded with an irritated sigh. “I think you’ve got your work cut out for you darling.”

“Agreed.” I mumbled back and cleared out the spell with a flick of the hand before staring at the empty space, trying to figure out how to start. “How do you think I should start?”

“I suggest with bindings. If those prevent destabilization, then it may be prudent to have those set up before anything else.” Rarity suggested, her hooves hanging limp essentially over her body as though she was a small dog resting on her back with paws in the air. Rarity, like Twilight and AJ, was about the size of a full grown rottie with the accompanying weight. “Maybe if you just think long and hard about the bindings, they’ll appear? How does your flying spell appear normally?”

“Mostly just I think about flying and then it all comes down to force of sheer will.” I explained and stared at my hand, willing the appearance of the bindings by mentally seeing the spinning layers appear on my hand. Focusing in on that word, binding, I began to push as much of my will into my hand as I could muster and searched for the feeling of that power that flowed through my hands whenever I used my spell.

Nothing came up.

“I got nothing…” I sighed back in defeat and dropped my hands to Rarity’s stomach and began drumming my fingers against her body. Rarity twisted her head to look up at me sideways, doing her best to look comforting.

“Perhaps then we should start with those key thingies? What kind of spell were you trying to create?”

“I don’t know exactly, what would you suggest?” I whispered back and shifted my head to ease Rarity’s neck as she continued to watch me inquiringly.

“‘Well, the first spell that any unicorn learns when they’re young is the telekinesis spell. It’s by far the easiest to accomplish no matter who casts it.” Rarity explained and for show, lifted my hands with her magic to create that tingling feeling I was growing accustomed to in order to bring it to her face and examine it.

“Okay, well then what would the keystones be for that spell then?”

“Well, what exactly is a keystone? How does the keystone dictate what the spell does?”

“Well, for the engine spell, I think it’s something like a keystone of ‘Compress’, ‘Fuel’ and ‘Ignite’. The modifiers tell the keystones what order to work in and what to compress, what the fuel source is and how often to ignite the mixture.”

“So, perhaps a telekinesis spell would be boiled down to something like… ‘Move’ or ‘Force’? The modifiers would then tell the keystone what direction to apply the force.” Rarity suggested, looking back up at me trying to be helpful. I gave a slight shrug and began trying to force the words ‘Move’ and ‘Force’ one after the other. Noticeably, a glyph appeared in dark blue when I began to think about the word ‘Force’ and floated in space over my hand.

“Seems that ‘Force’ is the keyword here.” I announced softly and turned my hand to see how the glyph responded. It seemed that the word followed my palm, though it remained oriented towards me so I could theoretically read it.

“Okay, so then the next logical step would be direction.” Rarity instructed, having become emboldened by the success of her suggestion. “Maybe the cardinal directions? Or perhaps it’s as simple as ‘Up, Down, Left,’ or ‘Right’?”

“Let’s try the simpler ones first…” I agreed and began thinking of such words, looking at the spot above the main glyph for ‘Forward’, below for ‘Backward’ and then at the glyph for ‘Up’ and ‘Down’. Each modifier appeared with thin lines snaking their ways to the main glyph and spinning as though they each had minds of their own and were dancing in place.

“Success! Okay, do you think you’ll want to add the bindings now? Or is there more to add?”

“Let’s just bind it all together and see what happens. We’ll add more on afterwards.” I began trying to imagine the scribblings that surrounded the spell, focusing in on the word Binding until faint traces of organized letters faded into view around the glyphs, creating a 3D model of this spell as opposed to the 2D jet engine spell. “Any idea why this one is three dimensional as opposed to my flying option?”

“Perhaps because it has more layers than the flight spell, it requires more space? I am only just giving an estimation, I haven’t the foggiest idea about the appropriate answer.” Rarity replied, watching the spell slowly rotate in place within my grasp. “Did it work? We haven’t exploded, so I suppose it may have.”

“I guess we’ll find out in a second, won’t we?” I sighed and the pair of us turned our heads towards the bookshelf ahead of the couch as I held my hand outstretched with the spell aimed at the books neatly organized. Nothing happened until I began to think about the word ‘Backward’, and pushed as much power as I could into the thought.

The books on the shelf began to shake a little bit, as though the spell was trying to work but didn’t have enough power. I rectified this by pushing even more power into the spell, feeling myself near to the bottom of the pit that contained my magical power.

“Come on!” I whispered in frustration. As though obeying, the entire shelf exploded from the bookcase and tore through the air towards our couch, startling Rarity and myself long enough that we both tried to apply a counteracting force. The sudden returning force exploded from my hand like an explosion and sent a few books aimed at the wall with enough force to rumble the entire building. The rest of the books continued to sail towards us but deflected off Rarity’s magical shield which scattered the remains across the library.

Both Twilight and AJ woke with a start at the assault, both confused and fearful of attack.

“This isn’t going to end well for us, I fear.” Rarity whispered as she twisted back onto her hooves to hop down from my chest and land on the floor to look as apologetic as she could.

“What happened here?” Twilight demanded as she noticed the state of her books and began furiously reorganizing them into their appropriate places on the shelf.

“Rarity and I tried to build a new spell, figured a telekinesis spell would’ve been a good place to start. I tested it out by trying to move a single book, but ended up pulling the entire shelf off all at once.” I reported dutifully once I’d worked myself to sitting upright.

Twilight stared at me, the workings of conflicting emotions on her face ranging from intrigue to rage. After a moment of considerations, Twilight drew in a deep breath and released it slowly to calm herself down.

“Fine, but as soon as you’re capable, you’re helping to clean this up.” she ordered and received a salute from me before turning to Rarity. “You’re helping.”

“Of course, darling. I would be remiss to not lend aid after having been a part of this disaster.” Rarity stood up proud on all four hooves before setting to the assigned task as requested.

“I think I'm plenty warm after this, I just can’t feel my legs.” I reported and swung the dead limbs over the edge of the couch to sit up properly. “Any ideas Twi?”

“Another death may expedite the recovery… I just... I don’t want to be responsible for another one of your deaths… again…” Twilight sighed with a hoof on her forehead while her horn remained lit up to help with the organization and clean-up efforts.

“Hey, I’m not arguing. I don’t really feel like adding another notch to my stock.” I agreed with a nod and poked experimentally at my thigh. Couldn’t feel it. “I just don’t feel like spending a day without my legs, been blind already and I’m done with being crippled.”

“What do you suggest I do then?”

“Maybe just break my lower spine? A solid kick should do it.” I suggested with an unsure shrug, watching Twilight and Rarity as they worked. Applejack was nearby, piling up the books that remained scattered around the room.

Upon my suggestion, “Well, if’n yeh don’t hold it against me, ah have the second strongest buck in Ponyville. I could… break... Your spine for you…” Applejack offered carefully, coming to terms with what she was suggesting as she said it and became ever more nervous about the suggestion.

“That won’t be necessary. I can just apply kinetic force to your back and make your body think it’s taken damage. It should get the regeneration working properly.” Twilight interjected helpfully and I couldn’t help but notice AJ let out a small breath of relief before returning to work. “Lay down on your stomach.”

Complying, I flipped myself onto my belly and got comfortable as best I could. Twilight climbed up onto the couch and then onto my back before approaching a spot along my spine and aimed her horn at the location.

“This… may hurt.” Twilight warned just before she charged up her horn and pushed the pure kinetic energy into my back with a thunderous clap.

The pain was immense, as though I had just got shot through the spine and left to die. The force applied flailed my legs and made me arch the rest of my body that I could feel before I fell limp once again, now completely numb.

“Yeah, remind me not to annoy Twilight…” AJ mumbled under her breath as the unicorn stepped down from my back to continue cleaning.

A belch from Twilight’s room and Spike appeared with a scroll in hand and a comic under his arm. “Letter from the princess, Twilight!” he called out and gave the scroll a toss from the second floor. Rarity caught the scroll before it hit the floor and passed it off to Twilight to read.

“Oh! I love these, I wonder what it says this time!” Twilight exclaimed with giddy, prancing about the room on the tips of her hooves before coming to a stop to actually read it. Clearing out her throat, Twilight read aloud in her best ‘Royal’ voice,

“‘Dear Twilight Sparkle. I urgently request the presence of you and the human as soon as you can be here. Some kind of strange weapon has been discovered by a local and has already injured a pony. Princess Luna and I believe it to be a weapon from the human’s world and have for now isolated the weapon in the vaults for safekeeping.’”

“If it’s from my world, then that can’t be good. Since Canterlot is still on the mountain side, it’s probably not a large explosive, but that doesn’t really make me feel any better.” I muttered under my breath and earned an agreeing nod from the mares around me.

“‘We require the human to appear and retrieve the weapon, as we believe he has the proper training and knowledge of how best to deal with this weapon. At your earliest, Princess Celestia.’” Twilight finished the read and looked up at me where I lay. “Is it possible that one of your weapons from your war had followed you here?”

With the best shrug I could give considering the state of my numb body, “I haven’t the foggiest fucking clue. Best I remember, I died with a weapon in my hands so it could have come with me and just fell somewhere else than where I exploded.”

“Then we need to get to Canterlot Castle quickly. If it’s already injured a pony, then it could only be a matter of time before it injures somepony else.” Twilight announced as she began to try and lift me from where I laid and sat me back up again. Something in my back seemed to have clicked into place and I popped upright suddenly.

“Woah, I can feel things again…” I remarked and stood up from where I sat and jogged in place a bit to get feeling back in my legs and feet. “Cool, it’s like some kind of impact massage or something… I’ll have to learn that for my own use later on.”

“Later, okay? Let's get to the train station and then we’ll talk about you learning dangerous spells.” Twilight remarked and pulled on my hand to lead me from the building. “Spike! Could you please finish up the little bit of cleaning while we’re gone?”

“Sure!” Spike called back as Rarity and AJ followed Twilight and I outside to close up.

“Rather than take the four hour long train, Twilight, get on my back and hold on.” I instructed and knelt down to allow access for the pony.

“Why?”

“I’m going to fly us there.” I explained simply, reminding the purple unicorn of my magic ability to fly.

“Oh, right.” Twilight’s eyebrows went up having been reminded about this fact before obeying and climbing onto my back to wrap her forelegs around my neck and locked her rear legs around my torso.

Standing and assuming the Ironman position, I lit the fires under myself and gave a good-bye nod to Rarity and AJ before firing off upwards.

Those Eyes

With very specific instructions from Twilight about what angle to launch ourselves at, when to apply thrusting force and at what angle of force to apply it to and then eventually the precise measurements required to safely land outside the Castle gates, the unicorn and I managed to span the few hundred kilometers with the limited magical reserves I had.

“Halt! State your business!” a pair of guards armed with decorative spears demanded, pointing the weapons in our direction as we approached.

“Calm down! Princess Celestia asked for us! It’s Twilight Sparkle and Soren Mercer.” Twilight replied in fear, however the fear lasted only a minute as the spears were raised back up and out of harm’s way.

“Of course, we apologize. Miss Sparkle, please make sure that the human stays near to you.” the guard on the left requested while the unicorn on the right pulled the gates open with her magic. “The weapon that was found was extremely powerful and I’m not sure I want to know what the human could do with it.”

“I’ve been asked by the princesses to determine what the weapon is and how best to neutralize it.” I replied to the loose accusation with an accompanying glare while passing through the gates with Twilight.

“And we should really get going, come on!” Twilight urged with a tug on my hand with her magic, leading me up a large cobblestone path towards the front of the castle. The road was lined with what looked like a gold or bronze plated curb with a white stone tile sidewalk that no one seemed to actually use. Lining the stonework was vibrantly lush green grass meticulously cared for with various stone paths leading away from the main road and decorative bushes lining those paths.

The road Twilight and I strode on split at a large fountain surrounded by various flower beds and circled around it to meet at the large steps up to the main doors that had been placed almost half a storey up, though the doors themselves rose at least two.

The castle had seemed to have been carved from one single piece of stone, with absolutely minimal seams carefully placed where no one could see without either a precise eye or looking for the seams directly. Accents of gold or bronze along window sills or door frames and set as the decorative lines of the pillars holding everything up disappeared around the sides of the building, suggesting that the decor continued along the entire exterior of the castle.

Twilight lead me up the stone steps to the doors and nodded at the squad of guards posted along the banisters protecting the entrance from foreign invaders. I happened to have caught a glance at a guard as I passed by him, wondering if the luminescent green irises were normal for guards.

“Come on, Celestia should be either in court, or should be near the vault with the weapon.” Twilight instructed and took a right turn as soon as we stepped through a barrier which kept the interior pleasantly air conditioned compared to the outside which was growing colder as the days grew on.

The aesthetics of the exterior seemed to have been replicated on the interior as well, with gold and/or bronze capping off the snow white of the stone architecture and in the same way that the entire building seemed to have been cut from one stone block. Tapestries in bright colours hung from between the windows, breaking the semi-monotonous scenery of the windows with the monotony of the drapes. The drapes seemed to come in about four varieties: one being a pink and yellow combination of an iconic looking sun, one in dark and darker blue with a print of a silver moon, one that seemed to combine both sun and moon icons on silver and gold, and the fourth and final one of a white and blue banner with two winged unicorns circling each other with the blue one below the white one.

Set against the walls, nestled in between overbearing columns and windows, sat various potted plants with a pair of guards on either side of the greenery. I had to wonder if some of these guards were real or not, or how large the Equestrian military actually was to have hundreds of guards posted in just one hallway.

“Something about this is bothering me…” Twilight whispered to me as her eyes seemed to be making similar conclusions to mine. This didn’t look like protective detail… this looked like war… “Why are there so many guards out today?”

“We have received some very disturbing news, Miss Sparkle.” A young woman's voice explained from behind us and from the looks of the guards snapping to attention, held some kind of rank. Twilight and I stopped and turned in place to greet the lecturer properly.

Stood before us was a pony-like creature nearly as tall as I was. Her shoulder came up to my belt line and her head rose up to my chest; she was probably just a bit taller than Crescent Rose was. Furred in dark blue with both a horn and massive wings spread out regally, her mane and tail looked to have been torn from the night sky itself and taped to the top of her head and her ass. An obsidian tiara sat neatly behind her horn with a matching collar around her neck emblazoned with a softly glowing silver crescent moon. Encompassing her hooves were four silver shoes that rose up the hoof wall and ended in mock spires that looked semi-reminiscent of dulled claws. A quick glance back past her wings showed a butt print in a black splotch with a crescent moon set into it.

Apparently my inspections had not gone unnoticed as the winged unicorn cleared her throat to bring me out of my mind.

“Something the matter?” she asked with a raised eyebrow, looking quite unimpressed with me as she gave me the once over from head to toe and back.

“Nope, just never seen anything like you before.” I replied simply before realizing I was speaking to royalty. I snapped to attention and added, “Ma’am.”

“He see’s now? When did this happen?” The princess switched gaze from me to Twilight as Twilight rounded past me and stood near to the princess.

“A couple days ago, actually. He saved Rainbow Dash from drowning at the date lake and she thanked him by kissing him. Apparently that sparked the sight in him.” Twilight explained, joining in on the returned staring. The dark princess seemed to scoff internally before turning away from me to address the unicorn directly.

“We’ve received disturbing news that a changeling army may be approaching from the badlands. We don’t know why they’ve suddenly decided to move, but we know it can’t be good news.”

“Is there anything we can do?” Twilight looked up at the elder and returned to walking alongside me as I was lead towards wherever the Celestia character was waiting for us.

“We have your brother preparing for the next couple of days in anticipation for his big day. He’s been resting up and taking it easy in order to cast an alicorn-level shield spell which he’ll have to maintain all through the event.” the princess explained with a sigh and turned our group down another hallway to continued the walk.

“What about my future sister-in-law? Is Cadence okay?” Twilight looked quite worried; apparently whatever these changeling things were, they were dangerous for some reason or another. What made it worse was their name: Changeling. If they were anything like their name suggests, then they could be anyone.

“Cadence is fine, she’s just starting to feel the early onset wedding jitters.” The Princess gave a reassuring smile to the smaller pony and we turned left down another hallway to find a much larger pony waiting for us near to the middle of the corridor.

Early inspections showed that the alicorn was probably as tall as I was, her shoulders coming up to my chest and her head very probably rising to meet my own. Wings sat folded on her sides as she waited but I could hazard a guess that they’d be the largest and probably most magnificent wings in the country. Her fur was shocking white and given the angle at which she stood, an image of the iconic sun rested on her flanks. Her head, chest and hooves were adorned in bejeweled gold, giving me reason to believe she was the primary of the diarchy. Her mane flowed with an impossible breeze, constantly forward past her head while her tail doubled back and flowed along her body.

“Princess Celestia!” Twilight exclaimed happily and took off at a gallop towards the larger princess to be wrapped in a hug with white wings. “I’ve missed you!”

“I’ve missed you as well, my faithful student.” Celestia replied, leading me to assume that the blue princess was Luna. How I didn’t get that from the multiple celestial bodies on her was beyond me. “I thank you for coming with the human so quickly.”

“You said weapon, I like weapons. If it is actually a human weapon, then I might as well be here anyway.” I shrugged back once I’d given a solid salute to the government official. “Especially since I know human weapons so well.”

“Indeed.” Celestia looked up at me while Twilight retreated to mine and Luna’s sides. “I’ve been told that you can see now and I’m sure there will be time for explanations later,”

“Rainbow Dash kissed me after I saved her from drowning in a lake.” I briefly interrupted, earning an accepting nod from the distinctly motherly alicorn.

“I see. Regardless, we have a weapon that needs to be neutralized.” Celestia began again as though I hadn’t spoken out of turn. “This way, please.”

Both alicorn’s horns began to glow, as did various locks on the massive door between Celestia and I. Soon, thundering rumbles announced that the locks inside the door had given way and the door was pushed open by both princesses’ magical abilities.

Following the ponies inside, I gave a mild whistle at the in-numerous artifacts, shiny things and sinister looking weapons piled high or set into display cases. In the middle of the room sat an illuminated table with a very familiar weapon resting on it’s side.

“Well…” I mumbled to myself, inadvertently gaining the attention of the ponies. “We meet again…”

“So it is your weapon.” Luna remarked as she and her sister allowed me to approach the table. “What is it?”

“This, powerful bastard, is a Barrett .50 calibre anti-tank rifle. I vaguely remember using it in the war when I died.” I explained and picked up the massive weapon by it’s handle in order to take proper possession of the weapon and examine it for it’s working order.

Pulling the bolt carrier back, an empty round was ejected and landed on the floor for Twilight to pick up and examine with her magic. The next round attempted to feed into the chamber but by way of ejecting the magazine, the weapon remained unloaded and declared safe.

“I thought you said that there was an injury, not a death.” I began, turning towards the ponies assembled with my rifle held against my chest and the safety locked in place.

“There was an injury, a pony found the weapon and apparently fired it. A pony nearby was struck down seemingly by an apparition and is left with a deep gash in the left side of his body.” Luna explained, glancing at the weapon to me then back again warily. “Just what kind of weapon is this?”

“Do you have crossbows?” I asked for clarification and received nods. “Then it’s like that, only extremely more powerful.”

“How much more powerful?” Celestia inquired this time, taking the empty casing from Twilight to examine it before lifting the magazine to check out the bullets themselves.

“Well, with a crossbow with a feet per second rating of about three hundred, you’ll get about fifty or sixty yards out of it with enough power to bring down medium or large game. This rifle…” I smirked and held the rifle closer to my chest when Luna and Twilight drew nearer. “Has a muzzle velocity of twenty-eight hundred feet per second,” all three jaws dropped to the floor and eyes went narrow. “Giving me an effective firing range of at average, two thousand yards.”

“I didn’t think it was even possible to hit something that far, let alone be able to accurately aim something like that.” Twilight whispered. I grinned again and removed the scope with a bit of difficulty to hold it out to the smaller of the three. “This is a four point five to fourteen by fifty, mark four scope. This allows me to accurately find and fire upon enemy targets almost two kilometers away from my present location.”

Twilight took the scope and peered through the smaller side to look around before I adjusted it to it’s 4.5 setting in order to not disorient the small pony.

“I at one point had an eight to eighty by fifty-six millimeter scope attached to it for one operation however had to give it up when I was done the mission.” I announced as the scope was passed to Luna, then to Celestia who passed it back to me for reattachment.

“Most importantly, can you neutralize the weapon easily?” Celestia gave a sigh as she watched me reattach the scope on the table before holding it against my chest again.

“Uhm… Actually…” Luna began, sounding nervous as she glanced at her sister. “I’d very much like to see the firepower of this particular weapon before it’s rendered inert.”

“I have to agree with Princess Luna. I’m curious about just how precise Soren can be with that rifle of his.” Twilight agreed cautiously, unsure whether she’d incur the wrath of her elder or not.

After a minute of considerations denoted by the shifting of her face, “Fine, but under careful watch by myself and the guard.”

“Yes!” Twilight cheered before settling down to direct her next inquiry at me. “What do you need for this?”

“Targets, a firing position and intelligence about this world’s physics.” I responded almost immediately but confidently. “I will also need to forge up new bullets for the weapon since I only seem to have this one magazine available to me.”

“Technically we can just create magical copies of the ammunition to your specifications, so there shouldn’t be any need for worry.” Twilight replied just as quickly as I did but continued, “what kind of physics information do you need?”

“Rotation of the planet, average strength of the wind, topographical layout of the firing field,” I began listing off but was cut off when Twilight held my lips shut with her magic.

“The planet doesn’t rotate, wind is controlled by the pegasi and we don’t really know how to create topographical maps.” she explained calmly and with that tone of voice suggesting I was crazy for making such claims.

“Then I’m good. I’ll need to zero in my scope in case anyone messed with it or something happened to it, then i’ll need to try a few test shots to get a sense of the planet’s gravity before I make the longest ranged shots.” I continued my explanation, not having been put off by the silencing.

“We’ll provide targets from our guard armoury and select a firing range dedicated to the range you’ve specified. What do you require for, ‘zeroing in’ your telescope?” Luna announced, giving me reason to shrug an eyebrow at the complacency I was getting.

“A target set at exactly one hundred yards from the firing position, then another target set at five hundred yards. I’ll also need some equipment made.” I opened the bipod on the rifle and set the entire assembly down on the table to turn back towards the princesses and Twilight. “Have to take care of my rifle, make sure it doesn’t blow anyone up if it misfires.”

“Can that actually happen?” Celestia raised an eyebrow in my direction as she lead our group from the vault for the time being.

“Probably not but who wants to take the chance?” I shrugged back and stepped out of the room with Twilight in company. “Do you still want me to disable the rifle for the time being?”

“It will be safe in the vaults, especially if it’s unloaded. I am confident that you’re the only one who knows how to operate that weapon.” the eldest princess was the last out and the first to help swing the massive heavy door shut and locked it with her sister’s help once more. “Come now, we still have much to discuss.”

“Ma’am.” I nodded back and trailed after the princesses away from the vault.

There were those glowing eyes again...

Zero In

“So, what is the point of all this, exactly?” Rainbow stared down at the gun which had been set up on a large plank of wood overlooking the area outside the castle. Celestia and Luna had set me up with a proper firing position that would allow me to put the full potential of the rifle to use. Splayed out around the gun was the paperwork that I’d use to calculate the shot with makeshift graphs provided by Twilight and some royal scientists or something.

“I’m going to fire a shot at a target that’s no bigger than a pony over two kilometers away. There is a lot of math that goes into the shot, thus the paperwork.” I explained and looked through the scope again in order to try and gauge distances.

“I get that, don’t understand any of that, but I get that. I want to know why the Princesses want to see you make such a shot in the first place.” Rainbow replied as she hopped up onto my back and settled down between my shoulder blades to watch what I was doing over my shoulder.

“It’s because they want to see a weapon make an impossible shot at what they consider to be impossible distances.”

“Right… Only ranged weapons we have are bows and crossbows. Don’t really have anything that can take down a target from over a kilometer away.” Dash sighed and set her head down on her crossed hooves. “What I want to know is how does it work? I can’t imagine anything being able to sling an arrow or bolt across that kind of distance without destroying the ammunition.”

Picking up a bullet from a nearby pile that had been recreated perfectly from the ammunition that had appeared with the rifle, I lifted it up to the pegasus on my back to show off. “This is no bolt or arrow. The brown tip is the bullet, the part that gets fired from the gun. The rest of it packs the explosive charge needed for sending the round.”

“What’s it made of?”

“Composite materials, some of which is lead, copper and other metals.”

“Oh. Isn’t lead toxic to ponies?”

“Lead is toxic to most biological matter if you come into direct contact with it with your skin. It’s why it’s coated with another non-toxic metal or material.” I explained and looked back over my shoulder at the pony on my back. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a couple shots to take.”

“Right, sure.” Rainbow stood herself up to take to wing in order to leave me in peace. “Good luck!” she shouted back, making me arch an eyebrow for a moment. She was replaced by Princess Luna who stood nearby and behind me in safety.

“What do you wish me to do to help?” she requested, standing proud as indicated by her shadow.

“After I make the shots, go retrieve what remains of the targets for me once I’ve cleared you to do so. I don’t want to accidentally kill you by mistake if you suddenly appear in the path of the bullet.” I requested, earning confirmation from the princess before she too took wing and left me in peace.

Once the assembled (the princesses, Twilight and friends minus Fluttershy, the Guard who were all making bets on whether I could actually make the shot, as well as assorted nobles who’d been invited to the display) had gathered and were finally silenced upon my turning onto my back to shush them, I flipped back over onto my stomach and set myself up behind the gun.

Chambering a round and clicking the safety off, I took a few moments to steady my breathing and lower my heartrate. With finger on trigger, sitting calm and ready to go, I entered my own little world and focused on the rate at which my lungs filled and emptied, timing each breath with when I’d pull the trigger with ease of practice.

“I still doubt his words. There is simply no possible method at which one could hit a target so far away!” I heard a stallion sneer to his compatriots, unaware that I could hear him perfectly. Putting the comment aside and relying on my skills, I lined up the shot with exactly where it should be and pulled the trigger.

The gun fired, the explosion had everypony duck for cover and the barrel pushed back against me with the recoil to load in the next round for me. I watched through the scope as the wake left behind by the bullet spun in ever increasing spirals until it disappeared from my range of view. My only indication that I’d hit anything was the target exploding into shrapnel and the subsequent splash when the bullet struck dirt.

Lining up the second shot with a smirk received by whispers of incredulity, I pulled the trigger again and set the round down range. This time, the least skittish ponies remained only cowering behind the railings, with the Princesses standing tall over everypony else, while the rest all ducked below for cover again.

Again, watching the shot on its travel with a practiced eye showed that the bullet had been affected somehow and touched down into the very leftmost side of the target; essentially taking an arm off an invisible human enemy. Even if I had only taken off an arm, the wound itself would prove fatal if the enemy didn’t receive immediate medical help.

Adjusting myself slightly, I turned to the third and final target and set my reticule up for the shot. This one seemed different, almost vaguely human in shape with a green camouflage pattern about it’s body. A glint in my scope fired off automatic warnings in my mind and I reacted first, putting a shot down range just as I saw the face of the man I was about to kill.

“Jeramy?” I mumbled to myself in shock before realizing that I’d already put the bullet down range and was about to take the life of one of my greatest friends. A second glint and I reacted almost as quickly as the first, firing a fourth shot down range, then a fifth and finally a sixth.

By the time I had engaged the safety, pulled the bolt back and dropped the magazine to clear the weapon, there was nothing left of the third target save for splinters and fragmentations.

Dropping my head to my firing platform and shutting my eyes as tight as I could, I willed the image of the enemy out of my mind with as much force as I could muster while the sound of wings alerted me to somepony approaching.

“Is it safe now?” Luna inquired, hovering nearby to my platform waiting for instruction. I merely nodded back and let the Princess disappear in a sphere of blue light. Collecting myself and keeping my hand away from the trigger I stared down through the scope to watch the blue form of Princess Luna shake her head and collect the targets remains with her magic; keeping each target and it’s splinters separated with a magical bubble.

With a pair of bubbles appearing, one in my scope and the other next to me, Luna made the instant transmission between locations which told me it was time to get up and properly address the audience.

“What are you carrying? Did you just pick up whatever garbage you could find?” A random noble demanded with a smirk while the other nobles all giggled at the poke at the princess. “Did the human just miss and asked you to grab whatever you could find in order to protect his poor excuse for dignity?”

“Silence!” Luna boomed, her voice causing a shockwave that toppled most of the nobles over all at once. Had she directed the word at me, I probably would have been sent over the firing platform to another death. “These are the remains of the targets that Master Soren struck with his weapon!” she announced, dropping the piles of debris on the platform near to me.

The entire audience was silent as they looked over the shrapnel between us and judged that due to the colour, material and vague shape of the straw target remains against the second target that I had nearly missed, Luna wasn’t lying and I was a force to be reckoned.

“That’s not even remotely possible! All we heard was a massive explosion! We didn’t even see anything in the air!” A noble sitting above the rest, a golden mane and glaring blue eyes shouted back furiously.

“That’s because the bullet gets fired faster than the speed of sound and is only thirteen millimeters in diameter.” I explained calmly and staring daggers back at the obnoxious noble. Even his voice was grating on my skin. “If you’d like more proof, why doesn’t Princess Luna transport you to the target location and I’ll put a couple rounds down at you? See if you’re still so willing to accuse me after you’re dead.”

“You dare to speak to me that way?” The noble puffed himself up haughtily while the rest of the audience merely watched in shocked silence. “I will have your head for that!”

“Go for it, if you’ve got the balls for it.” I challenged, standing in place and inadvertently scattering my equations.

“Are you declaring a challenge, human?” the noble grinned and a quick look from everyone told me that this was a bad idea. Even a glance at Luna, who’s eyes were quite wide warned me not to further provoke the white stallion.

I was never very good at backing down.

“Yes! I will challenge you!” I shouted back with an ever-increasingly malicious grin. The pony grinned back, matching my intent with his own before I held a finger up to add another point, “But, I don’t fight unless it’s to the death.”

“Agreed.” the unicorn stood from where he stood and trotted down the balcony towards the stairs while I leapt from the shooting platform and halted my fall with a burst of magic to land safely. Wouldn’t want to give away the trick up my sleeve just yet, would I? “The human has declared a challenge with me, a fight to the death! I, Prince Blueblood, accept and will take the life of this lowly specimen!”

Keeping to the nature of his words, “I, ex-military Captain Soren Mercer, have issued a challenge, a fight to the death.” I announced as a simplistic straight sword appearing on my hip by Luna’s providence. “I will take the life of this pathetic excuse of a Prince and by doing so, secure my display of power!” I held two fingers up to Luna, making her raise an eyebrow but complied and strapped a second straight sword to my other hip before retreating to the royal stands to sit with her sister.

“Princess Celestia, I can’t believe you’re allowing this!” I heard Twilight protest and with a quick glance, showed that Twilight was up on all four trying to plead with the eldest Alicorn. “This is barbaric!”

“But it is, unfortunately, tradition. A challenge against a member of Nobility has been issued and both parties have agreed to the terms and conditions of the fight.” Celestia groaned back with a look of mild disappointment. I was pretty sure she knew I was going to use my undeath to kind of cheat the fight, which meant that she was going to lose a Prince.

“If you wish to back out now, you may get down on and grovel at my hooves. Maybe I’ll let you live as my personal servant.” Blueblood sneered, drawing a rapier from his side with his magic and gave it a simple flourish.

“I’ll give you the same chance to surrender. At the cost of your horn, and your nobility.” I remarked, shifting the sneering grin into more of an instantly fuelled rage.

“I would never back down from a challenge!” Blueblood roared and charged at me. I remained where I stood, both swords remaining undrawn and hoped that wherever he’d run me through wouldn’t put me down for the fifteen minute break. “En Garde!”

Then he stabbed me. And by that, I mean I had about 37 inches of steel pushed into my body and penetrated out the back, miraculously just between my ribs and alongside my heart.

“Didn’t even draw his swords.” Blueblood mumbled and went to try and draw the sword from my body, however I held the sword in by the hilt with one hand and brought the second down on his horn in a tightly packed fist.

The pony’s head snapped sideways and his body followed after, ending up in the dirt and spinning away from me with the telekinetically amplified strike looking dazed and confused but alive. Granted, his horn was fizzling with sparks of magical power but refused to recover to form any sort of real spell.

“What… what manner of interloper struck me? I will have…” Blueblood tried to shout but in his daze, only managed to fumble his words. “I will have their head!”

“Oh, but we’re not done yet!” I called back, drawing the tiny pinpricks of his eyes to stare at me in horror as I slowly pulled the sword from my chest and tossed it aside. “You think it’s so easy to kill me?”

“But, I ran you through the chest! You should be dead!” The stallion screamed out in fear as I drew both my weapons with flair and placed both edges against either side of his neck, as though I were using a large pair of scissors.

“Should be, but I’m not. I guess your aim isn’t very good.” I mumbled back despite that a river of blood was running down both my chest and back and was soaking me through my clothes. “You lose.”

“Then kill me!” Blueblood hissed back, challenging me. I’ll admit, I was seriously considering the idea but with a glance upwards at the stands, judged I had a better idea.

“Okay, fine.” I turned back to the pony and raised one of the swords from his neck before bringing it back down on the pony.

The pony let out the least manly shriek I had ever heard in my life as the aim of the sword changed so that instead of cutting through the neck, it instead chopped through the horn on his head and gave him a fairly straight forward haircut all at once. The shriek shifted to an all-out scream of agony as I set both my blades on the ground to place my lips near to his ear.

“You're not worth the effort of cleaning your blood off these blades, let alone keeping you alive. You may do whatever you want, but remember this: You. Belong. To. Me.” I whispered hoarsely, putting as much malice as I could into my words before standing with both of my weapons in hand in order to sheath them for safekeeping. “Don’t go dying without my permission, understand?”

“Y-yes…” Blueblood whimpered back, staring up at me through watery eyes as his hooves cradled the nub of his horn and paramedics descended upon us both. “I understand.”

“Good.” I grinned back and allowed the medics to tear my shirt off with their magic before pouring as much of their healing spells as they could into both sides of the wound. “By the way, you’re surrendering your nobility.”

“But I-” Blueblood began to protest, but shut himself up with a glance from me. “Very well…” I had to admit, I was feeling great. Celestia and Luna both flew down with Twilight hitching a ride from Rainbow Dash and I was soon basking in the glow of both alicorns to the effect of my wounds closing up almost instantly.

“You realize that by challenging him to the death,” Celestia began in a tiny whisper directly to me over my shoulder while she worked on my back. Luna looked to be giving me a similar scowl as Celestia probably was, even while slowly waving her horn over my sealing wound. “You technically cheated. He will find out, and he will want vengeance.”

“I technically did, yes, and I technically didn’t. If he had taken off my head or done something to put me in the fifteen minute break, he would’ve won. Until I rose back up from the dead.” I whispered back by way of looking over my shoulder at the white princess. “By all means, this was a… kind of official and totally legit victory.” I smirked and turned where I stood to place a random peck on Celestia’s nose, making her flinch back before her eyes went narrow and Luna gave me a solid smack on my back with a hoof.

Aiming back towards the firing platform at a leisurely walk, “Besides, if he tries anything, I’ll just kill him!” I shouted back mostly to the princesses, but also to remind Blueblood of his current predicament, as I spun while I walked then burst myself into the air to land on the platform to gather my things.

As I gathered up the papers into my arms, Twilight appeared next to me in a bubble. Working quickly, she too gathered up the remains of my equations and handed them to me in silence.

“What?” I broke the silence, the skin on the back of my neck foretelling words would be shared between us; words that Twilight didn’t want to talk about.

“Why’d you kiss Princess Celestia?” the little unicorn fidgeted around with the remaining pages in her magical grasp, refusing to look at me. You know, I had a feeling it’d come around to that sooner than later.

“Stall out the conversation, that’s it. I was losing so I used the suddenness in order to make my escape.” I smirked though I hid doing so behind an uncaring shrug. Taking the pages from Twilight and rolling all the work up into a single unit, I lit the entire thing on fire with the jet engine spell and let it all crumble to ash. “If you think I'm some kind of player hoping to get in with Royalty in order to achieve power, position or wealth, then you’re wrong.”

“So, there isn’t anything you actually feel towards Princess Celestia?” Twilight looked up at me in some strange cross between hope and deep suspicion.

“Nah, nothing. I’m sure she’s a great person but I don’t know her enough.” I shrugged back and retrieved the rifle to hold onto it by the handle and awkwardly glide down with one hand centerline to my body at my waist line. Landing with only an uneasy landing, I carried the rifle at my side and approach the Princess sisters who were busy chattering amongst themselves.

Noticing our approach, Celestia turned to me with a reddened face but maintained composure as best she could. “Mister Mercer,” she began but I held her up with a hand.

“I apologize for my actions earlier, both the duel with Blueblood and the event that followed you healing me. It was inappropriate given our lack of proper relationship and I request that you not only take Blueblood into service in the castle as well that you might forgive me.” I announced, standing straight up and at attention with the Light Fifty at hand.

Clearly having had her stride destroyed a second time, Celestia’s mouth hung open and flapped wordlessly a few times before she let out a cough and returned to propriety.

“Yes, of course. I just request that you don’t make a habit out of either event, for both our sakes.” Celestia requested, standing up straight like nothing had happened whatsoever. “And what would you do with Blueblood? His life is yours, after all.”

With a groaning shrug, “I don’t know, maybe get him working with the servants. Teach him some humility working for his fellow ponies.” I suggested, looking off towards the sight of Blueblood being carted off on a stretcher with his horn resting on his chest. “After he recovers from having his horn taken.”

“Why,” Twilight began softly, staring after the stallion with me. “Why did you have to take his horn? It’s like taking a limb from a unicorn.”

“My reasons are few but important.” I began, turning back to Twilight while the Princesses went about their own way and returned to whatever affairs they had while Rainbow and friends all descended from the stands to join in on the visitation. Already they were chatting about what had transpired in the last fifteen minutes or so, so I paid them no real attention. “One: Blueblood was a prick who probably has never worked a day in his life. Two: Unicorns rely so heavily on their magic that even just putting him into servitude would’ve have much of an impact if he doesn’t get his hooves dirty.”

“Ah can totally get behind that there statement, Soren.” AJ remarked, giving me an acknowledging nod. “Nopony really learns their lessons ‘til they get their hooves dirty. Can’t achieve the same thing with their magics.”

“Right. Reason number three: I wasn’t going to let him get off without some kind of lasting injury after everything he said about me, which leads me to reason number four. I’m a vengeful being, most humans are to some degree. He pissed me off, I kicked his ass.” I announced and with rifle resting against my shoulder, was lead back into the castle by Twilight whose destination was the vaults once more.

“But still, to remove one’s horn… Seems much too cruel a punishment. I think I’d have rather accepted death.” Rarity gave a heavy breath, her voice sounding concerned. What that concern was aimed towards was beyond me. Second thought, maybe it wasn’t concern but empathy…

“Either way, he won’t be forgetting this for a long time.” As our group approached the hallway leading to the vault, Twilight and I took the leading positions over Twilight and Pinkie. Which reminded me: “Pinkie, a moment, please?” I requested and stepped out of line from the other ponies. Pinkie turned and shrugged back before bouncing on her hooves to along the wall with me while Twilight and group continued on.

“Sure, what’s up?” Pinkie’s voice was much to enthusiastic for my liking…

“I want to apologize for walking out on your party last night. It’s not your fault whatsoever.” I began, kneeling down to get closer to the pony and set the rifle to rest against the wall. “I had told Twilight the day before that I had wanted absolutely no event for congratulating me for my duties in saving Fluttershy and the rest at the bank fire. Fluttershy and Amethyst Star should have said something ahead of time.”

“I totally get it.” Pinkie waved off the apology like it was nothing. Ouch. “You were just doing what you thought was right during that rescue, right?” I nodded. “So you don’t really consider yourself a hero. Thing is though, everypony else does.”

“I don’t deserve their thanks or admiration. Two ponies lost their lives in that fire and I had to tell their families that they were dead. Scootaloo was orphaned because of it.”

“Those ponies gave their lives doing their job: protecting ponies. Their families knew the risks long ago.” Pinkie’s voice seemed to have come down a notch and ended up being more apathetic than I had expected. “Besides, there could have been a lot more lives lost if you hadn’t stepped in and saved everypony.”

I remained in silence, taking in the pink one’s words before standing with a bowed head and gave Pinkie a quick scratch behind the ears. “Thanks.” I took off again once I'd retrieved my weapon with Pinkie cheerfully bouncing alongside me till I stood in front of the group of ponies looking at the large vault that Celestia and Luna waited at.

“All due respect, Princesses,” I began, addressing the pair of alicorns as they went for the door lock mechanisms. “I think the rifle will be safest with someone who knows how to operate it. If it helps, I’ll disarm it and give you the missing piece.”

“I think it will be fine if you hold onto the weapon, as long as you do make it inoperable. You may hold onto whatever missing piece you remove.” Celestia replied with a warm smile and stepped away from the door. “Thank you for coming and clarifying things with the rifle. I entrust it to you implicitly.”

“Then if I may make one request?” I remained rooted where I stood but shifted my weight around a tad. “I’d like a sling made for the rifle, in order to make it easier to carry and fly back to Ponyville.”

“Of course, if you’ll provide an accurate drawing of the sling, then we’d be more than happy to conjure one up for you.” Luna nodded back and swept her hoof down towards the hall to indicate for me to follow her. “I will loan you some stationery, if you wish.”

“Thank you.” I nodded back and turned towards Twilight. “I’ll see you back home?”

“Sure, don’t be out late.” Twilight called back and took off in the opposite direction from Luna and I.

Author's Note

Quick, non-spoilery warning: The next chapter (Or chapter after, haven't decided yet) will be a kind of rehash of the show's second season finale. It's not going to be a complete transcription of the show's script, nor is Soren going to be the one to finally bring down Chrysalis, but he will have some play in the events.

In the Eyes of Death

Greetings,

Thank you for sticking with this while this lived, I seriously appreciated it. I had some kind of plans for this, though even that would be a bit too broad a term. I had theories, inklings of theories of ideas... I don't honestly know where this was going and I think that kind of helped kill this project, if my writer's block didn't just do that itself. As such, I don't really have anything I can write down as: "Here's my plan, this is where this was going and how it was going to end." so all I can really say is: Thank you.

Sincerely,

Soren Mercer

Foreword

Author's Note

You can completely skip this chapter, it's just me, the author, blathering on about the story and has nothing to do with the actual story line.

May contain Spoilers, dunno for certain.

Foreword

Warning, self-loathing and low self-confidence imminent, skip this chapter if you don't want me to ruin my own stories chances of being read.

Okay, so last night I read Forgotten by Sarcastic Brony, love it. Should read it if you get the chance.

Anywhoo, I took interest to his Marking system, but didn't quite like how he implemented it. I probably won't do it any better than him, so go read his story before you read this. That being said, this story has nothing to do with his story, no matter how similar events in my story turn out in compared to his. Some themes will remains closely related, simply because of how common the themes are across Fimfic so there's nothing I can do about that...

The main character is human and comes from our human realm, no magic or anything. He, on the other hand, has been modified to control a bit of magic of his own simply because it's something that fascinates me; giving semi-realistic know how on how a spell may actually work and what-not. That being said, Soren's not going to be some all-powerful god-like character with a multitude of super magic even if he can't be killed. At least I don't plan for him to be that way.

This isn't going to be some shameful self-plug story, I'm not going to take Soren and drop him into the established canon of the show though I may make references or gloss over episodes as I deem fit. I don't want Soren to be the end-all problem solver. I completely intend for Soren to cause problems of his own, though how or why I have yet to actually flesh out.

I have no idea what I'm actually doing with this story but I have an extremely vague idea. Like everything I've written and published here, I'm mostly just going to let it play out on it's own and drag me along for the ride. That being said, and this is where my low self-esteem comes barrelling in, I don't expect everything I write to be any good. I also don't plan to go over the past writing and rewrite it, simply because I find I have trouble rewriting a chapter after i've already established it and preceded it with later chapters that depend on it for the story.

Character tags will be updated as I see fit, as usual.

I may end up linking music in the story that I feel fits with what's going on in the story. Those selections may not be the best selection, but it's probably what I was listening to when I wrote that scene/chapter.

Someone at the end of the story will die, that's just how I write. Don't know who or how, but someone's gonna die.