One Last Chance

The awoken stallion was staring down Discord, who was looking rather uncomfortable. The draconequus seemed intent on not looking him in the eyes, as if he had something to fear from this odd pony. However, neither would reveal to the onlookers exactly what was going on. Discord wasn't revealing anything, and the stallion was in no mood to talk either. His face was unreadable. He stood there with a blank look, devoid of any kind of emotion. It was as if the one thing that had yet to be unfrozen, was his expression. Several uncomfortable seconds passed, everypony squirming on the spot, tension rising and festering over time. The six friends couldn't help but fear the worst. The white pegasus and Discord, were they enemies? Were they estranged friends? Why had Discord never mentioned him? Something was going on and it wasn't good, not in the slightest. Somepony had to speak.

"Um, Discord? Do you know who this is?" Fluttershy was the fist to speak up, confused as to how her friend was related to this odd stallion who had randomly appeared one day in Ponyville, frozen. It was perfectly plausible to believe that Discord had wronged this pony in some way. However, Fluttershy didn't want to believe, that with his violent history, he had done even more to harm others. She had worked very hard to help Discord change his ways, and she didn't want anything, or anypony, to upset that delicate balance that had just recently been achieved. Finally, Discord snapped out of his haze.

He took a moment to speak, but honestly, he might as well have not spoken. His words were vague and muddled, "I think I do, but, I don't know how... he's… I think it needs to… I can't really talk about it with you. I mean, I think this needs to stay between me and him. It's kind of personal."

He looked sympathetically at the mysterious stallion, desperately hoping he would put aside any feelings of deep hatred for the sake of everypony around him. He stared back and thought about it for a second, before barely nodding. The pegasus stooped his head and began to walk away, slowly. "Wait!" Discord shouted at him. It was no use, though, he didn't want to talk. Discord made no attempt to go after him, he felt it would be best to give him his space.

The six other ponies weren't letting him off so easily though and trotted up beside him, still eager to get him to the hospital. They tried to coax and guide him towards Ponyville General, but he seemed completely and singularly focused on going the other way. The six walked alongside him for another few minutes, expressing their concern for his safety and health until Twilight Sparkle was sure that he wasn't going to cooperate. She was in no mood to chase this strange pony all around Ponyville. Teleporting in front of him, she stomped on the ground.

"Okay! I get it! You don't want to go to the hospital!" She said firmly. "If you don't want to then fine. At least tell us why, for the last two days, you've been sitting on the ground completely frozen by a spell that's been feeding off of an energy source that I can't identify! I know everything about magic, and yet you seem completely unfazed by a type of spell that had never been documented in the history of Equestria! What are you hiding?" At this the stallion raised his head, staring at her. He stayed in this position for a few seconds before turning around, heading directly to the hospital just down the road. It seemed he was eager not to discuss such an issue. Everypony sighed in relief. Whoever this strange pegasus was, he required their full attention. He wasn't normal, and everypony was still on edge after the recent changeling invasion. For all they knew he could be a spy for Chysalis, or a new foe entirely. There was always the chance he was just a normal pony with particularly bad luck. Either way, it would be best to keep him on their radar for the next few days. They followed him into the hospital and guided him to the front desk. He got checked in within a couple minutes thanks to the entire hospital ward recognising the Princess of Friendship. He was taken away on a gurney, per Twilight's request, and the six waited in the foyer. They weren't alone for long though as the other six ponies from earlier joined them to check on their now awakened acquaintance. It seemed everypony was eager to find out more about Ponyville's latest visitor.

"He's in perfect health." said the doctor proudly, happy he could help out princess Twilight. "I'll send him back out." Apparently it hadn't taken very long to check him over and give him a clean bill of health, he looked immaculate, like a perfect example of what healthy looked like according to the doctor. It was almost scary how healthy he was. His blood pressure was normal, his heart rate was normal, breathing, normal. He showed no signs of dehydration or any other problems he should've contracted from laying on the ground for days on end. There was absolutely nothing wrong with him. The twelve ponies nodded their thanks and walked out to greet their silent friend. He walked out of his room in no better a mood than before, looking at all the ponies waiting for him. A curious look passed over his face and he cocked his head to the side. Everypony assumed it was because his eyes were shut when the other six had been checking on him, so he was unfamiliar with them. The twelve of them walked over to him, Rarity was the first to speak.

"Hello there, sorry to drag you to the hospital like that, but we were worried about you and figured you could use some help. I'm Rarity, what should we call you?" The pony uttered his second set of words, his voice was monotone, expressionless.

"Thank you for retrieving me, but I must be going now, places to be. You know how it is."

The twelve of them didn't really know what to say. Standing in front of them was a pegasus that wasn't the least bit concerned about any of the events that had transpired over the last few hours, or being in a town he was unfamiliar with, or the fact that he had been dragged into a hospital for a physical by some ponies he had never met in his life. He should've been at least a little worried, right? He didn't even care to tell them his own name, or to ask theirs. He casually walked through the double doors out into the afternoon sun. Pinkie Pie followed suit, undeterred by his strange behaviour. She had to discuss something with him.

"Hey mister! I haven't seen you around here lately which is odd because I know everypony around here! In fact I'm not sure if I've seen you ever, which is also odd because I've seen just about everypony in this town and all of the towns next to us at some point or another! *gasp* does that mean you're new here? Because if you are new here that means I have a very special surprise for you! In fact, I think I'm going to throw you a super special surprise welcome to Ponyville party!" The pegasus turned to look at her and said... nothing, he just kept walking. "Okiedokie then! I'm gonna go do that! You stay here!" She bounced off, to plan his 'surprise' party. The stallion simply kept walking. having nowhere to be, he decided to take a walk around the town.

He didn't have to walk long though. As while he was walking down the block, his head in a swivel, his eyes landed upon something that intrigued him. Down at the end of the road was a large, crystalline building, a castle he would assume. That was definitely worth investigating while he was in town. He began to walk towards it.

Twilight and her friends were gathered around the holographic table in the center of Twilights Castle, every single one of them had been called simultaneously so it was probably something pretty important. The friends were glad they had been called though, as it had been a while, a few weeks, actually. The map had called them all there for a reason, why? No one was sure. Everypony had been getting concerned that the map might stop calling them altogether, but here they were, back together, ready to take on whatever the mystical device had summoned them to the castle for. What could it be? Whatever it was it must've been worth the wait.

"So!" Rainbow Dash broke the silence. "Where are we going today?" Everyone else wasn't really paying attention to her though, they were all completely entranced by the map. Rainbow Dash took a second to examine the hologram, and to her surprise their cutie marks were not hovering above any particular city or town, valley, nothing. In fact, their marks were nowhere to be seen on the map. In place of them there was a single grey dot, beeping like a radar scan. That wasn't the only thing out of place though, as the dot was directly outside of the castle and getting closer. Looks like there wasn't any grand mission after all. Everypony looked disappointed and confused, clearly a few of them had built up a much more exciting endeavor in their minds. Rainbow Dash sighed and got out of her cutie mark emblemed chair. She volunteered to check out whatever the problem was as everypony else began to get up and walk away. However they were all interrupted when the doors swung open revealing a familiar face. It was the mysterious pegasus they had spent hours trying to save. For some reason he was now inviting himself into Twilight's castle. He really could've just knocked. Twilight often had visitors and wasn't completely against letting ponies take a look around. The intruding pony, however, cared not for announcing his arrival or checking with his 'host' to see if he could come in. He began to walk towards them.

"Oh, hi." Said Rainbow Dash, hovering a few feet in front of him. She was just as confused as everypony else, except the mysterious stallion, who was retaining his passive, emotionless demeanor. He walked right past Rainbow Dash, distracted by something in the distance. He walked over to the holographic table, entranced by its odd design and unusual purpose. He scanned over it once more before looking at everypony else. His face was no longer serious and melancholic, more curious. He looked like he was trying lo put a puzzle together but was missing a few pieces. He was looking for something, but what? He began to look over the entire room, his eyes scanning the ceiling, the walls, even the ponies in front of him. Nopony interrupted him as he always looked like he was on the brink of discovery. There wasn't anything particularly interesting in the room. All that was in there were the six friends, the chandelier, the chairs and the table. Eventually, he stopped scanning over the room and turned to face them, realising he was confusing everypony.

"My apologies for breaking into your castle." He said to the ponies. "I have never seen anything quite like it." Nopony was quite sure what to say, so Twilight spoke up. She cleared her throat,

"No problem, we get visitors all the time. I'm just curious as to why the map called us here just to deal with a security issue."

"Hm?" The mysterious stallion was now much more curious.

"Um, Twilight, I'm not sure he knows what the map is." Applejack reminded her.

"Oh yes, allow me to explain. I'm Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends" gesturing to them "This is Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Pinkie Pie. We never caught your name." She waited for a response. Unfortunately, the stallion seemed preoccupied with the map sitting in front of him. Twilight decided to continue with her explanation,

"This map usually calls us here two at a time to help deal with a friendship issue, but today it called every single one of us to let us know there was a small breach. It could've just sent one of us, really." She finished explaining and the white pegasus looked at her with curiosity in his eyes.

"So that's what this is, very interesting." He said. "Well, you six are very lucky to be entrusted with such an important task." He never spoke with any hint of interest but Twilight could tell he was intrigued by the magical device. He took a step back, taking in the scenery, nearly backing out the door. He looked around the room before settling his eyes on the centre. The six friends stood before him and after a couple seconds, he walked forward again, a look of discovery on his face. He was smiling, barely smiling but still, he hadn't smiled since arriving.

"Well. I'm sorry to interrupt, but thank you for showing me all of this. It truly is one of the most interesting things I've seen in a while." He said. "It's been nice meeting all of you. I have one last question, if I may." Everyone nodded hesitantly, what could he possibly have left to say? His question was,

"Do you all know Princess Celestia?" He asked. What an odd question. Did he know her? A friend perhaps? Everypony nodded in affirmation. "Very interesting," He said, "It's happening again."