The walk with Dapper was... annoying. He kept glancing at me every few seconds. It was bothersome.

"So why did you want me to come along?" Dapper asked, a curious look on his face.

"I already told you why," I replied.

"Because I'm a doctor? Because I'm 'good company'?" He inquired, "You didn't even bother asking Princess Celestia. I would've thought you wouldn't want to be around me. I mean, we just had an argument..."

"Did we? You didn't act like it afterwards," I said thoughtfully, speeding up slightly.

"...I didn't want to upset Harmony," He muttered. I stopped walking.

"And there it is," I chuckled, "You love my sister. I can understand why. She's innocent. Untainted by the world. And you sound honest enough. You would probably do anything for her. And I know for a fact that she'd be... happy with you..."

"What, have you suddenly had a change of heart?" He said, stopping behind me.

"Not in the slightest. I despise you. You're trying to steal my little sister away from me," I growled. My horn began to glow, the usual bright blue glow now darkened. I turned around, glaring at the stallion. He took a step back away from me.

"Different, your eyes..." He trailed off, the taste of fear wafting from him.

"You see, Dapper, I can't allow you to take Harmony from me. She means too much to me. I won't let you take that away," I snarled.

"Different, listen to me. You've been infected by Nightmare's magic. I feared this would happen. This isn't you talking," He said, standing his ground. His horn began to glow green.

"Oh, I can assure you, this is all me. You shouldn't of come, Dapper. Ponies like you don't understand the creatures that lurk here in the Everfree," I said in a sing-song voice, a feral grin on my face.

"Do you even realize how absolutely insane you sound?" He asked, getting into a defensive position. I snarled and lunged at the unicorn. He managed to roll out of the way.

"You know, I thought about just leaving you here. Leaving you to wander the Everfree until you die. But there's a chance you could find your way back, so I decided I should get rid of you myself," I chuckled, firing a blast of magic at the pony. He conjured a green shield and my magic bounced off of it harmlessly. He fired his own blast of magic at me and I tried to dodge. The magic grazed my bandages, cutting them clean off. I hissed at the stallion as the bandages fell away, revealing red blood mixed with a blue, goo-like substance.

"What in Celestia's name..." He breathed out. I took this opportunity to tackle the stallion, pinning him down easily. He stared at me in fear as I charged up a blast of magic.

"Goodbye, Dapper," I grinned. Suddenly, a blast of magic hit me in the side, right where my injury was. I let out a strangled gasp as I was thrown to the side by the impact. I glared at my attacker, slightly surprised to see Princess Celestia herself.

"Different, stand down," She commanded. I rolled my eyes.

"Celestia. Great to see you. I was actually gonna visit you after I was done here," I growled. Dapper had gotten up and went to stand next to Celestia. I glared at him as I stood up slowly.

"Is that so?" She said, her horn glowing a golden hue.

"Yes. I was going to take what you don't deserve," I confessed, dusting the dirt off of my coat.

"And what would that be?" She questioned.

"The love your subjects, of course," I grinned, charging up another blast of magic, "I mean, what Princess deserves love when she can't even love her own sister?"

That got to Celestia. She attacked with her golden magic and I countered with my own dark blue magic. I took a step back at the sudden force, digging my hooves into the dirt.

"Did I hit a nerve, Princess?" I grunted, giving a strained grin. She suddenly put more force into her magic and my grin vanished as my magic was pushed back towards me. I cried out in pain as my magic along with Celestia's crashed onto me.

I blinked dark spots from my vision, realizing I was on the ground. I looked up, dazed, as Celestia calmly strode up to me.

"I'm sorry that it must be this way, Different..."Celestia said solemnly. After that, everything went black...

Author's Note

A/N: I needed to speed things up a bit. This is gonna be fun.
Dapper belongs to Scar from EQA.