The file of Celestia sat on my kitchen table, cold and unfeeling as an inanimate object should be. What Luna gave me was invaluable leverage, but I didn't know if I should read it. I was looking at the manilla folder, everything I didn't know about Celestia it was in there, and in my hand was a lighter. I nicknamed the lighter lucky, I stared at the lighter in my hand. Was I really considering going to war with her? I put the lighter away and opened the folder, she was born in the time when the three tribes were at war, by a herd of a unicorn stallion and pegasus mare, she gave birth to twins, Celestia and Luna. Celestia was born a few minutes older than Luna, they inherited traits from both parents, nothing unnatural. They met up with with an earth mare shaman that gave them the directions to the tree of harmony, when touching the tree they had reached the astral plane and ascended to become alicorns.

Something had said in the astral plane that their destinies were to become the rulers of the newly established Equestria, they believed it to be the voice of God. Then, after a lot of politicking and favors they had become the new rulers of Equestria, and then history happened, Discord, Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis, Sombra, Tirek. There is something that she is incredibly weak against, she is very heavily biased towards unicorns. She's a tribalist, and now I have her by the proverbial balls. The school for gifted unicorns, all of her past students being unicorns, the fact that most of her guards are unicorns. I just smiled, I got a weakness from her and I could go public with this. In fact, I just might I was writing out a letter to multiple news sources but stopped. What was I thinking? This person allows me to stay in her country, and I was about to expose her. I stopped, and took out my lighter then I burnt the letters. I then took out another piece of paper and started to write it. No more lies, no more secrets. I'm going to get the truth, no matter what and it starts today. I finished writing the letter and stood up, I opened the door to my cabin.

I closed it and locked the door, I walked into town. I stopped by Fluttershy's to tell her hello and give a quick bit of my time to Discord.

"Oh, hello Michael. Wonderful to see you again." Discord said. "Fluttershy has clued me into this plan of yours."

"The plan is off, I have a letter for Celestia. The secrets stop now, that includes you. You know almost everything about those two, and now so do I. Do you have, any secrets you want to tell me?"

"I know about Earth, I visit there from time to time, but I can't bring anyone over. I am being completely honest when I say that I don't know how you got here." Discord admitted.

"Thanks for telling me the truth," I said as I walked towards Ponyville, Twilight's castle being my destination.

I walked up to the castle and knocked on the crystal door, Spike answered it. Spike was almost as tall as I was, but he was bound to get bigger. He is a growing dragon after all, he looked up at me and smiled, "Hey Mickey, what are you doing here?"

"I need you to send a letter to Celestia for me." I held out the letter.

"Okay, sure thing." Spike took the letter, breathed his magic flame and sent it off. "Anything else you need?"

"Tell Twilight to get the girls and meet me at my cabin." I stated as I walked back home.

"What are you going to do?" Spike asked.

"I'm ending this." I said.

I sat in my cabin, looking at the structure I had built, it was my home for the past 3 years. However, it wasn't where my heart belonged. I had been tossed into a world that wasn't my own and was practically told good luck surviving. I left the door unlocked, waiting for the girls as I just stared at what I had accomplished in these past 3 years. Then there came a question, that question planted a seed of doubt in my mind, I it found difficult to answer this question, am I a good man? I don't know the answer to that, hell am I even a man at all anymore? The things a person does during war, it's a circumstance I would never try to bring this to my own doorstep. So, why did I? I'm a good marine, a man though? I think it's better if I ask the girls that question. Probably would come up with the same answer though. This is why I shouldn't be left alone anymore, I start having an existential crises.

I was about to think more on the subject when there was a knock at my door. I looked out the window to see it was the girls, I opened the door and let them in. They all sat on the floor since the cabin was built to my size. Wait a minute, I hear you thinking. If the cabin is built to your size how was Luna able to walk around freely and sit in your recliner? She's an alicorn, I'm more than positive she could adjust her size if she needed to. Why doesn't Twilight do it though? I guess she doesn't know the spell, seeing them sit on the floor like children while I sit in the big boy chair. I looked and saw Discord outside, he was welcome here. I didn't mind as long as he didn't mess anything up.

Twilight cleared her throat and broke the silence, "So, Mickey. Why did you call us here?"

"I'm going to confront Celestia, right here, right now. I'm not waiting for any longer, I ne-deserve some answers." I said, I then stood up. I may have been talking but I was also listening, I heard a chariot touch down outside of the forest. I walked outside to see Princess Celestia surrounded by guards, although I knew the guards were just for show. The girls soon joined me outside.

One of the guards blew a trumpet and then began to speak, "Now announcing Princess Celestia-"

"Shut it boy scout, everyone knows who she is," I interrupted the trumpet player. "I didn't invite you all the way out to my home for theatrics."

"Quite right." Celestia walked forward and dismissed the guards. She spotted Twilight and the others and smiled. "Twilight it's good to see you."

"You didn't come to see me Princess. Mickey called you here and quite frankly, we're behind him." Twilight retorted with a slight venom that I haven't seen before.

Celestia was taken aback by that comment, "Twilight?"

"I think she's made her position quite clear." I said, catching her attention. I then looked to Discord, "Discord could you please give us a room outside of time and space?"

Discord then smiled and snapped his talon and the eight of us disappeared. When I got a look of our surroundings it was a regular interrogation room. Discord has always had flair for the dramatic. I sat down and the file on Celestia appeared on the table. Celestia looked at it, "Keeping tabs on me?"

"Well, I tried." I shrugged, "But there's something that's always been...off."

The mane six were quiet as they observed from the other side of the window. "Oh?" Celestia said.

"Your 'backstory' is too perfect." I pointed out, "Everything about you is too perfect."

"Yes?" Celestia looked at me, "Is there a point?"

"I'm getting to it. Your backstory is made up, nothing can be too perfect. So it's a lie." I concluded.

"Why would I lie?" Celestia asked.

"Why would you manipulate your student and use her and her friends to fight your battles for you?" I retorted.

"I have my reasons." Celestia said.

"BULLSHIT!" I roared suddenly, breaking her calm. "You have constantly used your six subjects for what reason? Because you couldn't do it yourself?"

"They're the elements of harmony, they are supposed to defend Equestria." Celestia answered.

"No, you're the ruler. That's your job, you're supposed to use the Military. Not 6 fucking citizens with no combat training and no real way to defend themselves other than the 'magic of friendship'." I slammed my hand on the table. "So, cut the bullshit and tell the truth."

"I knew that Twilight had a special connection to the element of magic-"

"EEEHT." I made a buzzer sound, "Would you like to try again? Because I know you've tried to do this before, multiple times. With Sunset Shimmer, and Twilight and her unicorn friends at your school. You were taking stabs in the dark with no fucking clue about who really were the elements of harmony."

Celestia swallowed, "Yes."

"So you admit that you were trying to find the bearers for the elements of harmony without knowing exactly who you were looking for?" I asked.

"I do." Celestia said, then she stood up. "I don't have to stand for this. I'm leaving." She lit up her horn and teleported only to find herself back in the chair. "What have you done?" She nearly growled.

"It's not what I did, I asked Discord to do this. Your magic doesn't work in here, it just sends you back to this chair." I mentioned. "The girls deserve the truth, and I deserve some answers."

"The truth? You couldn't handle it." Celestia crossed her arms.

"YOU COULDN'T HANDLE WATCHING YOUR FRIENDS DIE IN YOUR FUCKING ARMS SO, I'D SAY WE'RE ABOUT EVEN!" I yelled, making her arms uncross and making her lean back as well.

"You don't know me." Celestia said.

"You don't know how far I'm willing to go." I replied. "Now tell me, why did you hide the fact that Nightmare Moon was coming?"

"I don't have to say anything." Celestia said.

"You have a lot of ponies, depending on faith in you. Including the girls however, I arrived and talked to them. I planted a seed of doubt, the less you say the more that the elements of harmony will doubt you. They're more than willing to stop working for you, are you willing to compromise the safety of your nation for a little bit of quiet time?" I leveraged.

"By the stars, I hate you." Celestia said. "I needed my student to be able grow. I needed them to be able to find the elements within themselves."

"Fair enough, why no warning? Why not even tell the military? You just up and poof, like a magician you disappear. Can you explain that?"

"Nightmare ambushed me, trapped me on the moon and when she was defeated I escaped." Celestia admitted.

"Why didn't you warn the girls about Discord?" I asked while taking out a pen and notebook.

"He was a lawn ornament, a statue, what did I have to worry about?" Celestia said.

"There was a change to the status quo, the elements of harmony had returned and there were murmurs of chaos, that must have caught your attention." I noted.

"It did." Celestia admitted, "I thought that the seals were going to hold tight."

"Everything wears down, even seals." I said, "Tirek."

"I didn't know he had escaped, when he had popped up then he had already absorbed enough magic to be a credible threat." Celestia admitted, "You know I'm doing this so I won't lose my assets."

"You call them assets, I call them people." I answered. "Twilight's ascension."

"You want to question, why I turned my student into an alicorn?" Celestia looked at me, "It was her destiny."

"It was supposed to be the destiny of Sunset Shimmer before her. You want to try that again or are you sticking to that story?" I asked.

"You keep referring to Sunset." Celestia said.

"That was your mistake, let me ask you this. Have you ever noticed that these events, whenever there's a mare in question it's a synonym of Twilight Sparkle?" I asked her, "Twilight Sparkle, a student you practically raised and tore away from her parents. Then you set up for a babysitting job for your niece, and put Cadence in charge of Twilight. Twilight's brother, Shining Armor a cadet in the guard academy meets Cadence, and the newly minted Alicorn uses her new magic of love to help influence herself over this cadet, the cadet rises through guard academy in record time, becomes captain, and after two years he gets married and becomes a prince. Do you see where all of this coming from? I'm going to help you it's a word that starts with an N."

"You're accusing me of Nepotism." Celestia's eyes widened.

"No, it's written in plain ink. Your captain of the guard is a married prince that is related to you, he's too close to you. He should be relieved." I said.

"You believe I'm behind this." Celestia said.

"I know you're behind this, who else could have orchestrated all of this, had the patience?" I asked.

Celestia looked down. "I'm, if I tell the truth. Will you say anything?"

"It depends on if I like the answer." I said.

"I had always tried looking for the next bearers of the elements, I knew that the bearers would be in a group of six and that the element of magic would be exceptionally gifted in magic, so I helped set up the school to help look for the element of magic." Celestia admitted, "When I found the potential bearer in Sunset, I was so overjoyed that I was blinded and saw that I was spoiling her."

"Maybe, you shouldn't raise children that aren't yours." I said, "Maybe, you should stop tearing them away from their parents."

"My personal proteges stopped after Twilight." Celestia said.

"Well, lesson fucking learned, am I right?" I said.

"Are we finished?" Celestia asked.

"We answered the girls questions, now we answer mine." I said, "Do you know why I'm here?"

"No I don't." Celestia took off her crown.

"Do you know about my world? Humans?"

"Yes, but we can't access earth." Celestia said.

"Now, why did you want me to become a breeder?" I asked. "You knew of humans, of our world, how technologically advanced we are. Did you want me to get out of the way? Do you think that I would, what? Take your throne? Tell me."

"Humans are apex predators, they are cunning, you have taken a world and turned it into a technological marvel. I signed a treaty, I couldn't use you to my advantage." Celestia admitted. "Because of...personal feelings."

Now this time I was the one on the receiving end of things. "Personal feelings."

"We can't access earth, but I did observe them. I watched them grow, fight, learn, discover, push the boundaries of what was possible all the time and I fell in love with them." Celestia admitted, "When a human arrived at my doorstep, a soldier, a warrior. It was all I could ever want, I wanted to make you a breeder. To keep you to myself."

"That's very selfish of you, also I'm a marine not a soldier there's a big difference." I said.

"Aren't I entitled to be a little selfish!? I had to put my sister on the moon! I had to watch as ponies and friends I love DIE! While I lived on!" Celestia screeched.

"You lost that entitlement when you had 6 untrained ponies do your work for you. You lost it all when you tore children away from their families on a whim, you're a leader of a country. LEAD it, you're not entitled to anything as soon as you took the reins of this country alongside your sister and tried to build it up. Far as I'm concerned, you don't deserve anything you're given. STOP PLAYING GAMES WITH PEOPLE!"

"If I told them the truth then they would never understand!" Celestia cried, "I did what I had to."

"AND HOW MANY LIVES DID IT RUIN!? HUH? YOU EVER THINK ABOUT CONSEQUENCES WHEN YOU DO SOMETHING!?" I shouted, "Because I do."

"Like you know anything about consequences." Celestia mumbled, yet I heard it.

"I'm going to give you a little peek into my history so, you better listen closely. Iraq, 2009 I was in charge of a simple patrol, everything going smoothly when all of a sudden an Al Qaeda convoy rolls around turns out, they had scouted this place for potential recruits. You know of the Al Qaeda right?" I asked her.

"I do." Celestia nodded.

"Well, I see the trucks coming in from a distance. They fire the first shot, that shot is a rocket propelled grenade that fires straight into the first patrol vehicle, turning 5 people charred corpses inside of a burnt metal shell, 5 people with mothers and fathers, some even had siblings. Do you want to know why they had died? Because, I decided that we were going to take a right instead of a left to get back to base, the reason being I knew a shortcut. Somehow, by the grace of god the rest of us killed the recruiters. Do you know their names? I do, Ryans, Hyde, Evan, Daniels, and Harrison." I listed off their names as I held up five fingers. "Three months later, I get back home and there's a big celebration in my hometown. Some of us never came back, some of us left pieces of ourselves in that desert, and others like me, lost family in there. Don't you even dare get all high and mighty, when you've never seen the consequences of your actions kill people you love." I stood up from my chair, "You've seen people live long, happy and fulfilling lives. I've seen them been cut short for little to no reason whatsoever. I can bet you your entire kingdom, that you've never had to kill a child."

I looked at the mirror, but I already knew the reactions of the girls behind that two-way mirror. Shock, horror, Fluttershy may even be crying, hell I'd bet my life on it. I just hung my head and looked at one of the leaders of Equestria. She was crying, after telling her my story well, part of it anyways. It was to be expected, no soldier leaves a war the same way they go into it, some adjust to life after war, some leave a piece of themselves behind, me however? I carry my burdens with me, I know some things weren't my fault but I still carry them with me.

"I'm so sorry." Celestia finally choked out of her tears.

"There's a difference between you and I, you're tens of thousands of years old and still know so little, I'm only 25 and know a lot about what happens to a person when they play devil's advocate for so long. I requested this meeting, not only for the truth but to stop you, because sooner or later, the pieces were going to fall apart. You'd have no elements of harmony to save you, no magic in the world to protect you. You'd just have yourself amidst the chaos of the world you tried to make perfect." I said while looking at the two-way mirror.

"How do you know that?" Celestia asked.

"Because, it could have been me. I could've shaken your world to it's very core and have you leave everything you've ever known in shambles." I stated.

"Why didn't you?"

"I didn't want to get into another fucking war." I stated, "There are a lot of things we need to talk about, not all of them will be today. Because, as far as we're concerned. We're done. Discord!"

With that simple name being yelled to the heavens there was the sound of a snap and then we were back in Equestria, like we hadn't even left. In fact, I think it was the same second we left, as if Discord snapped his talons and there was a sudden understanding between the human, the princess, and the element bearers. Celestia wiped her eyes and left the same way she came, but not the same ruler that she once was. No more games, no more lies nor secrets. Just the truth, that's all I could ever ask for.

Author's Note

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