1 day later
Dodge City
8:30 AM

Dakota POV

I don’t know how long me and aqua were up last night but I’m usually already awake by 6 am because of school, i had also left some music going as we were talking last night but that’s not important. I was woken up by the sound of knocking on the door. Looking through the peephole, there was a pair of carts left outside the room we were in. Cautiously, I opened up the door and drew my handgun and approached the carts, only to have 2 bat pony night guards spring out from the carts and tackle and pin me to the ground.

“You think you would get away with this!?” One of them half shouted at me. “I didn’t think I would, I knew I would.” I replied before kicking out of their hold on me and sprang to my feet and got into a fighting stance. “You better be ready for the Ass kicking I’m about to bestow on both of you. You are choosing to fight a 4th-degree black belt.” I simply stated before they charged at me. I sideswiped both of them and grabbed the leg of one then and proceeded to throw him into a wall while the other one charged me again. He kicked me in the rib cage but I was able to block most of his attack and counter-attack. All of the noise must have woken aqua from her sleep because she dashed out of the room in her armor and proceeded to beat the shit out of the other bat pony that had gotten back up “aqua!? What are you doing!?” I shouted “I couldn’t let you have all the fun now could I!” She replied. I punched the bat pony that I was brawling with In the face and hit him square in the torso with a back leg round kick followed up with a reverse sidekick to the torso. Focusing back on the guard that I was working on, He had gotten back up and charged at me once again. I side stepped him and grabbed his head and proceeded to smash it through a mirror nearby next to the elevator after i ripped his helmet off. That seemed to do the trick as he didn’t get back up and Aqua had just knocked out the other bat pony guard.

“Well, it’s clear that Celestia organized this.” I said to her “yep. She even decided to send Luna’s guards to do the job.” She replied. “Come on. There is a dumpster right below our balcony and we can dump their bodies in it” we dragged their unconscious bodies onto the balconies and looked down and saw a whole ton of royal guards down on street level along with the princesses and even the element bearers. We just dumped their bodies over the balcony and watched them land in the dumpster. Celestia gave me a worried look while everyone else just looked pissed off like someone took a shit in their sock drawer. I just gave them best “don’t give a fuck” face and just stuck up both of my middle fingers then went back inside with aqua.

“Dakota, given the circumstances, I feel like now would be the best time to tell you this. ever since I first saw you, I couldn’t stop thinking about you, even when I was on duty my thoughts would turn to you and I didn’t really know why. I just looked at you when you first came to canterlot and felt my heart catch in my throat. I guess what I’m trying to say is...that I like you...like like you. And I mean that i like you as more than a friend.” She confessed to me. “Aqua I...I don’t know what to say about that. I’m lost for words. Your the first one that has ever displayed any sort of romantic interest in me. I don’t know how to feel. But at the same time, I would be lying if I said I didn’t like you too. I think we would be a great couple.” I said as I accepted her confession. As I said this, a big smile formed on her mouth as happy tears fell from her eyes. She jumped on me and pulled me into a deep and passionate kiss. I simply returned her kiss as this seemed to please her immensely as she used her wings to pull me in closer to her.

This would explain why she had been acting so strange around me for the past two weeks, she had a major crush on me and was having a hard time hiding it. Whenever I talked to her, she would get all nervous and stutter and blush a little bit as well. I originally thought it was just because I liked to mess with her every now and then since that's what we would always do since she was actually my best friend, but to here her say that she liked me as more than a friend with her own words was entirely different. I was confused above all else but i was happy. Knowing that she was also now my first girlfriend made it even better.

We were like this for almost 5 minutes when I saw out of my peripheral vision that there was a bunch of Pegasi guards hovering outside of the hotel room all staring at us and many of them had a deep blush on their faces. We finally pulled away from each other as a single strand of saliva still connected us together. I got up and grabbed my gun from the hallway and went back into the room. “I’m very happy that we feel this way about each other Dakota. I’m hopeful that one day we could possibly even start a family.” Aqua said to me, but upon doing so, I got really depressed at the mention of “family” as i knew that i would probably never see them again. I felt hot tears pool up in my eyes as I felt my back hit the wall as i slumped down onto the floor and curled up and started to quietly sob to myself. Aqua got worried by this as she walked over to me and sat down next to me. She draped one of her wings over my back and tried to comfort me. "I'm sorry. I didn't know just how sensitive you still were about that topic." she said . "You've got nothing to be sorry for, its just the fact that I won't ever get to see my parents, my younger sister, my grandparents, cousins, aunts, or uncles ever again and i'll never get to go back home either." I tried to reply to as best I could in between sobs. She asked me what my home was like, At the same time, a certain john denver song in my playlist started playing. I just told her to listen to the song and she would get an idea of what my home state was like.

Upon the song ending, she had a look of understanding on her face as she started to tear up herself and just hugged me tightly as I returned the gesture. I opened my eyes and looked over her shoulder and saw all of the pegasi that were hovering outside now holding looks of sadness, understanding, and sympathy in their faces as they looked at us. we stayed like this for what felt like hours until we finally pulled away and wiped our tears away. "I'm sorry about that Aqua, I just got upset about the fact that I wont get to see my relatives or my home again, but im not gonna let that ruin what we have." I said to her "I understand Dakota. I know what you are going through right now and I would be pretty devestated if I was never able to see my relatives or my home again. I'll help you get through this, I promise." she said to me. "Here, You should put this on" She said while she handed me what looked like an armband with her cutie mark on it. "Wearing it means that you are already in a relationship and who you belong to." she said to me. "Alright then, I will. By doing this, we will be the first human and pony couple in history. This is a special day. Come on Aqua, Lets go back to Canterlot." I said as we packed up and left the hotel room. Once we were in the lobby, I handed the key back to the pony behind the corner and apologized to him about last night and left some money behind on the counter.

Once we were outside of the hotel, I was blinded by the intense mid-morning sunlight. I had my DevTac helmet in my left hand and put it back on my head as we got outside since the lenses were tinted and had a UV protective coating on them. Once we were outside, everypony was shocked by the armband they saw on my right arm. Celestia saw this as well and tried to hide her crushed expression but wasn't doing very well at it and flew off. I felt really bad about that knowing that she is now heartbroken by seeing me and Aqua together but I would fix that later. For now, I had something to say. "Everypony, I'm sorry about everything that has happened within the last 2 days. I know my mistakes will take time to fix but last night, In that hotel room, I met somepony special, somepony I saw as an equal, Somepony I saw as a significant other, She now stands beside me at this moment. I know what I did was risky, dangerous, and wrong but I just wanted to find a place to hide in until the heat season was over, and in the process, I risked the lives of my 2 friends and I nearly died as well. But I am sorry for not clearing things up, for killing a bunch of changelings, endangering others, and taking a hostage. I hope you can all forgive me in some way." I was just preaching to the choir at that point but it was either that or stay silent and try to dash towards my truck which was surprisingly still running. Almost everyponies expression had softened into one of understanding and neutrality. A few ponies were still skeptical including a certain rainbow-maned element bearer and lunar princess. "We are willing to overlook these events on one condition." luna sort of demanded. "You bring the other humans back and apologize to my sister for breaking her heart and we will put these events in the past." Luna offered. "Deal. I'll call the others right now and get their locations." I said as I pulled out my iPhone and started a group call.

"Guys I was found and I need to know where you are so we can get you to safety. I know it sounds like bullshit but that's what the princess wants." I said

"Alright then. I'm in some random ass town called Appaloosa with brian and Kevin but we are all in different parts of the town. Also, another one of those portal things opened up last night and shit out 3 more vehicles so now 3 more humans are here and we already know who they are. take a guess on their names." Gerson told me. "I'm guessing Natalie, Kendall, and manuel." I replied. "Close but instead of Kendall, its Trevor that came through with them. Also just as a heads up, These ponies seem pissed at them for accidentally destroying their property when it wasnt their fault and now they are pissed at us for defending them." Gerson told me "They're alright and we have been trying to explain things to them but they are still having little freakouts here and there." Brian said this time. "Alright, stay put. I'm coming to get you guys. Also, these royal guard ponies are coming as well. They said it is to ensure their safety but we'll see if thats actually the case though. I'll see you guys soon." I hung up the phone and looked towards Luna. "Well now you know where they are." I told her. "good. And as for my sister?" she said. "I don't know where the hell she went so we'll have to put a hold on that for now." I said.

Getting back in my ford, I opened the front passenger side door to allow her to get in with me. Once I buckled the seatbelt for her and shut the door, we departed for Appaloosa. It was roughly a 3-hour drive from dodge city to appaloosa but I didn't care all that much. I had aqua to keep me company and some sabaton albums on my phone to keep me awake on the drive there. Metal music usually did a good job at keeping me awake so I started listening to the Swedish heavy metal band and sang along to many of the songs, Aqua even tried to join in with me even though she didn't know the lyrics, it was the effort that counted. I looked in my mirrors and saw 2 carriages following behind me on either side of my truck. One had Celestia's sun while the other had Luna's moon. I'm guessing the princesses were gonna make sure they were alright as well.

it was roughly 2 hours before we reached appaloosa and I could hear a lot of locomotion and some fighting in the town as well. On one side, ponies against my friends were fighting with ponies that were protecting them and trying to prove their innocence and that the accidental destruction of property was not their fault. A group of anti-human ponies were blocking my path and forced me to drive like a mad man on cocaine. dodging and weaving through the narrow streets with a truck as wide as mine was hard enough, dodging these crazy ponies was even harder as they were actively trying to stop me. pegasi were flying beside me while unicorns were firing magic bolts at my truck but they ricocheted off with ease since like I mentioned before, I installed armor plating in this thing. They were following me in carriages that functioned exactly like cars but they were powered by magic and were much slower. I was having to drive like baby driver through the narrow streets to try and lose them. The ponies that were helping me, had blocked the path behind me to block off the ponies chasing me and cleared a path for me. After 5 minutes, I arrived at the town center and I could see 3 cars, 3 humans, and for some reason a Kenworth semi-truck in the middle as well. "Come on aqua, We got to help them because these guys seem pissed off!" I said as I hopped out of my truck and jumped into the middle of them to protect my friends. I jumped out with Aqua and made sure that they were alright. They had minor cuts and scrapes on parts of their faces and their cars were still in operable condition.

Just then, Gerson, Brian, and Kevin came drifting in at full speed to help us out. They used their trucks to block the ponies that were against us and held them back. I grabbed a Scorpion SMG from the black void part of my weather guard and fired a couple of rounds into the area to get their attention. "I do not care what your stance is on them if you hate them or not. However, I will not standby and let you try to hurt them while they are already injured. I am not afraid to defend them using any means necessary and I mean ANY means necessary." that seemed to put some fear into those assholes. The rest of the royal guards landed in the center of town and helped clean up the scene. I asked my friends how they got here and if they need medical help. After I was done with them, I went and inspected the semi-truck close by and somehow didn't notice earlier that there was a flatbed trailer a couple of feet away ready to be attached. Trevor told me that his drive train was broken and Manuel had a dead battery and couldn't start his car. We obviously couldn't leave this here so we did the only thing we could.

We loaded their cars onto the flatbed trailer along with my own ford and I got into the Kenworth and found the keys tucked up in the sun visor like it was a movie or something. I started lining up the trailer after we strapped down the cars. I never hooked up a trailer before on my own or without a spotter. With the obvious blind spot directly behind me because this was a sleeper cab, I had to rely entirely on my mirrors to see where the trailers kingpin was in relation to the trucks fifth hitch. I felt something click and lock into place. I got out and walked around to the trailer and I had caught it perfectly. I climbed back in the truck and set the trailer brake real quick. I walked back around to the truck and grabbed the loom of cables real quick and started hooking them up. Green for lights, red for main brakes, and blue for secondary. I did a tug test after connecting the flatbed and were ready to leave. Natalie and Trevor got in with Brian while Manuel got in with Gerson. Aqua opted to get in with me again as she climbed into the semi.

I had always wanted to be a trucker ever since I was still in kindergarten and now I'm finally getting my chance. I already knew what did what in the truck since my uncle owns a Kenworth W900 which is what I was driving right now. All of the chrome-lined gauges, Switches, and other things felt nostalgiac to me and my uncle had even taught me a little bit on how to drive a semi-truck from time to time and even taught me how to drive while pulling a trailer. That got me thinking about home again. Aqua noticed this as she was shaking me to snap me out of my thoughts as I had been daydreaming and almost ran over a couple crossing the road. I slammed on the brake pedal and flipped the switch that controls the engine brake and blasted the horn for 5 full seconds until the truck came to a halt. They rushed out of the intersection as I let off of the horn and ran past us giving me looks of anger and distrust. "What the hell did you brake check us for Dakota?" I heard Kevin's voice come through the trucks CB since I had switched its channels. "There was a couple of retards in the road and decided that they could take on a 24-ton big rig and just stood there in the road." I said back into my CB. It would take around 7 hours for us to get back to canterlot and judging from where the sun was on the horizon, I could tell that it was going to be a long night.

Author's Note

I'm feeling more like this story should have a sequel when its done. You guys decide if it deserves one.