A Simple Soul

Chapters

Chapter 1: Hospital Reception
Chapter 2: My experience on the Friendship Express and 'The Dream'.
Chapter 3: Zach plays Cupid.
Chapter 4: Zachary's New Image
Chapter 5: Zach likes them both
Chapter 6: The Reveal, also meet 'it'.
Chapter 8: Brunch is best served hot
Chapter 9: How Zach met Barb, his new best friend.....sort of.
Chapter 10: Dark Phoenix, or a copycat?
Chapter 11: Zach Gains Some New Tricks, And Revisits His Love For Dancing Games.
Chapter 12: Zach enjoys a little bit of Bush...
Chapter 13: Zach's on Fire.... literally.
Chapter 14: Zachary and Barb meet Twilight and Spike... Sort of.
Chapter 15: Tea with Twilight and Meeting Applejack
Prologue
Chapter 7: Zach is faced with an abomination of marriage.

Chapter 1: Hospital Reception

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 2: My experience on the Friendship Express and 'The Dream'.

Author's Note

Since the release of K-12, I had the idea of taking one of the songs from the album and incorporating it into this chapter. Sorry for the video being virtual, it was the only one I could find on such short notice. If I do come across the music video I'll replace it as soon possible.

Chapter 2: My experience on the Friendship Express and 'The Dream'.

"Welcome to the Friendship Express, may I interest you with some freshly squeezed orange juice?"

A stewardess asked as she looked at me with a smile on her face, I looked up at her while sitting on one of the many seats in the train car on the massive train. Let me explain how I got on in this position in the first place. After being teleported into Equestria and after waking up from a two-week coma in a local hospital, I received a letter from who was described to be the princess of this land, in the letter it said I was invited to attend a morning breakfast with said princess to discuss my citizenship and I will be inspected to make sure I wasn't in any way shape or form a threat to this land. After fully recovering from my injuries, practicing my posture and mannerisms, and having the privilege of banging, one of the hospital's nurses in secret I was finally ready to meet the princess. Now how I got on the train in the first place was nothing short of a miracle. She must really be interested in meeting me because what came along with the letter was a first-class ticket on the Friendship Express; And let me just tell you, you get what you pay for when you're in first class. When you first look at the first-class cart, you'd be pretty disappointed thinking it was a complete rip off considering that it looked a lot like the coach carts. But after a while of being in the first-class cart, I started to see the perks of getting that come with getting a first-class ticket, some of the perks include reclining chairs, a window view of every train stop and complimentary meals, drinks and what they call a hoof message. Being raised in a household that lived off a minimum wage lifestyle, I immediately took advantage of everything that was practically given to me in the first class cart, and you do get your money's worth when traveling in this cart. That mare not only broke every bone in my body, but she also rubbed my whole back with all four hooves. Never in my life have I ever been happier to lay on the floor until I got that message, I felt so comfortable that for a portion of the trip I was napping on the floor. Now I was on a chair as I looked up at the train mare smiling at me before consulting with the mare.

"Yes, I would love some orange juice, about your menu options…"

I said as I looked at the menu that was given to me by the stewardess, seeing mostly vegetarian options on it. This was one of the many problems I was going to face being an omnivorous human. I understood that the equines of Equestria were mostly vegetarians so asking for something like a cheeseburger was going to be very uncomfortable for them. After another brief view of the menu, I would see something that I knew I was going to enjoy as I closed the menu looking back at the mare seeing her patient waiting for me to make a decision as I continued speaking.

"...never mind, I'll have some of that orange juice you offered and a yogurt parfait by instead of almonds could I get oats and berries please?"

I asked smiling at her I knew I was going to have breakfast waiting for me at the Royal castle so I didn't want to ruin it by eating a huge meal on the train. By picking the parfait I wasn't going to be eating too much so I could leave room for some of the food that'll be offered at the castle as I gave the menu back to the mare, she gave me a friendly smile taking the menu off my hands holding it in between her blue vest, giving me a smile before saying.

"Absolutely sir, before I leave, I would like to say it's an honor to be serving you, sir. It's not every day I could go home and say I serviced a completely different species to my kids, anyway I'll be back with your meal, sir."

She said giving me a small bow as she looked forward trotting away while making her way towards the next cart I could see a little sway in her step, why I was staring in the first place was beyond me. I mean it's right there, clearly displayed right in front of me and it didn't help that she would stop almost reaching the door to the next cart as she looked back at me, winking at me before walking out the door and into the next cart, chuckling nervously after she left. I lean against my hand as I stared out the window, watching as I noticed the green grass on the ground and the leaves on the trees looking so beautiful as the wind would blow through them. Living on earth for so many years I get so used to seeing dead plants and trees being so lifeless, so it was literally a breath of fresh air that I get to see the trees looking so healthy and beautiful. It was weird being the only one in the cart, being completely empty, alone and quiet. Which meant I didn't get wondering eyes and mad dogging glares as I relaxed my head against my hand, enjoying the sounds of silence. I started to become sleepy as my eyes would slowly start to close taking one last look at the empty cart as I eyes closed. After what seemed to be a thirty-minute nap I would wake up to the sound of the voice over announces from the train conductor hearing a very soothing beep before hearing the conductor speak.

"Mares and Gentlecolts, we hope that you're enjoying your experience on the Friendship Express. We will be arriving on our next stop 'Canterlot Castle' in the next hour. Please make sure to have all of your belongings before exiting the train, please keep your children seated until the train comes to a complete stop. Once again I would like to thank you for riding with us on the Friendship Express."

After hearing the announcement being over as the soothing beep came back indicating that it was over as I yawned stretching on my chair. My arms extending wide as I felt my back cracking, all of my nervous going away. Until I was met with someone yelling next to me.

"Hey! Ever heard of personal space?!?"

I jumped seeing a random mare sitting next to me, where did she come from? She wasn't there before I took my nap, so how did she appear next to me. I used my hands to rub my eyes, wondering if I was seeing things or she was still there as I opened my eyes again. This time seeing the once empty cart now full of ponies talking to each other minding their own business as I sat there, confused as all hell. Sitting on the chair I would lay my head, wondering what happened to the silence. Hearing the train conductor's microphone was on as a melody started to play, I looked up confused at to what was happening before noticing the mare next to me putting whatever she was doing down as she moved her hooves in a circle soon seeing the rest of the equines in the cart doing the same thing, moving their hooves in a circular motion over each other. It was as if they were in some sort is trance, and I wasn't far from it myself.

After that random musical number, everyone just looked down as if they went to sleep. I would do the same as I laid my head back on my hand as I leaned it against the window, being put back to sleep. Once again I hear the beep coming from the ceiling of the train, this time I jumped up in my seat opening my eyes as I saw the train cart being empty again hearing the conductor talk as he repeated the same thing he said earlier.

Once he finished I would take one more look around as I was met with the empty train cart and complete silence. I sat back down on my seat rubbing my eyes with my hands getting rid of any eye boogers, that was some weird dream I had, it was as if it really happened and I was just being pranked. Once I got rid of all my eye boogers I looked up as I noticed the mare that tended to me earlier today this time she had with her a tray on her back as she balanced a bowl and a fancy looking glass of orange juice. She looked at me as she smiles seeing that I was awake, trotting up to me as she spoke.

"Oh good you're awake, I came back earlier to see if you were okay but I saw you were taking a nap and I didn't want to disturb you."

She said giving me a very cute smile as she trotted up close to me, showing me the tray she was balancing on her back. I could see the bowl of yogurt seeing the berries and oats displayed in a very cute fashion making the yogurt look too pretty to eat. I stared at it for a moment, I was having a moment for a while thinking to myself wondering what was going on with me. My thoughts were interrupted as I heard the train mare speak.

"Is everything okay sir?"

Hearing her speak made me come back to reality as I blinked shaking my head gently taking the bowl and the glass off the tray from her back as I placed the glass next to me. I looked back at the mare giving her a gentle smile as I nodded.

"Everything is perfect ma'am, I was ...it's just I had this weird dream where I participated in some musical number."

I explained as I took then a plastic spoon from the small pocket on the armrest of my chair as I would open it taking the white plastic spoon out of the wrapping, using it to scoop out some of the yogurt, oats, and berries as I moved it towards my mouth. I could taste the sweet yogurt mixed with the crunchy oats and delicious berries smiling happily before hearing the mare giggling as I looked at her eating my yogurt as I asked.

"What is it?"

"Oh...oh it's just...the way you explained your dream, it's just so silly how you humans dream."

She said giggling, I chuckled realizing how ridiculous the dream sounded as I shook my head. Soon the mare moved back out into the aisle before she left she looked back at me as he used her hoof to blow a kiss at me while eating my yogurt I smiled softly blushing from the cute gesture. She giggled before trotting towards and out the door leading her to the next cart, leaving me alone as I ate my yogurt taking a small sip of the orange juice smiling at the sweet and natural taste of orange juice coming out of the glass and onto my tongue. After finishing both the yogurt and the glass is orange juice I would place both empty bowl and glass on the seat next to me, being instructed by the train mare to leave the dishes on the chair next to me, that way when she came back she could just take them off my hands as I sighed happily. So far me staying here wasn't so bad, to think I was going to be discriminated for being a different species. But it was quite the opposite actually, everypony I've talked to was nothing more than nice towards me. Once again, I leaned my head back on my hand as I looked out the window enjoying the view of the outside world. Being both a victim of discrimination and a school shooter, it was nice being treated differently for once. Hopefully, the princess herself was just as sweet at the rest but only time will tell.

Chapter 3: Zach plays Cupid.

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 4: Zachary's New Image

"And here we are."

Said one of the guards standing next to me, while both of us stood in front of the bridge leading us to the castle. The rest of the guards lined up side by side in front of the castle entrance it happened fairly quickly. One moment I was surrounded by the whole squad of guards and the next thing I knew they were just standing in front of the castle guarding the entrance for intruders. Speaking of the castle there I was, in front of Canterlot castle staring some of the finest of structures I've ever seen. Staring in awe I admired the castle and how big it was.

"So, that's Canterlot castle."

"Yup, the finest place in all the land, isn't it beautiful?"

"It reminds me of Game of Thrones."

"What's a Game of Thrones?"

"Nevermind."

I said, being so mesmerized by the aesthetic of the castle I almost forgot I was in a completely different world. Staring up at it one last time before looking down at myself, my sweater has gone through shit the last few weeks. Even after they were washed by the hospital, the stripes on the sweater were almost gone and there were holes in some parts of the sweater. My pants had patches from the mud which were still noticeable with the naked eye, and my shoes well they were already fucked up since my mother never bothered to get me new ones. But now wasn't the time to complain about my clothes, I felt like I was late to the brunch and now she probably thinks I'm irresponsible. That said, I walked down the bridge leaving the guard who I was talking to behind as I came closer to the castle. I held my hands together as I started to get nervous, feeling my palms sweat against each other. My heart rate began to rise as I started to overthink what was going to happen. What if the princess didn't like me? What if she thinks I'm some sort of threat to her land and send me to be executed?

So many possibilities ran through my head that I have yet to realize I was already in front of the gate of the castle. Looking at the gate I slowly came to the realization that maybe I shouldn't worry too much. While staring at the door I took a deep breath in and out, closing my eyes for a moment taking in everything that is happening right now. After taking a few deep breaths I finally mustered up the courage to raise my hand up and slammed it against the gate doing it again two more times knocking on the door before letting my hand down. After waiting in front of the gate for five minutes, I saw the gate slightly open as I saw a mare poking out to see who was knocking on the gate. I looked at the mare as I noticed some features on her, she had a dark brown mane that was tied up in a bun, a pencil on her right ear as her coat was a bright white and had dark orangish eyes that were behind glasses, that along with her white-collar and some red tie looking thing hanging out as she looked around.

At first, she thought it was one of those meddling teenagers pulling another ding dong ditch prank on her, before realizing it wasn't some teenager but a very tall creature who was standing in front of the gate seeing her eyes widen. I thought she was going to scream and run back inside, but before I could even explain why I was here in the first place reaching over to my back pocket to pull out the letter, she interrupted me even before I could get a word out.

"Oh thank Celestia, you're finally here!"

She said as her shocked expression turned into a happy one her hoove extending, somehow grabbing my arm and pulling me inside. Again, before I could even get a word out the mare dragged me down a very large hall and towards an even bigger gate before stopping right in front of it she turned towards me letting go of my hand, giving me a bright smile that told me everything, after this the guards told me about the princess being excited about my arrival, were true. Giving me the confidence to go through that door and finally met the princess head-on, but I didn't because the mare who brought me here began to talk.

"Oh jeez, where are my manners, my name is Raven Inkwell. I am Princess Celestia's secretary and may I be the one to tell you, that it's an honor to meet you, sir. Never have I seen the princess so excited to meet somepo- I mean somebody like yourself."

She said smiling at me as she would extend a hoof out for a shake. I smiled back at her, taking her hoof into my hand as I gently shook it.

"So it is true, she's really excited about getting to know me?"

"Oh yes, you have no idea how much she's been talking about it. She has the whole day planned for the both of you."

She explained letting go of her hoof before she fixed her mane, a strand of hair poking out from the front as she moved her hoof up magically putting it back into her mane. I smile from hearing about the princess dropping everything out of her day, just so she can get to know me? Now feeling butterflies in my stomach, not the feeling of nervousness but the feeling of actually being given a chance to show her who I really was. I held my stomach with both my arms, not so tight but enough to show Raven I was both excited and nervous at the same time, looking at me as she spoke.

"Getting butterflies in your tummy sweetheart?"

"Yeah, a little bit."

"Trust me, she'll probably have the same reaction as you."

She said giggling a bit over how cute at the thought of the princess having butterflies in her stomach. While I held my arms over my stomach Raven would push both doors wide open as I could slowly see the princess sitting on her throne as she was writing off some things on a piece of parchment paper, both the paper and her quill she was using to write with were glowing in a bright yellow aura her horn glowing the same color. Staring at the princess as I saw her mane flowing magically in the air, a mix of a light blue, neon green, a more darker blue and pink with her horn poking out as her crown sat perfectly behind it. Her coat brightening against the sun as her magenta-colored eyes focusing on her work. Walking closer towards her I noticed she was a bit taller than your average pony, judging by her sitting down and the two guards standing on each side of her throne she does appear to be taller than any other equine. As I stood there, standing in front of the first step of the stairs that lead up to the princess's throne. Rave, however, didn't stop there, she would start to trot her way up the stairs and towards the princess, I just stood there waiting and watching as she made her way up towards the throne sitting on her rump as she looked up.

"Princess Celestia."

She spoke, seeing her looking up at the princess as she turned her head down towards her secretary smiling she would put her quill and paper down as she would give her undivided attention. Never have I seen somepony look as beautiful as the princess herself.

"Yes, Ms. Inkwell?"

And hearing her speak made me want to shed a tear, she sounds so much like my mom back when she used to care for me. I held my hand with the other as I tried my best not to say anything until said so, hearing Raven speak again.

"Princess, after much waiting, he's finally here."

She said smiling, looking up at her as I got to see the cutest reaction out of a pony I've ever seen since I've been here. Seeing her eyes widen as she stood on her front hooves wanting to see where I was. I tried my best to hold back a chuckle, smiling and watching the princess acting like an eleven-year-old child being told there's was a surprise for her. Not wanting her to have some sort of a panic attack from all the excitement, I began to walk upstairs towards her taking my hood off as my red hair would get in the way of my eyes. Moving it away a bit as I walked upstairs looking up at the mare, who they met my gaze as I saw her muzzle turn from whimpering crinkled lips to a wide smile.

"You're here!"

She yelled really loud to the point where I felt a huge gust of wind blowing my hair back, hearing her yell echoing behind me as I saw her covering her muzzle with both of her hoofs her cheek glowing bright red in embarrassment on how loud she was.

"Sorry, sometimes when I get too excited I can't control how loud my voice is, I deeply apologize."

"That's okay…"

I muttered out, my face in shock on how loud she was my hair was moved all the way back. It's as if I just managed to escape a tornado and I came out with my hair up in one piece. After processing what just happened I moved my hair back into position as I looked up at the princess smiling walking up to her. I didn't want to get too close, not wanting to be too disrespectful. Princess Celestia took note of this however and she thought that was too far away for her liking as her horn glow that bright yellow from before as a yellow aura appeared around me. I was suddenly lunged towards her as she planted me right next to her, sitting next to the princess on her own throne the yellow aura going away. I was then met with two hooves wrapped around my body as I was pulled into a warm hug. This was very unexpected, I mean she is of a higher class than I am. How is it that somepony of a higher class would want anything to do with me? Let alone the fact that she canceled all her plans just so she could get to know me. What was really going on here?

As we sat together on her throne, feeling her head rubbing up against mine I could hear her sniffing as she spoke.

"Oh dear, someone hasn't showered hasn't he?"

She said giggling, she still kept me in her hooves however like a mother who reunited with her son who just got back from the military. I took this opportunity to hug her back as my arms wrapped around her, she was very slim, not in an unhealthy way no slim enough for me to wrap my arms around her whole body, being careful with her wings as we hugged. Yes, it had been almost three weeks since I haven't showered, so you can imagine all the musk and grease I've built up yet Princess Celestia didn't mind it at all. Raven, who was still standing in front of her throne got a bit uncomfortable with how quiet the room became as she clears her throat.

"W-well Princess, as much as I love to see you finally get to meet the human. Might I remind you that breakfast will be ready in thirty minutes."

She spoke as the princess moved her head away from my own to her turn towards her secretary, the top of my head was warm from hers being on it that I could feel a cold breeze hitting my skull. Hearing a disappointed sigh as she wished she could stay this way just a little while longer feeling her unwrapping her hooves off my of me as I would do the same, getting up and off the throne as I cleared my throat.

"Yes, well I would like to discuss my citizenship with you and almost something more…. problematic."

"What seems to be the problem, Zack?"

I heard the princess speak as both she and her secretary looked at me, wondering what I was going through at the moment. I thought on how I was going to explain, but something about telling them of a dream where I was in slaved into singing a more disturbing version of Wheels On the Bus might make them worry about my sanity. I just shook my head as I looked at both of them.

"Nevermind, I'll explain at breakfast."

"Alright dear, Ms. Inkwell would you please take our guest to our specialists see if they can help him with his… clothes, poor thing looks like he's gone through so much."

She told her secretary as Raven nodded, trotting herself passed me before walking alongside her I looked back at the princess seeing her smile at me before using a hoof moving it back and forth as to say 'go on'. I smiled at her giving the princess a small wave before walking next to Raven making out way out of the throne room. Princess Celestia looked at her secretary and the human walking away as she sighed.

"I just hope he really is the one."

As both Raven and I walked down the halls of Canterlot Castle, noticing the beautiful scenery seeing the sun shining through the large windows which admitted a variety of different colors. After passing the many windows we would pass through a different door, now in a different hallway, I looked at Raven seeing her being very quiet. I softly cleared my throat as I tried to start up a conversation.

"So...how long have you been the princess's secretary?"

I asked, trying to see if she would answer my question in order to start up a conversation while we made our way towards somewhere I'm still not sure where we were going. All I know is that I might be getting a completely new wardrobe and I'm super excited about that as I heard Raven speak.

"As of tomorrow, I will be her secretary for exactly five years."

"Wow...do you like doing what you do?"

"Sometimes, it can be a hassle but it's what brings food on my plate."

"May I ask a little bit about yourself?"

I said, trying to get a little more of her personality as I felt we would both be seeing each other a little. So why not get to know her in a more personal manner and she didn't seem to mind it either as she spoke.

"Well, I'm 24 years old, I was recently divorced and now I'm just trying to bury myself into my work in order to forget what happened between him and I."

She explained with a very serious expression on her face. I stood quiet for a while, I felt like she's holding in all her emotions so she doesn't seem so vulnerable in her work environment. While walking alongside her I gently laid my hand on her back, stroking her back letting her know that she at least has someone to talk to her. I saw her eyes widen as she felt my touch on her back, she's never felt anything like a hand on her and that made her shiver a bit. I saw bet shivering as I removed my hand quickly apologizing."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry I thought you'd like a little bit of comfort."

"No ...no it's fine sweetie, it just caught me off guard is all."

She said blushing a bit before walking towards a closed-door stopping and turning towards me as I too stopped, taking a look at the door. Music can be heard playing in the inside as it sounded like some cheesy hair salon in there, watching as Raven walked in as the music sound louder from the inside. Staying by the door I waited for Raven to come back out to tell me that it was clear. Hearing her speak inside as she explained to whoever was in there what she needed from them as I heard many grunts and groans of annoyance until hearing that they'll do it. I then saw Raven pop out of the door as she used her head to point into the room, I sighed nodding before turning towards the open door walking in as the door shut behind me, causing what looked to be five to six equines to turn their heads towards me hearing them gasp as I saw their eyes widen. I stood still as I heard them gasping for air before sighting waving at them all, speaking.

"Hi.."

I said that as one of them looked at Raven before speaking.

"You didn't tell me it wasn't a pony."

"I hope I won't be too much of a bother.."

I said to the mare who was speaking to Raven as I felt like I was wasting their time before seeing her look back at me, using her wing as I heard a snap. Suddenly like two mares and one stallion rushed over towards me as they made me get on my knees observing me from my face to my clothes as they tried to figure out how they were going to work on my appearance. This caught me off guard complete as I felt a mare's hooves on my face while another mare would be gently pulling my hair back, as I also felt the stallion getting hoovesy with my torso as I heard the mare who was talking to Raven speak again.

"Oh, it's no problem at all…"

"Zachary."

"Zachary! It won't be a problem at all Zachary, it's just we've never really worked with your type of species before. But nothing like a little bit of observation won't hurt."

"And little expiration and curious I might add."

I heard the stallion speak as he snickered a bit feeling his hooves wondering down my thigh. I didn't say anything since I didn't want to be rude as I could slightly see Raven walking out of the room before hearing her say.

"Zack, once you're done meet me in my office and I'll lead you to the dining area."

"Okay, Ms. Inkwell."

"Sweetie please ...call me Raven"

She said sounding a little more flirtatious than before as she walked out the door slamming behind her as I felt them all picking me back up. The pegasi gently pushing me towards the back of the room, making stand on a platform as I did I felt one mare starting to cut the leg of my pants. I started blushing as I didn't know how they would react to my body type, I was and still am very insecure about my appearance, and I was scared at the judgment I was going to face with. Feeling another mare cutting the middle section of my sweater as she along with a stallion would practically peel it off me. Doing the same with my shirt as I was almost naked in front of them, the only things I had left on me was my shoes, socks and boxers which thank god I had on or else I would be met with eyes of either 'That's how big it gets?' or 'Dear Celestia put it in me now!'.

I stood there my arms displayed out so they could see my full body from my neck to my legs. As I watched them glare at me, noticing one or two ponies whispering to each other. I could only imagine what they were talking about as I heard the matriarch speak.

"Alright, we have what we need might we ask what is the style of your old wardrobe?"

"Well … I'm very conceptual. So anything loose or oversized will do. Other than that I do enjoy shorts."

"And what are your preference in shoes?"

"Boots, or high tops. Just no plate form shoes, they feel weird and I can barely walk in them. Plus they look ...ugh."

I told the mare as she looked at me with a smile on her muzzle, the stallion and mare writing down everything I was saying and sketching what could possibly match my description before watching them trot away as well before being alone with the one solo mare as she looked up at me smiling.

"May I ask what you ...you know prefer sexually?"

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing!"

She said as her eyes widen, a blush appearing on her cheeks being embarrassed with her question that could definitely hear from where I was as I chuckled.

"I'm bisexual babe...does that answer your question?"

Chapter 5: Zach likes them both

"Wait so how is it that you're bisexual?"

The matriarch asked as she sat on a stool next to the tub, there I was laying in submerged in warm and bubbly water. While one of the three mares used her hooves to scrub shampoo into my hair while another would take one of my hands washing them clean, my face had some sort of mask as I felt it becoming more cold and tight. I looked over at the matriarch as she sat there wondering how I knew about my sexuality. I thought about it for a moment, because I was never the type to talk about how I discovered myself through my sexuality. But since she did ask, and it would be rude if I didn't answer, I soon mustered up the courage to tell her how it all went down. Turning my head towards her, keeping myself laid back against the tub so the mare wouldn't have to grab a step stool in order to reach my hair. So while she scrubbed my hair, I would get the chance to talk about how it all went down.

"Alright, this is going to take a while to explain so prepare yourself."

I said making sure to adjust myself against the tub in order to be comfortable to tell the very long story ahead. The matriarch showing interest, as she would move a lower hoove over the other and her hind hooves on her cheeks as she would listen to what I was about to explain.

As I sat alone on a chair at my middle school's dance to celebrate our promotion into high school, I sat there wondering why I was here in the first place. Hardly any of my friends came to the dance, along with being forced out of my house here I am. I would push my glasses up against my face every time they would slip down, my hair looking like the seventies called wanting their hairstyle back. The ocean blue tuxedo I was wearing was completely wrinkly since not only was I thrown out of my house, so was my change of clothes in a black trash bag. After changing out of my normal clothes and into the tuxedo, I waited at the school for the dance to start. Now there I was sitting on a chair, alone watching as everyone else was enjoying the dance having fun with their friends and/or loved ones. Slowly the music faded and was replaced with a much more slowed down bop as all the couples started to get together and move along with the music. Slow dancing the rest of the night away, a couple of teachers walking around the dance floor and separating each student at least two inches apart, not intending to stop their dancing whatsoever. Meanwhile I sat there, staring at the floor quiet and alone, until I suddenly heard a familiar voice.

"Hey, is this seat taken?"

I was unsure at first if it was really that person I technically knew but I never really had a conversation with this person. But just to make sure the person matched the voice, moving my focus towards the voice I saw what looked to be the angel of my dreams. The five-foot-four beauty herself Veronica Prescott, standing there with a smile on her face. Veronica was that middle school crush every guy would dream of, and boy was I one of the many. We both had three different classes together but she was always those girls who hang out with a huge group and I was that one guy in that group but was the quiet one while listening to the conversations. But there she was standing in front of me as I looked up at her wondering if she was really talking to me or if she was talking to someone behind me. Only coming to the realization that the only thing was a punch bowl and some pieces of cake that no one bothered to grab. I was too I'm shocked over the girl of my dreams actually talking to me for once, just answering with a simple shake of my head. Seeing her move over next to me as she sat down looking around the room while I did the same, my hands on my knees trying not to look like some bumbling idiot going crazy over what just happened. Other than the music playing, it was quiet between both of us ultimately hearing her talk as she tried to start a conversation.

"So… how's the night going for you?"

She asked looking at me as she playfully bumps her shoulder against mine. Causing me to move forward a bit as I looked back at her seeing her smile and giggle a bit over my reaction as I gave her a smile back chuckling nervously as I spoke.

"I-it's cool could be better but you know… it's cool."

I replied as I gave her a nervous smile, all she did in return was giggle as if she was amused with my reaction, then all of a sudden she wrapped her arms around one of mine. Feeling her grip against my arm, now I was in complete nervous and panic mode, kind of like how you feel when some random girl just comes up to you and you're such an introvert that you have no idea what to do and what to say next that's exactly how I felt. Sitting there with her arms around mine made my free hand shake nervously, but shaking in secret so she couldn't see I was having some sort of nervous breakdown. As I sat there I look over towards her as she would look up at me smiling them asking me.

"What are you doing after the dance?"

She said as she hugged my arm, I sat up straight scratching the back of my head as I chuckled.

"I don't know, maybe go home, knock out for the rest of the night, you know the usual."

It was true, I never really thought about going anywhere besides the school's dance and back home. I thought about while she held my arm, my parents probably don't even care if I even make it home. Who knows, maybe I would just head out to someone's house, spent the night there, then in the morning I'd head home and they won't even care. But I was one of those kids were even if I did leave knowing that my parents won't know or care if I made it home, I knew in the back of my head I shouldn't even be where I was going. Veronica on the other hand just let out a disappointing awe as she leaned closer to me.

"Come on, there has to be something you want to do before promotion day comes around."

She said, feeling her one of her arms moving across my own arm as she would interlock her hand onto mine. Feeling her head on my shoulder.

"Wait, when's the part where you discovering your sexuality start coming into play?"

The matriarch asked as she along with three other mares would use a tape measure to measure out my body. I stood there finally out of the tub and dried off and that face mask removed off my face. Still feeling the pain of all my pores being ripped off my face feeling the cold air going through my naked body. Almost forgetting that there were four females in the same room near me as I felt the tape around every inch of my body, answering the matriarch with.

"It's after we both leave the school."

"Oh, okay please continue."

After the party was over, students making their way out of the gym as each teacher would make sure everyone got out in an orderly fashion, both Veronica and I had already left the gym and we were both sitting on the benches that were placed outside of campus. We continued talking about what we were going to after the party and now that the school was closed and everyone left it was just us two. We kept our hands locked together almost the whole night as we had a very lengthy conversation. Only to he interrupted by some random girl that came up to the both of us looking at Veronica as she said.

"Here you are, I've been looking for you the entire night. Who's this?"

She asked, obviously talking about me as she held my hand I looked at her having the sudden feeling that I knew her from somewhere as Veronica answered her.

"Ashley, this is Zachary, Zachary you know-"

"Ashley Thompson, sits a row behind me in English."

I answered in a very stauckerish way as she looked at me with an expression of both discuss and/or weirded out. That wasn't the only fact I knew about her, Ashley was the girl who I helped with on her English report. And by help I mean allowing her to look at my paper, allowing her to copy it from start to finish and claim it as her own. Now yes I knew it was coming considering she looked like the type of girl to use someone like myself for homework purposes. But hey, I was fourteen and wanted to fit in any way I could. As she would mad dog me, Ashley would look back at Veronica as she asked her.

"Well, I was hoping you were coming to Austin's after party."

"Oh crud."

Veronica responded as she would take her hand away from my own, covering her face after forgetting about this Austin's party. I sat there quietly, listening to the conversation between both girls. I knew that Veronica must have liked the Austin because she surely won't have acted like this in the first place. Which now definitely told me that I lost my chance with her as I sat there taking my glasses off as I cleaned them after fogging up over time. To which I heard Ashley stop me mid way before getting my glasses back on.

"Wait! Hold up."

She said as she stood in front of me, feeling her hand underneath my chin as she moved my head up towards her as she stared into my eyes. Turning my head from side to side as she gave me a devilish smile, taking my glasses off my hands and shoving them into her purse. Then pulling out a comb, fixing my hair from the seventies to a more modern hair style, feeling my hair go from stiff to a more soft and comfortable feel as she smiles putting her comb back into her purse. She then would grab both of my hands and pulled me off the bench standing up straight as she presented me to Veronica. She would look at me going from the lovable nerd to a more attractive boy in seconds as she stood up in front of me, mind you she was only a few inches shorter than me so we were both practically staring dead into each other's eyes as Veronica wondered.

"Ash...where are you going with this?"

"Don't you see V, if you take Zach to the party Austin will get jealous and he'll totally want you to go out with him."

She explain feeling her hands gripping against my upper arms seeing a huge smile appear on Veronica's face as I stood there, wanting to say something about the situation as I moved away from Ashley's grip and took a step back looking at both girls as I interjected with.

"Woah, woah, woah, wait a minute. I didn't agree to any of this."

"Come on it'll be fun."

Veronica reassured me as she stepped up in front of me, her arms replacing Ashley's as she gently grabbed both of my upper arms with her hands. Looking at me dead in the eyes as she would use that look that girls would use to get what they want as she continues to explain.

"You, me and Ash will go to his party, you pose as my date, then Austin will see how much I'm attracted to you. He'll get jealous, try to make a move on me and we can finally be together."

She said, sounding really excited over how she explained what was going to go down. However I felt that plan might not go as well as the way she makes it out to be. What if he wasn't interested? What if he tries to show he was the alpha male and we duke it out like the lions do? What if I don't want to go through with it because I've had this huge crush on her and I had no way to tell her the truth? But seeing the way she was so confident in her plan, maybe it was best for me to do what she wanted and not be selfish over some girl who may not like me back. So with a deep inhale and exhale I looked at Veronica, holding my arm out like some sort of escort giving her friendly smile as I said.

"Let's get you a stud."

"Umm pardon me baby."

The fabloient stallion said as I was now sitting on a chair. Wearing a robe so not to be sitting around completely naked. Now all four mares sat on their flanks in front of me, completely mesmerized into the story as I looked up at him combing my long now more rose hair as he asked me.

"By any chance were you planning on changing your hair color? I see some blonde poking out in your roots so I'm assuming this beautiful rose gold hair isn't your natural color."

She explained as he would comb my hair some more, seeing how long it had gotten. I thought for a moment, looking at my hair as I saw how nice the red slowly faded into a this rose gold color as I pondered for a moment. Wondering if I should change it or keep it how it is?

"Hmm, you know I would like a retouch on my hair. Maybe re-dye it red, oh and would you mind giving my split ends a trim. Not too much, I would like to keep my hair as long as possible."

I asked as the stallion smiles nodding before using his horn to levitate a small bowl, rubber gloves, hair scissors and a brush as he prepared himself for the dying process, but before he did any coloring like a child being given a huge piece of paper and a bucket of paint he started to trim the split ends of my hair as I felt him tugging on it a bit. The rest of the mares being extremely impatient over wanting to hear the rest of the story as the matriarch spoke up.

"Okay, okay, okay now continue. You and this girl pose as couples, then what?"

She recapped as the other three mares would move closer wanting to hear what comes next in my story as I chuckled. Leaning back against the chair allowing the stallion to work his magic as I continued.

"Alright, so after we arrived to Austin's house…"

As the three of us stood in front of this guy, Austin's house seeing how huge it looked just from standing outside. Veronica holding onto my arm as she looked up at me while we walked up towards the door as she recalled.

"Okay, remember you're my plus one and you'll try to make him jealous, got it?"

She said as I looked over at her, nodding in confirmation. And with the push of a button from Ashley, the doorbell rang as it echoed through the whole house. Waiting a few more minutes, the door then opened as we both saw the boy of the hours, the guy himself, the guy I will somehow make jealous over my 'date' as he spoke.

"Ash, there you are and this must be your friends…"

Austin said as he looked at both Veronica and I. He noticed her arms around mine, already I could see he was somewhat getting jealous over me, your average nerd somehow turned into this preppy fuck boy as my 'date' introduced the both of us.

"I'm Veronica, and Ash did say I could bring a plus one, so this is Zachary."

"Sup."

I said, altering my voice but ultimately failing as Austin smile at me. Soon he lets us enter his house as we took a look around seeing how big the inside of the house looked like as we noticed the house completely dark and empty. No party in sight as Austin would answer our confused looks walking only a few steps up the stairs as he said.

"Oh, the party is upstairs. Follow me."

He stated as he would lead upstairs, it felt like we were walking up three flights of stairs. My legs getting store just from all that as both Veronica and Ashley felt the same way, lucky they weren't wearing heels like more middle school girls were wearing at the dance as all four of us were walking down the hall. Passing at least three different doors as he leads us to an even bigger set of doors. While Ashley, Veronica and I stood in front of those doors Austin looked at all three of us like the host he is, he would introduce the area by saying.

"Ladies and Gentleman, welcome to the Crazy Dome."

He said as he would push the doors open, seeing a whole room full of kids from the school. Thirteen if I was correct as Austin would lead us into the room allowing us to take a better look around the room, then when we were out in the hall. Seeing a bowl of punch displayed out on a table along with a platter of crackers, slices of cheese and pieces of lunch meat. Yes if you're wondering, he did use almost ten to twenty packets of lunchables, you know for someone who lives in huge a nice house you'd think he had the money to buy some actual crackers, cheese and ham cut up into bite sized pieces but I'm not going to complain.

"Well, make yourselves at home, the games will start later towards the actual end of the night."

Austin said as we all gave him a nod as a confirmation, before seeing him walk away. While Veronica would let go of my arm, I would help myself with one cracker and some cheese as I had a little snack enjoying the musicless party. While I ate and would pour myself some punch I could hear both Veronica and Ashley talking, well obviously they were standing next to me but I couldn't help but listen into their conversation.

"You think it's working?"

"I don't know, maybe he's not doing it right."

"Or maybe he's just not into me."

As I heard Veronica and Ashley talking I would look around seeing Austin just talking with other kids. He was across the room so he could possibly see both us from where he was. Okay, now it was time to put Veronica's plan into action. After finishing both the snack and my punch I would walk towards Veronica as she looked at me. I put the plan into fruition, wrapping my arms around her as I would give her neck butterfly kisses, at first Veronica was confused and would even try and push me away but soon she noticed Austin looking over as he saw what we were doing. I smile as I saw it happen, continuing to kiss her neck lovingly as I heard Veronica giggle her hands on one of my arms as she kept saying playful, not yelling out no but loud enough so Austin could hear.

"Hehe, Zach stop, haha that tickles."

"Question, why attack her neck?"

One of my mares sitting in front of me asked, seeing her hoove up in the air as if she was a child in class. Before I try to explain why I did what I did, I felt the stallion wrap a bag over the top of my head as so that the chemicals in the dye would react better on my hair and the color popping better. Once the stallion was done trimming and dying my hair he would then join the mares as he sat down looking at me wanting to hear the rest of the story as I tried to explain only speaking like a stuttering mess.

"Eh…..uhm, well ...you see I…..I uhh ...Look I was fourteen and I always hear some girls have a sensitive spot on their necks. And seeing how the interruptions won't stop coming, I assume you don't want to hear-"

"Yes!"

All five equines reacted as they yelled at me, making me jump in my seat as I held the bag on my head so it won't fall off. Jeez for someone who hates speaking to a group of people, they were really enjoying the story as the matriarch asked.

"Please… continue."

"Alright... alright…"

I said as I held my chest, feeling my heart pounding against my chest after that shock of being yelled at as I sat got myself comfortable back in my seat. Clearing my throat, I was finally ready to finish what was left of the story as I continued.

"Well, after enough teased between the both of us and kissing exchanges between Veronica and I, the games that Austin had mentioned earlier were about to start…"

Austin had called the attention of the whole room as Veronica, Ashley and I stood there wondering what the hell was going to happen. All I know so far, is A; I'm not supposed to even be here, B; I was posing as my crush's date in order to make another guy jealous so Veronica could finally be asked by Austin to be his girlfriend, and C; He had games planned to finish off the night with a bang. So there we were, the three of us along with the rest in one big group as we all looked up at Austin waiting to see what he had in store for us.

"Well, as we all know I have purposes a game for all of us to play to end the night on a high note."

He stated as he was standing in front of what looked to be some sort of wheel being covered by a black tarp. I tilted my head wondering what he was planning as every now and then he would look over at both Veronica and I, giving us both a smile and not that friendly playful smile but a very malicious smile. This made me nervous as I held my own hand, slowly feeling them sweat between each other as I saw Austin moving out of the way to reveal the black tarp covered object behind him. I along with the rest of the group looked at him on confusion wondering what the hell was underneath the tarp, even though I had a pretty good idea on what it was. Finally after enough speculation Austin would grab a hold of the tarp as he looked out into the group before yelling out.

"Behold!"

And then be pulled the black tarp off the covered object as we finally got to see what was under it. As I expected, it was a huge wheel with a red pick on the top that chose what the player was going to do based on what the wheel gave them, with a huge title that said…

"The Wheel-Of-Misfortune!"

Austin interrupted my thoughts as he announced the wheel's name. Feeling uneasy as to what I signed up for. Why do I have the uneasy feeling that Veronica played me and she knows about my crush about her, only to bring me here to embarrass me in front of a percentage of the school? As I stood there thinking about the many different scenarios that could possibly happen tonight, Austin would explain the rules of the game.

"As the name suggests, each section of the wheel has a hidden misfortune behind these blank tiles. The red pick on top will choose which misfortune you will get once the wheel stops spinning, to which I, the host will uncover your misfortune and you will have to do the task at hand. Some will be simple tasks while others are more ...malicious to say the least."

He said as he would devilishly rub his hands together. Everyone in the room looked at eachother, some had the expression of 'hell yeah this'll be fun', while others faces read 'oh God what did we sign up for'. I was one of those who had that nervous expression on his face as I would look over at Veronica, waiting to see if she turns around and sees me trying to get her attention. But she was too busy talking to Ashley about how this might go really well in her favor. Finally I just grabbed her arm and pulled her to the side away from Ashley as she jumped over me pulling her to the side looking at me as she asked.

"What's up?"

She asked, wondering why I pulled her aside from Ashley as I looked back at her telling her how it is.

"Listen, I did not sign up for this. Hell I'm not supposed to even be here and you know that."

"Okay, and what do you want me to do? I didn't know he was going to do this. Hell I thought it was just going to be us four to begin with."

She said shrugging as she didn't want what to tell me, as if she didn't even care what happens to me at this. All she ever cared about was getting the attention of Austin as I looked at her. At that point I wondered why the hell was I talked into this in the first place? But most importantly, after hearing what her response over what I said made me really question, was she even worth it? As the both of us continued to talk, recapping the plan that brought me here in the first place we both heard Austin calling us out to the whole room as he asked.

"Is there something wrong Veronica?"

He asked, only calling out Veronica's name as I stood next to her. He obviously noticed us arguing and he wanted to make sure Veronica was okay, which made me look like the abusive date towards the rest of the party members as I stood up straight asking Austin.

"Yeah, she was wondering what we get out if we do or don't do the task?"

"Well that's a good question Zach…"

Austin respond as he would smack his hand together, rubbing after walking up towards the both of us as I noticed a very seductive step in his walk. Once he reached towards the both of us, standing next to Veronica seeing his arm wrapping around her as he pulled her close himself as he looked at me with a smile.

"If you do the task, you will receive one of these."

He said as he would pull out a purple bottle that had the word 'freebie' written across it as he presented it to the rest of the room. Hearing simultaneous awe coming from everyone as he explained what they obviously were.

"These are freebies every task you complete you'll get one of these if you don't feel like you can do the task you can use one of your freebies to get out of doing it. However, if you run out of freebies and you refuse to do what you got, you'll be asked to reveal your deepest secrets to the rest of us."

He stated as the whole room went quiet, some rethinking about even staying in the house while others now understood what the risks they were taking. Austin looked back at me as he smirked holding Veronica in his arms kind of like some sort of trophy that he won. While Veronica looked like she was going to faint in his arms, I was extremely pissed with the way he was handling her. Yes, we weren't actually dating but I felt as if he was doing this to say 'yeah I might just steal her from you if you don't mind'. Which meant two things, Veronica's plan was working and I was definitely losing my chance with her. Austin smiling at me before announcing.

"Everybody ready?"

And like that the game has started, randomly Austin chose everyone at random. Some of the misfortunes were innocent enough, like holding a handstand for a certain amount of time, being pushed around for five minutes or even being out in a really dark room for thirty minutes or more, everyone in the room having more than three freebies after going more than once. But soon the tasks were slowly starting to get harder as some of the freebies we've been collecting started to deplete and now it was Veronica's turn to go to spin. She along with some of the other girls in the room have used up all of her freebies as she would look at Austin smiling as she stood next to him.

"Whenever you're ready V."

He said smiling at her as I stood in the middle of the group my arms crossed over each other in annoyance as she would hold onto the edge of the wheel giving it a really good spin as we saw the wheel moving fast hearing it click with every passing tile. Soon the wheel started to slow down as we see it come to a complete stop.

"Alright, let's see what you got."

He said as he moved up to the wheel grabbing the tile that landed. Removing the white tile as he turned it around seeing what it said as I could see on it his it wasn't something to go home to mom to see if she is proud of you for doing so. Looking at Veronica before looking out into the crowd as he said out loud.

"Allow each male player to grope your boobs."

He said, pulling the tile down as he would look towards Veronica as the whole room went completely quiet. The girls whispering in discussing even the guys were very uncomfortable over what Austin had just read. I looked up at Veronica as I saw her covering her chest with her arms, appearing to be very uncomfortable with the situation. I knew I had to do something, but what was I supposed to do? Go up there and say knock it off with the risk of being called a party pooper? I mean this was in some way or anything sexual harassment at it's finest. I had to do something even if it meant being called a party recker. I would walk towards the front as I tried to budge my way through the huge group of kids, having a freebie in hand as I made it towards the front of the group. Showing the freebie to Veronica as she saw looking up at me as I said.

"Here, take one of my freebies."

"Sorry, you can't share freebies between different players. She either had to do the task or reveal a huge secret in front of the whole party."

Austin said as he would push my hand down, moving the freebie away from Veronica as would look at both Austin and I. I knew he wanted to touch her in that way since he knew girls wouldn't dream of revealing their secrets out to the public. So before she could respond, I would walk up to Austin as I claimed.

"You didn't say we couldn't."

"I didn't say you could either now did I?"

"Austin, you can't just make her do something she's not okay with."

I argued with him as he just kept that smug grin on his face crossing his arms over one and other. By now Ashley was alongside me as she was next to her best friend making sure she won't go through with it as I stood in front of Austin. What I said next was the most stupidest thing I have ever said in my life as I told him.

"Let me take her place."

Once I said that the whole group of kids gasped over what I just said, all surprised but Austin as he just laughed it off before saying.

"Are you stupid, you can't just take someone else's task."

"Then you give me one, name one out of your head and I'll do it."

I said as I crossed my arms over each other, unknowing what he was about to propose as he looked at me thinking to himself for a moment. The party going quiet as they waited to hear what he was going to say, after a few more minutes of silence Austin finally offered me something in exchange for Veronica's task as he smiles.

"Alright, Veronica doesn't have to do the task ...in exchange you'll have to for a five minute make out session…"

'Okay, so far it wasn't that bad.'

I thought to myself, sure it was cooties non the less but if it meant Veronica had a whole new vision of himself then he'll have to do it.

"....with a guy."

'oh crud.'

I thought as the whole room gasped, both Veronica and Ashley were also in shock as my confidence when to the Moon and down deep into the bottomless pit of the ocean as I looked at Austin. Seeing that smug grin on his face, feeling like he had finally stumped someone as he crossed his arms over each other, following his response up with.

"Come on Zach, we all know you have a gay side. Look I'll even let you pick one of the boys. That is unless you're a scaredy pants."

He said smirking as the group of kids started to chuckle to themselves over what Austin said. Now I was faced with the most difficult decision of my middle school life as I looked out into the crowd of people seeing the look at me already making assumptions on who I was going to pick. In the back of my mind I was thinking, where the hell was his parents and how are they allowing this? But if I've learned anything from these types of games, I knew there was a loophole in this task somewhere. Soon my confidence came back as I finally made my decision.

"Alright ...I choose..."

I said looking out into the huge crowd of pre teens as some guys were trying to his themselves behind the girls. Hearing both Veronica and Ashley try to talk me out of it as I looked over at them and away from Austin giving him a wink before I turned back towards the host himself as I finished my sentence with.

"...You Austin."

I said as I smiled, seeing his smug leave his face and was replaced with a nervous frown. Pre teen already whispering to themselves as they heard me say his name. Austin already trying to get out of the task as he pulled a..

"Wait, you can't choose me I'm not part of the game."

To which I replied back with.

"Oh really, because not too long ago you were wanting to touch Veronica's boobs."

"Yeah because it said allow all the boys in the room to touch her boobs."

"No, it said and I'm quoting you 'allow each male player to grope your boobs'. And as I recall you aren't in the game so…"

I said smiling as I had finally stumped Austin, the party members looking at both of us as they waited to see what was about to happen. Finally Austin just through in the towel as he said.

"Fine...five minutes."

"That's what you said."

I said, smiling as he moved closer to me. It was weird. Usually I would be nervous when I'm about to kiss a girl, because I've been to different parties where a game of spin the bottle would lead me to kissing some random girl and every time I did I'd get extremely nervous. But now it was different as I felt Austin lean himself into me, feeling his lips touching mine as the room went quiet. I myself leaned into the kiss as if it was some other girl. It was weird to say the least, because even though I do like girls something about kissing a boy didn't feel all that had as the timer went on. Both of us closing our eyes as we made out infront of everyone, soon feeling Austin relax getting into the kiss himself and so did I. My hands moving on towards his hips as his arms wrapping around my neck, it felt the kiss went on forever. While kissing him I thought to myself, hoping that his parents won't caught us exchanging sip. It was like karma knew what I was thinking as I along with the rest of the party heard an older woman's voice coming from the door.

"Austin!"

Immediately I pulled back as I whipped my lips, Austin doing the same. Everyone in the room gasped as we were all caught still up passed our curfew, then his father came in as he saw everyone in the room as he yelled out.

"What are all of you kids still doing up so late and not in your homes!?! Get out of here!"

And just like that the party was over as we l booked out of the room, down the three flights of stairs and out of the house. I especially ran as fast as I could out of that house and towards my way home. I made two big discoveries that night, one my parents didn't even know if I was home or not and two kissing a boy wasn't so bad after all.

Chapter 6: The Reveal, also meet 'it'.

"Wow.."

The matriarch said as she sat next to me, staring at me through the mirror while the stallion would, after washing off all the dye from my hair and adding some conditioner started to blow dry my hair. Seeing it for the first time retouched and recolored in, the red looking more burgundy than actual read as I smiled. Seeing also the perfectly cut split ends as he stood behind me, his hoove on my shoulder as I would hold it with a hand caressing it a bit. Making him giggle cutely before replying to her reaction.

"Yeah, after that I knew how I really felt about my sexuality. Soon Austin and I started up a relationship and it went well for a few months. Sadly he broke up with me after 'accidentally' cheating on me with some girl."

I said as I leaned back against the chair, looking down at my lap as I sighed.

It was a hard time for me after we broke up, how it all happened was pretty interesting, to begin with. Two weeks after the party, Austin got my number from someone God knows who gave to him in the first place but that's beside the point. We both slowly started talking to each other more and more each day until finally, he asked me out to a movie. I don't remember much of that movie but what I did find out was how who had the pants in the relationship. Sure in my heart I still had feelings for Veronica, but I was with Austin and he was my first real relationship. Yes, she liked Austin more than me, but- wait where was I going with this? Nevermind, anyway after a few months of dating Austin, things were going really well. It wasn't until our year anniversary came up that things started getting...strange. I told him I was bringing some movies for us to watch, and he just texted a simple 'k'. Now that may seem like a fast way of saying 'sure' but I something about him just using that one letter made me feel uneasy. Eventually, I shrugged it off and went to his house with three different horror movies. Yes, I love movies in general, hints my addiction to referencing different movie quotes every now and then. Oh, I haven't yet? It'll pop up at some point, I swear.

Anyways, I entered his house and noticed that the living room was empty. Usually, he's sitting on the couch, waiting for me. But something was definitely wrong, then I heard something coming from upstairs like giggling and a few chuckles here and there. Quickly I walk up the stairs carefully making sure that I couldn't be heard as I would make it to his room, leaning my ear to the door while trying to listen into his room. It didn't take long for me to know that something was up in that room once I heard Austin say another name, I covered my mouth not only from the shock factor but how I was about to burst into tears. I was an emotional fourteen-fifteen year old at the time, anyway we parted ways since then and I haven't dated anyone since.

I leaned back against the chair as I stood quiet for a moment, both the matriarch and the stallion hairstylist looked at me. Feeling bad over how it happened, the stallion's hooves would slowly wrap around my neck knowing how it must have felt as the matriarch soon joined in. Her hooves wrapped around the lower half of my body as both equines hugged me, I soon held both of their hooves with one hand each. Just in case you didn't get the image, one hand went on one equine's hoof while the other went to another equine's hoof. So that's one hand for each pony, got it? Anyway as we hugged it out, the moment was quickly interrupted by one of the other four mares came into the room as she saw what was going on making a quiet gasp sound. This then caused the hug to pulled apart as we looked overseeing the mare standing there as she blushed for ruining the moment as the matriarch cleared her throat.

"So...what is it miss?"

"W-well, Zachary's clothes are ready whenever he is ready to get dressed."

"Thank you, sweetheart."

I said smiling as I looked over the matriarch's shoulder giving her a smile. The mare giggled trotting away and back where she came from as I whipped my lap gently looking at both the stallion and matriarch near me as I spoke.

"Well, it was nice chatting with both of you."

I said smiling as they both gave one back the matriarch getting her hooves off my lap as she stood in front of me. Once the stallion moved his hooves away from my neck, I stood up and off the chair my hair feeling fresh and new as I would follow the matriarch towards the back. The stallion following close behind as we walked towards the other mares, preparing myself for what was about to come. After grabbing the clothes that were made for me, one mare leads me to a dressing room. Giving me some privacy as she clothes the curtains leaving me alone in the room with about four different mirrors, one on the wall both in front and behind me along with two mirrors on the wall to the right of me. Allowing me to look at every angle of myself, smiling as I would hang the pieces of clothing on a hanger. Giving myself a moment to process what was going on right. It has literally been only four weeks and by now I should be getting used to the area and their locals. Especially since I was so used to moving from house to house every year. But this was different, it wasn't like I could sleep it on. In fact I don't think I'll ever be able to sleep on it, considering I'm only a foot taller than most of the equines on this land. If I'm going to be completely honest, the only way I'll ever be able to sleep here is if someone would knock me over the head.

I dug my fingers into the scalp of my now burgundy colored hair as I move it away from my face. Walking back and forth, overing thinking what was happening right now. But suddenly I heard a very demonic and or very dimented voice coming from behind me, which just so happens to come from inside the mirror. Not only was it a voice but also a figure, who looked very familiar as it was my own reflection. Except he looked more, blue midnight blue to be exact. Not only that his eyes were glowing with the same color as it's skin the sclera a midnight blue but the Iris was white as it stared into my soul, and I knew it was my reflection because when I tilt my head to the left it would follow along with me. I was slowly starting to panic, my heart raising slowly taking a step back as my reflection followed me once again. For only a minute though before it would stand up straight giving me a devilish smirk as it would start to walk forward, coming towards me but soon it met its end bumping into the mirror as it placed its hands against the mirror glass. Looking dead into my eyes as he started to chuckle at me, as if it knew what it was getting itself into. Soon pushing its hands against the mirror as it would slowly start to move through the mirror and into the same room as I was. Water flowing in its footsteps as it would appear to be completely wet from just being inside of the mirror. It's pitch black hair, as it was floating behind and around him was now completely down and wet. Looking at me as it now took a wet footstep closer and closer towards me, while I would take steps back trying to be as far from it as possible. Soon meeting my end as I bumped into the wall behind me, looking back for just a second and once I turned my head back it was standing right in front of me staring into my eyes as it tilted its head. A very ominous clicking sound coming out of its mouth, twitching slightly as it made the sound. Now my breathing became heavy as I looked at it before telling myself (literally).

"It's not real, you're not real, this isn't really happening."

And once I said that it would slam it's hands against the wall behind me now closer to me as it looked dead into my eyes. It was like it was staring into my brain reading everything it could read before chuckling softly to itself as it had a voice.

"You think all of this was just out of luck?"

It said as it pulled away from me, chuckling more miniocly some more as it turned around walking away for a moment before turning by towards me. Still against the wall as I heard what it said, turning my head a bit not breaking eye contact with him as I asked.

"W-what do you mean by that?"

"Isn't it obvious? They're clearing doing this out of pity, I mean making you some new clothes? A bed and breakfast in that stupid train? You even fucked a nurse of a slut."

"It happened only once."

"And it was the best moment of your life wasn't it?"

It asked smiling at me as I looked at it, in a way he was right there not a single brain cell in my head that denied what it said. Them again she wasn't what it called a slut as I stood quiet. It just chuckled as it knew it was right as it would now rush towards me, once against pinning me against the wall as it stared into my eyes smirking miniocly.

"I can guarantee you, that by the end of the festival. You'll be known as the freak of Equestria, destined to walk on this land as nothing more than a piece of scum."

It said as it smirked at me, seeing me still in the robe just like it's except was black while mine was still somewhat white. While mine was still dry, it was completely soaked from coming out of the water puddle that was the mirror. It looked at me as it smirked finally saying what broke me as it reclaimed.

"I bet you still wanted to be in that closet, next to that poor soul of a janitor. Bleeding on the floor, and you have no one else to blame but yourself."

"I did nothing wrong and you know it!"

"You sure about that?"

It said as it would place it's hands on each side of my face as it would press it's hands as if it was trying to crush it. Making me get on my knees as it's eyes were now glowing a bright white, smiling.

"See for yourself!"

—

"It started in 1914, after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand…"

I heard it again, hearing something quite familiar as my lift my head up immediately, eyes widen after jumping up in my seat. I took a look around as I noticed the area, the class I was in that day, hearing the same lecture from my history teacher. Everyone in the room turning around as they saw me sitting in my chair. Sweat coming down my forehead as I looked at them, my hand shaking, Mr. McCarthy looked at me his hands on each side of his waist as he asked.

"Mr. Sanchez, is there a reason why you had your head down and now you're disrupting my class?"

He asked as he crossed his arms over each other. Now I was genuinely confused, was everything that happened just a dream? Was it all just a daydream and I was just sleeping in class again? It sure seemed that way from where I was, but there were a few minor details that say otherwise. First, there was something off about the prejecter it was showing something else that wasn't what Mr. McCarthy was explaining to the class and secondly what I had on my desk was a drawing I didn't draw. It looked to be a set of claws, cutting it's way out of the paper seeing..

"No ...no…"

"Excuse me?"

"It's just a dream, nothing is real, it's all just a dream.."

I said as I closed my eyes holding onto the sides of my desk, gripping on them tightly as I kept telling myself nothing is real and that everything that is happening is all a dream. While I was having a passive panic attack, Mr. McCarthy had enough of it as he would walk up towards my desk, I knew it was him based on the soles on his shoes hitting against the floor getting closer and closer.

"Alright that's it, principal's office now!"

"It's all a dream, none of this is real, it's all a dream, none of this is real."

"I said now-."

And like that, it went silent as I heard a sudden puff sound, it was someone dropped a huge amount of leafs in the room. Slowly I started to open my eyes as I saw the room was now completely empty, no light coming through the windows as it turned dark outside making the room fully blue and fill of ash. But of course I wasn't alone as I looked over seeing my dark counterpart standing in front of the room as it would use his fingers like claws running them against and across the board. Creating a loud screeching sound, my ears starting to hurt just by hearing that screech as I covered both of them with my hands.

"So you still think this is a figment of your imagination?"

It asked, stopping his claws from continuing to run his claws against the board, turning its head slightly around towards where I was sitting. Looking at me over its shoulder as it turned completely around, I still had my hands over my ears before noticing it looking back at me, slowly moving my hands off my ears and down my cheeks as I looked back at it. Smirking at me as it would slowly start to walk towards me, my hands shook as I got out of my chair. Moving through the desks as I tried to make my way out of the classroom. My counterpart stood there as it saw me making my way out the door, running out as I looked down the hallway. Seeing what looked to be the janitor laying on the floor inside of a bag as he looked at me, blood on the floor and some midway filled inside the same bag. He looked at me, attempting to breath seeing the bag preventing him from breathing as it would get in the way of his breathing. Looking at me as he would say in a very raspy voice.

"Zach ...help me…"

He said as his legs would both start to levitate up, his body being dragged away towards the left into another hallway. I ran up to where the pool of blood is as I looked to the left seeing the trail of blood leading up to another door, following said trail I was now in front of the door where the blood trail ended as I looked up seeing what looked to be a very familiar door. My hand shaking in fear as I made a loud gulp sound, nervous over what I was about to see behind this door. Moving my shaky hand towards the door knob, gripping my hand on it as I slowly started to twist it allowing me to open the door only to be met with both myself and the black figure that I was faced with. Seeing him shooting, my fist clenched as I rushed up towards him tackling the figure as he dropped his gun. Grabbing it as I held it in my hands finger against the trigger as I aimed it toward the black figure, yelling.

"Get up, get up!"

I said as I finally had him right where I want him as he would slowly start to stand up, keeping the gun aimed at him. He still had his hood on as he leaned against the wall, the hold preventing me to look at his face as I pulled the hammer back getting ready to fire as I threaten.

"Take the hood off or I'll shoot."

I said looking at him, full of rage as he would stand up straight looking down while turning towards me. His head down as he would move his hands up towards his hood as he would slowly take it off. My heart started to race as I was ready to see who the shooter really was, but something told me that I wasn't ready to be faced to my murderer as he pulled it off his head Revealing to me my dark counterpart as it smirked at me, saying one simple word chuckling as it said.

"Shoot."

I looked at it, outraged as I kept the gun up towards it's face, getting ready to fire. But unknown to me, the gun had no bullets left in reserved in the magazine so when I pulled the trigger back it made a loud click sound. My hands shaking as I pulled it again, and again hearing the click sound every time I tried to open fire. I dropped the gun to the floor as my counterpart chuckled miniocly, pulling the glove it had on its hand as it revealed it's bare hand wigging every other finger but one. Its pointer finger bent towards it as it would spring it up, revealing a claw to pop out. It looked sharp as it would move it's hand around showing me it's palm before saying.

"You'll never escape over what happened that day."

And like that it swung it's hand across my neck, feeling the claw on it's finger slitting my throat. Blood spewing out of my neck and down my chest as I gagged, spitting out blood before.

——

"Zachary?"

I heard the matriarch speak, as I opened my eyes. Staring at my reflection in the mirror as I hand my hand against it. Pulling it back, immediately moving it towards my neck dragging my finger against across it as I felt no blood and my slit on my neck gone. Sweat coming down my forehead, it really was a dream but what did it mean? Was it really a dream or was it some sort of episode? I then heard the sound of knocking against the wall making sure I was okay as I try to speak only stuttering out my words.

"I-I'll be out in a couple!"

"Are you okay? Do you need somepony to help you get them on? Because the girls would be happy to help you, hell even out hair stylist wouldn't mind at all."

"No! I-I mean no, I'm fine I'll be dressed and out in a few minutes."

I said as I took off the robe using it to swipe off the sweat, ignoring the fact that my butt might have been all over it as I threw it onto the floor. Grabbing the set of underwear to begin getting dressed in the clothes that was sewn for me. Adding on the last piece of clothing as I looked at myself in the mirror. My face showing a genuine expression of surprise and happy that they actually fit. The sneakers fitting nicely, jeans not too tight or too loose, my tank top looking great with the sweater as I moved my hair out from being trapped behind the sweater as I smiled at myself. I shook my head, forgetting what just happened as I knew the princess might have some answers to what just happened. I walked out of the dressing room, moving the curtain over revealing myself to the fashionistas and the hair stylist as they all yelled in excitement, hearing one of them screaming out.

"Strut darling, strut!"

She asked as I knew if I walked out and sat down on a chair they would be suspicious, they might wonder what was wrong with me and I didn't them to be disappointed over me not liking the clothes. Not only lying to them but to myself because I actual to love the clothes, so with my hands on my hips and my hopping popping out, my face making a cringe worthy attempt at looking like one of those female models you see on Project Runway, yes I watch that show fight me. Once showing that I was into the clothing I began to walk, like I was saying if I've learned anything from watching Project Runway is that you have to keep your chin up, your hips controlled and your arm still from swaying back and forth. The equine's in the room yelling things like 'work' or 'they weren't ready for you', keeping my poster as I would take the sweater off showing off my shoulders and exposing my collar bone as I threw it over my shoulder.

"Phfff I can't!"

I said as I broke out in laughter, I knew what I did was cringe worthy and I wasn't going back from that as the others just laughed along with me. I sat down on the chair after showing him how the clothes fit well and looked great in me as I looked at each equine smiling at them before saying.

"But ...I would like to thank all of you. Honestly I've never looked better than how I am right now."

I said as they all smiled at me, all five ponies trotted over towards me hugging me simultaneously as I felt ten hoofs wrapped around me. I would hug the closest pony to me, while my hands would grip onto other's hooves leaning my head on somepony's shoulder. Enjoying the group hug for as long as I could before feeling them all pulling back, and after talking to all of them for another while, I was ready to meet back up with Raven. After hugging and exchanging nuzzles with each pony especially with the hairstylist as I got a small cute chuckle out of him. I would wave goodbye to everyone in the room as I would close the door behind me once I was out of that room. Sighing as I wished we could have just hung out for a little while longer as I made my way towards Raven's office. If I remember correctly, she told me that her office was just around the corner from the salon as I walked down the hall and to the left, and as expected there it was. Raven's office door, judging by the sign on top of the door as I walked towards the door. Putting the sweater back on as I would stand in front of the door getting ready to open the door. Only to be stopped by the sound of Raven arguing with somepony else in the room and judging by the pitch of that other voice it appeared to be male as I heard her speak.

"Look, I already gave you almost half of my paycheck last time. How much more can you possibly ask for?"

I heard her speak as I moved away from the door being ready to be faced with whoever was in there as I leaned my head against the wall also hearing the male's voice.

"Look, I just need a few more bits to pay off my boss. Please if you could just spare a more bits for me, please?"

Chapter 8: Brunch is best served hot

"Okay, here we go."

I said to myself as I stood in front of the entrance to the dining hall, seeing the princess sitting on her pillow as she was using her magic to rearrange the plates of food around to try and make them look. Once she finished discussing with the servers and chefs over the food not being perfect for her guest, who I assume to be me obviously. I watched for a moment as she squints her eyes, trying to figure out how she could arrange the dishes of food. I bit my tongue, trying to hold back my laughter as I found it quite entertaining to see the princess frustrated herself when it comes to organizing the food on the table to make them look presentable. It was extremely cute when she would puff up her cheeks when something didn't look good on the table and would have to rearrange each dish again. Finally after seeing her struggle for another five minutes, I would walk up next to her without being noticed and while she had a dish levitating besides her, she would talk to herself trying to figure out which dish should go where.

"Hmmm, should the peach cobbler be next to the hay browns or scrambled eggs?"

She said to herself, her eyes squinted as she had both dishes levitating around her while staring at the scrambled that was behind what appeared to be bacon that looked like it was fried in hay, and in front of what appears to be toast. I looked at her for a moment, she has yet to realize I am next to her until I grabbed the plate of hay browns off from the air. Causing the princess to joint up scared as she looked over seeing me with the plate in hand as I explained.

"In my opinion, the hay browns should be next to the bacon. And the peach cobbler…"

I said after placing the hay browns next to the hay cover bacon, before grabbing the peach cobbler, continuing with.

"...and the peach cobbler should be next to the orange juice pitcher, though that's just me."

I said chuckling as I placed the cobbler next to the orange juice, chuckling as I look over towards the princess. Seeing her with a shocked look on her face, still surprised on how I came out of nowhere even though I was standing next to her for the last ten to fifteen minutes. Walking over to the other side of the table I would place myself down feeling the pillow against my tookus, feeling the comfortable fabric against my rear. After getting comfortable I hear the princess asking me.

"How long have you been staring at me?"

"Oh...maybe five ...ten...fifteen minutes?"

I said chuckling as I would look at her from across the table, my hands underneath it as I crossed my hands over each other, since it was only one foot off the floor I was able to keep one leg extended out so I don't end up getting a cramp. Princess Celestia looking at me as she her head down, a bit embarrassed that I have been staring at her struggle with making the dishes look perfectly presentable. I looked at her as I noticed this, seeing her cheeks lightly blush in embarrassment, though slowly I saw a small smile form on her muzzle as she turned the attention towards me.

"I bet you enjoyed staring at a beautiful mare like myself, huh?"

"What?"

I said, my eyes widen as now I was the one slowly blushing after the princess turned the silent situation into making me blush bright as a tomato. My cheeks turn bright red as I scratched the back of my head, Celestia giggling as she used her magic to levitate a plate, that had everything that was on the table while also making the dish look presentable. Levitating the plate over towards where I was, as she placed in front of me, seeing the steam from the food shooting up my nose I took a big whiff smiling.

"Wow.."

I said to myself as I felt notice a yellow aura on the collar of my shirt, being pulled forward as a napkin would be tucked into my shirt. Okay, now I understood what Celestia was doing and I'm honestly not even mad about it. I looked up at her, seeing her horn glow the same aura as the napkin was glowing. The princess would give me an innocent, motherly smile as the aura from her horn went away, the smile on her face reminded me so much of my mom back when I was younger. Grabbing the fork and knife, I gently but cut into the hay browns as I took a bite out of it. For some reason the crunch of the hay mixed with the taste of potato made it tastes surprisingly good. As I ate, I recalled the time my mother would wake us up early in the morning for breakfast, sometimes both her and my dad would sneak into my room, while I was still asleep they would both jump onto my bed as if they were my siblings and they tried to wake me up to tell me it was Christmas morning. So just getting to eat food that isn't canned or even from local fast food joint, is honestly a privilege and a blessing. While eating, grabbing a piece of toast and spread some jam that was in a really good looking containers the princess noticed me staying really quiet as she would start up a conversation.

"Tell me sweetie ...how are you feeling?"

When she asked me, I looked up at her and stopped chewing the piece of toast that was in my mouth. Hearing her ask me that question made it seem like she was acting like a mother figure towards me. I haven't felt this kind of kindness from anyone in a long time as I would swallow what I had in my mouth, not wanting to be rude by talking with my mouth full.

"Can I be honest with you?"

"Honesty is always the best policy, you can tell me anything."

She responded as she used her magic to serve me a cup of orange juice in a nice looking glass as she levitated it towards me. Starring the glass floating towards me as I grabbed it, taking a sip of the juice I could taste it was freshly made and there was no pulp to be found in the glass. As I drank some of the juice I sighed as I placed the glass down next to my plate, explaining towards the motherly alicorn.

"...I don't know ...I honestly don't know how to feel at the moment."

"Well, explain what's the first feeling or emotion you're experiencing right now."

She asked while pouring some juice for herself, pouring the contents in more wine glass looking glass as she took a sip before placing the pitcher of juice down with her magic. Putting my fork and knife down, I looked down for a moment as I gently rubbed my hands together, feeling the sweat slowly build up in between my palms as I looked up at the princess. Seeing she was staring at me with genuine curiosity as she waited for a response, giving me a moment to register what was going through my head as I explained.

"See that's the problem ...I don't know how to explain how I'm feeling or what kind of emotions I'm going through at the moment. Because it is a mix of many different emotions all bundling up in my head. All being packaged in and getting ready to burst into some more of emotional break down."

While I was explaining, using my hands as a form of expression on how I'm feeling. Princess Celestia would sat there hearing everything I had to say as she would nod at me as a form of understanding on how I was feeling as I continued.

"If I'm feeling one type of emotion...is the feeling of being unwanted, because I just feel like I'm being such a waste of time for both you and your whole legal team."

"And who told you that?"

She asked feeling offended on how I would downgrade myself in being a waste of time. I looked at her trying to fight back tears as I would look behind her seeing my dark counterpart once again as it would place a finger over its mouth. Telling me to stay quiet as I slowly start to pant rapidly, the princess looking at me with a confused look on her face, noticing me staring at something behind her as she turned her head. Only to see nothing as she looked back at me, with genuine concern on her face as she woke ask.

"What's wrong sweetheart."

"I….I don't know…"

I said in a shuttering voice, tears slowly falling down my eyes and my cheeks as I kept staring at my counterpart mouthing words over and over again, mouthing 'She can't help you, no pony will ever want to help you, you freak'. Princess Celestia stood up off her pillow as she trotted over towards me as she would pass through my counterpart faded into thin air. The princess sat next to me as she wrapped her wing around me pulling me close to her chest, feeling her chest fur against my skin. Softly sobbing into her motherly embrace as she would try and comfort me.

"Shhh it's okay, please tell me what's going on, why are you feeling this way, who is telling you these awful things?"

"I don't know….it keeps telling me that no one will ever care about me."

"Who is it?"

She asked, wondering who I was talking about after revealing who or what this creature was that has been harassing me for a while now as I looked up at her, tears coming down my eyes.

"I don't know, I don't know who it is, I don't know what it wants from me and it keeps feeding off my fear and my emotions."

I said as she would once again pulled me into her wing. Now just completely breaking down in her wings, my arms gently wrapping around her as I nuzzled against her fur. I honestly had no idea what was wrong with me, it's like it will be haunting for all eternity and there was nothing I could do to stop it. It was like that piece of him you can never get rid of and it'll be stuck on your shoe forever, but with all types of him they can be scraped off with enough force. Princess Celestia was very understanding of what was going on, so by using her magic she rearranged the table so that our plate were next to one another that way she could sit right next to me as I gently whipped my tears off my eyes. Hearing the Princess speak as she leaned her head down gently nuzzling her muzzle against my cheek.

"No matter what others say, you will always matter to me."

She said with that loving and motherly tone she was known for as she scooted herself closer to be using her magic once again to levitate a fork. Stabbing every piece of food on my plate as she would give me a good amount of food in one bite as she would move the fork towards me.

"Now open the tunnel, because here comes the train."

She said, giggling as she was trying to make me smile by playfully treating me like a baby. I played along as I would open my mouth wide as humanly possible, which is to say very wide since I was enjoying the meal her caterers made for us. Slowly I saw the fork of food moving slowly toward my mouth as the princess would made the sound of a train moving down the track, moving fork full of food as she would push it into my mouth. Wrapping my lips around every piece of food as I pulled everything off the fork. Gently clapping my hands like a little kid, chewing on each piece of food in my mouth only to give the face of total regret as I covered my mouth while I spoke not wanting to show any disrespect for the princess.

"Peach cobbler, mixed with breakfast foods don't work."

I said with my mouth full, again my hand covering over my mouth as I held back my laughter chewing what was left before swallowing everything. Taking a breather as chuckled a bit, the princess giggling along with me as we were having a mother and son moment in one way. As we ate we would both have a full blown conversation, some about me while others would be about how she managed to make me a citizen here and how even though I was a completely different species I should still be treated with the same respect. As we talked she would pull out a portfolio as she would show it to me by moving towards the front of my face. I looked at it as I would put my fork down, grabbing it in my hands before asking her.

"What's this?"

"Your documents, or rather your legal documents as an Equestrian citizen."

She said smiling at me as she took a sip of her juice, my eyes widen as I looked back down at my portfolio. Grazing my hand down it as I stared at it for a moment, it was like opening a college admission and I was about to be told if I got accepted or if I got rejected and I would have to try again next time. Taking a breath I slowly opened the portfolio checking out what kind of information they had on me, and sure enough they had a picture of me that they must have gotten from my wallet when they were cleaning out my pants when they were washing my clothes. Come to think of it, whatever happened to my wallet? As I stared at the pages I saw all kinds of information they had on me, everything looked normal up to one thing and this one caught me off guard as I looked up at the princess asking.

"Cock size, excuse me?"

I asked her with a smile as I pointed towards where it said 'penis size' and right next to it was the measurements, now I'm not one to brag because it's disgusting to be bragging about your dick size even if they ask you. But that number was a bit exaggerated if I have to tell myself, I looked at Princess Celestia as I tried to hold back a blush while looking up at her. She tried to look innocent in this as she would take another sip of her juice, looking over at me as she said.

"Well ...some of us are curious and truth me told ...most of us were impressed."

She said smiling with a slight blush on her cheeks as I stared up at her for another moment before closing the portfolio before giving it back to her as I looked away.

"Alright, I've seen enough."

I said as I gently chuckled, finding it kind of embarrassing how they invaded my personal circle. But at the same time I kind of found it pretty hilarious as the princess would giggle along with me, grabbing my portfolio with her magic before pulling out a huge orange envelope showing it towards me. Taking a sip of my orange juice as I looked at the envelope, grabbing it as I wondered what this was as I placed my glass of juice down on the table before jokingly saying.

"Okay, is this my eviction notice? I have yet to move into a house and I am already getting evicted."

I said as the princess could hold back from the joke as she spat out her orange juice. Breaking down in laughter as she couldn't hold back from the joke I just said, jolting up as I saw what had happened as I laughed along with her, asking.

"Wait? What happened? That wasn't even that funny."

I said as we both laughed off the joke for a moment, sitting back up on the pillow as she looked over at me. Her wing around me as she panted hard after all that laughter she lost her breath as she tried to focus.

"No ...no, these are some ponies I would like for you to meet and...well let's just say check up on."

"Oh? The princess is trying to hook me up with a lucky mare or stallion?"

I teased as I would gently bump into her, she would gently giggle as she would shake her head.

"No, no, although I will say it was quite nice of you to organize a date for one of my guards with the mare of his dreams."

"Hey, I used to do all of the Cupid work back at my high school."

I said giving her a smile as I shrugged my shoulders, I then opened the envelope the first thing that caught my eye was a small packet which a title that was in big bold letters. Reading Preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration, tilting my head as I wondered what this event was as I looked up at the princess.

"Your job is to check up on some of the preparations for my annual event, where I am being commemorated for the summer solstice. In this packet are the names of each pony I have assigned for a specific preparation and it's your job to make sure everything is ready for the festival."

"Ugh! I already have responsibilities."

I said groaning in a joking manner as I looked down at the packet, the princess playfully shoved me. Chuckling I looked down at the packet filling page after page as I saw each and every pony I will eventually meet as I nodded before hearing the princess speak.

"Now here's the catch, actually there's two. First, I will be sending you later today so you can get a hold feeling around town and maybe get to know the residents. And the second, I will ask that you try to make friends. Judging by the way you present yourself when I first saw you I assume that you may or may not have a lot of friends back home?"

She said looking at me as she had a very saddened look to her face. I looked back up at her as I had the expression of damn did this woman read my mind? I would let go of the page I was holding up as I took a moment to think about what she just said before jokingly saying.

"The truth tea ...is both real and cold."

I said playfully shivering as I leaned into her fluffy chest nuzzling against her. It was true, back home I had zero to no friends and that's saying something from how I have been expressing myself towards everypony. The princess could feel my pain as she gently places her head above my own as she would gently nuzzle against my head. Well at least now I already made one friend, and maybe a potential mom? Nah. Well maybe, who knows but all I know is I was faced with one of the biggest responsibilities I have ever been given as I looked down at the packet one more time before putting it back into the orange envelope so I wouldn't lose it as I gently hugged it. My head feeling the soft fur of the princess's chest before hearing what she had to say.

"Now, let's get you ready for your departure."

Chapter 9: How Zach met Barb, his new best friend.....sort of.

"Forward March!"

The captain of the royal guard commanded as his troops followed behind him, each guard was in a five by nine square formation. Making a total of forty five guards marching behind their caption, I stood on the balcony of the castle as I leaned against the railing looking down at the city of Canterlot. Not once have I seen something this amazing from a really high position in my life, now that I am in a whole new land living a whole new yet quite worrying life means I have a clean slate in everything. Sure it's a land full of pastel colored ponies and they could not only hate and despise me, but they could possibly burn me to the stakes. But hey, would that look cool to see someone being lit into a human sized piece of flambe? Yeah I don't know what that is either but it sounds so much like sorbe, which I found out us like ice cream except it's made with fruit and I do love me some black raspberry ice cream. So I leaned against the balcony I looked down seeing the princess talking to some of the guards as they looked up at her, I smiled as I watched Celestia talking to her guards. Just by reading her lips she seems like the motherly type, the way she treated me when I first came and when we were having breakfast I could tell she has had multiple who has had back experience and all she wants is to see somepony smile. Well she succeed with me as I stared at her for a little while longer before hearing the sound of somepony clearing their throat as I turned around. Once again seeing Raven as she now had her mane fixed up in her signature bun, glasses on straight, all but one thing was different her tie was a completely color as it looked it be a more coral shade. I smiled as I walked up to her before getting on one knee, hearing what she had to say as she looked at me with a smile.

"Your ride is ready Zach."

She said, looking up at me with her bright light grey colored eyes. I smiled back at her as I would hold back a blush, from the way she looked at me and the way she project herself I found it to be quite adorable as I would nod as a response. Before we left she gave me one quick hug as she lunged herself up towards me, wrapping her arms around me tightly. I chuckled as I wrap my arms around her pulling her into a hug as well as we both enjoyed one last hug for now. Gently placing a hoof behind my head she would softly whisper in my ear.

"I hope we get to see enjoy again."

She said in a very cheerful way before letting go of me, now standing on all four again before reassuring her with a soft pet on her head, not wanting to ruin her hair before she lead me out of the balcony and down the hall. As we make our way down the stairs, staying quiet the entire time I was walking alongside Raven she asks me why I was so quiet on the way towards the entrance of the castle. I look at her as I gently rubbed my hands together, still thinking that maybe this was a bad idea as I would tell her how I feel.

"What if they don't accept me? What if they just think I'm a huge freak?"

"Hey, hey, no one will ever think you're a freak. If they just get to know you, they'll see what a soft, caring ...and my I add charming human you're."

She reassures me, even going as far as adding the word charming to my personality. I smile at her as I stopped rubber my hands against each other, feeling sweat slowly build up before making our way towards the exit as she would open the gate for me. Allowing me to feel the fresh light from the sun and the gentle breeze through my hair fingers, feeling cold from the built up a sweat as we made our way towards the bridge. Before seeing royal guards standing on each side from the edges of the bridge as they stood up straight, while we both walked down the guards that I would pass by would calute me by raising a hoof up to their foreheads. I found this to be both respectful and quite weird at the same time, but that's what happened as we both made our way down the bridge. While we walked one of the guards stopped me with his spread as he would move it slightly to the front. Stopping me as I turn my head to the right seeing the guard that brought me here in the first place with a straight face as I looked at him before asking.

"Is there something you'd like to ask me?"

I ask as I look at him, he then turns his face slightly towards me before giving me a small smile.

"Extend your hand out."

He asks as I look at him, confused at first doing what he asks me as I would raise my right hand out. Raven wondering what was happening as she watched us having a small conversation. The guard raising one of his hooves, as he would gently drop coins onto my hand, soon counting about five coins as he smiles at me.

"A deal is a deal pal ...and good luck out there."

"And make sure you bring a misses when you come back and visit us you hear?"

One of the other guards said in a friendly manner as he would raise a hoof up. Not in a way that one would shake each other's hand but in the manner in which someone wanted a fist pump as I smile at him. Making my hand into a fist as I gently bumped it against his hoof, he smiles at me before both him and the other guard who I was talking to previously assumed their positions. I nodded as I stood back up, Raven smiling back at me before we both walk down the bridge. Meeting up with both the princess and a carriage which has two other stallion bridled attached to the carriage. Walking up towards the princess she smiles at me as she gave me a very large backpack, and it looks quite designer as I pick it up and threw it over my shoulder while it was hanging behind me. It's quite heavy on my shoulder as I feel it weighing me down, wondering what I constains inside this bag before the princess answers my wonders.

"In that bag comes a change of clothes, toothbrush, toothpaste and floss, along with all the other manly necessities, I made sure to give a copy of the ponies you'll be meeting to your assistant."

"My who now?"

I said, looking up at the princess now questioning who this assistant of mine was as she smiles down at me. She then trots over towards the carriage as she opens it, before looking inside of the carriage as she spoke to who ever was in there already.

"Come on, don't be shy, I can assure you that he will do you no harm."

She said as she would move out of the way for someone to come out as I look at her confused, soon my confusion dissolved as a five foot two tall dragon looking girl came out. I assume it's a she based on the green scales on her head looking like dread longs as they hung down off her head, her purple scales that replaced her skin or fur for most of the residents. Seeing she had no clothes as she was completely exposed, this is the first time I've seen someone who had the body that looked more like a human's as her breasts were formed. Sure they didn't appear to have nipples, which mean she either has pasties that hid them and her gentle area or someone drew her to not have anything exposed. As I look at her she appears to be shy as she tries her best not to make eye contact with me which was hard since she was almost the exact same height as I was, slowly she walks up to me as she would stand up in front of me slowly showing a small smile before extending her hand out, having claw like nails as I heard her speak.

"H-Hi ...I-I'm Barb."

She said smiling at me, I look at her for a moment before extending my hand out towards hers gripping her hand, expecting to feeling a scally and uncomfortable texture but that wasn't the case. Immediately my hand feels amazing in hers as I was feeling an extreme softness in her hand. Looking at her hand I place my free hand over hers as I would feel her scaly skin was extremely soft asking.

"How did you get your scales to be this soft?"

"Excuse me?"

She asked, now feeling a bit uncomfortable with the sudden question on how she got her scails to be this soft, I shook my head I remove the second hand over hers as I gently shake her hand before introducing myself.

"Sorry, got extremely surprised over your extremely soft scails. I'm Zachary, Zach for short if you feel Zachary is too problematic."

I said smiling at her as she would smile back at me, both of us letting go of our hands as we look at each other for a little while longer before Celestia came up to the both of us as she would lean down gently kissing my cheek, kind of like how a mom would kiss her kid in the cheek before leaving for school. Following the kiss up with a small nuzzle as I chuckled, placing a hand on her cheek while she is nuzzling me before she would ask Barb.

"Look after Zach for me, I would hate it if something would happen to my child."

"Mom, I'm seventeen I can take care of myself.."

I said crossing my arms over each other puffing my face up in fake anger as I played along with the mom and son game she started to play ever since I first came to the castle as both her and Barb would lightly giggle at the way I reacted to her. Princess Celestia would once again smooch my cheek before gently spanking my rear with her tail, causing me to jolt up as I was walking towards the carriage, immediately yelling out.

"Hey!"

I said turning myself towards her as the princess would smile at me, staring at me with her innocent eyes as to why I was reacting this way. It was as if she didn't know what she did wrong as I squint my eyes to her. Using two fingers to point at my eyes before pointing towards her eyes as a form of saying that I have my eyes on her. As I walk into the carriage, the last thing I saw before going in was both Barb and Celestia standing next to each other. Taking a seat as I gently felt myself teetering and tottering a bit trying to keep not only myself but the carriage a balance. Gently I lean myself back against the carriage as I await for Barb aboard along with him, I gently yawn as I was a bit tired over the crazy series of events that have happened today. To think I was hit in the head with a spear by a guard, helped a stallion find love, met so many different ponies who have helped me clean up not only my fashion but my perspective in life and being given the opportunity to have breakfast with the princess of the land who has been nothing more than a mother figure towards me and has made me into an official citizen of Equestria. What more could I have asked for? After waiting another few minutes, I would hear the door of the carriage being closed as I look over. Seeing Barb carefully walk into the carriage and gently place herself across from me as she sat a few seats away from where I was. Even though she got to meet me in person and saw how I projected myself as a very laid back person she still seems very quiet and kept herself very distant away from me.

"Ready, and lift off!"

One of the guards yelled to the other as both extend their wings open, both flapping their wings up and down lifting the carriage up off the ground and into the air. Feeling the carriage shake a bit from flying through the cloud, Barb and I felt the carriage shaking and immediately held onto the edges. But once we were up and above the clouds the shaking stopped as we both sighed, laying back a bit relaxing as I let out a chuckle.

"Even here you guys have terbilaince huh?"

I said chuckling as I tried to get along with Barb, so far it seemed to be working hearing a soft giggle coming out of her from my joke. I smile, thinking this was going to be an easy friendship between me and her, sadly I knew this was just one note I could get out of her. Ten minutes into the flight and we were both quiet, looking at her I notice she was doing something on her notepad, at first I thought where did she get this notepad and what she was doing on it. But I knew if I jumped at her and asked what she was doing it could be, no it is like snooping into someone else's business as I sighed looking out into the distance taking a look at the bright blue sky, noticing how amazing it looked without any clouds or even any dark population caused by factories. Slowly getting lost at the sight of the beautiful weather in the sky, not noticing that Barb would look up at me but then would look back down at her notepad, only when I saw her through my peripheral vision that I see her looking up at me and down her notepad. Once I noticed this, I turn my head around looking at Barb as she was staring down at her notepad this time when she looked up she noticed me staring at her as her eyes widen as she hugs her notepad trying to hide what she was doing once I ask her.

"Whatcha doing there Barb?"

"Nothing! I-I mean ...i-its nothing really."

She said nervously yelling nothing once I asked her that question. In the back of my head and of the sort of artist that I am I knew she was drawing. Not only was she drawing but she was drawing a picture of me, how I knew this was because when would draw someone I would first take a good look at whatever or whomever I was drawing before starting, every now and then looking back up at what I was drawing to duplicate on a piece of paper. Also, judging by the way she was hugging her notepad the picture wasn't finished yet as I chuckled nodding.

"Okay, I'll let you finish and you can show me later sound good?"

I said to her smiling as I would position myself, leaning my arm against the arm or hoof rest of the seat I was sitting in as I leaned against my hand, looking out into the deep blue sky. Smiling gently, feeling the air hitting my face as my hair would flow against the blowing wind, giving Barb the perfect picture to draw. But the perfect mix of the wind was soon interrupted by the sound of something bumping against the carriage causing me to joint wondering what the hell hitt us as I looked over, gently getting out of my seat moving towards the seat in front as I sat on my knee giving me the perfect view of whatever was below, seeing nothing but trees and the river trail below as I asked one of the guards.

"Hey! What hit the side of the carriage?!?"

"Not sure, but no worries we'll be preparing to land in a couple of minutes! Have a seat and we will notify you when we're land-."

Suddenly his sentence was cut off, feeling the carriage being hit once again causing me to grip onto the edge of the carriage as I notice about four different ponies zooming passed the carriage. Both stallions grunting in annoyance as they knew who they were as I look at both of them.

"Who the fuck was that?"

"Ugh, The Copper Angels."

"Who?"

"The Copper Angels are a group of pegasi who think they're the shit, they say they're going to he more well known than The Wonderbolts!"

"Pfft, if they think that horrible metal music is going to get then to the top then they're in for a world of disappointment!"

The second guard replied as he along with the guard I was speaking to no to long ago. Once against their chuckles were cut off by the angels bumping up against the carriage, feeling a slightly tight grip against my leg knowing it was Barb who was holding onto it as I would turn my head to the right of me. Moving over as I notice them coming back for another round, yelling out.

"Hey, Copper Jerks! We have precious cargo in here!"

I yelled out which caught the attention of one of the pegasi, the pony in question is female judging by the shape of her muzzle as she would fly up towards the side of the carriage and up to my face, looking at me dead in the eyes as she would chuckle.

"Eat shit you freak!"

She said before spitting onto my face, feeling it landed on my bandages under my eye closing my eyes as I heard her laughing at me. Before she flew back reading to bump into the carriage again, I whip the sip off my face now I was furious as I leaned against the carriage seeing her coming in for another nudge against the carriage, I had the idea that once she was close enough I was swat at her with my hand. Prepaying my right hand I wait and once she was close enough I yell out.

"You bitch!"

I said before swinging my arm over, but instead of hitting her something else happen as a spherical beem came out hitting her instead, causing one of the coppers to fly down as the rest of her gang followed suit seeing her making a crash landing. I yelped when this happened causing me to fall down back Barb immediately coming to my aid as she looks at me with worry in her eyes.

"Are you okay? What was that?"

She asked genuinely wondering what the hell happened, I leaned against her as I held her arm a bit traumatized over what the fuck acutally happened. Was it me? Or was it one of the guards that did it? I'm not sure what the hell happened all I know is at least they're gone for now.

"Is everything alright back there?"

"We heard a loud boom?"

Both guards asked as I looked up at Barb, the dragoness facing away from me as she would yell back at the guards.

"Yes! Everything is fine!"

She yelled back before Barb would look back down at me making sure she would feel me holding onto her arm as my head was laying on her chest, not caring that I was feeling her centered boobs against my cheek as I look up. Seeing Barb looking down at me, noticing a genuine worried look on her face as she held me in her arms, I smile at her before sitting up and off of her not wanting to make her feel uncomfortable by taking advantage of her kindness. Unless she liked it but other than that I stand up on my feet, once again looking over the edge as I notice those pegasui were gone sighing before noticing something else. The clouds, they now look more natural and smooth to the touch as I extended my arm out feeling my hand going through the cloud, feeling how fluffy they were before hearing one of the guards speak once again.

"We're landing shortly, just a few more minutes and we'll be landing near Ponyville."

After hearing him say what he said, I look over towards Barb seeing her start to pick up her thinks as she would grab her notepad along with my backpack as she hangs it over her shoulder standing up before turning towards me with a gentle smile on her face. I smile at her before looking back over the carriage soon feeling us going back through the cloud as once again the carriage started to shake as Barb was thrown off her balance. Causing the dragoness to fall over and land against me her arms wrapped around my neck as her breasts gently pressed up against my back. My eyes widen as I felt this, thinking it was a simply cause of fear from falling down as I look over my shoulder feeling her forehead pressing up against the back of my neck. Gently smiling as I grip on her forearm gently, that told her that I had her in my grasp and that nothing could hurt her, I remember dealing with this back when I traveled with my aunt and my anxiety filled niece and in order to get her through the whole flight without my niece going through a mental breakdown. Soon we felt the shaking stopped as Barb notices what she was doing before slowly pulling her arms off my neck, feeling her breasts pulling away from my chest. In the back of my head I really didn't want her to move away since it had been awhile since a girl has pressed her breasts up against my back, but that's a story for another time. Soon Barb stood up on her own two feet as she would face away from me, feeling both ashamed and embarrassed over how she reacted with gripping onto me after losing her balance. I look up at her and seeing her back facing me towards me, I know she must be feeling embarrassed only seeing her belows bent meaning she had her arms crossed over each other and hugging her chest to hide her face as I stand up on my own two feet. Soon we felt the carriage slightly shake, hearing the wheels of the carriage hitting the ground along with the sounds of the guards running and soon slowly stopping the carriage as we have made it to our destination. But before Barb even took another step towards the door, I walk up towards the front of her as I look at her seeing her jolt up in surprise when she sees me standing in front of her before I gently reassure her.

"Look...I know you maybe feeling bad over...what happened back there but-"

"What happened? Nothing happened hehe, I totally didn't hold onto you hehe let's get out of here hahaha."

She stated as she wants to think that what happened early didn't actually happen. Moving away as she opens the door making her way out of the carriage and trying to ignore what really happened as I watch this all happen before seeing her walk away. I sigh I didn't want this to be awkward between us but I knew I keep trying to bring it up it could lead to Barb completely ignoring me and ruin any chances of being friends with me. So with one last quick check to see if we had all our stuff before making my way out of the carriage walking around and towards the two stallion's as I notice Barb talking to one of them. I watch her talking before she notices me looking at her as she would make her way towards town, taking a head start so she didn't have to talk to me. I shake my head in annoyance knowing this is going to be a hard friendship to gain, I walk up towards the two guard before saying.

"Thanks guys, not going to lie up to the point where the carriage was being 'attacked' by the Copper Angels it was a pretty smooth flight."

I said smiling at both of them as they both start to blush, of jeez please tell me that it's not going to be like this when I talk to some of the residents. Because the last thing I need is saying the wrong thing and making somepony feel uncomfortable over me being 'smooth' or 'charming' as I've been told by some of the ponies back in the castle. Soon their red cheeks went away before one of the stallions ask about Barb and why she was taking a head start towards town.

"Hey, what's up with Barbara does she know she needs to follow you and not go off on her own?"

"Yeah about that…"

I said gently scratching the back of my head, not wanting to make it seem like she might be having feelings towards me even though that might be the case. Explaining.

"... See when the carriage started to shake again, and she lost her balance so when it came to her falling over...she fell over me, and her arms wrapped around my neck and she buried herself up against me."

I said as both stallions look at me with the expression of realization, both their heads nod as they look at me before I said.

"But like I didn't mind it because it's something I had to deal with back home when it came to air travel."

"I mean I don't blame her, when it comes to someone like you ...you know in the scenes in the way you appear, it can make someone feel embarrassed and not want to face someone they just hugged."

"Best course of action is to not push it and just move forward."

They both said as one basically told me that because I am a completely new species and when it comes to facing a new species they may have feeling that the other, that being me, may not have the same feeling. The other advised me to just let it go, don't try to talk about it with her and to not keep bringing it up or else it could make her feel even more uncomfortable as I nod at their replies.

"Yeah, I guess so, well thank you both for the drop off and I hope you two have safe travels."

"One more thing…"

One guard said as he looks up at me, I look back at him as I listen to what he had to say as he states.

"Try not getting yourself into any kind of trouble, we saw what happened with one or the Cooper's and we know you had something to do with it."

"Wait, that wasn't one of you who did that?"

I said, both stallions shaking her their heads to my question as I look at both of them. My hand gently shaking over the fact that I might have caused a pegasus to crash down into the frost back there. Shit, what if I just committed bloody murder? But soon my worries went away as one of the guards reassures me when he saw my hand shaking and sees that I'm slowly starting to panic, but he lets me in on a little secret as he says.

"Look, as far as we know that's one less criminal we have to put away, but just because we're letting you off on this one doesn't mean we'll be forgiving you over something you actually did."

"Just keep you and that gal safe, the last thing we need is losing someone like you."

Hearing what one said I nod before turning my face towards the other, basically hearing him complimenting me as I smile at him. After thanking him one last time I would turn my head around seeing Barb almost reach town as I start to make my way towards her, turning back one last time to wave goodbye at both stallions before seeing them once again take off into the air. Now facing towards Barb I would now run towards her, now I was really going to lose my shit because at one moment I was trying to catch up with Barb but the next moment I was suddenly teleported from being way far behind Barb to suddenly standing right in front of her as she was suddenly wrapped around my arms. Making her stop towards entering town to looking up at me as she feels my arms around her, now feeling completely spooked as much as I was immediately took a step back, my arms off her as now I was the one feeling completely embarrassed from suddenly appearing in front of her. Okay at this point karma coming back for me from being an ass to Austin, but like three years later, really? I look down at Barb as she looks up at me as her arms are on my own and her hands on my biceps as she looks at me, my hands holding onto her back as I look back at her. Staring at each other for another five minutes processing what is going on at this moment. Gently I start to pull myself away from her as she does the same once we were off each other she would look at me asking the exact same question as I was thinking at this very moment.

"What just happened?"

"I… I don't know, I'm honestly getting scared and worried."

I said as we both would turn towards town, looking up at the huge sign that said, in big bold pink letters 'Welcome to Ponyville'. Barb and I staring up at the sign for a moment as we wonder what are we going to do while we wait for tomorrow to check up on the presentations. Both Barb and I let out a sigh at the exact same time, before taking our first step into Ponyville. Stepping in as we both make our way into town, walking together as I gently move my hand towards her so she wasn't scared about going into town alone. It was like we both were reading each other's mind as she does the same, both of us going onto each other's hands as we walk into down. Barb being a bit more exact as she would go all in and held onto my arm while we take a look around. At first glance it doesn't appear to be anything wrong about this place, seeing ponies trotting along, some are talking to one another and others having smaller ponies trotting along with them appearing to be their children as they trotted by. Although some ponies weren't trotting, others were flying in the sky as they move clouds from one place to another, when we look up we seeing one pegasus moving a cloud away so the sun could poke through. For some reason it feels like we're just part of the residents, which relieves both Barb and my worries as we walk towards the center of town seeing a water fountain and benches around it so anypony could sit down and enjoy the weather or whatever was happening around these parts. However as both Barb and I walk around seeing everything from houses, bakeries, and flower shops, we both start to realize that this might not be the peaceful place as it appears to be. Barb decided to take a seat on the bench to relax a bit, placing the backpack down next to her as she would run her hands through her hair like spikes on her head, as she looks up at me wondering what we are going to do next.

"So ...what's the plan?"

"Well, first of all we should address the elephant in the room…"

I said as I walk up towards her, standing in front of the dragoness as she looks up at me wondering what I had in my mind as I stood in front of her my hands rubbing against each other as I address what happened back in the carriage.

"Listen, what you did in the carriage, losing your balance and holding on to… why did you feel embarrassed about what you did and stood silent about it?"

I ask her as I look down at her, even after the guards told me not to bring up the situation to Barb I'm not the type of person to let things go or act like things like that never happened. Firstly Barb doesn't need to act like she can't hold onto me if she ever feels scared, again I had to deal with my niece's anxiety when we took flights for a vacation. But if she can't cooperate with me and tell me what is wrong about what she did then how does she expect me to help her? Barb looks up at me as she was quiet for a moment, trying to pick the right words so she doesn't present herself as a weirdo, after staying quiet for another few minutes, now sitting next to her on the bench as she starts to talk.

"Well… when we met for the first time I wanted to be chill, I wanted to feel like we can get along with each other and not feel weird from any tension. Look, I'm sorry if I weirded you out, I was just scared and I needed to hold onto the closest thing next to me and…"

"Barb."

I said as I gently hold onto her hand, immediately she stops talking and looks over towards me as she heard me say her name. I look at her as I think for a moment, like her I was trying to pick the next few words very carefully as to not make her feel weird about what I was going to say. Gently I sigh as I look at her I finally had some time as to what I was going to say before starting to speak.

"Look, it's bad enough that you feel weird about doing what you did, and it was out of reflex so it's not your fault. But if you ever feel like you're in danger when we're walking around or if we're alone wherever we're staying at. Feel free to hold onto me, believe me if my niece had to do it then you can, never feel weird about doing it okay"

I explain to her as she looks at me, she seems to understand what I am trying to tell her but at the same time this was going to be hard for both her and myself. Yeah I can understand why she might feel this way, I'm completely new to her in the sense of being pushed up against her and having to be forced to make friends with whoever was in front of her. But at the same time I want her to feel like whatever she needs as a coping mechanism, and if that means having to hold onto the first thing she sees then who am I to stop her. The dragoness looks at me with a sense of understatement as she gently node her head, saying.

"Okay, but…"

She said but was cut off mid sentence as she was distracted by something or someone standing behind me as I look at her. Wondering what she was looking at as I saw the expression that her life was flashing before her own eyes. I look at her, wondering what was wrong before turning my head around, immediately I was struck in the head. Grunting as I fell to the ground, groaning hard as I held my head with both hands. Slowly I start to hear faint sounds of Barb calling my name in a state of panic, before turning towards somepony yelling at them why they did what they did before fainting hearing the sound of a group yelling at her. Before long I was slowly knocked on conscious as I laid my head against the floor, so I'm guessing this was the welcoming committee ain't this just a marvelous want to greet a new neighbor.

Chapter 10: Dark Phoenix, or a copycat?

"Zachary… Zachary can you hear me?"

The sounds of a male's voice can be heard as I was slowly regaining my consciousness, I can hear the sounds of a heart rate monitor besides me as I knew I wasn't in any old house or bedroom. No I was certainly back where it all happened and how I was able to survive the tragedy that shall not be named. Blinking once as my vision slowly went from blurry to crystal clear as I take a look around, I was back at the hospital not only that but I am in the exact same room as the one I was when I first came into Equestria. I try to sit up wanting to see if Barb was in the room but when I try to move even the slightest my head began to ring harshly, it's like if someone was blowing one of those silent dog whistles just ringing in my ear. My head, hurting like a motherfucker as I lay myself back down the doctor calming me down so I don't cause more damage towards my head as I look at him.

"Shh, it's okay buddy lay your head down right now you don't want to make it worse by worrying, your friend is sitting in a chair."

He said, motioning his head towards the left of him. Gently moving my head towards the left as I see Barb sitting on a chair, her hands rubbing against each other, she notices me looking at her. Smiling as she stands up and off her chair walking up to the side of the hospital bed she places a hand on my stomach looking at me with worry in her eyes. I look at her, giving the dragoness a gentle smile, moving my own hand over hers as I hold it gently caressing her hand as the doctor asks.

"Tell me, what was the last thing you remember?"

Hearing the doctor speak I turn my head towards him, while holding onto Barb's hand I try to remember the last thing that happened right before my head went blank. But it was complicated to explain as my head is ringing, holding onto Barb's hand a bit tighter as it was hurting so much. The doctor leaned his head a bit closer towards me seeing that there was a lump that formed behind my head when I turned my head back towards Barb. Instead of trying to continue to ask me what happened, he instead began to ask Barb as I hear him asking her.

"Barbara can you explain what happened?"

The doctor asks as he looks at her, Barb hesitated at first because she didn't want to get anyone into trouble nor did she want to get herself into any trouble. But when she looks down at me, as I look at her nodding to tell her not only as her friend also so she doesn't have to worry about my problems and she is only reporting what happened. Giving me a gentle smile she would let out a sigh of relief as she would look at the doctor explaining what happened in the best way she could.

"So, both Zach and I were having a conversation, then out of nowhere some stallion came out of nowhere and hit him across the head with a log. He thought Zach was harassing me and he wanted to make sure I was okay, he tried to hit him again but I stopped him before he could try anything else."

"And how did the stallion look like?"

The doctor asked Barb as she looks at him, giving her a brief description of the stallion who knocked me out cold. I look at both Barb and the doctor as he would look down at his clipboard as Barb continues to explain how the stallion looks like to the best of her ability. Seeing her slowly come out of her comfort zone and was able to fully explain what happened, I smile at her happy to see her personality slowly show more and more. Seeing her smile for the first time after hearing that this problem was going to he resolved before thanking the doctor.

"No, thank you Barb it's not easy taking care of someone that weighs a bit more than your own body mass."

"Hey you calling me fat, ahh fuck!"

I said trying to make light of the situation but only causing my head to hurt more, removing my hand off from Barb's and used both of my own to hold onto my head, the dragoness looking at me placing her hand on my chest gently before the doctor tells me.

"You can't stress yourself out like that Zachary you need to stay lying down. When you're capable of sitting up without having so much head pain then you can continue on with your day. But in order to make that a reality, you need to stay in bed until then."

"He will, I'll make sure he does thanks doc."

Barb answers for me as she keeps me in bed until I can stand up fully. With a nod the doctor left the room as he keeps the door open. As I lay in bed, removing my hands off my head as I felt the soft pillow against the back of my head feeling the painful lump in the back of my head after the ice pack was taken away from me. Allegedly keeping an ice pack on for so long won't do anything after the swelling stops, and apparently the lump eventually should go away. Which sounds like a load of bullshit if you ask me, it's kind of like how doctors tell you to just roll with your sore throat and hardcore cough until something real drastic happens. It was quiet for a few minutes, Barb pulled up a chair so she could sit near the bed while keeping herself close to me as dragonly possible. I look at her as she now has her focus back on her notepad once again, her spike like dreadlocks covering a part of her face. Seeing her smile as she looks so calm while she was now visibly drawing on her notepad, this honestly has to be the first time that I've seen her smile since we first met, which honestly doesn't sound like a long time since it only happened a few hours ago. But hey, at least I'm seeing her genuinely calm and happy and that's all that matters right?

Time sure does fly by when you're with someone else while you're in recovery. After speaking to one another, Barb explained to me why she's so quiet and scared of trying to open up to anyone new coming into her life. She explains that between living in this place called 'The Dragonlands' and living in the castle was a very weird tradition. Especially since Celestia cared for her when she was a baby dragon and once she was fourteen she was homeschooled because the princesses were scared if she was sent to an academy for her studies she could be lead down the wrong direction if she hung out with the wrong crowd, that and maybe a dragon going into an all pony school may not fit well with both the academy alumni and the students. This broke my heart, because not only did she have to lose her shot at going to prom or getting to see a school play for herself, she never really had a true friend in her life. But one thing did catch my attention when she explained to me her life in the castle, she used the word 'princesses', plural. Now as far as I know there's only one princess so I'm not sure if she thought there were two princesses or she must have been delusional. Gently I began to sit up on the bed as I grunt a bit, but this time my head wasn't hurting anymore, and everything felt fine until I heard somepony talking from the outside of my room.

"Is that ...thing still there?"

When I heard this I turn my head towards the direction of the voice but was faced with a closed door, Barb notices this as she looks at me wondering what was wrong with me, tilting my head to the side as I could hear a conversation coming from behind the door and it wasn't like I was hearing them whisper. I could hear them loud and clear even at the fact that the bed was a few feet away from the door.

"Zachary, you're scaring me what's wro-"

I cut off Barb with a raise of my hand trying to listen in on the conversation to the best of my ability, squinting my eyes a bit.

"Ma'am that 'thing' you speak of has a name."

"I can care unless of his name or what fucken species he is, I need to be checked up on. Aren't my problems more important that some stupid creature?"

"Ma'am all of our patients are important, whether they're a pony or not."

"Yeah, yeah cut the nurse crap just check up on that thing so you can get it out of there."

"Zach…"

"Ma'am I can't just barge in there without the word of the higher up."

"...Zach…"

"Well than all your higher up, tell him if to go in there so you can get that thing out of my room!"

"...Zach."

Coming back to reality, I can hear Barb calling my name as I turn to face her. She looks at me as she could see tears falling down my face, I also feel my hand aggressively grabbing onto the bed sheets in anger. Barb putting her notepad down stands up off her chair as she gently places her hand against my cheek, whipping the tear off my right cheek as she gently spoke to me.

"Zach, what's the matter?"

I look at her, not responding as I turn myself completely towards her my legs hanging down off the edge of the I look up at her. She could see the pain in my eyes very visible as tears kept coming down, I knew what I was going to be especially since I was a completely different species and back on earth when I attended school I was so used to hearing things said about me behind my back. In this case this was shit being talked about behind my back, but when I was able to hear it all in real time it hurts more. As I stare at Barb, she tries her best to calm me down as tears still roll down my face before I ask her.

"Where are we staying at?"

"The princess has a cottage built in the middle of the forest, she made sure to keep us away from town in case shit goes down hard."

She said as he reassures me that everything was going to be fine. Making the decision to leave now, but before I could stand up and off the bed both Barb and I heard the door to my room open as we see a nurse trot in seeing both me and Barb alone as she asks.

"Am I interrupting anything?"

"No, actually you're right on time, Barb get your things, and you can tell that mare in the outside of the room that we'll be out of here in a few moments."

"E-excuse me?"

She said, confused as to what I was talking about though deep down she knows exactly what I was saying. Barb grabbing both her notepad, suitcase and my backpack as I grabbed my sweater walking up towards the nurse as I extended my hand out for her to give me what I had to sign in order to be released asking.

"May I have the clipboard please?"

I ask the nurse as she looks up at me, seeing my eyes are red as if I have been crying for the past few minutes. Which I was but that was beside the point, Barn holding onto my arm as the nurse asks.

"Sir, is everything okay?"

"Everything is fine… just please hand me the clipboard so we can leave… we hate being a bother to you, the staff or any of your patients."

I said knowing that wasn't the case why I was mad, but I knew that if I stayed here any longer that mare is just going to keep harassing both me and Barb until she gets her way. The nurse reluctant at first gave me the clipboard as I turn it towards me, looking through the many names of the patients that were in as I see my name in the very bottom, seeing both the time and the doctor who was in charge of me as I look around seeing the clock as I wrote down the exit time and signed myself out. Giving the clipboard back to the nurse as I held onto Barb's hand walking us out of the room, only stopping when both her and I heard the voice of the mare in question.

"Ugh, finally my syphilis will kill me because they decided to tend some stupid freak."

I heard her say as I hear her trotting into the room. Barb looks at me as she saw me now visibly angry, this is the first time anyone has ever gotten me this angry and now I was about to explode onto this mare. Letting go of Barb I turn around as I walk back towards the room seeing both the mare and nurse, seeing the nurse speaking to the mare and she would explain what was wrong with her and why she came in the first place. I try my best to calmly go off on her as I took a deep breath in, see I wasn't the type to yell at someone like a made man. No I only yell when someone physically hurts me or someone I care about as I look at her walking into the room before asking.

"I'm sorry, what was that you said back there?"

I said calmly, Barb right outside of the room as both the mare and nurse look at me. That mare visibly amused as to me coming back to hear what she said.

"I called you a freak, What is your kind stupid too? Would you like me to spell out freak to you?"

"Oh I'm sorry, I believe you have the wrong creature I'm Zach-"

"I know what I called you, and I'm not afraid to say it again!"

"Ma'am, please calm down, sir, I'm going to ask you to leave."

The nurse said as she tries to break up the situation before it could get any more hectic, Barb coming into the room as she would grip onto my arm. Pulling on it gently to make me look at her, saying.

"Zach, please let's just leave while we still can."

"I'm sorry, I can't speak cumdumpster can you repeat that again, maybe it's the syphilis kicking in."

Yeah I knew I was digging myself a hole at this moment. But if I was going to make this mare know what it's like to be feared by someone like me I want her to really dig deeper as I see her stand up on her own hooves trotting up to me as she would yell out.

"I may be dying, but at least I die knowing that I had ponies who like me. You are nothing more than some stupid omnivorous freak that will kill our kind in order to get his next meal."

"Ma'am please."

She said as she tries to pull the mare away from me only making her get shoved into the floor, causing her to hit her head against the chair as she was unconscious on the floor. Both Barb and I saw this as we were in shock, the mare scoffing as she would sit back down on the bed, Barb tending to the unconscious nurse as I look at her. See looks back at me as the mare simply rolls her eyes before turning to Barb on the floor with the nurse.

"Leave her, let it eat her up so he can go back to wherever he came from and never return."

"And you still go on with it while I am in the same room."

"Of course, everypony thinks you're a freak but they don't want to say anything and just try to avoid you at any cost so they don't hurt your 'feeling', but me I keep it a hundred and I say things to others faces. Even ugly ones like your own."

She says as she just chuckles, Barb carefully picking the nurse up and off the floor as she tried to get her some help. Leaving both me and that mare alone as she looks at me smirking before ending her rant with.

"Oh what, you want to eat me? Since that's all your kind is ever good for, you're just like the griffins eating, ponies because they can't bare to live without their precious meat. Go ahead, take a nibble at your next fucken meal you stupid freak!"

She said, now this was the one thing that triggers me. The door slamming closed, locking as it causes the mare to jolt up turning her head towards me as the lights began to flicker I slowly start to walk towards her. I don't know what's becoming of me at this moment, but something inside made me do what I was about to do as I would start to talk.

"Maybe I should… I start by taking your small little head and snap your neck…"

I said, using my hands to motion towards her head moving my right hand towards the front and the left behind it quickly switching their positions creating the movement of a head being snapped. The mare staring at me as from her perspective starts to see me slowly turn insane as my eyes turn into a pitch black color, my skin slowly turning pale. Soon random objects in the room began to levitate in mid air, some of the drawers and cabinets began to open as some of the stuff inside floated along with the rest of the stuff. The mare continues to stare deep into my eyes as her own widen in complete fear, as I take a step closer towards her the objects in the air began to move in a circle around the both of us as I continue to speak.

"...then I'll take something sharp…"

I said as I raise my hand up, a scalpel flying towards my hand grabbing it in mid air as I was now standing in front of her. Seeing the mare shudder as all of the objects began to move rapidly around us. Taking her by the back of her head as I pull her towards me, she yelps as she places both her hooves on my arm looking up at me with tears in her eyes as I smile gently trailing the scalpel with the non blades end across her face as I explain in further detail.

"...I will cut out every piece of meat out of your body, and then I'll take your guts along with your pulsating heart and eat it right… in front… if your very living eyes. Is that what you want? For us to eat everything so not even your clients can recognize your dead corps?"

I said as I smile at her, she looks at me slowly opening her muzzle as she lets out a loud scream in terror. The lights going back to normal as everything in the room stops floating and all falls to the floor. My eyes turning back to normal as I look down seeing the position I was in before moving back and away from her seeing the scalpel in my hand as I feel like I know what I was going to happen if she didn't scream. Quickly burying the scalpel into my pocket as I look at the mare seeing her in fear, I try to apologise as I took a step forward before hearing her yell.

"No! Get away from me!"

Soon the doctors and nurses came in seeing a complete mess in the room as they saw me now leaning against the wall after she yelled at me. Soon they put two and two together as the doctors crowded the mare and prepared her for sedation, nurses would calm me down as they escorted me out of the room. The mare continuously screaming that I was going to kill her and why they were taking me out when she saw me just threatening her. I have no idea what happened up to this point, it was as if my mind went completely blank once I entered the room. Moments later Barb took me off the mares hooves as she took me out of the hospital, now I was in complete shock as Barb held onto me while we were heading towards the cottage. The night enveloping us with it's beautiful moon, which for some reason as a silawet of a unicorn on it. Kind of like how on Earth the moon looks like it has a shape of a bunny's head on it, don't believe me wait until the sun goes down and when there is a full moon lookup towards it's and if you squint your eyes just enough you can see the head of a bunny shaped onto the moon.

"Ma'am you need to calm down!"

"No! Nnnah, no. That thing is going to kill us all!"

The mare continues to scream in panic as she was being held down by three doctors, a nurse trotting in as she brings along with her a kart, which contains those relax injections they have when their patients are insane and they need to work with them in a more calming manner. While the doctors held her, the nurse comes up towards her grabbing a syringe full of the calming serum. Making sure the syringe works as she would see some of the serum shootout a bit before preparing to inject the mare as she continues to sperm and spit out everything from speciesist remarks and how the creature that was in here is going to kill them all.

"Please! He's going to kill us all, that ape hairless creature is going to get us all and make us…. make us… his next...meal…"

Slowly she became calm after the nurse injects her with the calming serum, her breathing slowing down as she lays back against the bed. Allowing the doctors to let hero go, all three of them out of breath the other nurses would use their magic to clean up the mess that mare made while she was calming herself down.

"Damn, that mare made a mess in here."

"I don't know dude… what if that mare is right?"

"What do you mean?"

One of the nurses asked as she looks at the doctor's, one of them looking at the mare who was now completely calm and laying in bed as the doctor continues his explanation.

"What if… nevermind."

"Oh quit it won't you!"

One of the other nurses said as both doctors and the first nurse turns towards her as she would look completely pissed at the one stallion who was become a huge speciesist.

"Just because that crazy mare said that poor innocent male was going to hurt her, now all of a sudden you're going to believe that's going to be the case, what a speciesist."

"Hey! That does make me speciesist alright, I'm just saying we cant be too sure."

The doctor said looking at the nurse after explaining why he was saying what he said. After the mess that was in the room was cleaned up, every hospital staff that was in the room head out as it was too late at night for them to start making any assumptions. Closing the door behind them as they make their way out of the hospital, lights from the hallway going off one by one for the night. Meanwhile in the room, after being tucked into her bed the mare's eyes began to open slowly, staring around the room what was as if she woke up there. Gently smiling she slowly closes her eyes again before opening them again. This time the lights start to flicker once again, but this time the creature that was attacking her wasn't around or was he?

"You poor innocent little pony.."

The sound of a sinister voice came through her ears as she sat up, looking around as she tries to find out where the voice came from, the walls slowly growing mold on them. But not like normal mold, it was black as it was growly slowly as some vines starts to grow from the sides. Moths beginning to grow out of it as they flew around in the room, this was causing the mare to freak out once again as she got out of bed moving quickly she trots quickly towards the door as she tries to escape. Gripping onto the door knob as she twists it towards the right before pulling the door open, only to he met with…

"Boo!"

Both Barb and I have made it to the cottage that was in deep inside the woods and away from town until the smoke clears off from what is inevitably going to start. After changing into something more comfortable, that being a wife beater and some baseball shorts switch I had no idea the fashionistas knew about but oh well, at least the fabric is comfortable. I was sitting in bed while Barb was in the kitchen doing something, I don't know all she told me was to stay in bed and that she was going to bring me something to calm my nerves. While I was waiting, I sit on the bed my legs crossed over one another, I sat there quiet and thinking to myself what happened back at the hospital, one exchange went from zero to a hundred really quick it was pretty weird and it still scares me on how it all happened. I mean, there I was just walking out of the room and going to enjoy my day then out of nowhere the second that mare spoke it my mind went blank and the second I come back to reality I see myself holding a scalpel up against her face. What I'm the acutal fuck is wrong with me? It was like someone else was controlling me in order to get others to see what the monster they thought I was, came before them in front of their very eyes. Granted this was just one pony and not a group of them but you know how rumors can be spread like wildfire.

"Zach…"

I hear Barb's voice as I turn my head around seeing her leaning against the doorframe, looking at me with two mugs in her hands. She watches me sitting there in deep thought, thinking exactly what she was thinking as she walks into the room, closing the door behind her as she walks up to the bed. Getting onto the bed with me as she gently sat down, giving me one of the mugs as she sat down with her own mug. I look into it as I see a brown liquid of deliciousness, the steam from the contents in the mug hitting me in the face as I smell the sweet liquid that is the hot cocoa. Now the most important question is the one that will make or break this nightly break, the crucial thing that will make me hate what is in the mug and will make me Chuck this across the room or it will make me love the one who made it for me to oblivion. I look at Barb as she looks back at me asking her the very important question.

"Did you use water ...or milk?"

"Milk."

She answers unhesitantly as I smile at her before taking a generous sip out of this delicious concoction that she has made for me on this very night. The taste of warm chocolate milk made me smile, but something else was in this mug, it wasn't just chocolate it had the taste of cinnamon and a bit of instant coffee as I removing the mug off my mouth. Smacking my lips from out hot yet delicious it was as I look at Barb, seeing her smiling at me as she did the same.

"I hope this will calm your nerves, I know after a fucked up day like today nothing helps me relax like four scoops of chocolate mix, a sprinkle of cinnamon and just a quarter teaspoon of instant coffee mixed together in some nice warm milk can get me through the night."

"Oh trust me, if it isn't the instant coffee then it'll be the four scoops of chocolate mix that will keep us up all night."

I said chuckling as I can already feel either the instant coffee or the four scoops of chocolate mix hit me. Barb giggling along with me as we chit chat with each other, talking about how we both felt when we first met. Barb explains that she felt weirded out about me yet felt comfortable because I was the only one who can really understand what it's like to have hands and be taller than your average pony. But there was something that was bothering her however and I see it in her face, I assume it was what happened back at the hospital and how I felt that room with a mare screaming in fear as I sigh.

"Look-"

"You don't need to explain yourself… I know it wasn't you that made her cry wolf… I just wish we both just left the hospital without any confrontation."

"I know…"

I said as I look away, taking another sip as I feel embarrassed for my actions. Now if that mare went out into town, she could spread the word that the freak that has arrived into their peaceful town might be the cause of their extinction. Which sounds super exaggerated and maybe problematic for when both Barb and I have to check up on the preparation for the big festival coming around some time this week. Barb looks at me as she has emptied her mug of hot cocoa, as have I as I place my mug on top of the nightstand near our bed after seeing Barb place hers there as well. Both her and I lay down in bed feeling the pillow against the back of my head as I can still feel the lump rubbing against my head. Barb on the other hand thought using my chest would be the perfect pillow as she lays head against my chest, her arm wrapping around my torso as I felt her leg clinging onto my left thigh, keeping herself close to me as possible hearing a peaceful sigh coming out of her. I smile, not wanting to make her feel awkward as I wrap my arm around her my hand gently placed on her upper arm leaning back as I spoke to myself.

"...but I know once we check on the preparations, things will get easier...I promise."

I said, staring at the ceiling for a while before slowly closing my eyes trying to go to sleep but one thing was now going to make me stay up as I hear Barb saying.

"Yeah...too bad it was pushed back to two weeks from now…"

When I heard this my eyes shot wide open, fuck so now we're going to have to deal with this kind of shit unless I can find a way to make the locals not think I am some sort of fucken murderer who is going to cause the pony race to go into mass extinction. This is going to be a fucken nightmare and something tells me that this won't be the only thing I'm going to have to deal with.

Author's Note

Now that I have reached ten of anything, I would like to say thank you to all that have supported this story thus far. It really means a lot that all of you are enjoying the art that is my storytelling. If there is something that doesn't make sense or is spelled wrong do be awesome and let me know in the comment section below. My editor and I can't catch them all, and it would mean it a lot to both me and my editor.
Thanks again and stay bloodthirsty. :raritywink:

Chapter 11: Zach Gains Some New Tricks, And Revisits His Love For Dancing Games.

What a fucken day today was, not only was today was supposed to be the day we went out to go buy some groceries for the house, instead I was met with speciesists, refusal of service and all sorts of harassment. Luckily I had Barb with me since she was able to not only get groceries, but also was able to get me some products like some face scrubs, extra toothpaste, and for some reason a hair straightener or as residents like to call it a mane straightener for some fucken reason. Even after those spendings we still have a good amount of bits to get through the month, or at least until I can get a job around here. But damn were groceries cheap here and they're freshly grown products. Back at home, after the first payroll my mother only ever had enough money for two things that are groceries and for her drug addiction, buying product for both her and my deadbeat dad. Well he really wasn't a deadbeat because he did stick around after I was born, but after I turned fourteen he should have at least given me a credit card or something to survive without both of them. I hold the door open for Barb as she carries in the groceries and other supplies, only problem was that we were both pelted with tomatoes that both my clothes and Barb's scales were full of tomato reminisce, I slammed the door shut as I am completely and utterly pissed over how we are being treated, not only was it just Tuesday, but it was literally our third day here and nothing has gotten better.

The first and second day wasn't that awful, considering that the kitchen and bathroom was stocked with everything they needed. But Barb and I wanted to go into town to see where we could go to get our groceries, but I was soon met with the way some local treat the omniveris type like me. Firstly the grocery store clerk denied me service, all while I had all the groceries ready and waiting on the stupid conveyor belt. That mixed with the locals yelling at me for taking too long to leave, luckily they allowed Barb to buy everything. Apparently dragons are more accepted here, even though they're the most carnivorous of creatures. But allegedly there was another dragon who was identical to Barb and the locals have gotten so used to him that Barb was just another local, so they gave her the groceries but the store clerk advised her that she didn't have to stick with that omniveris beast, even though I was standing only two feet away from him. Whatever, when we left the store and both Barb and I wanted to take one last look around the area so we could get used to the locals, once again she offered to buy ice cream which I stayed behind and sat on that bench that was in the middle of town. While I was enjoying my time in that perfect warn sun, smiling as I leaned back against the bench Barb soon joined me with two ice cream pints. Holding one in hand I looked in as I saw it was chocolate beuth mini marshmallows in them, gasping at the fact that they had the one favorite I live for. Taking the small spoon full of that creamy deliciousness that is malt crunch ice cream, I smiled while leaning back against that bench only once again to be met with a bucket of water thrown towards on my head. I tell you there is nothing more annoying than feeling water going up your nostrils causing you to choke, and in this case I was choking on my fucken ice cream. Following that was a group of fucken teenagers who thought 'Hey let's pelt this freak with tomatoes, that way we can make ourselves feel good by making him and his 'date' measurable!'. FUCK YOU, YOU STUPID INCONCEDERATE TEENAGERS!

"Zach calm down."

"How do you want me to calm down Barb…"

I said as I was walking in circles in the living room looking at her, after we both showered and got dressed. While Barb was putting away all the groceries and bathroom supplies, I however was in the living room thinking about the many things I could do to try and get them to at least like me. Maybe a nice pie? Or some sort of tart? Maybe a letter to each local saying that I'm in no way, shape, or form a threat to their town? At the very least try to strike up a full blown fucken conversation with one of them? Try and at least make them understand that I am not the omniveris freak they claim me to be.

"...here we are stuck in a fucken cottage and Wednesday hasn't even come around yet. No pony wants to even give us- No, me, give me a chance to even try and talk to them. Here I am walking along minding my own business…"

I continue to rant on and on about how both him and his assistant, in no way shape or form did they care about our feelings while we were just trying to enjoy the town they were staying in. While walking around in the living room, Barb standing in the side watching everything from the sideline as I hold head in aggravation. Not yet realizing that it was happening again, while I was ranting stuff in the living room slowly start to float in the air as I speak.

"...I mean what is about me, is it that I'm a different species? Is it because I'm not covered in fur, have a tail or I'm not on all fours? What the fuck is it going to take so I don't feel like a prisoner in my own home? What is it? What!"

"Zach…"

"Yes."

I said in a calming manner, not wanting to yell at Barb because none of this was any of her fault, the stuff that was floating around me suddenly fell back into place as Barb walks up to me. Gently pulling me by the arm towards the couch as she gently pulls me down sitting me onto the couch gently stroking my shoulder as he laid her head on it before telling me.

"Listen, just relax okay? I'm sure by the end of the week they'll understand how very misunderstood you're."

"Barb…"

I said trying to say something but couldn't put the words together as I groan in frustration, locking my hands together behind my head laying my head down. My elbows leaning against my knees, never have I had to deal with how much hate I'm taking today. Especially since I'm just trying to go through my day without having to get into any altercations, but even then if I can get through the altercations I still have to deal with store clerks refusing to sell me anything at all. Barb looks at me as she notices how frustrated I was, along with my uncontrollable habit of making things float around me as she notices stuff once again floating around the both of us as she would gently rub my back saying.

"We also have to work on with your gift."

"What gift?"

I said as I look up at her suddenly the stuff that was floating once again fell onto the floor, jointing up as I notice the mess I made. It's not my fault, I don't know how to control this so called 'gift' that I have, I never wanted this all I want is to be given a second chance that my soul deserves. Not some fucken power that I was given out of nowhere without any warning, and now I'm stuck with this gift until told otherwise. After calming down Barb stood up to go into our room to find some book that she mentioned the princess gave her. I meanwhile lay back against the couch waiting for the dragoness to come back I stare up at the ceiling wondering what the hell was my plan B. What can I do in order that the locals don't see me as some sort of monster but for someone who is just looking for more friends, someone who is just wanting to me treated like everypony else with no kind of special treatment. Rubbing my face I stand up and off the couch as I walk towards the window staring out of it seeing nothing but trees, trees and more trees, although something do see something in the trees staring back at me as stare at it for a while seeing what appears to me not a pony but.

"A second dragon?"

I whisper to myself as I stare at it for some more, there wasn't anything that stood out in any sort of significance. A hooded figure with two darting eyes staring right back at me, the only way I came up with the realization of that figure in the trees being a dragon was the tail that was hanging off the tree.

"I found it!"

I hear Barb yelling from the hallway as it echoes into the living room, turning my head around after hearing her yell I see her walking into the living room as she sees me standing near the window. Wondering what I was doing she asks me so as I was about to explain to her that there was another dragon in the trees. Turning my head towards the window, back to where I was having a stare down with the figure in the tree only to see that it was gone. Strange it was like I stare at it for almost three minutes and the next it's gone like thin air, anyway I shook my head as I walk towards the dragoness. Seeing what all the commotion about, what she then shows me was something that I have been staring at for the past few years of my high school years.

"A book? All that fuss over a book?"

I said looking at Barb with a very suspicious look on my face. Barb scoffs as she then opens the book revealing what appears to be some ancient writing written on each page that she flips. I stare at it with her as she would then explain to me that the princess wants me to enhance anything supernatural that has been having around or to me. While she explains she began to walk me out of the cottage and lead me into an open area where there weren't so many trees and a huge river in front of us, the river looks really clean and clear enough to see what was going on below the water. I smile as I run to the edge of the river, getting on my knees before dunking my head into the river feeling the cold and refreshing water on my face. Drinking as much water as I could before pulling my head out, watering soaking my hair as it covers my face. I then part my hair to the sides as I wipe my face from any excess water, Barb watching everything that happened in front of her before she asks.

"Why so thirsty we have water in the cottage you know?"

"Yeah, but after seeing how fresh and clear the water looks I had to see if it tasted fresh, oh boy was I right!"

I said before leaning down again, using my hands to cup some more water out of the river and into my mouth as I drink some more. Hearing Barb wondering why I was so surprised over the river being so clean, but I and even you the writer already know why I was so surprised. I don't need to explain it, but let's just say the ocean/river water from earth is either salty, full of green sludge, or trash that some stupid idiot decided to through into the sea. At least that what it's like I'm my state, I'm not sure about anywhere else. After getting over how amazing and clean the water was I stand back up on my two feet, both Barb and I start to work on whatever the book tells us to do.

"Let's see, from what the princess has been telling me along with what the book instructs us to do. Is that there are several tests in order for you to uncover the true potential of your gift."

She says whole leading me towards I nod sitting on the ground, getting a chance to feel how soft the grass was as I gently grace my hand over it. While I was admiring the smoothness of the grass, Barb was arranging a couple of stones in front of me each varying in different sizes, arranging them from smallest to largest. Once she was done, setting herself down a couple of feet in front of me crossing one leg over the other as she looks at me saying.

"Seeing how we've already seen what you can do with multiple smaller to medium let's see if you can carry things in various sizes. Start with the smaller rock, levitate it then skip it into the river."

"Okay, but what if once I get to the larger or even the giant boulder I can't skip it into the water."

"Oh the water skip was my idea, I've always wanted to see someone skipping a rock."

She said smiling as she hugs the book, looking incredibly adorable like a school nerd happy that she prepared for an exam. I smile at her as I stare at the stones on the floor, seeing them side by side of each other starting with the smaller stone. Taking one breath in before breathing out, tilting my head to the right just a bit as I continue to stare at the stone slowly it began to shake before it starts to levitating in the air. Barb watching it all down as she smiles, she watches as I levitate the stone into river causing it to skip above the water about three times before stopping by the fourth skip, smiling at how easy it was. After skipping the second stone and was barely able to skip the third one, it was now time for the fourth and largest stone, or boulder whatever you want to call it. But for some reason, even after being able to lift the first three stones the fourth one was the hardest one to lift, hard enough to the point that I began to sweat. Grunting after the boulder fell to the floor for the fifth time, panting as I grace my fingers through my hair in frustration groaning loudly.

"I can't do it!"

I yelled burying my face into my hands, lying on the floor as I start to throw a small tantrum like a little kid when he doesn't get a question on his homework, trying to desperately to finish it in order to catch a television show that airs on a specific time. Yes, this is totally a scenario that wasn't inspired and completely based on a real life event. Barb saw this happen as she crawls towards me knowing how frustrating this must be for me, trying to channel anything that my gift can offer. Placing her hand on her head as she gently pets my hair, meanwhile I keep my hands on my face hearing her speak.

"Hey… it's okay Zach, I know it seems frustrating but believe me once you get some practice you'll be able to move anything."

She said as she continues to pet my head, meanwhile I sit up again up on my knees this time moving around her as I use my hands this time to levitate the boulder. Groaning in anger as I hands are shaking at this point, the boulder slightly lifting up and off the ground before falling down. My arms falling as I pant hard all that energy I put into that stupid boulder and all I get was a few inches off the floor then back down, come on.

"Look, let's take a break all you need is a nice warm bath and a mug of hot-"

"No! I almost had it, it was just a couple inches off the floor and I almost had it one more shot."

I said standing up on my own two feet, too determined and stubborn to stop at my fifth or sixth try, I lost count. Turning back to the boulder, once again using my hands and my mind one last time to lift that boulder off the floor and once again my hands began to shake as the boulder once again lifts off the floor for only a few more inches before dropping back down onto the floor. Now I completely lose my marbles as I hold my head walking away from both the boulder and Barb, yelling in complete anger before screaming out.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck…"

I said with every fuck I stomp my foot against the floor along with dropping my arms from my chest to sides, but before I could say another fuck out of my mouth I feel myself being launched into the air. A forearm and hands glowing a violent shade of purple as a trail follows behind me, while I was in the air I feel the wind hitting me in the face. Spreading my arms out closing my eyes as I feel the wind hitting my whole body. Suddenly I eyes shoot wide open curling myself into a ball before spreading my whole body open causing a massive purple explosion in the sky like a firework went off in the sky before falling straight down. Passing through a cloud before crashing down into the river, feeling myself sinking into the water as my eyes would close my body now on the river flower as I lay there eyes closed.

A Few Minutes Before The Explosion

In the edge of the Ponyville, While the equine's are trotting around town getting their arense done in time before some needing to pick up their children from school or some needing to get home to their moving wife's, husband's or the non married alternatives. As I was saying in the edge of Ponyville, was a tree house not like a house in a tree like the once you had when you were a kid or didn't have because you didn't own a house and your stupid town won't allow it because it's public property, ugh nevermind anyway. In the edge of Ponyville was a tree house and inside tree house lived a purple adorkable little unicorn going through the many books in her collection trying to figure out if there is any kind of danger lurking around. Her name, is Twilight Sparkle her beautiful blue, purple and raspberry striped mane overlap her left shoulder as her horn pokes out of her bangs while it was glowing purple aura holding up book after book. Reading everything from 'Dangers That Could Possibly Come To You' to 'Danger Prepareness For Dummies', as she reads the door opens to her tree house. Taking her focus from her book towards the door seeing that hooded figure again as she knew exactly who it was, gently smiling before speaking.

"Spike… what have I said about coming in with her hood on like that?"

She said knowing damn well that the dragon was trying to scare her like the last time, the dragon sighing in disappointment. Once again failing in scaring the mare as he takes his hood off along with the rest of his cape as he shows himself to the mare. The teenage dragon hangs his hood onto the coat rack as he was going to tell Twilight something that he found in the forest turning back to her as he speeds walk up to her while she continues to read her books Spike tells her.

"Other than that, there's something I have to tell you."

"Please tell me you don't want another love potion that will make Rarity fall madly in love with you. Look if she didn't want you when you were just a baby dragon what makes you thi-."

Suddenly she feels her tree house shaking as Spike also felt it his arms out trying to keep his balance. Twilight's horn stops glowing as her books fall to the floor, running towards the window near her bed as she stares out seeing the huge violet explosion in the air before seeing something falling down into the middle of the forest, gasping as she thought it was some sort of attack against the town. The residents seeing this as well hearing them gasp and turning towards each other in utter shock, Spike behind her as he asks.

"What was that?"

He said sounding more scared than Twilight is as she turns to him sitting on her bed as she was thinking to herself for a moment, wondering what that random explosion was? Was it some sort of alien attack against Equestria? Was it some stupid prank that caused something to blow up that big? She didn't know for sure but all she knew was that she is going to need some help if she was going to figure out what that use explosion was. Looking at her loyal assistance Twilight informd the dragon.

"I don't know Spike, but it can't he good… alter the girls and tell them to meet me up here pronto."

Slowly my vision, once again for the second time today became blurry as I see Barb above me. Seeing her softly bouncing on me as I thought she was trying to reverse rape me for some reason, but then I feel a huge pumping feeling against my stomach. Suddenly feeling myself jointing up on my ass as I puke out water, coughing taking as much air as I needed before laying myself back down onto the floor leaning on the side of my face against the grass. Panting hard as that was my second near death experience, my hands are on Barb's thighs while she keeps herself comfortable on my lap. At this point I didn't say anything and just allowed her to sit on me since that was her way of saving me, once I came back from almost drowning Barb places her hands on my chest as she asks me.

"What the fuck was that dude?"

She says, asking about the whole me flying into the air and causing a huge blast of violet color in the sky, I didn't even fucken know what that was. Here I was trying to pick up some stupid boulder, and now I almost drowned in the bottom of the river looking up at Barb I give her a gentle smile. Sitting up as I look up at her Barb looking down at me slowly beginning to blush over the position we are in, my arms wrapping around her as I hug her slowly her arms wrap around my neck hugging me back, leaning her head above my own enjoying a nice warm embrace. Later we both go back inside to get me dried off and into a fresh change of clothes, for the second time as I tie my shoes on. Barb pleading that I stay after I tell her that I was going into town, seeing what I can entertain myself with. Knowing full well that I could be pelted with more produce as I stand up and off the couch placing my hands on her shoulders as I gently rub them reassuring her.

"Look… if I stay in any longer I'm going to bore you. You stay here and read more about what happened to me back there, I'm going out there and try again. They have to listen to me one way or another right?"

I tell her, she looks up at me with worry in her eyes as she turns away. Not only because she was angry that I was defying her, but also because I was touching and rubbing her shoulders in an affectionate way. It didn't help that I wrap my arms around her belly as I bury my face into her neck, nuzzling her gently to try and calm her nervous. Finally after much affection and for some reason an occasional moan coming out of her rubbing her belly, she finally pulling herself away before embarrassing herself and me anymore as she gives me a simple nod. Allowing me to exit the cottage as I walk into the forest pulling my hood up and over my head walking through the forest. Following the trail that leads into town, looking out as I notice there wasn't that much activity going on around town. As a matter of fact, walking into town I notice that the town looked completely alone as if everpony was in their homes with the occasion one or two ponies trotting around minding their own business as I walk around town. Noticing all the spots that I have spotted the first time around town, and some places I have yet to have seen like a Fashion Boutique, a schoolhouse and…

"Holyshit is that an Aracde!?!"

I yelled out in excitement as I cover my mouth, seeing in big bold neon letters 'Caesarcade Arcade'. It has been almost eight years since I've seen an arcade spot like this, and since I brought the small bag of bits feeling like about twenty, twenty five bits in there, and since the price of admission was only a bit a game what can go wrong right? Maybe I shouldn't say that, seeing how it what happened between Barb and I earlier today. Walking into the place I see so many different, retro style arcade machines the place full of foals and teenage ponies some playing in each machine while others just hung out in the side lines. Managing to get through some wondering eyes, some of utter discuss while are of utter confusion while I pass by them, I didn't bother them while they have their game faces on. That was one thing I don't disrespect when it comes to someone playing their game, after passing so many classic games which some strange renaming. For example there's one game that looks a lot like Pac-Man but it was named 'Hoof Eater' or this other game called 'Griffen Barrel Battle' which plays the exact same way as Donkey Kong. As I walk in deeper into the place more and did I get to see the machines slowly turn from retro to modern like those games with a wheel in front of, along with a specific game that once again looks very similar to a game that I used to play back home which a very spoofy title.

Then it was the machine of all game machines, the game that would imprint your name into the loading screen if you did incredibly well and the one game that most kids, teens and your occasional adult would play. Dance Dance Revolution or as it likes to be called around here 'Pony Groove Your Move', stupid name I know but while I was watching the teenage ponies playing on that game, trying to press the corisponding arrow that appears on the screen with the panel underneath them with the exact same arrow color. This was the one game I refuse to play because the last time I tried to play this game was at a friend's birthday party when I was like six, he had it at a local arcade because sometimes when it's someone's birthday the place would close down for the locals and would be reserved for the birthday party. I was fortunate enough to get an invite because I was a plus one for a close friend of mine, anyway all the other arcade machines were empty because most wanted to play DDR. So when it was surrounded by six to eight year olds you can imagine how popular it was back in the day, so when it came to a popular game you know there has to be some sort of tame and organized way to have everyone take a turn. After about ten or so kids have gone already, it was my turn to go up, and let me tell you if you're not fast on your feet or have no eye to foot coordination you're going to miss every arrow on that screen. It was safe to say that I was made fun of throughout the whole party, and when it was time to go home, I literally broke down to my parents.

If you think for even a second that I was going to go up there. You're sadly mistaken, not only because I'm not fast with my feet but also because the game's arrow panels are incredibly smaller than once back home and knowing my own weight I could possibly break the machine itself. As I continue again going deeper into the slowly it starts to aim more into the modern to the distant future of gaming, or as I like to call it the 'why the fuck do other countries have this kind of technology and all we have is huge like arcade machines with at home console emulated games?'. Yeah there was everything from alternate reality archery, to what appears to be another type of dancing game. The huge screen with a big open area around it, the screen displaying inspiring words like 'Channel Your Inner Dancer' or 'The Game Where You're The Controller, Dancing Along To Today's Hits Like…" following it with some random songs, with the name of the song, artist and album cover while the avatar dances to the built in choreography. After about three or four songs pass through the screen the name of the game pops up in big pink bolding letters 'Dance Dance: All Stars', following with the leaderboard of the top ten players and their high scores. I smile seeing the game only calls for three bit a song, and seeing as it was at the far end where there wasn't that many ponies to stare at me I figured why not? Walking up towards the small panel in the middle, adjusting itself up to my height level as it asks for a three bit deposit. Moving my hand to my small pouch of bit, pulling out three bits inserting them into the slot one by one.

Once each bit was in the slot the small screen would show me only two different play styles, pony or dragon and seeing I share the same body type as a dragon so choosing dragon is the best choice pushing my finger against the screen above the dragon option. The in game voice saying the word of the play style in a high pitch motivational voice, making me smile as the screen scrolled to the next choice my avatar giving us only three different characters, Arial, Gemini, and Aries. I smile as I choose Gemini seeing she had the better more upbeat personality her voice had a small jersey accident, saying her name before giving me three different difficulties, easy, medium and hard or in this case Simple, Challenge Me and Go Hard. In any type of game I always choose the more difficult of difficulties as I chose Go Hard, and lastly I choose a song. Some of the songs on here are, for some weird way sound just the same as the once back home only with a different artist name and album cover and since it only gave me thirty seconds I chose the first song that I saw. Quickly pressing it before the platform went away suddenly a drone looking camera came out as it was positioned in front of me just a few feet away capturing everything that I was doing as the floor turned into a multicolor dance floor as I stare up at the huge screen in front of me. While the game loads the loading screen shows guides on how to play, saying that the drone like camera was going to capture if I'm doing good or bad, my avatar's limbs will glow red if I'm doing something wrong and that I need to change the position along with a bunch of other helpful guides and tips that it's supposed to make you feel more confident about your dancing. While I wait for the game to start I take some time to stretch and I remove my sweater off me, only being in my tank top before stretching out my arms. The screen displaying the name of the game along with showing a cutscene of my avatar walking into a dance studio with a second dancer, in big bold letters telling me 'Mirror the moves of the dancer in front of you' along with highlighting the display of each move I have to do in order to get the best possible score. I nod as I crack my knuckles as the song began to play in the side speakers, the game starting.

The in game voice yelling 'High Score' while also showing the words in big bold green letters. Showing me my score is forty one thousand, three hundred and seventy seven, boy did I deserve that as I was almost out of breath after finishing that one game the panel with the smaller screen asking for my name to be placed in the leaderboard as I smile walking up to the panel as I input 'Z19' before hitting enter I usually input that specific set of keys because it's my full name, I'll let you figure that out yourself. I smile as I see my three keys next to my high score moving all the way to the top, oh never thought I'd see the day my name on top of any leaderboard. Suddenly I hear the sound of a group saying 'wow' simultaneously, causing me to turn around and suddenly what used to be an empty area where I couldn't be spotted or stared at was now full of everypony that was in the arcade, some looking a bit taller than the others as they stare at the huge screen seeing how fast it was to take that top spot before looking at me. I look back as I start to fidget a bit with my hands wondering what I'm going to say I order to make it towards the exit without being brutally murdered by each equine standing before me. Playing it cool I smile as I place my hand behind my head being completely nervous as I said.

"Hey heh… uhh just wanted to see if it worked hehe, wow look it really does heh…"

I said chuckling nervously as I look at the huge group of ponies standing around me. Well, it was fun while it lasted, and I didn't even get a chance to try any of the great desserts that they had to offer around town. With a last gulp I accepted my fate, getting in my knees as I place both my hands behind my head locking them together bracing myself for execution.

Once again back at the Twilight's tree house, the unicorn gathers her group of friends around her in the library, Spike helping each of the mare's into their respective seats as Twilight keeping reading every book in her collection, trying to figure out what that huge explosion in the sky and that purple trail mean. As she looks through her books Spike walks into her reading as he tells her.

"Uhh Twi…"

He speaks as Twilight turns to him standing in the door frame of her room, she sees him standing there as he gave her a nod. Telling the purple unicorn that everything was set up in the library. Sighing she closes the book she was reading before putting it back in its place with her magic, she figured if she could get her friends to help her figure out what that explosion was, maybe they could keep a lookout while she figures out what it could mean. Trotting out of her room, she trots pass her living room and into the library, once at the door she uses her head to open the door only to be met with a huge ball of pink jumping everywhere a loud boing sound with each hop the pink, poofy maned mare made while she was hopping around the room. The others sitting in their 'Friends Meeting Table' as Twilight likes to call it, one was fixing their hoofed with a filer, another was leaning back with her hind hooves on the table relaxing her problems away. Once Twilight closes the door behind her, grabbing the attention of the mares in the room including the jumpy one as she trots into the room taking a seat while Spike sat next to her with a typewriter ready to write down everything he needed to keep track of as Twilight speaks.

"Friends, I call this meeting because I have some distressing news."

"Twi, is this about the Summer Sun celebration being delayed? Because we know, it just gives us here more time for preperatin."

An orange mare with blond braided mane says, taking her hat off as she places it onto the table as a form of respect. Twilight looking at her as she shakes her head.

"No Applejack, it isn't about the Summer Sun Celebration."

"Well then spit it out, I still need to pick out the fabric for the stage outlines."

A white mare with beautifully styled dark purple mane as she flips a bit of it out of her face, Spike staring at her for a moment admiring the beauty who is Rarity. Only being snapped back into typing down on his typewriter when Twilight pushes the platen knob of the typewriter causing it to snap back into its original position, Spike coming back to reality as he goes back to type writing. Twilight speaking as she explains what has happened over the course of these past few weeks.

"Girls, I feel as if there is some dark force coming for Ponyville. I first felt it a few weeks ago, at first I thought it was me over thinking things again. But then my suspicion grew more earlier this afternoon when I, along with Spike here saw a strange explosion in the sky, followed by a trail that leads into the woods."

She says, looking at each and every mare around her. Fluttershy gasping in guilt, which then lead to Rainbow Dash falling back off her seat while she was leaning back, getting up as she leans against the table moving her rainbow mane off her face as she said.

"Wait, wait, woah hold everything did you say this all started a few weeks ago?"

She replied, looking at Twilight for confirmation as the purple unicorn nods. This made Rainbow Dash go quiet for a moment as Fluttershy tried to hide behind her mane. Twilight knew that when Rainbow Dash went quiet that met she feels guilty over something and it didn't help that Fluttershy was trying to slowly hide underneath the table as Twilight asks.

"Girls, is there something you want to tell me?"

"No!"

Fluttershy said loudly out of nervousness, her eyes widen as she begins to blush over how loud she was. The light blue mare next to her pulls her seat back up as she sat back down before placing her hoove on the yellow mare's shoulder. She turns to Rainbow Dash, giving her a nod before turning back to Twilight as she tries to explain to her what both her and Rainbows Dash found a few weeks ago. But she was too scared of the reaction the purple unicorn will give her if she tells her, instead though the blue pegasus decided it was best if she told her as she looks at Twilight.

"Twilight… a few weeks ago, both Fluttershy and I found some sort of… creature in the forest while looking for Angel."

She said, looking down as she was ashamed in holding it in for all this time when she knew she should have told Twilight the moment they found it. Twilight looking at Fluttershy as she would place her hooves on the table leaning up asking.

"Fluttershy… is this true?"

"Uhh… well… yes."

She said as she hides herself behind Rainbow Dash, knowing damn well how she reacts over them not telling her. The pegasus hiding her with her wings before hearing Twilight asking her.

"And where is it now?"

"We don't know… that last time we saw it was when we took it into the hospital, it looked pretty badly wounded."

Fluttershy muttered behind Rainbow's wings keeping herself hidden away from any confrontation. Both Rarity and Applejack looking at the two mares who are pleading both guilty and forgiveness for not saying anything from the start. Then both quiet mares looking back at Twilight as she stood quiet herself. Well at least she now knows what this really met, some sort of alien invasion and now she has to find a way to find this said creature and see what it could possibly want. Although there was one thing that was keeping her room way to quiet as Twilight took a look around, asking the girls.

"Does anypony know where Pinkie Pie hopped off to?"

Author's Note

Seriously where the fuck did Pinkie go?

Chapter 12: Zach enjoys a little bit of Bush...

Author's Note

Before reading this I would like to let each and everyone of you know that I, in no way shape or form have a hate for metal music. I like everyone else just have a different taste then others. With that being said enjoy the chapter and thanks for checking it out.

Chapter 12: Zach enjoys a little bit of Bush...

It was almost twenty minutes until midnight, while I carefully took quiet steps through the forest, trying so hard not to make a single sound in through the bushes. Carrying my sweater in my hand as hair was completely frizzled and my eyes streaked with black eyeliner, looking like a girl who was completely drunk and was getting emotional on the edge of the sidewalk. Things got crazy after I left the arcade spot, I made my way to the cottage. Noticing the lights were out thinking that Barb must have already gone to bed, gave me the perfect opportunity to inside without being spotted as I carefully twist the knob of the door opening it slowly so the door doesn't make a sound. Once it was open just enough for me to enter, I slid myself inside keeping the door knob twisted so when I close it the bolt doesn't make that loud click sound alerting anyone inside of the quiet house. But as soon as I closed the door, the living room at first being completely dark suddenly came into the light as the lights were turned on. Causing me to turn around, seeing Barb standing by the stairs as she looks at me. Looking a bit angry when she sees I'm barely getting home and it was about to be mid night, her arms crossed over each other while she was looking at me Barb began to tap her foot against the floor wanting me to explain I came home at this time. Looking at her I gently rub my arm, kind of ashamed in showing up all dirty, hair frizzed up and wet eye liner now dry and stained on my cheeks.

"Well… I'm not going to stay up long. But I want to get you cleaned up before bed, maybe then you can explain why you're home so late."

She said as she walks up to me, placing her hands on my own pulling me towards the stairs. She doesn't appear to be mad for some reason, was she by polar or does she just forgive really quickly? I didn't know, but all I knew was that I was going to get myself cleaned up and that also gave me a chance to explain why the fuck I came home all messed up and looking like some drunk girl was crying because she's a drunken mess. Did I make that reference already? Oh well. As she leads me upstairs she opens the door to the restroom, pulling me in as she closes the door. Throwing my sweater onto the the closed toilet as I start to undress, Barb staring at me from behind watching while I take my shirt off, moving my hands down to my pants as I start to undo them but before I could pull the zipper down I notice Barb staring through the mirror as she looks flustered as fuck. Now this, what was happening right now me is one of the many things we both can get used to each other. Usually Barb wore a huge shirt and a pair of panties when she's home, she says it's more comfortable than not having anything on which is kind of ironic because she is really comfortable with being without anything on while we're in public. Then again everypony in town is usually naked, with only like a tie or a scarf on, or some kind of jewelry on. Once I was in my underwear, which was the only way Barb was going to ever be comfortable with bathing me. Now I could tell her that I can shower or bathe on my own, but she always insists on bathing me because it gives her more of a purpose in life.

As soon as Barb filled the bathtub full of warm water, she grabs me by the arm yet again to pull me into the tub. Helping me get into the tub one leg at a time, setting me down as she gets on her knees near the tub grabbing a small bowl scooping some soapy water that was in the tub as she gently pour it over my head. Feeling the nice warm water against my hair as I look up feeling the water scroll down my face, the silence was strong that you could drop a pen and everyone in the room could hear it. Barb after giving me a nice first soak to start off a nice night bath, she asks me.

"So tell me, why did you come home so late?"

She said as she grabs the shampoo bottle that was on the sink, since we didn't have some sort of rack that can hold our soaps or shampoo we keep them on the sink for easy access. Opening the bottle of shampoo she gently pours its contents onto my head, placing both of her hands on my hair as she gently scrubs the shampoo into my scalp. While she was washing my hair, I began to explain what happened in a matter of a few hours as I looked up at her.

———

"Twenty one on the dot!"

A mare yells, slapping her hooves of cards onto the table. I along with the rest of the ponies on the table outside of a cafe groan as we lost another game of blackjack against the same mare, giving her all of our jelly beans we used like chips for poker as she starts to collect our cards from our possession. Grabbing my cup of iced coffee I take another sip out of it from the straw as she start to deal the cards one more time for one last game. To think, I was just supposed to play one game at the arcade and now I'm playing poker with four teenage ponies, if you're wondering what happened back at the arcade here's how it basically went down. While laying on the floor preparing for my imminent death, I felt one of the ponies poking my arm with their muzzle asking if they could have a turn with me. Soon I was backed up on ponies wanting turns with me on every game in the arcade that I stopped using my own bits after about the third game machine move. Twenty two games later I was a tired mother fucker who was also hungry and parched as hell along with the sun going down I knew it was time for me to get back to the cottage before Barb starts to get worried. While I was in deep thought, thinking maybe it was best if I just went home, suddenly a group of teenage ponies offered to pay for an iced coffee and a bagel. Fast forward to now, it was now ten to eleven in the night, sitting in the middle between a mare and a stallion while we played poker for the last few hours of the day. I got to meet them all in a more personal level while we were playing, see that mare in the counter of the stall, the one with a nice white coat, a brown curly mane and matching tail, her eyes a nice light brown shade, that's Coco-Nuts her dad was the inventor of the straw you out in a coconut so it doesn't break while stabbing it into the fruit. The stallion next to me, straight moonlight mane that covers his left eye, his tail a bit shorter than most ponies with a nice dark blue coat and one exposed blue eyes that's Moonlight Hunter, his mom and dad are professional weapons manufacturers who create bows, arrows and other types of armory for the royal guards back in Canterlot. Both Moon, Coco and I look at our cards while the mare next to me, Wild Vision a pegasus with a nice short bowl cut violet mane, long straight tail and a nice pinkish coat she whispers in my ear, gossiping out Onyx Bolt the dark grey stallion with a neon green mohawk, his tail he same color with the Pearl colored eyes has a crush on Ivory Spark, the emerald colored mare that has her scarlet colored mane up in a bun, her sapphire eyes looking down at her cards as she thinks for a moment. Ivory was the one winning game after game and now she was waiting to win one last game as she looks at all of us. Now I know what you're thinking, this couldn't be their names and you just picked some random names out of a hat. But no, those are their actual names. It's weird yet very common around here. Moonlight bumps his elbow against my own, trying to tell me that it was my turn to either be okay with my hand, ask for another card or fold and lose by default. Apparently I was daydreaming and I got distracted by something but I don't quite remember what it was as I shook my head answering.

"Uhh…"

I look down at my cards, seeing I have an Ace, a ten and a Queen the queen looking quite menacing in the cards as she was all in black her hooves having meticulously placed holes along with her horn as she stared at me with that green eye. Thinking to myself that I had an ace and an ace can be either a one or an eleven and the queen is equal to a ten so clearly I could have either a thirty one which costs me the entire game or an exact twenty one meaning I win no matter who has what. I smile as I look up at the ponies in the table who were staring at me waiting for an answer as I said.

"I'll stay with what I have."

"You sure? Don't want to lose another game, big boy."

Ivory said as she looks at me, covering her cards against her chest so the players next to her won't see her hoof. The other four looking at me with a grin as they knew what was about to happen as I looked at her smiling back with the same confident grin on my face.

"Care to make it more interesting?"

I say smiling at her while leaning against the table with my elbows, the others staring at Ivory when I beat her to the punch as she looks back at me giving me a devilish smirk and leaning against the table as well. Her hoof making a circular motion against the table as she says in a very sultry manner.

"If I win… you treat us to a milkshake one of these days…"

"And if I win?"

I said, thinking this could either end in a good way where I'm going to he treating everypony in the group with a taste diary treat or whatever I get in return for winning this game. Seeing as I don't even have a job yet, I don't know how the fuck I'm going to be paying for their milkshakes but knowing me at some point in going to have to look for a job. Ivory smiling at me as she would gently rub her lower hooves against my leg as a form of flattery.

"You ...and the colts get to stare at any one of us mares making out."

Soon my confidence went from hundred to one real quick, eyes widening in shock as this could be my way into getting to watch some live girl on girl action. Then again I never understood why guys found that a turn on, but hey I get to stare at it while it was happening so fuck it why not. Before I could answer I see some colt flying above us as I get a chocolate milkshake to the face cards falling off my hand, feeling the dairy liquid against my eyes. Even though my eyes were closed, I could hear that colt who did it laughing at me yelling.

"Freak!"

I hear as I then hear the sound of the door close, the group of ponies imminently coming to my aid one left to grab of napkins while the others try to clean my face to get rid of any chocolate milkshake that was in my face or my shirt. Well great, not only was my face smelling my rich chocolate but also stains on white clothing is every mother's nightmare, or in this case every very attractive assistant's nightmare. Yes, if you're wondering I do find my assistant quite attractive sure she might not find an ape like myself attractive. After getting as much chocolate off my face, some getting into my nose and in my mouth as I wipe some off my eyes. Wild looks gently rubs her hooves against my shoulder as she gently tells me in a comfort me.

"You'll be fine."

"Yeah, sometimes assholes just do things for attention."

Moonlight said as he looks up at me gently rubbing my back with his hoof, I nod smiling completely forgetting about the bet entirely as I grab a napkin trying to blow out any of the milkshake that was left over in my nose. I'm not complaining at this point however, considering the past few days that both Barb and I have been here it's been nothing less than a log to the head, a tomato to the back and a chocolate milkshake thrown onto my face. I wasn't even mad at the fact it thrown onto my face, I'm mad because that was some pretty rich chocolate in that milkshake and it was wasted just to prove some sort of fucken point. After cleaning myself enough times to the point of leaving a red mark outlining my nostrils, I hear Ivory speaking as I watch her collecting her cards and carefully clean off any of the diary drink off her cards as she asks me.

"So Zach, can I ask you something see that the game and the bet was off by default all for some stupid, asshole!..."

She said yelling out the window as it echoed across town. She cools down a bit, a little help from Onyx next to her as he gently rubs his hoof on her back, sighing a bit she goes back to her question as she looks back up at me.

"...see I have this new eyeliner and I'm not sure if it'll look good on me. I want to test it on the girls but they keep saying that I'll 'poke their eyes out' and I asked the guys and they keep saying that they're too 'colty' for feminine products."

"So you want to try it on me?"

I ask looking at her as she looks back at me, nodding with a friendly smile. This wouldn't be the first rodeo in makeup, even if it's just eyeliner I remember back when my mom wore makeup at her day job and when she wanted to do a test run on someone, while my dad was at his morning shift at work she would use me as her test model. Let me tell you, when it's done right and when I looked at myself with a full face of makeup it, I dead ass would fuck me if I was a female. Would that make me gay if I said I would fuck myself? Eh whatever, anyway as I look at Ivory she looks back at me waiting to get an answer, giving her a shrug as a form of saying 'sure why not', Ivory smiles as she grabs her sachle while she did that Wild would move herself so I can be a bit closer to Ivory as she pulls out her eyeliner pencil. Unwrapping it out of it's package as she would pull out a vencrow strap sticking the pencil it the small compartment before wrapping the strap around her hoove in order for her to hold onto the eyeliner better. Ivory looks at me as she would get on her four hooves, placing one of her upper hooves on my shoulder as she used the one with the strapped on pencil to gently outline both of my water lines of my eye before gently creating a wing on the edge of my eye. The others watching in fear that Ivory was going to poke out my eyes as I leaned back, my hand onto her lower hoof gently while she did the same for the second eye. Ivory smiling as she shows everypony her wing skills, tilting my head both ways so they can see them from different angles. Coco and Wild both aww in how nice I looked in eyeliner, while Onyx and Moonlight found out how attractive I look with makeup on and that was just eyeliner as Ivory now asked having a better plan.

"Ooo you mind if I do just your eyes, like eye shadow and your lashes, please, please, pleeeease."

Ivory begging as she removes the strapped on eyeliner off her hoof, and like I said before I wasn't so uncomfortable with this as some guys would be. When she asked me I give her a second shrug before saying.

"Sure, while we're here, I guess you can do the top half of my face."

I said smiling as Ivory gasps in happiness before quickly grabbing her satchel, pulling out an eyelash curler, mascara, and a spray bottle. Grabbing the spray bottle I look at the small imprints as Ivory continues to look through her satchel, her face turns into extreme frustration not being able to find what she is looking for. Scoffing as she places her satchel underneath the table, looking back up at me as she said.

"I think I left my eyeshadow pallet at home, so I guess we'll only be able to do your eyelashes for now."

"It's fine, besides I don't think my roommate is going to enjoy how gorgeous I'd look with a half-face if makeup anyway."

I said looking at Ivory with an appreciative smile on my face. Mentioning Barb as my roommate and not my assistant, mostly because I'd feel like some sort of snob showing how important I am that I even have an assistant to do all to shit. Now yes even though Barb has done most of the things I could be doing, like washing my dishes, my clothes and preparing dinner. But it's not my fault, I offered once to do the dishes and Barb would go off on a rant about how she is appreciative that I took her out of the castle and all this was out of gratitude. To me, Barb is nothing like an assistant and more like a friend I could talk to about my problems, telling me how she would do it if she was put in the position.

"Wait… y-you, think of me more as a friend and not an assistant?"

She asked as we were both now in our room, she sat across from me on the bed with her legs crossed over each other as she was wearing a flannel I let her use since she never really had anything that was both clean and comfortable. To you, it may look adorable on her since it looks a bit too big for her size, but if you were sitting in the position that I was sitting in that adorable look quick turns into a provocative one. Since she didn't button up the flannel, both sides would cover over her breasts and even though she didn't have nipples the way the flannel would expose her cleavage made it look like she was about to flash me. Staring at her exposed cleavage for a moment, I shook my head coming back to reality as I look up at her smiling nodding at her question which made her smile back at me. Soon she positions herself closer to me, and by closer, I don't mean an innocent seat next to me as she held my arm. No, she places herself on my lap as her legs on each side of my thighs, her arms wrapping around my neck scooting herself as close as possible looking into my eyes with a smile before saying.

"Then you don't mind if I have a seat right here, right bestie?"

Dammit! She even called me bestie if that isn't the biggest friend zone moment even after she just sat down on my lap, with her breasts almost touching my chest and at any moment the flannel could move away exposing a non-existent nipple slip. I look at her smiling as I nod before hesitantly planing my hands on her thighs which let her know that I was completely comfortable with this as I continue my story.

"So what's your roommate like?"

Wild asks as I have my head leaning back against the bench, Ivory working in my lashes as she gently places the clamps of the eyelash curler against my eyelashes pressing the clamps down curling my eyelashes so they could look more 'on fleek' as the teenagers call it these days. Haha, I'm going to die at some point in my life, oh wait! While Ivory continues to curl my eyelashes I try to talk to Wild while the rest would listen in.

"Well, the only way I could really describe her is she's like me, except she has a muzzle, a tail, and is a dragon."

"Woah, woah, woah did you say that your roommate is a she?"

Onyx asks as he overheard me saying that my roommate was a girl since I was using female pronouns as Moonlight follow up question was.

"And is she single?"

And as soon as he asked that, Coco, Ivory, Wild and I all hear a simultaneous thump against the table from underneath, slowly all four of us look at both stallions as they look back at us. Now if you don't know what hormones are then you won't understand what's going on and I'll just let you figure out what the thumps were. Imminently Coco and Wild use their tails to swat their crotch area as both Onyx and Moonlight jolt up their hooves covering their crotches as they bit their lips, groaning in pain they both fall over after being the mares got a cheap shot on their my balls. After Ivory finishes curling my eyelashes, she grabs her mascara as she gently applies some onto my eyelashes, bring some volume to my eyelashes as she smiles at me.

"There, all done!"

She said as I sit up straight, allowing everypony on the table showing off my painted eyelashes as the mares watch what good of a job Ivory did to my eyes. Before anyone could say anything, the doors to the cafe would open everypony gasps as I along with the rest of the ponies that were on the table look over. My eyes widen as I saw it was those 'Copper Angels' that I saw back when both Barb and I were on our way towards town. Seeing the two stallions and that mare now with a bandage around one of her wings, I knew it was them because of those jackets with a patch of a pair of silver wings, the mare having a tooth pick in her mouth. I gently slid down on my seat as I try my best to hide myself from any and all altercations, Ivory took notice of this as she looks down seeing me slouching down so I wasn't visible as she whispers at me.

"What's the matter? It's just those Copper Assholes."

"No, you don't understand…"

I whisper back as I turn my head towards Ivory, my face now showing an expression of fear and worry.

"...when my roommate and I were moving into our cottage, we came across the angels and well…. I kind of made that mare have a bandage on her wing."

I said, covering my face as Ivory looks at me with the same facial expression as I had. Later the cafe's music, which was played by a radio that was connected onto speakers around the cafe was cut. Instead I along with the rest of the customers in the restaurant start to hear a bass being played. Coming out of hiding, I along with the rest of the ponies notice at the corner of the cafe turned into a stage as each angel had an instrument with them. The mare with a guitar, one stallion with a bass and the other behind a drum set, now I know what you are thinking, and I still don't understand how it is possible. But the way I am looking at it is, the two equines had a guitar pick strapped around their hoof, kind of like how Ivory had that eyeliner around her hoof. The drummer was the same way, except he had two one for each hoof, I remember the guards saying that they are 'own' for playing really terrible mental music. Now let it be known that I don't hate mental, in fact I know a few mental bands here and there so I know what good mental music sounds like. But as soon as I start to hear the angels start to play…

"Yikes…"

I said as the others in the restaurant, and the group of ponies that are sitting around me. The angels look out ready to receive praise, but the praise they got was a tomato to the head, the mare of the group would look at whoever threw that as she launches one of her stallion's to attack them. Immediately seeing him go around his drum set, off the stage and straight towards the equine who threw his leader a tomato as he launches the equine towards the window, breaking it as the room went completely silent and completely scared. Seeing the mare smirk as I made a fist against the table in anger, the mare looks around the cafe as she noticed me staring back at her. Smiling at me as she would use her good wing to made a snap noise before pointing towards the table I was in. Both stallions nodding as they trot over towards me, both Coco and Onyx stand up to try and defend me but ultimately got pushed towards the floor. Moonlight tries to help me get out of the booth by scooting out of his seat only to he stopped by one of the stallions. Pulling moonlight out but blocking me so I don't get out. Ultimately that left Ivory and Wild Vision as they try to push the stallion that was blocking me from exiting only to he met with a tug by the second stallion, now I'm completely alone as both stallions blocked each exit out of the booth.

"Now, now boys."

The mare said with a very mild and soft tone in her voice as she trots up in front of the booth, tapping their shoulders as a way of saying 'good job' or 'you've done enough'. The mare staring at me as she looks at me with a smile on her face. One of her 'angels' as ironic as that name sounds, move to the side allowing the mare to take a seat in the booth as she scoots herself towards the middle of the booth looking at me with a smile on her face. Innocent as that may seem something about that 'friendly smile' made me feel really uneasy, not even when she pays the space next to her telling me to scoot closer and I would have stayed where I was. That was until I felt the stallion behind me forcefully shoving me towards her as I was made to scoot closer towards the mare, feeling one of her hooves wrapping around my arm as she gently nuzzles her head against my bicep. Feeling as if she is trying to butter me up, but if I knew anything about being buttered up is that sometimes 'buttering' just means 'either listen up or get beat up, your choice'.

"I don't think we've officially met..."

"Don't try buttering him up, you little she-demon!"

Moonlight said as he tries to get through the stallion, only to be met with being pushed towards the floor heating him grunt as the group of teenage equines attend to his aid, the mare looking over as she rolls her eyes before looking back at me. Raising her good wing as she is offering a hand or in this case 'wing' shake as she looks at me with that friendly smile of hers before saying.

"...I'm Sapphire Swing."

She said, waiting for me to give her my hand so we can give each other a shake. I stare at that wing as I didn't know if I should shake it or if I should keep my hands to myself looking at Sapphire.

"Zach…"

I said, with a bit of hesitation I move my hand towards her wing gently gripping on it as I felt the soft blue feathers against my hand. Both her and I shaking at the same time as we both pull back my hand and her wing. Sapphire introduces me to her other stallion's as she calls them her angles, starting with herself of course.

"I'm obviously Head Angel of course, Angel Number 2 Duke Bristle is on the left of us and the stallion on the right is Rapid Crunch or Angel Number 3."

"Interesting…"

I said I stare at both stallions, both having the same body and facial structure. Except one has a bright yellow coat with a mohawk like black mane, and the other has a short cut purple mane with black highlights and a brown coat. Both wearing the same pair of sunglasses and a leather jacket with their stupid Copper Angle logo, Sapphire however while had a more stylist leather jacket. Well it was more like a leather vest with a bit of pink spray paint on it to give it a bit more techster. Pine meticulously placed in the front of her vest, her bright blue coat going well with it as she moves her pearl colored mane to the side as she reveals having the side of her head shaved before looking back at me with her bright red colored eyes smiling at me.

"Now listen, Zach I know you're new to town and I don't want to make this any uglier than it has to get. So I'm giving her a chance to apologise for what you did."

"Apologise for what exactly?"

"You're kidding right?"

She said giggling in hestaria as she shows me her bandaged up wing, I look at it as I chuckle a bit. I know I should apologise for breaking her wing, but at the same time would you have apologised if she spit on your face? No, neither will I, while scratching the back of my head I look Sapphire saying.

"Listen, I don't know what you want out of me. But an 'apology'? Yeah I don't think you deserve one, especially since you spat on my face for no apparent reason."

"Heh, see you don't understand…"

She said giggling softly before snapping her wing once again, this time feeling one of the stallions to pull me out of the booth as he throws me out towards the center of the cafe. Grunting once I hit the ground, it wasn't a rough through but it was enough to not be able to stand up on my own two feet as I try to stand up. The group of teenage equines try their best by telling Sapphire that I didn't mean anything that I say, Sapphire of course didn't believe that but she wants to hear it from me. After finishing what was left of my iced coffee she gets out of the booth trotting over as she stands in front of me. While I try to stand up she gently presses her front hoof against cheek, pressing my face against the cold floor.

"Now, I'll give you to the count of three before I completely squeeze your whole face against the floor until there is nothing enough of your skull...one…"

She said smiling now having me on the floor as she gently rubs my face against it. Jesus Christ when I asked you to give me a break, I didn't mean literally. As Onyx and Moonlight try their best to push through both Duke and Rapid, Sapphire slowly starts to push her hoof against my face. I groan in pain as I feel her hard hoof pressing on my cheek, my hand starts to shake in frustration against the floor and as we all know at this point when I get frustrated I get mad and when I get mad some real scary supernatural shit starts to happen. I close my eyes trying to hold back anything from happening before I get charged with damage of private property.

"...two!..."

She continues to count while continuously pressing pushing my face against the floor, her hoof pressing harder and harder. My screams of pain start to get raspy, tears trailing down my face evident by both the mascara and eyeliner start melting down left side of my face. Before she can get to the three and completely squish my face completely against the floor, causing whoever was watching to see both my brains and piece of skull all in pieces on the floor. I hear Sapphire yelling in pain after hearing what sounds like something metal hitting her, immediately I sit up against the floor as I scoot away from the situation. By back against a table as I gently sob alone, hugging my legs as I cover my face against my knees. This was the third time my life flashed before my eyes, and frankly I don't want to die remembering that my parents were drug addicts and the only sexual experience I ever had was with a nurse doing all the work. I look up, both the underneath of my eyes and my cheeks being stained with the black mascara and eyeliner. I see who was my savior of my head almost being crushed like a watermelon, seeing it was one of the waitresses behind the cash register. I could tell from the pink waitress uniform, seeing and hearing the waitress yelling at Sapphire.

"That's enough ya hear!"

I hear the waitress yelling in a very thick southern accident, seeing everpony who I was sitting in that booth coming to my aid. All five ponies see my shaking as they comfort me to the best of their ability, the waitress being yelled back by Sapphire before looking back at me.

"You mess with the wrong clan you pathetic little freak!"

"Yeah, as pathetic as you hurting an innocent creature!"

Ivory spoke as she stands up off the floor, watching her trot towards Sapphire as she starts to rant at her. Coco and Moonlight gently pushing my face against an ice pack given by one of the cafe's baristas, feeling the cold pack against the side of my cheek before hearing the last bit of Ivory's rant.

"...How dare you hear someone who just wants to have a nice iced coffee and playing cards with his friends! Unlike you harassing everypony in town with both those stallion's and your pathetic excuse of music!"

She told Sapphire, outraged from what has happened to me. Never have I imagined somepony like her would help me in these kinds of situations. It's not like she could, but seeing how I was treated by the locals now have I five different ponies along with the whole cafe staff defending me. Her angels looking furious as steam start to huff out of their noses, before they could attack Sapphire holds up her wing looking at Ivory before smiling at her.

"Now looky here, even if our music was quote on quote 'a pathetic excuse', it's not like he can give a better performance than we can."

"Oh yeah, how much you wanna bet!"

"Oh dear lord…"

I said to myself as I, Moonlight, Coco and the rest of the group overhear Ivory placing a wager on who can give a better cafe performances. Now, I'm not going to say that I sing per-say but the only kind of reference I have in singing is in the fourth grade when I was forced to participate in the Christmas Recital and in the bathroom alone while both bathing and showering. So forcing me to sing in front of an almost packed cafe.

"Alright, five hundred bits and we'll leave town for a kick ass performance."

"Deal!"

Ivory said shaking on with Sapphire as they both shook each other's hooves. Sapphire moves both herself and her stallion's towards the cafe's stage as they get a perfect seat to get a good view of the performance. Ivory trots towards me as she looks to me gently rubbing my back once I sat up against my knees.

"Okay listen-"

"Are you insane!?!"

I whisper as I held onto her shoulder, looking deep into her eyes as I was about to explode in both outrage over what happened not too long ago, which was obviously not her fault in anyway, shape, or form. Now I have to perform in front of a everypony that was in the cafe?

"Listen, I can't sing in front of everypony. I haven't sung in front of anyone ever since the disaster that was the Christmas Recital."

"Look, look, listen to me…"

Ivory said as she looks at me pulling herself off from my grip on her shoulders, placing her hooves on my cheeks calming me down in the best way possible from my mini panic attack. Feeling her hooves against my cheeks while looking into her eyes made my breathing go from rapid to slow and steady breaths.

"...You have nothing to worry about, all you have to do is sing. Onyx knows how to play the bass, Coco knows the drums and I can play the guitar, just relax okay?"

She said as she gently caresses my cheek, hearing Ivory tell me that everything that was practically in the bag in her favor. After careful consideration, thinking to myself what would a good song to perform as most Christmas songs are banned from my brain playlist, and most punk songs that I know have to do with a very loud ear screeching voice which only left only two different genres and I highly doubt anypony here knows how to work a DJ table. Maybe somepony does but I have yet to meet them, oh who am I kidding I'm going to die of embarrassment. While I was overthinking things both Moonlight and Wild get me up and off the floor leading me up towards the stage, both while they fix the microphone stand to be tall enough in order to reach my mouth. Coco, Onyx and Ivory set themselves up tuning their guitar and bass while Coco gently presses against the pettel as I tap on the microphone to make sure it sounds good enough.

"Testing...Testing one, two, three-"

"Get on with it!"

Sapphire yells resting her hooves up against the table as I roll my eyes flipping her off before taking my sweater off. Now in my tank top as I look at everypony in the crowd. Most fixing what happened between Sapphire and I, others staring back taking a deep breath before exhaling nodding which gave a signal to the equines that I was ready. With one more tune test Ivory would look at Onyx as he nods to her before nodding back.

"So...then what happened?"

Barb asks as she sat on my lap, her arms around my neck after hearing my whole story. But as I was continuing our conversation my super sonic hearing caught sounds coming from the outside of cottage, my ear leaning towards the door hearing the front door opening. My eyes widen as I turn the light off pushing Barb off my lap before picking her up in my arms carrying her into the closet as we hide inside there
Before Barb could ask what the fuck am I doing I place my hand over her mouth silencing her before anyone could catch us hiding as I look through the small cracks of the closet seeing who was intruding our home. Barb groaning and whining as I keep my hand over her mouth, she then stops whining as she hears the door to our room opens her eyes widen as we both see two different sized figures. One appearing to be taller than the other as we hear trotting along with hear a male's voice as he says.

"I swear Twilight I saw them in here, a tall creature same height as me and a female dragon."

"Now Spike, you know it's wrong of you to lie right?"

The female voice asks as it was hard to look at whoever was in our room seeing only black figures through the small gaps of the closet, both keep looking around the room as they try and find whatever it was. It was just two black figures, until one of them the smaller figure had something around her neck that starts to glow a bright purple, my eyes widening seeing the bright light was coming from the figure's neck as I see what appears to he a purple star. Then suddenly I see it turn off, while keeping my breathing to a minimum since I didn't want to get caught from hyperventilating. Barb keeps her arms around me as I keep my hand over her mouth, watching the taller figure slowly start to walk towards the closet. Our eyes widening as we see him looking through the gaps of the door, quickly taking a step back trying to stay invisible to whoever was looking through. But before we see the door opening, this 'Spike' was drawn back from this girl named 'Twilight' as we hear her speaking again.

"Spike, there's no pony here let's leave already."

She said as the tall figure sighs leaving the doors alone both leaving the room before hearing the door close. Both of us waiting for the living room door to close before letting out a sigh of relief as we took a step out of the closet. Finally letting go of each other we both take a deep breath of air panting hard Barb laying in bed as she places her hand on her chest, I could feel her heart was about to burst out of her chest. Mean I look out of the window making sure to stay out of sight watching a group of black figures and the taller figure leaving the area.

"Who the fuck was that?"

"I don't know Barb… I don't know."

I let her know as I look out the window, now all that was left is the moon, it's light and the unicorn that was imprinted on the moon. While staring at the window, Barb notices me leaning against the window as I hear her getting out of bed and walks up to me feeling her arms around my neck from behind resting on my chest as her head gently nuzzles my own by the cheek. While she was doing this I stare at the moon wondering for the love of Celestia.

"What was that glow?"

Chapter 13: Zach's on Fire.... literally.

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 14: Zachary and Barb meet Twilight and Spike... Sort of.

"Ready to head out?"

Barb asks me as she sees me standing in front of a mirror, staring at myself for a moment realizing what today was. Not only was today (hopefully) the day I can finally walk downtown and not be pelted by tomatoes, after seeing it on the local newspaper paper that I'm 'apparently' a hero to others. But also today happens to be the day that both Barb and I go around town to check up on the preparation for the upcoming Summer Sun Celebration, and today's outfit is the one I have been waiting to wear for a while now. This was one of the first outfits the fashionista ponies made me back in Canterlot and God dam is now the perfect time to use it, hitting the denim vest over my sweater as before fixing the beanie to make it look a bit more presentable as I smile. Stare at myself in the mirror as I see how well out together the pieces of clothing look on me, the jeans complimenting the sneakers as the beanie tops everything off perfectly. Barb noticing how long I've been staring at myself in the mirror as she walks up to me, she wasn't much of a clothes wearer herself considering she has almost nothing to hide as she walks up to me her arms wrapped around my neck smiling before saying.

"You look ready for the day."

"Yeah…. I'm just… you know a little nervous."

I said, fidgeting with my hands as I rub them together feeling the sweat start to build up on my palms. What do I have to be nervous about? I mean all I'm really doing is just to speak with someponies to check in with the preparations for the annual Summer Sun Celebration. So what's there to worry about? I don't know, maybe I'm just having some weird feelings about last night and my part of the apparent deal I have with Inimron, even that bothers me like how I am going to locate the princess's vengeful sister and be able to separate both him and I into two different physical beings? And what hurts me more about that is I have yet to tell Barb about it all, the dreams, the visits from my dark self, all she knows as of this point is that I'm apparently gifted and I should use this gift wisely. Yeah like hell that's going to happen, my abilities rage from gliding to teleportation which I'm still having a hard time on controlling them. Barb looks down seeing how nervous I'm becoming as she gently places her hand on my cheek saying.

"You're going to be fine, and if anything I'll be right by your side."

She informs me, I smile at her as I stop rubbing my hands together instead wrapping my arms around her pulling the dragoness into a warm embrace. Slowly she joins into the hug as she pulls me by the neck hugging me back, after a while of in our arms Barb was the one that broke it as she smiles up at me but something told me it was a forced smile as if there was something wrong with her. But before I can ask her as she walks out of the room, moving a bit of her scale like hair moving it back a bit as she walks down stairs. I sigh, worried about her hating to see anyone upset as I look back at the mirror noticing that my long hair made the beanie look bigger than usual, I try to move my hair back or to the side but nothing worked. Until I have the idea to take the beanie off, my hair looking a bit better without it as I smile fixing it a bit before walking out of the room. Walking downstairs, I notice Barb in the living room in her hands was the orange envelope that the princess gave us and from what she told us in that envelope comes with six ponies who we have to find and be sure that the preparations are all in order. Walking up to Barb she turns around seeing me without the beanie this time as she smiles, noticing that I was missing something she walks up to me before opening the envelope digging into the envelope pulling out a familiar sun like looking pin as she places the envelope under her arm before getting close to me pinning the sun pin on my best so it was visible to whoever was looking at me. I stare at the pin, wondering why the fuck I'm wearing this on my vest but I don't question anything that was given to me by the princess.

"There… now whoever is asking, the princess sent you."

She said smiling as she looks up at me, staring into each other's eyes made me wonder if she had some sort of feelings towards me. But I also know that if I bring that kind of subject up to her she might take it the wrong way, so before anything could progress I shook my head coming back to reality as I look at her gently patting her shoulder.

"We should… probably get going."

"Y-yeah…Yeah."

She said nodding at my response as she turns around walking towards the door before opening it, I follow suit as we both make our way out of the cottage, unknown to us that somepony may or may not be watching us in the trees. I can hear ruffling from the trees behind me, as if something was in fact following us but everytime I look back and up the trees I'm always met with nothing, it was strange but I keep on walking the forest. After walking passed the trees and bushes, occasionally stepping on a rock or two we make it into town. Like most days, the residents of PonyVille trot around town making ends meet while others are either dropping off their children to school or dropping them off to their babysitter's house or the afternoon. It always scares me when I leave the cottage, especially since the last few weeks have been rough to the point where I just want to bury myself into my blankets and just wait until the time comes. But I was given this second chance at life, and seeing how confident Barb is right now, I know that I can't break that off of her so after a few short inhales and exhales we are off. While both Barb and I walk into town, things seem to be pretty normal for a usual pony populated town. Both of us look around since the both of us have yet to be seen by anypony I figured maybe today isn't going to be such a bad day. Who knows, maybe I'm not going to get tied up and stabbed in the chest for some crazy ass sacrifice. As we both walk down town, we notice some of the residents sitting around a water fountain having a conversation with each other, I try my best not to bud into their conversation considering that A; I may be interrupting something important, B; They may not know the answer to my question, even if I had one or C; they'll just panic and call for help when all I would be doing us asking them a question. On top of all that, I'm still having trouble controlling my hyperactive hearing so even if I didn't have a question I can be eavesdropping into their conversation whether it would be about me or about something else. Anyway, as we both walk downtown ignoring everypony around us and whatever they have to say, Barb pulled out a letter and as I was walking backwards to give Barb my attention and also keep myself moving so we don't have to stop for anything. While she walks forward and I was walking backwards, making sure to look back every once and awhile so I don't bump into anypony she says.

"So, Princess Celestia packed this letter into the envelope and told me to read it to you just in case you can't understand her writing…"

She said, not sure if the princess thought I was uneducated or she may have written that letter in calligraphy which would make sense since I don't understand anything in calligraphy. I nod at her, having an understanding over what the princess are referring to and I understand that she said that with good intentions, and after clearing her throat Barb read the letter out loud as we walk together.

"My Dearest Zachary,-"

"Awwe."

I said already cutting her mid sentence over how the princess started her letter, but after that I keep quiet while she continues to read the rest of the letter.

"As I was saying…

My Dearest Zachary,

As you may know, as the princess of Equestria I have one of the biggest responsibilities in making sure all of my subjects have the exact same opportunities as the rest. And while you may be a completely new species and a brand new Citizen of Equestria, I can't help but think with you it won't be as easy to make friends like the others, and that just won't do for me. So along with of your responsibility on checking the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration, I would like to add some even more important…. The opportunity to make friends. I know it may seem difficult at first, but I know deep down you can do it. I hope to see you again soon.

Sincerely,

Princess Celestia

…the opportunity to make friends huh?"

Barb she repeats from that last sentence before folding the letter back up, she then looks up at me smiling directly at me knowing exactly what she is about to say. These past few weeks she's been going on and on about wanting me to make friends and wanting me to go out some more and even though I went out that one afternoon to the local arcade and then I was invited to an iced coffee by a group of ponies. That apparently doesn't count, so now I really have to try and make a couple of 'real' friends, and where's a better place to start than in PonyVille. Yeah totally doesn't sound like stupid idea, as we both walk along side eachother and at the moment that I start to walk forwards I get bump into somepony infront of me. Grunting and falling to the floor feeling my ass hitting the ground as Barb looks down at me with a smile of enjoyment, she knew that there was somepony in front of me and she didn't bother to tell me. Something told me she wanted to see how long it would take me to see if I could see it before anything bad would happen. So you can imagine how annoyed I'm getting over with how much she is making fun of me, rubbing my back gently as I look towards me seeing who I bumped into before seeing a pink earth pony, the style she had on both her mane and tail made it look like something out of a cheesy 70's sitcom. Seeing the earth pony shakes her head as she got back up on her hooves having a bright smile on her face as if nothing bad actually happened and she would just go on about her day if not only she sees me on the floor, tilting her head to the side wondering what I was and if she recognizes me. Barb thinking this can be a great opportunity for me to try and make friends with the pink earth pony as she taps my shoulder before using her head to point at the pony in front of me. I, at first didn't understand what she was trying to imply only just remembering what the princess advised me to do while I was in town. Thinking for a moment what I'm about to say before standing up and on my feet before looking down at the earth pony who was now looking up at me, still wondering what was in front of her as I stand up in front of the mare before extending a hand out towards the pink earth pony before saying.

"Hi… I'm Zachary, I'm sort of new around town and-"

But before I can even finish one sentence I am interrupted by the sound of her exaggerated gasp, jumping up into the air before dashing away over and above my head. One moment she was in front of both Barb and I, now she is gone. Oh well, at least I tried right? After processing what just happened in front of us, we continued our journey through town. Occasionally being greeted by some of the residents around town, some with a generous hello while others would simply just gave me a pat in the back. I'm honestly really confused over all the generosity coming from everypony, it's strange but I just soak it in for as long as I can, replying to their 'hello's with a simple 'hi'. It feels good to slowly gain the respect my the residents of PonyVille, and while I get the occasional glare of unease from some ponies here and there, but those rude mad dogging glares would quickly be cleared out of my head when another pony would greet me with a smile and a wave. All this is topped off when I feel a ball hitting me against the foot. Barb sees this as well as she looks around noticing a group of foals asking if I could kick the ball back to them. I smile and since I wasn't the greatest with kicking a ball I gently kick it with the side of my foot as I see it rolling towards the foals hearing them say 'thank you' makes my day completely. I don't know what it is, but seeing a child smile for something I did just lit my insides up with joy and delight, and isn't that what really matters? After walking for almost twenty minutes, both Barb and I come up to a huge tree like house as I look around seeing how the tree looks so healthy even though it was made into somepony's home, while I admire the landscape Barb once again goes through the orange envelope before pulling out a another sheet of paper. I turn my head towards her just as she is about to start reading what is on the sheet.

"Let's see… this is where… Twilight Sparkle lives. Princess Celestia states that she is in charge of booking the musical entertainment for the festival, and she will also be our tour guide around PonyVille just in case we need to find the rest on our list."

"Great… well…"

I said as I motion a hand towards the door, signaling her to knock and ask if this was the place they were looking for. But Barb looks at the door before looking back at me as she shakes her head.

"No, you knock."

"Barb come on."

I said extending the 'on' with extra O's, acting like a child who doesn't want to do what his parents told him to do. But when I see Barb crossing her arms, hearing her foot tapping against the ground before reminding me.

"Hey! What did the princess say?"

She asked, raising an eyebrow from how I was acting in front of her. I groan in annoyance, knowing what she was about to say what true as I look down before saying.

"I know, I know...try and make friends."

I said before sighing as I walk in front of Barb and standing up in front of the door of the house where this Twilight Sparkle lives, wondering what can go wrong? Almost anything but hell I'm here for a reason so what the fuck right? I stare at the door, admiring how nice the door looks as I take a moment to come up with something to say, this time I give myself extra to think and rethink on what I'm about to say considering it didn't work out the first time around with that pink mare. Finally after about five minutes of thinking, I raise my hand up moving it towards the door as I knock on it three times pulling my hand away before hearing the sounds of footsteps against the floor from the inside. Soon the sounds of footsteps go silent, I then see and hear the door opening before witnessing what appeared to be a more male version of Barbara he was even the exact same height as Barb. The dragon looks up at me dead in the eyes, having that glare a very protective boyfriend has as he says.

"Yes?"

He said having a very pubescent voice, you know the one where your voice cracks so at some point in the middle of a sentence. Yeah like that, I look at him struggling with what I was about to say. I don't know, but something about this dragon is giving me really bad anxiety to the point where I wasn't sure if I should say anything as I struggle to form a sentence with.

"Hi…I-I'm Zachary…"

I said stuttering a bit, knowing that this'll be how I will be talking while getting to know both the dragon and the pony whom I'm also about to meet as I pull Barb up in front of me. Seeing both her and the dragon looking at each other, now the menacing glare from the dragon turns into a more surprising look on his face, matching Barb's surprised glare as I continue to speak.

"... this right here is a close friend of mine, her name is Barbara, w-we are actually looking for a pony that goes by the name... Twilight Sparkle?"

I said, just remembering who we come here looking for as I see the dragon's face turning into a concerned expression. He leans his head back, not breaking eye contact between both Barb's and my own but it's mostly Barb's eye contact that he doesn't break most of the time as he yells into the house.

"Twilight! Some….one here is asking for you!"

He said before leaning forward once again, extending his hand scale covered arm and hand to Barb, bringing back that menacing glare towards me as he told Barbara.

"I'm Spike, it's nice to meet you… well one of you anyway."

"It's nice to meet you Spike, don't worry about Zachary… he may look menacing and dangerous but he really means well."

Barbara defeats me as she looks back at me with a smile, giving her the same expression back to her before we both simultaneously reach out and hold each other's hand. As I hold her hand gently rubbing the back of her scally palm staring at her claws, she never bothers to show them off considering how amazing and sharp they're. After staring for another hour we both get interrupted by the sound of a high pitched gasp, looking up to see both the dragon who is still staring at me with that glare and now a light mulberry colored pony, her mane a nice sapphire blue with a raspberry colored streak on her bangs and judging by the horn she's a unicorn as she stares at me with a surprised look on her face. Her violet color of her iris starts to glow as I stare back at her before it went away, blinking rapidly I look at her as I introduce myself and the dragoness next to me.

"Hello, I suppose you don't know who we are obviously but I'm Zachary, this is Barbara. You must be Twilight Sparkle, look we don't want to take up too much of your time, but we would like to ask if you can help us?"

I ask her holding onto Barb's hand because something about this pony gives me a really uneasy feeling, and another thing tells me that I or even Barb can be some sort of danger. Twilight continues to look at me, Spike on the other hand his grip on the door turns a bit more violent as I can see his claws digging into the door before, the purple mare looks at me for another moment as she asks me.

"Before I… help you both… by any chance do the two of you have any idea about a massive purple explosion in the sky that happened not to long ago?"

She asks having a feeling that we might know something about it, both Barb and I look at each other we definitely know something about what she mentioned. But deep down we know that if we say anything, or even look like we know something we can be in some serious trouble. And unfortunately, Twilight knew that we know something about that event and even more unfortunate she looks up at Spike as he looks down at her. She nods at him as if they had a game plan they're about to play, Spike then turns his head back to me as he opens the door wide before lunging himself towards me grunting as I feel my back being dragged across the floor. I feel a strong grip against my neck, I feel my air supply slowly diminishing as I look up at Spike seeing him looking at me with that glare of hatred and revenge. I try my best to chizzle his grip around my neck, but the more I try to force him off of me the harder his grip gets. Turning my head, I see Barb looking pissed off but before she can do anything Twilight lunges herself towards her attacking the dragoness. I told myself that I wasn't going to use my gift unless it was for an emergency but in this case and what is happening right now, would be considered an emergency. My eyes slowly start to go blurry meaning that I was close to passing out as I could hear Spike chuckling calming victory or so he thought, closing my eyes, thinking to myself.

'You promised both Barb, and to the princess that you wouldn't get yourself into any kind of trouble. But this is a matter of life or death, and I wasn't going to allow this dragon to take my second chance at life.'

I said to myself before opening my eyes, staring back up at the dragon as I see his face going from victorious smile to utter shock as he sees that I wasn't dead just yet, my hand letting go of his wrist as the dragon sees a purple aura forming in my hand before he can react I blast him in the face as he lets go of my neck allowing me to finally breath as I sit up on my knees. Gently massaging my neck with one hand, I start coughing for air as I pant looking towards Spike. He wasn't in good shape either, screaming in pain as he covers his face before turning his head towards me his eye was now bleeding as I whines at the sight.

"That has got to hurt."

I said, trying to be amusing after finally being able to move before he stands back up his hands unleashing his claws as he shows his teeth clearly wanting to use them on me. I look at him before extending my right arm out to the side as my hand starts to glow once again before a purple blade starts forming out of my hand, Spike huffs before running towards me immediately starting to slash his claws towards me dodging as much as I can before swinging my blade towards him. Spike dodging that as well, this would have continued on only for the fact that Barb launches herself towards him as she sent both of them rolling before seeing them starting to brawl. Spike slashing at her as Barb uses her tail wrapping around the male dragon's leg causing him to fall to the floor as she tries to kick him in the chest only for Spike to grab a hold of her foot before getting his claws into her stomach as he slashes her hearing her yell in pain. Luckily it didn't go too deep into enough to leave her scars on her stomach, and I could have just come and help her if it wasn't for feeling a blast of magic hitting me in the back of the head. While holding the back of my head I turn around seeing Twilight looking furious.

"Stand down alien."

She demands, her horn glowing while I rub my head gently the purple saber radiating from my hand goes away before forming into a sphere throwing it towards her, only for Twilight to dodge it but she wasn't out of the woods just yet as I continue to throw sphere after sphere. It wasn't until the fifth sphere that hit her against the forehead, hearing her groan in pain as her mane starts to radiating smoke, her horn wasn't damaged in any way thanks to her magic but seeing her bangs now spiked up giving her a different hair style. Whole Barb and Spike continue to brawl with each other, Twilight uses her horn to shoots a light purple ray towards. Immediately using both my hands, wrists touching each other as I try and deflect the blast, the shot causing me to drag my feet against the floor trying my best not to get Barb because that's what she was going for. The more fire power she radiates the more I try and hold back, it wasn't until I feel my eyes sight going from color to a violet shade, causing me to turn the ray back towards her as I hear her scream. The ray causing her to get launched towards the tree house, I pant hearing Barb grunting and groaning. Once I turn around my eyes have never been more hurt in my life, seeing the dragoness being thrown over Spike's shoulder as I see him gutting her from stomach to chest, hearing Barb gargling blood before going limp.

"Barb!"

I yell in pain causing my throat to crack, for some reason climate change exists in Equestria too because suddenly it just starts to rain hearing a lighting bolt hitting before feeling the rain coming down. Seeing Spike turning around as he gives me a smirk licking Barb's blood off his claws before turning towards me, I look down losing Barb hurts more than losing my own life. Barb means everything to me, sure I've only known for so long but in that time I've learned so much from her and about her that it's like she's a sister I've always wanted. My hands forming into fists as I look up at Spike, anything and everything from the 'holding back' back plan is gone as I look up at Spike he cracks his neck both ways, suddenly I slowly start to levitate off the ground. From Spike's perspective, my iris's turn into a pearl color before raising my hands up lighting hitting both of my palms as Spike knew he made a huge mistake, his smirk turning into a worried expression on his face. Before he can get a chance to flea I shoot lighting out of my hands like I'm some sort of sith appreciate learning the ways of the dark side, seeing Spike scrumble on to his knees as shaking and spasming before seeing him sit blood out of his mouth his eyeballs inflating like a balloon before popping. Causing the dragon to lay limp as blood ran out of his mouth and eye balls, descending from the air before hearing.

"Hey!"

Turning my head I see Twilight coming out of the tree house the rain causing her spiked up bangs to go down now having a crown on her head as it began to glow. I turn myself completely towards her, rain continuing to fall from the sky hearing Twilight demanding one last time.

"Stand down alien, you've taken enough lives for one day."

"I take lives?"

I ask, my iris's turning back as my sight can see more than one color again. Looking at Twilight she starts slowly trotting towards me as I walk up towards her braiding the unicorn.

"Up to this point, I haven't taken the life of anypony! Spike was wanting it as much as you do-."

"Don't use Spike as an excuse! He was my friend and like a baby brother to me-."

"You don't think I feel the same way about Barb!?! You don't think that she was the closest friend and companion I could ever ask for?!?"

I yell at her, tears slowly strolling down my eyes. To Twilight they just blend into the rain that falls down my face as she doesn't respond to what I confessed to her, it was if she doesn't care what I have to say. To her I'm nothing more than some sort of threat to both her and the rest of Equestria, I smile unbelievably pleased with her final impression of me saying.

"Say your final prayers Sparkle."

"You won't be around to hear them!"

She said before launching herself towards me her crowd radiating a shiny purple glow to its star like gem. I watch this as I close my eyes, this was all over for not only me but for her as well.

Before even feeling the impact of her hit, my eyes shoot open and it's like Marty and Doc Brown pull me out of the blast, sat my ass onto the DeLorean and brought me back to the beginning as I stand again next to Barb. Panting hard while gripping onto the dragoness's hand hard, Twilight does the same as she too might've seen what I saw right in front of her Spike attends the hyperventilating mare as Barb does the same to me. I look up seeing Twilight does the same before we both say simultaneously.

"You saw it too?"

Chapter 15: Tea with Twilight and Meeting Applejack

The room is quiet, so quiet that if you dropped a pen it could've been heard considering the tension between me and the lavender mare sitting in front of me. We stare at each other for an uncomfortable amount of time, Twilight seemingly having difficulty with her breathing as I lean back crossing my arms over each other. The only thing that softens the tension is the sound of a tea kettle boiling in the kitchen of her tree house, both Barb and Spike decided to make us some tea and went out to get some crumpets from a local baking company. Once the water finished boiling both Barb and Spike came walking into the room, Barb holding the tea kettle while Spike held two tea cups and saucers as he placed one to both Twilight and I, following close with Barb serving both of us some steaming water into each of our tea cups. Spike pulled out three different boxes of tea and placed them in front of us. The tea flavors come in a variety of colors, types, and each having different health qualities.

After enough silence but before the water gets cold both Twilight and I graciously thank our assistance, Spike wrapping his arms around the lavender mare Twilight taking this gesture to heart as she leans her head against the dragon's. Barb and I on the other hand get a bit more physical as she turns my chair around gently sitting on my lap as she wraps her arms around me hugging me while I sit down, my arms moving around her back as I went to go hug the dragoness. After both Twilight and I explained what happened between the both of us they both felt our pain, it affected Barb just a bit more than Spike as I can hear her whimpering in my ear. It's bad enough that I told her, I saw in my vision both her and Spike's deaths, but if it hurt anyone at all it hurt me more seeing her get amputated in front of me made me hold her even tighter. Barb gently holding my head as I could hear Twilight whispering to Spike, at first I thought she was talking about how 'intimate' both Barb and I are getting with each other but in reality she was comforting Spike as the teenage dragon himself was tearing up. I don't understand what the fuck happened, was it some sort of premonition or just another one of my episodes and even if it was how did Twilight see it? So much is going through my head and I just want to go through the day without having to go through any kind of hassle with anypony.

After awhile of being comforted by both Twilight and I, both Spike and Barb pull apart from us as they both stand a side. Spike leaning against the wall while Barb would sit on a chair next to him, turning my chair back around towards Twilight the lavender mare scooting her chair closer to the table. Both of us grab a box of tea opening it before pulling a small tea bag from the box, I unwrap it from it's plastic wrapping before grabbing the string gently placing the tea bag part of the string into the warm water, Twilight using her magic to get it all out of the way. Grabbing a small spoon I gently use it to push the tea bag down into the water, smiling as I see the water slowly turning from clear into a light purple color since it was lavender colored. Once we both stirring our tea bags in our tea cups of warm water, we both pull out the tea bags out of the cups putting them side before hearing Twilight asking.

"Honey?"

She asks, seeing a small jar of honey levitating in front of me, and seeing a light purple aura around it telling me that she is using her magic to keep it up like that. I stare at it for a moment, still really mesmerised from how magic works in Equestria but I wasn't going to keep the mare waiting plus magic must take a lot of effort to wield. Nodding I take the small jar off her magic as I pull it back down on the table gently stirring the small spoon that comes with the jar before gently pouring a generous amount of honey into my tea cup before using my first spoon to gently stir the honey into the tea. I watch the inside of the tea cup as the honey slowly dissolves into the water, hearing a soft giggle coming from Twilight hearing a sip coming from her as I look up seeing a smile coming from the mare.

"You like your tea sweet huh?"

"Yeah heh… I hate anything bitter… except for cranberry juice, I like cranberry juice… and the occasional black berry, although those are more tart then bitter."

I explain going on a tangent as I once again hear Twilight giggling, it was weird we're both getting along with each other regardless of what we both saw in our episodes. I take a sip of my tea, tasting how sweet I made the tea taste as I gently hiss from the sweetness of the honey counters any kind of lavender flavor, but it's a waste of good tea. Anyway, after all that laughter over sweetened tea and how much of a sugar addict I am we both finally discuss a matter of 'business', and by business I mean both checking on her cooperation of the Summer Sun Celebration and to see if she could possibly help us locate the rest of our ponies. But first, she brings up the vision we both had as she comes with a theoretical explanation.

"From what happened in how visions, I assume you must think we're all vicious."

"What? No not at all… on the contrary I believe you along with the equine's-."

I said before being cut off from Spike clearing his throat, looking over to him he points at himself. Feeling excluded from the overall count of my explanation as I nod clearing my own throat before continuing.

"- and Spike, I thought all of you found me…"

"Vicious?"

Twilight said finishing my sentence with a word that I was either struggling to say or didn't think it was the correct word to use as I continue.

"Vicious, monster, freak… alien, you name it."

I said taking another sip of my sweet tea holding back a hiss before grabbing a crumpet from the small basket on the table as I gently break it in half seeing how soft they are in the side before taking a bit of butter from a container grabbing the knife and gently spreading it on the side of the crumpet before taking a bite. I smile, loving how the butter made the crumpet unleash its flavor, thinking I was hogging the butter knife I spread some on the other half before placing the butter knife down. Soon after Twilight does the same as she uses her magic to spread some butter on her crumpet not breaking it half however as she takes a generous bite out of her pastry. After swallowing the piece in her mouth, clearing her throat a bit she explains.

"I didn't call you 'alien' because you look like one, I called you that because… well you're relatively new to Equestria, I or even anypony don't know what to expect from you. Like…"

She said before using her magic once again this time my hand is covered in her aura as she pulls my hand up, turning it from side to side as she inspect it for a moment before asking.

"What are these? They look like Spike's claws expect yours around covered with scales and your claws are much shorter than Spike's."

"Yeah… except mine are called hands."

"Hands… wow."

I hear her say, becoming quite fascinated with my hand as she inspects it a bit longer. I hear both Spike and Barb gently chuckling under their breath before hearing Spike say."

"There she goes again."

"Again with what?"

I ask the dragon, genuinely concerned about my hand at this point. Was she going to cut it off? Cut a finger off? Make me do 'things' to her? I feel a shiver going down my spine just the thought of doing something like that made feel weird, not in the homosexual kind of weird but that weird sense you get from someone being forward with you after just meeting for like two seconds. Yeah that kind of weird, but luckily Spike reassures me that wasn't the case as he explains.

"Twilight's the type, where if she meets something or someone new she has to do an inspection. And when she discovers something she's never heard of before, she asks about seventy three more questions before getting all the information she needs. Just like how she was when she first came here, nothing but studying, reading books, and keeping herself secluded at all times. Lucky for her she made a good amount of friends after realizing-"

Spike was then cut off from the sound of Twilight gasping in shock, her eyes staring down at me. At first I thought my zipper was down and she saw something she knows she shouldn't have seen, well without asking that is. But after looking at her eyes, redirecting them towards my vest as she sees the sun pin gently lifting my vest a bit so she can take a good look at it.

"Oh this? Yeah, the princess's orders were to wear-"

"Wait! Princess? As in Princess Celestia?!?"

She said her face now in shock, her magic letting go of my hand as it drops on the table. I nod at her shocked question as I'm now genuinely confused at this moment, what's so shocking about me knowing the princess? I mean sure, me a human her a pony that's pretty weird but other than that, what's so shocking about it? After just sitting there with a shocked expression on her face, I turn to both Barb and Spike as now Spike too is shocked at this revelation as I scoff leaning back against the chair before asking.

"Yeah, Princess Celestia told me to check up on the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration…. And also make a couple of friends there and there too."

"You too?"

"What?"

I said, now I'm the one with the shocked expression on my face as I look up at Twilight before she sits back down on her chair, her horn lighting up again before seeing what looks to be a crown slowly levitating towards the both of us setting it down on the table. I look at it for a moment, it looks exactly like the crown Twilight wore in our vision. Except it's missing the purple star like gem on the top of it as I stare at the crown for a moment, before I can say anything Twilight explains why she was forced to come here, to Ponyville.

"Not only was I tasked with breaking out of my shell and trying to making friends. I had a personal task, with finding the Elements of Harmony."

"Okay, but what are…"

"The Elements of Harmony?"

"Yeah, those what are they exactly?"

I said having absolutely no idea of what she was talking about, this also makes Twilight shocked over not knowing what the 'Elements Of Harmony' are. Jeez for a relatively smart pony she sure gets shocked a lot. Probably wasn't the best choice of words but you know what I mean. She gets shocked a lot. Using her magic once again she pulls a book out of her library before dropping it in front of me, the huge title saying 'History Of Equestria' as I see the purple aura opening the book before flipping page after page after page, before stopping at one particular section. A picture of two ponies standing side by side, each other, the other page has a passage to which I read out loud.

"Long ago, two regal sisters who ruled together created harmony for all the land, the eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn; the younger brought out the moon to begin the night. their subjects, the ponies, played in the day but shunned the night and slept through it, which made the younger unicorn grow bitter, eventually refusing to lower the moon to make way for the dawn. Her bitterness transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness: Nightmare Moon. The elder sister reluctantly harnessed the power of the Elements of Harmony and banished her in the moon for a thousand years, maintaining harmony in Equestria by taking responsibility for both sun and moon. It's said that on the longest day of the thousandth year, marks the return of Nightmare Moon."

After reading the passage I lean back against my chair, rendering everything that I just read. Reminding me of what 'he' said before looking up at Twilight, staring at the crown on the table then hearing her sigh in disappointment.

"The girls and I have been looking for the elements for days, zero luck and one injured pony. So yeah those are the Elements of Harmony."

She said resting her head against her hoofs, I have no many different questions running through my head. Like, where does it say they're hidden? What do they look like? Who are the 'girls'? And who's the pony with the injury? All these questions sadly won't get answered because I feel something tapping my shoulder as I look over, Barb looking back at me as she points at her wrist indicating that we're losing time and we need to ask about her part of the preparations. Now remembering why we're here in the first place, I look at Twilight seeing her still looking a bit sad as I clear my throat.

"Uhh.. listen I'm not the type to ruin a sad moment, but I was wondering if you could help us locate a specific group of ponies…"

I said before looking at Barb as she shows the lavender unicorn a few sheets of paper with names of specific ponies and what they have to do with the upcoming festival. Twilight by using her magic lifts the papers up to her face as she nods, she then pulls out a few small yellow post-it notes and a quill as she is writing down on the small pieces of paper I notice something with my peripheral vision. Seeing both Spike and Barb talking to each other as the male dragon leans against her chair, hearing her giggle at him like some high school girl. I smile at how cute Barb looks like when she's having a crush on Spike, I can tell by the way she is positioned to the way she looks up at the male dragon.

I must have gotten lost staring at both teenage dragons talking to one another that I don't hear or see Twilight trying to get my attention, it's only having letting out a sigh and turning my head around, seeing the lavender looking back at me with waiting eyes as I shake my head back to reality before apologizing.

"Sorry… got lost in a train of thought."

"It's okay, I do that a lot too, sometimes I lose myself when I'm trying to remember things like what I ate today, the friends I've made today and- wait Spike what time is it?"

She said asking her assistant what the time is at this moment, seeing Spike go from suave and slick to flustered and shaky as he tries to catch his balance again. I along with Twilight and Barb chuckle at how flustered the teenage dragon got as he turns his head around taking a look at the time as he said.

"It's exactly ten minutes to two."

After saying that I see the lavender mare's eyes shot wide open, her horn glowing once again as she disappears out of nowhere leaving traces of sparkles behind. Both Barb and I have no idea what's going on but Spike knew exactly what is happening at this time as he walks towards the door Twilight appearing once again near the door as she uses her magic to twist the doorknob and swing the door open before saying, all at once.

"ListenasmuchasIwouldliketotalkbothSpikeandIarereallylategettingtoameetingwiththemayorIllletyouknowifIgetanyinformationabouttheentertainmentforthefestival."

She said as both Barb and I look at her, it's kind of hard to understand what she said all of a sudden but before we could even try and decode what she told us her horn once again starts to glow. Then out of nowhere we both are lifted up off the floor before being launched out of her tree house, I was going to ask her where we could locate some of the ponies we are looking for. But then Barb burps out flames before all of the post-it notes she was writing on appears in front of her, grabbing in her claws she looks at it then hearing Twilight yell.

"Alltheinformationyouneedareonthesepostiynotesokaybye!"

She said watching both her and Spike walking away from her tree house, losing them in the distance as I turn my attention back to Barb chuckling.

"She… is one weird pony."

"How much do you want to bet there's somepony out there that's weirder than her?"

She said looking at me with a coy smile and a competitive look in her eyes as I smirk at her before saying.

"Fifty bits, bragging rights and-"

"One free song."

"You've lost your fucken mind!"

"What you scared of losing, I didn't know humans were such chickens."

She said and after standing back up on her two feet she then starts to use both her arms to create wings before flapping her arms like a bird, clucking like a chicken as she bobs her head up and down acting like she is pecking corn off the floor. I knew this was a way to peer pressure me into doing the bet as I groan in frustration knowing if I don't say anything she won't stop clucking like a chicken.

"Fine!... One free song."

"Yay! Deal!"

She said raising a hand up so we can both shake on it, I stare at her hand before extending my hand out gripping hers as we both shake on it. After discussing back and forth about what I should do and when I should do it, we began our journey as Barb looks down at one of the post-it notes before she looks around, eventually she starts to walk towards one direction so I follow her as we make our way towards our first or technically our second stop.

"If she wrote these directions correctly, our destination should be right… here"

Barb said as she stops walking, while following her through town thinking I was really only going to get met with rocks, chains and whips, now turned into open hooves and smiles. I know I said this already, but it's nice to finally be a part of this loving and caring community even if there's the occasional madogging glares and down grading comments from the locals. After following Barb through town, we both stand in front of an arc before looking up seeing a sign above the arc that says 'Sweet Apple Acres' which is our next stop for preparation check. We both walk into Sweet Apple Acres, being met with huge land going for miles and from a distance we see apple trees that also go for miles, spotting some earth ponies working out in the apple fields while others work on a barn as a group of ponies try to lift a wall up with a pulley and rope. Using their teeth to pull on the rope as the wall for the side of the barn lifts up off the floor, Barb and I stand back while they work as we continue to walk further into the farm taking a look around as I ask Barb.

"So, who are we looking for this time?"

"Uhh well…"

She said as she goes back to the piece of paper, dragging her finger across the paper as if she has some struggle reading a book and she needed to use her finger to keep track.

"Ahh here it is, we're looking for a pony named… Applejack."

"Applejack… like the cereal?"

"What?"

"Nevermind."

I said, chuckling at the thought of having Applejacks when I was younger. And the thought of a pony named Applejack made me chuckle like if someone told me a very corny joke but I still chuckle because for some reason I still find it kinda funny. As we took a look around the farm, I noticed along with some of the working ponies there were younger ponies playing around with each other. I smile watching them playing around, seeing them have no worries in their lives and enjoying their lives to the fullest, as I watch them playing I notice a much smaller ponys’ crawling around the farm area. Interacting with the farmer ponies, looking no younger than a few months judging from how her vocabulary consists of babbling and giggling. I chuckle watch the young pony crawling around, that is until I heard someone yell out.

"Watch out!"

I hear before seeing some of the farmer ponies letting go of the rope to the wall of the barn, causing the rope to shoot up towards the pulley that held up the wall up from falling down. Before anypony could react the wall starts to tilt to the side. It wouldn't be a problem if no pony was standing near the direction that the wall was about to fall in. But no, the smaller pony crawls towards the other ponies, seeing the shadow of the wall hovering over the little pony. I panicked seeing no pony was going to help her out, Barb saw this and before she could stop me I quickly ran towards the filly dragging my feet against the dirt before scooping her into my arms, before the wall even managed to hit is I raise my right hand up towards it, looking away while holding the filly in my arm. I couldn't tell if the wall actually squished us to death but I do hear the sounds of gasps around where we both are. After taking a few minutes to recollect my breaths that was taken from me after doing that stunt I look up noticing a bright violet aura around my hand along with the wall holding up it at an awkward angle. Looking around I notice some hooves standing closely towards the wall as one pony leans down seeing both me and the small filly in my arm as I am holding up the wall before it completely crushes us. After the pony noticed us, he stood up straight yelling out to the others that we are okay as they came quickly to our aid hearing somepony yell.

"Pull!"

Before slowly seeing the wall moving up away from us, after the ponies got a strong grip onto the rope that's holding up the wall I let my arm rest the violet glow fading away as I pant softly sitting up now having a better grip on the filly in my arms as I look down. It stares up at me with the cutest of curiosity, trying to make out what I was as it tilts its head I smile at it gently wiggling my finger against it's belly as I hear her giggling. The other ponies notice how friendly I was towards the filly as they all smile hearing her giggling let them know she's in safe hands, or hooves if we're talking about them soon the wholesome moment was cut short as I hear somepony yelling in a very southern accent.

"What in tarnation is goin on out here!?!"

When I hear the very angry southern gal my head shoots up, seeing an orange mare trotting over towards the huge group of ponies are huddling around us. Having a farmer's hat on her head with a blonde mane that's braided up with a nice red ribbon that keeps the braids from coming undone. The mare trotts up in front of me staring at me with her emerald green eyes looking quite pissed as she sees some sort of creature bothering her place of work, standing up, I look down at the orange mare as she looks back up at me sitting on her rump she stares up at me with a very interrogating look on her face. The little filly in my arms starts to tug on my hand, tugging on my thumb as I take my eyes off of the orange mare and to the small pony in my arms seeing her holding my thumb like some sort of children's toy. Chuckling I took my thumb off her grip and instead would gently tickle her belly, hearing her giggle as she starts tossing and turning in my arms. The crowd of ponies surrounding both me and the orange mare couldn't help by awe at how cute it is to see the small pony giggling in my arms. There are two things that are telling me, maybe I should give the child back to whoever she belongs to. The first hint was feeling Barb gently placing her hand on my shoulder when I turn my head away from the filly looking at Barb she would point her head towards the right of her which them leads me to the second hint when I start to feel a small tug against my pants leg, looking down I see a bright yellow mare looking up at me having a scarf in her hoof which probably belongs to the filly in my arms, which then also telling me that this little filly belongs to the mare who was just tugging against my pants. Nodding I get on one knee, turning towards the mare as I gently place the mare on to the floor in front of her as the small filly starts to crawl over towards her mother. Smiling as I see both a mother and her child reunite, even though technically she wasn't lost but it's nice to see a mother caring for her child, once the filly was in the hooves of her mother seeing her nuzzling her cheek gently the mare looks up at me with a smile on her face.

"Thank ya, kind sir… I couldn't imagine what would happen to my little bundle of joy."

She said as she gently wraps the red plaited scarf around her neck, forming it into a nice little bow as she looks up at her mother smiling before looking over at me. I smile at the filly as she uses her hoof to wave at me before hearing say.

"Thank ye."

She said, causing both her mother a few ponies to surround them both. Something told me that those are her first words, and once they heard her repeating herself, everypony around both her and the mother gasp happily. I smile before standing up on my own two feet, Barb gently leaning against my shoulder looking at me with those 'see, what did I tell you' eyes. I look back at her as I smile, after all the wholesomeness that has happened we both walk towards the orange mare as we explain ourselves on why we are here in the first place.

"Uhh.. I personally would like to apologise for any disturbance that I might have caused at your place of work. My name is Zach, this is my assistant Barb, we both were sent by the princess to check up on your part of the preparations for the upcoming Summer Sun Celebration."

I said Barb standing next to me as she waves at the orange mare in front of us. She continues to stare at us, still feeling a bit uneasy about us standing and disturbing her work environment. And before she could say anything, she notices my vest full of pins one standing out over the others and that was the sun sun pin as she trots towards the both of us, her expression changing from serious to a complete three sixty as she springs up into a joyful expression.

"Well shoot! Why did ya say so!?!"

She said with a bright smile on her face, before I can take a sigh of relief I feel the mare grabbing my hand with her hoof as she holds onto it with a strong grip before violently shaking my arm. I shake a bit as Barb sees this all going down before giggling on how humorous this is, yeah very funny Barb you try having you whole fucken arm violently shaken seeing how you like it. Anyway after almost breaking my, which is sad seeing as I'm not even thin enough to be considered being starved to death the orange mare let go of my hand before introducing hers.

"Where are my manners mah names’ Applejack, next in line to be the proud owner of this here farm. Allow me to give you a grant tour of our proud family farm."

"Oh, that won't be necessary we're just here to-."

"Oh come on! It's the least I can do for doing something this heroic."

She said using her head to point towards the mother and filly, I smile sheepishly as I gently scratch the back of my head feeling a bit embarrassed over being labeled as 'hero' over something anyone could do. Before I can answer Applejack and her offer to give both Barb and I a tour of the apple family farm somepony from the huge crowd yells out.

"How about he stays for supper!?!"

Once everypony heard that idea they all nod and agree that both Barb and I are staying for 'supper' or dinner in simpler terms. Man is it hard to understand Southerners, I sigh as I just accept their invitation Applejack taking my hand dragging me with her. Unfortunately Barb wasn't going to join us as I look over seeing her getting dragged by a few mares taking her away from me, I see her looking back at me wondering what I was going to do. I just mouth at her 'I don't know' as she was dragged away, now alone with the orange mare she began the tour with an apple tree, not just one apple tree however as behind the tree that one tree was thousands soon thousands of other apple trees. I know I've seen the orchard on our way here but that was just a few trees’ this is the real deal as Applejack explains.

"Here's where it all begins, each tree is taken care of by every member of the apple family. Once, picking season begins we start bucking each and every tree until we get each and every apple."

"What if there's a bruised apple?"

"We dig it into the soil as compost."

"What if there's worms in one of the apples?"

"We just leave it alone."

She says rapidly answering every question I asked her, seeing that bright smile on her face before she one again drags me by the hand as she leads me towards another barn apart from the one we just came from. Walking up to it I pool full of apples, which is connected to a huge wheel that takes the now pre soaked apples, the wheel takes them for a small ride up then down to a second pool on the other side, it's like a ferris wheel for apples as the orange mare explains.

"See this here contraption, this nitty machine right here helps us clean each apple that has been picked by our buckers so that way we have more ponies working out in the field. We only have one pony workin' here and whoever is workin' then takes the washed apples to either our juice compressor or a separate basket for either delivery or in this case our upcoming-"

Applejack is then interrupted by somepony screaming in the barn as both her and I turn our heads, seeing bunches of apples falling to the ground before seeing a yellow mare falling to the floor hearing her groan in pain as her red mane is now soaked. I look at Applejack seeing her looking furious as she yells out.

"Apple Bloom! What did I say about improvising the cleaning system!?!"

She yells, the yellow mare looking up and both her and me standing next to her. Staring at me with her orange colored eyes as she stands up on her all fours her bow drooping down barely staying in her mane as she stays quiet. Something tells me that she must be shy around others, or in this case a completely different species like myself, stating the obvious like an idiot as Applejack yells at her again.

"Well? What do you have to say for yourself?"

She said looking at her as she just stays quiet, cross my arms as I too stood quiet not wanting to get on her bad side after just meeting her not too long ago. Before Applejack could scream at her again, I walk up the yellow mare she appears to be the same age as Applejack judging by her height as I get on one knee. Carefully and gently I pull her bow out of her mane, helping on drying her mane as I gently twist her locks without hurting her scalp. Getting as dry as possible I let it go before gently helping her tie the bow back in her mane, smiling as I did all that. It didn't look nice but at least it wasn't all droopy, throughout me doing all that neither her nor Applejack say anything as I finish fixing her mane before saying.

"It's nice to meet you Apple Bloom…"

I said as I extend my hand out to her, she stares at it with confusion wondering what she should do before looking back up at me as I give her a friendly smile.

"...my name is Zachary."

I said introducing myself to Apple Bloom, she however didn't feel comfortable talking with me as she trots away from me and out of the barn. Applejack, tries to stop her from leaving the barn, but she slips away from her grip and trots out of the barn. I see her trotting away into a nearby house, slamming the door behind her as it can be heard from where both Applejack and I are. Applejack looking at me as I have the facial expression of being hurt, kind of believing that I might have scared her or something of that extent. However the orange mare reasures me that wasn't the case as she explains, in a rather mysterious format.

"I apologise, she's been a bit… sad lately, I don't understand myself."

She said sniffing a bit before using her hoof to wipe her nose a bit. I look down at Applejack as she too looks a bit distraught about her younger sister being a bit depressed or something around that line. But I can't help but wonder why she is that way in the first place? I guess you can say some kind of dad instinct turned itself on in my consciousness, and now I have to figure out why she is looking so sad. But first I make sure that there's no hard feels between me and what happened earlier, my arm wrapping around Applejack's back pulling her closer as I smile down at her.

"It's okay, I guess we'll just have to find out one way or another."

"Yeah… I guess we do."

She said smiling up at me as she leans up gently nuzzling my cheek with her snoot, this caught me off guard as it wasn't really a surprise because I remembered back at the castle I used to get this kind of affection from the princess. But it's kind of odd for somepony like herself to do this to someone who she just met, however I don't say anything and just allow it. Not for the affectionate, but because for some reason these ponies have such soft coats that I have to feel them against my cheeks. God it's so soft, I can cuddle with one of them and just take a big old nap. Anyway, Applejack stands back up on all four hooves after giving me enough nuzzles as I stand back up myself, dusting off all the dirt off my pants before hearing her say.

"Come on, let's get ya ready for supper… sugar cube."

Prologue

Author's Note

Hello!
I would like to say thank for taking the time out of your day to read my story.
Before you read, I would like to point out that I am not in any way trying to poke fun of school shootings, especially with certain events that have happened through out these last few months. But I haven't really seen anyone who has made a HIE story where said human is teleported to Equestria after being one of the many victims of a mass school shooting. So I would like to point out that if you're very sensitive to these kinds of topics, please don't read any further.
Other than that if so happen to come upon a spelling error or something doesn't really make sense to you, please let me know in the comments. With that being said, enjoy the Prologue of 'A Simple Soul'.

Prologue

"It started in 1914, after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand,"

Hearing the sound of my history teacher explaining what happened years ago as I sat in front of the class, resting my head on my left hand while I was listening to his lecture, watching as he used his pointer to show us pictures of old-timey people. During the time were males were still fighting in the war and the woman would actually stay at home moms (literally not trying to be sexist or anything). While he went on and on about how the French basically said 'fuck you I ain't going to die for your sorry asses', I was staring up at the board, watching as he changes picture after picture from the nineteen hundreds. Meanwhile, on my desk, I would have a pencil in hand drawing down on my notepad as I would multitask between both listening to the lecture and drawing on my notepad as I pushed my glasses up to my face. I signed as I was completely bored with the whole class, I already had an A in this class so what do I need to worry about? I would tap my foot against the carpet, it was at this point that I had completely zoned out the teacher's lecture and now focused on my drawing, I had drawn a perfect circle as most artists start off with, staring at the circle I would picture what I wanted to draw out seeing all the scenarios I can go off of. Placing the tip of my pencil on the edge of the circle going down, soft sketching what I wanted to draw down, moving my long red hair off my face.

Even though I had my hood on that came with my striped hoodie, my hair was still in the way. Now I know I could simply just cut it, but I just prefer it to keep it long, even though it was extremely damaged from not being able to take care of properly considering that I shower every day, thinking that the red hair dye would work. But unfortunately, it didn't as it made it look worse the only reason I painted it red for two reasons, one obviously because of how damaged it looked but the second reason was that my hair was originally blonde and I hated how it looked. In about thirty to thirty-five minutes I managed to finish my drawing, it turned out pretty cool. After erasing the circle from behind, I drew a huge star with a smaller star in the middle and it hit me.

"What if...?"
I mumbled under my breath as I would flip it pencil to the other side now the pink eraser being shown as I started to erase some parts of the star replacing them with a bit more detail drawing down two different half of a bird. Smiling as I would slowly start to finish it wishing I had my colored pencils to color it in. Finally, after another ten or so minutes, I had completely finished my drawing. And just in time too, the sound of a loud beep can be heard which was a reminder that this period was over and the next would start in ten minutes.

Moving quickly I started to pack my stuff into my bag, zipping it up as I would get up and off my desk waiting for the rest of the students to leave, as I looked up seeing the history teacher sitting down on his desk getting ready to start his own work. I had gotten a letter not too long ago from him saying that I was eligible for financial opportunities in hopes of getting into the college of my dreams, and I wanted to have a personal talk with him so we can arrange what I can do to get into my preferred college as I walked up to his desk waiting to see if he would notice me as I slipped off my hood. My hair now resting on my shoulders as it would now covering a part of my face, giving him my biggest smile, I spoke.

"Mr. McCarthy,"
I spoke as he would look at his computer monitor, noticing me with my dry damaged hair, glasses on my face and a big smile as I saw he had a very confused look on his face as he leaned back in his chair, giving me that face that I might not look familiar to him. My smile slowly disappearing as I would speak again.

"M-my name is Zachary,"
I said as he would look at me again completely confused about who I was as I would look at him now a bit annoyed, explaining.

"Zachery Sanchez ...I'm in your history class that just ended?"
I explained to the confused history teacher as he would now give the expression of now knowing who I was as he finally spoke.

"Oh that's who you are, I didn't recognize you due to the fact that you weren't paying attention and you had your hood on."
He said in a very exaggerated tone as I just chuckle in response, both out of being nervous over what he was going to lecture about me not paying attention in class and out of being amused at how well he played being confused. After I chuckled I would look back up at him as Mr. McCarthy spoke once again.

"Well Mr. Sanchez, how can I help you?"
He said rolling his chair away from the monitor and his desk as he was in the middle of his classroom leaning his elbows against his knees as he looked up at me smiling. Walking up to him as I stood in front of the history teacher, smiling as I once again spoke.

"My mom got a letter from you not too long ago saying that I was eligible for financial opportunities which can help me pay for my college tuition, "
I said smiling as I got on one knee putting my backpack down as I unzipped my backpack looking through many stuffed papers. Trying to look for a brochure of the college I was planning on attending as I smile pulling it out as I stood up once again showing it to him as Mr. McCarthy looked at the front cover which read Meadows Ridge School of Fine Arts . I smiled at him as I would shake it a bit wanting him to take a real good look at it as he would look back up at me before taking off his glasses. My smile soon went away, knowing exactly what that meant pulling the brochure away from his sight as I waited for his response. Ultimately after a long moment of silence, he spoke up.

"Listen, Zack, "
He started, and usually when teachers, professors or anyone school-related adult starts a conversation with 'Listen' followed with your name you knew something bad was coming up as I looked at him listening to what he had to say as he continued, looking at me.

"You do know that this isn't a real college right?"
He said as I looked at him confused at what he said, looking back down at the brochure, seeing it said 'school of the fine arts' written in old letters as I looked back up at him.

"It seems like a real college to me, I mean what's wrong with this school?"

"Zack that's not what I'm trying to say, "
He said as he took his glasses off placing his thumb and pointer finger towards his nose softly apply pressure on the dorsum of his nose sighing before putting his glasses back on as he looked back up at me.

"Listen all I'm trying to say is that maybe it's best that if you find a college that tests your...academic side, schools like these baby you for messing up and that's not what happens in the real world."

"Isn't that a good thing, I mean sure the real world won't baby me if I mess up but at least they'll know that I tried right?"
I said as I looked at him, seeing if he understood what I was trying to say as he just looked at me with a very serious look. That look you get when you know you said something so stupid that it can't be put into words. Well, soon enough Mr. McCarthy soon rolled his chair back and behind his desk as he would look back towards his monitor signifying that our conversation was over as I would look at him, not sure what I could say next but a simple.

"I'm sorry...I just-"

"Zachary ...just leave, you clearly don't get what I'm trying to tell you, and frankly I think I picked the wrong student to help prepare for college."
He said as I looked at him, at this point I was at a loss for words. What I just heard from him was like hearing it from some random kid in the hallway after being pushed to the ground and spat on in the face. I stood there as I held the brochure in my hand, looking at Mr. McCarthy working on his computer. After about a minute of hearing the clicks that the keyboard made when he would push them with his fingers, Mr. McCarthy would sigh as he looked away from his monitor and back to me, and what he said next complete killed my confidence as he stared at me dead in the eyes.

"If you want my honest opinion ...I think you should just forget about applying to any college. Seeing that you have the mind of a complete idiot if you think that anyone in the real world will even care about your feelings. And if you think you'll get far in those kinds of schools ...maybe it's best if you stick behind a drive-through window."
After he said that, my heart sank, it was at that point I was in tears as I crumpled up the brochure in my hand. I then grabbed my bag from the floor behind me swung it over my shoulder as I walked away from his desk throwing the brochure into the trash before I walked out of class. Walking down the hallway, walking up to a garbage can taking my bag off, placed it on the floor. Swinging the flap open as I pulled out a blue portfolio that had my name on it. I then opened it to reveal an applicant to the art academy that had all the boxes filled it with the following information. All of my hopes and dreams were in this application, and after being told that I was better off at a minimum wage job made me tear the application up, throwing it into the trash as I cried in silence. Tears falling down my face as closed my eyes looking down as the hallway was completely empty the warning bell rang.

Wiping the tears off my face as I grabbed my bag now feeling a bit lighter I would push both my arms underneath the straps of the bag as I stared at the trash can for one more moment before walking away. All I could think about while walking towards my next class was what Mr. McCarthy told me, everything he told me was now imprinted into my mind forever with no way to remove it. My train of thought was lost as I heard the announcements being stated. Stuff like what was going to be served for lunch and all the extracurricular activities that are going to be held after school. You know everything that's expected to say from the announcements. However, while I was hearing the principal talking over the speakers which echoed through the halls. Before I can even take another step I heard the sound of a gunshot echo down the hall, turning around only to be met with nothing. I was now I'm complete panic mode as I began to run down the hall turning to the left. Suddenly bumping into someone as I fell to the floor, shaking my head after being thrown to the floor I looked up to see who it was as I saw it was the janitor with his bucket and mop smiling at me as he would chuckle.

"Whoa, you're running late or something?"
He told me as he leaned into onto his mop as I stood back up, trying to tell him that I had heard a gunshot not too long ago. But it was hard considering I was in shock, I couldn't speak at all, only to hear another gunshot being fired. Now the janitor knew what was wrong as he throws his mop grabbing me by the arm as he dragged me down the hall and towards the janitor's closet grabbing his millions of keys from his chain, the janitor would go through so many keys trying to find the right one as I would look behind us seeing if anyone was coming around the corner, sure enough, I could see a silhouette of someone walking up towards where they were as I looked back at the janitor seeing that he hasn't found the keys yet.

At this point I didn't know what to do, should I stay and wait until the janitor finally found his key to open the closet or should I bail and leave the janitor to die? In either of these scenarios, I was doomed to die either from the janitor not finding the keys fast enough and the shooter finds the both of us our demise surely confirmed or leave him behind but later running into the shooter ultimately getting shot. And who's to say there's only one shooter? Before I could use up my mind I heard another round of shots being fired from the direction we came from. But as soon as I could see who the shooter as I was quickly pulled into the janitor's closet, seeing said janitor close the door behind us and locking it once again. Moving quickly I scooted away, as I stuck towards the wall moving away from the line of sight or the window that was on the door. I started to hyperventilate from everything that was happening at the same time trying my best to calm myself down. Slowly breathing in and out as I looked over seeing the janitor leaning against the door to make sure he barricaded the door by using his body, hoping that the shooter would just take off from the scene. Slowly seconds turned into minutes, the janitor not hearing any shots, the worryingly looked at me, looked at me seeing I was in the corner of the room hugging my legs as I patiently waited for the coast to be clear.

"Psst, Zack…"
I heard the janitor calling my name as I looked up seeing him still barricading the door as he would look up at the doorknob, I soon got the gist of what he wanted to do as I immediately started to shake my head. Completely ignoring my silent response, the janitor would slowly start to stand up as keeping himself away from the view of the window. Once standing up he would slowly move his hand towards the doorknob as he would slowly, not trying to make a sound as he gently twisted the doorknob as it would unlock automatically carefully opening the door as the light from the hallway came into the room as he looked both sides of the hallway seeing if the coast was clear. Then out of nowhere, I saw him get shot in the heart as I covered my mouth so not a single sound can come out. As blood slowly drooled out from the chest of his jump suit he turned to me with his final words being.

"...Run.."
Before falling to the floor limp as my eyes widen, soon looking up as i saw the silhouette of someone standing in front of the door as I looked up seeing not being able to see his face as the male figure was dressed in all black with a face mask covering solely his mouth as he walks to close to me, I now started to panic mentally. At this point, there was nowhere to go from here as I met with my demise as the masked figure was now standing in front of me looking at me dead in the eyes as he aimed his gun at me, my eyes full of tears and fear as I slowly closed my eyes with the final sound I heard was….

(Meanwhile)

"Rainbow Dash, you need to keep up."

Fluttershy said as she flew through the Everfree Forest, trying to find her lost bunny Angel. Stopping, she looks around seeing if she can spot the poor bunny anywhere. She was the worrying type, she always felt uneasy whenever she's forced into the Everfree Forest but if that meant there was a possibility of finding her pet bunny she'll take that risk of maybe being mauled by some beast in there. While she flew through every three she passed by she would look inside each of them seeing if she could maybe spot Angel hiding in one of those trees. Rainbow Dash on the other hoof wasn't having any of it today as she groans in boredom.

"Fluttershy come on, the Wonderbolt air show is about to start and I don't want to miss it."
She exclaimed as she would fly behind the yellow pegasus. Fluttershy looked frantically through each tree now, hoping she would at least get some hints that her bunny was close by. But unfortunately she couldn't find anything as she sighed looking down, sad that she couldn't find her beloved bunny anywhere. Rainbow Dash saw her incredibly sad as she tried to comfort her by gently wrapping her hooves around her hugging the poor Pegasus as she looked at her.
"Look, Angel will pop up soon, I guarantee you that he won't leave you hanging."
She said smiling at her as Fluttershy gave her a smile back, while still floating hugging each other one more time before Fluttershy saying.

"How about we go see your air show now?"
She asked looking at the other pegasus, Rainbow Dash smiling from ear to ear as she took Fluttershy's hoof dragging her out of the Everfree forest while still in the air as she spoke.

"Hurry if we leave now we can still-"
Suddenly she was cut off from something really heavy falling down from a tree right in front of both of them as Fluttershy yelped, quickly hiding behind Rainbow Dash as she looked away covering herself with her wings as she hoped it wasn't something life-threatening. Then again this was the Everfree forest after all, but still. As Rainbow Dash slowly peeked through her wings she saw something lying on the floor, seeing it gently breathe as she could see strips on it, she then moved her wings away from her face as she moved closer to it. Only to be stopped once she heard Fluttershy speak.

"Wait...don't.."

Rainbow looked back at her seeing she was completely terrified over what it was. Turning back to the figure on the floor she also noticed that its lower half was a completely different color seeing it was black from its waist down before going back to slowly moving towards it. Now in front of it, she would try and see if she could maybe look at its face seeing it was covered by its stripes. Dash would then move both her wings towards the figure getting a grip on its stripes before quickly moving it on it's back as she gasped. Fluttershy behind her would move up close to the blue pegasus as she looked down, also gasping in shock. Both pegasi saw that the creature had what looked to be a red-colored, mane, on what looks to be it's face had a bruise on its eye

"What are we going to do with it?"
Fluttershy said as she looked at Rainbow Dash before walking around it, seeing it was completely still as she looked up at Fluttershy before exclaiming.

"I'll carry its lower half, you carry its upper half. Quickly!"

Chapter 7: Zach is faced with an abomination of marriage.

"Arcsin, you can't be asking me for money, I divorced you remember?"

I heard Raven speak as I leaned against the wall, listening into both her and her ex husband who I presume to be the stallion known as Arcsin. When we were talking about her life and how she had a divorced husband, Arcsin she never mentioned how they got divorced which caught me off guard when I heard her ex being in there with him as I listened in. Hearing Arsin repeating that he needed a bit more money and he had no one else to turn to, then he pulled the most overused line that most girls, even some guys would use to gain sympathy from their ex's.

"You know, I remember a mare who would do anything to help her love one out."

After hearing this I balled my hands into a fist, I hated when guys or girl used that line just to get what they want. Especially since they know that the other wanted nothing to do with him or her, luckily I wasn't the only one who was pissed as I heard the wall being hit with something followed up with hearing Raven yell out of shure anger.

"I used to love you! I used to want to help you out! It's not my fault that you wanted to this smuggling bullshit!"

As I heard her yell, I could tell that she was about to start breaking down in tears judging by how her voice starting to sound like a mix of both anger and sadness. I could tell she really did love this stallion, and when she found out about his secret side job she knew she had made the wrong discussion. How do I know it's a side job? Well the word smuggling is something I've learned over the years of having two parents with a drug and alcohol addiction. Although the smuggling was mostly with their drugs, I know I'm not supposed to know these kinds of things but when you have two parents that are always doing said activity, that can't be erased from your memory. I would lean my ear against the wall as I continued to hear Raven yell in the most angry yet passionate voice I've ever heard from a woman.

"I married you because I thought I was marrying a happy and worry free mail stallion, but after finding out what you did on the side I knew I was in for a load of trouble. I left you because I knew if somepony found out that my husband, somepony who I thought was such a happy colt it would tarnish my chances in getting out of the kitchen and into an office working for the princess. I didn't want to but you-."

"Of course, of course you always think about yourself. You never think about me, or even what we had."

"Because you pushed me into no longer caring about what we had!"

"You don't talk to me that way!"

He yelled back at her as I then heard a loud slap followed by a thud on the floor. I covered my mouth, to prevent making any voice. I knew what those two sounds meant, and my assumptions were confirmed when I would hear the soft sobs of Raven on the floor as Arsin groans in annoyance.

"And here comes the tears, God you're so fucken petty."

"Get out of here Arcsin!"

"Not until you-!"

Arcsin was interrupted when he heard a knock on the office door, as I was the one doing the knocking. Hoping that I could do something before he could hurt her, I had no plan as to how I was going to do it but I knew if didn't do anything I couldn't live with myself if anything bad happened to Raven. Sure I've only met her not to long ago, but from the few minutes of talking to her appearing to be really innocent and sweet. If hurts me when it comes to males abusing women because they have the right to, I wait to see what happens as I hoped Raven would answer the door. Rubbing my hands together as I could hear quiet whispers as I then heard the door knob unlocking and moving around, the door opening. My reassurance came true as Raven opened the door, just slightly having mascara tears falling down her cheeks the bun on her hair barely staying up while not having her glasses as she looked up at me. With a fake and frightened smile Raven would act as if I didn't know what I was doing here as she asked me.

"H-hey Zach, w-what brings you to my office?"

Raven said smiling at me as she would stare at me with those eyes of 'he's holding a knife towards my neck, please help me', I looked at her, at first I ignored the question as I inspected her seeing her shadow not looking right as I notice somepony else was standing next to her. So to ensure she wasn't going to get hurt I would play along as I answered her question.

"You know, I just wanted to have a chit chat- is everything okay in there?"

"Everything is fine sweetie, just ya know I just read a really old letter from an old friend, but no everything is fine."

"You sure? Should I uhh come back...LATER!"

I said as I would use my leg to kick open the door, managing to pin the stallion against the wall just enough for me to tackle the mare and launch the both of us over her desk before hearing what appeared to be the blade being thrown behind me as it stuck to the wall. While behind the desk I would hold Raven in my arms for a moment as I felt her quivering. I knew she was scared, I mean who wouldn't be she was suffering with an ex threatening her with a knife in order to get what he wanted. Not only that but he also lashed out and physically abused the mare, looking down at her I could see the scar on the corner of her forehead, judging how it hasn't built a shell of blood over it as it looked pretty fresh. Meaning she must have it the corner of her desk, which could have caused some serious damage or I could have caused it from simply trying to dodge the blade from stabbing any of us. Carefully I push Raven underneath her desk as she would sit on her flanks, looking at me with concern before I ordered her.

"Listen, keep yourself cover underneath the desk and don't pop out for anything, got it."

I said as I would look at her, she didn't know me well but she could tell when someone's voice sounds like it was about to become a life or death situation. She nodded as he would scoot back more, holding her tail as she didn't want it to pop out from the front of the desk as I took a deep breath. Moving quickly I stood up and jumped over the desk, Arsin already having his blade swung his hooves from side to side in order to hit me. Dodging each swing, after about the fifth swing I managed to grab his hoof, twisting it as I threw a punch towards his muzzle as I heard a grunt. Before he could look back up I threw some more punches as I jabbed at his torso as he stood on his two back hooves. Finally pushing him against the wall as I took a step back, my fists up getting ready for more as I looked at him. Seeing him look back at me, questioning who the hell I was I he would use his fore hoof to swipe his nose realizing he was bleeding. Looking back at me, now having the face that he was ready to cause some serious damage. Not being fast enough he charged at me at me with his blade as he once again swung his blade in every which direction. He tried his best to cut me out of rage. And while I tried my best to dodge each and every swing, he managed to land a swing, creating an angular cut on my right eye. Grunting as I fell to the floor, ending the fight with a scar on my eye. While holding my face I would hear Arsin taunting me.

"Yeah tough guy, you want to keep going huh?!? Huh?!? You want to keep go….ing."

He said as he would stop his taunting for some reason as I looked over at him. Now seeing his facial expression was scared and would look at me. I looked at him as he would take a step back, and before I could say anything he yelped running out over me and out of the office. Hearing his hooves hitting against the floor as I looked over making sure he left the office. Thinking to myself, 'Well that was easy', as I stood up and off the floor, placing my hand over my right eye as I tried to stop the blood flow to the best of my ability.

"I-is he gone?"

I heard Raven asking as I turned around seeing her come out of the spot where I told her to keep out while I took care of Arcsin, chuckling a bit.

"Honestly, I have no idea how I did it but yeah he's gone."

He said as I chuckled a bit, was it insensitive of me to do so, yeah but if I've learned anything coming from really shitty parents. Is that you always approach the most serious things with a smile in order to process things a bit better, that why someone else could give a smile back even if you have a cute across your eye that could possibly make you go blind in one eye. Raven on the other hand couldn't see it that way as she saw me covering my eye, approaching me as she would stand on her hind hooves, keeping her front hooves against my belly as she used one hoof to move my hand away from my face as she gasped.

"Oh my gosh…"

She said as he covered her mouth with one hoof, although I tried to laugh it off as I smile the whole way through. Raven looked at me and wondered why I was smiling and laughing over something this serious as she asked me.

"How can you be laughing, you have a scar across your eye?"

"Yeah...but like, did you see how quick that was and how he just ran away without me having to do anything?"

I said as I laughed it off, Raven couldn't see why I was laughing as she would grab my hand pulling me inside her office. Sitting me down as she would wait at the door frame of her office, seeing if she could spot a royal guard pass by to see if they could get some medical help. While I had a smile on my face, my hand over my eye as I did think about it. Which was, why did Arsin run out of the office like that? Even after what he did, and how he paused mid taunt why did he run out like that?

Arsin ran out of the royal castle, not looking back for a moment as he was panting hard, running harder. Crossing the bridge and managing to head into town before ending his trail in an alleyway as he tried to hide from whatever he was running away from as he peeked out of the alleyway where he was hiding. Trying to find the spot whatever was following him as he saw no pony before sighing as he would keep himself hiding in the alleyway. Arsin breathes heavily as he wiped the sweat off his face with both of his hooves sighing, as he leaned back against the wall taking a breath finally getting rid of whatever he was running from. Until he would hear a very demonic and malicious voice coming from beside him.

"Why did you run ...if the fun has just begun."

Arsin stood still after he heard this maniacal voice, his eyes shot wide open. Slowly he looked toward the right before being snatched deeper into the alley, thrown against the floor grunting hard once his body was hit against the contreet as he would look up. Staring at whatever was attacking him as he crawled back, panting hard and terrified at what was about to overcome as the shadow of someone raising what appeared to be an axe in the air as Arsin's pupils would shrink before the axe would drop. A loud scream can be heard as it echoed out of the alleyway only for no pony to hear it as there was too much noise over the busy streets of Canterlot.

"Here baby, hold still."

The nurse mare said as she would gently press her hooves against my lap. While I sat on a chair the mare would gently try and patch the scar on my eye, wiping it gently with an alcohol wipe, her horn glowing an amber rose color aura as she used her magic to levitate an alcohol wipe up towards the scar that was on my right eye. While she was cleaning it up, her hooves gently pressing harder against my lap as I looked over seeing Raven talking to two royal guards about what happened between her ex husband and me. One of them looking over at me, seeing me getting my scar being cleaned off as the guard gave me a gentle smile overhearing how I defended her as I smiled back. The nurse then used her magic to pull out two bandages from her first aid kit, unwrapping both out of the wrapper as she would place them over each scar. After covering each scar, she would smile at me as she would lean up and gently kissed each scar as a form of 'fast healing' as she explained after patching me up. I smile, chuckling gently as I would look at the nurse before returning the kiss back on her cheek as a form of thank you. Getting a small yelp, from the mare followed by a blush and a cute giggle before taking her hooves off my lap.

"Thanks again Nurse."

"Hehe, no problem sweetheart. Let me know when you need something else patched up, maybe I'll give you a 'physical' next time."

She said in a very flirtatious tone as she giggled very seductively as I smiled at her. You may be wondering 'just fuck her already, I mean you banged that nurse back at the hospital, why not her?' hey I have class, sure it may seem like I play some guy who can take any mare I please. But I have feelings too you know, look, I never got this kind of attention from anyone so I'm not sure how to act when it comes to getting flirted on by some girl. That nurse in the hospital? Yeah she practically did all the work, so you can imagine my virgin ass just sitting there while she rode me to town. But I'll leave that kind of imagination to the perverts who want to picture that, which is to say everyone if I'll be honest. As the nurse left, I leaned back into the chair as I winced a bit. The band-aid moving a bit against the scar as the alcohol from the wipes was still fresh as I sighed. Ya know, now that I think about it, what did that guy get scared of when he left the room like that? I mean I couldn't have caused so much damage towards the stallion, hell my body type isn't even that muscular if I'll be honest. So what the hell made him run? As I thought about it for a moment, I heard the sound of hooves walking into the office as I sat up. Seeing both guards and Raven trotting into the office as one of the guards trotted up to me saying.

"It takes some serious balls to fight an Earth pony like him. Especially since an Earth pony has the strength of about five of you humans…"

He said as he looked at me, getting ready with a life lesson in why I shouldn't be getting into business that has nothing to do with me. I sighed in disappointment as I spread my legs, my elbows on my knees as I placed my head in between my hands. Getting ready to hear he has already heard from both his father and his mother, but instead of hearing the 'sometimes you gotta let others handle their own shit', I felt the soft bump of a muzzle against my head as I looked up seeing the stallion up close, having a smile on his face as he continues.

"...but knowing your kind, you have the balls to do anything. And for that you have our respect."

"And mine."

Raven said as she placed her hooves on my shoulder, her muzzle touching my cheek as she gave me a champions kiss. I smiled and chuckled a bit, blushing hard over the admiration between the guard and the princess's secretary.

"Oh come on...it's just my natural instinct to care about someone else, even if I don't know them very well."

"Well, enough of the chit chat. It's already nine in the morning and you have got a breakfast planned with the princess herself."

She said as she would move both of her hooves towards my hand, helping me up and off the chair as I stood up. Letting go she got back on all fours as she walked me out of the office and towards the hall. Both guards staying there to inspect the damage and how it all went down for some reason. While Raven walked me towards the dinner hall, the mare looking up at me occasionally. Giving me that bright smile as her glasses would sit on the bridge of her muzzle, I looked down when I noticed her smiling up at me. I gave a smile back as I gently bumped into her playfully, she jolted and giggled as she would bump her hips back against me. Chuckling back as we walked down the halls, reaching the dining hall, behind the huge doors both Raven and I could slightly hear the princess discussing with her bulters. Talking about how her guest is utmost important to her and that what is important to her is important to the butlers and chefs. I listened in to what she was saying as I would look back at Raven, she giggled over how the princess was acting as she looked back up at me. Sitting on her flanks as she would say.

"Yeah, I've never seen the princess act this way with anypony."

"I must be that special huh?"

I said chuckling over how much of a perfectionist the princess must be, Raven giggling along with me as we both looked at eachother. She would smile up at me as I smiled back, getting on one knee so I could be at eye level with her before she asked.

"I hope you enjoyed your time in Canterlot Castle ...I know I've enjoyed being your guide."

"Oh trust me.."

I said chuckling as I pointed to the banged underneath and above my right eye.

"..if it means having these battles scars as a memento. I would love to come back for a second tour…..if that means I get you as a tour guide again."

I said smiling as I looked back at her, Raven cheeks turned a bright red to contrast with her white fur giggling over being flattered to be my guide and how embarrassed she was that her mane wasn't fixed from the hassle she had with her ex back in her office. Raven trotted closer as she would stand on her hind legs wrapping her hooves around my neck as I would lean into the hug, wrapping my arms around her torso as I hugged her back. Enjoying the sweet hug we exchanged between each other as I heard her gently sighing happily while in the hug. But soon Raven pulled back as she stood back on all four of her hooves, I did the same as I stood back up all my two feet before she would graciously open the two huge doors. Allowing me to see the inside of the dining hall, Raven had to leave back to her office in order to get the room fixed so she could continue her work. Which left me alone with the princess, finally after being asleep for over two weeks, recovering for one, traveled from Ponyville to Canterlot in two hours and being dressed by the princess's stylist it was finally time to have the infamous brunch with Princess Celestia. I took a deep breath in and exhaled out slowly taking in the scenery of the dinning hall as I walked in, saying to myself.

"What could possibly go wrong?"