The quiet walk with Celestia to my room gave me time to clear my head and admire some of the decor. I wasn’t familiar with architecture, but the design of the Palace definitely had a medieval- or maybe it was feudal?- feel to it. The stones on some of the walls had horse paraphernalia on them, and every so often I’d find a suit of armor sized for a pony displayed down some of the corridors. It was interesting to think that even architecture was somewhat similar to back home. You’d think that some of these buildings and objects would be designed with pony biology in mind, but no. Things like doors still had door knobs instead of something like a latch or those rectangular door handles that they could pull, and don’t even get me started on their kitchens. Literally just miniature, old style kitchens from back home. No idea what the thought process was there.

Celestia led me through quite a number of hallways, passed through a courtyard, and up a flight of stairs in the next wing over before finally stopping at a corridor with two rooms. She looked over at one of the doors and spoke.

“This will be your room for as long as you remain in Canterlot. Apologies for it being so far out of the way; it was one of the only rooms that could accommodate a creature of your height.”

I shook my head. “It’s fine. I appreciate the hospitality.”

She turned back to me and nodded. “Should you have any qualms with accommodations, speak to Twilight so that she may inform the guard. She’ll be using the room across from yours.” Her gaze shifted to the right-sided door, as did mine upon the gesture.

“I won’t.” I wasn’t expecting to have any accommodations at all, so I should be grateful for whatever she’s willing to give. I suppose I also shouldn’t be surprised that the only reason she’s giving me accommodations in the first place is to keep me close to Twilight.

“If that’s the case, then I shall leave you to get some rest. There is another trial of sorts that I’d like to see how you fare against, but that can wait until tomorrow. It will be under my supervision, of course.”

Yeah, definitely doesn’t trust me. Can’t say I blame her. “Very well…? What exactly is this task?”

“You’ll see.” Celestia gave me this coy grin that crept all the way across her face.

“...Right.” Oh yeah, she’s like Liz, alright. Bad cryptic habits and all. And if I know Liz as well as I think, either Celestia’s gonna murder me tomorrow or it’ll be something completely off-the-wall. Maybe even both if she’s feeling particularly adventurous.

“Do try to get some actual rest. My sister tells me you have trouble sleeping at night.” Those were her parting words before she turned around and started walking back from where we came. I didn’t even get the chance to respond to the sentiment- or maybe I should say order? That’s certainly what it felt like.

It’s been a little while since I’ve had these sorts of thoughts, but I find it very… unfortunate that my life turned out the way it did. Had I been brought here even just a few years prior, I have a feeling I would have gotten along pretty well with Celestia and Twilight. This, of course, is excluding the myriad of other events I’d rather not go into detail about. ~~Perhaps I should~~ No. It’s best not to dwell on this sentiment. It will only lead to pain if I do. And if, for whatever reason, my memories suddenly happen to be wiped, those are the sort of things I’d like to stay forgotten.

I went to the door to my room and reached for the doorknob, only to be distracted by the sound of creaking hinges behind me.

“Oh, Franco!” I heard Twilight’s voice as she trotted up behind me.

I swear to Christ, this day is never going to end. If these ponies are trying to wear me down to the bone so that I actually get some sleep later, it’s fucking working.

“Twilight,” I acknowledged, turning around to face her.

“So, how did it go? Is this your score?” She eagerly stared at the page in my hand.

“Hm? Oh, here.” I extended my arm for her to take the page. It was a gesture that, looking back, was probably unnecessary considering she just ended up levitating it out of my hand in front of her.

Twilight gazed at the singular page. Her eyes settled at the top of it and did a double take. She glanced up at me, then back down on it, flipped it over- for some reason? The back of the page was blank- then back around. Finally, she shifted it out of her field of vision and stared at me. The staring continued for an uncomfortable amount of time before she spoke.

“Wow. I knew you were intelligent, but…” The page filled her vision again. “This score is… You scored higher than I did.”

“Oh?” I’m... kinda surprised to hear that, actually. Figured my score would have been close to hers at least, but she’s making it sound like I scored substantially higher than her.

“I scored a 416 when I took mine last year, and I studied relentlessly for it.”

Hm. It almost sounds like she’s… Jealous? There’s no way I’m reading into that right. “I did spend a straight week in your library reading. I believe that would be the equivalent.”

The page levitated back into my hand, revealing her now-frowning face. “Princess Celestia was right. You really do sell yourself short. This score is one of the highest our nation has ever seen. Aren’t you at least somewhat excited about it?”

I hadn’t really put much thought into the score, it was kind of difficult at the time due to… certain circumstances. Now that I could actually focus on it, my thoughts drifted more towards my world’s equivalent: the IQ test. Much unlike this G.I. test, IQ tests were specifically designed to solely measure pattern recognition and nothing more. While it may not be perfect, I believe it’s a much better method at determining pure, raw intelligence over G.I. tests.

The problem with measuring intelligence based on how many facts you know is that older, more experienced individuals would have far more of an advantage in answering whatever question was thrown at them, even more so if that question was about a fact that happened during their lifetime. It would create a massive score variance with individuals over a certain age, as those with higher knowledge retention and pattern recognition will have scores that increase, while others that may have been considered geniuses in their youth could drop to average intelligence or worse- something that doesn’t happen to that extent with IQ tests back home unless you have Alzheimers. Not to mention the variance in troubled individuals taking the test. Depending on the individual’s background, they could either score substantially higher or lower than their peers solely because of quality of life factors that are out of their control. Example: Person A and Person B both have the same IQ, only Person B doesn’t have access to the same amount of information as Person A. Because of this circumstance, despite having roughly the same amount of intelligence, Person A scores significantly higher. Granted, this can happen to an extent with IQ as well with certain environmental factors playing a role in helping develop the score, but I don’t believe they’re as impactful to IQ as to G.I. In the same situation with an IQ test, Person A and Person B’s scores would still be close to identical, especially in an information-driven society like mine. After all, if I can score a 142 on an IQ test with the shitty background I’ve got, some of these environmental factors clearly can’t be that impactful. What I’m seeing with this is that a G.I. test is more a determiner of wisdom, while an IQ test is an actual measure of intelligence. A small, yet extremely important difference.

A part of me would have liked to classify this test closer to an SAT or CSAT, but there were far too many questions regarding pattern recognition to warrant that comparison. It’s kinda like the G.I. test is a mixture between an IQ test and an SAT, so it ends up getting the problems that both the others have without many of the advantages. I guess that should be expected when the last pony to make substantial changes to the test was from a time period without indoor plumbing. If they intend to be more accurate with determining intelligence in the future, they should probably split it up.

“Not particularly.” I shrugged. Mentally comparing and contrasting the two tests solidified my feelings. I saw no merit in scoring highly on this considering I inadvertently prepared for it during the last week. Had this been a case, I would have been given far less time and expected to do better. You don’t really have a lot of room to make mistakes as a detective.

“You-” Twilight seemed taken aback. “Why not? It’s an amazing score!”

I shrugged again, sliding Twilight’s supplies off my shoulder in the process. I extended my arm for her to take them, and aimed to change the subject. “Why did you even give me all this stuff anyway? You knew the test was scantron, there was no way I was going to use anywhere near all of it.”

She frowned, and levitated the bags back into her room, an option I’m not entirely sure why she didn’t take when packing them in the first place. “I really don’t get you…” She muttered.

Good. At least I’m doing something right. I was about to turn back around and go through the door again before she piped up.

“Hey,” Twilight started. “Why didn’t you say anything about your sleeping arrangements?”

“What?”

“Princess Luna mentioned you were having a hard time sleeping. You could have told me, I would have brought you some more pillows or something…” She had this worried, almost guilt-ridden look spread across her face.

That bitch blabbed. I have a right mind to just not sleep out of spite now. “Don’t worry about it. It has nothing to do with you.”

“Then what is it about?”

“None of your damn business.” Her constant prodding into my life was starting to get on my nerves. Take the fucking hint, Sherlock. I don’t wanna talk about this. Not now, not ever.

She gave a frown. “Franco, I just want to help you. I ca-”

Oh no, that’s not working on me again. “I don’t want your help!” I saw her immediately shrink down into the floor upon the increased volume of voice, and figured I should probably tone it down a little. “Just… Just leave me alone.”

I finally managed to enter the room I was given and immediately closed the door behind me. Unfortunately, my survey of said room was interrupted almost as soon as I entered as I heard a light knocking at the door. I sighed, turned around, and opened the door again.

“What?” You’re not very good at following directions, are you?

Twilight, with an expression that looked so innocent that she must have been faking it, simply asked, “Can we at least go out to celebrate your score?”

I just stared at her, unmoving.

“I, uh- I know this great donut shop on the edge of Restaurant Row. I just thought maybe you’d like something to eat?” She gave me a sheepish grin as she rubbed the back of her neck with one of her front hooves.

Oh, so she wants donuts. Come to think of it, I haven’t had anything all day, have I?

“I’ll even Pinkie Promise to not ask about your nightmares for the rest of the night, if it makes you feel more comfortable,” she added.

I’m sure I gave her a confused look. “I- I don’t know what that-”

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my-” She went through these bizarre series of hoof movements, culminating in her hoof getting jammed into her eye. “Agh! Every time… Why…?”

What in the hell is wrong with this girl? I sighed. “Fine, just stop hitting yourself in the face.” The last thing I want to do is explain to Celestia why her student suddenly has a black eye when we’re supposed to be the only two in this hall.

Twilight blinked a couple of times before looking back up to smile at me. “Come on, you’ll love it.”

The two of us made our way out of the corridor, with Twilight effortlessly maneuvering around the curves and turns of the palace walls to guide us to the entrance. Once out onto the streets of Canterlot, I was finally able to clearly see the sun had set, and night was slowly overtaking the city. Apparently, ponies weren’t as willing to be out and about during the night as opposed to the day. It might have just been due to us going to a corner of the restaurant district that was presumably not as busy, but it appeared as though Canterlot didn’t have much of a nightlife. Perhaps it has something to do with them having a Princess that watches over their dreams? Either way, the lack of ponies made our walk to this donut shop rather peaceful. I figured that if I was going to explore more of this city, then around this time every day would be a good time to do it.

We got to Twilight’s donut shop in question, a small little diner named Donuts and Joe. Seeing them use some of the same slang we use felt like I was having some strange, out-of-body experience. I would have questioned how the slang for coffee originated here, but truthfully I don’t remember how it originated back home, so it’s not like I’d have any real comparison. It is very strange seeing so much of my culture- even the slang- align here, though.

Twilight immediately beelined over to a seat in front of the counter and motioned for me to sit next to her. I followed and sat down the best I could at the affixed seat, leaving a singular seat gap between us.

An earth pony walked out from the kitchen. I could tell he was male from his voice, and he had a light brown coat with a dark brown mane. “Well, if it isn’t little Twily. How-” He stopped dead in his tracks upon seeing me, looking something akin to a deer in headlights.

“Joe, this is Franco,” Twilight picked up the conversation. “He’s new. I’ve been showing him around.”

Yeah, only because your Princess ordered you to keep an eye on me.

“Y-yeah… So I, uh- so I gathered.” His voice was apprehensive, and he looked positively terrified. Truthfully, I found his response rather refreshing. All the rest of this species I had met thus far had pretty unreasonable reactions to my presence in their society. Between the citizens of Ponyville just blindly accepting me walking around, to the ponies of Canterlot going well out of their way to ham up their disgust, seeing him act- well, human offered me some strange sense of comfort.

I suppose the least I can do is try to assuage his fears. “If it’s any consolation, I have no intent of harming you.”

“Uh…” He stared at me for far longer than he had to. “Right. Thanks, I guess?”

“Sorry for the startle, Joe. I probably should have warned you first.” Twilight gave an apologetic look to the shopkeep.

Joe turned back over to her, a smile slowly forming on his face once more. “Thought I’d be used to the kind of trouble you get into by now, kid. Don’t worry about it. If you’re vouching for him, I’m sure he’s fine. So, you want the usual?”

She smiled and nodded. “Please.”

“And, uh- Franco, yeah?” His gaze met mine again. “You want a menu since it’s your first time?”

Right now, I do not have the patience for that. “No need. Whatever she’s ordering will suffice.”

“A second order, please Joe.”

“You got it, kid. I’ll have it out for ya in a jiffy.” The shopkeep took one last concerned look at me before heading back into what I assume is the kitchen.

I made sure to take a brief look around the shop for emergency exits and anything particularly suspicious. Old habits I intend to keep around for a while longer. They can be quite useful, especially in situations like the one I currently find myself in. The aesthetic of the shop was very much a ‘90s diner vibe, something that died out decades ago back home. In general, diners back home are a dying industry, actually. In the current digitized age, trusted brand recognition and reputation mean everything. If anything goes wrong with a particular business, they’ll get bombarded with negative reviews and press in a matter of seconds. Because of this, small-time business owners have less and less incentive to start a business like a restaurant due to the high amount of risk with minimal rewards. One of the many unfortunate byproducts of the internet’s utility that’s been around far longer than I think any of us humans care to admit.

Back on topic, once I was sure Joe was out of earshot, I decided to ask Twilight a quick clarification question. “You come from this city, don’t you?”

She looked up at me. “Yeah. Is it that obvious?”

“You’ve seemingly memorized the interior layout of the Palace, know about obscure restaurants in town, and tried to profusely apologize on behalf of the citizenry. I’d have been genuinely surprised if you didn’t at least grow up here.”

“Pretty perceptive.” Twilight nodded briefly before continuing. “What about you? Where are you from?”

I massaged my temple. Why did I even ask that? I knew the most probable outcome to that question would lead here. Stupid. Fucking exhaustion is ruining my judgment. “Big city. Similar to this one but larger.”

“Really?” She perked up in her seat. “About how much larger would you estimate?”

“Population count here?”

“Canterlot has a population of roughly 480,000 ponies currently residing within the city.” Her mannerisms after she spoke led me to believe she normally wore glasses, but her daily routine indicates otherwise. I think she just gets like that when she’s analytical.

“Then my city is over 16 times larger in terms of population density. Spans over a wider area, too.”

Twilight blinked. “Y-your population count is 8,000,000?”

I nodded. “Give or take a few thousand.”

“Th-that’s nuts! How can you even support that many of your species in one area?”

“You’d be surprised. I’ve been to some cities that have double and in some cases even triple our population count. Also the population of my country isn’t evenly distributed. Where the eastern and western coastlines have metropolitan cities with an absurd amount of people in them, the vast majority of the middle of the country is farmland and desert. Our agriculture and infrastructure are just advanced enough to overproduce food in those areas, distribute it out across the country, then trade the excess internationally.”

She slowly nodded in understanding. “It’s hard to believe your species managed to get so far without the usage of any magic. Kinda makes me think we rely too much on it here in Equestria...”

“It’s for the best that we humans don’t have access to something like magic.”

“What?” She gave me a quizzical look. “Why?”

“Over 10,000.”

“Huh?”

“The amount of wars my species has had collectively. It’s well over 10,000, some even speculate it to be over 200,000 depending on how you define it. That level of bloodshed so frequently would have resulted in the eradication of our species a long time ago if we had the ability to use magic.” Honestly, it probably wasn’t a good idea to tell her this, especially not in a public area, but considering how far she was going to look out for someone like me… The least I could do was not lie to her, I figured. Well, that and I was so exhausted I was starting to lose my normal filter. May have been more the fault of the latter in hindsight.

“But I thought you told Princess Celestia you didn’t know how many wars your species had…?”

“I lied.”

Twilight’s face slowly fell, first into a frown, then a scowl. “You WHAT?!”

I was taken aback by her sudden outburst. I had yet to witness her get angry, so experiencing it so suddenly firsthand was a bit of a shock. At the time I was also pretty surprised that this is what finally tipped her over the edge with me, and not the countless times I tried to brush her off before, or the constant push away from my personal life, or doubting her altruistic nature. The one thing I try to do in good faith for her, and I somehow get the result I wanted before. How ironic.

“How could you lie to the Princess?!”

I guess now would probably be a bad time to mention I tried to lie to Luna, too… “If it’s any consolation, it was only a partial lie. I don’t know the exact number, nor does the rest of my species.”

“That doesn’t make it okay to lie to Princess Celestia! What would you have done if she seriously exiled you out of the country?”

Did she not notice? “I imagine more of what I was doing the first day I got here. Besides, neither she nor her sister had any intention of deporting me. That much is clear.” It was easier to say that now that Celestia wasn’t trying to intimidate me into saying something particularly incriminating. It also helps that they practically admitted as much, though I should have suspected that was the case since they didn’t immediately want to do anything about my presence here until now.

“You don’t know that!”

Huh. Either she’s allowing worry to cloud her judgment, or she really didn’t notice. “If she seriously wanted me out, she knew where I was prior to coming here. She could have simply come to the library personally and exiled me out on the spot, but she didn’t. Instead she waited a week and summoned me here, expecting me to abide by the call. Even had me look over that BXM nonsense for her. Those aren’t the actions of someone who wants me out, Twilight.”

“I gu-” She stopped herself short for a moment, “Wait, ‘BXM’? As in ‘the most infamous case of the last generation’ BXM? The one where the monster who killed 8 ponies got away with it because they were never found? That BXM?”

“9. And yes, she had me look over it.”

“What do you mean ‘9’?” Twilight’s questioning gaze occupied my attention until-

“Well, don’t keep us in suspense.” Joe had walked back out with Twilight’s orders and placed them on the bar in front of us. He hadn’t been there for more than a few seconds, so either he caught the back end of what Twilight was saying and pieced together what we were talking about, or- more likely- he was eavesdropping.

I gave him an annoyed stare before continuing. “One of the victims was in the early stages of pregnancy, thus the total body count should be 9, no?”

It seems like they both leaned in closer to me as Twilight started, “Weren’t all the victims in the BXM case underage? You aren’t seriously suggesting…”

“The autopsy report confirmed as much.”

“Th-that’s horrible…” The utterly horrified look on Twilight’s face made me immediately regret telling her about this. I know she said she was pretty young, but apparently she was just as naive as well.

“Franco, right?” The shopkeep didn’t even give me time to confirm before following up. “At least tell us you caught this monster. Ain’t right for the victims’ families to go this long without justice.”

“If criminal proceedings here are even remotely similar to back home, then I don’t believe I’m at liberty to say that much. All I can say is that I’ve indicated the possibility of a prime suspect and at least one secondary suspect, and that they’re being investigated as we speak.” Well, one of them is, anyway. I don’t know if any of Virtuous Breeze’s superiors are alive, considering how long this case has gone cold.

Joe nodded slowly, signifying what I assumed to be his understanding. “I’ll be honest, Franco, I dunno how you keep a straight face when talking about that. You musta seen some serious stuff way worse than that back home, yeah?”

Both Twilight and Joe looked at me expectantly for an answer. “...I have.”

“Seriously?” Joe frowned. “How could it possibly get worse than that?”

Why would you even ask me that question in the first place if you weren’t going to believe the answer I gave? And here I thought I got stupid when I was tired. “If you can’t handle even hearing about this killer with a stupid name, then you wouldn’t be able to handle most of the cases I’ve solved over the years.”

“Oh yeah? Try me.” Apparently he was the indignant type. Not as bad as that stupid blue horse, thankfully, but still annoying.

I took a quick glance at Twilight who must have been staring at me for a while with what I could only interpret as morbid curiosity plastered all over her face. Fine then. Maybe if I give him a taste, he’ll stop eavesdropping on my conversations. “Very well,” I sighed, and began recanting my tale of one Jeremy Ortega, a serial killer that got started back in 2040. Quite the bloodthirsty bastard, as he would typically beat his victims repeatedly over a long period of time before finally killing them. It wasn’t long after I joined the force, maybe 6 months, give or take a few weeks. Liz and I got called to a fairly quiet spot in LA- well, quiet relative to the heart of the city, anyway. There were still quite a number of witnesses describing the guy near the area, so it was still populated enough for people to not notice a few random bystanders they come across go missing. Liz knew the area fairly well, and we started scouring the neighborhood for older, uninhabited places as those were the most likely hiding spots he’d be in. Within the third dilapidated house we checked, we managed to find him. Caught him right in the act, no less. Beating some poor girl he tied up senseless, then taking her as a hostage once we got inside. We had a standoff, and once it was over, we managed to get the girl to safety, although she was unfortunately traumatized for a quite a while after the event.

I didn’t tell them this part, but Ortega held the girl hostage with a knife in his right hand, gripping her with his left as both Liz and I ordered him repeatedly to let the girl go and surrender. I decided I could probably end the conflict if I could just cripple him enough to drop the knife, so I shot him. I aimed at his shoulder, but I missed, and ended up shooting him in the throat instead. He bled out right then and there. I killed him. I suppose this also makes me a bad person, but I don’t regret it either. That monster that has no right being called human killed at least a dozen people before we got to him, and was about to make his body count one higher before I intervened. I understand taking the law into your own hands is a dangerous road to travel, but what other choice did I have? Allow him to live long enough to take yet another life? In hindsight, perhaps I was simply making excuses to cope with the fact that I ended someone else. Little did I know those same sentiments would come in handy for me years later.

“I- I think I might be sick…” Joe stumbled over a bit and looked around near the ground, presumably for a trash can.

Twilight, on the other hand just sat there, a much paler tint of lavender than she normally is with this blank look on her face.

Hm. I guess even that one was too much for them to handle. That wasn’t even the worst case I had to deal with, either. I reached for one of the drinks Joe brought to the table and started sipping away at it. Coffee. My lifeblood on numerous occasions as a detective. And, to his credit, Joe made a pretty damn good cup, though I’d never say that to his face with how indignant he is.

“No wonder…” I heard Twilight mumble. “Sorry about before, Franco. I didn’t know you were dealing with…”

Believe me Twilight, you’re barely scraping the surface of the shit I’ve had to deal with. “There are quite a number of good reasons I don’t speak of myself or my endeavors. That was merely one of them.”

Silently she stared at me, a concerned look governing her gaze. Maybe now she’ll stop asking about me so often.

Most of the rest of our time at the shop was spent in silence as we ate. Within a matter of maybe a couple minutes, I managed to create this miasma of an atmosphere in the donut shop. Twilight hardly spoke at all, minus a few short affirmations every here and there. That bombastic shopkeep was unusually quiet up until we got up to leave, to which he sent us off with a simple farewell. Even once we started walking down the street we came in on, Twilight didn’t talk.

She must be taking this way harder than I thought. I guess ponies don’t exactly have the constitution to deal with serial killers. Then again, most humans don’t, either. Perhaps I should… “...You alright?” I finally asked after maybe half the distance to the Palace was left.

“Am I alright?!” Almost instantaneously, her head tilted up to look at me. I could see tears begin to form at the corners of her eyes. “What about you? How long have you been dealing with horrible things like that?!”

“If you’re asking me how long I’ve had my job, it’s been 7 years. Would’ve been 8 in a few months, actually.” And, strangely enough, most of my trauma came from outside of my job.

“Franco, that’s…” Twilight promptly plopped down on the ground to sit. “How do you even manage to…?” She trailed off, whatever she wanted to ask just wouldn’t come out, it seemed.

Honestly, I was a little surprised at how hard she was taking it. I expected there to be at least some form of this reaction, but not to this extent. I figured someone with a history of combat would be able to steel themselves appropriately for stories that one could consider to be traumatizing. Miraculously, Twilight apparently doesn’t have this skill. How she’s seen enough combat to be considered a hero amongst her people and not be able to at least suppress whatever trauma she comes across was absolutely baffling to me. It was at this point I began to realize that this nation’s standards for heroes were probably way lower than back home.

“I have no idea why you’re taking this so hard. It’s not like you were the one dealing with my job in my stead.” Perhaps maybe I was being a little too apathetic here, but I still feel it was a good point to make. How does that old saying go? “Don’t weep for the stupid, you’ll be crying all day”? Same thing applies here, although I think I’d be hard-pressed to call myself an idiot.

“Why won’t you just let me help you?!” She had stood back up, stomping one of her front hooves on the ground. “I can’t… I can’t just let you suffer like that all alone… Please… Let me help…”

So these are the sorts of things Twilight just can’t let go, huh? In hindsight, I think it was a good call to withhold a bunch of information about my world from Twilight. I genuinely don’t believe she’d be able to handle hearing about the suffering that my species has not only endured, but inflicted as well. That much purity is apparently a double-edged sword, one that she has yet to learn how to properly wield.

“...I don’t really believe you can help me, Twilight.” Brutal, almost malicious honesty can be extremely effective in distancing yourself from others. The expectation I had was that if I used enough of it, Twilight would likely back down on her advances to help, and she could go back to her happy little village where the worst thing she’d have to worry about is library maintenance and maybe a little adventure or two so that I could go about my business unabated. Maybe even find my way back home, given time. Unfortunately, Twilight isn’t like most others I’ve come across.

“I do. Even if it turns out I can’t, I have to try, at least. I can’t just sit back and watch as other creatures around me suffer.”

“Look, if this is supposed to be reconciliation for pulling you away from that timberwolf’s strike, then you’re wasting your time. I only pulled you out of harm’s way to increase my chances of survival in that fight. Had I thought you were a detriment, I would have allowed you to get hit.”

She gave me an angry frown. “I know that’s a lie. If you were that callous, you would have just ran from the timberwolf after we started fighting it. We gave you plenty of opportunities to.”

Shit. Of course she picks now of all times to start acting like her mentor.

“I’m not doing this because you saved me. I’m doing this because there’s a good pon- eh, person- in there that’s been so desperate for help that they don’t think they could ever get better.” Her facial expression lightened up, “I’m sorry if I’m being selfish, but I can’t let you do this to yourself. I just… I just thought you needed a friend.”

“...Anyone ever tell you you’re far too nosey for your own good?” I turned away from her. It was all I could do to keep her from seeing… Well, that’s not important.

I could hear her trying to suppress her nervous laughter. “Maybe once or twice…?”

“...Twilight?”

“Yes?”

“I still think you’re wasting your time on me, but… Thank you.” It’s the most anyone’s looked out for me in what feels like ages.

“Anytime, Franco.” I could practically feel her smile burn through the back of my head. It was far more than I deserved

Author's Note

Apologies for this taking so long, I really didn't plan for this being a 3-parter, but it just ended up turning out that way. This'll probably be the longest day for a while, so hopefully I'll have the next few days done in a more timely fashion. Also not sure if I like how this part of the day turned out. Just feel like it's missing something.

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed!