Carter’s mind began to feed him happy dreams of himself with the others in a small circle, talking about who knows what. Carter found himself to be enjoying their company. He looked at himself from a third person perspective, analyzing his dream-self’s attitude and personality. He was almost another man in his eyes. He could see the positivity inside him spill out like a fountain of joy. It was different from what he used to be like… or rather, what he was currently. Carter wondered if this was telling him that he was indeed changing for the better.

Am I ready? Am I going home?

His whole mind began to violently fade in and out of bright flashes. His dream, though seen behind the lights, was beginning to go away. His conscious-self began to reach out towards his dream-self. He screamed for help as he was seemingly pulled away into the darkness of the dream world. He did everything in his power to go back, but whatever force held onto him proved to be much stronger.

Carter was flipped around and looked into a different, less happy dream. A nightmare? He was unsure at the moment. He stared into the void as it presented him with images of a dark, blood covered room. He found his dream-self in a state of sheer panic, horror swept over his entire being and his limbs were shaking violently. He saw himself yelling out for someone, but he couldn’t hear who exactly he was calling for. He ran through some stone hallways and tried full-heartedly to find the one he was looking for. His face looked like he was losing hope with each passing second.

The dream faded into nothing, then soon into a black room. There was nothing visible besides a pink and a blue blur. He stared at them, trying to focus in enough to see them clearly. Carter heard the sound of what seemed to be a mechanical saw in the distance. The blue blur began to move around, almost representing someone struggling to get away.

What the hell is going on?

Carter was beginning to freak out. This had to be another one of his visions. But he was asleep. Considering the fact that his past visions only warned him about things that would soon happen, he was struggling to even think about taking the things he was seeing into consideration. What could possibly happen in mere minutes that would even seem anything like this?

A loud, high-pitched scream pierced his eardrums. He tried to block out the sound with his hooves, but it proved to be futile. He fell to the ground and shouted out in agony. The pain he was feeling was too much for him to mentally bear.

“Ah!!! Get me out of this nightmare!!!” Carter tried to inflict physical pain on himself to wake up and escape the dream world, but nothing was working. He contorted in many ways as the screaming slowly increased in volume. He felt something wet fall from his eyes. It gradually built up in speed, eventually becoming a difficulty for him to see. He placed his hooves on his eyes and looked down upon them. He found nothing but blood across his hooves. His body trembled in fear, getting flashbacks of that horrible night yet again.

“Get out of my head!!!” He shouted, trying to damn these thoughts from entering his head any longer, but there was nothing he could do to stop it. Soon his eyes were covered in blood, making him unable to see his surroundings. Nothing but a splash of red color came through his pupils.

Carter looked over and began to see the outline of a small ghost. It looked exactly like the one he saw the night before his death. He could think of nothing to do besides continue to stare at the ghostly figure.

“What do you want!?” Carter screamed in frustration.

“You will be our’s! You will become one of us!”

Carter recognized the voice.

“In time, you will find your purpose in this world, or you will die along with the rest of these damned creatures.”

“Get out of my head!!!”

“You cannot do anything about it, Carter. It is your future, your destiny.”
“Go away!!!”

“Kneel before us!”

Carter watched the ghost’s shadow slowly transform into one that looked like the pony in the statue that he considered ‘swiss cheese goddess.’

“You will join us!”

“Never!”

“Then your life will end now…”

Carter watched as an army of evil shadow ponies lined up behind the ghostly shadow. It pointed its hoof towards Carter and they all ran after him. He tried to run away, but like a cliche dream, he was stuck in place, forced to await the attacks of the shadow ponies.

Something inside Carter changed in an instant. His fears were replaced with extreme rage. His body tightened and his horn began to glow. His eyes glowed in the dark void around him, releasing an aura of red colors around him.

“Go away!!!” His voice sounded lower than normal, and his horn produced a red beam of light that exploded across the void, killing off all of the shadow ponies. They disintegrated into nothing but air; the beam cut through them like a sickle in a field. Carter watched as the entire army of enemies were wiped out in a single second. What was this power?

“Yes… you are ready to join us. We just need to wait for the right time.”

“We?” Carter asked.

A glow came from the evil pony’s horn before shooting out a blast of energy towards Carter. All of it happened so fast that Carter flinched in anticipation.

“Ahhh!” Carter yelled out, finding himself back in the safety of his home.

He looked down to see that the covers and sheets of his bed were thrown about the room. He was breathing heavily, trying to process the vision he just had. It came and went all too quick for him to understand everything. What he did know was that something bad was going to happen, but he had no idea when it would occur.

Carter reorganized his bed and laid back into the comfort of the mattress. The blurs did not make sense to him. Never before had his visions ever limited his senses. If he was indeed being warned about future problems, then how was he supposed to know what to look for? It was just too much to take in, and the young stallion gave up on deciphering all of the information for the time being. He rested his head against his pillow and stared off into the morning sky outside his window as he waited for his mind to calm down enough to allow his body to wake up. It seemed to be a bit past noon. He wondered why he slept in for so long.

What is it exactly that you’re trying to tell me?

It has been a week since Carter’s tea party incident with Fluttershy, and he felt his wounds to be completely healed by this point. He had not seen any of the others since that day, and he was determined to meet up with them today.

Carter’s first instinct was to find the others and get caught up with their past. The only thing stopping him was trying to decide who he should start with. Fluttershy wasn’t too far away from his current location, but Applejack wasn’t that far, either. He had no clue where Pinkie Pie lived, Rarity was probably busy with work related issues, Twilight and Spike were way too far to be reached, and knowing that Rainbow Dash literally lived in the clouds proved to be impossible for him to reach her, especially since he still couldn’t fly.

He paced around Ponyville as he tried to come to a conclusion on who to see first. His answer was unknowingly revealed as Carter eyed the Cutie Mark Crusaders walking towards Sugarcube Corner, the local sweets store. Watching as they all entered at once, he figured he could at least pop in for a spell.

Carter opened the front doors of Sugarcube Corner and looked around for the little fillies. He found them eyeing a giant chocolate cake display behind a glass panel. It had about four layers of chocolate filling, with caramel drizzles on top of the frosting. He wondered why they were so focused on the cake, so he pretended to look over at the other side of the display as he eavesdropped on their conversation.

“This is the one! This is the cake that Applejack said we should get fer Carter!” Apple Bloom said.

“He’s been in his house for a while, now.” Scootaloo stated.

“I wonder if he even remembers us.” Sweetie Belle questioned.

“Of course he does.” Apple Bloom shouted. “He is just stuck in his house because of the timberwolves.”

Carter regretted listening to their conversation after hearing himself get brought up numerous times. He hoped to God that they wouldn’t see him on the other side of the shop. Didn’t work out in his favor. They one by one looked over at him and dropped their jaws in shock. Carter didn’t look at them and pretended not to notice them.

“Maybe he didn’t hear anything we said.” Sweetie Belle whispered.

“We should wait until he leaves.” Scootaloo instructed.

“Great idea, y’all.” Apple Bloom said.

They slowly backed up and watched him do his thing, waiting for the moment he left the shop. He took his sweet time looking at all of the desserts that were displayed. It looked like he wasn’t going to leave anytime soon.

Carter had an evil idea appear in his head. He walked over to the cake, still pretending not to notice the fillies. He stared at it like he was going to buy it. He knew that he wasn’t, but he wanted to see how they would react towards his actions.

“Excuse me, mrs.!” Carter shouted, grabbing the attention of Mrs. Cake, the co-owner of Sugarcube Corner, who was in the back of the shop.

“Oh, be with you in just a second.” She shouted. She was finishing up with some ingredient organizing. She grabbed the vanilla and placed it into the cupboard above her head before closing it shut and walking over to Carter. “Sorry about that. Pinkie Pie loves to make desserts and never cleans up after herself when she gets to work.”

“Oh yeah. Pinkie Pie works here, huh.” Carter said. It was time to put his prank into effect. “What is this cake for? Seems very intricate.”

The young fillies’ eyes all widened when they heard him ask about the cake.

“No. That’s meant for you in secret!” Scootaloo whispered. Apple Bloom stared angrily at her and pressed her hoof against Scootaloo’s lips.

“Don’t blow it!” Sweetie Belle demanded.

“Oh, that?” Mrs. Cake said. “Funny you should ask. That is actually the exact same dessert that I was talking about. The one Pinkie Pie made and never cleaned up her ingredients.”

“Ah, that would explain it now, wouldn’t it.” Carter said.

“Wait, Pinkie Pie made it?” Scootaloo asked.

“Yes, dummy. Pinkie Pie made it for Carter. I don’t know why it’s in the display cabinet, though.” Apple Bloom replied.

“I hope that you weren’t thinking about getting it. That cake is currently sold to some other pony.” Mrs. Cake said, looking at the fillies and knowing very well about their little secret. She winked at them and they sighed in relief.

“No, I was actually just here to get a doughnut. It would seem that it just caught my attention.” Carter said, determined to not get caught in the act.

“Ok then. You just want like a plain sugar doughnut or something else?” She asked.

“Just one of the former, please.”

“Alrighty. I will get you a napkin for that and hoof it over to you.”

Carter placed a gold coin on the display case for Mrs. Cake as she gave him the doughnut.

“Thank you, mrs.” Carter said.

“Of course. Do come again.”

“I will.” Carter left the shop, leaving the fillies and Mrs. Cake to themselves.

“You almost blew our cover!!!” Apple Bloom shouted at Scootaloo.

“What!?” A shout was heard from the back of the shop. “You almost told him!?” It was Pinkie Pie.

“It wasn’t my fault! Besides, it’s not like he heard anything.” Scootaloo said.

“Wait, you were here the whole time?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Well duh, I work here!” Pinkie Pie said.

“Then why were you hiding from Carter?” Apple Bloom inquired.

“You know how I get when it comes to staying calm when I have a secret on my mind. I jitter and spiral out of control! That would’ve been a dead giveaway to Carter, telling him that something was going on.”

“Look just make sure the cake never leaves this place. We can’t afford another situation like this.” Mrs. Cake told Pinkie Pie. “As for you fillies, you all need to buy something or get out. No more cake talk from here on out. Understand?”

“Yes, Mrs. Cake.” The fillies said in unison.

“Good, now off you go.” The CMC’s walked out of Sugarcube Corner.

~

Carter was getting a little nervous, himself. He was worried that he stepped into deep waters and possibly gave away the fact that he knew their secret. He felt ashamed. Sure it wasn’t voluntary, but he still learned about it nonetheless.

“Hey, Carter.” Scootaloo’s voice was heard behind him. He turned around to find the three fillies standing in a line.

“Yes?”

“You didn’t hear anything weird, did you?” Sweetie Belle inquired.

“Suspicious?” Carter asked, trying to sound as oblivious as possible. “I don’t believe I have. Why? What’s up?”

“You know what, nevermind. Sorry for asking.” Apple Bloom said.

“It’s ok. Hope you girls are alright.” Carter said.

They nodded and turned to walk back to their clubhouse.

Thank God! They didn’t seem to catch on at all. Even then, I feel absolutely horrible for knowing about this secret, nonetheless.

“Carter!!!” The stallion swiftly rotated on his hooves, looking for the one that called his name. He saw Pinkie Pie running towards him in a hurry.

“Pinkie? What is it?” Carter shouted. The pink mare stopped herself just right in front of Carter and began to talk to him while she seamlessly unphased after all of the running that she had just done.

Her cardio is insane…

“Carter, I really need you to get these supplies.” She said, speaking faster than any other pony he had met, and handing him a small list of items. “It’s for a customer of mine, and I totally spaced out while I was baking in Mr. and Mrs. Cake’s bakery. If it wouldn’t be too much to ask, would you be so kind as to grab those things for me?”

Carter analyzed the items on the list that he was given. All of them correlated with party supplies, like balloons, candles and sugary drinks. He wondered what the strange occasion was, thinking of all the possible reasons why Pinkie Pie needed him specifically to retrieve these items at this time of the day.

“If you don’t mind me asking, why do you need these?” Carter inquired.

“It’s for a party that somepony who will not be named. I need these in my possession in an hour from now. Is that at all possible by your standards?” Pinkie Pie asked, jumping around in place as she spilled out her words almost faster than she could talk. Her teeth chattered as she landed on the ground after each hop.

“Sure. Gimme like half an hour and I should have all of this by then.” Carter said, simply nodding to the pink mare, as he had no idea how else he should reply.

“Thank you so much! This will give me just enough time to get started on the rest of the party plans!” Pinkie Pie shouted with glee.

“Glad I could help.” Carter said, but she was already far away from his position after the first word came out of his mouth.

She is the strangest pony I have ever seen. Not annoying, just strange.

Carter returned his focus towards the contents of the list once more. He figured that the best place to find something like this was at the supermarket near the center of Ponyville. He placed the parchment into his satchel and proceeded towards his destination.

My life has become all kinds of crazy! First I was fighting off terrorists, then invited to a princess’ party, then a tea party, and now I am going on a shopping spree for some party gifts. Either I need to grow a spine and stop these ponies from pushing me around, or I need to get a job.
During his walk towards the superstore, he found the grey pegasus mare from before, selling off some vegetables labeled ‘pickles.’ Carter looked over at her and noticed something quite off about her display.

“Derpy! Those are cucumbers!” He shouted the information to her from across the street. The mare looked down at her collection of greens and looked back at Carter, nodding as if she already knew. “You wrote pickles on your labels!” Her eyes widened as she took hold of the label and saw it for herself. She placed it back on the top of the stand and placed a hoof on her forehead. Derpy shook her head in denial.

“We all have those days.” Derpy said, staring back at Carter with a shameful grin.

“Easy fix, nothing you can’t handle!” Carter shouted back, making sure that she didn’t feel too stupid for making such a miniscule mistake.

Carter made his way through the entrance of the supermarket and began searching for the items found on the list of things that the party pony gave him. He looked around at all of the different aisles, trying to figure out where his first item would be located: balloons. The red stallion identified ‘party supplies’ on one of the aisle signs.

Bingo.

Carter made his way over to the party aisle. He figured that, if he was lucky enough, all of the items on the list would be found in this one spot, and not just the balloons. He surveyed the shelves to find the items that he was instructed to retrieve. Low and behold, there was a party bag with all of the listed items and then some. He pulled it off of its respected hanger and held it up to his face. The bag slid off of his hoof as he moved it closer to him, resulting in a loud crunch sound from the plastic once it hit the ground. He stared at the party pack with an insulted look.

I don’t get how they do it. I can’t seem to do anything without fingers.

He reached down and attempted to pick up the party bag once more, looking around to see if anypony was watching him during this subjectively embarrassing moment. To his luck, no one was around to witness it. Upon closer (and more careful) inspection, Carter found that each of the contents in the bag did not only match the things that Pinkie Pie was requesting, but also met the required quantities demanded of said items. He placed the party pack in his satchel and went to the cashier to pay for it.

As he waited for the clerk to add up the total, he noticed something occurring outside. He looked out of the windows and found Applejack helping the CMC’s carry a cake out of Sugarcube Corner. It was the exact same chocolate cake from before. He watched them slowly make their way out of the building before Pinkie Pie came out of nowhere and began to chat with Applejack. Their conversation seemed to be quiet, almost secretive. Carter had the fondest idea about what they were discussing over.

As the two older ponies chatted, Carter turned his focus to the little fillies. His eyebrows were raised a bit once he noticed that the cake was unusually lopsided. It was about to tip over. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle quickly ran to prop with up, while Scootaloo attempted to do the same from the top, flying to its high point. They all pushed the cake with all of their strength, trying to prevent it from falling over. Their actions were proven to be a grave mistake, as the frosting began to stain their hooves, leaving marks on the exterior of the cake. They immediately let go after seeing this for themselves, licking the frosting off of their hooves.

Carter’s stomach dropped as the cake slowly plummeted to the ground. The fillies all screamed as they witnessed the same. He squinted his eyes as he watched the chocolate dessert fall to its doom. It was game over for them… or so he thought. A blue aura encased the cake and positioned it back to its normal state. The marks on the frosting were smoothed out, almost like something smeared the frosting back into place.

Magic!

Carter turned his vision a little to his left and found Rarity yelling at the fillies. The look on their faces said everything; they were horrified. Carter shook his head as he recollected his thoughts and feelings. He was handed the party pack after paying for the item, walking out of the superstore and continuing to watch the cake epidemic unfold.

“You almost ruined everything!” Rarity shouted, humiliated by the fillies’ lack of responsibility. “And you two!” Her eyes moved over to Applejack and Pinkie Pie. “You are the older, more responsible mares right now. It is your job to keep an eye on things in case something like this happens!”

“I am so sorry, Rarity. This was my fault. I distracted Applejack.” Pinkie Pie admitted.

“Never mind that! We ain’t gonna get anywhere play’n ‘point the blame.’ Everypony needs to help make sure that this here cake gets to where it needs to be before something like that happens again.” Applejack stated.

“That’s quite right. Now let’s get moving; we do not have a lot of time on our hooves to mess around with.” Rarity announced, using her magic to keep the cake in place as the orange and pink earth ponies proceeded to move the cake. Carter just watched them do their thing until they were lost from view once they turned a corner.

There is something you don’t see everyday.

“Wait, that was Pinkie Pie!” Carter shouted to himself, feeling stupid for not dropping off the party pack to her right then and there. “Although, I don’t think that would have been a good time to do so.”

Carter turned to his right to find Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash together. They seemed to be heading the same direction as the others. But what caught him off guard was the fact that there was another pony with them.

Twilight?

Carter couldn’t wrap his mind around this. Knowing that she was the princess and all, he tried to figure out why she would leave Canterlot. He didn’t know of anything that would require the princess herself. They were long past his field of view before he stopped concentrating on such a meaningless thought.

No good in waiting around here. I have got to find Pinkie Pie.

The stallion leaped into the air before running over to Pinkie Pie’s last known location. He knew that she had little time before these customers of hers expected whatever it was that she promised them. He continued down the street until he found a giant tent on a plot of land that was usually found to be empty every other time he passed this part of town.

Carter proceeded into the massive tent, wondering if this was where Pinkie Pie was located. It was abnormally quiet, with nothing able to be heard besides a bit of chatter from the townsfolk outside of the structure. He figured that this was not what he was looking for, so he turned around to exit the tent and find another possible spot where Pinkie Pie could be located.

Surprise!!!

Carter spun on his hooves to find all of the Main 6, along with the CMC, holding their hooves out towards Carter. The entirety of the tent was filled with balloons and confetti; the latter was blasted out of a large party cannon, which was controlled by Pinkie Pie.

“What in Equestria is going on?” Carter asked, a bit of a growl heard in his voice. He was genuinely feeling confused about everything that had just taken place within the last few seconds of his day.

“We are throwing you a party!” Pinkie Pie shouted.

“A party?” Carter curiosity only grew by the second. “Why would you guys be throwing me a party?” His voice changed from that of agitation, and instead one with more concern.

“Well, if you know anything about Pinkie Pie, you’d know that she loves throwing random parties for ponies that she meets for the first time.” Rainbow Dash said. The envy in her voice was quite evident to the red stallion.

“And I didn’t get the chance to throw you a welcoming party due to all these crazy things that have happened in the last week. So I told myself that today would be the day that this party would officially go down!” Pinkie Pie’s iconic smile was ever so present upon her face.

“So you guys are throwing me a late welcoming party?” Carter guessed, based on the current information he was given.

“Yes, and no.” Applejack said.

“Applejack and Fluttershy told us all about the things that you have done for them. We thought that it would only be acceptable to celebrate you, not only for coming here to Ponyville, but also to commemorate you for your generous and kind deeds.” Twilight said, tilting her head and giving him a jovial smile. "The two just kinda blended together."

“You really threw me this party just for that?” Carter inquired. “That’s not to say that I am at all annoyed. No, quite the contrary.”

“Of course! You have proven to be a great friend to all of us.” Fluttershy said, gesturing towards the rest of the ponies with her hooves.

“Really?” Carter was feeling quite jolly with all the attention he was receiving. He felt like a hero to them.

“Carter, you have been a great, honest friend to all of us.” Applejack said.

“You have proven yourself to be one of the coolest ponies ever.” Rainbow Dash added, flying around the air in a circular figure.

Carter felt himself choke on his spit. He did not like how those words came out. It almost felt like an encrypted message was being sent to him that only he knew how to translate.

Honest… pony…

“Carter, are you feeling ok?” Rarity asked the fear-struck pony, staring him in his wide eyes. He was trembling beyond anything the others have ever seen. From what they could tell, something was on his mind, something that needed to be said.

“Do you need some fresh air?” Fluttershy asked, holding his left front hoof with her right one.

“Do tell us if you are sick or something. We could postpone this party if it comes down to it.” Pinkie Pie offered.

All of the ponies stared at Carter, who looked as if he was about to cry. His eyes were becoming bright red, and his teeth began to grit against each other. They could do nothing but sit there, watching him deal with whatever it was that he was struggling with.

“T-t-twilight.” Carter’s mouth finally opened up, words heard soon after.

“Yes?”

“I am afraid that I have not been honest with you girls. I fear that it is only fair that I tell you the truth, right here and right now.”

“Carter, what are you saying?” Applejack asked.

“Are you keeping something from us?” Rainbow Dash inquired.

Carter nodded in shame. He kept his head down, but looked at all of the other ponies in the eyes. He saw the same emotion radiate from each of their spirits: Betrayal. He knew it would eventually come down to this, but to wait so long before telling them was something he was ashamed of admitting.

“It is time I tell you everything. It’s time I tell you… the truth.”

Author's Note

Oh boy. Secrets are never a good thing to hide from your friends. From here on out, Carter will reveal the truth about himself to the Main 6. That, and his dark past, which still haunts him every night.