Never say die.

Chapters

...Where the hell am I?
Say what now?
And it just gets weirder...
The arrival.
A new face.
Setting things straight.
Do a good deed, reap the rewards.
More questioning and a familiar face.
An army rises.
Damn it.
Getting some damn answers.
An unexpected twist.
Discovering the truth.
Having a good old talk.
Can I just get a minute's peace?
A hive? How grand.

...Where the hell am I?

Ina distant galaxy, far away from our own, the planet Equis sat there peacefully. Its inhabitants consisted of talking ponies, griffins, dragons and many other creatures that humanity thought were fictional. Equestria, one of the biggest countries on Equis, was currently in a state of tranquilty. There had been many wars in the past, many battles with villians. But finally, everything was back to normal for the denizens of the alien planet.

Or so they thought.

Unbeknown to the ponies, a certain individual had appeared, right in the middle of the everfree.

And he was not happy.

"What the...where the fuck am I? What's going on?!"

I was freaking out. One minute I was going to my first convention as my favourite character in a recently released video game and now, I was stood in a clearing. A massive, open clearing filled with trees.

"This doesn't look like any forest that I recognise..."

The forest was...strange. The trees looked like they had a mine of their own.

Okay, before I get ahead of myself, my name is ...goddamit, what's my name? My mind is a bit foggy for some reason when I try to think about it. If I try to remember it, my head starts burning. I can remember, however, the events that led up to my current situation.

I was going to my first ever video game convention. I was going to go as Master Chief from Halo, but I decided on Daemon from the very recently released Bleeding Edge. I'm not sure why, but his general design and personality was just so cool to me. Loved how he played and everything, even if the game itself didn't have much of a story for any of the characters.

Anyway, I remember going as Daemon. But, I think I passed out just as I was ready to go home. One minute I was heading to my car and the next, bam. Out like a worn light.

Come to think of it, the guy who made my actual costume was a bit strange...maybe it had something to do with him? He did say that he was into voodoo, but I never believed it. Funny enough, there's a character in Bleeding Edge that also performs voodoo.

No, that couldn't be real. There's got to be a reasonable explanation for all this...

Hasn't there?

I sat there, pondering my never ending thoughts and trying not to freak out when I noticed something.

My legs. They felt...strange.

I looked down and touched them, feeling no sensation at all. I recoiled in fear and hit my back against a tree, grunting and falling down on my ass. I sat there, confused and freaked out. I attempted to move my legs and they responded just fine. Actually, they responded better than they usually did. I had a muscle issue, so I usually felt incredibly stiff, especially in my legs. But now, there was nothing. No pain, no stiffness what so ever. I tapped my legs again with my hand. I noticed a rather loud clank and thud. I looked in shock.

"But... there were just cheap plastic. That doesn't feel like plastic. That feels like some sort of very strong but light metal. What the..."

I stood up, amazed at how quick my legs responded. I looked at my custom fake sword that had been constructed by the same guy who did me the costume, but it felt a lot more sharp than I remembered. And it was incredibly shiny.

"Since when does plastic feel this sharp AND shine this much?"

I took it out of the shealth and swiped it left and right. It was a lot heavier than I remembered. It almost felt like...

"A real sword? What?"

I shook my head, trying to make sense of everything before I lost my mind.

"Okay, so let me get this straight. I went to a convention as a video game character, costume made by a dodgy bloke and now, I'm sat in the middle of a weird ass looking forest by myself, with what feels like real metal legs and a real sword."

I slowly started chuckling, which quickly turned into a fully bloated laugh. I couldn't stop laughing, tears forming around my eyes.

"Nah, this has all got to be a dream. Got to say, freaked me out for a minute there, brain. Okay now, can I wake up?"

I tried the very old trick of pinching myself. While it hurt, nothing. I slowly started to realise something.

"...This is real, isn't it? No, it can't be...am I going insane? Did I somehow die when I passed out and this is the afterlife?"

I paced around frantically, swiping my sword at a few trees. Amazingly, it cut through the branches as if it was a knife to butter.

"Wow. Okay. So this is certainly not plastic anymore."

Knowing now that this was indeed a real sword, I put it back in its shealth. I didn't feel like cutting my throat just yet. Not until I realised what the fuck was going on.

I then had an idea. If I've somehow become like Daemon...

"Maybe I can use his other abilties?"

It was a long shot, but with everything that had already happened, I figured that I'd already gone off of the deep end. So why not plunge even further?

I thought of going into stealth mode like Daemon can do in the game....and then, all of a sudden, I looked down at my body and noticed that I blended in really well with the enviroment. I thought I'd completely disappeared for a second.

"No way. This is...I'm...I can't believe this..."

I de-activated the cloak the same way that I activated it. I then thought of his other abilties. If that worked, what about his shurikin and his dash ability?

I attempted to dash forward and sure enough, I dashed at a speed that I'd never seen any other human go, dashing forward before finishing up with a swipe of my sword. I looked down at my sword and chuckled. "This is so cool...this can't be real. Did somebody roofie me when I went to the bar just before the convention?"

I felt into my pockets and found a bunch of heavy, shiny and very sharp shurikens. I threw one at a tree and it impaled itself into the poor wood. I smirked.

"Damn."

I looked around, sighing. "I need to make sense of all of this. I can't be Daemon? How would that even be possible? He's not even real!"

I sat down, frustrated and tired. I started thinking of my family and my friends. I was lost in a forest and I had no idea where I was. There was no forests, especially none like this, anywhere near where the convention had taken place. What if I died here?

"Mom and dad are probably wondering where I've gone...goddamit..I've gotta get back."

Before I could wallow anymore in my current plight, I heard something to the far right of me. It sounded like...

Trotting?

Hooves. It sounded like hooves trotting. I jumped up to my feet...well, whatever they were now, and proceeded to take my now real sword and held it in front of me, ready to defend myself if need be. I had taken martial arts in the past, the same as Daemon to some degree, so I knew how to defend myself if I had to.

What walked out of the clearing made me lose any words that I could hope to fetch out of my mouth. Whatver this thing was, it looked like a small, techni coloured...pony? It had one wing on both sides of its body and a horn on the top of its head.

"Now I know I've gone mental...a fucking unicorn with wings?"

I mentally laughed at myself. What had someone drugged me with? Acid?

The creature...pony thing...looked at me with a shocked, yet curious expression. It started to walk towards me, me raising my sword in response. It stopped moving as it saw this and looked at me, scanning my features.

I could have sworn that I started to see its mouth move. What was it...

"Hello? Can you understand me?"

I looked at the small coloured pony, it staring back at me with a slightly uneasy expression. I then felt incredibly weak all of a sudden and the last thing that I remember...

Was laughing like an insane person.

Author's Note

A new story that I thought of after playing so many hours of Bleeding Edge these past few weeks. Hope you enjoyed this first chapter. Stay tuned for more.

Say what now?

I had a weird dream. I was in a giant forest. I had somehow became one of my favourite video game characters and I was gifted with his abilties.

I also happened to stumble upon a strange, talking coloured pony. With wings and a horn.

Yes, a horn.

I woke up, a blaring pain in my head. I reached up and felt my face, only to realise that my face was covered by something. Was that the mask from my costume? Why did I still have it on?

Wait a second...

I sat up suddenly, panic starting to take over. I felt my legs. Same as before, no feeling. Light, but they felt like a strong metal.

"No...that was a dream..."

I then heard a cough across from me. I looked up to see the purple pony from my dream.

Safe to say, I started to lowkey hyperventilate, causing the pony to rush over to me, a concerned look on her face as she tried to get me to calm down.

"Hey, calm down! You'll be fine, I promise!"

It speaks. It fucking speaks. None of that shit was a dream. I really am stuck here.

I tried to calm myself. I took a few deep breaths, and did the oh so generic samurai finger symbol as Daemon does.

Why the fuck did I do that? Almost felt instinctive.

The pony looked at me in confusion as I did this.

"Erm...can you speak?"

I looked up at it, which I assumed to be a female with the voice. I nodded.

"Sure can."

It...she, sighed and looked almost relieved as I said this. "Phew, thank Celestia! You scared me half to death when you started laughing like a maniac and collapsed. I thought you'd died!"

I chuckled, slowly getting up, only to feel that same blaring pain in my head again. I noticed that her horn suddenly started glowing and I was suddenly back on the bed again. How the...

She looked at me with an unamused expression, almost akin to your mother scorning you whenever you fucked up. "You're not going anywhere until you've had some rest. You had a pretty bad fall. It's a good thing that I found you when I did. The Everfree is a dangerous place. I'd like to ask you a few questions as to what you even are and why you were in the forest, but I shall ask you those questions later when you've had time to recover. For now, I'll let you rest. Let me know if you need anything else in the meantime."

I was confused, but nodded regardless. She smiled and nodded back before turning her back to me and walking out of the door. The room was quite spacious. I was currently laid in a fairly big and comfy bed. I decided to rest my head and think about whatever was going on later on.

"I wish I could say that this was a dream, but honestly...I can't even believe it anymore. Fuck this."

And with that, I layed my head down and instantly fell to sleep.

I awoke to the sound of the door to the room opening. It was fairly bright outside. It was dark before. How long had I slept?

I raised my head to the door to see that it was the purple pony from earlier who had come into the room. She trotted up to the side of the bed and smiled at me. "Seems like you've had a good rest. How do you feel?"

I nodded, sitting up slightly. "I feel a lot better now, yeah. Headache seems to have gone off quite a bit."

She nodded, smiling again. "Good, I'm glad to hear that. Now that you've had some rest and you're feeling better, would you mind answering some questions?"

"Erm, sure. Shoot."

She looked down at her notepad and wrote down a few things. I noticed that her horn was glowing again. But what really weirded me out was the fact that the notepad and pen were floating in front of her, coated in the exact same colour that her horn was emitting.

"How're you doing that?"

She raised an eyebrow, looking at me. "What do you mean?"

I pointed at the notepad. She stared before realising what I meant. "Oh! I'm just using magic to keep this notepad and pen in the air so I can write all of this down. You've never seen magic before?"

I shook my head. "Only in fiction. Doesn't exist from where I'm from."

She gasped. "That's impossible! Magic exists everywhere in Equestria!"

I looked at her quizzically. "Equestria?"

"Yes...you're telling me you've never heard of Equestria before? The country that we're in right now?"

I shook my head again. "Nope. Not at all."

She started writing down on her notepad before looking at me again. "I take it you're not from around here then? I don't recognise your species..."

I shrugged. "I mean...I wouldn't believe that this is a different planet or dimension, but I'm currently talking to a multi coloured pony with wings and a horn and I have the abilties of one of my favourite fictional characters."

She looked at me as if I was crazy. "Wait...what?"

I nodded. "Yup. I know, I found it hard to believe. Still do. Still somewhat don't believe this shit is real. But yeah, I found out that I somehow now have metal, prosthetic legs, a real sword and a cloaking ability."

She took a look at my legs and prodded one with a hoof, gasping at how it felt. "Oh..oh my...they're not real appendages? They're...artifical? Were you injured?"

"I wasn't injured, no. I'm not sure how I ended up with them. Pretty damn sure I had real legs before I passed out. You know what prosthetics are, then?"

She nodded. "We've always dreamt of the idea of them for medical purposes, but we don't have the technology and won't for a very, very long time. We don't focus on technology, more so magic. But those app...legs, as you called them, are fascinating. How do they operate?"

I shrugged. "Hell if I know. All I know is that I passed out and woke up with these babies. They do feel pretty good though."

She started writing down again. "Fascinating. Absolutely fascinating. And you said that you have a cloaking ability? Does that mean that you can summon a cloak?"

I looked at her and started laughing slightly, to which she looked at me funny. "What did I say?"

I waved my hand. "Nothing. Just no, I can't summon a physical cloak. What I meant by it is that it seems that I can turn invisible at will. Not totally invisible, just harder to see."

She looked intrigued as she kept scribbling in her notepad. "I see. Interesting. So tell me, how did you get here and why do you not know much about your abilities?"

I shrugged once again, starting to sit up more. The bed was comfy, but goddamn did my ass hurt. "Eh, I've honestly no idea. All I can tell you is that I got this costume made for me by someone so I could go to a convention. I then passed out and when I woke up, I was in the middle of that forest what you found me in. Before I passed out, all of this was a costume. My sword wasn't real, nor were my legs metal. The guy who made my costume did seem rather dodgy though..."

She looked up from her notepad, raising an eyebrow. "Dodgy? How so?"

I got out of bed, causing her to move back slightly. I stretched and looked down at her, remembering how small she was compared to me. "He just seemed...off. And the fact that he was interested in vodoo and then this happens...I don't know. I'm just so fucking confused."

She tapped her pen against her chin, holding it in her magic.

That was pretty damn cool, I had to admit.

She wrote something down and then nodded, putting the notepad and pen back into a backpack on the floor next to her. "I see. I wish I had answers for you, mr...?"

"Oh yeah, sorry. My name is..."

Wait...I still can't remember my name? The actual fuck?

I tried so hard, but everytime that I tried, my head started throbbing. I raised my hand to my head in pain, causing the pony to look at me with a concerned expression on her face. "Are you okay? Do you need more rest?"

I shook my head, grunting in pain. "No...no, I'm fine. Just having a hard time remembering my name for some reason...one name does come to my mind though and it's the name of the character that I was dressed as and now...well, am, it seems."

She nodded. "And that is?"

I looked down at her and smirked. "Daemon."

She smiled. "Well, Mr Daemon, I wish I could help you with your own questions as to how you got here, but honestly, I have no idea. It's hard for me to believe what you're telling me and if I was anypony else, I'd probably be calling you downright insane. But, I've seen stranger things around here. Much stranger things. I want to further question you, but...I think it's best that I leave further questioning to the princess when she arrives later."

I looked at her, confused. "Princess? What?"

"Oh...sorry, I forgot to say. Princess Celestia is one of the rulers of Equestria. The other is her sister, Princess Luna. I contacted Princess Celestia to tell her that I had found an...odd creature in the Everfree and that she should come and see what to do."

I scoffed. "I see. So you're handing me off to your leader, huh?"

She looked at me sheepishly. "I'm sorry! I don't know what to do in this situation. You don't seem dangerous, but I can't risk anything. I am the princess of friendship. It is my duty to make sure that my subjects are safe."

I nearly burst out laughing at that. "Wait...princess of....friendship?"

She nodded. "Yes. What's wrong with that?"

I turned out, chuckling to myself. "Nothing. Nothing." I turned around to face her. "When is she coming and what is she going to do to me?"

She smiled. "Oh, don't worry. Unless you're actually dangerous, she won't do anything to you. She just wants to find out more about you, that's all. You are an unknown creature to us, so."

I nodded. "I...I suppose that makes sense."

She turned around and walked towards the door. She turned her head back at me. "If you want to stay in here until she arrives, you're more than welcome to. Feel free to read any of the books around here. If you can read, of course."

I scoffed, rolling my eyes.

Jesus, that felt weird behind this mask.

"Of course I can read!"

She giggled. "Good. I'd hate to not be able to read. It'd be the death of me. Call me if you need anything. My name is Twilight, by the way."

I nodded. "Gotcha. Thank you."

She nodded in appreciation and walked out, leaving me to myself again. I picked up a random book off of the shelf and sat back down on the bed. I looked at the title and scoffed.

"The Filly's Guide to Ponies? What the fuck?"

Author's Note

And here's the 2nd chapter. Enjoy.

And it just gets weirder...

"So, let me get this straight. Unicorns, Pegasi and Earth Ponies are the three different species around here? I feel like I'm losing my mind."

I was curretly still sat down on the bed that Twilight had put me in. Having just finished reading an...interesting book about the different species around here (which in fact, turned out to be a children's book. A goddamn children's book), I was starting to wonder something. If this was real, which I was slowly starting to accept that it was, how in the fuck would I get back home? And where even was I? It sounded crazy, even after everything that had already happened to me physically, but was this even Earth anymore if it was indeed real? I don't recall anywhere on Earth have coloured, talking minature ponies with horns and wings.

"She mentioned the name Equestria and that it's the country of this place...but if this ain't Earth, how did I even end up here? And what does it have to do with the weirdo voodoo guy? And if it was somehow him, why the hell did he turn me into Daemon? None of this makes any damn sense."

I forgot to mention that I noticed something else after a while of talking to myself. My voice had also changed. Muffled by the custom oni mask that I somehow couldn't take off (yes, I'd tried. And failed. Note to self, never again), I sounded somewhat like half robot and half human. So, I was literally Daemon himself at this point. Even my skin colour had changed to match his more black hue. I hadn't noticed any of this before because I was freaking out so much and the confusion took priority over these other details.

I had also read a book about the "gods" of this place. There were a few that were interesting, but one what had really caught my eye was a being what went by the name of Discord. He apparently was incased in stone by these so called rulers what Twilight had mentioned earlier after turning Equestria into a chaos ridden land. Full of chocolate rain and mutated forest critters. I chuckled.

"Not going to lie, he sounds pretty neat."

Alas, he had broken free a while back and tried to start the same havoc again. Using something called the...elements of harmony? Anyway, yeah, using whatever those were, he had been turned to stone once again. There was an edit in the book a few years after that detailed that he had been "reformed". I assumed that meant that he was turned into a good guy. But in my eyes, making chocolate rain down from the sky and such wasn't exactly evil. I did read some of the other things that he had done to these element bearers (it didn't mention their names for some strange reason) and those were more so what I'd expect from a so called villian.

Before I could have more time to muse on my thoughts, I heard the door to the room open. Twilight walked in, leaving the door open behind her. She peered towards me and smiled.

"Ah, Mr Daemon, how are you feeling?"

I nodded, standing up. "Yeah, I'm feeling better for the most part now. So, what's going on?"

She was about to speak up, but I heard trotting behind her. I then witnessed a bigger, more slender pony walk in the room behind her, causing Twilight to turn around and smile at the new individual. It had a bigger horn, much bigger wings and what looked to be some sort of jewerly around itself. Namely its hooves and its neck.

"Let me guess, you're one of the rulers what Twilight here mentioned, right?"

Twilight looked over to me and slightly scowled. "Mr Daemon, you're supposed to bow."

I raised an eyebrow and looked towards the white pony, her expression confusing me slightly.

"Why is she smirking?"

She turned towards Twilight. "It's okay, Twilight. He isn't one of my subjects. He doesn't need to bow."

Twilight sighed, but nodded. The pony walked towards me, making me stand my ground. She was around the same height as me, if not an inch taller. Her smirk turned into a warm smile.

"Hello there. My name is Princess Celestia. Twilight here had told me that you could speak. I'm glad that she was right. Makes this entire situation easier for all of us. So, if you don't mind me asking, what are you? Twilight has told me that you're not from around here and I can see now why she said this. You don't look like any species that I've ever seen before and I have been alive for a very long time."

I felt anxious, not trusting how genuine this "Celestia" was. Why would you be so genuine to a possibly alien creature that you don't even know and is currently residing in your kingdom?

Regardless, I nodded, trying to seem courteous. Would be easier than just being aggressive.

"I am...well, WAS, a human. I think I still am. I've just been changed. I'm from the United Kingdom of Great Britain. I'm assuming you've not heard of it, right?"

She shook her head. "United Kingdom of Great B..Britain? I have not heard of this place I am afraid, no."

I sighed. Figures. "It seems like I'm not on Earth anymore afterall. God, I feel like a loony even saying that."

Celestia was now tilting her head at me in a strangely adorable way, a bit similar to how a dog tilts its head when you're speaking to it sometimes.

"Excuse me, did you say Earth? I must inform you that this planet is called Equis. Are you implying that you're an...alien?"

I shrugged. "I guess so. Trust me, I don't believe it myself, but with everything that has occured to me so far and the fact that I'm having a conversation with two coloured talking ponies...guess I am an alien."

She raised an eyebrow. "I...I see. I have heard of alien creatures many times in my life, but I have never actually had the opportunity to confirm that any actually existed. But judging by the fact that you don't even know what planet you're on and that I haven't ever seen anything like your species before...it might not be too hard to believe."

I scoffed. "What? You're just going to believe me like that?"

She rolled her eyes, that warm smile still present on her face. "Trust me, Mr Daemon, when you have lived as long as me, you learn to keep a very open mind. I am not saying that everypony will trust you immediately, just that I don't necassarily think that you're a lier. I'm usually quite good at reading individuals and you do not seem like the type to lie."

I raised an eyebrow. "Damn, this one is observant." I chose to just nod in response. "Like I said, I'm having a hard time believing all of this myself."

She turned to Twilight and nodded, causing her to nod in response. She looked back at me and smiled again. "Well, Mr Daemon, if you do not mind, would you be so kind as to accompany me to our capital state? It is called Canterlot. I wish to question you a bit more and see if we cannot help you figure out what has happened."

I walked up to her slowly, still uncomfortable to how friendly she was being. "You want to help me? Why? I could be an alien wanting to dominate your entire planet."

This statement caused her to laugh. It caught me off guard, honestly. Her laugh was...almost angelic. Very warm and friendly. After finishing her chuckle, she looked towards me.

"You don't seem like someone who dominates."

I thought I misheard her on that one.

"Wait...what? If I heard you correctly, was that supposed to be some sort of joke or is my hearing also going?"

She smirked, causing me to feel even more uncomfortable. "Indeed you did hear me correctly, Mr Daemon. I am only jesting, do not worry. But jokes aside, even though you are something that I have never seen before, I do not feel any sort of bad emotion or unease around you so far. It is very hard for ponies and anything else to fool me when it comes to first impressions. Of course, I can tell that you don't trust me, which is completely understandable. But trust ME when I say that I am being one hundred percent honest when I say that I want to help you. If you truly are lost and need to find your way back to this...Earth, I will try my very best to assist you. It is my job as ruler, even if you aren't one of my subjects. And besides..."

She leaned in and whispered. "Between you and me, this interesting turn of events gives me something other to do than to listen to nobles whine to me all day. So that also helps as well."

I smirked. Even if I didn't trust this "Celestia", that comment made me nearly raise a smirk to my face. I nodded.

"Alright. Lead the way, princess."

She rolled her eyes. "Please. You can call me Celestia. You're not one of my subjects." She turned towards Twilight, who nodded and smiled at me.

"Don't worry, Mr Daemon. The princess here is the most kind and gentle pony that I know. If anyone can help you get back to wherever you need to be, she can."

I nodded again, a slight smile present on my face. "I appreciate it."

Celestia smiled, ushering me with her out of the door. We said our goodbyes to Twilight and we went outside. As we left the building, I turned around and noticed something.

It was a castle. And it was made out of crystals.

Fucking. Crystals.

I stared for a moment before turning back to Celestia, who was now in some sort of...flying carriage? With what appeared to be two ponies with wings (the pegasi, if what I read earlier was correct) at the front, strapped to it. This was getting even more ridicilous.

I got in, sitting across from Celestia. She tapped on one of the sides of the carriage, causing the pegasi to lift off and somehow carry the carriage with them into the air. I shit myself for a second before looking down. I gulped.

"Man, I fucking hate heights."

Author's Note

The third chapter. I plan to try and update this as reguarly as I can, now that my motivation to write again has started to slowly come back.

The arrival.

"Just give me a second, alright?"

"Of course, Mr Daemon. Take your time."

The flight to...Canterlot? Yeah, that was it, Canterlot. Goddamn horse pun.

Anyway yeah, the flight to Canterlot wasn't super exciting. Celestia was quiet for most of the ride. She tried to spike up the odd conversation a few times, but it didn't last long whenever I actually tried to reply properly. I was more focused on not falling to my death than listening to her at that point, tbh. We eventually landed and that is where we are now.

With me trying not to barf.

I eventually got out of the carriage, still feeling a bit sick. I shook my head, trying to get rid of the nausea. I looked up and gawked at what I saw.

"Woah. Shit."

Celestia rolled her eyes and smirked as she also stared at the giant castle that was now in front of us. "Quite. Anyway, shall we head in?"

I nodded, scratching my arm. "Sure. You lead the way."

And she did exactly that. Two guards also trotted along with us. One was a Pegasi and the other was a Unicorn. I turned around and nodded at them both in a friendly manner. They did the same and I turned back round to Celestia who was now quite ahead in front of me. I caught up as we walked into the castle, the guards shutting the doors behind us. She lead me through what appeared to be some sort of throne room. I looked around, taking in every sight.

"This your throne room?"

She nodded. "Indeed it is, Mr Daemon. This is where I hold my daytime court, so all my little ponies can come and speak to me about any concerns, issues or requests that they may have."

I kept walking behind her, stopping for a second to look before continuing forwards. We eventually made it into a very large hallway. One with many paintings and doors. Celestia looked back at me again.

"So, Mr Daemon, do you mind if we have a quick chat now when we arrive at your room?"

I raised an eyebrow, slightly confused. "My room?"

She nodded, smiling. "Indeed. We have many spare guest rooms here at the castle. It wouldn't be fair of me to just leave you to get a place of your own. Especially when you don't have a job...and probably more because you're not from around here."

I chuckled. "Yeah, it would be pretty fucking hard to fend for myself on an unknown planet."

We made it to the guest room that Celestia had offered me. She turned to the two guards. "Can you please leave us in peace for the time being? I have much that I wish to discuss with our guest here."

They gave me a strange, stoic look before looking back at her, nodding and saluting. "Of course, your highness." They trotted off down the hallway until they were out of sight. I shrugged.

"I mean, I am an alien to these guys. Guess I should expect some dirty looks here and there."

I looked around the room, whistling to myself in awe. "Damn. Nice guest room you got here."

She closed the door behind us, chuckling slightly. "Yes, I would say so too. Anyway, let's get down to business, shall we?"

I leant against the window and looked outside, noticing all of the different types of ponies walking around the streets. Some were conversing with one another, some were walking into shops and some were just standing around not doing much. Most of them were wearing monocles or really posh looking outfits. I snorted.

"Guess even this place has its snobs."

I turned my head around, still leaning against the window, looking at Celestia. "Suppose so. What do you want to know? I've told you most of what happened when we were coming here."

She nodded, smiling at me. "Indeed you did. But I wanted to inquire a bit more about your arrival here. You said you had been made that...costume that you are currently wearing by someone who practiced voodoo. I know of someone who practices something similar to voodoo magic."

I raised an eyebrow at that. "Oh? You do? I never thought it existed until now."

She sat down on the bed on all fours. She looked a bit like a cat in that position. She kept smiling at me and started to usher me to come over to her. I nodded a no. I noticed a slight bit of disappointment for a split second. If I hadn't had been paying attention, I wouldn't have noticed it.

"You don't trust me, do you?"

I shook my head again. "I do not. Sorry."

She nodded. "I understand. I suppose that we're aliens to you as well. You said you didn't believe that voodoo magic was real at first? Why is that?"

I shrugged, looking back out of the window. "It was never thought to exist on my world. It was just folklore. Least I thought it was. It was never proven to actually exist."

Celestia got up and walked over to me, putting me on edge slightly. She stood in front of me, staring at...my sword? She suddenly shot me a serious expression, which honestly put me off guard for a second.

"I am not meaning to sound harsh or blunt here, Mr Daemon, but why do you have that with you? Are you a soldier of some sort?"

I laughed, causing her to raise an eyebrow. "No, I'm not. I told you already, I was made this costume and its accessories by that strange guy. The sword was just made of really good plastic back when I wasn't like...this. Then, as soon as I woke up here, the thing was somehow a real sword. The exact sword that the character uses who I've turned into."

She looked at me, scanning me up and down. "I see. So, you're telling me that you have actually turned into a fictional character from your world?"

I nodded. "Basically."

She turned around, humming to herself and tapping her chin with her hoof. "I know that this has already been discussed earlier, but to be quite honest, I did not believe you at first. Even though I could tell that you weren't a lier, that 1% of my mind made me think that you might be a threat. To my kingdom and my subjects."

I just stood there, not knowing what to say. She continued.

"If you are indeed being truthful, then even I am shocked. Never once have I heard something like this happening to anypony. I know that you are not from here, Mr Daemon, but it is still...surprising. So, if you now look like a fictional character from your world, what did you look like before?"

I scratched the back of my neck. "Nothing too special. I certainly didn't look like this. I had actual real legs. Not metal prosthetics."

She looked down at my legs, looking intrigued. "I've never seen anypony before with an...artifical limb, as I suppose you'd call it. I am sorry. It must be awful."

I shrugged. "I mean, I just woke up with these. It's not like I had my legs blown off and then had to have them fitted. We don't even have prosthetic limbs from my world what are this advanced yet. This fictional character was in the future."

She looked at me, scanning me again. "Interesting...this is becoming too much even for me to understand. But, Mr Daemon..."

I rolled my eyes. "Just call me Daemon. No need for formalities."

She nodded, smiling slightly at that. "Alright, Daemon. As I was saying earlier, about your weapon...I hope you do not plan to use it while you are here?"

Her voice took a slightly more serious tone towards the end of her sentence. I nodded, feeling slightly uneasy.

"Nah, not unless I need to. As in, self defense."

She narrowed her eyes slightly for a second, before sighing and nodding. "Do forgive me. I do not mean to come across as nasty or angry. I just do not like the thought of any of my little ponies getting hurt."

I nodded, a sad smile on my face. Even if she couldn't see it entirely because of the mask. "Don't worry. I'll try my best not to hurt anyone. The only time I'd have to is if my back was a brick wall."

She raised an eyebrow, visibly confused. "Why would you put your back against a brick wall?"

I scoffed, chuckling slightly. "It's a figure of speech. It basically means that I'll try my best not to hurt anyone unless I have no choice. Self defense."

She ahh'd at that, nodding in understanding. "I...understand. And I appreciate that. I would understand if you had to defend yourself. I do not want you to get hurt, the same as any of my subjects. But know this. If any of them are prejudice against you, come to me. I will not have any of that, regardless of what you are. So long as you treat my ponies with respect and do not intetionally cause any trouble, I will make sure you are treated fairly."

I smiled behind my mask. "Thank you. I appreciate that. So, do you think you can help me get back?"

She sighed, which honestly didn't fill me with confidence. "I am...not sure, if you want me to be honest. If it's true and you are indeed from another world, I really don't know how I could get you back home. Unless there's an old transportation spell, but even that is unlikely. But, I will do my best."

I looked at her, hope in my eyes. "So, there could possibly be a way, even if it is unlikely?"

She nodded, smiling sadly at me. "Yes, but I cannot promise anything. I will try my very best to get you home though, I do promise you that."

I thanked her again, sitting down on the bed. I looked up at the ceiling and sighed. Before me or Celestia could say anything else, I heard the door open. I sat up, Celestia turning around to look as well. A few seconds of waiting and I saw a new pony. A dark blue one with a mane that seemed like it was the night sky. It was a bit like Celestia's mane, seeming to flow aimesley in some invisible wind. She also had regalia on, but it matched her fur's colour. She looked towards me, one of her eyebrows raised. She then looked to Celestia, walking towards her.

"Sister, I had heard from one of your guards that you had brought some sort of creature to the castle. I assume that this is it?"

Celestia nodded, rolling her eyes slightly, apparently at her sister's bluntness. "Yes, Luna. And he has a name. He is called Daemon. He can speak and is very intelligent. He got trapped here outside of his own accord and he is trying to find a way back home. I have offered to help if I possibly can."

Luna looked towards me again, walking up to me, scanning me with her eyes. "Why do you have a weapon with you?"

Celestia walked up to her side, causing Luna to look away from me and back at her. "It's a long story, Luna. He isn't dangerous, that much I'm sure of."

She rolled her eyes. "Sister, you do not even know what this creature really is. How can you say it is not dangerous?"

I could tell that this Luna was definitely not as welcoming and as warm as her sister. I saw Celesta scowl slightly.

"I will repeat again, he. Not it. And he has a name. Please use it and do not be rude. He has been polite to me and to Twilight. It is only fair that we are polite to him in return."

Luna scoffed. "Sombra was polite once. Remember what happened with him?"

Celestia facehoofed, anger starting to rise in her, it seemed.

"You're comparing an unknown creature with no grasp on magic to a magic and power hungry tyrant who ruled with an iron fist."

Luna grunted and walked away, looking back at Celestia. "Just keep it in check, dear sister. I do not want to hear that any of our subjects have been hurt because of this."

As she walked out of the room, slamming the door as she went away, Celestia rolled her eyes and sighed. "Luna...always so brash and quick to judge." She turned towards me, a sad smile adorning her features. "I am terribly sorry about that, Daemon. My sister can be a little...hard to warm up to. Do not worry, she will eventually come around. As long as you remain true to your word about not causing any issues for me or my subjects, she will be fine."

I nodded, having being silent during that whole interaction. "No worries, I get it. I'm a completely foreign creature that just turned up in your guy's kingdom. I understand."

She smiled. "Thank you for being so understanding. I do apologise, but I must go. My court is starting soon. It usually starts in the morning, but due to...these circumstances, I could not attend, so it had to be pushed back. I will talk to you again later. Feel free to make yourself at home and ask one of the guards if you need anything. I will assign you a personal guard to make sure you are okay later on as well."

I raised an eyebrow at that, but nodded all the same. "Erm, thanks I guess. See ya."

She nodded, walking out and leaving me on my own. I stood up and looked back out of the window. I scoffed, chuckling to myself. "So, we have the motherly princess, the bitchy princess and now I'm being assigned a personal lacky? Great."

I went back to bed, trying to rest some more. I looked up at the ceiling once more and sighed.

"This is crazy. Fucking. Crazy."

A new face.

"What the..."

I was so confused. I had expected to wake up to the room that Celestia had put me in for the time being.

What I didn't expect was to wake up in...well, my bedroom.

I know. It sounds so stupid.

I looked around, smiling slightly and sighing in relief. "It must have all been a dream. Thank god."

I turned my attention to the bedroom door as it opened slowly. My parents walked in, looking fairly concerned. My father was the first one to break the silence that was currently filling the room.

"Hey, you alright, son? We heard you shouting. Did you have a bad nightmare?"

I nodded, sighing. "Sure did, dad. I dreamt that I turned into a video game character and I was sent into this weird world of pastel coloured ponies." Both of my parents looked at me, before chuckling and walking over to me, kneeling next to my bed.

"Sounds like an interesting dream, hun." My mother said. She seemed rather...on edge?

"Hey, mom, you alright? You seem slightly...off."

She looked at me with a sad smile. "I'm fine, ****, don't worry."

I went as pale as a ghost. I didn't know what to say.

"....M-Mom...What did you just say?..."

She looked at me with her eyebrow raised, visibly confused. "What? I only said your name, hun."

I shook my head, trying to make sense of this. Then, before I could reply, my dad looked at me with a sad smile of his own. "Anyway, ****, we have to go. I'm sorry."

I turned my attention to him, looking at him with the same expression as I did my mother. Scared and confused. Whenever they tried to say my name, it just sounded like static. I turned my head away for a second and tried to breathe, nearly panicking. I turned back to face my father.

"Why do you two keep..."

I frantically looked around the room, breathing heavily.

They were gone.

"Mom?! Dad?! Where are you?! Please don't leave me!"

Then, my room distorted and changed. It seemed to swallow itself and take me with it. I screamed as my vision went black and I jolted upright. I looked around the room, breathing heavily. I was back in the room.

Not my room. The guest room.

"No...it was a dream...please."

All hopes of being home were shattered as I heard my muffled, cybernetic like voice coming from my mouth. I was still Daemon. It wasn't a dream. I slapped my forehead, a headache now making its appearance noticable.

I heard something across the room. The door was opening. I sat up, taking my hand off of my head and got out of bed, choosing to stand next to the window. Celestia walked in with someone else. It seemed to be a...pony with bat wings?

She smiled at me, the bat pony looking at me with a stoic expression. Not necassarily a scowl or anything of the sort, just not an expression with a ton of emotion to it.

"I hope that you rested well, Daemon?"

I nodded, choosing not to bring up the weird dream that I had experienced.

"Was alright, I guess. Who's that?" I pointed towards the bat pony, who raised an eyebrow.

"So, it does talk. How interesting."

I scoffed. I was really getting tired of being called an "it". Celestia seemed to share my annoyance, looking at the bat pony.

"I would appreciate it if you didn't refer to Daemon here as an it, Moon Dancer. He is an intelligent being with his own feelings."

The bat pony now known as Moon Stalker rolled her eyes. "Sorry, your highness."

Celestia didn't seem to really believe the apology, but she chose to not respond and instead look at me with a sympathetic, almost sad smile. "I do apologise for that, Daemon. Moon Dancer here means well, but she is like my sister. Quite close minded."

I looked over to Moon Dancer, to see her fairly red in the face, huffing. I smirked. "Oh, I get it, she gets flustered easily. This oughta be fun." Celestia coughed as I turned my attention back to her. "Anyway, while Moon Dancer is not one of my own guards and is in fact one of my sister's night guards, she is one of the best. Even a lot of my guards look up to her. So, with all that in mind, I am going to be assigning her as your personal guard. She will make sure you are safe while you are here. If you ever choose to go outside and venture through our fair city, she will accompany you to make sure everything is alright. Is that okay?"

I nodded. I wasn't a massive fan of being escorted around like a baby, but I didn't have the patience or energy at the moment to argue about it. "Sure. Is it okay with her?"

Celestia blinked. "Excuse me?"

I pointed at the bat pony, who was now staring at me with an unreadable expression. "Her. Is it okay with her?"

Moon Dancerspoke up. "It is not up to me. It is up to the princess."

Celestia blushed, chuckling. "While I very much appreciate that you took the time to ask if she was personally okay with it, I have already asked her myself earlier. I also asked my sister if it was okay if I used one of her guards for the job and while she was against the idea, she suggested Moon Dancer if it had to be done. I may be a princess, but I do understand that everpony has their own feelings on different matters and such. So do not worry about that."

Hearing that Luna didn't agree with the idea of me having a personal guard, especially one from her ranks, really didn't surprise me at this point. The bitch seemed to already have it out for me.

I wouldn't usually be so vile, but after that dream and the headache that was currently banging on my the inside of my head like a hammer, I really didn't have any patience to deal with anyone right now.

I sat down on the window, looking down at the ponies walking around. It was strangely interesting to just watch them walk around and go about their daily business.

"Alright, fair enough then. Welcome to the team, Moonie."

I heard her cough as my attention was still fully taken by the outside world. "My name is Moon Dancer."

I rolled my eyes, even though she couldn't see it as I still had my head turned away from her. "Whatever." I turned around to see Celestia smiling, seeming quite amused at the little interaction. She turned and walked towards the door, looking back at me, still smiling. "I'll let you two get to know each other. I shall see you later, Daemon. And thank you for taking this job, Moon Dancer."

Moon Dancer saluted and nodded. "Of course, your highness." And with that, the door closer, leaving me and this bat pony on our own. She looked over to me with a slight scowl.

"Listen, creature, I'm not sure what you are, but you will refer to me as..."

"Nope, I am not getting talked down to again. Not now." I scoffed and cloaked, causing her to raise an eyebrow, now visibly concerned. She looked around frantically.

"Hey! Where did you go? Show yourself!"

I could see the fear in her eyes. Not a very well trained guard if you ask me. I ended up appearing behind her with my sword to her throat. She growled, trying to buck me. I intercepted the attack and threw her onto the bed. Before she could get up, I put my arm against her throat. Tight, but not tight enough to choke her. She looked at me, still scowling with narrowed eyes. My eyes were showing anger and I could see it in the reflection of hers.

"Let me make one thing clear. I don't care if you're my personal guard. If you talk like that to me again, I will make sure that Celestia hears how rude you've been so far. You've only spoken one sentence and I already want to slit your throat."

I sighed, trying to calm down. Getting angry like this wouldn't get me anywhere. I chose to release her and offer her a hand. She slapped it away and got up, walking towards the door.

"Whatever. I don't have to be in the room to guard you. And trust me, if you ever speak to me in that way again, you'll be going through the window. I could always make an excuse as to how you fell out."

Before I could reply, she slammed the door shut. I sighed, sitting down on the bed, my hands against my head.

"What a great fucking start to the day."

Setting things straight.

"Of course. Why would I expect any meat here? They're horses."

After the altication with my new "personal guard" earlier, I decided to take a venture around the castle. It wasn't long until some of the guards spotted me. Strangely enough, they didn't escort me back to my room or tattle to Celestia that I was being a nuisance. No. Instead, they had told me that Celestia had given free reign to walk around the castle by myself, so long as I didn't stray too far without my personal guard.

Celestia was seeming pretty neat so far. Certainly better than her sister and my lackey. Speaking of which, she was currently sat with me at the dining table in the castle's massive dining area. She currently had a hay and lettuce sandwich while I was stuck with...well, the same.

Note to self. Never try to eat hay again.

After my...interesting "meal", I stood up, ready to venture around some more. I was about to leave the dining hall when I felt something touch my back. I turned around to see Moon Dancer staring at me, her hoof retracting from my back and back down to the ground.

"My princess wishes to see you."

I was confused for a second. Wasn't her princess the bitchy one? The not Celestia one?

"Oh, you mean Luna or whatever her name is?"

She narrowed her eyes, growling slightly. "You will refer to her as Princess Luna."

I rolled my eyes, waving her off and walking out of the door. "Yeah yeah. Whatever, Moonie."

Another growl. "I told you about that name!"

I chuckled, closing the door behind us, Moon Dancer following as I walked down the hallway, trying to pretend that I knew where I was going.

It didn't work.

I looked at Moon Dancer, a smirk on her face. "What? What's so funny?"

She scoffed. "You're like a stray kitten. Follow me. My princess's room is this way." She turned around, ushering me to follow. I sped up to walk alongside her rather than behind her. She took a glance when she noticed. I looked forward, despite opening my mouth to speak.

"So, what's your princess's problem with me?"

She shrugged, still walking forward, not taking another glance at me. "I don't know and quite frankly, I do not care. It isn't my buisness what problems my princess has with you. Although, seeing your attitude so far, I can somewhat understand."

I chuckled, ruffling her mane. She responded by snapping at my hand. I recoiled it back, narrowing my eyes. "Do that again and I'll cut your lips off."

She smirked again. "Of course you will. Anyway, we are here."

I took my attention away from Moonie to look at the door that was now in front of us. It was a near pitch black door with stars alligned all over it. I rolled my eyes.

"Gee, she couldn't make it more obvious that this was her room, huh?"

She pushed me forward with a hoof, which made me turn around and shoot her a glare. "Yeah yeah, I'm going."

She grinned. "I'll be outside. Please try to not get lost again. I'm already getting tired of babysitting you."

I grumbled, choosing not to give a proper reply. I knocked a few times before I heard a voice come from the room.

"Come in."

I opened the door and closed it behind me, looking forward to see Luna sat on the bed. The bed cover had all of the night stars alligned perfectly. I scoffed quietly.

"She really loves the night sky, huh?"

She looked towards me and narrowed her eyes. "Ah, you. Come and sit with me. I wish to talk to you about something."

I shot her a confused look, but proceeded to walk forward and sit down next to her. "You want me to sit with you? Thought you hated my guts."

She sighed, looking at me. "I do not hate you, cre..."

I held up my hand, tired of hearing her say that. "Daemon. My name is Daemon."

She glared, but it quickly went away. "Daemon. I do not hate you. There are only a few beings in this world that I truly hate. You are not one of them. I just don't trust you."

I shrugged, positioning myself slightly on the edge of the bed. "I don't trust any of you either. I've only just got here from a completely different world or dimension. The one who's been nicest to me so far is your sister. You just gave me the cold shoulder for no reason as soon as you saw me."

She stood up and went to the window, reminding me a bit of me for a second. She looked down at the streets below, sighing. "I did not mean to come off as rude. I do apologise for that. But you must understand, we have had many, MANY threats to Equestria these past few years. And then all of a sudden, a completely new creature shows up? You must see why I was wary at first and still am."

I sighed as well, nodding. "Yeah, I suppose that makes sense. But as I said to your sister, I don't intend to bring any harm to anyone here at all unless they leave me no choice."

She turned around, snapping her head to me and narrowing her eyes slightly. "What do you mean by no choice?"

"Well, you know, if anyone tries to assault me. That's the only time I'll be forced to defend myself."

She seemed at ease with that answer, turning back around to face the window. "...I see. I guess that I cannot argue with that. Some of the nobles in this city grate on my nerves, I must admit. Their constant whining and racism to other species boils my blood at times. But know this. If any of them try to assault you, let me know. Even if I do not trust you yet, I do not want you harmed. I may be cold at times, but I am not evil. So long as you do not instigate anything, I will not take any action against you. Anyway, that is all I wanted to speak to you about. You may go now."

I nodded, choosing not to reply with anything substantial. I honestly just wanted to get out of there. I walked towards the door and opened it.

"Oh, by the way..."

I stopped and turned around, seeing her shoot a glare at me. "I know that my guard has been...less than friendly towards you. I have told her to straighten up her act. But, I would also appreciate if you didn't threaten one of my best guards. I won't warn you again. Now, be on thy way."

I was about to reply to with something snarky about her using old English all of a sudden, but I decided not to. No point digging myself an even bigger hole. I wasn't sure how powerful these two rulers were and I didn't really have the patience to find out for myself. I walked out, closing the door behind me. I spotted Moonie leaning against the wall opposite of Luna's room. She nodded when she saw me and ushered me to follow. She glanced at me.

"So, how did it go?"

I shrugged. "Went about as well as I expected." I sighed.

"Suppose I should try and get on Moonie's good side. It'll be a pain in the ass if I constantly have to squabble with my own personal bodyguard."

I stopped moving, to which she turned around and raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong?"

I held out my hand, to which she recoiled slightly for a second, probably expecting me to do something. She just looked at me, confused. I let a small smile spread across my features. She couldn't see it properly due to the mask, but I think she got the gist of what I was asking from her. She smirked and shook my hand with her hoof.

"Not sure how she did that without any fingers, but whatever."

I nodded and started moving again, walking towards my room. She coughed slightly.

"Don't think this makes us friends, bud."

I smirked. "Of course, Moonie."

She rolled her eyes. I was honestly expecting a worse reaction when I used that name again. "Whatever."

It had been a few hours since my conversation with Luna. Me and Moonie had been talking for a bit, getting to know each other more slightly. Honestly, she was a lot more interesting that I had thought at first and she actually seemed pretty sweet once you got past the cold and hard outside shell that she wore. We were currently sat down on my bed. She was reading a book about history. Specifically to do with war. I glanced over.

"So, you're into war history, huh?"

She nodded, smiling. "Yeah. My family have always been bred to be strong. My brother is currently in the Crystal Empire, serving under Prince Shining and Princess Cadance. My father and mother are still at home. They live in Silver Shoals. I haven't seen them in years. Me and my mother...don't really get on. We haven't for a long time."

I nodded slowly. "I see. Why don't you get on?"

She let out a sad sigh, putting the book down as she looked at me. "Honestly, it was really dumb. I was dating a stallion at the time, Star Catcher. He was a nice stallion. Friendly, intelligent and into history. We dated for a while, we got quite intimate. But, my mother did not approve."

I raised an eyebrow. "Why? Did he like beat you up or something?"

She scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Barely. He couldn't even lift a bottle, poor thing. No, she was racist against unicorns."

I nodded, knowing what it was like to have a racist family member. "Ah, racism. We have it back on my world."

"Really? How bad is it there?"

"Quite bad. There's been entire movements about it."

She sighed. "Sounds like here. It's ridiculous, honestly. It should matter what race somepony is. Should only matter what type of pony they are inside, not on the outside."

I nodded in agreement, finally feeling like me and her agreed on something. "Agreed. Anyway, what happened to him?"

I saw a single tear come from her eye. I looked at her in concern, not wanting to push the subject any further if it was going to make her uncomfortable. "Hey, don't cry. Sorry, I shouldn't have br..."

She raised a hoof, silencing me, before looking away. "No, it's fine. I'm just being a cry baby. If you want to really know, he was mauled by diamond dogs while on an adventure. He loved going on adventures, despite being as weak as a baby. It's something I always admired about him."

I stood up and looked outside the window. Honestly, it had become my favourite passtime to just watch the ponies below while I was in this room. I looked back at her after a minute, her eyes meeting mine. "Sorry to hear that. I'm sure he was a good pony."

She sniffed, trying to calm herself. "Yeah, he was. What about you? Have you lost anyone?"

I stiffened up at that, causing her to walk over to me and look at me. "I'm sorry, it was rude of me to ask."

I shivered slightly, trying to compose myself. When I calmed down, I looked at her and smiled. "Nah, don't worry about it. Just not a topic I usually discuss. Anyway, let's see what Celestia is doing, huh?"

Before she could reply, I walked out of the door. She rushed out with me, walking beside me. "Hey, look. About when we first met. I'm sorry that I was so...harsh. I'm a threstral. We are meant to be aggressive and strong. But it isn't an excuse for my cold behaviour, specially to somepony who doesn't even know how he got here. Truce?"

I smirked, holding my hand out and bumping her hoof. "Truce."

She smiled at that, walking besides me. We made it to Celestia's room fairly quickly. The guards noticed me and walked towards me, saluting. "Good Evening sir. The princess has informed us to let you in whenever she is in her room if you wish to speak with her. She is currently still running her day court, I'm afraid. We shall let her know that you came to see her once she is finished. She shouldn't be much longer."

I nodded in thanks. "Alright, no problem. Thank you for the info."

He saluted, nodding and walking back to his post. I turned around and looked at Moonie. "Well, what do you want to do?"

She tapped a hoof to her chin, before walking off, beckoning me to follow. "Come on, I want to show you something."

Confused, I walked to catch up to her, following without saying a word.

"Woah. This is...really calming."

I was currently sat with Moonie on a really comfy bench. She had taken me to the royal garden. Apparently Celestia had given me access to it, so long as I was with Moonie, so that was pretty cool of her. I'd have to thank her for that later.

The garden was massive. It had a fountain with a statue of what appeared to be a younger version of Celestia what was flowing very clean looking water. It had its own maze at the back, too.

"I'll have to go through that, eventually. Looks like fun."

I turned to Moonie, smiling. "Thanks for bringing me out here, Moonie. This place is beautiful."

She scoffed, rolling her eyes. "You're never going to stop calling me that, are you?"

I smirked, shaking my head. "Nope."

She chuckled, looking at the fountain with me. Before she could say anything else however, I heard a scream. Not from inside the castle or the garden, but from outside the castle. It came from the streets outside. It was night time, which made it even more concerned. Me and Moonie shared a look before I jolted off towards the wall of the castle and jumped over, surprising myself at how high I just jumped. I landed without any pain, looking at my legs and smirking.

"Heh, guess these babies will come in handy after all."

I heard Moonie flying over the wall and landing next to me. She put her hooves on me, trying to stop me from moving. "What do you think we're doing?! It's night time!"

I looked back at her and glared. "Someone needs help and I'm not about to just leave them on their own, with your help or without it. If you want, stay back. I can handle it." I heard her scoff, but I didn't give her a chance to respond. I dash off at a speed that I didn't know I had and ran into the streets. The streets themselves were fairly empty, the odd pony walking past and staring at me in shock and confusion as I rushed past them. Then, I heard it again.

The exact same scream. It was coming from an alley to my left. I turned around and stood next to the outside wall of the alley. I peaked around the corner and saw what looked to be a bunch of bulky ponies surrounding what appeared to be a young female. I scowled. I knew exactly what was going down and I wasn't about to let it happen.

Not again.

I cloaked, entering the alley and hiding behind a garbage can. I could hear them laughing, taunting the young female. One of them spoke up.

"What have we here? A nice, scrumptious looking mare, all ready for the taking. Right, boys?"

He nodded to his cronies, all of them nodding back. The mare tried to back off, her back hitting the wall of the alley.

"Please don't...if you let me go, you can have all the money in my wallet, I swear!"

They looked at each other and laughed, walking towards her slowly. "Oh, we'll take your money, but not before we've had the main course first."

She cowered and fell on the floor, sobbing. Before they could get any closer, I decloaked behind one of his cronies, tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and gasped. I smirked.

"Boo."

The pony screamed and ran off, leaving his other cronies behind. They all shouted at him to come back, but he was already gone. The main one scoffed and rolled his eyes, facepalming...or should I say, facehoofing.

"Just can't get the ponies nowadays...guys, show this idiot who he's messing with."

They all nodded, smirking as they started to corner me. I took my sword out of my shealth, showing the traditional finger sign of "come get some".

They all growled as they charged me. One of the earth ponies tried to charge into me, only for me to dodge, grab him by the throat and throw him into the wall next to me, a satisfying crunch echoing across the alley as I heard his spinal cord snap. I smirked.

"Damn. Guess this shit also changed my strength and agility. I'm not complaining."

The others gasped as they watched their friend slither down to the floor, eyes closed and mouth wide open. The unicorn of the group tried to cast a spell on me (I had read up about how unicorns can use levitation and other spells while I was at the castle. Gotta thank Celestia for that later on), only for the magic to dissipate as it covered me. The pony looked confused, fear visible in his eyes. "What the hay are you?!"

I grinned behind my mask. "Nothing you would know of."

I rushed towards him at high speed and sliced his horn off, causing him to scream in agony and writhe in pain on the floor. The other ones had already ran off before he fell to the ground, scared that the same might happen to them. The only one left standing now was the leader. He was a bulky pegasus. He was scowling at me, ready to charge. He started to flap his wings and took off into the air.

"I don't know what the buck you are, but you'll pay for this!"

He flew towards me at high speed. Old me would have already been dead.

But I wasn't the old me anymore.

I dodged out of the way, causing him to hit the wall, not expecting me to be able to move so fast. He hit his head and crumped to the ground, crying out in pain. He rubbed his head with his hoof as I threw a shurikin at his face, the star barely missing him as he dodged. He started to sweat, knowing that he narrowly just avoided a spiky, painful demise. He tried to charge at me again, only for me to cloak, causing him to panic and frantically turn his head in every direction, searching for where I could have gone.

"Where have you gone you fre..."

Before he could finish, I uncloaked and dashed towards him, my sword now lodged deep into his stomach. He screamed as he fell to the floor, blood pouring out of his mouth. He eventually ceased every movement, his eyes wide open, not moving an inch. I sighed and cleaned the graffiti off of my sword, the graffiti can attached to my sword now empty. I'd have to put a new one on there. I sheathed my sword and looked towards the mare, who I had honestly forgotten about for a second in the heat of the battle. I rushed over to her, causing her to try and back away. She looked down at the floor, crying. I put my hand on her, trying to calm her. She initially tried to bat me away, but she eventually looked up at me and threw herself on me, causing me to gasp as she crushed me. "I don't know who or what you are, but thank you thank you thank you!"

I smiled, despite feeling like I couldn't breathe. "Hey, happy to help and all, but do you mind getting off of me? You're sorta crushing me..."

She opened her eyes and gasped, letting go, allowing me to breathe. "I'm sorry..."

I shook my head, offering her a hand. She didn't understand at first, so I just picked her up and got her back on her feet. "No problem, miss. You should probably head home now. Probably not a good idea to stick around incase this guy's friends come back."

She nodded, smiling and hugging me once again. "Thank you! I won't forget this!"

She rushed off out of the alley, turning left and out of sight. I sighed, looking at the bodies. The unicorn was still breathing, however, he was knocked out. Probably from the sheer pain of losing his horn. Before I could do anything else, I heard a voice behind me.

"Daemon! What the hell..."

I recognised the voice immediately. Moonie flew up to me, looking around at the chaos. I turned to her, blooding still on my clothes. "This guy's were trying to rape a young mare. I managed to take out one of them and their leader. The unicorn over there had his horn removed, but he's still alive. The others fled. The mare is safe now. She's ran home."

Moonie looked at me and then towards the now unconcious unicorn. She nodded at me, smiling. "I...I appreciate what you've done here. A lot. I'll make sure to tell the princess's about this. I'd usually not condone you hurting anypony, but these cretins had it coming. Probably apart of one of the local gangs, no doubt. They love to prey on young mares, especially around this area at night. I'll take the unicorn to Canterlot's main hospital. Make sure he's stable and then I'll bring him in for questioning. You better get out of here. You know the way back, right?"

I nodded. "You going to be alright on your own with him? What about the bodies?"

She nodded, looking at the two bodies. "I'll get someone to clean them up, don't worry. Just get back and I'll sort this."

I walked off, running back to the castle. I heard Moonie sigh before I left.

"What a mess."

Author's Note

New chapter. Huzzah!

Do a good deed, reap the rewards.

A few weeks had passed since the incident with the street thugs and the young mare. Ever since then, I'd been going out on the streets more. Word had spread pretty quickly that I had saved one of the town members from one of the local gangs and I had been praised for it. Hell, the ponies would greet me when I was outside whenever I walked past them.

Of course, there was still the odd noble who would give me a dirty look, but eh, can't please them all.

When the princess's heard of my deed, they were impressed and grateful, especially Celestia. Luna seemed to have gained more trust in me the past few weeks. She was still somewhat wary around me but nowhere near as much as she was when she saw me for the first time.

Moonie and me had also gotten closer over the weeks. We would dedicate a bit of time everyday to just sitting down and speaking to each other about our lives. She went more into detail about her family and why her mother was racist against unicorns, while she learned about how my sister had unfortuantely been...violated when she was younger, a lot like those thugs were about to do to that poor, young mare. Probably why it boiled my blood so much.

The unicorn that had his horn cut off by me recovered after a few days in hospital. He was then questioned by none other than Luna and Celestia. He had been sentenced to exile and to never return.

Pretty satisfying if you ask me.

All and all, it had been an uneventfull few weeks. But, I was glad that I had saved that mare. It honestly made me feel like I did something good for someone who was in a shitty situation. It also turned out that the mare was the daughter of one of the wealthiest and most looked up to ponies in the entire city. Fancy Pants, I think his name was.

He met me a few days after to give me his personal gratitude. He told me that if I ever needed any help around the city to ask him and he would see what he could do. A really friendly pony, overall.

Currently, I was sat with Moonie, her reading her books as usual and me sitting at the window as usual. The room was completely silent. Well, until Moonie broke it, that is.

"Why is your voice like that, Daemon?"

I blinked at the question, it surprising me. "Erm, it's to do with the change that I went through. Where did that question come from and why ask me now?"

She shrugged. "I'm not sure. I just never bothered to ask until now. Honestly, it sounds pretty cool. I'd die for a voice like that."

I chuckled. "Look at you. I remember when we met a few weeks ago and you threatened to throw me out of a window. Now look at you, being all modest with me. So, what are our plans for today?"

She got up off of the bed, shaking her fur, not so different from a dog or a cat. She rolled her eyes, a slight smirk on her face. "Yeah yeah. That threat still applies. I suppose we could go and visit the local Canterlot resturant, if you're up for a bite to eat. I hear they do the nicest hay bacon."

I looked at her with a deadpan expression. "Hay bacon? That's a thing now?"

She nodded, seemingly unfazed by my deadpan stare. "It's been a thing for years and years."

I groaned, not wanting to eat more hay. "I don't want to have to eat more food made for horses. I'll pass."

She smirked. "They also do meat as well. And quite frankly, I could die for some steak right now."

I raised an eyebrow at her, confused and all of a sudden, very hungry. "Wait, you eat meat? But you're a pony?"

She rolled her eyes, ushering me out of the room with her. "I told you before, I'm a threstral. We eat meat. Although we are a subspecies of pony, we are very different in our cultures and other things."

I walked next to her, closing the door behind me. I looked around the hallway, looking at the many paintings. Most of them were relatively famous ponies and some other species, like dragons and the such. There were some war paintings as well. Celestia had talked to me about them about a week ago, about how the ponies went to war against the griffins and the dragons at one point in this world's existence.

Pretty damn brutal from how she talked about it. She said that she'd been in them. I didn't believe her at first, thinking it was a joke, considering the wars had been thousands and thousands of years ago. But when she told me that she was indeed over 1000 years old...I surprisingly took it quite well. I thought I would have been more skeptical when she had told me her age, but with everything else that had happened so far, I suppose I was growing numb to all the crazy shit. So anything new what was just as crazy was swept under the rug, essentially. She had also told me that Luna was with her in those times, fighting alongside her. That honestly didn't surprise me. Since I'd been here, I'd always got the feeling that Luna loved glory and such, so to hear that she was in a few wars...it made sense to me.

It wasn't long before we were both out of the castle, Moonie leading me towards the resturant. I'd walked past this place a few times in the past few weeks, but I had never bothered to actually go in and see what it was like. Food wasn't on my mind at the time. I've mainly been eating cookies and other sweet things.

I know, it's not a healthy diet. But trust me, when it's either cookies or hay sandwiches, you'd go for the cookies.

Well, I hope you would.

We both walked in, Moonie apparently already having made a reservation for both of us. I'd have to ask her when she got around to doing that, because this is the first time that I'd heard of it.

I sat down alongside her, our waiter asking us what we'd like to order. I looked on the menu and nearly drooled at the sight. Moonie wasn't bullshitting me. There was indeed a meat menu, specifically for other races whenever they visited the city. I ordered a medium steak, while Moonie ordered a hay and bacon sandwich and some ribs.

It still honestly baffled me how the hay and bacon thing even existed. Ponies are fucking weird.

"Hey, you doing alright there?"

I snapped out of my thoughts to see Moonie now staring at me, showing some concern on her face. I nodded, leaning back in my chair, stretching my legs out. "Yeah, I'm good. Just tired."

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I'd not been sleeping very well recently. Constant nightmares of my parents kept me from going to sleep for the most part. So, I instead chose to wander the halls or the streets at night. The guards had usually stopped me a few times at night whenever I was wandering the halls to see if everything was alright. Whenever I told them that I was just taking a stroll around the castle to clear my head, they'd salute and leave me alone.

They were honestly pretty cool. Once you got past that stoic, drone like shell they wore on the outside.

But yeah, Moonie, Celestia and surprisingly even Luna were becoming increasingly concerned at my lack of sleep. I was swill switched on and fully functional, though. It was strange. It was as if this change had made me more resistant to the effects of losing sleep. I didn't understand it and I wasn't about to try, honestly. I had stopped caring. But that wasn't the case for the others. Moonie would constantly ask if I was okay, Celestia would constantly mither me like my mother used to and Luna would always try and make sure that whenever I did sleep, my dreams weren't absolute shit.

Yeah, I found out that Luna was the watcher of dreams and could help people with their dreams if they turned into nightmares. You'd expect me to react to that piece of info with shock, surprise or even fear. But nope. When I saw her watching from outside my bedroom window in one of my now-regular nightmares, I didn't even really care. I figured there was always more to her than meets the eye and I guess I found out.

Moonie tapped her hoof on the table, clearly agitated. "Daemon, you've not been sleeping. It's my job as your guard to make sure that you're not dead."

I shrugged, smirking. "I know. Maybe I should just off myself so that you get a stern talking to."

She looked at me with an extremely deadpan stare. "Don't say that."

Still grinning, I looked to my right to see that the waiter was coming with our food. I licked my lips, not being able to wait any longer to have some actual proper food for the first time since I'd ended up here. The plate was placed in front of me, the fresh meat in front of me letting off steam. The smell was orgasm inducing.

The waiter gave Moonie her dish. She looked at her steak and sandwich, to which she also licked her lips. I smirked. Seems like I wasn't the only one who was hungry.

I finished my steak in about a minute, scoffing it down as fast as possible. I burped loudly, happily leaning back. Moonie scowled at me as she continued to eat her sandwich, having finished her steak nearly as fast as I had.

"Jesus, could you at least have some manners and dignity?"

I shook my head. "Nope. Sorry, Moonie. Steak was just that fucking good."

She rolled her eyes, looking around to see the other ponies not even taking notice to my little release of gas. She finished her sandwich, starting to drink her water. I had opted for a soft drink. Yeah, even I was surprised when I found out when the ponies sold soft drinks. Colt-A-Cola they called it.

I know. I facepalmed and cringed at first too, don't worry.

We talked a bit longer, occasionally sharing a chuckle. "So then I said, fuck you buddy, I'll bum you."

Moonie laughed with a slight blush. I forgot how easy she was to fluster, even when I wasn't directing it towards her. "Why would you want to bum someone who had just killed you in...what was it, a video game?"

I nodded, crying from the laughter. "Yeah, that's it. Video games were ways for my kind to enjoy themselves when they have nothing else to do. I played a lot of war games and other things. But about the bumming thing, it was just a dumb insult that me and my friends used to sh..."

I suddenly went stiff, going silent. Moonie looked at me in concern, leaning over slightly. "Daemon? Daemon, you alright? What's wrong?"

I suddenly shook myself back into reality, shaking my head. "Don't worry, it's nothing."

She shot me a sad smile. "You're missing your loved ones, aren't you?"

I sighed. "I'm that easy to read, huh?"

She rolled her eyes, a shit eating grin on her face. "You're easier to read than a children's book."

I scoffed, standing up, her following as we walked out of the resturant, having already paid the bill for the food. "Yeah yeah, whatever. I'll be fine."

Moonie walked beside me, nudging into me. "Hey, come on. I was only joking."

I looked at her, sighing as I smiled at her, rubbing the top of her head, ruffling her ears. She had started to like that over the past two weeks. It'd been pretty cute when she first squeaked when I did it for the first time.

I still have the mark from where she bucked me. Note to self, never surprise a bat pone.

"I know. It ain't you, don't worry. Anyway, I'm going to go and talk to Celestia about something. You can go back to our room if you want."

She raised an eyebrow, smirking. "Our room, huh? Next you'll ask me out on a date."

I rolled my eyes, smirking back. "You wish. Anyway, I'll see you later." She looked at me, nodding but slightly concerned still.

"You sure you don't want me to come with you?"

I shook my head. "Nah. Thanks, but I need to talk to her in private."

She nodded, nudging me and hoof bumping me as she walked off. I watched her walk off, smirking to myself. "And to think, at first, she wanted to murder me. How things change."

Author's Note

Sorry if these last two chapters haven't been massive. I promise that I'll make it up to you guys in the next chapter.

An army rises.

"Mom!"

I woke up for the third night in a row, sweating and hyperventilating. I calmed down after a few moments of silence, realising that it was just another nightmare. I had been plagued with nightmares of my parents for a while now and somehow, I wasn't feeling the effects of the sleep loss. I rubbed my head, it throbbing slightly.

"What, am I immune to no sleep now? Ugh..."

I got out of bed, picking up my sword and sheathing it. I looked at the clock across from me.

3AM. Same time that I've been waking up practically every night.

I heard my door open slightly, causing me to snap my head towards it. I calmed down when I saw Moonie standing there. She walked towards me, nodding.

"Wanted to check on you. I heard you screaming again."

I rolled my eyes, smirking. "Nice to see that you care. Shouldn't you be asleep?"

She scoffed, booping my shoulder with one of her hooves. "Don't push it, smart guy. Nah, I'm nocturnal, remember? I can sleep later in the day if I need to. More importantly, have you been sleeping recently? I've been hearing you cry out in your sleep whenever I've passed by your room at night and it's starting to concern me. Is it about your home?"

I nodded, stretching my neck and popping it, sighing in relief as my muscles loosened up. "Somewhat, yeah. I don't want to talk about it right now, honestly. Mind if we go for a walk? I won't get back to sleep anyway."

Moonie looked out of the window towards the castle garden. She looked back at me and ushered me to follow. I complied and closed the door behind me as we went out into the hallway. I caught up to her, walking next to her. I saw in the corner of my eye that she was looking at me. I turned my head to her and she looked away. I raised an eyebrow, slightly confused.

"Yo, Moonie, you okay there?"

She nodded quite rapidly, speeding up slightly. "Of course. Just thinking. Isn't important."

I shrugged, not caring enough at the moment to follow it up. If it was important, she'd tell me eventually. For now, I just wanted to get to the garden and chill for a bit. Try and forget that damn nightmare.

We walked out of big castle doors and walked towards the garden. We sat down on one of the benches, Moonie having brought a book with her. I smirked. "Reading again, huh?"

She nodded, a slight smile on her face. "Yup. Want a read?"

I waved my hand, looking away. "Nah, I'll pass."

I heard her sigh, seeing that she had turned her attention back to the book. "Suit yourself. So, how're you and Celestia doing now?"

It had been a few days since the incident with Celestia. I had seen her a few times around and she had tried to talk to me, but I had just brushed her off. I just didn't feel comfortable talking with her at the moment.

"Eh, same as we were before. I still don't feel comfortable talking to her."

I heard Moonie sigh again, now looking at me. "Daemon, you're going to have to talk to her at one point. I understand that you're home sick and I do sympathise, but it isn't her fault and you know that. You're no doubt making her feel guilty and that isn't fair on her."

Now it was my time to let out a heavy sigh. "Yeah yeah, I know. I'll try and talk to her the next time I see her."

"Promise?"

I nodded. "Promise."

She smiled. She turned back to her book and we sat in silence for a good while. I was busy losing myself in the statue near me. It was a statue of Celestia and Luna, gracefull and really tranquil. I was so lost that I didn't pick up on the shadow walking up to us.

"Hello, Moon Stalker. Daemon."

For the 2nd time that night, I snapped my head around to the sound. I saw Moonie next to me, staring at the figure too.

Celestia.

"For fuck's sake...here we go."

I nodded. "Celestia. What brings you here?"

She smirked slightly, walking closer towards us which honestly made me somewhat uncomfortable. She noticed this and backed off slightly, putting on a more serene look. "I wanted to see if you two were okay. I came to your room but when I realised that it was empty, I assumed that you would be here. I've noticed that you usually come here when you can't sleep."

She pointed at the bench that we were sitting on. "Mind if I sit down?"

Moonie moved over, smiling at Celestia. "Of course, your highness." She started looking at me and ushering me to do the same. I rolled my eyes and complied.

"Sure, knock yourself out."

She nodded in thanks and sat down. I forgot how tall she actually was compared to the other ponies that I'd met while I'd been here. She looked towards me after a while as I looked away.

"Daemon, I know that you're still angry at me, but please hear me out. I am still trying my very best to help you get home. Luna is helping me to the best of her ability too."

I raised an eyebrow at that last comment. "Luna helping to get me home? I'm surprised."

She fidgeted uncomfortably, looking at Moonie. "Moon Stalker, do you mind if I talk to Daemon here alone?"

She shook her head, smiling. "Of course not, princess. I'll head back to his room and wait for him when you're finished."

She waved at me as I looked back at her, silently begging her not to leave me alone with her. She just smirked and shook her head, walking off. I silently shook my head.

"You better pray to keep those wings of yours, Moonie, I swear to god."

I looked away, standing up and unsheathing my sword, holding it out in front of me and meditating. Over the past week, I'd picked up meditating to some degree. I was becoming more like Daemon personality wise than I thought. Was starting to get weird.

Celestia coughed behind me. I opened my ears to listen, but I didn't bother turning my head.

"I am sorry for not being able to help you as much as I want to. Seriously. I know what it's like to be homesick."

I scoffed, looking up at the night sky.

"You're home. I don't see how you could feel homesick."

She stood up, walking behind me, causing me to sit up and turn around slightly. She looked at me with a serious expression. Not exactly stern or such, just serious.

"That doesn't mean that I don't know what it feels like to miss your home, Daemon. I am over a 1000 years old. I may not be the smartest pony around, but I have been alive long enough to experience more than most think. Trust me when I say that I understand how painful it must be."

I sighed, sheathing my sword. "Yeah, I get it. It's not your fault. But I just...I just don't know what to fucking do. I'm effectively stranded on an alien planet as a fictional character. I just feel like I'm going insane."

I felt a hoof on my shoulder, causing me to turn around to see Celestia smiling softly at me. "I am always here for you, Daemon, as Moon Stalker and the others are. Even Luna is here for you. I know that she was rather...abrasive when you two originally met..."

I scoffed, smirking. "You can say that again."

She chuckled, but continued. "Quite...anyway, as I was saying, we are all here for you. I might not exactly understand how you became what you are and why you got brought here, but I will do everything in my power to make sure that everything is fixed for you."

For the first time in days, I smiled. A genuine smile, even if she couldn't really see it completely due to the stupid demon mask that was bound to my face. "Thank you. I apologise for being such a brat this past week. Just needed to clear my head. Didn't mean to direct it towards you, I know it isn't your fault."

She smiled, hugging me slightly. I didn't know how to react, so I just stood there. She pulled away after a few seconds, turning around and ushering me to go with her. "Thank you, Daemon. Now, let us return to your room. I imagine Moon Stalker is wondering if I've murdered you yet."

I smirked, scoffing slightly. "Right. Let's go."

Just outside Canterlot, an army was forming. An army that was familiar with this cursed place. An army that needed to win and could not afford any distractions. Their lives depended on it.

"My queen, our plan of attack is ready to be started. Shall we proceed?"

The queen of the changelings nodded. Chrysalis, the ruler of the changeling hive. The general pony population thought that she was doing this for her own gain and they couldn't be more wrong. She was doing this for her hive. For her people. If she didn't do this, they wouldn't last another winter. They were starving and their home was rapidly degrading to nothingness. She had been planning this for a very long time, ever since they were denied food the last time that they had been here.

"Twilight Sparkle..." She hissed at the thought of that name. Her and her "friends" had made it so that she couldn't feed her babies. Yes, she may have hypnotised Shining Armour and she maybe trapped Princess Cadance in the Canterlot mines, but she had no other option. She had tried before to negiotiate with Princess Celestia and she just wouldn't have it. She only cared about her own. So long as her ponies were safe, she didn't care about any other species.

Yes, even she admits, she could have handled the Canterlot situation better, but they were starving. And they still were. This was the 2nd time that they had no choice. But this time, she was prepared for the elements and everything else that the ponies could throw at them. If the ponies wouldn't give them the love that they desired, then they would take it by force.

She cheered, pointing at the massive mountain like city in front of her. "Go, my children! Go and take Canterlot so that we may feed and get the love that we deserve!"

The changelings around her cheered and pushed forward, charging as fast as they could. She sighed.

"To think we've come to this."

I was currently sat in my room with Moonie. I had talked to Celestia more as we had walked back and I was thankful that we had started chatting again. I still felt somewhat guilty that we didn't make up sooner and it was completely my fault for being such a little bitch about the situation, but hey ho, at least it was sorted now. I looked towards Moonie, looking down at her book.

"What are you reading there, Moonie?"

She hummed, still looking at the book. "A romance novel about two ponies who are so different from each other, but the more time that they spend together, the more that they realise that they both are very much alike in some ways."

I chuckled, crossing my legs and meditating. "I was never into romance."

She looked at me, a smirk spread across her face. "Couldn't handle the ladies, huh?"

I scoffed, slapping her lightly on the back of her head. She snarled, flaring her wings. "What was that for?!"

Now I smirked, my eyes closing as I focused my meditation. "No reason. Just felt like doing it."

After a few moments with no response, I opened one eye to see that Moonie had disappeared. The hell?

I looked around, slightly confused. "Moonie? Where the fuck did you..."

I suddenly heard a roar above me and before I could react, Moonie had jumped me, landing on my chest, slightly knocking the wind out of me. She smirked down at me, licking her lips. "Awh, what's the matter? Did I make you jump?"

I shoved her off of me onto the bed, causing her to snarl again. I jumped off of the bed and unsheathed my sword, smirking behind my mask. "Do you really want to try this with me, Moonie? I wouldn't suggest it."

She flapped her wings and dashed towards me. I rolled out of the way, grabbing her tail mid-roll and throwing her back onto the bed. She bared her fangs and rammed into me, knocking me onto the floor. I spun her around so that she was underneath me. She looked up at me, her anger now dissipating into...embarassment?

"Moonie, what's up?"

She pushed me off of her, coughing and standing up. "Nothing, don't worry about it."

"That was weird. Wonder what..."

A sudden loud sound from outside broke my train of thought. Both me and Moonie rushed towards the window, looking down at the streets. It looked like...what the hell was that?

"Oh no..."

I looked at Moonie, confused. "What? What's going on?"

She took on a serious expression, which honestly concerned me. She rarely ever had that type of expression on her face, especially when she was around me. Whatever this was, it was serious.

"I'll explain on the way there. We've got to get to the princesses."

Before I could even think of replying, she flew out of the room, causing me to raise an eyebrow. I looked back down at the streets below and saw what appeared to be a...bug pony?

"What in the actual fuck is that thing?"

It was surrounded by a bunch of smaller bug pony things. They were pillaging and destroying the houses, setting aflame to the once fairly tranquil street that Daemon had spent so much of his time looking down at. I sighed, unsheathing his sword.

"Can't catch a break, can I?"

I ran out of the room as fast as I could, heading towards Celestia's throne room.

"So, let me get this straight, an evil bug pony has come to suck the love out of everyone?"

Celestia nodded. "Basically, yes."

"And she has done this before?"

Another nod, this time from Luna. "Indeed, Daemon. She and the rest of her race are a leech to every species that can feel emotion. We cannot let her drain our citizens of their love. The last time that she attacked, I was unfortuantly...not around."

Celestia rolled her eyes, nudging Luna. "What she means is that she was asleep the entire time."

Luna blushed slightly, something that I hadn't seen yet. Was surprisngly cute.

"Anyway, we must not let her get away with this. I will head her forces off at the west gate of the city."

She pointed a hoof towards Moonie. "Moon Stalker, you will assist my sister here."

Moonie bowed, kneeling down as much as she could. "Yes, my princess."

I looked at Luna and then back at Moonie, a slight glare to my eyes. "Could at least show some respect to your best guard, you b..."

Celestia nodded, nuzzling her. "Stay safe, sister. We will do everything we can to stop her from getting into the castle."

With that, Luna flew off, leaving just me, Celestia and Moonie. Celestia looked at us both, a serious and concerned look on her face. "Moon Stalker, are you capable to fight?"

She nodded, saluting. "Of course, your highness. What about Daemon here?"

I rolled my eyes, scoffing. "I'm not a stray dog, you know. I can handle myself."

Celestia turned around, looking out of the window next to her throne. She sighed heavily. "Daemon, I do not take pride in asking this and I wish that I did not have to, but could you assist Moon Stalker? I've heard that your combat skills are quite...formiddable."

I raised an eyebrow. "Where'd you hear that? I haven't told you about..."

Moonie nudged me, smirking slightly. "I told her what you did to those goons in the alleyway."

Celestia had known about that incident, that much I know. She was the ruler of this place, after all. Nothing really escapes her. But I never knew that Moonie had filled her in on the exact details as to what I did to those idiots.

I didn't know what to think of that. I didn't want Celestia to see me as a violent person. It might hurt her trust in me and therefor, hurt my chances of getting out of this place.

Celestia nodded. "She indeed did and do not worry, Daemon. They deserved what was coming to them. I love my little ponies and I do not wish any harm to come to them, but when we get ponies such as those who like to take advantage of innocent ponies and bring harm to them, I have no sympathy for what their fate ends up being. Anyway, we have much more at stake right now. I will remain here and attempt to cut them off. Moon Stalker, gather your night guards and head to the eastern gate. Take my guards as well. You may need the extra support."

She nodded and saluted. "Yes, your highness." Before she could leave, I put my hand on her, causing her to look at me in confusion. I smiled behind my mask.

"I'l stay with Celestia and try to keep them from getting in this place. Take care alright, Moonie? I'd hate to have to save your sorry ass."

She smirked, scoffing. "As if you could." Her expression softened as she hugged me. The same as when Celestia hugged me, I didn't know how to respond. But after a moment, I concided and hugged back, causing her to hum happily. "Take care please, Daemon. Seriously. Are you sure you don't want to come with me?"

I nodded my head, patting her on the head. "I wish I could, but I suppose I should make sure Celestia here is alright. She may need help."

Celestia nodded in thanks, walking up to me and putting a hoof on my shoulder. "While I highly appreciate the sentiment Daemon, you can go with Moon Stalker here if you wish to. I will be fine on my own. I still have some of my guards as well to help."

I shook my head, budging her hoof off of my shoulder. "Don't worry about it. I don't want to cramp Moonie's style here. I trust her. She's a great fighter. She'll be fine."

Moonie smiled sincerely at that. "Thank you...I think. Be careful."

"Yeah yeah, now get g..."

A soft pair on lips landed on my cheek, only for a split second. I instinctively put my hand up to the area as I looked at Moonie in shock.

"See ya, stud."

She smirked and flew off. I heard Celestia chuckle behind me. "I've never seen Moon Stalker so relaxed around somepony before. She must really like you."

I rolled my eyes. "Eh, I'm never sure with that girl. One minute she wants to kill me, the next she's kissing my cheek. Anyway, more importantly, what is our plan of action?"

Celestia put her serious look back on, nodding and walking towards the door of the castle, ushering some of her remaining guards to her.

"We hold this castle. She cannot be allowed to get in here."

I nodded, unsheathing my sword and smirking behind my mask.

"Let's tear it up."

Author's Note

Things be getting interesting, I think.

Sorry it took so long. I've been quite ill and I just wasn't in the mind set to write. If all goes well, the next chapter should be up by tomorrow.

Damn it.

"Shit, watch out!"

A bolt of magic blast past one of the guards, almost hitting her in the face. She nodded her thanks at me and continued battling the oncoming horde of changelings. I parried one who thought it was smart to take me one on one.

It didn't work out well for him.

His head fell off of his shoulders, blood pouring from the neck. I smirked, readying my sword once more. "Come on, is that all you freaks have got?!"

I heard a massive explosion behind me. I snapped my head around to see the changeling who I had spotted earlier.

Chrysalis. The queen of these weirdos. I dodged an oncoming swipe from a changeling to my side and kicked it in the face, knocking it out clean. Before I could recover from the kick, I was pulled backwards and towards the queen. She held me in her magic, licking her lips and smirking.

"My my, what do we have here?"

I felt the magic...loosen up on me? The insect seemed as shocked as me, except she wasn't grinning like me. "Seems like that trick won't work, queenie." I cloaked and got behind her, grabbing her and throwing her into the nearest wall. She grunted, rubbing her forehead. I readied my sword for the final blow, but she lunged at me from the floor, pinning me down. A row of sharp fangs emerged from her now open maw as she tried to bite down on my neck. She missed by an inch as I movied my head and used my legs to kick her off of me. I flipped back onto my metal feet, silently thanking my martial arts skills as I threw a shuriken at her. It hit her one of her forelegs, making her scream and fall to the floor. Green, disgusting liquid started to poor out of her leg slowly. She looked up at me from the floor and growled.

"You'll pay for that, cretin!"

Her horn lit up, a glow surrounding it and her leg. As she started to heal herself, I lunged towards her and kicked her in the face, making her tumble against the same wall that she did earlier. Her eyes rolled back into her head. I walked up to her, about to swipe my sword down, before I heard a scream from quite a way away. And I recognised it all too well.

"Moonie!"

I jumped out of a nearby window, not caring about Celestia or her guards at the moment. I know that sounded evil, but Moonie was the only thing on my mind right now. I heard another scream. Same voice. I picked up the pace, putting my prosthetics into full force, going faster than I ever thought was possible for a human. I eventually turned a corner and heard the same scream yet again.

It was the alleyway that I saved that girl from a while ago.

I ran into the alleyway and my eyes widened at what I saw. Dead threstrals everywhere. But there was one in the middle that caught my eye.

"Shit shit shit..."

I ran up to Moonie's unmoving body. She had blood on her face and one of her wings had been pulled off. I put my head down to her chest and sighed in pure relief as I heard her heart beat.

"Thank god...don't worry, Moonie. You're going to be okay. I'm going to get you some help."

I heard a chuckle behind me. I turned around, glaring at the thing. It was another bug freak. But this one was...rather bulky. It had a giant axe in its one of its hooves. It looked at me, readying its weapon.

"Too easy. I thought threstrals were supposed to be tough. What a..."

He grunted as I slammed my fist into him, sending him flying back. He fell onto his back, coughing up blood. He got back up onto his hooves and glared at me. "I don't know what you are, but you're going to pay for that."

I growled and readied my blade. I cloaked and, while he was confused, managed to get behind him and stab him. However, I found that my blade bounced off of his armour. I looked in confusion.

"The fuck?"

It grinned and before I could react, slammed the butt of its axe into me, sending me flying back. I landed with a thud, coughing slightly and grunting. I flipped back onto my feet, licking off the blood that was now on my bottom lip. "This one's going to be tougher than the others. Wait...what's that?"

I saw an opening on its neck. A part of its body what wasn't covered by armour. I grinned.

"Bingo."

I cloaked again, rushing into one of the alleyways close to us. I heard him chuckle and snarl. "Are you that much of a coward? I expected more from an unknown creature, but you're just as pathetic as those threstrals were!"

This guy was really starting to piss me off.

I jumped out of the alleyway, having disappeared fully from his sight. I rushed up to him while he was trying to find me and as I uncloaked, he snapped his head around, snarling at me and raising his axe. "Got you now you son of a..."

He didn't get to finish his sentence. I stood infront of him, my sword raised, my movements having ceased. He started to slowly gargle, then scream and then fall to the ground, lifeless. His neck was now slit open, a fountain of blood pouring from the massive wound. I sighed and sheathed my sword. I looked over to the still unconcious and seriously injured threstral that I had came to care for so much in such a short amount of time. I ran over to her and picked her up, wasting no time in rushing back to the castle.

A few hours had passed since Moonie had been seriously injured. I thankfully managed to get her to the princesses just in time. When I had gotten back to the castle with Moonie in my arms, Chrysalis had apparently been captured after I had knocked her ass out and she was currently in one of the holding cells underneath the castle. Celestia had apparently known where I had gone, her too hearing the scream. She knew how close me and Moonie had gotten, it seemed. Thankfully, her and her guards had handled the rest of the changelings in the castle. The remaining ones in the city had been routed and defeated. A lot of them were dead. The ones that were still alive had been placed in the holding cells, same as Chrysalis. Celestia and Luna planned to interrorgate her. When she woke up, that is. Luna seemed to be fine from her battle on the other side of the city too, it seemed. While I wasn't a massive fan of her, I didn't want her getting killed. If only for Celestia's sake.

Moonie was currently resting in bed. Celestia and Luna had used healing magic on her, causing her wounds to repair rapidly. Unfortunately, they couldn't replace the wing. She'd be stuck with one wing for the rest of her life. I sighed heavily.

"For fuck's sake. If only I hadn't let you go on your own, this might not have happened." I grunted and stood up, rubbing her mane softly. I walked out of the room, it being dark outside. I walked towards the entrance of the gardens. I walked out of the main doors and into the garden. I sat down on the bench that I usually sat down when I came here and looked up at the night sky. I then looked over to the streets outside. After Celestia and Luna had contained Chrysalis, the guards went around the city and made sure the civilians were safe. While some houses and stores were heavily damaged or straight up destroyed, they weren't that many civilian casualties, so that was at least some good news. The threstrals that I had seen dead in the alleyway were given a proper burial and a letter had been sent by Luna to the families.

"Goddamn changelings. They'll pay for this." I suddenly heard something behind me and then, a voice. "Hello, Daemon. May we sit with you?"

I sighed. I knew that voice. I shuffled over. "Sure, knock yourself out, Luna."

Even though me and the lunar princess were better with each other than when we first met, I still didn't fully trust her. Not as much as Celestia, anyway. She sat down and looked up at the sky. Well, her sky, I suppose. Princess of the night and all that. I heard her sigh sadly.

"I am sorry."

I raised an eyebrow at that. I turned to her.

"What for?"

She turned towards me, letting out yet another heavy sigh. "For how I have treated you since your arrival. You were an unknown creature to me and I do not trust easy. I did not want you bringing harm to my sister or my subjects. But, after seeing your acts of heroism with that girl all those weeks ago, how you defeated Chrysalis and how you managed to bring Moon Stalker to our aid...I thank you. And I mean that."

I looked at her in surprise and shock.

"Didn't expect you to appreciate me at all, but thank you. Honestly. What's happening with queen of the bug freaks?"

She chuckled at that insult, looking back up at the sky. "Chrysalis will be dealt with in time. We will question her when she awakes and see why she has done what she has done. Find out her motives. I can already guess why she has invaded again but we cannot be too sure. We do not need another higher power forcing her to do this."

I nodded. "Right. I just hope Moonie will be okay."

She smiled at me, putting a hoof on my shoulder. "You really care for her, don't you?"

I nodded again. "I do."

She sighed, standing up. She flexed her wings and stretched slightly. "Fear not, Daemon. She will be fine, I promise you. She just needs a few days of bed rest. Anyway, I am afraid that I must go. The dream world needs me. If you need anything, feel free to ask me or my sister. Farewell for now."

I waved. "Thank you. See ya."

She smiled at me, flying back into the castle. I looked down at the floor, putting my hand on my leg.

"What the actual fuck have I gotten myself into here..."

Getting some damn answers.

Author's Note

Just to let you guys and gals know, I've updated and rewritten some parts of the last chapter. I felt as if the interaction and battle between Daemon and Chrysalis was severely lacking and quite lazy. So, I have rewritten it to a slight degree. I feel as if it is much better now. I have also rewritten Moon Dancer's part, so I would advise you guys and gals to reread the last chapter before reading this one.

Once again, thanks and enjoy.

Getting some damn answers.

"Why?"

Another smack. My hand was now coated in green ooze. I cringed.

"Damn, it's like snot." I looked at the badly beaten changeling queen in front of me. She was currently on the floor in the cell along with me. It had been a few weeks since the changeling invasion and Moonie's injuries. Luna and Celestia had given me the okay to...question her. According to Celestia, it turns out that because I'm not from this world, magic doesn't work as strongly against me. Which would explain why I was able to break free from Chrysalis's hold. It doesn't really make a ton of sense to me, but I didn't care. All I cared about was teaching this damn bug not to mess with my loved ones.

Or loved one, I guess you could say in this instance.

The awful insectoid looked up at me, smirking. Cuts and bruises all over her face. "S-seems....like I've h-hit a nerve, huh?"

Yet another smack. That one shut her up. She cried out in pain and laid her head down on the floor. I knelt down, looking at her as she raised her head back up. "Listen, I just want to know why you did what you did. Doesn't need to be like this."

Oh, trust me, I wanted to slice the bitch open for what she did to the city and to Moonie, but I had to play it somewhat safe. Couldn't kill her just yet.

She scoffed, backing away from me. "Really expect me to care, creature? I don't even know what you are. Those ponies are the ones to blame for this."

I raised an eyebrow, leaning on my sword as I knelt down. "What do you mean? How are they at fault? You invaded them before, didn't you?"

I heard a deep chuckle come from her throat, looking at me with her slit eyes. "You wouldn't understand. You don't know us as we don't know you. The ponies are not as friendly as they seem. They treat us like outcasts. We didn't want to invade. We had no choice."

This was getting interesting. I sheathed my sword and sat down, crossing my legs as I draped my arms over my legs. She looked at me, one of her eyes staring at me while the other was closed now. Probably because I smacked her in that eye more times than I'd like to count. "You're not scared of me, are you?"

I shook my head. "Not in the slightest. To me, you're just a bug who was responsible for hurting someone I really care for."

She groaned slightly in pain, trying to stand up. Against my better judgement, I stood up and I offered her a hand. I had to show her some amount of kindness. Otherwise, she wouldn't spill the beans. She looked at it for a moment before grabbing it, helping herself up. She looked at me, brusing herself off slightly. "And who exactly may that be?"

I scoffed. "None of your business. Tell me more about why you invaded."

She returned the scoff, licking the green goop off of her lips. Assuming that was her blood at this point. Least I hoped it was. "Whatever you say, creature. As for why we invaded, we were starving. We still are. I tried to make a deal with Celestia in the past, only for her to shun us out. My race is dying. My children are starving to death. Tell me, creature..."

I was really getting fucking tired of her calling me creature.

"Daemon."

She looked at me, confused. "What?"

I crossed my arms, grunting. "My name is Daemon. I'd rather you use that."

She rolled her eyes, walking around the cell. "Fine. As I was saying, Daemon, do you have family? Loved ones, apart from the one that you mentioned?"

That hit me slightly. I had a fast vision of my parents leaving me again, like they had been doing in my nightmares. I shook my head, trying to get it out of my head and clear my thoughts. I opened her eyes. The cow was going to use this to her advantage, wasn't she? Probably part of her plan to try and manipulate me. Well, it wasn't going to work! "I bet as soon as I open my eyes, she's going to be..."

Giving me a sad smile?

I looked at her, confused as to why she was smiling. "Erm, why are you giving me that look?"

She kept the sad smile, sighing heavily. "Because, creat...Daemon, I am tired of all this. This fighting, this scavenging to survive. To keep my race alive. It gets tiring. We just want to be treated as equals. I know that I do not seem the type to be like that, but I've only been doing what I have been doing to keep my race alive. Surely you can understand that, right?"

I stood there, not reacting. What was this bitch trying to pull? Surely she couldn't be serious?

"And surely you can't expect me to believe you when you've literally just invaded the race that has took me in and cared for me since I've been here and hurt someone that I care deeply about. Even if you personally didn't hurt her, because of you, she won't ever be the same again. So forgive me if I don't buy your sob story."

She sighed again as she slumped down to the ground. She started to...cry? Jesus. Now I was starting to feel like a bit of an asshole. And I didnt' like that.

She looked up at me, her eyes filled with tears. "I hate this! I hate having to cause so much pain! And for what?! Just to survive! Those ponies are to blame! If they didn't..."

I walked up to her and put a hand on her. She stopped her rant and looked up at me. She obviously couldn't see because of the mask, but I was sporting a sad look on my face. As much as I wanted to kill this fucking bug, I just...I couldn't be that heartless. Not when she was sat here pouring her tears out about saving her own race. Still, I was feeling my anger rising as my mind went onto Moonie. I walked back to the cell door and looked back as I walked out, staring at her.

"I understand. Seriously, I do. But it's no excuse for what you've done.. I need to go. Celestia will probably be back down here later to question you more, I suspect." And before she could respond, I walked out, closing the door behind me. I could still hear her sobs as I walked down the hallway. I sighed. "This is getting too much for me."

"So, she was...crying?"

I nodded, leaning against the very window that I had looked out ever since I had ended up here. It still felt strange without Moonie in the room with me, even after all this time. She was still in her own room, recovering. Celestia had moved her to her own room about 2 weeks ago to give her some peace as she was resting, which I understood. I didn't want to postpone her healing even more by being an emotional idiot.

Speaking of the solar princess, she was stood next to me, looking out of the window as well. I let out a heavy breath of air as I watched the ponies below get back into their normal routines. "Yeah. She kept going on how about she only did all of this to save her race. She blamed you lot. She also mentioned a treaty that she was supposed to have with you and that you shunned her and her species. What's that about?"

I heard Celestia sigh, shaking her head. "It's a long story, but basically, she wanted food for her race. If it was normal food, that would have been completely acceptable and I would have helped. But, changelings feed on her love. Her condition was that we give a pony over every few months so that her race could feed. The issue is, eventually, the pony would become...void of emotion. A lifeless husk. And I couldn't bear that happening to any of my ponies. I suppose that I was quite selfish. I risked an entire species to save my own. And I can't even blame them. It's just in their nature. It's how the changeling race feeds."

I raised an eyebrow. Interesting. I'd never seen this side of Celestia before. I didn't think she could be selfish. She'd done nothing but made sure that I was comfortable ever since I got here. Went to extreme lengths to make sure that I was treated fairly. To hear this...it was strange. I could understand, but it was still odd to me to see this version of her. Regardless, I walked past her, heading towards the door.

"I'm going to go into the gardens and clear my head. Tell me what happens with Chrysalis whenever you decide to question her for yourself."

"Why does this have to be so goddamn complicated..." I sat there, in the castle's gardens, just thinking and rubbing my temple. Why did Moonie have to get hurt? Why did the only being here that I deeply care for have to go and get herself hurt so badly? I was really wanting to kill Chrysalis...and it was disturbing me. I was never bloodthirsty before. But right now, at this moment in time, I wanted to slit that damn parasite's throat and watch as she...

I let out a deep sigh as I breathed in and out deeply in an attempt to calm myself. I heard leaves behind me rustle. Someone was here.

"Who is it?"

I heard wings. Mkay, so it certainly wasn't Moonie, considering she only had one now. And even then, how would she even be up yet? "Fuck. Daemon you idiot, get your mind off of Moonie for one damn second!" I felt a hoof on my shoulder. I turned my head to see none other than Luna. She gave me a sad smile.

"I can sense that your thoughts are quite...erratic right now, mr Daemon. Please, try and calm yourself. Moon Dancer has requested to see you at once."

I stiffened up at that. "Wait...she's awake? Already?"

She nodded, smiling. "Indeed she is. It seems that she is already on the way to making a full recovery. She is complete aware of her surroundings and can communicate just fine. Of course, she has also realised now that she has lost one of her wings. So her mood isn't...the best right now."

I scoffed, chuckling. "Yeah, I can see why." I heard her stand up, motioning me to do the same.

"I need to get back to my duties. Take care of yourself, Daemon. And again, thank you for saving her."

I nodded, watching her fly off. I let out a heavy sigh and walked back into the castle. I made my way as quickly as possible to Moonie's room, ignoring the staff's "hello's" as I pretty much eventually started to bolt towards her room. When I reached my destination, I knocked on the door. I heard a familiar voice that I had missed so much over these last few weeks.

"Come in."

My eye twitched. "Still anxious huh, brain? Yeah, me too.". As I opened the door, I saw Moonie reading a book. I chuckled. "Still reading, eh?"

She looked up from her book, a wide smile adorning her adorable face as she noticed me. She ushered me over to her. I walked over her side of the bed and knelt down so that I was eye level with her. She suddenly wrapped her hooves around me, dragging me in for a hug. I complied and hugged back. I didn't even care if it was weird, I had missed her so fucking much. She looked at me, still smiling.

"How've you been?"

I nodded, smiling behind my mask. "Wish she could see my smile right now."

"I'm alright. How bad does it hurt?" I pointed at the now missing wing, her face going grim. "Quite a lot. The worst part about it isn't the pain, it's the fact that I won't be able to fly again."

I patted her on the head, getting a cute little squee from her. God, that almost gave me diabetes.

I rubbed my hand through her mane. "I understand. I'm so sorry. I feel as if I'm to..."

She suddenly put a hoof to where my lips would be if I didn't have this mask on and shushed me. She then kissed me on the side of my face. The only place what the mask wasn't covering. I smiled behind it, hugging her. She giggled.

"You're a dork. It's not your fault at all. Don't you ever think that. Want to read with me?"

I nodded. I just wanted to spend some time with her, honestly. Couldn't care less about the book. I kept knelt down. She looked at me, raising one of her eyebrows. "What are you doing? Get in bed you idiot."

A blush formed on my face. I was suddenly very glad that she couldn't see behind this mask. I squirmed slightly, something that she seemed to pick up on. She sighed. "You don't have to if it's going to make you uncomfortable. I just want you to be comfy."

I let out a sigh of mine as I stood up. "It isn't that. I was just thinking. When we first met, we were literally at each other's throats. And within a day, we were fine. I don't understand how."

She rolled her eyes. "Because on the day when I met you, I had gotten a letter from my mother. I won't go into detail about what it said, but as I stated before, me and her aren't on the best terms and it put me in a really sour mood. I guess I ended up taking it out on you. It's why I wasn't as hostile the next day. Guess I felt bad. And when you saved that mare...I could tell that my assumptions had been wrong and it had been due to my crappy mood and my poor judgement. I'm sorry. Truly."

I smiled behind my mask, chuckling. "It's fine, you soppy pony. Give me a second." I walked over to the other side of the bed, making sure to put my sword on the nearby desk. Didn't need to accidentally lay on that.

Fucking no thank you. Ouch.

She turned her head to me, smiling. She put the book between us. She snuggled close.

"Hey, Daemon?"

"Yeah?"

"I care for you. A lot."

I chuckled, getting closer. "I know. I care for you a lot as well, nerd."

We read into the night, falling asleep after only a few hours, embracing one another. For once since I had gotten here, my sleep wasn't plagued by nightmares.

Think I had Moonie to thank for that.

An unexpected twist.

"Ugh, how much did I drink last n...wait...this ain't my room..."

I looked around, noticing that this was...Moonie's room? Wait, I remembered now. She had woken up yesterday after weeks of resting and had called for me to see her. We ended up reading for hours until we fell asleep. Problem was, I was currently very close to her and my leg was nudging up against her...well, you know. Private area.

I immediately jumped out of bed once I realised, breathing deeply and shaking. I slapped myself, trying to get ahold of my emotions. "The hell is wrong with you, idiot?!" And then my worst fears came to light.

I heard a voice. A voice that I suddenly wished I didn't hear.

"My my, a bit soon, don't you think?"

I looked down at the bed. Moonie was now smirking at me, her eyes half lidded. "I knew that you started to like me fairly quickly, but damn. Calm down there, romeo. We have to go on a date first."

I coughed, sweating behind my mask. What the fuck was going on with me? I took a second to calm myself, two of my fingers going out in front of me as I did the samurai like calming technique. Damn, I was turning into Daemon himself more and more everyday.

She raised one of her eyebrows, staring at my sudden motion, clearly confused. "What are you doing?"

After I let out a deep breath that I had been holding in, I smirked behind my mask. "Nothing you need to worry about. Anyway, Juliet, how're you feeling?"

Moonie rolled her eyes at me, grinning and trying to get out of bed. "I feel gr...ow!"

My eyes widened as I rushed towards her, catching her just before she fell. I helped her back in bed, scoffing. "You still need more rest. I don't want you hurting yourself."

Now she scoffed, laying her head down. "Whatever you say, mom. Seriously though, I'll be fine. I know that you've been on your own for weeks and I'd feel kinda shitty if I wasn't around."

I smiled at that. She'd gone from a complete bitch to a complete sweetheart in such a short time. I remember her telling me last night that she had gotten a letter from her mother on the day that I had arrived here, which is why she was so bitchy to me at first. Still though, she got over that in no more than a day. It still confused me, but I wasn't going to complain. I walked towards the door, turning my head before I walked out.

"Don't worry about me. I'll be back soon. I need to see someone."

She called out again, causing me to stop in my tracks. "Who?"

I grunted, pretty much spitting out the next sentence. "The one who caused you to lose your wing in the first place." And before she could reply, I shut the door, sighing heavily. I unsheathed my sword for a second, breathing in deeply as I rubbed my fingers along it. I swiped in the air, calming myself. I sheathed it a second later and made my ways towards the holding cells.

"Here we fucking go."

“It doesn’t have to be like this, Chrysalis. Tell me what I need to know and we can work out a deal. An actual deal, this time. You have my word.”

As I stood outside Chrysalis’s holding cell, I heard a voice. Celestia’s. Seems that she was still questioning her.

“I’m not making any deals with you, you…”

That was Chrysalis’s voice for sure. I opened the door, closing it behind me. I looked towards the two, both of them turning their head towards me. Celestia smiled, where as Chrysalis just looked…stoic. Not angry like yesterday, just void of all emotion. I turned to Celestia, nodding. “So, what’s happening?”

She sighed, looking towards Chrysalis and then back at me. “I am offering a deal to Chrysalis. A deal that will benefit both of our r…”

Chrysalis bared her fangs towards Celestia, snarling. “Just like you did last time, you bitch!”

I could tell that hit Celestia hard. She looked at the floor, not saying a word. Chrysalis looked towards me, the anger seeming to fade away as she did. Weird.

“You…Daemon, wasn’t it?”

I nodded. She continued.

“I should kill you for what you did to me." She pointed at her muzzle, which was still heavily bruised. "But my beef isn’t with you. I don’t even know what you are or where you’ve come from. It’s the ponies that have caused me to do this!”

Celestia let out a heavy sigh as she brought her head back up from the floor. “Chrysalis, I…

Chrysalis raised a hoof. “Enough! I don’t want to talk to you anymore. I shall talk to this…Daemon¸ if he so wishes, but not you.”

Celestia looked towards me, an unsure look on her face. “You don’t have to, you know.”

I nodded, crossing my arms. “I know, but I came down here for that exact reason. I need to talk to her some more. I’ll be fine.” I motioned towards my sword, something Chrysalis also noticed. Celestia sighed, nodding.

“Alright, Daemon. Ask the two guards outside the cell to get me if you require anything.”

She walked past me and out of the cell, closing the door. I heard a scoff from behind me. I turned around to see Chrysalis grinning slightly. “That old witch…thinking she can fool me again.” She looked at me, the grin disappearing. “So, Daemon…what do you want? Come to beat me up some more?”

I rolled my eyes, kneeling down so that I was face level with her, unsheathing my sword and using it as a leaning post. “Listen, as much as I hate you for what you did to my friend, I don’t want you dead. So seriously, chill out and tell me more about the deal that you made with Celestia all that time ago. All that she mentioned is that…”

“That I wanted one of her little prissy ponies as a food source?”

I blinked, not expecting her to cut me off. “Yeah, pretty much.”

She chuckled, sitting up slightly to get closer to me. “Figures that she’d keep the most important details secret. The cow.”

I raised an eyebrow as I listened to her, wanting to know more. “What are you talking about?”

Again, another grin and chuckle. “The ponies who would be the food sources for us were volunteers. They were some of the few ponies who actually cared enough to help us. We didn’t force them by any means. And I bet she told you that they’d be a lifeless husk, void of emotion or something like that, right?”

I nodded, a bit uneasy as to where this was heading. “Again, exactly that.”

A full laugh came from her throat this time. She coughed a bit, the laugh seemingly hurting her bruised body even more. “Ah, Celestia. So predictable, even after all this time. If you want to know the truth, the ponies would indeed be well after having their emotion fed on. But they wouldn’t become a lifeless husk, however she worded it. They would be unwell for a few weeks at best. Ponies are very resilient. They may not look it, but they won’t die from it, even the Earth ponies and the Pegasi.”

My anger was slowly rising. This was sounding more like a dying race trying to save itself than some malicious force bent on conquering every country. Celestia had lied to me and I was going to get to the bottom of this, one way or another. I looked at her, sighing.

“Look, I understand why you did it. If you’re telling the truth, that is.”

That caught her attention a bit. “You…you do?”

I nodded, standing up. “Yeah, I do. But because of you, my friend has been seriously injured. So, while I can’t forgive you, I can understand where you’re coming from. And trust me when I say this, I will get to the bottom of this. I don’t appreciate being lied to, whatever the reason. We’ll speak again soon.”

I turned around and got to the door, slowly opening it.

“Wait!”

I turned around, raising an eyebrow. “What is it?”

For the first time since we had met, Chrysalis…smiled.

“Thank you.”

Despite my hatred towards her for hurting Moonie, I nodded, not saying a word. I walked out of the room, ready to confront Celestia about this whole ordeal.

“She better have a good explanation for all of this.”

Discovering the truth.

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Having a good old talk.

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Can I just get a minute's peace?

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A hive? How grand.

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