Never say die.

"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."