Trial and Error: Second Edition

Chapters

Chapter the First: A Riddle
Chapter the Second: A Theory Made Clear
Chapter the Third: The Monster
Chapter the Fourth: The Shrouded One
Chapter the Fifth: Clarity
Chapter the Sixth: A New Condition
Chapter the Seventh: A Fateful Meeting
Chapter the Eighth: The Sweet Taste of Compassion
Chapter the Ninth: The Bitter Beginning
Chapter the Tenth: Found
Chapter the Twelfth: Truths and Lies
Chapter the Thirteenth: Trust
Chapter the Fourteenth: Honesty
Chapter the Fifteenth: The Storm
Chapter the Sixteenth: Reunion
Chapter the Seventeenth: Caring
Chapter the Eighteenth: Clean and Bright
Chapter the Nineteenth: Hurt
Chapter the Twentieth: Preparation
Chapter the Twenty-First: A Clouded Mind
Chapter the Twenty-Second: Damnation or Forgiveness
Chapter the Twenty-Third: Return to Ponyville
Chapter the Twenty-Fourth: Unbound
Chapter the Twenty-Fifth: Take to the Skies
Chapter the Twenty-Seventh: A Single Night of Passion
Chapter the Twenty-Eighth: The Matriarch
Chapter the Twenty-Ninth: Extracted
Chapter the Thirtieth: The Gathering Storm
Chapter the Thirty-First: The Exchange
Chapter the Thirty-Second: Fight for Your Life
Chapter the Thirty-Third: End of All Hope
Epilogue the First: Trial
Epilogue the Second: Error
Chapter the Eleventh: Beneath the Surface
Chapter the Twenty-Sixth: The Eve of Departure

Chapter the First: A Riddle

Author's Note

After nine years, I'm rewriting my first story. During that time, I have RPed as Kai, living out his life to the very end. As a result, I've delved deeper into the character, and found that his origin is quite flawed. There are several parts of the original Trial and Error that I hate now, and may have even hated then, so those sections will be removed and replaced with better ones. These will be more cohesive to Kai's character, and this will allow his character growth to feel more natural.

I'll try to keep the beginning and end of each chapter in roughly the same place, though some might need to shift, as the story is so drastically changed from what it used to be. The chapter names may also change, as to be more descriptive of their content.

Other things will definitely change, as well. One of the comments on the original story had asked for Kai's full name, and I had just made something up. This is no longer the case, as I later decided that his name should just be a mononym. His Father's name has also changed to a mononym, that being Sufferthorn. All of Kai's family has changed in some way or another, an end result of playing his character so much.

Another big change is the range of supplies available to Kai. In the original, he had access to chemicals and an endless supply of food. Now he has only his wits, as much food as he's ever needed thus far, and a bit of dark magic. And while he still has a supply of treasure, it's not nearly as drastic as it used to be. He used to be wealthy beyond measure. Now he has a chest full of coins he has no real use for, but enough to live out the rest of his life in a fair amount of comfort.

Chapter the First: A Riddle

Akaitora Stood and dusted himself off. Once more, he had failed to gain any altitude, and had crashed into the courtyard. As he brushed the filth away, he turned to his back and released his harness.

"That makes twenty. Twenty failed attempts with this rubbish." He sighed and tossed the device aside. "That means it's a lost cause. The design is flawed. Again." Frustrated, he kicked at a rock, sending it flying against a wall. It bounced back, smacking his shoulder. Again he sighed. "I suppose it's back to the drawing board..."

He picked up his harness and descended into his workshop. Rather, he had made it into a workshop. The cages along the far stone wall indicated a high probability that this had originally been a dungeon. This would make sense, as he was underneath a crumbling castle. He tossed his harness onto his desk, a half-rotted table he had reinforced with tree branches that was littered with so many papers they had started spilling to the floor. A lone stool sat nearby, one of the legs of which was also a tree branch.

He sat down and started rubbing his face. What could he do? Every design he had drawn up thus far had failed, and he was out of ideas. He had read every book available to him regarding flight dynamics and wind manipulation, and still he could not take flight. He could only barely glide at the best of times. He would have to think of something new.

After an hour had passed, he stood up and left the room. His horn dimly illuminated the dark halls of the castle's under croft, giving him just enough light to find the stairs leading deeper down. His first basement contained a dungeon and a guard barracks, the latter of which held a latrine. Below that were bedrooms, none of which had usable beds, and further down was a kitchen and some storage rooms. The first storage room was full of books, as the castle's library had been damaged, leaving a hole in the roof. The second was for other miscellaneous things. The third, however had been set up in such a way that some small amount of agriculture was possible down there. Kai plucked an apple from the branch and moved into the kitchen.

The kitchen was much larger than he would ever need. Eight stoves sat in the center of the room, all venting up to a single pipe. Surrounding those were tables. Some tables were still holding together, but others were unlikely to ever see use again. Around the outside of the room were several racks, filled mostly with broken kitchen appliances and sealed jars. Kai grabbed two of these jars and brought them to his favorite table. It was his favorite because it was the only one that wasn't covered in dust.

He opened the first jar, filled with honey that had been left behind by the previous owner of the castle. With his knife, crafted from the broken-off head of a spear, he sliced the apple into chunks, dipped them in honey, and ate them. Between bites, he opened the second jar, this one containing dried salmon that he had caught two months prior. While this meal would seem ill-fitting of one who lived in a castle, he had grown accustomed to it, and it suited him just fine.

Upon finishing his meal and resealing the jars, he moved back up to his workshop and grabbed his cloak. He had reached a decision. He would be unable to continue his work with the means currently at his disposal. He would need an expert on flight to explain the finer points. Only then could he continue his dream. He needed a pegasus. Which meant he would need to venture into town.

He always hated coming into town. There was always a chance he would be recognized, or reported to the local guards for suspicious activity. Not to mention all those bright, smiling faces that were all too eager to strike up a conversation with him. This time, however, he needed one of those faces. One with wings, and more importantly, knowledge on how to use them.

He began to look around, his dark blue eyes glinting underneath his hood in the light of the evening sun. The first pegasus he saw was but a filly, fluttering her wings to propel her scooter, as well as her two friends in their wagon. Kai contemplated having her explain how to fly, but thought better of it. As poor as his social ability was, even he knew that ponies would take issue with a fully-grown stallion in a heavy cloak hunched over and talking to a small filly. Besides, she might not even know how to fly yet.

His next target was a better option, as she appeared to be fully grown. An excellent choice she would make, as she darted quickly and precisely between the clouds, leaving a rainbow trail in her wake. Clearly, she was an expert when it came to flight. And therein lay the problem with having her involved. She came to a stop at the final cloud, tucking her front hooves behind her and lounging on the cloud. There was no means of reaching her. Certainly, he could call out to her, but without knowing her name, she may simply assume that he was referring to somepony else.

The third one ran directly into him. As he turned to face her, he immediately knew she wouldn't do. Her eyes were looking every direction except at him. If he were to model himself after her example, he would continue to crash. Without a word, he turned and left her there, her apology falling on deaf ears.

For the next half hour, he strolled through the town, staying in the shadows when he could, and only maintaining minimum interaction with the locals. All the while, he had been watching the skies, scanning for anypony that would both meet his requirements and be approachable. Just as he was about to give up for the day, he rounded a corner and collided with a young mare. She was a white unicorn with a purple mane. As his somewhat large build was quite sturdy, he managed to stay upright as she fell to the ground.

"My apologies," He said quietly, picking up the book she had dropped.

"No, no, that was my fault, I suppose," said the mare, standing and dusting herself off. "That's what happens when one is not paying attention to where one is walking." She smiled, offering her hoof to shake. "I'm Rarity."

"A pleasure, miss."

A small moment of silence passed before she retracted her unshaken hoof. "If this is to be the end of our conversation, would you be so kind as to return my book?"

Kai looked at the cover of the book. It depicted a pegasus in a long, flowing gown. "You are interested in making clothing for pegasi, miss Rarity?"

"My dear sir, I make clothing for everypony. Satin is very in this season, and I wanted to have a look at some designs from the last decade to determine if any of them could be salvaged. Mixing old and new together, as it were." She once more held her hoof out to him.

Kai grunted. "I have no need for the latest designs. What matters most is that the clothing covers me." He returned to her the book she had dropped.

"I'm sure that somewhere underneath that worn-out cloak there's a handsome stallion. He needs only the right clothing to make him stand out and wow the crowd. If ever you're interested in turning all eyes on you in a good way, you should stop by my shop, the Carousel Boutique." She offered her business card, a simple design, but elegant, and straight to the point.

"I suppose if I'm ever in the market for that sort of thing, I'll remember you. Until then, I should really be on my way." He pushed past her, and began walking down the street she had come from.

"Oh. A-alright. I'll see you soon, then." She waved as he rounded another corner, and resumed her walk home.

Kai had a new destination in mind. That book had been emblazoned with a stamp declaring it the property of the Ponyville Public Library, and had been stamped with a checkout time less than five minutes ago. That meant that there was a library right here in town that he had not been aware of. The time stamp told him that it was close, and more importantly, that it was likely still open. His excitement grew as he finally spied the building, the front door wide open. He rushed forward, only to be cut off on arrival by a purple baby dragon closing the door.

"Sorry, sir, but we're closing for the day." The dragon was short, and had no wings to speak of. "You can come back tomorrow morning with everypony else."

"I won't take up too much of your time, I just need to find some information."

"You can find it tomorrow. It's almost sunset, and this dragon needs his beauty sleep."

"Why is everypony in this town obsessed with looks?" mumbled Kai under his breath. "Can you at least tell me if you have any books on flight training?"

"They're all checked out at the moment. You can come back tomorrow and see if any have come back in, but I doubt it."

Kai sighed. It could be days before he would have a chance to read those books. Weeks, mayhaps. Even then, there was no guarantee that the information would be of any use. This could all end up a waste of time. He would have to settle for his original plan of finding a pegasus teacher.

"Thanks for nothing," he mumbled, walking back down the street as the dragon closed up behind him.

Chapter the Second: A Theory Made Clear

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

Chapter the Third: The Monster

Kai gently pressed his cold, damp cloth against the swollen lump on the young mare's head. The two had safely arrived back at his home, and he had fluffed of what scrap cloth he could find to form a makeshift bed for her to sleep on in one of the cells. She still hadn't woken up, and he was starting to grow fearful that she might have suffered more damage than he could repair. He knew how to heal smaller wounds, and had even managed a few larger ones, but he had no inkling when it came to dealing with a concussion.

To his relief, she began to stir a few moments later. To help coax her out of unconsciousness, he gently dabbed at her face and neck with the rag, wiping away any tears and sweat that had settled on her face. As her eyes fluttered open, she pushed herself back against the wall, away from him. He gripped her shoulder to hold her steady.

"Take it easy. You hit your head pretty hard back there." He brought the rag once more to her face to chill the swelling, but she pulled her head away. "It's just a cold compress. It'll reduce the swelling. It may even help with the headache." Reluctantly, she brought her head to his hoof. "That's better. I'm going to take that gag off now. Promise me you won't scream?"

She nodded, and he untied the gag, levitating it over to his work table. "Who are you?" she asked, her voice trembling as much as her body.

"I'm the stallion you invited into your home earlier tonight. You wrapped up my leg because I had been injured."

"I meant your name. Your title, your job, something to identify you."

"My name..." It had been years since he last needed to use it. Nopony had been around to call it. He had almost forgotten it. "It's Kai. I think."

"You think?"

"I'm pretty sure. If not, it will do for now."

"How could you not know your own name?"

"Nopony's asked for my name in years."

She paused for a moment before speaking again. "I don't know if I believe you. Surely your neighbors would--"

"I don't have neighbors. Not for the next mile, at least."

"Well, certainly when you go shopping, you--"

"I don't go on shopping trips. I tend to not go out much for anything."

She fell silent for a moment. "I can't imagine not going to the supermarket at least once a week."

He folded the cloth over to find a colder spot. "And what about you?"

"Hm?"

"What's your name?"

"M-my name?"

"Yes. Your name."

"I-I'm Fluttershy."

"Fluttershy." He smiled. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Fluttershy."

"I wish I could say the same, but my hooves are tied." She let out a nervous chuckle and wriggled in her bonds.

"Right. You didn't scream, so I guess you've earned enough of my trust to undo some more of your bindings." With his grip on her shoulder still firm, he pulled her in a bit closer to him, undoing the bonds on her wrists and elbows. He was expecting her to start swinging at him, or frantically try to undo the rest of her bonds, but with her front hooves free, all she did was take the cold cloth into her own hoof. "There we go. Feeling better now?"

She shook her head. "I want to go home. I don't want to be here, this situation is terrible. You kidnapped me!"

"I know." There was sorrow in his voice, and she could hear it.

"Why would you do something like that?" Tears began to well up in her eyes. "Do you have any idea how terrifying it is to have somepony break into your home in the middle of the night, pull you from your bed, tie you up and throw you in a cage?"

"Very nearly. I know it hurts. I can tell you from experience, it's the most awful thing I've ever felt."

"If you know how bad this feels for me, why do it in the first place? Have you no caring for other ponies? Did you bring me here just to watch me suffer the same fate you had to?"

"No, not at all."

"Then why?"

His eyes fell to the floor of the cage. "I told you why before I left your house. I need your help. I need a change in perspective that only you can offer me."

She placed a hoof on his shoulder. "Why would I want to help somepony who locked me in a cage?"

"You wouldn't. I fully understand that you won't want to help me, and I've accepted that." He stood up and took a step back. "That's why I'm not taking 'no' for an answer. Whether or not you're compliant doesn't matter in the long run, as I will have what I need from you. However, I'm not unreasonable. If you do as I ask, I can promise that you will not be harmed. Also, the sooner we finish my project, the sooner you can resume your life. This can be the darkest chapter of your life, or just a terrible footnote at the bottom of a page. That is the choice I leave in your hooves."

Tears were streaming down her face now. She softly whimpered, sniffling as she wiped her nose on the damp rag. she pulled her knees to her chest, both still bound with his grass rope.

"I'll give you a moment alone to think about that. I'll be back in a moment." He turned to unlock the door, slipped through it, and locked it once more from the outside. Tossing the key onto his table next to the bathrobe sash and stockings, he left the room.

True to his word, he returned twenty minutes later. With him he carried a bucket full of water, a carved wooden cup, and one of the apples he had grown downstairs. Rather than entering the cell, he sat down just outside the bars. "I've brought you some water and a snack, if you're interested."

Fluttershy looked up. She had stopped crying, but otherwise hadn't moved. She scooted herself over to the bars and accepted the cup, taking a sip of water from the bucket. "Would... Would you be willing to accept a few... concessions, in exchange for my compliance?"

"It depends on what concessions you want me to make. I have my limitations."

"Of course, but if I'm going to help you, wouldn't it be fair for you to help me with some things?"

"It would be fair. I'm not a monster, you know."

Fluttershy's brow furrowed. She had interpreted him as a foul creature, or as some cruel beast. He felt like a monster to her. Still, she wasn't about to tell him that.

He reached through the bars and placed his hoof on her shoulder. "What terms would you like to set?"

She swallowed hard and took a deep breath. "If I promise to help you, will you let me out of this cell? I have things I need to take care of at home."

"No."

"B-but..."

"I can't let you go to the guards and have me arrested. You can go home when we're done."

She could feel tears welling up in her eyes again. "But... What am I going to do about my animal friends?"

"They don't have somepony else who can take care of them?"

She shook her head. "If I could go home, I might be able to arrange for somepony to take care of them, but you won't let me go home."

Kai was silent for a few moments. He very much wanted her to be willingly helping in his work, but he couldn't let her go home. "What if I took care of them?"

She stared at him. "I don't really know if you're the best choice. I don't know you very well, so I can't vouch for your ability to take care of them."

"A list of instructions, then. I'll even enlist the help of somepony you trust, so they can ensure that I do a satisfactory job. Would that put your mind at ease?"

She thought for a moment, then nodded. "I suppose that would be acceptable."

"Excellent. Is there anything else?"

She thought for a moment. "It's probably asking too much to have you bring in a real mattress, isn't it?" She poked at the pile of carpeting and torn tapestries that he had put together.

"Yeah. I might be able to fit a cot together, but a mattress is out of the question for this area."

"Only you are allowed to sleep on a mattress, huh?"

"Actually, I usually sleep at the table over there." He indicated the table he had placed her sash and stockings on. "Not always intentionally."

"That's really bad for your back."

Kai rubbed his lower back. "I know. Like I said, it's not intentional. That's just where I work. Sometimes I fall asleep in the middle of my work."

She chuckled at that, but her smile faded quickly. "I guess that's all for now. Those were my top concerns."

"So you'll help me?"

She nodded. "Can you untie me now?"

Chapter the Fourth: The Shrouded One

The following morning, Kai pulled himself from his bed. On Fluttershy's request, he had gone down to one of the bedrooms and slept there. She had said that she was uncomfortable having him sleep next to her, not knowing if he was watching her sleep or intently listening to her breathing.

He made his way downstairs to prepare breakfast. He had never had a guest before, and felt inadequate when it came to preparing food for somepony else. Still, as the resident, it was his duty to feed her. He started small, with a few mushrooms. Adding to that a few nuts, he chopped them into cubes and tossed them into a small pan, which was placed over one of the stove tops to saute.

Meanwhile, he cut some apples into chunks and poured a bit of honey over them. They were also thrown into a pan to saute. His technique was rather crude, and he had no herbs or spices. He only knew how to saute, boil and dry foods. He hoped that her palette was versatile enough to adapt to his cuisine.

When breakfast was done, he scooped the mixtures out of the pans and into some bowls. He wasn't accustomed to eating out of bowls, but then again, he didn't often cook his food. Many staples of his diet were safe to consume raw, and he often felt that cooking them wasn't worth the time investment. Still, he maintained his meager skills for when he did need them, such as when preparing fish.

He wasn't quite ready to feed her fish, though. Despite the fact that it was safe for ponies to consume, and held some amount of nutritional value, He assumed that not so much had changed that it was common for ponies to eat meat. In fact, it had been quite taboo last he checked, and was only acceptable if one was starving.

He walked into his workshop to find that Fluttershy was already awake, clutching her stomach in the corner of the cell.

"Is something the matter?"

She looked up at him. "There's no bathroom in here."

He placed the bowls on his table and grabbed the rope. Tying one end securely around her neck, he opened the cell door, the other end of the line grasped tightly in his hoof. "Right this way."

He ushered her across the hall to the barracks and indicated to her the latrine. She stepped inside and took a seat. She then waved for him to give her some privacy. Kai stepped behind the wall. It was still fairly obvious that he was there, and there was no door separating them. Just a wall.

"I can't go if you're standing right there."

"This rope isn't long enough for me to go anywhere else."

"I already promised to help you, and I can't leave, as per your demands. Can't I have some modicum of privacy?"

"Not yet. We've known each other for less than a day."

"Which is exactly why I don't want you listening to me while I'm in here."

"Pretend I'm not here, then."

"That's not so easy when there's a rope around my neck."

"Oh, alright. I'll be waiting in the hall."

He dropped the rope to the floor, and she heard his steps retreat. Finally, she could relieve herself. The room was fairly dark, being underground, but she could tell from the smell that the room was filthy. It only made sense that a stallion who used this bathroom willingly would be capable of kidnapping.

When she was finished, she stepped out into the hallway and offered Kai her rope. With a smile, he lead her back to her cell and untied her.

"Now then, It's time for breakfast." He passed one of the bowls through the bars for her to take. "Sorry it's not warm anymore."

"That's alright," she said, eyeing the strange food in front of her. "What is this again?"

"The brown stuff is a nut and mushroom mix, and the other stuff is apple chunks in honey."

"These are supposed to be apples?"

"I'm sure it's not what you're used to, but I don't have any formal training when it comes to cooking. I assure you, it's all safe to eat. See?" He took a bite of his own breakfast. "Nothing to worry about."

She picked up a chunk of apple and examined it. "I'm pretty sure apples aren't supposed to have purple skin and orange flesh. Where'd you pick these?"

"I grew them. I have a special room downstairs with a small tree growing there that produces these apples. It produces pretty quickly, too."

She tentatively took a bite. The honey was absolutely necessary for this, as the fruit itself was quite bitter. After choking it down, she decided to stick to the nuts and mushrooms.

"So, did you finish writing down the instructions for me to follow?"

"I did." She passed through the bars a folded sheet of paper, along with the quill and inkwell she had borrowed.

He took the paper and unfolded it. "That's quite a list of instructions."

"There's quite a lot to do. They're all small tasks, there's just a lot of them. It shouldn't take more than an hour."

"In that case, I should be going." Kai tilted back his bowl and finished his breakfast. He stood, wrapped his cloak around his shoulders, and started towards the door.

"Don't forget to have Twilight help you!" she called after him.

"We still don't have them." The dragon from the prior evening met Kai at the library door. "Like I said, I don't expect them back for a few days, at least."

"I'm not here for those at the moment. This time, I'm here to talk to a mare by the name of..." He pulled Fluttershy's note from one of his pockets and unfolded it. "Twilight Sparkle. I was told she lived at this address."

"She's not here right now. She left this morning for Canterlot."

"Will she be back within the next few hours?"

"Maybe. Hard to tell sometimes."

Kai sighed. "I'll be back soon, then."

"Mm-hmm."

Kai walked back through town. He was quite certain that he could handle all of the chores. He only needed Twilight to sign off on his work. Surely she was smart enough to know whether the work was done without having to watch him do it. Even so, if she would be gone for a few days, then there was nothing Kai could do.

"I guess She'll just have to trust me."

"Who's going to have to trust you?"

Kai turned and looked to the source of the voice. Bouncing along next to him was a very pink pony. She was quite animated, literally bounding instead of walking like everypony else.

"Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie!"

"I'm quite sure I didn't ask."

"You didn't need to. I think it's the right thing to do when meeting somepony new to tell them your name first. And since I haven't seen you in town before, I figured that you're probably new."

"I suppose that's sound logic."

"Glad you think so!" She wore a large goofy grin. "So what's your name?"

"I'm in a bit of a bind, so unless you have a means of contacting miss Twilight Sparkle, I'd appreciate it if I could go about my business in peace."

"Well, Twilight left for Canterlot this morning. She said something about reporting in to Princess Celestia personally."

Kai's breakfast turned in his stomach. Twilight, to whom he was supposed to be reporting, was reporting directly to the princess who had sent him to prison all those years ago. He was unsure if she had been chosen for this reason, but he knew he would be demanding answers when he arrived home today.

"So what kind of business are you tending to here in Ponyville?"

Kai paused for a moment, trying to phrase his answer in the nicest way possible without directly lying, as he knew this mare would be able to tell. "I'm... housesitting. Last night, one of Ponyville's citizens left town for a business venture. I was tasked with informing her of her new duties, and she asked that I make sure that her property doesn't fall into disrepair while she's gone."

"Is she somepony I know?"

"How should I know who you know? I'm new, remember?"

"You are! Sooo... Who left?"

"Miss Fluttershy. Do you know her?"

"I know everypony in Ponyville. Of course I know Fluttershy."

"If you know everypony in Ponyville, why would you bother asking if you knew who had left? Obviously, you would know them."

"I know. I just like talking to ponies."

"I'm sure you do."

"So, what kind of business venture is Fluttershy involved in?"

Again, Kai carefully chose his words. "I'm not at liberty to say. The project designer doesn't want me to tell anypony. It's a secret project, you see."

"Got it." She made a motion as if to zip her mouth shut, then unzipped it again. "Need any help looking after Fluttershy's place?"

Kai stopped, causing Pinkie to turn around and bounce back to him. Mayhaps he didn't need Twilight in particular to supervise his work. If this Pinkie Pie knew everypony, surely her word would be good enough, right? If she would suffice, he'd rather keep a fair amount of distance from Celestia

"Just for today. We'll see how things turn out tomorrow."

Chapter the Fifth: Clarity

"You owe me an explanation."

Kai stepped into his workshop wearing a scowl. He tossed his cloak across the room and onto his table.

"About what?" Fluttershy stood up. She had been sitting in the dark since he had left.

"Why did you pick Twilight Sparkle as my point of contact? You should be well aware of the fact that she has close ties to Princess Celestia. When I told you there would ideally be minimal contact with the guards, I had intended not to draw Celestia's ire. So, when selecting to whom I would be reporting, what made you think it would be a good idea to choose somepony with direct contact to one who controls the entirety of the royal guards?"

Fluttershy pressed her face against the bars. "I hadn't intended to have her report you to the guards. I chose her because she was well-read on most of my animal friends. I also thought that Spike could run the library while she was gone, so nopony else would be upset."

"Well, I'm uncomfortable having Celestia's closest friends looking over my shoulder. You'll have to select somepony else to supervise me."

Fluttershy pulled back away from the bars and hung her head. "I'm sorry you feel that way. I'll put more thought into my next choice. Did she at least make sure that you took care of all of my animal friends today?" She looked up with hope in her eyes.

"No, she wasn't available today. She was off in Canterlot with the princess."

"So, nopony was watching you?"

"Actually, somepony came along to watch me. She said she was a friend of yours, so I would guess that her word through me is just as good as Twilight's word through me. How much would you trust miss Pinkie Pie?"

"If I were to list all of the ponies I trust to take care of my home, she'd be in the top five."

"Then you'll have no problem assigning her the duty of making sure I keep my promise."

"She does like to make sure she keeps promises..."

"Then that's settled. She will watch me from now on."

"I suppose that's alright. As long as she doesn't mind."

Satisfied, Kai sat down at his table, and started shifting through his notes. The room was silent, save for the sound of rustling papers. Kai enjoyed the quiet moment, having spent most of his morning doing more talking than he had done in quite some time, and was glad to not have somepony gabbing into his ears nonstop. While Pinkie would suit his purposes just fine, she was a bit too loquacious for his liking.

Fluttershy, on the other hoof, was not used to the solitude. While she tended to like a quiet morning more than most ponies, today had been too quiet. It was too dark to see, and the only sound she could hear had come from her own movements and their echoes. She certainly felt as though she were in prison.

After several minutes, Kai stood up and left without a word, darkening the room, as his horn was the only light source. He came back minutes later with a stack of books. Leafing through them, he came to the page he desired and started scrawling a note on a blank sheet of paper.

Fluttershy had no idea what he was writing down, but part of her didn't want to know. He was an evil pony, how could he be creating something helpful? No, he was probably working on some device of torture, and she wanted no part in it.

After two hours of sitting in silence next to each other, she spoke up. "May I ask you something?"

"You may."

"You said you knew what it was like to be in a cage like this one."

"I did say that, yes."

"I was just wondering, what did you do?"

"There wasn't much to do. I just sat in my cell, waiting for my sentence to pass. Other prisoners had visitors every so often, but nopony came to see me. You're already in better condition than I was, though. The food was worse for me, and I wasn't leaving my cell to use the bathroom. I had a bucket, and once a week I would dump it out. The smell was awful. Even worse, there wasn't any airflow, so the stench couldn't go anywhere."

Fluttershy covered her mouth, not wanting to imagine those conditions. She couldn't conceive of food worse than what he had given her. "I meant, why did the guards arrest you?"

"High treason."

"High treason?" There was obvious fear in her voice.

"Indeed."

"How did you do that?"

"They were pretty sure I was planning to kill Celestia." He paused and turned to look her in the eyes. "I was not planning to kill her. At the time, I had nothing against her. I thought she was a good monarch, and a benevolent ruler of the free ponies of Equestria."

"But now you do?"

Kai turned back to his work. "My only complaint is that she had me falsely arrested. Other than that, we've never interacted. Mayhaps she's as good a ruler as I gave her credit for when I was young, mayhaps not. I'm not in a position where I want to find out."

"Is that why you don't want Twilight involved? You're afraid Celestia will arrest you again? I think she'd have a good reason this time."

"Yeah. That life was awful. That's why I live out here on my own, dependent on nopony but myself."

"Well, you needed me. Perhaps you're not as independent as you think."

"I've lived on my own for almost twenty years before I met you. I had no help in doing so, save for the ponies who wrote the books that I read from now. I can't really thank them, either, as they've all likely died before I was born. For example," He held up the book he had closed moments ago, presumably having finished collecting the data he needed from it. "This one is over five hundred years old, and contains information on how to weave cloth from that time. I've used that information to make rope, as well as the cloak I was wearing the night we met."

Fluttershy looked again at the cloak he had tossed on the table. She had originally thought that it was tattered and worn down, but it would also make sense if it was simply a poorly made replica of what was being worn centuries ago. It didn't really even look like cloth, but rather like some plant fibres that had been woven together before they were dry.

"So what you're working on requires some sort of cloth? I'm still not sure what you're making, or why you needed me."

"What I'm making now isn't really my project, per se. Rather, it's something that will make pursuing my project a smoother process. It's something I should have put together before you arrived, but I hadn't thought about that at the time. In truth, I hadn't worked out all of the details when I ventured into town yesterday."

"So it's not your big project. Is that why you've not asked me to do anything?"

"That's right. We'll work on the big project when I've finished this one. It's only another hour, but it should cut off so much time from the big one. You may even go home a few days early, in the best case scenario."

Hearing that she may have the opportunity to leave early, Fluttershy sat down and resumed her silence so as not to distract him. If whatever Kai was working on now could really cut days off of her imprisonment, she wanted to make sure it went quickly.

An hour passed slowly, as she was filled with anticipation. Kai had left the room twice in that time, coming back with more materials at each trip. Fluttershy was lying in her bed staring at the ceiling when she was pulled from her thoughts at the sound of the wooden stool scraping across the stone floor.

"It's done."

She picked herself up and stepped over to the cell door. "What is it?"

Kai smiled. "Something for you. Something that will make it easier for you to help me."

Chapter the Sixth: A New Condition

Fluttershy felt humiliated. She was well acquainted with the concept of pet ownership, and she had no issue with her friends calling their animal companions pets. Despite this, she was not comfortable with collaring an unwilling animal. In her eyes, those willing to wear a collar did so as a badge of pride. It was a mark of their connection to their pony. Without their consent, a collar was a mark of ownership, or rather a mark of one's property. And now this monster had secured one to her neck.

Kai stepped back and admired his work. "How does that feel?"

"It's fine." She didn't want to incur more of his wrath, but she had hoped that he would hear the dejection in her voice. Perhaps that was his plan all along. He would depress her so much as to break her will, and she would do everything he demanded, like a good little slave. "I'm curious, how will this make your project easier?"

"I'll show you." Taking the key, Kai unlocked the cell and opened the door. Fluttershy expected him to come inside and tie his rope to her collar, but he did no such thing. Instead, he raised his hoof, gesturing for her to exit the cell.

Cautiously, she stepped through to the workshop. She kept her head low and her wings tightly folded. If he had used force to place her into the cell before, she guessed that he might do so again. She tried to guess what he might do to her. She was collared, so he might take her out into the streets to show off his new toy. Everypony would know that she was his property, to use as he saw fit. She shuddered at the thought.

"Aren't you going to tie me up, so I don't run?" She didn't want to be tied up again, but she wanted to be as helpful as possible. Perhaps he would improve her treatment if she feigned eagerness to please him.

"There's no need. You won't be able to leave without my consent for as long as you wear that collar."

She rubbed at the uncomfortable strap of cloth that had been woven around her neck. "I wasn't allowed to leave, anyway."

"Yes, but now you can move freely around the lower levels of my home. Come with me."

The two stepped out into the hallway. The midday sun illuminated the stairwell leading out to the forest above. Fluttershy took a tentative step towards it, but pulled herself back. If she ran, he would chase her. If he was right, she would undoubtedly collide with some sort of barrier. For now, it was in her best interest to wait. She would test his words when he left tomorrow morning.

"That stairwell is the only exit to this place. In order to leave, you must go that route. However, I have placed an enchantment on that collar that will not allow the wearer to pass. I'll have to remove that barrier later, but for now it stays."

"If I may ask, how does this make your project easier? You said you would show me, but I don't understand."

"Do you recall this morning, when you said that you were uncomfortable with me watching you while you were in the bathroom?"

She nodded. It had been very embarrassing.

"Well now you can use the bathroom without me even being here."

She nodded again. She now knew what it felt like to be locked away from a bathroom, and it had been terrible. This basic privilege had always seemed unimportant, but now she truly felt appreciative of what she had taken for granted for most of her life. The news brought her more joy than she had realized, but she braced herself. This could be the setup for something more sinister that he had planned.

"Let's head downstairs. There are some things I'd like you to see." He lead her down the stairs. She stayed close behind him, as he has the only light. "This floor is all bedrooms. If you would rather stay in one of these than continue in your cell, you may do so."

Fluttershy couldn't believe her ears. He had spent all of this time treating her so poorly, and now he was offering her an actual bed to sleep on? Just what was he trying to do? She shifted uncomfortably, but said nothing to him.

He lead her further down the stairs. "On the right is the kitchen. If you want to cook something, that's the place."

"Is that going to be on my list of duties? You want me to cook your meals for you?"

"Not especially. Whether or not you cook in there is largely up to you. I've been doing my own cooking since I came here. You tasted some of that this morning."

Her stomach turned at the memory of the foul fruit he had served her. It pained her to admit it, but she might be better off if she did her own cooking. If she cooked for him, too, he might start to trust her more. "So, what sort of ingredients do you have in there?"

"Not much. I keep most of the ingredients in the pantry." He opened the door where he kept the ingredients, prompting her to look inside.

His pantry looked different than hers by a very wide margin. It was sparsely stocked, aside from the plants growing up through the ground. The whole room was illuminated with an eerie blue light, coruscating from a small lantern hanging from the ceiling. The ground had roots stretching across it, bearing mushrooms that she recognized from her breakfast. In the far corner, a tree trunk snaked its way between the bricks, its branches scattering across the ceiling, from which hung apples similar to the one that had been in her bowl this morning.

"Is this all there is?"

"I also have a bag of nuts and a few jars of honey in the kitchen."

"That's it?"

He nodded.

"You need more than this. How do you expect to keep a balanced diet eating the same thing every day?"

"This is all I have. I can't cook with ingredients I don't have access to."

Fluttershy's heart sank. She couldn't continue to eat those disgusting purple apples, and she couldn't live off of nuts and mushrooms. She needed to have something she could eat. It was time to ask her captor for another concession.

Chapter the Seventh: A Fateful Meeting

Author's Note

Quick note, the original story was written between seasons two and three. In that gap, Twilight was a regular unicorn. So that's what she is here.

Chapter the Seventh: A Fateful Meeting

As Kai finished feeding the chickens, his mind wandered back to the previous night. As he had examined the bone and muscle structure of the lowest joint on Fluttershy's wing, she had added a condition to their agreement. Though he had agreed to try, he was unsure of whether or not he would be capable of performing this new task she had laid before him. Still, she insisted that it would be in his best interest, and had even presented a logical argument.

Still, he was uncomfortable taking money from her house. It felt like he was adding insult to her injury, or pouring salt on her wounds. Compounding his shame was the fact that several of the items she had asked him to return with were things he had never heard of. With this new task added to his list of concessions, the cherry on top was that he had never purchased anything before in his life. He had no clue how to use her currency once he had it. Mayhaps Pinkie Pie would teach him when she arrived.

Speaking of the frenetic pink one, she had agreed yesterday to meet here half an hour ago. If she was as tenacious at holding to her word as Fluttershy had mentioned, she certainly wasn't showing it today. He was already almost done with his 'housesitting' duties, and hadn't the patience to stand around all day waiting for her.

"Good morning!"

He heard a voice call out from behind him, but it wasn't familiar to him. Guessing it was addressing Fluttershy's neighbor that had left out their equipment for him to trip over, he resumed his work without looking up.

"Hello?"

He wondered why the neighbor wasn't answering. They had left their equipment in the road, perhaps they were just plain rude. Nevertheless, it wasn't his job to comfort their guest.

"You, the scary looking unicorn in the dirty grey cloak!"

That description was definitely aimed at him. He turned his head to see a purple unicorn with a violet mane. Her bangs were broken up by two stripes, one magenta and the other purple. This was the exact description of Twilight Sparkle that Fluttershy had given him. Kai stopped what he was doing and approached, his hood dropping down to cover his eyes.

"Is there something you need of me, miss?" While the description matched, there was still a chance that she might be somepony else that just matched the description.

"My name is Twilight Sparkle."

So much for that glimmer of hope. "What can I do for you, Miss Sparkle?"

"Actually, I was going to ask you that same question. Yesterday, you had asked to see me, and the day before, you were looking for books on flight. Is that correct?"

"It is indeed."

"Well, I still don't have the books you were asking for at the library, but your request intrigues me. Might I ask why you're looking for a flight spell?"

"I'm not looking for a flight spell. I'm looking for anatomical structures and technical manuals."

"Well, that's even more intriguing. I'd still like to know why."

Kai took a deep breath. "Somepony that I care about very much is desperate to learn how to fly. I want to help, but being a unicorn, I've never flown. I made a solemn vow to find all of the information I could when it comes to flying, until I knew enough to make that dream a reality." Kai smiled. He was improving in the field of bending his words.

Twilight also smiled. "How very noble of you. You should be proud of yourself."

"I'll wait to be proud until I've made a difference. On that day, I will have something to be proud of."

"Can't you be proud that you put in the effort?"

Kai shook his head. "Not yet. I have to keep trying until I succeed. I'll take failure after failure, but I will not give up, shrug my shoulders and tell myself that 'I did my best.' That would mean that I gave up trying to help them."

Twilight was impressed with his resolve. It reminded her of a certain rainbow maned pegasus. "I'll see what I can do about having copies of those books sent to our local library for you. You've certainly earned the right to have a look at them."

"Those books require that I earn the right to look at them?"

"Well... no, not really. It was just a figure of speech."

There was a long, awkward pause as the two stood there, saying nothing. Finally, Twilight spoke up again.

"So, you're housesitting for Fluttershy?"

"I am."

"Pinkie said she had overseen your work in doing so yesterday."

"She did."

"Is that why you were looking for me yesterday? Because I was to oversee your actions while you were here?"

"It was."

"Well, it seems you did a fine job today, as well. It looks like you're almost done."

"I was."

"Well, I'll let you return to your duties, then." She turned to leave.

"Wait." Kai held out his hoof. "Have you seen miss Pinkie Pie today? She was supposed to meet me here this morning."

Twilight turned back. "She had an urgent call this morning, so she asked me to come see you instead, being that I was who you were looking for yesterday."

"So she's not coming?"

"I don't think so. If you had something to ask her, I'll gladly pass it along for you."

"No, that's alright." Kai took another deep breath. "Would it be alright if I asked a favor of you?"

He had felt bad about using Fluttershy's money to buy groceries for her, but he felt even worse when Twilight had insisted that he purchase a set of leather saddlebags. Even worse, he had done so. While it made carrying the groceries she had asked for significantly easier, this purchase was for his benefit alone. His only solace for this was that he could gift them to her when he set her free.

Riddled with shame, he shuffled along, wanting to forget this afternoon, but knowing he would remember it. Mayhaps that would be for the best, in case he needed to come back and buy more groceries. He might even remember the correct pronunciation of the word 'celery.' He stayed close to the alleyways, wanting to avoid any more attention.

"Release me at once, you ruffian!"

He recognized that voice. He couldn't place a name to it, but it was the white unicorn from a few days prior. He knew she had said her name, but he hadn't internalized it. He peered around a corner, finding her there in the alleyway, being accosted by three stallions.

A red pegasus, seemingly the ringleader, held her against the wall. "We'll gladly release you, little lady. Just as soon as we're done with you." He pulled out a large knife and held it to her chest. "Let's start with all of your cash, hm?"

Kai knew at his core that he had no good reason to involve himself. He didn't even remember her name. He had, in fact, never intended to visit her shop, much less purchase an outfit from her. He was a kidnapper, too, so he had no moral leg to stand on. Yet, seeing this mare at the end of a blade turned his stomach. He couldn't stand the thought of just walking away. He stepped into the alleyway, raising his head and squaring his shoulders.

"I don't know what it is she's done to wrong you, sirs, but I must insist that you put away your blade."

The red pegasus turned to face Kai, smirked, then looked back at the mare. "Your boyfriend's real funny, missy." He turned to the second stallion, a unicorn. "Tundra, dispose of the comedian."

Tundra stepped in front of Kai. Kai was a rather large pony, but even he was dwarfed by the stature of Tundra. He stood over Kai, staring down into his eyes. Kai had noticed the short sword at Tundra's belt. Kai had only his knife, and it was fairly dull. Just as Kai was starting to think he had made a huge mistake in standing up to them, Tundra took a step back. He lowered his head to the level of the third stallion, a short earth pony. His lips moved, but no sound came out.

"You're kidding." The earth pony wore a bewildered expression. He propped himself up against a trash bin and stared at Kai. After a few moments, his faced turned to shock. "It is him!"

"What are you two blathering on about? Just kill him already!" The red pegasus was scowling now.

Tundra took another step back and placed a hoof on the leader's shoulder, ushering him to leave.

"Ugh, I'll do it myself, you useless oaf..." Tossing the mare aside into a cluster of rubbish bins, he ran at Kai with his knife swinging.

Kai quickly pulled out his own blade and moved to block the strikes. Having fought off timber wolves, Kai was fairly adept at reading his opponent's moves. He was less well-versed with a knife than he was with a spear, which he used when fighting off the monstrous creatures of the Everfree. Having only one blade to block was significantly easier than multiple claws and mouths full of teeth.

As Kai through blow after blow aside, he came to the realization that this pegasus would not give up easily. After blocking a particularly heavy blow, Kai threw the pegasus off balance, stepped in close, rolled his shoulder back and threw a single punch. The blow landed squarely on the pegasus' nose, knocking him to his back. Kai stood over him, knife at the ready, eyes burning with fury.

As the pegasus looked up at Kai, realization crossed his face. As he picked his knife off the ground and slid it back into the scabbard, he smirked again, blood running down his face from his bludgeoned nose. "I see. You'll have your way. We'll be on our way. But rest assured, you haven't seen the last of us..."

Waving his hoof in the air, the pegasus left the alley, followed by the other two stallions. The short earth pony was the only one to look back.

As soon as they had disappeared from view, Kai sheathed his blade and helped the mare to stand up. "Are you alright, miss?"

The mare picked herself out of the trash. She was covered head to tail in whatever muck had been thrown out. "Not really, but I thank you for your concern. I-- Hey, you're that stallion I ran into the day before yesterday!" She reached out, grabbed his hoof and gave it a firm shake. "I really should find some way to thank you. Do you still have that business card I gave you?"

Kai fished around in his pockets, eventually finding the card.

"Come by my shop tomorrow. I'll give you a discount in return for your chivalry."

"Really, you don't have to--"

"No, I must! You drove off those hoodlums, I must do something for you."

"Even so, a discount won't be very useful to me. I don't really have a lot of money."

"A gift, then. Really, I insist. Come by tomorrow, and I'll have something for you."

Kai sighed. She was persistent. He was about to turn her down again when he heard guards approaching. As they rounded the corner, he panicked. "Fine. Tomorrow. See you then."

With those parting words, he bolted, putting as much distance between himself and the guards as he could.

Chapter the Eighth: The Sweet Taste of Compassion

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

Chapter the Ninth: The Bitter Beginning

When Fluttershy returned to the workshop, she was surprised to find that Kai was not waiting for her there. She had expressed her agreement to let him grope at her wing after she was done cleaning up from dinner, thus she had expected him to be here and at the ready. She wondered where he could be. She didn't wait very long for an answer, as he presently walked through the door.

"Are you ready to begin?" She asked, spreading her wings for him.

"Actually, I have something that I wanted to do before we begin. Stand against the wall for me?"

She did as he asked, keeping her wings spread for him. He walked up to her and raised her chin with his hoof. She shut her eyes tightly as his hoof gently brushed her hair away from her neck. She wanted to shrink down, as she felt very vulnerable with his hoof so close to her throat. She swallowed hard as she felt his breath gently push her hair through the air above her shoulder.

"That should do just fine."

Fluttershy opened her eyes. He had backed away from her.

"I needed to make an adjustment to your collar. I found a problem with the barrier keeping you in, and I fixed it."

"What was the problem with it?"

"Come with me, I'll show you."

The two stepped out into the hall. As Kai made his way to the stairs, Fluttershy stopped.

"Is something the matter?" Kai said, turning to face her.

"It's just, I tried going further up the stairs earlier. This was as far as I could go before I started feeling sick. I tested several times just to be sure. This is where the barrier is." She was sure of the position, as it lined up perfectly with the third candle sconce from the bottom of the stairs.

"You mean, that's where it was. As thanks for that wonderful meal, I have decided to grant you a small liberty. I was going to wait until it was time to test my wings, but I wasn't expecting such a kind gift from you tonight."

Fluttershy took a few tentative steps forward. She wasn't feeling lightheaded or dizzy this time. When her hoof found the stone stairway, she began confidently climbing, with Kai following close behind her. When she reached the top of the stairs, she was outside. The warm evening breeze felt wonderful through her feathers and smelled faintly of autumn. The auburn sky called to her, a far cry from the dusty, stagnant darkness of the dungeon.

She darted to the top of the nearest wall and looked around. She could see over enough of the trees to catch a trace of the tallest spires in Ponyville peaking just over the canopy. In another direction, she could see Canterlot. As she noted their locations, she looked around at the stone ruins that made up her prison. She knew this place, as she had been here before. This was the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters.

"Enjoying the view?" Kai had taken the long way up, having to enter a tower and climb two flights of stairs.

"Just some memories." Fluttershy wiped a tear from her eye.

"Watching the sunset with a loved one?"

"No. These are from the last time I was here."

"From when you were a child?"

"No, it was just two years ago."

"You came out here on your own?"

"No. Twilight, Pinkie and three other ponies were with me."

Kai thought back to two years prior. He was sure he would remember six ponies cavorting about his home.

"That was on the summer solstice, though. Usually, the sun rises earliest and sets latest on that day, but due to the return of Nightmare Moon, the night seemed not to end."

That sounded familiar. He had been out that night, and the bridge had collapsed when he left. He had descended into the ravine and slept in a cave. To his shock, the bridge had been repaired the next day. He had dismissed that all as a strangely realistic dream, but it would make sense that a pegasus could fly across the ravine and tie the bridge back together.

"I remember that night, as well. I wasn't here. I mean, I was living here, but I was out of the castle that night."

"How long have you been living here?"

"Almost twenty years. I was seven or eight when I moved in."

"Wait a second..." Something wasn't adding up in Fluttershy's head. His story didn't quite make sense. "If you've been here for twenty years, and you moved in when you were eight, when were you in prison?"

"I was six at that time."

"And then you came here. On your own."

"I did. I had spent the last several months living on the street, so I wasn't quite as vulnerable as one might imagine."

"How did you ever manage that?"

"It's quite a long story."

"I'm not going anywhere." Fluttershy tugged at her collar.

"I suppose you're not."

"The day I was released from prison, my parents were supposed to pick me up. The guard who was watching me at the time claimed that they might have forgotten. At the time, I believed him, but not so much anymore. They abandoned me there. I had to have the guard escort me back to my house, and he was quite angry about that. As if the situation was my fault, or something. When we arrived, my dad told him that I didn't live there, and that I wasn't his kid. The second time we came to the door, my mom was there, and she let me in, claiming that she didn't know I had been released yet.

"That night, I heard them fighting. About whether or not they would keep me around. My mom was of the opinion that I was still her son, and I deserved to stay there as family. My dad called me a disgrace, and argued that I might turn my brother into a criminal, too."

"I didn't know you had a brother."

"I do. Or, I did. If my parents disowned me, It's fair to assume he might have, too. I haven't seen or talked to any of them since I left Canterlot.

"I guess my dad must have won the argument, as the next morning, he told me to remove myself from his sight. My mother was nowhere to be seen. She wasn't in the house, I looked all over. When my dad found me in my mother's bedroom, he grabbed me by the back of my neck and literally threw me out of the house. He yelled after me that I was no longer welcome in his residence. As evidence of this, when I came back a few days later, hoping he'd calmed down, I found all of my belongings in the street, waiting to be picked up with the trash. Seeing my bed smashed to wooden chunks is what made me realize that I would never be able to come back.

"After that, I took to the streets. I wandered from corner to corner, begging passersby for aid, but I seemed to be invisible. Most nights, I went to bed hungry. I'd have starved to death, but I ran into another homeless stallion. At first, he was angry at me. He claimed that I was encroaching on his territory. I went to fight him off with what I thought might have been broken furniture, and he just laughed at me. He made up for that by teaching me how to find food in the dumpsters.

"Scruffy, he called himself. I don't know if that was his name, or just an alias. Regardless, he took me in. We slept in a cardboard box when the weather was dry. During rain, we broke into the public gardens and slept under the bushes. Part of me thought we'd be together forever. Hoped, even. Then one day, he just... didn't wake up. His body was stiff and cold, like ice. He smelled even worse than usual. I took it as a sign that it was time to leave Canterlot. There was nothing left for me there.

"Scruffy had come from Ponyville. He had been a farmer, and he had come to Canterlot to make it big in the city. He fell in love, but didn't have the respectable income her father required in order to give his daughter away, so he fell into a depression and drank his savings away. The only reason he hadn't returned to Ponyville was because he had fought with his family for quite awhile before he left. I had no such baggage, so I decided to come to Ponyville myself. I was going to work on a farm, and save enough money to pursue my dream of having wings."

"Sounds like a fine plan. Why didn't you follow through with it? I'm sure somepony in Ponyville would have taken you in. Especially if you were offering to work for your room and board."

"I'm sure they would have. However, I never made it to Ponyville. On the road, I ran into some travelling minstrels. Bards, they called themselves. They offered me a place to sleep for the night. When I woke up the next morning, they had bound my legs, stolen what few belongings I had left, and left a bunch of their junk next to me. Some guards showed up to untie me, and they arrested me on the spot for possession of stolen property. There was also a sack of coins that was labelled as taxes collected. It had gone missing a week prior. To make matters worse, when they opened the bag, all of the coins were counterfeit. So I was also charged with grand larceny and counterfeiting. My biggest mistake was telling the guards they could keep the items, because that came back to bite me with a bribery charge.

"They shoved me in a wagon and started carting me back to Canterlot. I didn't want to go back to prison, but I had no way to prove my innocence. However, in a rare stroke of luck, I found out that one of the floor boards of the wagon they were carting me away in was loose. I managed to squeeze my way out and escape. They realized pretty quickly that I wasn't there anymore, so they chased after me. I knew they'd catch up in no time if I stayed on the road, so I ran into the forest instead. They may have been bigger, stronger and faster, but I was small and lightweight. After awhile, I guess they wore themselves out in their heavy armor, because I had lost them by the time I stopped running.

"I wandered aimlessly through the forest for a few days, and eventually found this place. I was tired, starving, and my hooves were so sore that I just collapsed as soon as I stepped inside. Nopony lived here, so I looked around when I awoke. There were some books, including one called 'The Emergency Survival Guide: All Things One Must Know in a Life or Death Situation.' I read that book cover to cover several times over.

"By the time I had explored enough of the area to find Ponyville, I had already set up everything I would need to live out here. I also guessed that the charges I was assigned that day were still active. That's my big reason for wanting to avoid the guards. They had enough to put me back in that cell for the rest of my days. Now they can add resisting arrest and kidnapping to my charges. As well as theft, if they bring you in for questioning."

"Why would I tell them you committed theft? What did you steal from me?"

"I was not authorized to purchase those saddlebags with your money. Even though I planned to give them to you at the end of your stay here, I don't suspect you'll want them, or any memory of your time with me."

"That's not entirely true. It hasn't all been bad. Tonight was okay. If I weren't your prisoner, I might have even--"

"Hold on... Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Listen to the sound of the owls."

"I don't hear any owls."

"Exactly. Something's spooked them. There's something out there. Whatever it is, it's nearby. I'm pretty sure it's headed straight for us."

Chapter the Tenth: Found

Kai and Fluttershy peered over the crenelations that adorned the top of the wall. While neither of them saw anything out of the ordinary, only Kai was expecting something to be there. He thought back to when he arrived home. He had been chased into the woods. He was sure nopony had followed him. Was the guard presence in Ponyville so massive that they could spare enough ponies to comb the entire forest?

Fluttershy was about to dismiss him as being paranoid when she spotted movement across the ravine. A lone stallion was approaching the bridge that needed to be crossed to reach the castle. She pointed to him, giving Kai time to examine him.

He was a light brown unicorn with a dark brown mane. Even from this distance, his emerald eyes shone in the moonlight. Around his waist was a belt, and from it a short sabre hung loosely. As he reached the other end of the bridge, the stallion made a beeline for the castle.

"Stay silent and keep low," instructed Kai. "I'll try to scare him off."

Fluttershy nodded. She was now less afraid of Kai than she had been, but she was still afraid of him. Whoever this pony was, he certainly wasn't a guard. Even if Kai wasn't quite a monster to her anymore, his behaviour was showing improvement. At the very least, she believed that he would let her go home as he had promised when they were done. 'Better to deal with the devil you know,' she thought to herself.

Kai climbed back down the tower into the courtyard, hiding behind debris. His first plan was to use an illusory spell to frighten the trespasser. His horn glowed black, and he planted the idea into the stallion's head that there was a massive dragon in the courtyard, spewing smoke from its nostrils. This did not deter the stallion, who walked right through it, confident that nothing was there.

Kai's next illusion was to cast the idea that chunks of the ground were falling before him, as if the castle had become a giant sinkhole. This also failed to deter the stallion, who walked across the ground like it was nothing. Kai pulled out his most powerful illusion, making the stallion think he had been impaled by a booby trap.

"I'm not falling for your cheap parlour tricks. I know you're here, you may as well come out into the open."

Kai stood up and gripped the handle of his knife. "Who are you, what do you want and why are you here?"

The unicorn looked Kai over. "Blue Unicorn, blue eyes, black and white mane. Body covered in tattered cloak. You're certainly a difficult stallion to find."

"I'm not the pony you're looking for. Find somepony else to gawk at."

"You misunderstand. I'm not here to gawk at you." The stallion drew his blade and pointed it at Kai. "I'm here to dispose of you."

Fluttershy was shaking. She hadn't been overly fond of Kai when she first arrived, but she certainly didn't want him dead. If he passed and the unicorn that had stepped in either couldn't or wouldn't remove the collar, she would be stranded in that castle for the rest of her life, slowly starving to death. With that thought in her mind, she would gladly eat those bitter apples growing underground rather than suffer at the hooves of this stranger.

Kai had not yet drawn his blade. "I'm giving you another chance, whoever you are. Leave now, tell nopony about this exchange. I don't want to fight you if I don't have to."

The stallion responded by throwing a ball of fire at Kai. At the last instant, Kai ducked to the side, narrowly evading the projectile. "I'd rather not fight you, either. So just lie down and die. The sooner you croak, the sooner I can leave."

Kai ran to the nearest hallway. His reasoning for doing so was twofold. First, he would put a stone barrier between the invader and Fluttershy. He had promised not to harm her, and he couldn't forgive himself if she were struck by an errant spell. Second, he knew that in this hallway, he had left a halberd. A knife was good for self-defense, but a halberd was a weapon of war. When it came down to life or death, Kai would be better suited protecting himself with a dedicated weapon such as this.

Another fireball came after him. Kai was ready for this one, cutting the ball in half, sending the two flaming hemispheres into the tapestries behind him, illuminating the room. His own horn sparked and crackled, culminating in a bolt of lightning, which managed to knock the stallion back. He had conjured a shield, and had only been subjected to the impact force. Kai charged, halberd in front of him. The stallion parried the tip, sliding inside the polearm's minimum distance. As he pulled back to slice at Kai, he was met with a blast of freezing air from Kai's horn coming right at his face.

The stallion staggered back, coughing and sputtering. Kai struck at the stallion with the head of his halberd, only for the stallion to block it with his crossguard. The blow knocked the blade to the ground, and Kai swung again. The stallion ducked, diving behind a pillar. When he emerged on the other side, he had picked up a flanged mace and buckler from a nearby suit of armor.

Once again on the offensive, the stallion ran at Kai. He was able to deflect Kai's spear with the buckler, then bring his mace down on the shaft. With a loud crack, the wooden handle splintered, leaving Kai without a weapon. All of his effort went into ducking and dodging the mace as it swung through the air with ease. As he retreated, he eventually came to a wall. With nowhere to go, he ducked a horizontal swing. The mace collided with the wall and the shock rippled down the stallion's leg, causing him to drop the mace.

Kai managed to grab the dropped bludgeon, and began swinging at the stallion wildly. The blows glanced off the shield one by one until finally, the mace connected to the buckler directly, cracking it into two pieces. One more swift blow broke the stallion's leg. A third hit connected with his gut, and the stallion was on the ground, unmoving.

Kai was out of breath. He was used to fighting off wild animals. If they didn't run away from his illusions, they were usually intent on surviving the fight and retreated before there were any serious injuries. He had never fought an opponent with this mindset before today. Especially not one this well-armed. He raised the mace over his head to be rid of this assassin forever.

"Wait!" Shouted Fluttershy from down the hall. "You don't have to kill him!"

Kai lowered the mace. "He tried to kill me. I wanted him to leave, but he didn't. If I let him live, he'll just try to kill me again. Or worse, he'll gather up his friends, and they'll all band together to kill me." Once more, he raised the mace. "I can't take that risk."

"I understand that you're only looking out for your own safety, but it doesn't have to be this way. I've only just started to believe that you can be a better pony. I want to believe you're not the monster I originally perceived, but taking his life will only confirm that you're just as terrible as he is."

Kai closed his eyes. She believed that he could be better? He didn't even believe that he could be better. What could she see in him that he couldn't? He dropped the mace. It bounced across the floor, coming to rest next to the shattered buckler. "I can't just let him go. If I leave him here as he is, I won't be alive tomorrow morning to regret this decision."

"So don't leave him here. Take him inside and lock him in the cell you locked me in. When you leave, you can find some way to let him out in a way that he can't follow you, or I can turn him over to the guards for assault. Even somepony like him deserves to live, though."

Without another word, Kai picked up the stallion and slung him over his shoulder. He knew that he wouldn't forgive himself for ending the life of another pony. In the adrenaline, he had reasoned that it was to safeguard himself, but now that his mind was clearing up, he was appalled that he had even considered the option.

Chapter the Twelfth: Truths and Lies

Fluttershy placed the prisoner's breakfast on a tray and carried it up the stairs. It had been almost half an hour since Kai departed, and she had made sure to clean everything in the kitchen that she had used, as she wasn't sure if she would have time to do so later. She had told Kai that she would feed him a normal meal, but she hadn't promised that it would still be hot when it arrived. She thought this an apt way of punishing his actions without being too rash.

When she reached the cell, the stallion was awake and waiting for her. He sat up straight and stared at her. Something about his face looked somewhat familiar, but she couldn't place it.

"I need you to give me my sword." He scowled at her. "Now."

"I'm not going to do that. I can't let you hurt anypony."

"I don't want to hurt anypony. I promise, it will be quick and painless."

"I said no." Fluttershy stamped her hoof, almost losing balance with the tray.

"Why do you protect that waste of life?" He stood and grabbed the bars of the cell. "Isn't he keeping you here as a hostage? Didn't he wrap that demeaning collar around your neck? I'd bet he even has you cooking and cleaning for him. I'd also guess that he only ever interacts with you when he wants to feel you up. Wouldn't it be nice if you were a free mare?"

Fluttershy stepped back. Much of what he said was true, at least in part. Kai definitely wasn't anywhere near her idea of a nice pony. He was her captor, after all. He was the reason she couldn't be at home. He was the reason she was wearing a collar like some sort of slave. He had also brought her here for the sole purpose of looking over her body.

"Do yourself a favor and let me out of this cage. I promise, you'll never see him again. Unless you want to kick him after he's been taken down, of course."

"While it's true that he may be harsh at times, underneath it all is a pony who has suffered. I'd like him to have something good happen to him. He deserves that much. Besides, he's promised to let me go when he's done with his project."

"A promise means nothing if it's empty. He has no intention of ever finishing his project, and no need to let you leave his service. You want to protect him, you'll end up living the rest of your life down here, tending to his every whim."

"How would you know? You say these things like he's done all of this before."

"He has. With countless other mares. And when he tires of you, he'll dispose of you the same way he disposed of them."

Fluttershy was horrified. She didn't want to believe that Kai had done this before. She didn't want to think that she was the latest in his string of mare slaves. She especially didn't want to think that he would just snap and kill her one of these days.

"Your only hope now is to let me out of this cage and return my weapon. I promise, it'll be quick."

She didn't know what to think anymore. Kai had almost killed this stallion last night. He had been ready to do so with such ease that it made sense that he had done so in the past. Had she been right to call him a monster before? Against such an aberration, she stood no chance.

Then again, this prisoner could be lying to her. He wanted his freedom, an idea she was well inclined to sympathize with. He could say anything, and likely would if it meant she would let him out. His entire speech may be nothing more than a ploy to appeal to her. She would have to decide for herself. She stood up straight, filled with determination.

"I'll have you know that doing the cooking was my decision. As was my cleaning this place up. So too was my decision to feed you while you were here, and even to spare your life. You are in my hooves now, and I'm responsible for your health from this point forward. I was going to be kind to you, but I can't take you at your word. If I can't trust you, then I'll leave you in his care." She placed the tray on the floor and pushed it within reach of the cell. "Enjoy your breakfast."

Kai walked back to the castle through the woods. Rarity had her measurements and design idea, and told him that his gift would be ready in a few days. He would make sure that he bathed and washed his cloak before he returned to pick it up. He didn't even know what she was making for him. He had expressed his desire not to stand out and not to draw attention. Judging by the clothing he had seen in her shop, he wasn't sure she would impress him, as they seemed to grab his attention. Still, it was a free gift, and he would rather she didn't try to track him down to deliver it.

Upon his arrival, he expected Fluttershy to be outside. There were a few birds in the courtyard, most noticeably a bright red cardinal. She had expressed her desire to be outside, so where was she?

He found his answer as he came to the second basement. From her room, he heard a quiet sobbing. He slowly cracked open the door to find her on the bed, curled into a ball. He walked in and sat down next to her, gently placing a hoof on her shoulder. "Is something the matter?"

Fluttershy looked up at him and wiped her face. "H-have you e-e-ever had any other m-m-mares here?" she said between sobs.

"No," replied Kai trying to put on a soothing voice while gently brushing her shoulder. "What would give you that idea?"

"Th-the stallion in the c-c-cage. He s-s-said that you d-do this with other m-mares and k-kill them when you're d-d-done."

"It's not true. He's only saying that because he wants to build distrust between us. He's a killer. It's safe to assume he's not above lying."

"B-but your a k-k-kidnapper. How can I b-be sure y-y-you're not above l-lying?"

Kai paused for a moment. "I suppose you can't. However, I would have hoped that this would have bought me some amount of trust." He pulled out the list of chores she had given him. Every day except the first had Twilight's signature on it, as well as the date. The first day had Pinkie's signature and the date. "If I'm not lying about this, mayhaps I'm telling you the truth now, too. I realize that you only put any faith in me because you had no choice, but now it's up to you to decide."

Fluttershy took the sheet of paper and held it close to her chest. She might not be able to trust him completely, but he had been earning it up to this point. He had let her out of her cell and allowed her to walk freely through his home. He had expanded that area and let her go outside. On top of that, he had been effectively taking care of her animal friends every day.

"I can see that you have a lot on your mind right now. I'm going to go lie down for a bit while you think about how you wish to proceed. If you still feel okay to help with my project tonight, feel free to wake me up. The same goes for if you need anything. Okay?"

Fluttershy nodded. As he stood up, she grabbed his hoof. "Thank y-you."

Kai shook his head. "I'm the one who needs to be thanking you. Had you not stopped me last night, I might not be okay to continue on. I owe you much for that."

Chapter the Thirteenth: Trust

Fluttershy gently shook Kai's shoulder. He had been sleeping for three hours. In that time, she had collected her thoughts and calmed down. Kai bolted upright, not used to being awakened by anypony, but soon calmed down.

"Feeling any better?" he yawned. Rubbing his eyes, he rolled over to sit on the edge of the bed.

Fluttershy nodded, and presented him with a bowl full of food. "I made some rice."

Kai accepted the bowl and set it off to the side. He wasn't quite awake enough to take in the excitement of her cooking yet. He patted the clump of old fabric next to him, coaxing her to sit down. When she did, he gently placed his hoof on her shoulder. "I know I'm not the most comforting pony, but I want to help you to be happy here. I wasn't kidding when I asked if you wanted the night off."

"I think I'll be okay," she said, unsure. "The sooner we work on it, the sooner we're done, right? I'd like to go back home."

"I suppose so. You probably don't think very highly of me, so I understand your desire to leave. Especially after he told you that you were just some kind of tool in my eyes. You're not just one more in a long line of mares. You're the only mare who has come out here with me. And thus far, he's the only stallion who's ever known that I was here. But you can't take my word for that. I know you don't quite believe me."

Fluttershy nodded. "I can trust some things you say. If Twilight says you've done well in taking care of my home while I've been away, then you're probably an honest pony. But I'd like to be sure. So, tomorrow, do you think I could ask another favor of you?"

"Of course." Kai began eating.

"I want you to go to Sweet Apple Acres. It's on the other side of Ponyville. I have a letter I want you to give to my friend Applejack. I've asked for a quick response, so I'd like you to bring one back."

Kai was suspicious. "I'll have to read through it to make sure it doesn't violate the terms of our agreement."

"It doesn't say anything about where I am or in what condition you're keeping me. I want to trust your word, but you have to trust mine in return. Please?"

He thought about it. It wasn't easy for him to trust, and he had already given her quite a bit of freedom since her arrival. It was quite a risk, not reading her outgoing letter before it left. If he didn't read it, and it contained information that would condemn him, he was walking right into a trap. Then again, if he did read it, and it was perfectly safe, she would have every reason not to trust him, and he would have one more place that he was surrounded by enemies.

"I'll consider your request. I'll have an answer for you tomorrow morning."

"Okay." Fluttershy took his now empty bowl and stood up. "Oh, and the stallion upstairs wants to visit the toilet. I don't know if I can control him if he breaks my hold, so I told him--"

"I'll take care of it," Said Kai, holding up a hoof. "I need to collect my notes anyway. We'll continue our work in here tonight, so as not to be disturbed by him."

Kai went upstairs to his workshop. The prisoner stood up and scowled at Kai. "You certainly took your sweet time."

"I could just leave you in that cage, you know. I don't have to take you anywhere."

"And hurt your maid's feelings? She speaks highly of you, so I doubt she'd be all that happy if you gave her an extra mess to clean up."

"She's not a maid. But she is the reason you're still alive, so I suggest you treat her with the proper respect. If she decides you're too much trouble to keep around, I'll find you a nice tree branch to hang from. Treat her well, and you may just make it out of here with your life. Now put your front hooves together, and slip them through the gap in the bars."

"Is that a threat?"

"I don't see any way that it couldn't be. Hooves through the gap in the bars."

"No wonder Stain demanded I eliminate you." He slipped his hooves through the bars.

Kai began tying his hooves together tightly. "I don't know anypony by that name. I told you when you arrived, I'm not the stallion you were looking for. Turn around."

"Red pegasus, usually takes Tundra and Frostbite out with him? Any of this ringing a bell?"

"It is. I remember him, but he never gave me his name. We're not exactly good buddies."

"Obviously."

Kai tied the stallion's back hooves together and hoisted him up onto his shoulders. "He deserved what came to him. He attacked me with a knife, so I punched him in the face."

"Don't lie to me. You're not good at it. You saw him on the streets and beat him up because you didn't like his face. The only reason you stopped was because your girlfriend begged and pleaded."

"That's ridiculous, for several reasons. How gullible are you?"

"Why would he lie to me?"

"Why would I lie to you?" Kai set his prisoner down on the latrine. "I locked you up. What do I have to gain from lying to you?"

The stallion was quiet. He didn't have a good answer.

"I don't know what brought you into his service, but he's lying to you. He was holding a knife to a young mare. I only stepped in for her protection. I'm not asking you to believe me, I'm just telling you what happened."

"And why should I believe you?"

"I have nothing to gain. When I'm done here, your fate rests in Fluttershy's hooves. If she wants to set you free, that's up to her. Or she can call the guards to take you into custody. I'll never see you again, if we're lucky."

The stallion stood. "You can take me back to my cell now."

Kai obliged, closing the cell door and untying his bonds when there was no threat of assault. Without another word, he gathered up his notes and left the room.

Fluttershy was waiting on the bed when Kai returned. "How did he behave?" she asked hopefully.

"Well, he still hates me. But he did tell me who wants me dead."

"Really? Who is it?"

"Do you remember the pegasus that attacked Rarity?"

"You didn't say it was a pegasus. You said it was three stallions."

"Yes, well the one holding the knife was a pegasus. He's the one that wants me dead."

"Why?"

"No idea. If I had to guess, it's because I stopped his robbery."

"That's not a reason to have you killed..."

"I never said it was. But we're wasting time. Shall we begin?"

Chapter the Fourteenth: Honesty

The following day, after he had done the chores, Kai made his way to Sweet Apple Acres. He had not read Fluttershy's letter, but he was going to deliver it. He had decided to place some trust in her. If he was wrong to do so, he carried a blade, concealed beneath his cloak. He hoped that it would stay in its scabbard.

When he arrived, he saw only one mare. An elderly earth pony was snoozing in a rocking chair in front of the barn. He thought about waking her, but thought better of it when he saw a rather large red stallion. He looked for a pair of wings, and was relieved to find none. He felt silly for worrying when he realized that this stallion and Stain did not share their mane colour.

"Excuse me, sir," said Kai. "I'm looking for Miss Applejack. Is she around?"

"Eyup." The stallion pointed to a large orchard to the south.

"Thank you."

Kai started to sweat. If this letter was as informative as he feared, he would not only have to silence this Applejack, but he may have to contend with that stallion, as well. He shivered. Why, after such a life of solitude, did he suddenly encounter so many situations where he needed to fight other ponies?

When he finally found another mare, she was kicking at the trunk of a tree, causing apples to fall out of it. She was a bright orange earth pony, and despite the chill wind, she was glistening with sweat. Baskets were scattered all around. Some full of the literal fruits of her labor, others empty.

"Miss Applejack?"

"One sec, Sugarcube." With a loud grunt, she kicked at another tree, filling up her basket. "Now, what can I do ya for?"

While put off by her manner of speaking, Kai tried to keep his tone civil. "I've come to you with a message from Miss Fluttershy." He held out the letter in his hoof, which he somehow kept from trembling.

"From Fluttershy, huh? Heard she was off on some important project." Applejack took the letter and opened it.

"Yes, that's correct." Kai swallowed hard as Applejack quickly scanned through the letter. As his fear turned to panic, his breathing became labored, and his hoof inched toward the hilt of his knife.

When she finished, Applejack looked up and examined him. "You ever do farm work before, stranger?"

"No," answered Kai, pulling his hoof away from his blade. "I had wanted to, at one point, but the chance never really arose. At best, I've grown mushrooms."

"Well, we ain't got no fungi 'round here. I only ask 'cause Fluttershy wants me to have you help out with some odd jobs just for today. Normally I wouldn't, but it's harvest season, and Fluttershy promises that you'll be a big help, so welcome to the team. You know anythin' 'bout apple buckin'?"

"Not really, no." Kai had never in his life even heard of apple bucking.

"It's an easy concept, it just requires some strength. All ya gotta do is line yourself up and give the tree a good, solid kick. Like so." She demonstrated. "Now, these here are some strong apples, and the ground's pretty soft, so don't worry too much about bruisin' 'em. Ya don't necessarily hafta get 'em in the basket, neither, so long as ya pick 'em all up, but it's easier if'n ya get 'em all in the basket anyway, as that way ya don't hafta pick 'em all up."

"So, just kick the tree really hard?" Kai could do that. He positioned himself in front of a tree that was full of apples, and gave the tree a good, hard kick. To his amazement, the baskets filled up, and the tree was emptied. "Like that?"

"Almost," answered Applejack, a sour expression on her face. "Next time, don't kick so hard as to damage the tree."

Kai turned around and bowed his head. Sure enough, there was an imprint of his hooves denting the trunk of the tree. "Sorry about that. Like I said, I've never done this before."

"Well, ya got all afternoon to get good. Fluttershy said your name was Kay?"

"Kai."

The two started working their way through the orchard. Between trees, they would talk.

"So what's this project Fluttershy's workin' on?"

"It's a secret. I'm not allowed to talk about it."

"Well, what can ya tell me about it?"

"I can tell you that it's potentially going to create a breakthrough in the medical field."

"She's not being subjected to any dangerous medical tests, is she? That pony's very afraid of needles."

"I can assure you, she's not being subjected to any needles. I can also tell you that she's perfectly safe, she's uninjured and all of the plans that involve her are non-invasive. There is absolutely no reason why she should come to any harm, except by measures beyond control."

"What do you mean, 'Measures beyond control?'"

"Just that. If something happens that can't be controlled, then there's little we can do to prevent it. We can try to foresee some events, but not all of them. For example, if there's a really big storm, we can try to prevent any damages to her by keeping her in a bunker underground. We can't stop the storm from raging, but we can foresee damage likely to be caused, and take measures to prevent that. However, if she trips and hits her head on the floor, there's naught we can do to prevent it. At that point, we'd give her a cold compress to sooth her wound and try to prevent a bruise."

"Ah s'pose that's good 'nuff for me. So How'd y'all get roped into takin' care of Fluttershy's place while she was out?"

"Just a matter of circumstance, really. She had to leave right away, so she didn't really have time to ask anypony. So I stepped up."

"Mighty kind a y'all, especially considerin' you're not close."

"Yes, we met that night. I am to expedite her assistance wherever possible. Within reason, of course."

"Alright, I think that's enough for now." The two had cleared out quite a large number of trees, and the baskets were almost completely full. Applejack began lifting the baskets into the back of a cart. "Go ahead and hitch yourself up to this here cart. You're gonna pull it back to the barn, unload it, then bring it on back here."

Kai nodded. He stepped in front of the cart and wrapped the straps around his shoulders. He was fairly certain that this was correct, but it felt very uncomfortable.

"You ain't never pulled a cart before, have ya?"

"This would be my first time, yes."

"I figured." Applejack reached around him, securing the straps to his midsection for balance and chest for mobility. "That's how you do that. You're all loaded up, now just pull."

This was much more comfortable. Kai pulled the cart down to the barn with ease, unloaded the baskets via magic where the stallion from earlier directed, and was back in the orchard in no time. The next few hours passed in much the same manner, and the barn was full by evening.

"Thank ya kindly for your help, Kai. You're a natural at this. Here." She reached into the barn and pulled out a small pouch of coins. "Fluttershy told me to send a response to her letter with you when you left. This should answer her question."

Kai took the pouch. "Is the message also in here?"

"That is the message. If ya need words, too, tell her you did a good job, and that you were given this for services rendered. "

"I see. Thank you. I'll deliver it posthaste."

"Make sure Ya come back for cider season. For now, though, you'd best be on your way. Storm's comin' tonight."

Chapter the Fifteenth: The Storm

When Kai returned to the castle, the sky had turned dark gray. It had not yet begun to rain, but there was moisture in the air. He had never had an aversion to the rain, being quite fond of the coolness and fragrance it brought with it. As his home was made from stone and surrounded by trees, he had never had much to fear from lightning, either. Because of this, he was looking forward to the following morning.

He found Fluttershy in the kitchen. As the sun was currently setting, it was a bit later than they usually had dinner. Mayhaps she had been waiting for him to arrive, and had reached the point where she wasn't quite sure if he would be back in time for his meal.

"I'm back." His words broke the silence and drew her attention. She jumped, but calmed down quickly.

"Welcome home. I wasn't expecting Applejack to keep you all day."

"She did. I wish you had told me that I should expect a fair amount of manual labor today."

"I wanted to tell you. Really, I did. But I needed to know what Applejack thought of you. And for that to be accurate, I couldn't let you make something up. Did she send anything back, like I asked?"

Kai pulled out the pouch of coins and tossed it on the table. "She was happy to have my help for the day, and gave me this as compensation. She said you'd understand what she meant."

Fluttershy counted out the coins. A good payment meant that he was trustworthy, and welcome to come back. A low payment was an indicator of Applejack's distrust, and would hopefully keep the offending party from returning. This amount was merely above average. Applejack was a good judge of character. If she thought Kai had some integrity, then it was safe to presume that she was right.

"So, does her message make any sense to you?"

Fluttershy nodded and placed the coins back into the bag. With a smile, she returned to her pot of boiling water. "I feel much better now. Thank you for doing this for me."

Kai sat at the table. "Was part of that because I said I used to want to be a farmer?"

"Just a little bit. How did it feel to you?"

"Not quite how I expected. I knew it was hard work, and I knew I'd be sweaty by the end of the day, but I wasn't expecting to be this sore. I also knew nothing of the techniques required. But I did enjoy it, at least."

"I'm glad to hear it. If you had made it to Ponyville when you were young, I'd like to think that we'd still be working on this project together, but I'd be doing so in a way that allows me to go home at the end of the day."

"Mayhaps, but I'd rather try to better our situation as it stands, rather than look at what may have been. Rarity told me recently that you can't change what you've done in the past. You can only hope to make the future brighter. Or something along those lines. I don't remember the exact words."

A low rumble reverberated throughout the castle. Fluttershy's ear perked up and her wings squeezed shut. "What was that?"

"Oh, just some advice. I've already acted on those words, actually. I suppose we'll see if it pays off."

"No, not that, I was..." She shook her head. "Nevermind."

"So, what are you making? I don't recognize this one." Not that he ever did...

"Nutball Marinara over linguine. I made the nutballs earlier, they just need to heat back up."

"What are nutballs?"

"Balls of crushed up nuts. You can make them stay together with eggs and bread crumbs. I also added some spices for flavor."

Another rumble rolled through the castle.

"There it is again. Is that thunder?"

"I would guess so. There's supposed to be a storm tonight."

Fluttershy shivered. "I hope it's over really quickly..."

"Do you not like storms?"

Fluttershy frantically shook her head. "I'm not fond of thunder or lightning. They're terrifying."

"Don't worry about them. You're perfectly safe down here. Stone doesn't conduct electricity very well. Even if lightning strikes nearby, it'll dissipate into the ground safely."

A loud crash was heard, and Fluttershy darted under the table.

"Like I said, we're safe down here." Kai offered his hoof and helped pull her out from under the table. "I'm of the opposite opinion. I like storms."

"That opinion may change soon."

"What makes you say that?"

"You're planning on making your wings from metal, right?"

"I am."

"Metal conducts electricity very well. If you fly with those through a lightning storm, you'll be struck for certain."

Kai hadn't considered that. He wondered if it would be possible to mitigate the shock. Either some non-conductive metal, or a rubberized coating. He wasn't even sure how to make the wings, yet, much less what he would make them from. It's possible that they may not be made from metal at all.

Another crash was heard, and Fluttershy was back under the table. It became clear that this would be a recurring event for as long as the storm raged outside. Kai stood and walked to the stove.

"So, what do I need to do to make this?"

"It's almost done. The nutballs are in the marinara already, you just need to drain the noodles when they're done."

"How do I know when they're done?" Kai knew nothing of noodles. He used to have an opinion on noodles, but having spent so long away from them, he couldn't remember anymore.

"You pull one out with a fork and bite down. If it's soft, it's done."

Kai used his magic to pluck a noodle from the boiling water and bit down. There was no flavor, but the noodle was sufficiently soft, at least by his interpretation. "I guess it's done..." He took the noodles off the fire and drained off the boiling water. Dinner was ready.

The meal passed slowly, with Fluttershy cringing in fear at every crash of thunder. With no hopes of doing any amount of work tonight, whether because of her fear or his weariness, Kai escorted her to bed after feeding the prisoner. It had been a long day, and they both needed rest.

An hour after he climbed into bed, he was awoken. The thunder had increased in frequency and volume. He took a quick stroll upstairs, to find that the courtyard had flooded. Large streams of water gushed off the roofs, all pouring into rivlets that threw themselves down the stairs into the hallway. Luckily, there was a grate in the floor that spat the rainwater into the gorge below via the ancient stone plumbing.

"At least the cistern will fill up," he thought aloud. He would have no reason to worry about running out of potable water

As he returned to his room, he heard whimpering coming from Fluttershy's room. He slowly opened the door to see her curled up on the bed. He was about to ask if she was alright when another crash was heard, and she bolted into his embrace.

"Please," she whispered. "Stay with me tonight?"

Kai nodded and brought her back to the bed. Wrapping his cloak around her, he began to hum in an attempt to calm her. He knew only one song, the only one that had stuck in his head for these many years. It was a melancholy tune from an opera. It had signified the death of the protagonist's best friend though he could no longer remember their names. He would have chosen something nicer, but it was the only tune he knew.

It seemed to work just fine, as she stopped shaking as much as he gently rubbed her shoulders. The two of them stayed in that position throughout the night, only moving when the next morning came and the storm was long finished.

Chapter the Sixteenth: Reunion

When Fluttershy awoke the next morning, she didn't want to open her eyes. She was warm, and partially cushioned. She imagined that she was back home, in her own bed. She gave her pillow a squeeze, and for some reason, it let out a small groan. She readjusted herself, and heard a soft thumping coming from beneath the mattress.

"Five more minutes, Angel..."

Her robe tightened slightly around her shoulders. She let out a small grunt and turned her face into the pillow while stretching her shoulders forward. The thumping grew louder, and she noticed an odor emanating from her bed. She would have to take care of her laundry today.

She picked herself up and opened her eyes. Her blanket was, in reality, Kai's cloak wrapped around her. The robe wrapping around her shoulders was really just his leg. Her odourous pillow had been his chest, and the thumping had been his heart beating next to her ear.

While she knew that doing so was improper, curiosity took hold of her. She gently placed her ear back against Kai's chest. Gone were the days where she thought Kai was a monster. Now, he was just a stallion that needed help. If she had felt this way about him when he first showed up outside her yard, she would have gladly helped him. Perhaps they might still be friends when this was over. It certainly looked more plausible with each passing day.

When Kai awoke, he saw Fluttershy with her hooves wrapped around his waist. He felt a warmth in his chest that had never been there before. He wondered if this feeling was being brought about by Fluttershy's embrace. He couldn't remember the last time he had been hugged. It felt wonderful. He pulled back his hoof to gently stroke her shoulder.

On feeling his hoof, she picked herself up and locked eyes with him. "G-good morning."

"Good morning. Feeling better than last night?"

She nodded. Without breaking her gaze, she slipped out from under his cloak and out of the bed. The cold air and cold stone floor caused enough shock to bring her back to her senses. Her face turned bright red in embarrassment.

"Glad to hear it." Smiled Kai, also standing up. "Though, at our current rate of progress, I can't imagine we'll be done before the next storm. We'll have to prepare accordingly."

The two went upstairs. Fluttershy was given the first use of the lavatory, as had become standard practice by now. While she had the privacy, she closely examined herself, and breathed a sigh of relief that Kai hadn't taken advantage of her in her vulnerable state. With that taken care of, she went down to the kitchen to start breakfast.

After a silent breakfast with Kai, just before he left, she grabbed him and pulled him into a hug. "I want to thank you. First for making me feel better last night, and also for not forcing yourself on me in my weakened state of mind."

Kai hugged back, feeling the warmth in his chest again. "You're welcome for the first one. As for the second, it never even crossed my mind. I would never do that. You have my word."

If Kai gave his word, she was content with that. He was trustworthy.

"Before I go, is there anything you want me to bring back? Mayhaps something to help you in the event of a storm?"

When Kai returned that afternoon, a gentle shower had already begun. There was no thunder or lightning, and no more flooding. With nothing more to do today, Kai was excited to spend the next several hours focusing on his research and refining his plans.

He found Fluttershy chatting with the prisoner. The two of them had spent a fair amount of time talking, since Kai hadn't been around very much.

"I have no idea where he is now, and part of me doesn't care."

Fluttershy shook her head. "I'd always find some way to forgive my dad. He only wants what's best for me, after all."

"I understand that," groaned the stallion. "But mine was awful. He just let my brother rot in that prison cell. I went back a few days later to talk to him, but the guards told me he had been released a year prior."

"That's terrible."

"Enjoying your conversation?" Kai stood in the doorframe, his mane dripping cold water onto the floor.

"Usu was just telling me about his father." Fluttershy explained. "You two actually have a lot in common."

"I don't think we do," grumbled Usu. "I've never lived in a ruin, and he has no charisma."

"But you were both born in Canterlot, and you both have brothers. You even both have bad fathers. No offense."

"None taken," said Kai. "Mine was quite terrible. He threw me out when I was just a child."

"Mine's worse," growled Usu. "He had my younger brother locked in jail, and just left him there to die."

"My father threatened to kill me if he ever saw me again!"

Usu jumped up. "My father caved in my mother's forehead and now she can't form new memories!"

The room grew silent. Kai moved over to his stool and sat down. "I guess yours really is worse. You can't choose your family."

"I know." Usu sat back down. "Every time my mother sees me, she asks who I am. I tell her my name, and she tells me that her son has the same name. She then shows me a picture of my brother and I when we were young."

"At least you can still see your mother. I have to wonder if mine would even want to see what I've become."

There was another pause. Fluttershy sat down next to Kai and placed a hoof on his shoulder.

"I have to wonder why I never saw you in Canterlot," Usu inquired, breaking the silence. "We're about the same age. You would think we might have met. I mean, Canterlot's big, but it's not that big. Surely, I'd have seen you at one of the inter-school events. Or even out on the streets."

"I would have been out on the streets," answered Kai. "My dad threw me out, remember? I was homeless. And since nopony cares whether or not criminals like me are being fed, I spent a lot of time in alleys behind restaurants."

"Surely, you weren't a criminal yet, right?"

"No, I was. Twenty years ago, I was framed for terrorist activity and thrown in the dungeons."

Usu scrambled to stand up and pressed himself against the bars. "Did you ever meet a colt named Kai!?"

"I know of him, yes. Why?"

Usu's eyes went wide. "Because he's my younger brother."

Kai's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates. "Is your name Usutora? Your father was an admiral, your mother an heiress?"

"Yes! He spoke of me?"

"No." Kai stood and walked over to the cell door. "My name is Akaitora. My father was an admiral. My mother was an heiress. If what you say is true, then it's quite likely that you are my older brother."

Now Fluttershy understood why Usu's face looked so familiar. He had the same cheekbones, brow and jawline as Kai. The two even had a similar build, with Kai being slightly larger. They really could be brothers.

Usu shrank down, not taking his gaze off of Kai's face. "I thought you were dead."

Kai shook his head. "The only thing that's even come close to killing me lately has been you."

"I swear, I didn't know!"

"I believe you. However, I don't forgive you for your actions. Not yet, anyway."

Chapter the Seventeenth: Caring

"That's when he supplanted me and started giving me the jobs nopony else wanted."

Kai frowned at Usu's words. "Why didn't you leave? You could have left them all behind and formed a new group, became a freelancer or even become just a licensed locksmith."

"For the same reason you're not living in town and working as a farmer. We both have enough on our records to put us away for the rest of our lives, Kai."

"The difference is, I was framed. I'm not a criminal."

"You did kidnap me..." Fluttershy chimed in.

"Besides that, Stain has quite a vengeance. He felt that you wronged him when you hit him, and he tried to have you killed. If I were to turn him in, especially in return for a pardon, you can imagine what he'd do to me. Besides, I don't want to turn in the other two, especially Tundra. He saved me numerous times when we were on our early jobs."

"Tundra." Kai thought back to his encounter. "He's the big one, right? The unicorn?"

Usu nodded. "He's really nice once you know him."

"I might have guessed that. He stayed his blade and backed down when we encountered each other."

"Before Stain, he wouldn't have hurt a fly."

"What about the other one?"

"Frosty? He'd have kicked you in the face, at worst. He's a bit of a coward. Unless you make fun of him, he's more likely to run from a fight than follow through. If he ever draws a blade on you, just pull out your own and keep your mouth shut. He'll back off."

"Is that so?"

"We're thieves. Burglars, really. We used to break into ponies' homes and steal their belongings. They can't replace those for us to steal later if they're dead. I know that, Tundra knows that, and Frost knows that. We'd still be adhering to that code if Stain hadn't taken over."

"So, even if you were free from his reign, you'd still be robbing ponies?"

"Yeah, probably."

Kai chuckled and sat down. He had finished his analysis of Fluttershy's wings by now, discovering that there was a joint missing from his original interpretation, as well as several muscles. "I suppose there's not much I can do to change your mind, is there?"

"I'd ask you to join me if I wasn't supposed to kill you."

"I don't think I'll be joining you either way. I've taken several steps toward my life's goal in the last week, and I'm quite content to chase that dream until I reach it." He began sketching out ideas for how the wings might look.

"And just what is this dream of yours? You never told me what it was."

"Do you remember the day mom took us to see the Wonderbolts perform?"

"No."

"I was so entranced by them. They were so beautiful. I wanted to fly like they did."

"You're still chasing that dream? It's been twenty years! How can you have spent so long on this, and not realized that it's impossible?"

"You're wrong. It's not impossible. I've come so far along this path that I can see the end of the road. I'm so close I can taste it. I just need a real pegasus to show me how to cross the final chasm."

"And that's what she's for?"

"That's the reason I brought her out here, yes."

Fluttershy, while not glad to be out of the conversation entirely, was happy to listen to the two stallions' dialogue. It was her hope that Kai and Usu were growing closer, and that soon, they might even agree to refrain from violence toward each other altogether. With Kai no longer occupied with her wings, she excused herself and went downstairs to start dinner.

When she returned to the workshop, the room was silent. They both wore somber looks on their faces. "What's wrong?"

Kai turned to look at her. "My mother is injured mentally. Out of my entire family, she was the one I wanted to return to the most. But she'll never recognize me, much like she doesn't recognize him."

She placed a hoof on his shoulder. "I still think you should go and see her. She's your mother, after all."

"I guess..."

"No." Fluttershy stamped her hoof. "You need to see her. When we're finished with this, You need to go to Canterlot and talk to her. Even if she doesn't recognize you, you still need to talk to her. Even if she doesn't remember the conversation the next day. She wanted you to come home, didn't she? Even if it's just for a day, make her dream come true."

Kai looked at her. He could see the determination in her eyes. "Alright. I'll go."

The next day, after his chores were done, Kai made his way to the Ponyville spa. He had planned on bathing in the river as usual, but Fluttershy had insisted he go here instead. He had never been to a spa before, and had no idea what was in store for him. He walked in and was immediately greeted by a blue mare with pink hair.

"Welcome. How may we help you today?"

"I don't have an appointment, but I was told to ask for a standard treatment?"

The mare scanned the ledger in front of her. "We do have a room available today. Would you like to begin?"

Kai nodded and was lead into a room with a large tub.

"Have you ever been to this spa, sir?" the mare asked, filling the tub with a yellow-green liquid.

"I've never been to any spa," he replied. "I don't even know what the standard treatment is."

"Well, first we start with an herbal bath. If you like, we can send an attendant to help you scrub those hard to reach areas. Would you like an attendant?"

He shrugged. "Sure."

"Okay. After that, we'll give you some time in the sauna. When that's done, we'll give you an exfoliating wrap, and if desired, we can touch up your mane and tail. After that it's a quick shower to clean up anything that we missed or anything that came up after the bath. Then you get a hooficure, and we're done. You can also request other services for nominal fees."

"I think I'll be fine with just regular treatments. I usually just bathe in plain water. When the dirt's gone, I'm done."

"Not here, sir. We only provide the best bath services available. We hope you find it to your liking." She exited the room.

Kai took off his cloak and tossed it aside. As he shook off the dust, a muscular stallion entered the room. He had a very large brush which he held over his shoulder. "Into the tub with you."

Chapter the Eighteenth: Clean and Bright

Kai raised his head and stared into the eyes of a stranger. He'd always known that the mirror never lied. The pony staring back had a brilliant steel blue coat and a short, smoothed back mane. He stood taller than Kai did, on shiny hooves with his ankles trimmed back to a feathered style. His horn also seemed longer.

"What do you think?" Asked the attendant, smiling.

"I certainly look different," Answered Kai. "I'm not one for focusing on physical appearance, but I like the new look. I even feel better. I may even come back someday."

"I'm glad to hear you say so." The attendant returned Kai's cloak. "I'd be glad to have you back. If you're coming back, might I suggest that you make a reservation next time? It will make sure that you don't have to wait."

"If I do come back, I'll keep that in mind."

Kai was unsure if he would return. While the treatment was quite pleasurable, he wasn't sure if he would remain in the vicinity of Ponyville. He wasn't sure where he would go after he returned to Canterlot. He draped his cloak over his shoulder, rather than donning it. He looked so drastically different that he guessed that nopony would recognize him.

As friendly as the ponies of Ponyville were, they were even more so now that he was out of his cloak. He was starting to become accustomed to it now, and he made every attempt to not scowl back at them.

He had a very good reason for bathing that morning. He had given his word, and he didn't like breaking his word. He walked right through the door to the Carousel Boutique. Finding the store front empty, he cleared his throat, in case Rarity was nearby.

Rarity poked her head out from behind the privacy screen. "One moment, please. I'm busy with another client."

Kai sat down next to the door. He didn't mind waiting. His opinion was changed about whether or not he'd enjoy this gift, given the transformation he had felt from the herbal bath and haircut. Perhaps a change of clothes would do something similar.

Five minutes passed, and Rarity came out from behind the screen. Accompanying her was Pinkie Pie, carrying the front half of a manticore costume, and the back half of a gryphon costume. He wondered what kind of silly creature would look like that.

"Hey, Kai! Long time no see! I'm lovin' the haircut!"

"Yes, It's quite fetching on you."

Kai blushed. "Thanks. I wasn't going to do anything, but a friend recommended that I go to the spa, and the spa ponies told me I would be best served with a fresh haircut. I must admit, it feels nice."

"I bet it does. Come on to the back, your outfit is ready."

Kai followed Rarity to the back as Pinkie bounced out the door. Hanging up his cloak where Rarity had placed it last time, he stood up on the podium as Rarity rifled through a closet. She pulled out a large wooden hanger with a sheet draped over it. She brought it over to Kai and removed the sheet from the hanger, revealing a cloak. She draped it around his shoulders and secured it with a clasp.

Kai examined himself in the mirror. The cloak cascaded down to his ankles, only just gliding above the floor. It was a dark navy blue, with a crescent shaped eye with the letter Y instead of a pupil, perfectly matching his cutie mark, embroidered on either side in silver thread. More silver embroidery ran around the edges of the cloak, most intricately around the hood. The clasp was a crescent moon, forged in silver with an embedded sapphire.

"Since you said that you don't typically dress up, I thought I'd give you something you might wear. As you seem to value utility, I thought you might appreciate something that's weather resistant. It will keep you safe from sun, rain, snow, even sandstorms. It's made of a very durable material that doesn't tear easily, but is easily repaired. What do you think?"

Kai's jaw had dropped. It was a beautiful cloak. "I'm amazed. It's magnificent. If it's even half as durable as you say, I'd be well taken care of for the rest of my days."

Rarity beamed. "I'm so glad to hear you say that!"

"Unfortunately, I can't accept it."

"Pardon me?"

Kai removed the cloak. "It's too much. As wonderful as this cloak is, I don't feel I deserve it."

"Please, Kai? I made it just for you. If I thought you didn't deserve it, I wouldn't have made it."

"I'm sorry." Kai stepped down from his pedestal. "It really is beautiful. I love it. But I haven't earned it."

Rarity took the cloak back and hung it up. "I'm sorry you feel that way. I'll keep it here until you've changed your mind. It is yours, whether you want it or not."

Kai nodded, taking back his old, tattered cloak. "If ever I redeem myself, I'd be happy to pay for it."

As Kai left, he kept his head down to the usual height. He wished he could be as happy as the ponies smiling and waving at him. Any of them would be ecstatic to receive the gift he had just been offered. Then again, the likelihood of any of them being criminals was decidedly low.

Just then, he saw something that made his last thought ring false. Frostbite had turned onto his street. He recognized the face. He was headed in the opposite direction, towards the Carousel Boutique. Though he didn't see Tundra or Stain, he guessed that they were close by. He wasn't sure if they were going after Rarity, but if they were, he couldn't allow that.

He followed Frost at a distance, staying far enough behind him so as not to be spotted. Frost wound his way through alleyways and streets, slipping in and out of crowds, but Kai kept his eyes locked on his target. After several blocks, He came to a dead end. Kai stayed behind a barrel, hoping he was far enough out to not be spotted.

"I know you've been following me." Frost turned to face him. "You're not good at hiding. I'd like a word, face to face if you would."

Kai stepped out from behind his cover. "I'm not looking for a fight. Let's not give each other reason for violence, shall we?."

"You'll receive no argument from me. So, first and foremost, I want to ask what happened to our fourth team member."

"You are referring to Usu?"

"Shh!" Frost ushered Kai closer. "Don't say his name out loud. Call him Turnkey in public."

Kai didn't step closer. "He's safe, for now."

"Good, good. We're willing to negotiate for his safe return."

"Negotiating means you have something you'd be willing to give me. I'm not sure if I want to take your wooden nickels."

"No, no, we'd be willing to give you something you want. That's fair, right?"

Kai was skeptical. "And just what is it you're going to give me in exchange for your comrade?"

Frosty smirked. "Do you think you'd be wanting to have your mare friend back?"

"What mare friend?"

"The one we were mugging the other day."

Kai smirked back. "She's perfectly fine. I know because I just finished talking to her."

"I know. We saw you walk out. The other two are probably done extracting her by now."

Enraged, Kai ripped his blade out of its scabbard and pointed it at Frost. "You wouldn't dare!"

Usu's interpretation of Frost was accurate, as he bolted at the first sign of a weapon. While he had been in a dead end, the earth pony was very agile, quickly freerunning his way up the walls and onto the roof. Poking his head back over the edge of the roof, he called out, "Think about it! We'll be in touch!"

Kai took off toward the Carousel Boutique. He tried to open the door, but it was locked. He looked through the window, finding that the assailants had not left yet. Rarity was still in there, trying to wrestle Stain off of her. Tundra had been helping him, but as Kai started slamming into the door in an attempt to break it down, Tundra turned his attention to barricading the door.

With Tundra blocking the door, Kai took a step back. He had to find a way in there. If the door was inaccessible...

Kai plowed through the window, showers of glass raining down around him. Upon landing, he knocked over two clothing racks as he tackled Stain, pulling him off of Rarity.

Stain whipped out his knife, slashing at Kai rapidly. Kai reached for his own knife, but found that it was not there. In fact, his cloak had been shredded when he jumped through the window, and the blade had fallen to the floor with everything else Kai carried around with him. Having no weapon with which to block, Kai could only dodge the strikes.

Rarity had her own problem to deal with, that being that Tundra was now trying to pin her down. She cried out for help through the shattered window, attracting the attention of passersby. Before long, a mob had formed, and ponies started shouting at the assailants. Some began to pelt the thieves with rocks, while others called for the guards. Noting the attention being drawn, Tundra covered his face and teleported out of the shop.

As neither of them was well-known throughout the town, the angry mob wasn't sure who it was that they were cheering for or against, and this was reflected by their aim with the pebbles they were chucking at Kai and Stain. Stain, also deciding now to be a great time to leave, took off toward another window. But Kai wasn't Willing to let him escape. Though he wasn't fond of any of the three stallions, Usu had vouched for the other two. They were clearly lesser threats than this one. He grabbed Stain's ankle, and held on tight. This was more weight than Stain could carry with his wings, and he just dragged Kai around until Kai's back hooves managed to catch on something heavy. As Kai began to pull Stain back toward him, he suddenly twisted around and delivered a swift kick to Kai's face. As Kai fell backwards into the pool of shattered glass, the world around him went dark.

Chapter the Nineteenth: Hurt

Kai awoke in a strange bed. He sat up, his head throbbing. He had lost his depth perception, as his left eye was sealed shut. His left foreleg was wrapped in new gauze, as well as most of his chest. His whole body hurt.

He looked around the room. It was expertly decorated, with every aspect chosen specifically for their color temperature and size. While each individual item was interesting in its own right, you had to view it all at once to appreciate the whole effect.

The door opened and Rarity strode in. she had hoof-shaped bruises around her neck, and her left hind leg was wrapped in bandages. She had a bit of a limp, as well. "You're awake! How do you feel?"

Kai rubbed his head. "I've been worse. How about you?"

"I'm just a little worse for wear," she blushed. "Thanks to your intervention. I might have ended up a lot worse if you hadn't come back." She sat down next to him. "Why did you come back, anyway?"

"I saw one of the stallions en route. I thought they might come after you, so I came to warn you. When I arrived, they had already blockaded the door."

"You think they were specifically targeting me?"

"I only thought that because they had targeted you before. I feared for your safety, so I came to make sure you were alright. And I promise you, I'll find some way to replace your window."

"Oh, don't worry about that, Darling. It's already taken care of. Some lovely young stallions are coming by tomorrow morning to repair it."

"I'll reimburse you the cost, then."

"It's insured."

"Surely there's something I can do to make up for it?"

"Kai, you're under no obligation to pay for my window. Even if you were, I'd waive that because you kept those brutes from taking me hostage. You did the right thing. Nopony should be punished for that. There's even an exception written into Equestrian law that keeps ponies safe from that sort of thing."

"Really?"

"Yes. If you see somepony choking, for example, and in performing the Heimlich maneuver, you broke one of their ribs, they can't sue you for damages without proving malicious intent."

"That's interesting." Kai looked through the window and saw the moon shining down through it. He stood up. "I thank you for your hospitality, miss Rarity, but I must be going home now."

Rarity stood up and blocked his path. "You're injured, and those horrible stallions are still out there. I cannot, in good conscience, allow you to leave without a guard escort. I must insist that you stay until morning, at least."

"You've helped me more than enough already. You bandaged my wounds, you didn't have me arrested for breaking your window, and you allowed me to recover in your bed. I can't ask any more of you."

Rarity was starting to feel insulted. "If you're intent on leaving tonight, I'll call a guard to escort you."

As much as Kai felt the need to return to Fluttershy and Usu, he was very much against calling the guards. He closed his good eye. "Very well. If it will make you feel at ease, I will stay here tonight. However, I refuse to deprive you of your bed. I'll be fine on a patch of floor."

"That won't be necessary. I have a couch that you can use. A few, actually. You may take your pick."

Kai didn't sleep for the rest of the night. He was worried about what Fluttershy would think when he didn't show up at the end of the night. He was also worried about Usu, considering that Fluttershy was unwilling to tie him up to escort him to the lavatory. When he left in the morning, he would immediately go back home and set them at ease before returning to Ponyville to take care of Fluttershy's estate.

When the sun rose, he stood and folded the blanket he had borrowed. As he left it on the couch, Rarity brushed past him.

"Good morning, Kai. Would you care for some breakfast?"

"While I would be glad to join you for breakfast, I really need to go back home. It's very important."

"I understand. Normally, I'd give you your cloak, but..." She pulled out a basket from a nearby shelf. "It was destroyed when you arrived yesterday. I'd have repaired it, but I have no idea what material it was."

The cloak was shredded beyond repair. Mixed in with the remaining scraps were Kai's belongings. His knife, the scabbard he kept it in, and the last memento he had from Scruffy, that being a small ring on a chain. It didn't seem to be an expensive ring, and Kai had always assumed that it had been the engagement ring Scruffy had bought for the mare he had tried to marry.

"I would feel much better if you were to take with you the cloak I made. It may not be what you wanted, but I would like for you to have at least some protection."

Kai nodded. "I'm in quite a predicament, here. Mayhaps it would be best to wear it."

Rarity smiled. "I promise, you won't regret this decision."

Kai walked briskly through the Everfree forest. His new cloak was quite warm, though not uncomfortably so. It also kept itself clean despite the fact that his path was covered in mud. But despite his feelings toward the new cloak, his mind was focused on returning home quickly. While he would have preferred to run all the way there, his lack of depth perception had almost caused him to trip multiple times already.

When he arrived, he quickly made his way down the stairs and into the workshop. Before Usu could pick himself up from his breakfast, Kai had thrown a rope around him and opened the door.

"Out."

Usu quickly made his way to the lavatory. "Where were you?"

"I had a bit of a run in with your friends. I'll fill you in later. Where's Fluttershy?"

"How should I know? I've spent the entire night locked in the cage."

When he had finished, Kai escorted him back to the cell. As he was about to head downstairs, Fluttershy appeared at the top step. She took a step back, not recognizing the new cloaked pony standing in front of her. Even as he dropped his hood, Fluttershy couldn't quite tell who he was.

"C-can I help you, s-sir?"

"Fluttershy, it's me. New cloak from Rarity, new mane from the spa, and new wounds from Usu's little gang."

"K-Kai?" She ran up and hugged him tightly. As she squeezed him, he was reminded just how bad his injuries were. When she released him, he took off the cloak and placed it on the table. Fluttershy was appalled at the level of damage he had received.

"Tell me everything that happened."

Chapter the Twentieth: Preparation

Kai sipped at his pine tea from atop his castle walls. It had been three weeks since his last encounter with the three thieves. In that time, Rarity had not been the victim of any assaults, and Kai had been to lunch with her twice. He had also finished his new prototype wings, but they required that he have the couplings surgically implanted. He had designed them in such a way that he could remove them if they became damaged, as they needed to be lightweight.

Usu sat down next to him with his own tea. "Enjoying the sunrise?"

Kai chuckled. "It's nice. So's the tea."

"Just a little something I picked up. I may be a horrible pony, but I do have some skills that aren't criminal. I'm not a monster, you know."

"And yet, you still need to wear a collar around my home."

Usu rubbed at his neck. "I'm still not sure why that is. Are you just some kind of dominus who gets his rocks off on this?"

"Not at all. Like I said, it's just to keep you from running off."

"Not like I have anywhere I need to be. Pretty sure the others wrote me off awhile ago."

"I thought Tundra cared about you?"

"He probably isn't calling the shots."

"Boys!" called Fluttershy from below. "Breakfast is ready!"

Kai and Usu stood up, finished their tea, and made their way down to the courtyard. Usu had put together a fairly nice table for outdoor use from two logs Kai had brought back. Atop the table was a fairly nice spread of pancakes, garbanzo sausages and poached eggs.

When Kai returned from Ponyville, his bandages were gone, and both of his eyes were usable. It was just past noon when he stepped into Fluttershy's bedroom.

"Are you ready to begin?"

Fluttershy looked up from her stitching. She had taken up a needle and thread to pass the time whenever Kai was out. "What are we doing today? I thought we had finished the build?"

"We did. Now we need to attach them."

Fluttershy grimaced. "I'm not sure I'm okay with that. Didn't you say they need to be surgically attached?"

"Yes. But first, I need you to draw out the plans, right on my back."

"I don't know how to do that."

"Don't worry, I'll take care of the difficult parts."

"What exactly would I need to do?"

"I need you to separate sections of my trapezii and latissimi dorsi. I will handle adding in the extra deltoids and triceps, as well as connecting the suspensory tendons to false supracoracoideuses split from my pectorals and attached to a keel that I'll also be implanting."

"So... I'm going to be cutting into your back?"

"And neck. And I'll do my chest."

"And we're doing that here?"

"Yes."

"In one of these rooms?"

"Yes."

"Not in a sterile environment?"

"I don't have a sterile environment."

"My point exactly. I don't even know how I'm supposed to alter them, and I don't think we even have sharp enough knives to do this safely. I know you've done all of your own medical procedures right here in this castle in the past, but you need a real doctor with a real medical license to do this. I'm not qualified to do this."

"I can't hire a doctor. I have no insurance, and I have no money. And I don't want to just take more of yours."

"You won't have to." Usutora walked in with a chest on his back. "I was going through your stuff, and I'm pretty sure there's enough in here to not only hire a doctor, but to keep them silent long enough for you to disappear."

"Don't be ridiculous, Usu. That chest is sealed shut. Even if there is money in there, We're never going to be able to retrieve it."

"Oh?" Usu put the chest down on the floor and twisted it around so that they could see the latch. "As you can see, the locking mechanism is an internal design, so you'd need the key or a good idea of what the inside of the lock looks like to break through. However..." He placed a small wooden stick against the back and gave it a firm strike with a rock. He then turned the stick and rock around and gave another firm hit. "The hinges are cheaply made, so you can just go through those. Ta dah!"

He pried the lid off, using the hinges as a lock, and the lock as a hinge. he spun the chest around and dumped the contents across the floor. Inside was a large stockpile of golden coinage, as well as a large collection of precious gems. "I'm the most infamous burglar in all of Equestria. You think I only know one way through a lock? You give me too little credit."

"This is all well and good," said Kai, kicking a coin back onto the pile. "But there's another problem. I wouldn't know where to begin."

"Start anywhere," encouraged Fluttershy. "You can tell us."

"No, I mean with holding up a doctor. I'm not capable of holding them to my will without keeping them under lock and key, especially if during the procedure, my flesh is open. I can't stongarm them if I'm bleeding everywhere."

"I have a solution to that problem, too."

"And what exactly would you suggest, Usu?"

Kai made his way into town under cover of darkness. Usu was following close behind him, uncloaked. Kai carried with him the implants he had built, as well as twice the amount of gold coins Usu had recommended. Usu carried with him his sabre. While Kai was certain that Usu posed no threat to him, he was uneasy with threatening the doctor.

The two entered the hospital and approached the receptionist. "Excuse me young miss," said Usu in his most urgent voice. "But my friend here is injured. We need to see a surgeon right away!"

"Of course, right this way." The receptionist stood and rushed them to an exam room. As Kai sat down, she ran off to fetch a doctor.

"That seemed way too easy," said Kai, his brow furrowing.

"Since most ponies are treated well by the egalitarian system, and the healthcare is basically universal, it's fairly easy to cause a small panic. It's useful for passing through without any questions asked, but you can easily abuse this, so do so sparingly. Overuse will certainly change things."

"Right. Rest assured, I'm not going to overuse this. It's unlikely I'll ever use it after tonight."

"Of course, if you do break it, we'll find another way through."

The doctor walked through the door. "What seems to be the problem, sirs?"

Usu closed the door. "You're going to fix my brothers shoulders. He has a diagram for you to follow. You're also going to do it all under the table. No paperwork, am I clear?"

"Are you suggesting that I perform an unlisted surgery? I could lose my job, or worse, my license to practice!"

"We're willing to pay," Said Kai, dumping the sack of coins on the table. "We won't tell anypony that you did this, as long as you keep your mouth shut. Deal?"

"I'm sorry, but I can't take on that risk."

As the doctor turned to walk out of the room, Usu drew his blade. "I didn't ask if you would do it. I told you you that you were going to." He held his blade to the doctor's neck. "If you do the surgery, you won't be harmed. Of that, you can be sure."

The doctor was sweating now. "Alright, alright, just... Put away your blade. I'll do it."

Chapter the Twenty-First: A Clouded Mind

When the surgery was done and Kai was sporting a new set of bandages, he had no idea where he was, or even who he was. His vision was blurry, and he felt that he could see sound. Colours had never been so vibrant before.

"It's done," said the doctor, removing his gloves. "He'll need to rest for at least a week. You didn't want any paperwork, so I can't give you a bed. I've already taken a risk with the amount of painkillers needed for this job. They don't just disappear, you know."

"I understand," smiled Usu. "I'll ensure he makes it home safely. Of course, I'd hate to have to come back here if something were to go wrong, if you catch my drift."

The doctor nodded. "You have my best work. If something goes wrong with this, I go down in flames, too."

"Then you understand perfectly." Usu picked Kai up and gently placed him on his shoulders. "Of course, We can't have you blabbing, either."

"You have my word."

"Good. I'd hate for anything to happen to those beautiful brown eyes."

The doctor was visibly confused. "My eyes are green..."

Usu pulled up a picture of the doctor's family in front of his house. Both of his daughters had brown eyes.

The doctor fell to his knees. "I beg you, don't hurt them!"

Usu slid the photograph back into the wallet he had taken it from and tossed it in front of the doctor. "I won't have a reason to, right?"

Grabbing his wallet, the doctor curled up on the floor. Fear had overtaken him.

"Collect yourself," grunted Usu. "And remember: We were never here. Savvy?" He walked out into the hall, making his way down the hall, smiling and nodding at the receptionist as he passed. She tried to have him sign out, but he was gone before she could gather her clipboard.

Kai was quite concerned. Never before had he seen such buildings as these. They had teeth, and were drooling upward into the bright red sky. The ground was covered in needles, but he wasn't concerned for his brother, as the road was a billowy sheet of silk. Perhaps he should have been, though, because the stallion carrying him had turned a sickly shade of green.

Usu hurried through town, quite unhappy with the time that the surgery had taken. The sun was beginning to rise, and he didn't want to be seen carrying a bandaged, drugged stallion through town. Haste was only his secondary concern, however. He had to be certain that Kai wasn't further injured by his actions.

Luckily, he made it to the edge of the forest without being spotted. As he breathed a sigh of relief, Kai started to speak up. His words were utter nonsense, so Usu knew he wouldn't have to pay close attention, but he did anyway.

"Liepzig madchen," he shouted to the trees. "Ich brauche dich. Ihr Haar ist aus feinster Seide, Ihre Augen aus klarsten Smaragden. Deine Federn warmen mein Herz. Ich stelle mir vor, deine Lippen schmecken nach dem sussesten Honig. Ihr Atem muss nach dem magersten Fleisch schmecken."

Perhaps it sounded clearer to Kai, but to Usu it sounded like gibberish. He was quite certain it was, as Kai was not himself. He couldn't really be held accountable for his words or actions. Anything Kai did or said was Usu's responsibility until such time as Kai regained control of himself.

The two arrived safely at the castle. Usu was quite skilled in stealth, and was certain that nopony had followed them in. He was very gentle as he descended the stairs. Fluttershy was only just exiting the lavatory, about to head downstairs to make breakfast for their return.

"Hello, beautiful!" slurred Kai, waving wildly in Fluttershy's direction.

Fluttershy jumped. She had not expected such an outburst. "G-good morning..."

"Apologies, Fluttershy," said Usu, bowing his head. "He's been drugged to remove the pain, but it seems he has an excessive tolerance for pain, and no tolerance for painkillers. Don't mind anything he says for the next several hours."

"Oh, okay." Fluttershy nodded. "I was just about to start breakfast."

"He'll take his in his room. He needs to rest. I'll be in there, too. I need to keep an eye on him until his mind comes back."

"You're so pretty..."

For the next thirty minutes, Kai lay still on his bed. He seemed to be fascinated by a rotten chunk of wood, and was plucking apart the splinters. When Fluttershy walked in, she was all Kai could focus on. "Fair maiden, to what do I owe the pleasure you bestow upon me with your radiance?"

Fluttershy blushed. "I brought breakfast."

"Who needs food? One can sustain a thousand men with only your fair elegance."

Her blush grew deeper. She brought Usu's breakfast to him, and placed Kai's on the bedside table. As she walked back, she placed a hoof on Kai's leg. "I hope you feel better soon, Kai."

Kai responded to her touch by grabbing her wrist. "I've fallen in love with you, Fluttershy. I can't live without you anymore!" He proceeded to pull her in and kissed her lips. She panicked as it happened, and ran out of the room as soon as Usu pulled Kai off of her.

She breathed heavily as she leaned against the stone wall. He had tried to force himself on her. He had promised never to do that. She felt that he had violated her trust. She reminded herself that he was not of stable thought at the moment. He would never do that if he was in control of himself, right?

After she calmed herself, she went back to the kitchen to have her breakfast, which had grown cold by now. She had planned to join them for a meal, but that was no longer an option. She returned to her room and sat down on the bed.

She contemplated asking Usu for his help in leaving. He had been set free, so what was stopping him from setting her free? He was a unicorn. Surely he could take off the collar.

Then again, the Kai she had come to know wouldn't have done that. He had made a promise not to assault her, and to this moment, it was the only promise he hadn't kept.

She shivered and curled up. She didn't know what to do. She was confused and afraid, and was not ready to make her decision yet. She would have to wait and see what came of it.

Chapter the Twenty-Second: Damnation or Forgiveness

Five hours passed in silence. Fluttershy had not left her bed in that time. In fact, she had fallen asleep, and was only roused by the sound of a knock at her door. As she started to roll over, it creaked open.

"Fluttershy? Are you in here?" Kai slowly stepped inside. His head hung low as he slowly marched in. "Usu told me what happened. I wanted to apologize."

Fluttershy sat up in her bed as Kai sat down against the far wall.

"The first promise I ever made to you was that you would come to no harm under my care. I had never intended to harm you. And now I am the source of your harm. What's further, I made a more specific promise not to force myself on you. And that's exactly what I've done." He held his head in his hooves.

Fluttershy stared at Kai. She had already decided her course of action.

"I understand what you must think of me. I broke my word twice today. You're probably wondering if I can be trusted at all." His voice began to crack as he gripped the back of his neck. "I'm beginning to wonder that myself. I wouldn't trust me. Not after what I did."

Fluttershy stood and walked over to where Kai sat.

"In fact, I plan to break another one now." He grabbed Fluttershy by the collar and held her close to him. She panicked again and tried to pull free, but didn't manage to do so until Kai released her again. She took a few steps back toward the bed.

"I promised I would set you free when I could fly. That is no longer the case." He held out his hoof. In his grip, he held Fluttershy's collar, freed from her neck. "You're free to leave now. If you do, I'll be leaving tonight, and you'll never have to see me again."

Fluttershy ran out of the room. She ran past Usu, up the stairs, and into the courtyard. She didn't look back until she crossed the bridge. Her pace slowed, and her mind began to race. She stared down the path through the trees. She wasn't sure she could follow it back home, so she took flight. As she flew over the canopy, the excitement of going home began to overtake her fear of returning to the castle ruins.

She landed in her backyard and ran inside her house through the back door. She found Angel relaxing on the couch and picked him up, giving him a big hug. Several other small animals came out of their designated homes and leaped into her arms.

She sat down and began to weep. She had missed them all so very much. She was so glad that they had been taken care of in her absence. It occurred to her that they hadn't been cared for today, and she started in on doing so.

When she finished, she sat down. Kai had done a decent job of taking care of her friends, and she hadn't really thanked him for that. She wondered if he had left yet. Now that she had calmed down, she started to wonder if her leaving had been the best decision. She had planned to forgive him. Had he not grabbed at her collar, she might have told him as much. She had been frightened, but that was a poor excuse. Kai was leaving, and he would go with the thought that she hated him.

She definitely didn't hate him. She was actually quite fond of him. He wasn't cruel. A bit rough around the edges, certainly, but he had grown so very much in the past month. He was different now than he had been when they first met.

She stood and walked to the back door. As she looked up at the moon, she made her decision. She grabbed her travelling cloak and stepped back outside.

Kai loaded the last of his necessities into his saddlebags. The very same saddlebags he had planned to give to Fluttershy when she left, but that didn't matter anymore. She was gone, and she was never coming back. He had driven her off, and he would have to leave before a legion of guards swarmed the place.

"So, where to first?" asked Usu. "Where are we off to?"

"We?"

"Yes, we. I'm not going to leave you behind. I thought you were dead for over a decade."

"I can't ask you to go on the run with me." Kai picked up the saddlebags.

"I'm already on the run." Usu pulled the saddlebags from Kai's grasp and slung them over his own shoulders. "Besides, your back is crippled. You can't carry anything."

Kai shook his head. "You have your crew to return to. I've always managed to keep myself alive on my own. I've fought off countless monsters, and in some of those cases, I was hemorrhaging, or had a fractured leg, or any amount of other ailments."

"You don't have to anymore. I'm by your side, Kai. Whether you want me or not. So where are we going?"

Kai took a deep breath. "I'll not convince you otherwise, will I?"

Usu shook his head.

"In that case, we're headed to Canterlot. Hopefully, I can find the right books in the library. That way, I'll not have to resort to kidnapping a pegasus again. It's not as if I can lock one up, anyway."

"What happens if we arrive and the books aren't there?"

Kai shook his head. "Then we go somewhere else, to be decided then."

"Why not start in Whinnyapolis, then? It's closer, and there are fewer guards."

Kai shook his head. "No. Canterlot has to be first."

"Why?"

"Because I promised Fluttershy that I'd go to see our mother. I've broken every other promise I've made to her. I can't break this one."

"That's a lie." Kai and Usu looked up to the top of the wall, where a familiar pegasus stood. She took down her hood and dropped down next to them. "You kept another promise. All of my friends were well cared for. Pony and animal alike."

Kai was speechless. He couldn't look her in the eye, and his gaze stayed near her hooves.

"Besides, I made a promise of my own. I would be remiss if I were to leave without fulfilling it. I said I would help you until we were done, and we're not done yet."

"You'd really forgive me after all I've done?" Kai's eyes were welling up with tears.

Fluttershy placed her hoof under his chin and lifted his head until they were face to face. "First, I have a question. You said you were in love with me. How much of that was you, and how much was the drugs?"

Kai sniffled. "I really do feel that way, but I'd have never said so. I know you don't feel the same, so I wa--"

He was taken by surprise as Fluttershy's lips once more pressed against his own. This time, she had been the one to place them there. When she finally pulled away from him, he was frozen in place.

"I'm going to stay. However, I'm going to add a few more terms to our arrangement. Now, pay attention."

Chapter the Twenty-Third: Return to Ponyville

When he woke up the next morning, Kai was delighted to find that Fluttershy was lying next to him. She had stitched together a mattress during her stay, and had been sleeping on it for the past week. Now it had moved from her bed to the floor right next to it. While she wasn't happy to be returning to bundles of rags for her bed, she would rather have Kai sleep on it while he recovered.

Seeing that she was still asleep, he stood up and quietly exited the room. He woke Usu, who had been sleeping in Kai's bed, and the two went down to the kitchen. "Alright, Usu, I need your help. I promised Fluttershy a nice breakfast today. She and I both know I don't know how to cook anything good."

"Is that why she does all of the cooking?" yawned Usu.

"Yes. Now it's my turn. I plan to make good on those words, but I can't do it alone."

Usu nodded. "Let's see what we have, then."

Their remaining stock of ingredients was beginning to run low. There was mayhaps a half cup of flour, a few potatoes, two eggs, a single apple, a container of vegetarian sausages, some bagels, a quarter of an onion, some spinach and a lump of cheese. There was also a bit of butter, as well as salt and pepper.

"I have a plan." smiled Usu. "Shred and rinse those potatoes. We're making latkes."

Kai did as he was told. In the meantime, Usu finely chopped the onion and mixed it with the flour and the eggs. He added salt and pepper for flavor, then tossed the butter into a pan to melt down. When Kai was finished with the potatoes, he was tasked with peeling and chopping the apple for applesauce.

Even though the garbanzo sausages were safe to eat raw, they were better when fried. The pan was quite large, large enough to fry the latkes, the apples and the sausages at the same time. Though to Kai's surprise, Usu flattened the sausages from links into patties.

The latkes and patties were cooked, the bagels toasted, and the cheese sliced. Into the bagels went the cheese, sausage patties and the spinach. The latkes were served on the side, with applesauce. "That should make a lovely breakfast," smiled Usu.

"I hope it's good enough."

"It smells nice, whatever it is," Fluttershy said from the doorway.

After a lovely breakfast, the three of them packed up their belongings. Usu, knowing he would be in full view, donned a wig, scarf, and a pair of spectacles. Kai would be wearing his cloak. He only needed to cover his face and wings. Fluttershy had no need to hide, but she still wore the cloak she had worn last night.

"When we go into town," said Usu, smoothing down his false mane, "I need you to refer to me as Turnkey. That's my alias. If you say my real name, it could draw the guards down on us."

Kai nodded. "If anypony asks, You were both involved in a secret project. You signed a document stating that you can't tell anypony what it was."

"That's an NDA." Explained Usu. "A Non-disclosure agreement."

"Right. Nopony needs to know the specific details."

"So when we return," Fluttershy cut in, "Kai and Key, you two are going to take care of my home. As much as I would rather do it myself, it's my turn to visit the spa. I haven't had a bath in a month."

Kai nodded again. "We follow that up with a trip to the market to restock your kitchen and pantry."

"And when that's finished, we all go out to dinner, with Kai paying the bill," added Usu.

They all nodded in agreement and headed out. As Kai couldn't carry anything, Fluttershy carried his saddlebags and Usu carried the mattress Kai had slept on the night prior, rolled up and tied together. It was fairly small for a mattress, and while not necessarily portable, it was easy enough to carry for an hour or so.

The group made their way through the forest with Kai as their guide. He had made the most trips along this path, and was therefore most qualified to follow it. The trip was fairly quick, completed in under an hour. Once at the edge of the forest, it was a only a short jaunt back to Fluttershy's cottage. Only Kai and Usu went in, however, as Fluttershy started into town.

Halfway through Kai's chores, Twilight showed up. "You weren't here yesterday," she said, quickly descending on him. "Why is that?"

Kai pulled up the edge of his cloak. Not enough to show his couplers, but enough to show the bandages across his chest. "I was injured. I'm feeling much better now."

Twilight was shocked. She tried to look closer, but Kai had dropped his cloak. "What happened?"

"Just some guy with a knife,"answered Kai. "Nothing to worry about, really. I just need a few days' rest."

Twilight's brow furrowed. "Then why aren't you resting?"

"I'm almost done. Just because I'm hurt doesn't mean I can let all these animals go hungry."

"That's all well and good that you're taking such care of them, but I don't think Fluttershy would want you to be overexerting yourself when injured this badly."

"I have help." Kai pointed to Usu, who was in the back, doling out grain from a large sack. "What's more, I'm told that Fluttershy should be returning some time today. In fact, she's graciously allowed me to stay at her residence until my wounds are healed."

"Now that sounds like the Fluttershy I know," smiled Twilight.

At that moment, Fluttershy came around the bend where she and Kai had met. She was freshly bathed and groomed, her mane and tail trimmed back to their normal length. To Twilight, she just looked like regular Fluttershy. In Kai's eyes, she had never been more beautiful. She wasn't covered in a thin layer of dust, nor cast in shadow. Her colours were vibrant and stunning. Her wings caught the sun, making her seem to glow. But the most beautiful thing of all was that, despite all that he had put her through, she had only kindness to give him.

Chapter the Twenty-Fourth: Unbound

The following week was uneventful. With Kai all bandaged up, he couldn't attempt flight. He desperately hoped he had been right about this, or the surgery he had undergone would have been unnecessary. He spent much of his free time at the library, reading books.

The books he had been looking for originally had finally been returned, and he read through them. They seemed to agree with the notes he had taken from Fluttershy's examination, and confirmed that his theory for prosthetic wings was on the right track.

He also found at the library several tomes of general purpose magic. The newer variations of the spells, while optimized for their purposes, did not provide for all of the uses the older ones had, or so it seemed. They seemed weaker, though their energy consumption ratio rendered them far more usable over longer periods of time. He wondered if there would be some way to use his experience to combine the best aspects of both ages. Mayhaps a project for another day.

The spells he was most interested in were the healing spells found in an old manual for combat medicine. They focused on sealing wounds quickly, though there was no provision written into them about cleaning out the wound first. Newer books on the same subject did call out the need to clean the wounds, but they didn't seem to use spells to seal the wounds. He asked Twilight why that was.

"I'm not an expert on the subject, but I do seem to recall something about the soldier's wounds not healing correctly. It doesn't mention in the book that you need to make sure the muscles and skin are aligned, which lead to legs bending the wrong way, as well as other problems that I don't seem to remember. I can look into it, if you want."

"No, that's fine," Kai said, nodding. "I was just wondering why it fell out of use. The new treatises don't mention it at all."

"Well, these days, there're orders in place that, rather than try to treat wounds right there on the battlefield, encourage the soldiers to instead bring the wounded back to an infirmary. It keeps the doctors safer and the soldiers heal better. Also, anypony can help the wounded, not just unicorns. It's a win-win-win."

"But what if they'll never make it back to their infirmary, Twilight? What do they do if there's not enough time to bring the wounded back?"

"I suppose there's an argument to be made there. If there's no unicorn medic around, they're done for. You can't possibly account for every eventuality, though I'm glad you pointed that out. Perhaps a medical research team could look into a solution."

With the week having passed, Kai removed the bandages. While Kai was out cold, Usu had encouraged the doctor under duress to implant the keel as well as the wing joints, so there was no need for Kai to implant it himself. Though it caused him pain to do so, Kai moved his couplers in a way that he thought would flap his wings once attached. They seemed to work just fine. Excitedly, he tried to attach the first wing, but he couldn't keep it straight. He would need a bit of help.

Enlisting the aid of his host, he slid the first wing into place. With the tab slid into the slot, he secured it in place with steel pins and tightened the tension arms. Despite his best attempts, the wing was still quite weighty. He had to brace himself against a wall to keep from falling over as the second wing was attached much in the same manner.

With the wings finally attached, he looked at himself in the mirror. Never before had he been as proud as in this moment. They looked almost real, except that they were clearly made of some sort of metal. He tried a few movements, and found that they even moved correctly. If ever there was something that would grant him flight, this was probably it.

He made his way outside. Usu was already out there, and Fluttershy had followed him out. "It is time to fly," he said, spreading his wings to show his brother what he had helped to build. His wingspan was significantly wider than the average pegasus to account for the extra weight.

"You shouldn't be flying quite yet," cautioned Fluttershy. "Your scars are still very fresh. You should start by just becoming accustomed to the weight. Try flapping your wings slowly, first."

Kai nodded. She was the only one there who knew how to fly, so she was the expert. He thought back to the books he had read. More specifically, he remembered their recommendation on the best flapping technique. He raised his wings and flapped once according to their instruction. In doing so, he blew a decent gust of wind behind him, enough to kick up a few leaves. Encouraged, he gave another, harder flap. More leaves blew away. But even more importantly, he felt himself go off balance. His wingbeat had gathered enough air to lift his weight off of his front hooves, but not enough to leave the ground.

One more flap. This one lifted him off of his hooves and pushed him forward. As his hooves came back to the ground, he scrambled to realign himself. In his panic, he tripped and fell, face first, into a small puddle of mud. As Fluttershy had predicted, He had felt the strain on his shoulders. He would need to train his muscles, definitely.

Fluttershy ran over and picked him up. "Are you alright?"

Kai wiped his face. "I'm better than alright." He wore a big smile as he pulled her into a tight hug. "I took off. I was off the ground for almost two seconds! I'm so excited, I could..." He paused. "I could..." He had never before been this excited. He didn't know how he would celebrate this feeling. "Well, I'll figure that out later. For now, we rejoice! For we are nearing the end of this chapter of our lives."

Fluttershy dampened a rag and wiped any mud that had transferred to her, and offered it to Kai to allow him to wipe his own face. "We should celebrate. Let's all go out to dinner tonight."

Chapter the Twenty-Fifth: Take to the Skies

Kai shivered with anticipation. If there were any doubts that his wings could carry him, now was the time to voice them. He remained silent, however, and swallowed his fear. This day had been a long time coming, and it was time for him to fly.

"Are you ready?" asked Twilight, hopping into the balloon with Kai. "We can put this off if you want."

Kai shook his head. "This is the culmination of my life's work. If I back out now, I'll never live it down. Let's go."

The balloon floated up into the air. Kai took several deep breaths. He had revealed his wings to Twilight and one other pony. He still didn't want to include any unnecessary ponies in his plans, but Fluttershy had insisted that these two could be trusted. Twilight was ideal to bring in, because she could bring Kai and his wings into the clouds for training. She also apparently knew a spell that would let him walk on clouds.

They arrived in the clouds over a meadow. The other new pony, a pegasus, had organized the clouds in such a way as to block out prying eyes. The balloon came to a stop.

"Are you nervous?" asked Twilight, casting the cloud-walking spell on both of them.

Kai swallowed hard. "Very. There's a lot of firsts here. I've only had wings for four days, now."

She patted his shoulder. "Cheer up. You're going to be fine. Rainbow Dash is arguably the best flier in all of Equestria. She wouldn't ever let you fall."

Kai nodded. Fluttershy had said much the same.

"Besides, you won't fall through the clouds." Twilight leaped out of the balloon onto the clouds. "Even if you crash, the clouds will provide a nice cushion, so you won't be injured."

Kai slowly stepped out of the balloon, gingerly stepping onto the cloud layer. When he didn't fall through, he grew a bit more confident. He walked out into the middle of the cloud layer. Suddenly, a blue blur rushed by him, spun around, and landed in front of him.

"Glad to know you didn't chicken out," chuckled Rainbow. "I hoped you were the kind of pony who keeps his goals locked in his sights, even when the going get's tough."

"Hardly worth backing out now," said Kai, visibly trembling.

"You scared?"

"I am. You?"

"Not even close," smirked Rainbow. "If anything, you should feel excited. Not many unicorns ever have the chance to fly like the pegasi do. You're very lucky, Kai."

"Don't I know it..."

For the next three hours, Kai practiced his landings. He also worked on his take-offs, despite the fact that he was already becoming fairly adept. He had only barely managed to stay upright for some of his landings, and everything else had been a crash. Even with Rainbow coaching him, his landings were only improving slowly.

"Alright, I think that's enough for now," said Rainbow after a particularly shameful crash. "Take five for lunch!"

Kai was disappointed in himself. He had hoped that he would have been able to complete at least one landing by now. He let out an exasperated sigh and returned to the balloon, where Twilight was waiting with a picnic.

"Don't look so glum," smiled Twilight. "You're improving. It takes most pegasi a few months to land properly. Nopony expects you to master this in a day."

"Yeah," chuckled Rainbow. "Even with how awesome I am, it still took me a few days to learn how to land. If you managed to land on the first day, you'd be automatically listed next to me as one of the best."

Kai nodded in acceptance, but their encouragement didn't improve his mood. He had been crashing into the ground for almost seven years. Sure, he hadn't had these wings, and in several cases he had relinquished control of his legs whilst in the air, but that didn't stop him from cursing himself under his breath.

After lunch, Kai was ready to try again. With little to no prompting, He galloped across the clouds, leaped into the air and kept himself aloft for several moments before descending into a landing. As his hooves were about to touch down, a rouge gust of wind suddenly blew him off course, and he fell through a particularly thin wisp of cloud. The shock of falling through caused his heart to race, and his muscles froze. He saw the ground below and felt himself falling towards it. He felt as though the cold fingers of death had grasped loosely around his neck.

Realizing that he only had one chance at survival, he closed his eyes and took as deep a breath as he could. When he opened his eyes, he was facing upward, and Rainbow was diving after him. 'Be brave,' he thought to himself. 'Do what Rainbow Dash would do.'

He righted himself. The ground was approaching fast. He would have to act quickly. He spread his wings wide. He had evened out, but he was completely vertical. He began to adjust his pitch. The first twenty degrees was the hardest. When he managed that, he pulled up another twenty, and then another. The next pitch shift required that he start flapping. This speed had been the fastest he had ever gone. The wind whistling in his ears was deafening.

Finally, he managed to even out. He could feel the pine boughs slapping hard against his chest as he began to pull up. He started climbing. He didn't look at the world around him, as he knew he needed to focus on his altitude. After a long, steady climb, he held his wings open in a steady glide and looked around. He saw that the meadow he had been above had disappeared. He had flown over the Everfree forest, and was headed in the direction of Canterlot.

"Are you even listening to me?"

He looked to his left. Rainbow had accompanied him the entire way. "No, I'm sorry. I was too focused on keeping myself aloft. What'd you say?"

"I said, we need to turn back now. We're about to pass over Whinnyapolis, and you said you didn't want anypony to see your wings."

Kai nodded. "Okay. Do we break formation or hold it?"

"Hold. When you're ready, bank left towards me. I'll adjust accordingly."

"Right. Here goes nothing." Kai slowly shifted his wings to bank left. In the middle of his turn, he saw the trees drop out of the way, and the city of Whinnyapolis revealed itself to him. His breath was taken away by the view from up here. He swiveled his head around. He could see for miles. Even looking straight down, he could see how quickly the ground was moving beneath him. For the first time in his entire life, he felt the freedom he had been craving for so long.

When Rainbow confirmed that they were back on course, Kai propelled himself forward with renewed vigor. His eyes lit up with every flap of his wings. He was so joyful that he was able to completely ignore the soreness that he had felt in his shoulders since the surgery.

It wasn't long at all before the two ponies returned to the runway that Rainbow had made this morning. With a bit more altitude, Kai was set for his approach.

"Don't worry about landing this one," shouted Rainbow. "This is the longest sustained flight you've had all day. You've spent almost two hours up here already, so just make sure you end up in the clouds, and not plummeting towards the ground again."

Kai nodded. He felt so alive, there wasn't any space for him to be worried. He stretched out his front hooves, ready to set himself down. He looked off to the side of the field of cloud he was set to land on and found that Fluttershy and Usu were there, watching him come in. Twilight was also there, having brought them up in her balloon. He couldn't wait to tell them the news about his first flight.

He slid in over the clouds. He pushed his hooves out in front of him and slowed his speed, letting his weight bring him down. As his hooves touched down, he thought he was moving too fast, and his skid turned into a full gallop. Luckily, this put into his head the idea that he could land without stopping, and he tried to do so. His wings acted as brakes while his legs kept pushing him forward, until he was no longer relying on his wings to keep him moving. With his wings firmly folded behind his back, he slowed his pace and turned around. His companions were running toward him, and more importantly, he had made his first successful landing.

Chapter the Twenty-Seventh: A Single Night of Passion

The heat from Kai's breath sent shivers down Fluttershy's spine. His kisses had begun to work their way down her neck. His left hoof had moved to the small of her back, while his right gently but firmly rubbed between her wings. Slowly, he made his way down to the bottom of her chest. She guessed that he would go further, but instead, he dragged his tongue along her keel, not stopping until he was gently suckling at her clavicle.

She let out a shuddering moan as he repeated his actions. Her hooves were wrapped loosely around his neck. She trusted him to not go too quickly, and he confirmed that this was the right decision by taking his time.

He slowly make his way further down, this time stopping at her navel. Gently he kissed it, his right hoof coming around to explore her abdomen. He could feel her breathing through her diaphragm. She couldn't seem to slow her breath, even as he came back up to caress her lips with his own. He traced every muscle he could find. Though he knew her chest well, these muscles were new to his gaze.

Again, he moved downward. He was between her thighs, now, and would need both hooves for this task. In each hoof, he held one of her breasts. At first, he was quite gentle. He would slowly massage them upward, then turn around and rub them back down. He was careful not to squeeze too tightly, as he didn't want to hurt her. She squirmed and shook every time he brushed past one of her nipples. Noting her reaction, he would soon involve his tongue with them, as well.

She let out a gasp as he began to suck on the first nipple. As he rolled her opposite breast around in his hoof, her breathing became deeper, but no less shaky. Her hoof had moved from his neck to his head, and the spasms in her legs forced her to firmly grasp his mane. He didn't seem to mind, as he didn't miss a beat. When he was satisfied with his work, he switched breasts, giving her nipple a gentle tug as his lips separated from it with an audible pop.

"I... thought you'd never... done this before..." panted Fluttershy between breaths. "Where did you... learn to do this?"

Kai's face turned red, but with no light to show it, Fluttershy couldn't tell. "Of all the books left behind in the castle, there were a few trashy romance novels. Being pubescent at one point, I found certain pleasures in reading them."

Fluttershy nodded and allowed him to continue. She could feel her heart beating fast in her ears as he massaged her. He even made a move to her thigh, gently kissing the firm muscles within. She was filled with bliss.

As Kai's tongue began to caress and clean her outer folds, she let out a high-pitched squeak."Wait! Wait!" she called out, pulling his mane up and away. Her juices were already decorating his chin as he came up.

"Was that too fast? I'm sorry. I'll try to slow down. Or should I stay away from that area completely?" Kai wasn't sure what he did wrong, but he intended to make it right.

"No, no. That was wonderful." She guided his face back to hers. "But before we start in on that, there's another step."

"Another step?" Kai had last read those books several years ago. He remembered that there was some variation between sources, but he couldn't tell what part he had skipped. Had he forgotten to lick her hooves? Was that even one of the steps, or had he just imagined it?

She sat up and guided him back down to the bed. "Just lie on your back and relax. It's my turn." She began following his actions, though there was a surgical scar along his keel. She found other scars as she went along. Around his waist, there was a series of puncture wounds in the exact size and shape of the inside of a bear's mouth. Not far was a string of slash marks to confirm her suspicion. Another near his thigh boasted that of a timber wolf's teeth. He had certainly taken several hits throughout his life. This revelation only served to encourage her to continue. He was long overdue for a pleasurable experience.

She soon made her way down between his thighs. Before she could even begin to coax him out of his sheath, he placed his hoof on her cheek and lifted her head.

"Is something wrong?" she asked.

"No, just... Before you begin on that, there's something you should know..."

"Is it an STD? I can take preventative measures."

"No, it's... I don't have any STDs. At least, I don't think I do..." He covered his face with his hooves. "Promise you won't laugh?"

"Why would I laugh?"

"Because..." He took a slow, deep breath. "It's really small. And badly damaged. Not all of the pieces made it this far."

She crawled forward and pressed her lips to his. She stared deeply into his sapphire eyes. "I promise. I will not laugh. I won't tell anypony. This will be our lit-- I mean, our personal secret."

He nodded. "Okay. I trust you. Just... Brace yourself for disappointment..."

She slid back down between his legs and gave his sheath a lick. Even down here, she could feel scar tissue. Her left hoof traveled down his thigh, across his groin, and gently fondled his testicles. Or rather, testicle. She could only find one, as the scar tissue had continued down past his scrotum. She correctly guessed that this is what he meant by 'missing pieces.'

The scar didn't feel like a bite, or even a slash from a claw. This was a cut. Something sharp had severed one of his gonads. She brought her lips down to it and kissed the scar tissue. She wondered if he was even capable of producing children without both of them. While she was tempted to ask what happened to him, now was not the best time to relive such a memory.

As she continued to run her tongue along his sheath, his member slid out and began to erect itself. Since Kai wasn't really her first, she had some experience with a stallion's genitals. Not as much as most mares her age, but enough to guess what size prophylactic he would fit into. As she ran her tongue from the base to the tip, she knew that he wasn't nearly as small as he had warned. His shaft was fairly girthy. He wasn't particularly large, but nor was he small. She couldn't decide if he was too small for a size large or too large for a size medium. He seemed to teeter just on the edge where the size transitioned. The scar tissue along the shaft hadn't grown back quite right, making the skin on the bottom of his penis tighter than that on top. As a result, his rod seemed to hook downward and to the right until the scar tissue ended, and the tip swung to the left after it ended.

She began to lick at the tip, causing Kai to let out a small moan of pleasure. She took the entire head into her mouth and began to stroke along the length, applying gentle suction as she did. She took in as much as she could manage, coming up every few bobs to swirl her tongue around.

"What made you think... this was small?" she asked between breaths.

"The stallions... in those books. They described their testicles as the size of apples... and their penises were... they dragged on the floor. And they were wider than the legs of any mare."

"Those were massive exaggerations, Kai. You're not small. In fact, you're a little big..."

Fluttershy's kind words, coupled with the fact that this was his first time, caused Kai such pleasure that he began to burst. His first shot went into her mouth. She wasn't quite ready for it, and she let go of him. The second shot flew up into the air, coming back down on top of her and landing in her mane. The third and fourth shot landed on his chest and abdomen, and everything after that trickled down his shaft and onto her hooves.

"Did you like that?" she asked, licking her hooves clean.

"It was wonderful," he said, his chest heaving.

"Good," she said, licking him clean. "I was hoping that you'd enjoy that. I'd really like to see you again."

He sat up and grasped her shoulders. "But we're not finished yet."

She looked up at him. "W-wait, no! Please? I'm not ready for a foal yet."

He gently lowered her back onto the bed. "Nor am I." He made his way down between her legs once more. "But I don't like to leave jobs half-finished. And you haven't reached your pinnacle yet."

She gasped as he dug his tongue back into her folds. She was even more saturated now than when he had left off. He made sure to lick up all of the juices that flowed from her, and found that he quite enjoyed the taste. On one particularly long draw, he felt her quiver violently as he brushed against her clitoris. His novels had always made sure to point out how sensitive these were, so he made sure to avoid it when diving deep, and only draw across it once when he surfaced.

Before long, the room began to echo with her soft cries of pleasure. Kai could feel her heartbeat racing as her knees locked around his neck. He knew she was almost done, so he placed his lips squarely on her little bundle of nerves and rubbed his tongue against it. This sent her over the edge. Her back arched, and she let out the loudest moan either of them had heard that night. When she finally let go of Kai's head, his face was dripping with her goo.

He crawled up to her and the two shared another kiss. They were both panting heavily as they gazed into each other's eyes. They were both covered in all manner of bodily fluids, and would both need to bathe in the morning. But for now, they were too exhausted. Kai wrapped Fluttershy in his arms and they fell into a deep, very restful slumber.

Chapter the Twenty-Eighth: The Matriarch

Kai pulled his hoof away from the doorbell. "Are you sure this is the right place? I know it's been awhile, but I don't remember any of this."

He and Usu stood outside a very large manor in Canterlot. Kai was clad in his cloak with the hood over his face, so as not to be recognized. Usu was in his disguise for the same reason.

"Yes, I'm sure," grumbled Usu. "I only grew up in this house. I think I'd know it well enough by now. Just ring already."

Kai swallowed hard. "You're sure it's just mother in there?"

"For over a decade, yes. Ring."

Kai raised his hoof back to the door and tentatively rang the doorbell.

"Again," commanded Usu. "Make sure they heard you."

Kai rang again and stepped back. "Who's 'they?'"

"She has one other pony living with her. The live-in nurse who takes care of her. The maid should also be around today."

The door swung open, and a young mare in a lacy maid outfit opened the door. "Can I help you?"

"We're here to see miss Maison," Said Kai. "Is she here?"

"Duh," said the mare, a sour look on her face. "She never leaves. I'll go check if she wants to see you." She pulled herself back inside and slammed the door. Kai turned back to Usu.

"Don't look at me," he shrugged. "I didn't hire her. I hired a different mare. The nurse should still be the same, though."

The door opened once more. This time, a large stallion was standing there. He looked confused when he saw Kai, but Usu's face caused him to wave the two of them inside.

"Good to see you again, Usu," said the stallion in a hushed tone. "Who's your friend?"

"Nevermind him," said Usu. "Who's the new maid? What happened to Bunny?"

"Out with the flu, unfortunately. I called her agency, and this was the mare they sent. I'm not too thrilled, either."

"You called him Usu," said Kai, pulling down his hood. "Is this a safe environment?"

"I don't know who you are," growled the stallion. "But I must insist that whatever criminal activity you're involved in stay outside of this residence. The mare that lives here is very old and very frail. If you do anything to harm her, I swear--"

Usu placed his hoof firmly on the stallion's shoulder. "Relax, Plaster. He has no intention of causing her grief. Do you remember her favorite photograph?"

"The one with you and your brother. She talks about him coming home every day."

"Then allow me to introduce you to Akaitora." Usu pulled Kai a bit closer to Plaster.

Plaster inspected Kai's face. "Are you sure? I thought you said he'd died in prison."

"That's what I thought, too. The guards said he had been released, our father had said that his sentence had been extended indefinitely. Which one would you believe?"

"He definitely looks like Kai. I'll give you that."

"May we see her?" Kai asked, beginning to grow impatient.

Plaster took a deep breath. "Very well. Right this way, sirs."

After stepping out of the entry hall and into the grand stairwell, Kai knew he was in the right place. He remembered being able to poke his head through the balcony balusters. He remembered being scolded for watching guests come through the door at odd hours of the night, and he remembered being yelled at to return to his bed. The dining room was even more memorable, as he had always wondered what it would be like to sit at the large table with the guests. He never had the chance, as he was still too small at the time he'd left.

Plaster stopped at the door to the tea room. "Be careful what you say to her. She's very fragile."

Kai nodded. "I'm ready."

The door opened, and the trio walked in. The maid was already in there, talking to an elderly mare in a rocking chair. "I think they were some kind of thugs, here to rob you or something. Do you want me to send them away?"

"They're not thugs," boomed Plaster, causing the maid to turn around. "They are guests, and there are standing orders to allow one of them entry, unless Mistress specifically sends them away."

The elderly mare looked up at them. Kai froze in place. The mare matched his memory fairly well. As Usu had described, there was a strong indent above her left eye, as well as some scar tissue holding the skin together. She had a cataract in her left eye, and he wondered if she could see out of it.

She motioned to a few nearby chairs. "Guests, of course. What a pleasant surprise. Have a seat, won't you?"

Kai and Usu walked over to the chairs indicated and sat down.

"Staying long, gentlemen?"

Usu looked to Kai. It was his decision.

Kai took a deep breath. "No, not too long. We wouldn't want to bother you for very much more than we need to. If necessary, we can return at a later date."

"Nonsense. You're no bother. Friends of my husband?"

Kai's stomach twisted and tightened. "Not really. We're not exactly on friendly terms."

She poured herself a bit more tea. "Well, if not to see my husband, then what is the purpose of your visit? To join a young lady for tea?"

"Actually, I wanted to ask you something. I know it may be a sore subject, but..." Another deep breath. "Could you tell me about your son?"

"Usu? What's the little scamp gone and done this time?"

"No, nothing. I meant Kai. Your other son?"

"Oh. Sorry, you'll have to come back in a week to see him. He's... indisposed at the moment."

"We know where he is. We'd like to know your opinion on the matter."

She reached across the table and picked up a framed photograph. "He's a good kid. I don't believe what they said at that malpractice they called a trial. He's not a criminal. Certainly not a violent one. He's innocent. And when he comes home, he'll be welcomed back."

"Did you see any of the evidence?"

"Of course. That drawing they showed, the one that sealed his fate? If they had looked a bit closer, they would have seen what I saw: The drawing of the alicorn was done in coloured pencil. His name was printed at the bottom, also in coloured pencil. But all of the viscera was done with a pen. Ink. Not graphite. I'd show you, but they didn't give us a copy. It's fairly obvious that somepony set him up. And with the way they glossed over everything, I'm sure somepony set up the courts to make sure he went down in flames."

"Do you really think he was set up?" Kai was starting to grow hopeful.

"Of course. Five times I tried to bring it up on appeal. Five times I was shut down. At this point, going up on appeal would take longer than just waiting out his sentence. In about a month, I have an audience with the princess. I'll take him right up to her, tell her what happened, and hopefully, she'll expunge his record. He never committed any crime, and he deserves to be treated as the happy young colt he is." She cleared her throat. "Or perhaps not so happy after all of this."

Kai trembled as he stood up. "Thank you for your time, miss Maison. I hope that, when your son returns home, he'll be the happiest young stallion you've ever seen."

The elderly mare also trembled as she stood, though her shakes were a result of her age and health, rather than her discomfort for the topic. "Thank you for saying so. As I said, he'll be back next week. You can meet him then. I promise you, he's a good boy. Just you wait and see." She extended her hoof to shake.

Kai took it, and lifted it to his lips. "It's been a pleasure, miss Maison."

Chapter the Twenty-Ninth: Extracted

"So what's your plan now?" asked Kai as he stepped off the train.

"I'll probably head back to Manehattan," Said Usu. "Make up a new team. In the meantime, I have a security company I head. I am a licensed locksmith, after all."

"So we both have plans, then."

"I'll be on my way shortly. Just going to give out business cards before I go. Starting with miss Fluttershy, of course. I owe her that courtesy."

The two made their way to Fluttershy's cottage. As the door came into view, Kai immediately felt his heart drop. He knew that it was closed when he left. He had closed it himself. More importantly, He didn't remember there being a knife stabbed into the door. He stepped forward slowly, repeatedly squeezing his eyes shut in the hopes that when they opened, everything would be fine. Each time, he was disappointed as reality sank in.

He reached the door with Usu close behind him. Through the doorway, they could see smears of blood dragging across the floor, furniture knocked over and some damaged walls. Kai's heart beat harder as he began to become enraged.

Usu pulled the knife out of the door. Between the knife and the door was a folded up sheet of paper. He opened it up and began reading.

"To whom it may concern:

"The mare that lives here has been kidnapped. She has been taken to a secret compound underground. If anypony cares about her, she may yet live. Bring five hundred thousand bits to Whinnyapolis at night. Find a dark alley and wait there. We'll find you. And don't even think about calling the guards. If any are around when we arrive, she will be killed."

Kai was visibly shaking. His muscles were tensing up and his blood pressure was rising.

"This is Stain's writing. He's been wanting to break into ransoming for awhile, now. Only..."

"What?" growled Kai through gritted teeth. He turned to face Usu with a scowl covering his face. "Only what?"

Usu wore a somber expression. "He was afraid of the victims being able to track him. He had this idea that he could strap explosives to the pony he stole, and detonate them from a safe distance."

"Then..."

"You'd see her just long enough to say your goodbyes. I'm sorry, Kai, but there's not much you can do."

Kai sat down and held his head in his hooves.

"Not to mention that the two of you already have a history. He'd be very glad to be rid of you.

Just at that moment, Rarity came into view. She was on her way to the cottage. "What has you two so glum?" she asked, having not seen the interior of the house yet.

Usu responded by offering her the note. As she read it, her eyes went wide.

"It's the same three stallions that tried to take you," said Kai, his voice as shaky as his body. "I wasn't around to protect her this time."

"You can't mean she's been taken from us?" cried Rarity. "I refuse to believe it!"

Kai kicked the door the rest of the way open. Rarity shrank back at the sight of the mess.

"What's the hold-up?" shouted a familiar voice as Rainbow Dash darted into view.

"Fluttershy's been kidnapped!" Rarity cried. "She's gone!"

Rainbow dashed down to the door and looked inside. "Looks like she put up quite a fight."

"Whatever shall we do?" sobbed Rarity.

Kai stood up. The air around him rippled as his eyes burned red with rage. "I'm going to bring her back. I don't know if this is her blood or one of theirs, but I can promise you all that before the night is over, more will be spilled." He turned to Usu. "And you're going to help me."

Grabbing Usu firmly by the scarf, he dragged his brother into the forest. After sending Rainbow Dash to alert the others, Rarity followed along.

For the second time in as many months, Fluttershy awoke on a stone floor with her hooves bound behind her. She had a feeling these three weren't going to be nearly as accommodating as Kai had been, especially considering that her lip was still bleeding. As she looked around, a collar dug into her neck. Rather than the woven collar Kai had made, this one was steel, and it pinched her skin where it connected to itself. The heavy chain rattled as she began to pick herself up. She was greeted by a kick to the gut, causing her to fall back down to the floor.

Stain stood over her, a bloody rag against his face. "Welcome back to the waking world." He reached down and grabbed her by the jaw. "You're going to regret breaking my nose, you filthy swine. " He tossed her to the floor again. "I hope you have somepony who cares about you. A friendly face to look at as you fade from existence. Else you're in for a world of anguish."

She would have said something back to him, but her voice was muffled by a gag.

"You should make yourself comfortable. Over the next few days, you'll only end up worse off until you're either paid for or sold off to the highest bidder."

"I thought we were just going to ransom her back to her family?"

Fluttershy looked to where the new voice had come from. He was short and slim, almost muscular. This was probably Frost.

"She's already caused us quite a bit of trouble," answered Stain. "If they can't pay the price, she's being sold off to cover the cost of bringing her in. Besides, she has a real pretty face. I'm pretty sure somepony would want her as a sex slave."

"That wasn't part of the plan, though. Are you just making this up as you go along?"

"It's called adapting. Not that you'd know anything about that, mister 'I'm too much of a coward to use my blade.' Why don't you go be useless somewhere else?"

Placing a hoof over his chest as if he were hurt, Frost backed away and left the room. Stain turned back to Fluttershy. "I'll give you one night. If somepony doesn't show up with five hundred thousand bits tonight, I'll start early on your training. You see this?" In front of her face he waved a branding iron. It was still cold. "This is going to stamp you in several places. Even though we only need one, we'd like for you to remember who it was you kicked in the face."

Slamming the iron rod down on a nearby table, he left the room. Fluttershy curled up and began crying. Her only light in this darkness was the thought that Kai or her friends were coming to save her. Or even better, both.

Chapter the Thirtieth: The Gathering Storm

"When did all of this show up?" asked Twilight as she entered the bedroom Fluttershy had slept in beneath the castle in the forest. "I thought this place abandoned."

"Not long," answered Kai, gesturing towards the bed. "Sit."

She sat next to her friends on the bed. Rarity had insisted that the seven of them come up with a plan before acting, and Rainbow had lead the rest to the castle.

"Now then," said Kai, "We all know why we're here. Fluttershy has been taken by a group of three thugs. The current plan of action is to dispose of two of them peacefully. Some information I've gathered suggests that they'll back down if given the right incentive. Unfortunately, the third one is not so easy. Stain," he looked to Rarity. "The red pegasus is not going to let her go without violence. I have it on good authority that even if we give him what he wants, he won't give her back."

"And where did this information come from?" asked Rainbow.

"I have a dossier in my office on all three of them," answered Usu. "I'm a security expert. They're thieves. I protect ponies from thieves. Stain is at the top of my 'most wanted' list."

"So we should focus on bringing them in unharmed, right?" asked Pinkie.

Kai shook his head. "Our top priority is bringing Fluttershy back safely."

"So just send me in," said Rainbow, bursting from her seat. "I'll kick the ever-living tar out of them."

"Have you ever worked with high-powered explosives?" asked Usu. "Because it's a safe bet that Stain has her rigged to explode already."

"I'll have those bombs off her lickety-split" responded Applejack.

"And if he embedded them inside her body?"

Nopony responded to Usu's question.

"If ever you're thinking 'Stain wouldn't stoop so low,' remember this: Nothing is beneath him."

"Then we'll just have to cut it out," said Kai, stepping forward. "I may have sworn never to harm her, but if I have to in order to save her life, it's worth the damage."

"I'm sure she'll forgive you for that," smiled Applejack.

"It's your own forgiveness you need to seek," chimed in Rarity. "With everything you've done, and what you're currently trying to do, nopony cares what happened in the past."

Usu turned to Kai, whose head had lowered. "Is she talking about what happened twenty years ago?"

Kai nodded.

Usu scowled. "Let go of that, Kai. You heard the proof this morning. You're the only pony holding those scars open. Let it go."

Kai let out a deep breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding in.

"So, that's the plan, then?" asked Twilight, standing up. "We give them what they want, defuse the explosive, and that's that?"

"That's it," said Kai, pulling himself upright. "Unless you have a better plan in mind."

"Scour the city." said Twilight. "If he's doing the exchange there, Fluttershy has to be close by. A legion of guards could clear the city by tomorrow night."

"You don't know how career thieves work, do you?" asked Usu. "The minute they realize the guards are looking for them, they'll be out of there, and they'll probably take her along. We need to do this quickly and quietly so they don't have time to think about it."

"You sure know a lot about bein' a thief..." said Applejack, staring Usu down with an accusing look. "What'd you say your name was?"

"I didn't," replied Usu. "I work security. In order to protect against thieves, you must first understand how they think."

"How they think doesn't matter so much as how they act," argued Pinkie. "Even if they're just trying to feed their families, there has to be a better way."

"They're not trying to feed their families, Pinkie," grumbled Kai. "They do this because they derive pleasure from seeing others in pain."

"Just Stain," interjected Usu. "Tundra and Frost are in it for the money."

"And we're going to give it to them," said Kai, pulling the chest out from the foot of the bed.

"That treasure belongs to princess Celestia!" shouted Twilight. "Look, that's her insignia!" She pointed to a metal crest on the lid of the chest.

"Does the princess care so little for her subjects that she can't spare an abandoned treasure chest to save one of them?" asked Kai. "Would you rather I present this broken box to our dear monarch rather than save Fluttershy's life?"

"We can't just take it without asking," said Applejack, standing next to Twilight. "That'd make us no better than the thieves."

"The princess will understand," said Rainbow, gliding down beside Kai. "It's more important that we see Fluttershy back home."

"Besides, we can all work together to repay it," said Rarity, hopping up and joining Kai's side.

"As much as I want Fluttershy back, we can't go around causing more suffering to do so." Pinkie hopped over to Twilight, tying the vote at three and three.

Usu, the only pony not to have chosen a side, cleared his throat. "It doesn't matter if we take the treasure or not. There's not five hundred thousand bits in that chest. Even with the gems, it's still not enough."

"I plan on offering them one more boon," said Kai, smirking.

"And what's that?" asked Usu. "You don't really have all that much to give."

"I'm going to give them the greatest asset to any band of thieves. A pony that can pick his way through any lock, if given the right tools. It just so happens that I recently captured one that tried to kill me."

Fluttershy opened her eyes as the door to her room creaked open. The stallion that came in was a rather large one. Tundra, she would guess.

"Good, you're here," snarled Stain. "Watch her while I'm out. And this time, leave her tied up. I don't want to have another escape attempt like the last mare."

As Stain left the room, the new stallion came up to her. His horn lit up, and he inspected her body. She closed her eyes, expecting him to do something horrible, but all he did was undo her gag.

"Please, let me go. I promise, I won't tell anypo--"

"Hush," he commanded. Her mouth snapped shut. He began to dab a cold rag at her lip. It almost reminded her of how Kai had treated her bruise when she arrived with him.

"What is it you want?" she asked quietly.

"Hold still."

She held still. As he placed a small bandage over her wound, she began to understand why Usu had held him in higher regards than the other two. When he was done, he sat down in a chair, eyes fixed on her.

"You're Tundra, right?"

He nodded.

"Usu told me about you. He said you saved his life."

He said nothing. Picking up a newspaper, he began to flip through it.

"He's still alive, you know. Unharmed, too. He'd probably listen to me if I asked him to come back to you."

He turned the page.

"He said you were the one who would most like to see him."

"He was a good leader. Given the choice, I'd follow him wherever he lead. If he said to jump, I'd ask how high. Unfortunately, I don't have as much say as I used to."

"Why not?"

Tundra turned the light on himself. For the first time, Fluttershy could see his face. He brushed his mane out of the way of his neck. "Don't breath a word of this to Frost, and don't let Stain find out I told you."

Fluttershy gasped. Around his neck was a collar not unlike what she had worn.

"Stain holds the only key. If ever I betray him, he'll use this to end my life. I have to do as he says, or it tightens by another notch. It's already hard enough to breathe as it is."

"But Usu can pick any lock, right?"

He shook his head. "Usu designed the lock. Even at his best, it would take him half an hour to pick through it. The only reason Usu followed Stain's orders was because he wanted to protect me. Did he tell you that we used to be non-violent?"

She nodded.

"We also only stole as social commentary. More than half of our profits went to those who were less fortunate. Usu's absolutely loaded, actually. His grandfather was some kind of mogul. The company pretty much runs itself, so he just has to sit back and collect his income."

"He never said anything about that."

"I doubt he'd really want to come back to us, anyway. I'd actually prefer it if he stayed away, actually. He's hurt every time he looks at me, I just know it."

"What if that collar was gone?"

He put the newspaper down. "If there was no threat to me, I'd be honored to welcome him back. So would Frosty, I'd bet. And with all of us allowed to make our own decision, Stain would be gone."

Chapter the Thirty-First: The Exchange

Kai and Usu sat in an alleyway, fully cloaked. The sun was just about to set. Between the two of them sat the chest.

"Are you sure about this?" asked Kai. "You only get one shot."

"I have Rarity's, Twilight's and your knowledge as to how to solve this. If there was ever a way to break the enchantment, I have it here. I'm more worried about your ability to sell the deception."

"Don't worry. If I can show any emotion right now, it's an intense hatred for them mixed with a strong desire to have Fluttershy back."

The two shared a small chuckle.

"Okay, let's go over it one more time, Kai."

"You and I wait here for them to appear. When they do, I give them the treasure and you in exchange for Fluttershy. When you reach them, you start in on the collar. Pinkie and Rarity are waiting nearby to medically extract the explosives. Rainbow is two buildings over, and is ready to take the explosives out of the city on my signal, where Applejack is ready to dispose of it safely. And Twilight is holding back the guards until I signal Dash. That's when you leave. With or without your crew."

"And if anything goes wrong?"

"Improvise."

Usu took a deep breath as the sun sank down over the horizon.

An hour passed before Frost found them. He was in a disguise, but Usu knew the disguise and Kai saw right through it.

"Are you two Friends of a certain young lady?"

Kai took his hood down and stood up. "We're here to bring her back home."

Frost took a step back. "You?"

"Yes. But before we leave you with the money, we need to ensure that she's safe. Let us see her."

"No problem. Give me ten minutes, and I'll bring her right over."

Frost walked off briskly. When he was out of earshot, Usu spoke up. "Turn around and face the other entrance. They won't be able to sneak up on us."

Kai did so, sitting down with his hood back up. His hoof drifted to the hilt of his blade. He steeled his nerves as he thought about what he was about to do.

Five minutes passed, and two ponies entered the alley. One was clearly Frost, the other was cloaked. "Here she is. Let's see the money."

"Not so fast." Kai took his hood down. "Remove her cloak."

"You know, it's ungentlemanly to remove a lady's clothing."

"I never claimed to be a gentleman. How do you expect me to believe that's her?"

Frost shrugged. "I guess if you don't want her, we can just kee--"

A sudden gust of wind kicked up, blowing off the hood of the cloaked figure. Beneath it was Stain.

"Well, well," he smiled. "Looks like you saw through that ruse. I was going to stab you when I came close enough, but I guess not." He clapped his hooves and Tundra rounded the corner with Fluttershy tied up on his back. "Now, let's see the money."

Kai pulled out the chest. "It's here."

Stain let out a laugh. "You expect me to believe that's five hundred thousand bits? Not even close."

"I have something that will cover the rest." At Kai's beckon, Usu stood up and removed his cloak. "I will return to you your hitpony. Or lockpick. Whichever you choose to use him as."

Fluttershy felt Tundra's muscles tense up and his coat bristle beneath her. She was also rather shocked to see Kai willing to sell out his own brother. They had grown so close during their time together. Could he really just toss him aside like that?

"You drive a rather interesting bargain," chuckled Stain. "Send him over with the money and we'll let her go."

Kai nodded, and Usu made his way over to the group with chest in tow. He walked past Stain, coming to a stop right next to Tundra.

Stain smiled. "You actually sent him over. You're very trusting, funny guy."

"I held up my end," snarled Kai. "Now it's your turn. Send her over and you can go."

Stain looked up at Fluttershy and then back to Kai. His smile turned to a devious grin. "No, I think not."

Kai pulled out his dagger, pointing the tip at Stain. "We had a deal!" he growled.

"We did. And now I'm breaking that deal. She'll make us even more money when we sell her as a sex slave." Kai rushed forward, but was stopped when Stain held a blade to her throat. "Careful, now. We can't sell her if she's dead."

It was time to improvise. Usu began quietly working his way through Tundra's collar, gesturing for Kai to keep Stain's attention.

"I'll buy her. Sell her to me."

Stain roared with laughter. "You just gave me all of your money. You don't have anything left."

"She has friends. One of them is close to princess Celestia. I can pay you with royal treasure. How's that?"

"Okay. Bring the treasure to this very alley tomorrow night. Come alone."

"What if I told you I could have it here tonight?"

"I wouldn't believe you. Tomorrow night. Come alone."

"Uh, Stain?" interjected Frost. "If he can have it by tonight, why not let him bring it? Should we really give him a chance to change his mind?"

Stain Slapped Frost with his wing. "You're not the brains of this operation, I am."

Tundra was about to speak up, but Usu held his hoof up to suggest his silence. Tundra was the first to notice the soft glow of Usu's horn in this moment, and he glanced around, trying to find what was being done so subtly. He remained silent, his trust in Usu almost absolute.

"As I was saying, funny," growled Stain. "You will come back tomorrow. The price is two million."

"Two million!?" Kai's blood was boiling. "How in Equestria do you expect me to gather up two million bits?"

"You're friends with the princess. You figure it out."

As Stain turned to walk away, a loud click was heard. Everypony turned to look at Tundra, whose collar had just snapped off and was falling to the ground. Usu wasted no time as he reached up and landed a punch right on Stain's already broken nose. Stain stumbled backward, tripping over Frost in the process.

Usu slapped Tundra's shoulder and pointed to Kai, who was now rushing forward once again. To Kai's great surprise, Tundra lowered himself and lifted Fluttershy up with his magic, levitating her onto Kai's back. With a nod, Kai took off in the opposite direction of the fight, stopping behind a nearby corner. Pinkie and Rarity were already there as Kai lowered Fluttershy to the ground.

"The nerve of that ruffian!" growled Rarity. "Selling our dear Fluttershy as a sex slave! I should see him hang for this!"

"Quiet!" demanded Kai. "First thing's first." He undid Fluttershy's gag and began to look her over. "Did they stick anything in you?"

Fluttershy coughed as her gag came out. "The... The red one... He shoved something... Down my throat just before..."

"Did you swallow it?"

She nodded. Kai nodded at Rarity, who started pulling medical supplies out of her saddlebags.

"That was an explosive he gave you. He means to kill you."

Fluttershy's facial expression turned to one of panic.

"I'm not going to let that happen. We're going to extract it."

"Ready!" called Rarity.

Kai nodded. "Pinkie, hold her down." As she did as he asked, Kai took an alcohol swab from Rarity and cleaned the area where he would need to open. "I'm sorry, Fluttershy. This may sting a little."

As Kai's blade opened her skin and parted her muscles, Fluttershy was in anguish. As she screamed out in pain, Kai did his best to work quickly, while only making the holes as large as was absolutely necessary. Pinkie offered Fluttershy a clean rag to bite down on, which she took without hesitation. Kai found her stomach, and through the lining he could see a dim, flashing red light. The very sight of it made Pinkie begin to quiver. Rarity wiped Kai's brow as he was starting to sweat. As quick as his magic would allow, Kai opened her stomach and pulled out the device. It was fairly small for an explosive, but obviously still too large to comfortably swallow.

As Kai took it in his hoof, it began to rapidly beep. He panicked, and threw it as hard as he could into the air, where it detonated with an ear-shattering bang. Using his large metal wings, he was able to shield Fluttershy and Pinkie from the shrapnel that came raining down on top of them. His wingspan wasn't enough to cover Rarity, as well, but she managed to protect herself well enough with her magic.

"Quickly, seal her back up!" called Pinkie.

Rarity nodded and began preparing the suture. Unfortunately for her, Kai had other plans. Remembering the spell that closed wounds, his horn glowed purple as Fluttershy's wounds closed tightly.

Fluttershy's face showed a small amount of confusion amidst the pain. She had seen Kai's horn glow hundreds of times, and it had always been blue. She didn't have much time to think about it, however, as Rainbow came crashing down beside them.

"I heard your signal. Where's the bomb?"

Chapter the Thirty-Second: Fight for Your Life

Rainbow stood guard over Fluttershy as Pinkie rushed off to seek assistance from a medical professional. Rarity had left to help Twilight organize the guards. As relieved as he was to see that Fluttershy was safe, Kai was more worried about Usu at the moment. Fluttershy had Rainbow Dash to protect her. She would be safe for now.

Kai returned to the alley where the exchange had been made. Neither Stain nor Usu remained, but an unmoving Frost lay draped across the chest lid. Kai rushed up and checked him over. While he didn't really care for any of the trio, he didn't really want to see any of them killed.

Thankfully, Frost was only unconscious. A few cracked ribs, but he would be alright. For best results, he rolled Frost off the chest and laid him flat on the ground. His ears perked up at the sound of a loud crash nearby, and he rushed toward it.

Arriving at the scene of the fight, He saw Tundra lying upside down in a barrel, his kicking legs the only visible part of him. Usu was on the ground, frantically beating at Stain as his own face turned blue. Stain was hovering over him, his hooves wrapped tightly around Usu's throat. Without a thought, Kai's horn burst with energy and sent Stain flying.

Kai pulled Usu to his hooves. "Take Tundra and Frost. Leave before the guards arrive."

"You can't fight him on your own!"

"I don't have to. I just have to outlast him."

Stain stood up and lunged at Kai, who stepped back out of the way. "Go!"

As Usu sped off with Tundra's barrel, Kai pulled out his blade. He had bested Stain at the blade before, and he would do so again now. Seeing Kai with his dagger, Stain pulled out his own weapon. Rather than the dagger Kai had seen him with last time, Stain whipped out a crossbow. The first shot flew right into Kai's shoulder.

Kai came in closer, moving to strike. Spreading his wings, Stain flew into the air as he reloaded. Kai's blade couldn't reach him up in the air. Luckily for Kai, he was equipped with more than a dagger. He had magic. A burst of fire rushed by Stain's ear as he loosed another bolt. Kai was ready for this one, and managed to step out of the way.

The sky became a cloud of lightning, ice and flames. As Stain was beginning to have trouble dodging Kai's spells, he took refuge atop a roof. "Try hitting me up here, unicorn scum!"

"There's no need!" responded Kai. "You're running out of ammunition!"

"Don't be stupid! I have plenty!" Another bolt flew out over the edge of the roof. It missed Kai by a wide margin, shattering a window.

"And yet you can't hit me to save your life! Face it, Stain! You've lost!"

Stain chuckled. "I'll be back on my hooves again in no time! I'll dispose of your filthy brother and return Tundra to his rightful place begging at my hooves! And After I kill you, your little mare friends are both going on the slave market!"

Kai scowled. "You'll not touch them ever again!"

Stain smiled from behind his cover. "I will, though! Especially that yellow one!"

Kai was unable to suppress a growl rising in his throat.

"In fact, I may not even sell her! I'll rent her out for cheap! Any stallion who wants to use her will be able to do so! But don't worry! She'll only ever carry my spawn!"

"I'll not let that happen!"

"You'll have to fly up here and stop me! Oh, wait! You can't!" Stain erupted in an uproar of laughter.

Kai's hatred had reached its boiling point. He had been wanting to capture Stain alive, but that thought had left his mind entirely. Rather than spending the rest of his life in a prison cell, Stain would spend the rest of his life bleeding to death. With a rush of wind, Kai's cloak flew back, and his wings opened wide. He jumped into a vertical takeoff, straight into the air. He scanned the rooftops, finding Stain in a matter of seconds. With no restraints, he sent out a bolt of lightning.

Stain was stirred from his laughter by the sound of a spell being charged above him. He looked up to see Kai in the air. An alicorn? He rolled out of the way as lightning crashed down next to him. He didn't quite move fast enough, as the errant energy burned his leg rather severely. He leaped from the roof and flew down the alleyway. He had to escape.

Kai took off after him. There was no chance that he would let Stain escape. He kept his eyes locked on his quarry, raining shards of ice and balls of fire down upon him. Stain was very nimble, though, and was able to dodge out of the way or change his course just in the nick of time. But he was beginning to falter. His nose was still broken, and he had to breathe through his mouth. He was running out of steam, and leaving behind him a small trail of bloodstains.

He dove into a tunnel. His aggressor would have to meet him on level ground now. This was the perfect opportunity for an ambush. He concealed himself behind a stack of boxes and waited. He grabbed for his crossbow, only to find that he had left it back on the roof. He cursed himself. He picked up a lead pipe and held it at the ready. He would cave in that alicorn's skull.

Right as he finished that thought, he saw the tunnel light up. Kai had entered, and he was using magic to illuminate his path. He waited until Kai walked past, then crept up softly behind him. As he raised the pipe, Kai happened to turn around. Seeing this, a chill ran down Kai's spine, tensing his muscles. As a result, his wings flew open. The pipe slipped between his feathers, crushing the light, malleable metal into an unusable form. Once again, Kai was flightless.

Stain pulled at the pipe to swing it again, but the collapsed wings held it tightly in place. Kai, knowing that he had made the wings from a non-conductive metal, sent an electrical pulse down the pipe, searing Stain's hooves as he let go. Stain bolted. At least now, the stupid unicorn with the fake wings couldn't fly after him. Kai turned and threw another bolt of lightning. This one struck Stain's wing. Now they were both grounded.

Kai had dropped his dagger quite some time ago, when he had taken the crossbow bolt to his shoulder. He reached out as he passed close to a shed, grabbing at a convenient pitchfork. Being well acquainted with spears, Kai would be able to use it easily, as the concept was the same: a pointy metal thing at the end of a long rod. He demonstrated his skill with the weapon with a spinning flourish as he walked. As Stain crawled away with his last two working appendages, Kai caught up to him with ease. He pinned Stain down beneath his hoof and pressed the tines of the pitchfork against Stain's throat.

"Give me one good reason not to plunge this right through your throat, cur."

For the first time that he could remember, Stain's anger had been overpowered by his fear. He had lost. "I'll give you back your treasure! You can go back home! I'll stay out of Ponyville forever!"

"I don't want the treasure," growled Kai. "I never did. And once you're dead, I'll have everything else you offered."

"I can give you more! I have connections to the sex slave market! Any mare you want!"

"I don't want anything to do with that. Last chance."

Stain swallowed hard. He had offered money. He had offered a slave. What else could a stallion want?

As Kai raised his pitchfork, a gentle hoof grabbed his wrist. He followed it to the face of Fluttershy. As he gazed into her eyes, he felt his temper cool, and his bloodlust subsided. He turned back to Stain, grabbing him by the mane and leering into his eyes.

"I'm going to let you go, this time. Not because you deserve it, but because she wishes it. She's sparing you, despite the fact that you tried to kill her. You can thank her by leaving Equestria. If ever you return, do so with the following question in mind: Will she be around to stay my hoof again? If not, your life will be forfeit."

Kai chucked the pitchfork aside. It fell to the cobblestone road with a loud clatter as Kai walked away with Fluttershy's smiling face pressed against his shoulder.

"Where's Rainbow?" asked Kai.

"She went to check on AJ. Usu and the other two have left, as well. They took the treasure with them. Tundra even wished me good health as he passed."

"So they're safe, then?"

"I hope so. They weren't so bad, after all."

Fluttershy's face slipped off of Kai's shoulder as he had stopped. She turned to look at him, and was horrified to see that the four tines of the pitchfork were now protruding out the front of Kai's chest. As he collapsed to the street, She stared in horror into the eyes of Stain. A new wave of hatred had washed over him, and his eyes shone only for her.

Chapter the Thirty-Third: End of All Hope

Kai lay defeated on the ground. Stain strode up to his unmoving body and gave it a firm kick, then turned his attention to Fluttershy. She wanted to fly away, to flee in terror, but she couldn't move. Her fear paralyzed her as Stain bore down on her.

"He caused me a great deal of pain," growled Stain. "And he cost me a fortune." He grabbed her by the throat and shoved her to the ground, climbing on top of her. "You're going to pay off that debt in triplicate. But first, you're going to experience my suffering. Starting NOW!"

He grabbed at her knees. Her senses returned to her and she kicked. Her hooves landed squarely in the center of his chest, knocking him off of her. She turned and limped away, still in pain from Kai's impromptu surgery. She opened her wings only to wince. It seemed as if she had injured her wing when she had been thrown to the ground. She couldn't fly in this condition.

Something large and heavy collided with her shoulder, knocking her to the ground. Once again, Stain was on top of her. He punched her in the gut, knocking the wind out of her. She wrapped her hooves around her stomach to protect herself. She gasped for air, but her lungs weren't responding.

"Only one use for you," he said, grabbing again at her knees. She held her legs together. He pushed them apart even harder, and she responded in kind be forcing her legs together with more and more of her strength. Unfortunately, her strength ran out before his, and her legs flew open with a sickening crack.

She cried out in excruciating pain as he readied himself. Between the spasms of her diaphragm and the torment she was in, it was all she could do to keep herself oxygenated. She hadn't the power to stop him as he forced his shaft into her. To open her up for easier entry, he pushed her fractured leg up until it was parallel to her spine. Her face was saturated in tears and snot.

"I'm going to put a foal in your belly, slave," he growled as he began to thrust repeatedly into her. She didn't want this. she tried to push him off, but she couldn't. All she could manage was to close her eyes tightly and wish for this to be over.

Suddenly, he pushed deep inside her and held there. Fluttershy could feel a warm liquid trickling against her abdominal flesh. What was unexpected was that the liquid was on the outside of her body. She cracked open an eyelid to see Stain still standing over her, a strained look on his face. She looked down at the liquid dripping on her, and found that Stain had been run through by a pitchfork. As he slid out of her to the ground, she found that Kai had followed them, dragging behind him a trail of his own blood. Still in agony, she dragged herself over to him. As her hoof grasped his, he passed out. She was left alone until the guards arrived.

It had been three days since the battle. Kai had spent the entire time out cold. He might have awoken sooner, but Fluttershy had insisted that he not be given painkillers, as he had suffered adverse effects the last time. Instead, he had been kept under anesthesia until the doctors were certain that he was in a stable condition. He opened his eyes slowly, adjusting to the light flooding in through the windows.

His ears were ringing softly, and all sounds around him were muffled. He could only hear indistinct voices saying indistinct things. As his vision cleared, he looked around. He was in a hospital bed. As he leaned forward, He discovered that he wasn't going to leave anytime soon, as his hooves were chained to the bed frame. The first thing he was able to hear was the rattling of his shackles. As his other senses came back, he noticed that the muffled speech had been replaced with silence.

He leaned back. He wondered what had happened after he had collapsed. He thought about Fluttershy, and hoped that she was alright. He had caused her such pain. He wondered if she could ever come to forgive him.

He would have his answer soon enough. The curtain separating his bed from the next was pulled aside. Twilight was there. Next to her was a rather large stallion, mayhaps three or four inches shorter than Kai. He wore a royal guard uniform, which made Kai very nervous. Most importantly, behind them, in the neighboring bed was Fluttershy, a cast around her broken leg.

"You're awake!" beamed Twilight. "You've been out for a few days, now. We were starting to worry that you might not come back." She walked over to his bed, the guard following close behind her. "I bet you're wondering why you're chained up."

"To a degree, yes. I can think of a multitude of reasons, but I wonder which one it is this time."

"This is Shining Armor," she gestured to the stallion. "He needs to ask you a few questions regarding what happened the night you faced Stain."

"I'm also her older brother," smiled Shining.

"Good for you," groaned Kai. "Can the interrogation wait? I would like to talk with Fluttershy, if that's alright." Fluttershy looked briefly over to Kai, but couldn't hold her gaze on him.

"Really, I'd prefer to be finished with this quickly, so if we could--" Shining was interrupted by the push of Twilight's elbow into his ribs.

"We'll give you fifteen minutes," said Twilight. "We'll be waiting in the hall."

"But Twily..." Shining was again interrupted by his little sister pushing him into the hall and shutting the door.

Kai looked over to Fluttershy's bed. "Are you alright?"

She shrugged.

"How bad is it?"

"I have a... A broken leg and a sprained wing. There's also some other... damages."

"He didn't... He didn't finish inside... Did he?"

She sniffled and shook her head. "No, thankfully. A lot of it is just... psychological."

Kai looked down at his own hooves. "I'm sorry. I really wish I could help with that. I'm not very good at being a comfort."

She shrugged as tears welled up in her eyes.

"I'd hug you, but I'm chained up."

"I don't think I'd even accept one at the moment. At least, not from you."

Kai's eyes went wide. "I don't understand."

"I saw you there. You killed Stain. Right in front of me."

"Fluttershy, I--"

"I know you were only trying to protect me. You saved me from a terrible fate in doing so. In fact, half an hour earlier, you saved my life. He tried to kill me, but you saved me. I know I should be grateful, but every time I close my eyes, I see his lifeless body in front of me."

Kai hung his head. He squeezed his eyes shut, and a trickle of tears ran down his face. "I'm sorry. I'm so very sorry. I wish things had worked out differently. If I had come back from Canterlot to find you safe in your yard, everything would be wonderful. If the plan to rescue you had worked, he'd be rotting in a prison, and we never would have fought. If he had left when you showed up, we could have avoided this end."

"But that's not how it happened. You killed him. You took his life away. I know why you had to. He left you with little option. If you had let him live, I'd be a tortured slave, and he might have even come back and made sure you were dead."

Kai sniffled. "I suppose it would be best if I were to leave you for awhile, then."

Fluttershy looked over to him. "I know I owe you my life, multiple times over. What's more, I don't want to be rid of you forever. Not remotely. But I can't look at you without thinking of you as a murderer. Perhaps it would be for the best if you left me be for awhile. At least until the scars heal."

The two sat in silence until their fifteen minutes had passed. In the meantime, Kai's stomach growled. He hadn't eaten since before he had seen his mother. He thought himself insensitive, but he would miss her cooking dearly.

"Your fifteen minutes are up," said Shining Armor as he walked back into the room. "No more distractions. The sooner we begin, the sooner we're done."

"Fine," answered Kai. "I am indeed responsible for Stain's death. Further, I offered him royal treasure twice, performed an unlawful surgery on a pony who had not given consent, and caused a rather hefty amount of property damage. I admit my guilt."

"Oh. I didn't know about the treasure. How much treasure?"

"Two and a half million bits. I'd do it again, too. Fluttershy's life is more valuable than all of the treasure in the world to me."

Fluttershy looked away. The guilt she felt had only increased.

"Shows no remorse," muttered Shining, writing down everything Kai had said. "Now, how much of the damage was caused by you, and how much was caused by Stain?"

"Anything that was struck by fire, lightning or ice we'll just say was me. Anything else we'll say fifty/fifty."

"Okay. And is this your first offense?"

Kai looked over to Fluttershy. She was weeping quietly. "No. I have many others. When I was six, I was accused and convicted of domestic terrorism. When I was seven, I was accused of grand larceny, but I resisted arrest. Nothing else until two months ago. Fluttershy wasn't off working on a secret project, as her friends believe. I kidnapped her and held her in a cage, forcing her to do my bidding. While she was with me, I stole treasure that belonged to princess Celestia, shattered the front window of Rarity's Carousel Boutique, harbored a well-known criminal and coerced a surgeon into performing an untested, unlicensed surgery. I also forced myself on miss Fluttershy while I was on drugs."

Shining's eyes were as wide as dinner plates. "That's quite a list. I was going to try to let you off with community service and a chance for early parole, but I don't know if I can do much with all of that."

Again, Kai looked to Fluttershy. She was also shocked by Kai's admission.

"If at all possible," said Kai, "I'd still like to do the community service. I've made quite a mess, and I'd like the opportunity to clean it up. Even if it won't reduce my sentence. Even if it extends my sentence because I'm not spending time in the cell I'm assigned. Even if I have to work from inside the cell, with all profits from my doing so going to pay somepony else to fix my damages."

"I'll see what I can do," promised Shining. "Though I don't expect it will do much." He left the room.

"Why did you say all of that, Kai?" Fluttershy shrank down. "You didn't have to admit to everything. You'll be in prison for the rest of your life!"

"I've been running and hiding all my life," said Kai. "I want to be a pony you can look at proudly. I want you to think of me as a good pony. And that means answering for all the wrongs I've done. Applejack was right: I'm no better than Stain. Some time in prison will do me some good. And when it doesn't hurt you to see me anymore, you'll know exactly where to find me."

Epilogue the First: Trial

Twilight walked briskly into the throne room of Canterlot Castle. She carried with her all of the materials she had gathered over the past week. As she approached the throne, Celestia beamed down on her.

"Twilight Sparkle. How lovely to see you. Would you care to join me for some tea?"

"That would be lovely, Princess, but I'm actually here to request a favor."

"Is there any reason we can't do both at once?"

"I suppose not."

The two adjourned to the tea garden. As Celestia began prepping the tea, Twilight started removing records and scrolls from her saddlebags. She had been researching Kai's history in preparation for his trial, which was scheduled for the following day.

"Now," smiled Celestia, pouring tea into Twilight's cup. "What's this favor you want to ask of me?"

Twilight took a sip of tea. "Tomorrow morning, you're supposed to preside over the criminal trial of a stallion named Akaitora."

"Yes. Honestly, I don't know anything about him. Do you?"

"I do. I've spent the better part of last week going over his case with a fine-toothed comb. And after all of that..." She took a deep breath. "I'd like to ask for your leniency."

Celestia frowned. "Now, Twilight, I haven't even heard the charges against him yet. I haven't met him yet, so I can't judge his character. I'd like to avoid any prejudging if I can."

"I understand, Princess. But several of the charges brought up against him have been dropped by the offended party. One of his charges, for example, is breaking a shop window. While he did do it, in doing so, he saved the shop owner's life. She's even prepared to confirm this in her testimony tomorrow."

"If that's true, then why bring it to my attention now? I'm just going to hear it again tomorrow."

Twilight shrunk back. "I guess that one wasn't the right one to bring up."

Celestia leaned back. "Do you really care for this stallion?"

Twilight looked away. "Not exactly. I don't really know him all that well, personally. I spent a month overseeing his work for Fluttershy, but he made every effort not to talk about himself. As if he were afraid of me. Which makes a lot of sense, considering my brother is a captain of the guard. He did say that he had been locked in the dungeon before. And his next charge was grand larceny."

Celestia set down her tea. "Grand Larceny is rather serious. How much?"

Twilight reached into her pack and pulled out five official reports from the guards. "These reports tell what happened. The first report says that taxes were successfully collected. The second states that they were stolen. The third one is where Kai shows up."

Celestia skipped the first two reports and took the third. She scanned over it quickly. "This says that he was found tied up on the road next to the stolen money. He said it wasn't his and tried to give it back, but it was found to be counterfeit. On their way back in, he escaped."

"The last two are arrest reports. They're the ponies that really stole the money."

"I see. I'll be honest, the fact that he was tied up made me doubtful of his guilt. Very well, I'll keep that in mind. Is there anything else?"

"I don't have anything else that you won't be hearing tomorrow. At least, not in relation to his crimes. As a sentence, he wants to do community service. I think he deserves it."

"I'll think about it. Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Twilight."

Twilight nodded. As she took another sip of tea, she remembered something. "I almost forgot. When I was talking to Kai about his past, trying to compile all of this information, he tried to show me something. It was a ring. It fell out of his pocket while he was fighting Stain."

"Stain... I've heard that name before."

"He was a thief. He stole countless treasures from all over Equestria." Twilight pulled out a wanted poster with Stain's face on it. "He's also been known to kidnap, torture, kill and enslave ponies. He was a very dangerous stallion."

"Was?"

"Kai was forced to take Stain's life. Eyewitnesses all say he didn't have a choice."

"So this stallion you want me to go easy on rid Equestria of one of its top criminals?"

"Public enemy number three, according to the records office."

"I see." Celestia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened her eyes, she poured a second cup of tea. "You were telling me about this ring?"

"Oh, right. It fell out of his pocket while he was fighting Stain. I searched the area, and I found this." Twilight produced the worn-down ring from her pack. As Celestia saw it, she nearly spit out her tea.

"Is that the ring he dropped?"

Twilight nodded. "I took it back to him, and he confirmed it. I told him I was going to have it cleaned, but I thought you might want to see it first."

"Where did he obtain it?"

"He said a homeless pony from Ponyville had been wearing it. A stallion. I looked into Ponyville residents from twenty years ago that might recognize the crest, but all I could find was that they all mysteriously disappeared, one by one."

"Do you know what this signet means, Twilight?"

"No, but it looks like it might belong to a royal family, or something."

"Indeed. The Belican Royal Family, to be precise."

"Isn't the kingdom of Belicos naught but a wasteland now? Wasn't the earth scorched beyond use?"

Celestia nodded. "Tribes of bandits roam the lands, laying claim to plots and killing each other over what few areas are arable. And yet, if Kai were to take this ring within its borders, he would hold a legitimate claim to the throne."

"Wait... Are you telling me that right now, down in your dungeon, you're holding the rightful king of Belicos?"

"All of the other heirs are gone. If this homeless pony gifted Kai the ring, he is the only heir. If he took the ring, then he is a usurper. Either way, he has a right to claim it."

Twilight looked down at the ring. "I don't think he even knows. He said he only keeps it for sentimental value."

"Then let him keep it. We'll be keeping an eye on him in the future." She sighed. "This is going to be an interesting trial..."

Epilogue the Second: Error

Kai lifted himself from the steel grate that had served as his bed as the door creaked open loudly. "Out," demanded the guard in a harsh tone. Kai was used to it by now. He had been locked away for the last eight months, only coming out for his community service or for cleaning.

Today was different, though. Today wasn't wash day, and he had long since completed his community service. Today he was being released.

He stepped out of his cell into the hallway and smirked at the guard. This earned him a strike from the butt of the guard's spear. As he fell to one knee, the guard growled at him. "You're not free yet, criminal scum. I suggest you wipe that smile off your face until you're out of view of the castle."

Kai let out a chuckle, but straightened his face. He was in a good mood today. He was nervous, to be sure, but he was certain that it would pass. The guard escorted him to the dungeon entrance, where his belongings were to be returned.

"Akaitora, prisoner thirty-six," mumbled another guard as he brought out a large box. "Contents are as follows: One rusty knife." Kai's knife came out of the box and was returned to him. It hadn't been cleaned since Fluttershy's surgery, causing rust to accumulate along the edge. "One ugly traveller's cloak." Kai was returned the cloak that he received as a gift.

"I'll have you know that this is an original Rarity." Kai said as he wrapped it around his shoulders.

"Like you could ever afford an original anypony," sneered the first guard. "It's obviously a knock off." He raised his spear. "Unless you're admitting that it was stolen."

"A gift," responded Kai. "From a wealthy friend. It's custom, you see?" Kai proved his ownership by showing his cutie mark against the design of the cloak.

"One scuffed ring," said the second guard, pulling Scruffy's ring from Kai's box. Kai took it and pocketed it quickly, as well as his knife. "One piece of modern art." The guard strained as he lifted the mangled metal wings out of the box. "And finally, your business card."

"Business card?" Kai took the card and examined it. It was for a security company in Manehattan. "Turnkey Security Solutions. I remember now." He would have to reconnect with his brother later.

The first guard gave Kai a swift smack with the butt of his spear. "You have your trinkets, now get out of the castle, scum."

Kai sat quietly on the train. Usu had left, alongside his business card, enough change to take Kai to Ponyville. He was excited, but also nervous. Fluttershy hadn't come to visit him at all. He hadn't seen her since the hospital, in fact. He was ready to see her again, but he didn't know if she was ready to see him. At any rate, he wanted her to know that he was out of prison.

He looked around the train car. The only other pony in there with him was a teal stallion with a fiery blue mane. He was eating a soft pretzel with cheese, but quickly covered his mouth and looked away when he saw Kai. For just a moment, Kai could have sworn he saw fangs beneath the stallion's lips.

The train arrived in Ponyville and Kai disembarked. He didn't plan on staying particularly long. At most, he would spend the night. He had a long journey ahead of him, he just wanted to resupply here before he set out.

When he came to Fluttershy's cottage, she was outside. He watched her take care of all of her little animal friends for a few minutes as he worked up the courage to go talk to her. Finding it, he began his approach.

Fluttershy looked up from her work to see Kai approaching. She had gone to see him twice, but had been turned away both times. Now he was coming to see her. She rushed inside. She wasn't presentable yet. She hadn't brushed her mane today, and she had been bathing Winona earlier, so she smelled of wet dog. If she could quickly settle the mess in her mane and cover up that stench, she would feel presentable, as long as he didn't pay close attention.

Three minutes passed, and she returned from her house. She wore a welcoming smile, but it faded quickly. Kai had left already. She sat down on the steps. Perhaps he would return, she told herself. Maybe he'll come back. Two hours passed before she gave up waiting and went back inside. She didn't do much else that day, as her mood had soured.

A week later, Fluttershy opened her mailbox to retrieve her mail. Aside from what she had been expecting, there was a yellowed envelope with two symbols on it. The first was a blue pentagram, and the second was Kai's cutie mark. It was adressed to her, but there was no return address. She opened it and began reading.

My Dearest Fluttershy

Two days prior to starting this letter, I was released from prison. I wanted to stop in and ask how you were healing, but upon seeing me, you ran into your house. I took this to mean that you still need time away from me.

As a result, I've decided to expedite my journey. I wasn't telling a joke when I said I wanted you to be proud of me. I'm going to better myself. I'm sorry about this, but it will be difficult to keep in touch, as I will be moving around quite a bit. I encourage you to write letters anyway. I promise you, if you do, I will read them all when finally you can stomach to look at me again.

I cannot express my sorrow at seeing you walk away from me. I had hoped that we could at least be friends. I don't expect that I'll ever be welcome in your bed again, but I'd love to share with you a kettle of tea. Then again, even that may be a bit much.

I write all of this down, but I have no idea if you're even going to read this far. For all I know, you've shredded and burned this letter. I doubt you would, but I've now spent more time separated from you than I spent with you, so I may be wrong. It doesn't matter. One day, even if I have to have one of your friends as a messenger, I want to have a civil conversation with you again.

I may have saved your life that horrible night, but you saved mine long before that.

Akaitora, the metal-winged monster

Fluttershy was in tears. She immediately ran back inside and started her response letter.

Author's Note

And that's it. While I plan of rewriting Failure Isn't In Store For You, I have another project that needs my attention first.

If I do rewrite it, I really hope I come up with a better name. That one sucks. It also killed my momentum when I wrote it. It just felt like a formality.

Anyway, we'll see if I still have the drive to write after I finish my new project. It's not a subject I'm accustomed to, so we'll see if I'm worth my weight in salt. Or no, something more valuable. Cumin? Creole, mayhaps. I don't know, I'm rambling now.

Point is, the story's over. For now, at least. New one's coming soon.

Edit:

The Sequel is out now. It'll be in three parts. You can read it here.

Chapter the Eleventh: Beneath the Surface

Kai rolled out of bed when he heard steps in the hallway. He hadn't slept that night, the memory of the encounter repeating in his mind endlessly. He had almost taken a life. He was only the drop of a mace away from being a murderer. That he had even considered the option turned his stomach.

Fluttershy was on her way down the stairs when she heard Kai behind her. "Good morning," she said, uneasy from the night prior. She had suffered issues sleeping, too, though to a lesser degree. "I was just on my way to make breakfast. Did you want to join me?"

Kai nodded. "Do you have enough for three? Remember, there's one more pony here today."

"I do, but do you really want to feed him the same menu?"

Kai sat down at the kitchen table. "I don't know. I don't want to let him starve, but I also don't want this confinement to be easy for him. I want him to interpret this as a punishment, because that's what it is. If I'm too nice to him, he'll just go back to killing ponies. After all, if there's no consequence, then what does he have to fear? On the other hoof, if I'm too hard on him, he may develop a personal vendetta against me. I think that for now, it's just business for him."

Fluttershy pulled out a small frying pan. "What would make you say that?"

"Just a feeling I have. I can't back it up with evidence, and I can't ask until he wakes up."

"I suppose you'll just have to ask him what his motives are. Though, if it's business, I'd guess that whoever sent him will send somepony else."

"What's your opinion on the matter?"

"Which part?"

"What do you think we should feed him? You were exposed to my cooking from inside a cell. Do you think he deserves that?"

Fluttershy transferred two eggs over easy and two slices of toast onto a plate for Kai. "I'm not the pony he tried to kill, so my opinion may be askew. It may not be what you want to hear, but I think I should be the one feeding him. I mean no offense by this, but I don't know if you'd be able to contain yourself if a fight broke out between you two."

Kai bit into the toast. His nerves began to calm down. "I suppose you're right. It would be best if I kept our interactions to a minimum, to keep tempers low."

Fluttershy sat down with her own breakfast. "Also, if we're nicer to him, he might reconsider his actions, and decide that you're worth keeping alive."

Kai said nothing, but started in on his eggs. He wasn't happy with the idea, but it sounded reasonable. Moreso than that, he trusted Fluttershy's opinion. She was far more experienced when it came to dealing with other ponies.

"I'll wait to feed him until you've left for the day. But while you're out, could I trouble you to pick up some more items? If we're feeding him as well, I'll need more than what I have.

Kai quietly entered the Carousel Boutique. He had already done all of the shopping Fluttershy had asked of him, and had also finished her chores. All the while, he hadn't seen a single guard, and nopony else had assaulted him. Still, he wasn't about to take the risk, especially considering his exhaustion. He very much wished he had found a way to sleep last night.

"Can I help you?" Rarity's voice called to him from behind. He turned to face her. "Oh, it's you! I never did catch your name."

"Kai is fine. You asked me to come by today?"

"Yes, I did. I wanted to give you something. Come, come." She waved him into the back of the store, behind a privacy screen. Seeing nopony back there and no windows, he breathed a sigh of relief. At least in here, nopony could see him except her.

"I want to reiterate that I have no means with which to pay for these clothes, regardless of discount."

"This is meant as a gift. I said as much yesterday, before you took off."

"I'm sorry. I must not have caught that part. I was in a bit of a rush."

"Why did you leave in such a hurry, anyway?"

He froze for a moment. He was trying to think of a fabrication, but he couldn't concentrate.

"I told the guards that you'd helped me. They're out right now, looking for those other three stallions. They have no reason to suspect that you were the one responsible for my poor condition."

That was enough to go off of. "The visual they had arrived on was far outside of my favor. I was certain that they'd falsely accuse me of assault, and I didn't want to wait for them to realize I was innocent. I had an urgent matter that needed tending to, and it wouldn't wait for due process."

"You could have waited there. They saw you running, and instantly guessed that you were guilty. I don't know where you come from, but fleeing is seen as a sign of guilt around here."

"I'll remember that advice in the future." He likely wouldn't follow it, though.

"See that you do. Now then, I'll need your measurements. Step up on the platform and disrobe."

Kai set the saddlebags by the privacy screen. He didn't know what measurements she would need, but for now, he would comply. He tossed his cloak over the back of a chair, only for Rarity to hang it on a peg protruding from the wall. He stepped up on the platform and took a deep breath. "Why am I disrobing?"

"Stand up straight. I need to make sure all of my measurements are accurate."

Kai was quite embarrassed. He hadn't bathed in some time, and dirt was coming off his coat every time her hooves touched him.

"You really should clean yourself more often."

"I know. Had I known you were going to have me disrobe, I would have washed before coming in."

"Your mane and tail require a good brushing, too. They're all tangled and knotty."

"I'll try to keep that in mind."

"Those tips should keep ponies from thinking you're homeless. You may garner more respect, but I think part of the reason those other two didn't attack you is because you looked so scary."

Kai turned to look at her. "Do you think I look scary? You're the second pony to tell me that."

"I do. You're quite intimidating. But underneath that is a good heart, and I'd like to bring that to the surface."

"I'm not as kind as you may think. I've spread quite a bit of ill will in my past. It's recently become worse, and I can't seem to stop it."

"My fine fellow, we've all done something in our past that we would like to take back. But we can't go back and do them over. We can only look to the future while righting the wrongs of the present. I'm sure you'll be just fine."

"How can you be certain? I may have stopped a robbery yesterday, but you're the only pony who saw it. Granted, I didn't do it for the recognition, but even if I had, nopony hurt by my actions prior would believe that I'd changed."

Rarity wrote down the final measurements. "You're right about one thing. A single act of chivalry seen by nopony will do little to help a reputation in tatters. Once a reputation is destroyed, it takes a lot of effort to rebuild it. If you want forgiveness from those whom you've hurt, you'll need to perform countless acts of selflessness, whether they're seen or not. Eventually, they'll believe you."

Kai smiled. "Thank you. You've given me much to think about."

"My pleasure. Now, is there any sort of theme you're fond of? I'd like this gift to match you perfectly."

Chapter the Twenty-Sixth: The Eve of Departure

Kai lay down on his mattress in Fluttershy's living room. The excitement of the day had worn him out, and he was quite exhausted. He was looking forward to a long night's rest, though his giddiness threatened to keep him up.

"That was actually quite something, Kai," congratulated Usu, taking his place on the couch. "I can't believe you actually flew today."

"I know," chuckled Kai. His smile had not left his face. "I can hardly believe it myself. After all these years..."

"I hate to spoil the mood, Kai, but are you really going straight to bed?" Fluttershy stood in the archway leading to the dining area. "I mean, you're all covered in sweat, and you haven't washed in quite some time. Shouldn't you have a bath first?"

"It's a little late in the day to visit the spa, isn't it?"

She shook her head. "I have a tub upstairs. I know your wounds are closed by now, so there's no need to shy away from the soap."

Kai sniffed at himself. "I suppose you're right."

"Of course I am. I'll go start it up for you." She turned and made her way up the stairs.

When Kai heard the door shut, he turned back to Usu. "So, now that I've done this, I think it's time for me to leave."

"Leave? Where do you plan to go?"

"Well, Canterlot for starters. After that, I have no idea."

"Come on, Kai. You need to put more thought into it than that. You need to find a spot to be."

"Well, I'll probably go back to the castle. Mayhaps I'll find a job here in Ponyville, or Whinnyapolis. Make enough money to pay back all of the debts I've accrued here in town. Then gather together enough to either travel around and see the world, or just enough to settle down."

"Well, if you do settle down someplace, give me a call. I actually am a licensed locksmith, I can make any house a thief's worst nightmare."

"And how did you obtain the knowledge to do so?"

Usu smiled. "I found flaws in locks. Every time I find an issue that can be exploited, I find a way to keep it from happening."

A door opened upstairs and Fluttershy descended the stairs. "Your bath is ready, Kai."

Kai stood up and bowed to her. "Thank you very much, miss Fluttershy."

She blushed as Kai ascended the stairs. She turned to Usu. "Kai can fly now," she said, sitting in a nearby chair. "If he hadn't already released me, I guess now would be the time."

"Your agreement was that he would release you when he could fly?"

She nodded. "When he first said that, I dreaded that this day would never come. But now it has."

"It certainly has."

"So now that I'm free of his service, he said he would release you into my care. I would be the one to decide your fate."

"Are you going to turn me in? Be rid of me?"

She shook her head. "You can stay until Kai leaves. If you do, I want you to take good care of him on his journey, wherever it takes him. I'll not hold you to that, it's just a request."

"I'll see him as far as Canterlot."

"Canterlot?"

"He promised you that he would go see our mother, yes?"

She nodded.

"He's going to hold to that promise. He plans to leave soon."

She looked up. "How soon?"

"He didn't say. I'd wager tomorrow, though."

Kai dried himself off. He had almost fallen asleep in the bath. The water had been the most comforting temperature. As he started back down the stairs, he was stopped by Fluttershy.

"Are you really planning on leaving tomorrow?"

He nodded. "Tomorrow morning, yes. I'm indebted to you, and I'd be a very poor guest if I were to overstay my welcome."

"I suppose I did tell you to go see your mother when we were finished."

Kai nodded.

"In that case, I have something I wanted to do for you. Come with me."

He followed her to her bedroom. "You don't have to offer me gifts, Fluttershy. You've already given me everything I've ever wanted. I already owe you so very much."

Fluttershy responded by crawling into her bed. "I know you enjoyed sharing a bed with me back in the castle. In truth, I kinda liked it, too. Now, with a proper bed, proper pillows and a proper blanket, I'd like for you to share a bed with me one more time."

She had been putting off this night since they had moved into her cottage. She had hoped that by the time she gathered up the courage, Kai would have better control of his wings. She didn't want him to damage her bedspread with his metal feathers. But she had run out of time. He was leaving tomorrow.

She patted the mattress next to her. "Join me, won't you?"

Kai walked around to the other side of the bed. Pulling back the covers, he slipped in between the sheets. He wrapped his legs around her midsection and settled in. It was quite comfortable.

Her hooves wriggled around his waist and up his back. She gently stroked at the scars where his flesh had mended back together around his new appendages. She pressed her face against his chest. Gone was the musty smell he used to emanate. He now smelled of lilac and sage. "I'll miss you when you're gone," she said, holding him close.

"As I, you," he said, tucking her head under his chin. He hadn't the nose to name the rosemary and lavender scents, but he did enjoy the scent of her hair nonetheless. "I'm so glad to have found you. Do you remember when I first came in here? I was so bitter and full of anger."

"Look at what you've become since," she smiled, nuzzling his neck. "Would the Kai from that night hold me so gently as this?" Her back legs became intertwined with his.

He gently kissed her forehead. "Even if I had never taken flight, I am truly a better pony for having met you." He gazed into her eyes. "You mean the world to me, Fluttershy. If there is ever anything I can do for you, you needn't hesitate to ask."

Grabbing hold of him, she rolled onto her back so that he was straddling her. Her hoof caressed his cheek, guiding his face down close to hers. When they touched, their lips parted, and the two shared a deep, passionate kiss.

Author's Note

The next chapter is sexually explicit. If you don't want to read about Kai's gross, deformed genitals, skip it. You've been warned.