As I push open the door to the shop, a small bell chimes, announcing my entrance. I look around seeing all manner of jewellery in showcases, arranging from necklaces to earrings, rings and bands. All made of various metals, encrusted with a cacophony of colourful gems. I see a counter close to the back wall, with a tail poking up from behind. I 'sigh' and start to walk to the counter. I lean over it to see a pony cowering in fear. Their head is on the floor under their forelegs, with their ass in the air. I lightly cough in my hand, which get their attention. They slowly look up from the floor, 'Why are all these ponies mares? I haven't seen one stallion in this town.' As her eyes gaze up to mine, she stops frozen, terrified to move an inch. She is a cream coloured pegasus with a lavender mane. I give her a small smile, not showing my teeth to try and reassure her. She gives a small one back and slowly stands up.

"Hello there, I've got some gems here for sale. I was hoping if you would like to buy them." I ask the pony. She nods shyly, embarrassed by how I found her. "Y-yes, I would like to see what you have," She asks me. I place the bag of gems on the counter and open it. She leans over to the bag seeing the contents. Her eyes widen at the sight of the colourful stones in the bag, her mouth agape. Shaking her head, she coughs lightly and says, "that is a lot of gems. May I ask, how did you get so many?" I point a thumb over my shoulder at Lily and Nala. "I'm their alpha, so this is some they had," I answered her. She nods and looks at the girls behind me with a shy smile. "So, how much do you think these are worth?" I ask the clerk. She smiles and says, "about 2500 bits, but I can't afford all of them at the moment." I nod and start to empty half the bag, with the gems split in half. I strap the bag on my belt, now that it's lighter. We finish the transaction, walking out of the shop with a half bag of gems and a bag of 1250 bits.

I look around, see that the streets are still void of any life. Except for the five mares, 'that are still here, they must not trust me yet.' I look over to Nala, "hay Nala how many are in my pack?" I ask her. She thinks then said, "12, all of us, even you." 'Ok, that's good, now I just need to find the right shop.' I look back over to the five ponies, "do you know where I can buy some mattresses?" I ask them. They look at each other confused, not expecting that sort of question. I blink, and the pink one is right in my face, fear and panic clear on my face. 'How did she get in front of me so fast? We were at least 3 metres apart.' Then she said, "oh oh oh, I know the perfect place to go. I can show you there if you want?" Still looking at her confused, I can hear Nala and Lily starting to growl again. I ease their nerves and answer, "yes, please, that would be most appreciative." The smile I gat was just scary, 'her mouth shouldn't be able to get that wide. She turns and starts to hop away. I look over to her friends with confusion on my face. They just shrugged.

I start to walk after the pink pony. I Look around, seeing that some ponies are looking through their windows at me. They seem to be less scared of me, sins I'm with these ponies. 'Well, that's a relief. let's hope they don't fear me as much.' The pink one stops in front of a shop called 'quills and sofas,' 'what a weird combination?' She starts to hop inside, and I follow suit. I walk in to see that the name doesn't lie. There are loads of quills and sofas. Looking over to the counter, I can see a stallion with combed brown mane, wearing a white dress shirt and a blue vest with a nameplate on his right side reading Davenport. Oddly enough, he is not scared of me. I walk up to him and ask, "Hello, do you sell mattresses?" He nods and says, "just over here, if you would follow me." I follow him to where they are. I look around, not able to see the pink one. Nala and Lily didn't follow me in, 'they must be outside. I hope they are ok.' Davenport stops in front of some mattresses, "are these to your liking?" He asks. The mattress's are lining the wall in different sizes. I see one the right size for a Diamond dog. Walking up to it, I look over to Davenport and ask, "ya, this one looks good. How many do you have?" "How many are you wanting?" He asks me. "how much would 11 cost?" I inquired. He thinks for a minute and says, "750 bits." I look back to the mattress, "do you take gems?" I look back to Davenport. He looks down in thought, then says, "yes, I take gems. How many do you have?" I reach in the bag of gems at my hip, opening it to show them. His eyes open up, and he says, "let's make a deal." I smile.

I walk out of the shop with a smile. The mattresses will arrive in the next few days, allowing me to start on some more projects. I look around, seeing something that makes my blood boil. There in front of me is Nala and Lily tied up by a rope. The sounds of sniffing and whining coming from them. The end of it leads to the orange mare wearing the stetson. The others are surrounding Nala and Lily. The pink one is looking sad at them, with her hear now flat instead of curls. I start to feel a warm sensation pass over me, and as I take a step forward, the heat keeps rising in my body. The heat starts to become painful. By the time I reach the ponies. My breath laboured, steam blowing out of my nose. The blue one is flying at eye level to me with her back facing me. I strike.

I rushed forward, my hand gripping hard at the back of her neck. Slamming her down with as much force as I can muster, her head hits the ground knocking her out. By the time I stand back up, the others have noticed what I just did. They are shocked at the state of the blue one. Before they can act, I strike again. Not wanting to kill these ponies, I do the same thing to the orange one. Her head hits the ground with an oof before passing out. I look over to the rest. The yellow one is cowering under her legs, the pink one is still looking sad at Nala and Lily, and the white one is looking at me in shock. Seeing that they are not going to fight me, I walk over to Nala and Lily, untying them. With the heat still coursing through me, I look over to the three conscious ponies. "If you do anything like this again, then I will make your life a living hell," I say that with as much venom as I can muster. The yellow one eeps and passes out, the white one is frozen, and the pink one still looks sad. I huff and help Nala and Lily to there feet, "are you ok?" I ask them. They hug me at my waist, and I pat their heads and scratch their ears. They released me after some time, turning to the ponies a wet patch on my shirt. They are still in the same positions. The heat dying down a bit, "What did they do to cause such a response?" I ask them. The pink one looks up, the white one blinks, and the yellow one is on the floor. The pink one slowly walks up to me and says, "Rainbow Dash and Applejack was suspicious, and we wanted to get some answers."

I look over to the ones I knocked out, seeing that there some apples on the ass of the orange one, 'that must be Applejack, so the other one is Rainbow Dash.' "What did you ask?" I asked her. "Th-they didn't get to that point when you arrived." She said. looking down at her, I say, "did you three have anything to do with this?" She shook her head and said, "no, it was just them. We tried to stop them, but by that time, it was too late. I'm sorry." The heat subsides completely. I kneel to her level and say, "If you didn't do anything to hurt them, then you have nothing to fear from me." I stand back up. "I need to do some things. Then we will be out of your hair," I say

I walk over to Nala and Lily and wrap my arms around them, leading them down the road. Tears still slowly falling from their eyes. After moving out of sight of the ponies. I stop in an alley, hold their heads to my chest as I lean against the wall, patting them softly until they stop crying. I look up to see a discarded mirror in front of me. My eyes are flickering black and white. The right is flickering erratically, from hazel to complete darkness, like light is absent. The left is flicking rhythmically, from natural to sheer white, appearing to emanate light. I blink, and the flickering ends. My eyes are back to normal. 'Sighing' I look down at Lily and Nala. Their crying turned to sniffles and just snuggling into my chest. A small smile appears on my face, looking back to the mirror peering into my own eyes, 'I wonder what ramifications that could cause in the future.' 'Sighing' ones more, I tell Nala and Lily it's time to head back to the hospital, they nod, and we make our way there.

Walking through the hospital doors, I walk up to the reception desk again. Talking to the receptionist to pay for the treatment, the receptionist tells me the room number, and I start making my way there. Walking down the hallway, being past by doctors and nurses, all of them looking at me with fear and trepidation. Coming up to the door, we walk in and see Opal is on a medical bed sleeping peacefully. Beside her is a nurse checking over her chart. They look up to the door opening and see us walk in. They smile nervously and say, "are you the one that brought her to the hospital?" I nod as I walk up to Opal, seeing the arm isn't in a cast, 'they must have used some manner of healing magic.' I look to the nurse and ask, "how long till she wakes?" The nurse looks down at her clipboard and says, "in a few hours." I nod and look to see three chairs around the bed. I sit in one, intending to wait until she wakes. "You two go and sit in those chairs. We are waiting here until she wakes up." They nod, then they each take a seat. The nurse finishes her checks and leaves with a nod. I look to Nala and Lily, seeing the sad looks on their faces. They are looking at Opal. She is sleeping peacefully, pulling my chair closer to the bed. Looking her over, I can see that they cleaned her up. Her fur looks smooth and seems to shine in the sunlight. I place a hand on her head, slowly petting her. Her fur soft to the touch.

I pause, my hand still resting upon Opal's head. The events of the past few days, all hitting me at once. I wince at the memory of me killing the old Alpha, the realisation that I have blood on my hands. I rummage through my pocket, pulling out the same ruby that I used to do the deed. I look down to the ruby, light shining off its surface. With a flash of light, I can see the same ruby in my hand. Its appearance has changed. The shape of the knife is back, with blood dripping off the blade. I look up to see the old Alpha sitting dead on his throne. His eyes staring into my soul, that look of fear, surprise, and anger, will never leave my mind. I look back down at the ruby, seeing that it's back to normal. I can feel wetness coming down my cheeks. Realisation dawns on me, 'I'm crying?' I begin to shake uncontrollably. Knowing what's about to happen, I stand up and walk out of the room. Telling Nala and Lily to stay with Opal, I leave.

I look up and down the corridor, my breathing becoming laboured. My heart feels like it's beating out of my chest. I call out to the nurse down the hall for help, my legs giving out from under me. Hitting my head hard on the floor, I'm forced back into unconsciousness.

Author's Note

I'm very sorry for the long wait. Hopefully, this won't happen again. Life never really goes the way that you planned.