The stars in the purple night sky shined brilliantly, twinkling with random surges of light. The clouds covered most of the sky, nearly eclipsing the moon in its work, the space endless and vast with only the chirping of crickets to echo out to the simple purple ocean that held all the wonders above.

Where many were meant to be lulled to bed from whispers that held promises to good dreams. A single specific pony stood out, from atop the highest of pillars, the dark crown twinkled in reflection of the white light that paved its way from the moon down to the pony- Luna.

Her snout aimed upwards to the heavens with eyes zeroed on to the moon, some of its visages were covered creating a crescent look at its zenith point. Her horn aglow with a purple spark and soon, the silver crescent began to move from the clouds, slowly allowing more view of the moon coming in.

As the princess watched the planet move her ears twitched before pointing behind her as small clip-clop vibrations echoed across the empty room.

As the sounds of hoofsteps came closer Luna's ears could only lower themselves until they hugged the sides of her head as her visitor came to her side.

Turning to her right she found that the visitor was her sister, as she had thought, but the silence that had filled the room was deafening.

With closed eyes, Celestia sparked her own horn for a second before dissipating. As the magic extinguished, her eyes opened to see the vast night sky slowly turn to orange far out to the horizon.

The stars that held close to the rising sun slowly disappeared as they came up with intensity, drowning the stars in a warm sea of peach.

Luna looked to know the routine well, doing so for centuries held little to the imagination for what came next. She knew the format, as the moon she sparked comes out of view her sister's light would rise, requiring her to step back and slink to her bed. Her duty to protect the dream realm would be unneeded and her sleep would be all that was required from her, waiting hours to awake into the night alone, it was a lonely, thankless endeavor that kept her away from everything she cared for to look over.

But in the back of her mind, setting aside the resentment that built, the jealousy that remained. Her guilt trumped everything, outweighing any wants or requests she had, only one thing was upon her mind.

Luna held her voice in her throat, slowly, bit by bit, she gained her voice. "Sister, I-"

"It's not your fault."

Luna lost her voice from that response.

"Luna, you could not have known he would break down like this."

She moved her head to face her sister, "Couldn't I? I made the order to watch him, to survey him, if I had given the orders to stop him in the halls-"

Celestia sighed, "You would have made him lose trust in you even more," she turned to lift her sister's chin, staring into her eyes. "You did the smart thing, watching was the best way we could have understood his purpose to leave."

Luna moved her head away, her eyes far away from the comfort. "...He became quiet for a week before becoming aggressive..."

"That is his choice to act as such, that was not your doing."

Luna turned back to stare at her sister with a crestfallen face. "Wasn't it?"

"And so I aimed the scope right on its head, killing the animal instantly!"

Bubbly laughter rang out throat the small room with small hiccups Interrupting the continuous joyful spirit.

Eric was on a velvet couch with gold embroidery, his back up against the armrest with his head on top of it. His smile and laughter ranged across the room, his left hoof on top of a pillow of the furniture with his right hoof dangling out with a bottle of wine.

"So- hic, I came closer upon the horse, bringing out a knife I was ready to- hic, skin him for his leather. Could sell good money to buy something useful!" Laughter rang out from the same creature once again. Across from him held a disaster in the making, a pony with dark navy fur had one hoof with a clipboard and his other was empty, looking onto the ground you would find his pen.

"And boy did it! Plenty enough for me to buy some nice modifications onto more guns I could use for sport!" Eric diverted his eyes, rolling his head from the ceiling that had held his attention for so long to find its place on the horse across from him.

"You know what's funny? It was so easy that I decided to just kill more on the way. Just. For. Fun." His eyes distant and cold struck the horse to his heart with fear. Shinning his teeth he spoke only one word whilst leaning towards the being.

"Run." To Eric's enjoyment, he saw the horse scamper, throwing his clipboard to the wayside while running for the door, swiftly opening it before disappearing, the horse was gone.

Eric could only smile at the distress he successfully caused before bringing the beverage in his grasp to his lips. Drinking away he could only feel the burning in his throat but welcomed the feeling of his fresh reward.

The first drink of the day is always the worst.

Taking as much as I can in one swig, I finished the bottle in seconds, wishing it wasn't so I looked back to the drink to see it was a mistake. But it wasn't, the liquid that made living a little more bearable was now gone, minutes, hours, awaited to be wasted away.

I looked to my right to find something interesting, a clipboard that the Doc left, what was interesting is it seemed to have a photo of me. I don't remember taking a photo? Was it during my blackout period? Shit, I don't care, I need a drink.

Moving forward I put my right hoof onto the floor, and felt wobbly, putting my other hoof I still felt imbalanced. Putting my right back hoof over to the ground felt a little stable but still wobbly. Another hoof and I felt more stable, moving over to the clipboard I saw it was taken during my 'Blackout period'...

Grabbing it I saw big bolded words on the top right next to my photo.

Eric

Species: Earth Pony (Previous Animal Unknown)

Supringly there was quite a bit of text even with not knowing much about me, funny.

"Mm, how fun, let's see what they think is my major damage."

"Eric is an alien with an unknown origin, originally thought to have been from our universe is slowly showing less and less of that theory prevailing - his origin is unknown but most sound about is of his home being of another universe. Elements of magic had varied when being found in the source of his summon, many of the past residues held a powerful shadow over the site. "

So they aren't all dumb

With a sigh and a roll of my eyes, I kept going.

"Subject shows no hostility nor want for any kind of danger with the only recent activity of aggression. It is believed that something else has clicked onto his psyche that led to this sudden change of behavior. While magic is not completely out of the question whether subduing his anger before or igniting it now, it is believed it is more of a mental struggle. He seems to not know of pony body language, thus that is his main weakness to know what he feels whether it is lying, sadness or happiness. Most reports show sadness as a key body language he expresses."

Great deduction sherlock.

Looking at the paper just filled me with more anger than interest, I threw it away to the wall. A crack resonated along the room but I didn't look back, my only focus was on the open door that the doctor swung in a fight or flight response.

I took my steps to reach the door, but I stopped. Guilt dripped in the back of my mind, the idea I may be too extreme at abusing the idea of the image of a fear-mongering alien-.

No... none of them could understand what shit I've been through, he was just another pony that's never known death to stare at him in the face.

I shook my head. "Dumb ponies...."

I turned left, days have been muddy and sour but I did finally learn somehow about these halls, I finally know where I am, so that's fun!

...it's weird, I heard my footsteps- my hoofsteps... I hear them echo in the dead of night and yet- I still can't remember moving them.

I looked at the ground where the red royal overpriced carpet was endless in appearing at every corner of every hall. Windows shined from the silver moon that overpowered the darkness, showing the future steps I would take along the path.

...And yet, I still couldn't see my hooves, was it weird to look at your shadow more than your feet? As I kept moving I saw another shadow that peaked from ahead, it's neck was tall with a wavy connection that stood alone on the carpet.

"Eric"

I sighed before looking up to see Tia.

Her face showed shock before shifting to stern. "What are you doing here? You should be in your therapy session."

I could only look at her in disbelief.

"Eric, why are you not with your assigned therapist?"

I just looked blankly at her.

She rubbed a hoof on her temple, "Not another one."

I started walking around her but she grabbed me by my tail, I assume via magic but I just kept looking forward to the red velvet path.

"Eric, why do you keep doing this? They're trying to help you." Her voice even didn't speak of one side or the other on the spectrum of emotions, simply just a question that wanted an answer.

"And I'm doing the same." And I gave it an answer, the result was a sigh and no magic to hold me.

And then I reached my room, everything else was just, meaningless.

The guest room was as empty and spacious as it was the day I woke up here. I walked to the bed, placed a hoof onto the lining of the sheets, and trailed its outline. The soft sensation reminded me of feeling something, the eventual reality that I was forced to reside in while trapped.

"I'm so tired, so so tired." I closed my eyes in pain from the words. "Why did I have to be the person to be here? Why me?." The anger was building in my throat. "Why me?!" I yelled out to the ceiling, I smashed my hooves and face onto the mattress, yelling into the sheets with all my anger, resentment, and pain.

I felt so tired of this charade...

Author's Note

Yo! Me again! So I've been kinda busy as usual but if you want some updates or in story lore pieces in my stories I reccomend joining My Discord!

Don't worry it's not going to be huge story pieces you'd be missing, but doing a puzzle is fun isn't it?

Anyway, plug aside, the real meat between Luna and Eric will show itself in next chapter where shit is going to be explored and revealed. This was merely meant to show the aftermath of Eric's shit habits appearing to burn bridges.

Hope you enjoyed the update!