After leaving the girls, we returned to the foyer. There were fewer ponies here, but luckily, they weren’t interested in me then when I arrived. As we walked, I still couldn’t stop feeling emotional about this whole thing, yet I couldn’t do anything to stop it now. Part of me wanted to tell Celestia about it, but then I would endanger my family and my position.

“What’s with you?” The Sergeant asked

I wiped the small tear from my eye

“It’s nothing let’s just get out of here as soon as possible”

As we made our way through, the ponies waved and complimented me. We were almost at the door when, out from the side, Celestia right up to us

“Mel”

Dammit, not now, I turned to her with a fake smile

“Celestia”

She looked at us with a look of curiosity

“Where are you off to?”

I had no choice but to make up a lie on the spot to the ruler of Equestria, and possibly the last being that I wanted to piss off at this point.

“Oh well, I just got word that the President requests my presence”

“Well, I know you’re a very busy person, but I was just informed that someone has stolen something from the nurse’s station”

“Oh well, that’s weird,” I said sarcastically

Celestia raised an eyebrow at me

“Yes, well, it would seem that they stole some blood from the cooler,” she trotted closer to me.

“You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?” she said, looking me in the eye.

“Red alert, get out of there now,” I thought.

“Uh, no, I do not. Anywho, I had a wonderful time here, and I hope to do it again soon, bye,” I said rather quickly as I pushed my way out the door with my team.

We promptly walked down the stairs out of eyeshot and hoofed it back to the Humvee. We all piled in as Haynes put the pedal to the metal, and we zoomed out of there faster than Rainbow Dash. As we headed down the mountain, I was hyperventilating.

“Holy shit, that was too close,” I said

“You’re telling me, thank god we got out of there alive,” Haynes said

“I just hope she doesn’t start chasing us; I'd rather not have to kill their leader all for some damn blood”

“Just remain calm sir”

As we rode down the mountainside road at night, we returned to the Gate all in one piece. It was dark out, and not a single pony was around in Ponyville. More than likely, everypony was fast asleep at this time of night. Luckily, they didn’t hear our loud Humvee driving towards the Gate at full speed.

I’d like to think we may have woken up a few ponies, but we didn’t stick around long enough to find out. We soon zoomed right into the darkness of the Gate. A moment later, we soon saw the other side as Haynes slammed on the brakes, and the screech echoed in the Gate entrance loudly. Soon, the Gate started to open up as we pulled out slowly. I got out as quickly as possible to get some air. I was breathing quite heavily, and that’s when I looked up and saw the Major standing next to the President. Of course, he would be here to oversee the blood experiments or whatever. I composed myself, and that’s when he walked over to me.

“Well, Mr. Panzo, good to see you’re alive and well, I see, I take it your mission was successful?”

I wanted to punch him in the face so hard, so badly, but I didn’t want to go to jail at this time, so I gave him what he asked for. I reached into my jacket pocket and pulled out the small metal case containing the blood samples. I then handed it over to the President. When he took it from me, he opened it to make sure the vials were in there.

“Excellent work, Mr. Panzo, you’ve done a great service for your country.” he then handed the blood viles to the scientist.

“Start analyzing these samples so we can start the next step”

They took them as they headed toward their research trailer. The President turned back to me.

“I know this wasn’t an easy task, I'm sure, Mr. Panzo, but I commend you for your bravery nonetheless”

The amount of anger flowing through me was so unbearable that I had to say something, anything at this point.

“Thank you, Mr. President, and by the way,” I said, gritting my teeth, I then pulled my American flag pin from my pocket and threw it on the ground in front of him.

“I QUIT!” I turned furiously and walked away toward the barracks.

I didn’t want to do this anymore or even be involved with what I can only imagine was going to happen when Celestia found out that it was me, of all people, who stole from her, betrayed her trust, and lied to her face, what she was going to do and how the US was going to respond with some kind of bioweapon. This whole thing just pissed me off I took my jacket off as my anger was raising my blood pressure. I sat down on a bunk and just tried to calm myself down, to no avail. I was probably never going to see Equestria or the girls, for that matter, ever again. The thought itself made me think of Applejack. I could just picture her in my mind: her blonde ponytailed mane, her orange coat, her brown Stetson, and her green, emerald eyes. I had hoped that we could have formed a relationship even though I was human, but that soon faded away. All of a sudden, I heard a yell coming from the research trailer.

“PANZO!”

The fact that the President was yelling at me didn’t make me feel any better. I got up, wiped the wrinkles out of my pants, and walked over to him.

“WHAAAAAT!” I yelled

“Don’t get snippy with me, young man; the blood you gave us is no good”

Well, that certainly wasn’t what I was expecting him to say

“Wait, what, what do you mean it’s no good?”

“We began analyzing the blood, and it’s contaminated with ammonia!”

How and why was beyond my comprehension

“Well, I don’t know what to tell ya, Haynes was right there with me the whole time”

The President turned angrily toward Haynes.

“It’s true, sir I was watching him there’s no way he could have contaminated them”

The President put his hand on his face

“So, you mean to tell me that you brought us already contaminated blood!”

“It would seem that way,” I said

I could see the President getting furious; that’s when we all heard another yell.

“MEL!”

This time, it was from the Gate. The Gate was magically and forcefully opened, and out stepped Celestia, looking quite livid as she trotted on over to us.

“I want an explanation, mister, I was told that somepony saw you take something that didn’t belong to you from the nurse’s station,” she said to me.

I looked at her and then back at the president. I knew I had to tell her the truth.

“It’s true I took it, Celestia”

“What did you take?”

“I took some blood viles”

She was taken back by what I said

“Why on Equestria would you need blood for?”

I looked towards the President again.

“Because the President ordered me to do it, and if I didn’t, my family and my job would be in danger”

The President then looked all innocent

“Oh, please, Your Highness, I said no such thing”

“That’s a bold-faced lie.” I turned back to Celestia “They wanted your blood so they could create some sort of bioweapon to use against you,”

Celestia was shocked to hear as she sternly looked at the President

“I thought we had an understanding, Mr. President, I thought we signed an agreement. I thought humans and ponies could be friends, but I guess I was sorely mistaken,”

“We are Your Highness; I assure you we have no intention of whatever this young naïve boy says”

Upon hearing that, Celestia got angrier as she slammed her hoof down hard enough to dent and crack the pavement

“Mel Panzo is not any of those things he is a kind and caring person, unlike you.” She turned to face away from the President

“Perhaps I will close the Gate permanently, and no one will be allowed to enter ever.”

That made the President pretty anxious.

“Well, hang on now, let’s not be so hasty, I'm sure we can do something to make up for our little mistake, besides the blood we did take wasn’t useable anyway, so no harm, no foul”

She looked back at him with a mad frown and then turned back to me.

“I want Mel Panzo to continue being an Ambassador and to continue his work as we had agreed. I will, in turn, be keeping a close eye on him as well as you, Mr. President.” She then began to trot toward the gate.

“Mel, I wish to speak with you alone privately, please. If anything bad should happen while Mel is in my care, you will know my true power, and I will not be so forgiving next time,” she continued toward the Gate.

“Well, Mr. Panzo, it looks like you get to keep your job for now”

“It would appear that way”

The President then turned and walked towards the Majors office. The Major came out a short while to talk to me.

“I’ve been updated on what happened, Mr. Panzo, so I will be seeing you soon with further data, I take it”

“Probably”

“Well, good luck and Godspeed,” he said as he saluted me and then turned around and headed toward his trailer.

I then walked over to the Gate where Celestia was still waiting patiently for me. As I passed through the doors, they began to close, leaving Celestia and me in the dark. Celestia then used her horn to light the way.

“Well, that went better than I expected,” she said

“I know, I was scared of you for a moment”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I was unsure if Luna was able to alert you about the President’s plan”

“Oh, Luna told me the minute you woke up, by the way, how did you enjoy the Gala?”

“It was like I knew exactly what it was going to be like,”

Celestia chuckled as we headed back to Equestria

“I heard you helped Twilight and her friends?”

“Yeah, it felt nice since the Gala wasn’t what they had hoped for.”

“Well, I, for one, I'm glad you're okay, are you willing to continue your work?”

“How can I say no, Equestria is just so fascinating to me I wanna learn all that I can”

“Well, maybe now you can,” she said with a smile.

We soon made it to the other side, and look who was waiting for us: Twilight and her friends, who were still wearing their Gala dresses.

“Mel, you came back, but I thought that-” Twilight uttered

I knelt to greet them better

“Yeah, I had to lie a little bit to stop the President’s plan, sorry about that, I hope you guys can forgive me”

“Oh, of course, darling, you’re our friend after all”

“Does this mean you get to stay?” Fluttershy said

“For the time being, besides,” I turned to Twilight, “There’s a lot more about Equestria that I'd love to know more about.”

Twilight smiled and blushed a little

“We can certainly help you out with that, Mel, and I'm glad you’re back, Equestria just didn’t feel the same without you,” Twilight came up and hugged me.

“Yeah, it’s almost as if you’ve got something special about ya,” Applejack spoke.

“Does this mean I get to plan all your future parties from here on out!”

“I guess, Pinkie”

“Yay”

“Hehe, come on, Mel, I think there is one more person that you can help with,” Rainbow uttered

==========================================++===============================================

Back in Canterlot, Spike was sitting at the counter at Donut Joe’s, enjoying a cup of cocoa and a donut.

“Hey, Pony Joe, another one”

He walked over to the tiny dragon, worried

“You sure spike”

“Another one, extra sprinkles,” he growled.

Before he could argue, he looked, and the doors opened, and in walked Celestia, the girls, and I

“Hey hey, there’s my favorite customer and the Ambassador this must be my lucky night”

Spike looked and jumped from his seat and ran over to hug Twilight

“Good to see you guys, so how was the Gala?”

After everypony sat down with a fresh donut in hoof, we all began to tell Spike about the night that the girls had.

“Wow, I gotta hand it to you, Mel you’re quite the charmer,” Spike said

“Well, I just happened to bump into them and decided to help them, isn’t that what friends do?”

“Well, yeah, but the whole blood-stealing thing was the coolest,”

“Yeah, staying in character for that whole thing was pretty hard”

“But what I wanna know is who contaminated the blood, though?”

“Well, I assume when Luna told Celestia, she must have had one of her nurses do it,” I said

“You are a clever one, Mel,” Celestia spoke

“I’m just surprised your Government would do something like that”

“Yeah, well, they can be sneaky for the most part,”

“Well, the good news is that Mel’s gonna be with us for a while now,” Twilight said as she put her hoof on my shoulder.

I took a bite of my donut.

“I’ve got a lot to learn about you guys, and I know you’ll be very helpful in the future”

“I think you have a bright future indeed, Mel, as long as you keep your friends in mind”

“Don't worry, Celestia; I’ll take good care of them”

“And we, in turn, will take good care of you, Mel,” Rarity spoke

“Shucks, you’re just like one of the family”

“Do you think your government will try something else to get what they want from Equestria?”

“It's hard to say, but if they do, I’ll be sure to stop it if I can,”

“Let us hope that it doesn’t happen,” Celestia uttered

“Yeah, you might have to melt them by bringing the sun closer”

Even though that sounded grim, a few of them got a chuckle out of it. I looked at all of them, and I felt that peace and tranquility again. These ponies were beings that I truly cared about, and I would soon rather die than see them in harm’s way again, even if the government tried anything.

Afterward, the girls and Spike all headed to the train station and headed back to Ponyville.

“See you soon, girls have a safe trip,” I said as I waved goodbye

The train whistled as it hustled and bustled its way down the mountainside. Soon, Celestia and I were alone as we returned to the castle.

“Well, Mel, how are you feeling after all this,”

“A little nervous, but I guess if I just keep doing what I’m doing, then I hope everything will run smoothly”

“I hope so too say would you care to join me, I've got some paperwork that needs to be done, and I could use some company”

“Well, I suppose”

“Lovely, come follow me”

As we entered the Castle, we went to the western corner. As she opened the door, there was a large wooden desk with stacks of parchments, two large chairs, and bookshelves that lined the walls; there was even a fireplace.

“You look a little drowsy here. Have a seat and get cozy.” Celestia turned to the fireplace and, with a wave of her horn, cast a fire spell to light the logs. The fire glowed red hot, and crackling sounds began emanating from the hearth. I took a seat in one of the chairs as Celestia walked behind the desk and sat down herself as she began to look over the vast amounts of paper.

“Do you do this every day?”

“More or less, being a princess is mostly two things: hosting ceremonies and making new laws, as well as watching over future students of mine”

The thought of Twilight immediately popped into my head.

“However, new developments can change certain laws sometimes, but having to go over a decree from over two centuries ago to make sure the guidelines for the production of extra chewy taffy are not contradicting anything that can be a bit much”

“Yeesh, that must be a lot of work.”

“Also, it doesn’t help when the scroll is from 400 years and was,” Celestia held the parchments up high “Written by somepony who wasn’t completely awake at the time”

“They must not have had their morning coffee,” I laughed

Celestia chuckled at the remark as well

“Well, now that you mention it, I recall not feeling well, something about a stomachache from too much cake that previous evening”

“That’ll do it, too much sugar all at once can make anyone queasy, well, except maybe Pinkie Pie”

“I knew I'd regret throwing that party at some point, but the heavy load of paperwork takes away my certain privileges”

Celestia began writing and checking papers one by one. The chair I was in was getting rather comfortable as I took my shoes and my jacket off. As I listened to the fire

“I did try to change that, by the way, putting some excitement if the quill work however, it always came back around to the same tedium.” She said with a frown

“Eh, at least you tried to make fun, I mean, when I try to file things, I always look back on what was being researched and messing up in some way”

Celestia laughed at my remark.

“Sorry if I seem sad There are times when deciding on new laws can be fun, just not when you're studying a taffy recipe from ages ago.”

“Without any to eat for oneself.” As I looked back at her

“I should try reinstating a law by allowing me to create a new ruling by trying something first hoof”

“That sounds like it could be fun”

“You’d think I was particularly useful when dealing with matters that you could try for yourself”

“Hm, all the taffy and cakes you could eat,” I said

“Well, I had to abolish sometime later after…ahem, after a certain incident, let’s just say not everything was made for an Alicorn, and a particular poor water had to learn that the hard way”

The thought of Celestia in swimwear sliding down a small waterslide soon entered my mind

“Of course, all the damages to the slides were covered under the crown’s budget, but freeing myself from one using magic, I’d rather not do it again, even if I had a great time beforehand”

“Well, as one who does a lot of work, it helps to take breaks once in a while”

“Believe it or not, I think that waterpark is still open even to this day, Princess’s Escape by the Horseshoe Bay”

“Aptly named, it would seem”

“Some names have quite a story behind them, and not all of them can just be found in some dusty old book, or at least not a full one”

“Something tells me you’ve said that to Twilight at some point”

“Most assuredly, for instance, there was an interesting ball that they used to hold annually in Canterlot many moons ago”

I laid back into the chair, ready for what I could guess was going to be an intriguing tale.

“It was an ancient tradition as old as the city itself, even older than me if you can imagine”

To be honest, I had almost forgotten just how old Celestia was

“Its origins are lost to time, but it was most likely related to the yearly re-election of the sky council”

“I think you mentioned it before”

“Indeed, The council was a group of twelve unicorns that were selected based on their magical abilities and devotion to their studies, as they would spend their next year guiding the sun and moon. Making sure that the natural order remained unaltered. So it seemed fitting that a celebration should be held to mark the eve of their new task”

“Something to lift their spirits cause I can only imagine it was a difficult task to move celestial bodies like that.”

Celestia nodded her head.

“They, in turn, would sacrifice a full dozen moons from their lives in constant service to the land and the varying folks living in Equestria. Not only that, but they paid a higher price once their duty was over, and their replacements came they would be completely devoid of their magic”

“Jesus, is that something that can happen to any unicorn?”

“Yes, a terrible fate for even the most talented magicians of their era, to see the sparkle of their youth snuffed out in mere moments, but they knew it had to be done, and when the call was made, they volunteered despite the cost”

“I’d like to think that they sacrificed themselves for the betterment of Equestria”

“Yes, because of their bravery, every pony and creature would sleep soundly under the moon and play and work in the sun”

“At least the celebration was around to help, I suppose”

“It was always symbolic to me in a way, a peaceful existence assured by the sacrifice and the vigilant watch of others, oh you don’t have to move bodies across the sky or watch over ponies in their dreams to some pony's guardian. Likewise, you don’t have to look as far to see someone watching over you”

“Like you and Luna”

“Maybe, That’s what the foundation of Equestria is, after all, Harmony and joint effort Anyway, the ball got a whole lot more cheerful once the need for ponies draining their magic every day was taken away, and all it took was a pair of dashing princess’s from outside the land to set things right, and after their magic was given back to them and the council disbanded some ponies put forth a crazy idea to do away with the annual part”

“That sounds unfair”

“Well, needless to say, those claims to change all became nothing more than a bunch of ill advice, and all that happened was a certain change in mood and a bit more cake.”

I turned to give Celestia a look.

“Don’t look at me like that; it was my moment After all, I didn’t even ask if it was someone else’s idea, Regardless the celebration has lost its grim past, and everypony could just be themselves; it was mighty successful in the first year and the event to look forward too”

“Let me guess, it got boring and stiff as time went on?”

“Well, you would think, given the origin, it would be a party for everypony, but as always, some nobles had better plans on how to run the world”

“Like how?”

“They started pushing restrictions calling on the fact that the ball was based on invitations only. At the time, I couldn’t dismiss them outright, the party itself was quite a sting on the crown budget, and having it stay that way only to celebrate me would have been selfish, so I met them halfway, they would fund most of the celebration and in turn would gain a large share of the tickets to give away as they saw fit.”

“Sounds somewhat reasonable”

“Well, the last few remaining tickets would either be sold to cover any last expenses or given away to any ponies who deserved, in my eyes”

“So that’s how the whole ticket thing started”

“Agreed, the solution was not ideal as there were quite a few who could not afford to attend, but it was the best option at the time, and so it came to be, I’m sure you can guess the shift in attendees, how they dressed and acted, while the ball at the time of its conception was a distinguished and noble occasion the newer version was pushing it a bit too far”

“You must have found a way to make it more enjoyable”

“Well, since you mentioned it, there was this young and talented unicorn who approached me not long before the first ball with restricted attendance”

“Sound a lot like Twilight”

“Of course, she was a traveling show pony with magical art for conjuring illusions and images, and her dream was to perform at the ball. Ugh, I can still remember the look on her face when she couldn’t attend due to those new changes. That’s why she came to me directly to try and bargain for a ticket”

“Did she?”

“Well, as luck would have it, she was able to attend, but with a simple request I made of her, sometimes the only thing holding us back is ourselves it can be hard to chase your dreams, but it’s even harder to wish you did for the rest of your life in the end what’s the worse that could happen”

“I know that feeling”

“In the case of the young unicorn, it was part of a small yet funny joke I came up with, you see, her show was spectacular and entertained all but the staunchest of noble ponies”

“I like where this is going”

“Shortly after everypony came back to their seats, the last trick I asked of her happened to the table with the most uptight stiff nobles cause, of course, they had to have their table started shaking, and out of nowhere, a large dragon appeared fuming, clouds or ethereal smoke from its muzzle started marching towards them”

“Oh, dang,” I chuckled.

“It was yet another brilliant illusion from the talented mare, but it just so happened that some ponies were a bit too chatty amongst themselves to connect the dots. The panic in which they ran away was just priceless; napkins were flying, dresses were being dragged across the floor, and I cannot forget when councilor golden hooves used a full stalk of celery as a weapon against the beast”

Celestia began to laugh.

“And when Luna started tossing apples at the dragon,” she said, giggling, and so did I “Oh my, the celery”

“Ahem, and ever since that day, this ball was forever known as the Grand Galloping Gala”

“Ah, now everything makes sense”

“Yep, and all I needed to do for decades to come was to remind that story to any noble who tried to out princess thee princess, which is a perfect happy end, wouldn’t you agree?”

I nodded my head as my eyes began to close slightly.

“You looked tried before, but now you look like you're about to pass out right in that chair”

I yawned a bit

“Well, I did a lot this night, and I could…use some-”

Celestia stood up and walked over to me as I began to fade into sleep

“Here!” Celestia produced a blanket and draped it over me

“Sleep well, Ambassador.” Celestia turned towards the window, and she began to lower the sun and bring up the moon. She went back to her desk and continued to finish her work. A short time later, Luna entered

“Sister, is everything okay,” she looked and saw me sleeping as Celestia shooshed her lightly

“I was rather worried that something terrible had happened when the son came down is Mel…”

“Yes, he had a long day and needed some rest”

“And so you lowered the sun to help them sleep better”

“Maybe”

“You could have used curtains, dear sister”

“I don’t believe I have had them installed in this study”

“I take you do not need anything then”

“No were quite alright”

“I suppose I can tend to my duties earlier than usual”

Luna trotted toward the door

“Oh, sister” Celestia called

“Yes”

“Could you make sure he has pleasant dreams tonight?”

Luna smiled as she looked at me

“I’ll see what I can do”

“Thank you”

Author's Note

and thus ends the first gate story. It's been a long ride, and its finally done
the next story will be made it may take some time, and i appreciate the support from you guys, as well as my friend Mister Horncastle, who proofreads these chapters