It was a very busy night in Ponyville and there was a lot of things going on. Tomorrow night was supposed to be Nightmare Night and ponies had to prepare for the big night by setting up decorations. This was the biggest event during the fall and everyone pitched in to help so that it would go smoothly. The Mane Six were leading the charge and were doing their own things to get everything set up.

"THIS IS GOING TO BE THE BEST NIGHT EVER!" Pinkie shouted at the top of her lungs. She would always get this excited anytime a big event would occur.

"Pinkie, would you please not yell so loud?! My ears are going to start bleeding if you talk any louder! I don't want to have Tinnitus for the rest of my life." Rarity complained as she heard Pinkie's shouting close by.

"But this the biggest night of the year, Rarity! How could you not get excited?" Rainbow asked with curiosity. This was her favorite holiday of the year because she was able to pull pranks on others and be able to get away with it most of the time.

"That doesn't mean Pinkie needs to shout it out to everyone and make us all go deaf." Applejack said with objection to Rainbow's statement. While this was an exciting time for Applejack as well, she didn't want to go deaf as a result of Pinkie's very loud shouting.

"I'm not so sure Nightmare Night is so great. It's all scary and terrifying." Fluttershy said as she shuttered with fear just thinking about the holiday tomorrow night.

Pinkie patted her on the head and said "Don't worry, your Aunt Pinkie Pie will take care of you."

Fluttershy gave her a deadpan stare and said "You do realize I'm still a year older than you, right?" It was always a common occurrence where Pinkie would forget she was younger than Fluttershy and act like she was the older one. It happens more than you think and it would always irritate Fluttershy every time that Pinkie did it.

Pinkie laughed a bit and said "Of course I know that, silly. Now, less talking and more decorating!" She said the last part very loudly and just bounced away.

Fluttershy was about to go back to work when she heard some noises. She stopped for a second and thought to herself that it almost sounded like music. She looked at her friends and said "Hey girls, I think I hear something in the distance."

"What do ya think it is, Fluttershy?" Applejack asked with curiosity.

"It almost sounds like music, but I can't really tell." Fluttershy said with hesitance. All of them stopped to see if they could pick it up and sure enough, they could hear the sound as well which almost did sound like music.

"Flutters is right. I do hear something that sounds like music." Rainbow said as she also heard this sound as well.

"But where could that sound potentially coming from?" Rarity asked with confusion. It almost sounded beautiful, but she had no idea where it was at.

Rainbow looked around in the sky and heard the sound get louder as she approached the Everfree Forest. "I think it's in the Everfree Forest. When I get closer to it, the sound gets louder."

Most of them were not too thrilled about that idea, but they were really curious about what this sound was, so they let it get the better of them. They figured that they could take a quick trip over there and make it back before Twilight notices that they are gone. They went over to the Everfree Forest and followed the sound through it. Eventually, they made it towards the Castle of the Two Sisters and they finally spotted something.

There out on the front lawn was Knuckles playing his electric guitar and standing on top of a stage that he probably summoned himself. He was basically doing a concert of Skillet music and running a marathon by playing the newest album "Rise" that was released on June 25th, 2013. Even though no one was there, he was still jamming out as if there was an audience watching him play. The group was amazed at his singing voice and his guitar skills, but they couldn't let that get the best of them.

They still didn't know who this dude was and frankly, he could still be very dangerous. They had no idea what his motives were, and some of them were unsure if they even wanted to know. Sure, Twilight got him to agree to a deal, but Knuckles could have been ingenuine in order to use her in some mischievous way. They needed to figure out what his motives were and they needed answers now.

After a little while, Knuckles finished his "concert" and started putting away his equipment. Just as he closed his guitar case, Rainbow came flying over and landed on top of it. She glared at him and said "Where do you think you are going?!"

Knuckles just frowned and said "Oh, it's you again. I thought I wouldn't have to see you again, but I guess I was wrong about that."

Soon, the rest of the gang showed up and turned to face Knuckles. Applejack said with anger "We know that ya made a deal with Twilight, so don't even try to act stupid. What are your true motives?!"

Knuckles seemed confused at the question for a second and asked "My true motives?"

Rainbow said with confidence "Yeah! We know that you're obviously up to no good and you're trying to use Twilight in order to conquer Equestria! So, you either tell us or you fight to the death!"

Knuckles looked at her like she was stupid and just started laughing. All of them were confused at that and drew blank stares in confusion. He said with laughter "Y-you seriously t-think that I am t-trying to t-take advantage of Twilight just so t-that I can conquer Equestria? HAHAHA! That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard!"

Most of them gave him glares and Rainbow said "That is not funny! Stop stalling and start actually being serious."

Knuckles stopped laughing and put on his serious look. He said "You want me to go serious? Fine, I'll go serious. I don't know where you morons even got that idea from, but I would never do something that dishonorable to a female, much less a princess. I would be dishonoring my tribe by doing that. Look, I only agreed to the deal she made because she was suggesting an alliance. Any time someone suggests that, I usually agree very quickly as long as it within reason. Your friend's deal did just that. So, you can put those stupid ideas back in your big fat heads and take your leave because I am taking mine! Good night!"

He threw his equipment into the cargo area of his vehicle and he took off after starting it up. They all watched him leave and took a second to collect their thoughts. Rainbow was the first to speak up and said "I can't take that dude anymore! He might have great guitar skills and singing, but he seriously lacks in social skills."

Applejack concurred and said "Ah've had about enough as well. He may be stubborn, but way too much."

Rarity added in to the conversation by saying "Indeed. He should know how to treat ladies better, but instead, he dares to mock them and put them lower than dirt!"

Pinkie said "I haven't met this big of a meanie-pants since I first encountered Cranky Doodle!" It was true and even that was hard to get around.

Fluttershy said "Um, I know he was being rude, but are you sure that is a fair judgement upon him? I mean, we did come here unannounced." She didn't like his tone to all of them either, but she didn't think it was really fair to judge him because he simply acted in reaction to them to showing up.

Rainbow glared at her and said "Of course it was, Flutters! That guy might be good in some stuff, but his bad deeds outweigh his good. He insults others in a degrading manner, has extremely dangerous superpowers, and is super arrogant!"

"Coming from the pony who believes they are the best one around." Applejack muttered to herself. She found it incredibly rich how Rainbow says that Knuckles is very arrogant when she herself is just as prideful and arrogant as he is.

"What was that?!" Rainbow yelled as she turned around at Applejack.

"Nothin'!" Applejack shouted, trying to deny that she ever said anything. The last thing she wanted to have happen was to get caught and then end up in another argument with Rainbow.

Rainbow turned back to Fluttershy and said "You get the idea, Flutters. He might seem like he has great qualities, but it just doesn't look that way at all, considering how hostile he is towards others."

Fluttershy tried to say something, but Rarity cut in and said "Darling, Rainbow is right. This ruffian is incredibly powerful and dangerous and we still have yet to figure out his true motives on Equestria. It's just for the best that this is the way he will act."

Fluttershy so desperately wanted to call them all stupid for still believing that, but she didn't have the courage to do so and she had the dissenting opinion, so she would get outvoted very quickly. All of them headed back towards Ponyville and when they returned, they saw Twilight there.

She asked with concern "Where the heck have you girls been?! I've been searching for you guys for about 20 minutes and I couldn't find you anywhere. I thought something happened to you guys!"

Applejack said to her "We apologize for sneaking off like that, Twilight. But we heard this sound and we went to investigate what it was."

Twilight raised a brow and asked "What was it?"

Rarity said "Well darling, it was coming from the Everfree Forest and we found the Knuckles ruffian playing on some sort of electric guitar on a stage that we have no idea how he got it there."

Twilight seemed surprised by this discovery and asked "You guys saw Knuckles playing on stage with an electric guitar?"

All of them nodded and Rainbow said "Yeah, he actually had incredible guitar skills and a perfect singing voice. But what was strange was that even though no pony was there, he was playing as if there was an audience listening to him play."

Twilight was fascinated by that revelation and said "It seems so cool how he could do that no problem. I will have to ask him about that at some point. Wait a minute. Did you go to investigate so that you could spy on him?!" Twilight looked at them all with a glare and demanded an answer out of them.

Rainbow said "Of course not! We wanted to ask him some questions. That's all."

Twilight seemed skeptical about that and asked "What kind of questions?"

Rainbow scratched the back of her neck and said "Well, questions about what his motives were and if he had plans on taking advantage of you so he could conquer Equestria."

Twilight was baffled by that for a second before shooting Rainbow an angry glare. She said "So you're telling me that you purposely harassed him during his time of solace and asked if he was going to defile me so he could conquer Equestria?!" Rainbow nervously nodded and Twilight hardened her glare. "Why would you ever think that?! Did you not hear Princess Celestia say that he had no intentions of conquering Equestria as long as he was not provoked?! I have never heard such stupidity in my life!"

Rainbow looked at her and said "Key words Twilight: not provoked. With you making this deal with him, that could potentially open the door for evil to walk in. You might try to encourage him to engage in behavior that he might not be comfortable with and then he'll enact revenge on anyone that made him do it!"

Twilight stood her ground and said "That doesn't mean anything, Rainbow! He's practically alone most of the time anyways! He usually minds his own business as long as no one tries to snoop in on his."

Rainbow was doubtful about that and asked "What about that "ultimate power" thing he spoke of? Surely, he would have to encounter others in order to retrieve it."

Twilight disagreed and said "That doesn't count either. From the way he spoke of it, he would rather do it alone and not have to take down anyone to get it unless he had to."

Rainbow still objected to it and said "But what if he does Twilight? What if he decides that he hates everything around him and uses this "ultimate power" to destroy it all? What do we do then?! I don't know if you can tell, he seems to be far more powerful than most of us and we still don't know the full extent of his powers. It's just not worth the risk."

The others agreed that was the case and Twilight had enough. She said "I don't care if it is not worth the risk! Something bigger is going on in his life and I'm determined to find out what it is, whether you like it or not!" She turned around and headed back to her library. Her friends tried to reason with her, but she didn't want to hear it. All of them were so quick to throw judgement around and while she understood their reasons why, it was too soon to cast them upon Knuckles just because of a few bad encounters. She forged this alliance with him and she shall capitalize on it to find out more about him. Nothing and no one was going to get in the way of that.

The next morning, Twilight had gotten on the train to Baltimare and headed southeast. When she arrived to the city after three hours, she headed over to Brody Manor and knocked on the door. Knuckles had come to the door and opened it. He said "Oh good. You're here. There is something that I want to show you that you might find very interesting."

Twilight seemed curious about it and asked "What is it exactly?"

Knuckles opened the door further and said "Well, come on in. I'll show you myself." Twilight walked in and Knuckles shut the door. "As you can probably tell, this is my humble abode. Don't touch anything and you'll be fine. Now, follow me." He started walking and Twilight followed close behind. As she was walking through the halls, she noticed all of the historic paintings on the wall and was very intrigued by it.

Knuckles eventually stopped walking and looked at double doors. He said "Here we are."

Twilight was slightly confused by the doors and asked "What is in there?"

Instead of responding, Knuckles simply opened the doors and gave a hand gesture for her to walk in. Twilight did so and when she saw what it was, she was overjoyed. Inside was probably one of the biggest libraries that she had ever seen and lines of bookshelves going from one end to the other. There was probably thousands if not hundreds of thousands of books in this room and all of them were unread by her.

Knuckles saw her reaction and said "I take it you like it. I come in here sometimes if I'm trying to look for a good book to read in case I am bored since this world is void of technology."

Twilight turned around and said "I don't like it! I love it!" She suddenly hugged him and it threw Knuckles off. No one had hugged him at all nor have any sort of physical contact since... her. His mind started to go into panic mode and he simply cleared his throat to let Twilight know that this was kind of awkward. She got the memo and laughed nervously. "Sorry about that. It's just I love reading books and I've never seen one this unique before. Thank you for showing me this."

Knuckles blankly stared at her and said "No problem. All of the bookshelves are labeled which area of study they cover and they are organized by the date it was published. I'm gonna do something else right now. If you need anything, press that button on the reception desk over there and I'll be up here as soon as I can." He walked out and headed towards his Knucklecave. Twilight stared at all of the books and she was in awe.

She said to herself "So many books and so many to choose. Where should I start? Hmm. A-ha! I think I'll start in the history section." She went over to that section and scanned the shelves. She picked up the book and began to read it. "The Legacy of George Washington: How He Demonstrated the Proper Role for the Modern United States Presidency." Hmm. Sounds like a cool book to read."

Meanwhile, Knuckles went down to his Knucklecave and walked over to the giant pond that housed all of his marine vehicles. He stared into it and the reflection said to him "You better not be getting soft, boy."

Knuckles glared at the reflection and said "I'm not getting soft! I didn't expect that pony to hug me as soon as I showed her library. I thought it would be a simple thank you, but she decided to give me an entire hug instead! Who does that?!"

The reflection smirked at him and said "The girl you last hung out with."

Knuckles growled at the reflection and said "We both agreed NEVER to talk about her EVER! That was a long time ago and it's time to move on! As long as you keep your mouth shut, no one will ever have to know."

The reflection rolled his eyes and said "Sure, keep telling yourself that. It's only a matter of time before you fall for that pathetic pony princess anyway!"

Knuckles hardened his glare at the reflection and yelled "HEY! Watch the insults!"

The reflection gave a grin at Knuckles and said "Oh, did I strike a nerve? Don't you see? You're already defending this weakling and it's destroying you from the inside."

Knuckles glared hard and said "She may be weaker than me, but I don't call females those kinds of insults! That is degrading them and being dishonorable."

The reflection scoffed at him and said "Oh, give me a break. You know it's true deep down. It is our duty to restore the Master Diamond to our tribe, to restore our legacy and show everyone that we are the superior power over everything. Our grandparents kept that Diamond for years and then, that group of ancient ponies STOLE it from them! We must get it back and restore balance for good, but we can't do that when you're dancing around hallways with con artists and showing off your house to a nerd who only reads books for a living."

Knuckles grunted and started to walk away. He said "I'll take care of it my own way. It will get done."

The reflection said "You better, boy. Because if you don't, you're screwed and you shall be disowned by your own tribe!" Knuckles ignored that and went back upstairs towards the first floor. He was walking through when he still saw the library doors open. He peeked inside and saw Twilight reading the book about George Washington. He thought that was a good book and if anyone liked American history, he recommended that to them.

He walked over to her and said "I see that you're reading the George Washington book. It's definitely a good one to read and in my personal opinion, it sets an example on how a U.S. president ought to act during their time in the White House."

Twilight looked at him and said "Yeah, I never knew you would keep books like this. This is so fascinating and it opens up so many different possibilities about your home planet."

Knuckles sighed and said "That might sound cool and all, but there are certain things about America you might not want to know about. Of course, I believe that all history should be taught regardless of how bad it was, but have it be served as a lesson on what not to do in the future. One of the most important quotes in history in my opinion came from British Prime Minister Winston Churchill where he said "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." It has been proven time again and again and I don't think it will be proven wrong any time soon."

Twilight took out her notepad and started writing all of this stuff down. If he was going to share this information, she had to record it as things to keep. Knuckles didn't really mind too much since this stuff was public knowledge, so it was okay to share it with her. He would not want to say anything about the Master Diamond or his childhood out loud. That would be bad.

He looked at her with curiosity and asked "Why did you come here as soon as you did?"

Twilight seemed confused by that question and asked "What do you mean?"

Knuckles said with clarification "Well, we had agreed upon the deal two days ago, and now you show up a short time later. I would have thought it would have been at least a week."

Twilight sighed and said "Well, I came here so quickly because I got into an altercation with my friends last night. They had the nerve to believe that you were going to take advantage of me and conquer Equestria! As if that was going to happen."

Knuckles rolled his eyes and said with annoyance "Oh. Yeah, those ponies are idiots anyways. They are the type to hear some sort of false rumor that is going around and believe it without challenging it whatsoever. Those morons were foolish enough to believe that I would defile a female like that despite having no idea about me at all. But, that's what you get with dimwitted Celestial skintags."

Twilight didn't exactly like the insults and she said with anger "Don't call my friends that! They genuinely care about me and I'm sure they would do the same if you treated them like friends instead of enemies!"

Knuckles just shrugged and said "What? It's the truth. Besides, I don't do friendship. That's for the stupid and the foolish. They already hate me, it's only a matter of time before they hate you as well." He started walking backwards out of the door and then left. Twilight shook her head and kept reading. But then, her mind was starting to wonder off.

Was he right that her friends would eventually hate her because they hated him? No, of course not! That's ridiculous! He is only trying to get under her skin and drive a wedge between herself and her friends. But she won't let him do that. She was stronger than that and it would take a lot of guts for her to eventually quit. She still had quite a bit of work to do on improving Knuckles' social behavior, but he'll eventually get on the right track with time. She's sure it will work.

Author's Note

AN: Alright! We've come to the end of another chapter! This is where things are really gonna start opening up and the two spend more time around one another. It might be good for now, but it will all eventually come crashing down at some point. Anyway, something really stupid happened the other day. I was trying to create a secondary Instagram account to post memes on, and they decided to ban me as soon as I created the account. I know. So stupid. Of course, I filed an appeal and I still have yet to hear back from them. I do not want to be waiting a month to get it up and running, but we'll see how that goes. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Next Chapter: More Social Interaction! Twilight tries to learn more about Knuckles, but that proves to be a challenge as he is a very stubborn individual and does not like to share sensitive details. So, he dodges those kinds of questions and instead directs them towards Twilight. Will he be able to keep up this charade forever or will Twilight eventually find out the truth?

Until then, my fellow readers