Source Code

So, the wedding was without a problem. Well, almost. As it turned out, Shining Armor was married to a changeling, which was luckily annulled rather quickly. What was kinda funny was when Shining Armor showed his adopted son, courtesy of Cadance. True to her word, she had forms filled out, and Thorax, our warden, was quickly adopted by her. Thorax… admittedly was why I didn’t immediately kill any of the changelings; they can clearly be reasoned with. It turns out that every changeling in the city stopped trying to invade when they saw their queen getting her shit kicked in by yours truly.

They all left the city and headed into the cavern that me and Cadance were held in right after I threatened them.

“So…” Shining Armor said, now a single stallion again thanks to his fiance being a princess that can veto weddings on command. “Why do you want to adopt one of the same creatures that mind controlled me and foalnapped you and Source?” Thorax had shrunk himself down and was riding on Cadance’s back, chirping like a cricket while he got his snuggles in with the pink alicorn. And love from literally just being near the Cadance, which also helped aid in Thorax’s newfound love for cuddling. I believe Thorax probably would’ve loved cuddling even without Cadance being a literal ‘well of love’ according to the changeling.

“Well, Thorax is rather lovely. He noticed, while I was in those caverns, that I was looking worse for wear, and started grooming me as best as he could. He kept bringing me and Source and food, despite how sick of burgers and fries we were by the fourth day. Then he told me that he’s only a teenager! Thorax is such a little sweetheart, Shiny. Look at him.” Thorax took a moment, with some funky changeling magic, to make his eyes wider and bigger. In other words, a changeling’s version of ‘pony eyes’, or puppy eyes, whichever you wanna call it. I dunno how, but I think Thorax’s take on puppy eyes is somehow cuter than the average pony…

No, Celestia is not the average pony; she is very good at getting her way because of this.

“If it makes you feel any better, Mr. Armor, you don’t have to like me. I don’t even know what adoption is.”

“...What?”

While Cadance told the changeling what being adopted implied, Shining looked about ready to keel over. The way Thorax was watching Cadance was fucking adorable, and he likely thought that as well. The little head tilts, to the slight sparkle in his eyes, to how his tail started wagging. It didn’t take long after that for him to hug Thorax, and start nuzzling him. While that was happening, I was sitting across from Twilight, who was rubbing her temples. I was contemplating jumping out the window, and seeing if I can’t glide towards the hills to never be seen again. Twilight looked so done with some of the shit I’m now able to pull off.

“Source.”

“Twilight.”

“You used a bit to channel magic through it, and took off a magic prohibiting ring, with a bit?” She asked.

“Yeah.”

“When did you figure out how to use wands?” Twilight asked. “Why did you? Most unicorns don’t ever even need to know how!”

“I was testing using a bit at some point, a few months ago. I wanted to look for alternatives of using magic should my horn get snapped, or I can’t use my horn. It turns out that gold, a main component of wands, are really all you need to use magic without a horn. Bits work as a wand, a shitty want that can just about let you levitate stuff with, but they work. Since I always have bits, I should always have something to use magic with; bits are made of solid gold after all. Silver works too, just not as well according to the books I’ve read on the subject.”

“...and removing the ring with one?”

“Watch.” I took a ring, the same one I was wearing in the caves, and stuck it on my ring. “All it detects is if you are trying to remove the ring yourself with your hooves, not if you’re doing so with magic. Since you can’t remove it with magic, for obvious reasons, and the ring can tell if you are removing it because of your ambient magic… Again, it only checks for if you’re removing the bit with your hooves, which technically have magic flowing through them.” I started channeling magic through the bit. “Since magic channeled through a wand technically isn’t a living being actually using magic, just a wand; a fancy stick, magic prohibiting rings can be removed through using a bit.” I removed the ring from my horn and tucked it in my butt pocket.

“...That is…” Twilight shook her head. “That is smart.” She grinned. “You are seriously the most creative pony I’ve met. Nopony I’ve seen would’ve thought that.”

“Twi,” I chuckled. “What was I, before becoming a pony? Don’t say ‘human’. What was my profession?”

“A patty flipper.”

“What was my hobby?”

“You made ‘video games’.”

“Twi, as a video game developer, I had to know a few things. One was making the game, then finding every flaw with it and fixing it. Even if most big companies kinda skip that other step and release a half-baked product that they ‘fix’ after four months after releasing the half baked product.” I tapped the ring after I took it back out of my butt pocket. “You have to be good at probing stuff, to do that. To find flaws, to find how to exploit those flaws, and then patch them out.” I tapped the ring again. “It’s why I’ve been finding out how to do so much shit. It was kinda my job to find exploits, and instead of fixing those exploits, I abuse the hell out of them. DragonFire is literally the result of me abusing the ever living shit out of the fact that you can burn yourself, stay alive, and control where you go from there.

“Light Shield is literally a spell that finds flaws in attacks, and finds a way to effectively make said attacks null and void. Chrysalis gave up the moment she saw Light Shield in action. She was gonna keep fighting had I not had that.” Then again, it also helped that I beat the shit out of her beforehoof. “So, how’d you find out Cadance was ‘wrong’ or whatever?”

“She was just being mean and was lying. Cadance usually doesn’t outright lie to anypony. At first, I thought she was nervous, but because of how I’ve been able to speak with her more recently… she wouldn’t have been as snappy. Or recognized our friendship chant. Or that she would’ve liked Pinkie’s wedding reception plans; nopony in existence outright hates parties from Pinkie. You may not be fanatic about her parties, but you still enjoy them, after all.”

“Mmm.” I chuckled. “I find it funny that nopony really thought I went missing-”

“No. Everypony knew the moment one of your doppelgangers got drunk after a shot of whisky. Apparently you had four different impersonators, all of whom died because of something you liked. Alcohol, potatoes, or too much of either. There was a fifth and sixth impersonator that didn't die. Chrysalis, your fifth impersonator, swapped places with him before the wedding… some changeling named Pharynx, your sixth. He didn’t die because he made some other changeling take your place… after he was married, in Princess Celestia’s office, to my brother.”

Thorax perked up at that. “...My brother was the one that ‘married’ Shining Armor for about twenty hours? Nobuggy told me?”

“What?” We all asked. The doors all slammed open and an angry looking changeling started stocking in. Unlike most of the changelings, including Thorax, he was clearly bigger than the average drone. He’s got purple eyes, a red fin on his neck. He started grumbling before his eyes landed on the only other changeling in the room. His face actually softened a little upon seeing Thorax. It was barely noticeable, but after learning how to read Celly’s face in public, it was easy to tell that this dude genuinely did care for and was worried about Thorax.

“Good. You didn’t get injured. Apparently somepony with a cello was giving a majority of the swarm a hard time; she cracked a changeling’s carapace with just her hooves. Given the two ponies you were guarding, I’m surprised that you aren’t hurt at all.” He glared at me specifically. “So you’re that pony that beat the Queen up?” He looked me over. “An alicorn, though a thin, scrawny looking one. You don’t seem that tough,” he nodded. “However, I was the one changeling that did any sort of research on you. I know just how dangerous you can be when you want to be… Which makes me wonder why the Queen thought foalnapping you and suckerpunching your marefriend was a good idea.”

“She didn’t just sucker punch Celly-”

“I know; broken wing, broken legs… Her majesty really bucked up when she did that; it compromised the mission after all.” The changeling shook his head. “I am Pharynx, Thorax’s… older brother by a few minutes.”

“Howdy,” I waved casually. “Nobody in your Hive thought to look into me?”

“They all thought you’d be easy to beat in a fight because you appeared out of nowhere… You were an alicorn, and Princess Celestia’s student; I knew you had to be somewhat dangerous.”

“Damn. Well, that sucks. Didn’t stop your Queen from getting rolled.” I cracked my neck. “Hopefully you changelings don’t get too fucked over by the incoming treaty; I’m apparently responsible for discussing and drafting it since Celly’s going to have to take a few weeks off of ruling because of her injuries…” I shrugged. “I’ll probably have Luna help me with that; I’ll need the help.”

Pharynx nodded. “So why is Thorax here instead of with the rest of the Hive, in the caverns?”

“He got me and Cadance food while we were in those caverns, and Cadance found him adorable after the first day. Turns out that she’s damn near incapable of outright hating anyone, especially after Thorax groomed her while I was sleeping. By technicality, since you’re his brother, Cadance is now both yours and Thorax’s mother through adoption.”

Pharynx looked mad for a second, but then he took a moment to think it over. He mumbled something about ‘the Princess of Food’. Cadance heard him and had a little laugh over that.

“...Hey, good going Thorax; you tamed the pony that makes love! Now neither of us will starve-” he was pulled into a hug by Cadance who was squealing at the prospect of having yet another child. “Hey now! I’m not a cuddlebug like Thorax apparently is.” Thorax didn’t seem to care, and neither did Cadance for that matter. They were laying on the couch together, snuggled up with Shining Armor. The purple-eyed changeling then gestured to the cushion across the table from them. His face was like Luna’s when I called her Lulu in public for the first time. “Take a seat; I want to discuss a few things.”

I did as asked. “What do you wanna talk about?”

“You are by far the most interesting pony that I’ve looked into. You appear out of nowhere, and quickly rise through the ranks of Equestrian society, finding yourself as a prince consort. Tell me, can you teach me how to do Light Shield, perhaps even DragonFire? They may take up a lot of magic, or for changelings, love, but they seem invaluable to have in my arsenal. And what set of buffing spells you use; the Queen’s carapace is dented in the places where you hit her. They were healed, of course, but you still dented a changeling’s carapace. Not even an earth pony can do that normally.”

“Mmm… I could. Seeing as changelings may become allies soon; I know how useful y’all can be. Assuming I can twist your Queen’s arms into accepting any terms I give her of course.”

“I will look forward to being your student then-”

“Wat?”

“...Python, the spell system you made, seems ideal for my personal use. It uses as little magic as it can, while doubling the strength, in most cases, of any spells casted with Python. Love is magic for changelings as well as our food source. If I can expend as little magic, or energy, on a spell and get the same results, I will. Just ignoring spells you’ve only made for Python like Light Shield. Python can revolutionize how we changelings defend the Hive.”

“...Why not just buy a textbook?”

“We tried. Noling can actually use Python, unfortunately. I was hoping the creator would have a solution.”

“...I can use you and Thorax to work out a version of Python… Viper will be the… wait, try and cast a spell with Python for me.”

Pharynx runed out Levitate perfectly. Nothing happened. “Did you do any of the calculations?”

“...No. Noling could get a hold of more than the first section of the book which just had the Runes for each spell… Stealing the whole textbook was rather difficult as they’d always burn when we take them. Or burn when we try to copy them.”

“Ah, the anti-theft and anti-piracy measures… Yeah, I can hook you up with a full copy of Python once this whole thing’s over.” I stood up and stretched. “Well, I’ve got to go to a meeting with Chrysalis, Luna, and a few other ponies. You three can have fun doing whatever; Twi, if you wanna join me for this meeting you can.” As it turned out, Celly had taught Twilight the basics of ruling a kingdom in the past. Something about… future plans.

“I’ll come with you yeah. I can learn how Princess Luna rules the kingdom when Princess Celestia can’t.”

As I left, Pharynx hissed. “Come the buck on! Why’d you two have to hug me in front of Thorax! Now he won’t let go of me!” That was the last thing we both heard as the door shut behind us…

“These rooms are supposed to be soundproof…” Twilight shook her head. We could still hear Pharynx start to protest about being cuddled.

I soon found myself in a room with a round table. As tempting as it was to make a roundtable joke, I doubt nopony would get it, and I immediately wasn’t happy when I stepped into the room. Luna was on one side of the table, Chrysalis was on the other. On Luna’s left side was Snowdrop, looking about ready to beat the shit out of the changeling across from Luna. Chrysalis had nopony or noling on her side. Despite the odds, she was standing, head held high, doing her damn best to not look scared or submissive even when her eyes darted towards me. I will admit, Chrysalis looked nice even if the thing inside of her head made her not nice.

Twilight stuck to my side until she sat closer to Luna than I had. I chose to remain neutral and remain in the center of the round table, nopony across from me, only a pony and a changeling to either side of me.

“So.” I sat down like a human and folded my forelegs in front of me. “I’m sure some lovely words were being exchanged before I walked in?” I said pointedly to Snowdrop.

“Hey, I was just trying to glare angrily… It’s kind of hard when your eyes don’t work.” Her head inclined. “We all actually just got here, believe it or not. We’ve not had the opportunity to say some things to each other.”

“Alright then,” I leaned back. “So, first thing’s first I guess, since I’m supposed to spearhead this meeting or whatever.” I pointed a hoof at Chrysalis. “I really do not like you, but your changelings, all of the two that I’ve experienced so far are pretty cool. I don’t wanna condemn your Hive to hell or whatever, but I will condemn you for doing the shit you did to begin with.”

“Oh please,” Chrysalis waved her hoof. “I am sure… that I can serve you better than your Princess can. And if you like the Princess, surely you would like her to look alike, hmm?” Chrysalis soon adopted Celly’s form. I blinked a few times and suddenly had a fake Celestia in my face. “I can easily appear as any mare you’d like, stallions even if you are into that. On top of that, I will not get hurt in dumb ways such as turning my back on an enemy.”

“You don’t smell like Celly. Two, you know how she is in bed; she told me about your shared history with her. Lastly, fuck you, you are the reason why Celly is lying in bed with a cast on her legs and a split on her wing. Oh, get out of that form before I throw you out the window and give you a second serving of these hooves.”

“...You used the term ‘these hands’ earlier, not ‘these hooves’. You do not even have hands.”

“So I fall into old speaking habits when I’m mad or scared. Also, you still have Celestia’s form. Get. The. Fuck. Out. Of. It.” I said firmly. I lifted Chrysalis up and shoved her back into the chair. The moment she tried getting up, she growled; I used a spell to essentially hot glue her chair to the ground and then her ass to the chair. I made sure to sit her down in a not very comfortable decision. “Now, let us talk. Frankly, I feel like you changelings are quite useful. Being able to replace our spies in other nations and across our own nation with beings that can shapeshift seem like a good idea.

“All we’d have to do is find a stable way to feed you guys, and Thorax has told me a few times that y’all can get by on ambient emotions in the air. Meaning all y’all have to do is exist somewhere to collect food. You just wouldn’t get to ‘beating Princess of the Sun’ levels of power or whatever.”

“I can snap you in two, you insolent pony.”

“If you do that and Celly finds out, she’ll burn you alive… Well, I would say if you could, but I think Light Shield falls under the same weaknesses as Shield, so you probably could. Bypassing a shield with Telekinesis isn’t that hard to do, after all.”

“And you just revealed-”

“I did so because I’ve got a Lulu and I've got a Twilight. The moment you did anything, both of them would be on your ass. Twilight’s stronger than I am, magic-wise and Luna’s a better fighter than Celly. Oh yeah, Twi, do you have Snowdrop’s talisman? Just stick that on her head if you do.” Twilight nodded and soon, Snowdrop had a crystal horn protruding from her head. “Okay, four magically able ponies, three of whom are very dangerous with their magic are in the room. Wanna try something?”

“You said three, not four.”

“Yeah. I don’t think I can outright kill anypony with my magic; I’ve never had the power to do so and I don’t think I would. Just ignoring my newfound desires to try and resolve everything without violence when I can see a way without becoming violent. I beat you through purely physical means and forced you into surrendering. None of the ponies I’ve beaten have been beaten through sheer magical might alone. I’d be dead meat if I didn’t develop my own spell system before fighting you.” I cleared my throat. “Enough banter. Let’s talk business. And while I could twist your arm into accepting bullshit terms, I know a willing ally that only needs food, is better than an unwilling ally that will plot and brood against me.”

“I don’t want to fight you, I desire to steal you from the Princess.” I could hear Chrysalis mutter under her breath. “Fine, I shall try and come up with some terms.”

Luckily for me, Luna was way better at reading body language, and Snowdrop and Twilight were the smartest ponies I knew. With them all combined, they helped me out throughout the negotiations. Namely whenever Chrysalis was trying to swindle me by using big words that I didn't understand, or using something more retarded than lawyer talk, which is politician talk. Needless to say, we had a rough draft worked out by the end of the meeting, even if Chrysalis wasn’t happy that she couldn’t use my inexperience as a ruler against me.

Or the fact that when we all got up to leave, since Chrysalis had a ring on her horn, couldn’t get up; her butt was still stuck to the chair that was stuck to the ground.

“So let this be my first act of at least showing that I can be nice if you’re on my side,” my horn lit. “Go find a guest room. You still can’t use magic, but I won’t stick you inside a cold cell at the end of every day. Feel free to roam the castle, since I’ll be having a few guards, earth pony guards ‘guarding’ you if you do.”

“Earth ponies? Threatening me with the best ponies in bed?”

“I believe you and I both know which pony is the best in bed, Chrysalis. But I doubt you’d be overpowering fully trained earth ponies any time soon.”

“...You bucking asshole. Why must you actually think! Oh, imagine if we mated! My power and your brains! We could make the strongest nymphs-”

“Sadly, that ain’t happening. Hopefully after mine and Celly’s honeymoon, once she is recovered enough to actually stand straight and we get married, she’ll be carrying a foal. Who knows? Celly still likes you for some fucked reason and she might be able to convince me to form a herd with the two of you. Dunno, don’t care though; we both have to agree to the herd idea for it to happen, and I won’t agree. I’m gonna go put my maid suit on and go serve my marefriend. Go… do whatever the buck, just don’t try starting another invasion of Canterlot or we’ll have problems.”

Chrysalis soon found herself being able to remove her butt from the chair; that’s all I noted before I left the room and started heading for mine and Celly’s bedchambers.

“You glued Chrysalis’ flanks to her seat during an important meeting?”

“She was misbehaving, so I stuck her butt to the seat.”

“Misbehaving?”

“She took your form, and started saying she’s better in bed than you are.”

“...Well, she was nice five hundred years ago. Perhaps she improved?”

“Don’t know, don’t care. Don’t wanna form a herd with her either. Again, as soon as you are able, you and I are marrying, and if my mind changes on the topic of herds, I won’t mind forming one. Just not with Chrysalis for the time being. That bitch is just as calculating as you and Luna are when you two are being scary politicians instead of Celly and Lulu. Except Chrysalis is, admittedly, a bit scarier.”

“Why is that?” Celestia asked. “Isn’t Light Shield something that is apparently broken?”

“Light Shield is good for keeping me from getting jumped, but if somepony hits it enough, I think Light Shield would just give up. There’s a reason why I still want some magic and combat training despite using Light Shield so damn much against four alicorns. Plus, it doesn't matter how good Light Shield is as a spell, somepony could just throw a blunt object at me, crack my skull, and beat me in a fight. Light Shield only really stops spells; it doesn't stop physical objects. It’s a minor setback, but if somepony knew that, then it’d fuck me over.

“Which is why I still waste some magic on making sure that my skull and bones and hide are tough and resistant to most physical attacks. Didn’t stop me from getting captured… but there’s only so much those can do. It’s just a measure… Along with that one charm that I set, so if I get knocked out, I instantly teleport here. Doesn’t exactly work when those enchants keep me from getting knocked out in most cases, but it’s a thing that exists.” I kissed Celly. “Want me to preen your good wing? Need tea? Anything?”

“I am fine, dear. Just some cuddling and some time alone with you is all I ask.” We watched as Button, after probably spending some time with the Crusaders, walked in and closed the door. He slowly trotted up to us. “Hello dear, did you have fun with your friends?” Celly asked as she nuzzled our kid. I could hear the silent ‘I would also enjoy having my son here as well’ while she heard what Button was talking about. A little tale of what they were doing. Apparently, a guard had their hooves glued to the floor because of a prank…

A prank that Snowdrop and Luna suggested that the Crusaders do. The poor guard was Solar, by the way. He was apparently still stuck there for… some reason. Meh, I still wanna introduce him to Snowdrop so this may be my chance….

A day later, I was walking down the street; down towards a place called Donut Joes. Spike, Twilight and the rest of her friends were heading back to Ponyville seeing as Celestia literally can’t get married right now because she’s only got a broken leg and wing, and can’t stand. Luckily, Luna agreed to watch over Celly for today, since Snowdrop was apparently capable of running either day or night court. So I was gonna see them on their way out, seeing as they wanted to all meet me at Donut Joes.

As I walked down the streets, I was getting a bunch of looks I wasn’t used to getting. For instance, everypony at this point knew that I was an alicorn. Ponies were bowing to me. I found the donut place rather quickly, since it was hard to miss the building with the giant ‘Donut Joe’s’ sign on it. I stepped inside and quickly made my way over to the girls. They were sitting in a booth, the big-boy booth with a round table. In the center, a plate piled high with donuts, each mare had coffee, or tea, or if you were Spike, some milk. There were also a few other things, since just selling donuts at a bakery is a solid way to not get a lot of customers. Pinkie had donuts, there were a few muffins too.

Rainbow and Apple Jack were snuggled up together, with AJ being under Rainbow’s wing. Fluttershy was subsequently using Rainbow as a pillow. Pinkie was shoving as many cupcakes and donuts into her mouth as she could, it looked like a small… Metric fuck ton of them. Rarity was just sipping on tea and eating a bagel. Twilight was… Where’d she get the combat update for Python? That’s the one everyone was supposed to hate! She seemed to be enjoying it at least, even though that’s completely wrong. The last time somebody tried making a combat update, it fucked their game’s community in half.

It sounded like everypony present was saying sorry to Twilight.

“So Twilight Twilighted while me and Cadance were trapped in a cave, I’m assuming.” I said, since the mares hadn’t noticed me walking up to their table, let alone me walking into the store. Even though Spike explicitly invited me along since it’s been a while since the two of us have last chatted.

“Yes…” The girls, excluding Twilight, chorused. Spike had his mug of milk to his mouth, but gave me a quick wave.

“Because she figured out that Cadance wasn’t Cadance and I wasn’t me?”

“Yeah…” The girls chorused.

“And she was justified for Twilighting and y’all gaslit her because she was Twilighting?”

Another chorus of ‘yeahs’ is what I got.

“Sounds about right. So, how is everypony doing?”

“Wait a second, how do we know if you’re the real Source or not?” Rainbow asked.

Twilight facehoofed. “He doesn’t sound like he has a griffin accent; it is fully unique to him,” that is basically a Scottish Accent, I believe. “Also, he just teleported a bottle of whisky to himself and is draining it as I’m speaking.” I drained half of the bottle and took a muffin. “The last changeling, who was pretending to be Source, died from alcohol poisoning. If there is one thing Source is good at, aside from magic, it’s handling his alcohol. Also, his version of Python has a distinct feeling to it. In other words, that is Source.”

“Wish this place had potatoes,” I shrugged. “I like blueberry muffins just fine, though.” I took a bite. Spike was sitting right next to me, so I slowly scooted him closer to my side, and slid him under my wing. “How’s it going, little man?” yes, I was ignoring how everypony was looking at me with weird looks. Well, everypony but Twilight.

“Everything’s going great!” I translated that because Spike had two donuts in his mouth.

“That’s cool.” I downed the rest of my whisky. “So what was that, about my doppelgangers all dying? Because Pharynx was one of them, and so was Chrysalis. Neither of them are dead.”

“...Well, after some ponies did some research, we found four dead changelings. All of them were apparently trying to be you as they were all stuffed inside your suit closet besides one of them. Two died from alcohol poisoning, one died because it ate potatoes and it was deathly allergic, and the third one died from alcohol poisoning during the ‘wedding’. They sorta… Died in their chair after having a drinking contest with Princess Luna the night before. It turns out that changelings are really bad at holding their alcohol, which is why I found out you got foalnapped.”

“Ah.” I nodded.

“Hey,” Pinkie pointed at me. “Why are you just eating a muffin?”

“I don’t like sugar that much. Well, I like sugar, it’s literally impossible to hate sugar because of biology. I just don’t like having a donut for breakfast, aye? Personally, I’d rather have some baked beans and some eggs, maybe potatoes if Mah made any. A simple blueberry muffin,” I lifted the aforementioned pastry with my hoof. “Is also delightful when I’m in the mood… Feck.” I hunched over in my seat. “It’s been a year since I’ve come to Equestria. That’s depressing.”

“...But you like it in Equestria. It’s way better than your old world, right?” Rainbow asked. “I mean, where would you be in life if you never met me?”

“Eating breakfast with my family, probably still working a dead-end job,” I shrugged. “I’m just counting the years until I’ve been here longer than I’ve been on Earth, which is gonna hurt to think about.” I pointed to my wings. “I’m gonna live for a while, assuming alicorns besides Celly and Lulu live forever.” I laughed. “Ah, if you’da told me a year and one day ago that I’d wake up as a horse, and ended up in a land full of talking horses… I’da told you a year and a day ago ‘interesting now leave me alone’.” I chuckled even more, knowing nopony here would understand what I said past the surface level. “Ignoring my family, my life is better here than back home. I’m marrying Princess Celestia at some point in this year. I’m a motherfucking sorcerer and I’m pretty okay at it. I’ve got friends, where back home I was kind of a shut in. I’ve got a kid.

“Granted… I coulda gone without doing things that might, or might not give me nightmares, but life… has been good. It’s hopefully gonna stay good.” I raised my empty glass, before teleporting another bottle of whisky to me. “I can raise my cup to remain in Equestria. Hopefully, once I start learning portal magic, I can bring my family here. Mom would be ecstatic about meeting Celly after she gets over being a pony. My siblings… I’d love to just make breakfast again and have it with them.” I drained my cup. “Long live the king, baby!”

“...What?” Twilight asked. “Why that last line?”

“I dunno. It’s the only thing that came to mind. C’mon, y’all are going back to Ponyville in a few hours. Let’s enjoy ourselves and ignore my mental health problems; that’s what therapy is for.”