The King Of Nothing

After being convinced by Fluttershy, Amon was allowed to change into his regular attire and bathe before heading outside the castle. He was, more or less, wearing an exact copy of his normal clothes. Amon appreciated how the princess procured various clean and new copies, most likely believing he might want something familiar yet clean and probably she dread that otherwise, he might step outside with something smelly, dirty, and in desperate need of tailor work. Or at least that is what Amon assumed.

Part of him wasn't exactly sure what to expect, or even if he wanted to be there, but in the hopes of getting rid of the curse that tormented him or discovering the rat that placed him in that situation, he was willing to give the princess's wacky plan a chance.

As the group reached the main entrance, Amon was slightly startled to find Purple waiting for them, fully dressed in his royal guard uniform.

"Purple?" Amon exclaimed with a raised eyebrow, stopping at the entrance.

"Before you ask, I'm coming too because I volunteer. No, this is not extra payment; I'm not asking, and you need an escort. Did I miss anything?"

"Purple, you don't get it. These mares give me some weird vibes, especially the pink one, and I live in the streets, man! I have seen weird stuff, and she still topples them."

"Boy, you don't know Pinkie Pie, do you? Don't worry. You get used to her, so don't overthink it," Purple chuckles and pats his back before returning with the mares, leaving Amon dumbfounded.

The fuck is the issue with this ponies and how chill they are with weirdness?

"Fine! Fine, whatever," Amon exclaimed, throwing his arms into the air before looking at Pinkie. "So what do we do?"

"Well, normally, I will show you the best and funniest places Canterlot has to offer, but I think you would like it if we…?" Pinkie's line of thought changes when Purple makes a gesture, shaking his palm left and right in front of his neck.

"...improvised? And blindly explore the place; we both know a bit of Canterlot, don't we?" Pinkie suggests with a big grin.

"You mean, where is the best place to look for food and where you can try to wash your clothes?"

"Y-you mean like shelters and refugees for the food part… right?" Fluttershy asks in worry as Amon stares at her for a few minutes.

"Suuuuuure," Amon replies slowly, looking away.

"Well, while there are places, you know? I was thinking more about what and where you go to have fun." Pinkie clarified.

"Fun?" Amon repeats before looking up and then sighing. "With how much time I have spent just surviving, I don't recall the last time I had fun."

At that comment, Pinkie only flinched and started to take the longest gasp imaginable. "WHAT?!"

"Okay, before you start saying anything…"

"Ah, no, nah, I'm NOT gonna stand for another second," Pinkie suddenly yells angrily and takes Amon's wrist.

"Hey!" Amon complains as Pinkie drags him outside.

"No, remember the last time you had fun? No wonder you are so grumpy; you need to relax and have fun right now, and that is what we are going to do, the Pinkie way. Don't worry, Amon. I will teach you exactly what it is like to laugh and have fun once more."

Amon looked at the others for help. "Should I be worried?"

"Don't worry, Amon. Remember, this is for you to relax and be happy. Just give it a chance," Fluttershy pleads with him as Amon sighs in defeat and lets Pinkie do her thing.

After a while, Pinkie finally let go of Amon’s wrist once the group reached the first place in their tour in the middle of a local park where some families were having a picnic after moving some pockets of snow from the ground and having fun with it, having snowfights, or making snow ponies around them.

"Okay, we are here; what is next?" Amon asks, crossing his arms while looking at Pinkie.

"Next, we have a picnic!" The mare proclaims as she holds a basket with both hands, startling Amon as he steps back.

"Where did you get that picnic basket?"

"From my house, silly," Pinkie quickly answers.

Everyone laughs and shakes their heads. "Oh, I never get tired of that," Purple says as they look for a spot to sit. "Come, Amon, free food," He reminds him singly.

"No, seriously, she didn't have one before. Where did it come from?" Amon repeated his question, yet everyone was ignoring him. The smell of baked goods made him decide to ignore the madness and just go with the flow.

Once settled and with some snacks at hand, Pinkie talked to the group. "Okay, this is a great opportunity to teach you the first steps to making friends, Amon, getting to know other ponies," Pinkie mentioned with a proud smile.

"The best way to get to know another pony is by sharing stories and telling a little about yourself. It's an awesome ice breaker, and sometimes you even find things in common that you share with others, like this!"

Pinkie clears her throat before speaking, "Hi! My name is Pinkie Pie. I come from a rock farm, and I live in…"

"Wait, wait, wait!" Amon interrupts and raises an eyebrow. "A rock… farm? Don't you mean a quarry?" He corrected her.

"No, silly. I mean, a rock farm, you know? A place where you farm rocks. So anyway, as I was saying…"

"What the heck is a rock farm? Do you grow rocks? Do you raise rocks? Do you milk, eat, and/or breed rocks as if they were cows? I'm sorry, I don't understand how a rock farm works."

"AMON!" Purple yells at him in anger. "Rule one: When you talk with others, you don't interrupt. Pinkie was trying to tell you something, and you did just that twice, which is really rude. If you have questions, the polite thing is to ask them AFTER she is done talking, okay?"

Amon blinks a couple of times at Purple before nodding once. Satisfy Purple looks back at Pinkie. "Please, Ms. Pie, continue."

"Thank you, Purple, where was I?" Pinkie looked up in deep thought. "My name, where I came from, how I once ate 5 thousand cupcakes in under a minute? Oh no, wait, that is for later." She snapped her finger. "I remember now! As I said, I live in Ponyville, a small city where I work as a pastry backer and throw all sorts of parties."

"So… two jobs?" Amon raises an eyebrow. "You earn so little that you need the extra income?"

"Oh no, silly. I just love pastries and sweats, as well as parties so I work both," Pinkie replies calmly, raising even more questions.

"Okay, but if you have two jobs, when do you have free time for…?"

"Amph!" Pinkie interrupts him, raising her hand. "Of topic, we are getting off-topic; let's go back on the road with Fluttershy!" Pinkie asks calmly, keeping her energetic smile as she points at the yellow pegasus, which went stiff and hid behind her mane when all eyes fell on her.

"Ah well… am I… I’m…"

I swear, with each word that pink mare said, I understood even less of her.

Amon thought for himself while listening to Fluttershy telling her story until something else caught his attention.

Someone started to hum the lullaby he had learned to dread. With everyone distracted and sharing stories, nobody noticed Amon starting to look around them in search of whoever was humming, with no result.

This… is different; I can feel it. I usually can spot whoever is starting to hum. So. The bastard is here? Are they getting reckless? No, there is no time to think about that.

Amon's eyes fell on the entrance of a garden maze for the public, the only place where whoever was singing could hide.

Got you, son of a bitch. You wait until I get my hands…

"Hello!? Equestria to Amon." Pinkie's face suddenly appearing in Amon's field of vision did more than startle him as he flinched and almost fell back, getting as much space as he could from the pink mare.

"Damn it, Pink! You scare me," Amon complains as Pinkie looks at him with surprise and irritation.

"Not our fault; we called you because it was your turn. Where are you ignoring us?" She asks with her arms crossed, waiting for an answer.

"Wait, what about Yellow, ah… Float Shine, right?"”

"Ah, it… Fluttershy," Fluttershy replies in a whisper, looking down and slightly sad.

"And no, it wasn't her because she already introduced herself, which you didn't pay any attention to, Mr. Meanie." Pinkie pokes his chest. Rule two: when someone is talking to you, you listen to them. Really, Amon, we are trying to help, and we get you don't have much experience, but not even Discord was this rude." Pinkie complains and shrugs as she shakes her head in disappointment.

"Ah… sorry, I'm not good at this, but didn't you hear it?"

"Hear what?" Purple asks with a raised eyebrow.

"The song the lullaby I… did Celestia not tell you? The thing that's chasing me uses that song. And they started playing a moment ago; tell me you heard it."

"We didn't hear anything, Amon," Purple shook his head.

"Maybe it was in your head?" Fluttershy suggested. "Are you still hearing it?"

At the question, everyone remained quiet, and nobody could hear a thing. "Okay, it stops now, but I'm telling you, I just heard it. We need to act fast," Amon insisted. He tried to stand up, only for Fluttershy to grab and squeeze his hand with both of hers.

"Amon, it's okay," She spoke softly. "How long did you live alone, scared, and filled with guilt for Celestia? Nobody would blame you for being on edge and paranoid; please trust us. You are safe now."

Amon wanted to argue; he didn’t want to waste any time. The monster behind his nightmare was so close; any second he wasted, they could run away and try something else. Yet the yellow mare words, the softness in her voice and her touch, the pleading eyes.

Going against her felt like kicking a puppy. Amon was paralyzed and unable to argue with her, so with a defeated sigh, he relaxed and sat up again.

"Thank you." Fluttershy nods and lets go of his hand. "Why don't we resume with our introductions, shall we?"

"Whatever," Amon just rolled his eyes and started poking his food. "So you were saying your name was Fluttershy?"

"That is right," Fluttershy nods, now more relaxed. "Like Pinkie, I also lived in Ponyville as its resident apothecary and owner of the animal sanctuary."

"So you are a veterinarian?"

"Oh no, far from it. A veterinarian is a doctor for animals, and while I care for my little friends, I'm more of a guardian of sorts for both wild and domestic animals."

Her answer didn't seem to explain much to Amon, yet he abstained from repeating the mistake with Pinkie and just bit his tongue. "Understood, thanks for sharing that, Yell… Fluttershy."

"It was my pleasure, and I imagine you know all about Purple already, right? I mean, you two have been friends the longest."

"Guess again," Amon replied tiredly, pointing at the royal guard. "I barely spoke two words with this guy based on trying to keep him safe from monsters. And that was because no matter what I tried, he just kept trying to get into my head."

"That is right, but yeah, Amon was quite the tough cookie to crack; I never thought that a horde of monsters was needed for him to tell me his name."

"Wait, you knew each other for two months and never knew his name?" Pinkie asks in astonishment.

"Ah, Pinkie, remember? The situation," Fluttershy reminds her.

"Right, right still, wow, three months; you were a good friend, Purple."

"Loyal to a fault, or at least that is what all my friends tell me," Purple proclaims in pride. "I was born and raised in Manetattan by the Bronks; dad was a security guard at a museum, one mom was a nurse, and another was a firefighter, so as you can imagine me and my other three sisters had what you would call super parents."

Purple chuckled and took a bite of a cookie he was holding. "Anyway, I was born as the middle child; my older sister wanted to follow mom's hoofsteps and became a doctor, one of my younger sisters is currently practicing to earn the gold in a decathlon, and the youngest sibling works odd jobs while finishing her studies in law school, as for me, you can imagine. Follow the old man's example, enlist in the royal guard, make many friends there, and here I am."

"Wow, Purple Heart, you have an awesome family," Pinkie says in astonishment at his story, making Fluttershy laugh.

"Pinkie, he already told us all of that."

"Yeah, but it's still impressive," Pinkie counters before chuckling again.

Once they chuckled, they all saw Amon, who was putting some of the cookies in one of his pockets, before noticing all eyes on him as he stopped. "What?" Amon asks as he starts eating one of the cookies.

"Now it's your turn, Amon," Pinkie replied. "Tell us a little bit about yourself."

"Oh no, I agree to give Celestia a chance; I didn't agree to this," Amon says, starting to get defensive.

"It's okay, Amon. You don't need to tell us anything personal," Fluttershy calms him down. You can tell us whatever you are comfortable with. Trust us, it always feels nice to chat," she offers calmly.

"Just something short and superficial works too, some story you like to tell, places you visit, food you like IF that is okay," Fluttershy adds when she notices Amon getting defensive. "There is no pressure, and if it helps, don't think of this as a way to lower your defense; think of it as a way to ruin the plans of whoever is hurting you. They want to keep you sad and grumpy, right?"

Once more, Amon felt himself against the wall without any arguments against Fluttershy's argument, plus it could force his enemies to make a move if they saw him having a good time.

With a defeated sigh, Amon once more nods and closes his eyes. "Okay, I suppose I did promise to give you a chance."

"Yay, thank you, Amony," Pinkie cheered and excitedly hugged him. She had stood up, and Amon was still sitting, her chest pressed ideally against the side of Amon's head, giving him some color on his face before he pulled Pinkie away effortlessly with one hand as if she were a cat.

"Okay, rule 3: Please don't press your chest against my face. Save that for your boyfriend." Amon asks her with some irritation as Pinkie nods quickly and gives him a thumbs up.

"Oki doki, wait boyfriend? What is that?" Pinkie repeats, confused by the term Amon just used.

"Not important." Putting Pinkie down and having given up on making sense of her antics, Amon sighs again and starts thinking of something to tell them. He has to pause and shake his head when a nasty memory pops out of his head before he can come up with something else to share.

Suddenly, an idea appeared in Amon's head as he glanced at the entrance to the nearby maze, and a plan took form, making him smile and smirk internally.

"Well, it is not much of a secret by this point, but recently, I have developed this joy for long walks into the unknown as I discover new places."

"You mean exploring?" Purple asks with a raised eyebrow.

"In a sense, a bit of the thrill of solving puzzles, discovering new places, and admiring different landscapes, not to mention the serenity in the silence with only you and your thoughts; it involves many things. This made me think of an idea," Amon pointed at the maze. "Would it be okay if I go explore that maze?"

The group looks back at said maze before looking at Amon Purple, staring at him suspiciously. "That is an oddly sudden idea, Amon, especially when we just sat down and got to know one another."

"Wouldn't you like to do something else first?" Fluttershy suggests before pulling out a bag of seed for some birds to approach her; Amon is slightly startled by how fast and easily wild animals seem to be drawn to her. "You have barely told us anything about you, and it seems you already want to get away from us."

Fluttershy sounded hurt as she looked down and discouraged, turning the atmosphere tense until Amon raised his arms.

"It's not that I don't want to be here with you," Amon quickly adds, shaking his head when the rest look at him, slightly irritated.

“I swear this is just a little something that could help me relax. Just give me five minutes in the maze to clear my thoughts, relax a little, and then I'll be back." He elaborates, yet Purple and Pinkie need to be convinced.

"Is that all?" Pinkie questions, leaning closer to Amon, making him uncomfortable.

"Yes, I swear that is all." Amon nods rapidly.

- Right after I found and broke the legs of the son of a bitch that put me through hell - Amon thought for himself and tried to think of something to calm everyone down.

"Tell you what, if you give me five minutes to breathe when I return, I… I will tell you the story of when I rode a Jackalope."

The suggestion seemed to do the trick, yet once more, Amon was startled when it appeared to have worked too well in how Fluttershy emotions seemed to have switched, and now she was surprised with some rising excitement.

"You rode a Jackalope? How? When? What type? They are so territorial and aggressive. I… you ride a JACKALOPE!?" Fluttershy repeats in complete astonishment, getting very close to Amon as he leans back, blinking several times.

"...yes," That is all Amon said before silence. Fluttershy by placing a finger on her lips before she can say anything else. "And I will tell you after you give me some space, promise."

Pinkie looks at him with squinted eyes and rubs her chin before smiling and nodding, "Okay."

"Wait, just like that?" Purple looked at Pinkie in surprise.

"Yeah, Amony just wants a bit of fresh air before he tells us something about him. It is only fair we meet him halfway and let him breathe," Pinkie explains. "Besides, he already pinkie promises he will tell us an awesome story afterward."

"Never say such a thing as a Pinkie Promise; don't go around putting words in my mouth," Amon responded as he stood up. "So, do we have a deal?"

Purple still seems unsure and starts to think about it before nodding. "Only five minutes; try not to get too far and come back. Don't forget you still have enemies out there, and my job is to protect you, dude."

"Duly noted, and don't worry, worse came to pass. Fluttershy can fly up, find a ten-foot-tall pony in the maze, and bring me back. I will be fine and ready to tell you the story. Just a sample. It was a she, and she has cubs."

Fluttershy shrinks in delight, hearing that as the group sees Amon retiring into the maze. "You are gonna love that story; just be patient," Amon tells them before disappearing behind one of the grassy walls at the maze's entrance.

The moment he was out of their field of vision, Amon didn’t waste time and sprinted into action, trying to pinpoint any sign of the lullaby in the distance.

-I’m sorry, everyone, but I know what I heard; I can feel them. All this time, I thought it was the ghost of my past, but now I’m sure. The bastards are here, and I’m not letting them get away. I’m making them pay-

His ears suddenly pick up something, and turning a corner, he starts hearing the lullaby in the far distance and manages to glance at a yellow jacket.

- You are mine! -

Breathing through his nose, Amon ran as fast as he could, hearing the song louder. The individual was barely out of reach, yet Amon was gaining more distance from his target. The song was soon replaced by a wicket-low laughing and taunting for Amon to catch them until the alicorn was about to grab the jacket as he reached the center of the maze.

The second he gets past a doorframe. Amon froze in place and went pale in both fear and shock.

As the lullaby resonated everywhere, it seemed to have been transported to the hallway with metal walls, roofs, and floors. Blood, guts, and human bodies were spread all over the floor, and a red blinking light covered the place in a red glow.

Starting to hyperventilate, Amon took a step back before feeling a hand over his shoulder that made him jump out of his skin and turn around in time to see a girl not older than sixteen wearing a hospital glow and a bloody stain on her forehead, looking at Amon with a thousand-mile stare. "You kill us."

"N-No. I-I didn't mean to." Amon tried to defend himself as he started walking backward, and the corpse around him started singing the lullaby. "I swear… I-it was an accident. I… I didn’t think…they made me, I…"

"Liar." The girl keeps accusing him as she walks toward him with a stern glare. "You rob us of our only way out, strand us in this hell; you are the reason we are all dead. You are no better than them. This is all your fault."

"I'm sorry," Amon pleaded with teary eyes.

"Sorry will not bring us back, you kill us, and we will never let you forget." The girl starts to levitate as Amon kneels and holds his head as he tries to make himself as small as possible. The lullaby keeps playing as he shakes like a leaf.

"It's all my fault. I'm sorry, I'm sorry." As Amon kept apologizing to nobody, the wind started to pick up force, and it started snowing again.

Growls and screams were heard in the distance, yet Amon could barely register them. All he could hear was the infernal lullaby reminding him of the worst day of his life.