Did I Ever Tell You The Definition Of Insanity?

Did I Ever Tell You the Definition of Insanity?

Chapter 2: Lost Child

As Twilight opened the grand doors of the palace, both she and Vaas were blinded by the sudden sunlight. It was summer and she should have expected it, but today the sun shone more brilliantly than usual. It was either going to be a very good day, or an ungodly hot one, which she knew would cause tempers to escalate faster than normal. As far as she knew, anger and Vaas didn’t make an appetizing cocktail.

Vaas was still behind her, using his cuffed hands to try to block the sun. During the whole trip through the palace, they hadn’t said a word to each other. Twilight had the impression that he was thinking about something, so she kept quiet during the walk as to not disturb him, but at the same time kept an eye on him. They soon left the cool air of the palace and traded it for the warmth of summer.

The courtyard was, according to Twilight, not that impressive. There were a few trees scattered around it, some statues, and a fountain, but that was all. The Princesses liked to be humble; they weren’t higher than their subjects, they were equal. That was the message the courtyard tried to convey to possible visitors. In fact, there was an inscription on the fountain that read ‘Grata domum’.

Vaas, however, couldn’t care less about the courtyard. He was searching for a way to escape, particularly one that didn’t involve getting electrocuted. He could try to place his cuffs around Twilight’s throat and killing her, but then he would be hunted for the rest of his life. He could also just run away, but he wouldn’t get far because of said cuffs. There just seemed to be no way of escaping. To take his mind off escaping for a while, he left Twilight’s side and walked over to a statue that had caught his interest; something that rarely happened.

Twilight was surprised that Vaas walked away just like that. Maybe he’s trying to escape! She was prepared to electrocute Vaas through his cuffs, but when she saw Vaas’ destination, she halted conjuring the spell. He wasn’t trying to escape, he was just going to one of the statues. It was arguably one of the most famous of them all; Chrysalis. She gave him some space, so he could take a look at the statue by himself. After half a minute, however, she stepped tentatively to his side.

         “This is Chrysalis, queen of the Changelings. Last year, she and her Changeling minions almost conquered Equestria. They are masters of deception, as they can transform themselves into a copy of a real pony, and you wouldn’t notice a difference.” Twilight sighed, and turned to face Vaas once more. “She got thrown out of Equestria, but Princess Celestia managed to bring Chrysalis back and turn her into stone, a just sentence if you ask me.” Twilight was a little out of breath, since retelling such a long story in the searing heat sapped her energy quickly.

         Vaas was intent upon the statue, however, completely ignoring Twilight… or at least that’s what he wanted her to think. That’s it! Deception will be my ticket out of here. I just need to act like a little pussy, and she’ll send me back. But I can’t act nicely right now, she’ll know something’s not right. No, I need to take it slow, bit by bit. She won’t suspect a thing, I can go back to Rook Island and continue my fun from where I left off. It’s the perfect plan. I have to thank you, Sparkle, for you have given me the key to Rook Island. He chuckled inwardly at the thought.

Vaas took a step back, glad that he had finally derived his route of escape, and began to walk towards the gate that separated the palace from the rest of the city. “C’mon, let’s go.”

Twilight arched an eyebrow, Vaas was strangely calm. She was soon by his side again, ready to inquire about his rather strange behavior. “Half an hour ago, you were as violent as a cornered dog, and now you’re as cool as the mountain air. What’s going on here?”

Vaas just shrugged, his response ready. “Mood swings, they come and go. As long as nobody irritates or provokes me, I can be calm, but when you make the mistake of pissing me off… you want to stay the hell away from me.” He gave her a menacing leer to emphasize his point.

Twilight, slightly intimidated by Vaas’ look, took a step away from him. He might be restrained and completely incapable of hitting her, but his predatory demeanor activated primal instincts that could not be ignored.

They passed the gate, officially setting foot and hoof in the city of Canterlot. “This is Main Street,” Twilight began, “Here, the citizens of Canterlot do their shopping and enjoy a bar or restaurant once in a while. It’s also a very popular meeting place. Oh, and then there’s the library...”

Vaas rolled his eyes, it had only been half an hour since they left the Princess’ throne room, and he had already contemplated committing suicide... or equicide. Her rambling just didn’t seem to stop. He wasn’t interested in what kind of shithole they were walking through, he just wanted to put his plan to work. The sooner they arrived at her home, the better. “For the love of God, just shut the fuck up! I really couldn’t give less of a shit about this place! Just take me to your house!”

Twilight recoiled a bit from the sudden outburst. A few minutes ago, Vaas was relaxed and calm, and now he erupted like a volcano... or something else. She shook her head to get the thought out of her mind. “Talk about mood swings,” Twilight commented under her breath. She regained her composure and gave Vaas a withering glare. “Very well, my home is in Ponyville, so my ‘place’ is a few hours from here. We’ll take a train since it’s a lot faster than going on hoof. The train station is at the end of Main Street, so if you’d follow me...”

Vaas made a motion with his hands that told her to lead, and she trotted ahead. Now that he made the purple dictionary shut up, he could focus on his surroundings. It was something he always liked doing on Rook Island if he needed to relax. He would climb to the top of a hill and just enjoy the scenery. Here, however, he couldn’t quite enjoy the scenery because of the many eyes that turned his way. All the ponies in his general vicinity gaped, gasped, or even fainted. Foals were quickly hidden behind their parents, who often gave Vaas a withering stare. A normal human being would have felt shame for upsetting the ponies like that, but Vaas wasn’t normal. He didn’t feel shame, he felt twisted rage.

One brown stallion with a black mane came towards him, a dark expression chiseled onto his features; one that could even rival Vaas’ usual crazed grimace. “What kind of monster are you? Don’t you see you’re scaring the foals, you freak? Get out of here before I call the guards... or do I have to deal with you myself?”  Vaas put on an evil grin. I’m going to enjoy this. Both he and the stallion got into a fighting stance, waiting for the opportunity to strike.

Twilight stood at the side, she had tried to warn the stallion, but he didn’t heed them. Now she didn’t see any other choice than to just electrocute Vaas, even if he didn’t cause all of this. She conjured her spell, but it was already too late, Vaas was laying atop the stallion, hands around his throat. He applied pressure to the stallion’s throat, cutting off his precious air, only to release pressure a moment later. He was going to torture the stallion by letting him drift between life and death, a tactic that had resulted in many successful interrogations. Finally, he could feel like himself again, torturing his victims to squeeze what cruel pleasure he could from it. He bent down, and whispered into the stallion’s ear. “Monster? You’re a fucking pansy-ass pony from a motherfucking child’s fantasy land!” he hissed. His fun with with the stallion, however, didn’t last long, since the cuffs sent wave after wave of electricity through him. Twilight made sure that the electricity flowed only through Vaas and not through the stallion. He wanted to continue, to see the stallion’s face turning blue once again, but in the end he had to let go, the electricity was just too powerful.

Twilight was glad that Vaas was now occupied with enduring the powerful surges of electricity flowing through his body. The Princess had said the cuffs only gave a light electric shock, but Twilight increased the power, as she deemed it necessary to stop Vaas. It wasn’t life-threatening, but she wouldn’t call it a pleasant experience. Afterward, She stepped towards the stallion, keeping Vaas in her peripheral vision. It seemed the stallion had almost passed out due to the lack of oxygen, and she couldn’t blame the poor soul, she was even surprised that he managed to hold out for that long under the relentless onslaught. She did a quick medical scan with her magic and was relieved that the stallion didn’t suffer any brain damage – no air for any amount of time could easily turn a very active pony into a vegetative one – the only thing the stallion had to worry about were the bruises on his neck. She turned to a bystander, a dark green unicorn stallion who was almost as muscled as Big Mac.

“You there,” Twilight began, making it clear that she wouldn’t take no for an answer, but at the same time conveying a vast amount of poise— something she often attributed to her mentor. “Take this stallion here to the hospital, he needs it. Meanwhile, I’ll deal with him over there,” She pointed an accusing hoof at Vaas, who was slowly recovering from the shocks he had been subjected to. The stunned stallion nodded slightly in response and levitated the assaulted pony off the ground and onto his back.

Vaas groaned; he was used to a lot of things, but being electrocuted wasn’t one of them. In one way or another, it seemed that he had fallen on his back, some pebbles were really starting to hurt his back. Slowly, he opened his eyes and saw that he was face to face with a certain purple mare, whose eyes were smoldering with the last vestiges of rage. “Ah, that was a good brawl, I missed that. Is he dead, please tell me he’s dead, I hate it when I can’t finish my work.”

Twilight had to calm herself, or she would have bucked him in the face right then and there, punishment by Celestia or not. “No, he’s not dead, I managed to prevent that by using your cuffs,” She could feel her rage starting to fade, like water dripping from a broken faucet. The rage was still there, but at least she wasn’t going to act on impulse.

“Well, I hope I meet him again, so we can continue our ‘conversation,’” Vaas pushed Twilight away and got up, glad he was finally back on two feet. There was still a question that needed to be answered. “Didn’t your princess say that the cuffs could only give me some minor shocks, ‘cause what you did, wasn’t a minor shock.”

“I ramped up the power a bit, yes, but that was only to get you back under control,” Twilight explained, looking around her and noticing the furious stares some ponies were giving her. She knew they were mad at her for bringing such a dangerous creature to the city, but it was necessary if the two wanted to reach the train station. She could’ve simply have just teleported to the station, but she wanted to see if Vaas could behave in a crowd. Apparently, he couldn’t. “C’mon, let’s get moving.”

Suddenly, Vaas became dizzy, and his stomach did a flip. He linked it to the fight between him and the stallion, as it was possible that his opponent had managed to hit him. That fact seemed more likely as he staggered around the street, attempting to regain his balance. He wobbled to a wall and braced himself against it. The damp wetness of the wall seemed to work to bring him out of his stupor, even if it was a little on the slow side.

Twilight noticed Vaas’ odd behaviour and followed him to the wall. Even if Vaas is a savage beast who loved nothing more that hurting others, she still had to check his condition. A part of her still wanted to buck Vaas, though. “Are you alright?”

Vaas looked with one eye at his little tormentor and pushed himself away from the wall, his aches almost gone from existence. “Yeah, that fucker probably got a lucky shot in, nothing to worry about,” He was a little amazed that she cared about him. There was only one person who ever cared about him, and that was his sister, Citra. Oh, how he loved and hated her at the same time. He quickly buried the memories that tried to resurface, those times were long past. She was his enemy now, and he wouldn’t stop until he killed the bitch. Two predators never share the same territory, after all. But Twilight wasn’t a predator. She was prey, and she... she cared about him? In some sort of twisted way, Vaas took pleasure in Twilight’s concern.

It was then that Twilight thought of something. Could the fight have been averted if Vaas was controlled by a method that didn’t involve the cuffs? They were useful in a drastic situation like the fight, but they didn’t avoid the fight. They weren’t really effective and certainly not ethical, since violence was being frowned upon, unless it was self-defense.  If she wanted to make sure that Vaas wasn’t going to go on another rampage, she had to find another method to control him... even if she had to delve into dark magic.

“Let’s take this moment to rest, okay? I need some time to think.” She sat down and began to recall all the spells she had studied, some of them had to have an answer to the problem she was facing.

Vaas just shrugged, he could use a rest after such a fight. He found himself a nice spot against the wall of the building and sat down, eyes closing soon afterwards.

Twilight, on the other hand, wasn’t resting, she was frantically searching through all her knowledge of spells. First came the different levitation spells, but she didn’t need them in this case. It was the same story with her teleportation, transformation, and summon spells. When her hope for a spell began to falter, she came across a spell one could categorize as mind magic. She had to be careful with this spell, since it was located on the border between normal and dark magic, and dark magic was highly illegal in Equestria. She could recall her nightly adventures to the library to study dark magic. One night, however, she was caught, and the princess made sure she wasn’t going to try again.

This spell in particular was one that stopped aggressive behavior. The caster has to implant some magic into the subject’s brain to monitor his aggressiveness and when it knows the subject is about to attack, it stops the body. The subject can still breathe, see, and hear, but the body will be frozen, so that there’s no movement until the subject calms down.

That was the spell she was searching for, it wasn’t dangerous for Vaas, unlike the cuffs, and it would prevent fights and all the other mayhem Vaas would cause. She looked to her left and saw Vaas sitting there, eyes closed. She had to act now, it was better if Vaas wasn’t aware of what she was doing, that would make the process a lot easier.

She stood up and walked slowly towards the human, trying to muffle the clopping of her hooves as much as she could. It seemed that Vaas was fast asleep, and she wanted to keep it that way for the time being. When she stood in front of him, she created a faint aura around Vaas’ head that slowly began to seep into his head. She made sure to give Vaas just the perfect amount of magic, since an overdose would likely kill him.

After a few seconds, the aura had disappeared so there was only one thing left to do, she had to wake Vaas up. Now, waking up wouldn’t suffice, because she had to test the spell and see if it worked. She knew she was going to risk her life, but she had to hit him in order to make him aggressive. If the spell failed, and she was quick enough, she could still use her magic to trap Vaas in a levitation field. It was a risk she had to take.

She raised her shaky hoof, swallowed, and slapped him across his face. It wasn’t something she enjoyed doing, and she feared what would happen if the spell failed, but it was a necessary evil.

Vaas was pulled away from his dream about Rook Island by a sharp pain, his right cheek felt like it was on fire. He opened his eyes and saw Twilight’s hoof in the air almost immediately and, as on instinct, he got ready to lunge at her, rage once again present. Something was wrong, however. When he wanted to push himself towards her, his body refused to respond, he couldn’t even move his mouth. Breathing and moving his eyes were the only two things he was able to do.

Twilight smiled and clopped her hooves together in glee. “It worked! I can see the rage in your eyes, but you can’t move.” She walked a bit closer towards him, only a couple of inches away from him. Normally she wouldn’t have dared to be so close to him while he was being aggressive, but the threat was gone. She gave Vaas a victorious smirk, finally she was once again in control, and that was something she liked very much. “If you want to move again, you’ll have to cool your anger or otherwise you won’t be able to move ever again. You see, I put a spell on you. Whenever you’re about to attack somepony, the spell freezes your body until you’ve calmed down enough. For what it’s worth, I only hit you because I wanted to see if the spell worked, and I didn’t enjoy hitting you.”

Vaas didn’t like Twilight’s cockiness one bit, it only fueled his anger even more. The things he would do to her were even too cruel to imagine, but he could only do them to her if he regained the ability to move and if that didn’t happen, there would be no killing and torturing. Sighing mentally, he allowed himself to relax. He really wanted to end that mare’s life, but moving had a higher priority now. It took a while though, almost two minutes, even Twilight gave him a worried look after a minute.

When he was able to move again, he had to fight his inner urges that only wanted to hurt the purple unicorn. He just wanted to kill her right there, right now, but he knew that the spell would prevent him from doing that. No, when Twilight trusts him and removes the spell, then he would strike.

“You know what I would do to you right now? I would put a bullet through your fucking legs! Let’s see if you like it to be immobilized?! Oh, but I wouldn’t end there. Oh no, I would keep you alive for a few days, take care of your legs, but in the meantime torturing so much you’d wish you were dead, and when you are on the verge of collapsing, then you have my permission to die!” That felt good, Vaas could feel a bit of his aggressiveness flowing out of him, though it wasn’t much.

Twilight was scared to death by Vaas’ threats, but she put on a facade that showed no fear, just an unimpressed look mixed with a glare. Besides, Vaas couldn’t harm her, she has made sure he couldn’t. “Just follow, alright? The sooner we arrive in Ponyville, the better... for the both of us.” She wanted to take a step in the direction of the train station, but something popped up in her mind. “Oh, I don’t think we need the cuffs anymore, don’t you agree?”

Vaas looked with a dumbfounded look at his hands and saw a purple aura around them. Two seconds later, the cuffs came loose and fell to the ground. Has this mare gone loco? First she electrocutes me, then she puts a spell in my head that freezes me, and now she uncuffs me. Pfft, women, I’ll never understand them.

Vaas followed the cuffs with his eyes until they were dangling in front of Twilight’s face. She gave them a glare, and with a poof they disappeared. “I see you want an explanation, let me give you one. You see, the spell in your head is much more powerful than the cuffs and will work even without my supervision. I also found the cuffs a very cruel and unorthodox method of controlling you, I wonder why the Princess decided to use them?” She thought about it for a moment, but couldn’t come up with an explanation, she had to ask her Princess later. “Anyway, because the cuffs are useless now, I decided to give you a bit more freedom, and since you aren’t dangerous anymore, I believe this is a good start of the rehabilitation project.”

Vaas’ mind still couldn’t grasp the logic of the situation, even with her explanation. But hey, he wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. “Whatever you think is best, I just hope you know that I can’t be held responsible for certain... consequences.” A sadistic smile formed on his face and gruesome thoughts began to settle in his mind, like cutting a small hole in her abdomen and pulling her intestines out one by one to see what they look like. Oh, he got a kick out of those things.

She glared at him and snorted. “Even if you do manage to somehow evade the spell and hurt a pony, the cuffs, the spell, and Princess Celestia will be the least of your problems. I’m against violence, but I won’t back down when I notice that you hurt a pony just because you wanted to. Do you understand?”

“You’re cute when you try to make threats. One day I’ll teach you how to make a real threat.” Vaas half laughed, half said.

Vaas’ behaviour had caught Twilight’s attention. He’s a violent being who loves nothing more than to cause pain and grief, but he doesn’t act that way around me. Sure, he’s being a dick and he’s already  gotten on my nerves a few times, but he still hasn’t hurt me, not that he can anyway. Let’s get over the facts real quick. One, he’s a violent individual from another planet. Two, he doesn’t attack me. Three, he did attack that stallion. Everything seems okay, but what am I missing? ...Wait. He attacked a stallion, and I’m a mare. That’s it! He’s just being an alpha male. Alpha males attack other males when they think they are threatened, and since I’m a mare, he isn’t going to attack me just like that. I need to study about this alpha male thing when we get back to the library, maybe one of the books can help me with handling Vaas.

*****

They had been walking for a few minutes, continuing down Main Street, and once again silence reigned between them. Twilight was in no mood to converse with him, though her thirst for knowledge really wanted to know more about him and his world. She wasn’t scared of him, but she wasn’t familiar enough with him to know what would piss him off, and since Vaas told her that he had mood swings on a regular basis, she certainly wasn’t going to provoke him. Vaas, on the other hand, was still in his own little world of torture and pain, a faint smile plastered on his face.

They were fairly close to the train station, they just had to cross the Fountain of the Regal Sisters and Founders of Canterlot. It was the largest fountain in the whole city, even larger than the one in the courtyard of Canterlot Palace. It was a white marble fountain that depicted Celestia and Luna flanked by three other ponies. Those ponies were Orion and Rune, the stallions and Mineral, the mare. All of them were unicorns and they, together with the two sisters, founded the city almost one thousand two hundred fifty years ago. After Luna’s banishment to the Moon, the city became a thriving metropolis and capital of Equestria.

As Twilight and Vaas approached the fountain, they noticed some fuss in the crowd around them. Twilight couldn’t really make out what was happening, but she did pick up some words, and they weren’t good. No, not good at all.

“... Outrageous,” said a voice in the crowd.

“What a horrible...” said another voice.

“Lady Sparkle!” Now that was a voice Twilight could connect to a face; it was Blueblood’s voice.

“Oh no,” Twilight muttered, dreading what was going to happen next. Ever since she and Blueblood had met during her time at Celestia’s school, he had constantly tried to steal her heart, but nothing he did worked. She just didn’t have an interest in the snobbish stallion. It could be that he had a gentler side to him, but she only saw his pretentious and arrogant side, and that certainly didn’t help in his attempts to woo her.

It all started three years ago when she was still being tutored by Princess Celestia, and still Blueblood was determined to court her. He had sent her flowers, chocolate, one time even a band that sang love songs. She tried to stop him by sending him letters, but a lovestruck stallion can’t be cured. This little game would continue until one of them died.

She saw Blueblood coming towards her, the crowd making way for him, and his horn shimmering. She had a faint feeling of what was going to unfold, but luckily for Blueblood, she had put a spell on Vaas.

“Lady Sparkle! I suggest you stand behind me, lest that monster next to you harm you. I, Prince Blueblood, the most handsome stallion in Canterlot, will save you!” Blueblood exclaimed, his horn ready to fire a burst of magic at the strange, violent being.

Twilight shook her head and stood next to Vaas, she could hear the surprised gasp of the bystanders, even Blueblood looked at her with shock and confusion. “It’s alright, Blueblood, he won’t hurt a fly, isn’t that right, Vaas?” She flashed him a slight, arrogant smirk as she said that, and if it weren’t for the spell in his brain, Vaas would already have his hands around her throat, choking the life out of her miserable body.

Sadly, the spell was real, and he knew what was going to happen if he attacked that stallion and punched some humility in him, or if he choked the life out of Sparkle; he didn’t enjoy feeling trapped inside his own body. “Fuck you, Sparkle, and fuck you too, you smug son of a bitch.”

Twilight rolled her eyes, and gave Blueblood a sheepish grin. “Okay, maybe he’s a bit foul-mouthed, but he’s harmless, that I can assure you. So please, Blueblood, stop the spell you are trying to cast and let us go.” She took a step forward and began to prepare a shield spell in case Blueblood didn’t heed her warnings.

She was correct. “I’m sorry, Lady Sparkle, but I need to defend you, as it is my duty.” And with that, he released a burst of powerful, blue magic which was aimed directly at Vaas.

Twilight had seen it coming and immediately raised a shield in front of Vaas which deflected the burst of magic. One thing she hadn’t taken in mind, was the deflection of the magic after it hit the shield. Some went up, some disappeared into the ground, but some turned towards her. She jumped out harm’s way, but still felt some sparks hitting her left hind leg and the pain it brought with it. She knew that it was going to leave a nasty scar.

When the light finally subsided, Vaas could lower his hands, which he had used to shield his eyes from the blinding light. The last thing he saw before he shielded his face with his hands was the magenta shield in front of him which protected him from the deadly blast. Now that he could see again, he saw a heavy breathing Twilight next to him with a bit of blood dripping down her flank and in front of him a white stallion with his mouth agape.

Blueblood closed his mouth and regained his composure, he wasn’t going to lose in front of a crowd, he would only bring shame upon himself then. “Lady Sparkle, this monster has clearly done something to your mind, you’ve got to stop protecting him, he...”

A booming voice interrupted Blueblood’s pleading. “Enough!” A golden flash blinded everone who happened to be near the fountain. When the flash disappeared, an annoyed looking Celestia stood between Blueblood and Vaas. Everypony, except Vaas, bowed before their ruler. “Rise.”

The ponies obeyed their leader and rose from their positions, most of them looking at each other and at the Princess with anxiety, fearing what would happen. “Princess Celestia,” Blueblood began, but he was once again interrupted before he could finish his sentence.

“Silence! Don’t speak another word until you are spoken to.” Celestia’s firm and angry tone in her voice made it clear that there was no room for discussion.

She turned her attention to the crowd around the fountain, her piercing glare making eye contact with everypony who dared to look her in the eye. Her subjects had disappointed her, and she was determined to show it.

“Is this how we greet a new guest to this beautiful country, by attacking him on sight? This human has done some cruel things in his past, but right now my student is trying to help him. She’s trying to change him, to teach him the magic of friendship. You all should show how kind and accepting we ponies are.” Her scolding pushed most of the crowd into submission and silence, a few murmurs here and there. “I want you all to promise that you will treat Vaas, the human, with respect. Who knows, he might even become your friend.”

“I wouldn’t count on it,” Vaas answered, receiving a glare from both the Princess and her student in return.

“We promise, Princess,” the crowd said in unison, mostly out of fear for possible consequences.

Celestia gave the crowd a small, but gentle smile, glad that she had managed to handle the situation so well. “Good, now off you go, continue with your day.” As she saw the crowd dispersing and moving away from the fountain, something white and blonde tried to leave too. “Not you, Blueblood, you stay.” The pompous pony stopped when he heard his name and turned around, a sheepish grin on his face.

The Princess rolled her eyes at Blueblood’s idiotic behaviour and turned to Vaas and Twilight. “So, I see you’re cuffless, Vaas.” A small frown formed on her face.

Twilight quickly intervened before the Princess decided to get upset again. It has been a while since her Princess acted so upset, maybe it was the stress. “It was my idea, Princess. You see, I’ve found a spell that will freeze Vaas if he’s going to attack somepony, that way I don’t have to be with him all the time and it isn’t painful, unlike the cuffs. Your idea was good, Princess, but I just think mine is better.” Twilight’s ears drooped, and she cast her gaze towards the hooves of her mentor.

Celestia just chuckled with her angelic voice and placed her hoof under Twilight’s chin, making her look up. “If you think I’m upset, I’m not. In fact, I’m glad you decided to change the method of controlling Vaas, it’s certainly more ethical than my cuffs. You once again outsmarted your own mentor, Twilight Sparkle.” She chuckled once again and put on a more serious facade. “Well then, you two should be on your way now. Teleport to the train station to prevent any further catastrophes.”

Twilight nodded and smiled, her actions and the Princess’ interference had managed to stop a serious situation from escalating. Looking at Vaas, she powered up her teleportation spell and teleported to the train station.

When the Princess saw that Twilight and Vaas had teleported away, she turned around and began to walk to Blueblood, her mood immediately turning sour. “Blueblood! We’re going to have a very serious talk.”

“About what, Princess?” The once oh-so mighty Blueblood was now shaking in fear. He knew his aunt didn’t get angry very often, but when she got angry, you’d better hide for a few days.

“About you attacking some innocent being and your abuse of your servants. Yes, Blueblood, one of your servants finally found the courage to tell Luna and I about your mistreatment of them. Your punishment will be severe.” If looks could kill, Blueblood would have died several times by now.

“Oh boy.” That was the last thing Blueblood said before he was teleported to the palace.

*****

On the other side of the city, near the train station, Vaas and Twilight popped into existence, the human slightly disoriented by the teleport. He had never experienced teleportation, and now that he had been introduced to it, he wanted more of it. Oh, it would be fun if he could teleport into every bedroom on Rook Island. He would then kill the husband, if the woman was married, and then proceed to fuck the bitch. He could also surprise his enemies by teleporting into their camps and killing every son of a bitch he could find. It would be heaven.

Sadly, this wasn’t heaven. No, here he had been robbed of his freedom, wasn’t allowed to even give a pony a little beating, and he had to listen to the orders of a little purple shit. She was weak, and yet she was the one who was in control. If you could call it control, that is. In just a little over an hour, he had broken a leg of a pony and caused major mayhem. Yes, he was very proud of what he had accomplished. Of course he had to stick to the plan, but he had to do it slowly, so he could still have fun for a while.

Twilight, on the other hand, didn’t have fun. No, because Vaas made sure to wreak havoc everywhere he came and put ponies in danger, he had even sent one of them to the hospital. The fight with Blueblood also wasn’t something she enjoyed. Because she had to protect Vaas from certain death, she had managed to hurt herself, and it did really hurt.

She motioned Vaas to follow her and limped to the ticket office, trying to lessen the pressure on her left hind leg. “Hello, sir. Two tickets to Ponyville, please.”

The stallion who was operating the office, put down the magazine he was reading with his blue hooves and blew his light blue mane out of his eyes. He made a mental note to go to the barber after his shift had ended. When he was ready, he looked up and saw Celestia’s student standing in front of his office, and a smile appeared on his face. “Ah, Miss Sparkle, did you visit the Princess?”

“I did, she was glad to see me.”

The stallion’s gaze shifted to the creature behind Twilight, but it didn’t faze him one bit. He had been ticket office operator for so many years that he had seen much stranger things than a bipedal creature, things like drunken mares. “I guess that creature behind you is the second passenger?”

Twilight nodded, “Yes, I hope that isn’t a problem?” she asked with a bit of desperation in her voice. If they couldn’t take the train, then they had to walk to Ponyville. The road to Ponyville was quite the long one and not really favorable for her leg. Luckily, her desperation disappeared when the stallion began to laugh.

“No, not at all. I’ll just write pet on his ticket, that way you shouldn’t have problems with the conductor.” He laughed another time and went to work.

Vaas had heard what the stallion had said, which, in turn, caused his anger to boil once again. “I’m not a fucking pet!”

The stallion looked up and smiled at Twilight. “He’s a feisty one, isn’t he?”

“Yes, yes he is,” she said with a sigh.

The stallion chuckled and went back to work. After a few seconds, he levitated the tickets to Twilight who caught them with her own magic. “There you go, Miss Sparkle, enjoy your trip.”

“I wouldn’t count on it.” She gave the stallion a nod and walked to the train.

She entered the last carriage of the train, hoping that nopony else would decide to sit in the car she and Vaas had occupied, because somehow she knew that would only lead to more problems. The carriage itself wasn’t a large one, from the looks of it, it was designed for eight passengers, four seats lining opposite walls.

She decided to sit on the left side of the carriage, the side with a view of Canterlot Palace. Vaas just sat across from her, mainly because he didn’t want to sit on the other side of the carriage and have a possible stranger sitting across from him. No, in this case, Twilight came in handy.

And then they waited, and waited, and waited. After half an hour of that endless waiting, the train finally departed. Twilight gave a bit of a sigh, nopony had decided to sit in the last car, so she was sure Vaas couldn’t start a fight with innocent bystanders. The everlasting silence between them, however, gave the situation an air of awkwardness. Knowing that Vaas hadn’t been that quiet during their trip to the train station, some worry began to nestle inside her mind. She cast a quick glance at the human across from her, and her worry began to fade. It seemed like he was fast asleep, head against the window, and his breathing calm and relaxed. She turned back to the view of the Equestrian landscape, but still kept an eye on Vaas, just in case he tried anything. She let out a little sigh, now it was time for some peace and quiet, she could always give Vaas a piece of her mind when they arrived in Ponyville.

*****

The moment the train pulled up at the station and announced its presence by using its whistle, both Twilight and Vaas shook awake from the loud, piercing sound. Both of them yawned, and stared at each other, still trying to get completely awake. Vaas’ gaze shifted towards Twilight’s flank, to the cut just under her tattoo. Why do these ponies even have tattoos on their asses? He dismissed the thought when he saw the bad state of the cut. Maybe I can gain some trust points by acting like I’m concerned about her. “You might wanna take care of that cut pretty soon, or would you rather walk with three legs?”

Hearing Vaas’ remark, Twilight looked at her cut with interest, and cringed at what she saw. The blood had solidified into a disgusting dark purple mess with pus oozing from a few places. She really had to disinfect the cut when she got home. She turned back to Vaas. “So, you have some medical experience?”

“When you have lived in the jungle for your whole life, you will get fucked up by either another person or the island itself.” He showed her two bite marks on his lower right arm. “See these two spots? Those were shark teeth.” He smiled when he saw Twilight’s horrified expression and raised his leg, pulling a part of his pants up in the process. He pointed at some scratches near his ankles. “Those are tiger scratches.” He put his leg back down. “So yes, Sparkle, I know how to treat an injury.”

All the while, Twilight had listened intently, but had looked at him with pure horror. She knew that the Everfree Forest had some beasts that were as vicious as the ones on his planet, but nopony had ever gotten hurt by them, since nopony dared to enter the Everfree. It was rather shocking to hear what Vaas went through and was still alive to talk about. It shocked her even more that Vaas just smiled and laughed at his own tales of previous twisted adventures.

She coughed and got up from her seat, Vaas doing the same. “Well, I’m sure your skills will come in handy when you find yourself injured.” Twilight limped towards the exit of the train, but before she went through the portal, she turned around to stare at Vaas like she did so many times already. “Before you get any fun ideas, you can’t escape. That spell in your head knows where you’re at. If you set one foot outside Ponyville without my permission, you’ll freeze and a warning will go off in my head, giving me your exact location. As you can see, I took precautions.”

Vaas could feel a burning desire to twist that neck of hers and this time he gave in to his desires. He took a step forward, his hands ready to clamp around her throat, and then... he froze up. He couldn’t move, he was immobilized, but inside his rage was still burning.

Twilight, seeing what had happened to Vaas, gave Vaas a smirk. “Yes, I know you don’t like that, but it’s for the best. It will help you, you’ll see. If you don’t want to believe that I’m actually trying to help you, then believe this: You’re in Equestria now, so you’ll obey our rules.” Hmm, maybe my theory about the alpha male isn’t correct after all. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to look into it.

Several minutes passed until Vaas was able to move again. He still wanted to hurt the bitch so much, but he had to be satisfied with the thought that one day he would have his relief. “Go, Sparkle, before I kick you.” He really couldn’t stand another minute with Twilight;  the only thing he wanted was to be left alone.

She decided to keep her mouth shut. Some peace and quiet would do him good, and she too found the idea of a little peace quite appealing. It had been a very eventful day for both of them.

She stepped out of the carriage and saw her little assistant waiting on the platform who had immediately spotted her and came running to her.

“Hey Twilight, how was Canterlo-o-o-o... what is that?” Spike asked with a nervous tone in his voice, a giant had just stepped out of the carriage. The giant was almost four times as long as himself, and he didn’t seem very friendly.

“I could ask the same of you,” Vaas replied, both uninterested in the environment and the little creature who was looking up at him.

Twilight decided to introduce them to each other, it might be good for Vaas to talk to somepony else than herself. They were both males, maybe they shared common interests, although she seriously doubted that. “Spike, Vaas. Vaas, Spike. Vaas is going to live with us, Spike. He has done some things in his past, and now it’s my duty to rehabilitate him.”

Spike kept looking at the giant, having a negative feeling about him, but still he extended his arm to shake Vaas’ hand, as Twilight had taught him. “Okay then, I’m Spike, the dragon of Ponyville.” He had expected that Vaas was going to shake his claw, but instead Vaas burst out laughing.

It took a moment, but Vaas finally managed to stifle his laughter. “So wait, you’re a dragon? You’re as short as a dwarf. This has to be the best joke I’ve ever heard in my life!”

Spike dropped his arm and looked at Twilight, tears in his eyes. “Why is he so mean, Twilight? I can’t help that I’m just a baby dragon.”

Twilight gave Vaas a glare, but she knew she couldn’t do anymore than that. She was going to give Vaas a real punishment, but that had to wait until tomorrow, as they both were very tired. She already knew what kind of punishment she would give Vaas, a day with her friends. He’ll never hurt Spike ever again. “I know, Spike, but one day you’ll grow into a big dragon, until that day you’re my baby dragon. Now let’s go, Vaas and I are exhausted.” Before they left the platform, Twilight whispered something in Spike’s ear. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure Vaas gets punished.”

On the way to the library, Vaas’ laughter didn’t stop once.