A Second Chance

Chapters

My Own Man
Whatever Comes Next
Painful Memories and Regal Presence
An Unexpected Reunion
A Proper Explanation
Let the Games begin
The Time is Now
Wishing we were Home
Sedatives
Monthly Checkup

My Own Man

I stormed into my room, throwing everything against the wall in frustration as I yelled in the now empty house. I didn't care anymore, all of the sorrow and pain now gone, just anger now, everything was in order, and today was just another day, taking it all for granted, not having the slightest care in the world for whatever happened in my mundane life. After I was done demolishing everything that seemed fit for my rage, I grabbed what I seemed essential: my phone, laptop (with respective chargers), headphones, and all the cash money I could find in the house. After about fifteen minutes of preparation I stormed out of the house, running down the street, not giving the slightest damn about anything I ever cared about.

Now I was my own man.

Time: 11:30 AM, seven hours prior.

"What do you mean you're going on vacation?" I said in a somewhat surprised tone.

"we told you we have been planning this for some time now, You'll be just fine." my mother told me sternly, she appeared to be done, done with her job, done with the bills, and done with me. Mom never cared much, I was an only child of sixteen living in a house with my parents, nothing special to say the least.

I merely grumbled, I didn't pay too much attention to what my parents said, let alone even hear what they say every day of my life I've lived in this godforsaken house.

My mother simply glared at me, I wasn't in the mood for any of it, mom and dad were planning to leave for the Caribbean for a vacation, they did this often, leaving me here with a relative to look after me, but now I was sixteen, and now that I finally found a job and I could "take care of myself" they didn't worry too much. They began to care less and less over the years, they thought it would be a cool experience to have a kid, and I have them to blame now for the miserable life I now had, because they didn't know jack shit what they were doing when they first brought me to earth.

"We will be gone for a few months." she stated, "I don't want to come back to find the house has been burned down or trashed, or its coming out of your college account." she said curtly, giving me a stern look of aversion.

I shuddered as she turned away, she can be really intimidating at times, but not as bad as my father when he's drunk out of his mind, and ranting about the house, not giving a damn for whatever he breaks, which he ends up angry only at himself the next day.

"cmon' hun'! everything's packed!" my father yelled as I heard the front door open.

"One moment sweetie!" my mother chimed back in a now happier voice and looking in the direction of the stairs, her gaze now turned to me, "I mean it young men, nobody over, and nothing of the sorts will be tolerated. got it?" she said in a now menacing tone.

"yes mom..." I said quietly, I've learned its better to just admit defeat from your parents, last time I back talked, I got a nice red hand print across the face and a two week internet ban. Lesson learned.

I followed my mom out the door, and watched them back out of the driveway and drive off as I waved. "this was going to be a long 'few months' " I told myself walking back inside to find what my first activity alone I was going to participate in.

Time: 5:30 PM, one hour prior.

I went back to what I did everyday in my life, played video games and watched TV, nothing new. It had been six hours since my parents left and they were probably on the plane now, off to 'paradise' or whatever the hell you wanted to call it. throughout the few hours I had to myself I was able to accomplish almost nothing, just updating myself on the computer by chatting with friends. There wasn't much to talk about, my friend Aaron, thought otherwise. He would ramble on about My Little Pony; Friendship Is Magic and all that shit, now don't get me wrong, I love the show now, but I did had a bit of a tentative approach towards the subject as my friend tried to coax me into, 'joining the herd' as he called it, but hey, what'd I have to lose? (other than keeping my parents convinced I was straight but MOVING ON!) After the first couple of episodes I was hooked, it was a complete escape from the shit I went through day to day, It gave me a look at how friends and family were supposed to be like in a world of liars, and assholes. It was funny, I would have never seen myself doing this anytime before I met Aaron in my AP statistics class, but it wasn't my top priority, I did although read some of the fan-made stories and was involved in the forums, I mainly used it as a stress reliever. I checked the clock and it was almost six, I decided to grab a pizza from the freezer and throw it in the oven for dinner, Canadian bacon sounded good, I let the oven preheat as I sat on the computer playing Half life 2 on the PC. After I heard it beep I threw the pizza in and looked out the window, the sun was setting, I watched as the big ball of burning hydrogen and helium disappear beneath the horizon, I gave a brief sigh as the stars now became visible, "one day down, eighty three more to go" I said aloud, I gave a soft chuckle as I turned for the bathroom. As I came out, I walked to the front window, the moon beginning to raise itself into the sky giving off a luminous glow across the front yard and the rest of the street, I smiled, I thought at one point in my life I was meant to be nocturnal, night itself, made me feel like it was the proper time of the day for me to be awake, but alas, school started at seven meaning I had to be well rested before then. I must have gotten lost in my thoughts and stood there for too long, because I smelled some thing burning, "shit!" I yelled out loud being angry at myself for being lost in the stars for a moment. Finally realizing that my pizza was beyond help now, I turned off the oven and opened the door, I was greeted by a foul smelling black cloud and a small charred pile I used to call my pizza, I quickly brought it out to the garage and came in to open every window there was in the house. Now that my dinner was nothing more than dog scraps, I settled for an apple from the fridge, that was probably more healthy than twelve hundred calories worth of extra body fat I wasn't going to work off anytime soon, after munching on my apple I went back to my game, It was about six twenty three now, time was passing like nothing, I gave a brief yawn as the phone began to ring, I grumbled to myself that I just sat down only to have to get back up again, I snatched up the phone and hit 'Talk' before putting the speaker to my ear.

"Hello?" I said into the microphone, waiting for a response.

And this is where I am now, running, wishing I never heard those words, wishing I just let the phone ring, wishing I wasn't on my own now... I continued for about an hour or so until I came to a stop, panting I looked around to see where I was. I had obviously left the road a while back because there wasn't any sign of human presence wherever I looked, I obviously didn't know where I was, and I wasn't exactly sure which way I came from, I was too lost thinking about it, I shook it from my mind, not wanting to remember that, I didn't know what to do next, and like I said before, what'd I have to lose now? I just started walking in the direction I was facing, hoping it would bring me far.

far away from it.

I was able to cover ground pretty fast making my way across the field in the light of the moon, but the light soon faded and I looked up to see clouds move in to shroud it's light and make a booming sound overhead, I forgot it was going to rain today, and I wish I brought an umbrella too. The rain came slow, in small sparse drops, but soon the slight patter of drops increased to a torrent, I needed to get out of the rain so I wouldn't catch pneumonia, there was a large tree not a few hundred feet away, that would be my umbrella for the time being. The tree gave ample protection from the downpour outside it's coverage, I found a comfortable patch of dry ground for me to sit on to wait it out, I watched the rain come down with such force that I thought that there might be a flash flood, not that that was very likely to happen in Minnesota of all places, regardless though, it came down hard. About twenty minutes later, the clouds receded a bit, giving way for the moon to light my way once again, I got up, stretched and gave a brief yawn before heading out into the part of the world, still in the grasp of mother nature. It was late, and sleep was catching up to me as I gave another yawn, feeling slightly heavy I made my way along until coming to a steep decline which I cautiously made my way down, the land became rocky and it seemed to decline ever so slightly, bringing me downward at small increments, I never really noticed this type of landscape in all my years living in Minnesota, but then again, I've never been out here before. It grew more mountainous the further I walked, I saw a streak across the sky as a shooting star streaked and disappeared from view, I stopped, "the most luck I've had today." I thought quietly smiling, "make a wish Taylor" I said to myself, I thought for a second, "I want to live where I can be accepted without any patronization towards me." I thought again for a moment, "Equestria... Yeah that sounds nice..." I decided to myself, knowing it would be nice, but unless I died and went to Heaven, there was no way of that happening anytime soon. I looked at my phone again, it was now almost ten, I needed to find somewhere to sleep, looking around I found a small overhang in the rock nearby, this would have to make do for now. I made myself comfortable, laying on my back and watching the stars dance in the night sky, with the moon dwelling overhead, I thought of what tomorrow would be like, and how I was to get along, I suddenly felt stupid running from home out of impulse and anger, at least there was no expectation of me anymore from anybody.

I smiled, that is but myself, and I slowly drifted off.

Hey thanks for reading, I'm sorry it is a bit slow right now, but I didn't want to drop my character straight into Equestria sorry if you disagree with me on that, so please comment, and provide some constructive criticism, not wanting any of you to reprimand me right now, granted this is my first fic, I'll say again thanks for reading, and hope you are interested to hear more!

Whatever Comes Next

It was early, the sun had yet to rise but it's light could be seen creeping over the horizon, slowly getting up and cracking every joint I could in my body, I looked around only to see large rocks in what appeared to be an abandoned quarry I was in, I suddenly remembered all that happened yesterday.

I took in a deep breath before slowly exhaling the crisp mountainous air, I would continue looking for whatever it was I hoped to find, wherever I was. Still sore and almost half asleep, I made my way in amongst the small amounts of shrubbery and large rocks that littered my intended path of travel, it wasn't more than ten minutes when I found myself staring down at a steep angle of the side of the cliff, "this is just great...", I quietly thought to myself, being the dumbass I was, I tried to get a better look of how steep it was, and if I could get down with the utmost caution, I lost my balance and began rolling down the incline, hitting every rock protruding from its surface. Frantically trying to get a grip of anything to stop my descent, I fell of the edge of the cliff, landing about ten feet further down on top of a bunch of trees, hitting branch after branch until I made contact with the hard earth below.

I laid there for about five minutes, I opened my eyes to find I was in a dense forest, I had a small pool of blood coming from my left shoulder, I pulled my shirt collar to the side to get a better look, there was a deep gash, most likely from the rocks I hit as I came down, it didn't look as if it was going to heal on its own, I tore some of my shirt off and one of my sleeves, making some makeshift gauze and bandage to keep it in place, I was able to successfully tie up the wound, it did hurt like hell though.

slowly making my way through the forest, grumbling all the way, I began to feel very lonely, now that I haven't talked to anybody but myself since I left the house, frowning and having a quiet controversy with myself over what I wanted my new life to be like, made my way through.

"...well what if she DID want the party at the resort, and YOU spent all the money on the new dining room set? What then?"

I was at a point in my own controversy that I had no idea how I even got to this topic, or why, I gave a brief sigh looking down at my feet as I walked, only to be met by a low hanging branch of a tree to my forehead, I fell on my back as I clutched the spot on my head cursing at myself, finding I broke the skin on my forehead and was now bleeding.

"GODDAMMIT SON OF A BITCH!!! FUCK!!! JUST.... AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!" I was yelling now at a far louder tone than usual.

I watched as a flock of birds fly off in the distance, getting up from the ground again I rubbed my forehead and looked at my hand, there was some blood on it but not a significant amount, at least not enough to make me pass out from blood loss, although my bandaging job from my shoulder was nice, it was beginning to seep through.

I needed to get moving.

Over time the forest began to thin out, and now grassy hills could be seen as far as the eye could see, with large mountains in the distance, snow covering their peaks. I was beginning to feel light headed and my vision was starting to blur, trying to cover some ground before I blacked out.(and to hopefully wake up from it.) I was able to see something large and red off in the distance.

It was... I squinted my eyes to try and see through my blurry eyesight.

A barn...

which meant farmers...

which meant people...

which meant there was civilization...

which meant I could get help.

help...

I quickly made my way towards the barns location, the bandage had now come undone and the gash re-opened and began to bleed profusely as I pushed myself with the energy I had to get to the farm. I found a dirt path along the way and began to follow it, it wasn't too long before it came into view, it was an apple orchard, behind the barn and what appeared to be a small cottage-like house were hundreds upon hundreds of trees all with gleaming red specks on their branches. It was pretty rural,(almost looking Amish from the lack of tractors and other mechanical equipment that one would normally see.) there was the largely exposed white fence that ran around the perimeter, a few carts and baskets scattered around in piles, and an old rocking chair on the porch.

I took a few steps forward into the property, I wasn't one for trespassing, but I did what I had to to get some help, my gash had now drenched the left side of my shirt in red and it continued to bleed, I was barely able to see anything with my heavily blurred eyesight as I walked to the front porch, my steps were shortening and slowing to the point I was moving only an inch or two per step.

"What'n tha' hay are you?"

I turned my head to see a four foot orange figure with blond hair and a hat of sorts looking at me.

I hesitated for a second before saying one word, almost inaudible to the figure.

"help..."

and I fell to a pile on the ground, watching the orange figure run to my side to inspect my body before running to the front porch, only to yell something inside, I was able to hear the words "Twilight" and "Help" before passing out.

I woke up to find I was no longer a bloody mess, I had been bandaged and my forehead had been cleaned, I was laying on a couch in a brightly lit room. I tried to get up but to no avail, I was still lightheaded from my overall loss of blood and I could barely move my head without getting a small throb of pain in the head in return. Looking around I saw there were multiple books on multiple bookshelves all around the room,

Being stubborn as I was, I succeeded in rolling over, falling on the floor, this must have alerted the people or person who lived here, because I heard footsteps coming my way, I pulled myself to a sitting position,resting my head against the cushions of the couch before letting myself exhale deeply.

"ITS AWAKE!!!"

I shot my eyes open, slightly blurry from earlier, and turned to see multicolored hair on the head of a.... horse? I gawked at it, the fact it was a cyan color was reasonable, probably some dye... But it could TALK?!?( no seriously WTF?) It turned its head to look back at me, noticing that I was staring at it.

"What're you looking at?" It said in a boyish sounding voice, giving me a mean glare.

I flinched, it could talk and give facial expressions.... wow, what shit have I gotten myself into?

I could hear more footsteps near the door entrance as I sat there, locking eyes with a horse with a dumbfounded look on my face. I left its gaze as it turned to the doorway, mine soon followed suit, five others came in stopping at the doorway, all of their expressions were filled with much curiosity, one of them, a faded yellow with a pink mane tried to hide its face out of either shyness or fear, I couldn't tell. A lavender one with a darker purple mane and pink stripe through it came forward, I backed up out of instinct, my gaze now an distrustful stare towards it, I didn't notice before but it had a horn, a HORN. Unicorns were never supposed to exist, let alone in Greek mythology and little girls toys.

"There is no reason to be afraid, we're not going to hurt you."

the other five nodded in agreement.

I still didn't trust them, I stood up slowly, their faces changed from curiosity, to fear and amazement. They were about four feet in height and I was five foot nine, making me look a lot bigger than I was when I was sitting down. I began to back up, tripping over the small table I failed to notice behind me and toppled backwards, hitting the back of my head against the wood floor. The lavender one and its five companions began to quickly trot over to see what had happened, I quickly shot up and began to scoot backwards until I was up against the wall, with six horses, two of them being unicorns and another two being pegasi, (which I was now freaking out in my mind now.) surrounding me.

the lavender unicorn came forward and spoke again.

"Are you okay?"

I sat there staring at the unicorn not wanting to talk to it.

"Can you talk?"

I hesitated for a moment before responding.

"Yes..."

The unicorn's face now had a large smile plastered on it's face, I stared, not knowing what to expect next out of it. The unicorn now turned to her friends having a conversation, talking about me like I wasn't even there.

"Think of what we could learn! This species isn't even recorded in the zoology references! We may have discovered an entirely new creature! And to make it better, it can TALK!" The lavender unicorn's face was beaming and full of excitement.

I noticed they were considerably smaller than horses so I came to the conclusion that they were ponies. Ponies... I suddenly associated 'ponies' with what were now talking in front of me and I suddenly....

Came up with no logical explanation.

"What's your name?" A White unicorn with a fashionably styled purple mane had said to me.

"What? oh! its Taylor..." I said snapping out of my thoughts.

"Well its a pleasure to meet you my dear." she (I think) responded.

I looked at her, waiting for her so introduce herself, she suddenly realized this and began to speak again.

"Oh! I'm sorry, where are my manners? My name is Rarity, I own the Carousel Boutique here in ponyville." she said in a proud voice.

"And... what exactly is your profession?" I couldn't help but ask.

"Well fashion and clothing of course!" she said, assuming I already knew that.

I gave a silent nod as the rainbow maned Pegasus came in real close, looking me up and down before backing off and speaking.

"My name's Rainbow Dash and I'm the fastest flyer in all of Equestria!"

"boastful much..." I quietly thought to myself before responding.

"Nice to meet you Rainbow Dash." I said extending my hand for a handshake. (hoofshake? kinda Awkward...)

"Just Rainbow will do." she said, returning the gesture.

I grasped my hand around her hoof, It felt awkward, like I was a baby grabbing onto my father's giant finger with my small hand, after a few shakes, I'm sure we both felt awkward and she stepped back to let the orange pony with the now distinguishable cowboy hat that saved me from bleeding out at the farm.

"Well howdy there, sorry bout' tha' confrontation an' all earlier, mah' name's Applejack, I work down at Sweet Apple Acres with mah' siblings and our good ol' Granny Smith," the orange pony said.

"Well thanks for saving my life back there Applejack." I said with a sheepish smile.

"Awwww well, it was nuthin' ah' couldn't let ya bleed ta' death on the ground. Think nuthin' of it." she said slightly blushing from the bit of flattery I had given her.

It was now time for the pink pony with the messy looking mane to come forward.

She then said a flurry of words that consisted of what I thought was, 'cupcakes' and 'party' before she ran out of the room with a bounce in her step.

"I'm sorry, what?" I was dumbfounded by the amount of energy she had and that she still had more to spare.

"That was Pinkie Pie, she asked if you liked cupcakes, or if you even eat them,and she went along of how she is going to throw you a 'Welcome To Ponyville' party later on." Rarity had stepped forward to clarify.

"Alright I guess..." I said slightly surprised, I haven't been here for more than a day and now I'm getting a welcoming party while making friends with talking ponies. Nuff said.

I closed my eyes and scratched my head for a moment, taking it all in, I opened them to see the yellow Pegasus hiding behind the doorway. Rainbow followed my gaze and saw her behind the doorway, she then looked to me.

"Thats Fluttershy, she's not one for meeting new ponies, er... well you that is."

"She'll introduce herself when she's ready." I said smiling at her.

She took notice of this and hid even more of her face behind her mane, looking in a different direction, and casually glancing to see if I was looking.

The lavender unicorn came back into the room, I didn't notice her leave.

"Well I just sent a letter to the princess, Taylor she would like to speak with you tomorrow." she had announced and looked at me when saying my name.

"Wait... Princess?" I said quizzically.

"Yes Princess Celestia, ruler of all Equestria." she said.

I thought for a moment, "so this place's government is a monarchy? Okay I guess..." I realized I still didn't know the unicorn's name.

"I'm sorry, I never caught your name." I said in a kind of embarrassed tone.

"Oh I'm sorry, my name is Twilight Sparkle."

"Nice to meet you Twilight." I said smiling this time.

"Likewise." she quickly responded, and now turned her attention to her friends.

"I'm sorry girls, but I have to prepare for the trip to Canterlot tomorrow."

I looked outside, the sun was on the western horizon now and it was in fact getting late. Her friends said their goodbyes and left, all of them going in their own separate directions, I watched as they slowly disappeared from sight and faded in the growing darkness, many street lamps turned on as the sun set in the distance. Twilight told me that we had to leave early in the morning, there would be a chariot to pick us up by then, she let me stay in the guest room she had, it was quaint, containing a desk, nightstand, bed, and what I loved most, a balcony. I suddenly remembered my backpack and asked Twilight where it was, she left for a moment and came back with it suspended in the air with a purple aura around it and her horn, I wasn't sure what that was but I would have time to ask tomorrow, I grabbed my bag and we said goodnight to each other and parted. The bed was a bit small but I could manage, I opened the double glass doors to the balcony and walked out, there was a slight breeze, and the moon looked brighter with all of the cosmos visible in the night, if I could use one word to describe it, it would have to be amazing.

Simply amazing.

But I would have time to stargaze another night, I was tired and I was going to meet a Princess tomorrow, (exciting right?) I slouched on the bed and stared at the ceiling, this place was, from what I know at least, full of many happy and very nice ponies, (seeming they were the dominant race and all) and was ruled by a Princess by the name or Celestia.

I wasn't sure what was going through my head after that, but I finally realized something I hadn't before.

I found what I was looking for.

Authors note:
Hey guys what'd you think? this was one of the longer chapters I've written (they're not gonna ALL be this long), this took about five hours to write from the top of my head. hope you like it! If I have time later I will get to writing the next chapter, might even get it posted later... ANYWAYS! thanks for reading! please rate and comment and tell me what you think and how I can improve. Thanks!!!

Painful Memories and Regal Presence

"Friends, both the imaginary ones you build for yourself out of phrases taken from a living writer, or real ones from college, and relatives, despite all the waste of ceremony and fakery and the fact that out of an hour of conversation you may have only five minutes in which the old entente reappears, are the only real means for foreign ideas to enter your brain."

-Nicholson Baker

It was hard, trying to sleep after all that had happened the night before,with it. Also I haven't eaten anything since the other night when I ate the apple after burning my pizza, my stomach growled, checking my phone I found out it would be another five hours until dawn and Twilight and I would have to leave to see Princess Celestia, God knows why. I began shifting into different positions in the small bed, just trying to get comfortable, yet to no avail on my own will. "a walk will probably do me some good." I thought, I took walks at night to let my stress just wash away in the night air, I wasn't sure if Twilight would mind, (she probably would though) but I didn't pay it much thought as I walked to the door.

I slowly opened the door and peeked out, I could hear myself breathe it was so quiet, I carefully tiptoed my way down the staircase, pausing whenever I heard it squeak, making sure I woke nopony, that is Twilight being the only one here, right? I crept to the front door and slowly opened it and quietly closed it behind me. I didn't disturb Twilights slumber, but if she was to wake up and check to find I'm not there, I would think she would turn on some sort of a siren and forming a search party, I chuckled softly to myself and began my walk down the cobblestone road.

The night here was serene, and far more beautiful than a clear night up north, the stars were covering every inch of the sky, some in small clumps, others far brighter than the others, the moon however, was a lot bigger than I remembered, I felt at more at home than I did with my family, it was just that I felt more accepted, and I felt like I was good enough for the community and all the ponies who lived here, I had yet to meet a vast majority of them but still, I felt good for once in my life.

The rest of my walk consisted of me wandering the streets, and thinking about tomorrow, I've never been in the presence of royalty before, I guess I'd just wing it from there on, I simply walked and thought of what I would do the few hours I had left to think to myself. Yawning, I found my way to the outskirts of town, now seemed like an appropriate time to stargaze, I laid on a hill with a small oak tree nearby, I watched as the stars began to twinkle in the night sky, the moon giving off its ever lustrous glow, outshining a few stars that were nearby from my perspective, my eyes began to feel really heavy as i was able to finally drift off.

"You like our night sky?"

I shot up and quickly looked around, only to find nobody and that I had just been hearing things.

"I really gotta stop it with the hallucinations..." I said to myself out loud, giving a brief sigh of relief, and giving a short stretch before laying back down.

"Who said you were hallucinating?"

I shot up once more, there that voice was again, I frantically looked around to still find nobody around, I felt a bit weirded out at this point.

"Who's there?" I said trying to sound as calm as I could.

No response.

"Ugh, I really need help with all these voices in my head." I announced to myself before making my way down the hill.

"What voices in your head?" the voice said again, I looked around only to see nothing but the darkness of night.

I decided to ignore it this time and I continued to walk down the hill, I was beginning to think that I was going crazy now.

"Wait! You still haven't answered our question, do you like our night?"

I stopped, this time without looking back to see if the owner of the voice had shown itself.

"Yes I do." looking now at the sky, I continued, "I haven't seen anything so magnificent in all my life, not sure if it's right to say its your night though." I continued walking down the hill, beginning to make my way to the library.

And with that there was no further response.

The library was just as I left it; quiet, lifeless, and most importantly; lights off.

I slowly opened the door and quietly shut it behind me, I slowly walked across the floor, making sure to not let my feet make any loud noises as I crept across the floor, and as I was about to make it to the stairs, the worst possible thing happened that had come to my mind beforehand.

I got caught.

A light suddenly flicked on and I turned to find Twilight looking at me with a 'you're in deep shit' face on, I merely stared, waiting for my beating to come.

"Where have you been? I woke up about an hour ago to check and see if you were doing alright, only to find you not there, so, what were you out doing?"

"Well first of all, its nice to see you cared to check up on me." Twilight stood firm, not showing any sign of give on her face.

"But, I was just on a walk, no big deal, I do that a lot. Sorry for not telling you." I said feeling a bit guilty now.

"Why do you go on these 'walks'? "

"To relieve stress."

Her expression was a bit softer now, but still angry nonetheless.

"Why? are you feeling stressed now?"

She was begining to touch up on it, I didn't want to talk about it, let alone think about it. I slowly walked up the stairs, with a slightly concerned Twilight behind me trying to cut me off.

"Where are you going now?" she said with some of the revived irritation now in her tone.

"Bed, now goodnight."

I shut the door in Twilights face as I walked to the small mattress and flopped on top, the door opening slowly behind me.

"Taylor?" The anger in her voice was now replaced with a bit of regret and concern.

No response.

"Listen, I'm sorry for getting so angry at you, if you left me a note of sorts saying where you were, we wouldn't be in this situation right now. And I'm also sorry if I touched on a sensitive subject, I didn't mean for that. You can talk to me about anything thats bothering you...if you feel comfortable doing so that is."

I slowly got up, head down, I turned to her, I was trembling now, giving off silent sobs.

"Taylor? Are you alright? I didn't mean to make you cry! I'm so sor-..."

I cut her short, wrapping my arms around her neck, crying into her shoulder, I wasn't usually one for all this crying bullshit, I was at wits end now.

Twilight, taking a second to reconcile after my abrupt hug, hugged me back.

We sat there, I'd say for about twenty minutes before calming down, I was about to let go of Twilight when I found that she had fallen asleep in my arms. I wasn't sure what I was going to do now, I carefully lifted her, and carried her to her room, setting her gently on the bed and putting the covers over her before walking to the door.

"Sweet dreams Twilight..."

I closed her door and walked to the guest room, finally calling it quits for the night, I sat there looking out the window, not sure how Twilight would now see me, she now knew I was keeping something away from them, giving her all the more reason to not trust me. "Would she tell her friends? or even the princess?" I thought to myself, trying to fall asleep, if so, there would be a lot of curiosity into 'personal matters' that I wouldn't feel too happy about confessing, not just yet at least.

It wasn't another three hours before I was awoken Twilight's now cheery voice.

"Hey Taylor! It's time to get up sleepyhead, we've got to go see the princesses today so get up!"

I lazily opened one eye to see her on the side of the bed smiling, it looked like she had about an hours worth of preparation before-hand, (hoof?) because she had her mane brushed and her coat was brighter, meaning she had to have taken a bath or shower earlier.

*groan* "What time is it?..." I said groggily.

"About eight A.M. We need to leave in an hour if we are going to make it there in time." she was now opening the shades to the balcony with her... power, as her horn glowed with that purple aura again.

"What is that by the way?" I asked, slowly getting up and rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

"What?" she was puzzled at my question.

"The thing you're doing with your horn." I gestured, pointing to it.

"Oh this? It's just magic. Why?" she said casually.

"Interesting..." I said in an inquisitive tone of voice.

"What is?" it was her turn to return the question.

"Well, magic doesn't exist where I'm from, let alone unicorns and pegasi. You know... you wouldn't be able to find half of this where I'm from."

She stared at me, eyes wide.

"Really? No magic, unicorns or pegasi? How do you live then? What do you have? is what I mean to say." she was surprised to hear of her species nonexistence from my world.

"Listen I'd love to sit here and compare our worlds but, don't we have a princess waiting for us?" I told her, cocking an eyebrow.

"Oh yes thats right! Sorry about that..." she gave a small awkward smile and I smiled back.

"Don't worry about it, we can talk more later, after we talk with the princess."

"I think you mean 'princesses'." she corrected.

I looked at her with confusion on my face. "so wait, it's a Diarchy?" I waited expecting an answer.

"Oh I only mentioned princess Celestia, I didn't mention princess Luna, sorry, hope that clarifies things."

"I see, are they related?" I asked now wanting to know more about the second ruler with Celestia.

"Yes, actually they are, princess Celestia is in charge of raising the sun in the morning and princess Luna is in charge of raising the moon at night. They're sisters."

My stomach soon broke the silence with a large growl, I scratched my head as I became slightly embarrassed.

"We're really getting off track here, and I haven't eaten for the past who knows how long." I stated, Twilight nodding in agreement.

"Well, you can freshen up in the shower while I get breakfast situated. Sound alright to you?" she asked.

"Oh you have no idea, now, where is the shower you said?" I was anxious to clean myself, my hair felt greasy and my body was covered in dirt and I was eager to get rid of it.

"Right down the hall, first door on your left..." she said, but I was already in the bathroom by the time she finished, the door slammed behind me.

"Wait! what do you want to eat?" she called down the hall.

"Surprise me!" I said from within the bathroom.

I quickly undressed and jumped in the shower to let the water run over my body.

"GODDAMMIT!!! SHIT! COLD WATER!!!" I yelled as the water came in contact with my body, but soon warmed up afterward to my relief.

I came out of the shower ten minutes later, drying off, I began to wonder what Twilight made for breakfast as I got dressed, meat, (of all things) was obviously off the list now, she was a herbivore and I was an omnivore, there would obviously be all other food groups but the meat category. I walked out of the bathroom and made my way down the stairs, walking towards the sound of hoofsteps in the room nearby.

"Well Twilight what did you have in mind when you were going to surpri-... You're not Twilight." I stopped to see a small purple reptile with a green crest on it's head.

"Well no I'm not, for obvious reasons. But what and who exactly are you?" the reptile said with the small retort.

"My names Taylor, and I'm a human." I replied "But who and what are you then?" I threw the question back at it.

"I'm Spike, Twilights assistant, I'm a dragon if you couldn't tell." he replied back.

"Wait... a dragon? Like the fire breathing kind?" I asked in confusion.

"Well yeah, haven't you ever seen a dragon before?"

"Well only pictures, but they're just in mythology where I'm from, no such thing has ever been seen in real life." I explained.

"Really? mythological huh?"

"Yup."

"Weird... well I've got some chores to do." gesturing at the large pile of books behind him.

"Twilights in the other room making breakfast." he pointed down the hall.

"Thanks Spike." I said walking down the hall.

I heard a grunt behind me as Spike began lifting books onto the shelves. Twilight, however was finishing up in the kitchen and hurriedly running down the hall past me.

"Whoa Twilight, wheres the fire?" I asked sarcastically.

"The chariots here!"

I casually pulled out my phone, It was eight fifty seven.

"But what about?...." I was going to ask about breakfast, but she seemed to be in a frantic hurry.

"LETS GO!" she yelled as she opened the front door, I followed her out to find the chariot out front with two white pegasi in gold plated armor in harnesses in front of it. We approached, the guards took notice of Twilight and I and stood up straight, trying not to look so slouchy, it was early, they were probably still waking up a bit, I didn't blame them, we then entered the chariot and made ourselves comfortable while the pegasi began to pull the chariot and it soon began to rise into the air.

I saw the ground get farther away as we ascended into the air, I was able to see all of Ponyville from up above. I felt a feeling... Unprecedented by anything in my whole life, the wind rushing against my face, the view from far above and the quiet and serene feel that it gave me. I closed my eyes and smiled, letting the wind rush against my face and blowing through my hair.

"There's Canterlot."

I opened my eyes to see a town and large castle on the side of a mountain, a majority of it looked like it had a 'gold and white' look to it, the castle however, was HUGE. The exterior of it was plain, the tops of the towers were gold in color, while the rest was a pearly white color, looking closely, there were many guards at their posts in different parts of the castle, there was no inch of area where there wasn't one of them.

"Heavily guarded much?" I said out loud, one of the guards chuckled quietly, Twilight giggled to herself and I just rolled my eyes.

We landed out front right outside the castle doors, we exited the chariot, the two pegasi flew off with the chariot, Twilight led the way up the steps to the castle doors, they opened with a loud creak and shut just the same as we walked in, I was beginning to feel a bit intimidated by all of this, sweat began to dampen my armpits out of anxiety and I was just a bit shaky.

A brown stallion with a formal looking suit on then approached.

" The princesses will be with you shortly." he said before trotting down the hall and disappearing around the corner.

We waited for a good ten minutes, the anticipation began to rise as the seconds grew longer, but soon after a loud fanfare of trumpets could be heard, I watched as all of the ponies bowed, I frantically followed, kneeling and looking at the ground.

"This is it."

"You may rise." an older and sagacious sounding voice said and I slowly rose to my feet, heart beating just a bit faster.

I looked up and saw her, she was a pony, considerably larger and more slender than the others, a bit bigger than me too, (few inches or so) she had wings and a horn, which probably made her special apart from the other three races, (thank you captain obvious) she was a slightly pinkish white with a multicolored mane and tail that had a, 'blowing in the wind look' from an unseen breeze as It wavered in the air off to one side, she wore a golden crest with a purple jewel in the center, also, she had a large gold crown on her head, in a similar fashion.

I stood there as she looked at me with her magenta eyes as she sat in her throne, her sister, failed to show up, "maybe I'll see her later." I thought, those thoughts were suddenly interrupted as she addressed me.

"Greetings, my name is Princess Celestia." she began.

"It is an honor to meet you your highness." I responded, giving a small bow.

"The pleasure is mine I assure you." she said, "Now, getting down to business." she stated.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"Well, for starters, my name is Taylor an I am a human from Minnesota." I said, 'Minnesota' would probably raise some questions, and it did.

"Where is this 'Minnesota' you speak of?" she asked wanting to know more.

"Minnesota is a smaller body of land which is part of the united states, the full governing land body, which is part of a planet we call Earth." I tried to explain it as simple as I could, which they seemed to understand.

"Kind of like how Ponyville is part of the larger body which is..." I stopped, not knowing what the overall land was called, Twilight was able to finish my sentence and save my ass.

"Equestria." she finished for me.

"Yes, that thanks." I said, a bit embarrassed.

" I see, How did you happen to enter Equestria?" she asked.

"You know what? I honestly haven't got the slightest clue." I said truthfully, I didn't know talking ponies would even exist, they even had a governing body for god's sake.

"Well then, I shall have my scholars look into this subject, I have never heard of this land you call the 'United States' before. Care to tell more?" she asked, I wasn't sure how she would react to all the violence and unkind people I would describe, and of all the war that raged across the seas, "I guess I would give her a choice."

"Something the matter?" Celestia asked, a look of uncertainty now on her face.

"No... just thinking... Do you want to hear the good stuff, the bad or both?" I gave her the three options.

Celestia hesitated, the uncertainty now more clear on her face as she saw my face, which now had changed into a more sad look.

"It would be nice to hear both..." she began.

"Tell me now, how bad can it get?" she asked, she was really in for a long story.

about a half hour later, I had told Celestia all about our world from the best of my knowledge, talking about how we lived and how our government was planned out, I touched briefly on the technology, which seemed to intrigue Celestia, and Twilight as she began furiously scribbling down notes as I spoke. I would probably be getting many questions later on from her, but continuing on, I then saved worst for last, telling of the terrorism and war that raged across the ocean with the other countries. I then went into some of the history of warfare, saying that it was the one thing humankind had thrived on for many years. They didn't seem to understand, such talk of excessive killing and brutality was a bit much for them, I decided to call it quits there, the room grew quiet as I finished, I felt a chill run down my spine as the eerie silence continued, Celestia's and Twilight's mouths were agape, I sighed and scratched my head, I would have expected no less of a reaction from denizens of a land where killing was very foreign and not thought of often, because of a lack of psychotic beings.

"Are all those things you said... Are they true?" Twilight was now facing me with a look of pity and sadness on her face, she had never heard of such actions taken by people or for the matter 'ponies' before.

"Sad to say but... Yes..." I responded keeping a straight face.

"I'm sorry to hear..." she said, closing her eyes and lowering her head to the floor.

"Hey."

The unicorn looked back up at me, her eyes welling with tears.

"No need to cry about it, I've left all of that behind now, and brought with me the good things." I said trying to sound reassuring to her, she wiped her face with her hoof and smiled.

I turned back to Celestia, who was now smiling too, just then, my stomach broke the silence with a loud and relentless sounding growl.

Twilight and the princess giggled at my lack of food in my stomach.

"Hey! I haven't eaten since yesterday morning! And we forgot about breakfast too!" I looked over at Twilight who stopped laughing and was now giving a sheepish smile, remembering that she was going to make breakfast and forgot.

"We can set up a breakfast if you would like." Celestia offered.

"Oh princess, I don't want to impose..." I quickly tried to not have her go through all that trouble to do that for me, she just met me for god's sake.

"Oh it wouldn't be a problem at all, what would you like?" she asked.

"Well... meat is definitely off of the menu..." I said, pointing off the obvious, Twilight looked at me in puzzlement.

"I'm an omnivore, and before you ask I don't eat ponies just to reassure you." I said, trying not to make the situation too awkward.

"So I guess some fruit would do me some good."

"Thats quite alright by me, Twilight, would you like something to eat?" the princess asked.

"No thank you princess." Twilight politely responded.

"Alright then, would you two be so kind as to follow me?" the princess got up and began walking down the hall, Twilight and I followed behind her as she led us to what I would think would be the dining hall.

After breakfast, I asked if I could explore the castle a bit on my own, Celestia said yes, she had to catch up with Twilight on past events, she giggled a little as she warned me not to get lost, I rolled my eyes and began my exploration.

I saw many windows, most of them seeming to depict past events in Equestria's history, I continued, walking up a staircase, to come to a room adorned with a night like look to it, the room itself was round, the walls were depicted with many hoof painted (I think I got that right) stars and constellations, on the ceiling there was the moon, I could the craters painted in it with such detail. The rest of the room still had the night theme to it, a telescope sat near a set of double doors which led to a balcony and the bed was considerably larger than the one I slept in. I was able to deduce that this was princess Luna's room.

She didn't appear to be here, as I looked around, I slowly walked in and made my way to the balcony. I opened the double doors and walked out, there was a miraculous view of all of Canterlot and Ponyville off in the distance.

"What I wouldn't do for a view like this." I said smiling.

Scanning the horizon, the sun now high overhead, it was probably past noon right now and we would probably have to leave sometime soon.

"And I never got to meet Princess Luna." I said, the smile slowly disappearing from my face.

"Well here is your chance."

I spun around to see her standing before me, she was a bit smaller than her sister, and smaller than me by a few inches, her coat was a deep grayish blue color, her mane and tail was a lighter blue color, she had a black crest on with a crescent moon on it, similar to that of which was on her flank, she also had a dark violet crown, smaller than Celestia's on her head, she looked at me with her teal eyes, awaiting a response, but I just sat there and stared, mesmerized by the look she had which was very similar to the night sky.

"Well?..." she asked in a playful tone.

"Wait... You're the voice I heard on the hill the other night." I said, suddenly recognizing her voice.

"Indeed it was, now... What is your name?"

"Taylor, my dear princess." I said giving a short bow.

"Oh now there is no need for such things." she said slightly blushing and giving a small embarrassed smile.

"Anyways, sorry for intruding... I just wanted a view from the balcony, thats all." I said admittedly.

"Oh its quite alright, we understand that such a view as marvelous as this is hard to pass up." she said, now walking over and looking out over all of Canterlot.

We sat there for a good ten minutes just looking over the landscape, and nothing else.

"this is getting awkward..." I thought, "is she feeling the same way?" I casually glanced over to see her looking off in the distance, her eyes then locked with mine and we both shied away, feeling kinda dumb for staring at her, I decided to break the silence.

"Well... I should get going, Twilight and your sister are probably looking for me now."

"Yes, I see..." she looked disappointed and looked at the ground, ears drooping a little.

"Hey its alright, if you're looking to I have all the time in the world if you wanted to talk more, just maybe later." I told her, walking to the doorway, that seemed to do the trick, she then immediately perked up and began smiling.

"Thank you Taylor." she said with a more calm voice this time.

"I guess I'll see you around?" I said, now standing with half my body outside of the door.

"Indeed we shall." she gave me a wink as she turned back to the balcony.

I wasn't sure what to make of the wink, to think if it were some playful gesture.

Or something else.

I wandered the halls until I found my way back to the main corridor where I found Celestia and Twilight making small-talk to pass the time until I came about. They had been 'catching up' while I was gone, apparently, Twilight is the protégé of Celestia and her 'most faithful student' at that, Twilight is to send a so-called 'friendship report' to her mentor about what she learns from her friends and the 'magic of friendship'. (lots of apostrophes there.) so they were chatting about everything in between while I was gone, I couldn't help but snicker to myself, I wasn't one to patronize much but seriously, magic of friendship? I've seen magic by Twilight before and that had nothing to do with friendship, or anything of the sorts.

"What's so funny?" Twilight questioned.

"Oh nothing really, just this 'magic of friendship' stuff." I said trying not to giggle in between words.

"Hows that funny? Its true." Twilight defended.

My face suddenly grew stern, "I know that, its just that nothing like that would ever exist where I'm from."

Twilight's eyes suddenly grew wide, "There's... no friendship where you're from? no friends to be with?"

"Well, they aren't the most common people you'll find, lucky to have one or two, but, what I've seen here, friends act differently from where I'm from."

"How so?" Twilight cocked an eyebrow.

"For starters, there really was no interaction, no getting together, no doing things, just casual conversations at school every now and then."

"Second, they don't really care about you, they just have you as a friend either because of a common interest or just so their parents, or so other close people in their lives wouldn't think they were lonely and sad, just to use them as a cover-up."

"In the state my world is in now, too many people would look at others as untrustworthy or a stranger you shouldn't talk to."

I finished my little explanation to Twilight, who had a sad expression on her face now, Celestia was listening intently, nodding as I spoke.

"It isn't that bad, you end up getting used to it, going day after day with nobody but yourself to talk to, nobody but yourself to go to for comfort, unless you had your parents..." I stopped, thinking about it.

"What about your parents?" Celestia got herself involved in the conversation.

I didn't respond, instead I stood there looking at the ground.

"Taylor, are you alright? If there is something wrong you know you can..." Twilight began but I cut her short.

"I don't want to talk about it, I never want to talk about it, I don't even want to THINK ABOUT IT, FOR AS LONG AS I LIVE!!!"

My voice now echoed within the chambers, I could see the guards getting a bit uneasy as I yelled at them, Twilights expression turned to fear as she cowered a bit near her mentor, who had a look of concern now upon her face.

"I-I-I'm sorry... I... I just... just... don't want to talk about it... I didn't mean to yell at you..." I said with regret in my voice looking at the ground, trying not to make eye contact with them.

"Taylor, it's alright, I understand there must have been some event of great displeasure in your past, I should be the one saying sorry." Celestia said, trying to take the blame, I wasn't going to let her do that.

"No, you didn't know about it, don't try to take the blame for my actions, besides, I should begin taking responsibility for my faults."

Celestia nodded, and I turned to Twilight.

"Well, what do we have planned next?" I said trying to change the subject out of the depressing mood.

Twilight looked at me, she didn't seem like she was going to let this go very easily, the look on her face told it all, I would expect in the future that she would try to dig at it until she found out, or something like that.

"We don't have anything else on the agenda today."

I pulled out my phone and checked the time, it was only two thirty two, we still had ample time to do whatever until days end.

"Why don't we go back to Ponyville? I still have to know more about your friends and where they live." I suggested.

"Sure, that sounds like a plan." she smiled and turned to Celestia.

"Thank you princess, for having us here today." she said to her mentor.

"The pleasure was mine, I hope to hear from you soon." she said to her student.

"Hey." I butt in, Celestia turned her gaze to me.

"Tell your sister not to be such a stranger, and thanks for having us." I said smiling as I followed Twilight out the door, Celestia only smiled to herself, waving her hoof as we left.

"Well that was fun." I said sarcastically.

"Oh be quiet, you know you enjoyed the time there." Twilight retorted.

"Yeah well... maybe I did."

"Did you meet Luna?"

"Yeah, how'd you guess?

"You did mention her as we were leaving."

"Oh well I guess you're right."

The chariot was waiting for us out front as we exited the castle, the doors creaking behind us as it closed. We entered the chariot and it began to ascend in the air again, I didn't talk as we traveled through the air, I thought as to what had happened so far today. I got to meet two princesses, one of which wants to see me again, soon, flew in a flying chariot, and had the most filling breakfast I think I ever have. The chariot still flying through the air, I stared off in the distance, thinking of how I was going to keep it under wraps before anyone got too suspicious, especially Twilight. She was doing the same thing as me, looking off, thinking about who knows what. I watched as Canterlot grew smaller and smaller from view and we neared Ponyville.

"Still got a lot ahead of me."

An Unexpected Reunion

“Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.”

-Thomas Jefferson

It was in the late afternoon by the time we got back, we thanked the guards and they flew off with the chariot in the distance towards Canterlot. Twilight and I had planned to go and meet her friends a bit more thoroughly before anything else. Fluttershy’s house/cottage was the place to begin in my opinion, since she had refused, non-intentionally to speak to me upon first meeting her, I felt it would be best to get the worst out of the way before moving on to the other four.

We started down the path leading towards the everfree forest, the landscape beginning to look more rugged and less colorful as we walked down the trail leading there.

“I would have done the same in my opinion, get the worst out of the way first, and from there on in it would be ‘easy street’.” Twilight was agreeing with my logic of getting the more difficult parts out of the way first before moving on to the others.

“Yeah well, I just want her to trust me though, I feel that if I'm going to be here permanently, that is, if Celestia would be willing to allow me to do so, I would need the trust of all of you, besides I’m human, an alien species unknown to your kind.” I was merely trying to get a point across in our little conversation we were having.

I suddenly felt a chill down my spine as we approached the entrance to the forest, the trees and bushes surrounding the path becoming less sparse as we drew nearer, giving the place a more ‘dangerous’ feel, as it was supposed to have.

“You do have a point there, however I still thi-”

Twilight was cut short as a group of stallions jumped from behind the nearby shrubbery and threw a net over my body, disabling any movement of my own as I became entangled in the large mass of mesh and rope.

I thrashed as I frantically tried to get free and face my attackers, however, I was far too tangled to get myself to a standing position.

“Go take care of the mare,” the unicorns attention turned towards the pegasus, ” you got the thing there? hit it hard, but make sure it can still stand when we get it back.”

that was about all I heard before I was hit upside the head with what was supposedly a club of sorts, and the unconsciousness kicked in soon after.

When I woke up I was aware of a few things; one: I’m tied up and am incapable of any such attempt at getting up, but rolling around wasn't going to get me anywhere, or at least anywhere fast. Two: I’m moving, and it seems I’m in a cage too. three: I’ve been kidnapped, I think, by three stallions waiting in the bushes of the everfree forest.

I was able to peek over the edge of the cage, only to see that there was a lock and chain on the door, preventing any such attempt at escape. The two stallions were in front pulling the cage of a cart and chatting to one another, one of them was a pegasus, light gray in color with a jet black colored mane, the other was an earth pony, with a yellowish mustard colored coat and lighter tinted maroon mane. I silently listened in along the bumpy road we traveled on.

“...Yeah but still, I mean, what would you do in that kind of a situation at a time like that? I had to defend myself despite the conditions.” The earth pony was trying to defend himself from some sort of argument including an

The pegasus heartily laughed at the rest of the sentence before responding.

“Well, I wouldn't have that sort of a problem with all that because I didn’t do any such a thing, and I don’t have an ex to begin with.”

The conversation about ‘situations’ with exes and whatnot soon ended and the topic changed quite abruptly.

“Hey! Whatcha got planned for this thing here?.” The earth pony said to the third pony, who upon which I was guessing was on the top, lounging on the cage/cart.

“Don’t worry about it. You remember when Iron Hoof found the other one? It was so skinny and non-muscular that I'm sure two or three parasprites could kill it. But look where it is now, this one’s gotta have some potential, we didn’t even have to travel that far in order to find it, he said he found it far off over the mountains where the map of all of Equestria ends, and we find this one talkin’ to a mare towards the everfree! what’re the chances of that?”

“wait another one? there’s another human...” My mind began to fill with questions regarding how many humans were here, and how they would know about my kind.

We came to a darker part of the forest and the cart was coming up to a cave nearby, as it stopped, the unicorn on top hopped down, as I got a better look at him, I could see he was a darker midnight colored blue, much like Luna, he also had a gray colored mane and tail, with darker teal eyes. The pegasus and earth pony unhitched themselves and came around back to the cage door to get me out.

The pegasus fumbled with the lock and chain for a moment, there was a loud ‘click’ and it fell to the floor in a metallic clump and they opened the door.

“Now, we don't want you trying anything funny, but I don't want to carry you all the way in, you don't try and run, we wont use any force.” The pegasus was now glaring me down and talking in a stern tone, as if for me to think twice before doing anything I might regret.

I nodded my head in agreement and he undid the ties around my ankles, allowing me to get up to my full height, I was a good three quarters of a foot taller than them all, I could have ran if I wanted, but I didn't know where in god’s name I was.

They guided me into the cave that split down multiple paths, I could hear muffled sounds of something non-human or non-pony further down the path we took. The three of them brought me to a large metal door, rusted from the dampness and years of mistreatment, they opened it to reveal a long hallway filled with multiple cages, all of them filled with creatures of all kinds, from wild dogs to large bears, the entire hall was filled with barks and roars and screeches from them all.

They brought me to the cage on the very end of the row, where no light shone in and in the farthest corner, whatever lived in there was concealed in shadow. They opened the cage and whatever was in the corner scuffled to get up and see what was here as they threw me in and shut the door.

“Welcome to your new home.” the unicorn said smugly.

“You think they won’t kill each other? I don’t wanna have to go over the mountains for another one.” The pegasus stated, uncertainty in his voice.

“Don’t worry bout’ it, they’re the same species anyways, they wont do that cmon’.” the unicorn replied reassuringly.

As they walked off, my attention turned to the other, apparently human in the cage with me, he/she slowly came out of the shadows and approached the only other known being of his/her species.

“So, they found another human... great... just great.”

The voice sounded masculine, and scarily familiar, and I was inclined to find out who this person was.

“I know you... from somewhere...” I subconsciously blurted out.

He froze for a second, “I said something that must have spiked his memory”, before speaking again.

“Wait... T-...Taylor? is that you?”

“Oh my god...” was all that I could get out right then and there, I knew him, we were great friends during the time I lived in Minnesota before coming here, and to finally learn that he was still alive was too much shock to handle for myself just then.

“It sure has been a while hasn’t it Travis?”

A Proper Explanation

“They say all you need to fulfill your impossible fantasies is your imagination and a good book, when all you really need are ponies and friendship.”

-(My own quote)

I was at a loss of words right there, finally seeing a friend whom I thought was dead for the past three months, who all of his friends and family thought he was dead for the past three months, when the police and search parties found nothing, I found what they didn’t, and I’m relieved to finally know that he hasn’t been dead, he’s just been held captive all this time.

I’m just really lucky I guess.

“It has been three long grueling months... since I’ve seen ANYBODY, well... another human being like myself, how the hell did you get here? They caught you in the Everfree didn’t they?”

I kinda just stared at him, still in shock that was alive and that he was here the whole time.

“What? It’s not like you haven’t seen me before, what’d you think I was? Dead?” He asked in a quizzical tone, one from curiosity of why I’m acting like I’m looking at something ever so foreign to me.

All I gave was a slow nod, I watched as his face turned from a look of mere suspicion to a smug grin.

“Oh cmon, you don’t mean to tell me that you thought I was dead for however long I’ve been gone, you can’t be serious.” He tried to argue, but my facial expression said it all.

“First of all, you’ve been gone for over three months, second, yes I thought you were dead, so did you’re family and everybody you knew, and third, yes I am serious, we all really thought you were dead for the longest time.” I stated bluntly, I couldn’t get over how smooth he was going all over this.

I watched yet again as his facial expression changed, now from the smug grin he had to complete disbelief in what I was saying.

“My god... You’re really serious aren’t you?... Shit... They all thought I was dead?...You too?...” His response’s tone had degraded massively, with him now talking in an almost monotone voice.

I could only respond with a silent nod, I wouldn’t know what it was like to have been gone for over three months only to find that your friends and family have thought you were dead the whole time.

“What happened?”

“Well it had all started a few months back when my family and I went on that camping trip right? Well...”

Change perspective: Travis

Time: over three months ago.

It was in the late fall, my family and I had planned to go out for a week or so out to a camping spot my dad had personally picked out over looking on the Internet. I for one didn’t give much of a damn, I was planning on draining the reserve car battery to charge my Ipod and listen to music the whole time, I myself was a fan of Mic the Microphone.

But my mom wouldn’t have it, she was so generic on how we were supposed to ‘admire’ and ‘appreciate’ nature, but I for one let nature do its thing, while I stayed within the safety of the house.

Mom and Dad had everything set up, the car was jam packed with every single camping utensil you could find, it seemed almost cheesy on how much they brought from multiple bottles of bug spray to a self inflatable life raft. C’mon its the late FALL, if there’s any precipitation its gonna be snow, and I think all the bugs died off when fall began. It’s supposed to be like eighteen degrees for the high, But dad always says, ‘You can never be too sure.’ I begin to doubt his thought process, when he thinks its gonna downpour and possibly flood in the late fall.

“Well we’re all packed and ready to go!” Dad said in an upbeat tune, almost sure that this was going to be the best camping experience ever.

“Whatever you say dad...” I was honestly not looking forward to this trip, I was just gonna have to suffer through it, with Ipod in hand.

“Oh c’mon Travis, it’s not gonna be that bad.” Mom was always optimistic towards these sort of things.

We ended up piling into the car and my dad backed out of the driveway before our long and grueling drive of over two and a half hours, I for one was just fine bobbing my head to the beat of The Living Tombstone.

About three hours after -

Well here we are... Three hours into our camping trip, my dad managed to set up the tent and such, it says on the tag that there’s room for at least five to six people... BULLSHIT, even if we took our own separate corners, there isn’t enough room for (add cocky remark here later...).

Anyways, we were all situated, my mom was getting dinner ready while dad was getting a fire started in the fire pit, I for one, found a nice place to sit down under a nearly leafless tree and listen to some of my music, however, the long car ride had taken a toll on the battery, and not soon after I had to go let it charge for an hour or two in the car.

“Hey mom!” I called out to my mother, whom was cutting vegetables and scraping them into boiling pot, for what i thought was going to be some sort of soup.

“Yes Travis? What do you need?” My mom looked up from the cutting board to show she was listening.

“I don’t think there really is anything to do right now... So I’m gonna go and check out the woods, is that alright by you?” I was honestly bored out of my mind, that seemed like the next best thing here.

“I don’t see why not, just be careful and try not to get hurt...” My mother had began, but I was already walking off into the vast amount of trees and leaves, leaving my mother’s words behind.

“Oh and don’t forget! there’s supposed to be a possible blizzard here! be back before dark!” mom had warned me before I was out of hearing distance.

All I gave was a raise of my right arm so signify I heard her before venturing off into the almost silent woods.

“This is boring as hell.” I silently thought to myself as I hit the trunks of trees with a stick I had picked up along my exploration.

There was honestly nothing but silent and almost lifeless looking trees, along with the sound of leaves crunching under my feet, and the sound of the stick striking each tree trunk as I went along.

I stopped for a moment, taking in the landscape around me, getting the serene feeling of pure and utter tranquility, it felt... unsettling, to say the least, being all alone where nobody knew where you were... where nobody could could contact you...

Complete isolation

I quit looking around when a small blur of white flew across my face, I turned to find it, but to no avail. I turned my head skywards to find that the first few flakes of the blizzard were coming down onto the dry, leaf covered Earth...

Wait...

First few flakes of the blizzard...

Blizzard...

Shit...

I began looking around for any such way back, but there was no trail I had left upon coming here, I ended up turning directly around, and ran in that direction, just hoping I would be able to find my way back, blindly unaware of the events that lay ahead of me

I ran, ever so blindly in the direction I came, hoping to get back somehow before the storm really picked up, but the light flurry had now progressed in a moderate sheet of flakes coming down upon me, I had made no progress of locating the campsite, and I was now frantically searching the woods, upon which I was lost.

I hate to say this, but this, by far was pretty much the worst possible thing that could happen; ‘me getting lost and freezing to death in a snowstorm’ was what the future had in mind for me, but I wasn't gonna give up without trying.

The wind was beginning to pick up now, and the sheet of snow had turned into a frozen downpour, all I could do right now was slowly trudge through the knee-deep snow while holding my shoulders to try and retain some body heat so I would have more time to venture out.

Eventually, my legs gave out, I collapsed to the ground, my legs now had no feeling at all, and I could feel my blood vessels in my forearms and lower legs as I laid there in the snow.

“This is it...” I silently thought to myself, as I shook ever so violently from my overall body temperature.

I slowly felt the darkness fade in as my vision began to blur, and my movement was almost disabled by the sheer cold.

Just then, out of complete dumb luck, I heard voices, this was my one chance to help myself stay alive.

I mustered up all that I had right then and there, all energy reserves I had that were keeping me alive, I even drew in a dramatically large breath for emphasis.

“HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY!!!!!!!!!!”

I quietly waited among the low sound of the wind blowing for any form of a response from the people.

“What was that?” Said a lower sounding voice that didn’t sound like dad at all...

“I don’t know, it came from this direction, lets go check it out.” I heard another say.

“Shit...” These were people I had no idea who they were, from what I heard, they were both masculine sounding, but neither of them sounded like my dad, I could only wait and hope that they would help me... and not anything else.

I silently waited, as the footsteps got closer, my vision had degraded to small splotches of colors of the landscape as the figures barely came into focus, I couldn’t make out their shape though, just the colors.

“What In all of Equestria is this?” the darker gray figure said as he prodded my numb body.

“I’ve got no idea Iron, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise to find something like this, we did go off the map, and we’re looking for something like this too.” the other figure said, which was a darker violet color... or at least that's what I saw.

“Well if this is what we want we gotta get it out of here, It’s freezing, and it doesn’t look like it’s gonna live much longer if we don’t get it out of here.”

With that the violet figure proceeded in lifting my body onto the back of the dark gray one, they then hurriedly jogged through the snow, my body bouncing along the whole way.

Now too weak to speak at all, I found myself consumed by darkness not too soon after.

-Back to the present-

Perspective: Taylor

“By the time I woke up, I was here, living in this cell, they took care of me, got me back to a better condition, and kept me here for the past three months. Since you came along, I’m happy and then again I’m not.” He had a hint of loneliness in his voice, probably from the fact that he has been isolated in the cell for ever so long with nobody to speak his tragic story to.

I listened to his entire story, how all parts of it began to make sense with what I knew about his disappearance, and all events that played out afterwards.

“After they got me back to my normal body temperature and treated all of the frostbite, they...”
Travis was cut short as voices could be heard form down the hallway.

“Oh, it’s time already?” He said as though he knew what was happening.

“What time is it Travis?” I asked quizzically.

He simply looked out from the cell, and looked back to me, “Do you know where we are?” He asked.

“No, why would you think I knew?” I responded bluntly.

“I would think you would have deduced it by now.” He stated almost matter-of-factly.

I heard the doors screech as they flew open down the hall, the loud voices of stallions filled the hall as they ranted, stirring up all of the beasts that lay within their cages as they angrily responded to the commotion.

“This place... is an animal fighting arena...” The three stallions whom had captured me earlier were now fumbling with the lock on the door, until it made a metallic clang as it fell to the floor.

“And we’re the animals.”

Let the Games begin

AUTHORS NOTE
Listen now and listen well, there is just a bit of gore in this chapter, but it's not that bad in my opinion, but have to do it to warn any of you who will flip out if I didn't do it, so anyways as always, thanks for reading and whatnot, comment, like or dislike in your opinion, and hope you enjoy my semi-gory chapter!

“In motivating people, you've got to engage their minds and their hearts. I motivate people, I hope, by example - and perhaps by excitement, by having productive ideas to make others feel involved.”

-Rupert Murdoch

I waited for what was to come next, the stallions had the cage door swing open and they all entered, the gray Pegasus and the mustard earth pony immediately restrained me with shackles and chains to prevent any possible escape.

“Lets see how you do in the arena.” The blue stallion said to me, I could only stare into his dark teal eyes, menacing looks and evil smile made it no better.

They began to drag me out of the cage, I shot a look back at Travis, who didn’t move at all during the commotion, he only gave a sad look back, that I could only perceive as,

“Don’t get killed.”

They dragged me out and down the hall, the three of them made no effort in lightening the situation for me, they simply made no attempt to see how I was feeling right now or to make it any better.

“Silver, ya think this thing’s gonna be worth the effort?” The yellowish earth pony asked the unicorn.

“Was the one Iron found worth it? nearly the same condition here Odds, he’ll do us good, making the big bits, regardless of the size of him, they’re smart, but not that smart.” Silver had replied to the earth pony named Odds, who was now muttering something incoherently to himself.

I was ready to go off on the unicorn, that I was so much smarter than all three of them combined, but the more logical side of my brain told me that if they didn’t suspect anything so smart as an escape plan, they wouldn’t have any reason to worry about it when I did.

I stored that in the back of my head for later, we now rounded the corner of the cave down another hall, there was a light at the end, brighter than that of the torches along the cave walls, which suggested a way out.

When we reached the end of the hall, we were greeted by a large metal weave of iron bars, preventing any way in, or out. I watched as Silver gave a nod to a black earth pony near a large wheel, he nodded back and he turned the wheel, which lifted the gate to let us through, though we all didn’t go in.

They undid the shackles and threw me in, which sent me faceplanting against the hard earth, I heard the gate hit the ground with a large ‘clank’, I quickly got my bearings and got up to my feet to observe the new environment.

It was dark, really, really dark, only the hole in the ceiling provided any light as of now, it was nearly sunset from what the darker orange clouds and sky could tell me, I looked behind me to find that the three stallions were no longer visible behind the gate, they left just as quickly as we came.

I heard a low growl behind me that made my blood run cold, I whipped my head around to see nothing, the other end of the arena was dark, I heard another gate, like the one I came through lift upwards on the darker end of the arena, I heard slow patting of feet enter through the opening and, with a loud ‘clank’, there was no way out.

I got into a more ‘ready’ stance, for whatever may be coming my way. What was once one set of patters had now turned into two, and then three, three other beasts ready to fight and kill me for my meat and bone. I heard them stalk around the outskirts of the arena, slowly circling me as I stood there completely visible in the center of the arena.

I was seriously ready to shit myself right then and there, but I knew if I ever wanted to see the light of day again, I would have to fight for my life, even if it meant killing something. I didn’t like the idea of killing, the biggest thing I ever killed was a spider my mom freaked out about and that was about the size of a shooter marble.

They expected me to kill them... Whatever they were, that was the purpose of all of this, the cages, the animals and other beasts, the arena... They all bet money on who would kill who, it’s a terrible game of death and money, I am disappointed in all who think this is okay, this sick and twisted game...

The beasts, then drew out of the shadows, I could now see that they were all wolves, hunting me in their pack of three, so skinny to make them want to kill almost anything, despite the odds of winning.

I closely watched as the circle they made around the arena outskirts get ever so much closer to me, I knew as soon as one attacked and I defended myself, another would come from the behind, getting me when most vulnerable, I needed some sort of plan to keep myself alive for now.

My plotting was interrupted as one of the wolves lunged out of its circle, towards my throat with baring teeth, my only response was a quick duck down, only for the wolf to fail at it’s attempt at successfully killing me, but to bite down on the hard earth below.

I jerked back upwards, watching the wolf’s every move as it picked itself up from the ground beneath it, soon after, I heard another wolf from behind leave the ground and reach for my neck from behind, I responded with a mid air back hand that connected with the side of it’s body, giving off a gruesome crack of ribs, which in turn sent it off skidding to the side of the wall.

With a loud yelp of pain, it pulled itself up and limped back into formation with the rest of it’s pack, it already looked ready to be done, it was already overexerting itself in its now present condition, and I’m sure that small hit of a blow was almost enough to put it out of commission, or slowly dying on the ground, where I would be put up to the challenge of putting it out of it’s own missery.

These... I have no words to describe these ponies who think such treatment of other creatures is okay, to make them kill one another for their own enjoyment, anyways these... monstrosities, “yeah that works” , have put all of these innocent creatures together to kill one another, only to be something they can bet on and make money off of others who bet wrong...

“You all make me sick...”

My thoughts were then interrupted as the wolf in front lunged towards me, I was a little slow to react there, and nearly paid the price for it. The wolf had knocked me to the ground as I grabbed it’s neck firmly, keeping a pair of snapping jaws away from shortening my nose.

Through thrashing of wrestling bodies on the ground, and snapping jaws at my face, somehow I managed to get a better and more controlling grip on it’s head, I gave a large forceful push with my left arm and a hard tug with my left, which resulted in a loud snap of the neck and the body going limp on my chest with a slight ‘thud’.

I slowly, but efficiently, got the limp body off of my own living and breathing one, standing up I stared at the now dead wolf, it’s eyes remained open and it’s face stuck in the fierce position it was during it’s last few moments of living.

I had officially taken a mortal life.

Such thoughts I was dreading so badly, that I failed to realize that one of the two remaining wolves had rushed from behind and sunk it’s jaws in my left calf of my leg.

Pain receptors...

Processing Information...

Message Sent....

I came back to the real world, only to be greeted by the feeling of two inch thick knives in the back of my leg, I yelled louder than I thought I ever could, or at least possibly could. I abruptly turned around, staring at the wolf on my leg with a look of death and no mercy, the wolf probably perceived this in these words:

“Prepare for annihilation.”

I can be temperamental as all hell, one moment I can be the nicest person you meet, one fuck up and you could be staring death in the face, but I tried to limit myself to such thoughts and actions, but this was an exception for two reasons; One: I’m in a life and death situation where I want to live, even in spite of the requirements, and Two: There was a jaw on my calf.

I went on an absolute rage right there, I took hold of the scruff of it’s neck and violently shook it until it let go of my leg, I listened to it whimper for mercy as I brought it face to face with me, it’s begging eyes stared me through for a truce, I gave a small evil smile...

And all hell broke loose.

I took the wolf in hand and smashed it’s head into the hard earth, there was a slight jerk in the body as it fell in my hands, heavy and now lifeless as it swayed in my uneven grip.

My attention turned in the direction of the other wolf, who was now cowering in the darker part of the arena, I was now advancing towards it, it’s once companion in hand as I came towards the cowering creature who was scared shitless like I was before this.

I got a better grip on the corpse in hand and swung the twenty pound body like a club towards the wolf, when the two connected, I watched as the last remaining wolf fell to the ground and it nearly scrabbling up to get away, but to no avail.

But I had dropped the body and grabbed hold of it’s tail swinging the ragdoll of a member of the Canis family over my head, hearing it whine and yelp out of pain and of fear made me all the more angry, it reminded me of my parents and how they used to do such a similar thing to me in my years living with them, that gave me all the more reason to inflict more pain in my mind.

I took control of the thrashing body and swung it against the ground, each blow a sickening crack of bones and ribs, I eventually felt it’s body too go limp, but I didn’t stop, I continued to bash the body against the groundbreaking skin and bone as blood spattered from the body.

I let the limp and almost unrecognizable body fall to the floor as I did the same with the other bodies, my once small smile had turned into a cackling laughter by now, as I threw all three of the bodies in a pile, I began to beat them to a bloody pulp, I never have been so exhilarated in all of my life.

Normality eventually came back to me, I simply stared at my now crimson hands, blood from the now jumbled mess of bones, flesh, and other potpourri of organs and all else I couldn’t recognize right there, I felt my stomach lurch, and I keeled over, clutching my sides with my arms, I felt myself tremble as the adrenaline from my sudden rage of anger and ruthless killing faded into my body, I felt pain, I looked behind me to look at the bite, It was leaking blood ever so profusely, creating a quite large puddle of blood below my calf, the lightheadedness kicked in and I fell on my side, breathing heavily.

I heard the gate open and watched as some of them came in and began taking the distorted bodies and putting them on a large stretcher, I listened to the sound of pieces of wet, bloody flesh slopped on one another.

I continued to breathe heavily as they left and Silver and his cohorts came over to observe my laying on the floor before them.

“Dear sweet Celestia! I didn’t think it’d do THAT much damage, I’ve never seen such rage in all my life!” I heard the yellow one exclaim as he overlooked my body.

“I told ya this thing would be worth it, and from the looks of it, he had himself one heck of a hayday with those wolves.” Silver said triumphantly.

“Yeah but that bite don’t look to good to me, we gotta get him to Mist if ya want him to fight two days from now.” The gray stallion said to the other two, whom nodded in agreement.

“And from what the judges saw, I’d say they’re putting him up against a adolescent manticore.” I watched him shudder a bit after saying that bit, which led me to believe a manticore wasn’t something you wanted to fuck with.

“Well if we want him to make it alive, I’d hope you two would be so kind as to get him to mist now wouldn’t you Odds? Skies?” The unicorn put off the harder labor to the others it seemed.

I listened to them both grumble as they took each of my arms and wrapped them around their shoulders, they then proceeded to drag me out of the arena, leaving their ‘boss’ in the arena alone to stare at me with the most pleasant smile on as if to say;

“That’ll do pig, that’ll do.”

They brought me down the final hall, where many groans and whimpers could be heard as we approached the common rusted iron door frame, with a loud series of knocks, supplied by Skies, as he was called by Silver.

“Come in!” said a younger sounding voice from the other side of the door.

We entered after the loud screeching of hinges and older, rusted metal moved to allow us inside, my nose was met with the sharp smell of isopropyl alcohol and blood, I looked in to see that there were multiple jars and vials of medicine and such that lined the shelves, accompanied by other pieces of equipment for such medical purposes, in the center of the room was a large operating table with adjustable, metal clamps to allow for ‘secure’ operations.

“Alright then... is this him?” A light blue unicorn with a darker navy mane came in from a back room, wiping his blood stained hooves with a white and red stained towel, stopping to look me up and down.

“Yeah Mist, just get him fixed up, he got a nasty bite on his leg there, just make sure he’ll be ready to fight two days from now.” Skies responded in a harsh tone, as to certain specifications which needed to be met by him.

“Oh... okay then...” Mist was perspiring a little from Skies’ loud and demanding tone.

“Get to work...” Skies and Odds dropped my body and let it slump to the floor and left.

After the slamming of the iron door, I was left with the now fidgeting unicorn in the antiseptic smelling room.

“Well.....ummmm.....lets get you up on the table here...” He said as he approached my slumped body.

He jumped back a little when I got myself up, slowly and painfully I got up and rolled onto the table, Mist approached hesitantly.

“You can understand me?...” He stuttered in a semi-shocked tone.

“Well what do you think my dear unicorn friend?” I retorted back to him in a cocky tone of voice.

“Well... its just... everything... well, anything that fights here...” He began, and I finished.

“Is too unevolved to talk in this language and think and act like your species does?”

He slowly nodded his head in response.

“I don’t think I could blame you Mist.” I started, he stared at me in complete shock when I said his name.

“Like I said, I can think too, I’m wearing CLOTHING for God’s sake, cmon, you honestly didn’t think we wouldn't be THAT dumb if we had clothing on now did you?”

“Well...”

“Sometimes I wonder about the thought process of all you ponies...” I said with just a hint of disappointment in my voice.

“You... know I don’t approve of all of... this...” He said in a blunt but shaky tone as he began washing his hooves in a bin of water nearby.

I just looked at him with the utmost confusion in my eyes, he then, after drying his hooves on a bloody towel.

“You think I volunteered for this?” He asked in a more firm tone.

“Well why else would you be here?”

“I’m only here by force.”

“I would have never known that...” I was starting to feel bad for this kid, I had no Idea what he went through, he’s still pretty young, about Twilight’s age.

“Oh shit, what did they do to Twilight?”

The thought suddenly rushed through my head, she wasn’t there when I was in the cage, they did something to her, I don't want to think what though, but I knew I had to get out of here, with Travis that is, and maybe this kid too, he seemed to have left some things he didn’t want to, and he was patching up my bite wound, it’s the least I can do for him.

“Listen Mist, I need to ask you a serious question right now...” My voice was stern and harsh, making Mist cringe at my tone.

“Sorry, but in all seriousness I have to ask you this.”

Mist firmed up a bit as I asked him my question.

“You and I both don’t like it here, right? I know I don’t but you?”

“No... They don’t supply enough medical utensils and equipment for me to get my job done... let alone enough for myself...”

“Alright we have something in common, now, are you willing to help me and my friend... the other one like me, get out of here?”

“As much as I want to... I don't see how we can...” His expression had changed to a saddened look, as if the worst would happen if we even tried anything.

I looked at the door behind me and looked back at Mist, I gestured for him to come a bit closer to tell him my plan in secret, he leaned in a bit as I cupped my hand around his ear and whispered every detail for his little pony brain to process and handle, as soon as I was done, he looked at me like I was some crazy bastard for thinking what I told him in secret.

“You’re... not serious... are you?...”

“Do I look like I’m gonna commit suicide in doing this?”

Mist looked me over quickly as I just stared at him, supreme confidence in my eyes told it all.

“Alright... I’ll help... When do you plan on doing this?... Sorry I never got your name.” Mist said as he finished closing up my wound with some bandage and a safety pin.

“We’re getting out tomorrow, and the name’s Taylor.” I said as Mist helped me to my feet.

As if on cue, Odds and Skies came in as I walked to the door with Mist’s help.

“Well, look who did their job right for once.” Odds said smugly as they strolled on in to get me.

“I’ve... always have my job done right...” Mist quietly responded, shrinking almost literally in size as he spoke.

“Oh shut up Mist, You just stay quiet and do your job, or your in line for a beatdown for talkin’ back.” Skies retorted, brutality in his voice of a very high level, making Mist look no bigger now than one of the wolves I fought and killed.

“Lets just take him back, Mist doesn’t deserve our time anyways.” Odds sounded bored from this ‘wasting of time’ with us.

They then proceeded to get me in the same position as before and drag me out of the room, I looked behind me to see a sad looking Mist all alone in the room as the doors slowly shut on their own, he and I both made eye contact for a brisk second before we lost sight of one another, a confident smile was all he gave before it shut, preventing me from seeing the one being who understood besides Travis.

“Poor kid...”

As the loud doors opened and shut behind me, I thought for a moment about my plan, and how Travis would react to it once I told him, Odds and Skies neared the end of the hall and I looked to see Travis sitting in the corner, looking off as if something has been bugging him for a while.

As they undid the lock on the cage, I watched as Travis’ head shot up and his eyes met with mine, as they opened the door and threw me in, he gave off a loud sigh of relief, happy that I was still alive.

Picking myself off the ground, I heard them close the door to my freedom on the way out, as the lock clicked, I heard Odds say these words before leaving.

“You better pray to Celestia that manticore doesn’t tear you up in two days.”

I turned to watch them leave, both of them laughing as they casually walked down the hall, as soon as the door shut behind them I turned to Travis, who was now looking at the bandage on my leg.

“How bad?” Was all he asked in a nonchalant tone.

“Not that bad... But it hurts though.”

“What were you up against?”

“Wolves, three of them.”

“How’d you win?”

I didn’t respond to him, I just kind of depressed my facial muscles and let them sink down, showing that I had no intention of talking about it.

“Oh... Bad?..”

“If you mean going absolute apeshit on all of them, beating their bodies into a bloody pulp until they’re unrecognizable, even unrecognizable that they’re even wolves bad then you have a low thought of what bad means.”

“Jesus Christ man... Remind me not to fuck with you next time you’re angry.”

“Yeah that's not really helping, but down to business...”

Travis leaned in intently to listen in to what I had planned.

“What business are you talking about?”

I gave a small smile to him as I too, leaned in to tell of my devious escape plan.

“Tomorrow... All hell breaks loose...”

The Time is Now

“A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.”

-Ayn Rand

“So yeah, after we get the...”

“Shhhhhh!!! Someone might be listening now! And quit talking so loud Travis...”

“Sorry but I just don’t see how...”

Just then the other creatures in the cages began making a fracas, giving Travis and I warning that someone was coming in.

“We can go over this later, now we need to get some sleep, okay Travis?”

It had been a long day fro him and I both, I just hoped that Mist had managed to do what I asked him to do, and that everything would go as planned tomorrow with the escape and all, I didn’t want any further complications than the bite on my leg, which would hinder my getaway speed.

“Alright then, goodnight Taylor.” Travis said, giving off a yawn before laying down on the uneven floor.

“Night Travis.”

It was quite hard to get in a good position to sleep, but I managed to do such a thing eventually, I slowly let my eyes close after a long day, letting all the thoughts of the day collect in the back of my head.

“How’s tomorrow going to turn out?”
.................
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“Will the apeshit rage ever happen again?”
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“Where’s Twilight? And what happened to her?”
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“Why are you not sleeping yet?”
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I was slowly walking down a long hallway, going nowhere, being nowhere, just there with nobody but me, myself and I.

“What art thou doing?” A familiar voice asked me, but nobody was to be seen anywhere.

“Trying to get back.” I said keeping my eyes on the horizon, where the sun and moon spun in a concentric circle over the mountains in the distance.

“Back to where may I ask?”

“Back to what used to be.”

“Back to what had once been?”

“What had once been before.”

“Before what?”

I stopped walking as I looked up to watch the sun and moon dissolve into the background, mountains and all left the scene as my gaze turned towards the dark water below my feet, which was rippling to reveal many distorted and demonic faces looking at me through the lightless scene, as soon as I saw them reach out to grab at my ankles, the large metal door below my feet slammed shut, and I looked up again to see nothing but the darkness of my mind.

“What in all of Equestria was that?” The voice was shocked and concerned the dark figures disappeared from view

“Some things are really better left unsaid my dear friend.” I replied in a lighter tone than was my surroundings.

“The many things that are swept under the rug for later eventually pile up, and must be cleaned out at some point.” The voice said back in a resistant voice, as if my response wasn't’ enough.

I gave a largely exasperated sigh as I stopped in my thinking of a good response, and I just gave in right there.

“Alright, I’ll make you a deal, when I get back, I’ll tell you, okay?”

“Such words sound fair to me, but I still shall worry about it...”

“You really mustn't worry about such things as of right now, and you taking time out from your duties to come and find me is more than enough for me.”

“I shall not worry, but ponder it, despite what thou art saying, I shall still think about such the topic you are speaking of.”

I chuckled to myself as I shook my head slowly, back and forth.

“Pray tell, what is it that be so funny to thou?”

“I just don’t understand you Luna, I only met you not even a day ago and you’re acting all caring and whatnot, which I don't understand.” I continued to chuckle at her a bit more after talking.

“There are more reasons why my mind contains thoughts of thou, being it mainly the fact that you have only been the first species to have been seen and have yet to be studied further in, being it your species is very intelligent to our standards.”

“I’ll find out soon enough when my friend and I come back, I’m sure he’ll need a introductory greeting too.” I informed her.

“Be it another of thy species?” Luna asked with massive interest now.

“Yes it is, in fact it’s someone I’ve known for quite some time, I think you’ll like meeting him.”

“Interesting...” Luna drifted off in thought right there I’m sure, pondering how Travis got here too.

“Well, I shall speak to thine soon, that is... I do hope...” Her voice had degraded to more sad tone.

“It’ll take much more than what we’re up against in order to keep me down.”

“That is very good to hear.” Luna’s voice was now sounding more reassured after my happy comment.

I found it now appropriate to end the conversation there, I did have a lot ahead of me again tomorrow, as usual it seemed now.

“Nice talking to you Luna.”

“Same feelings.”

“Good night, dear princess of the night.” I said playfully.

“No my dear subject, good morning to you.”

I awoke to the smell of damp clothing and the stench of not having any hygienic items at my disposal, I slowly lifted myself up to find Travis snoring away to my left, apparently, like a rock, I realized one thing today, something that Travis, Mist and I all wanted for a while now.

Freedom...

I turned around and shook Travis lightly on his shoulder to get him up for everything to fall in place as planned.

“Just another hour please...”

He was only half awake, but I needed him fully awake right now, I gave him another shake on the arm, which ended up putting him in a foul mood now.

“I said another hour!.. Oh.... Hi Taylor...” He laughed a bit while scratching the back of his head in a slight bit of embarrassment after realizing it was me.

“Hi and good morning, are you ready for today?” I asked him in a hushed tone, not wanting to stir up the uproar of the others, as Travis almost just did.

“No plan for ‘death and anguish’ I hope?”

“Real funny, now all we have to do is get their attention, you ready?”

Travis only gave me a devilish smile, which I then returned to him in the same manner, and I stated before it commenced.

“Let the fun begin...”

Travis and I began howling like complete animals, stirring up any and all of the others in the cages nearby, growls, roars and barks alike could be heard from up and down the hall, by now somebody had to of noticed, Travis and I stopped and let them do all of the work until someone came along.

Odds stirred from his cot in a room along one of the other halls from the new commotion in the containment room, which had aroused him from his ever-so-needed sleep.

He slowly got up and pushed open the metal door to his room for his ears to be greeted by the sound of countless animals howling in whatever emotion it may be in, one thing was for sure, it was early, there was still a good two hours before the arena opened up again, and he wanted to enjoy all the sleep he could get.

“This has to stop now...”

“You think someones coming?” Travis asked quietly.

We had been waiting for a good minute or two and nobody was coming to see what was happening with the loud animals and all.

Soon, the loud doors flew open, screeching and banging against the walls, and an angry voice, a loud booming yell had filled the room.

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!”

The voice of Odds filled the room, all of the animals immediately quieted down, whereas I began groaning and yelling out in pain.

“Who’s that?” I heard as Odds’ hoofsteps got closer and closer to our cage, I began clutching at my bandaged leg and rocking back and forth, moaning in pain.

“What’s wrong with you now?” Odds sounded irritated from being woken up it appeared, I just looked at him with pain in my eyes, trying for him to bring me out.

“Oh Celestia, you’re not lookin’ too hot are ya now? I better get you to Mist, hopefully this time he’ll get it right.”

I watched him pull a key ring from his side to open the lock, after the lock came undone, he fit them back onto a hook near his flank, he pulled open the door to get me out.

“C’mon now, lets not have you die on us without us knowing about it, that would be tragic.” He said sounding rushed, he probably wanted to get back asleep.

I limped out of the cage and he locked it back up after shutting it, replacing the ring on his flank again, I gave him a good look up and down, he looked really tired, and eager to get back to bed, so he’s probably half asleep right now, where he wouldn't notice me taking them, once I took care of him...

“C’mon I haven’t got all day, lets go now...” He rushed me down the hall and towards Mist’s operating room.

Odds gave a loud series of angry knocks on the metal door, the sound of metal ringing bounced off the walls as he continued to beat on the door.

“Mist! Get out here!” Odds was sounding like he was gonna really beat the living hell out of him, which would really complicate some things.

“You know... you don’t have to be so loud... some ponies need their sleep...” Mist rubbed his eyes with his hooves after he opened the door, sounding a bit groggy as he spoke.

Odds immediately pushed the door open and had Mist by the neck as he pushed him up against the wall, knocking over multiple pieces of equipment for Mist’s medical purposes and lifting him up so that he couldn’t breathe, Mist gasped for air as Odds spoke.

“I have had it... This is the LAST time, that I go without sleep because YOU couldn’t do your job right! Even if I have to BEAT it into your thick skull!” Words of death and torture flew from Odds’ mouth as he choked the young stallion.

Mist’s eyes now gazed upon me, pleading for mercy and for me to help him out in any way shape and form I could.

I looked around to see a large jar of gauze and bandage, I picked it up and positioned myself behind Odds as he now readied himself to beat down on Mist, now holding him with only one hoof, the other back as if readying for a satisfying punch, Mist only choked out a few gasps before Odds spoke.

“Oh... I’m REALLY gonna enjoy this...” He was now smiling as he readied the first blow.

“No, I think I’ll enjoy this more.”

I made him turn around just in time to see me bread the large jar over his head, Mist fell to the floor gasping for air as Odds fell to the floor in a heap, a small trickle of blood ran down his snout as broken bits of glass surrounded him and some of which even resided in his mane.

“You okay Mist?” I asked as the unicorn coughed to the floor and took in great gasps of breath in between.

“Yes... I think I’ll live...” He stuttered as he responded to me.

“Alright then... with him out of the way... the plan can now unfold as we wanted it to.” I said triumphantly, nudging Odds’ body to make sure he wasn’t awake.

“This... just might work...” Mist had now formed a bit of confidence within himself, and mustered up a small smile.

“It will work... and these will help...” I said as I picked up the keys from Odds’ flank and dangling them in front of my face with a large smile plastered on it.

“Wait... we can get into the storage room now... they keep all the useful things there... they wont let me in though... but now we can get in...” Mist stated.

“Looks like it might be easy street from here on in...”

The door opened behind us, revealing the black earth pony who had worked the cranks to open the door to the arena.

“Oh easy street my flank.” he said as he cracked his neck, trying to make himself look more intimidating before us.

I stood firm as he cracked his appendages, however, Mist had now turned a lighter periwinkle color and was now breathing heavy again.

“You really think that nobody’d notice that you would be missing? That nobody’d hear the glass breaking? Well that is where you’re...”

He was cut short, as he was struck in the side of the head with a large club, which sent him reeling to the wall before falling to the floor unconscious, revealing Travis behind him, smiling devilishly.

“God that was starting to get annoying!” Travis said as he heaved the club onto his shoulder.

“Thought you’d have all the fun without me?” he beamed.

“How did you get out?” I asked, shocked that he did get out, for he had no key.

“You forget I keep a torsion wrench and feeler pick in my wallet.” He said as he held up the two small tools in his free hand.

“That would have been nice for me to know!” I was getting aggravated now from all of the interruptions.

“We... better get going... somepony’s bound to come...” Mist stated quietly.

“Mist’s right, we need to get moving, but first, Mist can you lead us to the storage room?” I asked in urgency, in fear of somepony coming our way right this moment.

“Well yes... but I’m sure it’s guarded...”

“Problem?” Travis stated as he smacked the club a few times in his hands.

“Let’s just go now, Mist, lead the way.”

Mist gave a small nod as he led us out of the room, we carefully stepped around the body of the earth pony, Travis however, gave a swift kick to the ribs, making him groan a little.

“Why?” I asked for an explanation, “He was already out cold.”

“Let’s just say he deserved it for some... ‘actions’ that were taken by him against me, lets leave it at that.”

We both ended up following Mist down the hall, taking ever so many turns and long halls until we came to a large door with a sleeping guard in a chair, leaned back against the wall, sword and hilt and snoring, I was not ready to wake him up.

“Keep quiet we don’t want to wake him up, we need to... Travis where are you going?”

Travis was now casually walking towards the sleeping guard, club twirling on his wrist, with his pen spinning skills, he made it look pretty cool though.

“What the hell are you doing Travis!” I whispered loudly.

Travis didn’t respond, he kept walking up to the guard and promptly prodded him in the shoulder, which made him stir a bit before speaking.

“Ehh? Is my shift over now?” He said gruffly.

“It sure is, and you’re being let go too.”

Travis swung the club from the side with full force, when it connected with the guard’s skull, I saw his body just fly from the chair and connect with the wall, there was a slight groan before silence set in.

“That’s how you get shit done around here.” Travis said while twirling the club around, I on the other hand, wasn’t too happy about it.

“What the hell was that Travis? You wanna get us killed? You can’t just beat the fuck out of everything you see as the enemy!... Sometimes you really need to take a better approach...” His beatdowns were beginning to become too predictable, and overused at that...

“New high score?...” He said trying to lighten the situation with gaming references.

“Shut the hell up.” I said giving him a small punch to the back, which he promptly ignored.

“Let’s see what she holds.” Travis said while rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

“Calm yourself.” I said, pulling out the keys and trying each one until I found the one that fit in the lock before turning it and hearing a satisfying ‘click’.

The doors slowly creaked open to reveal multiple shelves with food,equipment and all the like within it’s hold.

“Oh yes, now this is what I’m talking about...” Travis waltzed in like a kid in a candy store, looking through every bin and container, Mist had too, skipped in joyfully and began rummaging through it all.

“Look at all the medical equipment! They’ve been holding out on me! I mean, all of this from bandage to antiseptics of all the like, and...”

“MIST!” I said in a quiet but firm tone, getting the unicorn’s attention and snapping him out of his euphoric happiness and overjoyed feelings, he quietly gave me a sheepish smile, then proceeded to rummage through the bins.

I ended up finding things that ranged from raw meat, that was probably bad from how it smelled, to weapons of all the like, I myself, favored a small, concealable dagger, with a black tinted blade that was encrusted with sapphires on the hilt, Travis found a belt of throwing knives, as we clipped on our weapons, Mist rejoined to have found a saddlebag and filled it with medical supplies, some food, a grappling hook and some other survival potpourri.

“We have what we need?” I asked to make sure we didn’t have to make two trips for more supplies.

“Yes... I think so...” Mist responded, levitating each individual item out of his pack to make sure he had everything.

“These are all I really need.” Travis said, showing off his new array of knives on his belt.

“Well good for you then, lets get going if we want to make our leave ever-so-entertaining.” I stated factually, we really did need to leave before the worst came.

We took what we grabbed and left the room, making good time as we jogged, (I somewhat limped.) down the hall and towards the main entrance.

As we stopped in the main room, the plan was near completion, just the ‘optional’ part remained.

“Alright, we’ve made it this far, now lets have this escape go down with a bang...” I said smiling at the other two.

“You’re... not gonna REALLY blow it up... are you? What about the animals?” Mist said concerned for the safety of all of the creatures he has helped nurse to prime condition.

“Mist, it’s alright, we’re not gonna REALLY blow it up, we’re just gonna have some fun, and the animals will be a big part in it, cmon lets go.”

We jogged down the hall to the containment room, prepared for what was going to happen next in the big scheme of things, when we opened the door, the uproar of all of the creatures began again.

“We need to work fast, Travis, start unlocking all of the cages and letting the animals out, Mist, direct them out of the room, I’ll help Travis get them open, got it?”

They both nodded in response to my game plan, and began going to work, Travis and I got one cage after the other open, letting things from wolves to what I thought was a manticore, the large orange coated, maroon maned beast with the scorpion tail and wings bounded out of its cage and out of the hall, it’s roar could be heard as it got farther and farther away.

As the last of the animals got out, Travis and I stopped to admire our work, Him and I had released every creature out of its containment and was now roaming the halls of the arena, any unlucky pony would be met with those they have held captive and the table will have turned.

“Wanna let him out?” Travis pointed to a VERY large door at the end of the hall, which I failed to notice upon my first coming here.

“Who’s he?” I asked Travis as I looked at the door, wondering what could be behind it.

“You’re... talking about the Ursa Minor?...” Mist said in a shaky tone, almost sounding as if dreading the name of it.

“What else!” Travis threw his hands in the air, as if to say ‘no duh’ .

“This could be interesting...” I said advancing towards the large door, pulling out the key to unlock it as I did so.

“Let the real fun... begin.” Travis said with a slightly evil smile as he and I opened the doors to reveal complete darkness.

Something very big and very lightly colored blue made it’s way out of the shadows, poking it’s head out of the dark, it was a bear alright, but bigger than anything I've ever seen in my life that roamed the earth.

I watched as it’s yellow eyes scanned the room as it came out, the eyes eventually transfixed on me and Travis, and soon Mist, he then proceeded to ignore us as he stalked out of his cage, towering over all of us by a good couple of feet before stopping in front of the smaller door, and by raising one of it’s gargantuan paws up and bringing it down on the wall and door, they both broke with a loud rumble as the wall and door came down.

The Ursa then roared and bounded out of the doorway it made, leaving the three of us to watch in awe at it’s pure power and strength it just demonstrated to all of us.

“DAYUM!!!” Travis exclaimed after that scene.

“You... can say that again...” Mist responded quietly.

“DAYUM!!!”

“Alright we’ve had our fun, now lets get out of here, we still need to get out of here if you guys didn’t remember.” I got them back into focus, and we made our way out.

As we raced down the hallway, we saw the not so very pleasant scene of many ponies being attacked and killed by the animals we released, I recognized Skies and Silver in the commotion, fighting off anything that came their way, Silver’s eyes then met mine with a look a ruthless murderer would have, I waved back before running down the entrance hall.

“Go go go!” Travis yelled out to us, prompting us to move our asses and not stop to look at the gruesome scenery.

Silver and Skies tried to get through the commotion, but to no avail when the Ursa suddenly appeared and growled a low growl, making all things, ponies and creatures that were still alive turn tail and run out of the room in fear of total obliteration from the Ursa.

“This isn’t over!” I heard Silver yell at us while they ran down the opposite hallway for safety.

We made our way down the entrance hall and approached the now unguarded door, I fumbled with the keys a bit before hearing a rumbling sound.

I turned around to see the Ursa charging at the door we were going to open, we couldn’t dodge it we had to get out now.

“Hurry up and open the damn door or we’re all dead!” Travis was frantic in all of this, I still fumbled with the keys a bit and the Ursa was losing distance...fast.

“OPEN THE DAMN DOOR!!!”

“I’M TRYING QUIT RUSHING ME!!!”

“QUIT YELLING!!!” Mist yelled at both of us, he just wanted to get out of this alive, so did we, and I went back to the door.

Soon enough, I fit the right key into the lock and it opened up, we all ran like we had never done before, the adrenaline rushed through my body as we ran to the side and dived off to the side.

There was a loud crash as we looked to see the Ursa smash through the wall like it was styrofoam, we then watched as the large beast ran down the dirt trail, making the ground below us tremble less and less as it gained distance.

“We... we actually made it out...” Mist quietly got out.

“And doesn't that fresh air smell just WONDERFUL?” Travis took in a deep breath from his nose and exhaled just as dramatically.

“Well there’s no use in us sitting around here now is there? Let’s just go, we’ll find our way back.” I started down the dirt trail that was our only lead to civilization.

“Where to though?” Travis asked, uncertainty present in his voice.

“Why, to Ponyville, where else?” I smiled and continued to walk down the road, letting my friends catch up.

We had just stopped the illegal actions of ever so many ponies, and saved many lives of the innocent, and helped two friends get out with me today.

“I feel very accomplished today.”

Wishing we were Home

AUTHOR'S NOTE
Just to let you know, I didn't put in the notes saying whose viewpoint it is when it transitions, you are all (I hope) smart enough to discern the transitions from person to pony and whatever, thanks for reading, if u like it, send it to a friend or something, I want more people to view, and you are my best way of doing so, the next chapter will be the reunification of ponies and humans, thought I'd let you know, but anyways, comments and constructive criticism are always appreciated, so thanks and hope you enjoy this chapter, and that you will continue to read in later chapters too.

“Learn from the past, set vivid, detailed goals for the future, and live in the only moment of time over which you have any control: now.”

-Denis Waitley

It had been an hour, since we got out of the arena, and nearly getting rammed by an Ursa minor
“Well I mean, come on Mist, you honestly have nothing to say after that?”

Travis was trying to get Mist to talk, he hadn’t spoken for the whole time, he had just been looking off, as if deep in thought about something that was really on his mind.
at that too, Travis, Mist and I had been trekking down the dirt trail for at least an hour now, and we had no idea where we were or which way led to Ponyville at all.

“Mist? You alright man?” I tried to get him to come back to us, but to no avail, he still walked staring off at the ground deep in thought.

“MIST!!!”

I yelled in his ear, making him jump nearly out of his coat, I watched him jerk his head around as if someone was going to murder him in his wake, he continued to look around until his eyes fixed on the two of us simply staring at him with confused and concerned looks on our faces.

“Oh... Hi guys...” Mist said before looking down at his hooves and digging at the ground

“You’re really starting to scare me bro.” Travis gestured to himself as he spoke for emphasis.

“Well... I’m sorry if I did...” His voice was sad and quiet as it always sounded, besides the quiet

“What’s on your mind man? You were so eccentric when we got out, what’s eating at you?”

“It’s just... My family...”

“What about them? Won’t they be happy to finally see you again after so long?”

His continual silence said it all, I didn’t want to go any deeper for any such explanation as to why his parents or his family wouldn’t want to see him or why he was so depressed.

“Guessing you have nowhere to go now?” Travis asked, breaking the emotional silence between all of us.

“Really Travis?” I said trying to disregard his rudeness.

“What? Don’t you want to know too?” He tried to defend himself with his abrupt curiosity.

“Yes, but at the same time I still have the respect to let him keep his personal thoughts to himself!” I retorted back.

Travis just shrugged his shoulders and kept walking on ahead, not wanting any more from me to him about him being too nosy.

We walked on, eventually the terrain changed to a slight incline and the ground became more mountainous, showing less greenery and more jagged rocks protruding from the ground and larger boulders around us.

After another twenty or so minutes of walking, we came to the top of the incline, to show the sun almost nearing the tips of the mountains in the west, we could now see the vast Everfree forest from the far side.

I’d say it was at least a good six or so miles across, by the time the sun would have set, we would probably be stuck in the middle of the dense timberland if we decided to risk it, along with all the fun creatures we would meet along the way, whom I’m sure would be willing to eat us in our sleep.

“Lets set up camp.”

We managed to set up a small camp by the time the sun was hidden from view by the mountains, just barely outlining Canterlot castle in the vast distance ahead of us.

“We’re almost home...”

I looked on over the forest from the top of a cliff I now stood on the end of, trying to get a glimpse at Ponyville from the heightened elevation and vast distance between our two locations, but all that could be seen was the large willow looking trees and a large murky looking bog of sorts off to the side in a clearing, I turned to see Travis walking towards me.

“Well, we have some apples that Mist managed to get from the storage room before we got out, some stale bread too...” He said as he bit down on his stale cracker, making a slightly disgusted face from it.

“Be happy you have food.” I laughed a little passing him by to head back to the temporary settlement.

“I’m going to look for a future route down for tomorrow then.” Travis stated as he strolled along the cliff’s edge, loud crunching could be heard accompanying him on his search.

When I had arrived, Mist had just gotten here as I did, in the faint orange light of the sunset, I saw his coat was somewhat visibly duller and had different shades of brown and green on it with a bit of debris in his unkempt mane, he was carrying some sticks and logs he had found for the fire in his saddlebag we would have before calling it quits for the night.

“Got some wood and tinder for the fire? That's good...”

Other than pointing out the obvious, I had nothing better to say, I still though wanted to leave the orientation of Mist’s concerning embodiment out of the conversation, he only responded with a slow nod, showing no change in expression while dumping his hull of wood on a growing pile of it near his hooves.

I then proceeded to grab an apple from the small pile of supplies from Mist’s saddlebag earlier, I plopped down next to the small ring of rocks surrounding sticks, twigs and all other burnable matter, Mist levitated a box of matches from the pile of things, he then proceeded to open it and light a match right after, igniting the small carbon based pile of stuff.

Things stayed quiet after that, I munched on my apple while he stared into the orange flames as their flare could be seen in the reflection of his eyes, he was usually quiet from what I can tell, but this was a self contained silence, this wouldn't be normal for anybody, or anypony at that.

“You really need to make the better of this Mist, you do realize you’re going home after ever so long.”

I tried to lighten him up, but he just kept staring, his eyes looked deep and empty, as if all in the world could never be enough to heal his internal isolation of his own... whatever emotion he was feeling right now, he’s not making it any much easier to depict him in any way, shape or form right now.

“This might be a while...”

Travis walked along the cliff’s edge, kicking a rock along as he went, he was supposed to be looking for a way for him and his friends to get down it tomorrow when they were to depart for the small town of Ponyville, he wasn’t sure though that it was the actual Ponyville of his heart’s ambitions, which contained the ideas of a writer from Maryland but there was an equine superior race, so as of now anything could be true.

He then stopped, noticing the quiet of it all, it was unsettling, it reminded him too much of the arena, so quiet, so lonely, so isolated from everything...

“Damn landscape...” Travis shook his head as he continued to walk along, kicking a rock off the edge before leaving the spot.

He eventually came to a suitable spot in the cliff side, where they could get down without too much trouble, eventually he would go back to give the info to Taylor and Mist...

Right after he found out where this cave led to...

Heat emanated from the inside of the cave, suggesting something volcanic possibly? He didn’t know but he did want to find out, tentatively making his way in, he began his little exploration for his own curiosity.

I was now laying on my back, watching the smoke from the fire rise into the orange clouded sky, I gave a casual glance over to Mist, he was still staring into the flame with his large aqua colored eyes, he had now been at this for ten to fifteen minutes now, I really for once wanted Travis to come back so that he would do something to liven up the mood.

“Wait, where is Travis? He should have come back by now.” I now got up to walk over to where I last talked to him.

Looking around I didn’t see any sign of him, BOOM a low rumble of the earth shook me up a bit, I looked around for a reason, and as if for explanatory purposes, I saw Travis rounding the bend in the mountain path , running with a look of desolate fear upon his face.

“Travis!” I yelled at him, “What the hell did you do now?”

He then proceeded to wave his hands in the air and yell something as he ran, making gestures to go away as the rumbling volume grew more immense, and the ground shook more violently, making me almost lose my sense of balance.

“Go! There’s a BOOM get going, what are BOOM deaf? GO! BOOM” I could make out as Travis go closer, as he passed me by he grabbed my arm and dragged me along with him.

“Wait! what are you saying Travis?”

BOOM

“I’m saying for you to move your ass NOW!” he continued to drag me along as he ran at full speed.

I resisted and pulled back from him, making him lose his grip, “WHAT though is it!?!” I yelled at him, concern now present in my tone.

BOOM

I watched him look above me, his face turned pale as he turned and hauled ass, I noticed that the ground around me was shadowed over and I felt hot waves of air hit me from behind, suggesting something was breathing on me, something bigger than me obviously.

Slowly turning around, I made eye contact with it’s feet, as my eyes scaled up it’s body, I eventually met with two yellow eyes, both with cat’s eye slits, the eyes were on a large, pointed scaling face, whose nostrils blew smoke, and mouth shown many razor fangs in my general direction, that could only be owned by a very large, fire-breathing, sharp teeth bearing...

Dragon.

“Ummmmmmm...... Hi there?...”

I tried to be and sound friendly, but the beast already seemed in a foul mood, and was in such a mood, anything seemed appropriate to attack and wreak havoc on, especially something that was moving and breathing, to dodge it’s attacks and make it all the more frustrated, and give it all the more reason to want to kill me.

With a loud roar and a deep inhalation of oxygen, it blew hot red flames from it’s mouth nearly scathing me, I ran, I can tell you the Ursa minor was scary but god... This was NOTHING compared to this kind of fear, this was something that actually wanted to kill me out of it’s own anger and frustration that I didn’t cause mind you.

”If I make it out of this alive, Travis is in store for an ass kicking.”

Pretty much all I could do was run for right now, and make sure that I didn’t end up getting killed in the process of keeping my life a lot longer by doing so.

“Alright now! Unless you want to get your ass burnt to a crisp, we gotta get moving Mist!”

I felt bad for Taylor, I ended up upsetting a dragon by going into the cave he lived in...

Finding a large pile of gold and gems...

And proceeding to try and take some while he was snoring while sleeping on it...

I really just wanted the big one in his claws, the deep-red ruby, which was my favorite by the way, blood red in color, value ever so high with that size, it just called to me... Or I just wanted it, to be frank here, I wouldn’t be in this situation if I had just settled for some gold or smaller gems less near his face, but my wants and desires can be so demanding at times.

Back to reality here, I came to find Mist still sitting at the fire, which was now a dying flame of embers, he had still ceased to move in the time I was gone, I gave him a shake on the shoulder, but no response came from the cyan unicorn.

“ROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!”

That seemed to shake up Mist from his deep trance, making him blink several times before looking around, then to make eye contact with me.

“Did... I miss anything important?...”

“Nope, just a giant fire-breathing dragon that will singe our hides if we don’t get outta here, no big deal.” I stated sarcastically, “Just go back to what you were doing Mist.”

“Wait... Dragon?...” Mist looked a little unsure right there, I was really getting tired of his slow, pony mind right now.

“YES! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE, DO I NEED TO SPELL IT OUT FOR YOU!?”

I watched him cringe below my suddenly louder-than-normal voice, the fearful look that he almost always wore on his face in a situation like this, or any other situation at that.

I jerked my head around to see a jet of flame come from somewhere back where I left Taylor, indicating the dragon was almost definitely pissed off right now.

Without any further hesitation, I grabbed Mist, slung him over my shoulder, making him give off a quiet yelp of surprise, and took off at full speed in the direction of where Ponyville was supposed to be, the rumbling of the dragon’s footsteps were now further away, giving me time to get a head start in case Taylor was so kind as lead it back towards our location, ensuring that we all die painful deaths of burning and teeth in our bodies, or claws, which wouldn’t be the way I wanted to die tonight.

Fluttershy looked off over the horizon, after hearing that angry roar of what she discerned as a dragon somewhere off in the distance, she carefully scanned the distance to see where the angry creature was sounding from, she couldn’t stand too much longer with him being so unhappy, she would try her best to calm it down, after she found it that is.

A jet of orange flame shot up multiple times off in the distance, it was too far though for her to have to fly all the way out there, it was getting dark, she would have to tell Twilight, then again, she wasn’t sure weather or not to get Twilight.

After what happened the other day she was pretty upset, she was constantly telling all of them that it was her responsibility for the human and that she had failed her by letting her get kidnapped, she was always in her room with the door shut, nopony had seen her the whole time, the only time she had opened her door was to let Spike give her food and to put the dishes outside.

Fluttershy’s mind was a jumbled mess, she could either tell Twilight, but possibly put her in a not so much better mood than she was, or, she could leave her be and hope the dragon would calm down, (which she was sure it wouldn’t).

She paced back and forth, weighing out the outcomes of it all, from dragon to Twilight and Twilight to dragon, it was hard being the element of kindness when either option would cause some harm.

Angel then appeared with a small nightcap on his head, dragging a small pillow as he walked towards her, the commotion in the distance with the grumpy dragon was not helping him sleep at all, he stopped in front of a pacing Fluttershy, who was talking back and forth to herself in an urgent manner, poking her in the foreleg with his paw made her come back, she jumped a little and gave out a small squeak as she looked around and then saw an angry looking Angel near her hooves.

“What is it Angel? Is there something wrong?”

Angel pointed in the direction of the dragon’s rage and held up his pillow to show her that he was trying to sleep.

“Yes I know Angel... But what about Twilight? I mean, she’s not in the best mood for this sort of thing...”

Angel shook his head violently and pointed in the direction of the dragon again.

“But...”

Angel stood firm on his need of sleep, the sooner I was quiet, the better for him and all other animals trying to sleep, he pointed yet again towards the commotion.

“Okay Angel... I hope Twilight doesn’t mind...”

Fluttershy flew off in the direction of Ponyville, not sure how Twilight was going to react, but the conditions favored the dragon, mainly because it would satisfy two instead of just one with her friend, the dragon might end up coming this way with it’s rage, which made it all the more urgent for her.

Angel watched Fluttershy race off into the distance, the night was beginning to take over as the earth began to lose light, the sunset was finally over and the moon began to rise where the sun once rose, he dragged his pillow back in the cottage and threw himself onto the rug in the middle of the living room, and covering his head with his pillow, he tried to block out the sound of the noise in the distance while waiting for his caretaker to get back with her other equine friends.

“I am going to laugh if I make it out alive...”

I was still on the run from the dragon, he wasn’t giving up until he killed something it seemed, he was chasing me recklessly, destroying everything in his way to get at me, this would be a good story to tell when I got back, that I made it out alive from a rampaging dragon.

“ROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!”

The dragon was still not in the best mood though, I tried to maneuver around trees to confuse him, but that seemed to be a worthless tactic, since he was just snapping all of them like they were twigs as he went.

I had a stoke of luck when the dragon and I reached a more dense part of the forest, visibility would be lost there and I would have a chance to stop and hide if it couldn’t see me.

I found a large tree that had the soil washed away from it’s massive roots from years of rains and storms, I quickly slid below to take cover, just hoping that he wouldn’t find me.

The snapping of trees suddenly stopped, I heard grunts and small roars of frustration as he stomped around, he was staying in this one spot, breathing small bursts of flame everywhere, trying to flush me out of hiding, I had no way of running with out it finding me and then charring me to the bone.

“Just gonna have to wait it out then...”

I got comfortable where I was now, still staying alert if the dragon did just so happen to find me.

“Wait!... Where’s Taylor?” Mist asked over my shoulder as I ran blindly, just trying to get as far away from the dragon.

I slowed down to a halt and let Mist down off my shoulder, looking behind me I saw nothing but trees, no sign of the dragon, no sign of the camp, no sign of Taylor.

“Somewhere...” I pointed towards where we came from, “Back there...”

“Wait... You mean to tell me that... there’s a rampaging dragon back there and... He’s back there too?...” Mist sounded concerned and I couldn’t blame him for that.

“Yes, but I wouldn’t worry about him... He’ll find a way out of it, what we can do is make it back to Ponyville and get help, or to any other civilization...”

“You just better hope he’s not dead when we get help...” Mist said curtly, yet again, I can’t blame him.

Him and I could only hurry along in the general direction of Ponyville, to get help and try to make it back to Taylor before he got killed, again.

Twilight sat on her bed thinking, thinking about how she couldn’t protect him, thinking about how she had failed her mentor by not being able to protect the human whom she had somewhat grown attached to, she liked having him around, he didn’t have the cleanest mouth with profanity and all, but he was indeed a good ‘human’ for that matter, but she really wanted to know what the so called ‘it’ was, his words echoed in her mind as she remembered the last time he mentioned it.

"I don't want to talk about it, I never want to talk about it, I don't even want to THINK ABOUT IT, FOR AS LONG AS I LIVE!!!"

Those words that he said, with such force and hate of the subject mad it all the more concerning, Princess Celestia probably had no intention of learning the true nature of it, but she felt that she needed to know, one way or another, he seemed so... isolated from everything, having no intention of wanting to accept it and keeping to himself because of it, Twilight then heaved a sigh and dropped her face onto the pillow right below.

There was a knock from downstairs, Spike would get it, since she had no intention of showing her face to anybody after what happened, there were muffled words from the main lobby and soon after, rushed steps from Spike coming up the stairs for her it seemed.

“Twilight!” Spike started, “We have just a bit of a problem here!”

Twilight got up and shuffled her way to the door, opening it ever so slightly so she could see who was here, Spike stood at the door with a frantic expression on his face, nopony else was there.

“Who’s here?” Twilight asked bluntly.

“Ummm... that would be me...” Came the quiet voice of Fluttershy as she flew into view from downstairs.

“What’s so bad now Fluttershy?” Twilight showed no emotion in her voice, just the same blunt tone she had used for the past day now.

“Well... I was out making sure that the animals were all tucked in and were getting ready for bed... and that the nocturnal...”

“Get on with it Fluttershy, not to be rude or anything, but you’re giving me unneeded information here.”

“Ummm... Well... There was this commotion off in the distance... and I saw fire.... So I think there might be an angry, rampaging, ferocious dragon out there...”

Twilight’s eyes grew large and the door flew open, making Fluttershy and Spike jump back a little startled, Twilight pushed through them and rushed down the stairs and began levitating books in front of her face.

“This is the chance I have to redeem myself!”

“Twilight, what are you looking for?” Spike asked, She payed him no mind and continued to look for the specific book that she had trouble finding.

“Ugh! Where is it?!” Twilight was going through every shelf that had the book she was looking for, but still failed to find it.

“Ya lookin’ for this?” Pinkie popped her head from a pile of books that Twilight had made while on her furious search.

“You had to be the one to find it huh Pinkie?” Twilight smiled a little as she shook her head, levitating the book from Pinkie’s hooves.

“Well of course silly! I know where all your books are!” Pinkie said matter-of-factly.

“But how did you know that was the book I was looking for?” Twilight questioned

“The nice story man told me!” Pinkie was smiling as if the ‘story man’ was someone they all knew.

“Okay then Pinkie, whatever you say...” Twilight said with concern as she went to the book, Pinkie happily bounced around the room, humming to herself being Pinkie.

“What book is it Twilight?” Spike asked for a second time.

“Bestiary of Equestrian Creatures. A book on zoology basically...” Twilight said now getting lost in thought as she flipped through the pages of the book.

“Uh... say what now?” Spike was not exactly following with what she was saying.

“A guide to all creatures of Equestria...” Twilight started, “You know Spike, I’ve got just the book for you so we don’t run in to this problem so much, It’s called the dictionary, you should read it, I already have about four times though.” She was now messing with him, going back to her normal self.

“Oh very funny Twilight.” Spike rolled his eyes.

“Fluttershy, do you think you can help me round up the others? This may be a bit much for you and I to handle on our own.”

“Oh... Yes, I’m sure I can...” Fluttershy responded quietly before going out the front door.

Twilight closed the book and tucked it into a saddlebag before strapping it on herself and walking out the door as well.

“Cmon Pinkie we better get going.” Twilight called to the pink mare, who was balancing multiple books by their corners on one another.

They stayed that way as she bounced out the door with Twilight, as the door shut behind them, Spike stood there, staring in awe at the massive tower of books balanced in such an impossible way, but that was Pinkie, he snapped out of his staring and looked around himself, he gave a loud sigh as he began to pick up books that Twilight had thrown around in her search.

“Sometimes I wonder Twilight...” Spike said out loud to nobody in particular as he cleaned up the mess, leaving the tower there, just because he wanted to.

Sedatives

Okay, here's the deal, I started work at the beginning of the week, and this was FAR more along than what it is was before I began my job, thats why this chapter took so long to get ready for publishing, I REALLY spoil you all too much with all this hard work I put in for the pleasure of all, some comments and likes would always be appreciated here, so have a 7000+ word chapter and enjoy!

Oh and P.S some more gore in the chapter, not super descriptive, but I thought I'd warn you all before you read though so you don't get mad at me for no warning.

“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.”

-David Brinkley

I was shaken awake by a drop of water that fell onto my eye as I laid under the roots of the tree, I had nearly dozed off while the dragon still was searching for me in it’s rage, I heard it roar and felt the heat as it spit fire from it’s mouth as it was looking for any trace of me.

I saw the rain come, unnoticeable to those who didn’t look to closely at things, at first in small sheets of mist, but it eventually started to transition into a light shower, thunder could be heard overhead, I peeked from under the tree’s base to see where the dragon was, it was still there, wings flared, smoke coming from it’s nostrils in anger, and slits ever so thin in it’s eyes.

I watched it look up at the sky and twist it’s neck around as it took one final look before taking off into the sky, apparently it didn’t like the rain, which was good for me, but this was a thunderstorm too, I waited for a few minutes, listening as the roars of frustration and anger faded as it gained distance, for it’s failure in finding me.

I slowly pulled myself out from under the hollowed out earth, rain now coming down I walked off in a random direction, having no idea where Travis and Mist went, staying here would do me no good than stay here and hope for a miracle, my shoes squished under my feet as water pooled in my soles as I walked along the muddy ground, I thought my chances of finding something were better since it obviously couldn't get any worse from here on in.

Boy was I wrong...

“Twilight honestly, do you really think this is the best of all ideas?” Rarity protested, “Look! It’s even starting to rain! My mane will get wet!”

“How’s bout we don't repeat anything from the past ya hear?” Applejack didn’t want to hear complain about that sort of thing again, reminiscent of Twilight’s first sleepover with them.

Twilight ignored her protests and Applejack’s remarks, they were on their way to the center of the town, to meet up with Fluttershy, Pinkie and Rainbow, who she had rounded up for their little ‘operation’ involving a rampaging dragon.

They had all dealt with one earlier on, thanks to Fluttershy and her ‘stare’ they had managed to make him leave and prevent him from creating a major health hazard for all ponies of the town with the smoke he was exhaling while sleeping.

Twilight stared at the sky, the rain wasn’t helping in their cause, the only visible light was that of the lamps that lined the streets and Luna’s moon in the sky, slightly overshadowed by the dark clouds supplying the rain and thunder above, along with the occasional flash and bolt in the sky from the storm itself, they were about to venture off in the Everfree, six ponies, one large rampaging dragon, and almost no light source.

The odds didn’t look to high right now.

The three of them eventually made their way to the center of town, not too far off, Fluttershy, Pinkie and Rainbow were sitting there, patiently waiting for them to come.

“It’s about time all of you got here! I thought I thought I was gonna have to wait HOURS before any of you showed up!” Dash had said almost condescendingly towards them.

“Well we would’ve been here a lot quicker if SOMEPONY dint’ have ta’ ‘beautify’ herself before coming out!” Applejack stared down Rarity, blaming her for it all.

“Ummm... Can we please stop yelli-” Fluttershy’s quiet voice was ignored and cut off by Rarity.

“Well I’m sorry for caring about how I look before going out! Unlike some others I would like to mention.” Rarity returned the stare down towards Applejack, the two of them were now snout to snout with eachother, both trying to get the blame on one another.

“GIRLS!” Twilight’s voice overcame their bickering and dirty looks to bring them back to the matter at hand.

They all stared blankly at Twilight, but Pinkie however was busy splashing in puddles that had now accumulated in the streets, paying no mind to her yelling.

“Sorry for the yelling, but can we get back to the matter at hoof here? You know the one with the rampaging dragon that could possibly be coming this way?” Twilight sounded annoyed, Applejack and Rarity both looked at the ground in their own disappointment in themselves.

“So that’s it? A rampaging dragon? Pfft, too easy!” Dash was thinking too highly of herself again, but Twilight let her have another one of her ‘That’s nothing’ moments as she always did.

“Anyways... we have to somehow stop or redirect it’s rampage, to make sure it doesn’t end up coming here and destroying everything, is that clear to everypony?”

The four of them nodded their heads, Pinkie was now jumping rooftops nearby, doing flips and spins as she giggled and laughed along.

“Cmon Pinkie! we gotta get going!” Twilight called as they began walking down the path towards Fluttershy’s house.

“Going where now?” Pinkie appeared in front of them as she normally would, having no explanation for why it was possible.

“Let’s just get going...” Twilight huffed, just wanting to get this done.

They all began to trot down the path, Rarity was careful not to step in any of the accumulating puddles on the street below, but it wasn’t helping, since Pinkie bounced in all of the puddles they went by, giving off large splashes of water on the rest of them as they went along.

Twilight couldn’t help but think of the possibility of this commotion being the cause of the human, he had been captured and taken away by some ruffian stallions, he was by no means stupid at that, he may have gotten out and this may be some sort of signal to them...

Twilight looked up to see the rain come down, lightning flashes every now and then in different parts of the sky, the loud roar of the dragon in the distance, the scenery and sounds were not adding to the positive side of the mood here.

“If he’s out there... I hope he’s alright...”

The rain was relentless, and showed no sign of relenting any time soon. In fact, it seemed as though it would only get worse, Mist and I have been walking for at least a good mile or so since we last talked, Mist however, was very quiet the whole time, no attempt for any engagement in conversation the whole way, his expression showed deep concern and constant determination for his lost friend... no thanks to me.

“Shoulda just settled for the stuff on the outside...”

There was a distant roar of the dragon in the distance, Mist and I froze, listening for any other sound amongst the light patter of rain, the roars that grew louder for each one given signaled that it was getting closer, Mist and I immediately scrambled in the muck to run for cover.

The low rumbling of rushed air above signaled that it passed overhead, giving off a deafening roar as it glided by, small flashes of lightning showed the dark outline of the beast as it flew in the direction of the mountains, all I hoped was that Taylor was safe, not in the stomach of it being digested right now.

“You think he’s okay? Not... Dead?...” Mist stuttered the last word out as he turned to me.

“You know we honestly can’t tell anything right now, all we can do is hope and pray for his living.” I responded in a firm voice, not trying to show my concern for my only human friend I had here.

“Well... I for one... Think he’s okay, and... he’s on his way back now.”

I was surprised at Mist’s sudden positive feel towards the future, I would have expected him to think of the worst possible outcome, but his sudden change in outlook was one of the effects of this whole trip, he’s got the thinking that it’s all gonna work out, no sense of failure present and so confident in what he says...

“Well isn’t Taylor just the role model...”

I chuckled at the thought of Mist turning out like Taylor, him and I got up from our cold and wet hiding spot from the shelter of a nearby tree, and we continued our search for Taylor or any sign of help, hopefully soon to come, lightning was our only illumination of the path we chose to travel down, the dark and stormy path that was laid before us in this endless battle against all odds.

I pulled myself up, ledge by ledge, I had thought it would be a good idea for me to scale the slippery face of a cliff in the middle of a thunderstorm with a raging dragon flying around with me out in the open, only to get a better view in the darkness of a storm, clinging on for dear life as I continued to pull myself to higher elevations, making my possible fall all the more plausible.

“Way to go dumbass...”

I really made some decisions in life that I have not been proud of, this was by my standards, the second most stupid thing that I ever did in my lifetime, I’d rather not get into the thing that was first on my list, it’s a bit personal in my own thoughts, even thinking about it sends chills down my spine...

But something that really made my blood run cold was a sound, but this was no ordinary sound, this was not something that was the most pleasant thing to hear during a thunderstorm, granted you can even hear it with all the rain coming down now, this was a sound I dreaded... Well technically it wasn’t a sound to such terms.

It was a roar.

The bastard was back, and I was in the open, there were no trees on the top of the wall I was climbing, nor was there any chance I would survive if dropping down seemed like an option, not even if I climbed down, with such fear and rushed movements, I was sure to fall regardless, I would just have to hope that I didn’t get spotted by now.

I efficiently, but as fast as I could without losing grip and falling, pulled myself up the wall as the beast got closer to my location.

“No seriously, what did Travis do that was so bad to make this thing want to kill me?”

The thought was thrown from my mind as a loud roar was heard behind me, I stopped mid reach to jerk my head around to see a large, silhouetted shape coming my way, brief flashes of lightning, helped me to confirm that it was him.

I frantically pulled myself up more, trying to make it to the top before he got within reach of me, but to no avail, the top was a good twenty feet away, I watched in horror as he raised his talons towards my body, reaching to pick me off and bring me to some unknown location.

The talons pierced through my skin like soft butter, going into my shoulders and sides, I screamed in pain as it lifted me off, until it were land or move me to a different position, I had no way of escape, even if I tried, it would be futile, only causing me more damage to my body as the talons would only go deeper.

Holding back the yells of agony, I watched as the top of the cliff became smaller as it grew smaller, I looked around at our higher altitude to see the lights of Ponyville in the distance, we were a good eight miles away, farther then when I was with Travis.

I guess in a way this is a sort of a good thing, besides the tearing at my flesh and bone, I would have never known I was going in the wrong direction, I would be so far off if it hadn’t been for this asshole dragon here.

He brought me closer to the town, my hopes had gone back up now, my chance for survival, if I could somehow get out of his grasp if we were to get somewhere relatively close, I might have a chance of survival here.

I could only lay limp in his talons and pray that I wouldn’t bleed out before we reached our destination, with the lights getting ever so closer, increasing my chances of survival unknown to the dragon.

“Cmon Twilight! We’re going so SLOW, cant we go any faster? I wanna kick some dragon flank before it decides to calm down.”

“Rainbow we’re not here to ‘kick some flank’, we’re here to find out why it’s so angry and try and calm it down, hostility is what we want least.”

Rainbow’s complaining of their current speed was getting annoying to Twilight, they were making good time at the speed they were at, Rainbow would just have to deal with it for now.

“How much farther do ya think it’ll be til’ we find the dragon Twi?” Applejack asked, shielding her face with her hat, by holding it down in the wind that had picked up.

Twilight stopped and looked at her surroundings, in the complete darkness, amongst the now torrential rain and thunder she heard the roar of the dragon in the distance, it was approaching their position, the rest of them heard it too, they immediately took cover near some shrubbery on the edge of the path, out of sight in the rain.

“Not much farther it seems...”

The roars grew ever so louder until they saw it, flying almost bee-line over the path, they saw it glide ever so low over them, the moon had peeked out from behind the clouds, allowing anypony to see their two hooves in front of them, a limp body could be seen in it’s talons, lifeless to the naked eye in the reckless storm, but a body nonetheless.

There was an awkward silence amongst the six of them, they stared at the gargantuan beast as it glided down the path, cutting off towards a rocky point they had passed on their way here.

“Twilight... What was that it was carrying?...” Rarity’s question broke the silence, also breaking the trance of all of them.

“I...I-I honestly... don’t know...” Twilight stumbled over her words in her mind, making them come out funny.

Her eyes were watering just a little, she did in fact know who it was, she just had o intention of saying who it was, only to create more distress amongst the others, this was better kept to herself, not to create any worry with the rest of her friends.

“Let’s... just get this over with...” Twilight said quietly, hurrying ahead of her friends and picking up her pace to make it to the dragon ever so much faster.

I couldn’t believe what I had just seen, not even a few minutes ago, I saw the dragon glide over Mist and I, what I saw as it went over made my blood run cold, in the storm, it was hard too see pretty much anything, but I saw him, it WAS him, and if he was dead, I don’t think I could ever forgive myself for what had happened to him.

“Travis... can we slow down?... You’re going a bit too fast for me to keep up...

“You want me to carry you again? Or can we exert ourselves just a little?” I responded curtly, making Mist’s facial expression change to a more sad and hurt look.

We stopped walking, “Sorry Mist, but we gotta get moving... I saw him...” I looked off into the sky for any sign of the dragon, I watched the darkened skies for any sign of it flying anywhere.

A roar escaped it’s mouth not even a mile away, near the peak of a small mountainous looking hill, it was circling the hill, I saw a body in it’s talons as if flew around, looking for a good place to land before doing whatever it had in store for what it was carrying.

I knew it was Taylor, it HAD to be him, only I wasn’t going to tell Mist, he seemed like that kind of guy, or stallion in this case, to break down and start bawling his eyes out when all seemed lost, I didn’t want to provoke that sort of a situation, so I kept it to myself.

“We have to get moving, now...” I said to Mist as he and I started again, now off in the direction of the dragon’s ideal point of landing.

I ran for the safety of my friend, Mist saw that this was very urgent, and he too started on a gallop to keep up with me, the roars grew louder and louder still, suddenly though, voices could be heard on the path we had just gotten to, I jerked my head in the direction of the voices to see dark figures coming our way.

I drew a knife for each hand from my belt, I was really itching to use these, but if they weren’t hostile, I could wait longer before I could get another opportunity to use them again.

“Who’s there?” I called out to the figures in the distance, they didn’t seem to notice me talking, they continued their approach to Mist and I.

“Who’s there?!” I yelled a lot louder to them, they still didn’t seem to notice me yelling yet again.

“I said... WHO THE FUCKS THERE!?”

They all seemed to hear my threatening voice, stopping dead in their tracks not a good thirty feet away from Mist and I, slightly hushed whispers were heard from their group, no response to me, they seemed to be in a huddle of sorts, I began to approach, Mist tentatively followed behind me, one of them poked it’s head up and saw I was coming, it then talked in a hushed whisper to the rest of them.

They all turned their heads in unison and began to disperse into a line, I stopped and they stopped, I took a step forward and they took a step back, I took a step back, they took a step forward.

“Is this really the time for games? Seriously...” I said getting aggravated, shaking my head and sheathing the two knives in my belt.

“Wait it can talk? I thought it was just yelling or something.” one of them piped up to another.

The voice was feminine, somewhat brash, yet, ever so eerily familiar to myself.

“.... Hold the phone here...”

I slowly walked forward and squinted my eyes, just trying to get a better look at them, the rain and the lack of light made this almost an impossible task for me to accomplish.

What I saw made my heart stop mid-beat, there, standing before me were the things that inspired me back at home to be a better person, they were the reason I looked for a deeper meaning in life and same goes in this case for friendship too, all I could do was stare at them, wide eyed and mouth agape, showing no sign of movement in my state of shock.

It was the mane six from My little Pony.

“Hey buddy, you okay there? You’re not looking so hot...”

Rainbow Dash stepped forward, examining my stature up and down, and stopping when her magenta eyes met with my dumbfounded look I was displaying.

I simply put my hand to my jaw, pushing it back into place, as would be done in a cartoon, which this was, or is it reality? I couldn’t be too sure right now.

“This thing here looks like the other one we jus’ met tha’ other day Twi...” Applejack looked at Twilight, whom exchanged worried looks on their faces, and looking back at me in the process.

“Wait...” I finally got up the nerve to speak to them, “the other one?” I asked in a nervous tone.

Twilight looked at me with worry and sadness present in her expression, making me feel no much better here.

“Would... His name happen to be Taylor?...” Mist asked almost inaudible to the storm above.

I watched as Twilight’s eyes almost grew to the size of teacup saucers as Mist said his name, provoking the question in my mind of why they would know him.

“I’m only guessing here, but you wouldn’t happen to know him would you?...” I asked in a curious tone of voice.

“Yes, he only got here a few days ago, he was kidnapped only two days ago by some stallions who jumped him and I in the Everfree.” Twilight was a bit shaky in her tone as she spoke, signalling some sort of trouble with the knowing of my fellow human friend.

“I’m guessing you know where he is?...” Twilight asked me.

“There he is...”

I pointed, looking over Twilight, making her gaze follow mine, soon enough everypony was looking at where my gaze landed, the dragon was still circling the point, with the slightly visible body in it’s talons.

“Oh my stars...” Rarity gasped as the sudden realization hit her.

“Don’t take off your hat yet, he’s not dead... at least as for what we know...” Dash commented towards Applejack as she nearly took off her hat in respect for the dead, or almost dead in this case.

“We need to get moving if he’s that important to you all, I for one know he’s important me.”

“He’s right girls, we need to get moving here.” Twilight affirmed to the rest of them.

“Ummm... But I ummm... thought that we had to find out why the dragon is so grumpy...” Fluttershy quietly asked the purple unicorn.

“Yes that is the priority, but at the same time, it is also just as important to get him back to us, hopefully alive...” Twilight stated, her voice degrading in tone as she spoke.

“You mean when we get him back alive, there’s no dead option here, he’s obviously not dead, otherwise the dragon would be gone with a full stomach by now.” I assured the rest of them, “But we have to get going now if we want the chances to stay that great.”

“He’s right, we have to get moving here, let’s go.” Twilight told her friends.

Them, Mist and I all headed in the direction of where the beast held the body of my friend in it’s talons, soon to possibly kill him, but were weren't about to let that happen, not by any chance.

“Why don’t you just land you son of a bitch...”

The dragon had been circling this one spot for about fifteen minutes, my shoulders and sides hurt from the intense grip, but thankfully I wasn’t dead and also that no major organs had been ruptured, meaning I would live to attempt my escape.

After what seemed like forever for me but only routine to the dragon, he finally cut out of his pattern of flying in constant circles and angled towards the point, preparing for the landing.

I watched him reach down and transition his grip from me from his talons to his claws, those were no much better when he did the transition, it ended up being even worse from the claws than the talons.

His new grip sunk into my pectorals and back, near my shoulder blades, allowing more blood to escape from my body, besides that of the open wounds that he left in place of where he last had me.

His landing was rough, coming down ever so slowly and carefully, but landing with a heavy slump of a landing, making him and I bounce up and down absorbing the shock of the landing.

As soon as he was settled, he raised me to face level with him, I felt the hot waves of air that escaped his nostrils, he glared me down with an absolute hate, which I returned no less, if not more.

“I’ve... Been through enough shit already...” I began, in a menacing to anyone voice, except the dragon, “...And you’re not making it much better...” I was already done with this shit now, I just wanted to go home and sleep.

Wouldn’t that be nice.

The dragon opened his mouth to reveal many sharp teeth, about the size of a small knife for each of them, he stuck my head in and roared for the full effect, to my disgust, it worked, the smell of dead and rotting food stuck in his razor sharp teeth along with the ear splitting roar at close range, did it’s job, my ears rang as he pulled me out of the open space in his mouth.

“Whoo... Bad breath much...” I joked to the dragon, only making his slits of pupils decrease in width as he grew more angry, roaring again in response.

“Can you shut the FUCK UP?!” I yelled to the dragon, surprisingly making him recoil a bit, but he held his own ground pretty well.

“I’ve had enough... of your BULLSHIT!”

I was able to get my arm out of his grip, revealing my sweaty white arm, along with the black tinted dagger I was able to get from out of the sheath to try and do some damage here.

With a large thrust downward, I pierced the blade through the tough scales of it’s forearm slightly, making the dragon roar in it’s small pin-prick of a wound, he shook his arm, throwing me from his grasp.

I landed on the flatter part of the point, skidding with the momentum of the throw across the loose rocks and dirt before coming to a halt, I slowly picked myself up, slightly bloodied dagger in hand, my body heaved from the energy I was exerting from being so tired and torn up, I looked over to see the dragon staring at me, death present in his stare.

“What the hell you gonna do? I’ve been through WORSE!” I yelled at the dragon, fury spat from each word that came from my mouth, wanting nothing more than to impale the living shit out of it from nothing but sheer anger.

The dragon began growling at me, showing his dull-white teeth in the process, I began walking towards the dragon, he in response, began taking in a dramatically large breath, readying for the fire to escape it’s mouth to burn me to a crisp, and exterminating my existence from this damn world.

“COME ON! LET’S GO!” I yelled with at him with hostility, breaking into a sprint as I readied the dagger, and readying for whatever next.

The flames came from his mouth, the wave of heat swept off to the side of me, it’s influence could be felt, but I was clear of it’s area, still sprinting towards the dragon, dodging flames as they came, I eventually got close enough to do something, he saw this and swept a claw out from his side, nearly scraping my feet as I jumped to him.

With dagger in hand, I landed on his chest, clutching onto his scales with one hand, I proceeded to stab at the softer chest tissue and scales, yelling in anger and in hate all the time.

The dragon roared in pain, grabbing me from his chest with his claw and throwing me again, this time, I landed with a mouth full of small rocks and blood as I finally came to a halt, slowly getting up, I could already tell that my left arm was broken, but I couldn't’ feel anything right now, amongst the pain and adrenaline, I couldn’t tell which was winning of this battle of pain and numbness.

Getting up regretting the action, I saw the dragon took this opportunity to come to my body and raise itself to his hind legs, making himself look so much more intimidating in comparison to me, he then picked up my now frail body and raised me over his head.

Opening his mouth, and positioning myself over it my body stopped working there, my heart stopped in mid beat, my blood ran cold, everything could be over in a matter of seconds, everything seemed to go in slow motion right there.

The fall felt like forever, I watched as the world grew dark, his mouth then closed around my body, looking up I could see the last of the light as it was shut off from view, the last thing I could see before I was enveloped in darkness was the moon peeking out from behind the clouds.

And then I was gone.

The commotion in the distance was getting louder as we got near the peak of the point, Taylor just might be there with the dragon, I just hoped that he would be alright.

The mane six, Mist and I were running up a path at an incline almost spiralling around the point, where we would finally get some answers as to why the dragon was here and to see if Taylor was here with him, if that be the case.

The strangest thing just then happened, there was the sound of rain and thunder, but the sound of the dragon’s roar had subsided, I stopped running, making the girls and Mist stop in confusion as they turned to face me.

“Hey, what are you doing? We have to-” Twilight started, but I cut her off with a shush.

“Listen.” I said, making the rest of them stop too and perk their ears as to what I heard.

Just a storm.

There was no sound of the dragon’s anger, nothing to tell us that he was still angry unless whatever he was so angry about was gone, or in this case taken care of.

“No... he’s not dead, he CAN’T be dead... I won’t believe it...no... just... no...”

I felt the blood rush out of my face as I stared in the direction of where the dragon was roaring, I fell to my knees in the mud, stricken with complete disbelief, I wouldn’t accept it, not one bit.

“Oh dear...” Fluttershy came to my aid, “Ummm...are you alright?... Is there anything I could do to help?... That is... if you wanted me to...” Fluttershy looked at me to see what was wrong, I could only stare off into the distance with the repeating thought in my head.

“He’s gone... He’s fucking gone...”

I slowly got back up to my feet, stern look on my face, trying just not to think about it and starting my walk down the path, I would just hope that he wasn’t there, or that if he was, he by some stroke of luck, managed to kill it on his own, I turned to the girls, and at that Fluttershy, whose worry was now apparent in her expression, despite the lack of light.

“No, I just want you to pray now, I may have no belief in god, but that seems appropriate now.” I replied to the concerned pegasus.

Walking down the path, I began to reconcile all the memories I shared with him, while he was with me in Minnesota, we had only known eachother for a good three months, but hey, he’s still a kick-ass person to hang out with, he and I had similar likes in school, science, lunch, half life 2, and most of all, ponies.

Him and I shared the common like of ponies since we met, and since then, time between him and I has never been sweeter, he was pretty much the only other person I knew that shared so much of a like with me, once even at school, we accidentally wore the exact same pony apparel on the same day, and not just one day, many, we just laughed it off as other people stared, thinking in their small, ‘D+’ grade brains, of how wrong and weird it was.

They don’t know what they’ve been missing then.

Overall, he was the best person I have met in my life, besides my parents for that matter, and if he was gone, It would be a sad day in my book, that would haunt me forever.

But I wasn’t going to throw the impossible out just yet, I still think that there’s a chance for him to still be alive, he could have killed it, I don’t know how the fuck he would, but it could happen, I felt my pace increase a notch as the positive came through the worst.

The incline to the point winded around widened a bit more before clearing out into a small, flattened plain of the peak, the rain had begun to degrade into a light patter of drops, the clouds in the sky had cleared out too , revealing Luna’s moon in the night sky, there were some scorch marks in various places on the gravel like earth below our feet and hooves, yet I failed to see the dragon laying on it’s side off near the edge.

I saw the small wounds in it’s flesh, including the massive flesh and blood uncovered on it’s chest, the dragon heaved heavy breaths, indicating it was badly wounded, we all heard it groan in pain, Fluttershy, upon hearing this, ran up alongside it to check it’s wounds.

She said something quiet to the beast on the ground, it responded with a small grunt, this went on for a bit before she got it to gesture to it’s throat, I walked up to get a better look, no sign of Taylor was not a good indicator here, I now stood before the killer of my best friend, I was ready to end it’s miserable life right now, but Fluttershy would have said otherwise.

“Alright now mister dragon, can you say, ‘Ahhhhhhhhhh’? “

Fluttershy spoke in a motherly tone, the dragon slowly opened it’s mouth to reveal it’s teeth and tongue to her, she gasped and staggered back a little before plopping down on her rear, staring in horror at what was inside it’s mouth.

“What is it? Did he do some-... Oh my god...” I walked over to see what it’s problem was, and there it is, clinging onto the back of it’s tongue and bloodied up was Taylor.

“TAYLOR!” I yelled out, running into the mouth of the dragon, trying to get my friend out.

He was badly wounded, his left arm looked funny, it was probably broken, his entire body was splotched with blood and dirt, he was breathing heavily, with his eyes shut, clinging onto the tongue for dear life, he needed medical attention now, he would bleed out if we didn’t act quickly.

“Hey Travis... How’s it been?...” He said between breaths, cracking a small smile, despite his condition.

“Come on, we need to get you to a hospital or something.” I said in urgency.

“Fluttershy? What’s going on?” Twilight’s voice could be heard from the outside and drawing near, along with hoofsteps from the others.

“He’s alright! But we gotta get him to a hospital, like now.” I responded in place of her.

“Wait, who are we talking about?...” She said, coming to see who I was talking about.

I saw Twilight round the opening of the mouth, “Oh thank Celestia you’re alive!” her expression was a mix of relief and joy, as she came in to see how he was.

“Yeah... I’m alive, and it’s nice to see you again Twilight...” his breaths were getting deeper, and showed more difficulty now breathing than before.

“We need to get him out of here now Twilight.” I said to the purple unicorn, who nodded in response.

Twilight levitated the near-dead body of my friend out of the mouth of the dragon, as we got out, the dragon’s mouth lazily shut from the force of gravity, I looked to see that it was having a hard time breathing itself, it’s chest rose and fell in quick breaths of air, giving off a slight whimper in between, looking to Fluttershy and I for some form of help.

“Oh dear...” Fluttershy went up close to him, “It’s going to be alright Mr. dragon, can you get up at all?” She asked in a happier tone.

The dragon slowly rose from the ground, blood still trickling from his wounds, Fluttershy flew up from the ground to meet eye level with it, the dragon rose his head to meet with hers.

“Now, if you can follow us back, we can take care of those nasty cuts of yours, alright?” Her voice was soothing and motherly, the dragon gave a small nod to her, and with her leading the dragon, she began to guide the dragon to her cottage it seemed.

As the dragon’s tail disappeared from sight, my attention turned towards Twilight and Mist, who were hovering over Taylor’s body, their expressions looked dim, which wasn’t what I was hoping for in their examination.

“He’s really bad.” Mist said as I approached, “I’m surprised he’s still conscious, with the amount of blood loss and broken arm, I can’t say I’m not surprised.”

“Is he going to live though?” I asked anxiously, the matter of this question was vital to my knowing as of now and as of ever.

“Well...” Twilight began sounding uncertain, “It’s a bit early to tell here, but our best bet is to get him out of here and to the Ponyville hospital.”

“Well, lets get going! I don’t want to be the ONLY human in Equestria here.” I said as Twilight, Mist, Taylor being levitated by Twilight, and the rest of them started down the path.

Twilight stopped dead in her tracks and turned back to me.

“Wait... How do you know we’re in Equestria? Taylor had no prior knowledge to the land here.” Twilight questioned towards me, “So how do you?”

“Shit, that's right... They don’t know they’re part of a children’s television show. Quick Travis THINK!”

“While I was in confinement with Taylor here, I overheard one of our captors say the name, I only assumed that was the name.”

“Oh okay then, makes sense.” Twilight responded.

That did seemed to do the trick, I watched the rest of them turn back to their intended path and begin trotting down the path, that is except for Applejack.

She stared at me with utter distrust, I knew she had seen past my truthfully sounding lie, and wasn’t taking it for all it was worth, her glare was scary to say the least, I slowly made it up to a run to catch up with Twilight and the others, the lights of Ponyville were surprisingly enough, not even a mile away, giving Taylor a better chance at him keeping his life.

“Don’t think I trust you now, Ya hear?” Applejack’s voice came from behind me, making me jump a little, she had caught up with me and was showing no sign of trust or happy connotation in her voice.

I refrained from responding to her, I simply ran up ahead, avoiding any more confrontation from her, and preventing any suspicion from her four friends.

“Well, there’s Ponyville.”

The small town of equine beings came into full view now, the lights lining the streets lit up the scenery before us, displaying bright pastel colors of the flourishing settlement, Twilight and her friends led on, with Mist and I in the back, we followed them through the once bustling town, towards a large building with a red cross on the front, which by now had to be the hospital.

As we opened the door and filed in, Taylor was now not looking so good, his breathing had grown more rapid, and came in shorter gasps, he was just barely hanging on to consciousness now, just a few minutes here from the darkness that would take hold of him shortly.

“Doctor we need medical help NOW!”

Twilight’s voice came from near a room she was yelling in, soon after she came out with a flame red stallion with a darker green mane, he had a stretcher, I believed that it was the biggest one that they had, since there were obviously no humans here, he helped Twilight settle his body down onto the stretcher bed and he wheeled Taylor down a hall, disappearing behind two doors, and calling out the muffled words which were joined by others from behind.

I was about to follow them from behind the doors, until a white mare with a pink mane and small white hat, embedded with the red cross symbol came to stop me.

“I’m sorry, but visitors are not allowed to watch the procedure, we will be with you to tell when you can see him, for now, please wait in the lobby.”

She redirected me to the lobby where the rest of them sat, waiting for my friends diagnosis and after procedure report, mainly the info on weather he lived or not, Twilight paced back and forth in the open space, Pinkie remained Pinkie, and was mimicking the pacing of Twilight, who paid her no mind, Rarity was nowhere to be seen, Rainbow was lounging back on one of the chairs, and Applejack was continued to glare at me, she was the first to acknowledge my presence, Mist was also in a chair, but back to staring off into space.

“Well... waiting may take a while...” I began, getting the attention of everypony, Rarity appeared from a door which I believed was the ladies, or mare’s room, cleaned off from the rain.

“And I haven’t properly introduced myself, so I think now is a good time to do so.” Everypony seemed to agree with the idea, even Applejack, as reluctant as it seemed to her she came over for introductions, it seemed fit to pass the time.

I mustered up a small smile, containing my urge to get on my knees and thanking ‘god’ for this freaking amazing dream come true, as well as smothering all of them with an overly large hug, probably smothering them in the process of doing so.

“My name’s Travis.”

Monthly Checkup

“The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself.”

-Mark Caine

In this kind of a situation, time can go by at whatever speed it wants for some people. It can go faster at the times where you're having the time of your life, or slower when you're stuck in the middle of English class for an hour, but time has a way of making you realize you have no idea what the fuck is going on at that very moment. This is one of those moments

Blurs, all I saw were transitions from light to dark through my fazed eyesight, a splotched array of colors around me that were constantly changing told me that I was moving, and fast at that.

“Doctor, he’s not even a pony, we don't know it’s anatomy or if it’s safe to use healing magic on him, this seems almost a hopeless attempt...” One of the blurs of a white color said, the voice’s tone going into dismay.

“Listen to me here and now.” Another voice came from my left, demanding in tone, making the other one stay quiet.

I turned my head to the left to see a red and red colored blur rushing along with the others, keeping up with my moving body.

“You know what? I would just love to give up here and now, this isn't the easiest patient we’ve come by and you’re right, we don't know his anatomy or if it’s safe to use healing spells on him...” The voice trailed off for a moment before continuing in a more stern tone.

“The odds are very much well against us here, but we’ve made a commitment by taking up the profession as doctors to at least try, it matters a whole lot more if we try and he doesn't make it than to not do anything at all to even attempt to save him.”

It suddenly grew very quiet, the only sound that could be heard was the squeaking of un-oiled wheels. The little motivational speech by the being who gave it had done its job in making the other stop for a moment and think while taking the outcomes into consideration.

Something within me brought up a terrible coughing fit, making my body jerk with every expelling of whatever the stimuli was. I felt warmth splatter onto my exposed arms and upper chest, from the condition I was in, I thought it probably was not spit, but blood from my terribly racked up body.

“Oh dear Celestia he’s coughing blood! We need to get him into the ER now!” A frantic sounding voice stated, only provoking panic among the rest of the doctors from what I’ve heard.

“Keep calm now, we’ll get him there in time, let's not panic alright? Just focus on what we need to do now.” I heard the optimistic voice sound again.

I gave off a long and painful sounding moan amongst all of this, giving them the impression that I wouldn't last too much longer here.

I felt a hoof on my shoulder, “Just hang on a little bit longer here, you're going to be alright, I promise you.” The red doctor said again.

“You sure you’re not setting up a promise you can't keep?” The pessimistic voice said trying to make the negative feel more powerful I thought.

There was a slight pause, then the doctor leaned in towards me, “Don't listen to him at all, he’s just so negative all the time, you’re going to be just fine.” He tried to disregard the other doctor’s rude statement, but I didn’t feel that confident in my survival either.

The immense loss of blood, the broken arm, and the bruises accompanied by cuts all over my body were not giving me the upside of the possible outcomes here.

I felt myself sharply turn to the right, the squeaking sound of the wheels sounded like they had a spazz attack for a moment before quieting down, I felt the fast moving stretcher I was on come into contact with a pair of double doors, the stretcher jerked for a moment before regaining speed.

Just then, I felt my breathing get heavier, I could really not hold on for much longer, the stretcher made a left turn before coming to a stop, the doctors began quickly but efficiently, start to operate on my body, I really couldn't hang on anymore, I was just too weak to hang on any longer, I felt my body begin to drift off, the edges of my eyesight hazed with blackness, slowly pulling me into my unconscious state, I felt a hoof on my shoulder try and shake me a little just trying to keep me awake, but it was no use, I was already gone.

I was probably not going to make it out of this alive, after slipping into my unconscious state, I would probably not have the energy available to get myself up and working again after the operation, besides, what did I have to live for here? I pondered that thought for a few seconds more, in my last few moments of the real world before letting my body slip into the darkness.

“What do I have to live for?”

“My name is Travis.”

From my opening just right there, I only got a variety of expressions from the group of equines, ranging from curiosity to complete distrust. I felt happy that my eternal wish of living in Equestria and meeting the mane six, after discovering the pony phenomenon on the internet and eventually falling in love with the show and the characters, had been fulfilled, yet, I felt awkward by not knowing how to begin my introduction of myself, but I could be sure that Twilight would fill that gap by asking the all important questions here, making it less awkward.

The awkward silence continued as they stared at me, my only response was to stare back at them, I was really getting uncomfortable with the situation at hand here, the silence continued through fidgeting and quick glances from one another, Twilight was first to step forward.

"Are you expecting us to ask the questions here?” she asked quizzically making a levitating scroll, quill, and inkwell appear out of nowhere.

“No, just not exactly sure where to begin here, I think it’d be better for all of us for you all to ask the questions here.” I responded in my defence of her accusation.

“Okay then...” She began, “You seem to know Taylor pretty well, how do you know him?”

“Well, I met him during sophomore year in high school, I’ve known him for only a few months, and we’ve been best friends since.”

Twilight’s levitating quill scribbled furiously on the parchment, her eyes following the writing across the paper.

“Taylor said that true friendship was hard to come by where you’re from, you and him have although acquired this sort of friendship, how is this possible?” She looked up from her paper awaiting an answer.

“Well Taylor is right about the friendship being hard to come by thing.” I saw their eyes grow wide with disbelief, I think I even saw a few jaws drop too.

“Taylor and I met because of common interests, that’s really how most friendships begin where we are from.”

“Like what?” Pinkie piped up, smile ever present as she spoke.

“Well you know, music... videogames... (incoherent muttering about MLP)...” I responded, trying not to be too conspicuous about the whole ‘I’ve been watching your whole friendship play out’ thing, hopefully, and god forbid that Taylor had already told them, ruining all that mattered in my life right now.

“Videogames? What are those? Are they kinda like party games? You know I know a lot of party games.” She then proceeded to take in a dramatically large gasp before continuing.

“You should come and play pin the tail on the pony and all the other games I know o-” she stopped in the middle of her sentence to take in yet another large gasp of air before continuing.

“I should throw you and Taylor a party! It’ll be the, ‘Welcome to Ponyville, glad you didn't get eaten by a dragon’ party! I was gonna throw a ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party for Taylor, but then he got colt-napped by some stallions in the Everfree and th-”

She was stopped mid sentence by a cyan hoof being stuck in the hole that let all the words out of her mouth.

“Pinkie, we can tell stories later, right now we’re getting info from Travis, okay?” Rainbow seemed not in the mood for this sort of thing.

The pink mare gave a muffled ‘yes’ before the cyan hoof came out of her mouth, he smile returned to her face, it seemed as if she couldn't sit still, he body was radiating with energy, shown by her excessive bouncing around the room.

Looking back at Twilight, I saw she was still scribbling down notes on the scroll, apparently ‘lost’ in the, ‘ever-so-intriguing’ information I was giving her.

“I’m sorry what was that last thing you said was a common interest between you and Taylor?” Twilight stopped scribbling down notes to look up from the paper.

“What? Oh the last thing? I said it was videogames.” I lied, not wanting to go into the subject of the portion of their lives I've been watching.

“No, you muttered something after that, what was it?” Twilight persisted.

“It was nothing, just talking to myself.” I told her, and that honestly was the truth.

I turned away from them and looked out the window nearby, only to give myself an excuse of why to not look at them for fear of the information getting out of their lives. I turned back to see that Applejack had gotten up and was walking towards me, probably to confront my apparent lies.

“Now I don’ have ta’ be the element of honesty to see that what you just told Twilight was a lie there, what ave’ you got to gain by lyin to all of us? Whatcha tryin ta’ hide here?” Her tone was stern and demanding of an answer, but I held firm on what I said before.

“I said I was talking to myself, why do you have to hear what I said? Why are you trying to be so nosy in my own thoughts?” I shot back at her with a scowl, she recoiled a little bit at my blunt tone, I cracked a small grin in my response.

“I understand what you’re sayin’ bout’ ‘personal thoughts’ but why ya keepin them secret from us? Besides we are the ones trying to get info by askin tha questions here.” She tried to make a comeback, but I needed her to shut up now before she provoked anymore curiosity into that matter.

“How about we just move on with this alright? There are more important things to talk about here.” I said closing the discussion.

“He’s right Applejack.” Twilight told the cowpony, “Lets leave his own thoughts to himself, I wouldn't want you doing that to me, or anypony here.”

Applejack huffed a sigh, and with a scowl on her face, proceeded to go and lay back on one of the chairs, tilting her stenton hat over her face, making it look like she was taking a nap.

“Well for introductory purposes...” Twilight began, changing the topic, “You’ve already met Applejack...” She turned her head back to the lounging cowpony, who gave no response.

“And you’ve met Pinkie at that.” I looked over at the pink mare, who was simply smiling and waving from a sitting position.

“My name, is Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends Rainbow Dash and Rarity.” She turned around to direct my attention to the cyan pegasus and pearl white unicorn behind her.

Rainbow gave a nod at me in acknowledgement, Rarity however, gave no salutations, she starred in complete horror at my figure, I looked at myself and saw what she saw, she saw a grubby looking outfit, including the dirt, grime, and god knows what that stain is on my clothes.

“Do you expect me to look the very best after over three months of fighting wild animals for my own survival?”

I watched her eyes slightly roll in the back of her head and nearly slumped on the floor in a heap, had it not been for Rainbow standing there to catch her.

“You see? This is why we don't wear clothes that often, it’s her.” Rainbow stated, trying to get the unicorn back on her feet, or at least supporting herself.

“And I don't blame you one bit for that, but I should wear clothes for one, that's one of the setbacks for me.” I chuckled a little at her remark, she flashed a smirk back, before getting her attention towards her half-unconscious friend.

“Why are you required to wear clothes though? We don't that often.” Twilight raised the quill towards her paper in preparation for more notes.

“Well for starters, I’m not a pony, I am a human being, and second here, humans are more... ‘exposed’ for their... parts, if you know what I mean.” I said, trying not to make it too awkward of a conversation for the both of us.

“Note taken.” Twilight giggled as she scribbled down a few quick notes on the scroll.

“Now who was that other pegasus I saw with the dragon? Didn't catch her name.” I lied, but just to make it sound believable to the rest of them, Applejack however, grunted in response to my lie.

“Oh, that was Fluttershy, she was with the dragon because she takes care of all of the animals, in and out of the Everfree forest, that was what she was doing there.” Twilight explained the non-new information to me.

“Well I’ll have to meet her later on after all of this.” I responded, just trying to keep the conversation going.

“Who’s the stallion over there?” Twilight looked over behind her, I followed her gaze to see Mist staring at the ground with the most empty looking expression on his face.

“That’s Mist, we met not long ago, he was being held where I was for veterinary purposes against his own free will, Taylor and I don't know much about him or his past life.” I told Twilight.

I stared at Mist as he did nothing more to show any signs of life than blinking every now and then and the steady outward and inward motion of his chest, at least he was breathing.

The double doors swung open then, I turned my head to see the white with pink mane nursepony that stopped me earlier from going to see Taylor, Twilight walked over to her to get the prognosis.

“How is he nurse Redheart? Will he make it alright?” Twilight’s voice was urgent and the slightest bit demanding as she spoke.

“Twilight, please just calm down, he’s going to be just fine.” nurse Redheart said, trying to calm the semi-frantic Twilight down, “However...” The nursepony’s voice trailed off.

“Uh-oh, however?...” Twilight’s expression turned into one of dismay at the nursepony’s last comment.

“However, he is incredibly weak, I have no idea how he survived a tussle with a dragon, it’s a miracle that he survived, Celestia knows how though, his broken foreleg will heal with the use of healing magic in a day or two, he will need to stay overnight for the next couple days in order for him to fully recover.” Redheart gave the full prognosis loud enough for all of us to hear.

“Can we see him though?” I butted into the conversation, just wanting to know if I can see my friend in the condition he was in.

“I don't see exactly why you can't, you are all his friends, and I believe it’s only right for friends to see how other friends are doing, I don't know if he is awake yet, he went unconscious during the operation, if you’re coming please follow me then.” Redheart replied to my question, leading us through the double doors.

I stopped mid-stride to look back at the lounging cowpony on the chair, she was now up with her hat properly on her head, “You coming to see how he’s doing Applejack?” I called out to her, to make sure she wasn't going to ditch out.

“Wish ah’ could, but I can't, that is, if ah’ wanna have tha’ sleep tha’ get work done in the mornin and still ave’ time before sundown.” she glared at me as she spoke.

I was sure she was telling the truth, but something tells me that she was glad that she didn't have to come and see how Taylor was doing, probably because she didn't like me, but that gave her no reason to not come and see someone that she knew that survived a fight with a dragon.

I watched her walk out the front door, her figure disappearing in the darkness of the night, not looking back, not once, not ever.

I let Rainbow, Pinkie and the rest of the gang go on past as I held the double doors open, staring off in the last spot that I saw Applejack before she disappeared into the darkness.

“Travis, are you coming?” Twilight’s voice called me back to Equestria, I looked over to see her stopped halfway down the hall looking back at me.

“Yeah, I’m coming Twilight.”

I let the door close on its own as I walked down the hall to go and see my half alive friend, It still bugged me that Applejack wasn't even sad sounding that she couldn't see Taylor, she didn't even sound sad that she couldn't even come and see him, she was a lot more than what I saw, this reminded me too much of her judgement with Zecora in season one of the show, this was simply prejudice for what I lied about, and I disapproved every last bit of it.

“What a bitch...” I silently thought to myself, her and I would not get along anytime in the near future, from what happened in the span of an hour or so, I knew she would be a real problem in my life, but I wasn't about to let that ruin my life was I? I’m in Equestria for god’s sake.

What can go wrong?

beep...............................beep...............................beep...............................beep...............................

I awoke to the sound of the heart beat monitor beside the bed I was laying on, the smell of antiseptics was strong in the air, the attempt at getting up I made allowed a small surge of pain to travel through my body, I looked at my broken arm to find that it was in an awkward looking cast, the doctorponies had tried their best at fitting a cast not meant for human beings around my arm, making way for small movement of my thumb and fingers, using my left hand although was alright, along with the turning of my neck.

Travis, Twilight and whoever else would be here, would be here soon, there wasn't a doubt that they were worrying their little flanks off, heh... I made a pun concerning horses... this could become habitual later on, I chuckled at the horse pun that I made to myself.

“So you’re up.” A voice came from my left, out of my peripheral vision.

“Holy shi!- Ow......” I recoiled in pain after turning my head so quickly to the sound of the voice out of being spooked by it, I thought I would be alone after the operation to have some time to myself.

“Whoa there, are you alright? Didn't mean to spook you so badly.” I heard the clop of hooves approach the side of the bed.

“Was the intention to spook me then, if it wasn't supposed to be that bad?” I retorted, being in a grouchy mood from a long day and night.

I looked over to see that the owner of the voice was a white stallion with a similar colored snow white mane and sapphire blue eyes.

“Well no need to get snippy, I was just trying to see if you were alright.” he huffed in response, he then walked back to the chair he was on, and opened a book to read.

“How long am I in for do you think?” I asked him, and as he put a bookmark on the page he was on before responding.

“Well you’ve lost quite a bit of blood from what the doctors have told me, your ribs are cracked a little, that’s why it hurt when you tried to get up, the broken foreleg though will take about a day or so with the help of healing magic every four hours, other than that you’ve got a few cuts and bruises.” he paused for a moment before continuing, “You should be here for a week or so before they you get the OK for leaving.”

“More time of my life wasted, all because of a fucking dragon...” I sunk into the bed and closed my eyes, the doctorpony went back to his book from what I could tell, he didn't bother to respond after that.

“This just gets better and better doesn't it?” I thought to myself as I laid back in the bed, eyes closed.

My thoughts were answered as I heard voices from within the hall, I painfully mustered the energy to get up and lean in to try and hear the conversation better, I was expecting ponies and a human as my visitors, this might be them, and I've got nothing better to do until then.

The semi-soundproof door made it no easier for me to hear what they were saying, but my attention was to transfixed on the voices outside that nothing else made a dent in my attention.

“SURPRISE!!!” The loud voice of Pinkie Pie in my right ear still rang after I pulled away, and hell if that wasn't the stupidest thing I've done with prior knowledge of NOT to do that today.

I screamed in pain and yelled at the top of my lungs from the sheer amount of pain I was in, I shook the bed as I rocked back in forth, the doctor pony had failed in seeing my immediate pain, he kept reading his book.

“Oh my gosh, I’m sorry! Are you alright? I was just trying to... I mean, I was going to...” Pinkie was having a emotional breakdown right there,her hair had lost its natural poof and was straight, tears filled her eyes as she tried to hide them away from, my view.

By looking over at her, after the pain had ceased, I saw that she had a small cart, adorned with many different colored party balloons along its edges, there was a cake in the center of the cart with the words, ‘Get well soon Taylor!’ printed in pink frosting on top, behind the cake appeared to be a small alligator with a party hat on and the most straightforward looking reptilian eyes, Pinkie had done all of this...

Just for me.

“Pinkie! What did you do to Taylor? We heard the screams and yelling, did you hur-”

“Twilight stop.” I cut her off raising a hand and provoking her confusion with a cocked eyebrow.

Pinkie’s crying had now gotten worse because of Twilight’s wrong accusations of what she had done, the pink mare was now sobbing quietly behind her hooves, trying to hide how she felt, but still failed in doing so.

“Pinkie...” I said, she looked up with tear filled eyes at me, “Come here please...” She wiped the rest of the tears that were on her face, and slowly approached the bed.

She stopped a good foot or so away from the bed, I gestured with my good arm for her to come closer, she got up to the side of the bed and stopped again, I gestured once more for her to come a bit closer, she tentatively leaned in, trying not to hurt me in any way shape or form after what had happened.

I suddenly wrapped my good arm around her in as good of a hug I could manage in the condition I was in, she then began to sob once more, a lot louder and forceful than before.

“I-I don't under-stand, I-I just h-hurt you and you're hug-g-ging me, what d-did I d-deserve for th-this?” She stuttered between sobs.

I looked over at the quiet group at the door to see a variety of expressions on faces, mostly those of disbelief with jaws ajar, I mouthed a ‘what?’ to them and rolled my eyes before going back to Pinkie.

“Listen, you shouldn't feel bad right now, in fact, you should feel pretty special right now.” I rubbed her back as I spoke, the smell of sugar present in the air as her head was next to mine.

She continued to sob as she spoke, “Th-that doesn't m-make any sense.” She said as she cried in my arm, “How c-can I feel s-special after hurting y-you? I d-dont want to b-be a b-b-big m-meanie-weenie p-pony, why sh-should I feel s-special?”

“Listen, you don't realize what this means to me do you? You don't realize that this is my first ever ‘get well’ party thrown for me, and at that my first party EVER.”

I watched as the expression changed from her saddened face to one of complete disbelief as she gawked at me.

“Are you for sure serious of serious?” She got in real close to my face, almost touching nose to snout, I could smell the aroma of everything sugary in the world as she got close.

“Not shitting you, not even one bit right now.” I stated to her, trying to keep firm in the conversation.

I watched her after that statement, I saw the tears in her eyes, god knows how, but they receded back into her head, her hair reinflated in no time flat, and her overall expression had regained its happy demeanor, accompanied by its ever-so-large smile.

“Seeing her smile made me smile a bit, I haven't felt this good to tell news to someone since I told my parents I had been on the ‘A’ honor roll for the past year, but they didn't give a shit, this however, gave a hell of alot more positive results than with my parents.

“You know what this calls for?” Pinkie asked as she bounced to the hospital closet.

“Pinkie, I hope that isn't what I think it is...”

Twilight was tentative in her tone of voice, peering into the closet that Pinkie was getting whatever it was, from what Twilight just said, if it was what she had feared, this probably wouldn't turn out well for all of us.

“Well why would you NOT hope it is what you think it is Twilight?” I asked her, the look on her face was grim, as if a major catastrophe to happen.

“Because last time it was the thing that I thought it was, there was extensive damage done to the library.” I recalled what she was talking about, the last time I was in the library I could discern the older wood from the newer looking wood from the repair from the thing it was that she dreaded.

“Well then Twilight if it’s that bad, then what is it?”

I looked to her for an answer, but she only looked over to the closet where Pinkie’s rump could be seen, her rear hooves shuffling as she dragged it out.

“It’s my party cannon!” I watched Pinkie drag a large pink cannon adorned with all sorts of other party colors out from the closet, ”I only use it on occasion, but this IS a very special occasion, I’m the first pony to throw a party for a human and it’s also your first party too! I only thought it seemed right for a celebration-y firing!”

“How did you know then that it would be a celebration-y event? You had the cannon here in advance, how would you know then, and also, why would you act so surprised about this being my first party? It doesn't make sense to me.” I crossed my arms awkwardly with the cast on in confusion.

“Seriously Taylor.” Travis spoke in a condescending tone, “She’s Pinkie Pie for god’s sake, nothing she does makes sense.” Travis seemed to know a lot more about them than I did, I’d ask him more about that later.

From Twilight’s grim expression on her face, the firing of the cannon in the enclosed and very small space we were in would probably ensure some kind of critical injury at the very least to all of us, humans and ponies alike. I had to reason with her so we all didn't die, also that she wouldn't be scarred for life as the fact she killed eight beings with one pull of the string.

“Hey Pinkie hold on a sec.” I asked her, she looked up from her focusing on preparing the canon.
“What’s up?” She looked back down to keep readying the cannon.

I shifted uncomfortably in the bed, “Can we wait until I get out of the hospital to fire it?” She looked up at me in puzzlement, “Well I’m sure it’d be better if we waited to celebrate when I can actually Celebrate? Out of the bed that is.”

She looked down at the canon, pondering the idea and then back up at me, she smiled as she spoke, “Yep, you’re right, I’m sure it will be a whole lot more fun then.” she looked back at the canon that was now standing by for fire, “I’m sure it can wait.” Pinkie then began wheeling the canon back into the closet.

I’ve just saved us from annihilation by party canon.

Twilight walked up to the bed as Pinkie rolled the canon back into the closet to whisper a small ‘thank you.’ before gesturing for the others to come over, I chuckled to myself as they all gathered around my temporarily disabled body to see how I was doing. I eyed Travis as he came to the bed with the rest of them, I gave a scowl at him before singling him out from the rest of the group.

“Well, look who’s here, the dumbass who got me in a fight with a dragon and nearly got me killed.” I smiled and gave a thumbs up, “Good job!” I said sarcastically.

Travis scowled back and heaved a sigh, “Hey, did I mean for you to get like this? No, but I will admit I’m the one who pissed of the dragon.”

The ponies turned their little equine heads to look at Travis for some sort of an explanation.

“What did you do?” Twilight asked, “Did you somehow find its sleeping quarters with its hoard and try and take whatever it was it was holding in the center?” Twilight asked, as if that would be the probable reason as to why I’m in a hospital bed now.

Travis looked over at Twilight, “Hey! It was my favorite gem, it was a deep, blood-red ruby about the size of a football!” Travis exclaimed, failing in his attempt to defend himself.

“I knew it.” Twilight smiled triumphantly, it was such a specific, but dead on reason, I was curious as to how she knew about that.

“Well you can't blame me for that, humans, a majority of the time, let their own ambitions get the better of themselves.” Travis scratched the back of his head while trying to think of what to say next, “Yeah that was stupid of me to do, but some of us can't fight temptation... not even you Taylor.” Travis shot a look at me, and all eyes followed his gaze at me.

“Now what’s that supposed to mean?” Rarity eyed me with a look of curiosity, “What didn't you resist temptation of?” she smiled a little, from here I could tell she had a thing for gossip, and this ‘dirty little secret’ wasn't about to get out between Travis and I.

“No.” was all I said to her, she frowned a little and backed up a little, returning to the rest of the group. I knew what Travis was talking about, and if it were to get out, among gossiping ponies, my life would probably be ridiculed and picked at the entire time I stayed here.

“Well you can't blame me for having an interest in gossip.” she regained a little of her smile before speaking again, “Even I can't resist my own ambitions.” she finished, trying to entice me through reason in order to get me to talk.

I gave a dramatically long sigh and laid my head against the back of the pillow on my bed, I didn't want to give it out, not all of it, but just a little overview as to what happened that thursday night to get them off my back. I opened my eyes to see them all standing there, waiting for my next response.

Travis sat there with the most smug look on his face, as if to say, “This is so damn funneh!” I raised my good arm and gave him the finger. The ponies looked at Travis and I in confusion, looking for an explanation as to what the gesture meant.

“Well fuck you too man.” he didn't seem the most bit pleased from my gesture, but seemed resilient in response.

“I’m sorry, but what did that mean? I still need more to document and gestures among the human race would be nice to jot down.” Twilight smiled sheepishly as she cut into the ‘friendly talk’ of ours, levitating again a scroll, quill and inkwell in front of her

“More or less it means to go and jump off a cliff.” Travis smiled at his smart remark, Twilight scribbled down the notes she needed to take before they disappeared in a flash of light.

“Do you have those everywhere you go Twilight?” I asked getting annoyed at the fact she always seemed to have those with her to document every single teeny tiny little thing I did and said, and now to make it better, she had Travis too.

“She’s gonna get all the wrong information from him...”

I shook my head from Twilight’s immediate interest in the definition in the gesture, Travis would not only make life here not so lonely as to being the only human in Equestria, but he would also be there almost every second...

Of every day...

Of every year...

“Shit...”

“Back to what we were talking about...” I tried getting everyone back on track, Rarity was a bit perceptive of what I was trying to do and cut me off before I could continue.

She then cleared her throat to get the attention of me, I looked up to see her with an impatient look on her face, “Did you need something? Glass of water for that cough of yours?” I said trying to disregard what she was doing.

“Well I am waiting for that summary of that little secret of yours.” she sounded smug as she spoke to me.

“Rarity, I can talk about that later with you, and anypony else who wants to hear about it alright?” I ended that topic right there, “You fail to realize that in the span of seventy two hours I’ve been captured by a bunch of stallions, who gamble on the lives of animals, fought for my life with a bunch of animals, fought with a dragon and am still living here, and now I’m in a hospital because of my dumbass friend here.”

I was getting annoyed by her pestilence, I realized that I was yelling, making them look a bit unnerved now, I lowered my tone of voice to a more suitable tone to make them less nervous around me, we haven't even had a proper introduction yet.

“Excuse me, but I was trapped with those assholes too, you know. Three fucking months. A lot worse.” Travis tried to play the ‘feel-sorry-for-me-too’ card but I had a counter-remark for that.

“Well did you have to fight that Ursa minor?” I questioned him, “If you didn't that doesn't even compare with a dragon for god’s sake.”

He opened his mouth to speak and then shut it while looking at the ground, for lack of a better thing to say.

He looked back up with a scowl on his face at me, “Well that doesn't compare with my three months of loneliness and fighting for my life and sanity you know, asshole.”

It was my turn to look at the ground, more or less the end of my bed for lack of a better answer, he had me beat there, I doubt even I could live that long with nobody to talk to or socialize with for that kind time duration.

There was a bit of an awkward silence for a moment, then the door to the hall opened, the pink-maned nursepony stuck her head through the opening in the door. All heads, pony and human alike, turned to see what it was.

“I’m sorry, but visiting time is almost over.” she gave a sheepish smile, trying not to ruin the moment between all of us, “I can give you five more minutes before he needs his rest for the night.”

“I have a name you know, its Taylor, if you wanted to know.” I piped up, trying to be referred as Taylor, not ‘him’.

“Alright then, thank you nurse Redheart, we’ll be out in a bit here.” Twilight responded to nurse Redheart as she was called.

“Alright then, I will be back in five to put Taylor, to bed then.” she smiled as she emphasized on my name, before leaving the room, shutting the door behind her.

“Alright we better wrap this up here...” I was beginning the conclusion to their visit to get some sleep, losing a lot of blood is a real tiring if it ever happens and you’re stuck in a hospital for a good week.

“Sooooooooo......” Travis clapped his hands together while rubbing them together, getting the ready attention of all to hear, “Where am I staying tonight?”

There were a few looks between all of them, they all seemed to look for a willing volunteer for housing my human friend, I would think Twilight would be first to offer, but I was wrong there, she seemed quiet, if not reluctant to have him over.

“My place is out of the question.” Rainbow started, “I can't lug him all the way to Cloudsdale, I don't even think he can WALK on clouds.” she had a point there with the fact he can't walk on them, I don't even see that being plausible.

“Fluttershy has the dragon at her place, and Applejack has work in the morning...” Twilight added, cutting out the option of the yellow pegasus and the orange cowpony for that was she was referred to as.

That left Pinkie, Rarity and Twilight left in the run for housing a human that hasn’t showered in three months, was totally erratic for being here with all the ponies and not being able to shut his damn mouth for one second.

“I’m sorry darling, but I have orders to fill for tomorrow.” Rarity said, “And I think that if Sweetie Belle caught sight of you, she would invite Applebloom and Scootaloo to try and get their cutie marks out of something with you.”

Rarity looked as if she was thinking about the event that it actually happened, she then shuddered a little, “I can't get all of my orders done with that obstreperous noise and I’ve never been late on an order and I’m not going to be.” Her eyes narrowed as she concluded her little reasonable explanation.

“You just had to say no.” Travis said smirking a little at her own defence.

“Ooooh oh! Pick me! Cmon pick me! You know you want to!” Pinkie waved her hoof in the air as she sat on her hindquarters, trying to entice the thought of having a sleepover with a human being with her apparently, ‘pet’ alligator too.

“Sounds good to me!” Travis smiled as he spoke, he tried to contain his happiness, it was no mystery to any of us, but he still tried... and failed miserably at it.

“ooooh Twilight can he? Can he? canhecanhecanhecanhecanhecanhecanheeeeeeeeeee? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaassssssssssssseeeeeeeee???” She seemed almost desperate laying at Twilight’s hooves for her permission.

“Well I guess he can-”

“YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA YYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Pinkie began bouncing around the room doing flips and cartwheels as she went.

She then popped up in Travis’ face to make contact with the overjoyed human, “We’re gonna have SO MUCH FUN TOGETHER!!! We’re gonna stay up late and PAR-TAY!!! ALL NIGHT LONG!!! This will be my personal ‘Welcome to Ponyville Travis’ party. You’re big one will be later on after Taylor’s ‘Welcome to Ponyville, glad you didn't get eaten by a dragon’ party! There’ll be party games, lotsa cake, and I’ll even get that DJ for the occasion!”

Travis stopped dead, his expression showed pure disbelief, “Did I hear you say DJ?” Travis asked in a shaky tone.

“Yeah the white unicorn with the cool looking blue hair and glasses, I know her very well, she’s been to a lot of my parties! Her name is Vinyl Scra-... Hey are you okay?”

I Looked over at him to see that his body had begun to sway and his face looked like he was off in another dimension, his smile on his face told me he was in his own little dreamland of a fantasy.

“Travis? You there?” I asked trying to get him back to reality, but even I fail miserably sometimes.

Pinkie walked up to his swaying body, looked him up and down and put her hoof on his chest, closing her eyes and going into some sort of trance.

“Pinkie what’re you do-” I started before getting cut off.

“Shhhhhh.” was all Pinkie gave in response before being silent with her hoof on my friend.

“What’s she doing?” I looked to Twilight for an answer, she only shrugged in response, if she didn't know, I didn't know who would.

“OW FUCK!!!” Travis yelled as he fell on his ass.

“What? What happened? Pinkie what’d you do to him?” I asked having no clue as to what the fuck just happened.

“You just... hit me with a fish... In my head...” Travis held his head in one hand trying to reconcile after the mental ‘fish slap’ in his head.

“Pinkie, why did you hit him with a fish in his head? And how is that even possible?” It made absolutely no sense to me or anyone else.

“Why wouldn't I hit him with a fish? Its the only way to break somepony out of their euphoric trance!” she smiled as she spoke, as if it was supposed to make sense to us, “And besides I’m Pinkie Pie! Isn't that enough reason for you?”

“That doesn't even-”

“Just let it go.” Rainbow stopped me mid sentence, “That’s more than enough reason as to why its possible.”

I looked back at Pinkie Pie who was now bouncing around the room with a rather large smile on her face, I simply sighed and accepted that Pinkie could never be proven to the logical world.

Travis was still rubbing his face as he got back up of the floor, looking at Pinkie and being so confused as to what happened and I honestly couldn't blame him. This little monstrosity of breaking logic could and probably would contradict everything I said and did here, all that I have learned would become invalid because of her.

I then gave a loud and obnoxious yawn looked over to see Mist, who was a lot quieter than usual in his normal state. He had been very quiet since we got out of the arena and wouldn't tell us what it was that was bugging him.

“Hey Mist.” the lighter cyan head looked at me, “What are your plans now? Since we’re out of the arena now? Do you have any family or friends that are gonna be thrilled to see you?”

All heads turned again to face the unicorn who was now paying no attention to me at all, but was now staring at the floor in deep thought, as if remembering something that jogged his memory. He looked back up to see everyone staring at him, he scanned the faces around him and then smiled, before walking to the door, opening it halfway, and turning back to see everyone still looking at him. He gave a silent nod with his smile and walked out the door. I saw as his expression turned grim right as the last of his face almost left my view when the door shut behind him.

“Dammit Mist...” I mumbled to myself, everyone looked back with worried expressions, Travis and I had known him longest, why did they look just as sad as we do? I mean, they barely even know the gu- er... stallion.

The door opened again and our heads turned again as if we were watching a tennis match, our eyes following the ball, which in this case, it was anything that moved or made noise. Nurse Redheart poked her head in once more, I knew it was time for them to go, and good timing too, I am tired as all hell.

“It’s time to say goodbye now.” she said in a happy tone, everyone then began walking to the door, saying their goodbyes to me as they disappeared from sight.

When they were all gone I looked out the window, I saw the crescent moon peek out from behind the rain clouds from earlier, Luna would be waiting for me in my dreams, getting tired now would be key in making up for lost time because of a dragon.

I gave one final yawn before closing my eyes, listening to the sound of pages being turned by the non-attentive doctorpony on the chair nearby, and having one last thing go through my head before falling into my well deserved deep sleep.

“She said ‘fuck you’ to logic...”

Twilight walked down the hall with her friends, Rarity was making small-talk with Rainbow about a new fashion line that she had heard about, Rainbow was reluctant to listen by the look on her face, but to be polite, she nodded as Rarity was jabbering on. Pinkie and Travis in the back were incredibly loud, they seemed to get along very well, they walked and talked about what their plans were going to be for their party tonight. At least Pinkie found someone she could talk to and not get annoyed... Celestia knows how that’s possible.

They all went their separate ways, Rainbow flew off to Cloudsdale first, then Pinkie and Travis ran into Sugarcube Corner, (She felt bad for the Cakes by the way) and Rarity was greeted with a hug from Sweetie Belle and a barrage of questions about the ‘alien’ that she went and saw.

Twilight continued her walk alone until she made it to the library she called home. Opening the door, she was greeted by the sound of a dragon snoring in the other room and complete darkness. She then levitated a candle from a table nearby, and with her magic, illuminated the room with a spark of fire.

It would be a lonely few days besides the company of Spike, before the library would become an exciting place to be again, she had already read pretty much all the books, and the next shipment wasn't supposed to come for another month. She could only wait for the human to get out of the hospital before she had someone around all the time. Spike was always out doing some errand for her, but ceased to show any malevolent feelings to what she made him do.

She walked up the staircase, each step squeaked under her weight as she ascended to the floor above until she reached the top. Walking down the hall, she stopped in front of the now empty room that the human she had been housing was no longer occupying. She walked in to find it as she thought it would be; quiet.

She surveyed the room but found no trace of his presence, besides his saddlebag that sat in the corner. Taylor had been careful with that, perhaps it contained something valuable that could help her with her studies on the ‘human’ race.

She began walking towards it but then stopped, he wouldn't like it if she were to go through his things while he was gone, he would notice that they were moved when he got back. She wouldn't probably know how to use whatever was in there anyways, Taylor had pulled out some device now and then to tell the time that lit up when he touched it, that was beyond even the highest technology of princess Celestia. She turned around and left the room, closing the door silently with a small ‘click’ and opening the door to her room from the hallway. She was greeted by the loud snoring of the purple dragon at the foot of her bed.

Smiling, she levitated the half-on blanket onto him, he moved around in his sleep to get himself comfortable and then went back to snoring. Twilight got into bed quietly and looked out the window to her right, she watched the moon loom in the sky, clouds passing it by as it lay suspended in mid-air, the next few days would be slow but at least this gave her the perfect opportunity to ask him all the questions she needed for her studies.

But those would have to wait. The feeling of sleep was too much for her at the moment, being exhausted from a good three mile gallop to save the life of a human was enough for one day for her. She slowly closed her eyes, and smiling, thought about future questions for tomorrow. That's how her little pony mind worked anyways.

Meanwhile, a large amount of music and hollering could be heard from the bakery in town, there were the occasional yells and breaking of glass, but then there was a boom, silence overtook the building. Lights in the houses of others turned on as the ponies housed in them stuck their heads out to see what it was, only to find the establishment in a state of party, but it was as if it was on mute.
The ponies who had looked out to see what had made the noise, went back inside to get some sleep, assured that the royal guard that was posted in town would take care of whatever it was in the morning.