"HAAAAH!" Paul gasped as he shot awake. He quickly felt his forehead and was relieved to not find any bullet holes but his face was wrapped in bandages as were his knuckles and neck.

"Oh thank God....It was just a bad dream." Paul gasped as he breathed heavily and covered his face with his hands for a minute. He then pulled his hands away from his face and looked around the room to see that he was laying on one of Twilight's couches in the main room of her library/house. As he scanned the room he noticed that Joe was sleeping soundly on the couch, once again covered in bandages with Scootaloo sleeping in a chair next to him. "What the fuck happe...Oh yeah." He muttered to himself as he recalled the events after he and Joe showed up at Twilight's.

Twilight had taken the two in and immediately set about treating their wounds. She was particularly surprised by how battered Paul's knuckles were before Joe explained how Paul had blacked out and given Snowflake a savage beating after his jacket got shredded.

She had been shocked by how Paul had the ability to become a berserker when pushed to his limits. Paul explained that they also needed to hide out and keep his truck off the road for the night because the cops were lurking about. Twilight facehoofed at the fact that she was harboring two fugitives and agreed under some duress when Paul asked if she could talk to Celestia about getting them off the hook.

She had put the two under a sleeping spell before giving them the usual 'pull the glass out and cast a healing spell' routine. She then called Scootaloo to let her know what had happened and she showed up in a hot minute.

As he took off the covers he noticed that he was wearing nothing but his boxer shorts, socks, and his dog tags. "Huh, guess I took more punches than I thought I did." He mused to himself. He looked to find that his chest was wrapped in bandages as well as his legs. "Damn....gotta love that adrenaline." He chuckled before standing up.

"Ughhhhh...Jesus Christ…" Paul grunted as he walked over to where his clothes lay, all the while feeling very sore. He looked them over to see that the lower right side of his jacket had shredded by the glass and his shirt and pants were covered in blood.

"Shit...I'll have to take these Rarity. She'll be able to fix 'em up." He assured himself as he reached into the left jacket pocket and pulled out his pack of cigarettes and his Zippo lighter.

"Twilight will give me holy hell if I smoke in here....fuck it I'll just go smoke in the bathroom." He murmured as he walked past Joe and Scootaloo to the bathroom and shut the door.

He looked at himself in the mirror for a moment. "Jesus....they wrapped me up like I got hit by White Phosphorous." He commented as he examined himself. Slowly he undid the bandages on his face and did a slow examination.

"She does good work...even cleared off some acne..." He said with a smirk as he opened his pack of cigarettes and lit one before taking a drag on it. "Better open the window." He said before doing so.

He took off the chest bandages along with the ones on his leg, puffing away on his cigarette the whole time. Finally, he got around to removing the ones on his knuckles, "Wow...She IS good..." He stated. He saw that his knuckles didn't have a single scratch on 'em. He tossed all the bloody bandages in the trash can before leaning against the wall to continue smoking.

All of sudden there was a knock at the bathroom door. "Just a moment!" Paul said before taking another puff. Another knock came at the door a moment later. "I said I'll be out in a minute… God damn it!" Paul yelled through the door. The knock came again yet another moment later. "God damn it, Joe...you're forgetting to say 'Housekeeping!' you dumb son of a...Apple Bloom?" He said as he put out the cigarette and opened the door.

"Nice to see yer up grumpy..." She said with a smirk. All of a sudden he remembered that Twilight had called Apple Bloom as well and that she had been sleeping next to him the whole time without ever realizing it.

To her surprise he suddenly grabbed her and kissed her deeply before enveloping her in a large hug and began rocking back and forth while stroking her mane. Her face turned red at the fact that she had gotten a full view of Paul's chest and that he had kissed her while he was almost naked. "Not that this ain't enjoyable Paul, but what brought this on?" She said.

"A bad dream..." He replied, with his voice cracking. "A very.....very bad dream."

"Well what was...." She began to say before he cut her off.

"Don't say anything...just hold me." He told her as he held her tight.

"Okay…" she replied softly as she brushed his brown hair.

They stood near the doorway for about 5 minutes before Paul heard a voice, "Touching, isn't it Scoots?"

"Yeah....they look so good together..." another voice said.

Paul opened his eyes to see that both Scootaloo and Joe were awake and watching. Joe had already taken off his bandages and was flexing his arm and rolling his wrists to make sure everything was working like it should.

Apple Bloom had whipped around and her face turned an even redder hue when she realized that they were being watched.

"Damn it man! Can't I have a moment without you nosing about?" Paul hissed in an irritated tone of voice.

"What can I say? You're interesting, plus I like seeing your moments." Joe said with a smirk while leaning against Scootaloo. "You're lookin' good man. Not a scratch on you."

"Yeah, I would say the same for you except you've still got something on your head...Oh wait that's your face!" He said in faux-mocking tone.

"Harsh dude." Joe replied as he felt his chin.

“I still think you’re devishly handsome.” Scootaloo commented, making Joe smile and give her a peck on the cheek.

Paul sighed as he let go of Apple Bloom and walked over to pick up his watch from his pile of clothes. "Looks like yours are clean Joe. I'll need to get my spare set out of the truck." He said before walking outside.

He quickly retrieved a pair of jeans, another set of fingerless gloves, and a T-shirt that had the words: "Why Waltz When You Can Rock & Roll" along with a picture of an M-16. He quickly put the clothes on before walking back inside the library/house.

He had walked inside to find that Joe was wearing his clean clothes and talking to Scootaloo and Apple Bloom.

"Hey man, nice T-Shirt!" Joe remarked.

"Thanks man. Say what day is it today?" He asked the group.

"Saturday. Why?" Scootaloo replied curiously.

"It’s just that… I have dinner with Apple Bloom’s family tonight....speaking of which you didn't tell them that I was in a bar fight did you?"

Apple Bloom looked away and said, "Applejack answered the phone...."

"Awwwww...Shit! Like I need any more fucking obstacles!....Shit....Joe you have anything to do today?" He asked

"Nope. Why you ask?" Joe replied.

"You want to fire off some rounds? I need to relieve some stress and aggression." Paul said.

"Sure....I've been needing to get some time in on that anyway." Joe replied.

"Okay...I just need to drop my jacket off at Rarity's to get repaired and get the guns from my house." Paul said as he began to walk out the door with Joe.

"Hey what about us!?" Apple Bloom and Scootaloo said.

"Go hang with Sweetie Belle. You could use some filly time and I could use some more guy time."

"All right....." Apple Bloom said hesitantly

Paul soothed her by giving her a kiss. "Don't worry Angel Face. I'll be there in time for dinner." He said comfortingly before walking out the door and getting into the truck with Joe.

"Oh...By the way.." Paul said as he put on his Ray Ban sunglasses and backed the truck into the street before bitch slapping the back of Joe's head.

"OWW!! Douche!" Joe scowled.

"That's for spying on me....both times..." Paul said with a smirk before speeding off to Carousel Boutique and then to his House before continuing on to Sweet Apple Acres.....

Author's Note

The T-shirt: