"I looked for the truth, found it. Didn't like it, wish the hell I could forget it. Alex Mercer.... this city suffered for his mistakes... for what he did at Penn station and whoever he was, that's a part of me, 'cause when I close my eyes, I see the memories of a thousand dead men, screaming as I take their lives. Moments I'll relive forever. What have I become? Something less than human, but also something more."

―Alex Mercer

Urgh…Mercer had spent less than three hours in this awful place, and already he was wishing he could just simply burn the place down and kill every last pony within a thousand yard radius. His frustrations were justifiable in that in the first ten minutes of his arrival, he confirmed a dozen clichés and horribly unfunny equine related puns just by walking inside the boundaries of the town. The other two hours and fifty minutes only increased his dislike, seeing as how he was forced into the company of-

“Ooh, cupcakes! I love cupcakes! Do you love cupcakes? I don’t know anypony who doesn’t love cupcakes! They’re just so yummy! How could you not like cupcakes?”

-that. Perhaps an explanation is required.

Mercer already had a plan brewing in his mind, one that would ensure his success. He just needed enough time to get things ready before he set it into motion. If this was going to work, he had to have everything in place so as to prevent another failure. He had set off towards the little town he had seen from the hill after he spent the night mulling over his thoughts, walking slowly to tie in the last few variables of his plan. Before he did anything, he needed to learn as much as possible without seeming too suspicious. He couldn’t just go around asking general knowledge questions like “What is this place?”, “Where am I?”, or “Just a quick question; how powerful would you say your military presence is here? I’m just curious.” No, he had to take this cautiously. It wouldn’t bode well for him to start hacking and slashing without securing any intelligence first.

The sun was just cresting over the mountains in the distance, light cascading over the sleepy town. As he entered between two houses, he took a moment hiding in the shadows to survey the early morning traffic. Very few ponies walked around at this time, most of them probably preferring to sleep in. It was alien to him, seeing a town with so little activity. He grew up in New York, “the city that never sleeps”, so that story is pretty self-explanatory. When he decided he was safe for the time being to crawl out of his hole unnoticed, he strode out of the alleyway and into the street.

…Right into another pony he had somehow missed before. She was a lot smaller then he was, offering next to no resistance as she fell to the ground with a squeak. He had no idea where she came from; he wasn’t even sure how he could have missed her. She must have been sneaking around like he was. For what reason, he wasn’t sure, but he supposed that since he was serious about blending in, the proper response to bowling over another person-er, pony, was to apologize and feign sincerity.

“Oh, uh…terribly sorry, miss. I didn’t mean to run into you there. I suppose I wasn’t paying attention.” He tried for a sincere smile, glad that his hood hid his face because if she could see it she probably would have run for the hills. He offered her his hoof, not really caring if she was harmed or not but still trying to act the part.

An awkward moment passed as his hoof remained outstretched, yet the mare in front of him refused to take it. In fact she seemed to be recoiling from him, attempting to hide behind her long pink hair. He pulled his hoof back and coughed uncomfortably, again trying to apologize to her.

“Are you…uh…are you okay?” She pulled her hair a little tighter over herself. “You’re not hurt, are you?” Still no response. Mercer was beginning to get annoyed. “Do you need any help or are you okay there on the ground?” He flinched after saying that, cursing himself for putting so much malice into his words. It seemed to have had the right effect on her though, as she pulled her hair aside to reveal her face. She stared at him with large, unblinking blue eyes, like she was waiting for him to say something else. “…Sorry, I um…I guess I’m just not a very good morning person.” He tried a smile again; this time tilting his head to let the rays from the sun reveal his face. As she looked at him her expression changed from one of fear to awe, like she was looking at the moon and stars for the first time. Her reaction to seeing his face surprised him, not sure what it meant but still keeping up his smile.

He offered her his hoof again, and this time she took it. He carefully pulled her up, minding his super strength so as to prevent himself from flinging her half way across the town. As she got up to her feet he was able to get a good look at her. She was yellow, with long pink hair that hung down almost to the ground. Her tail was long as well, begging the question “How long exactly did she spend in the morning brushing all that hair?” He spotted a pair of wings curled to her side, and he wondered why he had run into her on the ground if she could have just been flying.

She noticed him looking her over, blushing heavily and hiding her face once more. He rolled his eyes. ‘As if I would be checking out a damn pony,’ he thought. He put on that smile again and tried to start a conversation. “My name is Ale-uh, I mean…” He kicked himself for the slip. It had been so long since he’d had a normal conversation with someone that didn’t involve him giving out orders or threats that for a moment he reverted back to introducing himself as Alex. He hated that name; it was just too…human. He cleared his throat and tried again. “…My name is Mercer. May I ask what your name is?” He put as much charm as he could muster into his introduction, hoping to get something out of this shy pony.

She blushed a little harder, but let her hair fall from in front of her face and looked him right in the eye. She seemed to radiate confidence so suddenly that Mercer almost took a step back, surprise spreading over his face. She took a step closer to him and opened her mouth to say something, immediately losing all the confidence she had built up on the first syllable and falling back a few steps, letting out an unintelligible string of squeaks that she undoubtedly intended to be her name.

Mercer stared at her for a moment before replying. “…I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch that.”

She looked back up at him and tried again, and this time he was able to catch the sound of actual words, but was still unable to decipher what she had said. He simply waited for her to say it again, hoping she wouldn’t feel pressured as long as he was patient. She seemed to sense that very thing from him as she was finally able to squeak out what sounded like “Fluttershy”. He forced himself not to smile, assuming he had just misheard her.

“I’m sorry; did you say ‘Fluttershy’?” He asked with as little incredulity as he could muster. She nodded her head slowly. Unable to stop it, Mercer felt the smile creep onto his face, and before he knew it he was grinning ear to ear at the thought of her ridiculous name. Fluttershy seemed to mistake his smile for something else, as she too began to smile widely. She followed suit after he began chuckling, unaware that he was essentially mocking her by laughing. He brought a hoof up to his head, sitting back onto his haunches and trying to calm himself down. As he quieted down he started listening to Fluttershy as she continued to laugh for another few seconds. It was melodic, quiet yet still pleasing to hear. It reminded him of his sister Dana when she was younger, no matter how pouty she got he could always get her to laugh with a silly face.

As memories of his sister flooded his mind, the smile instantly dropped from his face. He cleared his throat and stood up again. “Well, this was…um…fun.” She looked at him expectantly, like she was waiting for him to say something else, just so she could hear him talk. “I better get going. Got a lot of stuff to do. Plans and prior engagements, or whatever.” Mercer was really rusty at this. He blamed it on his having to act as a nice guy for once. She seemed disappointed, but said nothing. He turned and began walking down the road, not sure where he was going but just wanting to get as far away from her as possible. “Maybe I’ll see you around some other time,” he called over his shoulder, not meaning it. He wasn’t sure, but he could have sworn he saw her legs wobble after he said that. He continued walking regardless, choosing to ignore the odd mare that he was now regretting running into.

‘Well that was a bust,’ he thought miserably. She had barely said one word to him, and he guessed he wasn’t going to get any better with continued prodding. It was best to just abandon the situation before he made a useless friend like “Fluttershy”. He shook the angry thoughts on the shy pony out of his head, choosing to continue with his plan instead of waste time thinking about something so idiotic. He turned his attention on the path ahead, deciding to find some other pony to get answers from.

He found himself standing in an intersection; dozens of ponies wandering about in what he assumed was some sort of marketplace. He looked about at the multitude of smiling faces, feeling himself grow sick as the world around him seemed to blur together into swirling colors. Well, now he knew why there were so few ponies in the streets before. Apparently they were all gathered here. He walked over to a nearby bench and grabbed onto the side to steady himself.

“Are you okay? You don’t look so good.”

Mercer was caught off guard by the sudden question, looking over to see two concerned faces staring back at him. They were both mares, one was mint colored with a lightly colored mane and tail, a single white streak running across both. She had a horn on her head, and the tattoo on her flank was one of a small string instrument, kind of like a harp. The other was beige with a dark blue and pink streaked mane and tail. He couldn’t quite see her tattoo from this angle, but he didn’t really care enough to find out. He realized they were still watching him intently, most likely fearing for their own safety in case he decided to lose his lunch at the moment.

Mercer swallowed back the bile that had begun to rise in his throat, trying to concentrate on something other than the mob of Technicolor ponies surrounding him.

The mint colored pony that had asked the question spoke again. “Are you gonna be alright there, stallion? Do you need any help?”

Mercer was slightly surprised by the genuine concern in her voice, but shook it off before he replied. “Yes…Yes, I’m…fine.” He sucked in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “Perfectly fine.”

The looks they gave him suggested they didn’t believe him, but they didn’t say anything about it. He stood there a moment getting his bearings, cursing his new body more and more. Getting used to being a pony would be harder then he thought.

Once he had settled his stomach, he decided on asking a few questions. He figured since he already had these two ponies attention, he might as well take advantage of the situation.

“So then…what should I call you ladies?” He asked lamely. Yeah, he really needed more practice at this.

The one that spoke before, the mint colored one, gestured to herself, saying “I’m Lyra, and this is my friend Bon Bon,” she finished by placing her hoof around her friends shoulder and hugging her tightly. Bon Bon seemed to blush slightly, but didn’t let on if she disliked the contact or not. “What should we call you?”

He found himself once again forcing himself not to laugh at their names. Fluttershy was one thing, but Lyra and Bon Bon? It was almost like he was trapped inside a cartoon for little girls. “You can refer to me as Mercer.” He finally managed to say without snickering.

Bon Bon tilted her as she regarded him for a moment. “Are you new in Ponyville? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you around before.”

Mercer’s brain froze. Did she just say…Ponyville? This place was actually called Ponyville!? Good lord, what’s next? Manehattan? Fillydelphia? He was beginning to feel sick again. He swallowed once more before answering. “Uh, yeah, I’m new here. Very new. I’m not exactly used to a place like…this.”

“Oh, well that’s too bad. Maybe you’d feel better if you got somepony to show you around.” Lyra said while inspecting her hoof, giving off the impression she didn’t mean herself. Bon Bon glared at her.

“Yes, perhaps that is a good idea-wait a minute…did you just say somepony?”

“I’m somepony!”

The outburst came not from the two ponies he was talking to, but from someone else behind him. Or somepony else, as the case may be. At any rate, the pony that just shouted in his ear didn’t scare him in the slightest. Alex Mercer knew no fear. He was, however, not immune to being caught off guard. He jumped forward, planting his hoof on the ground while using his momentum to spin around and face his new opponent. He spread his hooves into a low crouch and prepared himself for a fight.

A fight that never came. Instead he was met with many stares, as his little stunt had attracted more than enough unwanted attention. He relaxed his posture; standing up straight and lowering his head to let his hood better hide his face. He looked to where he thought the one who had startled him was, but he saw no one. He began looking around and immediately found himself nose to nose with the smiling face of a bright pink pony who was literally bouncing on her feet. He took a few steps back to give himself some room, not sure of what this new pony would do but still not taking any chances. She simply stood there smiling at him, like he was her best friend she hadn’t seen in months.

“Um…can I help you?” Mercer asked tentatively.

“Nope!”

She continued to smile at him. He was beginning to feel uncomfortable. “…Alright then…I’m just gonna go somewhere else-”

He stopped suddenly when she dropped her smile and began glaring at him. She walked right up to him and stared him down. He returned it with just as much intensity, refusing to let a bubblegum pink pony get the better of him. They remained like that for a few tense moments, before she finally spoke up.

“You’re a new pony in town…” It wasn’t a question.

“Yeah…what of it?”

She narrowed her eyes to slits. “You know what this means…” A few more tense seconds passed before-

“THIS CALLS FOR A PARTY!” Mercer was taken aback as he found himself within a shower of confetti, long strands of streamers falling on him and hanging off his jacket and hoodie. Where the confetti had come from, he wasn’t sure, but then again he wasn’t interested enough to ask. She stared expectantly, smiling widely, probably expecting some sort of reaction from him. He shook his head, ridding himself of the offending party favors. He then turned and began walking in the opposite direction, much to the apparent dismay of the new pony.

“Hey, wait! Where are you going? Come back Mr. Cranky Pants!” She galloped after him, trying to haze her way into throwing him what she called a “Welcome to Ponyville party!” to which he simply replied “No.”

And that is where Mercer found himself now. Nearly three hours to the minute and he was reduced to grinding his teeth while the bubbly pink pony behind him that had already introduced herself as “Pinkie Pie” thirty seven times skipped merrily and ran her mouth faster than an Olympic runner. For the most part all she did was point out random buildings and tell him who lived there, but after they had made their way through the majority of the town, he was burnt out on useless information.

“That house on the corner is where my friend Sweetie Drops lives, and the one across from it is where my friend Time Turner lives, and that one waaaay over there is where my friend…” At some point, he didn’t know when, she had begun listing them off by alphabetical order. “…and my BEST friend Twilight Sparkle lives in the library over there! She has a dragon as an assistant! His name is Spike, and he’s one of my-”

Mercer shoved his hoof in her mouth to shut her up, having finally heard something interesting from the annoying mare. “Let me guess, he’s your ‘BEST friend’, right?” She nodded her head enthusiastically, unaware or just uncaring of his obvious mockery of her voice. He removed his hoof before continuing. “Now what was that about your friend Flashlight living in a library?”

Pinkie looked confused. “Flashlight? I don’t know anypony by that name." She brought a hoof up to her chin in thought. “…Nope, I can’t think of anypony named Flashlight!”

Mercer face hoofed. “But you were JUST talking about her!” He growled out through clenched teeth. “You said your best friend lived in the library over somewhere!” He gestured wildly with his hoof.

“Ooooooh, you mean ‘Twilight’!” She giggled to herself. “Twilight isn’t a flashlight silly, she’s a pony!” Mercer’s left eye twitched. “Twilight lives in the library right over there! See?” She grabbed his face and forced him to look in the direction she was referring to. What he saw was a large tree with multiple windows, a couple of balconies, and a red front door with a picture of a candle on it.

“Your friend lives in a tree,” he said bluntly, “How original.” It was then that he realized Pinkie still had a hold on his face, now attempting to make kissing shapes with his mouth using her hooves.

‘The first chance I get, I will kill this pony,’ he thought as he pried her hooves away from his face and began heading for the reading establishment.

It had been so long since Mercer had even considered entering a library, given that in recent years if he needed to learn anything important he could just consume the right person and absorb their knowledge. Of course that is to say he wasn’t completely incompetent when it came to dealing with Dewey and his infamous decimal system, but then again he had never been in a library as a pony before.

“Ugh, this is impossible!” He growled quietly, once again picking up the book he was trying to read after clumsily dropping it for the third time. “These damn hooves can’t hold shit!” He tried turning the page, only to have it fall out of his grasp yet again. “It’s like trying to pick up a penny with a hammer!”

“Here, let me help you with that!” With little difficulty, Pinkie Pie, who still hadn’t left him alone, reached down and picked up the book with one hoof, plopping down on her haunches in the same position he was in and holding it out to him. He ignored the fact she was able to hold it so easily with no opposable thumbs, instead opting to use her innate ability to his advantage.

Mercer flipped the book around in her hooves so it faced him, opening it to the page he wanted and telling her to “Hold still like a good little book stand.” She did as he told, not questioning him or complaining about him treating her like a piece of furniture. Mercer was in the corner of the library, the only place that held the most privacy. Thanks to the lack of seats he was forced to sit on the ground, hunching over to better read the tired old script within the pages. The tome he was trying to read was recommended by the librarian, a purple pony with a horn that seemed to enable her to levitate objects at will, a power that confused him until he read the first page of the book she had given him, Know your Ponies.

“So ponies with horns are called unicorns, and they can use magic.” He said magic like it left a bad a taste in his mouth. The idea that it would actually exist anywhere made the scientists in him cry out for journalistic proof and hard evidence. He read on. “Ponies with wings are known as Pegasi, and as well as possessing the gift of flight, they can also control the weather.”

Pinkie giggled at him. “You didn’t know that? Everypony knows that! I learned that as a filly!”

“Well I was never interested in that sort of thing!” Mercer snapped.

Pinkie tilted her head. “What were you interested in?”

He brought his gaze back down to the book. “Science. Turns out I was actually good at something after all.” He mumbled. He found what little memories of his past he still had coming to the fore front of his mind, the years he spent in abject poverty, that miserable little place they called a foster home. He remembered being put back in the care of his mother, much to his and his sister’s dismay. It would have just been better to be left in foster care. He shook the memories from his head, getting back to the book.

“Unicorns can use magic to do a variety of things: levitation, teleportation, location of specific objects and manipulation of various types of matter. Some spells even allow for direct augmentation of thoughts or personalities.” Mercer’s head spun. ‘Direct augmentation of thoughts or personalities?’ What, like a “reforming spell”? That didn’t sound good. He was beginning to be thankful he had already decided against rushing the town and attacking anything that moved. These unicorns seemed dangerous; he would definitely have to be careful if he wanted to succeed. The danger grew even more when he reached a section titled “Alicorns”.

“Ooh, ooh, like the Princesses!” Pinkie bounced on her flank excitedly, surprisingly still holding the book still for Mercer to keep reading.

“Alicorns were an ancient race of ponies that possessed attributes of all three pony races: Unicorns, Pegasi, and Earth ponies. They were incredibly powerful, immortal, and at one time thought to be responsible for the creation of Equestria. To date Alicorns are nearly extinct, only about three remain.”

“See? I told ya!”

“Who are these ‘Princesses’?” Mercer asked her.

“Duh! The Princesses of Equestria! Celestia, Luna, and Cadence! Princess Celestia is Twilight’s favorite pony in the world! She’s always talking about her; she just goes on and on and on and on-”

“Pinkie! Back on topic. What do they do?”

Pinkie thought a moment. “Well, Princess Celestia raises the sun every morning, and Princess Luna raises the moon at night! And Princess Cadence is married to Twilight’s older brother! I’m not really sure what she does.”

Mercer steadied his breathing, forcing himself to remain calm. “I don’t care about the lore; I mean what do they actually do?”

“That is what they actually do! Princess Celestia raises the sun, Princess Luna raises the moon, and Princess Cadence-”

“Pinkie, are you insinuating these ponies can control the sun to revolve around the Earth?”

Pinkie smiled at him. “Uh-huh!”

Mercer was appalled. The very thought that a pony could control the movement of a massive celestial body to bend to their will made his blood boil. Obviously no one ever bothered to tell these morons that the sun was over 93 million miles from the Earth at its shortest distance, not to mention it’s over 330,000 times bigger. The amount of effort and energy it would take just to move the sun a few feet would be immeasurable, let alone all the way across the visible sky. Still, it made Mercer think. With that aside, these Alicorns remained a serious threat to him. Even if the legends behind them weren’t true, if they didn’t actually have a hand in creating “Ponyland”, that still placed them at high priority.

He flipped the page, scanning for anything else on Alicorns, like maybe a “Strengths/Weaknesses” section. He found nothing of the sort, only more legends and stories of Alicorn might and magic overcoming great evil.

Pinkie began bouncing again. “Like when the Princesses defeated Discord with the Elements of Harmony and turned him to stone! But then he got out, so we had to turn him back into stone! It was so much fun; I was Meany Pie for almost a whole day!”

Mercer raised his eyebrow. “’Meany Pie’?” Then he realized what she said. “Wait, ‘we’ turned him back into stone? You helped the Princesses imprison him again?”

“No silly, the Princesses weren’t strong enough! They can’t use the Elements of Harmony anymore!” Finally some good news. Perhaps there was some weakness to these Alicorns after all. “Since me and Twilight and all our friends found out we were the Elements, we used our power to turn Discord back into a statue! It was kinda sad though; he may have been trying to take over Equestria, but he made it rain chocolate!”

“Elements of what? You turned someone into stone!?” Perhaps the Alicorns weren’t the highest priority after all. “But you’re an Earth pony, how could you use magic?”

“All ponies of every race have some sort of magic within them. Unicorns are just the only ones who can control it.” Mercer turned his head to face the new comer, surprised to see the librarian standing in front of him. She smiled at him kindly. “I have to say, it makes me glad to see somepony so interested in this kind of thing.” She held out a hoof. “I don’t think we were properly introduced. I’m Twilight Sparkle.”

Mercer stared at her for a moment before slowly taking her hoof and shaking it. “Mercer. Now, Pinkie said something about you being an Element? What exactly does that mean?”

Twilight’s horn glowed, causing a book to float over from a nearby table. She levitated it in front of him and opened it to a page with medieval drawings depicting a circular dais with six different colored gems on it. “The Elements of Harmony were created long ago to protect the land from evil. Princess Celestia and her sister Princess Luna used them to imprison Discord in stone like Pinkie said, but she also used them to imprison her sister years later when Luna’s resentment of being ignored turned her into Nightmare Moon.” The page turned to a drawing of a pony shooting a beam of light from her horn at another dark colored pony. “Nightmare Moon escaped about a year ago, and once again tried to make good on her threat to bring about eternal night. By that time Princess Celestia had long since lost the Elements, and so I set out with my friends to find them.” She closed the book and floated it back over to the table it was on. “When we found them, I realized that the Elements now held a connection to my friends and I; each one of us represent a specific Element of friendship…” She continued describing the events of her little adventure, but Mercer had stopped listening. He tried to keep himself from rolling his eyes as she droned on about the magic of friendship.

So then these ponies possess incredible power. Power strong enough to turn a living being into stone. ‘Or send one to the moon.’ He grimaced at the thought. The virus inside him was strong, but not strong enough to allow him to survive in a vacuum. He’d have to find a way to keep these ponies from using their power against him.

“…because the Elements would only work as long as we still held the magic of friendship in our hearts, and thanks to the memory spell I used, they all remembered the things we’d done together and we were finally able to turn Discord back into stone.” She finished her tale, proud of herself for her story telling prowess.

Mercer pretended he had been listening. “So then if you and your friends aren’t yourselves you can’t use the Elements of Harmony?” He asked noncommittally.

“Well, sort of. We all have to be together in order to use them. Since Discord had tricked them into being the opposite of the Element they each represented, they weren’t committed to using the power against him.”

“Hmm…” He thought on that for a moment. “So…if one of you…say, refused to use their Element to unleash its power…there’s no way you could just get a stand in?”

Twilight laughed. “No, the bearers of the Elements have to be a perfect match to the one they represent. Weren’t you paying attention? I explained that already.” She looked at him like a school teacher would look at a disobedient child. Mercer pulled his hood farther over his face. She smirked at his reaction. “Besides, I already tried that when I chose Spike to be the new Rainbow Dash. It didn’t work, for obvious reasons.” She blushed slightly, but continued. “Each of my friends represents one of the six Elements: Laughter, which is represented by Pinkie Pie, Generosity, represented by Rarity, Honesty, which Applejack represents, Kindness, Fluttershy’s Element, Loyalty, which my last friend Rainbow Dash represents, and finally Magic, the rarest Element that I represent.” She gestured to herself. “As long as we’re with each other, we can never lose. Friends can do anything, as long as they work together!” She finished up with a big smile that only grew larger when Pinkie suddenly jumped up and wrapped her in a bone crushing hug.

“Aww, Twilight! You’re gonna make me cry!” She spoke in future tense, despite having tears that were already streaming down her pink cheeks. Mercer suppressed a gag. This is why he didn’t want any friends growing up; too sappy. Too weak. But it did add six more targets to his list. Now along with those three Alicorn Princesses, were the bearers of these Elements of Harmony that Twilight had so graciously given him. All he had to do was take care of one of them, and he could rid himself of the danger of them using this great power against him.

While the two ponies continued to be sappy together, Mercer was already figuring out his plan of how to catch this world off guard and minimize his chance of being defeated. Instead of simply killing one of them, he could “persuade” them instead to join him. He still needed a second in his army; why not make that second one of the heroes of this world? As well as saving him time on doing everything himself, it would also serve to demoralize the others. Having to fight an enemy they once thought was their friend might give him an advantage over them. They’ll most likely try to save their friend, hesitate from harming them just long enough for him to finish them all off. But the question was: which one should he choose? Twilight had listed off the Elements as well her friends’ names. One of them was Loyalty. That’s exactly what Mercer needed, someone loyal, someone who wouldn’t betray him just because he was mad at him for killing his wife and kidnapping his daughter.

Mercer smirked to himself. If he wanted to succeed, he would need the “voluntary” help from this so-called “Element of Loyalty”, Rainbow Dash. With her at his disposal, the rest would be unable to use the Elements against him. And as for the Alicorn Princesses, he would deal with them when the time came.

“Aww, Mr. Cranky Pants is finally smiling!” He found himself being pulled into a tight embrace by Pinkie Pie. If he didn’t know any better, he would have thought she was attempting to consume him. “Does this mean you finally want to have that ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party I’ve been planning for you?” She squeezed a little tighter. “I’ve got more streamers if it’ll change your mind!”

Mercer sighed. Seriously. First chance he gets, he will kill this pony.

Author's Note

You guys suck, you know that? Here I was, perfectly content to just leave the story where it was, and then you had to come along and make me think! I hate thinking! Whenever I think, bad things happen!

Anyway, just enjoy the chapter. I don't know when I'll get the next one out.
-Poly