A/N: Well, I've revised a bit of what this story originally was and it'll run a bit differently than last time. But this will basically have myself in the story. I will keep my last name back for private reasons.

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The sound of motorcycles could be heard rushing down the busy street of homes through the open window of my home. I just listen to the rustic engines roar loudly from the motorcycles when going down my street that was busy. My neighbourhood was peaceful, and got along well with the noise that would pass by.

The night was clear outside with a small fogged cloud by the white glowing moon in the evening sky. I could see the entire neighbourhood from my own window of my own room. But I only looked at the sky during my time in my personal bedroom. There had never been a beautiful night like this that I've ever seen in my lifetime. There had been various other nights that were beautiful.

I look away from my window and towards the bright light of my TV in my room. They're showing an episode of "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" on the Hub. It was a replay of the episode "A Canterlot Wedding" and it was the part when Queen Chrysalis defeats Princess Celestia, leaving the Mane Six to go running for the elements. This show happened to be one of my favorite shows that I watched, and would defend from the anti-bronies which most of my neighbours were. You could probably tell that I was watching a lot on Twilight Sparkle since she was my favorite pony. I didn't even rage like the other bronies when the entire incident on her becoming an alicorn began along with Equestria Girls in action. I just sat back in the community and enjoyed it. I've already seen the fourth season's premiere, so I can't go into much detail.

I lay on my soft bed in the left corner of the room with the door to and from my room to the right. On my desk is my laptop and pieces of paper with a bowl full of sharpened pencils. I considered myself to be a fanfiction writer and would write down my ideas on any stories that came to me. On the bowl of pencils, was also my name Brayden. A 20 year old, who liked to write stories based on my favorite show. My stomach starts to rumble giving the signal that I was hungry for a late-night snack. Most of the food in my fridge would really satisfy me, so choosing the lazy choice; I made the decision to go to one of those fast food restaurants.

I get up off my soft bed, and reach for the remote of the television and pressing the power button to turn it off. I then walk towards the door of my room and close it behind me when walking downstairs into the garage. My motorcycle could be seen there on its stand with the flaming purple color applied to it. I take the motorcycle off of the stand and open the garage door while pushing the cycle outside. Once outside, I close the garage door and get up onto my motorcycle. I ignite the engine and the clear engine sound of my cycle could be cleanly heard.

"Ah, it still sounds like awesomeness when it starts." I thought to myself, pulling back a bit and moving forward from the street and onto the road. I looked about the road, there were various buildings that would still be open. Even barbershops and disco clubs were open this late at night. It would seem like a peaceful drive with few cars on the road. But upon short arrival to the fast-food burger place known as "Big Burgers", I would receive an unexpected surprise.

There were a bunch of bikers with dangerous looking motorcycles, and they seemed to be ready to see me and didn't look very happy about my presence. "Ah, we've been waiting for you." The leader of the gang said to me, holding a bat in his hand and gently smacking it in his other. The other bikers carried pistols in their pockets, ready to fire at me if I made any funny moves. "You owe us for destroying a bit of our property and you'll pay it right this instant."

"Please, Khaln. That destruction was just a small mistake that accidentally happened." I said, with my heart starting to beat faster by each step that he took towards me. It wasn't entirely my fault that I accidentally hit his precious motorcycle that caused it to fall onto the hill and skid down the dirt road of his home, causing his motorcycle to get dirty and a scratch no doubt. Khaln finally swung his bat at me and knocked me off my motorcycle. I groan when on the ground and Khaln looks over at me.

"Well Brayden, you don't have the money with you. So it looks like by each beating you get from my precious bat, Brown Bear… the owing disappears." Khaln said, swinging his bat and hitting my left knee really hard.

I grunt in pain and begin looking for a way to escape while he was beating me up with a baseball bat. I then put an eye on the empty beer bottle that lay right onto the street next to me. When the timing was right and Khaln had his bat in the air ready to pound it at my own heart, I grab a hold of the beer bottle and throw it straight at Khaln's right shoulder. The reaction causes Khaln to drop his bat and start checking for a bloody scratch. I get up off the street ground and onto my bike, driving off in hopes of escape.

"Get him!" I could hear Khaln yell from the burger place and I go right onto the road, full throttle. Passing by a few cars is when I started to realize that Khaln's men have started to shoot their pistols at me. I manage to miss the first few shots, but one of them hits me in the back of my left shoulder and it starts to stir me off course. Finally, I get a grip onto it and realize as soon as I escape, I should head straight for home to path myself up and remove the bullet wound.

I took my chances to look behind and see that the entire Khaln bikers after me and were ready to kill me. I just dove straight into the park on the motorcycle, even carelessly driving by people and yelling sorry to them. The bullets continued to go. My motorcycle moved up the hill and towards the cliff where I usually make a mistake. "This problem never happens in Equestria!" I shout to myself and speeding forward with Khaln and his bikers getting closer.

Khaln soon started to slow down and I look behind him and stick my tongue out at him, saying "You can't even catch me slowpokes!" When I turned around, the edge of the cliff could be seen and I ditched my motorcycle, causing it to fall off of the cliff and into the lake. I rolled and then held onto my dear life on the cliff edge. The ringleader Khaln moved up into sight and was carrying his combat pistol and fired at my right hand, leaving only one hand to hold onto the cliff.

"Well Brayden. It looks like you're going to be washed away by this fall. Ta-ta." He says, then shooting my left hand, causing me to fall straight into the lake. The lake's rough waves against the cliff bash me underwater into some sharp rocks. I try to swim upwards to the surface but find myself unable to do that.

The waves continue to bash me towards the sharp rocks until of them impales my weak flesh and has blackness start to fade onto me. I tried to force myself to stay alive for this, but the last image I saw was Khaln and his members laughing. It isn't long until the sound of water is gone and silent, and the last image I have seen fades to black.

But I could hear a voice saying before fading to what I thought was eternal sleep saying "Do not worry Brayden. You'll be safe now."

---

I don't own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic! Therefore if I did, would I be writing this? No, of course not.

A/N: Well, you waited long enough, here's the next chapter. Also, that 'Back To The Future' reference at the beginning. Now I just have to figure out what'll happen next chapter. I also don't own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

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The sound of birds chirping and wild animals could be heard outside when I was waking up, and I kept my eyes closed. I could also hear the gentle sound of water from a small bucket close by and someone drying out a wet cloth a bit to put on my face. I groaned, thinking it was all a bad dream and that it was my mother. "Mom… is that you?" I asked.

"Shhh… There there now. Just relax…" A gentle and soft voice told me, placing the warm, damp cloth onto my own head. "You've been asleep for almost nine hours now."

"I… I had a horrible nightmare. I dreamt that there were these bikers trying to kill me… it was terrible." I said, letting the cloth rub back and forth on my forehead.

The voice then said "Awww, well it was all a bad dream… but don't you worry now. You are safe and sound now, here in my wonderful cottage."

That's when I had realized that this was a change. "Your cottage?" I said, opening up my eyes really fast and realized I was inside a different room that wasn't my own room, it seemed more like another environment, with birds on the window chirping away and watching me. I turned to my left and was surprised to see who was there and had that soft voice. It was Fluttershy.

The surprised look on my face seemed to give Fluttershy a look of concern on her face. "Um… mister, are you all right? And I don't think I've seen you or your species in Equestria before." She said, with her gentle voice remaining the same.

I took a sigh to calm myself down and looked at her, and said "I don't know. I have no idea how you found me though." Fluttershy put down the cloth she was holding and gently put the bucket to the side.

"Well, when I was trotting through the Everfree Forest, Angel found you and told me to follow him to you. There, I managed by both myself and Mr. Bear to come drag you to my cottage." Fluttershy explained, putting a gentle smile on her own face.

I moved the sheets off of me and started to get out of bed. "Thank you for taking me here. I could have possibly been eaten by anything wild in that forest." I said to Fluttershy. I then realized that I didn't want to say her name right there because if I did, she'd asked how I knew her name. And if I told her the truth about her and the entire show, everything could go wrong and would possibly result in one of the towns calling the princesses to banish me to the moon.

I then looked at the yellow Pegasus and she just looked shyly towards me at this point, losing her kind smile. I basically knew what was happening when she would meet new ponies, so I decided to play cool with her. "My name is Brayden. What is your name, miss?" I asked, keeping a careful and gentle smile.

Fluttershy just hid herself behind her light pink mane and quietly said "I'm… I'm Fluttershy." I leaned a little closer to her to hear what she said. "My… my name is… Fluttershy…" I could hear her say again this time.

"You said that your name was Fluttershy?" I said with a calm voice, not raising my voice a little higher in fear of scaring her. Fluttershy just kept looking at me, staying quiet and looking at me with a shy look. Thinking that it was quite a quick conversation there, I just look to the window and said "Well, I guess it seems like a bright and beautiful day outside. I think I'll take a stretch out there." I then move up off the bed and start walking towards the door.

"Wait! Don't leave so soon Brayden." Fluttershy said, with her gentle and fuzzy hoof touching onto my hand. I turn and look at Fluttershy; she has a look of wanting to show me around. "I want to show you around and meet all of my friends."

I just smile and nod, opening the door for Fluttershy. "Thank you Brayden." She said, coming through before me and her left the bedroom. The first thing I see coming up the stairs nearby is a large serpent-pony like creature that I remember when watching the show. It was Discord

Fluttershy flew up to Discord and said "Discord, I want to introduce you to Brayden. I found him outside the forest last night and I brought him home. But I'll be introducing him to every one of my friends."

Discord disappeared in a flash of light and appeared right behind me. His head curled from around under my arm and he looked at me. "Ah, you must be the new species that Fluttershy just mentioned. It's a pleasure to meet you." He said, extending his eagle claw from under my arm and giving my right hand a shake.

"It's a good pleasure to meet you as well, Discord." I said, nervous about him being right near me because he could try to possibly change to another self that is the opposite of me. Fluttershy put her hoof gently on my shoulder and gave me a reassuring smile that he had been reformed. "Now, if you must excuse me Brayden and Fluttershy, I must have my bath." The draconequus said, before snapping his finger and disappearing in a flash of light.

Fluttershy then guided me downstairs into the living room where most of her animals could be seen, and the animals including a bear even looked at me. When I first saw the bear, I began to shake a little as I knew that bears were very aggressive. I even took a step back with the bear giving a kind sound. Fluttershy seemed to notice my fear of aggressive animals and landed on her four hooves, trotting to me.

"Don't you worry one bit Brayden, Mr. Bear is a very nice bear and he won't hurt you." Fluttershy said with an assuring voice. I moved forward towards Mr. Bear slowly, with Mr. Bear looking at me and taking out his paw for a gentle rub on the arm. "Go on Brayden; give his arm a gentle rub." Fluttershy convinced me again, keeping a kind smile on her face.

I carefully move my hand across the bear's fur and he makes a happy sound. Mr. Bear then moved his other paw to my head and gave me a pat on the head. "Aw, you see? He likes you Brayden." Fluttershy said, trotting over back to me. She then took my hoof and started to pull me playfully towards the front door. "Come on now, I've got to introduce you to my friends. I'll have you meet the rest of my animal friends later."

I follow her out the door and walk beside her when we're trotting down the path. I just look at her and wonder where she'll take me first. If she does take me to the Golden Oaks Library first, I'll be able to meet my favorite pony Princess Twilight Sparkle. I also happened to have a crush on her since I saw the second part of the series premiere for the first time and have had a crush on Twilight ever since. "Well Brayden, the first pony I want you to meet is a really nice friend of mine. Her name is Rarity." Fluttershy said, not hearing the obvious and annoyed groan that came from me.

Rarity was obviously one of my least favorite ponies with Prince Blueblood being the last on the list since he was a humongous jerk to her and insulted Applejack's treats during the Grand Galloping Gala. But I did tolerate her and would like to befriend her.

Me and Fluttershy continued down the path towards Ponyville and could see Pinkie Pie coming down the path opposite towards us. Pinkie trotted right up to us and said "Hello Fluttershy! Wonderful day, isn't it?"

"Oh, it's a clear day with no clouds in the sky, Pinkie. Rainbow Dash and the weather team have done a really good job clearing this morning." Fluttershy said, and at this point Pinkie Pie turns and looks at me, lets out a loud happy gasp and speeds right off back to Ponyville like a bullet. After a few awkward moments of silence, Fluttershy turns and looks at me saying "That was Pinkie Pie. Every time somepony new comes into town, she sets up a party for them at the Sugarcube Corner."

I just look at her and then smile and say "I know that parties are great." Fluttershy just smiles innocently at me and both of us continue down the path, and crossing the bridge into the town of Ponyville.

The town was bustled with the ponies walking about and chatting with their friends. I could even see Minuette talking with Time Turner about the recent dentist patients that she had to deal with. I could even swear that Lyra Heartstrings was following me from behind with a HUGE smile on her face. I knew so much about her obsession with humans and their culture. I turn around to see her trotting up toward me with a smile on her face.

I just look at Lyra and offer a handshake, even though she had hooves. "Why hello there." I said to Lyra and she just looks straight at my hands. She seemed so nervicited and then looks at me.

"Hi. Can- can I touch your hands?" She says, nervously and happily. I get an awkward look on my face and then I say "Uh… sure." I let my hands go out and she just lets her front hooves go onto my hands, and she holds onto them for a few minutes before galloping off giggling and laughing towards her friend Bon Bon. I still have that completely awkward look on my face and think "What the hay just happened?"

Fluttershy just giggles after watching and says "Oh that was Lyra. She's really obsessed with your kind, I can tell." I just look at Lyra chatting with Bon Bon excitedly with her just rolling her eyes to the conversation. "Seems like you've already become friends with another pony."

I just turn and look back at Fluttershy and say "Well, I think we should go and meet your friend Rarity." Fluttershy just nods and trots forward with me walking beside her. I could see the Carousel Boutique close by and on approach and am ready to be nervous of how Rarity will judge me by appearance. Fluttershy knocks on the door of Rarity's home and we are both waiting patiently. The door opens and I could see Sweetie Belle opening the door.

"Hello Fluttershy. Say, who's that with you and why does he look different?" Sweetie Belle says.

Fluttershy looks at the unicorn filly and says "Um, I'd like to talk to your sister about Brayden, Sweetie Belle if that's okay."

Sweetie Belle just nods and says "Rarity will be down, she's probably upstairs making a dress for a customer." Sweetie Belle then gallops to the stairs and shouts "Rarity! Fluttershy wants to talk to you!" Me and Fluttershy come walking into the Carousel Boutique while she called for Rarity. "Coming darling!" I could hear Rarity shouting and trotting down the stairs. She soon comes into view and she looks at me clearly.

Rarity trots over to me and starts examining me before asking "Tell me darling, what size are you?" I tell her my size and she examines me with measuring tape. "And what might your name be?" She asked again.

"My… my name is Brayden." I said, feeling uncomfortable at Rarity as she examined me from all over. After Rarity examined me, she said "Well don't you worry. I'll be sure to make you a spectacular suit that will absolutely blow your mind, my friend!" At this point when she's talking to Fluttershy on the other plans that she probably has for me, Sweetie Belle approaches me and pulls a bit on my jeans to get my attention. I turn down to see her curious and bright face.

"Um, excuse me Brayden. Could you tell me why you look a bit different from the rest of us?" Sweetie Belle asked, taking her seat on a small cushion to listen for what I was going to tell. "Well Sweetie Belle, I'm a human. It's hard to explain where I come from." I say, bending down to her level of size.

"Oh, you must be one of those species that Lyra is crazy about. I bet Princess Twilight could help understand a little more about you and your species. Maybe even Cheerilee!" Sweetie Belle says. "You mean like a show and tell?" I asked. Sweetie Belle was about to say something else, but then the Carousel Boutique door opened up, causing me to turn see Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rainbow Dash coming in.

Applejack trotted forward towards Fluttershy and in a southern accent, said "Fluttershy, there you are! We've been lookin' all over for ya! What in tarnation is this strange creature you brought into Ponyville?" Fluttershy just giggled and said "Applejack, you don't have anything to worry about him. He's not going to hurt us by the look of it. His name is Brayden."

Pinkie Pie approached me and said "You must be new here, and for every new pony or species, I always have to host a party for them!" I tapped her on the shoulder, causing her to turn to me. She had an innocent and friendly smile on her face with excited pupils widened on her eyes. "Um, I think the party should wait a bit."

Pinkie Pie smiled and said "Okie dokie lokie!" and with that, she walks off happily to talk to Fluttershy about me.

Rainbow Dash trotted over to me and had a cool look on her. "So… you must the new creature that's all the deal in Ponyville. I'm Rainbow Dash, the fastest flyer in Equestria." She said, offering a hoofshake. But knowing that I didn't have hooves as the others, I just used my own right hand, wrapped my fingers around her cyan hoof and gave it a gentle shake. "It's nice to meet you, Rainbow Dash." I said.

Rainbow Dash noticed how gentle I was shaking her hoof for those few moments and when we finally let go of the hoofshake, and she let out a giggle and used one of her shoulder knuckles to poke my own left shoulder and she said "Heh, I think I'm already starting to like you already. I think you and I are going to get along well as friends." Applejack approached both me and her, saying "Alright Rainbow, you had yer turn talkin' to Brayden." Rainbow Dash just crossed her hooves and said "Well, alright. Just when things were getting that interesting…"

Applejack then approached me and said "Now, I reckon that you must be that human that Lyra went crazy about in town, and now yer the talk of the town. And your name was Brayden right? I'm Applejack and I work at Sweet Apple Acres near Ponyville." I just look into her light green eyes and could see that she was an honest one. "Well… I'll admit that apples are one of my favorite fruits." I said to her, to which she then took my right hand and began shaking it like crazy.

"Well then I think you're a friendly folk just like everypony else and we all enjoy friendly folk a lot!" Applejack said, finally letting go of my hand from the hoofshake. "Now wherever could Princess Twilight be at this point to see you? She would have so many questions to ask you."

"She's probably at her library with Spike. You know how she is with books," Rainbow Dash said. "But me, I have my own series of Daring Do to read up on."

"Could we go and see her?" I asked, sounding a bit desperate to see my favorite pony. Applejack just let out a bit of a laugh and said "Well sugarcube, you'll have to wait a bit. I want to introduce you to the other members of the Apple family."

Sweetie Belle jumped up and down saying "And he can also meet the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders in the process!" with a large grin on her face.

I ultimately surrendered to their ideas of introducing me to the rest of the Ponyville citizens and said "Alright, you guys come first… and then I'll meet Princess Twilight, right?" Both Applejack and Sweetie Belle nod in agreement. I get up onto my two feet and start following Applejack and Sweetie Belle to Sweet Apple Acres.

---

I followed the filly and earth pony to Sweet Apple Acres with them by each of my side. Sweetie Belle was explaining everything to me about how she and the rest of her friends keep trying to earn their cutie marks. I just kept on telling her to be more patient and keep waiting until she finds something interesting. But of course, she'd ignore my advice as well as any of her other friends. "There it is Brayden." Applejack said, pointing her hoof towards her home.

Sweet Apple Acres was in my own view when I came walking up the dirt road. I walk under the arch that has the sign of an apple. In my sight, I can also see an old earth pony sleeping on a rocking chair. I recognized her as Granny Smith. "Granny Smith! We've got a visitor!" Applejack calls to her, waking her up.

"Wha- visitor? Oh, hello there," Granny Smith said to me. She then got up off her rocking chair and trotted over to me. "Ya must be new to Ponyville, ya can bet that you'll enjoy the humble town of Ponyville." Two other ponies came into the greeting, and it was Big Macintosh and Apple Bloom. "Hello Granny Smith! Whoa, who is this?" Apple Bloom asked, looking at me.

Sweetie Belle hops beside me and says "This is Brayden. He seems to be a new sort of creature that we've never seen before, he seems really nice though." Big Macintosh just stares at me for a few moments and then says "Eeyup."

"Oh gee, look who's flying down to Sweet Apple Acres. It's Princess Twilight." Applejack said, looking at the sky to see a mulberry coat colored blur coming into sight. I turn to see her coming and I felt like having the need to run and hide because I wanted to meet her later as planned. I turn and look for a place to hide and see the nearby open barrel. I dash straight to the barrel while nopony is looking and open it, diving straight into the empty barrel and closing the lid on top of me.

I look into a small hole so I could see the conversation between Twilight and the rest of the family. I could see Twilight landing on her four hooves and begin chatting away with Applejack and the rest of her family. I take a lean backwards and could feel somepony right behind me. It's Pinkie Pie.

"Oh! Hello Brayden, are you playing the 'hide from everypony and listen in on them' game? I love that game! It's so much fun to-" Pinkie Pie said loudly, causing me to put my hand on her mouth. She continues to talk a lot while her mouth is muffled and I kept trying to signal her to be quiet. "Pinkie Pie, you're going to blow my cover! I'm trying to meet Twilight later as I planned." I whispered loudly, trying not to get my cover blown.

The conversation between Twilight and Applejack went on for two minutes. After the conversation was done, Twilight spread her wings and took herself to the air, disappearing out of sight. After a few seconds, I opened the lid of the barrel and climbed out. Applejack turns to me and approaches me with a laugh, saying "There ya are! Why'd you hide from us? Could've met Twilight right there."

I had to think of an excuse to get away from this, but I then of course remembered that Applejack would look straight through my lie and downright say I was lying, so I decided to be honest with my answer at this last second. "Well… you see Applejack, I'm trying to save my visit to Twilight because they're something about her that I like."

Applejack just gives me a funny and smiling look and Apple Bloom is chuckling and then says "Looks like Brayden might have a crush on Princess Twilight!"

I am trying not to reveal the truth about me having a crush on Twilight, so I start hiding my blush and I say "No, I'm just wanting to meet her."

"Sugarcube, ya don't have to hide anything from us or lie to us. We know by how desperate by the sound of yer voice when ya were back at Rarity's, and ya were probably nervous about meetin' her for the first time, so ya hid in the barrel to hide." Applejack said, still giving me the look on her face.

I lowered my head and said "Well, you figured it all out." And the blush on my face brought many giggles to Applejack and the rest of her family, even Sweetie Belle was giggling. "But please promise that you won't tell anypony."

Applejack placed a hoof on my shoulder and said "Don't ya worry. We promise not to tell anypony until ya confessed yer feelings to Twilight."

I then walked towards the gates of Sweet Apple Acres and looked back at everypony there, saying "I would love to say to talk to all of you, but I have to get going to meet Twilight."

Applejack waved and said "Alright Brayden! Ya take care and we'll see ya later!" I waved back and walked my way out of Sweet Apple Acres and back into Ponyville.

---

I could see the tree-house on my way in Ponyville and I could recognize it as Twilight's home. I walk right up to the front door of the library and turn the knob, entering the library. My footsteps could be heard on the wooden floor and I could see Spike sorting out the last book on the A shelf.

He turned to me and then said "Oh, you must be that new creature in Ponyville that everypony is talking about since this afternoon."

"Indeed they have been, and I was hoping if your friend Twilight was here so she can meet me because she might be interested." I said, hoping to persuade Spike into letting me meet her.

Spike hopped down off of the ladder and said "Well, she has been interested in talking to you for a few minutes. Want to call her down?" I nod up and down, with a smile on my face. "TWILIGHT! The new creature's here to see you!"

I just thought to myself "I'm just a human named Brayden, okay Spike?" The sound of trotting came down the stairs from upstairs and I could see the alicorn Twilight. My heart skipped a beat as soon as I saw her and hearts appeared in my eyes. Twilight came down the steps of the wooden stairs and looked at my eyes with own beautiful eyes.

"Why hello there! I've wanted to meet you like all afternoon when Fluttershy brought you in, and when somepony told me you were at Sweet Apple Acres, I flew there to see if you were there but Applejack said you disappeared on her. But I'm so honored to meet you." Twilight said, approaching me and my heart beating faster.

I was so nervous to say anything to her at this point and I let out a shy "H-Hello" from my mouth. She just giggles and says "Good to see you. My name is Twilight Sparkle. But you can just call me Twilight if you want or Princess Twilight. I can also see you've met my number one assistant Spike."

There is a couple of seconds of silence with me and Twilight just looking at each other, I had the nervous look and she was keeping that beautiful smile on her face. After those seconds passed, Twilight just simply says "Okay then."

Twilight trots over to Spike and I could hear her softly say "Well, that was a short conversation between me and him. He looks so nervous to meet me, but I didn't quite get his name."

I walked up towards the two and say "Twilight, my name is Brayden." Her response was being satisfied to hear what my name actually was. She of course, giggles and turns to me taking my hand with her hoof and giving me a hoofshake. Her hoof felt soft like a warm blanket covering me during a winter night.

After both me and her shook hooves or well… me shaking her hoof in introduction, we both do not realize that she continued to have her hoof on my hand and my own hand holding her hoof gently and we're both gazing into each other's eyes. After that warming moment, Spike taps both me and her on our shoulders and says "Um, can he at least get introduced to me as well?"

Twilight's hoof came off of my hand and she says "Of course Spike. Feel free." Spike opens his right clawed hand and I give it a shake with a smile at her dragon friend. Spike was about to say something, but the sound of the library door opening catches me, Twilight and Spike's attention. It was Fluttershy at the door, coming in.

"Oh my, I hope I'm not interrupting anything." Fluttershy said, with a tone of voice to seem like she wanted to tell me something. I just look at her and say "You're not interrupting anything Fluttershy. Is there something you needed?"

Fluttershy just looks at Twilight and says "Twilight, I just realized that Brayden here hasn't had dinner yet and he has to eat." The growling stomach of mine gave away how hungry I was. Twilight then says "Of course Fluttershy, you can take him to the nearby restaurant. I'll just be here studying away at what species he is. He seems to be really nice and he is really gentle too!" I hid my blush when she told me I was gentle to her.

Fluttershy pats me on the head and says "He certainly is a real gentlecolt, isn't he?"

I then say to Twilight "Well, hopefully we can both talk to each other again soon. I probably won't be as nervous." Twilight of course waves goodbye to me and I wave back to her. Me and Fluttershy then leave the library and I close the door behind her.

Seeing the sunset over the west horizon, I take a look at Fluttershy and say "I know that it'll be cold in the night, so do you know where I might be sleeping, Fluttershy? Well, I mean I don't have the bits on me to spend at one of the hotels."

Fluttershy just puts her hoof on my hand and says "Don't you worry Brayden. I've got a guest room at my cottage, of course you can sleep there."

I smile at Fluttershy and then she flies up over my head and covers my eyes. I was wondering why she was up to, but she tells me "Don't peek Brayden, or you'll ruin your own surprise." I nod while my eyes are covered and I continue walking in different directions.

I could feel myself coming up small tiled stairs and when I've finally heard myself on a wooden floor, Fluttershy whispers "Are you ready for your surprise?" I nod and smile, finally uncovering my eyes to see that I was at Sugarcube Corner.

"SURPRISE!"

Everypony I met today in Ponyville was there, with balloons that said "Welcome to Ponyville" and had a chocolate cake that even said the same thing. Pinkie Pie jumped over to me and said "Surprise Brayden! You said you wanted your party later and I was like 'okie dokie lokie'! So I waited until sunset and convinced your new friend Fluttershy to come take you here for your party where there's lots of food and dancing as well!" She then proceeded to give me a big hug. "I'm so glad to be friends with you as well!"

Her hugging was making it hard for me to breath, but I manage to let out "Pinkie! Can't… breathe…" Pinkie then lets go of the hug and giggles before taking my hoof and saying "Come on now, it's your special party and everypony's waiting to celebrate with you."

Pinkie Pie guides me to a table with a chair that is shaped just like a throne fit for a prince, or possibly a king. I take my seat on the throne that had a soft cushion on the seat. I then look to my left and my right, it seemed that Fluttershy and Lyra wanted to sit next to me, so I give a smile to both of them.

There was then a flash of light, and Discord appeared with a giant silver platter covered at the top. "Brayden, allow me to give you… your dinner." Discord said, opening up the platter to reveal a really mouth-watering cheese pizza with apple crisp on the side.

I smile and grab my first slice of the pizza and take a bite. It tastes super delicious and just how I love it. By this point, I can already tell that I'll be living a perfect new life in Equestria.

"Come on, don't get all distracted by its beauty. Eat up Brayden, you good boy." Pinkie Pie says, patting my head. I just laugh with Pinkie Pie and get right along to eating my supper.

A/N: Well, here is another chapter. And yes, you'll be able to know how I even got into Equestria in the first place. The songs in this chapter are Peter Criss' "Easy Thing" and Yngwie Malmsteen's "Heaven Tonight".

---

I open my eyes slowly and my vision starts to clear itself from the bright sunlight that came in through the windows. I then slowly rise out of bed and place my feet onto the wooden floor and walk to the window to view the morning sunrise. The sky is an orange color with the sun on the eastern horizon rising slowly.

In the distant, I can also see the town of Ponyville with the sun shining down on it as a few ponies started to come out of their humble homes to enjoy the splendid day. Even I could see the fillies galloping off to enjoy their school day at the Ponyville School. I know I haven't met Cheerilee yet, but that would be on my to-do list.

One thing happened to be on my mind however, and it's been stuck with me as soon as I arrived in Equestria. I kept wondering how I ended up there after the incident with the other bikers? Did someone or somepony bring me here? I did remember where one of the sharp rocks impaled me and take off my pyjama shirt to see that the injury was gone, wiped clean as if I never had it in the first place. A knock on the door was heard to my left and I slipped my pyjama shirt back on quickly and walked over to the door.

I opened the wooden door and see Fluttershy standing there with a smile on her face. "Good morning Brayden! You must have slept well, by the look of your face." She said to me while handing me a tray of my breakfast. On my breakfast tray was a wooden bowl of fruit salad that had various fruits that I liked, on the side was a cup of apple juice. My favorite kind of drink that I liked since I never drank any alcohol or pop my entire life to date.

"Thank you Fluttershy. You know I love these fruits." I said, taking the tray into my hands. I follow Fluttershy downstairs to where the rest of her animals would be. I then walk off the stairs and go to my left to the table that Fluttershy had made for me. I felt like thanking Fluttershy again, so I just gave her a smile. Fluttershy just smiles back and turns to deal with Angel who is just stomping his rabbit foot. I take a bite into my fruit salad, just watching Fluttershy talk to Angel.

Fluttershy soon gives him a carrot for him to munch on, but Angel just kicks it away, having the carrot land on my head. I grab the carrot off of my head and place it on my table with Fluttershy looking at me to see if I was alright. I just take the carrot from my table and toss it to Fluttershy, with my hand signalling a wave that I was alright. Fluttershy smiles at me and turns back to Angel to lecture him about hitting others with thrown objects.

After dealing with Angel, Fluttershy trots over to me and says "Brayden, today I am going to take you to meet somepony that is wonderful. Her name is Princess Celestia and she would want to meet you. I'm not even sure if Princess Luna is awake though."

I put down my fork and have a look of surprise and shock come upon my face. Me meeting the leader of Equestria… the one and only Princess Celestia? Sign me up! I said "Oh my goodness, I'd love to meet her!"

Fluttershy puts her hoof on my hand and says "Now Brayden, we don't want to be in a rush to see her. You still haven't finished your breakfast." I just look at the wooden plate and notice a few still there. I proceed to going back to eat my breakfast with Fluttershy just smiling at me. "Now please do tell me, do you have any hobbies that interest you?" She asks, looking at me.

"Well, my hobbies are playing any kind of guitar whether it's electric, acoustic or bass. But other than that, I also like singing, and reading books." I said, taking another bite into my fruit salad.

"So you like to make and play music, don't you Brayden? Well, there's a place in Ponyville where I think they're auditioning for an act. I believe it's called The Diamond Mare. Why don't you try for a show? Who knows…" She then moves toward me and says "…You could probably impress Twilight with your playing skills." With a suggestive look coming from her face.

I could probably tell that Fluttershy knew about my crush on Princess Twilight. "How… how did you know that I had a crush on Twilight?" I asked, sounding like the truth had been let out of me.

Fluttershy said "Oh, Applejack told me in secret about the fact you like her. But don't worry; I'm not going to tell the truth to Twilight. Your secret is safe with me."

I take a sigh of relief, glad that nopony would tell Twilight. I had a very big fear of rejection for a long time and if she didn't approve, I would be devastated. I take my last bite of the fruit salad and see that the wooden plate is now empty. "Well, it looks like I've finished my breakfast. It was very delicious Fluttershy." I said, giving her a pat on her shoulder.

Fluttershy smiles and starts flying in the air, saying "Now come on Brayden, you've probably got a big day out there by the sound of it." I get up from my chair and take my plate all the way to Fluttershy's kitchen, placing the dish into her sink. I then go to Fluttershy and say "Alright Fluttershy, I've put my dish into the sink and am ready."

"You seem to be a tidy, kind of creature." Fluttershy said, putting her hoof on my head and giving my hair a rub back and forth.

"I try to be as tidy as I can," I said, smiling at her. "But I think I'll get dressed for the occasion of meeting Princess Celestia."

Fluttershy just giggles and says "Oh Brayden, don't you worry. I'm sure that Princess Celestia will appreciate your visit in any way possible. You don't have to dress fancy for it."

"If you say so, Fluttershy. Would you like to come and meet Princess Celestia with me?" I asked, sounding like I was giving an offer that she couldn't refuse.

Fluttershy smiles and says "Sure Brayden, I can come with you." I smile and head over to the door, opening it for her.

"Mares first." I said, keeping my smile. Fluttershy's cheeks go a bit pink and she walks through her door to the outside. I come behind her and close the door behind me.

"You seem just like me, Brayden." Fluttershy said, giving me a gentle rub on the back. I turn to her with a smile, but a thought of my own past has me turn back around and my smile fades into a face of sadness. Fluttershy trots beside me and notices my sad face. "Brayden, what's wrong?"

"Just something from the past that affected me." I said, trying not to look at her. I was afraid of revealing where I actually came from, because it could possibly affect my new friendship with Fluttershy and she wouldn't look at me the same way again, possibly not being able to trust me.

"Would you like to tell me? I'll listen and try to understand what has been bothering you in the past whether it was over a friendship." Fluttershy said, sounding concerned about me.

I sighed softly and said "I'm sorry Fluttershy, but I don't really want to share the memories of my troubled mind at the moment. Maybe sometime later when I'm ready to tell you?"

"Oh, if that's the case, um, I won't ask you ever-" Fluttershy was saying, until I stopped and put my hand onto her shoulder and looked into her eyes.

"Fluttershy, I do appreciate your kindness to help solve my problems that I've had in the past. But this is something that I cannot reveal to you right now. But I still can tell you about my problem… but only when you know the truth to where I come from." I said, being gentle with her.

Fluttershy just looks at me and takes my hand and says "Alright Brayden, I respect your decision to tell this to me." This was probably the reason why I think Fluttershy is my second favorite pony.

I turn back and both I and she continue to down the path towards the train station. The sun can be seen through the rolling hills rising into the sky to the post-morning time of day.

The train is heard rolling into the Ponyville station when me and Fluttershy arrive there. We step onto the station platform and I steadily walk towards the train attendant. "I'm sorry sir, but since you are different from us…" I gulp deeply, realizing this was trouble for me. "…You and your friend get to go on for free. The princess has been waiting to meet you." The train attendant finishes with a smile on his face.

I thank the attendant and come onto the train with Fluttershy that is bound for Canterlot. The train starts moving and I take my seat down near the window. Fluttershy comes to the seat next to me and sits next to me. I turn to the window and can see the city of Canterlot above in the high mountain.

Once the train got going away from the station, I turn and look at Fluttershy. Both me and her began to stare at each other, it was more of a friendly kind of stare and not the kind of stare to tell that I was in love with her. Back on Earth when I watched the show, when writing fan fiction about it, I would even consider Fluttershy to be my best friend who I could trust dearly and share my problems with.

"So…" Fluttershy said, breaking the silence of our friendly stares. "I have to ask, since you came to Ponyville what do you think?"

"Fluttershy, I think it's wonderful. I've never seen a town this beautiful before."

"Well, I'm pretty sure you would want to tell Mayor Mare. She would appreciate the compliment on the town." Fluttershy said.

The rest of the train ride was sort of the silent look to me looking at Canterlot coming in the distance. I could only just sit back and listen to the train running on the tracks and the ponies in the train car chatting to one another. I was slowly starting to drift off and close my eyes to give them a bit of rest. This is usual since I sometimes wake up still a bit tired.

The sounds of ponies talking and the train running on tracks soon faded and I was in a completely new environment. The ground below me was that of rocky ground and the air smelt like it was snowing. The distant of my dream is foggy and I could barely see what was ahead of me.

I turn my direction to the light that fades slowly into my mind, and I can see the clear as white full moon in my dream. I walk slowly towards the moon up to a cliff, being careful not to fall in my dream, otherwise it would turn into a nightmare. I just look up at the moon, not noticing that it was changing its shape on itself. The shape of that of a mare disappeared from the moon's face in a flash and I could see a distant midnight blue colour coming from the moon.

It was none other than Princess Luna flying to the cliff to see me, and I could specifically remember in the episode "Sleepless in Ponyville", Scootaloo was visited by Princess Luna in her dreams. I now wondered why the princess of the moon would want to visit me in my dreams anyway. She flaps her wings on approach and then her four hooves touch the rocky ground and her wings close. She trots towards me and I still have a face of wonder and curiosity.

Princess Luna just smiles at me and finally says "Does my appearance surprise you Brayden?"

"How- how did you know my name, Princess Luna?" I asked, approaching her. I was about to see if she was real, but when I reached out to feel, a dream barrier came upon my hand and created a ripple effect to prevent me from reaching her.

"Brayden, I have been watching you for a long time. I would visit the various dreams of many races from different worlds to watch them and their actions in their dreams. I came across you while you lived out your final days on Earth. But however, I was able to use my powers to rip you away from your life on Earth when you were unconscious and a few seconds from dying. I was about to place you inside the Canterlot Castle, but Princess Celestia interrupted the dream, causing you to appear near the Everfree Forest. But thankfully Fluttershy has found you." She said, placing her hoof on my hand.

"Well, I know that Fluttershy is going to take me to meet Princess Celestia." I said.

"Well, you'll be able to meet me when you arrive at the Canterlot Castle. My sister wants to talk to you, in fact." Princess Luna says, taking her hoof off of my hand.

I then look at the princess and say "Well, I don't usually do this when I introduce myself to somepony, but can I have your permission to give you a hug?" She nods with a smile and I approach her, wrapping my arms around her and hugging her. Her coat feels real even though it is a dream.

Once I let go of the hug, I looked at the princess and said "But why me, Princess Luna? Why bring me into Equestria when you could bring someone else from Earth in?"

Princess Luna gives me a stroke on my hair and says "Well Brayden, I could tell that you have been through many troubles when you were back on Earth. But I can assure you that while you're here in Equestria, you can live the happy life you always wanted to live. I can tell you'll make the various friendships while you're here."

I look at her and say "Well, there is one girl in Ponyville that I've been trying to…"

"Fall in love with. And it is Princess Twilight," Princess Luna says. "I can read memories, so I know you developed the crush on Twilight when you came upon the first episode of the show which happens to have us in it."

"Wait, you know about that? Aren't you and Celestia going to send me to the moon for that?" I said, sounding a bit worried that they know about the show back on Earth.

Princess Luna just laughs and says "Oh, of course not you silly boy. Why would me and Celestia do such a thing to you? We both can tell that you have a gift."

I look down and away from Luna, saying "Well, it's a gift that seems to be a curse upon me since I was little. Autism."

"Hey…" Princess Luna says to me in a calm tone of voice. "You shouldn't let the gift you are born with affect you. It's the way that you were born. Just as much as any other human in your world has a different disability of all sorts."

I could hear the distant sound of a train roaring in my dream and I turn to Princess Luna, saying "What was that? Am I going to wake up so soon?"

Princess Luna says "I am afraid so Brayden. It is time for you to wake up. But you must not worry, you and me can talk again shortly."

I could hear the distant fade of Fluttershy calling my name in the dream. I just thought of something I wanted to tell to Princess Luna, so I finally turned to her and said "One more thing Princess Luna before I wake up, I just wanted to let you know that one Earth… you are one of my favorite ponies."

Princess Luna puts her hoof to her chest and says "Why thank you Brayden, I am quite flattered that you would think of the princess of the night that way. But no more, we shall greet ourselves for real at the castle." She then spreads open her wings and starts flying backwards towards the moon with a smile. She soon disappears, and the shape appears on the moon once again.

"Brayden… wake up."

I slowly open my eyes to see the train pull up by the Canterlot train station outside of the great city. Fluttershy seems to be gently stroking my left hand with her left hoof. I look at her and she has an assuring smile on her face.

"Brayden, you decided to fall asleep while we rode on the way to Canterlot. And I decided to wake you up once we were near. I could hear you murmur while you were asleep." Fluttershy said, with her soft and quiet voice.

"Well, I was visited by Princess Luna in my dream," I said. "She seems to be a very nice princess to talk to and give me company."

"Well, don't you worry Brayden. I think you're going to meet Princess Luna when you arrive at the castle." Fluttershy said, with me smiling and rolling my eyes since I already knew that I was going to meet her.

We step out of the train car and head to the outside, entering the city of Canterlot. The city seemed to remind me of the city of early England before they found North America. The buildings somewhat even resembled the Victorian era.

A few of the unicorn ponies was giving me dirty looks when I was looking about the city, and as usual they would turn their head upward and be all like "Hmph", continuing their day. A couple of others such as Fancy Pants didn't seem to mind my appearance in Canterlot and waved to me, since he seemed very busy with another mare. However, all hell started to break loose as soon as I saw Prince Blueblood. The worst of all ponies, and the pony I hated the most besides Rarity who I could tolerate.

He was giving me a look of absolute disgust when I was walking by past him. "Pitiful scum like you belong in the Everfree Forest." I could hear him say when I walked past. I just ignored him and continued towards the entrance to the castle with Fluttershy.

I could even see the guards patrolling around the castle walls when we came around the entrance to Canterlot Castle. "Well Brayden, this is where the princesses live." Fluttershy tells me. I give a sigh and walk towards the entrance unaware that I'm going to encounter some guards who might have not be aware that I was visiting the princesses.

"Halt! Who goes there?" The two guards pop out and block my way into the castle by spreading their wings across the door.

Fluttershy goes in front of me and says "Don't worry Brayden, I'll take care of this." She finally turns to the royal guards and says "Um, Princess Celestia wants to speak to this creature who is new to Equestria."

The guards looked at each other in curiosity and then looked at me, and lowered their wings to allow me inside of the castle. I thank the guards and head into the castle with Fluttershy with me opening the huge doors and letting Fluttershy inside first. "Thank you Brayden." Fluttershy says with a kind tone in her voice. I then come behind after her and close the doors behind me.

I could feel the soft carpet below my feet when I turn around from closing the doors. Around me was also the main hall of the castle within. The stained glass windows showed Princess Celestia on the left side window and Princess Luna on the right side window. And the center window was Princess Twilight. I walk up towards the stairs and proceed up the stairs.

"Um, Brayden?" I could hear Fluttershy ask me. So I turn around and look at Fluttershy who is at the bottom of the stairs. "Princess Celestia's throne room is on the right side of the stairs, not the left."

I smile and say "Thank you Fluttershy." And I proceed on my own up the right side of the stairs and into the hallway. The hallway seems tall with the walls reaching up to almost the size of an outside house wall. A few guards start to approach me, and I just keep thinking to myself if these guards are going to question me, or possibly throw me into the dungeon for trespassing, even though the door guards allowed me inside.

"You must come with us to the throne room. The princess is waiting to see you." One of the guards says in his rough voice. I give a sigh of relief to know that I won't get lost in this huge castle after all, and proceed to follow the guards to the throne room just two hallways down.

Once I come to the throne room door, the guards seem to stand guard and watch me. I put my hand on the wooden doors that stand before the throne room and start wondering if it is the right time to meet the princess at this moment.

"Come in, Brayden."

Princess Celestia knew my name which made me surprised, and I push forward on the golden handle, proceeding into the throne room. More stained glass windows can be seen by my own eyes, it happens to be events that must have happened in the show. Turning to the throne I can see none other than Princess Celestia sitting there, ready to see me. I close the door behind me and approach closer towards the throne.

"Ah, you must be the human Brayden, the one that my sister Princess Luna managed to bring into this world." Princess Celestia said to me. I then proceeded to kneel down and bow before the princess to show her my respect to her. She just giggles and says "There's no need for that now."

"I'm sorry Princess Celestia, but I'm in the presence of royalty. So I think it is absolutely necessary." I said, giving my best smile possible to have a good impression for the princess to see from me.

She trots past me and says "I trust that Fluttershy came here with you. Why didn't she come up to see me as well?"

"I… I'm not sure, Princess Celestia. It seems like she only wanted you and me to meet face-to-face for the first time." I said.

"Well, let's head back down and say hello to her, shall we then Brayden?" Princess Celestia said. I nodded and walked beside the princess out of the throne room. I turned my head to the right and could see Princess Luna standing there with a smile on her face. She just watches me and Celestia go down to the left on our way back down to the main hall. Princess Celestia seemed to look at me as if she approved of my visit and welcome to Equestria.

While I walk beside her, I could see the main hall close by a turn to the right. Me and the princess step into the main hall and head down the stairs and see Fluttershy standing there. She has her innocent smile when she sees me and I stand next to join her.

"Fluttershy, why didn't you come up with me to see Princess Celestia?" I asked, concerned if she still was shy.

"Oh, I didn't want to intrude you first meeting Princess Celestia." Fluttershy said.

Princess Celestia approached the both of us and said "Fluttershy, I understand that you only wanted to surprise me with just him coming in. But you could have come with him to see him."

Fluttershy just smiles at Princess Celestia and nods. I then turn to Princess Celestia, realizing something I've wanted to do back on Earth when I was watching the show. Just like with Princess Luna, I'd give Princess Celestia a hug.

"Princess?" I ask, causing her to turn back to me. "Can I have permission to hug you?"

"There's no need for permission from me. You can hug me." She said. I wrap my arms around her and share a gentle, friendly hug with her. After a few moments, we let go of the hug and smile at each other. I had that feeling that I might have had the princesses approve of my belonging to Equestria and have accepted their friendship.

Princess Celestia placed her hoof on my shoulder and said "Well Brayden, I have to get back to my duties. But I promise to you that we'll talk more together later." I nodded and smiled at her. She finally turns and walks back up the stairs with a smile on her face.

Fluttershy soon turns to me and says "Well, I think I was planning to get you to audition at The Diamond Mare back in Ponyville, wasn't I?"

"Yes Fluttershy. But first, I have to get a guitar." I said, a bit worried about performing without an instrument.

Fluttershy takes my hoof and starts gently taking me somewhere. "I know the perfect place for you to find a guitar." She said, with me coming with her.

It was a street nearby that had a guitar shop with unicorns coming in and out of it, sometimes with pegasi and earth ponies. Most of the pegasi would come out with electric guitars and sometimes acoustics. I open the door to the shop and let Fluttershy in first. I then come after her, and close the door behind me in the shop.

I go through the guitar aisle where electric guitars were being stocked. I scan through the guitars, noticing their similarity to the guitar shapes they have back on Earth. But I was looking for a specific guitar that I happened to like thanks to one of my favorite bands back on Earth. It was the lead guitarist of a band that would wear makeup at every show, most notably known as KISS. But besides KISS, I also loved to listen to Kamelot, Nightwish, Cradle of Filth, Alice Cooper, Dream Theater and various other bands I loved.

That guitar gets my attention and I walk over the guitar and pick it up to look at it. It's a resembling of a Gibson Les Paul with the cherry sunburst design on it. It was the guitar of my dreams to have back on Earth, and it was a cheap price as well.

"I can see that you have a keen eye." I turn and see the store manager looking at me. His cutie mark is that of a guitar and cash next to it. "That guitar was given by a legendary guitarist here in Equestria before he… well, passed."

"I remember this guitar being legendary back in my world before I came here." I said to myself quietly so the store manager wouldn't think I was crazy.

"I'll tell you what. Since you seem experienced with the brand of guitar. I can give it you for free. No need to pay me, I insist." The store manager said. I just smile at him and say "Why… thank you."

"No problem my friend, it even comes with this free acoustic guitar. I'm guessing you're playing for a crowd?" He asks, handing me the bonus acoustic guitar.

"Why yes, I'm auditioning down in Ponyville." I said.

"Well I wish you luck." He says before turning to deal with another customer. I walk out with the two guitars and Fluttershy seems to be outside. I figured that because it was crowded, she wanted to head back outside.

Fluttershy approaches me and says "So did you get the guitar you needed?" I nodded and showed her my electric and acoustic guitars.

"Well, I suppose we should go for the audition in Ponyville then?" She asked.

I nodded and said "Yes, let's head to my audition." Me and Fluttershy began walking together to the train station to leave Canterlot.

---

It was half an hour later when we arrived back in Ponyville. I was still carrying my two guitars with me when and Fluttershy went together near the centre of Ponyville where the Diamond Mare could be seen, the place where they were auditioning. Music could be heard playing from inside when me and Fluttershy approached.

Entering inside the Diamond Mare, there was a small line-up that I could to go to. I lined up while listening to the stallion auditions playing for the managers, some of them went in alright, but a few didn't make it.

"Psst!" I turn to one of the managers who seemed to catch my attention. He approaches me and says "Yes, you that looks different. Do you play both acoustic and electric by the look of it?"

"Why yes I do. I also play a little bass guitar as well, but mostly I play with electric and acoustic." I said, putting a bright smile on the manager's face.

He said "Well perfect! I think you might be the one! Do you have two songs that you could perform? Both acoustic and electric, of course."

I began to think for a moment, there were a few songs back on Earth that I could play just fine. I finally turned to him and said "Yes, I do."

The manager literally grabbed me and dragged me over to the stage where the managers sat there, watching me. "Start with an acoustic song." The manager said, with the others nodding in response.

I put the electric guitar down near the amp and put the strap of the acoustic guitar around me. I then take one of the guitar picks and give it a test strum. I finally look to the managers and say "This one is called Easy Thing." I began playing the chords and once the timing was right, I began to sing.

Love, love is so hard

Love is so hard to find

When love, such an easy thing

Such an easy thing

Such an easy thing to lose, yeah

Words, words are so hard

Words are so hard to find

When love, such an easy thing

Such an easy thing

Such an easy thing to lose, yeah

When you find your love

Will you know it's real

When you lose it all

Will you really feel love

Love, love is so hard

Love is so hard to find

'Cause love's such an easy thing

Such an easy thing

Such an easy thing to lose, yeah

When you find your love

Will you know it's real

When you lose it all

Will you really feel love

Love, love is so hard

Love is so hard to find

'Cause love's such an easy thing

Such an easy thing

Such an easy thing to lose, yeah

Love, such an easy thing

Such an easy thing

Such an easy thing to lose, yeah

Love, such an easy thing

Such an easy thing

Such an easy thing to lose, yeah

Love, such an easy thing

Such an easy thing

Such an easy thing to lose

I finished the song with a D chord and the managers let out a huge amount of applause. I took a bow and said "Thank you."

"Oh don't go yet, we want an encore with the electric." The manager said. I nodded and put my acoustic down and picked up my electric and faced the managers again. This time, I could see that Fluttershy was in the back of the room watching me.

I look at the managers once again and say "All right, you wanted an encore… you've got an encore. This next and final song is known as Heaven Tonight." I then began to sing.

This feels like Paradise

We'll be in Heaven tonight

I then began to shred on my electric guitar. The managers were smiling and clapping their hooves together in rhythm of the song.

Lost in a dream in the arms of the night

Two lonely prisoners of our own device

Don't let me go hold on together

You wanna know if love can be real

Now I wanna take everything I can steal

Love on the line, it's now or never

Why can't the night last forever?

This could be Paradise

Holding you here by my side

If we just close our eyes

We'll be in Heaven tonight

Run through the night down streets of desire

Burning my soul, my heart's on fire

Give up the fight, it's sweet surrender

With trembling hands we reach for it all

Two desperate hearts waiting to fall

I need you now, now more than ever

Why can't the night last forever?

This could be Paradise

Holding you here by my side

If we just close our eyes

We'll be in Heaven tonight

I then launched into a guitar solo that left Fluttershy's mouth wide open in wonder. Even the managers were dancing now on the floor below me. After the guitar solo, I went right back to the mic to continue singing.

This could be Paradise

Holding you here by my side

If we just close our eyes

We'll be in Heaven tonight

This feels like Paradise

I see the world in your eyes

If we just hold on tight

We'll be in Heaven tonight

This feels like Paradise

We'll be in Heaven tonight

This feels like Paradise

We'll be in Heaven tonight

This feels like Paradise

We'll be in Heaven tonight

This feels like Paradise

Heaven tonight, you by my side

The managers clapped and cheered with smiles on their faces and the lead manager said "Congratulations, you are part of the act. Now tell me, what might your name be?"

"My name is Brayden." I said, smiling and standing proud.

"A brave name alright! The gig will be in the next two weeks, so practice the songs you want to play hard and well and you'll succeed. You could even dedicate a song for that special girl out there!" The lead manager said, nudging my shoulder.

I blush slightly with the other managers laughing and going 'aww'. I finally say "Well, I'll definitely make sure to pick my songs and practice!" I finally pick up my acoustic and electric guitars and walk out, waving to the managers with a smile. A few of them were still dancing away as with the songs I sang were still playing.

I could feel a little bump from behind me, and I turn around and look down and could see a gamboge pegasus filly below me on her scooter. Scootaloo. "Sorry mister, but I was- Wait, don't I know you?" Scootaloo says, noticing me. Finally after studying me, she gasps happily and says "You must be Brayden, my friends Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle have been talking about for the whole evening! I'm Scootaloo."

"Yes, it's me. I must be the talk of Equestria by now." I said, now probably aware that everypony knows me by now. "And it's nice to meet you Scootaloo."

Scootaloo said "Well, I already know that you've met the rest of my two friends already. We're trying to look for-"

"Your cutie marks." I said.

"Yes, our cutie marks. How did you know?" She asked, wondering how I figured it out.

"Well, you are the Cutie Mark Crusaders, right? So it makes a bit of sense that you would go searching for cutie marks with that name." I said.

"Oh." Scootaloo just says and then a smile appears on her face and she turns to me and says "I should totally get my cutie mark in adventuring!"

"Adventuring can be very dangerous though Scootaloo, maybe just wait until you find that talent in your life." I said, bending down on my knees. "Everypony finds their talent when they wait."

Scootaloo comes up to me and says "But Brayden, waiting would just make us more impatient for our cutie mark."

"There you are!" Me and Scootaloo turned to the sound of the voice to see Rainbow Dash flapping her wings and closing it and approaching the both of us. "What are the both of you up to?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Well, somepony was trying to get their cutie mark in adventuring, Dash." I said, sounding convincing.

"Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo said, galloping up to Rainbow Dash and giving her a hug. I watched the two give themselves a hug and then after the hug, they turned to me and Scootaloo said "Brayden is also a new friend of mine."

"Speaking of Brayden… did you know that he might have a crush on Twilight?" Rainbow Dash said, with a teasing tone in her voice to get me blushing. My cheeks turn a bit pink as Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo start giggling when they see my pink cheeks. "Don't worry Brayden, we're of course going to keep it a secret and not tell Twilight. It would ruin the fun."

I took a sigh of relief and Rainbow Dash flew over to me and put her hoof around my neck, saying "You should have seen your face when I said that!"

I then looked at Rainbow Dash and said "Well, most others just lie to me about keeping their promise and it breaks my heart when they tell it anyway."

Rainbow Dash then said "Brayden, I would never do that. Whoever does that is not a true friend. And I am a true friend right?"

I nodded to her and said "You are one of my true friends. You are loyal to everypony and anypony new, even if they're different like me."

"Why thank you Brayden." Rainbow Dash says, smiling. "Well, I have to get going, Applejack's waiting for me at the farm."

"Of course Rainbow Dash. Maybe we can chat sometime later?" I ask. Rainbow Dash nods as in promising a chat with me and her, and then flies off.

Scootaloo then comes up to me and says "I have to get to Sugarcube Corner. Want to come with me?" I nod and walk beside her as she slowly moves on her scooter.

Me and Scootaloo start going through Ponyville, looking for the Sugarcube Corner. I could see various ponies outside chatting with their friends. When I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, I turn back and I have bumped into somepony. I turn back to the front and I could see that I have bumped into my crush Twilight.

"Sorry about that, Brayden!" Twilight said, sound apologetic. I then put my hand on her shoulder and looked into her beautiful violet eyes.

"Twilight, it was me who bumped into you. I have to apologize to you." I said, sounding gentle and more apologetic. Twilight and me started exchanging gazes for a few moments and Twilight's right front hoof was across her left front hoof.

I was nervous to say something to my crush and she moved closer to me and said "So, I reckon that you must be busy with Scootaloo by the look of it?"

I was able to snap out of my romantic gaze and said "Oh. Um, yeah. She asked me to come with her to Sugarcube Corner."

"I'm glad to see that you can also get along with the fillies and foals around Ponyville." Twilight said, putting her hoof on my shoulder, nearly causing my cheeks to go rosy pink. "They'll also enjoy your company."

After a few moments, a thought came into my head that I tried to not unleash and I said "Twilight…"

"Yes Brayden?" She asked, still having her warm hoof on my shoulder.

"I'm- I'm having a gig at the Diamond Mare in two weeks. W-Would you like to go and see me perform on stage?" I asked, feeling nervous.

Twilight began thinking for a moment and after some thought, she said "Sure Brayden, I'd love to come see you play on stage."

I then said "Thank you. Um, permission to hug?" Twilight looked at me when I asked for permission and then opened a hoof out and I approached her, wrapping my arms around her and her hoof went around me, resulting in both of us sharing a gentle hug.

After a minute, me and Twilight let go of the hug and I'm holding her hoof and she has her hoof in my hand, as if she is holding my hand. Both of us are gazing into each other's eyes, and note that I have brown eyes so Twilight was gazing into them as well. I soon let go and both me and Twilight start to softly laugh.

"You should come visit me at the library sometime. I'm sure that we could read books together and I'll even treat you with lunch." Twilight said, sounding sweet as she normally is.

"I'd love that!" I said, putting a smile on Twilight's face.

"Brayden! Hurry up, cause I'm meeting my two friends at the Sugarcube Corner!" Scootaloo said, with an annoyed groan at the beginning.

I turn to Scootaloo and say "I'm coming!" I then turn to Twilight and ask "When do you want me at your library?"

Twilight said "I think you should come visit a week before your gig at the Diamond Mare. And don't you worry, I'll be there to see you perform."

"Thanks Twilight!" I said, before running back to Scootaloo.

I sighed happily when I was away, causing Scootaloo to look at me funny. "Why are you so happy Brayden? Did she… ask you on a date?" She asked.

"No, it's not a date and she still isn't aware yet, but she wants me to hang out at her place." I said, absolutely happy.

Me and Scootaloo continued walking down the road of Ponyville to Sugarcube Corner, and past a couple of Earth ponies who were busy chatting away. I finally figured out how I got into Equestria, and I didn't have to worry anymore. All I knew is that the next two weeks would probably be the best weeks I've ever lived, but I would just have to wait and see what the results were.

---

I don't own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Peter Criss or Yngwie Malmsteen!

A/N: Alright, from here I'm going to respond to reviews via the Author's Notes. This is my response to the recent two reviewers.

godzillafan1: Thank you, I try to update once in a while. But school and family does get into the way of writing. And yes, it's the typical mistake. Every writer does that in their first two stories. But I do not think Twilight has a crush on him, cause she doesn't know that Brayden has a crush on her. Brayden interacting with the Cake twins? Your wish is granted. I decided to have the ponies appear nice to Brayden since in most 'HIE' fan-fics, they start off scared or mean towards the human character. This is how I picture the ponies if I was to actually go to Equestria if it did exist. Anyways, thank you. :)

jaime: More? Here you go.

---

I walk up the streets of a cloudy afternoon Ponyville just enjoying my view. It wasn't going to rain today which was a relief because I did not want to get wet in the rain. I was going to visit Pinkie Pie at the Sugarcube Corner today, and I seemed to be arriving a few minutes early than I had expected. She was expecting me to come and see her in the approximate time of 11:35am. But I had come onto the street at 11:29am.

"This will be quite the surprise for Pinkie." I thought to myself when I approached the Sugarcube Corner by a few steps away. My two feet came up the two wooden steps into the Sugarcube Corner and I opened my way into the candy shop.

The shop didn't seem too busy at all, to my surprise it ended up looking deserted. So I walk forward a few steps and start taking a look around. "I must have arrived a bit too early." I thought when looking about for Pinkie Pie, because I can find her here usually. "Hello?" I call out for somepony in the building, but nopony seems to answer me. I shrug and am about to turn and leave until I am surprise hugged from when I turned around.

It was none other than Pinkie Pie herself who had pounced playfully on me. "Brayden! You're here quite early! Nevertheless, I am glad to see that you have arrived." Pinkie said, giving me a tight hug with both of her hooves. She was as usual hugging me a bit too tight though.

"Can't breathe- Pinkie!" I manage to get out which ends the surprising and tight hug. Pinkie finally just giggles and bounces up and down, probably going to go through a LONG list of fun stuff I'm going to do with her today.

"I think I'll introduce you to the two most awesome ponies that I live with. And they have children!" Pinkie said which causes me to remember that specific episode I watched while I was back on Earth. It was the episode Baby Cakes where Pinkie had to babysit the Cake's twins. Twilight wanted to help Pinkie, but Pinkie declined her help. It all eventually led to Pinkie breaking down and the twins had to cheer her up. "Mr. and Mrs. Cake, our guest is here!" She calls out into the kitchen.

I can see two earth ponies walk out of the kitchen and to the front counter, looking at me. I could even remember what they looked like. "Well, how do you do sir? I am Mr. Cake and this here is my wife Mrs. Cake." Mr. Cake said to me, reaching out his hoof for a hoofshake. I take my gentle hand and put it onto his hoof and shake it with the same strength he had.

"You wouldn't mind trying a free sample of one of our delicious cupcakes, would you?" Mrs. Cake says, taking out a plate of the free cupcake samples from under the front counter. I nod with a smile and grab the cupcake with the dark purple frosting on the top. I unwrap the paper at the bottom of the cupcake and take a bite of the frosting first.

My eyes go wide open; it's the most delicious kind of frosting that I've probably ever tasted in my lifetime. Pinkie is just looking at me with an innocent child-like smile on her face, with Mr. and Mrs. Cake looking at me with a look to finish my free sample. I go right ahead and throw the cupcake into the air and it enters my mouth in whole. Pinkie starts giggling and says "That's so me whenever I do that with my own muffins."

"Did somepony say muffins?" A voice said from the front door of the shop. Mr. and Mrs. Cake, Pinkie and I turn around to see a light gray pegasus standing at the door with the signature derped eyes who I knew as 'Derpy Hooves'. After a few awkward seconds, Derpy looks at both of us with a look of confusion and then just turns around, flying off.

I had finished chewing down my cupcake pretty fast. Pinkie then patted me on the shoulder and said "Wasn't that delicious Brayden? Oh, and don't eat it too fast. You'll get a nasty tummy ache if you do." She was right in that case, because when it did come to muffins or cupcakes, I had a tendency to swallow them down pretty fast. But my stomach hurt every time it happened, it happened two times as I can remember, with a banana muffin and two slices of pizza.

"This is a really nice shop that you've got here." I complimented to both Mr. and Mrs. Cake.

"Why thank you dear, you may be new here to Ponyville, but I can see that you are welcoming and will accept anypony by how they are," Mrs. Cake said. "In fact, I don't think I have ever seen your kind here in Equestria."

"Well, it's hard to explain what type of species I am." I said, nervously scratching my head. I was worried that they'll find out where I actually came from and will want to ask me more questions.

Pinkie gasped in the kind that could tell that she was missing something. She finally says "I almost forgot! Brayden still has to say hello to Pound and Pumpkin."

"Well, why didn't you say so Pinkie? You can have Brayden here meet our son and daughter." Mr. Cake said with tone of realizing that had forgotten for a quick moment. When Pinkie Pie bounced up and down on the stairs going upward, Mr. Cake turned back up to me and said "Our son Pound Cake is a pegasus, and our daughter Pumpkin Cake is a unicorn."

At the same time, I get a memory when I was watching the show back on Earth where I used to live. I was watching a video on YouTube that was called "YouTube Poop". They were taking clips from the beginning of 'Baby Cakes' and mixing the dialogue with that of Spaceballs. It was which Mr. Cake got into the entire detail of 'father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate' bit which made me laugh a bit when on Earth. But here, I'm trying my hardest not to laugh my butt off, but am cracking a smile while hearing Mr. Cake go on about his children.

I could soon hear the sound of Pinkie's hooves coming down the stairs and I turned towards it to see Pinkie coming down with both of the Cake children on her back, enjoying the ride on her. "Here they are Brayden. Say hello to Mr. and Mrs. Cake's children." Pinkie Pie said to me, making a squee when she smiled.

Pinkie lowered herself to let Pound and Pumpkin come off to crawl over towards me. Both of them raise their head when crawled over to me and saw how tall I was. I bent down lower so the Cake twins could be able to see my face a little better. "Hello Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake." I said to the twins in a gentle tone in my voice. The twins looked at me curiously which could probably assume to me that I wasn't a pony. "My name is Brayden."

The twins kept looking at me curiously, and finally I began thinking about my time back on Earth when it came to babies there. When I met a baby, I would bring my finger into its small hand to see if it would hold it. I would consider it friendship through my eyes, so I decided to do it in hope that the Cake twins would show the sign of friendship as well.

I brought my hand towards the twins and hold it in the position of waiting for a hoofshake from a pony. The Cake twins looked at my hand and then they finally placed their small hooves onto my hand. The two had smiles on their faces that grew from their curiosity to the look of welcoming. "Awww!" Pinkie Pie says watching me and the twins interacting.

After a couple of seconds of the twins holding onto my hand with their small hooves, they finally let go and kept smiling. I then feel a tap behind me that causes me to turn around to see Mrs. Cake hand me two bottles of milk. "Brayden, could you help feed Pound and Pumpkin while you're here?" Mrs. Cake asks.

"Sure." I said, taking the bottles of milk. I then handed them to Pound and Pumpkin Cake and they seemed delighted. I then turned to Mr. Cake and said "Your children seem wonderful."

"Why thank you Brayden. I don't think Pinkie forgot to tell you this, but she is their babysitter as well." He said to me.

"I was going to say that you know." Pinkie said, with a smile.

"Right. Sorry about that Pinkie." Mr. Cake said, scratching his head.

Pinkie Pie giggled and said "It's alright Mr. Cake. It happens a lot."

Once the Cake twins had finished their food, they put down both of their bottles and began to make funny faces. I then remembered that in the episode, they had to be burped and Pinkie didn't know about it. "Don't worry Mr. and Mrs. Cake, I'll take care of it." Pinkie said, trotting over to the twins. She picked both of them up and began to gently pat them on the back until they did burp.

I then turned back to the Cakes and said "So, does anypony come in often?"

Mr. Cake said "Of course Brayden, our business is doing fantastic as always. There's never a day when nopony seems to come."

"Pinkie Pie always brings the fun into the Sugarcube Corner and throughout the town as well." Mrs. Cake said.

Pinkie trotted back over and handed Pound and Pumpkin Cake to Mrs. Cake, saying "Well, me and my friend Brayden here have to go have lunch."

"Pinkie dear, why don't you and Brayden have lunch here?" Mrs. Cake suggested with the tone of question.

"Oh, that's okay Mrs. Cake. He's already had dinner here when he first arrived in Ponyville. We'll be having lunch at the nearby restaurant." Pinkie said to her.

"Alright, Pinkie Pie. If anytime he wants to eat here, he can visit anytime." Mrs. Cake said, smiling. I wave to the Cakes when I walk beside Pinkie when we're going out the front door. Both me and Pinkie were off to the restaurant.

---

When we arrived at the restaurant, Pinkie decided that we should both have our seats outdoors. The restaurant was huge in Ponyville, and there were a load of the town ponies inside of there, so it was a good idea for me and Pinkie to take our seats outdoors. We both came up to the waiter, and he looked at the both of us.

"May I help you two?" The waiter asked in a calm tone of voice.

"Table for two please. Outdoors." Pinkie Pie said, smiling.

"Sure. Please follow me." The waiter said, turning to the outdoor area. Me and my friend followed the waiter to our table. Our table looked quite grand out in the day, and we both took our seats on the strong wooden chairs.

Ponies began to look at me and Pinkie with suggestive looks on their faces. I began to look at them back. That's when I had realized that they were trying to tease me that I had a crush on Pinkie Pie. She wasn't even my type.

"What are all of you looking at?" Pinkie Pie said to the ponies at the nearby tables. The ponies just began to snicker to themselves that Pinkie realizes what is going on. "Hey! Me and him are just friends! Why would all of you assume that I like him?!"

The ponies were taken back by this and they just turned back going back to their normal conversation with Pinkie just huffing a bit. "Seriously, why do ponies assume that I like you in 'that' way?" Pinkie turned to me and said.

"Pinkie, they're just teasing us. It's not unusual to be friends with a girl and hang out with them." I said, in my best way to calm her down.

Pinkie Pie just sighed and said "A similar event happened to me just like this. I had a special stallion in my heart and both of us were going steady. He enjoyed my parties and I still remember when he asked me to be his special mare."

"But what happened?" I asked, hoping that I'm not hurting Pinkie emotionally.

"Me and him were at a restaurant in Canterlot. While we sat together at an outdoor table together, most of the unicorns there just began to look at us and were laughing. We never noticed it though, that is… until it happened," Pinkie Pie said, trying not to release tears from her eyes. But from what I could hear in the tone of her voice, she sounded sad. "My stallion turned around and revealed his true image to the unicorns, shouting at them to leave me and him alone and to let us have our dinner in peace. But silly me thought that it was a joke they were telling. He then turned and yelled at me for laughing along with them. I tried to explain to him, but he just cut me off and said that it was all over."

I gasped and in a worried tone, I said "Pinkie, I'm so sorry."

Pinkie sniffed and said "The next day after he ran off from the restaurant, I came back to his home to see if he wasn't too mad. But I was a distance away, fearing he was still mad at me. So when I saw him come out of his home with a smile, I figured he must have forgiven me quicker than I thought. And then… a mare came out and both of them shared a kiss. It broke my heart." Tears began to come down her eyes slowly as she explained.

I got out of my chair and gently pulled Pinkie into a soft, comforting hug. Pinkie's eyes were closed, but still tears came out from her eyes. I carefully place my hand on her gentle poofy mane and give it a stroke. Both of Pinkie's hooves were around my back and I could hear her quiet sobs.

"I'm sorry that you had to go through all that, Pinkie." I said to her in a gentle, calm voice. Me and her had held the hug for some time, and I turned around to see the waiter standing there with the menus and a tissue box. I let go of the hug and take the tissue box, handing it to Pinkie Pie.

The waiter placed the two menus onto the table and said "Can I start the both of you off with drinks?"

"I would like apple juice please." I said, looking at the calm waiter. The waiter nodded and wrote it down on his notepad with his mouth.

Pinkie looked at the waiter, drying her tears with a tissue and said "I'll just have some fruit punch." The waiter nodded and wrote it down before going back inside the restaurant to get the drinks.

Pinkie looked a bit down when I turned back to her, as she still was troubled from the memory. I gently put my hoof on her shoulder and she looked at me.

"Pinkie, it's all in the past. There's nothing you could do to win him back, you just made a mistake. Everypony makes mistakes, and the best way to do now is to move onto somepony better you'll fit with. As a friend, I'm worried about you when you are this sad. If you are ever like this, you just come and see me and I'll talk to you and understand." I said, sounding gentle to her. Sure, she's not my number one favorite pony, but she is my third favorite pony.

Pinkie slowly cracked a smile and said "Thanks Brayden. You seem surprisingly nice since you are different. Are most of your race this friendly?"

I thought back on Earth and could remember every crisis that was happening there. World Wars, weapons, death, fascism, the list goes on. My world did not need to be mentioned at this point, she'd consider every other human from that world 'meanies'. "Not exactly." I just said to try not to mention the others.

Our drinks soon arrived and the waiter looked at us and said "Alright, may I help with getting your entrees?"

I sat back on my chair and said "Me? Well, I'd like to have a salad." I didn't have a choice, I couldn't eat any meat here in Equestria and if I did, most ponies would possibly be freaked out and think I was going to eat them.

"And I shall have the tomato soup with the garlic bread sticks that come with it." Pinkie Pie said, who was now cheerful once again. The waiter wrote down our orders and went back into the restaurant to make the food.

Our food was delicious and the taste of it was left in my mouth, leaving me satisfied with my lunch. "That was delicious!" Pinkie Pie said, letting out a short burp. I could see that she ended up drinking the whole tomato soup and I figured that because there were no crumbs of garlic bread sticks on the plate that held the bowl, she must have took one and swallowed it whole. And then did the same to the others.

I reached into my pockets and realized that I didn't have any bits on me, since I wasn't living on Earth anymore. "It's alright Brayden, I'll pay for the meal." Pinkie said, taking out the seven bits to pay for the meal in total. She also left a small bag of bits as a tip for the waiter.

I got up and began to walk with Pinkie back to the Sugarcube Corner. I was just looking at my friend Pinkie, and when I turn around. I bump into somepony which surprises both me and this pony. "Careful there, partner!" The voice said who I could realize was Applejack's.

"Good afternoon Applejack." I said, nodding in greeting.

Applejack looks at me and says "How do you do, Brayden? Are you starting to love the town?"

"Oh yes! It's a beautiful town and everypony here is really nice to me. I think they're settling down with me as one of them." I said with a smile on my face.

Applejack chuckled and said "Now that's some spirit right there! Say… now that you're a resident here. You could try searching for a job around here, there is a lot of them that you can find."

"Well, yes. I do need to get the bits in order to have food," I said. "I have the possibly of maybe helping your family on the farm, or working at the Sugarcube Corner."

Pinkie Pie bounced up and down, saying "Alright! Then you and I could work on making cupcakes, muffins and cakes together. We've got the best sweets."

Applejack smiled and said "I appreciate the offer to help me and my family, and it's completely your choice if you want to help out. I think Zecora also needs a helping hoof as well."

I chuckled and said "Zecora? She sounds interesting. Do you know where I can find her?"

Pinkie Pie bounced up and down saying "She's in the Everfree Forest. But watch out for poison joke along the way."

I said "Well, I'll see if I can help Zecora. She doesn't seem that bad." I knew Zecora from the show a lot when I saw the episode 'Magic Duel' when she helped Twilight defeat Trixie in a rematch. But mostly I remember her from the episode 'Bridal Gossip'.

---

I walked straight into the Everfree Forest and took the safe path all the way to Zecora's hut. It looked just like the show had described it. I put my hand into a fist and knocked on the door. The zebra who I recognized as Zecora.

She looked at me for a few moments and said "Ah, welcome. You must be the human that I have heard. You almost remind me of the rare kinds of bird."

I scratch my head and I say "Well, yes. But Applejack told me that I could probably find a job here to help you out."

"I think I have the job just for you. I have been trying to search for somepony to help me since my plants grew." Zecora said. I'm trying not to laugh as I know that everything she says has a rhyme.

I look to the plants and I said "I'm guessing that you want me to help pick out the plants for your alchemy?"

Zecora nodded and continued "Yes, for all these plants can put me under stress. It's hard to pull out those plants, since they are food for the ants."

I nod in understanding and say "Well, the ants in the forest do have to eat something."

"Well these ants are much different from the rest, they breathe fire which make them a bunch of pests." Zecora explained, seeming a bit worried about her plants getting eaten by the fire ants. They did remind me of the giant ants when I played Fallout back on Earth.

"Well, I think I am up for this job Zecora." I shake her zebra hoof. "Just how big are these ants?"

Zecora said "The ants are as big as a dog, but no different from the size of a normal tree log."

I turned and saw one of the fire ants coming towards the both of us, but I kick it's face away and it retreats. I looked back at Zecora and said "When should I start?"

Zecora looked a bit worried by the look of it and her iris in her eyes shrinking. "Well I do hope it is soon, because these fire ants would have taken my plants away before the next full moon." She said.

"Well don't worry Zecora, I can help you out." I said.

Zecora said "You need to convince them not to steal by their Fire Ant lord, if you manage to succeed I shall give you my reward."

I turn to a Fire Ant trying to bite at my leg and then turned back saying "Don't you worry Zecora! I'll be here to help as soon as I'm free! And I'll be aware of the timing."

I then ran off out of the Everfree Forest, writing down the list of things I had to do in the next two weeks. Visiting Twilight at the library was the first thing he'll do, helping Zecora would be the second and the gig would definitely be the third and final on the list of things he'll do in those two weeks.

A/N: Alright, this chapter is based off something that has happened to me in real life back in December that I still remember, and I apologize for how long this chapter took to write. Now the responses to the review. Even though there's only one.

godzillafan1: Well, I don't think it would be a great job to deal with fire breathing ants either. Though it's fun to fight them in Fallout games. Anyways, I'm glad you're enjoying the story and I'm hoping others will enjoy it as well.

---

I open my eyes to the sunlight that comes through the window. Today was going to be a great day through my own eyes. It was the day that I was going to visit Twilight at her library, and I could hardly wait since I'd be able to visit my crush. But however, rushing to get her to fall in love was not an option. If I rushed straight to the point, this would probably cause her to get me stuck in the friend zone with her.

There was a knock on the bedroom door and I turned to the door, by the sound of how soft the knocking was. "Come in." I said, recognizing that the soft knocking was Fluttershy. The door opens and she comes in, trotting.

"Good morning Brayden." Fluttershy says to me, trotting up to my bed. I watch her move her hoof to the bed sheets and move them downward, letting me out from the guest bed. I get up off of my bed and turn around to start making my bed, until Fluttershy places her hoof onto my hand. "Um, Brayden. I'll make your bed for you… If it's okay with you. I mean, if you don't want me to, I'll just-"

"Fluttershy, you could help me do the other side." I offered, putting a soft smile on her face. She comes over to the other side of my bed and helps me pull the bed sheets upward and begin fixing them. She is quite mildly surprised to see how I end up turning in bed during my peaceful sleep. Once the sheets were in place, I gently shaped the pillows and placed them onto the bed.

"You did really well. How do you know how to make your own bed?" Fluttershy asked, trotting over back to my side.

"Well, I guess it comes from experience of seeing other ponies do it." I said, scratching my head innocently.

Fluttershy looked at me and said "I see. Well, I do have to go and get some groceries from the nearby marketplace in Ponyville. And I know that you'll be going to see Twilight this afternoon after I come home from doing that errand."

"Wait, Fluttershy." I said, placing my hand on her soft yellow shoulder. "Don't you worry about it, I'll get you the groceries."

"But, what about your visit with Twilight this afternoon?" She asks.

"Don't worry. Once I get the groceries, I'll give them to you and then go straight on my way to Twilight's. She and Spike will be happy to see me." I said.

Fluttershy smiles and trots outside the guest bedroom towards the end table where I can see her take a note and hand it to me. On the note is the list of her groceries ranging from two large cartons of milk, two branches of celery, three tomatoes, two loaves of bread, a barrel of fruit, a few apples from Sweet Apple Acres, a bag of bird feed and a medium bag of salad leaves. "Here's the list of things I want you to get for me… if you please." She says, with the signature sound of 'squee' heard.

I smile and nod, and then realize that I do not have any bits to pay for the groceries at each stand in the marketplace. Fluttershy becomes kind enough to go into her end table and hand me a bag full of the bits necessary to buy me the required stuff on the list. I take the bag of bits and put it into my pocket. I then turn around and begin thinking.

Fluttershy approaches me and asks "Brayden, you have something on your mind?"

I turn and look at her, saying "Well, as a matter of fact… yes. I'm not sure if Twilight will accept that I'm the one for her. She might look at me… differently."

Fluttershy thought for a moment, flapped her soft wings and gave me a pat on the back. "Don't think that Brayden. Princess Twilight is the greatest friend to anypony here in Equestria, so I'm sure that she might give you a chance."

I turn to Fluttershy, and put on a light smile to show that I accepted her assurance. I then look at her and said "Permission to hug?"

"Oh Brayden, you don't have to ask me permission. It's not like I'm going to reject the hug, well… unless I was mad which I probably never will be." Fluttershy said, flapping closer towards me and wrapping a hoof around me and my hand was wrapped around her in a gentle, friendly hug. After a few seconds of the hug, both me and Fluttershy released each other from the hug and smiled at each other.

"Well, I should get going. The marketplace will open soon, so I have to be there in a hurry." I said, realizing the time I spent thinking rather than just doing the errand. "You never know how many ponies will come to shop."

In quite no time, I went downstairs and said hello to Fluttershy's animals before going out the door. I walk along the dirt road and didn't really hear Fluttershy shouting something to me. I thought I heard the word 'breakfast' come from her in the distance. I realized that I had forgotten to eat breakfast by the time I had already crossed down the path towards the Ponyville marketplace.

The marketplace was slowly starting to swarm with ponies all over from left to right and it was hard to squeeze in through the ponies trying to grab at a piece of the fresh vegetables and supplies. "It must be a Friday." I thought to myself when coming through the nearby crowd swarming the Cucumber stand. Most of the other stands such as the carrot and Brussels sprout weren't as busy but still had a lot of ponies come by the stands to pay for the pieces of vegetable.

I could see the tomato stand across from the Zucchini stand and I start walking towards the stand with its business owner just looking about for any customer to come and buy. The table has a cloth with the symbol of a tomato embedded on it. "Excuse me, but do you know how much bits I need to spend on three tomatos?" I asked on approach, with the owner turning to look at me with her own eyes.

"Well, it'll be six bits." The tomato stand owner said to me, pointing towards the sign that could tell each tomato was two bits.

I take a look at the red tomatoes and place down the six bits that I took out from the small bag in my pocket and kindly give them to the mare.

"Thank you kind sir." The tomato stand owner said to me, taking the six golden bits with her hooves and handing me three red juicy tomatoes. She also grabs a leather bag so I could store the groceries into there.

"Thank you as well." I said, taking the free leather bag from her and carrying it. I place the three tomatoes into the bag and go on my way towards the celery stand.

All seemed at peace and even a few of the ponies were watching me while I was shopping around the marketplace. At one occasion during my shopping expedition while trying to get two cartons of milk, the old stallion in front of me was also the one who had butted me in line. I had to tell him this, but with the help of his hearing since it was hard for him to hear me tell the news to him. I finally did manage to get the other supplies with the two cartons of milk. I checked off the list of things I had to get for Fluttershy, including the bird seed and salad leaves. I only had Sweet Apple Acres to visit to purchase a few apples.

I walk out of the marketplace and along the dirt path towards the farm, it's not too far down the road, so it should be easy said than done soon after. I could see the rabbits roaming around the trail, and it seemed like a beautiful quiet day, with only a soft breeze and the sound of birds chirping. It seems almost too peaceful, until I was softly bumped from behind by somepony. I turn around and could see Apple Bloom right behind me, she must have followed me instead of her other Crusader friends when she saw me leaving.

"Hello Brayden!" Apple Bloom says in a tone of welcome and happiness.

"Hello to you too Apple Bloom," I said, seeing her trot beside me to accompany me. "Aren't you usually with your friends Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo?"

"Yeah, we're always looking for our special talents," Apple Bloom said, with slight disappointment. "But they never come and Diamond Tiara and her friend Silver Spoon are always teasing us about it."

I look down at Apple Bloom and said "Don't you worry Apple Bloom, if you just wait instead of trying to rush to find it… Let destiny find you."

"That's just it though Brayden," Apple Bloom said. "We can't wait any longer. If all three of us get them, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon will stop teasing us and leave us alone. It's by our rule of the Cutie Mark Crusaders."

"Well, I won't try to force you not to rush to finding your talent," I said, defeated by the young earth pony filly. "But please do keep in mind that you and your destiny will find each other sometime later as a filly. Well, for me… I got my talent in playing guitar as a teenager."

"You did?" Apple Bloom said with the tone of excitement.

"Indeed I did. When I got into music, I was mainly focused on the instruments that they were playing and those neat guitar solos." I said, sounding just like back when I was eighteen years old.

Apple Bloom jumped up and down, saying "That's awesome! Even Applejack could play a banjo." I did wonder how ponies would be able to play instruments with their own hooves, but knowing Octavia from the brony fan base back on Earth and her infamous cello… it made a lot of sense.

Both me and Apple Bloom pass under the sign that had the symbol of an apple carved into the wood rectangle hanging above. I had arrived at Sweet Apple Acres, and it would be good to pick up a few apples from the place to give to Fluttershy as part of her groceries list. I could see Applejack on the hammock attached by each end to two apple trees. She appeared to be taking a nap and it was probably for the first time that I saw Applejack without her hat which it was hanging on the end table near the hammock.

"Hello Applejack." I said, approaching her on the hammock. Applejack opens her eyes and turns her head to see me.

"Well hello to ya Brayden. I'm guessin' that Fluttershy sent ya to pick up a few apples eh?" Applejack said, getting up off the hammock, grabbing her hat and placing it on her head.

"Yeah, she did. I decided to be as kind to her as she is that kind to me." I said, obviously knowing that Fluttershy isn't my type.

"Alrightie then. I'll go and get them apples." Applejack said, trotting into the barn. I watched her trotting into the barn, and I did not notice that my own head felt like it was starting to vibrate from the inside. Once Applejack was inside the barn, I eventually caught onto the vibrations going on in my head and I placed the bag of groceries down and put my hand onto my head. My temperature was rising, and I felt hot. I had to sit down to reduce the dizziness.

"Brayden? Are you alright?" Apple Bloom asked me, when she saw my hand go onto my head. "You're looking a little pale."

"I'm… I'm fine. I just need somewhere to sit." I said sounding a bit distressed in my quiet voice with my head feeling like it was vibrating and hot. Apple Bloom took my hand and helped me over to the hammock that Applejack was napping on and I lowered down onto the soft fabric, reliefed. The vibrations started to fade a bit, but Apple Bloom seemed to look very concerned about me.

"Are you sure you're alright Brayden? You sure looked a bit white by the look of your face. And trust me, I've seen this happen before." Apple Bloom asked.

"Don't you worry Apple Bloom," I said. "I'm honest that I am completely fine."

"I'm starting to worry about you right now Brayden. Are you absolutely sure that you'll be okay walking back to Fluttershy's cottage?" Apple Bloom said, hopping up onto the hammock and sitting on the fabric.

"When was the last time I've not been okay?" I said calmly, letting the temperature of my head run slowly back to normal. Applejack came trotting back with a bag of the few apples that Fluttershy had ordered and she gave them to me.

"Here ya go, Brayden. A few apples that Fluttershy ordered a- whoa!" Applejack said, surprised by me looking like I was one of those zombies from a show back when I lived on Earth. "Brayden, ya lookin' okay?" She then asks, looking a bit worried and concerned.

"I just had to sit down, that's all. My head was starting to vibrate and my temperature was rising, so I decided to take a seat to calm down the vibrating." I said, explaining the entire thing to Applejack.

I had a bit of strength to get up off the hammock and to start walking. But Applejack walked to the direction to stop me and said "Ya sure? You're lookin' as almost as white as a ghost."

"Honestly Applejack, I will be fine." I said just walking with the two bags of groceries and towards the archway to and from Sweet Apple Acres.

"I'm not so sure 'bout it Brayden. Want me to give ya a ride to Fluttershy's from my wagon?" Applejack said, trotting up fast beside me and sounding like she was offering to help me.

"No thank you Applejack. As I said, I'll be fine." I said, declining her offer and just walking past the archway. The last look I saw from her before walking told me that she was very worried about me. It's not my fault that this happened. It's not like I was getting ill or anything. So why was she concerned? I could understand she's one of my friends, but I felt a bit regretful for declining her offer to help me.

I made my way from Sweet Apple Acres back to Fluttershy's cottage. I didn't even feel my own head vibrate while on my way back which was a relief. Sitting down must have worked after all. I walk up to Fluttershy's front door and open up, saying "I'm back Fluttershy, and I got the groceries!"

The yellow pegasus came flying down from upstairs and seemed really happy, but at the same time concerned. "Good job Brayden," She said to me, giving a soft rub on my head and taking the groceries and sorting them out of the bags. "Now I can store these in for breakfast, lunch and dinner. But it also reminds me that you forgot to eat breakfast."

"Yeah, sorry about that." I said while scratching the back of my head.

"It's no problem Brayden, we all forget to eat an important meal of the day sometimes." Fluttershy said to me, no longer sounding a bit concerned.

"Well, if you don't mind. I think I'll have a bit of a snack before going off to see Twilight." I said, going over to the pantry where she was storing the groceries.

"Oh!" Fluttershy said, to get my attention and said "Don't worry about it Brayden. Not at all. I did make a small snack for you when I knew you were coming back." She went into the fridge and took out a small fruit salad filled with small crunchy nuts to decorate it. She carefully takes the wooden bowl full of it and brings it over to me. "Here you go."

"Thanks Fluttershy!" I said, taking a wooden fork and pouching it into the fruit salad and taking a bite. The sweet taste brought a smile to me and I took another bite, saying "It's good."

Fluttershy trotted up to me and said "Now now Brayden, don't eat too fast. You'll get a bad tummy ache."

I began to eat a little slower to avoid a tummy ache and at the same time, I was helping Fluttershy store the last of the groceries into the pantry and fridge. I had placed the tomatoes and salad leaves into the fridge and closed the fridge door. I turned to Fluttershy who put the last grocery into the pantry, the bird seed and she closed the pantry door.

"Are we both missing anything else to place into the pantry or fridge?" I asked. Fluttershy just smiled and shook her head. I had already finished shopping for groceries and storing them to help Fluttershy out.

I took a look at the clock in the main room of the cottage and could tell that there was only ten minutes until 11:00am. The time that I was supposed to meet Twilight at her treehouse. "Oh my, I really have been busy at that time, have I?" I said, surprised how much time passed helping Fluttershy with her groceries.

"I have to get going to Twilight's now. But I'll be back here tonight!" I turned to Fluttershy and said before walking towards her front door to leave.

"Okay Brayden, be sure to tell me all about the time you had with Twilight when you come back." Fluttershy reminded me and she had a sweet smile.

I nodded in agreement and promise, walking to the door. I turned the knob on the golden handle and pushed it open and closed the door shut normally. I then proceeded down the path and past the small bridge, heading towards Ponyville.

---

It was eight minutes later when I stepped forward toward the Golden Oaks Library which was Princess Twilight's home. I knocked on the door a few times and waited for either Twilight or Spike to answer the door. I could see Spike coming to answer the door.

"I think I told you quite clear Derpy that… oh, hey Brayden." Spike said, opening the door and looking to see me and mistaking me at first for Derpy Hooves.

"Hello Spike, I was just wondering if Twilight was home… because well, she's been expecting me." I said, starting to sound a little nervous.

"Yes she is, and I could tell by that tone that you seem desperate to see her. Do… do you have a crush on her, Brayden?" Spike asked, in a whisper.

I whispered back "Yes, but I'm also afraid at the same time… she'll reject me."

Spike said "Well, don't worry. I'm sure Twilight will understand when you get the time to confess your true feelings towards her. Even I'm still trying to confess to Rarity my feelings towards her."

"Well, I'm sure that Rarity will understand as well Spike," I said in a happy, assuring tone of voice. "Now, could you ask Twilight to come downstairs to greet me? You know how she is when it comes to books."

Spike said "Of course Brayden." He finally turned to the stairs and shouted "Twilight! Brayden's here to see you!"

"Coming!" Her beautiful voice said and the sound of trotting could be heard coming down the stairs. There would really be much space in the library for her to fly about unless she was outdoors. I could see her mulberry coated hoof come forth from upstairs. "Hello Brayden, it's so glad to see you. And you did come in on time in the week." She said, making her full appearance.

"It's so nice to see you as well Twilight." I said, sounding so dazed. I was too distracted by how beautiful Twilight was to me. But at the same time, a thought of worry interrupted me and I began thinking "Wait, what if she does reject me and say that I'm not the one for her?"

Twilight spreads open her wings and flies down from the edge of the stairs, landing softly on the wooden ground. She closes her wings and trots up to me, saying "I've been wanting to talk to you about what you are as the species of a human, Brayden."

I said "Well, what do you want to know about me?"

"Come upstairs and we'll both talk about it." Twilight said, and began trotting to the stairs. I began to follow her upstairs into the bedroom where Twilight slept and read books. But even then, she still had her royal duties to perform as a princess.

I walked up the wooden steps, following close behind her and I could see her bedroom as well-described when I watched the show back on Earth.

Twilight pulls up a large pillow cushion for me with her magic and says "Come sit with me." I let her sit first on the pillow cushion and then I sit next to her, feeling the softness of the large pillow. I felt rather comfortable on the pillow and Twilight next to me, made me feel happy and warm.

I couldn't stop staring into her purple eyes while we both looked at each other. Her eyes were sparkling with hopes that I could be falling in love with her that easily, but I haven't confessed yet that I had a crush on her. I've fallen in love with others back on Earth, but most of them would use me or say they already had someone, forcing me to be all 'never mine then!' and find someone else. But something told me by her eyes that she would be the one for me.

"So, I'd like to get to know a little information about you first since this is the first time that I've been getting to hang out with you." Twilight said, sounding quite patient and happy. "I'd like to know that besides playing guitars, what other things interest you?"

I snap out of my romantic gaze and say "Well, I do also like to read on an occasion, hang out with friends and I write songs, not to mention read all about planets and stars."

"Ah, you must be quite like me when it comes to reading books and looking at planets and stars," Twilight said, sounding like me and her had a lot in common together. "I'm not really a songwriter, but I love hanging out with my friends."

"Well, I've been hanging out with a few of your friends. Pinkie Pie is so cool and always puts a smile on my face, and Fluttershy is kind enough for me to stay at her cottage." I said.

Twilight giggled and said "Well, I am glad to see that you are getting along with my very best friends. If there's a reason you are feeling down and I'm not there, you just find them and talk to them about the incident you're going through whether it's a troubled past or a problem with something."

I finally decided to just let it all out and pull off a flirt. "I'm sorry Twilight, but I could not help but notice that you have beautiful eyes and a lovely mane. It definitely fits you perfectly." I said, in an attempt to flirt to her.

Twilight's cheeks began to glow pink and she said "Why- why thank you Brayden. I don't think anypony has ever complimented me like that before. You're probably the first."

"Indeed I am." I agreed. I just looked at her and smiled, saying "Well, you were going to ask me more questions Twilight?"

Twilight snapped out of her blushing and said "Oh yes, I was just wondering… where do you come from?"

I gulped nervously, knowing that if I told the truth about that I came from Earth and told everything about to her she would probably hate me for it. "The Everfree Forest." I lied.

"The Everfree Forest? Well, it's a complete wonder that you survived all those dangerous creatures and plants deep within to get here." Twilight said sounding quite surprised to hear me say that I came from the Everfree Forest.

"In fact, I think I grew up all alone in the Everfree Forest all by myself. The only friends I ever made were probably the insects and animals that roamed around," I lied to make up a believable story. "And when I heard a manticore or a team of Timberwolves nearby, I had to run and hide."

Twilight listened to my story, and she looked like she believed it. "Oh, that must have been awful being lonely without somepony to talk to." She said, feeling bad for me.

"But your friend Fluttershy found me on the forest floor and took me to her cottage… and that's basically how I met you and the rest of your friends." I said, telling out a bit of the truth.

"Oh yes. Fluttershy is the type that would probably help you out and she's sweet." Twilight said, getting up off the pillow cushion and using her magic to take out a book from the shelf and bring it over. The book was titled 'Creatures Outside of Equestria' and she opened to the page about humans.

The picture in the book looked just like I was described. "Is this the type of species you are sure to be?" Twilight asked.

I examined the picture carefully and said "Why yes. I remember rarely seeing other humans like that. But most of them were completely different. I'm one of the nicer humans."

Twilight giggled once again and said "Well, judging by how everypony here in Equestria has been telling about you. I could say that you are getting along with them quite well, including me."

"Well, it was first unexpected when Fluttershy first talked to me. I thought most of everypony here would want to send me back into the Everfree Forest where I came from." I said.

"Well, all the ponies here are friendly and understanding. But there always will be snobbish ponies in Canterlot who will judge you by your appearance." Twilight said.

"Well, one of them seemed to approve of me, but the other demanded to go back where I belonged." I said, agreeing to her point and of what happened when I went to Canterlot to meet Princess Celestia.

"Oh, you mean Fancy Pants and Prince Blueblood? Fancy Pants is quite respecting to those who look different, but do look out when facing Blueblood… let's just say that he thinks the unicorns are superior to any other race in Equestria." Twilight said, warning me at the mention of Prince Blueblood.

"You mean he's a unicorn who supports facism, right?" I asked, curiously.

"Fascism?" Twilight asked, completely unaware of what it was. I did not need to explain what it was and what the consequences were.

"I'll explain later." I said, assuring the confused Twilight. But at the same time, I felt like I had made a huge mistake.

"If you say so Brayden." Twilight said, no longer confused and used her magic to place the book back onto the shelf.

Twilight sat back down beside me on the bed cushion and she seemed to be a little closer towards me, placing a hidden blush on my face. Twilight's right hoof was close by, and a thought came that I should reach out with my left hand and holding it gently just a boy and girl in a steady relationship. Both of us seemed to be in a gaze, to Twilight it would be a friendly gaze, but to me… well, I already know the reason why.

Something felt wrong though, and it wasn't about Twilight. It was my head itself. I could faintly feel the inside of my head start to slowly bring back the vibrating that happened while I was at Sweet Apple Acres. "Oh no…" I thought to myself while moving my two hands towards my head.

"Are you okay Brayden?" Twilight said. Her face seemed to change from her patient to seeming quite concerned and a bit worried about me.

"Twilight… can you feel the temperature of my forehead?" I asked, while the vibrations in my head started to grow drastically.

Twilight grew more worried and said "Are you sure?"

"I'm… I'm not kidding or playing any jokes. Please feel my head." I said, the vibrations finally shaking my head from the inside.

Twilight placed her gentle and soft hoof onto my forehead and said "Oh my goodness Brayden… you're burning up!" I could see her face of now extreme worry and high concern. I was about to say something, but the image had begun to change and everything turned gray.

---

I felt like I was no longer in sync with my body and that I was being shaken everywhere around. The image of Twilight began to spin around fast like I was in the center of a twister that was accidentally set loose. I could hear loud screams like they were all screaming on a roller coaster, and I could not gain control of what was happening.

"Brayden!" A voice called out to me. I couldn't turn my head at all whatsoever. I felt completely paralyzed and I could only see what was in front of me. I could see the flash and a midnight blue alicorn I knew enter into the sequence. Princess Luna.

I tried to force my body to move, but I felt absolutely frozen and could not escape the terror of my disconnection. "Brayden, you've got to wake up!" Princess Luna said, trying to gain control and reunite me back in control with my body.

The screams started to overcome Luna's shouts of assistance to me and I couldn't hear her over the shouts. I could even hear a loud scream in the spinning image while being shaken around. I then realized that I must have passed out from the head vibrations.

I could see Princess Luna mouthing something towards me as if she was trying to say "Open your eyes Brayden!" I began to force myself to open my eyes and Princess Luna began flying backwards towards the small void she appeared from in the dream, the image began to spin faster and was resisting every attempt to wake me up.

"Wake up!" was the last thing I heard Princess Luna said before she became a small blue dot disappearing in the distance. The image became out of control and the screams were at the volume of blasting out my ears. The spinning came from afar and I felt like I was about to hit the ground of cement far below me. I couldn't move my mouth or make any sound while falling limp to the gray cement like a lifeless doll. A flash of white appears at the bottom and covers me entirely.

"Open your eyes Brayden!"

---

My eyes are forced open and I'm back in Twilight's house on the pillow cushion I passed out on, and I am still completely paralyzed. Twilight appears in the moment I opened my eyes and both of her hooves are holding onto my numb hands and pulling me up off the ground to sit me right back up. She had a look on her face what she seemed rather worried and frightened at the same time.

"Spike, you might want to call somepony for help!" Twilight says, knowing she is talking to Spike by the stairs that me and Twilight came up to. She managed to sit me right back up and let go of my hands, placing a hoof on my shoulder. "You okay, Brayden? You're pale." She said to me, sounding worried.

I manage to snap out of my paralysation and move a bit, unsure of how long I was passed out for. I took a look at my arms to see how pale I was. My skin looked like I was a ghost and even I was now realizing what was going on when I made a sound that I eventually was going to 'let it out'.

Twilight realized what I was about to do and quickly guided me to the nearest bathroom in her home. I entered the bathroom and closed the door behind Twilight. She was about to hear the saddest thing ever heard from me. I look into the toilet full of the water that was new after being flushed and I ended up barfing into the toilet. All Twilight outside could probably hear from me was the retching that I was making when I was 'letting it all out'. After all of the barf had been let out, I was taking deep breaths to relax my stomach.

"You alright in there Brayden dear?" I could hear Rarity calling from outside the door. I just continued to take deep breaths and pulled the handle on the side of the toilet to flush down what 'stuff' was there. I slowly got up and I felt very shaky. I then stumbled on my way to the door, grabbing the handle and turning it to see both Twilight and Rarity standing there, just seeing if I was okay.

"You're quite pale Brayden." Rarity said, trying to help me by going under my right arm and supporting my balance so I didn't fall and pass out again. "When I heard you fainted, I was both frightened and worried about you as a good friend to you."

Twilight had her hoof on my shoulder again and her face seemed close to me. "Don't worry Brayden, the doctor is going to be here soon."

At the same time, I felt embarrassed for throwing up at Twilight's place at the same time and I was able to stumble out words to her. "I'm so sorry for doing this Twilight." I managed to get out.

Twilight wrapped her right wing around me and pulled me into a gentle hug. "Shhhh… It's alright Brayden. It's not your fault." She says to me in a gentle, calm and soothing voice.

This definitely calms me down and I gently hug Twilight back by putting my arms around her slowly. My left hand is on her soft and silky mane and I look at Rarity from behind Twilight. She has a soft smile on her face when watching me hug Twilight. She must have known that I have a crush on Twilight just like the rest of my friends.

The sound of knocking at the door was heard and Rarity went downstairs to answer the door. I just kept my hug with Twilight who was rubbing my back gently. I keep the hug and look at Twilight's eyes. "I've always been afraid of doctors." I claimed to her.

"Well don't worry about Dr. Stable. He's not going to hurt you." She said, still rubbing my back. I remembered Dr. Stable from the episode "Read It and Weep" when Rainbow Dash hurt her wing and was reading 'Daring Do' while in the hospital.

The sound of hooves came trotting up the stairs and I turned to the sound of the hooves stepping upward on the wooden stairs, letting go of the hug between me and Twilight. It was Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Spike and Dr. Stable coming up the stairs. Even Rarity was coming with them.

"Oh Brayden, I was so worried when I heard you fainted a couple of minutes ago." Fluttershy said, gently hugging me out of worry.

Applejack approached and looked sad. "I tried to help ya when you became white at ma farm. I should have helped anyway."

Rainbow Dash flew above me and said "Don't you worry Brayden, you surely will have lots of time to recover… I hope."

"Aw rats! There goes my special recipe!" Pinkie Pie says out of the random. Everypony in the room including myself turns to look at Pinkie. She just shrugs and says "What? It was a recipe for Brayden to see."

Dr. Stable approaches me with a stethoscope and asks me to raise my shirt. I proceed to do what he says and he places it on my chest. "Breathe." He says. I breathe in and out while he examines my chest. "Did he do anything after waking up?" The doctor asks.

"Well, I heard that he had to 'barf'." Spike said, approaching me and examining as well.

"He did, doctor." Rarity said, still feeling bad that I had to go through all that.

The doctor put down his stethoscope and turned to the girls saying "Brayden is going to be absolutely fine. He just needs a few days to recover at the hospital."

"But… I was going to help Zecora… with her plant problem." I said weakly.

"Don't worry Brayden. We'll all take care of it for you. Poor you just needs to have to rest to help against the… what does he have, doc?" Rainbow Dash asked Dr. Stable.

Dr. Stable says "I'm afraid that he has the flu."

Twilight had her warm and gentle hoof on my shoulder and said "Please do get better soon Brayden. Don't worry as well, we'll take care of the problem Zecora asked you to help with."

"Okay…" I said, weakly as two ponies with a stretch came up the stairs. I shakily walked over to the stretcher and leaned backwards into it. The two ponies carrying it finally lifted the other end of the stretcher and began to carry it with me downstairs slowly. I could only look up as Dr. Stable kept telling me to just close my eyes and relax.

I was soon outside and a few of the ponies I knew, including Lyra and Scootaloo seemed rather worried, they tried to approach me, but the doctors told them there was nothing to see here and requested that they meet me at the hospital in a few hours.

I look in the sky and just relax while the two just carry me to a brick building nearby and enter inside. A few of the hospital staff are surrounding me the next afterwards. Dr. Stable takes out the one thing I've always feared since forever… the needle.

"Oh no! I'm not having that poke me!" I said, trying to back away from my fear. The doctor just sighed in joking and was trying to convince me that it did not hurt. But I knew damn well that it was going to hurt like crazy.

Two nurses had to hold onto my hand while Dr. Stable inserts the needle into my hand. It reminded me when I had the needle go into my hand at the hospital back on Earth while getting my wisdom teeth out. I grunted in pain while the needle was in and let out breaths when it came out.

A few of the nurses and Dr. Stable was chuckling a bit, and Dr. Stable said "You're a strong human. You managed to get through that needle. Just a sedative, Brayden… can't miss it."

I could feel myself growing weary of moving around and the sounds of the nurses chatting about me, while taking me into the elevator and going up the floors. My eyes started drooping to close shut and the voices of the nurses became so distant. I was drifting toward unconsciousness. I struggled to stay awake for what would happen next, but it was no use. The doctor had placed a pretty strong sedative into me to put me to sleep. I began to understand now why he wants me to feel better from the flu, and I quietly said "Thanks, doc." Before I had lost consciousness entirely and drifted into sleep.

It was only a matter of time until I felt better.

A/N: I can smell a reference to "Of Mice and Men" in this chapter.

godzillafan1: Well, the chapter is up, so you'll find out what happens next in this chapter. But from what I wrote, it'll be a shock. I won't spoil what happens up ahead, but you'll wonder what happens at the end of the chapter.

Night Shade1234: Thank you for the reviews, if you do have something to suggest you can let me know anytime.

---

The room even had a feeling of emptiness and silence within, like I was trapped inside a single building with no way out to search for. Even the floor was too rock hard, since there were no tools to break it open. "Where am I?" I shouted in the emptiness, hearing my voice echo.

"You're in my world now." A voice said, right behind me. I slowly turned around since I recognized that cunning voice. Lo and behold, with a dark flowing blue mane and the black alicorn skin, it was who I remembered as the Mare in the moon, Nightmare Moon.

"Nightmare Moon?" I asked, quite surprised to see that the Mare in the Moon would be standing her before me. She had a smile on her face that seemed quite vicious, quite like the Season 4 premiere before she went on a rampage. "But I thought the Elements of Harmony defeated you and had you reverted back to Princess Luna."

Nightmare Moon kept her smile and said "They did, but now only a small fraction of me remains. The very fraction that enters dreams and turns them into vicious nightmares, even visions of no escape."

"Is this room a part of your fraction?" I asked, trying not to fool around with her since I was face to face with the villain I first thought I was going to have a crush on, until I realized that it was Twilight that I truly had a crush on.

Nightmare Moon approached me and said "I can read your thoughts and past as well," She approached and I felt extremely uncomfortable when she placed her dark hoof around me. "Tell me Brayden, was this true you thought you were going to fall in love with me when you first watched the show?"

"Y-yes." I said, a bit shaky and worried that Nightmare was probably planning a trap for me in the dream.

The dark mare chuckled and said "Well, it was too bad that you had to fall for that pathetic excuse for a new princess… Twilight."

This offended me greatly and pushed Nightmare's hoof off me. "Don't say that about Twilight, you monster!" I shouted.

"Oh, so now you're defending her to show your love towards you? I can tell you one thing though, she'll never love you once you tell her the truth about where you come from!" Nightmare Moon stated and began to laugh.

"Tell her the truth? What do you mean?" I said, calming a bit.

Nightmare Moon just did a laugh and said "Tell you what Brayden. I'll only answer yes or no questions at this point. Once you ask something that isn't a yes or no question, you can't ask anymore!" She looked at me and waited for a response to come out of my mouth.

"Why's that?" I said unexpectedly without thinking.

Nightmare Moon just let out an annoyed grunt, saying "You just wasted it! You completely blew it! You didn't give the yes or no question one chance and you asked something different!" I could completely understand her frustration at this point of her trying to befriend me. "Alright, that's it. You're on your own Brayden." She turned around and proceeded to attempt to leave.

"Oh come on, give me a chance. Tell me what you mean by, telling her the truth." I said, placing my hoof on her shoulder and watching her turn around.

Nightmare Moon placed her hoof onto my chin and said "Well, it has something to do with you keeping the story back and making it a lie. Once you tell the truth to her, she is going to really disappointed in you for lying to her and she'll hate you for it."

"She will not! She'll forgive me for lying to her!" I shouted, completely in denial for what Nightmare Moon was telling me.

"She's going to be mad… she'll leave you all alone…" Nightmare Moon chanted repeatingly, that got into my brain and I was forced to cover my ears so I couldn't hear her. I could still hear her voice and I was starting to get frightened.

"Leave me alone!" I said, with my frightened state completely taking me over and reliving my nightmares in childhood all over again. The chants continued to dig into me and even I could hear Nightmare Moon laughing. "Please stop! I don't want this!"

There was no escape out of the nightmare, and the darkness of the failed queen was surrounding me with people from my childhood laughing at me and chanting the exact same thing that Nightmare Moon chanted. Even the people from the earlier grades of my elementary school were there, and they were taunting me as well as the school bullies. "Twilight's gonna leave you all alone…" They chanted while laughing.

I kept my ears covered to not hear this, but I could still hear the chanting, even I shut my eyes so I couldn't see what was going on. I couldn't take the taunting anymore and had my focus on the white walls made of white carved bricks. I got up and began running towards it, removing the hands from my ears and getting ready to push it.

My hands were placed onto the bricks when I ran and I could see it tumbling down. Light shone into the white room and began to cover through the darkness that Nightmare Moon spread throughout. Tumbling through the wall, I was falling with the bricks as well. Seeing the light of the outside, I could realize that I was having a nightmare.

"Where do you think you're going, hm?" Nightmare Moon said, trying to poke fun towards me and watching my fall from the room into the unlimited sky of no end. The wind began to blow in my face heavily when I fell from the room and threw myself around to see the room becoming distant in the fast speed that I was falling.

The shadow of Nightmare Moon was flying towards me and she said "Well, you have a fear of falling to your death. Well, I'll make that fear look real!" The shadow was on loom approach to enter my body, but passed by with possessing me.

I flip around to see what she is up to behind me, and I could see land oncoming near the bottom of the sky. "I'm gonna die!" I panicked and shouted. I struggled to try and imagine a parachute bag on me that I could activate, but a force was keeping me from doing so.

At the same time, I could see the moon appearing in the nightmare and could tell by the flash that Princess Luna was entering the dream realm to save me. I kept falling through the sky, and the land below was closely approaching.

I could see the trees approaching fast and the wind began to twist me around so I couldn't see what was happening. Nightmare's laughing was heard faintly while I took my fall, and I was ready to panic when trying to wake up. Moments from hitting the ground, something grabs me and starts flying me to safety. I take a look up to see who it was and could tell by the midnight blue color that it was Princess Luna who took a hold of me.

I climbed carefully onto her back and began to ride as she came face to face with the shadow of her former evil self. "Nightmare Moon, I demand that you leave Brayden's realm of sleep this instant! You are not welcome here!" Princess Luna was shouting in a staredown with Nightmare Moon.

"Ah, Princess Luna… how delightful to see you again. If the Elements of Harmony didn't destroy most of me, you and I together as one could have ruled Equestria and overthrown Princess Celestia!" Nightmare Moon said, in an attempt to persuade Luna to join her again combined.

"Nightmare Moon, stop what you are doing! Think of how long you were banished to the moon!" I shouted to the dark mare. She just shot me a glare and charged up her horn in a way to get ready to attack.

"Never mention my banishment in my presence!" Nightmare Moon shouted angrily before firing a beam of magic towards me and Luna.

Princess Luna fired a beam at Nightmare Moon and said "Be gone Nightmare Moon! Never torment this boy into falling to your deeds!"

Nightmare Moon got hit by the beam in the leg and began falling down silently to the ground she had created. Princess Luna and I kept an eye on her fall and watched her fall limp into the forest ground. Once the dark mare was gone, Princess Luna used her horn to form a platform for the both of us. She landed on her four hooves and closed her wings and I got up off of her.

"Thank Celestia you're alright." Princess Luna said to me sounding very happy to see that I was still alive in my dreams.

I could not think of a simple response, but to approach and give her a hug. I wrapped my hands around the princess of the night and she seemed a bit surprised at first, but wrapped a hoof around my back and both of us shared a gentle friendly hug.

I gently move back from the hug and have my hand on the princess' shoulder when looking at her. "You saved my life Princess Luna… well, in my dreams." I said, relieved.

"I just have to thank myself for entering your dream right on time during the nightmare you went through at the beginning. Did Nightmare Moon say anything to torment you?" Luna asked.

"Well, she told me that if I revealed the truth about me to Twilight, she'll hate me for it." I said, reflecting on what happened.

Princess Luna placed her hoof on my chin and said "Well, if you do tell the truth, I don't think that Princess Twilight will be mad at you. She'll understand."

"I've been… making up lies to her though…" I said, sounding a bit regretful for even lying in the first place.

Princess Luna said "Well, then I can't really help with what happens next when you tell her the truth. This is something that is between you and her, so I cannot risk intervening."

The world around us began to ripple like water and Princess Luna was pulled back by the unknown force again when I first met her and she said "Tell her the truth."

I watched the dream ripple away and Princess Luna absorb back to the moon. The dream began to fall apart and I fall through its invisible walls like water. White was the only color I could see at this point.

---

I slowly began to open my eyes back into reality and could see six different faint colors through my blurred eyes. The vision was clearing quite slowly and the sounds of their voices were growing closer. "Oh, I hope he is alright." I could hear a voice say, telling that it was Rarity.

My vision began to clear and I could see Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie in front of my hospital bed. Their faces are all quite worried about me at the same time, even Twilight had her hoof on my hand and gently rubbing it in hopes that I was alright. I finally took a breath and got up. The girls still had faces of worry, but managed to pull gentle smiles on their faces.

"He's awake." Pinkie Pie said and trotting over to the side of my bed to see me. I felt incredibly tired when I woke up and figured that it must have been the medicine the doctors inserted into the IV to put into consciousness. "Alright Brayden, listen to me carefully. How many hooves am I holding up?" She asked me while holding up only one hoof.

"Pinkie, you're holding up one hoof. But, what are you all doing here?" I asked her and acknowledged the rest of my other friends.

"Well sugarcube, all of us wanted to come n' see how you were holding up since the doctors helped you with your flu," Applejack said. "It's not every day that I see somepony get a hold of it."

Dr. Stable came trotting into the room and approached my bed with the small billboard of my medical records in Ponyville Hospital for the first time. He put his stethoscope into my view and placed it onto my chest. "Breathe." He asked me to do. I inhale most of the air slowly and then exhale what came in out into the free of the room. I repeated this a few more times on each part of my chest that the doctor told me to breathe.

Dr. Stable takes away the stethoscope and looks to Twilight who I could see tapping the back of his shoulder. "Doctor, is he going to be alright?" Twilight asked, have a caring eye on me before looking at Dr. Stable.

"Brayden is going to be fine Princess Twilight. While he was unconscious, our specialized unicorn doctors had placed a medicine into him that could fight off the flu pretty quickly." Dr. Stable said, then turning to look at me. "And by according to his condition, I say that he looks free to go."

I could see Twilight pulling out a pouch full of bits and says "How much do I have to pay you? I mean, I'll do it just to help Brayden out." I made a silent, happy sigh to see that Twilight supporting me.

Dr. Stable just chuckled and said "Well, because he is foreign but different among us, no costs will be necessary Princess."

"Oh." Twilight just simply says, and I turn my eyes to the right of my bed, seeing Pinkie Pie and Rarity offering me their hooves to help me out of bed. I slowly reach with both of my left and right arms and make contact with my hands. I hold on when they help me out of bed.

I felt a bit dizzy when I stand up from getting off the bed. But Pinkie and Rarity managed to catch me and prevent me from falling down. I could see the sunrise from the east in the horizon and could see the whole town of Ponyville alit up-close for the first time in my lifetime. The large mountains kept their shadows short from the rising sun, changing direction with the sunlight streaming through the dark Everfree Forest on such a beautiful sunrise. Only a few tiny clouds could be drifting in the orange colored sky.

I felt soft tapping on my shoulder and I turned my head away from the window, it was Rarity who was tapping for my attention. "Brayden, shall we all take you to breakfast to enlighten you after that incident?" She asks me.

I nodded and said "Sure, Rarity. By the way, you can let go of me now. I don't feel that dizzy anymore." Rarity smiled and she let go, including Pinkie.

I began to walk slowly with the girls to ease myself from the medicine that the unicorns gave me. "The special magic unicorns have." I thought to myself with a smile and continued walking with my six other friends.

---

The walk out of the Ponyville Hospital was fine. A few times I kept thinking I was going to fall, but thankfully Twilight and Fluttershy was there beside me to keep my balance. I kept my look on Twilight and she was looking at me, I just gazed at her for a few moments to show my appreciation that she could be by my side to have her help me, but at the same time… I still was nervous inside and would have to wait until the right moment to tell her my feelings.

I could feel the dirt path below my feet on our way towards the town of Ponyville. The sun continued to slowly rise over the eastern horizon. In my mind, I kept my thoughts on whether I should just tell the truth to her and the rest of his new friends about where I come from. I just could think of what their reaction would be if I told them the truth. Either Princess Luna will be right or Nightmare Moon proved to me that she was right and was telling me what would happen all along when Twilight heard the words come out of my mouth. I couldn't focus on that right at the moment, but I knew the girls were probably taking me to Sugarcube Corner for breakfast. I'd probably tell them the truth right there.

I walk into town behind the girls and could everypony waving at me in greeting with their right hooves. I couldn't help myself but wave back in greeting them as well. They all must have heard about the 'incident' when I fainted at Twilight's home.

"Come on Brayden!" Twilight calls back to me cheerfully, and I follow along, walking up next to her.

I gently place my left hand around her soft neck gently and caring. I put my other hand around Fluttershy's and walked between the two of my favorite ponies. Twilight giggles and says "You always seem to be that gentle, Brayden… and really sweet no doubt."

A light blush comes across my face and Twilight's giggling once again since she noticed the blush on my face. Rarity intervened and said "Well, we all know by now that this darling here is very special among us, and quite a gentlecolt."

"You both are making me blush." I said, with a soft laugh and a happy smile on my face.

"Well Brayden, we appreciate you for what you are, being always seemingly brightful and happy. And it makes my day even 20% better!" Pinkie Pie said, nudging me softly and playfully.

"That's my line!" Rainbow Dash says in response to Pinkie's 20% better comment. I chuckled softly and remembered the '20% Cooler' line that every brony back on Earth seemed to know.

"Well, your job is to make everypony smile, isn't it?" I said to Pinkie Pie in quite happy reason.

Pinkie Pie said "Well of course, without smiles we'd all be living in complete sadness and that would be a very boring place to live in. I'm just lucky that you didn't grow up on a rock farm like I did."

Of course what she said was true. Living on a rock farm would be pretty boring, it was already lucky for that I grew up in a regular house back on Earth since I was a newborn baby. But I couldn't exactly reflect back on the past to when I was a newborn to infant.

Pinkie Pie does remind me of me when I was younger, being all hyper and wanting to have the most friends. But it all didn't seem to turn out well since the friendships I made back on Earth grew cold and distant, leading me away from them. I became a little bit shy and socially awkward during my middle school days and made very few friends, which did grow short and distant after a year.

I could see the Sugarcube Corner down the street while walking quite peacefully with the other girls and the unicorn Lyra seemed to be approaching me with quite a sad glum look on her face. I stop between the outside of Sugarcube Corner to say hello to the first pony in town that had greeted me pretty awkwardly.

"Hello Lyra." I greeted her to see why she looked so glum. I did expect a bit of 'I'm not in the mood', but what I did not see coming was her wrapping her hooves around me in a hug. I gently hugged her back and in a friendly way, was stroking her mane gently. "Lyra, what's wrong?" I gently said, wondering why she looked sad. I could even feel the tear drops that came down from her eyes land on my shoulders.

"I was so worried about you when you fainted. Please promise me that you'll never faint again. I couldn't even sleep." Lyra said to me with a bit of sniffling.

I slowly let go of the hug and look into Lyra's brilliant gamboge eyes. I had placed my hoof on her shoulder and kept my look at her, with my other hand drying the tear stains from her eyes. "Lyra, I can't guarantee that I won't faint next time. It could be unexpected when it happens. But I promise you that I'll do everything I can to prevent myself from fainting." I calmly said to her. I even made the hand gestures of making a Pinkie Promise to her.

"By the way, before you go with the rest of your friends… can I touch your hands again?" Lyra asked me. I answered her question with a simple nod and placed my hands onto both of her hooves. She held onto them for a few seconds and then said "Well, that's all. I really need to catch up on my human project."

She trotted by me waving goodbye and I waved back in response. "Brayden! Come on!" Rainbow Dash shouted to me, sounding a bit bored of watching me and Lyra do a brief talk.

"Coming!" I shouted, running over back to the girls. The girls seemed to look quite happy.

"Brayden, Ah didn't know that ya could cheer an innocent pony like that." Applejack said, giving me a pat on the back.

"I had to do that. I couldn't just let her remain that sad." I said, sounding quite confessing.

Me and the girls came towards the wooden steps of Sugarcube Corner and could see the stable-like doors and had an idea. "I'll open the doors for you girls." I said, walking up the two steps and holding open the wooden stable-like doors.

"My, what a gentlecolt." Rarity said, trotting past me first. I smiled at Rarity's comment and helped to let the other girls in, with Twilight being the last. I close the doors behind the girls and enter into the room.

Mrs. Cake trotted in from the kitchen with a fresh batch of whole wheat bagels on her head, balancing it and saying "Morning girls. Oh, good morning to you as well Brayden, I wasn't expecting you to come in since I heard that you got the flu."

"Oh yeah, about that… it was quite dizzy." I said, scratching the back of my head.

"Well anyways, I've got fresh hot bagels out of the oven for breakfast. I'm just about stacking them into the glass counter." Mrs. Cake said, placing the tray of fresh bagels into the counter. The smell of bagels in the morning at the right time just about filled my mouth with a little bit of saliva.

"Ah, we were just about to have breakfast." Pinkie Pie said, pulling out a couple of bits for me and the rest of the girls.

Mrs. Cake said "Well, if you say so. One for each of you." She watched Pinkie place the golden bits onto the counter and Mrs. Cake took them and opened up the register, placing the small loonie like bits into the machine and closing it gently. I watched her move underneath the glass counter and reach for seven bagels, one for each of my six friends and one for me. She grabs the bagels and places them each into a bag.

Being a gentleman to my friends, I let them grab their bagels first and then I took the bag with my bagel in it last. "Enjoy your breakfast, Brayden." Mrs. Cake said to me.

"I will." I nodded and said, walking over to the table to join my other friends. There was an open seat next to Twilight, so I called to have the chair as my seat silently and sat down on the wooden chair. I could see most of my friends eating their bagel, with Rarity eating as a respected lady as I could always see of her when it came to drinking tea. Everypony else just ate differently, so I just ate how I usually ate. Keeping the food in my mouth and not talking.

"Did you girls manage to take care of the fire ant problem that Zecora was having?" I asked, taking out my bagel and finally biting into it.

"Yes Brayden, we did. Those fire ants did not like our sudden welcome to their nest, but luckily good Fluttershy managed to talk to them and told them that Zecora needed those plants for her alchemy. But at first, they did not take it too well." Twilight said, looking at me.

"Oh my. I hope you girls weren't hurt." I said, a bit surprised by the story.

Rainbow Dash raised her arms and said "Well, we managed to take those fire ants out one by one!" She seemed like she had attacked them.

"No we didn't Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy asked if we could talk to the fire ant queen." Applejack said, giving a stern look at Rainbow Dash after her joking.

"And what did she look like? It must have been the same kind of ant, but bigger!" I said, listening in on the story.

"Well, yes Brayden. And she wondered why we disturbed her during her nesting stages. Fluttershy talked to her about how Zecora, the zebra didn't want to lose her plants she needed and convinced the queen and her drones with 'The Stare' to move out of the nest." Twilight said, pointing to Fluttershy and sounding quite proud of her.

"You did good Fluttershy." I said to the yellow Pegasus and she smiles with the 'squee' sound heard. I smiled back and got back to eating my bagel.

While I ate my bagel, I begin to think about telling the truth in front of Twilight and the rest of my five friends. But at the same time, something keeps telling me that if I do, horrible consequences will happen. I looked very troubled by this decision and was kept in my thoughts for this few moments.

"Brayden, is everything alright?" Twilight asked, seeing my face of feeling troubled at this decision.

I snap out of my thoughts quickly to listen to Twilight and what she said, and I placed my hand onto her soft hoof. "It's… well. It's…"

The rest of my friends began to lean forward to focus on what was going to happen, whether it was me going to tell Twilight that I had a crush on her or something completely different. "It's hard to explain, but it's something that has been bothering me since I first met you girls."

"Well, what is it you want to tell us? You just have to speak out." Applejack asked, sounding like she was about to find out something through the lies I made.

I looked at all the six of my friends and just made a sigh of giving up and beginning to confess. "You see…" I was able to get out until I heard Pinkie Pie do a very loud breath in. I remembered now in Equestria Girls that she told everything about Twilight when she came into the alternate world and the same thing happened at the end of the movie. She was about to release every detail about me coming to Equestria.

"You're from another world called Earth that has your kind and Princess Luna came and took you from when you were on the verge of being killed by a group of bikers who wanted you dead for a small little mistake you did to their leader's motorcycle. When you ended up here, you never knew it was Princess Luna who saved you the whole time, and sent you here for a special purpose to learn that friendship is magic even though you know about already since you watch something with us on moving pictures that are us in your world according to the humans known as 'bronies' who live in the same world as you. And Princess Luna thought you were worthy of living in Equestria for some reason even though you wish it was someone else from that world that could've been here at first, but she picked you since she saw how kind you were through her eyes and felt bad about your gift born with you and took you here to stay." Pinkie Pie managed to say without even stopping to take a breath and finally started to catch her breath.

My mouth was wide open along with the other girls who were unbelievably shocked about the news that Pinkie released about me that were actually true. I couldn't believe it, I was about to tell the truth and somehow Pinkie just released the facts about me that quickly. "She knows everything." I thought to myself in amazement.

"You're from another world?" Rarity said, sounding quite excited.

Fluttershy said "Wow. I didn't know that you liked us all this time when you were in that world," She got off her chair and trotted over to me and started giving me a rub on the back. "I'm so proud of you for telling us the truth."

Applejack got out of her seat and trotted over to my other side between me and Twilight and looked at me, saying "Well, Ah could tell ya were hiding something and now it's all out. You have nothing to be ashamed about."

Rainbow Dash still had her mouth wide open and finally she said "From another world distant from ours? That… is… SO AWESOME!" I smiled at bit when she said the trademark 'so awesome' line in front of me. She of course makes a 'squee' sound.

I turned to look at Twilight, and she seemed to be shooting me some sort of look that could tell she was probably disappointed in me for lying to her. My fear inside of course started to get the best of me. "Excuse me girls, but me and Brayden have to go outside to talk alone, just the two of us." Twilight said to her friends and her voice sounded a bit stern and disappointed. I slowly get up off my chair and Twilight gets up off of hers and both me and her start to walk out of the room.

I let Twilight out first since she was a female and I had respect for them to be treated fairly. I take a look back at my other friends and back how Twilight spoke out, they seemed to be a bit worried about what would happen outside between me and her. I could swear that I heard Pinkie say "Uh oh…" when I opened the swinging stable-like wooden doors and went past them.

I could see the mulberry colored Twilight sitting on the wooden steps, with both of her hooves on the bottom of her chin and her wings closed. I could tell that I must have set her off. I move a bit forward and lower myself down to sit down beside Twilight, but not close to her. I could hear her sigh a bit and she turns to look at me with a mild stern face.

"Brayden, I can't believe that you would do something like that and just lie to me about where you came from. Why didn't you just tell me right away when you first met me?" She asked me and sounded a bit mad at me.

"Twilight, I…" I struggled and managed to get out, but the rest of the words were hard to push out. In fact, I didn't know what to say to her since I did like her in 'that way'. But she clearly seemed angry with me. "I wanted to, but…"

"But you had to lie that you had come from the Everfree Forest and not Earth. I am very disappointed in you Brayden, and I think you know much better than to lie to other friends." Twilight said, seeming a have a bit of a glare of truth in her eyes.

I sighed softly and looked to her. "I'm sorry." I said, and I sounded very hurt just like when someone back on Earth made fun of me and constantly threw every insult at me to get me to cry.

"Well, I'm not ready to accept your apology Brayden. I want you to think about your mistake of lying to me. Give it some thought… but don't come up to me until you've thought about what you've done completely through," Twilight said, and then finally moved up, standing on her four hooves once again. "Now, if you'll excuse me… I have to finish my morning bagel."

I turned to watch her enter the Sugarcube Corner and the swinging doors just swung a bit after she came into the building and I just sat there with both my hands on the sides of my face. "Twilight's mad at me…" I thought to myself, and finally a moment of realization struck me and tears started to form in my eyes. "Twilight… hates me."

I could swear while the tears formed in my eyes that I could faintly hear the laughing of Nightmare Moon. It was the kind of laughing that told me "I told you that she would hate you for telling the truth." Nightmare Moon was right all along, and I only believed in it slightly.

I get up off the wooden stairs and begin running with the tears streaming down from my eyes. I don't care where I was running off to, all that I knew was that the pain of Twilight being mad at me had affected me and knew she had rejected me in the way of being disappointed.

This had been the first time that I had ever cried in Equestria and everypony who saw me was about to greet me at first when they saw the tears on my face and the soft crying I did and they all were starting to wonder if I was alright. I could only just run with the bare feet now touching the rocky tiles and the speed I was acceding had gone past a few known faces in Ponyville that I knew.

"Are you okay, Brayden?" I could hear Scootaloo saying when she was riding her scooter. I looked down with tears and I sobbingly said "No." but with the volume of my voice being much louder. I ran off past Scootaloo, and couldn't control my sobbing.

"Wait, Brayden! Come back!" Scootaloo called out to me, but I probably by now had run a couple of paths out of town. I could hear the echoes of Scootaloo's call from afar, but it was too late to turn back now.

My feet started to grow tired from running and I began to slow down a pace with the tears continuing to go down of my face. My running would slow entirely to the point when I was just only walking slowly, but sadly. I never even bothered to raise my head to look back at Ponyville becoming distant. I could see a small clear blue pond by me that I started to walk over to.

I looked at my reflection in the pond and could see myself looking very sad. But I could also see the pond start to change and it seemed to show the hopes that I had been expecting between me and Twilight the whole time. It seemed to be a moving image in my head of me and her hugging warmly in a dance and me kissing her cheek gently. A teardrop from my eyes poured itself onto the image and the ripple caused the image to disappear and show me being sad once again.

Just like back on Earth, I was going to be really lonely here and I could feel it coming onto me like it was a nightmare that was changed from a happy innocent dream. I closed my eyes and tried to wake up, but remembering that Princess Luna placed me here, I gave up entirely.

"Brayden! Wait!" I could hear the voice of Pinkie Pie calling me. I turn around and could see her, Rainbow Dash and Rarity galloping from the town to see me and try to cheer me up probably. "Don't go!"

I just lower my head and said "It's too late though… Twilight hates me." I sounded very hurt when I said this and Rarity trotted up to me and placed her hoof on my shoulder in worry.

"Don't talk like that Brayden! She doesn't hate you," Rarity said. "In fact, Applejack and Fluttershy stayed behind to talk to her about you."

Rainbow Dash landed beside me and placed her hoof onto my hand. I looked at Rainbow Dash and she had a look that she had felt bad for me. "When you ran off, we all became so worried. We had to come after you to talk to you about what happened. Please Brayden. Tell us… we're all your best friends, but to me…" Rainbow Dash said, sounding like she was trying to do her best. "Well… I'd consider you my best friend and I care about you. In fact, all of us do care about your safety."

"Please just leave me alone." I said sadly and gently pushed Rainbow's hoof away from my hand. I continue walking down the path and I could hear Rainbow Dash saying "Poor Brayden." when I was walking away from them. I kept walking on the dirt path.

"Brayden, please… don't leave." Pinkie said when I kept walking. I tried to look at her, but I didn't have anything more to say. I just continued to walk for some time and by the time I had realized I was far away, I was right in front of entering the Everfree Forest.

I could see a small river flowing out by its side near the entrance and walked to the side to reach the small river. The river looked quiet and calm with very little rushing in the water. The occasional water snake did glide slowly across the calm water and twisting its little head to see what was around. It was only me who was approaching the river. I take a step back and hop over the river and hoping to not get wet, only my feet get wet when I made the jump and I look at the lone rock by the river.

"I… cannot believe this. I thought Twilight was too forgiving to be disappointed in me. She's going to wish that I never came to Equestria in the first place and send me into the depths of the badlands." I said softly. "I know what I could do to escape this… I'll just live in the Everfree Forest. None of my friends would dare to find me in there and I can live alone like I've always been. I'll go away."

I sat down on the rock with the tears still coming down my eyes, I wasn't really sobbing anymore but I felt lonely and sad. Out of my head, I could see a figure coming out of the forest that looked like a unicorn mare.

Out of the Everfree Forest was the figment of my imagination. It was none other than Nightmare Moon herself with the wings that I didn't seem to notice. Her eyes were in slits when she looked at me and she seemed quite stern. I thought she loved it in night time, so it was surprisingly to see that figment appear in daylight.

When she opened her mouth and spoke, it was in my own voice. "I told you and told you that Twilight was going to hate you for telling her the truth. I even spoke what happened if you did tell her and I was right all this time, but you had to listen to Princess Luna, didn't you?"

"Because I've always trusted Princess Luna when I first came here." I said to defend myself from Nightmare Moon.

"You never even tried to keep lying," she went on in my voice. "She's been respecting you since you first came to Ponyville and now that you've told the truth, she'll hate you now. Why, if she had the biggest amount of crushing on somepony… she'd give it to another lucky stallion worth her time."

"I know, but…" I said, but the figment of Nightmare Moon raised her hoof to silence me.

"All this time she could have continued to learn about everything and live the good life of a princess worthy to Princess Celestia. But no, that's when you came in and had to disappoint her," Nightmare Moon continued. "She had to be friends with you and you had to have a crush on her."

I stood up and said "You know what Nightmare Moon? You were right this whole time! But it is too late for Twilight to forgive me. I… think I'll enter the Everfree Forest and never come back."

"Go right ahead! Twilight will live the better life without you to bother her and lie to her." Nightmare Moon scolded with my voice. "But you'll never enter though, you'll just stay and keep irritating her until your day's end has come."

"Oh really?" I said, walking towards the Everfree Forest. I knew it was probably my gift fooling with me, but I knew how to outcome it sometimes. "Well, I'm going in. Twilight will never need to be bothered by me ever again!" I shouted to the figment, causing it to disappear out of my sight.

I take a look at the long stretch of dangerous forest and look by its sides. Fluttershy did prove one thing about finding me here and I started here, so that meant I could live here. I could hear voices calling my name to my right and hid behind one of the trees and poked my head around to see four ponies that I knew looking for me. It was Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. Each of them called out my name and I continued watching until they came galloping back to Ponyville.

I somehow felt a little bad and took a look into the Everfree Forest. It looked dark inside and uncomfortable to live in, but it would do. I took my final look at the distant windmill of Ponyville. "Goodbye cruel world." was the only three words to slip out of my mouth before I walked right into the dangerous forest.

I never once turned back.

A/N: Alright, this one will be a little more short in general. But the next chapter should be very promising.

XXXGHOSTXXX123: Well don't worry, the character is still alive.

Brayden: ...I see. Well, glad you're enjoying the story as well.

---

The forest looked dark and had the hidden feeling that nopony had ever bothered to clean it up after a possible hundred. I could feel the wet dirt below my bare feet when I moved forward through the wooded area. My eyes could only look at what was ahead of me.

The occasional bird would come out flying through the forest to search for worms probably digging under the ground. My eyes kept focus on the certain robin that pecked at the ground making tiny holes into the dirt. It sometimes twisted its head towards me to watch me for a few moments and then poked a hole into the ground to pull out the slimy worm. I watched the worm squirm around in the robin's beaked mouth. The worm struggled to break free from the robin's grasp, but stopped moving altogether in a few moments. The robin began flapping its wings and flew past me through the trees. It was probably going to feed its offspring with the worm.

Ahead from where the bird flew, I could see a quiet little green pond ahead from the small shrubs and with very little light from the sun shining onto the medium sized rock. My feet trample a bit on the grass when I walk over to the lone rock sitting all by itself close to the pond's dry sands. The feeling of the sand was quite a relief after walking for hours in the wet forest grounds. I could use a bit of a break from all the walking as well.

I lower my back down towards the stone and gently place my head down on the top of the stone, my legs are given rest on the dry sand. I could only look up through the trees into the clear blue sky. Sounds of nature and the frogs by the pond could be heard in the distance in my own silence. A thought of the past where spewing into my head like crazy, and all I could only do was sit there and watch it replay over again. This of course, brought me into a flashback when I was on Earth.

---

Earth, May 2012

I am sitting on a bench in the doctor's office waiting to be called. The walls in the waiting room are in the colour of peach. A couple of patients are there, probably in the same position I'm in to talk to the doctor about my problems in life. A nurse at the desk just stacks some papers together and continues to sign what I assume was medical records for every patient.

A teenage girl probably in the age of 17, a year younger than me passes by me and proceeds to take her seat next to me on the bench. Her hair is coloured brown and she is wearing a short-sleeved yellow dress. She seems to be looking down at her own hands. I turn my head a little bit to face her, but to not grab her attention. I really wanted to see what was in her hands. I did see a glimpse of what she was holding in her hands.

It was a plushie of Fluttershy that she was looking down at. It also looked new as well with the eyes patched on right. If I could recall, Season 2 just finished last month in late-April with A Canterlot Wedding. "Fluttershy?" My voice slipped, grabbing her attention and she turned to look at me with her blue eyes.

"Yeah…" She said in a bit of a shy and quiet voice. I could tell that this girl was probably shy around the others that tried to communicate with her. I moved a little bit closer to her and decided that it would be wise to try and make friends with her, seeing how I like talking to people.

"You know, Fluttershy happens to be my second favorite pony on the show. Well, Twilight does happen to be my favorite pony." I said, looking at when she looked down at her plushie of the yellow pegasus I knew in the show.

The teenage girl raised her head and said "Umm, that's… nice… Fluttershy is my favorite… though." She had a look on her face that she was nervous of talking to me.

"I mean, did you see how she took care of that cockatrice in the episode when she was babysitting all three of the Cutie Mark Crusaders." I said, putting a smile on my face in hopes of having this girl talk to me.

"And she… had that cute squee in the episode." The girl said to me and I could swear that our hands were close to touching one another. She had a shy and small smile on her face.

I decided that it would be a good time to introduce myself to her. "I forgot to tell you who I was, my name is Brayden," I said, opening my right hand to see if she'll shake my hand. "What's your name?"

The shy girl looked down at her feet shyly and shuffled them together. "My… my name is… Ann." The girl says in her quiet voice.

"Ann is a beautiful name and it fits you well. If an angel were given that name, most people would look at you and think you're a blooming, lovely rose." I complimented and placed my hand on her shoulder since she was too shy to shake my hand. She looks up at me and her cheeks are as pink with a smile. I managed to flirt with her in a good way.

"Well, if… if you're wondering why I'm here in the doctor's office for an appointment… it's because I want to talk about my trouble at school." Ann told me quietly.

I was beginning to suspect that her quietness was probably because she was possibly being bullied at school for being a pegasister. "Why, are you being bullied?" I asked with a tone of concern and caring for the girl in a friendly way.

"Well, I've… been bullied since I was a little girl because… I have a small disability of being Bipolar." The girl said sounding a bit sad.

"Bipolar? I'm so sorry to hear that Ann." I said to her, taking her hand and holding onto it gently. The girl looked down at my hand and seemed to be blushing again.

"Well, I did find the show that you also watch that helped me out over my depression of being teased… but I fear that if everyone at my school figured out that I was a pegasister, they'd tease me more for it." The girl said, sounding a bit worried.

"Ann, you don't have to worry. I was in the same situation you were in when I first watched the show. And I eventually let out the truth that I was a brony. So there's nothing to be afraid of." I said, gently rubbing her hand that I was holding.

"Brayden?" A voice said behind me, I turned away from Ann to see a nurse standing a few feet from me. "Dr. Herbert is ready to talk to you."

I knew I was probably never going to see Ann again after this chat with the doctor and I let go of her soft hand and said "Goodbye Ann."

Ann looked at me and said "Bye." The farewell seemed to be in the tone of a crossed whisper and normal talking. I turn away from Ann and follow the nurse towards the hallway full of the rooms that had doctors filled with patients.

I followed the nurse down the hall towards the door at the end that had 'Dr. Herbert' placed onto the door. The nurse turned the silver handle on the right side of the door and pushed it open. "Come in." I heard a calm voice say. I walk steadily into the room and could see my doctor on a single chair.

"Good afternoon Brayden," Dr. Herbert greets me and sits back in his comfy chair. "I only have a short time to spend with you as I need to take a bit of lunch break according to my schedule, but I'm sure that'll be enough time for you to tell me your problems."

I walked over to the couch close by to where the doctor was sitting and lowered my back and sat down onto the leather couch. "Now, what are your problems Brayden? I can help you with the good advice I can give." Dr. Herbert said, taking out a pen with a sheet of paper, ready to write about my problems.

I sighed and held both my hands together when I looked at Dr. Herbert. "Well doc, it's all about my friends. It's just that I keep feeling that I am abandoning them over a show that I watch and a video game that I play at home."

"What is this show and video game?" Dr. Herbert asks.

"Well, for the video game, it's The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim… the show is My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic." I said, watching him write down the details.

"I see… and why do you like My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic?" The doctor asked, looking up at me from writing.

"Well, the reason I watch the show is because it's beyond what others would expect from the show, it's funny, has a great storyline and has adorable characters you can love," I said just looking down at the carpet on the ground. "But a few of my own friends don't approve of me watching the show and thinks that it's for little girls."

"Isn't the show for little girls though?" Dr. Herbert said.

"I knew you'd say that, doc. It's more than just a little kids' show. When Lauren Faust made it, she said that the target audience was for everyone to watch." I said, now looking up at the doctor. "I've just been keeping it secret since I watched it in December and nobody knew at the time."

The doctor wrote down the detail and said "Well, it seems like you are having a rough time with your friends over that show. But I do suggest that you keep it easy on them and try not to force them into watching the show."

"Well doc, they'll always bring it up and pretend that they're trying to kill my favorite characters just to set off my anger towards them. But something I did learn was to Love and Tolerate, the more I ignore their hate towards the show, the sooner they'll forget it even existed." I said, sitting up a bit on the couch.

"That's a pretty good idea." Dr. Herbert suggested, after writing down the last detail of advice on the piece of paper, he hands it to me to look over. "Here, this is your advice for the problem you have. I sure do hope that it works out."

---

I could hear a roar in the forest that interrupted the flashback I was having and snapped out of it to see what it was making that noise. I turn to the right to the location of the sound and keep an eye on that location. A few yellow eyes was seen in the forest and I got up off from resting on the rock and moved forward with my feet touching the wet forest floor once again. The few yellow eyes started to get closer and I could see the resembling of the eyes that looked so familiar. Timberwolves.

The few yellow eyes jumped out of their visible hiding spot and there was five Timberwolves surrounding me with their eyes fixed upon me. All of their mouths were snarling and drooling now that they saw me as their lunch of the day. "Why did I have to run off from Ponyville in the first place?" I said, standing still in hopes of them not eating me and regretting that I left after disappointing Twilight.

The timberwolf leader growled and roared at me which was a sign that he told the pack to pursue me. The four other timberwolves jumped up and tried to pounce onto me of pinning me down. Luckily, I found an open spot under one of the timberwolves to roll quickly under before they could snatch me.

I rolled under the third timberwolf pouncing towards me and I began to run once again, but this time it wasn't because I was upset, but because it was to try and save my life. The timberwolves began to take pursue and I was running a bit faster than them since I decided to pick up the pace and just sprint.

I continued to sprint and my breathing was starting to pick up and my legs starting to grow tired once again. I did keep running through the forest and would occasionally look back to see if I lost the timberwolves. There was no luck for me… they kept chasing me in pursuit. "Well, I'm not going to become your lunch, buddies!" I shouted and stuck out my tongue at them. The front of my body hit something, causing me to stop and recover briefly.

It was a rock wall that I had bumped into. With no way up to the ledge, I decided to go right. Two of the timberwolves cornered me and covered me off from even escaping over there. The other two timberwolves covered off the entire left side as well, trapping me.

I watched the leader of the pack start to approach me with its wooden jaw snarling at me. "What's the point of running now?" I said, and rose up my hands, forming them into fists and got ready to fight the leader. I ran forward and threw a punch towards the leader, hitting his hard face. This did not seem to affect the timberwolf though and he was even angrier than I had expected.

"Bad idea." I said, after hearing him growl louder. The timberwolf pulled back its front left claw and threw it towards my right arm, scratching my skin straight like someone jabbed a knife into me. I make a grunt of pain and take a look at my arm. It starts to slowly bleed and drip onto the forest ground. I place my left hand on the injury to cover it as the scent of blood could attract more timberwolves to the area. The timberwolf moves its head back and throws it forward, pushing me towards the rock wall with force and causing my back to hit it.

I'm on the forest ground, still keeping my eye on the leader approaching me while I crawl backwards towards the wall. The others start to approach and surround me as well. My breathing becomes extreme and I'm breathing faster because I knew what was going to happen now. Death.

The timberwolf leader begins to sniff me at first while I breathe hard, finally it starts to growl at me and opens its mouth with a roar when its head descends down towards me. The sound of a beam hitting the right side of its face catches my attention, and I open my eyes to see the light violet beam hitting it and knocking it backwards.

A pair of hooves lands on the ground in front of me and I could recognize the color of the coat being a mulberry colour and the colour of the mane and tail. It was Princess Twilight in front of me facing the timberwolves. Had she come to save me? I continued to think that she was mad though.

"Listen here timberwolves; if you hurt Brayden here, you hurt me and the rest of his friends!" Twilight shouted to the snarling wood creatures, now focused on her as their lunch. She flapped her wings and flew up into the air, firing a few beams at the timberwolves. The timberwolves backed up a bit when she fired the beams of magic towards them.

I started to struggle my body to get up and try to help Twilight fight the monsters. But the pain in my right arm and the blood coming out of the injury prevented me from moving a few inches. I only heard Twilight's magic fighting off the wolves and the roaring that the wolves made. "Brayden!" I heard a soft voice cry out and I turned to see who it was.

The soft voice that I knew belonged to Fluttershy and she was flapping her wings down from the sky and lowering down to see me. I kept watching Twilight fighting off the timberwolves. After a bit of time of having Fluttershy watch over me and the fighting, the timberwolves did eventually run off scared to find more food in the Everfree Forest. Twilight took a sigh of relief and turned to me and gasped in worry from the condition I was in.

With me losing blood from my arm, I started to feel really weak and I couldn't really move it as well. "Brayden! You're… well, bleeding!" Twilight flew down and said, trying to get my attention. The injury made me far too dazed to respond back to Twilight. "Fluttershy, we've got to do something! If we don't, he'll die!"

Fluttershy took my left hand and said "You're right, we'll both carry him to your home and we can take care of him." I watched Fluttershy grab a hold of my other hand that had my injury and struggled to pick me up, only raising my upper body.

"Fluttershy, wait!" Twilight said, and I could feel her soft hooves go underneath my back. "I'll carry him. I worry about his condition more."

I begin to feel like I'm being lifted off the ground with me looking at Twilight and Fluttershy's wings are heard flapping. I can see Twilight flapping her wings and pushing forward to fly straight back towards Ponyville.

Twilight just saved my life. I just continued to look at her dazed and blankly from the Timberwolf's scratch and did not know if the scratch that the timberwolf leader gave me would be poisonous. But another thought crossed me, what if Twilight was still mad at me for lying to her this morning? I just hoped not and would know if she forgiven me by now.

The sun was shining through her beautiful mane that flowed in the soft wind that blew silently. Her eyes just looked straight ahead towards the town of Ponyville upcoming. I slowly turned my head and could see all of the ponies down below me, looking up into the air and seeing me in Twilight's hooves. At first they seem happy but seeing the condition I was in, they started to worry.

Twilight began to fly lower to the ground and flapped her wings fast when her hooves touched down on the ground. She places one hoof around me to help me, and carries me to her door and her magic opens the door. "Spike!" She calls with Fluttershy landing on her hooves behind me.

"Yes Twilight? Whoa! Is Brayden alright?" Spike said, approaching me when he sees the bloody injury on my right arm. He carefully puts his dragon claw around me and starts helping Twilight to carry me up the stairs to her bedroom.

"Spike, Brayden was attacked by timberwolves in the Everfree Forest. The scratch that the timberwolf leader gave him is poisonous. If we don't give him the medicine to treat it, he will die." Twilight said, sounding extremely worried about me.

I could see her bedroom with the other books on the shelf below where she slept. "Oh great, more stairs." I thought to myself when I saw another set of steps to go right up to where Twilight slept at night.

My feet moved across the stairs, softly hitting where each step would take me. The bed seemed quite as how I depicted it to be when I saw the show back on Earth. I felt myself being slowly turned around and could feel a warm sensation lift me away from Twilight. She was using her magic to place me onto her soft bed with the mattress on top feeling fresh when it came out of the laundry.

I watched Twilight turn to both Spike and Fluttershy, saying "Spike, Fluttershy, go and find me the medicine and the book on the poison that Timberwolf scratches have." They both nodded and began galloping down the stairs to search for the items required.

My eyes could see Twilight turning back around to face me and she trotted closer to me and placed her right hoof onto the side of my face. "It's all going to be okay Brayden. I'm here to help you." She says to me in a calm and worried tone. I try to say something, but the poison that the timberwolf probably had kept me from doing so. A surprise came to me when Twilight moved her head towards me and gave me a gentle nuzzle on the side of my face to show that she probably did care for me after all.

Fluttershy's hooves were heard galloping up the stairs. I watched her come up and hand Twilight a small green book. Twilight opened the book with her magic and scrolled until she found out what the symptoms for the poison were, and the cure.

"According to this book, when an individual is scratched by the claws of a Timberwolf or its leader of the pack… the poison itself causes others to barely move, sometimes paralysation. Other symptoms include immense pain, trouble in the blood stream that could reach the heart within a matter of 5 to 10 hours and eventually lead to death." Twilight read, still sounding worried. Fluttershy gasped loudly at the news of the symptoms.

Twilight began to look at the cure's notes. "But in order to cure it, we must first off get ourselves the medicine which is a herb to cure most poison. Aloe Vera." She read, seeing Spike come up the steps of the stairs with the medicine made from that plant. "Ah, here's the medicine."

Spike opened up the small bottle and placed it towards Fluttershy's hooves. The small gel came crawling out of the bottle and onto her hooves. She looked at my right arm and said "Twilight, you might want to hold onto his hand."

Twilight placed her soft, comfortable hoof onto my left hand and she looked into my eyes and said "This is going to sting a bit Brayden." I watched Fluttershy come forward with the Aloe Vera gel and her hooves came forward toward my right arm and placed the gel towards the bloody scratch.

I shouted in pain once I realized how painful the sting was during its curing sequence. Fluttershy flinched briefly when I screamed and continued to rub the medicine into my injury. Twilight kept holding onto my hand and she still looked worried about me. "Spike, do you have the bandage ready?" Twilight says, still watching me.

"Yes! I'll wrap it once Fluttershy is done." Spike said, holding onto the white bandage.

Fluttershy moved her hooves around my right arm, covering the gel all over where I was scratched. She finally let go from rubbing in the medicine and dipped her yellow hooves into the water. Once cleaned, she patted me on the head. "There you go Brayden. That wasn't so bad, was it?" She says to me, gently rubbing my head.

"Yeah, it wasn't too bad, but still stung." I said, looking at Fluttershy.

I then looked at Twilight and gently took a hold of her hoof on my hand and started to hold it. "You saved my life Twilight." I said, sounding calm and relieved.

"I know…" She said, moving her face towards me and sharing a gentle friendly nuzzle with me.

"But… I thought you hated me Twilight." I said, still sounding a bit down after what she said to me this morning.

Twilight kept her nuzzle and said "Oh Brayden, I could never hate you. I was only disappointed in you for not telling me the truth."

I gently placed my left hand onto her soft and silky mane and began to stroke it gently. I turned my head towards Fluttershy and she seemed to be mouthing a word to me that I couldn't make out first. By the movement of her mouth, I finally recognized that she was meaning "Tell her" as in telling Twilight that I had a crush on her.

"Hold still Brayden, I'm going to put the bandage on your arm." Spike said, hopping onto the bed and placing the white starting point of the bandage onto the top of my injury and wrapped it all the way down to the bottom of the scratch. I kept watching to see him wrap it back up to keep the blood from spilling out past the bandage.

"Brayden, you've got to get some rest now to help cure the wound. But don't worry, we'll talk again later this evening." Twilight promised me, taking my hoof. I take a look at Fluttershy and she mouths that it's all okay and knows I'll tell her soon enough.

I finally lay back and slowly begin to close my eyes. The image of Twilight, Fluttershy and Spike begins to blur when I start closing my eyes and I relaxed back, just listening to the sound of their hooves drift off distant. I finally began to rest and promised myself to wake up close to evening.

I wasn't going to miss tonight.

A/N: Alright, just in time for Valentine's Day, I give you the next chapter. Well, for Valentine's Day I would prefer to call it Forever Alone Day. It's just simply to remind of how I'll never be able to have a girlfriend even though everybody tells me that even though the holiday is love-related, it's also about friendship. But I however still have some respect for the holiday. I'll continue to call it "Forever Alone Day" since it's my own opinion on what I think of the holiday. Alright, now that I got that out of my system, review response time!

XXXGHOSTXXX123: Ha, gotcha there didn't I?

Owldusk: Thank you for the comment. If I have time, I'll check out the story.

Summer time 10101: More? You got it! Another chapter just for you!

godzillafan1: Indeed he does in this chapter. Nightmare Moon returning? That is less likely to happen since only that fraction of her remains to make dreams into nightmares. I'm still going to keep it as a possible answer that Nightmare Moon may or may not return. But I am also thinking of getting the changelings involved at one point later on in the story, I'm not going to tell when since it'll be a surprise.

P.S. In others news, I've seen the episodes "Pinkie Pride" and "Simple Ways". I thought Pinkie Pride was epic with the appearance of Weird Al Yankovic. For Simple Ways, it's a good episode. Not the best episode, just good. I am excited for "Filli Vanilli" next, but I have to miss out on the livestream since I have to go skiing all day somewhere. But don't you worry, I'll be able to hopefully find it on YouTube when I get home without even looking at a single spoiler. Also one more thing, should I have a longer chapter around 10,000 - 20,000? Review this chapter if I should do it at one point. The song in this chapter is from Quest For Camelot's "Looking Through Your Eyes".

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I slowly open my eyes to the orange sunlight that shone through the bright glass window. The vision as usual, is blurred at first after waking up with the sun in my eyes every time. It clears and I take a look to my right. The sun is positioned over near the western horizon of Equestria and near its point of setting the day and proceeding into night time. I turn my head to the left from the window and into the room that I'm in.

I was in Twilight's home, remembering that earlier she had saved me from death and a poison that would have possibly killed me anyway. But if it was one thing I could forget, it was her giving me a friendly nuzzle after saving me. Fluttershy was trying to tell me to confess my true feelings towards her, but it didn't work out fast enough since Twilight told me to rest for a few hours. It did seem like a few hours passed by, and Twilight said that she would talk to me this evening. It did get me on suspicion that she possibly could have liked me in the same way I did. Would she be taking me out to dinner tonight?

A flash of white surrounds the room near me, making me jump a bit and my eyes turn and look to see the slightly large draconequus that I knew as the used to be master of chaos, Discord. He looked down at me, with a smile on his face. He went forward towards me and like a snake, his head moved around my head.

"Oh, how is little Brayden here doing this evening?" Discord said, in his teasing voice. I just rolled my eyes in annoyance, knowing that he wasn't that reformed and was just trying to irritate me.

"I'm doing fine, but I'm not fine that you're here to probably annoy me." I said with him looking a bit shocked at first, but he continues to pull a smile.

Discord changed his form into a miniature version of himself on Twilight's bed. "I was hoping that you'd greet me in a much happier fashion Brayden. I'm not that evil anymore, but still love to fool around." He said, walking on the two different legs of his. "I've been hearing a lot about you today. Princess Twilight really seems a care a lot about your safety doesn't she?"

"That's none of your business Discord." I said, turning to the other side of the bed to try and ignore him. Discord just snaps his eagle claw finger and teleports with a flash in front of me.

"Don't you worry about it Brayden. Fluttershy pretty much told me all about how you are in love with her and would like to tell Twilight your true feelings to her." Discord said, he snaps his finger again and makes a thermometer appear. This is a different kind that shows how much I love Princess Twilight and the red bar is at the top with canned applause that he also summoned.

"Didn't everypony already tell me that they knew about that secret?" I said, getting my arms out from under the sheets. I placed my arms around behind my head and lay back on the bed.

"Well, I want to help you in a way." Discord said. I watched him snap a finger again and in his hand from a small white flash, were fresh-picked roses. "You could give her these to show how much you care for Princess Twilight in return."

"I don't know, Discord." I said, turning myself slowly to the side in doubt that the roses could work and would possibly give away my secret to Twilight.

Discord waved the roses in front of my face and moved his head quite close to me, he chuckled lightly. "Come on, it's not like Twilight will be mad if you do. I'm just also trying to make friends with you as well."

"Well Discord, if you want to be my friend... You could just give me and Twilight some private time together, I would appreciate it, but I can have some use for the roses." I said, taking the roses out of his eagle claw. "These roses better not be a trick to tick off Twilight and have her put the blame on me… cause if they are…"

"Oh relax Brayden. You always predict the worst in times when I'm around." Discord said, wrapping his eagle claw around me. "What kind of friend would I be if I did something like that? I obviously am trying to help you get together with Twilight as your special somepony."

"Oh that's ridiculous, there's no way the one and only Discord could be…" I said, in a sarcastic tone until I froze for a moment realizing what Discord told me. "…helping me?"

"Well, it's about time you finally opened your eyes to see that I'm not that evil," Discord said, teleporting in front of me, he was also wearing a costume of a Cupid lookalike. "If I wanted to make the roses into a prank, I still would have not been reformed by Fluttershy and-"

"Alright Discord, I get it. But once again, thank you for bringing the roses. I'm sure that Twilight will appreciate me for giving these to her." I said, placing my hand on Discord's shoulder and giving it a pat.

Discord chuckles lightly, and turns around to the window. He says "Well, glad to see that I've made some friendship with you. Now if you'll excuse me, somepony that I know needs to see me in a few minutes."

"Are you always in a big hurry Discord?" I said, crossing my hands and giving a funny smirk. "Cause we only get to briefly talk."

Discord turns back and says "Even a busy draconequus has to have a tight schedule." He finally snaps his finger and a giant white flash fills the room, forcing me to cover my eyes with my right hand. The flash seemed to come by quickly, and moved my right hand out of my face.

After Discord vanished to go and visit… well Fluttershy perhaps, I carefully look at the red roses in my other hand and look at it with thoughts moving in my head. "I'm not sure, will Twilight be enlighted or just tell me off for even having to give these to her in the first place? I want this night to be the night I tell her, but what if it doesn't work out, I-" I thought before the sound of hooves interrupted.

The hooves were heard coming up from the stairs and I could suspect that it was probably Applejack coming to see me and wondering how I was doing. The recognizable mulberry color comes into my view and I see Twilight coming up the steps into the open bedroom. She opened her fuzzy wings and flew upward on the inside balcony where her bed was laying down. She closed her wings and trotted towards me.

"Did you rest well, Brayden?" Twilight said. She trots over to the right side of the bed and begins to check on my injury that was covered up by the bandage.

"I did, Twilight." I looked at her, saying. "But… what are you also doing up-"

Twilight gasped softly when she saw the red roses in my left hand. Her horn lights up, and the red roses levitate out of my hand completely with the aura of Twilight's magic surrounding it. "These roses… are they for me?" She asks me, looking at me.

I nod lightly, knowing that this would happen as soon as she saw them. Twilight smiled at me and said "Thank you Brayden. I would suspect somepony as nice as you would give out roses."

I watch her place the roses onto her nightstand and she turns me, keeping that smile. "Anyways, what did you come here for?" I ask, still wondering about her checking on my bandage.

"Well, I was wondering… I know we've only talked a few times and had our differences, but would you like to go to dinner with me?" Twilight asks me, and has a look of good patience and understanding.

I thought about it, she'd understand if I rejected the invitation… but at the same time. It would feel like I was rejecting any girl that asked me out when I was back on Earth and when I attempted to ask me back after rejecting them, they would already have a boyfriend and claimed they were just playing with me. I just let out a soft, inaudible sigh and say "Yes Twilight. I'll come with you."

Twilight extended her left hoof to help me off of her bed. I look at it for a moment and then place my right hand on her soft hoof. I gently hold onto it, while pushing myself lightly and her gently pulling me from her bed. After being pulled upward to balance, I'm still holding onto Twilight's soft hoof while we're both locked in a gaze. This gaze only lasted a few moments, since Twilight let go of my hand and her cheeks were a bit pink.

"So what do you have in mind for dinner?" I said, after the blushing had disappeared off Twilight.

She keeps her smile and says "Well, I think we'll go to that outdoor restaurant. Then, after we're done… I want to show you something that I need you to see."

Something I needed to see? Did she happen to have feelings for me as well and wanted to confess them to me? Nevertheless, I nodded and said "Well, what you'll show me is probably that 'important' after all Princess." I said in a sort of flirting tone.

Another blush came upon Twilight's cheeks and I'm just giggling lightly. She sighs in a happy tone and says "Come on now Brayden. Dinner can't wait forever."

"Alright Twilight, I'm coming." I said, walking beside her when we're trotting down the wooden steps. The steps downstairs were in the circular carved tunnel from what I remember when I first came to her home upstairs. Her horn starts to glow and I could hear the front door of her home opening by the sound of the golden doorknob. I come into view of the library on the main floor when walking normally down the wooden steps.

Me and her start walking together out of the library and she closes the front door to her library behind us with her magic no doubt. I could hear the sound of the lock on the door setting to be secured. The glowing on her alicorn horn disappears. I just walk forward with her by my right side and begin to move through the now-peaceful town.

Everything seemed so peaceful with the sunset in motion. Most of the Ponyville folk had already bustled up their shops to close for the night and the local restaurants were kept open for the sweet smell of dinner to be served. A few of the ponies in their homes were already making supper for the children and themselves. The smell of fresh mashed potatoes and hot gravy were filling the air from where I was breathing. "Somepony must be cooking up mashed potatoes." Twilight said.

I turned to look at her with a smirk on my face. "I was going to say the same thing." I said, with a tone of joking. I feel the need to attempt to have her feel comfortable, and gently put my hand around Twilight. She must have flinched a bit by surprise, but when she turned and saw me she felt a little more relaxed and seemed to give a happy sigh.

I continued to walk alongside her with my arm gently around to comfort her, even though she was already happy. But inside, I felt like my heart was skipping many beats to say that I might have won her. But I wasn't so sure, I was very nervous at the same time. I have been nervous many times back on Earth when it came to a girl that I had developed a crush on.

The restaurant had come into view and it was the same building where me and Pinkie had lunch together when I came to see her. There was a different waiter though standing by the entrance, which I didn't seem to mind. I moved my arm off of Twilight to avoid suspicion that I was possibly on a date with the princess, even though I would love to. Me and Twilight steadily approach the waiter. He looks down at the both of us, furrowing his curious eyebrows.

"May I help you two?" The waiter says in an accent that I could recall hearing back on Earth as an American accent.

Twilight looks at me and says "Don't worry Brayden, I'll get us settled," and gives me a small smile. She turns to the waiter, just waiting patiently. "Just a table for two of us please."

The waiter nods his head in understanding and both of us begin to slowly pick up the speed to follow the waiter around into the restaurant outside. I observe to see the other townsfolk eating away at tonight's special with the smell of potatoes illuminating the air. I could see a few of the ponies I knew in town chatting to one another at the separate tables. A few that I knew as Berry Punch, Minuette and of course… everyone in the brony fan base knew her, Derpy Hooves.

The fact that Derpy Hooves' eyes were always crossed seemed to fascinate me. I started to even wonder how she got them in the first place. Maybe it was… never mind, I'm not even going to go into that joke with the meme. But Derpy overall is one of my favorite ponies, even though I haven't talked to her once yet. She always seemed busy with the mail, but I'll make sure that I say hello to her.

Me and Twilight arrive at our table, and the waiter kindly pulls out the chairs to help us take a seat on the comfortable iron chairs with red pillows on the seats. I lower down to take a seat and could feel the soft pillows below. I watch Twilight to see her take a seat next to me.

"Can I both start you off with a drink?" The waiter asked. I turned from Twilight and took a look at the calm stallion.

I thought of my choice of drink to be one of my favorite drinks on occasion, and said "Yes, I think I'll have Apple Cider."

"I'll have a glass of water." I heard Twilight say. The waiter nods in understanding and trots off to go and get our drinks. I turn to look at Twilight and she says "I'm just ordering water for the occasion. Everypony seems to always order it during meals, so I guess I'm used to that."

"I'm standing out. Anypony could see me different because I'm ordering Apple Cider for dinner, which there isn't anything wrong with." I said, sounding a bit proud and confident.

Twilight scooted closer beside me and said "I'm also curious about your past. Would you like to tell me all about it?"

I look down sadly when she asked me this. "I don't really want to talk about it. You wouldn't understand why I was so sad." I said, trying to forget the past.

"Brayden, please… tell me. I'll help you and understand." Twilight said, placing her soft right hoof onto my hands. I slowly turn to look at her, she seemed to have a look of caring about me. I just softly sigh to give my attention to what she offered.

"Well, it was back on Earth. Most of the people I knew were anti-bronies and hated you guys. I tried to stand up for myself, but they'd always keep me down," I said sadly. "It's why whenever someone tells me that you or any of your other friends are stupid, it hurts me deep inside."

Twilight listened in, opening up her right wing and wrapping it around me. Her face seemed to look sad, but also felt a little sorry for me about what I was going through.

"They'd all say things to try and hopefully get me angry, such as saying they were going to punch you in the face." I said in a sad tone. Twilight softly gasps and looks very worried about me.

"And what happened?" Twilight asked.

"Well, at one point they got a little over the top on the insults and I felt like I was going to cry. They stated to think that bronies like me were gay. But me, I'm not. Though there is a few in that world, but with the statement of rights being sent out to respect them." I said.

"Brayden… that- that must have been hard to deal with." Twilight said. She gently pulls me closer to her with her right wing. I lean forward and wrap my arms carefully around her back, sharing with her a comforting hug. Her left hoof is around my waist and giving me a gentle rub on the back. My hand reaches up to the back of her mane and gently giving it soft strokes.

"It's no problem. The past is the past, it's not like I can go back and change it." I said, not even wanting to use a scroll and travel backwards through time just like Twilight did in "It's About Time". The only difference was that it was all for nothing.

After a bit of time, me and Twilight let go of the hug. She moves her right wing from me and folds it back closed. Both of us just continue to look at each other and blink. Without even looking, I could see that one of her hooves was open for me to try and hold onto. I slowly move my left hand towards her right hoof. I could feel the warmth of the hoof upon contact of it with my hand, gently grabbing it in hopes of being gentle to Twilight.

The waiter came by at this moment and remained rather silent during the moment with only me and Twilight. He just simply places the drinks down on the table, snapping us out of the gaze and to the waiter. He seems to have a small smile on his face, but remains rather calm. "Now, can I get the both of you something to eat?"

I cleared my throat and gained my focus back onto dinner. "Uh yes, I'll have the special of tonight which is the Mashed Potatoes and Gravy." I said, watching the waiter write it down.

"I'll have what he's having." Twilight said, sounding happy and calm. The waiter writes it down and trots off back into the building to make our food.

The stars were starting to appear one by one in the sky as slowly as they did, even back on Earth. I could see the shine of Luna's moon beginning to rise up over the eastern horizon of Equestria, it was as beautiful as they had pictured it in the show. "It's a beautiful night for a walk…" I said, not knowing that Twilight was listening to me.

"Yes, a walk together." Twilight said, since she did hear the seven words that I said.

I slowly turn around back to Twilight and said "By the way… this thing you wanted to show me… where is it?"

Twilight looked at me and placed her warm left hoof on my hand. "It's a view from the great lake of Ponyville. It's a sight for many to see." She said, sounding very informative.

"Have your duties as a princess being doing well, Twilight?" I asked, trying to engage in a topic to not look so socially awkward like her.

Twilight's eyebrows furrowed a bit, but she kept her smile and said "My duties? They've being doing really good and I have confidence to balance my time with my friends and my duties."

"I've also somewhat thought of myself as a prince, but I'm not royalty. It's fine for me to not be royalty though." I said, seeing how being royal could be a bit overrated.

Twilight said "There's nothing wrong with that. It's called being yourself. It's what you were given."

I was reminded once again of the gift that I had. "Yeah, autism. I was born with it and I still have it, I can't really get rid of it." I said, feeling a bit down.

"Autism?" Twilight asked, curious about the disabilities humans can get.

"Autism can make a person think differently, such as getting smarter and various other objectives that they can solve. But to me, I would consider it a curse… I don't know why it was given to me." I said, still feeling a bit down.

"It was given to you for a special purpose. Maybe you were chosen to have that so you could possibly try and let go of the negatives that it was feeding you." Twilight said, looking into my eyes.

I was enlightened by her words and softly smiled at her for telling me the best advice she could give. "Is there any other gifts from your world that has affected others?" She asks, staying on topic.

"Well, I have heard of Bipolar, which a person could have mood swings. But there's probably nopony here in Equestria that has probably heard of that or has that?" I said, starting to raise question to Twilight.

Twilight placed her right hoof on her chin and began to think for a moment. "Hmm, maybe Cheerilee knows about these gifts." She says, placing her right hoof back down.

"I ended up thinking I was an average normal boy the whole time, but I never seemed to make any friends whatsoever until high school." I said, reflecting back on the past.

"Don't worry about the past Brayden. I'm here for you." Twilight said, placing her left hoof onto my right shoulder. "Even Fluttershy is there for you as a best friend."

"Thanks Twilight." I said, feeling a little better about the topic of friends to see somepony caring for me just like a real friend should.

I turn to look at the ponies eating away at their meals. The waiter was holding up a tray of two plates that had our orders on it on his head. I grab the mug of Apple Cider and take a sip to watch the food arrive at our table.

The waiter trots up to our table and lowers his head, placing the tray of two plates onto the table. "Here's your food. If you want to right now, you can pay for the two meals." The waiter says, in his calm and happy voice.

"Sure, let me just get out the-" Twilight said, before I placed my hand onto her back softly, catching her attention. She stops talking and looks at me to listen to what I would say.

"Twilight, I'll pay for our meal. I have to always pay for the fair lady and princess, otherwise it's just not being appreciable to other mares." I said, reaching into my pocket with my other hand. Twilight nods and smiles. I turn to the waiter and ask "How many bits, sir?"

"Four bits total." The waiter says, waiting patiently for the pay.

I reach into the bag of bits in my pocket and take out the four golden bits of currency. I hand it to the waiter and place it on his open hoof. The waiter keeps his smile and nods as a statement to say 'thank you' and trots off to deal with the other guests in the restaurant.

"Well, what are you waiting for, Brayden? Let's dig in." Twilight said to me with a soft giggle. I turn to look at my plate of mashed potatoes and I proceed to grab the small cup of gravy and pour it onto the meal.

The brown-colored gravy begins flowing through the mashed potatoes like a river quickly gliding through the hillside. I place down the cup of gravy and take the fork in my hand. I grab a scoop of the yellow potatoes and open my mouth placing the food in, and closing my mouth. It was so delicious and warm. I've had these back on Earth, but here… they were just as twelve times better.

---

Our meals were finished within a few minutes tops and I'm sitting there with leftover mashed potatoes on my face a bit, I take the paper napkin on my lap and begin wiping it clean. After a few wipes, I take a look on Twilight's water glass. My face looked very clean and tidy.

Twilight had just about finished her meal, and I'm guessing that she must have learned to eat just like a princess from possibly Rarity. Because you know her and being in the status of a unicorn, she wanted to stay royal and careful on her tidiness, which explained why Rarity didn't want to get her hooves dirty.

"That was delicious." Twilight said, wiping her face with her napkin.

"Just like back on Earth, except twelve times better!" I said, happily.

Twilight let out a giggle and places her right hoof onto my left hand, making me feel warm and causing me to blush lightly. I could swear that she must have been giving me an obvious look that could tell that she possibly had a crush on me as well.

"Well, are you ready for the view?" Twilight said to me while I was locked in the gaze with her.

"Yeah…" I said, sounding a bit dazed, but happy.

Twilight giggles softly and takes my hand. I get up off the chair and begin to hold onto her soft hoof. Me and Twilight trotted out of the outdoor restaurant and by the speed we were moving together, it seemed to be slow. She must have caught on about me after all.

I can't help but keep gazing at her while holding onto her hoof. Everything about Twilight, she was so beautiful as I originally thought at the end of the series premiere. Her personality was sort of like mine, but other bronies on Earth said I would kind of fit more like Rainbow Dash in personality.

She kept on a lovely smile while both of us walked together out of Ponyville and into the trails. I could hear the crickets chirping softly that was filling in the night with the sound of frogs in the distant to fill in with the crickets' song. An owl's hoot from the trees would occasionally come in at the times of the soft sounds being distant.

I could feel my bare feet on the dirt path when walking forward at the slow rate of speed. The dirt on the ground was dry and did not make any spots on the bottom of my feet.

"There it is…" I hear Twilight say, and I turn from her to look and see the view come in through my eyesight. It seemed really beautiful. The lake shone a rare blue in the night with the moon's reflection lingering over and rippling. There were no boats on the lake with the exception of two ducks just swimming together in a bonding.

"Wow Twilight… it's amazing." I said, when looking out at the view. I don't see Twilight move away from me to sit on the bench a few feet away, with the exception of me hearing her hooves trotting on the ground and her sitting.

I turn around after a few seconds to see Twilight sitting there on the bench waiting for me to join her again. I slowly walk up to the bench and bend down to take a seat. I then turn and look at Twilight with her hooves open to hold onto gently. She seems to be giving me a shy kind of smile.

Something catches my eye past Twilight moving in the bushes quietly and I could see Pinkie Pie poking her head out of the bushes. A medium-sized piece of paper slowly moves in from the side of the bush with two big words. I focus a bit closer on what the words were trying to tell me. "Tell her" is what the words say on the paper.

I turn back to Twilight, and she has a different kind of smile now, it was more of a gazing romantic look in her eyes when she was focused on me. "Well, better get the truth out now while I still can…" I thought to myself, and let out a quiet and happy sigh.

"Twilight…" I asked in question to get her attention. I was going to do it… I was going to tell her my true feelings towards her. I move both my left and right hands to Twilight's hooves and gently hold onto them.

"Yes Brayden?" Twilight asks me, smiling.

"I… I thought I'd let you know that you are the most beautiful, and amazing pony I have ever met. Nopony could ever replace you." I said, sounding a bit nervous. Twilight's cheeks began to glow pink with a big smile on her face, probably the best blush that I've ever seen from her since "Boast Busters" and "The Crystal Empire – Part 2".

"Why… why thank you Brayden," Twilight says to me, sounding rather happy and relieved. She scoots up closer to me and gently strokes my hands with her gentle, soft hooves. "But why would you say that at this moment?"

I gulped and the upper part of my teeth was biting down on my bottom lip, I didn't know what I was going to say to her. "Just say it, Brayden! You don't want her to trot away!" My thoughts were telling me at quite an alarming rate.

After the thoughts kept telling me, I lowered my head and sighed. I'm not even looking in Twilight's eyes for what would come out next. She would just continue to look at me with her beautiful violet eyes that shone like a rare diamond anyone would come across. She was that rare diamond to me.

"It's… well… It's because I… I have a crush on you Twilight since I first saw you…" I softly said to myself, but at a good volume that she could hear me say what I needed to say.

All seemed silent except for the soft noises in the night that continued. I slowly look up at Twilight's face and she had a look of both surprise and happiness. Twilight moved her right hoof from my left hand and gently placed it onto my left cheek. She softly caressed it.

"Brayden… I don't know what to say. I'm very proud of you to tell me this." Twilight said.

I gently move my other hand from her other hoof and move it to the back of her head, gently stroking her soft and silky mane. Now both of our eyes are locked on one another and the both of us move forward for a moment.

"I'm not sure that it'll work out." I said, having my doubt that the relationship between me and her would last.

Twilight used her other hoof and moved my head back up to have me look in her eyes. "Don't talk like that Brayden. Since you've arrived, you've been really kind to all my friends and been helping to comfort them." Twilight said, her face being a bit close to mine. "To me, you are a stallion prince, even though you are human."

I gently smile at her, cheered up by her words. I move my face forward and share a gentle nuzzle with her, rubbing our cheeks gently together. The gentle nuzzle lasted for a few moments, and when it seemed we let go, it started to get better. We both gazed into each other's eyes romantically, and I felt like I was in heaven. Twilight opens up her wings and puts them around me. What happens next would be the best memory that I would remember for all-time.

Her wings pushed me forward a bit during our gaze, and my closed mouth moved forward towards Twilight's mouth and both of our lips were locked together with my eyes openly surprised. She was giving me the very first kiss. I slowly close my eyes shut and begin to share the kiss with her. I could already feel my heart pounding happily from the inside.

The kiss lasted about twenty seconds, and both of us open our eyes to let go. Both me and Twilight were romantically giggling at one another. "The kiss… it felt magical and sparkling." I said to Twilight, still having my arms around her.

"You know what Brayden, I think I developed feelings for you too." Twilight said, happily.

"You did?" I asked.

"When you were on the verge of dying from the timberwolves, I realized that I cared about you and your safety. If I lost you… it wouldn't be the same." Twilight said.

I gently give Twilight's left ear a soft stroke and said "If you were hurt, I don't know what I'd do. I'm willing to protect you and keep you safe for what may try to hurt and kill you."

I'm looking into her eyes. I can see heaven inside her. It was like I was chosen to fall in love with Twilight from above. I softly sigh and move my hand closer down to her cheeks, gently caressing it softly to be gentle. I felt the need to sing to her, I took a breath slowly and silently in.

Look at the sky

Tell me what do you see

Just close your eyes

And describe it to me

The heavens are sparkling

With starlight tonight

That's what I see

Through your eyes

Twilight smiled with me while I sang softly to her and could see take a quick breath in. She was going to sing with me as well. It was becoming a romantic duet.

I see the heavens each time that you smile

I hear your heartbeat just go on for miles

And suddenly I know why life is worthwhile

That's what I see through your eyes

That's what I see through your eyes

I slowly take her hoof and begin to just gaze into her eyes and could feel myself being lifted up off the ground with her. She was starting to flap her wings and fly. Both of us began to look at each other romantically during the soft flight through the night sky, holding on together and continued to duet.

Here in the night, I see the sun

Here in the dark, our two hearts are one

It's out of our hands, we can't stop what we have begun

And love just took me by surprise, looking through your eyes

I see a night I wish could last forever

I see a world we're meant to see together

And it is so much more than I remember

More than I remember

More than I have known

Here in the night, I see the sun

Here in the dark, our two hearts are one

It's out of our hands, we can't stop what we have begun

And love just took me by surprise, looking through your eyes

Looking through your eyes

Both of us began to slow down our flight and Twilight flapped her wings while flying us down back towards the ground. I could feel my feet softly land back on the dirt path. I turned to my left to see that the both of us had arrived at Fluttershy's cottage.

"I had a wonderful night, Brayden." Twilight said to me, putting her forehead on mine. I gently share this moment with her just closing my eyes. We let go after a few moments and turn to see Fluttershy at the door, smiling.

"Twilight?" I asked, looking back at her.

"Yes Brayden?" She replies back to me, smiling.

"I was wondering… would you be my special somepony?" I said, taking and holding her right hoof.

Twilight giggled and said "I was going to ask you the same thing, but… sure! I'll be your special somepony."

I gently pull her into a romantic hug with my arms around her neck and Twilight had both of her hooves around me along with her wings. We share the hug for a few moments. By how I saw Fluttershy, she seemed to look quite proud of me for what I must have said to Twilight tonight.

Twilight lets go of the romantic hug as well as me and says "Well, it is starting to get late. But I'll see you sometime Brayden." She plants a small kiss on my lips, and keeps a happy smile while turning around and trotting off.

I watch her as she leaves in the distance. I could see a heavenly glow around Twilight while she gets more far from the area. Once she is gone, I sigh romantically. I turn to my left and start heading up the small path to Fluttershy's cottage.

"Did you tell her your feelings?" Fluttershy asked me with a happy and still shy tone.

I looked at the blur of mulberry trotting off in the distance from the hill and smiled. "Yeah, I did. Best night ever."

Fluttershy pulled me into one of her soft and friendly hugs and was saying "Oh my goodness! I just don't know what to say. I'm very proud of you for telling her your feelings."

I returned the hug back, gently wrapping my arms around her in a friendly way. "Thank you Fluttershy, I had to do it when I could. I just couldn't let her trot away and leave me in the friend zone like that."

"Friend zone?" She asked.

"Just a term back on Earth." I said, giving a smart look on my face. I could feel my arms needing a stretch and I softly yawn while taking the stretch of the arms.

"Are you tired?" Fluttershy says, seeing the tired look and smile on my face.

I turn my head towards her and nod slightly. "Yeah. I'm going to get some rest now." I said, walking forward and opening the front door, heading into Fluttershy's cottage.

"Have a good sleep Brayden. Don't let the parasprites bite." Fluttershy said to me while I walked up towards the stairs. I stop for a moment and turn to Fluttershy.

"I will. You have a good night as well Fluttershy." I said to her. I walk up the stairs quietly to try and not wake up the animals sleeping inside the cottage.

I walk up the stairs and can see the guest room immediately to my left. It was the room where I was sleeping in. I walk into the room and gently close the door behind that was already open for me. I walk up slowly to my bed feeling exhausted from the day and evening. I flop myself onto the bed and take a breath. I slowly begin to close my eyes until it was only all black I could see.

Tomorrow will probably be another successful day for me. But this evening… totally worth it. Other than the Timberwolves attacking me in the afternoon. I just hope nothing would come up like that again.

I'll see you again tomorrow morning, Equestria.

A/N: Alright, another story update! And it looks like the month of March has just hit, and I can't help but listen to Pink Floyd since it sorta is helping me with a few other bands write this story. They can't stop inspiring me! xD Other than that, school work and I'm seeing a band in concert on March 20th.

Night Shade1234: If I did put sarcasm in there, I don't think Twiley would be really happy with Brayden.

Summer time 10101: Nobody said they hated this, if they were going to hate... well let's just say they'd be anti-bronies. People just willing to criticize a bit of stuff I put in my story that I can correct, I'm okay with that.

GadgetCid: Ouch is right since you read the first chapter. But don't you worry, keep reading along. :)

godzillafan1: Hmmm, I did hear that song and it does give me an idea to have Brayden sing that for the next chapter. So thank you for bringing that song up. It'll fit for the next chapter.

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I open my eyes slowly, with the alarm clock beeping next to me. I groan tiredly and slide to the right of my bed, turning to my alarm clock and pressing the Snooze button. Fluttershy must have got me one of them in my room and I didn't realize it. I placed my hand behind the small clock and turned it off. I could already tell that it was going to be another good day. I had already made plans for the day while I was sleeping, since I was thinking about all of my friends in Ponyville. I couldn't really decide to hang out with Twilight, since I already did last night and confessed my true feelings to her. I would have to wait a bit until she asks me about going out with her.

I had a friend in mind that I hadn't hung out with yet and planned on seeing her today. It would be Rainbow Dash that was the choice I was going to see today. I turn to look at my back and did give a look of slight disappointment, if only I had wings to fly with her. Unfortunately, I have to stay on the ground.

I slowly move the sheets off of me and start to slowly get up out of bed. I place my feet onto the wooden floor and sit on my bed. I could see the sunlight shining through the closed window blinds and onto the floor.

I had one thing in mind whenever I thought of Rainbow Dash. A memory of me back on Earth when I had experienced a lucid dream… Of me talking to her in a place, that resembled Trevor Phillip's home in Grand Theft Auto V. I was flying in the air over the clouds in the beginning of the dream, as I can remember. I did land on ground eventually after seeing Rainbow Dash walking along in a small dusty field. The only things I can really remember when talking to her was saying her name, telling her if she could bring me to Twilight and her face was really up close to mine. Unfortunately the dream didn't really go anywhere and it went off in a different direction since personal feelings I believe got in the way.

I get up off of my soft bed and pull up my bed sheets, making my bed. Once the bed was made, I turned my attention towards my bedroom door. Somepony was knocking at the door and I could tell by the knocking who it was. "Come in." I call out.

The door pushes open and I could see my best friend, Fluttershy standing there. In her mouth, she is carrying a wooden bowl of fruits and salad leaves. She was giving me my breakfast as she always did since I arrived in Equestria. She trots over to the small wooden cabinet on the left side of my bed and places the wooden bowl of fruit salad on top of the cabinet, still looking at me.

"Good morning Brayden," Fluttershy says to me in her sweet little voice. "Did you have your good sleep after last night's enchanted evening with Twilight?"

I walk steadily towards the small cabinet to grab my breakfast, but am looking at Fluttershy at the same time. "Good morning to you as well Fluttershy, and yes… I had a great sleep," I said to her. "I trust you also had a beauty's sleep as well?"

"Oh yes, I dreamt about all my friends and me having a great time," Fluttershy said, placing her gentle and soft hoof onto my hand. Her ears lower sadly and she emits a sad tone in her voice, lowering her smile. "But it felt like somepony had turned that dream into a nightmare."

I bent down lower on one knee, looking at Fluttershy. I gently place my right hand on her back and looked at her in question. "Somepony? Who was it Fluttershy?" I asked.

Fluttershy looked into my eyes and lowered her head. "It was Nightmare Moon." Fluttershy said to me sadly. "She was teasing me with whispers that my friends weren't what they are to me."

"But you defeated her, remember?" I said.

"Yes, but I'm not sure why she would enter into my dream." Fluttershy said, lifting up her head a bit.

"Nightmare Moon entered my dream while I was sick with the flu. She wanted to taunt me about my past since she seemed to bring them in," I confessed. "I have to be thankful that Princess Luna came to save me on time. If Nightmare Moon did win, she possibly would have possessed my body as her own doing and used to hide herself in. Only that fraction of her remains, but I fear something will happen if somepony isn't careful."

I keep looking at Fluttershy. She still holds that sad look on her face. I gently pulled her towards me, putting my other arm around her to give her a hug. Fluttershy puts her hooves around me to share the comforting hug. "No matter what happens though, I'm willing to make sure that nopony hurts you or any of my other friends. Trust me… you wouldn't want to see what happens." I said gently to her.

I slowly let go of the hug and look down at Fluttershy, she has a small smile on her face now. "You will?" She asks.

I nod up and down, with a small smile on my face. I turn slightly left and move my hand towards the wooden bowl. My fingers bend and grab a hold onto it, lifting it off the small cabinet and towards me. I move my other hand to grab a hold of the silver fork in the bowl. I pressed down with the right hand to get a few bits of fruits and the salad leaves on the fork. I moved the fork of food towards my mouth and opened, letting them slide in.

"This food is delicious Fluttershy." I complimented.

"Well, got to make it to feed the animals and keep you in good shape." Fluttershy says to me.

"Today will be a… not-so-busy day for me." I said to myself.

"Why's that?" Fluttershy asks me.

"I'm going to go and chill with my friend Rainbow Dash." I said, standing right up. I dug the fork into another set of salad leaves in the bowl and place them in my mouth.

"Chill?" Fluttershy asked. "Won't that mean going to the arctic north?"

I realized that Fluttershy might be thinking of 'chill' in a cold way, and I said "Oh, no no… it means going to visit. I'll be spending the day with Rainbow Dash."

Fluttershy giggled and said "Oh. How silly of me to think you were both going to freeze."

I dug into the wooden bowl with the fork again and dug out the bits of apple and placed them into my mouth. I chewed slowly and with my mouth closed. I walk forward towards the door with Fluttershy following me, and I turn towards the stairs. Since I was almost done my breakfast, I figured that I could wash the bowl as soon as I was finished with it.

I dig the silver fork into the final set of salad leaves with the small bits of fruit. I raise the fork with the food attached and placed it into my mouth. I chew up the soft fruit and salad slowly and move forward down the stairs, turn right into the kitchen and towards the sink in the kitchen to wash out the bowl of germs. I turn both of the hot and cold valves, and watch the water come rushing out of the tap. I place my bowl into the sink and begin to wash it with the cloth hanging on the tap.

"You seem to know your manners and chores of cleaning up after yourself… well, even though I gave you the bowl." Fluttershy said, approaching me.

I turn to Fluttershy while washing the bowl. "Well, I do have a bit of experience in cleaning that comes back from Earth." I said, in a calm and happy tone. The bowl started to look clean, and I turned off the sink and picked up a dry cloth from my right to dry the bowl on the outside and inside from being wet. Once the wet spots had been dried out, I opened the cupboard above me and placed the wooden bowl with the other bowls inside.

I turned back to Fluttershy. "Fluttershy, do you know where I could find Rainbow Dash?" I asked.

"Well, she does have a home nearby where we are. You could check there." She tells me, pointing in the direction that Rainbow's home was.

I walk towards the front door and turned back to Fluttershy. "Thank you, and I think I'll see you later. We've got to do something together sometime." I said.

"Like errands, right?" Fluttershy asked.

"Yes, something like that. But we could also have lunch together, as a best friend to you." I said to her.

Fluttershy nods and says "Oh, and one more thing!"

I turn around from the front door and look at her, she comes trotting up to me. "Yes Fluttershy?" I asked.

"Well, it's that your gig at the Diamond Mare is tomorrow and I thought I'd let you know." Fluttershy tells me in her calm, informative tone of voice.

I nod my head and say "Alright, Fluttershy. Thanks for notifying me. I think I have a song in mind, but it's a surprise and for Twilight."

Fluttershy smiles and says "A song for Twilight?"

"Yes, but it's a surprise. If I told you or anypony else, it wouldn't be a surprise now, would it?" I said, smiling.

"I see. Well, you should get going now. Rainbow Dash could be anywhere if not at home." Fluttershy said.

I nod with a smile, and turn back to the front door. I place my hand on the doorknob and open up the front door revealing the outside world. I step outside onto the soft dirt and grab the doorknob on the other side of the wooden door and close it shut. I walk forward and cross the small stone bridge and make my way to the right direction of the trail.

While I was walking along, I was a mixture of thoughts that were going through my head of previous events in Equestria. One thought kept coming to me though about Nightmare Moon, the mare in the moon. Even though it was dispelled from Princess Luna, a thought came to me that Nightmare Moon in her only fraction could build up and become one in self once again without Princess Luna being the host.

I remember reading a fan fiction back on Earth when a few ponies were trying to bring back Nightmare Moon, but it was foiled and created a filly Nightmare Moon almost look-alike. The ponies found her and managed to restore her completely and separately as Nightmare Moon in her true self. But it turned out that it was the evil in one of Nightmare's followers that was actually Nightmare Moon within.

I could hear the sound of dirt rolling behind me below. I turned around and could see a recognizable gamboge filly on her scooter coming up towards me. I put on a soft smile, glad to see a familiar face coming by.

Scootaloo comes up towards me riding on her scooter and passes by me, slowing down to match at the speed I was going at. "Hey Scoots." I said to her, while she looked at me.

"Hey Brayden." Scootaloo says to me in a greeting voice. "I just wanted to ask why you were crying yesterday and to see if you were okay."

I couldn't just lie about this time now that everything had been revealed to the very best of friends, so I said "It was something between me and Twilight because I… well, Pinkie told them all about me being from another world which is true. Twilight was only disappointed in me. I guess I took it a little too seriously."

"So… it's all better now?" Scootaloo asked.

I nodded my head and happily said "Yes Scootaloo. It is."

"And what's that bandage on your right arm?" Scootaloo asked, pointing at the bandage.

"Oh… that." I said, trying not to sound like I was in shame for having that. "Well, a Timberwolf leader scratched me while in the Everfree Forest."

"Are you sure you're okay from that?" Scootaloo said, sounding a bit worried.

I stopped walking, bent down on one knee and looked at her in the eyes with the calmest tone of voice coming from me. "Yes, Fluttershy put medicine onto the wound. It was poisonous though, if Twilight and Fluttershy didn't come to rescue me… surely either the Timberwolves would have eaten me or the poison would have killed me."

Scootaloo calmed a bit and said "Well, I'm glad you're okay."

"And what do you know? Something special also happened last night after being saved." I said, trying to change the topic from the injury I got.

Scootaloo smiled and probably knew what this meant. "You mean… you told Twilight?" She asked.

I nodded up and down, and said "Yes, I've told Twilight my true feelings. And she understands."

"Awwww!" came out from Scootaloo's mouth when I said this and she giggled. A large pink blush comes onto both of my cheeks. Scootaloo laughs a little more when she sees how pink my cheeks are.

"Oh stop it you…" I said jokingly still having my smile on my face.

"Brayden and Twilight sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Scootaloo teases while giggling.

I chuckle a bit and say "Okay, Scoots. That's enough…"

Scootaloo continues to jokingly tease me. "First comes love, and then comes marriage…"

"Please, please! Don't finish that!" I said, still chuckling a bit.

"Well you did tell her." Scootaloo said with a teasing accent.

"Brayden told Twilight, eh?" A voice says above us. I knew the accent of that voice and turned up towards the sky to see my rainbow-maned friend flying above me and Scootaloo. Rainbow Dash. She flaps her wings and lowers down to the ground, landing all four hooves onto the ground.

"Well, yeah." I said, now sounding like I was trying to hide it.

Rainbow Dash trots forward towards me and gives me that sort of suggestive look. "You must have pulled off some real moves with her last night, didn't you?" Rainbow Dash says to me, and nudges me on the right arm, unaware of my bandage.

"Ow." I said and softly held onto my right arm briefly. Rainbow Dash seemed to look like she was taking back what she did from nudging me.

"You alright?" Rainbow Dash asks me.

"Well, a Timberwolf scratched me. That's all I need to say and I don't want to talk about it anymore of how I got this." I said, trying not to worry my friend.

Rainbow Dash gives a sigh of relief and places her cyan hoof onto my hand. "Well you got to be careful about them next time when entering the Everfree. And don't go running off like that again, you worried all of us." She said to me.

"Well actually, Rainbow… I want to hang out with you today." I said to try and calm her about the situation.

Rainbow Dash stops talking for a moment and thinks quickly about this. "Well, why didn't you say so? I've been waiting for you to chill with me since I was introduced to you." She says in a happy tone and puts a smile on her face.

"What about me?" I could hear Scootaloo say. Me and Rainbow Dash turn our heads towards Scootaloo. The little gamboge filly seems rather excited to be with her 'big sister' and friend hanging out.

"Of course you can chill with us, Scoots!" I said, raising my arms a bit and then lowering them, and I had a smile on my face.

"Alright!" She says, jumping up and down.

I turn to Rainbow Dash. She seems really happy as well. Finally she turns to me and says "So what do you have in mind Brayden? Is it seeing my most awesome moves?"

"Well, I can't exactly fly, Rainbow Dash. I don't have wings." I said, seeing how I look at my wingless back.

"Oh, that is alright." Rainbow Dash said to me.

"Why not go swimming?" Scootaloo says excitedly.

"Swimming? That does sound like a good idea." I said sounding a bit excited about having to go into water again.

Rainbow Dash chuckles a bit and says "Alright, swimming it'll be. But better look out, you never knew how big a splash I could make."

"Well, here you go." A voice said and a swimming bag went flying forwards into my hands. I was wondering who said that and when I turned around, Pinkie Pie was standing there. Was she just standing by the whole time and I didn't notice her?

"Pinkie? How did you appear here, and how did you get me a swim bag?" I asked, raising an eyebrow while Pinkie kept her innocent smile.

Pinkie giggles a bit and says "Oh silly! I have swim bags hidden all over Equestria in case of emergencies. And you needed one, so I got one for you with the stuff you need." She goes trotting off down the trail, just humming a happy tune. I just roll my eyes with that smile on my face. It was just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie.

I turn my head towards my two other friends and say "Well, it seems like I'm ready now."

Rainbow Dash waves me and says "Well come on then, or are we just going to stand here all day and talk?"

I walk forward towards the two of my friends and begin on our way towards where will probably might swim. Was it going to be the same small body of water in "Too Many Pinkie Pies" or something completely different? Well, by the looks of it I was going to find out. I just walk between Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash, and walk forward with my feet on the trail of soft dirt.

---

Me, Rainbow and Scoots arrived at a large building in Ponyville. Well, probably as large as the local recreation centre back when I was at Earth. The building outside was layered with coloured bricks of red and orange, looking very peaceful. I could see the windows that sort of showed the pool from the inside. The windows in the day seemed to block out what it looked like, but I didn't mind. I could tell how large all four of the windows were in size that it was the pool area.

My feet step off of the soft dirt and onto the stone tiles of the recreation centre while I was walking forward. I already knew that there would be a door to enter through, and decided to give my two friends the respect that they needed. We approach the black iron windowed door and walk forward a bit faster than Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo to get the door for them. They give me a look of curiosity at first.

"Mares first." I said, smiling at them. I grab onto the handle on the door and pull it open in front of them.

Scootaloo trots forward ahead of Rainbow Dash and says "Thanks Brayden." I nod happily and also let Rainbow Dash in who also thanks me as well. I walk in behind Rainbow Dash and close the door behind me.

The centre seemed to look large on the inside, with observation windows to view the pool and who was swimming in it. The three benches that seemed just cleaned from the mess the janitor must have done were shining on its mahogany carved wood from the finish. The vending machines full of snacks stood alone near the green and white walls, humming quietly. There were a set of stairs also that led towards the pool gallery, to watch the swimmers from an upper level of floor.

At the desk, there was a young lime coloured earth pony with glasses that seemed like she was an intern at the conference hall waiting for a meeting, with an orange mane. She was typing on a typewriter of most likely details on the visits and payments made. Even the money they made from the fillies and colts coming to swim. I walk forward slowly towards the desk and she stops typewriting and looks up at me. "May I help you?" She asks a tone of voice that sounds like an American accent.

"Why yes, miss. Me and my two good friends Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo were hoping that we could have ourselves a swim and have a good time for a few hours." I said to the desk clerk with a meek, innocent smile on my face. Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo were looking at me with awkward faces, wondering probably what the hay I was doing.

The earth pony smiles and says "Of course, for a few hours it'll be 10 bits total. The little fillies get to swim for free." I'm not looking at Scootaloo, but I could tell that she was probably jumping up and down and smiling with glee. I reach into my pocket and take out the ten golden bits needed to pay for the swimming day.

"Here you go." I handed it to her. She takes the bits and places them in the cashier, and presses a button to open up the double doors towards the change rooms.

I nod my head to the clerk and walk with my two friends towards the small hallway. I slowly turn my head and have mixed faces looking at me. Scootaloo is obviously smiling as I had predicted, but Rainbow Dash seems to be giving an unimpressed look.

"You could have just told her to let us swim for a few hours with explaining it." Rainbow Dash said, trotting up next to me.

I lowered my head a bit. "I'm not sure why I even decided to do that though, Rainbow. I do think it has something to do with my… disability." I said, going from a happy tone to what I think was a mix of normal talking and sad.

"Disability?" Rainbow Dash asks me.

I sighed and said "I don't want to talk about it though."

Rainbow Dash nods in understanding, but seems to give a look of wondering what it might be that has caused me to act so awkwardly when introducing myself. Even I had gone up to people in school to introduce myself, but in the end… it'd always end up being so awkward and I wouldn't really make any friends out of them, unless they had similar tastes which were something that I rarely ran into any people on Earth who did so.

I turn back forward to face what was in front of me and I bump into somepony unexpectedly. Goodness, so many ponies I am starting to bump into all the time. I really need to stop doing that; it's becoming quite a habit. Well, I bumped into a light amberish gray coated earth pony with a two tone blue mane and tail with light cyan eyes. I thought I recognized that pony from one of the episodes I watched.

"Sorry about that." She says to me sheepishly when she was on the ground. I move my hand towards her and offer her hand to help her up. She places her hoof onto my hand and I help her up slowly.

I chuckle a bit and say "It's no problem. It's a habit that I'm always getting into."

"A habit, eh? Well alright," She says to me and I begin shaking her hoof with my hand in greeting. "My name is Coco Pommel."

"Well, it is nice to meet you Coco. The name's Brayden." I said to her after shaking her hoof and then letting go. "And I suppose you were swimming for an exercise?"

"Yes, it was all part of my spare time." Coco nods and said. She looks about to see my two friends waiting for me and looks back at me. "Well, seeing how you are busy with your two friends… I hope we can talk sometime later."

"Alright Coco, I'll see you later then." I said to her and I watched her walk out of the hallway and turn back to my two friends. "Alright, so we were going swimming you two?"

"About time we started too!" Scootaloo said in an excited tone.

I walk between the two of my friends through the short hallway and make a turn towards the left. I could see the change room doors and each of them had a symbol of which gender that each pony had to go into. It's pretty obvious that I couldn't walk straight into the mares room, so it looks like I'll have to go into the stallions room in order to change into my swimsuit.

I watch both Rainbow and Scootaloo enter the mares room and then I turned towards the stallions room and pushed open the door gently. I walk through into the room and take a look at the wallpaper. It has a summer type with a few lone islands with palm trees on them. The benches have a few stallions changing in from their swimsuits to go back to normal. Two of them I recognize as Big Macintosh, and the other being Sugarcube Corner's Mr. Cake.

I walk forward towards the nearby bench and sit down, while using my hands to zip open the swim bag. My swimsuit was in the two colours of red and purple. Pinkie pretty much knows what my favorite colours are when she got the swim bag out of complete nowhere even though she explained already.

I look up at Big Macintosh while getting my swimsuit on. He is giving me the most standard look that he has on most of the time. I decided to try and make a bit of conversation with him, even though he isn't that much of a talker. "So, did you come here to go swimming Big Macintosh?" I asked him, sounding a bit encouraging.

"Eeyup." He says to me, still giving me that standard look on his face. I swear that he would be perfect for a picture of a parody of 'American Gothic'. …Oh wait, never mind. I saw that when I was back on Earth.

"And you just so happened to see me come in when I was getting ready to swim with my two friends?" I asked.

"Eeyup." He says yet again.

"Well alright then." I said, and placed on my swimsuit and tied a knot to keep the suit on me. "And you're done for the day?"

"Eeyep. Need to get back to the barn." Big Macintosh says to me, finally saying a noun. He finally starts moving towards the door to leave.

"But we'll talk more again soon, right?" I called out to him when he was leaving.

"Eeyup!" I could hear him say before the change room door closed. I really need to catch up on a few friends of mine when I can after the gig.

I proceed towards the pool room door and grab the iron doorknob and give it a turn to let its handle face down. I push the door open and could see the pool now. It wasn't that busy, there were a couple of fillies and colts in the pool, playing with each other. But other than that, it was not too busy and not too deserted. It was just right.

I turn to my right from the pool. Two other things also caught my eye; it was a waterslide and a large hot tub with a couple of the adult ponies relaxing in. The mares' room door opened behind me and I turn around to see Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo in their swimsuits.

"Alright, what shall I do with you both first?" I asked them, moving my right hand a bit.

Scootaloo said "Why don't we both start off with diving into the deep end?" Her tone of voice gave it away that it was something for all of us to do.

I shrugged with a smile and said "Why not?" I turn to Rainbow Dash to see what she thinks of starting with Scoots first. She nods with a smile and trots forward past me. I begin to follow along behind both of them and join them at the deep end. All three of us look and observe the empty diving board. It's not even in use after a filly with white and brown spots had used it.

"I'll go first." I said to both of them and climbed up the tall steps onto the white board. I walked a bit forward and began to feel a bit nervous. I hadn't done swimming in a long time, and it was probably because I was more of an indoor person. Once I reach the tip of the board, I turn around to see how much progress I was making from what my two friends were judging me fairly on.

"You can do it Brayden!" Rainbow Dash cheered. She was giving me that same smile that I had remembered from my dream and I turned around with the confidence that I needed to jump into the water.

I kneeled down with the power to pounce forward from the board and placed my hands together, facing down towards the water. Something inside me made my body spring forward and I felt myself going down towards the blue liquid. My ears go past the water's edge and I could already hear the water rushing from the dive I made.

I've never seen it so clear under the water before, I could see the rippling of water that the other ponies were making in the water and the sound of the underwater resembled to the one back on Earth. I swam forward slowly through the blue, feeling like I was moving through space. Bubbles formed from my breath that I held in for as how long I was underwater.

I slowly rose up out of the blue and onto the surface, taking a few breathes when I rose up and broke through. I turn back towards the diving board and could see Scootaloo trotting up on the diving board. She takes a few steps back and then begins to gallop forward.

"Cannonball!" I could hear her yell when all four of her hooves jumped off of the board. She falls forward, folding her two front hooves together as fast as she can and the splash from the impact flows right towards my face, getting me all wet from the splash. I was already wet from jumping in, so it didn't really matter to me.

Scootaloo is under the water's surface for a few moments, and then rises up from under. She pokes head out from the water and takes a few breathes. "How's the water Scootaloo?" I asked her, just floating to keep myself from going under the water and turning to look at her.

"It's not too cold." She tells me and paddles forward with her four hooves towards me to join me in watching Rainbow Dash make her jump. Her mane drips a bit with the clear water.

I turn back to the diving board and could see Rainbow Dash trotting up the ladder onto the board. She trots forward and looks at the both of us from the diving board. She has that look that can tell she is planning something sneaky for both me and Scoots, but I don't realize this.

"What'll it be, Rainbow? Or is it something special?" I called out to her at the board. Her ears perk a bit to listen to what I called out.

"Oh, it's something surprising!" Rainbow Dash calls out to both me and Scoots and starts to slowly back away for a few steps on the board. She finally gallops forward from the board and without opening her wings, she leaps forward with the assistance of her two front hooves.

"Rainbow-Ball!" She calls out, and I finally realize what she means by that after it happens.

Rainbow Dash hit the water and the impact she made on the dive, had created a big wave of water that came towards me, Scootaloo and few of the other ponies. The wave blew against us on impact and I was flown backwards a bit, almost hitting my head on the nearby iron railing. Scootaloo flew onto my chest from the wave and seemed to look a bit dazed from landing onto me. I'm just lucky that she didn't hit her head as well.

The wave dispersed quickly and Rainbow Dash rose out of the water close to us, with an evil-looking smile on her face. Her face changes to a relaxed look in her eyes with her smile remaining the same. She chuckles a bit and gets a bit closer.

"You should have seen the looks on both of your faces." Rainbow Dash says to me, and gives me a nudge on my right shoulder with her left arm. It doesn't hurt me just like with my left shoulder has my bandage.

"Wow, Rainbow Dash! That jump was amazing!" Scootaloo says, looking up at her. A few of the mares and fillies nearby who were splashed by Rainbow Dash just roll their eyes in annoyance and continue to go about and play in the water.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm going to go for a ride on the water-slide." I told the both of them and turned to the pool ladder.

I swam towards the pool ladder and grab onto one of its iron handles, holding onto it when pushing forward. My feet climb onto one of the soft ladder steps. The water remaining on me is in the form of tear-like drips. I step steadily off the ladder and gather myself from being cold again, walking forward towards the slide.

"Come on now, one at a time." The lifeguard says to the fillies and mares going down on the slide into the water. I stop in front of a small filly in the back, but ended up accidentally bumping into her.

"Watch it mister!" The small earth pony says to me in a rather rude tone.

I gather myself and say "Sorry about that." But now seeing her face, I could tell that it was one of the ponies that I liked the least. It was the school bully Diamond Tiara.

"Well, you should be sorry for bumping into me! Especially since you don't have a cutie mark because you're different." Diamond Tiara says to me in a rather snobbish accent.

I really didn't want to start a fight with her, seeing how it would be impossible for her to stop acting like such a brat. So I just kept quiet and didn't make any response back to her. She just says "Hmph. That's what I thought." And she turns back around to wait for her turn.

A few fillies sliding away later, and it soon is time for Diamond Tiara to slide down from the red waterslide with me behind her. The lifeguard helps her get up onto the slide, and gives her a push down into the water.

The lifeguard signals for me to climb up onto the slide and I nod to him, smiling. He smiles back to me and watches me climb up onto the red slide. I look down at the water and could feel the lifeguard's hoof push me down.

The force of the push starts off slowly and I start to slow slide down in the spiral waterslide with the drift of water helping to push me towards the water's surface. My feet hit the water first and my head rushes through under the water again. I gently push my hands forward, letting me flow forward through the water. The sound underneath the water seemed to be relaxing with the kicking of the other ponies in the pool heard as well.

I just keep swimming under the water and push forwards toward the two of my friends who were watching me the whole time. I break through the water's surface once again, and reach for deep breathes, having held my breath for a bit of time under the time.

Scootaloo swam towards me after I caught my breath once again and she seemed rather concerned. "Are you alright Brayden?" She asks me.

I got curious and then asked "What do you mean?"

"Well, you bumped into Diamond Tiara, the one with her friend Silver Spoon who's been teasing me and my two other friends about us not having cutie marks." She said.

I look down a bit and said "Well, she told me that I should be sorry for bumping into her and stated that because I'm different, I do not have a cutie mark."

Scootaloo raised her right hoof softly out of the water and placed it onto my left shoulder. "Brayden, if at any time that Diamond Tiara or her friend is teasing you and putting you down, you can let me, Sweetie Belle or Apple Bloom know about it anytime. We'll do all we can to help you." She tells me.

I decided to change the topic after being taunted. I could already see that it was pointless to keep the topic of being bullied going.

"How about a race to the shallow end?" I suggested, perking up both of my friends' ears.

"Well, alright!" Rainbow Dash says cheerfully, rising a bit out of the water. I smile and place my hand onto Dashie's left shoulder. I had already known she'd have the confidence to accept this race for fun. Both me and my friend are sharing smiles at each other, but not in 'that way'. Both me and Rainbow already know that Twilight is my special somepony or rather in words 'mare-friend'.

Both me, and my two friends faced the shallow end from our current position. "Last one there has to shine Rainbow Dash's hooves!" Scootaloo called out jokingly and proceeded to speed off through the water. She seems to have gotten an early head start from the both of us.

Me and Rainbow Dash just look at each other, nodding our heads at each other and both of us move forward and go straight under the water. By the looks of it, it's gotten all fun and games here with two of my best friends.

But the real concern for me was getting the song right for tomorrow's gig.

A/N: Another few weeks, another chapter! I have a few ideas in mind that'll come up next, but what is it? Well, one of the ideas involves Prince Blueblood, Brayden going to Canterlot with Rarity and Coco Pommel, and an idea that one of the reviewers suggested. Did I mention the Cutie Mark Crusaders bringing Brayden along for their show and tell at school. Nightmare Moon returning? I now call "Most Likely" to happen.

godzillafan1: And that will cause Luna to start having a crush on Brayden! Oh, the amazing ideas! ...I really did not know what I was thinking when I wrote down ponies in swimsuits.

Midnight Blossom: Thank you, but sorry I couldn't put in the song :(

Night Shade1234: Hey, I just stumbled onto that comic today, close but no cigar though. Ha! I could picture the waiter just saying that inside since everypony was going all 'mashed potatoes' that night.

---

Tonight was the night! "Which night are you talking about?" is what you probably wondering to yourself. Well, you know its show-time! Tonight is going to be my important gig at the Diamond Mare that I auditioned for a few weeks ago since I came to Equestria. Now I know that you are thinking that I didn't rehearse and practice a song in that time. But I did though, and you'll soon find out what that song is called.

I'm standing in front of the mirror and looking straight at myself. I was getting myself dressed for the occasion and I decided to be absolutely perfect, but in my own kind of style that everypony would see me in. Rarity was kind enough to make some shirts and pants for me when she got my weight, height… you know, everything! I used to think that she was quite a drama queen just like in the show, but after some time here in Equestria, I don't think she is as bad a friend as I thought she was. I consider her a friend now, and she is still one of the ponies I have to hang out with. Hung out with Pinkie, Twilight and Rainbow Dash? Check. Still need to visit Applejack and Rarity? Check.

Since I was already sort of staying at Fluttershy's cottage, I got to go with her first to Canterlot to meet Princess Celestia, not to mention that Princess Luna met me a little earlier before arrival in Canterlot. I really need to take Princess Luna into consideration and hopefully meet her once again when I'm asleep or in Canterlot again.

I look down at the black comb on the cabinet table and move my right hand towards it. I gently grab onto the comb and grab it, moving it towards my hair and starting to comb it into a clean look. The comb gently moves back and forth through my hair, straightening it out and making it flat.

A knock is heard at my door, and I knew who it was at the door mostly to see me. "Come in." I called out, sounding like I was formally ready for this event.

The door opens up and I could see not one, but two pony friends of mine come into the room. It was my two friends Fluttershy and Rarity. I suspected for Rarity that she was coming to check on how well I was dressed for the event, but I good the way I was, just needed my hair to be combed to look clean. She has a rather delightful look on her face and she trots over towards me and looking at me.

"Brayden darling, you look absolutely amazing!" Rarity compliments. "But only one thing is missing that would complete you for tonight."

I raised an eyebrow at Rarity. "What am I missing?" I asked her.

I could see that glow around Rarity's horn, and a red rose comes in from the flower pot. "Why, you're missing that red rose for you of course!" Rarity said. "I think it would be so splendid and make you two times as lovely!"

"Rarity, I do appreciate the offer to help me out." I said, trying to not sound too thankful. "But I really think I should just be myself for who I am for this."

Rarity raised a slightly disappointed eyebrow and said "Oh. Okay."

I move my hand onto her left shoulder and place it onto there, looking in her eyes. "I understand Rarity that you just want to help, but you already know that I've thanked you already for the shirts and pants."

Rarity had a look where she was probably thinking, turning her eyes away from mine for a few silent moments. She turned her eyes back towards me after thinking and said "You do prove a point Brayden. Sorry I was being a bit too generous."

"It's alright Rarity." I said, putting a soft smile on my face and giving her shoulder a gentle pat. "Anyways, don't I look ready to go?"

Rarity looks at my outfit. My shirt has the symbol of one of my favorite bands while I was back on Earth called "Dream Theater" and I am wearing black denim pants and fancy black shoes. She says "It's a surely different style that I have seen, but nevertheless will be great for such an event like this."

"Thank you Rarity, and again thanks for making this outfit for me," I said to her, smiling. I turn my head towards Fluttershy. She is standing at the door and waiting for me and Rarity. "What about you Fluttershy? What do you think of my outfit?"

"I think it looks awesome!" Fluttershy said in her soft and gentle voice with that smile on her face.

I smile back at her and then turned to Rarity and said "Well, it sounds like I'm just about ready to go."

That same smile is still perked on my friend's face and she says "Let's not waste any time then, you should go get your guitars and bring them along."

"Good idea. I seem to somewhat forget at even the most important times." I said, starting to walk forward towards my bedroom door.

I take my steps outside of my bedroom and turn to the staircase on my right. I slowly descend down the stairs with my left hand gently holding onto the wooden staircase railing. I could already see my two guitars being acoustic and electric, being placed into the leather gig bags by Fluttershy's little bunny, Angel. I step off of the stairs and walk towards my guitars in their proper bags, set up completely by him. That's funny, because Angel is usually so bossy.

"Uh, thank you Angel." I said to him, with him nodding his head and smiling.

I grab onto the handles of the gig bags and pick them up. I'm surprised that even a small bunny knows how to properly close them shut as well. I place them behind me on my back and could see Rarity and Fluttershy coming down from upstairs.

"Alright girls, I'm just about ready to go. For real this time." I said to the two of my friends, smiling. I then walk over to Fluttershy's front door. My left hand reaches out for the doorknob, grabbing a hold onto it. I give it a turn to the right, and pull open the door slowly. I turn to both of my friends and said "After you two."

Fluttershy and Rarity proceed towards the door and I allow them to go through first. "Thank you Brayden." Rarity says to me when walking past into the outdoor behind Fluttershy. I then walk around the door after Rarity and closed the door behind me.

I began to walk with my two friends away from the cottage and onto the trail. The sunset seems to release a glow of twilight in the warm night sky. The stars slowly fade into my view of the mixture of dark purple and the faded orange coloured sky. I thought I could see a tiny bit of the stars dancing about slightly on their own.

"Rarity?" I turned my head to her and asked. She turns her head towards me, and seems to keep her smile. "Did I tell you that I ended up telling Twilight my feelings to her?"

Rarity seemed to put on a happy gasp, and I heard her say "And what did she say, Brayden?"

I nodded my head and said "She was quite happy to hear that I liked her, and I think she also told me that she liked me as well. I'm officially her boyfriend."

"Boy… friend?" Fluttershy asked me out of curiosity. I then remembered that I would have to put it into pony slogan of what it was.

"Umm, well… it's the other world's equivalent of this world's term in 'special somepony' or 'mare-friend'." I explained to Fluttershy, turning my head from Rarity and to my other friend.

"I see." Fluttershy just simply says to me.

"Well anyways Brayden, I'm proud of you for being brave and telling her." Rarity said to me, placing her white right hoof onto my left hand. I turn towards my friend and look at her.

"Thank you Rarity." I said to my friend and gave her a pat on the back.

Rarity nods smiling, saying "No problem Brayden." She pauses for a few moments while we continue to walk together and then finally she speaks up. "Brayden, Fluttershy? I have something to tell you."

"Yes?" Both me and Fluttershy happen to say at the same time.

"You see, me and a friend of mine named Coco Pommel are going to show off my latest design to the Canterlot Fashion Archives in a few weeks and I was wondering if any of you would like to go with me and her for company? Princess Celestia even promised us rooms while we're there staying at her castle." Rarity asks the both of us, and sounds quite serious about this. And when Rarity means serious, she does mean 'serious business' when it comes to her fashion line.

"Well, I don't know if I can go Rarity…" Fluttershy says to her, sounding like she was trying not to disappoint her. "I've got quite a schedule. Wait, when is it in?"

"Three weeks." Rarity said quickly to remind Fluttershy.

"Three weeks?" Fluttershy said sounding quite a bit surprised when she heard this. "Oh my… I do have to stay behind and take care of the animals and I promised to go and take them on an expedition at White Tail Woods."

Rarity looks at me and I look into her azure eyes. "Brayden dear, are you able to go along with me to Canterlot?"

I began to think for a moment. Me going with Rarity and Coco Pommel her friend who I met yesterday at the pool to Canterlot? This was something to think about. A couple of pros for this situation would probably be getting to see my friend Princess Luna, and her sister Princess Celestia. Well, for Celestia it would most likely be brief since I would suspect that she is a bit busy with her role as leader of Equestria. Not to mention the beautiful scenery in the city of Canterlot. But one con that I'd probably have to deal with is all the snobbish unicorns around just scorning me for looking different from them. I'm not sure, I'll have to give this opportunity some thought.

"Well, I'll think about it Rarity, but it sounds like a great idea!" I said to her. A smile perks up on her face again.

She says "Alright Brayden, take all the time you need to think about this. But please do so quickly, I don't want it to just be me and Coco Pommel. Besides her, I'll also be taking Sweetie Belle with me, so you'll have somepony to accompany you when you need them to."

"So it'd be four for the party if I join? Still, I'll give it some thought." I said to Rarity, keeping my promise to tell her my decision as soon as I could before the three weeks were up.

The view of Ponyville comes up in the distance when I turn back forward, and I could see the lights on in everypony's homes shining bright. Most of the ponies and the rest of their families were most likely having their supper. I didn't have to worry about eating supper since I got to have mine a little early when Rarity came to Fluttershy's cottage since she wanted to help me get ready, even though she already made the clothing for me. I told her that it was all right and could do it by myself and she didn't seem to object. She had allowed me to do so.

The three of us trot up over the stone bridge and back to enter town and there were a few ponies around on their evening stroll or probably getting ready to go and see everypony else perform at the Diamond Mare. I could see a few of the other ponies I knew walking about as well such as Time Turner, who I should one day ask him if he is a time-lord. At the same time, he'd most likely be confused on what I was talking about if I asked him that. It's not my fault that back on Earth, the show "Doctor Who" reminded me of him.

Another pony that I knew was Lyra Heartstrings, a unicorn that I've most likely ran into at least two times now. When she saw me, a huge smile came alight upon her face and she rose up a hoof and began waving to me. I raised my hand and waved back to her. Her golden eyes seem so innocent and huge, forming probably the cutest look anypony would ever see. If anyone else saw that face, it would probably give them a heart attack of "Oh my god, how cute!"

I turn my head down the street towards where the Diamond Mare would be located. I turn towards that direction and proceed with Rarity and Fluttershy down the street. There is a small line-up being formed outside of the building with a couple of the ponies I know and a few other citizens in town.

Me, Fluttershy and Rarity line up at the back near the entrance into the Diamond Mare. A few of the ponies in front of us talk about their daily lives to one another, including what they did that morning and afternoon. All seemed to be peaceful and all of the three of us were remaining quiet. I did have one thing on my mind though, was Twilight going to miss out on my performance or was she here already?

"Psst! Hey you!" I could hear somepony call out to me. I turn my head and could one of the managers pointing towards the door for those who were performing on stage. "Didn't you see the sign silly?" He says with a chuckle.

I turn towards my friends Rarity and Fluttershy and look at them both. "Wish me luck girls, I'm heading backstage to prepare." I said to the both of them, and open up my arms slightly for hugs from both of them.

The both of them come towards me and wrap one hoof of theirs around me, hugging each one of my two friends with each arm, Fluttershy for my left arm and Rarity for my right arm. After a few moments of sharing the hug, both of us let go and Fluttershy had her hoof on my hand, gently stroking it. "You'll do fine Brayden, don't get nervous as well." She tells me with her soft and kind voice.

I nod and smile at my best friend and she puts down her hoof, and smiles at me. I turn around and start walking towards to the other door I was supposed to go in. The door was already open and I walked into the hallway with the two guitars on my back in their gig bags.

The walls in the hallway were light yellow coloured wood with streaks of orange on them as well. The tiles down below my feet were that of clear and green stones. Ahead of me was a single door where I could see a group of other stallions sitting there, with a few mares. I entered the waiting room and already upon stepping in, I could feel myself starting to shake from nervousness.

You see, when I'm at a talent show and they call my name to start performing, I'm already as nervous as a school filly performing at a 1st Grade talent show. It always feels like I'm being called to my death when really, I was going to perform in front of others including the people I knew. It's always a serious matter. But in the end, some of it all turns out good. I will always be so nervous and have a bit of stage-fright always.

I just take my seat on the wooden bench and look at the other ponies who'll be in the talent show as well. Stallions and mares all had acoustic guitars on them, but with the exception of me and a few other ponies, I have both an electric and an acoustic guitar. I begin to take the guitars out of my bag and lay them down close to me to keep them with me.

---

It's a few hours later and the show had already started and I'm still sitting there, feeling as nervous as a billy goat. I decided to take a peek at who the current performer on stage was. I walk slowly over near the curtains and take a small glance at who it was.

It was tonight's host for the show named "Cheese Sandwich". He was speaking in a voice that sounded like a famous artist who spoofed songs back on Earth and made them funny. He was telling a few funny jokes and stories that were short, before eventually announcing who was up next on stage. I also remembered him from the episode "Pinkie Pride".

"Alright, we got another act coming right up just for all of you! I'm surprised that these three little fillies managed to get together and start to sing this song just for you! I give you next… the Cutie Mark Crusaders!" Cheese Sandwich announces to the audience and getting some claps in audience to welcome the next act. Finally, when the spotlight isn't on him I could see Cheese Sandwich move away from the microphone on the stand and turn towards me, trotting.

"Ah, you must be the human that I've heard about through all of Equestria, all the way from Manehattan. The name's Cheese Sandwich." He says to me and extends his hoof out for a hoofshake, or rather well… a handshake from me.

I grab onto his gamboge hoof and began to give it a shake. "It's nice to meet you Cheese Sandwich, I think I recall Pinkie Pie mentioning you one day." I said to him.

"Pinkie Pie told you?" Cheese Sandwich asked, sounding a bit curious. This is just on time to let Pinkie come into the conversation when I saw her pass through under the curtain, surprising the both of us.

"Well, you see Cheese, Brayden here came from another world where he has been watching us on moving pictures called television." Pinkie explained to Cheese Sandwich, leaving me with a face palm with my own hand that Pinkie probably blew my cover. With Twilight and the other friends, it wasn't so bad. But with other civilians in Equestria, this was probably going to be bad.

"From another world, you say?" Cheese Sandwich said, putting on a smile. "Well this is super fantastic! And I'm guessing there's a special somepony out there in the audience for you to sing to?"

I gulped and the nervousness began to grow inside me even more. "How- how did you know?" I asked, shaking a bit.

"Aw, look at Brayden. He's a bit nervous about being on stage." Pinkie said, wrapping a hoof around me. "Well don't you worry one bit Brayden, because I'm sure that you'll do just fine on stage on whichever song you'll be singing."

"Thanks Pinkie." I said to her, bringing a small smile to my face. "You always lighten up my day when I feel down."

"No problemo." Pinkie said, and jumped back through the red curtain, disappearing probably into the crowd to join with her other friends.

"Does she always come out of nowhere?" I asked Cheese Sandwich, turning and looking at him.

"Well, it's sort of a thing with her I guess." Cheese admits. "It's kinda like how she has a Pinkie sense, and taking inspiration from her, I have Cheesy sense."

"Ah, no wonder something smelled Cheesy." I said jokingly, but not in a way to offend Cheese Sandwich. The both of us just stand there looking at each other for a few moments, then I realized that was a bad joke I pulled about him. "Okay that was a bad joke, I apologize."

"It's no problem Brayden. I can see what you did there." Cheese says, still having his smile on.

There was a round of applause outside after the song with the Cutie Mark Crusaders was finished, and I poke my head around towards the stage and saw the three of them bowing to the audience and finally leaving on the opposite side of the stage. Cheese Sandwich turns around and starts to hit the stage once again.

I decide that now would be a good chance to pick up my guitars and get ready. I turn around towards the bench that my two guitars are laying on, and I walk over briskly to the both of them. I put each of the two straps around each shoulder and carry them with me over by near the stage.

"What a fantastic performance by these three little fillies!" Cheese Sandwich exclaims happily. "And now, for our next act we have somepony awesome who'll be performing two songs for the crowd, and for a special somepony out there in the crowd!"

I gulped nervously, I still remember having a bit of stage fright. "Brayden!" Cheese Sandwich called out, and it felt like the Grim Reaper was already calling my name. Cheese Sandwich trots backstage and can see how nervous I am now that I was up next.

"Come on Brayden, you can do it! You're not going to chicken out on me, are you?" Cheese Sandwich says to me, giving a nudge on my left shoulder.

I turn and look at Cheese Sandwich and then turn to the stage, walking forward into the view of the crowd, with a few of the audience still applauding me and cheering me on.

I look about quickly to see who was in the audience watching me. I could see the five of my other friends just whistling and cheering my name in the back, and Lyra was up close near the stage applauding with her two hooves clapping together. But I could see my mare-friend in the back with my five other friends, just watching me with an admirable smile and watching me.

I place my electric guitar down against the drum kit gently and straighten up the acoustic guitar strap to keep a grip on it. Cheese brings out a wooden stool with a comfortable leather top for me to sit on. I walk over to the stool and sit down onto it gently, facing the audience with the microphone in front of me.

"Alright, this is the song for that special somepony out there. I recently have told my own true feelings to her two days ago, and I felt like singing this song. It's a tune back on Earth that I knew and it's called… True." I said into the microphone.

Everypony started to clap their hooves, ready to hear me sing. I take out a guitar pick from my pocket and begin to strum out the chords on my guitar. I strum out a few chords and then finally move my mouth a distant from the microphone and begin to sing.

I won't talk, I won't breathe

I won't move 'til you finally see

That you belong with me

You might think I don't look

But deep inside, in the corner of my mind

I'm attached to you

I'm weak, it's true

Cause I'm afraid to know the answer

Do you want me too?

Cause my heart keeps falling faster

I've waited all my life

To cross this line

To the only thing that's true

So I will not hide, it's time to try

Anything to be with you

All my life I've waited

This is true

You don't know what you do

Everytime you walk into the room

I'm afraid to move

I'm weak, it's true

I'm just scared to know the ending

Do you see me too?

Do you even know you met me?

I've waited all my life

To cross this line

To the only thing that's true

So I will not hide, it's time to try

Anything to be with you

All my life I've waited

This is true

I know when I go

I'll be on my way to you

The way that's true...

I've waited all my life

To cross this line

To the only thing that's true

So I will not hide, it's time to try

Anything to be with you

All my life I've waited

This is true

The audience began to roar with applause, cheering my name and whistling. I could tell that they really enjoyed my performance. Even the five of my friends were cheering, clapping their hooves and smiling at me. I could hear trotting on my left, and I turn and could see that special somepony in front of me by my side.

Twilight has the happiest smile on her face, and it was probably the cutest smile that has come from my mare-friend. Me and her gaze at each other, smiling at one another. Her eyes were shining like stars while I gazed into her beautiful eyes.

Twilight opens up her right wing and puts it around me, pulling me closer towards her. She moves her head forward and gently starts to kiss me on my lips. I could already hear most of the audience going "Awww!" and chanting for me to kiss her back! I close my eyes slowly and start to share this moment between me and Twilight.

I move my right hand slowly over to her mane, and begin to gently stroke it carefully. My eyes are still closed and my lips are still on Twilight's. The audience continues to applause and a few begin to chant "Encore! Encore!"

I finally open my eyes and let go of the kiss that Twilight gave to me. We both smile at each other again. "Thank you so much Brayden." She says to me and she sounds more than happy, she felt loved and there was a small blush on both of her cheeks.

"I'll come see you when I'm all done with this last song Twi." I said to her, and she kept her smile while trotting off of the stage and back to her friends to watch me.

I finally put down my acoustic guitar and pick up my electric guitar and plug it into the nearby amplifier, turning it on. Another thing surprises me, but I ended seeing two bulk earth ponies come onto the stage with me, taking the drums and the other carrying a bass guitar. "We'll cover with you." The bulk earth pony on the drums says to me.

I nod and turn back to the audience already chanting for an encore from me. "Alright, you want an encore everypony?!"

Everypony in the audience begins to shout it out loud, and are cheering and clapping their hooves. "Alright then, this song comes from where I was born, and everyone there knows it!" I called out to the audience, and then pointed to Cheese Sandwich. "Hit the synth, Cheese!"

Cheese smiled at me and hit the synth, bringing in a deep sound and the drums starting to beat behind me. I look at the audience once again and begin to sing.

A modern day warrior

Mean, mean stride

Today's Tom Sawyer

Mean, mean pride

Though his mind is not for rent

Don't put him down as arrogant

His reserve, a quiet defense

Riding out the day's events

The river

What you say about his company

Is what you say about society

Catch the mist, catch the myth

Catch the mystery, catch the drift

The world is, the world is

Love and life are deep

Maybe as his skies are wide

Today's Tom Sawyer

He gets high on you

And the space he invades

He gets by on you

No, his mind is not for rent

To any god or government

Always hopeful, yet discontent

He knows changes aren't permanent

But change is

What you say about his company

Is what you say about society

Catch the witness, catch the wit

Catch the spirit, catch the spit

The world is the world is

Love and life are deep

Maybe as his eyes are wide

Exit the warrior

Today's Tom Sawyer

He gets high on you

And the energy you trade

He gets right on to

The friction of the day

Everypony went into applause when the song was finished, and were clapping their hooves and whistling. I finally went close to the edge of the stage and took a bow with the other ponies that joined me for the second song. I then grabbed the both of my guitars and walked towards the small steps and off of the stage.

I turned to my right and towards the table where my friends were, and they looked so proud of me. Pinkie Pie was so excited to see me and she came right up to me.

"You were super-duper-fantastic!" Pinkie said to me bouncing up and down, sounding very happy as she was almost every time I came to visit her at the Sugarcube Corner.

I had to chuckle a bit and said "Thank you Pinkie." I opened up my arms and hopped towards me, putting her hooves around me and gave her a gentle and friendly hug. I let go of the hug after a few moments and came up to my other friends.

"Ah didn't know ya had it in ye, Brayden!" Applejack tells me, smiling.

"That was absolutely perfect Brayden!" Rarity says. "You should really consider singing more. It definitely suits you."

Rainbow Dash's face was struck with awesomeness and gets up off of her chair, flapping her wings and approaches me, saying "That was amazing Brayden, the best performance that I've ever seen!"

"Thank you Rainbow Dash." I said to her, opening my arms and giving Rainbow a gentle and friendly hug. I let go of the hug and nod to her once more before turning to Fluttershy. "What about you Fluttershy? What did you think?"

My best friend placed her hooves together, thinking for a moment. "Me? I thought… it was amazing!" She says to me in a happy, soft voice.

I smiled at her, and then came to the table and take my seat next to Twilight. She is smiling at me and her right front hoof is on the table. I gently move my hand towards her soft hoof and take a hold of it, holding her hoof. She moves her hoof being held onto off the table, allowing my hand and her hoof to be held together, dangling.

"What did you think of the second song Twi?" I asked her, asking what she thought of it.

Twilight looks at me and says "All two of your choice of songs was perfect. You sing so beautifully Brayden." Her tone of voice sounds more like a flirt.

"Thanks." I said, blushing a bit.

She interrupts my blushing with a small kiss on my right cheek, causing me to blush even more. She's giggling at me when she sees how pink and rosy my cheeks are. "Oh Brayden, you look so adorable looking like that." Twilight flirts.

"Well, when I see you, it's like… seeing the mare of my dreams." I said to her, sounding a bit happy. After saying that, I start to let out a soft yawn which Twilight catches notice to.

"Are you tired out Brayden?" Twilight says to me, knowing how tired I am from playing and preparing all day.

"Yeah…" I said tiredly with a smile on my face. Even my eyelids could tell that I was starting to get a bit sleepy.

Twilight gently rubs her hoof on my hand that she's holding onto and says to me. "Well, I think you should earn that rest now. I think you've earned it, and you've earned something from me."

I raised an eyebrow and said "Earned something?"

Twilight moves hear head forward and plants a small kiss on my lips. She moves back her head after the kiss and is still smiling, saying "That is what you earn."

I smile at Twilight for a few moments and then turn to Fluttershy, looking tired. Fluttershy looks at me and gently pats me on the right shoulder, saying "Alright Brayden, you probably had your best night ever in Equestria, so you must be worn out."

"That I am." I said tiredly.

Fluttershy gets up off of her chair and says "Alright then, I'll let you get back for some rest. Don't want you to fall asleep or be grouchy in the next morning if you don't have a good night's rest."

I'm about to get up, but I realize that I forgot to ask Twilight something important. So I turn back to Twilight and begin to look at her. "Twilight…" I asked in a tired, but happy voice.

"Yes Brayden?" She asks me, looking into my brown eyes.

I gulp for a moment and then say "If… if you're not busy sometime before I go to Canterlot with Rarity, Sweetie Belle and one of her friends… would, would you like to go on a date with me?"

Twilight thinks about this for a moment, and smiles at me and says "I'm flattered that you could ask this, of course I'd love to go on a date with you."

I smile at her and said "Alright, sweet! I'll give some thought what we'll do on our date… uhh, when should it be?"

"You don't have to set up a time to see me Brayden, you can come at any time when I'm not busy. But remember, if you're ever in trouble… I'll always be there if you need me." Twilight says to me, taking both of her front hooves and holding my two hands gently.

"Thanks Twi." I said to her and I gently move towards her forehead and give her a kiss. "You have a good night Princess."

"Alright, sleep well Brayden." Twilight says to me, winking.

I smile at her one more time, and then turn around back to Fluttershy, beginning to walk alongside her out of the Diamond Mare and through the town, to head back to her home. But I had only one terrific thought coming to my mind, this has been the best night ever for me.

Good night Equestria, as usual I shall see you all again tomorrow.

A/N: Dream Theater, Rush and Pink Floyd can't stop inspiring me to write new chapters! They're great music! xD Yes, I finally got to see them perform in concert this month, and they did a fantastic show. This chapter has a bit of based on ideas that I wrote into a piece of paper.

zaxman22: OC requests? This story doesn't have that. Sorry.

jeremy1555: Wait, what? I don't remember putting in typos. It's okay if you're not a fan of HiE fics.

Minnow the Lear Macaw: Hey, thanks! :)

godzillafan1: Oh okay. But does Twilight really love Brayden? You'll find out soon enough! :D

P.S. Is anyone reading this also using DeviantArt? I could use a change of the cover to Learning To Live. Interested in drawing something related to the story? Message me for details on what my character looks like.

---

I open up my eyes slowly, letting the blur come out quickly. Yep, it's just my usual wake-up call each time the sun starts to rise out through the windows. I gently grab a hold of the sheets and pull them off of me, moving them across from me and not off the bed. I move up slowly up off the bed, and take a quick stretch. I finally turn around and face my bed, bending down a little to grab the bed sheets I took off me and pull them back onto the bed. After straightening the sheets, I place the pillow at the top of the bed.

I finally turn around and start walking forward slowly towards my bedroom door. I grab onto the gold painted doorknob with my right hand, and gently pull it open. The light comes in from the other side of the door and shines on into my room. I walk out of the room, grabbing onto the other handle on the opposite side of the door and pull it shut.

I turn towards the stairs, walking slowly towards them. I grab onto the handle on my right and begin to descend down the stairs into the living room. I was quite surprised; normally it's sometimes filled with a few animals, so it was quiet. I had also noticed that Fluttershy wasn't here, since she mostly is here.

"Fluttershy?" I called out, but not too loud since knowing how shy she could be, it could scare her a bit. No answer though.

I decided to go and look for her around the cottage, so I decided to check the bathroom first just in case she wasn't using it. It would be rather embarrassing if I walked in while she was using it, and wouldn't know how she'd react. I walk up the stairs again and walk towards the bathroom. I slowly move my hand towards the doorknob and grab on it. I turn the doorknob to the right, and push open the door.

Strange, Fluttershy isn't in here as well. The bathroom does look quite clean though with the sun's rays rising into the room brightly reflecting off onto the clear bathroom tiles, giving it a shine. I close the door gently, and begin to walk back towards the stairs.

I made my way down the stairs and had my eyes on the door into the kitchen. My feet glide along down the wooden steps onto the floor of that same wood, and go forward into the kitchen. I begin to peek a bit around the kitchen and could see that she wasn't in here as well. But a piece of paper with writing lying on the counter caught my eye and I walked briskly into the kitchen to see what it said.

I approached the counter and took a look down at the note. I couldn't really see the writing that well in the dim room. I guess Celestia's sun didn't light up the room all the way for me to see what Fluttershy wrote. I moved my right hand and grabbed the piece of paper. I moved towards the nearby window, letting the sun's rays shine onto the paper. I could see the writing a little better now. I took a look, and began to read.

"Dear Brayden, if you have found this letter I have gone out of the cottage. I have gone to Cloudsdale for the day with Rainbow Dash to attend a special show with the Wonderbolts. I left breakfast for you in the fridge and you're ready for lunch, the supplies should be in the fridge. I'll be back in the evening. Fluttershy."

I place the note gently down onto the table in front of me and turn my head towards the fridge. I approach the fridge and put my left hand onto the silver handle. I give it a tug and it pulls open, seeing the various majorities of fruits, dairy products and anything nutritious in there. I could see my breakfast in a wooden bowl of fresh salad leaves with fruits and nuts included. I won't go into much detail though.

I ended up taking it out of the fridge and eating it, as I usually did for any other breakfast when getting up out of bed. After I was finished my breakfast, I took my bowl over to the sink and began to wash it out, and then dry it. When I finished drying the bowl, I put it back into the cupboard, and closed the cupboard door.

A flash of white light quickly fills the room to have me nearly fall over. It was just Discord in front of the kitchen door, dressed in a bathrobe. He must have taken quite a bath.

I turn towards him and get some breath out. "Discord?" I asked him, while he slithers his way towards me in a snake form.

"Why yes Brayden, it is I." Discord says to me while he coils around me in snake form, then transforms back into his draconequus form. "It's surprising to see you as well. I just arrived here to see if Fluttershy was around."

"She's gone up with Rainbow Dash to Cloudsdale to see a show for the Wonderbolts, so it's just me." I said, pulling off a sheepish grin.

"I see." Discord says, raising an eyebrow. "I suspect she'll be back soon-"

"She's coming back in the evening." I spoke out, interrupting what Discord was saying.

Discord just goes back to a normal expression and looks at me with some sort of smile on his face. "So, how did your 'date' with Princess Twilight go?" He asks me, trying to probably make a fool out of me by the sound of his tone of voice.

"It WASN'T a date." I said to him, trying not to embarrass myself, but my cheeks were already pink.

Discord stretches his head and says "But I heard you asked her out after your special show for her."

"None of your business." I said, turning away from him and trying to ignore his most-likely teasing.

Discord teleports in front of me and says "Oh come now Brayden, I was there in the crowd singing to her. I even cheered for you, remember? Isn't that what friends are for?"

"Well, you did help me in confessing my true feelings to Twi, and I'm happy that you could help me out. She really enjoyed the roses you suggested that I give her." I said.

"That's one thing." Discord says, pointing to me with his eagle claw. He teleports in quick white flashes over to the fridge and pulls it open. He grabs a plate with a fresh picked corn on the cob and starts to chew into it.

"It's unusual. You're eating something that's dinner related for breakfast." I said curiously, raising an eyebrow. Discord just looks at me kind of awkwardly and just shrugs and continues to eat his dinner, I mean breakfast.

I could hear knocking at the front door to tell that somepony was trying to reach for Fluttershy. I walk towards the front door, leaving the kitchen with Discord in there. I mean, he's able to take care of himself. But I wondered where he lives when he isn't at Fluttershy's cottage, because I recall at one point when she mentioned that she and him send each other letters.

I approach the front door and grab onto the handle with my right hand, turning the knob and pulling it open. I could see three recognizable fillies standing at my door. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. I smiled when I saw their bright and smiling faces.

"Hi Brayden!" Apple Bloom says to me, waving. "We just came by and see if Fluttershy was around, we wanted to ask her a question."

"Sorry girls, but she went off with Rainbow Dash to Cloudsdale to see a Wonderbolts show." I told them.

All three of the girls went "aww" in disappointed tones of voice and lowered their heads. But Sweetie Belle raises her head and has a smile to tell that she had an idea.

"Say, why don't we ask Brayden?" She says to both of her two friends.

Apple Bloom says "Great idea!" She finally turns towards me with the bright smile back on her face. "Well, we were going to ask Fluttershy if she could give us any ideas for what to bring to Show and Tell, but I think we could use you for our Show and Tell. You could meet our teacher Cheerilee!"

I began to think for a moment. Fluttershy was out for the day and I wasn't sure what everypony else was doing, so a Show and Tell wouldn't be too bad. I turned back to the girls and said "Well, I haven't done those since I was a little kid."

"Come on Brayden, you won't regret it!" Scootaloo says in an assuring voice.

I look at the three for a few moments. I could tell that they seemed to need my assistance. I finally nod my head and say "Of course, I'll help the both of you girls."

"Alright!" The three of them said.

I walked through the front door and closed it behind me when I left the cottage. I begin to follow alongside the three crusaders, between Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. I don't really notice Discord waving to me from the window, and then moving away from the window to most likely relax at the cottage.

"So, what do you think we'll do on our next crusading today?" Scootaloo said to Apple Bloom.

Apple Bloom began to think for a moment, and then said "Well, we could try Treasure hunting."

"Treasure hunting? Girls, that's only in the deep dark dungeons and doing that is dangerous." I said to them. "Why not try something safe like fishing?"

"We tried that already." Sweetie Belle said to me. "All I could say about doing that though, was that it wasn't a catchy bite." I could see what joke she pulled right there.

"Well, just suggesting." I said, shrugging.

I turned towards one of my favorite crusaders, Scootaloo. She seemed rather happy, as she always was. I don't think I've ever seen her sad since I first came to Equestria. If she was sad, I would probably do everything in my path to make her happy again, even though that's Pinkie's job to make them all smile. But you could probably say that I get inspired by my friends.

"It was fun swimming with you and Rainbow Dash two days ago." I said to Scootaloo.

Scootaloo looked at me when I started to make conversation with her. "Did you see how fast I was swimming? I try to use my wings to paddle when I can, even though I'm still trying to learn to fly."

"And I'm sure you'll master that soon enough!" I said, sounding very encouraging. "We should hang out again sometime soon, who knows what fun things we'll do next time."

"Yeah, we could probably try…" Scootaloo says and pauses for a moment to think. "Well, I'll let Rainbow Dash decide, since I already made the decision to have us swim."

I nod my head in agreement and continue to walk alongside the crusaders, moving my head back forward. It seemed like a peaceful walk, fillies and foals were trotting alongside the trail with their parents and enjoying the beautiful morning sunrise Celestia brought forth. It was just like any other school day for them, since it was a Monday and they were back in school after a nice weekend. A few of the parents that I happened to see were Derpy Hooves, her daughter Ditzy, and a young light tan mare with a light-brown coloured mane with light blue eyes. Her coat seemed to look like the colour of a usual human from my world.

"My, loads of foals 'n' fillies out today." I said, observing the movement of the parents and their kids even though it was different. It did remind me of when I was in elementary school, but I won't tell you the name of it.

---

I could see the schoolhouse in the distance coming up, and it looked just like how it was pictured in the show. The school bell was at rest at the top of the building, just waiting to be rung at any time for the children to come in for their morning to afternoon lesson. A few of the fillies were interacting with each other past the fence on the school yard, chatting with one another of how their morning went, taking turns on the swings, and that many other stuff. It brought back the sweet memories of my innocent childhood, stopping me from moving to reflect on it.

I remembered being just a little kid in third grade. I felt so happy and free when at elementary. The only downside was that because of my so-called gift, I wasn't able to make any friends. And if I did, I would hardly talk to them since I would daydream off into my own world, picturing myself on an adventure in my mind.

Somepony tugs on my hand and it interrupts my reflection. I take a look down to who was tugging onto my hand and could see Sweetie Belle. It was just like when I first met her when I first arrived, but I think she was trying to just snap me out of my own train of thought to focus onto what was really happening.

"You okay Brayden?" She asks me, and she seems kind of concerned.

I bend down on one knee, and get close to her level. "I'm fine Sweetie Belle. I… I was just reflecting on my past life as a kid." I told her, sounding happy.

Sweetie had a curious look on her face. "What did you do as a foal?" She asks.

I chuckle a bit at the 'foal' mention. "Well Sweetie, I'm not really a foal. It's pronounced as child from my world. Back then, I was just an innocent kid who felt care-free of all the troubles around me. I would go into my own imagination a lot as a kid, drawing out images of childhood figures." I explained to her.

"Wow! You were that happy?" Sweetie Belle says, putting out the squeaks as she spoke.

I felt the downside to this memory coming in, and I begin to look a bit sad. "Well… not really, you see… I never had any friends at that age." I said.

Sweetie Belle softly gasped, placing her hoof close to her mouth. I could tell she was already feeling bad about me telling this. "You… never had friends?" She asks in a tone that sounds close to a whisper.

"Yes. No matter how hard I tried, it was never really official. I'd always be acquaintances with them since they were busy with their own friends. They also seemed to care less about what happened to me when I have my outbursts." I explained to her.

"Outbursts?" Sweetie Belle asks me. "Were you angry back then?"

"No, it was just mere frustration. And I've had friends who would run off and betray me behind my back in the middle school years. Mostly in Grade 6 though." I told her, and then turn away slightly. "I don't really want to talk about it though, it brings up bad memories. But it wasn't until high school where I finally got some friends."

"And were they good?" She asks again, putting on a smile.

I begin to form a smile on my face and say "Oh yes, they were some nice people and had the best of friends in that world. But I can't help but wonder what is happening there on Earth while I'm gone? I hope they're okay."

Sweetie Belle places her hoof onto my hand. I turn back to her slightly, looking at her. "And I'm sure that they're being okay and they're thinking about you." She tells me with the sound of honesty in her voice.

"I hope so Sweetie Belle." I told her, and move my hand to her head, giving her a soft and gentle pat. She gets her hoof off of my hand and I get up and start standing again, unbending my leg.

I walk forward onto the school grounds with the three of my friends, and take a look around at the area. Every filly and foal is among each other, talking to each of their own friends about their morning and what they mostly ate for breakfast before moving onto discussions of things that they were more interested in. I could most notably see the familiar faces I remember from the show.

A few of the school fillies were watching me when I turned my head a bit to both my left and right. It was no doubt that they've caught interest in knowing what I am and who I am. Didn't most of Equestria already hear about my arrival by now? The fillies seemed to have a look of curiosity as if I was shining before them. Then finally a thought related to everypony knowing about me came to me inside, their parents must not have told them about me in their world's presence. Hey, it's not like I'm going to hurt them all. I would never hurt a single character from the show as long as I live, but it's true. I do live in their world now.

But these fillies don't seem to know about my origins and why I'm different from them. I'm watching them under suspicion, and could see a small young foal with brown spots on his white mane approaching me. I turned my focus towards that small foal and I begin to remember who he is. It was none other than the character Pipsqueak.

"Excuse me mister? But aren't you that 'human' that was being told in the newspaper?" Pipsqueak asks me with his British-sound like voice.

I rolled my eyes and smile. "Doesn't everypony know about me by now?" I said in return to him.

"Well it did make me assume that because I caught onto my parents talking about you from the Equestria Times." Pipsqueak said, explaining how somepony small could know about me. Wait, they post newspapers all over Equestria?

I bend down on my knee, lowering my size. "Well, my name is Brayden." I said to Pipsqueak, and reach out my hand for a hand, sorry- hoofshake.

"Pipsqueak's my name." He says to me and shakes my hand with his small hoof. "It's nice to meet you Brayden."

"Nice to meet you too, Pipsqueak." I said to him, putting on a smile.

After the hoofshake, I raise myself up off the ground and take a look at the building itself. The building seems to look serene and looked just like the school that I'd see in any cartoon. Finally, I looked up at the bell and could see the bell's gold coat of paint shining brightly in the daylight under Celestia's sun. It was quite a sight, to be honest. I then turn my head towards the departing parents wishing their filly or foal a good day at school. I took a look at a small dark amber coated foal that had a red and yellow beanie and his mane was the color of moderate tangelo. The same mare with the brown hair and look very human was wishing her son good luck. I open up my ears a bit to hear what the foal's mom was saying.

"Alright Button, you have a good day at school and don't get into any trouble today. You don't want a repeat of last time." His mom said, sounding very caring.

"I know Mom." Button said in a guilty tone of voice that sounded a bit like a kid from a show I watched back on Earth. "But it's not my fault that I had to fight those two foals for my JoyBoy."

Button's mom gave him a quick sharp glare. "Button…" She warned again. "Remember if I hear about something like this happening again, you'll be grounded."

"I'll be on my best behaviour like I always am, Mom." Button said to his mom, and then turned away to trot off towards his friends.

"Have fun!" His mother calls out one last time before trotting off. You know, the whole time I was probably looking at Button's mother the whole time. It was probably because I picked her as my favorite character from the fan animation I saw while back on Earth. I wonder if the second episode had been made of that yet. Some time, just like all the others, I'll have to start interacting and getting to know Button's mother. But what really got me was trying to find out her name. Oh well, I'll know soon enough.

The bell ringing on top of the school caught me off guard and by complete surprise. I knew what this meant when it started to move side by side, ringing that same tone over and over. It was time for the school day to begin. I could see every one of the foals and fillies rushing towards the entrance into the building, fresh for the new lesson that awaits them.

"Come on Brayden!" Scootaloo calls out to me. I walk over toward the three of my friends again and join them while walking into through the school doors.

The room seemed just like I had pictured it in the show. Even Cheerilee's desk was in the right position that I saw it when back on Earth, when I first saw the show. I just followed Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle towards their desks. I watched as they moved onto their chairs and took their seats. I was going to take a seat, but realized that there weren't any seats left. So I was left with standing there waiting for something to happen.

I could hear trotting coming from a slightly open door. I turn my eyes towards that door and could see a mare come in through the door from upstairs, where she was ringing the bell. It was none other than the teacher Cheerilee, looking quite happy with a smile at her students. She then trots past the front of her desk and takes a look at her class, rambling on about their favorite things.

"Alright everypony, calm down now. We're going to warm up our lesson with a Show and Tell, and then we'll be going onto our latest lesson today which will be Math." Cheerilee says.

A few of the ponies including my three friends are groaning. Math? Why would they be complaining about Math? I used to hate it, but I did not seem to realize that I would eventually need mathematical skills when I'm growing up. Especially when it comes to solving out money issues as an adult.

"Well don't complain my little ponies, remember that you always have me in the class, so don't be afraid to ask any problem you may be having." Cheerilee said. "But let's now start off with our Show and Tell. Who wants to go first?"

I began to take a look around and could see everypony getting out their item they selected specifically for the activity. I could see the two bullies of the school, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon taking out a few of their precious jewels they got together. Snips and Snails even had something of their own separately. When I turned to my three friends, they were raising their hooves into the air wanting to start off first.

I turned back to Cheerilee who saw my three friends' hooves in the air, and pointed to them with her hoof. "Ah, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. What do you have to show the class today?" She asks them, looking both curious and happy.

"Well, actually Miss Cheerilee, it's not a thing. It's a He." Apple Bloom said to Miss Cheerilee, then getting up off of her seats with her three friends. Because I'm close between Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo's desks, they got off at the side of rows of desks and I began to follow them all the way to the front of the room.

Cheerilee seems to look a bit rather surprised to see me when I come up with the three eager and young fillies to the front of the classroom. Everypony in the room was looking at me with their amazed and curious eyes, but knowing Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, they just frown about my presence. Especially since I bumped into Diamond at the pool, when hanging out with Rainbow Dash and Scoots.

Apple Bloom pointed a hoof onto my left leg and was looking at the class. "This is our very good friend Brayden. He may look different, but do not be afraid. He's really nice and friendly." I listen to her say and I just smile at the class sheepishly.

Cheerilee approached the girls and said "But what is he though?"

"He's a human." Sweetie Belle spoke out.

Cheerilee looks at me curiously. "I see. But besides that question, I was just wondering if it can speak to us."

"Sure." I said with the joy in my voice.

Cheerilee was now a bit more comfortable now that I was able to speak, and relieved to see how friendly I sounded by the tone. "You probably know my name by now since my students have been calling me now, but I'm Cheerilee." She tells me.

"It's nice to meet you Cheerilee." I told her, and extended my hand to give her a hoofshake. She places her hand onto my hand, I wrap my fingers around her hoof and start shaking her hoof gently.

After a few quick moments of the hoofshake, both of us let go and Cheerilee has that look that seems to know I'm hiding something. "Say, aren't you a little older to be in school?" She asks.

Well, she does prove a bit of a point about me being old, considering my age being 20. I should be in college by now from what Cheerilee was seeing in me. "Well, yes. But…" I said nervously.

"Don't you worry Brayden. I'm not going to throw you out, I'm not that mean. But I reckon that you must be helping out the three of my students with their math work?" Cheerilee stated in a happy tone, giving me a sigh of relief that she wasn't escorting me herself out of the school.

"Sure, I could help with that." I said, taking the offer of helping out Scoots, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom with their work.

Cheerilee looked at the three proud students at the front. "Thank you for introducing me to your friend Brayden. Please go take your seat now so everypony else can have a chance to show what they've got." She tells them.

I follow my friends again to their seats and stand in the row of classroom desks they were in. As usual, not enough chairs for me to sit, so it looks like I'll have to sit on the floor. Somepony behind me taps my shoulder, turning my head to them.

It was only Snips trying to get my attention. His horn was ignited with magic when he was pulling up a chair for me to sit on. I give a smile to the small foal and take my seat on the wooden chair. I turn my head back towards the front of the room, ready to see what math work that the children were doing in their class today. To my guess on the chalkboard, it seemed to be Multiplication problems today.

Cheerilee hands everypony a piece of paper with multiplication problems for them to do. I briefly checked over the worksheet. According to the questions on the sheets, they must have been the type of third-grade school work. This, I could definitely help my friends with.

"Oh great, multiplication? I do not enjoy this kind of math." Scootaloo says quietly within my hearing range. She turns to me with a look of tiresome boredom. "This and Division is the most difficult part of Math to me."

"Don't you worry Scootaloo, I can help to solve the problems." I told her, giving her a soft, gentle pat of confidence on her back. "Now let us see what kind of problems you have."

I took a look with Scootaloo on her worksheet and began to scan over the parts of multiplication she could and couldn't do. She managed to fill in most of the questions that she was able to do all by herself which made me proud to see that she was doing it by herself. The other multiplication questions came by which I knew had me come into action to help her.

"Alright Brayden, I've got a tough one. What is 6 x 6?" She asks me, sounding rather curious about the question.

"Six times six… I think I know this. Okay, Scootaloo. Imagine that I only have six oranges and wanted to have six more pairs of oranges." I guessed. The truth is… I wasn't really as good at Multiplication either. I was only more into addition and subtraction.

Scootaloo was thinking for a moment about the question, and then moved her pencil towards the worksheet, writing down the answer to the question. The answer she had written down was the number "36". I then saw her look at me with a look of smile wondering if she got the right answer. I nod and smile to tell her she is right.

She smiles rather gleefully and begins to write down the questions. I turn my head towards Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom to see how their progress in the work was doing. They seemed to be doing rather fine on their own doing their Multiplication work. I turn my focus back towards Scootaloo to wait for her to ask assistance for a question she had trouble on.

"Psst!"

That whisper raised my head upward a bit; curious of if somepony is trying to get my attention. Or somepony else's attention to tell them something. I take a look at the rows of desks with its busy students working away. But I finally could see a pair of eyes looking at me from another row.

I recognized her face. It was the small filly that I had bumped into at the recreation centre during my swim. Diamond Tiara. When I got into her view of eyes, she signalled for me to come over. I didn't want to cause any trouble and not come over to her, so I decided to just go and see what she had to tell me.

I got up off of my seat and passed in front of Scootaloo, who seemed to wonder where I was going off to. She goes off to the right, leaving the sight of my own eyes. I then get over to Diamond Tiara and bend down on one knee.

"Can I help you Diamond?" I asked her in a hushed quiet voice, keeping to my friendly self and acting as if she needed to have a question fulfilled on her page. I also didn't want to disturb the class.

Diamond Tiara gives me a snitch look. "Why yes, I wanted to tell you something important about me." She tells me.

I worryingly gulp with nervous tensions growing slowly inside. "Y-yes?" I ask again, but sound a bit nervous.

"I just want to tell you that even if you're here to help around Ponyville, remember that you don't even have a cutie mark and you're different from us. But it's not like it'd matter to me. I'd tease you any other way." I watch her say to me, even putting on an evil-like smile to me.

"That… that wasn't very nice Diamond." I told her quietly and with shock, not wanting to raise attention in the classroom.

Diamond Tiara moved her head towards mine, and she looked rather mad as if I said something wrong. "Are you trying to tell on me or something?" She quietly tells me, but in a sharp and angered tone of voice.

I shook my head nervously. "N-no." I said.

"Then stay out of my way, and I won't have to tease you and your friends, the Blank Flank Failures." She says to me, gently patting my head evilly as if I was her pet.

How dare she! She wouldn't just insult my friends just like that, it's the real definition of a true school bully in the classroom. How would she like it if I called her something mean like that, but I'm not going to, since I'm way too nice to hurt anypony. No matter how small, large or mean.

I finally turn around, looking away from Diamond Tiara and start walking back towards the seat next to Scootaloo. I took my seat in the wooden chair again, and took a look at Scootaloo who was eyeing the conversation between me and Diamond.

"You okay?" She asks me, sounding a bit concerned.

I took a look into Scootaloo's concerned and mild worried eyes, giving my own sad look to tell my emotion of aftermath from what Diamond Tiara had said to me. "Not really." I quietly said, but at a good volume for Scootaloo to hear.

Scootaloo turned towards me, placed her friendly left hoof onto my hands and said "What did Diamond say to you?"

I sighed sadly. "She was telling me that she'll tease me, you, Sweetie and Apple Bloom in any way possible. I think she'll tease me more for being different from you guys." I said to her.

"I knew that Diamond was up to something." Scootaloo says, turning down a bit listening to what I said and thinking. She finally turns back to me. "Brayden, don't listen to what Diamond Tiara has told you. Her lies can put you down that easily."

I nod in listening and understanding what advice Scootaloo gave to me. This puts a friendly smile onto my friend and she takes her hoof of my hands and turns back around to continue to do her math schoolwork.

While Scootaloo was busy, I turned my head towards the front of the room, putting Cheerilee into my sight. She was busy reading a book all about mathematical problems related to the topic that everypony in the room was working on. She must seem really focused on today's work in her own classroom.

I begin to think for a moment. She reminded me of one of my teachers in high school, she was rather nice and understood my troubles that went on with me in my life. She would help me with suggestions on how to deal with them when they start to trouble me in the times of being busy, and I'd look upon her for that advice. That's when it struck me; I should try to befriend Cheerilee. She was really nice and knew how to solve a problem when it came.

I get up off of the seat and walk past Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom's desks, heading towards Cheerilee's desk. She doesn't notice me yet since she's dug into the math book she's reading, probably preparing for the next lesson.

"Ummm…" I spoke out a bit, in low volume. Cheerilee's eyes are taken off of the book and onto me. Her left eyebrow rises a bit while she looks at me. "Hi?"

Cheerilee lets out a bit of a smile and signals me to come with her. She gets up off of her desk and opens the door on her right into another room. I walked slowly forward towards the door she came through and pushed the door open a bit slowly and softly.

It was Cheerilee's office at the back of the Ponyville School. The room was brightly lit by Celestia's sun in the afternoon sky. A desk of mahogany sat by the four-paneled windows on the right side of the room, where Cheerilee was standing by, waiting for me. I close the door quietly behind me and walk over near Cheerilee, close to one of the chairs in front of her desk. She uses her hoof to grab a hold of her chair by her desk.

"Take a seat Brayden." She tells me, sounding pretty happy to see me.

I nod in acknowledgement and turn towards the single leather seat, turning around to face Cheerilee again, lowering down and sitting down onto the soft leather. Cheerilee then scoots a bit closer to talk to me.

"First off Brayden, I want to know something." Cheerilee said to me. I gulped, fearing she would wonder why I was being just friends with Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom as something different among them. She puts on a smile and places her hoof onto my shoulder. "Brayden, you don't have to worry about anything."

I lowered my head a bit and said "I know, but ever since Fluttershy found me… I keep thinking that not everypony here in Equestria will approve of my presence."

"Brayden, do you really think I'd hate you?" Cheerilee said to me, still keeping her smile on her own face. "You've been helping out my students too well, and you're friends with at least three of them? I think even the others are impressed."

"I'm not so sure about Diamond Tiara though." I said to her, finally looking up back at her again. "She's sort of telling me she'll bully me every chance she runs into me."

"She did?" Cheerilee said, sounding a bit concerned.

I sighed a bit softly and sadly, saying "Yes, but I can deal with her behaviour. Why is she teasing my friends anyway? She's been doing to for… who knows how long."

"Don't let her bug you. You seem like a great… what are you?" She asks.

"Human." I stated.

"Oh yeah, I heard about you!" She says happy again. Hasn't everypony heard about me already? "Well anyways, you seem like a great human to befriend."

"Well, I was just about to ask you that when I got up from helping Scoots to talk to you." I said to her. "I was wondering if we could be friends."

"Of course Brayden. I'm friends with mostly everypony here in town, so it's good to make another friend." She tells me.

I smile now and say "Alright."

Both me and Cheerilee both share what bronies in my previous world called 'brohoof' and smile in friendly ways at each other. I then turned my focus off of her and a thought began to cross into my own head.

"What is it?" Cheerilee asked.

"Nothing…" I told her, I didn't want to tell her about my gift.

She places her hoof onto my hand. "Brayden, please do tell me." She said, caring in a friendly way.

"Well, one thing that I didn't want to tell you is that I have a gift that I was born with. It's called Autism." I confessed to her.

Cheerilee put her hoof off my hand and onto her chin, thinking deeply about my disability. "A disability called Autism, hm? Well, as a teacher, I am quite aware of various disabilities that affect each student both mentally and physically."

My eyebrows rose a bit; disabilities also exist in Equestria too? I had to find out who was like that. "Do you know anypony who has that?" I asked, curious.

"An example of one of them is Scootaloo. She thinks she'll fly one day, but her wings are really short than all of the other pegasi in my class." Cheerilee tells me. Her happy tone had dropped a bit into the sad tone. "I fear she'll never be able to fly."

"She could though!" I said, trying to defend Scootaloo at the same time. "I know she can do it, but learning how to fly through the eyes of a pegasus isn't easy. And I'm no pegasus expert, so…"

"I understand, and you can support her all you can." Cheerilee told me. "It's even rare that she fights with her own friends. But when it happens, they forgive each other in the end."

What Cheerilee said to me had sparked a memory of being back in high school into me. I remember having one of those pointless fights with my best friend, well, until I died in that world. But I hope she is doing okay and well. But for me, it was a flashback into 2012, a bad memory I do not wish to relive. In the same month I went to visit the therapist. But except it was very early, most likely it was the first day in May if I remember.

---

Earth, May 2012

I sat alone in a classroom upstairs staring blankly and depressingly at my computer screen. It wasn't your ordinary classroom that I'd hide in. It was where I'd be able to find my own friend named Alex. Alex wasn't just my ordinary friend, but he was also a brony like me. But with him, I'd sort of consider him more of a 'clopper' in that world because he was obsessed with Rainbow Dash. He was in the same room with me, looking at the picture of the new villain at the time. Queen Chrysalis.

"Holy crap, she looks ugly as hell!" Alex says to me while he's looking at the design of the character. I'm just sitting there blankly, not really responding him. But in my mind, I felt just like Pinkie when she had become Pinkamena in the episode Party of One. I hadn't watched that episode yet, but I know mostly about what it was about.

"You okay?" Alex asks me, just distracted by the characters from the show.

I look sadly at my friend. "No…" I say in a depressed tone of voice.

Alex looked at me and said "Is it a girl?" Even sounding like I have a crush on someone.

"Goddamn it, no." I said, trying to not have it look like there was something going on. "…Okay, yeah. But it's a different scenario."

"What happened? Did you piss her off?" Alex says, sounding ready for any excitement that comes out of my mouth.

I nod my head and said "Well, yes. But now she isn't going to talk to me after what I did. I think I've lost her as a friend. In fact, I don't want her to leave me in pieces."

"So you do like her!" Alex shouts, laughing as if I spilled the beans.

"I said no!" I angrily shouted out, not being satisfied with his joking attitude.

"Oh relax Brayden, she's just a girl! So what if you made her upset? You have me as a friend, and we have yet to hang out at my place to play on Minecraft!" Alex tells me, and then finally leans forward towards me in a creepy yet joking way. "So why'd she get all mad?"

"I couldn't get her what she wanted to get. And now she's mad at me." I said.

"Oh forget about her! She's just trying to manipulate you as a puppet. But please, can we continue to look at pictures of my favorite pony, Rainbow Dash. She's sooooooo sexy." Alex tells me, begging. I just roll my eyes in annoyance.

I eventually surrender to his 'wants' and just proceed to together look at pictures and vectors of Rainbow Dash. And when I mean that Alex is obsessed with Rainbow Dash, he REALLY is obsessed. But luckily for me, he respected the fact that Twilight was my favorite pony and he would call her my waifu. Okay, I wasn't into anime big time, so I didn't know what waifu meant, but when I found out, I was absolutely disgusted. Yes, I had a crush on Twilight, but wouldn't go that far.

"Is Brayden in here?" I could hear a female voice behind me and my head rose up when I heard that similar voice. It was her, my best friend.

I was scared as hell, and knew that she'd probably try to throw me against a wall, and when I mean that, she'll be definitely trying to bitch about how what she wants is more important than other things and how I should have got it. I closed down the lid of my laptop and it somewhat interrupted Alex's daily view of his waifu. "Hey!" He calls out to me.

She finally walked into the classroom with another girl who also happened to be my friend and her friend as well. My best friend, if you're wondering what her name is… happens to be known as Rebecca. Our other friend was named Andrea. Rebecca however looked rather serious when she came into the room. Why did she come here with our friend Andrea, is she also trying get her involved in this fight as well?!

I got up off of my seat and looked at Rebecca who seemed too busy just texting on her own cell phone. "Why did both of you come here?!" I said, sounding very confused and angry at the same time.

"I came because I wanted to, duh!" She told me. The nerve! I didn't like the way she was talking to me. Andrea just stood there with Rebecca, just keeping silent and not wanting to cause trouble.

I approached her and banged my fist on the nearby table in frustration. "I don't want you to follow after I upset you last night, so why must you hover over me and look for me?" I told her, being the most sensitive at the moment.

Rebecca just remained silent and continued to test on her phone, even playing an app on her phone which I didn't care what it was. When I knew she was silent, I could tell that she probably hated me by now and nothing would change that.

"I knew it… you hate me." I told her, just about feeling down again.

"Stop." She just tells me in one word. I felt like my body had shattered just like glass when she said that. It sounded really dark and like she never really cared about me at all. She turns towards the classroom door, and I'm forced to watch her leave the room just in an angry fashion. But she turns back to me and says "I just want my privacy, and it's your fault I couldn't see my favorite thing." Then goes back out quickly, leaving angrily once again.

I must have forgotten by now of my emotional tears that came bursting out of my eyes, and going by the classroom window and weeping my ears out like hell. It was a nightmare placed right into my head, and it is a nightmare that I shall always remember to date. Andrea and Alex just approach me by the window and are trying their best to comfort me, but now I truly felt like Pinkamena that evening and the next day, going crazy without talking to Rebecca.

Eventually, the next day when I felt like I was going crazy, Andrea came to see me in the same room. She was trying to hang out with me. But something else had snapped into my mind the previous day when all hell broke loose. I was letting my imagination get the best of me and decided it would be best if I became a leader to the ponies known as the "Alicorn Master". It was only out of distressed sadness and anger and I knew I couldn't let it control me, even though Rebecca sometimes loves talking and sharing my imagination with me, and I do the same in return. But something felt different about her, it just wasn't her anymore. She became different through my eyes, like she wasn't the Rebecca I knew anymore. But for Andrea, I got to introduce her to the show I watched and she picked her favorite character.

---

I snapped out of my memory and could still remember what was happening, except everything looked like it had changed. Cheerilee looked rather worried and concerned highly about me when she saw the tears in my eyes. Even I could feel the stinging in my eyes from the tears that rolled down my cheeks and dripped onto the wooden planks below us.

"Brayden, are you okay?" Cheerilee said, sounding frightened and concerned. She's never seen me like this before, so this is a first time.

I couldn't let her find out what happened between me and a friend that still upsets me to date, and I began to walk past her. "I have to go." I said to her, sounding really sad and like I was about to burst into tears.

Cheerilee moved alongside me, trying to stop me. "Please Brayden, I need to know." Cheerilee said to me, sounding more concerned than ever.

"Please, I just want to get going." I said, more tears going down and my eyes turning a bit red from the stinging.

"But Brayden-" Cheerilee tried to speak more, but I just went past her and went right past her, opening the door and entering the classroom.

Everypony continued to study their multiplication problems on their worksheet, and Scoots was raising her head from her work to see me come back, noticing the tears that came down my face. I was just turning to the door on the left to leave the classroom. I'm pretty sure, when I peeked my eyes to the right, I could see Diamond Tiara snickering quietly.

I continue forward, walking out of the classroom and school in one. I can't believe I just did that, bursting into tears like that. I am such a fool for doing that! I just continue to walk down the path and away from the school, giving the idea that I wanted to be alone now and not disturbed.

---

I'm sitting down by a peaceful pond under a tree, just crying my head off from the pain. The pond seemed quite peaceful among me, with the soft sound of frogs filling in the afternoon environmental sounds. Two watersnakes dance around in the water forming a unique dance, but I'm never noticing this half the time due to the pain that keeps coming to me from the past.

Oh why! Why did I have to be born with this disability and why do I have to forever live with the bad memories of something that could be forgotten easily in a few weeks' time! If I didn't have it, I could care less about the bad memories that would come to put me down a lot. People have told me before that those will make me stronger, but I don't want to be stronger, I just feel weaker and unable to move on from the mistakes I make and the depression I went through.

A few of the frogs and animals are just looking at me, and I could tell by their faces that they were feeling so bad for me and wanted to help me. I wish they could help, but all of them were smaller than I was. So I just sat there quietly, softly weeping and letting the tears fall.

"Brayden?" A voice calls out.

Wait, I know that voice, it was my special somepony… Twilight. I couldn't let her see my face after last time when I ran off crying into the Everfree Forest. I was almost dead after that. I had to figure out where to hide so she could see my face. I decided to turn to the left side and start hiding. It seemed to be too late though to make that action, she was already in front of me.

She had a look of surprise, concern and caring. Her eyes could give away that she felt really bad for me and what was happening with me. She trots right beside me and sits down right next to me. "Is something wrong Brayden?" She asks me.

I just turn and look at her, tears still flowing down, but I'm unable to cry anymore. I shook my head, and she seemed to look sadder. Her mulberry coated hoof moved towards my gentle right hand and began to hold onto it gently.

"Please Brayden… I'll understand. Please tell me why you're crying." Twilight said to me, sounding like she wanted to help.

I sighed sadly, with a bit of a sniffle at the end of the sigh. "Well, it's my problems in the past when I lived back on Earth. When I was talking to Cheerilee at the Ponyville School, the flashback somehow ignited and I began to remember the pain I went through, and it still haunts me today." I told her, trying not to cry again. I was beginning to look down and shed more tears.

I could feel Twilight's left wing go around me and pull me closer towards her. "Brayden… please look at me." Twilight requested in a soft, gentle voice.

I slowly look up and into her violet eyes again. She seemed rather caring about what was going on with me. "What happened in your past?" She asks.

"It was fights with friends, my long depression I had for months, and people yelling at me. It's something that I'll always remember until I die." I tell her, the last of my tears coming out.

Twilight softly gasped when I said the word die, and moved her closer towards me. "Brayden, please don't ever say die. I care about you, and I know that you'll eventually forget about it soon enough." She tells me.

"But I can't…" I tell her, sounding said and on the verge of giving up. "It's too hard, it'll always come back."

"Sometimes, even a little love and moving forward from your previous life can help ease that pain. I'm here to help you as much as I can." Twilight says to me, placing a gentle kiss on my forehead.

The tears start to flow again and I throw my arms around Twilight, and gently hug her in my own agony. Twilight felt a bit surprised by the hug from what I tell and proceeds to wraps her other wing around me and gently use one of her hooves to gently rub my back.

"There now Brayden… don't cry." She says to me in the gentlest voice I've ever heard her do. "I'm sure you'll be able to be strong and face these memories, telling them to go away. Don't let them play with you and keep you down."

"I know…" I said in a tone that I was crying. Twilight continued to rub my back and calmly and gently shushing me to calm me down.

I do manage to calm down shortly, and I'm just silent with Twilight continuing to rub my back gently, even now gently nuzzling my cheek with hers. A thought began to also cross me, I think she said that 'she thinks' she loves me when I told her. But I'm really worried that if that's true, something could happen that involves her breaking up with me.

I didn't want her to break up with me if that was true, I wasn't so sure if anypony else could help cheer me up all by myself. I had to ask her, just to be sure she did love me.

"Twilight?" I managed to let out.

"Yes Brayden?" She said, sounding patient and happy.

I keep hugging her, but move my head to see her face again. I'm looking into her beautiful violet eyes, and she seems to be waiting for me to answer. "I was just wondering… I know you just became my special somepony… but I was wondering, if you really do love me." I ask her, noted that I repeated a bit of the words.

Twilight puts her hoofs around each of my shoulders, and looked deep into my brown eyes. "Oh Brayden, why wouldn't I not love you? Of course I do love you. You're my special somepony." She told me, putting a smile on her face. "I couldn't imagine not loving you."

"So you really do?" I asked.

"Yes." She confirmed, nodding her head as well.

I and Twilight begin to gaze into each other's eyes and my right hand was moved to her soft and silky mane. I began to gently stroke it back and forth while seeing her beautiful eyes. I move my head closer towards her.

Twilight moves her head towards me as well and slowly closes her eyes. I close my eyes as well as our lips make contact with one another and we begin to kiss. I felt safe again, safe from the past that brought the pain and misery I once lived in. If I didn't discover Twilight Sparkle or the show in 2011, I probably still would have been super depressed forever. But now, I feel happy and free as I always wanted to be.

I and she eventually let go of the kiss and open our eyes once again with smiles on both of our faces. Knowing that I feel comforted, I gently place my forehead onto her forehead and just look into each other's eyes, gazing once again. "Twilight… can I tell you something?" I asked her, knowing I was going to say a rather overused line from romance films and in general.

"Of course." Twilight said to me, waiting for my response.

I continue to look into her eyes with my red tear-stained eyes from a couple of minutes ago. I finally sighed in silence and let it out. "I love you."

Twilight put on a smile and began to nuzzle my left cheek. "Aw Brayden, I already know you do. I love you too." She gently said to me.

We just held onto each other in an embrace and both of us felt happy. And I just was willing to give her a chance. I wasn't going to see her every day like crazy, since I'm not one of those people who stalk like crazy. But her words were true, 'sometimes a little love could help ease the pain'.

Everything was going to be okay for me after all. I hope.

A/N: Alright, here's another chapter. :) Also, the song in this chapter is "The Silent Man" by Dream Theater.

chipmunkfanantic: Of course, very true about that.

mariobrain64: ...I see. Well, I can't really help you in making a fanfiction of an HiE fanfic, so I don't have advice. Sorry. :(

godzillafan1: No, you're mistaken. He did get his answer, but isn't questioning his feelings for Twilight.

---

I open my eyes slowly, but without the blur coming in through my eyes. To me, it's a bit strange. Everything around me seems to be black, like I was placed in the dark. No really, it was like pitch black when I got in. I couldn't see anything at all, but the color of dark. There wasn't any sound in the black environment, so I couldn't tell what would be coming.

"Hello?" I called out into the dark. Only the sound of my voice echoed into the dark, carrying on what seemed infinitely before fading into nothing.

I was able to keep moving my hands and body about the infinite world, walking about in the silence that came forth and haunted me. But this kind of haunting was different, I wasn't even scared of what would pop out of the dark. It felt like I was in a place where I could place in my own thoughts and think about solutions to forget my past.

I close my eyes in the black, and begin to think. I needed to find an environment in this realm that I could fit into. My mind begins to conjure up a ground for me to walk on, and a clear sky that I could look up and smile at. I didn't really need to worry about the light; my mind would already make it for me. I open my eyes and continue to focus.

I could see a dot of light ahead of me, and it seemed to be very white, as if something was already inside of the realm I was placed into. I walk forward slowly, towards the dot of light. It starts to expand larger by every step I take. I continue ascending towards the light, unaware of what I might see next with my own eyes.

It was an opening into a bright clear forest from under a dark tunnel that I was coming out of. The sun was peeking through the trees, brightening up the forest path for me to see. A few birds which I knew as seagulls came flying by the tunnel a few times. That's funny… seagulls don't usually fly through forests, so it's very unusual for this to happen. I peek out of the tunnel opening and take quick looks to my left and right. The brick walls for the tunnel seemed to go out infinitely, like it was forever.

"Don't be curious Brayden. Come forward into the forest where I can see you." A female voice says to me. My heads turns towards the forest where the voice emerged from. I haven't completely recognized that tone yet. It has been a while since I ever got a dream.

I walk forward slowly from the tunnel and down the dirt path. The trees above me looked really unusual, the structure I could tell were mixtures of Birch and Pine. Not really a perfect combination, but I didn't really mind the environmental weirdness. I took a look at the grass, all freshly cut as if a lawnmower came into the forest by itself and did every single line of grass. There wasn't even a single long piece anywhere. No animals roamed the forest, but I could hear the sounds of birds all about the place.

My path ended and I seemed to be face to face with a fern bush, it seemed really huge too. Just like the brick walls, this one also seemed to go on for miles without end. Why was everything so weird in this realm? Who was telling me to come?

"Come closer." The voice spoke again, which meant to tell me to go in through the fern bush.

I take a look at the fern bush and place my hand onto its branches to make sure it's not a trap or anything. It isn't, that's a relief. I begin to proceed forward through the bush, not letting the branches try and hit me in any of my eyes. Trust me, I need them to see what happens next. A streak of light seems to uncover what would be in the next area of forest grounds, and pull the branch back.

It was a garden with black roses growing through scattered parts of soil that lay around the open area. The waterfall on the top of the rocks came down quite peaceful and didn't seem all that wild and dangerous, it was more calm. A few insects buzzed around, and would peek about to see me looking at the environment before passing on with their own stuff to do. A bench sits alone in the sunlight, with an umbrella of red and white perched above it to give shade.

I make my way out of the bushes and walk slowly again. My bare feet are touching the dry and sweet grass below me, still having freshly-cut look. I approach towards the bench and turn around, lowering down to sit.

Everything seemed to be at peace while I sat there, the birds continued to chirp and the water continued to softly run into the small pond. But there were two things that I didn't seem to get whatsoever. Why did I come out of a dark tunnel into this landscape? Why did everything seem so weird? It's something I didn't get, so why was I here anyway?

"Amazing, isn't it Brayden?" That same female voice says behind me.

Wait a minute… I know that tone. I slowly turned around to who was behind me saying this. I can see that dark phthalo blue flowing mane. No… it can't be. I was face to face with a black winged alicorn looking down at me with her moderate cyan cat-like eyes. She was smiling with a look that would seem like she was taking revenge. Nightmare Moon.

I jumped back as soon as I laid my own eyes on her eyes. No, it couldn't be… she was banished from my dreams, so what was she doing here?

"I… I thought Princess Luna told you never to come back!" I told her, sounding a little braver.

Nightmare trotted around the back of the bench to the front, giving a bit of a dark chuckle. She proceeds to take a seat on the same bench with me. "You silly boy, your emotions have been making me stronger. I'm now able to bypass back into your dreams." She said.

Wait… I was dreaming? No I couldn't be. I just only remember going to take a nap on Fluttershy's couch after an exhausting morning. It's not my fault that Discord was acting all silly and both I and she had to tell him off to relax about it. Doesn't sound that hard, does it? Believe me, it's harder than it seems.

"What is it you want Nightmare?" I asked; mostly ready to pounce forward towards to attack her if she tried anything funny towards me.

Nightmare Moon was silent for a few moments, and then placed her hoof onto her other hoof. "Well, I wanted to apologize for how I was scaring you in the last dream you encountered me. My actions were wrong and somehow, I had that feeling come to me that I still cared for you." She said.

"Wait, what?" I said, completely shocked to what Nightmare Moon might be trying to tell me. "Whoa there, I'm already in a relationship with Princess Twilight, so your chances of trying to win my heart are zero, zip, and zilch!"

"But you thought you'd have a crush on me." Nightmare claimed.

I sighed and said "But Nightmare, that thought was only when I was beginning to watch the show." I kept a careful eye on her to make sure she wasn't going to pull any of her tricks on me. Any moment, she could try to attack me again.

"Well because your emotions outside the dream world have powered me, I am a few steps closer to returning to Equestria." Nightmare Moon said, and offered her hoof to me. "If you join me, you can help me return to Equestria and rightfully take the throne of Celestia."

I knew that was coming. "Oh no! I'm not helping you with that!" I said, raising my arms to decline her tempting offer and rose up forward to get up off the bench.

"Now now Brayden, keep sitting... don't go so suddenly." Nightmare Moon said. Her wavy mane caught and blocked me from moving away from the bench. So I just sit back down and keep looking at the dark mare and her cunning smile.

"Why are you doing this, Nightmare Moon?" I asked her.

"Well, I needed a weaker body to power me. And thanks to you, I've also been able to get into your each of your friends' dreams. It makes me stronger, and soon enough they'll be too weak to use their Elements of Harmony against me!" Nightmare Moon stated to me, beginning to reveal her evil plan to take over Equestria. "Once I get strong enough, I'll be able to return into my full form. I don't really care to use Princess Luna as a tool, it failed when Twilight and her friends defeated me."

I raised an eyebrow, suspicious of what'll happen when she returns. "And then what happens next?" I asked, fearing what she will say next.

"Then, I can block the sun with Luna's moon to signal my return. This is something that I've wanted all this time…" Nightmare Moon said with a dark chuckle. "In other words, I want the night… to last… forever!"

I moved my hand towards her hoof and gave it a tap to snap some sense back into her. "But what about Princess Celestia?" I asked.

Nightmare Moon laughs in a cunning way equal to her smile. She finally looks back down at me, saying "My dear boy, I shall kidnap Celestia. It'll be revenge for imprisoning me in the moon for a thousand years, and being a coward to fight me upon my return."

Anger began to grow inside of me when Nightmare told me she was going to kidnap the princess. I would try to get up, but Nightmare's moving mane kept me from doing so. "Don't you dare hurt her!" I shouted at her, gritting my teeth hidden behind my lips.

Nightmare Moon laughed in success and placed her hoof onto my shoulder. "It's a shame you weren't the one to fall for me. You and I could have ruled Equestria together in eternal night!" She said. "But as I said before, it's a shame that you had to go for that pathetic Twilight."

"How dare you say that about her!" I said aggressively, letting my autism get the best of me. At that moment, I literally felt like punching Nightmare Moon's snout in. But… of course knowing me, it's not nice to hit a female.

Nightmare Moon just keeps a vicious looking smirk on her face, as if she has already planned something for me that quickly already. "Well then… I suppose you want to see how much power I've been drawing back into me since I first came into your dreams. Your friends have also been helping me return to my true self." She told me. "The Elements just simply won't work this time for me!"

"Didn't they give them to the Tree of Harmony to save Equestria though?" I asked just to snap her off from her train of thought.

She pauses and thinks for a moment. Finally, her smirk grows into a smile and she uses her right hoof to start petting me on the head as if I was hers. "My dear boy, I thank you for giving me that detail. Your friends would still be defeated either way." She tells me, starting to gently stroke my hair with her dark hoof.

I couldn't even move any of my hands to push Nightmare Moon's hoof away from me. They felt locked in place on my lap, just holding onto one another. All I could just do was stare at the cat-like eyes of the dark mare, feeling myself getting drained of what else was happening around me. Why did I even say that Twilight and her friends gave the elements back to the tree where they came from in the first place?

Nightmare Moon's eyes keep staring at me while she's still giving my hair a stroke, with me unable to move from her tempting eyes that glowed brightly blue together, getting me to keep a close eye on her. The eyes begin to glow brighter by each second that passed. I could see Nightmare Moon's head moving closer towards me, looking like she was going to give me a kiss. This is something I didn't want, but I was in a dream so at this point the nightmare was taking over.

A quick image flashed before my eyes, but quick enough for me to know what they were before snapping back to Nightmare Moon. The image was a blood red sky being bathed by a dark shadow looming over the clouds, with its two claws open at each side. The town of Ponyville seemed to be growing into shadows and everypony that I knew had grown weak and helpless. What did the image mean? Who was that shadow looming over? There also had to be a reason why the sky had begun to grow red.

I had enough strength to push Nightmare Moon's hoof away from me. This stopped her from moving forward to give me her kiss. She seemed to look rather surprised when I had done so, and her hoofs were back in a normal stance. My anger inside already gone full blown and burst like a bubble. "No! I don't want this to be done to me, I've never trusted after you tried to hurt Twilight from the very start and I never will! If you do, I swear to Celestia that I'll send you back to wherever you first came from!" I shouted angrily at Nightmare.

Nightmare Moon tried to reach out slowly to me. "Brayden, I-"

"I don't want to hear it! You've already been screwing with the dreams of my best friend Fluttershy! What else have you only cared for? NOTHING!" I shouted, angrily towards Nightmare Moon. She seemed rather now shocked and surprised by my outburst towards her, with her ears flopping into a sad point of stance. "All you've only cared about was wanting your eternal night! Do we want it? No! Without sunlight, we'll all die!"

"I was just w-" Nightmare Moon tried to say.

"It doesn't work like that Nightmare!" I continued to scold at her. "Life is an important means to everypony or anyone in any world, fictional or not! You've always just been so jealous that you couldn't take it whatsoever when anypony refused to bow before you, and when nothing goes your way, you whine and rant on about how the night will last forever! But nu-uh, not while I'm here the night isn't going to be eternal!"

I was letting my anger get the best of me. I didn't seem to care when I could see the wet tears start to form slowly into Nightmare's eyes while listening to me rant at her. "I don't care whether you don't have your way, you don't have the crown to order these ponies around! You know what you'd do if you were running as Princess of Equestria. You'd be a fascist princess, except you'll refuse to raise the sun in either way possible!"

"Brayden… please…" Nightmare Moon says quietly and upset. The tears in her eyes slowly began to crawl down onto her cheeks.

"Plants and crops wouldn't grow! Everything would freeze in a winter that you'll create! Everything around you will die and probably end up like the fourth planet in the solar system I once used to live in! You'll have nobody to blame but yourself for the mess if it happens! IT'LL BE YOUR FAULT!" I continued to rabble, still not caring if Nightmare Moon was on the verge of crying. "I won't let you hurt the princesses or any of the ponies! All you've ever done to them was cause hell and fear into their own hearts when you returned in Princess Luna's body!"

"BRAYDEN, PLEASE STOP!" Nightmare Moon shouted to me, using her own Royal Canterlot Voice as power to snap me out of my rant. She finally turns back forward, looks down and I see her close her eyes and begin to sob.

I start to slowly calm down and lower the pressure that the anger was giving me. Look at the mess that I've made… I shouldn't have yelled at Nightmare Moon like that. I just had to sit there and watch Nightmare Moon's agony from the pain and jealousy that she suffered from through the years of forming inside Princess Luna. I felt bad for her and the attitude I made, that rain clouds began to form and slowly let out their rain drops, falling onto Nightmare Moon's coat and mane.

I couldn't just let the dark mare suffer through what she had done. I began to scoot up a little closer to her, while she continued to sob excessively. Every scoot that I made, she'd let out a bit of a sniffle. "Nightmare?" I asked her, calmly and regretful.

"What?!" Nightmare Moon upsettingly yells and turns to me, her eyes still watering and I swear that I saw a bit of red in them.

I placed my right hand on her right hoof and held onto it gently. "It wasn't entirely your fault Nightmare Moon." I gently said to her.

Nightmare Moon just sniffles loudly, putting a caring look on my own face. "B-But everything I've ever done has always gone to waste. Nopony even likes me…" She told me, sounding upset.

I moved my left hand and was now holding onto each of her hooves. "You have one who likes you. Well, not in a loving way. But a friendly way." I told her, sounding very caring. "If you weren't the first villain I knew… well, I probably wouldn't have gotten into the show in the first place. Princess Luna probably would've picked someone else to come to Equestria."

Nightmare Moon sort of forms a very small smile that I can see visibly. If I had yelled at Princess Celestia like how I did to Nightmare Moon, she would've probably had me sent to the moon for that. But I knew her though, she was far too kind to send me to whether she'd banish me to. Besides, if Celestia did get mad at me, her sister would most likely be at my defense to protect and tell her otherwise to keep trusting me.

"Why… thank you. You're the first friend that I've ever had." Nightmare Moon says to me a bit softly, and we both share looks at each other.

"If I may Nightmare Moon, since you are an alicorn. Can I have permission to hug you?" I asked her, curious after what I did.

Nightmare Moon just nods and says "Okay." I gently place my arms around the dark mare and began to give her a friendly hug. She too is wrapping her hooves around my waist, squeezing me gently.

The hug seems to last for a bit of time, and Nightmare has stopped the sobbing. I decided to let go from giving her a hug. Something feels wrong though; my hands are stuck on the back of her coat. She also began to squeeze me a little more. "Nightmare Moon, I think you can let go now." I stated.

She softly began to chuckle, and then let out into a roar of laughter. No… it can't be. I just changed her around, and she's still acting this way. Her squeeze turns into a dangerous one where it starts to feel like she is choking me. I couldn't even breathe, minus how I was dreaming in a dream.

"Silly Brayden, you really think that I'd be your friend after all? The night will always be my only friend." Nightmare Moon states and ignites her horn.

I can feel that dark aura around me, freezing me in place. The power of the dark alicorn's aura stated to drain me, beginning to have me feel weak and a bit tired. Finally, she pulls me off of her and tosses me off the bench and onto the soft ground.

"Wha- But I thought you changed!" I told her, looking up at her. "Please Nightmare, you don't want to be banished again!"

Nightmare Moon's anger got set off as soon as I mentioned about her being banished again. She let out a growl and began to charge up her horn, mostly ready to fire a beam of darkness at me. I managed to get up off the grassy ground before she could fire at me with her magic of pure evil.

The ground erupted out small piles of dirt when I picked myself up off of the ground. I then turned back to Nightmare Moon. She had sat up off of the bench, aimed towards me with her horn. "I told you to never mention my banishment again!" She yells at me.

"I'm just trying to help you snap out of this!" I shouted to put some sense into her mind on what she was doing. "You don't want it to happen again."

Nightmare Moon's anger grew higher at this point and she was growling. "Then you give me no choice Brayden, I'll have to destroy you!" She shouted at me and fired another dark beam towards me.

The beam hit the ground in front of me and blew up more dirt. The force of the impact had sent me flying backwards. I flew through the air for somewhat brief moments and ended up hitting the ground with my face first into the grass. I slowly rose my head and could see Nightmare Moon standing over me with that cunning smile on her face. She was beginning to laugh at how weak I was from her own magic.

"I don't understand, Nightmare Moon! You were just crying a few minutes ago!" I told her, knowing that I somewhat got her into tears.

"Oh that?" Nightmare Moon asks, and gives another bone-chilling laugh. "Why I was faking, but I had to push out tears in some way. But enough talk, it's time for you to die."

I could see the aura of her dark magic begin to flow into her horn, ready to fire away at any moment. I had no choice but to place my head down into my arms on the ground. I just about knew that this wasn't going to end well.

"STOP THIS AT ONCE, NIGHTMARE MOON!" A voice boomed in the sky. This voice I knew caught both me and Nightmare's attention, interrupting her magic and disrupting the magic on her horn. I looked up from the ground and could see Nightmare Moon turning her head towards the sky, looking at the moon that had appeared. The moon had let out a flash and I could see a midnight blue colour in the sky, floating down from the circular shaped moon.

It was Princess Luna, and she seemed to look rather angry towards Nightmare Moon for what she almost was about to do. She flapped her wings closely to the ground and began to have a stare down with the dark mare. Both of them were giving each other dirty glares.

"Ah hello again, Princess Luna. It's delightful to see you again after days." Nightmare Moon said to her, glaring at the princess of the night with her blue cat eyes. "I trust you must've come when you sensed that your friend here had a nightmare that he'll remember always."

"Leave him alone!" Princess Luna shouted towards her in that angry tone, ready to fire her magic anytime.

Nightmare Moon chuckled deep and loud. She takes a breath and says "Well, it's too bad. He's been helping me with his emotions. He has made me grow stronger by every unhappy emotion and fear he has faced. I am close to returning to Equestria."

Princess Luna gasped and said "Wait… you don't mean…"

"Yes, it's true. Once I return, your powers will not work on me whatsoever. And the night… will last… FOREVER!" Nightmare Moon stated out loud, finally letting out a sinister and evil laugh.

I got up off of the ground when she was busy staring at Princess Luna. It would be a good time right now for me to run from the scene while I can. I turn the opposite direction away from Nightmare Moon and start running towards that direction.

"That won't do you any good Brayden!" Nightmare Moon says, and her magic brings up a wall to block me from running away.

While Nightmare Moon was distracted with me, I managed to turn around in time to catch Princess Luna and what she was doing to do. Her horn alit and began to fire one of her magical beams. The beam passed by Nightmare Moon, missing her. Princess Luna finally flaps her wings and floats up into the air again. She flows close to my location, landing in front of me face to face with Nightmare.

"Oh, you're going to protect Brayden now? I've completely forgotten how mother-like you can be to any of Equestria's subjects." Nightmare sarcastically stated with a small chuckle at the end.

"What's important here is that Brayden here is my friend, and you are trying to hurt him." Princess Luna stated brave and angry. She was in front of me, so I couldn't really see the emotions on her face. "Why must you have to torment anypony since I was free from your control?"

"Revenge, Princess Luna. Sweet revenge." Nightmare Moon states with a smirk on her face. "That's why he must die."

"I won't let you hurt him in any way." Princess Luna said to her.

Silence begins to gap between the two alicorns once again, in a deep stare down. I just stood them behind Princess Luna, watching the entire thing all the way through. The stare down only last about twenty seconds though. I felt really short though.

Nightmare Moon lets out a huff of angered breath. "Fine then, Luna. You win this round again. But if I were you or Brayden, I'd watch the skies… and watch your back." She says angrily in defeat. Nightmare Moon finally lets her mane grow in size and cover up her, transforming her into a cloud. She stays there for a few moments, and then the cloud form floats up into the sky and disappears over the hillside, bringing the storm clouds away and revealing the night.

Princess Luna finally turns around to me, looking concerned about my safety. This is probably the second time she has saved me now, so I thank her for saving me again.

"Are you alright, Brayden?" Princess Luna asked with question in the tone of her voice.

I nodded and said "Yes, I'm alright. But I thought you banished Nightmare Moon from entering my dreams again."

"That I did. I'm not sure how she was able to bypass the banishment." Princess Luna said to me, rather worried about what Nightmare Moon was already planning by now.

"I also just realized something; you've saved me two times now." I told her, putting a smile on my face. I keep looking up at the princess of the night to try and put even a small smile on her face.

She does grow a bit of a smile on her mouth. She nods in agreement to what I had said a few moments ago. All I think is she must be relieved to see that I am safe and sound. But there is something about her when I see her. Princess Luna reminds me of an aunt that I have never had.

"I thought I'd be dead right there if you never came on time." I said, wiping a bit of my forehead in a relief. It's not like I would be able to have magic to defend myself. She wasn't really there when I was attempting to fight the leader of a timberwolf pack.

I then looked towards my friend, and asked "Permission to hug you for saving me?"

Princess Luna nods with a smile and stretches her right front hoof forward a bit to accept the hug. I wrap my arms around her neck and gently give her a gentle and friendly hug. She has her hoof around my waist. The hug finally lasts for a few moments, then we both let go of each other's friendly hug and smile at each other.

"So, how has your life in Equestria been doing so far?" She finally asks me, breaking the silence between me and her.

"It's been doing good Princess Luna. I've made a bunch of friends with everypony. A few of them still say that they know me from the papers, and to tell you… it's a bit mildly annoying to deal with. Hasn't everypony already known about me?" I said, getting a bit of a chuckle out of the princess.

"Well, all of them are curious. They all want to get to know you and see why you came to Equestria. But be careful not to be let down by others. A few of the unicorns disagree with you being a civilian here in this land, a few who will do everything in their path to insult you." Princess Luna said to me, and giving me that careful warning.

"Like Prince Blueblood?" I asked in question, raising an eyebrow.

Princess Luna thought for a moment. "He dislikes anypony who isn't a unicorn just like him. According to what you are thinking, you tend to think about him as a fascist."

I looked quite surprised when she had told me this detail. "How… how did you know that?!" I asked with amazement on how she guessed that answer. At the same time, I also looked as frightened as a jackrabbit.

Princess Luna seemed to smile again, placing her left hoof onto my right shoulder to calm me down a bit. "Now, I can see how frightened you are for thinking Blueblood as a fascist. You have no need to fear about the consequence. There won't be any for you, since you are different among us."

"So, a foreign creature?" I asked her.

"Of course Brayden, but I would just refer to you as just Brayden. It's much better than calling you 'human'." Princess Luna told me, her soft hoof still on my shoulder.

Something catches my attention and I could hear the soft sound of distant music coming from the hills. I turn towards that sound of the tune. Princess Luna takes her hoof off of my right shoulder and gently places it back on the soft grass.

The music grows a bit louder, surrounding the area around both me and Princess Luna. It was the soft beat of drums and the hum of a synth playing in peace, with the soft acoustic guitar playing that same rhythm over and over, waiting for someone or somepony to start singing.

"Hey… I know this song." I said, in realization when I found out who had played this music. It was a band that I had listened to a lot while I was back on Earth.

I turn around towards Princess Luna, she stands there with her smile still on her own face. "Would you care to sing it to me?" She asks me, placing her left front hoof on her chest.

I nod and allow myself to get myself prepared to start singing the song at the right timing that the rhythm started played. I keep my eyes on Princess Luna while she waits for me to sing. I slowly breathe in some air and begin to start singing softly.

A question well served

Is silence like a fever,

A voice never heard

Or a message with no receiver?

Pray they won't ask

Behind the stained glass

There's always one more mask

Has man been a victim

Of his woman, of his father?

If he elects not to bother

Will he suffocate their faith?

Desperate to fall

Behind the great wall

That separates us all

When there is reason tonight I'm awake

When there's no answer arrive the silent man

If there is balance tonight he's awake

If they have to suffer there lies the silent man

Sin without deceivers

A god with no believers

I could sail by on the winds of silence

And maybe they won't notice

But this time I think it'd be better if I swim

When there is reason tonight I'm awake

When there's no answer arrive the silent man

If there is balance tonight he's awake

If they have to suffer there lies the silent man

There lies the silent man

The music fades off with the soft exit in its outro. Princess Luna keeps smiling, she was sitting on the soft grass and she claps both of her hooves together, congratulating me for singing so good. I take a bit of a bow.

"You sing really well. I'm impressed." Princess Luna told me.

I sheepishly grin a bit. "Well, it comes from experience back on Earth." I told her.

The environment fades around us, showing us in the dream dimension. No wonder the waterfall seemed to act calm, which in my eyes was weird. The ground below me is no longer grass, but some sort of weird glowing white lights below us.

Princess Luna looks at me with both of her eyes. "The dream realm is a beautiful place, is it not?" She asks me.

"Everything just seems weird around me every time I enter this realm in sleep." I said to her.

"Indeed, but there is no time when you are here. You can make the time itself in your own dreams." Princess Luna tells me.

"I did have one dream while I was back on Earth. I was able to meet Rainbow Dash in some sort of country side. But the environment around-" I told her.

She interrupted "The environment around you was from a video game you played on Earth."

"Why… yes." I said to her, amazed how far she's probably gone into my mind.

In the distance, I could hear the sound of a door closing. Fluttershy must have gotten home from what I can remember, she had to go get some groceries last time I saw her before taking a nap.

Princess Luna places her right front hoof onto my left hand, and I turn back to her, facing her. "Brayden, my dear friend. It is time for you to wake up." She says to me with a smile on her face.

"That soon, Luna? We were just getting started to talk, so why must it end so early?" I asked her, disappointed I couldn't ask her more questions.

Princess Luna kept her smile, raising an eyebrow. "You are going to Canterlot with Rarity, are you?" She asks me.

"Yes, she invited me. I just have to tell her that I'm coming." I told her.

"While you're there, you can join me and my older sister Celestia for some tea. I formerly apologize for her not being able to talk with you longer, but you'll be able to get to know her more when you do." Princess Luna offered to me.

"I accept your offer. I've wanted to speak and befriend your sister." I said to her.

Princess Luna giggled and said "You're already friends with her. She's trusted you since she first saw you and still does. In fact, I caught her saying something that something wonderful will happen with you most likely soon."

"What will happen to me?" I asked, sounding a bit curious.

"I do not know, Brayden. I cannot tell you." Princess Luna told me. "I must depart now, but we will meet again soon in Canterlot."

"Of course Princess Luna. By the way, permission to hug you goodbye?" I asked her.

Princess Luna smiles and says "Of course Brayden. Permission accepted." I walk forward slowly, wrapping my hands around her neck gently, and she has her hoof around my waist. Both of us shared the friendly hug, and after a few moments we let go again.

The wind slowly picked up, carrying Princess Luna off of the ground of light and towards the circular moon. She flies off and becomes a small blur before a flash of white surrounds the dream realm and me in the process.

---

I slowly open my eyes, catching a light yellow blur in front of me. The blur ends up clearing up, and I could finally see who was in front of me. It was Fluttershy, and she seemed to be rather delighted to see me awake.

"Had a good nap, Brayden?" She asks me, placing her hoof onto my loose hand.

"Well, it was wild. That's all I could say." I just said to her, smiling at my best friend.

Fluttershy rolls her eyes happily, and then turns her head towards the kitchen. "Could you come into the kitchen and help me out with putting the groceries away?"

I slowly get up off of the couch and stand up on my two feet. "Sure." I said, accepting her offer to help her.

Fluttershy smiles and takes her soft hoof off of my hand, and trotting towards the kitchen with a smile. I walk forward slowly, joining my best friend to help her out.

But what worried me the most is how Nightmare Moon would return, and what she was planning to do to both me and Princess Luna.

A/N: Another short, but sweet chapter! I just watched the newest episode this morning, and I thought it was good. Also, I have a bit of a sore throat, so I really hope that it will heal really soon. Right now, it's annoying me to death. And in other news, probably between Chapters 20 - 30, there's going to be a humongous twist added to the story. It'll be something involving Princess Celestia. It's not her disguised as a Changeling queen, though I will get them involved in this story at one point before that twist happens. And I hereby claim it official... Nightmare Moon is returning. Anyways, my response to the reviews.

godzillafan1: Yep, you are so right about Nightmare Moon returning!

Midnight Blossom: Thank you for the two reviews! Oh the blocky environment, well actually Minecraft has somewhat given me inspiration from it, but one of them being that archway into the garden/forest is from the album cover of Dream Theater's Train of Thought. Interested in drawing? Well... okay! Basically Brayden has brown eyes and hair, and has a bit of a beard growing for facial looks. For physical/body description, he wears a gray leather jacket with blue jeans and black boots. In the picture, I kind of picture him standing bravely upon the edge of a cliff looking down at Ponyville as if protecting it.

---

The sun is shining outside with a few clouds rolling by that the pegasi of Equestria had created. It seemed to look like a beautiful afternoon. I'm walking along in the streets of Ponyville, waving and saying hello to everypony that I had come across. It wasn't the usual ordinary afternoon though… yep, you guessed it. I was going to visit somepony. But except, it wasn't a pony at all. It was another friend that you probably knew. Yeah, Spike the dragon.

Now, I know what you're thinking. You were probably thinking that I was going to go on a date with Twilight today, right? Oh no, I'm saving that for probably a few other days before I go up to Canterlot with Rarity, Sweetie Belle and Coco. I just need to notify Rarity that I'm going with her. She'll be rather delighted. But one thing I'm excited for in Canterlot, I get to spend some friendship time with her, her sister, her friend and the two other princesses there who were already my friends, Luna and Celestia. I couldn't wait to talk to Princess Luna again. I'm especially that excited to seeing Princess Celestia again.

Now I haven't met Princess Cadence or Shining Armor just yet, but in all due respect… I really hope that Shining Armor doesn't give me that entire 'I'm watching you' gesture to me. Seriously, I've been nice to Twilight, so why would he just keep an eye on me? I'm sure Princess Cadence, the princess of love will be happy to see me though.

I could see the Golden Oaks Library near the centre of the town, and I walk steadily with the gentle breeze, going along towards the large tree. On my approach, I did not see something fast coming towards me from the right path, crashing me accidentally to the ground. When I fell on the ground, I could also hear whoever bumped into me fall to the ground as well.

I turn my head towards the sound of that pony that fell as well. It was none other than the mailmare, Derpy Hooves. She seemed rather surprised that she'd bump into me and me bump into her as well, even though she slammed right into me. The mail was scattered on the ground a bit.

"Sorry about that." She apologizes to me, trying to pick up the mail that was dropped. I get up slowly off the ground and approach her, lowering down on a knee to help her pick up her mail.

I grab a few letters wrapped up in the envelopes and hand them to Derpy. She turns from being distracted and takes a look at me. "I just don't know what went wrong." She tells me, her eyes being all derped and she had a look of awkwardness.

"It's alright, miss. You did nothing wrong." I assured her, giving her a gentle pat on the back. "My name's Brayden."

Derpy pauses for a few moments thinking about my name, and finally extends her hoof. "Derpy's my name. It's nice to meet you Brayden." She said.

I take a hold of Derpy's open hoof and place my hand with it, giving it a gentle shake with hers. The hoofshake lasted a few moments, and Derpy lets go, going back to picking up the mail scattered all over the ground. I continue to help her pick them up.

"Golly, thanks Brayden." She says to me, putting on a smile.

I shrug a bit. "Well, I couldn't just stand by. I had to help in some way." I told her with the tone of voice sounding calm.

I grab the last of the wrapped letters and envelopes, handing them to Derpy. She opens up the small mail bag she carries and places the mail into the bag. She finally looks at me with her derped eyes and the same smile she gave me before. Finally, she turns and flies off towards the next possible mailbox.

I turn my attention back towards the Golden Oaks Library. I continue to walk forward and approach it, knowing that I couldn't possibly forget what I was planning to do today with Spike. I approach the door and gently knock on the door.

"Coming!" I could hear Twilight's beautiful voice shout out and the sound of trotting coming to the door. I could then hear the doorknob turning. The door opens and I can see Twilight right there before me with a smile on her face.

"Hello Brayden." She tells me, rather happy to see me.

"Hello to you too princess." I greeted her, sharing a close smile with hers.

Twilight and me were softly gazing into each other's eyes. But I couldn't just stand there and say nothing, it was obviously important. "I trust that you've thought about our date?" Twilight asks me.

"Oh no Twilight. Not today, but soon. I actually came here to see if Spike wanted to chat and hang about with me." I told her, trying not to disappoint her.

Twilight keeps her smile. "You wanted to see Spike? Well, seeing how you're new to him still. It'd be awesome for him to get to know you." She tells me, pausing for a few moments. "Let me go and call him here."

I stand there by the door, waiting for Twilight to do what she needed to do. She turns around, away from me and faces the door into her kitchen. "Spike! Brayden's here!" She calls out.

"Alright!" I could hear Spike call out.

Twilight turns back around to me. "He usually takes a moment to come. Sometimes longer if he's coming out of one of his seven hour baths." She tells me.

"I usually take showers." I tell her, but then it strikes me inside and flirt "But I'm fine with also being in the shower with somepony."

Twilight felt quite flattered when I flirted with her, and she lets out a smile. Her cheeks lit up like a Christmas tree. I already knew this flirt worked because she liked me in that way, but of course… I wasn't ready for that material quite yet. I wanted to get Twilight a little more comfortable with me as her special somepony. Then I could think about popping the big question to her.

I could see Spike coming down from the top of the stairs. He seemed rather happy to see me coming today, but at the same time he looked confused why I wanted to see him and not Twilight. Well, I'd explain soon enough to him. He takes his step off of the wooden steps and approaches both me and Twilight.

"Hello Spike." I greet him, nodding with a smile.

He smiles and looks up at me. "Hello Brayden. Good to see you here today. I'm guessing you're here for… you know?" He says to me.

I shake my head. "Not today Spike, today I'll be hanging out with you, buddy." I tell her, keeping my smile.

"Alright!" Spike said, sounding excited about me being able to see him. "There's a few things we could do. First, we have to go and see the most beautiful unicorn in town I've ever met. Rarity."

I giggle a bit and say "Alright Spike, we'll go and see your crush, I'm sure you've got something wonderful to do with her after."

"Well, you could join me and Rarity at the Carousel Boutique. She's preparing the dresses for her to go to a fashion show in Canterlot in a few weeks." Spike says.

"She asked me to come with her, Coco and Sweetie Belle to Canterlot. I'll have to tell her that I'm interested in going. I'll talk with her at some points there, but I'll be with the princesses." I said to him.

"Alright!" Spike says happily, clapping his two little dragon claws together. "Then let's get going to see the most beautiful pony in town!"

I giggle a bit, and begin to follow him. It struck me of course, that I had forgotten to do something. I walk back towards Twilight and lean my head forward, sharing a gentle peck with her. She smiles and ignites her horn, placing an aura around me. I could feel myself being turned around to Spike's direction. I turn my head around, looking at Twilight.

"I'll see you around later, loverboy." She flirts with me, winking.

My cheeks light up a bit, but I wave and walk off to catch up with Spike, hearing Twilight close the door behind me. I do catch up to Spike, walking beside him as I would do for every other friend I had known. Our first stop was: The Carousel Boutique.

---

We could see the Carousel Boutique in the distance, when we were taking our steps past the Ponyville Town Hall. We had just about crossed to the other side of town. Being able to see my good friend Rarity again will be a blast. I've somehow now gotten used to her drama, and now I think she's an awesome pony.

But another thought had also crossed my mind since I had that nightmare though, I couldn't really get Nightmare Moon out of my mind. Was it true that she was going to attempt to bring back eternal night? Would her plans work?

"Brayden?" I could hear Spike calling out to me faintly. I quickly snap out of my thoughts and turn towards my friend. He seems to look rather concerned. "Are you alright? You seem to look a little lost and troubled." He asks me.

"Oh, it's nothing." I told him. I didn't want him to worry about what could happen.

"Brayden, you can tell me. If it's something about Twilight, I'll keep it a secret." Spike said to me, now trying to push the truth out of me.

I sighed softly and said "No… it isn't about Twilight. It's something else that I'm really worried about."

Spike raised an eyebrow. "Well, what is it?" He asks. I could tell by his worried tone that he wouldn't take denial for answers.

"Well, I'm worried about Nightmare Moon." I confessed, releasing my worried voice. "It might be the reason why she is visiting my dreams, I think even Fluttershy is being haunted by these nightmares."

"Nightmare Moon?" Spike asks, rather surprised. "Well, I've overheard Twilight talking about her entering her dreams. I've even seen brief appearances of her in my own dreams."

"Then that is what I have feared…" I said, now at the point of realization.

"Feared what?" Spike asks. "It was probably just nightmares we have."

"That's the point though, Spike. The more we have dreams she can cross into, the more powerful she can become. Somehow, it's been feeding her energy since she was able to enter my dreams. What I fear is that if she returns to full power, she'll be able to come back into life and return."

"Relax, Brayden. You're getting yourself worked up over nothing." Spike tells me. He obviously knew that I was almost probably going to go crazy, just like Twilight in the episode 'Lesson Zero'. "Besides, they're probably just nightmares."

I take a soft deep breath and let it out slowly. I'll have to store that thought for later, I was chilling with one of my friends at the moment and couldn't let the thought distract me.

The both of us approach the front door of the Carousel Boutique and I allow Spike to knock on the door. He gently knocks on the door loud enough for Rarity inside to hear.

"Coming darling!" I could hear Rarity shout inside the Boutique. The door is pulled open and could see Rarity give us both a smile of greeting.

"Hello Brayden, hello Spike." Rarity says to both of us. I could swear that Spike looked love-struck as he always was when he saw Rarity.

"Greetings Rarity." I said, nodding my head to her with a smile on my face. "It's good to see you again."

"Come in, both of you." Rarity said, inviting the both of us in. "I've got lots of help needed to put these dresses into storage for the fashion show in a few weeks."

I walk forward into the Carousel Boutique with Spike. He was in front of me, so it was no surprise that he wanted to be first in entering the building. The both of us follow Rarity towards the stairs, and walk up the steps slowly.

"Coco is just upstairs helping me. But the two of you can help out the both of us, need extra hooves for it." Rarity tells the both of us, sounding rather happy. I was surprised when she mentioned Coco Pommel. She was here?

"Anything for you Rarity!" I could hear Spike say, accepting her offer to help. I think he could be both Twilight's assistant and Rarity's bell-boy.

We make it up the stairs and Rarity trots towards her inspiration room door, using her magic to open the door. The both of us enter into the room with her, seeing how neatly the dresses for the mares were placed on the plastic models.

Coco Pommel stands by a sparkling purple-green dress, really happy to see me. I raise my right hand a bit, waving to her. She raises her hoof a bit as well, waving to me as well. That friendly moment passes by rather quickly and I turn my attention back to Rarity.

Rarity hands me an empty box, to place dresses in most likely. "Brayden, would you be a dear and place the purple coloured dresses into this box?" She asks me, with a tone of kindness.

I nod my head with a smile, saying "Sure Rarity."

She is quite enlightened how I can help about the town so easily. Sure I didn't have electronics, I luckily got to have friends to chat with. Then, I remembered about her visit to Canterlot. "By the way Rarity, about your visit to Canterlot…"

"What about it? Have you decided to come after all?" Rarity asked.

I nodded and said "Yes, I would like to come with you. I'll be able to spend some time with friends like you, Sweetie Belle and Coco. Not to mention I'll be able to talk to the princesses again."

Rarity smiles and says "Very well then, I'll be sure to let Princess Celestia know that you're coming."

I nod in understanding and watch as Rarity trots off with an enlightened smile towards Spike. It's most likely she'll ask him what she needed help with.

I could feel a soft tap on my shoulder, catching my attention. I turn around to see who it was tapping me. It's Coco Pommel, and she seems to be smiling. I share the smile with her, smiling at her in return.

"Can I help you put the dresses into the box?" She asks me in a soft-spoken voice.

I nod in response, allowing her to assist me to putting the dresses away for the next few weeks in Canterlot. I grab a hold of one of the dresses carefully and carefully begin to move it towards the open box. I gently place the first purple dress down into the box, making sure that I don't make any bumps, marks or you name it onto the dress.

I look up at Coco Pommel, with her giving me the approving smile that I had set the dress into the box in the right way. "My, you're really good at putting things away Brayden." She tells me.

"Well, it comes from experience." I told her, taking a bit of a sigh from strapping the dress into the box. I watch Coco place the dress on her back into the box, strapping it in.

I thought I saw something inside Coco Pommel when she finished strapping the dress in. She somehow reminded me of a girl I was friends with while I lived back on Earth. This girl on Earth was really nice and was like one of the best people I've probably ever met. I only got to hang out with her once sadly though. I think she did move on to have other friends, but I surely hope that she is doing okay and misses me. I miss her as much as I predict.

"Brayden?" Coco asks me, snapping me out of my quick reflection. "Are you alright?"

"Oh I'm fine Coco, I was just thinking about a girl back on Earth that you almost remind me of." I told her, smiling.

Coco was a bit relieved that something wasn't bothering me. "That's good. I thought for a moment you were troubled about something." Coco tells me, approaching and placing her soft hoof onto my hand.

My smile fades a bit, and I tell her "Well, I do have a bit of a troubled past. But I don't really want to get into talking about it. You'd feel bad about me."

Coco looks closer at me. "You can tell me. I'd understand." She tells me in understanding and good patience.

"Look Coco, I'd probably get into talking about it if we were closer friends. But not in… 'That way'. I do have a special somepony after all." I told her, letting her know that Twilight was my mare-friend just in case Coco had some thoughts about me.

"Oh don't worry. I know about you and Twilight's relationship from Rarity. I think you and her seem perfect together." Coco says to me, sounding very assuring about it.

"Thanks Coco." I said to her, looking into her cyan eyes. Her eyes look into mine as well, gazing at each other in a friendly way for a few moments. After, she takes her hoof off of my hand and starts clearing her throat softly. "Well, I think we should both get the rest of the dresses into the box, shall we?"

"Sure." I tell her, getting the rest of the dresses.

I and she begin to work together in putting away the dresses into the box. I allowed her to do the honors of strapping each dress into the box, the easiest part of the job. I would of course, start off by taking the dress ready to be packaged and placing it into the box, allowing Coco to do what she had to do.

A few minutes had passed before us, and Coco had successfully strapped the last purple dress into the box. Rarity comes over to the both of us, and looks at us and then the box filled with the dresses. Her face is enlightened with a smile.

"Good work Brayden and Coco, I can totally see the both of you working together as a team." Rarity congratulated the both of us.

"Of course Miss Rarity." I said to her, nodding.

"Such nice manners." Rarity complimented to me, smiling. "Now come along downstairs, I'll set up a bit of tea for you, Coco and Spike."

Tea? I've never really had tea before. I've had coffee before and that was a completely different story while back on Earth. "Rarity?" I asked, stopping Rarity and having her turn to look at me. "I've never drank tea before."

"Brayden, it's completely okay if you don't want to drink tea. Shall I get you something else to drink?" Rarity asks me.

"An apple juice would be nice to have, Rarity." I told her. I have been drinking apple juice my whole life since I was just a little kid.

"Alright, I'll go get the apple juice as well." Rarity said, and all the three of us began to follow Rarity out of her inspiration room and down the round stairs.

Coco trots aside with me, occasionally turning to share friendly smiles with me while we were both coming down the stairs, at one point she accidentally trips forward when she slips past a step on the stairs she missed. I was able to grab onto her left front hoof right on time before she ended up falling flat on her face.

"Thanks Brayden. That was a close one." Coco thanks me while I pulled her back up onto her four hooves. I let go of her left hoof and just smile down at her.

"No problem, it's my job to make sure everypony is safe after all." I told her, continuing to trot down the stairs with her.

I and she make it to the first floor of the Carousel Boutique, getting off the stairs. We both continue along, entering the other door in the boutique, entering what I could tell was the kitchen. There was a table set up for all of us, including Spike. He being a good dragon he was already had taken his seat.

I walk over to the small table and grab the chair on Spike's left. I take a seat on the chair and scoot up closer to the table. Coco also takes a seat on my left, sitting next to me. Rarity on the other hand, was over at the kitchen counters getting the spots of tea ready, along with the apple juice.

Please don't ask now why I like apple juice a lot, but as I had stated before, it was a childhood drink and wanted to maintain a healthy lifestyle. But I didn't mind a spot of tea, even though I've never took a single sip of tea ever before. But that's me; I'm sort of a picky drinker and eater.

Rarity finishes placing the final spots into the warm tea she brewed up for the two of my friends, and her horn is alit, carrying the tea cups and pot full of warm tea. She also had a glass cup of apple juice with her that she carried. She places it on the table in front of me.

"Thank you Rarity." I complimented, taking the glass of apple juice and taking a sip.

"It's no problem, Brayden." Rarity says, smiling at me.

Rarity joins us at the table with the pot of tea and brings each tea cup over to herself, Spike and Coco. She lifts the pot over to each pouring out the brightly brown coloured liquid into their cups. I could see both Spike and Coco give smiles that said 'thank you' on them.

Rarity pours herself a cup of tea and takes a look at me, beginning our conversation. "Tell me Brayden, how are you doing in the wide world of fabulous Equestria?" She asks me.

"Me? Well, I'm doing quite well. Not a single mean pony that I've stumbled upon, well except that unicorn in Canterlot who told me I was scum." I said.

"Somepony told you that you were scum? How rude!" Spike speaks out, defending me.

"Who was this unicorn who called you that name?" Rarity asks, sounding a bit concerned.

I sighed a bit, saying "It was Prince Blueblood. But thankfully he didn't stop by to insult me more, I was just going along with Fluttershy to meet Princess Celestia for the first time."

"Well, I for one am glad that you were able to meet Princess Celestia for the first time." Rarity says to me, proud. Her smile of course fades to get onto the point about Prince Blueblood. "But I cannot believe that ruffian himself would call you scum. He's nothing but a… pardon my fancy. He's a royal pain in the flank!"

"And I think he's also a fascist." I said, bumping more information into the conversation.

"Fascist?" Rarity asked out of curiosity. "What does that mean?"

Oh shoot, I think I messed up when I said the word 'fascist'. It's no matter now, I'll tell her and my two other friends what fascist meant. I sighed and then explained "A fascist is someone who hates other races in that world and thinks that one race is superior to the other. I've seen it happen in the world I lived in."

Rarity gasped in worry, saying "And what happened in the world you lived in previously?"

"I don't really want to talk about it. You wouldn't understand." I said, trying to defend them and not expose them to the horrors and consequences that fascism has cost back on Earth.

Rarity takes a sip of tea and says "Brayden. Please do tell us, we want to know."

"Please don't. What you'd hear is sad." I said, lowering my head.

I could see Coco's right front hoof reaching forward and touching my own hand. I slowly move my head up towards Coco Pommel. She seems to look rather concerned and wanting to know more about what happened.

"Please tell us. It's okay." Coco said in her soft-spoken voice, assuring me.

After a few moments of thinking, I smile and gently take my hand and gently hold onto Coco's hoof in a friendly way. "Okay…" I said giving into defeat. I couldn't believe they'd convince me so easily to tell them what happened. I let go of Coco's hoof and look back towards Rarity.

"Well, according to the world I lived in. Fascism is also used when one leader known as a dictator rules over a country as part of the globe. But it was the 1940's and I wasn't born yet." I stated, getting into the topic. "There was an evil man who ruled all of a country and wanted to eliminate certain people only for his own to be the only ruling people in the world. They would invade other countries, taking anyone who wasn't part of their blood away. Some were never seen again, and I think it was because his plan was coming into action."

"And what was the plan?" Spike asked, a little worried.

"His plan was to eliminate everyone who wasn't of the same blood as the citizens of that country, willing to hunt them down and kill them. Some of them his army captured were also forced into slavery." I explained carefully.

Rarity let out a bit of a panicked scream when she heard all about what it meant. Coco and Spike were shivering in response as well.

"War broke out and there were many tragedies, but the evil man and his forces were stopped and if anyone ever did that salute that was used in the past, they'd be thrown in jail. Never again should fascism ever be done." I finished, never wanting to go into detail about the fascism again.

Rarity was quite shocked when she heard the news. "My… I feel so sorry that you had to be in that world." She tells me, rather worried and caring.

"Thankfully I wasn't born yet as I said. If I was born in that time, I would have been miserable as a kid." I said to her, finally looking down and being sad.

Rarity takes the last sip of the tea in her cup, gets up off the chair she was sitting on. She trots around the table over to where I am. She approaches and places her soft hoof onto my gentle hand. "Brayden… look at me please." Rarity asks me, being as supportive as she can be.

I finally turn my head towards her, looking to see what she was going to say next. "I just want to let you know that even if somepony tells you that you are scum and don't belong here in Equestria, they're wrong. As one of your friends, it's my job to make sure that nothing or anypony mean tells you that kind of thing. You are as perfect as anypony else, and you should be proud." She tells me in her kind, and sweet voice. I could picture Spike behind me just rolling his eyes. I already know that Spike and Rarity would look really cute together.

After some thought, I finally let out a sigh and said "I'm sorry Rarity. It's just that I've been struggling a lot when I was back on Earth. Somehow I can't seem to let go, and the nightmares I've been having has me more worried because I think Nightmare Moon will return."

"But Brayden, remember that me, your special somepony and the rest of your friends defeated her and reverted her back to Luna?" Rarity said, trying to put some sense into me.

"Princess Luna saved me in my dreams from Nightmare Moon. I think it's going to turn out different when she returns in a separate form." I told her, trying to get her to believe me.

"Well, that must explain why in the middle of the night, I can hear Twilight waking up from one of those nightmares. I could hear her murmuring something about her." Spike tells the both of us.

I turned to Spike, just sitting there. "What could you hear her say while she is asleep?"

Spike confessed "Well, when I was trying to sleep. I swear that I heard her clearly say something about not wanting Nightmare to kill you."

I gasped softly when I heard about this, I grew worried about Twilight. "I hope she's alright." I said, worried about her.

"I'm sure she'll be fine. Even my dreams involving Nightmare Moon are scary, but not as scary as having to have almost fallen during the entire 'Crystal Empire' incident." Spike said sounding a bit embarrassed when he mentioned the Crystal Empire.

"Well, I surely do hope that this entire Nightmare Moon returning is just a silly rumor." Rarity said, trying to assure both me and Spike that it was probably just nightmares and that I was overreacting. But to me, I don't think those were rumors at all if Princess Luna rescued me.

I turned back towards Rarity. "Oh by the way, thank you for cheering me up Rarity." I told her, putting a small smile on my face.

Rarity giggles a bit and smiles at me. "Of course, it's my job as your friend to do so." She says to me.

"Permission to hug you?" I asked, giving a sheepish grin.

"My, you asked so nicely. Of course you can give me a hug." Rarity told me. I open up my arms and gently wrap them around Rarity. She wraps one of her hooves around me, and both of us share a gentle, friendly hug.

After a few moments, I and Rarity let go of the hug and smile at each other. The clearing of a throat grabs our attention and we both turn to look at Spike with his arms crossed.

"How about one for me?" Spike said, sounding a bit like he wasn't getting that much attention.

Both me and my friend Rarity share a giggle and I signal for him to come over and give me a friendly hug. Spike is enlightened via a smile again, and walks over to me, hugging my leg since I was a bit tall. In the hug, I gently give him a pat on the head. He lets go of the hug soon after and shares a smile with me and Rarity.

Rarity of course taps me on the shoulder to catch my attention. I turn to her and she gives the signal that I've seemed to have missed somepony that I needed to hug. Of course, I knew who it was. Coco Pommel herself.

I slowly walk past Rarity and Spike, approaching Coco who just got up from her chair. Me and her were just looking at each other for a few moments, until I had decided to speak out.

"Um, permission to hug you, Coco?" I asked, wondering if she'll accept the hug or not.

Coco's face has a smile and she says "A hug from you? Sure, I'll go for it."

I gently move my arms around Coco gently and she places her warm and soft hooves around me, with the both of us sharing a gentle and warm friendly hug. By judging about her, I think Coco herself would be my second best friend next to Fluttershy. It's always the shy ones that I seem to become best friends with.

I let go of the hug between me and Coco Pommel, with the both of us just staring at each other for a few moments.

"Oh Celestia! Look at the time!" Rarity calls out, looking at the clock. I turned my attention towards Rarity to see what was going to happen next. "It's time for me to go and pick up Sweetie Belle from school, she's waiting for me there."

"Doesn't she usually come home by herself?" I asked curiously.

Rarity smiles at me and says "Of course Brayden. But I'm picking her up because I promised we would do sister stuff together. So I'm afraid I have to end our hangout for now. But we'll have loads of time to talk to one another when we head to Canterlot."

"Of course, I'm really excited to go." I told her, grinning.

Rarity giggles and says "That's the spirit Brayden. Now you and Spike have to go… sister-related stuff, you know."

I nod with a smile and say "Alright, I'll see you later Rarity." Then I realized something… I had to say goodbye to Coco Pommel.

I turn around to Coco and take a hold of her gentle hoof. "We'll talk more again, won't we?" I asked her.

"I promise you that we will. It could just be… you know… you and me." Coco shyly says, and I swear I could see a bit of a blush on her cheeks.

"Of course." I said, smiling. I finally let go of Coco's hoof and follow Spike towards the door. I look back to Coco one last time and wave to her. She waves back in return and I turn around going out the door.

Me and Spike step out of the front door into the Carousel Boutique. I close the door right behind me and begin to walk alongside Spike once again.

I take a look at Spike, he seems to be snickering a bit. I raise my hands as if giving a bit of a shrug. "What?" I asked him out of curiosity.

"I think Coco likes you." Spike teased, snickering a bit.

I roll my eyes a bit. "Well, you already know who my special somepony is. I'm not going to cheat on her." I told him.

Spike rubs his dragon claws together. "I think you, Twilight and Coco would work so well together in a threesome."

"Why you little-" I said, looking a bit angry just to intimidate him for fun.

Spike was laughing a bit. "Oh relax Brayden. I already know you're dating Twilight. She's the one who obviously cares for you the most."

"Well of course." I said, smiling again now that I was aware that Spike was just teasing me.

"But I wouldn't be surprised if you liked Coco in 'that way' as well." Spike teased again, putting more joking intimidation into me.

"I do not! She's just a friend!" I said to him, getting a bit annoyed.

"Oh, you do!" Spike said, in his teasing way.

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Oh relax, just a little something to joke about with." Spike said, laughing a bit from the teasing. For me, I understand if he was teasing, but really… the truth is that I really loved Twilight.

"Alright fine. Jokes it is." I said, and began to joke with him along the way. We just continued down the path in Ponyville, just teasing each other and joking about other things.

But there was something I seemed to miss, and I thought I saw it briefly. I could catch the shape quite on time, because it went by me and Spike rather quick up ahead. Oh well, I'm having too much of a blast with Spike to mention that again. I just continue on my way with Spike to the next location we want to hang out at.

But somehow, I keep having thoughts about Nightmare Moon. I just hope Rarity is right and that it's just a bunch of silly stuff. But if Princess Luna was in my dreams rescuing me… does that mean it will happen after all? I just hope that Princess Luna will do something to prevent this from happening. I don't want her to be banished again if she becomes Nightmare Moon. What worried me the most was Nightmare Moon in her own separate form.

A/N: Sorry for the LOOONG wait on this chapter! It's been quite the month of May for me. Seeing the Season 4 Finale was a blast and it did keep me a bit from writing along with my classes. But I am doing a 2nd story at the same time, so it makes sense for taking time to upload more chapters. My throat is better now, and I've been accepted into the college I'm going to. :) Enough of me, onto the review responses.

The Lone Nomad: Oh, okay.

Shadow Bolt: Me singing Bohemian Rhapsody? You never know, anything is possible. But for powers, a most "Yes", but won't tell you when.

godzillafan1: I think both fascism and racism is sort of the same thing. The shape that Brayden saw might have been either Nightmare Moon or Lord Tirek who I'll be saving for later in the story! Anything could happen, but most likely it's Nightmare Moon which means her return will probably happen during Brayden's visit to Canterlot. That will be after the next chapter... Brayden's date with Twilight! :)

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I open up my eyes slowly, releasing the light of the new day come briefly into my own eyes; causing me to squint them open and shut. What a morning to wake up like this, huh? Well, if my eyes are squinting from Celestia's sun… well, you can tell that this is going to be yet another good day. I softly push the covers off of me and rise up out of bed.

What I had planned today was to go and pay a visit to the Apple family, mostly for my friend Applejack. Well, the most likely that was to happen would be: being able to get her to take a break from bucking apples all day. She would need that rest to spend some time with me and kick back and have a bit of apple cider. And trust me, on the first date with Twilight when I confessed; that happened to be the recipe that every Apple in that family used.

I turn around back towards the bed and place my hands onto the covers of the bed. I gently begin to pull them a bit to make them look very smooth. I then pull the sheets up the bed and place the pillow on top to make the bed look neat. I then walk to the other side of the bed and grab the other side of the sheets, smoothing them down and pulling them to the top. I move the pillow a bit to put it in place. I think the bed from what I can see now looks okay.

I can hear the soft knocking of my door behind me, with high expectations that it was my best friend coming to check up on me and see if my sleep was wonderful.

"Come in." I say, smiling.

The door opens up slowly, I could see the pink colour of Fluttershy's mane when light of Celestia's sun comes in through the door lighting up the room. She slowly trots into the room, and her face is rather enlightened to see me as it always is every morning. Her soft voice tells me "Good morning Brayden. Did you sleep well?"

I nod my head up and down, saying "Yes Fluttershy. I ended up sleeping like a log this time which means I've had a good dream."

"I see." Fluttershy says, approaching me and placing her gentle hoof onto my hand. "Well, Princess Luna wants to make sure that everypony has great dreams while they sleep."

The both of us share a gentle and friendly smile at one another. She finally takes her hoof off of my hand and clears her throat. "Anyways, what is your plan today Brayden?" She asks me.

"Well, I am planning to visit Sweet Apple Acres today." I tell her, sounding a bit excited. "I haven't been able to spend any time with Applejack yet. So… yes, I'd bet she'll be happy to have me keep her company. Celestia knows what the two of us are going to do."

"I'm sure that you'll have a great time with one of my best friends, she's friendly and honest. But a little tip of advice, don't try lying to her because she knows whether it's a lie or not." Fluttershy warned, sounding like I should be a bit careful.

"Aw, don't worry about that. I would never lie to any of my friends, minus how I was trying to hide my feelings about Twilight from them, but she managed to snap me into telling the truth. It was on my first day." I said, lightly blushing when I remembered first meeting Applejack's family on the farm. I think Applejack was just trying to tease me a bit playfully.

"Okay then. I think I have breakfast on the table all ready. Why don't you grab a bite before you head off for your day?" Fluttershy asks me, turning and trotting towards the bedroom door.

"Sure, I would love to." I told her, following her out of my bedroom. "What's for breakfast?"

"I've made some buttered toast with a side of over-easy eggs." Fluttershy says to me in her soft voice. "I think you'll enjoy it."

Of course I had enjoyed buttered toast and eggs, I had those while I was back on Earth. It was usually every Thursday evening though, but hey! There isn't anything wrong with having breakfast foods for dinner, is there? That's just how I usually eat, so it's a different kind of balance. Even if it was morning, I'd eat it either way.

I walk down the wooden steps joining next to Fluttershy. I take a peek around the stair's handles. All of the animals seem to be awake bright and early. All of them seem as eager to be fed their breakfast Fluttershy was probably going to give them. I continue walking down the stairs while observing the animals and take my soft feet off of the stairs, unaware that I'm about to hit a wall.

"Brayden?" Fluttershy's soft voice asks me.

I turn to the sound of her voice and look at her while continuing to walk forward. "Yes Fluttershy?" I asked her.

Fluttershy softly says "Be sure to look out for-" She stops when the side of my face went face first towards the wall and hit it. "…The wall."

I backed up pretty fast after hitting that wall and placed my left hand onto the left side of my head. This bump really seemed to hurt, but I scratched a bit of my hair and blushed a bit, smiling. "Gee, I really need to watch where I'm going next time." I said.

Fluttershy giggles and says "Well, I'm glad you're alright." She then trots into her kitchen, with me following her in there.

The table inside was set up just quite right. There was a vase of flowers filled with water in the middle of the round table and my breakfast sits there on the right side of the table. The smell illuminates into my nostrils, allowing me to know the scent of my breakfast. It smells delicious, and the eggs seem ready after being in the pan from the top of the stove.

"Come on now," Fluttershy said to me in her gentle voice. "You don't want to faint again."

I look at her and give her a gentle and happy nod. Briskly, I walk forward towards the table and take my seat in the wooden chair, scooting forward. I pick up the fork with my right hand and softly jab it into one of the eggs first. I then picked up the knife with my left hand and slowly began cutting the egg in half, thankfully not breaking the yolk. The yolk is always the best part for me.

Once I had cut the eggs into parts, I began to place the fork under the yolks I've separated from the rest of the eggs and placed my fork underneath one. I slowly pick up the yolk, carefully trying not to break it open accidentally or on purpose. I scoop the fork into my mouth and begin to chew on the cooked yolk.

My goodness, it tasted so good. The taste felt just like buttery slime dripping all through my mouth while I was chewing on the part of the egg. After I had chewed it up, I swallowed it lightly, sending it into my stomach. I proceed to start taking the other two yolks from the other eggs and start eating them slowly. You know me from what others have told me, I don't want to eat it too fast, cause of tummy aches.

After I had dealt with eating the egg yolks, I began to dig into the rest of the egg whites I didn't eat yet. They tasted just like the eggs that I had back on Earth. And no, I didn't forget to eat the toast. Why I forget something like that? I'm used to eating eggs and buttered toast once a week in the morning. Most of the time, I would usually eat a bowl of cereal that I took out from the cupboard and poured into a bowl.

While I was chewing down on one of the last few egg whites, I turned my head to left to watch Fluttershy feeding her animals happily. I could tell that she must have finished her breakfast pretty fast while I was busy with eating away. "There you go fellas." She says softly to the squirrels when she places down a row of the acorns and nuts she left for them to have. But of course, it wouldn't be the usual morning when you hear her little bunny rabbit, Angel just tapping his foot and waiting for his food.

Fluttershy is notified of Angel's attention seeking and trots over to him with a small carrot. "Here you go Angel, a carrot just for you." She says to him, offering the carrot in her hoof. His annoyed, grumpy-like fact changes into a delightful, happy face and he takes the carrot with the both of his front feet and munching on the orange and fresh carrot.

I swallow down the last egg white and place the fork onto my wooden plate, grabbing Fluttershy's attention. She silently approaches my side of the table and quickly observes my plate clean of food. "The food was delicious Fluttershy! I didn't know you were quite the cook." I complimented her, placing a smile onto her face.

"Thank you so much Brayden, but you are missing one thing." Fluttershy said, pointing to my glass of half-filled milk.

"Oh… yeah." I said, scratching my head a bit. I grab a hold of my drink and slowly gulp the rest of it down. When I placed the empty glass onto the wooden table, I looked at Fluttershy again. "I think I've finished it now."

Fluttershy trots closer to me and takes a hold of the wooden plate and glass cup. "Well, you do have a good choice of foods that you eat." She tells me.

"Well, not really. I'm a bit of a picky eater." I confessed to her, with her reaction not being surprised whatsoever.

"There's nothing wrong with being a picky eater. I mean, take a look at my bunny Angel. He becomes picky some of the time. At often times, I have to use 'the stare' on him." Fluttershy tells me. "But, seeing how nice you are… I'm too afraid of what would happen if I used the stare on you."

That's true what she had said, being almost as sensitive as her. I can almost easily become frightened, but this is mostly if someone was mad towards me. Mostly if they're yelling at me, this can bring me into humongous tears. No one should really hurt my own feelings, even in the past I've tried to fight… but would always be hurt in the end.

Fluttershy placed the dishes into the sink and began to wash it. "Want me to help you with that Fluttershy?" I asked, wondering if she needed some assistance.

"Oh it's okay Brayden. I've got your dishes under control. Besides, don't you have a friend to go visit today?" Fluttershy said, suggesting about how I was planning to see Applejack today.

"Oh yeah, can't forget about that." I said, realizing what I was supposed to be doing now. "Well, I suppose I should be off then."

"Alright." Fluttershy says to me before stopping what she was doing and trotted towards me for that moment. "Will you be having dinner over at Sweet Apple Acres?"

I nodded and said "Yes. I think the dinner will most likely be something apple-related since even their names at Sweet Apple Acres give it away easily."

"Okay. I'll probably see you later then." Fluttershy said, and I made my soft approach with the both of us sharing our gentle and friendly hug together.

After the few moments, me and her let go of the hug and I turned towards the front door. "I'll be back after dinner." I told her while I was turned to the door. I open the door softly, leaving the room into the outdoors. I close Fluttershy's front door behind me and begin walking up down the pathway and over the small bridge.

I begin to walk down the trail towards the direction where Sweet Apple Acres would be located. Small wild birds chirped into the air, talking in their language to their other bird friends from afar a couple of trees. The grasshoppers hopped along the fresh cuts of grass that were still a bit wet from the rain that had come last night.

A few friendly fillies had trotted along the path, chatting to one another about how their morning was and the usual stuff they talked about since they were still young at heart. The occasional mare or stallion would pass by me, waving towards me and briefly saying hello before going on their way to do what they had to do.

I could see that mare coming up on the trail, it was the school teacher Cheerilee. Seeing her put a smile onto my face, but stops. How could I confront her after I had nearly cried in front of her last time I was in the school visiting? How would I be able to face her.

"Good morning Brayden!" The mare calls out to me.

I couldn't give myself any choice, she already said hello to me. I couldn't just bring myself to ignore it, that would be mean. I wave at her greetfully and she gives me a smile before trotting past me.

"Come on Brayden! You can do this, just apologize for what happened!" My mind was telling me at the alarming rate. By the way my mind was telling me this; it sounded very serious and didn't want me losing Cheerilee's trust.

"Cheerilee, wait!" I called to her when I turned to face her. She stops and turns back around, approaching me.

"What is it you need, Brayden?" Cheerilee asks, sounding as pleasant as ever.

"Well, I wanted to apologize for running off when at the school. I should have let you ask me what was wrong and I would have told you everything." I explained to her, feeling a bit guilty.

Cheerilee placed her gentle hoof onto my shoulder. "Brayden, I forgive you. I'm not even upset at you for leaving, I just wanted to help. But I'm glad you told me this."

A gentle smile comes onto my face, I said "Thank you Cheerilee. I just didn't know what I was thinking at the time."

"It all happens sometimes, my good friend." Cheerilee said, taking her hoof off of my shoulder.

"By the way, permission to hug you?" I asked, wondering in a friendly way.

"Oh, I don't mind. You can give me a hug." Cheerilee said, sounding happy by the friendly offer.

I slowly moved forward and gently placed my hands around her neck and held her gently in a friendly way. She had her hoof around me, sharing the warm and joyful hug. After a few moments, the both of us let go of the hug.

"Well, I must get going into town now," Cheerilee said, trotting off. "But please do visit the school anytime. I could use some assistance from somepony like you for the fillies."

"Alright, I'll make sure to do that sometime. I'll see you." I said to her, continuing my way down the trail towards the path of Sweet Apple Acres.

---

I could see the large barn in the distance when I had got out of the dirt trail. I walk forward briskly with the gentle and warm wind towards the property of my friend. I could see myself pass under the wooden archway and onto the dirt of Applejack's home.

On the porch of Applejack's home, I could see Granny Smith lying there, taking a bit of a nap and she seemed to be snoring. I didn't want to be mean or anything, but she was the only one outside, and I decided to wake her and ask if Applejack was around. I slowly approached her while she was rocking back and forth in her rocking chair.

"Granny Smith?" I asked in both a low quiet and normal tone of voice, while lightly tapping her shoulder gently.

The old mare snorted a few times and muttered "Uh… wha?" She finally opens her eyes and sees me. A smile is slowly brought up onto her face. "Say, Ah remember ya like ya came into town yesterday." She said to me.

"Yes, it's me Brayden." I said to her. "You were napping."

"Darn tootin'!" Granny Smith said, getting up off of her rocking chair. "That's one of the things that Ah love to do in ma' spare time!"

"Probably when there's nothing much to do around Sweet Apple Acres." I said, shaking her hoof in greeting. "I do see you around Ponyville some of the time."

"Ah'm mostly there if Ah have to go shoppin' for some ingredients. Even with ma rusty back, it ain't easy shoppin' around town." Granny Smith told me.

I asked "Is today a day where you shop?"

Granny Smith just shakes her head. "Nah. It's only tomorrow when Ah have to. The ingredients are usually for them apple pies and specialties." She tells me.

"All in the Apple family, hm?" I asked. The first time I had ever tasted the apple pies were at my "Welcome to Ponyville" party from Day 1 when I had first arrived. Pinkie seemed rather eager to see my face when Applejack set dessert for me on the table, which by coincidence was Apple Crisp, one of my favorite desserts since forever.

"Indeed Brayden." She told me, smiling. "The Apple family has been going on for many generations since the beginnin' of Equestria."

"The beginning of Equestria? That must have been centuries ago!" I said, amazed.

Granny Smith nodded her head. "Ah learned about our history way back when Ah was a little filly. Most of the history's been passed down by ma great-great grandfather."

"You still remember every word he said?" I asked.

"Yes. Ah have a great memory." Granny Smith said, moving her hoof towards her head. "This brain knows just 'bout everythin' about Apple family history, top to bottom. Even many unicorns and pegasi contributed to our history."

"Were some of the unicorns thinking themselves as high-class?" I asked, curious if there were some moments in the Apple history when the unicorns thought earth ponies were lower class.

Granny Smith thought about this for a moment and then said "Well, there were only a few from what Ah can remember. They thought that they could be able to get us out of their land. But thanks to both us n' the Princesses, we was able to convince them to get over us bein' dirt. Still, Ah feel there are only few that think we're all lower class."

"Well, I do know of one so far. Prince Blueblood." I told her, remember briefly about him passing by me and calling me scum.

"Ah don't trust him whatsoever. I reckon that ya stay as far from him as possible." Granny Smith warned me, sounding like she was telling me to be careful. "I heard rumors that he called mah food the worst thing he's ever laid hooves on!"

"No, it happened." I told her, knowing about what happened in the Season 1 finale.

"How dare a stallion like him insult ma traditional family recipes!" Granny Smith shouted, rather surprised that hearing the rumors to be true. "It's been going down as amazin' to everypony that ever tasted them!"

"Granny, calm down. It was only one incident." I said, staying rather calm in this situation.

Granny Smith sighed. "Ah'm sorry, it's all just been hectic since I got a new waterpump installed." She tells me, now a bit calmer.

"Hey, it's alright. Don't listen to what Blueblood said about your food, you make the most fantastic apple foods of them all!" I told her, assuring her that just because Blueblood hated it, she shouldn't really be offended by this and just move on without trouble.

"Thank ya Brayden, Ah'm not really one who takes too kindly to those against ma family or any stranger who thinks they's better than Ah." She thanks me, putting a smile onto her again.

The sound of hooves was heard trotting behind me, slowly approaching into the conversation. I slowly turn around, to see who it was coming into the conversation. It was just my friend Applejack, who I waited to see. Again, I wonder where she was by the time I was on her property.

"Hello Granny, hello Brayden. What ya'll talkin' about?" Applejack asks the both of us in her southern accent.

"Well, Ah was tellin' him all about how we Apples started Equestria with all of them other two races in forming the land. Ah sure wasn't alive during that time, but it's a story he'd love hearin'." Granny tells Applejack, sounding casually happy.

"Oh this story!" Applejack says, with a bit of excitement in her voice. She pulls up two wooden buckets, kicking them with her back hooves. They flip over to their other side and one lands behind me. "Ya gotta sit for this Brayden. This story is legendary." I take my seat on the bottom of the wooden bucket, next to Applejack who sat next to me.

Granny Smith clears her throat and begins to tell the story. "Well, it started when Ponyville was all forest. Y'all of us lived near the trees, and full of them trees were filled with apples. But these were special apples though, and they're impossible to find anymore throughout Equestria. These apples were known as 'Rainbow Apples'."

"Rainbow Apples?" I asked, curious about what they are.

"Yes." She tells me. "The special thing about them Rainbow Apples though, was that if somepony had bit into them… their life would be extended by only one Equestrian year. But as time went on, a few of the unicorns became obsessed with what these apples did and tried stealin' them all."

"Did a fight break out?" I asked again.

Granny Smith nodded at me and continued "Most of them earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns sided against them unicorn thieves and fought to protect the Rainbow Apples and the trees they grew upon. Them thieves were quickly outnumbered and forced to retreat from Ponyville, hopefully never showing their face again."

I wondered about what happened to the Rainbow Apples, since I was not to confuse them with the Zap Apples. "What happened to the Rainbow Apples?" I said in question.

"After we had chased off the thieves, one of them cast a curse over the land and burnt up them Rainbow Apple trees before runnin' off and never bein' heard from again. To this day, even Ah'm trying to find at least one Rainbow Apple tree or even a single lone apple of that kind. So far Ah've had no such luck in findin' it." She finished.

"What did it look like?" I wondered.

"Well, not much detail was written about it in the Apple family history, but from what Ah've heard from my great grandfather, the appearance of them Rainbow Apples are that they're almost similar to them Zap Apples that usually come in a season known as: Zap Apple Season. Except when you saw them, they would reflect out a bright rainbow of light." She told me.

"And how did the apple trees today grow?" I asked, hoping that be the last question. Applejack gives me a sort of look, which tells she is probably amused by my questions.

"Well…" Granny cleared her throat and continued. "While the trunks of them Rainbow Apple trees remained, they released the apple seeds themselves and they were fallin' from the trees. We used them to grow them trees around Sweet Apple Acres that ya see today. The Rainbow Apple trees' trunks were too damaged to grow anymore of them Rainbow Apples and we sadly had to use 'em for firewood."

"Well, this Rainbow Apple stuff is quite a mystery to find out about." I said, once Granny Smith had finished telling about how Sweet Apple Acres started. "Well, if I ever stumble onto any lands that could have any Rainbow Apples if I ever go on adventures, I shall let you know."

"That would be quite nice Brayden. Them rare apples would make me show them off to everypony if you found them and brought 'em to me. The seeds inside them apples grow the trees quickly when planted." She told me, seeming happy that I'd do something like that for her.

"What a story Granny Smith." I told her, sort of sounding like an actor from a bad movie that I saw a clip from back on Earth.

Applejack cleared her throat and said "Granny? Ah think Brayden here's been tryin' to see me today. But it was great n' all telling him this story."

"Ah, alrightie Applejack. Yer turn to play with Brayden." Granny said, teasing Applejack a bit.

"Aw come on Granny, none of them stuff. Ah'm not a little filly no more." Applejack said, blushing a bit in embarrassment from what Granny told her. I'm chuckling quietly beside Applejack.

"Just teasin' ya Applejack." Granny said, chuckling a bit. "Sometimes I can still see ya as a little filly."

Applejack and I both rose up off of the upside-down buckets we both had sat on. I began to walk alongside my friend Applejack towards the house.

"So, where's Applebloom or Big Macintosh? I haven't seen them yet." I asked her while walking beside her.

"Big Macintosh is off doing work around Ponyville and Ah think Applebloom is with her friends." Applejack tells me. "Them crusaders are always up to findin' their cutie mark."

"I did tell Applebloom she should wait until her cutie mark comes or until she finds that special talent." I said, remembering what I suggested to Applebloom the day I fainted.

Both of us enter the house and into the living room. "Even Ah've tried to dig that message into her mind, but she resists everytime." She says.

"Well, I don't think you can change her." I said. "It's probably the way Applebloom is as a pony herself."

I walked across the living room towards the stairs, in the direction Applejack seemed to be going. The both of us begin to take our normal steps up the wooden steps.

"Yer right Brayden. Ah can't change who she is, only she can change herself." She admits to me.

Both of us come up to the top of the steps and I start walking across the hallway. "By the way, how's that relationship with Princess Twilight going for you?" She asks me, smiling again.

"I think it's going great so far. I think tomorrow night, I'm going to ask her out on a date to dinner. Probably because I'm going with Rarity, her sister and Coco over to Canterlot." I said, delighted that the thought of me and Twilight's date was closer than I thought.

"Heheh, Ah knew both ya and her would be perfect for each other!" Applejack said, giving me a pat on the back with her left front hoof.

"Thanks Applejack. How's the family business doing?" I thank and ask.

Applejack shrugs a bit. "Well, we did have a few ponies try to steal our business a few times. But Apples alone, we managed to scare them off."

I somehow figured that she'd say that. I remember the Film Flam brothers trying to take their farm via a challenge over Apple Cider. Because the cider on Flim and Flam's end tasted horrible, the Apple family won the farm back within a matter of seconds. Whether the case, I don't think the Apple family would ever be willing to give up their farm to somepony else after that incident happened.

I slow down to a stop and let Applejack trot ahead of me and open the door to her room. Her hoof is placed onto the doorknob and gives it a slight turn. The door opens up with a small creak and Applejack trots in. I follow her into her room and calmly shut the door behind me. I turn around from closing the door and watch Applejack sit on the side of her bed. She takes a look at me, dangling her two back legs, using her right front hoof to signal me to sit down.

"Come on Brayden, don't be shy. Come sit." Applejack offers, and I nod in understanding. My feet walk briskly towards her bed, turn around and I find myself sitting on my friend's bed. I turn towards my friend Applejack.

I shake a bit and then say "I hope you're not up to something in here. I don't want to cheat on Twilight if you have any ideas."

Applejack shakes her head. "Oh no, no! Ah wouldn't even try anythin' like that on ya. Ya are a friend. Of course Ah understand yer relationship with Twilight." She tells me. I take a sigh of relief.

"Okay, good. The last thing I'd want to happen to me is Twilight dumping me and me getting into a deep depression." I told her, reliefed. After a few moments of silence, Applejack's smiling face slides slowly into a face of guilt. "Something on your mind, Applejack?"

"Well, ya." Applejack says, taking off her hat. This surprised me because I have actually never seen her without her hat being on her head. "I'm feelin' a little bit guilty about somethin'."

"As a friend, would you like tell me?" I asked her calmly.

She gives out a bit of a sigh and looks into my brown eyes with her green eyes. "It's just that… it was about when ya fainted at Twilight's house. Ya nearly fainted here near the barn and Ah wanted to help, but ya kept telling me ya'd be fine. Ah should've stopped ya and help ya back to health." She confessed to me, with me listening carefully. "Ah kinda feel a little guilty for failin' to help ya."

I pause for a few moments after she had told me this. After, I take a look back at her. She's just looking down at the wooden floor, shameful for trying to help me, but failing because of my resistance.

"Hey Applejack…" I said, between a whisper and a calm tone of voice. She turns her head back towards me, still looking a bit sad. "It wasn't your fault. You shouldn't blame yourself for this. You tried your best, so it was my own fault for not listening to you in the first place."

"So… ya still good?" Applejack said, in a tone that sounded like she was wondering and curious.

"I'm all good. I haven't lost my trust, and I promise you… I will never hurt you or the ponies you love. I don't even hurt a single animal in my life and never will." I told her, in an assuring voice. "I especially wouldn't lie to you and I'll let you help me out the next time I feel like I'm about to faint or am in trouble."

Applejack seems rather happy and says "Alright, by the sound of it… Ah sure hope that ya are being honest to me."

"100% Honest." I said to her, smiling. A thought about my friendship with her popped open. "By the way, permission to give you a friendly hug?"

Applejack kept her smile and told me "A hug from you? Ah don't think you need mah permission. Go right on ahead and give me a hug."

I gently move forward towards my friend and wrap my arms around her neck. Her left front hoof is wrapped around my shoulder, sharing the friendly hug between the two of us. After a couple of moments during the hug, I say to her. "You are quite one of the most amazing friends I've ever had, don't ever let your guilt put you down."

"Thanks, Brayden." Applejack says, sounding relieved and joyful. "Ah just don't know what got into me."

The two of us finally let go of the hug. Applejack then takes a look out of the window. The light of Celestia's sun shines onto parts of her pale yellow mane. I just watch her carefully, just like good friends do for others.

"Say, isn't that the assistant that's helpin' out Rarity?" Applejack asks, pointing out the window.

Whatever did she mean by assistant? Rarity didn't really have any assistants. Unless there was… her. I slowly peek my head out of the window, and I can see that almost white earth pony trotting into Sweet Apple Acres by herself. Coco Pommel. What was she doing here?

"I'll be right back." I told Applejack and got up off her bed, rushing towards her bedroom door.

I turned open the door and left it open when I was rushing to get downstairs. I really needed to see why Coco Pommel was here. I could hear the sound of hooves behind me. I can suspect that it was Applejack, only trying to follow me and see what was going on as well. I take my steps off the stairs in a fast manner and take flight towards the front door. There she is, Coco Pommel just standing there.

"Coco!" I called out to her, smiling.

The only response I seemed to get from her is that she looked both nervous and shaky when she turned and saw me, and then galloped off from the farm. I stop and watch her go, and I begin to get curious. There isn't any way that Coco wouldn't go to a farm on this kind of day to do what she needed to do. But why here? By the way she was shaking, she must have nervous about something and too scared. If she was, why did she run away? If she told me, I would have understood.

"So, what happened?" Applejack asked me from behind.

I turn around to my good friend again. "I'm not sure. When I tried to call to her, she saw me and galloped off away." I told her. "But by the way she looked when she saw me, she seemed to be shaky about something… like she was extremely shy."

"Well, because yer going with her to Canterlot in a few days, y'all be able to find out why she's acting like this." Applejack said to me, seeming concerned about Coco Pommel as well.

"Yeah, by then I can ask her why she was running away. Is she hiding something?" I asked, curious and yet wondering why she'd run like that away.

"Well, let's go back inside. Granny might be makin' us some steamy apple pie and hooie, is it going to be fantastic!" Applejack assures me, going back inside into the house.

I acknowledge with a nod and begin to follow Applejack. And after the first few steps towards the front door again, I am somehow confronted by something of the unexpected.

An image flashed through my head rather quickly, but I was able to see what it was before it disappeared. It was a moment where both my special somepony Twilight and my friend Coco, are being held inside a dungeon.

This could not be good by the look of that image, but something did cross my mind. Why in the world of Equestria… was Coco Pommel doing here and why did she run away upon hearing my voice and seeing me? It was a mystery I had yet to solve.

A/N: Hello everyone! Another chapter to this story just added! Pretty much the next chapter is going to be the big one. I'm not telling you, so you might want to take a guess on what is going to happen near the end of the next chapter in the works. Even the ending of this chapter symbolizes the return of a villain. But no more spoiling... Review Response Time!

Owldusk: Thank you for the review? Coco a stalker? No... but it'll all be revealed in the next chapter. And the vision? Well, it's possible that it could be a warning to Brayden about the future. But is there something powerful deep inside him? *wink*

TheSteelPegasus: Thank you for those two reviews ^_^ More Twilight in this story, you got it! And no worries about putting pressure on me, I just have school summatives and an exam. Green Day, eh? I like a couple of their songs, but I'm not so much a fan of them. You should consider checking out Black Flag and Nirvana as well. Brohoof to you too.

godzillafan1: Well, it's not really explained about Coco in this chapter, but the next will bring it all up why she kept running away from Brayden. An ability to see the future? Well, it was probably just a warning that was sent to him as a vision. Who knows, he might have powers and he doesn't even know it. Lord Tirek making an appearance in my story? Less likely, but I'll most likely mention the incident that happened at one point in order for Twilight to get a new castle. But it'd probably be brief. You never know, anything's possible.

P.S. I'm attending a graduation ceremony this week, because in September... I'm going to college! But that won't stop me from writing this story! I'm going to continue writing it, except the wait for a new chapter may possibly be longer if college work goes up the charts. But nothing should stop me from writing this and keeping you all entertained. Anyways, enjoy the new chapter.

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Tonight was the night! Which night you might be asking? Well, it's still sunset, but it's the right timing for me. Tonight is when I'll be going out with Princess Twilight. Although I had everything planned carefully for the date and knew what I was planning to do with her this evening.

What was the plan? Well, I was planning to take her to dinner first by the lake that my good friend Pinkie Pie had set up for us, because you know her, even from a far-away range she'll do what she can to make sure it's perfect. After dinner, we'll be spending some fun time at an amusement park for the fun of it. Just a simple first date for both me and her. I only just hope it goes off without a hitch.

I wasn't planning on wearing anything formal for tonight. It would seem a little bit too classy, so I would just wear my normal clothing. It's not like if I did, it would impress Twilight to think I looked amazing. Either way without the formal clothing, Twilight would still be happy to see me.

With the sun setting in the west, the stars could be slowly seen peeking one by one into the forming night sky. Barely a cloud was occupying them in the sky, minus a few tiny bits of cloud. Luna's moon was slowly rising in the east, to join in with the rightful night, but it was shining brighter than I usually have seen it. It must have been a super moon night, kind of like back on Earth where it seemed slightly larger, but brighter.

I was walking across the small bridge of stone over a small stream of gentle flowing water into Ponyville. Most of the townsfolk were outside, talking among their friends. I could see very few fillies out at this time, because it would usually be their supper time at home, or they were already done and had gone off to bed.

I could see a few of the townsfolk that I would see just about every day when I came into town. Lyra, Time Turner and Bon Bon were the most recognizable I could see. As usual, Lyra would be chatting with Bon Bon about humans actually existing. And the usual response coming from Bon Bon was either an annoyed look, or just smiling while she was rolling her eyes. For Time Turner, he was just walking by like every other background pony that I came across in town. No offense to those who love those characters.

I could see the Golden Oaks Library in the distance, with its lights on inside. I figured that Twilight must be home, aware that I'm coming up to see her. I wonder if Spike is in the house, every time I come visit, I either see him finish cleaning the library or just chilling away on the staircase talking to Twilight's pet owl, Owlowicious and being annoyed in a quick argument because Owlowicious only responds with "who?"

I approach the Golden Oaks Library and give a friendly knock on the door. After I have knocked on the door, I take a step back and wait patiently for somepony to get the door. "Coming!" I could hear Spike's sort of muffled voice from inside the tree-house.

After a couple of more moments, I could hear the door-knob click and the door opens, and I can see Spike opening the door. He first off seems annoyed, but when I enter his sight, a smile enlightens up on his own face. "Oh, hello Brayden." He greets me in a happy tone.

"Hey Spike." I greeted him, waving a bit.

Spike looked about for a bit outside briefly, and then he turned back to me whispering "Is tonight when you and Twilight… well, you know."

"Yes," I whispered back to him. "I seem to have everything planned out for such a great event we'll be doing tonight together."

"Well, in that case, I'll go get her down here." Spike said, and walked back into the tree-house. "TWILIGHT! Brayden's here to see you!"

I waited outside patiently, looking at the dark-purple coloured sky forming up high. The stars were now starting to form up there with Luna's moon rising in from the eastern horizon of Equestria. My thoughts quickly think about her. I wonder if she is still okay after the second attack from Nightmare Moon. Sure, she's one of my favorite princesses, but she was one of the characters that I really cared for in third.

"Brayden?" I could hear Twilight's voice from my left.

I turn around to my left, and could see her standing by her door. A smile lights up my face once again. She looks absolutely beautiful tonight. I mean, she wasn't wearing anything fancy or that. But she looked just how she preferred herself. Except her mane was sparkling like it had been placed into water and taken out.

She trots towards me in a graceful manner. I stand there and watch her approach me with a soft smile glowing on her face. I move my right hand forward a bit, offering it for her left front hoof to hold onto softly. She moves her hoof forward and it touches my soft hand, beginning to hold it gently, rocking it back and forth slowly.

We cannot take our eyes or our smile off each other. We are both gazing deeply into each other's eyes, feeling the presence of love all around the both of us. One of us had to speak out and start the conversation; we needed to break from this beautiful silence.

"So…" Twilight spoke out first, before I could think of doing that. "Have you thought about it Brayden?"

I nodded and gently moved my other hand to gently stroke her silky mane. "Yes Twilight," I said to her in a relaxed voice. "I have everything all planned out, for the first time we plan to spend together."

"So what's the plan for tonight?" She asked me, sounding patient and happy.

"Well…" I said, preparing to see how Twilight would react about my plan. "I'm planning for us to have dinner by the lake, and then have fun together at the amusement park."

"That sounds great, Brayden!" She said. "What do you think will be for dinner?"

I jokingly put my thumb and index finger onto my chin to play around with her thoughts. "Well, I couldn't exactly tell you, it's a bit of a surprise." I said.

She lets a soft giggle. "I love surprises. I can't wait to see what it is." She tells me.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" I said to her, gently stroking her hoof that held onto my right hand. "Shall we get going, princess?"

"Let's do so, Brayden." She said to me, her cheeks a bit pink. "But first I have to do something."

"What might that be?" I asked her.

"Open up your arms a little bit." She requested to me. I did what she told me to do, and I wondered what she wanted me to do as part of what she had to do.

She finally approached me, and seemed to look up at me. I just looked down at her wondering she was smiling at me. "Your special somepony demands you to carry her." She flirted to me, lighting up my cheeks when I finally see why she wanted me to open my own arms.

I lower myself down to almost one knee and allow her to slide on her back from her neck all the way to my other hand. I lift back up onto my two legs and begin to walk with her, carrying her in my arms. I begin to walk that distance from the treehouse, carrying her as she requested.

"So, why did you decide you wanted to be carried?" I asked her. "I mean, I'll keep quiet if you don't want me to ask why."

"No, it's okay. I'm happy to speak and talk to you." Twilight said. "I have been on my hooves all day, and I figured that because I was going on that date with you, I decided to have you carry me. Make me feel comfortable, as you always do."

"I still remember first meeting you. I was so nervous that I hardly spoke to you at first, until you were trying to know my name and I told you it." I said. "And I'm glad to make you as comfortable as possible."

Twilight wraps her front hooves around my neck and gently moves forward, giving me a hug while I walked, carrying her. Everypony that saw us together would stop for a few moments, pacing to see what was happening. I didn't really hear any "aww" coming from them, they'd just go back to what they were doing, giving me and Twilight time together. Of course, the fillies would be indoors at this time, so there wasn't any playful teasing from them.

Both I and she descend out from the town into the valleys of Equestria, where I know the lakeside is. I had to thank Pinkie for showing me all around Ponyville and the valleys near it. Every scenery around was very beautiful and I considered the lake where I confessed to Twilight, the best lake throughout all of Equestria, no matter how small or large it was. I still remember Pinkie telling me that I had still yet to see the rest of Equestria like: The Crystal Empire, Manehattan, everywhere else and especially where she lived. That sort of got me excited to show me around where she grew up as a filly on a rock farm. Goodness, she must have gone on about her sisters and parents: especially Maud. Though I will be interested in meeting Maud myself, no matter how serious she greets me.

Walking down the path, I could see the lake coming up over the low hillside. Excitement and nervousness starts to pound inside of me, just about ready to spend my time with the most beautiful princess and mare in my eyes. But why I was nervous, I had some thoughts that this first date could go wrong with her, which could result in her breaking up with me.

I step down from the path and step onto the grainy sand close by the water. I continued to walk forward, paying both attention to holding Twilight in my arms and the table for the both of us ahead a couple of feet away from the both of us.

The table looks absolutely great and clean when I approach and stop. I slowly place down Twilight carefully onto one of the two chairs. She lets a light blush, saying "Thank you Brayden."

"You're welcome Twilight." I said, returning a large smile on my face.

I walked briskly over towards the other chair, scooting it a bit to the side. I move forward and lean backwards, moving the chair forward and taking a seat next to Twilight. Both me and her start to exchange gazes at one another. Crickets sing and frogs making their unique sounds fill in for the ambience, scenery of us together by the lake. We are surrounded by only the sounds of nature and soft gentle waves, calm to not bother us.

"It's a beautiful night." Twilight speaks out, breaking the ambience of nature.

I nod to her, continuing to gaze into her violet eyes. "Yeah…" I said, too distracted by Twilight to notice everything else around me. That is… until a waiter that almost looks like Pinkie Pie shows up with a mustache and suit with a tie. Both of us stop gazing at one another and take a look at this waiter.

"Good evening, princess and sir!" Pinkie said in her best disguised accent that I could tell almost sounded very much like a cross between an Italian and Swedish accent. "Can I interest you in your favorite kind of dinner meals tonight? I have the special known as: Lover's Bite!"

"Pinkie?" Twilight asked, curious to why Pinkie was here helping with our date. "What are you doing here and why do you look like a waiter?"

"Oh, I just decided that you were both sitting here by the lake and guessed you might have both been hungry." Pinkie said to her, putting on a smile like she usually did. "So I will honestly be your host for tonight. Or is it hostess?"

I gulped deeply and began to sweat only a tiny bit. I feared that Twilight might have figured out that I might have set this up.

"Why, that sounds good Pinkie." Twilight said to her friend, smiling back at her. "But what is the special like?"

"The Lover's Bite is a meal for two, a garden salad made by me! The one and only Pinkie Pie!" Pinkie said, trying not to have that sound like an achievement. "I collected most of the ingredients from the marketplace."

"Sounds delicious Pinkie," Twilight said, sounding rather delighted to hear about the special. She turned her head towards mine. "What about you Brayden? Are you interested as well?"

"Sure, I don't see why not." I said to both Twilight and Pinkie, getting Pinkie jumping a bit from excitement.

Pinkie jumped up into the air and floats fast down like a balloon. "Well alright! Two Lover's Bite meals coming right up!" She of course, sped off into the distance, leaving a bit of a small dust trail, which faded quickly after she sped off like the Roadrunner from Looney Tunes, a cartoon I watched as a kid.

"Well, that's Pinkie Pie for you." Twilight said, giggling a bit.

I smile and giggle with her, but in a soft kind of giggle. We pause for a moment, and then I completely realized the meaning of Pinkie speeding off like that, and began to laugh. Twilight was silent for the first few moments and then finally began to laugh with me. It was probably the funniest thing that I had seen this evening.

My hand unexpectedly lands onto Twilight's hoof in the middle of my laughing fit. I slowly stop laughing when I turn to look at Twilight again. She has stopped laughing and is now just smiling with the top of my hand on her hoof. Gently, I turn my hand around and being calm, start to hold onto her warm and soft hoof.

I and she just stare at one another once again, swinging both her hoof and my hand back and forth softly. The gentle sound of the breeze accompanies the evening air, bringing in the warm night. While I continue to look and gaze at my special somepony, I start to notice something funny occur. But what had become funny, was just a reflection of my past and what had happened.

A thought just came into my head and I was flashed back to when I first tried to convince my friend back on Earth to just accept the ponies for how they were and that they didn't mean no harm to her. That of course, was my friend Rebecca. She hated the ponies with a passion and swore by her life that she'll kill anypony that she saw if she came to their world.

---

"My Little Pony is for little girls!" Rebecca states out loud. "I won't ever watch anything as shitty as that!"

I approach her, but not too close. "Come on Rebecca, the ponies are friendly and could be a great asset to help out with your small problems."

"No!" She shouted, making me jump back a bit. "It's my damn opinion. I will never love those stupid rainbow ponies and never will!"

I slowly teared up while she told me this. "If you could only just give it a chance! Lauren Faust, the creator of Powerpuff Girls made this show!"

"Well, then I've lost complete respect for her." Rebecca said, anger growing in her eyes with a large amount of hate seen. "I hope a dragon comes in and burns up everypony in Equestria."

"There are friendly dragons though, like Spike." I told her.

She just mocked laughter and said "He is way too friendly a dragon. He doesn't even breathe fire!"

"Yes he does!" I argued back, trying to defend the character Spike.

"If I was in that world, I would gather enough dragons to smite down every single pony living there, and their beloved princesses!" Rebecca said, finally losing her damned temper. "I would make a much better leader than a pony princess!"

I literally threw myself forward and pinned my friend forcefully to the locker door. "Don't you ever say that about Princess Celestia! You are a complete monster!"

I threw her off from the locker and even seeing Rebecca's face made me so angry because she swore to kill everypony. I had stormed off from her and she still continued to harass the ponies even though I wasn't in Equestria at the time.

After the flashback was done, the whole thing wasn't over yet. I was receiving an image that moved and ran through my own head. It was Rebecca with a sword and a couple of the anti-bronies finding and somehow creating a portal to find Equestria. Most of the other anti-bronies had guns and all sorts of weapons they would use to destroy all of Equestria. Fear managed to grip a hold of me and I tried to run forward to stop Rebecca from entering, but to no avail.

I was stuck watching as Rebecca and the others with her entered the portal. Of course, the vision didn't stop there. The next image was all of Equestria on fire, dragons breathing towards every single building in Ponyville, setting each home ablaze. I tried to help stop this madness, but it was no use. I was forced to watch as the vision made me watch Equestria continue to burn endlessly.

"Brayden? Brayden!" I could hear Twilight's voice call out in worry.

---

Her voice manages to snap me back into reality and I'm still sitting where I was the whole time. Twilight however, seems to have a look of concern on her own face. I'm still holding onto her hoof with my hand. The night continues to go by seemingly without trouble.

Twilight scoots forward in her chair and wraps her right wing around me to keep me warm, I feel a bit shaky from the experience with the visions and flashback. "Brayden, you look frightened out of your mind." She tells me, sounding concerned. I didn't have any choice, I just couldn't lie to Twilight again, so I had to tell her what happened.

"I… I had a vision." I told her, still a bit shaky. "It was just horrible."

Twilight brings herself closer towards me, wrapping both wings around me. "For what might happen in the future? What did you see?" She asks me.

I sighed and kept my eyes on her. "It was Equestria… it was being attacked by dragons. My friend back on Earth somehow managed to create a portal there that could allow her and the other people that hate your kind to attack. I'm not sure how she brought the dragons in though." I said to her.

"Well, I didn't expect anything like that as a vision," She said, placing her soft hoof onto my hand and holding onto it. "But I am still having a bit of those nightmares about Nightmare Moon."

"You're not the only one. She told me everything when she was in my dreams and tried to get me to side with her. I would never side with her, even after she had called you pathetic." I said to her. The shaking was slowly starting to leave, which was a relief.

"Well don't worry; they're all just bad dreams. Princess Luna guards the dreamers and the night to make sure that nothing bad does happen to anypony." She told me, before nuzzling her nose with mine.

I gently smile and wrap my arms around where usually the waist would be, and began sharing a gentle and romantic hug with her. The hug lasted for a minute and the both of us let go of the hug, still holding onto one another with both our hand and hoof.

"Um, Twilight? Brayden?" I could hear Pinkie's voice from beside the both of us, snapping us out of our romantic moment. "I brought in your food."

I turn to my right to see Pinkie Pie standing there, holding each of our food on two plates in two hooves. She gently sets them down on the table, revealing the delicious garden salad. The look of the greens already seems to have my mouth filling up with saliva on the inside. It came just on time.

"Thank you Pinkie." Twilight commented happily and used her magic to conjure up the both of us some iron forks.

I was surprised to see that Twilight had the ability to conjure up forks. "Wow Twilight, I didn't know that you could bring in forks for the both of us." I told her.

"Oh it's nothing," Twilight said, blushing a bit. "I learned that spell while I was browsing with Spike around the old library at the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters deep in the Everfree Forest."

"But isn't that castle going down slowly by each piece?" I asked her.

"Exactly." She agreed. "Which is why Princess Celestia wanted me and the rest of my friends to help out in restoring the castle into the shape it used to be a thousand years ago, but who knows… Rarity herself might improve on the castle's design like she always does."

I reach forward with my right hand, picking up the iron fork. My goodness, it felt so real even though it was conjured. I dig the fork into the salad and take out the couple of green strips of leaves. I place the fork full of salad leaves into my mouth and close my mouth, sliding the fork out of my mouth. I slowly chew onto the leaves for a bit and swallow. It was so delicious, especially with the strawberries shaped like hearts scattered loosely in the salad. Twilight began to dig into her salad, so I just decided to save conversation for later. Supper was ready for me and I needed to keep healthy.

It's a good thing that Twilight didn't know that I was an omnivore, and if she did find out that I ate meat when I was back on Earth, she would have been really disgusted. Either way, she was bound to laugh it off thinking it was just a wild story that I was telling. Fluttershy, on the other hand… well, she'd most likely cry if I told her that I ate meat like: Chicken, cow and bacon. Though I will admit that bacon is the most delicious thing I've ever tasted.

But enough talk about this meat business, I had a meal to catch up on.

"My goodness, that salad was incredible!" I said, really happy that I ate the best meal ever served to me by Pinkie Pie. I move the wooden bowl of salad over to the other side of the table and watch Twilight finish her last bite and move her bowl over close to my empty bowl.

Twilight turns back towards me and smiles. "I had the most wonderful meal with you." She tells me in a gentle voice. "I'm glad to share it with somepony like you."

I place my hand onto her hoof and look into her violet eyes. "Well, anything for that beautiful princess like you. You're my special somepony." I flirted.

Twilight's cheeks lit up brightly once again when she heard me flirt to her like that. She gently moves her hoof towards my right cheek and gently gives it a stroke down. My head leans towards her forehead, gently placing my forehead against hers, looking into her eyes. Her face is surprised at first, but then turns relaxed and calm, with a soft giggle coming from her.

"So…" She says while the both stared into each other's eyes. "That amusement park?"

I completely forgot for a moment about the amusement park during dinner, and it snapped into my mind more quickly than somepony saying 'cutie mark bonanza'. "Oh yeah! We should get going!" I told her and got up out of my chair.

Twilight gets out of her chair and approaches me while I'm pushing my chair back in. I do her the honor and push in her chair for her. She continues to smile while she watches me finish putting her chair back in place. I finally turn to the direction that the amusement park was, and begin to walk beside Twilight to make our way there.

Even from the lake and not too far, I could see the lights on the Ferris wheel from that distance and that did give me the most basic idea on which ride I wanted to go on with Twilight first. It's because I've heard all kinds of stories that I've been told for years as a small child. If me and a girl rode the Ferris wheel to the top and both of us kissed there, it would mean that is the girl that I will be in love with as long as I live until the day I die. And the girl I happen to love is right beside me.

I gently grab and hold onto Twilight's front left hoof and slowly walk with her in the night towards the park. The both of us would gently swing both my hand and her hoof back and forth slowly with a gentle and tender wind. Our feet trended by the dirt path towards the fence walls of the amusement park, revealing its name to be "Ponyville Funworld".

---

We continue to walk along the large fence walls of the park to find where the entrance could be. "Don't they usually place maps around the park?" Twilight said sounding a little irritated that she couldn't find the entrance into the park.

I took a look around to help her out and find the entrance into the park. I could notice a little light up ahead from the fence and point it out to her. "I think it's over there Twilight." I told her.

She looked at me for a few moments and then began to trot forward towards the light. I followed close by to see if my prediction was correct on finding that entrance into the park. I of course, could see the ticket booth in front of the park, so I could assume that was the entrance after all. There was a huge lineup for the ticket booth in order to enter the park, so I could assume that it wasn't going to be easy entering.

But then the thought of Twilight just struck me. She was a princess, therefore she didn't have to pay to enter the park. So that probably means that if I accompanied her, security would let me into the park for free with her. I walked forward with Twilight by my side towards the entrance of the gate and passed the ticket booth.

"What are you doing?" The nearby security unicorn asks me, looking very suspicious at me.

I gulped deeply, thinking that I'm in deep trouble for not buying a ticket. "Entering the park?" I told him out of the basic.

"I'm sorry, but you cannot enter without a ticket or proof of royalty with you." The security guard strictly said to me, striking a look of disappointment onto my own face.

Twilight came in front of me and the security guard, confronting him. "Don't you see these wings?" She told the guard, sounding very angry towards him that he didn't notice Twilight first before looking at me.

"Oh my goodness. I apologize your highness, but why is this… 'thing' with you?" The security guard said, sounding very apologetic.

This really blew a fuse on Twilight's anger when the security referred to me as a 'thing'. Her face was literally close to his with a scary looking face that couldn't even beat any other. "BRAYDEN IS NOT A THING!" She shouted as loud as she did before when shouting Pinkie's name in the episode when everypony kept trying to get a ticket to the Gala off of her.

Her shout really got everypony's attention in the area range that also included the line at the ticket booth. Even the ticket seller looked so dastardly surprised to see the Princess of Magic just burst like that in front of security. Even the security was shaking themselves like scaredy-cats.

I gently place my hand onto the enraged Twilight's shoulder. She turns to me first with that angry look, but upon the sight of seeing me is surprised that I even saw the whole thing. She slowly begins to calm down and lowers her head in sadness for having seen me witness what had happened. I did notice a bit a shine in her eyes though, one of them releasing a tear drop. She was crying.

"I'm so sorry…" She managed to get out of her own mouth. I bent down lower to comfort her and bring her close towards me, gently placing my hand onto the back of her soft mane. "I'm really sorry for doing that Brayden…"

I gently move my hand down the back of her mane, looking at her with so much calmness and care like a boy should have for his girlfriend. I gently shush her to calm her down, and say "It's alright. It wasn't your fault."

Twilight lets out some more tears from her eyes and throws herself forward towards me, giving me a romantic hug and knocking the both of us onto the dirt ground. It was a good thing Rarity wasn't here, she'd be ranting about how dirty my hair was after and sure she was a good friend, but I just didn't need her ants at this moment right now. Especially when Twilight was really upset for what she did to protect me from racism at all times.

"I've ruined our first date. That wasn't supposed to happen. I wanted the both of us to just have a great time together tonight… and I ruined it." Twilight said, turning up to look at me with her tear-stained and wet eyes. It just about tore me from the inside to see my favorite pony crying. "I turned it into a complete wreck."

"It's not ruined yet." I told her and gently pushed her head forward towards mine. I gently close my eyes and begin to place my lips onto her soft lips, giving her a gentle kiss. My eyes were closed, but I could tell that she probably had her eyes closed and was kissing me back.

After a few moments of the both of us kissing, we stopped and began to get up off of the ground. This time, we weren't planning on dealing with the security at this point since my special somepony was too upset and really needed me to comfort her. Still, I had plans to get the both of us onto the Ferris wheel and ride it to the top. I felt like this was the only way to make her feel better.

"Come on…" I gently said to her, holding onto her hoof while I helped her up off the ground. "There's something I want to show you."

Twilight didn't object and began following me towards the Ferris wheel. The lights lit on the Ferris wheel at night looked fantastic. Each neon light glowed softly by each metal end corner of the wheel, lighting on and softly off and then repeating again.

It seemed to be a short line to ride the Ferris Wheel, almost a few ponies were in line. But one that I knew was in line was one of the background ponies that I was friends with by coincidence, Lyra Heartstrings. When she turned around in the line and saw me, she started to wave to me with a happy smile on her face. I calmly waved back, but did mouth to her that I was trying to cheer up Twilight, which Lyra understood completely.

Moving forward in line, I decide to check up on Twilight next to me. She still looks both guilty and upset for what she did. I can honestly swear that it was only an accident for the security guard to call me a 'thing'. At least it wasn't Prince Blueblood telling me that, I would've punched his racist little snout into his face so he wouldn't breathe for the next few days.

"You okay Twilight?" I asked her and sounding a little worried about her.

Twilight just sighs and quietly says "No…" with a few tears coming down from her face.

"Hey…" I calmly said, gently putting my arm around her neck gently, not to hurt her. "I told you already, it wasn't your fault. It was only an accident. Surely the guard didn't mean to refer to me as a 'thing'."

She keeps silent and I just decide to just not talk to her until we both got onto a part of the Ferris wheel together. The line moves a bit while we're lined up with Lyra getting onto a part of the wheel by herself. It's not too long until the both of us come upon an empty row of double seats when at the front of the ride's line.

I walk briskly forward with Twilight following behind me. I get into the seat on the left, sitting down on its gentle cushion. I turn to my right to watch Twilight take her step up on the seat right next to me. I continue to keep my caring eye on her while putting the seatbelt of the wheel onto me, keeping me safe and from falling off. Twilight does the same for her, making sure not to extend her wings when she does this. After she finishes, she hangs her head sadly again.

The ride begins to cycle, and I end up deciding that now is my chance to talk to her more and comfort her. Hopefully by then, the ride will stop at the top of the wheel.

"Twilight?" I asked her, getting her attention. She softly turns her head and I scoot a little closer towards her, even though I'm seat belted. Why do they even have these in Equestria? She continues to look sad. "I need to tell you something."

Twilight lets out a sad sigh and then looks at me. "I-I'm so sorry!" She cries out with the few tears left in her eyes.

"Twilight." I gently said to her in a firm voice. I gently place my hand onto her left front hoof and hold onto it gently. "It was just a mistake that happened. We all make them sometimes. And no matter what happens and what you do wrong on every date; I will always love you no matter what."

"That's not true!" Twilight says to me as if she doesn't believe me. "You're probably mad at me from the inside!"

"Me mad at you?" I asked, wondering how she came up with something like that. "I wouldn't ever be mad at somepony beautiful like you. You are special to both me and the rest of your friends."

"But I'm not spe-" Twilight said before I gently placed my index finger onto her mouth.

"You are special. Don't ever think that you're not." I told her in both a firm and caring tone of voice towards her. I move my finger from my mouth and gently place my hand onto her soft mane, stroking it gently to give her more comfort. The seat starts to approach the very top of the wheel from what I could see.

Twilight finally opens up her left wing and moves it around me giving me a bit of a romantic wing-hug. "Thank you… thank you so much Brayden." Twilight says to me, sounding really happy and her eyes still water a bit from the heartwarming thing I said to cheer her up.

I gently move forward towards her with her wing around my back, giving me that loving warmth. I move my hand around her, bringing her close towards me. The both of us begin to gaze into each other's eyes like we always did and were doing when the date had started. Finally, our heads start to move closer to one another. She closes her eyes and continues to learn forward towards me. I close my eyes and do the same thing. The moment that I'll cherish forever with Twilight: it happened.

The both of us pressed our lips together at the top of the ferris wheel, sharing a romantic kiss that I felt could last forever. Sure, I couldn't see if I was at the top, but somehow I knew that I was at the top by the presence of love in the air. Her wing's feathers give me quite a gentle tickle from the comfort that the both of us were getting. My hand is gently stroking the back of her head, gently stroking her silky and soft mane. For me, if I got the chance and a girl was holding my hand, I'd gently give her hair a stroke. But for Twilight, it felt just right. And I could tell this the whole time: She was the one for me after all.

After a few special moments, the both of us release each other from the kiss and begin to gaze at one another. Twilight begins to perk a happy smile onto her face once again and at the same time, I could see how pink her cheeks were. It was so cute seeing her blush like that. "I love you." I told her, really meaning how much she meant to me when I said that, and when I say that… I am telling the truth.

"I love you too Brayden." Twilight said to me; still have those cheeks lighten up from what had happened. That's when it strikes me from the inside; I should have a little fun with her now that she's happy again. I gently place my hand onto her chest and begin to scratch her in a fun way with my fingers, tickling her.

Twilight begins to giggle a bit. "Stop that!" She says, laughing. I resist against what she has said to me and continue to tickle her. "Oh my goodness, that tickles!" She just begins to laugh. I'm having way too much fun with this.

Twilight just has a look on her face that she's planning something and begins using her hooves to tickle my legs. I begin to laugh and guffaw while she does this. "Okay, that tickles Twilight!" I cried out in laughter. Twilight stops tickling me and lets out a really happy giggle.

The seats reach the bottom of the ride and the both of us take off our seatbelts and get up off of the ride. It felt good to see my special somepony happy again. The both of us walk together again, with me holding her hoof. It seemed to be a beautiful night, and I still wanted to have a little more fun with her before taking her back, so I was thinking the roller coaster would be next.

Suddenly, that mare in the distance caught my eye. I still remembered the other day when I was hanging out with Applejack at her farm. Coco Pommel. What was she doing here? Other than that, she seemed to look very upset. In fact, I see her head lowered to the ground and tears were dripping out from her eyes. I could tell that something wrong.

"Hold on a moment Twi." I said to Twilight, assuring everything was okay. I was still a far but good hearing distance from Coco. "Coco!" I called out to her.

The young earth pony didn't respond except it was different. As soon as I called out her name, she galloped off sobbing and sniffing. I just stood there with Twilight watching the situation, and then approaching me once the dust didn't seem to have settled that easily.

"What happened?" She asked.

I shrugged a bit. "I don't know, but Coco seemed to be really upset about something. I did see her when she came to Applejack's place, but she galloped off when I called to her. Something is up with her." I told Twilight, turning my head towards her.

"Don't worry about her Brayden," Twilight assured me and gently placed her soft hoof onto my hand. "Just give her some time, she'll feel better about what's going on with her."

I nodded to Twilight, agreeing with her. Even for Twilight to say that, she knew what I needed to do as a friend to Coco.

"How about we ride the roller coaster next?" Twilight said, looking excited. "It would get me more information on the theory of speed and wind."

"Alright." I said to Twilight, putting a smile on her face. I begin to follow her towards the roller coaster, but at the same time, my head is turned to the direction that Coco Pommel galloped off to. There was only one question that was in my mind at the time…

Why was Coco Pommel following me and why did she run off crying? I don't know, but my visit to Canterlot is soon, so it will be a great chance to ask her why she acted like that. I'll know by sure to do that.

I just dismiss that question from my mind and join my special somepony to line up for the roller coaster. But little do I know that from far away, a tall, cloaked figure watches over with its cat-like cyan eyes at me in the theme park. What I was unaware of was one thing…

…A danger has returned and was planning the attack carefully.

A/N: Wow... this is the longest chapter I've ever written so far in this story. But in other news, I had finished my exam and am currently taking orientation once every month at the college that I'm going to be attending at. So, you know what this means... I HAVE ALL SUMMER TO WRITE MY FANFICTION! HOORAY! :D

What do I have planned for summer as well? Let me check... besides seeing Transformers: Age of Extinction and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in theatres, mostly I'll be kicking back and relaxing, writing chapters to my fanfictions, listening to music and playing Minecraft. But don't worry, I'll definitely will be seeing Rainbow Rocks in theaters this September to continue waiting for Season 5 to kick in. But also, the most frustrating thing to come... COLLEGE WORK! But I won't let that get in the way of writing, it'll probably be slightly longer in writing it.

Twilight: Brayden?

Oh yeah, sorry. Now... onto the review responses. Don't worry Owldusk, I already responded to yours.

godzillafan1: Thank you for pointing out the mistake. Coco liking Brayden? You'll find out soon enough here.

hubert2000: Thank you for the like ^_^

Sullivanright: Thank you. :)

---

The sun shines high and brightly above the sky, bringing light to all of the life that lived in all of Equestria. Most of the flowers that bloomed in spring spread out and allow the insects that collect the nectar to land onto them and pollinate with no trouble at all. One honeybee flies over to a Borage plant and lands, looking around at the moving train going upwards and then continues its business to collect. Finally, it flies off spreading its wings at an extremely fast rate.

Who was on that train? I was of course. But thankfully I wasn't feeling alone on the train for this trip, I was with my friend Rarity, accompanied with her sister Sweetie Belle and her friend Coco Pommel. It was today that Rarity was attending that fashion event in Canterlot, and it was also obvious that she brought all of the dresses she made to show off at the fashion show.

I sit there by the window next to her little sister Sweetie Belle. Coco was just helping Rarity go over the list of fashion that she brought along to double-check if she had missed anything.

"Tell me Brayden dear," Rarity asked me. "Does it look like I had brought a little too many dresses?"

"No Rarity, you have the right amount of dresses needed for the fashion show. There's no way that you have too many." I told her. "Even if you think that there's still a little too much, you have the best amount from my point of view."

"Oh thank you Brayden." Rarity says, placing a hoof onto her chest. "If it is one thing I needed to worry about was packing too much. I was only a bit wrongly confused. Thank Celestia I have my friends to tell me if I packed too much."

Coco just turns her head towards me to do a brief glance. By the way that this glance looked, it seemed that she was very sad. The moment was brief though, and even though I tried to study a little more on how she was feeling, she just turned back towards the clipboard she was holding and went back to checking off the last things left on the paper attached to it. There was something going on with Coco Pommel. First she goes off while at Sweet Apple Acres for no reason, and then there was me and Twilight's date which it looked like she was crying when she took off. (The date with Twilight was amazing by the way. She loved it.)

A lot of things also happened days before heading on the way to Canterlot. I was approaching near the Everfree Forest just to walk about and ended up finding some things that belonged to me like my cell phone while I was back on Earth. Don't ask how it got here, I have no idea why they popped up out of nowhere… oh wait. I must have been carrying it with me before I got teleported to Equestria. I figured that it must have fallen out of my pocket when Fluttershy and her bear friend, Harry had helped me to the cottage.

The only downside on my cell phone here in Equestria is that it doesn't seem to have wi-fi or any bars on it to call people on Earth. Oh well, I'd probably just only use my phone for taking pictures, since I did that most of the time rather than text and talk on the phone. I wasn't really much of a texter like the others back on Earth were. Most of them were almost always addicted to their phones and never really looked up at me to chat. Or they were always using apps to chat with their other friends, which a couple I knew and few that I didn't really know. So, I'll pretty much just not use my phone unless I'm taking pictures, but I do need to watch the battery level. Just hope a connector to charge the battery is lying around the Everfree Forest by surprise.

But I did wonder about something that was back on Earth. Sure I haven't thought about it for some time, it did however feel like I missed and wondered what went on. It was one of my friends. Rebecca. I just hoped that she was alright and wasn't paying as much attention to the bronies and to her own life with work. By the look of it, she had already graduated from high school and with the program I was in, I was only a month away from graduating when I arrived here. Still then, with the vision I had of her entering Equestria… I couldn't help but wonder why she'd want to even attack. She would just usually leave a world alone.

"Brayden?" That voice of Sweetie Belle said to me in question. My train of thought is snapped off, and I turn my head to the right to see one of my younger friends. "Is something on your mind?"

I paused for a few moments to ponder about my thoughts. "Yeah, I was just thinking about someone I knew back on Earth." I told Sweetie Belle, placing my hands together on my lap. "She's one of my friends, and I miss her a little. Do you think that I'll ever be able to see her again?"

Sweetie Belle looked at me with a confused look. By the way that she was looking at me, I could tell that she didn't seem to have a single answer to my question and statement. "I'm sorry Brayden, but I've never been to Earth. I don't think anypony has ever even gone there." Sweetie Belle said.

"I know that Princess Luna has gone to Earth before. She told me when she found me there and was close to being… toast." I told Sweetie Belle. "Even from a skilled unicorn, I don't think it would be possible to travel to Earth. By the looks of it… Earth seems to be a huge distance away from Equestria. Too far across the stars to teleport there. But for Princess Luna, it seemed possible via the dream world."

"Well, I'm only a bit confused by that science talk. Sorry Brayden, but that kind of science is hard for me to understand," Sweetie Belle said to me. "But I'm pretty sure the princesses know a little more on that mumble-jumbo."

I nod my head in agreement with her and continue to look back towards the window. I watch as the train rolls past the Cliffside of the rocky mountain and zooming away right towards the open tunnel in the hillside. The sunlight doesn't really reflect into the dark tunnel, but there are a few lights in the tunnel to show the train through and not get derailed by complete accident.

"Brayden dear," Rarity calls out to me from her dresses. I turn my head towards my friend and look to see what she wanted to tell me. "Since this morning, I've noticed that you always seem tired."

"I'm always tired." I told Rarity with a smile. "Not only do I have that, but I sometimes got very odd sleep patterns at night."

"Well, I think you should just close your eyes and take a short nap Brayden." Rarity recommended to me. "It's not very good for your health if you're always this tired. And believe me, it's happened to Applejack before. I'll wake you up when we arrive in Canterlot."

Well, I should listen to Rarity's advice and take that nap. Even I felt my eyes were a bit baggy even during the day due to my odd sleep patterns I've been experiencing. I slowly begin to close my eyes with the vision starting to blur out. I close my eyes to see all black, only hearing the sounds of the train running the tracks and Rarity having a quiet conversation with Coco Pommel. Over the small amount of minutes going by, the sounds around me started to fade out into the silence. My eyes were just about starting to feel relaxed. The sounds came to a bare whisper and then was gone within those matter of seconds.

---

I slowly open my eyes again. The vision comes off as blurred at first, but eventually cleared up to show exactly where I was in the dream world. My feet were on rocky tiles in the dream environment, settling on the smooth but grainy rocks. The air around me seems to look like tiny holographic-like blocks floating above the tiles.

Besides the air looking like this, I was placed into a completely different sort of room by the look of it. The walls were made of complete sandpaper, seeming to have been brushed perfectly by whoever did this. The windows outside of the room revealed the large half-moon in position with the stars out and twinkling brightly.

"Where… where in Equestria am I?" I asked myself. The question I had asked echoed out into the room's empty hollow walls, seeming to almost go on for what felt like infinity.

There didn't seem to be any answer whatsoever. I turn my head back towards the open three windows, walking towards the one in the middle. I take a look on the outside of the room, seeing all the buildings in the dream realm. Each one seemed to look corrupted and was literally fading apart piece by piece, with nopony around to occupy and deal with this problem.

I could see the moon slowly turn on its angle, bringing the light of the full moon towards me. By the look of how it faced towards me, I could tell that by now… the princess of the night was coming to see me. That certain flash appeared from the moonlight, and that very small midnight blue figure named Princess Luna was coming down to see me again.

I watched as she made her way down from the moon towards the window I was at. With her dream powers, the ignition of the aura on her horn could be seen from a distance. The wall containing the center window disappears out of my sight, and gives her some space to land close to where I am. I back up and watch as she flaps her wings slowly on the way down from the sky and the sound of her hooves landing onto the ground. Finally, she closes the both of her wings and turns to look at me.

"Princess Luna." I said to her, kneeling down on her in a bow. "It is good to see you."

"It was an honor to meet you as well Brayden." Princess Luna said, smiling to me. "But there isn't really any need to bow before me."

"Sorry!" I said, remembering Twilight's line when she told this to Princess Celestia when bowing to her even as a princess herself.

Princess Luna's face dropped from a happy face to both a serious and worried look on her face. "It is good that you had dropped to sleep. I have something that I need to discuss with you, I tried to tell my older sister Celestia this… but she doesn't seem to believe me." She tells me, approaching forward.

"But she's your sister." I said. "Surely she'd understand what's happening… what is going on?"

"Brayden. I am worried that the way the dream realm is shaped like this. And I have a feeling that Nightmare Moon is loose from her cage and free… meaning that she could strike at any moment." Princess Luna said to me. "If this is true, then all of Equestria may be doomed to eternal night. I also fear being overpowered by the magic of Nightmare Moon since she also is able to control and move the moon at any time."

"But the elements of harmony, they destroyed most of Nightmare Moon." I told her. "There isn't really any way possible that she could be returning… except for the visions I have that come to me every once in a while."

"Visions? What are they of?" Princess Luna asks me.

I take a few moments to run through the train of thought in my head and then look into Luna's eyes. "One of them was Princess Twilight and another friend of mine… Coco Pommel locked up in a cellar and outside, it seemed to be night-time. Another vision seemed to be all six of the elements, but something was shining in front of them like it was a blade-like shape crossed with it. I don't know what they mean though." I confessed to Luna, honestly telling her the truth.

"It must be a warning of an event that will happen during the return of the dark mare." Princess Luna said, pondering while gazing out at the view of the ruined dream city. "And another message being sent to you is that something is going to happen shortly among the other elements of harmony… its users, in fact."

"You mean… my friends?" I asked.

"Yes." Princess Luna said, with a nod. "But the event that must happen is when friendship is earned in the right way of knowing when to spare the life of somepony."

"But who is it?"

"I do not know who will trigger the event Brayden." Princess Luna said to me, placing her hoof underneath my chin. "But it's for who has a good heart and shares it among everypony else."

"Then what is happening to the dream realm and why is it falling apart by the look of the city? Surely it was Nightmare Moon who did this." I said, pointing a finger to Nightmare Moon even though she wasn't here.

"It was always like this." Princess Luna said, moving her hoof from my chin onto my shoulder. "Long ago, a pony race known as the Dreamers occupied this city. But an unknown force drove them all away, and I had to defeat that force to save the city, but was unable to convince the Dreamers to come back. They still believe that the force remains here. There is a caretaker who helps to watch over the abandoned city, but he's somewhere."

"What's his name?"

"His name is Eye Watch and if you stumble across him, you'd get to know him." Princess Luna tells me, putting a bit of a light smile on her face.

"But have most ponies entered this city in their dreams ever?" I asked, knowing that will be the last question I ever ask Luna for this dream.

"Very rarely, and even after they did… it did require me to remove the city from their memory every time they entered and remembered it." She said to me. "To hear more about this force that devastated the city and scared off the Dreamers would be a terrible thing for them to know."

I was about to say something, but was interrupted by the sound of a loud thunder from the black clouds that approached in the sky. The clouds seemed to look extremely dangerous by the look of how lightning came striking down to the ground below it. Princess Luna turns towards it first and then me. I could swear that I heard the Princess of the Night gasp in fear.

"She's here…" Princess Luna said, stumbling a bit in her words.

The black clouds became closer, and two eyes opened up to peek down at the both of us from above and I could tell whose eyes those were by the way they looked so cat-like. Nightmare Moon herself had come into my dream.

"At last, Brayden and the fraud who thinks she is the true princess of the night." Nightmare's voice belted out loudly in the realm. "But no more, I have come to claim my true name as the true Queen of Equestria."

"You won't!" Princess Luna shouted to the black clouds above. The cloud form of the dark mare only responded with a guffaw.

"Well, no matter. First I'll destroy what's left of you in this realm and then take down your sister Celestia!" Nightmare said with that chuckling she did a moment ago. "As for Brayden, I have a few things planned for him as the new Queen… once I get my throne of course."

Princess Luna was lucky enough to jump out of the way, grabbing me in the process. The black cloud struck down a bolt of lightning and if Luna wasn't there, I would've been electrocuted within the range of the bolt. I quickly manage to get back up onto my feet and get on top of Princess Luna.

"She's too powerful, we must leave the realm at once." Princess Luna tells me, starting to gallop towards the door to exit the dream she created.

The black clouds above snarled and finally shouted "Don't you run away from your true queen of Equestria!"

I took a look back, the clouds were in pursuit to capture the both of us. Princess Luna continued to gallop as fast as her hooves could take her towards the door. "Princess Luna, better hurry! She's gaining on us!"

I kept my eye on Nightmare Moon until we had gone past the archway of the open door into a completely white room. Princess Luna's magic formed an aura around the door and surrounded it. Nightmare Moon was moments from striking the both of us, but Princess Luna thankfully shut the door before she could get through the archway.

Princess Luna stopped and started to catch her breath. And as much I was worried about the princess' safety, I got off of her and came up in front of her. "Are you hurt, Princess Luna?" I asked her, a little concerned.

After catching her breath, she turns her head towards me and says "I'm fine Brayden. I was only scared that you'd die earlier in Equestria faster. I couldn't risk you getting hurt either."

"Thank you for saving my life for… the third time from Nightmare Moon." I said to her, taking a hold of the princess' hoof and holding it in a friendly way. It was not meant to be taken romantically, as me and Luna was just friends. But hey, there's absolutely nothing wrong with friends holding hooves… or hands. "I've got to really learn how to defend myself. I tried to with a bunch of timberwolves, and I nearly was killed."

"You're welcome Brayden. But now that we have evidence that Nightmare is brought back to Equestria in her own form, we must warn my sister Celestia before the attack comes." She told me.

"But she'll never believe the both of us!" I said, feeling like I've lost a bit of hope.

"She has to believe us since there's one more than just me who witnessed an attack." Princess Luna tells me. "She has to believe us."

"Brayden. Brayden!" I could hear Sweetie Belle calling to me from outside of the dream.

"Okay, where should I meet you once I helped Rarity settle in at the Canterlot Castle?" I asked Princess Luna.

"Meet me outside the throne room." She tells me. Finally, opening up a spare hoof to offer me a gentle friendly hug.

I softly approach Princess Luna and move my arms gently around her neck, not holding it too tight. Her hoof goes around me, touching my back. Both of us share the friendly moment together and then let go of the hug.

"Alright," She tells me. "I must get going, but I will meet you soon."

---

"Come on Brayden! Wake up, we're here!" Sweetie Belle says to me in a rather excited tone when my eyes are forced open and out of the dream world back into real life.

I take a look outside of the window and excitement starts to pound a bit into my chest. The city of Canterlot was shining brightly just like my last visit with Fluttershy. Most of the ponies were either trotting about Canterlot whilst talking among their friends or sitting at a restaurant, having a nicely brewed cup of tea.

I get up off of the seat when the train came to a complete stop and approach the cart that had Rarity's dresses for the Fashion Show she was attending. "Want me to help push this to the Canterlot Castle?" I asked her in an offer to help.

"Of course Brayden." Rarity said, taking the other part of the trolley that held her dresses and the both of us began to push it towards the exit of the train car.

The trolley was rolled out from the train and into the sunlight. When out all the way, I took a look at the city streets of Canterlot and observed them while helping out Rarity. There were a couple of ponies that I knew from the city that I had encountered last time I was here, and a couple of appearances such as Twilight's parents. To be honest, I had yet to meet them.

But of course, there was the jolly good fellow Fancy Pants and one of the Canterlot supermodels named Fleur Dis Lee. Sure she hung around Fancy Pants a lot and stroked so many poses, but she seemed to look interesting to chat with. If I do get some time in Canterlot, I'll have to take the chance to get to know Fleur.

The pushing continues for only a few minutes until we make it to the castle gates. I finally turn my head towards Rarity. "Want me to tell the guards that we're here to stay for the next few nights?" I asked her.

"Do go ahead Brayden." Rarity says to me in a grand, happy tone. "You've been very kind this morning."

I nod to her, letting go of the trolley and began to approach the stairs of the castle. The two guards just stood there, staring straight forward and not moving a single muscle whatsoever.

"Excuse me the both of you." I said, trying to grab their attention. "I was wondering if you could allow me and my friends to enter the castle. It's important for my friend Rarity and she'd be delighted if you could open the doors and let us in."

The two guards heard me, and looked at each other in question. After a few moments, they turned to me and the first guard said "Alright, you may pass. Princess Celestia has been expecting all of you." They were even kind enough to hold the door open for us. Gee, they weren't as easy to get passed the first time I was in Canterlot with Fluttershy.

I watched as Rarity and Coco pushed the trolley forward towards the two large open doors with Sweetie following behind them. I watch Rarity as she turns her head towards the guard on the left. "Thank you so much, the both of you." She says to the guard in a rather sweet and delighted tone of voice. As usual, the guard is only able to give a blank stare and to remain firm and still like a royal guard has to be. I walk forward to join up with Rarity, Sweetie Belle and Coco Pommel inside the main castle hall. Entering into the hall, the guards at the entrance close the door behind me.

"Well, we've arrived at last!" Rarity announced as if it was a big deal. To me, it wasn't as much a deal since I was here inside the castle last time, and I still thought that was a big deal. "From the way I can tell by this wonderful day, it's going to be great!"

"I wonder if Princess Celestia is around." Sweetie Belle said, rather excited to be in the one and only castle that hosted the two princesses. "I already know I was here last time for the royal wedding, but I'm so happy to be here again!"

"Now Sweetie Belle…" Rarity said to her in a firm tone in her voice. "We don't want to disturb the princess while we're here. Who knows, you might find some ponies around the city to play with. But do stay out of trouble."

"I will!" Sweetie Belle said, and continued to wait for something to happen. I just took this opportunity to approach Rarity and needed to tell her something. Yes, it was all about how I used to call her a drama queen when I first started to watch the show.

"Rarity." I called out to her in my normal toned voice, grabbing her attention and turning towards me with a bright and curious look on her face. "There's something I need to tell you."

"Of course Brayden, go right ahead and tell me anything." Rarity said, sounding as innocent as her British-sound like voice would be.

"You know how Pinkie said I was from Earth, yeah you know that by now… but it was about earlier when I started. I ended up calling you a drama queen most of the time." I told her, with Rarity remaining silent while I was talking. "And I just want to say this: I'm sorry for disrespecting you like that."

Rarity placed her white hoof onto my right shoulder and looked into her blue eyes. "Brayden dear, you mustn't let anything like that get in the way." She tells me, sounding like she's relieved to hear the truth come out towards her. "You have my full respect, and I have your full respect as a friend. Both of us can trust each other and tell our problems. I would never hate you for telling me that."

I smiled at Rarity and shared it with her, giving each other those trustful looks. Somehow she must have been right about what her words meant. I'm just thankful that both our friendship remained, even after I've called her a drama queen sometimes.

"Now then," Rarity said after that entire apology and forgiveness went by pretty quickly. "We obviously need to move these dresses up to the suite that Princess Celestia assigned to me when I was here the last time."

"Alright, but I'm not sharing the bed with you." I told Rarity, hoping she'd understand my bonding with Twilight and how much she meant to me.

"Well, obviously Brayden." Rarity said with a bit of a friendly chuckle. "We're just friends, so I wouldn't really have any ideas of… oh, you know."

"Stop that!" I said, rather annoyed by her friendly flirt.

Rarity begins to chuckle a bit. "Oh, is this pony getting on your nerves?" She tells me, her eyes curved a bit to joke around with me for fun. I could tell that Sweetie Belle was enjoying this conversation by the look on her face that gave off a goofy grin.

"Of course not. I'm just trying to stay committed to dating my special somepony." I told her, moving my arms in an annoyance.

"Oh Brayden, it's jokes." Rarity said, in her now-calm and fabulous voice. "I already know about your relationship with Twilight. Besides, I only have yet to find the perfect stallion for me."

"Oh, like that Blueblood guy and Trenderhoof who was completely different from what you expected?" Sweetie Belle said, joining in the fun.

Rarity's face was rather annoyed by her younger sister. "Trenderhoof only was switched between liking Applejack more. Prince Blueblood is just a royal pain!" She said firmly to her sister.

Oh boy, I should really step in and help out the two sisters before a real grudge happens again just like in Season 2. "Girls!" I called out in a strict voice, grabbing both their attention. "There's no need to fight over the best stallion. When the time comes, the right stallion will come to Rarity. But for now, let's just focus on getting the dresses upstairs into the private suite."

Coco trotted over to join with the three of us and looked at me. "Brayden is right. It is important that the dresses are ready as soon as possible." She says to Rarity and her sister. Thank you Coco for being the voice of reason in this situation.

"I'll give you all a hoof." A female voice says at the top of the stairs. All four of us turn our heads slowly towards the top of the stairs, seeing the white alicorn stand there in the light. It was Princess Celestia, and my heart started to beat faster with excitement.

"Princess Celestia. It's an honor to meet you again." I said to her, walking briskly towards the stairs and kneeling down on one knee in honor to her. "And I know there isn't really any need, but I truly must in the presence of royalty."

"No worries about that." Princess Celestia said, bringing her hoof towards my hand resting on my knees and bringing me back up on my two feet. "Princess Luna told me that you would be coming with Rarity, and I have wanted to talk to you about how your experience in Equestria is so far."

"Sounds good." I said, nodding to the princess.

"But for now, we should help out your friends to get their things upstairs." Princess Celestia told me in her mother-like tone. "I am able to get away from my duties as princess for a bit to talk with you."

One of the stewards in Princess Celestia's castle trotted over to my good friend Rarity's stuff and I watched to keep an eye on him and rest of my friends. "Need some help to get your bags and dresses up the stairs?" The steward offered with a kind look towards Rarity.

"Absolutely." Rarity said. "I couldn't have carried it all myself. Do go right ahead."

The steward nodded and trotted over towards the large amount of suitcases to pick each one up and place them onto his back. Coco Pommel and Sweetie Belle decided to help out the steward in carrying all of it up the stairs. I'm just standing there with Princess Celestia above me, both of watching the four of them. But for me… well, I was standing there and thinking "Well Rarity, is there something you want me to do?"

"Brayden, could you be a dear and help out Coco and Sweetie?" Rarity offered, seeing how she just saw there standing with the look that could tell that I should help out. I respond back with a nod and join Coco and Sweetie at the back of the trolley, helping to push it up the stairs. Sure it had wheels, but at least not the ones that Trixie herself hates.

I help move the trolley to the left side of the stairs that would no doubtingly lead towards the West Wing of the castle. Now, I'd usually make references to Beauty and the Beast when entering that specific part of the castle. Seeing how it's my first time on the other side of the castle, I'd rather not. When crossing into a hallway, I could see Princess Luna standing there with that look of concern on her face, worried about after the dream that the both of us were in.

---

It was a few minutes later, and we managed to make it to the private suite. Rarity moved forward and clicked the knob on the door, pushing it to open up. I took a look at what the suite looked like. My goodness, it looked what I pictured it when in the castle.

There were four beds in the room, all lined up equally to give space to whoever was sleeping in the room. Each mattress on the bed looking like it was already done earlier by the castle staff for all of us, all ready to sleep in when ready.

"My, it looks marvelous!" Rarity said, really star struck of how the room looked. I couldn't help myself but smile at my friend's comment about the room, pushing the trolley with Sweetie and Coco over to the corner where the dresses can be accessible to Rarity at any time possible. My two hands let go of the handle on the trolley and I turned towards my friend.

"Do you want your dresses in the corner here?" I asked Rarity, wondering if she approves of the decision I, Coco and Sweetie Belle placed the trolley in.

Rarity smiles and says "Of course Brayden. That will do just fine, thank you very much: the three of you."

I could hear the sound of a clearing throat over by the door where all four of us came in. Princess Celestia is standing by the door, waiting for me to come and talk to her. It just about snapped into my mind when I remembered that she wanted to discuss how my experience in this wonderful world is at the moment. When the princess hears about my relationship with Twilight, most likely she'll be happy to hear that good news.

I turn back towards Rarity and approach her, saying "Rarity, I think Princess Celestia wants to chat with me."

Rarity places her white hoof onto my hand and looks into my eyes, saying "Of course Brayden, feel free to talk with her. Don't forget to talk with me anytime."

"I won't forget." I reminded Rarity with a smile on my face and a nod.

I turn towards the princess and begin to approach her outside of the suite in the hallway. She has a happy and impressed look on her face; she must seem impressed by how fast I've befriended Twilight and her friends that quickly.

"So," I said to break the silence between me and Princess Celestia. "You wanted to know about my experience?"

"Speak freely, young Brayden." Princess Celestia said, beginning to trot beside me and coming down the hallway.

"Since I'm now being settled in Ponyville, I am thankful that Fluttershy is so kind to offer me the guest bedroom in her cottage," I said, looking at the Princess while walking alongside her. "I didn't really have the bits on me since I was sent here."

"I see," Princess Celestia said. "Fluttershy has the true iron heart of kindness. Nopony could ever break it or penetrate it."

"Also, me and Twilight got a little closer. She is my special somepony," I told her, informing her of how I had a crush on her student from the start. "I was just too nervous at first to tell her that I had a crush on her and how beautiful she was."

Princess Celestia places her left front hoof on my back. "I'm proud of you for embracing the fear head-on, and telling her your feelings. It may not have been that simple, but Twilight trusts you by the sound of it."

"She was mad at me first." I told her, starting to sound a little sad. "I lied to her about where I came from and once… Pinkie predicted it all to be true, she was really disappointed with me."

"The day after you fainted?" Princess Celestia asked.

"Yeah," I said, scratching my head a bit. "It's a long story though with that one."

Princess Celestia looked at me with a concerned, serious look. "When Twilight informed me about it happening, I was a bit worried about your health and if you were okay." She told me.

"I'm fine now," I said, continuing to look at the Princess of the sun. The princess was no longer worried and smiled again, trotting down the stairs with me descending down and following alongside her. "No matter the cost, even if I'm hurt; I will continue to fight whoever tries to hurt anypony in Equestria."

"By the way you look, no matter how different; maybe work alongside the Royal Guard?" Princess Celestia suggested.

I shook my head a bit, saying "I appreciate the offer, Princess Celestia. But I feel a bit happier in my place in Ponyville where all my friends are. But I can still come to visit you and Princess Luna from time to time to catch up on how I'm doing."

Princess Celestia looks at me, trotting up to the other hall where her throne room would be located. "I just realized… have you met Princess Cadence yet?"

"No," I said, remembering Cadence and her husband Shining Armor. "Why? Is she here?"

"Unfortunately, no." She tells me. "But I, Luna and Twilight keep in contact with her at the Crystal Empire where her role is the 'Crystal Princess' and to watch over the Empire. Maybe she'll come to visit Ponyville sometime. Twilight will probably let you and her introduce each other."

"That would be awesome!" I said, jumping a bit in excitement. When I realize that Princess Celestia saw that excitement, I let out a bit of a blush.

"Just a thought though." She said to me with a bit of a giggle. "Anyways, I have noticed some strange behaviour with Princess Luna my sister for a couple of nights now. It's like she's trying to defend everypony in the dream realm. She came to me last night to inform that its Nightmare Moon's doing. But she's probably being a bit silly. The Elements of Harmony robbed her of her evil and turned her back into Luna."

"Speaking of that," I told her. "Both me and her have evidence that Nightmare Moon is returning and we request that you hear us from this."

Princess Celestia became silent during our walk towards the throne room. Most of it was silent while we continued down the halls with only a couple of the Canterlot Royal Guard marching about to protect the castle. Many of these guards were that of the colour of white, gray and sometimes black, wearing golden armor to represent the sun's bright colour.

The silent seemed to tell me that something was wrong; and by that it was most likely how silent that the Princess was moving. I'm guessing that she was already disappointed in me for something. But hey, she could just tell me what was on her mind and maybe that could solve everything to why her face changed from a happy to a stern, curious-like look. The both of us finally stop in front of the two large doors that led through into her royal throne room.

"Wait here," Celestia said in a calm voice. "I will summon Princess Luna to join you. Do not enter the throne room until I've called out the both of you."

I said nothing while she trotted forward towards the doors, using her magic to open them up with the golden aura on her horn. She passes through the wooden tall arch below and steps a few hooves away from the door, lighting up her horn again and closing the two large doors behind her. Well, I think it'll have to wait about the warnings while I patiently waited. I leaned against the nearby column and let out a sigh. Even though Princess Celestia spoke in a calm voice, she seemed to look rather mad.

I closed my eyes for a bit to rest them, letting only the sounds of Canterlot guards' hooves trot by the carpets laid down and around the hallway. But they all seemed to have iron hooves clanging on the rugs with a single move of all their four hooves, but there was one that seemed to be normal sounding hooves in any day down in Ponyville.

"Mind if I join you?" A soft-spoken voice said to me on my right.

I open my eyes and turn to the left. I could see Coco Pommel standing there with her left front hoof on her right front hoof, innocently looking at me. I nod and smile at her saying "Free free to join me. I'm just waiting for the Princess to finish summoning Princess Luna."

"Oh." Coco Pommel says to me, in that shy voice. She's almost like Fluttershy at this moment, but not quite like her. I didn't notice it at first, but she seemed to be shaking out of nervousness, like she was scared of something.

"Coco?" I said, gently taking her left front hoof and holding onto it. "I've started to notice that you've been following me around. Plus, when on my date with Twilight… you were crying and I got worried when I saw you. Is everything okay?"

"I- I-I-" She stuttered, really shaking now. Thankfully the shaking was not in a way that she was having a seizure. I could see her eyes really starting to water a bit. She lowers her head to the tiled ground. "I- I can't."

I gently moved my hand towards her right cheek and gently push it upward to have her look at me. "Coco, I know that something is wrong." I told her, turning my voice into a gentle and soft tone. "You don't need to be afraid to tell me."

Coco Pommel's eyes were drawn from the ground towards my own brown eyes. She continues to shake a bit, scared like all hell had broken loose. She finally lets out a sigh of defeat and says "It's… well, it's because I've got… I've got…"

"You've got what?" I said to her, giving her left ear a bit of a friendly scratch. "Come on, please tell me. If anypony hurt you, I'll go and talk to them."

"No…" Coco said, the tears finally starting to leak out from her eyes with a sniff coming from her. "It's something else that I've wanted to tell you."

"Well do go right ahead." I said. "I'll listen to anything you say. If it's a troubled past, I'll listen because I've suffered through the same thing and-"

"NO!" Coco Pommel shouts at me, giving me a bit of a jump. By the sound of her voice, I could tell that she sounded frustrated with herself. "I'm- I'm so sorry for shouting at you like that."

"Shhhhh… it's okay," I said to her, lowering the volume of my gentle voice to a calm and almost-whisper. "Don't hide it any longer. Tell me why you're acting frustrated and sad."

"Well…" Coco said, having to have started sobbing a bit. "It was just because… When you came to help out Rarity and I noticed how nice you were, I started to notice deep down that I was starting to have a crush on you. I tried to tell you at first at Sweet Apple Acres, but got too nervous. But when I found out you were dating Twilight, I became so heartbroken and I ran away… you know the rest of the story. I just wanted to tell you my feelings."

I was in a bit of a shock and also surprised when Coco told me that she had a crush on me. She continued to sob, but quietly while I kept my eyes on her lowered head. Oh no… I just hurt somepony emotionally. But it was my own doing and I had to fix this. Twilight however, will always be my special somepony in my heart. I however, couldn't find space for Coco in my own. I only considered her as a friend.

"Coco?" I gently said to her, getting her to look up at me again. Her tears have definitely stained a bit of her face, but will go away soon after. "I understand that you were trying to tell me your feelings, but you must understand in return that I am in a devoted relationship with Twilight. If I break her heart, she'll probably hate a part of me for that."

"But- but I-" Coco tried to say, before I placed my index finger onto her mouth.

"I know. You were nervous, but I cannot do anything about this. I only think of you as a friend. But do you want to know something Coco?" I said to her.

"What?" Coco said, calming down a bit.

I gently wrap my hand to the back of her mane. "When I lived back on Earth, I did like one girl. But she ended up having a boyfriend and it really broke my heart and reacted differently. But I'm not saying that you shouldn't be my friend. I enjoy being friends with you and everypony else." I told her.

"You… you do?" Coco said. I hand her a tissue. "Thank you Brayden."

I finally look into her eyes and say "I know you must be hurt emotionally, but I'll help you feel better. I'm not doing this to hurt Twilight and I don't ever want to hurt her in any way, I'm doing this to make you feel better." I move my head towards her forehead and gently pressed my lips against her forehead, giving her a kiss. After that quick moment, I released the kiss from the top of her head and looked at her. "Please don't feel hurt that I cannot date you. But I would be really happy to spend time with you on occasion as friends."

"You're right Brayden…" Coco said, sounding a little better now. "I won't bottle up my feelings for you, but I will consider you my friend. I'm sorry that I kept it from you for so long."

"It's okay Coco." I told her in a forgiving voice. "I accept your apology. But remember, as much as I love Twilight, I don't want you or anypony else to be hurt."

I gently move my left hand around her and pull her gently closer towards me. I gently move my head around the side of her face and give her a friendly, close hug. By the way she was moving, I could tell she was probably a little surprised to see me do this, but then she wraps her right front hoof around my waist and gently shares it with me. After a few moments, both me and Coco gently let go of the hug and just stare into each other's eyes.

"I think we'd be better off like this." I said to her, gently placing my hand on her shoulder, smiling at her. "As much as how I'm different from everypony else, I feel like my friendships with the ponies I currently have… feel a lot closer. Like I'm becoming one of them."

Coco was about to say something to me, but the both of us were interrupted by the very sound of hooves clapping from the nearby column on the opposite side of the hallway. I turn my head away from Coco towards the other side of the hall, seeing him. Oh goodness, not him. Prince Blueblood was giving such a stare that couldn't really be described by me, and was the one who was watching the entire thing and clapping his hooves in pleasantness. But I knew that was sarcasm coming from my most hated pony on the list of ponies.

"How surprising…" Prince Blueblood said, sneering at the both of us. "This wild scum is actually getting along well with the ponies in Equestria. How intriguing."

I growled a bit when Blueblood got off from mocking a lean against the column and began to approach the both of us. "What do you want, Blueblood? I got no business with you." I said to him strictly.

"Oh I no doubtfully know you don't have any business involving me. And I definitely don't want anything. Like I'd take from trash like you." He says, smiling behind his sarcasm.

"Leave him alone!" Coco said, standing on her four legs in front of me. I was surprised to see Coco standing up for herself to defend me. I still often wondered how she dealt with Suri.

"Oh, stand aside earth pony. It's only between me and him." Prince Blueblood said, using his magic to wrap an aura around Coco and move her to the side.

"That wasn't really nice Blueblood." I said to him, minus his guffaw he poked out when I said that to him.

Blueblood looked rather delighted by how much I was resisting to be insulted by his words and actions, but by the way he was doing this, he's lucky that I'm not going to turn him into dog food. He puts his face towards my face, but not touching. He says "What'll you do about it? She's your 'friend' and I just pushed her away."

"Still," I said, clearing my throat a bit. "You should have respect for all the races that enter into Equestria. This land is for all races to live in harmony together."

"Equestria does not want these races here, or your own. If I was king of Equestria, I'll definitely make absolute sure that unicorns will rule over." Blueblood said, moving his head upward and closing his eyes. "I'm already sure you're the only one of your own, so I'd probably push you into the Badlands where those changelings live. That'll give me a laugh."

I just laugh at his attempt to get me this offended. "Yeah right. As if a prince like you could ever outlive Princess Celestia or Luna. It must always be an alicorn to rule over the land." I said, watching Blueblood's sneer turn into a large angry frown.

"What was that?" He told me, now offended by how my comeback towards him was that impressive. I could swear he was planning to place his strong stallion hoof into my face.

"You two, stop please." Coco said in a very calm manner trying to get in-between us to stop the upcoming flight of insults and racist words.

"How about…" Prince Blueblood says with a thought coming to his mind. "How about you step out of our way and let me deal with this nightmare?" I watch him toss Coco backwards, sending her onto the floor. This really crossed the line for me.

"Don't hurt my friend!" I shouted into the Prince's face, grabbing him by his collar on his suit.

"You… you dare?!" He said, sounding rather angered about himself. "I swear to you that this suit was pressed and ready for me an hour ago!"

I pointed to him on that. "And that is why you, Blueblood, are so self-centered in yourself that I can't even see how rude and disrespectful you're being!" I said, rather angry towards him.

Blueblood eventually pushes forward from my strength and sends me towards the wall with his left front hoof pinning me to the wall. "Say that again, I dare you scum. Say it to me… one more time." He threatens with a sharp tone coming into his voice.

"Blueblood!" A female voice calls out from my left, and it definitely isn't Coco Pommel.

I turn my head towards the sound of that voice, with Blueblood realizing whose tone that was when he heard it. It was none other than Princess Luna. She seemed to look rather strict and enraged by how he was laying his hooves on me.

"Let him go. Now." She says to him in the most ordered tone coming from her. Blueblood just lets go of me with his one hoof and raises his head with an 'Hmph' coming from him. I watch him trot towards the other hallway, and I could swear that I thought I heard him murmuring something to himself. But whatever, it was probably just Blueblood complaining to himself about why he can't rule all of Equestria and put everything in his order, his way. He's not even the law-maker!

"Are you alright, Brayden?" Luna asks me and trotting forward.

"I'm fine Princess Luna." I said, smiling softly at her. "But I should check if Coco's hurt."

I walked slowly past Princess Luna and could see Coco Pommel getting up off the ground. I walk towards her and bend down slightly on one knee, reaching out my right hand to help her up off the ground.

"Are you hurt?" I asked, sounding a bit worried.

"I'm okay. Just felt a little roughed up." Coco said, taking my hand and getting up with my help.

I let go of her hoof and say "I have some business to do with Princess Celestia and Luna. We'll talk again soon… besides, you still wanted you and me to hang out sometime when both our schedules are free?"

Coco nods with a smile and says "Sure, I'd enjoy your company." Both me and her smile at each other again and she finally turns to trot off back towards the suite where we were staying. I finally turn towards Princess Luna and approach her.

"Sorry about that Princess," I said, moving forward with my hands coming around her neck and her left front hoof going around to my back, sharing a friendly hug with her. But this time, the hug was actually for real this time and felt real to me. I finally let go of the hug after a few moments and look at her with both of us giving shared smiles.

"I think we should head into the throne room now," Luna said, starting to look worried again. "My sister is expecting the both of us."

"But I thought she told me to wait outside until she was ready to see me." I said, curious about the change.

Princess Luna puts her hoof on my shoulder. "Do not worry, I don't think we'll be interrupting her privacy. She enjoys my company and talk. But we must focus on this. If she doesn't believe us, then Nightmare Moon has already won."

I nodded in agreement to what Luna said about this, and began to follow her towards the throne room double doors to see Princess Celestia. Little did I know, was right before I entered… I thought I saw a shadow. It felt like it was looming over the entire conversation between me and Coco, but I wasn't aware about it. Oh well, it was probably gone by now. But I did miss the large dark cloak that was peeking in the hallway at me.

---

Princess Celestia finished putting the last of the birdseed into her cage of beautiful birds and gently closed the cage shut. The birds jumped about a bit a bit in their golden cage by the food before digging into it, pecking at the seeds placed in with them. She finally sighs and turns towards me and her sister Princess Luna while sitting on her throne.

"Brayden, I understand that both you and my sister Luna, have evidence that Nightmare Moon is returning in a complete separate form." Princess Celestia stated, sounding very reasonable to listen to what we both had to say. "Please do go ahead and tell me everything."

"Well, your highness," I said to try and keep with the flow of being in the royal presence. "It is because me, and a few friends had suffered through a bunch of nightmares that are being controlled by Nightmare Moon once she enters the dream."

Luna trots forwards past me, saying "I am just lucky that I was able to get into his dreams on time to help him out when Nightmare put him in danger."

"She revealed to me what her plan was," I said, still sounding as calm as possible. "She was using our emotions in our dreams to be able to power her back to strength. And she said once she was done, she was going to plunge Equestria into eternal night."

"Banishing her also didn't help," Princess Luna commented. "She made a return in a second dream to try to persuade him to come to her side, but thank goodness that he refused. But the most recent dream, it looked quite serious."

Princess Celestia finally raised a single hoof to silence the both of us. Once the both of us stopped giving her as much evidence as possible, she gets up off of her throne and trots forward toward us. Her serious face has grown into a smile. I'm just wondering what in the world she is just smiling about, the land of Equestria could soon be in danger by a force that may be unstoppable at this point.

"Oh you two," Princess Celestia says, sounding very enlightened. "I understand that the both of you are all worried, but Nightmare Moon isn't going to come back. Even if she was, there would be a legend to be placed in helping to defeat her."

"But she is!" I said, almost sounding like I was whining. "Why don't you believe the both of us?"

Princess Celestia just giggles and says "You know how Applejack believed that the Pony of Shadows existed still around the old castle? Well, it was just a tale that was all made up. Even if some of Nightmare Moon's magic remained, it would have been destroyed by the impact of the elements that was made upon her when she took control of Luna's jealousy. It's only a ol' pony's tale that never happened."

"But what if she does return?" Luna asked, sounding very worried.

Princess Celestia sighs and says "Then, it is up to a legend to be able to find the strength and defeat the form of Nightmare Moon herself, that form that was once your jealousy."

I was curious now about the legend. "What legend?" I asked.

She places her hoof onto my shoulder and looks at me. "It is said that when Nightmare Moon is on the rise, a different kind of race that respects and loves everypony will stand before the dark mare, to release and cleanse the evil from within. But it can only be earned by the power of the true blade. This blade was called the 'Sword of Unity'. Both me and Luna haven't heard of its existence before until we read that it had been used in the past to defeat even the darkest evil. But only one can wield it and we do not even know what the blade looks like." She tells me, giving me all she can about the legend.

"Well, if we can somehow find this blade," I said, trying to get ideas. "We could bring it to its rightful master."

Princess Celestia shook her head. "I'm afraid that it's not possible Brayden, the sword according to legend… it chooses its master." She says, sounding like it was out of the question.

"But how am I supposed to find it if I don't know where it is?" I say, sounding a bit worried. "What if it doesn't work?"

Princess Celestia lowers her hoof and looks into my eyes. "Brayden, everything will be okay. You and my sister shouldn't worry about this. Nightmare-"

The sound of her birds chirping in alarm grabbed Celestia, Luna and my attention towards them. By the sound of them, it seemed like they had gone off and saw a bunch of scary movies. But for this, it was way different and just so strange for them to do this… until I looked at the sky through the stained glass windows.

"Oh no…" I said, running towards the nearby window and watching the sky. Celestia and Luna came up close behind me to watch the events that were occurring outside by the color of the sky changing and birds announcing the dusk.

The moon was seen clear ahead in the sky, moving towards the sun itself like it was on a course collision into oblivion itself. The clear edge of the moon began its crawl across the sun's plains to block out all of the sunlight in the land. The mountains and sky were much darker now, plus the stars became visible. The moon had become full circle once it had cleared the last of the sun's light. It was a solar eclipse, but without the beams to damage anypony's eyes, for the moon seemed a lot bigger. That was it… the dark eternal night.

I turned towards Princess Luna to wonder what was happening. Celestia seemed to be giving her sister a rather nasty glare from her eyes. Princess Luna is shocked by this at first, and by the look of it… she's probably never activated her horn anyway.

"Oh sure, just because I raise and lower the moon." Princess Luna says, rolling her eyes in annoyance.

"Lower the moon Luna." Celestia commanded, still not believing her sister.

Princess Luna nodded and began to activate her horn to move the moon out of the way, but something drastic happens. Her horn began to spark like electricity in a way I've never seen it do. Plus, it was completely different from when Shining Armor got his horn encrusted by King Sombra. The moon never moved an inch at all.

"Here," Princess Celestia offered, sounding a bit calmer. "Let me help by moving the sun."

Celestia ignited her horn as well, but when trying to move the sun out from the back of the moon; something else happened. Her horn was also on the fritz just like her sister.

"Why is this happening?" Princess Luna asked. "Our magic to move the celestial bodies isn't working at all."

"I'm afraid why they aren't working is because your royal duties as princesses of day and night have been… discontinued." A sinister female voice said from across the room. I recognized that voice when I heard it.

I, Celestia and Luna turned towards the throne where the sound of that voice was coming from. The dark cloaked mare stood before us, looking at all three of us with her cyan cat eyes. Finally, she uncovers her hood and dispels the dark robe, revealing the dark mare herself. Nightmare Moon.

"You!" Celestia shouted, standing in front of both me and Princess Luna. "What are you doing here?! The Elements of Harmony destroyed you!"

"You are wrong though Celestia." Nightmare Moon says, sounding rather delighted to actually be confronting the princess of the sun again. "With the help of dear Brayden and his friends, they allowed me in my dreams to gain their frightened emotions. Enough strength for me to come back… but in this new body of my own."

Princess Celestia turned to face me, looking rather worried about me. "Princess Celestia… I'm sorry." I told her, sounding a bit hurt for what happened to me.

"ENOUGH!" Nightmare Moon said, banging her two hooves against the top near the throne. "Celestia and Luna are no longer princesses, I am your queen and you shall refer to me as that of the Queen of Equestria."

"But what about Twilight or Cadence?" I said, accident blurting out their names. Dang it, I'm so stupid for saying that out loud. "Oops."

Nightmare Moon just laughs and says "Oh, they're not as powerful. But now I control both the sun and the moon. Except… I think I'll keep the moon the way it is."

Rarity and Coco came into the throne room at such an alarming rate. "Brayden, we heard the yelling and saw the day turn to night, what is-" Rarity says, finally gasping when she saw Nightmare Moon by the throne. "Nightmare Moon?"

"The Element of Generosity, I assume?" She says, laughing in mock. "Well, you are useless even if you don't have your element." Finally, the dark queen notices Coco Pommel standing next to Rarity. "Who's this new mare?"

I run towards my two friends and stand in front of them. "Keep Rarity and Coco out of this!" I shouted, as Nightmare Moon watched me with a firmful, hateful eye.

"Well, the human stands up for his own friends." She said, smiling sinisterly towards me. "You could have joined me and ruled Equestria with me forever, but I can see that you'd rather choose to side with the not-princesses."

"But you will be stopped soon. The Sword of Unity will cleanse you of what evil is in you." I told her, putting myself in a battle stance.

Nightmare Moon just chuckles first, then roars with laughter. "The Sword of Unity? That's an old pony's tale!" She says after she finishes laughing.

"No it isn't. Celestia said it existed." I said, trying to also keep a side with Celestia.

"Well no matter now." Nightmare Moon says, and uses her magic to summon an entire branch of her own royal guards. "I now have control of all of Equestria now that Celestia and Luna's powers are as useless as a filly who can't do magic properly."

"You won't get away with this!" I shouted, pointing at Nightmare Moon.

"Oh Brayden, I already have won!" She said, starting to trot past her royal guards. "And unless you care to suffer a long fall down from the top of the city… you shall sing your allegiance to me!" She claps her hooves twice, signalling her guards to sing the allegiance to her.

Nightmare Moon, Nightmare Moon

She's the queen and the best

Nightmare Moon, Nightmare Moon

She's better than all the rest

The guards and her repeated a couple of times in singing that, but finally Nightmare Moon noticed that none of us are singing with her to her dismay. She trots over to me and places her black hoof underneath my chin, simply ignoring my glare towards her.

"I want to hear you sing Brayden…" Nightmare Moon said, trying to persuade me to sing her own allegiance based on her. "…And sing it, with feeling."

"Never!" I shouted at her, interrupting the chants of her royal guards. "I would never stand and pay allegiance to somepony as wicked and evil as you!"

"Oh but come now…" Nightmare Moon said with a smile, grabbing me with her magic. "Join my side, we have everything if you say yes!"

I had a bad feeling that the dark queen was just about to sing her own song like every other villain from any movie whatsoever. Finally, Nightmare takes a deep breath and starts to sing.

I was far too smart

From the very start

Cause I once could control the moon

The jealousy began to grow

Little did I know

I got back my throne so soon

You thought I was gone, ha!

You're all so very wrong

For all of this is now… MINE!

Equestria will do as I say

Nopony stands in my way

Everypony here is happy

Even though it's always night

I can do as I please

I can change things with ease

Horns, or mane or tail or feather

I'll control the wind and weather

We can rule Equestria together

If you come with me!

I get pulled away by Nightmare Moon towards the throne of Equestria. Rarity reaches out to try and grab me. "Brayden!" I could hear Coco shout in worry. Nightmare Moon however, continues to sing.

You'll be happy!

Oh so happy!

When you come with me!

You'll be king of, everything of

All that you can see!

Nightmare Moon then uses her magic to conjure up a golden crown with her magic. She moves it forward towards me, offering the crown. "Just say yes Brayden!" She tells me in her happiest, singy voice.

"NO!" I yelled at her, and hit the crown right out of her hooves. Nightmare just smiles at me and continues to sing.

Think what we two can do

You and me

Me and you

Buck yourself up, don't look so sad

We'll have more than Celestia ever has

Butterflies and pretty flowers

Night-lit skies and super-powers

Silver streams and fluffy kitties

Laser beams and RUBBER CITIES!

I shove Nightmare's grasp off of me and clench my fists together, clearly annoyed now by her attempt to convert me to her side. "Celestia would never do any of that!" I shout to defend Celestia.

Take your chance while you can

Join in my master plan

You won't tell me I'm too lavey

Now that I'm ruler… OF EQUESTRIA!

Rarity, Coco and the Princesses were shocked when she sang it and immediately shouted "NO!" in response to this. To me, this had to be all a bad dream I was having… but it wasn't unfortunately.

All of it is now mine

Every night will be fine

All the trains shall run on time

There'll be no war or crime

And I'll reduce your brain to slime

Unless you just SAY YES!

You'll be happy, oh so happy!

If you just say yes!

Oh poor princesses

Weak without powers

Such a nasty sight

Come on in to the greatest kind of life

To the best and the latest kind of life

You'll be happy, nice and happy

Perfect happiness

Beyond measure

Purest pleasure

If you just say YES!

Nightmare Moon was trying to put me on Princess Celestia's throne while singing that, and I shove her away from me. "NO!" I shout while doing this and try to walk away from her in annoyance. But I could feel the aura of Nightmare's magic cover me head to toe and I'm lifted upside down off the ground and above Nightmare Moon.

It's our chance to rule

Don't let it slip away

Don't be upset

It won't hurt much

You won't regret it

If… You… Just… Say… YES!

Finally Nightmare Moon starts to aim me towards one of the castle's stained glass windows where she plans to throw me through, resulting in a long fall towards the bottom from the ground, to have me fall to my death at her own doing.

"Just say yes." Nightmare Moon says, finally tired out from singing her song.

I begin to think for a moment. If I side with her, I risk losing my friends and my respect from Twilight. But if I choose not to join her, I risk being thrown from the castle. I had to think quickly, for my friends were what mattered to me the most at this point. Celestia, Luna, Coco and Rarity are just shaking their hooves in a way to tell her 'no'.

I take a deep breathe. I finally know that my answer has to be strict and firm. "No." I say to her out loud which my choice was.

"EHHHHH! Wrong answer!" Nightmare Moon blurts out and with the strength of her magic, tosses me towards the window.

"Brayden!" Rarity said, in complete warning while this happened, and really frightened about how hurt I was going to be.

My whole body impacted the window, shattering it into a bunch of pieces that also joined me in flying out with me. I could only watch as my view of Nightmare Moon moved fast to coming out of my sight.

I was falling. Falling through the air and down towards the bottom of the ground at a fast rate from how the dark queen tossed me. Why… why didn't I start fighting her as soon as she appeared? That could've helped to save Equestria. Now I've doomed all of Equestria to eternal night and it's my entire fault.

Pieces of glass began flying at me and a few cut my hand and close to my eye. Thankfully they didn't cut in a way that it would leave a scar. From the impact and injury Nightmare Moon and the glass had caused me, I close my eyes.

I have blacked out.

A/N: Another chapter done! Yeah, I know it's a bit short, but it all leads up to the action that awaits in the next chapter! Also, Happy July the 1st! It's Canada Day to all the canadian fanfiction readers out there reading this! Another thing I forgot to do in the last chapter was point out the song name. For those who didn't know what the song was, it was "You'll Be Happy (Just Say Yes)" from The Secret of NIMH 2. In this chapter, it's a little something from a band I listen to called Avantasia. But now, onto the review responses! (I already responded to Owldusk, so it's all good.)

Tison Valane: Thank you for the two reviews, you wanted a new chapter: You have a new chapter! :)

---

I start to feel my conscious start to kick back in awakening, with the message coming across to tell me to wake up. My eyes are still closed, but the environment starts to come back audible again. The many voices of the innocent start to fade in, talking around me. But the sound of their voices… it sounded like something definitely was wrong.

I let out a bit of a groan and begin moving my closed eyes, getting the attention of the many ponies surrounding me. My sense of feel comes back and I could feel myself lying on the grass by the feeling of its soft-cut. Did I actually make a soft landing, or did somepony catch me as I fell? "He's waking up! Notify Princess Twilight!" I could hear a voice cry out.

I groan loudly as I slowly start to move my eyelids open. Everything seems to be blurred with various colours and the darkened sky above them. Everypony continues to sound like they are concerned and worried about me. One of those colours I could recognize was Lyra Heartstrings herself, I couldn't see her face yet… but I could tell she was probably tearing up about the condition I was in. "Don't worry Brayden," The soft, alarmed voice of Fluttershy said to me while touching my left hand with her hoof. "Everything's going to be okay."

The vision in my eyes starts to clear up and I could tell by Fluttershy's face that she was deeply worried about me and if I was hurt by the long fall. Her gentle and soft hoof begins to gently pull me up by my hand, to put me in a sitting position. I manage to pull in a little strength to help in balancing me from falling backwards back towards the ground. Fluttershy places her left front hoof onto my right shoulder and gently rubs it to comfort me from what has happened.

"Rainbow Dash found you falling from the sky and unconscious. Thank goodness that she caught you just in time," Fluttershy says, looking at Rainbow Dash who I suspected was behind me. "If you fell all the way to the ground, you would've been hurt. But seeing all the cuts on you, It looks like you are hurt."

"Excuse me please!" I heard in the group of the ponies, coming through and moving. It was my marefriend Twilight all by herself. I did kind of figure that Spike was asleep because the night had come so early again. Upon seeing me in that harmed condition, she gasped when she noticed the cuts, including the one across my eye. "Brayden, are you alright?!" She says in the tone that could tell that she was worried and concerned about how bad my injuries were.

I look up into her eyes, but then look down at the ground at my bare feet. I'm slowly shaking my head and sigh sadly. "No… I'm not alright," I said to everypony who was there to support and care for me. "Nightmare Moon has returned and is holding the princesses, Coco, Rarity and most likely, her younger sister hostage." The only response I get in return from everypony was loud gasps and worried looks on their faces, which I did suspect would happen if I told them everything in a nutshell.

"Is that why the moon has blocked out the sun? Wouldn't Princess Celestia and Luna be able to just move it out of the way?" Fluttershy asked, sounding a little bit confused and scared at the same time.

I sigh sadly and gently place my hand on Fluttershy's shoulder to comfort the scared mare. "It's not possible… Nightmare Moon I suspect must have jammed their magic and now she holds onto that magic." The result of my telling causes a few of the townsponies to gasp and faint. "Then it must be true now… Nightmare Moon has returned to bring everlasting night."

Rainbow Dash trots towards me and places her hoof onto my right hand. "But this can't be happening! Without the sun, no plants will grow and nor will any apples. What about the cider!" She said to me in a worried and panicked voice. I already knew that Rainbow Dash really loved Apple Cider.

"I'm not sure about it Dash," I said to her. "If nopony can stand up to the now-Queen of Equestria… then it looks like she's already won."

"Don't say such a thing!" Fluttershy said to me, gently taking my hand with her hooves. "We all know that you can talk Nightmare out of this. Even without the elements, our friendship can help to take the evil out of her.

I could hear the sound of clapping right behind me. Fluttershy, Dash and the rest of my friends were honestly looking in that direction. I slowly turn around and upon seeing who was clapping at the sight; I just roll my eyes in annoyance. It's only Discord, probably trying to pull some antics to try and fool around with all of us.

"What a story Fluttershy," Discord praises, clapping his eagle claw and lion arm together. "That does remind me of when I was still in stone, watching as she returned."

"Discord!" Twilight said with her tone of voice sounding really annoyed by the presence of the draconequus. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I was just sitting by the wonderful view of the lake during the day just minding my own business when the moon blocked the sun," Discord confessed, raising both of his arms in a surrender like position. "A few minutes after, I noticed a shape beginning to fall from the sky and realized that it was Brayden. I planned on making a huge bunch of pillows for him to land on safely… but seeing how Rainbow Dash has already saved him first, I decided to come along and see if my 'friend' here is alright and safe."

"Well, you already know what is happening!" I shouted at Discord, standing up slowly on the ground. "Look around you Discord! It's the dark eternal night! Don't you see that?"

"Oh I was trying to help you first," Discord said, crossing his arms and giving me a firm pout on his face. "Seems that you don't believe me though."

"Look Discord," Rainbow Dash said, flying towards Discord and going eye-to-eye with him. "I saw him first and figured he would get hurt. He should thank me."

I begin to notice the dark clouds above start to gather in the sky, covering the mountain and the view of Canterlot. No heavy winds seem to blow just like a storm; it seemed rather calm and blissful. I begin to witness the amounts of falling snowflakes slowly drift down towards the ground, everypony around me seems to be very silent. Surprisingly, it had also stopped Rainbow Dash and Discord from getting into another pointless argument of who did who. By the look of the snowy weather, Nightmare Moon was already starting to control the fate and directions of the weather.

"Nightmare's starting to control the weather!" I said to the townsponies. "If I were you, I would get indoors and keep yourselves warm. By the look of it, it's going to get a lot colder."

"But Brayden, you just fell from Canterlot and nearly got hurt," Twilight said in a worried tone. She gently takes my left hand with right front hoof. "What are you planning to do?"

I gently hold her cooling and soft hoof and look into her eyes. "I'm going back to Canterlot. I have to stop Nightmare Moon from freezing Equestria." I tell her, bringing more worry to her.

"No, don't do it," Twilight says to me in a tone that almost sounded like she was begging. "You'll only get hurt more if you try to take her on without the elements. We had to give them to the Tree of Harmony to save Equestria."

"But what about the Sword of Unity?" I asked her, starting to notice that the chill was starting to come in through the town. "Isn't there something like that in one of your books?"

"I might be able to look up how it works." Twilight said, gently rubbing my hand with her hoof. "We just have to get to the library to find where it is and how it can help-"

"Found it!" I could hear Pinkie Pie shout out with a book at the tip of her nose, trying to balance it just right. She finally tosses it to Twilight, who caught the descending book with her own magic. She brings the brown covered book closer to her and opens it up, beginning to flip through the paper pages. She scans for a few moments to look for the page that could bring up anything on the Sword. What seemed like only a few seconds became a minute and she finally found the page I was looking for.

"According to this history book," Twilight stated as she was reading the book out loud. I joined her by her side to see the text of the book and if there were any images of the sword itself. "It says that it wasn't always called the Sword of Unity. An old unicorn elder called it the 'Song of Order'. The blade can only be wielded by only one different from us: A singer with a golden soul."

"I can sing well, but how can one wield it when we don't know where it is?" I asked, sounding a bit desperate to know where the sword was.

Twilight continues "I'm afraid that this book claims that not even the greatest pony of all can find the sword either. It's resting place… is unknown."

"I knew it…" I said, sounding very sad. "And because of me, I ended up helping to bring Nightmare Moon back."

"Brayden," I could hear Fluttershy's soft voice say to me. She gently places her hoof onto the top of my hand. "It wasn't your fault. I ended up experiencing those nightmares as well."

"I know, but…" I said, knowing that it was still my fault for letting Nightmare recharge into power from my own emotions. I slowly begin to tear up. "I helped her get through emotions of mine, they allowed her to get stronger… and now she's holding the princesses and my three friends. It's my fault."

The tears continue to stream down my face, with my eyes curved in a sad puppy-like state. I turn towards the plains of Equestria and begin to run for my life. I couldn't see everypony's faces, but I could tell that they were shocked by what I told them and confessed.

"Brayden, wait!" Twilight called out behind me.

I was too upset by my own guilt and betrayal to these ponies. I needed to be alone and have my own privacy for a while. And I know where I needed to go to just cry my eyes out for a while.

---

Nightmare Moon's POV

I peek out over the large window and slowly observe the dark and cold clouds rolling on into Ponyville down below. Sure I couldn't see what was happening through the fluffs of weather clouds… but knew that my plan was already starting to work. I make a bone-chilling laugh and step back while the rest of my conjured Royal Guards begin to clean up the mess I made to get rid of that pathetic human Brayden. I turn around towards the rest of my new throne room.

The carpet in the throne room was now fresh with a new colour… the blessed colour of my night. Each royal guard stood by the double doors to wait for any hostile intruder who would dare to attack me and try to rid my night. There was no possible way that I'll ever give the ponies of Equestria back their precious day and night balance. The night was way too beautiful for me… I want it to be eternal. The night must last forever!

I finally trot towards the two princesses in a magical bubble prison that I had the pleasure to place them in. After all, didn't want them to run out crying for help as damsels in distress. It's always the most boring cliché. How do I know about clichés? Well, I looked through Brayden's memories while recharging and found out what they were.

"You will not prevail." Princess Celestia says to me in a very firm tone of voice while she looked upon me with a fixed glare. "Leave my subjects alone."

"Whatever." I scoff at her, not believing a single word she said and her warning. "They are all my subjects now and they shall hear what I need them to hear. Your endless debates against evil and the eternal night, they've all come to an end now."

"Twilight and her friends will stop you." Celestia argues back at me, sounding almost like a mother punishing her son or daughter. But at least she doesn't sound like a screaming goat when she yells. "And they will do everything in their path to make sure you don't freeze all of Equestria. Look at what you're doing now Nightmare! You're going to hurt everypony with the cold!"

I was like 'pffft' and laughed when she told me that Equestria was going to freeze if I didn't stop. I'm just thankful they didn't mention my banishment to the moon a thousand years ago. Celestia was a fool to have me banished to the moon, while in possession of Princess Luna and her jealousy. "That's why I have plans for the both of you later in the months ahead." I tell them, glaring with a smile.

Celestia gasped when she thought what I happened to be thinking at the same time. She charged up to the side of the bubble. "You won't hurt us yourself!" She says in the angriest voice I may have ever heard come out of Celestia's mouth which both surprised and amused me at the same time. "You wouldn't dare to hurt us in front of our subjects! They'll send their attacks towards you!"

"Oh they wouldn't dare try." I said to her, smiling at her angry face. "That's why I have my personal royal guards to defend me. One single beam towards me, they will have that single pony executed."

"You monster!" Princess Luna shouts at me, grabbing my complete and full attention. I just laugh and trot to Luna's side of the dark bubble and look into the eyes of the fake Princess of the Night. Only I can be the true Queen of the Night.

"Ah, so the fraud speaks." I say to her, my voice almost sounding like as much as a scorn. "How does it feel now Princess Luna? How does it feel, not being able to control the moon?"

"I already know that Brayden will return. I saved him before, but he'll save me and my sister this time in return of favor!" Luna says to me, only getting a laugh out of me in response.

"Brayden is dead!" I said to her, staring deep into Luna's angered eyes. "There is no other possible way that he would have survived that fall. If crashing waves of water and sharp rocks didn't kill him, the long fall finished him once and for all."

"He may not be as much a fighter," Luna said, placing her head against the bubble as if trying to ram through and break free to attack. "But he definitely has a soul of gold and a loving heart!"

"I've already told you… HE. IS. DEAD." I said, arousing my anger even more. "There is no other way that he would survive."

"He will!" I could hear that Canterlot sound like voice saying from across the room. I growled at first, but smiled when I saw who it was. Rarity… the element of Generosity. She was being held in another magical bubble with her sister and friend Coco Pommel.

"Ah Rarity." I said, trotting closer towards her cage. "It's such a disappointment that you really could not appreciate the beauty of my eternal night. I would have used your help to create my own personal bath robes and for you to be my personal dress maker."

"Me, your personal dress-maker?" Rarity says, gasping. Her frightened face turns into such a glare. "I would never make any dress for anypony wicked and evil as you!"

I just roll my eyes as she complained that how evil and wicked I was, it's your typical Rarity being a drama queen as ever before. She's always been quite the drama queen and always will be before my own eyes. Nothing changes for her.

"Your highness," One of my royal guards says to me, turning my head towards the guard in a patient fast-paced manner. "The skies are building up over the bottom of the land and the wind chills are starting to gradually pick up. It won't be long until ponies start to catch colds from the snowy weather."

"Thank you for informing me this." I say to my guard and my eyes turn to the princesses' prison. They seem to be rather angrier about this. They wouldn't dare try to break out and banish me again to the moon, even if they tried to break out, the magic of their bubble prison will electrocute them for a brief moment. I didn't want them killed. I wanted them to see what I could do as the Queen of Equestria.

I trot back towards the throne that ruled all of Equestria with an iron hoof and sat down, watching all of the royal guards at work and my own personal prisoners in their prisons giving me their best glares which really amused me. I slowly stand up from my throne and prepare my loudest Royal Canterlot Voice to all of Canterlot as a warning to all who were unaware that I had returned.

I clear my throat and then shout "To all of Equestria who wonders why the night had returned so fast! It is I, Nightmare Moon who has returned in a whole new form of body! No longer do I possess your precious Princess Luna. But you shall all appreciate my night and every single one of its beauties… the night… will last… FOREVER!"

---

Brayden's POV

I walk slowly through the plains of Equestria, looking down in shame for what I done. The plants on the ground start to slowly catch the gentle snowfall that was brought high up in the clouds. The lake in the distance begins to slowly form in some ice over-top of its watery surface. What if passing animals need something to drink in the cold?

"Oh Celestia… how could I have done this?" I said, in a gentle and sad voice as the last of my tears froze up on my face and dropped towards the ground where all the snow lay. "Why do I try to make peace and not fight with them? Why couldn't I fight Nightmare Moon?"

The snowflakes start to fall with a gentle drift into my hair, and the wind was starting to grow colder than ever before. I can feel a little bit of myself starting to shiver a bit, because I'm not as furred as the other ponies in Equestria. Everything sounds peaceful and quiet out here in the plains, with only the accompaniment of wind begin heard in the night. But that wasn't the only sound by that; I could hear the sound of hooves travelling closer towards me from behind. I turn around to see who it was trying to approach me. I recognized that color when I saw it. It was only Twilight herself, surprising me that she didn't use her wings to fly over as fast as she could.

"Wait!" She says, slowing down to a stop near me and begins to take breaths after all that galloping through the snow. "Don't go."

"But what else am I to do Twilight?" I say to her, looking into her beautiful eyes. "I was the one who started this. The one who let Nightmare Moon return. I should be responsible for it."

Twilight gently took my left hand with her two hooves and said "Brayden, please listen to me. It wasn't your whole doing. I also happened to be a part of the nightmares that she was placing into my head. Somehow that also helped her to come back."

"So it was only me, Fluttershy and you that suffered?" I asked, gently holding onto her soft hoof. "Didn't she try to pick our other friends?"

"Believe me when I say this, but Pinkie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Rarity also suffered from nightmares as well." Twilight said, getting much closer to me while giving me a bit of comfort. "They all came to me to tell me all about them. I'm just thankful that Princess Luna came into our dreams to help stop Nightmare Moon… but the damage already came by."

I sighed and looked up to the cloudy skies. A small hole in the clouds revealed the large white full moon to both me and Twilight. None of us moved an inch, we just kept our eyes on the celestial body that lay high in the sky among the stars. The moon's light bathed both me and her in the silence. I finally take a deep breath and begin to sing.

Wandering barefoot into nowhere

Just another winter's night

And I don't feel gravity anymore

You'd never lie, never cry

Never talk me out of dreams

And a dream is what remains

I could feel Princess Luna's presence near me. I'm surprised when I can see her spirit in front of the both of us. Even though she is far in Canterlot and captured, I could feel her close by. I can see her spirit begin to sing to me.

Tell me don't you see what ain't there

When you look in the mirror

You're starving away like a candle burning down

Miles away, miles away

You've been cutting off the rope

Letting go and losing ground

The spirit of Princess Luna trots closer to me, leaving no hoof-prints in the snow below. She joins me in the moonlight, looking at each together in a way of trust. Both of us begin to sing in harmony together.

And I...

Wonder who's to blame

As I...

Sleepwalk in the rain

It's my, my silent victory over gravity

And I...

Sleepwalk in the rain

The spirit of Princess Luna grows sad and softly fades off into the night. I lower my head in sadness, but hear Twilight's hooves crunching in the snow towards me. She takes my hand with her hoof and joins me in the moonlight together, singing.

Winter sky far and wide

Caving in one you and me

Like a brittle wall of the emerald room:

The hall of fame and dying dreams

The love we'd die for: Petrified

I wanna know: Does a frozen river flow?

Twilight finally grabs a hold of me and begins to flap her wings with snow rising below us in the activity. She moves forward towards the frozen lake down below on the ground with the bits of snow swirling in peace around us.

And I...

Wonder who's to blame

As I...

Sleepwalk in the rain

It's my, my silent victory over gravity

And I...

Sleepwalk in the rain

Twilight holds me closer to make sure I don't fall down again. I look up at her into her eyes and she lets out a small smile at me with a wink from her eyes. She slowly lowers down to the ground again near the peaceful town of Ponyville. The snow that had swirled around us falls to the ground once again to join with the freezing grass. Twilight eventually sets down on the ground with her four hooves and sings with me again.

And I...

Wonder who's to blame

As I...

Sleepwalk in the rain

It's my, my silent victory over gravity

And I...

Sleepwalk in the rain

When the both of us had finished singing, Twilight placed her two front hooves around me, bringing me into a comforting romantic hug. I wrap my arms around the back of my special somepony and shared the hug with her, gently nuzzling her left cheek with my own.

"I'm so sorry I put my doubts in myself and blamed my faults on me." I said, apologizing to her for the mistake I made.

"Don't be sorry." Twilight says, gently releasing the hug a bit and using her soft hoof. "Remember how brave you are. You can help to deal with this situation."

A freezing chill came past the both of us and I begin to shiver like crazy. Twilight gasps in worry and uses one of her wings to curl around me. "You're starting to get cold Brayden. Without fur like us, you'll freeze." She says to me, worried. "It must be that without sunlight, anypony will be frozen solid."

I feel a little warmer by Twilight's wing, but it isn't enough though. If the sun doesn't come out in the next few days, pretty much everypony here including me is dead. My eyes open up when I realize that a vision has come to me again. This image was completely different though… it was me battling Nightmare Moon in the throne room of Canterlot with a giant two-handed sword called claymores. But I was unable to get a clear description of what the claymore looked like. Somehow though, I knew that it had to be the Song of Order.

I begin to look firm and tall. "We have to stop Nightmare Moon. Gather our friends together, we need to have the magic of friendship in order to help me fight her." I said to Twilight, placing my hands on both of her shoulders.

"But Brayden," Twilight said sounding really worried. "You nearly died from that fall. Don't you think you should take some rest for a bit?"

"Every second we waste, the land is going to get a lot colder down here." I tell her, sounding very honest. "Even with your fur to protect, the chill will eventually break through and freeze you to death. You have to trust me on this Twilight."

Twilight sighed sadly and said "I'm really worried about your condition though, and judging by the weather… the cold will freeze your open cuts. It could kill you."

"Canterlot seems to be the safest place then. It's above the clouds and it shouldn't be a problem." I tell her, continuing to shiver.

Twilight ignites the magic on her horn, and powers it to create a warm blanket for me. She wraps it around me to keep me warm for as long as it can. She moves her wing off of me. "I hope you're right Brayden. Please be safe."

"I will Twilight." I say to her, gently moving my hand to my mane and gently stroking it softly. "I pinkie promise." I move my head towards her and press my lips onto hers, sharing a kiss with her momentarily.

I finally turn towards the train station. "Get our friends over to the train station where I'll be. We're catching the next train to Canterlot." I shout to her over the calm and gentle wind.

Twilight nods in understanding and flaps her wings, flying off to Sweet Apple Acres. I watch as she went off to tell Applejack of my supposed plan. This was it though. No turning back once we get on the train boarding for Canterlot.

Nightmare Moon had to be stopped once and for all before ponies started to die from the cold. But somewhere inside my heart, something was telling me a different kind of message. I had a different feeling that I didn't want to hurt Nightmare Moon. I feel like I wanted to help her at the same time.

Only the Song of Order could help, but I had no idea what it did… so I had to think of something to help Nightmare Moon. I enjoyed the day and night balance, but something felt different when Nightmare Moon came into my thoughts… as much I wanted to help protect everypony and my special somepony from harm, I wanted to also protect Nightmare Moon.

I had a decision to make.

A/N: Whoa... this is probably the longest chapter that I've ever written so far for this story. Also, I also have great news. I may be going to a convention with a friend which means... I'll be meeting Andrea Libman and Tabitha St. Germain. :) Now, onto the review responses.

AntiVillain1: Because Nightmare Moon seems to be more powerful than Discord at this point.

Summer time 10101: Wow indeed, it's getting really intense. It'll get epic near the end of the chapter.

godzillafan1: Oh, I should check my story for spelling errors everytime I finish writing it. That could really help me out. You'll have to figure out what happens to Nightmare Moon near the end of this chapter. And yes, the song she sung is from The Secret of NIMH 2. :)

Sullivanright: I'm not going to stop just yet. There's still a couple of other surprises to go. What are they? You'll have to find out.

P.S. Thank you to Owldusk for the idea of the Song of Order.

---

"Are you crazy Brayden?!" Rainbow Dash yells in my face with the utmost annoyed look that would probably put a smile on my lips. But I was serious for this moment because Nightmare Moon was ruling all of Equestria in the wrong way. "If we go up there, who knows what Nightmare might be planning for us? Whether it's being ambushed and captured, facing us one by one alone in the city."

I was standing by the train station. Twilight managed to gather most of her and my friends and was already starting to make a plan of what we were going to do once we got into Canterlot. The two of my friends Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were beside me, keeping an eye on me to make sure that I was both okay and that my plans were working out exactly as planned. But the wind… it's really starting to grow extreme for me.

My legs felt like ice had grown out over them to keep them in place on the ground. The chilling wind slips past my skin and causes me to shake even more from the freeze. Fluttershy notices my shivering and lets out a bit of a worried gasp.

"Brayden, are you feeling okay?" Fluttershy asks me. I turn to look at her eyes, the both of us looking into each other's eyes in a friendly way. My pupils by the look of it gave off that I was freezing. "This cold weather is really starting to affect you."

"T-T-Tell me a-about i-it!" Pinkie Pie shouts, shivering as well which did confuse me. It would have to be a lot colder for the ponies to finally catch a breeze of the chill. The clouds above us began to blow in more wind, sending in a huge snowstorm and all of us down below seem to be caught in it.

I bend down a little and continue to look at Fluttershy. "I'm f-fine. It just feels really cold." I said to her, giving off a bit of a shiver.

"Oh my goodness." Fluttershy says, then turns her head away for a few moments and then returns to me with a look of concern. "Are you sure you don't want a wing wrapped around you for warmth?"

"No thank you F-Fluttershy, I think I'll do for a little longer." I said, shaking out in the cold.

Applejack trots up towards me with a sad, concerned frown on her face. "C'mon Brayden, ya don't want to faint again." She tells me.

"S-Seriously guys, I'll be fine." I say to them, kindly rejecting their offers for warmth. "I'm sure I can last a little longer before the blood inside starts to free-"

A soft and warm wing curled around me on the left surprising me out but not in a way to make me jump. I turn my head to the left and could see Twilight placing her right wing around me. She smiles at me. "You do need some warmth Brayden. Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, come help me keep Brayden warm." Twilight says in her gentle voice. I watch as my two friends wrap one of their wings around me at their side of me. Their wings gave little warmth, but it was better than nothing at all.

"So what's the plan Twilight?" I could hear Rainbow Dash saying to Twilight. "Are we just going to march straight into Canterlot and demand Nightmare Moon to return the sun?"

"I'm afraid it isn't that simple Rainbow Dash." She says, her mane blowing in the chilling strong wind. "If we go in there, she might already have a trap planned for us. You might be right about that. We'll need to avoid getting in a path toward the castle and find an alternate way around once we arrive."

"I can see why she conjured up some guards with her own magic," I told her, but in the way of a shout. The wind was picking up heavily and making it hard to hear what the others were trying to say. "Those guards are the trap! Thank Celestia that I picked up on that in advance."

"Right!" Spike shouts, thankfully hearing me before more wind starts to pick up. "I'm just really hoping that this train arrives soon. I really can't stand this weather!"

"Wait… how are you able to not feel cold?" I shout towards the young dragon Spike. He didn't seem to freeze or give out a shiver.

"Dragon scales." He tells me, with a smile on his face. "They're really strong and help keep dragons from colder environments. Think of the ice dragons for example, they live far from the Crystal Empire and are capable of adapting to their surroundings in ice caverns."

"I almost wish that I had dragon scales like you!" I said to him, the snow blowing into me, Spike and my friends' faces.

Spike lets out a bit of a laugh and gives a sly smile. "So does everypony else!" He tells me.

In the distance, I could faintly hear the roar of the train coming on arrival. It was just too bad that I wasn't able to see the direction that the train was coming from due to the blizzard. But if it's one thing that helped me find where the train was, it was none other than the right side that was coming in from the town of Appleloosa and the light on the front of the train. I pretty much know where it is because of the map beside the train station that released all the schedules for each train that came running through Ponyville. Some even led all the way to The Crystal Empire, Manehattan and Fillydelphia! Did I also mention that this can also travel to Las Pegasus? So many places to see and explore in Equestria! It's just too bad that I don't have wings… I would have really enjoyed a visit to see all of Cloudsdale, the floating cloud city near Ponyville in the skies of Equestria.

"Hear that, ya'll?" Applejack asks. I turn my sight towards her and watch as she raises her left hoof all the way to her forehead, keeping on the lookout for the train coming up on approach. "That may be the train bound for Canterlot."

"It is." I said to Applejack, placing her left hoof back onto the ground. "It is coming up, but I have to tell you and the girls something before the train comes to a stop."

All of my friends turned their heads to look at me, even Pinkie Pie came up away from the safety zone, last thing she'd want is to have her head blown off by an upcoming train. They all joined around to look at me, wondering what I had to say. I take a bit of a breath and begin to speak. "I just want to let you girls know, that once we step forward onto the train… there's no going back on this plan. Twilight's plan is really planned out and we can follow her every hoof of the way."

"Brayden?" Pinkie asks, raising her hoof like an innocent school child. "Don't you mean to say every step of the way?"

I think about that for a moment. "Sort of, Pinkie." I tell her which she nods to me in a message that she only understood that it's not really the real answer. Even if I knew it, I would've told her. I look back at the girls and continue. "The point is, Nightmare Moon has to be stopped from bringing the eternal night in Equestria: which at the moment she has succeeded in doing. You might not have the Elements of Harmony with you anymore, but I down inside believe that you can tell her to release the princesses and our dear friend Rarity and her sister. But I cannot forget my friend Coco Pommel as well."

Twilight gently places her right hoof onto my hand. I look down at her and wonder what question she'll ask next. "Brayden, what about this Sword of Unity… or Song of Order, whatever it is named. What if one of us finds it?"

"Then…" I say, giving out an inaudible sigh. "Let us hope to Celestia that it works against Nightmare Moon." Everypony goes silent and seems to look just about ready, but of course I thought that they all had more questions to ask. "Anypony else got questions?"

"Enough time to this dramatic talk Brayden." Rainbow Dash says to me in a manner of sticking to the priority of our job in taking care of Nightmare Moon. "We've got an evil queen to kick off her royal throne she stole from the princess!"

The train slowly pulled up towards the edge of the station. I watch as the front of the train comes to a complete stop, and witness the train car doors open up slowly due to the freezing weather. There were almost nopony occupying any part of the train with the exception of the conductor and the railroad engineer. The conductor was at the first train car which happened to be known as the suite car. A few ponies are just thankfully lucky enough to get the suite before others can. But seeing how there was nopony but us at the station, I could tell that everypony was probably trying to stay warm indoors before the chill got them. Even then, they could last a bit of time in the cold weather.

"All of you, come on board!" The train conductor shouted to us at the doors of the train car. "You'll be warm in here!"

Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Twilight moved their wings off of me and proceeded forward to join me and the others in heading towards the train car. Without their wings to keep me warm, I am vulnerable to the cold again. But this time, the cold felt like a million tiny daggers were assaulting me while remaining invisible. The only difference was this time, it felt like my blood was already starting to freeze. I slowly begin to wobble a bit in my steady walking to safety. Nopony seems to catch notice of this though. But judging by the weather and predictions of worlds without a sun, I would probably say that Equestria was already starting to form into an iceball.

I stumble towards the train car doors and I could swear that my arms were already starting to feel frozen. My clothes started to catch onto the feeling of being wet and soggy when on approach into a warm source indoors. I was the last to step onto the train car, not noticing the now-worried face that appeared right onto the conductor's face. Finally embracing the power of an atmospheric warmth, my cold and frozen body reacts harshly to the warm and causes me to fall forward, hitting my head on the wooden ground of the train. I'm unlucky that I didn't fall unconscious this time, but the sound of my fall did grab the attention of all my friends.

I could hear the sounds of frightened gasps coming from everypony. Spike's feet are heard coming towards me and I could feel myself being tilted to the side, facing upward at the ceiling. "Well, he hasn't fainted. That is a big relief, but why is he frozen like that?" Spike asked.

Twilight trots towards me and looks down at me with her beautiful eyes. She moves her right front hoof towards my hand and gently begins to rub it, checking my temperature. "Oh no… he's cold." She says, in a tone of worry. "Pinkie, Spike! Help me get Brayden onto his feet."

I continue to watch Twilight as she looks down at me to keep an eye on me. I could hear the sound of hooves trotting to the scene and gently take my hand with her hoof. On my right hand, I feel Spike's scaled claws take a hold of me as well. I can feel myself being lifted up off the ground and close to my feet again. I could feel Pinkie between my left arm and body to help support me from falling. Twilight pretty much helped do the same on my right side.

Together, I could feel them bringing me forward towards the nearby bed on the left side of the car. Did I mention that? Before standing to wait for the train, I found out this train had beds as part of its suite, allowing the user to rest until they got to their destination. Rainbow Dash stands there by the bed, holding onto a blanket that she must have searched around the car cabinets for. Pinkie and Twilight help move my hands towards the bed and lift up my legs to help slide me on top of the soft mattress. Rainbow Dash places the warm blanket over my body.

"What's happening to him? Why does he still seem awake, but not moving?" Rainbow Dash asks while looking at me for a few moments and then turning to Twilight. I could tell because that certain hoof of Twilight's was gently stroking my cold forehead.

"Rainbow Dash, I think it might have been the cold that did this. Frostbite." She said, even though I couldn't quite see her. "The weather must have acted too harsh, that it gave him this. But not too worry, it isn't completely frostbite in a hundred percent. It's only a partial."

Everypony in the car gave a sigh of relief, probably thankful that this probably won't kill me after all. "But he will need to keep warm. Pinkie, can you find him a few more warm blankets to put on his cold body?" Twilight continues.

"Okie dokie lokie!" Pinkie says. I hear her open up a small cabinet. "I have all kinds of warm blankets stashed all over just in case of warm blanket emergency!"

I could only see the ceiling, but could tell that Twilight was probably smiling and rolling her eyes in the process. I could hear the magic smoothing aura of Twilight's magic and see those other blankets float over above my head. My mind seems to go off somewhere else though for those few moments. I was starting to have a vision again.

In this vision it was different, day was finally shining into the land of Equestria again and I found myself at a balcony of the Canterlot Castle. Nightmare Moon was lying on the tiled floor, looking straight at me with a glare and she seemed to look powerless. I reckon that this was a sign that she has lost her powers and was unable to continue without the night that never ends. That look that she gave me told me in her words that she no longer deserved to live. I am curious to why she would surrender this easily and wanted death upon her. I can feel something in my left hand that I am holding onto. I turn my eyes towards the item I am holding. I am nearly blown back after I saw what I was holding.

This 'item' turned out to actually be a large two-handed claymore made of complete silver. On the blade were gold ruins written into it, but judging by the sword… I really didn't know what they meant. Below the shining blade was a red leather grip, and on the cross guard for both the left and right sides was the symbol of Twilight's cutie mark, the six pointed star. The pommel has the symbol of a musical note colored with gold and described as a quaver note. Wait… why am I carrying this sword? Could it possibly be what I am seeing with my own eyes as The Song of Order? Am I the one meant to carry the sword?

The answer goes unanswered and the vision leaves my own eyes before I can get any other information out of that brief dream. But upon coming back from that unexpected dream, I end up in another unexpected, but almost surprising situation. Fluttershy was lying down on top of me with both of her wings open and around me, giving me warmth. My surprised face stays for a few moments and then turns into an embarrassed blush and smile. I never have expected my best friend to do something like that. On the other half, I felt embarrassed because if Twilight saw what was going on, she'd be mad at the both of us, and would result in a fear coming true: a break-up.

"Don't worry Brayden," I could hear Twilight's gentle voice beside me on the left. Her warm hoof was gently holding onto my silky, dry left hand. "You're going to be okay. We got enough blankets for you to keep warm. You almost caught hypothermia."

I weakly groan and turn my head slowly towards Twilight. Her face is in that of a smile, and her eyes looked rather delighted that I had snapped out from that vision. But my guess is that she thought I had fallen unconscious again and needed to get heat into my body for normal temperature again. "But… why is Fluttershy lying down on top of me?" I asked, sounding a bit weak.

"Twilight thought that something was still wrong after putting on the blankets," Fluttershy told me in her soft-spoken, kind voice. I turn back towards Fluttershy to hear what she needed to say to me. "She thought that her body could warm up yours, but there wasn't enough warmth for her. Most of the others were the same… but I volunteered since I felt the warmest."

"But… doesn't this look like I would be cheating on Twilight?" I said, still having an embarrassed blush on my cheeks.

"Oh, don't worry about it Brayden." Twilight said, still holding onto my hand. I turn back to look towards her. "I gave her permission to give you warmth."

I struggle my hand towards my special somepony's chin and gently stroke it. "Thank you again, Twi." I said to her in a gentle, but raspy tone from the cold. She just gives a happy blush at me, still proud for bringing up the idea of having Fluttershy keep me warm. But… no. Just don't think that I'll start liking Fluttershy from there. I chose Twilight for that specific reason.

Twilight opens up her left wing and puts it onto me. "I suggest you get some rest Brayden. Me or Fluttershy will definitely wake you up when we arrive in Canterlot." She tells me in her normal tone. She moves forward towards me and gives me a kiss on my soft lips. She moves her wing off of me, trotting past me to join with most likely her friends.

Fluttershy moves her right front hoof onto my chest and begins to give it a gentle rub. "This'll help to get you to rest." She said, smiling at me with a 'squee' sound after.

I smile weakly, feeling a bit tired and wait for my eyes to close me into sleep. Fluttershy keeps her watchful eyes on me, beginning to hum a gentle tune that almost resembled a lullaby. I know this because on my last day on Earth, I discovered in class that I was music-wise in learning. Plus I also discovered this when in a class and a teacher accidently played The Rite of Spring for about one second. That one second was enough for me to recognize it as that song, and I appreciated a lot of classical music before I started getting into the genres of Heavy Metal and Hard Rock.

Fluttershy's soft humming tone sounds very beautiful and as medicine to my consciousness. I can already start to feel my eyelids droop down into a state of sleep. I'm trying to stay awake at the same time but Fluttershy's lullaby was drifting me to relaxation. Within a matter of moments, I find my eyes closed and my thoughts off in sleep and the sounds of the moving train fading into empty silence. I had gone off into a deep sleep.

---

My eyes remain shut, but I listen on in to the sounds of gentle waves stirring in a soft current somewhere on what I could tell was probably a beachside. I can't see what is happening, but I can tell that my body was moving along with the flow of the current gently. I begin to open my eyes slowly and could see myself on a boat that rocks like a cradle in the vast oceans. The stars are above me, shining and twinkling like it was no tomorrow, dancing beautifully in the skies.

I slowly move up from below the boat to see the environment around me. The waters gently push the boats into calm descents of the oceans above, and judging by how long this realm was, it looked like it would go on for infinite. I didn't know what would be at the bottom of the ocean floor, but judging by the dream realm… my guess is that there was no end. Besides the sounds of the gentle waves, I could hear in the distant, the sound of a warm acoustic guitar. It was playing a soothing tune that sounded peaceful to the ear and another song I heard back on earth to the beginning of a song.

I could see a light shining in the direction that the boat was heading towards. By the look of this light, I could tell that the realm wasn't as infinite as I thought it would be. The lit structure seemed to deem the design of being made in completely stone and it was floating above the water. It seemed impossible for this to happen because the structure would probably sink into the water below. But nevertheless it has my curiosity about what is inside the structure that the boat brings me to.

It only takes a minute or two until the boat makes a soft impact onto the stone island. The boat repeatedly starts to tap onto the sides of the carved stones, going no further ahead in the ocean-sides. I take a look into the brightly open door, too bright for me to see inside by its own light. But I had some expectations about what would be inside the island. To my own guess, it was probably a trap being set by Nightmare Moon herself to get me captured in sleep, unable to wake up. But inside, I could hear the sound of singing, but it sounded very human-like when it sang. Was somepony in there singing to herself …Or was it someone?

I take a step onto the stone and slide my two feet gently off of the boat. I take a few moments to get new to this surrounding on the lone island, and turn back to watch the wooden boat sink into the calm waters below into the forever. The dream was trying to tell me that there was no turning back after getting off transport. My curiosity turns back towards the inside of the stone room. What was that singing?

"Come on in Brayden." A deep voice that sounded like a male said through the door from the bright room. "Do not be afraid, for I will not bring harm to you."

At first when I hear the voice, my thoughts continue to think that it will be a trap. But on the other hand, there was something about this voice that assured me that it was all okay. The deep voice also seemed to have a calm vibe in its tone when it spoke. My two feet start to move forward towards the door and I find myself coming towards the room ahead. I move my left hand up to my face and allow my hand to protect my brown eyes from the light until I've entered the room.

I walked past the lone arch of carved stone and continue to shield my eyes from the bright environment. The singing got louder, but remained at a calm level enough for me to keep relaxed. I could tell that this singing was giving off a heaven-like vibe. I start to move my hand out of the way when the brightness turns into a moody like setting around the stone walled room. I slowly move my hand out of the way to see what was in the room singing at such a gentle vibe that even Fluttershy would love.

I could see the light shining off of the silver blade as described in the vision I had minutes before entering the dream realm. It was the Song of Order itself. The blade that was put down in lore and other books of knowledge that not even Starswirl the Bearded could find. I was probably the first out of all of them to find this blade in the dream realm.

"Greetings young Brayden." The same voice said, giving the calm resonance in the atmosphere of the dark night that would be eternal. "You have stumbled by rare occasion into this dream by me… the power of harmony.

I wondered where that voice was coming from and looked a bit around the stone walls, seeing only no one but the sword shining at a low rate for my eyes to adjust to. "Who said that? Who is it?" I asked, wondering who was talking to me.

"It is I, Brayden. The Song of Order." The sword's invisible spirit tells me, getting my attention that it was only the silver sword that whole time. "The one placed into legends… the one mistakenly called the Sword of Unity."

"Celestia did tell me that you were the Sword of Unity." I said, trying to admit a detail that the sword itself missed on.

"Basically, the ponies believe in what my name is in their own different way. To me though, it has always been the Song of Order." The sword said to me. "History does bring any different meaning to my name that is used upon me."

"Well thank goodness you're here." I said to the blade, not approaching it. "Nightmare Moon has escaped her prison and is now reborn as the Queen of Equestria. You have to help me."

"I did sense that Nightmare has escaped herself through your troubled emotions and past." The sword says. "But unfortunately, a singer with a golden soul has to be able to prove it to me that they are worthy enough to wield me in order to fight Nightmare or any other enemy in Equestria. She is the reason why I am singing, I sense danger in that way. It's all part of my power."

"That's it though?" I ask. "Don't you have any other unique powers that work for you?"

"Well…" The sword says with a pause. "I have not been wielded in Equestria for nearly a millennium. When the first human in Equestria took me by the sword to fight a great evil that threatened Equestria… I gave the powers to summon ethereal wings and special armor to protect him in battle when he was in danger."

"What happened to the first human?" I asked him. "What was his fate?"

"Greed." The sword stated in calm silence. "When greed took over him, I had to disconnect myself from his grasp and send him back to his home-world before the powers of madness could reach out and grab onto him. Princess Celestia was still a filly during this time."

"You mean you were probably the first thing born when Equestria came into shape?" I asked, feeling the need to ask as many questions as possible before Twilight woke me up from my sleep.

"Oh no." The sword's spirit told me. "I'm not the first Equestrian item that has appeared in legend. There are too many ancient relics far away in Equestrian history from the beginning that even I cannot understand. But I wasn't created out of thin air. There was a time where my spirit was born from the great powers of magic."

"You know your past?" I asked, really curious to know. "Please do tell me."

"Long ago, I was forged in the floating islands of Whinnepagos. It was at the time that the alicorns were the only Equestrian race accompanying the planet. I watched myself being smelted and forged by silver ore into this by the Alicorn blacksmiths. They placed the magic into me powerful enough to know the magic of friendship and the powers I have today. But I was forged for a specific reason… there was war going on at the time."

"What were the alicorns fighting?" I asked.

"It was none other than a female human that somehow found our world and wanted to exterminate us. She wanted the entire planet destroyed so she and her dragon armies could take over and harvest resources that we had." The sword said. "The alicorns being more intelligent at the time, brought in a good human from your world to stop her and put her into trial at the Whinnepagos High Council centre. Her sentence was banishment into a different realm for at least a millennium's cycle. She hasn't returned since and we hope she and her hateful armies don't return. I'm just thankful that Princess Celestia wasn't born yet."

"Then…" I paused, interrupting the sword a bit even though it's hard for me not to interrupt. "How did Princess Celestia or Luna become princesses?"

"Princess Celestia started off as a unicorn and her sister a Pegasus. So as a last minute to save the alicorn race from extinction, the alicorns of the past used all of their magic to make the both of them the next princesses of Equestria." The sword informed me, giving me the details as he went on. "For the new Princess Twilight… she solved a spell that even the alicorns high up in the heavens looked upon her as being good and proud of her for solving a problem with her friends and discovering a new magic spell."

"Magical Mystery Cure?" I asked, knowing all about the episode and the affect that it had on some of the bronies back on Earth. Some approved of the change, some didn't.

"That is correct." The sword said. "I wasn't able to see it, but am well aware of it happening. It has been too long since I've disappeared from the realm of Equestria."

"Brayden… wake up. We're here." I could hear Twilight's voice echo distances away across the vast oceans in my dream.

"Well…" The sword said to me. "By the sound of that voice, you are arriving in Canterlot I suppose?"

"Yes." I confirmed what the sword had guessed to me. "Me and my friends are going to try and stop Nightmare Moon and bring back the day, our friends and the two princesses before she does something terrible to them."

"I wish you much luck in trying to do that." The sword assures me. "It will not be easy to try and help Nightmare to stand down. Only if you find the true heart in yourself and know when to show your friendship offer towards Nightmare Moon while she attacks."

"Then what?" I asked."

"I cannot explain how to wield me and have me appear, that is something you have to figure out for yourself Brayden." The sword tells me. "The dream is over, I am weary now. I shall be awakened by only the golden soul itself. But remember my carved ruins on me, for they are my name… the Song of Order."

At this point I try to resist against waking up in the dream realm back into the real world. But you know that you can't stay much longer than 40 minutes in a dream before you just go into sleep. The stone floor opens up below and I'm expecting water at first, but it turns out to be a white light that covers me, bringing me into the real world again.

---

"Come on Brayden, wake up!" I could hear Rainbow Dash saying to me in a brave, but worried tone of voice while opening my eyes fast, enough to adjust to the environment of Equestria which I was pretty much used to by now. I move my head upward, seeing the blankets on me but no Fluttershy.

I turn around a bit, looking towards the left where Rainbow Dash was flying in the middle of the train car. I figured that Fluttershy was probably on my right, smiling at me to make sure that I was alright so I turn to the right to check up on my best friend, but I am met with a lips to lips kiss from my special somepony, Princess Twilight.

I gently shared the kiss with Twilight and then let go after that brief moment. "You're really cute while you sleep." She compliments to me, putting a large blush onto my face. That was completely unexpected from what I saw her do. I keep my blush and smile while she lets out a bit of a giggle.

"Didn't expect something like that." I said, my cheeks still alit from that soft moment.

"Alright, the both of y'all." Applejack says, placing her two hooves in front of me and Twilight, interrupting our little moment together. "Let's skip all of this love-dovey stuff for now; y'all of us got a world to save!"

I was looking at Applejack while she told both me and Twilight this and I nod my head in understanding, with Twilight nodding afterwards. I slowly take the blankets off of me and push them carefully into the end of the bunk I was lying on. I get up slowly and step upward onto my feet. I raise myself off the bunk bed and turn back towards it to collect the blankets.

"Don't worry about the blankets Brayden," Pinkie Pie says to me, tapping the side of my chest. "I'll put them back in the cabinets. You know, because I usually stash them all over Equestria. You know…"

I hand the blankets to Pinkie Pie, and she happily takes them stuffing them into the cabinet where they were since I first came into the train car. I still wonder how Pinkie Pie manages to do something like that. Maybe she's psychic and pretty much knows everything in Equestria, while doing what she did to reveal the truth about where I came from: Breaking the fourth wall.

I begin to follow the rest of my friends towards the exit of the train car. While walking out of the large car, I was able to see what it was like outside in the mountains in Canterlot.

The night sky was lit up brightly with all of the stars visible in their places, dancing around and giving what was very little light that could take years to reach Equestria. Since I knew a bit about Astronomy, the stars were light-years distance away from Equestria and could be anywhere in the galaxy. But what made the stars much brighter was the cosmic dust that lay around it and the large light seen in the sky. No, it wasn't the moon… I was seeing the center of a galaxy. The Milky Way. So I was still in this galaxy and far from Earth. The constellations, seen in the sky seemed to look a lot different from the ones I've seen on Earth.

The moon still stood in its place, blocking out the sunlight of Celestia's sun from reaching the realm. The moon seemed to shine brightly and in the sign of a full moon. The clouds below us were covering most of the land and it was impossible to see Ponyville from down there. So that must be the reason why Nightmare placed out those winter clouds… she is trying to be assured that most of the ponies are frozen. But none of that is going to happen to these ponies, not tonight.

I could hear the rest of the friends step off of the train. I begin to observe the city of Canterlot from past the train station's gate. A load of different and darkly colored royal guards were trotting alongside the city streets, keeping an eye out for any of the intruders that would dare try to threaten their queen of Equestria. But what I saw… they were creations that Nightmare Moon conjured herself. Was already starting to wonder what happened to Celestia's royal guard and if they fought back against them but failed. Everypony that wasn't a royal guard just went about along with their day, still not sure if something was wrong minus the high security in Canterlot.

"What's it looking like?" Spike asks in a hushed whisper. Even a chat from behind the gate could grab the night guard's attention.

"The city is high with Nightmare Moon's guards. By the looks of it, they're covering up the two paths leading towards the castle doors," I whispered to him, looking at the third path left unguarded by them. "But by our only chance, we should be able to take the path on the right and be able to sneak down the alleyways into the castle gardens that way."

"Sounds good Brayden. But we'll have to find the right alleyway to take, there is so many down that long street," Twilight says, standing close and next to me. "We'll have to split into pairs in order to find the correct alley."

"Alright, what'll the pairings be?" I turn towards Twilight, taking my focus off the streets so I could see who I was with in the pairing.

"Applejack, you're with Pinkie Pie. Fluttershy, you'll be with me and Spike. Rainbow Dash will be with Brayden." Twilight says, teaming me up with my athletic friend.

I was happy with the decision that Twilight made, but at the same time… a worry struck me. What if Twilight gets captured in the search to look for the gate to the castle gardens? "Twilight, I will admit. I am a little worried you might be captured. Are you sure you don't want me to come with you? I don't want you or Fluttershy getting hurt or anything."

"Don't worry Brayden," Twilight says to me with a smile on her face. "I'll be fine."

"But you're a princess. It's no doubt Nightmare Moon will try to-" I said before Twilight placed her gentle hoof onto my mouth to interrupt me.

"I'll be fine." Twilight says to me in a gentle voice. "I'll try to keep myself and Fluttershy safe."

I gently caress the side of Twilight's face, rolling my hand down to her cheek. "I hope so." I said to her in a calm tone. Twilight and I share a smile at each other and after those few soft moments, I depart my hand from her face.

I join up with Rainbow Dash and wonder how all of us are going to cross the gate and onto the path without being detected by any of the night guards. I carefully observe the path again, but am unable to find a safe spot out of the night guard's eyes. "They seem to only be targeting the bearers of the Elements… you five." I said to my friends in a whisper.

"Now what?" Rainbow Dash said in an annoyed, aggressive tone. "How are we going to get across the street?"

I thought for a solution on how to get through this problem until it just came to me. I could find a bunch of black robes and put them over my friends, getting them to trot across without any trouble from the night guards pursuing us. But the trouble was this: finding where to get those black robes on them.

"Oh, I think I know what to help get us across!" Pinkie Pie says in a playful and happy tone like she was playing a game. "We could wear black robes all over us so the guards won't know it's us."

I was surprised at this moment. How did Pinkie Pie think what I was thinking? "I was just thinking of the same thing you know. But how are we going to get black robes in order to help us?" I asked, trying to get my own question solved.

"Oh, I have black robes stashed all over Equestria just in case of emergency." Pinkie Pie says, and reaches into a hollow tree, grabbing a bunch of black robes with a single hoof and throwing them to her friends. I don't think that there were any for as tall as me.

"Wait a moment, that's it!" Twilight said, realizing something special. What was special and why was she smiling? I didn't even get my black robe yet. "Brayden, you don't have to use a black robe because the guards will have believed that they don't know you are still alive. They won't even recognize you when they see you because Nightmare Moon hasn't put out any posters to check if you were really dead. She already believes that you are dead."

"So that means that I could just walk in the straight path towards the castle and enter in?" I asked, now being put out of their alternative plan and back onto the original plan by myself.

"Yes, she wouldn't suspect a thing." Twilight says, using her magic to place the black robes onto her. "Her guards are already probably notified that you are dead and told to let you go. Unless she already has something planned for you."

"Alright, I'll go with the original plan, you girls go for the alternative plan." I said to my friends, and then turn to Spike. "Spike, you might not have a problem with the guards as well."

"Alright, I'll keep watch out here until the sun is brought back. Good luck to you all." Spike says to me and my friends. "Also, be careful."

"We will, Spike." Twilight says with an assured tone in her voice. I could tell she was being honest.

Rainbow Dash was the first to trot forward past the gate. "Then let's get going. We'll be dealing with Nightmare Moon in no time." She says, sounding just about ready to take on the challenge of the dark queen and what schemes she had planned that they'd be simply trotting over as if it was nothing.

I wait at the gates for a few moments for Twilight and the girls to go their way, so it wouldn't raise suspicion about me being here. I then poke my head over past the gate and signal myself to move past the side of the gate. I walk forward, keeping an eye on the guards who kept their straight face forward, observing everything around them to make sure there are no riots or trouble-making in the city.

I walk past them and they do not seem to notice me which I figured was accurate to what Twilight had told me about the guards thinking I died. I just turn back around on my two legs and continue walking forward towards the castle. But of course, I had to go where I would team up with the girls by the walls of the Canterlot Castle Gardens. Heading to the front door would just be a terrible mistake to make; Nightmare probably had security up tight by the door. So, it looks like it'll be a mix of Plan A and Plan B.

I could see a few of the ponies from Canterlot wondering what in the hay was going on. I knew that it was Jet Set and Upper Crust, the two high-class ponies from the episode "Sweet and Elite" who called Rarity's fashion 'country' just because she makes her fashion style in Ponyville. That really grinded my gears the first time they said that. But I couldn't be angry towards them at the moment, I was already curious to why they seemed to wonder.

"Excuse me." I said, grabbing both of the unicorns' attention. "I couldn't help but notice that you both are wondering why night had to come so early."

"We were just about to have our afternoon walk through the city when we see the sky begin to change." Jet Set tells me. "We have no idea why Princess Luna would just bring out the moon to block the sun in the middle of the day."

"It wasn't Princess Luna's fault though. It was somepony else who caused this." I told him, referring to Nightmare Moon.

"Oh Nightmare Moon? Don't be ridiculous! She was defeated by the Elements of Harmony, nothing was able to bring her back." Upper Crust tells me. "Besides, why are you so concerned about tonight? I've never seen the sky so beautiful and majestic before."

"But she is back!" I stated out loud, but not too loud to grab everypony's attention. "You have to believe me when I say this!"

"Ha!" Jet Set just said, only listening in on my statement about Nightmare's return. "And why should we be able to trust you? You're only country below the ground… and us, we're higher."

Jet Set and Upper Crust laugh at me for a few moments, and then raise their snouts high into the air with a 'hmph' coming from them. They just trot off down the street, continuing with their walk in the night, even though by now it's probably supposed to be still day. Dang nabbit, I don't know why everypony is taking this Nightmare Moon news like a light breeze, did she somehow brainwash them or something? I'm not sure, but it's probably my mind playing tricks on me. I could feel a light tap on my shoulder.

I turn around to come face-to-face with one of those good high-class ponies who give respect to me and my difference. Fancy Pants himself. His face is in a sort of puzzling look, but nevertheless he is furrowing his eyebrows.

"Nightmare Moon made a return, you say?" He asks me.

I take a quick moment to recollect my train of thought. "Yeah, she's somehow disabled Princess Celestia and Luna's horns and has taken over the throne as the new 'Queen' of Equestria." I tell him. "I know that she planned this the whole time because she was attacking me in my dreams to take my emotions that were the only thing able to bring her back in the first place as a complete separate pony herself."

"That doesn't sound good." Fancy Pants himself comments, sounding a bit scared for a stallion. Now I'd laugh at this, but I'd probably get mocked afterwards by the rest of the high-class unicorns. This was serious business.

"But however, I did find a way to stop the Dark Queen. You probably haven't heard of it, but it's known as the Song of Order." I tell him, starting to lay down the details of what it was. "The Song of Order was created long ago to stop an ultimate evil, and if I'm correct, this sword might be able to help stop her. But the only problem is that I don't know who will be able to wield the sword. Only the sword can choose its master."

"I see." Fancy Pants says. "Well, I don't really know anything about the Song of Order, but I think I can help you sneak into the Canterlot Castle."

"I've been telling myself to go in through the castle gardens." I said. "But judging by the tall walls surrounding the castle and the heavily-placed guards, it'll be almost impossible."

"Not everything will be impossible, my friend." Fancy Pants tells me. "I think I have a bit of a plan to help you sneak into the castle."

"You do?" I ask. My hopes were raised again, seeing how somepony I just met could help me out.

"Of course. Just follow me to Fleur's home. I'm sure she could help you out." He tells me and starts to turn and trot, but pauses and turns back around. "By the way, I never did get your name."

I offer my hand for a hand-hoofshake. "My name's Brayden." I tell him.

He and I hoof shake (well, I have hands so…) and Fancy says "It sounds like a very nice name." He finally turns around and says "Well, let's not waste any time shall we? You're got a sun to bring back in the sky."

I begin to follow Fancy Pants behind and begin to wonder if this is actually going to be an ambush or not, or if he is really trusting to help me. Only one way to find out…

It doesn't take too long, but I finally arrive at Fleur's house on one of the streets of Canterlot. Like every city home and building, the walls surrounding the house were that of the colour of white and grey mixed together. I can still see the guards trotting around the city, keeping an eye on the civilians as if nothing has happened but just in case of trouble. Fancy Pants trots towards the front door and moves his right front hoof upward, giving a knock at her door.

"Just a minute!" I could hear Fleur's hurried voice from inside of her house. By the sound of her voice, I could tell that she's coming from upstairs to open the door for the both of us.

After a few moments of waiting patiently, I could hear the lock on Fleur's front door click, and open up to see the white-coated unicorn Fleur Dis Lee standing there. "May I help you Fancy Pants?" She says, wondering why we probably came here in the middle of the night… er, I mean day. I really need to get used to the night as of right now.

"Fleur, I need your help." Fancy says to her, standing to the side and pointing at me in a good way with his own hoof. "Brayden here really needs some help to sneak into the castle, and I was hoping you'd get some ideas to help him get inside the castle without any suspicion from the guards."

"But why would he want to sneak in at this time?" Fleur asked out of curiosity, sounding a little confused. "I'm sure Princess Celestia doesn't want to be bothered right now."

"Princess Celestia's throne has been stolen by Nightmare Moon." I stated, with Fancy Pants covering Fleur's mouth just in case she needed to gasp loudly. "I'm going to sneak in and try to stop her. But including getting into the castle, I know a magical sword that can help defeat Nightmare Moon known as the Song of Order. But I must also find who will wield the sword itself. Even though in a vision… it looked like I was wielding it." Fancy finally takes his hoof off of Fleur's mouth.

"Do come in, I think I have a quick plan to help you get in." Fleur said, signalling her hoof for me and Fancy to come inside. "It may not be big, but it can help you go inside undetected."

I walk forward briskly on my two legs and walk past the arch of Fleur's open door into her home. She closes the door behind the both of us and starts galloping towards the barrel.

"Quickly Brayden." Fleur says, taking the barrel and sending it in its sides and rolling it over towards me. "I know there isn't much time, but quickly get into the barrel."

I nod in understanding and bent down onto my knees, and moved my hands and knees one at the time. The wooden barrel rolled a bit while I was crawling into it. But I'm just thankful that it was most likely Fancy Pants who was keeping the barrel as steady as possible. Once inside of the barrel, I put myself in a position that I can easily get out of the barrel when I make it. Fancy Pants lifts up the barrel, I can see him and Fleur from the open hole of the barrel.

"Alright Brayden, please do sit tight. And don't forget to hold your breath." Fleur warned me carefully. "It's going to probably be dangerous, and I know it's only been a few seconds but you seem really nice."

"Thank you Fleur." I told her with a smile on my face. She brings forward her hoof towards me, in return I place my hand on her hoof and gently shake it.

I could hear Fancy Pants finally grab something that sounded like a leather sack full of possibly grains or any kind of food. I pull back my hand from Fleur's hoof and she pulls back her hoof and I watch as Fancy Pants opens the large sack closely over the barrel and begins to pour in all of the grains out of there. It began to come me toe to head.

"Take a deep breath. We promise you that you'll make it in." was the last thing I heard from Fancy Pants before the grain covered up the entire barrel from the inside and the last sound: the barrel closing.

---

I slowly open my eyes in the dark and can feel myself being carried around in the barrel with the grains swirling all around me. Tell me that I didn't pass out again today… okay, seriously. What's with me and blacking out today?

Besides waking up after a few minutes in the barrel, I could sort of hear muffled voices outside of the barrel. I lean a little forward and press my ear against the sides of the wooden barrel just to hear what was happening outside.

"…and I cannot believe we have to do this for the new Queen of Equestria. It's like 'ohhh' because she doesn't love sunlight and never will!" I could hear a gruff voice say outside of the barrel. I could tell it almost sounded like the cherry vendor salespony from Ponyville's marketplace but not quite accurately him. His voice was like one of the Orcs from one of my favorite video games series: The Elder Scrolls, but was Oblivion.

"Quiet fool!" I could hear another voice talk and I know I couldn't see it… but I know by the tone that it was a guard of the Dark Queen. "The Queen rules all of Equestria under her precious night and you shall hold your tongue on the bad stuff you say about her. She will not tolerate any of that backtalk to her."

"Blasphemy!" The gruff voice said again with such angel coming in the tone of his voice. "Princess Celestia and Luna would never do this to me. Nightmare doesn't need to list the reasons to me why she is treating me and the rest of the workers like slaves! Hay, you don't even know that you were probably created by her."

"That's enough talk." The guard said. "I'll take care of this barrel, you go to your quarters immediately. You'll get no food for a few hours."

With that, I could feel myself inside of the barrel being thrown into the air and then blasted back when it hit the surface. The grains in the barrel with me support me in the crash and rolls. This went on for thankfully a couple of seconds, but now had to get out of that barrel before I lost more air out of my system.

I push my way through the top of the barrel and set my head out of the barrel, taking deep breaths to catch my breath and get the strength from holding my breath inside the barrel. Well, at least I was inside a part of the castle as Fancy Pants promised I would be. It appeared to be a large storage room that I never did get to see before. This must be where they store all of the food ingredients for Princess Celestia's meals, when she requests it of course.

I had to keep absolutely quiet though; there could be guards around the place lurking around. Judging by what I've heard outside the barrel… they sounded very aggressive. I could already see a few guards patrolling around with spells from their horns to reveal flashlights. I keep my eye on ahead until those guards have passed. I quickly got myself out of the barrel and begin to climb down the other sets of barrels towards the stone ground.

I land my bare feet onto the stone ground and look in the two available directions. I figured that one of them was a way to the lower halls of the castle, but which way led to the door and not into a bunch of Nightmare's guards marching throughout the large storage room. The last thing I'd want on my hands is having to fight them and being taken down in the process and captured. But if one of them was a female, I know that I'm not going to fight against a female, because I promised myself that I would never ever hurt a single pony or a female in my life ever. So that means if I'm up against Nightmare Moon, it's going to be a BIG problem to me.

"Check your corners." I heard a guard say behind me in the shadows approaching the scene. "There is bound to be a worker not coping with the new rules."

Dang nabbit, there's two guards in the direction behind me on approach. I needed to act fast, because any second those guards will come before me and arrest me, sending me to Nightmare Moon herself and Celestia knows what she'll do to me. I take my chance and start making a break for the direction in front of me to get me a distance from the searching guards. But I think my footsteps were heard by them, alarming them behind me of my presence.

"YOU!" The guard shouted and taking pursue of me with the other. "STOP RIGHT THERE!"

I just continue to keep running despite of the remarks of the guards' warning to me. My adrenaline starts to pump more into my heart and I find myself panting at the same time as I ran away. I could see the light of the open door up ahead and I really figured that I was in the right direction to exiting the storage room. I just needed to find a way to escape the pursuing guards.

I find an end corner near the edge of the door, and seeing how I may easily be caught by the guards… I just took the chance and hid behind the small table, figuring out a plan if they do end up finding me. I can see the two guards arriving into the scene from earlier and start searching. I just hid silently watching the guards' look-abouts for me. But that all changes when my two eyes catch attention of a batch of carrots on the barrel near the end corner table. I had a crazy plan, but it will be all worth it in the end.

I stood up, pushing down the end corner table and surprise the two guards with my appearance. "Hey, I'm right here!" I said, with a trickster smile upon my face. "Come on and get me you two."

The guards' snouts let out angry puffs of air and began charging towards me. I just keep smiling while they charge towards me. I finally make my chance and grab the batch of carrots and raise them high up upon their snouts. The guards stop galloping for an attack and are focused on the carrots I dangle before them.

"Hey… you two guards seem hungry when you're angry." I teased, waving the juicy carrots in their faces. "How about a nice treat to calm you both down?"

The guards both seemed to look mesmerized by the orange colour they carrots gave off and began watching and following the carrots like a good dog begging for a treat from his owner. I pull back a bit on the carrots and toss them towards the barrels and crates far off in the storage room. The guards seemed to see the carrots fly off and they gallop off after them, with their tongues out and as hungry as wild animals in the Everfree Forest.

I knew that the coast was clear and I turn towards the open door and place my hand briefly on the door to keep it open while I proceed forward out of the darkly-lit room and into the light of the lower halls, closing the wooden door behind me.

The halls didn't seem to have any guards roaming around the place which was weird because I thought Nightmare Moon must have secured the castle so tight that I wouldn't be able to get through the castle without running into trouble with the guards. But besides the door that led back to the storage room, I could see two doors ahead of me. One was on the right side of the hall and the other was an open-arched door leading into the next hallway which I predict could lead me into the upper halls where the throne room was located.

I knew just how well my plan was working out and decided to continue making it work out. I take a few steps forward towards the door in front of me, but the cry of somepony yelling "Help!" to the door on my right got my attention. I somehow recognized that familiar voice. So I turn towards the door on my right first. I couldn't who it was, but there was something about that voice that I just knew.

I put my hand on the golden knob and turn it, pushing the door open. I enter in and I am completely surprised by what I see before my eyes, it wasn't just a single pony calling for help, it was multiple ponies in there.

It was my friends. They were all locked up in the dungeon cell and they all seemed to look very sad in there. Everypony that I was best friends with: Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Coco Pommel. Even Twilight was in there with them. In the cell next to them were both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna looking weak as I've never seen them before. By the way that they looked; I feared that they may not have enough strength to help fight against Nightmare Moon.

"Brayden!" Pinkie Pie shouts out, reaching her hoof out of the cell to try and make contact with me. "There you are! I thought you wouldn't be able to find us at all."

I was happy to see them as well and join my friends who were in the cell and me outside of the cell. "I'm thankful that I managed to find all of you. But how did you get into these cells?" I asked, wondering how they managed to get caught.

"Our plan didn't work as planned…" Twilight says; moving her hoof out of the cell. I gently move my hand to her hoof and gently hold onto it while she tells me. "We got caught by a few of Nightmare Moon's guards and brought us to her. She placed all of us here in the dungeon."

"Don't worry," I said to all of them. "I'll try to find a way to get you out of there. There has to be a key somewhere around here."

"Oh my…" A gruff voice says across from the room where I just came in from.

I turn my head and gasp at what I see. It's one of Nightmare Moon's royal guards but he was different from them, so it made me figure out that he was the dungeon keeper. "Looking for this golden key?" He continues, smiling devilishly. "Well, it'd be a disappointment if I let you get your friends out of here for free… but I think not. You shall join them."

"I will not." I say at a really calm tone in my voice with a smirk. I was obviously eyeballing the large stick hidden underneath the desk that could be my surprise towards him underneath.

The guard lowered his head and seemed ready to charge at me in assault. "So be it human. You shall die then." He says, stamping his right front hoof two times as fast and charging towards me. I just stand there, waiting for him to get halfway across the room.

Once he gets across halfway through the room, he pounces on me and knocks me down onto the ground. Once knocked down onto the ground, my friends can't help but see how much in danger I was. But I don't think assistance will be necessary as of now. I still had my mind to the whacking stick. The guard starts to pummel at me with his own front hooves, hitting me across the face and pounding me straight into my stomach which hurt a lot worse than the face. Still, it gave me a chance to grab the stick and pull it towards me.

The stick enters my possession and I find myself moving it below the stallion guard as he was tearing me apart. Rainbow Dash was literally telling me to fight back and smack the stallion upside his evil head, but I didn't dare try to punch at the guard, he'd put me in cuffs faster than I'd say 'canned tomatoes'. When the moment was right and he raised both of his hooves to pound me in the chest, I moved the stick upward to him. The pupils in his eyes shrank when the stick had hit him there.

The guard groaned in pain and looked at me briefly. He then looks away, hurt by the damage done to him. "Well this isn't very much fun is it? I think I just wet myself…" He said, starting to fall backwards to the ground. "…It feels rather nice." He finally hits the ground and goes unconscious.

This becomes the perfect opportunity to grab the key from his armor that was hanging out the whole time. My hands slip at first while grabbing the key, but I manage to take a grip of the golden trinket and move it towards the first cell where my friends were being held. I slide the key into the cell door and turn it, unlocking the door and freeing my friends.

My six friends come trotting out of their cell, free from there. Rarity is the first to come out and approach me. "Thank you Brayden, the guards just don't know when to clean up the whole cell from the inside." She tells me, placing her hoof on my hand as a sign of saying thank you to me. "Once this whole thing is done and over with, I will plan to make nice dungeon cells for the prisoners."

"Alright, you can do that Rarity. I'm sure you'd come up with a good blueprint for that." I said, putting a smile onto Rarity's face.

I go on right ahead, turning around to the other cell that the princesses are being held in. I place the same golden key into the lock and turn it tightly, opening up the cell door. The two princesses are enlightened that they are now free and proceed out of there.

"Thank you so much Brayden." Princess Luna says to me, approaching me. "You have done such a great deed in helping us out in this situation."

"Oh, it's nothing." I said, scratching the back of my head. "I heard one of you scream in here, so I happened to be next door."

"Oh oh!" I heard Pinkie behind me say, jumping up and down in the process. "After the guards were gone, I got really bored after a few minutes and decided to shout for help at the highest possible volume of my voice."

"We know Pinkie," Twilight said, feeling like there was no need to her friend to boast about what she did inside the cell to call for help. "Right now, we need to proceed to the throne room. Nightmare Moon will probably be expecting us, but we must stop her or Equestria will become an ice ball for the next thousand millennia."

"She's right." I heard Princess Celestia's motherly-like voice tell me, and she places her hoof onto my shoulder. "We should all head there immediately if I and Luna are to get back our sun and moon powers from the dark queen."

I nod my head in understanding, with both me and the two princesses joining my friends and Princess Twilight. We leave the room, leaving the unconscious guard lying there in pain. I close the door behind me, being the last one out. After closing the door, I walk forward to the group and start to follow them.

"The throne room is not too far from here. We should be able to gallop there." Princess Celestia said, beginning her start to gallop across the hallway. I build up more adrenaline slowly as my walking pace turns into a run, and I find myself running and the rest of everypony with me galloping… and of course I eventually began sprinting like a jackrabbit smelling food in the near distance.

There was one thing that surprised me while I was running through the halls of the majestic castle, predictions kept running through my head on how we'll be able to confront Nightmare Moon with calm ease without setting her off. The last thing I'd want is to lose myself again, Twilight or any of my other friends. Even though Twilight was capable of protecting herself, I couldn't feel that there might have been a weak point in her that could affect her. Flashing back to when Twilight fought Nightmare back in the series premiere just before I became a fan, I was worried that Twilight would get hurt by the dark mare.

I can see the flight of stairs when we exit the short hallway and I move my hand upward, extending my index finger to point out the stairs to the right where the throne room would be. But by how the way the main hall looked… something wasn't right. It seemed like more of an ambush being set for us.

"Freeze! All of you!" I could hear a guard shout at the top of his lungs. See… what did I tell you about ambushes?

A whole bunch of guards came galloping into the room and surrounded the ten of us. Coco and Fluttershy seemed rather nervous and scared out of their minds, but I placed both of my gentle hands onto their backs to calm them down. Right now while the rest of my friends entered their own battle stances, I kept my focus still on the stairs.

"You want to do this the hard way? We'll do this the hard way!" Rainbow Dash threatened and flew herself at a guard, knocking him down towards the ground with only the help of her bare hooves. This really set the battle in motion.

I just stand by the walls and keep my eyes on the fight that I was witnessing with my own eyes. Twilight flew up into the air and began charging her horn at extensive ranges, firing the violet beams from her horn at a couple of the guards. What Rarity was also doing made me chuckle a bit, she was literally slapping the living daylights of the guards with only the help of her bare hooves. I move my eyes back towards the stairs, shuffling my bare feet side to side in order to get to the stairs safely without being pulled into this fight.

Princess Celestia and Luna were also trying to keep cover from the fight as well, standing by the sidelines and keeping an eye on their subjects and the Princess of Magic. They'd fight if they could, but I knew that Nightmare Moon took away their strong powers to help them fight against the hordes of Nightmare's guards.

"Brayden!" I could hear Princess Luna calling my name, so I turn my eyes from the stairs and turn my head towards her. "Brayden! You must get to the throne room and confront Nightmare Moon by yourself!"

"But I thought we should do this as a team!" I called back to her, trying not to let the guards be aware of my descent to the throne room.

The princess of the night shakes her head and shouts "It is you alone that must do it, you can do this! No go!"

I nod to my friend and start turning the corner to the edge of the stairs and begin to run upward across. This however brings the attention to a few of the royal guards and they don't seem to look too happy with me going closer to their queen.

"Do not let that 'thing' get to our queen!" A guard in the fight cries out and assigns some guards to pursue me. "Stop him!"

I run up the right side of the stairs and turn around to see a few guards flying towards me, ready to headbutt me. I get worried at first, and seem just about ready for a fight from these guards. They did call me a thing after all and that really set off my temper towards them. But somepony I loved was even more enraged by what they called me. Twilight was on crash course with the guards' right in front of her and bashed them into one another.

"YOU THINK YOU CAN CALL BRAYDEN A THING?!" I hear Twilight shouting at the guard and watch as she begins to laser fight with them.

Wait… what was I still doing here in the hall? I should be witnessing the fight, I needed to run off to the throne room and confront the dark queen. So without any new purpose to stay behind and help fight, I ran off. I needed to do this… I had to stop Nightmare. If only the Song of Order could help, but it will only choose its master who can wield him alone.

As I ran down the halls, the sounds of fighting and shouts starts to fade off. Only the faint whispers of my breathing can be heard as I continued to run, I could tell that I was probably getting close. But on the other half of the quiet hallway, something didn't feel just quite right. I felt like the presence of Nightmare Moon was already coming for me. It was like she was watching me the whole time and planning to capture me herself.

---

I see the throne room doors and slow myself down to a suspicious kind of walking. I could feel the doors start to reflect darkness that spread onto it. I could tell that the air was starting to bring out a bit of a chill from below. The cold must have already started to lift out from the bottom, slowly making its way all to the top mountains of Equestria. This wasn't good. Equestria was already starting to become an ice-ball.

I move my hand slowly towards the golden handles of the throne room doors. I knew very well that as soon as I put my hands onto the handles… there's no going back on this. I place my hands onto the gold and begin to push it forwards, opening the throne room with all of my might.

I look forward and wonder if Nightmare Moon herself is sitting on Celestia's throne, but to my surprise I do not see her sitting there, but most rather standing by the stained glass windows, looking out into Equestria and its transformation into a frozen wasteland.

I step forward, and turn around to quietly close the doors behind me. I wanted to make this drastic appearance the surprise of Nightmare's own life. The doors slam behind me, but it just wasn't quite enough. The sound of the slamming managed to capture Nightmare Moon's own attention with her ears perked upward.

"Who dares intrude in my privacy?" Nightmare Moon says in a calm state of manner while keeping her eyes out onto Equestria. "Come on, show yourself and say who you are."

"It is I Brayden!" I said to her with a hint of sarcasm in my voice. The voice of mine echoes in the silence of the darkness. "I have to request the conversation of the Queen, Nightmare Moon!"

Nightmare Moon seems to look rather surprised by how I let out my voice to her and she turns herself around to face me. I am approaching her slowly, trying not to look very threatening. She furrows her eyes at me and looks rather thoughtful. I'm guessing that she must have figured that I had somewhat underestimated her way of killing me quickly.

"Brayden…" Her tone sounds very serious at first, and then her face changes into a very sincere look in her eyes. "I somehow knew you'd return to see me."

"Yes my Queen." I said, knowing that because I decided to call her the queen… I had to trick her into bringing the sun back. "I have come to join by your side."

Nightmare Moon's blank look on her mouth turned slowly into a blooming smile on her face. "Ah, you have changed your mind about siding with the frauds Celestia and Luna? This impresses me. I thought you wanted only day."

"I got bored of siding with them. I want to join side by side with you… you're the queen of Equestria. You could…" I said, stopping midway to think of what else to say. As much as what I was saying wasn't true, I obviously needed to lie to Nightmare Moon. "You could bring true democracy into Equestria."

"Yes… YES!" Nightmare Moon says, agreeing with me. "Brayden, become one of the royal knights of the Moon Order and I shall grant you everything you would ever want."

"I'll give it some quick thought my Queen." I tell her. But at the same time I feel like I wanted to give her a little bit of friendship. "My queen, may I also request for your permission to have me hug you?"

Nightmare Moon smiles at me. "Of course my moon-human… you can hug me." She tells me, wrapping both of her real hooves around me. I slowly move my arms around her neck and gently hold onto it, trying not to hurt her. I do this because beside me telling her shortly to bring back the sun… I didn't want to bring harm to her, I wanted to protect her alongside everypony else.

"Nightmare…" I gently whispered to her with her open ears listening to me and what I had to say. "I accept your gift, but before you give it to me… I wish to ask you a small request."

"What is your request, knight?" Nightmare gently says to me in her sincere tone. "Is it love that you ask for me to give to you? You did think about having a crush on me at first."

"That is true, but I do not wish for love. It's something else…" I said, slowing down midway with a shaking voice. "I must request that you bring back the sun."

"Bring back the sun? Why in Equestria would I do something like that?" Nightmare Moon asks me, moving her head from the hug and looking at me. "The night is fine the way it is… don't you enjoy the endless oceans of stars above?"

"That I do my Queen." I tell her, moving my arms off of her, putting my left hand onto her right shoulder. "But there is something wrong below Canterlot… Ponyville and the other cities in Equestria are starting to freeze up as slowly as possible. Without heat, everypony that you know will perish."

"Impossible." Nightmare Moon states with her voice starting to slowly grow into the sound of an impatient and stern tone. "Why would that even happen? My night is as beautiful as ever before for the first time in centuries. Without Princess Celestia, I can bring the true light of darkness to help them see the beauty."

"But it isn't helping them Nightmare." I said, taking my hand off of her shoulder. "Without sunlight, everything is going to become a frozen ball of ice. What you are doing is happening right now… you must move the moon from the sun's view."

"But I do not understand this." She says to me, her ears lowering a bit in disappointment. "I thought other ponies loved the night."

"They do, do not worry." I say to her with my continued gentle voice. "Everypony is just used to the day and night routine of life. Without it, Equestria will either be a blazing hot desert or a frozen arctic tundra. Right now, you're already making that happen."

"No… no!" Nightmare Moon said, pushing both of her hooves at me, sending me backwards. "That isn't true! What you say are lies!"

I look up at her distressed and angered face and say "I wish that I was lying to you about this, but you are already starting to bring harm to Ponyville below! If you raise the sun, you can bring them much warmth!"

"I'll never bring back the sun, even if they convinced me too!" She shouts at me now probably have figured out that I was bluffing about siding with her this whole time. That conversation could've gone better in my opinion. "I should have known that you'd still side with those frauds! Only I can be the true queen, for only I hold the throne!"

"That is Princess Celestia's throne!" I shouted back at her, starting to get really angry towards her. I just about had enough of her stubbornness into thinking that she was only the best and nopony else was than her. Thankfully she's not even as close to a complete annoyance like Prince Blueblood. For her, I can pass her off as one of my favorites.

"Did you really honestly think that I would be fooled from your petty attempts to join me after all?" Nightmare says to me, whipping her mane to cover her entirely and turn into a cloud. The dark cloud moves past below my legs and I could feel the queen's presence behind me. "Your attempts to bring back the day are never going to work you foolish human."

I feel rather offended by her calling me a human and close my eyes, saying "Please don't call me a human again. Only I am allowed to say that."

I can feel Nightmare's hooves push me forward, resulting in me hitting the tiles where the feet stood. "And what will you do about it? I have complete control of everything, besides back then… nopony liked my precious night, they always slept through it."

"Well, your plan worked." I told her, starting to bring in a bit of the heroic tone in my voice. I then raised a finger to her. "But it's unfortunate to tell you that the sun has to rise soon."

"You'll never stop me." Nightmare Moon said, spreading her black wings open and flying upward into the air. "If Equestria has to freeze, then so be it. But enough about this conversation, let's kill you now while I still have the chance to!"

I just stand there and look rather surprised to see Nightmare Moon charging at me from above. I make my move and jump out of the way, causing her head to be hit and leave a dent on her helmet. As I'm running away, Nightmare moves her back hooves and bucks me in the back. I am thrown forward, sliding across the throne room.

I turn back around and can see Nightmare Moon charging up a beam with the help of her horn. I slowly get up and try to run towards her. "Nightmare, please stop!" I begged, trying to get her to calm down. "You'll get banished back to the moon if you don't!"

This angered the queen even further and she fires the beam of darkness towards my chest, sending me to grab onto where she fired with my own hands. Her anger is quick enough to buck me in the face, sending me into a spiral of turning around and trying to fight back.

"HOW DARE YOU MENTION MY BANISHMENT!" She shouted at me with her booming voice that even everypony in the castle and a few feet outside could hear. She then slaps her hoof across my face, sending me sliding by the side towards a pillar.

"Come on Brayden! Fight back!" I could hear Rainbow Dash shouting at me in the room. "Smack her little snout in!"

Nightmare Moon looked rather surprised again to see my friends. I turn my head towards them and they are looking at both me and Nightmare. They all seem to look worried about me in the condition I was in. "Ah, you brought some friends along. This should be fun." The dark queen says with a smirk and proceeds to buck me in the face again with her front hooves.

"Fight her!" Rainbow Dash shouts again, sounding really worried and encouraging. "Just hit her with your own hands!"

"Forget about it Rainbow Dash." I could hear Applejack say to her. "At this point, Brayden ain't ever going to hit her."

"I don't want to fight!" I yelled at the dark queen. "Lower the moon! It's sunrise time!"

"NO!" Nightmare yells at me. "You pathetic human who thinks he can stand up to me? I'LL BLAST YOU INTO OBLIVION MYSELF!"

"I was hoping that you would say that." I said, avoiding her hoof from bucking me in the face.

"Once you're finished, I'll freeze everypony with me!" Nightmare Moon says, charging up her horn. I could hear her fire it at me.

I jump forward and duck, causing the turquoise beam to miss me, but instead hit the nearby pillar. I watch as the pillar descends down towards me. I have no choice but to find myself frozen in place and unable to move. An aura captures me and sweeps me from the spot before the pillar had a chance to crush me in the process.

I look up after seeing the pillar land onto the tiled floors. The very pony that saved me turned out to be Twilight herself. I nod at her as a sign of telling her thanks. The romantic bits will have to be for later, I had a fight to catch up on.

"Forget about seeing your sun again Celestia. For the night shall last forever!" Nightmare Moon shouts to the princess and begins laughing again as she always did everytime she said that line.

Princess Luna was the first to stand in front of me. "Leave him alone and bring back the sun at once! I demand it!" She berates the queen.

"Why should I listen to you? You're not the Princess of the Night anymore!" The queen said, scoffing at her demands. "If you were still a part of me, this would've worked out just fine! Now get out of the way, it's me and Brayden's fight."

"Forget it Nightmare." Applejack said, trotting past me to help protect me from any more harm. "Ya ain't going to hurt mah friend. He swore he won't hit anypony, not now, not ever!"

"Oh you flatter me," Nightmare says with a bit of a laugh. "But it's not enough to get me to stop!" I watch as she charges her horn and fires it straight towards Princess Luna. The beam hits the pony that saved me from death itself and I'm forced to watch as my friend in knocked down weakly onto the ground.

"You…" I said, now sounding really angry that one of my favorite ponies just got hurt. "How dare you hurt her!"

I stand up off of the ground and begin walking forward towards the queen. My walking turns slowly into aggressive running and I jump forward towards the queen, forming my right hand into a dangerous fist. I threw a fist towards her, hitting her across the face.

Nightmare Moon was knocked backwards softly, placing her left hoof onto her cheek and noticing the hurtful blush on her face. "You dare hit your queen?" She says, with her anger now at breaking point. "I'll destroy you!"

She uses her horn and sends out a bunch of lightning bolts at me. I am hit by these bolts and find myself shaking a bit from the electricity spread throughout my body. Nightmare continues to spam the living daylights out of the lightning bolt spell. I start to grow weaker.

"Don't hurt him!" I can hear my special somepony Twilight call out from behind me directed towards the queen.

"Too bad! You should have had him side with me when he had the chance!" Nightmare Moon shouts, finally bucking me across the floor and sliding towards another pillar.

This is it. I knew I was probably going to be dead for real this time by the time that she threw another bolt of lightning towards me. It's not like back on Earth when I was bashed against the sharp rocks. I just literally hope that something will help me in this time of need.

"Brayden, you've been such a great help in bringing me back into existence. But you are no longer of use to me, time to rid you of life once and forever! I'm going to miss your emotions and nightmares I created." Nightmare says to me, firing a bolt towards me. I just close my eyes and wait for the end.

However nothing happens and I don't seem to feel a single bolt electrocuting me. All I hear is the sound of lightning striking, and everypony gasping with the accompanied laughing of Nightmare Moon herself. But when I opened my eyes, I felt no pain. Remaining inside of the smoke, I could see a shining bright light being held in my left hand. At this point I hear Nightmare Moon stop laughing and I watch as the white light clears, revealing what lays before me in my left hand.

It was none other than the Song of Order itself, shining brightly with the bolts that Nightmare fired at me going about the sword and then vanishing. So it was true that the vision was telling me the whole time, I was the one meant to carry the blade of silver.

"What?! But… but that's impossible!" Nightmare Moon shouts, rather shocked and disbelieved upon the discovery of seeing the Song of Order. "The sword was lost a millennium ago, there is no way that it could've been found!"

"But it was Nightmare Moon!" I called out to her and standing brave and tall. "And the Song of Order has chosen me as its master."

"My cutie mark…" Twilight says, looking at the cross guard of the claymore.

"With the friendships I made and the innocence to never hit a single one of my friends, I have shown the unity in friendship. The blade will help me protect those ponies from such evil." I said to her. "The girls might not need the elements of harmony, but with the skill to love my friends and care for them, the elements are inside of them."

"That is simply absurd!" Nightmare Moon says, still in complete shock. "You're not a pony, so you can't find the spark."

"I don't need the spark. I already had it when I officially started watching the show." I said, finally getting into a battle stance. "But you must bring sunlight back or I'll have no choice but to use the powers of this sword to defend Equestria."

Nightmare Moon glares at me with a growl coming from her voice. "Never! I'll die defending the dark eternal night!"

I sighed and held the sword out into the battle stance, watching as it created a magic around me that I figured was the ethereal armor that would help protect me from the dangerous spells of Nightmare Moon herself. I could feel myself being lifted up off of the ground and I turn around to see myself with ethereal wings on my back. If it's one thought that rushed into my head, I was a guardian angel. The Angel of Equestria.

"If that's the way it has to be Nightmare…" I said, glaring back at her. "Then so be it."

Nightmare Moon turned into cloud form and began to fly herself right towards me to knock me backwards midflight. But the sword warned me of this by its singing ability. I lunged the sword forward towards the cloud of Nightmare and watch it letting out a bit of a screech.

The cloud transformed back into Nightmare Moon and she was clashing at the sword with her own horn. I punch her face with the sword's handle, sending her flying towards the ground.

The dark queen opens her eyes and I land on the ground. I begin to slowly approach her while she is crawling towards the balcony outside the throne room. She's using every dark spell that she knows to attack me, but none affect my armor.

"No!" Nightmare cries out. "My spells should've hurt you!"

"That it should have, but it didn't. Even for the strongest and most evil pony, your spells will not be able to bypass the power of friendship. The Song of Order will get rid of every single one of your evil. You shall give back the powers of the sun and moon to my two friends Celestia and Luna." I warned her, ready to use the power of the sword if I had to.

"I'm going to kill you!" Nightmare shouts, literally releasing spit from her mouth when she said that. Well, the spit I didn't see coming.

"Celestia… Luna… please power up your magic." I commanded the princesses to do, even though I do not tell them to do so for I am not a king.

I could hear the two princesses powering up both of their horns and getting ready for me to power up the Song of Order. I rise up the blade high into the air and watch as both of the cutie mark of Twilight on the blade's cross-guard starts to shine brightly. I could tell that this was already starting to work.

The blade sent out two beams of light backwards which I suspected was the princesses. All my friends could do behind me was stand and watch what I was going to do. I wasn't going to destroy Nightmare Moon, I was going to help her.

I can feel the power of friendship in me start to rise up into the blade. After a few seconds, the blade lets out the color of a rainbow onto itself and lets out the rainbow beam towards Nightmare Moon.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I could hear Nightmare Moon cry as the rainbow beam covered her entirely and swirled around her. I just closed my eyes and let the light enter into the scene, finishing the job of what was to be done.

---

A few seconds pass, and I open my eyes to find myself still holding the sword up high, but I am bending on my knee. But by the sound of quiet silence, I could tell that everything was just about better now. But at the same time with the unconscious Nightmare Moon by the corner of the balcony, held back by the stones… I wondered if Princess Celestia and Luna got back their powers.

The sound of a horn's magic is ignited and I find myself watching ahead as the moon slowly moves itself out of the way, making in room for the sun's light to come raining in on the land of Equestria. Light from the sun flowed throughout all the land, but the miracles that it did… it destroyed the snow and ice, even the dark clouds that the post-queen created herself. Her night guards just vanish into thin air as if they never existed.

I deactivate my ethereal armor and wings and turn around towards my friends and the princesses. They all seemed to be in a bit of a shock, but I continued waiting for a response. All that happened in a few seconds was them starting to cheer and shout in joyful ways that made me feel proud. My friends all crowded around me and looked into my eyes.

"That was amazing Brayden!" Rainbow Dash says to me, sounding really happy to the point that she flew up into the air and did a backflip. "No wonder I'm friends with somepony so awesome! You are definitely 20% cooler!"

"Golly Brayden," Applejack says, taking off her Stetson-like hat. "Ah didn't know ya had it in ya. That Song of Order really seems to trust ya, as much as ya do for it too."

"Brayden?" I could hear Fluttershy ask, and her soft right hoof touching my right hand. I look down at my best friend and smile at her. "You did really good and you are really brave."

"Thank you Fluttershy." I tell her. "Somehow, I felt like the blade would come to me at the right time." And then I look at everypony else who was with me. "Anypony else feel like telling me how that was?"

"Me! Me!" Pinkie Pie says, sounding really happy as she always was. "Nightmare Moon was literally trying to kill you, but you stood up and fought her with the Song of Order." She makes a squee sound a few seconds after.

Rarity approaches me and says "Brayden, you were absolutely the best out there. You seem very much like a knight in the land of Equestria."

Twilight approaches me and is smiling towards me with tearful eyes. I look into her happy, teared eyes and gently begin stroking her soft mane. The both of us lean forward and share a passionate kiss together. The kiss lasts for a few seconds before she pulls away and wraps her warm hooves around me.

"I am so proud of you Brayden." She says to me in her happy, and really joyful voice. I wrap my arms around her and keep stroking her mane gently. "I knew you could do this."

While hugging Twilight, I looked towards the princesses and Coco Pommel. The three of them stood there smiling at me with such trust locked between all of us.

That special moment was interrupted when I heard the sound of a door slamming in the throne room. Both me and Twilight let go of our hug and take a look to see who came rushing in at this time. It was none other than Spike himself and he seemed to look out of breath. He must have had a long way to run from the gates of Canterlot while keeping guard on what was happening.

"Guys!" He cried out, running towards me on his two dragon feet. He stops and pants a bit. "I came when I saw all the bright lights from the castle and knew that something was up. I just became so worried and I needed to see what the hay just happened!"

"Spike, language!" Twilight warned in a harsh tone.

"Right, sorry." Spike says, finally letting out a blush on his face.

"Spike, buddy." I said, putting the sword away by the cover. "Come here."

He comes right towards me, and I pull the little dragon into a friendly hug. By my guess, he seems rather surprised by this at first. After a few seconds, he puts his dragon arms around me and shares the hug with me. The hug lasts for a few moments and I finally let go.

But another thing concerning me came to mind. It was when Nightmare Moon shot at Princess Luna. I had to make sure that she was okay. So I walked up to Princess Luna and her older sister Celestia.

"I'm fine Brayden." Princess Luna says to me in her normal and gentle voice.

I do what I do best and place my arms around the princess of the night, giving her a friendly hug. By the look on Celestia's face, she also wants to give me a hug as well. I open up my left arm and let Celestia join the hug with me and her sister.

"I know that this was a hard choice for you to do this. But I knew that you could do this." Princess Celestia says to me in her normal tone of voice. "It wasn't easy trying to convince Nightmare Moon, so you had to do what was necessary to stop her from freezing Equestria forever."

"But she is still here, just lying there on the balcony floor?" I confessed, knowing that it didn't destroy her all the way. "What should I do about her?"

"The fate of Nightmare Moon rests in your hands, you must decide what happens to her." Princess Luna tells me, knowing that I could make the right choice for Nightmare Moon.

I turn towards the balcony and place my left hand onto my sword pulling it out. I had to be careful just in case Nightmare Moon was still powerful as ever. I walk past my friends and onto the balcony, hearing the sounds of air and birds softly in the distance.

Nightmare slowly opens her eyes in the light and looks straight at me, I look straight into her cyan cat eyes. She lets out a soft, low growl while she looks at me. Her eyes also look really baggy as she is tired. "Go on ahead human… Kill me." She tells me, wanting me to drive the Song of Order into her. "I don't have any more powers to move the moon or fight back, so now's your chance to end me."

I slowly raised my sword towards her and placed it down onto her neck. I did have the need to end her life and save Equestria as a hero, but with the scars of me being forced to kill a pony. But I remembered what the Song of Order told me in the dream and what he meant of offering friendship to Nightmare Moon. It was sparing a life. If I spared Nightmare Moon's life, then I would continue to be a hero.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Nightmare Moon said. "Off with my head already."

I continued holding the sword at her neck for a few moments with my mind set on the decision to make sure Nightmare dies or lives. Finally, I shake my head and pull the sword away from her, sheathing it. "No… I will not kill you." I told her in a gentle voice. "I swore to myself that I will never hurt anypony as long as I live. I am still keeping that promise."

Nightmare Moon slowly starts to get up and I can see tears start to form in her eyes. "I'm so sorry! I- I don't want you to hate me for what I've done!" She cries out, letting out all the tears she could push out.

I put my arms around her and gently hug her. "There now Nightmare, I don't hate you." I said to her, gently rubbing the back of her neck.

"I'm sorry that I hurt you! I'm even sorry that I tormented you and everypony you knew in your sleep! I'll never forgive myself for doing it." Nightmare cries, still feeling really guilty for all she did.

"But you can forgive yourself if you just believe." I said, knowing that I was making the right choice in my words. "Sure I am still haunted by my past and all the events that I lived through which are still a nightmare to me… but you're more than you think. You're my friend and you can be their friends to if you decide. It's not that bad."

Nightmare Moon shamefully trots towards Princess Celestia and Luna and looks at them with begging eyes. "Princess Celestia… Princess Luna… I'm really sorry for what I did. What I did is always going to come back to haunt me!" She begs to them, seeking forgiveness from the princesses.

"Nightmare Moon." Princess Celestia says in her calm, soothing voice. "I used to have a student that was almost like you, but her path went down differently. Her name is Sunset Shimmer. She's been forgiven since Twilight helped her find it, and if she does come back… I'll forgive her as easily for you."

"So that means…"

"Yes, Nightmare. I forgive you." Princess Celestia says with a smile on her face. Nightmare just throws herself towards the princess of the sun and hugs her. I watch Celestia move a hoof around the post-evil alicorn and gently share the heartwarming hug. I knew that my action to spare Nightmare Moon's life would work out as well.

"Princess Luna and I will keep Nightmare in the castle and teach her a few things about princess-hood since she is an alicorn." Princess Celestia says. "She may not yet have a title for what she does, but eventually she'll discover it and name herself a royal title."

"Thank you… thank you so much!" Nightmare Moon says, letting the last of her tears drop onto the floor.

I can feel Twilight's warm hoof gently touching my hand and I turn my head from the scene to see what my special somepony wanted to say to me. She is smiling at me, still so proud for what I did.

"You made a good choice Brayden." Twilight said to me, while I gently took her hoof that touch my hand and gently held onto it. "Not only did you remove all evil magic from Nightmare… you spared her life to give her another chance."

"Well, I just couldn't hurt her. She's a pony just like you and everypony else that I know of." I said to Twilight. "Besides, she'll be in good hooves by the looks of it."

A flash of light appeared in the room and… yes, I know. It's Discord. He seems to be wearing a jester hat on his head with signs appearing all over the throne room. He seems rather happier than usual. He must have figured out by now that the sun has come back.

"Congratulations all of you!" Discord applauded, clapping his lion paw and eagle claw hands together. I could tell that Twilight was rolling her eyes in annoyance. "You all did it! You brought back the sun… which it was freezing indoors either way."

"Actually, we helped in the battle, but it was Brayden all along who helped save Equestria from the icy cold." Rarity said, still sounding really proud of me.

"Well, that's great." Discord said with a chuckle. He disappears, but appears behind me. "Did you blast the dark queen with your magic?"

"Oh no, I helped her somehow into repentance. I forgive anypony easily." I said to the draconequus. "I only gave back complete power over the sun and moon to Celestia and Luna. It's all thanks to my new defense, the Song of Order."

"Alright, Mr. Knight. You should feel so happy." Discord says to me, bringing his face closer to mine. I just roll my eyes and smile.

"Let's celebrate with a huge party!" Pinkie Pie says. "And this theme will be the 'Our friend Brayden saved Equestria for the first time' party!"

"Pinkie?" I asked. She turns her head and looks at me with a huge smile on her face. "You might want to save the party for later, we've got to clean up a bit around the place."

"Okie dokie lokie!" Pinkie Pie says, bouncing off to chat with her friends.

Me and Twilight just look at each other and then lean forward, putting my arms around her and her hooves around me. Both of us share a gentle and passionate kiss. Finally after a few moments, both of us let go and turn towards Princess Celestia who was going to announce something.

"Spike… please take a letter." Celestia commands. Spike takes out a piece of paper and quill and begins to write what the princess was going to say.

"I, Princess Celestia hereby decree that the new citizen in Equestria named Brayden, is officially the paladin or knight of Equestria and will help defend it with the magic of friendship by his side for as long as he lives." Princess Celestia announces happily.

I smile and hold Twilight closer to me. The both of us share a hug, while everypony just watches us both with sweet smiles on their faces. Even Discord, the used to be Master of Chaos was even happy for me and watched the both of us hug.

But somewhere inside of me, I felt like I had done a great achievement in my lifetime that I had never done before in my time. I saved Equestria from eternal night and helped spared a villain's life who turned good again. I think I know what I can define myself as.

A hero. A singer with a golden soul.

A/N: Alright, another chapter uploaded. A fun moment that really got me was all the reviews saying "No! Don't end the story." or "Please don't let this be the end.". Don't worry to all those people who reviewed, I'm not ending this story for a long time, so there's lots of fun to go around. So anyways, I have some wonderful news.

First news, I may be going to FanExpo after all! By coincidence, I might be meeting both Andrea Libman and Tabitha St. Germain. I'll personally be drawing two pictures for one to sign. One is Fluttershy and the other is Princess Luna. Plus, if I'm lucky I'll try to get them to say something to me in the voice of my favorite character. Second news, I'm seeing KISS and Def Leppard in concert. I cannot wait to see one of my favorite bands again. I do have a few other bands I want to see in concert such as Smashing Pumpkins.

Now... onto the review responses! :) Don't worry mr234scott, Owldusk and Tison Valane, I responded to your reviews.

Summer time 10101: Thank you so much. :)

Bladetiger3: Thank you. It's always in the end that I redeem a villain that I confronted according to these stories.

P.S. I already know that the next chapter is going to all about Brayden's birthday... and by coincidence, I'll be releasing that chapter most likely on my birthday. It's sometime this month, but you'll find out.

---

Wow! I was really beat after that celebration in Canterlot for becoming the new knight that will able to defend Equestria from all sorts of danger that lurks. So yeah, here I am just sleeping in for a new sunrise shining over Equestria to greet the new day. Me? I'm still lying down in the guest room, resting my eyes. I think my best friend Fluttershy saw how tired I was after arriving back to Ponyville and decided to let me sleep a little longer. That probably explains why she closed the blinds in the guest room to help me get some sleep until later.

Now I know what you're thinking, what about Canterlot, how was the rest of the visit? It was really good after the 'Nightmare Moon' incident. A ceremony happened to be held for me in Canterlot, and there was a party after the ceremony hosted by Pinkie Pie. The ceremony seemed to go by rather quickly though, and I did think that I was going to end up meeting Twilight's parents since they both live in Canterlot, but I didn't. Nor did I get to see Shining Armor or Princess Cadence yet. I can understand that both of them are overseeing the Crystal Empire, but I'll meet them eventually. The party was great on the other half. Nightmare Moon attended the party, but rarely spoke to anypony but to Princess Celestia and Luna. I'm guessing she's still a little hurt over attacking me. Oh well, I hope she feels better soon.

Rarity did fantastic during the fashion show and she introduced me to the one of the top designers in all of Equestria. Even though I wasn't so much for fashion like my friend Rarity, I really enjoyed the show. She didn't win, another pony did. She was proud of her being in second place though and could accept that without any trouble. A fictional figure told me this back when I was in my first year of high school as a freshman. It was that there was always next time, and that was what I told to Rarity.

I still had my eyes closed and I could hear the sound of somepony softly knocking at the guest room door. I already know that it's Fluttershy coming in to check up on how I was doing while I slept. I can hear the sound of her trotting hooves pacing the wooden floor towards me. My head is gently on the side of the pillow, giving it comfort and how it felt could feel like I wanted to stay in bed forever and not get out there. I was already enjoying this.

"Brayden?" Fluttershy whispers to me with a gentle and peaceful tone. "Wake up…"

I groan tiredly, not wanting to get out of bed. I really wanted to stay in a little longer. But at this point, even if I resisted in any other way, Fluttershy would probably think I wasn't taking her too kindly. "Five more minutes Fluttershy…" I moaned.

"Come on…" Fluttershy says to me. "It's a beautiful day and you don't want to be in here all day with no exercise."

I slowly opened up my eyes and wait for my eyes to start flowing back into focus. I could see Fluttershy standing there next to my bed with a smile on her face. But this smile was one thing that I just could not resist against. I move the sheets off of me and nudge my legs out towards the wooden floor.

"There we go." Fluttershy said to me, placing her hoof onto my hand. "The good knight needs to wake up eventually doesn't he?"

Fluttershy takes her hoof off of my hand and trots to the right, grabbing onto one of the strings near the windows and pulling them to open the blinds, bringing light into the room. I squint a bit at first, to let the adjusting of my sight get used to the sunlight again as usual.

"I have breakfast ready for you downstairs Brayden," Fluttershy says to me, trotting towards the open guest room door. "Feel free to come down when you're ready."

"Well seeing how you woke me up," I said to her. "I'll be right there."

I walked up forward out of the guest room, and joined Fluttershy while she was trotting down the stairs. Walking right beside her, the both of us look at each other briefly and then back towards the bottom of the stairs.

"So…" Fluttershy was about to ask me something, so I turned my head towards her to see what she needed to say. "Do you have anything important today that you plan on doing?"

"Not really," I said to her. "It seems like it's going to be a relaxing day."

"Well, okay. Other than that…" Fluttershy said, stopping briefly to catch her train of thought. "Oh yeah! Minuette has asked me to remind you that you need to visit her at her office. She really needs to check if you have any cavities."

"Uh, the dentist?" I groaned with fear striking me. I had a fear of dentists and the drills that they put into my mouth whether it's cleaning my teeth or removing cavities. But for removing a single cavity, I really hated having that freezing needle poking me in the mouth and me not being able to speak for an hour or more. I mean, it was worse when I got my wisdom teeth out. "Oh… I'm not sure if I can do it."

"Why? What's wrong with seeing the dentist?" Fluttershy asked.

"Trust me on this…" I said, trying not to sound too scared. "It's better if you don't know."

"Come on Brayden," Fluttershy said to me, placing her left front hoof onto my right hand. "Something is bugging you about seeing the dentist."

I lowered my head, admitting defeat. There's absolutely no way that I can lie to Fluttershy, and I was about to look like a total chicken to do this. "It's because I have a fear of dentists." I tell her with my head lowered. "And if I get the freezing needle in my mouth, it's going to hurt a lot worse. Plus, it'll be so numb that I can't even eat or speak properly."

"There's nothing to worry about though, Brayden." Fluttershy said to me, understanding how scared I was about the dentist. "We all have that same fear, but we have to do it."

"But you have stage fright." I told her. "How can you not be scared of the dentist as much as me?"

Fluttershy and I stopped at the bottom of the stairs and turn to look at each other. "Stage fright is one thing that I still have that fear of since I was a little filly. It'll take a long time until I can sing to an audience. For the dentist, I was scared but I learned to not be scared by it forever." She said to me. "But if you want to, I can come with you to make sure that you'll be fine."

"Yes, please do." I said to her, with the sound of my stomach growling at the end to interrupt for what else I was going to say.

Both me and Fluttershy continue into the kitchen and I can see my breakfast on the table across from where she sat. Today's breakfast was going to be crunchy fruit known as nuts: drizzled with honey on them with salad leaves below. My mouth began to create a little bit of saliva from inside my mouth, I was just about hungry for a good breakfast.

I decide to play a bit of soft music from my iPhone to lighten up the quiet cottage, so I pull the device from out of the pocket of my shorts. I unlock it and go to my music library to look for some music. I tap into the genres and select Jazz. The fact that I have more than just listening to Hard Rock music which is more of my thing, but thanks to some people I knew who loved Progressive music, they introduced me to Jazz Fusion bands. But I put the Fusion stuff into the Jazz genre for the hay of it. I tap onto a random song and let it start.

Once I had picked the song, I placed the phone down onto the table nowhere near food, and moved towards my chair. I take a seat and pick up the fork, digging it into the honey nuts. I place the food into my mouth, chewing them with my mouth closed shut. While I ate, I take a look at Fluttershy. Her ears were perked up, and she was listening to the music while she took her second bite in.

"This music is really beautiful." Fluttershy says, just a few seconds after she swallowed down the piece of break down. "I don't think I've heard this kind of music that sort of like ours. How did you find this music?"

"Well, you're hearing music that was originally from Earth." I said to her, digging my fork into for another bite. "We call it Jazz music."

"My goodness, Jazz sounds like a very interesting name for music." Fluttershy said. "We should go visit Earth sometime for maybe one or two days and see what your home looks like."

Whoa there! A little yellow flag came up in my head when she suggested that I go with her and the rest of our friends to Earth for a visit. "Fluttershy, I'm not sure if that's a good idea to head to Earth at this rate." I warned her with a caring tone in my voice.

"Why?" Fluttershy asked me. "Are you worried about something there?"

"Well, yes." I confessed, finally lowering my head to tell her what was expected there. "It's that if you were to come there into the countryside of the Earth; you'll be so horrified for what they do to animals. The town and city sides aren't safe either, there are anti-bronies that really hate the show, and they'll try to hurt you. Worse, scientists might be curious and will kidnap you for crazy experiments."

"Oh… my." I heard Fluttershy say, and looked up to see her somewhat mild face of disappointment while her ears were flopped down. "It's only for one or two days though, it shouldn't be as bad as long as we remain in your old home."

"Very true, but you can't be loud because the neighbours will get suspicious." I said, trying to sound very careful about this. "I need to think about that some more; at the meantime I cannot risk losing any of you to the dangers of Earth."

"Okay." She says to me, placing her hoof onto my hand. "I'll continue to wait for an answer."

I dig my fork into the last salad leaf, gathering up all the remaining nuts that were in the bowl. I place it into my mouth and chew onto it for a bit, and then swallow the last of the breakfast that had been inside my mouth.

"That was delicious!" I said to Fluttershy.

She smiles at me and says "Alright. I suggest that you go upstairs and brush the teeth of yours. It could really help out before you see Minuette."

I nod and get up out of my chair, leaving the kitchen to head upstairs and brush my teeth. You all pretty much know what happens, right? I pretty much did what I had to do: brush my teeth and use the washroom. Once that business is done, I flush the toilet; wash my hands and go out of the bathroom. I start descending down the stairs and I am quite shocked when I stumble upon an unexpected thing I don't think I've seen Fluttershy do other than in the show. She was dancing along slowly to the rhythm of the jazz. She stops when she sees me standing there on the stairs, watching.

"Oh… I was just dancing." Fluttershy says to me in her shy voice, beginning to blush.

I smile at her, and finish coming down the stairs and approach her. "Do not worry about that, this music somewhat does give me a soft spot to dance as well." I said to her, seeing how this song was slower than a usual upbeat fast track. "This song does go well and is meant for slow-dancing."

"Slow dancing?" Fluttershy asks.

"Yes," I said to her. "It's mostly for two people back on Earth. They dance together."

"Oh my goodness, maybe you could show me?" She asks me, a bit curious on how it works.

"Sure," I tell her. "Just let me hold onto one of your hooves, and your other front hoof will go around me. Almost like a hug, but not quite." I watch her place her left front hoof around me, and then letting her right front hoof move to my hand. I gently open up my hand and take her hoof, gently holding onto it.

The both of us gently swayed along to the soft touch that the music brought while focusing on the dancing we both did. After a few minutes of the song, it fades out and Fluttershy takes her hoof that was around my waist off of me.

"I didn't know you were quite the dancer." Fluttershy said, quite surprised to see how I knew about this kind of dancing that she didn't.

"I try to dance when I can." I said to her, moving back towards my phone and turning it off.

Fluttershy trots towards me and places her hoof on my hand again. I slide my phone back into my pocket and turn my head to look at her. "Alright, we should get going now. Wouldn't want to keep Minuette waiting, since she has other patients and you can't be late because she'll become quite a nightmare if you arrive late."

"Let's get going then." I said, smiling at her.

Fluttershy nods with a soft smile, and both I and she proceed towards the front door. I walked ahead of her first, and why? To open the door for a female because that's what I do whenever I see a girl coming towards the same building as I, so I'm used to this.

"Thank you Brayden." Fluttershy says to me, walking past me and going outside. After she goes past, I follow along, closing the front door behind me.

I catch up with Fluttershy and start walking beside her. The sun is shining brightly in the sky and the birds near the cottage and out in the trees were chirping and getting along with one another. But it wouldn't be the same without a familiar Pegasus that I knew flying about the skies, doing her tricks. Rainbow Dash.

She was flying up high in the sky, doing loop-de-loops and even flying upside-down. I'm right down at the ground, and I could probably tell from her face that she was really enjoying that. She turns her head and notices the both of us walking down the dirt path on the way to Ponyville. She stops her upside-down trick and descends down towards the ground towards us.

"Hey guys!" Rainbow Dash says, landing on all four hooves and closing her wings. "Enjoying the day so far? By the way Brayden, that party last night was awesome! I deem it 20% cooler!" I smile when she says the classic '20% cooler' slogan that everypony knows.

"It will be a good day Rainbow Dash. I'm just taking Brayden to see Minuette. She really wants to check up on his teeth if he has cavities." Fluttershy says to her. "He's just a little bit scared of the dentist, but I think he'll do just fine."

"Brayden… is scared of the dentist?" Rainbow Dash says in a bit of a shocking voice. Her shocked face then cracks into a huge smile and one hoof rose, she begins howling with laughter. "The one and only Brayden who just saved Equestria… scared of the dentist?!"

"Now Rainbow Dash, don't laugh about Brayden like that." Fluttershy lectured to Rainbow Dash, trying to keep as calm as possible and her best not to raise her soft voice. "That's why I'm trying to help Brayden get over his fear of the dentist. I don't know how long he's had this fear, but I'll definitely ensure him that dentists aren't as terrible as he thinks."

"Yeah, yeah." Rainbow Dash says, going into a brave-like stance. "Besides, I can take on having my teeth checked up on by the dentist and this-that."

"So says the pegasus who can't join the Wonderbolts." I blurt out, laughing in joke.

An eyebrow rose on Rainbow's face with a look of suspicion smeared onto her face. "What was that?" She said, sounding like she was going to yell at any moment.

"I'm kidding, Rainbow!" I said, raising both of my hands in innocence as if I never did anything, even though I did. "Besides, a pony like you could be in the Wonderbolts. That is if they accept you in…"

"Come on, I could probably ace the entire test that requires me to join them!" Rainbow Dash says, spreading her wings and doing a quick loop in the air.

"What if you lost though?" I asked, approaching her.

"I hate losing…" Rainbow Dash says, her happy voice lowering a bit into a sheer sound of disappointment and her eyes dropping close to the ground. "That's the only thing that I've never gotten over. Sure, I get silver or bronze because I have to be loyal to my supporters and not cheat... but to me, it's not the same."

I gently move my hand towards her left front hoof and gently take it. "Rainbow, look at me." I said in my usual gentle voice. Rainbow's rose-coloured eyes are directed off of the ground and she is staring into my brown eyes. "I just want to let you know that no matter how many times you lose or fail, I and the rest of your friends will always be there to support you. We all must accept defeat even when our expectations were high over something we wanted to get, but never achieved."

Rainbow Dash smiled again. "Thanks Brayden," She says to me. "Glad to have somepony like you to help me out as a friend."

"It's no problem Rainbow Dash," I said to her. "Just keep on following your dream, and never forget your friends. That is what loyalty is all about."

Rainbow Dash and I share smiles at each for a few moments and then I move my hand from her hoof I was holding onto. "Um, guys?" I could hear Fluttershy say right behind me. Rainbow Dash takes her smile from me and looks at Fluttershy. I turn to see what Fluttershy just needed to say.

"I don't really know if I'm butting into the conversation, but Brayden really needs to see the dentist." Fluttershy says with a smile.

"Right," I said. I turn back to Rainbow Dash. "Dashie, just a heads up, it's going to be my birthday really soon and I was wondering if you wanted to join. I understand if you're busy and all that."

"Oh I'm not busy," She said, putting a wing around me. "With me attending the party, I'm going to make it so awesome!"

"Alright, then I'll see you soon Dashie." I said, offering if I wanted to give her a hug. Rainbow wraps her hooves around me and I move my two arms around her neck, giving her a gentle, friendly hug. The hug lasted for a few moments, and we finally let go of the hug.

"I should get going now, lots of tricks to practice in the sky!" Rainbow says before flying off into the sky and past the white clouds that flew by gently through the air.

I joined back with Fluttershy and continued with her down the trail. I could see the small town of Ponyville in the distance and it seemed to be bustling with the ponyfolk that day. It was probably Thursday because of all the oncoming shoppers and business that ran throughout the whole day of the week. That, or there must be something big going on like a humongous sale just what happened at Sugarcube Corner. Sorry I didn't tell this before, but Pinkie told me to keep this incident between the two of us. Still, I'm not going to say what happened that day, it's far too embarrassing about how much of a mess I got into and how I had to clean myself up after.

I walked over the stone bridge and took a look out at all of the ponies that went about their day. I could understand that there were no fillies out today because they were in school. I could see Time Turner and Roseluck talking with one another about what they did yesterday since the day was saved. I could pretty much see Lyra Heartstrings just following right behind me with a humongous smile on her face. She goes to the side and joins me and Fluttershy.

"Hi Brayden!" Lyra says to me, really excited about seeing me, which by coincidence is because I'm a human and the fact that she is obsessed with humans. "I'm so happy to see you again."

I turned my head and looked at her while she finished talking. "It's good to see you too Lyra. How's your study on me going?" I asked with greeting in my voice.

"It's fantastic," Lyra says to me. "I-I won't go into much detail because I'm pretty sure that you and Fluttershy are busy with something."

"I have to take Brayden to see Minuette." Fluttershy says to Lyra. "He's going to have his teeth checked by her for any cavities."

Lyra had a quiet look on her face. "Well ouch," She says. "Cavities are the nastiest, but don't you worry Brayden. My good friend Minuette will freeze that mouth and help make sure that it doesn't hurt."

I shook a bit in fear when she even mentioned the word 'freeze' since it was related to the dentist putting that nasty needle into my mouth and numbing my mouth so I couldn't speak for what seemed like endless hours.

"Aw, why so scared?" Lyra says to me, putting her hoof onto my hand. "It's just a needle."

"I've hated needles since childhood." I told her, still looking a bit frightened. "That's why I'm always trying to run outta there when I see one come close to me."

"But what about when you fainted?" Lyra asked.

"True on that, I wasn't going to let the doctors stick it into me. But seeing how I didn't want to get absolutely sick, they did it anyway." I told her. "This is completely different though. It's going into my mouth."

"Well, I wish you luck." Lyra says with a smile on her face. She then trots along away from the both of us, joining up with the two of her friends Bon Bon and Lily Valley.

It isn't long, but I can see the dentist's office straight ahead with the sign just right outside the building. That is when my fears start to kick in once again. Even the expressions on my face gave off that I was completely nervous about doing this in a place I've never been to before. I've only been so used to the one dentist I go to.

I can feel Fluttershy's soft hoof touch my left hand and I turn to look at her. "You'll be fine. I'm going to right there with you." She tells me with such promise in her voice. I believe her promise; it's just that if I have any cavities, even a single one, I am down-right screwed.

Fluttershy trots a little faster past me and gets the door for me. She still has a smile on her face. "After you Brayden." She offers.

I nod with a very weak smile and walk past her into the dental office and past the open door. I turn around, watching Fluttershy join with me again and closing the door behind her. I turn back around to see the waiting area of the office.

The waiting room was filled with a few of the dental patients and I could see a few of the fillies that weren't in school sitting there in the office. They seemed to look a little nervous about seeing Minuette as well, but they're just lucky that they aren't me. Dentists to me are like death.

I take a seat on the nearby bench near the front desk and I'm sitting there, literally shaking a little bit. Fluttershy sits next to me, gently keeping an eye on me. For me, I just cannot get the thoughts of what the dentist was going to do. Was she going to start picking at each and every one of my teeth with her drills? Was she going to use that needle at my mouth? Or was the dentist just planning something worse for me?

Past the desk in the waiting area, I could hear the sound of drills and teeth being cleaned. I couldn't see what was happening, so I just had to wait even longer for the torment of drills and this-that.

"Look Brayden," Fluttershy says to me, tapping my hand with her hoof. She passes along a map of Equestria. "You wanted to see what the rest of Equestria looks like, you can see it."

I take my focus off of my fear of the dentist and start looking at the map with Fluttershy. "Wow… that's how big Equestria is?" I asked.

"Oh, it's not all just that. There are many sights to see and many cities to visit. The Crystal Empire is one of them. Twilight should consider taking you there to visit her brother Shining Armor and Princess Cadence."

"Sweet," I said. "I haven't met them yet, but I would love to do so." Something else brings my attention the map. There was a dark area beyond the west of Appleloosa. There was no marking on what the mysterious place was called. Just black.

"Fluttershy," I asked her with curiosity in my voice. "What's that place just off West and past Appleloosa, it seems to be rather dark for the map."

"Oh, that place." Fluttershy says to me, now with an alarmed voice, but isn't raising her voice. "We are never to go there no matter the cost, it's a small isolated land full of scary monsters and non-Equestrian dragons that have much hatred for us. It's called Mortem."

"Can't you just go there and try to reason without any trouble?" I said, looking at Fluttershy. There was a bit of silence between the two of us while we looked at each other. Fluttershy then places a hoof on her head and is gently wiping it.

"One does not simply trot into Mortem." Fluttershy said quietly in a way to not raise attention. I would have smiled because at this moment, I knew this was going to turn into a huge mirror of what a character said in a movie that I knew all about that ended up becoming a meme. But seeing how important this was, I kept my curious look. "It's crooked, thorn gates are guarded by more than just the non-Equestrian dragons or the monsters that dwell there. There is a dark presence that doesn't sleep, and the spirits of hatred and anger are watchful of their wasteland. Even their leader who by Equestrian legend hasn't been seen since she was banished out of Equestria can watch so carefully for she is human and dragon blood. Mortem is almost like Tartarus, but 10 times as worse. The very air you breathe in that place can kill you within two hours unless you have a way to bypass the stench of the dead. You're rather off not going there."

"Oh, okay. Sorry I asked about it." I said, kind of regretting that I brought up Mortem.

Fluttershy smiles at me again. "It's okay Brayden. I'm only trying to help keep you safe from entering there. And I know Twilight will do everything to make sure that you never go there. Everypony knows that they'll never go there on their life." She said to me.

"What about where Zecora came from?" I asked. "Where did she come from?"

"Oh, Zecora?" Fluttershy asked, finally pointing to the other side of the map. "She comes from across the high seas on the other side of our world, descending from the land of the Zebra Kingdom."

"I do not think I've ever seen the Zebra Kingdom before." I said.

"Zecora did tell me what it looked like last time she was there. She said that it was quite many sights to see if I was to travel there one day." She says. "I couldn't possibly fly all the way there; my wings would be tired out half-way across the ocean. You'd most likely be rather off taking a large ship there."

"Alright, so I've been to Ponyville and Canterlot so far, so many locations to visit and the two I've wanted to visit a lot so far are the Crystal Empire and Manehattan. I heard that city hosts a lot of good Bridleway shows, well… Coco told me that." I said.

"Speaking of her… I heard from Twilight that she was I think 'following' you." Fluttershy asks. "Did you find out why she was doing that?"

I gulped deeply, if I ended up telling Fluttershy the truth about what happened about Coco having a crush on me. She'd probably go off and tell Twilight all about it. This is what worried me because in the end, it would result in a break-up.

I sighed softly and said "It was because Coco Pommel had a crush on me."

Fluttershy seemed a little quiet about it at first. "Umm, Brayden?" She asked, placing her hoof onto my hand. "You don't have to worry if she did have one on you. After all, you devoted your relationship with Twilight, so I don't think there's any way that you would go for another one of your friends. Even if you tell Twilight about it, she won't ever be mad at you because she understands now about you. She'd feel worse if she accidentally hurt you."

"What about when I told the truth-" I said before Fluttershy rose a hoof to cut me off with a smile on her face.

"Brayden. It's all in the past." Fluttershy said to me, taking my hand with her hoof. "No need to reflect back on what happened."

I smile and look into her cyan eyes. "You're right. I'm always digging up the past over nothing." I said to her with the normal tone of voice.

"Brayden!" A voice calls out from across the desk. I turn my head around to see Minuette standing there with an easy smile on her face. "It's your turn to come in and see me."

My fears start to kick in once again, and I turn my head around to look at Fluttershy. My face was scared as ever like it always was every time the dentist or doctor called me next for them. She just keeps her smile, getting up off of the bench while she holding onto my hand. "Come on now Brayden. No need to be frightened." She says to me in her gentle voice.

I slowly get up, accepting defeat because there's no way that I can chicken out on her. She continues to take my hand, bringing me towards Minuette. The unicorn dentist has a smile on her face and I can tell that her mane is sort of like the color of a toothpaste fluid.

"Right this way." Minuette smiles and turns around, trotting in front of us towards the door into her office. Right now, I think I can hear my heart pounding nearly as fast as a rabbit.

Passing her open door, I can see the dental chair with a bunch of tools around in a tray at a table placed close to the chair. On the other side of the room was the x-ray machine, not really looking that active at first. I was already starting to bet that Minuette will place me into the x-ray machine to check for cavities.

"Alright Brayden, take a seat in the dental chair." Minuette says to me. I walk forward and lean my back onto the dentist chair. I turn my head straight towards the dentist and she's placing a net on her mane, so no loose mane hairs will fall into my mouth. She doesn't have the mask on yet, but I suspect that she will soon.

"So how are you today Brayden? I heard all about what happened in Canterlot and I will say that I'm proud of you for helping out against Nightmare Moon." Minuette told me with a joyful smile on her face.

"Well, I wasn't willing to bring the sword upon her, so I had to spare her." I told her, shaking like crazy.

"There's no need to shake about the dentist. I assure you that all will be fine." She says to me, moving some tools about to prepare for something. It was most likely probably preparing me for the worst mouth torture ever.

Once she finished moving some tools about, she trots over closer to the dental chair and gently takes my hand. "Come with me Brayden, I have to take an x-ray of your teeth."

I slowly get up off of the chair and walk with Minuette over to the x-ray machine. She lets go of my hand and trots over to a big leather vest. "Just to make sure you don't have any radiation." Minuette says to me, putting the large vest over my body with her magic.

"Now, stand in the centre of the machine and bite onto the metal part. It'll feel funny at first, but don't chew on it otherwise I can't get a clear picture." She said, trotting towards the machine. I walk forward slowly into the machine, and move my head close toward the metal object sticking out. I open my mouth and bite down on the object and begin to wait.

The whole machine starts up with a power-up sound and I can see the floating pillar-like objects spinning around me as slowly as possible. I'm still standing there with the metal stick still being bitten down by my own teeth and I wait patiently for the x-ray machine to end. I'm not even sure I can turn to look at what Fluttershy was doing. CLICK! The x-ray machine came to a complete stop after making an entire cycle.

"Alright, you can let go now." Minuette tells me. My mouth releases itself from the metal object and I walk backwards out of the machine. "That wasn't too bad, was it? Let me just check on the pictures and see how your teeth are doing. Meanwhile with you, you can sit back in the chair."

I walk back towards the dental chair and take a seat while Minuette is observing my teeth in the photos she took. Fluttershy pulls up one of the spare chairs and sits close to me, placing her hoof onto my left hand. She has a look on her face that is trying to tell me that everything is going to be okay.

The few moments pass and Minuette trots forward towards the both of us, placing on the mask. I knew that it was at this point that I was definitely screwed.

"Well, Brayden. I've checked your teeth in the x-ray and they all seem to be as clean as possible." She says to me in her happy voice. "But there is one thing that I just need to clear up. You happen to have a cavity in one of your front teeth and I'm afraid that I must give you a filling to help clear that out."

Immediately hearing the news, I ended up shaking in the dental chair like crazy, scared out of my mind. I could tell that Minuette seemed to look a little bit concerned about me while I was shaking. Fluttershy is still trying her best to assure me that it was all going to be okay in the end.

"Brayden, what are you scared about?" Minuette asks me, placing one of her hooves onto my right hand.

"It-It's the freezing needle. I've always been so afraid of needles." I barely managed to get out because of how shaky I was about this.

Minuette smiled though. "But remember you saved Equestria? That was some bravery there, and I bet you could be brave here. I must tell you that there is absolutely nothing to be afraid of. Most of the foals that come in here were nervous at first about it, but in the end they come out of my office fine, whether for a teeth cleaning or a cavity filling. Don't ask about the wisdom teeth, I do that at the hospital."

"Well that's fine, because I got my wisdom teeth out a long while ago." I said, with the shaking starting to calm down a bit.

Minuette moved her head away and grabbed a small ball of what seemed to be cotton and dipped a bit of a gel onto the woolen ball. She turns back to me and says "Alright, now open up your mouth and bite down on it. Make sure not to swallow."

I bit my teeth down on the cotton and didn't really feel the gel that was on the little cotton while the dentist reached about her tools for what would seem to be the object I feared the most. She finally turns back around with the object and she moves it closer towards me. "Open wide." She said.

I open my rest of my mouth, revealing the rest of my teeth and she moves the needle closer to my mouth. I just close my eyes and wait for the pain that is to come. But wait, there's nothing pointy being felt in my mouth. I'm just lying there in the chair with my eyes closed and yet I don't happen to feel any pain from the needle. Was it… was I being scared over nothing after all?

I open up my eyes slowly and can see the needle moving away from my mouth. Minuette moves the needle back over to the opposite side behind me and using her magic, opens up a cabinet and places the now-used needle inside. After finishing that, she looks at me. "Now, that wasn't so bad was it Brayden?" She asked.

I d'nt fee anyting." I managed to say, and then I realized that my mouth had just become so numb from the needle. Hey, even the cotton was out of my mouth, but it still felt like I was biting down on it.

"Don't worry about the numb mouth, once the operation on your tooth is done. Well it'll still be numb, but just give an hour… it'll get better and you'll speak properly again." She says to me with a giggle.

I watch Minuette finally turn back towards the tools and bring out a blue rain-coat to what the dentist on Earth told me. "Alright, now I'm going to put this on your tooth that has the cavity." She tells me, bringing in another tool to attach the rain-coat like object. But seriously it felt like a bunch of staples being placed into my mouth. But just like the freezing needle, I didn't feel like there was staples being placed, I only felt a bump.

"There we go… nice and still." I can hear Minuette saying. The coat is wrapped around the individual tooth making it stick out from all the rest. Her magic then grabs one of the drills and she activates it. The drill goes straight into my mouth and starts to drill in at the cavity. This felt really uneasy for me, and I was clenching my two fists to try and resist against the pain.

I can feel Fluttershy's hoof touch my left hand again and she gently opens up my hand with ease and is holding onto it. "Shhhh… everything's going to be okay." I can hear Fluttershy say to me in her soft voice to help me calm down.

The drilling continued and I felt myself being vibrated because of the pressure that the drill was giving since it was felt very pushed against me. Finally, the drill came out of my mouth and another drill was coming towards me. My goodness, I really hated this next drill.

The drill activated and I could feel the drill coming into the interior of my lone tooth that was infected with the lone cavity. I'm just thankful that this lasts a few seconds; if it lasted longer I would've cried out in pain. The drill comes out from my mouth and the first drill that Minuette used comes back towards my mouth.

"You're doing just fine Brayden." Fluttershy says, gently rubbing her hoof on my left hand she was holding onto. By the way, don't think that it's in a romantic way.

The drill goes on for about a minute, and then is removed from my mouth, with another tool coming in. It was to check for any more signs of the cavity left-over. I can feel the scraping of the tool brushing against the tooth and it felt like iron picks moving about my mouth. Minuette has a focused look on her face while she checks the rest of my tooth. She moves the pick-wit like object out of my mouth and proceeds to take out another, but with paint-like fluid on its tip.

"Alright, here comes the filling." Minuette says to me.

The pick-wit starts to scrape around the tooth. I can't seem to feel the cold fluid that crawled about on the end of the tooth where the cavity used to be. It always seemed to feel like somepony was painting my tooth a different color.

Finally, the scraping was done and a large gun-like object comes towards me. "This will make the filling as hard as possible within a few moments. Stay still for a few seconds." Minuette says to me, finally placing it against my tooth. I remain as calm as possible thanks to Fluttershy. Somehow her soft voice managed to calm me down from all the fright and trauma I had in the past with dentists. I can feel the sound of a machine humming softly for a few moments. It all seemed to be quiet between the three of us.

Beep. The machine made that sound and the tech is moved from my mouth and back onto the tray next to the chair I was laying in. The tool came back to detach the rain-coat from my mouth. The blue coat comes off from my mouth and my mouth no longer feels like it has staples, but is still so numb.

Minuette finally takes a black cloth-like object and begins rubbing down on the object that had been filled, just to make sure there wasn't too much filling. She moves it out of my mouth and tosses it into the garbage which I did suspect was behind the dental chair. She moves the mask off of her mouth and she is smiling.

"There you go Brayden. Your tooth is now free from any cavities, but I'll probably see you the next time I schedule an appointment for you. Most likely it will be just teeth cleaning and an x-ray." She says to me.

"Tat wsn't o ad at ell." I said again, seeing how annoyed I was going to be with this numb mouth but was satisfied that the filling wasn't as bad as I had suspected.

"Alright, you're free to go now." Minuette said, taking my right hand and helping me up from the chair. She takes the net off her head revealing her mane again. "I've got another patient to deal with."

I stand up off of the dental chair and begin walking slowly to the door back towards the waiting room. Fluttershy joins up with me again. I walk past the various doors that would go into other dental offices where patients were being dealt with by other dentist with the same experience as Minuette.

Both I and Fluttershy walk out of the dental office and out back into the streets of Ponyville once again. It wasn't as busy as earlier when coming into town. I figured that the trading and selling must have calmed down quite a bit since the afternoon was approaching and that lunch was going to start just around that time. To me, it'll be the most frustrating thing to deal with since I couldn't eat or drink for an hour due to both the filling and my mouth being numb.

The sound of somepony humming draws Fluttershy's attention and I turn my head to see who it is. It's none than another one of my favorite friends. Pinkie Pie. Her presence always puts a smile on my face, because that is what she is all about. She wants to see everypony smile.

"Hello Fluttershy, hello Brayden!" Pinkie Pie says to the both of us in her really happy, but hyper tone of voice which she always was every single day I've known her for.

"Oh, hello Pinkie. Doing well?" Fluttershy says to her with still a bit of shyness but a happy tone in her voice.

"Absolutely! I'm on my way to help set up a secret surprise birthday party for one of the fillies at the school! She's going to be so happy when she finds out the super-duper party pony came to wish her a super happy birthday." Pinkie says to her, and then turns her head to look at me. Her face drops from being happy to rather a surprised and blank face. I'm surprised her jaw didn't break open. "Uh, Fluttershy? Why is Brayden's mouth like that?"

"He had to get a filling." Fluttershy says, smiling at me. "He was scared at first, but I think I helped him get over his fear of the dentist."

"She toaly id!" I struggled out, giving a weak smile.

Pinkie Pie began to burst with laughter. What in the world of Equestria was she laughing about? Is it my jaw drooping down a bit to reveal my open mouth? Or was it just the fact that I was speaking really funny with a numb mouth. "Oh Brayden, the way you said that was so funny!" She says to me.

"Ut I n't eing unny." I managed to get out more, but Pinkie just began to laugh even harder. I could even hear Fluttershy beside me start to crack out a giggle from her.

"I can't wait for Twilight to hear all about this! She'll be rolling on the floor!" Pinkie Pie says and rushes off towards the Golden Oaks Library, probably going to tell Twilight.

"INKIE!" I shouted to try and get her to come back, thinking it was all a joke she was pulling. But by the very small dust cloud she left when rushing off, I could tell this was going to be quite the story for my special somepony to hear.

Fluttershy places a hoof on my right hand. "Don't worry about it Brayden," Fluttershy says with her gentle voice. "Let's head back to the cottage. The numbness will definitely fade off soon while you're relaxing there."

I nodded at my friend. She lets go of my right hand and starts trotting with me again back to the cottage. I kinda let off a soft groan about how Twilight was going to react about my numb mouth thanks to my friend Pinkie.

I can't exactly blame Pinkie though. I'm not mad at her and I never will be mad at her. She's always been one of the first ponies that I was introduced to when I started watching the show. If I did get mad at her, I would totally regret it because… cupcakes. Nah, just kidding. I know she'd never do anything like that ever. But I would feel so bad for her if I got angry at her. So yes, don't you worry, I still enjoy being her friend and will always be her friend.

In a nutshell in case you're wondering about what happened the next day, Pinkie still had that numb mouth story being spread about all of Ponyville. Twilight was rather enlightened by this, but was a bit more focused on some time with me and Rarity.

Well, all I can say is that it's just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie. The pony that makes me smile everyday.

A/N: TODAY IS OFFICIALLY MY BIRTHDAY! Also, during the course of August: I've gone to see KISS/Def Leppard in concert and Fan Expo around the 29th. I have such a story to tell you about meeting Tabitha St. Germain. I wasn't able to get Andrea Libman's autograph, but I'll explain that in the story.

So I'm walking over to get the two pictures I drew out the day before signed by the both of them. I had arrived just in time and out of time because Andrea ended up having to go and would be back on Saturday. It was unfortunate that I ended up missing her, but it was no big deal: there's always next time. So next time Andrea is on schedule during her signing, I'll get her to sign the picture that I drew of Fluttershy and try to somehow say my name in both Pinkie and Fluttershy's voice. I'm probably the first in line when I was seeing Tabitha, I reach into the folder to take out my drawing of Princess Luna. I'm with a friend at this time cause he wanted to treat me a gift for my b-day.

I approach her table and she says "Hello" to me. I say hello to her in return and I place my drawing onto the table while she asks for my name which I do tell her. Surprisingly I wasn't nervous or shaking, because back last month when I attended TFCon with a friend: I was shaking when meeting Gregg Berger, the voice of Grimlock. When Tabitha saw my drawing, she asked me if I drew this. I confirmed that I did and she really liked my drawing: she told me she didn't want to accidently dent the paper, but it would be no biggie if it happened. So she signed it and told her that I've been a fan of the show since 2011.

And I ask her to say one of my favorite lines by Princess Luna. "The fun has been doubled!" At first, I couldn't tell if she did it, but I then realized that her voice and Princess Luna's voice sounded really close. So yes, it was really fun meeting her.

Other than her, I met the guys who do the Cyanide and Happiness comics and I was hoping to see Steven Ogg, the voice of Trevor Phillips from GTA V, but he unfortunately wasn't there. So I did bring the cover of GTA V to Fan Expo just in case he was there to sign.

For the KISS/Def Leppard show: It was amazing! I went in costume and makeup as Ace Frehley and my friend went with me as her favorite member of KISS, Gene Simmons. Lots of people were there, and it was most likely a sold out show. So many people came up to my friend and were asking for pictures. One did suggest charging like $5 for a photo. Kobra and the Lotus came on first and they were amazing. Def Leppard comes on after and when they play "Love Bites", I'm singing it really loud. When KISS hit the stage, they did a fantastic job performing and I got to hear a song they normally wouldn't perform, "Hide Your Heart". So yes, I rock n rolled all night and just like Pinkie, I party every day. (Well, not quite.)

So yes, August was really exciting! But since September is kicking in and unfortunately college as well, expect chapters to be updated a little more slower than the usual. But besides that, Equestria Girls 2: Rainbow Rocks is coming into theatres. Can't wait to see that!

And now... Review Response Time!

godzillafan1: I know, I really need to consider checking it over for incomplete/misspelled words. Yeah, I read The Lost Element. I guess I could say it was one of the influences to writing this story. Did you read the recent chapter? It was intense!

SparkyFonzerri: Thank you :) The pacing and story are influenced by a bunch of other fanfictions that I read and the music that I listen to.

P.S. Foreshadowing on the next two chapters in this chapter. ^_^

P.S.S. I have two other stories in mind that will be related to my story "Learning To Live". The two ideas I had are based on two Ayreon albums that I've been listening to. If you want to get the basic idea on the two stories, check it out on my profile page under 'Upcoming Stories'. And don't forget to vote for which one of those I should do first. If you are a guest review, you can say which one I should do. I'll rack up the votes and start writing away while continuing "Learning To Live" at the same time.

P.S.S.S. The two songs in this chapter are Smashing Pumpkins 'Thirty Three' and Whitesnake's 'Is This Love?'.

---

My eyes open up slowly, letting in the light that shone on in through the windows of the guest bedroom. But today, I was waking up really happy! Why, you might ask? Today is my birthday of course! How could I ever forget all about my birthday? My birthday happens to be one of the most important days to me because I was born that day.

I rise up out of bed and place the both of my hands onto the sheets of my bed, making my bed in the process. Once I have moved the sheets upward over the white pillows, I lower to grab the decorative pillow and place it right onto the bed. I then turn around towards the wardrobe, walking briskly to it.

I open up the wardrobe and grab out a pair of shorts and a black t-shirt. I kind of like to be on the basic side of fashion, so it's no wonder Rarity keeps telling me to expand my fashion choices. I'm not going to describe it to you, but I did change from my pyjamas and into my clothes. Kind of thought I'd go into detail about that, didn't you? Nope.

I can hear the sound of knocking on the bedroom door and what I can tell, I already know by the soft tone of the hoof-knocking that is most likely to be Fluttershy. A soft smile comes upon my face and I turn to look at the front door. "Come on in Fluttershy." I said, sounding very bright and welcoming.

I watch the door open up and see Fluttershy trot on into the bedroom. She seems to look very happy as she usually was every morning of a new day. I walk forward towards her, with her approaching me at the same slow speed as I was going. The both of us face one another and I bent down a little. Fluttershy's cyan eyes look straight into my brown eyes and she places her soft and fuzzy hoof onto my hand.

"Good morning Brayden." Fluttershy says with a gentle tone in her voice. "Do you know what day it is today?"

I smile and nod at her. "Yes… I do," I say with a calm and friendly vibe in the sound of my voice. "Today is the day of when I was born."

"Your birthday." She says to me, pretty much giving away the answer that I knew towards me. I nod to her and move my hand that she has her hoof on and I gently take her hoof and hold on it. This is not in a romantic way, but hey, there isn't anything wrong with friends holding hooves… or hands.

"I already have plans for the celebration of my 21st birthday and I want to make it special. Not just for me, for all of my best friends." I said.

Fluttershy blinks for a brief moment and says "What about Twilight? Anything up between you and her tonight?"

"Yes," I said with an image of the plan thought up in my mind. "She'll be attending my birthday party which I'm pretty sure is going to be at the Sugarcube Corner. She told me yesterday after the party that she wanted me to come with her to the library to meet up with her. But of course, I can only spend time with her for a couple of hours. I understand that she has to go to the Crystal Empire to greet some dignitaries that just came in from Maretonia tomorrow afternoon. She'll definitely need some rest for that event."

"Sounds like a really good plan for you and her. You have everything organized." Fluttershy said to me while I rose myself up again to normal height from bending down on my knees.

Fluttershy lets go of my hand and trots towards the open door. "Come on now, breakfast is waiting for you at the table," She says. "You can tell me everything else about what'll be happening at tonight's party."

I follow her out of the bedroom, moving one of my hands back behind me to close the door. The door closes shut, and moves back into a normal hovering stance. I walk faster for a few moments to join up beside Fluttershy while the both of us descended down the stairs. Once downstairs, I walk into the kitchen and take a seat at the table. It was buttered toast and two over-easy eggs on the both of our plates with fresh glasses of milk on the side.

I turned and looked at Fluttershy, putting a small smile onto my face. "You told me that this is one of your favorite foods, so I decided to make it for you." She says to me, with a smile on her face.

"Thank you Fluttershy." I said to her while keeping the smile on my face.

I turn from her and move my right hand forward towards one of the pieces of buttered toast. I grab a hold of it and move the piece towards my saliva-filled mouth. I open up my mouth and in goes the piece of toast. My goodness, it tasted so delicious! Clearly I haven't watched Fluttershy cooking it, but she really does know how to make it.

"Yummy." I complimented to Fluttershy while she was eating away at one of the eggs she was carving up and eating each piece of egg white one by one. "You're so good at cooking this; I really wish I saw you watching how you do it."

Fluttershy's cheeks lit up with pink and fiddled her hooves together, feeling happy about this. "Oh thank you, but I'm not the only one who does this. Angel also helps me out." She tells me. Speaking of which, he's at the moment right now just tapping his little bunny feet on the ground. That alone can tell that he was demanding his food.

I continue to chew a bit on the toast, watching as Fluttershy interacted with her animal friend. She moves towards the fridge and takes out a fresh and crunchy orange carrot. She moves towards Angel, handing him the carrot. He takes a bite of the carrot and seems to be satisfied. Now that business is done with him, I watch Fluttershy trot right back to the chair next to me.

"Sorry about that," She told me, taking her seat back at the table. "You know Angel… once that foot goes stompin', he demands something."

"It's no problem at all." I said to her. I turn towards the last bite of what used to be the fourth and final piece of the buttered warm toast. I take a bite out of it and swallow it down, getting all of the remaining crumbs onto the plate. But that's okay, I'll clean that up when I'm finished with the eggs.

I dig my fork into one of the eggs being careful not to accidentally break the yolk. To me, the yolk has always been the best part. I have always ended up scooping one whole over-easy egg straight into my mouth and just chewing it up from in there. I also didn't want to make a mess on the plate if the yolk got broken. So I think I had a good moment of doing this again. I move the egg straight into my mouth and slide the fork from out of my closed mouth. I chew up the egg inside of my mouth and my mouth remains closed while I am consuming the delicious food. After I am satisfied with it being chewed up long enough, I swallow it down and grab a hold of my drink with my left hand.

I take a quick drink out of the milk and set it right back onto the table. I move my fork in my right hand for another stab at the second egg and pick it up off of the wooden plate. Fluttershy nudges me for a moment, and I turn to look at her. I watch as she picks up her knife and cuts up one of her eggs into the small pieces.

After she finishes, she puts the knife back onto her napkin and looks at me. "It's for your own safety when eating. I don't want you to choke." She says to me, sounding very careful about it.

I nod in understanding and turn back towards the cooked egg, placing it back onto my white plate. I take my knife from the left of the plate and move it towards the egg whites, slicing up the whites and separating them from the egg yolk. The yolk was separate from them and I began to scoop the egg whites inside of my mouth, using my fork to take a hold of them. I gently chew them up inside of my mouth and swallow them down. I place my fork at the bottom of the yolk, letting the fork slide underneath. I take the delicacy off of my plate and my mouth is open slightly when it approaches the lips of my mouth. The cooked yolk goes past my lips and into the mouth. I closed my mouth again, letting the taste of the yolk's cream-like substance fill my mouth. By the time I had finished swallowing that down and drank all of the milk in my cup, I was already finished my morning breakfast.

"That was as usual, delicious." I said, sounding really happy. "Thank you for making this Fluttershy."

"Oh it's no problem," Fluttershy says to me, placing her pale gold hoof onto my right hand. "I'm glad you enjoyed the food. Seeing how you loved having this, it came to me last night while I was sleeping. So I was wondering about your party, I almost forgot to ask if you had any plans for tonight."

The plans? Oh, I had some planned for right down my sleeve. "Tonight, I'll be partying and chatting with everypony that got invitations to my party. There'll be cake and of course… maybe one or two songs from me to sing." I said to her.

"You're going to sing for me and the rest of your friends?" She asked. "I've heard you sing a few times, I would love to hear it again."

"Of course." I said. "One of them is dedicated to that special somepony of mine."

"Twilight?" Fluttershy asks, with a smile on her face and one eyebrow raised. She has been with me a bunch of times to know that I was in a relationship with Twilight. "I'm sure she'll love to hear that song you want to sing to her, but I have a question to ask."

"Yes Fluttershy?" I asked.

Fluttershy kept her smile. "Do you think that you'll end up proposing to her at your b-day party?" She asked.

Well, now that kind of brought the question a bit far there. "Whoa there Fluttershy, I would definitely propose to her… but I need to spend more time with her throughout the days. A proposal doesn't just happen overnight, so I can't risk it." I told her while I was looking into her innocent eyes.

"I see…" She says to me, taking her hoof off of my hand and drawing her eyes off of me and looking shy. "In that case, if you don't mind, I won't ask about it again if that's-"

"Fluttershy." I said to her, scooting closer to her. I move my hand towards her hoof. Her eyes are drawn back towards me and she watches as I take her hoof and gently hold onto it. She looks at me and seemed really regretful for asking that. "I know that marriage to her would be awesome, but maybe we could talk about it when I've spent enough time with her to know that I'm ready to take it to the next step?"

"Oh, okay." She said in the way of it almost sounding like a whisper. "I almost rushed into that side of the conversation."

"Don't worry about it," I said, moving my other hand towards her right cheek. Her eyes stare into my brown eyes and mine stare into hers. "Words always tend to slip out once in a while. But I am keeping that promise that I swore many months ago."

Fluttershy's cheeks begin to light up again and she is smiling. Her eyes are drawn towards my left hand on her right cheek. She briefly looks down at my hand and she seems to look so happy, she was blushing harder than when the few times I saw her do it on the show. Her eyes move right back towards me. "Permission to give you… a birthday hug?" She asks of me.

How could I say no to a birthday hug from my second favorite pony? I take my hands of her cheek and hoof I held onto and opened up my arms, offering the hug. Her smile remains and she moves forward towards me moving the both of her hooves around me, giving me a soft squeeze. I move my arms around her waist and move my head side by side with hers. Her gentle squeeze makes me feel a bit warm, but she feels almost like a blanket that I used to sleep with at night as a child.

"Brayden?" Fluttershy says to me. It sounded like she wanted to tell me something.

"Yes?" I asked.

"I just wanted to let you know that no matter what happens, you're the best friend that I've ever gotten to know. Don't take it too seriously, I already know about the relationship, but just in case you and I are ever far away… don't ever let go of the memory." Her soft voice said to me, and gently nuzzled my left cheek.

"I would never lose any memories, I can remember for a really long time." I said to her, moving my head and looking at her eyes again. "That is because when I lived back on Earth, I imagined that I were in Equestria, you'd be my best friend that I could talk to, get together to do stuff, and this-that…"

"Well, you imagined the right thing," She said to me, "Happy birthday Brayden."

I smile and move my head back onto her left shoulder, continuing to share the hug between me and my best friend. After a few moments, the both of us let go of the hug and just look at each other.

"I do have a present to give to you, but I feel like it should be at your party." Fluttershy said, keeping her smile.

"Of course. According to what Pinkie told me yesterday, the party will start at around 6:45pm just so you know. I'm not sure how many ponies will be there, but so far I can guess that it'll be Twilight, you and the rest of the ponies I have befriended." I said. "But I'll expect some surprise guests to appear if they do."

I scoot my chair backwards back to its normal position, getting up out of the chair. I take the wooden plate and cup off of the table, bringing them both to the sink. I place the two objects into the sink and turn on the faucet, washing off the bits of toast that had come off while I ate. Behind me, I can hear Fluttershy finish the last of her breakfast and get out of her chair. She joins me over at the counter and places her dishes into the sink where I was washing off mine. I had just about finished cleaning the plate and the cup and grabbed onto a towel to dry them off. Once they've been dried off, I move the cup and plate into the cupboard and I'm just about finished.

"I'm going to head out into Ponyville. I will be at the party tonight." I said, walking out of the kitchen and towards the front door.

"Okay, I'll see you there tonight." Fluttershy calls out while she is washing up on what she had finished.

I approach the front door and place my hand onto the golden doorknob, giving it a turn. The door opens up, and I step outdoors, moving and closing the door right behind me. I make my way down the hill that the cottage rested upon and across the stone bridge over the tiny river to descend onto the trail that would lead towards the town.

---

I could see the town of Ponyville coming up in the distance. There were many ponies out throughout the town talking amongst their friends and occasionally walking into the marketplace or one of the houses that they most likely lived in. On the top of the mountainside, I could see the city of Canterlot in the distance resting. I couldn't really see what was happening since I wasn't above it, but I knew that it was probably running busy as usual and both the princesses had to deal with a bunch of ponies trying to interview them about what was going on with Nightmare Moon. But in all due respect, I hope Nightmare Moon is doing okay there.

I cross over another stone bridge that had gentle flowing water underneath, and I set foot onto the town. One thing was on my mind today, I planned to go visit my good friend Rarity first. Well, I don't see why not. She was the first pony that Fluttershy had introduced me to… well, okay it was Discord first and then Rarity. There was that one from Pinkie Pie as well when she first sees me, so I'm guessing that it counts as well.

As usual, the main square bustles with the friendly ponies I know and see every single day. Doctor Whooves is either talking with somepony or he is just walking about to his next stop. Now, please keep this a secret, but I asked him if he had a 'TARDIS' just like in a show that I watched back on Earth. He was really confused and didn't really know what I was talking about, so I just dismissed that quickly. Also, he keeps reminding me every time I say hello to him to just call him Time Turner. Well, that's kind of what I think now that I had been in the brony community for a good amount of time. I can see Derpy Hooves flying in the air, doing her job as she usually does every day as the mail-mare.

I watch the grey pegasus fly downward from the sky towards me, she stumbles about a bit in the air before making a soft landing on all hooves in front of me. "Excuse me," Derpy says with her eyes crossed. "But are you Brayden?"

I nod my head. "That is definitely me." I said.

"Alright, just give me a moment…" She says and reaches into her bag full of mail to deliver. I stand there and wait patiently for Derpy as she searched through the bag. Finally, she pulls out a small wrapped box with her mouth and she hands it to me. "Here it is. It's from Canterlot. Happy birthday by the way."

"Canterlot, you say?" I said, raising an eyebrow in all fun. "I wonder who could have sent me this in the mail. Also, thank you for the birthday wish."

I proceed to unwrap the wrapping and see that it is a dark-blue colored box. If it is with my own eyes that I see, I'm guessing it's either Princess Luna or Nightmare Moon who could have sent whatever was in the box to me. I take off the lid of the box and scavenge through the wrapping inside and I softly gasp with happiness released.

Inside is a mini-figure of the moon standing alone and looking completely like it would look like on all sides of the planetary body. Attached to the lovely figure was a note written down. I pick up the written note and look at it, reading silently.

"To Brayden:

I apologize if this is on any rush to you today, but I felt like it was very important that I sent this letter to you. First off, I want to thank you for helping me free from the evil that had corrupted me and as a token of my gratitude, I want to give you this figure as a sign of friendship. I haven't completely won over both Celestia or Luna's trust here, but I think I will be soon.

I'll be heading to the Crystal Empire tomorrow to meet the dignitaries from Maretopia. It would be an honor if you could attend with Twilight and her friends. Some of the ponies might still fear me, but I'm trying not to let that bother me, so I figured if you come… well, that would be a great help. Got to continue learning my responsibilities as an alicorn, but I wish you a happy birthday.

From, Nightmare Moon"

I smile from the note and place it back into the small box. I put the lid back onto the dark-blue box and look back up at Derpy. Wait a minute… where did Derpy go? Oh well, I can see that she became busy again with delivering mail to everypony's door. I just continue towards the Carousel Boutique that is straight ahead down the road.

I walk towards the Carousel Boutique and knock on the door gently with my right hand. The pink wood on the door echoes my gentle knocking on the door. I move my right hand back down and wait again for Rarity or Sweetie Belle to come and answer the door.

"Coming!" I can hear that squeaky voice call out from behind the door inside. I can hear the sound of small hooves trotting towards the door and by the sound of the hooves and voice. I knew that it was Sweetie Belle going to answer the door. The door opens up and I look down to see her staring up at me with her green eyes.

"Hello Brayden," Sweetie Belle says to me in her happy tone. "Happy birthday."

"Thank you Sweetie Belle." I said to her and I open up an arm, offering a hug to her, even bending down on one knee so I can reach her. She hops onto my knee that is out and wraps both of her small hooves around me. I wrap my arms around her, and both me and the filly share a friendly hug. As usual, the hug lasts for a few moments and then we let go and I bend upward again.

"I trust that you came to visit my sister, right?" Sweetie Belle asks me. I keep my smile on my face and nod in response to her question. "Alright, just give me a few moments. I'll go and call her down." I follow her inside the Carousel Boutique and wait by the stairs. "RARITY! Your friend Brayden is here to see you!" She calls out.

"Coming!" I can hear Rarity's voice sounding off at the top of the stairs and the sound of trotting sounding off at the centre of the staircase. I can see the white unicorn's hooves arrive at the bottom of the stairs and it is by no doubt that Rarity is happy to see me in her presence. "Greetings Brayden." She says to me while approaching me.

"Greetings to you too, Miss Rarity." I said to her, smiling.

"Please Brayden," She said to me with a smile on her face. "You've known me well enough for the last couple of weeks. You can just call me Rarity. Though, I do appreciate the kind manners."

"Of course," I said to her, nodding. "By the way, did you know that-"

"It's your birthday." Rarity interrupted, keeping the smile on her face. "Happy birthday to you, now how old are you becoming dear?"

"I'm approaching the age of twenty-one." I said, knowing how old I was even though the Equestrian calendar seemed to work a little different than how Earth's worked. But essentially I believe that both work in the exact same way.

"Twenty-one you say?" Rarity said, placing her hoof onto my hand. "Well do not fear… for I have created for you the best birthday present using the materials I needed to make it. Come with me upstairs to my inspiration room, it's already there and waiting for you."

Rarity trots around back towards the stairs and I follow along with her. I remember going up these same steps, last time I was doing that was when both Spike and I had to help her and Coco Pommel out with packing some stuff for the Canterlot Fashion show. Hell, I'm even walking the exact same steps I climbed up. At last, we reach the top of the stairs and Rarity approaches a slightly-opened door, pushing it open to its full. I walk past under the door's archway and enter.

The inspiration room looked very clean and there were color designs for the various fashion lines that Rarity would create for each customer. In the centre of the room was a suit designed specifically for a man like me, with the same measurements that Rarity took when I first met her. I approached the suit, amazed by how well-designed it was made and its detail that Rarity dove into filling.

"What do you think Brayden?" She asked me, approaching me. "Is it absolutely perfect, or did I put in a little too much detail?"

"Perfect? Too much detail?" I said in a playful and serious tone in voice. I could hear the worried gulp of Rarity as she feared the worst that I might not have like the gift she made. I finally let out the smile on my face. "Rarity, this gift is amazing. Thank you for the gift."

"You're quite welcome Brayden." She said, relieved that I actually did like it. "It's always for every friend that I make a special suit to fit their birthday needs."

I turn towards my friend and approach her with a smile on my face that I always had when I was happy. I open up my arms, offering a hug to her. "A hug? Of course." She says and with a smile, shared the friendly birthday hug with me.

Once we let go of the hug, I look back towards the suit. "Since tonight's the party at Sugarcube Corner, do you think I could put on the suit for that event?" I asked.

"Of course you can." Rarity said, trotting in front of me. "However, I must ask that you wait for a little while, the party isn't even until around supper time."

"Why wait?" I ask again.

Rarity places her hoof onto my hand again. "I know deep down that you'll want to amaze that 'special somepony' who'll be coming to the party. Surely, you wouldn't want to get it all dirty if you accidentally slipped today." She tells me.

When she had teased a bit of Twilight to me, I let a bit of a blush. "Well, that is true. And please stop teasing me like that, it's starting to get a little embarrassing to me." I tell her, letting out a very happy chuckle to lighten my mood even further.

"I see." Rarity giggled, playing around with me. "Then I suppose you wouldn't mind if you helped me out with something. I'm going up to Sweet Apple Acres to collect a supply of apples that I had placed on order with Applejack and I have to pick them up. Interested in coming along?"

"Of course, I can suspect that Applejack might or might not have a present for me at the moment, but I'll have to find out." I said.

Rarity gallops off and using her magic, grabs a hold of my hand in the process. By how fast she was moving, I'm guessing it must have been a rush hour for her. But of course, she slows down and stops for a moment turning towards me, dispersing her magic that gripped my hand.

"Sorry." She says, with a blush on her face. I smile at her with forgiveness and join up beside her as we trot back down the stairs towards the main floor. "Sweetie Belle, I'm going to Sweet Apple Acres so I'll be back in a little bit. Don't burn any juice while at it!" I hear her call out to her little sister. The mention of Sweetie Belle burning juice put a smile on my face because I remember that episode like it was no tomorrow and it happened to be one of my favorite Sweetie Belle episodes next to when she is visited by Princess Luna in her dream.

I follow Rarity towards the door and walk outside, waiting for her to come with me. She turns and closes the door behind her, catching up with me. I start walking again next to her, and the walk starts going by without a talk from us, so it must be one of those days where it'll be just a peaceful walk down the trail to Sweet Apple Acres. Rarity told me that when she wasn't sewing up something fantastic for a customer/friend or attending something with a friend, this was one of her hobbies: going on a peaceful walk through Ponyville or down the trails to view nature. Come on Rarity, didn't you once say that you despised camping and nature, hm?

I can see the birds chirping in the air, forming a melody that sounded absolutely beautiful to my ears. But of course, it reminds me that every time I have tried to befriend a bird on Earth, they'd just fly away to another tree. A few of the birds fly their way towards the dirt ground with their small clawed feet touching the soil. They peck around at a few spots and observe the ground closely. One of them pecks into the natural earth and out of the ground and into its mouth is a worm. The wings of the cardinal begin to spread and lift its body into the air. I watch the path of the winged animal fly towards a nest it lived in and stood there, moving its head a bit in studying. Once both me and Rarity walked underneath the tree, I knew exactly what that sound was. The cardinal was a mother feeding her off-spring.

I continued to look ahead down the trail that led to Sweet Apple Acres, and many of nature's wildlife was wandering about in peace, gathering their food to store and give to their off-spring, or most likely eat them. Circle of life, remember? All part of the food chain.

It all comes flowing right back to me when the memory lane kicks inside. I find myself continuing to walk with Rarity, but find myself going into a sequence. It was another flashback.

---

Earth, October 1999

I was a six year old again, in the first grade of Elementary school. From what I could remember, it was the beginning of another school day and I found myself rushing out of the door with the other kids with the sun high upon in the sky with a couple of clouds. It was just about recess time again on a bright and busy Wednesday.

If anypony had known me when I was young, I was very energetic and really loved to talk a lot. It's not quite like my friend Pinkie Pie, so I'm not even as close to a fast-talker as her. This was when my autism was at full-effect and wasn't aware that I was diagnosed with it, or what I called it as "PDD-NOS". But at the same time, besides being friendly… I wasn't exactly what the ponies would think I was as a young kid.

Images flowed back and forth, veiling the memories further before me. I wasn't exactly the most friendly out of all the kids in my school. I was forced to watch and hear my very voice and the events that were placed before me, showing how demanding I was and how I tried to lie my way out telling the truth, but giving in at the end.

I found myself acting like Sunset Shimmer, but at the time: I wasn't aware that the show existed. The only evidence to help me prove that MLP was there were the commercials for new plushies or toys from the older Generation, or to the bronies around that time as Generation 3. But it wasn't until I was around ten years old when I became aware of that generation. But that was not of the matter to me anyway, for I would hate on that generation as a kid. But besides that, I was a curious one indeed.

I find myself walking forward and looking about on the school grounds and watching all of the little kids playing amongst their friends, whether it's sharing their toys, pretending there was a Pokemon battle and just running about with a game of tag. Most girls were different though at the school, they were mostly occupied with Barbies and talking amongst each other about girl stuff and what they did.

I could hear the sound of bullies coming up and I slip towards the wall, hiding behind it while the three of them walked past me. I had some bad stuff going on with those three, but what was worse… one of them was in my class. The three of them would tease me in the hall, saying how stupid I was and how I'll never be able to get to be popular as them. The insults were being forced down my throat and I would cry about it in the hall while every single one of them laughed and mimicked me. I was definitely not up for that today.

Once the bullies have passed, I slip past the wall and continue to the other side of the school. The grand willow tree is standing there like it always had been, breathing out life from its leave that hung low from above and a few kids stood by the large trunk. Apparently they were hitting it with stick, pretending that it was like a mining tree because at this time, Runescape had just about become popular. I approach the kids, determined to get them to stop because I worried about the tree.

"Hey!" I shouted out to grab both the two young boys and girl's attention. All three of them stopped what they were doing and turned to look at me. The two boys looked like they were in the third and fifth grades with the girl in the third. "Don't hit the tree, I think you might be hurting it!"

"Hurting it?" The young boy with blonde hair said with his stick lowered to his legs. "We're not trying to hurt it, we're playing with it. The tree can't talk, and if it did we would stop."

I wasn't up to fighting with the three of them, but at the same time I didn't want to fight and hit the girl. That would be too frightful for me to hit a girl, and I already knew how scary the vice principal would get if a fight did break out. I'd be in big trouble with my parents. I just walk past the tree as the three of them continue to hit the great willow with their sticks, big or small.

I could see the playground and the accompanied kids playing on it. They were climbing on the monkey bars to cross to the other side, others were sliding down the iron slide and reaching the bottom. A few of the others stood on the sands: waiting for their turn to walk upon the wooden architecture. Judging by only the very few friends that I had in my youth, I didn't really play along with anyone. I just usually liked to let my imagination flow and journey about the school yards pretending to be in another world. So basically besides being very talkative, I could also be a little shy.

I have no time for the playground though and I wasn't really much into that stuff. I walk past the playground onto the wooden bridge that the dry ravine separated the soccer field and the school yard. I place my arms onto the rail of the bridge and stand there, watching the kids on the field playing around on the fields with a soccer ball. I already knew that they were having a great time amongst themselves, but what about me? Nobody seemed to ask me to join them in their games or the topic that they were interested in. If only I would fit in with them one day, If only they'd notice me again as someone great and not a person to push aside.

My attention is drawn away from the games people play and onto the forest at the end of the field.I take my arms off of the railing and turn towards the forest, I find myself walking across the field for how far my little legs could go. At this point, you'd be concerned about me because I was not well protected without a teacher to keep watch over the safety of me. I make my way towards the branches of the tall trees that cover the entrance of the forest and pass by them, into nature's territory. The sounds of kids talking loudly and shouting all fade down a bit when I enter.

The sun shed out some light in the forest, letting me see what was there inside amongst the dirt trail and a couple of the dead leaves scattered throughout. With the faint ambience of kids in the distance, I can hear the sounds of birds and soft gentle wind. A few squirrels are in front of me, looking about the forest floor trying to find acorns for the winter. It was at this time when I just wanted to play with them. A smile brightens up on my innocent face and I walk towards them with a hand open to see if they would hop onto me. The squirrels scurry away from me while on approach.

My curious mind wasn't going to let me down on this, I began to follow one of the squirrels down the small hill, trying to not bump my head on one of the tree trunks. I was like a puppy dog at this point, or you could say… a police dog searching for drugs. The black squirrel silently looks at me every step I make and each time I got closer, the squirrel scurried further. I had followed the squirrel in the forest for a small amount of time, but I could still hear the sounds of the school children shouting. I was by one of the biggest spruce trees that I have ever seen in my entire youth. I'm not even sure if that tree is still standing but it was beautiful amongst the grand willow at the school. The squirrel itself latches onto the tree and climbs all the way to the top. It would be impossible for my young hands to reach up and grab the branches, so I was trying to reach for the squirrel.

There was something different about that squirrel though… it seemed to look afraid. It confused me because I thought animals didn't have any emotions whatsoever and that we humans were the only ones capable of showing emotions on our faces. If the furred animal had feelings right now, it would probably show on its face rather than in a different way that was hard for me to comprehend.

Huff… Huff…

I could hear the sound of deep breathing behind me. I stopped focusing on the squirrel and slowly began to turn my head around, trying not to make any sudden movements. My goodness, I have never been so scared in my entire life.

Across from me just a couple of feet away were a large brown wild grizzly bear. It's huffing out and letting a bit of its mouth open to release the air into the autumn cool. It was hungry and it smelt me out as food, its lunch. My tiny breathing goes from a relaxed and I almost sound like I am hyperventilating. I was in a panic, helpless without someone watching me and one dangerous animal that looked quite angry. That is when I begin to run.

I start to run upward towards the hill with sound of the grizzly roaring right behind me, it was starting to give chase. My legs tripped and faltered through many stones and sticks that lay on the ground, but I was in no way going to make this bear eat me. I begin to speed up forward, accelerating full speed into a sprint. I could feel the adrenaline pouring through me and the bear was starting to go faster. That is when I remember the very words of a teacher. Never try to outrun the bear, in the end it will always outrun you.

I take a turn towards my left and run towards the top of the hill into the school yards again. I was literally screaming at the top of my lungs now, frightened and traumatized by the way the grizzly was taking pursue. But it did not stop the wild beast from coming for me. The bear tore through the trees and roared at me, continuing the chase. Most of the children take notice of the bear and all of them look as frightened as ever, screaming as they start to run indoors for the safety inside provided.

I was running towards the bridge, passing by a few of the older grade 5 kids that were just praying that they wouldn't get eaten alive. I look behind me as I run forward; the bear still charges towards me from a distance. It might be trying to trap me under there so it could be easier to attack. I run past a brown-haired girl and down the empty, dry and small ravine, crawling underneath the concrete bridge. Most of the kids had gone indoors, so I was pretty much left helpless while crawling back in a panicked breathing.

The bear charged towards the bridge and roars at me. I can see it trying to crawl under and scratch at me with its claws, but I was surrounded and starting to cry for help. I really wanted my mom to come and help me out. "MOMMY, HELP!" I was crying out in the hopes of finding safety and being rescued by her, but to no avail.

The bear continued to roar at me from the outside of the bridge and I was covering my ears, seeing how sensitive my small ears were at the time. I continued to cry and the only sounds were the bear roaring, my cries for help and the ambience of autumn wind blowing in the air. "Please Mama! Anybody!" I cry out again, hoping anyone could hear me. "I WISH MY MAMA WAS HERE RIGHT NOW!" I just lie there under the concrete above me and close my eyes, waiting for the end.

There is a flash of light that shines brightly in the sky and this grabs the attention of the bear. I open up my eyes after those few moments and look at the bear and the lights that shone, even though it wasn't in my view.

"Leave that boy alone!" I could hear a mother-like voice shouting out towards the fierce creature.

The bear just roars at the bright light that shines in its eyes. For me, I'm still unable to decipher who that bright light was. I can hear the sound of a powerful aura and the light starts to get brighter to the point that I have to cover my eyes. I didn't want to go blind.

The light dies down after a few moments and the grizzly bear charges off as scared as a school girl when told a scary story. I hear the sound of the bright light's source land and walk towards the corner of the bridge. "Brayden… you can come out, it's going to be okay."

"Are… are you an angel?" I called out from under the bridge. My tears still ran down from my eyes and down the corners of my cheeks.

"You have no need to be afraid of me," The voice spoke in a gentle and calm voice. "Come to me, I will not hurt you. The bear will not hurt you… he is gone."

I find myself crawling forward again towards the end of the bridge to see who that 'angel' is. I have no idea how in the world she knew my name, I was determined to find out though. But while I am doing this, everything goes to white and the memory cuts off, bringing me back into reality.

---

"Brayden?" I can hear Rarity saying while she is trying to snap me out of my flashback trance. "Brayden dear, are you alright?"

I shake my head to get rid of the last of the flashback juices off of me. I turn towards Rarity and look at her concerned and worried face. "Yeah… I'm fine." I tell her, sounding a bit tired.

"You seemed to be quite out of it while we were walking and I wondered what was wrong, are you sure?" Rarity asks me, gently taking my hand with her hoof.

I couldn't just tell a lie to the element of Generosity, my friend. "It was a flashback back to my childhood that I was experiencing while I lived on Earth. Whatever I witness or experience is something that I will always remember." I said to her.

"You are still troubled by your childhood?" She asks.

I shake my head. "This flashback… it was me when I was six years old… so it wasn't exactly me while I was in high school. But this flashback was a bit traumatizing to me." I said. I dared not to mention the 'angel', because this would cause Rarity to question about who it could be.

"Well do not worry about what happens. Whatever's in the past stays in the past, you know?" Rarity says to me. "Let's keep going, I'm not even sure if Applejack has a birthday gift for you at the farm, but we're about to find out."

I nodded my head and continued forward down the trail with Rarity. I kept that flashback behind me, I really needed to move forward and not reflect back on what was once there, I needed to focus on what was going on today with me in Equestria.

Sweet Apple Acres appears in the distance and both me and Rarity go underneath the wooden arch and sign of the apple and enter onto the property of Applejack and her family. I didn't really see Granny Smith outside of the farmhouse, sleeping away on her rocking chair. My guess is that she might have been inside, preparing something from the kitchen with Big Macintosh or any other member in the household.

Now I recognized that same hammock tied between the two strong trunks of apple trees and that good gamboge friend of mine, just lying there with her Stetson hat off and her eyes closed. I walk up to her with Rarity right behind me, waiting. I tap onto Applejack's shoulder to grab her attention.

The earth pony's mouth opens and she lets out a yawn. I'm not even sure how long the nap was for her, but it seemed to be a bit of time. Her eyes open up, looking up upon me. "Oh, hello Brayden." Applejack said while still waking up. "As ah'm aware, it's yer birthday today, right sugarcube?"

"Yes, it is." I said to her, finally remembering about Rarity's order she had to pick up. "And I and Rarity also came here because Rarity made an order for some apples that she had to come and receive."

"Oh yeah!" Applejack says. "Ah'll go right now and get the order for her right now." I watch as her two back legs touch the ground of the soil and her front hoof getting her Stetson hat back onto the top of her head. This was probably one of those rare occasions that I don't see Applejack with her hat. She trots past me with a smile and heads towards the barn to get the order.

"Brayden?" Rarity asks, tapping my shoulder with her hoof. I turn towards her and look in her azure eyes. "I was starting to wonder now, what is in that box that you are carrying with you? Was it a gift from somepony?"

I turn to look at the box in my hand. "Why yes, it's a gift. Nightmare Moon sent it to me in the mail and it's a figure of the moon that she must have made." I say, with a smile upon my face.

"Nightmare Moon sent it to you?" She said. "After you removed every evil from her, she must be changing into something good after all."

"I didn't want to kill her. There was something inside of me that told me not to kill, and I'm keeping that promise not to bring death upon anypony no matter how angry or disappointed I am with them, I will always forgive them even if they did the smallest to biggest mistake." I said. "It's all part of who I am as a human being."

"Oh." Rarity just said, watching me open up the box and take out the figure to her. Rarity looks at the gift, by the looks on her face she seems to admire the way that it looked. "My, Nightmare gave you such a fabulous gift."

"Well, she must have known that night-time is one of my favorite times, I still love the day-time. Mostly I prefer the night-time because of parties and moonlit walks on the beach." I said, before lowering my head. "I already miss home already."

"Awww, you're feeling a bit homesick." Rarity says, taking my hand. "After the busy few days have passed, you could ask Twilight about going back to your world. But while you're at it, can I and the rest of your friends come along with you to see it?"

"I'm still in thought about bringing you and the girls to Earth but I need to give you a bit of a warning, it'll be very dangerous." I said with tone of warning in my voice. "There are humans who will despise you by the way you look, obsessive bronies that will try to do the unspeakable to you, more obsessed than I am and the anti-bronies that will try to kill you. Worse, scientists will maybe kidnap you for their research. But as long as I keep you girls somewhere, I will protect all of you from harm. If anything else goes wrong, we'll always end up transporting back here to Equestria."

"A really good plan you made there Brayden." Rarity said, taking her hoof off of my hand. "Would you happen to know any places that you stay at?"

"Well, there is my house on the street I live in, but the neighbours wouldn't take too kindly of seeing that you're real." I said, thinking of the other alternative. "But there is one safe place, I own a cottage down by a beachside and it's really beautiful. Nobody there will see you since my cottage are private property. Plus you might get some inspiration during the visit. I suspect a 2 to 3 day visit… I'm not really sure."

"Ah'm back!" I heard Applejack call out, on her back she is carrying a basket of apples that were of the order for Rarity. "What were ya two talkin' about there?"

Rarity trots forward when Applejack takes the basket of apples off of her back and hands them to her. "Brayden was feeling a little homesick and feels like he should go back to Earth for a few days visit with us." She says.

"A visit to yer world?" Applejack says with a chuckle coming from her. "Surely there must be loads of apple trees down in the country if ya are livin' around there."

"Well, there are two places. The country side is up at the cottage I sometimes go to when I need to have summer vacation. The other, I really don't think is a good idea." I said.

"Well, Ah'm interested in goin' with ya and the rest of mah friends. Let me know when yer going." Applejack says.

I raise two hands forward to stop the questions. "Trying not to rush things through, but I am still thinking about it, and that'll definitely be something to ask Twilight." I said.

"Alrightie partner, if ya'll say so." She said with her southern accent. "Oh, Ah almost forgot, happy birthday to ya."

"Thank you Applejack." I said, opening up a bit of my arms to offer a birthday hug to her. She moves forward, closer towards me and moves her two gamboge hooves around me. I gently move my arms around her neck and give it a gentle, friendly squeeze. I didn't want to squeeze too hard. As usual, each hug lasts for a few moments. After a few moments, me and her let go of the hug. "I trust you might have a present ready for me?"

"Ya bet Ah have a present just for you sugarcube," Applejack says to me, putting that same proud smile onto her face. "Ya have to wait though, it's still in the making."

I stepped a bit forward, letting my excitement get to me. "Can I at least have a quick peek?" I begged in my voice with puppy dogs eyes which I was terrible at anyway.

"No can do sugarcube. Ah already told ya that it's still in the makin'. Now git birthday boy, Ah have to finish it for tonight and Ah know you love surprises." She says, trotting back towards the farmhouse. "Ah already know Rarity has something planned."

"You're right there Applejack, he needs to get ready for tonight." Rarity says, sharing a smile at me. "Come along Brayden, we have to get back to the Carousel Boutique. I know that Sweetie Belle will provide you with a lunch, considering that she didn't burn it like last time."

"I haven't tasted her cooking yet, so I don't really know yet." I said, beginning walk alongside Rarity again.

"Oh!" Rarity realized and handed me the basket of apples. "Do me a favor and help me carry this basket of apples, will you?"

I nod in accepting the favor and take the handle of the basket by my left hand. In my right hand, I'm still holding onto the gift that Nightmare gave to me. The both of us start the nature walk back towards Ponyville. I had to prepare for tonight.

---

Princess Luna's POV

Canterlot, 2:00pm

"Sister, the party for our good friend Brayden will be starting soon. We should prepare ourselves for a surprise visit down in Ponyville." I could hear my older sister Celestia say to me. The both of us are looking right the new-stained glass picture of Brayden himself defeating Nightmare Moon and redeeming her for the good of Equestria.

I take a look at Celestia and her magenta eyes are focused up onto the window with a smile on her face. Her mane flowed gently in the silent air along with my own. "A surprise visit to Brayden? Are you sure about this?" I said to her, watching as she turned to look at me. "I usually visit Brayden in his dreams on an occasion, so I'm really not sure about that. He just saved Equestria a couple of days ago."

"There is something about Brayden that I have never thought I'd realize again." She says to me.

This raised an eyebrow on my face. "What do you mean sister? I haven't heard about Brayden until the very month he arrived, so what do you know?" I asked.

"That subject is something that I will discuss with you another time. You wouldn't understand why Brayden is important." Celestia said. "Now we get ready, the party is in a few hours."

"If you say so." I said, lowering my head. I finally turn towards the throne room doors to leave, but turn back towards my sister. "First, I have to finish studying up on something that I found in the star-tower. Do you have any presents to give him?"

"Yes Luna. I already know that Nightmare Moon has sent off a package to him to wish him a happy birthday." She says. "You could say that it's also a thank you to him."

"I already have something planned for him, why wouldn't I give him anything?" I said to her, smiling and thinking about him. "It's in the star-tower with me, where I am already doing research."

"Research?" Celestia asked with curiosity in her voice. "What kind of research are you up to this time?"

I looked into my sister's eyes from across the room. "Remember when Brayden was attacked by timberwolves? Well, his blood was spilt onto the floor of the Everfree Forest. I was just lucky enough to have gathered the rest of the blood that was left over from the accident." I told her.

"Alright then, do what you must to finish the research on it, but please hurry. You know Brayden loves surprise visits, and this is our first to him." Celestia says to me. I smile and nod, walking towards the double doors. "Oh, don't forget about tomorrow, the dignitaries visiting the Crystal Empire."

"Of course." I said, igniting the magic on my horn. The double doors light up with my magic and open up, allowing me into the castle hall. Past the arch of the doors, I close them right behind me. I begin to walk down the halls, seeing the occasional changing of the guard outside of the windows to help guard the castle, keeping us safe. I make my way to the other side of the hall where my star-tower was located.

I push open the doors with my hoof and spread open my wings, making flight towards the top of the stairs. The tower reflects the power of the stars and moon that shine brightly on the wall, to make the climber seem like they were already in space, viewing the galaxy from another point of view other than Earth itself. My four hooves land onto the top of the stairs towards the door of my private chamber. I ignite my horn and watch the two doors open up.

I trot forward into the chamber and take a look into the room. The science experiment stood alone on a table across the far side of the room, with my bed on the left side and bookshelf on the right full of information that nopony has seen before. I dare not to open those books though, for they contain powers too great for me to unlock.

Approaching the science table, I focus on the vial filled with Brayden's own blood. Last time when I had collected it, it was all dirty from the poison that timberwolf leader had. I had to clean out the blood with a special spell and it took almost nearly an hour to get rid of all the poison bacteria in the liquid. But now, seeing that the blood was still intact, it was time to get back to work on breaking a mystery to what would happen if the human's blood was mixed with other blood from Equine races.

I reach into the small vial shelf and go for the first vial, "Earth pony". I move the vial upward onto the small holder close to the vial of Brayden's blood. I go right here with an eyedropper and take a sample of earth pony blood, taking that small drip of equine blood into the red liquid.

Nothing happened, and it didn't seem to affect the colour of Brayden's blood in any way possible. It remained the same. No change done whatsoever.

I take the whole section of the Equine blood vials, placing them onto the table. Using my magic, I take another sample from Pegasi blood and take an eyedropper for a sample. I do exactly what I did with the blood of an earth pony, dropping it into the human's blood.

I start to notice a bit of change in the colour of the human's blood when the Pegasi's blood hits, mixing with the human and earth pony blood combined. This starts to grow a little more curiosity inside of me, I felt a little closer to finding out something about my good friend.

I take another sample of unicorn blood with the same eyedropper and place it with the combination. I can see the human's blood start to get lighter in its colour. The blood started to grow out tiny bits of magic inside and indeed intrigued my curiosity. There was something left I needed to place in if this was to find out something.

Before I was banished to the moon under the will of Nightmare, I managed to extract some blood filled with a tiny bit of Celestia's DNA. The vial of her blood sits next to the vial of unicorn blood and I can see the bits of light that reflected off of the glass. I place the eyedropper into for a tiny drip of her blood, still fresh even after a thousand years of banishment. I move it over the top of the human blood vial, already a lighter red from the other I placed in and watch as the drop falls into the blood.

I sit there and watch with amazement as all five blood starts to race about inside of the vial, compressing themselves together. My mouth is gaped wide open while I watch this occur and I start to trot backwards, thinking that vial would explode from all this. My breathing has intensified.

The blood turns into a completely different colour and slowly stops its transformation. I stumble forward again to make sure it wasn't a trap I made for myself and pick up the vial, using my magic to scan. I analyzed the matching of the blood cells with the magic within and after a few moments, I seize the magic analysis and place it back onto the table. I turn towards the doors and sound off for one of the Canterlot guards.

One of the guards with golden armor came up the stairs upon my call, stopping at the top of the stairs to catch his breath. "What is it Princess Luna? Trouble?" The guard asked, worried.

"Go and find my sister, bring her here. She has to see what I have just found." I said with a bit of desperation in my voice.

The guard nods and starts galloping down the stairs to notify my sister of what was happening. I turn back towards the vial sitting on the table.

I had just found a completely new discovery about Brayden.

---

Brayden's POV

Ponyville, 6:45pm

It's a clear sunset over the town of Ponyville and the stars are slowly coming into view, one at a time. I am walking along the streets of Ponyville, and I'm wearing the birthday suit that Rarity had given to me as a present made specifically for me. By the ambience of Ponyville this evening, I could tell that this was probably going to be a relaxing, quiet walk to the Sugarcube Corner.

Rarity had to leave early, just a couple of minutes before I left the Carousel Boutique. To my guess, she left that early because she was probably waiting for me at the Sugarcube Corner, waiting with the rest of my friends to surprise me. That… I already knew.

A couple of ponies were outside, talking amongst themselves and a few just heading home to attend to dinner. Bon Bon is outside with Minuette, chatting with her all about her life as of what was going on with her and news from the rest of Equestria. Of course, as usual: Minuette is talking all about the patients that she helps out at the dental office.

On the eastern side of the horizon, I could see the moon slowly starting to rise up into the night sky. From the shape that the moon was giving off, it would be a crescent moon right at that moment. On the other side to the west, the sun was out of view, but I could still see the light it gave off slowly fading to make way for tonight.

Sugarcube Corner was just around the corner. I scan my eyes around the large building and the windows. The entire building seems to be closed and the lights were all out. "Wait a moment, this is a surprise they're trying to pull, right?" I thought to myself. I walk forward, walking up on the wooden-mini-steps and pushing open the swinging doors into the Sugarcube Corner.

I looked around the room, all seemed to be very dark and it was hard to see what was happening inside the shop when all of the lights were out. The only light that happened to be surfacing was oncoming lantern lights in the streets that lit up a few wooden bits of the floor through the window and the entrance. I take a few steps closer and continue to look about.

"Hello?" I call out, hoping that somepony in the building will answer. There's nothing but silence in the darkness. I waited for a few moments and then shrugged, thinking "Well, I don't think everypony got here yet, I'll just find the light switch and brighten the room."

I find the switch over by the stairs and move my hand over to the small, lever-shape switch. My index finger raises the lever and the lights are turned right on, but I wasn't expecting the group of ponies at a nearby table with a birthday cake and gifts on it. I was no doubt surprised within those few milliseconds.

"SURPRISE!" The whole group of ponies shouted at the top of their lungs. Pinkie's definitely sounded the loudest of them all. "Happy birthday Brayden!"

A smile lights up on my face. All of my friends are there and I can already see who it was: my special somepony Twilight, my best friend Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Coco Pommel and Spike. Pretty much the ponies I knew and befriended were there.

Pinkie Pie zooms right over, feeling as energetic as ever. "Hello birthday boy!" She says with the highest happiness that I've ever seen coming from her. "Were you surprised? You totally came in here and were like 'Nopony's here' but then you turned on the light and saw us!"

"Pinkie… that was one of the best birthday party surprises." I said to her, and opened up my arms to offer her a birthday hug. I really need to also rename this day, 'Birthday Hug Day' since I feel like I am giving everypony a hug each time they wish me a happy birthday. Pinkie places her hooves around me and shares the hug with me, giving me a huge squeeze. "Cannot- breath- Pinkie!" I struggled out while she was squeezing me a little too hard.

She finally let go of me and she is smiling. "All of us have a lot of fun stuff that we planned out for tonight and it's going to be super-funtastic!" She says while she is bouncing up and down.

"Ya do realize that isn't a real word Pinkie." Applejack says from the table listening in on the conversation between me and my excited party-planning friend. Pinkie just has a smile on her face and looking at me, most likely to not really care what Applejack just told her.

I walk with Pinkie over towards the table where the rest of my friends were. All of them were wearing party hats which did amuse me since I remember in the episode "Daring Don't", Pinkie threw a random hat day over at Twilight's treehouse. Applejack of course, continues to wear her Stetson-like cowboy hat. That's AJ for you.

"It's good to see that all of you are here to celebrate the occasion with me." I said, taking a seat at the table between Twilight and Coco. "But now I'm really starting to wonder who sent out the invitations."

"Oh that was me!" Pinkie says, raising her hoof and taking her seat. "I knew that it was going to be your birthday today and decided that I would in a few days advance to send them out with a melody to sing that it's a very special birthday to you!"

"Thank you Pinkie Pie." I said, turning back to all of my friends. "As I now want to say, today marked the twenty first year since I was born. It is such a great honor to be surrounded by friends on this wonderful occasion. But what matters most is that this is time to celebrate."

Twilight's hoof moved closer towards my hand and her warm hoof takes it. I move my fingers to gently grip onto Twilight's hoof, holding it. I turn my head towards Twilight and the both of us share a smile at each other. I stare at my special somepony for a few moments, and then I turn back to face the rest of my friends. "I can promise to all of you that we shall make this party that all of us shall remember in our lifetime, even if it doesn't end up that way." I finished off my very short speech, and the party began to commence.

Twilight gets up out of the chair and approaches me while I sat on my chair. Her wings open up slowly and she hops up onto my lap. She takes a seat on my legs, wrapping her two mulberry coloured wings around my waist and her hooves softly moving around my neck. I can see her sparkling violet eyes staring into my brown eyes. Her smile seems at peace and gives off a romantic essence to it. Both me and Twilight move our heads forward towards each other and both of our lips meet. I close my eyes and begin to share the tender kiss with her. After a few moments, the both of us release ourselves from the kiss and begin to just gaze into each other's eyes, feeling lost in the world of love.

"Happy birthday Brayden." Twilight flirts to me in a mixture of sounding happy and tired both at the same time. I already knew she didn't look tired from the looks of it, so I wasn't really concerned if she was getting enough sleep so she was healthy. It would bring me much worry if she hadn't slept for days, I would then get worried about her. I smile at her flirt and gently move my head forward, placing my forehead gently with her forehead. A blush lights up on her mulberry colored face and I am smiling at her. Inside, I can hear the sound of my own heart fluttering from the excitement. Twilight lays out a happy and soft sigh and she brushes her head past me. She is gently nuzzling the side of my left cheek and I softly begin to move my head alongside hers. My body began to feel very comfortable and relaxed. My arms go around Twilight and one of my hands; particularly my right hand is gently stroking her silky mane. From the side of her face, I hear the sound of her breathing, sounding calm and at a normal rate.

Deep feelings progress and sway between the both of us and she eventually stops nuzzling against my cheek and just gazes into the empty black pupils in my eyes. I'm gazing at her and gently releasing a loving smile at her and gently giving her back a gentle stroke to keep her happy and safe in my presence.

"I have a gift just for you." Twilight says to me. "I left it at home though, but when the party is coming to an end, I'll take you back to the library and I'll give it to you." The way that she had said it almost sounded like a flirt. My cheeks light up and I'm smiling at her.

"Is it an item… or is it something more?" I asked, curious about what Twilight wanted to give me as a special present. Would it be a box of chocolates? A portrait with me and Twilight? The way that she said it seemed to be a mystery.

Twilight softly places her hoof onto my mouth. "It's something that I want to offer to you for tonight, but it will always be there if you want." She said. "Let's save it for later now, shall we?"

"Of course." I said, giving Twilight's gentle mane one final stroke before I allowed her to get off of me. Her wings retract from around me and her two front hooves slide out from around my neck, allowing her to go back on all four hooves again. I hear the sound of all her hooves placed back onto the wooden planks and she turns to smile at me.

"Come on Twilight!" Rainbow Dash shouted with excitement, ruining an ending to a perfect moment between me and her. "Enough with the kiss-kiss stuff, we should let Brayden open up his gifts and see what he got for his birthday!"

Rainbow Dash was literally pulling the back of my chair away from her. I could hear the sounds of the scooting chair being pulled back and me still sitting on it. I turn around to my friend Rainbow while she is doing this. By the time she has stopped, I've already place over at the other end of the round table. "Now, seeing that you're the man of the party, which present will you pick first?" Rainbow Dash says to me, patting me on the back.

I take a look at the differently wrapped presents. All of them were one gift with the same kind of color wrapping paper as the coats of my friends. The bows wrapped at the top of the presents were in the tone of their mane color. I move my hand from below the table and form it to make it the index finger pointing out. The first gift that I point out for opening is Coco Pommel's.

I use both of my hands and move the cream-coloured gift away from the rest of the other gifts waiting to be opened. I begin to tear out at the wrapping paper that did me a bit of trouble first to get open, but I eventually opened it up. Out of the wrapping paper were a box and my left hand grips onto the bottom while my hand moves to the top to take off the top, revealing the gift. Inside the box was a wool lavender knitted sweater fit with the right requirements for me to wear it. I take it out of the box and slide it onto me. It felt really warm and soft. A smile lights up on my face. I turn towards my right, seeing Coco trot forward towards me.

"What did you think of my gift Brayden?" Coco asks in her soft-spoken voice. "Do you like it? I made it just for you."

I place my hand onto Coco's shoulder and look into her eyes. "I'm not sure how you knitted something this gracefully soft, but thank you so much." I say to her and I sounded really happy. I take my hand off of her shoulder and turn back towards the table taking off the sweater and placing it back into the box for some time later in the fall. "Now, which gift should I open up next?"

"Oh! Oh! Do mine next! I've got an exciting present for you!" Pinkie Pie jumping up and down off the ground and raising a hoof, reluctant as a young school kid getting dessert for supper.

I chuckle at my friend and say "Alright Pinkie, I'll pick your gift next." Pinkie lets out a squee and pushes her gift towards me. Already wanting to see the gift, I pick the wrapped gift up with my hands. I take off the wrapping and I let out a soft and happy gasp.

I move my hands into the box and take a look at the object that I am carrying. It's a gold-coloured capo meant for creating more beautiful sounds to my acoustic or electric guitar. "Pinkie, I've been looking for a capo for a very long time! How did you manage to find this?" I said, sounding really eager to know where she got this accessory.

"Well, let's see… while I was trotting home from helping out at a filly's birthday party, I noticed that the nearby guitar shop was closing for the night in a couple of minutes so I went right in and asked if there was anything that I could give to you. I was going to go for new and fresh guitar strings but I wasn't really sure if you wanted them immediately, so I found the capo at the last second and bought it with my own bits. It was really cheap! Then I got home and Gummy helped me out in wrapping it." Pinkie Pie said, sounding really energetic and hopping over to me as she explained everything.

I smile at her and give my happy, smiling friend a hug. "Thank you." I said to her during the hug between me and her. The both of us hug for a few moments and then we let go. I turn back towards the rest of my gifts, picking out the next one to open.

I had got some neat presents from the rest of my friends. Applejack had given me a classic watch just so I could know what time it was in Equestria, the most awesome thing about it was: It was able to adjust itself to a different time zone wherever I went. For my dragon friend Spike, he had given me a very special shining diamond. How'd he know that I liked diamonds? Let's just say that it was a computer sandbox game back on Earth that got me into them. I might need to keep this diamond from Rarity's grasp though, she'll probably try to take it from me with her begging and pleading. Rainbow Dash, gave me a copy of Daring Do and the Ring of Destiny seeing how I know that she is as big a fan of Daring Do as Twilight. Hell, I'm also real surprised to see that Rainbow Dash made it onto the front cover of the book and she wanted to tell me all about her experience with Daring Do, but I told her I saw the episode so I already knew about it.

I turn towards the last gift on the table. It was Fluttershy's gift to me. I already know Twilight has her gift for me back at the treehouse and Rarity already gave me her present. I take the small present in my hands and remove the wrapping off of the box. I take off the top of the box and look inside the leather box.

Inside the box was a wooden bird-shaped whistle that I blow in from the top to call out some birds and see them. I look towards my best friend and her soft hoof is placed onto my hand. She is smiling right at me with a trustful look.

"This is no ordinary whistle Brayden, it's one of my special ones that I give to friends in case they run into trouble. If there is ever a moment in your lifetime where you are lost or are being attacked, you just blow the whistle. The birds will see what's happening and come tell me. We'll come to help you out if that happens." Fluttershy says to me.

"Aw, thank you Fluttershy." I said. "I'm glad you and your friends do look out for each other. Thank you again for looking out for me."

"You're quite welcome Brayden." She said to me, and took her hoof off of my hand.

I turned to face the rest of my friends again; all of them had smiles on their faces. "Now before we get into the cake and dinner, I want to sing two songs for all of you." I said, sounding very dedicated to singing these two songs for my friends. But there was one song I was saving for Twilight. "Now, before I start singing, I think I should go get my guitars-"

"Um, no need to do that Brayden." Fluttershy said to me. "I already brought the guitars since I believe you told me that you were going to sing."

"Oh, thank you again Fluttershy." I said, moving my hand forward and patting her on the head gently. Her cheeks light up after I move my hand away from the top of her head.

I move towards the other side when they usually would make a stage for performances such as the Ponytones. There wasn't a stage at the moment, but it didn't really matter. It was an occasion for friends so it was all good. I take my acoustic guitar from the stand that Fluttershy had carefully set up for me. That was really kind of her to bring the stands as well; I wouldn't want the guitars falling.

I faced towards the rest of my friends with the acoustic guitar in my lap. I take out one of my guitar picks and look towards my friends. All of them look like they are cheering me on from the inside with their proud smiles drawn upon their faces. Nervousness starts to kick in, but in the end I resisted against it, knowing that I couldn't mess up in front of Twilight. Even though she'd still tell me that it was only a few mistakes, still… I get that uneasy feeling every time.

I begin to gently strum out a G chord and I hold the strumming there while the sound of the piano is heard from inside of my ear. I finally take a breath and begin to sing.

Speak to me in a language I can hear

Humour me before I have to go

Deep in thought I forgive everyone

As the cluttered streets greet me once again

I know I can't be late

Supper's waiting on the table

Tomorrow's just an excuse away

So I pull my collar up and face the cold, on my own

The Earth laughs beneath my heavy feet

At the blasphemy in myold jangly walk

Steeple guide me to my heart and home

The sun is out and up and down again

I know I'll make it, love can last forever

Graceful swans of never topple to the Earth

And you can make it last forever

You can make it last forever

And for a moment I lose myself

Wrapped up in the pleasures of the world

I've journeyed here and there and back again

But in the same old haunts I still find my friends

Mysteries not ready to reveal

Sympathies I'm ready to return

I'll make the effort, love can last forever

Graceful swans of never topple to the Earth

Tomorrow's just an excuse

Tomorrow's just an excuse

And you can make it last forever

I strum the final chord and look towards my friends. Their small hooves begin to clap all together and the sounds of happy shouts and cheering from their mouths start to come out. I can see Twilight at the table, clapping both of her hooves together and she looked rather enlightened, which made me smile inside.

"Now the next song… is for my very special somepony." I said to my friends and they continue to clap their hooves together, begging for another song. I take a hold of the electric guitar, putting the acoustic back to its stand.

I began to play out a single few notes and rang out some harmonics to make it sound beautiful. A few power chords came in at the end and I began to sing the second song.

I should have known better

Than to let you go alone,

It's times like these

I can't make it on my own

Wasted days, and sleepless nights

And I can't wait to see you again

I find I spend my time

Waiting on your call,

How can I tell you, baby

My back's against the wall

I need you by my side

To tell me it's alright,

'Cos I don't think I can take anymore

Is this love that I'm feeling,

Is this the love, that I've been searching for

Is this love or am I dreaming,

This must be love,

'Cos it's really got a hold on me,

A hold on me...

I can't stop the feeling

I've been this way before

But, with you I've found the key

To open any door

I can feel my love for you

Growing stronger day by day,

An' I can't wait to see you again

So I can hold you in my arms

Is this love that I'm feeling,

Is this the love, that I've been searching for

Is this love or am I dreaming,

This must be love,

'Cos it's really got a hold on me,

A hold on me...

I immediately launched into a wailing guitar solo, keeping my eyes on the strings below to make sure I had hit them right. But I could imagine Twilight's face at this point, she was probably flattered that I would sing a nice love song to her. After the solo, I got back to finishing the song.

Is this love that I'm feeling,

Is this the love, that I've been searching for...

Is this love or am I dreaming,

Is this the love, that I've been searching for...

I finished the song and my friends began to clap all of their hooves together, rather impressed by my skills on the guitar. I put the electric guitar back into its stand and walk back towards the table. Twilight's face has a loving smile on her face and her cheeks are pink as ever. My two feet approach the strong wooden chair and I sit down, gently taking both of her hooves and holding onto them.

"Brayden…" Twilight said, her voice sounding very speechless and struck by the talent that I had. "That was absolutely wonderful."

"Of course." I said, gently stroking her soft and gentle hooves with my hands. "I felt like I haven't sung to you in a bit of time, thought I'd go back and sing a song for you again."

Twilight's head moved forward towards me slowly and her eyes were closed. She gently pressed her lips against mine by complete surprise. My heart began to flutter once more when I felt those recognizable and loving lips kissing my own. I move my arms around her neck gently, and begin hugging her as she did what she needed to do. I could feel the feathers of her wings brush around me and pull me closer to her. My eyes slowly close and I find myself sharing the gentle kiss with her. Around me, I could hear the sounds of all our friends saying "Awww" at the sight of it.

I released the kiss between me and her, opening up the both of our eyes and gazing into one another. I can still see the beauty that Twilight had when I saw her for the first time, and I could swear that I could see that spark in her eyes. She gently holds my hands for a brief few moments and then lets the both of them go. My two hands let go of her and I continue to smile at her.

Something begins to feel weird and I find the world around me starting to slow down. I start to see Twilight getting pulled away from me. I tried to reach out for her, but no matter what she got even farther from me. I could see my friends starting to be pulled away with her and the whole landscape stretches out with them. I could not move from the chair and my hands are brought onto my lap. I am paralyzed.

Alright, dammit. If this is another one of those flashbacks, I swear I'm going to try and erase them from my mind. Oh wait, never mind. The environment starts to change for the worse. I could see the walls around the Sugarcube Corner start to tumble down. Cracks appear on the windows and I couldn't feel that invisible force pass by when it shattered the glass onto the floor. My chair is moved towards the view of the broken window slowly with suspense drawing upon me. Cracks start spreading from the bottom of the walls to the top as they slowly crumble apart into small pieces of what once was the famous place for sweets and treats in Ponyville. My eyes finally broaden with terror when I see the very image that is placed outside of the building.

The whole town of Ponyville was alit on fire. Most of the windows that I could see on most of the buildings were shattered. Rooftops had been half-burnt or were still smoking up into the hot ashes of fire and the smell of hatred pouring out. I could see the weak and helpless ponies and friends I knew, lying on the ground unable to get up and rescue the town. Their eyes had turned into a light gray and were very faded. They were weakly trying to say something. From the words that I could make out from where I was… they were saying "Help us…"

The loud booming sound of hoof steps came in from below the horizon. It was all covered into the darkness of shadows. Through blood-red skies, its two horns are raised up high into the air and its eyes are opened up staring down at me. The eyes of this mysterious shadow shine a very bright yellow and I hear the sound of its laughter as if it was made out of a nightmare.

I find myself being lifted up into the air and towards the dark shadow. I try my best to speak, but silence only fills out, unable to gasp out a single breath at this beast I look upon. He could smell my fear to say the least and his breath reeked of dragon. There was something bad about this, and it wasn't the beast hiding in the shadow himself.

"I can smell your fear, Equestrian knight…" I can hear a female voice call out to me from above the sky. From out of the fiery skies, I could see a woman with dragon wings descending down onto the land towards me. In his hands were two shining blades forged in fires too far away from Equestria to matter. I am knocked back from the chair and fall onto the ground. Across the ground from where I landed, I notice that face looking weakened and tired from battle, Princess Twilight.

"Brayden…" She says to me with such weakness in her voice. I'm reaching out to her, but that same invisible force keeps me from reaching her while I crawl towards her. "Save yourself…"

I wanted to shout out that I wasn't going to leave her to die. That woman covered in fire lands close to Twilight and approaches her with the two blades. "I know you want her to live…" The voice of the lady says unto me. She then grabs my special somepony by the throat and holds her forward towards me. "These ponies have caused long enough misery between my dragons and the ones who hate their kind. If you will not join, it looks like you will not get to see her talk… ever… again!"

"No, don't hurt her!" I shout to her, making a bull charge towards her. But a bright orange aura takes hold of me and faces me back towards the horned shadow. Its yellow eyes stare at me with a chuckle coming from its lips.

"Finish the job." I hear the female call out. The shadow opens its mouth and I find myself once again into the darkness.

"Brayden? BRAYDEN!"

My eyes are forced open from that frightening moment. I'm lying right down on the wooden floor and my head is resting upon two pillows where my head is. I was back at the Sugarcube Corner, with no disasters, nobody trying to kill Twilight… nothing bad at all. I was back in reality. Did I end up fainting?

In front of my view of the ceiling, I can see both Twilight and Rainbow Dash standing right over me. They both looked worried and frightened about the condition I was placed into. I can start to hear the conversations of some friends talking.

"Oh, I hope he's okay." Fluttershy said. I can feel her golden hoof gently stroking the top of my hand. This snaps me out of paralysation and I get my head up off of the pillows with a groan. All of them gasp and gather around me.

They began to tell me everything what happened. "Are you okay Brayden?" and "We were worried about you" came out of their mouths while they were asking many questions. I can feel Twilight's wings move around me and gently pull my body towards hers. I move my arms around where the waist would usually be and hug her.

"What happened? Why was I on the floor? Did I faint?" I asked, having the absolute need to ask as many questions about what happened.

I can see Coco trot forward towards me. "Well, while you were talking to Twilight for a few moments after you sang… your eyes started to retract back and we all became worried. Then…" Coco says, then pausing. She is unable to find the right words. "Yeah... you fainted."

"We're glad that you're okay." Twilight says, gently taking one of her hooves and stroking the back of my head, keeping me as comfortable as possible.

I let go of Twilight's hug and I start to struggle to get the rest of my body up off of the floor. I start to feel everything wobble. I don't have enough strength to get me up. Rainbow Dash and Applejack come forward and go underneath my two arms, pushing me upward to support my balance. Eventually, the wobbling slowly comes to a stop and in my legs, I can feel the strength start to come back in.

"That's much better." I said, starting to bring my breathing rate back to a normal stance. I can feel Applejack's gamboge hoof touch my hand. I look down at her.

"Partner… are ya sure yer going to be alright?" Applejack said sounding still worried about if I was still in that condition. "That's like the second dang time ya fainted on us."

I place my hand onto Applejack's shoulder. I bent down to get the equal size that she was, see how I was a little bit taller than all of them, but not tall as Princess Celestia. I'm looking into her green eyes. "Applejack, I thank you and Rainbow for helping to support me as I got up. It's what makes a great friend like you. You look out for the safety of other friends." I said, and I can tell you that I was being 100% honest with her.

"Aw gee." Applejack said, appreciating those brief words on what meaning I was trying to get across. "Well, Ah don't like seeing friends being hurt or fainting. But Ah'll let you know one thing Brayden." She gently takes her hoof and holds onto my hand with it. "It's what really matters to me. Me and yer friends really care about ya, we want to make the best for ya while yer here. If anything bad happened, Ah don't know what Ah'd do."

I gently move the both of my arms around the neck of my friend Applejack and bring her closer to me. Those very words she said to me had touched my heart from the inside. No interest in her romantically, I can sense something about the friendship between me and Applejack while we hugged. Inside, I could feel the spark of honesty start to flow through my body and through hers, connecting us.

This was a sign that a friendship had grown really close. Not romantically. It was the part that brought me and Applejack as closer friends to look out for each other. The bond of Honesty itself shone invisibly through us. In the end, me and her let go of the hug and smile at each other as friends. But from that, there was more sparks of the bonds yet to come from the other five, but when would they come? It seemed like a mystery yet to be solved by myself, but if I see Princess Celestia, I'll ask her about it… she might know.

"Sugarcube…" She says to me. "If at any time ya want to talk with me and share yer problems, Ah'll always be right there if ya need ma help."

"Thank you Applejack." I said and bent back up into the height I usually stood in. The thought of Celestia catches me and I wondered where she was. I would suspect that she would come to Ponyville for a brief visit just to say hello to me… but no, she hasn't come which surprised me.

"Twilight?" I asked, catching my special somepony's attention. I gently scratch one of her ears and she looks at me with curiosity while delighted by the loving ear-scratch. "Have you heard anything from Princess Celestia?"

Twilight's face seems disappointed. "I'm sorry Brayden," She says with an apologetic tone to her voice. "Princess Celestia and Luna were supposed to come down to surprise you, but they sent a letter through Spike saying that they weren't coming due to a holdback and preparations for the dignitaries."

"Oh." I said with disappointment in my voice. "But I forgive them if something politically came up between them and any-"

"Enough chit-chat!" Pinkie calls out with such excitement in her voice and a joyful smile on her face, interrupting me in the process. "I think it's time to sing happy birthday to this lucky somepony!"

A smile lit up on my face once again and I say "You're right there, Pinkie. It's my birthday, I shouldn't be worrying about the smallest things in the joy of a great day." I take a seat back at the table and look at the chocolate cake sitting in the centre; all of the candles were burning brightly with twenty-one candles burning. I was surprised… I was the same age as Rainbow Dash according to the episode 'Pinkie Pride'.

"Come on everypony, let's sing for Brayden!" Twilight says to her friends. They gathered around the table and Pinkie scoots her two hooves across the table, bringing the cake closer to me. I smile and look at my friends while they begin to sing to me.

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday dear Brayden

Happy birthday to you!

I chuckle lightly once my friends finished singing and I take in a deep breath, blowing the air out onto the burning candles. All of the candles go out and everypony starts clapping their hooves. Their smiles brighten up onto their faces, making them happy again after a few minutes of being worried.

Fluttershy moves beside me and cuts the cake into a piece for each friend, taking a plate with a slice to each of my friends and my special somepony who was sitting on the right next to me. Fluttershy pushes the plate close to me, lightly and being careful not to accidentally tip over the slice. "There you go Brayden. Enjoy." The golden mare says to me in her soft spoken voice, taking her slice of the cake and going over to Rarity and Spike who was most likely to be too distracted by the white unicorn's beauty bestowed upon her.

I take a plastic fork and begin to eat up into the chocolate cake. My goodness, my mouth began to go into insta-crave when I took the first bite of the cake. It tasted just one of those chocolate glazed donuts that I used to have when I was back home on Earth. With eagerness, I dig into the slice of cake… slowly. I'd get a bad tummy ache if I ate too fast.

---

Ponyville, 9:35pm

"Thank you everypony for the birthday party!" I called out behind me, turning to see the smiles on their faces. Most of them were waving at me and I can see Coco galloping up to me.

"Wait, Brayden!" She calls out to me. I stop walking and turn towards Coco. Twilight was trotting alongside me and both her and Spike stop as well to watch.

"What is it Coco?" I asked, feeling worried about maybe trying to bring up the entire 'crush' thing again, but in front of Twilight. "Is there something you needed?"

"I… I have to go back to Manehattan for my new job that Rarity connected me with." She says, taking my hoof. "But I am going to miss you a lot, and I really want you to visit Manehattan sometime when you're not too busy."

"I will definitely keep that in mind Coco." I said, and put my arms around the earth pony. Both me and her share a goodbye hug for a few moments, and then we let go. I wave to Coco Pommel with a smile on both of our faces and I join back with Twilight and Spike to head back to the Golden Oaks Library. But still… I haven't gotten Twilight's gift yet, but I continue to wait.

I let out a bit of a yawn and I stretch out an arm to bring a hand in front of my mouth. Twilight turns towards me and sees how tired I am. She opens up one of her wings and covers my back with the mulberry-feathered wing. "Don't fall asleep quite yet Brayden. The gift is almost there for you." She says to me. All I can do is look both tired and smile at her at the same time.

We eventually do reach the Golden Oaks Library, and I am looking as tired as ever. By this rate, I'd probably being going to bed at this hour thanks to Fluttershy who needed to give me a new sleep cycle. Twilight's horn glows out an aura at the front door and I watch the door swing open by itself. The entire library looks rather dark from the inside with the exception of the moonlight that Luna's moon beamed out over the land.

"I'm so tired, I'm not even sure I can walk any further." I said as I stepped into the treehouse. Twilight turns around towards me and her horn starts to glow again. I can feel the gentle aura of her magic lift me up off of the ground. She trots up towards the stairs with me behind her and floating… almost about to sleep. With peaceful dreams…

No! I was going to stay awake for this gift that Twilight was going to give me. I can see the flights of stairs go past and I find myself upstairs in her room. I watch as she spreads the both of her wings and flies up over to where her bed is. She gently lowers me down towards the bed, opening up the sheets for me to be under and slides me into her bed, removing the aura from me.

Twilight trots forward towards the bed and smiles at me. "A night with me… is your special birthday present from me to you. But it won't be only once Brayden." She says to me while getting into bed with me and lying next to me. "I'll always be here if you want somepony to accompany you."

"Thank you Twilight." I tiredly say and gently stroke the side of her left cheek with my right hand. She brushes herself closer to me and rests her head onto my chest. "Good night Twilight."

"Good night to you too Brayden." She says to me, raising her head and looking at me. The both of us move our heads forward against one another gently, giving each other a goodnight's kiss.

"I love you." I whispered to Twilight while she placed her head onto my chest again. She sighs happily with a tired tone to it, she's been on her hooves again all day again and so was I.

"I love you too." Twilight whispers back and while I'm falling asleep, I keep a close eye on Twilight while she's dozing off to sleep and I do see Spike come up his little bed to get some rest after doing one last check on the books to make sure they were alright.

Finally, with the exception of the night creatures chirping outside the open window, I finally rest my eyes and drift off into a deep relaxing sleep. Don't worry about where the gifts are. I already had asked Fluttershy to bring them back to her cottage, so they're safe.

Good night Equestria, I will see you tomorrow. Next stop tomorrow: The Crystal Empire. I only wonder how both Princess Cadence and Twilight's brother Shining Armor will take highly upon me first entering the city in the north and visiting. Will they appreciate me, or will Shining keep his eye on me for suspicious behavior?

That'll definitely be something to know when the morning sun rises.

Hello everyone,

As you can already see, this isn't an official chapter, but more solely an Author's Note. I also have included a bonus at the end.

I have released this to only announce a few things about updating Learning To Live and the other fanfic that's on the works, Into The Friendship Castle.

Well because college is in the way, I'm starting to find myself being drained of creativity. So before you go and say "It's the end of the story!", Learning to Live isn't going to end just yet. I'm going to place it on a small hiatus to recharge my batteries after I finish the next two chapters. For Into The Friendship Castle, I will finish it before my big break.

When will I go back to continuing Learning To Live? Well, the most likely answer will probably be during Christmas break or in the beginning of 2015. And at that time, I will be changing the story's rating from a Teen rating to a Mature rating for various reasons. More explicit swearing that will come, but don't worry, with the characters involved… I might pull off a Brayden x Coco Pommel sometime later in the story. But Brayden x Twilight will always be the priority of romance for the story.

There is a Facebook page of this fanfiction available, so look for it if you can. I will try my best to make an interesting cover art in future for the story. But if anybody wants to make it for me on DeviantArt, I do not mind.

And now… that bonus I promised. The character Brayden doing the ALS Challenge.

No really, he's doing it.

---

"Come on now Brayden. You can do it!" I could hear Rainbow Dash calling out to me.

I was outside among the valleys of grass outside of Ponyville, standing out in a swimsuit that my good friend Rarity made specifically just for me. A bucket full of ice cubes were sitting right next to me below my feet, drifting through the cold liquid.

"I'm not sure about this guys, I really do not want to do this, especially with a bunch of readers probably reading this in my voice." I said, nervous about how cold I would be once the water broke impact with my skin.

"But Brayden darling, you promised!" Rarity said, rather shocked about how nervous I was about doing this. "It's for a good cause, and it can help the people from your world."

"Don't let us down Brayden." Twilight says to me, smiling at me. "You were nominated by mr234scott, so you have to do it."

"Well, if that's the case then alright." I said, raising both of my arms in defeat. "I will pour this bucket of freezing ice on top of my head."

Pinkie bounced up and down saying "Oh Brayden, you forgot about your nominees! Who are you going to nominate for the Ice Bucket Challenge?"

"Oh right, sorry about that Pinkie." I said. I almost forgot about that. "For the nominees, I nominate fanfiction/FIMFiction writers Humanity, frontdoor6, APoeticHeart and reviewer Captain Alaska."

"Alright, now let her rip there, Brayden!" Applejack said, swaying one of her hooves and smiling as a cheer to get me to pour the ice onto my head. I reach down and grab the bucket of ice water, holding the blue bucket in my hands.

"Well, wish me luck." I said, moving the bucket above my head and pouring the water onto me.

Holy crap! That was really cold and I couldn't help but throw the bucket back onto the ground when the water splashed me. Rainbow Dash was laughing her flank off and how priceless my face was and Twilight stood there on all four hooves, getting a towel ready for me. I could see Fluttershy also giggling.

I turn towards the readers and break the fourth wall. "You have 24 hours, nominees." I said.

"Hey!" Pinkie Pie says, sounding really annoyed. "That's my job to break the fourth wall!"

"Sorry Pinkie!" I said with a little embarrassment. "Stay tuned for the next chapter."

A/N: Well, this one was probably 1 or 2 months now since I started writing this. Being in college isn't easy I tell you.

In other news, I have gone to see Rainbow Rocks in theaters. I remember the excitement as soon as the film started to roll within a second. Me, a friend and a pegasister next to her were cheering loudly. I swear we must have been the only bronies in the theater watching it, but I will have to make sure that I join up with a group of bronies in the big city. And now, one more chapter. Then it's a bit of a small hiatus. When I say hiatus, I do not mean that the story is over, please stop assuming that. It ain't ending anytime soon. :)

And now... review responses! (To those I messaged, don't worry! :) )

PGHOST04: Thank you! :) Don't worry, I'm used to people typing in Spanish, though I'm a more fluent English speaker, I am trying to learn the Finnish language.

Guest: Here you go, another chapter!

AVP5: Deadpool is a cool and funny character. You want to find out how Shining Armor will react? Here you go. Enjoy! :)

SparkyFonzerri: As I said, the story isn't ending anytime soon. During my break, I'll be finishing up a side-story related to 'Learning To Live' called "Into the Friendship Castle".

godzillafan1: What is special about Brayden's blood? Well, it's not really possible that he's actually an alicorn. For the honest truth without releasing any spoilers that are major or minor, that'll be something 'BIG' to tell around Chapter 30 - 35. A little tired of reading it? Well, I will be taking a break to work on a different story after Part 2 of the next chapter is written, so it's all good. :)

P.S. It's October month! I know what that means: watching The Walking Dead and horror movies, playing Five Night's At Freddy's and trying not to get scared to death, plus trick or treating. Now I know what you're thinking, I'm too old to trick or treat. Now allow me to quote Pinkie. "Too old for free candy? NEVER!"

---

The sun shone brightly in the clear sky, bringing light to all of the land of Equestria. It was going to be another beautiful day, but of course the context of where I was is the real question here? I wasn't in Ponyville, waking up as usual. I was in a completely different part of Equestria. No, it isn't Canterlot. Where I actually was for the first time in my life was: the Crystal Empire. The home of the crystal ponies all packed close to the Frozen North and the Crystal Mountains.

I'm walking up one of the Crystal tiled streets with the seven of my friends and looking all about at the buildings and the crystal castle that shone brightly by the sun's reflections. Despite the air smelling warm, I could somehow feel the essence of winter from somehow remembering the Season 3 premiere. Even then, I could still feel it. Among in the street other than my friends, I could see a couple of the crystal ponies walking about to chat amongst each other. A few of them turn towards me for a few quick glances filled with curiosity. They were starting to wonder about me. I couldn't really focus on meeting any of the crystal ponies right now. There was a ceremony that I had to attend and I was doing this for the princesses.

"Seems like only yesterday when I was saving this place from being totally destroyed." Spike bragged, which he has done so many times by the time we were packing up all the way to getting off of the train here. Even the obvious Crystal statue of Spike gave away that he was the saviour of the empire. "Hey, you guys remember that?"

"You've only mentioned it about fifteen times on the train here." Rainbow Dash said, already sounding like she was starting to get a little annoyed by Spike's bragging.

Rarity was the first to speak out of this, considering that Rainbow is also quite a bragger as well. "Yes, and we never hear a peep out of you about your exploits." She said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice to her.

"Point taken." Rainbow says, giving off a bit of an embarrassed snicker.

"I'm really glad that all of you wanted to come," Twilight says to me and the rest, giving off a smile before it fades shortly after. "There's not really going to be anything exciting though, all I have to simply do is smile and wave as the dignitaries arrive."

I stop walking to turn towards the rest of my friends to listen in on the conversation. Rarity was the first to speak out among the rest. "Yes, but you get to smile and wave like a princess."

"How exactly is that different than smilin' and wavin' like not a princess?" Applejack asked, sounding why Twilight sounded like she was in doubt of that role.

"It isn't." Twilight says, and both of her ears flop down and her face turns sad.

"What's wrong Twilight?" Fluttershy asked.

Pinkie Pie pops up over from the group next to Twilight, pulling on her face. "Why the looooooooong face?" She says with a happy tone in her voice to try and make her feel better. Pinkie lets go of Twilight's face and I watch Twilight rubbing her head for a few moments. That definitely did not make her feel any better, even getting her face pulled by Pinkie herself would probably hurt, so I'm still lucky that I haven't had my face pulled yet by her.

I needed to have a chance to speak and I walk over towards her. I bend down on one knee and Twilight turns towards me with her purple eyes looking at mine. "Is something wrong Twi?" I asked with a gentle and curious tone in my voice. My right hand moves to her mane and begins to gently stroke it.

Twilight gives out a bit of a sigh, looking at me. "I've just been feeling a little unsure about things lately. It doesn't seem like my role as a princesses equates to all that much." She says with an uneasy tone in her voice.

"That's just silly." Applejack says, putting a smile on her face. "Ya got a real important role in Equestria."

Fluttershy trots towards me and Twilight. "Princess Celestia wouldn't have asked you to come along if she didn't think so." Her calm voice says.

Twilight ponders with these words that Applejack and Fluttershy said for a couple of moments, then her ears rise up again. I can tell them the words made her happy again. "I guess you're right." Twilight says. I move my right hand off of her mane and get up back onto my two feet.

"Of course we are." Rarity says, starting to trot with me and the others again. "Now hurry along! You don't want to risk having that important role diminished because you were tardy for your regal meet and greet."

I continue to walk alongside the streets of the empire, seeing the crystal ponies trotting about and enjoying their day. But I have already started to notice that there were a few joining up in groups starting to follow all of us to the castle. I take a glance behind me and can see that all of them are looking at me and following me. They were taking an interest in how different I was among them and everypony else. But I didn't have time to talk with the crystal ponies at the moment. Maybe some other time when I'm not too busy, I'll be able to chat with all of them.

The crystal ponies eventually do move on after following me to see what I was and why I was here. I find myself under the reaches of the Crystal Castle. In the centre of the bottom of the castle, it is for the very first time that I have ever seen the Crystal Heart with my own eyes. The very tool used to protect the empire and that stopped the dark unicorn king, Sombra. He exploded, so there is a zero percent chance that I might ever see him again. But just in case he does, I've got the Song of Order ready.

Yeah, I know what you might be thinking yourself. Where has the Song of Order been since you have used it back when Nightmare returned? Do not worry about it, the claymore is safe back in Ponyville at Twilight's library, enclosed to make sure no villain ever steals it. It does bring worry to me if the blade was stolen, they would probably end up with a negative effect from it, just like what happened with Sunset Shimmer as an example via the Element of Magic, back when my friends still had the elements before giving them to the Tree of Harmony.

I approach the double doors of the castle and press my two hands onto the right side of the doors to push it open. I stand by the door and allow the seven of my friends to enter into the castle. Spike was right behind them because the 'ladies first' slogan was always very true even in Equestria.

"Thank you Brayden." Twilight says to me while she trots past me, bearing the warm smile on her face. I nod with a smile, moving one of my hands briefly in a loving gesture.

I continue to hold the door open for the rest of my friends, and I wait until Pinkie Pie passed by me. After she has passed, I closed the door right behind me and turn towards the set of crystal stairs, proceeding forward upward into the castle.

I reach up to the top of the stairs and proceed forward down the halls of shining crystal. I can hear the sounds of my friends' hooves trotting on the crystal floors. Down the hall was I would picture, the throne room. In the distance, I could see a pink color waiting on the throne for all of us. I knew that this was Princess Cadence. But much closer ahead, patrolling the hallways was the white unicorn stallion… known as Shining Armor.

"Twiley!" I could hear Shining Armor call out and trot forward towards me and my friends. He was smiling and I watch as he and Princess Twilight share a brother-sister hug. After the hug, he says "I am glad that you and your friends could come to attend. I'm really sure that the Maretonia dignitaries will enjoy seeing a new princess in Equestria."

"Well, I really want to do my best if I have to make the first impression on them." Twilight said, sounding really confident in her voice.

Shining turns towards her other friends, and many thoughts come rushing into my head. Will Twilight's brother Shining approve of me or not? I could already picture that he was going to make sure that he had his eye on me to ensure that I did not try to hurt Twilight in any way. Seriously? I would never even try to hit her or get angry at her. I am way too kind to hit a girl and I've already said that I never will, so end of story right there.

"Who's this?" Shining asked her while he was trotting towards me. "Is this Brayden, the one you've been talking about?"

"That's definitely him." Twilight said, trotting beside me and taking my left hand with her right hoof. Her gentle hoof helps to calm down a bit of the wild thoughts running through my head. "He was the one who in the letter I sent to you; the wielder of the Song of Order. I also forgot to mention-"

"Oh, I'll get this answer!" Pinkie Pie says, jumping up and down. "Brayden is also her special somepony!" Both I and Twilight are just blushing right there because of Pinkie just blurting out what Twilight was just about to say. Now, I'm expecting some of the bad thoughts to come true, but Shining lets out a happy chuckle from his mouth.

"It is nice to meet you Brayden." Shining Armor said to me, moving his front right hoof forward for a hoof–shake. I move my hand forward, gently gripping onto his hoof and giving it a shake. "But in question, you do not seem to be a pony, what are you?"

"I am a human." I said, letting my hand go from shaking his hoof.

Shining places his hoof back onto the crystal tiles and looks at me, saying "Human? I don't think that I've ever seen one before like you."

"Totally, because I know where he's from!" Pinkie blurts out again, preparing to do another long Equestria Girls speech about me, and I'm blushing from embarrassment. "He's from another world called Earth where he was trying to escape this group known as bikers that he owned money to and that we are apparently a famous cartoon show in that world called-" She was interrupted with Applejack placing a hoof right into her mouth, quieting her in a friendly way.

"Pinkie, we've all heard that same story already." Rarity said, already knowing about it the first time. "I'm sure Prince Shining Armor here can know about it some other time. But right now, he's kind of talking to Brayden at the moment, so let them introduce one another if you please."

Applejack removes her gamboge hoof from Pinkie's mouth allowing her to speak. "Okie dokie lokie!" Pinkie Pie says, bouncing up and down with the continued happiness she had.

Shining paused for a moment and then continued to talk with me. "So, from what I've heard from Twilight so far, you were the one responsible for helping to save Equestria from eternal night and somehow convinced Nightmare Moon to redeem herself."

"Well, something inside told me not to kill her." I said, with a memory of that scene reflecting back to me. "Plus before I even came to Equestria, I promised that I would never even try to hurt anypony no matter what. If anything tried to bring harm to anypony, I will no doubt do everything in my path to make sure they don't hurt my friends or anypony living here in Equestria."

"So that must be why Princess Celestia knighted you after that." Shining told me, but then comes a little closer. "But from how I've been seeing her today, it looks like she is trying to hide something and by how she's hiding it… she sounds a little sad."

"Sad? But from the visits I've been for Canterlot, I've always seen her looking really happy." I said, as I watch Shining turn around and trot forward towards the throne room. I walk alongside him with the rest of my friends catching up with the both of us.

"I've always seen really happy as well. But this feels different." He told me. "Something apparently came up yesterday back at Canterlot. I wanted to get more information, but Princess Celestia didn't want to talk about it. Princess Luna had to speak out for her, saying that it was best for only between the both of them."

"Would they get Princess Cadence involved between their private business alone?" Twilight had asked, trotting next to her brother.

"I think they will classify that information until the right moment, either than that… I really don't know what's going on with Celestia or Luna. While Celestia feels to be a bit sad, Luna seems to be standing by her point and defending her statement." He said.

"Well, we shouldn't worry about what the princesses have to think." I said, trying to drift from the worried conversation. "If it is their own private conversation, then I suppose we let them talk by themselves about what they have to hide. For reasons why Princess Celestia is sad, she's probably having one of those days."

Shining continues to trot, pausing the conversation briefly to think about these words. "Yeah… you're probably right. There's nothing to worry about." He says, sounding a little more relaxed about it. "I'm acting a bit too curious about it."

"It's a time to celebrate. It's only the small possibility that the dignitaries might encounter me during their visit, but I think just like everypony else, they won't react so harshly against me being here." I said, changing the subject onto something else.

"The Duke and Duchess would probably be honored to meet you if there weren't so busy," He said. "Judging how they've been mostly around other ponies, this will probably be the first in their lifetime to ever witness you among them for a brief moment. But with the status that Princess Celestia had given to you as a knight, you should be proud with such a ranking."

I turned my head towards him. "I accept any kind of honor that is given to me. But to be honest, I think this is the first time that something like that has ever happened to me in forever." I said. "I don't think I've ever been given such a rank before."

"First time is always the best, and also the time when you get nervous about having that status." Twilight says to me. "It's almost in the situation I'm dealing with as a princess. Except, well you just do your job like every royal guard… defend Equestria. And don't worry, that isn't to let you down. It's to give you some hope."

"Thanks Twilight," I said with a smile on my face. "I always know you have the right words to say to me in times like these."

Twilight exchanges a smile towards me, knowing that she has accepted my thank you. Finally, everypony goes silent and I turn my head back to face the open doors.

It was none other than the throne room of the Crystal Empire. Two rows of crystal guards were seen standing to greet all of us in our arrival. Standing close to the throne was the princesses Celestia and Luna. Accompanying them was Nightmare Moon who was standing right beside Celestia, giving a grand smile on her face when she sees me. On the throne taking her seat was the Princess of Love herself that I was going to meet. Princess Cadence.

The guards trumpet their crystal fluglehorns as I pass above them, but lower the volume a little bit just so they don't damage my ears. Thank goodness about that, the last thing I would kind of want is to become deaf and not hear again. I walk along slowly in a formerly manner to show appreciation in the hall of Princess Cadence.

"Brayden?" I could hear Twilight say to me, taking my left hand with her right front hoof and holding onto it. My head turns to see that she is right next to me. "You know you don't have to be so formal… be yourself."

"Sorry." I said to her, smiling.

Twilight giggles. "There's no need to apologize, it's only a suggestion." She returns.

"Sorry." I said again, blushing.

Finally Twilight trots forward past me while I am next to Shining Armor again. I can already tell that Princess Twilight and Princess Cadence were going to do their greeting they always did, but with the episodes I've seen, I haven't seen them do it in a while. I watch as she continues to trot forward, but of course bumps into that fellow Pegasus guard that every brony knows and likes to love or hate him. Flash Sentry.

"I apologize, Princess Twilight." Flash says, backing up after that surprise.

"It's alright." Twilight says, forgiving him for the bump. For me, I have my eye on Flash just in case he has any funny ideas. But at the same time, I shouldn't really worry as Twilight doesn't seem to look interested in him. But any moves made by him on her will send me flying towards him with a warning to give to him. But it's not like I would attack him. I have no reason to.

"Your majesty," Flash called out to Princess Cadence sitting on her royal throne. I watch as she gets up on all four hooves off of her crystal throne and onto the tiled ground. "Princess Twilight Sparkle!"

I watch the pink alicorn trot towards her and the rest of us with a smile on her face. She comes forward towards Twilight and stops a few feet away. "Hello Twilight." Cadence says. "I haven't seen you since the Equestria Games."

"It certainly has been that long, hasn't it?" Twilight asks. At the same time, she is glad to see Princess Cadence in the flesh once again. Now the only thing to think about is how lightly she'll take me being in her empire. "Lots of things happen once every time we see each other."

"Just like with the tatzlwurm." Cadence returned, putting a smile onto my face. I remembered when that episode first aired. "Three's A Crowd" is one of the best episodes I have seen all because of Discord himself. Sure he does irritate me a bit, but still I have respect for the draconequus.

"Well, there's that and the Nightmare Moon returning."

"Speaking of her, this must be Brayden that you have been talking about." Princess Cadence said, trotting over towards me and looking into my brown eyes with her purple eyes. "I have heard a lot about you. Twilight mentioned you a few times in the letters she would write to me."

"Well, that definitely is me." I said, and finally bent down on one knee to bow to you. "It is an honor to meet you Princess Cadence."

"I appreciate the honor, but you do not have to bow before me." She says with a giggle stimulating out of her mouth. "I welcome you to the Crystal Empire with open hooves."

I bend back to my normal stance and look at her. "I appreciate the welcome, Princess Cadence."

"Also, you don't have to call me Princess." She says, keeping her smile. "Just Cadence will be fine."

"Of course." I said. After that, there are moments of silence filling in the throne room. No crickets are chirping, just the sound of silence. "So, what's next now that we're all here?"

"Well we have a couple of minutes until the ceremony begins. Feel free to make yourself at home as possible." Princess Cadence offered.

"Thank you." I said with appreciation in my voice. "Also, can I have permission to give you a friendly hug?" I didn't want to tip off Shining Armor who was right next to me seeing this.

"A hug?" Princess Cadence said. "Of course Brayden. You can give me hug, no need to ask for permission."

I walk a step forward and open up the both of my arms and gently move them around the pink alicorn's neck, giving her a gentle, friendly hug. I can feel Cadence's right front hoof go around my back and can feel her returning the hug. Okay, you already know how many moments the hug lasts, so after that we release from the hug.

Princess Cadence looks at me again. "I think Nightmare Moon wants to talk with you." She says to me.

I nod in understanding with the smile on my face, walking past Princess Cadence and moving forward towards the three other princesses standing there and they seemed to be waiting for me. Nightmare Moon looks rather excited, as if I were a celebrity. To me though, it's just me as the boy who helped her to be set free from the darkness.

"Brayden." Nightmare Moon smiles to me, trotting towards me with a hoof opened up by her offering a hug from her to me. I smile at her and move forward, placing my two hands gently around her neck and feeling her black and warm hoof gently hugging me. I and she share the hug for a few moments and then we let go. "I'm really glad you could come along with Twilight and the others to see me help out with the greeting of the dignitaries."

"I wouldn't miss out on this for anything." I said to her, seeing her cyan cat-like eyes looking into mine. "I understand that while still trying to adjust again… there's been some ponies still frightened or mad at you for your actions."

Nightmare Moon blushed a bit in embarrassment and had a look of sadness drawn onto her face at the same time. Her ears flop down and she looks down at the ground. Oh no, I must have accidentally said the wrong thing and humiliated her. "Yes Brayden… that is true." She says to me.

I gently place my right hand onto her shoulder. "Nightmare, you are more than just somepony wicked, you are probably one of the nicest mares that I have ever met. You gave much such a wonderful present." I said to her in a gentle and calm voice to help her.

She looks right back at me. "Y-you really think so?" She asked.

I nod and share a smile with her in assurance. "They just need to adjust to having you around. You're not a danger to any of them. Not anymore." I said. "You're on our good side, even mine and I've always thought you were one of my favorite ponies."

Nightmare's ears stood right back up and she looked happy once again. "Why thank you… I am flattered you think of me in that way." She said, placing one of her black hooves onto her chest. "Oh, and just a heads up, I wouldn't really suggest talking to Princess Celestia at the moment. There is something about her… she seemed rather silent since this morning. You'll want to talk with Princess Luna."

"Somepony mentioned me?" Princess Luna said, trotting right beside Nightmare. She had a smile right upon her face and looked just as majestic as she always had been.

Across from both of the mares, I turn my focus towards Princess Celestia. She doesn't seem to be looking at me. She's just looking down at the ground with an almost-sad look upon her face and in deep thought. Her ears are flopped down a bit, but her mane is still flowing like it always has been. I begin to wonder what was wrong, and I could just ask to see.

"Brayden?" I can hear Princess Luna saying to me.

My attention is snapped away from Princess Celestia and back towards Luna and Nightmare. "I apologize Princess. I drift off into space like that sometimes." I lied with a smile on my face to look innocent.

"You were looking to my sister." Princess Luna stated, knowing that I had lied. "I do not think she wishes to be spoken to at the moment other than me."

"Sorry." I said with the apologetic tone in my voice. "I won't bother her then."

Princess Luna gently takes my hand with her hoof and looks into my eyes. "You do not need to apologize," She says, feeling a little sorry about how sorry I felt. "My sister's only feeling a little down on the weather about something. But she'll eventually pull through and talk again. Only rarely does this happen."

"I see." I said, nodding in understanding and putting my two hands together.

Princess Luna gently rubs her left front hoof against her right front arm. "I too am worried about what my sister is going through," She says. But I can sense that there was something about that tone in her voice. She was trying to hide something from me. "I'm not really sure if it was the result of the experiment that I was working on."

"Experiment?" I said, with an eyebrow raised and my curiosity being brought into my mind. I will admit that I wasn't really a chemist, but I was already starting to wonder what went on that ultimately resulted in the both of them being held back from my birthday party. For Nightmare Moon, I don't quite question her because it's understanding that she was still trying to get over the issue of everypony fearing her still.

"Nothing." Princess Luna said, raising a hoof with an almost surprised expression crossing her face. She then cleared her throat a bit to try and balance away from the subject. At this point I can see Princess Celestia start to trot past the both of us.

I turned towards the moving Princess and reached out for her with my one right hand. "Celestia…" I softly called out for her to hopefully catch my attention. She doesn't seem to hear my call though and trots out of the room.

"Don't worry about Princess Celestia." Nightmare Moon said to me from behind. The black mare places her soft and gentle hoof onto my left shoulder. I turn my head towards that direction and begin to look at the mare. "She's going to be fine."

I gently turn around and gently take Nightmare Moon's hoof. "I guess I'm just starting to worry about her a little bit."

I could hear the sound of two other princesses trotting towards the three of us. I let my hand stray from Nightmare's black hoof and turn around towards Princess Twilight and Cadence. The pink alicorn herself looked rather prepared for the event that was bound to happen at any moment.

"I hope I am not interrupting anything." Princess Cadence said with a bit of question in her voice.

Princess Luna smiles and says "You're not. What is it you need, Cadence?"

"Well, I was hoping to talk with Brayden for a few minutes before the dignitaries arrived and the ceremony to welcome them." She said, with the same tone coming through. "If I may, would you both mind if I borrowed him for a bit?"

Princess Luna let out a smile and said "Of course. But do be quick. It'll be any minute now before the train from Maretonia arrives."

I finally begin walking again, with Princess Cadence trotting alongside me. The both of us exit the throne room and both I and Cadence turn to look at each other. She seems to have a specific look marked upon her face. I can tell that she probably has a few questions about how I and Twilight are doing.

"So what do you need? What do you want to talk about?" I asked to bring some conversation into the silence between us.

She kept her smile and said "So, you are Twilight's special somepony. With the letters that I receive and send to her, I heard you and her went off on a first date to the lake and then the amusement park. How was that, since she only mentioned it? Most of our letters to each other is mostly Equestrian politics."

"It was good Cadence," I said, placing the both of my hands together. "There were a few bumps before I confessed to her and during the first date."

"Bumps?" Cadence said, moving her front left hoof and placing it onto my hand. "Did something go wrong? Please do tell me, I will understand what went on."

"Well," I said and finally sighed. The memories of those moments came rushing back quickly to me. "It all started when Pinkie revealed to her and my friends that I was from another world far away from here called Earth. She gave out the details about this place being in a show and in the end; Twilight was pretty disappointed in me for not telling her the truth. For the date, she burst at one of the security guards for calling me a 'thing'."

"Oh my." Cadence said. Her voice sounded a little shocked about what I told her.

"I had to make sure she would feel better from it. She was crying and I was doing everything in my path to keep her calm and showing how easily I would forgive her no matter what she does." I said. "I told her that mistakes like that will occasionally happen because of how different I am. And… of…" My mind gets distracted by the hallway with the open door from across.

In the open room, there stood that magical portal just shining. It was the portal into the alternate universe of Equestria. It did not seem to look very active though; the portal still seemed to be closed. But my thoughts are drawn to Sunset Shimmer. Is she doing alright and is she okay? Something inside my mind told me to go through the portal to that dimension.

No. I couldn't. I just knew that I couldn't have the right timing to do it at the moment. With the ceremonies and my schedule looking a little tight at the moment, I would have to have my visit to the Equestria Girls universe delayed.

"Brayden, I don't think anypony except royalty is allowed into that room." Princess Cadence said, her voice dropping a bit and sounding a bit alarmed. "The first time that something happened was that one of Celestia's former students came through and stole Twilight's element of harmony, it was-"

"Sunset Shimmer." I said, still distracted by the gaze and temptation to go through the portal. But since the portal has been closed since, it'll be another while until the portal re-opens. Something continuously inside is telling me subliminally to go in and see Sunset, even though she probably won't know me. Finally, I shake my head a bit to snap myself out of the gaze, turning back towards Cadence.

"Now, I am sorry about those incidents that happened, but overall I want to wish you and Twilight the best of luck in your relationship." She said to me. Her hoof moves towards my shoulder and is placed onto it.

I look into Cadence's purple eyes and said "Thank you. I am planning on giving me and her some time together until I eventually decide to pull the string and pop out the big question to her. But for that, me and Twilight need to feel a little closer."

"Do not worry." She said. "Take all the time that you need. Just remember, every healthy relationship will eventually hit a bare patch along the way so do expect a fight once in a while. But I know you and her will both forgive each other every time."

I smile and feel the confidence of me and Twilight's relationship build up inside of me by her words of advice. With these words, this might as well help me out in finding other things to do with her when both Twilight and I go on another date. But if Twilight definitely has something planned, I'll accept what she has in mind.

"Princess Cadence?" A guard softly called out, in hopes of not disrupting the both of us in our conversation. Cadence turns toward the crystal guard with a blank, normal look on her face. "The train with the dignitaries has just arrived. The ceremony is about to begin."

"Okay." She whispered right back to the guard. The crystal guard trots off and Cadence turns her attention back to me. "I have one more advice to give to you about Twilight."

"Sure." I said with a smile. The smile fades quickly when Cadence takes my right hand and holds onto it with her pink hoof.

"I know you won't bring harm to anypony, but please listen." Cadence said with both a caring and worried tone in her voice. "Please don't hurt Twilight's feelings. If you do, she'll be left alone again because she's never been in love with anypony in her lifetime. I mean sure that her friends occasionally tease her about a stallion… but there is something about you that seems trustworthy. If you break up with her, she'll be left broken."

I take my other hand and gently hold onto Cadence's hoof which is also holding onto my other hand. "I promise, Cadence." I said, assuring her that everything will be fine.

Cadence finally let go of my hand and begins to trot in the direction we were going. "The dignitaries have arrived in the empire. I'll be outside with the other princesses. I suggest you join Twilight and the rest of her friends at the balcony outside of the throne room." She advised to me.

"Alright," I said, waving to her. "We'll talk later."

"Indeed we will, the next time we talk will probably be with you and Twilight." I could hear her say and then trot down a different hallway. It was of course loud enough for me to hear what she said. Once she was gone, I begin walking down back where I came from the throne room back there.

I walked back into the throne room and looked towards the open double-doors of the open balcony. Applejack stood there, waving me over. "C'mon now Brayden. Them dignitaries are here and it'll be so fun to see 'em." She said to me in her southern accent and trotting over to me.

"I haven't heard of any other cities in Equestria other than Ponyville, Canterlot, Manehattan. How big is Maretonia?" I asked her.

"Well," Applejack stated. "Ah haven't visited that city before in mah life, but somepony told me that it's 'bout the size of Canterlot."

"I see." I said to her and walked alongside her outside towards the balcony. Twilight stood close by the edge of the balcony with one hoof over the railing. I didn't want to distract her during the ceremony so I just stood beside the rest of my other friends while this was happening.

A few minutes had passed and the large gathering of crystal ponies had gathered around the palace to make way for the upcoming two dignitaries in the distance. Below me were the four princesses standing in a line and waiting for the arrival. When the dignitaries came close enough, the sound of the crystal horns triumphed through the air.

"The Duke and Duchess of Maretonia!" I could hear Flash Sentry, the guard in the empire announce loudly for all to hear.

I took a peek at the Duke and Duchess. Their appearance seemed to look a little similar to a culture that I knew of back on Earth. They almost seemed to resemble the people from the other side of the world. The side that I was never able to visit in my lifetime, still if I was there I would have eventually gone. The only problem was how much it cost for a trip there and back. I can hear Twilight's horn ignite and I turn to see what she is doing. She is looking downward towards the ground and I am wondering what is happening.

I walk over towards the edge of the balcony close by the railings. I place the both of my hands onto them and watch what was going on below for what Twilight was doing. I could see that flag below the balcony start to unfurl by her magic. I would try to help out, but two things were in the way: I couldn't fly and that was her job to unfurl the welcoming flag. Something was off about this though… shouldn't she be down by the ground with the other princesses, greeting the oncoming dignitaries? Why was she up here doing the flag job when it should have been one of the empire's guards doing this. Nevertheless, the flag was displayed big enough for the dignitaries to feel welcomed.

"That's it?" Spike said, completely surprised by quickly this went by but also a bit of annoyance and it sounded like he was complaining. "Princess Celestia invited you all the way to the Crystal Empire… just to do that?!"

Twilight turns back around and her ears drop with a sad look on her face. I turn from the balcony and walk over back to the rest of my friends. Spike then just giggles in a way to make sure that nothing about what she did was wrong. He says "I mean, wow! Really regal and important!" He had that guilty smile on his face. He already knew he said the wrong thing.

Applejack gives a gentle slap across the back of the dragon's head and gives him a nasty look. He shouldn't really be talking about this when Twilight feels very troubled about doing this job. I mean, for crying out loud she is royalty. Still though, I wondered what caused this to happened and why she felt like more a lesser princess at the moment.

I walked up towards Twilight and bent down on one knee. Her eyes are still closed and her head almost looking towards the ground. I gently move my left hand and place my arm around Twilight's neck gently. She moves a bit in surprise, but relaxes when she opens her eyes and sees that it is only me with her. She tries to fake a smile but the stress was slow-coming to her.

"You did what you needed to do." I said to her, gently rubbing her neck. "You could try talking to Princess Celestia about this."

"That's just it though Brayden," She said to me with the look of worry in her eyes. "If I ask her why I had to do this, I think she'll just say to me that it is important."

"We all go through that." I said to her in that gentle and calm voice. My hand gently moves from around her neck and to her back, giving it a gentle rub back and forth with my hand over her soft fur. "But I think Princess Celestia is happy that you're here. I couldn't really imagine what would happen if you didn't show up."

"Well, she would take away my status." She said, sounding concerned.

"Don't say that Twilight." I said to her. "You were meant to be a princess for a special purpose. I believed you would fit right for the role when I lived back on Earth. You shouldn't feel disappointed about it."

Twilight ponders with these thoughts for a few moments and her ears move upward a little bit, but not completely. "Y- You're right Brayden. I'm probably overreacting about this, but still I can't help but feel like there's more to my role."

"And I promise you that you will find what is meaningful to this role." I said to her.

My hand slowly moves gently back towards her neck and I hold her closer to me. My head moves forward and my lips gently press onto her forehead, giving her a kiss to cheer her up. I could see her eyes close before my lips made contact with her forehead. After the gentle peck on her forehead, I move my head away from Twilight a bit. I can see the blushing on her face. She uses her front right hoof to take my hand that's around her neck. She begins to gently hold onto it.

Both I and she gaze into each other's eyes with her nose and my own almost touching one another. Her eyes move a bit and form in the shape of a happy look. I can see her ears flip back up into a happy, normal stance. My body starts to feel really warm and comfortable while I am with her. Both me and her gently rock the hoof and hand holding back and forth slowly.

"I'm glad you're with me." I could hear Twilight say in a peaceful whisper audible to me.

I move my other hand towards her mane and start giving it a gentle stroke. "I'm glad to be with you as well. But that is not in the time of need at the moment, this is a celebration. Feel proud of yourself and be the best you can be." I said to her in a low and happy voice.

Rainbow Dash groaned in the sound that she was completely bored and says with a desperate and annoyed tone "Come on Brayden, enough of that lovey-dovey stuff already! The ceremony is done and it won't be long until the train to Ponyville arrives!"

"I'm coming, just allow me a few more moments with Twilight before I come along." I called out towards the rest of my friends while they were leaving.

Rarity was the last to stay along with Spike. "Do take all the time you need." Rarity says with a smile on her own face. She then trots off with the young dragon following her.

I turned back towards Twilight and I'm still holding onto her warm hoof. "Twilight, I was wondering… if you're not busy sometime in a few days, are you interested in-"

"Going on a date with you?" Twilight says, interrupting me. I blush a little bit and she giggles. "Sorry Brayden. Of course, I really enjoyed our first date, minus all the bumps. A second date will be fun."

"Thanks Twilight." I said. "I really have to get going, Rainbow Dash will probably drag me out by my hands if I don't hurry up."

"And I'll see you back in Ponyville." Twilight says.

I could see her wings open up and wrap around me. She pulls me closer towards me and both our lips touch and I lay a gentle kiss onto hers. She returns my kiss with her own lips and is still holding onto my hand with her hoof. After we share that gentle kiss, she unwrapped her wings from around me and I can feel her soft hoof being moved from my hand. Her wings fold up, closing.

I could feel a cyan hoof grab onto my hand and start pulling me from Twilight. I already could tell that it was Rainbow Dash and she was already impatient enough. "Come on Brayden, you're taking so long to say goodbye!" She said to me and I could tell by that tone that she was sounding really annoyed.

"Alright Dashie, I'm coming. Hold your horses." I said, moving my hand away from her hoof that was grabbing mine. It really made me a bit uncomfortable how she randomly took my hand that quickly.

"Don't call me that." Rainbow said to me, still keeping her tone but sounded sharper.

I shrugged at her. "Come on, it's a nickname." I told her. But by the time I finished saying that, Rainbow Dash already pulled me out of there. Twilight just giggles and waves goodbye to me with a wink from her eye.

---

Nighttime was already here and I was back at Fluttershy's cottage. I was feeling really tired and was walking between Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. All three of us moved forward across the stone bridge onto the small hill where the house lay. All of the birds were bustled into their nests asleep with their kin. Harry the Bear was sleeping there in the small cave, snoring quietly probably dreaming all about fresh honey from the bees. Most of the animals were asleep in their little homes outside of the cottage, with a few occasionally opening their eyes to see us.

Fluttershy and I stop at the front door with Rainbow slightly behind us. "Thank you so much for accompanying me and Brayden on our walk back." I could hear Fluttershy's soft voice say to the cyan pegasus, turning to face her. I turn myself around to face Rainbow as well.

"Well, it's no problem Fluttershy. It's always this fun to be hanging out with friends and attend special events with them." Rainbow bragged a bit, but in a good way. "I will see you around, probably tomorrow as usual."

I nod my head with a smile on my face and say "You have a good night's rest now Rainbow. I'll probably see you tomorrow too." I turn around, getting ready to open the door for Fluttershy to enter first.

"Brayden, wait." I could hear Rainbow say to me. I turn around to her and approach her, bending down a little. "I… I wanted to apologize for how sharp I was acting back at the Crystal Empire. I didn't want to miss our train."

I move my hand and gently take Rainbow's hoof, holding onto it just like in that lucid dream I once had. "Don't worry about it Rainbow. I forgive you for it. Patience is the key though." I said to her in that happy voice.

"Thanks." Rainbow Dash says.

"Also, can I have your permission to hug you?" I asked her, hoping her arrogance won't reject a friendly hug.

Rainbow Dash lets a smile loose from her face. "A hug? Sure, come here." I could hear her say and she flaps open her wings. I open up my arms a bit and move closer towards Rainbow Dash, wrapping my two arms around her and giving her a gentle friendly hug. She hugs me back as well, with her hooves on my back. After a few moments, me and her release the hug and smile at each other in a friendly way.

"Catch you later. It's sleepy time for this pegasi." Rainbow Dash says, flying off into the sky.

I chuckle a bit to myself and open up the door, allowing Fluttershy to enter in first. The yellow pegasi smiles at me and goes on through.

"Thank you Brayden." I could hear Fluttershy say to me.

Before I go inside, I take a moment to check up on tonight's weather. Tonight seemed like it was going to be a thunderstorm from the nearby clouds that gave the mist that was actually rain and the white streaks that went across the clouds. I already knew it wasn't going to be safe outside during the night-time. I didn't really want to risk getting struck by lightning. I also take one last look at Canterlot's shadow in the distance being covered over by the clouds below it. I finally move indoors and gently shut the wooden door behind me.

The living room inside the cottage seemed to look very dim. Thank goodness that the moon's shining bright light was spread forward through the windows, allowing me and Fluttershy to see where we were going. I take a look around the dimly-lit cottage room. Most of the animals that were inside most of the time whether it was the few birds or squirrels seemed to be fast asleep inside of their homes. Even Angel was a-snooze on the couch and snoring a bit. It wasn't too loud so it didn't really bother me.

I walked forward towards the flight of wooden stairs with Fluttershy. She is right beside me, trotting up the stairs with me. From what I knew already about being in her home, I knew that her bedroom door was down the hall from where I slept. The bathroom was located across from my bedroom door in case I needed to use it.

"You have a good night's rest." I could hear Fluttershy say to me. Her fuzzy yellow hoof reaches out to my left hand and it gently touches the skin of my hand. I turn my head towards her and gently smile at her.

I turn myself towards her, and kneel down a bit. "You have a good night as well." I said to her, and my hand moves from her hoof. I gently move my hand towards her right cheek and hold it there for a few moments in a friendly way. Her cheeks light up a bit.

After a few moments, I move my hand from her and get up back onto my feet. I walk into my bedroom and close the door behind me. What a day! Now to get myself into pyjamas and head straight to bed. I move towards my wardrobe in the room and open it up. I pick out the ones that Rarity made for me, orange and red coloured PJs. Not going into much detail, I quickly changed into them and put the clothes I wore into the laundry basket. I close the wardrobe.

I move towards the windows and close them shut and cover them with the wooden blinds, even though light can still go through, but it doesn't bother me. I finally walk towards my bed and slump down onto it. I move my feet underneath the bed sheets and pull the big one over my body, allowing me to look at the windows and door just in case.

Good night Equestria. It was another good day and it was fun to see my special somepony attend something big there. I'll see her tomorrow and Equestria tomorrow.

---

Somewhere in Equestria…

The dark streets of a city…

The moon shone over the foggy city and it was a curfew for most of the ponies in that town when the night came through, but not for one pony. It was the unicorn stallion, Rare Find. He seemed to be trotting down the street with a basket full of oranges hovering over him. He was on a delivery to get them to his vendor and then shut down for the rest of the night. He felt like it was rest that deserved to get, but not this late usually.

The owls hooted above him, soaring through starlit skies and twirling around in a dance among their other owl friends. Rare Find just kept going ahead, feeling nervous about somepony dangerous that he would probably run into.

SNAP!

Rare Find stopped for a moment and turned his head around the corner to see who was approaching nearby. He took a look at the streets and couldn't see anypony nearby that was supposedly following him. It was probably just his imagination. He takes a breath of relief, thanking Celestia that nopony threatening was coming for him. He turns around.

A black robed figure is standing there in front of him. Rare Find seems to look frightened nevertheless by the appearance of this mysterious figure. Rare Find could only continue using his magic to keep the basket afloat as he watched and heard the figure's still motion while he breathed cunningly.

Rare Find finally just smiles and places his hoof onto his chest. "Terribly sorry, I didn't see you there." He says, with forgiveness in her tone but still having nervousness let out.

The figure stood still, breathing raspy once again and then finally begins to speak. "Is he friend… or is he foe, the pony wonders… I… I assure you that I am no friend…"

The figure began to move a part of his face into the moonlight, revealing the bottom of his chin and raising up one of its hands and clenching it into a fist. It's teeth was barred against the pony's curious look to wonder why he had been talking like that. "…I am Lord… Tirek."

The unicorn was about to retreat and run out of there, but the figure had already opened its mouth and unveiled a blue beam out. The beam hit precisely onto Rare's horn and began to paralyze him. "I shall take what is mine." The figure says, and then continues absorbing magic out of the unicorn while he silently screamed. And without magic, Rare Find's cutie mark had also disappeared.

Rare Find weakly fell onto the ground and could hardly move. All he could do was open his now-gray eyes and watch as the figure glowed a bit orange and ended up growing a bit in size. The figure opened his eyes, revealing them to be as yellow as ever.

The figure laughed as he passed by the weak unicorn. This figure… or Lord Tirek knew he wasn't going to be stopped this time. This was just the beginning.

---

The Crystal Empire

2:24am

Princess Celestia woke up. Aside from all of the gasping and supposed panicked breathing from waking up, she knew that she had a nightmare. It was strange, for she hadn't had a nightmare ever in a long time since she had banished her sister 1000 years ago. Her hooves gripped onto the sheets as if something was coming to get her, or worse.

The wooden double doors slammed open and in came both Princess Luna and Nightmare Moon. Each one of them displayed a look of worry and concern upon their faces. They had stormed into the room as they already heard the loud awakening gasp of horror that spread out from across the room. Princess Luna by far, looked very worried. "Sister, are you alright?!" Princess Luna asked with worry in the tone of her voice.

Princess Celestia moves her head towards her own head and gently takes a breath. "I just had the most terrible dream." She says.

"Why do you think we're here?" Nightmare Moon says, approaching closer to Celestia past Luna. "We all experienced the same thing. Even I could sense it in the dream realm. You know as well as I and Luna that this was not a dream, but… a vision."

Princess Celestia pushed the sheets off of her body and crawled out of bed. Whatever was already on her mind previously had to be placed on the back burner for now. She could already sense that a foe she and Luna dealt with in the past was already starting to come back. She trots towards the window, looking out from across the Crystal Empire and into the mountains of ice.

"Then we haven't much time. The stronger that he becomes… the more we are all in danger."

---

Ponyville, Fluttershy's Cottage

2:24am

Brayden's POV

The loudest crack of thunder rang out from across the sky, waking me up in bed. The volume of the strike sounded nearby and it scared the crap out of me. I already knew from the pegasi that morning before heading out that it was going to be pretty big.

For me, I just lie there in bed, listening to the sound of heavy rain as it comes pouring down onto the rooftop. There are no leaks thank goodness. If there was, I would have already told Fluttershy by now and she would've hired some roofers to come fix it up. There are no lights on and the entire room is pitch black. The only light that seems to come out is the lightning bolts that create white light that bounce onto the walls briefly before disappearing again. Now, I am reminded of the weather back on Earth… except this is different. I'm not even on Earth.

With the pitter-patter sound of raindrops landing onto the glass window, I could hear the far sound of hooves trotting down the hallway outside of my room. It must be Fluttershy herself. But what is she doing out of bed at this time? Is she going to check up on her critters to make sure that they're okay? I can hear the hoofsteps she makes come towards my door. I then hear my door start to peek open.

There in the doorside was Fluttershy herself, standing there with a shy, frightened look upon her face. She just stood there and was looking at me. I just stared right back here, wondering why she looked so scared.

"Fluttershy?" I asked while leaning upward in bed to look at her. "What are you doing up this late?"

I watch her as she trots into my bedroom as she has always done every morning, but seeing how this as late at night… it is a different story. Her mouth was closed, but from what I could tell: she was probably gritting her teeth together. She trots towards my bed and looks up at me. "I… I couldn't sleep. The sound of thunder was scaring me and woke me up.." I could hear her soft, innocent voice speak to me.

"It woke me up as well," I said to her. "You're not the only one."

"I can't sleep due to the thunder and lightning. Um, can I... can I sleep with you tonight? It's okay if you don't want me to, cause you're in that devoted-" Fluttershy said, before I interrupted by taking her yellow hoof.

I looked into her scared cyan eyes. "Fluttershy, I understand that you are scared. Just think this more as helping out my best friend." I told her, allowing her permission to come on into my bed.

The yellow pegasus reached upward with her two front hooves and touched the mattress of my clean bed. Once pushing herself forward, her back hooves join upward and I watch as she lies down on the bed, close but not next to me. She turns to one side to face me. I gently lie back down onto that side of the bed, facing Fluttershy.

I pull the sheets that covered me back up, but for me and her. Another flash of lightning from outside came briefly, causing her to shake a little bit. I look at her while she is shaking, and I already knew to do to help out friends who were scared. But in this situation it was much more different. I gently moved closer towards her, sliding my arm underneath her and around her with my other arm in the open going around her as well. I move my head closer to hers by the side of her head, giving her a gentle nuzzle.

I could feel Fluttershy's hooves move a bit and I could feel both of her hooves sliding around me and gently holding me closer to her, but not in a romantic way. Her cheek nuzzles with mine. After a few seconds, I move my head away from her cheek and just begin to look into her eyes. Her eyes looked so ever graceful that any moment, you would probably start thinking that I was about to go 'HNNNNG!' due to her cuteness level at this point.

I feel Fluttershy let out a bit of a sneeze and looks up at me in embarrassment. "Sorry." She says to me in an apologetic tone.

"It's okay Fluttershy." I said to her.

"Thank you for letting me sleep here with you. It is much louder where I am sleeping." She said. "Sudden bursts of thunder are bound to scare me."

"So they've always scared you?" I asked.

"Since I was a little filly… Whenever it was this bad, I had to come into my mother's room to sleep with her. It's not really easy getting over this fear. When living by myself with the other animals, I really dug underneath my bed sheets and kept it over me. But now that you came here… you're a big help to me." She explained.

"I almost never got over this fear as well. The more frightened you are, the more it is going to scare you," I suggested to her. "I did get over my fear and the truth is… where I lived, the thunder was probably louder in my room than yours."

"It was?" Fluttershy asked with curiosity in her voice.

"Yes. So everytime there was a bad thunderstorm, I would just listen to my music with headphones on at a low volume. But the strange thing about listening to music the instant you wake up is that it always feels much faster than usual."

"The music is faster as soon as you wake up?" She asked again. "I haven't really heard of something like that. I wouldn't really know either, since I haven't been your world to know about that."

"I know, it's weird when that happens." I said. "But are you sure that you're still interested in visiting Earth?"

Fluttershy's left hoof moves to my hand and gently touches it. "I'm ready whenever you and the rest of my friends are ready. The only problem is how can Twilight teleport all of us there if she doesn't know the spell to do so?"

"I'm sure that Princess Celestia knows it, but with the condition she is in right now… I can't really ask her right now. She seemed… sad."

"Oh…" Fluttershy said, and then let out a tired yawn. "It's around 2:30 in the morning. I'm going to take a rest. You should too. You don't want to be tired in the morning."

I nod my head with a smile and watch as she slowly closes her eyes to return to her sleep. "Good night Brayden." I could hear her tired, soft voice say to me.

I watch her for a short amount of time while she went back off to sleep. The sound of thunder faded a bit, so it wasn't as loud as it was before a couple of minutes ago. The light of the lightning outside continued to flash on within brief moments in the minutes that passed with me just looking at Fluttershy and watching over her as she slept.

My right hand moves from around her and is gently placed onto her gentle, soft mane. I gently move my hand back and forth across the top of the mane, giving it gentle and friendly strokes. "Good night to you too." I whispered to Fluttershy as she slept.

I finally move my other arm back around her where my other arm was, gently comforting her. I gently close my eyes and begin to relax, heading back into the dream realm to revisit my dreams of peace and everlasting joy.

Good night Equestria… yet again. I await the joy and peace that you bring me always in the morning.

---

The Crystal Empire

The next morning…

The leather book was placed onto the crystal table. That golden aura of Celestia's shines around the book and opens it up on the table. All four of the princesses were there at the round crystal table. It was yet another meeting, but this would be the first for Princess Twilight. The papers of the book move to the other side of the leather cover and eventually Princess Celestia stops at the page where she needed to stop at.

"Tirek and his brother Scorpan came from a distant land too far away to matter, intent on stealing Equestrian magic," Princess Celestia explained, with the other three co-leaders listening to the story behind Tirek. "But Scorpan soon came to appreciate the ways of Equestria, even befriending a young unicorn wizard."

Princess Luna decides to talk about what happened next briefly. "Scorpan urged his brother to abandon their plans. When Tirek refused, Scorpan alerted us of Tirek's intentions."

"Scorpan returned to his homeland, and Tirek was sent to Tartarus for his crimes. But it appears he's found a way to escape." Princess Celestia said, sounding a little alerted about his clever escape.

Luna placed a hoof onto the table. "We believe it happened when Cerberus left his post at the gates." She exclaims, trying not to cause a political argument between the four of them.

"That was a long time ago though," Twilight said, sounding a little worried about this. "Why is he now starting to steal magic?"

Princess Celestia trotted from her place at the table and approached Twilight on the other side. "His time in Tartarus had left him very weak. He has just now started to gain enough strength to use his dark powers."

"By each passing moment, he is growing stronger." Princess Luna said, taking her hoof off of the table after her statement.

"With his main priority set down on stealing every single magic inside all of us, it is no doubt that he knows where we are and will take the alicorn magic from us. It will make him powerful enough that he cannot be stopped." Princess Celestia said, facing everypony at the table. "But here are much worse matters that could happen while he runs loose…"

"Worse matters?" Princess Cadence said. "What do you mean?"

"Because the Song of Order has enough magic that could last a lifetime, he could probably take all of the magic inside of the blade." Princess Celestia said, but then stops and gasps. "Brayden is in possession of the blade. But at this point, he probably isn't aware that the blade is real and thinks it is still a legend. He must be stopped."

"And I know just the princess who can help to stop him." Princess Cadence said with a smile on her face, looking at Twilight.

Twilight stood proud, knowing and remembering all the moments when she was brave, stood on all four hooves and took charge and the villains she once faced, but there was always another time to meet them again. But for what though? Revenge? The princess opens her mouth, saying "Yes, I'll find him and-"

"No, Twilight." Princess Celestia said, interrupting Twilight's words. She places her hoof onto her shoulder. "I'm afraid I must call in another to stop Tirek… Discord."

All three of the princesses gasped upon hearing that particular name slip out of Princess Celestia's mouth. The draconequus post-master of chaos. Even Nightmare Moon who had just stumbled right on into the room to deliver some letters of politics to the four of them dropped them upon hearing that name.

Discord.

---

Ponyville, 3:05pm

Brayden's POV

"…As in 'Discord' Discord?" I could hear Applejack say to Twilight. I am standing right between Applejack and Rarity while this conversation has been going for a few to a couple of minutes. Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Spike and Pinkie just watch and listen in on the conversation, just hearing about the news that was going on. The sun had moved across the sky throughout the day and was pretty far from the western horizon.

"Yes!" Twilight exclaims, sounding a bit serious about it.

"I don't think it's that big of a surprise." Fluttershy says, minus the rolling of the eyes around her and the rolling of my eyes. "He can be very helpful."

"He can sense when there is a magical imbalance in all of Equestria." Twilight explains carefully about what the result was for a magical imbalance bound to happen at any time. "The next time that Tirek steals magic from somepony, Discord will be able to track him down."

"So what are you supposed to do in the meantime?" Rainbow asks, standing there across from Pinkie.

"Nothing…" Twilight says, still feeling a bit discouraged by how she's still trying to find something worthy of her title. "Unless one of you needs me to smile and wave." She moves one of her hooves to imitate herself waving to the ponies of Equestria. Finally, she turns and I watch as she begins to trot away from us towards the Everfree Forest.

"Where are you going?" Spike asked.

"To the Castle of the Two Sisters." Twilight exclaimed with the calm tone in her voice. "I'm not really needed anywhere else. Might as well catch up on some of my reading."

"You want some company?" Rainbow Dash asks, flapping her two wings and floating lowly off the ground and into the air.

Applejack also trots forward towards Twilight and says "It has been a while since ya'll of us visited the castle. Might be fun!"

Applejack did prove a point. We couldn't really just leave Twilight alone for this one. Plus, it would be my first time ever going to the castle deep in the Everfree. I could still remember the memories when Twilight first fought Nightmare Moon there inside and found the elements of harmony with the rest of her friends. Then there was the time when all of them were there to investigate the castle while some of them believe in the story of the 'Pony of Shadows'. I'm guessing that was supposed to be a Castlevania reference they pulled. Nevertheless, it would be fun to see the historical piece of architecture.

"Maybe I could use some company right now." Twilight said, turning her head to all of us and having a gentle smile crawl onto her face.

All of us begin to trot forward down the path and into the dark forest with Twilight. I walked up closer on my two feet close beside Twilight. I already remember that I was attacked by timberwolves before and I did not need to be attacked again. But of course, Twilight knew how to protect all of us and herself. At the same time, if I had the Song of Order equipped with me, I could have defended myself. Seeing how it was back at the Golden Oaks library, it's no doubt about that I would depend on Twilight to help us out when we were in danger.

Spike was right behind us, walking on his two dragon feet. The other friends of mine were grouped together with us. Twilight led the way down the path of the Everfree Forest, lighting up the path on some part that were still dark. But there were no timberwolves in the forest, so it must have been my lucky day. I already owe the leader of one pack to make them into timber-wood for the fire.

Most of the walk to the castle was silent. At any occasion, I would turn my head to Twilight to glance at her for a few moments. She would sometimes turn to look at me with her beautiful violet eyes looking into my brown eyes. Her eyes sparkled in the sunlight and were reflected down by the nearest ponds in the forest. Even the calm and gentle river close by was gleaming peacefully with the sunlight. It was also sad at the same time because I never got that chance to see if Steven Magnet was swimming around in the river, awaiting us. I guess that he must have moved onto another place in the Everfree. I hope that I'll get to see him again soon though. After many dirt paths and obstacles that they usually crossed to get to the castle just like in the series premiere, I could see that light out of the forest just ahead.

It was the Castle of the Two Sisters, just as Twilight had predicted would be there. And hell, even the bridge still stood there with the memory of Rainbow Dash tying it up and being loyal to her friends came to me. Nevertheless, the sight of the crumbling castle amazed me. Down in the canyon below, I recognized that spot underground in the cavern that I knew was the Tree of Harmony's location.

I could hear Rainbow Dash sigh behind me, and we eventually stop to take a glance at the castle from across the wooden bridge. "I still can't believe that we had to give back the Elements." I heard her say. The rest of the group join up between me, Twilight and Spike.

"It had to be done or the Tree of Harmony wouldn't have survived." Rarity said.

Fluttershy looked at all of us and said "Twilight was right all along though, even without the Elements of Harmony, our friendship is as strong as ever."

"Ah just hope another 'friend' of ours never makes us sorry that ya'll of us had to give 'em up." Applejack says with two hints of sarcasm and annoyance in her voice.

"But Discord was reformed thanks to Fluttershy, remember?" I said to her. "There's no way that he could try to pull anything behind your backs."

"Remember when he faked his illness?" Twilight said to me, turning her head to look at me. "He made me and Cadence travel all the way to the far parts of Equestria just to find this flower to cure him. In the end, he ended up getting sick for real."

A burst of jolly laughter came right from the blue skies catching us off-guard, but it did give me a little bit of a jump. I moved my head up towards the sky, and the annoyance started to trigger inside me. Lo and behold, it was Discord himself just flying down in a very Mary Poppins style move. Though I would've smiled because of the reference he was pulling. He was even almost wearing something that resembled Mary Poppins. "Oh, you're talking about me, I presume?" Discord asks all of us, while keeping that joyful and humble tone.

"How'd ya guess?" Applejack says with the annoyed tone in her voice.

Discord's ears began to light up with fire. "My ears were burning. It's not usual that I hear somepony mentioning my name." He said. He finally conjures a glass of water in his eagle claw by that flash of light that he would usually use to teleport. He throws the water all over his head, extinguishing the flames. But from what I am seeing, it didn't at all seem that painful to him. Probably because he is the Master of Chaos, I mean Post-Master of Chaos. Kind of like how Pinkie Pie is just Pinkie Pie.

"What are you even doing here Discord?" Rainbow Dash says with question in the sound of her voice.

Discord conjures up another item in his other 'hand': a book. It was the journal that each of my friends would share when they discovered a problem and would solve it, writing about it in the end. "Oh, I'm just doing a bit of light reading before I head off on my extremely important mission." He says in a way to try and make himself seem more arrogant. He finally makes the book head back to the library and conjures up a military-like outfit on him. "I suppose you all know that I've been tasked to capture a certain escapee."

"Big deal!" Spike said, he was starting to sound a little annoyed by Discord's presence by now.

I watch Discord move his head closer to Spike, putting his attention on the little dragon. "You're right Spike. It is that big of a deal." The pipe in the draconequus' mouth blew out a bubble that had covered up Spike and it started to float upward into the air. The bubble popped just a couple of feet off of the ground. Spike was safely caught by Rainbow Dash, and flown back to the ground, safe and sound.

"Seems I possess a magic that gives me quite an important role in Equestria." He continued, turning his arrogance towards Twilight, hoping for a reaction from her. "Maybe they should make me an alicorn princess." His taunting went a bit far as soon as he conjured up a crown upon his head with a horn and a pair of wings right behind him. He imitates a bunch of blowing kisses to the imaginary crowd with a sound effect of a crowd cheering in the background just to set off Twilight. Twilight doesn't even burst at him though. I instead see her looking really annoyed.

"In your dreams Discord!" I heard Rainbow Dash shout out to him at the end of his taunting.

Discord sighs and makes the crown, horn and wings disappear with his antlers and this-that coming back to him. "Oh I never dream of such things. Ask Princess Luna." He says.

"So she visits you in your dreams on occasion?" I asked him. I begin to feel a little uncomfortable when he appears right behind me, disappearing from in front of my eyes.

"Yes, indeed!" Discord says, sounding happy again. "As much as I wish to have the ability to enter dreams, I wish she could teach me how."

A letter burped out from Spike's mouth in a green flame that was sent towards me. It was a rolled up letter with a dark blue ribbon. Discord got a bit curious and I unrolled the letter, already starting to figure out that it was most likely Princess Luna who sent it. I open it up, beginning to read the letter to him.

"To Discord,

You already know the answer to wanting to enter the dream realm. The answer will always be No. I would appreciate it if you stopped asking me for that spell and talked about your dreams involving me to your friends.

From

Princess Luna"

Discord let out a bit of a disappointed grumble. I chuckled lightly a little bit, but then cut it off when the draconequus was shooting me an irritated look from his face. Even Twilight was moving her hooves in a way to not do anything else that would upset Discord and her face looked surprised. After a quick moment, Discord brushes the look off and just pats me on the head with his bear paw. My annoyed look quickly comes back to me.

"Don't ya have a creepy magic-stealin' villain to track down?" Applejack suggested, still sounding a bit annoyed while Discord was still here.

"Yes, yes, yes, of course." Discord says to her.

I begin to watch him snap the fingers on his eagle claw. Then everything starts to feel weird, as if I was moving straight into one of those teleporting devices. The way I was being motioned by the bright flash felt like I was travelling at approximately one millisecond. But even then, it felt like the molecules that were a part of me were scrambled around and then put back together again. Once the brightness settled down, I could see that I and the rest of the group were in the cavern below the castle. In my view, the Tree of Harmony with that mysterious crystal-like box still sitting there and waiting to be opened.

Discord walks on his two draconequus feet towards the mysterious chest. "It's just that I couldn't help but notice that Princess Twilight hasn't yet opened this little chest of hers." He continued, knocking the chest a little bit. "It got me thinking, what if what's locked inside is something that could help her prove her royal worth. I only bring it up because she said that she's been feeling that her role as a princess doesn't equate too much."

"Hey!" Pinkie says, already starting to get a bit tired of having Discord lecture us all. The tone in her voice already gave off that she was suspicious. "How do you know how she was feeling?!"

Discord paused for a moment there. His face begins to mock sadness, including the tone of his voice. "Oh, my. Is eavesdropping not the way you're supposed to find out what your best pals are up to? Woe is me." He says. "Will I ever learn the intricate nuances of being a good friend?"

All of us just stare at Discord in annoyance. We already know that he's trying to stir up drama for himself and to try and have us comfort him about it. But he must be thousands of years old, therefore he is an adult as estimated by Earth standards. But the way all of us were looking at him, he was acting like a child at such a young age.

Discord finally gets the hint of the look on our faces and snaps a finger to make a motorcycle-like bike appear. "Well, in any case, I suppose now is as good a time as any for me to make my exit." He gets onto the motor-bike, putting on a helmet and starting the engine. He disappears.

"And good riddance!" Applejack shouts out to him, already letting her annoyance let loose about him.

"Yeah!" I shouted as well, taking Applejack's side.

A flash of light appeared right on top of my head. It was Discord yet again. At this point, I was almost about to burst at the draconequus himself. Seriously, we've already dealt with your crap Discord. Why are you still here to annoy us further? Go away!

"Oopsie-doopsie, I almost left with the little journal you've all been keeping." Discord said, placing the journal on top of Twilight's horn. She starts trying to balance it, feeling very uncomfortable about Discord being as close to her as possible. "What a fascinating read. Haven't you girls just learned so much? I've bookmarked a few of the more interesting passages. You really should take a look!"

I then watch Discord move his head closer to Fluttershy in a sort of hushed whisper, but in a way that all of us could hear it. "We're still on for tea later, aren't we Fluttershy?" He asks.

Fluttershy just smiles and says "I wouldn't miss it."

Discord finally walks back up towards the tree and opens up an invisible door via the golden floating doorknob into a complete white room. He puts on a singsong tone and says "Well, I'll bring the cucumber sandwiches then." He walks straight into the room, but peeks out at all of us and waving with his bear paw hand. "Ta-ta!" He finally shuts the invisible door and leaves. This time for real.

"Sometimes I think that the 'reformed' Discord is more obnoxious than the 'before-he-was-reformed' Discord." Applejack states, relieved that he finally left the area.

"Indeed." I hear Rarity behind me, agreeing with her.

I have my eye set on the crystal chest. Truly, there must be something in there. As much as Discord was annoying us, he did prove a point about what could be inside. "But he could be right, couldn't he?" I heard Fluttershy ask. I turn my head towards both Twilight and Fluttershy, listening in on the conversation. "What if there is something important in that chest?"

Twilight pauses for a moment and started to think about this. With the journal in her hooves, an idea somehow sparks for her. "There's only one way to find out." She says.

Then, there came that activity that Twilight really enjoyed in her spare time, and I had just gotten into since I came here.

Books.

---

Tirek's POV

In the corner of the street, I finish absorbing the magic out of somepony. I watch as they struggle to get up and run, but all they seem to do is just land on the ground, weak and tired. The moon still shines so brightly from where I am at the moment.

Yes… yes! The dream that I had all this time was coming just as true as ever! With the strength growing within me, I can finally take every magic from every Equestrian soul. Even their magic aroma tastes delicious. It was just too bad that Scorpan could not aid me in this deed. That backstabber ended up telling the two princesses at the time, and had he not had given in, I would have already won by now! But he chose cowardly instead of true strength.

I turn down another corner in the dark and foggy street. I can see another pony standing there looking very distracted. A smile crept onto my face. Now is the time to strike and steal the magic from him. It wasn't like that other orange-carrying pony I ran into when I first came here. I do not care to where this is and I do not care to find it the town's name!

I start to descend closer towards the pony. I could smell the scent of magic within him. It seemed so unusually powerful than any of the other ponies' magic I've absorbed. He is almost within my reach… I can already start to taste it. But it turns out with a different face.

"Tirek, I presume?" The strange shape-shifting creature said. But I already knew who it was… the Master of Chaos.

I stop and just look at him. "Discord?" I said in my current-raspy voice, pausing for a moment as he transformed into a bird via his magic. "You're free?"

"As a bird." He said. The bird version of Discord scratched at his beak with his feathered wings.

I smile with surprise. "Well… I commend you on your escape." I said. With his escape, I'm surprised that he is just wandering through town in disguise.

"I'm afraid the feeling isn't mutual." He said to me with disappoint growing into his voice. He transforms back into his normal self and snaps his eagle fingers. Chains appear around my two weak hands. With anger growing inside of me, I gather some power to form an orange ball around me. I fire it straight at the master of chaos, but his head splits in two to avoid being hit by the beam. Once the beam had passed, his head comes back together. He looks quite angry with me, but I do not care.

"Oh…" I said, clenching the both of my hands together into fists. "I should have known you would want to have Equestria all to yourself."

Discord is in a police offer-like outfit leaning back on a garbage bin and swing handcuffs around with one finger, but then disappears. He comes closer to me. "Oh I'm not doing this for me. I'm doing this for my friends." He said, but then turns more hushed. "But just between the two of us, it's mostly for Fluttershy." He lets out a funny face, makes a squee sound and moves his head away.

"Fluttershy?" I start to ask. No… it just could not be true. "You're not saying that you are friends… with ponies?" I start to grow suspicious.

"Surprise!" Discord cheers, popping right out of a cake with party noises right behind him. Some of the cake bits get onto my black robes, but this doesn't matter to me. I was just surprised that the one-and-only Discord would be taking sides with those cursed ponies.

"I am surprised that someone with your intellect does not see this 'friendship' is but a new form of imprisonment. Clearly you've had to abandon your true nature to stay in their good graces." I said to him, as he makes the cake disappear.

Discord plays a soft and sudden peaceful tune on the mini-harp with an angelic halo hovering over his head. Then he pauses to look at me again, swatting away the glowing halo over his head and disperse of the harp. "I have done nothing of the sort!" Discord argues in surprise. This was a sign that I could easily bring him over to me.

"Oh please, I have seen this all before. But he was always weak minded." I said, with the thoughts of my brother Scorpan coming to me. I still remember the day he and the two pony princesses came to banish me into Tartarus in the first place. I felt so betrayed, but I already know that when I'm done with Equestria, Scorpan will be the first to see. I've got business to deal with him.

"But you are Discord, you are legend, you cannot fall into the same trap that claimed my brother!" I continued, using my words of wisdom to convince him. "Help me to grow strong, and be rewarded with something far greater than friendship. Freedom." I take the hood of my robes off, revealing my centaur head to him. "Once I've stripped these ponies of their magic, nothing would give me more greater pleasure than to see their world turned upside-down. Who better to do so than the master of chaos himself? Join me, Discord, and reclaim your greatness."

He starts to ponder with this thought for a moment, looking at the picture of him and Fluttershy on a nightstand he conjured up. I pushed my face closer towards him. "Unless of course…" I said, trying to pull an intimidation to force him to join. "Pony errand-boy is the role you've always wanted to play in this world."

Discord just sighs and begins to switch between looking at me and the picture of him and Fluttershy. He was trying to make a decision, but he'd better hurry up. I've got some magic to steal. He finally turns to me and opens his mouth to speak of his decision.

---

Brayden's POV

The library inside the castle didn't seem to look as dusty as it did last time I saw it. Most of Twilight's friends must have got in and cleaned up around the place. I could even see the wall that lead to find that dangerous book where Spike entered, but I am not going to mention that. From what I saw in the episode, it caused a lot of trouble around Ponyville when it was used. Rarity was involved in it.

I'm just looking into a history book on the details of Equestria and its secret relics. The Song of Order was mentioned in this book a few times, but nevertheless, I could not find any specific details on the mysterious chest. Most of my friends were reading the other books on Equestria's history, even going far back into the roots of when it was born. Twilight stands there at a desk, reading from the journal. From the page I was seeing, she must have gotten curious about the bookmarking Discord had done and began to read through them.

I am at least getting a few other details about the claymore. This was written when the Song of Order was still down as a legend and not the real thing. In this book, it has estimated when it might have been created around the birth of Equestria's existence. But the Song of Order told me already that itself was created back before the main three races were even born, forged in the magic fires, deep in one of Whinnepago's forgeries. If the place still existed, I would probably journey there to check it out and to see if the alicorns who once dominated Equestria were still there. But again, the Song of Order told me that they gave their power to Celestia and Luna to save their race from extinction. But what is the cause of their extinction if they aren't there?

Equestria was quite a beautiful, but mysterious world sometimes.

"I think I've found something!" I heard Twilight call out to all of us. My head drops from the book and I place it down onto the nearby table, walking over to the desk Twilight was at with the rest of her friends. "I've been reading our journal, and there is something interesting about the sections that Discord book-marked." I watch as she turns to Applejack, who just trotted up next to me. "Applejack, do you remember when you had to tell everypony that the tonic that Granny bought from the Flim Flam brothers didn't really work?"

I watch Applejack take off her Stetson hat, revealing her pale olive coloured mane. "How could ah forget?" She said. "It was one of the hardest things Ah ever had to do. But in that moment, Ah knew Ah had to be honest. Ah just knew it. But what's that got to do with openin' the chest?"

"I've found that each one of you has had to face a situation where living up to your Element of Harmony wasn't easy." Twilight explained, and then turned to my best friend. "Fluttershy, it was when you realized that the way to show kindness to the Breezies was by forcing them to leave your home."

A quick flashback came to when I first saw that episode and witnessed Fluttershy forcing them to leave with the help of Sea Breeze. I did feel bad for Fluttershy when she had started sobbing at the end of that scene. "Oh, the looks on their poor little faces! But I knew that, as difficult as it was, pushing them away was the kindest thing I could do." Fluttershy said with her soft voice.

"Rarity," Twilight called to her unicorn friend. "Even after Suri took advantage of your generosity at Fashion Week in Manehattan, you didn't let it abandon your generous spirit."

"I simply couldn't have lived with myself if I didn't do something special for the friends who have always been so generous to me!" Rarity said.

"Rainbow Dash," Twilight calls out to the pegasus that was athletic. "You had a chance to fly with the Wonderbolts at the Equestria Games, but you instead chose to compete with your friends."

"Sure!" Rainbow Dash said, looking proud. "But being loyal to my friends was way-"

"Oh!" Pinkie Pie said, bouncing up and down. The pink party pony I knew didn't care if she had interrupted Rainbow or not. "My turn, my turn!"

"Pinkie Pie," Twilight said, with a giggle coming out of her. "You realized that seeing your friend laugh was more important than proving you were a better party planner than Cheese Sandwich."

"Best party I've ever had." Rainbow Dash commented with a smile.

"It's clear we've all had our moments to shine, Twilight." Rarity said, placing one hoof at the table. "But I'm with Applejack. What does any of this have to do with the opening of the chest?"

"All of you had tough choices to make." Twilight began to explain. "But when you made the right one and embraced your element, it helped somepony else make the right choice too. Each of you received something from the pony whose life you helped change. I know it sounds crazy, but maybe there's something special about those objects that could lead us to the location of the keys. The chest is connected to the Tree of Harmony, the tree is connected to the Elements, and the Elements are connected to all of us. There must be a connection!" She pauses for a moment and smiles. "I hate to admit it, but maybe Discord was trying to be a good friend after all."

"So what happens next?" I asked, with Twilight and the rest of her friends turning to look at me.

Twilight trots away from the desk and to all of us. "We go and get the items we received and bring them to the chest." She simply says.

---

I was standing by the Tree of Harmony and keeping a careful eye around the whole place for any signs of Tirek, should he come crawling into the Everfree territory. Twilight had assigned me to watch for trouble and to defend myself and the tree if necessary. The sun was starting glow a bit down at the western horizon and it was getting close to dinner time.

The sound of hooves trotting soon got my attention. I turned my head towards the stairs at the canyon side. Each one of the Mane Six except Twilight was carrying an object in their mouth. I trot with them back into the cave where the Tree of Harmony was and watch them place the items down onto the cavern floor.

Twilight examines the items closely with a curious look: a flower, a golden bit, a spool with rainbow wool, Spitfire's badge and the rubber chicken Boneless. Her face then changes, looking a little bit confused about them. "I don't see anything on them that would give us a clue as to where the keys might be." She said, the rest of her friends looking up at her. "They're just… ordinary, everyday objects…"

Pinkie takes a hold of the rubber chicken and starts to shake him like a doll, and I already knew that when Pinkie was angry, all hell was going to break loose at any moment. "Come on Boneless!" She shouts at the rubber chicken as if it were an actual pony. "Give us that key!"

She continues to shake the squeaking rubber chicken like crazy with everypony else, including myself just watch as she just takes it all out on a single rubber chicken. I usually would laugh if I was still watching this at home, but this was serious business. You really don't want an angry Pinkie in your face.

"I don't think that's going to work." Twilight suggested, rising up one of her hooves to try and catch Pinkie's attention. In her mere frustration, Pinkie just tosses the squeaking rubber chicken straight out of her hooves and towards the box. The rubber chicken makes a soft impact with the chest and starts to fall flat towards the ground.

Then it happened. A mysterious aura surrounded the rubber chicken Boneless and twisted in a straight position. Everypony including me gasps at the event we are witnessing. The rubber chicken then undergoes a transformation, turning itself into a key and then moving all by itself into the key slot on the crystal chest. The sound of the key porthole chimes lightly.

All of us stood there for a few moments, with Pinkie's mouth just open with awe at what just happened. Her face then changed into one that could tell that it didn't really matter that Boneless was a key the whole time. "That'll be something to write to Cheese Sandwich about." She blurted out in the silence.

Within that moment, everypony just snaps out of that and proceeds to gather rest of the items onto contact with the chest. I watch as Fluttershy gathers the flower that the Breezies gave her, trots over to the chest and places the flower on top of it. Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Applejack place their items on top of the chest as well. They stand back to make way for that aura again.

The aura takes a hold of the items and twisted them into a straight way. Each key went through another transformation that was different from Pinkie's key. The most interested for me was probably Fluttershy's key because it had undergone a metamorphosis from a flower into a golden key with the back shaped a bit like a butterfly. The cutie mark of my best friend.

I watch as each transformed key slides magically into each of the four slots and hear the sound of the portholes chiming brightly like crystal. I then counted out the portholes and keys left. Only five down, one more to go… Twilight didn't get her key yet.

"There's still one key missing. The key that represents the Element of Magic… My element." Twilight says, sounding a little disappointed for not getting her key yet.

"Oh, but I'm sure that if we've gotten our keys, you have too Twilight." Fluttershy said.

Rarity trots towards Twilight from the chest. "Think, Twilight." She suggested. "When have you completed a difficult magical task, and in doing so encouraged another pony to do the same?"

Twilight ponders with these thoughts for a moment and she turns to look at Rarity. "I haven't. If I had, I would've written about it in the journal." She says.

"Don't worry Twilight." Spike said, standing right next to her. "I'm sure that you'll get your key eventually." He is right after all, she'll be bound to find it. And with that, he lets in a sharp inhalation. Out of his mouth, he burped out in green flame a letter with a red ribbon, already knowing it was from Princess Celestia herself. Twilight takes the letter and begins to skin through it to see what was going on and why Celestia contacted her. "What's it say?"

Twilight lets out a gasp and looks at me and the rest of her friends. "That I'm needed in Canterlot at once!" Her voice said, sounding very alarmed. Was it Tirek that made her alarmed?

"Do you want me to come with you Twilight?" I asked, as she begins to trot out of the cavern door.

"No, stay here in Ponyville. I fear this might be dangerous and urgent by the writing of the letter. I want you safe." Twilight warned me, taking the scroll and then opening her wings, flapping them to lift her into the air. I watch as she takes flight into the skies of Equestria towards the mountain city of Canterlot.

"I hope everything is going alright for the princesses." I said, sounding a little worried.

Fluttershy places her soft hoof onto my hand. I turn my head away from the skies and towards her. "Well, the princesses are just doing their job to ensure the safety of Equestria and everypony." She told me.

"But what if it is Tirek himself?" I said, striking my heart with worry emotionally.

"Don't worry, I think he is still a bit far from Canterlot." Fluttershy says with that assuring tone in her voice to keep me calm about him. "Or at least I think so. We should let Twilight go with her duty as Princess for now. You've got some dinner to get. I don't want you to starve."

"You're right. I'm probably overreacting." I said, putting a soft smile onto my face. Even the sound of my rumbling stomach gave it away. I begin to walk with the rest of my friends back out of the canyon, up the stairs. I turn to Canterlot one last time, with a hint of worry coming to me.

I hope Twilight and the princesses are okay.

---

Twilight's POV

I came bursting through the open castle doors, knowing that I had opened each one with my magic. I just about came galloping into the throne room where Princesses Celestia, Luna and Cadence were, sitting there by the throne. Nightmare Moon stood by them, still haven't been given that role yet since she had been redeemed, or most likely a slow redemption still being fixed thanks to my special somepony, but I'm sure she'll find her true role soon just like me. Celestia sat on top of the throne's cushion looking down at me while I continued to catch my breath.

"I came as quickly as I could!" I said, catching my breath and with that alarmed tone in my voice. "Is something wrong? Is it Tirek?"

I watch Celestia lower her head in disappointment at first and then raise her head. "I'm afraid I put too much trust in Discord and the effect that would have upon him." She says in her mother-like tone of voice. After the few moments of eerie silence, she then spoke out the truth. "Discord has betrayed the ponies of Equestria and joined forces with Tirek."

A feeling of anger and betrayal came into me. "How could he do this?!" I said, sounding betrayed. "I thought our friendship meant something to him! I thought he had changed!"

Princess Celestia got up off of her throne and trotted down slowly towards me. "Tirek has stolen enough magic that he now has the strength to steal flight as well. Without Pegasi to control the weather, there will be no rain in Equestria." She continues. "There is word that he has also gone after Earth ponies as well. Without their strength, they will not be able to tend the land."

Princess Luna moved from her spot and trotted down with Cadence next on the left beside Celestia. "Ponies will no longer be in control of their world. That power will belong solely to Tirek." The night princess says to me.

"It is no doubt that Tirek is also after alicorn magic." Celestia explains. "With Discord by his side, we will not be able to stop him from taking it."

"Once it is in his possession, his power will know no bounds, and all hope will be lost." Princess Luna says, starting to sound worried about it.

"There is hope though." Nightmare Moon says, trotting closer towards me and the rest. "Doesn't Brayden have in possession, the Song of Order?"

"I'm afraid we can't let Tirek be aware that the Song of Order is here." Princess Celestia warned the black mare. "If Tirek stumbles upon the news of the Song of Order's existence, he'll try to seek Brayden out just to steal the magic from the sword, rendering it useless. If he does have that magic, we'll lose far more than hope. Everything we know will be gone."

"Somepony needs to warn Brayden about this." Nightmare said, sounding very worried about my special somepony.

"Twilight should warn him about Tirek and the consequence of the sword's magic being stolen." Princess Cadence said. "She'll know what to do."

"First though, we must turn to the only solution worthy of helping us out. It is only by making this sacrifice that Equestria and the lands beyond might be saved." Celestia announced and made a pause, with all of the princesses looking at me. Even Nightmare Moon.

"…We must rid ourselves of our magic before Tirek has a chance to steal it from us."

All I could do was gasp in horror.

A/N: Alright, last time I made an update to this story was a month back. Surprising... and it's almost November 26, a celebration for the anniversary of the oncoming story.

Boy oh boy, Halloween was good. I got like a whole pillow of candy and I kept thinking that the pillow I got the candy in was going to break! :o But I am glad that it didn't! What did I dress up as for Halloween, well I did Norwegian Black Metal again for the second time. I ended up giving people a real scare and they loved my makeup I did. I swear that the mouth part was almost like Abbath's makeup from Immortal. Also, I might be getting a Nightwish VIP ticket. Since they are my favorite band, I would love to meet them and the new singer.

Now... I want to talk about some things for my story.

1) On my profile page, I have added two lists based on this story. One is my inspirations for the story and the other is for the story's soundtrack. Feel free to check them out when you can.

2) Upon the next chapter being released after this current one. The rating will be changed into a M.

3) I know I've said this already and even the soundtrack gives it away. There will definitely be Brayden x Coco and Brayden x Sunset in the story. One other possibility is Brayden x Fluttershy. Though the most likely case is Brayden x Twilight is the main romantic focus.

But now... the Review Responses!

chipmunkfanantic: Yes indeed. :)

AVP5: You are about to find out shortly.

godzillafan1: I see. Well it is understandable because your username states you are a Godzilla fan. I still haven't seen the new movie unfortunately and I really need to catch up on watching those kinds of movies. I have to get back to college work though.

P.S. Alright it wasn't as big of an announced break as ever, but I need to get my mind on things. I swear I ended up getting a D+ in my elective class. :/ Oh well... the new chapter everyone. :)

P.S.S. When is Season 5 going to kick in? It has been a while you know. :)

---

Twilight's POV

I was in both a surprise and in shock from the words that Princess Celestia had told me. Giving up our magic so Lord Tirek can't get it? But why? The princess' faces of sheer concern continue to cross on their faces even after I had realized how it had to end overall.

"Tirek is set on possessing alicorn magic," Princess Luna spoke out, set out on this plan. The tone of her voice was that of a warning. "When he comes for us, we cannot have what he is looking for."

I paused for a few moments and my eyes were set down onto the ground. Giving up my magic was like giving up something that felt important in my life. I've grown up with magic my whole life, wanting to know more about it. It was a dream that I had and continued to follow throughout the lifetime I had. With my alicorn magic, I'm pretty sure that my lifespan increased by, I'm guessing five… ten years? Well no matter, I cannot keep the other princesses waiting for my answer.

I looked right back up at Princess Luna. She looked patiently at me for the answer I found. "I'm more than willing to do my part and give up my magic." I said, knowing that this will be a sacrifice worth making for Equestria's sake.

"You misunderstand," Luna speaks out again. "Our magic cannot just disappear into thin air. Somepony must keep it safe."

"That somepony is you, Twilight." Cadence said, trotting forward towards me.

"Why me?" I had asked.

"We do not believe that Tirek is aware that a fourth alicorn princess exists in Equestria," Celestia said, looking down towards me and trotting closer. "If we transfer our magic to you, Tirek will not know where it has gone."

I could feel the hoof of Princess Cadence on my shoulder and turn my head to look at her. "Do you understand what we're asking of you?" She questions.

"Yes," I said, ending it with a sad sigh. "It's just… I'm only now learning how to control my own alicorn magic. To take on even more-"

"Twilight?" I hear Cadence ask again. "You represent the Element of Magic. If there is anypony who can do this, it's you."

I paused again, and turn my head away. "Taking on this task is one of the most difficult things I'll ever do," I said, the tone of my voice changing to sound more confident about this. "But with the help of my friends-"

"I'm sorry Twilight," Princess Celestia said, interrupting me but because this was of importance I stopped talking. "But you must keep your new abilities a secret. I fear that your friends being aware of your new power could put them at great risk. Do you still think you could take on this responsibility?"

"This is the role I was meant to play as a princess in Equestria!" I said, sounding brave once again. "I will not fail my duty."

"Then we must begin at once." Celestia announced to me.

"Wait!"

My head is turned towards Nightmare Moon. She stands there by the throne, looking worried as ever about something. By the sides of my vision, I could see the other princesses turning their heads towards the black alicorn. Her cyan eyes were crossed into a concerned look.

"I just became concerned about something." Nightmare said. "I'm worried about Brayden. He holds the Song of Order. What are we going to do about him?"

"I will warn him about the danger that Tirek is coming soon," I said to her. "He should be able to hide it in a safe place. The Song of Order is still at the library, so I will tell him as soon as I can that he needs to put it somewhere else right away."

"I will agree with Twilight," Celestia said again. "Putting it in a safe place will not draw attention to its location by Tirek as he can smell magic when it is close by. It explains why he is drawn to the magic we have."

"I still have a feeling that it would not work out." Princess Luna says, again with her doubts coming to her.

"It might be the only hope we have for Brayden's safety," Princess Cadence said. Most of our ideas had outweighed the doubts of disagreement made by Luna. "Why are you concerned?"

"It will be no doubt that when Tirek makes his approach, Brayden will stand by to defend us with the Song of Order," Princess Luna explained. "The more magic that is drawn from the sword, the easier it is for Tirek to steal it when he has weakened Brayden long enough."

"While Twilight is holding onto our magic, she can make absolute sure that Brayden understands this. Besides, he should know a place where it cannot be found." Cadence debated once again.

"Nevertheless, Twilight will be given this task," Princess Celestia had exclaimed to Cadence. Her eyes turn towards me. "But now we must begin, for time is starting to run out."

I stand there still on the carpet. All of the alicorn princesses gather in a circle around me and wait for Nightmare Moon to come and join them. All of us turn their heads towards the black alicorn once again. She seemed a bit timid about doing this. It is almost as if she did not want to do this at all. She did not want to give up her alicorn magic, even though it was pretty weak after Brayden had purified the dark magic she used to have.

"Well I can see why this is a risk," She says. "If I have to do it for Equestria, so be it. I just hope this does work out in the end."

"Tirek will be aware of your return and will act a bit surprised at first," Celestia said, watching as Nightmare joins the circle. "But he'll only look at you as if you were different."

Silence began to fill the throne room. All of the princesses around me just looked at me, starting to channel their magic to their horns. The sound of the magic auras ignites with the look of their horns that brightened the color of their aura with a glow. Nightmare had a bit of trouble at first channeling her magic because her magic was weak, but eventually managed to pull through.

The power of their magic began to shoot like lasers from out of them and led into a beautiful bright ball right above me. I looked up and stayed still, not try to flinch away. If I flinch, the magic will go loose and it's much easier for Tirek to steal them. The ball of magic remained there, floating above me and preparing to dive down straight towards me. A feeling of mild panic starts to run through my mind. What if it's all a trap and the ball of magic will hurt me in the process? I had not answered myself that question when that bright light descends down upon me and covers me entirely, blinding my vision.

---

Discord's POV

This feels absolutely perfect! Tirek was right after all about what he had promised to me. I definitely feel a little stronger without the magic of friendship. My two feet of two different sorts of animals that I don't really need to explain are walking on the dirt ground as I follow Tirek towards the castle ground. He is busy stealing magic from a few ponies. Since I had been with Tirek for the last few hours, he has grown into incredible size and continues to grow by every magic he takes.

Oh my, that tingling in my body sets off and I begin to find myself shaking. How I knew about this kind of tingling was when there had been a change. It was something that I felt nearby inside of the castle and it did make me feel kind of doozy. After a few moments, it ends. But this felt different.

"That can't be right…" I said, now starting to think about what had caused this to happen.

Tirek just about finished stealing some magic, growing a few inches on his two horns. "What can't be right?" He says to me in a strong, gruff voice. His raspy old voice was no longer there from the magic he now owned and possessed. His voice had changed.

"Nothing…" I said trying to change the mood to make it seem like nothing was wrong. "Carry on."

Tirek remains emotionless, not looking at my face as he continues his rampage through the city streets and towards the castle gates. I continue to follow him, but by the tingling I had experienced: there was more to that.

As much as I was happy to join forces with Lord Tirek, I couldn't help but feel something was wrong. What in the hay is going on and why do I still have that feeling of doubt? Nevertheless, I need to keep it behind me. This is a new promise that the Centaur promised me and I intend to keep listening to his words.

---

Twilight's POV

The light began to lift from the throne room. I can feel myself being lifted in the air. With the eyes of clear white shining through, I can feel the power inside of me. The powers of the princesses are bound within me, by the layers of the horn filled with their sun-raising and moon-raising elements. With that, the powers of love and what powers that Nightmare had to scrap from her horn. My mane is flowing in the air just like how Luna and Celestia's manes flowed by themselves whether windy or not.

My four hooves land back onto the carpet again. I close my eyes to remove the white glow that remained on my eyes and I can feel the hair of my mane set back into normal position. With the magic I have now, it is going to be hard to hide this without having Tirek know that I now am taking care of it. I opened my eyes once again.

All of the princesses had weak and tired looks of expression drawn onto their faces. I look over at Princess Luna and she turns her head towards her flank. Her cutie mark of the moon had disappeared. With that, all of them had suffered the same fate from the exchange. Needless to say, I just gallop over to Princess Celestia and give her a careful hug.

"It is done." She said to me with a sigh. She was right, as long as the transaction had been made, Tirek cannot find the magic anywhere.

"I must get going now; Tirek will probably arrive in any minute now." I said to all four of them. I turn my head around and begin to walk towards the door. My face remains sad.

"Twilight… wait," Princess Celestia said weakly. I stop before I am just four or five steps away from the large wooden doors. My head turns around once again. Princess Celestia seems a little bit quiet about something and she was going to confess it. "There is something I must tell you."

"What is it?" I had asked.

"It's about Brayden," She said to me. "Until he finds out, I want to tell you this and then keep it as secret as you possibly can until he finds out the truth for himself. The secret is kept between all five of us."

"Truth?" I question once again.

I could feel her trot weakly towards me. Her snout moves near my right ear and begins to whisper a statement into my ear. After she had done her whispering, I looked at her face. Her face was crossed into a look that was serious. I could already tell that she wanted me to promise not to tell him or anypony else this news.

I let out a quiet sigh with my ears lowering quickly and then raising again. "As much as it is a complete surprise to me, I will promise not to tell him. But it will be a shock for him when he finds out."

I just hope what she told me won't cause such an uproar on him. I would hate to see him angry if he finds out about this.

---

Ponyville, Fluttershy's Cottage

Brayden's POV

My eyes are open once again. I'm lying down in my bed, letting the blurred vision from sleep start to clear up and focus again on what was happening outside.

I stare out through the open window of the room. The moon is shining brightly through my bedroom window, shedding light to those who enjoyed the wonders of the night. Where I had lived on Earth, educational purposes as a kid had taught me that the moon or the brightest star in the sky 'Sirius' had helped out travellers at sea to look where they were going at night. A few winged creatures flew by in the night. Most likely in my case, there were only a few owls or bats.

I had been asleep for quite some time. My mind goes back a bit to recollect my thoughts on what happened that evening. I could remember that I and the rest of my friends went back to Ponyville to grab a bite to eat. After we had our meal share, I had gone back with Fluttershy to her cottage. I was really dead tired. I did fall asleep and now here I am just waking up from a dream.

Something felt different about this dream though. I felt a little disappointed about what happened in that realm. Princess Luna didn't have the chance to come and visit me, nor did Nightmare come as well. But of course, I can understand if something came up like the news about Lord Tirek. Wasn't Discord supposed to be tracking him by now? That had been understandable since news of the centaur were spreading like wildfire. I didn't know what he looks like, but I was aware that he had been in the first generation back in the 80s. I wasn't even born yet! But back to my dream, sure it was peaceful but it felt empty without the two said princesses there to visit on occasion.

Something was feeling strange about the moon though, it stood still in the night sky unable to move from there. Not only that, if I was estimating the right time it was supposed to be seven o'clock in the morning. Questions and predictions start to ponder through my head while observing this majestic body of night. Did the princesses already get captured by Lord Tirek? Were they distracted from their duties? I had no idea, but I had to notify somepony about what was happening. But the true question to me: what was going on?

The room continues to remain silent. Only the quiet sounds of my feet moving slowly across the floor are heard from the wooden planks below my two feet. I'm going towards my door and reaching out of the handle. If I am too loud it would probably wake up the animals and in the end, Fluttershy as well. I've already seen her very rarely that upset at others for waking them up so it was just best that I remain quiet.

I turn the handle on the door slowly and pull it back carefully. The sounds of the wooden door creaking are heard while the door is being pulled. I stop after the door is peeked open by… I'm not sure, one or two feet? I'm bad at Math or estimating these kinds of stuff, so I wouldn't know. I move by my side from the front of the slightly-opened door and squeeze through the opening.

I'm obviously always this quiet at night because experience at my home back on Earth was because of people I knew also living there. The dog there was always sleeping during that time, but what made matters worse was when she was barking at the door that late at night. It'd give me such a hard time about sleep.

My foot taps silently into the hallway. From the silence, I could hear the sound of crickets chirping in the peace of the night. Fluttershy must've left one of the windows open to let in some air. I start tip-toeing down the hallway towards her bedroom. As much as I don't to wake her up, she's the only pony closest that I had to tell about the moon still in the sky.

Wait a second, through one of the open windows I saw the moon vibrating a little bit. Was it starting to make an attempt to move? I keep my eyes on the celestial body as it starts to make a move towards the eastern horizon. The moon disappears for a moment, and then comes back into the sky. By the way it had been moving, it seemed like Princess Luna was already starting to have a little bit of trouble I would suspect. It was almost as if… it had moved in a hurry. The moon disappears again, in the same direction it was going. The sun comes out for a moment, then night again for a brief moment before the sun crawled out and lit up the sky with blue.

Well for one thing the sun is out so there didn't seem to be any need for having to be quiet. That completely made me realize that was making me look very dumb, even though I wasn't. Dismissing that claim, I let off my quiet stance and just began walking in a beeline straight to Fluttershy's room. It didn't really matter anymore about the noise because day had come so quickly.

I approached her door and form my left hand into that of a fist. I raise it upwards into the air and softly knock on the door. I do not want to knock on it too hard. There is silence for a few moments. I move my head towards the door and press my ear up against the wood. Inside the room, I could hear her softly yawn and the sound of her bed sheets moving. She must've been making her bed. The sound of hooves trotting closer to the door are heard, I move my head away from the door and watch as she starts to open the door.

Her bedroom door opens and I could see Fluttershy's pink mane in the opening doorway. The door is opened up all the way and I could see Fluttershy in the flesh once again. She looks tired at first from her beauty sleep, but when she sees me standing there her face lights up and her cyan eyes look at my face, pointing at my brown eyes. Nevertheless, she seemed surprised for the idea that I'm used to her coming to my bedroom to come see me when I wake up every morning. This was different in this situation. Instead, I am coming to see her.

"Good morning Brayden," She greeted me with that usual soft tone. She is smiling at me. Thoughts about that strange occurrence with the moon fade from my mind. I will have to tell her about that later. "I'm surprised you came to my door today. Did you decide to come see me just like I do with you?"

I scratch my head. "Yeah, I guess I'm just returning the favor." I said.

Fluttershy moves her right hoof and gently places it onto my left hand. "That was really nice of you to do that," She said to me. She takes my hand and starts to trots past me, I'm walking with her. "Come on now, I'll go and make some breakfast."

I walk alongside Fluttershy down the stairs. Once at the bottom, she lets go of my hand and trots into the kitchen to get breakfast ready. I turn to my left and walk to the nearby chair in the living room. Approaching it, I turn around to face behind it and bent down my two legs to sit down on it. It was by the window so all I could do was look out at the tall mountains and Canterlot all the way in the middle of the tallest one.

All I could ever do was worry about how all of the princesses were doing. It wasn't really Twilight I was worried about, because I did see her come back to Ponyville after her visit to the princesses. When I saw her return, she looked rather grim about something. It made me already wonder if something must have gone wrong during her visit there. Why was she that upset?

"Brayden?" I could hear Fluttershy's soft voice call out to me from the kitchen. My eyes turn away from the sight of Canterlot. I get up off of the couch and walk from the living room into the kitchen. I look at Fluttershy who had been making a healthy assorts of fruits and nuts in a bowl for me. "Is everything alright for you?"

"Yeah, why?" I asked.

"It's just that you seemed rather worried and I'm wondering if everything is okay." Fluttershy said.

I sighed. "I'm- I'm just thinking about the princesses. What if Tirek got to them already?" I said, my voice's tone coming in a cross between concern and agony.

"Well I am sure that whatever they are doing about Tirek, I am sure that they are protecting themselves the best they can." She said.

"But remember when the Changelings had attacked?" I asked, trying my hardest not to bring them up but in the end being forced to anyway. "They had a shield protecting the city from any changeling attacks before Queen Chrysalis got into the castle in disguise of Princess Cadence."

"Queen Chrysalis?" Fluttershy asked with curiosity coming to her.

"I'll explain later," I said to her. I mean it was really was her real name, but most of them just called her the 'Queen of the Changelings' since she nor anypony in that two-parter even said her true real name. But I had to get back on topic about Canterlot. "At the moment, Canterlot is already probably under attack by Tirek himself."

"Oh Brayden, don't worry about him." Fluttershy said to me. "Tirek is too far away from Ponyville to matter. Even if he did, I would've ran and hid. He wouldn't be a threat to us."

All I could say was "That is what worries me the most."

"Oh Brayden, there is nothing to worry about." Fluttershy said to me, turning around back towards my breakfast. She just finished putting in the apple slices for me. She sounded so calm about it. Did she not believe me about my worries? She takes the bowl of fruit and nuts she made for me and placed it onto the wooden table. "Here you go, your breakfast is all ready for you."

I move towards the chair scooted close to the table by my food. I pulled the chair out and take a seat to have my breakfast. Fluttershy moves past behind me and trots towards my right side.

"I'll be back in a moment Brayden," Fluttershy says to me while her right hoof is touching my right hand. "I have to go and feed the rest of my animal friends, but I'll be back to have breakfast with you."

"Alright." I said, putting a weak smile on my face to try and hide the rest of the worries away from her. Fluttershy puts a smile on her face and my brown eyes are looking at her cyan eyes for a few brief moments. She finally let go of my hand once again, trotting around to head into the living room. I could see the small birds and woodland critters waking up to the smell of the fresh nuts and birdseed she laid out for them to have. Of course there was the stomping of her bunny rabbit, Angel.

I take the first bite from the juicy slices of apple she had given to me. The smell of the fresh fruit had filled my mouth with saliva and I place one of the slices into my mouth. It tasted soft and its taste was very sweet and chilled. After chewing the soft fruit into mush inside of my mouth, I gulp and swallow it down to head towards my stomach.

It all came flashing to me, that quick picture from my dream came to me for a few moments when I wasn't thinking of anything. It was that tall two-horned creature once again. Who was that? Tirek? Nevertheless, in the nightmare he had apparently left everypony I knew as weak and helpless as ever. The image fades and I'm back in reality, sitting there on the wooden chair eating. Just like the visions I had of Nightmare Moon before I helped her be redeemed, I could sense that Tirek would be coming anytime now.

I turned my head away from my breakfast and towards the kitchen window. Outside, I could still see Canterlot's shadow looming high in the mountain with not a cloud in sight. As peaceful as it looked, I knew something was wrong from the instant Twilight got a letter of being requested to Canterlot immediately.

Celestia… Luna… Nightmare… Cadence… Please be okay.

---

Tirek's POV

Penetrating the castle was no biggie for either me or Discord. My heavy hooves prance slowly forward towards the two castle doors. Across from there would be the throne room where the princesses would be located. I could smell their magic from afar. Discord went ahead of me to scout for more guards. The more the merrier of him, it's just another amount of magic for me to steal.

The double doors swung open and Discord turned invisible. Even though I could not see what else he was doing, he must have managed to rid a few of the guards into the same hallway that I was in. My face lets out a smile and I take the magic out from the armored equines.

I turned my head towards the outside. Discord was confronting what seemed to be the leader of the guards in Canterlot. My heavy hooves rampage forward to join in what was going on.

"Shining Armor," Discord taunted in his clever voice behind the white stallion. "Why, whatever are you doing here?"

I watch the brave stallion turn around and point his horn at the draconequus. "Back off traitor!" He calls out with a quiet snarl coming from him.

I managed to speak up so he could see me in the clear daylight. "The only one Discord betrayed was himself. He had been abandoning his true nature to make friends with weak-minded equines, who offer him nothing."

The stallion who I now knew had been named Shining Armor charged up his magic from his horn and let out a beam of violet towards me. I just laugh at the puny pony's futile attempt to attack me. To no avail for him though, I catch the violet beam. The rest of the magic fired ends up in the sphere of the beam created and I throw it into my mouth, chewing and swallowing it as if it was nothing harmful to me.

I finally bent down on my centaur knees and grabbed Shining Armor by the horn. I opened up my mouth. That delicious magic comes flowing from him and into the veins of my strength. Once the fresh-scented aroma of magic had been cleared, he shook for a moment and I let him go. He collapsed on the floor.

"How… could you… do this…?" The young stallion said while he came to rest at the ground. The young stallion closes his eyes and his eyes looked ever gray like the other pathetic equines that tried to cross me.

Discord had paused while observing the stallion's weak and tired state that he had been placed into. I walk over the stallion, joining up with the draconequus and placing my right red hand onto his left shoulder. His eyes turn from the stallion and around to face me.

"Why don't you go and have a little fun?" I suggested to him. A smile comes creeping across the face of chaos himself. "I won't stand in your way."

Discord just places his… lion paw and eagle claw together and lets out a bit of a laugh. I turn around and away, deciding to let him do what he needed to do around the city while I dealt with the princesses. My giant hooves stomp away and enter the other side of the castle.

I literally bust through the wooden doors on my way through. I could smell the scent of alicorn magic coming from down the hallway through the large double doors. I continue forward with the stomping of my hooves rumbling throughout the entire castle. Power… I am coming closer to having you. My eyes are focused on the doors and I am at a close enough range to break through into the room.

I throw my two brute hands forward to grab the throne room doors. The door's hinges break off and I could see the throne from across the small room. Had I been smaller, the trip across would've been longer unless I began to run. The four princesses were just sitting there, just throwing dirty and tired looks towards me. My face grows into a smile. Alright princesses, now is your turn to give your magic to me.

The first equine I grab with my magic is Princess Celestia. She was the one responsible for having me locked up in Tartarus in the first place. Once she had been grabbed with the orange glowing aura I had, I begin to inhale for the magic she had.

Wait a minute… I don't taste any power absorbed. I opened my eyes and looked at the dumb princess. She was throwing a glaring smile towards me as if she had somehow outwitted me. "What have you done?!" I shouted.

I place Princess Celestia down back on the throne and levitate her younger sister towards me. I inhale, waiting for magic. Nothing. I grab the pink alicorn Princess Cadence. I inhale… nothing is recieved. Finally, I was starting to get really annoyed.

I take a hold of the black alicorn who I knew was Nightmare Moon from down in the legends of these unruly ponies. I opened my mouth and inhaled, waiting for a single scent of her magic to enter in. There is nothing from her or either of these princesses. Their magic was gone. I was already enraged.

"WHERE… IS YOUR MAGIC?!"

---

Brayden's POV

After all of that wacky stuff going on with the sun and moon, it seemed like it was going to be another good day nevertheless. I was walking down the dirt trail beside Fluttershy and observing the nature that was at peace from every single day that I've been here so far. Fluttershy trots beside me, humming a peaceful tune.

The school fillies were out and about once again, getting ready for another day at school. We didn't really run into anypony that we really knew. The Cutie Mark Crusaders weren't really seen, so I guess they must have either left home early to arrive or they were already late. I did see a few of them I knew such as Pipsqueak, Twist or Dinky. I did see Button Mash trotting along with his mother but I didn't really engage in conversation with him or his mother. Alright, note to self: make sure to talk and introduce myself to Button Mash or his mother. With the JoyBoy in his hoof, I could tell he loved to play video games. I was once a gamer too, you know.

At the bridge across to Ponyville, I could tell that the town seemed a little quiet, but did have the deliveries being made from around the region. One other stallion is pulling a wagon right behind him full of chopped wood. I suppose those must be for stoking the fire when night came around. I could see most of the ponies trotting about and chatting amongst their friends as I saw every day. I see Time Turner trotting with another mare and talking with her. Then there is the usual greeting I have when I see that lucky aquamarine coloured mare waiting for me. Yes, it was Lyra.

When I came within the range of her eyesight her face is lit up with joy. She gets up from off the bench that she and Bon Bon sit at. She's the only one trying to sit like a human while Bon Bon sits more in the pony fashion. I of course, don't realize she is there every time which is something I have to get used to. Why? She comes galloping towards me. One time, she did surprise me when I was with Rainbow Dash on my way to Sugarcube Corner. Lucky me this time, I turn around and see her coming at me.

The unicorn jumps forward at me and playfully tackles me to the ground. Sure, she should know better than to do that, but I respect what she does. Bon Bon is still sitting on the bench, just rolling her eyes with a smile. She probably already knows that greeting from Lyra is expected a lot. I am knocked back by her tackle to the ground. Well, it didn't really matter if I got a bit of my pants dirty from the tackle, I can wash it with the laundry later.

"Sorry about that Brayden," Lyra says to me with a giggle illuminating from her mouth. She gets up off of me and offers a hoof to help me up off the ground. I accept her offer and take her hoof, allowing her to lift me up off the ground. "A mistake on my end."

"It's alright Lyra." I said to her, letting go of her hoof once I am back on my two feet. "Me and Fluttershy were just going on a walk through town."

"I see," Lyra says to me with that smile remaining on her face. "I'm already starting to wonder when you will be free to hang out with me and Bon Bon?"

"Well, it all depends on my schedule. But if I do have a time in mind I will let you as soon as I can, alright?" I said to Lyra, placing my right hand onto her left shoulder.

Lyra nods to me with a smile. "Oh, and before you go," She said, just before I was turning around to continue my exercise with Fluttershy. I look into her gamboge eyes and begin to wonder what's on her mind. The usual answer slips from her. "Can I touch your hands?"

"Feel free to do so." I said to her, offering both of my hands to Lyra. She smiles and gets up on her two back legs. Her front hooves are placed onto my hands. My dry hands hold onto them, trying not to squeeze them too hard, nor do I want to do it so shaky.

After a few moments, me and Lyra let go and she waves goodbye to me while a wave from me when I continue my morning walk with Fluttershy.

All seems to be at peace once again. I can find myself walking at a normal pace and my adrenaline inside me in a calm, relaxed state. But again, I could feel some exercise doing well for my legs and it had been a while since I had done this. Fluttershy was humming a tune back at the trail, but she was silent this time just smiling innocently.

I take out my iPhone from my pocket which has earphones plugged in already. I slip them both onto my ears and unlock it. I navigate into the music section. I look up an instrumental jazz fusion band under the catalogue of 'L' and select an easy-paced song for me to play. I did keep it at a decent volume so I would be able to hear Fluttershy and what she was going to tell me if she needed to.

The music seemed to be very xylophone-sounding at first, even though it was somebody playing those pianos with effects. Then the bass and soft drumming kick in. The guitar could be heard on a clean tone but gave off a bit of beautiful harmonies. It really blended in with my surroundings. There are no vocals on the track I selected, but it doesn't matter. I appreciate any song without vocals no matter how different it is.

A minute or a half into the song, I feel Fluttershy's soft hoof tap onto my right shoulder. To pay attention to her, I look at her and take out an earphone. "Um, Brayden? I'm sorry if I was bothering you there, but I was wondering what you are listening to?"

"I'm listening to some of the music I know from Earth." I said to her. "Would you like to hear a bit of what it sounds like?"

"Oh, umm sure." Fluttershy said to me. Both me and her stop walking and turn towards each other. I move the other earphone from my ear and bring the earphones closer to her ears. I'm not sure how it'll stay, but I'll try my best to see if she can hear it. I help get the earphones onto her ears and she pauses slightly, giving a mildly surprised look on her face. It was like she hadn't heard this before and that it was completely new to her.

A few minutes pass until the song is finished because I would occasionally check the time of the song until it was over. This was usually because sometimes it felt like it would go for many minutes and I would check to see if it was still the same song. The song's time reaches near the end and I gently move my hands towards the earphones in Fluttershy's ears. I take them out and then carefully stuff the earphones into my pocket for later.

Fluttershy was smiling at me. "That song was really good Brayden. But where's the singing?" She both compliments and asks me.

"Some songs are instrumental which means that it's only the music playing. It's like classical music but with electric, sometimes acoustic stringed instruments," I explained to her so she could get the basic idea on what the type of music that was. "I have more songs on the phone that have vocals."

"I see," Fluttershy says to me. "I hope you don't mind me asking about vocals, but is there any music you listen to that has singing?"

"In a way, I prefer to call them bands," I said to her in order to stay relevant to the topic. "Sometime though, they decide to only have instrumental music on their entire album. Only two is a famous guitarist and the other a small time band with the members of a band that I like. You were basically listening to one of their songs. It was from Liquid Tension Experiment."

"Liquid Teni-what?" Fluttershy asked, really confused by the band's name.

"Tension Experiment." I corrected her.

"Oh, my apologies for getting confused." Fluttershy apologized.

"No need to apologize," I said to her with a smile. My hand gently moves towards her left front hoof and gently takes it, holding onto it. "When I first heard that name, I thought it was a long name for that band."

Fluttershy's smile comes back to her and she's looking at my brown eyes. My eyes stare right back her beautiful blue eyes. What turned from staring at each other became friendly gazes to one another. I could feel myself moving closer towards my best friend. Fluttershy continues to stare at me.

"Fluttershy?" I asked.

"Yes?" She told me, her look becoming curious but that smile still remained.

"I was wondering about something. I'm not busy sometime on the next few days. If you're not too busy, I was wondering if you wanted to do something together as friends." I asked her.

She looked at me, her eyes furrow a bit and they seem relaxed. "Well, I think besides going to the spa with Rarity… yes, I am free by then. You just let me know and I'll let you know on that day, alright?" She said to me in her usual soft voice.

"Alright Fluttershy, it sounds good." I said to her with that smile coming on my face.

"Oh," Fluttershy said. Small pink blushes came onto both of her cheeks. "And Brayden?"

"Yes Fluttershy?" I had asked.

"Umm," I heard her say and her eyes turn towards my hand and her hoof. "You're still holding onto my hoof."

I let go with a slight blush crossing my face. "Sorry about that," I said with a bit of a giggle coming from me. "I want to consider holding your hoof more in a friendly way, not in 'that' way."

"It's okay Brayden," Fluttershy said to me as I had finished my apology. "I can understand that's who you are though as somepony."

"But I'm not a pony though." I stated with a tiny bit of sadness in my voice.

"That doesn't mean that you should put yourself down about that though. Everypony here in town think you're a really nice human." Fluttershy said, trotting forward towards me and putting her hooves around me, giving me a hug.

I gently move my arms around her back and past her wings to share the hug with her. She felt as warm as ever when she had covered me on the train to Canterlot. We continue to share the hug and then finally we let go after a few seconds.

The sound of a loud boom rang out in the sky and a scream that sounded so similar to my special somepony. I look up into the sky and I could a large purple streak flying quickly around with somepony conducting those clouds. It was Twilight just as I thought.

I had no time to react to this and I bent back up from the ground and begin to follow the streaks she made in the sky that would fade quickly. It seemed almost like a Sonic Rainboom but not quite. It still seemed like she was faster than Rainbow Dash.

Twilight let out a panicked yelp when she came descending towards the grass. Her impact was surprising, she had stopped there without falling flat on her face. There were dirt marks on the ground from her impact. What in the hell was going on already? She was just about almost close to hyperventilating there, but it was slower. Deep breathes went in and out from her mouth to catch the breath she needed. Surprisingly the rest of her friends also saw the whole thing and gather near her.

"Oh, my goodness, are you all right?" Fluttershy had asked, standing next to me.

Applejack trotted closer towards Twilight. The princess' head turns toward her. "Jumpin' junebugs, Twilight! Where did ya learn to fly that fast?"

A quick moment came where Twilight seemed to look like an experiment had gone wrong by the way the lightning surged quickly around her body. That is exactly what I also wanted to know about Twilight today. She giggles and sounds like she is trying to hide something. "I must have caught a particularly strong breeze… or something."

Rainbow just eyes her and looks curious at the same time. "Must have been 'or something' because there wasn't any breeze up there." She said.

"I don't know what happened, but I don't have time to figure it out right now." She said, with another surge of energy coming about her body. I don't think any one of her friends noticed that.

All of us seemed to know what that meant when she said she didn't have time. All of us had smiles on our faces except for Twilight. "Another visit to the Castle of the Two Sisters, I presume?" Rarity asked, looking delighted. "We'd be more than happy to accompany you!" A squee comes out from Pinkie with the cutest smile that I've ever seen to date from her.

"Not today!" Twilight said to all of us. Looks of disappointment cross onto all of our faces. After that, another surge of energy phasing from her body came about.

Twilight turned towards all of us. "Tirek may still be a threat. I need you all to stay here and encourage everypony to remain inside. Brayden, I need you to get the Song of Order from the library and head on the train to any town out of Tirek's grasp."

"Why?" I asked, an eyebrow rose on my face. "What's going on and why is the Song of Order important?"

"Though not possible but most likely to happen, Tirek might steal the magic from it. And I don't want to risk your safety." She advised me, trotting closer towards me and taking my right hand.

I was a bit worried about why she had already decided that the Song of Order should go with me to a safe place until Tirek had passed by. "But Twilight-" I tried to get out.

I was interrupted with her planting a quick kiss onto my lips. She looks at me with worry. "Please Brayden, you don't want to be here when he comes rampaging. I'd hate to see what would happen if he saw you."

"But I want to stay and help. I don't want him to hurt you." I said, gently moving my left arm and my hand gently stroking her soft mane.

"Brayden…" She softly said to me. "I'll be fine. It's for your own safety. I love you, but I really advise you head into the nearest city. I'll send you a letter when it's safe to come back to Ponyville. The Song of Order is at the library, so please take it with you."

I sigh softly in defeat. I didn't want to argue with my special somepony so I just decided to go with the flow and do what she asked me to. She gently strokes my cheek and I gently share a quick gaze with her before she gently let go and started to trot away.

"Brayden?" I could hear Fluttershy say to me. I turn my head to look at her. "I'll take you to the library to get the blade."

"I'll make sure to buy you a train ticket to Manehattan," Rarity added. "Coco Pommel will be sure to give you a room to stay at her apartment. You just have to tell her that I sent you."

I nodded my head in understanding and follow Fluttershy. I just hope Twilight is right about all of this. But inside, something tells me that something is wrong and that I should be there to her not only her, but my friends as well.

---

Tirek's POV

"Getting rid of your magic so that I cannot take it from you?" I said with a manner in my voice to see if they were joking or not. There is a crooked smile bound onto my face. "That was your plan?"

All four of the princesses sitting there just do is glare at me with those dirty looks on their faces. As much as I want to react harshly to that, I find those faces rather to be humorous on my end. They don't have their magic on them so all they do is stare at me with their eyes furrowed towards me. It was a confrontation between me, a supreme and four puny princesses below me.

"How does it feel," I continued. "Knowing that soon, every Pegasus, unicorn and Earth pony will bow to my will," I conjured up three orange orbs with shadows of the three mentioned races. I move both of my hands together crushing the magic glass that they were made of. "And that there is nothing you can do to stop it?"

The princess in the middle just looks at me with her rose coloured eyes and says "You will not prevail, Tirek."

I was already bored with having this conversation with her and the rest of them, so it'd be best for me to dismiss of them quickly before more of their boring rants starts. I channel my magic between my two horns and conjure an orange portal open. "Give my regards to Cerberus." I warned.

I channel my magic towards the princesses, levitating them into the dark corners of Equestria. All four of them are left in a mountainside in the dark caverns of Tartarus. I knew of this because this was where I had been kept after being banished by them and my worthless brother, Scorpan. But no matter, the princesses no longer have their magic. After they spiral around their prison, I close the portal in front of me.

"You meant our will, didn't you?" I could hear Discord say from across the throne room. With his chaos set in motion, he had already begun to mess about with the stained glass windows and alter the images of what had been of Equestrian history.

"Of course." I said to the draconequus himself. I got up out of the throne and trotted towards him. He had been with me for long enough during my raid of Equestria and I felt like he needed to have a special reward from me. "Here, I want you to have something." I take off the golden medallion from my neck and place it in the eagle claw of Discord's. "This was given to me by someone very close to me. I give it to you as a sign of my gratitude and loyalty."

"Oh, my!" Discord said, sounding really impressed and placed the medallion over his neck onto him. "I do love a good accessory. I suppose that's Rarity's influence." The both of us look at a picture that Discord made himself of me and him ruling together. What humored me was me carrying a sword and him carrying a large sandwich and half of it being cut off by my sword.

"Amusing." I complimented on the stained-glass photo. "But we have no time for such things. With the princesses gone, we can now-"

I stopped for a moment. What are these? WHAT ARE THESE TWO PICTURES?! On my left is a picture of a very different race that isn't one of those ponies. He was standing proud with a sword being held in his two hands. In the picture he seemed to be aiming at that black alicorn I just about sent to Tartarus. On my right is a picture of an alicorn. AN ALICORN! What is this blasphemy?! All I know is that Discord probably was joking about with me. It wasn't funny to me though. "ARE THESE TWO MEANT TO BE HUMOROUS?!" I just about shouted with a hint of anger and annoyance in my voice.

"Oh no, I haven't touched those two yet." Discord said to me, realizing he probably had to act immediately. But the picture of the alicorn was more important now than the other.

"There's a fifth alicorn…" I just about said, trying to calm my anger but it was already loose. "…And you did not tell me this?!"

"I just needed some assurance that you truly considered this a team effort. And now I have it." He returned, rubbing the eagle claws of his together.

I finally grab the draconequus by the neck and pull him towards me. "Then where can we find this fifth princess?" I interrogated with a mixture of threat and question. "Where is her castle?"

All he could do was just laugh at my two questions. "Castle?" He managed to get out before he laughed some more. "No, Princess Twilight lives above a library in Ponyville. Castle?" He began to chuckle and laugh again. But at least I got an answer out from him.

"Also, what is up with that other picture?!" I growled. "Who is that?"

"Oh, that's Brayden!" Discord said, removing any trace of laughter from his face. "He just arrived in Equestria from another world, so I have no idea what is up since I haven't seen him in a while. He did take possession of an equestrian blade thingamajig called the Song of Order though."

My eyes slid wide open when I took a look back at the window. I could see that silver blade now and in the room, I already know the reason why I smelt strong scents of the Equestrian magic. It was coming from the Song of Order itself. I must have arrived a little late because I must have mistaken it for the princess' magic. I heard stories about it while attending my time in Tartarus, it was a powerful blade that equips the magic inside that was so ever powerful. He must have last equipped the blade here where something was up. If I could find Brayden, I could force him to give me the Song of Order, even if he has to fight back to defend himself.

"Well, this 'Brayden' won't be too hard to deal with, because when he is weak enough I can make him watch as I take the blade's magic away." I said, turning around and heading for the door. "He won't be able to see this coming."

"And what about Princess Twilight?" Discord questioned to me. All I did when I had turned around was melt the two stained glass windows with my magic. I chuckle.

"She's not going to have that magic for much longer."

---

Brayden's POV

Ponyville Train Station

In the distance, I could hear the mild sounds of the wind that made the town seem so silent. From what I could see from my sides, most of the windows had been boarded up with wooden planks. Everypony seemed to look so hesitant to hide from Tirek so he couldn't have their magic. On my back is the Song of Order, shining brightly from the golden sun above me. My right hand is empty, while my left hand is carrying a ticket ordered straight for Manehattan.

Something felt funny about this though, as much as I didn't want to be sent off to Manehattan there was something wrong. Twilight seemed to have electrical surges of power. Was she hiding something from me and her friends? If so she could have just told me right there. I didn't want to be in her way though, so it does explain why I went back to her treehouse and got the Song of Order as she said. As much as she is both a princess and holds a special place in my heart, I have to listen to her as much as I worry about her and the rest of my friends being placed into danger.

I could hear the sounds of hooves trotting towards me. My head turns towards my right and I could see Fluttershy coming up and moving her soft left front hoof to touch my right hand. She looks at me with a gentle, but concerned look on her face.

"Alright Brayden," Fluttershy told me in her usual soft voice. "The train will be arriving in a few moments soon. Don't worry about what it will be like in the city. Sure they have some ponies with straight attitudes, but they're not yelling to be mean… unless they really are."

I turned towards her and bent down on one knee. "I really have a bad feeling about this Fluttershy," I told her. I sounded really worried and even my face gave off that vibe as well that I was concerned for not just her, but the safety of Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie and Rainbow. "I want to help you all fight Tirek."

She releases a weak smile upon her face. Her hoof that is touch my hand gently takes it and holds onto it. "Brayden… please," Fluttershy said to me now having a hushed tone in her voice. "We'll make sure that everything is fine. What matters the most is that you take the Song of Order out of here just as Twilight told you."

"But I am afraid of what will happen if Tirek finds you." I confessed, placing the ticket inside one of my jean pockets and taking her hoof with both my hands.

"I know you're scared," She assured me, gently trotting closer to me, letting go of my hand and my hands letting go of her hoof. She puts the both of her hooves around me and gently gives me a gentle, friendly hug. "But please be brave about this while we do this."

After a few moments, I sighed softly in defeat with sadness. I move my arms gently around her and move my face to face her, gently pressing my forehead against hers gently. "Please be okay." I whispered to her.

Fluttershy's eyes gently stare into my brown eyes. "I'll be fine Brayden," She whispered back to me. I watch her move her head past me and her cheek gently and softly nuzzles the side of my right cheek. "I promise that I'll be okay."

After me and her gently shared the hug, me and her slowly let go from it and in the distance, besides hearing the train roar its loud whistle, I could see it coming towards the station. Me and her turn towards the oncoming train and watch as it made haste towards the station and pulled its brakes slowly, coming to a complete stop. The train doors open.

I turn towards Fluttershy and she looks up at me, placing her left hoof onto my right hand. "Get going now," She told me, putting a smile on my face. "You don't want to miss your train."

I gently release a smile at my best friend for those final few moments and then get back on my two legs walking towards the train doors. The conductor stood there, looking for anypony else to come along and get on board to Manehattan. I approached him and he has a smile on his face.

"Hello sir," He said to me with a hurried tone in his announcing voice. "Do you have your ticket on you? But it won't matter if you do or don't, all other non-ponies get to ride for free."

I was surprised by this. A free ride to Manehattan? I thought those only applied for if I was only going to Canterlot or The Crystal Empire. I guess being different does give me some good conditions. "Thank you," I said, taking my ticket out of my pocket and giving it to him. "But I should give you my ticket to Manehattan just because I live along the pony way."

"Alright, just hop on board." The conductor said, gathering my ticket and putting it into the stash of the ticket box he carried. He gives me a pat on the back when I pass by him. After he follows behind and heads to the other train car, I move into the room full of empty train car cabins. My bare feet touch the gentle carpet on the ground, giving that soft and grassy feeling to the bottom of them both. I select the second cabin on the right side of the car and head into there.

Unlike the other few cabins in the car, this one had no windows and a door that led in and out of the room. On the other side of the small car would be the bathroom, so in case I needed to do my business, it was right there. I enter into the cabin and close the cabin door behind me, leaving only the sound of the train's wheels starting up to run again. Besides that ambient sound to accompany me in the silence, I also had the Song of Order with me. I take the claymore from my back and place it against the wall of the cabin.

The train starts up with a light push. I find myself stumbling a bit to regain control and to not lose my balance. Thankfully, I had grabbed onto something when the train began to move. I then take a seat and listen carefully to the train tracks move ever so peacefully. I don't dare try to close my eyes or take a rest, I needed to be awake as I still felt worried.

The Song of Order began to straighten from being leant on the cabin wall and began floating there. I just discovered that the blade was capable of doing this by itself when it was not carried around or being used. I believe that it is supposed to have natural or unnatural abilities, but I haven't seen that. Princess Celestia did tell me about it though.

What felt like seconds had gone by since the train had started, seemed like long minutes or hours that had gone by. I did not even notice that. The Song of Order just floats there without strings, humming in a peaceful tone that kept me relaxed. All seemed to be so silent and peaceful inside of the cabin as the train rolled through the tracks unseen by my own eyes. I felt like my eyes were drifting into a state of sleep.

Outside of my cabin door, I could hear the sound of ponies talking to each other softly as it had begun to fade away. No, I couldn't start entering the dream realm right now. Though the conductor would wake me up to tell me I was in Manehattan, I would still be worried about my friends.

"Brayden…"

I could hear the voice of the Song of Order that had spoken to me in a while since Nightmare Moon had returned. The whole room began to glow a bit in a bright golden color. The Song of Order still floated there, inanimate as it was.

"The Song of Order?" I said, looking towards the blade. I move off the plushy seat and get on both of my knees onto the soft carpet and face it in all its glory.

"Yes Brayden," The voice of the blade spoke to me. "It is I, The Song of Order."

I looked towards it. I didn't know what to say except talk about the safety of my friends against the tyranny of Tirek. I looked to the blade as the six pointed star on it was glowing low-lighted. I said "Thank you for talking to me in this hour of need. I feel like my friends are in danger and that 'm useless in their fight."

"I could sense that you were troubled by this," The Song of Order told me. "You are worried that Lord Tirek will take ahold of them. It has already happened to somepony already who had been siding with him, betraying you and them."

"Who is it that betrayed us?" I asked.

"Discord." The Song of Order told me. I gasp softly before silencing it with my mouth. Why in the world would Discord betray Equestria again? He was reformed! "He has helped Tirek to become much stronger."

"But… why?!" I said, rather in shock but not raising my voice about this. I'm saving that raised voice all for Tirek if I ever see him. "As much as Discord is reformed, he could never do this!"

"That may be true Brayden. But you haven't taken up me in a while, forgotten that training will be required to take on risks like this." The blade told me in his godly voice.

I crawl closer towards the blade. "But I know how to fight back! I have experience of dealing with these situations." I said.

"Because Tirek is now stronger, there is a small chance that you will not be strong enough to help fight back. You will only last a while before you are down and out," The blade warned me. "If he takes the magic inside I… all chaos will be broken loose by him. Towns and cities will be lost and all will fear him."

"Then what do I do?" I said, my desperate tone turning into that of planning a strategy.

"Fight back." The Song of Order told me.

My face is rather surprised by these news that blade just told me telepathically. "Fight back?! But you said that is a very bad idea." I said.

"It is the only solution that can help you deal with him. You must get going now back to Ponyville and help your friends." The Song of Order told me with such warning again. "They are already in a huge amount of trouble."

"Trouble?" I said, raising my right eyebrow. "What do you mean that they are in trouble?"

The Song of Order glowed lightly, surrounding the room with all white. Then it all came to me in which it was visions of despair.

In the first image of the vision, I could see a large shadow with horns standing in Ponyville with his face hidden from my sight. He was already stealing the magic out of every single one of my friends in a cage with Discord looking sad while this was being done. By Discord's sad face, I knew that something was wrong. Was it the sign of regret he was already starting to face? In the second and last image of the visions, I could see the shadow of Tirek trotting away from Discord. The draconequus was lying on the ground and holding up what seemed to be a medallion. He looked weak and as if he had been betrayed.

There is another flash and I am back in the cabin with no glowing in the room. I am back on the plush long-seat. The Song of Order continues to float right there, now starting to sing at a normal tone of level. By the sound of the blade, I could tell that danger was close by.

It all came to me of what I had to do now. I get up off of the seat and check the time. I've been asleep for almost twenty minutes, so I should still have enough time to react and go back. I take the blade with my hands and hold onto the hilt of the claymore. I waste no time and open up my cabin door and end up running down the hallway towards the end of the car.

The car door opens and I'm looking out at the outdoors, stepping onto the moving train's end. Using the power of the Song of Order, I power up the ability again. Ethereal wings come from right behind me and I find myself flying from the train car and into the skies of Equestria.

---

The skies were blue and the sun was still sitting in that same spot it had been in since this morning. I move my body forward and I begin to think about my wings spreading open and flying down the mountain of green back towards the Everfree Forest. I figured that I could warn Twilight of what I had seen and let her know that Tirek was probably going to come for her next. I could feel the wings letting out a bit of a soft breeze while it passes through the air, avoiding the white clouds. My face is filled with anger and worry.

Overhead, I am above the trees of the dark forest and I could sense the presence of Twilight's unknowingly strong magic close by in the area. I descend down towards the trees and gently land on one of them to peek out at the distance. The Castle of the Two Sisters was close by, but I couldn't see here there. I move down the trunk of the tree with the wings to aid me. My bare feet hit the ground. I move my feet around and scan the area both inside and outside for signs of Twilight or Tirek.

"PRINCESS TWILIGHT!"

Oh no… Tirek somehow found her first. I let out a gasp and begin to run through the forest to the area visible across from where I landed so I could view what was going on. I move the non-poisonous fern with my hand and begin watching what was happening.

"YOU HAVE SOMETHING THAT BELONGS TO ME!" He shouted at the top of his lungs once again. I could see his face bright and clear. It wasn't shadowed out like the visions I had of him. It was all clear. He was the one from that nightmare when I passed out at my birthday party.

On my left, I could see the large rocks break apart and from out of there comes Twilight. She is flying all over the place just to avoid the centaur. I could tell that was already pissed off, so I wouldn't want to step in during this fight. This seems like something between him and her. I couldn't find myself to interfere with it. Twilight lands on the grass, skidding across and narrowly landing softly against Tirek's hard hooves.

He stood above her as she was backing up from the dark centaur. The centaur's yellow pupils stared down at her, looking gruff and mean. His two fists were clenched tight as if he was going to punch Twilight with his strength. "You're going to give me what I want!" He pronounced angrily and sounded demanding at the same time.

I watch him open his mouth to try and steal her magic, but she must have been just about lucky… she had teleported away from the scene, igniting her horn to cast the spell. But what did he want from Twilight. Was she carrying something that seemed very important to him? Nevertheless, I was bound to find out. His body turns around towards the left, facing towards Ponyville.

I was quick enough to skid into the nearby bush to watch everything. But I had to be quiet when doing this. If he saw me sneaking there, it would have been an automatic 'Game Over' for me because he would have seen the blade I was carrying and know what it is.

Between his two horns, a glowing orange-yellow ball of plasma energy was formed. He fires it towards the treehouse and then there is a bright flash that causes me to shield my eyes for a few moments. I can hear Twilight yelp and loudly gasp. When I finally moved my right hand from my eyes, I could see the damage that had been done already.

Twilight's home was just destroyed.

A few moments pass and I could see her pet owl, Owlowiscious fly away from her. I could clearly see Twilight's face when she turned back towards Tirek after seeing her home destroyed and what's worse. Her books were gone as well. All I can tell you is that… nobody destroys her books. Ever. Her face changes into what seemed to be enraged and her wings open. Her horn ignites and she teleports her way into the skies that had turned red, charging down towards the dark centaur. The battle was just beginning.

Twilight charges the magic right all the way on her horn and fires out a giant laser beam towards the dark lord. From the direction that I was facing, I had shielded my eyes for a few moments when the beam had made contact with Lord Tirek. I move my left hand from my eyes and watch the giant beam she produced come out and push him backwards through the valley outside of the Everfree Forest. Another flashing light came before my eyes and I was forced to shield them with my left hand once again to avoid becoming a blind man. I could hear the sound of an explosion slightly to the right and I uncovered my eyes to see Lord Tirek standing there, unharmed with the explosion from the attack behind him. I watch Twilight land in the ditch of dry soil she created. With her out of my sight, it was hard to see where she was.

"Now I know what your fellow princesses had done." I could hear Lord Tirek say with that smirk on his face. Wait, the princesses? Did something happen in Canterlot while she was there reporting to them about something?

I could see Twilight launch out the ditch she and started to make her flight towards the centaur. The centaur lights up an orange ball between his horns and fires an orange beam towards her. I wanted to come out and shout to Twilight to look out, but doing so would blow my cover big time. I just sat there and watched the deadly beam coming straight for Twilight.

She spreads out all four hooves in the air and ignites more of the magic from her horn. A bubble shield to protect her from harm had formed. The orange beam made contact with the shield. Violet flares were flaming right off from the shield she was producing. By the look on her face, it was like no other pissed off face that I have ever seen before. She maneuvers herself towards the ground and lands on all fours and producing another channel of magic to her horn. She fires a burst of magic towards Tirek's face. The dark centaur roared and used his right strong hand to push the magic beam off of him. Then he ignites his own magic, taking a hold of Twilight. She is brought closer towards her.

He quickly spins in a circle and using the aura of his magic, had tossed Twilight towards a mountain. My emotions were set into action as my worries about her came to me. I could hear Twilight scream while she was being tossed towards the mountain. A big cloud of smoke is seen hitting with a violet aura activated in the center. Good, she's still alive. But it did not seem like the end for Tirek's attack. I watch as he pounces widely off of the ground, high up into the air that I hadn't seen from him before to ever do that. I could hear Tirek roar all the way into the blood-red sky when he charged towards the mountain.

While none were looking, I get out of the bush with the Song of Order still equipped in my right hand. My mind begins to communicate with the ethereal wings that I had been given by the power of the claymore and they begin to flap in the air. On the silent air, I make flight towards the mountain where Tirek and Twilight had broken through. Overhead, I pass over the trees and the green marshes of the forest. I could see the lights of the two battling continuing to flow with fury growing in my eyes. I would take the necessary risk to protect her if all else failed for her. I would not allow Lord Tirek to take control and steal Twilight's magic.

I make flight over the mountain and descend down towards the Castle of the Two Sisters where the battle seemed to be commencing close by. I could hear Tirek roaring loudly with the sound of loud pounding on the ground. Then there is the sound of magic being fired, breaking apart what seemed to be the sound of rocks. Finally, there are two blasts and then the sound of a large explosion.

When the explosion came close by, I had ducked and covered behind one of the solid rocks. Seconds after the blast between the two magic sources, debris had been formed with splinters of tree wood falling towards me in very small branches. I slowly start to move up onto my two feet. The destruction they made left another ditch close by the Castle Bridge and the stairs leading to the Tree of Harmony under the castle.

I could hear the sound of rocks moving on the left and the right. It was Twilight, who had a bit of dirt markings on her from the fight. Lord Tirek threw the boulders off of him, still looking untouched from the fight he was giving to her.

"It appears we are at an impasse." I could hear Lord Tirek say to the Princess. While he is focused on Twilight, I keep hidden behind a large tree and watch from the small hole. My hand is still firmly gripping onto the claymore, but my temptation to ignite the power of the blade to a maximum for battle purposes was starting to get to me. The second I ignite the battle magic, Tirek will be aware that the Song of Order is there and will know where I am. "How about a trade, Princess Twilight?"

I watch as he snaps his fingers on his left hand, igniting six bubbles in the air, hovering behind him. When I had turned to look who was inside the magic bubbles, I could see who was located inside of them. I gasped in silence when I saw that it was my friends in there. But not just them, it was Discord lying in one of the bubbles and his face had a look of sad shame as he knew he had done something wrong. In my heart, I could tell that I had forgiven him this instant, but what mattered most is that Lord Tirek had captured him and the rest of my friends. Lord Tirek continues "Their release… for all the Alicorn magic in Equestria."

I could hear Twilight gasp and the sounds of her friends protesting. Discord just remains motionless in the bubble, still feeling shameful for what he did.

"What's it going to be, Princess?" Lord Tirek asks.

The temptation to activate the Song of Order's magic grows even more quickly on me and I could feel like it was forcing me to attack Tirek. Besides that, I could hear the sound of her friends' protests and begs to not give up the alicorn magic. I move a little closer to hear what is going on. I sway to the side quickly into another nearby fern bush. Tirek seems to notice that sound and turns his head towards the fern bush for a brief moment.

I watch through the fern bush, moving my head a bit to make sure that Tirek doesn't see my eyes peeking out and him being aware that I was there. That brief moment lasted and he turns back around to look at Princess Twilight.

"Don't do it Twilight!" I could hear my best friend begging with a hint of worry in her voice. I turn my head to another open hole in the bush and take a look at Fluttershy. My heart pounded with fear when I saw her. Her eyes had gone light gray as if she had no magic left inside of her. "We aren't worth it!"

"Oh, but you are, Fluttershy." I could hear Discord sadly state. He turns his head towards her and looks at her. "You're the pony that taught me that friendship is magic. I had magic and friendship… and now I don't have either." He lowers his head and shamefully closes his eyes again.

"ENOUGH!" I could hear Lord Tirek shout with rage in his voice. He was already starting to get impatient already. I could feel the ground shake from one of the large hooves he had stomped. "I want an answer, and I want it now!"

I could see Twilight take a look past the dark centaur and towards her friends. There was that spark in her eyes again that could tell me something was going to happen. Then I could see a swirl of a rainbow briefly flow in a circle in her eyes. This brought back a memory to me, whenever one of her friends found a problem, their eyes would flash into the color of a rainbow. Could it be? Has she found a way to unlock the final key to the chest? She lowers her head for a moment, closing her eyes. She opens them back up and looks at Tirek, dead in the eyes.

"I will give you my magic, in exchange for my friends." I could hear Twilight state.

I froze right there when she said, hearing most of her friends gasp loudly upon hearing her final decision to Tirek's trade. Is she crazy?! He's literally not going to have just her magic, but Celestia's, Luna's, Cadence's and Nightmare's magic! I had to react quickly and stop her, but my body remains still and my mouth shut.

"As you wish." Tirek said with the sound of that he had won this time. He snaps his left hands' fingers and the bubbles around her friends pop, bringing them towards the dirt ground. I look up in the sky, only one bubble remained. Discord.

"All of my friends." Twilight stated, not going to give up another friend.

Tirek turns towards the floating bubble and I duck back into the bush, trying not to let him see me. "After the way he has betrayed you, you still call him a friend?" He questions, without bringing up anything to support it.

There is a brief pause between her and the dark lord. She just stares him down. "Release him." She had commanded.

"If that's what you want…" I could hear Tirek coldly say, snapping the same fingers on the same hand.

With the sound of the bubble popping, I could see the draconequus drop straight to the ground of dry soil with a soft thump being heard. He raised his head and tiredly looks at the princess. "Thank you Twilight…" He said with a weak hush. He turns towards Fluttershy who was next by him on the ground. "I'm sorry…"

"I know…" Fluttershy says, looking at him with her gray eyes.

"Your turn…" I could hear Tirek say and could see his giant mouth opening wide with Twilight's horn releasing out all of the magic. While all of the magic was being absorbed straight into Tirek's mouth, I could hear Twilight painfully scream. My emotions of heavy worry and fear started to get to me even deeper and eventually couldn't hold out any longer.

I just get out of the bush with the Song of Order still held in my right hand. My left hand reaches out towards Twilight as Tirek drained out the magic from her. I just shout with mild defeat sounding off in my voice. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

All of her magic is drained out from her and weak and tired from what just happened, collapses onto the ground with her eyes opening revealing to be as gray as ever and without a cutie mark on her flank. I could see Tirek start to grow at an accelerating level from the magic that he himself now possessed. "YES!" He shouted with a roar coming from him.

I fly down towards Princess Twilight using the ethereal wings that sword temporarily had given me. I run on my two feet towards her and kneel down close to her upon contact. The rest of her friends get up to help me. I take Twilight's hoof and both and her assistant Spike begin to carefully get her back up onto her four hooves as slowly as possible. She stumbles a bit, but I help to catch her before she falls.

"Brayden…" She tiredly said. "Why did you come back?"

"I had to," I said to her, moving my right hand and gently stroking her left cheek. "I couldn't let Tirek take advantage."

"But… the Song of Order…" She states, her eyes looking a bit glossy. "He is already aware that you are here…"

"But it was a risk I was willing to take." I told her, taking her left hoof with both of my hands and holding it gently. "I wanted to be there, for you and all of my friends."

"You made the right choice Brayden," I could hear Discord say to me, still looking shameful but now afraid to start talking. "Tirek tricked me into believing he could offer me something more valuable than friendship. But there is nothing worth more. I see that now." I watch as he turns towards Twilight and takes off the medallion that had been around his neck from the moment I saw him. He spoke "Twilight, he lied when he said that this medallion was given to me as a sign of gratitude and loyalty. But when I say that it is a sign of our true friendship, I am telling the truth…"

I watched as he brought the medallion forward to Twilight and placed it around her. I take a look at the medallion for a few moments. Not just me or Twilight, but all of us saw the streak of rainbow flashing by the golden object. This is what I knew as the final key to the mysterious chest. The mystery would be unlocked. With that same streak, a little bit of strength had been restored for all of them.

"Ya think that might be the last one we need?" Applejack questions.

There is the sound of a giant stomp close by us and all of us look high up into the air. Lord Tirek, now looking stronger than ever has his piercing eyes set down at me. His breathing is intensified when I realized what his eyes had been set upon. The Song of Order.

"Boy," He announced to me with his right hand moving towards me. "You have something powerful in your possession, and I want that magic."

I ignite the power of the blade in my right hand and move my left hand across me to grip onto the handle. With the power at a maximum, it was no doubt that the centaur could smell it. I could see the nearly-invisible ethereal armor form up and around my body. A helmet appears over my head and covers my face, but I can still see what is going on in front of me.

I could hear the sound of Twilight and her friends starting to gallop down into the canyon. While they are headed for the chest, this would give me a good chance to distract Lord Tirek for them to have some good amounts of time. "If you want to have this blade Tirek," I teased with fury running through my voice. "You're going to have to try and crush me."

I could see Tirek's face change into an aggressive stance on his face and powers up that orange ball between his dangerous looking horns. Seeing how he was going to attack, I run forward and slip under the giant centaur. The beam hits the ground and leaves a burn mark where it hit.

"Where are you boy?" I could hear Tirek growl and start to look for me. I spread open the ethereal wings and begin to fly upwards towards the centre of behind him. I thrust the sword forward and create a damaging scratch behind him.

He roared from the pain I had created. He turns around and this gives me a good chance to start flying for my life. I dove straight into the forest grounds and begin to take cover from the trees to allow myself some time to recover for the next offensive move. I could hear his power going up and releasing another giant beam of destruction throughout the forest, tearing apart the trees and leaving nothing but ruin.

Now is my big chance to make that move, while he is distracted. The wings charge forward into the skies and towards Tirek's big face. He barely has any time to react since he is still looking for me. I raised the claymore and allow the blade to slash a cut onto his face.

Tirek stops and places his right hand onto the cheek I had cut. "You little bug!" He roared in aggravation. He turns towards the skies and sees me. He fires another beam straight towards me. I grip onto the blade and close my eyes to allow for its power to unlock a barrier to protect me from the awaited damage.

The blast of his magic knocked me and the magic of the blade backwards, only deactivating the shield when the attack was done for him. I let one hand go off of the claymore and force my open hand towards him. I'm not expecting to as an attack from a movie saga I knew back on Earth, but this would probably scare him off.

A beam of light blue began to fire straight out of my left hand and towards his face. Second time getting magic beams shot in his face must be totally worth an effort for him. Considering that Twilight was the first to do it. He roars and makes a lunge-jump at me.

I had no time to react when his lunge had sent me flying towards the same mountain he and Twilight came out of. Because he was almost as big as the mountain, it would seem like he would just grab the sword then and there. I quickly gain some adrenaline in my body and use my two feet to launch myself back into the air with the sound of the ethereal wings flapping behind me keeping me in flight.

Lord Tirek releases a smile onto his face and proceeds to open his mouth to try and attempt to steal the blade's magic from when I flew close to attack him. I activate the magic of the blade and I could feel myself teleport straight behind him with a flash of light. He stops opening his mouth and begins to search for me again. I charge straight behind him.

But he is quick this time to turn and see me coming. He fires another blast of magic from between his horns. The blast manages to make contact with me this time. I am sent flying backwards towards the ground with my back impacting the ground. With incredible pain shooting through my back, I struggle and get back up onto my two feet and grip the blade with both of my hands, glaring at him.

"You won't hurt anypony as long as I am standing!" I shouted towards him, hatred flowing through me.

"Oh, but Brayden," Tirek said to me with a chuckle from his mouth. "I have already won, I have the alicorn magic now. There is nothing you can do to stop me!"

"Oh but there is a way, I just know it." I said back to him and begin running forward with my wings spreading into the air to lift me off towards his chest.

Lord Tirek charges towards me as well and swings his left arm to hit me. The impact between me and his hand sent me flying into the Everfree Forest. I still grip onto the claymore, powering it to help me. No shield comes up. The ethereal armor protecting my back takes another hard landing to the forest ground.

An orange beam of Tirek's magic has broken straight through into the dark forest, destroying the trees in front of me. His giant hooves trot towards me. At this point, I am trying hard to activate the magic of the blade's rainbow beam towards him, hopefully to distract him for a long getaway. Instead, I sheath the blade behind my back, deactivating the ethereal wings and armor. Without wings, I cannot fly for cover. I could feel the aura of orange magic grip onto me and bring me towards the centaur.

"Now hand me the blade," Tirek demanded by the sound of his growl bringing his right hand towards me to take me. "And I shall spare your dear life."

"Never!" I shouted with the sound of bravery in my voice sounding off like an alarm. His hand makes contact with me and I open my mouth, letting my teeth bite onto his hand.

He lets out another shriek and his magic lets go of me. I am sent down towards the ground and make hard impact with it. I find myself struggling to get up, but Tirek sends another deadly blast of energy towards me, bringing more harm to me.

"Well, since you won't give it to me I'll have to force myself to take it from you!" I could hear Tirek shout with anger in his voice. While I am rolling on my side, the Song of Order slides from off my back and ends up on the ground. I struggle to reach for it, but a stomp gives off that Tirek is there in front of me.

"At last…" I could hear him say. "The power of this blade is now mine and there is nothing you or Equestria can do to stop me."

I try to move my body in order to grab the claymore's handle, but Tirek sends another energy blast towards my hand, bringing more incredibly pain to me. I find myself lying on my back once again with my head tilted towards the view of him standing towards me.

"You are about to see how incredibly powerful I can become with this special magic. With the alicorn magic in my possession, I can steal the magic located deep in this blade. I used to know that this was a legend… but it is right before my eyes now." He announced.

"Why?" I said, sounding really desperate for an answer not to be answered.

"Be thankful that you are not my brother Scorpan. Once I am finished with Equestria… I am coming for him next." He finished.

Minus my pain shooting through me, I roll quickly and take a hold of the blade and move my left hand out towards him. Another light blue beam of magic is shot towards him, but is enough to send him stumbling backwards a bit. I slowly get up onto my two feet and begin to stumble my way into the forest once again.

I can hear the sound of his hooves coming towards me and I was turning in all directions to try to leave that area. I find myself almost going in a circle, but heading back to where the battle began outside of the castle. I can still hear his giant hooves coming and his magic tearing through the trees like butter. I stumble forward towards the cliff and fall onto the grass. I flip myself around and begin to crawl backwards and Tirek has a sadistic smile crossed onto his face.

I find myself trapped when a large boulder stopped me and caused me to hit my head on another resting rock. Tirek trots forward a little more and finally stops in front of me and looks down at me. My hand lets go of the Song of Order and I am forced to look at him for what he would do next.

"At last… the Song of Order's magic is finally mine." I could hear him say.

A bright flash of light emerges from outside of the canyon gorge and floats high up into the sky. Tirek stops trying to attempt his magic-stealing ability to the Song of Order and looks up into the air. I turn my head weakly towards the bright circle full of the colours of light and a rainbow. Inside the bubble of magic, I could see Twilight and the rest of her friends. I could see Discord and Spike leaving the gorge. In his anger, Tirek fires another blast of his dark magic towards the bubble, but it absorbs his magic, rendering it useless.

"How is this possible?!" Tirek said, outraged and surprised by this. "You have no magic!"

"You're wrong, Tirek!" I could hear Twilight shout. From what I was seeing, she had a much longer mane along with the rest of her friends looking different. "I may have given you my magic, but I carry within me the most powerful magic of all!"

Finally, the bubble of powerful magic fires another rainbow beam towards the centaur individually one beam at a time and then connecting to form it. I could feel my eyes start to close. The colors start to go distorted while I listening to Tirek scream in defeat from the rainbow attack. The last thing I saw was his weakest form when he had become small and weak again.

I then closed my eyes and was knocked unconscious.

---

"Wake up Brayden!"

I could hear the sound of somepony shouting at me and the front of my body feeling something light pushing down on my chest. I still had my eyes closed, but it felt like somepony was actually performing CPR on me. After about 30 pushes against my chest, I could feel a mouth making contact with mine and starting to blow air in from their mouth into mine.

My eyes are forced open and I started to gasp in that air heavily. I could see Twilight in front of me that had been giving me air, her eyes returned to normal. My body rises a bit from the ground. I could hear a few other ponies gasping and gathering around me. A few others started asking questions such as 'are you okay?' or 'You worried all of us.'

Twilight is holding my hand with her left front hoof and her right front hoof is on my left shoulder. "You had me and everypony else worried." She tells me with that relieved and happy tone in her voice.

I struggle to talk, but cough for a bit. Twilight moves her right hoof to gently pat my back. It helps get the coughing out of me. "Thanks," I complimented putting a smile on my face. "But I had to do what was necessary to distract Tirek. It was the only way to-"

I tried to continue, but I had been interrupted when Twilight moved her head forward, wrapped her wings around my body and made contact with my lips. Her eyes were closed and I gently close my eyes as well. Both of us share the kiss for a few moments and then release the kiss from our lips. Both our eyes open and we gaze at each other with her snout and my nose making contact. "That was for taking the risk to help us out." She whispered to me.

I gently smile back and gaze into her beautiful violet eyes. "Wait… the Song of Order…" I said, turning from her to look for it on the streets of Ponyville.

"Oh, don't worry about it Brayden," I could hear Twilight say to me, taking and holding my right hand with her left hoof. "Fluttershy is holding onto it."

I turned from Twilight to my right and saw that Fluttershy had the claymore on her blade, trotting over to give it to me. I wait until she approached and she offered me the claymore. I take it by the handle and carefully sheathe it behind my back. "I'm going to have it with me at all times. I can train myself to be a better fighter." I stated. "But, now… what happened while I was out?"

"You might want to come with us." Twilight said with a smile on her face. I get up on my two feet off of the ground and begin to walk with my special somepony and friends. All I could see from the blue, peaceful sky was something big and pointing like a giant star that stood still.

From down the path, I could see it come into my full view. It was a tree-castle of some sort. I think something did happen while I was out. I find myself looking at it with wonder. The star that was decorated in crystal above it was a six-pointed star, another sign of Twilight's cutie mark.

"That castle…" I said, rather surprised by its sudden appearance. "Is that what had come in the chest?"

"Well, it was more like the seed to the chest, plus our new defense!" Pinkie says behind me, bouncing up and down. "We were going all around Equestria that had been affected by Tirek's rampage and gave everypony all of their magic back, and then the chest rose from the tree's place and went straight into the ground there so-"

Applejack stuffed a hoof into Pinkie's mouth to get her to stop talking. Dang it Applejack, as much as you are a close friend I wish I could hear the rest of the story from Pinkie's point of view. "Alright Pinkie, we know the story." Applejack says with a smile on her face.

"But I only have one question about this castle," I asked with question crossing into my voice. "Who does this castle belong to?"

"I believe it belongs to Princess Twilight."

That familiar voice that I knew was right behind me and all of us turn with a smile on all of our faces. Not only was it Princess Celestia standing there, Princess Luna, Princess Cadence and Nightmare Moon were all standing there looking proud about us. Discord peeks from the left of Princess Luna and waves at us with a smile on his face. I can totally trust Discord now.

All of us enter the castle and walk through the halls. Princess Celestia is guiding us to the throne room as if she had already studied it without us ever knowing of it. I am trotting beside Twilight with Celestia on her left.

"You've been wondering what you are meant to do as a princess," I could hear Princess Celestia ask, I turn my head to look at her talking to Twilight. "Do you know now?"

Twilight smiled and turns to the princess. "As princess, I believe I have the power to spread the magic of friendship across Equestria and beyond. That is the role I am meant to have in our world! The role I choose to have! But I didn't defeat Tirek on my own – it took all of us to unlock the chest!" She said to her, looking prouder than ever before.

Princess Celestia trots towards the golden double doors and uses her magic to open up the doors to reveal the throne room. "Then it is unlikely that you are meant to take on this task alone." She said, a smile still on her face. She didn't even look sad this time, because I wondered what she felt so sad when I was visiting the Crystal Empire.

The throne room seemed to have the same symbol of Twilight's cutie mark lying in the center. Not only was there one throne for Twilight, but there were five others surrounded it. It seemed to be meant for her friends to sit in. There was also a small throne meant for Spike to sit in.

"Wowee!" I could hear Pinkie Pie say, sounding really amazed by how beautiful the room looked.

"You are now Twilight Sparkle, the princess of friendship," I could hear Princess Celestia announce to my special somepony. Twilight smiles when she hears about this title that seemed new to her. "But what is the princess of friendship without her friends?"

"Wait a minute," I hear Discord say out loud with surprise in his voice. "Where's my throne?!"

"Umm," Fluttershy got his attention with her soft voice. "I don't think you're quite there yet."

Discord calms down a bit and chuckles. "Yes, well… I suppose not." He said with a smile on his face.

I turn towards Princess Luna and Nightmare Moon. I walk towards them and decide to ask them if they were alright during the attack. I approach them and generally give them both a hug from me. One arm around Princess Luna's neck and the other around Nightmare's neck gently.

"We're fine Brayden." Princess Luna says to me, already knowing what I wanted to tell them.

Nightmare Moon places a hoof onto my right shoulder and looks at me with her friendly cyan cat-like eyes. "Cerberus made sure that we were alright and that no monster brought harm to any of us."

"I wished that I was there to protect you from Tirek. But I am glad you were all safe when he sent you four to Tartarus in his place." I told them, taking both Luna and Nightmare's hooves and holding them.

I could feel a hoof tap behind me. I let go of their hooves and turn around to see Princess Celestia standing there. She looked quite proud of me.

"Brayden," She had announced to me, placing her hoof on my right shoulder. "I know that it seemed like a big risk that you might let down Twilight and her friends when you came back to Ponyville, but you did make the right choice in coming back to distract Tirek."

"Wait," I said, with Celestia pausing. "How did you know that I was there?"

"Just a lucky guess I suppose." Celestia said with a giggle coming from her. Oh Celestia, you and your guessing and know that we'd win.

I could see Twilight trotting towards me with a smile on her face. I walk slowly towards her. She takes my hand with her hoof and holds onto it. I hold onto her hoof and look at her. The rest of our friends gather around us and all were smiling and happy once again.

"This calls for a party!" Pinkie Pie announced, pulling out her party cannon.

"Then a party we will have!" I said with a bright smile on my face. This seemed like it would be another after-villain is defeated party for Pinkie, so she blasts the party cannon in the air and she is cheering. I had a bright smile on my face, this was just the beginning of something new to happen in Ponyville and the rest of Equestria. It was something special for me as well.

It was time to enter the next chapter of my life in Equestria…

A/N: Alright, kind of a short time to be working on this new chapter. But I consider it at the moment another stop gap from the main character Brayden. Besides that and the change to an M rating, I wanted to announce that I will be making a three-shot Christmas story related to this. Basically, Brayden wants to find a gift for Twilight and asks his friends to help him find the right gift for her. Any other ideas to expand for my Christmas story would be good as well if you want to give me some.

Alright, review response time.

AVP5: Hmmm, not so sure about involving the story of Rainbow Rocks. But I might mention it briefly in a later chapter. And there will definitely be chapters where Brayden steps in through the mirror. So get ready for that and Sunset Shimmer's appearance. It'll be good, but I just need to plan that out a little more.

sonic3461: I know right? :)

PGHOST04: Thank you :)

godzillafan1: I went back and made those edits, but expanded a bit on the entire Tirek being banished. What did Celestia tell Twilight? Well, that's a surprise you'll find out eventually.

P.S. I went back to Chapter 1 and made a big edit. Be sure to check it out when you can.

P.S.S. The translation for the chapter name means 'Shocking Discovery'.

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Rebecca's POV

Earth, May 30th

The sky was covered with gray and dull looking rainclouds up high in the sky. Small bits of rain were pouring down from up there onto my face and head. The other people gathered around were also getting wet, but they did not seem to care about this. Just like me, all of them are dressed in black coats and the women were also wearing black dresses and hats for the occasion. I wear the traditional black coat over me but without a hat to cover up my red hair.

It was a sad day for me, his family and his friends who knew about Brayden. I could see him lying there in the red blanketed casket. His eyes were closed and the rain was dripping onto his face and sliding down into the casket.

A church bell sounds out in the distance. I could still see the spot that he had impaled from near the chest and the bullet wounds on his shoulder and both of his hands. The rest of him looked very much clean off but he was as white as a ghost, looking very much dead as any other corpse would look like if they were already.

I remembered it all from the very instant that I found out about my best friend's death. It was another night after my birthday on the 9th, and I was sitting in the kitchen just listening to my music. It was pretty much the same kind of music he listened to, but I think I managed to get him into listening to that. Then I could hear the doorbell ring, with local police officers standing at my door.

I thought I was in trouble, but the only thing they told me was that they found Brayden on the lakeside beach dead. I denied this at first, but didn't react or flinch when I saw his inactive body in autopsy which I requested they show him to me.

His body was still a bit waterlogged from the last moments that he had suffered through and there was a large open cut that had been impaled by those sharp rocks. It seemed bled out and empty for his lifeless body. When the detective observed the autopsy, he discovered that he had no belongings with him as if they were gone out of thin air. It's funny because I remembered seeing him with his iPhone and iPod most of the time while I was still in high school with him.

But that is when I know that if there was one thing responsible that might have eventually led to his tragic death, it was those foolish ponies that he kept talk about.

I had to put up with those talk of ponies from that girlish TV show that he and these other boys kept watching and talking about. But eventually, it just snapped on me and I knew deep inside that I hated those stupid ponies with a passion. It drove me up the fucking wall because they were getting really annoying for me. I ended up arguing with him a few times about it which resulted in him getting angry at me for insulting one of the 'pony princesses' I assume. Talk about controlling his temper, hm? No wonder dragons are better than those foolish and girly equines.

Over time up to now because of his differences starting to vary, I and he seemed to talk more rarely. I mean, he still enjoyed playing the same video games that I had played, but hey, nothing wrong with a girl gamer right?

I could hear the mourning of the family members and friends he had known over the past couple of years in his life, even up into his own childhood. The casket's top slowly starts to close and I begin to walk forward slowly towards it to place one more object into there before it set into the ground, never for him to breathe life again.

From out of my pocket, I take out a small relic that had been given to him by me over the years. It was a green plant that he has always had an interest in: Aloe Vera's. I approach the halfway point of the casket and gently toss that strip of green into the casket, landing beside him on the red carpet-like plush. The top of the casket finally closes and I could see the two men working at the funeral home begin to each pull two levers to lower the casket down into the rectangular hole.

After those final words had been said and done by the rest of the members, most of the family and friends had left the scene except me while the rest of the graveyard diggers were just about preparing to cover up the hole with a round of cement liquid.

"Wait," I said out loud to the two workers, they stop what they are doing and look at me with their unemotional eyes. "I have some final words to say to Brayden."

The graveyard workers nod their heads in understanding and walk a couple of feet away from the graven hole so that I can have my time to speak my thoughts to my dead friend. I approach the hole and look down. Only a few bits of the dirt dug out start to fall out onto the casket buried deep inside. Finally, a mixture of emotions come to me and out of all of them selected, it was anger filling my mind.

"Nothing ever did change for you, did it?" I had asked to the unresponsive casket underneath the ground, too silent to make a peep in my disappointed and angered voice.

"I'm not even a memory, am I?" I had questioned further to him as if I had demanded an answer from him even though he was dead. "You had a great friendship to remember for me and one for me to remember but all you cared about in the end were those goddamn fucking ponies! You thought they were special, they were all you wanted. Our friendship?! It's all a blur, nothing!"

His grave continued to remain silent as I had spoken to him. The only sounds not left silent were the sounds of the soft wind and the pitter-patter of soft rain pouring down onto the casket and my head. "I reached out and kept my eye on you, but I must have made a big mistake. I've done enough for you and I'm done with your stupid pony talk. Goodbye Brayden… may you never find the peace from my words." I finished up.

I turned around and began walking away from his grave, letting the men proceed to go with the flow and cover his casket and grave hole entirely with cement. It was only anger and tears that had poured through my eyes and left me with no emotion left.

I stopped walking for a moment. I had turned my head towards a square-shaped and wet newspaper with a picture making the headline, lying on the nearby green bench of maple wood. There was something so familiar about the person who was on the photo. I walk towards the bench and take the newspaper with my right hand. I shake it for a moment and begin to read the headlining silently.

A RARE TV PHENOMENOM: A MAN APPEARS IN A POPULAR CHILDREN SHOW! FANBASE ON SHOW GO WILD! POSSIBLE TELEVISION HACKING?

Just around the 10th of May when the Season 4 Finale for the popular cartoon My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic just started; there had been reports from many provinces in all of United States and eventually, the world about a real-life human man walking around and interacting with the characters and a brief moment of him fighting the villain. Those who had seen this occurrence had called up the animators who had been working on that episode to report this strange sighting. They only denied ever putting a human into the show and sent guarantees that someone mostly likely hacked into the television stations to do that.

Many of the older fanbase of males called 'bronies' who watch the show saw the same thing as well. There had been reports of outcry from them and a bit of mild shock from them, though it isn't as bad. Though there are few who were ever denying that this had happened. Most of them that saw it ended up surprised to see this happen.

"I am not sure what just happened when I saw him talking to them," Matt Adam, a brony since the beginning of the show and 24 in age. "I could recall while watching that a couple of scenes were dragging on longer than they should be. This man among them seemed to help the main characters, but I won't give any spoilers away."

In the photo that the 'brony' took was a screen capture of this man. He could recall that the human had a name called "Brayden". He seemed to be in possession of a powerful claymore that would pretty much anger most of the writers in the fanbase, just giving out a siren that it was most likely cheating, or in their words 'god-modding'.

In the end, the animators went through all two parts of the episode they had made after the outcry. They had discovered no evidence of a human male ever appearing in this episode. After that day, the two-parter finale ran as normal without the human ever being in it. Some bronies still wonder what just happened and if it was all just a hacking into the station, similar to the 1987 Max Headroom incident that interrupted an episode of Doctor Who.

In other news:

Khaln and other members still on the loose, Pg. 32, Section F

More trouble from Bieber in court, Pg. 12, Section C

I turned towards the headlining photo resting and embedded into the paper. I knew that I had recognized how he looked like since I still knew him long before he died. Something came across me and I had developed a smile on my face with the eyes of mine growing into a glare.

"Ah, my friend seems dead here… but in that world of those stupid ponies he seems to be alive," I said to myself and toss the newspaper back onto the bench. "But if I ever find out if this place actually exists, I think he's going to be in for a surprise."

I walked away from the cemetery gates and the bench and walk across the empty street into the nearby neighbourhood with that smile still on my face.

I had a plan in mind that would just be perfect.

A/N: Another chapter here just for you. Consider it your early Christmas (Hearth's Warming Eve) gift for all of you. :) So merry christmas, happy hanukkah and I will see you all in the year 2015.

Not much I can think of, but I felt really happy today. Today, they released an announcement date and album name for Nightwish's next studio album. So exciting!

Review response time!

mr234scott: You saw Liquid Tension Experiment? Lucky! I wish they could come back so I could see them.

AVP5: Thank you :) Oh, there will be a lot happening.

sonic3461: Thank you. I always respond to my reviews whenever I can.

Born-From-Black-Lightning: Thanks, for Brayden's blood... oh it'll be quite a surprise so I'm not going to release any details about it until it happens later in the story. I'm not sure when it'll be though. But it'll definitely happen.

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I was walking through the streets of Ponyville on a partly cloudy evening with the sun starting to fade over the western horizon and Luna's moon starting to rise over the eastern horizon. Most of Ponyville's townsfolk have already gone indoors to have their traditional dinner among family and friends. A few that I had known were outside still, taking a gentle stroll in the evening. A few fillies or foals were coming home from that bright day to have dinner as well that was waiting on the table for them. Restaurants around the town were quite active at this time and I could smell the scent of fresh garden salad leaves in the warm air.

I was on my way to the Sugarcube Corner. Since I hadn't hung out with Pinkie for quite a while, I pretty much decided to give her a surprise visit and see what is going on with her and how she is doing. Usually around the evening, Sugarcube Corner is still open, but there are very few customers at that time picking up their orders. It's the basic sign to Mr. and Mrs. Cake that it will soon be time to close for the night.

Down the street was the store itself and I am walking at a relaxing medium pace of speed. I could hear the sound of the crickets beginning to make their wake into chirping their sweet tune songs for most of the night. I turn towards the wooden steps leading towards the swinging doors of the building and gently push both of the doors open.

I walk into the room and I could see Mr. Cake standing behind the vendor of all types of sweets that would mostly form a tiny bit of saliva in my mouth at the sight of them. Some of them that were made I had already tried out and thought that they were delicious. I would also try out all of the other treats, but I had to remember about my teeth as well. Don't want to get another cavity I tell you.

Mr. Cake raised his head from sorting out in the 'hidden' cash register and smiles when he sees me coming in. "Hello Brayden. How have you been doing?" He asked me with a greeting tone in his voice.

"I am doing really good tonight Mr. Cake," I said to him with a returning smile to him. "I just came by to see if Pinkie was around. I pretty much realized that I haven't got a chance to hang out with her again and I'm hoping that she is here."

"She's just in the kitchen with Mrs. Cake, so I'll let her know that you've come by." Mr. Cake said, keeping his head turned towards me and he began trotting into the kitchen where most of their stuff they made for the customers would be. He finally turns his head, pushing open the pink swinging doors when he passed into the kitchen.

A few moments pass and I find myself alone in the room yet again. Though I could a bit of talking from the kitchen, nothing really else. A few seconds of silence pass and I could hear hooves trotting back out of the kitchen.

It was my good friend Pinkie Pie. She came trotting out past the two swinging doors. When she turned and saw me standing at the counter, she kept her smile and trotted over to me opposite side of the counter that I was standing.

"Hello Brayden!" She said with the usual high-pitched tone that I knew her by. "I didn't expect to see you here in the evening because I usually see you come in during daytime."

"Well I guess I'm always that kind of guy who decides on any time of the day or night to come and see one of my favorite friends." I said to her only scratching my head for a short bit. "I was actually here to ask if you and I wanted to have dinners… as friends 'cause you know."

"A friendly dinner?" Pinkie asked.

I nodded my head with a smile and said "Of course. You've been such a good friend to me for so long that it came to me to treat you to dinner."

"Well, I think that sounds really good!" She tells me, jumping up and down. "I just have to let the Cakes know that I'll be heading out the door with you and will be back soon."

"Take your time." I said.

"Mr. and Mrs. Cake, I'm going to stepping out the door for a little bit," Pinkie called out into the kitchen where they were. "I'll be back later though."

I could hear Mrs. Cake call back "Okay Pinkie, let us know how it was when you get back."

"I will!" Pinkie said, and then hopped over the counter to join me.

I let out a smile on my face and begin to walk beside her on our way out of the Sugarcube Corner. I have my head turned towards her and I'm looking at her. She does turn her head towards me and share with me a gentle and friendly smile minus how energetic she looked. Her energetic behaviour was the best because that is what I personally like about Pinkie Pie. She almost reminded me of a few people that I knew who were really energetic when they met other friends or me.

I guess I could say that at such a young age, I had a bit of Pinkie Pie in me though I still wasn't aware about the show just yet. It was only before I came to middle school so it was most likely during the time of Generation 3. I didn't really pay attention to it though as I was more diverse towards other stuff like the want to going to parties with friends, trying to make friends without looking annoying or awkward which it turned out to be most of the time. Nevertheless I still had that kind of spirit in me.

I walk over to the swinging doors and push one of them open for Pinkie Pie as it might seem that I am blocking her by complete accident should I try to open both of them at the same time. "Thank you Brayden." Pinkie thanks me. She trots past me and opens the other swinging door with her left front hoof. After she had exited the building first, I follow out after and join up beside her once again.

Coming down from the tiny wooden steps outside the Sugarcube Corner, I could see Twilight's castle in the distance, hanging out over the wondrous majesties of night. The combination of it and the night made the sight of it even more beautiful. The sounds of crickets chirping could be heard in the ambience with the mild-toned conversations of ponies talking to each other. The sun had finally set in the west and Luna's moon rose up over the eastern horizon as a crescent.

"So…" I could hear Pinkie say to me as if she wanted to ask me a question. She had a smile remaining on her face when I had turned to look at her.

"So?" I said in return. A smile had grown onto my face as well. I was getting quite curious.

"I was just starting to wonder how you are doing nowadays?" She asked me.

I chuckled for a quick moment and looked back at her cyan eyes. "I am doing really well Pinkie. Since the new castle came in, I have been just going about and checking in on friends from time to time to see if they want to join up with me and hang out," I said to her. "In other news, I have a few plans in mind to go and visit Manehattan and the Crystal Empire."

"Oh!" Pinkie said, bouncing up and down. "I think you'll just love being there in those two places! I am pretty sure you have something big planned for what you will do there in the two most visited tourist cities in Equestria."

"Well, I do have a few things in mind for what I want to do," I said. "For Manehattan since it is the first, I will stop by Coco Pommel's apartment as Rarity said that she is willing to let me stay there for as long as I want to as long as it's alright with her. I'll make sure to get a good view of the city and walk alongside its beaches. For the Crystal Empire, it isn't really much of a visit. There's something for the mirror in the one of its rooms… a portal. Something is telling me to go inside."

"The mirror?" She asked. "Brayden, I do not think that anypony or you might be allowed to enter through there unless granted permission by a royal princess' authority. Plus it is still closed for the thirty moons.

"But… there is somepony that I know about who is in there." I said to her, continuing to walk. "If you remember… it was the thief that stole Twilight's element at the time. Sunset Shimmer. She had been in my thoughts as soon as I saw the mirror-"

Pinkie interrupted me by placing her right hoof onto my left hand. "Brayden… you can't…" Pinkie said to me in a concerned tone. "It is only to be authorized by the order of the princesses. None would probably allow you entry into the mirror."

"I see," I said, calming down an attempt to make a point that was probably not going to work anyway. "I am not even sure how the physics of the mirror portal works." Though I had dropped the topic about the magic mirror, I still was being fed with the temptations to enter through into the portal to the other side. They were pretty much humans like me, but it was an alternate Equestria I would be witnessing as I did before when I first saw the Equestria Girls movie.

"Don't worry though Brayden," Pinkie said. "I am sure that one day, the princesses will allow you to pass through into that world."

"That is what worries me the most though," I said. "That 'one day' might be too late for me."

Pinkie kept her hoof on the top of my hand as I was talking to her. "Brayden, I don't think that we should keep talking about the mirror? Can we change it to something else?" She asked me, still sounding a bit concerned.

I let out a bit of a defeated sigh and looked back at her with a smile. "Okay." I answered to her question. "What else do you want to talk about?"

"I would like to know a little more about how you and Twilight are both doing together?" She asks, sounding a little better that I had changed the subject. "Has your relationship with her been fine? No fights between you and her?"

"No, no fights at all." I said, smiling again when Twilight finally came to my mind. "Our relationship seems to be very healthy as of right now. I am planning to go on another date with her sometime after my visit to Manehattan. Since I already made the plan for our first date, it's her turn then.

"And when will you already start popping the question to her?" Pinkie said to me. I take her pink hoof that on top of my left hand and it gently holds onto it in a friendly way.

"Pinkie, I really do not want to rush straight into asking her to marry me just yet," I said to her with a bit of warning in my tone but with seriousness, but not too serious. "I am thinking that if after a couple of months and nothing changes, then yes… I'll pop the question to her."

"Okie dokie lokie." She says to me with a giggle coming from her.

"I'm pretty sure an idea she for the date she is setting up is probably something a little more easygoing," I said. "I am guessing that both I and Twilight will go up to Canterlot to one of those fancy restaurants. I heard one of them is like a big club that have live performances from instrumental musicians."

"You could probably ask them to play a song that you like." She suggested.

"I'm not sure if they know about the music that I listen to," I told her. "But if you want to, you could hear a bit of the music that I listen to just for an example."

"Well, I listen to any kind of music in all of Equestria whether it's the classical kind in Canterlot or the general music today that most ponies hear. I would like to hear what yours sounds like." She says, bouncing up and down.

Me and her stop walking on the path to the restaurant district and I pull out my phone from my pocket. I unlock my phone with a password. In the music section I am trying to think of something that I can best relate to Pinkie when I hear it. What's a song that best represents her? Well, I know she's one who loves to party… oh yes. I move down to the 'K' letter of the alphabet and press one of the artists in the section of that letter. I select one of the artists' albums and offer one of the two earphones to Pinkie. She nods and I gently place the left earpiece into her left ear. I select the song and let her listen to it. A few seconds pass into the song, the mare seems to have a face that looked like it was her first time ever hearing this song I was playing.

She starts to slowly bop her head up and down to the rhythm of the song. A smile crept onto her face as she listened on. "This song is really catchy." She commented about a minute into the song. Considering that it was only around 2 to 3 minutes, it shouldn't be too long.

After about two minutes and fifty seconds of the song, the song had been finished and I took the left earphone out of Pinkie's ear gently. I put my phone and earphones back into my leather jacket. "Well," I finally said while I had been doing this. "What did you think of that song?"

"I thought that song was amazing!" She said, with the both of us starting to walk again. "It started off a bit with drums and then came that sound out of the guitar that I've never really heard before that I knew were electric. Electric ones like the one you have are hard to come across nowadays here in Equestria, but I also like the chorus. It sounded really catchy and would definitely fit me as a song!"

"Well I am glad that you like the song that I listen to whenever you come to mind." I said, zipping up the pockets on my leather jacket shut. "I still remember the day that I went to go see those guys in concert."

"Back on Earth?" She asked. I almost ended up forgetting to place that into my words.

"Oh yes." I said, smiling again.

I cannot find anything else to talk about at the moment, so me and her just continued walking together to get to the restaurant in Ponyville. The restaurant looked very outdoors just like the last time that me and her had hung out together. I could see the waiters delivering either menus or food to their customers, with the aroma of fresh salad filling the air tonight.

"Alright Pinkie, I'm all set for a meal tonight amongst a good friend being you, of course." I said, with a snicker coming out from my mouth. I didn't really hear her say anything which surprised me for a moment. I turn around to see if she was still making conversation with me. Her head seemed to have lowered a bit and she bore a weak, nervous frown from her mouth. "Pinkie?"

She sighed quietly for a moment and then looked up at me. "I'm sorry Brayden… it's just-" Pinkie said before stopping. By the way she was speaking, she sounded really nervous about something. "I- I am just a bit worried."

I walked closer towards her and got onto both of my knees. "What has you worried Pinkie? Is something wrong?" I asked, sounding a bit concerned for my friend.

"Nothing's wrong yet, but it'll be what I fear once we take a seat." Pinkie said, shaking only a little bit. "Remember when I told you about my special somepony at the time? Well, I fear that the teasing might happen again and you'll end up losing your temper towards me and just yell at me!"

"Pinkie. I-" I tried to say, but she interrupted me again.

"…And then you'll break off our friendship after the ponies tease me to think I'm with you, but I already know you're with Twilight." Pinkie continued.

"That I already know as well as you do. But-" I tried to say again, but was cut off by Pinkie again.

"And once you break off the friendship I'll end up begging to you and have our friendship back, but you'll say no and end up leaving me there alone with one less friend-" She continues before I placed my right hand onto her left shoulder.

"Pinkie?" I had asked. She stops talking in a rant-like way and looks into my brown eyes with sad emotions coming from them. "Nothing can ever repeat itself again. You shouldn't worry about it. As you are a good friend to me, I will never raise my voice towards you nor will I ever bring harm to you in any way nor break off our friendship. Both of our friendship is important to us. Don't ever let your worries or the past get to you in the present."

"Presents?" Pinkie asked, her lowered ears rising a bit.

"No, I meant the present as in time… well, as of right now." I said, kind of explaining what I had meant to say.

Pinkie's ears lower again and she exhales a sad sigh. I move a little closer towards her and gently move my arms around her. I pull her towards me and I could feel her hooves moving around to my back as well. Both of us begin to share a friendly, gentle hug in a way to get across that I was only trying to cheer up the happiest pony in Ponyville, possibly in all of Equestria. My left hand gently rubs her back.

"Thanks Brayden." Pinkie says with the volume of her voice sounding only a little bit quiet from her normal voice whenever she spoke. Her shaking decreased at a normal rate and eventually she had stopped. Her ears rise again.

"You're welcome." I said to her. I now should remember something whenever I am hanging out with Pinkie Pie and she is getting sad, a hug can cheer her up. My stomach makes a rumbling sound. "Now, if you don't mind, can we get to dinner? My stomach is already begging for something."

"Okie dokie lokie!" Pinkie Pie said, letting go from the friendly hug and getting up back on her four hooves. Surprisingly to me, she got cheered up pretty quick.

I get back onto my two feet and the both of us approach the wooden booth for one of the waiters. A waiter comes out from inside the restaurant and approaches the booth to see the both of us standing there.

"Welcome, the both of you." He had greeted us in a majestic, blooming tone. "Can I help you both to your seats indoors or outdoors?"

"Outdoors, please." I had said to the waiter when he turned to look at me.

"Alright, please follow me." He says. He leaves from the booth and I and Pinkie continue on, following him.

In the dining area, I could see a couple of the pony residents that I knew sitting down to east their dinner. A few I recognized were Time Turner, Derpy Hooves, Lily Valley… the list goes ever on. Most of the food that the ponies were already getting into was mostly consisting of the finest meals that would be served that weren't in Canterlot. Some of them were also from the other cities in Equestria or beyond. Tomato soup with crackers, baked potatoes, apple crisp seasoned with rosemary bits and garden salads galore, with the seasonal apple cider for those who could ask for more.

The sounds of ponies chatting filled around the air along with the sounds of ponies cooking in the kitchen heard inside the restaurant from another door. No music accompanied the restaurant, except the sound of classical instruments composed by the Canterlot Orchestra located at the Opera Hall performing live for an audience. So it all made sense… I missed the sign that it was Canterlot Day today for the restaurant. Oh well… silly me.

"Here are the both of your seats." I could hear the waiter say to the both of us. My full attention on what was going on around me is snapped back to what was happening with me and my friend Pinkie. On his face, the waiter donned a friendly smile.

I walk towards my assigned chair, moving my body for a moment and taking my seat on its plush mushroom top. Yes, I already knew that I was sitting on a magic mushroom coming out of the ground. I wonder if it don't actually even mind if it likes being sit upon by others. Pinkie takes her seat on the other side of the table, and she continues to smile.

"Now, can I help the both of you with a drink to start off?" The waiter says to us. I turn my head and look at the waiter as he asked his question.

Pinkie raises her right front hoof a bit off of the table and said "I'll go with the fruit punch." She calls out in an excited tone.

"I guess I'll have a pint of Apple Cider." I requested with a calm tone in my voice. The waiter smiles, with a nod he writes them down on a notepad. He places the food menu on the table and essentially leaves both me and Pinkie there at the table to get our drinks inside the restaurant.

"So, what's been on your mind lately Pinkie?" I had asked to her to make some conversation flow instead of the silence.

Her head turns back towards me. "Me?" Pinkie asked first before that same smile rose again. "Yes, I was just thinking about my best friends, one of them being you of course!"

"I know I am, as well as you being one of my best friends as well," I said to her. "But what I really meaning to ask was if anypony else, that being a stallion been on your mind, because… well you know." I kind of hope I didn't mention about the other stallion who shouted at her. If I happen to see him, I'll definitely make sure that I tell him off. Violence to me is not the answer to solving anything whatsoever and I'd just like to keep the peace.

"Oh… that." Pinkie says, her smile lowering a bit to a weak smile. "Well, yes there has been this one stallion on my mind but he's in the back there."

"Who is it?" I had asked, leaning forward a bit and raising an eyebrow.

"Why do you ask?" Pinkie sounded questioned when I had asked about who this other stallion on her mind was. Something tells me that she's got a special somepony there, but he doesn't even know it at all just yet.

"Oh, I'm just curious," I told her. "Would you like to tell me or am I going to have to torture you in a fun way to get you to say it?"

Pinkie's ears shot up into the air again and she said "Torture me in a fun way? Like tickling me?" She said, with a giggle coming from her.

"Oh yes, so better tell me or the tickles are coming." I said to her, putting an evil smile right onto my face just for the fun of it.

Pinkie has a playful smile now and she says "Well, alright I'll tell you who it is. But please Pinkie Promise that you will not tell him or anypony else about it."

"Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." I said to fulfill that I would keep the promise, even doing the hand or… err, hoof gestures to be exact. I don't know, my hands try to work like pony hoof gestures.

Pinkie gets off her mushroom chair and trots over to me. She gets up a bit on two legs, placing her two front legs onto my right leg. Her head leans forward and really close to my ear. "It's Cheese Sandwich." She whispers into my ear.

"Pinkie, you've got your mind on Cheese Sandwich?" I had asked with a smile on my face. "Why that is wonderful that you have these kinds of feelings for somepony who is just like you."

"Oh thanks," Pinkie said, taking both of her legs off of me. She moves back to the other side of the table and sits down. "I think I started to develop feelings for him after Rainbow Dash's birthday."

I could remember Cheese Sandwich all too well. From the instant he had been voiced by a famous comedian artist back home on Earth, all the way to the moment when he pulled Pinkie closer to him in the episode "Pinkie Pride" and when I met him before my performance for Twilight and the rest of my friends. He seemed like such a comedian, but I also saw that connection between him and Pinkie because they had the same kind of interest in common together: throwing parties.

"I think he would be just perfect for you as a special somepony, just being honest." I said to my friend, raising both of my open fingered hands into the air to show my innocence.

Pinkie Pie had a bit of a blush cross on just her cheeks and she looks at me as if I in a fun way was embarrassing her. I will admit that this is probably the first time that I have ever seen Pinkie Pie blushing other than the fan-art I saw back at home.

The sound of somepony's throat being cleared grabs both me and Pinkie's attention. It was only our waiter with the drinks that were order by the both of us on a gray colored and round tray. "Here are the both of your drinks." The waiter says.

"Thank you sir." I complimented as he handed me my pint of Apple Cider. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that because this is Equestria's equivalent to beer: I won't get drunk because it's made of apples alone. For the pony body, it does make a bit of sense.

"Brayden?" Pinkie asked. "Aren't you worried that you might not get used to the taste of apple cider, usually the first time is disgusting."

"Don't worry," I said to her, raising the metal cup with the pint full. "I'm pretty sure that the side effects of drinking too much apple cider won't affect my body. I mean, think about it. I have been eating Equestrian food without any side effects done to me yet from its foreign taste."

"If you say so." Pinkie said, taking a sip from her cup of fruit punch.

The waiter takes out his pen and notepad, ready to jot down our meals when we were ready. "I suppose that you want me to get your meals ready for tonight." He said to us.

"Oh yes, we're ready," I said to him, my stomach already starting to growl a little bit.

"Alright then sir," He said to me with a tone of respect in his voice. "What can I get for the both of you tonight?"

"I have decided that I shall have tomato soup with garlic bread and celery on the side." I told him my food order and he starts writing it down while hearing Pinkie with his other ear to find out what she was going to have for tonight.

"I will have the grand garden salad with those ingredients straight from Canterlot itself." Pinkie Pie says, reading a bit from the menu to find what she needed.

"All of the food on the menu made for tonight are from Canterlot, miss." The waiter corrected.

"So you have been to Canterlot?" I asked him.

The waiter finished writing down Pinkie's order and turned to look at me. "Yes sir, I've grown up there since I was just a small foal. Lots of royalists though who state that Canterlot is the more supreme city in Equestria. I mean, for crying out loud… I don't think they've ever been to Manehattan." He told me.

"Manehattan?" I asked, an eyebrow rose on my head again. "I'm going there for a visit shortly and I was already starting to wonder what it would be like there. Any attractions or tourist locations there that I should see?"

"Well I can't really suggest anything on my mind at the moment," He said, thinking about what I had to say a moment back. "Though, I do recommend that you go and see one of the Bridleway shows in the Entertainment District. The only problem is the prices whether it comes to seating so you'd rather be off finding a much cheaper seat in the balconies which provide a good view as like every theater that does. The small beach on the right side of the city's island is also a good spot to take a quiet stroll when feeling down. Seeing how I lived in Manehattan for two years in my life… it does explain a lot."

"A friend in Manehattan I believe invited me, asking her to come and see her when I get the time to." I said, seeing the waiter take his notepad.

"Well, I do wish you the best of luck on your visit to Manehattan," The waiter said to me with a smile adorned on his face. "I'll go and get the both of you your food. It just needs to cook up."

I nodded with understanding and turned back to Pinkie. Pinkie was indeed curious about Manehattan. Though she's probably seen it more physically, I've seen the city as of back on Earth when that episode first aired. It did make a lot of sense because besides that episode almost reminding me of New York City, I also visited that city with my own family.

"A friend in Manehattan invited you?" She innocently asked. "But you've only been to here, Canterlot and the Crystal Empire. Who is this friend who invited you to because I don't think I've seen her unless her name rings a bell."

"Coco Pommel," I answered her with the smile on my face. "After my birthday party, she asked me to come and visit her when I wasn't too busy. So I decided to give it some thought. Considering it has been only two weeks since Twilight got her castle, I figured why not because nothing really interesting has happened yet, but something tells me that it should happen while I'm gone. You know what to expect."

"Yes indeed!" Pinkie said to me. "Also, just a friendly reminder to you that Nightmare Moon sent down a letter to you, but you weren't at Fluttershy's cottage. I took the letter for you and now that you're here, I can give it to you." Out of under the table with her strange physics, she somehow makes the letter appear and slides it across the table with her hoof.

The letter hits the top of my hand as soft as a feather when it slid across the mushroom table. I move my hand that it hit and stopped at. I take the letter with both of my hands and open up the top that had been sealed with the royal symbol of Canterlot itself. I take the parchment right out from in there and begin to read the well done text that had been written by the black alicorn herself.

Brayden,

I know you have been a bit busy with your friends down in Ponyville. I was just starting to wonder, I feel like since I had the magic of darkness removed from me, I've been feeling a bit lonely. Sure I've got Princess Celestia or Luna to talk to, but it just doesn't feel right. Has this whole me being the legendary Nightmare Moon scaring off everypony that I am trying to make friends with? I'm not really sure, but you and your friends are the only one that I know down in Ponyville that I can talk to. When I am with you and them, I feel happy like I've never seen happiness before in my entire life?

Anyways, I'm just going to keep this short. I only ask that you only come to me for a simple get-together at any time when you are not busy. I won't get upset at you if you decline this offer, because I will understand that you are always on the run. Please though… keep me in mind.

Nightmare Moon

I slowly slip the letter back into my pocket and I have a smile on my face after I am finished reading it. "I will be happy to accompany you sometime after my visit to Manehattan, Nightmare Moon." I said to myself.

"So what did she say?" Pinkie asked.

"She wants me to come and accompany her when I am not busy." I said, disposing the rest of the torn open letter mail that I ripped open to see the written parchment.

"So you're starting to open yourself to more ponies besides the six of us?" Pinkie says, still smiling. "I am proud to see you broading more of your horizons."

"Thanks." I said to her, thanking her for the evidence. "Though everytime I meet somepony new… it doesn't seem to feel right for me."

"What do you mean?" She asked, her smile lowering a bit and looking curious.

I sigh softly and place my left hand onto my right arm. "Well," I said, sounding a little sad when I was going to head into this kind of brief topic. "It's all based on my disability."

"Disability?" She questioned.

"It's something that everyone back home can be affected physically or mentally. Often times it's both on that matter. It's been with me ever since I was only a small child and I burden it upon me a curse some of the time because of the behaviour that I sometimes displayed while back there," I said, lowering my head to only look at the side of the mushroom table. "Autism. It's a curse that has been with me and will always be with me. There is no way to change it, but if I could…"

"Brayden," I could hear Pinkie say to me. My attention is drawn back towards her getting off of her round mushroom seat and trotting over towards me. Finally, I was thrown off-guard when she came towards me with her hooves. She wraps them around my back and her head is resting on my left shoulder. It was a hug that she was giving me. "Don't ever wish that you could ever change. If you did, you would be a completely different pony. You're the perfect friend just the way you are. We don't want you to be different among us. You have been lucky to make it out this far and you're still here. I'm here for you just like the rest of our friends."

I place my arms around her, sharing the friendly hug. After a few seconds, the both of us let go of the hug and look at each other. "Perhaps… one day I can tell you all about how it affected me." I offered with a now more confident tone.

"Okie dokie lokie." Pinkie Pie responds to me with a smile upon her face. She trots back around to the other side and sits back down.

I could see the waiter coming up towards our table carrying a tray with our food right on it. My tomato soup with garlic bread was on the right of the gray solid tray, and Pinkie's garden salad on the left. He moves across past the other tables where everypony chats with their friends, or is laughing mildly with them. He finally arrives at our table and begins to serve us our dinner.

"Thank you very much." I said to the waiter in an appreciative tone. He smiles back and hands Pinkie her salad.

The waiter said "If you want, you could pay now so you don't have to worry about the hurry you might be in."

I turn towards Pinkie and can see her reaching to take out a small bag of bits. "Don't worry about it Brayden," She said, digging out a couple of bits from the leather bag. "I'll pay for our meal."

She in turn places those shiny golden bits on the table to give to the waiter. The waiter takes the bits and trots off, leaving us with our dinner.

The soup still seems to look a bit like it had just come off of the stove, so it looks like I'll have to let it cool for a bit. The garlic bread on the other hand feels really warm and looked delicious. I open up my mouth and take a bite out of the fluffy-looking bread.

By Celestia, the fluffs of wheat that were inside of my mouth from the bite were filling a part inside while I proceeded to chew it up into the mush inside. I swear that these kinds of Canterlot garlic bread were about not twice, but three times as better as the ones I had back on Earth.

The steam that had been leftover from the tomato soup had finally dissipated into the warm night air. I just about decided that I might be the right time to check on the soup and see how well and exquisite it would taste. I take the metal spoon that was lying on the plate with the garlic bread and dip it straight into the soup. Knowing how picky I could be sometimes about eating, I move the spoon towards my mouth and open it up, placing a spoonful of rich tomato soup right into my mouth.

The taste of this new soup that I had decided to try out, tasted surprisingly very different from what I was going to expect from it at first. For the first time ever trying something new, this taste was very delicious for my mouth, with its taste of tomato juice in a floating fluid-state but heated and spiced. I swallow the hot liquid and I get my glass of apple cider, taking a quick swig to gulp down. Pinkie's crunching from her salad could be heard from across the table by my own ears.

I just smile and dig my spoon into the soup again for another sip.

---

"Ah, well that was a very good meal!" Pinkie says to me, just about to have swallowed the last of the salad leaves in the wooden bowl.

I had just about finished my bowl of tomato soup as well. Most of what had been left of the garlic bread was now only just small bread crumbs lying around on the side of the plate with the bowl of soup that had always been with it. My glass of apple cider was just about almost finished, all that I would have to do to finish that would be taking a big sip of it and taking only a few to finish it off.

"Yeah," I said to Pinkie. "I'm stuffed as full as a Christmas turkey."

"Christmas?" Pinkie asked.

"It's a holiday tradition back on Earth. It works almost like Hearth's Warming Eve, but it is very different." I explained to her, clearing up her curiosity.

"Ohhh," Pinkie said to me with a giggle coming from her. "Silly me!"

I looked down at the table towards the cleared, but somehow dirty dishes that we left. "What should we do about our dishes?" I had asked.

"Oh, don't worry about them Brayden," She says. "The waiter will take care of it. I just need to leave him a bit of a tip."

While she gets out a few more bits on the table to thank the waiter, I take the white napkin and use it to wipe any leftover messes that are around my mouth like the tomato soup. After the small mess on my face is done and gone, I dispose of the paper napkin properly, which also included a longshot of me tossing it into the nearest garbage can.

Pinkie had placed about fifteen bits onto the table and she gets up and out of her seat. I too, got up off mine and follow her once again. My two feet sped up a bit so I could walk beside her when I and she came out of the restaurant.

"So what should we do now?" Pinkie asked me with her innocent and high-pitched voice that always put a smile to my face.

"Well, you did say that you've recently had your mind on Cheese Sandwich, right?" I said, crossing my arms a bit, and doing a rather sneaky smile.

"Yes, but what does he have to do with what we do?" She asked, sounding curious.

"I was thinking," I said. "Why don't you ask him to be your special somepony because I have a big feeling that both you and him will get along just fine."

Pinkie places her pink left front hoof onto my right hand. "I'm not so sure about doing that though. What if he rejects me?" She said, sounding a little worried.

"He won't," I said to her. "You helped me in a way to get me to tell my true feelings to Twilight, so I am helping you in return. Though I won't expect an instant kiss if he does accept your request."

"I did?" Pinkie asked. Then it struck her when she remembered. "Oh wait never mind, I was hiding in a bush and had the sign that said 'Tell her'. I still have that in my room for memories of helping you."

I turned my eyes back forward and could see that familiar Earth pony with a brown puffy mane similar to Pinkie's and his green eyes and cheese sandwich cutie mark. I turn towards Pinkie and I start to eyeball at her to motion forward and greet him. Pinkie looks a bit nervous at first, but gulps a bit and trots forward towards Cheese Sandwich, me following behind her to keep an eye on things should something go wrong.

Cheese didn't notice us at first for a brief moment, but then his eyes turned to Pinkie and he grew a smile. "Hello Brayden, hello Pinkie," The young partying stallion said to the both of us, greeting us both at the same time in a jolly voice. On his back is Boneless Two, that rubber chicken that he had used to replace Boneless when he gave that rubber chicken to Pinkie.

"Hello Cheese Sandwich." I said to him. I nod my head with that smile on my voice as I can see that his voice still hadn't change even after that performance I pulled off musically.

"How have the both of you been doing lately?" He asks.

Pinkie smiles and says "My friend Twilight got a sweet new castle like two weeks back. But it was a big fight I can tell you."

"A fight?" Cheese asked. "I hope you didn't get hurt in the battle."

"Well, all can really say is that you have to sometimes expect the unexpected." Pinkie commented, her happy voice dropping a bit that almost sounded serious about it.

"I see." He said in return to Pinkie.

Pinkie began to have the usual conversation with Cheese Sandwich everytime they met again. It would mostly be about the latest parties they've hosted. Now is my chance to try and play the role of matchmaker for both those two playful stallion and mare. I move my arm to curve the elbow into something different so I could get Pinkie's attention. My elbow moves forward towards Pinkie's shoulder. When it made contact a few times with Pinkie, I could see that she stopped talking and turns her head towards me. I let out a smile on my face and look into her cerulean eyes.

"Tell him." I mouthed those exact words to her. I sounded really convincing when I had mouthed this to her.

Pinkie just looks at me for a few moments after I've told this to her. She turns back around and take a look into Cheese' green eyes. I could hear her gulp nervously while Cheese was patiently waiting to continue talking to her.

"Cheese?" I could hear Pinkie ask. Come on Pinkie, you can do it. He's been in your thought for a bit of time now.

Cheese Sandwich's face enlightened once again. "Yes Pinkie. Is there something you need?" He asked with a tone of happiness coming forth again when his 'Cheesy-Sense' would go off.

"I have something that I want to ask you." Pinkie said to him, sounding a little nervous.

I watched as Cheese moved his left front hoof towards her left front hoof and took it with his. "What is it that you want to tell me?" He asked. His tone shrank a bit to sound calm, but kept his happiness in the tone at all times.

"Yes, I was just wondering…" Pinkie said, pausing for a few moments to find the right words to say to him. "I was wondering that if you're not busy… maybe we can…"

"Can what? Do the can-can?" He asked, trying to lighten up the mood. I chuckled a bit quietly.

Pinkie giggled softly and with a smile, she continued. "No Cheese, we'll save that for another time. I wanted to ask if you are available sometime later so we can… you know, get-together?"

"Pinkie," He said. I think he already knows what might be going on. I'm just about ready to comfort Pinkie Pie if he ends up rejecting her. Pinkie almost seems ready to face the truth as well, as I know well that once that mane deflates and falls straight… let's just say you don't want to see her go all 'Pinkamena' again. "Are you trying to ask me on a date?"

"Yes." She said with a blush crossing softly onto her face.

"Well, I'm not sure. Let me check my schedule for if I am busy." He said, reaching into his yellow shirt fit just for a pony. He pulls out a large calendar with a bunch of written stuff he's put down on the date of that current month so far. He studied his calendar with a single hoof and his eyes were scanning. I'm guessing that he was trying to find the right day where he wasn't too busy. I could hear a lot of 'hmm' coming from him while he searched. Both I and Pinkie felt like we were on the edge of our seats just like watching a movie in a theater.

"Well, according to the schedule here," He said, making a bit of a dramatic pause to throw us off guard. A smile grows onto his face. "It appears that I am available for a date after all Pinkie. Are you free this Friday?"

"Yes I am." Pinkie said with the nervousness in her voice fading. "I'm sorry if I sounded nervous, but you had been on my mind for some time."

"No worries, Pinkie." Cheese said, putting the calendar back into his yellow shirt of disappearing tricks, taking Pinkie's pink hoof again. "Do you have anything that we should do for a start?"

"I say that we just take it easy for this," Pinkie said, knowing that she did not want to jump into any conclusions. "I'm guessing a little dinner at the local restaurant or a movie at the theater… or both."

"Both? That would sound really good!" He says, sounding delighted to hear that she had gave some ideas for what would happen Friday night. Unfortunately I won't here for Friday night because I am going to be in Manehattan by them. But I'll definitely find out once I get back to Ponyville after about a week in the big city. "I think we can plan those out just fine. What time should I come to Sugarcube Corner?"

"3:40 would be a perfect time." Pinkie says, not realizing that she and Cheese were holding hooves. Her blush can still be seen, but is a bit faded.

"Alright, that sounds good. I'll definitely write that down on my trust calendar." Cheese said, sounding rather glad to hear of a time set for the both of them. "I'm definitely available around that time and can push my usual duties aside. I have a good feeling that-"

He stopped talking for a moment and started to get that doozy by random parts of his body moving about for a moment. He lets go of Pinkie's hoof. He began to feel rather jumpy and excited just as Pinkie would be at parties she would host for others. It was his Cheesy-Sense starting to go off, it was like a party alarm for him that would sound off every time somepony's birthday party was coming up.

"Ohhh! Another party is calling for me!" He said. "I can tell that it is going to be hosted in Canterlot, so I must be on my way immediately, but I will be back before Friday."

"I will see you this Friday then?" She asked.

"Of course you will," He said, taking her hoof and holding it for the last time. "I must hurry now, another party calls for me."

"I'll see you later Cheese Sandwich." I said to her, giving him a bit of a wave.

He turns around, with his head on the side towards me with a smile on his face. "I will see you around too, Brayden." He said, turning his head again to face the train station. He did look back on one occasion to Pinkie Pie. She was smiling.

Once Cheese Sandwich was out of sight, Pinkie turns around to look at me. I look back at her with a smile upon my face. A smile grows more on her face and I can sense that something big was going to happen right there. But I am surprised by the time that Pinkie leapt towards me, wrapping her hooves around to my back. She had both knocked the both of us onto the ground and was giving me a very warm and friendly hug.

"Thank you so much." Pinkie was saying to me. It almost sounded like she was happily crying because she was exhaling a lot. It wasn't heavy though because that would have meant that she would really be crying. These exhales sounded really happy. I wrap my arms around Pinkie and gently share the hug with her, while I'm getting up off of the dirt ground.

"Sorry about jump-hugging you like that," Pinkie apologized to me. "I feel like you helped me in return to make a change and tell Cheese Sandwich in a way of getting together with him. It makes me feel so happy."

"And I am glad to make you happy," I said to her, gently patting her puffy mane. "But you know what else is good. You are one of my favorites, so you're somepony that I can come to whenever I feel down. You, like everypony else… make me smile and laugh. I feel accepted among you as a friend to me. That is what makes you one of my very best friends."

"That's the spirit." Pinkie says to me. No change in her voice. She still sounded happy to hear my compliment to her.

Both I and she continue to share the hug and after the few moments pass, me and her let go of the friendly hug. "If you weren't there with me, I probably wouldn't have gotten the chance to ask Cheese Sandwich if he was interested in doing stuff with me. I feel that he's the right stallion for me though." She told me.

"What about the other stallion that was your special somepony then before he ended the relationship?" I asked, curious if she still remembered.

"I'm just hoping that I don't run into him or in other words, my ex-special somepony while I am with Cheese Sandwich." She answered, sounding a bit worried.

"Remember to take it slow," I suggested with a bit of advice being given to her from me. "And if this stallion decides to bother you and him, I'll make to tell him off. You just have to let me know."

"Sounds good," Pinkie said, smiling once again. "By the way, do you know what time it is?"

"Ah, let me check." I said to her. I take my phone out of my pocket. I am actually surprised by how my phone is actually getting along well with Equestria time. 9:36pm. I guess it might be time for me to wrap up the hangout for tonight and head back to Fluttershy's cottage. "It's 9:36."

"Oh, well that's usually a few minutes before Sugarcube Corner closes for the night." She says to me. "I thought it was a really good hangout and I enjoyed having a friendly dinner."

"Same here, you have a good night Pinkie," I said to her wishing her a good night's rest for her. "Don't let the bed bugs bite."

"Silly Brayden," She said with a giggle. "The bed bugs don't bite me, I bite them."

Both me and her move forward up closer. I gently move one arm around her neck gently and her hoof wraps around my waist, both of us sharing a gentle hug. Finally, after a few moments we both let go of the friendly goodbye-for-now-I'll-see-you-later hug and both go in our separate ways back home to get some rest for ourselves.

The stars in the Equestrian skies lit up while Luna's moon shone brightly, but dim. The brightest stars from all of them were a beautiful sight to see when the nebulas close by could be seen with the view of the galaxy since I was far from the city. If I were in Manehattan at the moment, I probably wouldn't see the galaxy as clearer. Mostly a few stars and the moon would be out for in-city. Besides how night-time is my favorite time of the day, I really needed to get some rest.

---

You probably already know the rest of what happens, I go into Fluttershy's cottage as quietly as possible. I really don't want to wake up her animals. I couldn't imagine what would have happened if I did. I open up the front door to the cottage and close it shut behind me quietly. But for when I got into the cottage, I aw something I never expected to see.

Fluttershy was lying right down on her couch with her eyes closed. I walked a little closer towards her to see if she was still awake and that she was just relaxing. Nope, when I took her hoof to check up on her, I kind of knew the rest of the story. She must have been exhausted from helping out her animals all day. Oh wait never mind, she told me today that she was going to be with Rainbow Dash today. I'm not sure what she did with her, but all that excitement tired out my best friend. Oh yes, Rainbow Dash. I'll have to make sure to hang out with her again when I get the chance.

I didn't usually do this, but I'll make this an exception just once. I carefully tug my hands underneath Fluttershy. My left arm and hand had a strong grip near her flank but around her body. The other hand for my right was gently around her neck. I slowly begin to lift her off of the couch. Then the tricky part would come: don't drop her.

I carefully hold onto her in my arms when I slowly am pacing across the wooden planks of her cottage really quietly. Besides the small and quiet sounds of my footsteps, only mine and her soft breathing accompanied the ambience inside the cottage. The stairs wasn't too much of a problem. She wasn't snoring, but her breathing sounded very peaceful. At the top of the stairs, I walk past my bedroom and the door on the right to the bathroom. Fluttershy's door was on the right as well as the bathroom door, just far down the hall a little more.

I opened up the door to Fluttershy's room. The windowpanes were shut and all was quiet in the room except for the continued breathing. Thud… thud… The soft thudding of my feet on the wooden planks continued when going across the room to her bed. Thud… thud… I am at the side of her soft bed that seemed all prepared for her when she would go to sleep. I carefully lower my arms with her in them to place her on the soft mattress.

I move my hands towards her sheets and carefully pull them up towards her, only having it cover half of her body. Still, it should be enough to keep her warm and comfortable. Her head rests on a pillow and her face remains unchanged, still sleeping away. I lower down a bit and gently move my hand towards her left cheek, giving it a gentle and friendly stroke.

"Goodnight Fluttershy." I whispered gently to her and removed my gentle hand slowly from her soft cheek. I get back up and walk slowly towards the door as quietly as possible without trying to make any loud noise as possible. Once outside the room, I close her door behind me.

I walk back to my room in same quiet manner. I entered through and pretty much got into my pyjamas that my special friend Rarity had made for me. They were rather sewed with the best quality material you could imagine and the colours were in red and green. It's not really the holiday season or Hearth's Warming, but still… why not?

I finally slip into my bed and pull the sheets over me. The curtains on the windows in the guest room are closed so whatever light comes in will be Celestia's sun when day should come over the eastern horizon like it did every morning. Comfortable in bed and the relaxing humming of the Song of Order on the other side of the room from the door, I slowly close my eyes and head to sleep.

Good night Equestria, I'll see you again tomorrow as I always do.

A/N: Happy New Year everyone!

I just though I would throw in a small chapter to both celebrate the occasion that passed, and a gift for all of you. So I'm not going to be writing in this Author's Note too much. When I first uploaded the chapter, I think a glitch occured resulting in no new chapters to appear. I'm not sure why, but hopefully that can be fixed soon. If you can see this A/N that is.

No review responses for now... but I will get back to them in the next chapter.

---

Nightmare Moon's POV

I could hear the birds outside as they softly chirped sweet tunes and flew by the window of my room. I slowly open my eyes and could see the bright sun of Celestia's slowly rise up into the skies of Equestria to greet another newborn day for all. The sound of a clock tower is heard and the sounds of guards' horns are heard for the oncoming changing of the guard. The chiming of the golden bell rings and after a few seconds… had begun to slow down and come to a complete full stop. I move the both of my long black front legs, pushing the sheets off of me with my hooves. I step out of bed and slip on that smile hidden when I had them closed.

To those who don't remember, it is I. Nightmare Moon. What's that? Don't remember me being all swallowed up by a beam coloured rainbow and having every dark magic erased out of my body- okay, never mind. I'm kind of already starting to let my emotions start to swell in. I can't let it do that, bad memories were always those scars that remain forever. No matter how long I live, I will always look back at how terrible I was.

I was part of a form of jealousy. I was born inside the empty halls of Luna's own mind. Since her envy towards the sun, I had been placed into action and was allowing myself to control her and become who I would eventually be. Then I was banished for a long thousand years that I have been scarred my life forevermore, and to all eternity because of the result. I did return, and Twilight and her friends brought me out of Luna's mind and I was left for what was yet to come for me.

A grace of hope came to me though, the one I had tormented for about two dreams. It was the angel himself that spared my life right when I just wanted it all to end. That young boy becoming a man named Brayden. I hurt him so many times and he hit me in return as part of a reflex for assault towards one of Equestria's leaders. He gained a new weapon and used it against me. I had felt the pain of a miserable thousand years return to me and I had always let my anger get the best of me when someone was against my own opinion as my own entity.

"You were not meant to be spared by the blade…"

"That human boy should have sent you to Tartarus, for what you did…"

I could only hear the ponies of Equestria say to me whenever I had gone out of the castle all on my own without something to cover me up. It wasn't like it would have helped anyway. Most others in Canterlot would have recognized the color of my coat and pointed me out, becoming yet another target again to be glared at, or worse. A few ponies attempted to assault me when I wasn't looking or was too distracted by all the others glaring at me. Since I was with Princess Celestia or Luna, I would feel a little safer. The guards of theirs were just about ready for anything if somepony came close to even attacking one of them. Because the dark powers were dispersed of, all these ponies would do to me was cowering in fear, glare with their dirty looks or try to attack me when I invaded their presence.

Getting out of bed, I pretty much do what I always do every time I get up in the morning: making my bed in my royal suite, brushing through my wavy mane and tail to set them straight, so it can move about properly as it always had been. My armor that the usual pony folk would see me in has been put away, so I cannot really wear that and most of the time, I did not even want to set a hoof on those pieces of royal armor. To do so would bring back that terrible reminder as to why I was so dark and jealous. I had to restrain myself from even trying to destroy them. Princess Celestia was aware about it and she made sure that it was put in the safest place where I cannot possibly see it again. Even so, I fear some of that dark magic still remains with it unaffected. She denies such a thing like that, but not all can be true.

I turn away from the mirror that shows my own reflection. I start making my way towards the double wooden doors of my suite. I ignite the smallest magic on my horn to turn the golden doorknob and use my front right hoof to push open the door softly.

Outside of my door are the two royal guards that stood there to guard me as I slept throughout the night. Most of the time in my private suite was besides taking my time to rest, as part of the resting procedure: Just like Luna, I was able to enter the dreams of other young fillies' minds and just watch them play around in the meadows of the dream heaven.

I would just hide from afar to where none of them would notice me. Even if they did see me and were starting to come over, my fear of turning what was already happy into a nightmare came to me and I just went further in their dream. Most others just go back to what they were doing. Princess Luna would come into their dreams sometimes, I couldn't help but watch when she had interacted with them, and trotting with them and telling those stories about legends that came and went. I had to keep quiet though, or Princess Luna would probably be disappointed in me for risking a visit in dreams.

Besides entering dreams, when I had gone to rest from those evening of peace: most dreams I had was all empty and cold. I found myself facing the very fear every time I entered those cold dreams. The dreams were becoming lost and alone in the world of Equestria, with nopony in town or city accompanying the buildings. No Brayden, no Celestia, No Luna… no nothing. Loneliness was the fear that would always be found inside my dreams.

My hooves are heard pacing the plush carpet while I am trotting myself down the stairs to enter into another hall of trotting guards and the sounds of their shuffling armor whenever they moved. It was just another march around the hall for the set of guards on their way to change places with the guards that were standing there in the last hour. These stairs I were trotting down from were sort of like a spiral-kind, but they were on a curve when I already done coming about.

What was I going to do today in Equestria? Oh yes, I had a meeting to attend with Princess Celestia alone outside by the royal gardens where she would talk to me about the trouble I had with trying to engage with others. Besides Brayden, I didn't really have the courage to approach and interact with any of the ponies in Equestria after all I had done.

"Good morning Nightmare Moon." I could hear Princess Luna say from down the hall behind me.

I turn around and take a look at the very pony that I remember being in control of. As I had gotten along with her the most, I found myself feeling rather heavy-weighted every single time that I was next to her in the very same room. I felt nervous about being next to her because she was the one I manipulated, pulled like a puppet to do what I had desired back then.

"Greetings Princess Luna." I said back to her, curving only a very small smile across my face.

She trots forward towards me and is looking at me with those gladed cyan coloured eyes. "You must've slept in. It has been a busy night for you." She tells me. I in turn, begin to trot alongside her when we are coming down the hall.

"Well yes, the senators from the Canterlot Council were really friendly towards all of us," I said with the look of confident crossing my face. "Senator Rosebud was probably the nicest out of all of them I got to meet."

Luna let out a bit of a giggle. "I just came by to remind you that my older sister Princess Celestia is waiting for you in the gardens. I am not sure what she wants to talk to you about but it should be ear-catching." She responded to me, with a look of understanding on her face.

"Not to mention that she has the best tea in the castle," I said, letting out only a small and quiet squee from me. I clear my throat and proceed with that solemn smile. "Yes, I am quite aware that she wants to meet up with me. I too wonder which topic she will cover for this morning."

Luna continues "Now I understand that you're still feeling a bit down after what had happened, but don't worry Nightmare. We're going to make sure that we work you back into a better rate so that everypony in each city will not give you any death glares. Look at the citizens in Ponyville… they are always willing to forgive anypony no matter what catastrophe they had done."

Wholeheartedly, I released that smile that had been on my face and it curved into a rather curious look. "You think that they might be willing to do so after all?" I had asked, my tone dropping down. It didn't lost its soft tone, but it grew more questioned. "Even all I had done? After I blocked out the sun and tried to freeze their lands?"

Luna trots closer to me and places her hoof onto my right shoulder. "Nightmare, do not let the spirit of guilt take control of you. It is what destroys us if we are not careful." She had advised to me. Her smile had dropped when I could feel myself becoming overcome by that feeling she just about mentioned by now. She is right, I have heard about how it can crush and destroy others by its own will. It had also driven others outside Equestria to… I'd rather not say.

"Don't listen to Princess Luna, she'll only deceive you in the end."

There goes that voice that is trying to put me back in control of my anger and attempt to revert me back on the course of darkness. It's probably the only thing that had remained with me. With a brief motion to try and ignore what it had told me inside, I look down at the ground and close my eyes. I exhale a soft sigh that breathed out from my mouth. I can't let this voice get the best of me.

"Nightmare Moon," The princess questioned, her tone sounded only a little bit concerned about what I was going through briefly. "Does something bother you?"

"It's nothing…" I said with my head still lowered. "It's that voice inside my mind that is trying to deceive me again."

We trotted down the hall in silence for a few minutes before the both of us had begun speaking to each other again. Princess Luna was the first to speak out. "Nightmare, it is the voice of guilt that is starting to rush through your head. This is what it wants; it wants you to divert the course of your redemption back to the way you used to be."

"It'll be also the reason to why I will never get over my mistakes I've done for many years." I said, still dwelling with myself over what had happened.

"Don't think about it then," I could hear her say to me, placing her hoof at the bottom of my chin, gently pushing it upward. I could see Princess Luna offering me a small and gentle smile. "It is time to let go of your dear past Nightmare. Think not of that, but of now."

I responded to her quietly "It'll be a long path down until I get everypony's full trust for me that I am not bad anymore. It is what I am willing to take though."

"A few had already accepted your change," Princess Luna spoke in that gentle and appreciative tone that she always did every time she was happy and at peace. "You should take that into big consideration when the blade spared you. My dear friend Brayden didn't want to kill you, it's not in his blood to kill a single one of us."

"So no wonder I have been hiding away after the party of his victory." I spoke softly to myself, but at a good volume so she could hear exactly what I needed to say. I must always never hide whatever I need to say from any of the princesses. Though I am an alicorn but not of the title for a princess, I always fear what would happen if I said something really quietly and they didn't hear it. But they always have a way to understand what I sometimes go through.

"There is no need to fear about saying the wrong thing to me," Princess Luna smiles at me. "Speak freely if you must."

I couldn't think of anything to say. "It's probably been the stress of things about," I just about summarized with a short few words. "Good things and bad things come and go."

"Canterlot elites giving you trouble again?" She does not hesitate to ask.

"I-" I just about get out when I turn back away from looking at Princess Luna. "I guess you can sort of say that."

"I did notice something like that. Thank goodness for the guards accompanying us though." Princess Luna states with the decree of a relieved smile coming across her face.

"Last thing I would like to have on my list is to be assaulted by others who hate me at the moment." I responded, finally letting out a bit of a chuckle from my mouth with that meek smile. "Again, I would have snuck right out of there as fast as I could."

She gently chuckled with me and said "Well, I can see why Brayden thinks you're a bit of the sneaky type."

The both of us could find ourselves coming down the hall where the royal steps would lay and where the roses would form close to the gardens of the castle. I could sense that it would be the very spot where I would be able to meet with her older sister there, so our conversation just remained quick enough for the both of us.

"You have a good rest of the day now Nightmare," Princess Luna said to me with a warm smile coming from her. "I have some duties to attend to, but we shall chit-chat again soon…. Won't we?" She let out a bit of a pause of silence and raised an eyebrow with the look of a smile.

"Oh, of course Princess Luna. I don't want to take up much more of your time." I responded to her with a pleasant and elegant tone. "I will see you later, for I cannot keep your older sister waiting any longer."

I stop trotting and glance for a few moments as Princess Luna trotted back the way we came down the halls, disappearing into another that I never did get to trot through, though I had gone down that one many times when in my spare time.

I approach the large white windowed double doors and peek through one of the small windows. I could see the clear blue sky in the gentle air of infinity, and the rays of the sun beaming down on the surface and below the mountain. The only thing when a morning or late-afternoon was around if the creation of the mountain's shadow on any side of it. No way to prevent that though. It's all dependable on the geography of this enchanted land.

I gently push open the white double doors with my left front hoof and embrace the warm and tender light of a summer day. I could see a few of the natural insects flying about the plants to get what they needed to get.

A honeybee heads onto a small flower and moves about it for a bit, pollinating the plant for the things it needs in order to make honey. After a few moments, it gets up with its fast-rate wings and buzzed off with the bits of pollination that it had left. A few butterflies that remind me of the element of kindness Fluttershy, fly about the orchids and move their antennas about as interaction with each other began to converse between the few.

Near the garden maze, I could see a few of the castle's staff just wandering about to mow the lawn or trim a few spare leaves that somehow managed to get on the creative bush sculptures or maze walls. It did so make me as curious as ever as to why the staff would be doing work about the castle when it seemed to be a bright and beautiful summer day. Though I shall argue there, it is almost close to being as close to the fall equinox. Other than that, I think they should take their time off and be able to spend it about. I do understand if they don't want to take a break or if they are honorary servants sworn to the duty of the royal sisters.

"Nightmare Moon." I could hear the voice of Princess Celestia speak to me with a gentle tone in her voice as she always had it when she was happy. Hearing it to my right, I turn my head in that direction and could see her sitting there at the table of white painted iron. Resting before the table was the sight of that gently-stirred tea that she always seemed to have with her everywhere she was around the castle for the sight of it all. A medium-sized plate of those sweet biscuits could also be seen resting motionless there.

I pause for a few moments to get my thought back on her and gather some strength. "Princess Celestia," I had finally responded with the way I had let out the words to make absolutely sure that I was being so ever greeting to her. "It is good to see you on a fine summer day that is brought in the land of Equestria as of every day."

"Oh, it's not every day Nightmare," She chuckled lightly as she had always done. Her horn released an aura of gold when she took her teacup and got a sip out of it with her own mouth. "It's always about the weather sometimes to the weather team."

In each silence that came between me and her, I could hear the sounds of birds chirping ever so beautifully for their offspring with the others sharing the same song that got beautiful every time. In the ambience, the sound of the gardeners working away with the distant lawn-mowing continues through the calm day. Not an alarm of heavy wind can be seen going our way. The mane of Celestia's flows continuously when she pours another from the teapot for her cup. The teapot of hers turns to another cup on the opposite side of the table and pours in another set of tea for another white ceramic cup. The cup on the other side that was supposedly for me.

"Come take a seat." Princess Celestia offered to me with a solemn smile.

I trotted forward with every light step as possible, making my way over to the dry white-painted iron seat near the beautiful orchids where they had bloomed before during the wake of spring. I take my seat on the chair and set both of my two eyes towards Celestia on the other side of the table with her sipping the tea out of her teacup and then pouring another bit of liquid from the silver teapot for her. Hopefully she has enough saved for the both of us, unless it was like a bottomless teapot.

"You requested to see me today?" I had asked with the sound of curiosity coming into my tone, though a little too much would have sounded like it was going to become a confrontation that I was going to be pulled into. Yet again, Princess Celestia still understands that I struggle with trying to not become what I once was again. She knew I was curious.

"Why yes," She responds to me so ever solemnly with a weak smile. She places down her white teacup after she had filled it with the right balance that she needed for it. The tea in front of me smelt sweet, as of sugar and honey blended together in a fine hot and tender balance that could never burn thy own tongue. "I have called you here for an assured check-up about how you are doing."

I pause for a few moments to find the right words to get out of me. "Whatever do you mean in what way, Princess Celestia?"

"You do not need to address my royalty that way," Celestia says with a giggle coming from her mouth. "You are free to call me just Celestia whenever you like."

I let out only a small, embarrassed blush onto both of my black cheeks. "My apologies, Celestia."

"It's no problem Nightmare," She said to me, lifting her cup to take another sip of her tea. I activate a bit of my magic and guide it to take that silver spoon near the honey jar and take out a bitload of honey for my tea. After I pour it in, I continued hearing what Celestia was telling me while taking a sip of that tea. "Now, as I am aware… there were some threats being made towards you by my own subjects."

I shook my head with a nod and place the tea down onto the table. "It always seems to me that at any moment, one of them will pounce towards me and try to finish the job because Brayden never got the chance to." I confessed.

"That is because of his oath that he swore," She calmly says to me. "He stands by it so strongly and will make sure to keep watch over everypony as if he were a guardian of this land. But he noticed deep inside that- Wait." She paused for a few moments with only the sound of birds to fill in the silence. "You were one of his first favorites, right?"

"One of his first favorites? In what way?" I grew curious to what she could have meant.

"Before he started watching the show, he had a predicament that he was going to like you at first on his favorites. You did make it on, but somewhere in the top 10. I am thankful to have Princess Luna as a sister to tell me these things." She takes her teacup and takes another sip out of it.

"Well, as an evil entity I thought he would fall in love with me. In the end, he fell for Twilight," I said while lowering my head for a few moments, but raising it back up towards Celestia. "But I am happy to hear she and Brayden are happy in their healthy relationship."

"I see," Princess Celestia gathers a biscuit from one of the plates on the table and begins to chew on a piece of it. I allow her to take her tame as she is eating it, and then swallowing that piece to continue. "Now what were we talking about?"

"We were talking about the ponies during the royal visits. A few of them seemed like they were about to assault me," I got back on track for what the topic we were discussing was. "I mean, any corner I turn could be somepony with a grudge towards me waiting to make the first move whenever possible. It doesn't make me feel safe outside the castle. I would try to defend myself, but if I even unleashed the dark magic once again, I would end up disappointing Brayden. I even told myself in my sleep that I won't ever hurt anypony ever again."

"Nightmare," She questions with the gentle tone in her voice. "There is in no way possible that you could ever get back the dark magic that you once had upon you. If you still had it, I would not be sitting here."

"Then why do I still hear the guilt in my mind about everything I had done?" I take another sip of that warm tea to calm myself before the panic could start to settle in. "I have not only blocked the sun twice with the moon, but I have also tried to kill your subjects. Forgiveness doesn't seem to be in my reach as of now. I somehow feel like I am missing part of something that makes me a pony of Equestria. It's not about the wings or horn I have that matter to me, it's not even the lost opportunity to become a princess that matters to me anymore. I feel like there is something there but I just cannot see it. I am blinded by hatred and guilt that others towards me."

"I am willing to forgive anypony as easily as possible," She had finished eating the biscuit that she had taken from the plate. "As for those that are trying to assault you, I will deal with them."

Deal with them? "Please don't tell me you are planning to bring harm onto your own subjects." I said, sounding rather shocked.

All Celestia could do was giggle when she saw my reaction to what she had said. "Oh Nightmare, I would not ever think to bring harm onto any of my subjects."

I let out a silent sigh of relief and take a biscuit from the plate in the center of the table. "To harm a subject is like attacking your own pet. You feel bad afterwards." I take a bite on the biscuit and slowly chew with my lips closed. After a few tender bites of the soft treat, I swallow it down. "Tis would be a shame for such a thing to happen ever."

Silence came between the both of us as only the sounds of the lawnmower were heard and the birds chirping would fill in the sounds. Cicadas could occasionally be heard in the trees with the loud droning of buzzing. It did not really bother us too much. Princess Celestia lifts up her teacup and takes another sip of the warm liquid to drain the whole small cup. She pours herself another batch of tea into her cup. I chew down the last portion of the biscuit that I took from the plate and swallow it down.

"Brayden's on his way to Manehattan." Celestia finally spoke out to me as if to find another topic to cover in our meeting.

"Manehattan…" I struggle to find the right question to ask. "You mean the city on the Eastern coast of Equestria whereas it is the very city that nopony ever sleeps?"

"Precisely," She smiles and takes another biscuit to chew down. "Brayden managed to get the train on time en route for the big city. I think it has something to do with one of his friends inviting him over there to be with for a few days." She takes another bite of the golden treat.

"Besides Ponyville, Canterlot and the Crystal Empire, I do not think I have ever gone ways to travelling elsewhere around Equestria's province nor outside the enchanted land." I take another sip of the honey-tasting tea with that sugar in it being very little. I didn't mind sugar in tea, but it was too much if I took in more than I should be taking. I guess sickness and disease still affect us even if we are as alicorns alone. Many ponies predict that we are immortal as Princess Celestia and Luna have lasted a thousand years. The aging of alicorn is too complex to understand as to why they seem to last a long time by our supposed 'immortality'. I am sure we aren't as immortal as we seem though.

"Do not worry about it Nightmare," Celestia responded to me with a bright smile. "I will definitely speak to my subjects in address as to why they will not attack you during the royal visits. They will treat you as such a princess like us."

"I have no title to my name though." I lower my head only a bit, but keep my eyes on Celestia.

"And I am sure that you will get the title when you find it for your place in history and in the stars," She says to me. She takes another sip from her cup, emptying it once again. She places the teacup down onto the small round plate of silver in front of her. "It's all about destiny that matters to you as of now. If you must, go with the flow and others will watch your path for your safety. It's the power of friendship, believe it."

"I believe every word you say, Celestia. I do not doubt what you tell me." I take another sip from my teacup and place it back down onto the small silver plate in front of me on the white table of iron.

To my left, I can hear the sound of the double white doors open once again. I turn my heads towards it and I could see one of the guards with golden armor coming out from inside the castle. In his mouth, he was carrying a scroll that was marked read for Celestia. By the way that the scroll had been flagged red, it was marked down to be read immediately. The guard trotted over to our table and came by Celestia's left side. He lowers his head, placing the scrolled paper onto the table.

"A message from Princess Twilight marked urgent, your highness." The guard informed her, sounding very serious in that matter.

"Thank you. You may go on your break." She says.

The guards nods his head with a smile and turns around to trot away from the table and back indoors to head to the nearest guard quarters for relaxation most likely. Believe me on that, I ended up almost sneaking into the guards' bunkhouses within the castle. It however on my end was not a pretty sight to see guards without their royal armor.

I turn back towards Celestia while unwraps the paper and reads it silently to herself. I take my time as to fill up my teacup with another batch of warm liquid. Another spoonful of honey is also poured into my teacup by my own. I didn't bother to add sugar this time. I guess it might be the taste of honey that really gives that sweet taste. I take another sip of the warm tea, waiting for something from Celestia when she was reading the letter from Princess Twilight. Speaking of her, Twilight's new castle in Ponyville was quite beautiful on both the outside and the inside and I wish her continued luck in her journey even as the Princess of Friendship.

"Duty calls." She said and takes the napkin from the table to her mouth to wipe off the crumbs. After she dealt with them, she places her napkin back onto the white table and gets up off her chair. "Twilight needs my help to deliver something to her."

"What does she need?" My curiosity grows once again.

"The letter said something about sirens running loose in the mirror world, so it is urgent that I send off a letter to Princess Cadence to notify her that she requires the magic mirror. I know it's still closed for another thirty moons, but I am sure that Twilight will be able to figure something out to make sure that it remains open permanently. The only concern is if one from their world comes through this portal." Celestia says. "But the thing I know is that somepony there is already there, probably alone, though Twilight said she was in good hands…"

"Who are you referring to?"

She lets out a sigh to gather courage to get those words out. "I mentioned her to you once before. But nevertheless, her name is Sunset Shimmer. She was a former student of mine."

"Now I recall that you told me about her." I said to her, still sitting there. I move the teacup of mine to my mouth and take another sip. What used to be warm was now starting to become a little bit lukewarm.

"You'll have to excuse me for cutting our meeting short, but it is highly important as Princess of Equestria to respond to this," She said, sounding a bit worried at even thinking about her former student. She is about to trot away and head inside to where I can guess would be the throne room. But she stops and turns around to look back at me. "Shall we arrange our meeting for another time where nothing bad will happen for a fine day like this?"

"Of course." I said, enlightening a smile right onto my face. "Whenever possible, you let me know as soon as you can."

Celestia smiled at me with a nod and turns away, heading back towards the door. Just about to go in, she stops for the last time, turning to look at me again. "Oh, I almost forgot…"

"Yes?"

"Remind me to make sure that we cover your status on how you are doing. Plus, I will send you to Ponyville in two days once Brayden gets back. I think he could take some of his time to show you around the village," Celestia said to me. Her joyful smile remained on her face. "Also, don't worry about the mess. The servants will help to clean up."

I silently nodded with the smile being shared towards her and watch as she heads inside with the door closing gently behind her. I was alone outside with only the sound of nature and the sight of its beauty to be seen like never before.

I pretty much wrapped up on having the rest of my tea and ended up taking a few of those delicious golden biscuits with me. Just make sure not to tell Princess Celestia or Luna about that though, they do get a little annoyed about the biscuits disappearing. Don't worry though, I probably would have ate them all anyway.

I get up out of my chair and proceed to head back indoors. It was another quiet afternoon after that inside my suite, with only the ambient sound of birds and gentle wind to accompany me as I thought to myself. Maybe Celestia and Luna were both right, in a way: I will probably need to boost a little bit in how friendly I now can be and how much of the villain I am not.

All I can do is thank Brayden for saving me, and because of him… I am now reborn again as somepony new and refined. But as I always saw him, he was a bit cute for a human. Wait…

No, I can't be having these kinds of feelings about him. I can't possibly like him in that way, especially since he already has Twilight in his life. But I can't stop thinking about him from time to time… I mean he did save me.

Why am I already starting to think about Brayden this way?

Uncertainly, I cannot know what I should expect when Brayden gets back, but I need a lot of time to think about this. But I will continue to wait until whatever is up with my mind focusing on him a lot gives me such reason for this kind of feelings.

A/N: Semester 2 for me in College seems like it will be the most busy out of all 4 semesters that I will be taking. But it should be more harder along the way.

Also in other news, I might be going to see the new Spongebob movie when it come out as I remember watching that show all the time as a kid not to mention the first movie. So it'll be interesting to see what my childhood is like in CGI. I don't really care if anyone says that the movie is going to be bad. For crying out loud, the people who did the first season all the way to the first movie are working on it for its humor and direction. Plus with how busy I am, I am not sure if it will slow down my writing process. But it's all about luck.

And now... Review Response Time!

jvs12: Thank you for those two reviews, my good sir. :)

sonic3461: Your wish for the song has been granted. *snaps finger like a genie* :) But yes, I know you'll be excited once Brayden goes to the Equestria Girls world.

Tison Valane: More? Here you go. :) Thank you, by the way.

4theworldman: Thank you. :)

espada4631: Yep, it was Catman from none other than the Hottest Band in the World!

godzillafan1: To confirm a little surprise, it is definitely true that Nightmare has a crush on Brayden. Considering that Brayden thought he would end up falling in love with her but going with Twilight in the end, I expect that I'd have to pull some strings to get him to resist it at first. But Twilight ain't going to be happy about it if she finds out about it.

---

My eyes were closed by the time I could hear the sound of the roaring steam engine. I could tell that was the sound from a train. Through my closed and resting eyes, I could still see the sunlight of Celestia's sun risen high above in the late-afternoon sky. My eyes slowly open up, turning my head to make sure that my eyes were not damaged by the sun. My body was resting on the soft leather seat of the train car cabin I was assigned to when I packed this morning. My head is resting on the arm of the seat, against soft leather so I didn't feel so bad when I got up from resting.

On the other side of the cabin is a suitcase that I had packed for my visit to Manehattan. Fluttershy managed to help me out a bit with half-n-half of the packing and preparing including a healthy breakfast before I caught the train en route there. Sadly, I didn't bring the Song of Order. But by my visit, it seems that everything will be okay when it is back at Fluttershy's cottage in my room, safe and sound. I'll remember to take training from it when I can. After forgetting to learn from it during Tirek's invasion, it got the right idea for me.

I lean up to sit on the leather seat. I turn my head towards the window of the cabin and look outside of the cabin to see the environment outside the train. It was all a bunch of short-grassy plains with only a few oak trees resting peacefully in their green fields. Occasionally, I would see a few ducks flying in the blue skies to make it to the nearest pond. From my point of view, I could not really see the ponds as the train prevented me from seeing beyond that valley. But with a few of the rolling hills, I could tell that I was getting closer to Manehattan. I know this because Pinkie ended up telling me about the hills before I got onto the train.

The train passes between the rolling hills, with only a few deer on the hills to eat away at some fresh grass. The scenic view is cut off by the look of fast tan bricks. It seems like it has just about entered a tunnel underneath the hills. Passing lights inside the tunnel accompanied the view of the dim-lit bricks and I turn my head back to the left, straight ahead. There won't be any outdoors for a few minutes, so I have my time to think or do something.

I reach into the right pocket of my jeans. Coming out of the pocket in my right hand are my phone and earphones. Seeing how I now use my phone for music, it made a bunch of sense about there being no bars in the Equestrian world. I place the earphone jack into the bottom of the phone and put the buds into my ears. Turning on my phone, I switch to the music section and look under the 'C' section of the artists' names. I select the artist under that category. I move my thumb towards one of the songs and tap it to start playing it. It started off first with a piano playing an interesting number of keys to create a swift and beautiful sound to the song, with all of the instruments coming in. A few seconds pass of this moment, and I close my eyes and listen to the vocalist as he began to sing.

I feel destruction running hard through my veins

But I see redemption rushing my way

My victories are bittersweet and now I can tell

The only place my plans have lead me is right where I fell

I'm overboard, too far from shore, castaway trying to make it home

I catch my breath to save myself but I can't

In my sight

You were just in time

I feel you now

You're by my side

And I know you gave me a gift of a second chance

I had a dream of a life of my own

And I had a place that I thought was my home

But now I see I just can't have it any other way

It's all or nothing, do or die and I'm the price I pay because

I'm overboard, too far from shore, castaway trying to make it home

I catch my breath to save myself but I can't

In my sight you were just in time

I feel you now

You're by my side

And I know you gave me a gift of a second chance

A second chance

A second chance I won't forget, a second life I won't regret

A second wind to brave this night, a second more to make it right

A second chance I won't forget, a second life I won't regret

A second wind to brave this night, a second more to make it right

I'm overboard, too far from shore, castaway trying to make it home

I catch my breath to save myself but I can't

In my sight

You were just in time

I feel you now

You're by my side

And I know

You gave me a gift of a second chance

A gift of a second chance

I'm a castaway

With a gift of a second chance

Once the song was over, I take out my earphones and place it and my phone back into my pocket. Light from the sun began to shine in through the window and I could tell the train had passed from under the hill's tunnel. I turn my head towards the window once again, but this time I get up off of the leather seat and walk steadily over to the window to take a look at the view outside.

I was absolutely blown away by the sight of the large resembling cityscape. It was Manehattan itself over the river of calm waters that gently moved with the swift current to make it into the oceans of salt water. In the distance, I could see one of the tallest buildings in the city shaped with a wood carven equine head at the top. I'm pretty sure that might be the Equine State Building that towers the rest of the buildings in that fair city. A statue in the large river near the end of it, stood before the city and many tourists so distant and small could be seen at the bottom of it to observe the majestic masterpiece. There is another few tall buildings that have pointed rooftops, most of them are flat and have such sights to show from the top of those buildings for the lands beyond.

The train passes onto a bridge and from over the tracks; I could see how gentle the water was moving. A couple of males are in the river, but are mostly collecting stuff from the bottom of the river that will occasionally flow in sometimes. It can be quite a mystery down there, but I'm not all about those treasures down there, it's all up to the stallions who would just love to get their hooves on the gold and riches they find if few were to be found.

The train makes hastes and gets off of the bridge, arriving at the train station. The train began to slow down and eventually come to a complete stop where all other ponies on the other side of the train were coming on to get on and leave Manehattan, to which I guess to visit relatives in another part of Equestria. I turn to the cabin door and walk towards it.

I open up the cabin door, gather my stuff and head out of the train cabin. The conductor stands on all four at the end of the car, thanking the ponies that rode on the express to Manehattan. Pulling my suitcase with wheels to make it move, I take it with me, pulling it off of the train, tipping the conductor as he thanks me.

I turned around and began to walk down the steps of the Manehattan Train Station which its steps were that of cement. It was a feeling to my bare feet that I had not felt in a long time. After I have exited through under the arches of the station, I take a look at the inner heart of the city and smile.

The streets were bustled with a couple of ponies talking amongst each other, galloping along to get to where they needed to go to, or waiting in a long line for a taxi to come along and drop them off at a specific location that they requested as soon as they got on. Occasionally, there would be spots in the sidewalk that didn't seem as busy as ever, so only a few ponies could be seen trotting along. Carriages and taxis fill the streets, moving slowly like it was traffic from my world. I guess that can also apply to Equestria as well.

There was only one problem with getting around the city though: trying to find out where Coco Pommel was living. By this point, I knew that among thousands of different ponies, she could be one of them.

"Excuse me…" I said to that orange stallion with the top hat on the top of his head with that busy look on his face. He looks at me with a sort of uncomfortable glare. "Do you know where I can find a Coco Pommel?"

"Sorry, sir! I do not." The orange stallion dismissed and trotted away, looking a little annoyed.

Well, that was a waste of time to ask that stallion, especially when he had been giving me the bug eye. I turn towards another group of stallions and mares trotting around the city, looking busy as well.

"Have you seen a young mare named Coco Pommel?" I asked the small group. "She looks like-"

"We don't know her." One of the mares in the group had interrupted me. After that abrupt brief moment, they continue to walk down the opposite side of the sidewalk where I had been walking.

I've already been two minutes in the city and I can't even find my own friend. There are a few mares out there in the streets that have almost the same tone color of Coco's mane, but they are completely different looking from all of them. I mean, it's not like she would probably be somewhere around Bridleway would she?

Wait a minute… Bridleway? If I can't find her in that part of the city, I could always ask around the theaters or productions in the works at the moment to see if one of them has a record of Coco in their contacts. With my closed suitcase, I make my walk down the sidewalk, heading towards the next streets a few blocks down to get to Bridleway.

On the streets, everything seemed to go along normal as I had observed what has happening briefly inside the buildings from the first floor on and outside. A couple of foals with a unique Manehattan accent to their voices could be heard through my own ears. A few of them laugh, and playfully run past me through the streets, not noticing me as somepony different. Inside the buildings were various restaurants, coffee shops and banks that resembled to the real world. One of them by sheer coincidence was called Starbucks. It was a completely different logo though, so in case both the real world and Equestria share the both of their worlds, they would have that just to avoid confusion between humanity and pony-kind.

I could see Bridleway just down the street from where I was standing to my left. I turn towards that direction and start to head straight towards that section of city. As I had progressed down the streets, most of the normal pony folk that I had been seeing was becoming less accompanied on those parts and there were only few that would trot along in more elegant clothing that I had seen. These must be the other high society folk of Manehattan that live in the rich homes and apartments through the busier streets.

Bridleway brought way to show its sight of many theatres that were performing shows or 'plays' that night or tomorrow night. A movie theater could also be seen on the opposite side of the large street, it lights off for now, but preparing at any time when Luna's moon has risen over the eastern horizon. I swear that I had recognized the theater closest to me in Bridleway as the one that Coco had gone to when she was going to thank Rarity for all the help.

Well, I don't seem to really have a choice for that now. I might as well check up on that theater and ask any of the employees that work inside there just in case that they happen to have any notes on the whereabouts of my friend.

I walk towards the glass doors of the theater and use my right hand to take the right side door's gold-bronze handle. Gently pulling it open, I walk inside and could feel the soft red carpet underneath my bare feet coming into the warm lobby. I could see a few of the janitors cleaning up around the place with the empty ticket stand for tonight looking as clean as ever without any dust. It's no wonder that every theater in Manehattan is kept as clean as possible to maintain its age.

"Excuse me sir, but our show doesn't start until tonight." A voice in the lobby catches my attention and I turn my head towards the stallion who said that.

"I know, but I am not here to attend a show." I stated with a hint of honesty in my voice. "I was wondering if you happened to know a costume designer by the name of Coco Pommel. I heard that Rarity hired her for one of her contact's productions."

"Hmmmm, Coco Pommel?" The older stallion wondered. "Oh yes, she helped out with a production for quite some time ago. She was in the costume department, preparing them for the act. She made some fine good ones."

"But do you know where I can contact her?" I asked calmly.

"Yes, she lives just a couple of streets down. From where she is, it seems to be a rather beautiful view from outside of her windows. I was only there once to deliver a quick letter to her about the approval of her new boss hiring her for each stage production that he was directing. You can find her around West Mare Street." He had told me, lowering his glasses. "You also must be that human that I saw in the newspaper one morning."

"Yes, it is definitely me then." I told him, extending my right arm and opening my hands' fingers to offer him a hand or hoofshake. "I am Brayden."

"The name is Gold Star." He tells me, and begins shaking my hand with his hoof in a gentle manner. "It is an honor to meet you, Brayden."

I stop shaking his hoof and nod with a smile on my face. "Thank you for helping me out to find where she is. Big city is always the hardest to find somepony there." I said.

God Star lets out a chuckle and says "Well, that is life here in Manehattan."

"I should get going now; I wouldn't want to keep her waiting. Though, I don't think she knows I am coming." I said, walking back towards the door.

"Alright, have a good day now." He said to me with a friendly smile on his face and his left hoof waving goodbye to me. I smile and wave back in return before stepping out of the theater lobby out back to the outdoor side.

I wasted no time and began to make my trip through the city of Manehattan and viewing all of the busy sidewalks once again filled with ponies on the run or just walking along with their other friends. Very rarely I run into those Canterlot elites that have their noses pointed upward to the sky. When I do, surprisingly I must be thinking about them a bit wrongly. That kind of defeats my purpose on them as they trotted like everypony else through the city.

---

On the streets close to the suburbs were the normal ponies living in the small houses just in that area of large buildings. Most of the small buildings I remember were where Applejack's relatives had been living and most likely were still living there in the same home. Now I do recall that Apple Bloom told me at one point that her cousin Babs Seed lived her. So I probably would be surprised if I ended up seeing her. The friendly thing I would probably do was tell Babs about how I know her cousin down at Sweet Apple Acres. Fillies and foals would be seen on the streets, either talking to one another or just playing a small game of hopscotch on the road. They would only move when one of them saw a carriage making way through the empty street.

After passing that street or two, I could see the large apartment building with cream colored bricks that covered the outside of the building. That must be where Coco Pommel was residing. Even the windows looked very clean and rich in its look, so no wonder her success with the costume designing were that talented. I was wearing the wool sweater that Coco had knitted with the finest wool that she had given to me for my birthday. It'll be quite the surprise for her when she sees that I am wearing the gift she gave me.

I walk towards the double glass doors and take a hold of the iron handle on the right side door. I gently push it open and walk into the lobby of the apartment building.

The lobby itself had a presence of majesty coming from it. The ceiling was bright golden with a few unique shapes under a different shade of that color with the bronze pillars holding the ceiling in place. Ground level, there were beautiful ceramic colored pots with numerous roses and flowers that were abloom and well. A few fern plants also grew from there as well with its green vines being shown outside but not spreading too much. The expanded lobby desks on my right were made of carven rich oak wood and had a neat finish of gloss to cover it smoothly. A mare was at the front desk working at a typewriter to write down whatever she needed to do.

I walk from the glass doors and begin my approach towards the desk, the handle of the moving suitcase still in my right hand. The mare stops typing and looks at me with quite the most curious look indeed. "Why hello there good sir, how may I help you today?" She greets me with a small smile on her face.

"I was looking to see if a friend of mine is here." I explained to the desk mare in a calm manner. "Her name is Coco Pommel, by the way."

The mare reaches down below the desk and pulls out from a plastic bin some 'records' on the residents that were living inside of the building. I cannot really see on the other side of the desk, but I didn't want to peek as I would consider it myself to be sneaking into business. She pulls out a file under the letter of 'C' and begins to scan through the paper records to find her name. I certainly hope that I didn't end up at the wrong building.

"Oh yes Coco Pommel," She said to me, looking at the records for a moment and then places it back into the file and back in the rows of files. "Yes, she lives here. You can find her apartment at Room 907 on the ninth floor which is one floor from the highest, the tenth."

"Alright, thank you very much miss." I thanked her with gratitude and a smile on my face.

"No problem, sir." She said, nodding with that same smile on her face.

I turned towards the metal elevator door that looked very much like the ones that I saw everyday back on Earth. I walk towards it with my bare feet making very soft, quiet taps on the tiles. The rolling wheels on my suitcase could be heard at a decent volume, but it would not disturb anypony else in these halls that are just having a coffee break as a few stallions were at the nearest coffee stand in the lounge. Thank goodness that Rarity had given me a suitcase with a set of wheels that isn't too loud. I press the button for my request of going up to the ninth floor and begin to wait patiently.

After a couple of moments of waiting, the elevator made a chime that it had arrived on the main floor and its metal door opened up. I step into the elevator with my suitcase and turned to the other side to the panel on the elevator. I pressed the button that had a 'nine' on it and press another button to close the elevator door.

The elevator door closed and I could hear the sound of smooth jazz playing on the speakers inside whilst it was on its way for the ninth floor. I wait patiently, but I listen to the sound of the atmosphere that the saxophone in the song was coming off. I was no expert and did not know how to play a saxophone to save my life, but I just loved that song also with the bass and piano that helped brighten the mood. I also had Jazz on my phone playlist, so I guess it is good that I can broaden my horizons when it comes to different kinds of music like classical, avant-garde… this-that.

Another couple of moments pass and there is another ding. I look up to see which floor that I had arrived on. The letters gave off that I had arrived right on the floor as requested. The elevator doors open and I can see the empty hall with closed apartment doors. This hallway seemed to almost resemble that for a hotel because of how fresh it smelt every time I came into one when I went on vacation. I begin to walk down the hall and look at the numbers of the doors to find the right number.

901… 903… I was starting to be the closest to where her apartment might be on the floor. I continued to walk along. Only the sound of my bare feet and suitcase wheels were heard echoing in the hall. 906… I was just about almost there. I come by a small end table with a small potted rose standing on it with a picture of a boat on the wall.

907. There it was on the Mahogany looking door that was carved to look the same as all the other doors. Though each with a different tint to the numbers. This door's number was chrome-looking and had a silver tone of metal to its doorknob and lock. I face towards the door and give it three firm, but gentle knocks with my left hand in a fist to do the trick.

After my knocking, I begin to wait patiently for Coco to come and answer the door. My left hand is no longer in the form of a fist and my finger dangle with rest once again. All seems quiet for a few moments, and then the sound of hooves trotting could be heard in a muffled way on the other side of the door. The hooves sound off more closer to the door and then the sound of the door's lock clicking could be heard. Then I heard the doorknob on the other side start to open the wooden door.

The door opens up and I can see that beautiful mare with her two-tone blue mane and tail with a coat of light amberish gray. It was Coco Pommel herself, standing at her own door when she opened it herself. She looked a little curious at first to see who it was knocking at her door in the afternoon coming close to the evening, but when she saw that it was me: a smile lit up on her face.

"Hello Brayden." She greeted me with her usual soft spoken tone. The door remained open while her right front hoof is placed on her left front hoof. Her facial expression doesn't change.

"Hello Coco." I greeted back in return. Both me and her were looking at each other's eyes with me staring at her cyan eyes and hers staring back at my brown eyes.

"I take it that you thought about taking some time off to come and visit me?" She asked me with a warm smile remaining.

"Yes," I replied to her. "I have also decided that there might be a few things to do during my visit in Manehattan, so I've decided to stay for a few days."

"Oh," Coco said softly, pausing for a few moments. "Well I don't mind you staying for a few days. My door is always open for you if you need somewhere to go to."

"Thank you Coco." I said to her, letting go of the suitcase handle, kneeling down a bit and placing my hand on her shoulder. Coco looks at me, letting out only a small and tiny blush onto her face that could tell she was proud to offer me something for being that generous towards me.

"Umm," She says, clearing her throat. I take my hand off of her shoulder. "Do you want me to help you take in your suitcase?"

I nodded and said "I don't mind. I'm just going to take a little look around to see what's inside."

Coco trots forward and begins to assist in pulling in the suitcase for me. Surprisingly, it wasn't even that heavy, as what was in there was mostly lightweight stuff like clothes, teeth brushing material, this-that. We all bring that whenever we go on vacation. I turn towards her open door and gently push open the rest of the door to enter her sun-lit apartment.

The apartment itself looked really stylish and the design rather was curiosity indeed. My bare feet were standing on the smooth maple wooden planks that were of the floor. In front of me were the open windows with a kitchen and table to peek out at the wonderful view with red curtains on the side just in case the sun got too much for the morning or for evenings with friends. You never know when they get to be closed. To my right was the hot pink rug resting with two couches resting partially on its ends; one couch with two cushions and a big one with three cushions. To the white walls, the painted doors of oak gave off each room. I walk towards each room to take a look with the first door on my now-left sight.

In the first room on the left was a bedroom. The white walls remained as per usual. The carpet on the floor was there in a different color from the rug in the main room. The color was a bright mixture of green, lavender and sea blue. It was quite beautiful. The dressers untouched by paint and its wood clear stood at two ends of the room while the bed lay on the end from the right side from where I was coming in. The cover of the bed was a shade of pale red and orange and it had not been affected whatsoever. Two windows are open and shine into the room. I take it that this must be the guest room.

I take a look down at the other two rooms in the apartment. One was just straight ahead with the other door on the right side of the hall. I walk towards the door closest on the right and peek in to see a very clean looking bathroom with white shining tiles on the floor. In the bathroom are your basic things such as: the toilet, sink and bathtub with a shower included. I can see the brown towels hanging up on the racks when anypony was done with the tub or shower tap. I turn away from the bathroom and head straight for the room down the hall.

The door is left slightly open and I place my hand onto the door. My hand gently pushes it open and I take a look inside the lit room. The floor had a carpet of black and white colors in a zebra-like design that definitely intrigued me. The ceiling was the same white, but the walls were a light red with streaks of dark red. On the double bed were the covers in the color of dark blue. The drawer was on the left from the door that I could barely see with my own eyes, but I could see picture frames for small photos there just barely. I edged a bit for a closer look.

A light amberish gray hoof appeared below me for the doorknob which managed to take it and pull the door forward towards me slightly. I wasn't too close so the door shouldn't be able to hit me on my nose. The door closes shut and I turn my head to look down at Coco Pommel with quite a sincere smile on her face. "Oh, that is my room Brayden." She told me with the soft-spoken tone.

"Whoops, wrong room." I said, scratching the back of my head with my left hand.

Coco giggles for a moment and sighs silently. "It's alright Brayden, the first time is always the time we almost end up doing stuff like that." She told me.

"I am guessing that the spare bedroom is where I will be sleeping." I said.

"Yes. Also, I brought in your suitcase." She said.

"Thank you Coco," I said, appreciating her help. "The spare bedroom will do just fine, but if I am that desperate, I could always hit the couch in the living room."

"Oh Brayden," She says. Stimulating a giggle, she places her soft right front hoof onto the top of my left hand and looks at me. "You don't have to sleep on the couch. You are a guest to me, and I want to make sure that you get the best good night's rest."

"Alright then, if you say so." I said, not going to object whatsoever.

She turns to the left and begins to trot down the small hall. "I'm cooking up some dinner that should be ready by tonight." Coco said.

"What is for dinner this evening?" I asked, my stomach rumbling a little bit. To ease it, I place a hand onto my stomach on it to keep it calm.

Coco stops trotting and turns her head to the left to look at me. "Tonight I am cooking some spaghetti with garden leaves on the side." She informed me.

"Alright, sounds good," I said, knowing that spaghetti was one of my favorite dinner entrees. "But remember, because I can be… well, picky. I don't really want any sauce on it."

"You don't like tomato sauce with it?" Coco asked.

"Yes." I confessed, sounding a little bit embarrassed for telling her that I was a bit of a picky eater myself.

"Don't worry about it Brayden. There's nothing wrong with being picky," Coco said to me with a smile. "I used to be a picky eater myself but I eventually opened to other foods as I couldn't just eat the same ones over and over again." After we exchanged friendly smiles with each other for a few moments, she turns around to continue trotting. "I'll go and make dinner for the both of us."

I walk a few steps down the same direction the hallway to get my suitcase and grab its black handle. I walk with it into the spare bedroom. I close the door behind me softly and pick up my suitcase. I place it onto the bed and unzip it open to get out my stuff.

Unzipping my suitcase, I took out the items that I had brought with me such as my short sleeved t-shirts for the warm weather here in Manehattan, a couple of shorts and pants specifically sewn by my good friend Rarity. Goodness for that, she probably doesn't want me wearing the ones I came to Equestria in most of the time. Last out of the suitcase were my pyjamas, swimwear, underwear, toothbrush and toothpaste.

I began sorting out my clothing into different piles to know which were shorts and t-shirts. Plus pyjamas, swimwear and underwear would be in the same drawer with them. I walk over to the drawer and open up a section for them to be in. After I place them in, sorting them into their right spots I closed the drawer and turn back towards the other accessories. My toothbrush and toothpaste will remain on the nightstand, unaffected and being clean at all times.

I use the both of my hands and take my suitcase, walking to the end of the bed and placing my suitcase there onto the floor for others who are visiting to take note about my visit to Coco's. Though because I am a male, I don't want others who are friends with her to raise an eyebrow and think that something is going on.

I sat at the edge of the bed and looked out of the window at the view of the city. Out there among the small city blocks were sandy beaches with ponies about in the slow-setting sun still high in the air. On the golden sands, I could see stallions and mares trotting along the beach with others relaxing to get a tan. The fillies and foals were also there either building sandcastles or just swimming about in the water. It just about reminded me of the good days as a small child. Not looking at the setting sun, I decided to watch those waves from up here as they gently crashed onto the shore.

The sound of the wind's gentle breeze flew by the closed window, blowing itself against the glass but not so hard. Unless it was a heavier hurricane type of wind, then they would probably shatter. Listening to the sound of the gentle wind from up here on the apartment floor, I close my eyes once again. I have always been told as a kid that the sounds of wind wherever I go, I can use that to help in calming me down when there are times of stress coming upon me. Even though I cannot feel it, I sometimes unleashed my imagination to go along with the wind as if I was actually flying for the first time ever… but that only for when I have wings myself. But since I am a human, I don't think it is possible. Well, there is the Song of Order that summons ethereal wings for me but it only works during battle with Equestria's enemies from what I have experienced so far.

The wind felt like a meditation while I remained awake. It allowed me some time to gather up on my thoughts and feelings on the ponies or incidents that I had gone through. My special somepony, Twilight came into mind at first. It was the image of when I was leaving for Manehattan this morning at the Ponyville train station. I could still picture that moment where she trotted up to me with the both of us sharing a gentle and loving hug and when she told me that she hoped I would be back soon. I made that promise and she very well knew that I wasn't going to live in Manehattan, expecting that I'll be back in a few days. The last memory was that passionate kiss on the lips that the both of us had shared and my stroke on her warm and gentle cheek before I slipped from her to depart onto the train.

Other thoughts came to my mind of the precious moments from where I had confessed my feelings to Twilight by the peaceful lake at night to the moment when I had shared a kiss with her at the top of the Ferris wheel as that moment in our relationship that last forever as a memory in our hearts on that warm summer night for our first date together. Ah, those good memories…

---

"Brayden, dinner is ready!" Coco's soft voice calls out from the other side of the bedroom door with the sound of her hoof knocking softly on the door, shaking me out of my memories and deep thoughts.

I get up off of the soft bed and pace forward towards the white door. "I'm coming!" I said loudly to let her know that I was on my way to join her for dinner. I place my hand onto the doorknob and pull the door open.

My door moves towards me and I could smell the fresh-scent of cooked pasta flowing through the air. I walk under the open door arch and close the door behind me before moving down the hallway to the right and past the living room to the small kitchen.

The kitchen window curtains had completely covered up the windows for the friendly event with a candle lit up at the table as a greeting to friends who had come to attend something so calm. A bit of jazz music was playing from the nearby radio system in the living room. The clock on the wall in the kitchen came off with the time that said '5:50pm'. Impressive… I must have been in my train of thought for quite some time because I remember coming here around an hour ago and a couple of minutes included with that.

Coco herself was taking my plate with the spaghetti noodles and carrying it by the mouth all the way to the table. She sets mine down onto the place-mat, letting go of the ceramic plate. She turns to look at me and both of us are silent for a few moments. A smile grows on her face and she nods, saying "Well… it's ready, just for you." An awkward giggle comes from her mouth.

I smile back at her in return and walk into the kitchen, approaching the table. I approach the chair to sit where she had set my meal. She trots back to the kitchen counter to take her plate and bring it to the table to eat with me and talk to me. That would be good, because I have a lot to catch up with between me and my friend. I take a seat at the table and turn to my left to see her coming.

She sets her plate down onto the place-mat next to me and sits down next to me, with her food ready for the both of us, still looking a bit steamed but was cooled down a bit after being in the pot for the majority of the cooking session.

I use my right hand to take the silver fork and set it through the spaghetti. I give it a twirl to make sure that I get enough of those noodles onto it and bring it towards my mouth. I open up my mouth and set the spaghetti into it, sucking up the rest of the dangling noodles quietly. Even then, I had to keep some good manners at the table. Don't want to end up acting a bit like a dwarf from a fantasy book. Those characters always have had the urge to act a little unrefined about how they ate at the table or at parties they unexpectedly came to.

Coco sits there and eats away at her plate of spaghetti with salad leaves on the side. Rich tomato sauce is on her spaghetti noodles to help give her a different taste. My left eye carefully watches as her hoof struggles with her silver fork to catch some spaghetti, but the fork would always seem to slip from her right front hoof. I take a bite of one of the garden salad leaves on my plate, gently chewing it slowly. Once it is gnashed down to mush, I consume it down my throat and turn to Coco.

"Do you need some help with that fork, Coco?" I asked with a hint of kindness in my voice.

"Help me?" She said, turning to look at me. She turns back to her fork to try and get at least a few noodles onto the fork. "No thank you Brayden, I'm sure I can get these."

"Are you sure Coco?" I said, sounding a bit offering now. "As much as I don't want to spoon-feed you, I could give you some help as you seem to have trouble with getting some."

Coco stops for a moment and looks at her fork and then her plate full of tomato-sauce covered spaghetti. She smiles with a sigh and says "Well, I guess I could use a little help."

A warm smile comes upon my face when I scoot the wooden chair to turn and face her, coming closer towards her. She sat there, waiting patiently as I scooted a little closer to her.

After moving, I take the silver fork she had been carrying and trying to twirl. I do what I had done with my fork and twirl the fork around in the pile of tomato covered spaghetti and gather enough for her to be able to eat for that one bite. I watch the right amount being slid out of the noodle pile and wait for coco to open a little bit of her mouth. She opens it a little bit and I move the fork of noodles towards her mouth, allowing her to close her mouth and let the dangling pieces of caught noodles slide into her mouth.

She chews for a couple of moments and then swallows down the mushed up bits of that tomato sauce covered pasta that I had given to her. She looks at me for a few moments, letting out a bit of a soft blush onto her face. I didn't even notice either that I was blushing a bit as well.

"I- I'm sorry if this feels awkward." I apologized, sounding a little bit embarrassed that I was spoon-feeding her in a way that felt very weird to me.

Coco gently places her right front hoof onto my left hand and looks innocently me with her cyan eyes. Her hoof gently rubs the top of my hand which felt really warm and soft making me blush even harder than ever before. "Brayden, it's okay," Coco told me in a calm voice in a way that would help in making anypony calm down. "I'm perfectly alright with you doing this for me."

"Okay." I quietly said. The blushing on my face faded slowly while I was getting another forkful of spaghetti for her. The same process as before came and went, with none of us blushing all the while. What I don't really realize and probably Coco didn't either was that she still had her hoof on the top of my hand.

I give a few more forkfuls of spaghetti and watch her with a gentle smile as she consumed each piece of spaghetti noodles as slowly and in a reformed manner as much as possible.

"Will you be eating up on your food there?" Coco asked me.

I nod gently with a smile abroad my mouth. "Yes, I almost nearly forgot about that, but it hasn't left my mind about eating it. Oh… and Coco?" I said with a questioned tone in my voice.

"Yes Brayden?" She doesn't hesitate to answer me with her soft-spoken tone.

I turn my eyes to look at her hoof still the top of my hand. "Your hoof is still on my hand." I confessed.

"Sorry about that…" Coco shyly says to me, moving her hoof away from my hand a little bit and off of me.

I move the same hand that she had her hoof and on, gently taking her hoof and holding onto it gently. "Don't worry about it. It usually happens with me most of the time." I said to her, looking into her eyes with my own.

Coco lets her hoof be held by my own hand and the both of us are staring at each other at the table with a warm and what seemed to be a friendly gaze to me. I move my fingers to gently stroke the sides of her silky hoof. Even the bottom of her hoof felt really soft minus how it sounded really hard when it trotted on any type of floor.

After a few moments, I let go of Coco's hoof with the warm smile on my face still remaining. I slowly turn from her to face my own spaghetti food. I move my right hand and take my silver fork again, already stained with the pasta that I had taken from my own plate. I dig it into the spaghetti for another twirl and then scoop another delicious bite into my mouth.

"So…" Coco says, sounding like she wants to warm up a conversation between the two of us. Seeing how she has been living alone for some time now, this visit will definitely give us some time to talk some more and do activities together.

"So?" I asked, with an eyebrow raised and a giggle stimulating from my mouth.

"I can see that you came along with the sweater that I knitted for your birthday." She says, starting a bit of conversation when she looked at the birthday gift I was wearing.

"Well, when I come to Manehattan to visit you, I wear it for the first impression because you are one of my favorite friends." I told her.

Coco looked a little flattered about it. "Why thank you Brayden," She says. "I- I don't think anypony has ever told me that I was one of their favorite friends before. Well… I almost forgot that there was also Rarity."

"Rarity is really nice to me and I think she is great friend to me as well," I said, after I had swallowed down a bit of salad leaves that I had crunched on. "When I first came to Equestria, she has been helping me by my own measurements to making clothing for me to wear. She's quite the generous lady herself and I have my full respect towards her."

"Well, both I and Rarity have a lot in common that way by our generosity. We both like to make dresses and clothing." Coco said with her soft-spoken voice.

"Then I know who to turn to for clothing once in a while, hmm?" I said, with a soft chuckle illuminating.

"Yes, you do. But don't really expect it to happen most of the time. The gift that I gave to you for your birthday was one of those special occasions. When a holiday comes around, probably then I will send in the mail something I designed and made just for you," She says, taking a sip of her water. After finishing her sip and swallowing that clear liquid, she continued "Rarity slipped me a bit on your measurements so I should have a clear idea on your style."

"I see." I respond and take the last salad leaf to crunch on, placing it into my mouth.

"Yes, she gave to me when you and Spike came along to help Rarity pack some things." Coco confessed to me.

I chuckle lightly and said "Oh yes, I remember. There were so many colored dresses to pack up."

Silence fills the gap between our conversation once again and I turn to my plate to get the last round of spaghetti twirled up around my silver fork that I hold in my right hand. I scoop the rest of the noodles into my mouth and gently chew up what was once pasta into mush for my body to consume, disappearing down into my body to be consumed. I have pretty much finished my plate as Coco had done with hers as well.

"Shall I help clean up my plate Coco?" I offered, placing the silverware onto the white plate and taking the white plate in my two hands.

"I don't mind. Of course you can clean your plate." She says to me with that beautiful and cheerful smile on her face. She in return takes her plate and brings it to the kitchen counter with following solely along.

I see the dishwasher underneath the countertop that I pull open for both the cover and the extended tray. I place my dirty dish and silverware into each section that clearly had the other plates there. I leave the tray out for Coco to place her dish into with her tools. I then close up the dishwasher. There aren't too many dishes in there yet, but when there are a few more left, then the dishwasher can be activated manually to spray clean, as long as they had something special for dishwashing machines.

"Well, I suppose that wraps up dinner." I said, taking my napkin and wiping around my lips just in case. I open up the nearby empty trash can and throw it in.

"Yes, and I believe that tonight will be a little easier for the both of us." Coco said, using her napkin to wipe the outside of her mouth to clean up the tomato sauce that got onto her lips. "If you were wondering, I must ask if you would like to go on a tour with me around the city tomorrow. I'll show you around to the places I usually go and we'll meet a few friends of mine."

"Sounds good." I said to her with a nod and a warm smile upon my face.

Coco trots away from the counter and into the living room. She stops trotting for a moment and turns to look at me. "I'll be going downstairs to have a nice swim at the indoor pool. Are you interested in joining me for a calm swim?" She asks.

"I haven't swum in a while," I said, walking out of the kitchen to join alongside her. "Of course I would like to come along with you. It is one of my favorite past-times."

"I'm delighted to hear that Brayden," Coco said to me, moving her left front hoof and gently placing it onto my hand. "But don't forget your swimwear."

"Don't worry Coco, I won't." I said to her in a gentle voice. I take her hoof that is on my hand and begin to hold on it gently.

Both me and her just glance into each other's eyes while she was holding my hand with her soft and warm hoof. Those cyan eyes of hers look rather happy than ever before, as if it was her first time ever talking to a stallion that she liked. The both of us didn't know it, but I believe that both of our heads were moving slowly forward towards each other. Both of our eyes start to move a little slanted to almost close as our heads were approaching onto one another. There's something about this that… I'm not really sure what is happening.

The sound of a clock on the wall in Coco's living room goes off, interrupting this moment which almost seemed so unexpected. She stops holding onto my hand and steps away from me and towards the wall clock to stop that sound.

"I really need to fix that clock." She states with a happy giggle coming from her.

"I'll go get my swimwear." I said, turning towards the guest room while Coco waited there for me.

I step into the guest room and reach into the drawers to get one swimsuit for me to put on me. I quickly change into them and tie up the knot on my swimsuit. Now that would be quite an embarrassment if they ended up falling off now, would it? I step right back outside of the guest room and back into the living room.

Coco had taken off her tie and hairclip from the back of her mane and had placed them both away with her tie hanging at the top of a coat hook that never really seemed to have any there at the moment. So I'm guessing when winter hits, it'll definitely be filled up with coats and soft hats. But Coco's appearance however, she looked absolutely beautiful.

"You look quite elegant without the tie and hairclip tonight, Coco." I complimented to her with a smile on my face and an honest tone.

Her cheeks lit up and she looks quite flattered by my own compliment. I can see her left front hoof on her right front leg while she was blushing. "Thank you Brayden," Coco said sounding like it was a mixture of hidden nervousness and happiness. Her left hoof scratches a bit at her right hoof while she stood there. "I- I don't think you've ever complimented me like that before. The swimsuit you wear makes you look a little bit cute."

"I appreciate the comment Coco Pommel." I said to her, sounding really gentle. But because the both of us were going for an evening swim, I guess this is not really much a time to say compliments to each other on what we were or weren't wearing. "But for now, let's head downstairs to swim, shall we?"

"Oh… of course." Coco said, sounding still a bit flattered by the compliment that I must have given to her.

I walk towards the door that would leave the apartment and take the door handle with my own left hand, giving it a twist and opening it to see the outside hallway once again. I hold open the door for Coco Pommel as she was trotting out.

"Thank you Brayden." She said as she passed by me with a smile on her face.

After she passed by me because I always obey the rule of ladies going first before me, I follow behind her. She turns around and hands me her key to the apartment that I can use to lock it up while we are still swimming. Neither of us would want anypony breaking in. Though seeing how 99% of everypony in Equestria was friendly, I doubt that anypony would try to go inside.

With a silent sigh exhaling from my mouth, I turn to the door. I peek inside of the apartment again to turn off the lights. The lights go out with a single click from my right hand pressing down the buttons. I turn to the door handle to pull the door towards shutting the door. Then the key goes into the keyhole and I turn it sideways, locking the apartment door.

I hand the key back to Coco Pommel and the both of us go down the hall for the evening swim.

Most of the evening is steadier during that swim and after it, plus there weren't too many rowdy kids around as they were probably having dinner still or talking with family just before bedtime. Both me and Coco swim for an hour and then dry up and head back up to the apartment to get some rest. In the end, I wished Coco Pommel a good night and head into the guest room while she heading into her room. I walk into the room and put my pyjamas on. I take a brief glance at the moon to wish both Princess Luna and Nightmare Moon a good night, then tuck myself under the covers of my bed.

As I have always said, goodnight Equestria…. And goodnight Manehattan. I will see you again at the earliest of dawn when Celestia's sun peaks out over the eastern horizon.

A/N: Well, it has been almost a month since I have updated. Reading week is in for me so I can have a bit of time to write a bit of the next chapter. Also a heads up for all of my fans who listen to Nightwish, a new single has been released since the 13th of February called "Elan". Be sure to check it out when you can.

Before I get into my review responses, I just want to state that I have seen the new trailers for Season 5 and they look rather promising. In my prediction, and I think it could be true, but the premiere airs on the 4th of April. Early or not, I still believe it will air that day and a new season for us all begins.

Review Responses, shall we?

sonic3461: No problem :) Brayden crossing into Equestria Girls will definitely be in after the Manehattan chapters and a slice-of-life Ponyville chapter. Also, I am glad you like this story. I really appreciate it. No really, I do.

jvs12: The reason I deleted that chapter and reuploaded it was because I believe there was a glitch going on at the time, therefore it messed up a bit. Don't worry, I definitely am going a little more into it.

4theworldman: Maybe. You decide. :)

slikkkkkkkkk: Si.

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The first sound that comes to me from the silence of my quiet and peaceful dream was that of a ringing blare from the alarm clock on the nightstand. I quietly groan to myself, knowing that I'll have to accept the new day that interrupted the wonderful dream that I was having. I slowly start to open my eyes to see my dim room and move my left hand towards the alarm clock. My hand manages to gently tap the snooze button, turning off that noise like a siren that was a blaring about a warning throughout my room.

My eyes open up slowly in those walls of white paint that I have decided to rest in for my few days visit to Manehattan. I crawl out of bed and place my feet onto the wooden floor. As usual during a normal sun-risen morning, it feels rather cool but it does not get me cold. I move upward from the bed's open sheets, turning to them and making them.

After I have made the bed, I turn towards the wardrobe and open it up to find what I was to use for today. I select a pair of shorts that were in the color of pale green. For the shirt, it was short-sleeved and in the color of yellow. I slip them onto me and put the pyjamas that I was wearing for tonight away. I closed up the wardrobe.

My bare feet walk towards the white door across from where I was sleeping. Taking the handle of the door, I gently turned it to its side and pull the back of the door. In the other room from what I could see, the room with filled with a dim sunlight and the smell of coffee could be filling my nose with its sweet aroma. Coco must have been up early to brew it.

I step outside of the room and gently close the door behind me. After the door is closed, I began to pace across the wooden floor towards the corridor's corner. The sofa and couch with that white maple coffee table still stand there in the living room, lifeless but still looking as if it were only used a couple of days ago for parties. Nevertheless, they were clean. Not spotlessly clean, but it was close. From around the corner of the corridor, I peeked from behind out, still making myself visible for Coco.

There she was, sitting at the table that we had dinner together at last night. She was taking a sip from her grey glazed ceramic cup filled with coffee. She was using both of her hooves to grip onto the cup to take sips from. Across from her was a spot for me that had a cup of coffee made just for me by none other than Coco herself. She turns to her right and takes a look at me with her gentle and cyan coloured eyes that shone in a glare from the rising sun of Celestia.

"Oh, you're awake!" She said with that same tone of voice that I always heard her say. Well, there was that one other moment a while back in the weeks when she accidentally raised her voice when she was upset. A weak smile rose upon her mouth. "I- I made coffee for you." She stuttered a bit in her words, but I do not mind.

"Thank you Coco." I said, accepting the coffee from her. I walk towards the table in the kitchen and take a seat on that chair. I scoot my chair forward towards the table and use three of my fingers to grip onto the coffee cup.

I picked up the coffee cup and take a look at the hot liquid inside of the cup as a brief glance. The liquid looked very caramel color-like, with one sugar cube that had evaporated from its heat when dipped in. I move the cup towards my mouth and take a sip.

The taste of this coffee was very warm and sweet with the right amount of sugar inside it to taste right among its creamy substance and a spot of milk added with it. While it still had a bit of a sharp, bitter taste to it, I felt like this was just right. I proceed to take in another sip and then with a silent sigh, gently place the cup back onto the table for a bit of a breather, waiting until I take another sip. "This coffee you've made is delicious, Coco." I compliment.

"Why thank you Brayden," She says to me, smiling a bit and fiddling her two front hooves together. She takes another sip of coffee and places her cup onto the table when she is done. "It might not be the best, but it is something."

"Oh yes, I've only had coffee a few times, but this is actually pretty good." I take the spoon nearby on my side of the table and stir up the liquid inside the cup.

Coco keeps that smile on her face when she saw me take another sip of my coffee. Silence filled the gap between the both of us in our conversation. Having known Coco for a bit of time, I knew that she tended to act a bit shy, almost like my best friend but not quite. I will admit myself that I was only a tiny bit shy because of how I was as a person by my own personality.

"So what is the plan today?" I had asked, finishing another sip of cream-bitter coffee.

"The plan?" She pauses and looks at me, taking a sip. She places the coffee cup down onto the table and begins to finish what she had questioned for a plan. "I somehow have come up with a plan for today. I am going to take you outside of the apartment. I thought I'd show you around the city, since I don't think you'd want to be all cooped up in my apartment all day with nothing to do. Well, there is the swimming pool on the main floor, but I think some sunlight would do you good."

She sounds like she had definitely had kind of formed a good plan. Seeing how I had just arrived in Manehattan a few days ago, I've always wanted to go out to the tourist attractions and see the important figures around the big city. It felt almost like that one-day visit to the big city back home, but it felt the same here so it was all good.

My stomach slowly lets out a bit of a grumble and I knew from there that I could not forget about the most important meal of the day. "What about breakfast?" I asked. "So far, I've only had coffee so I'm not if that is enough for the body."

"Don't worry about it Brayden," Coco assures me. "On our way out the door, we'll be going to the nearby café close-by and order some breakfast to pick-up. I'll let you pick what you want to have for breakfast. I mean, I don't want to force you to eat anything."

"Coco, it'll be alright." I said, taking the last sip out of my coffee cup and placing it onto the table.

Coco paused for what seemed like minutes, though it was only moments. "I-I guess I'm just worrying a little too much," She spoke, before taking a final sip from that coffee. She places it down onto the table and scoots from the table and off of her chair. "Want to clean the cups for me?"

I scooted back from the table and stood up, getting off of my chair. "Of course, a fair mare like you shouldn't pressure herself into cleaning the mess that a guest has made. I will clean them both for you."

Her face tilted a bit to the side and small pink blushes were spread onto her cheeks. If it was embarrassment that she was facing, I could tell it was more in a fun and happy way rather than in a uncomfortable way. I mean, who can resist that cute face that she has. I for one would never try to embarrass her or my friends in a more downgraded way; to do so would end up making me regret that later on.

"I- Umm," She shyly said to me with the rosy cheeks still crossed onto her before stuttering a bit in her words. "I-I-I will go and get ready. And don't forget to brush your teeth." The pink on her cheeks fade away.

"Don't worry, I won't forget." I said, as if the visit to Minuette's dental office wasn't enough for me.

I pretty much do what needed to be done. I take the coffee cups that had been used by the both of us and wash it in the sink and using that special kind of soap to clean out the remains of germs in the cups. I dry them out with a dry cloth and place them both back into the cabinet from where they were located among the rest of the coffee cups. Once the kitchen is clean, I head into Coco's bathroom, grabbing my toothbrush and toothpaste from the guest bedroom to clean my teeth.

Once that was done, I clean off my brush from any remaining water bits and place them back into the guest bedroom on the nightstand. I am back out in the living room. Coco Pommel seems to look ready to get going whenever I was ready. On her two sides were the two red saddlebags that I remembered her carrying when she brought Rarity her prize that Prim was supposed to give to her when she won Fashion Week.

"Are you ready to go, Brayden?" Coco asks, sounding patient and keeping that timid smile on her face.

"Yes Coco." I said to her.

I move forward towards the door and turn the doorknob to open up the door for the both of us. I stand to the side of the open door to keep it still as I allow Coco Pommel to head outside her apartment first, into the bright hallway. After all, I still abide by the 'ladies first' rule, don't I?

Coco looked at me briefly when she trotted past me. "Thank you Brayden." She said to me with me following behind her after she passed through the door archway.

"You're welcome." I said with a gentle smile curved upon my mouth.

After exiting her apartment, I moved backwards a bit to take the doorknob and close the front door. I move away from it and allow her to trot forward with her jingling keys being carried by her mouth. She selects the right key to her apartment door and uses the light bronze key to inject it into the keyhole. She turns it until it makes a clicking sound. Her apartment is now locked until we come back later.

She places her keys back deep in her left saddlebag. She trots backwards one step from the door and proceeds forward with me down the lightened hallway. The elevator's metal doors stayed shut while we both went together towards it. I walk towards the elevator panel and press the pearl coloured button to activate the lift. Both of us then wait there at the double doors for the arrival of the mechanical lift.

Moments pass us by and the sound of the elevator doors moving catches our attention. Me and her both step onto the lift and she uses the panel inside of the lift, pressing a button to bring us both down to the ground floor. The elevator doors closed, and there was that small vibration that I could tell was the elevator starting to make its way down the building. On the speakers, classical music was being played. Everything felt really serene and quiet inside of the lift. I find myself looking at Coco Pommel, and she looks back at me. Both of us are sharing that smile of trust between the both of us.

Many more moments had passed between the both of us before we heard the elevator let out a chime that it has arrived on the ground floor. Coco and I stop looking in each other's eyes and I step out first of the elevator with her following behind me. Ah, the lobby. I still remember the design from yesterday and there was another mare accompanying the front desk and checking records and signing some important stuff. I walk beside Coco Pommel on our way outside of the building.

"Good morning Miss Pommel." The mare at the front desk called out to her, with a smile that were filled with joy and greeting.

"Morning to you too, Miss." I could hear Coco respond back to the mare with a wave from her right front hoof. Her face had turned towards her, but I could somehow tell that she was smiling.

After that brief greeting, the both of us walked up towards the double glass doors. Knowing me, I decided to do the honors for Coco Pommel and approach the door handle for the right-sided door. I take the iron handle and pull it open for the gentle warm breeze of Equestrian air to get through into the indoors. I was allowing her to go first.

"Thank you again Brayden." Coco says to me with a light blush upon her face. She trots past me and heads outside, waiting for me to come with her.

I step outside to join her, closing that side of the glass door behind me. Walking down those few steps, I join up with Coco Pommel. A smile lights up on her face and the both of us walk beside each other again. There was as usual, silence between the both of us. I didn't really know what to start for a conversation, so for nopony's sake, we just continued down the concrete streets of the suburbs of Manehattan to get to our destination, the cafe that Coco had mentioned while remaining quiet of conversation.

The ambient sounds of morning birds chirping and ponies talking with that mixture of the gentle wind filled the silence between the both of us. The sound of her trotting was another sound that filled into the silence while there was the muffled taps of my bare feet. A rare sound heard was the ruffling of her saddlebags as she was trotting.

"So…" Coco says to me, breaking the silence between the both of us. She turns to look at me.

"So?" I replied to her. A smile came back onto my face when she had started to talk to me again.

"I was wondering about a few things about what is happening back in Ponyville. How is Rarity doing?" She asked with that soft-spoken voice.

The name of my good friend Rarity brings a smile to my face and I look at Coco's eyes. "She is doing alright, I'm pretty sure that she is working on yet another fashion line which I know is typical of my good friend Rarity. But she has been a bit happier after the incident with Tirek." I told her.

"Tirek?" She questioned. "I heard about his attack on Equestria and how he managed to convince Discord to join his side. Luckily Tirek did not come anywhere near Manehattan during the attack."

"I was involved in the fight for the protection of Equestria from his wrath. I wanted to do what I can with the help of the Song of Order," I explained. "I wasn't going to risk losing Twilight and the others, so I did what I could to hold him back while my friends dealt with getting the last key to the chest by the Tree of Harmony."

"You weren't hurt, were you?" Coco asked. She started to sound a little worried about me.

"Well, I did take a bit of a beating and was knocked out by the end of the fight." I confessed to her.

"Brayden…" Coco says in a tone that almost sounds like a bit of a whisper. "Please do be careful next time; I don't want you to end up getting killed."

"Yeah…" I said to her. It sounded almost as if I had offended Coco Pommel in a sad way about what happened to me. "I-I'm sorry if I brought that up."

"Don't worry. I'm not offended or mad," Coco says to me. She stops trotting and I stop to turn to look at her. She takes my left hand with her right front hoof and holds onto it. "Know this Brayden, you are the nicest… non-pony that I have ever met. I could never yell or get angry towards you. For me to do so would be something I would regret big time." She struggled to find the right word so she didn't accidentally offend me. Even if she said the wrong word, I would find it easiest in my heart downright forgive her every time.

"I would never do the same either to anypony. Yelling and getting angry towards them is never the answer to letting out your frustration," I said to her with a calm and gentle voice. I move slightly forward towards her and gently move my arms around her neck, closing my eyes for a bit. I could feel her hooves move around my waist, with the both of us sharing a gentle hug. "I always find the heart to forgive others even if they were to yell at me, no matter how much I'll remember it."

I move my head and gently place my cheek onto hers, giving her a warm and friendly nuzzle. Her cheek felt really soft and warm. After that, the both of us let go of the hug.

"I-umm…" She said with another bit of nervousness crossing onto her. "W-We should continue, my stomach is starting to growl a bit." She began to start trotting once again.

I follow along with her and continue down that nearly busy street of Manehattan. I take a look at all of the stores that rest upon the suburbs. There were various shops such as barber shops where I could see ponies of the two genders having a change to their mane. Surprisingly you could even get a tail-cut, so it's something that you don't see every day. There were cake shops that Pinkie would definitely go to had she been here with me, furniture shops, pawn shops, bridal shops, food shops and even furniture shops for anypony who wanted to have an upgrade to what they had in their home/apartment.

Another couple of blocks down the street and I could already pick up on the smell of fresh and baked donuts with the sight of various business stallions trotting about while taking a bite from daffodil sandwiches. Coco could possibly see the cafe open with a fresh start to the day, with a couple of foals galloping by us to get to school for a Tuesday morning. I look to my left and I could see the open window of that cafe that Coco mentioned before we had gone out the door.

I took a look at the name of the café that I was looking at. It was known as "The Golden Stallion". Hmm, an interesting name. It almost reminded of the Diamond Mare, where I had performed for the audition. Coco trots up to the glass doors and pulls one open for me.

"Thank you very much, Coco." I said to her with much appreciation in my tone.

"You're welcome Brayden." She replied to me when she came behind me, following me inside. I can hear the glass door close shut with a swift metal sound.

I walk up to the cashier's desk and Coco joins us beside me. The cashier at the desk is yet again, a mare who had just finished serving a customer who had just about ordered himself some hay fries with the side of two over-easy eggs. I took a brief look at the menu. I could see that they had donuts on the breakfast menu this morning, but besides having one of them, I was also interested in having the egg sandwich that they had for the special on the menu.

"Can I help you out, hun?" The cashier says to me in her Manehattan-styled accent. I turn towards her and ignore the fact that she might be looking bored.

"Well yes," I said to her. "There are two of us. Just me and Coco Pommel the lovely mare beside me. I will personally have the special on your menu: the egg sandwich. For the side I shall have that glazed chocolate donut."

"Any drinks to go with it?"

"Yes, I'll have myself a cup filled with Apple Cider."

The cashier turns to look at Coco. "What about you, Miss Pommel? Can I get you anything?" She asked her.

"Me? I would like to have a Blueberry muffin with the side of a fresh apple. For a drink I will have a coffee filled a batch of cream and two sugarcubes." She told the cashier.

"Alright, that will be 6 bits in total. It was four bits, but adding Equestria tax it makes a total of 6 by how small you bought." The cashier was nice enough to inform us of this.

Coco reaches into her left red saddlebag and pulls out six golden bits to pay off the breakfast. The cashier takes the bits and places them into the machine among all of the other bits that customers had brought to them.

"Thank you very much, your breakfast will come along… wait." There is a pause between the three of us. The cashier was looking directly at me. "Haven't I seen you somewhere before?"

"Maybe?" I said with a bit of a confused shrug. "What do you mean?"

"You… You're Brayden, right? The human from Ponyville!"

"Uhhh, yes. But it's nothing s-"

"Special?! Whatever are you talking about, hun? You were all over the Manehattan Times newspaper when you first showed up." At this moment, she was really distracting herself from her job. Already, she noticed me as if I were somepony famous. I don't want to be famous though, I just want to be me.

"Please, I'm not that good." I just say to her to try and calm her down.

The cashier just giggles and hands both me and Coco our breakfast in two white paper bags with the logo of the "Golden Stallion" embedded onto the paper from the outside. The both of us take and hold onto our bags and we both head out of the café, on our way back to suburb streets of Manehattan.

I open up the white paper bag and begin to dig out the chocolate donut as a starter first. I take the donut with my right hand, taking it out into the open. I take a soft bite out of it and gently chew on it. It tasted delicious and the best part was the dry glazed material that covers the donut entirely. After chewing that piece down, I gently swallow it down so that it gets into my stomach.

Coco takes a small bite from her Blueberry muffin and gently swallowed it down while she was trotting. She places it back into the white paper bag and takes out the coffee in her right saddlebag. She puts the lid to her lips and takes a small swig out of the small open hole that was poked in at the lid's end-side. Once she is done, she places her coffee back into her saddlebag in that safe spot meant for coffee.

I just about finished taking a drink from my Apple Cider from a foam cup. "So what's next on the plan Coco?" I spoke out to her.

"I've got to deliver a letter to the office of Prim Hemline, it's a small update from Rarity that I thought she would like to hear after she won Fashion Week." Coco says with her soft-spoken voice.

Now I remember Prim herself for being the one who hosted the Fashion Week showcase in that Season 4 episode. It was also the first time that I had ever laid eyes upon none other than my good friend Coco Pommel herself. I felt bad for her being treated badly by her employer, Suri Polomare. Suri on the other hand was quite the ungrateful mare herself for being mean hearted and not to mention a plagiarizer because she stole Rarity's line with a piece of fabric she gave out to her.

"Oh yes, I recall hearing about Prim Hemline." I said to her, expressing out my thought briefly.

"Hmmm, maybe because you saw what happened before you came here?" Coco turns to me with a smile mixed with a joking suspicious glare. "Don't think I wouldn't know."

"So it looks like just about you and everypony else that is a friend to me knows." I said, scratching my head with a bit of embarrassment.

"Well, anyways. It shouldn't be too long. Prim is very understanding and friendly. Sure, she might look very strict on the job, but she is most patient pony you'll ever meet." Coco says to me. She takes another sip of her coffee.

I took a couple of bites of the donut and egg sandwich as well as a couple of sips of Apple Cider while I was walking through the suburbs of Manehattan into downtown with Coco Pommel. I suspect it myself that no food, not even a single drink are allowed in one of the taxi cabs. So I thought I would just go with the flow and take a look at the sights and sounds of the big city.

Blue birds of glory flew through the lit sky, chirping and singing away to the rest of their bird friends. I don't even know bird language so I most likely do not know what the chirping would mean. The only pony that I know who would be an expert would be my best friend. Seeing how she's been working and taking care of animals since she ended up getting her cutie mark for kindness towards them and the other ponies, she definitely would know the languages and speech for all sorts of other animals, minus how shy she still was.

I wrapped up on my donut and egg sandwich, but I still had a bit of apple cider in the foam cup with me. I continue to take sips every 30 seconds to a minute to quench a bit of my thirst when I became that way. The temperature here in the city is a bit warm than it is in Ponyville, so I'm lucky that I have something with me. Last thing I would want on my list to be dehydrated. The only thing that I happened to notice though would be that I was starting to get a little bit skinnier since I first arrived. It's no matter, it's most likely because I wanted to be like the rest of the civilians of Equestria. It pretty much explains why it's like becoming a vegetarian. Nopony has seemed to comment on it though, but as soon as I lost another pound, I am sure concern will be raised about it.

"The building is just around this corner Brayden. This way." Coco says to me, taking my hand and gently holding it as we are both turning the corner around a glass building with onyx like bricks.

On the streets, I could see a couple of fillies grouped up together and were heading on their way to school coming in the direction towards us. Each of them had a different colored single saddlebag on the left side of their body. I did not seem to recognize any of them… well, at least until I saw that familiar relative in the Apple family. Babs Seed. She was interacting with the rest of her filly friends and I don't think they noticed us. I have my eyes turned to Coco Pommel, as I want to make sure that she knows where we are going. I'm no expert at knowing where to go in a city as big as Manehattan, so it'll probably be memory that would have me remember where to go eventually.

"Whoa, look at him." I could hear one of the fillies says as we were getting closer towards the group. "That's him, that human from the Equestrian Times."

"Wait a minute, Ah think my Aunt Applejack mentioned him in one of her letters." I could hear Babs Seed speak out in that Bronx accent of hers.

With the mention of my friend Applejack, I stopped walking with Coco following suite and I approached the group of fillies. I knelt down on one knee to keep at a comfortable level. I didn't want to scare the rest of the fillies by my size. I mean, I still do that for my other three friends the Cutie Mark Crusaders which they don't mind. Seeing how I am tall, they might get scared. But just kneeling down will keep them calm, even then they still looked calm. It's sort of a habit that I am getting used to.

"Yes, I also happen to know Applejack as I live in Ponyville near Sweet Apple Acres," I told her. "Though I will admit, I take up… you could say 'residence' at another one of her friend's homes."

She looks at me with curiosity and smiles. "My name is Babs Seed." She introduces herself to me, though I already knew her name.

"Brayden. Brayden is my name," I told her, gentle extending my right hand out towards her small hooves for an offering hoofshake with my gentle hand. She extends her right front hoof and gently places it onto my hand. Both I and the small Apple filly shake hands in greeting. "It is nice to meet you Babs Seed."

The fillies began to group up around me with curiosity beaming in their eyes. They began to become interested in me. Crowding around me, they stray away from their 'going to school' habit and begin asking me question such as where I came from and what I did there. It seemed like at any moment the questions being asked repeatedly were going to overwhelm me.

"Umm… girls?" I could hear Coco say to the fillies at a good sense of volume for them to hear her. They stopped trying to ask me questions and turn to look at the older mare standing before them. "I hate to break it to all of you, but me and Brayden were just on our way somewhere and you have school as well. I don't want Brayden to make you all late." She says with a bit of concern in the tone of her soft voice.

"Sorry miss." One of the fillies that have glasses says to her in an apologetic tone. All of the group's ears were flopping downward with a sad look on their face except for Babs. She still looked a bit curious.

"Oh, it's perfectly alright," Coco says to them. "You can still talk to him, but please make sure that it's not when both of us are busy next time."

"Okay, Miss." The same filly with the glasses says.

"You know, you don't have to refer to me as Miss. Miss Coco Pommel will do just fine." Coco told them with a smile upon her face.

I get back up onto my two bare feet and look at the fillies. "I believe you should move along now to school. Good grades comes good success in your life," I told the group of fillies. "Getting a bad grade makes me sad."

"Alright, see you sir." They said to me and began trotting past me and Coco on their way to school once again without a problem.

I take a look back at Babs Seed, putting a smart smile onto my face. "Don't you have school too, Babs Seed?" I ask.

"Oh, right!" The young Apple filly snapped school back into her mind and began galloping past me to join us with the group of friends once again. "See ya later Brayden! Tell ma Aunt Applejack that Ah said hello!" She shouts from the distance apart.

"Don't worry, I will!" I shouted back, sharing a friendly wave to her. She smiles at me, waving her small filly hoof back at me. Finally, I turn back around with Coco Pommel by my side once again.

"Shall we continue with what we were doing?" She said, placing her warm hoof onto the top of my left hand.

"Errr, sure." I said to her. "Uh, sorry about that distraction there." I began walking again with her alongside me.

"Brayden, it's alright. It happens sometimes to all of us." Coco said to me. In my mind, I was still a bit worried because I always fear that when that happens, I still believe that they might be mad about what happened, no matter how small the distraction. Nevertheless, I believe that she accepted the brief apology I made.

"Is this the building?" I asked her, walking along the sidewalk with her, looking at the blue glass windows that surround the building.

"Yes, this is where Prim's office is." Coco said to me.

The both of us walk towards the double glass doors, with the handles being a bit more on the bronze side of color. I walk over to the right side of the doors and grip the handle with my own hand, pulling it back to open it up. I allow Coco Pommel to come in first. She smiles and trots in first. I follow along behind her with my two bare feet padding the ground onto the tiles. The glass door shuts behind me.

---

Suri Polomare's POV

I was dressing in all black robes and wearing the most expensive of sunglasses to keep my eyes from being recognized at all. From across that large street, I kept a close careful eye on what the human and Coco was doing. They had been talking with one another and were entering the office of Prim Hemline herself.

For those who do not know, I am none other than Suri Polomare. You might recognize me as an ex-dress designer after all that Coco had done. What did Coco Pommel do to you, you might ask? Why did she quit on you in the first place for another job? Well, you have no idea what it is like for them to have the trophy in their possession and having them splash your face with the hot coffee that you demanded. That is what this foolish filly of a mare did to betray me. I was still in a bit of shock from that, but soon she will be all part of the bait for a plan I had.

Oh I'm not out to get revenge on her for what she did. It's mostly Rarity's fault. She's the one who inspired Coco to leave her job as my assistant to me. Now she has some sort of job as a costume designer for somepony in the Entertainment district. I have so many plans for Rarity once I manage to get her.

I stop following the human and Coco for a moment. They're at the door of the large office. The human opens the door for Coco Pommel letting her in. After following her inside, the glass door closes shut and I turn my head slightly to the left to take a look at that dark alleyway in the middle of the day.

A normal-looking stallion with a black hat and a white short-sleeved t-shirt stood there, looking towards me with his aggressive blue eyes. I trot out of the streets and into the alley. The stallion nods with an evil smile and trots up towards me, taking off that black hat that had been worn on the top of his head.

"Was that her Miss Polomare?" The stallion asks. So he's been spying on her as well.

"Yes indeed, Mr. Spy." I told that stallion, saying his last name. His name in full was really Muscle Flex, but I placed him under the nickname of Mr. Spy to have him hired for this job. "That was Coco Pommel that you saw."

"She looks rather cute." A skinny looking stallion says, coming out of the dark. Oh Celestia, I totally forgot that I had hired at least two other morons that would help me out. "I'd totally hook up with her at any time."

"Please. You could never end up getting a mare of your own you geekhead." The third stallion says, coming out and showing him having as much strength as Mr. Spy himself. So fillies and gentlecolts, we have Mr. Spy 1, 2 and 3 if the annoyance factor of these two weren't enough.

"Focus on your job!" I shout towards the both of them, catching them by complete surprise by uprisen voice.

Mr. Spy trots closer towards me. "Coco had that 'human' from the Equestria Times with her. He could essentially be protecting her." He told me.

"Oh yes, I saw that myself as I was following them. I think I have sorted out a bit of a working plan to get what I want." I said. A wicked smile curls upward onto my face with a glare.

"What is the plan? Tell us!" Mr. Spy No. 2 asks impatiently.

"Maybe if you just keep quiet, then maybe she will tell us." Mr. Spy No. 3 said to No. 2 with annoyance in his voice. I am that happy that both me and No. 3 consider No. 2 to be annoying, but we'll need him if we want to complete this job.

"Thank you No. 3." I said with a smile, turning back to Mr. Spy No. 1 to tell out my plan loud and clear to the group so that they understand. "So here is the plan in which that human is involved after the observation: the four of us are going to break into Coco Pommel's apartment. We are going to wait until Coco Pommel steps into her home by herself and then foalnap her. Do not knock her unconscious."

"Don't knock her unconscious?!" Mr. Spy No. 2 shouts with a whine in his tone. "I've never knocked out a mare before!"

"Maybe it is because stallions and mare do not fight, No. 2. So unless you have more objections, keep that mouth on your snout shut or I'll have to kick my back legs into your snout!" I shouted towards that moron who spoke before thinking. His yellow ears lower in sadness. I just decide to go back to the rest of my plan.

"If that human is with her when they come back, you are allowed to knock him out. Don't forget to leave the note. In the note I will leave at the apartment, it will be my demands to bring in Rarity from Ponyville or else I will hurt Coco. The pressure will cause him to give up Rarity to me and as a result, I can have my revenge on her and Coco gets to be free. Where we will be holding Coco will be at the abandoned warehouse at the end of the Manehattan suburbs."

"Would you actually hurt a mare as beautiful as her just a promised in the note you have written down?" Mr. Spy No. 3 asks.

I let out a bit of a laugh. "Oh I don't intend to bring harm to her. I will only do it if it is absolutely necessary." I said to him. I turn around and take a look at the streets and away from my recruits with the look of cruel ambition and malice filled in my eyes.

"Let us head out to Coco's apartment then. I can't wait to get my hooves on that ungrateful mare herself, seeing her squeal like an unpleasant little pig when she's tied up would be my pleasure to see. As for the human, he looks sensitive enough…"

---

Brayden's POV

You would not believe how long it took to get up to the 20th floor of the office building. It felt way too long for both me and Coco since the elevator was out of order for the day because of something that was malfunctioning. I'm hoping that no others are stuck inside that elevator. It would suck to be them.

We stepped out of the stairway and in through the door into the hallway of numerous offices that had many names labeled onto their doors. Coco was slightly in front of me, being the guide for she has been to this place before many times with her old job working with Suri Polomare. The poor mare, she must have felt bad after being treated harshly by such a mean and deceiving fashion designer to which she forced Coco to do all the work for her. Unbelievable. I kind of feel bad for Coco that she was forced beyond any measure to plagiarize Rarity's work.

The carpet of red below my bare feet felt soft and shifted whenever I took a step onto it. I'm not looking down at the carpet as I keep my eyes ahead to know where Coco is going. A few ponies in the office came galloping by with the newspapers and the papers filled with lines of text that were probably too complicated for me to read, as I didn't know anything about this business material.

Coco stops and makes a slight turn down to the left side of the hallway where we could see the birch door with the natural wood color on the frame and door itself. The doorknob itself looked golden and there stood the texture of that certain name that Coco mentioned, labeled in bold. "Prim Hemline".

I decided to allow Coco to knock on the door first for confirmation that Prim was there. I keep my short distance, but close at the same time to hear if Prim was in there. Coco slowly trots forward towards the hard maple door, pausing for a moment with her hoof slight raised into the lifeless air. A few moments pass and she softly knocks on the door approximate three times. The soft knocking she made was of course at a good volume, so we both could probably hear if Prim was in there.

Silence filled the gap outside of the door for the two of us. At any moment, a shadow could be moving inside that could be seen by the open window that lay behind the door with barely visible sight as if rain had covered the door's window itself. "Come in." I could hear that grand voice of Prim Hemline herself call out from behind that hard maple wood.

Coco lets out a bit of a smile and places her hoof onto the golden knob, giving it a slight turn and opening the door. She goes into the room first and then I begin walking up behind her, joining her as I came into the room to bring good company for myself. I haven't meet Prim before though I have physically seen in the show, but this will be interested soon enough.

Prim sat at her desk, reading from the newspaper that was printed and posted out into the Manehattan public this morning. She lowers her newspaper and takes a look at the both of us. For me, there doesn't seem to be a change of look on her face, but she grows a soft smile when she had placed the newspaper down on her mahogany desk and saw Coco Pommel herself. She looked delighted to see her.

"Hello Miss Coco Pommel," Prim had said to her, placing both of her hooves together and it looked like she was going to start a small conversation with her. She keeps that soft smile upon her face. "I didn't expect anypony coming into the office today to visit me, even if it is for a short time. How are you?"

"I'm doing absolutely fine, Miss Hemline. Since I got my job as a costume designer, I've been feeling like less stress is being put on me. It's a relief to me," Coco says looking happy. "Plus with the summer coming close to an end and the autumn coming shortly, I'll be taking a vacation until they need me because the autumn is usually when they would start the auditions. That is usually when I'm needed."

Prim lets out a bit of a jolly giggle. "I see," She replied back. She scoots backwards in her chair and gets up off of it, trotting around to see the both of us. "Anyways, I suppose you might have a reason as to why you came to visit?" She rose an eyebrow, keeping her smile.

"Oh, umm…" Coco stumbles a bit as all the introduction had made her forget what she was doing. Then a look of realization snapped for me, having her look happy again. "Oh yes! I just came by to deliver a letter to you written by Rarity herself."

I watch as Coco reaches into her left saddlebag, digging out the letter if it was in there. A few moments pass of her searching through the bag and she pulls a white envelope with Rarity's cutie mark symbol embedded onto it to let Prim know that it was confirmation that Rarity delivered the letter, though she had it sent to Coco first. It would be most likely because she didn't know the address for Prim's workplace. Gripping it by the hoof, she passes it over to Prim, allowing her to take it.

Prim looks at it briefly and then takes it softly. She gently opens up the letter and sets it onto the desk. "I'll start reading it as soon we're done talking briefly Miss Pommel," She spoke to her, but then turns to look at me with that normal serious face that she had before. "I would personally like to know who in Equestria this is. I do not believe that I have seen him before."

"Well… I was in the Equestria Times for some time now…" I said with a bit of an awkward silence from what I was saying.

"You were in the newspaper, dear?" Prim said to me, approaching me. "Well I do sincerely apologize if I didn't see you on one of them. I usually skip the breaking news headlines in order to keep up with the news on fashion whether it's statements or a new line. But now, please tell me. Who are you, dear?"

I looked at her eyes and extended my hand towards her, but not too close. I don't want to look threatening, even though I would never be. "My name is Brayden, Miss Hemline," I introduced myself to her. "It is very nice to meet you."

Prim Hemline places her indigoish gray hoof into my open hand. I gently wrap my fingers around hers and share a gentle hand-hoofshake with her with the essence of friendliness and kindness coming from me. "My, you have such nice manners Brayden." She comments while a gentle smile full of greeting comes upon her face and cerise eyes.

"Thank you Miss Hemline." I said to her, sounding very welcome about the warm compliment she gave me.

"Now, I'm guessing that both you and Coco have something in common with one another, hm?" Prim asked me, with that suggestive look on her face and even in her tone. This of course, embarrasses both me and Coco to which blushes of pink appeared on both of our faces. I couldn't see the blush, but I knew that it was there.

"Umm," Coco shyly speaks out, looking down at her hooves and fiddling them together for a moment. That blush of hers still remained on her face. "Not exactly, Miss Hemline…"

"Well, if you allow me," I said, clearing my throat with that blush fading away from my cheeks. "Me and Coco are not in other words 'dating'. It is because I already have somepony in mind by the name of Princess Twilight, the princess of Friendship."

"You're dating a princess?" Prim says to me, stimulating a giggle from her mouth and placing her hoof close, but away from it. "Well, I do believe you. I just thought for a moment that you were visiting Miss Pommel here because you and she are interested in one another."

Coco still looked a bit shy from what Prim Hemline had told us and that blush was still there on her cheeks, but a bit faded. "Umm, Miss Hemline," Coco shyly says, and she looks like she is almost nervous about something else. "I-I only consider Brayden to be a friend." Already by her nervous stance, I could tell that something was up with her.

"I see," Prim Hemline says. She turns from me for a moment to trot back to her desk. She takes a seat on her chair, scooting herself back forward against near the edge. "Well I suppose you're wondering what is going on with me at the moment?"

"Oh yes," Coco says, now clearly hiding that nervousness she had for a few moments ago. "I have not seen you since Fashion Week ended."

Prim began to explain to us about what was going on in her work-life in the office. "Well, I have been writing out numerous factions of the fashion industry as on this floor to keep up with the usual. There's always somepony that comes into the office with news of a new fashion line for everypony on that floor to see. As part of the job, I have to join up with them as I don't really mind a new style once every while. The only con I would have to say about my job though is that squeaking window whenever Window Washer comes around to clean outside. Just remind me to install new glass windows whenever you can," She turns from Coco to look at me. "Now tell me Brayden… How goes your life outside of Manehattan?"

I pause for a moment and stumble a bit to get the right words out. "I live in Ponyville which is a bit far from here, but it is rather a nice and enjoyable town. I live at Fluttershy's cottage where she has given me free food and a bed to sleep on. She may be shy herself and not too talkative, but to me and her friends she's the kindest pony I know… she's my best friend. I've only been to Canterlot at least two other times from what I can remember so I've only had the chance to see the princesses there. The Crystal Empire, I've been there only once, but it was a sight to see and meeting Prince Shining Armor and Princess Cadence was an honor."

"The princess of love?" Prim commented. She was going to say something else, before she even utters the next couple of words though, there is a bunch of loud knocking at her door. "Uh, come in!"

The door opened up slightly with a bright orange hoof belonging to a mare going around the door. The head of that mare peeks through the open and looks at Prim with her orange eyes and a pair of glasses on her eyes. "Miss Hemline, I apologize if I am interrupting anything. But it is important that you come into the meeting room in an instant!" The giddy mare announced.

"Don't worry Miss Sharp, I'll be on my way. Just me wrap up." Prim says to the mare at the door. The mare peeks back from the door and disappears once again, closing the door behind her. "Well, I suppose it is as good a time for me to continue with work."

"Time really does fly by quickly Miss Hemline," I said to her as she gets up off of her chair and trots over to the both of us. "But it was very nice to meet you."

"It was very nice to meet you too Brayden." Prim says to me and extends her hoof out for a hoofshake, even though I have hands. I move my right hand to her hoof and give her the hoofshake she needed.

After a few moments, me and her let go of the shake and I walk over to the front door, gripping the golden doorknob with my left hand and pull the opening door backwards to allow both of the ladies to go out first. After all: ladies first.

"Thank you Brayden." Prim says to me with that smile on her face while she trotted out of her office and into the hallway. Coco follows along behind her with an accompanied warm smile and I follow behind her, closing the door to Prim's office behind me. I join up with both Coco and Prim.

"I apologize if we had to cut our meeting short, but it does explain why I get this busy in the office," Prim said to the both of us, trotting with us and me alongside Coco again. "But again, it was nice meeting you Brayden." She trots off once again with a happy smile, leaving both me and Coco to get back onto what was happening in the meeting room. It was probably fashion stuff, so I'm not really interested in hearing that.

Both I and Coco begin to walk again down the halls of the office. In the halls, we came passing by the same stuff that would normally happen outside of the office doors whether it came to ponies galloping along and trying not to lose expensive pieces of office-work. Another one, a stallion was at the water fountain and carrying a white foam cup to fill it with water. Aside from the entire ruckus that went on in the halls, I had a bit of my head turned to Coco. I'm not sure why Coco looked a bit nervous in the office Prim mentioned me and her, but I knew that something was up with her. I just needed to find the right timing to ask why she looked that way.

At the moment when we were close to the staircase door again, she is looking down at her soft hooves. "My hooves are killing me from all that trotting up the stairs. Even setting down the metal steps will probably hurt my hooves even more." She comments.

"Want me to carry you for a bit until the both of us get down the stairs?" I offered, unaware of what I had been thinking.

Coco looked a bit shy about this. "Are- are you sure?" She asked.

"It'll be fine. Trust me on this Coco." I said to her, opening my hands as a way to offer it.

Coco stops trotting for a moment and begins to think. At the same time, I have stopped walking and allow her to take the time that she needs to think. Moments pass and a smile lifts up on Coco as she approaches me. I gently allow her to fly backwards with her head resting onto my left hand. My right is carrying her from near the bottom of her body near her flank. As usual, I have to be careful as I was carrying Twilight and Fluttershy, as I do not want to accidentally drop Coco Pommel. But she felt a little lighter just like Twilight so it wasn't really too much of a problem.

"Umm… thank you Brayden." Coco says to me with a smile and her ears perked up all the way, looking happy about this. She holds a light blush upon her face. I begin to walk once again, but this time I am holding Coco in my arms.

Both me and her head down the flight of stairs back onto the main floor. Yes, the elevator was still trying to be repaired unless the technician had gone out to lunch as it seems very lazy of him to just abandon the repairs. Eventually, both I and Coco are back onto the streets of downtown Manehattan, with my feet stepping back onto the dry cement. I slowly lower down slightly to allow Coco to get out of my arms, safely.

"Thank you… again. I don't think any stallion… or male has ever done that for me before." She says to me, and she sounded happier than usual.

"Hey, don't sweat it," I said to her with the same happy smile that she was giving me. "If your hooves are ever hurting or tired when out somewhere, I can offer to carry you."

Her light cyan eyes sparkle a bit and she releases a giggle from her lips. "Well, whenever you come to visit and we're outdoors of course."

"Oh yes." I replied back to her with honesty in my voice.

"Well," She says, finally clearing her throat for a moment. "I suppose that you want to have a tour of the city? I'll provide you with lunch and after the tour, I'll allow you to make the choice for dinner as I already made something last night."

"Sure thing, Lead the way Coco." I said to her, beginning to walk again. She trots up beside me and I could swear that there was something there that just sparked about how cute that she looked when she was this happy. I continue with her as she began to explain what famous trademark places in the city.

"Well, we'll first start off with the square in the center of the city where the train station for the Friendship Express usually comes, since you came off of it yesterday." She tells me, as we are on our way.

---

A Few Hours plus a Lunch later…

5:26pm

"…And last but not least, we have the beach boardwalk in the lovely suburbs of Manehattan and the good news is that it is very close to wear my apartment is." She finishes explaining a bit, wrapping up the tour in a swift way.

I continue to walk alongside Coco as in front of us over the western horizon, Celestia's sun was starting to slowly dip down towards the horizon. It was an illumination that beautiful sunset that it had made with an orange colored sky. My bare feet were on the boardwalk of wooden clean planks that had been trotted before by many other ponies, but for me, this was the first time ever setting a human foot onto it.

I take a look across from the wooden railing of the boardwalk. Below in the grains of sand, I could see the various ponies down there having a good time. A couple of foals and fillies were down there, either playing in the shallow edge of the sea water or just upon the sand building a sandcastle. Mares were lying down on towels, sunbathing from the fading sun that hung above. Their stallions stay with them or were on the boardwalk just laughing away with a drink of apple cider. Those not with the mares were on the beach, or doing exercises near deep waters.

I could smell the fresh scent of baked potatoes being made over by the area of picnic tables. A few ponies had gathered there to have a bit of a more light dinner, but I could also see a few colts or fillies there with their parents, dining away. I take it this is where dinner is being held for tonight. I would have suspected Coco's apartment, but she already made dinner for the both of us last night.

Across from a few of the taken picnic tables built upon the walk was one that was empty for the both of us to sit at. The table had a good view of the sea and that of the western horizon's beautiful sunset. I take a look at Coco. She looks back at me. She gives me a nod with a very weak smile as she also saw the empty table as well. I turn back to the table and walk towards it.

I take a seat on the left side of the table, sitting down on the wooden bench that accompany it. Coco joins me, sitting right beside me. Silence comes between the both of us, with only the sound of ponies at the other tables, talking away about what they did today in the big city or how the work they had was either easygoing or not doing so good. My eyes wander a bit towards the sight of the suburbs with the orange color of the setting sun glowing on the bricked buildings.

"Um," I hear Coco let out a shy sound. I turn to look at her as she now has my full attention. She looks a bit shy for a moment, but breathes in and out quickly to get that shyness out of her. The way she sighed sounded a bit cute for such a young mare. "I think you should get the both of us some dinner from the baked potato stand. It's only one bit for a baked potato. One for me and one for you should be pretty good."

Gently, I move my left hand forward and open it up, turning it in order to grab the two bits that she was giving me. Coco opens up her right saddlebag and digs about for a couple of moments to get out the bits required for me. She takes them out and places her soft and warm hoof onto my hand, placing on the two golden bits.

Taking the bits she gave me, I get up off of the wooden bench at the table and begin to make my way to the stand. There was a bit of a line up with various ponies leaving after they had paid for a meal at the potato stand and from what I could see, it reminded me very much like fast food back on Earth, but much quicker surprisingly.

The line loosened and got a bit shorter by every couple of ten seconds. Eventually it was my turn to come up to the baked potato stand with the gruff but happy looking stallion with a hat upon his head, ready to serve his next customer. "Hello my good sir, and what would like you like to have this evening?" He bolts out joyfully. I can tell that he really enjoys doing this job so well.

"Well, I would like to have two baked potatoes. The second baked potato is for a friend at the table and I'll be giving it to her." I said, confirming my order for the food.

"Alright my good sir. That will be two bits." The peppy-sounding stallion said to me as I place the two golden bits onto the stand for him to have. He places his hooves on top of the bits and slides them across to his side, placing them into a safe for the money he makes. He then opens up the resembling BBQ-like pit and digs out two already baked potatoes, looking absolutely perfect to the crisp. With at least two foam plates already set up, he places one upon the left plate and the other potato on the right plate next to the other. "Here you go, two baked potatoes ready to go!"

"Thank you." I said to the stallion and use both of my hands to grip onto the foam plates, carefully balancing them so the baked potatoes don't drop onto the ground. Trust me it is better if I don't. I really don't want germs all over mine or Coco's.

I walk back over to the table that me and Coco are sitting at. I pause for a few moments just keeping my eyes on Coco as she was turned away from me and was looking towards the western horizon with the shadow behind her covering a bit of her beautiful two-toned light cyan and opal grey mane from behind. By the time I heard her let out a bit of an almost silent, but quiet sigh: I knew something was up for her. Something was wrong.

I place her plate with the baked potato down onto the table right close to her. She doesn't seem to notice or hear the sound though. I gently settle my plate down on my spot and carefully approach her from behind, moving my right hand towards her.

My right hand goes onto her shoulder, and she lets out a bit of a frightened shake. She turns around and looks at me, still a bit shaken up from that scare from behind. She doesn't scream though, which is a relief. The last thing I would want is somepony near our table thinking that I am trying to hurt her. Me? Hurt a pony? No, I wouldn't ever in my life try to do that! I already promised too many times to count that I would never hurt anypony and I tend to keep it that way.

"Oh Brayden!" Coco says, sighing loudly with a bit of a giggle. She places her right front hoof onto her own chest. "You scared me."

"My apologies." I apologized, feeling a bit of very tiny guilt over what I had done to scare her like that.

Coco turns herself around, still keeping her seat. She places her warm, fuzzy hoof onto my left hand. "Brayden, it's okay. I'm not mad at you." She tells me. Well, it is a relief that she has forgiven me easily as many friends do this quickly when it comes to mistakes like that.

"I brought you your food," I told her, taking my seat back at the table. "So let us begin dinner, shall we?"

"Oh… yes." Coco says to me. By the way she began to say it, the tone of it sounded a little off as if she was a bit nervous or shy to tell me anything else. She just turns towards her food and begins to eat with the necessary good manners.

I turn towards my baked potato and grab the small plastic knife that was included with the food. I place the knife atop of the potato and begin making a gentle swift to cut into it. A bit of the mild steam comes out from the inside of the potato when I had cut it in half like butter. I use the plastic fork that had been placed on my left side and take it with my left hand. I placed the knife back onto my right side of the table and move the fork in my left to my right hand.

I poke in a bit of the fork into the potato and take out a small piece. It was just the right size to chew down upon. I slide the fork with that piece of potato in my mouth. I had no idea, but it tasted really delicious and the scent that broke out from it reminded me of one of those more casual restaurants that I have been to, though most of the potato was turned into the design of fresh-cut French fries.

On the boardwalk ahead from me, I could see the seagulls flying over the beach, chirping loudly and away, sometimes descending towards the ground because of scraps or because it was because they would be personally bathing themselves. So I guess a little bit of Equestria is still a bit like Earth in that sort of way. The birds can sometimes act very relative to one another.

I continue to take slow and small bites of my baked potato. Coco was going one at a time and pausing for a couple of moments each time she went to take a bite of her baked potato. Silence was passing between the both of us, and she still had a bit of a hidden look that I could see that something was up. And when I noticed that something was up, I was determined to find out what was going on and why she seemed this quiet. Only the sounds of ponies talking to one another, seagulls and the gentle crashing of waves under the boardwalk could be heard.

The minutes pass us by, and we finish our dinner without even communicating with one another. Once she has finished, I slightly turn my head towards her. She has scooted a bit back and lowers her head a bit, turning a bit towards the sunset. I could notice that her ears have also flopped downward, which I could tell was when a pony was either sad or sometimes mad. This concerned me that something was now up and I really needed to ask her immediately.

I gently scoot up closer towards Coco, but I do not want 'too' close. The last thing that I would want is to surprise her yet again even though she has forgiven me for that. I keep myself within an arm's reach from her shoulder so that I can place my hand upon it to catch her attention.

"Coco?" I said to her in question. I had lowered my tone to sound more calm and gentle. "Is everything okay?"

Coco stayed silent for a couple of moments. She lets out a bit of a sad sigh and turns towards me to face me. "No… not really…" She says to me in a quiet and shy voice. Even then, I can still hear and understand what she said.

"No? What is on your mind then?" I asked her. I gently move my right hand towards her left front hoof. I gently take it and hold onto it.

Coco only lets out a bit of a blush before she starts to shake. I could tell that she was nervous about something. "I- I-I-" She was able to let out.

"Hey, don't worry." I said to her, scooting closer towards her. I move my left hand and gently place it onto her right cheek. "We all get nervous about anything, but I just want you to know that I do not have to be afraid to tell me anything."

Coco still shakes with nervousness and lets out more blushing when I had placed my hand onto her soft cheek. "I- I don't want to say it to you. If- I-I tell you… you're just going to get mad at me."

"I would never get mad at you," I said to her. Right now I was concerned. "But that is not the point, if you have anything you want to say, speak freely Coco. I promise that I will not get mad at you… wait…" I pause for a moment. "It's Suri, isn't it?"

"N-No." Coco says to me, her soft-spoken voice sounded like she was going to break out into tears at any moment. "I haven't seen her since I quit my job as her assistant."

"Please Coco…" I said to her. I move my hand from her cheek and take the both of her hooves with both of my hands gently. "You are worrying me a bit. Please… tell me…"

I find myself staring into those beautiful bright cyan eyes of hers, with her eyes just staring into my own. The both of us were there, close to one another. I could feel my head slowly starting to move towards Coco's. Through my vision, Coco was moving her head towards mine as well. Silence grew between the both of us again minus the sound of our soft breathing. Our eyes begin to close a bit slightly. The both of our mouths were both slightly open and our eyes were closed. Something was about to happen…

A frustrated sigh emerged from Coco's lips and my eyes were forced open at this. "I-I can't… I just c-can't!" She says with a bit of tears starting to run down a bit from her face. She just moves her hooves away from my two hands holding them. She gets off of the picnic table's seat and begins to gallop off with audible sobbing coming from her.

"Coco!" I call out to her and my right hand reaching towards her as she galloped. I don't think she heard it. She was already gone and I was left there sitting at the picnic table, both worried and devastated with myself. It was the feeling that I might have ended up accidentally hurting Coco emotionally.

Surely I didn't mean to do anything like that. I was only trying to find out why she was so quiet around dinnertime and after we had met up with Prim. But I didn't suspect that she could react in a way that she would just start galloping away from what she tried to let out. Surely what could she have been trying to tell me? Was it something important? From what I know, some were shy probably because they were mistreated or they just did not like being around others after an incident that affected them in their lives mentally. But that tone in her voice… I could tell that something was off.

I just sat there in the growing silence around me with the ambience of what was going on, fading a bit. In my mind, I could only recall any certain moments of ponies communicating to me. Coco was one of the voices from I remember her telling me, plus even myself.

"It could just be… you know… you and me."

"Of course."

I remembered hearing about that when both Spike and I had gone off to the Carousel Boutique to help out Rarity with the dresses before we headed for Canterlot. Ah yes, Coco was assisting me at the time. Now, those voices of memory come back again but mixed up randomly.

"Mind if I join you?"

"It's something else that I've wanted to tell you…"

"I'm- I'm so sorry for shouting at you like that."

"…I started to notice deep down that I was starting to have a crush on you…"

"…I just wanted to tell you my feelings."

The second last voice of Coco that I had heard in my head really started to echo through after the last was said through my memories. Realization was starting to mix in with the quote and even my feelings and thoughts towards her started to make me think long and hard.

"…that I was starting to have a crush on you…"

Something about the word 'crush' that she had meant really triggered something inside of my mind. My thoughts began to drag more onto Coco Pommel herself with that beautiful mane that she had. The echoing of voice continues on without stopping a bit. I could find myself with Coco in my thoughts. We were back at Canterlot Castle when it had happened. I was moving my head towards her soft forehead and then giving her a gentle kiss there with my lips.

Then and there snapped me back into the now of what made me snap out of my thoughts.

"…to have a crush on you…"

I was snapped back from the thoughts of my mind and I found myself still sitting there at the picnic table at the boardwalk. I was still struck with the point of realization as only a minute or two had passed when I had gone into my mind. This realization was different though aside from my romantic thoughts when relating to Twilight. With her in my mind, Coco was also there.

I knew what I needed to do now.

I get up off of the table's bench and turn back towards the entrance to the boardwalk where the city lights were slowly turning on with the setting sun touching the horizon with a still painted orange to color the sky. With it all right behind me, I begin to walk. My walking turns into fast walking, then the running.

I was running across the boardwalk, my bare feet making the sounds of them stepping onto the wooden planks as I kept going. I made sure to stay out of the path of ponies that were both either coming onto the boardwalk or off of it. I needed to go and find Coco immediately. I needed to let her know what I now was thinking as well.

I head off of the boardwalk and begin running across the streets of Manehattan. My bare feet can be heard muffled against the strong tiles below them when I was continuing to run into a sprint. MY breathing began to ascend quickly with the strength in my chest pushing. I rushed past a couple of busy stallions whom both were just talking to themselves. I didn't hear them as they were trying to yell at me to watch where I was going.

The building where Coco lived was right across the street. I made my way through the almost empty street and almost getting hit by a taxi carriage with that stallion almost not noticing me. I don't hear him shout at me for that and I just about make it to the entrance, out of breath. I grab the two of my knees, starting to let out hard and quick pants for air. I keep this up for just a couple of moments until my body and the state of my breathing had calmed down. I then step into the building, opening and closing the door right behind me.

The mare at the front desk could see that I was in a hurry, so she let me by as she saw me yesterday and this morning. I step across the hall and towards the elevator. I press the button to summon the elevator. Luckily for me, it was right on the main floor which was just my luck. I quickly step inside, still breathing a bit heavily and press the number destined for the ninth floor. I press another button to close the elevator door.

The elevator began to move upward with the sounds of 'ping' filling in by each floor I had gone up to. I take a look at the numbers as I go up each floor. 5… 6… 7… I stand there with the look of desperation on my face, just about ready to see how she'll look when I tell her in return what I thought of her truly now. Even though Twilight is a part in my heart, I think now she'll be a great side for it outside the heart. I just hope she'll understand and her shyness to respond won't get in the way.

The elevator pings once again and I take a look to see that I had reached the ninth floor. The elevator door opened up and I began to walk closely towards Coco's apartment. Hope rose up for me… but then it suddenly falls. Coming into view of her apartment door, I could notice that something had happened inside while I was heading back to see her. My worries began to not falter for me as I feared that she might have hurt herself.

"Coco! COCO!" I shouted and ran towards the open door, stepping inside and taking a look at what had happened.

There was a bit of a mess on the floor cause what seemed to be two stallions supposedly fighting in the room, even though it probably wouldn't have happened. Across from the room in the kitchen, there was a crack in the window, but there were no chills of the outside air coming in through there. Somehow, Coco will eventually replace that window with a new one. Judging by her job, she would have enough bits for afford it. But the question right now… scratch that, two questions were on my mind. Where was Coco Pommel and what happened in her apartment?

A small piece of paper at the end table behind the couch catches my full attention. On it was a writing of clear ink and it looked like it was already written already just an hour ago. I walk towards the note at the table and pick it up with my right hand and begin reading it.

"To the human who stumbles upon this,

Me and my henchstallions have broken into your friend's apartment and we have foalnapped her. If you ever want to see her again, you shall bring your good friend Rarity from Ponyville here to the factory district located near the end of Manehattan. I demand that you bring her immediately. If you do not, I shall hurt Coco Pommel. You have approximately 24 hours.

Her previous boss,

Suri Polomare"

I shocking gasp and my left hand is placed right onto my mouth after the gasp. I was in complete shock for what just about happened here. I couldn't believe that it was true what that witch Suri had done for an act of revenge. She had foalnapped Coco Pommel and unless I bring Rarity, she's going to hurt her possibly in front of me or when I'm not looking. And 24 hours?! That is WAY too short a time for Rarity to come from Ponyville to Manehattan, but I am clueless as to what is probably going on there anyway.

Another thought comes to mind when Suri came to mind, anger. I clench the paper as I formed my right hand into a fist and with a frustrated grunt, toss the paper across the room. Even if she is a pony, she has one of my friends… she wants to hurt her…

If I see Suri in front of me, she is going to pay for what she is doing right now… But first, I shall let the Manehattan local guard know what happened. Coco, hang tight in there… I'm coming to find you and save you…

A/N: Hello again to my fellow bronies and readers! I bring with me very good news!

1. They have announced a release date for the new Season 5 premiere that will come out. This is not a joke, it will be released on "April 4". You have no idea how excited I am to see new material in April. So not only does my favorite band release a new album in the same week but a new season after almost a year hiatus! Thank Celestia!

2. I am almost done my second semester in college, and then it is possible that I will get a better chance at writing more material to come. Depends on how fast I am at writing, though I nearly ran into writer's block so many times. I try not to let whatever bother me stop me from writing this story. I am really impressed by how many readers are favoriting and following this story, and for that I am grateful.

3. I am going to TFCon yet again, but this time I am going to have an opportunity to meet the legendary voice of Optimus Prime himself: Peter Cullen, yet another childhood voice for me. No idea who will show up at FanExpo, but I will so be going if one of the VAs from MLP, VAs from GTA V or Markiplier will be there. Yes, I am a fan of Markiplier, but mostly because of his Five Nights At Freddy's playthroughs. I have played the game and it's sequel, I have yet to play the third game though I know what happens after watching his playthroughs for them. Expect a one-shot for Five Nights At Freddy's from me in the future.

4. Motley Crue and Alice Cooper's show in August and close to my birthday as well!

Review Response Time! Yeah!

sonic3461: Thank you. :)

jvs12: Yes, glitches happen sometimes. I am no expert on them, so... yeah.

4theworldman: Read ahead, you're in for something. ;)

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"I am telling you sir that Coco ended up slipping from my eyes. I thought she would be here, but she wasn't!" I shouted to the guard who kept a firm stare towards me as I was explaining everything that I had witnessed so far about Coco's foalnapping. That look on the guard's face could tell that he did not seem to believe a single word I said, no matter how angrily truthful I was shouting about it. "Suri ended up responsible for this! See the note, it's the proof!"

"I apologize, my good sir but even with the proof in your own human hands, I kind of find it hard to believe that two stallions would just waltz right into the building without being confronted by the front desk." The guard with his golden armor said to me, standing still near the kitchen counter and keeping an eye as the Manehattan detective was scanning about the area with his own observation on what could have possibly happened here.

I literally have the note in my hands that I am feeling like giving to him. "But the proof is here! Even the detective himself should believe me!" I said to him.

"I do not," The detective said to me from across the room while looking at the stallion tracks on the floor. "In fact, I suspect that they left a fake."

"For Celestia's sake, these guards are not even trying to do their job." I thought to myself, rather annoyed by their fact that they weren't actually making up excuses, but not believing what I was trying to get across them. For crying out loud, even the place where Suri is holding Coco hostage is right directly stated onto the paper she left. The factory district.

"Sir, even the paper says the factory district is where she took her!" I said to him. Right now, I sounded rather angry about this.

"Please do calm down," The guard said to me in his gruff voice. "Me and my men will take care of the situation. I suggest you step aside and let us do the business here in order to find Miss Pommel and get her back to safety."

"But sir-" I tried to get out. The guard signals some other guards to the both of us. The two of them approach from behind me and I can tell that they are looking at the commander.

"Make sure that he gets to his room to get some rest. He's earned it." The commander had told to both of the two guards.

I just take a look at the guard one last time as I could feel the guard behind me on my left give me a gentle pat on the back to reassure me. I turn from the commander and walk away from him with the other two guards accompanying me. The sounds of their hooves could be heard against the hard wooden planks of the floor as they trotted behind alongside me.

I arrive in front of the guest bedroom door. The guard on my left trots a little past me and places his hoof onto the doorknob. Giving it a gentle turn, he opens up the door and the guard on my right trots past to hold the door open for me.

"Thanks." I mutter to the both of them when I walk past them.

I enter into the bedroom with the same white walls that I woke up to this morning. No sun was out during this time as the sun had set a few hours ago. Luna's moon was just over the eastern horizon, out of view from the window that could be seen in the room. The two guards that had been accompanying me to escort me into the room close the door shut behind me. I could hear that door close with only the sound of a loud thud and a click to note that the doorknob was turned again back.

I turned towards the closed window. My bare feet gently pace the wooden floor, walking to get across the room. The buildings lit at night and the sea waters overhead from the boardwalk are enlightened by the light of the moon itself. The moon itself has a bit of a curved shadow on its side, resembling that of a crescent moon. As enchanted as the moon was looking even when I could not see it, it was not helping to relax the state of my mind filled with worry.

I take a look up at the night sky and began to look as the few stars that were out were changing colors or in other words 'twinkling'. The few stars out were ever so distant from where the sun of Equestria would be located. The sun was buried underneath the western horizon and making its way on the other side of the Equestria world where others would need that light. I move my hands towards the pane of the window and grip onto it. The force of pulling it upward sends a gentle and cool breeze into the room, moving the curtains by the sides. My hair that has grown a bit since I came here has grown a bit, and started to blow back a bit by the breeze.

I look out at the city lost in my own thoughts and what could have been and what I could have done to prevent her from being foalnapped by Suri.

If only I ran after her, catching up with her and letting her know exactly how I was feeling to her as well, she would still be crying a bit, yes, but I would be there for her to comfort her. Since last night, I've been really nice towards Coco, but I felt like there was something there that wasn't before. It was something about her light blue eyes that really got me. I've already managed to emotionally hurt her before, but I wasn't going to risk it again.

But why was she super nervous about telling me then and there? Surely I wouldn't have had a problem with her telling me that, but she should also be aware that the special somepony to me at the moment was Princess Twilight. I didn't want to break a princess' young heart, but with the feelings I had now developed for Coco, I fear the consequence if Twilight found out about this. Not only would I be breaking that alicorn's heart, I would hate myself for doing that.

Outside the bedroom, I could hear the sounds of the Manehattan guard trotting out and closing the door behind them. So they didn't believe me… what a fool I am to think they would best help out in a situation like this. For crying out loud, they know she was kidnapped, but don't understand that Coco is going to get hurt if I don't bring in Rarity. I cannot just get her in 24 hours! She might be busy in Ponyville for all I know!

The wind gets too cold for me and I place my hands back onto the top of the windowpane. I push it downward and close the window shut all the way. The wind ceases into the room and the curtain on the window's sides drop dead once again, not moving at any moment from what the wind was doing. The wind could be heard outside, blowing gently onto the clear glass. Besides that, only silence could be heard inside of the room.

I get back onto my two feet with determination filling me. I wasn't going to let Suri get away with any of this whatsoever. I turn back towards the white door and walk towards it. I place my hand onto the doorknob and give it a turn. The door creaks open.

I am back in Coco's living room and I walk from under the white door-arch from the guest bedroom, closing the door behind me. I take a look to my right and move my head to the left. Most of the guards that I saw were here had been cleaning up a bit in her apartment and had gathered the evidence before cleaning it up. It didn't really matter if the evidence I was gone, I pretty much knew what I needed to do. My head turns to the left and down the hallway. It was the slightly-opened door to Coco Pommel's room.

Curious enough, I began to pace forward on the glossed planks below my bare feet which softly thumped as I took each step. I passed by the bathroom and the office where she would sew dresses on her own time. I approach the white door. My hand moves towards it and gives it a gentle push. Light from the lit hallway shines into her bedroom and I could see that same carpet that I saw when I had first tried to get into her room to take a look. I step inside and I use the switch by the doorframe to turn the light on in the room.

The whole room lit up and unveiled how the room that I saw looked like in clue when I first arrived here. The wallpaper was still those two shades of red the last time I saw it with the zebra-like design for the carpet remaining the same. Her dark blue bed remained the same as well with the exception of a book that was lying near the end of the left side.

I took a look at the book lying there. The hard cover of the book was in the color of a brown. That is the usual color for a personal diary. So that is probably what I suspect that I am looking at. Coco's personal diary.

I walk over towards her bed. I could feel the warm plush of carpet below my bare feet whilst I paced. I proceed to take a seat at the end of her bed. The sheets on top of the bed felt soft and like a soft blanket. I use my right hand, reaching over to the book and grabbing it by its end that held all the pages together.

I take the right side of the book and by its cover; pull it back a bit with my left hand and without the use of hesitation… I opened the book. The written ink was abroad on the paper that she had placed upon whenever it was at night or not. The entries of her diary lay in an order with the date of when it was written. I began to move throughout the pages of her diary, finding for anything.

I flip through a couple of pages to the month that was going on at the moment. There was a bit of text there that was written by her. I suspected that this could have some information about me. Even the written ink still looked very fresh as it was written yesterday. I take a look closer into the diary and began reading it all to myself, quietly as possible. Reading out loud wasn't really much for me anyway.

Dear Diary,

I just can't help myself. It was only a couple of days since I had last talked to him. Last time I had talked to him was at his birthday. Even though I made my confession to him that I had a crush on him, he still liked the gift that I gave to him. What is it though? I've still got something about him. I understand that both he and the Princess of Friendship are both in a relationship together, but why not me? Can't he understand without me having to act all nervous?

He made a promise to me that he still intended on doing when he isn't too busy, but he did it though. He's over at my apartment now and he's visiting. He's asleep right now as I write this. I've only peeked into his room once as he slept, and he looks so cute.

The feelings that I have him won't stop trying to get out to him and somehow my shyness keeps refraining me from telling him this. But I wish he could understand how I feel and I don't care if he already has somepony in his life to love.

I love him.

Coco Pommel

I placed down the book back onto the bed and let go of it. The place when the book lay creates another mark, covering the other that had laid there. I just place the both of my hands together, gently holding onto one another. Coco came into my thoughts again with the word she had written in her diary repeating itself again and again.

I love him…

I finally got up off of her bed and make my way outside of her room, closing the door behind me. I just couldn't stand there and do nothing while Coco was being held in wherever factory building that Suri was holding her in. It was time for me to finally get out there and take a look for her. I walk across the floor out of the hallway and into the living room, towards the front door. I grab the front door's handle and push it open.

Coco, no matter who tries to stop me from getting to you, I'm coming to save you.

---

Coco Pommel's POV

First there was the sound of silence, and then there was the sound of a fan blowing in the room. The fan itself sounded gentle, but I felt a bit uncomfortable around my mouth and around the centre of my body. I begin to slowly open up my eyes. My vision starts off a bit blurry, but I let out come out blurry and hard to open for a couple of moments before I am able to open them up again and look clearly at where I was and what was wrong and why it felt tight around me.

I could see that I was placed inside of a small room with walls of red brick and cement plastered in-between the ends of the bricks that lie upon the walls. The door ahead is made of wood, but it is unknown as it was kind of wood it is. I'm a costume designer, not a brick designer. I turn towards the floor and below me. There was a rope that was tied around me so I could not move from the chair. The floor was rather cement-like but looked rather dirty as it was like construction was taking place here in the room.

I began to struggle a bit to try and move somehow, but to no use it was. The chair hadn't even moved an inch. I would try to call out, but I'm guessing whatever happened in the result of bringing me here caused those three stallions that snuck into my apartment and foalnap me. They placed tape over my mouth so that I wouldn't be able to scream for help.

All I could remember was being shaken around by one of the three and the skinny one trying to act all flirty towards me. Excuse me?! I wouldn't dare accept his own flirts and if he was in the room and I was untied right about now, I would have slapped him across his face with my own hoof. But I am not a fighter, so I don't want to hit anypony.

The whole room was a bit dark, minus the light of the moon that shone in through the building's windows that I clearly saw in the small isolated room with only a door of my means to escape, but with me acting all tied up. I couldn't.

I can hear the sound of voices coming from outside the small room, still being heard by my own ears. My flopped ears perk up a bit to listen in closely. The voices sounded muffled, so I couldn't really tell what they were saying. There were three stallions and a mare talking though from what I could hear. No conversation can be described though. After that, there was a few seconds of silence.

The door in the room sounded off with a click and I could see light coming in from the door archway as it had been pushed open by the mare hidden in the shadows outside. With her was a lantern that had not yet been lit, so as soon as the darkness covers us both again, she'll light it up. Her hooves sound off clicking against the tiles. The clicking echoes throughout the room when she trotted in.

Darkness surrounded the both of us in the room with only silence between the both of us minus the sound of hooves. "Who are you?" I tried to call out, but most of what I had said, comes out more muffled and untranslatable due by the tape on my mouth.

The lantern lights up and the mare trotted closer towards me. The mare places it onto a wooden table that I did not notice the first time in the room. Finally, her face and that familiar mane came into my view.

It was none other than Suri Polomare, that witch of a boss that I had dared to work with. She had a dark smile upon her face, illuminated by the light that came from the lantern and onto her face. Already, I wanted out. Whatever she was confronting me about, she already deserved that hot cup of coffee in her face when I quit. She trots the closest she can to me and places her hoof onto my face, gripping onto something as if I was losing a bit of my coat.

She tears off the tape that had been placed onto my mouth. It was a bit of a relief that she took off the tape, but the pain that had left for me was rather excruciating and it hurt. When she had torn it off, I had let out a bit of a pained yelp.

"Quiet!" Suri snapped at me. Sure when I worked with her, she had snapped at me a lot to get her coffee or to work faster. To be honest, it was rather exhausting on my end when I worked for her.

My lips felt numb from the pain that burned when she took off the tape, but I managed to get out "Suri…" with a glare starting to grow upon my face. A frown curves around my mouth and my ears flop down once again.

"Well, surprise indeed for me," She says to me, looking at me as if it was an interrogation that was about to happen between me and her. "I thought it wouldn't be possible to find you in the city again. When I heard that 'human' was looking for you, I was quick with my henchmen to gather the plan quickly. I mostly hid in the shadows watching you."

"But why?" I manage to get out, weakly as possible.

"Only I am going to talk, not you Coco!" She snaps at me again, causing me to shake a little. That bad memory of working with her was starting to come back to me.

"S-sorry…" I stuttered out softly and quietly.

Suri just chuckles. "At least a brat like you knows good manners," She said to me, turning to trot to the left side of the chair. Because she was closer to me, I was more nervous for what she would do. "But that is not the point; I have brought you here into this old sewing factory for one reason."

My ears were perked up and I was listening to what she was going to say to me about her plan. "The reason why I brought you here, Coco… is because you are part of a plan to help me get my revenge on Rarity! You helped her get her trophy from Fashion Week, but for that I will spare you, but keep you as the bait for my plan."

"W-wha-what plan?" I ask again, a bit worried about what she'll do to Rarity. Why would she want to do anything to her? Rarity never did anything but show generosity, and inspired me to do so as well.

"That human is going to bring Rarity along and initiate a trade. He will trade in one of his best friends in order to have you in return. You go along free and with him. Rarity stays with me and she will help me make the best dresses ever. She'll make me so stinking rich that I'll probably keep her forever as a personal dress-maker for me." Suri explained to me in the small short details that I absolutely didn't need to hear for what she planned for one of my friends.

"No!" I shout out to her. "I'm not going to let myself be a part of this! Let me go!"

"What did I say about me talking only, brat!" She snapped again. This time her face is right close to mine with that sadistic glare and fire raging in her eyes that really frightened me a bit, causing me to shake more. "Your task is to just be quiet while I arrange the trade with your 'human' friend."

"But S-Suri… I-I don't know where he is." I stumbled out to her, sounding nervous and shaky.

Suri turned back to the other side of the room. My head follows her as she trots back in front of me. "Now for the trade, you'll still be tied to this chair and I can just imagine Rarity taking your place in the chair once you are set free. You'll never get to see her again, and I will be rich. She'll become what she once was as somepony rich and become poor that she'll have to sell that Carousel Boutique store she has." She told me, that smile coming upon her face again. "The human will only have 23 hours now to bring in Rarity."

"His name… is Brayden." I said to her with an intimidating tone in my voice. Suri just looks at me with a fake shocked look and then finally, bursts out into laughter. But this laughter sounded crazy than it seemed. Ever since I quit as her apprentice, I feel like she changed for the worst and not for the better.

"Oh you are quite a drama stirrer aren't you Coco?" Suri says, still chucking from what I said.

"Nevertheless, h-he will come to save you and bring an end to you!" I shouted at her, starting to get a bit irritated by her taunting of calling him just 'human' and not his name.

"So what if his name is Brayden? I have my reasons to call him a 'human'," Suri continues. "He looks like he isn't going to harm anypony, so he wouldn't dare try to fight me as I'm a mare."

I let out a low growl. "Don't… call him… A HUMAN!" I had bursted out with some anger that I never thought that I would release since I was a bit shy. I mean, his other friend Fluttershy is much more shy than I am, but she seems nice enough and got to talk with her at his birthday party.

"Human." She says just to arouse more anger out of me.

If only I had another set of hot coffee on me… I would have tossed the hot liquid onto her once again. But with the situation of being tied up in a chair, the chances of that seem impossible. Suri just laughs and begins to trot towards the door.

"When I've completed my plan, you'll always feel like the loser. Nothing will stop me now." Suri said to me, going to dismiss herself from the room.

"When Brayden saves me, you'll continue to be that heartless witch you have been and always will be," I said to her as a comeback. She turns back around and an angry glare has grown onto her face again. "I quit the job because I couldn't handle the fact that you were acting so demanding and that you were a stinking liar to not only me, but to Prim herself!"

This set off a string for her when I saw that she was galloping towards me. My glare changes into that of a frightened look upon my face. She gallops towards me and raises her hoof. Her hoof moves fast towards me and it strikes me hard in the face. The impact had gone straight under my left eye and when it had moved away, I could feel the burn of the strike under my left eye and it was stinging. It began to make me tear up a bit, not to mention that I had already been tearing up that evening. All I just wanted was to tell Brayden how I really felt again.

Suri could notice the tears in my eyes and a teasing smile grows across her face. "Awwww, is the baby going to cry?" She teased, with a laugh coming after it.

I didn't say anything as a sob emerged from my mouth quietly. Suri was across the room and she was rather impressed by the mess that she made to me. Suri trots back towards the door. "Well, that'll be what you get for trying to backtalk me. So just sit there and cry." She said to me.

She opened the door that she came in through and trots out, but peeks in once more to say one more thing to me. "If your 'human' friend doesn't bring Rarity in a day, expect another hoof to the face." She threatened with only the tone of malice filling her voice. She closes the door again, leaving me all alone.

My quiet sobs grow a bit in volume and I begin to cry generally at the normal volume that I had cried in when I was alone at the apartment with nopony around to see them. If anypony saw me cry, they would probably laugh at me. Brayden hasn't laughed at me though, he is the only one that I recall seeing me cry. The rest of his friends haven't seen me cry, so they'd try to comfort me as well. They seemed pretty nice enough as well.

My reason of ponies laughing at me as I cried came all the way back to childhood when I was only a wee filly attending school. Being teased and bullied was just about one of the reasons why I turned out to be a bit shy. But I tried not to let those bad memories get into the way. I was trapped in this room. My lips and left cheek were stinging with pain, and the tears I shed began to fall onto both me and eventually drip to the floor from my hooves they slid down.

Brayden, if you are coming... Please… save me from this Tartarus that I have been placed into…

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Brayden's POV

Night was filling the factory district of Manehattan. The cool breeze could be felt underneath my bare feet and sliding right into me, blowing only a bit of my growing hair. It wasn't too cold, since it was still in the summer equinox according to Equestria standards. I'm no expert at the seasons, so I can't really know too much about it. My bare feet were touching the cement that I walked upon and my eyes were looking at the industry buildings.

There were many signs that were placed onto the sides of the buildings. Mostly were those that were still in operation or they had just left it years before, but it still stood there possibly for another industrial company located in Manehattan to rebuild it back to its former glory one day. The many buildings each had different types that had been worked upon. Shampoo, toys, this and all that were part of the business that still is or used to be. Coco could not have been placed in any of those buildings, for her captor did not leave any evidence on that. In fact, Suri never told me where the building was. How lazy is that of her!

The street lights that hang above me on poles of iron and what almost resembles ceramic. A few of the lights flicker a bit, but none of them are too damaged to break yet. From what I could see, they still had some life in them. The lights up the street in the direction I was going in started to grow darker. This would probably be because the smashed particles of light bulb glass that was lying on the tiled ground. Hopefully the street janitors will do something about it eventually. I keep on the sidewalk, as I do not want to accidentally cut my foot with the broken glass on the street.

I keep walking, letting the moon's shining white light become the guide for me in the district. The echoes of carriages in the busy streets could still be heard as I continue into the darkness. More factory buildings had come into view. Each one that I had passed had the exact same bricks that the other factories had. For Celestia's sake, isn't there even a single factory plant that wouldn't even try to have the exact same shade of red for the bricks?

In the night sky, I could see a few tiny white clouds illuminated in black by the moon's immortal light while I continued. The moon would be covered sometimes by them, shrouding me into total darkness. I was no expert at seeing in the dark, so I had no idea where I would eventually end up. This cloud was huge through and I was left in the dark, completely blind by the pitch-black that it had created. Only the tall structures of the buildings could be seen amongst the stars in the black sky.

The cloud eventually lifts as I stood there and waited patiently. Once the light of Luna's moon had gone back into view, the whole area had been lit up again. I begin to pace through the cold streets again, looking around the areas. Judging by the position of the moon, I could tell that the time was already 10:43pm. I must be the only one who doesn't own a watch, but guess what position the moon is in for the time.

I look straight ahead down the street. In the corner of my eye, I could see a building that had a different shade of color to the bricks. The look of the bricks was almost pale gold like, and the sign on the side of the building was seen. A bit of it looked like it was starting to fall apart. It said "Manehattan Sewing Wares and Materials". At last, I think I might have discovered a bit of a clue. Suri worked as a dress maker before the entire Fashion Week incident, so this has to be where… she had taken Coco. I better note that clue in my head.

I make my way towards the building and lean up against the walls on the left side where the alleyway seemed dark. Ahead from where I was positioned, I could see light in the distance and a few stallions in the shadow dimly lit by the highlighted light. I scoot along across the wall and keep my eye on the three stallions standing close to this light which I could now recognize as 'fire in a metal barrel'. Conversation between the three of them seemed a bit faint at first, so I scoot much closer and out of sight, keeping an ear out to hear what they were saying.

"…and did you see how that poor mare reacted? She was screaming when we grabbed her!" The skinny looking one was saying, moving a hoof.

"Oh yes, but I'm just lucky that Suri did not give us a lecture after accidentally knocking her out. Something like that again will probably have our paychecks cut in half for that." A tall, almost bulked one says in a mysterious tone. "She hasn't paid us yet, but she will once she has that unicorn in her hooves."

In the silence, I quietly gasp to myself. So it was these three that were responsible for the foalnapping of Coco herself? I stay where I am and closely begin to observe the area. There had to be a way that I can sneak past the henchmen without raising an alarm for Suri to come find me. As much as these stallions will try to hurt me, I do not want to fight them. If they do catch me in the act, I will do my best to try and defend myself possible. I scan around the area to look for anything that could distract them.

A large rock fit for my hand was lying a few feet from me, and was deep hidden in shadow. With my eye on the rock, I bent down while the three continued talking. My hand manages to grip onto the rock and I lift it up off the ground, trying not to drop it. Dropping it would end up giving away my location to the henchmen and that would not be a good sign. Keeping that firm grip, I take a look across from the light source and see what seemed to be a metal garbage can that you'd normally see in the streets of Manehattan. I take that risky chance and with aim, I throw that rock like a baseball bat.

The small rock went right above the heads of the stallions. It descends back into the dark again, and I keep out an ear to listen. CLANG! I could hear that the stone had collided with the garbage and I thought for a moment that it would end up inside the garbage can, because it would make a big noise. However, the clang of metal was just about enough to perk up the ears of the henchmen and turn to that noisy direction.

"Did you hear that?" The skinny one had said with a suspicious tone in his voice.

"I did…" The brute-like stallion said amongst the others. "It does sound like clanging of metal. The human must be foolish enough to try and sneak past us!"

"Let's go and get him then!" The other one says.

The others proceed to gallop towards the other side of the dark alley, unaware that I wasn't actually there hiding like sheep among wolves. I retract from my hiding place and make my way towards the doors with the steel handles to pull them open. My right hand reaches for the metal switch on the door and with a quiet click with my thumb pushing down; I take one more look to my left.

With the sounds of hooves moving away from the light scene, and the stallions now in the shadows out of sight, I open up the door slightly and slip into the dim building, lit in nocturnal moonlight. I turn back towards the opposite side of the door and close the door with a bit of a metal click when it had gone all the way.

I turn back around to face the interior of the factory. The whole building had large windows that had moonlight gleaming out of them to light up the path around the corners of the old factory. I begin to start walking again in the silence with only the sound of soft steps from my bare feet echoing throughout the factory floor.

All seemed to be too quiet around the factory walls, and there would be wooden doors to accompany the rooms that separated themselves from the halls. So while I sneaked around the place to look, I kept listening in to hear if anypony was coming behind me or towards the area by the sound of their echoing hooves. If in the case I heard anypony coming this way, I would just duck into a dark corner covered in darkness and wait until that pony or Suri was gone. I would also have to look behind me or ahead in the halls at all times. It would be rather unexpected should the henchmen decide to sneak up on me behind my back or catch me off-guard when taking a look.

Then, in the silence I could hear something. It sounded out muffled at first. So I just about stopped moving and began to clearly listen in the silence to find out where that emerging sound was coming from. To my surprise, it wasn't the sound of hooves coming either way. It sounded muffled like somepony was crying in one of the rooms.

Something about that muffled cry told me that it was Coco Pommel herself and the crying sounded very distressed. I knew that she was in trouble and I began to hurry along scurrying along the walls to get more closer to the room source where Coco could be.

Clip-Clop… Clip-Clop…

Dammit! There's that sound in the distance of hooves coming my way. My eyes can around quickly to find a dark area to hide. My eyes catch the attention of an olive green desk with a sheet of wood to cover up the hiding place. With no time to think about this, I stumble forward towards the desk and get down on my knees. I could feel the granite floor below my knees when I would stop crawling for a few brief moments, heading under the desk. Once inside, I grip onto the wooden sheet and slid it over the desk opening, shrouding me in the dark again. I kept my eyes underneath the desk to see the oncoming hooves that just about came out of the other hall.

I could recognize those hooves when I saw them. Suri Polomare… That witch. Her hooves trot towards the desk and down the hall. I just wait patiently with only the sound of my breathing trying to remain as quiet as possible. Any loud noises I make, it's an automatic "Game Over" and Coco will probably get hurt.

I couldn't let Suri do this. I just about waited until she was distant from the area with only the soft echoes of her trotting disappearing. Once she was gone and out of sight with no other sound to accompany her presence, I gently push off the wooden sheet.

I crawled right back out from under the desk and begin to stay quiet again. I could already hear Coco much louder now and I could tell that she was nearby. I could see a wooden door near me, standing alongside two others distant in the hall; I swiftly walk with such small pace towards that wooden door. I gently press my ear against it to listen. There was only silence in that room, so it looks like I will have to try the door in the center of all three. I made my quick move to try not to catch attention and place my ear against the door.

I can definitely hear the crying louder now and I could sense that Coco Pommel was inside. But why was she crying though? It sounds like a mixture of both distress and pain. Wait… did she get hurt?! Alarm fills me and I grab a hold of the door and just about throw it wide open.

The door hit the brick wall right behind me and I took a look over at the lit area on the left side of the room. In that chair was none other than that mare Coco Pommel herself which I recognized by the color of her mane; and she was tied up to the chair. Her face was turned to face the wall as I could see the visible clear tears fall from her face and onto the floor.

"Coco?" I softly called out to her in the silence.

Her sobbing comes to a bit of an abrupt stop. Her head moves upwards and turns slightly to look at me. Half of her face is still hidden though. Her ears perk up all the way and a rather joyful and happy smile comes upon her face as the tears continued to stream down. Gasps came out of her that sound most rather happy to see me and hope was filled with it to know that I was saving her.

"Brayden! You're- you're here!" Coco said to me. "P-Please come help me out of this chair I'm tied to."

I walked up to the chair she was at and began to move all of the rope that had been placed around her. I move a loose knot that had been supposedly forgotten about by the three stallions outside and eventually, the ropes come off and onto the floor, setting her free.

Coco just about jumps at me off of the chair, placing her hooves and she felt really close to me. I could still hear her sobs whilst she sounded happy about this. "Thank you thank you thank you so much for coming for me!" She just about said to me with happiness in her soft-spoken, raspy tone. I move my arms around her and I gently gave her a gentle hug, sharing between the both of us.

"I had to save you… I couldn't just let you get hurt." I spoke in a gentle and soft voice that would come off to her that I ended up caring about her after all. "Wait… she hurt you, didn't she?"

Coco pauses for a few moments and then moves her head to take a look at mine. There I could see the other side of her face in complete light. There was a bruise caused by a hoof alone that was just underneath her left eye. I softly gasp and move my right hand towards her left cheek. Ièm being careful as I don't want to inflame the pain even more.

"Coco… did Suri do this to you?" I asked out with the alarm of worry just about punching me.

She just about stutters a bit in her words to get something out. "N-no- I mean, I- Y-Yes… she did this to me. She punched me there and it hurts…" She confessed a truth that I just about knew.

"It looks like it does," I said to her. "When we get back to your apartment, I'll make sure that I find the treatment for that with bandages."

"Alright Brayden, and we better slip out quietly," She said to me, lowering the tone of her volume. "Do you know which way you came in?"

I nod my head and both of us let go of the hug. She gets back onto her four hooves once again and trots over to the corner of the room. It was her red saddlebags that she was just about gathering from over there. I join her in helping to put the saddlebags over her and onto her back so she was comfortable there as she had them.

"Thanks Brayden." She lets out a soft smile as she said this.

The both of us start to make our way towards the open door, with me walking behind her. She gets to the door first, passing underneath the wooden arch. I follow behind her and then begin to walk alongside her. In the dark moonlit hallways I was back in, I turn my head towards Coco whilst she trots alongside me. I felt like I need to tell her what I needed to say to her.

"Coco?" I asked, her ears perking up when I said her name.

The both of us stop and she turns around, facing me. A look of concern is upon her face. "Yes Brayden?" She asked me, wondering what was going to happen.

I let out a bit of a sigh, knowing that she's either going to happy to hear it, or devastated to hear what would come out. "T-There is something that I have to tell you. It's… you know…" I said, with only some nervousness crossing into my tone of voice.

Coco looks worried and her left front hoof moves forward and takes a hold of my right hand. I gently move my hand a bit and begin to start holding her hoof gently. "Please tell me… I-I promise I won't get upset at you." She says, gently moving her hoof a bit on my hand to stroke it tenderly.

I look straight into Coco's beautiful light cyan eyes and I could feel my mind urging myself subliminally to start telling her right away. I blink for a moment of hope and good luck for myself. "It-It's because I too now realize that I ca-"

The clearing of a throat could be heard right behind me and ahead from Coco, but out of her sight. The clearing of somepony's throat interrupted that moment for me, but don't worry, in no time when I deal with who's behind us, then I can tell Coco. I turn around and I am rather surprised to see who was standing there just a couple of feet away.

Suri Polomare herself. She was not alone though, she also had her henchmen alongside of her. A glare on her face accompanied her cruel smile. The three of the stallions that worked with her were just about preparing to probably pummel me with their hooves. Coco lets out a gasp behind me and it sounded surprised and shocked as well. A sinister chuckle emerges from Suri's lips.

"Well now… what do we have here?" Suri said, trotting towards the two of us. "We've got that 'human' and somepony as part of my plan trying to get away and put my plans into disaster."

"You let us go, Suri!" Coco says to her. "I've already dealt with you before, I don't need to deal with you again."

"Oh no doubtingly," She said, her eyelids are bit tilted down while still looking at me, focused towards me as if I were her prey. "But now that you are here human, I have to ask you one thing."

"Please don't call me by human." I said to her in a very calm addressing state of manner. "I have a name after all, and it is-"

"I do not care what your name is!" Suri shouts at me, interrupting me. "You are going to let me do the talking now, so your mouth needs to be kept shut while at it!"

I am in a bit of a shock about how rude Suri was being towards me. "Miss Polomare, I suggest you calm down." I said to her, keeping my cool.

"Calm down? Me? I'LL CALM DOWN YOU!" She shouted at me in a comeback, even though my words didn't mean any harm towards her. Coco backs up a bit and I can feel her hiding right behind me to stay out of the talk between me and Suri.

"Why do you want Rarity so bad?" I asked her, sounding really confused but with a bit of tension in my voice.

"Why do I want her, human?" Suri says to me with question before she lets out a laugh. She finally began to explain. "I want Rarity here so I can take my revenge on her for taking my trophy in the first place."

"You cheated though, you wanted to win!" I said to her, knowing about what had happened when I saw the episode.

"Yes I did cheat, but for all good reason as to why I wanted to cheat in order to win. It's everypony for herself." Suri says to me, trotting forward towards me. I gulped nervously, prepared for what she might be planning against me.

Coco moves a bit behind me and stands between both me and her. "Don't hurt him!" She shouts at her previous boss, with such an intimidating tone that I had never expected that she would eventually go to.

"What give you the privilege to stand in my way Coco?" Suri says, trying to sway her away from me. "Now move out of the way, I am going to ask the human where Rarity is hiding."

Coco shook her head. "No." She simply answers. "If you're going to try and hurt him, you're going to have to go through me."

"Coco…" I said to her, sounding worried about what would happen next to her. "You don't have to do this."

"Brayden, please…" She says to me in a calm and worried tone to keep me calm. "I don't want her to hurt you as she did to me."

Suri chuckles a bit. "I suppose you must have seen the bruise underneath her eye," She says to me. "Well, I will admit she was rather tearful on that one for acting like a complete baby there. Now I am going to ask you again and I demand an answer. Where… is… Rarity?"

"I never brought her along with me." I confessed to her, releasing the truth to her.

"Liar!" She shouts at me with such aggression. "I know you have her with you, hiding in the shadows!"

"I'm telling you that I don't!" I shout back at her.

"I suppose you want to know why I want to have Rarity in full detail just as I told Coco here." Suri says, calming down. This raises an eyebrow on me. Since both I and Coco were cornered there and only a long way down the dim hallway with no easy way of escape, I decided to play along. "Well, here was the original plan that I had in mind which I was doing after all. I foalnapped Coco, and then you would get Rarity from Ponyville and bring her here to trade her for the safety of Coco."

"You hurt her though, and it is not necessary to bring harm to her." I said to her, defending the mare right in front of me.

"She talked back to me, and it is a lesson she will learn for that," Suri says, releasing a firm glare towards Coco. She turns her eyes back towards me. "Once you got Coco back, Rarity would be forced by me to make dresses and I will sell them, become a billionaire and then retire in peace."

"So you would force somepony else into slavery over a trophy you lost?" I said to her, sounding a bit shocked about how Suri was sounding right now. I mean, she stole Rarity's line and Coco exposed her for it. But slavery though? She was now taking it too far. "Suri, you are a con artist. You stole her work and it's no wonder you're trying a bit too hard to get what you want." My eyes drift only a bit towards the empty hall on my right.

However Suri notices this and then figures that both me and Coco are going to try and escape that way. She begins to trot over towards Coco. I couldn't see Coco's face, but she probably looked scared. "Ah, trying to make your route of escape out of here, aren't you both?" She asked with question in her voice.

"No, not at all!" I said, trying to make it seem as innocent as I could.

"Oh I don't think so. I'm not letting you leave." The mare warns us both sharply and another glare fills up upon her face. I gulped and then realized that this might be bad news. Suri then turns towards her henchmen blocking the left hallway. "Grab him, I want him to see what happens when he doesn't reveal the truth to me."

The stallions trot toward both me and Coco as the stronger and buffed one grab a hold of me and grip me tightly with their hooves. The moderate one, looking dull and bored as ever grabs my right arm and grips as well. The skinny and goofy one pushes Coco out of the way. I watch as he is holding her back from what was going to happen.

I could hear a gasp as Suri was approaching me with a smile filled with malice and cruelty. "Don't hurt him!" I could hear Coco shout at her, out of my sight. I knew she was being held back, but my eyes were focused on what Suri was going to do.

Suri trots right forward in front of me, turns around and then I could notice the both of her back legs getting ready to buck me right into the stomach. Her hooves make impact on them, and I could feel the absolute pain of her hooves hitting there and it hurt like a billion stones being thrown at me. It almost felt like I had broken a bone, but I never did. But it was crazy right now… Suri was acting too far and wrongly.

At the same time, I am trying my hardest at struggling to get out of there. But I am being held back as Suri continues to kick me at what seemed to be non-stop. It felt like this would go on for hours without end. It was just another quick memory to me as a small child as I had been trying my hardest to fight back, but always getting pummeled in the end. It was another traumatic moment that I was reliving. I had to get a bit of strength in me. Anger began to take its course.

"Stop this Suri…" I groaned weakly, trying to persuade her at the same time.

"Shut up!" Suri says, no longer caring about if she was hurting me and forcing Coco to watch. I just close my eyes and try my best as I struggle to endure every single moment while groaning weakly sometimes during this assault. Then, it is when I noticed… I was close with the buffed stallion's hoof range.

I think about this for a moment while Suri continues to do what she can into submitting me to do her very deed in taking my friend for her own greedy needs. But that wasn't going to happen, not while I care for a good dear friend of mine. She helped to make a suit for me, and was ever so generous to me… I won't let her hurt her. I tilt my head back a bit, open my mouth to expose my teeth and bit right into the buffed stallion's arm.

The stallion let out a scream and Suri stopped bucking me in the stomach, trotting backwards a few steps. My teeth were biting right into the stallion's arm as he continues to scream a bit. Finally, his grip is loosened and he lets go of me. The other not wanting to mess or get bitten by me lets me go as well, standing back. I looked rather intimidating to them and they were scared.

"You fools!" Suri shouts to both of them. "Don't just run away like cowards, fight him!"

The stallions remained quiet as ever. Judging by the looks on their faces, they were scared about dealing with me. This was probably the first anypony would be scared of me. Coco on the other hand… or hoof whatever you want, just stands there with her mouth gaping open at what just happened. The skinny male lets her go and backs up as well.

"Did you not hear me?!" Suri said, sounding very demanding. "I said fight him!"

None of them even moved towards me to even lift a hoof to me. Suri just has this look on her face that she looked totally defeated by my own ability. Silence fills in the gap for a few moments, and then she lets out a frustrated growl at this sight. I walk towards Coco while she is dealing with them.

"You betrayed me! All of you, being cowards for not holding him back and attacking him!" Suri shouts towards them.

I turn my attention from what was happening behind me and turn to Coco. She looks rather concerned about how injured I am as well as her. She places her soft hoof onto my stomach and I groan a bit. It really began to sting a lot.

"Are you okay Brayden?" Coco said, taking the same hoof and placing it onto my hand.

"It's a bit stingy from the hoof-bucking, but I think I can hold out. I've already had that happen to me before." I told her. "We should get out of here while we can now that she's distracted."

Coco nods for a moment and then has a face of realization strike her in the face. She turns towards her red saddlebag and pulls out a cold and almost done cup of coffee that she still had from since this morning. Huh, who would have known that this would be something that she would do to Suri again. Second time's the charm after all, right?

I just stand there as she trots up towards the yelling mare that was once her boss. "Hey Suri…" I could hear her say to that mare. The snappy mare then turns towards Coco Pommel and I already knew what was going to come up next. Coco throws cold coffee in Suri's face for the second time. Suri's face was literally frozen when she had done this to her. She face and mane were now dripping with brown liquid, now without a scent of scalding heat to be smelt.

"That's for foalnapping me in the first place!" Coco snapped at her. "The next time that you try to hurt me or my friends, I'm going to call the guard on you!"

"A fine way to conclude that Miss Pommel." The buffed stallion said to her. His tone sounded like he was regretting that he foalnapped her in the first place.

Coco turns her head towards the stallions and said "Thank you. Also, if you are planning to apologize… don't. I already forgive you for what you did to work for Suri." The truth in her words now finally brings a bit on confidence into the three of them and they weakly smile.

I walk towards Coco and I am beside her once again. She turns her head from the scene and looks back at me with a smile. "Well that takes care of them. Let's head out of here and back to my apartment. The both of us might want to patch ourselves up."

"Yeah, let's get out of here. I don't want to deal with Suri's drama anymore," I said to her. I turn my eyes towards Suri and I unleash a glare towards her filled with warning. "Stay away from me and Coco." I warned her with sharpness in my tone.

I finally turn back and begin to walk alongside Coco once again. I would occasionally check up behind us to make sure that Suri Polomare, that wicked mare wasn't following behind us. She wasn't by the time that me and Coco were out of the factory building. The stallions that were once working with Suri, left with us and went their own separate ways. While I hope Suri never lays a hoof on Coco again, I hoped that one day she would change her ways into good.

Nevertheless, first aid should be the first thing on my mind when dealing with bruises that I achieved tonight, so I guess it's back to the suburbs.

---

The bathroom light flickers for only a quick moment, but the power doesn't go off which is good. These lights are good enough for now. I could feel myself trying not to let the bruising pain get to me while I could feel the ice pack being packed upon them. It was really cold, but it would start to feel soothing after a while. It was still hurting though, it will only be a short time until it happens.

I was sitting on top of a closed toilet and Coco was busy placing an ice pack onto my stomach to ease it. I groaned softly and quietly a little bit, knowing how much it was hurting. Coco was feeling bad for me and I knew that would make her sad.

"Just hold still Brayden. It won't hurt as much." She advised to me in that same soft-spoken tone that I knew and loved to hear.

I acknowledge what she said and my groaning starts to go away. In my right hand, I had an ice pack and I was gently pressing it against her cheek where Suri hit her. I was probably the first to give her an ice pack. It was the same reaction for her when I gave her an ice pack, but was completely different as it was more solely a gasp of air she emitted. It cooled down a while, and I was ready whenever she was for me to take it off her gentle cheek.

I could feel the skin starting to cool and lose its stinging heat that felt rather searing to me. The ice pack must have been working after all for me, just as it was working for Coco as well. I take very calm breaths through my nostrils while trying not to feel cold from the ice.

"Brayden, you can take the ice pack off my cheek now," Coco says to me. "It's starting to get a bit cold."

I smile and moved the ice pack away from her cheek and place it onto the bathroom counter just right on my left. I turn back and begin to look back at Coco. She continues to gently rub at the bruises on my bare stomach and takes it off on occasion to make sure that I'm not too cold. I'm just staring into her eyes, unable to look away from them. A sparkle glimmers for a moment in the both of her eyes, and then she looks right at me, locked in the same gaze I was in.

We stare into each other's eyes for a few moments. Finally, she turns away looking very shy about this. My face holds both a concerned and yet, caring look at the same time. My hand gently moves forward towards her left front hoof and takes a hold of it.

"Coco." I said to her. Her ears perk up a bit and she turns to face me. She still holds a shy look on her face, but is listening to what I was probably going to say next to her. "Why- why did you run away?"

I could feel Coco shaking a bit now and nervousness began to cross into how she looked. I hold her hoof gently and slide a bit forward on the closed toilet seat to get closer towards her. The pupils in her eyes shrink a bit and she looked absolutely frightened to tell me. I move my other hand and gently move it towards her soft mane, giving it a gentle stroke.

I keep my tone at a low volume, remaining gentle with her at all times. "Please, Coco… tell me." I said to her.

"It-" Coco says to me with a bit of a stutter and then she finally takes in a deep breath and just lets it all out about the truth, raising a bit of her shy voice. "Okay, I ran away because I still have a crush on you! I don't care if you have Twilight in your life as your special somepony, I do not care if you marry her either! Ever since meeting you at the swimming centre for those brief moments, I took some interest in you! I can't help this feeling that I have developed for you over the weeks and I really don't want to be brushed aside as just a friend, even if it has to be kept a secret between the both of us! …I love you!"

Silence filled between the both of us. I looked a little surprised at Coco's small emotional outburst and she didn't even release the tears this time. She only looked a little distressed. Her ears were flopped down and her eyes were closed as if she was waiting for the pain of rejection being flown towards her once more. Her breathing seems a bit fast, but keeps at an average pace. I don't want her to start hyperventilating there.

A smile emerges on my face and move off the closed seat, getting closer towards Coco. I knelt down on a knee and pulled her closer towards me. Her hoof moves around my back and gently presses down there without force. My two arms go around her back and gently stroke her withers. I was sharing a gentle, yet soft hug with her to keep her calm. The hug lasts for a few silent seconds and while keeping my arms there, I turn my head to look at Coco.

Coco's eyes open up a bit and I'm gazing into her eyes. The gaze felt heavenly and it feels like the first time I've fallen in love all over again. The both of our heads start to move slowly towards each other. My lips open up only a tiny bit as well as hers. Both of my eyes tint down a bit, and eventually come to a close. I could tell that Coco's eyes were probably also closed as well. My head kept going forward while I kept some expectation of what could happen next. Then, it happened.

My lips were softly pressing against Coco's gentle and smooth lips. Her lips soon press against mine and we are both locked together in a passionate and romantic kiss. My heart inside was beating really fast, and I could tell that even though my heart doesn't have a mind, it was beating of happiness.

The kiss lasted for a few moments, and both me and Coco release from it and look each other in the eye. She looked rather happy to see my silent response to her. Now it is as good a time for me to confess about this.

"The truth is… I love you too. I care about you and how beautiful you look. I'm not sure what got it snapped into me, but it's the same feeling that I have now developed for you. Twilight will always be a major part in my heart, but I am willing to let you in." I told her, pressing my head gently against her soft forehead.

From the top angle, I could see her cheeks begin to light up with a hint of blushing. I never let go of the gaze between the both of us. From what I see outside her eyes, she looked a little bit tired. It was already 12:55am in the morning when the both of us got back to the apartment. So it must explain the bags under her beautiful eyes. I too was feeling a bit tired as well from the day, plus tomorrow would be my last day in Manehattan, so I better make tomorrow feel good for the both of us.

"Coco…" I said to her with a gentle touch to my voice. "It's late at night, and the both of us are tired as of now. Shall… shall I bring you to bed?"

Coco smiles at me softly and says "Yes, please."

I nod with the smiles shared among each other. I bend upward a bit and extend out my arms so she can get into them. Coco trots towards me, getting onto two hooves and falling backwards into my arms, feeling warm and soft. Finally, I get back onto my two feet and begin to carry her out of the bathroom.

I step out into the hallway, and head towards the slightly opened bedroom door. My right foot is gentle to push open the door and let the slight tint of moonlight fill into the room. My feet step right onto her carpet again and I move towards the side of the bed. Lowering down on one knee, I gently stretch out a bit of my arms and place Coco onto her bed, letting my hands that underneath her back slide out.

Coco looked rather relaxed and her closed mouth makes a bit of a moan for that purpose.

I am quick to slide out of the bedroom for a few moments to get myself changed into my Pyjamas. After doing all of that business inside of the guest bedroom I was staying in, I come walking back into Coco's bedroom. She had her hair clip by her nightstand and the tie I saw her wear each day was placing upon that same nightstand as well. She looks at me with those tired eyes and smiles a bit.

I walked forward onto the opposite side of her bed and place my hands onto the ends of the covers she placed her under. I pull them back and allow myself to slide right onto her bed and place the cover right back on top of me. It felt rather comfortable and I always thought about having this kind of bed if I could afford it in bits.

I turn towards Coco Pommel and she is smiling at me. She says "I was going to ask you that kind of question. Can you sleep with me tonight? I- I promise I won't try to do anything 'funny' that would cause trouble between you and Twilight."

I move my left hand and gently caress her soft right cheek. I smile and just say "Of course, and I'll take the promise wisely." A blush emerges on her face again.

I moved much closer to Coco and wrap the both of my arms around her, gently holding her close to me and my nose touching her nose in a romantic kind of way. All was quiet for the ambience except for the furnace which was only making a rather light non-bothering noise.

"Let's get some rest," She says to me. "I can't wait to spend tomorrow with you."

"Me too," I replied back to her. "It's my last day here in Manehattan, but I'm sure we'll do something together that both of us will mutually agree upon."

Coco giggles and gently places her lips onto my own and gives me a gentle and caring peck. I too, share this peck with her and then she lets out a happy sigh, placing her head onto the pillow and closing her eyes right there with the smile on her face. I too, place my head onto her pillow, holding her close to me and gently nuzzle her nose one last time before I closed my eyes to earn that rest that I just earned.

Good night Equestria, and good night Manehattan. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I will see you at the breaking of dawn. I already know my last day in Manehattan will be worth it before I head back to Ponyville to see my friends again.

A/N: Hmmmm, I think I rushed this chapter a bit too quickly near the end of it.

Nevertheless, this is the new chapter and I am really excited for tomorrow as it is beginning of Season 5! I am just about ready to see what new adventures await Twilight and her friends after almost a year without ponies with the help Rainbow Rocks to help fill the gap. Plus it could give me inspiration for future chapters.

Because I am almost done my second semester, I will be able to work a little more on new chapters. But writer's block and the hiatuses... OH GOD. It's unbelievable. I am also excited because I am going to be seeing Nightwish on the 14th this month, Van Halen in August along with Motley Crue and Alice Cooper near the end of August close to my birthday! (Nightwish's new album was amazing by the way.)

In other news, I might be working on a possible new chaptered fanfiction that I just need to get some ideas for. It's called "Time I: Sons of Skyrim and Talos" and it will an Elder Scrolls fanfiction. If it comes into action, it might slow down the writing process for Learning To Live, but don't worry. Time I: Sons of Skyrim and Talos is still under development for a plot from my own creative mind. A oneshot of FNAF3 and a Fluttercord oneshot will be made by me soon enough when I get enough time. When I get to a certain point in this story, I will put it on a bit of a hiatus for some time to work on the other projects in development.

Now... La Review Response Time!

sonic3461: Thank you, I try to make a good romance fiction when I can.

Captain Alaska: Hmmm, well expect the worst to come soon. But I'm sure I can work something out around that idea.

Raven 105: Thank you! :)

4theworldman: Totally!

jvs12: Thank you! :)

---

I begin to open the both of my eyes slowly, hearing the sounds of birds' muffled chirping outside of a window. I move my head down to see the warm and fuzzy sheets covering me still from the cold summer night that had transitioned hours ago to the new warmth of day rising into the pure blue sky. Here I lay in Coco's bed, where I had been asleep next to her during the night-time. Just thinking about her placed a warm smile onto my own face.

Coco was not in bed next to me. She was completely absent from the spot she lied upon from last night. I move the sheets off of me and move my two legs off of her bed and sit sitting there to give my legs a stretch to warm up for the day. After that was done right there, I get up off of the bed and turn to make my side of the bed. I pull the sheets that had been above and covering my body onto the top of the bed and gently pulled on its sides so it did not come off wrinkled.

The scent of fresh and hot coffee was beginning to fill the air inside the room. This gave me the number one sign that Coco was already in the kitchen making coffee for both me and her like the morning before. I turn towards the bedroom door and step forward, distancing me from the bed and letting my right hand reach for the doorknob. My hand grips onto it and I give it a turn. I pulled open the door and allowed myself to see down the hallway. Passing under the white door arch, I make my way across the hallway from her bedroom to get to the kitchen.

There she was, just about placing a ceramic plate of white onto the table. It was alongside with a small cup of coffee that seemed to be made just for me, with her plate and coffee cup on her side of the table, except mine was positioned next to sweet Coco. I would be sitting beside her for breakfast. On my plate was a personal favorite breakfast meal of mine: buttered toast and eggs made over easy. Her eyes turn from the plate she put on the wooden table and moves right towards mine, staring at me.

A smile lit up on her face when I was in her sights with those lovely cyan eyes of hers. "Good morning Brayden," She said to me in a happy sing-song tone in her soft voice. "Did you sleep well last night?"

I walked forward and towards her. "Oh yes, I slept like a rock and it was quite well," I told her. I gently approach her, giving her mane a soft and gentle stroke. "All thanks to you of course, all was peaceful."

Her cheeks lit up with a faint pink blush and her two front hooves shuffle together, so besides her smile and blushing, she looked ever bashful. Both I and she are locked in a gaze of staring at one another again. Silence was between the both of us and then she broke the silence. "I-I made both you and me breakfast." She told me.

I smile back at her with that simple "Thanks" coming and emulating from my lips.

I turn towards the chair that had my food at the table. I take my hand off from her gentle mane and use that same hand to scoot back the chair so that I can sit down and start eating away at the alternatives on my plate. I take my seat in my chair and scoot in to face the food onto the table. Coco to my left takes the chair on my left and takes her seat there. The smell of toast and eggs fill into my nose, every time I breathe in. Whatever Coco did, she made these eggs pretty good. Seeing how she was a bit quiet now, I decided to start a conversation between the both of us.

"So… what's the plan for today?" I asked her. My head turns to look at her.

She paused for a moment in silence. "Well, I was hoping that we could do something together that we haven't done yet together. We could try and mutually agree on an activity." She told me.

"Okay, just like I suggested last night." I said.

"I do want to make the last day of your visit memorable for both me and you. I'll think of something that we can both do while we're eating," Coco says to me when I turn my head back towards my food. "After that, I'll set up dinner at my place. I think I know what we can eat by then if I have planned it carefully."

I nod my head in understanding and grab a piece of buttered toast on my plate with my left hand. I bring it towards my mouth and take a bite from the bread that had been in the toaster to be warmed up and crisp. With the butter on top, it tasted rather delicious and once my teeth had chewed that piece down, I gently swallow to allow the grinded down piece to go down to my stomach.

"How about the beach?" Coco suggested to me.

Well, that is a good idea to go to the Manehattan beach. I haven't touched the sea water of Equestria yet and I was curious because it was probably going to be the same as Earth's own water form. I turned towards her and look at her with a smile. "The beach, hm? I haven't been there in a really long time. Sounds like a really good idea." I told her, keeping that happy look on my face.

"So we can both mutually agree on going to the beach together?" She asked me.

I nod my head while keeping the same smile on my face. "Yes, I agree if you agree as well." I said.

"I think I will be saying yes to that as well," She says. "I've only been there a few times ever since living here in Manehattan, but I will tell you that the waters of the seas are really warm. Just warnings though, don't stray off from the sands. You don't want to be surrounded by the dangerous Kraken that lives under the ocean floor. Even waking him from peaceful sleep will make him angry and he will try to eat you. And watch out for sharks and sirens as well."

"Sirens?" I asked out of curiosity. I've read about them in English class but never understood their concept.

"Sirens are deadly sea creatures that will sing to feed off of your negativity. The more negatively you endure, the more powerful their voices become. Two things could happen; controlling you or eating you up like any other sea creature. But sirens do not exist beyond this part of the sea, so you don't have to worry. They are only on the western side of Equestria in Siren Cove," Coco informed me. "A reminder if you are ever in Vanhoover, make sure to avoid that island altogether. Once the sirens start singing, you're done for."

"Thank you for the tips Coco," I said to her. "I will definitely make sure to avoid Siren Cove as much as I can if I am ever in Vanhoover. I already know that an author lives there by the name of A.K. Yearling."

"The author of Daring Do," She confirmed. "Rainbow Dash told me about it at your birthday party. She is lucky that she got to meet somepony famous for that book series. I already know a few famous ponies though so I'm not jealous."

I turn back towards my food and take in another bite from one of the pieces of buttered toast, even taking off a piece of cooked egg white and eating that as well. After they were swallowed down, I continue "Just a reminder to myself to make sure to get a swim suit ready when we go." I have that easy-going smile on my face when I said this.

"That's alright Brayden," She says to me. "The beach is just that short a distance away, plus it is close to the boardwalk we had dinner on last night."

"Also, what do you have in mind for dinner tonight?" I asked.

"Well," Coco says, fiddling the both of her two front hooves together. She was smiling as she did this. "I was thinking about the usual garden salad and tomato soup with garlic bread."

I nod my head with a smile. "Sounds like you've got dinner planned out then."

"Oh, it's not just that, but I think I will have some soft sounds play for us both." Coco said. She holds the both of her hooves and is looking at me.

"Music?" I asked with that sly smile I form. "Sounds like it'll be nice and smooth from what I heard last time. Anything else planned for tonight?"

"I'm not sure what else I have planned for tonight. I mean we could always sit at the couch and watch the fireplace together." She says.

I smile with a small happy chuckle emerging from my lips and reach for her right front hoof, gently taking it in my hand. "I'm sure you'll find out later." I told her in a gentle tone. The both of us rock our hand and hoof back and forth whilst still held onto one another, gazing at each other in the eye. I could see those beautiful cyan eyes of hers sparkle a bit, and my heart was beating faster.

Only the sound of the furnace softly blowing air was heard in the apartment along with the muffled sounds of birds outside chirping a happy tune for everypony all to hear. It filled into the happy silence that came on between the both of us. Moments were passing by us and I cannot stop staring into those lovely eyes of hers. Coco lowers her head a bit, but keeps her eyes locked between my sight and hers. I could tell she only seemed a little bit shy. It didn't matter to me though. With her head tilted down, it served as another cute look that she was giving me.

I leaned forward towards her slowly, getting off of my chair in the process. My lips gently make contact with her forehead and I give her a gentle, passionate peck there. After moving my head back, her left front hoof touches the bottom of her chin and she is smiling. My hand gently rubs a bit of her soft hoof that I held onto for what seemed like 10 hours endless had gone by while the last of that gaze continues to linger between the both of us for a few moments.

"Brayden?" She asked with that sweet soft voice of hers. My hand continues to rub at her soft and gentle hoof when she was spoke to me.

"Yes?" I questioned in return, wondering what she was going to say.

"Aren't you going to finish up breakfast? I well know that I have the same to do as well. I mean, I don't want you to starve." Coco said. She sounded a little worried by the sound of her voice.

I let go of her soft hoof and nod at her to let her know that I would comply. Coco seemed to be right after all, don't want to repeat another incident of me fainting in on the spot, though I only recall fainting at least two times for the time that I have been here. So I just turn back towards the food on my plate without a fuss in my mind, and get right back to it by picking up my knife and fork, carving out a piece of egg white to chew down on.

---

I let out a sound of relief and take a look down at my plate that had been scraped clean all thanks to me. Great Celestia, those eggs and toast were just as good as every time that I had woken up when the sun was peaking up over the Eastern horizon. Surely, I wouldn't get eggs and toast every morning, but I was alright with any kind of breakfast food. I place the fork and knife onto the top of my plate to signal to Coco that I was all done.

"That was delicious." Coco commented, placing her fork and knife onto her own plate with her hooves just as I did for mine.

I get up off of my chair at the table gain to gather up the both of our plates to bring them to the kitchen counter by the sink. I take my empty plate with my right hand, and reach for Coco's plate with my left hand, gripping the plate, but not too hard. I move around with the plates in the both of my hands and walk towards the kitchen counter. Setting each plate down onto the hard-tiled counter of dark green, I turned on the sink with warm water to come flowing through the tap and I begin to wash away at the white plates, placing them into the sink along with the silverware that Coco set up after she made the food. I was just cleaning it up and hers as well. I use the bottle of dish-soap and gently pour out its blue liquid all over the two plates that needed washing.

I can hear the sound of trotting behind me approaching and I allow myself to stop washing with that yellow sponge in my hand for a moment to turn and look at Coco who was coming up beside me. I moved a bit to the side and allowed her to join alongside me in case she wanted to help me out with the dishes.

"Brayden, you know… I can take care of the plates. You can go and get the swimsuit ready if you wish." Coco says to me, softly taking the sponge from my hands.

I look in her eyes with a bit of a happy touch to them. "Oh Coco, you don't have to do that. I can wash and dry the plates unless you want to help me." I said to her, feeling blessed that she would want to help me with her own plates.

"Oh, it's okay. I can do them myself." She said once again, sounding even determined in that soft voice of hers.

I nod in understanding and take a step back from the kitchen sink and counter to let Coco some space in to finish up on what I was doing. I turn around from the kitchen and make my way straight back into the hallway. The first door on my left is to the guest bedroom where I knew my stuff was, so I approach the white door, take a grip onto the knob with my left hand and open up the bedroom.

I was quick to open up the drawer by the door, but made sure that the door was closed behind me. I look through the drawer and check to see which swimsuit I would wear. My hand grips onto a certain pair that was in the brilliant colors of even a few shades of grey and yellow. I am quick to change out of my pyjamas and into my swimsuit. I carefully tie the knot on my swimsuit to make sure that it stayed put: would be embarrassing if it were to fall.

After checking over the rest to make sure that the suit was legit, I stepped forward back to the bedroom door and open it. The hallway is lit by the rays of Celestia's sun from outside the windows in the blue and clear sky today. The temperature seemed to be a little hot today, so it seems like summer weather to me. Better to enjoy it when I can, when the fall hits it will become much colder. Minus the fact that winter is my absolute favorite season.

I step out into the hallway and I close the door right behind me and make my way by the few steps back into the living room. Coco was standing there, checking over her saddlebags to see if she was missing anything else to bring with us. For this occasion, she wasn't wearing her tie that she usually did, nor was she wearing the hairclip at the back of her mane. Her tie was hanging up on the small hook at the coat wardrobe right behind it and it was a single hook alone.

"Are you ready to go, Coco?" I said to her. I gently approach her carefully and gently put my hand on her back when she turned and looked at me.

She smiled softly, saying "Yes Brayden. I just had to check over in case we were missing anything, but we're not."

I gently rub her back for a brief moment and then move my right hand off of her, approaching the front door of her apartment and reach forward, gripping onto the handle with my left hand and gently turn it, opening the door into the building's hallway. I of course as usual, do the honor of letting Coco go past before me as the rule of 'Mares first'. I then come back after her and close the door right behind me.

Coco takes her room key and locks the door. Finally when she has put it away hidden from view, the both of us head to the elevator and down onto the main floor. On the elevator, me and her would stand there and maintain the silence between the both of us. But there was something different about this silence, me and her were just merely gazing at each other and even looking at her sweet face made my happy heart skip a beat.

Bidding the mare at the front desk good morning as usual, me and Coco took a step outside into the streets of the Manehattan suburbs to greet the new day. I take in a short breath of fresh air through my lungs and then exhale it slowly and softly. It was that good air of Equestria that I really enjoyed whenever I was outside. Taking the steps down from that small concrete staircase to the streets, I and Coco were on the same sidewalk that we took yesterday, but it was the opposite around as we were heading towards the beachside view.

Coco was trotting beside me on the way and I can feel her soft hoof touch the top of my left hand. I gently move and open up a bit of my left hand allowing her to hold my hand with her right front hoof. My fingers gently curl around her hoof and I use them to smoothly rub at it. The both of us, just about cross a street as my eyes are more focused on what is happening ahead or behind us rather than with my own hand, though I knew what it was doing.

Coco was rather comfortable holding onto my hand. She was already a bit closer towards me as I walked closer towards the wooden deck of small steps that would bring us onto the golden sands of the Manehattan beach. Crossing another street crosswalk, we would find ourselves on the right side of where we needed to go. A few mares trotted right past us and they would be talking to each other as I suspect they were probably friends in the group.

My two bare feet step onto the wooden planks, softly heard padding onto its rough surface. Coco's hooves click onto their surface. We are just on the decks with an observation of the sea of Equestria and what seemed to be mysteriously beyond it. Regardless, I was there to touch the calm waters of the sea as I have never touched it before in my life. I make my way down the wooden steps of this fragile, but much-carefully well done staircase, just placing my right foot onto the sand.

The sand felt dry and soft with a touch of warm temperatures from the sun shining its rays down upon the grain. The step I took there was certainly feeling like that my foot was sinking in, but would be stopped by the heavy amount of sand below the top.

A couple of steps were taken for my two feet to get used to the almost-burning sensation that the sands were giving off, but I did soon get used to how hot that the sand far close to the surface could be rather than near the shores. Coco trots alongside me, still carrying the two saddlebags around her. The both of us are close by the waters and wet sands on a careful spot where none would get wet. I of course, helped to point out and suggest that safe spot.

Coco takes off the two saddlebags and opens up the one on the right side of her. She digs into the bag and pulls out a large beach towel fit for the both of us. While I open up the other saddlebag to take out the umbrella, she rolls out the towel onto the warm sand and pats a few parts of it softly so that it is not too bumpy for the both of us to lie down on. I find the umbrella and take it out, setting it open to let us both lie in the shade of the umbrella to protect us from the UV rays that could put me at risk of sunburn.

"Thank you for setting up the umbrella Brayden." Coco says to me with a tone of appreciation, putting on a soft smile when I came to join her.

I come up next to her and bend down on my two knees to gently put my legs down to relax them on the gentle and soft towel. After bending down, I leaned back and allowed the both of my legs to stretch out. Coco lowers and takes a gentle seat next and right close beside me. The both of us turn and look at one another while the sounds of seagulls sounding with the gentle waves stirring fill the ambience with the faint noise of ponies on the beach interacting with their friends or just taking a swim in the waters.

"So…" She says to me, keeping a faint smile. Something was on her lovely mind.

"So?" I asked, waiting to start a conversation with her.

"I just got another letter from my boss. He's been working on another production in Bridleway and I can begin designing some costumes for that play in just about two days, so you'll be leaving tomorrow from what I am thinking, right?" She told me and asked with question in her tone.

"Oh yes, I was here to spend a few days with you. But I plan to make tonight special for you." I said to her. I gently moved the top of my right hand and gently caress her cheek. Her eyes turn towards my hand and the color of her cheeks turn an absolute blush pink.

"You… you would?" She said, sounding rather relieved and happy at the same time. "I- I was also wanting your last night's visit here to be special for the both of us as well." The both of her hooves shuffle together.

"I would." I said to her, smiling in her warm and loving presence.

Coco moves closer towards me. The right side of my body was in contact with hers right next to me. Her right front hoof gently takes my left hand and is touching the top of it. She seems to be much closer to me as her heavenly beautiful eyes are staring into my brown eyes. I just keep myself from looking away from her.

I gently moved my right hand around her soft neck and carefully pull her towards me with that smile still on my face. My eyes close and I could feel those soft lips of hers making contact with my own as we were locked together, sharing a kiss amongst ourselves. After that, comes another and I can feel my heart inside pounding heavily with happiness flowing through it. I can feel her moving closer towards me and my head and upper body lying down onto the beach towel.

While sharing the gentle kiss, I moved my left hand that she had been touching and move it around her waist. I move my other arm and hand around her waist as well. A few moments passed while the both of us were kissing passionately between one another. We separate our lips from one another and I open my eyes to see her opening her eyes to reveal those lovely cyan eyes again.

Coco stimulates a giggle from her mouth and says to me "Well, I didn't know you were really good at kissing others."

"I guess that is a part of who I am as a compassionate, but rather sometimes shy person who gets that way by acting nervous," I told her with a smile. "But I think you reminded me of someone I knew."

"Back from where you were from," Coco says to me. She gently puts a hoof onto my mouth. "I know. She was probably a good friend to you, but nothing formed out of it, just friends for both her and you."

Ah yes, good memories came and went quickly through my head of what me and her had done together. Me and her were only out as friends to see a movie, but other than that the both of us were school friends. She would contact me as much as she could, but sometime after the calls would stop and I would often wonder what was up. But with my absence from Earth, I hope that she is doing okay.

"Brayden," Coco catches my attention again with her voice that was filled with grace. "I just wanted to let you know that as much as I love you, take your time and devotion to your special somepony Twilight. You can come and see me anytime if you are feeling down."

I gently stroke the back of her soft and silky mane. "You definitely know how to cheer up a stallion, though I am only a man according to my world I came from." I told her.

Coco gets up onto her four hooves and trots over to the saddlebag behind her. Reaching into it, she pulls out some grapes that she had from her fridge as a bit of a snack with a few bottles of apple juice, one of my personal favorite drinks. She places the bag to her mouth to carry it, as she didn't want to spread germs on the plastic bag that the grapes were in. She placed the two bottled drinks onto her back and I keep a close eye on her as she trots back towards me to offer them to me.

"I brought some snacks for the both of us. I didn't want you to dehydrate here, so I brought apple juice along with some grapes." She says to me, after she placed the bag of grapes onto the top of my right leg.

"Thank you Coco." I said to her with appreciation in my voice.

"Anytime." She stated to me as she placed the first bottle next to me and trotted back towards the saddlebag she got the grapes from to take out another bag of grapes for her to munch on.

I sat up and moved my right hand, grabbing the small bag of grapes and picking up the bottle of apple juice. I open up the bag and take out a small green and fresh grape that was dripping with water to stay preserved. I place it into my mouth and chew onto it, from it splits inside my mouth as I ate. After swallowing down that single grape, I take my bottle of apple juice and take the lid off the top. I place the top to my lips, taking a swig of golden colored apple juice.

Coco sat there, also taking a sip from her bottle and taking a few grapes to chew. My eyes focused on her for a bit to keep a close and ever-watchful eye on my second love. Finally, my eyes wander and turn from her sight, moving to my left.

I could see quite a small crowd gathering around a stage that had been set up on the beach. Quite a crowd had been gathering around the stage before them and there was a big screen being displayed before their eyes with a flag above it that said "Manehattan Open Mic Beach Day". Hmmm, karaoke you say? Well, as much as Coco has heard me sing before, this would probably give me a chance to sing a song that is directed towards her. I pretty much had that in mind for that is what I wanted to do. But whoever was coming up on stage to perform, I would have to ask them if I could do a song.

"What's happening over there Brayden?" Coco asked behind me, catching my attention again.

I turned around to take a look at her curious face. "It's a stage being set up for an open mic," I explained to her. "So whoever is coming up is going to perform some music for everypony here."

"Are you interested in going over there to see what's going on?" Coco asked me. In response to her question, I nod my head with a smile. "Alright Brayden. Be careful over there, I'll be here watching. Don't worry as well, I will keep an eye on your snacks."

"Thanks Coco." I said to her, moving my head towards her and gently press my lips on hers, sharing a gentle peck. After that peck, I move my head away from her and get up onto my two feet and proceed to walk over there to join with the crowd.

My two feet walk across the grains of sand heading over to the side of the stage where I was the second in line for ponies who wanted to get up on stage and sing to the lively crowd of stallions and mares. The one in front of me was a mare who seemed to look rather confident about getting up on stage to sing for everyone with the band backing her up. From what I saw in the crowd… there was no fillies or young colts. I must have figured that it was probably a school day and that they were in the Manehattan School building doing their work on Mathematics or Science, just about anything there.

The guard standing by the line-up allows her to go first on stage. I take a look behind me while I was next to be the first in line, behind me were a couple of other stallions and singers who probably had a talent of singing, but I saw a few others who looked really nervous about performing in front of their friends and seemed like they were going to pass out, though they wouldn't.

Music blares past the stage and into the crowd. I was watching the mare in green as she was singing an up-beat and happy song about life in general whilst everypony in the crowd was lightly bobbing their head up and down. Even I was bobbing my head up and down while listening. Judging from what I was hearing her sing, she sounded rather crisp and had an excellent voice. This music that I was hearing sounded very acoustic with a small bit of rockabilly to it.

Her song eventually ended and I watched as she came off the stage with the band improvising a bit on some music to keep the crowd entertained. The guard in front of the line steps to the side and I am allowed to head up onto the stage to meet up with the other band members, and tell them about my song to Coco.

I walked forward towards the wooden steps and I take my time not to rush up there as I don't want to trip and fall. It would end up making a bad impression on me. On the top of the stage, everypony in the crowd pauses for a moment when they see me on stage. Somepony different among them going to perform; I take a look of them, with the small hidden emotion that they did not approve. A few seconds later, the audience began to cheer.

"So, what song do you want to perform?" I could hear the pony on synth ask me.

I turned to the sound of his deep but rather amusing voice and I could see him standing there accompanied by the synth piano board that was standing in front of him, below. I approached him carefully and move my head close to his ear, whispering the name of the song and how it was played so in musical theory terms that he would understand.

"I see," he says to me and turns to the other members, saying the song's name to them. They give a nod of agreement and the synth playing stallion turns back to me. "Alright then, everything's good."

He then pointed his left front hoof towards the microphone on its stand in the centre of the stage. I walk with steadiness and a little bit of nervousness inside of me as this would be my second time ever singing to an audience that wasn't too big. I would already be nerve-wrecked if I wasn't prepared for an audience that bigger if it was as humongous as a stadium.

Finally, I gulped my fear of stage fright and decided to take the courage as this audience is more rather around a small to almost moderate size. Coco sits there on the beach towel far from the crowd, just anticipating for me to start singing. Taking the microphone from the stand with my left hand, my right hand gives out the signal to the band right behind to start playing.

The stallion makes a little fill-in with the toms and breaks right into the intro of the song. The saxophone then plays a small melody that just about put smiles on the audience's faces. The bassist starts playing those deep sounds from the plucking that the strings made and vibrate. After that intro with the synth even backing up, I faced the audience. Taking a deep breath, I began singing into the microphone.

We're no strangers to love

You know the rules, and so do I

A full commitment's what I'm thinking of

You wouldn't get this from any other guy

I just want to tell you how I'm feeling

Got to make you understand

Never gonna give you up

Never gonna let you down

Never gonna run around and desert you

Never gonna make you cry

Never gonna say goodbye

Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

We're known each other for so long

Your heart's been aching but, you're too shy to say it

Inside we both know what's been going on

We know the game and we're, gonna play it

And if you ask me how I'm feeling

Don't tell me you're too, blind to see

Never gonna give you up

Never gonna let you down

Never gonna run around and desert you

Never gonna make you cry

Never gonna say goodbye

Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

Never gonna give you up

Never gonna let you down

Never gonna run around and desert you

Never gonna make you cry

Never gonna say goodbye

Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

Never gonna give, Never gonna give

Never gonna give, Never gonna give

We're known each other for so long

Your heart's been aching but, you're too shy to say it

Inside we both know what's been going on

We know the game and we're, gonna play it

I just want to tell you how I'm feeling

Got to make you understand

Never gonna give you up

Never gonna let you down

Never gonna run around and desert you

Never gonna make you cry

Never gonna say goodbye

Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

Never gonna give you up

Never gonna let you down

Never gonna run around and desert you

Never gonna make you cry

Never gonna say goodbye

Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

When the song ended, everypony just about stood there with their mouths gaping all the way open in complete shock from my singing. A few seconds pass and everypony starts to bring her hooves together, beginning to clap slowly. The speed of their clapping began to accelerate to become faster and their mouths closed, formed smiles of being entertained by me. Yes, I did a good job but I don't have the most perfect voice in all of Equestria. I can hear cheering from a few other stallions and mares in the audience.

"Thank you." I said to the audience through the microphone with a smile. I walk right back up to the stand and gently place the microphone back into its place for the next one in line wanting to sing for the audience. I take my leave through the right side of the stage.

I make my way back towards the spot where Coco was waiting for me to return. On the beach towel under the umbrella she lay, bearing a very joyed and warm smile on her face when she saw me approaching her. I take my two bare feet from the sands of golden grain and step the both of them back onto that soft and warm towel. I got down onto the both of my knees, positioning myself closer to her.

"What did you think?" I said to her, sounding gentle. "I sang that song for you as a dedication to you."

Coco makes a very sweet face and then stands up slightly onto all four of her hooves. She leans back a bit and I do not know what would be coming next. She just about pounced playfully onto me, knocking me down onto the towel with my head making soft impact, but it wasn't going to be damaged. If it was harder, then yes it would probably be the risk of a concussion. And I don't want to risk a concussion, so thank goodness there was sand below the carpet as a pillow.

While she was on top of me, her smooth lips were pressing down onto my own soft lips. I move my two arms and wrap one around her body and the arm closer to her head with my hand gently making contact with her soft two-tone coloured mane. Her eyes were closed while she was kissing me and I began to close my eyes as well. I feel so happy.

The both of her hooves are pressed down onto my chest, but it doesn't hurt me as they feel calm and have a more relaxed feel. My right hand began to gently stroke at her mane. Even though I had the both of my eyes closed, I could tell that her face was already light pink as she was happy in my presence as well as how I was happy when she was near.

She takes my lips off of mine and I can feel her cheek brush and nuzzle passionately against my right cheek. She whispers in my ear "That song was the best thing that you could dedicate to me."

I open my eyes and take a look at whilst my right hand still strokes her gentle mane. I turn my head to the right, facing her cheek. I move my head forward, placing a soft peck onto her cheek. She moves her head back a bit and takes a look at me. Her cheeks are alit and she bears a happy smile upon her lips.

A few moments pass from the both of us gazing at each other, then Coco moves off from the top of me. I get back up, but let the two of my legs relax again. I take the small bag of grapes and bottle of sweet apple juice again and began to eat away at a few bits of watered seedless grapes with the swigs of tasteful apple juice purified for the sake of it all. Coco sits beside me with hers and she would once in a while, place her left front hoof onto my right hand to keep me relaxed. Couple of times, I would share my grapes with her when she ran out of grapes. But while she remained quiet, she looked rather beautiful lying down under the sun.

A small bad memory crosses me though and I turn away from looking at her. My smile slowly fades and I have a quiet and rather sad look on my face. It was the memory back on Earth that I once mentioned to Coco in Canterlot. It was about that one girl that I had a crush on, but she rejected me. I took it too seriously though and began acting a bit overly attached. It faded, but I would always remember this as something bad that happened to me, scarring me those days.

"Brayden?" Coco said to me sounding concerned, placing her soft hoof onto my right hand again. "Are you okay?"

I turned to look at her, to which she had a mildly worried look on her face. Her soft hoof gently rubs the top of my right hand. My eyes are set upon her for a few moments, and then turn away from her. I didn't want her to know how miserable I was back in the day. "I-I am not sure if I want to talk about it Coco." I told her.

"Brayden…" I could hear her say. I can feel a bit of her hoof turning softly as she is much closer to me, facing me. "I know you're afraid to tell me, but I will understand. Please… tell me what it is."

I let out a sigh. I wasn't going to escape this without telling why I looked sad to her, was I? I just about have admitted defeat and decided to let out my feelings. "You know how I told about when I was back on Earth and liked a girl there?" I asked her.

"Oh yes," She says. A look of question still is crossed on her face. "But why are you thinking about that? Is there something about it that I don't really know? You can tell me and I will listen."

I look at her still with that face of sadness upon my face. "It's a bad memory that has stuck with me ever since it happened to me. It wasn't my fault that I couldn't understand that she had someone else in her heart. I eventually just snapped and became all violent because of this anger inside that couldn't handle the depression. Eventually, some people told me to leave her alone. I couldn't let go. I was being such a fool to even follow that girl. She was beautiful and if…"

A loose tear formed in my left eye and began to crawl down from the cheek. "If I hadn't been so stupid and just didn't think so badly about her, I wouldn't have gotten in that mess. She didn't talk with me anymore, and it was my entire fault. She was a great friend and I wanted that just like her. But I- I was a different person back then, letting what disability I've been born with affect what anger I've unleashed. I've hurt one of my own, and I shall regret that one moment forever until the day I-"

"Stop it!" Coco said to me with worry in her voice. She throws the both of her hooves around me and her cheek gently touches my right cheek. She was giving me a hug and even I could then notice about the loose tear that had fallen from my eye.

The both of us were silent the entire time when she was hugging me. The moments that passed felt like medicine when I felt her soft cheeks next to mine. I move my head a bit to allow myself to gently nuzzle her gentle cheek. She doesn't let go, but she moves her head to look at me.

"Brayden," She began with a bit of confident courage arisen in her tone. "What you did back then was all just a mistake. We all make them by accident. You might not able to go back in time to change your past, but you can always change your future for a good one."

"I've made too many mistakes back on Earth," I told her. "It would be stupid if I made a single big mistake here in Equestria, and I don't want to do that, though I fear that I will."

"And I assure you that you won't," She says to me, placing her hoof onto my mouth to silence me gently when I was finished talking. "Never say that you will remember that memory forever until your time has come to go. It makes me sad to see you miserable from those thoughts you think. Now you need to promise me that you won't let those memories get into the way from now on."

"But it will be too hard…" I said to her, lowering my head to look down.

Coco moves her hoof to the bottom of my chin. She moves it up to have my eyes make contact with those beautiful cyan eyes of hers. "It's not too hard if you trust your friends." She says, bearing a warm and comforting smile. She moves her head towards mine and gives me a passionate kiss on the top of my forehead.

Those dark past thoughts that I have been experiencing for those few minutes begin to fade away from the love that Coco Pommel was giving me to make me feel better. Though they won't ever leave my memory and that I will still remember, I can remember my two special someponies and friends in Equestria can help me out to make it feel better. If Twilight does in fact, find out about me and Coco's secret love. I just hoped that she wouldn't take it too harshly. It is what I fear that she will become mad at me.

"I think Twilight told me something like when I was that upset, but you haven't seen me that upset." I said; still calm and wiping the running tear from my cheek.

Being in the comfort of Coco's love had made it hard for me to get that upset. As she as shy was, she definitely knew how to make me feel better. Besides that small problem that I seemed to reflect back to, I didn't have to worry about anything now that I am here in a different place away from all of my troubles I lived through. I don't even have to worry about tonight.

---

A sunset could be seen peeking out over the sky, allowing the day to make way for the oncoming night of beauty to come through. The moon was still hidden by the window of the guest bedroom that I am looking through to observe this wonderful sunset to bring an end to another good day in Manehattan. I am wearing light-blue jeans with a black plain shirt on me, all prepared and waiting for supper to finish being made.

It was tonight as I had predicted. Outside of the bedroom, I could hear the smooth and gentle sounds of soft jazz music playing in the living room that would extend to the kitchen where I can hear the sounds of Coco Pommel's hooves. My eyes are still drawn towards the sunset. The window is closed and there is no wind gust tonight that I can hear blowing on the windowpane.

The sound of her hooves moves from the kitchen towards the guest bedroom door, and she gives a few knocks on my door. "Brayden?" Her sweet and soft voice calls to me. "Dinner is ready."

I turned away from the windowpane and towards the white door across from the room. "I'm coming!" I called back to her in return. I step from the window and towards the door.

My right hand grips onto the door handle and I give it a turn. The door opens up. I move my head to take a peek into the room. My goodness, it looked rather prepared and really professional as it were a big party, but much smaller. More solely like a private party made for employees from a workplace. I slide right through the open arch of the door and pull the door towards me from behind, closing the door behind me.

I make my way down the small hallway and turn around the corner, placing the entire kitchen into my view. In the centre of the wooden table, I could see the glass vase filled with a wonderful looking bouquet of red roses that had put in and included water at the bottom for me and her to see. The white bowls were filled with that delicious liquid that I could recognize as tomato soup by its delicious smell that came from them. Among them was the garlic bread in those rectangular shapes I recognized and knew too well. Another white plate of salad leaves and fruits are on the right side from the main entrée. Then, I turn my eyes to see Coco.

There she was, putting her side plate of her salad onto her side of the table right beside me. Just looking at her, she looked really gorgeous. She bears a non-shining but glimmering ruby dress that covered the rest of her except her head and hooves. After putting the last of her three dishes filled with dinner onto the table, she turns her head and looks at me with those attractive eyes of hers. A warm and comforting smile appears on her face. She trots over to my chair, gripping onto the bottom of the chair with a hoof, pulling it back to open a spot for me to sit at the table.

I step a few feet forward towards her with a soft smile forming upon my own mouth. Moving closer, my hand grips onto the top of the chair and I take my seat at the table. Coco was standing next to me, both of us gazing at each other. "You look… beautiful, Coco," I told her in that complimenting tone. "It seems that you have planned everything carefully after all."

Coco fiddled the both of her front hooves together and a warm tone of blush appears upon her cheeks. "Oh… thank you Brayden." She told me. She turns around for a moment to take a seat at her chair. After she took her seat in the chair next to me, the both of us look at each other again.

I look away from her for a moment to observe my food up close and how well done it was made. "Looks like you did a splendid job making this." I commented. I take the shining silver spoon that sits next to the bowl with my right hand. Moving the spoon into the red soup, I take out a sample onto the spoon and take a sip of it from my mouth.

GREAT CELESTIA! That felt really hot and it felt like my tongue was on fire. I am quick enough to swallow the soup sample and reach for the near glass of water that is on my side. I move the glass cup towards my lips and open them up slightly to take a drink of cold and refreshing water to cool down the heat. Not only did I end up getting bruises yesterday thanks to Suri, I now had almost burnt my own tongue, though it was not too serious.

"Are you okay Brayden?" Coco said to me, sounding a little bit concerned. I turn the glass of water away from my mouth and set it onto the table, turning to her and taking slow breaths as I nodded to her. "I almost forgot to remind you that you should be careful when you are taking a sip of the tomato soup. Be sure to give careful and gentle blows to cool it down."

I nod again for that slight moment. I take the spoon that I had placed into my bowl and scoop out another sample. Feeling the little steam of that red hot soup, I use my mouth and gently blow out some wind to cool it down for a bit. When I had blown out all that I could, I placed the spoon of soup into my mouth for a sip.

The soup tasted much better than it was before because it was really steaming. It tasted really good and I could feel the saliva inside of my mouth tasting the buds of the soup. I gently swallow it down and place the spoon onto the plate it was accompanied by. I take a slice of garlic bread, placing it into my mouth to which I gnaw onto a piece of it, tearing out from the slice it was from. I can feel the saliva move around in my mouth to cover up the piece of garlic bread and help mush it down with the help of my teeth. When it had been grinded down, I swallow it down.

I turn my head for a moment to take a look at Coco. She is turned her focus towards eating dinner, and I can see her taking in a few healthy salad leaves to munch on with a few of the strawberries accompanied by them that sounded rather soft when she chewed into it. After a bite from the salad leaves she got and swallowed down, she takes her spoon with her hoof as carefully as she can. The spoon slips from her hoof and ends up back on the bowl's side letting out a small sharp ring. It didn't really hurt our ears though as it sounded more like a ding as if somepony was making a toast.

"Would you like some assistance Coco?" I asked her, scooting closer towards her with my chair.

She turned to me, that same warm smile emerged upon her face. "Of- Of course you can." She said to me with the usual soft-spoken tone in her sweet voice. Normally she looked more meek than usual, but something about me must have made her happy and rather joyed.

I move my hand towards her spoon and carefully grip onto it. I move the spoon into the soup that was cooling down after being on top of the stove and take a sample of that nice and rich tomato soup. I move it closer to Coco and she gently blows it before I moved it towards her mouth. Her mouth opens up and she takes a careful sip from the spoon.

Moments after taking a sip, she gulped it down and I move the spoon back to her bowl for another sample of soup.

A few spoonful amounts of her soup are gone by and her bowl is just about almost empty by the look from it. "Don't worry about the rest Brayden, I can take care of that. I've got the other sides to worry about." She told me, placing her right hoof gently onto the top of my left hand. After a few moments, she takes it off from my hand and goes back to eating her dinner.

I turned back towards my food and turn my attention towards a bit of the salad leaves and varied small fruit that lie among them. I take the silver fork located near that small plate and place them into the fresh leaves. A few of the small leaves and mixtures of blueberries and strawberries get onto my fork. I moved the fork towards my slightly opened mouth and slide the fork right out, chewing the mixtures of salad leaves and the small fruits accompanying it.

After a couple of bites for the nutrition of these wonderful greens and fruits, I swallowed it down and reach for my glass of water, taking a swig of that clear liquid still fresh. I then put down the glass of water and go for another sample of warm tomato soup. Samples of garlic bread dipped in with the tomato soup also brought a great taste to me for something that I have never planned to try before and it was delicious.

After a couple of bites into my salad, it was all done and all that was left from that were mostly the juices from the fruits that had gone loose from them, but it wasn't a biggie because I could just place the dish into the dishwasher when I am all done eating. I take a couple spoonful of that soup until was just about a thin state that was left to the bowl that I could drink out from. I gather another piece of garlic bread and dip it into the tomato soup, before placing it into my mouth. There was only one more piece of garlic bread. I place my hand onto the garlic bread and swipe it into my mouth, chewing it down gently into the mush that they would become. I swallow it down and drink from the rest of bowl for the tomato soup.

My dinner was finished and to top it off, I was really satisfied with how well dear sweet Coco beside me had been. Though she was quiet most of the time, I think I know what was coming up next on the list for our final night of my visit. I take one last drink of clear water from the glass cup and place it onto the table.

"I am all finished Coco." I said, turning my head to look at the mare beside me.

She put a smile on her face. "Funny, we both finished at the same time." She told me, getting a napkin and wiping her face from the leftover tomato soup around her mouth. After cleaning up her face, she hands me a clean napkin.

I end up cleaning my face and then silently offered to bring the dishes into his dishwasher which she accepted as a mare should not do these things by herself. I opened up the dishwasher and place the dishes in, making sure that they had stood up in the right order and were assigned to the right place in the dishwasher. Checking one more time to make absolutely sure, I close up the dishwasher and turn to look at Coco from a different direction.

Coco was already seated over by the leather couch and a smile was upon her face as she waited patiently for me. The fireplace over by the white wall was softly alit with the warm sparks that seemed rather warm. Luckily, this fireplace was safe and would not pose a risk. I took a few steps to leave the kitchen and make my way over into the living room. I walk around the couch and bent down on my back, taking a seat at the couch next to Coco whilst we observed the silent but occasionally crackling flames inside of the fireplace.

In the silence of those moments, I could hear Coco moving a bit on the couch. Then I can feel her move next to me. I turned my head to the left to look at her and looked somewhat both surprised and happy, as she was right next to me with her head resting upon my shoulder.

With her head resting upon her shoulder, I can feel myself moving my left hand and gently taking her right hoof and holding onto it. She moves her hoof and begins to gently share with her hoof in holding my hand. The sounds of soft jazz with the accompanied saxophone in the music really began to bring out a spark between the both of us.

I turned a part of my body to the left to face her. Her head moves up to look at me, and I can see the beauty within her cyan eyes that she had looking at me. My other hand moves forward and is placed upon her soft mane, giving it gentle and calm strokes for the both of us. She keeps her smile and she moves her head forward towards as I move towards her as well.

The both of us began to share a gentle kiss on each other's lips. My right hand continues to stroke at her soft mane whilst my left hand and arm move around her body to softly embrace. After releasing our lips from each other, she gently presses her lips onto mine again and my eyes are closed while this is happening. In the silence of love and kissing, I can feel the both of her hooves moving around my body as in a heartwarming embrace. Our lips continued to press against one another, and made sure that I was softly breathing through my nose.

I was gently pushed backwards onto the pillow on the side of the couch; my head was resting upon it as Coco remained to have her gentle lips onto my own. These kisses that I felt were rather passionate and it felt really romantic on my end. But in other words, this kind of kisses felt deeper and felt like it was trying to go in a different direction. This passionate kissing that the both of us were sharing was starting to become… as if me and Coco were beginning to 'make out'.

I definitely knew where making out would eventually go, and I knew that I was going to have to react as fast as possible to this before it led to something bad or worse: something I would regret big time. Twilight was already my special somepony so I needed to take it easy when this was a secret. It would be just in case I wanted to end up proposing to Twilight to marry me.

I stopped kissing Coco and move my head a bit slightly away from her to signal her attention. She tries to kiss me back at first then realizes that the both of my eyes are open and looking at her. "W-What is it Brayden?" She asked.

I sighed and moved my right arm, placing my right hand onto her soft mane again to gently stroke it. "Coco, I want to tell you something about going this far in the kissing stage," I said to her. "I say this because I think that we should both take it a little easy on it. Going a bit more far on it could result in… something else happening."

"Something else?" She questioned before picking up on where I was coming at. "Well, I get what you mean but it's just you and how wonderful you are."

"You are wonderful as well Coco," I said to her in a gentle and calm tone. "However, the reason why I think we should take it easy s because if it ends up going somewhere in that direction… I could easily get into trouble with my special somepony and it could end up not ruining this secret between us; but our friendship as well."

"I wouldn't be that concerned Brayden," She said to me. "Twilight still doesn't know about this, but even if she does I won't get mad at you. I would understand if she just wants you and me to be just 'friends', but we both would remember about this."

I moved my right hand from her mane and place it onto her soft right cheek to gently caress it slowly and for surely. "That won't stop me from sharing my love with you. You are a beautiful mare and you should be proud. No matter how quiet you can be, just remember me and you'll be able to stand up to face what challenge comes at you in your life." I told her.

Coco's cheeks lit up again and she stimulates a giggle. "Thanks…" She said softly.

I move my right hand around her body again in an embrace and began to softly kiss her again whilst closing my eyes. The sounds of slow jazz accompany us yet again in our love to one another. This moment felt heavenly just like feeling Twilight's lips on mine.

Coco releases the kiss from my lips and gently nuzzles the left side of my face. "I love you…" I can hear her whisper in my left ear.

"I love you too, Coco…" I whispered back to her in her right ear.

There were no more kisses after that. Most of the time after that was spent between the both of us gazing into each other's eyes and the occasional nuzzling of her cheeks and noses rubbing together. For me, I felt free from all the trouble that was accompanied in my life… for now. But I have both Twilight and Coco to love and help me bring something in I never experienced back on Earth. Nevertheless, it is sad that this evening had to end quickly.

After our cuddling session on the couch, Coco was beginning to a feel a little tired from our long day. After stimulating a yawn, I gently picked her up with the both of my hand as she was facing me and I carried her all the way to her bedroom. I placed her into bed, wishing her goodnight. I'm about to leave, but she invited me to sleep with her; no funny business promised. So I gathered my pyjamas and slipped back into her bed for the second time, falling asleep next to this beautiful mare.

---

I take a look among the few other stallions and mares with me whom gathered with me to wait for the Friendship Express to make way onto the railway tracks. Coco was standing right next and my right hand was holding onto her soft hoof; my other hand is carrying my luggage with all of my stuff. On me I am wearing the same thing that she knitted me for my birthday.

"I can't believe that was your last day to visit Brayden," Coco said to me sounding a bit surprised but disappointed at the same time. "I wish it could have been a bit longer."

"Aww, don't worry," I said to her, giving gentle strokes on her hoof with my own fingers. "Whenever you are in Ponyville visiting Rarity or any other break from your job; you can always see me anytime whenever you want to as long as you aren't busy."

"I know… but it just feels like time flew by when I was really enjoying it." Coco said to me, lowering her head a bit with shame.

I move my right hand that was holding her hoof and put it onto her chin gently, lifting it up to have her look at me. "Time flew by for me as well, but I really enjoyed my visit in Manehattan, but nothing can last forever but the good memories that come." I told her.

In the distance, I could hear the sound of train whistle roaring loudly as the Friendship Express had finally arrived with an en-route destination to Ponyville. The train began to pull up onto the station, slowing down to a complete stop. After making a complete stop, I could see a conductor step out from the train.

"ALL ABOARD!" He called out to let the others at the station know that the train had arrived.

After looking at the conductor, I turned back to Coco as I knew this goodbye would be something of worth for her. "Goodbye Coco," I said to her as my right hand takes her left front hoof and gently holds onto it. "Remember to come and visit me."

"I will…" Coco says to me before the both of us closed our eyes to give each other a gentle kiss on the lips and then a quick nuzzle. "I love you Brayden…"

"I love you too Coco." I said to her in what was close to a calm and nearly-gentle whisper.

After that we separated and I let go of Coco's hoof. I began to walk towards the train doors and the conductor made a smile towards me as he knew me from the first time I was heading up to Canterlot with Fluttershy to meet Princess Celestia. I walked through the train doors and I was the last one to enter in. I move past the hallways and into a private cabin with an open window that allowed me to take a look outside.

Coco stood there with a smile upon her face from outside the window. I close the cabin door behind me and move towards the window with my luggage in the cabin room on the soft beds that the Friendship Express provided. The both of us shared one more look at each other for the last time. It was only in those few moments of sweet enchantment until the train began to start up and move slightly as it would begin its journey back to Ponyville.

Coco moved her left front hoof upward and began to wave at me with a wink from her right eye. I waved right back to her just as the train was starting to move a bit faster to pick up some speed out of the station. That was the last I would see of her beautiful face for now until she came to visit me.

I was on my way home to Ponyville and I sat there on the bed inside the cabin thinking about everything I had done with Coco today and for those few days in Manehattan. It was such a fun time and she was a beautiful sweet mare. Twilight of course comes to mind about this and I just about placed my hand over my mouth covering the shock of what I had just done. Realization had struck me.

I had cheated on my special somepony, Twilight.

A/N: Another chapter for you all. :) You know what's next.

I also got the opportunity of seeing Nightwish for the second time with the same friend when I saw them for the first time back in September 2012, but we were in the far back. I swear next time by my own word that I will make sure I get VIP tickets to meet them, get a spot in front row or a few rows where I can see the band just fine. Sabaton and Delain opened for them.

Also, I've seen the first four episodes of Season 5! I knew that Starlight Glimmer was up to something, so I thought that there was a monster disguised as her like Queen Chrysalis did in the Season 2 finale. I was expecting Grogar to appear, but who knows. 'Castle Sweet Castle' was pretty good, and 'Bloom and Gloom' had the appearance of one of my favorite princesses, Luna. With the Smooze planning to appear in a few episodes later, it should get all interesting from there on. Next week is a Rainbow Dash episode called 'Tanks for the Memories'.

One more, SUMMER BREAK for me! That means I'll be able to write a little more often then I should. I really need to be careful of the writer's block and hiatuses though, they are quite overwhelming; even when I am still a college student.

Enough chit-chat now, Review Response Time!

sonic3461: Thank you. :) Glad you are enjoying the story.

Captain Alaska: Rick rolling is one of the oldest jokes in the Internet book. I couldn't resist myself.

Raven 105: Chapters 22 and 23 is where you'll find. It's kind of a little late to decide for conflict to arise for Tirek to start liking Twilight anyway, because it would eventually lead to him just draining her alicorn magic as a trick.

AntiVillain1: Tell me about it.

4theworldman: Well, I wouldn't count on that. Though I still have something in mind for when something like that happens.

jvs12: Thank you. :)

P.S. After hearing Ziltoid the Omniscient and Z2: Dark Matters, I have been listening to more Devin Townsend lately. He's a funny rock star and Ziltoid is a funny alien. Better go now and fetch that Ziltoidian the universe's ultimate cup of coffee, all black. Better make it perfect!

---

I slowly began to open my eyes to the sounds of chirping birds that were going about their day outside the slightly open window. My focus blurs a bit and I tilt my eyes closed for a bit because it was bright, but after my eyes got used to the brightness, so I opened them up again. A few blue birds were perched upon the branch of the oaken tree outside of the window.

I was back at Fluttershy's cottage after I had gone back home from Manehattan. Getting back home to Ponyville was quite the surprise, getting off at the train station; I had been surprised by the sound of Pinkie Pie and her party antics as usual that I really enjoyed. Each of my friends was there to welcome me back. I did ask Twilight what happened while I was gone and she gave off a smile and just about told me that I didn't want to know. I didn't want to know, hm? Well, alright then sweet Twilight. I got to spend some time with Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie for the remainder of my welcome home party until it was sun down. Then like usual, I head back to Fluttershy's cottage and head to sleep.

I slip right out of bed and as usual, begin to make my bed in the best tidy way that I can. It would leave a good impression on how neat I was in any way possible. After doing that, I walk briskly towards the drawer in the room, grabbing the handle that kept the drawer shut closed. Pulling it open, I grab a pair of white shorts with small striped cyan blue colors designed in with a short sleeved basic red t-shirt. I slip into them, with the exchange of my pyjamas heading right into the nearby laundry basket laid beside the drawer.

I walk swiftly towards the bedroom door, and moving my hand towards the knob, turning it swiftly and then pulling the door open. There I would be, entering the hallway of Fluttershy's cottage that I missed while I was away in Manehattan. At the bottom of the stairs is where the fresh scent of breakfast filled my nose. Approaching the stairs, I placed my hand onto the railing on the right side of the wall and began to descend downward towards the main floor, where I could hear the sounds of animals in her living room, squeaking and chattering quietly.

My left foot makes contact first with the wooden planked floor below me. I turn to my left towards the living room, looking at the animal friends of Fluttershy's just eating their normal everyday breakfast: a variety of acorns, nuts and a few healthy berries. Angel, her cute but somewhat bossy bunny rabbit, sits on the couch just munching on a juicy orange carrot and lying back on it as if he was living the good life that a good bunny rabbit should.

"Good morning Brayden," I can hear Fluttershy's voice call to me from the kitchen behind me. I turned back around, facing the kitchen and she was sitting there at the table by the window. She had a soft smile across on her mouth as those eyes just saw me and watched me briefly. She sounded rather happy to see me as she was every day and I already knew how happy I was to see my best friend. "You must have slept like a rock all the way through the night. You seemed rather tired out after that long party yesterday."

"Indeed," I said to her with a nod that definitely agreed with her. "That party must have dropped me right to sleep the second I got into bed."

"Well, I am glad that you had a fun time last night." She says to me.

On the table, breakfast was laid down carefully for my side. It was the bowl of those delicious nuts and berries that were just right with the crunchy green salad leaves inside of the wooden bowl. I took a seat at the table, seating myself and then feeling the essence of peace when I turned my eyes towards the window to see Celestia's rising sun over the eastern horizon to greet another new day. On the trail of clean-swept dirt, I could see on occasion a few or a group of fillies or young colts on their way for a new day to Ponyville's school.

There were a few familiar faces that I remembered that were on their way to school. A few familiar faces I saw were Twist, Snips, Snails and little Pipsqueak. A few of their parents would come along with them to accompany a few of those faces that came along the trail of beautiful nature. A few birds chirping a sweet song fly about in the air.

I turn towards the bowl of fruits, nuts and salad leaves and take the silver fork that laid to the right. I placed the fork into one of the fruits and nuts, gathering quite a few onto my fork including a part of the salad leaves that were lying about the bowl's sides. Fluttershy is eating away at her breakfast that was that of the same, but just with different types of nut, whilst the nuts that I had were soft and chewable; so I was rather okay with that. I will probably try out the nuts in her bowl one day, but for now because of my food pickiness, she understood that it would take a long time until I would like something new.

I slid the fork into my mouth and gently chew onto the mixtures of healthy foods. After they had been mashed up into much inside the interior of my mouth by my own white teeth, I swallowed it down for its journey into my stomach. I was making sure that I had to wipe my mouth with the napkin on the left side from my bowl just in case juices from one of the berries squirted a bit onto my face.

"Brayden?" I could hear Fluttershy say my name with a bit of a questioning tone in her voice. My eyes strayed from the sight of the bowl to look at her sitting there. A look of concern was upon her face. "I just want to point out that… umm, you seem to be a little bit more skinny than usual. I mean, no offense."

"None taken whatsoever," I said to her. But her concern is rather something that I have to agree with her about. I did notice how skinny I was becoming because I realized this from my visit in Manehattan, I was usually skinny, but it seems like I had lost only a bit of small weight. "I have to say though; it is funny because I am usually skinny."

"But you are not usually this skinny, Brayden." She said to me. "It just doesn't feel right, like something bad is going to happen to you sometime."

"At the moment, I look fine so you do not have to worry." I assured her, reaching over with my hand and gently placing my hand onto the top of her soft hoof. Fluttershy looks at my hand on top of her hoof laid out on the table. She looks back at me with a concerned look.

"A-anyways, I am guessing that you have a plan today?" She asks, dismissing entirely of how skinny I was and somewhere different.

"Yes," I said to her, moving my hand off of her hoof and my eyes focused back onto my food for the meantime to finish eating, making a bit of a pause. "For my plan today, I am going to bring the Song of Order with me to the green valley outdoors to train myself a little more should there be any enemies I face in future. After my training for the day, I will look around to find Rainbow Dash to see if she is up for me and her to talk."

"I see," Fluttershy said to me, taking a sip of her water inside her glass cup next to her bowl. "I am going to be out for the day as well. I promised my bunny rabbit Angel and Discord that I would take them both for a nature walk through White Tail Woods today. I heard that they have the most amazing animals lying around there, so we should be in luck if we stumble upon these wonderful creatures."

"Oh yes Discord, I haven't heard from him in a bit of time since the Tirek incident." I made that statement referring to the previous time that I had to use the Song of Order in battle. Still, I have no idea how a beam came shooting out of my hand at him in battle. It is still curiosity for this mystery on how I managed to get that. Clearly I do not recall that ever being used in the battle when Nightmare Moon was still an evil mare.

"Well I am glad that Tirek is back in Tartarus where he rightfully belongs with Cerberus keeping a close eye on him should he try to escape again." Fluttershy explained to me. I took another bite of my breakfast while she was telling me this. "Discord is good now, so he will think twice about making a deal with someone bad."

I took a few other bites of my food when the times of our normal small talk came on through, but this would be when I was thinking about what else to talk about. I only just about ate through more than half of my breakfast when I finally processed something through my mind on what I could say next, for the sake of my curiosity.

"What else has happened while I was away from Ponyville for my Manehattan visit?" I asked.

Fluttershy finished swallowing a bite of her food before she spoke "Well, nothing else has happened much, but for one thing Twilight needed to go and help some friends of her in the other world in the mirror portal she brought here to Ponyville. It's at her castle in the library section."

Wait a minute… she brought along the mirror to Ponyville? My thoughts are drawn towards the mirror and Sunset Shimmer inside of the mirror world at Canterlot High. I surely hope that she is doing okay there and that she was feeling better, but her memories of all the bad things she did would always remain with her. I will have to pick another time to enter the mirror world to check up on her, though I would have to introduce myself to the alternate human versions of Fluttershy and the rest of my friends. I did not see the alternate version of Twilight, so hopefully I don't end up accidentally running into her: bad things could happen. But still, that will be for some other time.

"The mirror…" I exclaimed, with a bit of a hushed tone. "I remember seeing it at the Crystal Empire while interacting with Princess Cadence, but I could not step into the room. The portal still would have been closed anyway, so how did Twilight manage to crack it open in the first place is a mystery to me."

"Well, Pinkie did give her a bit of an idea and with the help of her scientific terms; she used some magic machinery to crack it open, all thanks to the diary that Princess Celestia used to have when Sunset was her student," Fluttershy explained to me. I take the last bite from the wooden bowl as I heard her again. "Somehow, the diary had energies emitting from it that could open up the portal permanently as long as it was inserted into the 'machine' of hers."

I take the napkin with my left hand, using it to wipe my mouth and face free from any juices and wet water bits that the salad leaves or berries might have left. Once I had wiped it clean, I place the used napkin onto my plate to let myself know that I was done with my breakfast. I also made sure to finish my glass cup of clear and fresh water.

"Well, I am just about finished my food," I stated to her, even though she could clearly see that in front of her. I take the bowl and empty glass of mine and walk towards the sink at the kitchen counter. "I'm going to clean them in the sink."

Fluttershy's smile lit up. She says "That's really nice for you to do that. But you don't have to worry about cleaning it up, I can always just do-"

"Please Fluttershy, I insist. Well…. In a way to share kindness." I said to her, returning a rather warm smile towards her.

I turn from looking at her, but I could tell that she was okay and was grateful that I could be some help to her in the cottage to clean up a bit. I ran the bowl by the sink under the tap spraying out some warm water to clean out a bit. I spray in some dish soap for the bowl and clean out the grits that breakfast had left behind.

After washing the bowl, I place it on the drying rack and begin washing out the germs from the glass cup. After done with that, I take a dry cloth and begin to dry out both the bowl and cup. Once they were done and I made sure there was nothing left behind, I opened up the two cupboards above the counter.

I move the wooden bowl in the cupboard on the left with the other wooden bowls that it was from. After shutting the cupboard on the left gently, I take the glass cup and place it into the other cupboard carefully as glass was very fragile. I can hear Fluttershy's chair moving and the sound of her hooves trotting towards the kitchen counter where I was by the time I was closing the right cupboard door.

"Another splendid job cleaning," Fluttershy said to me, placing her empty dishes onto the counter. She places her soft hoof onto the top of my left hand. I turn my head towards her and a smile is upon my face. "I am so very proud of you for being very tidy."

"I'm guessing it's a bit of a time for me to be rather tidy, don't you think?" I said to her. "I mean, I did also make my bed when I got up this morning."

Fluttershy's mouth stimulates a soft, friendly giggle. "I taught you about tidiness, didn't I?"

I moved my right arm and bent down my right knee. My right hand gently touches her soft right cheek, while she looks at me. "One can inspire another if they maintain a good friendship with one another." I said to her with a smile upon my face and with such calmness in my voice.

Fluttershy's cheeks went pink once again and she was looking into my brown eyes. My hand remains on her cheek for a few more moments and then I take it off of her. She shyly turns her head away a bit, but her smile remains and her eyes still looking.

"Ummm Brayden," I could hear Fluttershy say to me. The blushing on her cheeks fades quickly away. "No offense, but don't you have some training to attend to?"

A thought about the Song of Order finally snapped into my mind. Yes, she was correct about my training so I better step it up and get right to action. "Oh right, sorry about that." I said to her, with a bit of a daze in my tone after being distracted.

"Oh it's no problem Brayden," She says to me, placing her left front hoof onto the top of my left hand. "You get out there and train yourself carefully." I nod with the smile upon my mouth and she lets go of my hand, placing her left front hoof back onto the clean wooden floor.

I walk out of the kitchen, heading right upstairs where I knew the Song of Order could be resting inside of my room. Inside my quiet room, I could hear the sound of its gentle humming and it made everything around me feel calm and rather serene. This could allow me to focus carefully on what it could do to help train me in the situations of battle or if me or my friends were in danger. At the top, I turned towards my bedroom door and turned the doorknob, pushing open the door.

There it was across the room where it usually floated there by the other side of the room, which seemed rather unnatural because most others would put their blades on the wall or a stand. It just floated right there, ready for use at any time I needed it. I paced across the room and grab the claymore by its grip. The golden symbol of a quaver shines brightly upon its pommel. I move the sword around my back and sheathe it around my back.

I moved from the opposite side of my bedroom back towards my door and exit the room, making sure to close the door behind me as usual. Having gone back down the stairs, I make my way towards the front door. I can hear Fluttershy's hooves moving about in the living room as she was feeding her animals.

"Have a good time out there Brayden," Fluttershy says to me. I turn my head to the left to look at her. "Just make sure to be careful."

I nod to her. "Don't worry about it Fluttershy," I said to her. "I should be fine since I have a bit of understanding on how a sharp blade like the Song of Order works. But I will see you later."

I turned back around and grip onto the doorknob of the front door, giving it a twist and opening the front door. I could feel the warm air of late summer bouncing onto my face and skin when I walked outside of the cottage. I placed my left hand behind me to close the door shut. The soft humming of the Song of Order occupies among the ambience of young foals and fillies heading to school with the mixed sounds of nature.

I walk briskly along the dirt trail down from Fluttershy's cottage, crossing the bridge along the way and even getting to say other to her animal friends along my way out to the fields and green healthy valleys of Equestria close by. I make a sharp turn to the right after crossing the fine carved stone bridge unto the path where many of the younglings were going, but I was not going where the Ponyville School was today, for that would be for another time.

"Hey Brayden!" I can hear a voice call out behind me. I recognized that young voice with the sound of three others trotting.

I turn my head around to take a look and see who was behind me. It was three of my young friends: Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, no doubt it is the Cutie Mark crusaders. I pretty much knew that Scootaloo was the one who called out. They looked rather joyful to see me again. I softly smile at them as they gallop for a few moments to catch up with me, trotting beside me: all three of them.

"Hello to all three of you." I said to them, with friendly greeting in my tone. "How are all three of you? Not running into trouble I hope."

"No, of course not!" Apple Bloom tells me in a cheery voice. "We're just excited 'cause today we're all goin' to finally get our cutie marks."

"You are, hm?" I said. I would never have guessed that, but again they probably wouldn't, but I still wish them the best in luck in getting their cutie marks for what they could possibly be doing. "And what will you get your cutie marks in this time?"

"There's a big test today that Cheerilee is going to give us to work on. We all studied REAL hard for this test and planned days before to prepare for this. But I'm not sure what we'd nickname our group once we get our cutie marks." Sweetie Belle told me. "Hm, the Cutie Mark Test Acers?"

"No, you dictionary!" Scootaloo says as if it were a bad idea. "That name sounds a little bit off for the group."

Sweetie Belle moves her face close to Scootaloo's face. "Well, what would you know about acing a test you dodo?!" Sweetie argues back with her.

"Come on Sweetie Belle, let's not argue; especially in front of Brayden." Scootaloo said to calm down the uprising argument. She is right, I am just about walking with them, so she very well makes a good point.

"I want to come with you girls really, but I do have to practice something." I said to the three of them. "But I will definitely make sure that when I am with either Applejack or Rarity, we can definitely plan something fun for us."

"Don't worry 'bout it Brayden." Apple Bloom says to me. "Ah'm sure that when ya do, yer going to plan somethin' real excitin'."

"I'll walk with you girls for a bit, and then I must depart to begin practicing out in the field." I told them, still walking alongside them.

Apple Bloom was right beside me on the right side. On the left side, Sweetie Belle is next to me with Scootaloo next to her. I walk along the dirt trail with them, walking them to school and to hope to make a bit of conversation with them.

"So…" I said to the three of the Crusaders in hopes of starting a conversation. "How have the three of you been doing lately? Getting any good grades?"

"We're doing just fine," I can hear Sweetie Belle say to me. I turn my head to look at her. "So far besides the test based on just plain history of Equestria, we have other homework that we need to deal with. But thanks to Princess Twilight, she's been helping us out with a bit of that homework help."

"She helps you with homework?" I asked.

"Yes, it's what we call 'Twilight Time'." Scootaloo say to me in case I ended up forgetting which I did. Silly me, I sometimes forget about something like that.

"Oh yes, I remember now." I said.

"Of course ya would," Apple Bloom said. "You did see us before in that situation on one of those moving pictures."

I was not surprised by how they told me this. Applejack or Rarity must have told them that I was from Earth at the time. I'm not sure, maybe it was Rainbow Dash who told them. Knowing her, she's bound to spread a bit of news but not every single time that something unusual happened in Equestria for her own sake.

"It's a warm but rather beautiful day outside," I said to them, with some tone of courage. "It'll a fun afternoon once school is done for the day, for you girls of course."

"Yeah," Apple Bloom says to me. "Ah'm not sure what we're goin' to plan out this aft'rnoon but we will. But Ah have 'nother question to ask. How are ya and Princess Twilight?"

At this point, I am hiding my guilt that I had cheated on Princess Twilight in secret. I had to lie for a moment that me and Twilight's dates were going fine. If I let out that I cheated on her with another mare, they could possibly tell that to her and it would all go downhill from there. "Both I and her are doing just fine, the both of us are very loyal to one another in our relationship."

"Awww," Sweetie Belle says in comment. A blush of pink appears on my face. "I think Brayden is… in love." I can hear that teasing tone in her voice.

"Yes, I am. But it's not that special. It's just one of your typical everyday relationships that you get every time you have a crush on somepony." I said to them, letting the blush fade from my cheeks.

"Not special?" I can hear Sweetie Belle say to me in surprise. "Of course it is special! She's a princess and that makes it stand out like all the rest! I mean, don't get me worng, we all go through that. I'm in the middle of that right now with a young colt in my class, but he seems too busy on that 'JoyBoy' or whatever they call that."

Oh yes, Button Mash. I've only seen him one time at the Ponyville School, but he isn't really on my top priority of any young colts to meet. His mother is probably on my list of the ponies to meet here in Ponyville. Now don't ask why, I'm just really interested to see how canon it would be to see her like in the fan animations and if it was in the same way possible. Only other evidence was her lecturing her son, but nevertheless if I meet her, it should get interesting from there.

"Oh no, here comes the troublesome two up ahead." Scootaloo says, interrupting my thoughts. I turn my head towards up towards the path ahead and I could see what she meant when she was referring to the two other young fillies ahead of us, approaching.

It was none other than the school bully, Diamond Tiara and her friend Silver Spoon. I can already see to myself that I've have experience being bullied by her, her telling me that I am not special. But no matter what, I am not breaking my promise that I would harm upon others. Diamond has an evil smug smile upon her own mouth and Silver Spoon I can tell is trying her best to follow along with how she was doing it herself on her own.

"Well now Silver Spoon, what do we have here?" She says in her bratty teasing tone as usual. "We've got the Blank Flank Crusaders, and their friend: the human!"

I turn my head a bit, but I still have my eyes on Diamond Tiara. I still remembered her words on how I was different so that I do not have a cutie mark. Besides, I don't think that I could end up getting one anyway since the Equestrian world works differently from Earth.

"Oh stop that Diamond!" Apple Bloom says, standing up for the Crusaders and me. "You 'n' Silver Spoon's always teasin' us about being blank in the flank!"

Silver Spoon was the first to speak. "Oh, it's because we just about feel like it. Anypony who is blank flank just about deserves it."

"That's not a good excuse to make there!" Scootaloo says.

Diamond chuckles and approaches her. "So says the pegasus who cannot even get off a few feet in the air except on her scooter." She teases.

"Hey!" She just about yelled at the pink filly. "I might not be able to fly in full, but I'm still learning that all thanks to Rainbow Dash!"

Diamond just keeps her smile and glares at her with that. "Sure you are." She just about states, not believing a single word that Scootaloo told her. It was just as ignorant as ever for her to say something like that.

"You!" She just about says to me, pointing her small hoof towards me.

"Ah no, Diamond!" Apple Bloom says. She trots in front of me, standing up for me even that was something I could do already. "You ain't teasin' him. He ain't done nothin' to ya!"

"Oh of course he didn't Apple Bloom," She said. "Why else do you think that I am teasing him and everypony else in class, especially Dinky?"

"She ain't done nothin' either!" My friend shouts back at her. She was already starting to have enough of Diamond Tiara and her tone sounded very irritated.

"I think it is for the reason that you 'tall' friend right there doesn't have the ability to have a cutie mark like EVER!" Silver Spoon says to them and me. She and Diamond just about laugh at us think superior as per usual. Typical school bullies.

"We don't care if he has a cutie mark or not," Sweetie Belle says not caring what the two had to say about me. "He's our special friend and in any way, we see him as a great friend."

"Why?" Diamond just about asked in a mocking voice. "Just because he is Princess Twilight's special somepony? That doesn't make him special whatsoever!" She stifles a laugh.

"It makes him special!" Apple Bloom says again. "It's what helped him get more friendship with my big sister Applejack and the others she befriended in the past couple of weeks to month now."

She just about goes 'pfft' and says "Whatever. He's still not special. So unless there is something that just about PROVES he is special, he isn't."

"Okay, girls." I say. I walk between the both of the Crusaders and Diamond and her friend. I have my arms open, to block them from getting out at one another. "There is absolutely no need to fight. I did not want to play peacemaker here, but I have no choice. Somepony needs to stop teasing and all of you need to play nice."

Diamond Tiara trots up towards me and places the both of her pink front hooves onto my right arm. She pushes it down, looking rather annoyed. "Are you trying to stay that you are better than me?" She says, placing her face into mine in that threatening way.

I looked rather nervous of her giving me that nasty glare. "N-no, Diamond." I said to her, a bit surprised.

Diamond's glare turns more satisfied with my answer and she smiles, gently patting my arm. To me, this felt very uncomfortable. "That is a good human." Diamond said to me as if I was a pet dog.

"Don't call me a human please," I said to her. "If Twilight is near and she heard you, she would tell that to your father."

"Whatever," Silver Spoon blurts out. "She can call you human anytime she wants to."

Diamond Tiara lets go of my right arm and begins trotting back on the same path to the Ponyville School. "Besides, you probably are too babyish to tell on my father. Soon enough, I hope that something bad comes along for you and your three friends: the Blank Flank Crusaders." She and her friend laugh before heading down the trail and out of our sight.

The three of my young friends trot up towards me, rather concerned after all that teasing and taunting that I went through from Diamond Tiara. I think this was in a way to try and comfort me after all that had happened.

"You okay Brayden?" Sweetie Belle asked me, placing her small hoof onto the top of my hand. "Whatever Diamond was saying to you isn't true."

"Are ya kidding me? She just 'bout called Brayden a 'human'!" Apple Bloom says. "Surely that didn't hurt you, did it Brayden?"

For me, I very well had the taunting of being called a 'human' or a 'thing' being placed upon me a lot by others who did not approve of me. That was a shame that a filly and her friend did not appreciate my presence in Equestria, so I guess not everypony here can all welcome a human amongst them.

"It's alright girls," I told to them in that assured tone. "I'm actually getting used to a few calling me those kinds of names."

Scootaloo says "Well, she made fun of me about now about my wings. Didn't the Equestria Games already prove enough that I don't have to be that good to her?"

"Come on now, school is just nearly two trail paths down by now." Sweetie Belle said to the both of her friends. She paused for a few moments and then said "Brayden, are you continue with us? It's okay if you don't want to."

"Well, I do have training with the Song of Order on my back." I stated, moving my head to take a look at the gentle humming blade.

"Alright then, we'll see you later Brayden," Scootaloo says to me. "If you ever want to just 'chill' with me and the Crusaders, you can find us around town or having a milkshake at the Sugarcube Corner."

I nodded with a smile, just about putting Diamond Tiara said to me in the back of my mind. When I go that, I will just forget about it overtime. I wave to my three young friends and wish them a good day at school and to do well on the test. But of course, they will probably keep expecting to get cutie marks out of that.

I make my way off of the path eventually and step onto the grassy field of Equestria amongst the blooming flowers and wavy lines of wind softly blowing at the short grass to make their flow like an ocean colored in green naturally. The sky was building up a couple of clouds, and from what I have heard it was also supposed to rain today by weather predictions, so hopefully that doesn't affect my plans I have for me and Rainbow Dash after my training.

I make sure to keep my eye on the trail as I do not want to stray too far as I've heard through tales back on Earth that a green peaceful valley can seem endless, but if no one is too careful; they could get lost. I process forward and have my eyes behind me until I reach a good distance between the trail of nature and a medium sized oak tree in the middle of the valley not too far from the border to the Everfree Forest. If by any means, I accidentally end up in there and there are Timberwolves patrolling there, I can get ready to fight by all means if they corner me.

I've already heard a bit of tales on Timberwolves according to Granny Smith. I remember a few others warning me that a Timberwolf will never give up my scent until they've caught me and had me as their lunch or dinner, even Breakfast.

I sheath the claymore behind my back, hearing its gentle humming that it had made since I came into my room earlier to grab it. I hold it out and let go of its hilt, allowing it to float mid-air just a bit off of the ground.

The peaceful humming began to grow only a little louder, but it still felt like it was only the volume slightly raised, so it did not become all ear-piercing loud like nails on a blackboard. It felt rather healing and relaxing. The environment around me began to change while I remained close with the Song of Order. Time felt like it was beginning to slow down a little and there was a visible aura of gold that covered the sky and around the area of the oaken tree.

I knew that the Song of Order had by itself alone, activated the sense of environment around me to where it seemed like time was going to almost suddenly stop, but at the same time it was only slowed down a bit.

"Brayden…" The blade's mystical enchanted voice spoke out from within. It almost nearly made my jump about hundreds of feet in the air because even though I expected that, it still made me a bit jumpy from that.

"When is that not going to scare the absolute Celestia out of me?!" I said to him, relinquished from my own surprise that the voice sounded out.

"My certain apologies," The voice tells me. "But I suspect that you came out here for your training."

I nodded my head, saying "Yes. But I have a question in mind."

"Ask away Brayden," The voice says again. "For I will do my best to answer it, as much as possible."

"I was wondering that when I was fighting with Lord Tirek, my hand was releasing a wave of laser beams the size of my hand and that strange occurrence where I teleported behind Tirek after that. Do you know why that is?" I asked with question in my voice.

The Song of Order paused for a moment and says "It was the connection between you and me. Keeping that grip on the hilt allowed me to channel a part of the magic into you, just like how the ethereal armor and wings can take a bit of an effect when you are in battle."

"So whenever I start battling, the ethereal armor and wings make sense, but I'm not how it makes sense that I am able to shoot out lasers from my hand." I state with question. "I mean it is the first time it's happened and it's never done that when I was redeeming Nightmare Moon."

"That is because during her fight with you, I was quickly studying the anatomy of your human body to understand how it worked and how the magic barriers within me can abridge and connect with the hidden gaps on the both of your hands to ignite this magic. For the teleportation, I was quick to study of where you wanted to go before Tirek could take my magic." The blade explained to me.

"Ohhhh, so that must be why I teleported. I was thinking about being behind him so that your magic worked." I said.

"Indeed," he states in agreement. "Now for your training to begin: you must have a clear mind. No clear minds can easy lead to the defeat of themselves, which had happened many times. Remove all distractions as even a single bad thought from your past or something that happened can outwit you and distract you long enough for your enemy to overthrow you."

I made sure to keep my focus on everything just clear. I was doing my best to make sure that my mind would remain at all times completely blank and empty. I could hear the slow sounds of my nose breathing in and out repeatedly.

"Good," the blade says to me. "Now we shall pretend that there is an enemy right before your eyes when you close them for a moment and then reopen them. Do you remember what the first natural enemy you fought with was the first time you came to Equestria?"

"Well," I think deeply for a moment to remember what it was. Timberwolves and the sound of their nasty growling are heard deep within and that is the first enemy to come to mind. "It was the stalking timberwolves trying to eat me for lunch."

"Then you shall open your eyes for I will simulate that of a timberwolf alone attacking you to test out your knowledge on defending yourself from them." The blade told me. "But be warned: the usual timberwolf leader in a pack has the poisonous claws and teeth. They can kill you within a few hours if you do not seek medical help for that, not to mention the severe paralysis that it can create that numbs your body and glazes you."

"I know that," I said to the sword. "Because I was face to face with a Timberwolf leader that I had punched across the face, but needless to say it got only more aggressive. Thank Celestia that Twilight and Fluttershy found me right on time. I would have been Timberwolf food already."

The sound of a timberwolf could be heard in front of me as I blinked and saw it standing before me. It's green hungry eyes were staring at me and its mouth was drooling from the saliva within. It lets out a small growl as I move into a bit of a defensive stance. Being face to face with a lone timberwolf instead of a pack looked like a bit of a nightmare, but I remembered that the Song of Order was right next to me on the left so I can grab it and be ready at any moment.

The timberwolf roars a threatening roar and begins to move closer towards me, and I could see that it was begging to accelerate towards me at an alarming rate. Its mouth was wide open, ready to snap off my face and head when it makes its first pounce at me.

It gets into a much closer range and I reached for the Song of Order. My hand gripped firmly onto the hilt and I give it a quick twirl before turning back to the Timberwolf as quick as possible. The timberwolf was much closer now and it made a giant leap right off of the ground. Its mouth gapped wide open as it thirsted for my human blood. I move the blade right in front of me and braced for impact when the Timberwolf got hold of me from its jump and pinned me to the ground.

The only other think that wasn't pinned down was that of my arms. I still had a firm grip on the Song of Order and was waiting for a right moment when to swing it at the woodland beast's face. The timberwolf was doing all in its path to try and bite at my face, but I was moving my head and lot and most of the time it would catch the grass behind my head. When a moment finally came when it was quickly raising its head, I take no other chances to get ready for its attack and I began to strike.

My left arm moves upward and slashes a deep cut onto the face of the beast. The timberwolf lets out aloud growl and moves backwards off of me, allowing me to get back up onto my two feet.

Getting off the grass valley floor, I can see that the timberwolf now looked more tempered and blood-thirsty to have at me. "Very good, you know what to do if a timberwolf pins you down. A timberwolf leader always easily overwhelms you and can grip you by the arms to prevent your attack or escape." The blade educates me. "I will give you an example on how to escape a timberwolf leader easily after you take care of this timberwolf your imagination created."

I nod and charge first towards the timberwolf. He tries to throw a claw towards me to give me a bloody scratch. I hop onto the top of his paw, avoiding the sharp birch claws that it had produced from birth. I land right onto his back and begin to ride the top of it, trying to shake me off while I grip on tightly as if I were riding one of those lasso rides back on Earth.

"Now, you must find the weak spot of your enemy." The blade advised heavily to me in a strong reminding tone.

Taking the blade, I carefully observe the small open hole that I can see by the top of the timberwolf's head. I set my blade right into it. The beast let out a mighty roar of the pain inflicted upon it. My blade slashes across the hole a few times and even a part of his ugly face that tore off a chunk of its wooden nose. Driving the blade right through its head, the sharp sword strikes through the outside of the beast and right through his mouth, severing any kind of life from him, even though it was a hologram. A few moments pass and I take the sword out of him.

"Now let us see you take care of a timberwolf leader, then I will test your emotions next." The blade told me, as a Timberwolf leader appeared from behind the small tree to face me and I could tell by the smell that it was readying its poison to weaken me fatally. The timberwolf behind me after getting off of it, disappears in the aura.

The leader though was much smarter and just about knew that I was probably already planning to make a break for it and run away. He began charging immediately without warning and threw himself towards me, knocking me back onto the ground, gripping the both of my arms with his paws.

While I kept a firm grip onto the blade, the shock of the leader's pounce had knocked it right out of my hands but it was kept within my reach, except when I was being pinned down by the strongest types of timberwolves. "Now this is the test here, you accidentally drop me in the battle between the leader and you and all hope seems to be lost. Do not try to struggle, it will dig its claws into your arms and poison you faster."

I listen to the voice carefully as the timberwolf leader prepares to make his fatal assault at me. "Move your legs back and kick the Timberwolf leader off of you. Kick it by its chest underneath."

I moved the both of my leg towards me as in bending them and think quickly. The timberwolf leader sniffs at me, ready for me to have its first dinner for the day. I throw the both of my legs forwards, making my two feet hit the chest. The timberwolf leader looked rather surprised and got right off of me. Finally, I right back up on my two feet like last time.

"The timberwolf leader cannot be taken out the same way like last time," The blade explained. "A leader's weak point is always the hardest to make it, but the best chance would be to strike into a loose part past the wooden armor you cut off in battle."

The timberwolf leader moved towards me and tries to claw at my right arm with his left claw. I move my right arm back quickly as I remember that was when it was scratched before. I switch the Song of Order to my right hand and swing with force at the leader's paw.

The paw went flying off and the leader lets out a pained roar. Circling around it, and trying not to get bit, I slash at the wooden bits of armor that was naturally covering the timberwolf as he tries to swipe a bite at me.

"Do not run away," The blade warned me. "Running away allows the leader to signal for the pack to pursue you and it'll be little more than you can chew."

Bits of wooden armor were flying off on the right side of the timberwolf. He circles around and knocks me onto the ground, with a growl. I manage to swing the blade across his face when he tried to pin me down again. The blade formed a slash across the nose of the leader, turning him more aggressive. I slide back up onto my two feet under him back to his right side.

On his right side, I could see a loose scale of his wooden skin exposed before my very eyes. I hop onto the top of his body and he began to ride away, sounding off a loud howl that didn't sound too good according to my ears. I knew what this meant.

He was calling for back-up and the rest of the imaginary pack.

"Well, his howling has set off the pack and that are alarmed by your presence. But no fear, we shall test your emotions in a way to helping others in danger for those you love close to you or by friend." The blade said to me.

"Timberwolves!" I could hear a voice gasp close behind me. I recognized the sound of that voice and she sounded like she was going to be in grave danger if I didn't act quickly. I turn my head to see who it was. It's none other than Rarity. I was frozen in place when one of the timberwolves in the pack pounce onto her, pinning her right onto the ground.

I can hear her screams as she is trying to get away but cannot because the timberwolf has the both of its sharp claws on the top of her with her back lying first on the grass. I couldn't just stand there and leave the pack try to eat her alive or kill her right there. "Help me Brayden!" I can hear her voice beg out for me. I knew it was only imaginary but nevertheless, I witness the leader who I still needed to take care of with the rest of the pack gathering around to have its meal alive.

I grip onto the blade and I can feel the magic of the blade coming right into my hands and through my body. I can feel the adrenaline starting to flow quickly throughout my legs when I started to move forward. Anger pursues into the adrenaline to further accelerate me towards that pile of firewood whom was trying to bite Rarity. It's saliva dripping from its open mouth onto the coat of Rarity. "Ewww!" I could hear her shout with disgust in her voice.

In my sprint towards the timberwolf, I bent down the both of my legs for a brief moment. Springing forward from that allowed me to launch myself into midair to surprise that piece of wretched worm. At the close enough range, I swung the Song of Order towards him, slashing him across the face.

The timberwolf backed up by a few steps with its paws while I was just bashing at his face in furious anger upon my own face and I can hear the sound of my heart pounding with my heavy breathing. The timberwolf was trying to make its move to attack me or even scratch at me, but I kept on slashing it many times across the face.

The blade began to sing as a warning for me to look out. I quickly turn my head to the right side for a quick brief moment, just to see an aggravated one in the pack pounce towards me for a bite that could tear my right arm straight off. I am quick and turn to my sideline and use the blade to block at the timberwolf's snarling jaw and teeth. He has firm grip onto the Song of Order's sharping blade, hoping that it can knock the blade out of my hand.

I rose a bare foot, kicking its face near the top of its nose. The timberwolf lets go of the blade and I fly backwards for a brief moment. I end up backwards on the grass and roll to my side, getting up when I hear the pack making its way for Rarity, desperation for her blood. She lets out another panicked scream that sounded off that her doom would be then and now if I don't act quickly.

I can feel a mystical source of power igniting from the inside of my left hand. Oh yes, the Song of Order was beginning to channel its mighty power from the blade to connect there, though I held it in my right hand. I can hear a few timberwolves growling as they make their approach towards my friend. My left hand is stretched towards them, and I can feel the waves that the magic unleashed.

The beam of light blue fired out and hit the surface of grass. The timberwolves on the side where it was impacting stood back from the beam as if they had never faced this kind of magic before. I move my hand to the right, creating a burning mark by the charging herd which stop dead in their tracks by the time the beam was getting closer to them. The timberwolf leader of this pack was too eager on having Rarity for the pack, but according from what I was seeing at the moment. He was planning on taking me down first before making the move.

After the burn mark had distracted most of the timberwolves to back up a bit, the timberwolf growled lowly at them as he was telling them to hold their ground and wait for when I was killed off. It makes a fierce charge towards me again, bent on ripping me to shreds with its bare sharp teeth. Even if the poison glands in its teeth and claws would do the job in paralysing me and killing me in a few hours after their lunch was done.

The blade sang again of the leader's sprint towards me. I knew this, but I take a look at the small rock on the ground. Memories recall from when I watched the show, and I remembered a moment when a small rock was used for events like this. I bent down and grabbed the rock, just as the timberwolf leader pounces. Leaping upward into the air, the rock makes a blunt impact with its left eye.

The timberwolf closed its left eye and growls at me. I can see him raise a claw, ready to strike across one of my arms again, but I move the sword and strike it through its wooden paw.

Cutting right through the wood, I move the sword towards me while it is still latched in through the paw. Pulling it out, it had created an open cut in his paw, open for all to see. A fluid of brown and green were flowing out from the open cut as I recognized them like poison glands being set loose so that he could not poison me by chance. He could probably still scratch me though, even the bites from this leader can still give me poison either way.

The timberwolf was enraged and opened its mouth, sounding out a loud roar from beyond its wooden box inside its throat. Without thinking for one moment, I tossed the rock that I carried with my left hand right down its throat to pose as a distraction for the beast.

The beast's roar was ceased as he made a bit of hacking, choked sounds. He was doing his best to try and get the rock right out of his throat, in an attempt to cough it out. This would be my best chance to strike.

I run over to the side of the leader, slashing a bit at his wooden armor that covered the entire body. With a single jump, I tried to slash across the top of his body armor, but a hard place knocks the Song of Order out of my hand and I am thrown by my own force onto the grass. I turn around. The blade makes an impact with the other eye of the timberwolf, leaving him blind for now momentarily to give myself a chance to finish him.

I crawl quickly over to the blade and grab the hilt, taking control of it again. On its right side I can see the open mortal wound available for me to strike at its heart. The second he turns will be a chance I will miss to make that offensive move. I don't think straight and get straight up off of the ground. A few fierce moves towards the open unprotected armor allowed me to strike and stab the best in its side where its heart was close by.

A loud shriek cried out from the wooden wolf and I can hear the sounds of the timberwolves moving a bit but not past the burn mark I made. The timberwolf makes one last attempt to bite at me and I push the sword further past its heart to cause whatever processes its wooden heart to bleed out quickly. The leader grew doozy and tries to swipe at me, but it cannot poison me since I cut out its raw element and allowed it to spill out to the valley floor.

The leader stumbled for a few moments before falling forwards towards me, narrowly a few feet away on impact and finally releasing its last breath. Although it was all part of the training procedure that the Song of Order was doing for me, I managed to save my friend Rarity. I turn towards the wooden pack of worms for a moment, then cower off in fear and scatter when the leader of their pack is killed. I move towards the Song of Order in the leader's side, grabbing it by the hilt and pulling it out.

The entire sharp silver blade's body was covered entirely in the sticky liquid that I knew was sap that leaked from trees. However, this kind of sap did not look very healthy. The poison glands system was processed by the heart and made sure that it flowed violently in the leader's sap stream, its equivalent of blood in general.

The sap disappears in the fading moment, along with the corpse of that timberwolf leader and drone that I took care of in my training session. I turn around to see Rarity. She has also disappeared, as it was only imagination that the Song of Order was using to train me.

"A very splendid job that you did," the Song of Order comments when I let it go, it floats back into mid-air. "Be sure to have these kinds of training sessions once in a while. I will give you different dangerous creatures in Equestria to train and fight against to gain knowledge on defending yourself from them when in need."

"What about the fierce, like if dragons decide to go on a rampage to the point where they are destroying towns and cities?" I asked the blade's mighty spirit.

The Song of Order paused for a few moments, before gathering the right words to let out. "For dragons, I suggest that you let your friends talk them out at first. If they downright continue their attack and try to hurt them, do what you must to put them down."

"Alright," I nodded. "That sounds good. I already know a good dragon named Spike. He wouldn't hurt any of them at all."

"Do not fear. He isn't a target, so he is safe." The blade responded. "But now we must end our training session here… for now…"

"That was quicker than I had expected." I comment, scratching the back of my head a bit.

"Yes, but it is the right timing as well as you would want to learn how to deal with enemies rather quickly." The blade comments before the golden aura surrounding the area around the green valleys and tree began to fade. "Also, keep an eye in the sky, expect a bit of a shower."

"What?" I said out of curiosity. The blade's voice was already gone and began to rest once again until the next time I could start training.

Large amounts of raindrops began to fall out from under the clouds above me and I could feel the water that were shaped like teardrops pouring down onto my face and shoulders, creating more tinier versions of the teardrops that fell to the soft-scratching green grass. The Song of Order, floating in mid-air a few feet from me catches a few raindrops on its pommel and quillion. Drips of wetness slide from them onto both the grip, and the sharp blade.

Now realizing that being out in the rain for too long wouldn't be too good for my health in general, I take the Song of Order by its now wet grip and sheathed it behind my back. I make my way towards the dirt trail, now getting soaked with drops of rain and the sounds of pitter-patter hitting the leaves of nearby trees.

The shirt and shorts that I was wearing were now getting more soaked as the rain had increased a bit in its downpour. The worst part was the lightning strikes that were coming up in the darkened afternoon skies. I saw a newspaper on the trail and it served for a short time while on my way to town. The rain ended up getting it so wet that the drips soaked right through the paper itself. Roars of deep thunder crack the sky above me whilst I tried to look for cover from the battling rain.

In the mist that the storm was creating, I could hear the sound of hooves trotting in the streets whilst I stood there in the rain, close by the crossing stone bridge into town. I turned around, a bit blinded by the rain. Wiping my eyes a bit, I could see who was coming up in the distance underneath that large umbrella saddled onto her back. None other than Rarity herself.

"Brayden darling, whatever are you doing in that miserable downpour?" She asked me while looking a little concerned.

I just looked at her silently for a quick moment and then said "I was training with the Song of Order, and then the rain shower comes pouring down."

"Well I can't just stand there and let you get all wet," Rarity tells me. "Come under the umbrella, and I'll take you back to the Carousel Boutique. I'm sure there will be something there to warm you up while I dry out your clothes."

"I think I was supposed to see if Rainbow Dash was around town today, because I wanted to see how she was." I told her, walking up closer underneath the large umbrella.

Rarity places her right hoof onto my chest. "Rainbow Dash? Sorry to say this Brayden, but she had to meet some relatives up in Cloudsdale." She tells me, feeling a bit bad for planning something that was not going to happen today.

"Aww," I said sounding a little bit disappointed. "That is quite a shame. I would go up there and see her, but I do not have wings." I began to walk with her across the bridge and through the empty streets of Manehattan.

"Didn't the Song of Order give you wings though?" She asked curiously.

I nodded my head. "Yes, but it was only temporary when dealing with Nightmare Moon and Lord Tirek." I told her.

Rarity places her left front hoof onto the top of my right hand. "I'm sure that one day if something ever happens, you get a pair of wings to fly up and walk on the surface of Cloudsdale, the home of many Pegasi." She tells me.

"Of course…" I said to her. "I just don't know when it will ever happen. I mean the Song of Order gives me the ethereal wings to help me fly, but what if I had real wings?"

"I for one think that if you have wings, it would that of like pegasi and eagles." Rarity tells me, a smile upon her face. "Have you seen the eagles at even the end of this season? They're rather beautiful when flying above in the sky."

I continued with my friend, walking alongside her whilst we were heading to the Carousel Boutique where she resided. To which there would most likely be warm fireplace to warm up by with some of that nice tea that she makes filled with the beautiful touch of honey.

---

Princess Celestia's POV

Out of a sunny afternoon sky, I was standing there by the balcony outside of my private quarters upon a tall tower of the Canterlot Castle. My eyes stare out below the land of Equestria, now atop filled with some bad forecast down there, but at least my subjects would be safe from the rain they create themselves. Without rain, no crops would be helped out grow nevertheless. But with thunderstorms they were still dangerous.

Ever since Princess Luna's discovery, I was no doubt filling really sad. But this sadness that most subjects were seeing was not that of something tragic that happened, but rather something different. I never thought that I would ever see coming from her discovery. This was something I had long forgotten about after the last time I had to banish Princess Luna.

It seems that this discovery told me a little bit more about Brayden. Sharing this with the princesses and promising them that it would be kept a secret was my top priority, but I absolutely refused to share this with any of her other friends or the other subjects fearing that they would tell him. If he ever found out, I honestly wouldn't know what his reaction would be. I would only fear that he wouldn't take too kindly to these news as Luna told me that besides his disorder, he seemed to get angry easily upon hearing such surprising news like that.

"Your majesty," One of my royal guards that bore golden armor had announced, trotting into the balcony outside of my quarters. "Is there something that you need?"

I stayed silent for a moment, turning from the view of Equestria and the cloud-covered Ponyville. I look down at the tiled ground for a few moments, still bearing the same sadness that I had. As happy as I was the few past days ago with the defeat of Tirek and my meeting with Nightmare Moon, my happiness was however short-lived and reverted back to the shock of my sister's discovery. I then turned back towards the royal guard, whom looked a bit concerned. "Is everything alright, Princess Celestia?"

I turn from the balcony and trot towards the royal guard. "I was wondering if you still have Zecora's potion, when the Plunder plants captured me and Luna." I requested.

He bows his head for a moment. "Yes Princess. I will go and get that potion for you right away." He turns from me and trots off to go and find the potion lying around in the Alchemy wing of the castle close to Nightmare Moon's quarters.

After he left to go find the potion, I trot right inside to my personal quarters and trot right past my drawers. My pet phoenix Philomena sits there perched onto her fire-proof branch looking so ever patient and watchful for the princess' protection at all times should an assassin try to kill her. Besides her golden sparrows in the throne room, she remembered the day that somepony gave the loyal phoenix to her as a going away gift before he left the borders of Equestria.

"Greetings, Philomena." I said to the ever-guarding phoenix. The phoenix looks at me and blinks a few times. This would mean to me that she was telling me hello to me back. Trotting past her, I head straight towards my bed. Placing my front hooves onto the top of my bed, I used my back hooves to push up closer and onto the bed.

I sat there on the top of my warm bed, having my mind on some stuff that kept me thinking about everything as the royal guard was getting me the potion. It was all part of my occasional day dream while the waiting continued. Whatever this potion would do, I already know that Twilight reported it to me to ensure that not one of my subjects stumble upon it to take a drink. She says it was rather a dangerous liquid that could send subjects back through time for a moment whilst their soul and body remained in present time. There would be many peeking backwards in time at events that had happened should this potion been released to the public.

I could hear the sound of trotting coming close by the room; I could tell by the hooves that it was the royal guard returning. I turn my head towards the door and could see the royal guard making his return and with the potion of white fluids bestowed with him that he carried in his right hoof.

"Your majesty," He says once again to acknowledge me. "I have brought the potion as per your request."

"Thank you," I said to him. The top of my horn glows for a moment, taking hold of the potion and placing it next to me upon my bed. "You are free to join up with the other guards for the changing."

The royal guard bows to me and then leaves the room. I turn my eyes towards the potion whilst I can hear the door closing shut behind the guard to my left. This potion looked quite rather dangerous, and yet it seemed rather mysterious by the color that it represented. I ignite the magic with my horn again, surrounding the bottle with the golden aura that was from my magic.

"I hope Twilight was right about this potion on what it does," I said while looking at it and ready to take a sip after some quick thinking I had to make. "After all, this will allow me to see what happened again for something lost from my memory too far long ago."

With no other choice, I brought the potion's tip right onto my lips and let the liquid flow right into my mouth. I can feel the cool liquid of the potion flow right into the inside of my mouth. I wouldn't let it simmer in my mouth as holding it inside the mouth would cause it to revert back into its purple color. I swallow it down and place the bottle back onto my bed. Nothing had happened just yet, but I could feel the potion heading down my throat inside quickly as ever.

Everything began to glow around me in white as if they were being colored into blankness and nothing at all. The potion was starting to take huge effect on me while I sat there, just letting myself get covered by this white water wave descending down upon me. It was that of which I could then see what would have happened.

I must be careful. Whatever happened in the past, I had to know immediately and why this sadness and realization struck me from the discovery in the first place.

A/N: Well, here is the next chapter. It's a bit short, but it's all good.

Just a heads up, I will taking a bit of a small hiatus from this story for now. I just have a lot in mind and a oneshot that I am working on called "The Myth of the Holy Sword" as it is related to Learning To Live but is about the Song of Order itself. Once I have done that and got a lot of stuff off of my mind, I will get back to this story in the next chapter.

Also, got more tickets to concerts. I'll be seeing Gerard Way from My Chemical Romance on his solo tour, along with Deep Purple (close to front row, baby!) and I might think of seeing Robert Plant, Slayer on the Mayhem Tour and Smashing Pumpkins. Slipknot and Lamb of God is maybe for me as I need to watch how I spend my money if I need to get a new guitar.

Alas, let us begin our review responses.

Raven 105: Starlight Glimmer in my story? Hmmm, I have something like that in mind for a later chapter, so prepare yourself BIG TIME. It's going to be big. Also don't worry about the Tirek idea as I forgive you. Brayden a prince? Well, I think it's more that if they get married then it's a yes.

jvs12: Thank you yet again.

billykilly: Expect some drama in a later chapter when Brayden comes back to Equestria.

There we go, enjoy the chapter!

P.S. I've already begun developing the ending for Learning To Live, but it is too far away to think about or even discuss. Don't worry, it will all be worth it in the end.

---

I open my eyes again after a nice night of sleep. It had been a week since I had done my first training session with the Song of Order and being rained on by the clouds. Completely unaware about the weather that day, Rarity came along and helped me get to the Carousel Boutique to talk with her. Sweetie Belle came back of course, so I was able to talk with her as well about how her day was and if she aced the test. Turns out that she did, but she still didn't get her cutie mark. Who saw that coming? I did of course, but I know she'll eventually find her special talent she hoped for nevertheless.

I get up and out, doing the usual and making my bed and getting into a change of pyjamas to clothes. I slip on my short-sleeved purple t-shirt and my jeans. Once all of that is done, I head towards my bedroom door and pull it open towards me.

Today I had quite a plan in mind. What kind of plan is it you might be asking yourself? Remember that mirror that Twilight managed to bring back to the castle? For my plan, I was finally going to go through the mirror into the alternate universe of Equestria in which they are very human-like. There was something inside that I really wanted to see… or well, a citizen of Equestria to see. I needed to make sure that she was doing okay, so my guess is that I'll be there for two days maximum before making my return back to Equestria, so it should be all good from there.

I make my way down the steps and from the railing's view; I can see Fluttershy there in the living room, giving her animal friends some breakfast. She bears a smile on her face and she does not notice me yet. She places some acorns onto the ground, letting the squirrels scatter over there and gather enough acorns to munch on.

"There you go," Fluttershy says to the group of these wonderful woodland animals. "I hope you enjoy your breakfast."

She turns around and sees me coming down the last of the steps. "Good morning Brayden," Fluttershy says, trotting over to me. I approach her as well, letting her left front hoof reach out and touch the top of my right hand. "Did you sleep well last night?"

I nod my head with the smile growing slightly on my face. "I slept quite well last night, thanks to Princess Luna who guards my dreams," I told her. "I trust that you slept well too."

"That I did," She says to me. "But my dream seemed very important. I don't know who it was in my dream, but it was rather mysterious."

"Who was it in your dream?" I had asked. I take her left front hoof that was touching my right hand and gently hold onto it.

"I'm- I'm not sure, but he was really just slightly taller than me." Fluttershy says, sounding a bit curious.

I kept my smile when she told me this. "Is it Discord?" I asked her, sounding bright about it. "If it was, I knew that something along that line is going to happen-"

"No Brayden, I don't think about him in that way." Fluttershy says to me, with a giggle. "I see him more like a friend."

"Let me guess…" I told her, with a pause in my voice for a few moments. "Big Macintosh?"

"No, sorry," Fluttershy says, knowing I had guessed wrong again. "I also view him more like a friend as well. Plus he wasn't that tall."

"Well, whoever was in that dream last night, you'll run into him eventually." I told her sounding happy and bright.

There was the sound of a ding in the kitchen that perked up Fluttershy's ears when she heard it. "Oh, breakfast for you is ready." She confirms, letting go of my hand and trotting towards the kitchen to receive my food.

I follow behind her into the kitchen, taking my seat at the table by the window. Outside the clear cottage window, I could see the foals and fillies galloping along to get to school. Today was a Friday, so that meant that there was going to be no school for the weekend according to them. That was fine, as I didn't go to school, but knew what to do around Ponyville. The weather outside looked clear today and there was not a single cloud in the sky to confirm a day with clouds after all.

I can hear Fluttershy's hooves trotting towards the table with my food and I turn towards my plate after she set it down in front of me. A smile lit up on my face. It was one of my favorite breakfast foods to have in the morning. On my plate were some warm buttered toast and some over-easy eggs on the side. A personal favorite dish of mine to have, just about every morning I've had this, but with a few others on different mornings that made an exception.

I hear Fluttershy's hooves trot around my chair to the other side of the table, taking her place next to me by the window. She does not have the same plate as me, but more rather a bowl filled with various mixed berries and crunchy nuts. I turn back towards my plate, taking a slice of buttered toast and taking a bite out of it.

As usual, the taste of it is wonderful, especially when it is homemade by itself alone which really stood out. The bread that was used and toasted was that from the smell I recognized in town, cooked fresh by the baker every morning to give to his customers. Personally, I haven't taken a visit to his bakery store, but I could tell that it was him that used the right necessary ingredients to shape the bread loaf and cook it in the oven.

"Do you have a bit of a plan today?" Fluttershy asks me.

I can feel her warm right front hoof on the top of my left hand. My head turned towards her. The rays of the sun shine and light up a small bit of Fluttershy's pink mane. A smile blooms upon my lips. "Yes," I said to her. "My plan today is that I will be gone for at least two days."

"Two days?" She asked me. "Are you going to visit the princesses in Canterlot?"

I shook my head. "No, but I wish I was," I say with a chuckle. "I'm really going to go through the magic mirror and visit there."

Fluttershy was taking a sip from her glass cup, but as soon as I had mentioned the mirror; she spits out a bit upon her own surprise. "WHAT?!" She yelped in a rather worried tone as if it sounded dangerous. "B-But you can't!"

"Why not?" I said, really confused to why she was starting to get worried about me now.

Fluttershy looked very careful when she began to speak. "It's- well, because Princess Twilight has made the mirror off-limits to anypony here from entering. Besides Spike, she's not allowing anypony whatsoever, not even you to enter the mirror. She fears that as soon as you enter the portal, you'll get confused about being back in the world she was visiting. She told us that she looked different and there was another me there!"

"Well, that's because that version of Equestria is human based, like I am. Sure I might not have the same skin color, but they'll surely understand." I explained briefly to her.

"How did you know all about that? Did you witness something like that when you were back on Earth, watching us on the moving pictures or whatever they call them?" Fluttershy asks, sounding a bit confused near the end.

"Yes, and by the way those moving pictures are called televisions," I said to her. "I just need to enter it-"

The window opens up and from the outdoors, that pink pony that I knew and pretty much everypony knew popped her head through the window. "Aaaaaaand, you want to meet up with a unicorn there by the name of Sunset Shimmer who you knew that stole Twilight's element of harmony when she still had it, and then eventually changed for the better to be good. Not to mention she's already friends there with an alternate version of me whom I've never met. Period." She spoke out.

"Pinkie, how did you open that window?" Fluttershy asked, with a rather confused but with a look that the conversation was interrupted abruptly before I could explain. "That window was closed."

"Oh silly!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed with a smile upon her bright face as usual every day. "Your window wasn't closed nor locked. It was a tiny bit open and you didn't notice it. I overheard you and Brayden's conversation about his trip into the magic mirror, so I decided to open it up so I could join you. I was on my way back from my small nature walk. Ponies need their exercise after all."

Fluttershy pauses for a moment and then clears her throat. "Me and Brayden were just beginning our day with some breakfast."

Pinkie poked her head through the window a little more to see what the both of us were eating. "Ooooh, you've got some nice eggs on that plate of yours Brayden." She tells me.

I pull my plate back a bit in case Pinkie has any funny ideas, but in a rather joking way as I have a smile upon my face. "Yes, these are eggs made straight from the frying pan. And they were made for me." I told her.

"Don't worry Pinkie," Fluttershy said to her. "I made two extra eggs in case anypony came by. Would you like to have them?"

"Sure!" Pinkie says, excited. She moves away from the window and bounces up and down towards Fluttershy's front door. I heard the sound of her front door opening and closing, and the sound of Pinkie's bouncing.

She comes right into the kitchen and takes her seat right over at the table across from me. Fluttershy gets up and out of her seat, trotting behind me and then right over to the extra plate sitting on the counter getting a fork and some extra warm buttered toast for her to have. After she has put them onto a plate, she trots over to the table, giving it to Pinkie.

Pinkie takes the fork and takes an egg from underneath. To avoid the spillage that would soon about leak from under the egg, she slipped that entire egg into her mouth and then there was a gulping sound. The egg she put inside her mouth was gone. On the other hoof, or hand- whatever, I'll just say hoof even though I have hands. I was completely surprised by how Pinkie did that.

"How did you do that Pinkie?" I had asked, sounding a little curious. "And by the way, be careful because you might get a tummy ache if you eat too fast."

She looks at me and smiles. "Oh, that's easy. I have a big stomach." She told me.

"Oh no wonder," I said. I side another bite of my eggs into my mouth, chewing it down and swallowing before I talked again. "You are Pinkie Pie after all."

I can hear Fluttershy take her seat right next to me. "And you are the most cheerful friend ever." She said with tone of honesty in her voice.

Most of breakfast time was fun from there forward on. The three of us just rather conversed about stuff that was happening in our lives or me just sharing a funny story that happened while I was back on Earth. Pinkie on the other hand shared about the first date that she had with Cheese Sandwich a few days back so I guess my words and suggestion to date him worked after all. Fluttershy discussed the usual, talking about the animals and often the plans of what she would do today. Today she was going to see her good friend Applejack to keep an eye on Winona, her dog.

After my plate was finished, I got up and out of the chair, took my plate to both wash and dry it. Fluttershy as usual told me that I didn't have to do it, but I insisted. After that was done, I figured that I should get ready for the entry through the magic portal so I went upstairs. I brush my teeth and would check to make sure that I didn't miss any spots on my teeth as it is essential to my teeth's health. I think I missed one, but it's probably my imagination. After, I slip on my white socks and black leather boots in the guest room.

I am heading down the stair steps now, and I can hear the sound of my boots tapping onto the wooden planks on my way down. Besides the sound of my boots, I can hear the trotting of both Pinkie and Fluttershy coming towards the stairwell on my way down. They come out from the kitchen and meet up with me when I was off of the last step down at the main floor of the cottage.

"Well, I'm guessing this is to wish me good luck?" I asked the both of them.

"Of course," Fluttershy says, trotting closer towards me. "We want to make sure that nothing bad will happen to you during your time in the mirror world." She moves her right front hoof and touches my left hand.

"Don't forget to tell us all about when you get the chance to!" Pinkie says. "When you return back, we'll even throw you a 'welcome back to Equestria' party to celebrate."

"Girls," I said with a smile. "I'm only going to be away for two days max. I'll be back right then. And don't you worry, I'll be sure to tell you all about it. I will miss you while I'm gone."

I can feel a thump from right behind my head. I knew that thump when I felt it, that somepony threw something small at my head. I turn my head around and look to see that usual bunny rabbit smaller than me just thumping his foot away for attention. Who else than Angel? "Of course I'll miss you too Angel." I said to him. I noticed the carrot on the ground that he threw at my head to get his attention, and now he was satisfied that I got to say bye to him until I came back.

Fluttershy takes her hoof off of my hand and I move closer towards her. Her hooves open up and I move my arms around her, sharing a gentle and friendly hug with her. Yes I was going to miss her, but not just her. I was going to miss the six of my friends and everypony else that I have befriended. Twilight, I would end up missing the most while I was away. After a few moments, both me and Fluttershy let go of the hug and I turn towards Pinkie.

Pinkie pounced towards me playfully, but I am luckily not knocked down onto the floor the first time I was able to hang out with her. That was because I was surprised that it ended up getting me on the floor, but I managed to place the both of my arms around my friend this time. Both me and the energetic mare I know share a friendly hug together. The hug lasts for a few moments like usual and then me and her let go of the hug.

I then bid the girls farewell for now until I got back. I head out of the cottage making sure the door is closed as per usual. I make my way down the small hill the cottage rests upon, crossing the stone bridge and then heading onto the trail towards the town of Ponyville.

---

The way to Ponyville was rather silent and relaxing. Today was a Saturday by the estimate, so there were no school for the colts and fillies today. I ended up seeing a few of them right outside just trotting around the town and talking among their friends. Most other ponies in town were shopping in town and chatting with one another.

I ended up seeing Granny Smith at the marketplace when I passed along building by building to get to the castle, so I couldn't stop by and say hello to her. Next time when I am visiting Applejack at Sweet Apple Acres or just talking with her outside the farm, I'll mention to Granny that I saw her that day.

I passed through most of the town by its marketplace, the square and even the suburbs. I even passed by the ruins of the Golden Oak Library which I know Twilight still probably misses so much. It was where her adventure began after all. I miss the library as well, but even after Tirek was sent back to Tartarus… I would eventually get used to the new castle in Ponyville really soon.

It doesn't take too long, but I eventually make it towards the golden steps of the large castle. I take my footsteps forward and head up and towards the door. I grab onto the handle on the right side of the large double doors and push it open.

The stairs themselves looked rather crystalline when I closed the door to the outside behind me and took my steps upward. All seemed a bit quiet in the castle stairway as I didn't hear Twilight nor Spike just yet. It figures because they were used to the library. These steps up the castle stairs were rather spiral and because I have only been here once, I can tell that when I was high enough to the 2nd floor, it looked rather tall in size on the inside just like how huge it was outside.

I can hear the sound of hooves trotting from out of a room on the second floor when I made my way to the top. I follow the sound of the hooves trotting along inside. That must be Twilight just trotting about the place into a room which I am guessing was the library she would be found in. It was also the location of where the portal would lay before me. I knew what to expect, so I walk down the hallway towards the library.

"Spike," I can hear her sweet voice acknowledge her dragon friend. "Quick, find me the book on the history of Manehattan. I'm curious to know about the treasures most find in the rivers there."

"Sure thing." I heard Spike say before there was the moving sound of his steps moving a bit.

At this point, I step into the library and take a look around me. There were so many books in the many rows that looked just like that scene in one movie that I remembered. It looked rather majestic and clean, plus well-organized as Twilight usually had it. I know her though, she's obsessed with books. This is one of these reasons why I just about love her.

Twilight lies there on a large red pillow, reading away at a small book. She doesn't seem to notice me coming in just yet. I walk up closer towards her on approach, to which she doesn't quite hear the sound of my boots on the crystal floor. I come up behind her and I just wait for the right moment. A few seconds pass, and she uses that magic of hers to flip the page of her book. I move the both of my arms and placed them both onto her shoulders.

She seemed only a bit surprised at first and turns her head towards me. She looked rather alarmed at first, but then upon seeing my face she gives a more relaxed look on her face. I can hear her let out a happy sigh from her mouth and puts down her book for a moment, turning towards me.

"Hello Brayden," She says to me. The both of her hooves move upward, taking the both of my hands. I open up my hands and allow her soft and gentle hooves to move onto them so I can hold hers. "I didn't suspect that you were coming in. You caught me by surprise."

"Sorry about that," I said to her with a chuckle. "I guess even the element of surprise works some of the time anyway."

"Don't worry, you don't have to apologize," She says to me. "I'm just guessing that you're here to have our next date together?"

I shook my head with a smile. "Not today Twilight," I said to her. "But I promise you that when I come back, I will definitely do that with you after that."

"Where are you going?" Twilight asked, sounding a bit curious. Her hooves rub gently at my own hands.

"Today," I said, before clearing my throat for a moment. "I am going to go through the mirror into the alternate Equestria."

"The mirror?" Twilight says with only a small bit of surprise in her words. "I appreciate you wanting to explore a little more, but why into the mirror? I've only been there in for at least two times by now. I might give a bit of a reaction if you were to head right in."

"Not entirely true, Twilight," I said with a smile. "Most of them there resemble to what I am as in human form… well, sort of. Well, actually yes but it is hard to explain."

Twilight moved closer to me. "It's okay," She says. "You don't have to explain. Judging by how you were in when you first arrived, I thought the same thing as well. It did remind me of what it was like for me the first time I was in the mirror world. Or as I call it 'Alternate Equestria' if you get what I mean."

I nod my head. "Yes, Twi. I do." I told her.

My right hand let go of her soft left front hoof and I gently move it to the back of her head, gently stroking her gentle mane. She looked rather calm in my presence whilst I was with her, even then I felt the exact same. But of course, I would still feel a bit worried and scared inside that she would eventually find out about Coco Pommel and what I had done. But it would best to keep that thought behind me… for now.

I got down on one knee, with nothing to surprise her with and my eyes were taking a look into those heavenly eyes of hers. The calm that she was giving off made her feel comfortable around me as per our relationship. Twilight's wings unfold and move around as in a wing-hug. The both of our heads move forward and eventually press gently to our foreheads while our eyes still gazed. My eyes close and I can feel her lips softly press onto my lips. She was kissing me. It made me feel happy inside and my heart skipped a few beats.

My eyes open when Twilight releases the kiss. Her head moved to the side of my face, gently nuzzling at my cheek. "Be safe while you're there," She whispers in my ear. "If you run into any trouble, Sunset will always be there to help you out."

"I will," I whisper back to her. "I promise that I will return safely."

As much as I remember Sunset Shimmer as the villain, I was surprised when I heard Twilight tell me that she'll help me out whenever I am in need. It all came to me now; Twilight had forgiven Sunset Shimmer after that ruckus with the crown and her turning into a demon version of herself that took control of the students by the negative energy that the crown gave off while she wore it and tried to take over Equestria. Even then, as though I thought her to be a great villain at the time, I wanted to see how much she had changed for the good side.

I heard Spike groan while both I and Twilight continued to gaze at each other. "That never happens with me and Rarity…" He quietly complains to himself while coming towards the both of us. He places the book about hidden Manehattan treasures onto the nearby table close to us.

Our gaze is interrupted by this and both I and Twilight turn our heads towards the table where Spike himself was standing there. The book itself was a hard cover and in the color of a worn dark green. Twilight lights up a smile. "Thank you Spike." She says to him.

"Also, why the complaining?" I ask him.

Spike only showed off a bit of jealousy as he knew that both Twilight and I began our relationship. "I'm just jealous on how you and Twilight began being special someponies while I'm still trying to win the heart of Rarity." He tells the both of us.

"That's because she is older than you," I said to her. Twilight nods in agreement. "I think you're still a bit too young, but if you still want to take a shot at winning the unicorn's heart: I'd say go for it."

"It's always never easy," Spike complains for a moment. "If only she could see."

"She kissed you on the cheek remember?" I told him, remembering the episode for a brief moment when he had become a gigantic dragon consumed by greed himself, but Rarity's words turned him back and she was struck by the words. But still, it all ended with him being in the friend zone yet again. "Don't worry, you'll win it eventually. Patience is the key to success after all."

Spike let out a silent huff. "That's what they all say…" He says before going back to sorting out some books on the many shelves in the library.

Twilight moves the both of her wings off from around me and turns towards the mirror at the end of the room. There it was, standing there before me, shining where the portal would be by its gazing reflection. The portal was still closed as per usual, but there were some sort of science technology that Twilight herself must have installed with a book that represents the sun on its cover still on top of the mirror portal.

"I'll open the portal for you." She says to me, trotting towards the technology by the side of the mirror.

I watch as she was doing all of that science that even I wouldn't know how to do it, but the magic from that book above the mirror connects with the power of the mirror. The portal's reflective glass is changed into the shades of violet and there seems to be a bit of a swirl from inside of the mirror. The portal looked open and ready for me to enter it at any time.

"Now remember, this portal closes on the fourth day, so you should be in some luck in getting back before it closes again," Twilight informed me as she trotted over towards me, taking my right hand with her left front hoof. "But please make it in time because once it closes, you'll be stuck there at least until the time for the thirty moons come again."

"I'll come back." I said to her, getting down on one knee again and moving the both of my arms around her gently.

Her wings open up again and move around me, bringing me close to her for a hug. The both of our cheeks are nuzzling each other during the small loving moment of our hug. I hugged her for a few moments and then let go, with me planting a small peck from my lips onto her cheek as I let go. She had a small blush on her soft cheeks.

I can feel something tap me on the shoulder. I turn my head to my left where the shoulder was being tapped. It was only Spike himself and he had a smile upon his face. "What about me?" He asks. "I've only been through the mirror twice now as a dog. So I guess it's the first time seeing a friend go through the mirror."

I opened up my arms and Spike comes towards me, sharing a friendly hug with me. He is one of those dragons that I trust big time whenever in need. Most dragons wouldn't listen to reason and would just try to be hostile towards me. Spike is nice though and I highly consider him to be as friendly as ever as he always was. After a few moments, me and Spike let go of the hug.

"I will miss you as well, Spike. I will be back though." I said to him with that honest tone in my voice.

I finally get back up onto my two feet and take a look at the mirror. The portal swirled before me, ready for me when I was ready. I walk towards the mirror, stepping up onto the crystal platform it rested upon a few feet from the portal.

I could feel the essence of magic flowing through the entrance of the portal and it was a warm feeling that it was giving away. No words could describe how powerful the mirror was at this moment. My hand reaches towards the portal and I manage to touch it partially, my finger had created a ripple in the portal as if it was like water. Knowing what to expect upon my entry through and beyond the mirror, I took my careful steps forward, taking a deep breath. I had gone right through and beyond the magic barrier and into the mirror.

I was flying through what seemed to be an infinite realm of a portal that was bestowed as the gateway connection. While I had that flying essence, it felt like I was falling straight into the eye of a raging cyclone with my body being torn around left and right.

I was struggling to maintain my speed while being dragged on forward towards the light at the bottom of the rainbow tunnel. I couldn't release it out and it felt almost as if I were paralyzed. The invisible non-feeling wind pushed me down and I kept twirling around in the sky, feeling the parts of my body and head beginning to stretch. It was like being close to the event horizon of a black hole, but ahead was more rather a white hole for it felt like I was outside of the atmosphere of a planet, though I could breathe just fine.

I struggle to move a bit of my fingers as I turn my head to the swirling colors of the rainbow and could see such images right outside that looked like space for a quick moment, but too far from the Earth for me to see. I witness such sights like the simulated passing of a comet illuminating ice and dust from its trail. The white hole began to grow closer towards me.

I could feel my hands and fingers begin to be back into my control once again. I was still stretching more, but it wasn't giving me any pain. I turn my head slightly to look behind me. On the opposite end from where I started through the gateway was the shining sun that represented the cutie mark of Princess Celestia. I turn my head back towards the white hole in front of me. I was just about to pass and I knew what to expect next while this felt like the speed of sound. I had five seconds to act quickly, so I just wait for the last 4 seconds and close my eyes. I had hit the event horizon of the white hole at the end of the gateway.

I felt a non-wet liquid for a split moment that was the end of the portal to the other alternative side of Equestria while my eyes were still closed. I could feel myself fly for a moment and then there was the rough impact that had been done as I had landed on some hard concrete. I felt myself skid for a few quick moments and then stop there.

The minute journey through the portal made me feel extremely tired from what happened. I kept my eyes closed because of this. I try to open my eyes for a brief moment. Besides my heartbeat, I could hear the sounds of some girls gasping in worry and the sound of running towards me. My sight fades to black for a moment.

I could hear a faint concerned voice. "Is he okay?" My eyes give back one more vision of someone's black and violet right boot before my eyes closed once again.

"He just came out of the portal to Equestria!" I could hear another voice say to one of them. I could feel my upper body start to get lifted up. And then, there was nothing, just quiet silence.

I had blacked out before I had even realized what was going on.

A/N: Another update! Sorry for the wait! I also apologize how short this chapter is, but the next two will be slightly longer.

This Wednesday, I will be seeing Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance on his solo tour. I am pretty excited, though I am hoping that My Chemical Romance will do a reunion tour sometime in the future.

Review Response Time! (Don't worry sonic3461, I replied to you already.)

Raven 105: This story is a single story alone, but expect Twilight and Brayden's relationship to come along after the next two chapters. Villains? They're going to be in this. :) Thank you by the way.

jvs12: Yep.

4theworldman: Thank you.

P.S. I just heard Kamelot's new album "Haven". It's really good. Now I can't wait for Cradle of Filth's new album: "Hammer of the Witches", Helloween's "My God-Given Right", Between The Buried And Me's "Coma Ecliptica" and Luca Turilli's Rhapsody's "Prometheus, Symphonia Ignis Divinus"! ...Okay, I'm being too obsessed with so many upcoming releases.

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The sound of crickets chirping sweet songs and owls hooting could be heard outside while I was starting to stir back awake. I kept my eyes closed as I had passed out for some time. I could also feel a cloth of cold ice being placed upon my head. Doesn't this sound a bit familiar? But nevertheless, the cloth is released from my forehead for a quick moment and then is placed onto my head again. I groan, thinking it was just a bad dream of entering the mirror portal and that it was just Fluttershy.

"Fluttershy… is that you?" I had asked with a weak tone.

"Shhh… there there now. Just relax…" I could hear a different voice tell me and she sounded rather calm and really different, but this voice sounded rather familiar. "You were asleep for almost eight hours now."

"I… I had a horrible nightmare. I dreamt that I had gone through the mirror in Twilight's library to the other alternate universe. It was… completely terrifying to go through the portal for the first time." I said to whoever was speaking as she was gently dabbing the cloth onto my forehead.

"Well," The voice said to me. "You do not have to fear or worry now. You are safe and sound on the second floor of Pinkie's house."

That's when I realized that this was a change, yet this talk sounded familiar yet again. "Pinkie's house?" I asked in shock. The both of my eyes shot right open and moving my upper body up in bed I had been resting in. I was in a completely different room that looked quite similar to the ones I knew straight back on Earth. The moon was shining right outside of the window slightly in the night sky. I knew the direction that the voice had been speaking to me, so I turned to the left and looked rather surprised by who was sitting in the chair next to the bed I was lying in.

It was none other than Sunset Shimmer herself.

I move backwards a bit while lying in bed, fearing that if Sunset was still even a bit evil at all times. But when she saw me moving backwards in the single bed, she had a face that could tell she was worried about me and by how I looked only a tiny bit fearful. I had to make absolute sure though as I have only seen the first movie.

"Easy there now, you're okay," She tells me in a calm voice. She puts down the cloth and raises a hand. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"How will I know you're not still bad?" I asked her, still sounding a bit suspicious.

Sunset looked a little confused. "Me? Bad?" She questions. "Where did you get the idea that I sounded bad?"

"A lot can get around a few of my friends who still don't trust you. As much as Twilight does, I'm a bit on-off for what the opinions of my friends are." I told her. My left hand is gripping onto the pillow tightly whilst I talked to her.

"You know Princess Twilight?" She questions yet again. "I'm confused. Why would you go through the portal here? Twilight ended up sealing it off but only coming to help in case Canterlot High is attacked once again. I know this because I tried at one point."

I stop gripping onto the pillow with my left hand, calming down a bit. "I am well aware of what you did Sunset. But I am still in judgement on you after I saw all of the events that happened on what you almost did." I said to her, keeping a rather stern tone in my voice.

Sunset still kept her confused look upon her face. "H-How do you know all about that?" She asks, but sounds a bit concerned about me on if I was crazy or not. Next thing you know, they'll probably have me committed to this town's lunatic asylum even though I have not seen a single one from when I saw the movie.

"It's a really long story to explain," I told her, scratching my head. "You probably won't believe me or you'll be disappointed in me for telling you the truth."

She lets out a soft smile upon her face. "You can tell me, and I will listen. Don't worry; I'm not going to withhold any judgements on you." She says. Both of her hands are placed onto her lap and she is ready to hear me out. The whole room goes silent from our talk minus the night sounds of owls and crickets outside of the building.

I sigh silently and turn towards her, looking at her and ready to tell my story to her but in a rather brief version. "You see, I came from a world similar to here and Equestria, but worked more different. It's a world far from Equestria. I was close to being killed by a criminal gang of bikers. Princess Luna saved me though, and I ended up in Equestria, taking my soul from my mortal body on Earth. For a couple of months now, I've befriended a couple of the Equestrian ponies, and I managed to score the status of being Twilight's special somepony no matter how different I may be," I explained to her. "I've had a bit of a role now, when I had to take up the Song of Order by my own hand and use it against Nightmare Moon who came back. But I helped her in her redemption because I couldn't kill her. I spared her, and as many ponies still don't trust her… she's changing for the better good."

"The Song of Order?" Sunset asks. "Isn't that all part of an old pony's tale?"

"It was," I said with confirmation that there were still others that still confused on if the Song of Order existed or not. "But it came before me while trying to confront a violent Nightmare Moon. It seems that I now wield such a beautiful silver blade as such. I don't have it with me though, as it is still in Equestria."

"I see," Sunset says. "I would go back in through the mirror home, but I feel like my return wouldn't be too kind on other ponies that I've known before I betrayed Princess Celestia."

"I know the princess though," I said to her sounding a little assuring in my gentle tone. "I don't think she will end up mad if you were to return from here. I have a feeling that she would forgive you. If she can forgive Nightmare Moon, I believe she would do the same for you." I release a warm smile upon my face.

"I'm not sure…" Sunset says quietly as her head turns from me to the side and her eyes looking downward. "I did too much to end up betraying the princess."

"We all make mistakes though Sunset. You didn't mean to betray her." I told her.

Sunset nods, but still sounds a little down even when we're conversing about Princess Celestia. "It's what I fear she'll do if I ever come back. I've been writing letters to Princess Twilight. Wait- you and her are special someponies?"

I nod my head. "Indeed," I said. "It's a long story about that, but to sum it all up: let's just say that I ended up getting a bit of a 'crush' on her." I had to hide the detail that I was cheating on her with Coco Pommel in a somehow secret way, if she knew about it or found out Twilight would do Celestia-knows-what to me. I couldn't risk telling Sunset Shimmer about it either because she could no doubt inform Twilight about that.

"I see," Sunset's saddened tone rises to sound a little happy again. "I honestly wish you and Twilight the best in your relationship. I haven't fallen for anyone myself… well, there was Flash Sentry. I ended up dumping him though."

"You dumped Flash?" I said, remembering the image of what he looked like in this alternate world. As much as I would keep as sharp an eye on him as possible, Twilight wasn't here so I decided to leave him alone. I don't mind him now after visiting the Crystal Empire.

"Yes," Sunset said, a soft smile glowed upon her face. "But that was when I was on the bad side of life. I have moved on from that now, and as though as my past has been in dark times. I accept for what will eventually be a changed future for me; for the better good of it all. The both of us are now considered just as friends now."

"Yes, friendship is magic after all." I said to her, giving away the obvious message that the show had every time as its moral. "With our small talk, I believe that I can trust you Sunset."

"Of course!" She exclaims. "I don't want to ever play the raging she-demon leader ever again after what I had done at the-"

"Fall Formal." The both of us said at the exact same time.

She looked a bit surprised when I said it at the exact same time as her, so curiosity was upon her on how I knew this. "How did you know about that? I still didn't really get the answer for that question."

"On my world before I came to Equestria, there is something called television or rather 'moving pictures' as Pinkie Pie told me when I had to tell them the truth about where I really came from." I explained to her.

"Oh yes, Pinkie has one in her bedroom," Sunset says, looking at my brown eyes with her cyan eyes. "So it seems your world and this world has the unique same similarities."

I nod with a smile. "Yes, and there was a movie called Equestria Girls that had you, Twilight… everypony in it! I watched as you were that she-demon which looked awesome to be honest, but at that time I considered you the villain. Saying that to you now is something I will probably regret later." I said, my tone sounding a bit worried.

Sunset's right hand moves and is placed on top of my left hand, gently touching it. "You don't have to worry Brayden," She says to me, sounding rather okay with it. "I'm actually used to it now, so I'm not mad."

I sat up in the bed, crossing the both of my legs out of the sheets and taking my seat at the end of the bed side. "You've changed a lot the last time I saw you Sunset," I said to her. Her right hand comes off the top of my left hand. "I think we should be able to get to know each other, as friends."

"Oh yes, I think that is very well happening tonight," Sunset said to me, releasing a short giggle. "After all, when you flew in from out the portal, we had to take you to Pinkie's house. It's a slumber party no doubt, and Pinkie is able and ready at any moment when it is time to group up for something special." Footsteps could be heard outside of the bedroom, which the both of us can hear. "In fact, I'm guessing that is one of my friends coming right now."

The bedroom door's knob turns and then opens up. Coming in was the alternate version of what I knew as the athletic type of pony back in Equestria: Rainbow Dash. Her head was peeking in through the doorway at both me and Sunset.

"Hey Sunset," She chimes in. "I just thought that I'd let you know that the pizza's here."

"Alright, sounds good Rainbow," Sunset says to her, a bright smile on her face when she turned to look at Rainbow Dash from the other side of the room at the slightly opened door. "We'll be downstairs in a moment."

"Alright, take your time. I'll leave the door open when you're both ready." She says and then slips back from sight, with the sound of walking back down the hall and stairs.

Sunset turns back to face me. "I never did get your name yet." She tells me.

I nod with a smile of greeting upon my mouth. "Brayden. My name is Brayden." I told her, reaching out my right hand for her to shake, for which she responded with her holding onto that hand to shake it with her right hand. "Don't worry, you don't need to tell me who you are Sunset, after I saw all of what happened, it's alright."

"Of course." She says to me.

I let go of her hand and get up from off the bed and follow her. She brings me across the room and opens up the door into the hallway. From there, I began to walk beside her and was thinking about something to say to her. My head is turned towards her. She turns her head to look at me as well.

"So…" I said to her, still unsure how to start talking again.

"So?" She says, with a friendly smile upon her face.

I looked at her cyan eyes and asked "I was wondering what had gone up last time Twilight was here? I mean she did mention while I was away in Manehattan about having to deal with something."

"Oh, that?" Sunset exclaims in question. I had a feeling that knew that I ended up getting that curious. "Well, just like yours; it's a long story. There were three sirens attacking the students of Canterlot High and we had to call in Twilight to help us."

"Coco warned me about sirens before from Siren Cove," I said. "But I don't understand how siren would be able to get into this world."

"Long ago, they attacked Equestria and almost conquered it. Starswirl banished them here, he did not know if this would be affected. But we defeated them," She says to me and then stifled a giggle "Now they are three usual girls in Canterlot High."

"I see," I said to her. "I am pretty sure I have an idea of how it had gone."

"You probably do," She said. The both of us start heading down the small household flight of stairs. "But you'll be meeting my small group of friends in any moment now. Don't worry on how they'll judge you. Here, everyone has their own opinion by themselves."

"Just like back on Earth?" I asked. The mention of opinions seems to turn me off in a way. By how I said those words, I sounded a little sad. I turn my head only a bit away from Sunset.

Sunset looked only a little concerned when I asked in that glum tone. "Are you alright Brayden?" She asks me. I can feel her left hand gently on my back as if it were a pat.

"The people on Earth have very different opinions. Theirs hurt more than they do here, and by the way that they displayed them; it sounded more arrogant than usual," I started to explain. Sunset still looks a little concerned but begins listening. "I found myself to be hurt by their opinions when for example: let's say I liked something that was not really part of what they call the 'mainstream'. They poke fun at it immediately and some insult. When the insult comes into the act, it hurts my feelings deep inside."

"So yours must be different from here…" She said.

I sigh softly and then look at her again. "I miss that place, though at the same time: I feel free from everyone there being rude and arrogant from what I saw there around me. Even the children there have started becoming more violent due to the mainstream video games there." I said to her.

"The only time I've seen others play video games is when Rainbow Dash and Applejack are on the console in Pinkie's room where most of the time we all talk." She told me. "But one wrong move can cause a change in society's ways when you least expect it."

"It's sad," I said to her. "In the earlier days as a child, most kids would be spending their time outside at the playground. Nowadays when I was last there… kids are now indoors playing on their consoles. I mean, I was in that phase too where I'd just stay inside and play video games. I've moved on from that, only playing them from time to time."

Both I and Sunset step off the stairs at the bottom of the steps and onto the first and main floor of the house. We continue walking together down the hall; below the both of us were some plush carpet that was in the color of what else… pink. I can see this Pinkie Pie has some style to acknowledge her color onto the carpet. The walls and ceiling are a lighter pink than the carpet so the plush below was a little tinted down which was fine.

We turn to the left and enter into what seems to be the living room. The whole room was lit up and there was some music playing in the background quietly that sounded rather like it would be at a house party. Everyone is at a couch or a single chair gathered around to chat among each other.

That energetic pink haired girl sitting at the naval blue couch who I knew was Pinkie Pie is the first to see me there passing under the wooden arc. "Girls, there he is!" She says excitedly. She points right at me with a finger and she is smiling. "He's awake!"

Every one of the girls had turned around and saw me coming up to join them. Sunset walks alongside me for a few moments and then walks to the nearby couch where Applejack and Rarity were seated. All of them took a look at me, their smiles seemed rather welcoming. Heading onto the right side of the small room, I walk towards the couch where Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were sitting. Their smiles are brightened up when I take a seat in-between.

"Girls," Sunset calls out to the group and she has a smile upon her face. "I just talked with him while I was upstairs keeping an eye on him until he woke up. This is Brayden."

Rainbow Dash is the first to turn and introduce herself to me… again, since this alternate world is different from Equestria. "Well, I saw that you were waking up when I came upstairs to notify Sunset," In my mind I was thinking 'you don't say' when she was telling that before continuing. "I'm Rainbow Dash."

She moves her hand forward and offers a handshake to me. My hand goes to her hand and has a gentle grip onto hers and we shake hands. "It's nice to meet you, Rainbow Dash." I said.

Rainbow Dash noticed how gentle I was shaking her hand for those few moments and when we finally let go of the handshake, she lets out a bit of a chuckle and uses the elbow on her right arm to nudge mine. "Heh, I think I'm starting to like you already!" She tells me. "You seem rather nice too. I think you and I are going to get along well as friends."

I can feel a finger tap me on my right shoulder. I turn away from Rainbow Dash to take a look at who was tapping me. It's Fluttershy and she has a small smile upon her face. She is holding the both of her hands, and while she smiles innocently; she has a rather shy look upon her face.

"I'm Fluttershy." She tells me, sounding only a little shy but happy at the same time.

I move my hand and gently place it onto her left shoulder. But I was gentle because in case she still had a bit of the Equestrian version in her, I didn't want to frighten her after all. "It's very nice to meet you Fluttershy."

Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie get off their spots on the other couch. Pinkie on the other half was lying back in a chair, so she just about jumped off of it when she was going up to introduce herself. Applejack is the first to come up to me. I get up off from the seat on the couch.

"Now, Ah reckon that ya must be one of them others who came flyin' out of the portal to Equestria," She says in to me in that recognizable Southern accented voice. "Ah'm surprised 'cause usually Twilight comes through the portal."

I nod with a smile and said to her "That's true, usually if she was visiting she would go in and look recognizable to everyone there."

"Ya," Applejack says to me and offers a hand shake which I accept and shake. "Ah'm Applejack."

"I am Brayden," I introduce my name to her just in case. "It's nice to meet you Applejack."

"My turn! My turn!" The both of us could hear an energetic pink teen jumping up and down and looking rather excited to greet me. Applejack steps out of the way and I pretty much know what is coming up next.

Pinkie jumps forward towards me and wraps her two arms around me, giving me a really tight hug which I did and did not see coming there. "I'm Pinkie Pie! When I saw you coming out of the portal, I was like 'wha-' because I did totally not expect anybody to stumble through it. It's Twilight for the two times then, but seeing a new face from Equestria is fun!" She says to me while squeezing me.

"Can't- breath! Pinkie!" I struggled to get out from my mouth as her hug was really tight around me, just like Pinkie back in Equestria. Eventually, she lets go of me and giggles. "Well, I will say that you like the one I know back in Equestria a lot." I chuckled.

"You're from Equestria?!" Pinkie says, sounding rather shocked. She then goes super uber-happy once again. "That is AMAZING!" I could hear that signature squee sound.

"Well, yes and no." I said to her. "It's a bit of a long story from where I actually am from."

"I love long stories!" Pinkie blurts out with the most gigantic smile upon her face. "You can tell us when we're having pizza!"

Rarity is behind Pinkie Pie and taps her on the right shoulder behind her. Pinkie turns around and still looks rather happy. "Pinkie, may I introduce myself to Brayden?" She asks her.

Pinkie nods and heads to the side allowing Rarity to come forward and say hello to me. "Greetings Brayden, I am Rarity." She says to me in her grand voice that I knew. "I own the Carousel Boutique a couple of streets down from here."

I move my hand forward and offer a handshake. She accepts it and l gently take her hand and shake it gently. "It's nice to meet you Miss Rarity." I said to her, smiling.

"You have such nice manners," She says to me with a warm smile. "But you don't have to call me Miss Rarity-"

Pinkie butts into the conversation. "Enough chit-chat!" She announces abruptly but rather happily. "Pizza is waiting for us in the kitchen and I can smell it from here!" She takes a big sniff from her nose that I could hear. "That smells delicious! I call Pepperoni!"

"I call it too!" I exclaimed to her with a smile upon my face. Pinkie Pie runs off into the kitchen and I join up with Sunset and the other girls to follow that energetic girl into the kitchen where even I could smell the fresh and hot pizza waiting for all of us.

We make our way from the living room and pass the hallway into the kitchen just opposite hall from the living room, only a small walk down. There was a wooden maple table set up with a group of six. Three at each end, but there was an extra chair at the end of the table's other side. On the table were seven plates with glasses that were filled with clear and fresh water. Pinkie was behind the counter of the kitchen, getting the two white cardboard boxes of pepperoni and cheese pizza. I knew that because when she brought them to the table, she opened it up revealing what they were.

I take my seat at the extra chair that had been set up for me and begin waiting patiently for the slice of pizza. Sunset takes her seat next to me on my right side. On my side besides Sunset, Fluttershy and Applejack took their seats as well. On the opposite side of the table, Rarity and Rainbow Dash were already seated. Pinkie gets out the slices and gives each of us two slices from the two pizzas. Me, Pinkie, Rainbow and Sunset got the pepperoni slices. For the cheese slices, Fluttershy, Applejack and Rarity were the ones who asked if they could have it, so they did.

I began to eat my pizza in silence among them at first waiting to start a conversation with one of them. Taking a bite of pizza, I mush it down so that I can swallow down that piece. Once I have finished, I take a look at the group who were just eating away at dinner. Just like in Equestria, Rarity is eating rather lady-like so I guess that's another resemblance to her Equestrian self in this world.

Sunset is the first to talk to the girls. "So, what is on everyone's mind for tomorrow?" She had asked.

"I've got something planned out, and I was thinking of inviting you all!" Pinkie says in her usual energetic and happy tone. "There is a humongous party going on at Canterlot High tomorrow night all hosted by Vinyl Scratch! Girl also has her headphones on though, so it's kind of hard to get a word out of her unless you take the phones off of her ears."

"How much are the tickets, Pinkie?" Rarity asks. "I heard the sales for them are quite high at this time in the season."

"You don't have to worry about that Rarity!" She said. "The tickets aren't that expensive at all. They are only at least five dollars and seventy-five cents a ticket each."

"Ah'm in!" Applejack said. "We're all goin' to have a good time then, so Ah'll pay for a ticket there."

"Count me in." Rainbow Dash said, taking a sip of water afterwards and then gulping down before continuing. "Soarin might be there after all, and I guess that is another one of the smallest reasons why I'll end up going with you girls."

Pinkie began to tease her a bit. "Someone's got a crush on Soarin!"

Rainbow's cheeks lit up like a Christmas tree and she looked rather annoyed. "I do not!" She shouts, sounding a little embarrassed.

"Oh don't lie to us Rainbow!" Pinkie says with a loud audible laugh. "Whenever you're not with us, besides playing on the field: you're mostly talking to Soarin and the rest of his friends!" A large sneaky smirk appeared on the girl's pink face as Rainbow's cheeks lighten up more.

"What about you Fluttershy?" I asked and turned to her. This question had stopped the oncoming argument between Pinkie and Rainbow, and I feared it would get ugly so I did not want anything like that to happen even though Pinkie was only joking about. "Are you planning on going to the dance tomorrow night?"

"Oh, ummm…" Fluttershy says. By how she said this, it sounded like she was unsure about it. "I don't really know…"

"Come on Fluttershy," Applejack says, bearing a smile upon her face. "Ah know that yer still tryin' hard to interact and break out of that comfort zone."

"I… I guess I might be trying." Fluttershy says, still sounding a little quiet. "But I'll come along to try and do that."

"That's the spirit Fluttershy." I commented, putting a friendly smile on my face. "Remember, don't ever be afraid to try something new."

Sunset glances at me for a few moments and turns back to look at the girls. "What about Brayden?" She asks. "I don't think he has said anything about wanting to go attend the dance with us… wait, what was the dance called again?"

"It's the Summer Sun Canterlot High Dance." Pinkie responds to Sunset's question. That sounds like Equestria's equivalent of the Summer Sun Celebration celebrated by everypony there. I mean, I haven't attended one of those before, so I'm hoping that if I do; nothing goes wrong.

"Thank you Pinkie," Sunset says and turns back to me with a smile on her face. "Brayden, are you interested in going to the Summer Sun dance with us?"

I looked at all of them. Each of them were looking right at me as if they were wanting me to accept their invitation to their school dance. Pinkie even displayed a rather puppy dog eyed face that was so hard to resist saying no to. My final decision is thought quickly inside my head and I give a nod with a smile on my face. "Yes." I had given them their answer. I pause for a moment though. "I don't think that Equestrian currency will be able to work in this world."

Sunset places her left hand onto the top of my right hand. "Don't worry about it Brayden, I will pay for it to give to you." I turn my head and look at Sunset with a rather friendly smile. Maybe I was acting a bit too harsh at Sunset from the start and that she was really good after all.

There was the sound of a throat clearing on the other side of the room where we came in. My eyes turn up towards that familiar figure at the arch. I was surprised because I thought I recognized her by that gray color and down-tinted violet for the color of her hair. Who else but Maud Pie herself! In her left hand, she's holding onto a small rock which I kind of figured must have been 'Boulder' himself.

"Sorry if I am interrupting anything girls," She said in a rather dull voice. "I was wondering if Boulder could have a small slice of pizza. Boulder also wants a slice as well."

Pinkie reaches forward to the pizza box with only a few slices of cheese pizza left. "Absolutely! Is cheese alright with you Maud?" Pinkie asks.

"Boulder said he is alright with it." She says again in that dull tone. Then her somewhat tired eyes turn to my direction and she takes a glance at me. "Who is this boy?"

"Him?" Pinkie says, rather surprised. "That's Brayden."

Maud just stares at me and I stare back at her. Both of us were emotionless in our stare-down and eventually, Maud turns back towards Pinkie with that same dull tone as she speaks. "That's nice to know."

Pinkie gives her and the small 'boulder' in her hand the slices of pizza and she turns and walks right out of the kitchen. Everyone in the room except Pinkie has rather awkward looks on their faces that I did not notice during the entire small talk between Pinkie and her sister. One of us had to speak out and bring back a topic.

"I still don't get it." Sunset says to Pinkie, sounding only a tiny bit shocked. I turn my head to look at her. "I don't understand how she is related to you."

Pinkie pops up between me and Sunset which surprises me for a split second because Pinkie was on the other side of the table. "Silly! I was there in the family when she was around." Pinkie says with a smile. "Being born a Pie on a rock farm can totally make a huge difference!"

Sunset looked like she was not going to question about family bloodlines, so she just about decided silently not to question how Maud was related to her anymore since that seemed like even a reasonable answer from Pinkie herself. Pinkie goes back under the table and heads right back to the other side of the table, just continuing to eat away at the slice of pizza she has on her plate.

For the rest of the evening, me and the girls just finished up on the rest of our pizza, and then most of the time, head into Pinkie's garage where her drum kit was set up. It looked rather improved from what Pinkie was telling me when we stepped in. There used to be a single bass drum, but after the 'siren' incident they told me about, she upgraded it to double bass drums. Other than showing me the new kit, the girls jammed out for at least an hour playing some instrumental songs.

I would show them my skills at playing the guitar, but I will have to save that for tomorrow if I want to do that. Last thing that I wanted on my mind was to wake up some of the neighbors and have the girls receive angry texts from neighbours. After an hour of that instrumental jam to watch, it was already time for everyone to go to sleep. So I went upstairs with the girls. The girls went into Pinkie's room, and I turned to head into that other room I had been resting in.

"Brayden?" I could hear Sunset say to me when I had pushed open the door slightly. I turned around to look at Sunset from slightly across the hall.

I look at her with question filling my mind. "Yes?" I asked.

Sunset pauses and just looks at me for those moments. I just stand there, waiting for a bit of a response. Silence fills in the gap between us. She finally just shakes her head and says "Never mind. Have a good night rest."

"You have a good night as well." I said to her with a smile on my face. I turn my focus back onto the door and push it open, entering into the room.

I gently close the door behind me, and walk up towards the bed that I was resting in. I lie down onto the soft warm bed and pull up the sheets that were on the bed over my body. I close my eyes and allow myself to start and take rest from what happened tonight in peace.

Goodnight Equestria… and the Alternate Equestria. I will wait for what happens next tomorrow when I visit the school. So far it all seems to be a great visit here.

…For now.

A/N: Hello everyone! Here is the next and newest chapter for the story.

I'm going to back to FanExpo again this September after hearing the news that Tara Strong will be there, so I'm getting really excited to go and meet my childhood voice actress and the voice of my number 1 favorite character Twilight! I plan on drawing a picture of Twilight for her to sign just like I did with Princess Luna for Tabitha to sign. Don't worry, I will make sure that I will tell you all about it.

Also, another thing in mind is that I want to thank everyone for voting in the last poll I made with: Brayden and Nightmare Moon being the number one top votes, so thank you everyone for the votes! Now I have another poll and I want to ask you something.

Should Sunset Shimmer go back to Equestria?

Be sure to cast a vote on my profile page if she should or not.

Alas, what am I thinking?! It's Review Response time!

sonic3461: Guess who in this chapter? :)

RVPGHOST20: I really have to stop make Back To The Future references in those kinds of situations.

Raven 105: Thank you once again!

jvs12: Thank you.

billykilly: I will probably just mention them, but you never know. One day it could happen just like with the Season 4 finale I did.

4theworldman: You're dang straight I'm back, thank you again as per usual. :)

MarioBrosFTW: Thank you. :)

Guest: For those two reviews, I can't upload new chapters every single day as I have other stuff in mind like my real life band at the moment and the stress of balancing between that and writing is enough. You're just going to have to be patient.

P.S. The song in this chapter is "Hysteria" by British rock masters: Def Leppard!

P.S.S. I may be going to the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Fest, Smashing Pumpkins with Marilyn Manson and Slipknot after all! Huzzah! Not to mention seeing Canadian hard rock masters Loverboy!

"Um, the story?"

Right, sorry about that. Well, gotta run now, but I will update as soon as I can.

---

The next morning rose up over the eastern horizon of the town with its golden sun shining brightly over the flat plain of houses in various rows. I was lying back in bed, having my eyes closed and dreaming all about my friends back in Equestria. Quite clearly, I couldn't really tell you what happened in my dream because I seem to forget them easily with the exception of one other dream I had. The alarm clock on the nightstand table beside the top end of the bed where my head was resting upon a white pillow begins to blare out.

I started to open my eyes. I let out a quiet groan and my tired eyes and head turn towards the alarm clock making that noise. My left hand moves towards the top of the device and presses onto a button that rests upon it to turn off the alarm. The sounds coming from the alarm immediately stop ringing out and everything is silent once again except for the beautiful sound of chirping birds flying outside and above the house. I exhale a small breath and I felt rather better than I had been in years.

I lie back in bed once again, allowing my ears to listen in on what was going on outside while I slip the bed sheets from off of me and crawl forward on the bed to look and observe outside of the window. A warm smile trickles on my face, feeling a bit of the sun's rays coming in through the unblended window.

Outside the window, I could see the neighborhood street alit by day, and there were a few of the ponies- I mean… people, walking along the sidewalks: probably to get to Canterlot High for another day there. That's what I am thinking. A few bluebirds and robins are flying about in the blue painted sky, making a small dance of nature. A few of them sing from the trees where their nests most likely were.

I observe outside for a few more minutes and then slip right out of bed. I make the bed and head onto the other side of the room. I open up the door and leave the room. I can smell breakfast cooking from downstairs, and I walk down the steps of these stairs at the end of the second floor hallway to get to the first floor where that familiar smell was illuminating. After getting down the stairs, I make my way down the hall and to the left where the kitchen was, where I had pizza dinner with the girls last night.

Rarity, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were sitting at the table, chatting to one another about various topics like school or how peaceful it was now that there was nothing to endanger Canterlot High. Sunset, Pinkie and Applejack were over past the kitchen counters, most likely having something on the frying pan since my ears could hear the sizzling of the pan.

Rarity turns her head towards the direction I came in and sees me there under the maple arch. "Good morning Brayden," She says to me. Fluttershy and Rainbow turn to look at me with smile on their faces. "I trust that you slept well."

"I did. I've never slept that well in years." I said to her. I approach them near the end of the table and take a seat there. "How was your sleep?"

"Quite the dream last night I'd say," Rarity says to me. "I dreamt that my designs were the talk of the town."

"That kind of figures," I said to her. "After all, doesn't everyone want to be famous for what they do at some point, fashion or not?"

"Of course-" Rarity says before Pinkie Pie popped up between the both of us and interrupted what Rarity was saying.

"Just so you all know, breakfast is almost just about ready," Pinkie says to the both of us in her usual excited tone. Her face is even beaming with the same happy state she would always be in. "And once breakfast is done, we can continue our dream talk on the way to Canterlot High. We have yet to show him all around there and get him to meet Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna."

"One at a time Pinkie," Sunset says, leaning from the kitchen counter. "The first thing upon getting him into Canterlot High is just introducing himself to where everything is. After all, we don't want him to lose his way around the school."

"Speaking of breakfast," I had asked getting Sunset and Pinkie's attention. "What is cooking this morning?"

"Just bacon and toast," Sunset says to answer my question. "Pinkie ran out of eggs as it turns out, but she did find the fresh strip-loads of bacon that had just about enough for us to have."

Rarity commented "I just hope the bacon don't get my hands all dirty."

Wait a minute… Bacon? The human equivalents of my friends back in Equestria eat meat here?! I mean, I am not a vegetarian and I can eat bacon and any other meat just fine. But I am just in a bit of a shock from this. From what I know, everypony in Equestria is a vegetarian since they are eating products like daisy sandwiches, but Sunset here is eating bacon as if it is nothing. If anypony found out she was eating meat, she'd probably be deemed a 'not-going-to-say-it' and sent back into the mirror world. (Though I shouldn't really panic at the moment, but I should question it to her.)

"Sunset?" I questioned. Her head perked up and her eyes take a look at mine. "Do you mind if both me and you just step into the hallway to talk privately for a few moments?"

Sunset nods with a smile on her face. I get up from my chair and joins beside me as we head past under the wooden arch and into the hallway. Sunset notices my questioned face that also looked quite confused by this revelation I stumbled upon of her eating meat. She takes a few steps forward past me and turns around to look at me. She keeps her weak smile for a few moments but then it fades and looks a bit concerned.

"What is it?" She asked. "Do you not like bacon?"

I shook my head and looked at her. "No, it's not that," I said to her. The tone in my voice sounded not upset but rather surprised. "It's just me being a bit surprised. You're eating bacon and I'm not sure if you realize that it is meat. I mean no offense."

"Of course I know this," She says to me. "And none is taken so don't worry. If I was in my original form other that what I am now, the second I swallowed meat is when I would start to get sick and ill. Pony bodies aren't compatible with the essence of eating any type of meat except fish after it is cooked. Because I am in this form according to the mirror world, my body is all of a sudden capable of eating and swallowing meat. I'm not sure, it's a mystery to me."

"I see," I said to her. "I guess I'm too worried a bit about the fate of one and many others."

"It's no problem Brayden," She said. "I don't think Equestria would punish me in drastic measures if I were to come back for eating meat here in the mirror world. They do not forbid that, it's only in Equestria that it happens. Even then, any who eat any type of meat there would get sick as I had said."

"Celestia invented that rule I assume?" I questioned, turning my head a bit.

She shook her head for a brief moment. "No, these rules were already in place long before Celestia came into rule."

I nod my head and I understood well what she told me. Though, I still yet have to learn about the history of Equestria and its other lost secrets, if it has any left of course. "Anything else that you want to ask me or is that it?" She asks.

I smile. "Nothing else," I said to her with assurance that I sounded no longer worried. "But I feel like I should tell the girls about why I came through the mirror to get from Equestria to here."

"You're going to tell them that you're not from Equestria?" Sunset asks with an eyebrow rose in surprise.

I scratch the back of my head. "Well sort of," I said. "My friend Pinkie in Equestria did give it away which is still something I don't know on how she found out to this day. So I can predict that Pinkie here would know about it too."

"Alright, give it your best shot." Sunset says, a soft smile on her mouth has appeared and it looks rather confident. "I'm sure that they'll understand if it was just a simple visit after all-"

"It's not just that though…" I said to her. Her face looks a little confused, and though she is probably not going to believe me for what I would say next: I think it will be worth a shot. "I also came from Equestria to check up on you."

"Me?" She asks. "But why?"

"It's hard for me to explain and I know that I think to myself that you won't believe my side of the story; but I am going to tell you," I said to her, but take my eyes off of her and my head looks down at the ground.

"Brayden…" I hear her voice tell me softly. She moves her right hand towards and onto my left shoulder, and I still pause there for a few moments before my eyes finally turn up to look at Sunset. She looks rather concerned. "Please tell me. I will try my best to understand why."

I let out a bit of a sigh that went rather silent. I tilted my head upwards to look at her. There and then with her convincing, I just began to explain why she is one of those reasons. "The reason why I also came here to see you is because the last time I saw you on the television back on Earth, you were already on punishment for turning into a she-demon and trying to take over Equestria. Over time, I began to worry about what happened to you for a while. That is why I came, to check and see if you were alright. Also, don't take any offense if I did mention about that she-demon part."

"So that does explain why you came all the way from Equestria here for one of those reasons," She states to me with a small smile. "And no offense has been taken. My past including that is way behind me so it is all good."

"Ah," I said and turn my eyes towards the open archways into the kitchen. "I suppose now is as good a time to act and tell the other girls."

I can feel Sunset's hand being placed onto my left shoulder. I turn my eyes back towards her and she gives off a look that makes me feel rather confident about telling the girls this news. "You'll do fine." She assured me. Sunset joins alongside me again when I turn around and begin making our way back into the kitchen.

All of the girls were at the table and the big plates with bacon on one white shining plate and fresh buttered toast on the other plate. All of the girls were at the table, serving themselves to each two slices of toast and a few slides of bacon. The saliva starts to build up slowly inside of my mouth as I stared right at the delicious bacon yet to come in there when I sit down. Something else should be on my mind though.

"So, is everything all good between the both of you?" Rainbow Dash asked the both of us, gathering breakfast onto her plate.

"I believe that Brayden has something to tell all of you." Sunset says to her and the rest of her friends at the table.

Fluttershy is the first to speak up. "What's on your mind Brayden? Is everything okay?" The tone of her soft voice, sounds a little bit both concerned and questioned.

I take a look at the five girls, plus Sunset who just took a seat at the table to gather some breakfast onto her plate. I gather enough courage in this silent moment between all of them and me. "Well, you see, it's a long story, but I will give you the short version." I told them. Pinkie, of course raised her hand and think I knew put me into a silence and she stood from her chair at the table, inhaling a large breath of air. I knew just about what was coming next.

"You're not actually from Equestria after all. It turns out that you are actually from another world called Earth that looks just like this world, but just different. Then you are magically whisked away by a princess that somehow is like Vice Principal Luna to Equestria. Little did you know that you were chosen to go there because she saw how troubled you were in your eyes and by how special a gift you were born with has on you. But you also came here to check up on Sunset Shimmer since you were still a bit worried about her and what she was going through." Pinkie managed to get out before beginning catching her breath after all that talking.

"You're pretty much on the dot Pinkie." I said to her with a smile on my own mouth. "Looks like I didn't have to tell you after all. After all, I'm not sure how you managed to know all about that."

Pinkie just shrugs. "Just a lucky guess I suppose." She tells me, afterwards smiling and letting out a 'squee' sound.

"Well, I didn't suspect you were from another world Brayden," Rarity says to me, while Applejack served her plate to her. Well, she didn't want to get her hands dirty from the bacon's grease. "But this feels just like when we first met Twilight."

"I know. It feels like it, as if I were reliving it in her eyes." I confessed.

"It's a strange coincidence sometimes Brayden," Applejack said to me after she gulped down a small piece of bacon she bit off from part of a bacon. "But Ah'm glad that this is all out. After all, ya gotta tell the truth sometimes."

"Of course," I said to her. "I always come out honest, though sometimes I have to force myself to lie because I'm afraid to let out the truth."

"Never be too afraid Brayden," She says to me. "Ya still got a lot to learn even at your older age."

"You're from another world?" Rainbow Dash says to me. "That is so awesome!" There we go, another trademark line said once again by Rainbow herself.

"Easy on the questions now," Sunset says to the girls. "Breakfast is still fresh and hot on the table and I think Brayden is a bit hungry at the moment. I suggest when we get to Canterlot High, he'll answer a few more questions."

I nod in agreement with Sunset and take my seat at the table between both Pinkie Pie and Rarity. I made sure that I had gotten my fill of bacon and buttered toast onto my plate before beginning to eat away at the meaty bits. And yes, holy cow it was delicious! Okay, I'm getting a little too overhead of myself with these bacon; but it is a favorite breakfast food of mine so whatever. I'll be getting a tour of Canterlot High after this is all done anyway.

---

Adagio's POV

My eyes are peeking in through the window of the pink brat's house to keep a close eye on the girls and this supposed new boy that arrived into town just last night. My eyes felt envied and still held a bit onto the anger that I had towards these six girls for what they did to meet and the other two sirens accompanied with me.

Curse them for stopping our big plan that started out small. I can't believe that there was another girl, but she's apparently disappeared after our defeat in the Battle of the Bands. If only we still had our precious jewels around our necks, we would have been able to devour the magic and succeed in dividing the community of this pathetic world. So much for having two other sirens… okay Aria I am fine with, but Sonata is completely a dimwit- never mind.

The other girls are seated at the table with this mysterious boy that appeared. He looked rather different from their appearance, even my own. Curiously enough, I first found out about this boy through the rumors the students around Canterlot High. Oh, they're still mad at us no doubt, but they were talking loud enough for us to hear the news. This boy sitting with them was told to have arrived here in this pathetic world from a portal that connects between here and Equestria.

Hearing news of a portal connecting as a bridge to cross into Equestria put a rather delighted smirk on my face. Even though the students talking about it were trying to keep silent about it, they failed to keep it too quiet. Now I think I know what plan I would have set into motion for escape from here. Sure, we might not have our gems to absorb the power of hatred and fighting, but our appearance would rather set them off as terrifying. Again, it should be enough to get them to kneel before us. Besides us three, the others from Siren Cove would be rather impressed if anyone there still remembers us before our banishment.

"Do you have a plan in mind, Adagio?" Aria asked in that rather dull sounding accent while keeping a close eye on that boy with me. "We don't even know that boy's name or any clue about him."

I turned from the window to face Aria, taking my eyes off of the boy to look at her. "I will explain a plan I just developed to you from what we heard." I said to her. Aria perks a small smile and Sonata is listening carefully. "This boy seems to be acquainted in some way to Equestria. If we can capture the boy while the girls don't have their eye on him: we can force it out of him to tell us where this portal to Equestria is that he came out of."

"He could resist against telling you," Aria carefully advised me. "You should have an alternative plan in case he does refuse to tell you."

"Indeed I do," I replied to her. "We could hold him for ransom. We wait for the girls to come and save him. We hold him for the offer that if we let him go, they will give us the portal's location, and then… freedom."

Aria was holding her worry behind her, but still seemed questioned on how this plan would work after their first plan failed. "What about the boy? What shall we do with him after we get him?"

I let out a small chuckle. "Oh why else would I not have a plan?" I said to her. "We will hold him in the nearest abandoned building by the school. The girls will not suspect that he is gone."

"I don't know about you, but he seems like he is completely innocent and friendly like the pink one, just not as energetic." Sonata commented. I turn around to her pointing at the boy through the window. The girls are too busy chatting with one another so they do not realize we are her, thank goodness.

I take a step forward, approaching Sonata for a brief moment and then saying. "Innocent indeed… If it is like that, then it should be easy if it is based on his personality." I told her with a smirk.

"Canterlot High is the best place where we could easily grab him from behind and knock out," I could hear Aria talk to the both of us from behind. "We should be careful if we were to do that. Bringing harm to him could result in the girls being more hostile to us and become less tolerant of us."

"That is why we will be careful," I explained. Thanks to Aria, a plan is already being set out carefully. "Remember, when we grab him… ONLY knock him out from the top of his head. Do not hurt him in any way possible. Sunset would not be too happy about the visitor being in harm's way if one of us screws up or lets him escape."

I turn my head towards Sonata just in case because she always seemed to be the more easygoing and friendly to others at Canterlot High minus how she is the most- never mind, but you probably get the picture of what I would be coming at.

"What?" Sonata questions while I am shooting an 'I'm-watching-you' look. I suspect that Aria is also doing the same as well. "It's not like I'm going to turn against you girls. I think this plan sounds like it will be the best."

A smile once again perks on my face. "Then I trust no one in here will go against this plan at all. That is good," I said to them sounding rather confident about this being put in motion. I take one last peek at the boy who is laughing with a few of the girls and then turn around to leave. "Come on you two, let us make it to Canterlot High before them and act like we were never there and still in the same place we were after our defeat. We cannot lose this time."

"Alright, but can we go get some tacos after we kidnap him?" I could hear Sonata's whining voice behind me when we all began to walk away from that pink girl's house.

All I could hear Aria do is groan and quietly comment "Shut up Sonata."

In all honesty, I really do hope that this plan works out… if it doesn't then nothing will return the three of us back home for revenge against Equestria. This boy is our only hope now.

---

Brayden's POV

I open the front door of Pinkie's house for all of the girls to walk out of first. Just like in Equestria, I would always hold open the door for anypony who was female there. As usual when they pass by me, they would thank me for holding the door open for them. Applejack is the last to come out with me following behind her. As usual, I close the door behind me and I join up with them, being between both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.

Most of the walk there was rather silent or resulted in a little bit of talk about their classes or assignments that they had to catch up on. However Rarity as usual would go on about how business at her shop the Carousel Boutique downtown was doing thanks to the customers coming in and out pretty much every day after stopping the sirens. I still wish I was here when Twilight and the girls stopped them so I could physically see what these sirens looked like. I was in Manehattan seeing Coco Pommel, one of my loves to heart next to Twilight so unfortunately no, I couldn't make it.

I took a look around the environment. It looked just about like Earth to me in my final days there. There were cars being driven around, but no motorcycles riding about the road. I did see a few young cyclists riding on their way to Canterlot High. Cell phones were also a common sight to see, but it was not like the usual upgraded phones today, for it was mostly in the way they were when you flip them open or closed, so apparently they are still using the old style cell phone. I guarantee though through evolution that they'll use the upgraded eventually.

There it was just after a few blocks of neighborhoods and streets, Canterlot High stood right there on the green with the recognizable horse statue where the portal was located in case I wanted to get ready to go after my visit. After all, it is my first day here in the mirror world. Both I and the girls cross the empty street to get to the sidewalk between the open concrete paths to the steps of Canterlot High.

"This is Canterlot High, Brayden." Sunset says to me, even turning to the portal. "And that is the portal's location in case you want to go back to Equestria at any time."

I nod my head in understanding. The portal did not make any movements as I had normally read about in other books. Very clever to have it located behind a wall on the bottom of the monument of the horse. I turn my head away from the portal and walk up the stone steps onto the main floor of the school we would be coming in through. Pinkie, ahead of us pushes and holds the door open for all of us. I allow the girls to go ahead of me first and then pass by Pinkie last.

"Thank you very much Pinkie." I thanked when I stepped ahead past Pinkie for holding open the door. She closes the front school door behind her followed with the sound of a squee.

Holy cow, this is just how I imagined Canterlot High to be like when Twilight first came into the world. It was big, and it seemed rather confusing at first, but it looks like things have changed especially after Sunset turned into a demon version of herself and wanted to take over Equestria after brainwashing everyone in the high school. Thankfully, it did not come to that completely and I am glad that Twilight had Sunset come to her good senses after all from what she told me. Why do I miss out on the important stuff she goes through? That, I will never really know.

"This is the Main Hall, or rather the entrance of Canterlot High," Sunset narrated me through to begin the tour. "I've gone here many times, and this is where I am able to greet new students that come around."

"Ah," I said, putting a smile on my face and looking at her. "How is that going along with you?"

Sunset turns to look at me and says "It's going great. A few days ago, some new young students came in and they were a rather joyful bunch. It's always great to get new students into the schoolyard."

"Yeah," Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "Especially if I can find some that are able to get onto the athletics team."

"Back where I came from, I would be able to see a few new faces that came into the school that I was from," I said, feeling like I should share a bit of backstory on me for a brief moment. "But you never really knew what kind of things they would be interested in. Some would be interested in the things I was in, but there would be others who just hated that and went onto different stuff that was based on their personality. Only a few didn't want to tell me because I think a few I met were quiet."

"They were probably shy that they would get judged immediately," Fluttershy said to me. "I mean, I sometimes feel like it sometimes, but as long as I have my friends here that understand, they know and do not judge about my interests." She lets out a very soft smile at me.

"I was judged too many times from where I came from," I told them. My voice had dropped down a little from sounding rather happy. "But I don't really want to talk about it though. I think it is best to leave it behind in the past."

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to Brayden," Sunset says to me sounding rather truthful, with only a little bit of concern. "But at the same time don't bottle up your anger or sadness as I was told many times by Princess Celestia when I was still her student. Bottling it up can destroy or tear you apart from the inside, or worst."

"I know Princess Celestia herself, and she did mention you about one time if I can remember after having saved Equestria." I said to her.

Sunset's face turned a little surprised. "She mentioned me?" She asked, sounding a little quiet and shocked at the same time. "What did she say? She still remembers me from what I know but I am curious on how she is doing without me there."

I, she and the rest of the girls continue to walk together down the right wing hallway as I found the words inside me to explain the truth to her. "It was when I faced Nightmare Moon, after telling her I would never kill Nightmare Moon and the black mare was in tears. She begged me for forgiveness which I would always accept. She begged to both Celestia and Luna for their forgiveness. She told Nightmare that she would forgive her even after making a terrible mistake that wouldn't ever be forgotten. Her mention of you said that you were to go back to Equestria someday… she will forgive you as well." I had explained to her while Sunset carefully listened to the information I was telling her from my point of view.

"She will forgive me?" Sunset questioned to herself in that hushed and quiet tone in her voice. I could see her soft smile grow a little bit. "I've missed her so much, but going back to Equestria has not been on my mind a lot."

"You never know Sunset. You'll eventually make the decision based on your heart's choice to head back there," I told her. "You don't have to come, but Princess Celestia would be happy to see you again should you decide to come back."

Sunset paused quietly for a few moments while all of us were walking down the hallway and past a few rows of lockers with the locks of many students placed on each one of them. There would be a few left unoccupied, so I sense there will be eventually some new students to take those lockers when they decide to attend. "I really need to give it some thought Brayden," Sunset told me. "But thank you at the same time for telling me this." She has a smile upon her lips.

"No problem Sunset," I said to her. "The invitation is always open to you and you are always welcome to come back to Equestria."

All of us continue down the hallway, passing a few other hallways and eventually making it to a double door that said "Music Room" at the top of the doors. Applejack opens the door for all of us to enter into the room. By the time I come in after Pinkie, I took a look at the room with that surprised but yet excited expression on my face by the time one of the girls behind me turns on the lights.

The room look all geared up with a complete drum set with double bass drums. The four amps turned off. These amplifiers were mostly for Rainbow Dash's guitar, Sunset's guitar, Applejack's bass and Rarity's keytar. The four of their musical instruments were all placed into the stands which represented the player by their own color. Fluttershy's tambourine was resting there on the table, having not been touched just yet.

"Wow…" I said rather amazed by how unique the room looked. It was like I was almost in rock band heaven. "This room looks absolutely great!"

"Thank you darling," Rarity says to me. "I gave the room a nice touch of paint, did I not?"

I turn towards Rarity and nod to her with a smile abloom upon my own mouth. "A nice touch? It looks like I am already in heaven!" I said to her, sounding happier than I ever was before.

The group of girls get over to their instruments and both Rainbow and Sunset grab their electric guitars from their stands and turn on their amps to begin testing their guitars for sound. Applejack turns on her bass amp for that sweet sounding bass of hers. It absolutely sounds crisp and perfect. Rarity turns on her keytar and amp and gives it a test. The sound of the keytar almost illuminates one of the greatest metal bands I heard while I was back on Earth.

"Do you play the guitar yourself Brayden?" Rainbow Dash asks me. "We have a few spare guitars in the closet in the stands if you want to get one."

"Well, I nowadays do play once in a while and the guitars are back in Equestria, so I didn't bring them with me, so sure why not?" I said to her and walk towards the closet. I can see Fluttershy take hold of her tambourine with her right hand. I can occasionally hear Pinkie on the drums behind me testing out the cymbals, bass drums or snare.

I grab the handle of the closet's doorknob and open it up. Inside of the room were some rather fabulous looking guitars in various different colors or designs on the guitar's body itself. I take a look around to see what I can find to use. Each guitar in the stand is supplied with a cord and an extra amplifier. There are many designs here just like on Earth. Then, that guitar catches my eye.

The guitar that caught my eye was none other than the infamous Razorback guitar. My eyes shined for a moment and I got a guitar strap that was on the rack with the other straps available to me. I use it to place them around the iron pins on the body of the Razorback and then lift it up out of the stand and up and over to take hold of it. Satisfied with the guitar of my choice, I take it and the rest of the equipment required out to use.

Applejack and Fluttershy helped me out with the setup of the amplifier which seemed rather easy after just plugging it in. Mostly after that, I was just setting up the settings such as how much gain I wanted, treble, bass and a bit of reverb to my sound. I turn on the amplifier and strum a D chord just to test it out. The sound is rather beautiful that is emulated from the strings and through the pickups to the amp. I go ahead and add in distortion/overdrive to give it that usual hard rock sound.

"Alright Brayden, do you have a song in mind?" Rainbow asked me with a confident smile on her face. "Me and Sunset will back you up for rhythm, which means for this, you'll be in charge for the lead guitar role for this one."

I turn to her and smile. "Of course I do," I said to her and sounding as if I was going to do something dangerous and crazy. "Applejack, are you ready?"

Applejack nods. "Of course Ah am, Pinkie will give us the signal when ya are good n' ready to go." She tells me.

"Pinkie, will you do the honor and count us in?" I asked her with a smile.

Pinkie does a bit of a roll on the lowest tom of the kit. "Of course I will!" She says and sounds rather excited. She uses her drum sticks to start the cymbal count. "Here we go! 1… 2… 3… 4!"

I put on a clean tone with some reverb on it. I play a rather clean riff while the pick I hold picks at the strings for this riff that I am playing, following the bass and drums playing along with this rhythm. Rainbow Dash pulls off a few powerful harmonics with quite a punch. Finally, after a few bars of music Sunset joins in a palm-muted string picking. I finally opened my mouth and began to sing.

Out of touch, out of reach, yeah

You could try to get closer to me

I'm in love, I'm in deep, yeah

Hypnotized, I'm shaking to my knees

I got to know tonight

If you're alone tonight

Can't stop this feeling

Can't stop this fire

Oh, I get hysterical, hysteria, oh, can you feel it, do you believe it?

It's such a magical mysteria

When you get that feeling better start believing

Because it's a miracle, oh, say you will, ooh babe

Hysteria when you're near

Out of me, into you, yeah

You can hide, it's just a one way street

Oh, I believe I'm in you, yeah

Open wide that's right, dream me off my feet

Oh, believe in me

I got to know tonight

If you're alone tonight

Can't stop this feeling

Can't stop this fire

Oh, I get hysterical, hysteria, oh, can you feel it, do you believe it?

It's such a magical mysteria

When you get that feeling better start believing

Because it's a miracle, oh, say you will, ooh babe

Hysteria when you're near

This was then followed by a breakdown with me and the girls and afterwards I said "Come on…" into the microphone and began to shred into a melodic solo. Rainbow and Sunset have smiles on their faces when they see me playing for the next couple of bars. Finally after I had ended the solo, I got right backto singing.

I got to know tonight

If you're alone tonight

Can't stop this feeling

Can't stop this fire

Oh, I get hysterical, hysteria, oh, can you feel it, do you believe it?

It's such a magical mysteria

When you get that feeling better start believing

Because it's a miracle, oh, say you will, ooh babe

Hysteria when you're near

I get hysterical, hysteria

When you get that feeling, you'd better believe it

Better start believing, because it's a miracle

Oh, say you will, oh babe, say you will

Get closer to me, get closer baby

Baby, closer, get closer, closer to me

Once the song had come to an end, I turned around and took a look at the girls. They were clapping their hands together as in congratulating me. I smile at them while they are clapping their hands. Pinkie puts down her drumsticks to clap her hands together repeatedly and was rather giddy looking.

"Your singing is great Brayden!" Pinkie exclaimed while she was clapping the both of her hands.

"I'll agree there with Pinkie," Sunset says to me. She walks over to me and places her hand onto my left shoulder. "You indeed have some special talent."

"Thanks." I said to Sunset. "You did a great job backing me up on rhythm."

"It's no problem Brayden," She says to me. "And thank you as well."

I take the guitar off of me and place it into the stand that I brought out, turning off the amplifier. I turn towards Sunset again after doing these things. "Sunset, I hope you don't mind if I ask you. But do you where the men's room might be?"

Sunset moves a little closer and says "Down the hall, to the left."

"Thank you," I said to her and then got to the door. "I'll be back really soon, I just need to use it. So keep playing for a few minutes."

They nodded in understanding and I turn back around to the double doors again. I place my hand onto the right door's handle and pull the trigger on the other side of the door's handle to open up and pull the door open. The door goes open and I slip outside of the music room, making sure to close the door behind me. I turn to the left of the hallway that Sunset told me to go and I began to start walking down swiftly and calmly to head to the bathroom.

Along the way, I could see a few of Canterlot High's students chatting amongst each other and sometimes occasionally taking a peek to look at me. I saw the humanified version of Lyra, but I think she was really busy with chatting with Bon Bon or writing down some stuff inside that book she was writing in. I end up bumping into Derpy. She confusedly looks at me for a few brief moments and then walks by. But again, in this mirror world they probably wouldn't know me, so I would definitely be standing out by my own appearance.

I could see the bathroom door on the end of the hallway as Sunset had told me. I manage to rush inside as fast as I could and made sure to do my business. What? You didn't expect me to go into detail about using the bathroom, did you? So anyways, I do my business and get out of the stall to wash my hands and then make my way out of the bathroom through the door.

"You must be that new human that Sunset said arrived," I heard a male voice call out to me. Oh no… please don't tell me who I think that is. I turn around to see that blue-haired fellow standing right there, leaning right against one of the lockers with a rather weak but impressed smile. "So you must be the one who came out of the portal to Equestria where my out-of-town friend is."

Yep, in case you're wondering I might as well just get it over with on who it is just talking to me. None other than… Flash Sentry himself. But I will just brave up and keep my cool this time. Since Twilight isn't here, I'm not going to get too suspicious, so I don't have to have my eye on him… for now.

"It's all true by now, I must be the talk of Canterlot High by now." I said, raising the both of my hands innocently.

"Well, it's cool to see another come from there. I am Flash Sentry." He introduces himself and brings out his hand forward towards me to give it a handshake.

Now normally I would just not shake it, but I don't see why not. He did however help bail out Twilight from trouble when I last remember. That I will have him spared from my 'I'm watching you' gesture. I move my hand forward and give his hand a handshake. "It is nice to meet you Flash, I am Brayden."

"It is good to meet you Brayden." He said to me with that usual smile on his face.

I did not really think of anything else I thought of saying to Flash Sentry himself, because I really needed to get back to the music room to join up with Sunset and the girls again. "Now I would really like to stay and chat with you Flash, but I think Sunset and the girls are waiting for me back in the music room." I told him with that honest tone in my voice.

"Of course," Flash said with a chuckle coming from him. "I heard you playing the guitar when I was passing by and I got really curious if that was really you and that good voice."

"Yes, it was me," I told him. "But it's nothing that special."

"Don't be silly," Flash says to me, chuckling once again. "You sure have a good talent with the skills of playing guitar and singing. The girls are still waiting for you, so I will see you later." He moves up from leaning against the lockers and walks past me with a smile on his face, he turns his head to look at me.

"Okay, I'll see you then." I reply to him as he is moving past and distantly out of the scene.

I begin moving yet again away from the bathroom. The hallways have become rather silent and empty, so I would assume that the students have already gone off to another area of the school. The only sound I could really hear was the footsteps from the boots I wear were making. I turn down towards an empty hallway. I can hear what seem to be a few pairs of footsteps coming from behind me so I begin to walk a little faster.

Eventually when reaching the end of this hallway of lockers, the footsteps are gone. I let out a silent sigh of relief and peek out over the end of the hallway's corner to see the music room right there and the muffled sounds of the girls in there probably jamming out instrumentally. I step out from another the corner but the footsteps come again, but it sounds like they are running. Could it be that there are some students following me?

The answer is never answered, and I am clueless about it. But I do find myself rather surprised when I feel what seem to be six hands grabbing me and then one hand letting go to bonk me over the head with something that really hurts.

This results in me blacking out from the hard blunt to the head by this large metal that I felt upon my fragile head.

---

"Wake up!"

I could feel a big splash of very cold water come over me and impacting me from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. This definitely forces my eyes open and I could see the water dripping from the top of my hair and down my fair in droplets that gave me a freezing chill when it makes their crawl down my skin. My vision is still a bit blinded by the water, but I could tell that the open window above me shone down the full moon at me in its beloved light.

I move upward and try to start moving, but I find myself tied up from the legs, feet and even my hands. I could hear my breathing exhaling and inhaling from my mouth as I was shaking the water off of my head and out of my hair to see a little better. In the darkness of this room, I heard a small bit of chuckling and at the same time I was curious as to who placed me inside and tied me to this chair. Perhaps this was an interrogation even though I knew what they weren't going to be talking about if it were students just fooling around with me.

"Who's there?" I asked loudly, sounding a little threatening in case this was a joke being played on me after all. "Release me and show yourself!"

"You mean…" I can see as least three student-like figures step out of the darkness and into the light of the moon. "Ourselves, hm?"

I couldn't believe what I was seeing with my own eyes. It was these three female student-like figures looking right at me with both glares and they were smiling at the same time. The girl in the middle looked like she was planning something with that smile. The girl on her left looked more rather relaxed, but had her arms crossed as if she had some torturing that she would eventually do with me. The girl on the right looked rather giddy and though she seemed to have a rather cute smile, she looked rather relaxed like the girl on the left but seemed like it was nothing to this at all.

"Who- who are you girls?" I asked them, still struggling a bit in the chair. "I mean, who are you and why am I even here?!"

The one in the middle lets out a chuckle and moves closer towards me, placing her finger underneath my chin, making me feel really uncomfortable. "Oh, you'll know very well soon enough what we want from you, human boy." She tells me in that voice that reminded me of Rarity's singing voice. "We three are none other than the Dazzlings."

The Dazzlings… aren't they the ones who were- No… no I know what they want to get out of me, but I refuse to tell them anything whatsoever. No matter how long they keep me here, I will not speak to them. But nevertheless, I am still looking at them and hearing what the 'leader' was telling me.

"Oh, oopsie I forgot to introduce myself and the other two," She says to me. "I am Adagio Dazzle, the one on your left is Aria Blaze and the one on your right is Sonata Dusk."

"If you are the Dazzlings, shouldn't your last names be Dazzle too?" I questioned to them as part of a joke.

Adagio sighs, probably being annoyed by this joke I just pulled off. "Don't be a fool to us, we're here because we want information from you!" She commanded at me, but keeping her cunning smile and glare. To be honest, it was starting to creep me out.

"Yeah, so we can get back to Equestria and back to Siren Cove." Sonata comments very loudly for all of us to hear.

"Shut up Sonata." Aria responded to her, sounding rather annoyed even in her dull voice.

Sonata turns to look at her. "Well come on, all of us want to go back there anyway in our true Siren form. We might not have our singing powers, but we have the ability to spread terror in the skies of Equestria!" She shouts annoyingly to her.

"Maybe if you keep quiet, it will happen." Aria says dully, turning from Sonata and leaving a sad expression on Sonata herself.

Adagio moves in the way of my sight from seeing them. "You'll have to excuse those two, they're both idiots." She tells me with a surprised look on her face and then turning it to a bored look as she says this.

"I can clearly see that." I said to her with a sarcastic tone in my voice as if I really did care about what Adagio said again. But in secret, I actually felt a little bad for Sonata.

"Well, I suppose you're wondering what we want after all involving Equestria," Adagio says to me, making me uncomfortable again when she moved closer to me. "We know that you know about a portal that bridges between this pathetic world and Equestria itself. You are going to tell the three of us where it is."

"I'm not saying anything to you," I said to her with the calmest possible voice that I could as I didn't want to lose my temper. "All you want is to bring ruin to my new home, so I'm not telling you anything."

Adagio raised an eyebrow and I turn my head away from her, refusing to even look at her. A few moments pass us both in the silence and I could hear Adagio again just chuckle lightly to herself as if what I told her was quite a light breeze.

"You don't have anything to say about the portal, hm?" Adagio questioned me. "Well, as a siren… I can wait forever until you tell us an answer."

"Wait until I am dead then you siren…" I said to her in my coldest voice that would scare them into letting me go. "You'll never get an answer then."

"Oh we got other ways to find the portal if you end up in that fate." I could hear Aria's dull voice say and her footsteps growing closer. Sonata remains where she is, just watching everything. "If we still had our gems on us, we would torture you endlessly until you gave us an answer. By any means, you would end up telling us anyway…"

"Then what if you did?" I asked.

Aria places her hand onto the top of my hand, making me feel very uncomfortable. "Well, afterwards you wouldn't be of use to us when we find that portal and we would continue to torture you with our powers until you would follow us and listen to our command."

"Like a powerless husk?" I shouted, starting to get a little angry on how they would torture me if they still had the gems. "Your gems are destroyed; you will never be able to perform your curses again!"

Adagio turns to Aria. "Don't worry about this Aria," She says to her sounding calmer than usual. "It is all part of the interrogation session. Seeing how it is late at night, we all need to get some sleep. I'm sure that this human boy will tell us what we need to know tomorrow."

"I have a name… my name is Brayden…" I growled angrily before just bursting out, just making Sonata jump back a bit. "YOU WILL REFER TO ME AS BRAYDEN ONLY, NOT HUMAN, NOT HUMAN BOY… NOTHING! JUST BRAYDEN!"

Adagio and Aria are surprised by this for a few moments and then begin laughing for another few moments before finding their words to tell me something. "Oh the anger you just did… that's only the first stage into breaking out the truth to us." Adagio says to me.

"You let me go this instant!" I exclaimed angrily struggling to get right out of there and avoid them. I didn't have any plan on placing a fist into them because they are girls. It is not kind for a man to hit a girl and it is not in my blood to do that. "Sunset and the girls will find me and have you in trouble for this!"

"Sunset and the others will never know you are gone Brayden," Aria says to me with a smile over that dull tone that is raised a bit in an "I'm impressed" stance. "After all, you belong to us from now on until you tell us where the portal is. As soon as you tell us, you're free to go."

"Spend your time here tonight Brayden," Adagio says to me in that rather clever voice of hers. She moves back from the chair with Aria following her. "I can wait forever and ask you every single day until you break the truth to us. After all, a siren can live almost as eternally as an alicorn. I'm patient as well."

I tried to say something, but the first time dealing in a situation with this, I could not get any kind of words to come out from my mouth. All Adagio and Aria could do was chuckle, while Sonata just watches with a look on her face that could tell she felt bad about me.

"Sonata, you're watching this boy," Adagio commands to her. "Make sure he does not in any way try to escape. I and Aria will form the plan about what will happen next."

Sonata nods her head and turns to watch as Adagio and Aria leave in through the darkness. The only ones in the room now are me and Sonata herself just watching me.

I am far too mad to even try to interact but mad at the same time as well at the Dazzlings for demanding me to try and get answer out of me for where the portal back to Equestria would be. No way in hell am I going to risk the lives of Equestria to tell the location of the portal to the sirens themselves. I lower my head and I am unable to look up at the full moon in the night time sky. I can hear Sonata moving closer to me.

"I'm sorry Brayden…" She managed to get out and then touched my hand.

I shrug it off and just angry mutter loudly "Don't touch me." She looks a little disappointed from what I couldn't see, but this is what I am just guessing to myself. She takes her hand off of me and moves away from the chair and takes a seat over at the bench to keep an eye on me.

I move my head upward for a few brief moments to take a look at that wonderful and great moon that was almost Luna's moon back in Equestria. A bit concerned on how I treated Sonata, I turn my head towards her. Her face looks a bit sad and she is holding the both of her hands together as if it was coming off to that she was only trying to apologize to me. But what was she apologizing for?

I turn my head back around into the line of the moon's sight. I lower my head and close my eyes then and there, desperate to get some rest.

Sunset wherever you and the girls are now… Please hurry before they force the truth out of me.

A/N: Wow, of all the chapters I had done... This is the longest chapter that I have written as of so far.

I am too excited beyond words. The 100th episode will be airing soon and I am quite excited by far to celebrate how long the show has been running for. But it's not just that, I am also excited because I finally got tickets to go to Mayhem Fest and see other artists like Smashing Pumpkins and Slipknot.

Alas, Review Response Time!

sonic3461: How did you know!?

Raven 105: I am. :)

jvs12: It seems so, but you'll like what happens later on in this chapter.

billykilly: Just read on and find out for yourself. :)

P.S. The song that is performed near the end of this chapter is the classic Loverboy song... "Working For The Weekend" and what a coincidence to because I'll be seeing them real soon.

---

I was being kept by the Dazzlings inside of this building all caught up in this sticky situation and not to mention, tied to a chair. Through the night, I was rather soaked and wet; by nevertheless I had to wait until the sun rose over the window in order to warm me up from the freezing chill of the night.

Sonata, one of the Dazzlings kept an eye on me overnight to make sure that I was alright but at the same time… she was keeping quite an eye on me to make sure that I did not find a way to make my escape out of the building they held me inside. I was kept here against my own will and it felt like they would eventually resort to torturing me as long as I did not say anything to them. I don't think they would have the tools on them though to proceed with that.

Throughout the night while Sonata kept an eye on me, I was very cold. She just sits there at the bench and just keeps a close eye on me. I did want to ask her to get me something warm, but I wasn't going to start talking to her, and if I would not talk to Adagio or Aria either, I would not say anything to them at all. The only thing I am able to do now is just glare at the three of them rather threateningly. Sonata did try again to come up to me until she saw the glare on my face. After that, she goes back to the bench to sit and just keep an eye on me.

I just could not believe that I could not see this coming. Why the sirens would want me as part of whatever plan they had in mind I would never know. Damn them though for taking part in their original evil plan to make this world bow before them as their new masters, for I wish that one day friendship will be able to find them and redeem their hearts pure. Besides Sonata who I can see as an outcast to their group, as I was still mad at her for being a part of her… somewhere inside me told me that I was feeling quite bad for, even to be treated this way by the other two sirens.

I allow my mind to drift off from what was happening around me. I really needed to have a break from the three sirens and their desires ahead for what they would have done if they had their gems with them still. My mind wanders off from all the stress of it all and I can see myself flashing back into another part of me being younger.

---

I was in the ninth grade… or so it felt like the ninth grade. But it felt like I was walking in a total hell by the time I was entering the school for a fresh start after being scarred for life in the seventh and eighth grade after the other middle school I had gone to.

I originally wanted to do all of grade six, seven and eight at the first middle school I had gone to after elementary, but there was some troublesome moments that caused my grades to drop pretty low but were nevertheless still at a decent level. I don't think the school really wanted me after that, so comes the transfer to that other school that I didn't want but did not complain about it.

At the beginning, I was struggling to find my place in the class and the school yard while trying my absolute best to have the good grades as I could. I didn't want to disappoint my parents as I have done many times for the trouble I caused like refusing to do my work according to my elementary school teachers that would eventually spread to here, the other middle school and only the first few years of high school. Yes, that was true. But if you knew me at the time, I was really big into Science so I would be talking about outer space.

I liked a girl. Or rather she befriended me in Science after I had failed a test based on a part of the subject of Astronomy. Soon and eventually, we built our friendship up together and she was really friendly and nice to me, even helping me out on some work that I was struggling with. We had a few things in common as well, as her taste were more based on a bit of Country/Pop but my own was Classical music at the time. We had a few things in common but it was no big deal.

The friendship was blooming through the months ahead and I was leading to believe that she was a real true friend for me minus how I never really went to her house to visit her since I didn't know where she lived. But then, getting closer to take it to me just crushing on her in secret… there came the backstabbing.

She had led me to believe that she was my friend for the couple of months ago and then she just runs away and ditches me there for some other friends who thought that I was really annoying and told me off very easily. I was very upset and starting to become very lonely again and I was in tears by the time this backstabbing had happened. From there on forward in class until the beginning of summer vacation, she would be a lot more mean and rude towards me and what I did. But hey, I was a little more immature at the time and we all are sometimes. She would state that I was stalking her when overall I just wanted to be her friend.

Not only did that affect me, but the ways of everyone around me just shoving me out of their life was enough to further affect my mentality and I was absolutely miserable for the rest of the last few months there, but overall there were a few good highlights.

But it is always the backstabbing that I always remembered and that had been stuck with me for the longest possible time.

I walked outside in the school yard among everyone who was just playing a game of soccer in the fields or just running after one another as if it was a game of tag. My eyes were all perched out on what was ahead of me or if I had turned my head in a specific direction. I am looking for my friend, who I knew was either in the field or behind the portables where she would sometimes be. Even with the few clouds in the sky it seemed like would be a beautiful day.

Usually, I would have brought my Game Boy Advance SP with me to play when she was absent from school, but I forgot to bring it with me and not only that there was the valuables rule that I couldn't bring any with me. Sad, really but that's the rules.

I can feel a bit of disappointment in me when I realize that she was not out in the field with the other students playing soccer or running about. But I have not given up yet. I can still sense some hope inside of me when I turn towards the portables knowing she must be there. If she wasn't I would assume that she was absent for the day.

I start making my way towards the portable, with only a few students sometimes almost bumping into me. A few would be kind and apologize, but others would just tell me to watch it. Talk about being rude in middle school. A few teachers keeping an eye on the students is walking about on the concrete by the school building with all other students just being chill there, but few not going behind the portables. After passing a few kids, I walk by the side walls of the portable and turn to my left to face what would eventually traumatize me after.

There she was sitting there on the fresh planted grass, just talking away with some friends of hers. I didn't really know any of them so I just had my focus on her the whole time while I wanted to surprise her, but I wasn't sure if she would not like it. So I had abandoned that plan and just straight up walked up to see my friend… or so who was my friend.

"Abby…" I said to her in an energetic happy tone of mine. She just looks up at me and sees my smile, but I do not notice that annoyed look on her face. "Hi!"

Abby pauses for a few moments with both her and her friends just staring at me. She finally lets out a sigh that sounds like she is annoyed with me. As a young kid I wouldn't be able to tell anything about what sounded annoyed or just a sigh in general. She turned to her friends. "Will you excuse me for a moment I need to talk to Brayden." She tells them. They nod in understanding and they share an uneasy look on their faces when they look at me.

She finally walks past me and I follow her like a puppy following its mother on the day it was born. We are on the other side opposite of the side walls for the portable. Finally she stops and I do the same thing when she turns around. She still looks a bit annoyed with that glare on her face. By the time I had realized this, my happy thoughts and feelings were turned down a bit.

"Abby, is something up?" I had asked with a questioning tone in my voice. "Why are you giving me that look?"

She finally snaps. "I'll tell you why! You are now just so annoying to me and I do not want to hang out with you anymore, stat!"

I paused in that rather now upsetting silence between the both of us. "Wh-What?" I asked with the sadness inside rising.

"I'm tired of making all talk with you as if I was the only one without friends! I am also tired of doing everything with you whether it's school, home or anywhere even though we never had snuck off from school!" She says to me.

I scratched the back of my head in confusion. "I don't get it, I never did any-"

"Yes you did!" She shouted a bit with the volume of her voice raised a bit. "You have annoyed me to the point where I no longer want to be your friend like EVER! I'm sick of helping you with your school, I'm sick of helping you out when you're frustrated, I'm sick of it all!"

I can feel the tears starting to ebb up inside of my eyes with the stress level rising inside of my head. "But Abby-" I managed to stumble out.

She slams her fist against the portable wall in an angry, but yet frustrated manner. "Dammit Brayden! Your dumb mind is never going to understand that I will not be your friend again. You are stupid and I want you to go away. Like right now, as if anyone is going to be your friend in your sad life."

"I TRUSTED YOU!" I screamed at her as the tears began crawling down from my eyes while I had a finger pointed at her from my right hand.

Her hand moves and shoves my hand pointing at her down. "Stop it Brayden, you are acting like a child right now! Go away and leave me alone!" She shouts at me. This time I could tell that she was really pissed off by the sound of her voice.

I place the both of my hands onto my face and just began to weep, covering my face so she couldn't see how upset I really was, as if she would care in the end. I can hear her walking away from me, probably to join up with her other friends and I move my hands off of my face and shout "I HATE YOU!" right in front of her.

"So does everyone else." She says sarcastically to anger me further. She just walks away back to the other corner of the portable where her friends were sitting. A few seconds later, I can hear her friends laughing.

She was turning everyone against me, but I don't think everyone followed her all the time. Just the students she made friends with and talked to most of the time, she turned against me or talked badly about me behind my back. But at this point, I run off crying and just hide in one of the corners at the school.

I cried and cried for hours after school was done and it felt like a piece of me had shattered inside. I thought I wouldn't be able to go on, as I felt my grades starting to rapidly descend down to the pits of shame and sorrow. I knew my life would come to an end then, but somehow it couldn't or at least I would not let it.

The school year ended soon though and I never did see Abby again, so nevertheless if something bad happens… she sometimes appears in my mind. But I don't think I'll ever forget that though and how it changed my life forever.

---

"Brayden?"

I feel myself snap back into reality. I am still tied up in that chair, forced to endure the heat of the daytime that the blue sky brought in through the window. Something feels off though. I can feel someone's hand touching the top of my right hand.

I turn my head to my right to see who was touching my hand. Lo and behold, I can see that it's just Sonata. Her face seems to look a little concerned about me. Her mouth is curved right into a frown and I could tell that it was her voice that got me back to what was happening around me. I don't try to shove her hand off of me and tell her to not touch me this time.

"Are you alright Brayden?" She asked me, sound a bit concerned about me. "You seemed rather out of it while I was keeping an eye on you."

I let out a bit of a sigh. "I'm fine." is the only two words that I manage to take out from my mouth when I speak to the siren.

Sonata's frown on her face remains, but she steps up in front of me with that look on her that told she was feeling a bit bad for me. "No, I can tell that you are not alright," She says to me, knowing that I cannot lie to a siren. "Please tell me what is bothering you."

"Why are you concerned as to what I have been through back where I came from?" I asked her, not wanting to burst out at her.

"Because I care," Sonata says to me. "If you keep bottling up what is or was on your mind, it will only destroy you inside."

"I've been told that many times." I commented blandly.

Sonata began to quietly shush to keep me as calm as I could to explain perhaps. She finally inhales and exhales and has the both of her hands on top of my hands. With that sigh, she begins to tell me. "Yes, I'm sure you have as well. But if you do not tell your problems to someone or… somepony, it'll eventually make you worsen mentally."

"It's because of my school troubles and how upset, stressed and eventually depressed I became every step of the way." I explained to her to catch her attention on why I would look this out-of-it.

"I still don't understand… you're not from Equestria?" She asked, letting go of my left hand.

"No, I come from another world called Earth," I said to her to try and get her to understand in my best possible way without bringing confusion into the conversation. "It's too far from Equestria though. It's all in the stars of the galaxy and it will be really impossible to find out where it is exactly. Every constellation is inverted on this side. That is what I theorize."

"And your world has humans?" She asks. "You almost look like everyone here in this world."

"I believe that there are similarities between here and Earth itself as if it was connected. Just like here, Earth is full of cars, traffic and all types of new generations being born every second. However, the society there is quite fearful of the unknown and of war."

"War?" She asks again.

"Nowadays from where I came from, it always seems to be based on the religion of what an opposing leader believes on the other side of the world. It's mostly a battle to see which one is correct in the end." I explained to her. "Some were even fascists, wanting to wipe out the blood of different others for the superiority of themselves."

She gasps and with her right hand, she covers her mouth for a few moments, then moving out away from her mouth to continue. "That sounds like there are a few mean others from where you came from."

"Yes, so I had hoped there would be somewhere I would go to where no war exists as a young teenager," I told her. "But these things happen and I can't just simply alone go into the battlefield and tell them to stop fighting, I'd get sniped or have myself blown up."

"Looks like you did make a right choice to arrive in Equestria." She commented.

"Oh I didn't find it out of nowhere," I claimed with a bit of a chuckle. "Princess Luna, an alicorn princess found me before I died and brought me here."

"Alicorn, hm?" Sonata says, placing two of her fingers onto her chin. "I think I heard of that term before I was banished here with Adagio and Aria a long time ago."

I nod my head up and down, feeling a little bit more comfortable with Sonata since she was not interrogating me into giving the location to the portal. "Yes, and Sunset told me that it was Starswirl the Bearded that had sent through the wormhole of a spell he had cast to bring you here." I told her.

"Well… Sunset seems to know her Equestrian history well. For us, we do not need knowledge of the Equestrian race and do not care to see how it works," She said with a bit surprise. "The only history we know well enough is what happens back in Siren Cove. We don't even know if it is still the same since we ran off."

"You wanted to cause trouble?" I asked her.

She nods innocently and with honest truth by the look of her. "Yes, Adagio and Aria wanted to divide and conquer to show off against the cove that we could do something for a living. I just followed along with them." She tells me.

"I can see by the way they treat you sometimes, you're almost like the outcast of the group." I claimed to her.

She turns her head and looks down at the ground. "Yes… often times I've come off to be just listening to what they do and say and following with the plans. I feel like that sometimes when I just let my big mouth open."

"You're not alone Sonata," I said to her. I gently move my right hand where her hand is on top of and touching, taking her hand with mine. "I was that way as well as a young kid. AS long as you have someone that trusts you, it'll be okay in the end."

Sonata's head perked up and she looks at me. "You know Brayden, you're not so bad a human as I thought originally." She says to me, perking a smile upon her face.

"You're not so bad a siren as I thought either." I exclaim to her in that friendly tone. "By the way, Brayden is fine to just call me by."

There is the loud sound of a door slamming shut and I let go of Sonata's hand and turn to look in the direction that the sound of the door came from. Then there are the sounds of footsteps and I can see Aria coming in with a tan colored paper bag in her left hand. She holds that smile upon her glaring face at me.

"Sonata," Her now happy-dull voice sounds off and I can hear the rustling of the paper bag. "Feed our prisoner here his lunch. I also packed you something in there as well."

Sonata unpackaged the bag to get what in was there. Her eye pupils shrink a bit and she looks rather surprised and joyed. It was none other than tacos themselves. "Yay! Tacos! I don't even care if I'm breaking the Taco Tuesday regulation, this is fantastic!" She exclaims happily.

"Enjoy it while you can," Her happy tone in that dull voice became dull once again. "I think Adagio has a plan for tonight, so brace yourself human."

"I told you my name is Brayden!" I said to her, sounding really annoyed with her calling me a human. That would be like if I were Sunset Shimmer and I was being told that I was a raging she-demon who tried to take over the school.

"Whatever you say, human." Aria says one last time and then turns and leaves on the opposite side of the room to enter another in this building we were in.

Sonata takes out a taco from the paper and cuts a rope off of my right arm for me to allow me to take the taco. "I still don't get why she follows blindly with Adagio either. Ever since our gems shattered, she's been rather uneasy to be around." She says to me as I grab the taco which was my lunch for this afternoon.

"I'm not sure if it matters anymore Sonata," I said to her. "You know, you don't have to always follow alongside with them. You could come with me to Equestria."

"You-" Sonata paused with the possible realization that she knew that I knew where the portal would be. "You would take me back to Equestria?"

"I plan on asking Sunset to come along with me as well as there is something that she might want to clear up with Princess Celestia from what she did long ago." I said to her.

"Well, I have wanted to leave the Dazzlings after we tried to initiate the last stage in our plan. I'll have to think about it until tonight." Sonata says to me, too distracted by the beauty of her taco to even look at me. "It's taco time at the moment."

I nod in understand and take the first bite of my taco. My god, among how mildly spicy that it was… this tasted really good. I chew up the pieces of meat and soft wrap that surrounded it, and then swallow it down.

I think if I can win the effect of having Sonata to get onto my good side, I could convince her to come along with me to Equestria as long as she swears to me that she'll never have anything to do with the other two sirens Adagio and Aria ever again. Even then, those two could still have a chance at being redeemed just like Sunset after her mistakes.

I think a plan inside me is already being set out and planned carefully. I'm pretty sure the girls are also planning to rescue me in some possible way. But I think it's time to get this taco out of the way before I think out this plan anyway.

It's not Taco Tuesday, but this lunch feels special.

---

Night. The infinite darkness.

My right arm is tied up right back the way it was again, but another set of the same rope. Sonata stayed in the corner as she was keeping an eye on me, though it seemed that she was unaware of what I had in mind even though she was already having a hard enough time to make her decision on whether she should leave the Dazzlings or not.

From what I heard, they had pushed the dance that I was supposed to go to yesterday towards tonight according to me overhearing what Adagio was telling Aria and Sonata. I don't think Sonata listened all the way through though as I can tell that behind Adagio's back that she was going to leave and take my side minus her being a siren in the end. With the dance pushed forward, it's no doubt that they'll have something in mind then to bring me there as a hostage and go into drastic measures of threatening my new friends for the portal's location.

I can hear the sound of footsteps in the dark. I pretty much knew who it was, but I wasn't planning on even saying a word to Adagio nor Aria, no matter how much they were calling me human. Adagio comes in from out of the shadows with Aria right behind her.

I turn my head towards Sonata. She has turned her head towards the two others and gets up off of that spot on the bench she had been sitting after lunch to this evening. She gets up and over towards the other two and joins up with them. I turn my head back towards Adagio who is right up to my face with that glare and curled smile upon her lips. My glare returns and I just have my mouth kept shut.

"How is our prisoner on this fair night, hm?" Adagio asks and moves her hand, placing a finger underneath my chin, which made me feel very uncomfortable with her even laying a finger on me. "Are you well? Are you finally going to tell us where the portal is?"

All I did was just as I had thought of doing and even stated it before. I wasn't going to say a single word to her, even if she was going to torment me with insults probably coming up next afterwards.

She chuckles in the few seconds after and looks back at me, taking her finger off from under my chin. "Nothing to say to me, hm?" She said, continue to glare and smile. "Well don't worry, I might not be able to get the truth out of you, but I think Sunset will tell us. After all, we know she came through the same one as well. We just have to find it from their words."

Aria walks up beside Adagio and in her dull tone; she says "Shall I get the rope off of his legs?"

"Do so Aria," Adagio said, taking a few steps back from the table while Aria comes forward and begins to untie the ropes from underneath my legs. I dare not try to run away from them from now, for with Adagio close by, it would be obvious she would outrun me and catch me easily. "You'll distract the girls from the dance and lead them to us and the human boy here in the end."

"What can I do?" I heard Sonata ask as if she was playing along to fit in with the other girls.

Adagio looks at Sonata who is behind me. "You Sonata, can help me keep a hold onto the human until the girls get there as part of our trap and trade." She tells me. I can really tell that she has really planned something out.

Aria unties the ropes from off my legs. "Stand up." She tells me. I have no choice, but to comply and stand up, keeping an ear open for what Aria is telling me. She frees me from the ropes around the armrests and I could move my hands again, but only for a short time until she tied the both of my hands together.

"You know, you're quite lucky that you're quiet," Adagio comments to me. "Most others we interrogated didn't know when to stay quiet when we asked them about this portal. They were downright refusing. You might not be telling us at the moment, but just wait and see…"

I feel myself being pushed forward after having my mouth tied up. I could tell that it was Aria herself, pushing me forward and beginning to have a really surprising grip on me from behind. I still felt very uncomfortable even with her hand almost around my neck as if she was going to choke me to death. Nevertheless, I will have to listen if I want to get my plan out of the way to escape.

"This way human!" Adagio commands me, laughing as I follow behind her with a glare still on my face. "We're not going to wait all evening to fail this plan this time."

I follow with what they are saying, because I don't want to get in trouble if I didn't listen. But it doesn't even look like they were planning to hurt me though. It's probably like they were doing this for a joke, but more rather less of a joke.

I walk out of the building past those double metal open doors. Then we make a turn to the right down this dark alleyway and out into the streets. I turn my head to look behind me and past Aria. It seems as though I had been kept inside of an abandoned movie theater this whole time that had not used since whenever. I don't exactly know the history behind this mirror world. I could tell that it could have something to do with the same kind of evolution humans went through on Earth.

I turn my head back forward and keep my eyes directly ahead of me. I can sense that Sonata is on my left side, so I didn't have to worry about her being past Adagio as a head start. That would probably catch on to both Adagio and Aria that she was going to betray them, but she would have to keep it secret as I remember her telling me that she'll think about it.

A few more streets passed and in the distance, I can see Canterlot High standing there, still alit for the dance tonight. We cross the street onto the opposite where the school grounds would be located. I turn around to look at Aria. She just glares and growls at me to keep moving forward, which is pretty much all she does anyway. She smiles dully again and I turn my head back forward.

"Ah, here we are." Adagio says, stepping onto the cement, bridging between both the crosswalk and the school grounds, and that recognizable monument in front of it… the horse statue. But worst of all, it had to be really close to the portal where this opportunity for the sirens would be. Advanced or not, these sirens know how to strategize their plans by themselves in a group.

"Cut the ropes off of his arms, Aria." She said to Aria, turning around and looking past me to Aria whom was right behind me.

I felt a bit of a knife between the ropes and my hand and the sound of scratching on the ropes themselves. After a few moments, my arms feel free after a restless night of not being able to go anywhere. But after being pushed forward by Aria, I was being gripped onto by the back of my neck by Adagio herself, as if she would choke me at any moment. "Anything else Adagio?" Aria asked.

"Yes," She says. "Now is your big chance to go in there and distract the girls to bring them out here. They'll be in for quite a surprise."

Aria walks past me while Adagio was telling her this. She turns her head to look past me at her friend. She nods with a smile on her lips and then turns back and began heading straight into the building. Now, this does seem familiar in a way, but I was positioned on the right side of the statue. For example: if anyone was leaving the building, they would be seeing me and the sirens on the left.

Once Aria had swept into the building, I turn my head to the right to look at Adagio. The best thing to do now was talk about what she had in mind when after the portal's location been told to her and the other two. I couldn't run, cause of that firm grasp around my neck will tighten as I fear.

"Why?" I ask out loud to break the silence over the gentle wind. "Why would you unleash terror to Equestria again?"

"Well, since you're curious," She says, an eyebrow rose with a smile upon her face to make herself seem innocent. "I plan on returning to Siren Cover and corrupting the other sirens that stay there alone on their rocks to make an invasion and finish what we had started what seemed to be thousands of years ago."

I gasped when she mention a full-scale invasion of the sirens that probably still had those gems around their necks. "You wouldn't have a chance!" I exclaim.

"Do we?" She questioned, but with a chuckle at the end.

"What I say is true!" I said to her again. "Without your gems, you wouldn't be able to convince them. It would be a sign of dishonor for them at the cove."

"Why would it be dishonoring?" She returns to me, as if she did not care about what I needed to say. "I clearly stated before that we would not need our gems. If the others want to count it as dishonoring, let them do so. They'll listen to us though."

"On some parts of where I came from, it's all about the movements of culture like for example: their food," I began to explain to her and Sonata because she was listening to this conversation as well. "You have to eat the food that they offer to you, if you downright refuse; it's dishonoring and it's a bad thing if you do that."

"Whatever," She comments. "I'm not from where you came from, so I wouldn't know."

"Equestria also holds that sign too," I said to continue. "They've been at peace with the sirens from Siren Cove as long as they don't get loose."

"Alright quiet now," Adagio said quickly to shush me and keep my mouth closed. "I can see Aria coming from the front, so she must have got their attention after all." She turns from me and puts on a glare with a cruel looking smile.

My eyes turn to the front of the school building and I can hear Aria pulling open one of the doors in front of her and then running down the stairs and across to get to me, Adagio and Sonata who was remaining quiet the whole time.

"They're coming." She warned her.

Adagio smiles again, clearing the glare to an impressed look on her face that they were falling for the bait as easily as she had expected. I can sense that Sonata has her eyes ahead on what was bound to happen next. She and Aria as well, keep an eye on the front doors into the school ready for the heat that was bound to come in next.

The doors burst open and from out of the school come those six familiar figures that I knew about now. Sunset was leading the charge with both Rainbow Dash and Applejack next to her with the others right behind her. I smile when I saw them coming forward with bravery in their hearts to save me. I feel the grip of Adagio's hand on my neck tighten for a bit, so I lose the smile. They manage to move closer until they came to a stop in a gap between the cement, keeping a couple of feet away.

Silence comes on in between me, the sirens and the girls in front of me. They had angered glares filling up on their faces, but I am relieved that it wasn't meant towards me. They were aiming their glares at the sirens before me. Sonata was behind me, but she was probably faking that clever grin upon Aria and Adagio's faces right about now.

Adagio finally lets out a chuckle and looks at the girls. "Welcome girls," She stated in a tone that sounded happy. "Glad you came after hearing your friend was taken away."

"Don't you even think of laying a finger right on him!" I can hear Rarity shouting at her with such aggression in her voice. "Do not harm him either!"

"What do I look like? Do I look like a siren who loves to bring harm to anyone different from Equines?" Adagio questioned whilst she was mocking Rarity with that fake tone in her voice. "No, 'darling'. I would never harm him in any way."

"Well, I never!" Rarity exclaimed, sounding rather offended.

Sunset steps forward to take care of business. "Don't worry Rarity, I'll take care of this." She tells her, turning her head to look at her. She turns her head back towards the sirens and glares darts towards Adagio keeping her grip on me. "Give him back to us."

"Of course," Adagio says. I can feel her hand move from around my neck and letting go of it, allowing me to breathe some air I had lost. "I wasn't planning to bring any harm to him whatsoever."

I walk away from the sirens and join up back with Sunset and the girls, standing next to Sunset. She turns her head to look at me and smiles at me. I return my smile to her. I took that opportunity to briefly glance at the other girls who were just as happy to see that I was alive. This doesn't last long though as we can hear the sound of a throat clearing and I could tell that was her wanting to continue forward.

I turn back towards Adagio who I suspected did that throat clearing and even then it was obvious that she did it. "What do you want from us now?" I asked her. "You gave me back to my friends, but now what else is on your mind?"

"You forgot something…" She said, with a chuckle at the beginning.

I glare at her, taking one step forward. "I didn't forget anything!" I yelled at her which amused Adagio.

"Oh yes," Adagio says. "If your friends could, they will now tell us the location of the portal. If not, we would be glad to take you right back with us to keep until you tell us in the end. It's all a fair trade isn't it?"

"I did not decide anything on a trade!" I exclaim angrily, heavily breathing through my nose. "When did you even decide that?"

"Just now," She chuckles. She exhales a bit and then says. "Well how about it? You are being returned to your friends for the location of the portal to Equestria."

My new friends and even Sunset gasps herself at the revelation of how this trade between her, the other two and the girls beside me would go. Aria is smiling with Adagio, but Sonata herself has a look of guilt right behind the other two sirens that I just noticed that she didn't want to take part in this anymore.

"Well?" Adagio just commented with question in her tone. "What will it be?"

Sunset was going to open her mouth, but another voice sounded out before she could even say a word. "NO!" I could hear that voice shout out, but it was not from the girls. It even surprised the two sirens themselves and they turn around to see who surprised them in the end. They have rather shocked looks on their faces. I'm sure the girls beside me with equally as surprised as well.

It was Sonata Dusk herself who shouted out loud. A frown was upon her mouth underneath the eyes that had been curved into a glare towards the two other sirens. She took a few steps past between them and turned to face them.

"Sonata…" Aria exclaims softly but with surprise in that dull tone. "What are you doing?"

Sonata sounded quite angry for the first time that I had ever seen the siren do when I first started interacting with her. "You should know exactly what I'm doing!" She shouts at them with sheer disappointment towards Adagio and Aria. "You're both being too greedy about wanting to have your revenge back on Equestria!"

"WHAT?!" Adagio cries out in an outrage that she suspected that Sonata was betraying them. "Sonata, don't tell me that you're going to take sides with those foolish ponies!"

Sonata crosses her arms. "You are definitely correct on that Adagio!" She said. I couldn't see her face, but I could tell that it was some kind of face that would tell them off big time. "I kept pointing out to you that Brayden looked innocent, but both of you are too caught up with this 'portal'."

Adagio lets out a shocked but rather angered gasp. "You don't mean…" She managed to get out before Sonata interrupted her.

Sonata nods her head as she spoke and spoke "Yes. I quit the Dazzlings." I was impressed that the awkward and misfit of the Dazzlings stood up for herself and just flat out quit on the other sirens she had followed for many years. She turns her head to look at me for a moment. "If it weren't for Brayden, I wouldn't have known that there would be more waiting for me."

Aria just places a hand onto her face and forehead, letting out an annoyed groan. Adagio in the meantime just has a low growl emitting from out of her mouth. "You know what Sonata, if you really want to be one of those ponies after all…" She managed to get out before she snapped on her. "WHY DON'T YOU JOIN SIDES WITH THEM THEN?!"

Sonata has the nerve to shout back at her. "Maybe I will after all!"

"Good!" Aria and Adagio both yell at the same time with angry toned voices.

Sonata turns away from the two Dazzlings and walks over beside Sunset Shimmer. The rest of the girls only seem to show mild glares on their faces when Sonata had approached the group. The young siren quickly glances at the rest of the girls, but turns her head back towards Sunset.

"I'm so sorry." She apologized which I suspect was all about what happened with the girls and the sirens previously before.

Sunset just smiles and places a hand on Sonata's shoulder. "It's alright," She says to her in the honest way of forgiving her. "I know that it must have been hard for you to take our side. I too was once on that dark side of my life."

"I know," Sonata said. "It was when you turned into a raging she-demon and tried to mind-control the whole school. No offense."

She just giggles and says "None taken."

I could hear the sound of a throat clearing behind us. I turn my head and I realize that both Adagio and Aria are still standing there and looking so impatient as ever. I unleash a glare right back towards them while what used to be glaring smiles with frowns upon their glare.

"Now," Adagio commands me as if I were her pet. "The portal's location if you please."

I paused for a few moments and I can hear footsteps moving behind me of the girls ready to defend themselves in case the sirens got offensive. I couldn't believe that they didn't know the portal was right beside them. Still, I shook my head and simply stated "No."

Adagio's bare teeth showed when I had refused to tell her where it was. She was going to say something, but I had more to say to her. It wasn't just her though; it was also Aria who had been listening to this conversation the whole time. "Now you listen here human!" She managed to exclaim before I gladly interrupt her.

"No, I'm afraid that you need to listen to me Adagio," I began to speak to her. "As much as your demanding would go to get through this portal… It's not going to happen… not today! Not tomorrow! You need to show me that you have a lot of change in your heart before I would even let you step into the portal. The damage you've done is too far still for me to start forgiving you and Aria here."

Adagio wanted to speak but she still remained quiet as I continued while still firing that angered fiery glare from her eyes. "What you did to these civilians in this world is downright unbelievable for you both to do. I am almost convinced that I don't even want you to go back to Equestria. I stand by the princesses and their rights that all races should be at peace with each other, no matter how much a grudge they have against another race. But what you did to these people… unforgivable!"

"Sonata here is shown that she had been following you around the whole time, and she had believed to have been doing the right thing with you two," I continued with Aria just leaning on the column by the portal that she still does not notice. "But you have been treating her like she was the outcast of the group. The runt of the litter or rather the poor while you two seemed to be at the top. And if you dare try to make your escape through the portal, you're going to not only go through me, but Equestria's entire nation. In fact, I'd even be surprised if Siren Cover banishes you both."

"I beg your pardon?" Adagio finally rose her voice towards me for that last statement. "Siren Cove is our home! They would not send us into exile to live alone amongst ourselves."

"Oh we'll see about that," I said with a smile forming from my frown. "Just wait until I ask Princess Twilight to initiate a peace treaty to the sirens."

Adagio's hands grip onto my shirt and pull me towards her. "Never!" She shouts at me and then pushes me backwards in the full force of her hands, sending me to the cement ground. I land on the ground, and I only am a little bit stunned by the realization that I had been pushed to the ground by a siren in a human like form.

"I would end up ripping that treaty in half before even trying to deal with those Equines!" She exclaims angrily.

Both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash step over towards me with caution in case the two sirens planned to attack them both. They both help me get back up onto my feet.

"Are you alright Brayden?" Fluttershy asks me in a concerned tone.

I nod my head and look at her. "I've never been better." I commented and then turn back to the two sirens.

"Eight against us two? It seems like we might be both outnumbered Adagio." Aria commented.

"Quiet! I know how I can handle this Aria," Adagio remarks, then afterwards stepping forwards towards me and grabbing me, pulling me away from Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. "For the last time Brayden, where is the portal?!"

"I told you quite well," I said and then taking in a breath to say more. "I will not tell you where it is."

Adagio growls and moves her right arm back. I definitely wasn't able to react quickly, but this was something that has never happened to me before and I am shocked that it did. Adagio had used her right hand to form a fist and punch me right across of the left cheek. It felt like I was being pelted by a cheek-sized stone there. I am knocked to the side by the front of the portal and I can hear the girls gasping at this revelation.

I begin to get up slowly, with Sunset, Sonata and the other girls rushing over to help me up while I was in pain. But I can feel a foot against the right side of my face push me back down to the cement, pinning me right there. I could tell that it was Adagio herself standing on top of me, and it seemed like she would be ready to pummel me down with her own foot.

"Nu-uh girls," She says to them. "It's my business now between me and the human!"

"Let him go!" Rainbow Dash shouted at her sounding brave. She tries to run at Adagio, but Applejack begins to hold her back.

"Whoa there now!" Applejack commented while she was trying to keep Rainbow Dash from assaulting the leader of the Dazzlings as Aria could attack her right back.

"You see there?" Adagio said with a chuckle. "We may be a lesser number from dealing with you girls, but I think this human has to be dealt a lesson with from trying to mess with sirens period."

"Don't do this!" I said to her. It all came to me to try and persuade her to stop before things got out of control here. "Search yourself inside! You don't want to attack me!"

"Why else should not attack you for any reason whatsoever?" She questioned, still having her foot on top of my head resting hard and uncomfortably on the cement. "Go on, give a reason."

"Because you must realize that once I and Sonata disappear back to Equestria, you'll never know where this portal is." I claimed to her. "Even if you were to try and leave this place, the magic of the mirror portal would reflect you right back into this world since you must have a heart of good in you. But that's a theory I guess could be true."

"Oh shut up!" She exclaims to me in disbelief. "It would not just simply take me back here to this dump of a world. I would experience my freedom and the right to tear it apart again, even with the dismissal of our gems."

"We?" I could hear Aria say to her. I try to move my head to see what is happening judging by the sound of footsteps, but I am still unable to move. "Who said anything about us, Adagio?"

"You too, Aria?!" She shouted in an angered raging shock. "How dare you also turn against me, leaving me by myself…"

"I believe that if they gave Sunset a chance, Aria will do just fine with them." Sonata says to her. I smile for a few seconds, glad to hear that Sonata was truly starting to stray off the path of darkness Sunset once had been on.

I can see the girl's expressions change and they gasp in horror. I wonder what's going on and tried moving my head. All my neck is met with is a sharp switchblade pressed right there on my throat and ready to cut at any moment. Dammit, I'm already at another moment when I am facing death, but I fear this could be permanent death for me.

"Adagio, you're crazy!" Aria shouts to her, trying to apparently snap some sense into her. "You're really going to take his life?"

Adagio firmly pushes harder against my throat and I began to build up sweat inside in this really tight situation. "I will do it if I have to!" She shouts in that impatient tone. "So I am going to give him one more chance to tell me where the portal is! If you do not confirm it… he is going to get it!"

At this point at the brink of being close to death, I was trying so hard inside not to break the truth out to her. With the switchblade at my throat, any sudden moves I make would result in instant death. Sunset and the other girls stand there; they do not know what to do to help me out in this. Her foot is still against the side of my head, so I cannot get up.

Finally, there was a great silence between them all including me. I don't think I could really hold in the truth about the portal's location was. Seriously Adagio had a blade against my throat, ready to slash at any moment. I inhale a breath of air in panic and stupid me lets out the truth.

"Okay! It's right behind you! The portal is right behind you!" I shouted to her and sounded frightened by this.

She moves the switchblade from off of my throat and I can hear it being retracted. "Wise choice." She says to me. She takes her foot right off of my head and I begin to get up slowly. Sunset and the rest of the girls come forward to help me.

"Are you alright Brayden?" Sunset says to me, taking my hand and helping me up onto my two feet.

I nod my head and turn towards Sunset with a rather saddened look upon my face. "I'm sorry for revealing the location to Adagio."

She just pats me on the back and says "Brayden, its okay. I just hope you're right that it would take her back here."

Both me and Sunset turn our heads towards Adagio. She is facing the portal in front of her and moving a hand forward to touch it. It gets closer and then it makes contact with her hand, creating that water ripple effect when you enter the portal. The siren let out a chuckle and ends up walking through it, disappearing.

"No…" I cried out quietly.

I had failed all of Equestria and would be seeing its impending division yet to come from the armies of sirens that would invade the skies and absorb hatred with their own gems. I let everypony down… Twilight… Fluttershy… everypony… I was destined to be stuck here in this world if that was the case.

The ripples on the portal begin to ripple again, but in a more reversed way. I take a few steps back just in case, as I think the mirror is having a bad reaction to quite a bad heart. There are the sounds of what seems rather warped space like sounds, and then both the rippling and strange sounds had ended so abruptly that I ended up thinking that there would be more in the oncoming process.

All was silent between all of us and the portal, with the exception of the ambience around us like the soft summer wind blowing in the night and the muffled loud music inside of the school. I take at least two steps forward because I was curious to know if something did happen to Adagio if she had gone through the portal after all.

On the portal's shining pearl white surface, I stare at it whilst a very tiny ripple appeared on it. Something was moving inside of the portal between the bridge here and Equestria. More ripples began to appear by every few seconds that had passed after another ripple. Then there is another, and little did I know what to expect when the ripples expanded more.

A large octopus like tentacle came bursting right through the portal's walls. The scales themselves I could tell where not similar to that of your octopus back on Earth as this seems to be more textured and looks rougher by its scaled surface. I didn't react in time when it managed to take a hold of one of my legs and force me back down onto the tiled cement below my feet.

It was beginning to pull me into the portal with it, and I am trying to grip onto something close by for dear life while Sunset and the girls take my hand and pull me towards them with the tentacle pulling me towards the portal where Adagio had gone through. What if this is all part of a negative reaction like that Adagio was going through just like what had happened to Sunset in the first place when she placed the Element of Magic upon her head.

"Don't let it pull me in!" I shouted with desperation in my voice as I do all that I can to not let whatever Adagio had become in there get me through the portal.

"Come on girls," I could hear Applejack shout out while pulling onto my hand. "Pull harder! Brayden ain't gonna last much longer if he enters that portal with that siren!"

Here I was now, trapped between life and death now whilst it was trying to pull me in with it. What would this version of Adagio look like between bridges of two worlds? I might be guessing that she end up being in a warped form of herself, but who knows at this point.

I can feel the tentacle start to loosen its grip around my leg, slipping its slimy tentacle from off of my leg. Sunset and Rarity having gripping onto my hand the whole time during all of that crazy stuff, pull me right back up onto my feet. I turn my focus back towards the tentacle and was wondering what other plans it had next.

The tentacle turns its attention towards Aria who was helping out Sonata and the girls to pull out of that situation with that tentacle and stretches quickly towards her, wrapping itself around the siren's waist. I ran forward to stop this tentacle from taking her in through the portal.

I was really sure that the tentacle itself was aware that I was trying to save this siren who helped Adagio, so it swings forward while keeping a grip on Aria, using her as a weapon to knock me right back onto the ground. When am I even not going to be knocked to the ground at all when dealing with these types of situations? The tentacle drags Aria right through the portal while she screams briefly and then she disappeared with only that short scream echoing for a few seconds.

All was quiet again. But there were more ripples than usual emitting from the surface of the portal itself. I can feel a chilling essence of darkness growing from that part of the portal's bridge before me and I take couple of steps back, passing Sunset and the girls. They followed suite as they caught onto what was coming through the portal by the large ripples.

Something was coming out… and judging by the rippling, it was big…

A foot began to emerge out of the portal's shining surface and it seemed rather sea-like for a monster that lived under the ocean floor like the Kraken that Coco mentioned to me once. I can see the part of its large body beginning to stumble right through the end of the portal. At first, the face of this drastic, fearsome creature was hidden by the shadows, but once the entire body and head had gone through the portal back here, it had all been revealed.

What was standing right here before me was what seemed to be a mixture of two different races with two different colors representing both Adagio and Aria. Their bad hearts were must of what created this creature out of the portal's magic as an attempt to spit them back out, but with terrible consequences. The head of the creature had large bullish horns and didn't have two eyes, but rather four deep purple colored eyes staring down at all of us. The body itself had large tentacles emerging from its back and maintained a slimy appearance that would probably disgust Rarity herself.

"What… is that?!" Sonata asked loudly, pointing a finger right towards this creature of unknown origin standing before us.

"Oh you mean…" The creature spoke, before taking a leap right into the air with the tentacles supporting it with a boost. After it flies right over our heads to the other side of the school, it makes a hard landing on the stairs and continues to stare us down. I mean for crying out loud, this thing is taller than all of us. "Who we are, Sonata."

"What did you do with Aria and Adagio?!" She returns towards this creature after it had opened its mouth.

The creature just lets out a muffled chuckle and says "Whatever are you trying to talk about?" When it spoke, in its mouth I could see rows and rows of sharp dagger-like teeth that could take off anyone's arm or rather anypony's hoof. "That is who we are. We are both Adagio and Aria. But just in case you forget… our new name is Adaria."

Me and Sonata gasp while this creature began to laugh, but with a bit of distortion in its own voice to sound like there was a deep voice talking in sync with their voice. We couldn't believe this? How could this mirror do something like that to make Adaria or rather… combine them both together!

"Surprised, hm?" Adaria says, their eyes tinting down a bit to glare at us with a smile growing on its face while it spoke. It had been talking this whole time in Adagio's point of view. "When I stepped into the portal, I thought I was going to go through to Equestria, which isn't completely done yet as you Brayden were right this whole time."

"Only hearts of good can go through!" I shouted back at her.

"I know that quite well now human," She says, rolling those eyes in a circle in annoyance that I would state that again. "But I'm going to need some Equestrian magic in order to disguise my own bad heart as something good in order to go through."

If only I had brought the Song of Order along with me, then I wouldn't have had to deal with this type of situation. I take a few steps forward below Adaria whom stands on the school steps. "You're not going through Equestria. If you are, you'll have to go through us first!" I said again, with fury filling my voice.

Adaria keeps a mild smile upon her face while glaring down at me. I do not seem to notice that one of her tentacles has moved behind her. It was as if she was planning a surprise assault against me while I wasn't looking. "Noted quite well." She commented to me in a bored tone in her voice. This is when this tentacle began to take action.

The tentacle had gripped my left leg from underneath and made a quick sudden movement, flipping right up into the air. I feel gravity starting to force me down as I was caught in mid-air flipping about for a few moments. My body makes impact onto the grass beside the cement path towards the school. I take a look up at the current situation.

A crowd starts to form up against the windowed front doors of Canterlot High, watching in horror on what was going on to interrupt their dance. Adaria turns towards the doors for a few brief moments, putting on a smile when she saw the crowd. She just pushes them aside from her sight to allow them to watch what was yet to come for my new friends.

"Here's a little easter egg I didn't tell in case you didn't know," Adaria says to the girls, seemingly ready to defend themselves. "With this form after I or we have gathered your magic that was used to shatter the gems on our necks, we will not use the sirens in the end… It will just be us, ruling Equestria and dividing it one at a time."

"That's what you think will happen!" Sonata shouts to her.

Adaria simply goes 'pfft' and uses another tentacle to whip her right onto the grass that was on the opposite side of the school front on the other side from where I was, lying on the grass and being forced to watch and unable to move just yet from the shock of being thrown.

"It's crazy," Sunset says to her. "You lost your magic when your gems shattered by the blast of our power! You won't be able to absorb it out of us!"

"Oh about that…" She says. She raises her large right clawed hand and opens it up before them all, conjuring a green ball of what would be used to absorb their magic. "By the way this mirror combined us that might not entirely be true. We still hold some dark magic. And you and the girls here are the bearers who hold Equestrian magic."

"Oh my…" I could hear Fluttershy say as Adaria blocked my view of her. "I don't think I like the sound of what might be coming next."

"You're not going to take our power as long as we have each other, Adaria!" Sunset exclaimed proudly while Adaria just listens to what she was saying. "I might have not understood it the first time, but I know that our friendship is strong against yours no matter what!"

"I beg to differ!" The large hybrid exclaimed while its tentacles from behind began to move.

The tentacles whip forward underneath the girls and climb up to take hold of them by around the chests. I can hear Rainbow struggling to get the tentacle of Adaria's off from around her chest. I can hear the rest of the girls struggling and Fluttershy panicking a bit when a tentacle took a hold of her. I was unable to do anything as of now, just watching as my new friends were being lifted and trapped by the tentacles of this hybrid.

"Let us go!" Rainbow demanded, moving about to try and get away.

"Nu-uh!" Adaria scolded with laughter afterwards. "Don't try to struggle now. I assure you that this draining will be as painless as ever. When I am all done, you won't even remember having this magic in the first place."

"Try to realize that this is wrong Adagio!" Sonata cries out, while trying her best to get up off of the ground.

"Quiet, weakling of a siren!" The hybrid barks at the girl below her, turning her head to look at her for a moment. "I am not to be disturbed while I am draining the magic out of these girls!"

I watch as Adaria turns her head back towards the girls and her clawed hands began to rise up high. Emitting green energy began to flow from her hands and I look in horror as I can see green mist beginning to rise out of all six of my friends, who were completely helpless against what Adaria was doing to them.

"Help us Brayden!" Sunset cries out as every speck of magic is being drained out of her, making her become weaker and a lot more tired than she was before the magic began to get drained.

Adaria lets out a victorious smile and says "I can taste the magic… and the strength that I am achieving." This was followed by a laugh while the girls were stuck in place on the tentacles that held them tightly.

I get up slowly off of the ground and began to make motion towards Adaria standing there. Sneaking towards her from behind quietly, I didn't want to make a single sound. Sonata is trying to get up as well, slowing going to follow me behind Adaria as if we had a plan in mind. I slip past underneath the hybrid's tentacles that weren't used and Sonata follows from the other side.

"Alright Sonata, we need a really extremely quick plan to stop Adaria before she takes their magic away completely." I said to her, deciding to tell her the first stage in my plan. "I want you to start climbing up a tentacle all the way to the top of the hybrid's head."

Sonata looked confused. "Sounds dangerous, like riding a bull and believe me that already happened here in this world." She tells me as if she was precautious.

"It might feel like that, but it's not." I claimed, avoiding a tentacle from making contact with me when it moved. If it felt me, it would have flipped me right back towards the school wall and I would run out of time faster. "I'm going to go inside of the school and head to the upper left wing's rooftop. I will then leap off of it and onto her."

"What is my role in this?" She asked.

"You, good Sonata will hold her in place and distract her while I make my way there. Once I had latched myself onto her, you are free to get off. It's a simple job for you."

"Alright, sounds good." She says.

"Alright, on my mark, I will start running for the indoors and head towards the roof to make the strike attempt. Once I start running, distract for as long as you can." I said to her. I slightly bent down a knee and begin to count silently in my head when to start running.

A few seconds pass and then I began to sprint right away towards the school doors. I can hear Sonata's footsteps for a brief moment before I turned my head to see her climbing one of Adaria's tentacles. My footsteps are heard as I was running up the dry cement stairs and in through the school doors where everyone was surprised to see me.

I made my way past everyone who was watching me head towards the nearby stairway with them telling me where to go which seemed rather helpful. I make my way past the cafeteria and the hallways of what seemed like endless lockers and dark classrooms closed for the night. But I did find the door that would lead me in and up towards the roof.

I ran into through the dimly-lit stairwell while I could hear the sound of my own heart pounding and my breathing starting to intensify while making my way up the steps. There are only three parts to the stairwell, but I make it to the top. Thank goodness that there were no other stairs, otherwise it would seem to go on endlessly.

I stop for a moment to pant, gripping a hand onto the stair's railing and trying to catch my breath from all that running. I knew I couldn't stay here to catch most of it for too long as the more time I waste, the more magic that is drained from my friends. I managed to take in a few breathes and then head towards the door that would take me to the roof accompanied by a very short flight of stairs. Climbing that, I grab onto the door's large handle and push it open.

I was right outside back into the night again from the dark but dim room. I can still hear the pulsating sound of Adaria draining the magic and I make my way towards the edge of the roof to see Sonata was climbing on top of Adaria's head, ready to distract her immediately. I scan the area of the roof with my eyes and move a little bit to the right if I really want to get a boost towards the hybrid as a head-start.

Sonata begins to take a tight grip around the hybrid's horns and all hell broke loose as soon as this had happened. The magic was continuing to be drained during the distraction, and Sonata held on tight while Adaria was trying to shake her off.

"Brayden…"

I could hear that rather calm voice that I knew speak to me from inside of my mind. It was the Song of Order itself. But how? I was past the border of Equestria for it to even contact me from there. But I was so sure that it might be contacting me in some way.

"The Song of Order?" I said in the silence. "How did you manage- I mean, how can you speak to me when you're not here? You're back in Equestria where you are back at Fluttershy's cottage!"

"The portal's powers had managed to reach me and I am only able to last for a bit of time before this out-of-form disappears. You might only have a limited time to pull that off before I end up back in that same position at your best friend's cottage." It spoke to me through my mind. "When you have distracted it shortly enough, I will make my way to your right hand to begin the purification."

"But how?" I asked. "I have never seen the blade warp all the way over here… well okay, there was the Nightmare Moon when you appeared in my hand."

"That was because I recognized you as the chosen one to take the blade in your hands," The blade's voice said to me. "While the portal is working for these brief times, it's like an out-of-body experience that any human has, but nevertheless I, the Song of Order will appear in your hand for a brief moment as the magic of the blade is connected to the portal for a short time."

I nod my head in understanding. "Then I will risk it!" I stated, putting some bravery into my voice and without question.

I began to leap forward and down towards the distracted Adaria that continued to try and get Sonata off of her head from the horns she was gripping onto. Everything felt slow at first, but I manage to take grip of Adaria's face and turned her focus off of Sonata and towards me.

"Foolish human!" She shouted with arrogance filling the tone of her voice. "Release yourself from my face this instant!"

"Bite me." I comment back while she growls, trying to shake me off of her face. I let go from across her face and land on the tentacle that keeps Sunset ahold.

I glance upward towards Sunset and the other girls. They were beginning to look tired and their eyelids were slightly down as if they were trying to go to sleep, but keep themselves awake from this. Rainbow Dash, who had been struggling before I headed up the stairs wasn't struggling anymore and I could even see the tired bags underneath her eyes. I glance back to the tentacle gripping onto Sunset. I needed to act quickly or all of my friends would be drained completely.

My head quickly moves forward and I open my mouth to bear my own teeth as an offense. My teeth sinks right into the tentacle and grips onto it tightly.

Adaria began to let out a shriek and this of course interrupts her from taking any more of the magic from my friends. The tentacle cuts Sunset free from its grip and she lands up back on the dry cement while she is trying to shake me off from that tentacle. With the connection for the other tentacles while flying around, I latch onto the tentacle gripping Rarity, taking a bite out of that. Rarity is set free and Adaria wasn't about to let me best her, forming some wet fluids around the tentacle to free me off of her, but with a twist.

I can feel myself slipping from it and me trying to grip on tightly, but with a single fling my hand slide right off and I can feel myself flying back again to the same spot, but to my shock to be headed for the school's brick wall. But I knew what to expect next when I saw myself slow down before I could hit the brick layers and a glowing and shining object in my right hand. The Song of Order.

I can feel the power of the claymore flowing throughout my veins and can see when I looked behind me that the blade appeared right on time to conjure those ethereal wings that would last for the time I activated its magic for flight or battle. I only wish I had real wings, but I don't think it would even be possible for human life. But you never know one day.

"What?!" Adaria cries out in shock. "You're supposed to be done for! Squashed like a bug!"

I turned away from the wall and faced the hybrid down there below me. "That is when you are wrong Adaria!" I said to her with a brave smile on my face and my left hand pointing to her. "You can't stop the power of friendship from trying to make you go through to Equestria, and not even the legendary Song of Order would allow it either!"

"It can't be the legendary blade though," She said, sounding really annoyed. "That was only a part of Equestrian myth! There's no way it cannot exist!"

"But it does Adaria!" I said to her. "And no matter what happens, the friendship between my new friends here and my friends back in Equestria will always be powerful no matter what! As long as I conjure the blade and wield it, I will not let bad hearts like you get through!"

I raised the claymore high up into the air, placing the both of my hands onto the grip. I can feel the power of friendship and Applejack's spark of honesty inside when I had earned it from her at my 21st birthday. It all helped inside to power up the blade. The symbol of Twilight's cutie mark on both sides of the crossguard began to shine brightly, along with the quaver note on the pommel. Finally, the color of a rainbow shines in the blade.

The power had reached inside to a maximum and the rainbow beam surrounds the blade itself slowly before making its way towards Adaria who just stands there unable to do anything. The rainbow beam fires around her legs and covers the entire body while crawling upward towards the hybrid's head slowly and carefully.

"What! This cannot be true!" I could hear her shout while the power of the rainbow began to release a blinding light to cover the hybrid completely to begin the purification.

I still had some words inside of me. "No matter what happens, you'll always find that friendship is there no matter how bad you are now, and you can always go to it at any time!" Finally, I close my eyes and there are the bursts of light that would have been quite blinding. But no matter what, this will all be done with.

---

The light had eventually faded and I began to fly down towards the grassy surface of the school's front yard, letting my feet touch down onto the lawn made of dry, lush green. I power down the Song of Order and smile at it with its shine reflecting for a moment and then disappearing out of sight, back to where it would originally be standing in my room back at Fluttershy's. The ethereal wings it made for me also disappear.

The girls didn't seem to be weak anymore as they no longer looked tired from the magic that had been drained as the rainbow must have took back the magic that Adaria had taken from them. They were in shock at first, but smiles slowly grew onto their faces and they walk towards me, joining around me.

Rainbow Dash was the first to come up to me, smiling. "Brayden," She said that had my full attention to her. "That was so awesome!"

I nod to her. "You have that magic back, so you can still do your solos and get these neat wings you get every time you unleash your magic." I told her, with her smile brightening more.

"Well now," I could hear Applejack say as she was next to talk and probably compliment me for what I did. "Brayden didn't just save us by himself, Sonata was also a great help ta him."

"It's true." Sonata commented. With the praise that she got from Applejack, a blush of pink appears on the both of her cheeks.

"Brayden?" I could hear Fluttershy say to me when she came up next after Applejack made that thankful comment for both me and Sonata. Fluttershy's pale yellow hand gently took my right hand and I look at her cyan eyes as she got my attention. "I am so proud of you for showing bravery to save all of us."

"Thank you Fluttershy," I said to her with a smile adorned across my face. She lets go of my hand and I turn towards the others with a now concerned look growing upon my face towards the two sirens past us lying there on the cement. "But before we make any preparations for me to get going, we have a siren to deal with."

All of us make our way towards the two waking sirens getting up off of the ground. Aria is the first to get back up onto her two feet with both Pinkie and Rarity taking a hand to help her up off of the ground. She looks utterly confused and tired as if she had woken up during a nasty and wild house party.

She groans and places a hand on her forehead for a few brief moments and then moves it to look at us. "What happened?" She asked.

"You were taken through the portal and combined with Adagio to form into a large hybrid of a mythological sea creature, sirens and something horned," Pinkie began to comment. "Not to mention that you tried to drain the magic out of us. But other than that, we forgive you for that accident."

"Thanks," Aria said to us. "I was too blind to realize what I was doing was really the wrong way around, but now I think I'll be much happier with you girls than the way Adagio made me and Sonata did wrong to all of you."

I take my eyes off from them and have my eyes set on Adagio who was making her way up from the ground. My eyes form together a mild glare towards her. She moves a hand onto the cement. Her head moves upward and she is shooting me with a nasty glare. She tries to suppress a growl out of her, but finds herself unable to do so in the end.

"All you had done to my friends, the students and everybody in this world and Equestria years ago has gone far enough." I began to scold her. She didn't dare say a word to me. "Your heart is still bad inside and it would take a lot more to heal it to become a good soul yet again if you can remember that. Until the proof comes along that you are of good heart, then maybe Twilight herself would be willing to give you a chance yet again to return."

"You…" She said rather lowly and deep. "You ruined the perfect plan for me to have my revenge, as I should have done. There was nothing else left for us all until you came into the picture."

I nodded at her. "Indeed, but arrogance and forcing powers beyond any other to take control is not in any way for your blood," I continued speaking to her. "But these girls behind you… They taught Sunset the right path to take when she went in the same fate. If you give it a chance, you'll find more than you bargain for, but it's all about if you are willing to choose this, or face being alone. Trust me; being alone is something you don't want."

She gets up onto her feet and takes a look at me with a glare upon her face and she sounded rather annoyed when she spoke "Fine then. But don't expect me to give you a warm welcome if I change."

"But first…" I said, turning around to face the girls. "I think Adagio here still has to owe a load of apologies to everyone here."

My friends turn to look at each other and they nod in agreement at me. A smile comes upon my face from their agreement. "She does owe a lot of that. But I think a few days in detention will serve her just fine." I could hear a familiar voice say to me from behind me.

I turned around and looked rather surprised and happy at the same time. It was Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna standing there at the top of the stairs outside. I take a hold of the railing with my right hand on my way up to see the two of the staff of Canterlot High.

"We were wondering what the commotion was going on outside and it seems that someone has now saved the school yet again from something dangerous that threatens us," Vice Principal Luna told me with a smile upon her face. "I really don't know what to say."

"Oh don't worry," I said to her. "It wasn't after your students that time, it was trying to take over Equestria again."

"Oh yes, Princess Twilight's been here to save us at least two times now. It's relief to see a new face we've never seen before." Celestia said to me, bearing that warm smile upon her face. "But you helped bring Adagio to justice. High school justice, of course."

I nod with a smile, agreeing with her. "Now I still wonder how the girls managed to find out that I was captured?" I asked myself out loud out of my own curiosity.

"I told them you were gone," I heard a male voice say to me. I turn my head to the right and could see Flash Sentry coming out and approaching me for he was the one who spoke. "I was lucky to have witnessed the Dazzlings stepping in and kidnapping you in the first place as I heard a few noises and you were unconscious. So I ran off to tell Sunset and the others and they were worried until tonight."

"I know, and you did the right thing." I said to him. I guess I thought about him a little too harshly every time.

Principal Celestia turns to face the rest of the students and informs them immediately that the dance is still a-go. Luna on the other half, manages to take the wrecked Adagio with her to detention to miss out on the dance. Aria and Sonata got to stay with the other girls.

"I'm willing to join along with the girls," Aria comments. "So it will be a while before I decide to go through the portal to Equestria."

"Alright Aria," I said, nodding in understanding. "Take all the time that you need."

Sunset approaches me at the top of the steps and I turn to look at her as I can tell from her face she wants to ask me something. "I know you have to get back to Equestria so soon, but would you like to stick around at the dance to perform at least one song and one dance?" She had asked me, forming a smile on her face.

I paused for a few moments to think about this. The portal isn't going to close until the next night, so I would pretty much have enough time to just do this dance and perform one song. I take a look at those eyes of hers and say "Sure. What song do you have in mind to perform?"

"It's all on the house," Sunset says. "Just give us the brief runthrough of the song and we'll perform it with you."

"Sounds good," I reply to her with a smile and then turn my head towards Rainbow Dash. "Hey Rainbow, you're up to do a solo for this song we'll be performing."

"Alright!" Rainbow Dash exclaims excitedly with a smile. "Let's rock the dance, shall we?"

---

It was all dark backstage and we were waiting patiently for the curtain to move and show us to the audience of the gym before us. I felt a little nervous at first, but then remembered that I had friends with me to back me up so I would be fine in the end.

I was not holding onto a guitar for this one-time performance, so I would just be doing lead vocals to which Sunset, AJ and Rainbow would be doing backing vocals to power the voice of this oncoming song. I looked nervous about this at first as I always was, but I can feel a pat on the back. I turn my head around to see that it was Rainbow Dash who had done it.

The curtain began to slowly unfold and reveal ourselves to the audience. The lights at the top of the stage turn on and reveal a colored tone for that what resembled to be like a rainbow. The high school students see us stand before them and they clap their hands together with smiles on each of their faces when they see us.

I can hear Pinkie behind us on the drums; begin to tap hard onto the closed hi-hat at least three times to count us into the song with a hit of the snare as the fourth. After the fourth tap to the rhythm, the guitars behind me with the bass and tambourine start make that unique rhythm for the song that was bound to come up. Then, there came the rhythm that was aligned with the guitars, keytar and tambourine along with the beating of the drums.

Seeing how this would be my first time ever singing to a crowd that wasn't like ponies, but more of humans which apparently made me more nervous back on Earth, I knew that I couldn't be too nervous about this, I take the microphone into my hands and began to sing.

Everyone's watching

To see what you will do

Everyone's looking at you, Oh

Everyone's wondering

Will you come out tonight

Everyone's trying

To get it right

Get it right

Everybody's working for the weekend

Everybody wants a little romance

Everybody's going off the deep end

Everybody needs a second chance

Oh, you want a piece of my heart

You better start from start

You wanna be in the show

Come on, baby

Let`s go

Everyone's looking

To see if it was you

Everyone wants you to come through

Everyone's hoping

It'll all work out

Everyone's waiting

They're holding out

Everybody's working for the weekend

Everybody wants a little romance

Everybody's going off the deep end

Everybody needs a second chance

Oh, you want a piece of my heart

You better start from start

You wanna be in the show

Come on, baby

Let`s go

I stop singing for a moment to allow Rainbow Dash that time to allow her to start shredding right into a very catchy yet melodic solo to go along with the song. She hit those high notes on the songs, getting down on her knees and making her guitar wail like no tomorrow. She does get back up onto her feet once her solo is done.

Sunset uses her flying V guitar and creates a rather surf rock sound just like how it almost sounds like in the song. This really pumps energy through my veins and once she is finished, I head back into the song for the big finale with that catchy riff that Sunset made to lead to the song's outro.

Hey, you want a piece of my heart

You better start from start

You wanna be in the show

Come on, baby

Let's go

You want a piece of my heart

You better start from start

You wanna be in the show

Come on, baby

Let's go

Rarity held down the long chord on her keytar to end the song while Pinkie totally ends the song with the crashing of both the ride and crash cymbals. After Rarity has finished the synth sound of the keytar, I take a look at the audience and hope that all of us did well.

The audience has smiles on their faces and they applaud our performance with clapping a few other students whistling in congratulations for all of us. While they are applauding, I do the usual honor of being on stage and give a thankful bow to the audience along with my friends behind me. I wasn't able to look back to see, but I somehow could tell by the quiet muffled sounds of the instruments being put into the stands or Pinkie getting off the drum set.

I turn towards the steps that would take me down from the stage, with the girls following right behind me. They were rather impressed by my own ability to sing. But I don't really think it's a biggie, I just try my best to train myself on how to better the vocal parts for me.

"You did a really good job Brayden," Fluttershy compliments me. "Your voice sounds really wonderful when you sing."

I take a look at her and said "Alright, just in time for one more dance. Then I need to get back home."

"Oh, umm… okay," She says to me as if she had something that she wanted to say to me. "I- I was just wondering about something since you'll be here for only this last song."

I nod to her in understanding. "Ask away Fluttershy."

Fluttershy's head turns away shyly for a few moments, but turns right back to have her cyan eyes meet with my brown eyes. "I was wondering if you want to share this dance with me, if that is okay with you," She said to me with question in her tone. "I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to."

"Fluttershy…" I softly exclaim with a happy tone in my voice. I can feel my hand gently taking her soft right hand and holding it gently. "You don't have to be afraid to ask me; of course I can share this dance with you."

Her smile lit up once again and the both of us exchange gazes into each other's eyes. "Oh, thank you so much for accepting my offer to dance with you." She tells me in the same soft tone.

"You're welcome Fluttershy," I said to her, hearing that the music was turning into a rather slow-paced as if it were in a ballad. "I have a small bit of experience of dancing with someone, but I will do just fine with this."

She nods and the both of us head towards the dance floor where the others students are gathering with someone to dance with. I gently move one arm around Fluttershy's waist and my other free arm has my own hand take her own hand to hold onto whilst we dance.

Fluttershy kept her cyan eyes on me the whole time whilst we slow danced together. This dance wasn't going to give off anything romantic between me and the human Fluttershy, as I just considered her offer to dance as in more friendly terms. Nevertheless, my brown eyes were on her eyes the whole time as well, but on more friendly terms as well. She and the other girls knew about my relationship with Twilight already since I told them about it on the night I first met them two nights ago.

Once the ballad was over and done with, both I and Fluttershy separate from each other on the friendly terms that we were just friends. We both walk alongside each other back to the western side of the gym where my other friends are waiting. Meeting up with them, they nod with smiles on their faces and join up with me and Fluttershy along with the two sirens Sonata and Aria out of the gymnasium and into the hallways on the way outside to the portal.

During my walk there, I turn my head to look at Sunset who seemed rather solemn about me leaving back to Equestria. But I think I knew what was going on in her mind. She was somehow missing Princess Celestia there? I'm pretty sure that I should speak out, for I believed her words that the princess would forgive Sunset for her past mistakes.

"Sunset?" I ask her which pretty much has her attention to when she turns her head to look at me while we walked alongside each other.

Sunset has a look of curiosity in those eyes of hers. "What is it Brayden?" She asked.

I open up my left hand to her as an open offer for what message I was trying to get across to her in the next few moments. "Come with me," I stated to her with the kindest tone in my voice. "Come with me back to Equestria."

She pauses for a few moments and turns her head away from me. I knew that I had asked her this sort of question back yesterday before I was captured, but I knew what to expect. If she said no, I wouldn't need to say anything against it for this world would be her new place. But if she is to say yes, then I think her visit to Canterlot would ultimately surprise the princess.

She turns back to me with a smile on her face and says "Wait until daybreak. I will give you my answer then, so in the meantime you should get some rest."

I let out a bit of a yawn and once finished with that, I smile at her and say "Take all the time you need to think about it."

"Can I come with you back to Equestria?" I could hear an excited siren say right beside me. Oh yes, Sonata. She felt bad for me and I think I trust her enough after she was helping me stop the hybrid earlier from taking the magic from my friends.

I let out a chuckle and give her a pat on the back. "Of course you can, but just in case I will warn you of this. You don't have your gem on you, so there is a risk you will become a pony upon stepping through the mirror." I told her with some wise caution in my tone.

She comments to herself "I hope there are tacos in Equestria."

I turn back towards Sunset as soon as she began talking. "I need some time alone to think about this, but don't worry I will be at the portal tomorrow in the morning." She had told me and stopped to go in another direction inside of the school.

I nod in understanding before she turns away and begins heading down another hallway. I continue along with the other girls. I hope that Sunset Shimmer herself can find it in her heart to make the right decision. After all, Celestia misses her and all wrongs that were caused between the two could be undone should she accept. I just have to wait and see.

---

Sunset's POV

The next morning…

I open my eyes to the waking sun just about peeking out over the eastern horizon of this mirror world, taking a look at the wonderful observation that reminded me of home every time I had watched it.

My thoughts were deep on what Brayden had asked me about coming with him and Sonata back to Equestria, my own home world. At first I question to myself because I still have my doubts inside about what had happened especially after being too blind from what caused me to be jealous in the first place and transform into a demon.

Twilight made me follow the right path though, after she had confronted me after stealing her crown which eventually would be something to give her the castle of her own on the next occasion after dealing with an angry centaur that she mentioned to me. I had even proved that I was still a good soul inside after my great help in stopping the Dazzlings which earned my trust back to Canterlot High. But at least Sonata found it easily, as she didn't want to commit any more trouble.

I get up onto my two feet again and take a look over the ghostly, waking horizon with the night sky changing in a tint to a waking tint of dusk purple while the sun rose so ever slowly. I knew that I needed to think clearly about what the future holds in store for me though it was still too far to matter and not the terror I had caused in my past.

In the silence besides the wind and the spare leaves that go rustling by with the wind, I found some courage in my heart and take in a deep silent breath, and begin to sing.

Power

Was all I desired

But that all grew inside me

Was the darkness I acquired

When I began to fall

And I lost the path ahead

That's when your friendship found me

And it lifted me instead

Like a phoenix burning bright

In the sky

I'll show there's another side to me

You can't deny

I may not know what the future holds

But hear me when I say

That my past does not define me

'Cause my past is not today

Ambition

Is what I believed

Would be the only way

To set me free

But when it disappeared

And I found myself alone

That's when you came and got me

And it felt like I was home

Like a phoenix burning bright

In the sky

I'll show there's another side to me

You can't deny

I may not know what the future holds

But hear me when I say

That my past does not define me

'Cause my past is not today

I already knew now what the decision I had chosen to do, and I would tell Brayden straight away by the next hour. I think he'll be in for quite the surprise to him when I tell him my honest decision.

---

Brayden's POV

I and the rest of the girls have arrived back by the horse statue outside of Canterlot High where the portal would be located. As usual, I had the usual good dreams of my friends both in Equestria and here in the mirror world. Breakfast was also really good, and it was good to share a couple of talk before me and Sonata, plus hopefully Sunset once she has had time to think it over last night.

"Are you sure that you don't want to come with me back to Equestria, Aria?" I could hear Sonata asking her other siren friend about coming to Equestria.

I turn my head to see what's happening. All Aria does herself is smile and shake her head. "Not now Sonata. I think I also need to see what friendship really is like with these girls." She tells her in that assuring tone though she still has a bit of a dull tone, but I think that might how it had developed in the first place.

"Suit yourself," Sonata says to her. "I'll miss you while I'm gone."

I think even the girls are going to miss me when I head back to Equestria. I only got to know them for such a short few days, but nevertheless I managed to befriend them on such short notice. I knew it wasn't easy trying to adjust being back in a world that was somehow similar to all of humanity back on Earth, but overall I had a fun time.

I can hear the sound of footsteps approaching by the sound of it making contact with the cement below. Turning my head all the way to the side to view the front of the school, I pretty much expected right away that it was Sunset herself who was usually with the girls most of the time. She bears a warm smile on her face when she approaches all of us and joined with the group once again.

I keep right where I am standing there. "Well," I was just about to ask. "Did you think about it through the night?"

Sunset approaches me and places a hand right onto my left shoulder. She nods and says "Yes, I thought about it carefully and I have made a final decision. I have decided to come back with you to Equestria."

I smile and the girls walk a little closer to allow Sunset to start talking to them. "I know that I've been here for now and a long time," She begins to explain to them. "But nothing does end up lasting forever, except friendship for we will always be friends. Equestria is my true home though, but do not worry because I will make sure I will visit you all from time to time."

"We will miss you Sunset," Pinkie says to her. "It was really fun being able to attend all those parties with you that I have done while you were with us."

I step up next to Sunset and take a look at the girls. "What about Adagio? What will you do about her?" I had asked.

Applejack began speaking to me in that southern accented voice that I knew. "Don't ya worry one bit Brayden. She'll be in good hands. After all, that siren has lots of apologies to give to everyone here. Aria will be fine with us as she is curious now."

"They'll both be fine," Rarity says. "If we had helped Sunset, we'll surely help those two out. We'll still keep an eye on Adagio in case she tries anything funny."

I suppose now is good time to start going now, so I take a look at all of the girls. "Goodbye all of you," I said to them with that joyful tone in my voice. "It was fun being able to see all of you."

The girls begin to approach me and Sunset. I can feel them move their hands around me and most likely Sunset herself as we begin sharing a group hug. I was hugging Fluttershy, Applejack and Rarity while Sunset is also hugging Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Rarity in the group hug. But don't worry, it felt rather heartwarming to have these new friends of mine.

After a couple of moments in the hug, all of us let go and separate from it. I turn my head to both my left and right to look at both Sunset and Sonata. "Are you two ready to go?" I had asked with an assuring tone.

"Always willing and ready when you are Brayden!" Sonata says to me excitedly. Sunset nodded in agreement, seemingly ready as well.

I turn towards the portal itself and I knew what was going to probably happen as soon as I stepped out from the portal. Flying between the gates of this world and Equestria would probably result in me flying out from the mirror when I come back to Twilight's castle. But nevertheless, I take a few steps forward and make contact with the portal's surface.

I can see the rippling as usual and the sound of both Sonata and Sunset's footsteps behind me as in following me. Noticing that as a good time now, I continue forward and step through and into the portal's wormhole yet again. The portal's grey surface disappears when I pass through and knew what was expected next.

I found myself flying upwards and away and out of the white hole. Ahead of me was that cutie mark symbol that knew was the representation of Celestia's cutie mark, the sun. Into the infinite realm I went through flying, managing to take a hold on that grip I could not on my way to the mirror world, but I was more careful and firmer about it and through the rainbow tunnel.

I can hear Sonata and Sunset behind me having the time of their life and surfing on the unknown right behind me. I can tell that Sonata was having a fun time like being on a board and surfing underneath a large tidal wave of the mysterious. From when I turn my head a bit to take a look outside of the swirl, I could see the same thing as I saw before on the way through. Planets were rotating to themselves with different appearances with the stars shining brightly with the sight of a supernova in reverse turning right back into a red giant as if it seemed we were going backwards in time, though we were not. A comet made of ice and dust pass over the swirl and towards another star system far from this imaginary system we were in, sort of like a hallucination.

I was stretching for a little bit, and I knew this meant that were really close to the event horizon to the enchanted shining gate of Equestria's magic border. The illumination of Celestia's cutie mark in the distance grew closer faster and I knew I could not just simply end up flying through the mirror again. I keep myself prepared and my two feet steadfast and ready to act in case I was flying too close. At the speed I was at though, I didn't need to panic as it was more rather slow than going fast from my way to the other side the first time.

I moved the both of my stretching legs to unveil some walking so I can get a little bit of control over it. Only 5 seconds until I hit the event horizon, so I just keep trying to walk over thin air in the swirl and close my eyes so that I am not blinded in any way whatsoever. After those few seconds, there is a whoosh and then a calm serene sound that could tell that I have managed to keep myself in control and made it to the end of the gate.

My feet take the invisible steps forward and then I can feel that strange non-liquid fluid upon my own face again. My right foot managed to make contact with a surface so hard and I open my eyes to see past the mystical essence and back into where my new home was.

I take the first few steps out of the mirror and off of the crystal platform where it was resting. I take in that deep breath to get that Equestrian air into my system and exhale it out. How I missed my new home while I was gone. I turn around to see the mirror shine a few bits momentarily and watch Sunset in pony form and Sonata coming out.

I was rather surprised by what Sonata looked like when she came out of the mirror portal. She was in the form of an Earth pony, and her cutie mark was a crazy looking note from music with a heart right behind it on her flank. She still maintains the same mane as her hair back in the mirror world. After she had gone through, she takes a look at her new form excitedly, but finds it having a hard time to trot on four legs.

I take a look at the environment around us. We were right back inside Twilight's castle in the library section where it had originally been left off in the same spot I came in. It was strange though as we can hear hoofsteps coming towards us from the hallways of this large crystalline castle. I knew that it was Twilight herself coming in with a few of her friends that I knew.

Sonata trots over to us in a rather struggling way though she kept on slipping from trying to trot normally like Sunset was. "Is that company coming to see us?" She asked.

I turn and nod to her. We keep our eyes on the open arched doors that were lit by Celestia's sun in the closed stained glass window. Shadows begin to appear in the hallway's end as the light began to unveil their forms to us.

I did know that the first to come trotting in was Twilight herself and alongside her were both Rainbow Dash and the young dragon Spike. They were rather surprised at first, but Twilight's face gleamed with happiness and joy when she saw me return by the look of that positive emotion on her face beaming.

"You're back." She says while she and I move forward to get closer.

I bent down a bit to get down to her size and move the both of my arms around her neck gently. I can feel my head move towards her and the both of our lips gently meet, sharing a returning and welcoming kiss with each other. The kiss is brief though as we'll probably save the more major kissing for another date that me and her will go on sometime soon.

"I missed you while I was gone," I said to her in a soft and gentle tone. I move my right hand to her mane and begin stroking it gently while the both of our foreheads are pressed together. "It feels good to see that beautiful face of yours again."

I can see the both of Twilight's cheeks glow pink again as her heavenly violet eyes stared deep into my brown eyes. Her wings unfold and wrap around me gently. This moment felt just like I was in Paradise though I only believe that Heaven is a place that exists. This was the first time again being able to see my loving special somepony.

This moment between the both of us doesn't last forever though. There is the sound of Rainbow Dash just about pinning somepony to the floor with her own hooves, that causes the both of us to turn and look to see what is going on.

Rainbow Dash had Sunset Shimmer pinned to the ground and was overshadowing the unicorn and keeping her between the pegasi's hooves and her face grown really close to Sunset. "Why are you even here, thief?!" Dash shouts at her to try to get her to speak the truth. "You came back to steal something else, huh? Guess what, there isn't a single thing here you can take!"

"Rainbow Dash!" I said, with Twilight taking her wings off of me so that I can go and confront Rainbow Dash who was being a little too overprotective and loyal at the moment. "I know that your element is loyalty, but please give Sunset a break. She has already been through enough."

Rainbow Dash paused for a moment, but complies within the next few to get off from pinning Sunset to the ground. "Okay okay," She says with a bit of annoyance in her tone. "It's not like I was trying to get her right back through the portal."

"It's alright Rainbow Dash," I said to her knowing she would probably apologize for her behavior later. It would best now to forgive her early. "She's on our side now so it's all good and Twilight was there when she had redeemed herself completely of the darkness that overcame her."

"Thanks Brayden." Sunset says to me, putting a smile upon her face.

"Who's that?" Twilight says with a tone of question in her voice. "She looks really familiar…"

I could see that Twilight managed to notice Sonata Dusk who was still struggling to stand up properly on all four hooves just like everypony else. Figures that now would be as good a time to introduce my new friend to Twilight and hope she doesn't overreact after I tell her she was one of the sirens from Canterlot High.

"This here is my new friend Sonata Dusk," I said to introduce her to Twilight. The alicorn turns her head to watch me walk over towards the earth pony and join up beside her. "She once was a bad heart, but something inside her changed her for the better good just like with Sunset. She was one of the three Dazzlings."

"WHAT?!" Twilight shouted in a rather outraged and surprised tone of voice. "YOU BROUGHT BACK A SIREN TO EQUESTRIA?!"

Oh boy, I knew that something like this was going to come up when I told her that Sonata was a siren, or at least used to be. I really needed to calm her down before the situation got out of control. I raise the both of my hands up into the air as a sign to keep her calm. "Twilight, relax. She's on our side now and she helped me out to save Sunset and my other new friends back in the mirror world," I explained to her in calm and maintaining professional tone. "She passed through the mirror because she has a good heart inside that she regretted ever doing what she did back when it was the Dazzlings."

Twilight still looked a bit surprised with only a bit of a disappointing glare. Finally, she closed her eyes and proceeds to do an in-and-out breath to take the stress off of her that Cadence had taught. After she sighed, she trots up towards me.

"Well, I can't get mad at you for doing that," Twilight says to me, looking at me with those violet eyes of hers. "I hope that I don't have to get angry, but in the end I am really proud to see you have also helped out a few others to change their ways and…" The stress that she had on her was gone and she releases a happy smile at me. "I am really proud for what you did."

I share the same smile with her and bent down on one knee, opening my arms up. Twilight moves closer towards me and the both of us share a gentle, romantic hug together. "I'm sorry for accidently yelling right there." She whispers in my ear sound apologetic.

"It's alright Twilight." I whisper back to her, knowing deep down that she didn't really mean it.

Twilight presses her horn gently against my forehead, but not too hard. She lights it up and I don't feel anything tickle while she was doing that for a few brief moments. But I was curious enough as to why she would light up her horn pressing against my head.

"What'd you do?" I had asked her.

Twilight giggles a bit and says "Oh, I managed to copy out the memories of your trip to Manehattan and the mirror world and I am curious to see and watch what you did with Coco in the big city and the others at Canterlot High."

"I guess that is okay then," I said to her, giving her a gentle scratch behind her left ear which stood up. "After all, such memories I want to share about the fun I had with the one princess I love dearly."

Twilight had a sweet look on her face that could tell that she felt happy again in my presence. "But I was wondering now," She says while she briefly glances at Sunset with a smile still on her face. "Why did Sunset came back with you and your friend Sonata?"

Sunset decided to open her mouth and start explaining briefly about why this happened while trotting forward towards the both of us. "He had invited me to come back to Equestria and I thought about because I still feared about Princess Celestia still being a little bad for what I did. But Brayden here told me his story of how he saved and helped to redeem Nightmare Moon, and heard the mention of me that the princess would forgive me," She had told her while Twilight listened. I had my head turned to look at Sunset while she spoke. "I have a bit of confidence about this, but I am still afraid of being rejected of fixing the friendship bridge between me and her because I was once her student."

"Don't worry Sunset," Twilight says to her. "If you think you can do it, there is no stopping you from asking for forgiveness from the princess."

Sunset nods with a smile. "I suppose you two are busy together, so I'll leave you two for a bit of time." She says to us, joining up beside Sonata.

"Who wants to see the Wonderbolt figures I have?" I could hear Spike call out to the both of them.

Sunset turns her head to look at the young baby dragon she recognized as the puppy in the mirror world. "Well, I haven't been too interested in what Wonderbolts were, but sure I'm interested." She says, trotting to join up with Rainbow Dash and Spike with Sonata following her.

"You don't know about the Wonderbolts?! They're the greatest ever!" I could hear Rainbow Dash comment with a bit of surprise to this revelation as they made their way out of the library to leave me and Twilight to ourselves for now.

"What happened while I was gone Twilight?" I said to her. I wanted to know by curiosity what had been happening in the enchanted lands of Equestria while I was out past the mirror.

Twilight's eyes move for a bit with a smile. "Trust me on this Brayden," She said. "You really don't know what it was like having been on a part of Equestria and having your cutie mark removed and replaced with an equal sign."

I was surprised. Removing a cutie mark was even possible? "Yeah, I'm not really sure I want to know what it is like, but you can tell me about it some other time." I said to her, taking her gentle right hoof and stroking it gently with my left hand's fingers to make her feel comfortable.

I was back home again and was ready to see my friends from Ponyville again where I step out from the castle, ready to greet Celestia's newest day around. I don't really know where Sonata would be staying, but I am just sure that Pinkie will allow her to stay with her until she found a place. The Cakes are some friendly folk, so I am sure that they'll approve.

My next date with Twilight will be soon, so I should be ready for that shortly enough.