Author's Notes:

Holy Shit! Another one?! What could possibly bring this on!?

Answer: Obscene amounts of coffee. Like, literally a GALLON of coffee. I made a pot of coffee and poured the whole DAMN thing into what was left of a gallon container of milk. Why? Because I didn't want the milk to go to waste and It was a day away from its expiration date!

So here's another one for all you wonderful WONDERFUL people out there.

Like, Comment, Fave. See ya later!

Two Months Later…

The snow was melting, the sky was blue and pegasi moved clouds about for the spring showers that were soon to come. The market bustled in Canterlot’s economic center, with stallions and mares buying food and fashionable clothes from the many purveyors of goods. At the gates of the royal castle, dozens of ponies lined up to watch the changing of the guards. They oohed and awed at the discipline that the soldiers of their country possessed. Within the palace walls, several dozen ponies sat waiting outside the throne room. They had scheduled sessions with both Princess Celestia and Princess Twilight, some hoped to cram an agenda while others hoped for true assistance.

Two guards carried a sign into the waiting area with a sigh and hung it up next to the main doors. Half of the petitioners got up and left as they read the words.

NO HUMAN BANISHMENT PETITIONS! NO EXCEPTIONS!

“Can’t believe we actually had to buy a sign for this…” One of the guards muttered to his comrade as they trotted away from the room. The other nodded in agreement. They had met the human, he seemed like a decent fellow. Aside from his hatred of Celestia, there really wasn’t anything that rubbed them the wrong way. Several ponies in the waiting room that had not been paying attention when the sign went up read its message and also opted to leave. Leaving only four petitioners in the area.

The human who had been the target of so many petitions was in his room, as usual. Grunting and growling as he completed his ninetieth push up. His near shaved head glistened with sweat, as did his back and chest. The muscle and weight loss that had come with his time alone was all but gone, the new muscle mass had actually called for a new wardrobe. His old ratty T-Shirt had given up the ghost, as did his jeans, and though he was sad to see them go he knew that he had to. He couldn’t move forwards if he held on to the past with such a fervor. The nightmares offered enough input to remind him.

His boots had also been replaced, the new ones were tightly laced to his feet with the bottoms his olive drab cargo pants tucked into them. On the wall by the window, old glory hung proudly. He wished he had a pole to hang her on, just to see the wind unfurl her once more would give him an unbridled sense of joy. Dominic occasionally looked up at her as he continued his push ups, each time he did he felt motivated to keep going. When he reached one hundred, he stopped. His arms were sore, but he felt excellent.

Dominic stood up and walked to the bathroom, he grabbed a towel and wiped his head. There was a knock on the door.

“It’s open!” He shouted, walking to his dresser and pulling out a black T-shirt. The door was pushed open by a familiar lavender Alicorn. “Hey Twilight, what’s up?” Twilight sparkle smiled and closed the door behind her.

“It turns out most of my petitioners left early, so I have nothing else to do. I thought I’d come and see how you were doing.” She replied, trotting in and taking a seat at the table. Dominic’s revolver sat in the open, obviously he had been examining it, but she couldn’t find his shotgun. Her eyes wandered over to Dominic, he was pulling his shirt over his head. She noted all of the large scars on his back, as well as the new muscle. It was the first time she had noticed just how much he had changed, her eyes wandered over to his bed. His shotgun was leaned against the bedside table, several shells sat on top of several books.

“Well I’m doing fine, I guess. Still trying to figure out what I’m going to be doing.” He said, pulling his shirt down and smoothing out a few wrinkles. “That’s proving difficult, considering I pretty much called Sunny out. But, shit could be worse, much worse.” Dominic walked over to the fireplace and grabbed one of the many newspapers, a very offensive caricature sat on the front page under a headline in Equestrian. It wasn’t that hard to decipher, he could tell what was being said. “Hell, even school newspapers are taking shots at me.”

“What?” Twilight asked, Dominic chuckled and cleared his throat.

“The Canterlot High School Inquirer says, and I quote! ‘The presence of the beast who calls itself ‘Dominic’ has only served to cause more trouble in our great city.’.” Dominic tossed the paper on the table. “Oh, and according to the Canterlot Chronicle, I contributed to the minotaur invasion of Twin Island.” Twilight gaped, she used her magic to levitated several more papers to her eye level.

“You’re shitting me.” She said, dumbfounded.

“Whoa, look at the mouth on this one!” Dominic joked, walking to his liquor cabinet.

“Dominic! This is unacceptable! I would expect as much yellow journalism from a high school, but the Canterlot Chronicle always checks its facts!” Twilight crumpled up the papers with her magic and tossed them into the fireplace before setting them alight. Dominic walked over to the table with two glasses and a bottle of scotch, he poured the alcohol and slid a glass to Twilight.

“The media is always overblowing things, contorting things to their own agendas. That’s modern society for you.” Dominic said, swirling the liquid in his glass for a moment. He held it up high. “To the media, may they never reproduce.” Twilight levitated her glass close to his, but stopped before she touched it. She know what would happen if her magic came into contact with his hand, she didn’t want to be cleaning up broken glass and spilled scotch.

“Clink.” She said before bringing the glass to her lips and drinking. So what if it was barely past one, she didn’t have anything better to do. Dominic took a sip of his own glass, savoring the flavor. He noticed Twilight was staring at him, she didn’t look away when he looked at her.

“What? Something in my teeth?”

“No, I just noticed something about you.” Dominic raised an eyebrow. “You have a very odd sense of humor.”

“I suffer from a common human disease, Cynicism.” He replied with a laugh. “Damn, that still feels great… Laughing, I mean.” The young man’s smile faded for a moment and he placed his glass back on the table. There was a silence that followed that statement.

“Are you still having that… problem?” Twilight asked, hoping the answer was a negative.

“Only when I don’t sleep enough. I think I figured it out though…” Twilight perked up. “Acording to that Psychology book over there, I’m seeing the subconscious movements of my own eyes. Or something like that.”

“Subconscious Hypervigilance?” Twilight asked, Dominic took another sip from his glass.

“No, like normally my brain would filter out the natural movement of my eye but since I was… you know, it perceives it as a threat. It’s… weird. But, I’m getting better. I’ve stopped shooting at it, if you haven’t noticed.” The silence returned. “So, redirecting… What do you think caused the drop in petitioners? National holiday or something?”

“No, I think it was the new sign.” Twilight sighed. “The one about ‘those’ petitions.” She became angry for a moment. “I mean, what the fuck is wrong with these ponies! It’s been two months and they’re still attacking you!”

“Twilight-”

“No Dominic! It’s every fucking day! More than half of the ponies I meet do nothing but insult you! They don’t know you, and they say horrible things about you like they do! It pisses me off!” Dominic leaned forwards.

“Okay, Twi. You gotta breathe here.” He said, the alicorn complied. “I think I’m starting to rub off on you a bit…” Twilight chuckled. “Not entirely sure that’s a good thing.”

“I don’t let it show too much, but it’s nice to have someone I can just explode in front of.” She said, finishing her drink. Dominic nodded in affirmation. “I think I understand why you do it so much… It feels… really good to just let it go.” The young man chuckled and pointed to her glass. “Yeah, I’ll take another.” He poured her another drink.

“Okay, Twilight.” Dominic said, topping off his glass. “Explode. Figuratively, please. I know you can do the physical thing…” The mare took a drink from her glass and nodded.

“Well, aside from all those petitions against you, I have to deal with all the pretentious nobles of the city. Including your favorite.”

“Blueballs is such a treat, isn’t he?” Dominic mused.

“Oh you have no fucking idea! The other day he came in shouting about how someone was ‘Keeping him up all hours of the night.’. It turns out, that the ponies responsible were the ones he hired to build his SECOND FUCKING SWIMMING POOL! More importantly, he had told them to do so!”

“Blueblood swims?” Dominic asked, Twilight took another sip of her drink.

“No! He doesn’t even own a bathing suit!” Dominic was about to ask another question. “I DON’T KNOW WHY HE NEEDS ANOTHER FUCKING SWIMMING POOL! LET ALONE THE ONE HE HAS ALREADY!” Twilight panted for several seconds before collecting herself. “Moving on… Aside from him, I had several complaints about the ‘unfair tax burden’ that the nobles are ‘suffering’ under. Heaven forbid! They already pay far less than anyone else! WE NEED TO HELP THEM!”

“Have you tried bullshiting them?” The young man who sat across from her inquired, pouring himself another drink. “I mean, if they’re selling bullshit, why don’t you sell it back?”

“I don’t think I could bullshit better than them.” Twilight said, deflated. Dominic hummed for a moment.

“It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. For instance, say that if you gave them a tax break you’d have to give everyone a tax break. That would mean commoners would have more money and could rival them. They may be stupid, but they’re smart enough to figure at least THAT out.” He sipped his glass. “Well, most of them.”

“Yeah… Well on top of all that, I’m going to be tasked with evaluating the armed services.” Dominic raised an eyebrow at this, Twilight sighed. “Apparently, I have to learn ALL aspects of being a princess, even the ones involving the military. But I don’t know where to begin, all of the books I’ve read are irrelevant or pointless propaganda.” She looked downtrodden, then peered around his room. Her eyes fell on his helmet. Dominic watched a figurative light bulb go on above her head and she looked at him.

“No.”

“Please!”

“No!”

“Why!?”

“Because!” Dominic began to count on his fingers. “I have no FUCKING idea what I would look for!”

“What you would look for in your ‘American Military’.” Twilight interrupted, Dominic continued.

“Ponies hate me!”

“It could be a test of discipline!”

“I barely know anything about strategies or tactics.”

“Dominic, I translated the books on your shelf. There are at least SEVEN different books on griffon tactics you could glance at, even if they are irrelevant they could offer SOME understanding.”

“Why are you insisting on me doing this!”

“Because I don’t want you sitting up here all day!” Twilight blurted out. The room fell silent, Dominic shifted in his chair. “It’s not healthy.” Dominic looked at the floor for several minutes. The gears in his head were turning. While he would love to be out of his room with true purpose, he didn’t feel comfortable overseeing the fitness of a nation's ENTIRE military. What if he made a mistake and that led to an invasion, what if he didn’t catch a problem that he should have? On top of that, this was Twilight’s job. She had to learn this aspect of being a princess eventually, why not now?

Dominic sighed and looked around his room. His eyes fell on his helmet and the utility cap that sat next to it. His family had been fighting wars since the Julio-Cluadian Dynasty. He had watched his first war movies when he was six, his father would tell him constantly about what a good soldiers was. Honorable, Loyal to the people of the nation and its constitution, and most importantly, human. Not human in body, but in conscience. A soldier he was had no conscience may as well be a killing machine. Ultimately that’s what swayed the young man, he had a conscience. Dominic sighed and looked at Twilight.

“Alright, fine. I’ll do it. But if I do this, you’re there with me. You’re paying attention to what’s happening and why. Consider it a field trip or something. Secondly, we’re having Luna AND Sunny go over our findings. Thirdly, don’t question my methods, no matter how extreme they may be.” The lavender alicorn nodded with a smile. “And MOST IMPORTANTLY! I am only acting as a… What’s the Euphemism? Ah, Foreign Military Consultant.”

“Thank you so much, Dominic!” She said. “We start tomorrow!” Dominic blinked several times.

“Huh?”

“Let’s start reading these books, I bet we’ll be up all night! I’ll have someone bring us some coffee.” Dominic blinked again.

“Huh?”

“I wonder where we should begin…”

“Fuck my life…” Dominic groaned.