Two hours after my friends had left, I was just getting out of the shower. It felt really nice to be back at home. I had fixed myself dinner, watched a few minutes of a nature documentary, then decided to get the feeling of two-month-old grime out of my coat. The doorbell rang. With a quick glance at my clock, revealing the time at just passed eleven, I couldn’t place who would be up at this hour. Nopony came to mind. Maybe I was just hearing things again… Still, I decided to see what it was. When I opened the door, I realized that staying clad in only my leather pants and a towel resting on my head was a terrible idea. Aurora seemed mortified. She stared at me for a few moments, then tore her gaze away.

“Um… Hello again.” She said, focusing very intently on the shrubbery to her left.
I felt my face heat up in absolute embarrassment, but I couldn’t look away. It would have been rude…

“Miss Aurora,” I greeted a bit forcedly. “What brings you here at this hour?”
The red-faced pegasus shoved a rather large rectangle of poster board at me.

“I brought this for you. I didn’t want to leave it at the hospital; figured they’d lose it. It’s from everypony at the factory. We all sorta felt inclined to write something.” She explained quickly, keeping her eyes away from partly exposed frame.

“Uh… Th-Thanks…”

Why was I stammering…?
I carefully reached out and took the board, making to use it as a shield.

“Guess I came at a bad time?” she asked, finally content with my cover and looking me in the eye.

“No, not really. I just got out of the shower. Kinda hard climbing in and out on just one leg, though.”
We watched one another for a moment, her eyes seeming to linger on the board over my chest. The silence was thick and uncomfortable. The fur on the back of my neck began to stand up and a wave of heat washed over me. I was blushing…

Relax. She’s just a mare…

“That burn…” she breathed.
I cocked my head at this, allowing my left ear to dangle before my face. I really didn’t want to acknowledge it… But she persisted, drawing a valentine on her own chest to indicate the lines of my own scar.

“How did you get it?”
I let out a deep sigh and stepped to the side, gesturing for her to come in with the board.

“The kitchen’s right back there. Let me go put a shirt on and I’ll explain…”
She nodded and slipped in slowly, as though it was a trap, but after satisfying herself with a few glances around, the tension in her shoulders left her.

“Nice place.” She commented.

“Thanks. It was cleaned recently.”
After a thirty-minute explanation of all the events over the last eleven months, Aurora stared at me in a mixture of shock, fear, and sadness.

“You really survived through all of that?”
I nodded solemnly.

“How?” she asked, making to place her hoof over my hand on the tabletop.
I smirked and threw a glance at our hands.

“That’s a whole different story. One best not told.”
The young mare only leaned forward in her chair.

“Alright, then. Answer me this: what did you do before you retired?”
The fact that we were back in territory that wouldn’t spark any kind of question as to what I did before the subject at hand put me at ease. It was strange, opening up as much as I did…

“I was a butler in the Ravensdale household.”

“A butler?” she asked, surprised.
I nodded.

“Yeah. I know, it’s a bit strange for a guy of my age to have such vast wealth and so little working experience. Suffice it to say that my time as a butler gave me a bit more experience with “undesirables” than would be expected. I was well-prepared to face this last year.”
Aurora’s eyes were locked on mine, growing more and more curious with each passing second. I couldn’t quite place what it was about the way she looked at me, but I felt inclined to be closer to her and found myself edging closer as I spoke.

“Lady Alice was a good girl. But being the daughter of such a man as Herald H. Ravensdale, she was the target of many assassination attempts and tries at capture. As her butler, it was my job to keep her safe. I had to be ready for anything. A strike at any moment,” I couldn’t stop myself… My fingers had interlaced with hers and my frame was drawing ever closer to hers… “I was… Capable… But I was still just a child… These men… The enemies that attempted on her… They were cut down… By my hand,” She had begun to tilt her head… We were so close… “I became… A monster…”
A monster…
With that thought, my mind snapped back to its usual sharpness, and I broke right, merely brushing cheeks with the kindly pegasus.

“I’m sorry…” My words were hushed as the memories as of late flooded my mind. I couldn’t bring myself to look at her… Still, I felt a certain softness caress my cheek for a moment.

“You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself. You aren’t a monster. You just do what you have to…”
My face went alight once more, my hand involuntarily drifting up to touch the cheek that had been kissed. My eye snapped back to her face to see her features aglow with a similar red. She had just kissed me… Well, my cheek, but still… More impressively, after hearing what could do… After all that… The gruesome details… Everything… She didn’t think me scary at all… Her voice broke my stupor after a silent thirty seconds.

“Do you have any plans tomorrow?”

“Oh, yeah. I have to talk to Ms. Lyra and Ms. Bon-Bon about the bill to repair their roof and living room. Lotta damage, lemme tell ya.” I replied slowly.

“Well, I’ve actually been sent here by Princess Celestia. She has requested your presence at Canterlot castle tomorrow afternoon.”
I tilted my head at this.

“What does she want with me?”
Aurora only shrugged, a speculative visage settling on her face. The young mare remained silent for several minutes, then shrugged once more.

“I don’t know. Perhaps just to see if you’re alright?”
A strikingly loud thunderclap sounded then, causing us both to startle. Well, I startled. I thought Aruora was about to fly through the roof, she jumped so high…

“You okay?” I asked.
Aurora was practically hyperventilating, but she managed a nod.

“Sorry,” she said. “I’m still a bit shaken from the whole thing… They… Took him…”

Him…?
It was my turn to edge forward…

“Who’s “Him”?”
The features of my attractive houseguest began to contort into a grimace at the memories that played through her mind. Once the look passed, she assumed a frown. My heart strained at the sight… Aurora was a very attractive mare… Shining yellow coat… Long, luscious, deep green hair… Soft eyes… A frown like that didn’t belong on such a face… As quick as I could blink, my palm came to rest on her right cheek. She seemed surprised at first, but nuzzled in a bit after a moment, her eyes misting over. After a couple deep breaths, she began to explain.

“His name was Orion… Orion Solstice… During my exam, I fell… That got me an instant fail… As I was trying to get off the field, he was called at one point or another and… He… He…”
Her tears began to flow, and she couldn’t go on. It only took a few seconds of chewing on her lower lip before she simply broke down. As she bowed forward, bawling openly just as Applejack had, I assumed my position. With my arms wrapped about her, she buried her face into my shirt. I continued for her.

“He went down to get you, failing himself… He sacrificed a seemly good, conventional Cloudesdale lifestyle, just to help you… Once you were sent to the factory… He protected you… Kept you close… Then… Just like the pink mare that day… He was picked…”
As the words rolled off my tongue, she pressed her face further into my chest, her wails becoming louder. She still nodded however…

“It hurt… Just like everything else in that place… They took your rock away from you… They robbed you of the only light left in your life at that point.”
Another nod.

“That left you alone… Fending for yourself… With a wounded wing… Then I showed up… Just a bit too late to save the one that kept you sane… The one you…” I hesitated, then forced it out. “The one you loved…”
Yet another nod…
They took away everything this girl had… Even worse, they didn’t care… how long had they been doing this…? And worse yet… How the Hell did they get away with it…?

“Celestia’sgonna have a lot of explaining to do.” I mumbled into Aurora’s hair