It had been a year. One year since that awful incident. Twelve long months of learning everything again. For what felt like an eternity Seamus lay in his bed and thought of himself. He was an alicorn, a young colt becoming a stallion, and a future ruler of one of that greatest countries on Earth. He was overwhelmed at first, and depression had settled in well before he'd even started his formal tutoring with Celestia. He was alone in the universe, socially and mentally isolated from anypony he met by how cold his heart was becoming. It was all he'd known. Death, destruction, torture, tragedy and loss. He was becoming a sociopath. He couldn't feel anything anymore. If he like a pony it was in a purely as their physical being, not for who they were. The colt was loosing himself to the thing he feared most.

Love, friendship, connections, family, friends. He had none of those. All were dead and he couldn't make any more. Like a ship trapped in an ice floe, he was incapable of moving forward in any sort of relationship, platonic or otherwise. He just couldn't deal with the fact that everypony around him seemed to die awful, tragic deaths and he could never do anything about it. He thought it was him, something about him was making ponies go insane. It must be a problem with him since if it was anypony else, they would have died by then. He was the sole variable in this mad equation that didn't equate.

Seamus sat up in bed, thinking of WindSnap. "I killed you... I was the one who was supposed to die and you got in the way."

A tear rolled down his cheek, hitting the sheets. The colt reached over to his nightstand and grabbed a bottle of wine, seeking to drown his woes in the bittersweet cranberry vintage. He'd tried this many times before with no results. It was Saturday, so he didn't have to wake up the next morning. He knew a spell for hangovers and he didn't plan on doing anything important. He never did. He just lay in his room in his spare time and thought of those long dead. He'd been filled in on his past and what he'd done in his young life. The only conclusion he could come to was that he was a monster.

"Maybe... one more drink will make me feel better." He muttered, taking another long draft.

It always went that way. 'One more drink, maybe.' was the thing he always said before he drunk himself to sleep. He didn't care, either. He knew he had a problem, he was antisocial and shy, he drank too much and he sat dwelling in his room for most of his days. He didn't read, he didn't have a hobby, he did nothing but drink, learn a few things from his tutors, drink some more and sleep. He didn't see the value in all of it. He didn't even see the point in living.

Seamus had a massive room in a turret tower, far away from the rest of the castle. The suite was simple, but cozy. He had a fireplace and a large canopy bed, a bookshelf he never used and a closet full of clothes he never wore. There were thick red curtains that he never opened to the light of day and a trapdoor he hardly ever unlocked. He never left that room, he didn't want to.

The alicorn had heard tell of Luna being captured and brought back, by her sister, and her eventual rehabilitation. She'd sent many, many notes to Seamus expressing her deepest apologies for what she put him through. Seamus knew it wasn't her fault and that she was under the control of an ancient Dark Artifact, so he'd written back to her saying that he accepted her apology. He didn't care to see her again. He hadn't in fact. She never visited in that little corner of the universe. He was completely alone in his little bubble. Celestia wouldn't raise a hoof to help him through his trouble, so all he did was get worse.

The worst part was that he drew pictures of those he had lost. Sky, WindSnap and Silver were drawn onto is wall with artistic precision. He'd spent a month on each, and now all he did was stare at their faces and cry. He'd brought the death of each one by just being there. Sky, killed by Jakben. Silver likewise. WindSnap was killed by Rainbow Dash being controlled by Jakben. Seamus stared at them all night sometimes, unable to do anything but cry and mutter his prayers of forgiveness to each one. He couldn't bear the psychological torture that he was put through by having them stare at him day after day, even as he tried to sleep. He didn't want to destroy the drawings, either. He thought he deserved it, the pain.

The colt took another sip. it was going to be a long night. He reached out with his hoof and touched Sky's face, a tear running down his neck.

A bang awoke him, startling the hung over alicorn. "What?" He mumbled into his pillow, his mane disheveled.

"Get up and get down to the throne room! Pack your bags with your best clothes and meet the Princess down in the Grand Hall!"  A guard yelled through the door.

"Why should I?" Seamus sniffed. "It'll be awful anyway....."

"She gave me the orders to physically remove you if you didn't comply, sir."

Seamus glared at the door. "Why don't you try?"

The guard burst through the trapdoor, lunging at the colt to try and wrestle him down. Seamus smirked and let him come, gripping his bottle of wine under his pillow. Just as soon as the guard came close, the nimble alicorn jumped over him and over to the trapdoor, still holding the bottle behind his back. The guard ran at him again, but this time Seamus slid between his legs, putting him behind the confused stallion. The colt threw the bottle at the back of the guard's head, breaking it over his helmet.

The guard, completely incapacitated, fell all the way down the tower stairs.

"Serves him right." Seamus snapped, slamming the door and locking it with magic. "Damned guards. Can't just leave me alone."

The colt sighed and crawled back into bed, smiling at his accomplishment.

"You are going to get up now or so help me I will wrestle you down and take you to the Throne Room myself."

Seamus' eyes snapped wide open at the sound of Rainbow Dash's voice.

"Umm... hey Rainbow.... what's up?"

"Don't 'what's up' me! This is an intervention. We can't stand to see you like this anymore. Get up, I already packed you, let's go! You're coming with us to Ponyville to live with Rarity."

"Hell n-" He couldn't even make out the last syllable before Rainbow tackled him out of bed and grabbed him by his horn, lifting the small colt in her arms. He weighed as much as a paperweight to her, and it didn't really matter if he tried to use magic or not, it didn't affect her anymore. She dissapeared in a blur of motion, grabbing his things just as impossibly fast. And heading post-haste to the throne room.

"This is colt-napping! This isn't legal!" Seamus roared as he sat in the throne room, arms crossed. "I don't want to leave! I want to be left alone! You all need to just leave me to my own pastimes and go home."

The mane six looked at him with the greatest of pity, wondering how they would convince him. He looked absolutely livid sitting on the throne room floor, pure rage flaring in his eyes. He didn't want to leave, he wanted to wallow in remorse.

"Dear... " Rarity began. "I don't know how to tell you this, but you're going to Ponyville for a little while to be with regular ponies, ponies that want to be your friend."

"I don't want your disgusting, fetid friendship! I want you to leave me be! I don't even deserve to have friends..."

"Oh my..." Fluttershy murmured.

Twilight stepped forward. "You're going to spend your first three days of the week in Ponyville and the rest here in Canterlot. You'll go to school there and here you'll be tutored. How does that sound?"

"It sounds like an egghead mare trying to say I'm an idiot that has to engage in talk with common, petty foals every day and answer questions on things I already know and you want to keep an eye on me because your soft, squishy conscious' can't allow you to do otherwise."

Twilight balked, enraged. "Do you have any idea how hard we've tried for you? Do you know what Rainbow has been through after you came here? Do you know what I've been through and Luna's been through?! You owe it to us to just give it a bucking try, or I swear on Celestia's mane that you are never going to hear the end of it from me or anypony else! There is a carriage outside waiting for us, now haul your sorry, ungrateful plot out there or I'll personally take you there myself in a coffin!"

Everpony around the unicorn stepped back, scared by Twilight's sudden rage. Seamus' eyes were watering.

"I'm sorry... It's all my fault for what happened to you and Luna and Rainbow... I should... just leave you all alone. You're better off without me...."

"Twilight." Fluttershy scolded. "None of these things are his fault, he's just a victim here."

The mare knelt beside Seamus smiling. "Look, Sea. We know that you're a good colt, bad things just keep happening to you. But not anymore. You can live a life and have friends and everything, now that you're free from Melody and that vampire you can make your own decisions and love who you want. I don't care if you're a misfit or you are a little unusual, you're a good little colt and I love you."

"But... I made Rainbow into a monster, I killed a pony, Rainbow killed a pony, I corrupted Luna and I caused the death of dozens more... I'm a freak. I care about you too much to hurt you, Fluttershy. That's all I do to the ponies I love, and I don't want you to be the next one."

Pinkie was sniffling and the back of the group, drying her tears with a handkerchief. "This is so beautiful..." She squeaked.

"Oh, little colt, why do you tell yourself such things?" Fluttershy smiled. "You aren't a freak or a monster. You're a colt, a little foal that I love very much. Don't tell yourself that you're worthless, you're the Venus Alicorn, and you're going to grow up and be a kind, passionate stallion like you are now."

Pinkie broke into tears at the back of the group while Rarity wiped her eyes. Even AppleJack, who had a very serious dislike for Seamus, felt moved by this heartfelt reunion. Fluttershy already had a few droplets running down her cheek.

"Now, I want you to go to Ponyville with us, you'll love it there. Rarity has a whole room for you and I do too if you want to come over. You'll always be welcome. Will you come with us? For me?"

Seamus nodded and embraced her, ready to start a new life.

It was going to be better this time.

Much, much better.

Nothing more for a month, so fasten your belts, fill up on VR now and prepare for the wait. I hope you enjoyed this. Leave a review or comment so I can look at it later and think "Wow, I think I broke the 'I Suck' Meter again like last chapter".