You know, there are such things as bad situations. No matter what anyone might tell you about silver linings, it doesn't really add much positivity to whatever mess you're in if the situation is bad enough. And then, there are much worse situations. The type that even the most experienced and hopeful of optimists wouldn't be able to find something good in. This, unfortunately, was among the latter of the two.

I could just barely notice either Nightmare Moon or Chrysalis as they stayed to either side of me, my focus as well as theirs being on the currently trapped earth pony mare below me. Her head was half buried in the grass as she tried to hide herself from me as much as possible, and the eye that I could see was clenched shut. Her forearms attempted to practically tuck in on themselves as she tried to keep herself covered and safe from my and the others gazes.

Despite the fact that it was still very much the dead of night, my eyes had still adapted to the dark enough that I could still see her clearly. Her mane was dominantly gray, a light shade that contrasted oddly with the sunlight yellow streaks it also held. Her fur was a placid shade of purple, though a little stained, and as for her eyes... well, I couldn't really get a good view of them at the time before she closed them.

Whatever the case, I, or rather we, still had a situation in our hands and hooves. I had an earth pony trapped under me, Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis were looking at her like the plague, and she seemed just about ready to pee herself... while I was on top of her.

Please lord hear my prayer. Don't cover me in pony urine.

My thoughts swirled in my mind as I tried to think of someway, anyway, to approach this rather problematic event. Maybe if I just tried to talk this through nice and calmly, we could figure something out?

"Who are you?! What are you doing here!?!" That plan was effectively shot down, dragged out of its plane, and summarily executed by Chrysalis. Glancing to the changeling, who was currently glaring at the mare with all of her anger, I narrowed my eyes as I shook my head at her.

"Quiet!" I silently mumbled through my teeth to her. This instead drew the glare's attention to myself. This mare, whoever she was, already seemed panicked enough. Therefore, I didn't really think that Chrysalis' usual aggressive attitude would be a very good thing at the moment.

Looking back down to the still whimpering mare, I felt a sense of tediousness pass through me as we continued in our silence. It was obvious that she hadn't, nor would she want to, answered Chrysalis' so 'kindly' asked questions. I know I wouldn't if I was her.

Actually, in retrospect, I probably would have. At least if the last few months I'd known her had proven anything.

That aside, I figured I'd try it again. I still had plenty of opportunity to smooth things over by just a bit.

"Perhaps thine fear had blocked thine hearing. We shall ask once anew. Who arth thee?" God damn it guys, I WAS RUNNING OUT OF PLANES TO SHOOT DOWN. Er, I mean "plans". I really let that metaphor from before take on a life of its own, huh?

I planted my face firmly into one of my hands, the branch from before still held securely in the other, before letting out a deep breath. "... Damn it." I muttered simply, unsure of whatever I could say at the moment.

A cold breeze passed by as this stalemate of ours went on, a slight shiver going down my spine as it hit the uncovered part of my chest. At this shiver, the mare recoiled even more, her eye clenching even further and her forelegs pushing against me as she tried to put them together.

In case you missed that, me shivering just scared the mare half to death. Suffice to say I didnt really think I could salvage this anymore.

"Either of you two have any ideas?" I asked through my the palm that still covered my face before I glanced up to the two.

Nightmare Moon just curled a corner of her mouth downwards, shaking her head 'no'. As I looked to Chrysalis though, I felt a slight sense of unease pass about me as I noticed the smug smile on her face. "Oh, I've got a few. Especially if she doesn't talk in the next few seconds." Almost instantly, the eye of the pony below me shot open, a quant silver orb filled with fear staring back at me as her forelegs once again began fidgeting rapidly.

"P-please don't h-hurt me..." She finally uttered, her voice and body wracked with shivers at this point as she released that barely audible request of hers. By this point, I was practically on a vibrating bean bag chair.

"Heh. Funny what a little threat can do in these situations. It works everytime really." Chrysalis voice said as it echoed in my mind, only giving me a slight jump this time compared to the other times she's popped in unannounced. Maybe I was getting used to it?

In return, I gave her a pointed stare, making sure she looked me directly in the eyes before looking down at the bandaging on my chest, then back to her. She seemed to catch my meaning. "Fine, most of the time. So be it." I simply blinked.

"... Look, we're not going to hurt you. Alright? We just need you to calm down." I finally spoke to the mare in what I hoped to be as soothing a tone as possible. Though it didn't seem to work, her faint fearful trembling from beneath me continuing as she looked to me with her one visible, fearful eye. And it was at that moment that I realized something. I was still on top of her. There actually might have been a way I could go about this.

"Tell you what," I told the mare, her ear twitching as I spoke again and a soft smile came to my face. "I'll prove it to you." Without a second thought, I reeled back with the branch in my arms, which caused her to let out a small whimper, before then throwing it as far into the woods as possible. I'll be honest, I was actually pretty proud of how far it went.

Out of my peripherals, I noticed both Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis' mouths open slightly as I did this. Still being wary, the mare seemed to calm down ever so slightly. She relaxed her forelegs ever so slightly against her chest, looking to me in a mix of confusion, uncertainty, and remnants of fear and worry.

I felt Nightmare Moon's wing wrap around me, which was both different and unexpected, as I then heard another voice pop into my head.

"Sir Jeremy, whatever are ye attempting to bring to pass?" Didn't flinch at all that time, I am happy to say.

"I'm trying to calm her down. Maybe, if she's not panicking, she won't have such a hard time talking to us. Besides, I really don't like the idea of just randomly grabbing somepony and asking her questions under threats, and I think you both know why." Looking to the floor, Nightmare Moon bit on her lower lip for a moment, hints of thought apparent on her expression, before she returned her gaze to me and gave me a soft nod. I gave her a nod of my own in return, clearing my throat as she folded her wing back to her side and I straightened by back.

"Now then, I think we got off on the wrong hoof here." I told the mare, who simply stared at me in silence as a response. Guess I can't say much to that in this situation. "Like I said before, none of us plan on hurting you." I gave a pointed glance to Chrysalis as I said that. "In fact, the only reason I did what I did, tackling you to the floor and all, was because you honestly surprised me. There aren't many ponies here in the Everfree, after all." In return, she gave a slow nod of her head, finally reacting to me. It had seemed like we were making progress.

"Speaking of which, what are you doing here anyways?" I asked. I figured it would be best to just get the important question out of the way. Honestly though, I could only hope that she answered.

For a moment, she didn't respond, her gaze shifting elsewhere in a blank stare. Chrysalis started growling in annoyance to which I shushed her. Soon enough her silver eye moved back to me again, her voice slowly coming back with it.

"I... h-heard a noise." Her voice seeming almost quiet enough to let the other two and I hear a pin drop. I blinked.

"Er, okay. So... the reason you came here was just because you heard a noise?" She nodded, her hooves coming even closer to her as she grew slightly more afraid again. "That's-" I wanted to say 'hard to believe' but I held my tongue. "Sorry, its just that, aside from Zecora, I didn't think that anypony else voluntarily came here." Her ear twitched at the sound of Zecoras name and practically watched whatever fear she had melt away as her eye widened to the three of us.

"Y-you know Zecora?" She asked. I simply gave the mare a nod.

"Well, yeah. She's an old friend of mine. She's the one pointed us this way." Her eye looked away again, her clearly being in thought, before returning to me.

"The three of you?" I nodded again, though I could see that Chrysalis was beginning to get impatient about the mare's questions. "A-and she sent you all here?" Another nod. I used the opportunity to slowly adjust myself, my legs starting to fall asleep from the uncomfortable position that I had her held down in.

"Um... How 'bout we try this again, huh?" Her brow rose at this, but other than that, she didn't move or try to say anything. I flashed her a short smile before, putting one of my hands to my knee and taking a deep breath I completely removed myself from the mare and allowing her to move and stood up.

Her tail tucked inwards between her hind legs and to her chest alongside her forelegs, she looked on as I took a couple of steps back and gestured to myself. "My name's Jeremy." I told her, switching my gestures to the two next to me. "This is Chrysalis,"

"..." Chrysalis didn't speak or move as I gestured to her, grumbling to the floor as I introduced her.

"and Nightmare Moon." Nightmare Moon bowed slightly at her introduction, though it was fairly obvious that she was still wary about this mare.

The mare then nodded, though slowly, in understanding. Seeing as she was still on the floor, I held my hand out for her. "And you are?" I asked as she looked to my hand and I, taking several glances, before finally she slowly reached her forehoof out.

She placed it into the grip of my palm as I then pulled her up, her tail getting slightly flattened under her as she sat, then stood up. As she did this, both my companions and I could finally get a glimpse at the rest of her face.

Across her right eye there laid a white strip of dirtied cloth, hung securely from in between her ears and tightened around the lower right part of her head. She looked to the three of us timidly, seemingly trying to conceal this cloth of hers as much as she could as she noticed I glance to it.

Chrysalis, Nightmare Moon, and I didn't provide any major reaction as she looked to us, with the most she had received being a raised brow from Chrysalis.

Now, here's the part where I desperately hoped that I wouldn't have to talk about that feature of hers, at risk of sounding insensitive.

"M-most ponies just called me 'Halfy'."

And just like that, the entirety of the my airport of plans was shut down until further notice due to an investigation as to what kept shooting them all down. I felt myself mentally flinch as she said this, and from what I could tell Chrysalis and Nightmare Moon were no different.

"... Okay. 'Halfy'." She nodded again in confirmation, the grassy floor below her suddenly gaining her interest. "Well, it's nice to meet you Halfy, but we should probably get going."

"About time." Ignoring that snide mental remark from Chrysalis, I gestured for the two to start moving.

"G-going where?" Halfy then interrupted, myself pausing as I turned from the two back to Halfy to respond.

"Um... Not really sure... wherever works, I guess." That was pretty much the most straight forward answer I could give to her, considering the circumstances. Besides, Zecora had said to go west, and I trusted her judgement enough to know that something in this direction would help us out. "Why do you ask?"

The mare was silent for a moment or two, looking the three of us intently though occasionally glancing away as she fought to speak. "Um... Well... I think I may be able to help."

Chrysalis, Nightmare Moon, and I all were all at least a little caught off guard by this. Before I could even open my mouth to say anything in response though, Chrysalis and Nightmare Moon both stepped forward.

"What do you mean?" Chrysalis asked warily, her eyes narrowing in slight suspicion as she looked to the mare. Nightmare Moon didn't seem to think far too differently from Chrysalis on this occasion either, giving an expression similar to that of Chrysalis towards the mare.

"Yes... To what sort of assistance dost thou hint to?" Oddly enough, despite her earlier timidity, Halfy didn't even flinch at the tag team of glares that looked to her, nor the sharpened tones that accompanied them, looking to us with a much more calm expression than she previously had.

"Well, if you just follow me, then-"

"What!?!"

"Surely thou jest!" Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis suddenly interrupted, their tones raised to a higher volume. "For what reason would we follow thee?! Thy sudden appearance in a landscape as sparse as such hath preemptively attracted suspicion aplenty, without even conferring to this sudden 'suggestion' of thine!"

"It's not often that I agree with, or even tolerate, this shadow of an alicorn," Chrysalis added, drawing a short glare from both Nightmare Moon and I, "but this is one of those rare occasions! Why would we trust you!?!" Halfy was, by the looks of it, beginning to lose what little confidence she had built up, her ears laying flat against her head as she took a single step back. Noticing this, I tried to get the two's attention.

"Uh, girls?"

"You would be better off leaving right now!"

"Girls."

"Thou wouldst do well to listen to her in this instance, lest thine-"

"Girls!"

"What?!!" The two yelled/asked as they finally turned away from the mare and to me with a jerk. I flinched at this, seeing as it was more than a little sudden. Once I got over that, I gestured for the girls to come closer, glancing to the slightly off-put Halfy in front of us as I hoped to more privately talk to the two. They looked to one another hesitantly before, with a sigh from Nightmare Moon and a roll of her eyes from Chrysalis, they took a couple of steps closer to me. In hindsight, I didn't really have to make us huddle up together like that. After all, we could literally talk with each other in our minds, but I guess I just wasn't entirely used to the concept yet.

"What are you two doing?!" I asked, crossing my arms together and looking to them in annoyance.

"What are we doing? What are you doing!?" Chrysalis rebutted, her eyes narrowing physically, and somehow mentally, as she looked to me.

"Sir Jeremy, we are simply being cautious. We cannot truly be aware of this mare's true reasoning for her 'offer' of help." This time, I rolled my own eyes, mentally face palming - and it seems that they noticed - as she said this.

"Really? Both of you? Including the one who can tell if somepony's lying!?!"

"Yes, 'really'! That escape from a couple of hours ago drained most of my reserves! I couldn't tell if somepony was lying to me at the moment if I wanted to!" To be fair, I hadn't known that at the time.

"Oh..." I said simply, looking down to the floor for a moment before shaking my head and looking back to them. "Nonetheless, I think we should take 'Halfy' up on her offer." The two's eyes widened/narrowed at this. I spoke before they could.

"Realize that we're still in the Everfree forest. We're tired, we have a limited amount of time and magic," I quickly added in, glancing to Nightmare Moon. "And, for all we know, those Timber Wolves from before are still tracking us!" At this, the two took glanced around the area, suddenly much more wary of their surroundings. "So, if either of you two have any better ideas, please don't hesitate to speak up!"

The two remained silent, both mentally and physically. I nodded with a slight 'humph', taking my attention away from the two and to... The pony who was looking to us like we were insane. Right, she wasn't a part of the mental link... Fuck, I must have looked crazy...

-------------------------------------

A few minutes after that awkward moment back there, Halfy was leading us to, well, somewhere. I didn't really ask her about it actually.

It sounds stupid, I know, but considering the 'greetings' that the three of us had given her a moment or two ago, I felt like I she deserved to say or do one thing without us bothering her about it.

Nightmare Moon close alongside me, her eyes glancing from place to place, while Chrysalis lagging slightly behind us, grumbling to herself and occasionally giving me the stink eye. I ignored it and just let my mind, mostly shifting to the subject of our new 'friend' here.

Really though, out of all the thoughts that came up, I'd say that three were the more important ones. For one, now that we were all moving, I was able to get a good look at her cutie mark. Sounds strange to focus on, I know, but I figured that if I at least had an idea about her 'special talent', as most ponies called it, I'd maybe get a broad idea of her as an individual.

Her cutie mark was, without really putting too much of a fine point on it, an image of two silhouetted ponies. The only color on these ponies were two differently colored hearts that they held within them, one a soft shade red and the other a bleak shade of gray. As to what it meant, I had no idea. Great success.

The other two questions that I had about her were more about circumstantial things. Like why one her eyes was covered, though a huge part of me kept on yelling for me to keep my mouth shut on the matter. I personally think that was the best course of action.

Finally, what was she even doing in the Everfree? She never really explained that to us when we 'asked' a few minutes ago, so of course the curiosity on the matter remained. Well, my curiosity and Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis' suspicion.

"It shouldn't be too far from here now." Halfy said, glancing back to the three of us and pointing a hoof ahead. I nodded in return, sidestepping another thorn bush as I glanced back to Chrysalis and Nightmare Moon. They, by the looks of it, weren't taking the idea of following some random pony well. Chrysalis silently grumbling to the ground while Nightmare Moon continued to give a small glare to Halfy. It was nice to see that I was apparently the only optimistic one there, I guess.

It was a few more minutes before, despite the skeptical thoughts of Nightmare Moon or Chrysalis, we reached a large wall of brush. Not a bush, or some vines, or anything like that, but an actual wall of plant life. I was barely able to give out a questioning 'uh' before she quickly pushed her way through, letting out a small grunt as she disappeared into a sea of green. The three of us looked to the brush in confusion, and a bit of surprise.

"So..." Chrysalis led off, looking to me with an expression of smug insistence as she gestured to the brush. Nightmare Moon stayed silent, simply observing as she looked over the overgrowth.

"... I... guess I'll go first then?" I said, more asked really, as I closed in on the brush, took a deep breath, and took a big step forward.

The several small branches and leaves that came into contact with my face and upper chest immediately made themselves known as I ended up trying to spit out whatever felt like it got in my mouth in vain. I brushed myself off almost consistently, branches catching against my jacket as I forced my way through. The dim side about this is that they weren't thorn bushes.

With one last push - or would it be a pull, in my jackets case? - I made my way through the rest of the brush, an immediate sense of relief hitting me as the unbearably uncomfortable sensation of the plant life was replaced by the cool night air.

Rubbing an itch out of my eye, I looked down to the waiting Halfy, who was currently sitting on the floor just beyond the brush and looking to me patiently. "I have to say," I began, "that wasn't very pleasant."

To my surprise, she smiled, though faintly, and let out a silent chuckle. "Y-yeah, it's gotten pretty bad in the last two months."

I picked off a leaf from my shoulder before unceremoniously dropping it and looking upwards with a raised brow. Before I could comment on what she had said, my eyes widened as I saw a house, though shoddily built, snugged tightly between two large trees that seemed to bend and twist around it, forming a canopy.

Now, let me make this clear. I lived with Zecora for months, and not once did I hear about anyone else living there. I mean, the Everfree isn't exactly the ideal summer home.

"You live here?" I asked, scratching my head in a combination of surprise and confusion as I looked to Halfy. She gave a glance to her hobble before turning back to me and giving a nod. "Huh." I dumbly responded, not really having expected the circumstances I was in.

"Sir Jeremy?" Halfy and I looked to the brush as Nightmare Moon's voice came through, a tone of worry in her voice. "Is all well? Are ye in need of assistance?" My face warming up at her sudden 'motherly attention', I put my hands around my mouth and yelled for her as well.

"I'm fine. If anything, I think the both of you should see this."

"Ugh... Do we have to? I'd much rather stay where I will be less likely to be in danger."

This is what I had to deal with.

"... Just get over here."

The leaves rustled and shook as the two pushed through the almost immeasurable layer of brush, Nightmare Moon's magical glow being the first thing to come through as she surrounded herself with a thin layer of magic to repelling the leaves and twigs from her mane and being.

Chrysalis followed soon after, though she wasn't quite as fortunate. At some point, as she was about to finish exiting from the brush, one of the holes in her hooves caught on a twig. She gave it a couple of less than effective tugs before I figured she needed some help. I made my way over to the brush, reached my arm into the mass of leaves, and very quickly removed whatever plant had been holding her in place. She quickly managed to catch herself as she stumbled forward from the sudden release, looking back to the bush and her previously caught leg with a growl.

"I'm starting to really dislike this forest." She commented, giving her leg a couple of stomps as though getting used to the fact that it was no longer caught again.

"Um..." The voice of Halfy came through yet again, NIghtmare Moon, Chrysalis and I quickly turning our attention to her. "Would you like to come inside?" Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis both raised their brows in confusion at this until, tapping the both of them lightly, I pointed to the wooden abode which the two had apparently missed. Their eyes widening slightly as they turned their attention to it.

Huh, same reaction as me.

"If you don't mind, that would be great." I responded to the pony with a polite smile. The earth pony nodded, gesturing for the us to follow as she made her way to her apparent home.

I took the initiative to follow, Nightmare Moon coming quickly after while Chrysalis rolled her eyes, let out a silent groan, and tread behind us.

"Sir Jeremy," I was really getting good at not flinching at that, "we are aware that your judgement hath been unfaltered thus far, but how can ye be so sure of this mare's intention?" I shrugged my shoulders and gave her the simplest, most truthful response I could.

"I'm not." Nightmare Moon stumbled slightly at this.

"What!?! Then, for what reason would ye affirm with this 'Halfy'?"At this point, I had been getting more than a little annoyed of how much they kept questioning my choices. Nightmare Moon seemed to take note of this, a look of concern popping up as I glanced back to her. .

"I didn't exactly know either of you two back when we first met, but I still trusted you nonetheless. What makes her any different?" The alicorn made to answer, opening her maw to do so. Yet, no noise came out. I nodded as I felt my point had been made.

"Now, I'd recommend you open up the link with Chrysalis and tell her that I don't want either of you going on about this. You both got along well with Zecora, for the most part anyways," he added, thinking back to the one occasion involving Chrysalis, Zecora, and a bottle of - quite literally - bottled lightning, "so how about you do the same here, and give Halfy a chance... okay?"

Nightmare Moon looked to the ground for a moment as she walked before just as quickly returning her gaze to me and nodding.

"Thank you."

"Here we are." The voice of Halfy once more broke me away from our mental conversation, Nightmare Moon and I looking towards the mare as she put her forehoof to the door and pushed. It opened with a resounding squeak, revealing the inside, gestured for us to come in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I couldn't believe I was doing this. It was bad enough that I actually agreed with Nightmare Moon on a subject, but even worse that Jeremy didn't seem to want to listen. Now, we were entering this 'Halfy's' home, if you could even really call it that, with the only possible defense we have being Nightmare Moon's weakened magic!

After opening the door, the earth mare gestured to the house for us to enter. Jeremy gave her a thankful nod - to my vast sea of annoyance - while Nightmare Moon gave a short, though obviously hesitant, bow to the mare. She returned it without pause before the alicorn entered. Then, as I passed by, she did the same. Though this time, she did something strange. She didn't rise from her bow until well after I had entered the home. I gave her a raised brow at this. Now I was really suspicious. I mean, how could she possibly know about the customary greeting given to a changeling queen? How she would bow and, rather than wait for a bow in return, she would accept my dominance by not even daring to raise herself until I passed! I swore to the great empress above, that if she was planning something, I'd never let Jeremy hear the end of it.

"Chrysalis?" I found my thoughts interrupted as the shadow mare reopened the mental link she had made, not really paying any mind to the goings on around me as they came in as muffled gibberish.

"What?" I returned with a roll of my eyes.

"Sir Jeremy hath requested that we cease our suspicion of the earth mare. Immediately."

"What!?!" I mentally exclaimed, already feeling a bubbling pool of annoyance begin to boil over. "Who is he to tell me what to do? It's not like he'll do anything if I don't listen! Besides, you know as well as I do that this mare cant be trusted!?"

"Perhaps..." She led off, leaving the word and her thought to just float there for a moment. "But, Sir Jeremy did make a valid point in his argument. He had said that, 'if he was able to accept us, then what would make Halfy so different.'"

I could barely hold myself back from giving an audible scoff at this.

"I don't believe this! How is it that, even when you don't agree, you still take his side!?!" I looked to Nightmare Moon, who was currently waiting by the corner of the ineptly built room, earning a short but effective glare from her as Jeremy continued to converse with Halfy.

"Is that not what friends do?"

"Since when do you care about friends? Since when did you believe any of us to be friends?"

"Around the same time that you did." She finished, closing off our mental link and turning back to Jeremy and Halfy.

For a moment, I was ready to head over there and shut her up myself, already taking a step in her direction. Unfortunately, my anatomy had other plans.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The house was... well, it was certainly a house. Unpainted, dull, moss growing from several places, cracks in the ceiling, clearly showing the next floor up, and the floor creaking below us with every step we took.

The living room itself was snug, to say the least, with a single dusty and aged couch, a bookshelf placed just nearby with surprisingly filled shelves, and a fireplace. The fireplace itself built with stone and crafted unevenly, giving it a slight, though still highly noticeable for someone with OCD, tilt. The living room had doors and doorways that led off to what seemed like three rooms.

A kitchen, which could be seen through the counter-like placement of the wall separating it from the living room, with a small rusted stove, a sink with its pipes and entirety still visible, and small collection of cabinets that were placed close to the ground.

As to where the other two doors l went? I had no idea. A bathroom was likely one, or at least I hoped so, and maybe the stairs that led to the second floor. Oh, and another thing that I noticed about this room? No windows. At all. I guess that, in my case, that's not really a problem, but for anyone else it might have seemed odd. Then again, it was the Everfree Forest.

"It's not much, I know." Halfy began as I glanced to Chrysalis and Nightmare Moon, who were both taking their own positions around the room. Nightmare Moon stood in the corner while Chrysalis lingered by the door. "But, its home."

"Um... Yeah..." I replied, trying to be cautious with my wording. "So... How long have you, you know, lived here?" She placed a hoof to her chin and sat herself down onto the floor as she began to think.

"... About 6 months, maybe?"

That really threw me off. She had been living in the middle of the Everfree forest for 6 months? I mean, I guess that would explain why I'd never heard of her from Zecora, considering I moved to Canterlot about 4 months into my stay with her, but still.

"Uh, wow. By yourself?" She nodded, though this time rather solemnly, before looking back to us with a small smile.

"Honestly, besides Zecora whenever she come to check in on me, you three are the first visitors that I've had." And that was how she knew Zecora. It was a bit saddening to hear about how limited her company was though.

"Oh, well, sorry about that?" I offered, not really knowing what else to say. Halfy just chuckled at this, waving her forehoof at me dismissively.

"It's no problem at all. Besides, I'm kinda used to it at this point." At the time, I could feel my heart ache at that. "But, why are you all here?"

I clicked my tongue against my teeth at this, my hand unconsciously moving behind my head as I looked away from her. "Um, it's a long story..."

Her head tilted at this, her brow raising as she looked at me with her one eye- Okay, yeah, I really don't want to talk about that, it makes me feel really bad whenever I focus on it too much. Scratch that out.

"What do you mean?" She asked, shifting her gaze over to my companions. "It's already kind of... off-putting that a changeling queen and the mare on the moon are with you. I just want to know how you met them."

I blinked, my thoughts moving just as fast as my mouth.

"Wait, you know about them?" Halfy simply tilted her head.

"O-of course. I was there when Nightmare Moon first reappeared, and I read about the attack on Canterlot in the newspaper once." I probably should have figured. Though, that just brought up more questions as to why she was willing to bring two of Equestria's most despised 'villains' into her home if she knew who they were.

At that point, I figured I had nothing to really lose.

"Uh, right... Well, I met them in the Canterlot dungeons."

"You were guarding the Canterlot dungeons?" Oh that sweet summer child.

"No, not really. I was a prisoner as well." She raised a brow, adding onto her tilted head to really emphasize her confusion.

"You? In the Canterlot dungeons? In the same prison as Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis?"

"Same cell, actually." She scrunched her face up in thought.

"What did you do for that to happen?"

As if that wasn't on the top of the list of my concerns at the time.

"Honestly, I wish I knew. When I first woke up in the cell, my head hurt like hell and I had a big bump on it. I still don't remember why, or even how I was arrested." There was just the tiniest bits of doubt on her expression, by the looks of it, but she didn't say anything further on the subject to question it.

"Well, like I asked before then, why are you all here?" She repeated as she gestured with her forehoof to the three. I saw this as the best possible chance to get some explanations done.

"Well, we got away from Canterlot some time ago. The Everfree Forest was the closest, and ironically, the safest place for us to be to get away from the princesses and their guards that wasnt just out in the open." I recounted, Halfy listening intently to me as I went on. "We met up with Zecora just last night and she told us to come in this direction. That's pretty much all there is to it." Now that I think about it, it's not that long of a story. No idea why I had made it out like one before.

"So, you're looking for somewhere you can hide from the guards." I gave her educated guess another nod.

"Yeah, at least until we can figure out how to deal with this whole thing." I spun my hand vaguely around the air next to me to emphasize how much of a mess this all was. For a moment she grew silent, blankly looking to the floor. I grew tense at this, the sudden eerie silence giving me an odd feeling.

Looking back to Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis, I noticed the two glaring at each other, their heads and brows twitch slightly as they did so. I was more than a little confused as to what they were doing.

"You can stay here i-if you like." I gaulked at this, turning my attention back to the mare.

"... You're sure?" I asked. Rather than to give herself another second to think over her suggestion, she shook her head.

"Positive. I have a lot of extra space here, and I wouldn't mind." I had an odd feeling at the time that she really wasn't getting the gravity of the situation.

"Woah, look, I don't want anypony else to have to get in trouble, or hurt, because of what we did. I'm not saying I don't appreciate how quick and certain of this you seem, but if you let us stay here and the guards find us, they'll take you away too. You know this, right?" I really wanted her to be absolutely sure of what she was getting into. No room for error or doubt. Yet, as she opened her mouth to respond, a resounding thump came from behind me. Naturally, I turned to see what had caused it. Much to my chagrin, it wasn't a very pleasant sight. Chrysalis had, at some point, collapsed onto the floor.

My body moved before my mind did as I practically leapt over to her and kneeled down she let out a groan, rubbing her head slightly as she peaked one eye open.

"Christ. Chrysalis, you okay?" I asked. I had known that that chase from earlier took a lot out of her, as she had mentioned, but I hadnt thought it would have been that bad. I reached for her but my hand was quickly slapped away by her hoof as she looked to me with narrowed eyes.

"I'm fine." She said, trembling slightly as she removed herself from the floor with a grunt. Obviously, she wasn't going to be fooling anyone. Chrysalis would need some more time to rest, and something to eat, and fast. Otherwise...

I glanced behind me, where both Halfy, and surprisingly Nightmare Moon, looked on in concern. I sucked on the inside of my cheek as I thought on Halfy's offer.

"... Halfy, are you sure that you wouldn't mind? Despite the fact that we're in such bad circumstances." Yet again, she didn't hesitate, quickly nodding her head as she shifted her gaze to me.

"... Alright. Nightmare Moon, help me get Chrysalis on the couch."

"Wait, what!?!"

Next Chapter: Chapter 11: New Member, Great Impression [Here Again] Estimated time remaining: 12 Hours, 52 Minutes