"Why does it always have to be the tail?" A certain griffon could only whimper as she carefully held onto her limp and slightly swollen appendage. She flinched whenever she felt a throb of discomfort originate from it, only serving to add to the smile that the zebra which had caused them had.

"To be fair," Jeremy commented, "you did kind of have that coming." A light chuckle escaped him as he put both of his arms behind his head and leaned against the wall.

It had only been a few minutes since Zecora had given Gilda a reminder of the pecking order between the two of them. Already everyone had seated themselves once more. Chrysalis and Halfy sat upon the couch, with the smaller of the two holding a respectable and timid distance from the changeling. Zecora held her seat near the middle of the room, calmly allowing herself to observe the situation with the occasional tidbit to add. Finally, Nightmare Moon and Jeremy held a position against the wall, seated next to one another.

The one addition to this usual arrangement of seating positions, however, had also chosen to take her place next to Jeremy, opposite of Nightmare Moon. A position which, aside from initially having momentarily gained a look of annoyance from Nightmare Moon, allowed Gilda to give Jeremy a swift jab to his side from his remark.

"Gah!" He exclaimed, more surprised by the blow than he was pained by it. This attracted a raised, though amused, brow from Chrysalis as Jeremy moved his gaze to Gilda. Jeremy provided the griffon with a glare while in response
she looked to him with a face of 'innocence'.

" 'To be fair,' " she quoted with a smile, " 'you did kinda have that coming.' " Jeremy continued to hold his glare for another scant moment or so before, ultimately, it just as quickly disappeared with a shake of his head.

"Touché."

Chrysalis' eyes rolled as the two gave one another these gestures. Something about the series of interactions between the two made her feel oddly perturbed.

Nightmare Moon spoke up, feeling that since this was an old companion of Jeremy's, it would be best if she attempted to make some sort of conversation. After all, she had gotten along well with Zecora. What would there be to stop her from doing the same with this one?

"Miss Gilda," she called, "if I may?"

In response to this, Gilda rose a brow, her full attention towards the alicorn.

"Uh... 'Miss Gilda'?" She repeated, assuring that she had heard her right. "Sorry, but, no, that ain't gonna fly with me. I'd prefer just 'Gilda', hold the 'miss'." Nightmare Moon looked to her strangely at this. After all, she was only attempting to show her respect to this griffon, yet she was openly being told to do otherwise. Perhaps, had she missed something?

This confusion did not go unnoticed by Jeremy who, without missing a beat, gave Gilda a slight shove before leaning himself closer to her.

"Gilda," he whispered, "just roll with it. Don't forget, she was on the moon for a while. A long while. If she's trying to show you some politeness, let her." Being sure to add emphasis to the last of his quieted message, and ignoring the fact that he easily heard her click her tongue in annoyance, he moved his attention to Nightmare Moon. A kind smile met her unsureness as he spoke up.

"Uh, just ignore that last part. She just hasn't really met anypony quite like you yet, so she's not really sure how to act." He began, eliciting a semi-understanding nod from the alicorn. "Anyways, back on topic, what was it that you had to say before?"

Nightmare Moon blinked at this, her momentarily lost train of thought returning onto its previously established rails.

"Oh, yes, of course. Miss Gilda-"

"I just said that it's only Gil- Gak!" Before the griffon could continue in her interruption, she froze up once again as Jeremy grabbed a lower part of her tail, just below the swollen and more pained area. He wanted to shut her up, but not cause her too much discomfort. Yet, he made sure to lightly flick the tip of his thumb to the recovering area, sending the message that he would not hesitate. She seemed to get the message quite clearly, judging from the ruffle of her feathers.

"... Go on." He insisted, gesturing for her to continue with a roll of his wrist.

"Er... We would like to know... How it is thou came to recognize Sir Jeremy?" Satisfied with the relative quiet Nightmare Moon had been given to ask her question, Jeremy let go of Gilda's tail, earning himself another swift blow to his side.

"... Ow." He said in a monotone voice, shortly after giving a visible flinch.

From the sidelines, Jeremy, Nightmare Moon, and Gilda could hear Chrysalis laughing, her voice easily resounding through the room as the attention of everyone was put on her.

As it seemed, she had been quite amused by the 'act' that had played out before her, and the others, filled with all the idiocy and slapstick she would need.

"Yes, why not tell us how you met this birdbrain? Maybe you'll even manage to keep us entertained for some time." While Nightmare Moon and Jeremy simply rolled their eyes at her, Gilda took her words with much more attention, giving off a glare instead. More specifically, at the 'birdbrain' remark.

"Well, bugbreath," she returned, "I would tell you about it, if it wasn't for the fact that I don't think you'd be able to pay attention for more than a few seconds." Chrysalis gave a bored expression.

"Really? 'Bugbreath'? Is that all you have?" A smile grew on her face a she leaned herself forward on the couch, not particularly gaining any distance to her but seeming to try to obtain some slight factor of intimidation. "Then again, I suppose it should be expected from the cat who can't handle anyone touching her tail."

As if to add to the point, a green flame surrounded her for a scant few seconds. Just as quickly as it appeared though, it faded to reveal that a mirror-like image of Gilda had appeared, toying with her tail as if it were nothing.

The only difference that could be seen between this Gilda and the one to Jeremy's side was her eyes, which had retained their usual slit and vibrant green nature.

Though this momentarily threw her off, the original Gilda quickly recovered.

"Yeesh, 'cat' is right. I look dang good with a twin, don't I, J?"

"Please dont involve me in this..."

"Plus, you must agree if your ugly mug decided to take on my good looks."

The copy growled at this, Chrysalis returning to her previous form once more while the two consistently exchanging insults.

The human among the group pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, already mentally tuning out the two's argument.

It was obvious to him that this was escalating beyond the average 'argue and finish' routine he would have with either of the two, but then again a part of him had expected this. On this occasion, two negatives did not make a positive.

He looked between the two once more before then moving his attention to Halfy, who simply watched on from her place next to Chrysalis. Her ears were folded against her head as she seemed to inwardly retreat from the situation.

Nonetheless, it barely took even the smallest of waves from Jeremy to gain her attention, her eye moving towards him as one of her ears rose alongside it.

With Gilda standing herself up from next to the human and making her way over to Chrysalis so the two would literally be arguing with one another face to face, Jeremy gave Halfy an extremely vague gesture for her to move back.

She seemed confused for a moment, but shortly after gave a nod. She moved herself a few inches away from Chrysalis.

Jeremy gave her another gesture to explain his satisfaction before, looking to the deadpan seeming Nightmare Moon, he reopened the mental link between the two.

"Nightmare Moon, would you mind-"

"We would be more than delighted to oblige." She interrupted, already well aware of what she was to do before he could even finish.

Within a moment, Jeremy gave her a thankful nod, leaning himself back against the wall once more and closing his eyes as he mentally counted down to the moment of peace.

Nightmare Moon, who by now had had more than enough of this bickering only seconds after it had begun, smiled blankly as she quickly recalled her favorite spell. Her horn shone its usual aura of midnight blue but was seemingly missed by the bickering pair, alongside the sound of ice and water as it moved against the glass that appeared above them.

Before it had even occurred, Halfy was already flinching at the sight and Zecora was holding back a laugh that fought against the back of her throat to escape.

Just as Jeremy's thoughts counted down to the beautiful number '0', the previously yelling, glaring, and angered pair of griffon and changeling suddenly went mute, unlike the sound of dripping water and Zecora's now uproarious laughter.

With fur, feathers, and chitin soaked and cold, both Chrysalis and Gilda shifted their gaze to a Nightmare Moon. The alicorn, in return, shared a more than satisfied smile with herself.

"Do you always have to do that?!" The two shouted in an almost perfect unison, their voices working as one in angered purpose.

Nightmare Moon simply shrugged, a smile still firmly on her face.

Again, the two opened their mouths to speak up but, before they could, a single word from Jeremy interrupted them.

"Fish."

"... Huh?" The two once again said in sync, before syncing the glare of annoyance towards their involuntarily similar responses.

"That's how we met... Fish."

********************************************

All I had wanted was some protein. That was it! The amount of effort and hoops I had to put in just to try though was absolutely ridiculous.

Humans are omnivores. I am a human. You want to know how much meat was sold in the markets in Ponyville? Not a whole lot!

... I'm being pretty aggressive, aren't I?

Well, it's not like that's much of a surprise. Be it from the cravings, or just the human body's natural reactions, most people are likely to have similar reactions if they to just quit eating an entire food group cold turkey.

Lord, now I'm craving turkey...

Gah, see what I mean?!

Still, as I looked to the basket of groceries that I lugged - most of the things there having been from Zecora's list - a good portion of the frustration I had practically melted. Instead, they were replaced by feelings of bliss. All because of the sight of two freshly wrapped fish that were placed carefully atop of everything else.

A stroke of luck had blessed me that day, it seemed.

As it turned out, ponies from that small village near Zecora's house, Ponyville, had learned about my 'Omnivorous habits', or whatever it was they would call it. As to how, I have no idea. Thankfully they didn't really seem to mind.

Then again, they don't seem to mind a whole lot. Not a hint of judgement had been given towards me or whatever was different from them. I had actually asked about that at one point. Their response was something along the lines of 'we've gotten a lot better at it ever since we worked things out with Zecora'.

I digress though.

Anyways, the fact that they had learned I was an omnivore was actually the reason I got this fish. I hadn't even bought it. It was given to me by this nice and really shy pegasus who I remembered occasionally spotting on the edge of the Everfree forest from time to time. She was pretty timid about the fact, having approached me while I was buying some herbs for Zecora, but eventually she managed to get her message across.

In her kindness, she saved some 'leftovers from feeding her bears' for me.

I'll be honest, no matter how weird that sounded to me at the moment, I couldn't care less when she pulled out a pair of wrapped fish from the bags – 'saddlebags', I think they were called – on her back. I had to actively stop myself from drooling.

Now I was on my way back to Zecora's house, my stomach pretty much begging for me to hurry so I could get to eating already. Still, I had to make sure all of Zecora's things made it in one piece as well, so I kept a relatively steady pace.

A slight spring in my step and an undeniable grin on my face, I focused on my dinne– er, errands. At least, I had been focused on that until I heard some shouting while I passed by a particularly crowded part of the market.

"I told you, I don't care!"

"Aw, c'mon RD!"

A brow of mine rose as I found myself slowing at the sound of these two voices, clearly in some sort of argument. They were loud and coarse voices unlike the normally peaceful and quiet Ponyville that I usually came to when I visited, so it was only natural that they attracted my attention.

Curiosity ebbed at me, but I just shook my head and moved my gaze forward. It wasn't my business, whatever it had been, right? Arguments happened all the time back home, and it was best not to get involved when they neither indirectly or directly had nothing to do with me.

Besides, I'd rather not be a part of a 'conflict hungry crowd'. I was already a part of the 'fish hungry crowd', and that was a badge that I was wearing with honor.

I went on along my way towards the Everfree, but could still easily overhear the yells of the two voices even as they began to fade behind me.

"You can't just pretend we never knew each other! Besides, it's not my fault your friends were a bunch of dweebs!"

"Don't call them that already! They are not 'dweebs'! Matter of fact, they're all better friends than you've ever been!"

Ouch. I'm not even watching this and I could feel the sting behind that remark from here. Whoever this was, they must have done something pretty rotten to deserve this.

"I'm not gonna call them what they aren't! Their dweebs! Especially after what that pink loser put me through!"

"That 'loser' has a name! And it's Pinkie Pie!"

That name definitely rung a bell.

I could faintly hear the sound of grunting and some sort of scuffle.

I couldn't help but to wonder where it was from. I could swear that it was familiar.

I brushed past a pony or two, ignoring the stares they gave me as I went further into the crowd.

Seriously, it was right there on the tip of my tongue. Had I seen her before? I could practically picture her.

The crowds grew thicker as the marketplace surrounded me more and more.

Ah, now I remember! It was that pony that threw a party at Zecora's house for me! See, I knew I recognized that name. It was figuratively killing me.

A self-satisfied smile crept onto my face as I mentally tuned back in to my surroundings, wanting to get back home as soon as possible.

Instead of the same path to the Everfree as usual though, I blinked as I noticed I was now surrounded by a metric ton of ponies. Furthermore, I had somehow made my way further into the center of the marketplace.

I blinked again, wondering where the hell I was for a moment before I heard a voice immediately behind me.

"Hey! Who the hay are you? We're kinda in the middle of something!" Turning to face the voice, I saw a light-blue pegasus with a rainbow colored mare glaring at me. She was sporting a very fresh pair of scratches, forming bruises, and a small layer of dirt on her fur.

As I recognized the voice to have been one of the ones I had heard shouting, I took in a breath and closed my eyes before giving out a short curse.

"... I really have to stop fucking rambling to myself."

"What was that? You wanna go too, pal?!"

I turned to the other voice, expecting to see another pony. What threw me off thought was the fact that not only was it not a pony, I had no idea what she was. Yet again, I was being faced with something familiar, but the name escaped me.

If anything, it looked like someone ate an eagle and a lion before coughing them both back up at the same time.

********************************************

"Yow!" I was brought out of my memories by yet another jab to my side. One that used notably more talon than paw. I made it a point to glare at Gilda at this. I also made it a point to ignore Chrysalis' chuckling in the background to the best of my ability.

Gilda was giving me a sideways glance.

"What?! That's what I thought when I saw you! I just got used to ponies, griffons weren't exactly on the bucket list of weird shit I'd also run into."

"Uh-huh, sure. Totally. Just get a move on with the story already."

********************************************

Suffice to say, I had never seen anything like her. Literally. Hell, the fact that I could figure out that she was a girl was a miracle in itself, considering how clueless I was to these sorts of things around here.

Nonetheless, I had a bit of a situation to deal with. One that, in my own self-distraction, I had gotten myself into by subconsciously following the crowd just like I had said I wouldn't. Seriously, I couldn't believe I had actually managed to pull that off.

The large collection of ruffled eagle feathers and bruised and dirtied lion fur continued to glare at me while I decided to make use of all of the diplomatic skill I had acquired in my stay with Zecora.

"Uh... Hiya?"

She lived in a hut in the middle of a forest filled with monsters. What did you expect?

"Why you little-"

"Woah, easy, don't make me use this!" I yelled, reaching into my basket and grabbing the first solid thing I could. Minus the fish of course, that was a precious resource and I had no plans of sacrificing it. The eagle headed female looked to me in confusion, paused in a stance that I could only assume had meant she was moments away from lunging at me.

I heard the sound of hooves from behind me as the pony involved in this debacle came around my side.

"Uh... Dude, that's a bunch of leaves."

I looked up at what I held in my grasp, noticing that I had apparently grabbed a small branch of herbs from my groceries. Threatening, I know.

I looked down to the Pegasus and pursed my lips.

"I'll have you know, this is sage." I knew that because Zecora had told me. Multiple times. The pegasus just gave me an odd look while the other of the two aggressors spoke up again.

"I- You- Wha- What the heck even are you???" And there was the 1000 bit question. I looked to her with a deadpan.

"How about 'the guy who's not openly judging you for your appearance'. That sound good to you?" Not the best response given the situation, but hey I kind of got tired of hearing that 'what are you' remark after the week one.

This comment, of course, didn't go over well for her, if the look of murder in her eyes didn't make it clear. I brushed it off with a shrug.

"So," I gestured, sage still in hand just in case I needed to 'spice up' the ass-beating I would likely receive if I said something stupid, "either of you two mind explaining why you both look like you just fell down a couple flights of stairs with each other's faces on them?" The response was instant.

"She started it!" The pegasus immediately exclaimed with a yell right next to me, pointing a hoof to her 'opponent'.

"What?!" The other joined in, again with a loud yell. "I'm not the one who pulled the first punch! If anything, you started i-"

"Alright!" I provided my own yell to the mix, making sure that I could drown them out. This seemed to catch them both off guard as the two of them flinched. My ears were ringing ever so slightly from both of their outbursts by now. "Look, I really couldn't care less who started this, I'm ending... this... Good god, I've become my father." The two again looked at me oddly as I came to this revelation. Before I let myself unravel that thread any further though, I shook my head and refocused my efforts on what was before me.

"... Alright, now, would one of you calmly explain? And this time, I don't want any of that 'she started it' crap. Understood?" Of the two, the odd combination of animals scoffed, rolling her eyes as she did so.

"Oh look, the monkey's being all tough." She said. "Look, this isn't any of your business, bub, so why don't you just get out of here already."

"Oh, big surprise, Gilda not wanting to try to be nice to somepony."

"As if you would've said any different!"

"Oh yeah? Well- mmph!" One of my hands found itself rubbing my temples at an upcoming headache while the other covered the mouth of the mare. I had hoped that would help to end this argument. That, and I didn't really think it'd be a good idea to have covered the other's beak with my hand instead.

"Okay. I'm not gonna deal with this any longer, so we'll just do this." Putting myself between the two again, I pointed them towards two opposite directions. "You go that way," I said to the pony, before turning my head to the opposite, "and you go that way. Neither of you look back, neither of you fight again."

For a scant moment, my words seemed to echo. All noise was drowned out by silence, save for a single breeze that passed.

... I'll be honest, the chance that that would work was a longshot, especially as I glanced to the two for yet another time, catching full views of their still angered and intimidating glares to one another.

"... You're kidding, right?" The mare suddenly asked, still not taking her eyes off of the one who stood past me.

"Not really, no." I replied in a deadpan tone, noting the obvious skepticism on her features. "Why? Whats the problem now?"

"There is no way I'm turning my back to her!" In response, the other leaned over slightly to her side, looking around me and towards the pegasus.

"What, you don't trust me?" The rainbow-maned mare glared at her.

"Just as far as I can throw you." I all but threw up my hands.

"Fine! Then I'll go with her." I affirmed, immediately drawing wide eyes from the two.

"Wait, what?!"

"You're kidding, ri-"

Noticing that where this was going again, I quickly interrupted the two.

"First of all, you already said that," I began, gesturing to the pony in question, "and second, if you really feel so worried about leaving her 'unsupervised', then I'll just go with her. Besides, I need to go that way anyhow."

The two stood quiet yet again, seeming to think over what I had said for a short moment.

"Well?"

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

"I still can't believe you did that, you dweeb! I had that totally under control, and then you just randomly come in, and-"

By god, I had never regretted a decision of mine so much, so quickly. From the minute that she and I had made our way out of that crowd, she had not even given the slightest of hesitation to start complaining about how 'I butted in', among other choice comments.

"-like, who does that?! I don't need some wierd whatever you are looking over me like I'm some sort of-"

"Human."

"... What?" It was almost comical how this single word seemed to throw her off so much; as if she actually hasn't expected any sort of response whatsoever from my end.

"That's what I am. A human. Now, mind telling me what you are in return?" A brow of hers rose at thisI quickly explained. "I've never really seen anything like you, and it's pretty obvious that you never saw anything like me, so I'm only trying to be fair here."

She seemed stunned for a moment, but eventually she spoke up again, though with an audible huff in her voice.

"... Griffon."

"Damn it, I knew I remembered that!" I couldn't help but to exclaim as I then slammed my hand into my face from the obvious answer that I had so stupidly forgotten. Worse still, I'd read about these, and heard about them from Zecora.

Sure, my head was more than happy to put me in the middle of a brawl because I was distracted trying to figure out the name of some random pink pony that had thrown confetti at me once or twice, but when it came to remembering the name of a creature I was actively talking to? Nah, I guess it was on a union-sanctioned break or something.

"... Weird. You're not, like, another of those annoying and dork ponies from Ponyville, are you?" It was odd, but she took a step to the side away from me as she asked this, sounding almost wary.

"Hm. Lets see, I have no hooves, no wings, I can't use magic, I don't have any 'cutie marks', I-" Before I could continue, a hard smack to the back of my head threw me off guard; so much so that I nearly spilled the contents of the grocery basket that I had practically forgotten having at this point.

"No, you moron, if you're one of those prank-pulling, irritating, idiotic, crazy-"

"Okay, I think I get it." I interrupted, stopping her from rambling on for what I could tell would have seemed like an eternity as I rubbed the part of my head she had hurt. "Man, you really don't like Ponyville, do you?"

She gave out a loud snort as she looked ahead of us, her eyes narrowing even further just from the word 'Ponyville'. "Mostly the ponies that live there."

"Really?" I inquired, genuinely curious as to this griffon's reasonings. "If that's true, then, why did you go there in the first place."

She scoffed at my question, rolling her eyes as she looked back to me. "Duh! I came to this dump to see an old friend of mine. One who was cool – almost as much as I am – and managed to stick with me through thick and thin for, like, ever!"

"... That 'friend' wouldn't have anything to do with that mare back there, would it?" Her response was quick and jagged.

"That's none of your business." She had said, all but answering my question as she fell back into silence.

"... Let me guess," I decided to comment nonetheless, "over the years, you drifted apart from that friend of yours. Something changed – for the better or the worse – in one of you, and made it so that they saw the other differently. That sound like its in the ballpark?" Once more, she was silent. Once more, she answered my question by doing so.

"Yeah, that sounds about right. It's happened to me a few times too. Life's rough that way." At this, the griffon looked up to me with a look of mild surprise while I reached into my basket.

"Huh?" Grabbing hold of one of the two fish, I nonchalantly held it in front of her in offering, watching with slight amusement as she craned her head back in surprise.

"Here, griffons eat meat too, don't they?"

She seemed confused, moving her gaze between the fish I held out for her and I almost consistently before then, slowly, taking the offered food.

"Uh... thanks?" Glancing around her and mine's surroundings, I mentally pointed myself left before my feet followed suit. "Hey, where you goin'? Didn't you say you have to go this way?"

I gave her a wave, not even turning my head to look back to her. "Yeah, but I just said that to get that situation over with. I'm actually on the opposite side of town."

Say what you want, I had my clever moments.

"... Huh..." I heard her say from afar. It was then, however, that she gave out another yell. "So, what's your name anyways, weirdo?"

"Jeremy." I yelled back. "Care to return the favor again?"

"Name's Gilda. And don't you forget it!"

********************************************

"So, you two have been friends ever since?" Halfy asked only moments after I finished recounting the memory of how Gilda and I had met, her head tilted curiously to the side as she did so.

"Pretty much." I shrugged. "She and I saw one another every now and then. We talked, joked around, that kind of stuff."

"But mostly we just messed with Zecora."

"No, that was just you." I swiftly corrected with a smile. Gilda's brow rose at this, her entire posture seeming to shift in relation.

"Really?" Tapping a talon against the bottom of her beak, she seemed to think on this, her gaze blankly on the ceiling as she searched her mind. Quickly after though, she also shrugged, returning to her previous position. "Huh. Guess you're right."

Opening her beak once more, she made to talk, but was shortly after stopped by the sound of a loud, practically echoing rumble. I held back a chortle as I quickly recognized this ever-so-familiar sound.

"I take it the fish-talk gave you some ideas?" I asked jokingly, nudging her lightly with an elbow yet again. She gave a nudge in return, though with some more force behind it, as a smile drew itself on her face.

"Yeah, yeah. Hey, Halfy," she called, Halfy's head suddenly shooting up in response, "you got any grub around here? I'm starving."

Halfy quickly made to reply, beginning with her usual timidity as she spoke. "O-oh. Well, I don't really have any... meat, but I-I can probably still try to get you something, if you like."

Gilda shrugged. "Eh, that's fine. Whatever you got, I'll take it." Halfy gave out a sigh of relief, nodding to Gilda before standing herself from the couch and making her way into the kitchen. She was still clearly visible over the counter-like opening in the wall between the living room and kitchen, allowing most of us to get a short glance to what she was doing before continuing our conversation.

"... So... You were jailbait, eh?" Gilda suddenly questioned, a slight voice of amusement in her voice. I blinked.

"Wow, you clearly don't know what that actually means, do you?"

"... You were the first thing people beat up in jail to look cool?" I gave out a sigh in response to her offered meaning while Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis both raised a brow.

"She's a very impulsive thinker, isn't she?" Chrysalis commented, quickly after affirmed by Zecora.

"Impulsive, yes. This fact is sure, and truly needs no guess." I opened my mouth to offer some sort of disagreement, but after thinking about it for all of three seconds I went in the opposite route.

"Believe me," I said, giving Gilda a quick and friendly pat on the back, "you get used to it." With a small chuckle, and another chummy shove from Gilda, I crossed my arms and decided to indulge Gilda's impulsiveness.

"Anyways, yes, we've been over this, I was a 'jailbird' for a bit. Definitely not a part of my more pleasant stay in Canterlot." The sound of approaching hoofsteps caught my attention at that moment. Halfy had finished whatever she was doing in the kitchen and was currently bringing over a tray of her usual amalgamation of arranged fruits balanced carefully upon her head. Her first destination seemed to be towards where Gilda, Nightmare Moon, and I sat. Gilda practically gleamed as she saw the mare approaching.

"H-here you go. I hope you like it." Halfy said, carefully placing the tray down on the floor in front of Gilda. Within a second though, I moved over slighty to my side, knowing exactly how lacking Gilda's table manners were. This was further proven as she quickly and noisily grabbed and shoved a handful of berries into her mouth with her talons, a muffled 'thanks' trying to escape her beak as she did so. 'Trying' being the operative word.

Despite the admittedly disgusting form of gratitude, Halfy still gave a small smile in return, a good bit of cheer in her tired eye at Gilda's satisfaction. Said tired eye quickly attracted my attention.

"Halfy, exactly how long did you all let me oversleep?" Moving her groggy eye to me, she seemed to barely withhold a yawn as she replied.

"Um, I think... three hours?"

"Three and a half." Nightmare Moon corrected, her internal clock just as keen as ever. I pursed my lips at this.

"Seriously? Geez. Halfy, as thankful as I am for that, you should probably get some sleep." She tilted her head at this, half losing her balance as she did so.

"Are you sure? I don't mind staying up a litte longer, if you all li-"

"It's fine. Go get some rest, I'd say you've more than earned it by now." She wavered at my interruption. Still, she then smiled before offering a thankful nod to everyone else and I. She trotted to the stairway door shortly after.

"Night, Halfy."

"Sleep well, our friend."

"Do attempt your best to get some much needed rest."

Zecora, Nightmare Moon, and I bade to Halfy. Chrysalis, as expected, said nothing of the sort, while Gilda attempted to say far too much with far more food in her mouth, again coming out as a mess.

This time, Chrysalis seemed to scowl. "Ugh. That is completely grotesque." Gilda gave her a mocking gesture at this, while I held back a laugh at the irony of her saying this.

"You weren't exactly much better. There's a reason I always moved to the exact other side of our cell back in Canterlot whenever you ate, remember?" Chrysalis' scowl only worsened at this, but she was well-aware I was right as evidenced by her subsequent silence.

Gilda gave out a short laugh through her filled mouth, before swallowing the rest of the food she held in her maw with a loud gulp, chewed or otherwise. A sigh punctuated the end of her exercise in food engulfment alongside a short burp.

"Whew." She said. "Not as good as fish, or maybe a bit of squirrel, but hey, you take what you can get." She grabbed yet another bundle of berries and made to shove them in her mouth once more. About halfway through the gesture though, she froze, her eyes widening in sudden realization. "Oh, by the way, I actually went to Canterlot looking for ya. Before I figured out you weren't there, that is. "

"Really? Well, sorry for the extra trouble then." I apologized as she swallowed another messy mouthful of food.

"Eh, no sweat. If anything, it was funny to see the fact that you used to work for a couple of clowns." I rose a brow of interest at this.

"You ran into Even Out and Top Suit? That's great! How are those two anyway?"

Gilda shrugged as she collected another morsel of food. "Meh. I dont know, I didnt stick around for too long. Though, they did mention something about a rebuilding." I cocked my head at this.

"Rebuilding? Do you mean renovating, or...?"

"Nah, rebuilding. Some sort of fire, or some crud." My eyes squinted as I felt myself mouth the word 'fire', as though that would help me process her words better. Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see Zecora's eyes widen as she seemed to come to a realization of her own. Before I could ask Gilda more about this, she gave out a loud snort. "Oh, and you're not going to believe this. Those two made some hilarious joke about you being, get this, dead. Hilarious, right?"

I most certainly did not find this hilarious.

"Dead?!"

I practically shot up from where I had been sat down. "What the hell do you mean they said I was dead? How can I be dead, I'm right here!" Nightmare Moon elected to chime in here.

"Sir Jeremy, please, calm yourself. We-"

"Calm? How can I possibly be calm when, apparently, I'm dead?" Again, I jolted back towards GIlda. "Did anyone else tell you this?" I asked, not even caring of the fact that I had said 'anyone' rather than 'anypony' in this particular instance.

"Yeesh. Not really. If anything, that's the first I heard of you being gone."

As you can imagine, I was more than a bit frazzled about this whole thing. Not exactly every day that you hear that your bosses are going around saying you're dead.

Unless you're the former assistant of a mortuary owner who died in a tragic car accident on their way to work. In that case, it would probably make sense if they said that.

"For empress' sake, do I need to pin you to the ceiling again?" Chrysalis grunted, effectively shutting me up. "Now... do you know anything about this? If not your 'death', then the fire? Anything?" I stuttered for a moment, trying to regain my mental bearings, but eventually answered after trying to retrace my last few months for what had to have been the 100th time.

"N-no... I don't think so?"

"Mm-hm. And Zecora, did you happen to hear about any of this?" As Chrysalis looked to the Zebra, Zecora gave a calm yet serious shake of her head.

"Of either event, I did not know. At least, save for when the Griffon previously informed me so." She answered. Chrysalis' nodded sagely at this.

"Hm. So it's just as I thought."

I was effectively as lost as I could be regarding what she had meant.

"Pardon?" I asked, taking note of Chrysalis' pondering expression while her gaze was seemingly fixated at one point on the floor.

"Supposedly you're dead, yet very few are aware of it. In the same way, nopony seems to be aware of our escape."

Nightmare Moon nodded at this, her expression similar to that of Chrysalis. "The changeling is correct. In our months of freedom before we retrieved you, Sir Jeremy, we found that there was none who knew of our leaving of Canterlot. There were, in fact, even fewer that knew of our current existence."

"Yeah, I definitely didn't even know these two were still around either, 'till a few moments ago." Gilda added, referring to Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis. "And I've been... well, pretty much everywhere." I held myself back for a moment, raising a hand as I slowly tried to understand what they were implying.

"Wait. So, you think this was on purpose? That people were supposed to think that we were dead, or gone, or whatever?" Chrysalis nodded, a sneer escaping her as she shook her head.

"No doubt the work of that Princess, Celestia. She likely didn't want any of her citizens to go into a panic." I took in a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves as best I could.

"So... What now then?"

A moment of silence revolved around almost all of us, leaving us quiet. At least, almost. Without any obvious reason, Gilda laughed.

"Heh. Ol' sunbutt is trying to keep you three a secret, is she? Something that doesn't get out of Canterlot? Then I guess that's where you need to go."

At the time, I thought she was kidding.

"You're kidding, right?" See? At this, Gilda was only able to raise a brow. "Gilda, no offense, but you've had a lot of bad ideas... Like, a lot."

"True." She agreed readily.

"But, of all of them, this has to be one of the crazie-"

"We shall leave tomorrow."

"Agreed."

At both Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis' words, I froze, my mind going through an almost impossible to recover from reboot. I definitely hadn't been expecting that.

"Uh, h-hold on, you can't be seriou-"

"I shall see what I can do to find you your ways. You should easily arrive after the end of the day."

"Z-Zecora, what the he-"

"And don't think you're going without me. I just found you, and there is no way I'm losing ya again."

"Eh... I... You... We... Ugh." I was completely at a loss. I had no possible way of rebutting against them. Especially when they had seemingly teamed up like this...

"Of all the occasions for them to do this for the first time...." I mused to myself in annoyance.

"I'm not going to be able to argue against all of you, am I?" The smiles on their faces were all clear and broad.

"Nope."

"Not really."

"Afraid not, Sir Jeremy."

"The option is so: your answer is no."

And with that, whatever batteries I may have had for the evening had quickly been drained. In other words, I was, in fact, quite empty on the department of single unit 'fucks' to give.

"... You know what, we'll settle this tomorrow. Chrysalis, scooch over, I'm sleeping down here so we don't bother Halfy."

"Oh! I call dibs on sitting on your fa-"

"So help me Gilda, I will get a hose."

Next Chapter: Chapter 24: To Feel Each Other's Pain [Here Again] Estimated time remaining: 8 Hours, 20 Minutes