“So, Allen, you wanna tell me what happened that made you… whatever the hell you are now?” Drayke asked teasingly from beneath his black visor as we walked through the halls of Castle Canterlot.
I glared, staring straight ahead as I walked along. “During my first run-in with the guy we’re going to kill, I was almost killed. Since the others didn’t know how to heal humans, they did the only thing they knew to keep me alive: they made me half-pony,” I said angrily. “Oh, and by the way, I’m not ‘banging’ her.”

Drayke laughed. “What?” he asked, confused.

I glanced back at the armor-clad asshole that followed me. “What you said earlier, about me ‘banging a horse’. That is not at all what is going on between us,” I said hotly.
Drayke shrugged as we exited the front door, and scanned the courtyard below us. “Whatever you say, pal,” he said, and leaped into the air to take off.

I walked past the black pile that lay at the bottom of the stairs nonchalantly. “You don’t have wings this time, jackass,” I said smugly as Drayke leaped to his feet.

“I shouldn’t have to be dealing with this shit,” he grumbled as he ran to catch up to me. “Remind me, why am I listening to you again?”
I whirled around and held my hoof near his face, which had suddenly taken on a dangerous white glow. “My father is dead. A close friend of mine is dead. My girlfriend is a prisoner, or, more likely, also dead. All of this is because of the same guy, and all of my emotional trauma has awakened an incredibly powerful magical energy inside of me, and I plan to use it to its fullest to wipe him off the face of the multiverse. You are helping me because I’m feeling pretty unstable right now, and will probably obliterate anyone that isn’t on my side. Questions?” I asked, a hint of insanity in my voice.

Drayke stared at me through his visor, and for the briefest of moments I could see fear in those bright-green eyes.

To be honest, it felt good.

“None whatsoever,” he said finally.
I nodded and put my hoof down, the white aura fading rapidly. “Okay. We have to get to the train station, otherwise it could take us days to get to the Crystal Empire.”

I stared out the window of the train as Drayke wandered up and down the aisle of our car. Thanks to the panicked cries of several civilians and a quick surrounding from a group of guards, he had decided it would be a more convenient choice to put away the evil armor and death scythe until we got into a dangerous situation, and now wore a pair of blue jeans and a white t-shirt.
“Could you not?” I said as he started doing cartwheels right past where I happened to be sitting.

He stopped, upside-down, with an upset look on his face. “Why?” he asked challengingly, “I need to burn off some energy. In case you've forgotten, it’s been nearly a year since I’ve been able to move freely. Thanks for that, by the way,” he said, practically spitting the words.

I turned back to the window to stare at the rolling hills as they went by. “I have a lot on my mind right now, and I don’t need your hyperactivity distracting me,” I said quietly.

Drayke stood up and crossed his arms. “You have a lot on your mind? You have a lot on your mind? Jesus Christ, kids nowadays,” he said with a heavy sigh.
I turned back to him with a glare. “Yes, I have a lot on my mind. In case you missed it, the fate of this world is at stake because of an ancient warlord who has recently killed my father and a good friend of mine, kidnapped my girlfriend, and taken over an entire empire. You don’t think that’s a lot to have on your mind?” I said calmly.

Drayke leaned into the booth. “Okay, kid, you may have the weight of the world on your shoulders, but you have magic and talking ponies on your side. Me? I grew up with an abusive father, a drug-addicted mother, and an asshole of a younger brother; turning 18 and being able to live on my own was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. And even that wasn’t an escape, because I was hardly able to afford a place to live! When I didn’t live in a shitty apartment, I was staying with one of my friends in their shitty apartment! The only good point in my life was when I was with my girlfriend, but even that-” he suddenly broke off his rant and stared out the window blankly for a few moments before scowling again. “I don’t need to explain myself to you. I just need to kill this asshole and then…” he trailed off and glanced at me, confused. “What am I getting out of this?”

I looked him in the eye. “As soon as Sanguis is dead, we are taking you back to the castle, and you're going to use your crystal to return to Earth,” I said matter-of-factly.

Drayke’s eyes widened. “No. There is no way I’m going back to Earth!” he said, panicking. “I would rather stay here and get the shit beaten out of me by you in a fight all over again then go back to that endless hell!”
I shrugged. “I let you stay here, and there’s no guarantee you’ll behave,” I said plainly. “Besides, with your asshole personality, I don’t think you would enjoy it here very much.”

Drayke sat down in the seat opposite me, sighing heavily, and held his head in his hands. “Look. I’m going to level with you. Did you ever wonder how I found that portal in the first place? The one that brought us here?” he asked, his voice taking on a more sensitive tone.

I rolled my eyes. “Can’t be any sadder than how I found it,” I said, thoroughly bored.

Drayke went on with his story. “It all started about a few months before I found that thing. I was in a relationship with a girl, and my life was finally starting to take a turn for the better. We lived under the same roof, and we got along almost perfectly. We played video games together, we watched TV together. Hell, we even did corny stuff like watching the stars at night; it didn’t matter how sappy it was, though, because we loved each other more than anything,” he said happily, but his expression suddenly darkened. “And then… there was the accident.”

I shifted into a more attentive position. “Accident?” I asked, concerned.
Drayke closed his eyes and nodded. “Four way intersection. A drunk driver came out of nowhere and hit us from the passenger side. I was fine, except for a few cuts and bruises. She, however,” he said, taking a deep breath as his voice started to get shaky, “she wasn’t as lucky. She had several cracked ribs, a broken arm, and both of her legs were broken. The legs didn’t matter as much, since the wreck caused her to be paralyzed from the waist down.”

His head was bowed at this point and shielded by his hands, but I could see a few tears dripping onto the table. “She was in a coma until the day she died. They didn’t even have to pull the plug on her, even though her family was considering having it done,” he said with a humorless laugh. “So I left. She was my whole world, and just like that she was gone. So I hopped a coach bus and headed to my hometown. Looking back I have no idea why I was headed there, but that’s where I went. Unfortunately, I guess fate had other ideas, because we broke down near a crapsack town somewhere in the midwest, and were forced to wait around for the driver to fix the problem.

“I decided to stroll around in the woods, seeing as the only other option was talking to the other passengers, and I wasn’t much of a talker at the time. So, I’m walking through the woods, and I happen across this stone archway-”
I held up a hand, my expression now much softer than it had been before he started his story. I could tell this was painful for him.

“That’s enough,” I said softly.

He looked up at me with a confused look on his face, his eyes red from the tears.

“I’ll talk to Celestia about you staying here.”

He sighed, relieved. “Thanks, kid,” he said, leaning back in the seat.
I looked at him comfortingly. "What was her name?" I asked kindly.

He looked out the window, smiling as if he was picturing her face.
"Gwen," he said happily, "Her name was Gwen. I was going to ask her to marry me that night."

Suddenly, I jumped up. “We need to stop!” I cried, and yanked a “Request Emergency Stop” cord. The train skidded to a halt, and a few seconds later the conductor burst through the door.
“What’s the matter?!” he cried, bewildered.
I held my hands up calmingly. “Nothing is wrong, I just need to stop for a minute,” I said as I opened the door to the cabin and ran out to the hills.

Drayke ran to catch up to me. “What are we doing?” he inquired.
We reached the top of the hill, and I pointed to the camp below. “I need to warn them about Sanguis. We need to make sure he can’t use that portal to return to Earth,” I explained.
He nodded. “I’ll just stay up here,” he said quickly, and I rushed for the camp.

“Hey, you aren’t authorized to-” the guard started to say, but a glowing hoof silenced him.
“I need to speak with Warrens,” I said calmly.
The man stood his ground. “I’m sorry… kid,” he said, unsure what to call me, “but this is official business only,” he finished firmly.
I laughed emptily. “Okay, pal, I’ll tell you what: you escort me to the general, or you’ll be riding a vertical round-trip to the ground,” I said, holding my hoof in a position that suggested I was about to uppercut the poor guard.

Fortunately for me, and I guess him as well, this guy wasn’t as foolish as the one on duty the first time I stopped by, and I was immediately escorted to the center of camp.

“Allen!” the General greeted warmly, “it’s good to see you! i was trying to contact your father, but he wouldn’t answer his walkie,” he said worriedly.
“Robert Greathouse is dead,” I said flatly. “Listen, I need you to pack up here and go back to Earth. If you don’t, a warlord from that ancient war I told you about may very well use your portal to return to Earth. If he does,” I said darkly, “then we’re all screwed.”
The General nodded stiffly. “I wouldn’t normally shut down an operation like this solely on the words of a teenage boy, but I respected your father. We’ll be out of here by tomorrow,” he said, and marched off.

“And, General,” I called after him.
Warrens turned around. “Yes?”

I looked him dead in the eye. “On behalf of Robert Greathouse, I am cancelling Project G.E.M. When you get back to Earth, I want all traces of this project erased, especially any information on how to build another portal. Mankind has no business in Equestria. Not yet,” I said with finality.
Warrens laughed. “Well, you are pretty solid proof of that, huh?” he said, gesturing to my strange appearance. “Best of luck to you, Allen,” he said, and returned to his task.

I nodded to myself, satisfied to have completed my task, and walked back towards the train.
Now I’ve taken care of the issue of humans getting here, I thought grimly, now I just need to keep one from getting out.