My head was swimming with improbable escape scenarios, many of which drastic and fantasy-like. Teleportation, a magic I have not even studied nor attempted, came to mind. Some crazy martial art turnaround with a gun against my head, I'd be dead before a muscle in my arm could twitch in response to my brain sending the signal. Ducking out of the way, I'd be dead on the way down. Even slowly moving carried the risk of alerting anyone or causing them to react with often fatal consequences.

All of that was useless. The only thing that I could do within reason was to try and negotiate my way out of the situation.

"Well, it looks as if I've managed the situation to a most favorable outcome." He replied with a snicker. "Or as you humans would put it, I've got the drop on you." He added with a playful wink.

I remained calm and collected, as to not make any sudden movements or trigger some surge of emotion. "I see that you've brought friends."

The stallion spun around in a circle while smiling at the air around him, as carefree to the gun being pressed against my skull. "They're such good company. I can't imagine my life without them. Surely you'd love to see their usefulness in action."

"No thanks. I'd much rather be able to simply see them." I replied in a monotone manner.

"But what good would that be for me?" He replied. "I'm sure that you'd find some way to locate them later and have them arrested."

Without turning my head, I tried to peek to the side of me. "Who's body you're stuffing in my friend's apartment this time?"

The stallion appeared playfully saddened, dramatically placing a hoof over his forehead. "Oh no, it appears that my surprise has been spoiled! Oh what tragedies have fallen upon me to lose my one advantage?"

"Cut the bullshit short, what do you want from me?" I asked.

The stallion began to tug at my hair, slowly pulling me to a kneel. "Well that would depend on the situation. I'm sure you'd know for starters that I don't like being ignored. And then you know I don't like being deprived of a good thing. Not having you around makes me feel like I'm being neglected, and then I can't have fun with you. What's the point of having you go through all of this when I can't even be there to enjoy it?"

"Look, I'm not comfortable with the dead as it is. Can you just let me deal with that bit of psychological damage?" I replied.

"Tsk, tsk, captain. You know I can't have fun with simple things." He said with a fake frown. "I like pizzazz, shock value, the initial moment where your face shows the second your fight-or-flight response is triggered. Now I don't want you to feel hopeless yet, there's still some fun to be had."

"So damaging my reputation with a bunch of lies and rumors wasn't enough? Destroying my peace of mind with grim reminders from beyond the grave? Giving me what could potentially be years of psychological damage is just lightweight to you?"

"It's a wonder how Count drives you up a wall." He said with a dismissive tone. "He's dead. So it shouldn't bother you. Just think of him as your victory flag, swaying in the wind."

"Of course I forget who I'm talking to." I mumbled under my breath.

He loosened the grip of my hair, but pushed my head forward. "You know, it wouldn't have to be this way if you'd just stayed behind like I wanted you to."

"Sorry, but I don't swing that way." I said firmly.

The stallion smirked as he dragged a hoof up to my chin. "Tell you what, I'll leave you alone for tonight on the part of one little favor."

"What?"

"I want a kiss." He whimpered in a mockingly pouty tone. "I miss you so much and you haven't seen me in a week. I was so worried about you. I was almost in a fit of rage not knowing where my precious monster-size boyfriend might have wandered off to."

I closed my eyes and muttered to myself. "You'd be better off shooting me."

"Is that your final answer?" The stallion smiled while he got in closer.

I turned my head away from him, nudging my forehead against the barrel of the gun. "You got me, if you wanted me to die, then this is the best outcome for you. I'm not in your business anymore. So do it. Pull the trigger. No one will even notice until sometime late tomorrow morning."

"...Ugh... Fine. Your wish..." The stallion squarely levitated the weapon to the front of my head. I clenched my eyes shut, expecting my world to come to a brief and unceremonious end. "...Is mine to deny." He quickly said as he tossed the weapon aside, causing it to misfire into a wall. The sound of it's report made me flinch hard, only for my head to be held in his hooves while he inched closer. "Do you honestly think my intention is to kill you now? Why whatever gave you that idea? I told you that the game would be decided when you face off against your worst adversary. I'm not the worst you've faced, in fact I'm quite smitten with the idea of toying with you. Maybe you'll show me how you have three princesses risking it all for a night with you. And judging from Kalimba's reaction, I must say that you are something I must taste for myself."

I backed away from him, only to find a force pulling me down and keeping me locked to my knees. "As I said, I don't swing that way."

He then whispered in my face. "All I want is a kiss. Just give that to me and I'll be on my way. We can start slow, if you want. Even with my being this close, I feel the tension building between us." I then tucked in my lips, which started to quietly anger the stallion. He forced my head to turn to him. "What are you hiding from me? My lips aren't good enough for you?" I tightened my mouth all the more, making sure that I couldn't be violated a second time. "Seriously, I'm beginning to think that you don't want me to be your friend. Is it because of how my kissing you the last time has you so wound up? Or is it that you've secretly discovered a new fetish that you don't want anyone to know? I can keep secrets, you know."

I turned my head and quickly thought to press my face into the ground. However, my protest didn't go as planned as he held me by my hair again. He yanked back, assuring me the pain sufficient enough to grunt.

"You must think that I'm foolish, that you're so smart. I know you're hiding things from me." He said, showing the frustration in his tone.

"And kissing me is how you find out." I replied, earning a snicker from the stallion.

It took about two seconds before the sudden shift in the room changed drastically. My head was released, but instead of Umbra trying to smile, he was visibly angry. So much in fact that it was the first time I genuinely felt a threatening chill coming from his gaze. He didn't speak, just leaning in to plant himself against me. I denied him by grabbing at his horn and summoning the gun he tossed away back into my hand. His mouth, instead of being filled with the taste of my tongue, was introduced to the taste of steel.

Taking my advantage, I angrily stood up and shot back my own deathly gaze. "You gon' have enough of fucking with me." I pulled the trigger, firing a shot into his skull and watched as the body flopped to the ground. I turned around and started to bring my attention to the invisible intruders. I pulled out my phone and went back to hunting.

I turned around, hearing Umbra's voice again. I looked down to see the body I shot at, only for my eyes to expand in horror over what I was looking at. Instead of Umbra laying there, it was an unidentified body. The room started to stink profusely with the scent of death. I looked back down at my hand, realizing that it wasn't covered in blood, but rotten flesh and decomposed juices. My stomach climbed up to my throat at the sight and I quickly hunched over to keep myself contained with my other hand.

A hoof patted me on my side. "There, there. There's no point in screaming over it. It's just there." Umbra leaned into my ear, whispering. "Though I wonder about what his family would think of you doing this, an act of sacrilege so brutal that you'd go so far as to shove your hand in a corpse and show them what for. How delectably uncouth. Just imagine how the taste of their mouth would've been if you kissed them."

I couldn't hold back at that thought. I immediately vomited on the floor, heaving as the smell lingered heavily on my right hand. I clenched my eyes, trying not to look at what I had done.

Umbra smiled as he walked beside me. "You know, all of this could've been avoided if you had only come by to see me. But now begs the question, who exactly would you be seeing from here on?"

"You're a fucking psychopath!" I screamed in between heaves.

"Aw, sweetie." He said with a mockingly motherly voice. "I'm not so eager to be called bad names. Besides, I'm just another lost soul looking for salvation. Isn't that what we all strive for, acceptance? I swear you call everyone you don't agree with everything but a Child of Faust. I guess you and Count have that in common."

"Shut up!" I screamed, aiming my gun at his direction, only to jump up at the sight of Count's decaying face next to me. I fell back, crawling away from the body that stared at me. My hair was tugged back, my legs locked in place, and I was rendered motionless as Umbra dusted himself off and tapped me on my forehead with his horn.

"Now the next phase of the game begins. New rules, of course. This one's a bit more interesting. Since I can't just let you recall this little event to the others to prompt some investigation, you'll learn to not be so eager to put my name to your lips. From now on, you'll fear me as the others. Just the mere thought of exposing my name will bring you to your knees. But do be careful, push too much and you'll be having the headache of a lifetime. Try not to black out too much, or I might have to come and pick you up, just like your friend."

As the spell subsided, the image of Umbra's face faded from the manipulated flesh, slowly revealing Count's rotting face
being mere inches away from mine. The nightmarish smile etching further into every corner of my brain while the other body I shot stood up, it's entire body was assimilated by Umbra as he looked back at me, smiling before he walked away. The stress of the event was too much for my brain to handle, and my mind began to slowly shut down. My limbs had suddenly gotten weaker, leaving me vulnerable to the world as my vision grew blacker by the second. Umbra walked out the room, offering the last bit of light from the hallway before leaving me in total darkness.

"Do think of me, but not of my name. Sweet dreams."

Later At The Gala...
***Point of Perspective: Equus Melanie***

While I didn't have a problem with getting dragged off by Miss Blue, I didn't really find our time together being all too fun. Of course, it's not because of her, she's a complete character to be around. But getting chased by a green slime monster wasn't exactly on my itinerary for the night. We spent a good twenty minutes under a table just to save ourselves from getting covered in some unknown green sludge. And considering that thing's corporeal being was an unknown ectoplasm of juices and oobleck, I wasn't really interested in having my newly-done mane a questionable mess. Plus this dress wasn't cheap.

It took the guys walking by the area for me to even get brave enough to stop hiding. And wouldn't you know it, they were just as clean as we were. So as soon as we reconveined, we started discussing what happened with that thing from our own perspectives. Rickey was the first to start embellishing his story.

"So then this green gak monster shows up and starts trashing the whole place! Both me and Cocoa are looking at each other like what the hell are we gonna do, we're just a bunch of bums standing around looking stupid. So we dipped out like we were running from the plague. I mean damn, you expect to have a good night with the socialites, then it turns into some children's nightmare, eating all the shiny things within a ten yard radius."

Blue then jumped in with her own view. "You both sound like you've had a good time. Cherry and I actually hid under a table to make sure we couldn't get hit up by that wandering pile of ooze. Once we noticed it went for the shiny stuff, we looked at what we were wearing, saw a few shiny trinkets, and quickly hid under the table hoping it wouldn't see us. Thankfully, it didn't. It was like a weird nightmare."

"I'm glad things started to cool off now. I can't believe the princess invited a whole monster into the dance." I said, glancing back at the ballroom, which appeared to be a lot less populated.

"I heard that thing was a plus-one for the Chaos Deity." Blue added.

I looked at the mare and grew curious. "Chaos deity?"

She then explained. "The draconequus seen walking around, apparently attached to one of the element bearers. The eldritch abomination who actually went up against the element bearers, and even the princesses some thousand years ago. His name is Discord."

"Oh yeah, that guy!" Rickey interjected.

Blue Royal went on to explain her experiences. "Yeah, he's a real pain. One time, he turned all of the streets in Canterlot into liquid soap, then replaced all the guardrails for the paths leading into the city with balloons. We even saw him holding the actual guardrails on strings like they were balloons. I even watched him let go of one of the strings, and the guardrails just floated off in the wind!"

"That's some really trippy stuff." Cliff snickered.

"Ugh! I couldn't walk for a week without checking the ground!" She said out of frustration.

Rickey glanced up at me and cleared his throat. "So─"

Blue quickly jumped in without him even getting a decent word in. "So now that all of the that madness is over, we can continue with our arrangement! So what do you wanna do?" She asked me.

"Well..." I looked over to Rick, who had started to resign himself to the idea that he wouldn't get to spend time with me tonight. I saw the disappointment all over his face as he slowly put his hoof down after reaching out to me. It appeared the he was really eager to reconnect, and I did assure him that tonight was a good excuse to test the waters, at least see where his energy was for me. I started to take my word into consideration, grabbing the mare's hooves and lightly clasping them together with a smile. "It's not that I don't appreciate the quality time so far tonight─"

"Party ponies!" An unknown voice called out from behind me. I couldn't even look back all the way without a random dark green stallion pop up between us with a burgundy top hat on. He shook us with his entry and casually spoke to us as if we were long-standing friends. "Wild animals of sorts, beasts of the evening! How's it all going for you tonight!?"

Rickey looked at me and his mood quietly turned sour. "Uh, who's he?"

The stallion broke between us and walked to the center of our group, proudly injecting his presence into our faces. "Oh, now where are my manners? I can't believe I just showed up unknown to most of you. See, I'm the party, and I've just walked in!" He said while holding his hooves to the air, seeking to be the center of attention. But he turned to one pony in particular and smiled brightly as he inched closer to her. "Oh, and Blue, you look so delectable this evening, an absolute morsel in my cornucopia of sweet indulgences! How's the evening been for you, my dear?"

While she was stationary, I could glance down and see that her hind legs were shaking, and her tail was coiled up around one of them. She appeared genuinely terrified, wanting to take a step back. But she found his invasiveness being too much of a weight to overcome. "It's been well." She answered shakily, looking in any other direction where he wasn't.

He placed a hoof on her cheek, trying to get a better look into her eyes. "Oh no, are you okay!? You're usually in such high spirits whenever I peep you out. It's sad to see you're so despondent."

I chimed in on her visual discomfort. "Blue, who is this guy?"

"Oh I'm absolutely no one important..." He said dismissively for one second, just before taking a pivot in his approach and walking up to me with piqued interest. "In speaking of morsels, I believe this delectable pomegranate is quite the palette swap for you, Blue. I must know her name, she's quite beautiful."

"H-her name?" She stammered.

He raised my foreleg and looked back at the mare. "Yes. Her name." He then kissed it with a smile. "Such a pretty little rosebud."

Blue quickly called out to him as he started to slowly kiss up my foreleg. "Um... Her name is Persimmon Plush. She's a friend of mine from Fillydelphia."

Cliff, Rickey, and I all looked at one another as the mare instantaneously made up a name for me. The unknown stallion looked at me. "Persimmon Plush, is that right?"

I quickly jumped on board with Blue's story. "Yes! My friends call me Plushie! Honor to meet you, sir... Um, I didn't quite get your name."

He inched even closer. "That you did not. But it's only fair, as I did not get yours from your own lips. Lips so soft, so tasteful. I bet the flavor must be out of this world."

My heartrate started to increase, not from the swooning words he issued, but from the fact that this guy wouldn't even give me his name, and he's already trying to swing for the fences. I took an instinctive step back. "Wow, you're friendly." I said with a fake chuckle.

He slid in even closer, smiling as he bent me back in his embrace. "I'm quite more than that, madam. I'm smitten by your charms. Tell me, Persimmon Plush from Fillydelphia, what part do you hail from?"

"Um, sir." Rickey finally called out, very angrily. "With all due respect, that is my girlfriend you're getting cozy with."

"My, you're a jealous one." He said dismissively with a laugh. "I was merely being friendly with the lady. Surely you wouldn't mind if I buttered her up, just a smidge."

He quickly walked up and nudged his wing between the two of us. "Actually, I kinda do mind."

Seeing that the situation had quickly gotten confrontational, the stallion released me from his grasp and stepped back. "Well if that's the case, then I guess I'll settle for the more subtle flavor of despondency as opposed to the vibrant scent of pomegranate passion."

"Now I do mind that there." Cliff said as he stepped in front of Blue with a wing outstretched. "She's my date for tonight."

"Ah, but of course." The stallion didn't even seem to give a single fuck over how he was approaching us. If anything, he seemed to act with the intent that there was nothing he couldn't do, he could have whatever he wanted, and there would be no consequences. He walked up to Cliff and spun around him to quickly grab at Blue. "You do know why they call it dating, right? It's because you can always come back on a later date if it's available. And as of now, I'm accommodating this one for the night. So to you... perhaps later then?" Cliff seemed as if he was about to rear one back and give him a face full of physical complaints. But the stallion chuckled and threw his hooves into the air along with all his abandoned cares. "Ah, we're all having fun here! It's a good time!"

"A good time, indeed." A familiar stallion called out beside us. Blue quickly trotted away from the stallion and walked towards the direction of her brother. Behind him was where she hid as he confronted the careless stallion.

"Well if it isn't my good friend Alabaster Charm. I've always wondered why you never took the extra step to become a member of the parliament, but that's all bygones. Tell me, how's the low-level politicking?" He called out to the off-white stallion.

"It's well. Actually, I was about to take my leave until an associate came by and started talking my ear off about that Smooze character. Made an awful mess of things in the ballroom, even the princesses got caught up in it. I'm just lucky to have left there before it could get really messy." He replied as his sister clung to his side.

The unknown stallion chuckled and rubbed the back of his head, almost as if he was truly being chummy with the guy. "Well, I'm afraid that I've might've found myself in a tough crowd." He glanced over to Rickey with the simplest smile on his face. "Usually my jokes are to die for in the usual soiree. But apparently I showed myself into a conversation hoping to make some friends, and it seems like they're awfully consolidated."

Alabaster placed a hoof on his sister, holding her in place as he walked forward. "I've often told you about how off-putting you come across when you unexpectedly mingle with some strangers. Now come on, can't be nudging our muzzles in the affairs of youthful romances. Maybe I can introduce you to a more welcoming crowd." The protective brother placed a hoof over the unknown stallion's shoulder and gave him a smile in return. "No use speaking to dead fish in a briny pond, let's get you in a more lively body of water."

The unknown stallion sighed with disappointment. "Shame, and I was so looking forward to making new friends tonight. I am quite concerned that I'll be left alone when it's all over with."

Alabaster pointed towards the ballroom, where the remaining ponies had started to dance. "Bah, this place is dead anyways. Most of the characters got chased off by the slime cretin. Sad to know the party's over so soon, but there's a really good bar I can take you to."

The unknown stallion politely removed Alabaster's hoof from around him and spoke. "Well I guess I'll be following you then. Blue, I'll be seeing you sometime later on." He said to her before looking at me. "As for you... I wanna call you Little Miss Cherry. Cherry and Blueberry, how whimsical. I... will be seeing you in the future hopefully." He said as he summoned a small black business card. "My card, you should keep it on you."

Blue stepped in and levitated the card away from me and towards her. "She's shy to stallions." She said in my defense.

He glanced at Blue, then over to Rickey before he briefly turned his attention to me for his farewell. "If you say so. Next time, my dear."

The two stallions departed, gradually disappearing behind a few other bushes. Eventually, there was no hint or sign of the two being anywhere around here. The three of us had a collective sigh of relief, but Blue collapsed and started hyperventilating. Her eyes watered as she clasped at her chest, whimpering in terror.

"Whoa, you okay!?" Rickey questioned, genuinely worried over her sudden panic attack.

In looking at her face, I quickly identified she had the same energy of horror in her eyes. I offered to hug the mare. "Was that guy the reason you were like this earlier?"

She immediately jumped up and announced loudly to the three of us. "I'm sorry, I'm gonna go home now!"

Before she could burst off in a gallop, I managed to barely snag her tail in my teeth before shouting back to her. "Hey, wait!"

The mare pushed back at me, even using her magic to force my jaw open to release her. "I'm sorry, Cherry! I shouldn't get you involved with me, I'm too dangerous for a pretty mare like you! You should enjoy the rest of your night! I'm so sorry, to all of you! Goodbye!"

"Hey wait!" Rickey called out just a second before she teleported out of our existence. And since she teleported to somewhere we didn't know, there wasn't any point in pursuing her. The only thing we could to was recount the experience. "Ugh, that guy was a fucking creep to the max degree."

"I was one smart-ass comment from fucking his ass up to the max degree." Cliff said as he raised his hoof.

"Hey, it's a good thing you didn't. You saw how ol dude dropped in and cleared that shit up with the quickness? Bro, he might be on some mob-type shit. We don't know who we fucking with." Rickey said calmly, but still showing some concern.

All I could do was shudder at how close he was to me. "Shit... That guy's a fucking weirdo. I can't stand him."

Cliff remained on edge as he spoke in a lower voice. "I'm more upset that creeps like that get past the goddamn security check. Like how does someone like that get clearance? Slime monsters, pedo-in-speedos-lookin'-ass niggas as far as the eye can see, what the fuck does Nondis got for security around here?"

"She made up a whole ass name for me on the spot, only for him to call me the right one anyhow." I pointed out. "I'm not down with that."

Rickey looked into the sky, falling into resignation. "Yeah, our so-called date is over."

I couldn't agree more. "No shit. Let's just go home."

Sometime Later...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

That was pretty much the first question that popped up in my mind.

There was the sound of a large spotlight being shuttered on above me, sounding almost like a locker door being slammed shut. I found myself sitting in an illuminated space with absolutely no one to talk to but a shady figure sitting across from me in a white stiff wooden chair. The space around us was pitch black and devoid of any shape to define where we were sitting. It was just me standing in front of a pony with a black hood on. I called out to the figure, who continued to rock themselves forward. I walked closer, seeing that the figure had seamlessly turned away from me as if they were sitting on a rotating display.

Some part of me ordered that I'd turn around, and I wanted to. But the space prevented me from seeing anything else but that same space. It was like the scene I looked at was everywhere I turned my head, like I was wearing that scene against my face as a pair of glasses. Even tilting my head to the side altered the space, tilting along with me. I closed my eyes, seeing the same scene before me. I opened my eyes, the same scene remained. It was maddening.

The space hissed with a cruel static, a high pitch resonance so disorienting that I nearly lost my balance and fell to the ground. In fact, I did just that... only to find myself looking at the same scene with the floor against my back. My head facing the sky, I was right back to where I started: I was standing in this empty space and looking at the hooded figure in front of me. I could step back again, but only for a few steps before a wall stopped me. The wall was just as black as the surrounding emptiness. I turned around to see that the chair was empty.

Shivers crawled from the center of my spine, sending signals to all the goosebumps on my skin, raising the hair on my arms and legs. The chair stopped rotating to face me, as empty as it was. I looked beside me and saw the same scene. I turned around, the same scene. Look up, the same scene. Down, nothing different but the disorienting perspective. I could feel myself move, change my perspective, all these things... and yet nothing had changed what was in front of my eyes. But what did change was the sounds of subtle whispers in my ear.

All of those words were soon replaced with the faint ringing of tinnitus. The chair remained empty, but it's back glitched to the opposite way. In the glitch, the figure reappeared, crawling with it's head scraping against the ground, leaving a trail of blood and brains in it's wake. Far quicker than I could react, the creature stood in front of me, silent.

The world glitched one more time, showing the pony standing upside down in the air, it's face was the same as the corpse of Count DuMoneé, smiling with pieces of his brain dripping from his skull as he stared at me, the nightmarish jumpscare etching into my brain as the decayed hooves reached for my face and pulled me in for a kiss I could not escape from.

The unforgiving disgust I felt as it parted from me with _____ face.

"Captain? Captain!"

"What in Equestria is that smell?"

The dead body... Count! He's on top of me!

"Must've soiled himself. Captain! Wake up!"

The impact of a hoof against my face brought me to. The black world I was lost in had quickly been replaced with that of the portal room I was left within. The only discernable difference was the amount of light within the room. The place was a little brighter, the doors were wide open, and there was more than one voice in my ear, but all of them not talking at the same time. This was a much clearer world than the one I just left.

Perhaps it was just a dream.

I sat up. "Captain, report." A voice called out to me urgently.

"Report... Ugh, what the hell is that smell─" The unforgettable smell of a rotting corpse sitting on top of me, all with that same rotten smile. I shot up and grabbed at anything on me that could be used as a weapon. I had a knife on me, loudly calling out in my disoriented state. "WHO ARE YOU!? NAME AND RANK, NOW!"

"Sir, it's me." A young voice chimed out in response. I blinked a few times rubbing my eyes with my right hand, smelling the juices of a decaying corpse on my hand, so pungent that I quickly threw my own hand away.

"Goddamn that son of a bitch─" The name, it escaped me once more. But along with my slight effort to remember it came a piercing pain in the side of my head, almost like someone had dug a fork into my temporal lobe. All I could do was lean in the direction where the pain had dug into, pulling at the imaginary tool to remove itself.

"Sir!" Humbreeze called out worriedly.

The pain stopped, leaving me with both relief and the awareness of it's existence. "I'm fine. Just a little under the weather." I tried to pass off.

One of the other officers who had been present had cleared his throat, causing Humbreeze to explain himself. "Sir, we received orders to assist in the cleanup."

"Cleanup of what?" I said, still recovering from the unusual episode.

"The Gala, sir." He replied.

I rubbed the sides of my head, trying to massage away the migraine. "Yeah that's right, the Gala was tonight. How's the princess?"

The officer then responded. "The princesses are fine. There was an incident involving Discord and his guest, but it was resolved by one of the element bearers. It's a good thing she was there, this would've stayed ugly if it wasn't for her."

Throughout the course of my recovery, I began to remember what it was that had me leave the room from the start. "The slime creature, I was on my way to intervene. Another issue got in the way."

The officer scoffed at my answer. "Sounds to me like an excuse on top of your willful neglect of your directive, what issue could've stopped you tonight?"

"An intruder─" I began to explain before the sharp pain returned in full force. The only thing I could do was grab at the side of my head and fall back against the marble floors. The pain was so acute that I had contorted and bashed my head with my own fist to stop the pain. It subsided for just enough where I could barely speak. "Bodies..."

The officer appeared bewildered by my display and stepped back as the pain started to intensify. "Sir?" Humbreeze called out once more, concerned for my health.

The pain was so unbearable that even bashing my head against the ground was preferable. In fact, it was a relief from that pain with every moment I made impact. After the second one, I felt the world become loose and absent. I spoke a final word before all pain stopped. "...Count..."

"SIR!" Humbreeze was the last voice I heard before the world melted away from me.

The next thing that woke me was a splash of water on my face. For that brief instance, I felt like I was drowning in something. I flailed my arms out, trying to swim for whatever surface I could.

"Clear out, give him some space!" Another voice called out.

When I realized that I was on dry land, I finally had the bravery to take in a gasp of air. The world had grown more and more solid to me as the seconds passed by. A blue set of legs stood before me, one hoof reaching to my chin as the face came down to speak to me. "Captain, what happened?" Luna questioned.

For a brief second I was relieved to see her, but then the pain from my earlier situation had reminded me of how hurt I was. I rubbed my face, wiping the water from over my eyes. "Where am I? Why do I feel wet?"

The officer announced to me. "You're in the royal bath. The princess ordered you here to awaken you, as well as neutralize the smell all over you."

"Yeah, the smell." I said, realizing that my hand was quite pleasant to the nose. But while the smell had subsided, it still didn't erase the memory of the sensation of decaying juices running between my fingers, how slimy it was, how foul the stench was. I slapped my hand over my mouth, dry heaving to my side, causing other guards present to call out to the others.

"Woah! Stand back!"

The officer spoke behind me. "Your highness, I don't think he's well. He can't even speak."

Celestia then spoke from behind me. "Solemn Oath, I will have you investigate the portal room. Do not enter into the portals under any circumstances. There you will await my further orders."

"Yes, your highness." She replied before galloping off.

Luna bent down to me, touching her horn against the side of my head. "His mind is consumed by nightmares. His psyche has been damaged. Something is triggering a sort of pain, I'll need some time to investigate it. I'm sure whatever had occurred to reduce him to this state, it had to have happened as recently as today."

There was a slight linger of silence before Celestia announced in a low voice. "Leave us."

The officer began to plead with her. "Your highness, he is mentally unstable. I do not believe his is capable to be left alone with you."

"I gave you an order." She replied sternly.

The officer said nothing else to protest her decision. "At once, your highness."

There was the patter of hooves, and then the following closing of the door leading into the royal bedroom. After that was the sound of the outside door leading to the hallway. Luna waited before helping me up to my seat. "Sister, this doesn't bode well."

"I know." She said, trotting over to my side, looking at me. "Nondis, what is your phone's code?"

I blinked wildly for a moment, thinking about the phone I had given to her. I was about to say that the phone I gave her was unlocked, but then I noticed she was holding my new phone. I gave myself a confirming nod before answering. "1041993... My birthday."

Luna looked to her sister, appearing confused as to why she would be sifting through my phone. "Sister, what are you doing?"

"Nondis, how do I get access to the footage going into the portal room?" She then questioned.

"Portal room feeds are PortRo1, PortRo2, PortRo3." I replied.

She pulled up the screen to get to the security feeds, namely the ones she requested. "At least it works just fine." She said as she saw Solemn Oath trotting into the room. "How do I go back to find out what happened?"

Luna grabbed me a small flask filled with cold water. She also applied a sack of ice to the side of my head. "Check the server. It's in my room. Feed goes straight to my computer, then comes out to a TV monitor."

"Can you stand?" Luna questioned. I then got off my rear and stumbled to my feet. "Are you strong enough to walk?"

"Just don't offer me food, or anything caramel filled, I won't hunch over again." I warned.

"Then let's get a move on." Celestia said, leaving the bathroom quicker than both Luna and I could keep up.

Along the walk to my room, other guards who witnessed my being toted away had stared at me throughout the halls. Some even thinking about checking in on me themselves, but quickly nixed that idea when they saw Celestia trotting before us. It was as if they took a moment to look at me, see how I was doing, then glancing at the princess before deciding to get the hell out of her way. I can imagine she wasn't too happy with what happened.

The journey was pretty much maids and guards scattering out of our way while Celestia's disposition sent a memo
to everyone to dismiss themselves. When we arrived at my room, Celestia was still pressed on getting to the root of everything. Meanwhile, Luna showed a little more concerned with my current health. "Are you okay?"

"I'm trying not to pass out." I said as I was about to unlock my door.

"Do you need some medicine?" She asked.

I shook my head. "Let's just get this over with." The door opened to my room, it was just as I left it. No signs of a forced entry, no disturbed blankets, no shifted pillows, everything was right as rain. So I went to my computer setup and started pulling up the footage. "Setup's a bit different here, got six monitors looking over key areas."

Luna took notice of the many feeds of the castle grounds, seeing a multitude of task groups tackling a number of chores and assignments. She was more than impressed. "Seems like you have quite the omnipresent eye on the castle."

Celestia was far more blunt. "PortRo, what is that exactly?"

"Portal Room. I just abbreviated it to fit the top of the feed." I said, pulling up the feed for that particular room. As I pulled up the three cameras for that room, she saw that Solemn Oath was surveying the area, looking into the scene. She was also covering her muzzle with a napkin.

"Solemn Oath seems to be as puzzled with the circumstances." Luna added.

"How do I go back?" Celestia questioned.

"Let me get situated here..." I said, pulling out the chair sitting in front of my workstation. I sat myself and started pointing out things like the feed names and abbreviations in the corner of the screen. "Ugh, feels like I've been dumped in a baptism pool. Alright, so I'm gonna use my mouse here. Double click on the feed that says PortRo1, it's set on thermal imaging. Right click, drag to playback, and now we see what happened here."

Celestia didn't skip a beat. "How far back does it go?"

"Up to thirty days, sometimes ninety." I answered, still rubbing the side of my head. "What time is it?"

"It's 11:32 at night." Luna replied.

"Okay, so we're gonna go back to when the room gets a little brighter." I said, going to the tab for the hour and day. Since I was going back only a few hours, I scrolled back to the time I figured I was set to enter into the room. It didn't take me too long before I came across some footage that looked like the scenario I had walked into.

Luna was uncertain of what she was looking at. "What are those red and orange blobs?"

"Those are elevated heat signatures, meaning that these guys are the intruders."

Celestia pointed at the much bigger one that walked through the door. "So that large one is yours."

"Exactly." I said as I swapped to a different feed with a different mode. This one gave a more open view of the room.

"Why is this one all green?" Luna inquired.

"Night vision. I get to capture faces even in pitch-black conditions."

"That's you." Celestia pointed out once more. "You're armed... and firing a shot."

I started holding the side of my head a little more as the pain slightly intensified. "Okay, then I'm right where I want to be."

While the footage played, the face of my assailant came into view. The sight of the him walking up to me had started to intensify my headache, I had to look away to find some relief. I then felt a hoof on my shoulder as Celestia questioned me. "Who is that?"

"Canterrot welcoming committee." I answered, still not looking at the footage.

"I think I've seen him before." She added.

"Then that's exactly who you're looking at." I said, taking a step away from the computer. As the playback continued on, Luna started to grow upset with what she was seeing.

"Looks to me like somepony is aching for some punishment, the way they're treating you."

Celestia also pointed out what she saw. "It looks like he's trying to kiss you there. But you're rejecting him."

"Keep watching, at least I'll know that I'm not the crazy one." I said, nursing the ice pack against my head.

"Why did he change up his appearance so quickly?" Luna asked.

"Keep watching..." I said while my head started to slightly feel better.

While the footage continued to play, it showed the events that transpired. It especially highlighted the main issue at stake. Celestia covered her muzzle with vehement disapproval. "Equestria's sake."

It didn't take long for Luna to take note of a glaring observation. "That's Count's body!"

Celestia turned to me, angrily asking me. "And he kept you like this, for how long?"

Finally feeling back to the part, I walked back to the station and went through the footage some more. "I don't know. I'm gonna fast forward until something in the feed changes."

The room remained completely empty for around thirty minutes, I was still knocked out cold. But after that, I noticed that the body had twitched like it was moving...

No. It was moving.

The body contorted and flexed until it began to stand on all fours, checking itself before the flesh started to morph and change gradually. What was once rotten flesh had been replaced with vibrant moving limbs and a sleek coat of forest green. The figure popped it's neck before running a hoof through it's changing mane. In seconds, there was the perpetrator once more, standing over me with a smile. Twirling his rod, he danced around me and tapped on my forehead. After that little victory dance, he summoned his usual outfit and left to the halls outside. From there, I was left laying on the cold floor.

With that confirmation, I closed my eyes and looked to the ceiling. "God help us..."

"It appears he assimilated the body and walked away." Luna said, pointing out the obvious.

"Is there a feed going into the halls?" Celestia questioned.

"Several." I responded as I flicked through several other feeds. He continued on his merry little way, completely unimpeded, taking a free tour of the castle while dancing through the halls in Count's body. His sudden appearance in restricted spaces prompted Celestia to bring up a long-unanswered question.

"Why are the halls empty?"

"You tell me, I ordered security to be tight around the entire castle, not just one area." I answered, venting some of my frustration.

While going through his dance, he turned to a familiar hallway and stared at a certain door. "The halls leading into your living quarters, he's gone there."

"What the fuck, is he in here now?" I looked around the room and instinctively summoned a weapon. But my worried were quickly resolved as he stopped twirling his rod and tilted his ear to the large ruby affixed to the top of it. He gave the door one look before shrugging and trotting about his way. "Okay, seems like his lackey gave him the juice on what happened and now he's gone back to the direction of the main hall."

I flipped through the footage and quickly discovered that he had wandered to the outside pavilion. Celestia pointed out where he was. "He's back in the courtyard there."

I swapped the feed to that area, seeing him speaking with Blue and a few other guests. "Harassing one of the guests."

"Harassing Blue." I responded, finding it completely depraved that he was speaking with her while assuming the body of her deceased and quite juicy father. My stomach turned at the thought of it, but was soon subsided with another piercing migraine. I started to focus my attention to anything else other than that. "Thankfully that other earth pony girl stepped in."

"Indeed..." Celestia answered gravely.

I then watched the feed to it's continuation. "Alabaster shows up, our culprit politely walks away with Alabaster. They leave the grounds while Blue gets the fuck out of dodge. Poor girl."

Celestia quickly came to her own conclusion, mainly out of anger. "It seems to me that Alabaster looks to be in league with this monster."

"Far from it." I replied, walking over to my bed and grabbing one of the pillows. As soon as I came back, I showed them the scroll that was given to me earlier in the morning. "I hid this just before I walked out. Poor place to hide something like this, but it worked out in our favor."

Luna took the document and broke the wax seal placed upon it, removed the blue ribbon that sealed the edges, and then unfurled it to read it's contents. Going through it silently, she nudged at her sibling to read along. The elder princess' eyes grew as Luna spoke. "A warrant for an investigation in District 3."

Celestia's jaw fell slightly agape. "Nondis, this lets us investigate Canterrot. How did you get this?"

"Alabaster signed it. Apparently, that's his district." I stated.

"Signed by a notary, council member in correspondence to the district with special permissions issued, Nondis this is monumental!" Luna added. "It's no wonder why you were targeted with such tactics."

"We hit them up tomorrow, no questions asked." I replied.

"Such short notice?" Luna asked, appearing concerned for the timing.

"Bodies have gone missing, eighteen of them from the graveyard reported on Wednesday. There is an arimaspi is sitting on this mountain. Guards are being shuffled without our correspondence. And there's an illegal operation of an underground stadium that doesn't adhere to several construction bylaws. There's a lot to put in that final blank before you sign on it."

"Start with the Arimaspi. I don't want that thing being in my streets when something goes wrong." Celestia bluntly ordered.

Luna nodded in agreement. "An inquiry like that would allow for us to investigate some of the networks they've been using. We'll capitalize on that while I try to understand who's been giving the orders to change around the castle security, allowing these intruders to run rampant on the castle grounds."

"With just me, they'll know that my attention will be plastered on only one thing, what happened with me at the Gala tonight." Celestia suggested. "Safe to assume that our security over you will have to take a more personal approach."

"Better to not take that chance. There still has to be some separation between us." I warned.

"A night in your world isn't exactly safe either." Luna advised urgently. "After what happened, there is a strong need to monitor your brain activity and see if there are any other interferences that could possibly alter your personality. I still remember what happened the last time."

"I remember it, even my having gone through all of it." I replied, taking the ice off of my head periodically. "But I have a theory. Maybe they can alter my mind if they know where I'm rested for the night, making me a vulnerable target. So if I decide where and how I'll sleep the night, they can't get to me and I can keep my brainwaves safe from any weird changes. It'll keep them guessing. And thankfully there are motels out the ass in Austin, I could go with my first option and it'll be even safer than second guessing myself. The only caveat is that I'll need to work myself to sleep somehow."

Luna glanced at me, giving me a fair warning. "Are you sure? My influence won't be able to reach you to aid you in your sleep either. Your dreams could prove to be problematic for your psyche."

"It's only for a few nights. I'll keep myself wary." I answered confidently, placing the sack of ice back on my head.

The two mares watched while I started to gather a few of my things, mainly some clothes to take over and my phone charger. When I finished, the princesses had beaten me out of the room. They seemed more eager to get their preparations underway while I was about to take the night away to my world. Celestia walked off first, meanwhile Luna looked back at her sister for a second before talking with me one final time. "Just make sure you stay safe."

"I'll call in an Uber and get a ride someplace. You guys can work on whatever you need to get done. We'll reconvene in the morning. I won't be partaking in breakfast, for obvious reasons."

"Eat something, or at least try." Luna glanced to see her sister had completely disappeared. "I must go. Try to have a good night."

Luna galloped away, leaving me to walk back towards the portal room with my overnight bag full of clothes and other things. Along the way, I started to think more on what had just happened and the interesting response Celestia had in regards to me. It seemed that she was notably distant, almost completely despondent over everything. Maybe it was her way of trying to keep her emotions in check while trying to thoroughly analyze her approach to everything. And with us being in view of many onlookers throughout the castle, I can tell that she was trying to hide any inkling of affection. But even when we were separated from plain view, she seemed distant to me.

...Is she angry with me?

My night was filled with a lot of distractions, purposefully implemented to keep myself comforted by the idea that I was in my own world again. All I had to do was plug my phone into the outlet against the wall, put my TV on something like Boomerang, let the childhood nostalgia ease me right off to sleep. At first it was working, up until two rowdy patrons next door took the opportunity to mash each other's brains out as loudly as they could get away with. It was admittedly humorous, but a hell of a distraction. Later as I was initially nodding off, I was watching an episode of Teen Titans. There was a fight going on against Robin and Slade. Apparently the others couldn't see who he was fighting, while Robin was getting his soul snatched from his jaw repeatedly. I found it to be a pretty relatable episode, considering what had happened to me earlier. So instead of nodding off to sleep immediately, I watched to see how the hero overcame his struggles.

Eventually, the others were made aware of what Robin was fighting, and how it was beating him. It was getting to him so bad that it almost killed him, prompting one of the other heroes to rip the floor open and reach him quickly. Meanwhile in the basement, the two had continue squaring off. Slade had the hero on the ground, weak and battered.

"Slade... Stop." He said wearily and wounded, hunched over from the pain that was inflicted on him.

He was kicked towards a nearby steel beam as the villain marched towards him. "No, Robin. I won't stop. Not now, not ever. I am the thing that keeps you up at night, the evil that haunts every dark corner of your mind. I will never rest, and neither will you."

"My friends say you're not real." The hero was picked up.

"Oh, I'm very real." And then pushed into the steel beam behind him. "Could you have gotten all those bruises from someone that wasn't there?" The lights above flickered, hiding the villain until they flickered out. "You can't even touch me."

"All these... bruises... but you don't have a scratch!"

As the scene played out, it was at that moment where the hero started to realize his advantage. All he had to do was remember how he wasn't be seen by any of the others, more importantly how he disappeared in the light. The clue came back to him in the words of his ghastly adversary.

"Every dark corner... You're only in my mind. Only in the dark... My friends are right, you aren't real!"

"I'm real enough to finish you!" Slade shouted as he started charging at the wounded hero.

Beside the hero was a light switch that he turned on, letting the room become illuminated in bright lights. And before him, the villain disappeared without a trace. "Light's out, Slade."

In watching that episode, I subconsciously turned on the lights in the room, offering some illumination for my mind to be set at ease. But it still didn't shake the discomfort of yesterday's events. Even in the light of a well-lit room, Count's rotten smile was there to greet me just before breakfast, and sometime after dinner. Evil and cruelty, they don't rest when the lights are on. They're just out in the open for you to see even better. I turned the TV guide to something a lot more juvenile. So I ended up nodding off to the sounds of Dora the Explorer and Blues Clues.

Nightmares were recurring, often leaving me to stare off to the side of my bed. Somewhere in the back of my mind I had begun to wonder if there was something that followed me into this hotel room. The lights were on, and for some odd reason, I felt that I would see a pair of hooves walk up to the side of the bed, turning to me, waiting for the perfect time to pop their head under the sheets to give me a good spook. But instead it was just like the episode of Teen Titans, it was all in my head. I didn't fully taper off until sometime around 5 in the morning.

By then, my body was totally exhausted, and a deep sleep followed.

The hotel phone rang about two hours later, giving me a wake-up call to let me know that it was morning. I had hung up and started to get myself back into routine. My limbs were already heavy enough with the lack of sleep, and then I was already a day behind on food. I made the decision to force myself to eat something.

Since breakfast wasn't one of the options for my morning, I settled on a trip to the local vending machine. I had gotten me a pair of doughnut sticks and nursed those down with my morning coffee. After that, I went back to my phone and started checking social media for the legitimate first time since I was using my old phone.

To my surprise, Celestia made an Instagram post.

From what I was seeing, it appeared that she had a lot going through her mind since last night. Her post was quietly violent, and more so an example of her personal vendetta. I can only imagine just how violent her imagination must've been seeing that footage from last night. She even stormed off without saying a word to me. I mean she still seemed cold, but this was probably the only thing running through her mind. Maybe I should send her a text.

Before I could, my phone began to ring. It was dad calling me from what sounded like from within the garage. "Hello?"

"Hey son. Haven't heard from you in a while." He reminded me.

"I know dad. What's going on?"

He sighed on the other end. "Nothing today, damn alternator's done died on me this morning. I started the car to warm it up, go in to check with your mom, come back out to find the car's dead. Tried starting the ignition, battery's dry on juice, charge that sucker up, went out like a light before we could get out the driveway real good."

"Aw man. Sounds like a bad time." I said, acknowledging his frustration.

"Well, I was gonna make a round to a pull-a-part, grab me one and seat the new one on here." He said as he seemed to have dug through one of his tool boxes.

"Sounds like fun."

"Aw yeah, loads of it." He replied sarcastically.

"Well at least you're tech savvy, no need to pay for the extra three hundred to get it replaced." I mentioned to him, seeing the optimism in the situation.

If there's anything about dad, he took great pride in his mechanical skills. "You know it. Called up to a place, got one sitting around for fifty-five."

I chuckled to myself, thinking of something my grandfather would say whenever he stubbornly ran into a problem that could be fixed on his own. "Well there's your Sunday morning, in the book of Equations 4:16. Save, but not spend."

"Ah, your grandpa's words still ringin' on ya." He said with a hearty laugh.

"Yup." I said, looking at the analog alarm clock on the nightstand. "I'm actually back home right now. Well, it's more of a Motel 6, but I'm in town."

Dad seemed to be perplexed by my current circumstances. "Son, why you at a motel?"

"Well, stuff. I'll fill you in on it later." I answered him.

There was a lengthy pause on the other line as I heard the clanging of tools in the background. After a few more seconds of the silence, he then said to me. "I'm gonna go drop your ma off at church, I'll be riding out to that pull-a-part off of 35. After that, I can scoop you up and we can work on this truck together. Sounds okay?"

I felt myself beginning to yawn. "Not gonna lie, I need the distraction."

"Alright, I'll be over in forty minutes. Text me your location and I'll scoop you."

Sometime later, I checked out of my room and rode around with dad. From there, we made a quick trip to a nearby Huddle House for breakfast. There, he talked a lot about what was going on with mom and the others. Apparently I missed a lot since New Years Day. Stanton had gotten accused of sexual misconduct, only for him to pull up a bunch of evidence to the contrary of the statement. The incident is being investigated by the school, but it looks like Stanton will be looking at a transfer. Turns out the girl he was with didn't like the idea of being a once-over and put his career in peril out of spite. So he's set to make a transfer to either UT Austin or Houston.

Of course Stanton never told us anything about it, but he's been battling that situation since sometime after Christmas.

Alex and Vanessa have looked into moving from McKinney, citing that they wanted to be closer to someplace that would look the part of their future investments. They wanted something within their means and they looked to have something that had a view. I suggested West Lake Hills, but dad laughed at me and asked me if I knew how expensive the homes out there were. I did a quick google search to find that one of the listings was set at five million. My eyes grew as I saw the images associated with the listing. Four bedroom, four bath, large kitchen space, backyard patio complete with a swimming pool, a hot tub, and a private tennis court. Of course sitting on almost three acres of land.

I quickly pulled up my bank account information and saw that I had more than enough for the down payment and the first year of the mortgage. I quickly got on the phone and left the seller a message saying that I was interested in purchasing the property. Dad looked at me as if I had gone mad, but I hung up with a sizeable grin on my face, exuding confidence that I would be able to close the sale by the end of Wednesday afternoon. All I had to do was show that I had the assets to acquire the property. Meanwhile, I was looking at using it as an emergency hideaway, something preferable where everyone can stay together.

In all fairness I may be psychologically damaged, but I am a wealthy ass man now. And that I do have Blue to thank.

I didn't eat much for breakfast outside of some waffles, but I was satisfied enough to keep my day going. Finishing that up, we headed back to the house and started looking at the SUV dad would usually drive around. When we arrived, the tools were already set up in the garage and we got to work.

I wasn't too savvy with car parts, so it took us a while to remove a few parts on the account of him showing me what was where. As we were working, I noticed that he seemed to have a certain peace of mind in the moment. Even if some parts of him were hurting due to age or long-standing labor, he was a smiling soul.

"Now, you see that bolt I'm shining my light at?" He asked from underneath the front end.

"I think I do." I said as I saw the glimpse of his LED flashlight.

"That's the bolt you wanna loosen up there." He said, pointing his finger at the same spot he referred to.

"Alright." I responded, applying the ratchet to the bolt holding the belt tight against the alternator, or at least what he told me was the alternator. He then told me which bolts to loosen, and I watched as the part began to slowly jiggle loose. Before I knew it, I could reach my hand inside and pull the alternator right out.

Dad rolled from underneath the car on a dolly and stood up, staring at the alternator I pulled out. It was covered in oil. "Damn, guess the alternator ain't the only thing I need to get done. Seems like I'll need a new ring job on the engine."

"So what does that mean?" I asked.

"Well you know how your heart beats, and there are these tiny valves that close and open as the blood keeps flowing? They're not quite doing the same thing, but it is controlling where the blood is flowing. Your oil is your car's life source, the blood of the beast if you will. And without those valves, the distribution ain't right. You loose oil, you have to get it changed frequently, you have to keep buying oil and filling your engine because it's leaking everywhere. And in turn, the engine in motion is spreading that loose oil to other places around the engine, including your alternator, which is attached to the side of the engine. Over time, your alternator becomes clogged with oil and it can't keep a charge. Hence why you have to address everything at once, or as close in proximity with the quickness. If not─"

"Gotta keep coming back to replace the alternator." I concluded.

"That's right." He confirmed as he handed me the one he grabbed from the pull-a-part place. "You know, it's been some years I've always wanted to do something like this with my sons. Alex was always busy with school and work. And of course I can't risk anything on Stanton getting hurt. You never seemed to be into this kind of stuff, so I just kept to my own."

"You know, you're our dad. You could've just made us do it." I pointed out.

"Ah, but would any of you wanted to do it if I made you?" He questioned back.

I gave it a quick thought and nodded in acknowledgement. "I guess not."

"See, that's what I'm talking about. You three are caught up in life, I hardly even talk to you. And out of the three of my sons, you're the hardest to get a hold of too."

I started to place the replacement part into place, but not without fumbling over a few things. "Yeah. I've got my mind on a lot of things, pending investigations, lots of criminal elements, some legal stuff on the side, some trauma I'm trying to work out."

Seeing how I was struggling with the part, dad stepped in and pointed out to me where and how I needed to put the alternator back inside. While I continued to turn and tinker with the part, dad placed an arm over my shoulder. "Care to talk about it?"

I stopped messing with the part, letting him take over while I spoke. "So of course, guard things in the magic world is a bit real to me now. I mean that as in I'm caught in some really dicey things. It's the main reason why I can afford a house in West Lake Hills."

Dad stopped moving and turned to me with concern. "How dicey are we talking?"

I sheepishly looked away before briefly explaining the situation. "I had to temporarily relocate Mel and the others. They're ponies now."

"That's not good, son." He said, shaking his head to indicate his disappointment.

"Nope. If you think that's bad, then tell me how Count's body got shipped into Mel's apartment."

Dad damn near dropped his ratchet into the motor, catching it before it could get lost in all the wires and tubing. "Jesus Christ!"

"You know that one pony that killed himself that day you visited? It was his body." I further explained.

Dad popped out from under the hood and gawked at me with disbelief. "Son, are you in the mob or something?"

"Not quite. Just doing some underground work to keep the surface clean. Plus the lady I'm seeing now is pretty worried about everyone finding out about us. So add that to the layer of things I have to do."

He placed the ratchet off to the side and questioned me. "Can we go back to the body thing? I'm still trying to process what the hell's going on here."

"I'll get you in on that one later." I said, not really wanting to discuss what happened as it would bring last night to the front of my mind. Doing that would only bring up the retelling of what I ate for breakfast. "As of now, I'm doing a bunch of things to keep my name in the clear and her name clean."

"Her?" He inquired. "Who are you seeing right now?"

"Well, you remember that really tall lady I brought over?"

"You mean head princess?" He correctly guessed.

"We're seeing each other now." I simply answered.

Dad started thinking about Celestia and how she presented herself in human form. He began to nod repeatedly while he thought aloud. "Her as a human... Son, I don't know if you'll live being caught between those thighs. I mean literally barking up the wrong tree."

"They are to die for." I said, trailing off to the moment when she rode in the car with me to the restaurant on our date. I couldn't help but smile.

Dad leaned back on the wall as we spoke. "So you two are dating now, what's the big deal about it?"

"Well for starters, she's my superior. And then on top of it, we're technically not supposed to be seeing each other because of some severance clauses involved in my previous engagement with Princess Twilight."

He dropped his head and then revealed his palm in a show of doubt. "So what, you're not allowed to get a girlfriend after that?"

"Oh I'm allowed to date, just anyone outside of the royal family is all." I explained. "We got around to talking to each other, I think it might've started with her during the time I was here with them. I mean I did manage to catch a few glimpses here and there of a few things... And she came around to the idea a little later on when we began to talk more."

Dad cleared his throat, raising a finger. "So I'm keeping all of this under wraps from your mom?"

"If you don't mind." I answered back.

Dad sighed and stopped leaning on the wall. "Nondis, back in my day, we'd do shit like this just to air out grievances. It's fine if you wanna talk about certain things and you feel frustrated about them. It's how we stay healthy. Now of course you can trust me, but I'm gonna have to let your mom in on some things as we go along. It's just our role as parents to intervene and help when we can, and talk to you when we cannot." He pointed to the vehicle we worked on. "Look under that hood again, you're not reaching for anything, I'm just gonna tell you something."

I shrugged my shoulders as I followed his instructions. "Oh boy, metaphor inbound."

He stood by me as he pointed to various wires and pipes that ran throughout the engine. "Now look, you see the inside of this truck. Everything's a complete mix of operations under there. To the untrained eye, yours, it's a bunch of chaos. You'd be lucky to pull apart something and put it back correctly on the first two tries. But there's a manual that tells you how to work all of this, how to put what to where, what piece to connect and how, even the things you should look out for. Now of course, what you learn to deal with is how to replace a part when it's worn and how to give yourself more mileage, all while minimizing how much you spend. And then you listen to the signs of if something sounds out of place, God knows you don't wanna wait until something breaks before you have no other choice but to get it done professionally. Then it's gonna cost ya."

"Like the alternator?" I said, pointing to the still-loose part.

He then continued to dirty his hands, working soundly as the pieces were being placed back together before my very eyes. "This alternator I'm putting in has some mileage, brand new would run me a good three-hundred dollars. Labor would usually run another two-fifty to five, depending on the weather and time of year. And then there's shipping of the part, which takes even more time away from you and your being able to get around. So now you're set back two weeks and well over a thousand dollars because you let the problem sit too long, and that's because you need a new battery on top of everything. So now you got all of that, but what about your girlfriend's birthday, or your much-needed getaway to the Bahamas? Maybe not that house in West Lake Hills, but it's taking away from something. None of that fun exists anymore because you chose to let something go bad instead of fixing it right away."

He then issued me the wrench and handed me a clamp-shaped plate, indicating that it was my turn to work. "Now I'm starting to feel like a mechanic in all of this." I said, looking to my blackened hands.

"You are. Those people, I'm gonna call 'em people because they love and hurt just like us, they let the issue sit for far too long. Now there's something really nasty under the hood and they brought the issue to you to fix, right?"

"Yeah." I said as I screwed in the bolts, securing the plate in place.

"So now you're waiting for something to come in and change how you're gonna fix that issue, right?" He asked.

"Yup." I muttered.

"And I take it that something came around, but it also came with a bunch of setbacks, not to mention a lot of stress on the personal front that keeps you distracted from your work."

"Oh yeah." I strongly confirmed.

Dad laid back on his dolly and went under the truck again. "So, have you consulted the manual yet?" He enunciated from under the vehicle. "And no, I don't mean the manual for this truck."

"You mean the bible?" I guessed.

He popped back from underneath, grabbing my attention. "No son. I mean have you looked at yourself and wondered what's wrong? Can't go around operating machinery without looking at what makes the engine run."

"Huh... Damn. I never thought of it like that."

He continued while sliding back under the truck. "Even the mechanic himself can have a few parts that ain't working right. And of course, those parts are much harder to come by. Sometimes we lose the ability to process what we know and try to face our issues without the tools required to do the job. It's like if I tried to do anything on here without a ratchet, the right size bits, breaker bar, or torque wrench. For you, it's your mind. And your mind is a beautiful tool that can get lost in the flow. If you don't keep that, you get stuck and you never move anywhere. Sometimes it takes a helping hand to remind you were you last placed it, before you completely lose it."

I began to chuckle at how his metaphor came together, not because it was something unusual or that it didn't make sense to me. It made perfect sense, it was just what I needed to hear about myself. I was probably a second from losing my mind last night, maybe even my life. But it took others around me to remind me of where my mind needed to be for me to keep going. "Okay dad."

He seemed to tap at the lower part of the engine, requesting that I tighten that bolt on the tensioner so the belt can snap back into place. As I did as he instructed, he had more words for me. "Son, I can't say I like what you're doing. But I can say that I'm gonna try to be in your corner for as long as you'll need me."

I looked down and waited for further instructions. "Hey dad."

"Yeah?"

"Just a question out of curiosity. If a helping hand doesn't remind you where you last placed it, then what?"

Dad chuckled. "Ya ever tried bonking it?"

"Bonking it?" I asked, earning a not-so-light tap of a heavy wrench against my lower leg. "OW!"

While I hopped around, my dad slid from under the car and shook me playfully. "What's on your mind now?"

"That shit fucking hurt, dad! Stop playing!"

He pointed to me with the tool of his mischief. "Yeah, but you ain't thinking about what got ya messed up now, do ya?"

"No." I said, rubbing my leg. "No I'm not. I'm more focused on what hurts now."

"That's what lets us know we're still alive, but more importantly what's not in working order." He said, tapping the side of his head. "That sends the signal to your brain saying 'Hey, that ain't healthy'. Every now and then, it's required to keep us honest. If it ain't hurting you physically to where it ain't killed you, then save it for later. And of course I'm old school, but I ain't stupid. Talking about it to someone is important too, don't let that bottle up inside. Life is a balancing act that requires all it's intricate systems to function correctly. You have to know when to talk to others, but also know in the moments where you absolutely need to, keep your head straight up and push. It's gonna be hard stuff, but you'll make it through. You might have less energy to come home with, but you'll be ready for the next time it comes up. And if that lady has any interest in you, she'd be right there to talk you through every step you take, because she'll want you to succeed."

It took a while before the radiator was placed back on and the truck was ready to crank up. All we needed to do was throw a charge on the battery and see if it would hold. While we waited for that, I turned to dad and asked one more question. "Hey dad, if you can go back to prevent something, what would it be?"

"There's a lot of moments I would like to have back. But right now, this moment here of being with my son, fixing the truck, listening while he's sitting here talking about his problems, that just feels great for me. It lets me know I did something right." He said as he closed the hood. "There are a lot of fathers out there who never get a second chance, a lot of mothers too. Remember, there aren't a lot of you's to go around either. So don't ever feel like you're in it by yourself or that you've made a mistake. All things happen for a reason, even if it seems to not make sense."

"What if it never made sense to begin with?" I asked with last night in mind.

"Well, that's the moment where you're tested to find out why it makes sense. There's a motive to everything, simple or not."

After we cranked the truck, we celebrated in finding out that it ran like a dream. But of course, we had to keep the battery running for at least forty-five minutes to see if the charge kept. So we took it for a test ride over to West Lake Hills to see the listing that I had looked at in person. Turns out it was a gated community where security was already a bitching ass about who got in and what for. So we were turned around and dad decided to drive me back to the apartment complex. From there, we said our goodbyes and I crossed back over through Mel's apartment.

As soon as I stepped through, Solemn Oath's voice was the first thing to greet me. "I guess you're done creeping around."

She appeared as coarse as ever to me. "Solemn Oath, you're just as welcoming as ever."

"And I'm tired of having to clean up after your failures." She replied.

I pointed back at her. "Wait, isn't it me who's the commanding officer in this situation?"

"I can still talk to you like an adult. I've still a decade over you." She replied as she marched towards me. "Obviously something happened last night, and I was ordered to stand guard here until you returned. Now why would the princess give such a personal order?"

"There were intruders in the castle last night, taking advantage of the chaos Discord had brought in." I stated, brushing her off. "This room was a vested interest of theirs."

"But isn't it your duty to ensure that all the posts in the castle are to be staffed?" She questioned.

"Hard to do that when someone keeps tossing my orders away like a cheap receptionist." I replied angrily, walking out of the room. As I exited, Solemn held the door open for herself and levitated a stack of papers in front of my face. "What's this?"

"My ten-thousand word apology." She answered as she walked beside me. "My jaw was sore all week because I took the time to manually write it."

"Sorry for your loss." I answered dismissively.

Even that didn't seem to get her away from me. It wasn't that I intended to be disrespectful, it's just that I know she was disingenuous with her approach. All she want is her rank back, that's all she cares for. And in seconds, I'm sure she'll tell me everything she found out about me over the past night. "Okay, so there's been some weird rumors going around. Some guys are saying that the late senator Count DuMoneé's body was found in his family's estate yesterday morning. And given that place is on the back end, it takes a special level of permissions to send guards over that way. It had to be personally requested by a resident."

And there it is. No fucks to give about me, but she'll jump on the first train steaming to get her way. "Your point?"

"Your name's on the report. Crackdown's been investigating another similar report for the Canterlot Cemetery, you're name's on that one. And then there's one report that's been locked off to a certain list of officers, Crackdown included. And when I peeked the file, your name was on the top."

I shook my head as I managed to reach the hall where my room was. "You're working hard for that briefing, huh? You do realize I could just simply have you arrested for meddling in classified information."

She still didn't stop as I reached for my door knob. "One problem with your theory, I've already been briefed last night after you left."

I scoffed with denial as I opened the door. "Under whose authority?"

She promptly opened the door wider for me as she walked in my room. "Who else's?" She said proudly, standing firm to give a salute. I looked ahead and saw Celestia standing as regal and prominent as ever.

"Your highness." To keep up with appearances, I snapped a salute of my own.

In keeping up with her own, the princess still appeared just as visually imposing as ever. "Captain, you look like you're in better shape."

"Sorry for the extended stay, I had some personal things to sort out." I explained.

"How was your sleep?" She asked in a monotone manner.

"I've honestly had worse. Two people next door were pounding a baby into existence, a good distraction to remind me where the hell I was." I replied, earning a blush from the two mares in the room. Solemn Oath glared at me with absolute disapproval, while Celestia glanced off, took a deep breath and cleared her throat. I could tell she almost broke character.

Solemn, however, was repulsed by my answer and interjected at a moments notice. "Your highness, I've come to report that the premises around the portals are secure."

Snapping back into form, the princess cleared her throat another time and addressed the guard. "Thank you, Solemn Oath."

I started to walk towards the computer area to check on security footage, all while trying to kindly nudge Solemn out of the picture. "Thanks for the favor. I think we can take it from here─"

"Not so fast." She said as she used her magic to turn me around. She walked closer to me and glanced back to her trusted guard. "Captain, she's being placed under your division for tonight. The two of you will investigate the dealings in District 3."

Before I could argue anything, Solemn already came with her on suggestions for the assignment. It was almost as if she was intentionally undercutting me. "Your majesty, might I recommend an elite squad of magic users for this assignment?"

I then spoke out to inquire about the situation. "Can I ask a question, princess? You said that she was under my division, does that mean─"

"Yes, the both of you will be working together on tonight's raid." She answered without pause.

"We'll work together to achieve the best possible result!" Solemn interjected again, directing her eyes to me while trafficking that faux enthusiasm to the princess.

I looked at the princess with a sense of pessimistic dread. "You sure about this?"

"Captain Nondis, I can't let you keep handling these situations on your own. Given your current mental health developments, I have it on good authority to offer you more reinforcement. You will not do this on your own like I know you're prone to doing." Now that was her real response, I knew she wasn't playing to character. She's genuinely assigning her to be my security.

I still didn't agree with it. "I just don't want anyone to get hurt." I said to briefly make up an excuse.

It appeared that my excuse was something of a trigger for the experience guardmare. She snapped back at me in the most aggressive way without displaying her rage. "With all due respect, my skill in combat is comparable to many other officers above me. If it is my well-being you are concerned for, then I would recommend that you'd place your worries on other aspects of our assignment."

Celestia was agile in defending her as well. "She is a very capable warrior, and one of my most elite guards in terms of her situational combat prowess. You will have a second-in-command who will be more than capable of defending herself in close quarters."

I knew then there was no winning. She was set in place, and this was her big assignment to get the bigger assignment. It seems that she'll get what she's been bitching for throughout the past week. My only move is to accept it and assess in what ways she can be useful. "Downrange?"

"She has astute marksmanship. Perhaps a crossbow given would be the ideal choice for her." Celestia advised.

I glanced down to the mare and back to the princess. "As long as she doesn't aim it at me."

"Don't give me a reason." She mumbled.

While Celestia pretended that she didn't hear that, I couldn't show the same diligence. But I did carry on with that tiny comment at the forefront of my mind. "So what's the plan?"

The high princess opened her wings and explained her intent. "You will be investigating the rouge arimaspi presence in the Corrotto District. You will slay the creature and return with any tamers for further questioning."

Again, to undercut me, Solemn Oath verbally accepted her orders. "Eliminate the arimaspi threat. Your highness, your order is law."

"Hold up a minute, can I interject?" I said, trying to negotiate with the princess. "Now before we go in and neutralize a bunch of goons and then come back with a trophy for our troubles, I'd like to share some intel from my previous arimaspi encounters."

"Combat intel, I take it?" Solemn questioned emphatically.

"Yes and no." I responded before giving my full attention to who I intended to give it to. "To keep it short, they are very sapient creatures, meaning that they can communicate with one another as well as being able to understand us when we speak. They have their own language, they speak ours. I highly advise that we'd consider a measure of negotiation with the beast itself."

Solemn snickered at my suggestion, appearing that the mere idea of it was beneath her. "A floundering furry cyclops clumsy enough to get itself captured by a bunch of thugs? Why would we question such an unintelligent creature?"

Right then, I decided to give that mare the attention she's been so adamantly begging for. "You know, in some of my spare time during the start of high school, I was blinded by the allure of warfare and war stories. So I picked up a few books and started reading on some of that stuff, one book I checked out was something by some guy, I forgot the author but he was some famous Chinese military general. But one of his quotes stuck with me, and it said 'So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong, and strike at what is weak'. If we can fight off a bunch of the little guys and talk with the big guy, then maybe he can provide some information we need without having to go through the stringent and defiant middle man.”

She countered my argument with her own logic. "I want you to think about this for a moment. A creature who was beaten by a bunch of ponies is the big guy you're trying to avoid? The order was to eliminate the threat, not bring it in for a game of twenty questions."

I then asked her the question that I knew wouldn't be so easy to answer. "So you would rather risk more lives in killing a cornered creature? That's about as smart as swing a stick at a manticore protecting it's cubs."

She didn't seem to care about that, rather going for the seemingly simplistic answer. "It's subdued already, all we have to do is put it out of its misery."

I took my attention away from the unmoved guardmare and placed it back on the princess. "Your highness, I'm making the recommendation to possibly negotiate with the creature. From there, we can assess if a negotiation can take place. If so, there will be no threat to neutralize. If not, then what must be done will be done. I feel this is the safest way we can minimize our losses."

Celestia seemed very critical of the idea I was putting out there. "Are you sure? I don't want a creature that big wreaking havoc in my streets."

I placed a hand on my chest. "I'll take full responsibility."

"For damages and casualties?" She asked.

"Certainly." I answered confidently.

Solemn rolled her eyes at me. "You know, you just put your rank and your career on the line."

I walked towards my bed, grabbing at a set of keys out of the night stand drawer. "Lady, I've thrown my life out as bait. My career was put in jeopardy when some politicians decided to vote me into the meat grinder because I was getting friendly with a princess. I've lost my peace of mind, I can't fucking sleep, and I see the faces of dead people. I'm supposed to be scared of what society thinks at this point? Fuck that, I'm doing a job to not have to write letters to family and loved ones over how their whoever-the-fuck, whatever-the-fuck didn't come home because they're sitting in cold storage. Now, are there any other questions you would like to ask, any colorful bullshit commentary you'd like to add to the broadcast?"

Solemn Oath was dead silent.

Celestia sighed as she started to leave the room. "Very well then. Captain, I expect you to report to the barracks for your final briefing at 1600 hours."

"I'll be there." I responded just before she left the room.

Solemn blew a raspberry and chuckled at me. "Seriously, how is it that you expect to talk to an arimaspi?"

I swung the keys in her face on a single finger. "I have a reputation you'll soon find out about."

A little bit after, I walked towards the barracks and started gathering my resources. Solemn Oath accompanied me along the walk, questioning me about a few details of how we were going to execute our plan. She also made some suggestions on the matter of our approach, which I couldn't see being practical for the situation. By the time I had denied her idea, we had came up to the very storage room I used to keep all my weapons inside of. I pulled out a black card and placed it against the door knob like a hotel key. Silver runes appeared over the door and the tumblers of the lock had clicked until the door was opened.

The mare looked at me with cynicism. "So why do you have an entire room locked under a special level three magic restriction field?"

As we walked into the storage, I cut on the lights to reveal the number of firearms stashed all over the room. "It's so that stupid ponies looking to pull a stunt doesn't get themselves or anyone else killed. Last thing I want to do is write a damn letter describing to the family how their loved one decided to stick their eye into the barrel of a shotgun and wound up with half of their head missing."

"Point taken." She said just a second before I handed her a weapon. She looked at it and grew confused over what I was giving her. "What's this thing?"

"It's a crossbow."

She levitated the item and quickly inspected the weapon. "This is not a crossbow, this is an alien battle axe."

"With a mounted 10x adjustable zoom scope?" I questioned.

"This thing is a telescoped crossbow?"

"Hey if you don't wanna use it, I'll take it." I said with a shrug.

Solemn telekinetically pulled back on the item, inspecting it further. "No thanks. I'll look at this as a field study of it's capabilities."

"You got a hundred yards of precision range, you can go for longer if you simply don't give a damn about what you're hitting."

She placed it towards her eyes, lining her sights to one of the walls. "Well say the castle is under siege, we need a volley of arrows to put down our adversaries. What's the maximum range of this thing?"

"Five hundred yards." I said while taking an AR-15.

The mare audibly gasped at the number I threw out. "The most common longbow can travel as far as three hundred, some even reaching as four. This thing can reach for five!?"

"If you wanted a volley of those, then yeah." I repeated before showing her the notch in the bristle ring at the front of it. "Arrow goes in though there, use this crank to draw, pull that trigger there to fire." I handed her the crank lever to use for reloading.

She shook her head and placed it standing up next to her. Seeing that the weapon itself was well over half her height, she started to voice her concerns. "You'd think that something like this would be practical, but in dealing with close quarter combat, this is the least practical tool to be using."

"Then what do you suggest?" I asked.

"Do you have anything that's a little more covert?"

I looked over to some of the other handheld firearms I had available, along with the many silences I had for them. I glanced back to the mare and imagined her response to the recoil. I also took into consideration the possibility of her missing the shot. A similar situation played out in my mind with Kalimba. The only difference was that I gave Kalimba the opportunity to kill at point-blank range with one bullet, while Solemn had to be more precise and needed more than a fire-and-forget opportunity. If she's an expert in precision, then it could be that the sudden recoil could cause her to inadvertently fire another shot in the midst of that recoil, hitting anything but her intended target. And then there's the potential bullet ricochet that could hit anything and carry that same lethality.

It was far too dangerous of a risk, so I denied her request. "That's the only thing I'm trusting you with."

"Why?" She asked, seeming offended.

"You know why." I replied to her.

She stormed up to me and tried to make her argument. "As much as I may despise you in the professional sense, I'm not so untrustworthy to loose a bolt into your back."

"Yeah, you'd much rather for me to face you head on before pulling the trigger." I sarcastically suggested.

"You know, Celestia placed the weight of your life on my shoulders. I don't know why she would direct me to do such a thing, especially somepony she deems as irresponsible and reckless. She doesn't even like you enough to place any value on your life other than the fact that your species' technology is efficient at killing."

"Look, you want something covert? That's the quietest thing I have, that's also the quietest crossbow you'll ever use, and the most accurate one you'll ever touch. If you're worried about close range, use your magic." I replied as I grabbed a quiver of bolts for the crossbow.

"They have lackeys that can disable magic." She rebutted.

"Then use the stock as a bludgeoning tool. You got options, think outside the box." I answered as I gave her the quiver of bolts. "These arrows are reusable, they're aluminum. There are twenty inside of that quill, so I expect every last one to find it's way back in there."

"What if I lose them." She asked.

"One bit each."

The mare shrugged nonchalantly. "That's cheap."

"Sure, let's go with that." One bit weighs around a gram, one gram of gold is around $55-60, depending on how the markets are running. Just one of those arrows is around $32. So a bit is already replacing the cost of one and covering part of a second. Of course to ponies, one bit is a sale on tomatoes. Those are some really expensive tomatoes.

As she finished glancing at the weapon I gave her, she started to grow interest in the one I had slung around my shoulder. "So what are you using?"

"Something that's loud as hell." I answered.

She almost stared back at me crosseyed. "Why would you give me something so quiet while you get something so loud?"

I pulled out a loaded magazine and started explaining to her my reason why. "Because that weapon there gives you a lot more time to make rational decisions. I can't just give you an automatic firearm and expect you to not get tripped up by the recoil. You'll misfire and hit me or another one of your fellow guards. And that's a letter I'll happily designate you to write."

She stared at the brassy bullets that filled the magazine I held. "So I have to deal with the consequences of my actions while you get to go all willy-nilly?"

"Put it this way. You'll know what you hit, you'll know if you can change the outcome, and there's a such thing as making up for a miss."

"What about you?" She asked.

"I don't get do-overs. I pull the trigger, that's it." I said, placing a few more magazines on my belt before looking at a few sidearms for close quarters.

"What about that whole 'needing time to make rational decisions' thing?"

"The difference between you and me is that I've trained for that already. You have not." I said while loading my sidearm. "Now start setting up outside, I'll need a little more time to pick things out."

"You'll get enough of putting me down." She mumbled as she walked out of the room. The door closed behind her, leaving me inside of the room to myself.

I started to think to myself aloud. "I wonder if I should hold on to that damn thing before she actually shoots me."

"She won't." A female voice called out from behind me, prompting me to chamber a round and turn around with the intention to stave off the voice with intimidation. Instead, Celestia nudged the barrel away from her using her magic and walked towards me. "My, what violence."

I released a held breath and lowered my weapon. "Lady, you already know the deal. Don't sneak up on me like that."

"I should've made my presence a little more clear then." She said as she gracefully unloaded the magazine and removed the chambered round, politely nudging it back into the magazine. "How are you?"

"Still seeing dead people." I replied with a fake chuckle.

She presented the firearm back to me, barrel facing downward and unloaded. She then levitated the magazine to me. "I know it's a lot going on. But I want you to know that I'll do what I can to keep you safe."

I shook my head at the mare. "Why did you even brief her? You know we're at a conflict."

"Because I feel that the two of you misunderstand each other. Solemn Oath think's you're irresponsible and thoughtless. You think she's a nag and socially immature."

"She is socially immature. Didn't she say that you fed her the idea that I was somehow irresponsible?"

Celestia pulled me down to get me to her eye level. "But you know why I had to do that."

"Yeah, I do. She still takes your word as law though." I muttered.

"That's a good point, you don't deserve that kind of vitriol raining down on you."

I took another deep breath "All of this is making me so mentally fatigued."

"If only I could get you a few vacation days. But there's too much at stake." She said, nuzzling me.

"Yup." I said, kneeling down to hug her. "Have you ever thought about running away from here?"

"Hundreds of times." She said quietly.

"How many times have you actually tried?" I asked.

"Twice. The first time you know of, the second was when I threw myself out of a tower to end my life. I only ended up with a broken neck instead."

"When was this?" I questioned the princess.

"After what all happened to me. I mean it was only recently when you took away the remnants of that from under my wings."

"Oh, that." I honestly couldn't blame her for diving into a depression that bad after something like that. So much was robbed from her in those moments, I'm sure she'd been justified with burning the entire country to the ground and starting over. "Yeah, I can see why you would fall into that kind of despair."

She held my head and deeply looked into my eyes. "My despair is in the idea of knowing that I can't protect you without becoming what I wish not to be."

I lightly snickered and whispered to her. "Something about resorting to extreme violence and a golden halberd being your weapon of choice?"

The mare lightly blushed. "You saw that?"

"There is nothing wrong in fighting to the teeth for what you believe in. As long as it isn't crazy, I'm on board."

She leaned her head against mine. "Then you'll agree with why I made her your bodyguard on this evening."

"I still don't know why you chose her specifically."

"I just told you why." She reminded me.

"Okay, okay, I get it." I submitted.

"I couldn't help but think about you last night. All I thought about was the fact that they had gotten to you. Somewhere in my mind, I knew I should've invited you to the Gala as a guest instead of working. I would've been able to protect you." Celestia sulked as she continued to blame herself.

I proceeded to think about the very little good that came out of it. "It was for a good reason. I did my job, I caught who was sneaking in, and now we know how."

"I still don't know what that bastard's name is. But if you ever encounter him, my sole order for you is to run. This kind of thing is outside of your jurisdiction. I won't have you endangered any longer than you need to be."

"I gotta see him again anyways, so that's a moot point." I said before I started to feel a sudden surge of pain on the side of my head. I winced at the discomfort as Celestia quickly jumped at the opportunity to check in on me.

"You okay?"

The pain subsided, still leaving a lasting impression as it did last night. I started rubbing the side of my head and quickly thought of a name to use for the time being. "...Slade. I'm coding that bastard's name to Slade. If we pursue the individual named Slade, I keep my head clear and we keep any eavesdroppers from knowing who exactly we're targeting."

Celestia still appeared concerned but she was at least relieved to know that I wasn't suffering an episode as bad as the one from last night. "...It'll make it hard to identify him in court."

"There's another free from his circle who knows his name. As far as who they are, you'll have to ask one of the upcoming social elites. They're a mutual of ours." I said as the pain started to gather once more for a brief period. But once I mentally started slotting in the name 'Slade', the pain started to slowly wilt away.

"I see... So this Slade, avoid confrontation with him today." Celestia warned me.

"Trust me, I don't intend to." As soon as I gathered the last bit of supplies for my journey, I gave the side of my head one last massage. "I think I'm ready."

Celestia gave me a peck on the lips. and whispered. "Be safe."

"No promises." I said as I walked out.

As I started to leave the room, the princess teleported off to the outside. While I walked the halls of the barracks, she made her way through the garden and back into the castle. She leaned against the wall, holding a hoof against her chest, prompting a few guards to question if she was feeling well. She waved them off and continued walking towards the direction of the portal room.

She then mumbled to herself. "And now we move to more pressing matters."

Ever since we got back from the Gala last night, the three of us have tried our best to keep a low profile. We at least thought to try and keep to ourselves today as much as we could. Even breakfast with the landlady was awfully quiet instead of being the usual back and forth between the four of us and our respective jobs. But our silence brought in a pretty sad caveat to the meal, she started going on about her deceased son. Apparently he was the victim of a changeling attack, and they found his body stuffed in a wagon. Pretty cruel way to lose a child, even if he was our age. So the day was already to a grim start.

Cliff and Rickey started playing cloud charades, molding the cloud into whatever shape they could while the other had to guess what was what. I merely watched as the two tried to lighten up the day with some much-needed humor. Eventually, it started to work because neither one of them could sculpt anything that resembled what the hell their answer was. Before long, I joined them and started guessing on what they were making.

Not that we didn't have our phones, it was hard for us to use them. So without that, video games, and social media, we had to do something to keep ourselves from going insane. And so we tried to come up with more things to do and talk about to keep our day from being boring. Each of us told stories about our respective jobs.

Cliff worked up in cloud detail. His job was to fly around the place and bust the clouds that were just idling by, And with that, he'd also survey some of the snow clouds they kept rolling in. So he had stories about how ponies would have the newbies on the squad learn about the difference between a snow cloud and a thunder cloud, which meant a hooves-on demonstration. He and about five others had to kick a cloud and see which one of them had the thunder cloud. Cliff came out lucky, but the pony to his right wasn't as fortunate. The moment his hoof smacked against the cloud, he was almost glued to the damn thing while being electrocuted. Cliff also explained that pegasi had a buff against weather-inflicted damage, so electrocution from a thunder cloud wasn't an issue as much as it was a slapstick gag.

Rickey was shacked up in the kitchen of Sugarcube Corner, where he was usually in charge of maintenance and cleanup. But on occasion, he was slated to do some baking if the demand had gotten too much for the skeleton crew. Being it was a business owned by a married couple with twin foals to look after, a lot could get out of hand real quick. So it helps to have someone like Pinkie who can damn near break time and space to get shit done. And even if that wasn't enough, Rick can jump in and keep the flow moving.

I then started explaining to them what my job was like, how it felt working on the farm day in and out. But before I could really get into the meat of my stories with both Applejack and Kalimba, we got a message from Twilight to come by the castle as soon as we could.

Naturally, we were cautious about the request and moved quickly to answer their request. But that didn't stop me from continuing my story along the way. I told them of the many strange ways Applejack could convince a tree to drop it's apples. "And then I get around to it and I see how there's this one tree that's really thick. Applejack tells me that I have to ask the tree 'nicely' to get the apples off of it."

"How does that work?" Cliff asked.

I rolled my eyes as I had to explain it without appearing like I was crazy or something. "Well there's this sweet spot that she lovingly calls it the funny-stump of the tree. You're supposed to 'tickle' it and then the apples fall off."

"And by tickle, you mean kick?" Rick questioned.

"No, I mean she just rubs her hoof in that one spot and the apples just fall right off of the tree. Even Kali calls that shit weird."

Rick chuckled as we knocked on the door. "This whole world is full of weird stuff."

"Ours too." Cliff added.

"But not to this degree." I said as the door opened to a young purple princess and her dragon assistant standing in the way. "Hey there, Twilight." I said as I walked into the lobby. As I glanced around, I immediately noticed the white tall alicorn princess standing off to the side. "Oh, Big Momma Celly! What a surprise!"

The others walked in just before the doors closed behind them. Celestia started to welcome us with the usual pleasantries. "I am pleased to see that you three have started to adapt quite splendidly. Is everything well in your current form?"

"Yeah, there's the whole initial mating thing that goes haywire when you first get on board, but after that it's pretty smooth sailing." Cliff answered, glancing at every other direction aside from the two of us standing next to him.

"You're one to talk, you got good a flying." Rickey shot back.

"I didn't let my personal feelings get in the way of learning new shit. That's all." He replied, pointing back at the brown stallion.

"Yeah, I didn't know earth ponies have this crazy innate super-strength." I said while clopping my hooves together.

"You kick trees hard enough to where apples fall out of them, I'm not surprised that happens to be your quirk." Rickey pointed out.

"Yeah, all I know is that these hooves ain't just for walking." I said as I looked back at my hind legs.

Spike was dismissed as both of the princess escorted the three of us onward. "I trust that all of you are blending in with the populace just fine?" Celestia inquired.

I was the first to answer her. "My first day was pretty rough. It took an old lady snapping some sense into me for me to get over myself. Ever since then, I've been pretty okay with adapting."

"It took a business week for me to get in the groove." Rickey followed up.

"I had my face hit the dirt a few dozen times before I could learn to control myself in mid-air." Cliff joked as Twilight opened the door to her throne room.

"I remember those days." The purple princess regaled. "I was still figuring out how to keep my wings down so I could sleep. It took me a week or two until I could get my mind to figure out how to relax them."

Upon walking into the throne room, Celestia walked to the table, pulling out a crystal orb. "Now I'm sure that you all have wondered why I've called you here. I am actually here to make note of two things, and to mainly apologize on both. I do remember sending you three tickets to our nation's most esteemed event, the Grand Galloping Gala. Now onto the matters of the first grievance."

"The slime monster?" I questioned.

"Ugh, Smooze." Twilight said with apparent disdain.

Celestia went on to explain. "Well while I did send Discord an invite, I did not think he would implement the new plus-one rule I introduced this time around. It was really for the young Cutie Mark Crusaders to enjoy the festivities. Luna put in a good word for those three and vouched that they should come this time. Of course, that went about as any sane-minded pony could predict."

"Well to be fair, we all managed to avoid that thing pretty easily. I hid under a table with a friend before it wandered back into the ballroom." I responded with a shrug.

"And we were nowhere near that thing either. So it was pretty fair game." Cliff added.

Rickey chuckled as he thought more on it. "It also helped that we got the most basic suits for that thing, we looked like total bums compared to anyone else."

Celestia showed some remorse for our briefly-explained circumstance. "I suppose that's a third thing I should apologize for. I should've made it clear that this was a formal event."

"No worries, all's well ends well." Cliff replied as he took a seat in one of the marked thrones.

I followed his example and borrowed Pinkie's throne. "Hey, I have a question. Is Nondis still in charge of security?"

"That he is." Confirmed Celestia. "He's currently undergoing a large-scale crackdown operation as we speak. However on last night, I failed to send him an invitation on the request that he'd not meet with any of you. So instead, I had him on floor-level reconnaissance. But being how he is, he decided to take things a tad bit further last Saturday in anticipation of the next few weeks. There were some changes made in the castle security."

"Less guards?" I questioned in a bit of an exaggerated manner. "I mean really, there are some big-league creeps walking around that place like they own it. I was pretty surprised that he'd let that one pop through."

"Well that falls under some similar issues that were encountered during the last time you all were in your world. I saw the files and format of his recommended security shifts. All of it was supposed to be, in his words, air-tight." Answered the high princess.

"So someone above him shifted the patrols?" Twilight asked seeming shocked over the development.

"Afraid so. There was also a breach into the portal room last night that he rushed to investigate." Confirmed the princess.

"So he didn't know about the slime creature making a mess at the ball?" Cliff inquired.

The princess corrected him. "He did. And it's all because of your world's technology. I never would've figured that he'd have eyes all over the castle like that. A moments notice and even a single movement, it doesn't have to be in a well-lit room to see who's walking into where."

Rick was quick to pick up on what could've been done. "Security cameras? He installed security cameras?"

"All over the castle. It's almost terrifying in a sense. Everything in past and present, it's almost as if he's omnipotent in some ways."

Hearing that only made Rickey more upset. "So all those security cameras and he couldn't make a beeline for the courtyard?"

I called out to him. "Rick... I'm sure that there's a good reason. She even said it herself, there was a breach in the portal room. Since that's closest to him, he should've taken a look at that first. I mean that's the more important thing right there. We can't have no ponies walking through our shit unannounced. That's not cool."

"Yeah, but we can't just have some random creepers showing up on castle grounds talking like they can do whatever to you." He argued back. "I'm still heated about that shit. If I was strapped, he would've got plugged."

I still tried to keep him calm, offering a light outlook on the event. "It's just one bad guy─"

"Even you said it. The way Blue looked wasn't right, it was like he was stalking her or some shit." Rickey pointed out.

"Yeah." My mind immediately went back to the moment he showed up, the look on her face as she felt his hoof on her shoulder. "I know checking in on the portal room takes a short while. I'm just as curious as to why Nondis never came down and checked the ground level."

"Fluttershy took care of the issue with Discord and his friend, who I swear he brought over just to ruin our night. It's all because he couldn't handle Fluttershy bringing another friend of hers to the Gala and not him. I swear he's just so possessive sometimes, it makes me sick!" Twilight explained with an angry scowl.

Kettle, meet pot. "Yeah, I guess I could see why that whole situation resolved itself."

Celestia steered us back on topic. "Now onto the matter of this individual who you say might have irked you. Would you care to explain the situation a little more?"

Cliff was quick to jump in with his perspective. "Yeah, so there's this guy. He walks up from outta nowhere, and he steps in between both Blue and Mel. Then he starts talking like he's the popular guy, I mean THE guy. He could've been the lamest thing I came close to fighting. He tried moving on Mel, Rickey stepped in. He backed off and then tried to scoop up ol' girl. Then I stepped in like I was tryin' to be protective, 'cause she and I were supposed to play like we were dating. But this whole asshole walks up to me and says 'No, WE'RE dating. You can get her next time'. And I'm like ready to punch this guy out, and then her older brother comes by and walks him away."

The princess then sought to confirm our account. "Okay, so this happened sometime after the incident with Smooze subsides, correct?"

"He tried handing me a card like he was gonna come back and date me, but Blue took the card and ran off." I added.

"This Blue, who are you referring to?" She asked.

"I guess it's Count DuMoneé's daughter. I know from the conversations we had with Nondis before we transformed over, she looked like she did in his tweet. So yeah, I wanna say it was her."

"Yeah, we kinda almost blew ourselves there." Rickey mumbled.

"And did this individual have a name?" Twilight questioned, finding interest into the situation.

"Nope." I bluntly replied.

Rickey followed up. "It wasn't that he didn't have one, it's more like he refused to give us one. But he still had the nerve to show up like we were supposed to be all friendly with the guy. Seriously, he was a few seconds from shoving his tongue down your throat."

A shudder ran down the princess' spine. Twilight looked up to her disgusted superior. "You okay?"

Celestia continued on, dismissing her junior's question. "As for the second reason I have come to apologize to you... we need to talk."

"Oh no." The three of us all looked at each other and realized that this was going to be far from good.

"Wait, nothing happened to Nondis, right?" The purple princess once more interjected.

"Twilight, I need you to sit here as well. This is officially my briefing to you."

The young princess took her own seat. "An assignment?"

"Of a classified variety." She finally answered her before using her magic to illuminate the sphere for all of us to look into. "All of you, what you are about to witness is to remain within the confines of this room."

Cliff sighed and leaned back in his seat. "Let's keep it real, does that guy have anything to do with us?"

Celestia grew hesitant to answer, but still provided one. "...Yes."

"Then do you know who he is?" I inquired as the picture on the sphere came into focus.

"I saw him on the Tuesday before last. I wanted to search his compound over matters dealing with an arimaspi being used in an underground combat arena."

"An arimaspi, that big thing that nearly killed Nondis on his mountain assignment?" Rickey asked while leaning into the table.

"There's one currently hidden in the city of Canterlot itself. Hence the reason for Nondis' crackdown operation today."

"Oh that's not fun." Rickey grumbled.

"So about this guy, why didn't you arrest him on spot?" Cliff questioned her.

"I needed a warrant. I didn't have one up to code, I tried to use one that didn't have the special permissions granted because I wanted the arimaspi situation taken care of quickly. In the midst of our encounter, he also brought about a reason to why I shouldn't carry through with that search personally."

"And that is?" Twilight quizzed.

"He knows of me... and what I am to Nondis."

All of us in the room had collectively tensed up as we realized that this was beyond troublesome. But in the eyes of us three transplants, we started to put it all together. "...No." Rickey whispered.

Cliff started to realize who he was about to get physical with. "So THAT motherfucker is actually─"

"The son of a bitch who left the fucking body in my apartment!" I hollered, standing to my hooves.

"He knows about Nondis, and then about you and him, and he learned that shit through I guess kissing him." Rickey explained.

I couldn't help but to feel relieved that I didn't actually fall victim to his trap. "Ugh, no fucking wonder why he wanted to lock lips with me so damn bad! He was trying to get the jump on me!"

"Hell naw! I'm plugging his ass on sight, on site! For real!" Cliff said as his wings sharply sprang from his back.

"He was the one who breached the portal room last night." Celestia finally stated, immediately grabbing Twilight's full attention.

"Princess, what must I do?" She questioned her superior.

"I am not done." Celestia said as she used more of her magic on the orb. From within it showed a glossy refraction of the pony of interest walking from within the castle halls to the outside pavilion where we gathered. "As far as I know of, especially in some human vernacular, I believe Nondis has already tried his luck in the field of excommunicating him from this plane of existence."

Cliff shook his head. "Oh no. You about to say some shit we ain't gonna like."

"Afraid so." Said the high princess.

The glossy picture that was once showing the pony approaching us had then cut away to the familiar room where I would go to get back to my apartment. And of course, Nondis walked through the door with a weapon in tow. "What are you showing us?" Asked Twilight.

Celestia proceeded to break down what it was we were watching. "This is the portal room from last night. This is the moment of the encounter. Since Discord is often familiar with your world's technology, I had him edit the footage together. Discord owed me that favor as punishment for his extracurricular activities. This is what we could show you, at least what you would be willing to stomach."

"What we could stomach?" Rickey tilted his head in confusion and concern.

Twilight wasn't exactly pleased with the idea of not knowing the whole story, and pressed her royal superior. "Princess, if I may, why not show us the rest of the footage?"

Without as much of a hint of emotion on her face, she showed a strong dislike for the idea. "Because I do not like having to watch it. Seeing what was done to Nondis in that moment sickens me. I've watched that moment twice, and many more times did it play through my head, so much that I intentionally forwent sleep for briefing a body guard to his services." The princess used her magic to forward the footage to the point where Nondis was being held against his will. "Again, this is the moment of the encounter."

"That's the guy!" I pointed out.

While there was no sound, there was the obvious show of a struggle taking place. But it wasn't without a sign of good fortune for Nondis. He quickly grabbed the gun and shoved it into that creep's mouth. And in a second or two, the creep's head was launched back and his body slumped to the ground. "Son of a bitch." Rickey mumbled. "He actually went against the guy."

"Ha! Got his ass!" Cliff said with a proud laugh.

But as I was watching that moment play out, an icy chill came down my spine as I realized that the same guy we watched get blasted in the mouth had paid us an unexpected and unwelcome visit. The hairs on my body started to raise and tickle while Celestia met Cliff's optimism with a chilling rebuttal. "So you'd think."

The body that laid stretched out on the floor remained motionless for the most part. Meanwhile, that same creep walked up to his side and started antagonizing him. Nondis appeared initially disgusted, even throwing up over something before taking back up his gun to shoot the creep. But something happened that stopped him dead in his tracks. something about his face had briefly changed to where Nondis had jumped back out of what appeared to be fear.

That icy chill I felt, it was running deep in my core now. "Oh wait... Oh wait. No, no, t-th-that's not right." Rickey stammered as the assailant pressed Nondis into place and lit his horn against his head. It appeared that Nondis was struggling to escape, almost trying to break his arms to loose himself from the attacker's magic grip.

Celestia turned her head with a grimace and spoke. "The footage is going to skip ahead now."

The scene quickly transitioned, the figure that stood over our best friend was completely hunched over him, motionless like a statue. Meanwhile, our very own was sprawled against the ground with a look of horror carved upon his resting face. He was unconscious, but his eyes weren't completely closed. My heart couldn't take seeing that. "Nondis!" I called out, trying to instinctively come to his rescue. But when it was a hoof that reached out to him instead of a hand, I was reminded of the fact that I was completely useless at this point.

"Oh my God, what did he do to him?" Rick asked with shock.

Cliff's eyes expanded as he pointed his hoof to the pony lurching over our best friend. "Bruh... that's a corpse. The way that shit's laying on top of him, that's gotta be a fucking corpse."

"How do you know?" Twilight asked.

Cliff stood on the seat he sat in and pointed at a mucky spot on the back of the guy's head. "Dude, it's brain is exposed right there!"

"No." Rickey answered in initial disbelief, but then started to recognize some key factors that contributed to some things that he could easily identify.

Being that I had started to see the signs and symptoms of what was unusual and very identifiable to me, I mentally pointed out a few things that grabbed my attention. The horn was broken, almost like it was smashed or impacted in some way. The skull appeared to have had a glue job, and then the main thing that was the selling point was the mark on the corpse's flank. I shrieked with my hooves pressed against my muzzle. "That's... that's the same one. That's Count's body."

Celestia nodded in confirmation. "As motionless as you would think... But then you realize that this threat is much worse than you thought it would be."

The camera didn't record anything different than that static image for a few seconds before some movement started to occur within the room. "Nondis must be coming to." I said, trying to convince myself that what I was seeing wasn't some scene out of Satan's playbook.

But that's exactly what it started to turn into. "Celestia..." Twilight's eyes widened as she tapped her superior's side. "The body's moving."

"Watch." Celestia replied.

And just like a hideous horror scene, the body herked and jerked until the forelegs were moving the corpse away from crouching over the unconscious human. The head rattled until it snapped violently to the side as if the neck broke. One foreleg went into the air, reaching out to the ceiling before the mass of rotten flesh had started to liven. The hairs that were so devoid of color and life had started to revitalize. The hoof turned in an unstable motion at first, but then started to smoothen out. As did the head slowly tilt back into place.

RIckey immediately got up from his chair and hid behind it. "This is fucked!"

"My God is real, but that ain't." Cliff called out, trying to deny the existence of this hellish scene.

"Oh my God." I could only stifle what screams I wanted to unleash.

Twilight was terrified, speechless.

While the body started to change before our eyes, we saw the dead body of Count DuMoneé reanimate itself in the form of our adversary. And appearing as if he was laughing, he danced out the room like he was merrily prancing about with smile on his face.

"YO, HE'S FUCKING WALKING!" Rickey screamed in terror.

I shuddered as I began to subconsciously look behind myself, checking if the chills down my spine didn't indicate some nightmarish ghoul standing behind me or something. "So that's Ummie." I whispered, remember the letter that was signed to Nondis.

Rickey started searching every nook and cranny around the throne room, just as freaked out as I was. "Nuh-uh. That's not it. That is not it. That! That there! THAT SHIT! NOT IT! FUCK THAT SHIT!"

"And he's walking down the hallway like he just stepped out the casket for Sunday morning worship! Nah!" Cliff said as he started pacing back and forth, laughing out of denial.

Celestia then drove the point home. "Mind you who's body he's assumed."

At that moment, I started playing the situation back in my head from last night. The moment he walked up to us, he was just then coming from the direction of the portal room. Which meant that he was dancing, hopping around, walking about, and hugging both me and Blue like he was Hugh Hefner. But in truth... "Oh my God!"

Ricky was the one to verbalize what we had realized. "Yo, if that's Count's body..."

That was his body. And Blue and I were getting a warm juicy hug from the corpse we thought would be sent six feet under a month and some change ago. And I'm sure she didn't know it at that moment─and it should remain unknown to her─her dad was paying us a visit from beyond the grave.

And he almost kissed me.

Cliff finally broke and started to frantically walk to the door, only to be stopped by Celestia pulling at his tail. "Oh no. Fuck this. We are going home! Where the fuck are our portals!?"

"We can't go back." I replied, realizing that he had access to where we lived.

"The fuck we can't!" Cliff argued vehemently. "Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, New Orleans, Oklahoma City! All of those sons of bitches ain't got nan portal to here! Hell, we don't even gotta leave town, just go any place we want and not be where we are! I came to help a friend, I did not come to fight Satan! Shit!"

Twilight wasted no time, snapping out of her horrorific trance. "What must I do?"

Celestia then calmly explained. "The figure as seen will be under a classified name. Nondis used the name Slade, to potentially ease the effects a spell that was cast on him. To this moment, he's still fighting along side us."

"Fight, you expect him to fight this!?" Rickey questioned appearing very upset.

"I don't expect him to do that, no." She replied before turning to Twilight. "Which is why I must ask you to do this."

Again, no hesitation, even in the face of what she just witnessed. "He's torturing my friends, I don't have an answer other than 'yes'. For everything he's done for me, I owe him this much."

"Hold up." Much like how he normally came to my defense when something happened to me, Rick was quick to turn his tongue to the high princess. "Why aren't you doing it?"

Twilight then came to her defense. "She doesn't have the Elements of Harmony behind her anymore. This is now element-bearer jurisdiction, my friends and I are the ones who'll deal with this."

"Fighting the undead?" Rickey tried to reason with the young mare.

Twilight grabbed at the sphere and started going over the footage once more. "He's not undead, he's possessing the bodies of the dead and using them as vessels. I've done some research on it since my becoming royalty. It's corrupted alicorn magic, though not as exclusive as the name would imply. There are others who have used this kind of magic before. The aura looks like a corrupted green and purple glow with black lightening. And it's been seldom used by any unicorns other than King Sombra and myself."

"You're an alicorn, though." He rebutted.

"I wasn't always one, I was a unicorn starting off, remember? I learned corrupted alicorn magic from watching Celestia use it herself during a briefing for the Crystal Empire's reemergence." Twilight answered as she continued to replay the footage for more information. "There were a few corrupted magic amplifiers roaming about, and we've managed to subdue mostly all of them. But I have to wonder, how did Slade get a hold of that magic and what's his endgame?"

Celestia then added. "I know that with Count in the numbers, there are a total of eighteen bodies still unaccounted for. That means he can be in at least eighteen places at once. Better to assume more."

My head dropped as I started to envision the hell Nondis was going through. At that point, any bouts with PTSD and paranoia is justified. In fact, it would be understandable if he ate a bullet on his own to escape it all. While I could find myself being concerned and worried for my own saftey, I just can't get the image of his face at that moment out of my head.

Meanwhile, Cliff was rightfully seeing the situation from his own perspective. "See, that does not convince me I'm safe."

Twilight finally finished reviewing the footage, holding her head to the crystal orb. "Nondis, you never really told us what you were fighting. Now I know what it is, why you've been looking so sick. You can't sleep or eat knowing that this is what you're up against."

"Truth be told, he never knew what he was fighting either. All of this is just as new to me as it is to all of us." Celestia stated as she tried to keep her anger to herself. "Twilight, I hate to ask this when I've taken so much from you."

And just as the outstanding example of her title, Twilight made no provision for bitterness towards her superior. "Your happiness is as good as my own, Celestia. After all you've done for me in my life, Nondis is like a drop in an ocean of good. And I haven't let our separation become the end of our friendship. After all, he's on our side. Losing him is losing not just our friend, it's our hope for the future of the royal family and anypony else around us. We can't let that happen. You leave this to me."

"Uh, what about us?" Rickey asked as he raised a hoof. "Do we even know if that guy is going to come back for us or not?"

Twilight jumped in to answer. "I'm sure if he wanted to, he would've sent others to find you already. But you three are under MY protection. Nothing will happen to you as long as you stay with me and my friends. Keep living quietly for the next few weeks, you'll easily be overlooked if you act normal."

I then questioned Twilight directly. "So that creepy-ass motherfucker isn't─"

Celestia raised a hoof to interrupt. "You are safe right now. If you suspect anything, notify us immediately."

While the answer didn't exactly install confidence, I still felt there was some merit to their dedication. It's unlikely that they would just flake out now since our best friend was going through the torture chamber for their sake. But still, my mind was more focused on him than it was on myself. So I had to stress to her how I personally felt. "Miss Princess, I hope your bodyguard is good. Nondis may need it."

The high ruler remained adamant. "I have confidence in who I've assigned. He will be fine, you have my word. Now go, try not to converse too openly in public. The others will keep an eye over you."

As we were dismissed, the three of us had walked the halls being a lot quieter than we were on the way in. Rickey was praying in Spanish while Cliff was reciting the entire 23rd Chapter of the book of Psalms. I was quietly pondering if Nondis had started going back into religion as a coping mechanism. I was just quiet. My own little world was a quiet place that knew only the calm before the storm of nightmares.

Rickey, who had finished praying, glanced around as we came into the castle foyer. "This is fucked up."

"Bruh, I ain't with this." Cliff cosigned.

The worst came to mind. Say if Nondis was being tortured to the point where he started to hallucinate and become even worse than his grandfather, what then? Would his mind be able to adapt to normal life ever again? Would it be better to take him back home when his mind's all messed up beyond all repair? It would be worse than leaving him here because no one back home would understand what he went through, and they would probably stuff him full of drugs and sedatives. At the very best, he'd be in a mental health center to fight the paranoia he couldn't properly convey to his counselors. And then at worst, who's to say he doesn't have an episode where he becomes a harm to those around him? Police wouldn't understand that and they'd probably just put him down. Then he's dead for good, all memories and fun times with him, the last of his dwindling sanity lost to both of our worlds with the sound of a gunshot.

But nothing compared to the thought of when he finds himself in a corner, when his only answer to it all was to simply blow himself away. We'd not only lose him here, we'd have the emotional distress of knowing that there's some perverted psychopath sweeping up bodies for his own use. And I can't put anything against the idea of that bastard having a whole parade in Nondis' body. Then that face I saw contorts to a smile, his neck breaking and his arms twitching violently, forever haunting me in my dreams... and in reality itself. I can only imagine the days of sleeping in my apartment, only to have him standing over my bed with that broken smile, looking down at me as I dream about it. Then there's waking up from the nightmare to face that same image with my eyes wide open...

That's some real nightmare fuel.

South Canterlot High School Grounds
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

Preparations to make our move have gone smoothly for the past hour and some change. Though we were losing sunlight, it was to our benefit that we didn't just go in while the sun was still giving a fairly decent glow. As far as I could remember, things don't start moving around until around the time the street light patrol start going through town lighting things up. And it wouldn't be any better to rush in when there's nothing going on or no one out and about to question. And on the flip side of things, it allowed me to carefully consider my options while they got settled in place. Plus the added bonus for the wait was that it would appear that it would be just business as usual, guards going about their daily patrols albeit in a slightly larger number, but nothing that screams to the bad guys that a crackdown was coming.

It was almost perfect. But not all things can simply convey a concise order to some as the process moves closer to completion. In short, Solemn Oath wasn't exactly keen to the idea of looking beyond the basic approach of numbers over everything. I think she was more in the camp of stuffing a square in a circular hole, find a way to make it work through brute force.

And for a half-hour, she complained about it. "Captain, I don't understand this! Why not go ahead with our full numbers? Let them see the power of the very land they hide within the cracks of."

As passionate as she was to show these guys the power of the guard, I was looking in the opposite direction. "Listen, is it easier to get roaches to come out when you're storming around to crush them, or when you start cooking bacon while lacing their access ways with boric acid?"

The mare appeared disgusted. "Ugh, can we not talk about such disgusting things?"

"Lady, you have no idea what you're getting into." I said while shaking my head. "My point is that if you walk up to them with an army, they're going to be looking at it as a war. So why fight that way when you can stage your attack in a manner that would garner the attention of as little forces as possible? My lone appearance would be noteworthy enough for a countermeasure, but not nearly enough to start a skirmish on one end of the district. I have everyone set up in squads for a reason."

"The last time we came here, we had forty-to-fifty guards. The princess placed over a hundred guards at your disposal for today. And you weaken that by dividing all of them into small groups and stripping them of their armor! A group of twelve unarmored guards isn't going to get anything done here, especially if they can disable magic."

"That's why Princess Celestia wasn't too picky with who I had on this assignment. Everyone's got a role here."

I looked over at that alleyway and my mind went to the movie 300. All I could think about was how the Spartans held their position at the tiny pass of Thermopylae. Driving that many forces into a funnel never worked out historically. It would be even more catastrophic with ponies hiding in the buildings as well, we'd be walking into certain chaos. I'm sure it's a contributing factor as to why Celestia didn't directly send her guard to file in there that night, aside for the other reason of her being blackmailed.

I waited a little longer while Solemn continued her argument. "And right now we're wasting precious time waiting for everypony to get in these incredibly strange positions you got them in."

More of the regular denizens started slowly trickling in through the alley, I nodded my head in observation. "Good, let them think that our time is being wasted. It's better to let the sun fight your enemies than you fight against the sun." I replied, borrowing from an old quote.

"There are rags everywhere above that place. What good is the sun going to be?" Unfortunately that quote went completely over her head. She still thought I was being literal.

I couldn't help but sigh at her. "I'm beginning to think you only got your position because of longevity and combat skills. I know you can think harder than that."

"I am thinking. Walking into Canterrot with just twelve guards is the recipe for certain disaster." She rebutted angrily. "I don't know how I can defend you when you put yourself in these dangerous situations that don't do anything but keep you wide open for an attack."

A ethereal-sounding ringing eminated from one of Solemn's saddlebags. She reached within and pulled out a crystal orb and levitated it towards me. Looking into it, I was greeted with the face of a guard. "Sir, all of our squads are in position."

"Hold until my signal. It will sound like popcorn in the distance."

The mare questioned me. "Popcorn?"

"In the distance." I stressed as I grabbed the orb and placed it back into her saddlebags. "Now let's move."

Grabbing my weapons and other items, I signaled to ten other guards to follow a bit behind me as I approached the alleyway. In doing so, they moved with the intent as to not stand out. I had my squad look the part of some stragglers seeking to have a good time. And it worked for the most part, it's just that I was the lone stand-out for everyone to see.

Some of the other regular dwellers froze in place as soon as they saw me walk by. I merely waved at them and smiled along the way, treating it as a normal stroll through the market. Now I could play like I'm naïve to them, but to the actual runners of the various operations not so much. They love taking in suckers like that and robbing them blind. Can't let myself get into a situation where they think I'm vulnerable or it will start violent and make my day even harder. And I wasn't too excited with the idea of getting dirty before I got into the district square.

As we walked, the path got darker and darker, almost as if the sun was blotted out by the curtain above. I didn't spare the moment to look up and take in the scenery, but Solemn did. Her mouth was left agape, her eyes wandering as she showed her inexperience with this part of town. And on that note, the usual run-of-the-mill grunts sought to take advantage of her wandering eyes. I had to snap my fingers at her to get her to focus, and being that I was more than double her height, I didn't have any trouble breaking her line of sight.

While the two of us came to a halt, the three grunts slowly approached us. Solemn started to walk towards them in a confrontational manner, but I held my hand against her chest and muttered over to her. "You stay quiet, let me do the talking." While the three got closer, I began my attempt at negotiation. "Hey boyos! What's on the menu tonight?"

As expected, the three didn't welcome me with open hooves. "A not-so protected species walking into the bad part of town? I'd say you'd have a death wish." The leader of the trio answered.

I tried to appear dismissive, at least explaining the purpose as to why I'm here. "No, not a death wish. I just wanted some meat to cook when I get home. I'm gonna make me a steak today."

The two unicorns to his side started to warm up their magic for a skirmish while their leader called me out. "To hell with what you want. Your kind isn't welcome here. So if you don't want something bad to happen, maybe you should just take your friend there and get lost."

I looked over to Solemn and saw how she was starting to reach for her weapon. But I quickly grabbed her and held her up for the three, almost as if I was picking up a fairly large cat. "You know, she's a bit of an offering for you guys."

"A what!?" She said as her hooves dangled off of the ground. She glanced down and quickly covered herself to prevent the others from catching a glimpse of what her body had to offer.

"See? Ain't she a cutie?" I asked the three with a cheerful smile.

The trio of goons observed with one of the lackeys shrugging off her physique. "She looks a bit ancient to me."

"Grrchrrt!? (Ancient!?)" At that point, I was glad I was holding her. If I wasn't she was definitely going to be starting some long-winded diatribe with some physical altercations in the mix.

I wouldn't say it out loud at this point in time, but holding her out like a pet wasn't exactly in my workout regiment. Most ponies are a bit lighter, but she's got an unusual amount of mass on her, possibly a testament to her physique. My arms started to show signs of fatigue from holding her up. "You know what they say sometimes, a fine wine requires some age. But with age comes wisdom, and wisdom stemming from years of... let's just say experience." While I was trying my best to keep up the façade, I was strongly considering the consequences of putting Solemn down. Her looking back at me like she was going to drive a spear in my eye socket was the main selling point.

The third lackey spoke out. "Well years of experience tells us that we can just simply kill you, take the girl, make a few sales, and we'll be rolling in bollies by the night's end with a old hag getting her back blown out in the back alley."

Finally feeling the burn in my arms, I hauled her into my chest and whispered in her ear. "Gonna get a little rough, just work with me." I warned her just before I sniffed her mane and inched my face beside hers. "She's a good scent, but a feisty one. A real kicker, you might need me to keep her in check. You see, she has this really short temper that just screams 'castration' if you let her go about without the proper correction."

More hoofsteps from behind indicated that there were more ponies coming through, but I could hear some come to a complete stop. I knew then that two more goons approached us from behind. The situation had just become untenable. The leading goon stepped up his threats as he used his magic to summon a dagger. "We're not stupid. We know you both are here for something. Now spill it or things get violent."

"Not up for talking or sharing, huh?" I said calmly, placing Solemn down to the ground. I then folded my arms and waited quietly for a little while. I glanced to both of my sides and behind me, we were wedged in from both sides. I started to speak to the head goon, but this time from my recognizing him from the time Celestia knocked his head loose. "That's pretty strange considering that you lot like to rub up on unsuspecting girls walking through here. I thought I could at least share in the fun before I go get me a nice cut of meat and be on my way. Shame."

"Another move, and I'll blast you!" One called out from behind me.

I raised my hands in plain sight, slowly to show that I'm wasn't being a threat. "Alright, okay, I get it, sheesh." I glanced around and smirked to myself, snapping my fingers as I directed one word back to the assailant. "Freeze."

Without warning, the goons by his sized had been blasted and knocked clean out. One guy behind me lunged with the intent to kill, only to be killed himself by wooden bolt getting injected into the back of his neck. The other had his throat crushed by an earth pony guard. The leader screamed as he tried to send a dagger my way. "You son of a─" But was quickly cut off by the sound of a bolt flying through his skull, embedding itself most of the way through up to the fletching. The pony slumped over and hissed as his life expired.

Solemn glanced down to the crossbow she held and was genuinely impressed with it's performance. "Wow, this thing is quiet and strong." She then refocused her attention to me, visibly flustered over how she was picked up like a small child. "Now back to you, mister! I don't care what our mission is here, I will NOT be objectified!"

"Sorry, had to sell the performance." I replied. "Bartering and negotiation is part of the façade. Sometimes you have to keep moving on that, but the key is not truly committing to it. The less resources you spend early on, the better off you are for later if you need to pull out all the stops. Now grab that arrow out of his skull and let's keep moving."

She didn't hesitate to yank the stallions head in her attempt to grab the arrow with her magic. After a few shakes and a second or two of watching him slide off, he plopped back to the ground as she collected the bloody bolt. She walked over the body and whispered. "You get what you deserve."

This time, I had the undercover guards move in ahead of us, roaming about like they were parishioners. Solemn continued to operate outside of that directive and stay by my side the entire time we ventured through the streets of Corrotto. It wasn't before long when we finally reached the main fountain where the market started to set up it's wares. But when they saw me, the first thing they did was commence to the cleanup. Stalls had been folded up with a single kick, wares swept off like they were wiped clean, and the owners stood by their spots with absolutely nothing for sale.

One guy called out to me vehemently. "HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?"

"NO HUMANS ALLOWED!" Another one hollered as he used his aura to replicate the blade of a broadsword.

Solemn took notice of the many goons as they started to form weapons in a similar manner. "Their magic!"

I held my hand out to her and advised her to stay back, I walked ahead with my hands up to show that I wasn't a harm. "Hey guys, I heard there was a griffon selling some really good cuts of meat. I'm here to buy some off of him."

The griffon in question moved from in front of his stall, growling with his talons scraping against the rock. "We've got nothing to sell you."

I slowly reached underneath my shirt to hide my magic use, summoning a heavy bag of jewels. I pulled it out and patted the sack. "Fifteen thousand worth in bollies. Fire rubies. Sounds like a one-sided offer." Neither of them budged at the offer. "Aw, come on, guys! I just want some meat! I get fucking tired of eating a bunch of green shit, I just want something I can sink my teeth into. Or maybe you guys got some ribs?"

"I've got nothing to trade you." The griffon replied in an antagonistic manner.

I walked up to him kneeling down to him. "Nothing? Nothing at all?"

The griffon glanced back at some of the others and nodded. "You want meat, we've got some in that old church over there."

I saw that he was pointing to the arena instead of his stall. I knew that he wanted to lure me into a trap, and I willingly took the bait. "Maybe you'd walk me over?"

"The bitch stays here." He growled, leering over to Solemn Oath.

"Fine by me." I said with a shrug before we carried on. As a few others grunts offered to close in on the mare with perverted intentions, I turned back to issue a warning. "Oh, and uh... She's a biter. Might wanna keep it to yourselves if you value your meat."

While the two of us slowly walked into the temple, we were shrouded in shadows. Not a light was on to guide me to where I stepped, not a single glimmer to offer me insurance. There was only the dim light from the concealed sunset outside, so it was almost as good as pitch black further inside. The griffon who walked beside me had gradually slowed to a stop, leaving me to walk ahead on my own. "Just keep walking straight, there's a counter over there that sells it."

I stopped walking and turned back around to see the griffon waiting quietly, looking at me with the expectation of my screams echoing from my fall into the abyss. I began to walk towards him instead. "Let's cut the bullshit, alright?" I said as I pulled out a road flare and popped one to light the room. The griffon began to raise a talon in anticipation of a brawl. "Now, I know there's a hole leading to the underground arena where you have your usual festivities every Tuesday and Friday night. But I also know that there's an arimaspi as the Beast of the Week. So let me let you in on a little deal. This place is about to get real sanctified, or as we say in my home country... 'democratic', in less than five minutes. If you work with me, those fifteen thousand will be used to fund your way out into a new life. You'll sell your meat in another town. And then as a reward, I'll even slip in a slide of Wagyu beef."

"Wagyu beef?" He asked somewhat confused, feeling like he heard those words once before.

I cleared my throat and spoke with a bit of falsetto, remenescent of my pony voice. "The meat that melts in your mouth like butter."

His eyes bucked wide open as he pointed to me. "...You."

I tossed the flare to a nearby corner as I walked in closer to continue negotiating with the butcher, summoning another bag of jewels. "Now, say yes and promise to keep your mouth closed about our deal, and maybe you can walk out of here with another extra ten thousand. That's a total of twenty-five thousand, all for you bub."

"Show me the goods." The griffon tilted his head, glancing down at the sack I opened before him. His eyes radiated along with the shiny red rubies that glistened from within the mundane brown sack. Along with them, I showed another sack of blue sapphires. The griffon bit onto his own claws as he started to ponder the deal.

"I know the code you guys live by. Bits, bollies, or blood. I know you make only so much on meat sales. So how about it? Maybe I can even hook you up with a restaurant here that actually serves meat to certain customers, perhaps even a spot on the royal kitchen staff." I knelt down and whispered to him with glancing eyes, disclosing a very exclusive secret. "I know two guys in the castle who would love to get another slab of pork ribs in their bellies, and they'll pay a pretty penny to keep you around."

The griffon swiped at the sacks, but not before I could yank them from his reach. "I don't want no one coming after me."

Seems to me he was far beyond sold. "Hey man, what can I say? I like you, I like your passion for meat. It's hard to find a kindred spirit when it comes to those kinds of things in this world."

While he was sold on the initial prospect, there was nothing that could stop him from ratting me out afterwards. But if there was anything that was genuine, it was the timing of his stomach telling him he was hungry for something. A bit of drool fell from his beak. "You want my silence, I want the beef." I whipped out my phone and started looking up a quick search for Wagyu beef. A listing came up, a whole New York striploin was on sale for a thousand dollars. While my eyes flinched at the price, I carried on with the purchase. The griffon stared at me as I confirmed the order. "Wait, what are you doing?"

I put my phone away as I informed him of the order. "It'll be an import that'll take about two or three days, but consider it on import."

"What kind of cut?" He asked, wiping his beak.

"Whole boneless striploin." I answered.

He excitedly extended his claw for a handshake. "You've got a deal."

While I wasn't as enthusiastic about shaking his drooled-on claw, I was more in the line of thinking of last night where I had much worse on my hands instead. After the deal was struck, I gave him his reward and secretly wiped my hand off on the seat of my pants. "So quick question before democracy ensues. Where are they hiding the creature?"

The griffon gave me an honest answer. "That I don't know. I'm not a member of the Hunter's Guild."

"Know someone who is out there?" I asked, pointing back to the outside.

He took a moment to ponder on who he knew. "There's one who watches the outside path from the main street across the high school."

...Well that's a big oof, "He's currently having a permanent marriage to the ground, their relationship is pretty mind-blowing, can't keep his brain off of her. Anyone else?"

"Damn. Bit of a perv, but he was a good pal. Shitty customer though." He said as he started to think on any others that might be of interest. "The one who sits outside with a bunch of legs to sell. He's gotten all kinds from the arena after-market. He calls it a mutual dependency."

"What's his name?"

"Hobble Good."

Hobble, huh? What an appropriate name. "Okay, that's a good starting point." I pointed him to the direction of the side exit and gave him some advice. "Wait around in your home for now. Then as we leave, start making your way to the Sun Cryst Resort. From there, I'll send for you."

The griffon smirked as he flew off. "A day in the good life? Don't even get me started!"

Satisfied that I didn't have to immediately resort to violence against the only guy who sells meat in the city, I turned my attention back to the courtyard outside. As soon as I walked outside, I heard someone screaming in pain, I looked over to the source to see Solemn firmly planting her hoof into some poor guy's neck. "Sounds like she's out here is having a little too much fun." I muttered to myself.

He continued to scream at her. "GET THE FUCK OFF OF ME, YOU BITCH!"

I slowed down as I noticed a few ponies started to gather, namely the locals beginning to outnumber us by a fair amount. I called out to the crowd politely. "Hobble Good! Who's name is Hobble Good!"

The apprehended stallion continued to scream obscenities. "Why that no-good, greedy griffon bi─"

I moved Solemn out of the way, all while she argued against me. "This creep started circling around me saying how he liked my legs so much, so I decided to give him a taste of what he's been gawking at."

Well that isn't a sign lit up in bright neon lights telling me who he was. "I take it you're the one they call Hobble Good?" I questioned the stallion.

I moved his mane out of the way to reveal a large fresh bruise on his face the size of a horseshoe, that coupled with a bloodied nose. He hatefully screamed out to me as I crouched over him. "I'll have all of you hobbling at the end of the day, longshanks!"

I looked around me and saw that the crowd started to become antagonistic and quickly summarized that we needed to come down hard on the square at that moment. I swiftly answered back. "Okay then, you first."

I pulled out my sidearm and unloaded three shots into his right hindleg. He started to scream over the pain. "AAAAAAHHHH! SONOVA... SHIT!"

The crowd stopped muttering and being angry for a moment, trying to come to grips with what they heard, with what startled them enough to stop dead in their tracks. I then motioned to Solemn. "Get this one inside that church." While the guards that entered in as undercover patrons started to circle around us, they unveiled spears and crossbows to the hostile audience. Before she could load Hobble onto her back, I politely pulled at her tail to grab her attention. "Don't walk directly ahead in the dark. It's not all that well-lit so you might want to watch your step."

She instantly pivoted and stared me down for my method of getting her attention. "You don't have to pull my tail, you chauvinistic bastard!"

"I'm just saving your life. Now get your ass moving." I warned as I popped off a few more rounds into the air to further get the signal out to the others who might not have gotten the memo.

The crowd who looked on appeared unsure of what to do next, but there were a few brave onlookers who thought to make a run at us. Some of the ones who did had been stopped by a spear or bolt from a crossbow. The others who survived that initial response initiated close quarters with the guards. I quickly started picking off which ones were more of a danger to my guards, hoping to put them down before they could inflict lethal harm. One who was especially fueled on adrenaline had shoved down one guard, kicked another, and ran at me directly with a knife formed from their magic. I extended my hand and steered him off course with my own magic, and followed up with two shots into his head. I kept my weapon aimed for him until he finally slung over and lied motionless.

The rest of the rowdy crowd started to rally and make their attempt of a charge, but not before the streets from the outside started flooding with guards in all directions. The crowd looked behind them to see that they had been completely surrounded. Taking advantage of the chaos, I took a moment to reload and swap for a more definitive answer for anyone else looking to make a run for us. I fired a few more at the dead grunt, trying not to fire more bullets into the air than I need to.

Upon grabbing the crowds attention with the sounds of my AR-15, I loudly called out to them. "I already know each and every one of you hate my ass! No love lost here! I'm placing each one of you under arrest! Do not resist, do not try anything stupid! Anyone with a lit horn, as much as a goddamn spark, and I will have that son of a bitch shot the fuck off for no extra cost! And if you don't believe me..." I reached behind my back and summoned the fractured remnants of Chrysalis' horn Alex shot off of her months back. I then proudly showed it off for the whole crowd to see. "You can ask this bitch! You can ask every goddamn changeling that tried to flee their happy little asses from out of here! You all read the headlines, I'll make it effortless! Don't fucking test me or you will go home an earth pony today! And anyone looking for a fight, you'll be going home in a box! Now you have two choices, either you stay peaceful and get processed quietly, or you can fuck around and find out! Choose the game you wanna play!"

Even from the guards, there was silence.

I slowly backed up with my weapon in tow, watching with a careful eye as I walked back into the former church.

After I got back into the arena foyer, both Solemn and I took the opportunity to interrogate the black market vendor for any information. While it took him a good amount of time to crack, namely for trying to buy time for his friends in the guild to come by and show us guards a good time, he did eventually tell us where we could find the arimaspi. But that wasn't the only good thing we had going for us. The Beast Tamers Guild, the association he worked under, had come in to provide some reinforcements. But as soon as they saw the courtyard swarming with over a hundred guards, they reconsidered their options and retreated.

It was just as Alabaster said, a well-coordinated approach with knowledge of the square and an ideal time to strike on the day of Corrotto's weakest market flow, this place comes down to it's knees and then some. With that warrant in tow, there's almost nothing that can stop us from legally shutting the place down. With an asset like that and witnesses at my disposal, it's becoming easier to surmise a solution to our political problem.

I just hope I don't see Him again. My head hurts thinking about it.

Together, Solemn and I walked the halls that I had grown accustomed to navigating. But this time there was a vast difference in the atmosphere. What used to be halls bathed in orange, cyan, and magenta neon lights, there was only the red light from the flare I held up to see our way through. The sounds of crowds cheering and jeering at the arena floor was completely silenced, replaced with the sound of a dull breeze flowing through the place. Even our own steps had become much too loud for my liking, I began to prefer the sounds of debauchery taking place as opposed to our silent passage. Traveling through these halls in the darkness began to trigger unsavory memories of my recent struggles, I started to grip at my weapon even tighter, ready to mow down the first thing that dared to get close.

"Ugh, this place looks so primordial." Solemn complained as we walked, startling me a bit as she reminded me that I wasn't alone.

The grip on my weapon loosened. My mind was once again anchored in the present. "You should see it at night, it's kinda pretty." I mumbled, looking around at the monochrome fixtures.

"How would you know that?" The mare questioned.

I glanced over to her and immediately fed her an incomplete truth. "I have my sources on the inside. That's why I know the streets, the escape routes, the entrances, every capillary that feeds from the main arteries of Canterlot. If corruption is the monster of this district, then this place is the lungs and heart of the beast."

"How so?" She asked.

"Every Tuesday and Friday night, all of Canterlot's refuse come here to watch a good show of goons, gangs, thieves, and mercenaries try their hooves at getting even, getting fame, or just simply getting paid to put on a show. It's sanctioned murder."

The mare visibly showed her disgust. "That's disgusting."

"Oh, and that's not even the half of it." I said as we came to a familiar area. I looked to the walls where there were a few wide openings to allow a pony's head to squeeze through. "See this wall, it's built where ponies inside of that room can peep outside where the passing crowd can get a good look of their best 'Oh' face... all while getting vaginally and anally decimated."

She stepped back and shuddered with abhorrence. "Ew!"

"That's what real objectification looks like, princess." I said as I moved on from the area, taking a left as the guy instructed me to, not even glancing to the right where I would normally enter the VIP Lounge.

"Well it's not something I'm going to get used to." She said with a pompous disposition.

I briefly thought of Kalimba as we walked, how she was pretty much the exact opposite of what Solemn portrayed herself to be. While Kalimba was a lot more liberal in using her body to get what she wanted or to further her means to a desired end, Solemn was stern and proud of her independence. She was far more prudish than the zebracorn, but it came from an experience of what I would like to call privileged oppression. Where in her life she had to deal with an assortment of stallions getting the nod above her, but I can understand why that came to be because of her tactical shortcomings. Meanwhile Kalimba had used her trauma and disadvantages as a means to adapt to her surroundings. She had a standard for herself, but she's able to put that aside to fulfill the role of a femme-fatale when she needs to do so or to preserve her own self. No question their upbringings were vastly different, and it showed in how they saw the world around them. Kalimba is cynical and quick-witted, she's open to ideas and she doesn't mind an inconvenience. Solemn is blunt and forward-seeing, she's prone to seeing things only in black and white, following her beliefs to mixed results.

While she's physically gifted in combat, everything else in her view is flawed. I turned to her and offered her some words of advice. "Life has a strange way of turning your expectations into fanatical delusions. I suggest you don't judge anyone unless they truly should be judged."

She completely ignored me, stepping on an empty glass vial. Looking down at the ground, she saw a mix of small wastes. Food wrappers, unfinished cigarettes, chewed-up bubblegum, broken beer bottles, and even white packets of products that were advertised to temporarily stop fertilization. Scribblings on the wall spoke of names of who had visited, who was interested in a good time, and even lethal threats to various persons. Even the words 'Dethrone the Royalist Pigs' was etched in spray paint. "Eugh, what else goes on down here?"

I gave her a quick rundown of things. "Drugs, prostitution, enslavement, possibly necrophilia."

The mare scoffed and started scratching her hoof against the message depicted against the royal family, attempting to smudge the message out of existence. "Princess Celestia should just burn this place down. Let judgement be done."

"They already hate her here. No need to fuel that aggression just yet." I said while walking forward.

"So what?" She asked before realizing that the hall was getting significantly darker as I moved away from her. She galloped to catch up to me and continued her argument. "What good does letting this all exist do for the city!?"

I looked to the ceiling and started making an argument in favor of understanding, not so much in support. "Tourism. It's the only place that's up past midnight, and it goes for a while. The market outside is usually thriving with drunks, druggies, sluts, and criminals. If you're not one of those then you're either one of two things, a customer or a victim. Spoiler alert: Victims don't make it to sunup."

The mare looked to me with disbelief. "You know so much, so what does that make you?"

Again, I lied to her. "It's as I posed on earlier, I'm a wandering customer looking for some good prices on meat, and my pony on the inside makes those purchases for me."

"I still don't see how it is that this blight on the city can continue to exist." Solemn persisted.

"Well all those tourism dollars go to the many political pundits that keep the laissez-faire jurisdiction active."

The mare stopped and tugged at my shirt, halting my progress as she questioned me. "Laissez-faire?"

I then began to explain. "It's French for 'Hands off'. In my world, it means that the business conduct their own oversight. No government intervention or regulations, just let the market be the market and ride things out. Of course it leads to a lot of corruption at the top and a bunch of misery at the bottom. And just like home, the corporations and representatives here that have their hooves in the drug money use it to fund some of their other large-scale investments, even political campaigns. Meanwhile, the low-level distributors do it to make a living for their families, barely scraping by and feuding with anyone on their turf. They're taught that the world doesn't want them, that there is no other way to live. So they do dangerous things to keep the money flowing, so they can continue to provide for those that depend on them. Then there are other ponies who get involved exclusively to keep their loved ones safe. But as all good intentions pave the streets of hell, the bad intentions are the brick and mortar for the standing skyline. The endless freeway filled with hopes and dreams of better, while those who stay on the top floor look and laugh at the traffic. They'll stand at the top of their towers pissing down to the streets below, and have all those aspiring dreamers stop to open their mouths to catch the rain."

The mare appeared saddened at my explanation. "That's a terrible world to live in."

"That's life." I rebutted. "Not everyone can sing in the community musical number when the party comes to town. Some people have real issues that can't be remedied with a song selection, or a hug, or a lasting bond of friendship. When it gets tough, you have to find something, sometimes working slave labor and wages for the money, other times working in illegal stuff to get a good dollar under the table. And guess what, money is what makes the world go round, not you, your dreams, your efforts, or your beliefs. And even if there's a way to unite and advocate for better, best believe there are those at the top who already bought off the judge and jury. Our worlds aren't that different from one another in that regard, corruption still rests at the top."

"Well we serve a merciful princess, that's something to be happy for. And she's on top of everything." Solemn replied optimistically.

"Brief detour. Follow me for a sec." I started walking to a doorway leading into the arena bowl. "I know you unicorns got a flashlight function, so why don't you give it a good glance." She did as I instructed, using her horn to brightly illuminate the entire area we stood in and a bit of the arena floor. Where her head turned, she saw everything, from used needles to blood splatter. Her jaw fell agape as I spoke. "Look around you, do you think any prince or princess matters down here? The church above used to be the go-to chapel to anoint new royal family members their crowns. Have you not paid attention to the walls I just pointed out to you, the walls you tried scribbling out those messages on?"

Her eyes began to fill with sadness, and then with anger and confusion. "Well this is the life they chose to have! If they want to live differently, they can and should! I shouldn't have to feel sorry about this because this is their choice! I still can't fathom why anypony would choose to live in a world where they can't live happily."

I then quenched her horn and held the flare up so she could see my face as I knelt down to her. "And for many in this district, this place is the answer to the very same thing you just pointed out."

"How is there happiness in this, in any of this?" Solemn said, still feeling upset.

I stood up and walked her back to our intended path. "It's the thrill, the neon lights that shine so bright, the throbbing bass in the music, the flashing colors, the drugs to fuel the escape, the sex with no strings, the act of breaking every social taboo with as little confrontation, the ambition to be your true self instead of hiding in society, the grim and morbid curiosity that settles in almost every suburban youth's mind to see a dead body, it's literally the purpose. You can live your best life here, as dangerously as you could ever mentally conceive if you know what you want and how to get it. The deal is that you don't get caught when you leave. And trust me, there are more than a few of those in the castle itself who find leisure here."

"But why... this?" She asked as she stepped on a partially torn picture of a masked red stallion posed with their hoof spreading their hindquarters to reveal all of themselves to the viewer.

"Because there's a market for what it has to offer, and society forbids many from exploring it. A lot of what happens here is morally wrong, some others is just from society's view. And when there's a market that caters to everyone, then that's exactly who's looking to live their dreams. That's the happiness they get, the guaranteed satisfaction."

She continued to state her opposition as we moved forward. "This isn't the Canterlot I grew up knowing. This is some alternate world, this isn't who or what we are. Canterrot is just some bastardized portamento of the word 'rotten' with our beautiful city. This isn't our city, this isn't us."

I shook my head as I replied to her. "I know that the world is explicitly black and white to you, but there's many shades of gray that make up the finer definitions of the world we love and live in. And you have to look at what those shades are in order to better understand people. That's what makes us better at what we do, learning how and when to deal with something or someone. It doesn't always work running up the middle, showing all of our numbers in the early running, letting an untold number of vital elements escape from you, or trying to live a certain way to appease a certain person or group. Sometimes you have to think for yourself and not the image of what you believe in." I explained. "Quick example. You see caught a scrawny little colt who just stole a loaf of bread, what do you say to yourself?"

"He stole a loaf of bread, so he should return it and I let him go." She answered plainly, speaking her first mind.

"So he does that, you let him go, and he goes back home. Now he dies the next day from starvation. What do you say then? He's too young to work and his parents have tried to make ends meet. But since they live here, all services are scarce. And now the mom and dad are angry because a guard stopped their child from eating. So then you go back to that message on the wall 'Dethrone the Royalist Pigs'. What now?"

Solemn groaned in frustration. "That's a pretty unrealistic scenario. There are plenty of options to feed your foals if you're not making enough income."

I couldn't help but sigh in response. "My point is that there's another way to handle the immediate circumstance. You see the kid is scrawny for a reason. Is he unhealthy, malnourished, high metabolism? He could've went for the money, but he chose bread. He's hungry. So why not buy the bread from the seller and give it to the kid?"

"But what if he has the intention of doing that repeatedly just because he knows he can get away with it?"

"Well that's another way of proving my point, at least I know you can be a skeptic in something. But you still have to exercise a bit of humanity in some cases. Bottom line is that the kid is hungry, buy him the bread, talk to him and get him to understand that what he did shouldn't be done again, inform him of the consequences the next time it happens, and then both sides come away with an understanding. That's what should happen."

As we turned into a hallway, I took notice of the iron gate being raised high enough to allow certain creature sizes into the hall. "So you tell me something. What understanding is there in all of this?"

"The ponies here are looking to run from their problems, and are going about it the wrong way." I answered thinking about Kalimba's father. "But there are some who do realize their mistakes, and will seek to atone for it."

"And the sanctioned murder?"

That had me to think about my first time running into the town square, namely when I met Prod. "There's no excuse for that, the necrophilia, or even some of the shit they sell here. It's the ones at the top that provide the market and the space it utilizes. Without it, the traffic below simply passes through rather than stop by. You have to learn to open your eyes to all the gray, not just the two ends of the spectrum for one end of the column."

She scoffed at my statement. "Trust me, I know there's corruption at the top. How do you think you got your position over every other qualified pony who's served for over fifteen years or more?"

Admittedly, that is a valid point. Just being a suitor does land you that privilege, superseding years of hard work and prestige from others. But she still showed me that her line of thinking is still predicated on her own selfish mantra. I couldn't help but to chuckle at her. "Sometimes I'd wish you'd have that same energy in the on-field decisions you make."

We came up to a hulking gate where claw marks of various sizes decorated the brick frame. The mare questioned me as we inspected the entrance. "I take it we've reached the end of our search?"

"This is the door Hobble mentioned. Guess we should knock politely." I joked, thinking of a way to break inside. Meanwhile, Solemn confidently approached the side of the door to illuminate a black iron-wrought panel.

"Stand back." She warned as her horn started to glow a silver color. Orange glyphs started to show on the door as her magic continued to work against the mechanisms. "Every door like this has a lock, not a magical one but one that comes with a special trap if it's just simply broken into. It's sometimes used to do away with fools looking to rush in."

The mare slowly worked against the tumblers of the lock, each glyph turning blue to confirm the correct combination. After a few more seconds, the door clacked and started groaning, the massive gate began to rise slowly, the chains that rattled stressed against the mighty weight of the wooden door. The door jerked down an inch before stopping with a loud clatter. The mare looked up and inspected the doorway.

Meanwhile, I was being optimistically cautious. "I'm gonna assume that sound means we're good to go."

"Not yet." She warned before a loud clack sounded along with a few other chains rattling in the distance. She then nodded. "Now we're all set."

I threw the road flare to the side of the gate, illuminating our way out. I pulled out my phone and turned on the flashlight to see what may have stopped moving. My flashlight revealed a groove in the ground just an inch deep, I looked over one side and immediately saw a large bladed pendulum resting against the wall. I drew a heavy breath as I walked forward. "Interesting lock."

But upon that same breath, I quickly realized that breathing in through the nose was probably the worst idea I had. There was a putrid odor flowing malignantly through the air. "Urf... It smells worse than you did last night." Solemn said as she glanced back at me.

While the smell was completely unpleasant, I found myself not as disgusted as I figured myself to be. It wasn't that I had completely adapted to the smell, but rather it was a sign that my mind started to shape that process. I still held a cloth to my nose as a means to nullify the scent to a degree. "Yup, that's the smell alright. Been acquainted with that for a week or so. Hell, longer."

Moving along, we ran across a multitude of cages, many varying in their size. Along the way was an abundance of puddles of blood. If anything, this place looked less like a containment center and more of an unrefrigerated slaughterhouse, smelled as such too. And with the passing moments, the reality began to manifest before our very eyes. "Are all these creatures dead?" Solemn questioned.

I tapped the bars of one of the cages, seeing if anything moved from within. Nothing. "Looks to be. But the arimaspi was set to be the undisputed winner for this week." I said as I came across a trio of dead cockatrices. One had a head missing, the other had it's eyes gouged out, and the third was missing it's feet. "Guess the hunter guild is selling the body parts for potion brewing."

"This isn't just illegal, it's cruel. This is an entire organ-harvesting ring. This manticore is missing it's tail." She added as she came across a much larger cage housing the deceased lion-like creature.

I walked across an even larger beast, something that looked like a mix of a panda bear with wings. In fashion, it's back was scarred and ripped at brutally, it's backside ripped to shreds. "Bugbear missing it's wings and stinger."

She came across a large creature missing it's entire bottom half, she quickly identified what it was by the number of heads it still had attached. "There's a hydra in here, but it's been completely bisected. I've never seen a hydra completely killed off like this, and these things are extremely hard to kill."

And of course, working my way through the larger cages, I came across the familiar sight of a singular eye gazing into the abyss, the creature with what used to be horns as large as it's head. It's nose ripped from the golden piercings being forcibly stripped from it, the mane cut at to grab more of it's jewelry, the creature rested peacefully. "...I think I found what we're looking for."

She approached the cage slowly, cautiously approaching as if the creature had instilled within her an irrational fear. "So it's blind?"

I shifted my light to see if the pupils in the eye would dilate, no changes. "Nope. It's dead."

"How can you tell?" She whispered, easing forward like she was expecting it to pop up and surprise us.

I looked over to the mare. "You never saw an arimaspi in real life before?"

"No, just been told stories." She shyly whispered. "I know that Shining Armor went out to face them with forty guards, and only he and another came out to tell the tale. There were two others, but they committed suicide. These creatures are rumored to be the death of any guard that faces them. They even killed the legendary warrior prince Fair Charity. No way I'm going near that thing."

I shined my light at a different angle once more, discovering yet another grim trademark of this place. "Well this sucker is supposed to be much larger. All I see is a head with no body attached."

The mare sighed with relief, but pulled at me to urge at our departure. "Well that settles it, mission accomplished. We're good to leave now."

I walked around the cage and saw something that caught my eyes. Outside of the imagery of maggots digging into the flesh of the wound, I caught a glimpse of something that was fairly unusual. "Wait..."

"What now!?" She squeaked as I approached the back end, seeing that the cage was left open.

"I'm gonna get a closer look." I answered as I walked inside.

I held my phone with one hand and used my magic to graze through the wound, also picking out something that was small and shiny. "Are you kidding me? That thing is dead, and looks to have been that way for at least a while! No need for the autopsy."

I tried my best to ignore the wriggling maggots and investigated further. "Judging from the wound, this isn't a clean cut. The flesh here looks torn, there are several uneven lacerations. The muscle fibers look like it's been ripped at." Upon a closer look, I started to notice that some of the hairs had been singed like something hot came into contact with them. Along with that, some of the flesh at the neck appeared to be impacted with something that caused an extreme amount of muscle damage. "And half of the neck looks to have suffered from some incendiary device. The fur on this side of the neck looks charred, as does the skin."

My eyes narrowed as I started removing small metallic bits from the creatures neck. Much of it appeared to be shrapnel, a lot of it seemed to be from the gold it wore, but also from some other metal. I picked and pulled until I noticed that there was something lodged against the side of the vertebrae. I froze in place as I noticed how bunched up it was against the bone. "What?" Solemn asked, seeing the expression on my face. I quickly got in closer and pulled at the tiny metallic object, finding out that it was indeed made of brass, cylindrical, and crushed in as if it was launched at a blinding rate of speed. I looked back down at the bits of metal I extracted, finding a few more of those same items, three of them. I held one up to Solemn. "What's that tiny thing?"

"A bullet from a military-grade assault rifle. This thing was shot at." I said as I noticed how relatively fresh the brass was.

A chilling breeze ran through the room, causing the mare to shiver. "So are you done playing in forensics? This place really smells and I don't want to be in here to catch too much of the stench."

I wasn't exactly done, I had started to notice that much of the bits of metal were crude and brittle, almost like the coating of a grenade. "Shrapnel... metal fragmentation... Oh no."

Solemn stopped for a moment before she called out to me again. "Captain... CAPTAIN!"

"What!?" I answered her back, becoming annoyed.

She glanced at the wooden frame of another fairly large cage, one that was completely empty. On the side sat an advertisement. "I think you should look at this poster."

I stepped out of the cage and did as she suggested. Looking on the ad, I saw that it was supposed to be a big fight taking place, much like how they advertised the main event of the arimaspi fighting that bugbear the night I entered the VIP Lounge. "Okay... what is this silhouette supposed to be?"

As I held the light up to the poster, she started to state her hypothesis. "It's not a pony, that's for certain. The wings are too sharp, and it has claws for it's forelegs. It looks like a griffon, judging from the perspective."

Looking at it further, it seemed that there was the identifying traits of a griffon in that silhouette. But still, there was one thing on my mind. "A griffon? What kind of griffon would get anything remotely close to human weaponry, much less how? That's what was used to kill that arimaspi."

"Apparently the match was slated for last night." She said, pointing at the date.

"That's an unusual day." I muttered to myself, knowing that there was an event on Friday as well.

Our conversation was then cut short as we started hearing sounds of some chatter coming from the opposite direction the hall. A familiar voice started to send chills up my spine. I motioned for her to hide behind one of the cages while I broke back into survival habits and hid behind the severed arimaspi head. I clutched my phone against my chest, hiding the bright light until the duo had passed through. The two walked in from the side of the gallery we were initially walking towards, I kept my mouth sealed as I tried to breathe as lightly against the smell of rotten meat.

"Sir, I can assure you that you won't be disappointed with your purchase."

"Well I better not be. I did a lot of research to get this thing to work. I can't have a minor miscalculation throwing off my efforts." It was Him.

"The spinal chord was intact when we last looked."

"I could care less about that right now. I'm starting to hear mumblings of topside, tell me what's going on."

"Apparently some guards raided the square today."

"Guards?" He didn't sound pleased.

"If my eavesdroppers are right, we're looking at a hundred or more led by the captain himself."

"Hmm... and where is he?" My heart began to pulse loudly in my ears as I held my breath, slowly navigating in the directions of the shifting shadow.

"They said he walked into the lobby of the arena when they saw him last, had one of those weapons you gave to ol' Gazzy."

"Well... looks like I'll have to have a conversation with him if I run into him then. A loooong conversation." The two had left the gallery and walked in the direction opposite of where we came in from. I wanted until

At that moment, I turned to Solemn, who emerged from the side of the large cage, and whispered. "I think we should call it in. The longer we stay here, the more we put ourselves in danger."

"For once, I agree with you." She whispered back.

So it's been almost three weeks on the dot, and now I'm working on the next chapter. My schedule in May was thankfully busy. I could focus more on preparation. And as an added plus, I've gotten my laptop repaired. The motherboard had some water damage, but it's still functioning. However, it's only a matter of time before something else happens and I'll need to get it replaced. But at least I have a 2TB hardrive installed. I'll look into getting a SSD of that size later on.

But I was given a little more time to work this chapter on down, as well as some stuff for the next few. I've already got drafts for the next four chapters completed. So I'm starting to get back on track. Next 2-3 weeks I'll release the next chapter, no bullshit, no distractions, no rampant schedule will stop me from meeting that deadline.

I'll see you guys next go around. Thanks for reading up to this point.