***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

We sat in the lower bowl of the arena, where there was music thumping and crowds cheering at the violence taking place at the center of the arena. Even if it appeared that the place was about halfway empty, they made it sound like the whole place was filled to capacity. The lights were bright enough to see your way around, but most of the focus went to the arena. And as the lights showed attention to the bloody spectacle, as did the many patrons who cheered. Those around us couldn't care less about what anyone was saying to one another.

Dad seemed to have a soured frown, gritting his teeth. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"He's in that Faust-forsaken VIP lounge." He murmured out of concern. "It's just that there's a lot that goes on in there. Anyone who comes into contact with a place like that are forever imprinted with that level of perversion. And if not perversion, then trauma."

I looked to him, basically finding anything to not have to look at the two stallions ripping and tearing at each other's flesh. "You talk as if you've been in there."

He however didn't seemed phased by what was taking place. "No, but I do know a certain former politician who did and disappeared the next morning."

"Didn't you say you were partially responsible for that?" I recalled.

"Not in the sense of his disappearance, I told you what I did and how."

More cheers erupted as a painful yelp sounded from the center of the arena. "Yeah, you left him to deal with Prod."

The crowd died down as the disadvantaged victim ran from him with the intention to regroup. "And that's that. What I do after is no consequence of mine. And I'm sure he endured much after I left. It's still the mode of things."

The two gladiators reset their positions, and then charged to one another. While one continued to fight with his wits, the other relied on their physical attributes. "Do you think Prod would've did what he did if he wasn't in the guard?"

"It was only a matter of time. It wasn't the guard that changed him, he was just always wanting to live life on the wild side. That much I know, but he always hated politicians. It's no secret to those in the guard that they always use others to get their hooves dirty and die, while they get off squeaky clean and go back home to their perfect lives in modest luxury. And the more ambitious the project, the more they walk away with, the more bodies of our fellow guards are left behind."

The stallion who fought using his wits grabbed at anything and everything that could be used to give himself an advantage. As such, he gained the momentum and started to gradually wear out his opponent. "But we lived a life of modest luxury. Didn't he ever resent you for that?" I asked dad while he watched the fight.

"Always have." He replied. "Our family was always a legacy of guards, and a lot of our lineage was at least a warrant officer or higher. And seeing how you came out, I wouldn't be surprised if you were a natural-born specialist with the way you go about things. Even then, he couldn't shake the fact that my son became a suitor to a princess, my daughter becoming a pupil to another. We lived the life of privilege going in and our lineage rose to the top of the structure, there was plenty for him to resent."

The stallion who relied on his physical gifts started to falter, collapsing to the ground in exhaustion. "About that thing you did with him, where you got your five minutes, how did the two you ever work together for that?"

"He heard what happened with the Arimaspi Mountain assignment that was given to your brother. And of course, he knew some of the others who had family in that assignment also. For veterans, it's a quiet solidarity we have when young blood is needlessly spilled. And Prod was put in a similar situation to it, so he knew how it felt to be a victim to those circumstances. Safe to say he wasn't having any of it, no matter who it affected."

The quick-thinking gladiator approached his opponent cautiously, trying to prepare for any sudden movements. "Do you think he and Nondis would've worked together just fine?"

"Nah, he doesn't trust anything without a tail or a hoof to walk on. Of course, that's just a byproduct of his upbringing." Suddenly, the downed stallion threw a hoof in the air, kicking up dirt and dust into the eyes of the stallion who appeared to be winning. But in the mere instant, he was tackled and a knife was plunged into his chest. "You may want to close your eyes, this match looks decided."

I turned my head elsewhere as the screams of the once-witty stallion had permeated the air, mixing in with the cheers of the onlookers. "What am I trying not to look at?"

"Another murder." He answered as the gladiator rocked his knife through the other stallion's chest, cutting and carving his way around until his previously-advantaged opponent started to slow down gradually.

The stallion grew desperate, punching and kicking his way back up, but to no avail. "That's a good thing to avoid. Though I'm not exactly a stranger to the concept of death. Me and the girls have seen plenty in our adventures."

Dad didn't seem too phased by the stallion struggling on the ground. "It's one thing seeing the death of those caused by your enemy, it's another to see your enemy falling before you, that's a part of the battle. But it's a surreal thing when you've no part in a conflict, and you have to watch the life fade from their eyes. The field of battle presents you with the mind that it's kill or be killed, but this is no field." But while he showed no physical reaction, his response was telling of how he felt watching the gladiator quietly fade from existence.

"They're just letting them die down there." I pointed out, seeing the sluggish reaction of the bloodied stallion on the ground.

"If I'm a betting pony, I would say that this is the intent." The victor raised their hooves triumphantly while the defeated withered on the ground, breathing slowly until... he simply stopped.

That was yet another thing I wish I hadn't seen. "Shouldn't we go?"

"If you're uncomfortable." Dad answered as we watched some of deciding officials run over to the loser and check his status.

"Something inside of me tells me we should." I answered, not wanting to hear the confirmation of what I had witnessed to.

"Then that's a good voice to listen to. Just like always, keep your eyes on me."

While I got up to leave the stands, dad watched as one official glanced back up to another after checking on the downed victim. He shook his head and stood up, running a hoof horizontally across his neck. A medic ran to the victim and checked for a pulse, he came back up looking at a time on a watch. Some quiet words were spoken and they started dragging the body off of the arena floor.

Dad finally left the stands, muttering to himself. "Another one to his collection."

Midtown District
Sometime Later...

Very slowly, a pair of distraught ponies marched onward to a small town unit. As they arrived, the mare whimpered and shuddered as her brother continued to assure his younger sibling of her safety. He continued to be gentle in the way he spoke and moved, trying not to become too loud as to not disturb the neighbors. When he reached the front door, he glanced around and unlocked it, entering the unit first. He cut on the lights of the room, seeing a clean home with fond memories of her accomplishments decorating the walls.

"Okay... we're home." He whispered tiredly.

She continued to shake and whimper, looking at the various shadows in the room. Many of them began to resemble faces around her. Her brother walked around to intervene before her mind started to devolve into madness.

"Look at me. We're home. We're safe." She quietly nodded, taking deep breaths as her brother stood before her. "Now, let's run you a bath, get you nice and clean. Big bubble bath, just like you used to like it. I'm gonna get us some drinks, we're gonna try... and get through this." As his spoke, his voice grew shaky. Alabaster held himself back from his own grief while he tried to comfort his accosted baby sister.

The mare started to walk up the stairs, slowly while looking at the photos along the way. Alabaster emerged from the kitchen with two bottles of bourbon and pointed up the stairs to hurry his sister along.

The two looked at each other before Alabaster called out to the door. "Who is it!?"

"This is the Canterlot Constable! Please open the door!"

The cream-white stallion slowly descended the stairs as he obeyed the command issued to him. When he opened the door, there were two guard ponies entering the unit with a third standing at the door. "What, now wait a minute. What's going on!?"

The stallion at the door pointed at a scroll with a red seal on it. "Council Member Alabaster Charm, you're being detained for questioning."

"Questioning at this time of night!?" The stallion asked as the two guards started placing shackles on all of his legs. As that was being done, Blue rushed back down the stairs to stop them from taking her brother.

"What are you doing!? That's my brother!" She pleaded as one of the other guards used his magic to keep her suppressed. "He's a good pony, he wouldn't do anything out of character!"

"What am I being questioned for!? What have I done wrong!?"

"Unlawful activity." The guard replied coarsely as he motioned the other two to take the stallion away.

"Where's the warrant!?" Alabaster questioned.

"You're being detained and questioned for suspicion of illegal activity. Witnesses have pointed you out walking around the streets near the Corrotto district for a week." The guard levitated the scroll from earlier. "So you tell us why you're up and about at this time of night."

"My sister is having a panic attack!" He replied angrily before being forcibly removed from the unit.

"Alabaster!" Blue called out frantically. Running out the door, she found them loading him into a detainment carriage. "That's my brother, he's only looking after me! Please don't do this, he's done nothing wrong!"

The guard quietly nodded his helmet to the mare. "I'm sorry for the disturbance, ma'am. Have a good night."

"WAIT!" She screamed loudly. The carriage quickly pulled off and ended up down the street. Blue tried running after her brother, but found that the carriage was moving far too quick for her to catch up with. The mare started to feel her chest tighten, her breaths running shallow as the air thinned to her mind. She began to cry out down the street. "ALABASTER!" After calling for her brother, she collapsed on the cobblestones that decorated the center of the street. She laid in place, losing all hope as she cried.

The sound of a door opening from another nearby unit sounded to her ears, just slightly over the sound of her manic breathing. A mare galloped over to her side. "My dear, are you okay?"

Blue began to hyperventilate rapidly, the mare who visited her had placed a hoof on the back of her head, trying to ease her back down. "Okay, okay. Everything's going to be okay." She then caught whiff of the smell coming off of her and flinched back. "Where did you come from, dear? Oh you poor thing must've went through it all." She continued to soothe the mare as best as she could. "Do you live around here?"

Blue, still hyperventilating looked to her own residence, the front door left ajar.

"You stay right there?" The mare questioned. "Well that makes us neighbors then. I promise to have you feeling better. I promise to take good care of you. Is it alright if you come with me?" Blue's breathing started to slow down gradually, her eyes finally gazing up to the mare attempting to care for her. She nodded her head. "Okay then, we'll get you inside, run you a lovely little bath, get you all clean, and then we can get the proper authorities to look out for you. Okay?" Blue was assisted off the ground as the mare walked along with her, guiding her to her own home.

Upon entering, Blue noticed a display case filled with many plaques and awards, some including a key to the city, a ceremonial wreath, and several pictures. The mare glanced at the photos, seeing a purple unicorn standing with a proud smile, holding up her certificate of acceptance to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns.

Blue turned to the gray mare, feeling a little more secure upon realizing who's home she was ushered into.

"I know it's cold as wendigos out there, I couldn't just leave you out in the middle of the street like that. You'll catch hypothermia like something fierce." The kind mare then shouted upstairs. "Spike, I know you're tired, but please come downstairs! Now!"

A few seconds later and the young dragon rumbled down the stairs to see the blue disheveled unicorn standing at the center of the room. "What's going on─" When he got closer, the dragon quickly picked up on the smell that was coming from her. "Yikes! It smells like something crawled over and died."

Blue's thoughts flashed back to the sight of her father's decaying face on top of her, caging her in as he did in life. Her breathing started growing rapid once more. Velvet took observation of the mare and chided the dragon. "Spike, we are not about to deal with any wisecracks! This mare is distraught and in dire need of help. If you want to do something about the smell, run a warm bath for her. Be of use instead of judging somepony for what they are in the moment."

"One hot bath, coming up." The young drake replied before running off upstairs.

Blue still suffered the trauma from her earlier ordeal, but Velvet calmly spoke to her and assured her safety. "Okay, baby girl. Look at me. I'm here. We're gonna get you right, and then we'll get you help. Just like I promised."

Her breathing started to slow back down gradually, Velvet continued to rub at the back of the mare's head. While she did, the front door opened to a pair of ponies. The two appeared sullen after their night out, mainly processing what they saw at the arena. "I am going to need a few books on sleeping spells before I get back to Ponyville."

The young mare turned around to see me and my dad walk in. He muttered to me. "I have a copy of Chancellor Puddinghead's Guide to a Good Night's Sleep. I'll let you hold on to it for a while."

"Thanks. I'll be needing it." I replied.

Mom scowled at dad. "Are you done scarring our daughter enough for your satisfaction, Crescent?"

"I don't particularly enjoy this stuff, Velvet." He replied. "I'm doing it because our daughter requested help, and I'm not letting her go through this without any kind of guidance."

Mom then turned her attention to me. "Violet, are you alright."

"I'm fine." I replied before turning my attention to the blue mare beside her. "Who's she?"

"She's..." Mom began before coming to a stall. "Well I do know she's a neighbor of ours. But she hasn't given us a name."

As I approached her, I couldn't help but to notice the smell on her. She seemed as if she had gone through hell, and smelled like it. "Ma'am, what is your name."

"...Blue." She whimpered in a low voice. "Blue Royal."

Mom grimaced as she gave the mare another glance. "Poor thing looks like she's been abused, and acts like it. What ever happened to you, dear?"

She wouldn't respond, only her breathing increased. Dad stepped in. "Ma'am, where do you live?"

"...Two units down."

"Her front door is still open. Not only is the cold getting in that place, but anypony could walk in at any given time." Mom also pointed out.

"I'll go over and give it a search before I lock it up." Dad answered before turning to the mare. "Miss Blue, do you mind if I secure your home for you?"

"Please." She whimpered once more.

"Alright." He confirmed before walking out the door. "Violet, get her in the bath and make sure she's comfortable. If need be, she'll be sleeping in your old bed tonight."

The assurance of my father's words gave the young mare much relief, though she was still awfully timid. "...Thank you."

Spike ran from upstairs and announced to everyone. "Bath water's ran. We can get her in there."

"Don't you worry about a thing, Miss Blue Royal. As long as you're here, you're in good hooves." Mom reassured. "Now get up there while I fix you a nice hot cup of tea."

"Bathroom is this way." I informed the mare, starting to guide her upstairs. "Once we get you cleaned, is there anything you need? Anything to drink, maybe a bite to eat?"

Then there was a knock on our door. Both my mom and I stared at the door with skepticism. My mother crept to the door and cracked it open with the chain latched to see who it was. "Can I help you?"

The figure then announced to mom. "Hello, ma'am. I just got back in from a bit of a misunderstanding. I was just taken away and I believe my sister had tried to chase us down. I'm sorry for it being so late and my sudden arrival being an inconvenience to you."

Blue appeared as if she recognized the voice and ran down the stairs. Mom saw the mare coming and closed the door briefly to undo the latch. When she finally opened the door, the mare almost tackled the stallion at the door. I could see her hooves coiling around the stallion tightly, relieved to see him. "Sir, do you know this mare?" I asked.

"Of course. She's my adorable little sister. I'm just getting her in because something happened to her earlier tonight. Some guards just showed up and tried to get me to go with them. That's why I couldn't finish helping her get comfortable tonight." The stallion bowed. "My sincerest apologies."

My father came walking from down the street, seeing the stallion getting embraced by Blue Royal. "Ah, so I take it you're familiar with this mare?"

"Yes sir. She's my sister." He answered once more.

He gave the stallion a look before and walked past the two into our home. "Well I just secured her home, she just gave me permission to check around and see if anything else was involved. I do want to get that cleared up before there's any miscommunication taking place. The home is safe and no one is inside."

"Did you hear that. Blue? No one's in there." The older brother sweetly informed his younger sister. "Okay, now let's get you back home and in that shower."

"Hold it!" Mom hollered as she walked outside, offering some comfort to the mare. "Alright sweetheart, we're neighbors of yours. If you have any issues, you can come to us and we'll help."

The brother nodded. "Thank you so much for looking after my sister. She means the world."

"You two just be careful. Canterlot isn't as safe as it was when we were coming up. I suggest locking up tonight."

"We'll do that. Thank you." He said as he escorted his sister further down the street.

When Blue and her brother returned to her unit, she started walking up the stairs to run herself a bath. The stallion looked around the home another time before going upstairs to help his sister with her bath. It took her a while to get settled down before she could step into the water with confidence. As the seconds progressed, she stayed in the water and let her mind drown in many of her thoughts. A light knock sounded through the bathroom door.

"You okay in there?" There was no immediate answer. "I know tonight was... terrible. But I promise you that you're going to be safe with me. I'm sorry to have put you through that." Still silence from the other side of the door. "I promise we'll get through this."

The mare stayed sunk into the water as she finally answered back. "All of this is just too much. I don't know if I can keep going on like this. I feel like... I feel like he's everywhere."

The older sibling called out from behind the door. "Blue, you know you didn't have to do that for me."

"And what, I'm supposed to lose you? Leave me in a place full of rapists and murders who snatch the bodies of anypony that hurt me in my life? How do I keep myself alive at that point!? I can't deal with it anymore! All of it is just him doing everything he can to torture me! It's just not fair! What did I do to deserve this!?"

Meanwhile... on the other side of the door was a smirking stallion, dressed in his usual suit and top hat. The cane rotated in his orange aura beside him as he held a glow against his throat. He stifled a laugh as he took amusement in what was taking place. Umbra Sanctus took a deep breath to regain control over his humor and continued to feign the voice of her brother.

"Alabaster... I'm scared to live without you."

The stallion grinned from ear to ear. "I know, Blue. I know."

***Point of Perspective: Equus Nondis***

We checked into a cheap hotel this go around. Usually I'd plan on trying to keep things a little more classy considering all the things Kalimba went through. But tonight was pretty rough, and that's putting it mildly. I couldn't begin to fathom what the hell I paid witness to, what I participated in, what all happened. Hell even what happened afterwards continues to leave a deep psychological wound in my brain. I'm sure if I had ever smelled the odor of bad meat in the fridge, I'd vomit on the spot. I had to temporarily desensitize myself for the task of dismemberment, which is not entirely easy.

It never was, even in a live-or-die scenario.

The train station wasn't that far away from here, I know it's an easy walk from here to there. But since trains don't usually come around until a certain time in the morning, I thought it would be easier to have some place to stay nearby it in the instance we had a rough night sleeping and we needed to compile a little more rest.

Kalimba didn't seem very enthused to be here. I could tell by the way she was leaning against the headboard. There was a lot on her mind. When I got in the bed, I realized just how harsh the mattress was. It felt like the springs were digging into my back, and there were several places where the mattress was uneven.

I laid my head on the pillow, starting to find something to distract my mind from the ordeal we paid witness to. "Holy hell, this mattress is like sleeping on a damn box spring. I'm sorry for dragging you here of all places for the night. I was just thinking we could be closer to the station if we needed to sleep in a little bit, but this is ridiculous."

The mare sighed as she still appeared lost in her own thoughts. "I am fine. Right now I can only sympathize for what Blue had to endure."

The fact that he had a mask made of her mother's face fashioned from the moment of her death was what really made me shudder. All I could imagine was the idea of that asshole kidnapping Mel and then doing a whole song and dance as he has pictures of my dead face all over the room. "Fucked up thing is that she really did that to keep her brother alive. She had to go through so many mental triggers to make it appealing for that sadistic asshole."

The zebracorn looked over to me. "I am more concerned about what he has in store for you. You broke de cardinal rule."

"Imagine if that asshole dug up Prod and raped you in front of a bunch of ponies wearing the face of your deceased mother. That's some shit I can't even begin to understand, even my world has some fucked up stories but never anything that personal."

The mare grabbed her blanket, turning herself over on her side of the bed. "It does not put me at ease to think about it. I only know dat I am going to have some trouble going to sleep behind dat."

"Welcome to the club." I replied, turning to the other side.

With myself facing the door, my eyes saw a motionless door, as mundane and run-down as any backwood motel experience would be. But in my mind, I could already see the image of a dismember Count barging into the room to give me a good staredown, possibly hunching over me as he did his own daughter. The thought caused me to glance at the lamp and turn myself over to see the back of Kalimba head. Out of a will to soothe my mind, I quietly wrapped my hooves around her and forced myself to sleep.

She turned back around and looked at the lamp on my side of the bed. "Are you going to sleep with de light on?"

I cracked my eyes open and politely pleaded with her. "Lady, you have not experienced what I did on Saturday night. Just let me have this one."

The mare turned herself around and embraced me for a moment... with a chuckle. "Silly boy. Rest."

The Next Morning...

It was another night of my miserable self closing my eyes, periodically thinking of the things I've seen and have done, most of the sights and smells deeply engrained in my personality now. There's no going back from what I did, no matter how fresh or old the body is. The only thing I could do was pray that I could at least pretend to put those moments aside for when the others come around, for when I'm with my friends and family in the daylight. They don't need to know that I played butcher, or that I was mentally raped by someone's trauma fetish. The only thing that kept me together was the fact that there was a mare holding on to me as much as I needed to hold on to her. Worse off, I'm sure I'll never give her the attention she deserves, my intended is another wounded soul, also crushed by the traumas of her past.

Whomever comes after me for her, they'll have a lot of work to do.

The morning came with several aches and pains, namely from the mattress we slept on. Another source of my dawn-light discomfort came from the hangover. The drinks only dulled my response, but I started sobering down after we got into the hotel. A cup of coffee later and I felt like I was going to at least tolerate the day. I wasn't really in any mood other than wanting to be to myself, but I had a job to do, a life to live, and a whole lot of faces to look at.

We cleaned ourselves up and ran to the station. When we got there, the lady at the counter who sold our tickets had informed us of a two hour delay. Apparently there was a rockslide overnight and a few of the tracks were at risk of being damaged. So there had to be several inspections. Thankfully they were already at it for the past four hours, these next two were just for nailing things down and reinforcing the passageways. Still, it was a far cry faster than what would've been done in my world. Shit like that would normally take weeks.

Hooray for magic.

Meanwhile, Kalimba appeared to be in a bit of a rush back down to Ponyville. She was even quietly pacing back and forth. "What's the matter? I'm not that bad of a person to be around, am I?" I joked.

"I did not know dat de train would be held up today." She said. "I'm supposed to be at my work, and den I go to complete my training dis evening."

"Life is full of curveballs." I mumbled while seeing a group of guards marching in. The one in lead pointed to the train, sending two off in that direction. They then pointed two off in the direction of the ticket booth, and finally they marched three over to the general area, where we were sitting. "I didn't know there was a surprise inspection today, but I guess we shouldn't beat ourselves over a few unexpected surprises."

While the group of guards started to approach us, Kalimba whispered to me. "Perhaps you could talk our way through dis again?"

"Worth a shot." I said as I stepped forward.

"Halt!" A male guard called out from the group. "This station is now under strict inspection of passengers. If you wish to board, you must submit identification as well as a valid proof of purchase."

"Here's our ticket sir." I surrendered the ticket I was going to use for Kalimba's fare.

The guard gave my ticket a look before waiving me off. "Wait!" However, another guard stormed over and took off her helmet. It was Solemn Oath, who looked at my traveling partner and then turned to me. "She looks familiar. Who is this mare traveling with you?"

"She's my fiancée." I answered.

"Fiancée?" The mare scoffed as she motioned the other guards to surround us. "I'm probably mistaken on your identity. but I can recognize that unicorn-wannabe zebra from anywhere." The mare folded her forelegs and sat confidently. "Now that I think about it, the last time I saw you two, didn't your excuse go something along the lines of 'celebrating your anniversary'?"

Honestly, I didn't thing she'd remember that. But then again she's keen towards Kalimba. The entire time of our last encounter was just her trying to grill her for some sort of illegal body modification. With that in mind, I continued to try and get us out of this. "Please ma'am, we're just trying to get back home."

She looked to the guard that inspected our ticket. "Where did that boarding pass say they were going?"

"Ponyville, ma'am." He replied quietly.

The mare turned and tilted her head slowly, speaking with an air of sarcasm. "Strange. I could've sworn you said you were from somewhere else." She then motioned two guards to get behind Kalimba. "Miss zebra, I need for you to lay on your back and keep your hooves in the air."

As she complied with the order, I began to argue in her defense. "Miss, this is an unwarranted search and seizure."

Solemn scoffed at my argument. "An unwarranted seizure would be if I arrested you just for telling me that I looked pretty and made a disgusting advance at me. But your sudden appearance with this transplant is nothing short of suspicious."

For a brief moment, my actual voice came through as I implored the mare to back down. "Please reconsider."

"You know, I think I will." She said with a dismissive tone, ordering two more guards behind me. "Bring them both to the castle for further questioning. And try to keep them separated, we don't want any conspiracies to start brewing up."

"Yes ma'am!" The group of guards called out in unison.

As I was being detained, Kalimba groaned out in frustration, seemingly to maintain the story of us being lovers. "Ah, I told you dis was a terrible idea to come back here! De hotel was terrible, de food was terrible, and now look at us! Stupid idjiot!"

I rolled my eyes as if I was becoming more annoyed with her, as opposed to actually being annoyed with Solemn going on a power trip. "Babe, just let me do the talking."

Next, there was a magic aura encircling my muzzle, no doubt Solemn's doing. She ordered me in a bitter tone as she pointed her hoof in my face. "No. She can talk as much as she wants. YOU be silent."

...I wonder if she has a thing against stallions.

After getting escorted into the dungeons, I was left in a stone room to be interrogated. The place was dimly lit and there was hardly any place that wasn't either cold or damp. It almost felt like the air that was whisked through the halls were being sent straight from outside and through the vents. I was detained for about an hour before anyone had given me the time of day.

And then Solemn walked into the room, alone. She seemed determined to get some information out of me, there wasn't any doubt in my mind that she wanted me to confess to some sort of crime. It was either that or she wanted me to spill the beans on Kalimba, hoping that I'd sell her out.

But just as she was about to begin, a guard knocked on the door behind her. She opened the door and answered the guard. "Status update, corporal."

The armed guard gave her a salute. "No word from the captain, ma'am... or even sight of him."

The mare scoffed, smirking to herself. "All that pomp and circumstance, no action to be seen when it matters. To think I could've gotten him some useful leads. Oh well, guess I'll be doing my own investigation." She saluted the guard back. "Very well then, you're dismissed."

"Yes, ma'am." The guard walked out and closed the door behind him, leaving only me and Solemn in the room. The mare meandered to me slowly and sat herself down. She then summoned a dandelion sandwich and a warm cup of tea.

"It's pretty chilly in here. I guess you never had this planned in your so-called vacation." She said mockingly, wafting the steam of her tea into my face. "But if you work with me, we can get through this fairly quickly. Perhaps your vacation won't necessarily turn into a staycation." She chuckled to herself. "Do you want some tea, it warms the body up real nice. And chamomile is known to be a relaxant. Maybe you'd like to be put at ease with a cup or two." She took a sip of her tea and sighed with pleasure from her beverage. "So, your zebra friend pleaded for her silence. Awfully suspicious to me." Maybe you could tell me more about this lover of yours."

"Ma'am, please reconsider what you're doing." I calmly pleaded.

The mare ridiculed my request. "Why should I? You two got caught sneaking around the Canterrot entrance when we last met. But Celestia saw it fit to let you two go. And of course, it came after their ringleader threatened to expose her secret suitor to the world."

I looked at her as perplexed as I pretended to be. "What does that last bit have to do with me?"

"Nothing at all. But I do find it curious that the two of you would get caught roaming around the same part of town." She leaned in closer, holding her sandwich in front of my face. "Hungry? Honey dew and dandelion. Meaning you're detained doesn't require me to be mean. I'm only that way when you're a criminal. And I know that criminals infest that general area of the city. So maybe a non-criminal pony would take my sandwich as an offer of peace and cooperation."

While the mare continued to give me a disingenuous smile, I opened my mouth to take the offer, only for her to rescind the sandwich from the reach of my teeth. She tilted her head with that same smile on her face. dangling the sandwich above my head. "We were at a train station. That's far from the same part of town." I pointed out.

"Is it? I can't really seem to identify that. See, that whole part of Canterlot is so infested with high crime rates that it's hard to distinguish the difference."

The only reason the crime rate was like that is because most of the area is poor or in disrepair from several changeling invasions. "What am I really here for?" I asked dismissively.

She took the half of the sandwich she held in my face and took a bite from it. "It's as I said, it's a little too convenient that the two of you 'tourists' would twice visit the same place in the span of three weeks or less."

"Sometime my job takes me back here. That's all." I simply replied.

"So where do you work?" She asked, still chewing on the sandwich.

"I work for a private security firm, it's a back-of-the-mountain thing." I lied.

"Then why do you leave town in the morning, surely you don't work a graveyard shift."

"Actually I do." I lied once more.

"What checkpoint?"

"Fourth." I answered, knowing that particular checkpoint was beyond the jurisdiction of the guards.

"Hum... that's interesting." She already had it in her mind that I was lying to her, rightfully so. She went back to Kalimba. "Who's your zebra friend?"

"Special somepony." I lied again.

"Special somepony, not your fiancée?"

"I don't think those terms are exclusive from one another. So what about it?" I groaned with a bit of annoyance.

She tapped against her own forehead. "Where did she get the horn?"

"She always had it, from the very first day I saw her." That was probably the only truthful statement I gave her.

Solemn tapped the ground, giving me her smug air of superiority. "Now let's be candid with one another. Some of these illegal operations can make some of those changes look a little too convincing. Don't you think it's out of sorts for a zebra to be having a unicorn's horn? She obviously doesn't use it for magic, and even if she could, it wouldn't be very strong."

"But it's her horn regardless. The day I saw her, she told me about it." I replied truthfully.

"What did she tell you?"

I started to become impatient with the way she was questioning me, the way she leaned in with that smile on her face. I glanced around to assess if it was safe for me to blow my cover. "I can't tell you that. That's betraying her trust."

She spoke with a preppy attitude. "Well if you're so worried about betrayal and trust, then why are you showing me all the signs that I shouldn't trust you for anything you say?"

Yeah, I'm done playing pretend with this bitch. "Okay, enough of this." I said, dropping any resemblance of falsetto in my voice. "Lady, if you'd put this much headway into your tactical approach on the field, you'd be every last bit of the terror you try to pass yourself off to be."

She appeared to be taken aback by my sudden change in tone, offended that I would suddenly bulk up at her. "Who do you think you are?"

"I'm not an idiot who blows his own cover unless when necessary, that or I see some stupid shit taking place and possibly wasting my valuable time." I answered, giving her my usual snark and attitude. "Now how about you get me out of this cell before I have you court martialed again."

The mare was confused by my statement, more so by my threat. "Seriously, who are you?"

I rolled my eyes at her. "Brilliant mind, completely oblivious to the broad side of a damn barn. Are you really lacking in critical thinking skills when the context is right there in front of your face? Maybe I should've let your condescending ass get hit by a car when you wandered into my world after all."

That rant was about all the hint she needed to finally identify me. "Wait a minute! You─"

"Yeah, it's me. Now get me out of here." I said, tapping my hoof against the ground.

"How do I know you're not a changeling?" She questioned.

"Would you like to hear the story of how I almost excavated your brains for wandering into my world without my given consent?"

"Okay, so it is you." She couldn't appear any more bewildered over the circumstances. "But seriously, how do I know if you're a changeling or not?"

"I wonder about you sometimes." I said, rubbing a hoof against the side of my head.

"I'm not the one who had a changeling queen walk around here giving orders on two legs. Now secret question. What was it that Celestia assigned for us to do with each other?"

"Become better acquainted with one another. But do you know what doesn't help that?" As soon as I asked that question, she quickly summoned the keys to undo my shackles and let me off. "Thank you."

"You're a pony." She said as I started to massage the presence of those cuffs off of my forelegs.

"Okay, and?"

"You're. A pony." She stressed once more.

I stared at her in silence before exhaling. "And you expect me to go wandering about town in my daytime getup?"

She was still distracted that I was anything but a human. I could understand her shock and awe, but I was still working off the frustration of being wrongfully detained when I'm supposed to be reporting in for my job. All this did was make me late with hardly any excuse to submit to any of my superiors. She still didn't care about that as much as she did about me being on all fours. "You're. A. Pony."

I just stared at the mare before asking in deadpan. "Where's my zebra friend?

"In another holding cell. What does it matter?"

"She's my informant, you dipshit." I angrily replied. "I need her record clean."

"Ohhhhh." The mare gave me a slow nod. "So is she how you know about all of Canterrot?"

"Yes. She's the one who get's me through Corrotto without losing any arms, legs, head, or my dick in the process. Would you care to know anything else?"

"What exactly is she informing you of?" She inquired.

"Classified." I answered bluntly.

She glanced at me like my snark was getting too much for her patience. "You know, the ball is technically in my court. I could just keep her in a cell."

I couldn't help but to purse my lips out of irritation. "Here's a question for the bright-minded. Who do you think has the final say over who stays in a cell?"

"Princess Celestia." She answered, certain that she was right.

"Wrong, Princess Luna is in charge of martial matters. Celestia is in charge of executive matters. And considering that I work for both of those princesses, how do you think your little spiteful stunt will end?"

The mare chuckled nervously as she thought a little while longer. "I guess it won't be what I imagined it to be."

"Duuui, ya think? Now what cell are you holding my informant?"

After a minute of processing, I was let off with a clean slate. Though my main concern wasn't my own record, it was that of Kalimba's. It's one thing if I do something in this form, nobody really knows who I am when I walk around. But Kalimba only has one form to use to her name, and that's the one she was born with. The reason for it is that they do keep tabs on ponies who are considered special interests in terms of what crimes they've committed or have been accused of. If there's any evidence leading to an indictment, just the tiniest implication, they'll be marked and questioned for life.

So I had to vouch to keep her record clean. It's not only for her benefit, but it also keeps any suspicions on those who happen to be close to her. And there's at least one royal name on that list. All they have to do is open a inquiry, see the name, and they'll know something's up.

When we got to the holding cell, we encountered two other guards as well as an unpredictable guest. "Your highness!" Solemn bowed before the midnight princess who stood between the two guards overseeing the zebracorn.

Luna turned around to acknowledge the mare's greeting. "Solemn Oath, you may rise."

The fairly stern guardsmare rose from her bow, looking over to me as she explained herself. "Your excellency, I've seemed to have captured a prisoner. But it appears that there is an unusual circumstance that comes with the occurrence."

I didn't say anything, Luna already knew what was going on. Instead she gave order to the two guards that stood by her. "Leave us." Without hesitation or question, they followed the order and left the room closed to the four of us. The princess of the night walked to me and giggled. "Always a magnet for trouble, captain."

Solemn was left gawking at the fact that the princess immediately identified me. "Princess Luna, I didn't expect you to be paying a visit." I replied with a bow of my own.

"And I didn't expect you to find your way into our dungeons outside of being a visitor." She mocked playfully.

"I have her to thank." I said, tilting my head to Solemn, who looked at me as if I threw her under a bus.

Solemn, not wanting to look incompetent, pointed at the chained up zebracorn in the corner. "Your highness, I have strong suspicions that zebra has altered her body to accommodate a unicorn's horn. It states in the law that any unsanctioned body modifications, especially those that transfigure one's physical orientation is forbidden under penalty of confinement no more than twenty-four months and a fine of fifty-thousand bits."

"I am aware of what the law states, and I assure you that this is nothing to be pursued." Luna continued to smile as she waved off the mare's argument. "Actually, I've done some investigation into this particular matter and came across some interesting results."

"Results such as?" Solemn inquired.

The princess smirked as she glanced over to the door. "Well the answer should walk into this room in a few seconds from now─"

"As such, timing is everything." She mumbled, proud of her timing. She called out to the door. "You may enter."

One of the guards outside opened the door for her special guest. It was Somber Spiral who entered the room. He gave the princess a very astute bow. "Your highness, it is always a blessing to be in your midst." And then he turned to the zebracorn in the corner of the room, who refused to look at him. "Oh, my dear little girl."

"Ugh... why are you here?" She seemed very disgusted with his sudden appearance.

The stallion didn't seem too discouraged by her coldness, but he was touched by sadness with her rejection. That didn't stop him from pleading on her behalf. "Your highness, I'm willing to pay whatever fine to have her go free."

Luna waved her hoof at the stallion. "No need. She was only being detained out of a minor suspicion."

He looked at me with confusion, astounded that his daughter would be accused of anything while under my direction. "But she works with... I mean... I thought─"

I chimed in with some means to clarify the situation. "Yes, she works with me. No, I never intended for any others outside of certain parties to know that." My next statement was directed to Solemn Oath specifically. "And no, we're not on a honeymoon. If anything, you should've kept up with Celestia's example and let us walk. Now we're all running late in our usual daily grind because you want to have suspicions."

The mare snapped back at me. "How am I supposed to know that you're you doing all of this when you don't tell me anything!?"

"Because that's how classified assignments go. I can't let everyone know who I am in this form, I only do it to get myself out of a bind or get some shit done. Ain't no better example of that than getting out of a prison cell after being detained for some mare's overeager suspicions and underlying biases."

She argued back. "Arresting her is not an underlying bias. It's a reason to expect some wrongdoing."

"Because she's a zebra?" I questioned.

"With a unicorn's horn!" She added.

"She has a horn because of me." Somber spoke out finally, standing by the mare who rejected even the tiniest bit of his touch. "She's my daughter."

Solemn facehoofed and held her head as she questioned the stallion. "Senator, you can't possibly tell me that this is in some way factual."

"Indeed it is." Luna added as she pulled out a folder filled with medicinal records and birth certificates. She levitated the items over to Solemn to read while Somber briefly elaborated on his domestic situation.

"I escaped my family and married in secret. My first wife and I had her, we were a happy family until she died."

Solemn had gone through the records given to her, skimming through the details until she reached the main proof of their relation. She tilted her head at the senator. "Then what?"

The stallion appeared thoroughly embarrassed over how he had to answer that question, considering the things that lead up to this point. I held a hoof up and spoke in his defense. "Classified."

Meanwhile, Kalimba didn't like the idea of absolving her father of his past sins. She began to harp on that as she launched out to her father, straining her chained cuffs in doing so. "Do not classify dat! You tell her what you did!"

The stallion held a hoof up to stop me from answering anything else. "I suppose it is a sin I must bear willingly. If it's to help me get any closer to my daughter, then the truth must come free." He closed his eyes and bowed his head in shame. "I... I fell into a drug habit, and my daughter was sold off in my moment of delusion."

"By who?" Kalimba hissed at her father.

"...Me." He quietly finalized.

Solemn grew livid at the senator as she heard of what took place. "What?"

I jumped in quickly to prevent any more time being wasted here. "Rabbit hole goes a lot deeper than that. I suggest you stop while you're ahead."

She stepped up to me and pointed her hoof at the stallion. "And you did nothing to arrest him?"

"He'll get his in time. For now, he's of use to us." I responded, causing the guardsmare to become even more angry with what was going on.

"I cannot believe that you would allow such corruption to persist."

Luna also added her support for me. "Well whether you like it or not, it's going to continue. And that's with my explicit say."

The guard then questioned the princess with some hesitation. "Your highness, think of what your sister would say if she were to find this out."

"My sister has sat on much worse, I'm sure." Luna truthfully added.

I tapped the mare on her shoulder and calmly explained to her. "Solemn Oath, you're gonna have to keep quiet about this. I'm sure you understand why, I don't like having to repeat myself."

The mare objected to the idea, stammering over her own words. "But... This... I..."

I went on to carefully warn her of the risks. "Clearly you're not ready for something like this. So don't be surprised if we keep you out of the loop on some things. Just last night I saw some shit that I wasn't supposed to see, and my informant can remember it just as vividly also. But what that is shall remain unsaid until the right time. But just know that what we've witnessed will forever haunt us in our minds for the rest of our lives. All of it, the sights, the smells, the sensations of the contact, these tangible things once considered unimaginable right there in your own hooves. I want you to understand that much, because you're not mentally ready to take on what all we know and have seen. Hell, I wasn't ready and I'm doing the damn assignment."

Solemn dismissed my warning with foolish confidence. "If those cages full of dead creatures we saw on Sunday are an example, I think it's safe to say I can handle some of it."

Kalimba finally spoke out and argued otherwise. "Dat is only scratching de surface." She interjected. "You are a stupid girl, ignorant and privileged. You do not understand what dis is, and he is trying to save you. Do not be foolish."

For some odd reason, just hearing the reprimand coming from her made Solemn very spiteful. She marched over to the captured zebra and vented her thoughts. "I don't think you know what privilege is. Privilege is getting the captain's seat after being in basic training for eight weeks and a few days of being a corporal. While I'm a guard of twenty years, I've been one since I was seventeen, I don't get the position because he's also a suitor to the princess' former student. And I'm not in any way stupid, I've been serving for twenty years! I know what I'm doing, so I'm not going to listen to some street brat telling me how to do my job!"

"If you know what you are doing, den why don't you spend a night in Corrotto, ah? It should be easy for you, maybe you won't have to sell your body to stop yourself from getting killed. Maybe you won't get passed around on de first night. Or maybe you will become used to de street being littered in deady bodies." Kalimba's voice grew icy as she whispered to the mare's face. "Or maybe dey won't rape your corpse littering de street. You cannot consent anyway, you cannot fight back, you do not care nor can you. Dey will do as dey wish, leave deir seed in every part of you... and send your family whatever remains. I have seen dis. And many mares like you, dey love to break. Slow." Kalimba almost got in kissing distance of the mare while she seeded more of her words into the stubborn mare. "Or perhaps, maybe you'll be made to clean up after those who violate de bodies. You will never get used to it... trust me."

Even Luna looked at the mare with a sense of unease as she essentially went about her own way of telling Solemn that she wasn't the one she wanted to have a conflict with. While I was used to her stories, the way she voiced them with her youthful but raspy tone possibly dipped in the richest of exotic oils, there was a different chill running through my spine. Solemn right then knew that it was time to dismiss herself. "You know what, fine. I'm gone. You don't have to rely on me anymore." She directed that statement to me, but it was more of the intimidation that caused her to expedite her departure. "I don't understand why the princess is even forcing us to work together. You got her, so it doesn't even matter what I do."

The door closed behind her, leaving the four of us inside the cell. Luna went about the process of removing Kalimba's cuffs. I shook my head at the mare who left. "I don't get how we're supposed to tolerate each other to be friends. Celestia's really got me pulling in a tall order."

When the cuffs dropped to the ground, Somber asked about his daughter's status. "So um... does this mean my daughter can go free?"

"Yes, she's free to go." Luna replied.

"Oh thank Celestia." He said with a sigh of relief, and then looked at his estranged daughter. "So my dear Kalimba─"

"Crawl up your own bumbum and leave me alone, like you did for ten years now. Idjiot." She stormed out of the cell with no further comment.

The mature stallion reached his hoof out in vain to call for her. "Kalimba..." He glanced over to me, almost as if he wanted me to intervene in some way.

I wisely rejected the task. "Hey, I can't get in that That's you and her."

Later That Evening...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

The day went about as quietly as it normally would. While the enlisted guards had hoped for some excitement to come into their lives with every passing moment they get stuck in a random hallway to look after, I was cautious about the quiet. Usually a lot of things come barreling my way by dinner, but the incident from earlier was the only thing that seemed to be something worth mentioning.

I did talk with my counselor today. Instead of telling him the full-on truth of what I was seeing, I put everything in analogies. It's not that I couldn't tell him, it's more that I couldn't really trust him. My cluing him on to my relationships, then that report getting sent to Crackdown's desk was all I needed for confirmation.

In turn, I began to elaborate over how much I missed having friends to talk to. I mean I know I can call up dad and vent to him, but he wouldn't understand half of the shit I put up with. Calling mom would be like calling in the army to get me exfiltrated. If I talk to my brothers, they'll probably load up and start shooting at everything that moves suspiciously. And of course, I couldn't just call Mel up and ask anything. I needed to keep myself separated from them at all cost since they're going to be here for what's supposed to be another two weeks. Hell, it might even be longer than that.

I missed the company of fellow humans, my friends more specifically. I miss the shit talking every time I do or say something stupid. I miss being able to call someone on the phone and hang out with them in a Dave and Busters. Maybe we can go mini golf or laser tag when we got the time, I have plenty of money to do it. I miss seeing the expressions on their face when I tell them about my adventures and what all I had to deal with. I miss the reassuring words they have whenever I zone out. I miss being on my own time and not having to worry about the pressure. I miss being sane.

And if it ain't the human side of things, it's the pony side too. I remember when I had troubles telling which bathroom was which. I miss the picnics over in the deeper part of Applejack's orchard. I remember seeing the fireworks on the hill, also the shooting stars. I miss when Pinkie would bring up plenty of snacks for us to eat. I miss when Rarity would bring up her cucumber sandwiches. I even miss when Applejack and Rainbow Dash acted like they had to win everything against one another. Even when Discord annoyed the shit out of everyone except for Fluttershy. Twilight would ask me if I felt okay.

Life was simpler a year ago when all I wanted to do was get back home.

I miss being able to see the sun rise and wonder how Celestia was able to do it. I didn't see these stone halls so frequently, the first time I walked around these halls, I was slack-jawed at everything. I remember when I was still getting subtle hints and flashes of affection from Pinkie, not-so-subtle moments with Rarity, or even the outright instance of innocent infatuation blooming between me and Twilight.

Here I am now, in a discreet and complex relationship with her teacher. I don't regret being with her... I just regret the time I'm not able to have with her. It's like every evening when I need the comfort most, I can't have it with the one I want to use that time with. I want to be able to sink my teeth into her when I feel giddy, or cuddle in the warmth of her wings when I need to feel like I need to be in the arms of a guardian angel. Maybe I'm feeling pent up and I want to explore the ways I can make her squeal. And all of that time, I'm having to deposit those moments with a mare that I'm supposed to be working with.

That energy, that passion, those moments are in complete placebo, altered by nonsensical marriage laws and a mare looking to fill the void her father wants to fill now. But she won't accept for obvious reasons, she trusts me more than him. And all I think about is how difficult it will be for the next one to come in after me. It sucks, I don't like playing with the hearts of others.

A lot of those thoughts followed me on my way around, that and the hell that was to come. So it swam through my mind, all the way until the nighttime. I was given the duty of seeing the princess off to her quarters tonight. And my silence drew much of her attention.

It wasn't until the doors closed and we were alone when she finally questioned me. "Rough night last night?"

"And a fairly shitty morning brought to me in part by Solemn. She had me arrested because she made a search party for me and my underground assistant." I added.

"I see. That's awfully problematic." She said as she started to take off her regalia.

"What's problematic is knowing what's to come next."

"Involving Slade, you mean?" She inquired.

"Oh yeah. I pissed him off last night. No doubt he's going to come for my neck this time, especially after what I did."

"What did you do?" She asked worriedly.

"I took a certain deceased senator out of his overall body count. I had to cut him up, move him around, and then cremate the remains. Also, I think I may have burned down a building in the process."

The princess heavily sighed. "You know, all those things you've done are very much illegal."

"I know." I mumbled exhaustively.

She placed down the chestplate she wore and walked beside me, escorting me to the balcony. "Then you had to have an outstanding motive."

"Slade used the corpse to rape Count's daughter, and then swapped forms as he finished. You can already guess how that ended."

The princess gasped with horror and disgust. "Absolutely terrible."

"That's just another Tuesday night apparently." I replied with little enthusiasm.

The high princess groaned, displeased with the update. "He's far too dangerous to be picking fights with. I don't want you finding yourself in a quarrel with him."

"At this point, he's poking the bear." I responded, folding my arms. "Eventually, it might get violent."

The princess stood before me, backing me down as she stressed her opinion. "I know. But I want you to stay as safe as you can. There are far too many developments to get into at once, let that one be something you don't concern yourself with as heavily as the others. I still want you alive for our next meet-up."

I chuckled and looked at my own self through her eyes. It was more than apparent that she wanted me to follow her advice. But in my mind, I was already thinking of the ways he was going to circumvent any attempts of my staying in one piece. So I began to think about the things I myself dreaded. "Hell, at this point, I might as well write out my last will and testament."

The princess looked at the moon above and bemoaned my statement. "Do you really believe that's necessary?"

"I mean... enough has happened. I have to at this point. No telling what comes next or after these days. I just want to be sure. At least my family will be comfortable, and my friends can go back home safely."

"It's cold out here tonight." The mare closed her eyes, walking back towards the inside of her chamber. Along the way, she held my hand in her magic to guide me back inside. She sat herself on her bed, pulling me to her side as she leaned into my chest. She placed an ear to where my heart was, listening in with melancholy. "...Every stallion my heart fell to has been ominously plucked from me in some tragic circumstance."

"Yeah." I drew a heavy breath as my arms wrapped around her warm body.

She leaned my head in with her magic, bringing me down to level with her. "You know sometimes that I bluff when I say that I'm not going to come after you and save you every time, right?"

"I honestly took that to heart when you said it." I replied.

She rubbed a hoof to the side of my face while she spoke. "Ever since Saturday, my mind's been on the thought of losing you. I mean sure I'd be able to cry my tears and move on, but to lose this hope after having been so close to feeling what I haven't in so many centuries... to indulge in what I have not had in over a millennium... I can't say that I'm not obsessed with the thought of protecting you."

I began to ask, thinking of tragedy. "But if the worst happens─"

"It won't." She moaned in argument. "Not this time. Not ever. Nondis, don't think for one second that I'd let the hope you gave me get snuffed out like a candle against the stormy wind. I'd sooner become what I swore not to be to see you persist."

I nuzzled back against her pearly cheeks, giving her profile a gentle peck. "You know, you never properly advertised that to me."

For that slight instance, her mood changed for the better. She gave me a fairly vulnerable smile. "I may be advanced in my experience, but that doesn't mean that I can't change my mind." And as such, that smile faded into worry once more. "And I can't bear the brunt of losing the hope you've given me."

I paused for a moment and looked down at her, the princess looking up to me. "Honest question, what am I to you, just hope for your freedom?"

"Worried that you're fighting for only my benefit, or probably concerned that you feel that this is a lost cause?" She asked in return.

"Just a curious question, no harm or foul intended."

The royal mare took a moment to think into perspective. "You're my hope for a second chance of having what I could not."

"A family?" I guessed.

The princess hummed with a confirmation. "That and more. It's hard for me to elaborate. I just..." Her wings shuffled to free themselves and wrapped themselves around me as she adjusted herself to look at me directly. "I feel like I need more of you than I'm already getting. Perhaps I'm becoming possessive in some way, but I'm not letting anything tragic happen to you before I've had my time to express myself to you. Even my deepest secrets... I want you to see them all." The mare caught herself over what she said and her eyes bulged with shock. She peeped away from me, her ears blushing as red as her cheeks. "I sound eerily obsessed already."

I laughed a little at her reaction. "Yeah, you royals don't exactly move slow in romances."

She patted me on my chest. "Can you blame us when we don't have anyone brave enough to even ask the chance?"

I began to rub her behind her ears, the princess began to melt quietly into my chest again. "Another curious question. If you and I were to get married today, what all would change?"

The princess brimmed with satisfaction over my tiny offering of attention at a particular sector on the back of her head. "Everything. I'd be designated queen, you'd be a king, and we'd hold all power over the realm, including over the parliament."

...Damn. Hypothetically speaking, if I had gotten to her first and we got married, we would've solved this dilemma from the jump. I began to chuckle at the absurdity. "So if any of them came forward and made themselves king, what's stopping them from getting with you? Any senator worth his smarts could see if he'd get in with the princess for long enough, he'd be a king with all the powers due to him. He'd be virtually unstoppable. So why not walk up to you and say 'be my wife' or something like that?"

"Because I'll easily say no." She said with the most easy-going tone. "I'm still a discerning pony, after all. Even you know that I can just waltz into your mind and see your intent." She added as her horn began to glow.

While I contemplated the idea of snuffing her magic, I noted how warm her aura actually was. Probably better off not playing that chance. "Yeah."

She sat up, pointing at my chest as she guided me flat on my back to the bed. "But your intent isn't power, now is it?"

"You know, if you had wanted to, you could've hoarded me for yourself from the moment I showed up and made me your suitor to start off with. I'm sure the process would've been a drop in the bucket for you." I suggested.

The princess squeaked out in hesitation before responding to my idea. "Do you know how long you would've had to wait if you had been my suitor? They have special rules in the case of both my sister and I, and that's because our parents were the first king and queen of the realm. Us getting married is a guaranteed power grab."

"Let me guess, even longer than eight-to-eighteen months?" I chuckled.

"Try five years."

"Yyyyikesssss." I cringed.

Celestia levitated her crown over and glanced at it for a moment, and then placed it on the top of my head playfully. "Last Friday marked the anniversary of your being here. You'd at least have a year down, four more to go. But I'm sure you'd sooner give up your pursuit of me for one of the other mares you've recently bedded with. I mean, what could I give you other than kisses while they give you everything you could possibly want? A payoff for finite power? From my perspective, there's no purpose in waiting for five years for something that's not even yours, while others are trying to kill them in every way possible. That's like dangling food in front of my starving face, not the slightest bit of fair, nor is it healthy for our relationship."

I took a moment to pull out my phone, not even realizing that Celestia had pulled hers out to snap a picture of me in the tiara. She giggled as she started to go through the numerous edits and filters. As she was doing that, I then asked her about her more about the process. "So they plan out the time in accordance to who's more likely to have power."

Celestia answered me as she started putting together the final edit of the post she wanted to make. "Eighteen months is the going rate, twenty-four is the average. But they didn't know that Cadance would be in charge of the recently-reclaimed Crystal Empire. Had they known, Shining would probably have just gotten married last June."

"And now they have an heir apparent." I added with not as much enthusiasm.

Celestia finished with the post and showed it to me. On the picture she took, there was a caption at the bottom of the screen that said 'King to be' with hearts all over the edges. I took a second to go through her pictures while she spoke. "The bottom line is that you shouldn't have to be punished for being young or in love. Passion is what comes in the moment, it's like a photograph. Everything should be as free as the fun I have when I'm with you, it shouldn't have to come with a signed permit from a group of overseers."

Eventually, I came across the picture of her weapon and sighed. "All the more reason to nix this damn law."

I handed back over her phone, she held it up for a second and kissed my cheek while taking yet another picture. She immediately went back into editing. "All of this is connected somehow."

I hunched over her, watching her from above her head while I hugged her. "Obviously. We know they want a new form of government. We know they want control. We know they'll exploit the unborn to do it. And we know that they've been brewing anti-royal sentiment to the masses. We know where it's all coming from. Our job now is to find where to go from here."

A knock sounded at the door, causing both the princess and I to flinch. A fairly young maid called out from the other side. "Your highness, I hear voices. Is there somepony in there with you?"

Celestia looked between me and the door, trying to come up with an answer. "Uh, no! It's just an orb of communication, no need to fret!" The princess slipped her phone under her pillow. "I'll be in bed momentarily!"

"Your highness, it is recommended that you get your nightly rest for the morning! The dawn is scheduled to be early than last."

"Okay! Thank you for your advice! You are dismissed for the night!" She said as she held a wing to my mouth to silence me. The two of us waited as we began to hear the maid's hoofsteps fade further down the hall. Celestia seemed to exhale with much dismay. "Our time is far spent." She whispered, guiding me to one of her bookshelves.

I yanked out my phone and saw the time, 11:53 p.m.. "Should be another night patrol on the way in a few minutes. They always run this hall at midnight."

The princess used her magic on one of the books and slid it in a slot to open a secret passageway. "Get out of here before you get caught."

"I'll try to have a good night's sleep, you do the same." I leaned down to give the mare a light kiss. But she had the intention to make our farewell as deep as she could afford for the given moment. Her tongue reunited with mine, as if they were a pair of forbidden lovers greeting each other after a long absence.

The moment we separated, the first thing she wanted to do was play catchup with me as opposed to letting me go. "Did you go to your counseling session today?"

"Yeah." I briskly answered.

"What did they say?" She said as one of her ears flicked. "Ugh, guards are earlier than usual."

"Just some mumbo-jumbo about finding some way of relaxing my muscles." I answered as she shoved me deeper into my exit.

Walking in with me by a few steps, she kissed me again. "Do me a favor tonight. Try to think of the most relaxing moments in your life. If that doesn't work, then think about the one thing that makes you comfortable."

"You know, when I dream about you─"

Her ears flicked once more, she abruptly broke away from me and allowed the passage to close between us. But she still offered a final word before the final brick closed our sight of one another. "Later."

While the taste of her still lingered on my lips, I heard the guards knock at the door. The princess answered without fail, leaving me to find my own way back. So there I stood in the dark, my mind wanting more of her. Again, it was the time we didn't have together. And it began to weigh heavily on my mind. All I could think about is what could've been had we had the time for each other.

Is a night for us together too much for me to ask for? "...Yeah. Later."

A lot of thoughts ran through my head as I tried to sleep. Most often times I was just laying on my side, covers bundled over my body while my eyes were halfway open. I knew I wasn't sleeping, but the hours passed in segments as if I were. Everything was weighed as heavy as a pound of flesh, even the smallest thought equating to grains of sand had overwhelmed my mind. So I ended up watching the sun rise, only then could I even begin to shut my eyes to the world for a little while.

Just seconds after, I felt a pair of lips singe my left cheek with a tender warmth. My eyes cracked open to see the shadow of Celestia standing over me. She didn't move for a little while, just watching as I laid in silence. Her horn glowed for a moment and before I knew it, my eyes closed to a deep sleep, and then my alarm woke me up around two hours later. She was nowhere to be found. Even when I got up and went to get breakfast, she was already gone about her day.

Of course, that meant I had to do the same.

Today, I had brought Single File over to testify against the Count DuMoneé estate. When I arrived to his apartment, he had books on varying subjects piled up all over the counters and tables. Apparently he had spent a lot of his time reading up on human history and government. So when I told him that it was time to go back to help me testify, his chest grew while his mind brimmed with ideas.

Turning him back into a stallion, he broke back into the habit of being a unicorn pony. But as a side-trait, his auras started to faintly resemble that of a pair of human hands. The reason behind it was because he felt that our fingers were so much more detailed than hooves and the occasional carrying things by the lips.

The two of us gathered at the outside of the parliamentary chamber, the stallion prepared to make every statement as impactful as they were truthful. "So we're going to testify against Count today, about time we got to this point."

"I'll be calling you in as a surprise witness. If they hear a testimony from someone other than me, they'll probably consider the likelihood that what I'm saying may have some plausible merit. And it's especially more impactful when it comes from a former accomplice."

The stallion stretched his hooves while he yawned. "More like they'll be looking at me as an accessory to his crimes."

"Even if they did, you're technically in my custody anyhow. It's just a different kind of dungeon." I replied.

The stallion laughed. "I'm pretty sure they'd prefer it if I were in the one that's dark and moist, instead of a warm apartment with a soft bed and a fridge full of food."

"That's always the truth." I joked back. "The fact that you're probably sitting here is nothing more than a whole damn blight to their ambitions."

"Well it's even better when the whole trial is rigged in your favor for a change." He replied candidly, holding a folder over his face. "Even the opposition's on our side."

"Yeah, she's a bright mind with a vendetta." I cosigned. "She should be here in a few."

I looked at the clock on my phone to check the time. I felt a powerful nudge against my waist as Single File nudged his head in the direction of a fairly wild-looking mare. "Woah... what happened to her? Talk about a bad hair day."

The mare, who walked with a few folders in tow, dropped her documents as soon as one of the nearby guards sneezed. It was like watching her notes explode like fireworks around her before they landed in the hall like confetti. As she hunched over to pick up the papers, I could see her shaking unsteadily. "Excuse me for a moment." I said, hoping to offer the mare some assistance. I slowly approached her and waved at the disheveled mare. "Hey, you alright."

The mare snapped her head to me, almost like I was a threat. But upon recognizing me, she simply stood still. "Captain... hi." It was Blue who was looking like this.

She didn't look the part of her usual outings. She was usually so much more dynamic, ambitious, confident, ready to take on anything and not letting the slightest thing distract her. Instead, even the sneeze from a nearby guard had her shaking violently. "Damn lady, you look like you've been struggling. You okay?"

"No." She said before she collapsed to the ground, loudly screaming. "No! How can I be─"

"Hey hey hey! It's alright." I quickly picked up the grief-stricken mare and signaled Single File to come over and pick up the papers. "Look, if you need a moment, we'll step back and try this another day."

Single looked on with confusion as the daughter of his former boss continued to have a complete nervous breakdown in front of him. She almost lunged further into my chest as she screamed. "I can't get him off of me! He's everywhere!"

Single tried to offer his assistance aside from picking up her paperwork. "Ma'am, who violated y─"

"I'll explain it to you later. Let me handle this." I quickly silenced him off, already knowing the answer. I went back to comforting Blue. "Look at me, look at me, alright. That's taken care of. I made sure that it was taken care of for good. He's gone. Dust. Poof. So he's not gonna hurt you anymore, you're never going to see him anymore."

Her eyes were bloodshot and puffy, almost as if she's been crying for the longest time. Her mane appeared as if she didn't put as much effort into it, just trying to move forward through her day. Even hygienically speaking, she didn't appear to bathe this morning. Her coat was uneven and spotty. Every muscle on her body trembled. "I don't... He's..."

I looked over to Single and dropped my head. "Okay, we're not doing this today. Just take her notes and make sure they're ready to go for next time." He came close to cleaning up the papers while I diverted my attention back to the distressed mare. "You go home, take good care of yourself, and treat yourself to something nice. Don't worry about today, just take some time off and gather. We can do this some other time, possibly a week or two from now if you need it."

"But I promised you... I'm sorry..." She whimpered.

I summoned a handkerchief to help her clean her face. "You know what will make me mad, if you walk in that room the way you are right now and can't bring yourself to do what you set yourself out to do. I won't be mad if you take a day or few away."

"I'm scared of it all." She mewled with a staggering breath.

I murmured to her quietly. "And I'm not? I pissed Slade off on Tuesday night. If anything, I should've jumped in sooner. But you did what you could to save your brother. I sure wish it didn't plan out that way, but it did. I'm sure he's quietly thinking to himself if he would be comfortable living a shitty existence like that, but somewhere deep down inside he's looking for more ways to protect you."

The mare shuddered as she spoke. "...He made them wear my mother's face."

"Okay. Come here, I got you." I said as I held the mare with the intent to make her feel secure in her surroundings.

"I'm sure my mom doesn't want me to be weak." She stammered before her breakdown caught a vicious second wind. The poor mare was almost on the verge of convulsing. "I... I'm sure she wouldn't want me to suffer. Oh Faust, she suffered so much!"

I held her out so that she could see my face instead of thinking on the image that was given to her on Tuesday night. "Hey, stop for a moment. Breathe. Slow, okay? Now look at me, look into my eyes. There's no shame in hurting and healing. Just as long as you make it back. The fact that you tried to work through it today was a damn good representation of your strength and willingness to push forward. She went through hurt to see you not hurt, but what happened to you is not your fault. And don't you dare blame yourself for anything of what she went through. The ones responsible are the ones you blame, not you."

The mare finally went limp in my arms, her head rubbing into my chest while she cried. "...I can't do this anymore."

"I say that to myself a lot of times. But we can make it. We got us, we can keep going. You're stronger than you know." I tried reassuring her, hoping that she'd find some measure of another outlook, anything other than what I fear would be her intent. "Look at me. You are the thing your brother lives for now, what's left for him to protect. Don't take that away from him and have him thinking he needs to follow up. I'm depending on you, your brother loves you, and everyone we know is rooting for us. So if I need to walk you home, I got it. I'll do whatever."

The mare sobbed quietly, her hoof clutching at my back as she hugged me. "I just want to go home. I just want to go home."

"Okay. Let's go home then." I answered. "Tell me where to go."

The walk from the castle was very much different from many others. It's not often where grief had a place in my stay here in Equestria. There were plenty of times where I felt guilt, watched many instances of hurt, perhaps cases of mourning, but never a full-on instance of grief where I was the sole instance of relief. I could understand, Blue's probably had some time to fully process her mother's final moments being shown to her through the cruelest means possible. What do you say to that, it's gonna be okay? That's what you could say, but there's the context to consider. I can't promise sunshine and rainbows, but what I can is that we can work through it with enough time and effort. Even then, there's no changing the world when it's flipped upside down like that. The only thing she can do is learn how to walk with the change of gravity.

As we approached the midtown district, namely the playground that she talked to me about, I could see some young foals playing there with their parents. While I took a second to watch, it seemed to cause her pain having come near it. We moved on, coming up on another street with the jewelry shop on the corner. We took a left and came up on a residential block filled with many Victorian-style townhouse units all built next to one another.

"We're almost there." She said softly, a lot more subdued than her earlier performance. Perhaps she's calmed down since the time I've escorted her from the castle.

I looked around to see more of the small-looking units, growing more surprised by the idea of a billionaire heiress staying in such a common place. "You know, I would've expected a lot more checkpoints between the castle and were you reside. Why do you live here in the midtown district?"

"It was my best choice away from what I was used to. I never went back to stay the overnight except the night I knew you could be there, at least it lessened the impact of my coming back to where all the pain began for me." She said before she stopped in her tracks. As I was about to walk along, she used her magic to tug me back. "Here we are."

I glanced up at the two-story unit, seeing the pretty grey brick and white accents. The numbers beside her door were gilded gold and her knocker matched the black door knob. Honestly, it was a nice place. "Looks kinda cozy."

The mare walked up to her doorstep, pulling out her keys. But as soon as her keys came close to unlocking the door, they just fell to the ground. It seemed that she had a lot of trouble using her magic to concentrate. Her breathing grew unsteady once more. "...You don't have to come inside. I'm fine from here." She tried to reassure me.

I instead picked up the keys and held them for her. "I'm... I'm actually kinda thirsty. You know a spot where we can get some tea?"

"It's a little from here." She whimpered, still shaking.

"You wanna go get some? I hear that a good cup of chamomile tea can help you relax." I began to tie together that whatever may have her messed up might be something that was left inside of the unit. So I tried to offer something else we could do instead of going inside.

"I don't think that's the best thing for me right now." She said as she used a hoof to guide my hand towards the keyhole.

"How about a night at the Sun Cryst?" I suggested, changing which hand I had my keys in. "You could probably use the time away."

"It's fine. I just need to clean up the place." She said with a shudder.

Realizing that this was what she wanted, I merely unlocked the door for her. "Do you need help?"

She opened the door, holding me outside as she entered. "Give me a minute." She went from poking her head through the door, to shutting it and moving some things around. And it wasn't exactly a quick process. There was sounds of furniture moving around, squeaks and stifled shrieks, a few things that sounded like porcelain china being moved to prepare for my arrival.

"Bit of sprucing, I guess." I said to myself.

In due time, she emerged through the door and sheepishly welcomed me inside. "Come in."

When I walked in, I noticed that there was a lot of furniture moved. Some places on her carpet told the story of where her couch used to be, situated at the middle of the room in front of a table. Instead it was situated against a wall. I could see along the stairwell where there were once pictures, at least that what the faded dust imprints and virgin paint told me. The entire place looked empty. Even the display case that was probably allocated to fine china was emptied of everything. It seemed like she was moving. Perhaps she was making preparations.

The mare walked through to her kitchen, trying her best to stabilize herself. "Chamomile tea hasn't really been the best relaxant for me these days." She murmured.

"What happened here?" I said, following her into the kitchen.

"Just some interior decorating that was do─" Before she could finish, one of the cabinets above her stove popped open, allowing a surge of porcelain to rain down from above. While the fragile items shattered against the ground, the mare held her hooves to her muzzle as she watched in horror. She began to shake again as I walked towards the mess. when I looked into the cabinet, a familiar item greeted me.

It was the still image of her mother's face in agony, another death mask. I immediately closed that cabinet and opened another, only to find a wall of faces waiting within. I closed that one, opened up a drawer, faces. Opened up the pantry, faces. I looked inside of her fridge, food and faces. I opened up the stove... yet another face, but a different one to break the pattern.

I began to notice that not all of the faces were the same thing. Instead it was actually two individuals death masks I was seeing. I looked above her stove to see two faces hung like cruel reminders. This was a message. "What... The hell."

The mare whimpered skittishly. "I'm sorry. They were all over the walls. I just tried my best to keep it clean so it wouldn't be all over the place."

It dawned on me that she had probably know about this for some time, even dealing with it up until recently. Poor thing was stuck here with all of this shit on her walls, I wouldn't be right in the mind either. "When did this happen?"

"...When I got home last night after my brother took me out to dinner, that was when I first saw all of this."

"What did he say when he saw this?" I questioned.

"He didn't. He left me shortly after, saying that there was something important that came up." She replied, sitting at a chair at the dining table.

I grabbed the pair of masks at the top of the stove and gave them a look. After a second, I identified the other face that kept popping up. "This is your father's face."

"...It is." She said with a heavy breath.

I grumbled and threw the mask to the ground, shattering it to pieces. I was more upset with the prospect of him torturing her so damn terribly, as if her life was a game of trying to find out how long it would be before she broke. I sat at the table next to her and quietly confessed to her about her father. "Okay. I know it's not my job, nor is it legal for me to have done it, but I did finalize your father's remains."

"How?" She asked timidly.

"I burned his body. I made sure he can't be distinguished from any other thing that burned along with him. Took a whole house in Canterrot to do it." I answered, rubbing a hand down my face out of distress. "It may seem like a fucked up thing to tell you, but your father's body was found in my world two weeks ago. It was a tactic to scare me and my friends. Even the night at the Gala, he showed up there. I still have nightmares about it all, to this day I don't sleep in my own bed without a gun under the pillow or having the lights stay on."

She grabbed a sheet of paper towels from a nearby counter, wiping her face clean of tears. "I just don't understand. Why does he do these things?"

"Because he's a fucking psychopath." I responded, the mental exhaustion began to take a toll on my demeanor. "He's got the city under a microscope. What you do, he knows. And he thinks he can get away with it, like he's a shitty-ass fucking God."

The mare tried to calm herself, taking deep breaths to realign herself towards stability. "So now what? Where do you think we go from here?"

I grimaced as I took her question into my own thought, even I wasn't exactly sure of what I was going to do for myself, much less everyone involved. I started to rub my temples to soothe the incoming headache. "Not much we can do. We keep our hands and hooves off of him. There are bigger powers in play apparently." I replied with a exasperated groan. "As per the princess herself, I am not to pursue any of his personal interests or prosecute any of his crimes. Completely laissez faire."

The mare rebutted to me with her vexations. "So we just keep doing like we've been doing, knowing he'll torture us for as long as we live?"

"Hell, at this point, it'll be long after we die." I answered, unable to do anything but absorb the feeling the bleakness in the room.

"So that's it? Just endure it until something's done?" She asked.

Memories of Saturday flashed through my head, the smells I encountered as I recalled the moment when I discovered what his talents were. I looked at the back of my hand, still able to recall the sensation of the muck being all over it. "I tried killing him myself, it doesn't work. So that's all we can do." I looked up to the ceiling, mainly because I wanted to look at some other place that didn't have a death mask attached to it. But instead, I found another mask sitting above the table, one different from the others. I squinted to try and make out who it was and carefully grabbed it off the ceiling. I gave it a close examination, seeing how relatively young the face looked. I pictured the face on the back of my eyelids, seeing if I could pinpoint who it was. "...Christ almighty."

"What?" She asked.

I placed the mask down on the table and slid it over to her. "Blue... This might be your brother."

Blue closed her eyes, trying to keep herself from erupting. She stood up from the table and walked towards one of the cabinets, of course lined with the faces of her dead parents. She averted her eyes from the images, levitating the masks out of the way so she could reach for what was behind them. Two orange bottles of what looked like prescription drugs had landed on the table between us. The mare shuddered as she stared at the drugs, while I took up a bottle to read the label.

"What's this?" I asked, reading what it was. It was an unopened bottle of thiothixene, prescribed to the dosage of two tablets per day with each tablet carrying ten milligrams. I went back to the warning label as she started to explain what it was I was looking at.

She swallowed the lumps of hesitation in her voice. "This was supposed to be two months' worth of my father's prescriptions. He'd go through them in a month, sometimes less."

The warning label had strong advisements against taking the pills without a doctors' explicit notation. Taking the drug risked the side effects of uncontrolled muscle movement, drowsiness, dizziness, a fast heart beat, low blood pressure, and fainting. Of course it had a bold print warning about overdosing, which could lead to acute cardiovascular issues, primarily leading to death. "Why do you have this?"

The mare seemed completely hopeless as she stared at the bottles on the table. "It's... I just felt..."

"Were you going to take these?" I asked.

She whimpered lightly. "I was, still am. The only difference that might end up changing things is the dosage."

"What do you mean?" I asked, sliding the pills away from the center of the table.

She put a hoof to her mouth, trying to word it innocently. "I mean if I give you half, we can work through it together. But... if you don't want any of it, I understand."

But knowing from my own experiences with depression, I knew what signals she was throwing out there. And I went on to call her out on it. "You're not going to take these to kill yourself, are you?"

She started fidgeting. "I was..."

"And you still are?" I asked, feeling upset.

The mare quietly stared at the mask that I slid before her. "...If something happens to my brother, I can't keep going."

I stood up and grabbed both bottles away from her reach. "Give me these damned things."

She teleported one of the bottles by her side. "I wasn't going to take them all at first, just enough to where I'm able to function. But now─"

"You can't just start taking drugs for something you haven't been diagnosed with yet!" I stressed, trying to take the other bottle away from her. But she used her magic to hold me back and cast the bottle away to someplace only she knew about.

The mare looked at my outstretched hand and nervously sat at the table. There was a lengthy moment of silence between us. "...I know what I inherit. I know the signs and symptoms. And I know that any post-traumatic stress like what you've gone through can trigger it. And I know, I've been looking at these damned things since you found my father in the mansion. But in spite of what I didn't want to believe, I know that these things work. Because when my father didn't have them... we know what he did, what he turned into."

As her magic hold on me subsided, I stood before her, holding the pills in my hand. "Did you hide these from your father?"

"I didn't." She answered with a low voice. "My brother put them in the study where they found my mom. He told my father where to find them... My dad, was too... cowardly to even walk in that room. Everytime he'd open the doors, it was like she was still looking down at him. So he chose to rather go without than to even take the time to run in, or even levitate the pills off of the desk. All he could see... was her..." She then levitated the ghastly image of her mother in front of me. "...I'm sure him seeing this made him remember whatever he did, and the guilt behind it. I'm probably sure her ghost was whispering in his ears nonstop the days following that moment."

I took another gander at the bottle in my possession. I internally identified some of the symptoms of schizophrenia, recalling the moment when Count assaulted me in my wheelchair. I saw the maddening look in his eyes, the nervous twitches that even his daughter seem to exhibit, the whisperings about some mare being everywhere, she said the same thing about him. And in some cases of what I go through, I still fight the lingering shadows that seem to chase me in the dark. The slight possibility of allowing me the rest I desired lied within these pills, but there was also a crippling price tag. I couldn't wage my own mind, not yet. "Look, I'm taking these away, but I'm not going to take them."

"Please." She softly begged as she wrapped my fingers around the bottle. "...Trust me." She looked down to the still image of her brother's face. "Just one tonight, here, to make me feel better. Don't let me be by myself in this."

Even then, with the memories of my grandfather screaming at night, the stories of Shining Armor dealing with his own traumas, and now the mounting challenges of my own affairs, I could not in good faith oblige by her request. "I'm sorry." I replied, turning away from her. "I don't know if I can do this."

The distressed mare seemed more heartbroken by the second, especially with how she was taking the fresh news of her brother possibly being a victim. But she took a pill right then, just swallowing the damn thing dry. She was obviously anxious over the side effects, nervous for how it would change her. But the placebo effect in her mind began to kick in just mere seconds after she ingested the medication. "Okay then. Just take one whenever you feel like all of this is getting too much for you. Maybe the pill isn't that bad in a small dose, you could start off small and work up if you feel like you need to go bigger."

"I don't want to take any of these shits!" I stressed much more emphatically.

The mare quietly raised her hoof to make her rebuttal. "If we have to suffer through him... This is our best shot of living a normal life."

I extended my hand once more. "I would feel better if I got both of these bottles from you. You don't know what that stuff does."

"I know what I got from my father, I inherit all of it. For me, all of this is just a confirmation." She replied, sulking into her seat. "But the offer still stands, you can either try to live your life fighting it, or you can fight it off now. I'm not going to be like my dad and fight it when it's taking over every part of my life."

Judging from how firm on the matter she was, I wasn't going to coerce her to do anything else. She wanted the peace and stability those pills seemingly offered, even if it was a false hope attached to every dose. But I wasn't going to follow her on her path. I wanted to try and pull this through on my own terms.

I looked around the kitchen, still seeing the many faces decorating the cabinets. "...At least let me help you clean up."

Hours passed since I've volunteered myself to clean up the mess left behind by a certain party with no other aspirations than to see others wallow in misfortune and despair. When we finished, she took extra care to lock up everything in her house, every window, every door, every bit of anything that could let an unwanted party in. I got back at around dinner, which I had to formally apologize for my day's absence to the princess. Once I explained everything in a closed door environment, they understood what I was doing and excused me for the day.

Fumbling into my room, I just threw everything off of me. My clothes, my phone, my weapons, anything I had on me was either on the nightstand or on the floor. I just sat on the side of my bed and sulked. I wasn't even in a mood to check the security footage, I only wanted some time to let my brain process the day and all of it's events and revelations.

I at least know the method in which Count died, but now it's being reflected onto his daughter. I knew what was being done, but had no way to stop it. And then I have an associate in my circle who's gone missing also. Life only seemed to become more and more difficult dealing with this mess. And the only thing I could do was let it all mount until it became something that couldn't be controlled.

Not that I had much of a control to begin with.

My eyes meandered to the orange bottle next to my bed. I couldn't believe that I had this shit right next to me. The only thing that ran through my head was the possibility of my taking them and becoming a different person because of it. I chucked the bottle across the room, laying out on my bed. "Why the hell am I even looking at this shit?"

"Oh my, what a unusual circumstance." A voice chimed in over my phone's receiver. I sat back up to grab my phone and see Discord as the lock screen. He then unlocked the phone himself and pulled himself out of the screen, growing to his lifelike size and placing the phone back on the counter. "Though for you, I'd like to assume it's probably another avenue you'll be taking in the nearby future."

I scoffed at the draconequus' idea. "You know, for someone who doesn't talk much to me lately, you have a lot of input on this particular topic."

The bottle of pills grew a set of wings and flew over like a bird, perching itself on my headboard while the serpentine amalgamation spoke to me. "I'm just pointing out the inevitable. Besides, you know what I'm all about by now."

"I barely even know you." I replied.

The creature thought for a bit and came to agree. "Now that you say it, I suppose that's true. Nopony knows much about me except Fluttershy."

"Yeah. She's the one cracking the whip on you." I stated.

The creature teleported over to the area where I had my security feed established, dressed up in full garb like he was running security at a large shopping mall. On the screen showed various feeds, but they all swapped out with the events that happened to me. "But I did manage to reveal what all occurred to the others. Celestia did the same for your friends."

"Wait, they know!?" I asked.

"Oh they don't just know." Discord added while throwing the pictures of my three friends, almost as if they were on a most-wanted poster. "Umbra Sanctus spoke with them shortly after he ran you into shock. Had a full conversation with them, antagonizing your friends even."

"WHAT!!!???" I shouted before a massive migraine started to cause me to buckle in my bed.

"Though I'm certain he wasn't completely aware of who he was talking to. But that doesn't change the fact that two of your friends were very close to starting a fight with him. All while Melanie was trying to dodge a kiss from him."

The headache temporarily subsided, allowing me to focus on the growing panic that started to fill my mind. "I gotta move them."

"Not yet." Discord suggested as he pulled out a stick figure diagram, with the blue stick ponies representing my friends. "Moving them too soon would probably alert some of his contacts in Ponyville. But I will tell you that they are honing in on Kalimba's whereabouts." As his explanation went on, the red stick figures continued to have question marks look at the the three blue ponies, but raising exclamation points at the sight of the gray pony figure.

"Fuck." I said as I continued to let panic dominate my decision-making. "We have to do something."

The illustration on the screen removed itself, going back to the usual security feed of just about almost every room in the castle. "As I already told you, I showed the others what had taken place with you. And they are all adamant in banding together to bring your dilemma with Umbra at an end."

"Dude, you cannot keep saying that name out loud." I warned him as my headaches started to go into overdrive. The same pulsing pain from last Saturday night began to assault my head again. I slowly started to bash my head against the pillow, trying to quell the sensation of a fork being dug into my brain. Discord watched almost nonchalantly before snapping his fingers once and watching me pop my eyes open. I rubbed my hands on either side of my head, amazed with how quick the pain just simply left. "How the fuck did you do that?"

The draconequus summoned a recliner and a change of wardrobe to his body. Suddenly, it looked like he was a counselor trying to evaluate my mental well-being. He smoked from a pipe that produced bubbles instead of smoke. "Mind warping spells and the like are a specialty of mine. It's easy to counter something as simple as a memory disruption spell."

As I was laid on the bed like a patient, I sat up and looked to the creature. "Care to share that equation with the class?"

The creature chuckled. "Oh no, that's much too dangerous to be using it as a magic user trying to get the hang of his new abilities, much less you applying it to your inexperienced self."

"I'm not too shabby with it though."

"Can you teleport yourself?" He then asked.

"Well... I could if I got some lessons on how to do it." I said, looking at my arms.

"It's not as easy as a simple item summon." He warned as he teleported himself to the other side of me. "You'd be summoning yourself to a different location each and every time. And then you'd have to endure the after-cast surge on your arms, wrists, whatever it may be. Too much strain, and you'd sooner see your arms explode."

"Well that's not encouraging." I said, visualizing the instance that I'd probably go for one teleport too many. However, it didn't shake the determination I thought I had. "But I still need to learn it. What if I get into a situation where I'll need to get out as quickly as I can?"

"There is no easy way out of a situation for you, Nondis. You'll either have to figure it out, or fight it out." He replied.

I sat up, coming up with the tantilizing idea of somehow getting Discord to teach me how to use my magic in unorthodox ways. "Is there any way I can accelerate my magic lessons, at least get me accustomed to the shit in some accelerated space? You're the deity of chaos and disorder, you should easily be able to find some corner of time and space that moves years faster than here."

The creature appeared amused by my proposal. "There is a few spaces, but what good would that serve you if you try to learn the easy way?"

"Dude, think about it. You lock me in that space for the time of a year within that space, you send me back to this one, I'll be a lot better off."

"And what exactly will you learn in that space?"

"Magic, teleportation, space-distortion spells, maybe some offensive spells, I can even learn to channel my stuff a lot better to where I can control it easier." I replied. "It'll be like sticking me in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, twenty-four hours out here, one year in there. I could catch up to a lot that I missed out on."

The creature smirked with amusement. "And you think a year is all it takes to learn all of that?"

The smirk he gave me had started to plant some seeds of uncertainty in my mind. "I mean I can do a lot already, considering I just started."

The creature walked onto the wall as if he was walking on the floor. Several versions of him started to pop up all over my room, one of them sitting down having tea on my ceiling, the other was a miniature running across the side of my bed, another swam through my hair like he was in a pool. The creature laughed from each iteration of himself. "You know very little about magic." One of them said before the other varying ones took a sentence for their own. "Say if I were to grant your request, who would be teaching you those things? I know I wouldn't, I don't have the time or patience. Plus I have a busy schedule." The one on the ceiling pulled out a calendar with Fluttershy booked for every day. While his beverage didn't adhere to the laws of physics, that calendar sure did. "And what good is learning magic in a year going to do in the face of others who've gone their entire lives honing their craft? You're not going to have anyone there to give you instruction, you won't be able to do much but learn how to float around in space, and you'll just be aging yourself a year for the sake of being right back where you started a year ago. All that control doesn't come easy, it just gets easier to control over the time it takes to learn how to levitate a book. And a year won't be nearly enough for what you're trying to accomplish." The various Discords all snapped out of existence, leaving only two standing in front of me. One of them dressed in a ski mask as the other laid as a victim to a guillotine. "Sorry, but no." The blade came down, poofing the spare version of himself out of existence to join the others.

My eyes were fixed open at the creature, but my spirit was more defeated than anything else when that guillotine blade came crashing down. "Damn. Just crush my hopes and dreams, why don't you."

He folded his arms and spoke with a ho-hum tone. "Life is fickle. It doesn't always reward the impatient."

"There's got to be a better way." I said, trying to motivate myself.

"All things come with a warning label. It's up to you whether you take the time to read into it or not. But if you don't, then you can't be surprised if something unexpected happens, it was written right there for you to expect what you felt was the unexpected." He stated as he pulled out a microscope, looking into it like a telescope aimed at the moon.

"Still... I can't shake the feeling that this is going to come out wrong if I go this way." I said, looking at the pills on the nightstand.

"All decisions have a consequence. Hasn't that been the result of your journey so far?" He asked.

"Yeah. I just didn't want it to get this bad." I answered, feeling more discouraged.

The creature floated in the air as serpentine as any garden snake. "I could help you solve all your problems, but you don't learn that way. But what I can do is offer you a clue." He said as he placed my phone in my hands. "You have a lot of resources around you to give you what you need. But some avenues you have to travel outside of your usual route in order to make your journey a bit easier."

"A detour? A sidequest, maybe?"

The creature snaked into my ear, whispering. "For starters, why not solve the issue that was given to you by your lover-in-theory? I'm sure CayCay has a good idea on where to start."

"CayCay?" I slowly turned to him in confusion.

He wormed himself to my other ear. "Or perhaps we go by what you call her... Cella."

"What kind of side-quest am I going to be doing to make..." I asked for a second before the answer fell in my lap. "Ohhhhhhh... dammit." The creature smirked as he jumped off a diving board from my shoulder into the screen of my phone.

"Remember to play nice."

The Next Day...

Two distinctive guard ponies, one being a reigning officer while the other a demoted enlisted, stood in an office with one another. The piles of paperwork amassed on the officer's desk had a number of names on the tabs. But none was given more attention than the one that laid open on the center of his workspace.

Solemn Oath stood mostly quiet as she listened to the ramblings of Lieutenant Colonel Iron Hoof. He seemed to go on tangents, ranting and lashing at the human's every mistake and instance of misconduct. Of course, Solemn didn't mind the lashing out that much, especially considering their last meeting. She was frustrated at him, but more perturbed by the zebracorn he used for his ventures. So in today's instance, she didn't care so much for the rant. Really, she found herself relating to the officer in some aspects.

Though she did take into consideration what the captain was doing, everything he told her on Sunday especially rang a resonant tone that showed perspective. She even confirmed that the captain had willingly turned himself into a pony just so he could wander through the corrupted streets on his own, gathering information and putting himself at dire risk.

While she had a disdain for the mare he worked with, she began to develop a neutral view for the captain and his work. Even she couldn't imagine having to trot through the bad part of town for more than an hour other than to arrest a pony of interest. And the cruel stories that was told to her, she was certain that he experienced at least a small level of it.

In fact, last weekend was probably the only time where she began to see genuine terror in the human's eyes. Not just from a newspaper clipping or headline, but actively trying to hide himself behind corners and rush out the back door with no hesitation. It was the side of him that operated out of fear that he would find himself running into something that terrified him, or someone that knew how to instill that terror. Ever since her departure from the dungeons yesterday, she began to think about what all the captain had to do, and how he still held his daily composure.

So today, she found some part within herself to defend the captain, at least passively.

"It's as I told you, Solemn Oath. The captain cannot be trusted to make rational decisions given his current state. You have to think critically before taking orders from him."

Solemn replied to Iron Hoof's statement. "I know he's reckless, and all the more annoying, not to mention condescending whenever I bring up a suggestion─"

"That's because he doesn't respect your input." He interrupted her, trying to dissuade her from her passive defense of the captain. "You know, not every officer in a leading role takes too kindly to the fairer sex giving them suggestions. I can assure you the captain is no different."

Her mind briefly flashed the instance of him holding her up in front of a few marauders looking to kill him at the first opportunity. "He has tried to use me for a bargaining chip when I went out to Canterrot one time."

He took her confession as a testimony to his intent. "See? He doesn't really care, he's just playing nice for the cameras. There's no need to keep up that facade in such a downtrodden place." The officer walked from behind his desk and went towards his cabinet, pulling out another envelope. "You're a well-educated guard who can think for herself, and you've been loyal to the crown far longer than he's been aware of himself. You have a wonderful resume, just tainted by a selfish idiot who can't admit when he's wrong. And he doesn't trust you either, that should tell you that he's up to something."

"What do you think he's up to, sir?" She questioned the officer.

"Whatever it is, I'm sure it isn't good." He said as he issued to her a manila envelope with the words 'TOP SECRET' stamped over it. "And that's why I need you all to keep a careful eye on him. You let me know when he steps beyond the boundaries and we'll converse on the matter discreetly. You'll send in an anonymous report, and I'll deal with it."

Solemn looked into the envelope, seeing some details about him possibly looking into a way to overthrow the current princess to install a new system of government. She didn't outwardly react, but internally she grew critical of the report. "Do you think he's hiding something big?"

"Possibly." He answered, leaning over to her and giving her a nod of approval. "And in return for your cooperation, I'll send in a recommendation for you to get your rank renewed, possibly promoted to the captain's seat."

Her eyes flashed with stars, glistening to the prospect of achieving her life's dream to serve the princess beside her. The illustrious fantasy began to feed her imagination. "The captain's seat?"

Of course, Iron Hoof didn't force the offer, taking the manila envelope away. "Don't give me an answer right now, take a moment to think about it and come to me when you're ready." Shortly after that statement, there was a rumble heard from the other side of the door. The two looked back, Iron Hoof chuckling all the while. "In the meantime, you should go entertain your friends. I'm sure they've had their fair share of eavesdropping on our conversation."

"Yes sir." The mare replied bashfully as she was dismissed.

When she walked out of the office, three other mares bombarded her from behind as she walked down the hallway. Dress Right eagerly jumped over her friend. "Did you hear that, Solemn!?"

"The captain's seat! That's what you've been shooting for your entire life!" Cobalt Blue said, excitedly shaking her friend.

Gleaming Brass nudged Solemn as she spoke. "It'll be like a dream come true! You'll finally get the position you've been fighting for! Now that's an offer, that's how you'll get a better trade. Not like that crappy deal the captain try and offer you. It wasn't vague, it wasn't anything shady, no suggestions. It was clear, concise, direct, and completely transparent in what your rewards would be."

Solemn appeared to stare off in the distance as her mind started to play out the parts where she would greet the princess every morning, stand by her side at every meeting, conduct inspections by her side, and even sending the princess off to her chambers every night. She couldn't help but to smile. "The captain's seat..."

But her daydream had come to an end as a guard further down the hall called the other guards at post to attention. "CAPTAIN APPROACHING! PRESENT ARMS!"

The snap throughout the halls alerted the group of mares and they did the same. "Speak of the demon himself." Cobalt said under her breath. "Here he comes."

Walking down the hall, I found myself to be extremely taxed with thoughts of not only yesterday's events, but also Discord's lecture. I was deeply concerned that in the midst of it all, I was starting to let it show on my face. After all, it's happened once before. So I did my best to wear my own mask, hiding much of my issues from the public. I'd like to think that I've gotten better at it. Then again, I really didn't look in a mirror today.

Passing through, I recognized a certain quartet of high-ranking guards. I approached the party with a calm demeanor. "Morning ladies."

"Captain, sir." Cobalt replied with a snap to attention. The others did the same.

"At ease, ladies." But my attention wasn't entirely dedicated to the group, more so the nucleus of their group. "Solemn Oath, I need you to take a quick walk with me for a moment."

The mare snapped out of her thoughts and stammered when she realized I was calling on her. "A-a quick walk?"

The others looked at her and then to me, seemingly with some hidden agenda between them. The three others dismissed themselves, giving encouragement to Solemn. "Do you, girlfriend." Dress Right departed on those words.

"You got it." Gleaming Brass said with a smile before zipping off down the hall with the others. Cobalt said nothing further and walked away, leaving Solemn alone with me.

"This way, if you will." I instructed, pointing her to the direction of the residential wing.

Crossing through, I gave nods and waves to several maids and guards along the way. The conversation between us didn't start for several halls, until she got frustrated with the silence. "So what do you want now?"

I shrugged in response. "I just wanted to check in on you, see if you were holding up well enough. Sunday was a bit of a revelation to you, I'm sure. So it's only in our best interest if I keep up with you and make sure you're of sound mind."

"Sure. Sunday was different, but I'm fine." She answered dismissively.

"No bad thoughts? Dreams? Memories?"

"Only when I think about how you tried to barter me like some sort of toy." She snapped back.

I nodded my head to concede that point. "Yeah, I can see that being something you'd hold on to. I did that to try and make myself appear more agreeable. But you already know how that ended."

She continued to vent on that point. "I'm still upset that you tried to use me for a free pass. I'm not something to be objectified. I can only imagine how you treat that zebra lady."

Knowing she was referring to Kalimba, I offered her some insight. "Actually, it's the opposite on a lot of what you think goes down. Believe it or not, she's teaching me everything I need to know, especially from a victim's perspective."

"So you'd admit that you're objectifying her?" She asked, pointing out that one instance to maintain her critical viewpoint of me.

"Not entirely. She's volunteering herself for those compromising situations."

"No way." She denied.

"Yeah way." I rebutted. "She says she's been in much worse situations than what's been happening under me. I'm just trying to use her for now and get her out of that life later on. Would you believe me if I told you that she honestly didn't think any higher of herself than the idea that she belonged in Corrotto for the rest of her life?"

She ridiculed my statement. "Her father's a politician, a senator no less. Why would she even try to convince herself that?"

I replied to her a little more quietly. "Years of abuse and neglect. She was passed around as a sex slave for half her life."

Of course, she didn't process anything much outside of the words 'sex slave'. So that's where her attention went to, more specifically what that could entail given my close association with her. "...Did you take advantage of her?"

"What?" I was, of course, taken aback by the fact that she only focused on what I could've done, almost like she was trying to find any fault of mine.

"I said did you have sex with her?"

I knew lying would only come back to haunt me, so I decided to be honest and tell her quietly what went down. "...Thrice. Consensual."

She grew miffed at my reply. "Let me guess, you tried to pass yourself off as some messiah and she easily melted into your arms?"

Again, I told her the truth. "The first time I was dogshit drunk, I didn't even remember what all I did that night. But she remembered everything about how piss-drunk I was, and how I wasn't completely able to control my... *ahem* equine features. But apparently some of my other innate qualities from my normal anatomy persisted. It drew her curiosity and she took advantage of it."

The mare looked at me with distaste. "You're disgusting."

I couldn't win with her. "I'm trying to be honest and as social-friendly as possible, no sleaze intended. The second time, we were both forced into a situation... I personally don't want to remember the other details of that one."

"Oh and why not?" She asked, still trying to be critical.

I peeped around the halls, seeing who was close and who was far. Once we got to a section of the hall, I slowed my walking speed and quietly asked her a question. "...Have you ever been blatantly objectified and harassed by someone of your own sex?"

The mare laughed. "As if!" She continued to laugh, not even realizing that she was walking alone for a while. I simply stood still and tilted my head at the mare who took my tribulations for granted. "You can't be serious." She said while turning to her side, only to realize that I was way behind her. Looking around, she saw that we were actually alone when I brought it up. Her smile was twisted into a guilt-ridden stun. I began to walk closer, all while she asked. "...Wait... really? That wasn't some one-off bit?"

I knelt down, and whispered in her ear. "I see a counselor for a lot of the things I go through. It's not really funny to me."

I got back up and walked off. She galloped until she was directly in front of me, walking backwards along with giving her apology. "I'm. So. SO sorry. I thought you were joking, but... I should not have laughed."

As hurt and angry as I was inside, I had to keep wearing that mask to make my intentions known. But I didn't let her remain ignorant to how offended I actually was. I gave her a stern warning. "You didn't know, so I forgive you on that front. But you didn't consider the possible sensitivities pertaining to my issue and the way I worded it to be as inconspicuous to other possible listeners, so I'll definitely hold that one against you. Perhaps instead of laughing at the prospect of guys being victims of abuse, maybe you'll start to insert some thought over how someone came and revealed their vulnerabilities to you. It's not just mares who go through it, guys feel it too."

The air between us grew uncomfortably tense. It was a little bit before either of us spoke, and when we did, she was the one who initiated the conversation. "...So what about the third time?"

I obliged. "That was just us, we did what we did and we were complacent in the experience, despite the shady stigma of the previous two encounters. But I don't usually like talking about my sex life."

The mare suddenly became genuinely surprised. "Really? I thought guys were all about the kiss-n-tell thing."

I then replied. "I thought I did when I was younger, so much that I'd lie about who I did and what I did with them. But the truth was that I was lying through my teeth. I didn't have my first sexual encounter until my senior year in college. And plus I had a crush who'd often talk about her experiences with her previous boyfriends and midnight flings. She'd tell me so much about what they'd do wrong and how this wasn't as big, or how this guy didn't last long."

The mare rolled her eyes with ridicule. "And you seriously didn't participate in that conversation."

"It was usually over the phone, where we couldn't see each other. So... yeah." I confessed.

Solemn walked along, satisfied with that information, until she gave some thought to what I said. We couldn't see each other, the implications filled her mind. "Wait... did you─"

I was slightly embarrassed while I explained myself. "I was six years younger, and we humans are unbearably antsy at that age on down to twelve. So you can immediately tell where my mind was in those conversations."

"Ew." She said with disgust.

"We're adults now, we can talk about it. But I'm still not going to divulge into my current goings, no matter how many fucking tabloids beg me for a scoop." I answered before groaning with my own brand of disgust. "I guess that's the main reason why I don't like to talk about my sex life, because I know it'll be the breaking topic of the week. I wore shorts one time, revealed my lower legs for a day, and the press went wild. I didn't know that clothes were like a fetish for you lot, so it was pretty fucking weird for a whole month and then some. From there on, it's always some questions about that and my sex life. And I know that if I talk to just anyone, they'll sell out. So... yeah, I keep mine to myself on the usual."

The mare wanted to hide her smirking expression, but did it poorly. "But you just told me you and the zebra had relations three times."

"No need to advertise it." I stressed through my teeth. "And I did it because you asked me in the context of her being a former sex slave, you wanted to know if I was taking advantage of her in any way. I just gave you an answer with context. I didn't go into details."

The mare nodded with acceptance. "You know, that's fair."

Finally, I could get back on track. "Now to the topic on hand, she's used to that kind of stuff, having to negotiate with her body and all that crazy shit. She knows that because of her exotic anatomy, she sells fairly well. And some other traits about her is what makes her a topic of discussion, or at least an exploit for negotiation. But she's not taking everything lying down, she's incredibly resourceful, and tactical."

"How so?" She inquired.

I then told her a story of what I personally witnessed. "She saw two stallions following her, saw that they offered her a bottle of water, took a big sip, dragged one guy in for a French kiss, and had me fight the other one off. Turns out that water they had was laced with cyanide, so she turned her own potential demise into a return-to-sender. She knows how to put on a show for some clients, all while directing the flow of the traffic of the room, she gives subtle signals for me to do something, she quick-witted, no-nonsense, and she's ambitious. Though I worry about her sometimes, she tends to have a bit of disregard for her own life in some ways. Other than that, she's a great partner for what I need done on the scene."

The mare seemed somewhat discouraged as I went on to talk about Kalimba. "I'm none of that."

In the exact opposite method to how Discord treated me, I pointed out the ways where she could benefit. "You have your own strengths, though I'd like to see you apply them in other spaces aside from the interrogation room and in the middle of a fight. Like for example, take some of that mid-combat adaptability and apply it to other areas in your skillset."

Solemn narrowed her eyes as a few thoughts came to mind, probably something pertaining to sex. "If that's your way of telling me that you want me to be a femme fatale, I'm not buying."

"I never asked for that."

She breathed a sigh of relief, at least letting loose the idea of having to submit herself when negotiations came into play. "So what do you want?"

As we came to the door leading into my room, I explained to her my intent. "I want you to be right where you are, operating in the light. I can't keep up with everything, even guarding Princess Celestia is a hassle when I'm recovering from my usual mind fucks every Wednesday and Saturday morning, then having to wrestle with the nightmares every single night."

She looked up to me with the tiniest bit of concern. "Sounds like you took on more than you could handle."

"Yeah, and that's why I'm having to rely on you." I answered, kneeling down to her. "So I know we have our differences, and I know we aren't on the best of terms, but we can still be professionals about this. And as such, I have an assignment for you."

"An assignment?" She asked quizzingly.

I used my magic to summon a manila envelope devoid of any markings and symbols. I handed it off to her. "Congratulations, you're now being briefed on a classified matter."

The mare's face lit up, not from excitement but from shock. She didn't know what to do next as she took the item. "How far into this am I going?"

"I told you, it's surface level." I informed her.

"You say surface level, what does that mean?" She asked.

"You're a day-op. I'm a night-op. You need the day to regulate a lot of things that I won't have the energy to do, plus my primary objective is to oversee the castle security while the princesses resides here. However, it's hard for me to be everywhere at once, you'll be covering some of my shifts. That will give me enough time to rest and recover for some of my midnight engagements over in Corrotto. You'll be a big help to me and you'll be getting some hooves-on training with some of the stuff I work with, under strict oversight of course."

"Strict oversight?" She repeated. "So what does that mean exactly?"

The door to my room opened from within, revealing a prince clad in purple armor. "It means you'll be working with us." Shining emerged from within the room, while Blueblood sat at the console that showed many of the security feeds. Luna also stood inside with a series of warrants written out for various ponies of interest, including the signed warrant for the Corrotto District.

The mare was in shock."Y-y-your majesties?"

Blueblood chuckled as he observed her from across the room. "The more everything changes, the more you stay the same."

The hours eclipsed and the sky eventually turned into a beautiful shade of gold, indicating that the sun started to make it's way into the waning hours of it's daily cycle. Hours passed since the group of royals and the passionate guard departed for their own daily doings. It was early in the evening, I was left in the room alone, only to deal with my thoughts as I started to get ready for tonight's scrum in the bad part of town.

Finally getting into a mirror, I washed my face one good time and told myself that all I had to do was last another two weeks. That was the hope I was banking on, because after that two weeks, I'm unleashing hell and I'm getting myself all the therapy I need.

In speaking of therapy, I saw the pills on the counter again. They reminded me of Blue, how she just gulped the pills down without a drop of water, all in hopes to keep herself from going mad. I'm not gonna lie and say that I hadn't had a stray thought that told me to take the pills, I spent most of the night tossing and turning over in my bed thinking about how much of a better sleep I'd have if I was taking them. But I still felt some type of omen about the damn things, they were the medication of a dead man... pony in this case. I know he's not using it anymore, but there's still the fact that those meds were the only thing that kept him cold and calculating when shit went south.

I wonder, would Blue turn into the calm and calculating bag of problems her dad was?

My phone vibrated, indicating I was getting a call. Instead of a usual call, I was getting a facetime call from Rarity. Odd timing, though I haven't spoke with her in a while. I answered the call. "Hello?"

Rarity appeared to be pouting on the screen, tapping her hoof as she stood in her workplace, surrounded by a few dresses she was working on throughout the day. "Darling, you have not called or texted me for a meetup since we last linked. Aren't we supposed to pretend we're dating?"

"Yeah, I guess a lot of stuff came up this week." I replied with a smile.

"So I've been told." She said with a frown. "Are you alright? Have you been sleeping lately?"

"Yeah, I've been good." I lied.

She caught on from the moment my lips parted. "Don't lie to me. I know that you're being tortured, and it's wearing on your psyche. So I'll ask again, are you okay?"

I know Rarity can be assertive when she wants to know about my well-being, but today she went in a little harder. I gave her a more reasonable reply. "I'll manage. I just have a lot on my mind."

"Like what?" She was very persistent.

So I told her one of the things that was on my mind. "Discord told me that Slade ran into my friends on Saturday night. It's like every move I make, he's calculated them somehow. I don't know what I can do to make this stretch for another two weeks."

Rarity was observant of my facial expressions as I talked and gauged that I was actually being honest with her for a change. "Nondis, the only thing you can do is keep operating like you are now. He will be dealt with in time." She assured.

"Twilight said the same thing on Tuesday. You guys aren't going after him, are you?" I asked.

"Unless anypony is a magical threat to Equestria and the existence of her denizens, then it's best to assume that we'll be fairly dormant on the matter." She explained. "The better question you should be asking is if you think he is a magical threat to Equestria and the citizens therein."

"The thing about it is that he's operated for so long and hasn't really posed himself a threat in that department. But he is a present danger to the order of things." I specified.

Rarity nodded in agreement. "Certainly. Any magic dealing with the dead is indeed a threat to the natural order and should be addressed by those in law enforcement. But you're not going to motion a takedown, are you?"

"I've been told not to by Celestia." I answered, giving a glance to the pills on the nightstand. Blue came to the forefront of my mind. "This guy's a fucking menace."

Rarity still talked with me, but putting on her red work glasses and assigning herself to one of her sewing machines. "For the time being, there has to be a motive for us to make our move. Not saying that there isn't one, trust me when I say we're all fiending for a confrontation or two after what you've been through. But it has to fulfill a certain list of guidelines for us to act on the behalf of harmony itself."

"I don't know. Snatching bodies seem pretty inharmonious to me." I replied, sitting on my bed.

The mare waited before turning on her machine, instead looking for a certain spool of thread. "Is he actively bringing harm to the living populous with those crimes? If not, then we have to continue to find a motive. And even if it is against a select few individuals, we have to keep to our restrictions."

I again looked at the pills in the bottle. "So these elements, I take that they're supposed to be like a nuclear option, a last resort."

"The last of last resorts, darling." She emphatically stressed. "We can't use them against an invading army, we can't use them for any national gain or to settle political disputes. It's like when I showed you my powered-up form, you can briefly show off but not in any way show out. It has to be a threat to harmony itself."

Again, Blue came to my mind as I asked my next question. "So if someone finds out that he's using the bodies for something other than psychologically torturing individuals, you guys get the green light?"

"Precisely." She answered. "It's why Twilight has taken it upon herself to find anything that could be used as a motive."

I averted my eyes away from the medication, standing up to stretch my arms. I used my magic to hold my phone in the meanwhile. "Well if there are guidelines preventing you all from bringing the hammer down, why is Twilight so hard on trying to find something?"

"Nondis, why do you think I keep trying to find the time to speak with you instead of leaving you in the back of my mind? It's because we care about you. For some of us, we care about our friends. For the ones you already know about, we get passionate about you." She answered with a form of zeal, bringing her phone closer to her face. "And also, Twilight feels that she has much to repay you for. So take from that what you will."

For once, I started to think about something other than what I went through, or even what others in my immediate circle endured over the past week. Seeing Twilight in Corrotto was a surprise, even more of a concern, but her appearance was also a welcome comfort. I wasn't going to forsake that. Really, it had me questioning her personal feelings on the issue. "Do you think she'll ever forgive me for not being with her after this?"

Rarity moved her curls from over her face, even taking some of them down and pinning them back before she started up her work. I already knew that meant she was about to bunker down for the next seasonal lineup. "Twilight doesn't usually hold grudges, not saying she doesn't. Though she's hurt over the fact that you finally separated yourself from her amorously, she's fine with your decision. Also helps to know that she secretly rooting for Celestia to find happiness in her experiences. So in turn, I think she's elated at the idea of you both being an item, she wishes for the both of your success. I may hope for otherwise in some instances, but that's just the teenage filly in me, always fighting for what I inevitably lose out on." She gave me a giggle. "Ah, the fair thing is that you warned me about this, and I still fell in knowing what I wasn't going to get. I'm just hard of learning, I suppose. Such is the hopeless romantic."

"You're not hopeless, you're just hard-headed." I answered with a snicker of my own, before looking back at the side of my bed, the bottle of pills being the main attraction. "I'm hoping Twilight finds something before something really fucked up happens to find me."

The fashionista started up her machine to start her work. "Aren't we all?"

After dropping off Spike by mom, dad and I walked out the door, found a secluded alleyway to change at, put on our disguises, and went on our way. The first place he had eyes for was some sort of bar. I wasn't really all that fond of places like that because many stallions there tended to be rather pushy, sleazy, or they just smelled like they don't do anything but drink their problems away.

Dad and I said nothing as we approached, finding that a stallion was brutally thrown out of the front door. "And stay out!" A deep, gravely voice hollered from within. After recovering from the impact, the mechanically impaired stallion stumbled to his hooves and wobbled further down the street cursing at the bar.

"We're going here of all places?" I asked as I watched the stallion slink away.

"Just a brief meeting with another associate of mine." He replied as we walked into the bar.

Looking around, I saw that there were empty tables all around. It seemed that the daily patrons were more attracted to the source of their so-called nourishment. The stools were sparsely taken up, though the patrons were happily giving their money to the bartender behind the counter. I whispered to dad. "Does all of your associates know the underground world of Canterlot that well?"

"Some." He quietly replied.

He guided me to a nearby table and told me to take a seat in front of him. There were hardly any serving staff, so the bartender had to tend to his customers at the counter before coming over to tend to us. "I have a question. How is it you have so many old associates that know about this kind of stuff?"

He summoned a silver pocket watch and flicked it open twice. "They didn't really care too much about mental illness when I was coming up. If you were depressed, you were told to suck it up and keep moving. A lot of guards were kept to that standard of life. And they've wandered into various dark corners trying to find what they've been missing."

"Then why haven't you fallen in the same cycle?" I asked, surprised that my dad wasn't some crazed psycho or at least as mentally disturbed as Shining Armor.

"Because I had a better life growing up, from lineage, to prestige, and even situational advantages. I signed to the guard because I wanted to, not to feed anyone. I went through the ranks quickly because my father and his brothers were officers in various chains of command. I never fell into the underworld because I had a family to raise."

See the expression on my dad's face, I could tell he had some nostalgic thoughts about his time in the guard. Seemed like he missed much of his experience. I could only imagine how much it ate at him to see so many of his former comrades either turn in or go haywire. "So from your perspective, how did you feel seeing all of your fellow veterans go this way?"

"Honesty I was saddened to see it happen, but I understood why." He answered, flicking his watch another two times.

"Does mom know about any of this?" I asked, hoping that he at least talked to her about his own mental struggles.

"Not as much. Your mother was too good of a soul to even be bothered." He ultimately gave me the exact opposite of the answer I wanted to hear. He glanced up past me and put his pocket watch away, lowering his voice as I heard the hoofsteps approaching. "You have a lot of her in you."

In a few seconds, the stallion at the bar approached our table with a grin. "Hey you. I don't recall letting good-ol-boys sit at one of my tables."

"Sorry, some things came up and I just felt like I needed to take some time away." Dad said while stretching his hoof out to meet with the stallion. The two appeared well-acquainted.

"Time away from your smoking hot wife? What a fucking life." At least this encounter was more of mom being on the receiving end of some unwanted praise and affection.

"If you were married to her, you'd see that there's a lot of maintenance involved. I can't keep up anymore." Dad joked, causing me to internally raise some questions.

The bartender looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "Who's the skimpy brood?" I became a tiny bit hostile towards the stallion from that comment.

"A friend of mine from work." Dad replied casually.

The stallion seemed to know that dad wasn't at any job since retiring from the guard. So he looked at me with inquiry. "Work, huh?" He got a little closer to inspect my appearance. "You know, I'm sure a pretty lady like Velvet deserves better."

Dad laughed at his reaction. "Please, I let her have her fun while I have mine." It was a good thing that my ears were painted over as well, my whole body was flushed red at the thought of both mom and dad seeing other ponies? Like how does that even work!?

The bartender grinned and rubbed his chin. "Hmm, now that's something I like to hear. Maybe you aren't so goody-goody after all."

While my mind was becoming more and more corrupted with disgusting thoughts of my mom and dad's sex life, I felt butterflies churning up a storm in my stomach. But the sudden impact of a few jewels on the table snapped me out of a thousand-yard stare. "Keep the change." Dad pushed forward five fairly large sapphires, radiant cut.

The bartender levitated the jewels and dismissed them to his tip barrel. "Ah, back to the grind, huh?" The stallion pulled out a notepad and pen. "What's your poison?"

Dad reclined back in his chair. "Looking for information. Bunch of bodies at the cemetery went missing last week. I'm wondering if you know any boys down at the morgue and if they can clue you in."

The stallion started jotting something down on his notepad as he gave dad the side-eye. A few seconds later, the bartender shook his head. "Now look here, buddy. I don't know nothing about that. I just know that bodies go in the ground. And that's all they do." He said before walking off to the counter to pour up a pint of beer for my dad.

A few seconds later, he came back with a tray with a overflowing beer on it. Dad waited for him to put down the tray. "But there's got to be something we can figure out."

"I told you, I don't know nothing." He reinforced, pointing his hoof at the table. "That's your tab. Now if you'd excuse me, I got some more of those beautifully ugly faces to look at."

Dad drunk the beer and waited quietly as he stared at the beer-stained tray. "Dead end?" I asked.

"Not entirely." He said after he guzzled down the drink. "How much is on the tab, give a look for me."

I looked at him a bit confused, why did he ask me to look at his tab when he could just simply look down at the tray and see the numbers as clear as day. But when I looked at it, I began to notice a good difference in what was scribbled in the parchment... rather what was scribbled on it. The receipt was stained all over by beer, except for certain parts that still seemed virgin white in spite of the beer covering it. There were two things, the first being a house-like structure that had a religious symbol affixed to the top of it. "A church?"

Dad seemed to know a lot better of what was drawn on there, immediately identifying key details that I completely overlooked, such as the coffin-shaped door. "A mausoleum. The Canterlot Hilltop Mausoleum." He murmured within his cup.

I continued to look at the receipt, only seeing some strange marking. "Any names?"

He tilted the tray to spill more of the beer over the receipt. In doing so, he revealed a shape of a candelabrum. "Just a cutie mark to go by."

The bartender showed up with yet another pint, but directed it towards me instead. "This one's on the house, missy." He said with a frown. "Now drink up so you two can get the hell out of my bar. Don't need anymore troublemakers around."

I stared down into the cup and saw nothing special about it. Dad then urged me to drink the frothy beverage down. I complied. "Thanks." I said to the bartender, who walked away without any further statement.

"Bottoms up." He urged, making me take the whole thing in.

It took a while for me to finish, as I wasn't used to drinking just plain beer. I wasn't exactly warm to the taste of it either, which made it even harder to take in. Had it been a casual cup of apple cider, it would've been easy for me. But instead this stuff tasted like dirty water. After I braved the drink, I slammed the mug onto the table, proud of my victory. Dad quickly got up from the table as soon as the mug went down. "What, what's wrong?" I asked him.

He showed no signs of slowing down. "Let's get moving."

Canterlot's Home of Final Rest Mortuary
One Hour Later...

While the sun appeared to be shining in it's final hour into it's daily arc through the sky, the lights that beamed in were yellow and bright. The mood inside the lobby was far more somber and subdued. While the outside appeared warm and lively, the mortuary was not such a place. There was warm tones of orange and yellow, contrasted by darker shades of maroon, the lights resembled that of white sea shells on the walls, the smell of pumpkin spice permeated the air. There was no such thing as a day without mourning, today was no different.

A young mare appeared disastrously distraught at the sudden news of her husband's passing. She was a pony of little means to pay for her husband's interment. As such with many younger ponies who deal with the daily stresses of life at a young age, most of their finances were either tied with utilities or mortgage payments. Needless to say, she was begging for an easy way to alleviate the process.

"Don't worry ma'am. We pride ourselves in our quality of work, as well as our long-established tradition of expedited processing. Your loved ones will be in the best hooves imaginable. Now do you have a preference to how you wish for your loved one to be cared for?" A fairly young stallion, one could argue almost too young to be dealing with this kind of business, stood at the counter with a friendly smile.

"...Can't we go with a simple cremation? Perhaps an urn?" The mare requested.

"Well there is the processing fee for that. And it may take up to twenty-four hours before they're ready. But our queue for that is awfully long." He replied calmly.

"How long are we talking?" The mare tried her best to remain composed.

The stallion pulled out a log book, skimming through the pages until he could find an available opening. "Around three weeks."

"Oh grace befall me!" She said, almost on the verge of collapse. "Are there any other fees associated with that?"

He then began to list off the various fees and transactions to follow. "Well there is the storage and maintenance fee. We could keep your husband in cold storage for as long as the queue persists and we'll keep a number on him. But to slow the degradation process, it's going to take a tremendous effort to keep him from being a harm to our employees. As such, there is a five-hundred bit fee per day."

"Oh Faust!" That was the main number that made her collapse to her side for a second. That's a total of 10,500 bits for the storage alone. There's no such thing as anyone that young being able to put out that much on top of paying for the process. She tearfully pleaded the stallion. "Please, this was so sudden for us. Is there any way we can negotiate a payment plan?"

"No ma'am. Because of the nature of our work, we're prohibited by law to allow that." He informed her.

The mare leaned against the counter, her head resting against the marble countertop. "My father-in-law is sick, my mother in law is paying for his expenses. My parents can't help because of my uncle's funeral. Our family is ruined!"

The young stallion meekly offered a suggestion. "Well, we do have a more cost-friendly method. But it may be something your family will ultimately disapprove of... Have you ever considered donating his body to research?"

"FAUST NO!" She screamed loudly, causing the stallion to pin his ears shut.

"I understand your disgust." He quickly replied. "And I do see why many would dislike the idea of having their loved ones serve that purpose. But perhaps we can sell you a lovely plot of land on the Rosary Grounds. It's fairly reasonable in terms of price."

"How much?" She questioned.

"You'll be looking at around eight-hundred." The mare appeared to be a little more calm, but that was before the stallion then piled on the other costs. "That of course is for the plot. But to take into consideration labor costs, processing, storage, and maintenance, your total comes to around five thousand."

"NO!" She screamed in vain. "Please, you have to know somepony, anypony who can take care of my husband!"

The young stallion appeared sincere in his apology. "I'm sorry... We do offer mausoleum storage, but that is ฿10,000. Crystallization is ฿120,000. Cryofreezing is around ฿1,100,000. And those are the only other facilities there are around here. The recent months have had us backlogged since that changeling fiasco. You could try the one in Ponyville, but I can't imagine that will be a safe and respectful way to send your husband to his eternal repose, not to mention economically feasible."

The mare slumped down to the floor, leaning the back of her head against the counter. "...Faust help me."

The stallion grimaced as he walked from around the counter, appearing as if this was something he tried his best not to do. "If you would like, I do have an idea on what we can do for you. We do have some of our more... economic options available." On his flank was the very same candelabrum we sought after.

"Then why didn't you start there!?" She complained.

He began to whisper at her. "Sorry, ma'am. It's a thing I have to do for my supervisor. But we can offer a plot at Sunset Rounds. It's a cheap plot, you can at least rent out the space for a three-year warranty. If you pay for the upkeep in the future, we can keep him there no problem. Plot is a hundred, all the other things will be around ฿3500, but he won't be embalmed, nor will he be as readily kept up with. He'll get a good sprucing, but you'll have to speed up your arrangements."

She took the time to carefully weigh her severely-limited options. "How long do you think he'll hold?"

"If he's fresh, I give it four days before it starts to become a problem. Funeral is, of course, closed casket. Also, it'll just be me who works on him, to limit labor costs of course."

"Will we have the viewing still?" She asked tearfully.

The stallion sighed. "I'm afraid not. Time is of the essence. Cold storage is mandatory."

Filled with disappointment over the news, she lowered her head and accepted the hand that was dealt to her. "Oh... I suppose I'll arrange for his burial to be set on Monday."

"That would be ideal." He replied.

The mare pulled out a checkbook and started writing the number total he quoted. As she slid the check over to him, she bemoaned the idea of parting with the remainder of her budget. "This is all I have left for the month."

"Again, I'm sorry for the loss." The young stallion repeated.

"I'm just grateful you've chose to work with me. It's been hard times with the recent invasions."

"It's fine, we're all suffering at this point in time. I just wish I could keep more ponies alive as opposed to making them look good in death. It's pretty swamped here. But that doesn't matter, I'll have him ready for his final day above ground. You have my word."

She bowed her head to the stallion at the counter. "Thank you."

As the mare trembled in her departure, the stallion at the counter snorted with frustration. "Another day I don't know how to say no to a crying face, another long-ass weekend playing dress-up." The stallion then called out. "Next in lobby please!"

Finally, it was our turn.

Both my dad and I approached the counter, the stallion seemed to directly address the first one who showed up to the counter. "Hello sir, how may I help you."

"I'm looking for a pony by the name of Guiding Light. I have a request for him." Dad casually requested with a easy-going tone.

The stallion looked the other way, shifting his eyes suspiciously as he nervously stepped away from the counter. "Oh, Mr. Light is unavailable for the time being. He's actually on vacation."

Dad knew he was lying, and proceeded to play along anyhow. "Well that's unfortunate. Is there any way I can get in touch with him?"

"Again, he is unavailable for the time being." He repeated.

Dad saw that the stallion was about to take an abrupt leave, so he changed his approach from calm and casual to quiet and threatening. "You know... The boss doesn't like to be ignored."

The stallion hunched his shoulders as he halted in place, slowly turning back to my dad. "Who's the boss?" He questioned weakly.

"As if I'm stupid enough to say his name. You know what happens to those who even think of his name?" Once more, dad played his role to a T, thoroughly intimidating the young stallion.

"...Down that hall, turn left, there's a chapel where we hold the viewing service. Please wait in there for a moment."

Feeling he got his point across, dad tilted me to the direction of where we had to go next. It was only a short walk to the place he asked us to wait in. As soon as we arrived there, I asked my father one thing. "How do you know what to say?"

"If even the innocent and normal adult ponies know not to say that name out in public, then you know there's weight to the name. Use it as a tool, but be cautious of the reply." He warned.

Around half a minute later, the young stallion came rushing through the doors into the chapel. "Sorry, just had to shut the counter down for a moment. What do you need?"

"Information." Dad answered.

The stallion recognized the type of tone my dad gave off, it was an authoritative one resembling those that were firmly positioned near the princess at all times. The young stallion started to feel the pressure from him. "I'm sorry, I don't have any information outside of what services we offer here."

"I'm sure all information is available for purchase, if you're willing to pay the right price." He replied, summoning a bag of gems.

The stallion looked nervously towards him, still backing away like he wasn't trying to answer. "Are you serious?"

I walked over to the nearest exit and positioned myself to hold the door. Dad levitated one of the benches in front of the other door in the back, leading to the outside. "Deathly serious."

The young stallion gulped. "Who really sent you?"

"Just a good ol' friend of mine." He lied.

"What are you trying to find out?" The young stallion shook with anxiety as dad walked closer to him.

Looking down at him with his sulfur yellow eyes, my dad firmly stated his position. "There are bodies missing in the graveyard. All we were trying to do is figure out what's causing this to occur."

The young stallion tried to put up a credible alibi. "You know some parts of the mountain are eroded from inside due to wind. Perhaps they've been lost to the depths below. I can't say that there's any other issue." Dad didn't appear convinced and walked up closer, almost towering over the now cowering colt. "And before you do anything else, there is no further information for sale."

"So you're in on it." He answered with a gripping icy voice.

"There's nothing to be in on other than my job." He replied.

Dad's horn started to glow very dimly, a weak aura developed at the his neck while my dad loomed over him. "I may be in retirement, but that doesn't mean I lost all of my physical ability. I still keep myself in shape, still keep loose, still stay ready for any eventuality. You have about ten seconds to tell me what you know before I send some fairly burly guys to hunt you down and make you a new feature above the colosseum."

While I wasn't completely on board with my dad's methods, I did acknowledge that they were effective in causing the stallion to second guess his participation. Of course, he still tried to put up a front. "Threatening me isn't what's going to work here."

"Then is it the fact that you know somepony who's using the bodies for something other than... science?"

The grip on the young stallion's neck started to intensify with the more visibility of my father's magic. "I don't have any clue of what you're talking about."

"You know exactly what I'm talking about." He insisted. "Reanimated corpses, appropriated for the purpose of somepony looking to get a good scare on somepony in particular."

The stallion began to look extremely lost over what my dad was telling him. "I... I don't know anything about that. Is that really a thing?"

Dad stopped for a moment, easing off the stallion and changed his approach. "Count DuMoneé was buried in a stone mausoleum, much less sealed in a wrought iron sarcophagus and placed in a granite tomb next to his wife. There was a public viewing during the service. We all know he was in there when he got buried, but now he's out."

"What does that have to do with me?" He asked, visibly showing how unaware he was.

Dad backed away, giving the stallion some room to breathe. "Well your supervisor picked up the order, which means that you've done some of the work on the arrangements. Now if I had to guess anything, there are guidelines of how to carry on with the exhumation process should something go tragically wrong, or if there is a criminal investigation underway that needs the body for evidence. And it requires the assistance of a supervisor and another worker to correctly exhume a body for law enforcement to use."

"Well yes, that's our entire process." The young stallion replied.

"Meanwhile, it was long-surmised that Count had committed suicide. So what would be the reason the body would be exhumed so quickly into the degradation process?"

"I can't tell you what caused that to happen, sir. I wasn't here."

Dad, while he did back away from the stallion, still had a grip on his neck. His eyes narrowed. "You know something."

"And it isn't much other than my job." He replied.

"I will say his name here and now."

The stallion closed one eye wincing. "Please don't."

Dad looked around the room and then murmured the name. "Umbra."

"Wait!" The stallion threw his hooves into the air, ready to surrender every bit of information he knew. "Look, if any of us are even caught hearing that name, we're dead!"

"Dead, or puppeted afterwards?" Dad asked.

The stallion shuddered as she looked down to the ground. "...Worse."

"Worse?" Dad repeated.

The stallion looked around, his ears flicking to check if there were any others coming around to hear. "There are some things I can't explain in the open. Much I cannot say personally."

Dad's magic relinquished the neck of the young stallion. "Then what can you do?"

The stallion stammered in response. "...I-I could s-sh-show you."

Minutes later, we were given an impromptu tour of the establishment. I say impromptu mainly because we had very little pomp and circumstance about our being here. In fact, we were snuck through many of the areas restricted to clients and customers. And it wasn't like we were given the outside tour where we could see the halls of the mausoleum, the many methods they offered, a trial before buy of one of their coffins, or even a visit to the nearby gift shop.

Yes, there was a gift shop.

Instead we were taken through the restricted area, snuck past some of the other workers who wheeled a corpse right past us, and introduced us to the downstairs basement, more specifically the containment chamber. He told us it was a shortcut through some of the more busy areas of the morgue. But as soon as he opened the door to our shortcut, I realized that I wasn't really cut out for this kind of work. "What is this place?" Dad asked as he held a hoof over his muzzle.

"It reeks." I said, trying to hold my breath. I wanted to pull out my wings and use them to filter the smell, but that wouldn't have worked either way.

"We do deal with the dead here." Guiding Light said as he showed us the way through the massive room filled with chutes and sanitation tanks. The dimly lit room had several containers of brown, gooey slime that reeked of some of the most unholy odors that could ever possibly be conceived. It was beyond sickening, but he marched through it with a seemingly cheerful hum. "This room is the sludge containment. A lot of bodies when they decay produce this post-mortem sludge. When we keep them in storage for an extended period of time, especially without embalming them, they putrefy. When the bodies are placed into the mausoleum storage, they are often left in compartments to allow for the degradation to occur quickly. It's all about one thing, dehydration. Vents keep the air circulating into the storage, the body rots and dries over time. But as this process comes along, the caskets unleash some gasses, and our bodies are broken down to putrid sludge. So the storage is sloped a certain way to allow for that sludge to filter down when it escapes the coffin. The odors go out the vents, sludge goes in storage─which is where we are now, and everything is usually contained without causing a mess for the touring mourner."

"But why so much of it?" Dad asked, probably holding back his lunch.

"There's a lot of death. Not every process is simply throwing the body in a hole and covering it so it can be forgotten. This is for those who wish to keep their family in a public mourning space. Of course with it being indoors, it's more climate controlled, more heavily maintenanced, and a bit more expensive. And of course, the mausoleum offers a lot of storage for those wanting to fulfill that method." Guiding proclaimed before pivoting around to cheerfully announce to us some unwanted information. "Fun fact, did you know that the average pony body can contain up to four gallons of sludge?"

I know that I am a stickler for trivia, but I did not want any part of that information outside of a book. "I'm wishing I didn't." I moaned as the smell continued to assault my senses.

"I'm probably putting in an advanced deposit for my cremation." Dad said in agony.

"Book now, burn later. That's what my supervisor would always say." The young stallion laughed lightly before turning to us, realizing that neither of us saw what was funny. "Not into dark humor? I understand it's an acquired taste."

"How are you breathing?" Dad questioned as we finally came to the other side of the room.

"Oh, I've had to clean at least one of these tanks out a few years ago. We usually work in a sanitation suit, but walkthroughs helped me get used to whatever nasty things I encounter on the daily. Even cleaned up a few murder victims... doesn't matter the age."

"You live a sad life." Dad said as he waited with anticipation for Guiding to open the way out.

"Death is natural. Some things you just get used to."

Once the door was opened, both me and dad barreled out of the room and made our way into the fresh air. Once the door closed behind us, we were too busy gasping for 'fresh' air to even notice what room we ran into. But the number of tables and dollies strewn around the room gave us a good hint. I pushed one out of my way when I walked forward. "What's this for?" I asked.

"Oh, that's the gurney. We usually wheel them in for the family to confirm the identity." My hoof never retracted from anything so fast. "Don't worry, we usually clean them off after each use." Reassured Guiding. Looking around, I noticed that we were in a white-ish blue room filled with numerous carts, some strange pulley devices that look like they hold things in place, and several racks that seemed to stack three units high. Of course, many of those racks had bodies on them. "This is our cold storage center, or for the uninspired tourist, the morgue."

While I was still absorbing the horror in my mind, my dad didn't see past the sight of his breath coming out of his nostrils. "I can see my own breath down here."

"Well the room has to be somewhat cold, can't let the fridges do all the work." He replied cheerfully.

Looking around, I saw that the room seemed virtually endless. Many of the fridge units that they had lined the walls with doors that could be pulled out like filing cabinets. And with each door, there was a name on the front of it that could be switched out at any given time. It was a pretty macabre way of keeping their work organized. "This is an awfully large room to be using for storage."

"We do have the weight of a city on our backs. It's only natural that we'd try to keep with the demand." He replied as he noticed a cart with a body still out in the open. "Oops, 'scuse me. Some idiots don't like keeping the bodies maintained. Don't want 'em stinking up the joint." He then groaned another complaint. "Ugh, I swear some idiots don't take into consideration the dignity they need to have in dealing with the dead. Cover the face, for goodness sake."

We quietly watched him as he went about his process. He went from taking one of those pulley devices to lift the body off of the dolly, onto the appropriately labeled fridge unit. After that, he closed the drawer and the door flopped shut over the hind legs and tail of the body he stored. "Incredible to see that the fridges are flushed into the walls. How does that work out for maintenance?" Dad questioned.

"There's a maintenance access here." Guiding announced as he peeked around the room for what appeared to be a supply closet containing a volume of sanitation materials. Suddenly, the instance of smiles had completely left his face. The only thing that I could see was a deeply disturbed stallion who grabbed a broom with hesitance. "Now to get to it, I'm going to sing to you a song, but be sure to keep the lyrics in your mind.... Don't forget them."

He stood at the center of the closet, looked back at us, and then began to sweep at the floor while singing.

He then placed the broom back in the closet and closed the door. Dad looked at him with a bewildered expression. "A foal's song, a nursery rhyme?"

"Well it is kind of catchy." I replied a second before the door was opened back up. "If all the raindrops, lemon drops, and gumdrops─" A hoof was introduced to my chest, dad stood in front of me as he silenced me. Looking at his face as he turned to me, I saw an unmistakable vein of terror in his eyes. I began to question it verbally, that was until I looked past him.

"Faust, who art in heaven." He whispered.

I walked past him to see several bodies hanging from the ceiling, a blue-like fluorescent light. Each of them were strung up on what appeared to be harnesses. And many of the bodies appeared decomposed or processed in some way. The way their tails swept the ground, the way their hindlegs dangled from their waists, in some cases the bulging eyes and twisted mouths, the entirety of the nightmare persisted... for what appeared to be yards in either direction. Affixed to either their legs or ears were black tabs with a set of numbers. Some merely had black bags over their faces, but for many that was not the case.

It was like walking into an orchard, filled with these trees bearing unusual fruits.

"I'm sure you noticed earlier, I hum and sing a lot when I encounter something I don't entirely like. In this case, hold your breath, make a wish, count to three." The stallion followed his own advice and carefully waded through the sea of corpses, slowly singing all the while. "♪Come with me, and you'll be, in a world of pure abomination. As you'll see, it's His world of pure abomination.... We'll begin with a spin, traveling to the world of his creation, what you see will defy... your salvation.♫"

Dad looked around, taking in the sight as I did. "It's ice cold in here."

"Of course...." The stallion turned around with a blankness in his eyes. "You can't let the fridges do all the work."

Well this one came out a week later than what my schedule had down, but here we are anyways. I'm just glad I found the time to finish it. Next chapter should be a little lighter in the word count (I think). It's going to be a little more action oriented, so that will curb some of the dialog a bit. I was originally going to delete the scene of Blue getting back to her place, but I decided it would've been better to add context to her mental state going into the canceled trial on the Thursday sequence. Needless to say that we're approaching something big, so stay tuned.

Thanks for reading and I hope to see you in the near future, be it 2 or 3 weeks from now.