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Some content elaborated in this chapter is to contain incestuous and homosexual content, the area notated will be marked with a custom breaker.

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The Corrotto Inn
481 Years Ago...

"We have five ales going to the table near the front window!" A young barmaid by the name of Moonbeam Glow called out to the back of the counter. "Ummie, get the table their orders, if you don't mind!"

"Yes ma'am!" A young adolescent colt answered enthusiastically, albeit a bit out of breath from the work. "Coming right up!"

Umbra quickly ran up to the table with their requested drinks. Happily providing the orders that they requested, he galloped back behind the bar to watch Moonbeam walk right past him with her own order to deliver. As she did so, he couldn't help but let his eyes be guided towards her tail, which swayed as she walked. She wasn't a mare who grabbed the attention of every stallion or teenage colt that walked in. Instead she was more built to deal with a heavier workload, probably from all the years of running from table to table, running errands up and down the street, carrying carts of goods across the plaza, and helping her father keep the inn in shape and free of leaks from the rain. She was a quintessential workhorse, one who didn't take any excuse on why something couldn't be done.

But her flanks was well-toned for the work she did. While she wasn't exactly the prettiest mare in the face, she had many features of the body that spoke highly of her potential to breed productive offspring. And the young Umbra would quickly lose track of his tasks in daydreaming about his chance to sow the first seeds of his adolescence.

Umbra almost jumped out of his skin as the bar owner, Silver Tab, slammed a tray of drinks next to the young stallion's ears. The young adolescent turned around and saw the older stallion glaring down at him. "You trying to lose me business, boy!?"

"No sir!" The Umbra stallion answered.

"Or are you trying to be fresh again!?"

"No sir! Honest, I-I was just surveying the customers!"

"You mean the invisible customers hiding underneath my daughter's tail, ya fresh bastard!?"

"No sir! I was just gonna study how she interacts with the other customers!"

"Oh you want to learn how to interact, eh?" He said as he chided the young colt. "How about I let you borrow her stupid apron and frills and let you interact with the crowd!? Maybe you'll like how it feels to get a look or two!"

"No sir! I'll get these drinks right out, sir!" Umbra replied as he hurriedly took the tray and ran from behind the counter.

"That would be for the table on the second floor!" The bar owner called out to the scrambling colt. The others at the nearby counter had started laughing at the young lad running for his life. "Ha, young bastard stays under my roof, eats my food, sleeps in one of my beds, earns on my time, and still has the nads to peek at my daughter like he's gonna shank her."

"Ah, the poor bastard's got nothin' to go to. I'd say let the young wanker have at!" Said one of the bar parishioners.

Silver Tab pulled out a black and white frilly apron and grimaced. "I'll let him have at this damn dress. Maybe he'll stay focused if he's out there looking more frilly than she does." The entire group laughed as the young mare came back to her father's side. "The boy was seeking you out again."

"It's to be expected, he is young." The mare replied. "I only out him by a good five years."

"He's five years under date." Silver Tab answered. "I'm gonna make him wear this so he can stay focused."

"Father, that's my old dress! Put that away!" She urged, slightly embarrassed.

"You far outgrown it, might as well put it to some use." He said as Umbra arrived back to the counter. "Ah, bastard. I have a little something for you to put on."

"Put on, sir?" The adolescent colt questioned.

He held the dress out for the young adolescent to wear. "From now on, you don't start your shift until you wear this. And if there's any time I don't see you in it in the day, no dinner, no bed, no pay, nothing. You earn your keep with this rag on or you earn nothing."

The young stallion, while not wanting to appear with it on, did as he requested out of fear of being put out into the streets. He went into the back storage and changed himself into it and walked back out, earning more than a few laughs from the many bar-goers. Moonbeam smiled as she sympathetically hugged the young Umbra. "You know father, he is as cute as a button."

"Good, then maybe he can sell a few more drinks then." Silver Tab responded as he sat another heavy tray of drinks for some of the other tables. "Alright, get these out to that row of tables with all the young idiots looking for an early grave."

"Yes sir." Umbra said as he walked out with his heavier-than-usual workload.

The place had brimmed with the many citizens who raved on and on about the ongoing war taking place out in the fields of Everfree. Many younger colts and stallions had started speaking of their desire for enlistment. Mares who saw the opportunity to see them off had also gathered to the inn to try and select themselves a suitable mate they would sire with. Given that many colts and stallions were trying to enlist, it also brought the attention of several stallions looking to tell tales of the field without having set hoof on them.

But not all of the patrons had the intent to join the war or root for the same side.

The door of the inn swung open, introducing a quartet of young established teens, all of which who were vastly more wealthy and influential. When they entered, the chatter of the venue had almost evaporated. The atmosphere had gone from lively and bustling to quiet and brooding. The four adolescents walked towards a table on the second floor and waved at the other patrons with smug expressions.

"Well, I suppose this was a bit of fun, just walking into the nest of roaches with our boots on." One of the nobles stated to the leader of the pack.

"I told you. Just stick with me and we're in for some good times, just like it should be." The young noble replied. "Though I wonder if the idiot of a bartender knows how much left he has to pay on his debt to my father."

"He could sure use the money to make this place not look so much like a pig sty, there's rotten wood everywhere!" The third said as he pointed to the rafters high above the place. "You couldn't even hold a chandelier up there, always the bad lighting. So drab."

The fourth tapped the leader's shoulder and pointed at some of the young mares sitting at the tables with some of the young soon-to-be recruits. "The pickings aren't that bad though. They could be of higher quality, but I bet they can clean up real nice."

The group leader pointed towards the bar, specifically at Moonbeam. "Look over there, it's another one of those barn animals. Do you honestly believe that can clean up well enough to be passable?"

"Put a sack on her face and she'll be the talk of the town." One of the nobles joked.

Walking to the ledge, the young leader of the group of nobility hollered out in a snobbish manner. "Miss Cow, we want our drinks, please! Do be of use and give us the service we deserve!"

Moonbeam grimaced as she looked up to the group leader, knowing exactly who he was. "Father, can you take care of them?"

"Sir, if you don't mind, I'll go so that she doesn't have to." Umbra replied.

The bar owner clenched his teeth as he took great offense to the young noble insulting his daughter. "Go on then." He then called out loudly as if he made the order. "Four pints to the second floor!"

"Four pints!" Umbra responded loudly.

Once he got his tray, he started to walk up the stairs. But before he could make it halfway, one of the other seated nobles toppled the tray over and spilled the beer all over the server and the stairs. He also poked fun at his victim. "Barkeep, you have got to stop sending these random klutzes to serve your drinks!" The four ponies laughed at the table. Umbra remained persistent and grabbed the mugs and put them back on the tray. The four young colts did not appear thrilled to find their server approaching with emptied mugs. So they pushed him back down the stairs with their magic and called out to the bartender once more. "Surely you don't serve all of your clients empty cups! Refill them at once!"

As Umbra tried to not show his anger over what was being done to him, he ran back down the stairs and got another batch. But before he could start walking, a mug was flipped over the young adolescent's head. "There we go again, being the fool we always see!" The three other mugs were then poured on the floor, outlining the path that Umbra had to walk in order to get upstairs. "By the time we'll get our drinks, we'll be in parliament."

Silver Tap put four more mugs onto the tray and mumbled to the young colt. "I don't care how you do it, you get those young lads their drinks."

Moonbeam interjected. "Father, this is nonsense! Stand up for him, you know they do this every time!"

"Mooooo!" The leader of the group called out to the mare below. "So, tell me how much milk do you make!"

Umbra, instead of holding the drinks up by the tray, levitated each of them by their own individual selves. He steadily walked the path that was covered in beer and marched up the stairs. One of the nobles pointed out at the young colt. "Now you know the law, you peasants are forbidden to lift anything more than a pound in our presence!"

Taking great pride in the moment, he slammed the mugs onto the table and shouted to the counter below. "Order up!"

But as he took pride in that one moment of triumph, one of the other aristocrat teens had started to converse in whispers to one another. The leader's ear was tilted down and whispered into before he looked at the stallion with a chuckle. "Oh bartender! We want a room!"

"Our rooms are being repaired for the time being! I am sorry, but as you know, the taxes I pay are far too─"

The leader then called out. "My father owns this place. He's only letting you keep it because he knows you'd keep paying to hold on to it! You have a choice, let me have a room or the rent goes up!"

Moonbeam pleaded with her father. "Please, father. Don't let him talk you into this. You know what they do."

Already regretting the decision to allow Umbra to deliver their drinks had started to weigh heavily on his mind. But considering the massive debt he had to the landowner, he knew he couldn't afford the rise in his rent. "...Umbra, show him to his room!"

"Yes sir!" He called out.

The group of four sneered and pointed to the young colt who guided them towards a nearby available room. They all stood, one of them taking a salt shaker from the table as he walked away. The crowd started to grow into a murmur before the four had started walking into the room. Umbra, having done his job, started to walk away.

But before he could leave, a ring of magic clasped onto his tail to drag him into the room. The door slammed shut behind him as the leader of the pack quenched his magic, pointing to the young adolescent. "Oh no, where do you think you're going, princess prettyboy?"

Looking around nervously, Umbra tried to think of a way to get himself out. "What do you want from me?" He questioned.

The leader leaned down and held his chin up to get a better look at his face, confirming his suspicions. "Well... how the mighty House of Count Bastion have fallen."

"I don't know what you're on about." Umbra replied, turning his head away.

"Sanctus, we know it's you." Replied the leading young noble, Prim Prestige.

"They got you in some pretty little frou-frou dress. They obviously think of you as lesser than they." The second noble, High Crest, added with a snicker.

"This is just a punishment. Nothing more." Umbra replied as he looked to the dress he was made to wear.

The four looked to each other, giving themselves a nudge and a wink before proceeding. "So, Sanctus Quorum, son of the late chancellor Lux Decorum, you are truly a wanted colt." Stated the third, Scribble.

A moment of fear began to fill the mind of the young teen. "Wanted?"

"Haven't you heard?" Prim Prestige called out. "The princess is really tearing up the countryside looking for you. They say she's looking to end the bloodline of Count Bastion for good."

"She's slaying every guard supporting the fallen aristocracy, including those who vowed to keep your identity secret." The fourth, En Guarde, added. "They say she's already found out who you are, where you stay, even so much as what you do on the daily."

"We thought you had somehow survived the scrum from a year ago, especially since no one saw your head go up. Guess our hunch was right." Prim said proudly.

Afraid and very much in fear of his life, Umbra questioned the group of nobles. "What does she want with me!? My family's dead, I have no influence, no rank, nothing! What am I to her but another stone in the street!?"

"A survivor who got away. She wanted you to die with the rest, and she's not happy that you're still alive." High Crest answered.

"In fact, her guards could be everywhere around here." Scribble supplemented as he started to walk behind the young stallion.

"You know how they treat us nobles around here." En Guarde cosigned as he also walked behind the teen colt, but mainly to reach the door.

"Just think of what they'll do when they discover who you are?" High Crest said as he took to Umbra's left side.

"You'll just be another head on a stick." Scribble pointed out.

"But I'm nothing!" Umbra retorted as the circle of threats started to make him tremble.

Prim Prestige pursed his lips and nodded, agreeing with the young teen. "You know, you're right. You've nothing to your name anymore. Nothing to protect you, nothing to stand on, nothing to prop you forward. You're just like everyone else around here, a puppet."

"But a puppet who could be turned into a dead body by the night's end if they were to find out who you really are." En Guarde suggested as he placed a bar against the door to shut themselves inside.

"Poor little Sanctus, a treasured hunt for both sides to claim as their trophy." Scribble laughed.

Prim held a hoof up to interject before the others. "But... we can make that all go away."

"Keep it quiet." Scribble joined in.

"Keep you safe." As did High Crest.

"Give you back your power." En Guarde assured.

Seeing the chance to not only bring himself back to power in silence, he started to see the benefit of being in the position to possibly rebuild the standing his family once had. "Okay, okay! I'll do whatever it takes! Just keep me safe, will you?"

The four young stallions closed in around the young teen. "You heard him, boys. Whatever it takes. Let's give him a proper welcome into his new position in society."

Umbra looked up to the young stallion before him, but quickly turned around to see En Guarde lifting his tail. "That's a pretty little dress you got on."

"Hey, what are you doing!?" Umbra questioned before High Crest yanked his mane back.

"He cleans up just like a mare too." The stallion added.

"I wonder if he screams like one also." Scribble said as he grabbed at the stallion's side, trying to pull him to the ground.

"Let me go!" Umbra kicked out, trying to wriggle himself free of the stallion who threw him to the bed.

Prim smiled as he watched with a cruel smirk growing on his lips. "Hold him down."

The young teen looked around, seeing the four unicorns all looking back at him with fiendish looks in their eyes. Their horns each glowing as they proceeded to stimulate themselves. "Please, please let me go! Please let me go! I'll do anything─" Umbra was gagged shut by a clothed cod-piece Prim had taken off. Scribble salted the young colt's horn with a snicker. Umbra pleaded the best he could as one of them ripped the dress off of his body, trying to use the lace as a means to keep his forelegs tied up. They also took some of the torn fabric to fashion cuffs for his hind legs, forcing them against each other and linking the two bonds together so he could not fight back.

"Oh no, you're doing everything we want right now." Prim said as he lined himself, tapping his stiffened length to the young teen's puckered ring.

Umbra wormed himself back, trying to escape, but he found that his bonds were too well-done to aid him. He instinctively clenched himself in a bid to deny the stallion entrance, but he could not beat the gamble of the young stallion's magic forcefully prying him open to receive him. Umbra screamed in pain as his insides were plundered into for the first time. Releasing his magic, Prim was in awe of the grip that surrounded him. "You're so tight." The stallion quickly moved to a rushed tempo, looking to get his release as quickly as he felt he deserved it. The disgraced noble squirmed and cried out with all of his might.

Outside of the room, the entire tavern had gone quiet, listening to the anguished screams of the young servant being denigrated and emasculated. Moonbeam pinned her ears to her head, trying not to hear her coworker's screams. She started to hold back tears as her father stared to the clients he served, knowing there was nothing he could do in his position. They too knew that there was little to do outside of resort to violence that would only be to the bar owner's detriment.

Back inside the room, Prim continued to ram his hips into the bloodying orifice of his victim. Umbra cried profusely for his freedom, while the others grew increasingly annoyed. "Oh he's a screamer." Scribble pointed out.

"Let me plug his mouth shut for a moment." Proposed En Guarde, who stroked himself to full mast. He lined himself to the stallion's mouth, shoving himself inside with hardly any care to the young teen. With the sudden entrance, it quickly triggered the young teen to cough and struggle to breathe.

Scribble, who was still trying to keep himself ready prosed the question to Prim, who started to speed up. "How is he?"

"He's clenching real hard, won't be long!" He answered just a second before he crossed over the point of no return. Umbra could only experience the brief moment of reprieve as Prim ejected himself and watched as High Crest climbed up to take his place. The young teen started to concede the idea of him not being able to find rest until they were done.

"Ay, give me a go at it when you're done." Scribble said as he watched in awe of the young victim being able to take in so much of his friends. He also looked down to catch how Umbra had started to pool precum even in his flaccid state. "Ugh, he's roused by it, ain't he?"

"You no better than a mare in estrus!" Stated High Crest, who had drilled into the young colt with powerful thrusts.

In a playful bid, En Guarde removed himself from the colt's throat and slapped his face with what was once firmly lodged within it. "Please stop! PLEEEASE!" The young Umbra begged.

"Here, take this and be quiet." En Guarde said as he felt himself throb and flare within the young colt's throat. He forced himself to the hilt, providing no room for the young guard to breathe, only to force his load to go one way. "That's right, swallow, don't be like a filthy earth pony."

Unable to contain his patience any longer, Scribble motioned to his friend to move. Upon his exit, En Guarde unleased a rope of his seed onto the colt's chin and muzzle. That moment was all it took for Scribble to find his apex. "Give me that face, let me mark you!" He cried out in ecstasy, providing more and more of a load for the young colt to fight to see through.

But down below, High Crest's forceful thrusts had pressed into Umbra in an unexpected way, one that triggered his prostate to release a sizeable amount of semen. En Guarde joked at the "Now he's gone and done it. Guess it was too good for him."

High Crest released to his leisure, not even bothering to look at the mess he left behind. Instead, he went about cleaning himself off and letting himself settle back down. "Want our silence, you'll have to work for us, every week, in that stupid dress."

The young colt sniffled, coughed, and spat back up the seed that was still in the back of his throat. He twitched and laid tiredly, trying to beg for his freedom one last time.

"Pleeeaaase..."

Unfortunately, Prim was not convinced that it was a plea for halt, instead he saw the measure of semen that dripped from his face, the quantity that flowed from his damaged entrances, the submissive posture he took on in the ripped dress. A madness overwhelmed him and he grew ravenous. "Again."

"Again?" Scribble questioned as the others looked onto their leader, who mounted the young colt again.

This time as he entered, there was a lot less protest and resistance. "That's right, fucking slut." Prim cheered as he went so far as to fully mount the stallion on the bed, joining with him and pinning him underneath his body. His pumps were a lot less frantic, more powerful to get back to his peak.

As he humped away, hitting the same spot with even more ferocity, more and more unintended streams of seed flowed from within the subjugated stallion. Umbra simply stared off into the void as he waited for it all to come to an end. It was all he could do.

"Oh wow, you're really bringing him about." High Crest noted as Prim reached his second climax of the day.

Prim rotated the stallion and sat himself upon the tired colt's lips. "Lick it. Lick it clean." He demanded, pinching the nostrils of the young colt shut to force his mouth open. "Show me how much you want to live! How much you want us to protect you!"

In complete submission, he opened his mouth with his tongue out to timidly welcome the dirtied guest within. Prim pressed inside and swabbed himself clean. "It's almost like he was made for this." En Guarde said with amazement.

Prim finished his work and removed himself. As his post-orgasm mind came back into prominence, he looked onto the colt with disgust and hatred. "This is who you are now, Sanctus: A filthy coward. Your father would look down to you in shame. I guess your fate was to be impaled in this manner, to be taken as a mare. You're less than the dirt out there in those seats." The four spruced themselves up and unlocked the door to leave. Prim looked back as he left the door open. "See you next week... 'Umbra' Sanctus."

The quartet of guards walked down the stairs, all eyes on them as the multitude of ponies were made to witness the cruelty that they had bestowed upon the young servant. Each of the four had a comment to speak of in regards to their accommodations.

"Your rooms and beds are filthy. Most unbecoming. Perhaps I should talk my father into lowering his collections so that you could make a more suitable place for any future visits." Prim said as he walked out the front door.

"Service is really sloppy." High Crest added.

"Beer tastes like cheap urine." Scribble supplemented.

En Guarde smirked as he bowed to the aspiring young guards at the various tables. "See you miserable roaches next week... that is if some of you will even get to live that long on the field. I'll look forward to collecting your heads, and then taxing your families... for the war effort, of course. Have a blessed day."

Moonbeam ran from behind the counter and immediately galloped up the stairs to check in on Umbra. The bartender ran behind to aid his daughter. But as they came to the door, the could only see a broken-spirited mess of a young colt laying in the bed with some of the dress tied to his legs. His face, tail, flank, and both abused orifices covered in semen. The bar owner dropped to his haunches as Moonbeam ran inside to grab whatever blanket to clean him off. "Oh lad..."

"You poor thing." Moonbeam trembled as she carefully undid the knots that kept him immobilized. "It's okay, I'm here for you, it's going to be alright."

The hallowed image of the young colt wearing his daughter's dress had filled the bar owner with a deep sorry. Others had started to gather at the door, seeing the young colt being cleaned off. Anger stirred in the many who watched. One voice cried out to the others nearby. "Every time! They do this to us and expect us to accept it! Well not anymore! They'll be no better off than those bastards of House Bastion!"

The barkeep closed his eyes in remorse, knowing he could have did as his daughter requested. Instead, the young colt was made a victim to the cruelties of the noble class. Now all he could do was watch as his daughter walked by him, fully blaming him at a glance before she took him to the bath out back.

"Lad, I am so sorry."

VIP Lounge
Present Day...

Umbra's eyes opened wide, just seconds before they clenched shut. The stallion gritted his teeth for a moment as he felt his release. His hoof held to the head of a maid of his lounge. As he was devoured by the mare, he called upon the memories of his past to aid him in reaching his climax. And as he came back down, he grew quiet at himself. Umbra looked down to see the mare at earnest, licking and smiling in humble submission to him.

"Did you enjoy it, sir?" She questioned giddily, kissing his throbbing form as her face was stained in his seed.

In silence, he was not in total enjoyment of what he was given. He secretly clamored for more, something that he could not get under most casual conditions. He really intended for many more to be at his beck and call, but very few could answer. He felt he could only get so much enjoyment with just her being available for the hour. It was still an early day, much too early for many of the other workers to join in on the fun. But given that it was his memory of that day that pushed him past his peak, he shrugged off her efforts.

"It was acceptable. Not quite what I truly desire, but it'll have to do for now." He said as he waved the mare off. She grew silent, concerned that her work had been pretty ineffective of satiating her employer. Not wanting to see more of his ire, she bowed her head and started trotting away. He glanced to see her making her departure, watching closely as her tail seemed too stationary. A frown started to appear on the ringleader's face as he realized she was hiding something. "Um, Miss Palate Swap..." She immediately recognized the tone in his voice, acknowledging what it was that he had a problem with. The stallion lifted her tail to see what it was that she concealed. Umbra's face then turned sour. "I do believe I made a direct decision to have you get that little operation for advertising purposes. Now pray tell, why is it that you are still walking around with nary a inch extended from in between your hind legs?"

The stallion walked towards her, her back still turned to him as she shivered in fear. "I'm sorry sir. It's just that whenever I leave here, I do work in an elementary school. I don't think my employers would─"

"Your employers?" He questioned with a venomous curiosity. "Is it not I who employ you with a more lucrative business opportunity?"

She began to plead with him. "Sir, I understand. But─"

"And you still insist on living that ridiculous dream of being a schoolteacher, all because you wanted it to be your dream job, to teach young foals how to spell and count? Should I remind you that you're talking about the same job where they ended up placing you on backpay because of the principal electing to punish you for your insistence to not sleep with him? Has or has not your employment with me pay your rent and groceries for the three months you were under a false investigation of workplace ethic?"

She quietly replied. "It did, sir."

"And here you are disobeying me in broad daylight. Tell me where it makes sense."

"I'm sorry sir." She said, nervously looking away as he started to walk in front of her.

An orange cloud of magic grabbed at her chin and even adjusted the direction of her eyeballs, all to look at his face as he spoke. "You have until this evening. Change up your sexual orientation, or I will change your gender from transsexual to dead. I cautiously insist that you do not disobey me again."

She shuddered as she was made to see only his face. "Yes sir." He dropped her and watched as she galloped at full speed to leave the venue for her operation.

One of his cloaked servants appeared from further down the hall, walking in as she galloped past. Still upset that his recent session had gotten spoiled due to her show of disobedience, he turned to the concealed figure with a frown. "How is the operation for tonight going?"

"Sir, the dolls have moved all of what you wanted to the places where you designated them to be." The figure reported.

"I know that, you fool. Give me an update pertaining to our ponies of interests within Ponyville, if you don't mind." Said a still-frustrated Umbra. "I swear, a blowjob doesn't even do nearly the proper justice nowadays. It's just too common."

"Kalimba frequents the Apple Family Farm and the Everfree Forest today, sir. It's believed that she will be coming here tonight."

The stallion pursed his lips in thought. "Hmm... now where do I send the message to? I suppose it would have more of a visual impact if I decorated the orchards a bit. But then I would have to probably deal with all the element bearers for that one. What's the status of that Everfree Forest contact she has?"

"Sir, she seems to be meeting with another zebra. We've been tracking her since she was evacuated from last Tuesday night. It's one of the places she goes to frequently after the farm."

Umbra continued to think to himself. "Ah, so that's why her fighting's really taken off. A bit of arduous physical labor for conditioning, coupled with Prod's regiments, and the zebra anatomical and spiritual knowledge, this could be the primary reason for her ascension. Perhaps I need to hit that first, then test the waters if she runs towards the Apple Family Farm again. If so, I guess we'll terrorize the Apples a bit and send the beast after them should they try to come for me. Sounds about right." Umbra paused as another idea quickly came to mind. "Or better yet... I could...Yes... I could do that. At least it'll make Friday more interesting."

"Sir?" The servant questioned as Umbra started to mumble.

"I'll have the puppets deal with it. They don't need verbal instructions to have I want done." He replied carelessly.

"Yes sir." The cloaked servant replied before walking out of the room, leaving Umbra biting at his hoof in frustration.

Once more, he murmured to himself. "I shall make an example of those two. Their rebellion is getting out of hoof."

As the protests grew outside, there was one particular senator who left the parliament chamber to hunt me down and make a complaint of it. Even as I sat in the hallway, just outside of the chamber, I could barely hear the protest taking place. I said it was pretty negligible, but he insisted that it was very disruptive and that I should look into putting a stop to it. Wanting to be a fair sport about it, I obliged his request to an extent. I only went with the intent to find out personally what this protest was all about and possibly some information on who was leading the movement.

When I stepped outside the castle doors, that's when the volume really cranked itself up to a higher threshold. I couldn't help but to be impressed with the effort they were putting in to get their message across. And if it was what Solemn Oath had clued me in on yesterday, I could only assume that this situation was simply some angry old politician pouting about what he doesn't want to see in his Equestria.

So I walked out of the grounds, leaving the guards on standby in case something was starting to get a little too rowdy. But what I saw was a group of stallions and mares cheering next to their desired significant others. Stallions in dresses standing next to stallions, mares holding hooves with other mares, a sign with a hoof holding to a human hand with a love heart above them, a crown sitting next to a guard's helmet with an 'X' situated between them. Each of the signs were colorful and bright, all of them dressed in frills, bold lettering, and lots of glitter. Some held tambourines and small drums to beat out along with the chant. It was a very lively affair, considering all the cold and snow that they did it in.

At the front of the protest was a mare wearing a red beret hat on her head as she pumped her message through a megaphone.

As I approached, I calmly addressed the crowd. "Okay, guys, they sent me out here to enforce noise ordinance. What's going on?"

The mare wearing the beret turned to me, along with her megaphone at full volume. "WE ARE CALLING FOR THE RIGHT TO LOVE FREELY, TO BE ABLE TO BUILD RELATIONSHIPS WITH WHOMEVER WE CHOOSE WITHOUT THE GENERATIONAL STIGMA OF OPPRESSION!"

...Needless to say she was unbearably loud, I had to scratch the itch in my ear from that. "I know you can talk without a megaphone."

Again, she said everything through her megaphone. "OUR VOICES WILL NOT BE SILENCED! WE WILL HAVE AN EQUESTRIA WHERE ANYONE CAN LOVE WHO THEY CHOOSE FREELY AND WITHOUT JUDGEMENT!"

Taking a lesson from my current girlfriend, I used a voice amplification spell on my throat and proceeded to shout right back at her. "I FUCKING AGREE! NOW, CAN WE PLEASE NOT POINT THE MEGAPHONE IN MY FACE FOR FIVE MINUTES SO WE CAN TALK!?" Even to my own ears, that was loud, so I know it was especially loud to the direction my voice was projected to. The mare put down her megaphone and held it against her chest in defiance. I took a deep breath to nullify the spell. "Okay. Now I need to know if you guys have a permit."

"You should be on our side, captain!" The mare called out, gaining the cheers and cosigns of her fellow protestors.

I held up a hand to bring about my argument. "Trust me, I am. But I'm not doing this because I want to. I'm just asking if the pony who's sponsoring this event has filed a permit to be here at this spot, for this reason, and has managed to speak with a noise pollution official. I want to be able to watch you guys go on to your ra-ra sesh, but if I can't see a permit, I can't stop the guards from filing out here and commence to suppression exercises. Like hell I wanna do that, but I do have a job to do."

Next, I felt a tap at the back of my leg. I turned around and looked down to see Blue holding a permit with a seal and signature on it. "You would think that you'd let the money do it's job for a bit." She whispered.

I looked at the permit she provided, verifying that it was indeed genuine. I looked to the crowd and then Blue with a smirk. "Give me a moment."

I walked through the checkpoint and saw the politician already standing around with his forelegs folded like some angry child. He saw the piece of paper in my hand and then looked to me as if I was supposed to make it any different. "Sir, what's the status?" One of the guards asked at the checkpoint.

"Here's the permit, stamped by the city." I said, lifting the permit for all to see.

"Sir, they're protesting outside the castle gates." The grumpy senator called out angrily.

I pointed at him and replied. "Look, I'm gonna be real with you. The area from where they cross the portcullis into the citadel grounds and beyond, that's the jurisdiction we can crack down on without any reservation. Out past that gate is municipal jurisdiction, that's the public's jurisdiction. This permit clearly states they are allowed to protest out there and not in here."

"But they are disturbing us in here from out there." He angrily retorted.

"Sir, we have a whole line of battlements separating the keep from the public grounds. What more do you want?"

Again, he provided his reply in favor of their absence. "We want silence, captain. We cannot have parliament with all this rift-raft taking place in our streets!"

"Public streets?" I deadpanned.

Not taking kindly to my sarcasm, he snapped back at me with his own brand of twisted logic. "We were elected by the public! We represent their best interests! And we say you put a muzzle on it before this goes against your conduct."

You know, that moment was where I felt more than compelled to blatantly pick a side. I wasn't pleased with how he decided to elect himself as the mouth of the people who stood in front of him, who could've voted him in and suppress their voices with his own ideologies. It reminded me of the politicians in my world, moreso in my home state. So I decided to project my anger to him over the matter.

"With all due respect, you're elected to represent, that's true. But you only do what your big-money donors say do. I know the game. Pick a side, any side, and tell me what the winner of your primary has a lot of. What's the common denominator? Money. And you get paid salary on the tax dollars of ponies who are protesting out there. You're mad because they're behind a stone wall shouting in the winter snow, and they're still getting through to the chamber, which is also situated behind another insulated stone wall. You guys aren't mad about anything, you can barely hear them out there when you're inside. What you hear is the tiniest whimper of your constituents telling you what they want for them, knowing damn well you don't wanna give it to them."

"I am not here for speeches, captain. Shut. It. Down." He seethed, hissing back at me like an entitled brat.

I whipped out my phone, messaged Celestia on Instagram to find where she was in the castle, and then formulated a plan to really get under this guy's skin. But first, I had to appear like I was going to turn the tide on the protestors. "Give me fifteen minutes." I said to the spiteful politician. I walked back outside to show the permit to Blue. "Permit's good." I confirmed.

"Thank you." She said as she was about to take the paper, all while her band of protestors were about to start back up the chants. I quickly put a halt to it.

"Aht-tu-tu-tu-tu-tu-tu-tu-tu-tuuuh! Before you get started, I have a proposition. Just hear me out... downsize the group to about fifty, and give me fifteen minutes."

"O...kay." Blue replied with uncertainty.

I ran past the checkpoint again, ignoring the scowl on the politician's face, looking at the messages through my Instagram. Once I saw where it was she was heading off to, I navigated the halls to cut her off before she could get to her next meeting. "Captain." She called out in a dismissive greeting, showing that she was far too much in a rush to give me much of a conversation.

I persisted, knowing that I had to work for it. "Your highness, there's a protest outside issuing a statement in favor of their freedom to love the pony of their choosing."

"I see. I'm sorry captain, but I am incredibly busy." She said, walking right past me.

I jogged back to her side and began to speak with her on the matter. "They're a small vocal group. And I don't think it's fair for them to be shouting in the snow."

"Captain, I am incredibly busy." She continued to feign her disinterest.

"Your highness, they want to advocate how important it is to love whoever they choose, without the stigma of judgement and the legal bruhaha."

She still insisted her business. "I am sorry captain, I have much to do. If you feel so bad seeing them out in the cold, give them a tour of the castle or something. Just tell them not to knock over any of my vases."

"Tour group of fifty?" I questioned.

"A hundred, two hundred, it doesn't matter! Give them the damned tour! I'm far too busy today, captain!" She replied with increasing frustration.

"But I don't have the power to make it my official jurisdiction, your highness." I reminded her.

The princess paused in her tracks, looking to the assistant who walked by her. "Inkwell, fill out a form for tour permit, 168-HT. Doesn't matter the size." The mare quickly filled out the details as Celestia had described them. Without fail, she flawlessly completed the form in mere seconds. "Wax." A stick of wax was warmed to liquid before dropping on the paper. "Seal." The princess summoned a stamp as her assistant neatly flattened the wax surface for her stamp to imprint on. She even signed her name in full at the bottom line. "Ribbon." A gold ribbon was summoned to enclose the document before Celestia tossed it off to me. "There, it's your exclusive jurisdiction for twenty-four hours. Do what you will with it."

She started to walk off with her assistant before I could even show thanks. Instead I had to do it from a distance. "Thank you, your highness!"

"NOT ONE VASE, CAPTAIN!" She stressed as she and her assistant disappeared down the hall.

I ran back outside and joined with the group of guards waiting for further orders. The incensed politician complained as the protests had started back in full-swing. "They are still out there!" He vehemently announced.

I held up the new royal permit. "Yup. You want them gone from out there, don't you?"

"YES! I WANT PEACE AND QUIET!" He shouted at me, trying to goad me into acting faster.

I nodded, knowing exactly how I was going to piss him off exclusively. "I got you covered. They won't be out there for much longer." I replied, walking off to the outside of the castle walls again. I shouted out to the protesting group of ponies for their attention. "Hey!"

And the mare with the megaphone turned to me once more, still yelling. "WE ARE FIGHTING─"

I yanked the megaphone away from her and levitated it into my hand for a much-needed reprieve. "Yeah, I know, magic, I have it. But I told you about this megaphone." I cleared my throat and called out to the gates. "Guards! Report!"

The group of a hundred-plus ponies had started to direct their ire towards me for bring the guards outside to surround them. Blue even appeared shocked that I would get the guards involved. "But our permit is valid! Signed by the city, you can't do this, captain!"

But instead of getting spears held in their faces, the guards remained stone-faced and lined themselves in the direction of the checkpoint. The group was initially confused until I whispered over to Blue. "So who's the drummer to keep us on beat?"

The mare smiled and shook her head. "So you said fifty, right? Average tour size?"

"Nix that, this is an unlimited pass for the next twenty-four hours. You have until then to make your noise and get out." I calmly informed the group of their permit 'upgrade'. "Now please file in line, move in an orderly fashion. We will start our tour with the grand foyer."

As the protestors started to trickle in, the annoyed politician grimaced and snarled until he saw me walking in to escort the group in an orderly fashion. "CAPTAIN, WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!?"

I held up the permit and politely informed him of what was taking place. "They're just going on a tour in the castle... complete with armed escort to make sure that the princess' prized vases are unharmed."

"They better not shout a damn thing! I want peace and order in our halls!" He replied.

"I understand, sir." I quietly replied. I quietly waited until the group had completely filed in to the foyer before I stood at the top of the steps to give my directions. I then used the megaphone I grabbed earlier and started the tour. "Greetings tourists, I am Captain Nondis P. Haines, Captain of the Royal Guard for her majesty Princess Celestia, and officer of the Earth-pony Unicorn Pegasus Guard of Equestria. I bid you welcome to the castle, and I do wish you to enjoy your tour on today. Having that said, there are a few ground rules that need to be established. The first rule is that we ask that you do not touch anything that isn't located at our giftshop, please do not touch the furnishings or vases, those are very special to her majesty and she wishes they are to be safe and secure throughout our passage. That is the reason why you see the guards all around you, they are for accident prevention and your safety, so please do not veer away from the group."

The group of ponies murmured as they watched me give out more instructions.

"If you look to your right, you will see the way leading to locations such as the Royal Throne Room, the Royal Vault, the Royal Hall of Heroic Achievements, and the Royal Gift Shop, where you will be retrieving many souvenirs... commemorative vases included." I pointed into the other direction, more specifically where the annoyed politician was standing. "Now if you look to your left, you have this elderly gentleman who may take a bath on the daily, but apparently doesn't open his ass cheeks to let the water in. That's why his ass crack looks greasy like the storage bins where you put the leftover spaghetti sauce from the church luncheon. I don't know why it looks that way, but I'm sure it smells like last week, this week, and outdated Medicaid insurance policies."

The crowd began to laugh at his expense, while he cried out objectively. "I beg your pardon!"

"Also to your left is locations such as the Royal Chapel, the Royal Garden, the Grand Royal Ballroom, and if you go up the Royal Stairs, you will reach a pair of large wooden doors with gold leaf, that would be the Royal Chamber of the Parliament. We will be starting our tour from the left, circle around through the castle and back out on the right where you can pick up some things from the gift shop. Now, onto our first stop..."

I immediately cranked the volume to maximum and shouted to the top of my lungs, pointing the megaphone directly at the senator.

"Parliament is this-a-way! Orderly fashion, folks!" Blue looked at me with her jaw completely agape. I gave her a smug grin and nodded and pointed her in the direction where she needed to go. The angry politician, who was incensed earlier, had grown nuclear. I smiled as I pointed him to the same direction. "Once angry protestors outside the gates, they're now the angry constituents at your front doorstep, with a legal permit for the next twenty-three hours. Off the streets, just like you wanted." I patted him on the shoulder and walked off to lead the group. "Take the day off, buddy."

"Let me see that permit!" He said indignantly.

I gave him the paperwork and pointed to him. "Royally issued, be sure not to damage it." I teased, knowing that if he torn it out of frustration, it would be considered a felony.

He took a look at the information on the paper and gazed back to me with pure hatred in his eyes. "You mongrel." He flipped the paper over for me to see and pointed at the box with some written-in information. "THIS IS FOR A WEEK YOU ILLITERATE BABOON!"

"Really, get out of here! Princess told me it was a day." I said as I looked over the file for a bit. I looked down to where the hours were displayed. And apparently he was right, it was written in for 168 hours, that's a cool seven days. "Oh wow, it is a week. I guess I'll be seeing you after your vacation." I joked.

"DAMN YOU CAPTAIN!" He shouted as I walked down the hall to rejoin Blue.

As we reunited, I showed her the touring permit. "Change of plans, you've got a week to make your noise."

She was left absolutely flabbergasted, though even more excited for the news. "Crowd size?"

"Sideways eight." I pointed out at the box indicating the maximum crowd size. Instead of a 'N/A' being posted in the box, she just wrote out the symbol for infinity.

I gave her back her permit and I took mine, content with the opportunity the princess had laid in our laps. It seemed that she was more than onboard for a little political disturbance. I opened up my Instagram and typed out a simple 'I love you' message. She replied that she hopes this gets things done faster. She also added that she wanted me to tell him it was for a day, only to find out it was the whole week.

I sometimes forget my girlfriend is an actual troll.

On that note, the crowd began to gather at the doors of the parliament, I walked the other way seeing that this was going to turn into a well-controlled mess. Blue gave me a nod as we parted ways. "I guess I'll be seeing you later tonight then."

I called back out to her one last time. "Try not to break anything, or it's my head in a jar!"

Later That Evening...
***Point of Perspective: Equus Nondis***

Kalimba rode in from Ponyville and met up with me at the station. From there we walked to the arena and entered the VIP Lounge. The moment we showed up, we saw Alabaster speaking with Blue, who appeared energetically engaged with her brother. I could assume that it was from earlier where she had all of her enthusiasm. And on the other side of the room appeared to be Damper Trot speaking with one of his associates in the lounge, he appeared really stressed over something, probably from what happened at parliament today. His sideward glance to me had shown me that much.

Walking into the lounge at that point was the purveyor of our suffering. Blue had stopped smiling immediately, Alabaster had instinctively stepped in front of his sister. Damper Trot hadn't exactly smiled, just more relieved to see who had walked in. Kalimba was more impassioned, almost ready to charge at the stallion at the drop of a feather. She stepped in front of me, with the intent of being protective. I, however, was unusually mild-tempered.

The ringleader laughed as he danced his way over to me. "Ah, there's my two-time champ!"

"I could be at home." I replied flatly.

"Oh, you!" The stallion said with a chuckle, but not without noticing the mare that stood firmly between me and him. "And Kalimba, you're such a dear."

"What do you want from us?" She seemed to be the distributor of my anger for the day, probably still angry from what happened on Friday.

He rolled his eyes, smirking with a taunting expression. "We just met today, dear. Are we already at this point in the evening without anything even coming to a start?"

I pulled the zebracorn back, this time walking in front of her. "Sorry, but I don't think she's all too happy that you're here."

The stallion smiled as he looked to her, still speaking to me. "You should probably give some correction on that."

"Why?" I asked.

He then looked to me with a weakening smirk. "Because disobedience is the way to destruction."

I turned around and patted the zebracorn on her head. "Kalimba, stop being a meanie pants to our pal over here."

I turned back around to see the unimpressed expressions of the ringleader. "I do not like being patronized."

"Patronize who? Who am I making upset?" I replied, encouraged by the idea of this being my final week in the lounge. "If I remember correctly, I don't seem to recall your name."

The stallion's jaw dropped the tiniest bit. He started to smile once more, but I knew that he wasn't too pleased with my mocking words. "Oh... is that right?"

"Not since that time at the Gala. I completely forgot your name from that night on." I falsely informed him.

"Well that's odd. It seems to me that you do know my name since I gave it to you, and I'm sure you were more than willing to share it with the world." He seemed to have a different way of showing his anger, instead of being scowled up in the face, he feigned a smile that hid his temper.

"See, we humans sometimes have moments where we tend to block out bad memories. Painful memories in particular are especially boxed off and sent to the void. Sorry, that's just the way it goes." I lied.

The stallion nodded in silence before speaking out. "So. I do have a bit of a proposition."

"And what's that?" I asked flatly.

"I need you to face off against a beastie of mine." He said with his usual visage.

"This Friday, right?" I simply questioned.

"Yes. This Friday." He answered with a fury-suppressing smile.

"Okay." I said with a shrug. "I probably might not live this time, especially since the last one could've fucked me up if he hadn't been lost in the sauce. Yeah, you chose the guys with the wrong ego to deliver my corpse to you. You went after two different guys I had beaten in the past. First you get the guy who nearly took me out the first time, but you did it knowing I had a magic advantage. And then you put me against a guy who couldn't keep his eye on the ball, too busy reveling in sweet revenge to actually get the job done. That's where you went wrong the past two times, I can only assume you have some shit that will deliver my body to you in a lovely pine box, not that I'm willing to let it happen."

"It matters not. I still have a human in my stock." He rebutted as he started dancing around. "And I'm set to have more. Your friends, your family, your college associates, your fraternity brothers, I can snag whichever one easily."

I knew he was bluffing. There was no way he had any knowledge of where anyone was. If anything, I made sure that he couldn't find out. I started to call out his bluff. "Where is my family located?" I began. "Where is my friends located? Bonus question, where is Single File? You don't have an answer for any of that, do you?" I turned around to walk to the bar, hoping to get a drink before subjecting myself to whatever nightly torture he had in store.

"Your friends are in Ponyville." I continued to walk to the bar, trying to play off as if he didn't know what he was talking about. "I know you don't believe me, but maybe I could tell you about your three human friends... all of whom have been made ponies as well."

Before I could make a single letter come out for my order, I froze dead in place. A gross chill washed over my body as I couldn't help but to listen to how pin-point accurate his information was. I was terrified.

"Two pegasi and an earth pony, and I'm sure they're situated at the inn under the castle's shadow. Rooms 113, 114, 119, close to your old room that Kalimba was given, room 115. Their names... or rather their disguised names. Strapping Lad, orange pegasus, your friend Rickey. Cocoa Shea, what an exotic name for a brown pegasus, your friend Cliff. And my favorite of the three, my girl, my best friend, we met at the gala, she loves me, ironically guessed her name to be Cherry on the first day... Cherry Balm, pink earth pony, formally known to be Melanise Brewer. A farmer, a baker, a cloud shift maintainer, all are the friends of thee."

He walked beside me, creeping closer into my ear as I was paralyzed with fear for my friends. I wanted to pull out my phone and immediately tell them that they needed to relocate within the next five minutes, but he was so uncomfortably close that his breath had warmed my ears.

"You are very... very quiet." He said before kissing my cheek and offering praise. "Now don't blame yourself. You did great! Not many players of the game would actually get this far where I actually toyed with their emotional distress and come out of it fairly sane, with a valid plan no less! If anything, you have only the pony next to you to blame."

I craned my head slowly to look at Kalimba. Even she was in complete disbelief. "Nondis, do not listen to him! I did not tell him a thing!"

He walked away from me, dancing towards her with his cane. "You know, I could've easily snagged you from Zecora's hut. Perhaps interrupted your training with Princess Twilight. Or maybe played with little Applebloom on the farm, in the treehouse on the northwest quadrant. I wonder how she would fair in the marketplace, probably run a good few thousand on the sale, she's not really a rare breed. Scootaloo is deformed, she'll go out for hundreds and they'll just kick her around before they snuff her out. In the words of our fallen friend Prod, 'cheap meat'." Kalimba's breathing drastically increased, she grew into a panic as he continued. "But Sweetie Belle, she would go for tens of thousands. Pure-white Andalusia strains are a rare find. Her beautiful little voice alone would beg the question, how wonderful are her screams?"

There wasn't any time spent on me calling up a rifle and pointing it at his head like it could've done anything to stop him from following through on his threats. He noticed the scowl on my face, seeing the expression of both fear and hatred in my eyes. Kalimba, also familiar with a weapon I provided to her for emergency use, brandished hers and pointed at his head as well. Both of our weapons clicked in unison, each ready to sound off.

The stallion laughed hysterically as he tilted his head. "Oh come now, it's just a joke, you two!" He turned to me with a Cheshire grin, tilting his head with a bow. "But it's nice to see that you're actually on your guard now. You have to work a little harder to keep your friends safe."

"How do you know of dese things? I did not tell you anything!" Kalimba angrily questioned, wrestling with the temptation to pull the trigger.

"My dear, you told me everything last Tuesday." He replied, causing Kalimba to realize what he had referred to. Seeing that she didn't remember talking with him, the only thing that could've came to mind was that he had taken advantage of her as she was strung out. He then verified her fears as he circled around her. "Of course, with those same lips. Last Tuesday, I quenched a little taste I had for you since I saw your performance out on the arena floor. I wanted to see just how healthy you were. You, I found out that you are actually very breedable. You have a texture within you that makes it quite desirable. Your haunches are wide enough to accommodate the passage of many foals quite easily. Your legs are strong and sturdy, you'll make a tall stock. And your lips aren't as dry as I remember them being, they're fuller, much more suited to wrap around a desiring stallion." He waltzed by her and sang into her ear. "I want you to know that I was truly trying for an heir with you while you were out. So if you do notice something in about ten weeks, do drop a line."

I levitated the rifle next to his head, tilting it in the exact opposite direction of him leaning into her. "There's a special place in hell for you. But all I know is that Satan won't have a punishment good enough for what you do."

"Well I sure can't wait to see it." He said as he teleported away to the other side of the room. "Now I know that you've been here for a little over a month now. Also, I know this is your final week. And I do want to say that I am enthusiastic about your being here. But I am afraid your time here is spent for the evening. It's time for you to depart."

"More than you need to say." I said as I cautiously kept my aim focused on him, slowly walking to Kalimba's side. She too started walking back, but after a few steps, her hooves started to glow the color of his magic.

"Ah, hold on." He interrupted. "I said you captain, you must leave. Kalimba on the other hoof must stay."

"She follows where I go. If I leave, she leaves." I said, standing in front of her.

He proceeded to stalk forward slowly, reiterating his demand. "She can leave later. We must talk."

"Then you will talk to me." I said in firm denial.

"And I will talk with your friends." He said nonchalantly.

"Like hell you will." I said, pointing the muzzle of my rifle into his chin. But even that had failed to wipe the jubilant smile from his face.

"You don't think Canterlot is the only place I have bodies at, do you?" He said, cheesing at me. "It's as easy as blinking. One second, I'm here, the next I'm waiting in the lobby for your friends to show up. Or maybe I could be sitting outside of Sugarcube Corner, where Pinkie Pie sleeps alone at night... shame on you, Nondis, leaving such a troubled mare alone. The Carousel Boutique, with it's many ways to infiltrate and several mannequins to exploit... make it a two-for-one special, sisters in pairs do sell for hundreds of thousands at auction. Or quite possibly outside of the hut of your zebra friend Zecora, who I'm sure is eager for some... how do you humans joke about it, or that's right, 'surprise sex'. You have options, so go on, squeeze the trigger, let's find out where I go next." He said with a crazed glare in his eyes and a deranged cackle.

Weighing the idea that his death could bring his reappearance at another location as far away as Ponyville, I couldn't risk it. I put my weapon away and started to bring my phone into play.

He placed his hoof on mine, holding his against the screen. "And your phone won't save you now, sweetheart. I'm sure whatever you have waiting out there won't get the chance to change what's going to happen next."

"You know what, you're right. My phone won't save a damn thing." I said as I put it away. "But we are leaving."

"Not with her, you are." He replied cheerfully.

I turned to the door and started grabbing at her hoof, guiding her to the door. "Kali, let's go."

A loud piercing slam echoed throughout the room, I turned around to see the red jewel atop his cane glowing the same color of his magic. This time he spoke sweetly at me, mainly in a mocking manner. "I said what I said." He pointed the cane at her. "She stays here."

The zebracorn, realizing that there was no alternative for her, pushed me away and whispered nervously. "Go."

"Kali, I'm not leaving you here again." I pleaded with her.

"I will be fine. Go." She repeated, using her magic to push me away from her. As she shoved me to the door, she appeared to be trembling all throughout her body. She tried her best to give me a reassuring smile, but she knew she was terrified.

The doors opened to allow me to leave, she forced me out with her magic once more. "You come back in one piece, you hear me?" I called out as she closed the doors upon my exit.

Meanwhile, within the room, Umbra spun his cane and summoned five ponies of large stature into the room. He stretched his neck and pulled at his joints, stretching as if he was about to perform some physically demanding work.

"Now. You, miss rebel, are in need of some... correction."

Meanwhile in Ponyville...
***Point of Perspective: Equus Melanie***

My body was filled with a lot of aches and sores, a lot of it stemming from some work out on the farm today. Granny Smith informed us that we had to get some work done on the other farm animals and pets. There was a lot of reapplying the chicken wire fence, carting over goods through town, pulling up wooden beams to raise a frame for a new storage barn out in the west orchard, which was already a good hundred acres running to the building site, and then building the barn, and finally heading back out those same hundred acres.

A Texas-sized nightmare if you ask me, but the pay was worth it at least.

So when I got in today, there was little more I wanted to do other than ignore the day's sweat and flopping in my bed for a good eight hours of pass-out. I didn't care if I had smelled like a workhorse, I just wanted to rest my body for the day. I heard my phone vibrate maybe once, and I just ignored it. Probably an Instagram notification or something, doesn't really matter to me what the hell it is.

I closed my eyes and let myself go until the morning.

I jumped right out of my sleep, both scared a pissed off for having someone banging the shit out of my door. So they already had me fucked up to start off.

But it was Cliff's voice, and it didn't sound any less frantic than the banging at my door. "Yo! Mel! Get your ass up now! I know you're tired, but we gotta move!"

I ran up to the door and yanked the damn thing open, screaming angrily at the two stallions standing in the hall. "What the fuck is wrong with you!?"

Cliff ran past me to grab my phone, Rickey pulled out his and showed me the screen. "Discord just shot all of us texts. He said that motherfucker is here."

"Wait, what?" I said, still in a state of delirium. I squinted my eyes at the screen, seeing a message come in from Nondis' number. Instead it had a picture of Umbra holding onto the phone, looking up at pony Nondis with an air of conquest on his face. It was a picture taken just twenty minutes ago with a quote in parenthesis.

The second I read that to myself, all my awareness came flooding back at me at once. The fear hit like a 727 crashing into an office building. I read yet another quote that showed up beneath it.

There was only one word that could describe the chill down my spine; artic. "Oh... shit."

Cliff came to me with my phone and saddle bags. "Sorry, we're running short on time. We have to get moving." He said as he walked into the hall.

"How do we know he's even here!?" I asked, still very afraid. "For all we know, this could be a bluff! A total fucking lie that he's using to get us off our guard. What does it even matter?"

A lion's paw quickly came out at me from an adjacent room, I screamed and flailed at whatever had tried to stop my way forward. "I understand you're frantic, but it's me." Discord announced as he materialized through the door. "I don't usually try to interject on matters in this regard, but seeing how things have changed and that I do owe a favor to your friend for a much earlier affair, this first rescue mission will be an exception. If you don't mind, I have yet another to do after you lot and I don't intend to be late for it. Now please move quickly." He said as he guided us back into my room for a moment.

When we all started to walk in, the lights in the entire building went down. There was no way for us to see our hooves in front of our faces aside from the flashlights on our phones. Cliff quickly pulled out his and did just that. "Oh no, we're not fucking doing this today."

"Thank God we have flashlights on our phones." Rickey said as he pulled out his and pointed it down the hall. At the center of the lobby, there appeared to be the silhouette of a young filly standing at the end of the hall, she stood with much of her disheveled mane covering her eyes. Very softly, her voice echoed through the hall.

Rickey immediately walked into the room and slammed the door. "Oh we're not doing this today." He said, locking the door and latching it shut. He went the extra mile of pushing my nightstand against the door for some reinforcement.

"No fucking shit we're not doing it today. Discord, where the hell are we going?" I asked the draconequus in a panic, especially seeing how we were now trapped in this room.

Discord walked over to my bathroom, closed the door and waited for a moment. "My dimension. You'll be in there for a short while until I can get you to Twilight's castle. You'll be safe."

As the voice started to sound like it was closer down the hall, Cliff started to help reinforce the door with anything he could find, chairs, the other nightstand, the dresser, basically anything that wasn't already going to get in Discord's way. "Where to?"

The door he held on to clicked. "Here!" He said as he opened it back up to show a void of floating rocks and broken staircases. Some of which were inverted in various directions with pigs flying backwards.

"Why are the stairs upside down?" I asked.

"Does that really fucking matter right now?" Rickey questioned to me.

The filly's voice had isolated itself by the very door they guys had barricaded. Cliff was the first to dive in face-first into the unknown place. "Upside down stairs it is." Rickey announced.

I looked inside, uncertain if we were going to be trapped in here, of if anything else crazy might pop out at us while we were in here. The last thing we needed was something that could snatch us up out of nowhere. "Mel, this shit ain't it, bruh. We gotta go!" Cliff urged from within.

I started to ask myself the question of what we were suddenly thrown into. "What the hell's out there?"

"The better question is do you really want to find out?" Discord questioned urgently as he started flexing his claws.

The voice whispered against the cracks of the door. "Mel! Bring your ass! Now!" Cliff shouted loudly. Hearing the demand that was made, the filly grew angry and started banging against the door.

The distortion of her voice made it appear that there was more than one voice at the door. The slight knocks had instantly went from that of a filly, to the sound of a mighty battering ram being sent into the door. The wood of the door cracked, an impact so loud that it startled me to fall back towards the door Discord had opened. "Get in there!" The draconequus didn't help me back up in any way, only shoving me through the door and closing it. The deity of chaos stood back waiting for the door to break down as a means to stall for time. "Now let's see my little filly if you still want to play. What game do you have in mind?"

The door was broken by the use of a single tendril that pierced through everything that was in it's path. And with a sweeping motion, it battered everything that was in it's way into splintery shrapnel. The creature poked a number of eyes through the large opening, introducing many faces to the draconequus that looked on with sadness.

"Oh dear... you're all dead, aren't you?"

The V.I.P. Lounge
Ten Minutes Later...

Kalimba laid bloodied on the ground, all at the center of five larger figures, each of them bruised after a hard fight. But the numbers in combination with each of their physique and skill level proved too much for the zebracorn to be able to face on her own. Blue stood silently as Alabaster quietly tried to bide his time to find a way to rescue her in a way that Umbra would not be able to counter quickly.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned ringleader brushed his hoof off against his suit and approached the zebra slowly, yanking her head up by her mane. "Well, I do have to say you've improved a bit." He said, pulling the mare in for a quick peck on the lips. "Or maybe you were always capable of it, just never quite had the strength to make it happen."

"What do you want us to do with her boss?" One of the guild ponies questioned.

"Break her." Said the stallion, biting his lip at what he will be doing sometime later. "But don't kill her. I want her to feel every emotional weight there is being cleansed from her when I make her to be my exclusive breeding station for the night."

As the five started to crack their necks for a second round of mauling the mare, Alabaster started to put his plan into action. He approached from behind Umbra, slowly manifesting his magic into play. But without warning, his horn had completely fell off, rolling to the ground like a lifeless decoration. The stallion gawked at the sight of his horn and felt for it on his head. Noticing it's absence, he started to panic.

"Hello there!" A tiny voice called out from the ground below, gaining the attention of both Umbra and a hornless Alabaster. They initially looked to one another before looking down at the fallen horn, revealing a very small draconequus walking from inside of it like he came out of a party hat. He motioned for a pause before grabbing at his thumb and blowing into it to inflate back to his normal size.

The security took issue with the creature's unannounced and unauthorized entry. "Hey!" One of the bouncers screamed before both of them, along with the five guild members, were shrunk down and turned into tiny ballerina dolls. The deity of chaos lifted all seven and assembled them at a straight line on the top of the bar, who looked up at Discord with confusion.

"Oh you adorable little dolls. Aren't you the most endearing things, outside of Fluttershy of course."

Not exactly pleased with the interruption, Umbra was still surprised by the appearance of the misshaped creature. "Well. An unexpected surprise."

Discord reached down to pick up the horn he had spawned from, and dusted it off before pointing it like a baton towards the once-carefree stallion. "Hmm... So we meet at last, Umbra Sanctus." He promptly turned around to see Alabaster feeling at his forehead with sadness, Discord planted the horn back on his head as if it had never fallen off. "Or do you go by another name?"

Watching one of his forced subordinates, he witnessed how quickly Alabaster had gone from bemoaning the idea of being an earth pony to once again being a unicorn. "I am who I am. That is my name, please try not to wear it out."

"Indeed you are. But I'm afraid I must bring a pause to your fun for the evening." The draconequus said as he walked by the ringleader, leaning down to check on Kalimba.

"And why is that?" Asked Umbra, who was starting to lose his patience with the interruptions.

"Because friendship, something-something, protect blah-blah-blah, another one of those usual speeches Twilight Sparkle rambles out on occasion." Discord said in a half-intended manner. "I haven't consulted with my writer for a speech yet, maybe I should consult Nondis' writer. I heard his speeches are pretty emboldening and impactful."

Umbra hid his anger behind yet another smile. "As much as I love a surprise here or there, you know I can't allow you to just stop my having a good time without some repercussions in mind."

"Well of course, you've committed a pretty serious violation. I had run-in with a dear friend of yours, just to see what it was that was out there. And I do believe I came across a playdate." He said, checking in on Kalimba's condition.

"A playdate?" The stallion inquired.

"A mother, a father, their child, and a number of other faces. Was that not what you sent out that way?"

Realizing that his plans had been thwarted, he pursed his lips as he tried to assess the degree of damage that was done. "To an extent. What of it?"

"Oh well it was really interested in having some fun. So I set up a playdate with it while I was at the apartment. I do believe I won our little game of tag. It melted into an ooze and went right back into hiding in the darkness."

"You DESTABILIZIED IT!?" Umbra shouted in absolute shock.

Discord then assumed the role of being the carefree figure in the room. "Your friend really needs more emotional support, that and back support also... and a good final resting place."

Umbra took a deep breath, trying to regain his composure by smiling again. "Well consider myself amused. I didn't think I'd run into a snag this early."

"It's only because you ran into me. So consider yourself lucky." Discord answered as he picked up the confused zebracorn. The draconequus summoned a square pocket mirror, sat it in the air and stretched the corners out to where it was large enough for anyone to pass through. He tossed the zebra inside to join the others. "Incoming!"

Across the looking glass, Umbra saw as the three he initially tried to go after had waited within. Rickey and Cliff held out their hooves to catch the beaten and disoriented zebra. As she landed, they took notice of her condition. "Kali, holy fuck!" Rickey exclaimed.

"Yo! What happened!?" Cliff questioned as he looked to Discord.

Umbra looked through the mirror, growing more displeased with the night. "I see you've brought friends, Discord."

"The ones you've wanted to hunt down, I take it?" The creature rebutted.

The stallion tried his best to remain calm. "Well I wasn't going to 'hunt' them per se. Just coral them and keep them around for later. You'd be surprised what it does for motivation."

"I'm certain I already know. After all, I did help Tirek with his whole 'take over all the magic in Equestria' thing."

Hearing the familiar voices, both Alabaster and his sister ran around to see who it was that spoke from the mirror. The billionaire heiress was stunned to see a familiar face looking back at her and the others. "Blue!?" Melanie called out.

"Cherry! You're safe!" Blue Royal called out in excitement. Thank Celestia!

"Bitch, get in here! We're going to somewhere safe!" She called back.

Enthusiastic about the offer, Blue was more than willing to take her leave from the uncomfortable presence of Umbra. As she consider the offer, the aforementioned stallion glared down to the mare with the intent to bring harm upon her should she elect to disobey him. Alabaster stood between the two in a bid to protect his sister. Discord also stepped in to motion that the two would take their departure into the mirror. Respecting the creature's bravery and courtesy, he escorted his younger sister to the portal and stepped inside himself, each of them being aided by the ones already inside. Discord's eyes remained firm on the now incensed ringleader. "Now if you don't mind, I have a lot of work to do to make amends for your mess. It's been nice speaking with you, Umbra Sanctus."

Seeing his power, his expressions soured as he felt his abilities being challenged by the misfit creature. He grinned the best he could, trying to not lose his composure in front of his subordinates. "Indeed. A deity of chaos. Perhaps we should find ourselves of a similar side someday. After all, I'm sure you'd love to no longer find yourself a pawn to some ungrateful princess of sorts."

Discord folded his arms and rejected his offer. "Unlike you, I don't harbor a sense of entitlement to the world. But then again, I guess it's only fair to know that you've hidden your name at a young age out of fear of meeting the same fate as your family. I would be too if I had to watch my family have their heads paraded around the town square by a group of angry serfs, and then sexually abused in exchange for foolishly believing that a group of other aristocrats had your best interests in mind. Surely that doesn't have any bearing on you at all, now does it?"

"Well..." Umbra felt his chin tighten and his teeth grind into one another. In a brief flash of his volatile anger, he slammed his staff into the ground... only for him to discover that it snapped back at him like a serpent.

"Well there's a bit of a biblical reference for you. Though I wouldn't grab a snake by it's tail, it can still reach up to bite." Discord taunted.

"True to your moniker, Being of Chaos." Grimaced the stallion.

"Indeed I am. And you will be true to your work soon enough." He said as he stepped into the mirror himself, waving back at the stallion a playful smile. "Good day, Count Sanctus Quorum of House Bastion."

The stallion shouted as he picked up one of the bar stools and shattered the mirror, leaving behind only a pile of broken glass. The staff he held had turned back into it's usual state. He glanced around, heaving with indignation. He closed his eyes and tried to manifest himself elsewhere, only to find himself waking up in the same place he had closed his eyes. He did so again, with the same result.

"My lord?" Damper whimpered, afraid of being the subject to the stallion's ire. Seeing that his night had gone terribly, he threw the chair down and tossed the remnants at the bar, shattering a few bottles on the back wall. He tried to put on a forced smile, knowing he had a lot of work to do.

"The lounge is closed this evening. Have the night you deserve."

The Portal Room
Canterlot Castle
45 Minutes Later...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

The moment I left Corrotto, I transformed myself back and ran straight to the castle. I messaged Celestia that I needed her consent to conduct a raid to clear out the entire arena, especially if he had threatened to make a move on my friends. When she and I discussed the situation at greater detail, she also informed me that Discord had notified her of what was going on before I had arrived.

As soon as his name was mentioned, a mirror summoned itself and reached within to pull out a smug-faced draconequus. He looked at me and pointed his claw at the mirror he walked out of. "Special delivery for one Nondis P. Haines."

At will, three ponies walked out of the portal, one orange pegasus in particular carrying a bruised Kalimba on their back. She looked to me weakly, but smiled and waved before going back to holding herself. An unfamiliar pink mare sighed in relief and expressed herself. "Thank God I don't have to see another stairwell leading to an empty ceiling."

I immediately recognized Melanie's voice from the mare. I looked at the others' physical descriptions and made a mental comparison to what they were described to me earlier. "Guys!?"

"Yeah! You're alright!" Melanie said from down below.

"I could say the same shit for you three!" I said to the trio of ponies before bringing my attention to the injured mare. "Kali!"

"I am a little pushed around, but I will be fine." She said as she climbed off of Rickey slowly, trying to not strain herself in movement.

"I'm so glad you're okay." I informed the mare before looking to the one that brought them here safely. "Discord, I owe you, imperially."

"Did you honestly think I wouldn't repay you the favor of our time together months back? Surely you saw this coming."

"I didn't." I replied to the creature before addressing my friends. "I really didn't see any of this coming. He knows about you all."

"So I guess that means we need to relocate?" Rickey questioned.

"Relocate is putting it mildly. I'm gonna have to send you guys back home." I answered.

"But he knows where we stay." Cliff argued.

"That may be, but he doesn't know about where our good friend Single File is. I could send you over to Hermes for the week, you should be fine from there."

"I would hate to be a burden on that guy, especially if he's trying to get comfy." Rickey said with uncertainty. "All of this would be a lot to try and cover for."

Simply relieved to see my friends again after leaving Corrotto, I couldn't help but to smile at what I could possibly set up for them. "Trust me, the last thing you guys will have to worry about his comfort. I've already made provisions for each of you."

"What do you mean?" Cliff questioned.

"Well, it's almost been a month, I can't just let you guys go on without some sort of compensation for what you all had to do. I got some funds pushed aside to take care of you once we cross over."

"Nondis!" A voice called out from the end of the room. I looked over to see both Alex and Stanton walking through the door and running up to meet with us.

"Alex, what's going on, why are you here?" I questioned my older brother.

"Dude, we just got some really ominous messages from Discord." Stanton explained. "We heard that the others were in some deep shit and we came through to help."

I again looked to Discord, who offered his own response. "If you ever wondered how I was able to act as quick as I did, I only responded as fast as a text message could get the point across. Human technology does have it's benefits."

I glanced down to my phone and sighed, thanking fate that he was so interested in our technology that he decided to linger around in my device at the time. "That it does." Another voice called out from within the mirror. Another two ponies entered the room, of course they were faces I had already knew.

"Blue, Alabaster, you guys are here too?"

The billionaire heiress walked up to us, stopping right beside Mel. "We got pulled right in. I think I can say that one-week pass into the castle will be my saving grace at this point. Staying here would at least save me the possibility of having to come back home to something even more psychologically damaging."

I couldn't agree more. "How about you? You good?" I asked to Alabaster.

"Oh I'm fine. But you really missed out on some juicy stuff. Oh, the look on his face when Discord called him out." He said excitedly.

"What did he say?" I asked curiously.

"He called him by his name at least four times in front of everyone. But that last name was pretty odd." Blue explained. "Count Sanctus of House Bastion. Who the hell is that?"

"House Bastion, that's a name I'm unfamiliar with." Alabaster added.

Celestia grew quiet for a moment before she started to chant in repetition to herself. "House Bastion... Bastion..."

Melanie then jumped in. "Well never mind that, what the hell was that thing that chased us earlier?"

"What did it look like?" I questioned, hoping that I would at least be able to put an answer together.

Both Mel and Cliff looked to Rickey to tell what he had seen. "I caught a glimpse from a distance. It looked like a little filly, I didn't get a good look of her face, but it turned into something ugly at the end there, at least from the sound of it's voice."

"Wait, so he came after you all as well?" Kalimba asked.

"No. Just whatever the hell that thing was." Mel answered.

"It was his creation, however." Discord clarified. "And that little filly, that dead little filly, she had a traveling audience."

All of us had stared at the draconequus with a chilling unease. "Oh that's fucked." Stanton murmured.

"A creature of nightmares, a monster bearing the face of hell itself." Celestia mumbled, she appeared entranced in thought as she listened in on our conversation. But when she saw us looking to her like she had some clue as to what it was, she shook her head. "Don't mind me, I'm just rambling through thoughts."

I started to walk towards her. "Now hold on, you're hiding something."

Kalimba quickly came to her defense. "Nondis, she obviously has a good reason. If she tells you and we-all-knows-who takes you, who is to say he won't try to hide himself again?"

I could tell that some part of her argument came with the frustration of tonight and the experience of being in the same situation previously. While I was not aware of what she had in the works, I was aware that Twilight had gotten involved somehow. "All I know is that the elements may be involved."

Rickey interjected. "Whatever elements you guys are talking about, they should be involved. One element I'd suggest, my go-to regarding this situation: FIRE."

"Oh, the elements will indeed be involved." Discord added. "There's no other choice. The bearers themselves are in mortal danger."

"Yeah. He made threats against Rarity and Pinkie, even joked around the idea of throwing the Cutie Mark Crusaders into sex trafficking." I briefly summarized, with Kalimba nodding in confirmation.

"Okay, who the fuck is this Ummie guy and who hurt him." Mel questioned with disbelief.

"Oh there's quite a story to it." Discord replied, folding his arms.

A moment of silence came over the room as we waited for an explanation that never came from him. "And you don't wanna tell us about it?" Alex asked a bit miffed over it.

The hybrid creature whirled his hand with dismissal. "Meh, I'm sure Cay-Cay will find a way to put it together."

"Who's Cay-Cay?" I asked in confusion.

He then pointed to the princess who appeared just as confused as I was. "Celestia, of course."

Appearing moderately annoyed, she voiced her disapproval of the name. "I did not consent to this."

I shook my head, realizing he was going to be a troll about it. Although I would greatly appreciate him giving us more information, I just had to be satisfied with what he had already done for us. "Okay, so here's what we know. He has a creature consisting of dead ponies, maybe."

"A creature you boasted about defeating before you came and got us." Alabaster pointed out to the draconequus. "What did you do to take it out?"

"You know, a secret about chaos magic is that it's aware of it's presence but not aware of it's own abilities." The creature replied with a shrug.

"Is that a bullshit way of saying 'a magician never reveals his secrets'? This is life and death here, I'd like to think Nondis would probably have a fighting chance if we knew what it was and how to beat it." Alex stated.

Discord raised his paw up to about the top of his horn. "I can say it's about my size, if not a bit bigger. I was really guessing at what I could use to make it go away, and again, my magic isn't exactly confined to one finite trait as I'm using it, hence why the results are so varied. While I can control it to a vast degree, I cannot change it's composition, it's too unstable. Hence it earns it's moniker, chaos magic. It's a wonderfully natural thing, purely organic, but highly potent and very hard to control."

"So we know that magic works. Okay, that's a plus." Mel said, not exactly comfortable about the situation.

Discord went on and expounded on a few other details. "It's strong. Even in the highly-unstable state it was in, it could render wood virtually useless against it's tendrils. But it operates in a juvenile manner."

"Hauntingly juvenile." Rickey cosigned.

"Typical of his humor." Alabaster responded, appearing unimpressed with that factor.

"I'm telling you, the last thing you want is to hear that thing singing to you from the end of a dark hallway." Rickey continued.

"Or through a wooden door." Cliff supplemented.

"Or hear it scream at you." Melanie concluded.

I looked to the two siblings and questioned them on their knowledge. "Alabaster, Blue, both of you are in the Inner Circle, I'm sure you guys know something about what he has going on."

The cream white stallion shook his head. "Sadly, that trust deteriorated after I gave you that warrant. Have you tried the funeral home?"

Celestia promptly answered him. "We've conducted a search to answer the report of the missing bodies, we found a backlog of corpses my guards are having to clean up there."

"Did you try going deeper?" Alabaster stressed.

The princess closed her eyes and grew quiet. "There was an attempt. That's all I can say."

"So anything else other than that?" I asked.

"The only thing we can give you is that Damper Trot begs to him on a weekly basis. You may want to look into investigating him like I told you." Blue suggested.

But her brother quickly countered her reply. "That's the problem. I send out a private investigator for that, he keeps his records clean on the surface level and skin deep."

"Perhaps this Ummie guy stepped in knowing what you'll find." Stanton thought aloud.

"It could be just that. He could've stepped in when he found out that I was there, only to give Damper the chance to clean house." I mused.

"Your logic is a little too overthought here. His motives are way more simplistic." Alabaster corrected. "Although the results did turn out favorable to him since he started playing around with you. Damper might have gotten away with hiding more of his trail with the recurring distractions."

"But what does that have to do with de humans? You all heard him say that he still has a human in his body count. That's not a good thing." Kalimba brought up.

"That's the better question. Why the hell would he need a human body for?" Cliff questioned.

"Maybe fake Nondis' death to the masses and take him in for whatever reason?" Blue proposed. "He has been obsessed with him since he showed up. He practically abandoned his schedule for the exclusive reason of seeing you for himself. But with that other human body, I can only assume he's got some sort of nefarious reason to keep a corpse of your species on hoof."

Mel grimaced as she thought of her ex. "Possibly to add to that thing we ran from earlier."

I took a moment to pace out my thought process, trying to find myself thinking on a level that could be similar to his thought pattern. While I couldn't exactly come up with a plan that would be a spot-on representation of how he would operate, I could guess at how fucked up he could be if he wanted to make it that much harder for us. My mind started to circulate around the words he said, the smile on his face, the laugh he gave when he threated me to take the shot.

I closed my eyes, imagining myself if I was in his position, especially in a demented place that could only be described as a forum built to be a containment center for debauchery. I couldn't imagine him being able to transport a group of bodies so quietly without getting noticed, much less transporting something that's said to be a mass of multiple bodies. The smell would be overwhelming, the sight would be terrifying, it would easily be reported to the authorities.

My mind went back to the words he spoke, 'You don't think Canterlot is the only place I have bodies at.' Those words echoed as I started to put together in my head what he could have possibly done. Better yet, how was he able to get bodies around Canterlot at will anyhow... unless he was in charge of a place like the morgue?

"...Wait!" It started coming together. Say if he was in charge of something at the morgue, or at some medical center of some sorts, any place that was especially known to deal with the dead, be it on daily or seldom occurrence. He just said he could move himself as easily as blinking, that tells me that he could just walk himself to wherever, whenever, do whatever and be back at a moment's notice. I've seen it for myself how he does that, and it terrified me. "The inn by Twilight's Castle. He said he had a body there."

"He could've been lying to throw you off of what he really sent over to us." Mel added.

"If it's a move he can make in confidence, he's more than likely to do it." Alabaster corrected her, firmly stating the truth that all of us V.I.P. Lounge dwellers knew.

"What are you proposing, Nondis?" Alex inquired.

As I continued pacing, I started putting together the most fear-inducing plan I could think of. "I'm thinking of the worst possible thing here, something so fucked and unrealistic that I know that only he can fucking do, and it's something that with his network he can get away with." I started to plant myself in his thoughts, piecing what I knew with what I could assume in the worst situation conceivable. "Okay, say he goes on a train to take a ride to Ponyville starting at the hour of the least frequented line. Then we say that he then boards that same line a number of times throughout the day. There are different tellers at different windows, so he wouldn't go to the same window, that's to minimize his being identified. He boards a train and take a nap, moves into another body, walks to the train station again, buys his ticket, gets on the line, rinse and repeat a good four or five times. Then when his train arrives each time, he walks out and positions himself to someplace nearby the location he wants to scope out."

"That sounds like he's just playing a game to get different endings." Mel said with ridicule.

I pointed at her and shouted. "EXACTLY! It's like a quick-save system in an RPG! You fuck up, just go back and respawn where you last left off and try something different! Yeah, it's coming together." I continued pacing, piecing together more and more ideas. "Okay, so let's just say that he did all of that, and then like you would in a game, save a file someplace at a different location where you want to explore. You leave the game for a while and then come back and choose whichever quest you want to take on and start from that dungeon you picked out. But let's just say you come back to a certain area after getting a new summon from a side-quest just to see how it runs, you use that summon and breeze right through it to the boss pit."

"Okay, Nondis. Not everyone knows what an RPG is. In Layman's terms please?" Alex pointed out.

I looked back and pointed at my older brother. "Worst case scenario, he made that thing to be able to have the same damn ability he has in terms of being able to be in more than one place."

"That's ridiculous, dude!" He replied with disbelief.

I turned my attention to the corner where I knew I would get my confirmation. "Kali, Blue, Alabaster, you all heard him when he said it. 'It's as easy as blinking. One second I'm here, the next I'm waiting in the lobby for your friends to show up.' That should tell you right there. It's the reason why you can't say his name in public, because you'll never know if he's actually right fucking there behind you." I then turned to the three transformed humans. "And you guys read Discord's messages, those quotes weren't something he took out of context, that's just the fraction of what all he said to me."

Blue stepped up and asked in a unsteady tremble. "So if that's what you're proposing, then doesn't that mean that thing can show up at any time and any place?"

"Possibly through any body that he gets his hooves on..." I turned to my brother to finalize my thought. "Including humans."

The realization dawned on him, especially knowing that he could send a human body over and send it to wherever he wants it to be. It would then become a game of Russian Roulette with half of the chambers filled with rounds. Finally in a panic, Alex walked to me with fear throughout his body. "He's been leaving bodies at Mel's place! Does that mean he has a fucking portal!?"

"The portals he took were all here. All he had to have was someone on the inside running changes to the security rotations. I think I can conclude with recent results that we're green on that front." I explained as I walked him over to the portal leading to the frat house. I turned it on, a computerized voice called out what had been moved. "The portals here are all rigged, I know when they're walked through, especially if I arm it for stay or away. There's motion sensors, infrared, night vision, high definition cameras. All of that is sitting in that same room. There's no fucking chance he'll come through to our world again unnoticed, not with the way security's been working now."

Alex then prosed the question. "Okay, so if we go by your logic and think like you are right now, who's to say that he hasn't already started making a portal to the human world with the information he's gained from these?"

Celestia stepped in to provide an answer. "Unlikely that he'll be able to accomplish it without the proper coordinates, the proper spells, the proper system to even put himself or one of his creations through. That will take months, that's time he does not have. Your world is safe. We intend to keep it that way."

Blue then raised his hoof to give his own input. "Okay. So if I had a choice to be as cruel as I could possibly be, I would take your friends and use them for motivation to make good on your agreement. And if it follows through and you win, then you have a choice to either negotiate for the information you need, or you save your friends."

"Like you did for me." Alabaster cosigned.

I huffed through a moment of frustration, letting the thought play out in my head. "Then our agreement would change at the drop of a dime. He'd know I would be trying to save them, and I would probably forego on that to keep everyone safe... that son of a bitch would've kept me there for another month!" I pointed my finger at the dragonesque creature. "Discord, you saved me a lot of fucking time, dude."

"Don't mention it. I know that time is a very finite thing for you in particular." He replied.

I gave the creature a thumbs up of acknowledgement and turned my attention to the princess momentarily. "Well now that we fucked that up for him, we're right back on schedule. Guess that means I know what I'm facing, and I can gather what the hell I can do to possibly give myself an edge." I looked towards the zebracorn this time, being upfront with my request. "I can also get this out the way now. Kali, on Friday, you stay here in the castle where you'll be protected, don't follow me, don't beg otherwise, don't sneak out because I'll know if you try."

"I do not agree to dat idea." She said firmly in disagreement.

"There is no agreement about it, that's an order." I reiterated before addressing the three transformed beings. "Mel, Cliff, Rickey, you're going home tonight. I send you your stimulus tomorrow morning."

The other two sighed as Cliff was the first to verbalize his thoughts. "Man, it kinda sucks that we don't get to say goodbye to anyone. I know it be like that sometimes, but I still wish we could at least tell miss landlady that she don't have to make us breakfast in the morning. Damn, she's gonna be lonely with a hell of a lot of food and no one to eat it."

"Ugh, I hate to do that to her." Mel continued. "And I told Applejack that I would help her out on the southern field, at least to let Big Mac not do so much and give Apple Bloom more time to be with her friends. But she's gonna be without both me and Kali, so all that's moot. That's a rough sell."

"And to think of all the ones I won't get to help out tomorrow during the breakfast rush." Rickey also added. "Damn, it's gonna suck not having those pastries in the morning anymore. Pinkie really put her hoof in those batches, I'm gonna have to put in orders from across the way."

Hearing their own stories had brought back a familiar warmth in my heart, a most recent source of nostalgia for the days when I first began my journey here in Equestria. "I take it you all took away some lasting impressions on your stay?"

"Yeah. Might not be the whole rush we're used to in our lives, but we're gonna miss it here." Mel answered as she looked to both Blue and Alabaster. "I just wish we had more time to get to know more friends."

Alabaster held onto his younger sister as he replied to her. "You know, you could always come by and visit when it's not as hectic. I'll be sure to drop you the address to the mansion, we can have some tea, talk about what we can do to change things in my not-so-humble district. Plus you and Blue can just spend time together on a few shopping trips, I'm sure she'll love the company of a secondary drinking partner."

"I drink some pretty mean stuff, hope that isn't too much of an issue." Blue added.

Mel snickered as she extended her hoof to shake. "I'll bring my own bottle of Jack. We'll get fucked up together one of these days. Just make sure we get back home somehow."

"Honey, a ride home ain't nothin but a bit in a busy street. We're all good." Blue said before she grew a bit sad about the inevitable departure. "I hope to see you again soon."

Mel also looked to Kalimba. "That same invite goes to you too, miss prankster."

"Just stay out of trouble. And don't second guess yourself." She said to her before looking at Rickey. "And you, don't be stupid."

"I'll take my cue from the village idiot. No promises." Rickey said as he nudged at me.

"Keep that same energy tomorrow morning." I jabbed back before bringing my attention to the three other ponies fresh from Discord's mirror. "Alabaster, Blue, Kali, you'll all be in the castle until this all blows over. There are some rooms I can rent out for a month at least to get you acclimated."

Alabaster feigned a haughty attitude. "Well I suppose the accommodations will have to do, especially if they do cater to the guests of royalty."

Kalimba walked past me as she started walking down the hall, despite not knowing where she was going. "You do not have to spend rent on me. I know what room I am taking."

Celestia levitated the mare and turned her to the correct hall where the residences could be reached. "First, he's spending rent on you. Second, I've already picked out your room."

The zebracorn then replied. "With all due respect, your highness, why make him pay for something extra when you could consolidate de arrangement?"

"Because I know how it feels to be young and rebellious." She said sternly. "You will stay in my hall, there's an empty room next to mine. It'll at least give me a better chance to observe your discipline."

Kalimba quirked a brow and gave the princess a sideward glance. "Your majesty, your mane is sure running a good shade of green today."

"I could say the same for you, Miss Mavembe."

The rest of us had watched as the metaphorical sparks flew from the both of them and initiated a beam struggle. Meanwhile Mel looked on with amusement, Rickey started inching towards the portal, and Cliff cleared his throat before singing to himself. "♫I'm sorry that you, seem to be confused, he belongs to me, the boy is mine.♪"

Stanton snuck up to me and tapped my shoulder. "Um, what about you?"

"I gotta make good on my agreement. He dismissed me tonight, so his quandary isn't with me until Friday. But I guess I'll worry about that nightmare when I get to it."

"Dude, please be safe." Stanton replied.

"I know that you guys are at the very least. Out of all the questions I grilled him on, he could only tell me about who was here. And if I don't know where you are at this moment in time, he won't know either." I explained before reminding myself on one more thing. As the three human transplants started the process of being brought back into their human state, Cliff and Rickey were given back their clothes behind a veil. My attention was brought to them. "Hey Cliff, Rickey, after you guys get changed up, I'll need you to check in with the guys over at the frat house. He threatened our brothers there too."

"He must've lost his goddamn mind." Cliff replied. "It ain't nothin' for us to pull up."

As they finished, it was Mel's turn behind the veil. She was transformed and given her clothes. Rickey walked up to me and shook my hand. "You remember that day at the frat house when Celestia and Twilight dropped by and changed clothes?"

"Yeah, wasn't that long ago." I replied.

The man chuckled as he reached an arm around my shoulders and whispered. "Remember when you said you wanted to knock boss lady down."

"Shut up about that." I quietly chided.

"I'm just saying. You must've done something to get her acting jealous like that. What you done did?"

"It's not about what I did so much as what her sister did on Sunday. She literally made me grab her ass at a Victoria's Secret changing booth."

"Damn, you got it like that?" He asked quietly.

"No. Luna does that shit to annoy Celestia, and it works each time. Like I don't know if you've watched them argue, but it's like watching two women armed with nuclear warheads pointed at each other talking shit about who's gonna press the button first. Like that Victoria Secret was going to get thoroughly uninstalled."

"Damn, I didn't even know she was like that."

"After a thousand years of not having someone to be possessive of, do you think you'd be the same way?" I questioned.

"Yeah, I get it." Rickey nodded his head. "I'll look after Melanie while you're gone."

"Do you, dude." I said quietly. "Between you and me, she's pretty bad at figuring out how to get back into market. Be sure she doesn't find some dickbag to mess around with for the weekend."

"She might've already found one while she was here." He replied with a smirk.

As soon as she finished with her clothes, she ran from behind the curtain and hugged me. As she reached up to pull me down, she muttered in my ear. "Don't you have me coming back here to do some medical work, you jackass."

"As long as I stay ready, I won't need it." I replied.

As all the other humans made their way back home, I felt relieved in seeing them safe and being brought back to where they needed to be. I took a quick breath and started on making the arrangements for the others to stay inside of the castle for the week. I asked the remaining three ponies to walk alongside me.

Meanwhile, Celestia stood quietly, pondering to herself. "...Count Bastion..."

"You still haven't figured it out yet?" Discord questioned.

Not pleased with the antics of the chaotic creature, she grew spiteful of his attitude. "Apparently, you know something that I don't."

"Believe me when I say it, Cay-Cay, you'll be surprised of the chaos you've brought upon yourself."

"Are you saying that this is somehow my fault?" She questioned.

The draconequus grinned before he disappeared. "I'll leave you to find that out on your own. After all, it is what you've done with your precious student a number of times now. It wouldn't be fair if I had to spoon feed you something like this when it's already on the tip of your tongue. Toodles!" And with a snap of his fingers, he disappeared in a bright flash of light.

Celestia grimaced as she walked away to her own quarters. "Ugh, seriously... And what kind of name is Cay-Cay anyway?"

Eight years passed since the start of the civil conflict taking place out on the fields of battle. In the early years the tavern was bustling with aspiring combatants looking for a chance to live out a tale of glory and freedom in the name of the high princess. But instead of being treated to stories of adventure and great feats of strength, stories of sadness and terror came in their place. With many aristocrats and lords threatening the lives of those who lived on their lands, stallions would take up arms in fear of losing their homes and livelihoods. And as a result, many who grew up knowing each other had ended up opposing each other. And when they would meet on the field, there were two who ultimately disregarded that strife.

One such being was the princess herself, she would enter the field with her forces, usually outnumbered by three-to-one, sometimes seven-to-one, leading a front of young soldiers who aspired to save their families from the abusive system the lords had placed many of them in. And when their numbers had dwindled to too few, she would envelop herself in flames and become the beast that many had grew to fear. Her teeth sharpened and her smile ever present, she would cut down the ponies that stood in opposition to her with extreme prejudice.

And by her side was a young stallion, a growing youth who had been forged through the years of conflict to wield the spear and sword as easily as he showed his hatred for the cowards that chose to live in fear of their abusers. To him, they were just as complicit, and he would judge them harshly. Whoever the princess would often leave behind, or rather who retreated from the sight of her, the young teen would impale and slice through with absolute precision unseen by many of those in her ranks, only rivaling the princess herself.

More tales of watching their loved ones and former friends die at the hooves of those they supported, they were left at a crisis. Many had resigned after their first year or so, some even falling to their own swords out of their own sense of obligation. It started to dawn on many that this had become a lost cause. A journey to the fields was often seen as a far worse fate than laboring in the Canterlot Gem Mines, a fate that many had grown to prefer if they chose not to take sides.

The tavern had filled itself with many murmurs of ponies dealing with their existential plight. The young stallions grew fewer and fewer, only the old and disabled would frequent on the daily. And if it wasn't then, then many young nobles would enter to mock the drinkers that tried to escape into their darkness.

And with the nobles increasing their visits, so did their taking the rooms. Their debauchery would know little restraint, taking advantage of the many mares that had grown without fathers and brothers to protect them. And thus it grew into a haven for those of influence, sinking their teeth into victims of circumstance.

Umbra worked the days at the tavern, but he had dreaded the night so much that he protested his shifts to hear the voices of young mares being exploited and made a mockery, as often as his would come to join them in their song. The tavern owner grew despondent to what had become of his business. He fell into a depression, silently offering his drinks to those who also sought an escape to darkness.

Moonbeam left the tavern the third year into the conflict, citing how she wanted to aid those coming from the battle. And often times, Umbra would shadow her to her late night work of tending to the sick and wounded. And with little to clean and mend the wounded with, the many wounds festered diseases that the victims had to ward off. But with little to aid in the endeavor, death had soon followed.

The pair grew from moonlighting as medics to working as undertakers.

One day, a minister had taken notice of the pair doing their work. And the local monastery sought to aid them. They would go out to the places where many of the wounded would be housed in sanctuary. And with their aid, more lives were saved and fewer had succumbed to disease. While Moonbeam was given the task to care for the living, Umbra was left to bring the dead to their final resting place.

He would go on to know just about anything dealing with the pony anatomy, what the cause of death was, how it could be averted through life. His deepening discoveries had started to draw ire from Moonbeam, who thought that the dead should be simply laid to rest. However, his findings were so valued at the church that they made him an acolyte of medicine.

And as time grew naturally, the pair began to shift separate ways from one another. Moonbeam saw how the church valued Umbra's discoveries as opposed to the sanctity of the dead. And she left the monastery to travel elsewhere. Umbra continued his work and research, looking into ways that spells could be used to aid in the healing process. He studied various herbs and toxins that could be implemented to the process of recovery. He started to write tomes of his findings, each of them growing more and more notable with the passing year.

Another three years passed and the war was on the decline. The tavern where many sought to escape their inner demons had fallen into poverty, the property reclaimed by the lord who taxed on it. The bar owner himself passed away shortly after, finding himself to lay at Umbra's workstation. He appeared very wet, likely from sleeping outside for some time. The pronounced cause of death: Pneumonia.

Another two years had gone by and the war was coming to it's end. There had been so many stallions that showed up to Umbra's station that he had easily committed some to a forum. The church agreed to the practice, but only with the assurance that the bodies be allowed to a final resting place where they can be paid their respects.

With more information coming out, much of it valuable to the church, Umbra continued his ascension through the church and continued his life of discovery. Most of his days at that time was relatively simplistic... until it wasn't. With the war on it's way out, the oft fabled princess had paid a visit to the halls of the monastery, seeking a staff to conduct a coronation in silence.

With her favor vastly dwindled, she had many who vowed to oppose her. She wanted to limit any possibility of there being any kind of assassination taking place, and if there should be such an attempt, she needed the best possible medical assistance on standby. The church was more than willing to adhere to her request, especially considering her lineage. They treated her as if she was no less the mouth of Faust herself, especially being none other than the blood-proven granddaughter of the lineage.

The church made a quiet gathering to take place without an announcement to the nobility or the masses. And in such time, they elected their best trained crusaders to the task of bearing down to the aisle where the young stallion walked to complete his ascension to power.

Umbra, who was unquestionably the best medic in all of the land, was forced to attend at the alter.

Watching the duo approach had unbalanced him in his actions and appearance. The grown stallion had watched as the one his age slowly make his way towards the alter. And standing at the center was none other than the high princess herself, covered in perfumes and scents to wash off the scent of metal and blood from skirmishes of two days past. The alabaster ruler watched in quiet as her blond protégé took to the center and bowed before her.

Umbra, who was unnerved by the company of the two, grew absent in mind, thinking more of his deceased family.

One of the priests in charge gave the young stallion a firm hit of correction. "Mind your posture, boy."

"Yes sir." He snapped back to the present, haunted by the sight of the young stallion who was to be crowned. In relative silence, the ceremony had began to take place. The monks and priests began their processionals, wafting incense through the sanctuary to bless the room. They sang in unison their chants, brought the holy water to cleanse their hooves, brought upon them the sacred candles and bells.

The first and only bell was rung in holy celebration of the moment. The archdeacon dipped his hooves in oil and annointed the young stallion before him. "In nomine matris filii et spiritus sancti."

"Magna mater benedicat nos." The young stallion replied with reverence.

The archdeacon looked over to receive the pillow to which the prince's crown was to be presented, only to find Umbra still holding the item in his hooves, he looked to no particular point, appearing lost to the world. "The crown boy." The archdeacon whispered over.

Snapping back out of his trance, he quickly surrendered the item. He was then chastised by another priest at the alter. "What is wrong with you, boy?"

As the others dressed him in his new royal garments, Umbra looked at the young stallion with a quiet disdain. He knew who he was looking at being gifted a crown. He couldn't mistake the appearance, no matter how well-groomed he may be. He remembered how he looked at the gallows, disheveled and dirtied walking up to the rope to which he was to be hung from. He knew the crime he had committed against his cousin. He knew that he was guilty of his murder. And yet in a cruel twist of irony, he was made to witness his cousin's murder to be claimed a prince, all by the same princess who also condemned his family to death that same day.

It was because of him that his life had changed. Umbra tried to hide his revulsion the best he could, keeping many comments to himself, all but one which slipped through his lips. "How are you a prince?"

The crown had hovered in the air as it was about to be placed on the young prince's head. The archdeacon glared at the young acolyte who made the comment. "What?"

Realizing what he had let slipped through, he offered to correct himself. "I now declare you a prince." He said to disguise his words.

One of the other priests walked up to Umbra and took him by his ear to be corrected. "Not how it goes, boy. Now stop being an embarrassment and let this be done properly and in order."

Before he was to be taken out to be chastised, he was still made to watch the ceremony to it's completion. The archdeacon placed the crown upon the stallion's head and the young prince rose. "I now proclaim you as prince of the realm, lord of the mantle of justice! Long may you reign, Prince Blueblood. And may your days be blessed."

"I am humbled." The young prince said.

Princess Celestia stepped forward, announcing loudly to a sanctuary filled with empty pews. She still announced as though applause would soon fill the room. "Fillies and gentlecolts, your new heir to the throne, Prince Blueblood!"

The replying silence was more than enough of an answer for the royal duo.

Umbra was taken to the back of the sanctuary and struck to the ground for his transgressions. The young stallion staggered to rise as one of the other priests snarled at him. "Boy, what is wrong with you!"

He tried to plea his case. "It was an honest mistake─"

But before he continued, he was violently struck back down to the ground. "You dare to ask that question in the presence of Her? Do you not know who she is? Do you seek to embarrass us?"

"Sir!" A voice called from further down the hall.

The young stallion was dragged to his hooves as the other priests around him summoned their rods to discipline him. "Perhaps your accomplishments have made you arrogant! We will rectify that as of this instant!"

"SIR!" The voice called out even louder and even closer.

The group of priests looked up to see the young prince quickly galloping to them. The group of priests and friars all dropped their tools and bowed before the prince. "Your highness, I did not see you approach. How may I serve you, my lord?"

Seeing his first instance to offer benevolence, Blueblood stood himself between them and the young acolyte. "Do not chastise this young apostle, I understand that his political leanings may have no favor with me personally, but I will respect his opinion, and will be more than willing to answer any question that he may have."

"Sir, he is merely an acolyte. He is not deserving of anything, not after what he has said to you."

Blueblood walked the young stallion further down the hall, away from the angry group of missionaries. Gaining some distance, he grew comfortable to question Umbra. "What is your name?"

Already embarrassed that the stallion he despised for killing his cousin had come to his aid, he grew rebellious and opted to withhold his name from the newly-crowned royal. "He is right, your highness. My name is worth nothing to you."

While he had offered his benevolence as a means to extend an olive branch of understanding, the young prince was not as patient as he had appeared to be. So he sought to conclude the matter as quickly as he needed to. "As my first royal decree, I demand to know your name."

Umbra, being the quick thinker he was, threw together a name for himself. "Humble... Humble Shadow, your highness."

Nodding with confirmation, Blueblood patted his shoulder, poking fun at his earlier outburst. "Well, Humble Shadow, it is an honor to have been crowned by you. I heard musings of a promising doctor who would have a future in the royal court if he was to make himself known. They say he's around my age. If you can refer him to me, I will reward you in kind."

"I can only attest to his accomplishments, sir." Umbra replied, knowing that he wanted him. "If I ever see him, I will be sure to have him report."

"Very good." The young prince replied before setting off to take his leave. "I don't wish to be a ruler predicated on spilling blood, the war is long drawn and I fear it is lost. But a peaceful solution is what both I and my mentor will seek going forward. It's time we rebuild Equestria, restore her to her former glory. And we have much to do. But it all starts with peace for one another."

"That it does." Umbra muttered. "I have but one question, before you set off, your highness."

"You may speak." Blueblood replied.

"If the empty pews in there were to be filled with the ones who gave their lives to your cause, how many of them do you think would applaud you?"

"None, because we failed them." The young prince answered somberly. "Our crusade will take on another front, but it will not end. I suppose next time it will be in the pews of the court as opposed to the fields of battle. Surely our battle will be won... one day."

The young prince walked away, leaving behind a spiteful Umbra who still housed great hostility to the royals. He spat back in disgust at the stallion's promise.

"Surely... Justice will win, you say... What a joke."

"Justice doesn't exist anyways."

It was memory that continued to replay in his mind, the sight of the empty pews as the crown was placed upon his head. Blueblood sat quietly in his room as he stared at the mirror, thinking of the many times he failed his legal bouts, remembering how there was no way to win in a fair fight. Years would go by, politicians would live and die as he continued on, he initially lived his days hoping that there would be one where justice would prevail like it should.

Instead, the centuries passed to replicate the same result.

The days of battle didn't keep him up as much as they used to, the guilt of having slain many of young stallions had grown dull to the touch. And with a recent victory in the courts, he weighed if his new plan had come to bear any kind of fruit outside of the small berry of hope stemming from the vine, once anchored in the soil of uncertainty. But there was no justice in life, not without favorable action.

If a foal's life was taken, is it just to take the life of the one responsible? Yes would appear to be the right answer, but would that bring back what was lost? One can take the innocence away from a mare, but they cannot give that back. One can always punish the evildoer, but that will never change the evil that was done. There's always the known conditions of victory, but never a true account of those that were defeated. And even for a victor, there's always a price.

The stallion stared back at the mirror with much of that memory reflecting back at himself.

"Ugh, staring off into yourself again?" Blueblood looked up to see his first wife walking up to him with curlers in her mane. She appeared concerned for her brooding husband. "Vanity will be the end of you."

The blond prince lightly chuckled in reply. "And you're telling me that when Vanity is your first name?"

"Unlike you, it sustains me." She said as she sat next to him.

He then joked back. "Sometimes, I wonder who it is I marry."

"You've wondered about that at least seven times then." She said as she gave him a brief hug.

"I'm feeling a bit melancholy today." He said as he looked into the mirror once more, staring at his own image.

"And what, you want me to rub your hooves about it?" She questioned.

He glanced to her with a smirk. "If you don't mind."

She stood up and playfully smacked his nose with her tail. "Ask Gleaming Star, you keep her as busy as a workhorse anyhow. I don't understand why you decided to take on a secretary for a wife."

"I love her just as much as I love you." Blueblood iterated.

"You love her, you haven't even broken grounds with her yet." She teased.

The prince rolled his eyes. "You know the reason why, hell you advocated it almost ten years ago when the first of you lot and I got married. A decade and I'm still celibate."

"Twelve, Bloody. We got married twelve years ago." She corrected.

The stallion dismissed her correction. "I've been alive for four hundred plus years, do you honestly think I care about specifics?"

"That just tells me you should be old enough to count properly." She zinged back.

"Fair play, dear." He said with a smirk before going back into the mirror.

"So what's got you down?" She questioned as she stood next to him, polishing off her own image before she would make her way to the bed. "Another moment in the time of centuries long dead?"

"Do you ever feel like you've come close to winning, only to fear that somehow it will be taken away from you at any moment?" The stallion asked relatively plainly.

"I thought you sent that human to do your dirty work in Canterrot." She replied as she adjusted her curls, making some of them even tighter.

"Yes, but I've been feeling pretty guilty since he brought us out to dinner with his family on Sunday. I think that day was the first time I genuinely saw him break down. Perhaps it was a personal matter that wasn't addressed previously, lack of closure, but I place my wager on him being overwhelmed. I'm beginning to wonder if it's becoming too much."

The mare scoffed at her husband's thoughts. "Too much for him? Dear, he's beaten a hundred arimaspi, not even you've accomplished that, not your predecessor, nopony has. You've gone with a really good choice if you ask me."

"I just don't want to fail again. We're so close now, I can almost hear the gavel pounding the wood. Ten... twelve years into our marriage and I'm just about tired of being celibate. I want offspring, I want little colts and fillies who can plan their own futures, annoy the mess out of you lot, and call on me whenever you say no so I can entertain their brains with the idea of me saying yes."

Vanity Fair glared at her husband with disapproval. "Now that's starting a war you can't win."

"It'll be fun to try." He sighed with a laugh before looking back into the mirror. "Still, I refuse to look at another face and promise them the future, only to fail yet another time."

The mare gave him a peck on the cheek before setting off to the large bed that he and his other wives shared. "You'll break through one day, dear."

Blueblood closed his eyes to the reflection staring back at him before joining her. "I pray that I do."

Meanwhile at the Unknown Lab...

Umbra opened his eyes from yet another memory that continued to persist throughout his years of living. He felt himself becoming equally as frustrated with it as he was in the moment of overseeing the progress of his recently defeated creation. Images of Discord foiling his plans only served as fuel for his wrath, causing the stallion to romanticize the idea of cleansing his enemies in a single fell swoop.

A female servant carefully approached the seething Umbra, calling out to him very quietly. "Sir."

"What?" He replied, every consonant being brought forth to emphasize his anger.

The servant meekly replied as she looked into her clipboard for notes. "The creature, it's ready again."

The stallion turned his head to the servant. "That quick?" He questioned skeptically.

The servant reassured her angry overseer. "Sir, we only sent out a fraction of the beast, it was to ensure that there was no lasting damage to the overall, and it would propose easier maneuverability."

Surprised of the announced results, he found that his mood had slowly improved. "It can split?" He asked curiously.

The servant issued Umbra the clipboard, showing the various charts of results. "We went off the data you've provided. We utilized it to your own potential, sir."

"How much of it was sent out?" He asked as he started to look at the various charts and graphs.

"Twenty percent."

The stallion's eyes widened, becoming impressed with what was disclosed to him. "Just a fifth of my dear creature went out and got destabilized by Discord? Well that's a bit of good news for the evening. I guess my surprise isn't ruined after all."

"It's ready to go out whenever you so choose." The servant reassured.

"What's the status of the portal?"

"We're going on to seven percent completion." She briefly summarized.

"Patience is a most important virtue." Umbra told himself after hearing the discouraging news.

"The creature will be back at full strength tomorrow. You can use it to your liking then." She stated as the less-frustrated stallion rose to his hooves.

"Status of the group in Ponyville?"

"The humans have vacated, sir." She announced.

Acknowledging his defeat on that front, he took a deep breath and started setting his sights for the bout that was to come on Friday. "Figures. Well I suppose our next target will be the only human we have available."

"Sir, I don't think he will come quietly." She said with uncertainty.

"Oh he'll be brought quietly." Umbra reassured with a growing smirk. "In fact, I'm betting on exactly that."

Well hello to you guys again. It's been a while since I've last dropped something. Though I can safely say it won't be very long before we meet again. I do hope that you all are having a good go at life.

So the monster has paid yet another unexpected visit, and Discord has stopped being hands-off on the matter for the time being. Though with his mostly hands-off approach, it will be seemingly unlikely that he would ever do much after that. ...Unless...

But since the humans are back home and it seems that the beast is capable of being beaten, there should be nothing to worry about. However, there is much that Umbra knows now since he's partaken in Kalimba's lips and body. So that only leaves the question of what he does next with that information she's given to him. The event has already been written and waiting to be released. Guess correctly on what happens and I'll DM you the day before the next chapter's release.

Thanks for sticking it through so far. See you soon.