I had a very strange nightmare... I don't think I've had anything like it yet.

It started as me in an unusual state: being a pony. But instead of my being in the room with other humans or my friends, I'm standing before a white unicorn with an alabaster mane, tail, and beard. Though it felt oddly unrealistic, I could feel myself walking with hooves. The stallion who looked at me was covered from head to toe in chains and bindings. Below him was a circle of runes and inscriptions, emblems consisting of a variety of shapes such as triangles, pentagons, diamonds, and the like. It was very unusual to see.

He called out to me, "You fool! Do you know nothing of those who are over you! Their intent is not for the better of the ponies, but of themselves!"

"What's going on, where am I?" I questioned the stallion, though he seemed to ignore me.

"You are an imbecile for thinking that they would be so 'righteous'. If you really want to see what they want for the citizens, then look out that window!"

It didn't take me long to find where the window was, as it was the only source of light in this seemingly medieval setting. Above me, the chains rattled and swayed from side to side. Upon walking towards the window, I felt something heavy knock me on the side of the head and throw me to the ground.

The ringing of cathedral bells sounded in my ears as I looked up to see what had hit me, only to see a bloodied set of chains swinging from the ceiling. And up above the rafters, I could only see the smile of a tan stallion in a crimson-stained blouse. To the side of him was another one, this one wearing an impractical outfit made completely of leather belts with a black mask over just his eyes. The only thing that followed for me visually was the dark-brown curtain that quickly shut over my face. Shortly after, I was picked up and thrown from a high place. I assumed it was high because it took me a very long time to come into contact with the ground.

When the bright flash of light shone in my eyes, it then seemed as if millions of light particles started to fade from various locations. After the mess had cleared, I was brought back to the darkness of the brown sack over my head. The sound of the church bells then sounded as if they and I had been plunged under the water. Upon being unveiled, I stood before dirtied, spotty gray mare with a long pink mane lying on the ground. I tried to move towards her but found nothing within my body responding to me at all. It was as if I was just some mere camera recording everything taking place. From over my unresponsive body crawled a shadowy figure, who looked at me with a sinister, gut-churning smile.

With a hoof raised to his muzzle, he shushed me before rapidly grabbing me and tossing me next to the gray mare. Upon landing, I felt something wet underneath me. I looked down to find myself sitting in a puddle of blood, the mare whimpering quietly as she sat in a mess of what appeared to be feathers and clumped fur. I opened my mouth to scream, only for my voice to come from her mouth as she jerked her head backwards to look at me with absent eyes.

Gradually, as I continued to scream, the pitch of it no longer became mine as it morphed into a bone-chilling eldritch-like screech. She blinked once, revealing her eyes in their completely terrifying display of agony. I couldn't quite make out the color as quickly faded into gray as soon as they appeared.

Then from nowhere, she spread the appendages upon her back and took flight. As she rose into the air above me, I had noticed that the things she used to give herself lift were nothing more than bloody stems flapping wildly. As I continued to lie in the mess she wallowed in, it had started to piece together in my mind that the feathers before me were her own. Looking back up to her, I saw her standing just above me, her head completely inverted as she screamed out in pain.

I wanted to run away from that unsettling image, but instead the only thing my body allowed me to do was stand before her. Her hooves launched at my head and quickly pulled me in, that inverted smile being the only thing I saw as she puckered her lips and sank onto me. As she released me, these words left her lips.

With those words, I felt the movement in my body return to me. Yet even with my new-found freedom, I was still a prisoner to her grasp. The pink mane she wore had then transformed into dark-red flames, her smile curled even further up her cheeks as she pulled me in once more.

"Haaah!"

My eyes bolted open as I breathed heavily from the experience. I quickly raised up and placed a hand on my forehead to wipe off the sweat... only to find shaving cream mashed against my face.

"GUAAHAHAAAA!" I screamed once more at the top of my lungs.

The next voices I heard were, thankfully, familiar. Using my other hand, I cleared the shaving cream from over my eyes and took a quick peek at both Rickey and Cliff laughing it up on the other side of the room. Rickey was too busy holding himself to even look at me while Cliff was busy pointing at me. Behind me was also another source of laughter. Upon turning around, I had seen the familiar coat of a certain prince.

"Holy shit, I caught that!" Shining announced in a fit of laughter.

"Oh fuck, that is definitely going to Vine!" Rickey stated with a recovering sigh.

Well it already seems like he and the other guys have been getting along just fine. "Yeah, real funny." I answered back in deadpan. "What time is it?"

"Time for you to get the hell up, guardboy!" Shining answered as he used his magic to press the button to stop the video recording on what seemed to be Cliff's phone. "You've overslept past your call-in time."

"Ugh... I was called in?" I questioned.

"Yeah, so that you don't miss the next train to Ponyville. From what the other guys have been telling me earlier this morning, you've got quite the errand to fill."

I guess he means with Melanie... wait a minute. "How would you know about any errands and what exactly do they pertain to?"

"They said you were bringing a friend over. Twily and I have been kinda anxious to see who it is."

So obviously they haven't told him who I'm supposed to bring over. I guess that does make things a bit easier for me to process. The last thing I need to deal with is Shining trying to buddy up with her and find out about any of my... ancient sins. Eugh! Though that does leave the question... "Wait, Twily?"

"Yeah, she was around earlier when we found you sleeping. She also said that she found your maintenance of schedule to be, and I quote, lackadaisical."

"Why am I not surprised by that?" I mumbled to myself. "Whatever, what time is it?"

"Well, we came in about an hour earlier and found you out for the count. The others woke up when we came in, but you were just out of it. We tried shaking you awake, splashing your face with water, the usual works... none of that worked. But to answer your question, it's about 9:46."

"WHAT!" I am outrageously late, I'm even at risk of missing breakfast.

"What time does the dining hall close again?"

"10:30, but your train leaves about fifteen minutes before."

Well, I guess I could send the guys on the train and make my way on down later. But that won't work because I need to be there to maintain certain security measures. "Ah shit!"

"It's okay... I've already gotten things taken care of." Another voice called from outside in the hall. Twilight, who waited patiently outside, entered into the room. "So are you boys done having your fun, because we're way behind schedule."

My bad. "Sorry, I overslept."

"Yeah, you've been sleeping like a rock as of late, are you okay?" Twilight questioned.

"I'm fine. I just had the weirdest dream in-what do you mean by 'as of late?'" Yeah, because I wanna know exactly how she would even know that.

"Well, from injuries to hard times, I've been pretty much trying to keep a tab on you just to make sure that you were okay is all."

This coming from the mare who tried to watch me take a shower several months back out of pent-up sexual frustration. "Uh, I'll... buy it?" Though in hindsight, I myself was trying to catch glances.

Shining cringed as he slowly looked to his sister. "Eeeeeeyeah, Twilight... that's a little... unusual, don't you think."

The purple princess touted her nose to the air as she turned her back to her brother. "I am merely performing the duties that I was originally tasked to perform when he first got here. Furthermore, the assassin from the previous attempt has yet to be apprehended. It's perfectly normal for me to zap into his room and periodically check if he's doing well or if he's gone unharmed through morning. That's not creepy, that's called doing my job."

"Twily, it's creepy."

"IT IS NOT!"

The two siblings continued their argument as they made their way into the hall. "Is too." Shining tossed.

"Is not!" Twilight tossed back.

"Is too."

"Is not!"

"Then explain the hair from this past Monday?"

"Genetic studies!"

"You have a habit of chewing your own mane. Plus you admitted to Cadance that you chewed on his as he slept sometime last Monday morning."

"Oh come on, IT WAS JUST THAT ONCE!"

...Yeah, it's time for me to take a LONG shower.

So after a quick shower, because that's all I had the time for, and a snag of breakfast, The five of us all made our way towards Ponyville via a VIP train. Though we weren't in any sort of a hurry, we were quickly brought back into town. And thankfully, that ride didn't last any longer than what I had left in my battery. So for a few more minutes after getting back, I had to play the waiting game with my cellphone and wait for my battery to get a decent charge.

Around forty-five minutes later, I was sitting at a doable thirty-nine percent. The only thing I needed to do was make a quick call to Mel and let her know to come over my apartment at a certain time. Meanwhile, Cliff and Rickey had already crossed back over to greet her while I was speaking with Twilight, warning her that the new friend coming over might not be so open about this whole situation. She gave me a nod as well as her given word that if anything were to go tragically wrong, her memories would be erased.

I know it's a cop-out method, but I can't risk others thinking that she'd gone off the deep-end should she start running around screaming about this. Texas folk aren't exactly slow to judge.

So I made my call, grabbed a thick blindfold and a set of earplugs, and walked across to my world.

For about thirty minutes, we sat and waited in the den. While we waited for Mel to come on by, we had just decided to pull out our phones and see what Cliff had posted to vine.

And though it was at my expense, the video had garnered some two-thousand replays. Again, it was at my expense, but I was somewhat impressed that a mere six seconds of my goofing off would have the potential of being a viral hit. Go figure, every one with a short attention span would love to see a prank on some unsuspecting victim. Though now that I looked at the video, seeing how my arms looked like spaghetti while waiving in the air, my voice sounding like a anime-version of Hank Hill, I guess I found some humor in it... some.

I also managed to break down my plan with the others to kinda get myself prepared for the worst. Though I would wish that it would not come to pass.

"So that's what you're planning?" Rickey questioned.

"Yeah, it's fool-proof. If it goes anywhere remotely right, I'll be in the clear and she won't have to look like she just lost her mind. If she overreacts and it goes awry, Twilight will zap her and her memories of it should be gone." I answered.

"That's a hellova cop-out." Cliff said while scratching his head.

I responded with a shrug of my shoulders. "Sorry, I just can't risk Melanie's reputation being put at risk for the sake of something that's seemingly nonsensical. If she rejects, I'll have to start from scratch. After all, if she does something irrational, then how am I going to explain to the others that we're not like that?"

"Well, we're not like that." Rickey suggested. "They'll only see it as a one-out-of-four thing. Not everyone's gonna like it, but a majority of people wouldn't mind. It's just that simple."

I could already feel my palms becoming even more sweaty as I rose from my seat. "I hope so."

Rising from my seat to open the door, a variety of scenarios played out in my head. With each step I took towards opening the door, there was an increase of tension throughout my body. My muscles started to tighten significantly, causing my stomach to feel as if it was being pressed upwards into my chest. My heart could've been easily displaced somewhere inside of my neck was how nervous I was. When the palm of my hand came into contact with the knob, I had wondered what caused it to be so cold all of a sudden. Turning the knob, I found that it was locked... Well that's stupid of me.

Unlocking the door and taking a deep breath, I opened the door and welcomed in the person... who wasn't Melanie? What?

"Good morning sir, are you the resident known as Nondis P. Haines?"

I quirked an eyebrow as I looked at the seemingly mature woman with brown hair, short stature, wearing an all-black getup, complete with a black trench coat.

"...Who wants to know?" I questioned suspiciously.

She reached in her pocket and pulled out what appeared to be a wallet, flipping it open she revealed a silver badge with the numbers A45LS6. "I'm Chelsea Whitaker of the Austin Crime Investigation Unit, I'm here to discuss the matters of what all had transpired sometime around this past Monday afternoon. I came here to ask a few questions in regards to my client."

"Your client?" I parroted.

"My client happens to be an acquaintance of yours, a miss Melanie Brewer. She's right here with me to give me a positive ID on who you were. I need to know what you know so that I can present a report to the lawyers representing the defendant. Your testimony would be very beneficial to producing a conviction in our favor."

Ugh... I knew this was unavoidable, but it couldn't have happened at any worse of a time. I'm under a strict time limit here and I can't afford to be pissing around like this. "Unfortunately, I'm kinda busy at the moment. Perhaps you would rather have this conversation with me upon a later date?"

"Sure, what time will you be available either this afternoon, or evening if possible?"

Neither. "How about sometime tomorrow? I can't do today because of a variety of things I need to get done."

"Well if it's so important, then could I possibly get five minutes out of your schedule?"

No. Your 'five minutes' would drag on to about a half-hour. "I'm sorry."

"Nondis... please." Melanie said as she hung around the corner.

Shit... "If I can give my account in five minutes, will that be all you need for now?"

"Yes. I will also ask around for the other three witnesses to the incident, then all of you would present your testimonies to a court of law."

And two of those three would be here with me. I don't have time for this. "Okay, do you have a tape recorder?"

"I do." She answered.

"Great, because I'm not slowing down."

I was right. Those five minutes lasted over half an hour. If I hadn't so openly invited her inside, she wouldn't have seen Cliff or Rickey. But since she did, she wanted to questioned them both as well. After recording our sides of the argument, she then informed me that I would be contacted later this upcoming week. More interruptions, joy.

But Melanie did show her appreciation for us being in one place to get this process done quickly, otherwise it would've taken her the entire day to do so. She told the investigator that the final witness was not really there to see the incident occur, nor were they involved with much of it aside from holding him down. And even then, he had already filed a written report. The investigator, Mrs. Whitaker, was adamant on getting a vocal testimony on record to see if the stories were anywhere near consistent. To much of our relief and Melanie's request, she proceeded to pursue him later on.

That only left us with one thing to get out of the way.

"So, why are both Cliff and Rickey here in the first place?" Melanie questioned.

"Oh we're here just to hang out with Nondis. He called us up and wanted to have a miniature gathering so that the four of us could celebrate new beginnings." Rickey answered.

"New beginnings?" She asked with a squint and a tilt of the head.

"Yup, we got everything cleaned up and cleared out. So now everyone is clean of any weapons plus you're clean of a shitty boyfriend."

Melanie tapped her fingers against her waist nervously while looking towards me. "Oh... so what did you guys have in mind, like what did you three wanted to do to celebrate?"

"We told you what we were celebrating. We just never told you where." Cliff answered.

"Okay. So where did you want to take me?"

Both Cliff and Rickey elbowed me in the sides as they wanted me to dive in after their initial icebreaker. Now that some of the weight of an explanation was lifted off my shoulders, I decided it was time to put the plan into motion. "You remember when I said I had a surprise to show you?"

"Yeah, what is it?" She asked impatiently.

"I'm gonna show it to you, but you're gonna have to close your eyes."

With a frustrated sigh, she looked at me with a serious glare. "Really?"

"Yes, now close your eyes."

She seemed to do more rolling than closing, but she got her eyes closed eventually. Afterwards, Rickey grabbed a blindfold and placed it around her eyes.

"Ah, what the hell!?" She exclaimed.

"That's to make sure your eyes are closed, no peeping!" Rickey answered.

Cliff also placed some noise-cancelling headphones over her ears as she squirmed in place. "SHIT THAT'S LOUD!" She shouted as Cliff pumped some music into her ears. For a brief moment, he pulled one speaker off of her ear to speak to her.

"This is so you can't hear what's going on. Grab my hand and follow me. Nondis will grab the other and kinda direct you on where to turn."

"What?" She asked before the headphones came back onto her head.

Slowly, we led her through the apartment towards the bathroom. And eventually, the four of us managed to quietly slide through the portal without incident. At least we're off to a good start.

As we were dragging her through the halls, Melanie bobbed her head with the music in her ears as she tried to sneak one of her hands up to her blindfold. Thankfully we already had countermeasures against that. Whenever she tried to jerk her hand free, either me or Cliff would lightly jerk it back down as a means of telling her not to peek. It wouldn't last for very long as we had entered into the throne room of the castle.

Completely devoid of guards, quiet in the surrounding halls, and with plenty of seats in front of a massive table, we politely appropriated the chairs all around the room. I sat her down in one of the chairs and the three of us looked to one another, nodding to say that it was time to show her the surprise.

First, I slowly pulled off the headphones and asked her a question. "Hey, you doin' okay?"

"You just had to pull them off when my song came on." Melanie answered with a pout.

"Yeah, sorry. But anyways, we're gonna remove the blindfold and need you to keep your eyes closed until we say open."

"I've been blindfolded for the past two minutes, can't I just open my eyes after you move the blindfold?"

"Just do as we ask, please."

I didn't need the blindfold to come off for me to know she rolled her eyes at me. "Okay, whatever."

Slowly, I peeled the cloth from over her eyes and removed it from her head completely. I slowly crept over to her and whispered into her ear as she kept her eyes closed. "We're not in Kansas anymore, Dorthy. You can open your eyes."

The first thing she did was turn to me with a questioning expression. "So what, we're in the magical land of the Wizard of O-OOOOOOOLLLY SHIIIIIIT!" She shouted as she looked around the room and saw how cavernous it was. The most she could do was gawk and scream out obscenities. "Da... Ge... Wha... Fu...Hu... How... What the fuck!?" She said while jumping out of her chair. "What the fuck is this place!?"

Well she's here, there's no point in beating around the bush anymore. "Well if you want to know, we're in a─"

"Let me guess, you got more money from your explorations with Bella and bought out the entire apartment building and renovated it, right?"

How is it possible you came to that conclusion? "No... that really─"

"Please tell me I fell asleep along the ride to a new house you've bought."

"Actually, if you'd let me─"

"And what the hell is up with this chandelier? It looks like the roots to a tree. Neat decor but I'm kinda curious on how this all came out."

Okay, now I'm beginning to feel frustrated. "Mel, will you listen to me for one second!?" I said as I slammed my fist into the table.

Suddenly, I felt something cold and icy swallow up a portion of my fist as it stayed on the table. I looked down to find that the table had suddenly transformed into what appeared to be a map. With surprise, I yanked my hand back and stared at it in shock. Cliff and Rickey both stared at the map with confusion. Melanie was looking on with excitement. "Holy shit, that is so fucking awesome! It almost looks like a cross of World of Warcraft and Star Wars."

Rickey quietly shimmied to my side and lightly tapped me on the shoulder. "Uh... Did you know this was here?"

"Fuck no, I didn't even know this shit had even existed." I whispered back to him. "How was I supposed to know that this massive table I used to eat on was actually some sort of enchanted holo-map?"

"Oh I don't know, the fact that you've been here for what's going on ten months now?"

"Correction, six months total. It's been six months total I've been in this building. And not even once has this shit even come up. Twilight didn't tell me this shit was actually enchanted."

"So now what, the chairs are enchanted too?"

Okay, I give. "You know what, fuck it. Everything's enchanted, bottom line."

Melanie wasn't paying us any attention as she was running her hand through the land formations, squeeing with glee. "Oh my God! Eeeeeeeee! How is this thing even powered!? It's so cool!"

"Magic." The three of us answered in unison.

"No, but for real, how is this thing even powered?"

All three of us drew a collective sigh, producing different expressions of exasperation.

Mel looked at us as if she said something wrong. "What did I say?"

I suppose I would have to explain everything to her first before we start getting distracted. "Well─"

She didn't even give me a chance to speak as she double tapped on a pair of gates located at the very bottom of the map. Suddenly, the entire display shot towards that individual location. My head dropped as I stared in disbelief of the map sitting in front of us. As the display showed on the table, a box with words showed up right next to the foreboding set of gates.

"Tartarus?" Rickey questioned.

Cliff placed a finger just below his chin. "If I'm not mistaken, ain't that the Greek connotation for Hell itself?"

The four of us just stared at each other in silence, realizing that we were essentially looking at the pony equivalent to the gates of hell. It was very unsettling, to say the least. Immediately, we wanted to get back to the map. "...Okay how do we get back?" I said as I started rubbing my hand across the table, only shifting the view of the place. Melanie tried double tapping the gates again, causing them to open and another large box of text to appear. "Mel, stop trying to break all of Hell loose."

"Sorry, I thought it would've worked like how I did it the last time. Besides, none of this shit is real anyways."

"Um, I'm not so sure about that." I said as I placed both hands on the table and tried to push away.

Cliff continued to read from the box. "Hmm... It says here that there are many foul and terrible creatures that lurk here, be wary of your journey and take caution of the guardian Cerberus."

"So we God of War now?" Rickey questioned sarcastically.

"I guess. It also says something about a centaur by the name of Tirek and how he is to remain locked down there for several millennia. Wow, multiple thousand-year spans. This guy must've done some WORK to get locked up that bad."

As I sat there, these words I spoke yesterday reverberated in my mind.

Yup, that sounds about right. "Oh yeah, that guy. Twilight mentioned him to me once before, but she never really speaks on it on the account of traumatizing circumstances."

"Oh!" Both Rickey and Cliff answered with a sagely nod.

"Well that's nice to know... But who's Twilight?"

...Oh shit, I forgot she was here. "Uh, she's... a friend of mine."

"Just gone get it over with, Nondis." Cliff said quietly as he propped his feet onto the table. "She's here for a reason."

He does have a point, we've gotten distracted for a while now and I need to get back on focus. "Okay... um... I guess I should start from the top. Mel... I know this is gonna sound crazy, but I need you to work with me for a minute."

"Okay, though it sounds like you're gonna say something completely shit-fucked crazy."

Believe it or not... "Yeah, remember when I had gone missing for nine months, and how you guys couldn't find bit or trace of me?"

I could already see the corners of Melanie's mouth beginning to unravel. "Yeah, what about it?"

Here it goes, all-in. Time for the draw. "So... yeah. I was... here. Not exactly Texas, not exactly New Orleans or anywhere in Louisiana. I fell in the Gulf, and somehow awoke here. Secondly, Bella... she doesn't exist. I mean she does, per se. But she doesn't exist as what you would identify her as. I've been calling her 'Bella' because her name was... actually Twilight. And another thing─"

"Whoa, hold on a second..." Melanie threw her hands up at me, trying to get me to slow down. "So you're telling me that 'Bella' doesn't really exist, as much as she is another person?"

And now for the turn. "Yeah. She is a completely separate being. But the thing of it is that as of now, we are no longer in the United States. You, me, Cliff, and Rickey, we're all in a totally different place. This isn't even Earth anymore. There's no Austin, no Texas, no USA, no Mexico, no Canada, none of that shit. I know this is gonna sound bat-shit insane, but we're in an alternate realm of existence."

Melanie giggled with dismay as she shook her head. "Okay... Now I know you've lost it."

"He's not insane Mel." Rickey came to my defense. "That map you saw, that's the place you're in... well somewhere on that map."

Melanie looked on the table and scoffed. "So we're inside of the gates of Hell? What a fitting explanation for the state of emotional distress I'm in."

I looked at the table and planted both of my hands on the table and thought to myself. When she was poking around, she ended up double tapping one location, almost like an application on one of our phones. It gave birth to a hypothesis, a theory, and an idea as to resolve the issue of the map. Sliding my hands closer together, I hoped for the best. And as I did just that, the view of the gate suddenly shrunk, the gates closing and the text box disappearing. I repeated the process until I could see that the entirety of the map as we once did before.

"Oh so it works like a phone?" Cliff questioned. "That's kinda neat."

When my eyes locked onto Ponyville at the center, I double tapped on the table and zoomed onto the small town. "No... we're actually here right now."

Mel wasn't interested in seeing what the table was showing as she turned somewhere else to avoid looking at me. "Well, I know the one place I want to be right now, and that's home."

"See, that's the thing!" I shouted. "For six and a half months, I couldn't get a way back to home. And when I did, I was then drafted into the military here. And it took me about ten weeks and some change to get it all done. When I had finished, that's when I went on my first patrol, had a fight with ol dude, you know... Bella's older brother?"

"BELLA DOESN'T FUCKING EXIST! That's what you told me, right!?" She screamed at me.

"I said that the 'Bella' was actually Twilight... and her older brother is named Shining. So I got into a fight with him and we settled our differences. And as a result, we were given a few days off. So on my first day off, I decided to come back home. And that's when I showed back up."

Melanie wouldn't even give me the time of day at this point. "You're so full of shit, your fucking eyes are spewing brown. The breath you breathe is the very excess of waste that comes from out of your ass."

"I get it, I haven't been honest and it hurts! I just didn't know how to explain... this to you, at least without showing you in person."

"Rickey, can you take me home, please?" She asked, nearly on the verge of tears.

"Mel, he's not lying to you. You know all those strange scars he's been getting? He's been a killing ass since he's been over here. We've seen him in action, he's like fucking Achilles with a damn sword. And yet he's been coming back with scars, bruises, broken bones, and all this other shit. He nearly died like three times now from fighting. And that's not including the assassination attempts or threats."

"I'm not listening to him, so why are you listening to him? Why are you even thinking that any words out of his mouth is anywhere near fact than it is a fucking lie?" She asked with tears beading down her face. "I gave NINE MONTHS of my life to make things right between us, I was blackmailed and shoved around for a good portion of them. And now he wants to tell me that those months, after I sought him, really doesn't amount to some fuckface's fanfiction?"

Okay, that hurt a bit. "Mel, I know that none of this makes sense, but you're gonna have to accept this. This is what I've been doing, all of the times where I've been working out of town, this was it. I just didn't know how to explain any of it to you, and I was scared of what you would think of me─"

"I FUCKING LOVED YOU, WHAT PART OF THAT DON'T YOU GET THROUGH THAT THICK ASS SKULL OF YOURS!?" She screamed at the top of her lungs, her voice echoing throughout the halls. "I felt passionately invested in you, since the day we met. And now you're telling me that this miraculous story is why you've disappeared. You've been telling me all about this awesome relationship with this girl, whose name you've hid from me for so long. And you won't even consider me anymore because of this Twilight girl. I'm not sure what to think anymore."

I don't know what I wanna do anymore. I wanted to get part two of my confession out of the way, but I guess I can call it a day now. She seems as if she doesn't want to even know the rest of the story anymore. I can't talk to a brick wall. "Okay Rick, I guess it's time we just leave it alone."

"No, she needs to know all of the truth." He argued strongly as he stood beside Melanie. "And you, you need to listen to what he's saying."

"What else is there to listen to?" She questioned, sounding and appearing completely distraught. "I come here to find that everything is all crashing down. I just wanted to spend some time with Nondis, I didn't want any of this."

"Well, you're spending time with him. And while this time is going on, he's trying to talk to you and you're trying to ignore him. He's at least trying to be fair to you, I believe it would be fair if you listened to him. Sure, things are a fuckton different in this world, but that's just the way it is. Nothing is the same, our laws of physics aren't even the same."

"I can't do this." She whispered in a broken tone, looking to me. "I'm sorry, I can't deal with it. None of this is real."

Rickey grabbed Melanie's hands and stood between me and her. "Okay, Nondis is military, he's being awarded for his bravery. There's a ceremony that takes place in the next two hours. Then after that, we have a party to go to. All I want from you is to make it through the ceremony, just to support Nondis. If you can make it to that much, and you still wanna go home, then we'll get you back home. Bottom line."

She continued to shake her head as I started digging though my pocket for my wallet. "I don't believe it. I don't."

Quietly, I unfolded my wallet and placed it on the table, showing my badge and number. Afterwards, I removed the dog tags from around my neck and placed them on the table next to my badge. Next up was my sword and sheath. She stared at the items on the table, completely silenced by all of the evidence stacking up before her. She looked up to me in shock as I spoke.

"I'm doing a lot more than security, Mel. I'm entrusted with the lives of not only my superiors, but this world's citizens as well. The things I've seen and the pains I've endured are far too much to put into one sentence. I have seen innocent lives perish right before my eyes, I have felt the blood of my allies on my hands as they pass over. I watch the light fade from the eyes of each being I kill. I have terrible nightmares. And when I wake up, I have to write letters to the families of each victim or fallen guard, telling them how remorseful I am. And I go back to my own world, knowing that I wouldn't be able to do anything for it. Not only that, but I have to deal with my parents and try to explain THIS to them."

She shook her head. "You can't be... no way."

I took off my shirt and showed her the scars and bruises from each of my encounters, including the red marks from where I had broken my ribs. "I get hurt like this every time I go out. But each time I come back, I get an opportunity of saying to my friends that I've made it through. I just now decided to let you in on what Cliff and Rickey had known about for like the past week. So if something should happen to me, you'll know where I was and what I was doing. I know that you've given nine months of your life to find me, but now I'm coming to you to tell the truth after all of my lies, after all of the nonsense. And I would understand if you don't want to forgive me for it, but it would mean the world to me if you knew the whole of it."

She cleared her throat as she wiped the tears from her eyes, though they were still being produced. "So, what's the whole of it? You're fighting some kind of war in a land you don't even know, for a people who could think of you as less than them?"

"That, and I've made my decision on what I wanted to do with my life. I'm happy here, in spite of it all. And I want you to see this world and it's citizens as how we see it. It's a beautiful place and it's full of kindhearted beings who would be welcoming towards you. They wouldn't mind providing if you asked. It's much nicer than what we live in... with the exception of a law or two, but it's way better than what the future would hold back in the USA. Think about it, you finish college, you spend your entire life paying off your student loans and then try to pay your kids way into college on top of it, we're looking at a retirement age of sixty-eight at the very least when you're not rich."

"You really think running is your best solution?"

"Don't get it twisted, I have taxes to pay here as well. There's no running from those. It's just that here, I can pay off everything on our end significantly quicker. I can look at a retirement age of thirty-five at this rate. Those bags of gold you saw, that's just a piece of my bi-weekly paycheck. I'm putting my life on the line, but I'm getting stacked because of it."

She looked back to the table, tapping at the large castle on the map. "So, we're in an alternate dimension where you fight whatever comes at you and get paid an exorbitant amount of money? Wow, seems like the high life."

"It's not as high as you think. I already told you what comes with it."

She finally cracked a smile for once since my confession began, albeit a very small one. "I guess you being a military boy makes you all the rage with the girls too."

"To be fair that all happened beforehand, we're the only humans in this world, and I was the only human up till five days ago."

Melanie did a double-take as she stared at me with a dumbfounded expression. As she continued to mentally process the words that came from my mouth, she tried to see if what I had said was actually what I had said. "Oh... so... the girls of this world... had an interest in you... all throughout the course of your being here... and none of them are human?"

And we're rolling... "See... define human for me?"

"As in walking on two legs, capable of expressing a full range of emotions, able to speak full sentences, and capable of giving consent to any form of relationship, like we humans do."

Rolling... "Well... they're about three-fourths of the way there."

"Okay. *gulp* What's the fourth that's missing?" She inquired with a terrified expression.

"Hey guys! Are you three getting ready for the ceremony!?"

Melanie jumped out of her seat and quickly turned around to see three ponies, two with a horn and wings standing in the doorway alongside an equally tall white unicorn stallion. Twilight who looked on with surprise took about two steps back before speaking again.

"Oh... wow. I guess I know why you guys were taking so long."

"So this is the friend that you three said you wanted to bring over?" Shining questioned as Cadance smiled and waved.

"Great! What's her name?" Twilight said before she took a step forward.

Melanie turned to me and chuckled briefly. "Nondis, I think I'm drunk."

Rolling on the river, here it is. "Yeah, the fourth that would be missing is the two-legged part."

"Thought so."

...And she's out.

Melanie awoke a few minutes later to find that there was a yellowish-orange unicorn with a red and yellow mane staring her in the face. As her eyes opened, her face contorted into a look of abject horror. Slowly she blinked twice at her before speaking.

"Hi."

"Hey there, Nondis said you passed out and I was grabbed from my place to come and see if you were okay."

"That's nice. I'm gonna scream now─"

"No you're not." Before she could even get started, I quickly placed a hand over her mouth and quickly moved Sunset out of the way before she could start squirming. The last thing I'd want to happen is for Mel to kick around and accidentally send a pony flying across the room.

"Mmmmph mmm phmmm (Let me go)!" Melanie screamed through my hand.

"Sorry. Look, no one is here to hurt you. You don't need to worry about anything. Trust me, I'd know."

I pulled my hand off of her mouth and allowed her to sit herself up. when she had gotten to where she could move herself to rest on her left foot, she quickly stood up to question me. "Okay, then can I ask, WHY ARE THEY TALKING?"

Okay, that I can answer. "Yeah, I kinda had that question to begin with. It turns out that their evolution process was pretty similar to ours, sans the Ice Age. But they are kind and─"

"And why is that one staring at me like that?" She asked as she pointed to Shining Armor.

Shining merely tilted his head with curiosity. I tried to see what exactly he was staring at, but failed to get a beam on what exactly his eyes were locked on. Cadance looked at her husband with a growing concern. But Sunset was quick to catch on to what he was staring at.

"Twilight, Princess Cadance, do you mind if I do something real quick?" She asked while glancing towards the stallion extremely violently.

Cadance nodded to the orange unicorn. "Sure, what is it?"

Sunset walked up to Shining and used her magic to pull on Shining's ear, causing him a great deal of discomfort. As he winced and whimpered in pain, the orange unicorn spoke through clinched teeth.

"What did your mother ever tell you about staring at things you shouldn't!?"

"Ouch! Oh come on, you're really asking me this? OW! My mom, she'd say I'd should ask more about her before taking her to dinner! OW!"

Cadance gave her husband a seething expression as she pulled on the other ear, matching Sunset's efforts. "I think that's the wrong answer sweetheart. Maybe you should reword your response into something a little more educated."

"Here, I'll be blunt." Sunset stated as she gave Shining's ear another tug. "STOP STARING AT HER MAMMARIES!"

"Wait, those are her teats!?" Cadance asked, shock apparent in her voice. She then used her magic to pull even harder at Shining's ear and proceeded to give him a stern talking to. "Shining Francine Armor, I know damn well that you're not staring at another mare's personals! And you have the audacity to do it in my presence? I will fucking end you if you get any ideas about you and her─"

"Ugh... This is wonderful." Instantly, I felt my own palm smack my face with a force filled with embarrassment while Melanie started to blush and cover herself a little with her arms. "Sorry Mel, but you are the first human female they ever came into contact with. So disregard his lingering eyes for anything besides anatomical curiosity."

"Okay... I guess..." She answered nervously.

"They're not oogling at you as much as they are questioning─" I was then interrupted by a light push from behind as Rickey walked past me and towards Melanie.

"Dude, you're not helping." He stated before giving Melanie his full attention.

Meanwhile Cliff was taking some amusement in seeing Shining getting berated by not only his wife, but by Sunset and Twilight, who recently joined in to urge that her brother would respect that staring would be a violation of her privacy. After he was done getting an ear-full of punishment, Shining didn't even dare look towards Melanie's way.

Melanie actually started to giggle along as Shining was reared, which indicated that she was starting to open up about it. Personally I was relieved to see that, especially after over forty-five minutes of arguing and fainting. She didn't have problems finding amusement in seeing Shining's ears turn red from being tugged and screamed into. Thankfully, Sunset and Twilight were very forgiving as to giving him a few words of discouragement. His wife on the other hand was VERY stern and would be eager to put him in check.

It make me wonder, would Twilight actually develop to be this aggressive towards me should we get hitched ourselves?

"So now that you three had your fun, do you think it would be time for us to start heading out towards Town Hall?" I questioned while playing with the map on the table again.

"Actually, we needed to be at Rarity's Boutique next. Cliff and Rickey need to pick up their tuxes and you need to get dressed as well." Twilight answered as she ignited her magic to quench the map's image from the table. "We don't have time to dilly-dally around."

Mel placed her hand on her chin as she turned to Rick. "Um, that does bring me to ask, what is going on today to require you to wear a suit?"

Shining didn't even look in the direction from where the question originated as he answered her. "Well, there was this little operation that took place earlier this week. There were originally three of us who were assigned to find a young foal who was kidnapped by a horde of changelings. Cliff and Rickey volunteered to join with us and all five of us had not only rescued the the filly, but also several dozens of others. And the icing on the cake was that Nondis successfully apprehended the changeling commander in the process. From the time his assignment started to it's completion, it took him a mere four days to get it all done."

Mel looked towards me with confusion. "Um... filly?"

"Little girl." I briefly summarized.

"Oh, okay." She said with a slow nod. "So it took four days to find the filly?"

"Actually, the filly situation came up the day of. It only took us an hour and ten minutes to find her. So we had to do a lot of improvising when it came to the operation." Shining responded. "The fact that it took him only four days to get his entire assignment plus an added search done would be overwhelming considering how many there was guarding where they were. I'd say it was about a good two-hundred of them."

"They asses weren't there when we first showed up!" Cliff boasted loudly.

"Yeah, but they weren't fucking around when we were about to leave." Rickey argued. "That really big one ran Nondis into a pillar. If it wasn't for that damn armor we were wearing, he would've puked out his lungs and guts."

Melanie shuddered as she imagined the scenario. "Ugh... Nondis, you really grew a pair while you were here, didn't you?"

"I guess so. But I think we should get going so that Rarity doesn't kill us for being late."

"The dressmaker?" Cliff chuckled as he thought of Rarity being violent. "She's probably the least likely to do shit like that, bruh. If I know even the slightest shit about her, she don't like getting dirty."

I shook my head as I had to remind him of one glaring issue. "Um, she fought off a small contingent of changelings and challenged me to a sword duel on the sly, not that I haven't held my own."

"You lost three-nil!" Cadance interjected. "Apparently 'holding your own' must be the equivalent of you lasting for over ten seconds."

Mi Amore Cadenza, Princess of Love and indiscriminate wrecker of everyone's shit. Guess that was my penance for laughing about Shining's trigger-happy sex drive.

"Wait, seriously?" Shining laughed heartily in hearing of my recent defeat. Cliff and Rickey cringed slightly and turned the other way as they whistled and hummed various tunes. Melanie just simply facepalmed while shaking her head. Twilight remained indifferent as she continued to hold the door open for us to walk through, evidently growing impatient.

"We have to go! The ceremony starts in less than an hour and we don't have the time to sit here and laugh! You can joke about along the way."

As everyone left the room, Melanie was the last one to exit. She lingered in her walk and kept her eyes locked onto the purple princess standing before her. Twilight looked back with a kind smile as she ushered the woman through the door.

"This is a first for the both of us. I've always heard many things about you, but I never got the chance to actually meet you for myself." Twilight said with an upbeat demeanor.

"Yeah, I've heard pretty much everything about you too. The only thing he didn't tell me was your being a... pony." She answered back with a nervous smile.

"Yeah, and from what I know, he's been talking to everyone on that side of things that I was a girl named Bella from a town named Arlington. I mean seriously, what kind of story is that?"

The two girls shared a laugh as Melanie shook her head. "Oh my God, I know, right? It's like he was trying to make up some story about how he disappeared and managed to find his way back to civilization and suffered from amnesia along the way. If anything I would have against him is that he's horrible at lying."

Twilight smile weakened as she looked down towards the ground. "Yeah, tell me about it."

"So... you two are dating, like for real?" Melanie inquired.

"We are." Twilight confessed. "It just kinda happened, one moment I'm caught in a mix of alcohol and my feelings, the next I'm in his arms."

"Well you know what they say, love is blind, right?"

"It really is."

"Well... It's just too bad that sometimes that we get caught up in the things that we know have significant odds stacked against it."

"Yeah, that's true too." Twilight agreed with a somber tone.

Melanie's smile had suddenly disappeared as she grew a more serious expression. "Well in speaking of the odds, I've heard that you two went at it. And now it seems that the both of you are taking a bit of a break."

Twilight's head shot up as she looked at the woman before her. "Wait, he told you that?"

"Well yeah, he was telling me about how everything to him seemed so one-sided. Especially after you had gotten into a bit of trouble from the two of you doing something you had no business doing."

Twilight's smile was wiped away and a frown sat in it's place. "I know I was wrong. I shouldn't have taken it out on him like I did. If anything, I consented to what we did."

Melanie scoffed as she flicked her wrist at the purple pony. "Sweetie, that's not it. I'm saying that the two of you had no business doing what you two did."

Twilight became uncertain and somewhat defensive as she closed the door, leaving the two to converse in the room alone. "What do you mean?"

"I'm saying that you and Nondis, the two of you sleeping together, that's not okay."

With a deep breath, Twilight closed her eyes and answered her back. "I know of your rules, no man should ever lie with something that is not of it's own, nothing that is sapient."

"Close, but I mean if you and him were to go to our world and do what you two did that night, he would be in really big trouble. I'm not talking little-stuff either. I'm talking life-changing stuff. Him engaging in a sexual act with you would result in his imprisonment and a required registration as a sex offender. That could ruin his entire life, or at least as long as his registration lasts. I'm just telling you from a criminal justice major's point of view."

"And I respect your warning. However, we don't have such laws here in our world. Here, we are all equally sapient and just as intelligent as you humans are. And if Nondis can consent, then I too am capable of consent, then that means that what we did is essentially lawful."

"No, boo-boo. It just means that he slept with a talking horse, that's still illegal."

Twilight began to let her temper boil as she calmly spoke. "What I am saying is this, Nondis is a naturalized citizen. That also means that he is subject to our laws and the freedoms we have. And if he chooses to rut every mare in town, then it's his prerogative to do so. You have no place in telling him what he can or can't do. It's as you said, love is blind."

"That doesn't mean that the love you two share is a natural love." Melanie argued.

"How dare you say that our love is unnatural! He and I─"

"Should not even see each other anymore."

Twilight choked from the shortness of breath she received from hearing that statement. Immediately, she walked up to the woman and stared her down. "And what place do you have in telling me that we can't be together?"

Melanie looked down to the purple alicorn with disdain. "You can't possibly give him what he needs. He needs stability, freedom, and a girl who doesn't snap on him when she gets into trouble. He's not happy with you, and you're too fucking blind to see it. Your relationship won't last a month, I know this. So just be prepared for when he walks up to you and say that he's no longer interested."

Twilight stopped for a moment and just stared at the woman who towered before her. Unfurling her wings, she mustered all of her strength as she hopped into the air and hovered to where they were looking eye to eye. For a brief seconds, the purple pony laughed and smiled coyly at the human girl.

"You really don't know anything at all, do you?"

"Oh that's cute, you can fly too. I'm surprised that your body can handle that swollen cranium of yours."

Twilight bit her lip as she smiled with an assured sense of victory. "Yes, go on with your petulant insults, it doesn't change the fact that you'll never have him for yourself. You can hug him all you'd like, you can press your lips against his and sink your tongue into his throat like you did just three days ago. But you'll never get to feel the warmth of his arms, the smell of his hair after a long day of work, the strength of his fingers as he tickles your... most cherished secrets. You could never claim to be his first kiss, his first mutual love, his first steps of going even further and beyond the veil of friendship. And even now, you will never be an option as long as we're betrothed."

Melanie's eyes widened as she whispered back the word that caught her attention. "Betrothed? You mean─"

"To be married, yes. See, the thing about it is that I knew exactly what I was doing when I chose to surrender myself to him. I knew what I was placing at risk. I knew what I wanted in my future from the moment I lightly brushed my lips against his. I gave him the chance to stay with me, and he did. I gave him the courage to face any trial, and he overcame every obstacle. I gave him my virtue, which he responded with eager acceptance. We give unto each other and I could care less of the consequences. And the consequences of our late-night engagement is─"

"You bitch, you set him up!"

"No... I'm giving him what we both want, a future together. This break may be painful to endure, but I've stuck through much worse than this. And in all honesty, I was hoping that you'd come here to play this little game with me, because now I can know for certain that I don't have to hold back anymore. I like what I have, and between you and me, I will destroy mountains to keep it. So now I'm going to give you a choice, miss Melanie Brewer. Bow down or..."

Melanie's eyes widened even further as she watched the purple pony disappear from in front of her. Suddenly she felt a stream of warm air brush down her neck from behind. The woman slightly trembled as Twilight concluded her sentence.

"Get brought down."

Melanie turned around to face the purple unicorn, only to find herself staring at nothing more than a wall. She turned around to look for where she had gone, until a voice chimed in from directly above her.

"Now do you understand your place in this?"

Melanie looked up to meet with the purple princess, finding nothing but thin air. Suddenly, a hoof was brought down upon her shoulder and the woman stared back, terrified of the purple mare with a sinister smirk on her face.

"You don't have one. He's mine, so do yourself a favor and maintain your distance until you can learn to accept your role. You're yesterday's news while I'm the hot-topic of the week. Capiche?"

Despite Twilight's awkward comparison, Melanie's legs gave way and buckled under her weight as she felt completely overwhelmed and helpless. She fell onto the floor with a slump as she could do nothing but watch the mare waltz by her and open the door for herself. She paid the fallen woman no mind as she teleported over to the side of the man whom she loved. Twilight then tapped against his lower waist and whispered into his ear. He shot back up, seemingly to question her but her falling over did seem to catch his attention. She seemed genuinely tired from her front as she looked up to the tall human. With a scoff and a roll of his eyes, he lowered himself and allowed Twilight to climb on his back and proceeded to lay against him. With a tiresome glance, she made eye contact with the Melanie as her horn ignited, causing the door to glow a similar color and close just before her face.

Meanwhile, Melanie was left distraught and in confusion as she tried to mentally process what all occurred in the few minutes they spent together. Although she felt the anger urging her to move forward, the fear paralyzed her legs. She could still feel the sensation of the purple hoof pressing into her shoulder, the warm air skirting past her neck, the sound of her voice coming from all directions. She was completely terrified for what was ahead.

"What the fuck did I just get into?"

DING DING DING! SHE'S OUT!

The feud between Melanie and Twilight is now underway. As for why this is a thing, well to be honest it was being developed from both sides.

Melanie always had an infatuation with Nondis, but she just now had the courage to put it all on the line as soon as she realized how easy it was to lose him. After nine months of searching for him, he reappears and she tries to make up for lost time. But she finds her desired time interceded upon by a girl who she never met, to suddenly find her the main topic of the guy she likes. And now that she knows that the girl he likes is not even a human, it becomes too much for her to handle and she decides to take the aggressive approach to getting what she wants.

Twilight has always had a thing for Nondis, but since the trial with Caramel, she found herself trying to compete with every other mare in town and throughout the nation. It didn't get any better once she found out that two of her friends had even considered him to be an option. So in her jealousy, she would advise any others not to get too close to him. But that was only made worse when she had saw him kiss not just her best friend, but Melanie as well. So when Melanie takes the aggressive approach, she ultimately fights back (especially being that she's not shy about fighting).

Boiling tensions have now come to froth over. What happens when a moving force interacts with an immovable object?

I know that the next chapter would be interesting since it does go by the way of Rarity... Uh oh.

Stay tuned and thanks for reading.