"What do you mean there's something wrong with the mirror?"

Alex looked at me with raised eyebrow while Stanton walked over towards it, taking a look into it to investigate. Upon further viewing, he couldn't be convinced on a visual oddity.

"What do you mean, there's nothing here." He said while looking at the mirror some more.

"Stanton, what does this mirror have to do with anything?" Alex asked with a hand scratching his chin.

I walked through the both of them and stood just in front of it. "It's not so much of a thing you can see, but rather something that's beyond our comprehension."

"If it ain't Narnia or some shit, then you've wasted our time with this stunt." Stanton said with an eye-roll. "Now stop fucking around and tell us what's going on."

Closing my eyes and placing my hands behind my back, I let myself get psyched up for the news I was going to deliver. "So... what if I was to tell you that I didn't wash up on the shores of Louisiana?"

The both of them looked at me with frustration, Alex becoming even more angry with the news. "Are you kidding me? You made up this big story and told everybody that all that shit was actually true?"

Stanton scratched the back of his head as he nodded. "Yeah, I can see that." He confirmed. "When we were on the phone yesterday, he told me this long-winded excuse I could use to skip my classes today. Something about him getting beat up by Jasper and thrown into a hospital."

"Now THAT I would believe." Said Alex. "Nondis was never one to fight very well."

"I love your confidence in me." I replied sarcastically. "It's like you actually trust in me to do one particular thing."

"Yeah, how do you expect me to believe that you beat up a criminal justice major in a one-on-one fight? Not only that, but Melanie's boyfriend?"

"Ex-boyfriend." I corrected. "He's in jail for some abuse charges."

"So, I guess that makes you the main guy that he did the abusing on." Alex retorted.

I proceeded to snap my fingers as I was thinking up of a way to prove to them that I was, at the very least, was truthful about that. But doing that would waste more time than I needed to expire. "Look, we're not here to have this argument about all of this stuff. Can we talk about what happened with the Louisiana wash-up thing?"

"Why!?" Alex questioned angrily. "You just said that was a lie."

"Because I've been trapped in your mirror for almost nine months!" I snapped back, not realizing how little that made sense.

Stanton squinted as he reached out his hand. "What?"

"What exactly!" Alex shouted. "How the hell do you go from drowning in your car to trapped in your mirror!? None of this makes sense!"

"Yeah, you're kinda wasting our time, dude." Stanton cosigned while turning back to Alex.

"Okay, it sounds crazy but it's like Narnia and the Matrix had twins. The first one is like it's pride and joy. The second one is like the illegitimate reject, which is me."

"And you lost me!" Stanton cried out while throwing his hands into the air.

"Alex, Stanton, please just─" Before I could finish, I felt something grab my shoulders and pull me through the portal. The last thing I heard was the terrified screams of my bothers hollering a piece of my name.

Both Stanton and Alex were panicking wildly as they watched their brother fall through the mirror. Rather, they watched two purple appendages cusp his shoulders and yank him into it. Both of them backed away as they watched their brother disappear without so much of a trace. Their immediate reaction was to quickly unlock the door and run outside of the bathroom. By the time the reached the den, the continued to scream at one another.

"WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED!?"

"I DON'T KNOW!"

Stanton paced back and forth as he tried to process what had occurred before their very eyes. "Oh my God... Ooooh my God... God, I know he might not have belief in you... But please don't do Nondis like that."

"Shit, I don't know how we're gonna talk to mom and dad about this." Alex said while clutching at his chest.

"Mom, dad, the mirror we bought Nondis just fucking ate him." Stanton said as he grabbed at his forehead, still cast in disbelief. "I don't know... I don't know anymore."

"Is that the gateway to hell?" Alex questioned with a tremble. "I mean, the last time we heard anything of him before he came back was that he drove his car into the gulf. He was high, he wouldn't have got out in time."

"So you're saying we're dealing with a ghost?"

Alex's eyes expanded as he turned his head towards the room. "...So he was dead this entire time... Then who the fuck were we talking to?"

Stanton followed suit as he slowly walked towards the hall leading up to the bedroom. Suddenly, he heard something fall onto the ground from within the bedroom. Stanton ran immediately for the front door and tried to open it, only to find that the knob refused to budge, almost like it was jammed from turning. In a panic, he proceeded to pull at the door and yank as hard as he could... but to no avail.

Alex quickly went for the windows, trying to unlock it. But much like the front door, the locks were fixated in place. He then walked towards the kitchen, quickly pulling open drawers to find a hammer. As he continued to search, he could hear something similar to a hammer knocking against a table, all of which coming from inside of the bedroom.

Terrified beyond measure, Alex and Stanton just went for whatever they could find in the kitchen that was sharp enough to cut with. Neither one of them wanted to be a victim of some strange demonic creature or apparition to take them and throw them through the mirror. Then suddenly, a voice sounded from inside of the room.

Stanton quickly reached for his phone and pulled out the number dial, 9-1-1 showing on the screen as an emergency call. But before he could press the call button, he dropped the phone out of a panic and cursed at himself for doing something so stupid. As he reached out for it, the phone moved away from his hand, towards the hall. He reached for it again, only for it to slide all the way down the hall before stopping just in front of the bedroom. Stanton shook his head and backed off.

"You're not getting that back." Alex said while jumbling his breaths.

"Nope. I needed an upgrade anyways." He said as he watched the phone slowly slide into the bedroom.

Alex placed his knife on the table as he took off one of his shoes, placed it over his hand and walked towards the window. Cocking back and driving forward, he let his protected fist land against the glass, only to find that it wouldn't break. Instead, there was some force that prevented the shoe from landing a blow against the glass.

Stanton screamed back at the room to the top of his lungs. "WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM US!?"

The looked to one another and grimaced with fear. Alex slowly walked towards the hall and spoke. "You don't need us. You got our brother, that's good enough."

Stanton shook his head as he answered the voice. "Nope, I'm good. Our brother died nearly ten months back."

Alex became a little bolder and walked into the hall. "Who are you?"

"That's a fucking lie!" Stanton exclaimed while trying to pull his brother back.

"Well if you kept him, then where is he now?" Alex questioned. "Where did you keep him?"

"Who's he!?" Stanton questioned.

Stanton turned back to his older brother and pulled at his arm. "I don't trust this."

"Neither do I, we could be getting ourselves killed."

They looked to each other and readied the knives, quietly nodding to one another. "And if we don't?" Alex inquired.

The two brothers looked to one another a final time before slowly making their way into the hall. Quietly, they crept down the hall and into the room. The knives in their hands trembled as they entered into the room once more. Stanton looked at the bathroom, only to see his phone quickly slide inside. Alex quickly gulped as he nodded his head towards the bathroom.

The siblings walked side-by-side as they entered into the bathroom. Stanton's phone lied at a rest just inches before the mirror. The two of them proceeded to prepare themselves mentally just before the dived in. Alex raised his fist, followed by his index, middle, and ring fingers in secondly increments.

When he counted to three, he pointed towards the portal and moved in. Stanton quickly moved behind him.

After passing through, both Stanton and Alex stood dumbfounded as they saw an entirely different room than where they walked from. The both of them looked around slackjawed as they tried to contemplate what was going on and where they were. I then quietly shut off the portal as they remained distracted with the architecture. Alex, was the first to speak.

"Okay... where are we?"

Stanton, before passing through the portal, took the opportunity to reclaim his cell phone. He then pulled it out to GPS the location, only to find that he had no connection whatsoever. "Wherever we are, I don't have any signal."

"We're not in Austin."

The two looked back towards me, brandishing kitchen knives as they readied themselves to attack.

I just shook my head in response. "Really? Didn't grandpa always say never bring a knife to a fight if you don't know how to use it?"

"He said that... To Nondis." Stanton said, referencing me in third-person. "But who the fuck are you?"

"Seriously, how did this come up? I've been me for the past nine months. I could tell you everything that's happened."

"Bullshit." Alex denied. "Our brother wasn't nearly as skinny as you are. I thought it was strange how you passed off as our brother... only as a more in-shape... and athletically built... and better-dressed person, BUT YOU GET MY POINT!"

I shrugged my shoulders as I took out my wallet. "Well, that's the thing. I was trained for combat, currently in the military, and I also have a fashion designer as my personal closet. That was in case those were questions rather than observations."

"Look, I could care less. Where the hell are we?" Stanton questioned, tightening his grip on the knife.

"You know, I never really did get to catch you guys' events. Stanton graduated from high-school, biggest achievement to date... aside from winning state in junior year. Then he got recruited by Mr. Sumlin. I can only imagine how proud dad must've been when he saw that coach sitting just across from him at the dining room table. I know exactly how you felt, Stanton. You felt like you made it, that this was the big jump you needed to get into the NFL. So why play for lowly-old Texas in the Big 12 instead of going to the 'Best Damn Conference in American Collegiate Sports'? You chose to go to the SEC because they offered you more. You had a shot against big-bad Bama, and the Devil from Tuscaloosa himself, Nick Saban. You had a chance to show recruiters that you had more in you than what your second-string tag implies."

Alex walked up to me and proceeded to place the knife just inches away from my throat. "You shut up! You weren't even there for anything, much less you trying to clam yourself as our brother."

"Yeah... You know, funny thing about you is this: You and Vanessa, I grew up idolizing your relationship. I mean, I always said that I hated seeing you two hugged up every once in a while, or when she draped her leg over yours. Stupid shit, that's what I'd call it. But in reality, I was envious because I didn't have that, nor did I have anyone who was remotely interested in doing those things with me. And here I am, not even close to being on your level. You got married and here I was, stuck in some world that I had no clue about... or even how I truly got here."

Alex lowered the knife a bit as he whispered back to me. "What do you mean 'some world'? Where is this world?"

Stanton loosened the grip on his knife and leaned against the wall. "So... you're you, right?"

"Yeah, and I had a friend who helped out with all that Paranormal-Activity bullshit." I confessed before I started laughing. "Yeah, she said that you guys sounded scared as shit."

Alex reared himself, raising the knife as he feigned an attack on me. "I'm gonna fucking skin your ass alive."

"I would make fun of you for that, wouldn't I? You've always been a dork." I said, mocking my older brother.

He then lunged at me, giving me possibly one of the most life-threatening hugs I've ever had. I tried to return the hug, but at the same time I was really nervous of the fact that he still had that knife in his hands.

"You're gonna drop that, right?" I barely squeaked out.

"No, I'm still gonna skin your ass."

"Figures."

Suddenly, Stanton dropped his knife and pointed at the doorway. "Uh, guys?"

We pulled off of each other and looked towards the doorway, both Stanton and Alex's eyes expanded as they looked at the purple pony standing in the doorway. She smiled lightly as she watched us have our miniature reunion.

"Oh... it's purple." Alex pointed out.

"Yeah... and small... and cuddly-looking." Stanton added.

"It's all of those things, plus very verbal." I answered while walking towards her.

As my brothers continued to stare for a moment, she raised her hoof and waved at the both of them. Both of them exchanged uncertain looks as they waved back. "Aww... she's so... cute?" Alex said.

"So, you've been hiding all along that you've had a pet the entire time you've been in this world? That's your big secret?" Stanton questioned with a light chuckle.

Twilight smiled coyly as he continued to wave at Stanton. "Actually, he's my pet. I'm the one holding the leash."

That very moment her lips moved and words came running out, their smiles were wiped completely off of their faces. They continued to stare and gawk while I was giving the back of her ears a brief scratch.

"Yeah... just like that, you lovable monster." She moaned while leaning her head back.

Alex had to take a moment to get through his antics. First he opened his mouth to speak, then cut his breath short, pointed to the air, paced back and forth for another twenty seconds, stopped for a few seconds to think of something to say, paced the floor for another five seconds, then walked up to me, and grabbed my shirt with a abstract smile. "...Explain."

"Talking equine creature." I answered.

"Yeah I see that. Detail."

"...They're sapient." I deadpanned, earning a tighter twist on my shirt.

"Hoooooooow?" He asked slowly, causing me to feel relieved that he didn't have a case of bad breath this morning.

I proceeded to throw sarcasm back into his face. "Well Einstein, we believe they have evolved brains that process and produce language and syntax. Also they can make a range of sounds and tones that they use to form hundreds of thousands of words, just like us."

He pulled me over to look at the purple princess standing right next to me. "You, how old are you?"

"Well being that your years are an equivalent to that of our own annual cycles, then I would be eighteen in human years." She answered eagerly.

Alex looked back to me slowly and frowned. "Lovable monster... she called you that."

"Yeah, she kinda calls me that from time to time."

He released me and took two steps back. With his hands pointed to the both of us, he repeatedly crossed them over. "So... you two?" If there's one thing I can say, Alex is far from slow and will piece anything together in the matter of seconds.

"Hi. I'm Bella by the way. Not really my name, but I suppose I was mentioned?" Twilight quickly blurted out, preventing me from saying anything.

He quickly grabbed me and tugged me to come a few inches away from him. With a strained smile and a twitching eye, he questioned me through his teeth. "...What the hell?"

"Well to be fair, I kinda asked myself that when all of this first started."

Alex was very low on patience and was not fond of my jest. He pressed his forearm into my chest and drove me back a few steps before I buckled my legs in place to hold his advance. "Do you not realize that A: This shit is wrong? B: This shit is illegal? C: Mom and Dad will disown you for this?"

"Or D: We're in a totally different dimension where magic is often practiced, where mystical creatures you hear from various mythologies come to life, the pony before you is capable of human intellect and expresses such emotions, laws forbidding interspecies relationships are non-existent, and they are capable of trans-dimensional travel? Sir, this shit is Star Trek levels of out there."

"No, this is apparently The Twilight Zone levels of fucked up!" He answered angrily. "Now please explain how all of that shit makes sense."

I shook my head with a sense of defeat, realizing that their belief would have to come from seeing as well as hearing. I turned to Twilight with a tired smile. "Get him off me, please?"

Alex looked down to see that his arm had locked up somehow. His face began to show abject horror as he noticed that his arm was slowly being moved from my shirt without any physical assistance whatsoever. I backed off and walked over to Stanton, who was still shocked silent.

"Yeah, Twilight here is actually a life-time practitioner of magic. Even so much that she's managed to master levitation, telekinesis, and even... teleportation."

Twilight walked up to the magically-frozen Alex and extended her hoof towards him. "I knew that Nondis had brothers, but never did I actually think that I would get to meet you both today. I was kinda caught off-guard when he told me that he would be getting you two acclimated to what's going on."

Alex flexed his neck, attempting to shake his head. His fear grew even more as he recognized the voice that haunted them earlier. "Please don't kill us."

Twilight reared back a little as she realized that he was still terrified from being frozen. "Oh, no! I'm not going to hurt either of you!" She promised. "That thing back at the apartment was Nondis' idea."

"They're here. So it paid off." I responded with an unapologetic shrug. "Besides, that shit was kinda funny."

"You asshole!" Stanton hollered as he started to walk towards me. "Why the hell couldn't you tell us all of this to begin with?"

...Seriously? "Magical talking unicorns in a land far, far away. Start that off with the words 'Once upon a time' and you would've thought that I was quoting a children's book."

"Yeah. So who's the author?" Stanton asked sarcastically. "Sounds like some kid with a power fantasy who couldn't get popular at school and wrote a story that made them feel better about themself."

Thankfully, this was all just as certain as taxes. "Yup, can't get anymore real than that mashing you took from Bama." Alex shouted to Stanton.

"THAT WAS A BAD DREAM AND SHALL NEVER BE SPOKEN OF AGAIN!"

Twilight looked to me with a quirked brow. "Did I miss something?"

"Football, my younger brother is a student athlete. Went against one of the better schools in the nation and got creamed on from what I last heard."

"OH FUCK YOU!" Stanton shouted to the top of his lungs.

Twilight began to giggle at my brother's response and walked up to him. "Hey, just look on the bright side; there's always next year."

Stanton stared daggers at the small pony. "You have no clue how bad..." He paused for a moment to process what he was doing. "God dammit, now I'm talking to a pony." He mumbled to himself.

"You should've seen Nondis when he first got here. We got him in a bed to recover from a head injury and the next thing he's doing is hiding underneath all of the sheets."

"So are we doing embarrassing moments now?" I turned to her with a false grin.

"Sure we are, pillow face." She smiled devilishly in response.

"I can't say shit about you. FUCK!" I shook with frustration and rage. For me to get one in, I'd have to disclose what happened that day to my brothers. And doing that would give her the automatic win. Either way, she got me. Dammit, I hate it when she wins.

"So... What bizarre womb of fuck did we just walk into?" Alex inquired as Twilight released him. "Are we in Narnia, Oz, Middle Earth... Japan?"

"There would be more prepubescent girls and tentacles if we were in Japan." Stanton joked. "Plus the purple one would be talking to us in Moonspeak."

"Nope, none of that. Though I can confess to you that there's one pony here that can speak Spanish." I responded while scratching the back of my head.

"So is it an Andalusian breed?" Alex inquired.

...Well that's a question I never really did get to ask in all of my time being here. Figures that I don't have that answer considering that I've spent so much time in this world. "Good question. We'll probably ask later."

Alex shook off that question as he proceeded to walk over towards the door leading out into the hallway. "Well let's get back to the main question that was asked when we first got here."

I glanced back to Twilight as I spoke. "Now that I can answer."

It took us a full hour and a half to discuss everything that happened with me in the past nine months. For the most part they took it exceptionally well, but the relationship with Twilight was still murky waters to them. And I haven't even gotten in detail about what was going on with the romantic side of things. I decided to wait until they were somewhat comfortable about the interspecies relations thing before giving them the full run-down of what's been happening with me and Twilight... and others.

Being they're my brothers, I do have to inform them of the Approval Process law eventually. Telling them now would further add to the argument that me and her seeing each other was a bad idea. And I would love to get their help on this, especially considering that Alex was the brains of the litter. Stanton could be of assistance, but I don't see what I could use his brawn for aside from fighting. And that's the last thing I need these two to do whenever they come around.

Each one of us quickly turned to the door with our guards up, anticipating whoever busted down the door like they were going to unload at us. But instead of some intruder with a weapon, we get a particular unicorn clad in his purple armor with a spear in tow.

"Nondis! We've got an emergency─" Shining stopped for a moment to address the elephant in the room... both of them. "So... you two are new. Names?"

My brothers looked at the stallion as they grew surprised of Shining's response, or rather his lack thereof. Twilight answered him before I could so much as inhale. "Shining, this is Stanton and Alexander. These are Nondis' brothers."

Cadance immediately rammed herself into the room, flying at the two towering humans at lightening speed just before stopping a few inches before them. "Holy cow! You guys are huge!"

"Yeah, Nondis happens to be the runt of the litter when it comes to the height department." Stanton said as he pointed at me. "Manlets, will they ever learn?"

I decided to ignore my brother's comment and tend to the more outstanding issue that has revealed itself. "Anyways, what's going on that you gotta be dressed up like that?" I asked the alabaster prince.

"We've got an emergency escort mission, there seems to be high-end trade talks that would take place here in Ponyville. We were given the task of being personal security to Princess Celestia as she carried through her talks with the Crystal Empire and the Neigerian prime minister."

...Okay, I have so many questions now. "Well, let's start with the first question. Why here?"

Cadance wandered away from my brothers for a bit to answer my question. "Because they said that they wanted to be in a location that was considered by many international standards 'low-profile'. Furthermore, Shining and I were still in town due to his sickness from the night before last. Ultimately, we were discouraged from travel as it would put a strain on Shining's recovery."

"What did he have that made him so sick?" Twilight questioned, who as just as curious as I was in the matter of Shining's health.

"He just couldn't travel without the massive headaches. Plus you know how the guards can be once any one of us feels a little under the weather. At that point, we've experienced everything from travel restrictions to dietary supplements."

Stanton looked towards me with a raised brow. "Um, how is it that a security guard is capable of all of this medicinal crap?"

"All guards placed in a position to where they would eventually have to protect royalty would be given the specifics to care for their assigned superior. Allergies, blood types, phobias, whole nine, even food tasting is required in certain circumstances." I quickly responded.

"You're not assigned to one, are you?" Alex asked with a uncertain frown on his face.

"My title is formally Sir Nondis P. Haines, Captain of the Equestrian Royal Guard. So by my job description, I'm assigned to every royal family on staff. If one gets hurt or worse, then it's my head that's going before the parliament."

Both of my brothers looked at each other, cringing as they held their necks. Shining laughed as he clarified my statements. "It's not really his head. But should something occur, then most often the one holding the position would be severely reprimanded. But I can assure you no executions would take place unless it was a traitorous act."

Alex sighed with relief as he turned back to me. "So let me guess, you've got no other choice but to go along with this escort thing?"

As much as I hated the timing of it, I didn't have much of a choice. "Eeeyeeeaaaah, can't skip out."

Stanton stretched his arms as he popped his neck. "Damn, too bad we can't really stick around. I kinda want to know more about this place now that I skipped a day of class for it."

"Yeah." Alex cosigned. "I might have to call the wife and tell her that I'm gonna need some covering for. This is... pretty damn revolutionary, if I should say so myself."

Twilight nodded as she started to formulate some sort of plan. When she looked back to me, I could see the sparks in her eyes as her vision proceeded to manifest into a doable scenario. "Nondis, I have just the plan for how I can get them to see this world from their own eyes."

"What do you have in mind?" I questioned with a concerning stare. "I can't let the masses know that I have siblings right now. That would lead me to having even more problems later on."

"I know. And I also know that you don't really want them wandering through the town without you or some close oversight. But let's just say there happens to be a guard that we can trust, one who won't tell anypony else about your brothers."

By that time, she had me interested in her proposal. "Go on."

Twilight disappeared and then reappeared with Rainbow Dash by her side. It didn't take her very long to get acquainted with my brothers, but it did take Stanton a very long while for him to cope with the fact that he was talking to the same rainbow-maned pegasus over the phone yesterday. Of course, there grew a bit of an awkward silence between him and Alex once she hinted on how exactly they spoke prior to their meeting in-person.

Poor Stanton was absolutely trap-jawed.

Though the silence didn't last for very long as Shining and I started to make our way to the armory and pick out a few weapons to take along with us. Shining wasn't really comfortable with the concept of holding firearms just yet, so he simply stayed with the composite crossbow. I just took a pair of Colt 49's and stuffed them into my pants before walking to the front gate. After our preparations, Cadance, Twilight, Shining, and I made our way towards the Town Hall to commence with our meeting.

Rainbow Dash and my brothers, however... they went a different direction.

Rainbow Dash and the two human siblings walked inside of the the bakery, Alex looking around as the bell rang just above. Both he and Stanton walked into the building, growing more impressed with the level of organization the venue displayed. Ponies quickly walked in and out of the kitchen doors, each one of them quickly taking up inventory of the display case. The first one to notice the rainbow-maned pegasus was none other than the shop's owner.

"Good morning to you Rainbo-OOOLY SWEET CELESTIA!!!" Mrs. Cake shouted as she was taken by surprise by the two humans standing behind her.

Three other heads peered from the kitchen to see what was the cause of the commotion, only to let their jaws fall on one another. Pinkie ran from the doorway to the register, extending her hoof to the display case. "Hey there, you guys look new! Are you new friends of─"

Before she could get really get started on her endless parade of questions, Rainbow stepped in and saved the two from receiving a sea of questions they couldn't answer. "Yeah, they're new around here. The tall one is Stanton, the even taller one is Alex. Apparently they wandered around somewhere from their world and manged to make it out of Everfree alive."

"Did you tell Nondis about it?" The pink pony questioned. "It sounds an awful lot like the first time I found him."

"Nah, he seems to have some sort of escort mission that he's doing. Can't really tend to them if he's caught in his assignments." Rainbow stated as she looked towards Alex

"Oh, well that's too bad. Maybe Nonnie can help them get back to where they belong."

"Yeah, but I did manage to get in touch with Twilight. She says that he preferred that we'd meet up at the usual picnic spot later today so that we can talk things out."

"Well I'll be there then. I wanna see the look on Non-Non's face when he sees that two more humans wandered into Equestria." She cheerfully said before turning to the mildly distracted Stanton, who was looking into the display case. "What can I do for you guys!?"

"Uhh..." Stanton began while squinting his eyes at the sweets behind the glass. "Are these edible?"

Alex walked up to his brother and gave him a quick slap on the head before apologizing. "Excuse us. My brother Stanton here doesn't believe you ponies know how to bake things. It's not as much of it being an insult than it is a culture shock. He means no foul play."

"Oh I get it." Pinkie stated as she tapped on the display counter. "Nonzo had the same reaction when I first told him I was a baker. Nowadays, he loves to come over and eat everything he sees. He loves our apple cream danishes the best."

"Wonderful. Then we'll get two of those, please." Alex ordered, earning a worried look from his younger brother.

"Sure thing! I'll have you guys set up with some of the best sweets in all of Equestria!"

Stanton shoved his brother out of the way as he questioned the pink mare. "Wait a minute, don't we have to pay?"

The pink pony shook her head as she giggled colorfully. "Silly billy, you don't need to pay! You guys are new! If anything, I should be setting you two up for a HUGE party! I'm wondering what I should call it though."

"Oh no, you don't need to do that!" Stanton responded quite loudly. "We're not even gonna be here for that long, right?"

"Hmmm... I don't know. Nonnums was here for a whole nine months before he went back to his world. But I'm kinda happy he didn't go back like he originally planned to do, otherwise he wouldn't be here now."

Alex looked around before grabbing a chair to sit in. "So, this guy you keep referring to... Does he have a name, because I'm hearing you call this guy all sorts of names."

"Nondis P. Haines? Yeah him, he's like one of my bestest friends!"

Pinkie smiled brightly as the two siblings looked to one another. After exchanging a nonverbal glance, they proceeded to turn their attention back to the pink pony before them. "So can you tell us more about this Nondis guy?" Alex inquired, hoping to gain some perspective. "Like, what does he do and how do you feel about him?"

Pinkie eagerly tapped her hooves against ground, pouncing around until she was sitting at the table with the two brothers. "Oh where do I even start? Nondie has done a lot since he's been here! He joined the military, fought a bunch of changelings, stole the heart of a princess, invited a few friends over, saved a few lives of ponies throughout town..."

"Not to mention becoming the first human in the E.U.P. Guard." Rainbow added enthusiastically. "I didn't think he'd get past Shining Armor when the training started, but he surprised me. Oh boy, let me tell you, Shining had it out for that guy! Thankfully they seem to be on good terms nowadays."

"That sounds promising." Alex said while looking to Stanton.

"So... Did this Nondis guy get beat on while he was here?" Stanton questioned. "I'd really hate it if one of our own was wailed on and he couldn't really defend himself."

It was Rainbow and Pinkie who exchanged looks this time. The prismatic mare ducked her head as she took to the air. "Oh... Hey, I'm gonna go check back with Twilight. Gotta get the usual update. You three keep on keeping on while I go and... um... that."

The cyan pegasus quickly bolted out of the room, leaving the three to converse with one another. Pinkie blushed a bit as she confessed to them about some past issues. "I can't say that it keeps happening, but it's more due to an accumulation rather than what happened the first time."

Stanton tried his best not to let himself address himself as the brother of the individual she spoke of. "Okay... so what happened with my─ I mean, this guy on the first go?"

Pinkie paid the slip-up no mind as she quietly looked back towards the kitchen, seeing a brown stallion still poking his head out of the doorway. "Oh, give me a second." She said as she used her hoof to pull her front-most curl down, causing a notepad to spring out like a slice of toast.

Grabbing the notepad, she darted over to the kitchen and informed the brown stallion of a take-out order that needed to be delivered to a residence across town. With a salute, he grabbed a box from within the kitchen, filled it with cupcakes and darted out the door, leaving behind only a brown blur. With a sigh of relief, Pinkie sat back down at the table and looked back towards the moderately dumbfounded humans.

"Sorry about that, now where was I?"

Alex shook himself out of his stare and carried on from where Stanton left off. "This Nondis guy getting beat up." He then turned back to his younger sibling and whispered under his breath. "As usual."

"Right!" Pinkie confirmed. "That was something personal that involved me and I'm not sure if I can tell you guys what all happened. But I can say that he took one for me and I haven't really looked too far away from him since... Or rather I can't seem to get him out of my head."

"Oh, so you like the guy?" Alex joked, nudging his brother with a playful smile.

"Like him? Well... you could call it that."

Alex stopped smiling as he turned back to the pony with shock. Both he and Stanton couldn't believe what had come from her mouth. "So is that a confession?"

"Not really. But we kissed only twice. Now THAT'S a confession." Pinkie said with a carefree grin.

Stanton's forearm dropped onto the table as his jaw fell from place. Alex merely stood up and walked away for a short bit before sitting back down and laughing back at her nervously. "You kissed him?"

Pinkie bit her lips as she played with her forelegs. "If the stallion that left here didn't show up when he did, we'd be a little further along, both me and Nondie."

"A little further along?" Alex questioned.

"As in how?" Stanton added.

"As in we were a door away from... um... I really shouldn't be telling you guys this, should I?" Pinkie said, her pink cheeks growing redder by the second.

Alex felt his own cheeks flushing with color as Stanton shook his head with disbelief. "So, any other things that you might like about him?" He asked, letting his curiosity get the better of him.

"Lots!" Pinkie confirmed without hesitation. "He's an amazing friend. Not only that but he's funny, smart, charming, really considerate about the feelings of others. He can be a bit dense at times, but that's just the inexperience doing the talking."

"I can taste the salt." Stanton mumbled to Alex.

Pinkie continued, completely oblivious of the side comments. "He's really a great human, and I think that I'd do just about anything to get him to understand that the position he placed me in isn't really a very comfortable one."

"Why not?" Alex asked with intrigue. "I don't see much wrong with the brown guy you just sent out."

Pinkie lightly smiled as she looked back to the door. "He's great too... but I'm starting to find out that I'm not really what's best for him."

Alex nodded slowly as he spoke. "Well, what brought you to that conclusion?"

"I think more about Nonnums then I do of him. It's not like I want that to happen, but it's kinda like I don't want to impede on what he's got going on and I know that he doesn't want to interrupt what Cheese and I have going on." Pinkie's ears perked up as she realized what she was going on about. "Oh! No, don't mind that. I'm just rambling on about nothing. Don't even worry about that. Now about you two, tell me about the two of you."

Alex softened his tone a bit as he spoke. "No, don't ever keep things bottled up inside of you. You end up hurting yourself doing that. And not to mention the fact that you're causing more harm than help by not talking to this guy you're with about any of this. Don't you think that's a bit unfair?"

Pinkie looked back to the counter and saw a chocolate cake in the display case. "Say that there's a distinctive flavor of cake you like. You'd be willing to pay anything to get the best of the best of that flavor. Then along comes a totally different brand, you know it doesn't get the taste quite right. However, you also know that the ponies who makes that other brand are new to the job, but they're honest, good, and kindhearted. So you feel sorry that you're giving your money to something that's warm and gooey, but you know that there's no love being put into it. It's just a fabricated brand made with the most expensive ingredients to taste the best, but it's still missing that punch that makes you fall completely in love with it."

Alex and Stanton looked to one another, confused beyond explanation. "Say what now?" They both ask in unison.

"What I'm saying is that Cheese is the rich and gooey cake, and Nondis is the brand that's not quite there but they do all they can to get your taste buds singing. Meanwhile, I'm just completely broke as I don't know what, and then this honest pony... they pony up the fee for me to eat that really yummy cake. So when you bite into it, it doesn't taste as sweet as you remember. You're too busy thinking about that one pony who just paid for your snack, without a care in the world, even though it only helps their competitor. And he keeps doing it, over and over, time and time again."

Stanton no longer felt that the conversation was awkward, but rather growing somewhat depressing. He too proceeded to ease his tone. "...I know this is going to be really weird for me to ask, but is there any chance that this 'honest' guy ever gives you the light of day to express how you really feel?"

"He does, and he knows. But he also has a pretty strong sponsor who he fights for just as much as he does for me. And she and I are like the bestest of best friends. Hard road to walk when your best friend loves the guy you want, and then he proceeds to push you and the guy you don't deserve together."

"So is it the guilt that drives you apart?" Alex asked.

"Yeah... a lot of the time it is. And then on top of it, Non-non met my family while Cheese didn't. My dad still thinks I'm with Nonnie, I can only imagine his disappointment when he finds out that I'm with somepony else."

Alex stood from his seat and walked beside the pink pony. He reached out his hand and thought about petting her on the head, only following through after a second thought. "I think you're putting too much pressure on yourself."

"Why do you say that?" Pinkie asked.

"Because you're saying you don't deserve something good. You're putting everyone around you on a pedestal while advertising yourself as damaged goods, bought for a bargain price. And let me tell you something, you are not damaged to where you can say that you're not worth the good that's being expressed to you."

"Yeah, you're looking at it from the perspective of your own self." Stanton joined in. "Have you ever looked at it from the view of that cake you like so much? You seem to think that the flavor is wonderful and you can't really afford it. But have you ever considered that the maker of that really tasty brand is struggling behind the scenes? They pour their best into what they're offering to you, and it's like you only see the price tag. Sure, the off-brand guy is buying you the goods, but he could also see the damage that the other seller's taken. So I can kinda see why he's looking to put you and him in the best position to where you both can profit."

"I think this Cheese guy is pretty nice to hang around for so long, especially when he feels like he's taking a back seat to everything that's going on. And mass production doesn't happen overnight, they work hard, starting off as that really yummy product. So after so many years of making that same thing, seeing their demand go higher and higher, they start to make compromises to where they can make others just as happy. You see where I'm going with this?"

Pinkie gave the two humans a nod, trying her best to stop the tears from welling in her eyes. "I do... It just... I never thought having a relationship with somepony would be so hard. And I know it's even harder when you have to be honest with him. I just don't know how I can without hurting him."

Alex continued to pet Pinkie's mane, also adding in a few ear scratches for good measure. "I think that the two of you need to sit down, talk things over. If I've learned anything from my relationship with my wife, I know that communication is very vital to the long-term stability to your relationship. And if you look at it from the side of just yourself, then how is he going to get a word in? Likewise the other way around, both of you should be having this conversation together."

The pink pony took a deep breath, trying to hold back some of her tears as he voice trembled lightly. "You humans find ways of breaking me down, don't you?"

"It's not trying to break you down, it's trying to get you to see what you're doing to the man you're with. Sure it hurts, but commitment comes at a price of self. You can't commit while having side options, you're going to end up getting hurt in the end. And you might find yourself without anything at all."

She closed her eyes once more, this time with a gentle smile on her face as she whispered back to the human behind her. "...Thank you, Mr. Alex. I'm sorry, I know you humans have last names."

"Don't sweat it." Stanton quickly answered, knowing that a reveal of their last name would go against his brother's wishes.

Pinkie tilted her head to look Alex in the eye. "Hey, can I do something really quick? I promise it won't take long or hurt you in any way."

Alex shrugged nonchalantly. "Go for it."

Next, the pink pony jumped out of her seat and glomped her forelegs around the taller human's neck as she lightly nuzzled him. Alex leaned down from the sudden increase of weight, grunting as it took him by surprise. "If there's one thing you humans are definitely good at, it's giving out hugs."

Finally realizing that she was trying to show affection, Alex nervously laughed as he wrapped his arms around the pink pony to return the gesture. His actions granting him a look of skepticism from his younger brother. "Well, I have to learn those kinds of things. I wouldn't be married otherwise."

Pinkie giggled as she flirted with the human. "Hee hee! You might have to warn her about me, I give out the best hugs in Ponyville."

"Hey Stanton, you want a free hug?" Alex asked his younger brother with a playful tone.

"Nah, I'm good."

Pinkie unlatched herself from the human's neck and quickly trotted up to the younger sibling, giving him the same treatment. "Silly filly, you don't get married with that attitude."

"Who cares about marriage right now? Relationships are way down the line, I'm just having fun right now." He answered, causing the pink mare to tap him on the chest.

"I have a friend that thinks just like you."

"Yeah, we've met." Stanton said, getting a strange look from the pink pony.

"Well how would you know that if you just met? Dashie isn't one to have those kinds of conversations with just anypony."

Stanton looked around frantically as he tried to come up with an excuse. "Um... rumors?"

Alex planted his palm in the middle of his face as he felt shame in knowing that this person was sharing his bloodline. And unlike Nondis, Stanton was never really good at lying on the fly.

"What, did I say something wrong?"

After their snack and a long conversation, Pinkie and the two humans came to know one another. Soon after their exchanges, Rainbow Dash returned to take them on their next leg of the tour. They walked throughout the town gaining several strange looks, some were of amazement, others were of curiosity. And there was many a whisper going on as they passed through the streets and towards their next destination.

Upon reaching the Canterlot Boutique, the two siblings drew a breath of relaxation. Though Stanton was conditioned for long walks and strenuous physical activity, Alex was not so fortunate. Instead he was slightly winded, hoping to see the comfort of a chair within the proximity. The man shook his head as he gave up and sat himself on the floor.

"There is no way in hell we're just on our second stop of this tour. It feels like we've been walking for ages."

"Trust me, this is nothing." Stanton said with a smirk.

"Yeah, fuck that. I'm not even at my peak conditioning right now."

Stanton giggled as he nudged at his brother. "Aww, you used to be. You could at least hang in for a little longer than this."

"What can I say?" Alex said while standing back on his feet. "That's because I haven't went on a hunting trip in I-don't-know-how-long. I tried going on one since grandpa died, but that didn't work out well."

"Well look on the bright side, at least that doe you nailed made for some fairly decent sausage."

Alex rolled his eyes and shook his head with disapproval. "It saw me and ran, I got it because I just barely got the shot off. Plus that meat was gamy and you know it."

"Ehh, a little." Stanton said with a shrug. "But the burgers were decent."

Alex paid his brother no mind as he mumbled to himself. "At least grandpa made the meat taste good. To this day, I still don't know how the old fart did it."

Stanton grew somber for a moment as he turned to his brother. "Think it could've been the 'experience' he had with a rifle?"

"...It would sure explain a lot."

"Yeah... I never did like going hunting with him. It seemed... painful to watch, you know."

"It's little difference in shooting the cans back at the old cabin we used to rent out."

"Yeah, but there's still the blood."

"Um... *ahem* Excuse me?"

The two siblings looked towards the direction where the voice came from. Upon looking, they were met with a pair of sapphire eyes who looked at them with a somewhat horrified expression. She blinked for a few seconds as they stared back at her.

Alex took notice and promptly acknowledged the situation. "Right. Sorry, forgot where we were for a moment. My brother and I were just having a conversation. I greatly apologize for the subject that occurred, that was clearly something inappropriate for the place and time."

Rainbow stopped gawking long enough to formally introduce the two humans to the fashionista. "Ohhhhkay then. Alex, Stanton, this is my friend Rarity. Rarity, this is Alex and Stanton. They're new here, and apparently they seem to be a little comfortable talking about their hobbies."

Stanton quickly jumped in to clear his name. "Hey, hunting is not my hobby. My hobbies are girls, sports, games, and girls."

"You said girls twice." Alex deadpanned.

"Don't make me say it, Alex."

"Yes I know, and your lack of maturity completely shows such."

Stanton blew off his brother's comment. "At least I'm not bound by the 'eternal' bonds of matrimony. And besides, how is it eternal when you can get divorced five years later?"

"Yup, and those rings you buy can get bent and broken just as easily, nothing eternal about it."

Alex completely dismissed the younger sibling and turned his attention to the refined mare. "Question for a stranger's opinion, what do you think about marriage?"

The fashionista tried her best to fumble through her words to come out with a concise answer. "W-well... I-I believe... that a marriage is a wonderful occasion, ultimately cementing the bond shared between two individuals. Though they may not last as long as one would expect due to a variety of reasons, it is that one outstanding moment of gross indulgence that becomes a beautiful memory that continues to follow that set of individuals, no matter how many times they may undergo such a ritual. For some it is love, for others it is finances, and for a few it is for pedigree. And for the not-so refined gents, it is for trophy display. But regardless, these moments are meant to be beautiful and memorable milestones in one's life."

Alex and Stanton looked at one another, slackjawed from the response that fell from the pony. Alex gave a quick nod as he proceeded to call it a plus for his argument. "Well there you go, straight from the horse's mouth."

Rarity immediately took offense to the statement. "Well I never─"

But Stanton quickly clarified what it meant. "It's just a human statement, we mean no offense. In our world, it's a euphemism declaring that something came from the highest authority. We didn't intend for any insult to come as a result, right Alex?"

The taller human bowed politely as he spoke. "My sincerest apologies, ma'am."

"Oh, well I should be a little less offended then." Rarity stated as she walked up to the humans. "Bygones aside, what are you two doing here and how did you manage to get here in the first place?"

Stanton proceeded to answer the question, considering that Alex initiated the last bit of dialog from Pinkie. "We kinda found ourselves here, we were just wandering around and poof, we're here."

Rarity smiled nervously as she continued to ask more from the men. "Oh, I suppose that you have wandered here by the means of your... *ahem* hunting trip?"

"YES!" Alex exclaimed, now finding a somewhat feasible explanation as to how they arrived here. "We were hunting and then we wandered here for some reason. But I assure you that we didn't kill anything on the way in. Stanton would've scared it off anyways."

"Hey!" The younger shouted, taking great offense that his brother would use him as an excuse.

Rarity looked at the shirt Stanton wore and read aloud. "Texas... A&M... Football?"

"Yes, my younger brother here is an athlete. Too bad they got whipped during their last game." Alex said, poking fun at his brother.

Stanton rebutted his brother's taunt. "I'm sorry, I'm not the one that graduated from that one school with a shitty cow pie for a football team. What was the name, UT Austin? How bout them Longhorns?"

Alex gave the younger sibling a firm slap to the back of the head as he glanced back at him angrily.

"Ow! What the hell was..." As soon as it finally set in, he realized that he made the mistake of referencing something that shouldn't been said. "Oh, right."

"UT... Austin?" Rainbow questioned.

Rarity's eyes lit as she dragged the rainbow pony to the ground with a large smile. "Darling, UT Austin is Nondis' hometown!"

Stanton really began to feel the scorn from his older brother now as he tried to clear up their names. "Whoa, hold on there." He began to explain. "Now meaning that my older brother graduated from that particular college, it doesn't mean that we might know this Nondis guy. There's like forty-thousand students enrolled at that school, plus the metropolitan area has a population of over a hundred thousand. If anything, that's like finding a needle in a giant haystack. Plus we're from Houston, not Austin."

"Houston?" The two mares questioned.

"Houston, Texas. It's like a good three hours from where we are."

"But how would you know the specifics about Austin if you're not from there?" Rarity inquired.

"Our grandpa lived in Austin." Stanton quickly blurted out, not giving a chance for Alex to cover for him.

"Oh, so you do have family in Austin!?"

Stanton grew figgity as Alex bumped him out of the way to answer. "Just our grandfather. We used to visit on occasion, that is until he passed."

"Oh my." Rarity said, her ears folding downward. "My sincerest condolences. I know that must be a touchy subject for you."

"Yes, now I see that you have this nice looking interior." He said, changing the subject. "I also see a lot of mirrors and mannequins... I think those are mannequins. Anyway, what do you do here, miss Rarity?"

"Oh, I sell clothes, decorate the interior, and also create dresses for many events and gatherings, quite a few being weddings if you want to bring the conversation into full-circle."

Alex walked away from his brother to the center of the room. "Yeah, just look at this place. Everything down to the curtains and fixtures, it all screams... it screams... BAM!"

The fashionista squeed with delight as she took pride in his words. "Oh, I knew someone would appreciate a cautiously put-together interior. I wanted it to scream my name every time I'd walk in, that way I'd know that I was truly at home."

"Oh, so you live here?" He questioned.

"Of course, darling. Why would I ever go through the extra pain and stress to get all of the colors to pop a certain kind of way? I wouldn't be able to do much of anything like this with a business. For some ponies, all of this glitz and glamour can be a bit jarring to the eyes, but I intend to make that all a thing of the past after my big showing in Canterlot next month. Ooh I'm so excited that I could just scream to the top of my lungs!"

"Well it sounds like business is doing pretty well." Stanton commented.

Rarity jumped with excitement as she magically pulled at Stanton's arm, his reaction to the blue aura surround his arm and tugging him along was fear of an acute amount. "Oh why I wouldn't be so bland as to simply talk about my work. Why don't I show you a few of my past designs?"

"Oh, so it'll be like a window shopping experience?" Alex inquired.

Stanton tried his best to pull away from the eager unicorn, turning to Rainbow Dash. "Um, like is there anything else we need to do within the next, say, thirty seconds?"

Rainbow chuckled as she started to slowly hover towards the front door. "Sorry, I gotta check in on the Captain and the trade deal. But you two can stay and look around while I'm gone."

Silently, Stanton shook his head with urgency as he whispered to the cyan pegasus. "No. We need to move, like right now."

"Hey Rarity, make sure you tell Fluttershy to meet up with us at the park later today. Nondis and Twilight is supposed to be meeting up with us by then." Rainbow finished before taking a leave.

Rarity quickly trotted to the door to bid her friend a temporary farewell. "I'll try to bring the cucumber sandwiches!"

"Sounds good!" Rainbow shouted before she flew into the sky above.

Stanton dropped his head as soon as he realized that this was going to take more than a few minutes of their time. Meanwhile, Rarity closed the door and magically shut the curtains to get the room to become pitch black. Then, a bright blue light shone throughout the room, emanating from the very tip of the fashionista's horn. She walked towards the two humans with a proud smile on her face, a certain boldness showed in her eyes.

"Now, I know that my collection is rather large, but I do intend to make do with a much shorter display. So might I introduce to you the abridged, yet revolutionary works of Rarity's line of Chique and Sweet!"

From up the stairs to down below, a long line of mannequins came floating down wearing an assortment of outfits. Each of the themes vastly unique and colorful, the dresses left a bit of an impression on the two humans. Though the impression that Stanton had was how creepily the faceless mannequins looked in the lighting. Meanwhile Alex clapped his hands as he oohed for the mare's designs. Her face lit up even more as she saw the human's reaction. She decided that it was time to take her display up another notch.

"Oh, I know what you're thinking about now. You're probably asking 'But Rarity, those are for the mares, where are the clothes for the colts?' And for that I have the answer! Say hello to one of my later lines, the Stallion at Post; Charm and Grin!"

More of the mannequins came from upstairs, this time looking as if they were marching down in an orderly fashion. Each outfit lined up in order from most subtle to the most ambitious. The varying degrees of modesty gave quite an impression towards Alex once more. Stanton was too busy trying to keep his eyes away from the faceless heads, trying his best to look at the clothes. The older brother continued to clap, causing the younger to join in despite his nervousness. The fashion-minded mare grew all the more impassioned.

"So, what do you think of that, my dear gentlecolts?"

Stanton nodded as quickly as possible to simply get the lights back on. Meanwhile, Alex had more to say. "Well this is all nice, but I'm afraid that my interest can only go so far as admiration is concerned. I'm afraid that much of these designs are more catered to you ponies."

Rarity had a fiery glare in her eyes as she strutted towards the human that made his additional statements. With a smirk, she was sure that her greatest reaction would come before her just seconds from now. "My dear Alex, you have not the slightest clue as to who you are talking to. Why I could be more than certain to find something that would interest a man such as yourself."

"Well if it's not human-shaped, I'm afraid that I can't buy into the hype." He stated with a light shrug.

"Alex... You are dealing with one of Ponyville's best kept secrets, the diamond that will soon take this world over in the name of fashion. You honestly think I have nothing that will grab at you? Ha, you fool only yourself. I am Rarity Andalusia Belle, and if there's one thing this Belle's got, SHE'S GOT IT!"

In a dramatic style, the mannequins all faced towards a set of purple curtains on the other side of the room and bowed. The curtains drew back to reveal something that had even both of the humans holding their mouths shut. In what would appear to be a slow yet regal march, a set of tuxedos came marching through the center aisle of the mannequin audience, all of them very much designed with the human anatomy in mind. Certain designs with jewel-encrusted buttons, others with ruby-studded cuff links. Hats, canes, vests, blazers, pants, jeans, she had it all marching out like it was some sort of grand invasion. The lights came back on as the humanesque clothing stood front and center before the two brothers.

Alex could feel the air gently breezing inside of his open mouth as Rarity walked up to him. "I suppose that this doesn't grab at you in the slightest?"

He quickly turned to her and pointed at her. "Who the hell are you?"

"I am merely an artist who is willing to work with whatever material she is given. And I believe that you are a size too small for the outfits that I have done already."

Stanton walked up to one of the suits and lifted up the arm to look at the cuff links. "Damn, this thing looks like an actual blue gem!"

Rarity giggled as she quietly nudged up to the human. "Well, although those are very hard to come by, blue diamonds were my best option for this particular outfit."

"I'm sorry, what is this made with?" Stanton asked, trying to make sure she didn't just say what he had just heard.

"Blue diamonds. I don't do that fake plastic jewelry they implant in all of the human clothes I usually see. I have a talent for finding rare and precious gems, to which I use to give my creations that additional push of creativity."

Alex stumbled as he tried to reach out for his brother, unsure as to what to think about the whole situation. Instead, he asked the first question that was on his mind. "How much does this cost?"

"Well, about a hundred twenty-five bits."

Stanton grabbed his brother by the collar of his shirt and whispered at him. "One twenty-five. This shit is worth at least seven digits and she's putting it out on the market for less than two hundred dollars."

"I don't think that's what she meant." He replied, still in amazement of the price. He looked over to the fashionista once more. "How much for that tux again?"

"One hundred twenty-five bits. It would also be on sale for the equivalent of seventy-five karats."

"You don't mean seventy-five carrots, as in we pay you in carrots, right?" Stanton joked as he was about to bolt out the door and find some farm to raid. "Cause I can go down to the store and buy some."

She laughed at the human's attempt of a barter. "If you're talking about the vegetable, then you are very mistaken. Here we exchange bits and gems as currency. Karats are just the classification of the jewel's quality. And each jewel has a specific value."

"Do you take dollars?" Alex asked as he pulled out his wallet.

Rarity used her magic to levitate the wallet back into his pocket as she spoke. "Sweetie, no. Those small shreds of paper with the pretty colors won't count for much here. Seriously, paper money, what for?"

"You said the cost was one-twenty five." Stanton argued.

"In bits." Rarity specified, summoning a coin purse to pull one out. "This little coin here is called a bit. We use these for completing monetary transactions here."

Alex grabbed the coin and stared at it for a while. He then took the coin and bit onto it, finding that the metal wasn't as hard as what he had expected. Pulling the coin out of his mouth, he turned his attention back to the mare before him. "What is this made out of?"

"Gold, what else?"

"Excuse us for a minute." Said the elder sibling as he grabbed the younger by the shoulder and guided him away from the mare. Alex and Stanton walked off to another portion of the room, leaving the mare to stand on the other said with a bewildered expression. Alex whispered into his brother's ear. "So... we just confirmed that our brother is a walking Smithsonian Vault."

"Didn't he say that he was running security and that he was getting paid for this?" Stanton asked, reminding him of the conversation they had at a dinner the previous week.

"Exactly, which means that he's getting paid in solid gold every two weeks."

Stanton paused for a moment to think of the irony of the situation, scratching his head all the while. "So the guy that mom and dad considered to be the mishap of the family, is scoring NBA figures? I don't mean that rookie level, six-digit shit. I mean that two-comma, eight digit, house in the Hills with a penthouse in Miami type of money, Kevin Durant money."

Alex began to count to himself on his fingers, doing the math in his head. "...Mom and dad could possibly retire in the next five years. We'll be set for the next three decades if he'd let us all in on this. College loans paid off in full. Car notes, mortgages, debts to Sallie Mae, all of it, gone."

"Our brother is rich beyond reason, to hell with human morals. He can kiss any ass on this side of fence, he's getting shit done."

Alex proceeded to go deeper into thought, trying to simulate the primary question that's probably on Nondis' mind. "If we somehow explain this to mom and dad, I don't know what their reaction would be. I can imagine mom to straddle the fence, but dad is kinda bull-headed."

"Fuck the NFL, I want this job! Free health care, gold, if I get injured then my future is assured still, the only trade-off is that there's no girls here."

"Oh, I'm sure there would be plenty of pony girls who'd take an interest."

"Look at me, Alex. THERE. ARE. NO. GIRLS. HERE."

"Stan, you need to kiss up to the next available princess or something, or you could do like Nondis did and land a desperate girl in power."

Stanton grumbled as he tried to think of himself attempting to seduce a pony, which only stimulated the worst of his imagination. "I gotta have sex with one of these things?"

"Sex with a pony, for at least a seven-digit income. And they seem to have a good idea on how to please if Nondis was so easily swayed."

"Rookie level income is about six digits. And that's considering if I'd even get drafted, make it through training camp, pass the physical exams, avoid the insane groupies and false allegation suits later on."

"And what other option would you have if you didn't get drafted or picked up by some NFL team much later? Arena football is only good for eighty thousand a year. I suppose you would be okay but that would probably put you on the low end of the middle class. And you already know how the current economy is treating them."

At that thought, Stanton closed his eyes and swallowed whatever pride he had remaining. "...Yup, that's it... I'm going to hell in a kerosene snuggy, God forgive me."

"Pay your tithes, he might consider it." Alex joked.

"Is everything alright over there?" Rarity asked from the other side of the room, completely oblivious to the conversation taking place. She was busy snipping off a loose thread on one of the tuxedo jackets to care about what the two humans were going on about. Naturally, the siblings turned back to the mare and quickly answered her question.

"We're fine."

When they arrived at the location of the picnic, both Alex and Stanton collectively keeled over as they tried to regain their breath from the lengthy walk. By the moment they reached the blanket, they sprawled themselves over the grass and lied there for a while. Applejack, who gave them an unwanted tour of the farm, shook her head as she watched the two humans regain their breath.

"Rattlin' bushels, Ah never thought y'all be plum tuckered out by the time we get here."

Stanton couldn't even draw the strength to turn towards his brother as he spoke. "See... *huff* this is... *gah* why I don't do... *ahh* cross-country conditioning."

Alex was swallowing whatever fluids his mouth could muster, not even batting an eye to his younger sibling. "I... *puff* fuck... *cough* can't breathe."

Applejack winced at the slight splash of profanity from the taller human, but realized that this was a guest and not a stay-in like Nondis. So she decided to make her request known in a polite manner. "Uh... if'n y'all don't mind, Ah'd like to bring up that this here is a family establishment with a... um... family-friendly environment."

"Fuck she said?" Stanton tried to get in one breath.

"Stop cursing." Alex simplified in a similar manner.

"Oh sorry."

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes as she spoke to the orange mare. "Well they wouldn't be so tired if you didn't give them a tour of EVERYTHING here. If it were up to me, I'd at least put them in a balloon or something."

"Balloon sounds nice." Stanton blurted out.

Applejack scoffed at the rainbow-maned pony. "Rainbow, you know Ah don't like doin' the short 'n sweet version of touring the farm. Ah wanted them to see the heart and soul of every tree here in the orchard, the generations of hard work and sacrifice that went into makin' this here farm. Why if ma and pa were here, they'd do the same."

"But they've been running through all of Ponyville just to get here! Don't you think you could've bypassed that part and head straight to this place?" Rainbow questioned.

"Well Ah wasn't made aware of that! And plus, we need their help to set up the picnic."

"Awww..." The two guys groaned dejectedly.

"C'mon fellas, Ah promise it won't take ya long."

With the little energy he recovered, Alex nudged his brother. "Hey, you're a sports guy. You do a lot of lifting and pushing, go for it."

Stanton lifted himself from the ground, sitting up halfway. "You used to help gramps carry all of that heavy hunting equipment, and you were in the woods as much as he was."

"We have towers for that shit, we can sit around and wait until our target comes along."

"No cursing, remember?" Stanton quoted with a fiendish smile.

"You make it hard for me not to!"

Applejack simply walked up to them and hauled the wagon full of food and refreshments. Meanwhile, the smell of the food brought the two men back to life. Quickly, they stood on their feet and opened their arms to take whatever they had to drop off. "Glad y'all lookin' like the young bucks ya are. Now carry some of them crates on over to the blanket and start unloading. No snackin' till the others come on around."

"Dammit." Stanton muttered under his breath.

"No cursing, remember." Alex shot at his brother with a shit-eating grin.

"Fuuuughhh yuuuuuuuuh!" Stanton stressed though clenched teeth.

Applejack looked towards the snickering pegasus, who simply watched as she hovered above. "Same goes for you, sugarcube. Mosey on now."

"Okay, I'll help then." She responded, seemingly annoyed with the farm pony. "Why you gotta enslave everypony?"

"Hard work makes the heart grow stronger and the belly grow fuller, that's what Granny Smith used to say."

"She still says it." Rainbow sneered towards the two men, who found some energy to laugh.

As they continued to work, Pinkie, Rarity, and a third pony showed up to the grounds. Fluttershy gasped and held her hooves against her mouth as she stared at the two humans moving about. Quickly, she took to a low altitude and darted her way over to meet the two.

"Oh my goodness! I didn't think that there would be more of you humans coming through today!" The yellow pony said as she quietly hovered just at their eye level. "I am so honored to meet with you!"

Alex extended a hand, only for it to be grabbed at by two hooves and rapidly shaken up and down like a vibrating shake weight. "Wow, I didn't know you ponies were so outgoing." He answered nervously, earning a slight chuckle from everyone else beside his brother.

Rarity showed up in a royal purple shawl and shades as she spoke to the still-ensnared human. "Oh not at all, Fluttershy is just eager to meet more of you humans. You are considered as a protected species and whatnot."

"Protega-what-now?" Stanton gawked.

Fluttershy stopped shaking Alex's hand long enough for him to feel the blood swelling up his fingers. She turned to the other one, greeting him in the same manner. "Well, a protected species is considered to be a very rare and uncommon species never before seen in the history of all of Equestria. Usually those titles go to many exotic animals and plant life, so you humans would be most assuredly remain on the list... at least until stated otherwise."

Stanton felt his hand being turned loose as he pulled his arm into his body. He could still feel the shaking taking place long after he was released. "Oh... So something tells me that there hasn't been very many humans here in Equestria."

"Save one, if I'm correct." Alex finished, flexing his swollen hand.

"Yes, and there are about seven billion of them where you're from, correct?"

The two men looked around as an unusual voice came from what seemed to be all around them. Given their earlier experience, they figured it was another prank being pulled on them. At least until a white flash appeared before them, revealing a creature with many mismatched body parts. The eldrich horror display caused the two men to scream at the top of their lungs.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?"

"CURSING IS WARRANTED RIGHT NOW! WHAT IN THE ACTUAL HELL IS THAT THING!?"

Discord guffawed as his serpentine body took to the air and circled around the two humans, cutting off their routes of escape. "Oh, I wouldn't be afraid of me, I'm harmless. I can even prove it to you." He said as he turned into an oversized life preserver and landed haplessly on the ground.

Both of the men tilted their heads at the strange development taking place before them. "What the..." Alex slowly worded out before he was interrupted by Discord, who was wearing a sukumizu while setting up a diving board on the back of the cart Applejack hauled in.

"If I was anything near dangerous to you, I would assure you that you'd have a lot more trouble on hand, if that's how you humans say it." He said just seconds before literally cannon-balling into the dirt, producing ripples and surfacing between the feet of the two men. "You two should really come in for a swim, the water is fine."

Alex stared as he tried to mentally process what was going on, and how the laws of physics were being broken left and right. He could only come up with one solution. "So... if this was to be Wonderland, and we're the Alice, that must make you the Cheshire Cat."

"That's a cat? Because I don't recall a cat having the ass of a komodo dragon." Stanton replied while trying to avoid the creature that swam between them.

"Oh, I'm not quite sure as to what you're talking about, but I do have a bit of a clue as to what you really are." Discord answered.

"Let me guess, this Nondis guy?" Alex questioned.

Discord then floated out of the ground and snaked his arms around the two men, pulling them closer until they were cheek-to-cheek with one another. He then whispered into their ears. "Of course, why your brother and I have pulled quite a few pranks not so long ago."

The two siblings froze in place, now with their bodies running colder by the second as the low-pitched crackly voice of the creature between them wormed into their brains. "Who is this guy?" Stanton asked.

"I know that he isn't some fucker with the last name News, first name Good." Alex whispered.

The girls could see the discomfort in the two men's faces, Applejack being the first to question them. "Hey, y'all alright there?"

Discord gave the two a strong pat on the back as he answered the question for them. "Of course! Why we were just getting to know each other a little better."

"Discord!" Fluttershy called out sternly. "I can easily tell that you're making them feel uncomfortable with your antics. Doing all of this with us is one thing, but with beings from a non-magical place who has no idea who or what you are can be a bit unnerving. Please give them some space."

Much like a frustrated child, Discord pouted and removed himself from their side. "Doh, fine! I was hoping to have a little more fun."

The two looked at each other with an uncertain stare, caught off-guard by the fact that this creature from what appeared to be an amalgamation of animals spawned from the depths of hell came up to them announcing who they were, what they were, and who they were related to. The hunger that was one in their systems had completely fizzled out. That encounter alone was enough to silence them for the remainder of the preparation time.

Eventually, everyone grew concerned as they remained somewhat distant to the conversation. Though they were welcomed to join in with their input, they simply gave none where it was not required. The entire moment felt awkward for the entire group, even more for Discord due to Fluttershy staring holes into his body. She knew that he had said something that changed their entire demeanor, but he refused to confess to anything. And as the time passed, they seemed to have lost any means of getting through to the two men. That was until...

"Hey girls!"

The group of mares all turned to the hills to find that Twilight had called out to them. They shouted and waved back at us, welcoming us to come on over. Accompanying me and Twilight was none other than Shining Armor and Cadance. However, we were also in party with Blueblood, Celestia, and Luna, who were given tips and clues that there was to be a surprise for them at the end of the day. Personally, I blame Shining Armor, as he couldn't keep his mouth shut about it the entire time. But at the very least, he didn't tell them outright what it was that was going to be the shocker.

As we approached the hill, the other royals were left speechless as they saw the other two humans sitting mainly to themselves. But seeing them so distant had concerned me greatly, especially with this group. I decided to walk up the the guys and see what was going on, but was barred from doing so by the others.

"Nondis, thank goodness you're here." Rarity said as she turned her head towards my brothers. "We've just got these two in today."

Celestia and Luna quickly approached the other two sitting to themselves, Blueblood following close behind. "So, we've got another two to visit, huh?" Blueblood inquired.

Twilight could see the discomfort in their faces as the princesses approached. She quickly teleported over to halt their advance. "Um, I believe that this is probably something that should be handled by a familiar party."

Celestia raised an eyebrow as she turned to her former student. "Twilight, is it not customary for us to greet those who come from the human world with a warm invitation to our humble world?"

"It's not that." She replied. "Something's bothering them."

I walked up to the guys and quickly tried to get them engaged in a conversation. "Hey, you guys doing okay?"

The two seemed reluctant to answer. It took a while before Alex could finally pull me aside and tell me what had really happened. Apparently Discord gave them a bit of a scare and now they feel as if they've compromised my reason for keeping our relations under wraps. Also, they felt as if he was more of an enemy than anyone that was not out to do harm. That part is understandable, considering his background and his previous misdeeds, but I had to explain to them that he wasn't really a problem. Afterwards, I pulled them back to the main group and stood them side by side.

"Fillies and gentlecolts... and eldrich abomination from the seventh tier of hell." I joked, putting Discord out on front street. "This is Alexander and Stanton. They are humans from my world."

For the most part, they all nodded as they replied in unison. "We know."

"Yeah, but it seems that they've gotten themselves in a bit of a wander and found their way here." Applejack informed me, providing me with the story I originally set them out with. "We were wantin' to know more about 'em, but Discord had to go and say somethin' to get them feelin' all creeped out."

"And he still hasn't apologized." Fluttershy said with a frown. "We were really looking forward to getting to know them, but instead he placed them at a position where they couldn't get comfortable."

"Discord, haven't we had this discussion?" Celestia chimed in. "You cannot go around scaring off ponies who are visiting the realm. That also applies to humans as well."

"I didn't say much!" He argued.

"Well don't say anything else!" Twilight chided harshly.

Obviously Discord didn't mean any ill will, and I didn't want him to get into any more trouble than what he was already in. I decided that I should just simply explain what I had going on. "Actually, there's a bit of truth I wanna say about these guys."

The ones who knew the truth were quiet as the others were eager to find out more about them. "What about them?" Celestia questioned.

"Your majesty, might I introduce you... FORMALLY introduce to you, Alexander and Stanton. These two are my brothers."

While the others simply gasped... "YOUR WHAT!?" Rarity erupted, sending an echo throughout the orchard.

"I told you it was worth it." Shining mumbled to Blueblood, who was having some issues in keeping his mouth closed.

Stanton quickly pulled at my arm, speaking through is teeth. "Hey, Nondis, what the hell are you doing? I thought you were keeping this a secret."

"I was keeping a secret, and I still am. There are a lot of jokers around here that want my head on a platter, as evidenced by a recent assassination attempt. I just didn't want anyone to know that you two were related to me, otherwise it would put the both of you in danger."

"But why tell them?" Alex asked, sharing Stanton's grief. "Wouldn't this be dangerous as well?"

I shook my head while throwing my arms over their shoulders. "It doesn't have to be. The group I shared this info with are the ones I can actually trust. And I wanted you to meet with them so that way you too can learn to trust them. They're good people... or ponies if you want to be politically correct. You've already met with Twilight Sparkle, Shining Armor, Cadance, and Rainbow Dash, but I haven't shown you the ones who also helped me along while I was trapped here."

Applejack was the first to walk up to them. "Land sakes, Ah knew Nondis said that he was the runt of the litter, but Ah didn't think it'd actually be true." She extended her hoof to them both, causing them to wince and retreat their arms from her reach.

"I think we've already done the aggressive formalities for now." Alex said while still flexing his hand.

"I know that Shining was telling me that there'd be a big surprise for us, but never did I actually think it would be something like this." Blueblood said as he walked up to the three of us. "Siblings, each of them vastly taller than Celestia? Twilight, I think you're on to something. You should marry the other two along with Nondis, just to see how that goes."

The next thing we saw was an armor-clad hoof punching Blueblood's head into a crater... that previously didn't exist until that very moment. "Yeaaaaaa-NO." Shining firmly stated. "One human is enough."

"Ain't it?" Twilight muttered under her breath, flying just below the radar of her older brother.

Celestia and Luna extended a hoof to the guys, welcoming them with synchronization. "Well, I didn't anticipate that you would have siblings, Sir Captain." Celestia said with a bright smile. "I can clearly say that you are definitely a family of impressive giants."

"Well this is most exhilarating, to be able to see a family of humans before our very eyes." Luna said to follow her sister.

The guys were still a tad bit reluctant to accept their greeting, I suppose they were still a bit shaken up from Fluttershy's greeting. And if Applejack had showed them any sort of welcome, I'd pretty much be traumatized after both of those occurrences too. "Guys, ease up. These two are the head rulers of this nation, they won't be so harsh on you."

Cautiously, the greeted the princesses halfway and lightly exchanged a hand-to-hoof shake. While they were exchanging pleasantries with the two sisters, Pinkie and Rarity decided to give me my fair share of scolding. Shining and Cadance continued to talk to Twilight on how they managed to get here, and we all sat ourselves onto the blanket to talk more about one another.

Blueblood was still eating the dirt inside of the crater Shining's hoof shoved him in.

The day came and went as the sun began to creep towards the western horizon. Celestia and Luna returned to Canterlot as they took on great pride in hearing that they had more human friends to visit. The girls seemed to go their separate ways after we had one final meetup in the throne room. Cadance and Twilight went down the halls towards her room so that they could speak to each other about something. As far as what it is, they left it at the vague description of being 'filly stuff'.

Meanwhile, the two siblings stretched and yawned as they stood around the portal, speaking to one another.

"So there's a lot of guns in here." Stanton pointed out as he snuck through some of the bins strewn across the room. "If that's how Nondis has been getting his big paydays, then I can see how he's doing so great. But I thought that he said he wasn't getting involved in anything illegal."

"Check this out!" Alex announced as he pulled out a Barrett .50 cal. "I mean damn, this was the shit I wanted for my birthday since I went hunting with gramps before he passed."

"Well no wonder he's doing so great. He's practically playing GTA, only this time it's for keeps."

Alex hummed to himself as he placed the weapon at shoulder height, looking through the scope towards the wall. "You think that's the reason why he's been getting death threats and trying to keep our names on the low?"

"He said he had an assassination attempted against him." Stanton recalled. "I don't think he's playing very nice to get the pay he wants."

"So you think he's playing dirty?"

"I love our brother, but this... I don't know. I feel unusually... I can't explain it."

Alex immediately provided an answer for his brother. "You feel like something's off."

"Yeah! He's been telling us all of this, but what else has he been getting into since he's been here? I hear more of his heroics and how he saved this lady's little sister, or how he stopped this terrorist army from killing this lady's parents, bunch of shit like that. But what's really going on behind the scenes?" For a moment, Stanton grew quiet and took a long look at the bin of guns before him. And then a single thought crossed his mind, finding it's way to his lips. "I hope that Nondis doesn't get into the shit that gramps did back in Vietnam."

Alex put the rifle back into the bin he retrieved it from and whispered back to his brother. "Nah, he's not that stupid. And it's not like there's a massive war going on here that could kill him in an instant. No guns blazing─"

"There's gotta be guns blazing around here." Stanton argued passionately. "He's got all of this for something, they've gotta be packing some pony-equivalent of a firearm."

Alex leaned against the wall as he stared at the other bins lying around the room. He took a quick breath and gathered his thoughts. "Our brother can't be doing this. I'm still on the fence about the dimension thing, but this is kinda making me lean right. We need to know what he's up to."

"I might be able to fill you in."

The two brothers looked back to the doors, seeing a white unicorn with a duel-toned blue mane standing in the doorway.

"Tell us what you know." Stanton requested without hesitation.

"I can say that we sure as hell don't have any of these issued around to our troops." Shining began. "Nondis made it very clear that this stuff remain restricted to whatever help he brings in or to me. And I'm not quite sure as to how to use one of these yet."

Alex and Stanton looked at one another before they continued to question the prince. "What do you mean 'whatever help he brings in?' Who's he bringing in to help?"

Shining tapped his hoof as he thought about it. "Well, would you two happen to know two men by the name of Rickey and Cliff? They're both shorter than him, one has a dark brown complexion with what appeared to be a human variation of dreadlocks."

Alex growled at the stallion for mentioning the two names. "You mean those two assholes who just stood by as our brother nearly got himself killed!?"

"The frat boys!?" Stanton questioned. "He told the frat boys before he told us!?"

"I guess you guys aren't exactly on good terms?" Shining asked, seeming a bit surprised by their reaction. "But they've done a great deed by helping Nondis in a recent assignment. They were all honored just this past Saturday."

Alex rose from off of the wall and paced the floor. "So he's bringing them over to help? I can't believe this. Who else did he bring over?"

Shining tapped his hoof against the ground once more. "Well... I know that I was kinda drunk on Saturday after a contest with Cliff, but I can definitely recall a female human who came to visit. She seemed very well-acquainted to Nondis."

"Melanie!?" Stanton said as he stood motionless, shocked that she'd even be in on this. "He told her too?"

"Anyone else?" Alex questioned once more.

"No, that's it." Shining confirmed. "I just know those three."

"Oh, but that's not quite the whole story." Echoed a familiar voice. Shining turned towards the direction from where the sound emanated from, only to find a strange-looking lamp sitting on the floor. Suddenly the lamp gave off a quick flash of light before transforming into the creature that initially scared the two brothers just earlier.

"Discord?" Shining grew cautious as the creature appeared before him. "What do you know that we don't?"

The draconequus vanished with another flash, this time finding his way into Stanton's phone. The phone vibrated as he appeared on the screen as an animated sprite, his voice booming from the speakers. "Well just last Wednesday, Nondis made a trip to his family home, it was after he and Twilight had a little spat. But shortly after, there was a situation that occurred for him to dismiss himself from the dinner table, I'm sure that you both can recall that."

"How do you know about the stuff that you weren't there for?" Alex questioned, growing even more concerned as how the creature knows so much about what all happened that day.

"Well I'm showing you right now!" Discord answered as he knocked back on the phone's screen, producing an audible clunk. "Rickey and Cliff managed to run into me that day while I went venturing in the human world, I suppose they caught me at an embarrassing moment. But Cliff took a photograph of me and sent it to Nondis."

"And you, being the Cheshire Cat, somehow hacked reality itself to send yourself into Nondis' phone from the photo, right?" Stanton completed.

Discord chuckled as he pulled up the apps menu. "Well, if there's one thing you three brothers have in common, you all can piece things together fairly quickly. At least it makes for a shorter explanation. Now where is that game with the handicapped bird that keeps running into the green pipes?"

"Flappy Bird, third row, second column." Stanton answered. "But that's how you came to know of us, then?"

"That and he's been rambling on about how he was going to find some way to get Twilight to meet with your parents."

Alex's eyes grew as he heard Discord's words. "Oh no. That is definitely not going to end well."

"Mom and dad? Nondis trying to get through to them? HA! And I thought I was the dense one." Stanton said as he watch Discord fumble through the first set of pipes.

"Well..." Shining began. "I'd actually like to meet them myself. Nondis had already met with ours and that went well, considering my dad is a very stern conservative on who he allows to marry into the family. All while I was growing up, he was stressing me to marry a full-blooded unicorn to keep the magic line going. But they found out that Twily is the one with that gift. And now they're pretty happy considering their trades. I'm with an alicorn princess, and Twi's with a human who can destroy changelings with nothing more than a sword and a brick. Kinda works out."

"Wait, seriously? A brick?" Stanton questioned, growing distracted from the original topic.

"Can we focus on the big thing here?" Alex recommended. "The fact of the matter is that Nondis is not going to be able to convince mom and dad that any of this is okay. Hell, I don't think Stanton or I could even come close to doing it."

Shining grew concerned as the two brothers remained adamant on their opinion. "Well, I don't see the problem."

Stanton peered away from his phone to give Shining some eye contact as he stressed the point. "If you know Nondis like we do, you'd know that he's stubborn. He is a down-to-the-wire copy of our father, who has even less patience and the skull density of a fucking steel girder. He doesn't change his mind on anything, I don't even know how mom deals with him."

Shining began to feel discouraged to argue them any further in trying to help Nondis convince them that a visit would be beneficial. And he knew that his chances would only continue to get worse from there. "Then... what would be your reaction to finding out exactly what Nondis is doing right now, and what's he caught in?"

Alex stopped pacing for a moment and glanced back at the bins lying all over the room. He turned to the stallion and walked towards him, knelt down to where they were close to seeing eye-to-eye. "Just what kind of powder keg did Nondis set off?"

Shining closed his eyes and whispered. "To put it in your terms, Hiroshima."

As I looked at my phone to check on the time, I continued to make my way towards the front door. Rarity, who walked beside me, was being escorted out to the streets. But this moment between the two of us only gave her more time to dig at me about not telling her that I had siblings. She did the usual dramatics, screaming 'how could you' while issuing her complaints, the constant nudging me as I walked, the endless times her tail whipped at the back of my legs, and the forward glances as she pretended that I wasn't there while ironically acknowledging my presence by screaming at me.

But as we showed up to the front door, her tone changed a bit as I held the door open for her. Instead of taking her leave, she magically removed my hand from the door while avoiding eye contact. On her face was a stern expression, obviously displaying some dissatisfaction. Probably still on the fact that I didn't tell her about my brothers.

"So..." She started. "You and Twilight must've talked to one another."

Honestly, that caught me by surprise. I thought she was going to go on about what she's been complaining about for the past hour and a half. But I see that she's got another issue that's causing her some discomfort. "Maybe. Perhaps we decided on how things will go moving forward. Would that be much of an issue?"

She gave me a deadpanned expression, complete with pursed lips. "Well, I can't say that I'm surprised."

"Then what do you say you are?"

"...A mite bit disappointed, perhaps."

"Why?"

"Because you're getting yourself back into trouble." She warned. "You know that you're going back on your word by doing this. You said that you would be fair to yourself."

"I am being fair to myself. We've already discussed what's going to happen moving forward."

The fashionista clenched her jaw as she lifted her chin. "So, you and Twilight will carry on with this madness you call a relationship?"

"Actually..."

"So what?"

"She made me make a promise to her last night as we... made amends."

Rarity didn't seem too fond of hearing of our extracurricular activity, even though I made the comment as tasteful as possible. "So... what?"

"...Twilight and I, we decided..."

There comes a time where an author realizes that when an end is as easy to make, but realizes as the writing goes on that it is much harder to execute. This entire chapter was a difficult process, mainly due to so much third person (which I haven't done in so long and in such an amount)

But yeah, the boys will be in for a bit of a rage-fit as soon as they find out just how deep Nondis dug himself. But their reaction will come at a later time, say next chapter. But I'll probably try to release a new one within the next two weeks (and possibly a third if time will permit me to do so).

Everyone started to notice that the word count per chapter have been consistently above the 10k mark for quite some time, with a few dipping into the 9k's. This is because time for me has been a little sparse considering that IRL has gotten me a lot more business. But I can say that I'm having fun.

But enough about me, what will happen with Nondis now that his brothers will soon be in the know? What is this promise that Twilight made him keep? And just where does everyone stand at this current moment? But now's the bigger question approaching:

What would be his parent's reaction to all of this?

I won't say, but you'll know in future chapters.