Deep in the darkened verdant paths of the Everfree Forest, a forlorn stallion trudged down the muddy road as severed flower petals littered the trail behind him. His chin remained buried in his neck as he moped along the way. His eyes were pink and swollen from the massive amounts of spores he took on. It also didn't help his image due to the drying streaks of tears down his face. His eyes were completely empty as he moved on, walking wherever would take him out of town and away from the mare that he thought to no longer love him.

"I can't believe this. How could I be so stupid?"

As those words came from his mouth, he stopped to stare at the ground below him. For a minute, it took him a while to move. But once he found his strength, he viciously slammed the bouquet of stubs and leaves into the ground. He then quickly ran for a nearby tree and bashed his own head against it while speaking to himself.

"I knew from the start that I was playing for second, but I didn't listen to myself. I just kept listening to what I wanted to hear."

After a few bashes, he started to feel himself become disoriented and wracked with pain. Those very same sensations was what drove him to forego another attempt at himself, causing him to slide to the ground instead. His face remained buried into the bark of the tree.

"Pinkie never loved me as much as she loved him. I was over the horizons while he was here on the home-front, fighting off whatever issues she had and everypony who threatened to hurt her. He took blows for her while I was busy blowing up balloons, I can't compete with that."

Each time he thinks about that situation, the only thing that comes to mind is how Pinkie always wrote in her letters that her previous coltfriend was never really a good pony. But he knew that her hoofwriting took a turn for the unstable as soon as he was even mentioned. The words would become shaken and hard to read. He would often have to squint to get an idea on what she was saying. But he knew that despite the words she jotted down on paper, he was more troublesome to the pink mare than what she was making him out to be.

He even went as far as visiting her in his absence, seeking to rekindle a flame that long-since died. But then the human came to her rescue, took the beating, and came out with the moral victory and Pinkie's heart as a consolation prize for his troubles. Since then, she's been latched to him for months. He even watched from the kitchen as the pink pony screamed and shouted at the human for deciding to leave Equestria for good.

"And she pushes me away whenever his name comes up in a conversation. She says she's happy with me and that she's happy for him to have something of his own, but I know the truth. She's still hung up on him as much as she was three months back."

Secretly, he wanted him to leave. He wanted the security of knowing that Nondis left everything to him and would be out of the picture completely. But instead of that, he ended up showing back up to make the commitment to Twilight. Pinkie never said much to oppose him, but she did give off indications that she was very unhappy with his choice. And since then, their relationship has been taking a turn for the worse. The only thing he felt he could do was to outshine him by any means necessary. Unfortunately for him, his advances were seen as problematic and invasive.

The words kept reverberating throughout his mind: I won't do it for somepony I can't love, or give him what he wants. Those were the words she uttered before she discovered he was there to witness her saying it. Those words only brought him more pain, one that was greater than the pain he inflicted upon himself. He clenched his eyes shut, unable to cry anymore as his chest contracted and his breaths grew short and staggered.

"I didn't even stand a chance."

The stallion succumbed to his depression as he lied on the ground, accepting everything that happened. He pounded his hoof into the ground once before screaming the air out of his lungs. All at once, he felt anger, jealousy, sadness, and remorse. His future, the one he wanted for her and himself, was becoming a simple pipe dream to him. And screaming was all he could do to shed the pain.

"CHEESE!"

His ears perked up when he heard his name called. He rose his head to look back from behind him, seeing a blur of pink barreling towards him. His eyes started to shine a little more as he felt a strong impact from the pink pony that tackled him. Her hooves clamped around his body as she nuzzled his chest with tears in her eyes.

"Oh thank Celestia, you're safe!"

The stallion pushed her away for a moment to speak. "Pinkie... what are you doing here?"

Her hoof weakly bashed into his chest as she spoke. "I was looking for you, silly! I wasn't gonna let you come out here on your own! It's way too dangerous!"

The stallion, still a bit upset, politely shoved her away as he stood. "Well I can handle myself!"

She pulled the hoof that tried to move her, moving herself in front of him. "No, look at me!"

"I don't wanna hear anything you have to say right now." He said as he turned away.

"Sweetie, no." She pleaded.

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" He hollered.

She remained undeterred, jumping on top of him and clenching her forelegs around his chest while whispering into his ear. "I'm sorry for what I said. I only said what I said because I thought that I could... I was such an idiot!"

"Pinkie, you're not an idiot!" He argued with a frustrated tone.

"What do you know!? I made you sad, and that's something that should never happen. I didn't mean to hurt you, I just wanted what was best for us."

Cheese grew quiet as he recalled the words she used. "To not get married?"

"It doesn't matter! If we're together right now, we can work towards getting married in the future. Just not right now." She nuzzled the stallion lightly while petting his mane.

Cheese softened his stony exterior as he sat on his haunches, turning back to her. "Pinkie, I gave up everything for you."

She removed herself, walking in front of him to lift his chin. "And I love you for it. But I don't wanna just move into this. I want to spend time with you before we lock it up."

"So... you don't feel like I'm... pushing you?" He questioned.

"Well, yeah! But slowing down is what's gonna get us over this hump, right?"

Cheese finally broke down as he hugged her tightly, whispering to her. "I just don't wanna put any pressure on you."

The pink pony smiled as she returned the gesture. Her eyes remained fixated on the stallion as they temporarily flashed for a second. The large sky blue irides transformed into a filmy blue color, the pupils completely disappearing for a moment as she asked. "Cheese... do you really love me?"

"Pinkie, with all of my life, I'll have you to whatever end."

The pink pony sighed. "Yeah..."

"Sorry, too much?" Cheese asked, pulling off for a bit to look at her.

The pink pony blinked, her eyes returning to their illusion. "Let's just start off with simple, okay?

"...Pinkie, I really like you, And I know that I'm probably on a whole other level with what I feel, but if you want me to tone it down, then I'll do it." He said as the pink pony turned around to face the path that lead downward.

"Cheese..."

"Yes, Pinkie?" He asked.

"I need to show you something."

"What is i─" He couldn't finish as his muzzle was suddenly buried in nothing but pink hair. He didn't say much as the easily identifiable musk it carried made him pause for a moment. His eyes closed half way as the aroma of her scent caused him to roll his eyes back with delight. He moaned as the smell caused him to become eager and motivated to find out what she was going to give to him. He knew what she was going to do, and he found it increasingly difficult to control himself. He stumbled forward to get a better hint of the intoxicating aroma, but she pulled her tail back in, placing it firmly back where it belongs as she winked her eye at him.

"Silly, it's a secret. But you'll have to follow me to find out."

The sun painted the entire town of Ponyville a beautiful shade of gold as the large celestial orb started to make it's final hurrah for the day. The streets had started to clear out as the volume throughout the town slowly began to diminish. What was once lively and boisterous conversation taking place had subsided to calmer tones and quieter laughs. All had seemed quite tranquil in the town...

That is until one pink pony galloped a storm into the streets, leaping over, sliding under, drifting around, juking past, and bashing through whatever stood in her way. The tattered cloth that once stood on her face was hanging by a loosely tied thread. Her breaths short as she ran through the streets and directly barging into the castle that stood just on the Northern edge of town.

"TWILIGHT!!!" She screamed one time before collapsing onto the ground from exhaustion.

For a few minutes, the pink pony remained breathless on the ground until she heard the sounds of hooves clattering against the marble floors. Soon enough, she was met with some company.

"Pinkie Pie, oh my goodness!" Twilight cried out as she teleported to her friend's side. "Pinkie, are you okay?"

The pink party pony coughed weakly as she looked up to the purple princess. "Twilight... help. Please..."

The purple princess began to inspect her friend, realizing that her flushed expression was very unusual. After a closer look, she confirmed that the pink pony was definitely unwell. Pinkie panted as she slowly wriggled on the ground.

"What happened to you?" Twilight asked. Pinkie looked away as Twilight's eyes trailed to the pink mare's tail. It only took a simple levitation spell for the young princess to see what was really taking place. "No... impossible. We're not even in leading into the summer cycle! We're going into the winter months in a bit, how is it that you're suffering from estrus-like symptoms?"

Pinkie lied on the ground, covering her face with shame as she spoke. "Non-non... Nonnie needs... Nondie... Save Cheese..."

Twilight quirked an eyebrow as she repeated after her ill friend. "Save Cheese?"

I remained quiet as I sat at Rarity's table. As I remained in wait of the meal she was finishing up, I was impatiently playing with the fork next to my plate. My stomach twisted and rumbled as I smelled the food from her oven being brought into the outside world. At this rate, I don't think I could stop myself from drooling.

"Nondis? You're not speaking."

Honestly, I thought my stomach was doing a hell of a good job providing conversation all on it's own. But I should keep in mind that she does like conversation to take place at the table. "Sorry, was just thinking about something."

"About what?"

"Your awesome food."

The fashionista giggled as she levitated my plate away from me. "Well I don't think you should be having food on your mind the entire time. What else were you thinking about?"

"Are you just trying to pick at my brain?"

"Well I'm all for multitasking. Picking your brain is no more difficult than cooking."

Wow, so she practically said I'm easy to figure out. "I didn't think I was so transparent."

"I still haven't gotten an answer, dear. What else is on your mind?"

I started to pick up the fork and twirl it between my fingers as I just listed off the first thing that came to mind. "Um... Well it has been a pretty unexpected day. I didn't think Pinkie and Cheese were into it that bad."

"That does pose a bit of a concern." Rarity said as she started setting out our portions. "It doesn't look like it, but things between them will work out for the better. If anything, this will probably reach some sort of conclusion by much later tonight. And if not then, it will have to be sometime tomorrow. Pinkie's not easy to set ill things aside, she's persistent in making things right. Very admirable of her, if I might say so myself."

"Well if you say so, then I won't place too much worry on it." I said as I watch the plate full of steaming food come floating at the table. "Oh damn, this looks great."

Rarity walked over to me and cooed. "Well, you can proceed to come to my doorstep whenever you so need a feeding or two. It was my concern that you haven't been eating dinner since you've moved to that lodge."

"I'm fine. Really."

"Nondis, I don't think you're getting paid as much as you should." She stated while nuzzling up to me.

"Remember, I just started this job. I haven't even been on it a month."

"You're Captain of the Royal Guard, you should be getting paid a respectable amount of bits to do what you do. You know your rent is high and that you're not being well-fed when you're there. Why don't you make a case for your raise?"

"Rarity, I just started. There are commanders in place that have dedicated decades of their lives to this nation. For me to walk out of training camp, obtaining a much higher rank than most, and then requesting a raise to match my rank would cause a major rift in not only the trust between me and the lower officers, but also a major discontent with many others who've served for many years. I'd lose my guys' confidence over that. All the more reason why I never say how much I'm getting paid."

Rarity glared at me angrily. "There's more to it. What is it?"

"Well, gold fetches for a good price in my world. You guys pay it like it's a natural occurrence, while we're buying and selling the stuff in our world like it's the newest craze. Don't get me wrong, gold's been around for several years in my world, but it's a rare mineral that can't be found on a whim. Now factor in the world's population and you can understand why gold isn't something to be passed around like it used to."

Rarity smiled coyly as she whispered to me. "In other words, you may not have much here in this world, but in your world..."

"Two paydays and I'm looking at the equivalent of a pro-athlete's starting salary for the year."

She slowly nodded as she finally understood why I was so content with my pay. If I lived like I was in squalor here, I can properly budget my finances to where I was comfortably well-off in my world. Exchange those finances for goods such as furniture or maybe even a bike I could use to get around the place a lot quicker. It would sure beat the hell out of paying for a train just to go to Canterlot.

And avoiding the train altogether is my overall goal.

Rarity placed down the plate of food as she walked back over to her side of the table. "Well if you're not going to have a complaint about it, then perhaps I shouldn't either. After all, you know how rich you are in your world. As long as you have some sort of system that you can live comfortably on."

"No arguments there." I said as I shoveled as much food onto my fork as I could possibly fit on there. The alabaster unicorn giggled as she watched me construct a small mountain of food on my fork.

"My, you act like you haven't eaten all day."

I blew on my food, making sure that I didn't burn myself on the first bite. "To be honest, I actually haven't even had breakfast this morning."

Rarity's jaw dropped as she stared at me. "No... seriously?"

"Well I'm getting fed now, no complaints."

Rarity grew surprised as she saw that we had another visitor. "Twilight?"

Before my mouth could touch as much as a crumb, I felt my fork leave the possession of my fingers in the form of a magenta-colored aura. Looking back to see the source of the magic, Twilight placed a hoof on my shoulder. "Sorry for interrupting your meal, but we've got an emergency!"

Rarity took pity on me as she saw the despair set on my face. My eyes were closed as I thought aloud. "You know what, God hasn't damned me enough."

Rarity stood from her seat as she tried to plead with the unicorn. "Well would it be possible for him to eat something before he went? He hasn't eaten all day."

The purple princess looked at me with an apologetic expression. "I'll make it up to you, I swear. I'll even hoof your name in for some vacation time. A whole week of uninterrupted─"

"I don't get vacation hours just walking out of camp, Twilight." I growled grumpily, standing from my seat and walking out of the kitchen. "So let's just get this shit over with."

Rarity watched as Twilight ran beside me and ignited her magic once more, causing us to disappear in a bright flash. After we disappeared, she groaned as she looked at all of the food that still remained on my plate. With a grumble, she turned back to the stove and pulled out a roll of aluminum foil.

"Good grief, I suppose I'll have to set all this in the fridge then."

Twilight watched quietly as I continued to pick out what weapons I was going to bring. All throughout my decision-making she proceeded to remind me that any sort of explosive device was against her recommendations. She stated it would be far too dangerous to throw something in the forest and end up stirring the wrath of some manticore. And I don't even think the others would be properly trained in dealing with a mythological creature that size.

In speaking of the others, the portal sounded as three bodies came walking through. "Alright, what's going on this time?" Melanie questioned.

Meanwhile, I was left dumbfounded at the sight of her appearance. "Mel? Why are you here?"

"I'm here because you might need some extra looking out." She stated outright before prying open one of the blue bins and grabbing for the first assault rifle she could find.

"That and she was riding with me at the time you called." Rickey confessed. "So you can imagine her face when she's telling me that I need to get to your place, and fast."

"For real, I was kinda surprised myself when I saw her step out of the car." Cliff added as he found himself a shotgun. "I was confused as all hell when she came out saying that she was gonna come with us."

"You two were unhappy until you both had realized that I had police training when I switched my major back in February."

"What was your major and what did you switch it to?" Twilight asked curiously.

"I was a med student, then switched over to criminal justice in forensics. The police training was a bonus to make sure that I could be on the field of a crime scene and defend myself should something pop off." Melanie answered as she moved her attention to the ammunition.

Cliff went into another bin for a handgun, seeing which one he wanted to use. "So, remind me again on how Pinkie girl got herself into trouble."

"It's not so much of her being in trouble as it is something that kinda... happened." I said. "She and Cheese had a falling out and I guess she came back from looking for him and gotten herself sick. From what Twilight had told me, she ran into some spores that makes you a little crazy. But the thing about it is that it's only affecting equines. This means that we could possibly need some masks before we head out."

"Also, Pinkie mentioned that there was little visibility past a certain point on the path. You might need to use some protection for your eyes as well as some flashlights to get you through the bulk of the spores." Twilight stated.

"So we'll be wearing goggles and probably need to use flashlights on our equipment." Rickey said as he walked over to one of the purple bins to pull out four sets of goggles and some flashlights. "But that stuff aside, how's Pinkie doing?"

"She's being looked after by Cadance." Twilight answered. "Shining Armor is also going to make sure that nopony gets to her in her current state."

"So I take it that they've been made aware of everything that's going on?" I questioned.

"I had to. Cadance is a better candidate to help Pinkie with her symptoms. Shining is just patrolling the hall to prevent anyone from getting in or out of the room."

"Out of the room?" Rickey asked cautiously.

"I told you that she's kinda... unusual right now." I stated, just going by Twilight's testimony.

While I continued to look for more attachments for my rifle, I heard something that grabbed at my attention. I turned to the portal to see yet another two bodies phasing through. Cliff and Rickey both seized up as they watched the two other humans step through.

"NONDIS!" A booming voice called out to me, as Alex and Stanton came marching out.

Cliff immediately took action to put Alex out of commission, but was quickly stopped by Stanton. I ran between the two parties and separated both Cliff and Alex. "Okay! Everyone chill out for a second!" I hollered before turning to my brothers, who completely caught me by surprise. "Now, what the hell are you two doing here?"

Alex gingerly pushed me aside as he navigated his way towards a blue bin. "We've gotten a call that you were going to do some stupid shit again. So we kindly footed the gas and brought our asses on over here to make sure that you don't get hurt playing with sharp objects."

I shook my head as I tried to speak to Stanton. "Call? Who called you?"

"Don't worry about that. Just know that me and Alex will pop up whenever you need some help." He said as he looked to the other three humans in the room. "Apparently you already got some here."

"Again, I'm not sure as to why you told them about all of this first, but I think that was in rather bad taste." Alex continued. "I can understand Melanie, but Cliff and Rickey are both suspect to me. I don't necessarily trust them."

"Whoa, what for? They didn't do anything to me." I said as I came to their defense.

"You were in their company when you drove off of that bridge. That means that they, along with your fraternity, were the ones responsible." Alex argued, pointing to Cliff and Rickey.

"No, Prett took the responsibility and was expelled from the university by the Board of Admissions." Melanie explained. "He was the one to call the party and funded the whole thing. He brought the drugs, he pushed Nondis into going, and he let Nondis take the keys from him."

I really didn't care to hear about that incident right now. I pulled everyone back into focus. "Guys! Can we please look at what the situation is right now?" I projected loudly. "We got a guy in the forest, there was a changeling seen nearby, and there's apparently some weird shit in the air that really fucks with ponies standing between us and getting that guy out from what could turn into an abduction. We really need to focus on the immediate issue. Please, can we haul it in and ask all the other questions later?"

Cliff looked back to Stanton and shrugged. "I'm good with it if you down."

"We're not down for anything." Alex interjected. "We're here to protect our brother. We're not losing him a second time."

"Alex, c'mon." Melanie pleaded. "Cliff and Rickey aren't like Jasper."

"At least that guy was actually helping you." Alex retorted.

"He covered for me once and that's about it. Other than that, Jasper's a fucking scumbag who can't seem to act his age when someone wants to do their own thing, be with someone else, or just chooses to be quiet." Melanie explained. "To hell with him. Rickey's a womanizer and he's a better grab than that fucker."

"Should I feel proud or offended?" Rickey questioned to Stanton.

"Why not both?" Stanton answered.

"Guys?" I spoke once more. "Can we focus?"

"We are." The other five stated as they continued to go through the blue bins for weapons. Stanton spoke in everyone's defense. "There's nothing wrong with a little casual conversation while picking out your equipment."

"Speaking of equipment, can I have the sniper rifle?" Alex questioned.

"He's talking about for keeps." Stanton snitched.

I quickly walked up to my older brother and nabbed the rifle from him. "We're not gonna need this. And no, this cost me four thousand dollars."

"I'll buy it from you."

I gave my older brother a side-eye expression as he ogled at the long-barreled hardware in my left hand. His eyes glanced from top to bottom as he quietly smiled and extended his hand. I simply smiled back as I answered him.

"There's no possible way you can convince me to fork this over to you."

We left the castle and finally made our way towards the Everfree Forest. As expected, I took front and center as Cliff and Rickey took a few steps behind me. Then Alex, Stanton, and Melanie was in the back of the formation to fill in our back line. As far as Alex and Stanton were concerned, they were going to go hunting for alien-like creatures who's sole purpose was to feed from their victims and transfer them to their motherland.

And as one would expect from a pair of siblings who haven't so much as touched a gun in long-ass time, they were a bit eager to get in on some action. Let's be honest, these two aren't Columbine levels of trigger-happy, but if it comes to protecting me, then they'd sure as hell turn on that switch... Just replace students with changelings, and there you go.

Though I need to keep a close eye on Alex. He can be a bit overprotective at times, and I can understand his reason for being like that. I was often bullied and shoved around, most of the time he'd try to get me to defend myself. And whenever that plan fell through (which was every single time), he'd jump in and finish what I couldn't even start.

Stanton just lost all faith in me whenever it came to that department, so he just said that he was gonna get his weight up and fight for himself. I guess you could say that he learned to not put himself into my situations and avert that with a dominating physical presence. Again, he's everything I'm not, or rather everything that I wanted to be in my fantastical teenage mind. But even then, he started to pick up the slack where my older brother left off once he left to college. And you can only imagine how my high-school experience was like when you hear that this freshman football player takes up for his senioritis-inflicted older brother.

Either way, these two were who I was born between. And even though at times they seem to make me feel like I was the younger one getting pushed around, they still loved me and protected me. Even when dad instructed them not to take up for me anymore, they disobeyed him and did it anyways.

This time, it's my turn to show them that I'm beyond protecting. Maybe that's the reason why I didn't oppose to them coming around to help, because I wanted them to see what I was capable of. I wanted them to see how far I came. Sure I still get hurt, but I'm not taking any of this lying down like I used to.

...My pride has gotten me a pretty big head today.

"Head's up, fog ahead." Cliff called out from behind me, pulling me back into the present.

As I looked forward, I could see a wall of orange-colored mist linger like a cloud on the road. I shook my head with disbelief as I stopped for a moment to reach for a bandanna around my neck. "These are the spores they were talking about? Damn, you'd think we were walking through an actual brick wall, that shit's so thick."

The others proceeded to place their bandannas on as Melanie spoke. "So, is any of this stuff dangerous to us?"

"Only one way to find out." Stanton suggested. "Any one of you wanna run through there without your mask and scream back to us about how you feel?"

The six of us didn't even think about taking our masks off as we just stared at the orange wall of dust. "Stanton, you suggested it. So why not go for it yourself." Alex joked, slapping Stanton on the back.

I decided to leave the conversation at hand and proceeded onward through the orange dust wall. Upon walking in, I could barely keep my eyes open and walked back out. "Shit. We're not walking through that without our goggles on."

"No shit, Sherlock." Rickey stated as he and the others took from my example and placed on their goggles. Deciding that I didn't want to go through that minor ordeal again, I decided to learn from my mistake and put on the goggles before marching in that dust cloud again.

While we were inside of the thick of the fog, we realized that our distance of visual was drastically declining. At one point, it was where we couldn't even see four feet in front of us. And as a result of our misfortune, we had to immediately resort to holding hands throughout the venture through the cloud. Melanie lightly whimpered at the strange sounds that reverberated through the forest, as they were definitely not the normal woodland creatures that we humans have grown accustomed to. Both Stanton and Alex were tense as we traveled along the path.

"Hey, bro." Stanton questioned. "What the hell was that noise?"

While my ears were accustomed to the sounds of Everfree, directly identifying a creature in these woods aren't considered to be as underwhelming of a task that Fluttershy makes it out to be. After all, my special talent wasn't in animals... But that was definitely something in the 'large-and-in-charge' department. "Could be a few things, a cragodile, bearbug, or a manticore. Doesn't sound like an Arimaspi or a hydra though, so we shouldn't worry too much."

"Wait, what was all that shit you listed?" Alex asked with a tremor in his voice.

"This nigga said a manticore, and followed it up with a 'we shouldn't worry too much' statement." Cliff added as he started to turn his head to both sides of the road.

"Don't go looking for something that's not interested in you." I advised the group. "Manticores and cragodiles are territorial creatures. They won't bother us if we don't bother them. But if one comes across your path, it's best to excuse yourself."

"And we got guns. So what would be the end result of that?" Melanie inquired.

"That's not what we're here for. Manticores and the like are not to be killed. Our only green light is any changeling we might see."

"And what do these 'changelings' look like?" Stanton questioned.

Rickey scoffed as he spoke. "They're stupid, small, horse-shaped, hole-legged, no-hair having, vampiric, bug-eyed, crook-horned, smelly, shape-shifting sons of bitches who takes family members, drain them of their very souls, and send them to far-away lands for, lack of a better phrase, permanent decommissioning."

"Hole-legged? Bug-eyed? Horse-shaped? Anything else to look for?" Alex asked.

"They're also black... ish." Cliff openly announced. "But let's just say they ain't the motherfuckas you'd wanna invite to the pad. They trash all your shit, steal from your ass, knock your ass out, and they shoot at your ass."

"Not to mention it's like the slave-trade with these guys." I added.

"Slave trade, isn't that a bit of a touchy subject?" Melanie questioned.

Cliff laughed for a bit before turning back to her with a serious expression. "Nah... they doin' that shit like they did back in our world over three-hundred years ago, minus the ocean."

"And the crates they ship out, you don't wanna see what's in there." Rickey stated quietly. "And a little bit of advice: If it smells, don't even get curious."

For a while, it remained silent as we walked along. Our vision started to get a little better as we moved along. But as soon as we cleared the fog, Stanton was the one to linger on the subject. "Is it really that bad?"

I removed my mask and turned to him with a very somber expression. "...The young, the kids, they were stacked on top, the elderly were crunched on the bottom. The filth travels downward, the diseased air lingers upward. And if you see this glossy haze in their eyes..." I said way too much. Just at that moment, Cheese's image popped up in my head in place of the one pony who reached out to me before drawing their final breath. I was almost reliving that moment in my head. I shook off that thought and marched forward. "...Nevermind, let's go."

The other five looked at me as I moved onward. Cliff and Rickey took collective breaths before walking off. Melanie took an additional second to gather her thoughts before she trailed us. Meanwhile, Alex and Stanton were quietly staring towards one another.

"Hey..." Stanton began, but was cut off by his older brother.

"Yeah, I saw it too." Alex confirmed with a solemn nod.

"...You don't think─"

Alex shook his head as he and the younger sibling proceeded to walk forward. "He's not that far gone, not yet."

"Well we'd know if he start getting nightmares, it's clear cut that he's got it bad."

"Don't even speak that into existence."

The castle doors opened to reveal the still-damaged interior from the previous ordeal that took place. To our left was the broken pillar I was rammed into by that changeling brute. And to the right was the still ashen shadow of the beast, a dark circular imprint of ash was left on the scene from when Celestia sent the brute a one-way ticket into oblivion. Even as I thought about it, Cliff and Rickey both regaled the tales of our mission to rescue a young victim who went missing just that day.

Alex and Stanton grew even more quiet as they heard more about how we ran into the butler and how we managed to identify him. Melanie didn't do much but clench her jaw shut at the thought of being in Diamond Tiara's position. And when they started to tell about how Celestia came around and decimated the brute with a broken wing, they started to realize that my superiors weren't at all too sheltered. At least they were made aware of the fact that she could hold her own in a fight, but that fact didn't surprise Melanie too much.

Then again, Melanie witnessed Celestia herself moving the sun.

We walked to the end of the stony corridor and up the stairs. As we sat at the top, I started to formulate a plan of approach. "Okay, we're obviously not gonna be able to cover as much ground being in one group. So... it would be in our best interests to split up so that way we can search the ruins from top to bottom. We'd need to do whatever it takes to find Cheese and bring him back to town. Whoever or whatever you find, call someone in the other party so we can understand what route to take next. If you find some magical devices, don't touch. Copy?"

Stanton stretched his arms as he spoke. "Yeah, so... who is going with who?"

I looked around and took into consideration everyone's abilities and weaknesses. The last thing we needed to do was have a completely imbalanced group while the other thrives. So that meant that I wouldn't be able to travel with Cliff and Rickey like last time. It also meant that I couldn't bring my brothers all at once, as we tend to get a little rowdy with one another should something come up that all three of us can't agree with, that would slow us down. And I can't let one group go without anyone who's well-practiced in self-defense. Granted, we all can fight, but the three top melee fighters would be me, Melanie, and Cliff.

I love my brothers, but they're only used to fighting with humans. Cliff could manage, but he's usually carrying a weapon to bat people off with. Melanie on the other hand was trained to deal with armed opponents as well as targets of a wide range of sizes. I guess that criminal justice switch really worked out in her favor. Plus she's can serve as a medic in the other group.

I guess we found our leader for the other party. "We need a close-quarter specialist in each squad, there's no point in boasting about your range if you just so happen to get within two feet of a changeling. They have a venomous bite that paralysis you for a good period of time. So you're going to need at least one good brawler assigned to each squad. Melanie and I will consist of our close-quarter specialists. Since Melanie has had some training in martial arts, we'll have her in Group A. I'm used to fighting these bastards, so I'll be in Group B."

"Wait, you're splitting us up?" She questioned, seeming somewhat betrayed.

"Mel, you've had training as a cop and a nurse. You'd be qualified for something like this. And I'm sure that Cliff would be able to use anything blunt to bludgeon the shit out of anything that comes close, so you've got some help when it comes to muscle. Plus Cliff knows his way around the lower levels from the last time we were here, so he'll be your guide."

"So I guess it'll be us three in Group B?" Stanton stated as he pulled me and Alex close together.

"Not quite." I said as I unhinged myself from Stanton's grasp. "I'll need either you or Alex to go with Melanie and Cliff. The two of you have had experience in firearms for several years, so I'd like to have a marksman in each group."

"My aim's not that bad." Rickey muttered to himself.

"No, but I still trust Alex over distances." I stated.

"Nondis, I have a sniper rifle, I can pick off anything that sits high from down low. If we're gonna go up, then you're gonna need someone to pick off whatever these things are from distance. Plus I'm fairly acquainted with small arms, so I'm very capable of nailing shots." And now he continues to remind me of how he managed to talk me into that sniper rifle.

"Yeah, and I wanna hang out with Mel for a bit." Stanton stated as he walked over to her and Cliff. "Besides, Alex is kinda a dick whenever it comes to hunting."

Alex looked at Stanton with a deadpan expression before turning to me. I simply responded with a timid shrug. "Gah... Well he's not wrong."

He threw his hands in the air out of frustration as he started walking towards the doorway to the right. "Whatever! Stanton, Melanie, and Cliff is in Group A. Nondis, Rickey, and I are in Group B. Now let's get going!"

Rickey stopped him dead in his tracks as Cliff started to chuckle a bit. Alex looked confusedly at the two before he turned to me again as I pointed to the doorway on the left. "Yeah... that way."

Realizing that he couldn't embarrass himself any further, he patted me on the shoulder and spoke quietly.

"...You lead."

I can’t believe he just left me to dry like this. I was actually looking forward to seeing him in action rather than being shoved off somewhere. And I get that I’m the one who’s new to the whole being in Equestria thing. But this is getting absolutely ridiculous, I should’ve been with him. I have the most experience and the best conditioning out of everyone who isn’t Nondis or Stanton. I guess I’ll shoot him a text whenever we stop, asking him why he didn’t pick me to be in his group.

Oh God, I’m acting so attached again.

Let me be clear, I’m still in love with the guy. I’m still trying to process the fact that he just out and told me that I wasn’t anything he would pursue from now on. I’m still on the fence about him dating a pony, but never have I indicated that someone should die for being in love with him. I’m not going to pull a Spike.

And I know like hell it won’t be anything but a struggle for him if I was to be in the picture right now. He’s already caught between two girls and I really don’t wanna get in the way of TWO magical unicorns who could possibly turn me into a warty toad. There’s no way I’d live to see past that.

…Maybe I should take my mind off of him so much and focus on wherever the hell Cliff is leading us. The last thing I wanna do is step on something that could send us into a spiky pit of death.

Stanton yawned as he tried to crack his neck. “Whew! Well this is getting a little boring. Hey Cliff, where the hell are we?”

“We should be coming up towards the first underground hall. Keep your eyes peeled for anything that moves against the walls. If you see any shadows lurking around, best you shoot before they call their friends over.”

I suppose it was my turn to ask something. “What’s even down here? This looks like a dungeon.”

“It does lead into one the deeper we go.” Cliff confirmed as he continued to scan the walls for any of the moving shadows he mentioned. “Right now, we’re just in one of the passageways that lead into the armory level down below.”

“How do you know where we’re going?” Stanton questioned, and for good reason. “I mean I know you’ve been here once, but you can’t seriously remember an entire floor plan on your first go.”

Cliff chuckled softly as he turned to Stanton. “Bruh, I don’t have a fucking clue as to where we are forreal forreal.”

“What!” Both Stanton and I shouted, causing us to catch ourselves and sealing our lips shut before we let out any further outbursts.

“Chill out. Ol’ dude Shining Armor gave Nondis a map.”

I couldn’t do nothing but smile sarcastically at his response. “And that would be so helpful to us, especially since he up and left to another part of the castle. I suppose we’re not gonna get lost anytime soon.”

Cliff pulled out his phone and flicked at the screen. “Actually, he said something about taking pictures of it and sending the plans to all of us, page for page. You didn’t get a picture message from him?”

I quickly pulled out my phone and noticed that I was free of any new messages. “Nope. But if you’re supposed to be the navigator, then why is it that he’s sending a copy of the floor plan to everyone else?”

“I dunno. I guess he was trying to keep in mind that sending only one person the map wouldn’t be a good idea if that person’s phone was to die out.”

“Otherwise, if someone was to get lost, we could have an idea on where we are and how to get out.” Stanton added, causing me to see further into their reasoning.

But still, a map is something we have yet to even come across. I don’t think it would be to our benefit if we continued to travel like this without any sort of definitive direction. I decided to send Nondis a nice gentle text on how we were going to get around without his assistance.

It didn’t even take him thirty seconds to respond as he forwarded everyone images of the map, which were a little difficult to read. I mean I could still make out what was a door, a wall, and all that other stuff, but Equish is not one of my strong suits. Nondis says it's easy to make out once you convert the symbols to letters in the English language, but we weren't given a guide.

At least he labled the pictures as each floor number. And going by the fact that we were just a floor down below the entrance, I'd say that we were on the first basement floor.

"Okay, I'm looking at the plans and I'm seeing nothing that looks like the hall we're in." Stanton said as he pulled up his map.

Cliff put away his phone and walked over to Stanton. "Are you on the right floor?"

"Basement 1, that's what it's labeled, right?"

I walked over and took a peek at whatever he was looking at. Obviously it was labeled as such, but none of it looked like anything we had just walked through, or so much resembles the hall we're in. "Please tell me that Nondis didn't label the pages wrong."

Cliff swiped the picture to the right and ended up on the floor plan that closely resembled the area we just came from. As he tapped on the screen, he mumbled to himself and traced out the route we took. Afterwards, he looked at the hall we were in and back to the map. "Ohhhh... So we're still on the first floor then. Okay."

...I bet Nondis knows where the hell he's going.

I have no damn clue where we're going. It's not as much trouble finding out where we are at the current moment, but it's the fact that there's so many rooms to look in, even while we're going up. Right now we're in the hall just behind the throne room. And according to the map, we're standing just in front of a large rectangular area that seems to span two levels. I know it's nonsense to look here and think that this would be a place where Cheese would be, but I'm not cutting any corners right now.

Alex and Rickey each pushed against a tall wooden door that lead into the huge rectangular area. As they pushed with a bit of shoulder strength, the room's purpose began to reveal itself. Just ahead was a small circular stand that sat in the middle of an almost empty floor. The only thing that seemed to accompany it was a dusty, tattered red rug lying just a few feet in front of it. Small veins of dust and dirt fell from above as I slowly entered into the room. Looking around, I could see some broken staves and torn banners hanging from above.

A large stand that stood several feet into the air stood behind the small circular stage, almost made as if whoever presided was towering above whoever stood in the circle. In front of it was a series of rows, seating areas filled with moldy pillows and damaged railings. Another floor filled with similar arrangements were just in the balcony seating above. It was obvious now what this place was. Though I was amazed of how relatively intact most of this stuff really is.

"Jee-zus!" Alex said as he coughed some of the dust out of his lungs. "This place looks like it's been abandoned for at least a hundred years."

"You're not wrong, but you're not right either." I stated. "This place is putting some of mankind's work to shame. I know that Canterlot was established as the capital a thousand years back, but I didn't think they'd relocate so soon. I guess Celestia thought that Luna lingered here a little too much for her liking."

"Seriously, you need to check your math. A thousand years would mean this place wouldn't even be standing like it is. This is too well preserved." Rickey argued as he started to walk up the steps leading into the seats above. "I'd say maybe two-hundred, tops."

"It hasn't been exactly a thousand years per se." I retorted. "If I remember, they left this place in the year 6 P.C.D.."

Alex and Rickey both looked at me as if I was speaking some sort of foreign language.

"P.C.D. stands for the term Pax Celeste Dominum, it's the time period where Princess Luna was banished to the moon by her older sister, Princess Celestia, who then took over the duties of raising and lowering the moon. She was banished for threatening to throw the land into an eternal darkness, her motive being that few ponies adored her night and saw it as a time of terror and desolation."

"So the two siblings had a bit of a squabble." Alex concluded. "See, this is why you never give a whiny child a gun."

I proceeded to scratch my head awkwardly as I spoke. "Actually, Princess Luna was an adult at the time of all of this. So... yeah."

"Well that's nice to know, but how does that tell us how old this place is." Rickey asked.

"The time script P.C.D. was used from the zero year of the incident, completely writing it as the measuring stick of time as we perceive it. B.P.C.D. Is the equivalent to the term Before Christ, or Before Common Era. P.C.D. was used from the year of the incident till present, our Anno Domini, or Common Era. It is currently the year 1004 P.C.D.."

Alex gawked as he looked around the room. "You're shitting me, this place is over a thousand years old? Has been abandoned for almost a millennium? And we're walking around the bitch like there's nothing wrong with this?"

"Hence why we can't bring explosives." I finished.

Rickey tapped against one of the pillows, only to watch it devolved into a bunch of spiders running around the place. His response: release an effeminate scream while pulling behind me and hiding in place as the nest of spiders crawled to various locations inside of the room. "¡AY DIOS MIO! ¿Qué coño?"

Alex looked at me silly as he smiled. "He's not in here, let's go."

I couldn't help but chuckle a bit at their reactions. "Guys, come on, it's just a few spiders."

"Yeah, and how many more of these pillows aren't what they appear to be?" Alex asked as he pulled me out of the room.

"These are star spiders, they don't bite, they're not venomous─"

"This Cheese guy, he wouldn't be in a room full of spiders. Let go." Alex wouldn't even hear me out at that point. He was dead set on leaving somewhere else. So he and Rickey, who was busy chanting The Lord's Prayer in Spanish, were quick in tossing me out of the room and closing the doors shut. As we finished, Alex and Rick turned to each other with a nod.

"Never again?"

"Agreed, not without a flamethrower."

As the doors remained shut, a thought came to me in my head. All this time, it had completely slipped my mind, but now that I remember the story Celestia told me, the room we just walked out of was the very room Law Processu Approbati was birthed. "On second thought... yeah, never again." I suddenly complied with their request.

One thing's for certain: I don't know what kind of vengeful spirits are sitting in that room. I don't wanna find out.

Finally, we found our way down to the stairs that lead to the basement levels. Unfortunately, it required us to find a certain lever that allowed for a secret passageway to be opened. And despite Cliff's previous visit, he doesn't seem to remember much of the knobs and switches Shining hit on the way down to the deepest levels of the castle. But it didn't stop me from taking a picture or two of the switch and the surrounding area.

I might share with the class what we're learning, but I think it's best to wait until our little venture is done.

We walked through a darkened hallway, one with old torches that seemingly haven't been lit in what appeared to be over centuries. It surprises me that this place still functions like the way it does. But then again, there have been known cases of booby traps being active for thousands of years.

Ask anybody who first explored the Pyramids of Egypt and they might agree, if they're even alive, that is.

In speaking of alive... "Hey Cliff, where did you say that you and Shining went to find that little girl?"

"I think we went down a few levels before we found out what room she was placed in. But we found a bunch of others, a lot of 'em died from what Shining told me and Rickey."

Stanton grew uneasy as he thought about something, and in usual Haines-family fashion, he made it known. "I just remember what Nondis said on the way here. Do you think that any of them were... you know... angry when they died?"

"Hell, I would be." I confessed. "I'd be pissed off if I was dragged from my family and friends, made into a food source, stuffed inside of a pod, and died in obscurity."

"Yeah, Shining said that he and Nondis were doing whatever they could to make sure that the ones who were fading off were eased... not sure what he meant by that. But at the very least, they didn't come back covered in blood or some other crazy shit." Cliff argued.

Now THAT statement had me thinking for a bit. "You mentioned something about him waking up screaming at one point."

Stanton quickly turned his attention towards me as the words fell from my mouth. "What?"

Cliff scratched the side of his neck as he spoke. "Nondis had a nightmare or some shit. But do you think─"

Stanton was quick to finish his sentence. "What he saw that day with the piled up ponies..."

"On top of watching the others die..."

The three of us had quietly come to the same conclusion. For a minute, we could only reflect on what was going on with Nondis. I knew that I was definitely terrified for him.

...Neither one of us said that. "Shit!" I hissed as the other two started to run to whatever intact pillar we could find and hide behind it. Each of us remained quiet as we heard the conversation grow closer and closer towards us. Cliff pulled out his rifle and held it up to his shoulder.

"So, how did he look?"

"Like a total loser who was desperate to get his rocks off. Like seriously, I could sniff his feelings out from down the hall. It reeked of second place."

"You think Prima's gonna let him do it?"

"Knowing her, she would. When do you know a changeling who would pass up on some free sex?"

"I sure as Tatarus wouldn't."

As they came into view, we caught a glimpse of who they were. They were two ponies... I think. But they had holes in their legs like Swiss cheese, sharp teeth, and no hair whatsoever on their heads. Cliff slowly and quietly waited for them to pass before he started to take aim. Stanton, who was just on the opposite side of him, signaled for him not to shoot. While they were in the midst of their sign language argument, I carefully listened in on their conversation again.

"Well I'm sure that Prima's gonna rock his world."

"And then we nab him?"

"Yeah, take him to the Queen for evaluation, and then back to the hive for feeding."

"Finally, a food source that doesn't die when we get it! I don't know what Guto had in mind when he gypped the hive."

"He's not even gonna try to make up for it, either. Not once has he reported back on why our food sources were dying before we could get a hold of them."

"You didn't hear, the stragglers from Celestia's onslaught of last week were feeding on them and increasing their strength. I guess after they were done, they gave us whatever was left."

"Augh, feeding self before colony. That's treason."

"Well, it's illegal when the Queen doesn't process them first. Just think, she even had the Captain of the Royal Guard at one point."

Both Stanton and Cliff stopped arguing as soon as those words dropped. The both of them proceeded to do what I had already started doing.

"Yeah... I swear it's been downhill since she and her three generals went to that failed summoning."

"It's been downhill since the wedding. The summoning was just where we finally landed on solid ground."

"At least there's only one direction to go from here, and that's up."

I think I figured out how we're gonna work this one out. These guys are a trove of information, so we can't just ax them off yet. If we follow them, perhaps we could get a chance to find this Cheese guy. Here's to hoping that it all works out.

As soon as they turned the corner, the three of us reunited in the center of the hall. Huddled together, we devised our method of approach. "So these guys must've been talking about Cheese. So I say we follow them until we run into something good. If we track them back our victim, we might be able to interrogate them a little and get our guy."

Stanton gave Cliff a light shove. "I told you shooting them now would be a bad idea. Now we can cut our losses and follow these guys to ol' dude."

Cliff rolled his eyes as he pulled out his phone. "It's not like I wanted to get caught or something. I wanted to just put the bastards down before anything popped off."

"You'll still get your chance." I said as I looked on Cliff's screen. "We just gotta let the others know what we've run into. Hopefully these guys will lead us to our guy and make our work easier. And then we can sleep the bastards."

"Sounds good to me." Stanton replied. "But we might wanna think of a plan B if things go south."

"Shoot they ass. That's the best plan."

"No, we need to come up with a way to capture them." I answered.

Cliff pulled me lightly on the arm as he stressed his argument. "These motherfuckas can fly, climb walls, shoot magic at your ass, and if they get in a tight spot, they screech this high-pitch sound that lets others know they're in trouble. And once that happens, we're bound to fight about twenty or thirty more. We don't get a second chance, that shit is dead."

Well that's a bit of information that I would've like to have before we got started on this mission. "Are you serious?"

"There was one that produced a roar so loud, we had to fight off two hundred of the fuckers. And they are like the fucking revenant once they get called in. And I'm gonna be real, we don't know if they got another one of them brutes like last time."

Shit. I guess we definitely better make ourselves as quiet as possible before some shit pops off. And from what I head, these brute-classes are nothing to fuck with, especially when you have your godlike ruler breaking a wing and blasting that bitch into a miniature supernova. It's best that we operate under stealth for as long as possible.

I gotta call Nondis and let him know what's up.

"Yeah... Okay, just follow them and keep quiet. Keep your phones on silent and don't let yourselves be seen. If you have to shoot them, don't hesitate to do so. As long as you keep them quiet, we shouldn't have any problems."

"Okay. We'll follow them and see if we find anything else. Mel, out."

I hung up my phone as I took a deep breath. "Well, I guess our job might be a little easier."

"What, they found the guy?" Alex inquired.

"No, they just ran into some changelings who were talking up a storm. And from what I was told, the Queen of the lot is in the region."

Rickey quickly grabbed his rifle as the news took him by surprise. "Oh shit, does that mean we get to bag ourselves a jackpot target?"

Oh, if only. I want to nab that bitch so quick and give her a piece of my mind. And then I'm gonna drag her ass to the parliament and let these shitty politicians know that I'm for real. The quicker we finish with this, the sooner we can turn our attention to her. And I know both Cadance and Shining would take appreciation of it. But we have to focus on our immediate task. "No. Not now. We get our guy and we leave."

"So what about the changeling creatures you talked about?" Alex asked as he started to hold onto a door leading to the outside area.

"Shoot to kill." I simply answered. "We don't have time for prisoners this go around."

"And this is coming from the guy who bagged two changelings in the midst of an operation." Rickey jeered.

"Those targets happened to be the ones responsible. And plus I didn't carry any flashbang grenades on me. Now let's stop talking about past shit and get to work."

I know it sounds like we went virtually nowhere, but I can assure you that there was nowhere else to go above us aside from more halls filled with dust, insurmountable rubble blockades, spiders, and deteriorated staircases that were on the verge of falling in. But we managed to find a library, a kitchen, a hidden passageway that lead into a secret room within the library, something that looked like an old bedroom, and a small room that contained a bottomless pit... again, located within the library.

Whoever the fuck built this shit, they were hellbent on books and knowledge to be hiding all of this shit in a library. But then again, if you want to hide something in place where no one would bother to look...

So after that little excursion, we eventually found our way back onto the ground floor. Cheese was nowhere to be found on the upper levels, so we decided that our next step was to search some of the surrounding structures. And through this door was the courtyard that lead to those very structures. I had only one concern when we stepped out here, and that was the fact that we were going to be in the open air.

Better make this trip quick.

We opened the door and rushed out into the courtyard, which was covered in moss, leaves, cracked rubble, fallen gargoyles, and... strange stone-shaped devices. The further we moved along, the more we got to see. We came across a variety of objects that seemed to be left here, such as an old statue of Celestia with her wings sprawled open, standing on her hind legs as she was surrounded by six gems. As much as I would've liked to prod around, we didn't have the time. So we carried on, abandoning the mossy likeness of the princess.

After a short sprint, we found ourselves standing at a small wall that surrounded a huge open space. It stood just below a tall tower that seemed to pierce high into the air. A sole door was placed at it's base, a single window at the topmost level was it's only source of fresh air and sunlight. And somewhere along the upper region, just below the window seal, were a vast amount of rusted hooks that protruded the exterior. So... we're at that place now, huh?

"Hmm... this looks like the equivalent of a town square." Alex quietly noted. "And I guess they used to hang banners from on that tower, it's probably the reason why it looks so barren."

"Nnnngh... I don't like this place." Rickey stated as he looked around nervously. "This seems way too public for my tastes."

Alex lightly giggled at Rickey's response. "C'mon. This is probably the place where they held gatherings and festivals."

Yeah... gatherings. And the lonesome miniature boulder at the middle is a dead giveaway. "I don't like this place either. It's too... haunting."

"This coming from the person who doesn't believe in an afterlife or spirits." Alex said as he focused his attention to the window at the top.

"I know it's haunting. Look at that stone in the middle of the area. Notice that there's not one like it anywhere else? Or maybe that the entire area is flat while that stone is the only thing that sticks out more than this tower does."

"Nondis, you make it seem like this place is haunted." My older brother joked.

I decided to go along with his joke and tell him some of the stories I've heard from the other guards in basic training. "Yeah, you know what I heard about this place? I heard that this was some sort of square where they'd stockade, or openly shame those who committed crimes. And those who committed the worst crimes, stuff like murder, arson, rape, and treason, they were sent to the Rock of End."

It didn't take Alex no time to piece it all together. "So, you're saying that chunk of rubble over there is the supposed 'Rock of End' you mentioned?"

I continued my story. "Legend has it that there was once a vengeful knight who was loyal to Celestia, he murdered a noble who opposed her in cold blood. And it was a group of nobles, all whom the deceased was known to affiliate with, that bore witness to the killing and drew him in to trial. He was found guilty through the testimonies of the others, and was sentenced to an immediate death for treason against country. He kept screaming as they brought him to the rock, and when they cut off his head, he produced a terrible sound as that last, shrieking breath escaped from what was left of his wind-pipe. Some say that scream can be heard if you sat on the rock for more than sixty seconds, others say it's the wind you'd hear his screams from. A few even say he became the legendary Headless Horse, who would recreate that hellish sound just before bringing his victims to that rock for their end."

"Well we're not sleeping here tonight, so I could care less of what the fuck happened here." Rickey declared, though he started to look around the area more frequently, even checking behind himself as he spoke.

"It's not the windpipe that makes the sound, it's the larynx." Alex argued. "Furthermore, that makes no sense on how a sound like that would come from anywhere so low down on the neck."

"Well who's to say that the kill wasn't clean? You know that we've had our own accounts of unclean executions where they'd hack, and whack, and smack on the condemned like Butcher Pete."

"So you think that the kill wasn't clean and he screamed─"

Just before our argument could devolve into analytical details, Rickey quickly cut us both off. "Look, that shit is a myth! We are dealing with some real shit right now, so can we focus on the shit that's going down in this day and age? I already don't like this place and I hated it when we first got here! Can we please go!?"

Alex nearly jumped out of his skin as he felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. I started to suppress a laugh as my older brother glared angrily at me, almost like he was going to hit me as he mouthed the words "That's not funny." to me. Turning away from me, he picked up the phone and answered quietly. "Hello?"

"Oh shit, wrong number." Melanie whispered out while on the line. "Oh well, hey Alex. Where's Nondis?"

"He's... gonna die." He deadpanned.

"What?" Melanie responded seemingly in a panic.

Alex quickly corrected her. "He's not dead, though he might find out what it's like to fall from a hundred feet."

"Look, I understand that you two are going to annoy the shit out of each other, but right now we're in a bit of a situation where we can't get ourselves out. Now give Nondis the phone, please."

My older brother shoved the phone into my chest as he growled at me. "It's for you, faggot."

I shook my head with a smile and answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Yeah, we're stuck."

Stuck, how? "Wait, did the changelings capture you?"

"Kinda... but not intentionally. It's actually a funny story..."

"So let me get this straight. You followed the guys... and as you were following them, they stepped on a brick that activated some sort of─"

"Trapdoor, yes!"

"And now you guys fell into a room that has a bunch of numbers notched into the wall?"

"Look, it's really hard to move. We're working with maybe two or three inches of room to work with. I really don't wanna be down here any longer because my boobs are starting to feel like they're being compressed in an industrial strength garbage compactor."

"Can you look on your map and tell me where you are?"

"Nondis, we can't even access our phones well enough to pull up a screen of the map, let alone look at it from a distance where we can make out what's going on. We did fucking wonders just to get this shit in speakerphone mode, my screen is cracked."

"That bad? Uhhh... If you can work out another one of those miracles, that would help me help you. See if you can find out where you are first, and then we'll come by to get you out. How's that sound?"

"Great. We'll be waiting."

...This is so embarrassing. Just five minutes ago, we were hot on the trail that could've led us directly to Cheese, just thisclose to finding our guy and getting some additional info. And just when you think we've got it down-packed, the bastards step on a brick and we fall for what feels like a story. Now my ass hurts from the fall, my chest is compressed by Stanton's ill-placed foot, Stanton's right arm is buried beneath the rest of his body, and Cliff is the only one with enough head and shoulder room to actually do some stuff. But the only catch is that his phone is in his pants, and he can't reach past my legs and Stanton's shoulder.

Poor guy, he looks so contorted on the ground. I wonder if he'll wake up anytime soon.

"...Buurrrrgh..." Oh, there he goes. "Aaaugh... fu-uck... where the hell are we?"

"Morning, sleepyhead. You feeling okay?" I asked to the recuperating football player.

"Ehhhhhh... I feel like we went against Bama and lost... again."

"Not that great?" I asked.

"Not that great." He repeated as he finally sat himself up. "Okay, we were following some guys and fell down a hole... where are we now?"

Cliff, who found some relief after Stanton made the push against my legs on his chest. "Hey Mel, can you move your legs?"

"Give me a minute." I whispered, trying to keep in mind that we were still trying to be covert, even in the event that we were seen. "Let's try to be quiet, we don't want those changeling things to know we're in here."

"If they haven't found us already." Cliff quipped sarcastically.

I shimmied as best as I could to shift my legs off of his body, Stanton did whatever he could to get his foot off of my chest and his back off of Cliff's lower body. After about ten seconds, we finally untangled ourselves and drew a collective sigh as we finally became free of each other. Stanton rolled his neck, causing a grisly popping sound. He looked to me and apologized. "Sorry about my foot being in your chest."

"Nah, you're okay. It's getting kicked that's a real pain. With you, it felt like I was wearing a sports bra for an A-cup when I'm actually a 36-C."

"That's not a bad size. At least you'd have minimal back issues."

For once, I'm actually happy with my size rather than berating myself for not getting any bigger like I did when I was a freshman in high school. If I was a D or above, I'd be pissed. "...Nice calves. They look really well-toned."

"Thanks, Mel. High five?"

Both Stanton and I act like total dorks at times. Ever since Nondis went missing, he and I grew close as friends. I'd never have feelings for him because of more obvious reasons, and he never had feelings for me because of... well, you get the idea. The two of us high-fived each other as Cliff pulled out his phone.

"Damn, sure does feel great to have my legs not falling asleep. But that weird shit you feel when the blood comes rushing back is annoying as hell." He pulled up one of the pictures Nondis sent and started to see where we were. "So, we fell like how many floors?"

"One." I quickly replied. "If we would've fell two, there'd be no way none of us would be coming out of this without broken bones. We got lucky."

"Okay." Cliff swiped at his screen to the floor plans labeled Armory. "So we're probably on the floor with all the armored suits and pony legs sticking out from the wall."

Yeah, he's been here. "How would you know this is the floor we're on?"

"One: We fell one story from the basement floor, which would lead us to the second floor below ground level. Two: I remember walking down a hall with a bunch of plated armor mannequins and a bunch of rusted weapons hanging on the walls. And three: This is the level we came to last time to find the room full of the pods they stuck the ponies inside of."

Oh wow... so we're already on that floor? I knew that I would be a bit uncomfortable in knowing that several innocent lives were ended just a few rooms down from us. I just didn't think we'd come up on it so soon. "Ugh... just the thought of that last statement gives me the creeps. The last thing we need to run into is the spirits of the restless dead, who could be creeping behind our backs."

Suddenly, Cliff seemed to have frozen in place as soon as I mentioned the spirits of the dead. He lightly lunged forward as something pushed against him. He then turned his attention to Stanton and asked. "Ghosts aren't real, right?"

"Define ghosts."

"A person's presence post-mortem, usually in some intangible image or manipulation of sort."

"Well, there's a problem with that. If we were back in our world, I'd tell you that you don't have to worry too much about it. But we're in a magical world where ponies can fly, levitate shit, and move things much... heavier... than... themselves...?"

Suddenly, our thoughts of apparitions being a thing were now a plausible ideology... AND I DON'T LIKE THAT! "Okay, who's got some garlic and a crucifix?"

"Draw one on the wa─" Stanton said as he looked in his pockets to find something to draw with. But he turned his attention to something that caught his eye as he was looking around for a place to draw on. "...Hey, Cliff. What are those numbers beside you for?"

"They better not be sixes." Cliff quickly looked down to his right side and saw the scratchings on the wall. "Okay, I'm seeing tally marks but... what for?"

Cliff felt himself being pushed forward now, only this time the presence expanded on his back. He turned around and saw something poking at his back. "Okay what the fuck is─AW HELL NA─"

I covered his mouth as quickly as I could before his voice grew too loud. I looked behind him to see what it was that pushed him forward. "Okay, what's got you so..." And when I saw what was poking into his back... from a circular hole in the wall behind him, I immediately felt shock overtake all rationality. "Oh God, is that─" And then it pulled back from within the curtain of Cliff's dreads and revealed an oddly-shaped tip that seemed to bulge out in contrast to the shaft it was attached to. I gasped as I saw the hole at the tip leak a tiny bit of fluid that bridged onto some of his dreads. "Nooooo... Oh my God!"

"What the fuck is it!?" Cliff quickly asked through my fingers.

"It's fucking him." I squeaked out, causing Cliff to squirm. Unfortunately for him, the oddly-shaped penis decided to shove itself right into his back again as he squirmed, causing the giver to increase his pace.

Stanton covered his mouth, trying to hold back his laughter as he watched. "Oh shit, this can't be real."

"GET HIM OFF!" Cliff growled through his teeth.

I quickly shook my head in a panic. "No, I am NOT touching that!"

"How many dicks you touched already? GET THIS THING OFF ME!"

"How many times have you touched yourself? YOU GET IT OFF!"

Meanwhile, Stanton was turning a darker shade of red as we continue to argue. "This is the funniest shit I've seen in a while. I am so sorry."

Suddenly, we saw the thing prodding into his back twitch from underneath. Cliff's eyes widened as he immediately knew from experience what that throb in his back was. "HELL NAW! NOT TODAY, YOU AREN'T!"

With a quick lean to his left, Cliff managed to get the thing free from his dreads and off of his back altogether. But the situation became significantly worse once the one pitching decided to give it a final shove inside of Cliff's armpit and popping out of the front. Stanton dropped his hand and began to laugh uncontrollably as he saw the tip breach his armpit, but was quickly silenced by a long, thick rope of cum that landed on his face. He instantly became disgusted as he managed to catch a little of it mid-laughter. Another stream of cum shot out and landed on his nose and reached all the way down to the top of his chest. The tip throbbed and swelled as a few more spurts came shooting out, until it gradually landed back in Cliff's lap.

He let the anonymous pitcher free from his armpit as he stared in shock at the mess all over his shirt and pants. As the satisfied sperm donor retreated back into his hole, Cliff quietly cringed as the white goo trailed down his arm and onto his hand. With a quick flick, he got rid of the excess that drizzled down his body.

Stanton was too busy dealing with his own hell as he slowly tried to clear his eyes of the unexpected facial. The poor guy was on the verge of crying as he spat out a small amount he ended up tasting, followed by a quick trigger of his gag reflex and a cough. I could tell he really wanted to use his shirt to wipe off some of the mess, but he already knew that would probably make the situation worse. So he resorted to cleaning himself with his hands and holding back his vomit.

I was the only one who was left unscathed.

A traumatized Stanton quietly whispered to Cliff. "Ugh... ack... ukuh... Plan B, please."

Cliff reached back behind him with his left hand and found that he had a massive load sprayed onto his back. His face contorted as he realized that his dreads were in a similar state. "Yes... Yes... Please."

"Well I think they know we're in here, so why not." I suggested, giving up on our first plan since being quiet was not going to be an acceptable option for these two anymore.

The two turned to me and stared for a short while and then towards each other. "Let's do something real quick." Stanton suggested.

"Yeah, let's move this hoe right on around." Cliff said as he and Stanton stumbled all over each other onto their feet. Stanton quickly pushed me towards where Cliff once sat, causing me to clumsily shift to my right. After we were finished, I was replaced into the position where Cliff once sat, Stanton was where I once was, and Cliff was where Stanton was. I looked at the two as they gave each other a celebratory smirk. Meanwhile, I was more than disgusted to find that my hand had landed in a puddle of cum.

"Eww... it's so thick." I complained.

"Hey! Hey you on the other side!" A voice called out from inside of the hole behind me.

I almost threw a bitch fit as soon as I saw both Stanton and Cliff dab one another. But I realized that I was the only one who didn't get the humiliation they had to sit through. But I wasn't going to let myself get embarrassed like they did. I was gonna take another approach to this. Instead of letting this turn into an ordeal, I'm gonna turn it into an advantage. "Yeah!?" I called out in response.

"That thing you did to my friend, apparently you did something that REALLY got his rocks off."

I cringed as he said that. "Well, it's a new technique I was practicing." I posed in my most sexual tone, despite the fact that I'm practically doing all I can to not puke while I speak. "I call it 'the fourth hole'." I stated at Cliff's expense. Sorry buddy, but you placed me in this position.

"Yeah, whatever you did, can you do it for me next?" He asked, shoving his cock into the formerly used hole. My stomach churned at the sight of the semi-flaccid slab of meat placed just behind me. I took a deep breath, a swallow of spit, and turned myself around to face what was in front of me.

Gotta admit, these fuckers are packing a decent size. "Um... Actually, I'm up for way more than this." I can't believe I'm suggesting this. "But if you don't mind, I really don't like being trapped in here. It's fine to play with myself every now and then, but I get to the point where I just want some skin-on-skin."

"OOOOOOH HOO HOO HOO HOO!!!" I take it from that sound, he was very excited. Even his cock started to expand and throb with life. "You must've got hit hard by those spores!"

I rolled my eyes at his terrible mood-breaker, not that I was all too much into it. "MMmmm-Yeah... I don't like being in here, it's too stuffy." I complained, sounding as if I was a whining child. "Get me out!"

"Hurry and find that switch!" So there is a way out of here? "Okay, now tell me what's you're gonna do once you get out?"

"Well..." I'm going to be on so many levels of sick. "I might just take my ha-HOOF." Right, they don't know what hands are. "And rub the tip, and let it glide slowly on down... and then when I get to the bottom, I'm gonna start teasing you with my tongue." BARF! "And when you start twitching from that, I'm gonna watch as it bounces around."

"Oh, that's no fair." He said, seemingly entranced by the thoughts. He pulled himself out from the hole and continued to speak. "That's so mean... Tell me more." He asked in a desperate tone.

"To be honest, I wanna find out myself." Cliff muttered beneath his breath.

"Hello." Stanton agreed.

I rolled my eyes at both of them as I continued. "Then... I'm gonna lightly blow on the tip, and watch you leak on down. And then I'm gonna use my hoof to clean you off. But you're not allowed to help me, I want you to sit back and take whatever I give you. No touching me, no touching yourself. Those are my rules, you do what I tell you to, when I tell you to do it, and how I want you to do it, otherwise we start all over."

"FOUND IT, FOUND THE SWITCH!" The other one called out anxiously.

I quickly pulled out my gun as the changeling I teased shouted out to the other. "PULL IT!" His attention was soon brought back to me. "Hey, if you can, like lean against the wall so that you don't get your mane or tail caught in the rotation."

"Okay!" Hell, I'm not gonna refuse some advice. I huddled up and waited for whatever was supposed to happen. Then without warning, the floor shifted a bit, causing the three of us to look down at the ground, transforming into a semi-circular area around the place I sat. Meanwhile the wall turned and pulled me into a dimly-lit hallway, facing two confused changelings.

The first one started. "What?"

The second tilted it's head. "The"

I smiled as I pointed my gun into the face of the first one, who was still holding himself. "Hi!"

"So that's how you three managed to get out?"

"Yup. That's how it happened... and nothing else."

"So, you fooled two changelings into getting you out of the trap, for sexual favors?"

"Uh-huh"

"They pulled a lever that turned a revolvable wall, and you ended up in the Armory?"

"From what Cliff said, this was the place you found the little girl."

"Yeah, well you guys can start working your way up, we'll meet you up front."

"Wait, you found the guy?"

"Yeah, we heard him moaning while we were in the courtyard. You guys work back to the front entrance and we'll meet you there."

"Solid copy. Mel, out."

Well that makes my job a whole lot easier. About two minutes into waiting for that phone call, we heard a series of loud moans followed by an earth-shattering scream. And thankfully it didn't take us long to identify that the sound was coming from within the tall tower just across the courtyard.

A few awkward stares later, we decided that we would hit up our closest objective first and then come back to help the others. Rickey wasn't too fond of the idea, but Alex managed to convince us both that a response to the immediate task was a better choice than to double-back and possibly find that Cheese had been moved already. He also argued that they were too well-armed to allow something like the changelings to deal them in.

A point that I strongly agreed with.

So we trekked onward and started to climb up the stairs when we finally got our phone call. And to much of Rickey's relief, they found a means of getting themselves out. Honestly, if they would've waited any longer, I would've called them and tried to see if I could work something out to where we could make our rounds. But since that's no longer an option, we can finally focus on getting what we came for.

We finally climbed to the top of the staircase and saw a single door leading into the next room. I decided to take point and lead them in this time, letting Alex bring up the rear. I opened the door and looked around to see what our surroundings were.

I couldn't help but to think that I've been in here once before. As I looked around, I could only see a few dusty items and a bunch of stocks. Apparently, they must've used this place to hold all the tools for the 'festivities' and such.

I quickly turned around to see that Alex had bumped into a chain dangling from the ceiling.

Looking up to the ceiling above, I could see nothing but a bunch of spider webs, moldy wood, and large chains with hooks woven all around the room. My eyes shifted to the ground below, noticing that I was standing on some odd-looking sigil. Immediately, my mind pulled the pieces together. "Okay, now this place, I know it's bad news." I whispered.

Rickey walked over to the window, seal, which was set oddly low against the floor, almost like a step. "Yeah... makes me wonder what those hooks outside were actually there for."

...Well they weren't there for that, I'll say that much.

We turned our attention to a small door on the other side of the room. The three of us quietly ran up and gathered our thoughts. Slowly, I cracked it open to reveal another room, one vastly different that the one we just left. And I mean DIFFERENT. Instead of chains hanging from the ceiling, there were strips of lacy silk and satin. It was well-furnished also, and not in the torture-chamber kinda way. And there was a large sigil on the floor, taking up all of the floor space instead of only taking up the half like that other one I stepped on. Furthermore, there was another one on the ceiling to match, and a smaller one imbued upon that one just above the bed.

...The bed where Cheese mounted Pinkie.

The stallion grunted heavily as he thrusted with all of his might, not once even paying any attention to the three humans that just walked in on him. His hoof was buried in Pinkie's shoulders as he lunged back and forth, his pace being slow but his reach touching her in places that made her choke on the air she tried to breathe in. He sweated all over as he moaned one final time before he stopped and shook, his hind legs rattling as he struggled to stay mounted. A look of disappointment showed on his face as the pink mare used a hoof to grab at his chin, whispering to him. "Don't stop, keep it going."

The others turned away with a blush as they caught a glimpse of the two going at each other.

To my displeasure, I had to break him out of his workout routine. "Cheese."

My voice was enough to send the two into a frenzy to cover themselves. The stallion popped out, his seed spilling down her haunches and onto the floor. He quickly sat down and hid himself as he faced the bed, avoiding all eye-contact with me. The pink mare shuddered as she covered herself with the tattered sheets from on top of the old bed. "H-h-hey..." She stammered. "W-w-what are y-you doing here?"

I shook my head, realizing just what this would probably come down to. "Cheese... Cheese, we need to leave."

He didn't respond to me the first time, but after I called for him a second time and placed my hand on him, he quickly batted me off and screamed at me. "NO, YOU NEED TO LEAVE US ALONE!"

Alex and Rickey quietly watched as I continued to argue to the confused stallion. "Look, you're not yourself right now. You're kinda mixed up right now because of the spores─"

"I'm fine!" He shouted. "I'm perfectly healthy, and I'm in the middle of making love to my special somepony! Who are YOU to come between us at such an intimate moment!?"

"Cheese─" He wouldn't give me a chance to answer.

"Oh, I get it. You're just returning the favor since I did it to you, back when Pinkie was still shoving her tongue down your throat, is that it!?"

I've never seen him so defensive... That little tidbit of information managed to draw some attention from the two others standing behind me. But I know that story can come after we finish with what we have to do now. "Cheese. This... this isn't real." I said as I pointed between the two of them.

"No... I'll tell you what's not real. You try having a relationship with somepony you love, only for her to keep brushing you aside every time some other colt's name comes out of her mouth! You try having an intimate evening without her requesting a roleplay, for me to recreate an event that I wasn't even here to witness! You try listening to her talk about someone else behind your back and throw you out of the room whenever she has a conversation about them! You keep playing for second place, see how it feels when you have someone that doesn't even see you first!"

Okay... I've missed out on a lot. "Oh...righty then. Um, I'm not trying to take anything from you."

"You don't even have to try!" He screamed once more. "Look at me, I'm constantly doing everything I can to make up for lost time. And here you are just stepping in and taking a beating to make yourself look more attractive."

For a second, I began to see what it was that made him so unreasonable. This time as he spoke, I could've sworn I saw a slight glimmer in his eye that caused it to turn green... greener than usual. I looked over to the pink pony sitting on the bed, staring at him as he spoke. I decided to take my attention away from the objective and address the problem. "Excuse me, but could you walk out of the room while he and I have a heart-to-heart.

Cheese grew all the more unreasonable. "No. Everyone needs to know just what kind of individual you are! You go around, collecting your little tub of hearts. And whenever you feel like you can, you decide that your physical needs outweigh the emotional attachments of others! You're nothing but a farce!"

Alex looked about ready to step up to the plate, but was held back by Rickey. Meanwhile, the pony slightly smiled as she stared at the stallion. At that point, she was really starting to irk my nerves. I pulled up my rifle and aimed directly for her. "Cheese, that's not Pinkie."

The stallion began to look at me darkly, scraping his hoof against the ground. "So now you decide that you want to attack her? So you can't have her, then nobody can, is that right?"

"Dude, Pinkie is back at the castle. She's the one who called us to get your crazy ass!" Rickey announced as he continued to hold Alex back.

"You stay out of this!" Cheese hollered. "It's between me and him."

"Cheese, I'm sorry! I'm sorry you gotta see this!" I kept saying as my finger crept towards the trigger. "But if I have to show you the truth, then I will. C'mon, you know I want what's best for you."

"I'm not going to let you hurt her!"

Cheese quickly placed himself in the way as I started to squeeze the trigger. As soon as I saw him move, I threw my aim to the side without firing. "Don't do this, get out of the way."

"Cheese, help me." The pink impostor whimpered lightly.

I knew how to get him to understand, one way or another. "Pink, what's my name!?" I asked. "Cheese, don't you dare answer."

The impostor laughed as she gave her answer. "Duh, your name is... is... um... i-i-it's on the tip of my tongue..."

"You're stressing her out! Leave her alone!" The stallion demanded strongly.

Strike one. "Who came to save me when I got beat up by Caramel so many months ago?"

The pony continued to struggle. "Um... I think... Now I remember, It was our friends."

And Cheese continued to defend her. "I said leave her alone!"

Wrong answer, strike two. "Okay, now when Cheese came into town and you ran upstairs, we all had a conversation with one another. And in that moment, you told us exactly who you truly loved the most. Who was it that you truly loved the most? And you better get this one right."

"It's Pinkie, for Faust's sake! Leave, NOW!!!"

"Listen to her answer, Cheese!" Alex interjected. "You might not like it, but it is what it is!"

"I said stay out of it!"

The pink pony dropped her head as she finally gave her answer. "...I said I loved you."

Everyone in the room remained quiet, including the aggressive stallion. He stood and watched as the pink mare lifted her head and looked at me with a gentle smile.

"I remember it, as clear as day. We walked into the room, we talked, and you asked who did I have feelings for. So I told you the truth... I said that I loved you, that I just couldn't bear to stand it. But I knew that you wouldn't take that for an answer, especially when there was a stallion who loved me for so long waiting right beside you. You decided to let him go first, I know that I sometimes think about you when I'm with him, but that's just it. I love you both, but my future is with Cheese."

The stallion didn't speak so much as a world as he slowly walked away from the pink impostor. The mare's smile disappeared as soon as Cheese left her side. Alex sighed as he spoke. "I told you, I said that the answer was going to be something you didn't like. And I take it that Pinkie never told you that she wanted Nondis."

"No." I corrected. "She told him outright."

"Seriously?" Rickey asked as Alex's jaw fell.

The demoralized stallion turned to the two other humans and spoke the words we heard that day.

"I love you, Cheese, for being the one who gave me a new sense of inspiration in what I do. I couldn't stop thinking about you when you were away, and now that you're here again, I feel like I found something worth while. Throughout all these months, the thought of you helped me wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night. And for your coming here, I don't want you to come back to something that doesn't exist."

The earth-toned stallion looked at the pink party pony as she nuzzled him tenderly, but stopped herself as soon as she turned to me.

"I love you, Nondis, for being the one who stood up for me, even in the face of my worst fear. You took so much pain when you defended me, and yet you didn't care, you only wanted to see me happy. And you stood with me through one of my worst times, you have a special place in my heart, and I can't bear to see myself without you."

She walked up to me and nuzzled against me as well, crying as she confessed.

"I'm so sorry... I know it's impossible to be able to love the two of you at once, especially when I don't know if either of you will leave me again. I don't think I can do it. So deep down in my heart, I want to be preemptive and break off of the both of you, so that way I don't hurt anypony. But I can't... I can't think of my life without either of you."

I spoke the words that were said to the both of us. "I love you both so much, I couldn't bear to choose between either of you."

"It would hurt me to know that I've left one of you alone. So I'm sorry if I seem selfish, but I want both of you to be mine." Cheese concluded.

Alex and Rickey stared at Pinkie's impersonator with bewilderment, as if she was the one to say it. The stallion walked out of the room in silence as he began to shed tears, realizing that the entire time he was sharing himself with someone not named Pinkamena Diane Pie. Alex broke his gaze and tended to the sniffling stallion while I brought my attention to the still-disguised changeling.

"So... you've put on quite a show, really had us going. But now it's time to go, curtain's finally closing. That was quite a show, very entertaining... but it's over now."

"Quoting Rihanna?" Rickey said as he was about to exit the room, leaving me to finish the job.

"Couldn't think of anything better." I said as I brought my rifle sights back to the image of Pinkie Pie. "Now... how about a round of applause?"

The changeling smiled as she closed her eyes and accepted the fact that she was caught. With a soft tone, she whispered to me. "You were always special to me... Non-Non."

Well this took me a while to get to. I'm beginning to think that I need to shorten my chapters back down to 8-9 thousands. Of course, this one was more of an open end because the next chapter immediately picks up from where this one left off. Hopefully I can get that one out within the next two weeks.

But life has started to grip up, I managed to get the transmission fixed (yay) but now I gotta practice for a production known as The Wiz (aww). So again, bear with me, I will be a little busy with music for a while. But that doesn't mean that I will be skimping out on chapters. In fact, this one was significantly easier than the recent ones I had to write. So the next one should be out soon(™).

As for what happens next, well there will be a bit of a cool down in the next chapter, so there won't be too much action. But stick around, there's bound to be some stuff you miss.