The last time I was up at 3 a.m. over a phone call was the time we found out that gramps had passed away. He was administered to the hospital in the afternoon, so dinner was very uneasy. The conversation at the table was filled with so much silence, visible ellipses were floating above our heads. Not even dad could force a conversation to start up. School, friends, sports, girls, relationships, emotions, none of us wanted to talk about it. And mom especially wasn't going to say a word, she just stared at her plate and cried. Probably the first time we didn't say grace, none of us wanted to open that emotional bag that came with talking to God.

Could you even blame us?

But if we did, would it change anything? What would it have done other than have some random pastor walk up to us later and say that 'It's all in God's Plan.' That would offer little comfort to us, and I would've thought it as an insult, leading me to question more about the God I believed in, questions that would've been borderline blasphemous. A lot of things that I would've been angry about would've boiled over and I would've had to hear it from dad.

The last time I missed a call at three in the morning was Mel trying to get my attention over her ex-boyfriend. But what could I even do about that, especially being that I was in Equestria? I would only be able to offer her words. And if she had stayed the night, I don't know what I would've done in the wake of 3 a.m. other than hastily research ways to dispose of a body. I would've killed him if I had to take Mel in like that.

So not a lot of good came at the precursor hours to sunrise, but this time was vastly different. "Nondis... Cadie's pregnant."

"Are you kidding?"

"No. The doctors had to test and retest everything. That's why we were in the doctor's office for twelve hours. They couldn't believe what they were seeing."

And of course, the natural reaction to getting this information would be of elation. But I had to substantially tone my volume down, it's dead hours of the morning, not even the military wakes up this early, much less some of the other neighbors. "Dude, what the hell are you upset over? You've got a kid, you're proud papa now! Congratulations!"

"This isn't what I wanted." Shining stated on the other line.

I quickly retracted my excitement for concern. "Whoa, dude. You mean you didn't like Cadance having a foal?"

He sighed, muttering to himself repeatedly. "It's not time yet. It's... it's not."

Immediately, the mood soured. My mind was already thinking about the severity of the conversation and how I was going to bring about any possible solutions as tastefully and cautiously as possible. I didn't quite know how to bring this up gently, but I wanted the option to be there for them if it was something they couldn't have. "Have you talked to her about... you know... that option?"

"What option?" He asked.

"Like is the situation where the both of you are not wanting this to happen or something?"

"How could we want this, Nondis?" He asked, I could hear a bit of pain in his voice.

"So again, the two of you haven't discussed the possibility of getting it... you know... cleared out?"

"What do you mean 'cleared out'?" Judging from the tone of his voice, he probably didn't like what I was going to suggest.

"Are you two thinking about any measures to... goddamn I don't feel good having this kind of conversation. But did you and Cadance ever talk about any alternatives to having the baby?"

Almost instantaneously, I was already visualizing Shining pouncing at the screen, seeming as if he was going to grab me through it. "ARE YOU FUCKING OUT OF IT? DID CHRYSALIS GET TO YOU OR SOMETHING!?"

Right then, I knew I had to explain myself. "I'm just asking, it's a thing that's practiced in our world when the circumstances are not ideal or if the situation proves to be too dangerous to the mother. I mean─"

But it didn't change his reaction in the slightest. "Cadance would never murder an innocent foal. She'd never accept it, I couldn't accept it, and you ought to be ashamed of even thinking of the idea!"

"Whoa there, I am so sorry. I'm just so used to hearing about the conversation and knowing that it's a debate topic here in the States. I didn't know that was looked at so negatively over on your end. I should've asked you about the topic first before presenting any possibility of that."

Still a bit upset over my suggestion, but acknowledging the confession of my ignorance to his belief on the topic, he calmed his voice. "It's not like that's a feasible option to begin with. She's four months in."

"FOUR─" I had to cusp my mouth to prevent myself from getting too loud. Not only Twilight was sleeping but the neighbors around me as well. "She's four months? How the hell did no one notice this shit?"

"How didn't you!?" He asked, seemingly trying to place the brunt of ignorance on me.

"Sir, I can't keep up with your wife. She's married to you, not me. I had my own relationship problems to worry about with her diving in them as it was." I bluntly replied. "And the sickness she's been battling?"

"Morning sickness." Shining replied.

"This far in?"

"The doctors already said that is an extremely rare and unlikely case." He answered.

"Did they take an ultrasound?"

"A what?" Shining questioned confusedly.

Oh man, I gotta get Mel to provide some intense medical info to these guys. But they can somehow identify the chemical to be associated with pregnancy. I guess they're overly dependent on magic to where they just bypass certain aspects of medical research. Then again, magic fixed my bones up real good, so who needs titanium screws and all that other shit? "Nevermind. So you're big papa now. Those are some pretty big shoes you got there."

Shining's voice dropped to the ground as he spoke. "...It's going to be a girl."

"Wait, how do you know that?"

"Nondis, there's a seventy-three percent chance that Cadance will give birth to a filly. It's also possible that she might undergo severe postmaternal side effects because of her unique anatomy. If things go bad..."

If it all goes to the worst, then it might end up being something life-threatening, fatal even. I know birth complications are something we still deal with in this world, that should go without saying for Equestria. And I don't recall any alicorns being conceived or conceiving throughout Equestrian history. He has a real reason to be scared. "Shining, nothing's gonna happen to Cadance."

"But what about the baby? Can you say the same for that?"

"Shining, the most you're gonna have to deal with is when she comes of age and you're having to chase away stallions because she's getting curious..." As that thought ran through my head, I remembered the times he made my life a living hell over his sister. I understood that there was a law that we came close to breaking, and we did inevitably end up breaking said law. And then the cruel reality hit me as it started to manifest in my head what his concern was for the foal. "Oh... Oh no..."

"Now you understand, right?"

Again, a conversation at 3 a.m. never lead to a good place. But I didn't want him to just hear the words coming from my mouth. I needed him to have more assurance than that. He needed to see me, that's probably why he was so adamant about looking for me here. "Hold up, I'll call you right back." I said, before I tried to hang up the phone, but the icon was still missing. "Discord, end the call and switch to the face-time call function." The phone quickly popped from one app to the other, almost seamlessly even. Shining's face popped up on the screen, his eyes reddened and his mane a bit disheveled. "Okay, you see me?" I asked the stressed prince.

I could already see the streetlights behind him moving back and forth as he paced. "Nondis, I'm scared. Being a royal is going to be that foal's birthright. And I don't know what they'll do to her if she does something wrong. They're going to be violating my daughter with every fucking inspection." Just at that moment, I could see the same blood-fueled anger he showed against the arimaspi in the mountain. The idea of them periodically sending her to a physician to check on her virtue would be enough to send me into a dark state of mind. I can only imagine how he felt about it.

"Shining, Shining, let's talk." I tried to ease the young prince, offering my words of sympathy. "I know you got a lot on your mind right now, you're not the only one. I got my own issues, but with you... aw man."

I could see him grabbing the back of his head, pulling his mane over his face out of frustration. "Nondis, I'm so scared. I don't know what to do. I've never been a father before, I don't know how to be a good father, and then there's the law─"

"Pony gestation period is like eleven months right?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Humans are born in nine. By our standards, that's not even halfway." I said, thinking out loud to myself.

"What does that matter?"

I turned my attention back to the prince again. "Blueblood made sure we're gonna get this shit done in two months or less. I don't know about you, but I think that those two months can go by real quick."

"But what if we fail? What do I tell Cadance then?" He questioned.

"Dude, if we fail, there's a small possibility we might lose our heads for treason and conspiracy, again, a small one. I don't think it'll be that bad, but knowing some of these politicians, they'd sooner send us to the gallows over that shit. I think it's safe to say that we ain't failing."

"Great, so I'll be killed before I could even see my filly's eyes open for the first time." Shining replied with a bit of sarcasm.

"My point is..." I interrupted. "The point is that we're more than likely going to do what we gotta do and get it done before you even start talking about baby showers and all that other bullshit."

"That's even if we manage to get that far! What if this goes up in flames before we could even make a move─"

"Shining!" I again interrupted him. Both he and Twilight are bad for overthinking the worst-case scenario. "Dude, we got this. For right now, you focus on your wife, go back to her, make sure everything's calm, then when we get back to Canterlot, just be ready to handle business."

The stallion's thought quickly transferred over to the thought of his younger sibling. "I gotta tell Twily..."

"Okay, I'll be sure to tell her in the morning." I assured.

"Oh no, I have to tell her in person. The last time I told her something, I had to send an invite to the wedding for her to get the memo. She wasn't very pleased with me over that."

"Okay, well you break that to her in whatever way you feel like it." I said.

"You just don't tell her anything. She wouldn't like news coming from any other source aside from me. I owe it to her this time."

"Okay, okay. I can see you're feeling a bit better about it."

The stallion sighed heavily, closing his eyes. "I'm still processing it."

I really couldn't imagine how it feels to have the news of something beautiful become overshadowed by something that could potentially be as harrowing as the grim sight of one's own daughter undergoing so much in the future. If I could only visualize how Shining's gonna raise his little girl, especially during a certain time of the year, that might be even harder on her. You could always put her under the same regiment of spells Twilight had done to her, but who's to say that she won't agree to make herself vulnerable for a guy she'd like? She could be disciplined enough to not fall in that same trap, but one can never live the shame of being inspected in such an intimate manner so frequently.

If I was a father having to watch his daughter go to a bunch of doctors and spread her legs every month under rule of law, I'd feel the impulse to commit high treason and ensure that nation undergoes a chaotic downfall. To just imagine anyone touching my kid every month for a marriage law while there could be possible politicians trying to shove their sons in her face would piss me off to no end. It's unfair to see these things when the only thing that's happened thus far is the meandering phrase of 'My wife is pregnant'.

That's a whole lot to process. And I couldn't do anything but offer words of encouragement. "Hey, Shining."

"Yeah?"

There was one little bit of a problem though... "You know, it takes humans on average fourteen months to learn how to walk when we're born." I couldn't quite find anything to say that would fit the occasion.

"That's... a really, REALLY long time."

"It takes an average of eight months to crawl."

The stallion shook his head. "Dear Celestia, that's slow. We usually learn how to walk within the day. Some even fly and use magic by then."

"Goes to show you how long it takes for us to get on the up and up. But after that, it's a lot of learning involved." I finally realized that after a little bit, I started to veer off topic. "...I have no idea where I was going with all of that."

"Heh, obviously." He said with an eye roll.

"Yeah, but... Shining, you're the man." Finally something came to mind, I didn't know if these would be the words he needed to hear or if they even applied to him. But I was going to try to say something good. "I know 'man' is a bit of a weird thing for you ponies, but we usually get called men when we do things like fix our cars, work a nine-to-five, play and watch sports, own a house, lose your virginity, all that other stuff. But I consider a 'man' to be a person who's willing to provide for their family and do whatever it takes to keep their family safe, stand up for what they believe in and be willing to die for it... Not everyone who comes out of basic training are men, not everyone who comes away from college with a diploma are men. But you, you are just that even if you're a bit different. I see myself as a boy right now, I haven't hit the milestones I wanna hit yet. But I see you as the man you are, and I can tell that you're gonna be fine."

"So I take it that a 'man' is some sort of honor in your world?" He asked.

"We tend to take it lightly over on our side of the mirror, but my grandfather had a strict definition of it that he made Alex, Stanton, and I memorize. So yeah, you're the man, Shining. I know stallion is a pony thing, but I just wanted you to know the human connotation of what you really are. And I couldn't be more proud of you, dude."

Shining smiled lightly as he took the compliment. But his smile quickly subsided as he put a hoof to his chin. "Fight for your family, fight for what you believe in, and be willing to put it all on the line. Something tells me you'd be ready for a few foals of your own."

I quickly dismissed his statement. "Pfft, no. I'm still in the business of having fun. What did you say to me when we were at the bar that one time?"

Shining laughed as he remembered our conversation that day, before we boarded the train to defend Canterlot. "Aw yeah, I guess that's your thing now.... Just try not to get my sister involved in your little hunt again."

"I can make no such promise, sir. What we do is our decision when the time comes." Hell, every night I'd go to sleep with ideas.

Shining stopped laughing for a bit, this time giving me a fair warning. "If she ends up in trouble again, or if she get's hurt─"

"Hell, I'll get you to come by my world so we can duke it out on my home turf. Least then you can get the chance to say you beat me at something." I replied.

The young prince nodded. "Sounds like a rematch."

"One-nil, bub. Come even the score."

Shining drew another breath before his eyes wandered back to the train in the background. His tone softened as he spoke. "Well I better be getting on this train. Five hours north ain't gonna travel itself."

"Gotcha. You stay safe, I'll be praying for you and Cadance to pull through." Even if she can be quite annoying at times and there will be moments where I want to strangle her myself. I still wish her well and good health for her growing family.

"Appreciate it." Shining said with a yawn.

"Alright, man. Later."

It took a while for me to get back to sleep after that phone call, up to half an hour. But when I closed my eyes, I found myself having a similar dream to what I had yesterday. Me being caught in Twilight's arms, laying all over me and telling me about the things she wanted to do with me. But even in my dream, it was as if I couldn't even rip off her clothes to see anything. And if I did, something came about to obscure the vision. And yet her voice in my ear had to be the most arousing thing I felt in that entire sequence. I could already envision the exaggerated movements of her tongue, her lips kissing against my cheek, her playful biting of my ear. Even as she whispered sweet nothings in my ear.

Unfortunately for me, those sweet nothings turned into the loud bell-like chirping of my phone's alarm. My eyes popped open as I tried to slam the snooze function on the screen. But after I did, it immediately popped back up, annoying the loving shit out of me. I couldn't help but to sit up and see Discord onscreen literally ringing the bell icon with the volume bar at full blast.

"MotherFUCKER!" I punched out angrily, causing the draconequus to chuckle with demented glee.

"Is something the matter?" I heard Twilight say from down the hallway.

"Nah, just my phone being annoying." I said while reading the time on the screen. Apparently that dream I had lasted all but two and a half hours. But it was a few minutes after six.

"I've never known you for cussing out of your sleep. Did you have a bad dream or something?" She asked.

"More like I was having a good one that could've been even better." I replied groggily.

"Really, like what?"

How do you explain to your ex that you've had a wet dream about them? "Well, it involved you."

"Really, what did I do?" She asked curiously, walking into the room.

"You just... You were just being you, and I liked it." I replied with a slight amount of shame.

Twilight's cheeks reddened a slight amount before she covered her mouth. "Well... You're not the only one who had a few lingering thoughts. Kissing you kinda reminded me of what it was like with you."

"You mean us being an item?"

The young princess played with her fingers as she turned around. "It also made me realize that I was a little curious about being in this form while in a state of arousal. I just had to sneak a journal over here and jot down a few things. The last time I was like that in a human form, I really didn't have the time to write it down or experiment. So, I took some time for research."

What the fuck. "So... if you don't mind me asking─"

Completely flustered, Twilight squeaked as she grabbed my hand to silence me. "Hey! So what else happened with you yesterday?"

Judging from the way she tried to change the subject, she probably carried out those experiments while I was knocked out or away somewhere. Only one way to summarize it. "Am I going to have to change my sheets?"

Twilight covered her face with abject embarrassment. "I might have accidentally discovered that the effects of a human orgasm can lead to involuntary ejaculation followed by intense muscle spasms."

So she's a squirter... I didn't think I could manage my morning responses any worse than in that current moment. "...I guess I'll drop my sheets in the wash then."

"And..." She squeaked for a moment before dropping any desire to speak further.

"And what?" I asked, urging her to continue.

"...You might want to wipe down your TV. And the wall. And─look I had to keep going to see how often they kept happening and to what degree! I'm sorry my research got a little out of hoof."

"When was this!?" I asked.

"You went to the laundromat to wash my clothes. I just assumed that you were going to be a while and I just figured that I'd use the time to answer a few lingering questions. I'm sorry for the mess, really!"

So she got to treat my room like a shooting gallery while I've been holding my nuts like the fucking squirrel from Ice Age. Now I wake up and find out I'm gonna have to clean girl cum off my TV. That's a hell of a way to start my morning: Balls so blue, they've become a museum exhibit. "So you mean to tell me that you didn't try to clean up after yourself?"

"I did, but there's a few things that kinda linger..."

Just the thought of that statement had me both sexually frustrated and angry. "Is that why you're up so early, to make sure that I couldn't find out about this?"

"Actually, I was going to handle a few things back in Equestria before we left. Just a few duties before we finally set out to meet up with your folks again." She replied innocently, completely as if the mess and her actions were a side-thought.

"So I'm gonna have to finish cleaning up the mess and wash the sheets."

"Sorry." She replied sheepishly. "I'll try to show some self-control next time."

Meanwhile I've been wanting to bust a nut for two days in the laundry room. That's fair. "At least you were upfront about it. I'm just gonna have to find something else to do until you get back."

"Oh, I should be back around 1:30 this afternoon. From there, we can make our way to your parents. Celestia would probably be done sooner than me so keep an eye out for her should she come by."

"Okay." That should give me thirty minutes from the time she leaves to get myself situated. Hell, I might as well start going through my browser's bookmarks and see what's new in the 'amateur' tab on PornHub.

After a few minutes, Twilight cast her transformation spell and quickly trotted through the portal, leaving me to my tainted room. I closed the door and immediately popped on the browser to see a picture of Discord laying in a seductive pose wearing a maid outfit licking the handle of a feather duster.

"What the fuck?"

The picture then moved as the creature winked at me. "Oh you missed quite a spectacular water show last night, there was this human female laying on your bed just expressing herself in ways I didn't even think you humans were into."

"Can you please leave? I need my alone time if I can't have my little extra hour of sleep." I pleaded with a scowl on my face.

The draconequus chuckled as he leaned back against the text on the browser as if the word 'Google' was a couch. "Well I know you'd be interested in locating some rather questionable material to satiate your desire for release." As he said that, a page with my recent browsing history came up and he scrolled down to a golden square icon with the letters 'PH' in bold black. "Buuuut there is a bit of a problem that awaits you for the time being."

"What?" I questioned before a knock sounded at my front door. Gritting my teeth, I secretly cursed the creature on my desktop and stormed to answer the door. As soon as I opened it, there stood a middle-aged lady with a pants suit and a black clipboard in her possession. Standing behind her was a man with a peppered head of hair with a stubby beard.

"Good morning."

"Who are you?" I bluntly asked, feeling quite annoyed.

She reached down on her waist to pull a golden badge and politely gave me her name. "My name is Deborah Smalls, behind me is my assistant Gregor Sanduski. We're investigators for the APD. I understand it's early on Thanksgiving morning, but when we tried to get in contact with you in the past you would never show. So since we received a tip that you were in town, we figured we had to pay you a visit."

Any kind of animosity I had over this random lady knocking at my door at six in the morning had all subsided with a multitude of emotions, one that stood out in particular was fear. "Is something wrong, ma'am?"

"Nothing wrong, we just wanted to ask you a few questions pertaining to your friend Melanie Brewer, a few things about her past that you may know, a few other tidbits, and some information about an ongoing investigation. There was a police report filed in the recent month detailing that she was undergoing some form of abuse from a suspect that just posted their bail four days ago."

"Jasper's out!?" I questioned lividly.

"He's on bond and is being monitored. Any other details pertaining to him are to be an undisclosed matter. As for the information I provided to you, it is for your safety that you were debriefed on those details since you were involved with the suspect."

"He and I are not involved in anything mutual." I strongly argued.

The man behind the female investigator finally spoke up. "An altercation where it was noted that you placed him in the hospital is nothing short of involvement. And again, we're sorry to inform you that your Thanksgiving morning has to be interrupted due to an ongoing criminal investigation, especially since he was trying to land assault charges on you."

I shook my head as I tried to defend myself. "But I didn't even start it! He hit first!"

"We believe you." He replied. "The reports we received were all congruent of your account with the exception of the report the suspect made. But we're not here to talk about you right now, we're here to talk about your friend."

"So what about her?" I asked.

"We just wanted to know what you know about her. The reason is classified." The lady replied.

"Am I going to have to testify in court?" I asked.

"That's something to be decided by the prosecutor and the judge." The man answered. "For now, just be ready to hear your name called."

As early as it was, I didn't have the energy to fuss about something like that. Tentatively, I complied with their request. "Would you two like to come inside?"

Already, this seems to be the start of a long-ass day...

Several Hours Later...
Twilight's Castle
***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

If I could say anything about how I felt telling Nondis what happened last night, it would be sheer embarrassment and complete shame in myself. Had I known the reactions of human arousal would've lead to something so disastrous and messy, I would've exercised some self-control and refrain from experimentation until I obtained a comprehensive testimony from another human's perspective. I probably should've called Melanie first before doing anything. If he cleans that mess up and makes no further mention of it, I might already have a portrait of him in my friendship hall of fame.

...That concept might be a creative way to notate the actions of a good friend, I should incorporate that later.

Either case, I zipped my way back to Equestria to tackle some paperwork and checked my schedule for the next week. Spike, being his helpful self, ensured that I was well kept with my documents. Even though my personal organization skills are adequate enough to not warrant his assistance, his ability to triple check after me is a valuable asset that allows me to remain efficient in my approach.

However, as I was finishing up with some important work, I heard a knock on the door downstairs. I answered to see Ms. Cherilee standing before me. In her hooves contained a permit of placement for a new playground at her school. The documents were already signed by a notary, being none other than Mayor Mare, so my signature was needed to royally approve the spending on the project.

And since this was a thing for the fillies and colts at her school, I wanted to be of help outside of signing off on something. So I left Spike to finish where I had left off, and I volunteered my services to build the new playground. I wasn't anything like Applejack when it came to the hammer and nail, but my keen eye for perfection was great for overseeing the construction and making sure that everything was in it's exact place. Even if it meant that I had the inglorious task of being the one to tell the other workers that the roof of the assembly was a little too far to the left, I wanted this to be perfect for the school. They deserved this for a long time and now the foals have what they've long asked for.

Our work came to fruition and the rest of us headed inside to celebrate a job well done. It wasn't much but a few cupcakes and punch to commend everyone for their hard work, but that moment was disturbed when we heard loud screeching coming from outside. So the rest of us dashed outside thinking something had fallen out of place while one of the students tried to christen their new playground, but what I saw then was something that had me breathless.

Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle, in complete and improbable unison, celebrated their new cutie marks.

The three went marching off into town, proudly displaying their newfound purpose in life as if they graduated from school completely. And of course, the first place they marched to was Sugarcube Corner to tell Pinkie of the news. Word quickly got around town of the three fillies who tried for years to get their marks, finally getting what they've searched for by doing something for someone else, much less for someone who actually held contempt for them. It was a transcendent example of how friendship can reach over to someone who's considered to be an adversary or rival. It was news well-worth sharing.

I quickly bolted to tell Applejack on the farm, who uncharacteristically dropped her chores and galloped to meet her younger sister. As I was flying to the Carousel Boutique, I ran across Rainbow Dash napping on a cloud. As soon as I told her what happened with Scootaloo, it was as if every cloud that was behind her had vaporized as she produced a sonic rainboom to meet her. Rarity poked her head out of her window to briefly complain about the noise before I told her what happened. She dropped everything in her studio and ran for the town square to see her baby sister.

For a good amount of time, we shared our words of wisdom and took pictures of the girls' monumental milestone. And for the longest time, we just sat there reminiscing of all the trouble the three got into and the things they did to get themselves a whole mess of trouble. Some memories were funny, others were a bit rough, but to see it come to this made even me feel like a proud parent.

"You're kidding." Fluttershy said as her jaw hung agape.

Sweetie Belle spoke as if words were quickly becoming an endangered species. "I swear it just happened! It's like there was some bright flash of light and then we were floating and there was this powerful surge of magic in our bodies and then we closed our eyes and it felt incredible and─"

"Whoa there, sugarcube." Applejack said eagerly, wiping away tears of pride. "I know you're up and excited, but we're not gonna keep up with how fast you're going. We're still struggling how fast you've three have grown up now."

Rarity wrapped her foreleg around the overexuberated Sweetie Belle. "It's been a long time coming for the three of you, but I'm just so proud of you. Oh Sweetie Belle, mother and father are going to throw you another cute-ciñera on top of the one Pinkie's throwing."

"Two cute-ciñeras?" Apple Bloom questioned. "Wouldn't one be enough?"

"Knowing dad, he'd spoil me almost like he spoiled Rarity." The young filly replied.

"That's a lot of spoiling." Scootaloo added.

Rainbow Dash snickered as she tapped the young filly's shoulder and whispered in her ear. "If only you knew how spoiled Rarity actually is."

Scootaloo also received a tap on the other shoulder from Rarity as she also whispered in her ear. "If only you knew how clumsy Rainbow Dash actually is."

The orange pegasus filly looked up to see the two looking at each other with a grimace before laughing each other off. Applejack stepped between them and spoke. "Yet in spite of all that, we can still find our faults to be the things that makes us smile. Ah'm sure the three of y'all learned that while you were all together. So don't be surprised if you learn some other things about each other while you're at it. Friendships like the one you three share aren't gonna come smooth, especially if you're working together."

"That's right." I cosigned. "There are going to be times where you all are gonna fight, but you're gonna have to push past that and see the good in one another."

Almost like they weren't paying attention to anything Applejack or I said, the three fillies were staring at their flanks as their new cutie marks showed brightly on their flanks. "I can't believe how many years it took us to get these." Scootaloo announced.

"Felt like getting these things was slower than molasses in a snow storm." Apple Bloom responded.

"It sure felt like it watching you three." The three fillies looked up to see Silver Spoon cleaning her glasses, standing beside a enthusiastic Diamond Tiara. "Frankly, I'm still trying to make sure I don't need to change my prescription, like I need a new pair of lenses."

Diamond Tiara, looking at the three girls who assisted her over the past couple of days let her ears sank as she approached the trio. "Well... I guess blank flanks aren't blank anymore."

"Far from it." Sweetie said as she started to stare at her mark again.

The purple filly continued from there. "And you have every right to be proud of yourself in getting what you've been trying to get for so long. I guess... I guess with the way I've acted for all these years, I've been trying to be something that I thought would make my parents happy. But I've only been making myself and others around me miserable."

"You did snap out at me occasionally too." Silver Spoon mumbled to herself.

"And that's my mistake, right there!" She replied passionately. "It's like you were there with me from the start. And the day I got my cutie mark, you got yours. But you were the one who said that I should have my cute-ciñera a week before yours. And I was so caught up in myself that I never once thanked you for being a good friend. I kept taking advantage of you, and I wrote you off whenever you had good intentions. That wasn't fair."

"All is forgiven, Di. I'm just glad you came out of your shell and saw something more than your mom's image of you." The gray pony answered with a hug.

"And as you three, I can't even begin to apologize to you for all the nasty things I said. I never thought that my years of pestering you would start to hurt you and me. But it did, and I put some things out there that should've been kept quiet. Sweetie, I made fun of you at one point for not being able to use magic right away. Scootaloo, I can't say how sorry I am for teasing you about...you know─"

"Yeah, I can't fly. That's just something I'm gonna have to accept." The young pegasus replied, looking back at her wings. "But if you're willing to keep true to change, then I can find it in my heart to forgive you."

"And Apple Bloom, I watched you lose out on a friend because they got their cutie mark earlier than you did. And I kinda help that along because of how much I was teasing the two of you. I know I'll have to apologize to Twist later, but if I can─"

"Yeesh, you're starting to sound like my sister, always talking on and on and on." Apple Bloom replied, much to her older sister's bemusement. The two young girls hugged each other and shook hooves. "If ya get forgiveness from Scoots, then you get some from me. We're just happy to help you on another path in life."

"Well the two of you can be all buddy-buddy but I'm gonna keep my eye on you, Diamond Tiara." Sweetie Belle announced. "Besides, there's some other ponies and creatures you haven't apologized to yet."

"I know. And I'll get around to them eventually. But if you're talking about the human, I think I might try to make it up to him for saving me."

"How?" Sweetie inquired.

"Well duh, he can be my special somepony! I'm sure daddy doesn't mind if we bring him in the family and he's popular enough to where my mom won't mind. Plus he's big and strong, and he can defend me every time I'm in trouble."

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes as she stepped up against her. "Oh no no no no no. You just got your day in the sun. Nondis knows me a lot better than you. And then on top of it, I never called him a 'hairless ape' to start off with. I'm sure I can get over the teasing thing, but seeing you getting all grabby after just one time of him coming to your rescue when he's been doing it for me all this time, I stand a much better chance than you."

"Hah! You wanna bet!?"

Fluttershy tapped her hoof against the ground quietly before she whispered to me. "Good gracious, they grow up so fast."

"You're telling me." I replied in a whisper before I stepped up to defuse the situation. "Girls, I think he'll make his decision with whomever he feels the most comfortable with. But for now, let's focus on the cute-ciñera Pinkie's gonna throw for you."

"Wait!" Sweetie shouted. "We can't have our cute-ciñera without him! We have to invite Nondis and his friends too!"

"If he ever comes back from Canterlot." Apple Bloom mentioned. "Honestly, Ah think he's been up there so much that he might think about staying there."

"That or he's still going through the hospital to get himself checked every once in a while. I just hope he's okay." Scootaloo said with a bit of sadness.

"Oh he's more than fine darling." Rarity replied. "I even told him to pay you three a visit whenever he comes back down here."

"Well he's back in his world right now to spend time with his family. In speaking of which, what time is it?" I said as I pulled out my phone to check the clock.

Pinkie looked over to the town clock tower as she answered me loudly. "It's going on two in the afternoon!"

"WHAT!?" I shouted hysterically before my screen came up to read five minutes till. "Oh no! I said I would meet back up with him at 1:30! I'm so late!"

Applejack scratched her mane as she questioned me. "Wait, you're meeting up with him... in his world?"

"More like I should've been met up with him!" I responded in a bit of a panic. "I can't let him get in trouble with his parents! That means I've got to cast the spell, find something to wear, clean myself before I do any of that!" I galloped in place before I sat my eyes towards the castle and ran at full speed home to change myself.

Apple Bloom perked her ears as she eagerly called back out to me, galloping beside me, with all the others pretty much following her. "So you get to walk around in Nondis' world!? Is it like anything he said where they have movie theaters in his own living room!? Or huge buildings that touch the sky!? Or maybe even movie theaters in his own living room in a huge building that touches the sky!?"

"He doesn't quite live in a huge building that touches the sky but he does have a TV in his living room, which is sort of like a movie theater." I answered.

As Apple Bloom mesmerized over the information she received, Applejack ran beside me. "So is he gonna talk to his parents about you, is this the first time you'll meet with them?"

"I've already spent time speaking with Mr. and Mrs. Haines. Celestia and I have already gotten a day with Mrs. Haines alone. She doesn't like him being in the guard."

"YOU'VE MET THEM!?" Pinkie screeched erratically.

"But I don't understand." Rainbow said with a confused frown. "I thought they didn't like him dating ponies or talking to ponies, or anything about us ponies."

"That might be the case, but Celestia and I don't appear as ponies in front of them. Probably made things much easier for both parties to deal with for now."

"Forgive me if I heard you correctly, but you AND Princess Celestia visited his world?" Fluttershy questioned.

"She created a spell, one that transforms ponies into humans. I'm not quite sure how they can transform back but I'm sure that Princess Luna and Princess Cadance must also have access to that spell so they can assist in transforming them back whenever they return." Rarity explained.

"You know about the spell?" I questioned the fashionista.

"I only know it because Celestia was said to have gone missing for a time. They contacted Nondis because she was last seen with Alex before her sudden disappearance. We were out celebrating for post-show ice cream when they told him that. He understood that she might have traveled with his older brother, but we soon found out that she actually went to his world on Sunday afternoon. And from there I might have gotten a sneak peek of how the princess would look if she were to assume a human form. I can assure you the first time you get a glimpse, you will be stunned beyond words."

"Ooh! I wanna be a human too!" Pinkie announced as we came up to the castle doors. "Pop a spell on me, I wanna see how I'll look!"

I pushed the doors open, accidentally hitting Spike behind one of them. "Sorry girls, maybe next time! I've got to get to his world like right now."

Spike rubbed his head as he groaned out to me. "Yeah, you also have some visitors waiting upstairs."

"Visitors?" I asked.

"Yeah, Princess Celestia, Mrs. Vanessa, Ms. Melanie─"

"I'm so late!" I cried out, teleporting some clothes into my possession, locking myself in a nearby broom closet as I quickly changed my form. Within thirty seconds, I broke out of the closet standing head and shoulders above the others as they stared at me with shock and intrigue. And almost as if I hadn't missed a beat, I proceeded to run on my two legs like I was no different than the form I took up. "Did they say anything?"

"More like they were curious of if you were coming or not." Spike replied.

As soon as I broke into the portal room, I saw the princess standing in the corner investigating some of the weaponry that they had stashed aside as Vanessa spoke about it. "Holy shit, are these guys fighting a damn war?"

"Apparently we took the opportunity to finish one in twenty minutes." Melanie replied before looking over to me, waving her hand. "Twilight, how's everything been!?"

"Sorry! I gotten so caught up with recent events that I completely forgot how to manage time for two worlds."

"I keep telling you that it's okay to be fashionably late for something like this. It's just Thanksgiving dinner, you're bound to be a mess before anything else." Vanessa stated patiently.

"Especially eating at Mama Haines place." Melanie added. "Besides, Nondis tends to overthink stuff like this. So to speak, it's his first time bringing a girl to dinner, so he's gonna be nervous as all hell."

Vanessa's eye was caught on the sudden entourage of equines that gathered behind the young princess. Her eyes widened as she walked forward. "Holy hell, you guys are colorful. I see a few of you got wings and some of you are even unicorns!"

Rainbow looked to the human form of Celestia and tilted her head. "So who's who again?"

"AND THEY TALK!? THIS SHIT IS SO FUCKING AWESOME!" Vanessa shouted giddily. "Now I KNOW I wasn't just seeing shit the other day!"

Celestia walked towards the others as they instinctively stepped back. As she approached the newly-marked Cutie Mark Crusaders, she knelt down and pointed to their flanks. "I can't even begin to imagine what the three of you are feeling after so many years of searching for those."

Instantly, everypony's jaw dropped while Celestia chuckled.

Rarity smiled as she poked at her younger sister. "Told you, stunned beyond words."

I wasted very little time in trying to get myself back to the human world. Celestia, Vanessa, and Melanie all followed behind me while Nondis was actively playing on an interactive entertainment system, or what the humans call a 'gaming console' to simplify it a bit more. On the television screen, I could see a grouping of humans wearing some fashionably outlandish clothes, similar to the outfit Nondis wore on Rarity's big debut the past Saturday. Each of them had a different weapon and different attacks.

But what seemed to catch both Celestia and I by surprise was the 'magic' option sitting underneath the 'attack' option. It appeared that he'd press a button and the character on the screen would slash and hack away at the looming beast that stood still periodically before retaliating. But as he chose the magic option, the character stood with it's hand over it's forehead and channeled some swirly white aura around themself. After a small period of time, they threw their hand out and small balls of fire spewed from them until they landed on the creature. A small explosion ensued and a series of numbers popped up before quickly disappearing.

The sight of it drew my interest so I mimicked what I saw on the screen, but with a basic levitation spell. I looked to a pair of shoes on the ground, placed my hand over my forehead, waited a few seconds and threw my hand out to the shoes. Nothing eventful happened, no fireballs, no explosions, no swirling mist, no random numbers popping up. The most that happened was that I threw the shoes into the air a bit before they lifelessly fell to the ground.

I suppose this is why humans have no magic, their understanding of it is more of complete ignorance to it's existence. From a theoretical standpoint, everything about that concept is wrong. You don't just sit idle for seconds and toss your hand out to whatever. But I suppose I'm looking through the standpoint of my casting spells for most of my natural life instead of through the imagination of a species who is unaware or unbelieving of magic's existence. I know Nondis knows of it now, but it is obvious that humans are completely barren of magic.

Perhaps it is the physics of this world, or a lack of certain elements to produce mana particles. Maybe there's a distinct breaking of the Grobule Distribution Method that occurs to disable the use of magic, or even a lack of the Yggdrasil Principle that enables the art of channeling to manifest throughout the body, perhaps a lack of the Laws of Concordia contributes to the weak mana particles of this world that only produce a slight breeze when called upon for higher levels of spells.

Or maybe I'm overthinking something that was made known a long time ago.

Nondis grunted with displeasure as the screen zoomed out to see the creature still moving but his characters hunched over. At last the words 'Game Over' appeared at the center of the screen and he shrugged his shoulders. "Ah, fuck I'm rusty as hell."

"You need to expand your game library, dude." Melanie suggested with a giggle, pressing the green icon at the center of the console.

"I don't think I'd even have the time to play those games if I wanted to." He replied, placing his controller device on the shelf next to the television. He stretched his arms and closed his eyes, grunting as he spoke. "So, you all ready to go?"

"Yeah, let's get the ball rolling. Alex is probably still in the car playing on his phone again waiting on me." Vanessa stated.

"Flappy Bird is a hell of a drug." Melanie replied.

"I don't see how he keeps playing it, all he does is complain about not getting far enough." Vanessa said as she walked out of the room.

Celestia followed behind them without a word spoken, leaving me alone in the room. I secretly cut my eyes around the room, making sure no one else was around before I started putting my human nose to work. But all I could smell was cleaning chemicals and a strong hint of lemons. The television screen was completely mark-free and the bed sheets appeared to be completely devoid of any filth, even with my keen eye for detail. It appeared he cleaned the room and left no evidence of my accident. A sigh of relief came over me as I looked to the television, but something seemed to catch my attention.

...The controller he used wasn't in the spot he originally placed it. It was just a few inches to the left.

"Twilight, are you coming?" Celestia questioned.

I shook myself out of my trance and dismissed the minute detail as him probably bumping into the controller. "Coming!"

The streets of the city were drastically empty today. There were a few cars rolling within it's dotted lines, but most of the pavement had remained dormant, untouched by the wheels of these metal monstrosities. The lights seemed as cold as the air, their colors trying to show but retaining very little purpose at the moment. For times we would wait at an empty intersection for maybe a car or two to roll through. But after that, what else was there but the unusually deserted streets but a windy silence.

It reminded me of the day I walked through Ponyville and Zecora walked into town for the first time. But at least here there wasn't any evil enchantress who did evil dances who'd look in your eyes and put you in evil trances. None of that, but the silence did give me a sense of nostalgia towards those events, back when I was still in the library in the middle of town. At least you could hear the town come alive there. It's a little harder to hear that when your room is so high off the ground and your home is situated to the northern city limits.

I guess all of it reminded me of a simpler time, even though I was not of this world.

But for Nondis, it didn't matter to him. I'm sure he's seen this more than once. If anything else, his life was something similar to the hustle and bustle we saw the night before last. Only with more school, but even that wouldn't stop someone from spending time with their families in the afternoon. I'm sure he and his brothers had their moments going out and about with Mr. and Mrs. Haines. Sometimes, I have to wonder, does he ever take the time at these red lights to reflect on past experiences like I do? If so, then how far back is it? Does he think about me at times?

Selfish question, I should probably pack that one and store it elsewhere.

The light turned green and our journey ended sooner than we knew it. Our two-car caravan stopped at the front yard of the Haines residence. The big vehicle that took Nondis away was sitting dormant in the driveway. Nondis and Alex both stepped out and walked up to the doorway, only to see Stanton walking out of the front door with a plate covered in foil.

Nondis chuckled as he watched his younger brother go the opposite way? "You were serious about taking a plate before the game, weren't you?"

"Oh yeah!" He replied, quickly nodding his head. "If I leave that shit there for your fat-ass to eat, I'd be looking at bones for leftovers."

While the comment did have me reflect on Nondis' prior chubbiness, especially comparing that to him now, he himself dismissively waved off his brother's quip. "If your ass wasn't moving as much as you are now, you'd be no different."

"That's why I play sports, so I don't blow up like a fucking house."

Nondis quickly glanced at me with a nervous look on his face. "Yeah, I get it. Uh... Good luck on your game tonight, give 'em hell, and we'll talk later."

"Sure thing! Like I told mom and dad, I got the call from coach. I'm starting tonight. I'm gonna get my run in today." He replied with a wink and a click of his tongue. "Gotta impress those NFL scouts."

"Hey man, you do you." Alex replied. "We'll have the TV on and everything, we'll treat like it's Primetime Sunday night."

As he took his leave, Nondis and Alex both waved their brother goodbye as he stepped in a car to drive off in. Melanie chuckled quietly as she nudged Nondis. "I see your parents gave away the fundraiser car."

The man shrugged in response. "I wouldn't stay here long enough to use it anyhow. And besides, it's not like I can take that to Equestria."

"I'd think it would be an interesting idea to introduce one for a tech study." Celestia replied.

"Yeah, but it wouldn't fit through a mirror." Alex added.

Melanie tapped her cheek as she took Nondis' hand. "But it wouldn't hurt to get you a little something to travel around with while you're here."

"I guess that'll be an idea for later then." He answered before he opened the door. As soon as he did, an incredible wall of smells, scents, and delicious food assaulted both me and Celestia. I was almost in a combative sense with how greatly I was assaulted. Just the fact that the food was dancing against my nostrils made my stomach roar with anticipation, so audibly that Nondis had to make fun of me. "Damn, I didn't know Arimaspi came in such small packages."

"How about you feed me before I turn into one?" I responded with a blushing scowl.

"Oh yeah, I forgot you eat like you never seen food before." He joked before I stomped my foot in frustration.

"GO TO HELL!" I grunted back.

"Remember there are other people here, Twilight. Remember to share with the class."

"I am being bullied." I cried out, folding my arms with a pout. "Celestia, make him stop."

"I don't think I'd be able to, Twilight. This is just too adorable." The elder princess responded.

"Okay then,how about you don't eat all the cake. Remember to share with the class." I replied, quite possibly standing up to my former mentor for the first time.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't quite hear you over the sound of the monster in your stomach." Celestia answered.

I quickly held my stomach and whimpered in response. "She's not a monster, she's just a hungry little kitten is all."

"Yeah, a kitten the size of a manticore." Nondis added to my dismay.

Why did I fall in love with this jerk again?

The moment we walked into the dining room, there was an assortment of aluminum pans and platters with an astronomical amount of side dishes. Even as Celestia and I assisted in the prepwork yesterday, we did not anticipate a full-on Renaissance-style feast. Celestia gasped when she walked in to see all of food standing before her. I lost all breath for a moment thinking of just how much cooking had to have gone into this. And standing beside the table was the proud mother that welcomed us to the feast.

Melanie rubbed her hands eagerly as she wanted to grab a plate and chow down, but Mr. Haines stopped her from doing so with a light smile. "Now hold on, young lady. You know the deal, I know you're a guest but you've been around here long enough to know how to set the example for our newcomers here."

I snuck my eyes to Nondis, who rolled his eyes and threw his head back while appearing quite nettled. He seemed to mouth the words "Oh, come on." But he adjusted himself and the father started speaking again.

"With every head bowed and every eye closed, let us give thanks for our meal." He ordered, giving Celestia and I a chance to operate in accordance to the head of the house. "Father GOD, we come into your presence today to say thank you. Everything you have done for us to reach another day in this world you gave breath to, for waking us up this morning, for starting us on our way, for giving us peace of mind, for bringing all of us together as we are today, we give you high praise. Father, we owe submission unto you and give ourselves in everything we do. If there is anything within us that is not of you, we beg for you to cleanse us of our iniquities and renew a right spirit in us. Heavenly Father, you are the Creator, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, and when it is all said and done you are the Author and Finisher of our fate. We thank you for the safe travel that allowed us here unharmed, nothing missing, nothing broken, and we pray that we shall depart as the same. We thank you for the earth that you gave, to allow the fruits of the land to grow fat and that we may eat and be filled. Bless the food and the hands that prepared it, may it be a nutrient for our bodies and that we may remain healthy until you see fit to call for us. For these things we give thanks, in your precious son Jesus' name, Amen."

The room broke out with a soft 'amen' from all of the others, meanwhile Celestia and I quietly looked at each other unsure as to how to properly respond. The speech was quite eloquent and reverent for something like this, but considering the amount of food that was laying before us, I suppose it was appropriate. It felt a little odd, but I respect their faith. Nondis on the other hand, didn't seem too phased. Instead, he was reaching for the plates and already made a run for the main dish that sat at the center of the table.

However, his efforts came to a crashing halt as his mother chided him. "Nondis Patricia Haines, you know that you're supposed to serve the guests before you serve yourself."

"That's what I was doing, Ma. I swear." He replied, instead looking for another dish to dress the plate he held.

"Don't talk back to your mother like that." Mr. Haines commanded with a firm tone.

"Yes sir." Nondis answered dejectedly, almost seeming defeated a little.

Meanwhile I was standing by as Celestia glanced over to me and spoke using her telepathy spell. "You seem uneasy, Twilight. Could it be the human customs you just bore witness to?"

I replied in kind. "It was a bit unusual. I don't think I've ever seen anypony do something like that unless it was some sort of ritual or something."

"I can understand your viewpoint, as something like this for me was pretty much like a trip to the olden days of Castle Everfree."

"Really?" I asked.

"Oh yes. Those days were the days before Luna's banishment. So you can imagine that the practice of Faustian Word was quite common, moreso than nowadays while ponies express their freedom to exercise the religion or not. Back then it was more law than anything."

"Did they have a mantra or a long seance like the one we just heard?"

Celestia folded her arms as she watched in silence while Nondis started to move on to a second plate. "There would be a chaplain present to issue a prayer. And all the nobles and aristocrats in attendance would follow the custom. Then the feast was brought out before them and they ate and drank until they were merry. This day hearkens to those times of old."

Hearing the princess talk about the time long before my existence made me well up with excitement, eager but tempered. "I can't believe it, you're sharing such knowledge with me. I'm sure there's no book containing anything you've just told me."

"There are a few. But they don't disclose the actions of the aristocrats and nobles that were present. And to my displeasure, Luna and I would bear witness to many of these great feasts."

"What did they do?" I asked, growing increasingly curious.

Celestia's face grew bitter as she closed her eyes. "The stallions then were a little more... emboldened, to say the least. I was subject to much harassment as they grew more intoxicated and their drunken sons would try to woo me ceaselessly. And if it wasn't that, then the aristocrats would try to case me for a marriage with one of their sons also. It was like their respect for me and my sister waned to nothing. Only a desire for power and a strong plea for the young stallions to have a tryst with me remained."

My eyes widened at the thought of so many stallions trying to eagerly chase after the princess. I suppose it made sense why she never talked about those times, they must have been hard for her. "I'm... I'm sorry for you having to go through that."

"That's why I'm so protective of all of you. Between you, Cadance, and even Luna, I just can't help myself but to feel like an overprotective mother."

"You never really seemed like that to me." I replied.

"That's because I told myself that I would try a different approach with you. I wanted to give you more independence, more control over your own destiny. Though a certain event that caused me to punish you accordingly made me a tiny bit upset, I can't bring myself to ever treat you so strictly like I did with Luna and Cadance."

"But why is that?" I asked.

Celestia opened her eyes and smiled again as she looked at me. "Because I knew that you were something far more special than I could've ever realized. And I refused to keep your true potential caged in like some beast in need of taming. To bring up a comparison, Cadance has the ability to go even further than her political power would ever allow, but I forbade her from doing it, and she stagnated as a result. And with Luna, she broke out of her cage to become something I couldn't control. Blueblood was another example of Luna but not to the magical extremities she displayed but more of walking a thin line between morality and iniquity. There was even one I tried to bring up in an ideal image, and it succeeded until tragedy was wrought." As she mentioned the final part, I noticed her hand drift over her chest, presumably where her human heart was beating.

"So you treated me more like a student of independent study." I concluded.

"More than independent student, as a real mother would in the hopes of seeing their foal grow naturally. And I have to say that it worked out for the best so far."

Celestia's response made me blush over how much praise I received. If I could ever put into words how humbled I was, I would write an entire anthology of my emotions, each and every one.

"Here's you food, ladies." Nondis called out, snapping us both out of our internalized conversation. Celestia took her plate with glee and started to eat the food. I took my plate as he whispered at me again. "For the manticore within."

"How about you feed yourself." I muttered back at him.

He looked back at his mother, who stared at him intently before he sighed and walked back to the table. "I would if I could."

...I guess looking at it from this standpoint, his parents can be a bit strict.

About an hour later and we were still left astounded over how much food was left over. And over the course of that time, we sat at the table to discuss the many things each of us were thankful for. Alex went first and discussed at length his gratefulness of having his family with him every year, as well as his wife for being a supporting pillar in the past few months. Next was Vanessa, who went on about how her father gave her everything in life and how her mother taught her how to properly shape her image in the working world, how to become a more independent woman. She also thanked Alex for giving her some support in her career path and allowing her to go forward on her journey to the top of the corporate ladder.

Next was Mr. Haines, who simply thanked his wife for the food and the love they shared for the decades they've been together. Mrs. Haines walked behind Nondis and gave him a tender hug as she reiterated how thankful she was to see her son again after being missing for a long time. And of course, that little segue threw the torch into Nondis' hands. I noticed that he kept himself reserved as he explained all the things he was thankful for, his life being the way it is, the support network he has around him, the friends he met, the job that pays him, and even looking to me when he said 'a cute girl with the appetite of a sperm whale with a heart capable of letting him in with all of his imperfections.

Without even realizing it, he ended up throwing the conversation over to me. And though I had more than enough to be thankful for, a new home after my old one was destroyed, a group of friends who've been there every step of the way, a mentor who taught me everything from magic to how to be a princess, an assistant who I look to as my little brother, and a magical tree of power that managed to help me and my friends save the world more than once, I decided to keep it simple. I went into detail of how thankful I was over friendship, and how meeting Nondis brought me through a new stage in my life.

Celestia chimed in and added a few things, keeping her description fairly short and simple. Melanie ultimately thanked her dad, even though he moved out of Austin for two years now. She never once spoke ill of her parents, though her mom came up as sparsely as often.

While everyone was having their own little conversation, Mrs. Haines tapped me and Celestia on our shoulders and asked us to follow her. In doing so, we were led to a hallway, up a flight of stairs, down another hall and into a room with peach colored walls and shelves full of unusual figurines. There was a poster on the wall with a human standing in some unusual outfit, wearing a helmet to match as he held a odd-looking firearm. The sunset cascading over what appeared to be some rubble with the words at the bottom "Halo 3 Fall 2007."

"Nondis was heavily invested in his games." Mrs. Haines explained quietly as Celestia went to pick up one of the odd-looking figurines on the nightstand. "I never could quite understand his fanaticism with these things, but he did love them so much. It was almost like there were days where I had to walk upstairs and open the door to let him know dinner was ready."

"What is all of this?" Celestia inquired.

"A bunch of nonsense to me, but to him it's his adolescence." She answered.

I walked over to a box-shaped television with a smaller black box sitting next to it. A few wires all ran from the device to the TV, the black rectangle reading the script on top of it, 'PLAYSTATION 3'. It seemed to have collected some dust, possibly from disuse.

Mrs. Haines walked by me and opened a drawer that was stationed below the boxy television, pulling out a orange hardback binder with Nondis' name written on the front of it. "I wonder if he ever realized how much I came in here when he was missing, to look back in this album and reminisce about how much I missed him.

"I can only imagine." Celestia replied as Mrs. Haines sat on the bed to beckon us to sit on either side of her.

"What's in here?" I questioned as she propped open the binder, showing a few laminated pages of photos of a small hairless creature.

"A long trip down memory lane, sweetie." She answered fondly, pointing to the first photo. "This was him a few days after he was born. I felt like he was just so small back then."

"These are pictures of his infancy?" Celestia asked, genuinely surprised over what she was seeing. I too was surprised at the sight of a human infant being so oddly small in contrast to their adult size. Just looking at the photo made me realize that they were actually smaller than a newborn foal, not by much but it was still incredible to look at.

Mrs. Haines nodded. "He kept me up all night, just never could get rid of that insatiable appetite of his. All he wanted to do was eat and eat and eat and eat until bedtime. Then he'd wake up out of his sleep in the middle of the night asking for more food."

As she turned the page, we got to see more pictures of him in his innocence. Some photos were of him crawling around on the floor, which went on for a few more pages as his size grew more and more. "He seemed to be a chubby little one." Celestia stated.

"Oh he loved eating, so much we had to put him on the green stuff for a long while. He didn't quite like it, but he didn't have much of a choice either. Even weening him took a bit of time, but he was a bit fan of fruit snacks and jello, anything sweet."

"A kindred spirit." Celestia replied with a chuckle.

The next few pages, he was finally standing on his own two feet, but holding on to a toy in one hand and a building block in the other. His face was as bright as ever, his smile so precious. And in more of the pictures were an elderly couple who stood with him and his older brother. Eventually as the pages turned, another baby was introduced in the photos. They kept turning the pages until the three boys were standing on their own. Alex holding up eight fingers, Nondis holding up five, and Stanton barely holding up two. My heart was warmed beyond anything I could describe. The man I fell in love with was sitting in this photo, being as precious as he can be, smiling with his two brothers. He was a tiny bit bigger in size than the other two, but not by that much.

More pages turned and finally we came across a photo of him standing in a stable with the elderly lady, pointing to a much larger equine. And finally, the height started to come in a little to make up for all the weight. He seemed fairly modest in his shape, standing in front of the elderly couple with his brothers. Over time, Mrs. Haines explained to us that the elderly individuals in the photos were actually her parents. The elderly man appeared weathered standing next to his wife, all of them in the stable as the horse remained stationary behind them. But the biggest change that came in the album to this point was a picture taken in the same place a year later.

The elderly woman was missing, and so was the horse.

The elderly man remained, but his body started to look more frail than usual, his skin was paler. Stanton seemed to smile as brightly as usual. Alex was a little more reserved but still shared some of that brightness. But Nondis wasn't too happy about the picture, and it showed in his face that he knew something was missing, so much that he didn't even smile. From that moment, I knew the innocence I saw in all those pictures leading up to this was gone.

It was then we were told that his grandmother had passed away, as well as the horse.

So the pictures started to become a little more tailored to life here in the city as opposed to an even split down the middle between that and rural life. And the more time we spent going through the pages, the more we saw his smile slowly come back. But as that smile came back, there were less times he spent outside of home, and more of them in this room. Eventually, his weight started to slowly pick up again. However, his height just shot him up like a bean sprout. I watched him go from standing well beneath his mother, to standing at her height, and eventually to well over her by a few inches.

And then we came to his prom pictures, which took up a whole entire page. And standing beside him was Melanie, who smiled just as brightly as he did. For once since the pages of his time with his grandmother, I could see that excitement in his eyes, that youthful shine that made him seem even more alive. His black tuxedo and his pink rose matched with Melanie's pink gown. And just looking at them in the picture made me feel a little jealous, like I was being robbed of something. Maybe it was envy instead, but I couldn't help but to see him so happy, even in a picture with his grandfather standing next to him with a softened smile.

By then, we were informed that his grandfather passed the week after that picture was taken, and the pain of his departure showed in every picture from then on. It went from him trying to smile as he was getting over the pain of losing his grandmother to hiding it while he lost his grandfather. Even his graduation photo on the next page was lacking of the shine he once had.

The next page of photos, the pictures started to become more and more scarce. I saw him standing at a boulevard with a large bell tower looming over in the distance. And then there was more of him just doing random things. Just sprinklings of images, which she explained as excerpts from his social media pages. But some of the photos of him with the family didn't even have his father in them until later. And if there was anything he did, he gained a bit of weight throughout his time in college. And it kept going until the most recent years where he tried to go on a diet and lose a few pounds. He did just that, and on the final page of photos, Rickey and Cliff were finally brought into the portfolio.

It was over forty-five minutes of being thrown into his past that made me realize the present was still an ongoing subject. Just the level of immersion I had nearly made me disoriented at the thought of seeing what the chubby college student turned into since he disappeared from this world. And just on cue, he walked into the room.

"Hey, I was wondering where you two went off to." He said.

Mrs. Haines quickly closed the binder and smiled as she spoke. "Oh it's nothing, sweetheart. We're just having a little old girl-talk."

He walked in and quickly grabbed the binder, looking though the first page with a shocked expression on his face. "Mom, seriously!? My baby pictures!?"

"Oh Nondis, you knew this was coming." She replied with a smile.

He quickly turned to us. "What nonsense did she tell you about me?"

"Oh come now, Nondis. There's nothing to be embarrassed over." Celestia answered, taking the binder from him and giving it back to Mrs. Haines. "It's just a little trip down memory lane to fill us in over how cute you were."

He covered his face as he started to blush. "I swear this is worse than the pillow incident."

I couldn't help but giggle at him and tease him a little. "But hey, look on the bright side. At least you got to eat as much as you like, there's still leftovers if you want some."

Celestia joined in on the fun. "Just be sure to leave some for the rest of us."

By then, he realized that his mother disclosed a few of his eating habits and groaned with displeasure. "Okay, well I don't mind eating the red velvet cake all by myself then. You can just do without."

Not something I would've said to my former mentor, even on a good day. Celestia quickly stormed past him and rushed down the hall. "You are not eating all that cake by yourself! I forbid it!"

"Look who's talking, the one who's running down the stairs to eat said cake!? You should just be thankful for what you've already got!"

Celestia hollered back at him. "I'll be even more thankful to stop you from hurting yourself like you usually do!"

"You wanna say that again, your highness!?"

As the two stormed through the house, both Mrs. Haines and I laughed over their bickering through the house. She then turned to me and whispered. "I don't think I've seen my son like this in years. Whatever you're doing for him, you keep that up."

The high admonishment from Mrs. Haines made me grin from ear to ear, my cheeks started to ache from how hard I smiled at her praise. But in spite of that, I felt slightly depressed as reality settled in. As much as I wanted to proudly answer her, I couldn't help but to remember the fact that we're here lying about our relationship status. Somewhere inside, I was hurting terribly at that thought, so I couldn't help but to swallow that pain and lie to her. "Yes ma'am."

She smiled and gave me a passionate hug. "Oh, you make him so happy. Please keep him that way, I know how he gets when something close to him disappears, and it's usually a dark time. But I believe you're more than capable of keeping my baby happy."

Again, I lied. "Yes ma'am.

A few more hours passed by and suddenly we were looking at the television screen. While there were commercials running on and on leading up to the event, the house was filled with immense excitement. Though Nondis and Alex weren't as excited about the event more than the fact that their little brother gets to be in the action. Celestia and I were excited based on the fact that we got to watch human sports for the first time at such a scale.

Granted, there may be eight of us in the same room, but I'm sure there are a lot more than eight of us watching.

Mr. Haines came from within the kitchen with what appeared to be a few bottled beverages. He called out in a hefty voice to the other guys in the room. "Game time, boys! Stanton's first time showing those NFL scouts what he's got, I feel like a proud father waiting to see his son go big."

"Do you think it's a good idea to drink in front of our guests?" Alex asked nervously, glancing over to Celestia.

"Ah, it's fine. It's only a bad idea if I didn't extend the invitation." He replied, turning to Celestia and I. "Ladies, if you drink, beer's cold and we've got 'em right here."

I avidly shook my head in response. "Oh no thank you. I've already had my experience with alcoholic beverages."

"It's not as strong, Bella." Nondis answered as he propped open the box and took out a bottle. "You just got caught in some high-end wine and it went downhill from there."

"And besides, we practice responsible drinking in this house." Mr. Haines added with a stern glance to Nondis. "And there ain't no other drugs involved."

"It was a mistake dad." He replied. "I said I wouldn't do it again."

"Yeah, doing that last time is the reason why you don't have a car now." The older man responded. "We had that thing paid off just four months before that incident."

"I learned my lesson dad, don't get drunk and do a bunch of drugs, or else you drive your car into the gulf and can't get yourself out of a wet paper bag. Next time I'll find myself teleported to a mystical world filled with rainbows and magic unicorns." He announced sarcastically.

"Amen to that, we don't need you going missing for another nine months." His mother replied. "You did good to find yourself in this young lady's arms instead of wandering the side of the interstate asking to get hit by a truck, or abducted, or worse."

Nondis laughed off his mother's imaginary scenario and retorted. "Yeah, the worst being I'll suddenly enlist in the military."

Mr. Haines huffed into his drink as he droaned to his son. "If it wasn't for your mother, I'd probably would've sent you off first train smoking. What's a little deployment to Iraq nowadays? War's over."

"Oh no, my baby boy is not going out there to where that ISIS thing is!" She reprimanded passionately. "Last thing I need to see is some video of them cutting his head off like they did those journalists. Can you believe they put a man on fire while they had him locked in a cage?"

Nondis' eyes expanded as he nearly dropped his drink, whispering into the bottle. "Seriously, what the fuck did I miss?"

Alex walked beside him and whispered. "Yeah, some crazy shit's been hitting the internet, and these guys have been posting it in high def. Each video they post is like the talk of the office for at least two days."

Nondis then took the bottle all the way to the bottom, chugging his drink completely. "Well... that's heavy. So... what happened to the guy Stanton's replacing in the starting lineup?" He asked to try and change the subject.

"Academic probation." Mrs. Haines explained. "Apparently he didn't perform well on one of his core curriculum courses and the coach held him on the account of getting his grades in check."

"I thought they had work around courses for the football players." Nondis replied.

"Dude, this ain't UNC we're talking about." Alex said placing his arm around his shoulder. "Texas A&M is a military founded institution. If anything else, they're all about that discipline."

"A military founded institution?" Celestia questioned. "Doesn't that mean he's a reserve?"

"It's voluntary." Mrs. Haines quickly replied. "My son's not going to the military, he's trying to go pro. And if it doesn't work out for him, he can always be a coach... or an accountant."

"I thought I was the accountant." Alex whimpered playfully.

"You are, and your wife is an accountant with a minor in paralegal." She answered. "Why not have two accountant sons?"

"Because doing other people taxes are fun." Alex replied in deadpan.

"Hey we raised you, now you do our taxes for us. Fair game." Mr. Haines joked lightheartedly.

"Didn't seem to have a problem with that when we were growing up." Nondis stated.

"Yeah, well I don't know anymore with this common core math crap your schools try to use nowadays." Mr. Haines replied.

"And you think we know what that shit is?" Alex blurted out before he winced at his mother's face. "Sorry, ma'am."

"If it wasn't Thanksgiving day, I'd have you wash that beer down with a bar of soap." She chided rather sternly. "But me and the girls worked real hard to make that stuff for you to eat. Don't need you ruining your appetite."

"Wait, which girls helped you?" Alex questioned. "Mel and Vanessa?"

"Oh no, the two young ladies Nondis brought over." She answered, causing Nondis to cough and beat his chest from choking on his drink.

Alex looked to Celestia and then to me with a shocked expression, completely suspended in disbelief. "You're joking, right? The princ─ladies helped you out? Well that's so wonderful of them."

Nondis simply pointed to Celestia with his thumb and nodded rapidly. "Yeah. Oh Yeah."

Apparently they had little to no idea that she could cook. She practically taught Spike everything he knows in the kitchen. But that's really more of an allegation against me for not taking one of my electorate courses seriously when my main focus was on magic studies. But I suppose now's not too late to learn and raise a few eyebrows myself. At least from now on I can start to give Rarity some competition.

The wildness of the men soon subsided as the television blurted out. "COLLEGE FOOTBALL HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO YOU BY ALLSTATE: WHAT'S IN YOUR HANDS? AND IN PART BY OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE: NO RULES, JUST FUN. WE HAVE A THANKSGIVING TREAT FOR COLLEGE FOOTBALL FANS IN THE STATE OF TEXAS THIS BEAUTIFUL THANKSGIVING EVENING, A GOOD OLD GAME OF SMASHMOUTH FOOTBALL HEADED YOUR WAY."

Another announcer commented on the imagery of the players wearing padding as they tossed a ball back and forth to each other. "THAT'S RIGHT. TONIGHT'S GAME IS SET TO BE A GOOD ONE. THE HOUSE THAT JOHNNY BUILT AND THE VISITING LSU TIGERS NOW SET TO KICK OFF AND GET THE BALL ROLLING."

As the camera panned to the middle of the field, Celestia and I were completely astounded by the sheer amount of humans packed that stadium, our jaws fell as the camera zoomed out while the ball was in the air. I quickly walked over to poke Nondis in the arm and whisper in his ear. "Um, how many people are in that place?"

"I guess some one-hundred two thousand." He replied.

"So you mean to tell me that a stadium has well over the population of Ponyville by a factor of twenty, and has twenty percent more than the population of Canterlot, for the sole purpose of watching a single sporting event?"

Celestia then poked at him from the opposite side and whispered at him also. "The Crystal Bowl in the Crystal Empire, the place that held the Equestria Games, serves thirty-five thousand. Surely the biggest event in Equestria, in it's largest stadium to date, should be able to compete with this."

"To be fair, that is the fifth largest sporting venue in the world. The school I go to has the ninth at approximately one-hundred thousand one-hundred nineteen seats."

The two of us just gawked at each other while he giggled to himself.

"Welcome to Texas, ladies. Everything's bigger in Texas."

Hoofball was often considered as a huge sport in Equestria, so it would've made sense that the human variation would have some resemblance of a following. This, however, was something entirely different. This wasn't just a following, it was an entire movement. I know that the human world is so much bigger than what's being shown on the television screen, but it still feels like the world just loves the sport. At least until Nondis told me that soccer was a much bigger sport globally, with around four billion followers.

I can only imagine the size of the stadiums for those games.

As time passed along, we finally saw Stanton in his burgundy and white jersey, complete with a matching helmet. His eyes roamed around the field as he communicated with his fellow teammates. I couldn't quite follow the sport that well because my interest wasn't in sports. I couldn't care less for the Equestrian variant unless someone I knew was involved, much less a human variant and how they played the sport. But it didn't stop me from trying, especially now that Stanton's out there trying to do his best.

He had a bit of a short run at one point, which was met with a few cheers in the house. And then he had a larger one that must've qualified for an extension of his team's possession, which really made them happy. The three men bickered back and forth over which direction he should go. Mrs. Haines didn't care as long as her son was doing well. But there were also lulls where the game seemed to slug forward or go nowhere. A few possessions changed and there was nothing else to really speak on other than a few kicks.

But then came a huge moment, the ball was spiked and handed off to Stanton. He contorted his body and weaved around to make himself free of any interference. And then there was nothing in front of him except the grass he ran on. In seconds, the entire house erupted into a huge uproar as the word 'TOUCHDOWN' scrolled at the bottom of the screen. And there he was, jumping into a few of his teammates to celebrate the score. I was happy for them, and especially for Stanton being able to give his team a score.

However, throughout the continued course of the game, he found the ball and made smaller drives, losing some ground in a few instances, gaining a few on others. Then the halftime period came around to show a few of the other teams playing and their respective crowds. And of course, big stadiums filled with humans were on full display as the highlights rolled on. Then after a few more commercials, to put it lightly, the game was back on.

And it was the first drive of the game by the opposite team, they managed to go for a while until the possession ended with an interception of the ball. And like clockwork, the home team was back on the field. Stanton's number was called and he ran along the side and he suffered a huge hit, complete with a sound that could possibly be equated to the crack of wood smacking against stone. Mrs. Haines grew a bit timid at the sight of the hit, but the men weren't as easily phased. And apparently neither was Stanton, who got back up and ran back to his position. The ball was spiked, and handed off, Stanton ran it again, this time edging towards the side of the field until a defender tackled him, rolling over him as he sealed a possession-saving run.

Then, it was obvious that something had gone wrong as the announcers' tone grew dire.

"A HUGE RUN FOR MR. HAINES FOR A BID TO MOVE THE CHAINS DOWNFIELD." The first announcer called out.

"He's not getting up." The second announcer added. "He seems to be favoring that right knee. Medical staff are coming on the sideline to check on him."

The house quickly grew quiet after that. Mrs. Haines closed her eyes, clasping her hands together. Mr. Haines kept whispering to the television. "Get up, son. Get up." Alex had his hands against the back of his head, both Melanie and Vanessa had their hands covering their mouths.

Nondis shook his head as he murmured. "He's out." He said with a long sigh. "Sprain or not, the medical staff are keeping him from this one."

Then the screen flashed to recap the play, and then we were given multiple angles of the play. And in one particular angle, we saw him stumble along the sideline, the defender jumping onto him from the side as he rolled on top of him. And as he did, his knee bent a bit unusually, also being toppled over the defender and back onto the ground. And from there was where he started holding his knee. The announcer took the time to describe it.

"So it appears that... from that side angle, Matthews ran over and made the defensive play, landed on him, rolled him over... and..."

The second announcer then chimed in. "Oh my. The way that knee bent tells you something went wrong. And as he stars favoring it, the defender gets off of him... and looks back in horror. There he drops to his knees and checks in on Mr. Haines."

"Stanton Haines, a redshirt freshman given the go-ahead from the coach. His first game starting, and it leads to this. Man, you'd sure hate to see it end like that, especially when your team's behind you."

"Bright kid from Austin, just down the road from here. Mom, pop, two brothers who love him very much. And I'm sure they're watching right now, wondering if he's going to be okay."

"They're trying to get him up... And now they signaled for a gurney. He might not make it off on his own tonight, but he's going to put on a brave face for this home crowd, who's watching quietly, waiting, hoping, and praying for the best."

Alex groaned with disgust as he rang his hands through his hair and down his face. "Dammit."

Mr. Haines quickly got off of the couch and picked up his keys off the table. Mrs. Haines called out to him. "Harold."

"I'm going up there to check up on him. If he's going to a hospital, I wanna be there to know what's up. I'll be gone for the rest of the night, so I'll call you when I get up there. If I find out anything, I'll tell you."

"Drive safe, dad." Alex said in a low voice as we all watched him being wheeled off the field. Stanton sat up and gave a thumbs-up to the crowd, who replied with a round of applause. The team then encircled and put their fists in the air, and after a quick break off, they started to play the game, almost as if nothing happened. Mrs. Haines quickly cut the television off and sat on the couch, comforted by Nondis.

"Oh, I hope he's gonna be okay." She whispered.

"He will be, ma. I promise."

***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

It's been a whole three hours since that damn game, a game that completely ruined my taste for mom's food, and that stuff was dangerous for me to be around. Instead of watching my brother light up the field, or even talk trash about the fact that his team lost, here we are wondering what the hell is going on with him and his leg.

From the perspective of suffering some ugly injuries myself, I immediately knew once he went down the way he did, there was no getting up. The replay of it made me angry because it started to become more of a spectacle for the televised audience. And I'd know there would be plenty of watchers who would send their 'thoughts and prayers' to him and our family, but not a damn cent towards the massive medical bills headed our way. It's even worse when you're questioning if such simple efforts would even comply with NCAA guidelines.

Poor guy can't even eat because he's working on his game so late, and he's shifting in and out of Equestria to check in on me on top of maintaining his academics, his practice schedules, and his own personal life here. Oh, and don't think the school will lift a single finger to help us. The most they'll do is send some flowers, a few cards from the coaches, and a visit from a few of the other players. But his scholarship, that's gone if it turns out to be anything substantial. If all comes to the worst, he's out for the remainder of the season and might not play until next year. And that's a long time to be waiting for any kind of news pertaining to your future of making the pros.

Fuck, seeing that shit just ruined my entire night, and everything was going so well with the girls.

Celestia simply sat quietly with mom, helping her remain calm and collected. Twilight just kept staring at me, I guess gauging what was on my mind. Alex and Vanessa left to take Melanie home. It was just the four of us in this house now, and I'm sure dad already made it to the hospital.

The unexpected vibrations of my phone made me jump a little before I reached into my pocket and check the number on the screen. The number seemed to read off as a College Station area code. I had my skepticism but logic dictated that no telemarketers would be calling me at well past eleven at night. So I picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Sup, Nondis. You eat good?"

I could easily recognize the sound of my little brother's voice, so I drew a deep breath. "Dude... what happened?"

"Some bullshit, that's what happened. I'm sure the whole fucking world watched while I was screaming my damn lungs out on that field. Shit was agony."

"They got you squared away, don't they?" I asked.

"Yeah..." I could hear a depressing sigh on the other side of the line. "So do you want the good, the bad, or the ugly first?"

Goddamn, this can't be good. "Okay, what's the good?"

"The good is that I'm on a huge bag of morphine and this saline shit they're pumping in my arm, I can taste that."

If that's the good news, then the bad news must be pretty terrible. "Alrighty then, what's the bad?"

There was a lengthy pause before he started to explain. "So the doctors took an x-ray and a MRI of my leg. Guess what they found?"

"Knee sprain?" I tried to guess the most optimistic answer, knowing reality had much crueler intentions.

"Man, I wish I could say 'yes' to that." He replied somberly. "The doctors reported it's a grade three ACL tear, so you know what that means."

"Season-ending surgery." I answered as my heart sank to my intestines.

"Yeah. And apparently the recovery time for that is a whole nine months, provided the surgery goes well and we have no setbacks of any kind. And even if it all goes well, it'll take another two months for me to recondition my legs and cardio to be in playing shape."

"At least you'll be back in a year, right?" I said, trying to be optimistic.

"And my scholarship won't be. So I'll miss training camp, the first half of the season, I'll be conditioning through the other half and will probably see the sideline sometime by bowl season, where the coach would've already replaced me with someone else. So I'd effectively be gone until the season after next. And then I might not be my usual self either, everyone who has these surgeries have never been the same as they were before, so I'm looking at a future where I'm not even gonna be drafted in the seventh round. I won't even be good enough to warm a bench in Cleveland."

Yeah, I figured something like this would put his mind in a bad place. I don't blame him, I'd be upset if everything I worked so hard to achieve is suddenly at risk of being destroyed because of one injury. "Stanton─"

Finally, his emotions overflowed as he screamed into the receiver. "FUCKING CLEAVELAND, NONDIS! I can't even get on the Browns. My career is fucked right now!"

I can't even begin to know how he feels. I can only attest to my life experiences, and my expectations were already low. He's shooting for the sky and life shoots him back down to earth. I'd be calling life unfair too. "...Well that seems to be the ugly news."

"Yeah. Ugly is putting it nicely." He mumbled.

"Dude, I wish I could say or do something to make you feel better, but I know that's not gonna happen." I said.

"Yeah, it might be a wrap." Stanton replied with a defeated spirit. "If only a second opinion mattered."

"And then you're gonna be in that surgery for quite some time. No doubt you'll be looking forward to the rehab. It's not like this shit can magically disappear."

After that statement, there came a lengthy pause before my brother spoke again. "...Maybe it can." He said almost in a question-like manner. Finally, after a short while, he showed some signs of optimism. "Yeah. Hey Nondis, can you get transferred from one hospital to the other?"

"Yeah, why you ask?"

"I'm gonna transfer myself to the nearest hospital to you. I don't know how I'm gonna do it, but maybe I can get a second opinion."

"Stanton, are you sure that a second opinion is going to matter when the hospital you're at already locked you in for a surgery?"

"Maybe I don't have to get the surgery." He answered.

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "If you do that, you're gonna fuck up your leg for good.

This time he replied with a stronger emphasis on his phrasing. "I'm saying that, wink-wink, I can get a second opinion, wink-wink, with some doctors who can almost magically make my problems disappear, nudge-nudge."

I shook my head and initially shot his idea down. "Stanton, doctors don't just make problems disa─" But then his idea finally came through to me as I started to share the same level of optimism and hope. "You wanna talk to my doctors?"

"Yeah."

"Those doctors?" I reiterated.

"Oh yeah."

"...Her doctors." I repeated to verify his request.

"Hell yeah, her doctors. Did you know how fucking bad of a condition you were in?" He asked before taking a moment to lower his volume. "Look, I can't speak too loud cause dad's outside the room talking to the other doctors. But man, you get me in with those guys, and I'll be good to go."

I looked around to see mom still sitting on the couch with Celestia and took a moment to walk upstairs into my old room. "Okay. so you do realize that these doctors are ponies, right?"

"I realize that ponies live on their legs. I live on mine, they've been trained to fix legs, they have magic to expedite the process to a few days or a week. Why the hell not?"

"Because I have no idea how we can pull that off when they're only assigned to Celestia and the other royals. Plus they'd be expensive as hell."

"Yeah, they're Princess Celestia's guys, but can't you kinda pull in a favor?"

"That would be like me trying to get her to write a law pertaining to the human population of Equestria."

"I swear to you, bro, she would say yes if you asked." He adamantly pleaded, insisting that he'd get her doctors to perform the operation.

"Okay, say she says yes. How the hell are we going to get you in fucking Canterlot without the other doctors freaking out about you going missing in the hospital, much less mom and dad?"

"I guess that'll be something we'll have to think about. But I promise that it'll work. Please do this for me, for your little bro. C'mon man."

I scratched my head as I finally caved in to his pleas. "You know what, since I owe you some blood, I guess I can chalk this up to calling it even. Though I'm not sure how the doctors will feel about another human patient."

"Dude, you are the best. I just wanted to pull a Heisman on this whole night and that was it right there. You are a fucking legend."

As much as I appreciated my brother's praise, I had to remain skeptical. "Remember, she's gotta say yes first."

The hour continued to grow late and mom eventually settled down after she got a phone call from dad. Apparently, he didn't tell her the whole situation, but he did inform her that Stanton would require surgery. She knew it was bad from the sound of his voice, but she was at least content with the knowledge of knowing her youngest child could recover. Alex was then notified and he readied himself to make a trip to the hospital in College Station. Meanwhile, I had to take the princesses back to my apartment so that they could go home.

After a long and quiet car ride home, Twilight stepped out of the car and looked at me. "Is everything alright?"

"He's gonna need some surgery." I bluntly replied. "But other than that, he's in high spirits."

"High spirits after an injury like that?" Twilight inquired. "From the looks of it, he didn't even want to stand up. How is that being in high spirits?"

I simply replied. "He's a tough guy, he can take whatever the world throws at him. I only wish I could be that strong to face a bitter reality check and not crumble. Dude's a mental beast."

Twilight, who knew I was lying, didn't argue with me but just walked up to me. "If you need anything, just let me know."

"Thanks." I answered, giving her a quick hug before she walked up the stairs to my apartment, leaving me to escort Celestia to Mel's apartment. I offered to give her a ride to make things quick, but she insisted on walking there. So I had to grab her cake out of the backseat and carry it along the way there. Celestia then questioned me.

"Be honest with me, how bad is your brother's condition?"

I winced as I recounted the pain in his voice, the fact that he was hiding the despair from me until he inevitably exploded. "Well, he might take a while to get back in shape."

"How long is 'a while'?"

"Maybe nine months of rehab, two months of conditioning, a full year of eligibility, and a loss of his scholarship there." I answered somberly. "It might not end his career, but the college only renews the scholarship on a yearly basis. That means he might not even be able to go to classes because of the cost of tuition should they cancel it."

The elder princess closed her eyes and thought aloud. "So, the cruelty of greed consumes this world as well. I can only imagine how it must feel to have so much taken away because of an accident."

"That's the thing about sports, you have to be willing to take the risk to make it big." I said as I looked back to Celestia, not realizing she had stopped walking some time ago. I called back to her. "Cella?"

She folded her arms as she looked at me with a determined expression. "How much do you love your brother?"

I was a bit surprised by her sudden question, but I answered her question regardless. "Well... I'd do anything for him. If I could make this all go away for him, I would."

"And your mother? Do you love her as well as you say you do?"

"Of course." I said with a confused look. "Why are you asking me these questions?"

"Because I've had to spend over three hours of comforting your mother as she saw her youngest son go down with some life-altering injury. Surely she would feel the same if she knew the exact extent of your injuries, and even more so with their various causes. I'm just curious as to how long you have to keep lying to them."

I shook my head as I replied. "I just want to ease things to them slowly."

Celestia then turned her back on me and responded. "Then your brother will have to heal slowly."

"Have you been in my head again?" I questioned feeling a bit irritated.

"I don't need to be in your head to know what I myself want to do." She retorted, giving me a sideways glance. "As far as how much I am willing to do all relies on you."

I groaned with exasperation, tapping my foot as I spoke. "...So you're forcing me to do this then?"

"You disappeared for nine months in this world, no explanation of your whereabouts. You come back and suddenly you've changed in their eyes. You're coming back with more scars, and you have come so close to death so many times. It will only be a matter of time before your parents find out about this. And should they do so incorrectly, they will extradite you to a state of distrust. Love them or not, they may change how much they love you for hiding this."

"But where do I start, have you ever thought about that?" I asked angrily. "You've only known them for a few days now, so what are you going to say to mom when I tell her that you're my commanding officer? What are you going to do when my dad threatens to disown me?"

The multi-colored hair of the princess swayed majestically as she turned around. She marched up to me quickly, staring me down. "And what have you done thus far to prevent that? Feed them more lies, changing up the story until it all starts to make sense? Is this some book you're writing, some exposition you're trying to save for later? Nondis, I have lived several of your lifetimes, I know how this story ends. You keep lying, the lie expands itself until it becomes something you can no longer control, and in an instant the lie explodes over you where you'll have no choice but to tell the truth. So then they ask why you didn't tell them earlier, you'll say because you feared how they'd react. And then they give you the worst possible reaction. And from that point on, you may or may not ever see your parents again. Is that an ending you want to write for yourself. to realize you have no support in the place where it matters most?"

"You only know the experiences of those who have long lived and died before me. But you don't know mine."

"I know you are not going to be able to explain to your parents how Stanton will miraculously recover from this injury within the week, one you said will require up to a year of recovery to get his career back on track." The princess then took her cake from me. "Now reveal to me what lie you will feed them for this one."

"I haven't come up with one yet." I replied honestly.

"Then why even try!?" She questioned emphatically. "Your parents love you. If your father is so stubborn to disown you after this, then maybe he's not as good of a father he makes himself out to be. And I know your mother, she won't accept what you're going to tell her right away, she might even reject you for a little while. But give it some time and I know she will come back with the desire to remain in your life. And as she done for her father in his later days, she will comfort you for the rest of hers."

"How are you so sure?" I asked. "You don't even know them. They aren't ponies, you can't just dictate their behavior off of─"

"And you'd treat Twilight any differently because of what she is? Or you would treat Rarity like that? Anypony you've met, you would see them, me, as 'just ponies', am I mistaken?" Just as she threw my own words back in my face. I realized the pain I may have caused with my statement. Within the instant, I fell to my knees, hitting the asphalt as I tried to save face.

"I-I'm sorry. I should've never thought that, much less say it. I... I just looked at the situation as what I know it is. It's not an indictment of who or what you are. I just... A thousand apologies from the bottom of my heart, your highness."

Celestia's tone softened as she started to use her magic to levitate her cake, reaching down to pick me up off the ground. "Nondis, I know your mind is gone to a million other places. But I need you to focus on what's going on right now." Looking up, I could see a glowing hand stretched just inches away from my face as Celestia smiled. "I can't help you unless you're willing to help yourself. I said that I'd be in your corner, I am here in your world, I am wearing this device that makes my chest feel constrained and underwear that works itself in uncomfortable places, just to stand here with you. There are plenty of times where I have thought differently of you because of what you are, but I have had to look past that to see the 'who' and not the 'what'. I have to do that with every species I meet, whether they are visually repulsive to my eye or as arrogantly snobbish they appear to be."

I took her offer and stood back on my own two feet as she continued.

"But in the end, I want you to understand that though we live differently, in different worlds, there is something between our two species among others that we will always share, and that is a desire for understanding and compassion. Sure there will be bigoted individuals who will seek to let each remain to themselves, but do you see me wanting that of you?"

"No." I whispered.

"Then why do you think that your parents won't be willing to see that after some time? I know your mother would love to come to an understanding, might not like the world for the ever present dangers it possesses, but she will stand by you. And furthermore, I know how a scorned wife can easily change the trajectory of a bitter husband. And your mother... well let's just say she fits the bill spectacularly." She added with a light giggle. "I will say that my lifetime has shown me much. But other than that, are you willing to accept the scary face of your parents for a week or two so that you can see them smile for the rest of your life?"

For the first time in my being here, I felt a strange boost of confidence in myself. It didn't feel like I was going into a battle with some unknown advantage, but rather an assurance that everything will be okay. Maybe it was the way she worded it, or even the fact that I was so scared of the initial reaction that I failed to look past it. Every time I tried to envision myself at that moment, I could only hear the words 'you're no son of mine' over and over again. But Celestia provided me with something different, the wisdom of knowing how it is when the shoe drops, and more importantly, the way it's picked up again.

I know that them not wanting to talk to me for weeks may not feel too great, but neither is the possibility of them not knowing if something unfortunate were to happen to me, something that I wouldn't get the chance to tell them about because I would be long gone from the world. And somewhere inside, I told myself that if I came that close to death, I'd man up and tell them what was going on and what all was happening. I told them just enough to give a passing excuse, but not the entire story.

...It's time I'd change that. "Your highness, can you fix my brother?"

"Only if you're willing to fix yourself." She replied as we started walking again. "My doctors and Melanie dragged you back from the brink, might as well make the best of your second life."

"Third, actually." I corrected her. "My second was being thrown you guys' way. Funny to say, but I literally died in this world and Equestria."

"That is funny." She responded. "I've never known anypony who could say that about themselves. I'll give you credit for your uniqueness and originality, a thousand years but the first time someone like you came along."

"Yeah... So when do I tell them?" I asked.

The princess merely laughed as she tapped her finger against her lips. "I would do what your brothers did to me this past Sunday and say 'now', but I suppose tomorrow would be a much better option."

"I guess I can't really blame you. It's a little past midnight now." I said as we finally reached Mel's apartment door.

"Is it?" She asked, levitating my phone from my pocket to check the time. "Oh gracious, I've got to raise the sun in five hours."

"Hey." I called out before she could knock on the door. She paused and waited. "I... you... You told me what I needed to hear. I thought you might have been a bit bullish from the start, but I needed that. Thank you for being the voice not in my head, I appreciate it."

The princess giggled as she replied. "Oh that little voice can be quite annoying, telling you a bunch of things you want to hear. But what you need to hear comes from the heart."

"Well you've got a lot of it." I said back.

"Do I? Can't say I've noticed, I think I'm pretty weak really." She joked.

"Oh stop being modest, you put me in a crater once. I've seen you blast a changeling through a wall. You raise and set the sun. How is any of that weak?"

The princess propped open the box to inspect the cake within. "Maybe my weakness isn't a visible attribute. It's something I'll probably keep hidden from you."

"Well I don't think you'll have to hide it from me. But then again, I might not be someone who could be deemed as 'trustworthy'."

The princess folded her arms and pursed her lips, seeming unimpressed as she levitated the cake away from my field of vision. "Well I was going to tell you, but nevermind, you're not trustworthy."

"Go get in bed so you can raise the sun for a few hours."

"I will, after a quick helping of this cake." She said cheerfully, knocking on the door.

While I walked down the stairs, I started to mumble under my breath. "I swear if you eat that entire cake tonight, I will question how you haven't gained weight."

"I heard that!" She shouted from the top of the staircase. "Please do mind your tongue, captain!"

"Go to bed!"

It's been a while since I was on the writing scene. Mainly because my entire time has been spent trying to take care of some pit bull puppies our next door neighbor had. Blabbering on IRL issues are set in spoiler so you don't have to read them.

Though the situation has been quite complicated in nature, as the dog who had them is quite unfriendly. Originally, there were nine of them but nature took it's toll as they were left out in the air, during the rain and whatnot. I wasn't able to understand why they didn't take them in to tend to until they gave them away, but the homeowner was rather questionable about that and the young boy they had was far from an ideal overseer (more on that in a bit). So nine dwindled down to four (1 boy 3 girls) and they kept lounging around in our yard, hiding under our cars (we accidentally ran over one of their tails one evening cause they stayed hidden under the car and wouldn't move when they were called.

You can see how that's a bit problematic for us.

So we've been keeping a close eye on them, and an even closer eye on the neighbor's son, who fed the boy dog a Tide pod, who also slept peacefully under our car until we found him Sunday morning. So the neighbors decided to pick up the pace on their trying to get the others adopted. And for that, we now have two baby pit bulls running through our yard chasing off our cats, who we have to search around the neighborhood for. We got two of three of them back, sadly.

So yeah, that's a bit of IRL drama for you of how my time's been. So I haven't been able to take much time off to write or anything because of the sequence of events. But I am forcing myself to find the time now to write instead of letting things go until I forget where I am.

Now as for the story, things have went smoothly up to this point, but now it may seem that Nondis has no other choice but to either come clean now or come clean at a much worse time. As for how they're going to take it, that will be discovered in a few chapters. So stay tuned and I will hopefully get those out within the next two months (or month because I don't like dragging out waiting periods between chapters and December might not offer me the time I need).

But thanks for stopping by to give it a read, those who followed from the start I can only say thank you and I'm sorry if things turned out differently than what was expected. Stories have a strange way of expanding themselves as you write.