"Decision time, Sombra! You can't take me out without taking her out!"

The sky glowed with an eerie green light as black trans-dimensional cracks formed in the higher heavens. A dark presence drained away at Princess Celestia as she closed her eyes, concentrating on herself as the element bearers cast their spell to save the two chaotic dimensions from clashing with one another. Gravity and light alike seemed to have fallen to the stones below as another alicorn of a similar visage to the princess floated just a foot away from her, trapped in a similar globe.

In her mind, she had already made up her mind as she weaved a simple memory spell, using the jewel centered in her chest plate. The high princess closed her eyes as she finalized her thoughts, her emotions, everything she wanted to put into this jewel for the stallion standing on the ground, for her younger sister who was unable to fight beside her, for her beloved student who she treated as a daughter.

She shouted to the ground as crystals of white light formed around her, quickly snuffing out her air. "Twilight Sparkle, don't you six dare stop!"

"Celestia, no! I can't do this!"

"You have to imprison us both! It should bring balance back to our worlds! Take Luna with you, tell her what happened to me! From now on, Equestria is in both of your hooves!"

"I can't leave you here!" Twilight screamed as sorrow started to fill her mind. "I won't live with this!"

"YOU MUST!" She replied in her Royal Canterlot voice, causing the grounds to shake. Celestia felt her hind legs become entrapped in crystal as she spoke. "A wise pony once told me making decisions you don't want is part of what we have to do. I've made this one without you, a long time ago I've made it."

The younger princess started to weep as she looked up to her mentor, her wings quickly being swallowed up in crystal. "No... NO! I'm not ready, not for this! There has to be a way!"

Celestia could no longer move much of her body, but due to everyone's hesitation in casting the spell, the effects slowed to that of just her forelegs and her head. "Twilight, I'm so proud of you! I know you will be what I once was and better! You are, and will be an incredible leader of Equestria, and you will lead her to a brighter future!"

Twilight tried to deactivate the spell as the others also fell from their quasi god-state. But to her horror, the crystals continued to form around the elder princess. "The spell! We have to stop the spell!"

Celestia closed her eyes as she accepted what was coming for her. But her eyes shot open as a voice screamed from far beneath her. "No! No, there has to be another way!"

"I'm so sorry, Sombra! But we need to restore balance─"

"NOT LIKE THIS! NOT FOR YOU! IN YOU LIES EVERYTHING I HAVE EVER LOVED, I WON'T LIVE TO SEE YOU GO! I'D RATHER BE THE VILLAIN THAN SEE A BALANCED WORLD WITHOUT YOU!"

Finally, the high princess felt herself convey her personal feelings before others as she screamed from her stiffening body. "SOMBRA, YOU IDIOT! WILL YOU JUST STAY THERE AND LET ME DO THIS!? I LIVED A THOUSAND YEARS WITHOUT YOU, TORTURED FOR THE THOUGHT OF EVER BEING WITH YOU! WHEN I GOT YOUR LETTER, I CRIED AT THE THOUGHT OF HEARING FROM YOU, KNOWING I'D NEVER ACTUALLY SEE YOU AGAIN! BUT FATE WON US OUT, I GOT WHAT I WANTED AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! SEEING YOU AGAIN, I'M COMPLETE!"

Sombra and Twilight exchanged a nod while the princess was in the midst of her reply. He took a deep breath and levitated himself to the crystal prison she was going to be confined to. He whispered to the princess with a bit of a deviant smile. "So you think I haven't been doing the same without you? You've always been so selfish."

"Maybe it's because you make me into everything I'm not." She responded, tears welling in her eyes.

"I don't make you into anything, Celestia. You've been that way for a long time."

"Have I? Can't say I've indulged in anything." She argued.

"Coffee?"

"Caffeine-free for over four hundred years."

"Yet you drink tea, which happens to have more caffeine than coffee."

"Are we really doing this right now!?" Celestia questioned.

"Or have you had enough cake?"

"There is never enough cake!"

"And do you think you can be separated from cake from now on."

Celestia closed her eyes, tearfully smiling at the king. "If it means that I do my duty, then I'm sure you'd understand."

Sombra nodded slowly. "Oh, I think we have an agreement there."

Suddenly, the king sent a powerful wave of his magic over the six element bearers, stripping them of the enchanted jewels and knocking them unconscious in the process. The princess' eyes expanded as the king's eyes began to glow a pure white light. "Sombra, what have you done!?"

As the six elements surrounded the king, he replied to her. "The Sombra of your world is a villain, correct? So if I attack the element bearers with the intention of taking their elements for myself, then it's easy to say that I can get punished for using them, right?"

Celestia looked back to see her prison breaking from her hind legs on forward, the crystal around her body crackling and shattering as he floated before her. "Sombra, this is madness!"

"No, this is balance." He rebutted. "I'm using the elements to draw the darkness from your counterparts. If they're good, then they can't harm you. If they stay, then they'll only continue to try and bring further harm to the both of you. It is only fair."

Almost as if smoke was drawn to him, Sombra used the elements to drain away the evil from the two alternate alicorns, both the evil Celestia and Luna were stripped of their darkness and replaced with a different visage. Meanwhile Sombra struggled immensely as the cloud of darkness waited beside him, writhing for a new host to take. Celestia questioned him. "Where will you store all of that evil?"

Sombra smiled as he turned back to Celestia. "Remember when I said I'd rather be the villain than to see a balanced world without you?"

As the others below came back to consciousness after being stripped of their elements, they looked up as Celestia started to plea to the king. "Sombra, no. No please! Don't do this to me! Use me as a vessel as well! We can be the villain toge─"

Her worlds were silence as he used his lips to seal that of the high princess. Twilight and the others stared with mouths agape over the sight of their ruler being embraced in such a manner. In one moment her eyes were wide open, but in the next, they fell as her hoof reached around him. Her lips moved in perfect harmony with his, their embrace becoming as passionate as the dancing darkness beside him. When they parted, she was left speechless while he smiled at her for the final time. "What kind of villain would I be if I let you get what you want?"

The shadow turned to the king and he reached his hoof to the figure, the massive black cloud seeped into his body, contorting much of his features into sickly forms, his horn reddened and crooked, her eyes clenching shut as she held him through his transformation. All she could do was scream for him as he writhed in pain.

"Sombra! NO!"

Celestia jolted forward, reaching out towards the darkness of her room as a single word left her lips. "Sombra!" She yelled before covering her mouth to realize the name she called so loudly. Promptly, sadness wore itself all over her face as she leaned back onto her bed. Her head rested on the pillow as she turned to the window, seeing just the pale moonlight seeping though her curtains. "It was just a dream." She rolled her eyes as she tried to settle back into her sleep, only to realize how uncomfortable her regalia had started to become for the time being.

She stepped out of her bed and took off her crown, her slippers, and finally her chest plate to reveal her nude form. Her mane and tail swayed yet far less than usual. Her eyes grew empty and hollow as she stared at herself in the mirror. The longer she stared at the imperfections of her body, the more she grew to dislike herself.

These imperfections were not an indication of age, but rather unrelenting reminders of her mortality, or lack thereof.

She wanted to shatter the mirror to pieces, cast her magic upon it to transform it's reflective surface to nothing but dust. But everything she wanted to achieve would do nothing but alert the guards down the hall as well as it's residents. So instead of ridding herself of her own image, she just stared back at her own likeness, feeling her lips and thinking back to the the chaos of two years past. A sickening pain caused her heart to drop into the pit of her stomach as she murmured to herself.

"How could he love me for so long? Would he have still loved me if I told him my past?"

The princess then broke her eyes away from the mirror, looking at a particular spot on her chest that was often covered by the purple diamond in her chest plate. An unsightly mark left by some cruel device as she mentally flashed back to the moment she was held in place. In her mind were visions of bleak gray, shadows of black, and streaks of crimson. Distorted cries of a mare on the verge of death, pleading for it to take her. The image of a pony hunched over, nursing the broken nubs where her wings once sat. Another pony crying to the heavens as her head was held on a table, her her horn propped on a wooden block as a stallion approached her with a heavy hammer, swinging down with all his might until the horn crackled with a weak magic surge, repeatedly until it rolled to the ground, laying there as the arcane potential within quickly snuffed silent. Cruel 'marriages' of failed princesses stripped of their titles and appendages. A mare casting herself from the highest battlements of Canterlot to the craggy mountainside as she grieved the death of her beloved fiance. The countless bodies strewn across a battlefield left dismembered and disregarded as a feast for the scavengers.

They ate as kings as the lonely soldier they face laughed with broken tears on their face, finally coming to realize the terrifying power she possessed, her mane immolated the air. Her hooves burning the grass to ash and boiling the blood in whatever puddle she stepped, her teeth as sharp as whetted knives. The still-moving bodies as their entrails dragged behind them to leave their disengaged halves behind, they cried in vain for salvation before allowing the awaiting nothing to take them. In that instant, there was no heaven nor hell, but rather the rapture of flesh and blood, the thousand spirits staring back at the lone halberd-wielding princess as she lost all sight of her own sanity, before eventually falling back into reality. Only then to her, there was silence from all her adversaries, every last dissenter.

Her anger, her revenge, completed. Yet the victory was no more hollow than the lifeless bodies in her wake.

The past of everything she went through, everything she witnessed, every sin she committed, she felt all of them staring right back at her. The only thing missing was the bruises and the blood from the wars she fought in. A thousand years of bearing not only the guilt of banishing her own sister but the bloodshed of others, the torture of her former successors, they stared at her like an evil, scarred face wearing a crooked smile, just waiting for her to look back up to it. The legion of evil interned within her beckoned her to look, but she refused.

The words of her darker self from two years ago replayed in her mind. "Oh! The kitten has claws!"

She closed her eyes, turning away as she whispered. "Sombra, if only you knew what I had done, you would think of me as beautiful as I was then?" She placed back on her crown, donning her royal chest plate, turned to the mirror to see only the princess of the present. She quietly asked herself again. "Would you have taken me from my rightful prison then? If only you cursed me with that evil, I would've wore it proudly for you. Both you and Luna, you deserve better than me."

A quiet knock on the door startled the alicorn, causing her wings to flare open with caution. She promptly calmed herself and approached the door to see Luna peeking through the crack. "Sister."

"Luna, it is late. What are you doing here?"

The younger sibling placed a hoof in the crack of her older's door. "You had the nightmare again."

"It's nothing." She replied adamantly. "My mind just took a journey to the day I saw Sombra again."

"And you've let it haunt you for two years too long." Luna argued as she forced herself inside of the room. "He did what he did to save you. He loved you enough to do that, in spite of what you had to say. I don't think there's a love stronger than that."

The older sibling sat back on her bed, putting the covers on herself. "I'm still not satisfied with that and you know it. Things should've have gone the way I intended them to go. At least he wouldn't be suffering now."

"He chose that, Tia. I chose to be spiteful of you way back when. We live with our choices and we better ourselves from them. Eventually, time will teach us to move forward whether we're ready to do so or not. You must make the choice to move forward with us."

Celestia sat up from her bed angry with her sister's advice, despite internally conceding her defeat on the matter. "Luna, if you ever knew─"

"Goodnight, sister. Sleep." Luna said while using her horn to conjure up a powerful sleeping spell.

The princess leaned over and touched Celestia's forehead with a dim light, and her eyes closed instantly. The older alicorn fell limp, at last reunited with her peaceful slumber. Luna stepped away from her sleeping sister, taking pride in her work. When the first snore escaped from the elder princess' mouth, Luna opened the door and exited the room quietly.

"I told you, I won't let you go sleepless again. You've had enough of those nights."

Meanwhile in the Human World...

My eyes stayed open for the entirety of the night. The only thing I could think of was the fact that I was gonna have to tell mom and dad about what I was doing. So I stayed up a little later pondering on how I was gonna come out with it. And it wasn't like I had the luxury to fight myself on the matter per usual. My brother's future was on the line and I didn't want that to be compromised because of my hesitation. I want him to succeed in his career, not have to settle for something he doesn't love to do because of one incident crushing his lifelong dream.

But those minutes turned into an hour, and eventually into several of those. And where I was thinking of how to tell them about it, also came the where, what I was going to say, who I was going to bring with me to help me ease the topic along. I just wanted the security of having a support network present if things were to go wrong of if something's said that would cause a potential breakdown in our family's dynamic, even if the conversation itself will lead to just that.

When have I ever seen the opportunity to tell my parents the truth about anything? Well to be fair, I could've done that as soon as I arrived back in town. Now for certain they would have called me crazy and thought I was deranged, but showing them would've probably scared them off totally without them even getting to know anyone. This was probably my best shot right here.

And it still didn't leave me with any solutions on exactly how I was going to break it to them.

It was well past 3:30 in the morning, and I couldn't sleep in the silence knowing that the questions would've only been running through my mind. So I cut on the TV and had it put on a video channel before dropping the volume to five percent. After that, I just scanned my channels for something that would inevitably put me to sleep, just some background noise for me to drown out to.

But then I ended up on the HBO programming block. And of course, the first thing I hear is "♫I'm just a love machine. And I won't work for nobody but you♪". Thankfully the volume was barely audible from just me sitting on the couch, so it wouldn't get to anywhere outside of the room. On the screen were a few women talking about sex toys on power drills and dildos on spinning wheels. Granted I've seen some interesting things on the internet and this was one of them, but they went a little more in depth of the reasoning for choosing the machine over masturbating in the manner of any sane or normal person. I guess it took that much for them to get off the ground then I wasn't going to be any interest. That's just sex beyond imagination and verging towards how far one can push themselves to the limit.

Of course, with the show being on HBO, they weren't all about showing the goods as they were more about showing the act. You know what's happening down there, you know how bad she's getting her walls redone, I'm more surprised she didn't come with a bucket of flat paint as hard as that thing's scrubbing. And then came one scene where a woman had reached the peak of her orgasm so much that she reached her hand out to the operator to stop the machine from drilling her more senseless than she already was. The dildo came to a halt and she fell over into someone's arm and she just started laughing over how bad her balance was. Then they panned to a dildo on a power drill, still spinning at a low speed until it faded to black. Have to admit, not my cup of tea but the sight of the woman losing her shit made me a bit interested in the rest of the show, so interested that I ended up turning my body towards the TV and pressing my hand against my crotch for reassurance.

Hell, Twilight's in the other room, I might be able to get away with a quick nut to some softcore before moping to sleep.

"You humans are into some... interesting things."

My head shot up as I yanked my hand out of my pants so quickly that I could've had cloth burn. "T-Twilight, w-wh-what are you doin' up so late?"

She walked over to grab the remote from my hands. "I just went to the bathroom and all of a sudden I notice a light in the hallway. So I came to check in on you. Guess you're doing your own thing right now."

Well I was about to. "Nah, not really. I was trying to find something to go to sleep to."

She glanced at the TV again and saw a clip of a mechanic pressing a woman against the wall as he took her from behind. The young princess sighed in disbelief. "Yeesh, I know written erotica gives you some false expectations, but this is a whole other level of bad. It leaves nothing to think about."

"Well this is just the soft stuff." I argued as I sat up on the couch. "They don't show you anything really. You could get a video of some girl in your class passed around by some douchey asshat trying to get back at an ex, and it'll show you more than that just for free. This you'd have to pay for."

"You're paying for this?" She questioned.

"Not the porn, just the movies. It's a movie channel, and if I wanted to watch a good movie, then this would be the channel it pops up on. It just so happens that they have some adult-oriented stuff in the red-light hours." I said, reminiscing to when I was thirteen and I just stayed up past three just to watch the advertising block for Girls-Gone-Wild. Yeah it was censored to hell, but I wasn't gonna complain at damn-near 4 am. Madi-Gras, random night clubs, tropical island, it didn't matter.

The moment those steel drums came on, you knew exactly what time it was.

"But still, I can't believe you'd settle for something like this." She answered.

"I don't judge you and your books." I argued quietly as she put the TV on mute.

"My books may be graphic in description, but it doesn't kill the imagination. I can at least imagine I'm doing these things to other ponies. With this you already have a face, a voice, everything."

I squinted at the princess, folding my arms as I retorted. "Oh come on now, you're pretending there aren't any porn magazines in Equestria, a place where clothing is considered for some an exotic fetish."

Twilight yapped back at me. "There isn't one. The most you'd get is clothing because it's illegal to produce that kind of stuff so brazenly, and that's because of some centuries-old mating act. Stallion centerfolds are like looking at somepony on their back wearing a black codpiece, or a backshot with their tail in the way, sometimes a bowl of fruit, sometimes a pair of oranges."

I couldn't help but snicker a little at her statement. "You're saying that like you were looking really hard for the good stuff."

"Oh trust me, I tried." She confessed. "When I was younger, still Celestia's pupil, I would go into the library to find some anatomy books for diagrams because that was the only way I got to see something like that. Even then, I couldn't piece what I saw in there to a centerfold of 'Colts-N-Holsters' every month."

Damn, even name-dropped the magazine. "So what did you see in there?"

"I told you, stallions in provocative poses, holding things, huge tools and wearing stuff to cover up their... you know." She added with a growing blush.

"And the mares edition, what did they have?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"Lingerie, hiked up dresses to show underwear, blushing faces, hooves between the legs to cover up certain spots, towels tightly flossed between someone's haunches, tails pulled between the legs, pretty bright bows tied at the dock of somepony's tail." She explained as I stared blankly at her, appearing a bit astounded that she'd actually know what all was in those magazines. She followed up by clearing her throat and trying to act in a dignified manner. "There were a bunch of these magazines inside of Shining's mattress Cadance would pull out and look at. I just thought it was cute to dress up like that one time for Shining, but he didn't like it too much and neither did mom."

"How did your mom get into this?" I inquired.

She veered off to the side as she mumbled quietly. "I kinda thought I was trying to be cute for my big brother so he'd take me to the bookstore the next day, and I thought mom already knew about the magazine in his room when I told her about it."

I started busting out laughing at her, pointing to her as I tried to imagine how he was going to explain to Mrs. Velvet that her daughter was dressing up naughty for her older brother for such an innocent reason. Bless that little filly's soul. "So what happened with him?"

"He got grounded for a month, dad sent him to a sports camp all summer long following up that incident, and he had a military-like inspection of his room every day for any more magazines. Meanwhile Cadance took the time off of foalsitting me to have a special sibling meeting with Shining every time she came over."

Well my imagination isn't so dead to know what those two could've been up to. Probably annoyed Shining to no end that he was getting to look and see what's been hiding from him the entire time, while she's too busy trying to play up the 'not-till-we're-married' shtick. Guess it worked out for the both of them cause now they got one on the way. "Taking him for a ride that early on, huh? That's just cruel."

"Well she was in love with him for a long time, so it really didn't matter." Twilight answered. "He wanted something to look at, she wanted something to hold onto, in the end they got what they wanted and then some."

It can also be said that Shining wanted something to stab before taking the final plunge into matrimony, that's understandable considering the unfair marriage laws in place. Experience has me well-acquainted to the circumstances as it is. "Well, it did work out."

Twilight then turned off the TV and left us in the dark as she spoke. "Well either way, you shouldn't get used to seeing that too much. It'll hurt you in the long-run."

"But weren't you the one looking for porn also?" I asked.

"I used to, but now I read to... inspire myself." She said with a finger tapping the tip of my nose.

"And somehow you can make a mess in my room while I can't do the same for my own couch." I rebutted.

Twilight sighed before she stood up. "...Don't you have someone to talk to for that kind of stuff? I'm sure she can help you with whatever you're feeling."

"She's also not the one masturbating in my new bed." I quipped back at her.

"I can't help you have a smell that's nice to think about." She said, pulling me to my feet. "Tell you what, you sleep in the bed and I'll take the couch tonight."

"Twilight, are you sure?" I asked, having a few concerns. Though admittedly, I wouldn't mind the renewal of my privacy for a night. Just give me fifteen minutes on my computer and I'll be satisfied with my evening.

Pausing for a moment to think, she stopped in her tracks. "Actually... I could let you sleep in my bed back in Equestria."

"You mean MY OLD MATTRESS?" I emphasized sarcastically.

"You have a TV in your room and a computer. I've been in Sunset's world more than enough to know what other things are available on the internet." Damn, there goes that idea.

"But aren't you worried if I do something stupid in your bed and make a mess of it?"

"Not really, unless you..." She stopped for a moment, thinking even harder before wearing a bit of a scowl. "On second thought, you can stay here. No late-night shows, no cell phone, no moving from this couch."

Well gee, mom, is there anything else I can't do? "So I can't even bust one when you've already got the jump on me in my own bed. That's unfair."

Twilight giggled as she gave me a fiendishly coy grin. "I never said you weren't allowed to relieve yourself."

Well I'm sure glad I can beat my meat in the comfort of my own apartment. Thank you for your consent, for I surely needed it in verbal form. "And I'm supposed to use what now?"

"Your imagination." She replied, again with that devilish smile. I swear she could grow another two horns from her forehead and she'd just as demonic. "Just think of something that makes you excited. Elaborate on how you wish to methodically satisfy your partner, and aspire to reach heights unattainable."

"No hints or clues on how I'm gonna do that?" I questioned.

She stepped up to me, tracing a finger down the Longhorns shirt she borrowed from my old wardrobe. She basically dragged her finger down the core of her body, completely bypassing her hips and everything below it with the outstanding exception of her exposed lower thighs. "Hmm... my thighs seem to be pretty soft." Next, she used her other hand to rub the front of her neck, going no lower than her collarbone. "My neck is a bit cold, maybe you'd like to warm that up." Her hands then suddenly reached out for mine, rubbing and cusping them into a ball. "I think my hands are pretty nice, maybe you'd like to feel them on your chest."

"Or you can kiss me again?" I offered as she kept suggesting early foreplay subjects.

"No thanks, I don't need to get going at this hour." She said, walking off before she turned back. "Oh, I never really found sleeping with underwear to be comfortable. I guess I'm just used to being in the nude."

At last, she disappeared back into my bedroom, leaving me to sit in the darkness and think about my sexual frustration as opposed to how I'm gonna break the news to my parents. So at least there's something I can go to sleep to: getting blue-balled for the umpteenth time. But instead of subscribing to that ideology, I chose to break ranks and grab my phone, only to see Discord dancing at the front of the screen with every app connected to the internet being stashed away. So I reached for my TV remote in an effort to relocate my place in the program I was watching, only to find out the show had started to roll credits with a Disney flick next in the lineup. And to add to my misfortune, most adult programming ends at 5 eastern, which made my 4 block a little more kid-friendly.

I'm sure Twilight didn't know any of this, but she sure played this out too damn well. Fuck it, I'm going to bed.

My mind was a swirling mess when I woke up to the sight of the sun crashing through my den. I couldn't help but to cover my face with one of the sofa pillows, just to avoid the obnoxious beams of light. Thankfully this isn't Equestria where a certain individual can manipulate the sun at will to annoy me out of my sleep. In reality, I should've been up two hours ago instead of sleeping for an additional four. I've got to break myself back into the early rising thing.

I have a feeling I'm gonna be thrown right into work again as soon as I return.

I heard a light snicker as I clenched my eyes shut, trying to enjoy what could be my final day of what I'd like to call 'Hollywood sleep hours'. Next I heard the sound of someone shushing somebody else. So I just waited for them to do whatever they were going to do to me, and then pop up like I was going to surprise them. But instead, they just stood silently, until...

"GUARDS, ATTEN-HUT!"

Hearing Celestia's command loud and clear, I hopped out of my bed and stood at attention as my brain immediately snapped back to basic training mode. But instead of getting orders, I watched as the high princess reddened and covered her face. Meanwhile I could hear Melanie and Twilight laughing in the back. I snapped my eyes to them and then back down to myself, only to realize I was with a prominent case of morning wood. I felt my entire body seize up as I grabbed my pillow and hid myself for dear life.

Celestia covered her mouth with the palm of her hand as she tried her hardest to look away. "When I call you to attention, I didn't mean for that to happen."

Mel walked up to me, poking at the pillow. "You were hiding that, how the hell did you keep that juggernaut down?" Well no sense in hiding it now, we already saw it, you might as well make a show out of it."

"Excuse you, my penis is very shy in the morning." I replied, turning my concealed frontal feature away from Melanie's prying hands.

Twilight coughed as she rolled her eyes. "By shy, you mean demonstrative of your vitality."

"You would know, tell them more! In fact, write a summary of your findings and submit them to your homeroom teacher before the end of the day." I chirped back, causing Twilight to gasp at my crude way of calling her out.

"I don't need that information, Twilight. So thank you but no." Celestia replied, also reminding me that she was Celestia's personal pupil and previously enrolled in her school. She tried to turn to me, but kept her eyes closed as she addressed me directly. "Now can you please go make yourself decent before you embarrass me further, captain?"

I quickly sulked off into my room so I could find some jeans to wear while the three women stood in the den. Mel turned to Twilight with a finger tapping against her lip. "So... that's him, right?"

"All of it." Twilight replied.

"You ain't gotta submit no paper, but I want details." Mel inquired.

"He's not comfortable sharing that." The young princess stated shyly.

"He knows we share everything with each other. Hell, what you know about him is probably shit off the back of my hand."

Twilight glanced at Mel, folding her arms with a sliver amount of devious pride. "Masturbation?"

"Oh he's religious with it." Mel answered.

"Is he? I don't recall letting him get the chance." Twilight added with a smirk.

The young college student brimmed with excitement as she stood jaw-dropped. "Oh my gosh, you fiend, you tamed the beast. I love you."

Twilight meekly accepted the praise. "It's really more of me wanting him to use his imagination instead of relying on instant gratification."

"That's the main thing. You're supposed to let him imagine what it feels like to touch you, to have him close enough to know the closeness of your bodies, and be reminded of how much more intimate you can be. Deny him the external stimuli and allow for him to mount all the necessary pressure to see the only outlet of his growing frustrations. Don't allow anything cheap, let nothing come easy, and ensure that it is only you he wants and no other. Only then, especially then, you let him get to know you, slowly. He may become impatient, but it is to make him that way so that the destination is worth waiting for. Let him anticipate the destination whilst taking him along your arduous journey of trust."

Both Mel and Twilight turned their heads slowly to the elder princess as she stood innocently with her hands behind her back.

"I'm not new to the subject, I just don't like going into the graphic details."

I slapped on some jeans, walked into the dining room, and sat quietly on the couch while I tried to make up my mind on some things. The girls on the other hand were in my room, having a long conversation about various things and experiences they might have had. I know Celestia had to have gone last because she had so many stories to choose from. Twilight told Mel more about how she and I came to grow interested in each other. Mel then shared how she and I met so many years ago. And I suppose Celestia finally dropped the ball on what I was getting my mind prepped for, because the only thing I heard out of the other two was...

"HE'S GONNA DO WHAT!?"

Those words were followed by a scattering of feet and three women suddenly appearing out of the hallway. Twilight walked up to me with disbelief. "Hold on. Tell me that was a joke."

Mel then spoke. "Dude, are you seriously thinking about spilling to your mom and dad about this? TODAY!?"

I leaned over on the couch, trying to watch some of the Maury show as they revealed the results of a lie detector test. "Hey, give me a sec, I wanna see if this girl's gonna lose it over her newly-wed husband cheating on her."

Mel quickly grabbed the remote from me and turned off the TV. "The lie detector test determined that was a lie." She said mockingly. "Now, are you or are you not going to tell your folks about this?"

I tried to grab the remote, but Twilight levitated it behind her back and stood far away from me. Celestia stood in front of me as she explained further. "He's doing it because we made a deal last night. If I was going to offer the services of my personal doctors to aid in Stanton's recovery, then I wanted him to come clean to his parents. No more lies, no more deflections, no more excuses."

"But have you seen how his mom can get when she's angry? She's a nice soul, but God help him if he comes out to tell her he's in someone's military." Melanie said as she ran her hand through her hair.

Twilight looked at me with some concern as she asked. "Are you sure that you wanna do this?"

"Do I really have much of a choice? I'm not gonna be able to tell them that Stanton's walking off that ACL injury next week because of some unexplained miracle." I replied. And as soon as I finished my sentence, my phone started buzzing in my pocket. I looked at the screen to see it was Stanton calling me with an update. "Speaking of which, I'm gonna put Stan on speaker." And with a quick swipe of my thumb, our conversation in the room came to a pause while I focused on the other one two hours away. "Yo!"

"Hey man, rough news on the transfer." Stanton said as he sounded down in spirit.

"What is it?" I asked.

"They can make the transfer, but it would have to be by helicopter. And you can kinda... you already know the deal."

I groaned out of frustration, knowing damn well what the main obstacle was. "Yeah, dad said he can't do it because it costs too much?"

"Oh yeah. They won't even give him the numbers of how much money it'll add to the damn bill. So it's safe to say that will be a good thousand dollars added to surgical costs, morphine, other meds, aftercare, rehab, overnight stay."

"Did you tell him you have some good doctors over here in Austin?" I asked.

"He's not listening to me. The thing is that he knows my scholarship is likely cut for next year, and if that's the case, then he'll be footing the bill for my tuition among other things on top of the doctor's note."

"Is he still there?"

"Yeah, he's just trying to haggle with the doctors right now."

"Haggle? He's haggling with doctors?" I questioned, very much puzzled. "Nevermind, just give him the phone and I'll talk to him."

"Are you sure you can't just join him in haggling the doctors? I'm sure that would work better than you talking to him right now." He replied with a nervous laugh.

"Give him the phone, please." I stressed.

A sigh came from the other end as Stanton conceded. "Okay, you are asking to start something I can't finish."

It took a little bit of time as the girls watched me wait on the phone, tapping my foot on the ground impatiently. But dad finally showed up on the other end. "Hello?"

"Dad, do the transfer."

He didn't take what I said with much thrill as he argued back at me. "Nondis, since when did we have the funds to be able to send your brother to another hospital in another part of the state by helicopter?"

"Always. Look, I'll even foot the bill, just get him swapped."

Writing me off, he remained unmoved in his stance. "Son, why are you two so hellbent in getting him transferred? What's so special about him getting put somewhere else? He's already in a hospital."

"Dad, he just wants a second opinion." I debated.

"Well ain't no second in it. Your brother's career is done. I know he has aspirations of being out on the field on a pretty Sunday afternoon with the crowd cheering for him to run for ten yards every possession. Believe me, I had no bigger hope than to see him succeed in his dream. But reality's kicked in and it's saying that playtime is over for him." He answered, painting a bleak picture with his words. "It's time to grow up."

"Who decided that for him?" I asked, becoming upset enough to throw something, knowing this was always something that happened with us when we were growing up.

"Me and your mom did, last night." He replied, still remaining unchanged. "She said it, he wasn't getting on a field after that. The coach already came over to tell me the situation about his scholarship. They can keep him in for this year, but next year he'll be walking on if he can show that he's capable of playing close to where he was on that field last night. That means next year, we'll be paying for his school on top of the hospital bills."

Even though his argument was sound by every means within the human realm of possibilities, both Stanton and I knew that there was so much more we could do. "So that's it, kill his career before it even started?"

"Nondis, you're a pretty bright kid, but you're too damn naïve." I could already tell how frustrated he was becoming. For years, whenever he was upset with me, he'd start talking through the side of his mouth. I could hear it right then and there. "If you ever understood the responsibilities of being an adult with a job, you'd understand that we'd have to make sacrifices for what's best and realistic for the future."

"Dad, I know you like winning every argument you get into with me, but you're wrong here. If you ever understood the sacrifices it takes to make your dream become a reality, then maybe you'd see that there's always a better option. Stanton and I know, hell Alex knows it, we can get him back on his feet."

"So what do you expect to happen, hmm?" And now he was going to play from a sarcastic angle. "You expect Jesus himself to come from the heavens and lay hands on him? Then by some miraculous chance, that ACL injury goes away and he's back to playing sports? Life just doesn't work that way, son."

I responded with that same level of sarcasm. "Don't your church ever talk about operating on faith, to lean on the Lord when things get rough and thank him in spite of the bad? Aren't you supposed to be praying for him to be healed?"

"Don't you throw that one at me, boy!" I knew from the sound of his words being filtered through his teeth, he was seething.

Taking his stubbornness and his conservative nature into perspective, I decided to press against that. "You know what, you may not want him transferred, but the bill isn't in your name. Put me on speaker."

"Nondis, I'm gonna let you calm down and think like a rational human being for once in your lifetime." He said, completely ignoring my request.

"Once in my lifetime... Okay, even though I'm technically on my third now, but okay." I mumbled through the receiver.

Dad had to take a breath before handing off the phone to someone else. "Stanton, talks some damn sense to your brother."

It hardly took any time before my younger brother spoke up on the other end. "Told you, man."

I didn't care for what that old man wanted or him trying to get someone else to talk me out of it. Both Stanton and I knew what we could do to make this happen. "Get the doctor and put me on speaker as soon as he comes in the room. I'm gonna make a quick phone call to Alex so we can get this shit done by committee."

"Fine by me. Let's do it." He answered before I placed him on hold to call Alex.

And just as quickly as I swapped lines, I drew Alex's name. It didn't take him very long to answer either, almost like he was expecting me to give him a call. "Hey."

"Alex, I'm gonna have you on a conference call. Just bear with the bullshit." I said, quickly joining the lines as we could hear dad's voice droning on in the background.

"Wha-what happened now?" Alex questioned.

"Hello? Are we all here?" I checked, trying to make sure no one was missing.

"Still in agony." Stanton called out.

"What the hell is going on now?" Dad asked angrily.

Finally, my older brother pieced everything together. "Dad, Nondis... Not this shit again."

"Long story short, Alex. Stanton wants a transfer to Austin for some of my doctors, yes or no." I quickly summarized.

"NO!" Dad called out lividly.

"Pre or post surgery?" Alex questioned.

"Pre-op." I confirmed. "Get him transferred to the hospital here so we can get him hooked up with my guys."

I felt as if Alex did a double take as he stuttered. "W-wait a minute, those guys?"

"Yeah, the ones that stopped me from croaking over."

"Wait, how the hell did you organize that?" He asked.

"Celestia's pulling me a favor." I replied.

"Who's pulling you a favor!?" Dad maddeningly inquired.

I felt myself hesitate for a second before I braved myself forward. "My boss, dad. Her doctors are going to fix Stanton, and they got the best damn medicine money can buy."

"Not. Going. To happen." Dad declared vehemently. "Your mom and I already made the decision."

"We recognize that you and mom have made a decision, but given it's a stupid-ass decision, we've elected to ignore it. It's a family thing, dad, not just a parental one. Alex and I are working too. So what's the vote? We have two for yes, two for no. Alex, you're tie-breaker."

Coming to my defense, Alex quickly spoke in a calm tone. "Dad, I met his doctors and saw how they got him back up to speed. I saw Nondis when he first came in, and it was ugly. I mean... you gotta give these guys a chance."

"I ain't meet no one!" Dad hollered. "And they ain't touching my son if I ain't met 'em."

"Well dad, you're gonna get your chance. And when you and mom get here with Stanton..." Again, I had to take a bit of a pause because I felt my heart beating against my ribs, even my ears could hear it pulsing from deep within my chest. I felt a hand on my shoulder as Celestia stood right beside me. She gave me a sweet smile before issuing a solitary nod. Even if I felt a bit scared, I psyched myself up as I came clean. "...I'll tell you everything. From the moment I woke up to the moment I came back."

There was a draw of silence as I could see Twilight and Mel display varying levels of shock. I can only imagine what the guys' faces were like. "Wait, what?" Stanton questioned in a state of bewilderment.

"Seriously?" Said Alex, also displaying his disbelief.

"Yeah, no bullshit." I confirmed, feeling like I could stand bravely in front of my dad, despite my being two hours away from a punch to the chest. "You get the whole truth about everything, even where I've been for nine months, every fight, every skirmish, every hospital report in my name, every bone I broke, how I got to where I was and everything."

Stanton briskly tried to talk me out of it. "Nondis, man you don't have to─"

"Sorry Stanton, this was the condition of the favor I pulled. I gotta go through with my promises, no more lies."

"Nondis, I can just get the surgery."

"Fuck that, you're getting your ass on a football field, and you're gonna play for somebody, even if it's the Cleveland Browns. You know that this has been your thing, you know how quick you're gonna be able to recover, all you gotta do is just let me take this one." I declared, before bringing my attention to my older brother. "Alex, the final decision's on you."

I could hear him sighing under his breath. "Are you sure you're willing to do this?"

"As many times as the both of you came to bat for me, I can't say no to shit. On you."

I'm sure Alex had to shrug at my answer before he finally cast his vote. "Well... Go for broke, dad. We do this as a family, and we wanna see him have a fair chance. Plus I think it's fair that Nondis tells you what's been going on before he damn-near dies again."

"Alex, you boys aren't thinking clearly!" Dad called out, completely fuming at all three of us.

"Dad, your name isn't on the bill. So just deal with the fact that your sons are willing to make a decision without you, just like you tried to make one without us." I said firmly, taking in a nervous yet thrilling victory in the argument.

"Doc, send me home!" Stanton called out, I could tell he was in such high spirits now.

While dad started to rev up, I quickly concluded my call. "Dad, you can cuss me out later. Love you. See you when you get here."

At that moment, I felt myself collapse onto my couch while breathing heavily like I had gotten out of a fierce battle. Somewhere inside me, I couldn't believe I was doing this again, knowing this one could be the one to have dad damn-near kill me. But on the other hand, I had Celestia's hand on my shoulder to tell me that everything was going to be okay in the end. Meanwhile, Twilight covered her mouth in stunned silence. "So you're really gonna do it?" Mel asked nervously.

Hell, it wasn't like I could rewind time and take back everything I said. Might as well own up to it. "...Yeah."

It seemed from the moment I hung up the phone, the day got progressively slower. Life in general almost crept to slow motion as I waited on the news of Stanton's transfer. But over the course of the day, nothing really came up. And I was left wondering what was going on, hoping that dad didn't have one of his episodes and said 'to hell with your opinion, we're doing what I say do'. Granted, I kinda did the same thing to him, but he didn't need to preemptively cancel Stanton's ambitions. I know he's hard to agree with, and that's why I had to do it the way we did, so he'd see that the three of us are in for each other.

It's a given that mom tried to call me fourteen times over this sudden override of both her and dad. But I didn't need to talk with her in her current state. If I did, I would get nowhere, she'd talk right through me like her words were straight off a drama script and I was just supposed to be some angry old man yelling at his TV. How was I supposed to come close to getting her to listen to me if she was heated about some other thing? Like hell I was going to tell her I was in the guard while she's being irrational about something else.

Mel took a leave of absence, mainly to go out and grab something to eat. Celestia patiently sat in waiting as she watched the TV on the couch with me. Twilight didn't stick around for very long, instead going back to her world for some unknown reason. And it wasn't like we could get away with watching daytime television for very long before the elder princess grew tiresome of the local programming. So I swapped the channel to HBO and we started watching a few movies.

"Oh shit, Hunchback of Notre Dame is on. I loved this when I was younger." I said as I kicked my legs onto the table and watched the movie. It already went past the prelude and already we were at the scene as they stood over the city of Paris, Frollo spoke to Quasimodo and immediately began to sing.

"♪The world is cruel. The world is wicked. It's I alone who you can trust in this whole city. I am your only friend.♫" Celestia quietly observed the scene as Frollo continued to guide the unexperienced Quasimodo towards the inside of the church, away from the bright sun and into the darkness of the bell's inner machinations. He continued to sing to the young misshapened man. "♪You are deformed, and you are ugly, and these are crimes for which the world show little pity. You do not comprehend♪."

"♫You are my one defender♪." The young Quasi sang mournfully. Celestia watched with some animosity brewing inside of her as she watched the judge continue to berate the young man.

"♫Do as I say, obey, and stay. In. Here.♪" The song concluded as Frollo placed a wooden carving of his protégé on top of a replica of the church they were standing within.

"You are good to me, master. I'm sorry." The young man spoke meekly.

"You are forgiven. But remember, Quasimodo, this is your sanctuary." Frollo replied with a half-hidden smile before turning away.

"You said you loved this when you were younger?" Celestia asked.

"I was a kid when this came out. So there was some stuff that pretty much went over my head, but I loved the colors and the fun moments, the comedy, at one point I had a crush on the girl."

"In the movie." She inquired.

"Yeah. You'll see her soon enough if you keep watching." I said as the music rose into a dramatic crescendo. The main character started his musical number and soon the scene panned out to early morning medieval Paris. He went on to describe the many things he got to see out of them and how he aspired to be one of them someday.

"♪Won't resent, won't despair, old and bent, I won't care! I'll have speeeent onnnnnne daaaaay ouuuut theeeeeerreeeeeeee!♫"

While Celestia was not pleased with Frollo's dialog, she was rather surprised in the complete transformation as Quasimodo took the reigns of the scene. "It appears that the tone has undergone a drastic change. Though I do have to question the artistic style, they do not look as human as you would."

"They do that on purpose." I explained. "Animation is often used to provide the story with color and a level of exaggeration you wouldn't see portrayed on humans. I know you ponies are pretty animated yourselves with your expressions. Ours tend to be a little more subtle."

"It doesn't appear that way to me." The princess replied. "To me, anypony's reaction is simply their reaction. Some may be a bit more dramatic than others, but your reactions I would have to say are quite exotic."

"I guess that's just because we see each other differently." I concluded as the movie ran on.

And for a while, Celestia's disinterest in the TV seemed to have grown into her shushing me whenever a scene was on. Even up to the climax of the story, she was hunched over with her hands on her thighs, awaiting the next event.

"The time has come, gypsy. You stand upon the bring of the abyss. Yet even now it is not too late. I can save you from the flames of this world AND the next. Choose me... or the FIRE." Esmeralda replied by spitting in the face of her executioner, the judge looked back to her as she scowled at him with disgust. He then turned to the crowd and angrily decreed. "The gypsy Esmeralda has refused to recant! This evil witch has put the soul of every citizen of Paris in jeopardy."

While the scene panned up to the chained up Quasimodo, Celestia was still clapping her hands enthusiastically for the judge getting a face-full of the woman's refusal. And even that quick moment of celebration quickly turned to anxiety and anticipation as the scene panned back from the depressed Quasimodo to the scaffold.

"And thus it is my sacred duty to send this unholy demon BACK WHERE SHE BELONGS!" Frollo cried out as he set the pyre to flames, and the detained Esmeralda to watch herself meet with her fate.

Celestia pattered her fingers against her thighs while she urged the young hunchback to do something to prevent her from dying. And as she wished it, the scene played out as the deformed bell-ringer broke from his chains and swooped in from the top of the church to save the woman of his affection. From there he climbed back to the top of the church and held her unconscious body above him, crying out to the crowd far below. "SANCTUARY, SANCTUARY, SANCTUARY!!!" The crowd beneath cheered as the music climaxed to a victorious fanfare of voices, strings, and brass.

Celestia clapped her hands with amusement as she jeered the angered judge. "Ha! How's that for justice!?"

I couldn't do much but murmur under my hands. "Oh, give it a few minutes."

In due time, Celestia watched as the finale began to unravel the events of the story, to it's grander conclusion while Quasi took Esmeralda and waited with her fist over her mouth, squeaking at every close call the hero undertook. Frollo fought his way back up to one of the gargoyles outstanding from the side of the church, holding his sword high above his head while Esmeralda made an attempt to save the tired Quasimodo. Her neck was exposed as the judge called out with a voice of triumph. "AND HE SHALL SMITE THE WICKED AND PLUNGE THEM INTO THE FIERY PIT!" Celestia yelped with horror just seconds before the scaffolding cracked beneath him and transformed into the image of a fearsome demon, leaving the corrupt judge to hang on for his life, and inevitably clasping on to the effigy until he fell to the molten lead-lathered stones below. And while Quasi fell from Esmeralda's grasp, he was saved by Captain Phoebus.

Celestia finally came down from her suspense high as she leaned back against the couch and sighed in relief. "This is a children's movie!?"

"Oh yeah. Disney got a bit brave tackling this one, but it's a hell of a movie regardless. Though the book it's based off of might have a much darker ending." I explained. "But for now, I'll let you enjoy this one."

She shook her head and adjusted the clip in her hair. "You must be out of your mind to say this is a children's movie. It's filled with so much, so dark, just really going out there."

"If we came in on the first scene of the movie, then you would've understood a little more about what happened towards the end there. But yeah, that's pretty much the movie." I said with a smile, turning down the volume as the credits started to roll. "So what did you think of it?"

"Granted, there were many things that were left for me to know about the setting. But you said this was based off a book, so what happened in the end of that?"

"To put it bluntly, Phoebus lives, everyone else dies." I answered. "Phoebus actually got stabbed in the back by Frollo, who was an archbishop instead of a judge. So he told Phoebus that it was Esmeralda who stabbed him, he believed it and left things well-enough alone. Esmeralda met up with her mother, but was ripped from her when she was arrested. Frollo then had her hung, Quasimodo murdered Frollo in response by throwing him off the top of the church. And Quasi laid at Esmeralda's grave until he died as well. A few years later, grave diggers found his skeleton hunched over hers and tried to separate the two, only for them to become dust."

The princess remained wide-eyed at my summation of the events of the original story. "Oh, I see why the changes were made. Can't have the little ones going home crying."

"Yeah. Every Disney movie takes a fairy tale with a dark twist or bad ending and change things up a bit so that the good guy always wins in the end. At the very least, they made it entertaining and put some effort in animating it, putting together the sound, the music, the voice actors, the writing, promotional material."

Celestia didn't really pay any attention to anything I said, still thinking of the story we just finished watching. "...So, why is it do you think the woman Esmeralda didn't change her mind and go with the one who truly loved her? I get that he might not be a looker, but his heart is far more precious."

I stared at the screen as the credits continued to roll. "Well, I guess it's because she had already made up her mind who she wanted to love like that, you know. I mean, yeah, Quasi's done everything right, but if she chose him in the end, would it really be fair to Phoebus, who already invested time, his own efforts, and his own emotions into a relationship with her?"

"But how does it make you feel?" She asked.

I shrugged my shoulders, thinking back of how I initially reacted when I was younger. "Hmm... I guess at first I was pretty upset with the fact that she didn't get with him, because I was too young to know that you aren't entitled to get something back when you do and mean well for others. There's doing it because it's something to be expected, and then there's doing it from the goodness of your heart. Treating others the way you'd wanted to be treated isn't some rewardable thing, it's common courtesy."

Celestia tapped her fingers on her thighs again as she asked me yet another question. "Okay. Now let's imagine if you were Esmeralda. Who would you choose and why?"

A question I wasn't quite familiar with, nor have I ever asked myself. "Well, that would be hard to think on. There really isn't a right answer or a wrong one. I mean, I wouldn't really have an answer because I don't know any two individuals like Phoebus and Quasimodo."

"Have you ever tried looking around you?" Celestia whispered to herself, so low that I couldn't quite hear.

"Say what now?" I asked.

"Nevermind. Continue." She said, crossing her arms.

"I guess if I had to put myself in her shoes, I suppose I would've made the same choice. I mean, there's a lot of things in a relationship, but considering the fact that someone came to me and told me how they felt sooner rather than later, I would've made that out to be my first option. It's really more of an early bird thing."

"What if everything about that individual was a lie, like the judge Frollo?" She questioned with a hint of disgust in her tone.

"Oh no, I'd like to think I'd be able to discern those kinds of individuals. It's all in their actions, and people like him tend to be the largest hypocrites within a position of power."

"Do you think anyone you know around you is like him, like Frollo I mean?" She asked.

I shook my head as only one real example came to mind. "I guess Queen Chrysalis. A facade to make themselves look better than they are, the willingness to step on someone's back to get a leg up on someone else's interests, the drive to complete their ambitions regardless of who it hurts in their wake. But the difference about her and Frollo is that she has to act the way she does to feed her hive, despite the cruel and disgusting ways she chooses to go about it. Frollo believes himself to be righteous while ironically being blind to the fact that he isn't as 'holier-than-thou' as he makes of himself."

The princess silently sat as she thought more on the movie, putting things into her own perspective. "I'd like to think I've had my own Esmeralda experience."

"So you have?" I replied.

The princess smiled as she started to explain. "You remember the other King Sombra I told you about, how we were close?"

"Yeah."

"Well... I know we actually did the deed, but I did watch him come to my rescue one time."

"Was this a thousand years ago?" I asked.

"No... Just two." She answered, causing me to put the TV on mute so I could listen to her story. "It's a long story of how these circumstances came to be, but I started to see how the parallels of our dimensions became something a tad bit dangerous to tinker with. For mother's sake, how could I not notice with there being black cracks forming in the sky?"

"That sounds like a fun time." I said sarcastically.

"Anything but." Replied the elder princess. "To cut to the chase, there was a corrupted version of myself trying to take over both of our dimensions. And when she struck her own sister with a powerful blast of magic, it hurt MY Luna severely. I was angry, ready to unleash a wrath I swore myself from releasing ever again. And in the end, Sombra stopped us before we could seriously get hurt. Twilight tried to use the elements to seal her off, but... it came at a price."

"You would've been sealed away." I said, not even able to imagine Twilight using the elements to seal off her own mentor.

"Indeed. But Twilight in recognizing this tried to cancel the spell, only to result in a gradual slowdown of it's effects. Sombra, however, had other plans. He took the elements from Twilight and the others, stripped the corruption from the other Celestia and Luna, and pushing all of that darkness into himself."

"Did you try to stop him?"

"Like I wouldn't." She said, not realizing she had started producing tears. "All I could do was hold him so close to me, watching as he writhed and suffered. The one thing I knew was truly my heart's desire was gone before my very eyes."

I stood up to walk to the kitchen, grabbing a paper towel. "Did he die?"

"No. But it would've been much better for him to have done so. He was taken by the darkness and I was cruelly rejected. Everything I wanted to see in him, in us, it ended with him striking at me and running away. How I wish I could know how he's doing, but no one in that dimension has ever heard from or of him from that point on."

Ah, so not the movie but the storybook ending. I walked up to her to give her the paper towels. She looked at me like I was giving her something for no reason, but then I started to politely wipe her cheeks. "Yeah, not a happy ending you'd wanna remember. Sorry for invading your personal space here."

When she realized what I was doing, she seemed in shock, placing her hands on her cheeks to feel the moistened trails down her face. "Oh gracious, when did I start─"

"Yeah, I get it. Everything you were accused of doing, everything that was considered as nothing more than a lie had suddenly become the truth because of his own sacrifice. I wouldn't consider it fair to me either. I'd be pissed that fate threw me a shitty hand like that."

The princess chuckled through her tears as she grabbed the paper towel from me to finish the job. "I guess I can be a bit quiet to my own dealings and emotions. I've kept them bottled in for so long outside of telling my sister the lighter details. I guess I needed this little bit of cry to make me feel better."

"it's okay to do that." I recommended politely. "I got a whole roll of paper towels if you ever need a good sobbing. Other than that, let me in on a few things. I don't mind being your friend on top of being your guard."

"I won't let it all out. I won't stop crying if I did that. Maybe some other time when I can feel a little more free to do that, and in my original form preferably so I can go flying afterwards. For now, I have other things to tend to."

I reached in my pocket to pull out my phone, indicating that I had a text message to read.

"What's wrong now?" Celestia asked as I quickly sent a reply.

"Dad's mad, mom's furious, and Stanton's getting transferred first thing in the morning. Apparently dad wants to hash some things out with you."

She took a deep breath and finished cleaning off her face. "Well I suppose that's why we're here. Might as well take care of business. So when do we sit down and talk about it?"

For the second time today, I could already hear my heart beating in my ears. My stomach churned and wrangled in different directions as I started to feel nervous. The more I thought about it, the worse I felt. And it was a given that they wouldn't believe me if I just told them what's going on. It would only make sense if I showed them, and even then there's no guarantee that they'll take it well.

Either way, no turning back now. "...I'll see what time they'll be coming over tomorrow."

Hours passed by on what could be, for most, an uneventful day. But instead of taking Rarity for a tour of my hometown as I originally intended to do, I ended up staying around the apartment waiting on the news of Stanton's transfer, mulling on the possibility of bringing my parents up to speed on what's been going on across the mirror, and hoping some time on my Xbox would help me blow the hours by.

Celestia, however, did end up shopping with Mel for a girls-day-out thing. I called up Twilight and the three seemed to have themselves one hell of a time. Then again, I guess being out there in the bloodbath that is 'Black Friday' would get the adrenaline pumping a ton. Twilight seemed to have lost her mind when it came to the local bookstore, Celestia splurged on her human wardrobe, and Mel wound up being a bit frugal by visiting the Gamestop for a quick purchase of a WiiU and a copy of Super Smash Bros. Of course, that's frugal for Mel, she loves games. If it wasn't console, then it would probably would've been a gaming PC.

Those refund checks she saved up wouldn't have been for nothing else.

But as the night drew on and the hours started to creep well-past prime time, Twilight finally came back though the door. Meanwhile, I completely transferred my game system and started playing around in the living room since the TV was bigger. I was too busy getting my ass kicked in Advanced Warfare, trying to get used to the combat system, in order to notice what the princess was attempting to do. But I soon found out as she dove onto my shoulders and pulled me down to the couch with a lively giggle.

"Hey there!"

"So you're just gonna pounce on me like this? Really, that's how you wanna do it?" I asked playfully.

"Why shouldn't I!? You seemed pretty crappy earlier today. I think you should at least lighten up a little."

I promptly quit out of my match and turned to the young indigo-haired princess. "So that's how you wanna do it? This is your plan?"

"It's pretty much working." She answered with a smile.

"Funny, I don't recall you being a human long enough to learn the dangers of playing around with me." I said, motioning my hands to curl like a pair of claws.

"Like what!?" She asked with some defiance. I quickly answered her by placing my hand under her armpit and tickling her skin, causing her to wince and giggle uncontrollably. She screamed at me as I relentlessly attacked her in her vulnerable state. She quickly got off of the couch and ran to the other side of the table. "T-that's not even fair!"

"Don't start no shit, won't be none." I said, as I stood up, trying to run her from behind the table. Every time I went to my left, she went to hers. When I flinched to my right, she stumbled over just enough to lose her balance. I ran over to her and caught her before she could recover and run away.

But as soon as I felt my hands grab at her, they froze in separate magenta auras. Twilight then walked away with a victorious smile on her face. "Looks like I win this time."

"That's cheating." I said as she stuck her tongue out at me.

"It's not cheating if it's self-defense." She said as she tilted her head mockingly. "But I'm glad to see you in high spirits again."

"Thanks for making me quit my match for no damn reason." I answered. "I thought you were trying to play around with me, but here you are trying to be slick and magic your way out of everything again."

"Don't be selfish, Nondis. I'm only using what I'm born with."

"Which is a clear advantage over me."

"So you're saying that I can't be me?"

"Yeah, stop being overpowered as fuck!" I murmured. "Both you and Rarity, I swear."

Twilight then walked over to the couch and got comfortable. "So, what's going on with you?"

"Just chilling, playing some games, hoping the day goes by quicker." I said while still stuck in her magic. "So how about you, taken any other humans hostage like you're doing me right now?"

Twilight smiled as she clapped her hands giddily. "Oh, where do I start! So there's apparently this place by the name of 'Barnes and Noble' that I thought was some stable place, but it turned out to be this REALLY huge inventory of books! So I just started going through the ones they labeled as 'classics' and I just breezed through some of them. I had to order a bunch of them."

"What stories did you pick out?" I asked as she carelessly summoned several bags of books. "I had a few recommendations from a lady at the front counter." As she started to go on, her magic pulled out each book individually as if she was back in Equestria. "I got a few books that are kind of like an anthology, some singles, hits, dramas, comedies, tragedies, some that deal in melancholy, and of course poetry."

"Any erotica?" I asked with a smirk.

The princess bit her lip, looking off to the side. "I got a few... for research."

"So I take it you'll be rummaging through the chapters tonight then?"

"Oh yeah!" She announced loudly before bring her volume back down. "Well, let's just say I wasn't going to make a mess of your room again. I know how to refrain from any of that."

"So which ones did you get?"

"I got one called 'Bad Behavior,' another called 'Fifty Shades of Gray,' and another one called 'Sabbath Theater' which the lady told me was REALLY good and juicy. Even Celestia picked up one after hearing how interesting it was from the testimony of one of the other customers. She said something of a 'deep plot' and an interesting premise that many would be considering to be a taboo subject."

"Okay, that sounds like fun." I said. "Wanna read that one first?"

"No!" She replied emphatically. "Something like this has to be read in certain conditions. Candles by the window, perfume in the air, absolute silence in the halls, low guard patrol in the castle, no friendship quests in pending, no social issues, a long day at the desk, and most importantly a soft bed with some privacy."

"No bottles of wine, huh?" I questioned, my mind traveling back to that one night she tried to kiss me for the first time.

"Oh, that's only if I'm looking to play around a little, that or if the plot's in a bit of a lull between the good parts. I'd like to call those parts 'juicies' for... obvious reasons. The nights I'm completely taint-free are the nights where I'm looking for a good one."

"Really, I thought you'd let your imagination go a little wild if you were feeling your liquor."

"I don't drink enough to 'feel' anything. I drink to enjoy my special little half-hour before my scheduled bedtime. That's all."

"Maybe you should read to me sometime." I recommended.

The princess chuckled as she placed her books back in their bags. "Sorry, my reading time isn't for little boys who only want instant gratification."

"So your masturbating doesn't count?" I inquired.

"I don't usually finish." She confessed quietly. "I just get myself to a point where I look forward to the scene of a climax, which is usually every week or two."

"Yeah, I can't edge myself for a week and expect to be a happy camper. Sorry, not for me." I replied shaking my head.

"I don't recall you ever saying that to me when we were together." She said as she folded her arms.

"Only because I thought you would actually finish the job."

"Okay, well finish your little job while I go take a peek at these books then." She replied with a pout-like tone.

She walked off and waited until she left the room to uncuff me from her magic. I instinctively felt my wrists and hands to make sure they were okay from being frozen in place for so long. After that, I sat back down on the couch and started up another lobby to wait in. But as soon as the game started, Twilight walked back in the room.

She stood at the corner of the hallway, peeking over to me. "Are you sure you're willing to do this?"

"Do what?" I asked, completely immersed in the game.

"This, with your parents." She answered worriedly. "I know you said that─"

"I know what I said. I'm just trying to distract myself from knowing that I'm gonna tell them. If I start thinking about it, I'm gonna get wrinkles." I replied before I was quickly killed by some random person running around with a shotgun. "YOU FUCKING CHEAP BITCH!"

Twilight jumped back for a moment before she continued to speak. "Well, I know you're trying to keep yourself busy. I just wanted you to know that... I'm proud of you."

"Thanks, Twilight." I said as I respawned into some other room on the map, with the same person coming around the corner with that same shotgun, blasting me to hell again. "Nope, fuck it, not gonna take it." I mumbled as I commenced to rage-quitting the game. I took a deep breath and then turned my attention back to her. "Yeah, I'm just gonna be here venting my frustrations and hollering at my TV for a few more hours, so I'm sorry if your reading time is a bit chaotic."

"I think I wouldn't mind it too much. I've read in moments of life-and-death before." She said, walking over to me. "But when you're tired, come on back to the room with me."

I started to stare at her, almost as if I was excited for the invitation somewhere inside me. "You want me to share a bed with you?"

"Well we've been doing it for a while, why not now?"

"Well, I mean you're a human right now and─" Before I could continue, Twilight cut me off by putting her magic on my lips.

"I'm probably going to be sleeping as my true self. I think it would be more comfortable for me."

I almost forgot how it felt to sleep in a bed with the smell of lavender bombarding my nose. Obviously I know the feeling of spending a morning waking up to a pony in my arms, but this one was the one that got me started with this whole debacle. If it wasn't for her disobediently giving me a taste of carnal bliss, I might have never discovered how far I could go in loving one of her species.

But in the end, I loved that she opened my eyes to that possibility. Because of it, I'm not truly alone.

My eyes woke up to the familiar scene of Twilight in my arms, the young princess snoozing the hours away while I was about to find myself sneaking out of the bed to get ready for the day. So I gently navigated my way around her and politely pushed her aside so that I could start getting ready for the day ahead. It was going to be a long one and I wanted to have myself a long shower to psych me up for the task.

I hopped in my bathroom, stripped off my clothes, turned my shower knobs, and waited till the water started to steam a little. After that, I stepped in and scrubbed myself clean. Even as the dirt of yesterday washed off my body, I felt myself becoming more and more tainted with the thought of my parents being angry with me.

But the strange thing was that I wasn't nearly as scared as I was yesterday.

I stayed in the shower, letting the water roll off of my body until I could hear a knock on the door. I perked up and called out to the outside. "Yes?"

Through my curtains, I could hear Twilight crack the door open slowly as her voice whimpered through. "Is everything alright in there? You've been in here for half an hour."

I quickly cut off the water and replied. "Wait, how long has it been?"

"Half an hour. You just got out of bed and stayed in here for a while. I thought you might have forgotten the water was running while you went through to Equestria."

"Nah, I'm just getting myself ready. I know I faced death so many times, but this still feels like one hell of a thing. Probably huger than any monster I fought." I answered while trying to feel my way for a towel, not realizing I'd have to step out of the shower to get one. "Hey Twilight, I'm a bit indecent, so can you hand me that towel over there on the rack." I asked.

Her magic quickly dropped in a towel over my head, draping over my eyes and everything else front-ways. "Here you go."

"Thanks."

I heard the door creak a little more, followed by the sounds of her hooves clopping against the linoleum floor. "So, today's the big day."

"Yeah, and you're in my bathroom." I called out.

"We're always in your bathroom, the portal's in here." She rebutted.

"I mean while I'm using it." I replied with a deadpan tone.

Twilight giggled as she tapped her hoof against the curtain. "I'm not sure if that matters now, I've already seen everything about you."

"Have you?" I asked.

"Pretty much." She answered. I quickly wrapped the towel she gave me around my waist and pulled the curtain back. Twilight stared at me for a few seconds before her eyes trailed to my abdomen. Something within her made her wince and turn away. "Okay... Maybe I haven't gotten used to everything about you."

"But you seen everything about me." I answered with a hint of sarcasm.

"There are still some things about you that make me feel uncomfortable." She whined sadly. "Those scars... They're all there because of me."

"Last I checked, sex is a two-lane street." I lightly chided the princess. "If it's just all headed one way and not the other, then something's wrong."

I smiled as she finally looked up to me. "Yeah, we did that."

"It's amazing how passionate you can get in the heat of the moment."

"Sadly, I don't think I'll ever get to know how it feels to have you give it all to me."

I playfully teased the young mare and placed my hand over my lap. "Well, it's up to you on whether or not that's something you're willing to find out."

"I mean it would be illegal." She pointed out bluntly.

"We broke the law already. Per that stupid law, we were supposed to get hitched." I recalled.

"You, my husband, still sharing beds with other mares?" She said with a jovial tone with some undercurrent of anger. "I don't think I'm for that."

"Yeah. I get it." I answered, realizing she still felt a bit hurt over me and Rarity. I instinctively covered the dying marks on my neck. "Maybe we're playing a little too closely."

Twilight stomped her hoof once as she spoke. "No! I mean, I like it when you play with me. It's just... I'm still a little tender about us."

"I know." I replied just as my phone started buzzing, indicating I had a text message. I quickly checked my phone and saw Stanton had completed his transfer and that he was in town. "Ugh... I guess that's my cue."

I walked past the purple princess as she trailed closely behind me. "So what happened?" She questioned.

"Stanton's in town, dad's back in with him, and I'm gonna have to break everything to him and mom." I replied, starting to feel a bit of the butterflies roaming in my stomach.

"But you won't be alone." Twilight answered. "If you need me, I'll be right there with you."

"You know you could just go home and enjoy your day. I think I can handle things from here." I said, going into my closet to look for some clothes to wear.

Twilight watched me as I rummaged through my old wardrobe for something that still fit me, which wasn't much of anything but a few sweatshirts, some jackets, and the pair of jeans I wore yesterday. The princess eyes suddenly grew before she galloped back into the bathroom, across the portal, and coming back with an unseen outfit for me to wear. She held a black and purple shirt, complete with a thick white stripe running diagonally. On the left corner over the pectoral area was a silver crest of the Equestrian banner. With it, she carried a pair of black slacks. "I know it's a little out there, but that's all I had left in my closet for you. Rarity had it made for when you came out of basic training. I just never got around to telling you about it."

I cringed with a sharp inhale through my teeth. "To put it mildly, 'out there' is a good choice of words. But I guess it wouldn't mean much to them anyhow."

"At least you'll look nice." She said with a blush.

I wandered over to the portal, looking at the body-length mirror and holding the outfit on myself. "Actually, I could do with a few more things before I head out."

"Your hair?" She guessed.

"Oh yeah, I gotta do something with this growing mane of mine."

Pulling myself into the parking lot of the hospital, I could already feel my feet losing track of the brake and gas pedals. If it wasn't for Celestia sitting next to me, I would've given myself a proper reintroduction to a little thing called a traffic accident. But then again, this was a rental car and I wouldn't like to pay the dealership back on penalties right now.

It's not like I have to show my parents that I have some fiscal accountability while we're here.

"Nondis, pay attention!" Mel called out from the back seat as I was about to run into the back of someone's Dodge Ram backing out of a parking space. Pumping the brakes immediately, I waited until the person guided themselves from the spot and left to their day. And in reward for my patience, I was gifted a spot closer to the front door without suffering the penalty of parking in handicap.

We jumped out of the car, walking briskly to the foyer and check-in desk. There a dark-skinned nurse greeted us at the desk, primarily staring at Celestia as she welcomed us. "Hello, how may I help you?" She said before swapping off to the aforementioned princess. "Ma'am, I love your contacts, they are so pretty."

"Con...tacts?" Celestia questioned with some confusion.

"Corrective lenses they use to put in your eyes in place of glasses." I whispered to her before responding to the person at the desk. "No, those are her actual eyes, not contacts."

The person at the front desk stood up as she tried to get a closer look. "Are you kidding? Those are her God-given eyes? Are you sure they aren't blue but refracting at some weird angle?"

"Ma'am, I'm here to visit a patient." I worded sternly to refocus her attention to her job. "That patient is my younger brother who just transferred in from College Station early this morning."

The lady rolled her eyes as she settled back to her computer monitor. Instead of her voice being filled with juvenile curiosity, it was of resentment of my harsh tone. "Name?"

"Stanton Haines. I'm Nondis Haines, his older brother."

She looked up at me and hummed a bit dismissively. "Oh, you were that boy that went missing like ten months ago. You look different from the pictures they had of you."

"I lost weight." I bluntly pointed out.

"Well that's good, healthy life choices are always good." She droaned before she handed me a clipboard with a numbered roll on the front of it. "Imma need you to sign in here."

"You know which room he's in?" I asked as I signed myself in.

"From what's on here, he's in room 258. Take the elevator to your left, go up, and you'll see the second floor check-in desk where they'll sign you in and point you in the direction of your room."

"Thank you." I replied, quickly walking off to the elevator. As soon as I pressed the button, I felt my stomach sink to my feet as the elevator shifted. When the three of us watched as the doors opened, I could already see dad pacing back and forth in frustration. Meanwhile, mom was talking with the person at the front desk. It wasn't just them sitting around, it was also Vanessa and Alex waiting for whatever reason. Also standing by dad was the head coach of the Texas A&M football team. Coach Sumlin spoke quietly.

"Now I know this is a difficult time for you all, but if he ain't willing to help himself, then I can't help him. The most I can do is make sure his scholarship follows through to the end of the year. But after that, he can't be on my football team with that knee. Now again, we got other five star recruits looking to be the next Johnny Manziel, and they're looking for scholarships. And my athletic director will have me lined up for giving a scholarship to a boy who ain't even gonna step on that field again. I can't give you anything more than that if you don't talk to him."

"We'll talk some sense into him, Mr. Sumlin. I give you my word we will." Dad replied.

"You have my number, you call me when something falls in place. Other than that, I wish you all nothing but the best." He said as he started to walk towards the elevator. As we walked out, he walked in before giving a good look at me. "How y'all doin' today?"

"Fine coach, you?" I answered.

"Day's goin'." He replied, pressing a button on the panel. He looked at me again and asked. "You play ball?"

"No sir, I'm just here to check on my little brother."

Before the doors closed, he muttered something to himself. "I knew there was something familiar about you."

The elevator closed as the three of us stepped into the room, dad's eyes homed in on me as I spoke. "What's going on?"

Dad snatched me up by the collar and angrily whispered in my face. "What did you say to him, boy?"

"Dad, lay off!" Alex said, trying to get in between us.

"What the hell did you say to him?" He asked again. "I swear if you said something to him, I'm gonna break YOUR leg."

While very much confused, I tried to separate myself from him. "Look, old man. You're crazy cause I ain't say nothing to him. Now what are you so damn mad about?"

Alex pried us away from each other as Mel stepped in to help keep me away from him. He sighed out of frustration and answered my question. "Stanton's trying to check himself out. The doctors told him he needed surgery and he said 'I'm good, just get me out.' So now dad's blowing a fuse because Stanton wants to get out of here without them doing as much as to put a cast on his leg so he can move with a minimum amount of pain."

I shook my head and spoke at a volume level appropriate for a hospital. "That's nuts. I get wanting to check out before surgery for a second opinion or something, but to not have a cast or some sort of brace?"

Alex smiled nervously as he walked over to me, whispering in my ear. "That part may actually fall on you because of his blind faith on Celestia's doctors."

"Aw hell." I groaned. "Where's his room?"

"Hall to the left, evens are all on the right side of the hall, should be like a few doors down."

Without much hesitation, I walked myself to Stanton's room with Mel following close behind. When we got closer to the door, we could already hear the seemingly tame back and forth between him and his doctor. I knocked to acknowledge my presence and was given access by Stanton. He lied in bed with a bag of morphine hanging over his head while he spoke. "Look, I just wanted the second opinion."

"And we scanned your knee to find a grade three ACL tear, the same result found when you were admitted to the hospital Thursday night. Now I don't know what I can do to get this through to you, but I'm gonna have to recommend that you get the surgery and follow up with our rehab courses. If money is an issue for you, then we can offer you some methods of going for financial assistance."

"That won't be necessary, doctor. I'm fine."

"Son, you are in a world of pain. If I take that bag off of you right now, you will be feeling a whole new dimension of it."

"Just wheel me out of here by this afternoon. I can manage on my own."

"If I can so kindly convince you to reconsider for your future health. If you do not get this surgery, you will never walk again."

Stanton looked at his leg and shrugged. "I guess I'm shit out of luck then."

The doctor threw his hands in the air as a sign of resignation. "Well then, I suppose I can only wish you the best."

"Thanks, doc." He said as the doctor angrily walked out of the room. The two of us walked in and questioned him.

"Dude, are you serious? You're not getting the surgery?" Mel asked.

"Yeah, I'm getting the surgery. It's just that Celestia's doctors will be doing it instead."

"Stanton, those guys didn't have a clue of what they were doing when I wasn't there." She replied.

"Then you'll have to be chief surgeon again. Yay!" He answered sarcastically.

"There's no 'yay' in this, Stanton. You're hurt and you're asking a bunch of pony doctors to fix something they have very little to no knowledge of."

"They're ponies, Melanie. Legs would be the MAIN thing they'd work on." Stanton responded. "I mean not human legs, but how hard is it to put together someone's knee?"

"Fucking complicated when you consider the fact that any setback could result in yet another surgery to correct that! And you can't rely on magic to set everything back in place all the time. You still live here, Nondis doesn't."

"And it's wrong to ask for the same thing he got?" Stanton rebutted. "If anything, I can rely on his medical group because I saw how bad he was."

"You and me both, but this is something different."

"And he damn-near died. You helped save his life, so can't I expect you to help with something a lot less stressful?"

I had to interrupt my brother's tone-deaf reply and pinch his knee, causing him to yelp out painfully. "You're going out here without a cast or a brace. You're going to be feeling THAT all day. And also, your body in pain ain't nothing to take lightly. That shit is there to let you know that something ain't right. You know what I thought was right until I felt something hurt real bad? I was busy breaking Equestrian royal marriage laws when my fractured collarbone told me the position I was trying to pull off wasn't the hottest thing to do right then. So having that said, I think your way of thinking is a bit stupid, and you should readjust your outlook."

"You know, you are like my biggest inspiration right now." Stanton replied. "You took so much, you had to fight to the death against a bunch of creatures way bigger and stronger than you. You come back with every fucking tendon in your body sliced up and you get back to walking within a week. I don't know about you, but I'd be awfully stoked to get my ass on a football field in a week's time."

"You also have to consider a whole other world of shit we're about to get into when I tell mom and dad about how we're gonna do this." I answered, causing my younger brother to slow his hype.

Mel quickly piggy backed off of my comment. "Yeah, and not to mention how much trouble he's gonna be in, you're gonna be in, all of us are gonna be in. So if I were you, I wouldn't be looking so hyped up when we've got a lot of ground to cover and a whole shitload of excuses to undo."

Stanton finally took a moment to fully think about what his day was going to be like instead of looking forward to the fact that his knee will come to be the least of his worries. Dropping his head, he looked at his injured knee and took a deep breath. "I guess I should be looking at you as more than an inspiration. If you weren't going to put yourself out there like that, then I would've probably been stuck rehabbing for months. But now it looks like we're gonna be going through a different kind of rehab. I never really thought about all of this except when you made a mention of it yesterday,"

"Well today's the day." I said as my phone started to vibrate in my pocket. "And you're gonna be in for a long ride out of here." I pressed the sleep button on the top of my phone to dismiss the call. "So instead of trying to be brave, I suggest you get a brace and a wheelchair, cause moving you ain't gonna be easy."

As my phone started to ring again, Mel started to speak with him. "Yeah, and don't think you're going to overexert in moving yourself when you can. Leg injuries aren't shit to fuck around with."

I quickly picked up the phone as Discord once again removed the option to ignore my calls. "Hello?"

"Nondis." Twilight answered on the other end. "You know that spell Sunset used to heal your collarbone injury?"

"Yeah. What about it?" I asked.

"Sunset and I were altering the formula a little and gave it some implementation to lessen the intent. Instead of healing bones out of place and what-not, we worked on it to repair torn ligaments." Twilight noted.

"I started working on the different variations of it when I heard what happened to you after that mission over at Arimaspi Mountain. Twilight gave me some additional medical knowledge she obtained from Melanie, and we took in that data, complied it with the formulas we had written down, altered the formula in general, and it seems to work like a miracle in our tests." Sunset explained from the background.

"Sunset and I just finished this spell around an hour ago." Twilight concluded. "So whenever you can, just drop him off at your apartment so we can get him healed up."

Dear Lord, if there was a miracle to be performed, you sure had to drop it in front of my face with bright neon lights, didn't you? "Twilight... why do you do the things you do for me, knowing I don't deserve it?"

The young princess chuckled. "Just get him over here. We'll be waiting for you. I've already called over Cliff and Rickey so they can help you with Stanton if you need the assistance."

I feel like she just one-upped Celestia without even trying. Her fucking student... "Stanton's gonna be in a lot of pain when we get him out of this car."

"Well he won't be in it for long."

Upon leaving the hospital, we were given three items. The first item was a bottle of strong painkillers, to aid in the discomfort. But because he had to flush the morphine out of his system for a few hours, it gave him a small window of discomfort. The medicine they provided was said to be slow-acting but last substantially longer than most of the over-the-counter drugs you'd get at the local pharmacy. The other two things was a copper-infused knee brace and a wheelchair for him to use whenever he needs to get around.

Of course, all those things would be added to the bill later.

Dad and mom gave me more than an earful when we got into the parking lot. If I wasn't so determined to see Stanton get out of his funk, I'd give them a few words of my own. But it wasn't the time for that, not yet anyhow. I still needed to get my little brother to my apartment so that he can get fixed up. And convincing them to go along with me was far more than a chore. If anything, that just made them angrier. Don't even get me started on the moment when Stanton politely wheeled himself to my car and called shotgun just for the sake of denying my parents any intervention.

So instead of leaving the hospital in peace, we caused so much of a ruckus that the campus security had to check in on us and tell us that we had to get the hell out. And then started the arduous task of keeping Stanton from hurting himself more than he's already had. But there was no easy way of getting him in my front seat. I had to pull him out of the wheelchair, Mel had to take it from beneath him and I had to guide my brother as he endured excruciating pain into the front seat. After that, I had to mentally prepare myself for the long car ride home hearing my brother cry out in pain. There's hearing others cry out in pain because of various circumstances, I've experienced that and was on the receiving end, but when it's your own family...

Let's just say it's much harder to keep a straight face.

After he was secured, and my parents continued to bark at me while getting in their car, I suggested to them to follow me if they weren't sure that I was going to look after him properly. Knowing my parents, they wouldn't trust me with his well-being, especially since I became his inspiration to bypass the surgery. And if I made some argument about getting Celestia's doctors involved, then I knew dad and mom were going to take it up with her just as much as they would with me.

In speaking of which, she didn't even seem to budge when they started yelling at her over the subject. Seems she's gotten so used to tuning out the noise or something. If that ain't having the patience of a thousand saints, I don't know what is. But she calmly replied to any of their concerns and quickly alluded to me, that there will be a conversation I'm supposed to have with them in the near future.

So my taking Stanton and Celestia's words invited them to trail us down the highway to my apartment. And that they did.

They trailed me so tightly that any red light they could've caught, they ended up getting away with running them. And when we finally arrived, we had to deal with the wrath of two angry middle-aged parents who were sitting on the impression that they'll possibly end up having to work extra hours just to pay for that hospital bill. It took them a little bit longer, but Alex and Vanessa finally pulled up from the rear. When we got out, Rickey and Cliff were already upstairs on the balcony watching the drama unfold.

Mel looked at the stairs and groaned with displeasure as she took the wheelchair out of the trunk. Already in her mind, she was sizing up the width of the stairs and what we couldn't do to get him up them. Celestia quietly whispered that she could help me get him up the stairs with some of what she called 'additional arcane support'. Not like I had much of an argument against it, but she allowed for me to 'hold' Stanton while I climbed the stairs. In reality, she was going to levitate him on and off my hands to make for a smoother ascent.

I explained it quietly to Mel, and she agreed to take his wheelchair and wait upstairs as I grabbed Stanton out the front seat. And almost like I was playing some role of a much-older brother holding his younger sibling like he twisted his ankle, I walked up the stairs and hoped that nothing else got in the way like traffic coming down as we were going up. But thankfully, we didn't encounter anything other than my parents yelling and screaming about how I should be more careful.

We sat him in his wheelchair and he was still grimacing as much as he was when he first got in the car. But at least the hard part was over for him and now he just had to deal with the pain only for probably the next thirty minutes. However, he wasn't too caught up in the pain now that he knew that it wouldn't last for too long. Granted, there would be some more discomfort to come, but rehabbing would've been a much more painful process over a longer period of time.

We walked up to my door, Mel calmly pushing Stanton along as he griped and grimaced over his knee still. I just closed my eyes, praying to myself that this was going to work and that he wouldn't be in pain anymore. As soon as I opened the door, I was greeted with an unfamiliar woman with an all-too familiar voice. "Oh, Nondis. I wasn't expecting you guys here so quick."

Stanton, also keen to her voice leaned over in his wheelchair. "Holy shit, Sunset Shimmer?"

"You guessed it." She answered with a shrug of her shoulders. "Probably the first time you saw me like this, huh?"

Cliff crept in behind us as he leaned against the doorway. "Yeah, I had to stare for a bit too. I gotta admit I didn't expect her to come out looking like that."

The yellow-red haired teen pulled a curl out of her eye as she blushed slightly. "I'm not really a looker, Rarity and Fluttershy, those are the ones you'd wanna see. I'm pretty average on my end."

"You, average? Where the hell would you be considered as 'average', in what dimension?" Stanton asked.

"Why do all you Equestrians so damn intimidating to my confidence?" Melanie whispered. "It's like I can't fucking win. no matter who it is."

Sunset shook her head as she spoke. "Again, I'm not trying to present myself like that, I'm not out to embarrass or outshine anyone. I'm just here to make sure that everything goes well with the spell. Meanwhile 'Romeo' over there in the doorway wouldn't stop smiling at me."

Cliff refused to look away as he replied. "When you see something nice, you gotta smile to show appreciation for it. I'm just glad to see you."

"Probably wouldn't stare at me if I was anything different." She said, folding her arms. "Maybe if you were somewhat interested in that side of me, I wouldn't feel so violated."

Cliff shook his head. "I gotta call it like it is, I'm not used to that."

"But it's the personality that counts." Twilight announced as she came in from the hallway. "If you're willing to look past the differences in anatomy, then maybe there can be hope of something better."

Mel turned back to Cliff with a confused smirk, pointing back and forth between him and Sunset. "Are you two like... talking or something?"

"Soon as I show up like this, he wants my number." Sunset teased. "But I bet the moment I swap back, he'll suddenly forget that he even asked."

With a chuckle, Cliff finally stepped in the apartment while trying to change the subject on the sly. "But we ain't here to talk about that, we need to talk about Stanton and his leg."

"Hold on, now I'm kinda interested." Stanton replied, still wincing from the pain. "What's going on between you two?"

"Nothing as far as I know of." Sunset quickly stated. "He made the first move knowing who and what I am. So that's up to him?"

"Hey bruh, hows that leg?" Cliff walked up to Stanton and gently patted his knee.

"OOOH, CAN YOU NOT!" Stanton painfully yelped as he swiped at Cliff.

Just outside of the door, I could hear mom screaming from the stairs. "Nondis, what in the world is going on in there!?"

Coming back to reality, we brought our attention back to the main issue at the moment. Twilight cleared the pillows off of the couch and looked to Melanie. "Okay, back to work. Can you lay him here?"

"Not without it hurting him real bad." I added. "Celestia had to covertly levitate him up here."

"She used her magic out in the open?" Twilight questioned with moderate shock.

"Only enough to where it looked like I was carrying him up the stairs. Other than that, we need you to kinda do the same but only be a little more blatant with it."

"Well if you say so." She said before her magic started to take shape around her hands.

In quick succession, Stanton was lifted from his chair and laid on the couch. Following that, Mel carefully moved his leg to straighten out and removed his knee brace. After he was stabilized, he whimpered in pain while Sunset and Twilight proceeded to follow through with their work. Meanwhile, mom and dad walked into the apartment, Celestia following close behind them as they fussed at me some more.

"Nondis, you better have a damn good explanation on why you're doing this!" Dad vented. "Cause if you don't, I'm gonna knock fire out of your ass."

Not that I would have a problem proving him wrong, I didn't have time for that right then nor did I have the space. Sunset turned to me and asked. "Do you have any MRI scans with you, or some paperwork detailing the injury?"

Mel dug in her pocket and pulled out her phone and quickly sent her a picture text. "I took a picture of the damage before we left the hospital. You can take ultrasounds with you, but for some odd reason it's harder to keep any pictures of the results pertaining to injuries. But we have smartphones to blindly post our shit on the internet."

"One of the very few times where this comes out to be useful." Sunset added as she examined the photo she received. "...Yikes, that doesn't look healthy."

"Grade 3 ACL tear, he's not walking as long as his knee's unstable." Mel confirmed. "But if you got anything that can help with the healing process, then I'm all ears."

Dad quickly intervened as he went to grab Sunset's wrist. "Hold on, who the hell are you? I don't see no doctor's license on you!"

I in turn grabbed his arm and shoved it away. "She knows what she's doing, dad. Chill out."

He stood inches away from me as he and I stared each other down. "Boy, I feel like you're really testing me lately. You wanna keep doing this?"

The longer we stared at each other, the quieter the room got, the tenser the air became as we just stood there for a while. I wasn't too thrilled with him being so confrontational nor was I patient enough to deal with him acting out. But mom stepped in the way of the two of us, understandably taking dad's side in the argument. "Nondis, what me and your father are trying to say is that we don't know what any of this is all about. It feels like we're just watching for some miracle to happen."

Finally feeling some mood outside of being stand-offish with dad, I reeled back my aggression and gave her my honest response. "If you believe in miracles, then you might think of this one as unrealistic."

Stanton yelped as Sunset used her thumbs to source out the injury. His painful cries immediately grabbed mom's attention, causing her to call out to him. "Stanton baby, what's wrong?"

"Just... pain!" He cried out, digging his fingers into the couch cushions.

Alex ran up to him and held his hand. "Just hang on, man. We'll get you fixed up real quick." He said before looking back to Twilight. "How long do you think this will take?"

"We're still identifying the structure. The picture made it easier for us, but we have to feel for it as well. Otherwise we won't be able to make the spell work properly."

Spell, that word all by itself made mom a bit erratic. Or instead of erratic, I should say hard to negotiate with. "What the hell are y'all doing!?" She called out, cursing for the first time in a very long time. "What the hell is this 'spell'!?"

I quickly looked to Cliff and Rickey. "Guys, can you hold these two off? Twilight and Sunset needs to concentrate."

Before they could do anything, dad lunged at Twilight angrily. "YOU GET THE HELL AWAY FROM MY SON!"

But before he could so much as touch her, he was frozen in place by a golden glow. The golden transparent flames engulfed my dad's wrists and pulled against his shoulders. His torso strained as he struggled to move, but his struggled proved to be in vain as Celestia stood behind him and calmly spoke. "I know you are irrationally upset right now, but to break their concentration is not in the best interest for your son."

Cliff and Rickey were rendered to shocked silence as dad scowled at the elder princess, hissing all the while. "Who and WHAT are you?"

I swallowed whatever was in my mouth and finally spoke. "She's... she's not as we are."

Mom, who was also caught in Celestia's entrapment, could only move her shoulders. "Nondis, what is all of this?"

Twilight placed her hand underneath his knee, pulling it down to where it was completely straight, much to Stanton's misfortune and discomfort. "Okay, we're all set."

Sunset placed her hand over the top of his knee, closed her eyes, and whispered as she started to chant her incantation. "Oh healing light, spring of virtue, heal that which is not of us. Grace them with your power and provide sanctuary. Let your loving embrace show them salvation from all wounds. Mend the impurities that break us and create in us renewed wholeness. Give us... restoration."

Sunset's hands glowed in an aqua aura, but then radiated brightly to a pure white as her fingers traced around the area of his wound. Her thumb then pressed down against the severed ligament, causing Stanton to holler out in pain. But his dismay wouldn't last for long as her thumb wiped down from one torn segment to the other. She then lifted her hand to leave a white ball of energy hovering on his knee joint. And instead of panting from the pain, Stanton was panting from the afterthought of it. But he noticed the quick recession from agony, instead being replaced with a feeling of normalcy. The light on his knee dimmed until there was nothing left of it, and he was completely pain-free.

His eyes blinked for a few seconds as he stared at his leg, wondering if it would hurt if he moved it. Knowing how it feels to be on the receiving end of that spell, I empathized with his fear of moving something only to feel that pain surge through my body again. But as Sunset tapped on his leg, she ran her hand underneath it and squeezed lightly to massage the joint from behind. And even as he was kinda anticipating the pain, he moved his leg to wince at nothing. Realizing the lack of pain, he felt his jaw drop and offered to stand on his own two legs.

Coming off the couch on his own, bending the knee several times like he was slowly kicking the air, he got up and stared at his leg. He started off with a step forward, then a step backwards, followed by a few steps to the side. He walked over to the wheelchair and stared at it for a few seconds before gently kicking it away. He looked to be and asked me. "Dude, tell me you got a broom or something."

I started to walk towards the kitchen, but Twilight levitated one from the hallway closet. Stanton pointed towards the ground in the center of the den. After she placed it down, he positioned himself to one side of the broom handle. He then took a deep breath and took his first step over to the other side, bringing both feet over and back again. But instead of it being a casual step to the side, his feet were moving in a blur as he quickly picked them up and brought them down in a show of speed. After a burst of five seconds, he was left panting, bent over himself while he started laughing.

"Hey mom, dad, wait till Coach Sumlin sees me report to practice on Monday."

Celestia's hold over my parents dissipated as the stunned couple dropped to their knees and watched as their youngest son stood in recovery of one of the worst sports injuries an athlete could suffer. And it was to bypass all the surgeries, the checkups, the painful rehab, the long process of him getting back in shape after being off the field for so long, not even the days of conditioning, but suffering a career-altering injury and coming right back from it as if he just scraped his knee on the sidewalk.

Dad looked at me and questioned once more. "What is all of this?"

I smiled awkwardly as I mumbled towards him. "Do you believe in magic?"

It's been a while. I'm sorry it's taken so long, IRL has been the worst in the recent weeks. Have you ever had a washing machine repaired and three months later your drunk uncle proceeds to overload it and sit on top of it in a drunken stupor as the basket proceeds to derail itself? Can you imagine the depression I now feel knowing I have to pay more money to get it replaced because he won't do anything but spend money to pay for his truck and fund his alcoholic tendencies? Life is great...

...Either way, fun little chapter. I'm so tired of life that I'm gonna take some time to get this situated before I start on another chapter. I don't need the distractions to detract from me trying to write. I'm sorry if it seemed like a while, but it's been rough. I will see you all next chapter, hopefully you guys will stick around for the next one as I do appreciate the criticisms and commentary you all provide.