I had a really intense nightmare. It was like I was running in that forest from Tirek, knowing that I would be a dead man should I stop running. The entire dream felt like an intense merry-go-round where the only thing I could do was hide in whatever tree I could find. It scared me to no end of just how real it felt to me, even my arms started to ache from the intense scars I was given trying to protect my own face from whatever shrapnel threatened to mar my head into a tattered napkin. And when I found a tree suitable enough for me to hide behind, I started to hear the sick cackle of a demented Fluttershy echoing though the landscape. And as I looked above me, all I could see was the terrifying sight of Twilight's decaying corpse smiling down at me, the maggots and centipedes reaching from the eye sockets, as if they were waving hello at me.

I jumped out of that tree and hit the ground running, screaming for my life and whatever god could save me for the time being. There was no answers but the sound of the cackling pegasus mare. Before I knew it, there was a dismal sight of Twilight's belonging to various dimensions, all of them crucified on trees and smiling at me with completely empty eyes. The laugh intensified with each second I ran, my stomach churned as I went along, seeing the wall of Twilights becoming even more gruesome. Some of them hung with forelegs extended and with their hindquarters completely severed, intestines hanging with complete abandon. Instead of stepping on dirt, I was stepping in piles of bile and gore, the smell of it being similar to that of expired life and pus. Some were without skin also. There was even one with it's entire face completely removed from the front of it's skull. And next to it was one where her face was completely degloved from her head. I closed my eyes and held my ears shut, trying to hide myself from the nightmare surrounding me. But the voices intensified, telling me these three words.

With each step, I heard yet another cruel voice whisper over my shoulder.

You should've been earlier.

Maybe you need to work on your time.

A student is never late for his lesson.

Surely you should've known.

This is how it has to be now.

'Sorry' can't save me now.

You deserve everything you get.

There's no way out... but one.

You should've been there for me.

You never wanted to love me.

For your first lesson...

The first and final lesson...

I was stopped dead in my tracks by the feeling of my face impacting the putrid smell and sensation of decomposing flesh and sludge. Looking ahead of me, I could see an entire wall of Twilights smiling at me while pointing behind me.

In all the dreams...

In all the nightmares...

In every ounce of sleep I've lost...

Every terror...

Every moment...

Every sense of existential dread...

Not once...

No never...

Not once have I ever...

Ever...

Wanted to declare these words...

Oh...

So...

Vividly...

FUCK NO!

Fighting off the sleep paralysis, I jumped out of my nightmare, surrounded by darkness. Somewhere in the inner recesses of my mind, I could already anticipate the room being filled to the brim with those very same faces greeting me. A tingly shock ran from the back of my head down my neck and through my shoulders as I stood in the darkness. I clenched my eyes shut and reached over for the lamp and wished the nightmare away from my sight...

And with my eyes cracking open and me standing in my bed, I threw my fists into stance, only to see nothing sitting before me. There was nothing around me, nothing beside me, nothing behind me. I reached down to my phone to see what time it was and realized it was only three in the morning. I didn't even want to go back to sleep, knowing damn well that nightmare face was waiting for me as soon as I closed my eyes.

That shit can go fuck itself with a long holy dick and disappear into the ether.

I even removed the lampshade from the lamp to brighten up the room, walked over to the light switch by the door and flipped that on just to satiate my mental desire for safety. Even looking to the bathroom, I saw the door ajar with the darkness hidden within. I felt as if a hoof would crawl out and pull it open, so I ran up to it and slammed it shut with a quiet prayer.

"In the name of the father, the son, and the holy ghost, you can politely go kiss my ass."

I turned around quickly and watched everything small in my room move over a few inches. Already I could feel the fear swelling in my gut, urging me to fight whatever unseen poltergeist threatened to give me a bad time. I called out to the door with a heavy chest voice far louder than appropriate for the time of night.

"WHO IS IT!?"

A voice called at me from behind the door. "Tis I, Luna."

I walked over to the door and swung it wide open, only to see her face standing in the open darkness. I instinctively snatched her by the back of her neck and guided her into the well-lit room from the ominously dark hallway. I slammed the door behind her and asked a tad bit more calmly. "Whatever nightmare that one was, you better not give me that one again." I sternly ordered.

The princess levitated my hand from behind her neck and spoke. "I didn't give that one to you. You created it on your own. I never thought I would see such a dream terror where even my voice could not reach. Something has been introduced to your mind that was far from what you're mentally capable of handling. Perhaps it was a dealing through the course of the day that had managed to disturb your mind's balance."

"No shit." I shook my head, not even trying to close my eyes for a moment out of fear of that face being planted at the back of my eyelids.

Luna's eyes shifted around quickly, trying to understand a strange feeling she had picked up on as soon as she entered. "There is an unusual aura in this room. It brings me... unease."

"Good, because I swear the only thing I saw when you knocked was the sight of everything small moving around like a goddamn poltergeist flick." I said while I looked around my room. "Maybe you can take care of that too?"

Luna wanted to giggle at my frantic state, but refrained as she closed her eyes and illuminated her horn. She stood motionless, only taking deep breaths as she tried to sense the source of the unusual aura. Her eyes shot open as she stared back at me. "...Nondis, are you aware of some latent magic emanating from the core of your being?"

"I might have recently found that I have a bit of a circulation, yeah. Why?" I answered.

The princess' mouth fell agape, she quickly walked up to me and placed a hoof on my abdomen. "Well that circulation isn't stable, it's reminiscent of a foal trying to fight it's way out of danger. And right now, what you've got may have caused the various items in the room to shift." She looked in my eyes with amazement. "It means levitation is possible."

"Well I'm happy to know my magic isn't some shit from The Exorcist. But that still doesn't get that image out of my head. I'm gonna stay up for a while until I can wear myself out."

Luna took her eyes off of me an looked around the room to notice how bright I had the lights going. For a second, I could see some forlorn expression on her face. She levitated the lampshade back onto the lamp, changing the lighting of the room drastically. The night princess then walked over to the light switch by the door and casually flicked it off. I stammered for a bit until she turned to me with a simple smile. "Do you trust me?"

I looked around the room, immediately developing that childlike instinct of seeking my bed. "What are you doing?"

She walked next to the lamp and sat herself down, patting on the pillows. "Come. We must find you rest."

"I am not going to sleep with that thing waiting for me." I adamantly argued.

"Yes, you are." Luna replied. "Because you and I will be facing that thing together. And if you don't, then the repercussions of seeing that in the dream realm will drastically affect your relationships here in the waking world."

"...It's not about that." I whispered quietly.

The princess then used her magic to guide me towards the bed. "I know. What you saw is what your mind reproduces and intensifies. I cannot control what you see in the daylight hours, but I can control what your mind sees in the dreaming world. But to maintain that control is something you will have to do for yourself, and it begins by facing off against what it is that haunts you."

I stared at her and then the bed, still reluctant. "I don't know if I can handle another nightmare like that."

"Lay down." She instructed, levitating my body into the bed and laying the sheets over me. "I swear to you, you will be at peace soon enough. Now rest unto your dreams."

And with as much choice as I had in my enlistment, I was shifted back to sleep. Luna stood over me, watching my eyes close.

My dream started off from the moment I was running with my eyes closed, just mere seconds before I ran into the wall of Twilights pointing behind me. And as it happened earlier, was stopped by that very same hell an was brought to the face that brought terror to me, but looking at me at eye level. She gotten closer and closer until I could literally read the words 'never tardy' at the back of her eye sockets. I accidentally backed into the walls of pointing Twilights, causing each of them to move their forelegs out the way, only to lock back around me and hold me in place. I squirmed and writhed in an attempt to escape, but my efforts proved fruitless.

That was until I noticed that all that remained was the two hooves holding me by my waist. I looked back to see the Twilight I'm used to seeing with an innocent smile on her face. She let me go and stared back at me.

She walked past me, looking at the nightmare inducing version of herself and snickered.

"So is this what you've been seeing me as for the past few hours? I guess I can see why you'd be terrified to see me."

Luna then walked up from behind the apparition and stared back at the younger princess. "You managed to get here sooner than I expected."

"You were the one who told me Nondis was having nightmares about me. So I decided to jump in and see what the hubbub was all about." Twilight replied. "After all, my nightmares was about him to start off with. I just thought that I should be here for him in some way."

I looked between the two princesses and folded my arms. "Is this what we're really reducing my nightmares down to, a casual Sunday breakfast?"

Twilight snickered and gave me a friendly nudge. "I guess we could hit up an Ihop over in your world. Pancakes does sound nice right about now."

The phantom Twilight appeared confused for a few seconds before unleashing an angry roar to restore the dreamscape into the hellish nightmare it once was. But even as the real Twilight stepped forward, she started laughing as she looked at the creature's eyes. "Never tardy? Wow, was I late for another letter being sent to Princess Celestia? Goodness, it's been YEARS since that was a concern of mine!"

The phantom screamed at me instead of heeding anything else around me. "YOU WERE TOO LATE IN SAVING ME!"

"Yeah, and in some other dimension, I was too late saving him." Twilight replied, standing in front of me. "But you don't see that following me around." She then turned to me. "Because you were the first thing I woke up to in the morning."

I started to feel a little more at ease as Luna then interjected. "And wouldn't you get this, he apparently was so spooked that he turned on every light in the room!"

Twilight giggled endlessly. "You know, his mother always said he was scared of the dark when he was younger."

"I suppose that explains much to his state of mind." Luna replied.

The phantom grew even more angry, lunging at me with decaying hooves outstretched. But Twilight illuminated her horn and a small bubble popped up around the two of us. The creature bashed against the shield, snarling and threatening to break through until Twilight pointed behind her with a smile on her face, almost in exact fashion the wall of phantoms did with me. "Oh, and in speaking of his state of mind, you might wanna consider the state of your well-being."

The creature turned around to see Luna with a dark blue shadow growing from her mane. It almost appeared like a state of mitosis, the figure forming from the shadow reimagined itself as the featureless form of the night princess. The shadow stood patiently waiting before Luna pointed at the phantom. "Tantibus, sic 'em."

And the shadow lunged to the phantom, devouring the entire image whole before the horrible dreamscape was devoured in response to the phantom's defeat. And instead of seeing the mass of bodies, all I could see was the sight of the ruined Everfree Forest with the more prominent footsteps of Tirek approaching from behind. Luna turned around with shock. Twilight immediately took action, flying up to the creature and giving one of it's huge horns a small tap before the towering centaur was popped like a balloon and disappeared into a cloud of dust. And from the dust appeared a much smaller, older, and frail-looking centaur with small nubs for horns. The shadow Luna cast started to take action before Twilight stopped it dead in it's tracks by walking up to the centaur and simply blowing him away like a clump of dust in half of a breath. She looked at me with a snicker as the sky started to clear up.

"Wow, your dream was really a two-parter." Twilight said, still smiling at me.

Luna had completely disappeared from the dream altogether as I started to look around. I turned back to Twilight. "Hey, where did Luna go? And what was that thing she used?"

"That thing she summoned is called the Tantibus, it's a creature that feed and thrives off of every nightmare consumed. It resides within her, giving reinforcement to her some of her more darker abilities. But at least the only face you'll be seeing is plain-old mine for the time being." She briefly explained.

"Hopefully the not-scary version of you." I replied.

The young princess jumped up an wrapped her hooves around the back of my neck and giggled. "Hey... Nondis, wanna do something in our dreams we can't do in real life?"

"And what's that?" I asked.

Before I could get an answer to that question, the light of the sun had found it's way into my eyes. And I was brought out of my sleep, greeted by Princess Luna standing over my bedside. The princess chuckled as she whispered in my ear. "Good morning."

i cracked my eyes open and rubbed the sleep out of them before checking the time on my phone. I then brought my attention back to her. "Morning, your highness. Was that you who woke me out of my dream?"

The mare proceeded to put on an innocent face. "Well... I might have thought that any longer of a rest would've allowed you to oversleep. So I just did you a favor and sent a bit of a wake-up jolt through you. Nothing too special."

I groaned a little bit. "Ugh, and just when things were getting good too."

The princess looked down at the bed and lightly bit her lip. "Obviously it was getting too good for me to ignore."

I looked down to see that I had my usual morning 'salute', so I instinctively turned the other way, shoving my arm between my legs. "Well I'm awake, so I guess I'll be getting ready to take my shower. You should probably head out before your sister gets suspicious."

I laid in my bed, hoping that she would dismiss herself. But then again, that would've been far too easy for me to deal with considering my luck. Instead, she jumped on the bed, anchoring her left foreleg shy of one side of my body and the right one likewise. The princess then leaned into my ear and whispered. "You thought you could get away from visiting me, didn't you?"

"With all due respect, your highness, I don't want no trouble."

Her voice grew tickled while every bit of her breath warmed my right ear. "It isn't trouble if no pony knows about it."

Before I could even look back at her with shock and awe, she plopped her body on top of mine and nuzzled her way towards my face. Her muzzle remained just inches away from my lips while she slowly inched closer.

And then... "So this is what I'm missing out on?" ...Celestia's voice rang through the room.

I jumped up and waved my hands, trying to flag down the elder princess who stood at the foot of my bed. "Your highness, if I can explain the situation." My words didn't seem to have much of an effect on the rationally angry sibling.

Luna leapt back up and draped her foreleg around my chest and shoulder, hiding behind me with a devious smile. "Sister, you don't mind if I have a brief conversation with our esteemed captain, do you?"

The elder princess was far from amused. "Luneste Saline Valkyrie, you remove yourself from that human at once, young lady!"

"Oh don't try to sound like mom. You had your little romance, now it's my turn." The younger sibling demanded, clenching onto me harder.

"There appears to be a misunderstanding, your highness. So if you don't mind, I'll just... yeah." I said sheepishly before trying to duck down out of Luna's grasp, but then shuddering as I realized that I couldn't move. My limbs wouldn't even move themselves as I was left feeling like a cadaver.

The blue mare lightly whispered in my ear. "Sleep paralysis is a bit of a nuisance, it almost feels like certain doom is lurking around the corner and you're completely helpless to do anything."

Celestia didn't seem to mince any bit of her warning as she started charging her horn with powerful magics. I shifted my eyes over to the side of me, unable to move any part of my body aside from that. The solar princess finally made her threat a very serious one. "Little sister, you have until the count of three before I knock some sense into you again."

Luna continued to speak quietly to me, ignoring her sister's warning. "It's all too common that fear happens to be the first thing you feel because of the hallucinations. Or maybe the threat you think is there, isn't actually there."

"One." Celestia started as a growing humming noise indicated to me that whatever spell she was charging up was probably going to hurt real bad.

Luna, again, paid her no mind. "But the truth is that there could very much be the threat of an immanent doom lurking over your body. Perhaps it is the cold hooves of death seeking to confiscate what is not-yet his to claim."

"TWO!" She emphasized, her magic now growing into what appeared to be a bite-sized sun radiating the heat one would experience on a mid-July afternoon in Houston.

Once more, Luna ignored her sister. "Now I know what you're thinking. What does that have to do with what you're experiencing right now? And the answer to that may not surprise you too much. But..."

"THREE!" Celestia shouted, whipping her horn in a circular motion as if she was going to unleash all of that charged energy at us.

Luna's horn illuminated this time and she concluded her statement. "I do believe you were to pay my chambers a fond visit."

And as soon as Celestia unleashed her magic, Luna used hers to teleport the both of us into her bedroom. I soon found the ability to move on my own. The lunar princess broke out in raucous laughter as I turned to her, more than a bit disturbed. "Lady, are you fucking crazy!?"

Luna sat on her bed as her laughter started to die down. "Look, in case you haven't noticed already, Tia and I have a history of pulling pranks on one another. It may seem high-stakes on the surface, but I guarantee you that it's all in good healthy fun."

"How is endangering my life 'fun' in any capacity?" I deadpanned.

"Endanger, YOU?" Luna snickered. "I already told you that she connects with you in a way she doesn't with me. Now why would she try to vaporize somepony she deems as a valuable asset to her machine?"

"Well gee, I guess it wouldn't be the fact that you're loitering over me like some thirsty traveler in an endless desert asking me for water." I replied.

The princess used her magic to levitate me towards her bed, seeming all-too devious. "I'm not like Tia, you know that. And I don't mind taunting and teasing you at any given opportunity. And even if I make a joke at your expense, I don't intend for anything to be considered as hurtful."

"And I'm sure she knows that too. If anything, she's probably made it known to me that I wasn't even supposed to be in here." I notated while looking around her room.

Luna stood on her bed, placing her forelegs over my shoulders. "That's because she's overprotective, she wants everything for me to be as it is for her. But I'm a lot more free in my pursuit for desire."

I tried to back away, but the only thing I was feeling was her hooves locking me in place. I guess that super strength thing runs in the family. "Why do you insist that I should get in trouble with your sister?"

The mare placed her head against mine, still pinning me in place. "In all honesty, why should it matter what she thinks? Let's be realistic for a moment, if you had an option to find yourself with her or I, who would you be more interested in?"

"See, that's a pretty interesting question..." Realizing my only way out of her grip was to drop down, I nervously laughed and collapsed out from under her and rolled towards the door. My face was still flushed from the fact that she was probably a mere inch from putting my lips on lockdown. I backed into the door and my hand found the handle. But as soon as I jiggled the knob, I heard the sounds of chains rattling behind me. I turned around and saw the entire door coated in chains with a huge sigil at the center. The princess quickly flew over to me and pinned either hoof around my head with a smile. "...You're not giving me a choice on the matter, are you?" I squeaked in response.

"I cleared your nightmares, I gave you a weapon, I offered my assistance. By all rights, I should have you offer me fealty unabated. But I have enough of that from my own guards." She said before closing the distance on me again. "So instead, I have one humble request."

"Let me guess, you want a date or something?" I asked sheepishly.

The princess' eyes shined brightly with excitement as her own dramatized visions of the future came flashing before her eyes. The only words she murmured at that point were all the things she envisioned. "Day by the lake, time in a book, sitting on the beach, home-cooked meal... wait, can he really cook for me? What would he look like in an apron?... A long deployment from home and I get to see him off? My first long-distance love letter? Romances of being separated by the seas and only a pen and parchment to reciprocate our affections, absence does makes the heart grow fonder. Watching me reconstruct the night every evening, why yes that would be fun. I could search the sky for new stars to name after him."

Almost from absolutely nowhere, Celestia teleported in and saw Luna pinning me to the wall, mumbling a variety of things. Celestia peered over her shoulder and asked me. "Okay, what did you say to her?"

I craned my neck so I could maintain eye contact with the elder sibling. "Well she said she had one request, I sarcastically offered a night out, and this is where the conversation picks up."

Celestia deadpanned with a half-smirk. "You didn't say the D-A-T-E-word, did you?"

"I might have." I replied, earning a facehoof from the high princess.

Luna continued to ramble on. "Diplomatic dinners, him standing over me while I'm at the negotiating table, telling me I did a wonderful job, hugging me when I have a long day, holding me when I'm in brooding mode, a proposal in the snow, my new dress! WEEEEEEDDING BEEEEELLLLLLS!" The lunar princess cleared her throat and looked off to the side. "Maybe we should start off slow, like getting to know each other."

Lady, you were just trying to pin me to the bed, HOW THE FUCK IS THAT SLOW!? "...Yeah, I hate to burst your bubble, but─"

She completely ignored me, placing a hoof to my lips. "No. We must be vigilant!" She finally let me off the door and shyly played with her forelegs. "So... your world or mine?" She asked, making a face that even I would deem too cute to turn down.

Unfortunately, I had to turn her ambitions aside with no real willpower at the moment. Luckily, Celestia walked between us and offered the younger princess a reality check. "Luna, he's not dating you."

The younger princess' face then turned sour. "Oh typical Celestia, always trying to woo away potential suitors for yourself!"

The elder princess blushed profusely and stomped her hoof in the ground. "Excuse me!? He and I already had that conversation and I made it perfectly clear that we were NEVER going to be an item! And he might not say it like I will, but neither will the two of you!"

Luna brushed her sister aside and looked at me with puppy-dog eyes. "You wouldn't turn me down, would you?"

I groaned as I turned away, not wanting to look at her face. "Look, I don't know if you've noticed, but I do have a bit of a relationship issue with a few others at the moment. My plate is full right now and... I just don't think I can make the space large enough for you as quickly as you'd hope it to be. So... it's really me more than anything."

Luna promptly replied. "Well if Blueblood can actively participate in the herding practice, then why shouldn't I?"

Celestia grew completely baffled that her own sister even presented herself in such a manner. I was just as surprised at her suggestion, but my view remained the same. "Nah. Someone like you, Luna, you deserve exclusivity. It'll be like what Cadance gets out of Shining Armor."

The princess' ears fell back and her head dipped a bit from hearing my answer. "Oh... So it's really just me and you?"

I went a little further to explain. "I don't think that would be permissible. Remember a certain law in place disables me from getting any sort of intimate with any royal after my severance with Twilight was made official. And even then, Twilight and I share a bit of an unusual bond that allows us to do certain things that very few others can. And then there's someone else I'm kinda talking to, just feeling things over. I wouldn't be able to give you the exclusivity you deserve."

Luna became saddened for a moment, but then took a deep breath and smiled at me. "So... you wouldn't happen to mind a few more nightmares for weeks on end then?"

I felt myself become more dispirited as I thought about how I was going to deal with all of that without any assistance, knowing my sleep was going to be awfully shitty for a month. "I'm sorry. I deserve every nightmare you send my way. But I didn't want to make you upset because of my being around other mares right now. And I know you have aspirations of being in a relationship─"

"Her first relationship." Celestia quipped under her breath.

I gawked at the night princess and took a step back. "Wait a minute, YOUR FIRST RELATIONSHIP AND YOU WERE OFFERING TO BE A PART OF A HERDING PRACTICE!?"

Luna became embarrassed from her older sister exposing her lack of experience in being with anyone of the opposite sex. The blushing mare ran up to her sister with a confrontational stance. "Celestia, why do you continue to see to it that every last attempt I make end in awkward failure!?"

"Because I assess who is good for you and who is not. Nondis is not a fit for you because of his free-mannered commitment to relationships."

At that point, I felt insulted a bit. "Wait, did you just politely call me a whore?"

"Who's to say that I cannot change that about him, sister?" Luna pleaded. "I can teach him the art of being stable."

Celestia shook her head. "You were going to teach him the art of premarital coitus, something that has already been offered to him en masse. And even should you engage in something with him, his parents would clearly disapprove."

"As if it matters, Tia! He's already decided to make Equestria his home, and as such he lives by our rules! Surely if he was worried about that, then he would have left and made himself available to the female human, Melanie!"

Yup, that's a good time to take my leave. "Well you two have fun. I'm gonna go through nexus and get back over to Ponyville. I've got a long day ahead of me."

Celestia quickly got sidetracked from her argument with Luna and turned her attention to me. "Excuse me, I haven't given you the daily itinerary for your shift. Shining already covered for you yesterday, so now you must make that up today."

"Well, your highness." I started to explain. "Last night I had a nightmare and as soon as I woke up, I found a bunch of stuff moving around my room like some unicorn filly was flexing their magic skills around. And wouldn't you guess it, it actually came from me being stressed out. So I'm paying Twilight a visit so I can learn how to not be a walking poltergeist."

Celestia stammered for a second before Luna simply stated. "Nondis has a magic current that's unstable and uncontrolled. He wants to learn how to control it."

Celestia looked at me with confusion and twitching left eye. In a single blink, her horn lit up and we were teleported elsewhere.

Meanwhile in the Library of Twilight's Castle...

Starlight Glimmer and Twilight had started going through all the various measuring instruments they had and explaining their purpose to Melanie, who was taking notes as they went along. Spike assisted her, despite her being somewhat cautious towards him. The group of four continued about their list before a flash of light appeared at the center of the room. As soon as the light subsided, Starlight's jaw dropped as soon as she saw who just ported herself into the room so casually.

Celestia walked up to her and pointed back at me with a nervous snicker. "So Twilight... new assignment."

"Good morning, princess!" The young alicorn said with a polite bow. Starlight looked at her mentor and quickly realized that she too needed to be bowing down. However, Twilight's bow wasn't nearly as formal as her pupil's. "So what's the assignment you have lined up for me?"

"Nondis may have a magic current that causes him to move items without his consent. As of now, it is uncontrolled."

Twilight just simply stared back at me. "You're already levitating things!? Well... then again, you were doing that a while back. I remember an instance of that happening while we were in your apartment in your world."

I scratched my head and asked. "What, when did that happen?"

Mel looked at her and spoke. "Ditto for me. I didn't see that one."

"Well Nondis was doing something, I think he was playing his games. And I noticed that the controller he used at the time had gradually moved over a few inches from where he last put it." Twilight explained.

"How are you sure that he didn't just place it there to begin with?" Melanie questioned.

"If Twilight sees anything out of place from where it once was, she'll be the one to move it back." Spike added. "She's obsessively compulsive. She could be reading a book and she'll hear if something moves out of place."

Mel looked to Twilight with a quirked brow. "I didn't know you had it that bad."

"So is that why your library happens to be so organized?" Starlight questioned her mentor.

Twilight ignored everyone else and focused on me. "So you moved some stuff on accident? What exactly were you doing when you moved all of it?"

I closed my eyes and tried to rebuild the events leading up to that point. I remember that I woke up out of a pretty bad nightmare and that I was ghastly afraid of seeing what I saw there come to appear directly in front of me. "Princess Luna knocked on the door after I woke up from my nightmare. I guess I was so on edge that I ended up causing what my mind perceived to be a supernatural event."

Luna confirmed my account. "I felt the aura as soon as I walked in the room. It was ominous to say the least, but I guess that's to be expected when magic is cast out of fear or any negative emotion in general."

The purple mare stared to think back to the nightmare she helped me overcome. "Never tardy... Those were the words at the back of my eye sockets, right?"

Melanie quickly became disturbed and started backing away as she questioned what was going on. "Uh, if I could get clued in on what the fuck you guys are talking about because it doesn't exactly sound Sunday-friendly?"

I quickly explained. "The events from yesterday left a lasting impression on me, and as a result I had some pretty fucked-up nightmares. I'm sure you had some after operating on me."

"Boy did I." Mel agreed.

Luna held me in place with her magic as she calmly gave spoke. "Nondis, do you trust me?"

I glanced back at her. "Why does it sound like you're about to do some shit I won't like?"

"Because you won't." She confessed. "But I need to trigger those events to get us off to a good start."

Mel quickly objected. "Wait, you're going to give him a nightmare based on a thing he experienced earlier in the day, right now when his mental state isn't in the best shape? No thank you."

Starlight then argued against Mel. "It might not be socially ideal, but if it could lead to him being able to learn how to ultimately control his latent abilities, then he should be all ears."

"'Socially ideal' aren't the words I'm hitting on. It's the psychologically ideal thing, it's going to be a health issue if he keeps going through all of this shit. It's bad enough that mental issues runs deep in his family, it would be damaging if he were to get hit by something his mind isn't completely able to process."

I felt a sickening churn in my stomach and closed my eyes to the last set of nightmares I had before the most recent batch. I started to think about the time I was on on the train. Or how we were running in the forest from a changeling disguised as an eldritch abomination. So I swallowed my fear as best as I could and clenched my fists. "Twilight... point behind me."

"What!?" Twilight shouted. "Are you seriously recreating the events of your nightmare─"

"To conquer my fears, I must grow to face them." I argued.

Luna's voice called out from behind me. "The effectiveness of a nightmare is only reached when given the initial revelation of that apex horror element. In this case, you already know what you'll be looking at when you turn around so the effectiveness isn't nearly as strong as you think it will be."

"If I see it in real life, then it will horrify me to no end." I answered.

"It will not." Luna argued. "There is no realm like the dreamscape, where all futility is realized because you are incapable of running away from what is being contained within your own mind. The waking world gives you the opportunity to fight back where the dreamscape does not."

I drew a sigh, knowing damn well I wasn't gonna like what was gonna come out of my own mouth. "Okay then, fuck me up real good. Give me a real scare. Just make sure to clean up after yourself later tonight."

Luna covered her mouth with uncertainty as she thought to herself. "...Are you sure?"

I opened my eyes and saw Twilight pointing at me, completely terrified and even backing away with her magic at the ready. I turned around and pretty much saw a face that could only scream one particular line.

I jumped back out of sheer horror of seeing THAT face again. The last time I ended up seeing that face was while I was playing a game of Scary Maze in middle school. And then it popped up in every other youtube video that tried to clickbait you to watching until the end where THAT face greeted you with that demented smile looking to take your soul through that computer screen and onward for a ride into hell itself.

I fucking HATED seeing that face.

Smaller items around the room like papers and quills all shifted back as soon as I took a step back and tried to shield my own face. But that apparently wasn't the only thing that moved. Books fell off the shelves and were lightly tossed forward as soon as my arms covered my own face. Twilight and Mel both hid behind another bookshelf, Spike had passed out completely, while Starlight shrugged nonchalantly. "I don't get it."

Mel screamed from behind cover. "SINCE WHEN THE HELL COULD YOU DO THAT!?"

"Better question, where the hell did you get that face from?" I said, still shielding myself from seeing that face that haunted me since middle-school.

Luna cleared her throat as she shifted herself back to normal. "Well in the midst of my numerous walks into his mind, I came across that one while he was still undergoing his situation with Chrysalis. I got a little curious and poked around to see what that was all about and found that this was something that resided in the darker recesses of your mind since the start of your adolescence. So I drew from that... Sorry if it brought up bad memories."

I smiled nervously as I peaked past my arms and saw Luna was back to normal. I took a deep breath and whispered politely. "I do remember saying 'fuck me up' instead of 'put me in an abandoned mental asylum with my inner-demons'. Thanks for that."

Luna nodded. "Well as apologetic as I am for unveiling that to you all, I do feel a sense of accomplishment. You managed to recount the effectiveness of your being terrified and how it affects your unstable magic cycle."

Celestia mere stood slack-jawed for a moment before speaking. "So... Twilight, I guess you'll be having a new student today."

Starlight walked beside me, trying to give me a friendly nudge. "Welcome to homeroom, fellow classmate." Instead of reciprocating her friendliness, I still showed disdain for her even dragging Twilight and I through that hell of yesterday. So I still frowned at her instead of smiling back. She immediately understood that I still wasn't too happy with her at the moment. "Oh... right, personal space."

Celestia raised a brow at the lavender unicorn and pointed to her while asking Twilight. "I see you made a new friend."

Twilight finally climbed from over the top of the bookshelf she hid behind and glided on down to ground level as she spoke. "Well, that's not only a new friend of mine, she's going to be my newest friendship student. I'm hoping to pass the virtues of friendship on to her so that she can learn how to make better decisions and have them be to the benefit of Equestria and everyone around her."

Starlight Glimmer bowed her head clumsily before the high princess. "Your highness! Honored to meet you, ma'am!"

"Likewise." Celestia said before turning to me. "Now I am uncertain as to what may have occurred between the two of you, but I do not want you to end up feuding like you once were with Spike. And for the sake of others as well as yourself, you will be relocated to Ponyville for the next three days so that you can safely be observed and learn to control your magic."

Twilight approached her former mentor. "If I may interject, why not your school? I don't think I have enough research material at the fundamental level for him to study. Most of my books are advanced theory, incantations, and equations."

"Magic kindergarten, Twilight."

Twilight quietly shuddered at the thought of being in that class again. "Eeuuughhhh, oh Faust no."

Celestia continued. "He would be placed in magic kindergarten, with a bunch of young foals. Even if it were to be ideal to start him there, it would be a bit of a stain to his social status. Not to mention the maturity level of his peers would greatly differ from that of his own. And being an instructor myself, I can attest to the cruelty some foals will enact should they discover that the Captain of the Royal Guard frequents their class."

Luna then added. "Also it would publicly reveal that he is learning magic, while a quiet revelation could be a significant tactical advantage should the situation calls for his intervention in that manner. So it would be imperative that he works his way up quickly and discreetly."

Starlight added on another question. "So if he's starting from the very beginning of magic theory and composition, would it be possible that I teach him how to formulate..."

From that point on, I completely zoned out of what Starlight was rambling on about and walked over to Mel, who was still hiding behind the bookshelf. "You okay?"

Melanie grabbed my arm and whimpered quietly. "Have you seen what a human head looks like on a pony body, especially with that bitch off the Exorcist? I'm sitting here worried about your mental state while I should be fucking worried about mine."

"I could have you sleep over and you get to have your dreams monitored for any disturbances." I suggested.

"If you can pull that one off for me, then okay." She replied, finally revealing herself from behind the bookshelf. "Can I ask how you're going to be able to learn how to use magic in three days though? That's a pretty steep learning curve, ain't it?"

"Realistically speaking, I think they're just trying to get me to learn how to control my cycles before I start going all poltergeist-like. If that happens, then I don't think I'll ever be able to go home again."

Mel then suggested in a sarcastic tone. "Then maybe don't get scared of anything and you'll be fine."

"Easier said than done when life itself can throw some scary shit your way." I replied.

I then felt a hoof suddenly tap me on my shoulder, causing me to jump a little bit. And as a direct result, two more books fell off of the shelf while I turned around to see Celestia standing behind me. "I'm sorry to distract you from this conversation, but I need you to come back to the one at the center of the room."

I gave a silent nod and both Mel and I walked back to the table at the middle of the library. Twilight then spoke. "Alright, so in case you missed out on a few details, Starlight Glimmer will be your primary basics instructor, since she's learning her advanced and expert mechanics from me, she will be teaching you your beginners and intermediates."

I looked down to her with disapproval before seeing Celestia staring back at me through the corner of my eye, directing that same glare I gave to Starlight towards me. I then played off my dissatisfaction and sat myself at the table. "Okay... so what's our first lesson?"

Luna walked behind me and gently placed her hooves on my shoulders. "I may not know what transpired for you to dislike her so much. But I do know that forgiveness is a process best taken slow. When you felt wronged by someone, it can be hard to forgive. And you know just as much as I do about how it feels to enact on the desire for revenge. But when I tell you that seeking that is sometimes the demise of those who aspire to dole vengeance or self-described 'justice', take my word for it. I know all sides of the coin, I know how it feels to be redeemed from a dark path, a thousand years of being locked in the moon will do that for you."

Twilight levitated a quill in front of me. "What we're telling you is true. Don't let your personal desire for revenge damage your perspective. I could've lost all my friends had I made a choice to keep fighting, but I chose to negotiate instead. You have to make that same decision on your own."

Starlight, who still seemed tense over my demeanor, smiled nervously while I closed my eyes and conceded. "Okay... So what's my first lesson, chief?"

Starlight's ears perked up a bit before she pointed a hoof out before her, pointing towards the feathery quill. "Well the first thing we always started off with when we're foals is seeing if we can do our letters and numbers without using our mouths."

Mel and I looked completely blank-faced. The young woman beside me merely picked up the quill and signed her name on paper as neatly and elegantly as she could, also being completely effortless in her attempt. I muttered to myself. "How the hell do you write with your mouth?"

The unicorn mare cleared her throat and levitated the quill away from Melanie and struck a line on the paper. She then laid it out before me. "Okay, now just make a line using your magic. Cycle the energy within your body into your horn and─"

"Uh..." I interrupted, politely pointing to my own head.

The mare blushed with embarrassment as soon as she realized that she wasn't talking to a unicorn at the moment. Her eyes wandered around the room as she tried to think of another way to equate the unicorn experience to that of a human one, to which she was quickly failing.

Twilight rubbed her chin before thinking back to the recent time she spent in my world being a human. An idea quickly came to mind. "Hey Nondis, try to channel some of that energy into your fingers."

I did as I was instructed to do, resulting in nothing more than a motionless feather and me looking like I had dealt with a bad case of constipation. Mel turned to the two princesses and pointed back at me. "So do you really think he can learn magic in three days?"

"Controlling a cycle, that should be a pretty easy thing. But levitation and the other things to come with it, well..." Celestia started to think to herself.

"No." Luna abruptly answered. "Not going to happen."

Mel folded her arms and asked. "Will this training have any side effects on him?"

"To be realistic, if he doesn't learn how to channel his cycle correctly, trying to overexert the release of magic... the results can be quite harmful because going so far will cause a temperature build-up."

I managed to overhear that one detail and thought about the initial world I walked into, how half of Twilight's face was burned away. I stopped myself and just stared at the feather, uncertain as to whether or not I wanted to continue. Starlight noticed my hesitation. "Is something wrong?"

I folded my arms into my lap and rested my chin on the table. With a simple sigh, I ended up moving the quill farther leagues father than my magic could. I just let myself sink while my hand was tightly clasped between my thighs. "I just don't wanna burn my hand to a crisp from doing this so haphazardly. What if I force myself too much and burn my hand off?"

Twilight and Starlight both knew all too well what I was alluding to. The duo looked between one another and frowned with concern. Starlight then grabbed the quill from in front of me and pulled another book from the shelf. As soon as I read the title 'Your Magic and You; Baby Steps to a Unicorn's Natural Development', I felt myself sink even further into my seat. Meanwhile, Starlight smiled awkwardly and placed the baby book in front of me.

"Okay... first lesson is to breathe in slowly."

Austin, Texas
5 Hours Later...

Most of my time in the library was spent on various breathing and meditation exercises. Even if I was afraid of overexerting myself and causing some damage, I really didn't understand why they didn't think about nudging me along further when they felt that I 'should be falling into the very next stage pretty soon' instead of holding my breath for thirty seconds at a time or nodding off to sleep out of boredom.

So far, having magic wasn't nearly as much as I cracked it up to be.

So for a good five hours, I was stuck on being close to 'falling into the very next stage' and doing very little else other than an occasional bathroom break. And to my displeasure, I wasn't given an opportunity to eat anything other than my own words. But that was going to change in the Golden Coral dad drove us to. And from the moment we found our table, I planted my drink next to my seat and wandered towards the buffet.

Of fucking course the first section I had to hit up was the meat. One whiff of that steak had me on the verge of drooling in public. Stanton went about his own way, while Alex followed behind me as he stared over to see what I was getting. "Careful, you don't want Princess Celestia to keep you on dietary lockdown." He joked.

I rolled my eyes at my older brother. "Look, my entire week has been nothing short of a weight-watchers program. And the killer thing is that I'm already walking more than five miles cumulatively, I drink well over a gallon of water daily, and my menu was practically horse-based. It's bad enough I couldn't get any of the leftovers, it's even worse knowing I can't ask mom for more because she won't speak to me. But seriously, I worked off all that food. I'm should be in the clear now."

"Whatever you say, man." Alex shrugged. "Just don't come sneaking over here knowing you can't have meat for a while."

"What is it those feminists on campus spout out at every protest? 'My body, my choice,' something along those lines?"

Alex chuckled lightly. "Nondis, c'mon."

"No really, she has it where I can't even walk into a cafe and place an order by royal decree. I have to eat out of the Royal Cafeteria to avoid 'cheating my diet'. How much fun is that?"

"It could be worse." Alex said as he pointed to the steak and announced to the chef behind the glass. "Medium-well, please."

The chef sliced the large steak he had on the grill and checked the meat before putting the slice on his plate. I then handed him mine and proudly requested. "Medium-rare, please."

Alex looked at my arm as I rolled my sleeve up to avoid my arm from getting too warm from the steam below. I grabbed my piece of meat and he pointed out my lack of scars. "The scars from yesterday healed up real quick."

"Thanks to Twilight's magic." I replied.

"Actually, it was the other pony girl who did that for you." He corrected.

"Oh yeah, Starlight."

"Right, so that's her name..." He said, trailing off as he saw a fresh batch of mashed potatoes being laid out. "Oh, gotta get me some of that."

I walked behind him, waiting patiently as he horded over the serving spoon, piling potatoes as high as he could get away with. "Yeah, wouldn't you believe she had me doing breathing exercises today? That's pretty much all of what I've been doing for five hours."

Alex chuckled. "Ha, you pregnant or something?"

"I made that same joke." I said before sliding beside him to talk even quieter. "Apparently that magic circulating in my system has caused some other side-effects."

Alex looked around to make sure we weren't being looked at throughout the course of our conversation. "What kind of side effects?"

"Apparently if I get spooked a bit, I'll end up causing a bit of a stir. Not too much of one, just a few napkins and sets of silverware."

My older brother looked at me. "Floating?"

"Not quite, but they move without me touching them." I said while looking back to see if dad was still at his seat.

"You think he'll be open to you having magic pulses every time you get upset?" Alex questioned, also looking at dad.

"I'll tell him when I have things under control. For now, I was instructed to keep taking deep breaths."

"Why?" He inquired.

"Because something about control and balance keeping my magic in check."

As we started to turn away from the buffet selection and make our way back to the table, Alex asked me one last question. "So... how long is it until you start throwing out fireballs and thunderbolts?"

I scoffed at his joke and walked sat down at the table. As soon as we sat down, dad got up to go grab grabbed his plate. I looked at my food and smirked. "That was probably the first question I had when I first got to Equestria. So the answer is no."

"Well a man can dream, I suppose." Alex grabbed his fork and said a quick prayer before eating.

Stanton finally got back from the buffet line and sat down beside me. Immediately, his first question off the bat was... "So I heard you got magic now, is that real?"

"Scare me and you'll swear you'll be needing mom's prayer group on speed dial." I replied.

He said a quick prayer and then went into more questions. "So what's it like?"

"I don't feel it, it's probably the main reason why they have me doing nothing but breathing exercises right now." I replied, cutting off a piece of steak to shove in my mouth. As soon as my tongue came in contact with the juicy slice of beef, I ended up writhing from the pleasure of the wonderful taste in my mouth.

However, what I didn't notice was that all our food at the table had started defying gravity for a quick second. Alex had to tap me on the shoulder quickly. "Ix-nay on the gic-ma!"

My eyes popped open to see the plates at the table starting to rise half an inch off it's surface and I quickly caught myself in order to drop everything. "Oh shit... Sorry guys, work in progress."

Both my brothers stared wildly at me before Stanton slammed his fork down. "Dude, how fucking long have you had that shit?"

"Well I just found out that I had it yesterday. But from what I was told, my having it could've been as long as I was stuck in Equestria because of a series of things."

"Let me guess, being stuck in Narnia gave you magic powers over time." Stanton said sarcastically.

"From all the medical spells too." I replied. "Remember I had surgeries to my collar bone, my skull twice, my ribs, left arm, right arm, my left ankle, and my entire intestinal tract. And then I'm getting spells placed on me left and right."

"So what you're saying is that all the medical spells gave you magic too. If that's the case, being that I had a torn ACL repaired by magic, shouldn't I be able to do that shit you just did?" He asked.

Alex then butted in. "That's a good question, but not quite. Though to be realistic, each one of us, including dad, may have magic still lingering in their system. Dad had a surgery to remove a bullet from his right shoulder. You had your torn ACL, and I was turned into a pony once."

"I think it takes being in a magical world for more than six months before your body eventually develops how to maintain these weird magic cycles, plus all the magic getting sent through and into your body." I concluded.

Alex stared at his plate and shook his head. "I still can't believe this is real. You just ate a piece of steak and the whole damn table was about to enter the space program."

Stanton continued to eat as he spoke. "Well maybe it's not based on your being scared, probably more on how active you are with your emotions."

As I was just about to take a bite of my food, an idea had clicked into my brain and I started to wave my fork around like I was a wizard in a Harry Potter movie. "So if you guys are saying that my magic is based on my emotions, then is it possible that I can use my emotions to control my cycles too?"

"Not a question for us to answer." Alex pointed out. "We're not magicians like you are."

By that point, dad had finally came back to the table and sat down with his plate of fried chicken and cheese spinach. Instead of carrying on with the conversation like we were, I decided to change the subject to a topic dad would be more open to discussing. "So... how was the sermon today at church?"

Dad was about to start praying before he froze from modest shock. "You wanna know about how service was?"

"I mean I haven't gone there in over four years. Might as well ask if everything's the same."

He said his quick prayer as I was speaking and started to take his first bite of food before speaking. "Yeah, well not much has changed around there. Trevor's still there. But the shocker you'll find out about is that Jadice came around too."

"Jadice?" I questioned.

"You know... Mel's... yeah." He answered quietly, still trying to keep the conversation intimate.

Both Alex and Stanton were just as interested in that bit of news as I was. "So what happened this time?" I asked.

"She came in looking to turn her life around, praise God. She just got admitted into a rehabilitation clinic two weeks ago and now she's trying to assimilate herself back into the world of God's word."

I wasn't still too spiritual or anything like my dad, so most of his expressiveness seemed a bit off-putting to me. "At least she's on her way back to the light." I said.

"Trevor's been keeping a close eye on her. But where I kinda fell off from his boat was when he said he wanted to get the family back together in the future. And of course, that includes Mel."

"Yikes." Stanton said with a cringe, Alex merely sucked the air through his teeth and exhaled.

"That's a hard one to pull off..." I said with disbelief.

"Yeah." Dad shrugged quietly before he suddenly changed the subject. "So... I hear you got magic now."

My eyes shot up from my plate to him while Alex grabbed my arm from across the table. "Deep breaths, deep breaths. Woosah." He directed to me. I continued to try and keep my breathing regulated while I then looked to Alex. "Now before you go assuming something, I didn't say anything."

"Of course not." Dad confirmed quickly. "Mel told me though, over the phone last night."

I just rolled my eyes and facepalmed out of frustration. "She wasn't supposed to tell you that."

"I mean you didn't tell her that, so she thought it was okay to relay the info." He said almost in a sad tone. "Though I swore you would stop hiding things from me, son. That's frustrating."

"Sorry, dad. I just didn't want you to know until I had it under control." I explained apologetically. "I wanted to have the basics down pat before I came to you with it."

Dad sighed and continued eating. "You know, your mother's gonna freak when she hears about that one."

"Please don't bother her with it." I pleaded in earnest. "She already prefers to think I'm dead."

Dad replied quietly. "Yeah, but holding back secrets ain't gonna help you none either. I'm in the camp of her needing to realize that you're doing what you feel is best for you. And if you feel like changing lives are what makes you want to wake up in the morning, despite who or what you're saving, then it should be fine by her because it is YOUR choice."

"Dad, you heard what she said to me." I responded.

He stopped eating his food to look me in my eyes. "Nondis, your mother still loves you and prefers you to be home. If she completely disowned you, then she wouldn't want anything from you, much less see you again."

"I know that. It's just... words still hurt though. And me having this thing I'm trying to get under control ain't gonna make her any less hostile. You said it yourself, mom's gonna freak."

Dad then folded his arms and muttered in a low voice. "So how about that time you told me that you were done with church, being a Christian? You didn't hold back that time, where's the bravado when it comes to her? If you felt more honest with me about that, then you should be willing to accept your mother in knowing what's happening with you. Now I don't wanna say that the decision is final, but she's gonna know about it by the end of the night."

Hearing him say it that way reminded me of how stern he was when it came to overruling my decisions. And to be fair, he wasn't wrong in wanting my mother to know all the ways her son's changed physically. If she was actually a bad mother who deserved not to see me, then it could be justified. But it isn't, and I don't feel as if it would be fair to either of us to be so secretive.

Dad pulled out his phone and started pulling up a text message. It was a chatlog between him and mom.

"She might not like what you'll tell her, but she'll be glad to hear from you."

Canterlot Castle...

After a lengthy day of undergoing several exercises to control my newfound magic, I was then given permission to retire for the evening. When I had arrived back to my room, I saw that the bed I woke up in just this morning had been completely replaced with a larger custom model at the center of the room. To my surprise, I laid in it and only found my feet dangling over the end as opposed to everything past my knees. But the room also had a smell reminiscent of a fresh coat of paint being provided. I looked over to where the headboard would normally be and saw that a section of wall behind it was actually whiter than every other wall in the room. I lightly pressed my hand against it to see how fresh it was, feeling a light stickiness. I checked my finger to see nothing on it, indicating that the paint was dry.

On the pillow next to me, there was a letter from Celestia folded in half.

I do apologize for the bed and wall. In my bout with Luna, I allowed my emotions to get the better of me and accidentally vaporized your bed. I figured that Luna would've put up a protective barrier instead of disappearing like that. I also managed to scorch some of the wall and floor. By the time you are reading this letter, it should be three days since then. The wall and bed have been repaired and I have redecorated your room with a new coat of paint. I also commissioned that your bed be made a bit bigger than mine, though I do apologize for the mattress being smaller than the frame, as it is difficult to commission one in such short notice. So you'll have to use my mattress for the time being. Please do not worry for me and my comfort, I have made arrangements already.

With apologies,
Celestia.

P.S.: If you ever lay a hand on Luna, be certain that your vaporized bed should also serve as a warning.

I looked back towards the unfinished wall and saw a line of paper sitting on the floor, complete with a tray and an open bucket of paint. While I walked towards the items, I heard the door creak behind me and a small yelp.

"Ah! Nondis, what are you doing here?"

I turned my head towards the bathroom to see Celestia walking out without her regalia on, probably for the first time since I've been here. I was tad surprised to see the princess so barren that I mistook her for being completely naked, that was until I also realized that ponies don't normally wear clothes. While I looked at her, she looked down to her own chest and realized what was revealed to me. At the center of her chest was a T-shaped scar, seemingly burned into her skin. Her eyes expanded as she saw me staring at it, and with an unforeseen expedition, she turned away to speak again.

"I thought I reassigned you to Ponyville for the next three days! Why are you here!?"

I glanced back to the letter on the bed. "Yeah, I didn't know I was supposed to be gone for three days, just reassigned to someplace else for the daytime shift."

Celestia's ears, interestingly enough, started to turn a light shade of red. She didn't even want to turn back to me while she talked. "Yes, you were supposed to be gone! I was supposed to work on this while you were away learning magic! Why are you here now!?"

"I just wanted to go to bed." I explained. "If I'm stationed here, then shouldn't I report back everyday?"

The high princess grew even more flustered. "Why are you still here then? You should be gone!"

I then realized that my presence was likely unwanted due to her desire to hide the scar on her chest. If anything, she's probably expecting me to ask about it before she'd get angry enough to scare me off. But I turned my attention back to the paint bucket and asked her that instead, changing the subject to something more relevant. "Well, I don't think I should be leaving you in a room full of paint fumes. Also, I think you might want to take back your mattress if you need something to sleep on."

The princess stamped her foreleg with frustration. "Not the point, Nondis! You're supposed to be gone while I took this time to make amends for my mistakes."

I walked over to the paint and saw that the pan still had a wet roller and a fresh batch of paint sitting inside of it. I looked back to the high princess. "Were you really trying to do this on your own?"

"Did you not read my letter?" She questioned indignantly. "I would like to assume that you did considering that you know that the bed is currently outfitted with my mattress!"

"But why your mattress?" I questioned.

"Because it's the largest mattress in Equestria that I know can accommodate a human!"

"Okay, but why in here now?"

"I needed someplace to rest while I worked!"

"So you're trying to pull an all-nighter painting the walls and essentially replacing my bed with your bed because you needed a place to rest, despite the intention you have of doing otherwise?

She finally turned back around to me and stormed up to stare me down, growling in a low voice. "If I ever hear you speak again tonight, I will reassign you to the moon for a good ten years, and trust me when I say there will be no escape."

I looked down at my shirt and realized this was still Rarity's merchandise I was wearing. So I quietly took off the shirt and made my way towards the bathroom with it. While I was in there, I also realized that the pants I wore were her merchandise as well. So I dropped them in my hamper by the shower and dug through to see if I had anything from my world. Seemingly everything I had was all made by Rarity, so I decided to put on a towel over my boxers and walk out of the bathroom.

As soon as I walked out, she squeaked with bemusement. "What are you doing?"

"Well I'm painting the walls, so I didn't want to get my clothes dirty." I answered, still feeling a bit nervous over my lack of clothing.

"Oh no you aren't." Celestia rebutted.

I grabbed the paint roller and started getting to work despite her desire to probably kick me out of the window. But instead of arguing me down, she simply summoned a paint brush from the bucket and started painting the wall beside me, moving like she was trying to quickly outwork me. After a few strokes, she found herself moving no faster than I could. In fact, one of her strokes equated to a third of mine. The only thing I did was crack a smile and extended my arm upwards until the roller reached as high as her and Luna standing on top of one another.

The frustrated princess then walked right into me, causing her flank to bump against my hip. "Move!" She urged through clenched teeth. I tried to pretend that she wasn't there, so much so that I started to crack up to myself. She looked at my face with a scowl and then walked behind me. While I initially paid her no mind, I felt the cool sensation of wet paint being splotched on my back. I looked back to see the princess smiling instead, trying to pose an innocent front while she moved to the other side of me in an attempt to block me out of progressing.

I chuckled and took the roller and the can of paint, trying to hurry towards the other side without falling on the slippery paper beneath my bare feet. I got over to the other side and started painting again, only to find that familiar sensation of her panting my back starting to bring some mischievous habits out of me. She once again blocked me out and I had quickly moved back to the other side. Celestia galloped to meet me back over, and I would run back to the other side until I stumbled with the can of paint in tow.

Thankfully, I managed to save the floor, but my entire chest and some of my chin was covered in white paint. The princess giggled endlessly while I started to laugh at myself while calling out the princess. "You know what, you can be a bit of an annoying asshole."

She triumphantly trotted up to me and continued panting on my back, mouthing the letters she finished painting on me. "R.... K.... There. I hereby royally decree you under the new name of 'Jerk'." And for good measure, she dipped her left foreleg into the pan of paint and lightly stamped her hoof at the end of an exclamation point.

"Screw your decree. If this is my room, then I'm the dictator of these lands." I said, getting back up on my own two feet. While I faced her royal jest-ness, she broke out in full-chested laughter. I looked down and saw her carve a smiley face out of the paint. While my hands were covered in paint, I reached out to her and grabbed her foreleg before she could finish. I then picked her up and threw her onto the bed before running back to the other side of the room. She followed up by using her magic to hold my legs in place, giggling as she gloated.

"Meaning you took a loss doesn't allow you to be sore about it."

"Says a poor winner." I grumbled back, flicking some of the paint from my hands at her. The princess froze as soon as a glob had managed to land on her muzzle. She jumped out of her bed and grabbed the paintbrush and dipped it into the bucket, drowning the entire tool itself before taking aim at me and flicking enough paint to coat an entire desk. I raised my arms to shield my eyes in just enough time to avoid my face from being completely bombarded by paint.

"Poor winners are still winners." She replied cheerfully. "Meanwhile sore losers will always be what they are."

I shook my head before I took the towel off of my waist to clean my face off. "Your sister wasn't kidding around when she said you were a prankster."

"World champion for well over a thousand years. Care to go another round of defeat, Nondis?"

"I much rather go and wash my face." I said, still cleaning my face off.

"Good. Maybe you'll actually leave me here to work in peace." She said, still reveling in her win.

"Nah, leaving you here is like leaving a kid fresh out of daycare with brushes and acrylic paint in your den. You're bound to leave a mess."

The princess grabbed the towel and walked towards the bathroom. She tossed the one I stained aside and sent me a damp clean one. "If I leave a mess, then it's you I'm leaving behind."

"Sorry princess, but I'm sworn to follow you everywhere you go." I said, finally getting my face clean of most of the paint.

The princess sighed while she stared at me. "In speaking of a mess, your magic cycle hasn't gotten any better. What in Equestria have they been teaching you all day?"

I pointed to her and said. "Do me a favor and take a deep breath."

She rolled her eyes in deadpan. "Ohhhhkay, they didn't teach you much of anything aside from preschool unicorn methods of controlling your magic output."

"Nope, just breathing exercises since I mentioned the concern of my hands spontaneously combusting."

The princess facehoofed. "They didn't even teach you anything beneficial."

"To be fair, Twilight was pretty hands-off. I thought Starlight would've taught me something, but she only got engrossed in a few other books while telling me that I was doing badly and that I should start from the beginning."

The princess then seemed dismayed. "You learned literally nothing. And it shows because you're emitting passively instead of possessing your energy and maintaining your emotions."

"Wanna know the most magic I did today? I went out for dinner with my family in Austin and I sank my canines into some human food, I ended up salivating so hard that I accidentally levitated my brother's plates."

"Dinner, you say?" She inquired.

"I didn't have a real heavy meal, just some long-awaited meat and potatoes."

"What am I going to do with you?" The princess gave me her version of the stink-eye before falling back to the subject at hand. "No matter, you said that you levitated your brothers plates. So what exactly was on your mind to allow your emotions to run so vividly?"

I rubbed the sides of my jaw while I spoke. "Well I mean it might have been the overall fondness of meat. I mean I haven't had anything non-vegan since I got back to Equestria so my palate had been pretty pure. My sense of taste had just gotten a bit overloaded and I enjoyed the taste of it so much that I was damn-near paralyzed."

The princess smiled lightly. "Describing it makes me venture back to the first night I sank my teeth into your mother's red velvet cake. It wasn't nearly as tamed as the sweets they make here in the castle. Chefs call it a nutritional implementation, I call it a culinary violation. But your mother put so much love and being into it that I essentially cried over it disappearing."

I snickered a small amount, imagining her holding a funeral for the cake by burying the plate and giving it a memorial plaque. "Well, it felt like that. And the next thing you know, Alex is telling me to knock it off."

"Did it stop?" She inquired. "Did the shock of it happening stop it or did you make it stop?"

I took a moment to think about what I did exactly to get it to stop, which wasn't much. "I guess it was more of me seeing that the plates were floating off of the table, so I just panicked."

The princess paused for a moment and looked over at the smaller paint brush she used to launch paint at my face. In silence, I watched as she quietly quirked an eyebrow and nodded. Her horn glowed as she levitated the brush to me. She shook it lightly, urging me to hold on to it. I did as she instructed and she turned me towards the wall. "Nondis, how would you like to help me paint tonight?"

"You mean what I was already trying to do." I unexpressively reminded her.

She turned my body towards the wall and pushed me forward until I was a good two feet away from touching the wall. "I want you to paint that wall right there."

"With this tiny little brush? Why not the roller?"

"Do as I say, please." She insisted, urging me to put my hand on the paint-covered handle.

Enveloped in magic, she motioned my right hand to clasp on and stroke slowly up and down. Behind me I could hear the sound of a magic spell being cast, I turned around for a second, only for her magic to tilt my head back forward. I still followed her instructions of painting the wall, but she then gave me another unusual request.

"Now I want you to close your eyes and step backwards." I did as she ordered and I could hear the tiny droplets of paint impacting the paper on the floor. I hesitated for a moment. "Don't stop stroking." Again, I followed her instruction. She sat quietly for seconds at a time before I felt what appeared to be a soft hand guide up my right arm. I assumed she was in her human form, guiding her thumb from my wrist to my shoulder and finally to the back of my head. After that, she then lightly dragged her finger down my back and stopped at where my stomach would've been.

"Hey now, I'm still a little ticklish." I confessed calmly.

The princess hummed sweetly. "I see that. Now... imagine your most intimate memories that made you smile, the emotions you felt in those times." She opened the palm of her hand and placed it against my back and pressed inward slightly. "I want you to let those things become the nutrients your emotions digest on."

"Finding my happy place." I added quietly.

"Precisely." She confirmed with her hand slowly sliding up my back. "Now feed that upwards, let your mind become empty to everything but that." While I felt myself becoming a bit more lose, she stopped her hand at the back of my head. She then removed all but her index finger, very lightly gliding it to my wrist and finally to my fingers. Her hand curled around mine and her finger continued forward to trace the outline of the tendon in my wrist. She guided herself back around from the front of my shoulder, to the pit of my stomach, back up to my fingers again. While she did these things, I could not deny that I was starting to become aware of the potential state she was in. "Clear your mind of impure thoughts." She chided softly. "And convene on the times which made you happy, what made you feel so light."

"I feel pretty light." I replied.

"Good. Keep feeling that." She whispered. "Now the places I outlined on your body, I want you to channel your sense of touch to the places I outlined. You won't feel it right away, but it will come."

I didn't feel much initially except that my arm was still holding on to a brush. But what I did feel was the sudden embrace I felt when I first had magic engulf my hand. The memories of that day immediately came flooding back.

My arm, it felt warmer. I began to feel a bit nervous from the unusual warmth I felt coursing through my arm, tingling in my fingers, and sending shivers down my spine. Instinctively, my fingers loosened their grip and I was left holding to the brush by only my thumb and index finger. Celestia walked beside me and whispered quietly. "Let it go, but keep stroking."

I followed her instructions, expecting to hear a wet thud as my fingers completely relinquished the grip of the brush. Instead of feeling the brush in my arm, I ended up feeling myself tugging on something like a rope. My arm continued to move in a wave-like manner, in anticipation that the brush was still there.

"Press your hand forward with every stroke upwards. Then pull your hand back with every stroke down."

I never stopped heeding her instructions, instead feeling more relaxed to abide by the directions that I would've normally felt to be pointless. But the warmth in my arms never receded, it persisted. And before I knew it, I heard the one sound that would've shocked me to my core.

"Open your eyes, Nondis."

My eyes didn't so much as flutter open, rather catapulting open instead. My arm continued to move like it always did, but nothing was in my hand. But that wasn't the thing that made me nearly jump out of my skin with excitement.

The brush I held was now moving on it's own, impacting the wall on every stroke up, separating with every stroke down.

I wanted to jump up and down, I wanted to scream with excitement and tell everyone what I was doing right then and there, but Celestia kept my arm steady. She politely patted me on the back with her left hand, still guiding my right arm with hers. "Don't lose focus. Look at the canvas on the wall, the potential you seek to manifest into being."

My arm continued to move as it was guided, but my arm felt even warmer. Although there was no glow to it, I felt the same warmth I would when magic clasped around my arm the very first day I came to, the very first time I saw Twilight's face. I was so happy, overflowing with joy that I started to feel my knees get weak. For the first time in my life, in mankind's existence, I truly broke the boundaries of physics and used magic of my own accord.

The rest of the night, I stayed up trying to firmly grasp at my new power.

I never took the time to sleep, not once I even thought about it. I just stayed up painting, moving the brush up and down, round and around, criss-cross, circles, squares, triangles, random geometric shapes. I even signed my own name on the wall before inevitably painting over that. In the course of me spending thirty minutes getting paint thrown at me by a prankster princess, I learned more about magic and how I can use it than a total of twelve hours sitting in a meditative stance with the two unicorns who could alter the laws of time itself.

I get it that magic for them is as second nature as breathing, but I learned nothing with Starlight.

Eventually, Celestia stared out my window and raised the sun while I still wore my cheek muscles out from smiling all night. The best smile I could do for the time being was keeping my jaw open a bit. My right arm had gotten so sore that I stopped using it for anything and swapped to my left. My shoulders were so sore that I thought someone had tried to hang me from the ceiling by my arms, but I was happy nonetheless.

I couldn't levitate two things at once just yet, it had to be one thing or another. So far my focus was only able to hone in on just the one thing, not really able to multitask on other things. But I didn't stop trying to move different things. The heaviest thing I could move was a half-empty can of paint. I'm nowhere near being able to stop ponies dead in their tracks like most unicorns can, but I can at least hold a paint roller for longer than ten minutes before needing to reset.

Before I knew it, the halls outside were busy, Celestia had poof'd herself to her own bathroom to get ready for the day and I spent one final minute of staring at the completed room before jumping in the shower myself. While I was inside the bathroom, I took the time to levitate my soap onto my hand. I lathered the soap in my own hands with a rag, but I used the rag to 'paint' my body clean. For the time being, I had to relate my levitation experiences to my painting a wall because that's all I know.

So I got cleaned up, wandered through the portal to Mel's apartment, five minute jog down the way, ended up in my apartment, and finally back into Twilight's castle. But by then, the exhaustion brought from my lack of sleep started to set in. So I wandered to the room I used to sleep in and opened the door.

Starlight was apparently sleeping in that room.

So I just walked over to the throne room and laid out on the table, and closed my eyes for a bit.

I don't know how long it was, but I was suddenly woken up by a few voices all around me. Familiar voices rang around me while I was lightly stirred from my slumber. My eyes remained closed, but I could gradually tell the difference over time as they went on.

"Goodness. He's in here sleeping?"

"I think I'm going to need a thorough explanation, Twilight."

"I didn't even know he was here."

"Kinda hard to miss all the snoring."

"That's pretty funny comin' from you, Rainbow Dash."

"Awesome ponies. Don't. Snore!"

"I believe Scootaloo would quickly refute that."

"Poor Nonny, he's all tuckered out."

"Shouldn't we wake 'im up to get 'im to an actual bed?"

"Why, he looks pretty peaceful to me."

"Pinkie, not everypony wants to watch him sleep."

"He's cuter when you rub a feather on his nose, he turns over and wears the cutest face." That had to have been Twilight.

"He even smiles in his sleep when he has a good dream." That was Rarity.

"His snorts are pretty cute too." Definitely Pinkie.

"He hums pretty adorably when he turns." That was probably Fluttershy.

"It's pretty amazing that he has his awesome moments, but he acts like a foal when he sleeps." Rainbow Dash. So that meant the final voice was...

"Y'all SERIOUSLY need help." Applejack.

My eyes finally cracked open to see the chandelier hovering overhead. I went to rub my eyes, but the painful jolt in my shoulders did more than give me a good waking up. I grunted as I stretched my legs out. "Nngghsshit... My shoulders are still fucked."

Pinkie jumped on top of the table and smiled brightly mere inches away from my face, personal space was public space for her, something I had to almost get acclimated to again. "Good morning, Non-Non!"

"Pinkie, give 'im some room to breathe the morning air first before ya start jumpin' around." Applejack said, politely pulling her off the table.

The pink earth pony gave a sad pout as she was dragged off by her tail and Twilight was the next face to greet me, at a much more casual distance. "When did you get here?"

I reached in my pocket and pulled out my phone, reading the time. Apparently I was sleep for five hours before I got up. "I got here at around the six-o-clock hour. Starlight was in the room I was originally in, so I just said 'fuck it' and found someplace off the floor. I thought I was gonna rest my eyes for a bit, but apparently my body had other plans."

Rarity walked up and saw the bags under my eyes. "Gracious, darling. You look as if you've been up all night."

"I was up all night. There was a bit of an accident yesterday morning and there was some damage caused, so I stayed up to paint the room. Managed to see Celestia raise the sun, took my shower, bolted for here, took a power nap apparently, and now I'm here for my next set of instructions."

"Instructions?" Rainbow questioned. "What operation do they have you running?"

I finally got around to sitting up, stretching my arms while bearing with the sore shoulders. "Nothing much, I'm just reassigned here for the next two days."

Applejack rubbed her chin with curiosity. "Huh, do ya think it has somethin' to do with Starlight bein' here?" She asked to the others.

Twilight promptly gave her an answer. "It's for something completely different. And though Starlight is involved in some manner, I don't think it is because he's looking over to make sure she does nothing wrong."

Rarity looked around for a second and then shrugged. "So in speaking of which, where is Ms. Hostile Takeover?"

"Did she even leave her room?" Fluttershy questioned.

"Oooooor maybe she's just using the cover of being reformed as a means of going through Twilight's personal stash of magic books and powerful enchantment spells just to find some way to concoct a third sinister plan that could result in the destruction of all of Equestria and the total subjugation of it's subjects where she rules with an iron hoof!?" Pinkie guessed wildly, causing the others to stare back at her. "Eh, or maybe she's just sitting in Twilight's library going through some books." She added, completely brushing off her first guess.

Twilight pulled me up and aided me in standing on my own two feet, despite my not needing the assistance. "Well I suppose she could be going through a few spells, looking to fuse some together."

"Isn't that dangerous?" I asked.

"If she doesn't know what she's doing." She answered calmly before letting the thought circulate around her mind for a bit.

I glanced over to Applejack while she started to count down. "Three... Two... one..."

Twilight immediately sprang up and started trotting towards the direction of her library at a bit of a frantic pace. "Though it doesn't hurt to check in and see if she's there, which she is. And maybe stop her from fusing two dangerous spells together, which she's done before!"

Our entire entourage followed the purple princess closely as she briskly walked to the doors of the library, shoving them open with her magic. At the center of the room was Starlight Glimmer going through at least five books, Spike sitting beside her as she used him to jot down a few details. The lavender unicorn looked up and greeted her mentor. "Twilight, good morning!"

Spike chuckled and pointed at the purple princess while whispering towards Starlight. "See, I told you she'd lose her composure for you not reporting in."

"Noted." She confirmed with a nod before bringing her sights to me standing in the back of the throng of ponies. "Nondis! How's my fellow friendship intern doing?"

Spike scratched his head. "Friendship what-now?"

Rarity looked at me. "Intern?"

Twilight went on to explain further. "Nondis was stationed here for three days to learn a few things. I managed to put him under Starlight's wing. So for right now, he and Starlight are like classmates for the next two days. Yesterday we had him going through preliminaries."

"Pre-preliminaries." Starlight corrected. "If he's been here in Equestria for a while, it would be better to ease him into some of the changes his body is going through."

"Only one problem, though." I added, walking up to the table Starlight sat at. "Breathing exercises can only do so much. And by 'so much', I mean nothing at all really."

"What do you mean? Your cycles were unsteady and you had no direction of where to channel anything. It's not up to me to find where you can channel whatever little magic you've got." Starlight argued.

"Yeah, I get that you don't know jack for shit about human anatomy. But you could still try for a more hooves-on approach instead of sitting me in a corner while you read books."

Starlight scoffed then argued. "Well as much as you're trying to study on the pre-preliminaries of magic, I have to study some of the more complex material that requires more attention to detail. I'm sorry if I appear too busy to teach you how to do something as simple as write your name."

Twilight anxiously jumped in and stood between the two of us. "Ohohohokay, let's down the tension and up the learning experience a bit."

Rainbow tapped on the princess' shoulder and emphatically asked. "So let's get this straight, Nondis is here for MAGIC TRAINING!?"

Twilight laughed nervously as she lightly elaborated on the situation. "It's really more of him trying to get something under control. It's nothing too outlandish. Just small stuff."

Rarity cooed with interest. "Ooh! I can already tell this is going to be a fun experience! I can't wait to look at the expression on his face if he learns how to levitate something!"

Applejack gave me a light nudge. "Well congrats on yer new abilities, Nondis! Yer startin' to become more of an Equestrian with each passin' day!"

Starlight didn't see it as much of being a huge moment, instead pulling the children's book off the shelf and laying it on the table for me to read on again. "Well dilly for you. But we have more pre-preliminaries to work on."

I glanced at the book on the table and then asked. "So, what are the preliminaries consisting of exactly?"

"For starters, controlled levitation." She stated matter-of-factly. "That requires a controlled circuit, and with you not having anything controlled emotionally or metaphysically, it doesn't make sense to─"

I raised my arm, trailing my left hand across my arm and up to the back of my neck. With my eyes closed, I imagined the very first moment I learned how to use magic and the happiness it brought me. In my mind, I already drowned out Starlight and brought my eyes to focus on the children's book on the table. I waved my hand over it and sent it flying off the table.

Everyone, especially Starlight, was given a substantial dose of shut-the-fuck-up while the book continued to slide on the floor from me tossing it away. I looked at a random book on a nearby shelf and focused my mind to grab one of them. Very carefully and slowly, I sent the book from the shelf to the table. Afterwards, I flicked the cover open to the page labeled under 'Table of Contents'. Following my demonstration, I planted both of my hands on the table and stared back at Starlight.

"Lesson two... where do we start?"

The first three hours of my regiment was far from the quiet boredom of watching Starlight enhance her own learning opportunities while I get stuck on square zero. Twilight lauded my desire and ambition for magic, earning almost her full attention. Starlight, however, was given some material to go over while Twilight decided to make her instruction with me a lot more personal, especially since I told her that Celestia had taught me where to direct my magic to and how I could use it.

Being a former student, she realized that Celestia's method was better than the method she herself proposed and apologized.

But other than a lot more hands-hooves on learning, I had to focus out a lot more activity in the backdrop. And since Twilight's primary benchmark for me that day was to increase the strength of my levitation, she specified a layout of exercises for me to use. Some of them involved gradual weight addition by means of me holding a book steady and adding more books on top of it that I then had to balance. But the challenge came up when I had dropped any of the books stacked on top, because if I dropped one, then I would have to slide the remaining books off the pile onto the floor, where I was forced to telekinetically pick them up one by one to stack back on top of the first. Now add in Pinkie pouncing around, Applejack and Rainbow Dash trying to break my concentration with an assortment of things that tickled me, and Fluttershy introducing me to a new eight-legged friend she made, you can pretty much surmise how that went.

Never have I dismayed holding only three books so fucking much.

But the added distraction was a great way to hone my focus, it was almost like a distracted driving course but with breaking the laws of physics. I'm basically driving a big rig over Sir Issac Newton's grave and putting it in reverse to drive over his gravestone, over and over again. And while I'm learning how to 'drive' with the radio blasting and the people in the back seat yelling over random stuff with someone in the passenger seat spilling their drink on me, I managed to keep the wheel steady after a while. And in the three hours that passed, I was able to levitate more than three books at once.

I began to feel a lot more confident in my abilities, being able to shift objects halfway across the room and it was all thanks to Twilight providing me with some much-needed drilling. She did make a mention that her learning magic was so difficult for her, although when she asked Starlight for her opinion, she just called it as easy as walking forward. She also went on about how easy it was for her to cast spells at a young age, a far cry from how Twilight told the story of how she fought to even lift up one book at her unmarked age, even struggling to turn pages in a book.

"Are you serious, the Princess of Friendship couldn't even lift a page in a book?" I asked astounded.

"Magic was something I discovered for myself." She started to demonstrate with some of the text in the book, transforming the letters into simple lines and making out a small figure of herself at the bottom of the page. "I was never born with a natural knack for it, I had to work hard and study."

"I guess that's why you are the way you are now." I muttered.

The figure began to walk towards the other page but stared at the dark crevice of the page bindings, appearing afraid. "I always watched everypony else around me pick up books, quills, and even filled saddlebags at my age. I couldn't do either, so I guess I can say that I related to the moment you had yesterday."

"Then how come you didn't go back on your plan and teach me instead of pawning me off to Starlight yesterday?" I asked.

Starlight shrugged as she mumbled to herself. "Again, not my fault you don't know the basics of magic."

Twilight followed up her pupil's comment with a harsh glare. "I wanted to see if she was capable of sharing the knowledge of her own experience and applying that to being a mentor to someone else. But I guess that's still something we can work on."

"At least that wasn't a test." Starlight added, completely ignorant to what Twilight was saying for the time being.

"Actually, that WAS a test, the first one you received and the first one you failed." The purple princess quickly snatched the book out from in front of her and walked over to me. "But there will be other lessons to learn in the future. So as punishment, you're required to write your full name in cursive... five hundred times."

Starlight appeared to not really care too much for her punishment. "Well I guess I better get started."

"No magic." Twilight added sharply.

"WHAT!?" The unicorn exclaimed loudly.

"No magic, earth-pony style. You know what that means. And it better stay neat and legible throughout the entire time you're writing. Each page will be submitted to me upon completion, so that will be around a good seventy-five to a hundred times per page. Any mess-ups or inconsistencies and you'll have to start over from the beginning,"

"But that's not fair! I didn't come here to be treated like a child!"

I placed my hand on Twilight and urged her to move aside, levitating the children's book she threw in front of me before her. "Okay, so let's just say you're done being a student of Twilight's. That means you fall completely out of her jurisdiction and into mine. So instead of having to tediously write your name a few hundred times while your jaw cramps up, you'll be completely out of commission sitting in a jail cell underneath Canterlot Castle, in a room complete with runes to disenchant every last bit of your magical abilities." I walked up to her and planted my hand at the top of her horn, causing her to blush from anger and embarrassment. "And believe me when I say I've disabled unicorns before, cracked their horn and everything. Also, judging from the fact that you dropped in the Canterlot Archives without consent to utilize a forbidden spell with the intention to cause emotional and bodily harm to a princess of Equestria, forever altering this nation's future and jeopardizing the citizens' safety, that's a good five-hundred years under a merciful concurrent sentence."

She stammered while she tried to ignite her horn, realizing that my hand had quenched all ability to do much of anything. "T-th-that's not fair!"

I politely smiled. "You'll get out in two hundred on good behavior, but death doesn't count towards good behavior either. So the question you ask yourself shouldn't be 'Is he really doing this?' but rather 'Who's my next of kin?' Because if you don't make the decision to accept the sanctuary Twilight has offered you, I don't mind dying with the thought of your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandniece or nephew walking away with your bones to bury you somewhere else. And please do remember that Twilight was the one to stop me from putting a bullet in that billboard-of-a-forehead of yours. Capeesh?"

The unicorn appeared genuinely confused, but unafraid as I held her horn from unleashing any magic. She stared me down until I clamped my fist around her horn and proceeded to yank her onto the table and gave her a cruel glare. I ran my tongue across my canines and whispered a few inches away from her muzzle.

"I'm gonna say it like this now. Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?"

Completely in shock over the fact that I just picked her up by her horn and damn-near slammed her on a table, the look she gave me completely changed to a much more subdued one. "Noted."

I kept my hand on her horn while I spoke in a significantly less hostile manner. "Now, do as Twilight says and get your work done. 'Kay?"

"Okay." She answered as I pulled my hand off of her horn.

I turned back to Twilight and pointed at the pointy unicorn figure at the bottom of the page. "Digression aside, you may continue."

The purple princess shook her head and carried on with her story. "Well, while others were trying to learn how to grow potted plants, I was still sitting in my room huffing and puffing over how to apply my magic correctly in a manner that wouldn't result in my horn exploding. And just like you, my cycle was completely uncontrolled. It took something loud to scare me into using magic for the first time, and I didn't even have control over the power that was welled up inside of me to begin with."

"So what happened?" I asked.

"Well there was a sonic rainboom that caused a small earthquake from the aftershock. I got scared and something inside of me just clicked on, and the next thing I knew, I was turning my parents into potted plants. I accidentally performed an aging spell on Spike as soon as I hatched him out of his egg and he got as big as fifty feet. I was completely out of control, zapping everything in the room while floating in the air. And I was more terrified than I ever was, that was until Celestia came in and calmed me down."

I can now see how that other Twilight I saw managed to burn half of her face off. If she was harnessing that much power, she could've easily overexerted herself and caused permanent harm. "So that was your entrance exam? Safe to say you passed then."

"More than that." She said, pointing at the book. The little figure at the bottom of the page was prancing triumphantly around the much larger alicorn princess. "That was the day I got my cutie mark, and it was immediately after Celestia told me that I would be her personal student."

"You looked pretty happy." I pointed out, watching the little filly jump around endlessly.

"Ecstatic. I came home and told my brother what I just did and he hugged me to pieces. Both mom and dad were so proud, not because of my getting in, but because of how far I had to go. In the moment I felt like I failed, I was looking at a huge hill to climb. But destiny brought me another path." The tiny miniature on the page walked over to the dark valley of the spinal binding before jumping into the darkness. The figure leaped onto the next page, looking back at the page she just left and walked forward. "Even if it feels like you're running into the dark, don't be afraid to take that next leap forward."

I noticed that more of the words started to form lines, drawing out a miniature human. The figure placed a stubby arm under it's chin before walking into the binding, disappearing from our view. The words that were consumed to create the figures had suddenly reappeared on the page as if nothing had happened. Twilight smiled at me while she closed the book. "You think I could really learn all this stuff like you did?" I asked.

"That's up to you. My magic didn't come from talent as much as it did from hard work."

I looked at my own hand, still trying to come to terms that I'm using it to move objects not even near me. In my mind, I imagined all the spells that were cast on me and however many things I could change with a single thought. It made me a bit timid, but I was still excited. After that, I started to walk towards the door, making my way to the portal for a visit to the human world.

But before I could close the door behind me, Twilight tugged at my jeans. "Nondis, a moment." She announced softly, dragging me out into the hallway, closing the door behind her with a sigh. "...I understand that you and Starlight are still a bit on edge, and that's okay. I'm still wondering about her myself. But I do feel like I have to say something with what you just did with her in there."

"Let me guess, you─" She yanked me down and quietly snuck me a long kiss on the lips, rousing within me feelings I hadn't had in a good amount of time. Before I could get reinvested with interest and desire, she parted herself and whispered silently to me.

"Thank you for practicing restraint. I know you wanted to deal the damage you usually do, but you eased up at the end. I know she has to learn how to stay in her place, and you kinda pushed it in a way I was really afraid to. I guess what I'm trying to say is... thanks for being my rough side today."

The familiar sensation of her absence on my lips made me quite fond for more, but she kept a distance to ensure that nothing else would be done. I could only respect her decision as I made my reply. "Well sometimes you have to be hard on a hard-headed person. Speaking from experience here."

"I see that." She said, stifling a chuckle while opening the library door.

Before she left, I called out to her. "Maybe we can do a private lesson in Canterlot? It'll be just the two of us."

Twilight smiled sadly as she played with her forelegs. "I'm sorry. Rules are rules, can't afford to get you in more trouble. For now, just dream of me. At least we'll be true to each other there."

"Can't dream about you if you keep me up at night." I replied.

The princess walked through the door and poked her head through the opening before looking at me one last time. "...That's all for today. See you tomorrow."

The door closed shut before I could even respond. I stood there for a few seconds before coming to terms that nothing would change the situation. So I started to make my way to my world, hoping to find something else to do since I was effectively dismissed.

...I should show Cliff and Rickey what I've learned so that they don't get surprised when they come back here.

The Next Morning
Canterlot Castle...

I got back to Canterlot and made a decision to politely return Celestia's mattress. She adamantly rejected the idea and suggested that I'd go back over to Mel's place for the time being. I denied the idea out of concern for her comfort and privacy, especially since she wasn't particularly shy to me about the use of her toys. However, she didn't like the idea of me being on a marble floor while she got to sleep comfortably on her bed. She even offered her bed while she roomed in with Luna, which I warned against due to some of the loyalist guards lurking around the castle. Finally, I just simply offered to head back to the apartment in my world and drop by whenever Mel was awake.

When I had crossed over, Melanie had actually gotten upset that I rejected the idea of being her guest for the night. But in the end she understood why I chose to run back to my apartment instead of staying stationary for the night. She even made it clear that me being around was going to make her sleep a lot more sporadic. Can't say I don't feel where she's coming from, having Twilight in human form in my house for a week didn't do me any favors.

Today made me want her just as bad as I did then, even in pony form.

Of course, I went to sleep, and I did dream about us again. I visualized every avenue of exploration except the one I wanted to have the most. As many dreams do, they twist and turn things until the final minute when your mind knows it's time to get up. By then, you have the thing you want cornered and you get to the fun part. And just when the pants come down, that's when the alarm next to your bed tells you to fucking kill yourself while laughing.

At least that's what I felt waking up this morning.

I took a jog to Mel's apartment and made my way into the portal. I walked sluggishly, already expecting my breakfast to be a lot more vegan-oriented than the past two days. While I walked into the cafeteria, I managed to catch Cadance arguing with Celestia.

"Please, we have to find some way to force a vote!" Cadance strongly pleaded.

Celestia appeared completely stoic. "A vote that would only strengthen the parameters of it's punishment and who it would punish alongside you and the others."

Blueblood and Shining both sat quietly between the two at the table, observing while they sipped their tea. Cadance continued to make a scene. "Auntie, I cannot wait for them to linger this onward. It's been well over a hundred and fifty years since the last vote. Twelve generations have came and went, their power should've waned by this point!"

Celestia remained unmoved. "And in spite of that, you insist to perceive that they have evolved from their usual parlor tricks? Need I remind you what they have done to every wife Blueblood has tried to marry in?"

Blueblood clenched his jaw slightly while cutting his eyes to the high princess. Cadance insisted further. "That's exactly why─"

"Or should I make this a little more personal while recounting the trials and tribulations of your own dear husband?" Celestia added, pointing to Shining Armor. "Needless to say how they schemed against Nondis up until Twilight declared their engagement void."

Blueblood, who chose to play a more neutral role, interjected into the conversation. "To be fair, Cadance, the captain's name hasn't been uttered since the break-up. The only exception was when he took the changelings to the wall and sent them to the way beyond, and the things I heard was mostly complimentary."

Shining took a single glance at Blueblood, completely emotionless while he calmly argued. "That's all good and well, but I do have to stand by my wife when we say that we don't wish for our foal to become involved."

Cadance snapped her head back at her husband and screeched loudly. "THIS IS YOU FUCKING CHILD, SHINING!? CAN'T YOU BE A LITTLE MORE ASSERTIVE!?"

Shining calmly reacted. "Cadance, screaming isn't going to help in negotiations. We have to remain calm and present our case, even if we were to face some manner of disagreement." He started to sip on his tea.

"So what I'm getting is that you don't care if we have this foal, that you want to be free of it?" She hysterically concluded, causing Shining to nearly cough back up any tea he drank.

The young prince politely ran a napkin across the underside of his muzzle and continued speaking. "Cadance, maybe it's better if you let me negotiate."

"I thought we were going to do this together, honey!" Shining said nothing while his wife continued to seethe at his demeanor, his lack of aggression. She took one look at him and rolled her eyes. "Fine! You can negotiate with her. Just don't fucking talk to me today." The pink princess slammed her fork on the table and threw her napkin at her husband, storming away from the table. She muttered as she walked out of the room. "Negotiate like you don't give a damn about our daughter, which is what we're likely to have anyways." She then turned back to the table, yelling at her husband. "THE FUCKING LAW TARGETS US MARES MORE THAN YOU STALLIONS! DO YOU KNOW WHY! BECAUSE THEY DEMAND THE POWER TO REPRESS US, TO ABUSE US!"

On that note, Cadance trotted out of the room, bumping past me on the way out. I looked at the gathering at the table a bit dumbfounded. "Did I miss something?"

"Cadance wants to force the issue today in the parliament." Shining answered, taking a deep breath while removing the napkin off of his face. "I just wanted to see if we could work something out for her sake."

Blueblood, taking a more reasonable approach, rejected the idea. "As much as I would love to do just that, vote the law out of existence and just be done with it, it won't happen as the parliament is currently constructed. There are too many votes that will swing to a conservative consensus. If it's not broke to them, then why fix it?"

Celestia closed her eyes in agreement. "That's been the argument for well over seven hundred years. If it didn't affect the parliament directly, then why bother voting for something that doesn't affect how much money you make when it actually affects the power you wield?"

"No point in arguing in favor of it right now." Blueblood concluded calmly.

Shining, who appeared moderate in Cadance's argument, conceded quietly. "As if I'd even be able to complete any sort of argument like that in the parliament. I'm nowhere near the political orator Blueblood is."

Looking at the two princes' faces, I could tell that they had schemed together at some point before this meeting. The both of them seemed awfully complacent in contrast to how I've seen and heard from them in private. They were putting up a stone-faced front, knowing what we had going on behind the curtain depended on moving without Celestia's consent. So I had to file in from a neutral standpoint. "After all, if one group has the power, the don't you think it would be unwise to cede the same power you had over the royals for over a millennium? The only way that happens is if their lives were threatened by the idea of civil unrest. At that point, the money doesn't even matter that much because they'll be looking to stay alive more than staying by their ideals."

"Do you truly think so?" Celestia inquired.

"I believe we have generations of history books to retell those accounts in my world. Among sapient beings, all should be the same."

Celestia hummed before she asked another question. "And what do you do with the ones that don't change their mind, should they be threatened with violence? What would you do if the ones who resist are the ones who can instantly end the poverty of those who seek to get involved on your side?"

"Bribery?" I specified.

"In the end, there would be no answer for those things. If you so choose to fight a good fight, then it is only expected to come as a loss. And if you chose to be militant, then you either die as a martyr or live with the memory of being seen as a despot. You can only flex your power for so long before others will seek to erase you from the equation altogether."

Even though I wanted to reply a counterargument so badly, I knew it would be better to say nothing. If I wanted to play neutral, then I had to cooperate. "Catch twenty-two. No point in playing if you can't win. Playing a dealer with a marked deck doesn't ensure confidence. It would be better to wait things out then."

Celestia finally broke her stoic composure and frowned. "I see..."

At last, she rose from her seat and walked past me with sadness on her face. She looked to me and said. "To lose you to a conflict such as this would be a sad thing. I pray you limit your involvement with us in public, captain."

She walked out the room, leaving just the three of us inside to take a collective exhale. Shining was the first to speak. "I'm gonna have to make that up to Cadie somehow."

"You did well, Shining. Not many have the balls to feign neutrality to your wife like you just did."

"Only because I know what we have planned." Shining replied.

"I can't believe her outlook is so negative." I stated.

"A thousand years of emotional solitude will do that." Blueblood replied. "But harboring the pain of that initial trial is what keeps her there."

I quietly reflected to the time I caught her walking out of my bathroom, seeing a t-shaped scar on her chest. It ultimately explained why she didn't ever really go anywhere without her regalia. "It explains a lot."

Blueblood glanced over at me and asked. "Explains what?"

"Well, I don't know if you noticed, but don't you guys think how unusual it is to see her always in her regalia? She's even wearing it in her bedroom. I'm damn-near convinced she sleeps with it on."

"She does." Shining verified. "When I escorted her on high-level diplomatic assignments, she always sleeps with that stuff on."

Blueblood countered our argument. "One problem with your theory, Luna wears her regalia all the time."

I offered a quick retort. "However, I know that Luna bathes without it. Celestia, I've never seen her bathe so I can't tell you anything."

Shining gave me a stern look. "You watched Princess Luna bathe?"

I quickly tried to defend myself. "More like I was thrown in their tub while Luna harassed me to no end. She harassed me again on Sunday morning, I'm starting to think she has an interest."

"Don't you think it's a bit pretentious to assume she likes you that way?" Blueblood asked.

I looked around the room to see no one walking in or standing at guard. I walked towards the two and leaned in to whisper. "She almost kissed me on Sunday."

Shining started to take a moment to think. "Actually, I do remember her bringing up something like a visit to her room to you back when we were fighting those changelings in the hallway."

Holy hell, he caught that? "So you see what I mean?"

"I see trouble if you get in too close." Shining said with a scoff. "If you think me choking you out over Twily was bad, then─"

"Celestia already vaporized my bed Sunday morning because Luna found herself being flirty while pinning me to the bed. She called it a payment for clearing out a nightmare from the prior night. She even gave me a personal wake-up call and threatened to give me more nightmares for not taking her on a date."

Shining tapped his chin before his eyes suddenly expanded. "Wait, isn't that illegal?"

"You mean her trying to get at me, yeah that's illegal in more ways than one." I answered, finally taking a seat at the table.

Blueblood gave off a smug smile while sipping his tea. "I suppose that I dubbed the 'Princess Troublemaker' moniker to the wrong princess then. Awfully amusing how she insists to claim what she can't have."

"I think she knows it, but she's more interested in seeing what she can get away with for now." Shining said before eating the cream danish on his plate. He took a single bite and stared at the confection completely doleful. "Ugh... why do they do this to us?"

I guess Celestia wasn't the only one to make her complaint of the royal chefs known. "That bad, huh?"

Blueblood stared at the plate that was set aside for me, still sitting dormant on the table with a silver lid concealing the platter. He lifted the lid to see a few sticks of apples and oatmeal. "Do they ever give you anything worth absconding?"

"Well if you call the joys of healthy eating for a long and successful life worth stealing, then sure." I answered as dryly as ever. "I might have had cardboard better tasting than the oatmeal they give me."

The three of us sighed as Shining muttered to me. "Hey, when can we drop by your world and eat human food?"

"Human food can be quite unhealthy where I'm from. Probably why she's still got me on this diet." I answered.

Blueblood's eyes glazed brightly as he started to gleefully tap on the table. "Obscenely unhealthy means unquestionably abundant with flavor."

"I would love to eat some real food here at the castle, but the head chef Zesty Gourmand just insists on focusing on 'nutritional additives and subtleties of flavor.' I mean why even try if you're on her staff?" Shining said dejectedly.

I ran my tongue over a spoon of oatmeal and grimaced. "Guh, taste like I'm being spoon-fed cum."

The entire room busted out with laughter while Blueblood sat back in his chair. "Well at least your palate will be prepared for what is to come in a few days."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well if you're cleaning up after your own mess, you might as well get accustomed to the taste. Trust me, you'll be doing a lot of that since she put in a request to have you locked in for a week." Shining stated. "Looks like you'll be in for the funk for a while."

"I almost wonder if you'll make it out." The blond prince said, drinking the last of his tea. "Every underground investigation is going to take you down that route."

I looked at both the smirking princes and grew concerned. "What's happening to me again?"

Blueblood chuckled as he spoke. "Nondis... in a few days time, she's going to ask you to go to a special little place we hold at the bottom of our wastebaskets."

"Or in the case of old me trying to keep myself from going insane over Cadance's forced abstinence clauses, a specially little place I used to hold close to my penis. Prostitution all around, fight clubs abound, and many pretty exotic zebras to give you a good grind for your gems."

"Great place for a good show. Can't catch a ticket like that on the common streets."

"Gotta pay your way in. Bleed your way out."

Just hearing the two go back and forth about the topic had a memory run through my head. I distinctly remember the time I was in the medical ward still trying to relearn how to walk. And the word came rolling off of my tongue, posing the danger I was soon to face here in our own streets. "...If it's Canterrot you guys are going on about, I got only one request."

"And what's that?" Blueblood questioned.

"Well since an alias wouldn't really make sense being that I'm such an identifiable face, you'd have to turn me into a pony."

"Wait, is that even possible?" Shining questioned.

Although I decided to keep my newfound magic abilities under wraps for the time being, I still traced my mind back to the conversation Twilight and I had on Saturday about lingering effects. I then started to formulate a plan and a series of alibis. "There is a spell that allows it to happen. If Celestia did it to Alex for a short time, I'm sure I can handle the transformation a lot better. You sister offered to do it to me when she was drunk. I think I'm more than Equestrian enough to pass off as a good little plant in the slum-down parts of the city, who happens to have a changeling supplier of human weapons, stolen straight from the cache of the captain of the guard. How's that sound?"

"Can you keep that story consistent?" Blueblood asked.

"I've been keeping stories to my parents for years. As of now, only they can snuff me out." I replied.

Shining grew intensely interested as he started to visualize for himself everything that would take place. "That sounds like a good time. Know where the formula of that spell is located?"

For the time being, I knew of only one place that could possibly have it. But just in case, it was better to be thorough instead of throwing my eggs in one basket. Thankfully, I had just the tool at my disposal. "Oh yeah, and I might have an idea of where she keeps it. All I need to do is commence a security check tomorrow at noon for the entire castle, pop in Celestia's room, drop Shining the goods on his phone, pop out, run back to barracks, report, slide out the back door, rearrange a few blocks in the back alleyway, and we're green."

"I like how you think, recruit." Shining said with a smirk. "But I think we're gonna need something more in order to get into Celestia's room."

Blueblood nodded slowly. "And I have just. The. Thing."

"What?" Shining asked.

The blond prince smiled at the young husband. "What's your opinion of changeling intruders?"

Ugh. Just when you think you've got it together, more bullshit happens. Sorry for being late yet AGAIN. Unfortunately for me, there were several parts of this chapter that had to be rewritten because my laptop decided to be a douchebag and crash on me numerous times. I think it was something to do with the recent updates prior to the one they installed just late last month. But other than that, I've had many a situation where I end up losing 1500 words or something like that because of the crashes.

And when I say crashes, I mean blue screens and glitchouts with audio staggers.

So yeah, been a fun and busy two months. And because of it, I think I had to take a hiatus from writing on top of not getting too frustrated to where I wanted to just throw my laptop into the street and let whatever run over it.

So... yeah, I wanted to give the readers a heads-up for the nightmare fuel so that the readers who didn't respond well to that stuff didn't have to see it. So thankfully that's not something that they can run into to make their evening uncomfortable. But for those that stuck, how the hell did you do it?

These infrequent releases are almost as bad as Berserk releases, I think the manga updates faster than I do at this rate. Guess I'll be trying to navigate my crashes and look for an update in hardware before it's all over. However, this is what I've got to work with.

See you lot in the next chapter, hopefully. I'm pretty tired.