Applejack woke up the next morning to see that Cole had given her his blanket. When she turned to smile at Cole she saw him laying there with his ass in the air and snoring up a storm, it was kind of funny to see him like that. She went to nudge him to life while she said in a cheerful voice, “Wakey wakey sleepin’ beauty!” The second her hoof made contact with Cole’s body he jumped to life and landed on his feet babbling about being late for wake up routines. Applejack just simply stared at Cole and asked him with a bit of a giggle in her voice, “Yer life must have been odd.”

Cole wiped the sleep out of his eyes and said, “You wouldn’t believe.” Cole tried his best not to show any embarrassment after what he did. The morning started out quite nicely, Applejack made some applesauce with apple juice and some apple pie on the side. After an hour or so of being in an apple overload (I hope you can tell by now that Applejack might like apples) Cole and Applejack headed over to Twilight’s tree library. Applejack knocked on the door and called for the lavender unicorn, “Hey Twi, you there?”

After a few minutes of waiting, the door slowly opened and Cole looked for the lavender pony but instead found a little purple and green lizard holding the door opened, “Hey Applejack, come on in.” After applejack trotted through Cole decided to follow her but the lizard stopped him and asked, “Who are you?”

“Of course you can talk, name’s Cole, lizard.”

“I’m not a lizard; I’m a baby dragon, name’s Spike.” The lizard stuck out his had for a shake.

“Cool story bro’, now you gonna let me in?” Cole was getting impatient now.

“Just as soon as you tell me how you know Twilight.”

“I kicked a weird animal into next week for her. Wanna know what it felt like?” Cole then suddenly remembered the image of him pointing a gun at that kid’s head and restrained himself from getting violent.

“Okay okay, geez,” Spike opened the door for Cole, “sorry to keep you waiting.”

Cole walked past him and said in a calm voice, “Yeah, I’m an ass sometimes.”

Cole took a look around the inside of the tree, it was quite the accomplishment they managed to hollow out the tree and craft the inside so well using only hooves. Books were everywhere; not only on shelves but on the floor too, it looked as though a book bomb exploded books everywhere.

“Twi? You there?” Applejack called out for Twilight.

“She’s under the books; she’s been studying for hours now.” Spike said pointing at the pile of books.

Twilight poked her head from the pile and gave out a big yawn and said in a sleepy voice, “I’ve been studying again, as usual.” Cole picked her up out of the bookcase and plopped her on a nearby bench.

“We were wonderin’ if you’d like to join me and Cole for a tour of Ponyville.” Applejack said gingerly.

“Yeah sure, that would be fun! Let me get the others.” The lavender pony said gleefully.

Within a matter of minutes, the six ponies were all gathered. The cyan one looked a little unhappy to be here, but Cole didn’t care about her. The pink one was bouncing as usual with a happy look on her face; Cole leaned down towards the lavender unicorn’s ear and whispered into it, “Is she normally like that? Is she on cocaine or something?”

The lavender unicorn looked up at Cole with an odd expression on her face she asked, “I beg your pardon but what’s cocaine?” Cole wasn’t entirely surprised that this place didn’t have drugs either, there were no negative things here like there were on Earth.

“Never mind, forget I asked that.” Cole whispered back into her ear. Cole walked for the door and turned around to see the ponies and asked, “So where do we go first?”

“Well, y’all have already seen Sweet Apple Acres and now you’ve seen Twilight’s house.” Applejack looked around the room.

“Oh my god! You live in a tree?” Cole looked at the lavender pony hoping to see her joke and say she lives in an apartment or something. Isn’t it unsafe to live in a tree? What if there’s a fire? Or a lightning storm? Cole thought to himself.

“Yeah I work here too, what’s wrong with that?” Twilight asked.

“Nothing…” Cole said to her with an expressionless face. Talk about being dedicated to your work. Cole thought to himself. Cole walked out the door and turned around and asked again, “So where do we begin?”

The tour was rather calm, the nuclear powered pink pony wasn’t bouncing madly, and instead she was looking at Cole with an odd expression. Cole got to learn about the town square, Rarity’s boutique (which was odd considering they don’t normally wear clothes). Cole got to see Fluttershy’s cottage again, he wanted to ask her if she would want a professional exterminator to take care of the rodent infestation, but she seemed to enjoy the company of the animals. Cole also got a glimpse of Rainbow Dash’s cloud house, which was quite the sight to see but unfortunate he didn’t get to see what it looked like on the inside. “In the distance you can see Canterlot, that’s where the princesses live.” Twilight pointed at a castle on the side of a mountain in the distance. Before the tour ended the ponies trotted up to a house alive with colors of pink and white and all sorts of lively colors, this was apparently the most popular bakery in town and was also the pink pony’s house, Cole thought to himself, of course! That’s where she’s getting all of her sugar. The group for some reason decided they should take Cole into the bakery.

“I’m not going in there!” Cole said trying to stand his ground.

“Well why not? Don’t you like candies and sweets?” asked the pink one bouncing up and down.

“No, I hate it, it’s disgusting and it’s unnatural!” Cole snorted.

“Who doesn’t like candy? Come on you probably have never tried this candy before!” The pink pony said to him beginning to push him towards the door.

The other ponies were helping Pinkie Pie, except for Rainbow Dash, all she said was, “Let him go if he doesn’t want to, besides all he’s probably gonna do is mope and shout at us.” Cole was getting a little pissed off at this pony’s attitude towards him. She knows I can snap her neck. Cole thought to himself. If she knows I’m dangerous then why is she pissing me off?

Eventually Twilight and the others managed to get him inside the dark room. Another thing you should know about Cole is that he hates dark rooms; last time he was in one was when he was clamped to a desk and being pulled apart. But before Cole could get out, the lights flicked on. Ponies crowded the room and all yelled a synchronized, “SURPRISE!” Cole was stunned by what had just happened, this wasn’t a trap, this was a fucking surprise party for him. Cole turned to the annoying pink blob, who had resumed bouncing and asked her with a look of slightly annoyed, anger, surprise and fear, “What the hell is this?”

“Oh silly, this is the welcome to Ponyville party I was talking about the other day. I do this for everypony!” The pink pony giggled at Cole, she didn’t understand this doesn’t normally happen to him where he unknowingly enters a room filled with people waiting for him and doesn’t get the shit kicked out of him.

Cole looked around the room, there were so many colors. There were balloons, streamers, and drinks. Music filled the room as ponies began to dance and blindfold themselves and spin each other around. Cole could feel something deep in his chest beginning to grow, it didn’t feel like anger, it didn’t feel like fear. It was something he’s never felt before. He kept looking around the room as this feeling began to bubble inside him and grow and grow.

Pinkie and the others backed away from the shaking human, Twilight was worried he was going to explode or something. He just stood there shaking and shaking, he slowly turned his head to Twilight and his face was twitching. She began to panic on the inside, Twilight thought to herself, what if he was going to go on rampage and do something horrible? The other ponies saw him shaking and everyone in the room became nervous about his shaking. Cole couldn’t keep this feeling inside him anymore, he felt his face stretching. He had never experienced this before and he couldn’t resist it, he let go of his control and let his body do the work. The ponies saw it, to them it was something they always see, everypony was like that, but to Cole, this was his first time actually feeling this, he usually faked it but this was genuine. Cole let himself go and a huge smile stretched to the corners of his face, for the first time in the soldier’s life he was feeling happy. He didn’t lie to himself anymore, he knew why Pinkie threw this party for him, she cared about him and no one has ever done that for Cole. Cole has never been happier in his life, or even happy for that matter.

“I can’t believe you did this for me, Pinkie!” Cole ran over with his brand new smile and picked up Pinkie and spun her around hugging her as tightly as he could, he felt weird being happy, but he loved every second of it. He loved the feeling of Pinkies curly pink hair brushing against his face as he held her up, mmmmm her hair smells sweet Cole thought to himself.

“Oh you do like it! That’s awesome!” Pinkie giggled with a snort.

Cole walked gingerly up to Applejack and gave her a big hug too saying, “I’m sorry I didn’t return the hug last night, I don’t know what was wrong with me.”

Applejack laughed a little and said to him, “Aw we all knew all you needed was to be shown a little bit of kindness.” Twilight smiled a little at all of this, she thought to herself, it always works.

The next hours were the best of Cole’s life, he was talking to lots of ponies about his adventures, and he was laughing and loving the feeling of laughing. He ate tons of sweets and went on a sugar rush and out bounced Pinkie Pie. Yet something was missing from the party, he noticed that wherever he looked he couldn’t find that downer of a pegasus. He went looking for her up the stairs and went for the nearest door and put his ear to it. He could faintly hear sobbing coming from the other side, Cole slowly opened the door to find the rainbow maned pegasus in the corner crying a little. Cole walked up to her slowly only to be greeted with a, “What do you want?” from her and more tears.

“I want to know why your not part of the party, did I do this to you?” Cole asked her. Cole thought of her as a tough one, not this.

“Well kinda, it’s not exactly you, it’s another thing too,” Rainbow wiped the tears from her eyes and continued, “but you probably wouldn’t care.”

Cole sat down next to her and said in a calm voice, “But after learning how great it feels to be happy, I hate to see others not feeling the same. Tell me what’s wrong.”

Rainbow sniffed and said with tears coming out of her eyes, “Well you see, it just happens to be my luck that I have a rainbow mane, and I have a tomboyish personality.”

“So what’s wrong with that?” Cole didn’t understand what she was getting at, he would have loved to have white hair to go with his manly personality, what’s wrong with that?

“What’s wrong is that everypony thinks I’m a lesbian,” Rainbow began to cry again, “wherever I go, ponies look at me differently, some don’t allow me near their foals, some ponies even laugh at me and make hurtful jokes towards me.” Rainbow wiped the tears away again, “Sure, when you jumped on my back and called me a mule, that hurt. But the reason I’ve been like this is because I’m constantly thinking that you’re going to be the next one to joke about my sexuality.” Rainbow resumed crying.

“Well, do you like other fillies?” Cole asked, he was trying his best to help her, but he was a soldier, not a therapist.

“Yes… No… Kind of… you see, I like both fillies and colts, I know I’m the freak of Equestria.” She said with a shaky voice. Cole could tell that this was difficult or her to admit because he’s been in situations where he was being forced to tell the truth.

“Rainbow, I would never tease you over something like that. In fact I envy your bravery; in my world it’s really humiliating for gays and lesbians to show their love all of a sudden. But if you’ve known them for being gay or lesbian ever since they were young, then you can look past that and accept them for who they are. It doesn’t matter what they love or who they love, it’s who they are that makes them wonderful. It’s your bravery and your strong attitude that makes you wonderful. You have wonderful eyes, and a wonderful taste in homes and a great smile.” Cole had never felt like this before, what he said was the honest truth and he could tell that he was helping her a lot.

Dash looked at Cole with a tearful smile and said, “That’s really sweet, Colt. Thanks.” With that Rainbow closed her eyes, she began to fear the worst would happen to her for what she was about to do but she was going to do it anyway. Here goes nothing she thought to herself and kissed Cole on the cheek. Her lips met his cheek as she gently pressed them against his face; she held on for a few seconds but then broke the kiss. Immediately she hid her face and began thinking, what if he was going to deny me? What if he’s not interested? What if he thinks I’m creepy? But then the last thing she expected happened, Cole wrapped his arm around her and brought her close to him.

That kiss on the cheek represented Cole’s changing and he was never going to go back to his old self. He held Dash close to him to make her feel better, to make him feel better. He could tell that his comforting worked, but he didn’t know that she liked him. “Listen, I’m flattered and all, and believe me when I say I like you too, Rainbow, but in my universe making love to another creature just isn’t looked too kindly uppon. Besides, I don’t know you enough yet.”

“Oh sorry I did that then…” Rainbow lowered her head, she was right, he denied her.

“Lucky for you we’re not in my universe.” Cole brought her chin up so he could look into her eyes and gave her a smile.

“You’re awesome already.” She replied in a small voice. A tear fell down her cheek out of joy that she could talk to someone who really cared for her. The next hours were the best of Dash’s life, she talked about how her dream was to one day be part of the Wonderbolts and how she loved to fly and loved the feel of adrenaline. Cole talked again about all of his adventures, this time he didn’t rush it, he was really enjoying talking to her. He loved to see the awe on Dash’s face and he felt the same when she told him about the incredible and death defying stunts she performed. Cole was extremely impressed when she told him of her sonic rainboom. Both Cole and Rainbow learned that they had more in common than they thought, they both loved the feel of adrenaline, they never had the best childhoods, they loved to go fast, they hid their true emotions, and they both loved the feeling of freedom when your flying.

Rainbow cuddled close to Cole, she loved the feeling of his hand under her wing, and the feeling of his thumb just slowly moving back and fourth on her side. She adored the feeling of her head against his chest and how she could faintly hear his heartbeat. Cole loved the feeling of her mane tickling his chin, it smelled of blueberries, the sound of her breathing, he loved the feeling of holding someone who actually cared for him, he never wanted to let go. But before Rainbow could make another move on her new love they both heard someone coming up the stairs. Cole looked down at Dash and said, “Quick act like you told me a joke.”

Dash looked at Cole and said with a confused look, “Why don’t you want her to see us like this?”

Dash made a good point; he then cuddled up to her and rested her on his lap.

Pinkie opened the door to see them in each others hands, and hooves, she said in a bubbly voice, “I didn’t know you liked each other, anyways come on you two lovers, it’s time for Colt to open his gifts.”

Downstairs all the ponies were watching eagerly as Cole opened his first gift from Twilight; it was a book on everything about Equestria, “Thanks Twilight!” Cole said with a big cheerful smile. He could just give the chief this instead of his notes. His next gift from Rarity was a hand crafted hat; Cole looked at the white unicorn with a smile and said, “Thanks, it looks comfy!”

“Oh dear, I used only the best material for that hat.” The white unicorn cooed.

Chapter 3:

The Grand Tour

Applejack woke up the next morning to see that Cole had given her his blanket. When she turned to smile at Cole she saw him laying there with his ass in the air and snoring up a storm, it was kind of funny to see him like that. She went to nudge him to life while she said in a cheerful voice, “Wakey wakey sleepin’ beauty!” The second her hoof made contact with Cole’s body he jumped to life and landed on his feet babbling about being late for wake up routines. Applejack just simply stared at Cole and asked him with a bit of a giggle in her voice, “Yer life must have been odd.”

Cole wiped the sleep out of his eyes and said, “You wouldn’t believe.” Cole tried his best not to show any embarrassment after what he did. The morning started out quite nicely, Applejack made some applesauce with apple juice and some apple pie on the side. After an hour or so of being in an apple overload (I hope you can tell by now that Applejack might like apples) Cole and Applejack headed over to Twilight’s tree library. Applejack knocked on the door and called for the lavender unicorn, “Hey Twi, you there?”

After a few minutes of waiting, the door slowly opened and Cole looked for the lavender pony but instead found a little purple and green lizard holding the door opened, “Hey Applejack, come on in.” After applejack trotted through Cole decided to follow her but the lizard stopped him and asked, “Who are you?”

“Of course you can talk, name’s Cole, lizard.”

“I’m not a lizard; I’m a baby dragon, name’s Spike.” The lizard stuck out his had for a shake.

“Cool story bro’, now you gonna let me in?” Cole was getting impatient now.

“Just as soon as you tell me how you know Twilight.”

“I kicked a weird animal into next week for her. Wanna know what it felt like?” Cole then suddenly remembered the image of him pointing a gun at that kid’s head and restrained himself from getting violent.

“Okay okay, geez,” Spike opened the door for Cole, “sorry to keep you waiting.”

Cole walked past him and said in a calm voice, “Yeah, I’m an ass sometimes.”

Cole took a look around the inside of the tree, it was quite the accomplishment they managed to hollow out the tree and craft the inside so well using only hooves. Books were everywhere; not only on shelves but on the floor too, it looked as though a book bomb exploded books everywhere.

“Twi? You there?” Applejack called out for Twilight.

“She’s under the books; she’s been studying for hours now.” Spike said pointing at the pile of books.

Twilight poked her head from the pile and gave out a big yawn and said in a sleepy voice, “I’ve been studying again, as usual.” Cole picked her up out of the bookcase and plopped her on a nearby bench.

“We were wonderin’ if you’d like to join me and Cole for a tour of Ponyville.” Applejack said gingerly.

“Yeah sure, that would be fun! Let me get the others.” The lavender pony said gleefully.

Within a matter of minutes, the six ponies were all gathered. The cyan one looked a little unhappy to be here, but Cole didn’t care about her. The pink one was bouncing as usual with a happy look on her face; Cole leaned down towards the lavender unicorn’s ear and whispered into it, “Is she normally like that? Is she on cocaine or something?”

The lavender unicorn looked up at Cole with an odd expression on her face she asked, “I beg your pardon but what’s cocaine?” Cole wasn’t entirely surprised that this place didn’t have drugs either, there were no negative things here like there were on Earth.

“Never mind, forget I asked that.” Cole whispered back into her ear. Cole walked for the door and turned around to see the ponies and asked, “So where do we go first?”

“Well, y’all have already seen Sweet Apple Acres and now you’ve seen Twilight’s house.” Applejack looked around the room.

“Oh my god! You live in a tree?” Cole looked at the lavender pony hoping to see her joke and say she lives in an apartment or something. Isn’t it unsafe to live in a tree? What if there’s a fire? Or a lightning storm? Cole thought to himself.

“Yeah I work here too, what’s wrong with that?” Twilight asked.

“Nothing…” Cole said to her with an expressionless face. Talk about being dedicated to your work. Cole thought to himself. Cole walked out the door and turned around and asked again, “So where do we begin?”

The tour was rather calm, the nuclear powered pink pony wasn’t bouncing madly, and instead she was looking at Cole with an odd expression. Cole got to learn about the town square, Rarity’s boutique (which was odd considering they don’t normally wear clothes). Cole got to see Fluttershy’s cottage again, he wanted to ask her if she would want a professional exterminator to take care of the rodent infestation, but she seemed to enjoy the company of the animals. Cole also got a glimpse of Rainbow Dash’s cloud house, which was quite the sight to see but unfortunate he didn’t get to see what it looked like on the inside. “In the distance you can see Canterlot, that’s where the princesses live.” Twilight pointed at a castle on the side of a mountain in the distance. Before the tour ended the ponies trotted up to a house alive with colors of pink and white and all sorts of lively colors, this was apparently the most popular bakery in town and was also the pink pony’s house, Cole thought to himself, of course! That’s where she’s getting all of her sugar. The group for some reason decided they should take Cole into the bakery.

“I’m not going in there!” Cole said trying to stand his ground.

“Well why not? Don’t you like candies and sweets?” asked the pink one bouncing up and down.

“No, I hate it, it’s disgusting and it’s unnatural!” Cole snorted.

“Who doesn’t like candy? Come on you probably have never tried this candy before!” The pink pony said to him beginning to push him towards the door.

The other ponies were helping Pinkie Pie, except for Rainbow Dash, all she said was, “Let him go if he doesn’t want to, besides all he’s probably gonna do is mope and shout at us.” Cole was getting a little pissed off at this pony’s attitude towards him. She knows I can snap her neck. Cole thought to himself. If she knows I’m dangerous then why is she pissing me off?

Eventually Twilight and the others managed to get him inside the dark room. Another thing you should know about Cole is that he hates dark rooms; last time he was in one was when he was clamped to a desk and being pulled apart. But before Cole could get out, the lights flicked on. Ponies crowded the room and all yelled a synchronized, “SURPRISE!” Cole was stunned by what had just happened, this wasn’t a trap, this was a fucking surprise party for him. Cole turned to the annoying pink blob, who had resumed bouncing and asked her with a look of slightly annoyed, anger, surprise and fear, “What the hell is this?”

“Oh silly, this is the welcome to Ponyville party I was talking about the other day. I do this for everypony!” The pink pony giggled at Cole, she didn’t understand this doesn’t normally happen to him where he unknowingly enters a room filled with people waiting for him and doesn’t get the shit kicked out of him.

Cole looked around the room, there were so many colors. There were balloons, streamers, and drinks. Music filled the room as ponies began to dance and blindfold themselves and spin each other around. Cole could feel something deep in his chest beginning to grow, it didn’t feel like anger, it didn’t feel like fear. It was something he’s never felt before. He kept looking around the room as this feeling began to bubble inside him and grow and grow.

Pinkie and the others backed away from the shaking human, Twilight was worried he was going to explode or something. He just stood there shaking and shaking, he slowly turned his head to Twilight and his face was twitching. She began to panic on the inside, Twilight thought to herself, what if he was going to go on rampage and do something horrible? The other ponies saw him shaking and everyone in the room became nervous about his shaking. Cole couldn’t keep this feeling inside him anymore, he felt his face stretching. He had never experienced this before and he couldn’t resist it, he let go of his control and let his body do the work. The ponies saw it, to them it was something they always see, everypony was like that, but to Cole, this was his first time actually feeling this, he usually faked it but this was genuine. Cole let himself go and a huge smile stretched to the corners of his face, for the first time in the soldier’s life he was feeling happy. He didn’t lie to himself anymore, he knew why Pinkie threw this party for him, she cared about him and no one has ever done that for Cole. Cole has never been happier in his life, or even happy for that matter.

“I can’t believe you did this for me, Pinkie!” Cole ran over with his brand new smile and picked up Pinkie and spun her around hugging her as tightly as he could, he felt weird being happy, but he loved every second of it. He loved the feeling of Pinkies curly pink hair brushing against his face as he held her up, mmmmm her hair smells sweet Cole thought to himself.

“Oh you do like it! That’s awesome!” Pinkie giggled with a snort.

Cole walked gingerly up to Applejack and gave her a big hug too saying, “I’m sorry I didn’t return the hug last night, I don’t know what was wrong with me.”

Applejack laughed a little and said to him, “Aw we all knew all you needed was to be shown a little bit of kindness.” Twilight smiled a little at all of this, she thought to herself, it always works.

The next hours were the best of Cole’s life, he was talking to lots of ponies about his adventures, and he was laughing and loving the feeling of laughing. He ate tons of sweets and went on a sugar rush and out bounced Pinkie Pie. Yet something was missing from the party, he noticed that wherever he looked he couldn’t find that downer of a pegasus. He went looking for her up the stairs and went for the nearest door and put his ear to it. He could faintly hear sobbing coming from the other side, Cole slowly opened the door to find the rainbow maned pegasus in the corner crying a little. Cole walked up to her slowly only to be greeted with a, “What do you want?” from her and more tears.

“I want to know why your not part of the party, did I do this to you?” Cole asked her. Cole thought of her as a tough one, not this.

“Well kinda, it’s not exactly you, it’s another thing too,” Rainbow wiped the tears from her eyes and continued, “but you probably wouldn’t care.”

Cole sat down next to her and said in a calm voice, “But after learning how great it feels to be happy, I hate to see others not feeling the same. Tell me what’s wrong.”

Rainbow sniffed and said with tears coming out of her eyes, “Well you see, it just happens to be my luck that I have a rainbow mane, and I have a tomboyish personality.”

“So what’s wrong with that?” Cole didn’t understand what she was getting at, he would have loved to have white hair to go with his manly personality, what’s wrong with that?

“What’s wrong is that everypony thinks I’m a lesbian,” Rainbow began to cry again, “wherever I go, ponies look at me differently, some don’t allow me near their foals, some ponies even laugh at me and make hurtful jokes towards me.” Rainbow wiped the tears away again, “Sure, when you jumped on my back and called me a mule, that hurt. But the reason I’ve been like this is because I’m constantly thinking that you’re going to be the next one to joke about my sexuality.” Rainbow resumed crying.

“Well, do you like other fillies?” Cole asked, he was trying his best to help her, but he was a soldier, not a therapist.

“Yes… No… Kind of… you see, I like both fillies and colts, I know I’m the freak of Equestria.” She said with a shaky voice. Cole could tell that this was difficult or her to admit because he’s been in situations where he was being forced to tell the truth.

“Rainbow, I would never tease you over something like that. In fact I envy your bravery; in my world it’s really humiliating for gays and lesbians to show their love all of a sudden. But if you’ve known them for being gay or lesbian ever since they were young, then you can look past that and accept them for who they are. It doesn’t matter what they love or who they love, it’s who they are that makes them wonderful. It’s your bravery and your strong attitude that makes you wonderful. You have wonderful eyes, and a wonderful taste in homes and a great smile.” Cole had never felt like this before, what he said was the honest truth and he could tell that he was helping her a lot.

Dash looked at Cole with a tearful smile and said, “That’s really sweet, Colt. Thanks.” With that Rainbow closed her eyes, she began to fear the worst would happen to her for what she was about to do but she was going to do it anyway. Here goes nothing she thought to herself and kissed Cole on the cheek. Her lips met his cheek as she gently pressed them against his face; she held on for a few seconds but then broke the kiss. Immediately she hid her face and began thinking, what if he was going to deny me? What if he’s not interested? What if he thinks I’m creepy? But then the last thing she expected happened, Cole wrapped his arm around her and brought her close to him.

That kiss on the cheek represented Cole’s changing and he was never going to go back to his old self. He held Dash close to him to make her feel better, to make him feel better. He could tell that his comforting worked, but he didn’t know that she liked him. “Listen, I’m flattered and all, and believe me when I say I like you too, Rainbow, but in my universe making love to another creature just isn’t looked too kindly uppon. Besides, I don’t know you enough yet.”

“Oh sorry I did that then…” Rainbow lowered her head, she was right, he denied her.

“Lucky for you we’re not in my universe.” Cole brought her chin up so he could look into her eyes and gave her a smile.

“You’re awesome already.” She replied in a small voice. A tear fell down her cheek out of joy that she could talk to someone who really cared for her. The next hours were the best of Dash’s life, she talked about how her dream was to one day be part of the Wonderbolts and how she loved to fly and loved the feel of adrenaline. Cole talked again about all of his adventures, this time he didn’t rush it, he was really enjoying talking to her. He loved to see the awe on Dash’s face and he felt the same when she told him about the incredible and death defying stunts she performed. Cole was extremely impressed when she told him of her sonic rainboom. Both Cole and Rainbow learned that they had more in common than they thought, they both loved the feel of adrenaline, they never had the best childhoods, they loved to go fast, they hid their true emotions, and they both loved the feeling of freedom when your flying.

Rainbow cuddled close to Cole, she loved the feeling of his hand under her wing, and the feeling of his thumb just slowly moving back and fourth on her side. She adored the feeling of her head against his chest and how she could faintly hear his heartbeat. Cole loved the feeling of her mane tickling his chin, it smelled of blueberries, the sound of her breathing, he loved the feeling of holding someone who actually cared for him, he never wanted to let go. But before Rainbow could make another move on her new love they both heard someone coming up the stairs. Cole looked down at Dash and said, “Quick act like you told me a joke.”

Dash looked at Cole and said with a confused look, “Why don’t you want her to see us like this?”

Dash made a good point; he then cuddled up to her and rested her on his lap.

Pinkie opened the door to see them in each others hands, and hooves, she said in a bubbly voice, “I didn’t know you liked each other, anyways come on you two lovers, it’s time for Colt to open his gifts.”

Downstairs all the ponies were watching eagerly as Cole opened his first gift from Twilight; it was a book on everything about Equestria, “Thanks Twilight!” Cole said with a big cheerful smile. He could just give the chief this instead of his notes. His next gift from Rarity was a hand crafted hat; Cole looked at the white unicorn with a smile and said, “Thanks, it looks comfy!”

“Oh dear, I used only the best material for that hat.” The white unicorn cooed.

Cole looked at the last three gifts, he picked up the one from Pinkie, before he even opened it he turned to her with a smirk on his face and said sarcastically, “Hmmmm what could possibly be in here?” Pinkie just giggled and gave a little snort. When Cole opened it up an explosion of confetti and fake snakes sprung out of it and Cole jumped back yelling, “Jesus tap dancing Christ!” then burst out laughing and found a box set of pranks he could do himself. He gave her a hug and went to open his gift from Applejack; inside he found a recipe for the most delicious apple treats. He gave her a big hug too. He moved on to the last gift on the table from Fluttershy and opened it; inside he found a picture of the six ponies together.

Before he even thanked her, Fluttershy squeaked from behind her hair, “You don’t like it do you?”

Cole turned to her with a gentle smile on his face and said in a calm voice, “It’s perfect, thanks guys.” He went to hug her but she just backed away.

From behind him he could hear a stallion talking to Rainbow Dash, “Your so lesbian you wont even get your friends a gift if their a colt.”

Cole turned around to see Rainbow walking towards the door with her head low with depression. Anger burned inside him and he stomped towards the unicorn who said that. This unicorn had dark brown fur and an orange mane, and Cole knelled down and asked him with a calm tone in his voice, “What did you say?”

“I said she doesn’t care about you ‘cause she’s a fag. Why do you care about her so much if she doesn’t care for you?” Cole’s rage suddenly exploded out of him, he couldn’t let this guy go without learning a lesson. He grabbed him by the mane and dragged him outside and threw him onto the grass.

“My job is to keep peace; I don’t think I can let this go without a punishment.” Cole said raising his fists as his suit lit up, he was ready to kick his fucking ass into high heaven.

But the brown unicorn just laughed at him and looked up, his eyes now more sinister than before, they were black and green instead of white and blue. The unicorn’s horn began to glow as he grew larger and changed shape. The unicorn had turned into a minotaur twice Cole’s size and was suddenly carrying a large axe with him that looked like it had taken a few lives in the past. “Come fight me then.” The beast growled, its voice had changed too, but that didn’t scare Cole.

Cole just simply walked up to it and the monster swung his axe towards him, the six ponies looked away in fear that this was the last time they would see Cole, but the sound hey heard was the strangest sound ever. When they looked back all they saw was Cole using his forearm to block the axe, he gave it a smirk and said to the beast, “Carbon 40 alloy, bitch.” He then went on to grab the axe by the blade and pull it out of the Minotaur’s grasp. Instead what happened was the Minotaur swung his axe from side to side trying to get him off and when he pulled his axe towards him Cole took the opportunity to stick out his arm. His arm made contact with the monster’s neck and he spun onto the back of the minotaur’s neck. Then Cole used his combat skills to put the beast into a sleeper hold, he squeezed as hard as he could and the minotaur fell to the ground like a sack of bricks. His suit’s lights faded away soon after.

“Is it dead?” Fluttershy asked with a pile of fear in her voice, she obviously hated seeing things die.

Cole just walked away from the beast and said with a smile on his face, “Nope just put him to sleep for a while, when he wakes up he wont be able to move for an hour, so that will give him time to learn not to fuck with me.” Cole looked over at the smiling Rainbow Dash, he saw in her eyes that she was thanking him a million times in her head.

“Thanks for standing up for me.” Dash said with a shy look on her face.

“Where I’m from that can be taken to the authorities, how come you let it slide here?” Cole asked looking at Twilight.

“We don’t it’s just that we know him for being the strongest unicorn in town and for being able to shape shift. Nopony would want to be face to face with him when he’s like that.” Twilight told Cole. Everypony who was there had a look of amazement on their face with eyes wide like saucers, and their mouths wide open.

Later that night Cole and the ponies were walking each other home. When they stopped at Rarity’s boutique Cole gave her a friendly hug and said, “Can’t wait to hang out tomorrow.”

“Oh sorry dear but I’ve got work to do tomorrow.” She apologized, gave Cole a nod and trotted to her house.

When they stopped at Twilight’s house Cole asked if she had any plans tomorrow, “Well I really can’t but I wish I could. I have to go to Canterlot tomorrow, but maybe the next day.” She trotted to her door and gave Cole a smile as she closed it. Inside spike walked up to her and she said to him, “He changed quite a bit.”

Cole, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack stopped at Sweet Apple Acres and Applejack said to Cole, “Now ah know what y’all are gonna ask, and it’s a maybe, I have a lot of apples to pick and the apple picking season is almost over. If ah get all of that done then we could spend some time.”

Pinkie whispered into Cole’s ear, “I know how it feels, don’t worry, they really do want to hang out.” And Cole just winked at Pinkie.

When they arrived at Fluttershy’s cottage she turned to Cole and said in a shy voice, “Well um this is where I live, so you can come inside, or whatever you want to do is fine.” She blushed a little from behind her long pink hair.

Cole gave a gently laugh and said to her just as quietly, “I’m going to walk everypony else home and then I’ll come back. Good night Fluttershy.”

“Well actually you only have to walk Dashie home, I have to get back right away, those cupcakes don’t bake themselves you know.” Pinkie said and with that she zoomed away like a bolt of pink lightning.

Cole and Dash walked away as Cole looked down at her and said in a calm voice, “You ever wonder what she puts in those cupcakes?”

“I try not to.” Rainbow gave Cole a smile and began hovering gently above him.

On their walk Cole and Rainbow laughed and talked all the way, they really enjoyed each other’s company. When they arrived, Cole looked up to see her floating castle made of clouds and sat next to a rock a few feet away and motioned her to sit next to him. Dash plopped next to him and moved in really close so she could feel his warmth. She looked up at him with her wide eyes and rested her head on his chest. Cole stroked her mane as his fingers ran through it and he gently said to her almost in a whisper, “So you busy tomorrow?”

“Nope, why?” Rainbow smiled at Cole, she already knew why he was asking her.

“I was wondering if you would like to hang out and maybe go do stuff.” Cole smiled, he’s never really asked anyone out on a date, mostly because he’s never felt love before.

Instead of giving him a yes or no answer, Rainbow kissed Cole on the cheek, gently at first, her lips being pressed against his cheek was the greatest feeling either of them had ever felt. Rainbow then pressed harder and continued to kiss his cheek. Cole ran his fingers through her mane and gently pinched her ears, she then broke the kiss, sat on his lap and rested her head on his shoulder. Rainbow held on to Cole tightly and wrapped her hooves around his neck. Then Dash opened her eyes to look into his.

“Does that answer your question?” She giggled rubbing her nose under his neck.

“So what time?” Cole assumed that was a yes, because if not then that was one weird way to say no.

“Let me think, how about first thing tomorrow morning?” She whispered.

“Not soon enough,” Cole said with a gentle laugh, “well it’s getting late so we might as well get some sleep.” Cole got up still holding onto her.

Rainbow opened her wings and began to hover above him, she couldn’t help but smile and she said, “Thanks, thanks for everything tonight.” Rainbow’s face turned bright pink.

“Thank you for changing who I am.” Cole then let go of her hooves to let her fly up to her house.

When Cole got back to Fluttershy’s cottage she was waiting for him on the couch, she had a concerned look on her face as she said with a stern tone, “She really loves you, Cole, and you better not break her heart. Poor filly has been through a lot in her life, I don’t think she would be able to handle heartbreak from somepony like you. If I catch you cheating on her so help me by Celestia I will hurt you.”

Cole understood why she was like this, she of all the ponies knew Dash the best, they were both from Cloudsdale and they went to the same school together, Cole looked at her with a look of curiosity, “First of all, how did you know she loves me?”

“I see the way she looks at you, she’s only looked at a few ponies that way, and all those ponies wound up breaking her heart. Seeing her look at you like that makes me think you will do the same.” Fluttershy wasn’t acting all shy, she was serious about this. Her friends meant the world to her.

“I know she loves me, and I love her, more than anything in fact. But I think it’s inevitable that I’m going to break her heart. She’s a Pegasus and I’m a human, and also I only have five more days here before I have to go back.” Cole suddenly realized what he just said and he worried about how Dash would cope with it if he just left her. He suddenly felt horrible saying that, he couldn’t do anything about his mission.

“Well then I guess you’re screwed than, aren’t you mister?” She said mocking the way he talked to her for the first time.

Cole felt horrible about himself because now he knew that he was inevitably going to ruin another life.

*****

Cole was having another nightmare, it was almost the exact same as last night but something was different, while he saw the images of him pulling the ribcages of young men apart, he constantly saw that child, rage was bubbling deep inside him again and he got a glimpse memory of his mother. Her face he didn’t recognize but it felt so familiar, he watched it as a bullet traveled through her head and the life drain from her eyes, and then he watched as his entire family was killed before him. Before he woke up he saw the image of the young boy with tears rolling down his cheek as he pulled the trigger on his heart. The last thing he saw was Dash crying as he was telling her he had to leave.

This time Cole couldn’t contain it anymore, he jerked out of bed and ran for the door, he tried his best to stay silent and once he had closed the door he fired up his suit and began to run. Cole ran as fast as he could for the mountains and ran his way up, Cole was an exceptionally good climber mostly because of the adrenaline and the suit he wore. Tears were rolling down his cheeks as he made it to the top of the snowy mountain and shouted at the top of his lungs. The pain and regret he felt finally met its breaking point and he began to shout out, “FORGIVE ME!” There was an incredible echo as Cole smashed his fist against a wall of rock, which he destroyed. For the first time in Cole’s life he was crying. He cried for almost half an hour before he had finally vented himself out, he just sat there and cried. Then he heard a very familiar voice calling for him.

“Cole! Cole what’s wrong?” the voice shouted out to him. Cole stared down the mountain into the distance and then before having any second thought he walked off the edge. Cole fell down the side of the mountain for almost a minute, before he impacted his suit kicked in and got the impact resistors ready. When he hit the ground he smashed a crater almost twelve feet deep and fifty feet wide, he didn’t feel any pain thanks to the suit and used its ability to jump out of the hole to see Rainbow Dash looking at him with worry on her face. “Cole… what’s wrong, and don’t say nothing ‘cause that was something that I just saw” Rainbow said, she had a serious look on her face and she worried for her new love.

“I guess I really should tell you this. I’m not a really good guy,” Cole began, he went and sat her down next to him because this was going to take a while, “I’m a really bad person.”

“No you’re not; you’re an incredible colt to me.” Rainbow exclaimed, the cyan pony holding Cole close.

“Yes I am, I’ve killed hundreds upon hundreds of people, most of them deserved it and most had their families watching them as I took their lives.” Cole was feeling horrible that he was telling this to probably the only person, or pony, that would love him, “All their hearts broken because of me, I ruined the lives of so many children, and so many more of mothers. Now that I have these waves of emotion, I’m regretting everything I did.” A tear dripped down his cheek, he knew Dash was going to hate him too, “What made it go too far was the idea I might never see you again, that I have to break another heart when I try my best not to. I have to leave in a few more days and I might never come back.”

Rainbow was shocked to hear she had fallen in love with a killer, “These people you killed, were they bad people?”

“Yes.”

“Then it may have been wrong to kill them, but now there are fewer bad people out there. What about those who didn’t deserve it, why did they die?”

“There was an infection, people were becoming really sick throughout the hospital, before it spread to everyone else I had to go in and exterminate them. All of those suffering people died because of me.”

“They were suffering?”

“Yes.”

“Then it was a good thing you did that, maybe some may have wanted them to live but if they were suffering, all you did was end the pain and put them in a better place. From what I’m getting, you’re like a type of police?”

“Yeah I sort of am.”

“Then what you were doing was showing other future criminals what would happen if they broke the law, in the end you may have ended a few evil lives, but you have saved a lot more good lives. Besides, the fact that you regret all of those things shows that you care for them and that you are a good person, and I’m pretty damn sure that if you go back to those families they will understand you aren’t the cold blooded monster they thought you were.”

After a few more minutes of an emotional breakdown, Cole thought about what Dash had just told him and he began to understand that she could look past who he used to be and look at him for who he really was.

“Thanks Dash,” Cole kissed her on the cheek while wrapping his arms around her, “you probably saved a life too.”

“What do you mean?” Rainbow didn’t really understand what Cole meant by what he said.

“I mean that I hated myself enough to kill myself, but you saved me. You’re a bigger hero than I will ever be.” Cole held on tight, he loved this comforting feeling.

“That means a lot to me, Cole,” Dash kissed his chin gently, “and I know you’re leaving in a few days, you mentioned that a while ago. If I could, I would give up everything I had here, even my dream of becoming a Wonderbolt so I could be with you.” Dash said with tears forming in her big beautiful eyes.

For the next ten minutes, tears and kisses were shared as they comforted each other. That moment where their lips locked the first time, Cole forgot all about his mission, all he cared about was holding his cyan pony in his arms and giving her years of oppressed emotions to her.

“Well Cole, we should really get back to our beds, got a big day tomorrow.”

“Hell yeah, hey wanna race?” Cole’s suit lit up with a turquoise color throughout the cracks in his armour.

“I never turn down a race, although I don’t know if you can keep up with me. They don’t call me Rainbow Dash for nothing.” Dash’s wings sprung to life as they stretched to their maximum on both of her sides.

“One… Two… THREE!” with that, Cole took off at supersonic speed leaving a trail of dust behind him.

“Hey no fair, you’re cheating!” Rainbow laughed as she took off behind him.

For the rest of the race neither of them cared about losing or winning, but just to have fun as they laughed all the way to their homes.

When Rainbow got home she jumped in her bed with joy, the last time she had ever felt this excitement was when she got to hang out with the Wonderbolts. She couldn’t wait for tomorrow’s date.