To only hear what others want you to do can be a deceitful poison, especially when you feel that you owe a person something. And what exactly do I mean by that? Am I saying that helping others is a bad thing? Of course not! However you must take great care to not lose yourself and what you want in the process. Cultivate your own interests so that you can have something to call your own, whatever it may be. And if it turns out to be that helping out is what you yourself wants to do, then all I can say is carry on my friend. Your path is yours to walk as you see fit.

After that fateful night, were both Celestia and I had shared all the things we had never been able to say, life took a turn for the better for me. While my nightmares still remained, and my strange phobia for beds was as strong as ever I was making progress. Not every night required me to force myself to the point of exhaustion to actually be able to fall asleep, and there were again nights when my dreams left me alone. To summarize it all I would have to say that my mental state was stabilizing. However the information that Celestia had revealed that night had brought on new questions for her to answer. Just as I had to answer the new ones she had.

For example, I knew now the extent of the spell that had been used to recover my lost soul. And how that had caused the regression in size for Celestia. The size thing had been the easier part for her to explain as it had been a simple matter of her body having to recover all the magic she had spent. When it came to the impact the spell would have on my life though things got a bit tricky. The small part of Celestia’s soul that now resided within my own apparently created some sort of bond between the two of us. Thus I had asked early on if this was some sort of immortality, but as she continued to explain it became clear that this wasn’t the case.

Through the bond I would share Celesita’s long life, which she explained by both being an alicorn and by being tied to the life of Equus’ sun. That meant that while I could live an incredibly long life now, I could still fall prey to fatal injuries or sickness. Although while it was sobering to know that it wasn’t true immortality Celestia did point out that sharing an alicorn’s soul could have effects on me in the long term. It was possible that I would begin to recover faster or perhaps get a closer connection to something here on Equus. But for now such topics were just pure speculation from Celestia.

While I was sure that my mind still hadn’t fully grasped the concept of living for potentially thousands of years I wasn’t going to complain. Instead I would just be happy for what I had regained and leave the darker parts of my past behind me. Although due to Celestia’s part as leader for Equestria the time we could spend together was a bit more limited than last time, but we made sure to take the chances we got. That being said we hadn’t really had any opportunity to actually have any real dates, most of the time it was just Celestia stopping by at my home when she had some time to spare. But neither of us felt the need to make things go faster, in fact I believe that the slower pace was a good thing right now.

What was more frequent though was the amount of times that I found Luna sleeping on my couch. For some reason she had taken an extreme liking to my home and used pretty much every wild excuse she could come up with to go there. It took me a while to realize that she was trying to figure out what all the technology in my house did. When I finally found her one evening trying to start the laptop I used to control the entertainment in my home the pieces started to fall into place, fast forward two hours and Luna was hooked on Star Wars. Although she had started questioning the title before I explained that there was no correlation between her stars and it. I didn’t really mind the visits from Luna though, and it was nice to see that Luna had a more relaxed side to her rather than the responsible younger sister I had thought her to be.

All the royal activity in my home didn’t go unnoticed for very long, and soon I had ponies frequently coming up to ask me about it. Although through some sort of miracle I had managed to keep my newly resumed relationship with Celestia a secret. Well mostly a secret, Pinkie had been able to guess it a few days after the night in my home. She had made one of her famous promises to keep it secret on my behalf though and I trusted her to keep it. Speaking of Pinkie, another thing that had become a quite common sight around Ponyville was Pinkie riding along either on my shoulders or by half hanging, half standing on my back. When I asked her about it she just replied with a smile and repeated that I made a good taxi. So since it didn’t really bother me I just let her continue with her antics.

However it wasn’t Pinkie who first found out that the princesses were visiting my home frequently. No, the first pony to find that out was Rainbow Dash. The very next day after I had gone home from my first day working for Berry Punch, Rainbow had suddenly come around knocking at my door. I had been confused for a few seconds before remembering the promise I had made her the day prior. Incidentally Luna had decided to use that moment to teleport into my home announcing that she was bored. When Rainbow had asked Luna had happily informed her that my house was her new hang out spot. At this point I had started to remember that I had invited Berry Punch to witness a sparring match between me and Rainbow. Which of course led to me starting to consider calling the entire thing off since I was wondering how much stress I could actually take.

The problem solved itself though since Celestia intervened that very moment by teleporting in to drag Luna back to Canterlot, all while apologizing for her behavior. With my home again relatively calm I turned to Rainbow who was staring, mouth wide open, at the spot where the two royal sisters had been a second ago. After some quick explanations to Rainbow, we were set to go again. But before we had a chance to start practicing Berry along with Bonbon and Lyra arrived, making me do the entire tour of my home. When that entire business was done Rainbow and I had the sparring match I had promised Berry, and luckily it appeased her doubts about me. With that out of the way Rainbow and I could finally start working on what I had promised her. Although she was a bit upset by the fact that I insisted that she’d have to learn my style of Karate before I taught her weapons. But that was one of those things that I would never back down on. You needed to understand the origin technique before practicing it in an applied environment.

One thing that I didn’t anticipate though was the fact that the news of my sparring match against Rainbow had spread. So every so often we would end up with a small pony audience when we practiced. Not that it bothered me really, though one thing was certain and that was that it didn’t bother Rainbow. The most positive thing about having ponies watching us though would have to be the fact that my positive reputation grew. I attributed much of that to Rainbow being the one I was teaching though. Since they respected her and she respected me some of it seemed to carry over. It also helped that my job as a bartender and/or bouncer enabled me to interact with the Ponyville population on a daily basis.

Speaking of my job at The Silver grape I had managed to pick up bartending with relative ease, just as Berry Punch had predicted. Overall I’d say that the job was a socially rewarding one, so I was kind of happy with it. Furthermore Bonbon and Lyra had seemed to make a point out of showing up at least once a week, either at home or at work, to visit me. They were a welcome addition to my growing circle of friends though since they had a tendency to take everything in stride.

On the topic of Lyra and Bonbon, I had finally managed to remember a few things about them. Or rather what the fandom had made them out to be, which had turned out to be pretty far off the mark in this instance. Allow me to elaborate; Lyra, while quickly becoming a close friend to me, held no particular interest in what I was. Nor did she have a strange fixation with hands or anything of the sort. However when it came to Bonbon I had a creeping suspicion that she had some sort of a crush on me. She would often just sit and look at me when she thought I wasn’t paying attention, and blush at times when she saw that I was. She had never acted on it so far though so I simply let her be. Just in case there was something I was misinterpreting though I had gone to Twilight to ask for a book on modern pony social culture or anything similar. She had lent me a book out of her newly restarted collection after I had promised to be extra careful with it.

Another useful source that I sought for advice about social culture was Rarity. Given that I now had a more stable income I had taken the opportunity to commission extra sets of clothing from the fashionista. And more often than not we would converse about the things going on in our lives when I dropped by to pick up an order or to make a new one. Turns out that if you just kept the more intimate details to yourself talking to Rarity was a gold mine when it came to the finer points in pony culture. At first I had thought that she only had eyes for the upper crust and what was popular there, but after many conversations I had come to trust her expertise in much more than making of clothing.

I found myself walking down the road leading into Ponyville one autumn morning, the warmth of summer still lingering in the air. It was hard to believe that I had been living here just over a month already, and had it not been for the leaves on the trees slowly starting to shift in color I would’ve thought time stood still. Today seemed to be a day just like any other though, well except for the small jar I was bringing with me to work today. I had started a few small cooking projects in my spare time and I was using my pony friends as a taste testing subjects. I wish I could say that I always was successful with my culinary experiments but there was one area that I had learnt to avoid.

As I finally started to grow closer to my destination I had already passed through a large portion of Ponyville, and had greeted quite a few of the ponies that I had passed. After one month with me in close proximity they were more or less used to my presence, which of course was incredibly helpful for me. No longer would I get thrown out of shops or be denied service because of fear. There were a few disbelievers still though that were resolute in their ideas of me being terrifying. Although at this point I had stopped caring about it if it didn’t directly interface with my day, and even if I did come across one of these ponies I just made a point of ignoring it.

I gave up any further ponderings as I turned the corner to the street were The Silver grape was situated. There was no activity worth mentioning here yet as the businesses here hadn’t opened for the day yet, the Silver grape included. With brisk pace I crossed the remaining few meters to my destination, and pushed up the door.

“Good morning!” I called out as I entered the now familiar diner and bar.

“Cloud!” Came a happy reply from further inside quickly followed the sound of hooves against hardwood floors.

A few moments later Ruby Pinch, Berry’s daughter, came bounding up to me. Barely managing to stop before she ran into my legs. She looked up at me, eyes sparkling with the excitement of youth.

“Good morning Ruby aren’t you supposed to be at school by now?” I asked the small unicorn filly.

“Naa, Cheerilee was sick today so we got the day off. Now onto the important stuff, do you have anything cool with you today?”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Ruby had been one of the first to want to try the things I cooked and had been using the leftovers from my failed projects for pranks. However she had also become quite adept at noticing a pattern when I was normally bringing something new with me.

“As a matter of fact I do Ruby but I want a few more ponies to gather before I-”

“Why didn’t you say so sooner! I’ll go get mom!” She cried out excitedly before rushing off deeper into the diner.

I was left alone with an unsaid ‘That’s not what I meant.’ Hanging in the air. Ultimately deciding that it already was too late I followed Ruby into the diner and eventually found her in the kitchen. As I stepped through the doorway she was in the middle of trying to convince Berry and the chef, Grand Buffet, to come with her. On that note I don’t believe I have introduced Grand Buffet yet. Grand Buffet is a tan unicorn stallion that had been introduced to me as simply the chef, but it had later become clear that he was indeed married to Berry. That being said I wasn’t sure that Buffet was Ruby’s father or not, and I hadn’t wanted to pry. Anyhow I cleared my throat to get the attention of the ponies in the room.

Berry was first to speak once she saw me. “Oh hello Cloud, now I see understand why my daughter is so eager. Another one of your little food things I assume?”

“Yeah, but I had intended to wait until this afternoon before having you try it.” I admitted.

“Well good luck with that. Now that Ruby knows about it she won’t stop harassing you until she gets a chance to try it.” Buffet chimed in.

“Well we haven’t opened for the day yet so I guess that we can give it a try.” Berry said but hastily added. “It’s not anything made of flowers again is it?”

Remember that I mentioned one area that I had learnt to avoid? That area would be flowers, and I had after multiple failed attempts at creating some sort of food that the ponies would enjoy been more or less banned from using flowers in my cooking. Well at least the ponies I tested my food on had adopted the habit of asking if I had tried using flowers again when I presented something new.

“No it’s not flowers, I’ve learnt my lesson.” I started, addressing Berry’s concerns. “And don’t I know it.” I continued, turning to Buffet.

“Okay then if it’s not flowers it should be good. You’re an excellent chef otherwise.” Buffet praised me.

I offered him a grateful nod before digging into my bag to retrieve the small jar I had stuffed into it earlier this morning. I placed onto one of the tables in the kitchen and the ponies looked on with interest.

“This,” I began “this is marinated garlic cloves.”

Berry and Buffet looked at me bewildered, probably trying to see if I was joking or not. In response though I only smiled until Buffet gave into the urge to outright ask me.

“You’re not serious, right Cloud?” He said.

“Nope, I’m completely serious. Now who wants to try it?” I asked them, still keeping my smile up.

Ruby’s hoof shot up in a split second, a clear indicator that she was hoping for something weird again. Berry just sighed before muttering something that sounded like; Let’s get this over with. Lastly Buffet was studying me, possibly still trying to discern if I was joking or not.

Deciding that it was probably better to just have them try it without delaying any further I went over to one of the kitchen drawers to retrieve a spoon. Stepping back over to the jar I removed the lid and used the spoon to fish out one of the cloves.

“So did you decide wants to go first?” I asked still smiling.

Buffet let out a sigh. “I guess I’ll do it.” He said.

I offered him the spoon and he grabbed it in his aura, for a few seconds it hovered in the air in front of him then he quickly moved the spoon to his mouth. He chewed carefully for a few seconds before stopping, his eyes widening in surprise before quickly swallowing.

“What did you say that this was Cloud? Marinated garlic?” He asked, his tone of voice betraying his excitement.

“Yep, marinated garlic.” I confirmed as I scooped up another clove and passed it to Berry.

The process of careful chewing followed by approval was repeated by Berry, although Ruby wasn’t too fond of the taste. But for such a small pool of testers I was going to call two thirds a successful experiment for now. Hopefully I could get a few others of the staff for Berry’s diner to test it as well during the day.

“You come up with the strangest things Cloud, but as I’ve said before you have a good grasp on cooking and a tongue for tastes.” Buffet had time to say before Berry cut in.

“This was a pleasant surprise for the morning, but we have job to do that starts in about twenty minutes so get to it.” She ordered me and Buffet.

I snapped a quick mock salute and marched out towards the bar, among my tasks during the day I was to handle the cash register and to take orders from the patrons.

Most of the day passed relatively quickly, and soon I found myself at its end the arms on the clock behind the bar counting down the last few hours of my shift today. I was currently busy entertaining one of the regular patrons, a sky blue unicorn by the name Minuette. My first meeting with Minuette hadn’t been here though, no I had ended up at her dentistry clinic when I was searching the town for toothpaste and a toothbrush. As soon as I had entered she had all but jumped me, almost pleading for a chance to study my teeth. Apparently having both incisors and molars was something incredibly fascinating to her.

“So you’re telling me that the soda back in your land is so full of sugar that you wouldn’t let Pinkie drink it?” Minuette asked me, a horrified look on her face.

“Yeah, I think she gets enough sugar as it is.” I replied with a smile.

We had been talking about different drinks for the past minutes and I had mentioned Coke as a drink I enjoyed. One thing led to another and after describing the contents of a normal can of coke she had a hard time believing me.

“Pretty much all of the soda from my home is like that, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.” I added.

“But your teeth-” She began to argue.

“Are mine to with as I please.” I stopped her firmly.

We had been through that argument before and last time it had ended with her wanting to pay me to go have regular checkups at her clinic. She had stopped by herself at that point though as she had realized that she was coming across as a bit creepy.

“Humph, suit yourself.” She said looking away.

If hadn’t been for the fact that we had played this game many times already I would’ve thought I had offended her. And true to my predictions she turned back again with a smile.

“Aw, you’re no fun. The first time you were too busy facehoofing to notice the fact that I was joking.” She said with a chuckle.

That was true the first time she had pulled this act I had been at a loss for words. I hadn’t been able to fathom why she had been upset over the fact that I had denied her trying to have me sign a legal agreement to never eat any sweets in Ponyville.

“Yeah, but as I recall your attempts at catching me off guard had more planning to them back then.” I answered her with a smile.

“Hmm, perhaps you’re right. But then again it’s been a busy week at the clinic so that means less time for planning. Speaking of the clinic though I gotta head back, talk to you later Cloud.” She excused herself, and I just offered her a quick wave before returning to cleaning the bar with a rag.

Damn it, I forgot to have her try the garlic. I cursed to myself, as the realization struck me. Hopefully I’d be able to convince her to try one next time we met. That was if I had any left by then. But that was a problem for the future, and since the overall reception of the garlic had been positive I was planning on making more anyway.

I had just enough time to settle back into my routine at the bar when the door was thrown open and I stumbled a pink earth pony with a blonde mane, I believe she was named Lilly.

“Oh the horror! The horror! Rainbow Dash is fighting with that scary griffin again!” She cried out. And by the time I leapt over her, heading out of the door, she was in the middle of fainting.

Fluttershy’s day had started out great. She had gotten all of her little friends their food, talked to Big Mac about the choir, had a quick lunch at home and placed an order for some more birdfeed in Ponyville. Fluttershy’s day wasn’t going so great anymore. She was currently busy cowering from the same griffin that had appeared and yelled at her all those years ago.

The griffin was trying to ask her something but she was too busy murmuring “Please go away.” To herself to even notice what was being said.

“Hey! Get away from her!” A familiar voice called out.

Some shuffling could be heard and she gathered her courage to sneak a peek at what was happening. The griffin was currently staring at Rainbow Dash that had arrived at the scene, and it was Rainbow who broke the silence that had fallen.

“I thought you decided that we were losers.” She sneered at the griffin.

Rainbow’s words seemed to affect the griffin as she visibly flinched and something hurt flashed across her already tired face.

“I don’t have time for this Rainbow, I need to find a tall creature that calls himself Cloud.” The griffin eventually replied.

“Oh no, not happening!” Rainbow shot back.

“Please, I need to see him!” The griffin said, starting to sound frustrated.

“You’re not getting past me!” Rainbow declared.

“Fine, then we’ll do this the hard way!” The griffin answered.

Fluttershy could only watch in horror as both the griffin and Rainbow leapt at each other, then suddenly in a flurry of motion Cloud was in between them. Somehow he managed to stop both Rainbow and the griffin’s attacks simultaneously, and in the dazed moment were neither Rainbow and the griffin knew what had happened he spoke a single word.

“Enough!”

“Cloud I-” The griffin began but got interrupted by Rainbow.

“Cloud don’t trust her she-” She had time to say before Cloud her cut her off.

“Rainbow quiet!” He said and his voice carried so much command that Rainbow only sat there in surprised silence.

Cloud turned back to the griffin, who he clearly knew somehow, and asked in a much softer tone. “Why are you here Gil?”

“Cloud, they… They took Stella.” The griffin managed to get out before collapsing.

Author's Notes:

Zing, new chapter. Although I have to say that my motivation for this one was low and I think that it is reflected in this chapter. So I extend my apologies for this one, and will leave with the promise that the next one will read better.