Man, it’s been a long time since I’ve written in this old journal, seven years in fact.  So much has happened since I first came here to Equestria, which is why I’ve decided to continue my story.  I told you as long as I was here that this story would go on.  Just to let you know before I continue the story, my life here is amazing.  I mean it took the ponies a while to get used to me, but now, I’m Equestria’s newest hero.  How you ask?  Well, it’ll become quite clear later on.  What’s up with my relationship with Fluttershy?  I give you the same answer, you’ll have to wait and see.  Now then, where to start the continuation of my story?  Oh, I know the perfect spot.

It had been one year since I had arrived in Equestria.  I was 24 years old, full of energy, was in a relationship with the girl of my dreams, and lived in a dream world.  I had managed to get a perfect home on the outskirts of Ponyville, close to Fluttershy’s cottage.  She moved in with me, but she didn’t let her place go.  It’s sort of a backup place to stay.  I (somehow) got all my electronics working, set up everything in my house how I wanted, and life was good.  Eating wasn’t a problem, but I did miss hamburgers.

The ponies would get a little cautious when I walked by.  Some were even a little frightened at first, but with the help of Fluttershy and her friends, we got them to calm down.  Even after that though, they were still a little scared of me.  I didn’t mind it though.  I was even a little accepting of it.  I was a human after all, they had never seen one of my kind.  Fluttershy’s friends of course did take a little time to get used to me.  They quickly accepted my presence though.  Rainbow Dash is actually my best friend now.  I told her she was my second favorite, and she loved that.  She loved getting recognition.  I mean she is Rainbow Dash after all.

One of the cooler things that happened now that I was in Equestria was that Fluttershy and I now share dreams together.  Celestia had granted this “power” to us when I arrived.  At least twice every week, Fluttershy and I will share dreams.  It’s always the same thing though.  We just fly together in an endless sky.  Yes, I said fly.  In the dreams, I am still a human, and Fluttershy is still a pony.  But, I have wings the dreams, and I appear to have fully mastered their use.  I love it.  It’s like the equivalent of heaven.  But the dreams started to take a little bit of a toll on me.  They would always increase my envy to the Pegasi.  I wanted so badly to really be able to fly, to have wings, so that I could fly with Fluttershy, or maybe even race Rainbow Dash once I had mastered them.  These thoughts raced through my mind.

So, one day, I decided to take matters into my own hands.  I knew Twilight could use a spell for temporary wings, but those wings were too girly.  They were the wings she gave Rarity at one point.  I was no engineer, so I wasn’t going to design any machines.  I thought of some other ways to get wings.  Then I remembered everypony’s favorite zebra.  Zecora.

I made my way through the Everfree Forest, heading for Zecora’s hut.  I imagined that she would have some sort of potion for me to get wings.  I had always wanted eagle wings, and in my dreams, those were the kind I had.  I had a weird vibe that told me to ask Fluttershy for an eagle feather.  She was fine with that, and got me one of her pet eagle’s feathers.  

Walking through the Everfree, I could see why the ponies were so afraid of it.  This place really was nasty lookin.  I, however, was prepared.  I had brought along with me my iconic tomahawk and hidden blades for the trip to Zecora’s.  Thankfully, her hut wasn’t too deep into the Everfree.  I found her hut with relatively no trouble.  I knocked on the door and she answered.

“Well hello there Matthew, I am most pleased to welcome you,” she said, speaking in rhymes of course.

“Hey there Zecora,” I started, tipping my hood off to her, “I was wondering if you could help me with something.  Mind if I come in?”  She showed me inside, and we sat around her table.  She asked if I would like some of… whatever it was she was drinking.  I politely declined.

“I sense something troubles your mind, but what it is, I cannot find,” she said.  She always seemed to know when something was troubling someone.

“Zecora, do you have any potions that can grant people, or ponies, wings?” I asked, wanting so badly to get the question off my chest.  She closed her eyes to think for a moment.  She got up and pulled out a book from one of her shelves, probably a potions book.  She opened it and started to read through.  Shortly after, she brought the book over to her cauldron and started gathering ingredients.  One by one, she started mixing weird things into the cauldron.  When she stepped back, I looked in at the weird mixture she had just created.  It was a red mixture, and it bubbled every so often.  I was surprised that Zecora had just made this potion on the spot and didn’t even argue against what I had asked for.  I then realized I had one other question to ask before I possibly drank this concoction.  

“Zecora, what if I told you I wanted eagle wings?” I simply asked her.  She looked at me and responded.

“Those wings will require a feather, which will require you to be quite clever,” she said.  I assumed she thought I was going to have to get an eagle’s feather with skill, because ordinarily, and eagle wouldn’t want one of its feathers plucked.  But, I simply smiled back and showed Zecora the eagle feather that was already in my possession.  She smiled and pointed to the mixture, which told me to drop it in.  I did, and the mixture started turning a little bit browner, almost like iced tea.  I looked at the newly colored mixture with distaste.  

“So, um… what exactly will this do to me Zecora?” I asked her.  She didn’t respond, except for her looking up and down my upper body.  I looked back in confusion, then looked at my body.  I then realized she wanted me to remove my clothes.  If I was to grow wings, they would either have no room to spread out, or they would ruin my shirt and sweatshirt, and I was wearing both my favorite eagle shirt and sweatshirt (I mean that eagles were pictured on the clothes).  I quickly removed my shirt and sweatshirt and looked back to the cauldron.  Zecora took a bowl, dunked it in, and handed it to me.  It didn’t smell too bad, and in the smaller quantity of the bowl, it didn’t look too bad.  I looked back at Zecora.

“You didn’t answer my question you know?  What is this going to do to me Zecora?  I don’t want to grow wings only to die the moment after I get them.”

“If you wish to obtain wings, then you must drink and suffer the pain, no matter how much it stings,” she responded.  I figured well enough this would hurt, but I would do anything for Fluttershy.  If it meant we could fly together, so be it.

I slowly lifted the bowl up to my face, preparing myself for this liquid to enter my body.  I started to drink, and surprisingly, it didn’t taste too bad.  It was sadly a little chunky, which made it a little difficult to keep down.  When I had finished every last drop of what was in the bowl (and fully managed to down it too), I waited for something to happen.  At first, nothing happened.  Then, a pain shot through my entire body.  I grunted first and fell to my stomach.  I yelled in pain.

“GAAAAH!  WHAT THE FUCK!?!?”  The pain was unbearable.  I started to feel something coming out of my back.  It felt like my spine was at some spots splitting in two.  I started to see blood drip from my back to the floor.  I let out one more yell before I passed out from the immense pain.  Soon after, I started dreaming of Fluttershy.  I could only hope that this would all be worth the pain and suffering I just underwent.

I woke up lying on my stomach, but I wasn’t on the hard floor of Zecora’s hut, I was on some pillows.  I looked around, trying to not move my head.  I groaned in pain.  My back still hurt and was tingling at the same time.  I tried to lift myself up, but when I put my hands on the ground, my elbows hit something soft.  I lifted myself up and turned my head over my shoulder to see I had grown a pair of wings, eagle wings at that.  They were actually white eagle wings, which was surprising considering the feather I had tossed in the mixture was brown.  I didn’t care, I loved white, still do in fact.  It was, after all, a signature color of the Assassin’s.  I was overjoyed and couldn’t stop smiling.

“Zecora, it worked!  I actually grew wings!  Zecora?  Where are you?”  I looked around, but I couldn’t find her.  I looked down to my stomach to see I had been bandaged up.  It made sense to me.  I mean I did just grow wings and bleed profusely out of my back.  Zecora shortly after walked in and smiled at me.

“I see you are pleased with the results.  But before using them, Rainbow Dash is who you may wish to consult,” she said to me, still smiling though.  I understood what she meant.  I shouldn’t just go off and start flying.  I had no idea how to use these wings.  Rainbow Dash would be the perfect person to train me.  But then I remembered that I was in a relationship with Fluttershy, who I had trained of course.  I would ask her before Rainbow.

“Thank you so much Zecora.  I can’t believe this actually worked.  I just have one question.  How long will these wings last?”  Shortly after I asked, Zecora went on to explain, in rhyme of course, that the wings would normally have lasted about one year.  But, because of the addition of the eagle feather, they would last forever.  It had something to do with the fact that eagles are naturally born with wings.  Zecora explained that the potion took note of the genetics behind this in the feather, and because eagles don’t lose their wings, I wouldn’t lose mine.  I hope I explained that well enough.  Simply put, my wings would last forever.  As I am writing at this moment, I have my wings, and they are still beautiful.  They have brought me much joy, and they are also quite useful. But I’ll get to that later on.  Anyway, back to the story.

I asked Zecora for my clothes back.  She had been kind enough to make two holes in the back of both my shirt and sweatshirt so I could wear them.  They weren’t the best holes, so I would have to ask Rarity to fix them up for me later.  I shook Zecora’s hoof, thanked her once again, and left her hut.  Folding my wings was actually pretty easy, and it proved useful for getting out of the hut.  I made my way back to Ponyville.  I couldn’t wait to share with the girls what I had just been through and what I had gained.  Fluttershy was sure to love my new wings, cause I sure as hell loved them.  Oh what a story I had to tell.

I made my way to Ponyville, trying to stay clear of my home.  I even stayed away from Fluttershy’s.  I didn’t know where she was at the time, but I wanted this to be a surprise.  These wings were the coolest thing though.  They did add a bit of wait to me, but I got past that relatively quick.  I was able to fold them up easily enough, which was good.  I didn’t want to have to walk around all the time with my wings full span.  On my way to Ponyville though, I bumped into my number two pony, Rainbow Dash, or rather, she bumped into me.  Really, she didn’t even bump into me, she flew into me.  She had been practicing some moves in the sky and just so happened to get low enough to the ground to ram right into me.

“Oops, sorry Matt, didn’t see you there,” she said, chuckling a bit at my misfortune.  She had hit me in the stomach pretty hard, but I was alright.  She made sure I was alright then looked like she noticed something different about me.  She leaned her head over to the side to see my new wings.

“YOW!  Matt, when did you get wings?  That’s awesome!  I’ve got a new flying buddy!  Or rather, I will, once you learn how to use them.  But seriously dude, when, and how, did you get wings?”  She was so happy about my new wings.  I figured Dash would like the fact that I had wings.  This practically assured me that Fluttershy was going to love them.

“I actually just got them.  Our good friend Zecora managed to brew a little something up for me.  And, with the mixture of an eagle’s feather, the potion has granted me these wings for life.  How’s that sound?” I said, smiling all the while.  Dash got even happier when I said that.  She shot up into the air and did about three flips in excitement.

“We are totally gonna party it up tonight!  Man, I sound like Pinkie,” she said, starting to laugh at that thought.  I followed shortly after, and soon, we were in a hilarious outbreak.  

When our laughter died down, I turned around to look at my wings again.  They were simply amazing.  I couldn’t take my eyes off of them, they were just too cool.  Rainbow couldn’t stop looking either.  They were pure white, as white as snow.  The feathers blew on in the breeze, and it felt pretty good.  I was so tempted to just take off right there and then.  But Dash could see the look in my eyes, the urge I had to fly.  

“Don’t get any ideas yet Matt.  You need to train before you can start flying like me, although, that probably won’t happen anytime soon.  No offense.”

“None taken.  I know I can’t be as good as you, but with your help, I hope to get pretty good.  You are the best flyer in Equestria after all,” I said to her.  She loved the praise and the compliments.  

“Well, I know how and when you got those wings, but why did you get them?  Was it the lust to join your best buddy Rainbow Dash in the skies of Equestria, or were the skies just calling to you in general, or…” she started, but I hushed her with my finger.  I looked at her, trying to send a message.  I thought it was obvious.  She got it after about 10 seconds.

“Oh, I get it, Fluttershy.   You want to fly with her, don’t you?” she asked.  I nodded.

“I don’t think I ever told you guys, but ever since I came here, Celestia has granted Fluttershy and me the ability to share dreams.  The dream is always the same.  We just fly together forever until we wake up.  But, these dreams got me down, because I knew I could never really fly with her.  So, I thought it was time to change that,” I told Dash in all seriousness.  She completely understood my envy of the skies, but the part about wanting to be with Fluttershy up in the sky actually brought a tear to her eye.

“Oh great, you got me crying now.  Thanks a lot,” she said to me, which made me laugh a bit.  I shortly after gestured for a hug, and she accepted.  

“Don’t worry Matt, I’ll make sure you can fly with Fluttershy in no time,” she told me while we were still hugging.  I let her go and smiled at her.

“Thanks Dash.  It’s no wonder you’re the Element of Loyalty,” I said, still smiling.  Shortly after, we started to walk into Ponyville.  We were headed for Sugarcube Corner.  We figured the next pony on our list would be Pinkie.  When Rainbow had said we were gonna party, I totally agreed to that.  I just didn’t want to party that night.  That night, I was going to surprise Fluttershy with my wings.  I wanted to have the party the day after.  I hoped Pinkie could sate her appetite for partying for that long.

Rainbow and I entered Sugarcube Corner and looked around to see if we could find Pinkie.  She was hard to miss.  She was lounging on one of the bean bag chairs.  When she saw us, she shot up and jolted over to say hi to us.

“Hey guys, what’s up?” she asked, excited to see us.

“Well Pinkie, in case you didn’t notice, our buddy Matt here just got himself a brand new pair of,” she started, and gestured for me to spin around, “WINGS!”  As I turned around, I let my wings go full span.

“Whoooooooooaaaa,” Pinkie said with amazement.

“Pretty cool huh Pinkie?” I responded to her amazement.

“Cupcakes yeah!  That’s awesome.  Oh boy, I just realized.  You’re so big and strong that you could probably fly us all around.  Oh man, you could be like our new form of transportation.  Although, I probably won’t need it cause I’ve got Pinkie Speed,” she said in one single breath.  She could really talk fast.  Then she gasped at the realization of her leaving out the part about having a party.

“HEY, WE NEED TO HAVE A PARTY!  MATT’S NEW WINGS PARTY!” she said, quite loud I might add.  I heard hoof steps from the other room, assuming it was the cakes.  To my surprise, it was Applejack and Rarity.

“Oh my darling, where ever did you get such beautiful wings?  I didn’t even know it was possible for you humans to get wings,” she started, but then she took notice of my sweatshirt.  “Oh my darling, you’re sweatshirt has been ruined.  Here, let me take that for you.  I’ll fix up those holes for you so they look more presentable.”

“You might as well take my whole wardrobe, cause every shirt I own is gonna need two holes in it for my wings.  That wouldn’t be a problem, right?”

“Oh of course not dear, anything for a friend,” she responded.  I thanked her for her assistance.  I shortly after removed my sweatshirt and handed it to her.  I couldn’t give her my shirt, so I would give that to her another time.

“Mah mah Matthew, you sure do look good with wings.  Wha din’t we think ta do this?  Did ya get Zecora’s help?” Applejack asked.  It’s like she knew.

“As a matter of fact I did,” I responded.  I told Pinkie, Rarity, and Applejack what I had told Rainbow Dash when she first bumped, or flew, into me.  They were all crying a bit afterwards, just like Dash.  I smiled at the affection the ponies showed for me.  I told them this wasn’t really anything to cry over.

“Oh but darling, that is just the sweetest thing.  You want to make Fluttershy happy, and you most certainly have done just that.  Wait a moment, does Fluttershy even know yet?” Rarity asked me.  The rest of the ponies looked to me for an answer.

“Actually, no, she doesn’t.  I want to surprise her, which is where you guys come in.  But first, we need Twilight here.  Where is she?

“You’re in luck Matty!  Twilight is actually on her way here to pick up this bucket of gems for Spike,” Pinkie said, pulling out a bucket full of those tasty gems that Spike craves so much.  But, where did she get the bucket from?  She just reached over somewhere and poof, there they were.  I narrowed it down to Pinkie Magic.

“That’s good.  I want her to know before we tell Fluttershy.  So after Twilight gets here and she has fully grasped the concept of me having wings, Dash, I’m gonna need you to go get Fluttershy for me.  That’s not too difficult for you, is it?” I asked in a sarcastic voice.  She puffed out her chest and saluted to me.

“No way Matt!  Nothing is too difficult for Rainbow Dash!”

“Calm yourself, you’re not in the army,” I responded, chuckling a bit at her over reaction.  She started laughing to, followed by the others.

After a couple more minutes of the girls admiring my wings, Twilight showed up.  I quickly folded my wings to try to hide them.  Twilight didn’t suspect a thing.

“Uh, hey guys.  What’s with all the mysteriousness?” she asked, then gasped a bit.  “Did Pinkie eat Spike’s gems?  Pinkie, you know how Spike gets when you promise him gems and you go and eat them all!”  

“Oh that’s not it Twilight.  I’ve got something to show you,” I chimed in.  I unfolded my wings, and Twilight’s mouth flew open.

“You have wings?!  But, that’s not possible.  Humans can’t have wings.  It goes against your biology.”

“What the hell do you know about human biology?” I asked.

“I know well enough that humans don’t grow wings.  How did you get them?”

“Zecora,” I said, sweet and simple.  Twilight regained herself, smiled, and nodded.

“Sorry if I overreacted a bit.  I just can’t believe that you have wings!”

“No apology required,” I said, and following that, I told her what I had told everyone else.  

“Now that everyone knows I have wings, it’s time to surprise Fluttershy.  Rainbow, you know what to do,” I said, and Rainbow saluted me again and took off to find Fluttershy.  Now we had to wait.

After about 15 minutes of waiting, we heard Rainbow Dash with Fluttershy from outside Sugarcube Corner.  I went into the other room to wait for the right moment.  The girls stayed to welcome Fluttershy.

“Oh, hello girls.  Rainbow Dash told me you all had something to show me.  I was trying to find Matthew, he hasn’t come home yet, so I apologize if I’m being a bit hasty,” I heard Fluttershy say.

“Heh heh, well, speaking of Matt, Fluttershy, he’s got a big surprise for you,” Rainbow Dash told Fluttershy.  “Hey Matt, come on out.”

I stepped into the room with my wings folded.  Fluttershy didn’t notice.

“Oh there you are Matthew.  I was so worried.  I have been out all day trying to find you.  Where did you go?  What do you want to show me?” she asked, sounding a little concerned.  I did stay a little separated from her that day, but what I was about to show her would make up for all of that.  I unfolded my white eagle wings once again, and she was left speechless.

“Surprise,” I said, smiling the whole time.  I actually started to tear up a bit at the sight of her starting to cry.

“Oh Matthew, they’re beautiful,” she said, starting to full on cry.  She walked over to me, I knelt down, and we embraced.  When we let go, she ran her hoof over my wings.  They were quite sensitive.  Her touch felt so good (I don’t mean that in a sexual way, it’s just that the sensitivity of the wings causes a good feeling to run through my body when they are gently touched).  The rest of the girls started to cheer and cry at our moment.  Fluttershy looked into my eyes, and I back into hers.  We kissed.

“Thank you Matthew.”

“No Fluttershy, thank you.”

After about a whole ten minutes of Fluttershy being amazed at my new wings, I finally decided to address when we would have a party for this.  As soon as I said that, Pinkie shot up into the air and in excitement at me just mentioning the word party.

“OH, OH, OH!  I know!  We can have a party tomorrow night!  We can do it right here in Sugarcube Corner, or even better, how about at your place Matt?!”  She turned to me with a sweet little face that signified she was begging to let the party be at my place.

“I wouldn’t wanna have it anywhere else Pinkie,” I responded, and her smile got so big, her mouth practically fell off of her face.  She was clearly happy.

“YEAH BABY!  This is gonna be the best party EVER!  I don’t think I’ve ever had a party for somepony getting wings before!  I need to get planning,” she said, and zoomed off to start planning for the party, at least I assumed that’s what she was doing.  But, instead, she zoomed back in with a pen in her mouth and a notepad in her hoof.  She wanted to write down some ideas.

“Jeez Pinkie, slow down.  It’s just a party.”  After I said that, she spat the pen out of her mouth.

“Just a party?  JUST A PARTY!  Matt, you’ve just grown wings!  This isn’t just another party that I decided to throw together.  No way, I’m gonna make sure you get the best party ever.”  She was bursting with joy.  She reached over for her pen and started writing stuff down that just seemed to make sense to her.  When I tried to get her attention, she didn’t respond.

“We’ve lost her girls.  She’s deep into the party planning stage,” Twilight said.  “Come on, let’s go outside while Pinkie thinks.”  Pinkie was still rapidly writing down ideas on her notepad.  She was such a crazy pony.  I loved that about her.

We went outside and headed back towards my place.  Fluttershy couldn’t take her eyes off of me, or rather, my wings.  I couldn’t blame her though.  They really were beautiful.

“Did it hurt Matthew?” she asked me out of the blue.  I decided to not beat around the bush and just answered her plainly.

“Yeah, it hurt.  It hurt a lot actually,” I said, and I lifted my shirt to show her the bandages that Zecora had wrapped around me after I had passed out.  Fluttershy gasped at the sight of them.  They had gotten red from my blood.  I didn’t know they had gotten that bad.  I would have to change them when we got home.

“Whoa!  That’s a lot of blood.  You sure you’re alright Matt?” Rainbow asked me.

“Yeah, I’m fine.  This blood is just from earlier when I was still bleeding a bit.  It’s dried up by now.  I really don’t care though.  Look at the results,” I said, and I unfolded my wings once again.  I had pretty much mastered that, and it was pretty fun to do.  I couldn’t wait to start flying.  Oh how happy I would be.

When we arrived at my place, we started looking around at places we could put some decorations up, where we could set up a dance floor, and all that stuff.  My place was pretty big, much bigger than my old apartment.  When I first got the place, it wasn’t much.  Now, it feels like home.  I’ve pretty much managed to set up my place just like my old home on Earth.  Hell even my bedroom was the same, except now it had a much bigger bed and all the belongings of Fluttershy.  Most of my figures and other cool stuff that was originally in my bedroom were moved into the living room, which was pretty big.  If I had company, they weren’t like eyesores, but they were still noticeable.  I loved this house.  I loved it so much, that at that moment, I decided we would have the party outside.  Fluttershy and I have quite a large front yard, big enough for the party even.  I didn’t want my stuff getting messed up.

“Hey guys, how about we have the party outside?  It’s supposed to be nice out tomorrow, right Dash?”

“Heck yeah, and if it isn’t, I can make sure it will be,” she responded, reassuring me.  I nodded and looked to the others.  I shrugged in a manner that meant I was asking if they agreed.

“I think that’s a wonderful idea Matthew.  Oh, I could get some of my animal friends to help set up too.  We would already be outside, so it would make everything easier for them too,” Fluttershy said.  I smiled at her, then looked to the others.  They all nodded in agreement.  It was settled.

The next day, Fluttershy and I woke up, had breakfast, and got ready to start preparing for the party.  I first had to go get Pinkie.  She had quite a good amount of ideas for this party.  When we finally decided on a setup and headed back to my place.

The rest of the morning into the afternoon was spent prepping for the party.  Everypony was coming over at about five o’ clock, which gave Pinkie, Fluttershy, and myself a good amount of time to set everything up.  Fluttershy’s animal friends certainly did help a great deal.  At about three, we were done.

“Well, now that we’re done, what do we do for two hours?” I asked the two.

“Well, I’ve gotta head back to Sugarcube Corner to check all the cakes and goodies that I’ll be bringing.  I’ll be back later.  See you guys then,” Pinkie said, and she hopped off.  Fluttershy and I waved goodbye.  Once again, it was just Fluttershy and me.

“Now what?” she asked me.  I shrugged in response.

“No idea.  I guess we just wait for everyone to come.  This is gonna be a great party.  Everything looks awesome.”

“So do you,” she responded.  I was caught off guard by her response, looked at her, and smiled.

“You are the sweetest thing, you know that?” I said, still smiling.  She blushed a little.  I bent over and kissed her on the head.  She looked into my eyes.

“Hey, Matthew, can I ask you something?”

“Of course you can Fluttershy.  What’s up?”  She turned her head, still blushing.  What was on her mind I could only wonder.

“Well, we’ve been in a relationship for quite a long time now, and I was just wondering if…” she paused, starting to get embarrassed by what she was trying to ask me.

“You know that I’m the one who asks to get married right?” I responded and started to chuckle.

“Oh no, that’s not what I mean at all!  I’m not ready for that actually.  But, what I wanted to ask was, well, um…” she stopped again.  What the hell did she want to ask me?  

“Is everything alright?” I asked, getting a little concerned now.

“Everything is fine, but, Matthew… are we ever going to…” once again, she stopped.  She was really red at this point, blushing so much.  I thought for a moment of what she meant.  Then it hit me, and my eyes beamed fully open.

“Oh!  You mean…” I started, and stupidly, I moved my head to look down to my… lower area (yeah, yeah, go ahead and start laughing now).

“Fluttershy, you know I love you, and I would do anything for you.  It’s just that, well, considering you’re a pony, and I’m a human, I can’t help but feel that that wouldn’t feel right.  I’m sorry, I’m trying to put this delicately.”  She wanted to know if we would ever, you know, do it.  

“I understand,” she said, and she hung her head low.  She seemed disappointed.  But then, her head shot back up.  “Oh, but now that I actually think about it, that probably would feel weird wouldn’t it?” she asked.  I couldn’t help but laugh a bit at how quickly she said that.  She started to laugh too.  When the laughter died down, I spoke.

“I’m sorry Fluttershy.  Maybe someday we can just get over it.”

“No, no, it’s fine, actually,” she responded.

I nodded my head and gave her a smile.  We hugged for a moment, and she kissed me on the cheek.  Once we finally got over that little moment we had just had, we decided to go inside and just relax.  No, we did not suddenly wise up and do it... fuckin sickos.  We just relaxed until everypony finally arrived for the party.

Everypony was arriving on time, all except for Rainbow Dash, who showed up ten minutes late.  I could care less, but I was a little confused as to why she was late.  When she arrived, she was shaking a bit, but had a huge smile on her face.

“Hey Dash, what took you so long?” I asked her.  She couldn’t stop shaking or smiling.  Finally, after about 30 seconds, she finally spoke.

“Well, if you really wanna know, I just saved Spitfire, THE Spitfire, from certain death!  It was amazing.  I’m not joking.  I had been practicing in the sky, and then I noticed her as well.  She was amazing, but something made her cramp up, and she started falling.  My instincts kicked in and I zoomed off to save her.”  Rainbow Dash told us how she saved Spitfire and that Spitfire said she owed Rainbow big time for the save.  Come to think of it, that actually would give Dash a second time she saved Spitfire’s life.  I’m referring to episode 16, Sonic Rainboom, when Rainbow Dash saves Rarity and the Wonderbolts by performing a Sonic Rainboom.  I believed every word of Dash’s story.

Shortly after Dash finished her story, we got down to partying.  Man did these ponies know how to party.  Pinkie was a party animal, and the same could be said of Rainbow Dash and Applejack.  Twilight and Rarity had a ton of laughs with each other as they enjoyed the baked goods brought over by Pinkie.  Fluttershy and I shared a dance at one point even.  In the end, we had one hell of a night.

When everyone started to leave, Fluttershy and I said our goodbyes to everypony.  I thanked Pinkie for the awesome party, and she hopped on home.  Rainbow Dash, however, stayed behind.

“Now that they’re all gone, how about we start your training Matt?” Dash asked me.

“Right now?  You do realize it’s 11 o’ clock at night, right?”

“Yes, I’ve made a good note of that, but since we’re all energetic already and are at no time soon going to go to sleep, I figured we might as well start somewhere.  C’mon Matt, just for a while.”  Rainbow really wanted to train me.  I saw no reason to deny her.  I really wasn’t tired, so I figured why not.

“Sure, why not?  What do you think Fluttershy?”

“You two go off and train,” she started, “I’m getting tired, so I’m going to get ready for bed.”  She yawned after that.  She really was tired.

“Alright, I’ll come back at about 12.  Sound good?” I said, and she nodded.

Rainbow Dash and I walked over to the hill that I had arrived to Equestria on to begin.  Luna had already brought the moon out, and it was beautiful.  But, I had to focus on the training.  

“Alright Matt, let’s start simple.  Try hovering in place like this.  All ya gotta do is flap your wings.  Nothin to it.”  I tried to flap my wings, but I didn’t hover.  I tried a second time.  Still nothing.  On my third attempt, I put every ounce of strength I had into it.  I jumped up into the air, but I didn’t touch back on the ground.  I had successfully managed to hover.

“Sweet,” I said, sweet and simple.  Dash rolled her eyes and smiled at my overreaction to my own success.

“Alright smart guy.  Try to fly over to me.”

“Oh boy, a challenge,” I responded.  She chuckled a bit.  As I first tried to move, I wobbled a bit and fell to the ground.  I remembered how I had trained Fluttershy to become a better flyer.  I remembered all of those lessons we had.  I thought of everything I told her, but now, I had to apply all that training to myself.

As it all came back to me, I jumped back up, started hovering, and thought of what I taught Fluttershy.  I thought it was by a stroke of luck, but I was actually managing to fly over to Rainbow Dash.  When I reached her, she decided to amp up the challenge.  She flew further away from me, but now, she flew upwards as well.  She went up to a decent height.  I didn’t care.  She was far away that I could actually try to fly at a decent speed to her.  Everything just clicked inside my head, and I was flying straight to her with no trouble at all.  She was amazed at how quickly I was learning everything.

“Wow Matt, you’re doin pretty good for a first lesson.  It seems like you know what to do already.”

“Well, I did train Fluttershy to become a better flyer back on Earth.  I’m just remembering all those lessons I gave her,” I responded.  As I looked down, I realized we were pretty high up.  I lost my control and fell a bit, but I regained control that I was able to decently land on the ground.  Dash couldn’t help but laugh at this.

“Yeah, don’t worry about me Dash, I’m fine, thanks for your concern,” I said to her, laughing now at my own mistakes.  After we stopped laughing, we kept practicing until 12 o’ clock.  I decided to fly home.  

When I got home, Fluttershy was actually still up, but she was nestled in our bed reading a book.

“How did it go Matthew?” she asked as I entered our bedroom.

“I’m a natural at this flying stuff Fluttershy.  You should have seen Dash’s face when she realized how good I was,” I responded.  She smiled, put her book down, and yawned.  I went to get myself ready for bed.  After about 15 minutes, Fluttershy and I were sound asleep, hoping we would get to share our dreams once again.

That night, we did indeed dream together.  It was the same dream we would always share, except now, I could make it a reality.  The dream that night felt different though.  It felt… real.  The next morning, Fluttershy couldn’t get over how great the dream was.  She actually asked me if we could try it out that day.  I told her not until I was sure I wouldn’t fall out of the sky.  Fluttershy could catch me, but she wasn’t the strongest pony around, and I was pretty heavy.

So, I continued to train with Rainbow Dash until I was a master of the wings.  I had been pretty good to begin with though, but the added practices made me amazing.  I wouldn’t be flying at Rainbow Dash speeds anytime soon, but I could fly at a good speed for my body weight, and flying with Fluttershy like in our dreams was, literally, a dream come true.  Time went by pretty quick after that, and before I knew it, another year had passed by.

I was 25 years old at this point, and life was great.  But, I couldn’t help but feel something was missing.  Oh yeah, my family.  I really did miss them.  I knew when I left that I would miss them, but I had to let them go.  A part of me misses them, but another part of me is glad that I left them behind for Fluttershy.  I hope they could understand.  Maybe someday I could return to Earth, with Celestia’s permission, to visit them and all my friends.  You know what, I think after I finish writing about these past seven years, I’m gonna ask the Princess about that.  Maybe the time difference crap won’t be so bad.  But I digress.

The best memory I had of them was the portrait of my mother, sister, brother, uncles, aunts, and cousins.  My father had passed away as you know, so he wasn’t there sadly.  We were about 12 all together in that portrait, and I loved that picture more than I could ever love my actual family (weird huh?).

But one day, I decided to take a nap to remember.  Fluttershy had gone out for the day to go to the spa with Rarity, help Pinkie Pie watch the Cake’s children, and get some groceries from the market.  I didn’t have anything to do, so I was going to unwind with some good old fashioned video games.  But, before I could even get to my Xbox, I passed by the portrait.  I looked at it, looking over every person in that picture, including myself.  I really had changed since then.  I ran my hand over the picture.  I smiled shortly after.

I suddenly felt a little tired.  But, I didn’t try to fight it.  I let it take over.  I could use a good nap, even if it wasn’t in my bed.  I turned around, rested on the wall, and slid to the floor.  I fell asleep, and started to remember.

The very first thing that I remembered was the tragic loss of my father.  It was a quiet Sunday morning.  I was watching some Sesame Street (childhood memories), drinking some apple juice, and just being a little kid.  I didn’t have a care in the world.  But from upstairs, I could hear crying.  It sounded like my mother to me.  I decided to have a look for myself.  I went upstairs, and walked into my parent’s room to find my father lying in bed.  I thought he was sleeping, but then again, I probably would think that.  I was only about five years old at that time.  I couldn’t understand what happened.  My mother was at his side, crying.  She told me to go downstairs with my sister.  Just as I watched my younger self turn to go back downstairs, the memory faded away.

Next up was my Elementary School graduation.  Oh that was a fun day.  It was a hot summer day.  Well, actually, I don’t think it was summer yet, but it sure as hell felt like it.  Of course, we had to sing a crappy graduation song, which just happened to be from High School Musical.  I hated that movie so much at the time.  My friends thought it would be a good idea to go to the pool afterwards.  I saw no reason to say no.  So, I went home, celebrated a bit with my family, and went to the pool.  What a graduation day huh?  When I got to the pool, I found not only my friends, but even some other kids from my grade that wanted to just go for a dip.  We all decided to just hang out as a large group.  Boy was that a fun day at the pool.  That was just Elementary School graduation day.  The memory faded once again, and I was sent to the night of my first High School Musical performance.

I first performed in 9th grade.  The Musical that year was Les Miserables.  That would soon become my favorite musical.  I loved the music, the story, the characters, the music… wait I said that already.  Well, that’s how good the music is.  Anyway, I saw myself as one of the boys that act as the soldiers in the whole revolution.  I didn’t have any lines or anything, but the role was so much fun anyway.  I got to hold a prop musket.  Aren’t I cool!?  The last night was so emotional, even though I was only in 9th grade.  I sure do miss the seniors that were in that musical.  They were pretty great.  The memory faded as the whole cast walked off the stage after we bowed together for the final time on the final night of the show.

Next, I was revisiting my sixteenth birthday.  My party was great.  I invited about 12 of my friends over.  Hell, they weren’t even all in the same friend group though.  I had my wacky friends, and then I had my friends that I got attached to from my chorus class and acting stuff.  But, despite this, everyone got along great.  It was a great party.  We all just hung out in my backyard.  We had pizza, cake, played some fun games, listened to music, hell I even got everyone to agree to watching the Transformers Movie from 1986, you know, the Transformers movie that doesn’t suck.  We all had fun.  I even got to invite the girl that I had my eyes set on, but she had been taken for a while, but we were really close friends.  I kept my feelings a secret, but she was the only one for me.  Well, at least until Fluttershy came along.  My memory faded as I watched everyone leave for home, and she was the last to leave.

Next up, High School Graduation Day.  Once again, it was a hot summer day.  Graduation came after the Senior Prom, which was a great night, but not as memorable as I actually thought it would have been.  Graduation Day was a blast though.  We luckily got to sit in an air conditioned stadium-like place.  It wasn’t at my school.  Our auditorium was too small for that, so we went to a local college for the graduation ceremony.  When my name was called, I was so excited.  Receiving my graduation diploma and all that other junk wasn’t the exciting part though, it was just being on a stage once again.  This wasn’t even a performance, but it would be the last time I would stand on a stage as a high school student.  I looked to see my family cheering for me.  I decided to wave back to them, even though we had been told not to do so.  But I wasn’t the only one who did that, so why should I care?  The memory faded as I walked off the stage and headed back to my seat, and what came next was the event that I never wanted to remember again.

I was hoping for the day I found Fluttershy, or maybe even a memory not involving her, like my 21st birthday.  I would get no such memories.  I started to remember the night that I killed the two men that had harmed Fluttershy and ransacked her place.  I saw myself in action, how fluidly I moved, the power that I struck with, the hate that drove me to do what I did.  I saw the monster being unleashed from inside me.  I saw myself unleash my wrath upon those men.  I was in shock.  When I finished them off, I saw myself in shock at what I had done.  I saw Fluttershy comforting me, telling me she would always love me no matter what.  I saw her take me out to clean myself off, and as I watched myself walk out of the warehouse with Fluttershy, the memory faded.

What came next though was not a memory.  It was more like… a vision.  Of what, I had no idea.  All I saw was myself, standing at the lowest level of the hill that I arrived to Equestria on.  I was standing there, alone, fully armed with every weapon that I had brought with me.  I had gone full on assassin, but why the hell was I so well armed.  Suddenly, Applejack and Rainbow Dash appeared at my left and right sides respectively.  After that, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna appeared behind me, along with about 500 Royal Guard, including Shining Armor.  I didn’t even know there were that many, but it made sense.  But still, why were we all there like that, and where were Fluttershy, Pinkie, Twilight, and Rarity?  None of it made sense.  Then, I saw at the top of the hill, a figure.  Not just any figure too.  It appeared to be human, at least, it stood up like one.  It had the body of a human too.  What was all this?  What was my mind trying to tell me?  I seemed to have control over my mind during my state of remembrance, so I decided to just blow off this “vision” as a dream that interrupted my flow of memories.  It all faded, but shortly after, I didn’t continue to remember, but I heard Fluttershy’s voice calling for me.

“Matthew?  Matthew!  Wake up!  Are you there?  Can you hear me?” she was yelling at me.  My eyes shot open and I could feel tears rolling down my face.  All of those memories left behind.  Hell, I didn’t even really get any memories of my family, just memories of my life.  I didn’t really care though.  It was great to see all of those times again.

“Matthew, are you alright?  I just got back and found you sitting on the floor here.  Are you hurt?  Did something bad happen?  Did…” she said, but I stopped her.

“I’m fine Fluttershy, really.  I just had a little trip down memory lane.”

“Where’s that?” she asked me.  I couldn’t help but laugh.

“I mean that I just felt like napping.  I know I’m not in bed, but I didn’t need to be.  I started to remember some of the happier moments of my life.  I also remembered one not so great moment.  Finally, I saw what I think was a vision, but I’m pretty sure it was just a dream that wanted to interrupt my memory flow.  Don’t worry, I’m fine.  How was your day?” I asked her, trying to get her mind off of the fact that she found me napping on the floor.

“Oh, well, everything was nice.  I actually have a little surprise for you,” she said.  

“A surprise?  What is it?” I asked her.  Suddenly, from behind her, two golden tickets flew into the room.  Both floated next to her for a moment, but then one flew over to me.  I held it in my hand while the other one stayed hovering over Fluttershy.  I read over the ticket.  My mouth flew open and my eyes beamed open.

“No way,” I said to Fluttershy, my voice full of excitement.  She nodded in response, confirming what I believed.  I held in my hand a ticket to the Grand Galloping Gala.

“Have I ever told you how much I love you Fluttershy?”

She laughed a bit.  “Oh yes, many times, my love.”

“Well now, I love you even more.”

It was official.  I would be going to the Grand Galloping Gala with Fluttershy.  Her friends would be joining us as well, of course, but that I had actually gotten invited to go was incredible.  It surprised me how quickly the Princess had lightened up to me being in Equestria.  Hell, I was surprised at how quickly she just lightened up to me.  I would have to thank her later.  A few days after Fluttershy brought home with her those two tickets, we got a letter from the Princess.  The Princess had asked for Fluttershy and me to perform a song at the Gala.  Any song I wanted to do, event appropriate of course.  I smiled at the opportunity to shine on the stage once again.  It had been so long.

“What do you think Fluttershy, wanna do a song with me at the Gala?”

“Oh, I don’t know Matthew.  You know I’m not the best at performing in front of large crowds.”

“Yeah, I know, but I’ll be there with you.  You won’t need to worry.  C’mon, I know the perfect song we could do together.  Please,” I said, looking at her with the best puppy dog eyes I could make.  She looked back and laughed a bit.  Apparently I wasn’t very convincing.

“Oh, well, alright, we can do a song together.  What song did you have in mind?”

“I was thinking about performing “If It Means a Lot to You,” by A Day to Remember,” I said, and her face beamed with joy.  I had played that song for her a lot.  She loved it, so I knew she couldn’t pass up a chance to perform it.  It was perfect because there’s a female part in the song, which always held me back from performing it in the past.

“Really?!  Oh how I’ve always wanted to perform that song with you!”

“Wait, you’ve wanted to perform it with me?  Since when?”

“Since the day you first played it for me.  Well, maybe I didn’t want to perform it with you, but to just sing it with you.”

“Why didn’t you tell me that?  We could have done it anytime you wanted,” I told her, but then I remembered that back then, I wasn’t as good on the guitar as I am now.  I liked to play guitar back on Earth, but I wasn’t really good at it.  I decided to re-pursue that endeavor when I came to Equestria.  Apparently the ponies are masters of playing instruments with hooves.  I practiced a lot, getting lessons from Applejack and members of her family.  Rainbow Dash even learned with me.  She liked a lot of the songs I played for her, and wanted to learn how to play the guitar parts for them.  

“Well, now I’m a good guitarist, so I can play for the song.  So, we’re gonna do this?”

“Absolutely,” she answered, and I jumped up in excitement.

So, we started to practice the song, eventually mastered it, and before we knew it, the Gala had arrived.  Walking into Canterlot on the night of the Gala was amazing.  There were fireworks going off, lights all around us, and even the Wonderbolts were out.  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, Rainbow Dash finally got in.  Those damn flyers finally wised up to Dash’s skills and let her join as their newest member.  Dash has added about five more levels of awesomeness to the Wonderbolts performances.  Dash would actually be performing that night with them all.  She had promised the girls and myself a special Sonic Rainboom just for us.  I couldn’t wait.

The girls and I spent a lot of time together that night.  We enjoyed some food, danced a bit, and just had a good time.  Fluttershy actually pulled me away from the party to go into the garden.  It really was a beautiful garden.  I had never seen it before.  Fluttershy had a lot better luck this time around meeting the animals that populated the garden.  I was surprised to see some of the unique animals that were there.

“Aren’t they beautiful?” Fluttershy asked me.

“Yeah, but not as beautiful as you,” I responded, even though I knew how corny it was to say that.

“Aw, aren’t you sweet,” she said, and kissed me on the cheek.

After about 20 minutes of taking in all the beautiful scenery, we headed back inside to prepare for our performance.  I was actually getting a little nervous.  I was so excited to perform that song, but now that the moment was almost here, I couldn’t help but feel nervous.  Fluttershy helped me to relax.

“Don’t worry Matthew, you’ll do fine.  I’ll be with you the whole time.”

“I know, it’s just been so long since I’ve performed.  And here I thought you would be the one getting nervous.  But, I won’t let that hold me down.  I promised a performance to these people and that’s what they’re gonna get,” I said.  The confidence was coming back to me.

“That’s the spirit,” Fluttershy said to me.  Shortly after, an announcement came on that we were going to perform in about 5 minutes.  After that was said, Fluttershy let out a little shriek and hid behind me.  I was confused at first, then I laughed.

“What happened to all the confidence?  Just a second ago you were all supportive of me and showed no fear,” I said in a humorous voice.

“Sorry, I just thought we would have more time before we performed,” she said.  I looked at her with a smile on my face, trying to calm her down.

“Don’t worry.  You’ll be there for me, and I’ll be there for you.  Let’s give these ponies the best performance they’ve ever seen,” I said, and she looked up to me, smiled back, and nodded her head.

We prepared ourselves, did a little warm up singing, and finally went on the stage to perform.  I got my guitar ready, and Fluttershy sat next to me.  I looked to the first row to see the rest of our friends sitting there to support us.  Looking at all the other ponies, they looked at me with concern, probably because most of them had never seen me before.  I knew they would be a little frightened by me, but I decided to ignore it.  I wanted to fill in what Fluttershy and I would be performing.

“Hey everypony, how’s your Grand Galloping Gala going so far?” I asked the crowd.  I got some responses from the crowd who still didn’t exactly trust me.  “Good to hear.  Well, a few days after getting my ticket, Princess Celestia asked if Fluttershy and I would perform a song for the party.  We, of course, said yes.  Tonight, we will be performing a song from my world, and it’s called “If It Means a Lot to You.”  We hope you ponies enjoy.  Here we go,” I said finally, and counted to four.

I started to play on the guitar, and I could see our friends starting to sway to the rhythm.  They encouraged other ponies to join in.  I started to sing the first few lines, and that immediately got some ponies into the song.  As I got into the chorus, everypony had finally started to enjoy the tune.

After a minute of me singing, Fluttershy started.   She sounded beautiful.  I loved the female singer in the original song from A Day to Remember, but Fluttershy just made the song sound so much more beautiful.  The crowd enjoyed her voice so much.  She looked to me a few times, and I looked back with a smile every time.  

We were coming up to a part of the song that would require some help from the crowd, but I had completely forgotten to have someone make that announcement.  I quickly realized that Twilight, Rainbow, and Applejack were going around the crowd telling them to sing along when they cued.  They hopped up on the stage, and got everyone ready.  As soon as we came to it, everyone started to sing.  Hey, what a coincidence.  The song’s line is, “Now everybody’s singing la, la la la, la la la,” and wouldn’t you know it, everypony was singing.  It felt amazing to be performing that song with so much enthusiasm from the crowd.

As we neared the end, Fluttershy and I looked at each other as we came closer to the final line.  As we sang the last note and I strummed the guitar one last time, we paused for a moment.  And then, the uproar of cheers and screams from the crowd overflowed us.  I waved to the crowd, thanking them for the applause.  Fluttershy waved a bit, hiding behind her hair.  She was so shy.

“Hey, c’mon, they loved you,” I said over the cheers from the crowd.  “Let’s give them a bow.”  I bowed my whole upper body.  Fluttershy bowed her head.  She looked to me and gestured for me to lean in.  We shared a kiss right on that stage in front of everypony at the Gala.  That got them even louder.  Fluttershy and I gave one more wave to the crowd as we exited out to the garden to get some fresh air.

After we were outside, we heard hoof steps running towards us.  Pinkie jumped onto Fluttershy to give her a huge hug.  Rainbow flew up to me and we shared a fist/hoof bump.

“That was great guys.  You two are so awesome together.  You gotta do that again sometime for Ponyville,” Rainbow said, flying around in excitement.

“Ponyville, why not all of Equestria?!” Pinkie chimed in.  “They were amazing.  Just think if they did some of those other songs Matt knows.  That would be INSANE!!!”  Pinkie was overjoyed with how well we had performed.

“Thanks guys.  You saved the whole thing by getting everyone to join in on the last part of the song.  And Pinkie, we will definitely do something like that eventually.  I don’t know when, but we will, right Fluttershy?” I said, and knelt down to her.

“Oh, well, maybe we could just perform for Ponyville, or how about just not at all,” she said, breathing heavily.  I couldn’t help but burst into laughter.  Soon after that, everyone was laughing, even Fluttershy.

“You’ll get over the fear.  Once you’ve done this a couple more times, it’ll be easy, I promise,” I said to her.  I went over and kissed her on the head.  She smiled at me.

“Well, that was really fun.  I guess we could do it again.  But why don’t the girls join us next time?” she said.  I looked to the others who quickly agreed.  I checked the time to see that it was almost time for the Wonderbolts to perform.

“So, now that we’ve shown off for tonight, I think its Rainbow Dash’s turn.  You ready?” I asked her.

“More than ever.  Like I said, a special Sonic Rainboom just for you guys.”  As she said that, she flew off to her team.  The rest of us headed for our seats to watch them perform.  In a matter of minutes, the Wonderbolts flew out into the sky.  Seeing as though I have no idea what they name their tricks, I’ll just tell you they did some sick stuff.  The crowd was ecstatic, and the girls and I were probably screaming out the loudest for Rainbow Dash.  We actually heard some other ponies cheering for her.

When everypony thought the act was over with a huge burst of lighting and light rain on the audience, Dash made her move.  She shot up into the sky, twirled around to make a cool rainbow swirl, and sped on down to the ground.  We watched as the Mach cone formed around.  She was doing it, and apparently none of the other Wonderbolts knew this was planned.  

With one final burst, Rainbow Dash delivered and Sonic Rainboom straight through the rain clouds, which let out a mist of water.  This only amplified the rainbow that formed, making it shimmer and glow in amazing ways.  We watched in awe at what Rainbow had just done.  That Sonic Rainboom was just for us, and it was perfect.  And a perfect moment calls for a perfect kiss.

I turned to Fluttershy and kissed her on the lips, only with much more passion (again, don’t be fucking sick, it was just a good moment for a kiss).  She returned the favor.  As we finally let go of the one minute long kiss, Fluttershy spoke.

“I love you Matthew, you know that right?”

“Indeed I do, and I love you too Fluttershy, more than anything in the world.”  We smiled at each other.  We sat back in our seats, she rested her head on my chest, and I put my arm around her.  Nothing could ruin that moment.  And so as not to leave you guessing, I’ll just tell you that nothing did.  Nothing could ever ruin moments like those.  The moments when it was just Fluttershy and me.

So as you can clearly tell those two years were pretty fun.  But, the third year of my life in Equestria probably changed everything the most.  I was 26 when it happened.  Once again, it was an ordinary day, but this time, it was a Wednesday (HOLY CRAP A WEEKDAY).  I had just gotten back from helping Twilight move some books around in the library.  She could be such a slob sometimes when she let those books get out of hand.  But, that is what she has Spike for, although he’s kind of lazy too.  Getting off track again, so I digress.  

I entered my home and was welcomed by Fluttershy with a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“You seem rather happy to see me.  What’s up?  Was being without me for those two hours that bad?” I asked her sarcastically.  She giggled and shook her head.

“No, actually, I need to talk to you.  Let’s go in the living room.”

“Sure, but what do you want to talk about?” I asked, but she just kept walking and didn’t answer me.  I was now very curious, and also a little concerned.

“So seriously, what are we talking about?  You know I don’t like having my questions not answered.”  I really did hate that.  People would always never tell me stuff when I was in school.  It drove me nuts.

“Well, I’ve been thinking about some things Matthew.  I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, maybe about a month.  I’ve gone over in my head all the positives and the negatives to this decision, but the positives ultimately outweigh the few negatives I could come up with.”

“What are you talking about Fluttershy?  You aren’t suggesting we take a break, because that would just make my existence in Equestria pointless."

“Oh no, nothing like that.  I would never leave you, and you know that.  In fact, I’ve been thinking about the opposite of that.  I’ve been thinking about something that can further our relationship.”

“I thought we both agreed that us having intercourse in this state was weird, unless we both agreed on doing it.  And you know I don’t like babies that much.  We are not adopting.”

“Matthew, just listen to me, this is important,” she said.  I immediately shut up.

“Matthew, I’ve been thinking that maybe we could ask the Princess a favor.  Oh, why jump around it?  I’ve already asked her if she could do this at all, and she said yes.  I asked her if she could make me… human.”  The moment she said that my eyes grew and my mouth flew open.

“Wait… what?”

“I want to become a human Matthew.  Not just for me, or just for you, but for us.  Matthew you know we can’t get serious about our relationship like this.  You don’t want to become a pony, even though the Princess offered you the chance.  I’ve tried to get you to, but you won’t do it.  Therefore, I’ve decided to become a human.”

“Fluttershy, I can’t let you do that,” I responded, still in total shock of what she had just told me.  It hurt me a little bit to know she wanted to throw away her existence as a pony just for me.  No, she said for us.  But still, it didn’t seem right.  She had already asked the Princess though if she could be changed.  Did she ask if the Princess would do it?  I had to know.  But before I could ask, Fluttershy continued.

“It’s too late for that Matthew.  I’ve already asked the Princess to do this for me.  We are going to Canterlot tomorrow.  There is no changing my mind about this,” she said, answering my question before I could even ask it.

“But Fluttershy, you becoming a human, it’s like taking away a part of you.  I love you as a pony.  We don’t need to be able to have sex for our relationship to keep going.  I thought you knew that,” I said, starting to get a little emotional about the whole situation.

“Matthew, it’s not about having sex or anything like that, it’s about us.  Something about being human tells me that you will love me even more, and that I will therefore love you even more as well.  I want us to be happy.”

“I’m happy with things the way they are.  Hell, I might not love you as much if you become human.  I fell in love with a pony, not a human,” I said, but then realized that it was a little wrong of me to say that.  I didn’t fall in love with her because she was a pony, I fell in love with her because of who she is.  I fell in love with her shyness, her cuteness, her personality, her kindness, I fell in love with her.  That’s what she understood, and I just told her I only loved her because of her being a pony.  She started to cry.

“No, Fluttershy, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that.  I didn’t fall in love with you just because you’re a pony.  I fell in love with YOU.  That won’t change, no matter what,” I said.  I took a moment to collect myself.  “Are you sure you want this?  Being a human is much different from being a pony, but I’m sure you’ve taken that into account.”  She was crying less now, and she looked at me.

“Yes, I understand Matthew.  Like I told you, I’ve given this a lot of thought.  If you don’t want me to do this, I can tell Princess Celestia, but please.  I want this, and I think you do too.”  She was right, to a degree.  Her being a human may not be so bad, but I would have to get used to it.  I finally spoke out.

“Alright.  We’ll go to Canterlot and have the Princess turn you into a human.  If it’s really what you want, then I won’t stop you.  I love you no matter what,” I said to her, and she immediately smiled, jumped onto me, and started kissing me.

“Oh thank you Matthew.  I know you won’t regret this.”

“Yeah, I think I know that too.  But hey, don’t you think we should tell the girls.  I mean, they are your best friends.  I think they should know at least.”

“Oh, of course.  I was planning to go talk to them after we were done here.  Do you want to go now?” she asked.  I saw no reason to stay home when we had a big announcement for the others.

“Sure, let’s get them together at the library.  I know Twilight’s home, and I think Rainbow is at Sugarcube Corner with Pinkie.  Hopefully Applejack and Rarity are home as well.”  After I said that, we headed out to gather our friends.

Fluttershy and I gathered the girls in the library.  We told them what Fluttershy was going to do.  Twilight and Rainbow Dash protested, but Fluttershy told them about how this would be a good thing.  She had actually asked the Princess if this would affect her usage of the Element of Kindness.  It wouldn’t.  She would be able to keep her wings and everything.  The girls couldn’t think of anything to argue against her decision.  They all agreed to join us in Canterlot when the next day.  And so we waited for the next day to come.

The train ride to Canterlot was a quiet one.  We all sat on the train quietly, not wanting to talk.  Even Pinkie was silent.  She knew what was going to happen.  Hell, all of the girls knew what was going to happen.  They were going to lose the pony they had come to call their friend.  They would lose her, at least, in physical form.  There was always the option for Fluttershy to be changed back, but not at least for one year.  This was something Celestia had told Fluttershy, that if she was to go through with the change but want to be changed back, Fluttershy would have to wait for one year.  But, Fluttershy seemed pretty sure she wouldn’t want to change back.

We arrived in Canterlot.  It was a sunny day out, which was nice.  We were greeted by a Shining Armor.

“Twily, glad to see you again sis.  Glad to see the rest of you too,” he greeted us.  “The Princess is waiting for you in the castle, we shouldn’t keep her waiting.”  I honestly didn’t mind at the moment.  I wanted to be with the pony Fluttershy for just a while longer, but I wasn’t going to get that.

We arrived at the castle, and Princess Celestia was there waiting for us.

“Hello once again everypony.  Hello to you as well Matthew,” she said.

“Good to see you again Princess,” I said, bowing my head to her.  “So, you’re really going to do this for Fluttershy?  Like, you’re not even going to try to go against her decision?” I asked.  I wasn’t trying to persuade her to not do it, I was just surprised that she actually was willing to do this.  I wanted to know why.

“Matthew, you have shown that you are willing to do anything for Fluttershy, and that is because of the love you share.  Fluttershy has proven to me with this choice that she is also willing to do anything for you, or as she has said, for the both of you.  I see no reason to deny her this change.  But Fluttershy, I will ask one more time.  Are you sure you want to do this?” Celestia asked.

“I’m sure Princess, and nothing will change my mind.”  Fluttershy was so confident about this decision.  I don’t think I had ever seen her be more confident about anything in the time that we had been in our relationship.  She really wanted this.  I couldn’t help but start to tear up a bit.

The Princess nodded to us, and told us to follow her to the main chamber of the castle.  The Princess stood at one end of the room, and Fluttershy stood opposite her.  Our friends stood to the side.  I remained next to Fluttershy.  At least, I would remain there until Celestia did what she was going to do.

I looked at Fluttershy one more time and gave her a smile.  She returned the smile.

“Hey, if something goes wrong, you know I love you, right?” I told her.

“Of course I do, and everything will be fine.  I promise,” she said.  We shared one last kiss before Celestia was ready.  I stood back from Fluttershy.  Celestia charged up her magic.  Her horn started to glow, and after a few more seconds, she released the energy at Fluttershy.  

Fluttershy started to float up into the air, and Celestia stopped blasting her with her magic.  I could see Fluttershy, up until the point that the light got so bright we all had to cover our eyes.  After the light stopped shining and we could all see, the pony Fluttershy was gone.  In her place was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.

Fluttershy was just simply beautiful.  Her hair was still pink, she still had her yellow Pegasus wings, and although I probably shouldn’t write it, she did have a nice rack (hey, I’m sure some of you freaks would want to know, or at least try to imagine it, so why don’t I just tell you?).  Looking past all of that, she was pretty tall, but not as tall as me.  I was about six feet tall.  She looked to be about five feet and maybe nine inches tall.  She had a slim body that was just perfect.  When she finally looked up, I saw her face, her beautiful face.  Her eyes were still that beautiful shade of blue.  Her hair wasn’t as long as when she was a pony, but it was still pretty long.  When she smiled at me, my heart melted.  She wasn’t just beautiful, she was adorable.  She gave me one of those smiles that cute anime girls often give.  She started to blush a bit, which just made her even cuter.  I couldn’t stop the tears.  

I looked down to her legs when I spotted something.  Rather, I looked to her thighs.  She hadn’t been wearing clothes as a pony, but now, she was wearing some sort of a toga.  Maybe toga isn’t the right word, but it wasn’t full on clothing.  Maybe you could call it a sheet, I don’t know.  I just know that her right thigh was exposed enough that I noticed her Cutie Mark was still there.  Thank God she didn’t lose it.  I smiled back to her after I was done looking at her Cutie Mark.

“Well, what do you think?” she asked us.  I couldn’t speak, but when I finally managed myself to be able to, I spoke.

“You look… amazing.  I can’t believe I thought this would be a bad idea,” I said, chuckling a bit.  Fluttershy joined in on my laughter.  “Remember all those doubts I had about this?” I asked her.

“Well, yes.  What about them?”

“I think they all just died,” I said, which brought about more laughter, not just from the two of us, but also from the other ponies in the room.  But, foolishly, Fluttershy tried to walk over to me.  She lost her balance and fell to the floor.  I quickly rushed over to her.

“Hey, are you alright?  Don’t try to walk yet, you need to learn, as dumb as that sounds.  You won’t be walking on all fours anymore.”

“I’m fine, and I guess I should have thought about that before trying to walk huh?”

“Yeah, probably.  Don’t worry though, I’ll help you learn.  Actually, I’m kind of the only person who can teach you to walk like a human,” I said.  I was the only human in Equestria, so obviously I had to teach her.

I helped her get up and guided her out of the room, catching her when she stumbled along the way.  A question formed in my mind.

“Hey, can you still fly?” I asked.  She looked at me, then looked to her wings.  She unfolded them and tried to fly, and to my relief, she could indeed fly.  She seemed to have to put more effort due to her added weight from being a human.  She fell to the ground again, but I caught her.

We decided it was time to go.  We thanked the Princess for everything.  She explained that if Fluttershy needed help with something, we only needed to ask.  After that, Fluttershy, the girls, and I, all left for Ponyville.  When we arrived, it was pretty late, so everyone decided that we would all get to learn about the new Fluttershy the next day.  The ponies left to their respective homes, and Fluttershy and I headed to our home.

As we got into bed, Fluttershy started to move her limbs around, trying to get acquainted with all the new movements she could do.  She loved moving her fingers around.  She never had them before.  I smiled at her enthusiasm for her new body.  I really did love this new Fluttershy.  No, it wasn’t a new Fluttershy.  Fluttershy had just changed her look.  The Fluttershy I had fallen in love with was still right there in front of me.

As we started to fall asleep, Fluttershy rested her head on my chest, and I held her close.

“You were right Fluttershy.  I do love you even more now.  Thank you,” I said to her.

“I love you too Matthew, even more so now,” she responded.

She was so innocent right then and there.  She looked at me, and I looked back at her.  We shared our first kiss with the both of us as humans.  It was the greatest kiss of my entire life.  I truly did love Fluttershy, and she loved me just the same.  Everything was finally perfect.

It took about one week for me to explain everything there was to explain about being human to Fluttershy, and for her to understand it.  I had to explain how her body worked and all that nonsense.  Helping her get used to her new body was pretty simple.  Learning to walk was easy, and teaching her to use her arms and legs properly wasn’t too difficult.  After that one week, plus about two days, Fluttershy knew everything about being human.

Which brings me to the Saturday night after that one week had finished (she changed on a Thursday, hence the plus two days).  That Saturday, I had arrived home from a little competition with Rainbow Dash.  She wanted to see if she could beat me in a race through the Everfree Forest if I used my wings and parkour skills against her amazing speed.  I almost actually beat her, but she obviously won.  

When I got home, I was greeted by Fluttershy.  She gave me a kiss.  It wasn’t too late, but I was ready to go to bed.  That race tired me out a bit.  But Fluttershy had an important question to ask.

“So, um, Matthew, now that I know everything I need to know about being human, could we…” she stopped herself, her face completely red from her blushing so much.  I took a moment to think and then it hit me.  I gave her a little smirk.

“Yes, yes we can,” I answered.  She didn’t need to finish the question.  She smiled back to me, grabbed my arm, and took me into the bedroom.  You can imagine what followed.  No, I’m not writing about the sex I had with Fluttershy.  I’ll just tell you we had sex.  If you really want to know, I’ll just say that Fluttershy is amazing and leave it at that.  For it being both her first time in general and her first time as a human, she was incredible.  Now stop being perverted.

So yeah, after that, life was just amazing.  Fluttershy and I were both happy with how our relationship was going, our friends were doing great, and nothing bad was happening.  I had actually started to plan when I would ask Fluttershy to marry me, I just needed a bit of time to figure everything out.  But, as always, nothing in this world is really perfect.  It all comes to an end eventually.  You’re probably thinking the relationship ended.  Far from it, but it almost did, because I almost died.

It was one year after Fluttershy had become a human.  Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and I were out for a run in the Everfree Forest.  Rainbow wanted to see how well Fluttershy could fly in the Everfree as a human.  Fluttershy never really did fly through it as a pony, but Rainbow just wanted to see.  Fluttershy flew great as a human, but this was a challenge, one that she actually kind of accepted.  I was quite surprised.  I, however, wanted to try to do a parkour run without the use of my wings.  I often used them to my advantage when I went out for parkour runs, but not this time.

We were pretty deep into the forest, but not so deep that we would get lost.  I was on a role, not using my wings once.  Fluttershy was keeping up pretty well, and Rainbow led us through the forest.  Rainbow took a moment to let us catch up a bit.  I was going at a good pace, but not as fast as I could.  I wanted to stay near Fluttershy.

“Come on slow pokes.  Fluttershy, I know you can go faster, stop slowing down Matt,” Rainbow said.

“Calm yourself Dash, let her go at her own pace.  I’m fine with it, so just chill.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, it’s just that the extra weight of my human body sometimes slows me down.  You can go ahead, I won’t mind.”

“No, Fluttershy, we’re staying together.  Right Rainbow Dash?” I asked her, looking at her and raising an eyebrow.

Rainbow moaned a bit.  “Fine, we can slow down.  Sorry Fluttershy.”

“No need to apologize Rainbow.”  We continued on at a slower pace, but not incredibly slow.  I took a moment to look at a particularly tall tree.  Rainbow turned around and looked up.  Shortly after, Fluttershy did the same.  We all looked at each other and agreed to ascend the tree.  I climbed while Rainbow and Fluttershy flew up.  Once at the top, I felt like I was at having an Assassin’s Creed moment.  I looked below for a pile of leaves or something that I could do a Leap of Faith into, but there weren’t any to be found.  

I looked over the horizon to see what appeared to be a large storm cloud.  It didn’t seem to be moving too fast, but I knew we should probably get out of the forest soon.

“Hey, I think we should head back now.  That storm doesn’t look too good.  I thought you said clear skies all day Dash?”

“I thought so.  I guess the weather team decided otherwise.  No biggie though, it’s moving too slow to affect us,” Rainbow said, not really phased by the obviously huge storm approaching.

“Matthew’s right Rainbow.  If we get caught in that while in the forest, we could get hurt,” Fluttershy said, backing up what I believed.  We both looked at Rainbow, who once again let out a moan.

“Fine, fine, we can head back.  But you still can’t use those wings Matt,” she said, assuring that I was still challenging myself.

“Hey, I said I wouldn’t use them, and I’m not gonna.  Let’s go,” I said, starting to descend the tree.  I had to get down the old fashioned way but climbing down to a better level.  At that point, I started to parkour my way back home with Fluttershy and Rainbow following behind me.  But, about two minutes after we descended the tree, we heard a loud boom from the clouds, which had somehow moved directly over us.

“How the hell did they move that fast?  They were nowhere near us a few minutes ago,” I said, taken back by how quickly the huge clouds had moved.  Rainbow shrugged and gestured for us to move a bit quicker.  I couldn’t disagree now.  

As we started off again though, the rain started to pour down on us.  It was pretty heavy actually, affecting how I well I was able to parkour through the forest.

“This really sucks!  We need to get out of the forest now!” I shouted under the rain.  Rainbow and Fluttershy nodded to me, and we started moving at a much faster pace.  Fluttershy managed to keep up with Rainbow and me.  I was running through the trees like they were nothing, and Rainbow swerved through like butter.  Fluttershy was fine, able to keep up with us both with no trouble, like I said.

But, then the lightning started to come down.  The first bolt struck a tree a few yards away from us.  We were all shocked, looking from one another back to the spot where the lightning had just struck.  With one last look, we bolted off as fast as we could to get out of there.  I heard one more crack of lightning hit a tree behind us.  Now I was worried.  Fluttershy and Rainbow had a good bit of ground on me, seeing as though they were flying and I was running through the trees.  I knew well enough that it wasn’t smart, but I didn’t care.  Although, now, after what happened moments later, I don’t think I’ll ever parkour in a storm again.

I landed on a pretty thick branch, obviously thick enough to hold me up, but not too thick that it would hold forever.  Well, it was just my luck that a bolt of lightning struck the branch at the spot where it connected to the tree.  I was taken by surprise by it, losing my balance.  Fluttershy and Rainbow looked back, and I could see that they were scared now.  I tried to keep going, to get off of the tree.  But before I knew it, the branch snapped, and I fell.

I fell a good few feet, maybe about the height of an average sized house.  The branch was falling close to me.  I was too scared to either push it, or open my wings.  Well, by some stroke of bad luck, the branch landed vertically, pointing up into the air.  It stayed that way long enough for me to land on it.  You can imagine what comes next.

I landed straight on the branch.  I landed with enough force to lodge the branch straight through the right side of my chest.  That branch passed straight through, with enough force that it even hurt my right wing.  The pain was unbearable.  I wanted to scream, but couldn’t.  There was a branch lodged straight in the right side of my chest.  I could feel the blood seeping out of the hole, and the branch was too thick for me to pull out.  I gasped for air, coughing up blood all the while.  I managed to speak.

“Fluttershy, wait,” I said, my voice barely audible.  I didn’t need to say it loud though, they had both seen what had just happened.  They flew straight to me.

“MATTHEW!  OH SWEET CELESTIA, PLEASE DON’T DIE!  PLEASE!” Fluttershy screamed out, her voice filled with fear, and her eyes full of tears.  Rainbow wasn’t doing so well either.  She was in total shock, but she knew what had to be done.

“Fluttershy, we’ve gotta pull this branch out!  We can’t leave it in him, it’ll make things worse!” I could hear Rainbow saying.  Their voices were a little muffled by the rain.  I saw Fluttershy give a nod, knowing that it had to be done.

They gripped the branch, which sent a tingle through my body.  I felt so much pain.  They started pulling, which made it worse.  They decided not to sugar coat anything and just pulled the damn thing straight out with one great force.  I screamed out in immense pain, and turned onto my back.  Blood was gushing out of the hole in my chest.  Everything started to go dark as I gasped for air.  Rain was pouring on my face.  I looked into Fluttershy’s eyes for what I thought would be the last time.  This was how I was going to go out.  Done in by a fucking tree branch.  I gathered enough strength to lift my hand to Fluttershy’s face, which was filled with tears at this point.  With my last breath, I uttered one phrase.

“I love you,” was all I could say.  My eyes started to close, and I could still hear Fluttershy screaming.

“NO!  MATTHEW, PLEASE NO!” she screamed.  My hand fell to the ground, and my eyes closed completely.  Although it was a lot earlier than I wanted, I was able to accept it, to accept death.  I fell into the endless slumber of death, thinking about Fluttershy until my last moment.

‘Goodbye, Fluttershy… my love.’

I awoke in a black, well, abyss, for lack of a better word.  It was more like a black nothing.  Everything around me was black.  All I could see was black.  I could see myself, but aside from that, blackness was all around me.  I was confused beyond belief.  Was this what dying was like?  I had assumed I would arrive to a white sky full of sunshine, and be greeted by my fallen family members, like my father.  But, life is full of disappointments.  Well, I was dead, so I guess that means death is full of surprises too.

I tried so hard not to, but a sudden urge told me to look down.  I was standing on nothing.  Believe it or not, I was walking on air (see what I did there?).  I took a step forward, and I didn’t fall.  I continued to walk on for a while, until the point where walking on nothing freaked me out too much that I took flight.  I still had my wings in death, which was awesome.

I flew around for what felt like forever.  I had nowhere to go in this abyss, but what else could I do.  I tried looking for Fluttershy.  I don’t know why I did, but it just felt right to me.  I thought maybe I wasn’t dead, and that if I found her in this nothingness that I would wake up and be saved.  I looked for what also felt like forever, but to no avail.  I couldn’t find her.  I couldn’t find anyone, anypony, or anything.  I was completely alone.  Or so I thought.

After a while, I heard a voice.

“Welcome Matthew,” the voice said, in a very deep, sadistic, and menacing tone, but it was almost like an echoing whisper.  The first thing I felt was surprise, then a bit fear.

“Who said that?” I asked back to the voice.

“I have been waiting for your arrival Matthew.  It is time for you to die,” the voice said again, a little louder now.

“Death, is that you?  I kind of know what you’re probably going to look like, so why hide?” I asked.  I thought it actually was Death himself.  What I got was much worse.

“Oh no, Matthew, I am not Death.  There is no such person or thing as Death.  There is only, the Darkness!” the voice said, starting to creep up on my position.  My instincts kicked in, and I reached for my tomahawk.  But, I then realized that I was dead, and even beforehand I didn’t have my tomahawk on me.  So, I put up my fists.

“Show yourself!  Stop hiding!” I said, hovering in the air, ready to defend myself.  Whatever was out there got the point, and what I saw paralyzed me.

“Here I am Matthew.  Behold!  I am the Darkness!” the figure said.  He looked just like a human, except he was misty.  When I say that, I mean he looked like a shadowy mist.  His body was made of shadows, but he was quite visible to me.  But, just looking at him sent a chill down my spine.

“No words of courage, Matthew?  A pity, I expected a little bit more of a fight, especially from you.  You are, after all, quite a powerful warrior.”

“I’m no warrior.  Having skills such as mine doesn’t make me a warrior.”

“You’re right Matthew, it makes you a monster!  The monster that killed those two men all those years ago.  The monster that selfishly left behind his family for personal gain.  The monster that has been inside of you all along, but you were too stubborn to let it out completely.  It looks like, very soon, you are going to have to, at least, if you want to survive.  Your father tried to, but it didn’t work out very well,” the Darkness said.  The mentioning of everything else hurt, but when he mentioned my father, anger shot through my body.  

“Don’t you dare talk of my father you monster!  He was no monster, and neither am I.  YOU ARE!” I shouted out in pure rage.  I was ready to fight this thing, even if I was already dead.  But what he did scared me half to death.  And hell, I was already dead.

The Darkness disappeared for a moment, and suddenly reappeared right in front of me.  He stared into my soul with cold, dark eyes.  He sent a pain through my body, and I was paralyzed, literally.  I couldn’t move, and I so badly wanted to pull away from those eyes.  They burned my very soul.  I had never felt fear such as that.  For Christ’s sake I was dead.  How was all of this happening?

“I will drag you down into the Abyss of the Darkness!  Your father may have been able to escape me, regardless of his abilities, but you will not escape me Matthew!  I will claim your soul for myself, and you will never see the lights of your precious Heaven!”  His words made me feel weak.  My body was growing numb.  I was losing the feeling in my body, and I had already been paralyzed.  

As the Darkness was about to grab my neck, a shot of light beamed through the black abyss.  It blinded the Darkness, making him lose his grip on my soul.  I fell to the floor, or at least whatever it was that I was able to walk on, gasping for air.  I was gasping for whatever dead people breathed in.  The Darkness was starting to turn to nothing.  I looked at him, amused at his suffering.  But this didn't stop him from speaking a few final words before completely disappearing.

“You have not seen the last of me Matthew!  I will have your soul, and the souls of all your precious friends and family!  When I’ve finished with you, Fluttershy will be next.  Oh how she will suffer.”

“Burn in hell you piece of shit,” was all I said before he disappeared into the nothingness.  The light grew so great that all of the darkness around me became whiteness.  I turned to see the origin of the light.  Standing before me was my very own father.

“Dad?” I said, completely in shock.  He looked as young as when he had died, and he wasn't really old at point.  I guess in death you don’t age.  I hadn’t seen him in so long.  Well, that’s obvious, but that I was actually seeing him again was incredible.

“Yes, Matthew, it is me.  It is good to see you again son.  My how you’ve grown up.  Your mother may not always show it, but she certainly is proud of you.  So am I,” he said, his words forcing me to start crying.  To hear his voice again was just too much.  

“What just happened Dad?  What was that thing, or rather, who was it?  Why did it act like it knew you?” I asked my father, hoping to get some answers.

“All will be explained in time, my son.  For now, you must return to the world of the living.  Your time has not yet come.”

“Well, I figured that much.  But, Dad… will I ever get to see you again, I mean, before I die?  I miss you so much.  I may not show it all the time, but I do,” I said to my father.  I really did miss him.  Even though I barely knew him (because he died when I was so young), he still meant so much to me.

“Perhaps, my son.  Only time will tell.  Now, return to her.  Return to Fluttershy.  She needs you, and you need her,” he said, starting to turn to leave.  But, before he left, he had one more thing to say.

“And, Matthew, the Darkness will not leave you alone.  It is up to you now to finish what I couldn’t.  You will know that to do when the time is right.  I have faith in you Matthew.  I love you son.  Goodbye,” he said, leaving me so confused.

“Wait, Dad, DAD!  COME BACK!” I shouted out.  I ran to him, but he was gone.  I was left in a pure white sky.  I looked around.  Suddenly, a door appeared in front of me.  I decided I might as well open it.  Light flushed out, and I was blinded.  I was going home.

I awoke to the beeping of a heart monitor.  It was beeping due to my heart once again being active.  Had I just died and come back to life?  Was everything that just happened real?  Was that really my father?  I was so confused.

I tried to move my right arm, but pain shot through my body.  I let out a moan of pain and started to cough.  I began to breathe heavily.  Where was everyone, or everypony I should say.

“Hello?  Is anyone there?  Fluttershy?” I called out, my voice barely audible.  I thought I had heard voices from outside, but my speaking made it all stop, if there even was any speaking to begin with.  I heard the door knob being twisted.  After a moment, Fluttershy was standing in the doorway, still human.  She put her hand to her mouth, in total shock that I was alive.  I guess I really had died, but for how long?  Fluttershy was crying hysterically now.  She ran over to me and hugged me, being careful not to hurt me.

“Oh thank Celestia you’re alive Matthew!  We thought we lost you!  I was so scared, I didn’t know what I would do without you!” she said, crying the whole time.

She stopped hugging me and gave me a strong kiss on the lips.  When she broke it, I felt weak, but not weak enough that I couldn’t speak.

“I love you Fluttershy, I love you so much.  I promise, I’ll never leave you, not until the day I die, but for real,” I said to her, making sure every word was as crystal clear as could be.  She hugged me again, and with all my strength, I returned the hug.

Shortly after, Twilight, Rainbow, Applejack, Pinkie, Rarity, and even Princess Celestia entered the room.  They were all crying at the fact that I had survived and was alive.

“Princess, did you do this?” Twilight asked her teacher.

“No Twilight, I did not.  Which makes me curious as to how you are here right now Matthew.  That is not to say that I am not thrilled that you have survived, it just makes me wonder as to how you did,” the Princess said.  I couldn’t blame her for being confused.  They all really thought I was dead, and I was.

“To be honest with you Princess, I shouldn’t be here right now.  Wait, how long was I dead?” I asked.  They all looked one another, but it was Fluttershy who spoke.

“Matthew, you were dead for about one hour,” she said.  My mouth fell open.  I was in complete shock.  I had been dead for one hour.  My dad saved me.  I really shouldn’t have been alive.  But, quite frankly, I didn’t care.

“It was my dad.  He saved me.  I should still be dead.  I shouldn’t be here.  But, hell if I care,” I said.  I couldn’t help but say “Thanks Dad,” which confused everyone in the room.  Celestia understood that I was trying to communicate to my father for saving me.  I really wanted to see him again though.  He had just saved me from the hands of the Darkness, an enemy that said it knew my father.  I had to figure out how it knew him, but I didn’t know how.  My dad just told me that all would be explained in time.  I decided to just put up with it and enjoy the moment.  I had, after all, just come back to life.

Fluttershy continued to kiss me, and I returned every kiss.  There was a doctor trying to get in, but he figured he would give us a moment.  The same could be said of every other pony in the room.  They all exited, and left Fluttershy and me alone.

“I love you Matthew!  I don’t want you to leave me, ever!”

“I will never leave you Fluttershy, I promise!” I said, and we kissed again.

‘I love you Dad,’ I thought to myself, while hugging Fluttershy.  I owed him my very life.  I looked into Fluttershy’s eyes, and she looked back into mine.  Her eyes were still filled with tears, which made me cry in return.  I was going to do whatever it took to protect her.  I wouldn’t let anything come between us ever again.  Nothing would come between Fluttershy and me.

After a few more minutes, the doctor and everypony else decided to enter the room.  Fluttershy let go of me so I could see all of my friends.  That they were all there for me was no surprise, but it just felt great to know that they really cared about me.  I proceeded to ask the doc what was up with me.

“So doc, how bad am I?” I asked him plainly.  

“Matthew, you are quite lucky to have friends such as Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash.  They pulled that branch out of you and got you here on the double.  But, even with that, you still died.  How you are even alive right now amazes me.  As for your injury, well, the branch went straight through the right side of your chest, as you can tell.  This, in turn, managed to cut off vital blood vessels and arteries needed to supply your heart with blood.  When you got here, we managed to stitch everything up as best, and as fast, as we could, but even with that, like I said, you still died, for one hour and three minutes.”  I had already been told how long I was dead for.  I didn’t try to explain to the doctor how I had survived.  I doubted he would believe it, so I just let him draw his own conclusions.

“Am I at all paralyzed in any parts of my body?” I asked.  I was afraid he would say yes.  Thankfully, his answer was no, but I sure as hell did come close to being paralyzed on the right side of my whole body.  

“The branch managed to bang up your right wing pretty badly as well.  It will heal much quicker than your much more obvious injury.”  This brought about my next question.

“So, how long am I gonna have to stay in the hospital?  I mean, I can barely move right now, so don’t sugarcoat it.”  I honestly wanted him to sugarcoat it, but I figured there was no way around it.

“I’m sorry to say Matthew, but you will have to stay here to recover for one year.  And, even after you have healed, your heart may not act the same.  You must keep your blood pressure at a low rate, lest you want your heart to clog with blood.  You may also suffer from small spasms during the recovery time, but it will go away.  Once again, I apologize Matthew.”  One year, he said to me.  I was going to spend one year of my life in a hospital.  Just my rotten luck.

I was in disbelief, but I accepted it.  I let out a deep breath, which caused me to cough from the pain in my chest.  I moaned at the pain that I was still undergoing.  I didn’t want to tell Fluttershy when she was hugging and kissing me, but she was hurting me a bit.  But for her, I would suffer any pain.

“Will I be able to still parkour around the town and stuff like that?  I don’t think I can live without my physical skills,” I told the doctor.  I think I would rather be stuck in a wheelchair all my life than have my physical skills taken away from me.

“Yes Matthew, you will still be able to move as well as you do normally, but like I said, your blood pressure must be kept in check,” he told me.  My blood pressure was normally fine, so I wasn’t really worried about that.

“Don’t worry Matthew.  In one year’s time we will have you back on your feet as fleet as you were before this whole mess, you have my word,” the doctor promised me.

“Thanks doc.  Would you mind if I spent some time with my friends here?”

“Of course not, they can stay as long as they wish,” he said, and he left the room.  Fluttershy, our pony friends, and Celestia all looked at me, unable to move a hair, as I lay in my bed.

“Man, Matt, one year.  I thought one week was bad when I broke my wing a while back.  I don’t think I could sit through one year,” Rainbow said, trying to cheer me up.  It helped, but not much.  

“Yeah, well what are you gonna do?  At least I’m not dead.  I still can’t believe I’m here right now.  And what I saw, was just…” I stopped myself.  I didn’t think it necessary to tell them what I had seen, not yet at least.  They had enough to worry about with me in my current state.

“Princess, can’t you just heal Matthew?  You’ve healed me when I’ve injured myself in the past,” Twilight asked her teacher.

“Twilight, those injuries were minor, and Matthew’s injuries are much more severe.  Also, I have no knowledge of what my healing magic can do for him.  I know very little of how the human body works, and I may heal him incorrectly if I try.  I apologize Matthew,” the Princess responded.

“It’s quite alright Princess.  I don’t really want to cheat my way out of this.  Although the circumstances aren’t what I want them to be, this may actually grant me a nice change of pace.”  I had been living a life that was in the fast lane at that time.  I needed a little time to relax and chill out, even though at that time I was severely injured and on the brink of death.

We all spent about the next hour together, just talking about things that just came to mind.  Soon, everypony decided to leave, all except for Fluttershy.  She stayed behind.

“Matthew, I don’t want to leave you alone here,” she said, looking me in the eyes.  “I want to stay with you, to make sure you get better.  I know how to take care of people, I could really help,” she continued.

“Fluttershy, you’ve yet to experience an injury as a human, or even get the slightest cold.  You’ll come to find that soups and, well, whatever you normally use to bring your animal friends back to health won’t really work for me.  I’m gonna need things like… well, I’ll just say I’ll need stuff that you can’t necessarily provide.  I’m sorry if I’m being harsh, but this is just how things are.”  She looked at me and nodded her head.  She gave me a hug and a kiss on the head.

“Does that mean I can’t stay here?” she asked.

“Well, I’m not sure.  If it were up to me, I wouldn’t want you to leave my side.  But, it’s the doctor's decision whether or not you can stay with me.  But, for tonight, I’ll tell him you’re staying, regardless of what he wants.  How’s that sound?” I asked her.  She smiled at me and we kissed.

Shortly after that, the doctor came in, and asked if Fluttershy could leave.  It was pretty late, and he wanted me to get some sleep.  I told him that she was staying with me for the night.  He didn’t try to argue with it, and left us as we were.  I, however, didn’t go against his choice to get some sleep.  Fluttershy fell asleep with me on the side of my bed.  And once again, we shared our dreams.

And so, time passed on by.  I healed at a good rate, and by the end of the first two months, my wings were back to full health.  I still could barely move at that point, and when I could move, I felt pain.  Not as severe as in the beginning, but I still felt pain.  Fluttershy would visit me every day, and would stay with me on most nights.  The rest of our friends would normally come visit at least three times a week.  Rainbow visited the most out of them all.  She couldn’t bare to see me flightless, but I told her it was alright.

Well, about six months into my stay, the girls decided to get me some gifts.  And these gifts, let me tell you, were pretty damn amazing.  I was resting in bed, reading some of The Walking Dead, when the girls came in.  They were all smiling.  Fluttershy wasn’t there though.  I asked why.  

“Well Matt, Fluttershy’s gift is a little too hard for us to hide, so she’s just gonna wait outside until you’re done being excited over what the five of us got you,” Rainbow said.  So, Rainbow, Twilight, Pinkie, Rarity, and Applejack all pitched in to get me one gift, and Fluttershy got me one from herself.  Awesome.

“So, what did you girls get me?” I asked, my curiosity at its peak.  They all looked to each other, smiling.  Twilight used her magic to float one of my hidden blades onto my bed.  It was my right blade, and it looked the same.  Now, I was confused.

“My hidden blade?  I don’t get it,” I said.

“Take a gander at it, carefully Matt,” Applejack told me.  So I looked it over, and I was immediately dumbfounded, for both not noticing it in the first place, and for what it actually was.  My right hidden blade had been changed into a hookblade.  How the hell did they know that I had wanted one?  How the hell did they even know how to make one?

“How did you,” I started, but was cut off by Rainbow.

“I see you play Assassin’s Creed all the time Matt, and the one with that kind of a blade stuck out to me.  You sort of talked sometimes of how you wanted one, so I figured out a way to make one.  It’ll still stab if you need it too, but now you’ve got the hook,” she told me.  I tried to see how it would work.  The hook part would actually close back into the bracer of the blade, but it would still leave the blade out so I could stab.  If I let go of the hook, it would snap back out.  This meant it would only go back in if I needed to stab with it.  Sweetness.

“Wow, girls, I can’t say thank you enough.  This is awesome.  Lets see if I can make it work,” I said, strapping on the blade.  At this point, I was able to move pretty well.  My recovery was going smoothly, but I was still injured to a good degree.  I managed to get the blade working, sliding it out and in of its bracer.  It fit like a glove and worked like a charm.

“Now then, what did Fluttershy get me?  Where is she anyway?” I asked the girls.

“She’s outside.  Hey Fluttershy, you can come in now,” Rainbow called to Fluttershy.  Fluttershy walked in with an eagle, a beautiful bald eagle.  In fact, I think it was the same one that I took a feather from for my wings.  I looked at it, and then to Fluttershy, and smiled.

“You’re giving me an eagle as a gift?  That’s even cooler than the blade, no offence to you girls though, this thing is still awesome, but an eagle!  Come on, you gotta admit that’s cool,” I said, overflowing with joy at the eagle that was perched on Fluttershy’s arm.

“I told him how you got hurt, he wanted to come see you.  After all, you do share some similar qualities.  Well, actually, you both just have wings, and yours are white Matthew, but nonetheless, he still wanted to come see you.  He actually wants to be your pet now.  He told me that he wants you to name him,” Fluttershy said, and she handed him off to me.  It was a good thing I had on my bracer, because that eagle had some sharp talons.  I looked him over.  He had dark brown feathers, easily dark enough to conceal him in the dark.  So, I went to the most original name ever.

“Nightwing,” I said (original, right?).  “His name will be Nightwing.  What do you think about that?  You like that name?” I asked the eagle.

“As a matter of fact, I do,” said a voice.  I was caught off guard, and my face wore a surprised look.  Fluttershy giggled at this.  She knew what just happened.

“Who said that?” I openly asked.  The ponies in the room just looked confused, but Fluttershy knew.  Nightwing had just spoken to me.  I looked back to him.

“Did you just talk to me?  How is that possible?”

“Matthew, you had taken one of my own feathers to gain your wings.  That feather held a part of me.  Not only did the potion you drink grant you wings, it allowed you the ability to communicate with me.  I might say that that is a pretty cool ability for one such as yourself,” Nightwing said to me.  His voice was bold, and very noble, if that makes sense.  He had a young voice, almost like Gresh from that fourth Bionicle movie, except a bit older.

I didn’t care what he sounded like, I could talk to my pet eagle.  How cool is that?

“Fluttershy, are you hearing this?” I asked her.

“Indeed I am.  He was actually the one to explain it to me.  He told me he felt a connection to you.  I guess we know what he meant now,” she responded, her voice filled with joy.  

“Well Nightwing, I’m glad to call you my new pet.  Hell, you’re not even a pet, you’re like a brother practically.  I don’t suppose I could call you into battle if I wanted to could I?” I asked him.

“Well, provided I won’t get my feathers fried off, I think that’d be fine.  After all, spending most of my life with Fluttershy had gotten old.  I need some adventure, no offence to you Fluttershy,” he said.  I laughed, and so did Fluttershy.

“None taken, Nightwing.  I’m actually glad you’ll be getting out more now that you’ll have an owner, or brother, who you can go out and fly with.  But, while Matthew is here in the hospital, you wouldn’t mind staying with me would you?” she asked him.

“Of course not.  Although, I would like to come visit him with you, if that’s alright?”

“I see no problem with that.  Matthew?” she turned to me.

“Well of course my brother can come visit me, why wouldn’t he be allowed to?” I said, and I used my fingers to rub under his chin.  He seemed to like that.

We all spent another hour together.  The girls were amazed that I could actually talk to Nightwing.  They started asking him questions, in which I would translate his answers to them.  Sometimes, for fun, I would say that he said something other than what he had answered.  He would shoot me funny looks when I did that, which made me laugh.  But, after a while, everypony started to leave.  Of course, Fluttershy was the last to leave.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, okay Matthew?  And don’t worry, Nightwing will be with me, won’t you Nightwing?” Fluttershy said.

“Of course I will, anything for my new master,” he said.

“Brothers, Nightwing, we’re brothers.  Don’t call me master, it’s too weird,” I told him, and we all started to laugh a bit.  After that, Fluttershy and I kissed goodbye, and I gave Nightwing another chin rub with my fingers, and then they left.  Fluttershy took my blade home with her.  I saw no reason to keep it in the hospital.  

That had been one great day.  I had actually gotten really worn out, so I decided to hit the hay (no pun intended).  But that night, even though Fluttershy and I weren’t in the same place, we shared a dream.  

‘Fluttershy,’ I thought to myself, before I fell asleep, and we shared our usual dream.  That dream always reminded me of how I loved Fluttershy, and how I would always love her.  She really was the only person for me.

‘Fluttershy.’

And so, the next six months in the hospital past like a breeze.  Everypony kept visiting, Fluttershy kept staying with me on certain nights, and I healed at a good rate.  Rarity at one point actually was kind enough to bring me a very nice shirt.  It was a white shirt with the Assassin’s crest in the center, but in the center of the crest there was an eagle.  It’s a really nice shirt, I actually am wearing it as I’m writing these words.  Rainbow Dash also continued her Wonderbolts stuff too.  She managed to get me service on the hospital TV’s to watch her shows.  Man was she awesome.

But, out of all of this, Fluttershy’s visits were the best.  She visited every day, and it never got old.  She was the love of my life after all, so how could it get old?  She got more and more beautiful every time she visited.  Seeing her face was the most amazing sight at that hospital.  One of the best visits from the ponies was my 28th birthday.  That was quite a fun night, but honestly, I don’t feel like going into it that much.  It was a normal Pinkie Party, but I couldn’t do much.  It was fun, for sure, but describing it would be boring, so I’ll just continue on.

Finally, the last day came, and I was fully healed.  I would forever have the scar from the hole left by the branch on my chest, but I wasn’t going to be suffering any spasms anymore.  I did still have to watch my blood pressure and stuff, but that didn’t worry me much.  Like I said, blood pressure was never a problem for me in the past, so I didn’t think too much of it.  My wing was healed and I could fly like a pro again.  The doctor warned me to take it easy for a while, which I did.  I didn’t want to push it too much too soon.

Fluttershy escorted me home to be safe, but I didn’t care.  There was no other person I would rather be with.  We entered our home and I took a deep breath.

“Feels good to be home,” I said, taking in my surroundings.  I really did miss my house.  Being in a hospital for one year can get old, but I’m sure you realize that.

“I’m sure it does Matthew.  I actually prepared a big lunch for you before I went to pick you up,” Fluttershy said.  She led me to the kitchen, where I saw so many of my favorite foods that I hadn’t been able to eat in so long.  Fluttershy did bring me some foods on occasion, but not nearly all of the foods I missed the most.

“You know I love you right?” I asked her playfully.  She giggled.

“Yes, I’m very well aware that you love me Matthew,” she responded just as playfully as my first comment.  We shared a laugh and started to eat.  By the end of my 4th dish, I was stuffed, and there was a good amount of food not even touched.

“No, can’t get full now, must eat deliciousness,” I said, wanting so badly to eat the foods that were laid out for me.  Fluttershy laughed at how desparate I wanted the food, but she wouldn’t let me.

“I understand that you missed all this food, but you need to watch your blood pressure, remember?”  I raised an eyebrow at her.

“Calm yourself.  I have no worry about that nonsense.  But, fair enough.  I’m pretty full.  What time is it?” I asked her.

“Um, I think it’s about four o’ clock, why?”

“Damn, I have nothing to do, but it’s too early to go to bed.  I guess I could play some video games.  Yeah, I’m just gonna do that.  I’ll be inside if you need me,” I told her, but she followed me anyway.  She didn’t leave my side for the rest of the day.  I mean that quite literally.  That night, we showered together.  I’m dead serious.  Very, very nice, as I’m sure you can imagine.

After the day passed by, and we had our awesome shower (make up your own scenarios, but no sex), we went to bed.  We would of course share our dreams again.  But tonight, an old friend decided to finally come back to haunt the living hell out of me.

I was ready to dream with Fluttershy.  But, upon entering my dream, the black abyss surrounded me.  I was scared.  I knew what this was.

“Fluttershy!  Where are you?!” I screamed out.  I didn’t want her to be here for this.  She wouldn’t be able to handle it.

“Did you really think you could escape me Matthew?” a voice said out of the nothingness.  My heart stopped.  I didn’t even want to say show yourself to the Darkness.  The last time that happened, my dead self nearly shit it’s pants.

I kept spinning around, staying on my toes.  I didn’t want to be caught off guard again by him.

“I know that you thought I was gone, but didn’t your father say that I wasn’t going to leave you alone.  I’m sure he said I would go when the time was right, but I’ll have you know I have no intentions of leaving until your soul is mine,” the Darkness spoke.  I was shivering, not nearly as ready for him as I could have been.

“Why are you doing this to me?  Just leave me alone!” I shouted back at him.

“You fool, I do this to all who suffer such as you have.  I’m sure you think it’s because you almost died.  That is partially correct, but what has happened in your life prior to your near death experience also helped.  Lets say you didn’t find Fluttershy that day, for example, and you killed yourself.  Taking your soul would have been much easier, but now, you have a reason to fight me.  But rest assured, I will win,” he said, his voice tearing away at me.  He must have meant because I was half depressed before I found Fluttershy.  I probably would have killed myself if I hadn’t found her, but then, my soul would have belonged to this… thing.

“Where is she?  WHERE IS FLUTTERSHY!?  LEAVE HER OUT OF THIS!” I demanded, but he laughed at me.

“I have not done one thing to your precious Fluttershy, but I will let you know that she will be your downfall,” he mocked.

“Fuck you,” I shouted back, unable to think of anything better to say.  This brought about more laughter.  A few moments later, he appeared.  I was ready for him, and I charged at him with my fists.  He laughed and disappeared.  I swung, missed, and fell to the ground, whatever the ground was at the moment (I was floating, remember, walking on air).

He reappeared and grabbed me by the throat.  I couldn’t breathe under his bear like grip.  Once again, he paralyzed me with his eyes, but now I could make out his face better.  It was really just like a mask, but I could make out his skeleton like mouth.  He had no hair either.  He was practically like Voldermort, except with a nose.

“Your precious father won’t save you this time, boy.  He will never come back, do you hear me?  HIS SOUL HAS LONG PAST AWAY!  IT MAY HAVE ESCAPED ME, BUT YOURS SHALL NOT!  NOW DIE!” he shouted, and I felt my soul leaving my body.

Suddenly, from a few feet away, a light pierced through the blackness.  This made the Darkness cringe, and he let his grip on me go.  He backed away, the light clearly phasing him again.

“So much for my father not saving me, huh asshole?” I mocked.  The Darkness couldn’t respond, but what I heard from the light surprised me.

“Matthew, where are you?” a voice spoke.  It was Fluttershy’s voice.  I looked at the light for a moment.  I knew it was coming from there.  I looked back to the Darkness, but not for long.  I quickly ran for the light.  The hole it made in the blackness grew larger.  From behind me, I heard the Darkness cry out to me.

“One way or another Matthew, your soul shall be mine!  All I need do is wait,” he shouted.

“Only in your dreams, you monster.  My soul is staying with me,” I shouted back, still running for the light.  I finally reached it, and the Darkness was gone.  The normal sky that filled the dreams that Fluttershy and I shared had come back.  I saw Fluttershy frantically flying around, looking for me.  She turned to me and started to cry.  We flew to each other and hugged.  A few moments after that, we awoke from the dream.

Fluttershy was clutching onto me, shivering.  I was no better.  We were both covered in sweat.  Fluttershy was crying into my chest, and I was on the virge of tears.  I really did think he had left me, that he had gone away from my mind.  I ignored my father’s warning, and now I would suffer for it.  Fluttershy would suffer for it, for my mistake.

“M-Matthew,” she said, holding me tight,” what w-was that thing?  All I saw was a cloud of d-darkness in the sky, and I couldn’t f-find you?  What happened?” she said, her voice cracking at times.  Her face was filled with tears.  I looked at her, ready to cry as well.

“I’m sorry Fluttershy.  I should have told you.  I’m so sorry,” was all I could say.  Fluttershy continued to cry into my chest, and I continued to hold her.  We stayed like that for one hour, until we finally went back to sleep.  We didn’t share our dreams again, hell I don’t think we even dreamed at all.  We just slept, holding each other tight, never wanting to let go.  The whole time though, his voice rang through my mind.

“Your soul shall be mine!  Your soul shall be mine!  Your soul shall be mine!”

That was all I heard for the rest of the night.

After that night, the Darkness didn’t leave me.  Every night was the same.  My dreams were haunted by his presence.  He wouldn’t always talk to me, and I would just escape from the blackness of his abyss, but when he spoke to me, his words wouldn’t leave my mind.  The nights when Fluttershy and I shared dreams were the worst.  He always spoke to me then, and when we awoke, Fluttershy was always in tears, and we were both always covered in sweat.  He became a part of me, as much as that makes sense.

His torment was relentless, and he would always become harsher and more cruel with his words, sometimes opting to insult my father or myself, or even my friends or Fluttershy.  This got me angry.  Well, one night, he pushed me too far, and I let go, of both myself, and him.

It was thankfully a night that Fluttershy and I weren’t sharing our dreams.  If we did, I don’t know what would have happened.  I fell asleep, and entered my dream.  I was greeted by the same abyss that had been haunting my dreams for the past three months.  I decided tonight we were going to chat.

“Get out here Darkness, I wanna talk!” I demanded, and sure enough, he appeared to me.

“Eager to finally hand over your soul, or do you still want to rattle off the question as to why I torment you so relentlessly?” he questioned me.  His voice was mocking, and it angered me so much.

“For three months now, I’ve had to put up with your shit!  THREE FUCKING MONTHS!  WHY?!”

“I’ve told you already you pathetic excuse of matter, I want your soul, and it shall be mine.  All I need do is wait for you to lose yourself completely, and I will have what I want.  Perhaps I shall move on to Fluttershy when I’m done,” he said mockingly.

“My soul is staying with me, and if you so much as even try to invade her mind, I will tear you apart, no matter how long it takes,” I responded, my voice filled with anger.

“Hahahaha, such fury!  You are losing yourself quicker than I thought you would, Matthew.  Your father opted to keep it inside, to not let go.  He ultimately escaped me, by means I still cannot comprehend, but I tormented him so much worse than I have you,” he said.  His deep, menacing voice ate away at me, but not as much as his insults towards my father.

“LEAVE HIM OUT OF THIS!  THIS IS BETWEEN YOU AND ME YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT!” I shouted back at him.  I was giving in so easily, and that’s just what he wanted, but I didn’t care.  I started to feel power growing inside of me.  It was either that, or he was taking hold of me.

“Yes, give in, let the anger fill your body, and let me consume your very soul.  Your father was weak.  He did indeed hold it in, but he came so very close to letting go of everything.  He managed to rid himself of me before you were born, lucky for you.  But did that stop me from coming back, no it did not!  I haunted his dreams, but he held it inside, keeping it away from you and your family.  He ultimately broke free in the end, but he was weak.  He didn’t have the strength to face me, to let go.  YOUR FATHER WAS A PATHETIC FOOL, JUST LIKE YOU!  WHEN I AM FINISHED WITH YOU, YOUR PRECIOUS FLUTTERSHY SHALL SUFFER JUST THE SAME!  DO YOU HEAR ME BOY?!” he shouted at me, his words sinking in like nails in my skin.  

I was going into a full on rage mode.  I shouted and charged at him, but he disappeared before I could get to him.  I swung anyway, but kept my balance after I missed.  When he reappeared, he whipped me across the floor with a tendril of pure shadow.  Just the mere touch of it stung my body.  He hit me across the chest, and it burned so much.

“FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN!” I demanded of him.

“As you wish,” he said, and he drew a sword of shadow.  Suddenly, my tomahawk appeared in my right hand.  He charged me, but I quickly caught his sword.  I flung it away from him and chopped him right in the head.  I smiled at my accomplishment, but it was a pointless effort.  His eyes stared me down, and he laughed in my face.

“You are just as weak as your father,” he said, and he blasted me away with a burst of shadow energy.  He pulled my tomahawk out of his head, and snapped it in two.  

“You will die a slow and painful death, and when you have left the world of the living I shall drag your soul into the Abyss of the Darkness, where you shall never see the light again.  When I’m through with you, everyone you have ever known shall follow, not just Fluttershy, but everyone you know.  They shall suffer, and you will watch it all unfold.  Your mother, your sister, your brother, your friends, EVERYONE!  YOU SHALL ALL SUFFER!” he shouted at me.  I was ready to burst with rage, and so I let go.

“Get out of my head!  GET OUT!” I shouted at the top of my lungs.  With those words, a burst of energy overflowed the abyss, even causing the Darkness to fall backwards.  Light overcame the darkness of the nothingness, and the Darkness himself started floating upwards.

“IMPOSSIBLE!  NOOOO!” he shouted, being sucked upwards into the sky.  I watched from the floor, but suddenly, I found myself on my back, arching upwards.  I felt like I was being possessed.   And suddenly, I awoke from my dream.

I awoke in the same position as I had been moments ago in my dream.  I was arched on my bed, but something was different.  Flowing out of my body was a black mist.  It was the Darkness.  I was ridding myself of him.  But, out of the corner of my eyes, which felt like they could have been pulled out at any moment, I saw Fluttershy.  She was standing up against the wall in fear of what was happening before her.

“MATTHEW!” she shouted to me, her voice filled with fear.  I could only expel the Darkness from my body, nothing else.  I couldn’t move.  It felt like he was trying to stay in, but I wouldn’t let him.  With one final effort, I eliminated him from my body.

I fell onto my bed, breathing heavily.  Fluttershy didn’t come close to me, she only stayed against the wall in terror.  I lifted my head to see a cloud of black mist hovering above the front of my bed.  It soon moved to the door, pushing it open.  I opted to follow it.  It went downstairs, and soon after, out the door to the world of Equestria.  Before the Darkness left, he formed his body on my front lawn.  He stood there, menacingly.  He laughed at what had just occurred.

“You are a fool Matthew.  You may have expeled me from your body, but now, I shall make this world suffer.  And guess what, it’s all your fault.  Remember that promise you made to Celestia before you came here, well you just broke that very promise.  I hope you are ready Matthew, because a war is coming, and Equestria shall fall,” he said.  He turned into a cloud of mist again, and floated away into the Everfree Forest.

“What have I done?” I asked myself.  I had walked outside, but I turned around to see Fluttershy standing in the doorway.  Her face was full of tears.  I couldn’t help but start to cry as well.  She ran to me, and I ran to her.

“Matthew, what just happened?” she asked.

“I’ve just unleashed a powerful evil upon Equestria.  I can’t believe it.  How could I be so stupid?” I said.  I didn’t even try to down play anything.  I was straightforward about everything.  I told Fluttershy what occurred in my dream, and how I couldn’t take it and unleashed the Darkness from my body.

“Matthew, we need to tell Celestia,” she said to me.  I honestly couldn’t agree more.

“Damn right we need to tell Celestia, but… Damnit.  He was right, I did just break my promise.  I promised never to hurt any of the ponies or do anything that could cause them harm.  I just unleashed a powerful evil upon the land.  She won’t be happy.”  Fluttershy just stared into my eyes.  She gave me a kiss, which I gladly returned.

“She’ll listen to us Matthew, she has to.  Don’t worry, we’ll go in the morning.  Let’s go back to bed,” Fluttershy said, trying to calm me down.

“I’m not so sure that that’s a good idea right now Fluttershy.  I don’t want that thing getting back into my mind.  Let’s think about what we’ll tell Celestia, huh?” I said.  Fluttershy nodded.  We were really going to need a good excuse for the Princess if I was going to have any chance of staying with Fluttershy.  So, we went back inside and thought of what we would tell the Princess.  Ultimately, we decided to just tell her the truth.

We waited for the morning.  As soon as the sun rose, we ate breakfast, got ready, and left for Canterlot.  It was a quiet train ride, but Fluttershy held me close.  Some ponies were looking at her.  I guess they hadn’t seen the human Fluttershy yet, but that wasn’t really important at the moment.  We arrived at Canterlot, and headed straight for the castle.  The guards didn’t give us too much trouble, and before we knew it, we were standing before the Princess.

“Hello once again Matthew, and hello to you as well Fluttershy,” she said, her voice calming and soothing to hear.

“Hello Princess.  You’ll have to excuse us interrupting your day, but I have some news that you may want to hear.  Oh, and it’s bad news,” I said, trying to say it delicately.

“What do you mean?  What has happened?” Celestia asked.

“Princess, after that day when I died from the tree branch, something got into my mind.  He calls himself the Darkness.  He haunts those who have faced death, but I was saved by my father from his grasp.  He tried to take my soul, to drag it down into his Abyss.  He has been haunting my dreams for three months.  Last night, he went too far, and he broke me.  I unleashed a power in my dreams that allowed me to expel him from my body, but now, he is out in Equestria, in the Everfree Forest.  He swore he would make Equestria suffer, that he would see it fall.  I promised to not harm your ponies or do anything to cause them harm, and last night, I broke that promise.  I’m sorry Princess,” I said.  Celestia took a moment to take in everything I had just told her.  She seemed quite surprised by everything, but also quite calm at the same time.  After a moment, she spoke.

“Well Matthew, it seems as though you have indeed brought upon a great danger to Equestria.  For that, I am disappointed.  But, I will not send you home.  I know that I made you promise to bring no harm to my little ponies, but after everything you have been through in the past years here, I cannot bring myself to send you home.  I forgive you for what you have done, but I ask for you to help us fight off the Darkness.  Please, if not for Equestria, then for Fluttershy.”  When she said that, my eyes beamed open.  I took in everything she had said, thought for a moment, and nodded my head.

“Celestia, I cannot thank you enough, and of course I shall help you fight off the Darkness.  I don’t know when he will attack, so I suppose we will have to wait and see what he plans to do.  But rest assured, I will not abandon you.  I am at your service.  No, I am at the service of Equestria,” I said, and she smiled.

“And for that, you have my thanks Matthew.”  We discussed what I knew of the Darkness after that.  Celestia was amazed by what he could do, but she didn’t seem too phased.  She had, after all, faced far worse than this (so I hope).  When we were finished, Fluttershy and I said our goodbyes to the Princess, sure that we would be keeping in touch in the coming weeks.

When Fluttershy and I got home, Fluttershy took me into the living room of our home.  We sat down and had a little talk.

“Matthew, are you sure you can do this.  From what you told the Princess, the Darkness seems really scary and dangerous,” she said, her voice a little fearful.

“Fluttershy, you know firsthand what the Darkness is.  You’ve seen him in the dreams that we have shared.  You know I can do this.  We will have an army at our side too, but still, I can fight him.  I know I can.  I would fight anyone or anything if it means keeping you safe.  I love you, and you know it,” I said reassuringly.

“I love you too Matthew, and I’ll be with you the whole way through this,” she responded.  We shared a kiss and a hug, and before we knew it, the night came.  For the first time in three months, Fluttershy and I shared a dream that was not corrupted by the evil of the Darkness.  It was just like going to heaven.

After that day, I waited.  I waited for the Darkness to return.  I waited for the day he would call for war on the land of Equestria.  The guilt ate away at me.  I released him, I unleashed him, I set him free upon Equestria.  It really was my fault.  I had to stop him, no matter what.  I planned for days how I would combat him, coming up with different strategies and battle plans.  But, that was in the first few days.  It took three months for the Darkness to return.  During that time, I managed to get some relaxation, but not much.  I was always on edge, waiting for his return.

One day, the citizens of Ponyville got an unpleasant wakeup call from none other than the Darkness himself.  His voice overflowed the town, and everyone heard it.  I was in the town square with Fluttershy and my friends.  We were just relaxing and taking in the sunny day, when suddenly, he spoke.

“Citizens of Ponyville, your time has come.  I am the Darkness, and I bring for you a message,” he started.  His voice tore away at the innocent ponies of Ponyville.  Even my friends couldn’t handle it.  Hell, even I couldn’t handle it.  You’d think after hearing his voice for three months straight in my dreams that I would be used to it.  Well you’d be wrong.  After three months of not hearing it, hearing it again was an unwelcome surprise.  He continued to speak to the town.

“Your world shall soon burn to the ground, and darkness shall envelope your world.  No one can save you, not even your precious Princess Celestia.  Your world is doomed at the hands of the Darkness.  You cannot hide, you cannot fight, and you cannot run.  You can only surrender your souls to me,” he said.  I could see the ponies around me shivering in fear.  Some were even trying to cover their ears from the sound.  Then, the Darkness spoke to me directly.  

“Matthew, you are truly to blame for what shall soon befall this land.  You released me.  You unleashed my wrath.  You will watch your world crumble around you,” he said.  His voice burned inside my head.  I clutched my head in pain and fell to the ground.  I was screaming out in agony.  Fluttershy ran over to my side.

“Matthew, what’s wrong?!” she screamed.  The others ran to my side.  Even Rainbow Dash was scared of what was going on, and she was the most fearless pony I knew.  I couldn’t respond to Fluttershy, though.  I could only lay on the ground and grasp my head in pain.  With an effort, I shouted out.

“Get out of my head!”

“Oh, Matthew, how I enjoy watching you suffer.  But I will wait for you to watch your world be consumed by the shadows, then you will know true suffering.  And when this world is destroyed, your precious Earth will be next.  Then, and only then, will I consume your soul.  You have two days to prepare yourselves for death.  Although, nothing can prepare you for what I bring.  It shall all begin at the same place where you first arrived to Equestria.  Until then Matthew, farewell,” he finished, and he left my mind.  His voice retreated from my mind and from Ponyville.  I was left shivering on the ground, holding my head, which was still in pain.  Fluttershy and my friends were looking at me with concern.  Fluttershy was in tears.

“Matthew, are you okay?” she asked me.

“He’s coming.  We need to warn the Princess,” I said, getting up from the ground.  “We need to tell her right now.  Come on, I’m not waiting for a train,” I said, unfolding my wings.

“I’m with you Matt, let’s go warn the Princess,” Rainbow Dash said, jumping into the air.  “Fluttershy, come on, we gotta go,” she said, but Fluttershy didn’t move.

“I can’t.  Matthew, I don’t want to lose you.  I don’t want to lose any of you.  Didn’t you hear him?  He said nothing could stop him.”

“And you believe that?  Fluttershy, get real here.  Matt is an amazing fighter, and we’ve got Celestia and Luna on our side.  There’s no way this guy can beat us,” Dash said, her voice filled with confidence.  I, however, felt like she was wrong.

“Dash, I hate to tell you, but Fluttershy may be right.  In my dream, I chopped the Darkness in the head with my tomahawk, and he just laughed it off like it was nothing.  We may not be able to stop him after all, but that sure as hell doesn’t mean we won’t try.”  Rainbow was actually surprised by my words.  She thought I wouldn’t give up, but all she heard was me practically ready to do so.

“But Matthew, you need to remember, we have the Elements of Harmony,” Twilight chimed in before Rainbow could respond to me.  When Twilight said that, my head shot up, and my heart was filled with hope.  

“Holy shit your right!” I said.  “Maybe we can beat him.  No, we will beat him.  The Elements have beaten many foes in the past.  This will be no different,” I said with a newfound confidence.  Fluttershy looked at me and smiled.  I smiled back.  

“What do you say, think you’re ready to do this Fluttershy?” I asked her.

“I am Matthew.  Let’s get to the Princess,” she said, standing up and unfolding her wings.  I gave her a kiss.

“Matt, save the kissing for later, we’ve gotta go warn Celestia,” Rainbow Dash interrupted.  I broke the kiss.

“Could you have any worse timing?” I said.  Everyone laughed.  I then realized something.  I knew that waiting for a train might take a while, but straight up flying wouldn’t be any different.  So I go a really crazy idea.

“Hey Pinkie, how many ponies have ever fit into that party cannon of yours?” I asked her.

“I’ve never tried, but that sounds like a great idea.  We can use my mega party cannon for this though, my normal one is definitely too small,” she said.  Suddenly, reaching over to… somewhere, she pulled up to us all a giant party cannon.  I looked in amazement.

“Cool,” I simply said.  I then flew into the cannon, along with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.  “We’ll be back soon,” I shouted out.  “Pinkie, LIGHT THE FUSE!” I shouted crazily.  I was suddenly in a good mood.  Twilight’s mentioning of the Elements really got my hopes up.  I hoped they weren’t too much though, I didn’t need to be getting cocky.

Pinkie lit the fuse, and in a few seconds, Fluttershy, Dash, and I were flying at super high speeds to Canterlot.

We were soon in the castle, and we had just gotten to Celestia.  I didn’t even let her say hello.

“Celestia, it’s time.  He will attack in two days,” I said to her.  “He spoke openly to everyone in Ponyville, and then to me directly.  I had actually lost hope, but Twilight mentioned the Elements of Harmony.  I assume they will be able to defeat him.  You have witnessed their power firsthand, so I hope you can vouch for this.”

“I most certainly can, and I can say without a doubt that they will be able to help us in defeating the Darkness.  You must prepare yourself Matthew, a great battle shall soon befall the land.  I will prepare all of my Royal Guards for this fight.  I’ll see to it that Shining Armor gets them ready.  I will also notify my sister.  I will see you in two days in Ponyville Square, Matthew.  Good luck to us all,” she said.  I simply nodded.

We headed back home, and we were greeted by the rest of our friends.

“What did Princess Celestia say?” Twilight asked.

“She says that she is going to prepare every force at her disposal to help defend Equestria.  She has no doubt that the Elements will be of great use during the fight.  I say fight because, well, if we can’t hold him when he first attacks, Equestria is probably doomed.  It won’t be a war, it’ll just be a massacre.  But, rest assured, that will not happen.  We will win.” I said.  Twilight smiled.  She knew her mentor would do anything to keep Equestria safe.

“Well Ah don’t know ‘bout yall, but Ah’ll be fightin along side ya Matt, the whole way through,” Applejack chimed in.

“Yeah, same here,” Rainbow said.

“We shall all fight alongside you Matthew,” Rarity added.  I smiled at them all, but I lowered my head and sighed.

“No, you won’t.  I can’t let you risk your lives.  If we lose any of you, the Elements will be useless.  So I’m sorry to say, but you’re not fighting with me,” I said.  I really did want them to fight with me, I really did.  But, it was too great of a risk.

“Most of all, you Fluttershy.  I couldn’t live with myself if I lost you.  So, I won’t lose you.  You guys are more than welcome to be there, but you’re not fighting until I say so.”  I felt so empowered right then and there.  I felt like I was in command, but that wasn’t right of me.  The ponies, though, simply nodded at what I said.  They realized the risk too.  We all decided, though, to stay together at my house for the night.  It was big enough to fit us all.  We stayed together the next day as well.  I knew we would win, but just in case, I wanted to spend as much time as I could with the girls.  Especially Fluttershy.

When the next day came though, Ponyville was bustling with business.  Ponies were buying supplies like food, water, and a ton of other essentials.  Market stalls lost all merchandise within ten minutes of opening.  It was actually a little frightening.  The girls all watched in amazement at what was happening.

What was really warming though was that ponies would wish the seven of us good luck when they passed by us.  They knew we would be present at the battlefield, and just to hear them all say good luck and what not was really heartwarming.  But, by nightfall, everything changed.

Ponyville became a ghost town.  Everypony had locked their doors, shut their windows, and all that other stuff you do when something big is gonna happen.  That hurt a little.  To know that the ponies wanted us to fight well but now gave up a little was just the opposite of heartwarming… heart cooling?  I dunno.

“Man, so much for the standing ovation,” Rainbow said.  She was clearly disappointed with the citizens of Ponyville.  I couldn’t blame her.  They had all really given up.  I wouldn’t stand for it.

“Hey Pinkie, how good have you gotten on the drums?” I asked her.

“Oh, I’m pretty good now, why?” she responded.  I didn’t answer and moved on to Applejack.

“Applejack, how’ve you gotten with the bass guitar?” I asked.  Yes, Applejack plays bass guitar.  She is beast at the banjo, and when I learned that, I figured I could help her learn bass guitar.

“Ah’ve gotten pretty good, but Ah’m with Pinkie on this, why?” she asked.  Both her and Pinkie were confused.  But, I simply moved on to Rainbow.

“And you with guitar?” I simply asked.

“You know I’m the best Matt.  Why do you need to know all of this?” she asked.  Finally I answered their shared question.

“I’ve got a song in mind.  Let’s go get out instruments and meet back in the Square.  I’ve got a plan,” I said.  They didn’t argue.  Everyone got their instruments, and we met back in the Ponyville Square.

“So, Matthew, what song are you playing, and why are you playing it?” Fluttershy asked.  She didn’t want to really perform in a time like this, but what I was going to perform fit the conditions at the time.

“We’re gonna do “We’re Not Gonna Fall” by Daughtry.  I think it fits pretty well here, don’t you agree?” I asked looking back at the three ponies I would be performing with.  They all smiled and nodded.  I told them to prepare themselves, and before I knew it, we were performing my favorite Daughtry song.

It didn’t take long for ponies to realize what was going on in the Square.  They opened their windows to hear us performing.  Some started coming out to watch from the stage.  My voice rang out through the night to every house in Ponyville, and our instruments did just the same.  Getting to the big chorus part, I started to tingle a bit.  I knew there was a kick ass guitar part that I just loved coming up, and Dash knew how much I loved it too.  She played it like a boss (I said it again.  Oops).

Ponies started to cheer on for us.  They got what I was singing for.  I wasn’t going to fall, bleed out, or anything.  I wasn’t going to be defeated.  Bullets, bombs, whatever the Darkness threw at me, I wouldn’t lose.  And with the cheers of the ponies at my back, I knew we would win.

When we finally finished the song, Ponyville was in an uproar of cheering and screaming.  Everypony loved the song, and we loved hearing the support from everypony.  I decided to speak out.

“Thank you everypony, thank you.  I guess you understand why we just performed that song out of the blue.  It’s because we saw that you gave up.  Now you may think you didn’t, but you did.  You all wished us luck for tomorrow, but then you went to hide.  That won’t help us.  Tomorrow, before the battle, we need to hear that support again, and so will the soldiers that will be here to fight for Equestria.  Before the fight starts, you will hear my voice once again, singing the same words as tonight, and when that happens, I need you all to join in.  I need you to join in with me to show the Darkness that we WILL NOT FALL!” I said, and this brought about another uproar from the crowd.

“That’s what I like to hear.  Now go, get some sleep, and be ready for tomorrow.  We will all need to be.”  And with that, everypony left for their homes.

Fluttershy, myself, and all the girls went back to my home.  We spent one more night together.  We were all cuddled together (don’t get perverted), embracing each other (seriously, no pervy thoughts).  If this was going to be our last night together, than we would dream together.

We dreamed of walking on a grassy field, one that seemed to never end.  We all just walked together, side by side.  It was even more heavenly than my dreams with Fluttershy.  We stopped walking at one point to just take in the environment.  If this was to be my last dream, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

The night past, and soon enough, the sun rose upon Ponyville.  I awoke, very still, cuddled with the ponies and Fluttershy.  I moved a bit, which caused them all to wake up.  They all looked at each other, and then to me.  I looked to the floor.  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

“I guess I should get ready,” was all I could say.  And so, I left for my room to prepare myself for the fight that was ahead.

I walked into my room and shut the door.  I took off my pajama pants and t-shirt.  I first put on a pair of black pants, perfect for agile movements.  Next, I threw on my Assassin Crest t-shirt with the eagle in the center, the very shirt gifted to me by Rarity.  I put on some good socks and my best pair of sneakers.  No boots for me.  After that, I threw on my iconic eagle sweatshirt.

I had gotten slits sewn on the inside of my sweatshirt to hold throwing knives, five on each side.  I also had a belt that could hold ten throwing knives, also five on both sides.  I put on the belt, which also had a hole on it for my tomahawk, and two pistol holsters.  I had upgraded to revolvers recently (don’t ask how, it involves a trip back home).  Two six shot revolvers, perfect for taking out any adversary.  I grabbed my guns and placed them in the holsters.  After that, I strapped on my large supply of arrows, and threw my bow over my head, just like Connor.  After that, I grabbed my tomahawk and placed it on my belt.

Next, my hidden blades.  I strapped on my hookblade first, tested it a few times, and moved on to my other blade.  I strapped it on, made sure I could change it from bracer mounted to knife easily enough, and finally put on my fingerless gloves.  I gave my wings a good check to see that they were in top condition.  I took a deep breath once again, and finally pulled up my hood.

I walked out of my room, and the girls looked at me in amazement.

“That’s not overkill at all,” Rainbow said sarcastically.  I gave her a small smirk.  I walked up to them, and they gave me another once over.  They were shocked at how well armed I was.  I looked back at all of them.

“Let’s go,” I said, and we were off.  I asked Twilight on the way to the hill if she had the Elements with her.  They were at the library, so she rushed off to get them.  We would meet her before we got to the hill.  As we past Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie stopped for a moment and gave it a quick glance.  We all waited for her to finish.  The same could be said as we passed by Rarity’s Carousel Boutique.  She couldn’t help by cry a little.  In that time, Twilight managed to get back to us, with the Elements with her.  She gave each one to the respective owner.  We were ready.

We finally arrived at the hill, to find Celestia, Luna, Shining Armor, and about 500 Royal Guards were waiting for us.  They all looked at us.  Some of the guards bowed their heads to us.  Shining Armor ran up to Twilight and gave her a big hug.  No words were spoken, they just embraced.  I walked up to Celestia.

“Are you ready Matthew?” she asked me.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I responded.  With that, Fluttershy walked up to me.

“I love you Matthew.  Good luck,” she said, and we shared a kiss.  As we let go, Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy retreated to a safer spot near the battlefield.  Applejack and Rainbow Dash, however, had other plans.

“What are you two doing?” I asked them.

“We said we would stand by you, and we intend to.  You don’t have a say Matt, we are fighting with you.  We told the others to stay out.  Applejack and I can handle this, and you know it,” Rainbow said, in all seriousness.  I didn’t want to argue, I just looked at the two of them.  I sighed.

“Fine, but stay close to me, that’s an order,” I said, and they both nodded.  Applejack stood at my left, and Rainbow stood at my right.  I moved to the front of the army that stood before me.  Shining Armor went off to the right side of the battalion, and Celestia and Luna took places behind me.  But then, I had a grand sense of déjà vu.

I remembered this.  That day a few years back when I was remembering, and the final memory, the vision.  It wasn’t some dream, it was a vision of the future.  Had I not dismissed it as just some dream, I would have been prepared for this, no, this wouldn’t even be happening.  The vision I had those few years ago had come true.  There was one thing missing, which quickly changed.  On the top of the hill stood the figure from my vision.  Now I knew who that figure was.  The Darkness.

I stared at him.  He was a good few yards away, easily enough that both sides could just start shooting at each other and avoid hand to hand combat all together.  I say both sides, because shortly after he showed up, an army of equal numbers to ours showed up on the hill.  I was taken back by the grand force he had.  But, these were not normal soldiers.  They were also human in form, but they were much like the Darkness, made of misty shadows.  It sent a chill down my spine, but that quickly disappeared.  I took a moment to breathe once again, and words formed in my mind.

“We’re not gonna fall now.  We’re not gonna bleed out.  Never gonna break down, no,” I said, loudly enough that only Applejack, Rainbow Dash, the Princesses, and the soldiers in the first few rows could hear.  And then, I started to sing the same words.  My voice rang out across the field.  I turned around to face Ponyville, and soon, I heard the words returned by the ponies of Ponyville.  A smile was brought to my face, and I turned to face the Darkness once more.  It was time to fight.

Something clicked in my head, because suddenly, I started to hear the main theme to Assassin’s Creed 3 play in my head.  Why?  Probably because that theme was perfect for a battle.  It started off slow, but over the song I heard Celestia’s voice.

“Wait for my signal,” she said loudly.  But shortly after, the Darkness made his move.

“ATTACK!” he shouted out, and his forces rushed down the hill.  Rocks were scattered across the field, which made what I was about to do a whole lot easier.  The song playing in my head picked up to a good pace, and I rushed out onto the field.

“Matthew!” I heard Celestia shout out to me, but there was no turning back.  I was in a full on rush mode.  A few enemies had made their way to me quicker, but they were foolish and terrible at fighting, at least, they were to me.  One with a spear tried to jab me, but I caught it with my tomahawk, pushed it aside, spun around him, stabbed him in the back with my knife, and grabbed him by the neck with my arm.  I pulled down and snapped his neck, and what was once a soldier turned into a pile of dust.

Another guy tried to bring his spear down on me from behind, but I caught it with my tomahawk, pulled him forward, and stomped his ankle inwards.  From there, I slit his throat with my tomahawk.  He fell just the same as the last.  I didn’t give the next one a chance to attack.  I gave him an uppercut in the chin with my tomahawk, flipped him over my back, and chopped him in the head to finish him off.  I then rushed over to a rock to take cover from the beams of shadow that were being fired off from the spears of other soldiers.  I looked back to Celestia.

“Now would be a good time to give the signal!” I shouted.  She didn’t hesitate.

“ATTACK!” she ordered, and her soldiers rushed on.  Now, the song playing in my head had gotten to the exciting part, with all the trumpets and drums and stuff.  Like I said, perfect battle music.  The explosions of magic and shadow around me didn’t make a sound to me.  All I heard was the music in my head.  I decided to break out the bow, in one of the coolest ways I have ever done.

I pulled out my bow, jumped into the air, and started to fly.  I shot arrows left and right at my opponents, making each shot count.  One, two, three, four, all falling consecutively to my incredible accuracy.  But what I did next surprised even me.  Time seemed to slow down as I pulled three arrows out at the same time.  I pulled them back on my bow, and let go.  All three arrows had landed right in between the eyes of three soldiers.  They all fell into piles of dust.  I flew up into the air, folded my wings to place my bow back over my head, and flew back down.

I flew at an angle that I could run up a rock and kick a soldier right in the face.  I tumbled on the ground and got up quick enough to dodge another guy charging at me with his spear.  I decided to change things up.  I whipped out my hookblade and grabbed the soldier who just rushed past me in the back.  I pulled him to the ground, and brought down my other hidden blade to his face.

As another rushed to me, I turned my bracer mounted blade into a knife.  I blocked his spear, pushed it to my side, brought down my hookblade to his shoulder, pulled him down, and slammed my knife into his back.  Next came some consecutive stabs.  I stabbed left, right, left, right, and then brought my hookblade to one’s shoulder, which stopped him dead.  I crossed my left blade to a guy on my right, stabbed him in the head, then pulled down the one I had with my hookblade, and stabbed him in the head.  I was truly on fire.  I had already killed a good 30 soldiers.  I only wrote about a good ten, and I killed many more in the time before what I’ve written here.

My onslaught, as well as the song playing in my head, were halted when a blast of shadow sent me flying behind a rock.  Rainbow Dash and Applejack noticed this and rushed to my side.

“Matt, you okay?” Rainbow asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine, just getting a little tired is all.  These guys won’t stop coming.  We need to get to the Darkness, now,” I said.  Overhead, beams of shadow flew over our heads.

“We gotcha covered partner, jus tell us what ya need us to do, an we’ll get it done,” Applejack said.  I smiled and nodded to her.

“Stay close to me.  I’ve got some teamwork moves that may come in handy.  Get ready,” I said, and my hands went to the insides of my sweatshirt.  I grabbed three throwing knives on each side, stood up, and threw all six, each one hitting its target.  I smiled in triumph.

“GO!” I shouted, and the three of us rushed out.  Rainbow flew straight through four soldiers before landing and bucking the living hell out of another.  Applejack bucked left and right, until I screamed out to her.

“Give me your hooves,” I shouted, and I grabbed her two front hooves.  I spun her around, and she effectively kicked in the faces of about five soldiers, causing them to obviously die.  She then told me to toss her, which I did.  She landed straight onto a sixth enemy, and continued to charge.  Dash kept flying through enemies, and Applejack kept bucking.  We were unstoppable.  Until something just had to ruin it all.

“GAH!” I heard a voice cry out in pain.  It was Rainbow Dash.  She had been shot in both of her left legs, and she was bleeding pretty bad.  She fell over in agony.

“DASH!” I shouted out, and I felt my anger growing.  I had been holding off a more powerful soldier who was wielding a sword with my tomahawk.  I pushed his sword upwards and out of my way, brought out my knife, stabbed him a bit in his chin, but then brought it up so forcefully that I managed to lift him into the air.  I quickly sheathed my weapons and flew straight over to Rainbow.  She was in a lot of pain.

“Applejack, get over to that rock!” I shouted out, and Applejack quickly ran over, looking right at me the whole time.  I flew Dash behind the rock for cover.

“Dash, are you alright?” I asked.

“I’ve been through worse, but I’m done.  I know when I’m done fighting, and I am done,” she said.  I nodded and looked at Applejack.

“Don’t worry, I’ll get her to the others.  Go on, you’ve got some fightin to do partner,” she said.  I smiled and gave her a fist/hoof bump.  I looked at Rainbow and smiled.  Finally, I looked back to see the others looking at us from their safe spot.  Pinkie, Twilight, and Rarity were in amazement.  But Fluttershy, she was in tears.  She had never seen such violence from me before.  Sure, there were those two guys all those years ago, but that was nothing compared to the carnage I was wreaking.  But, I heard her shout out something.

“Keep fighting Matthew!” she said, her voice clear and crisp.  It filled my heart with hope, and a fire burned inside my heart.  Time to bust out the guns.  I pulled out my revolvers, cocked them back, and gave a battle cry before rushing out, guns ablazing.

I shot one guy on my left with my right pistol, then vice versa.  I ducked under a beam of shadows and shot the shooter with my left pistol, then quickly shot another on my right with my right pistol.  I flipped my left pistol and smashed the handle into the head of another guy, which spun him around.  I delivered a bullet to his back with my right pistol.  I flipped my left pistol back and shot it at another guy on my left.  Three bullets left in each.  I just fired off the remaining rounds into six enemies, quickly placed the guns back into their holsters, and charged with my tomahawk and left hidden blade.

I brought my tomahawk to the side of one guys head and dragged him aside.  I spun around and chopped one guy in the head.  I blocked one guy's sword with my knife, sliced him in the gut, then chopped him in the gut with my tomahawk, causing him to bend over.  I brought my tomahawk down on him with all my might.  I flipped my knife to block the sword of another guy, pushed it aside, grabbed him by the shoulder, and delivered three chops to his chest, each one making him fall further to the ground.

The weird thing was, this was me.  I hadn’t unleashed that monster that killed those two men all those years ago.  This was me.  I was fighting to save the ones I cared about, the ones I loved.  I was fighting for Equestria.  If these creatures could bleed, my white clothing would be fully red now, and what was once a green field would now be a sea of blood.  Although, it partially was.  I finally took the time to realize that hundreds of Royal Guards had been killed.  They clearly weren’t having as much luck as me.  This only made me angrier.

I just kept rushing forward, until a large wave of soldiers forced me back.  I kept up my assault, but I couldn’t move closer to the Darkness, I could only move back.  I soon started to take a few hits.  Beams clipped my chest, and a few soldiers managed to get some slices on my arms.  Were it not for my bracers, I could have lost my hands, but I still had some bad cuts.  I was starting to lose my edge.

Just when I thought I was going to lose everything and be taken down, something made them all stop.

“Enough!” a voice shouted out.  It was the Darkness.  “Return to me my minions,” he said, and suddenly, all of the soldiers, and even the piles of dust, began to flow back into the Darkness himself.  All of these soldiers were part of him.  He had created them from his own life force.  Incredible, odd as it may seem of me to say.

When he finished taking back in his power, he let of a gust of energy.  What came next, I wasn’t prepared for in the slightest.  A wave of shadow emerged over the hill.  I was frozen.

“Matthew, get down!” a voice called from behind.  It was Celestia.  Her and Luna ran up to my sides and created a barrier to catch the wave just as it was about to slam down.  It struck with a force that actually caused me to fall down.  The Princesses flinched, but held up pretty good.  But, if the wave continued any longer than it did, they may have lost control.  When it stopped, the Darkness was standing before us.

“Away with you fools,” he said, and he blasted both Celestia and Luna back down to the base of the hill.  I jumped back so he couldn’t strike me down.  We stared each other down.

“So, here we are Matthew, the very place that you first arrived to Equestria.  How does it feel to know it shall also be the very last place you see in Equestria?” he asked me mockingly.  I just stared at him, not responding.

“Are you gonna keep talking, or are we gonna finish this, once and for all,” I said.  He laughed loudly at my response.

“Very well Matthew.  Let’s finish this,” he said.  He formed his sword from the shadows at his command.  I drew my tomahawk and slid out my hidden blade.  It was time to finish this, once and for all.

We stared each other down for another moment, and then the Darkness made the first move.  He shot out a blast of shadow energy at me.  I quickly ducked and sidestepped under and away from the blast, and I lunged towards him.  I tried to slash down on him with my tomahawk, but he caught it with his sword.

“You are fast, but not fast enough for me,” he mocked.  He spun my tomahawk around so that it was moved out of his way, and he managed to land a good slice on my gut.  I backed up and cried out a bit in pain.  It wasn’t too deep of a cut, but it was enough to hurt me a decent amount.  I held my stomach, but I quickly got back in the game.

He tried to do the same thing, but swinging from the opposite direction (which was the right, just to clarify).  I caught his sword with my knife, pushed it away, and stabbed him in the side of his hip.  I pushed him away and drew out my knife.  He moaned a bit initially, but just laughed it off after.

“Your pathetic attempts to hurt me will do nothing.  Give me a real fight!” he said, and he lunged back at me.  His speed caught me off guard, as he brought his sword down on me.  I was quick enough to catch it with my tomahawk.  I pulled him to my right and stabbed him in the back with my blade mounted on its bracer.  I pushed him to the ground and jumped into the air, hoping to land on him with my tomahawk to his head.  Just as I was about to land, he rolled over, got up, and blasted me with a burst of shadows.  I was sent flying a good five feet.

I was in a bit of pain.  I had been cut in the stomach, and had just received a blast of shadows at point blank range.  I needed to amp up my game.  Once again, out came the guns.  I quickly loaded them up and started to unload the bullets on him.  He was pushed back by each consecutive shot.  One, two, three, four, and so on and so on.  When I had unloaded both guns, I tossed them aside, brought out my tomahawk, and chopped him on the side of the head.  I pulled him over to my right, and he fell to the floor.

“Come on!  Get up!  I’m not done with you yet!” I shouted down to him.

“Oh, I am far from done myself, fool!” he responded, and he let off a wave of energy which sent me, once again, flying backwards.  I groaned as I hit the ground.  I gave my neck a good crack, and was right back up.  But, just as I got up, I was quick enough to catch the Darkness’ sword coming down on me once again.

“You know, you’re not that bad of a fighter Matthew, but I expected more.  After all, you are truly a monster,” he mocked me.  I cried out and drove my blade into his gut.  He wasn’t fazed in the slightest.  He just laughed, and then, did something that terrified me.  His face, which was once just mask-like, turned into a full on open skull with short tendrils coming out of it.  He cried out in my face, and I couldn’t help but lose my strength.  He once again blasted me with a shadow burst.  After hitting the floor, I was shivering, but I got up.

“You will never defeat me Matthew.  Even with all your skills, you are nothing but a fool.  You have no hope to defeat me.  You think even your precious Elements of Harmony can defeat me.  Oh how very wrong you are,” he said.  I was a little surprised.  How did he know we intended to use them?  I mean, it was a little obvious, but still.  Even though his words rang out, I didn’t believe them.  But, we weren’t to use the Elements until we were sure I couldn’t get this done myself.

“Although, I don’t think I will allow your friends to use them.  After I finish you off, I shall strike them all down, and they won’t even know it,” he said.  I was filled with rage, and I charged at him, not thinking about my attack.  He caught my attack easily.  He laughed in my face.

“Yes, let out the anger, let it corrupt your senses, and let it make it all the easier for me to kill you,” he said.  But, I decided to shut him up.  My tomahawk was in a lock with his sword, so I decided to drive my blade right into his face.  He was completely caught off guard, and he fell back in pain.  I actually managed to hurt him.  I kept going.  I slashed him with my tomahawk in the side of his skull, grabbed his head with my left hand, and brought my knee to his head.  He fell to the floor.  But, as I was about to bring my tomahawk down on him again, he disappeared.

I looked around, keeping my guard up.  He appeared right in front of me, and slashed me across the face with the tip of his sword.  I had tried to duck away.  Had I not, I would have lost my head.  He didn’t stop though.  He delivered a strong left hook to the same spot where he had sliced me in the face.  I fell to the ground and started to cough up a bit of blood.

“You will fall, Matthew, whether it be by my blade or my shadows.  But before you die, I’m going to share with you a secret,” he started, and he grabbed me by the head and looked into my eyes.  “Fluttershy does not love you,” he said.  I tried to attack, but he had paralyzed me.  All I could do was feel the intensity of my anger building up.

“She does not love you Matthew, she only stays with you out of good conscious.  She knows that if she leaves you, you will die.  She cannot leave you, because without her, you are nothing.  Your father was much the same.  He was not loved.  Everyone around him only stayed to keep him sane.  Your family is nothing but filth, and it shall always be filth.  Fluttershy is filth that you have clung to so tightly.  You are nothing but a worthless soul, one that I shall gladly claim, soon enough.”  His words hit me like bullets.  I felt an intense anger building inside of me.  I was going to unleash the monster.  But, something told me not to, so I didn’t.  The same thing told me to be calm, to think, and to speak out.

“You’re wrong,” I said, my voice free of any signs of anger.  “You’re wrong about everything.  Fluttershy loves me more than anything.  She loves me, and I love her.  And my father was loved all the same, by everyone around him.  In my case, it’s not just Fluttershy.  It’s all of my friends.  They aren’t just friends anymore.  They are my family, and my family is anything but filth.  You are the filth Darkness.  The only worthless soul present on this battlefield is yours, and I intend to destroy that very soul.  Your words mean nothing to me anymore, monster,” I said, and with that, some burst of energy that I somehow let off sent him flying back, releasing his grip on me.

He was quick to respond though.  He quickly got back on his feet, and shouted back at me.

“YOU WILL DIE MATTHEW, AND YOUR SOUL SHALL SUFFER FOR AN ETERNITY!” he shouted out in rage, and he rushed towards me.  He was easy to dodge now.  His actions had become foolish and predictable.  I caught his sword again with my knife, pulled it aside, and chopped him clean in the neck.  I didn't stop there though.  With my tomahawk still lodged in his neck, I stabbed him right in the face with my bracer mounted blade.  I brought him to his knees, and from there, I drew my blade out, only to deliver another quick stab to his face.  He fell to the floor, but he wasn't fazed.  He got right back up and kept assaulting me, even if he wasn’t hitting me.  I caught his sword and shouted back to the girls.  

“Now would be a really good time to use the Elements!” I shouted back.  The five ponies and Fluttershy all stepped out into plain sight, and they prepared their Elements.

“Ready girls?” I heard Twilight say.  They all nodded, and the Elements started to glow.  And right before my eyes, the Elements of Harmony were unleashed.  I pushed the Darkness back and jumped out of the way of the rainbow colored beam.  It struck the Darkness with a great force.  He was shocked that it was actually working.

“NO, THIS CANNOT BE!  NOOOOO!” he shouted out, and in a matter of moments, he was gone.  The Darkness had been defeated.  I turned to the girls, and I smiled at them.  They all returned the smile, especially Fluttershy.  She was crying, and was about to run out to me.  Except, something stopped her from doing so.  I saw their expressions turn from excited to terrified in the blink of an eye.

“MATTHEW, BEHIND YOU!” Fluttershy cried out.  I quickly turned around to see the Darkness standing right before me.  I was terrified, both by the fact that he had actually survived the power of the Elements, and that he was staring me down with his terrifying eyes.  But, I wasn’t fast enough to stop him.  He back handed me with his left hand, and I spun around, facing the girls.  He grabbed me by the shoulder, and after a short moment, he spoke.

“Die,” he whispered in my ear.  As he spoke the word, he drove his sword straight through my heart.

“GAAAAH!” I cried out.  My head flew backwards, and I could feel myself fading.  I gasped for air, and he pulled his sword from my heart.  I fell to my knees.

“MATTHEW!” Fluttershy cried out.  I stared at her for a moment before falling to the ground completely.  I failed, and now Equestria was doomed.

“Not yet son, you still have a job to do,” I heard a voice call out.  It was my father.

“But Dad, I failed.  He killed me, and now Equestria will fall.”

“No, it will not, because Equestria cannot fall unless you have also fallen.  And you, my son, have not fallen just yet,” he said.  Within moments, I was awake.

---------------

I opened my eyes to find myself lying up against a rock.  I had been dragged off of the top of the hill, and was safe behind cover.  I could barely breathe, and the hole in my heart was still there, but it had been healed to a small degree.  Fluttershy was hugging me tightly and crying hysterically.  I looked around to see the other ponies, amazed at the sight that I had actually awoken.  

“Fluttershy, look!” Twilight said.  Fluttershy couldn’t let go of me, so I decided to make her notice.

“It’s ok, Fluttershy, I’m here.”  She immediately let go of me, looked into my eyes, and kissed me.  Man, I loved it when she did that.

“How?” was all she could ask.

“Let’s just say I owe my dad two lives now,” I said sarcastically.  They all realized that I had once again been saved by my father.  I looked around to see where the Princesses were, but they weren’t present.

“Where are Celestia and Luna?” I asked.  Twilight pointed out to the battlefield.  With the little strength I had, I turned my head around the corner of the rock I had been behind to see both Celestia and Luna fighting off the Darkness, but just barely.  His power was too great for them, but they kept going.

“You are even more pathetic than Matthew!  Give up now!” he shouted at them, but they didn’t stop fighting.

“I need to go help them,” I said to Fluttershy.

“No!  Matthew, I won’t lose you again.  Twice I have already lost you, and I won’t let there be a third time.  I won’t let you fight!” she said, her voice filled with fear.  She was still crying, but I quickly gave her another kiss.  When we let go, we stared into each other’s eyes.

“Fluttershy, I have to.  This is what I have to do.  I brought him into this world, and now, I’m going to take him out of it.  I’ll be fine,” I said, and I began to stand up.  Fluttershy tried to stop me, but I pushed her aside (not forcefully of course).  I stood fully up, but I was weak.  I wouldn’t last long.  I would need a stroke of luck to defeat the Darkness in this state.  I moved out from behind my cover to reveal myself.  The Darkness pushed the Princesses aside, but as he spotted me, he was actually surprised.

“Impossible!” he shouted out.  I smirked at him.

“Nothing is impossible, Darkness, you should know that very well,” I responded.  His face flowed with anger.

“No matter, I can kill you again, no problem,” he said.  But as he was about to blast me again, both Celestia and Luna used their combined magic to blast him over the top of the hill to the other side.  We had no idea how long he would be there, so I needed to think of something.  The Princesses looked at me with amazement.

“Matthew, but how?” Celestia asked.

“Not important now, Celestia, but I’ve got an idea,” I said, and I looked back to the ponies and Fluttershy who were behind me.  “The Elements, use them on me,” I said.  All of their mouths opened in surprise.  I looked to Fluttershy.

“I know this will work, please, just do it,” I said, but she shook her head.  She lowered her head and started to cry once again.  I walked up to her and lifted her head by her chin.

“Fluttershy, I promise, I will be alright, just trust me on this.  This is the only way, I know it.  Please,” I said.  She looked me dead in the eyes, and once again, we kissed.  As we let go, she nodded.  I stepped away from the girls, and told them to get ready.

The girls charged their Elements, but shortly after, the Darkness emerged at the top of the hill.  He looked down in confusion as to what we were doing.  Then, he understood.

“You think that will help you Matthew.  It will give you nothing but a method of stalling my victory.  Go on then!” he shouted down.  I had already been facing his direction, and I lifted my head to give him a smile.  I cued the girls to use the Elements.  Within seconds, they fired at me.

I felt the great power of the Elements strike me in the back, but instead of feeling like I was being killed or destroyed, the power healed me, and it fueled my own strength.  I was lifted into the air.  Within seconds, every cut, bruise, and injury I had suffered had disappeared.  My arsenal had been fully restocked, and I was filled with a kind of energy that was completely new to me.  I used the power to create the perfect weapon to destroy the Darkness.

On the left side of my belt, a sword sheath formed.  With my newfound power, a handle formed.  I grabbed the handle, and pulled it out of the sheath.  The blade had already begun to form.  Before me, I held a great memory from my favorite game series.  I held in my hand the Sword of Altaïr.

The ponies looked on in amazement, while the Darkness was not amused.  He merely laughed.

“You think some petty sword can save your life.  You truly are doomed Matthew.  You may have some new powers, but you will never defeat me, for there is nothing that can defeat me!”  His words didn’t faze me in the slightest, I just started walking forward.  But, suddenly, the lower half of the handle of the sword was gripped, by Fluttershy.  I looked into her eyes, and she looked back at mine.  I gave her a smile, which she returned.  We looked back to the Darkness, and continued walking forward.  We stopped until we were no more than a yard away from him.

“You’re wrong Darkness.  There is something that can defeat you, something that you fear.  It is love.  Love is the only thing that can defeat you, because you do not feel it.  You are weak, Darkness, nothing but meaningless shadows,” I mocked.  I know that may have sounded corny, but it was the truth.  He became filled with rage.

“You actually think I fear love!?  I fear nothing!  I am feared!  You have nothing Matthew!  You are a sad pathetic excuse for a warrior!  Your life is mine, and you cannot stop me!” he shouted and he drew his sword.  I looked to Fluttershy once more, and she looked to me.  We looked back at the Darkness, and I spoke.

“I told you, I’m not a warrior.  I’m an assassin, who knows the true meaning of love,” I said.  Fluttershy and I lifted the sword up, pointed it straight at the Darkness, and blasted him with a beam of pure energy, a beam powered by love.  Now, I get that this all really sounds corny, but honestly, I don’t think it really matters.

The beam struck the Darkness with immense power.  He was surprised, and he was being hurt.  He began to cry out in pain, and he started to disappear.

“NO!  THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE!  I CANNOT BE DEFEATED!  NO ONE CAN DEFEAT ME!  I AM THE DARKNESS, THE INCARNATION OF THE SHADOWS!  NOOOOOOO!” he cried out, and within seconds, he was gone, but this time, it stayed that way.  He would not return, ever again.  The world, no, the universe (basically), was free of his torment.  The Darkness was gone.

We lowered the sword, and Fluttershy fell to her knees, probably from the shear force of the blast we had sent out.  I gave the sword a quick look over.  It was a gleaming piece of steel, the finest weapon I had ever wielded, aside of course from my tomahawk.  I sheathed the sword and took a deep breath.  But, I then realized, I still had a bit of energy left in me.  When I say that, I mean that the power given to me by the Elements was still there, but just a bit.  I knew exactly what to do with it.

In my right hand, I started to form a ring.  When it was completed, it was in the shape of a butterfly.  It was made of a pink diamond, and it was absolutely beautiful.  I gave Fluttershy my left hand, lifted her up, went on my right knee, and finally popped the question.

“Fluttershy, will you marry me?”  She put her hand over her mouth and started to cry.  But through her tears came her answer.

“Yes, Matthew, I will!” she said, and she knelt back down and kissed me.  

Now, I can’t remember how many times I may have said that I kissed Fluttershy and that that kiss was the best one ever.  But, when I say that this was the greatest kiss we ever shared, I mean it.  We held that kiss for a solid minute.  After finally letting go, we looked to our friends, who were all in tears.  Even the Princesses were crying for us.  Even in the middle of a blood stained battlefield, love triumphed.  I guess it’s true what they say, that love will always conquer death.  I mean, I think that’s what they say.  I don’t know, but quite frankly I don’t care.

I looked into Fluttershy’s eyes, and she looked back at me.  We smiled at each other.  We stood up, and climbed to the top of the hill.  The sun was going down, but this moment was too perfect.  I’m going to revise my previous statement of that last kiss being the best one.  As we looked away from the setting sun, we looked into each other’s eyes, and shared another kiss.  This was our greatest kiss, period.  We let go of the kiss, and we spoke those beautiful words that always rang true.

“I love you Matthew.”

“And I love you Fluttershy.”

It was settled.  Fluttershy and I were to be married.  You’re probably wondering why I decided to pop the question on what had just been a battlefield.  Well, considering I had almost lost my life twice in the recent time frame, I figured I needed to get the question out.  I knew she would say yes.  We had been together for about 13 years now.  Well, as I’m writing this, it’s been about one year after our wedding, so that makes it 14 I guess.  But I’ll get to where I’m at now in a bit.

While Fluttershy and I were still standing on top of the hill, she looked at the beautiful ring I had created.  She admired the butterfly I had formed and smiled at me.

“It’s just like my cutie mark,” she said.

“Of course it is.  I had actually been trying to find you a ring like that, but none came in pink diamond.  So, I figured, why not make one myself, even if I used some super powers to do it,” I said jokingly.  She smiled.

“We’ll be together, forever, right?” she asked.  I answered with another kiss.  When I let go, she smiled and answered her own question.  “Of course we will.”  We turned to see our friends once again, and they were all still crying.  We started to walk down the hill to everypony.  Rainbow Dash flew right up to the both of us and gave us a huge hug.

“Man, I didn’t know you had a soft spot Dash,” I said jokingly.

“Get real, Matt.  You guys are like, my best friends.  Of course I’m going to get sad.  I can’t believe you two are finally getting married!” she said, and she let out a little squeal, much like the ones she makes when something cool happens.

When Dash let go, we were greeted by a giant group hug from all of the other ponies.  We all embraced in the joy of the moment.  But, when we all let go, we took a look at what had been left behind from the battle.  Craters, blood, and the bodies of at least 100 Royal Guards were scattered across the base of the hill, as well as the hill in general.  If the bodies of those Shadow Soldiers had remained, there would be probably twice as many of them.  The girls all looked to me.

“What?” I simply asked.

“I just can’t believe all of this.  So much loss, and for what?” Twilight asked.  I looked at her.  I tried to think of something, but nothing came to mind.  

“I don’t know Twilight, but at least we won, right?”

“Yeah, I guess so.  I just can’t believe how amazing you were, albeit a little excessive at times,” she said.  She had been referring to my combat skills.  I realized that the ponies had never witnessed such violence, and the fact that I was, at times, overly brutal, didn’t help their sanity.  Fluttershy witnessed me kill two people once, but now, all of the ponies, as well as Fluttershy, witnessed me massacre at least 100 Shadow Soldiers.  I didn’t let it get to me though.  I knew why I did everything I had just done, to save Equestria, to save Fluttershy.  

“Yeah, I guess I got carried away.  But, I don’t think we should be complaining.  I can’t be bothered if I’m too much of a badass,” I said.  The girls all started to laugh.  Then, Celestia and Luna walked up behind me.  I turned to face them.

“Matthew, you have done Equestria a great service, one that will be remembered throughout history.  For that, you have all of our thanks,” she said, and she bowed her head to me.  Luna, Fluttershy, and the rest of the ponies did the same, as well as all of the other Royal Guards.  Shining Armor even showed up.  I don’t know where he went in the whole battle, but at least he was alive.  He did the same as everypony else.

“Look, I’m really grateful and all, but you don’t need to thank me.  I brought him here.  Had I not even gotten myself killed that one day, none of this would have happened.”

“Yes, that may be true, but it is too late to change the past Matthew.  You should be looking to the future, if I may say so myself,” Celestia said.  “We’ve got a wedding to plan for.”  I smiled at her, and we all left the battlefield.

One month passed.  It was one month before the wedding day that we had defeated probably the greatest threat to ever come to Equestria.  But, that was truly in the past.  I had a few nightmares about it at first, but Fluttershy was always there to comfort me.  Soon enough, the Darkness, the battle, everything that had happened, was in the past.  I had to focus, for today, I had my wedding to attend.  

I awoke from another night of sharing dreams with Fluttershy.  She was cuddling with me in bed.  She was the most adorable thing you could ever see when she was asleep like that.  I gave her a kiss on the head, and she woke up.

“Good morning Matthew.”

“Good morning Fluttershy.  You ready for today?” I asked her.

“Of course I am.  I’ve been waiting for this day for so long.  I can’t wait!” she said, her voice filled with joy.  I was just as excited as she was.  We got out of bed, individually showered, had breakfast, and got dressed.  Once we were ready, we went to get our friends and headed to Canterlot.

Now, I had no knowledge of how Equestria weddings worked.  I figured it was just like a wedding back on Earth.  For the most part it was.  But, seeing as though Fluttershy’s parents were, well, nowhere to be found (seriously, where are her parents?), her father couldn’t walk with her down the aisle.  So, her best friend took that position.  Rainbow Dash was going to walk with Fluttershy.  Who was my best man?  Well, that was a tough choice to make.  Ultimately, I actually asked Twilight to be my best mare.  She said yes.

Getting ready for this whole thing was a bitch and a half.  Rarity made my whole outfit, as well as Fluttershy’s, but I wouldn’t see Fluttershy until we were standing together at the altar, or wherever we would be standing together.  I say that because an altar would pertain to a church, and we weren’t in a church, necessarily.  I got myself all snazzy looking pretty easily, with the assistance of Twilight of course.  Her magic was a huge help, especially with my wings getting in the way of the tuxedo.

“Good thing Rarity always puts holes in her outfits for me, or this would be atrocious,” I said.  Twilight giggled at that, but kept helping me get dressed.

“I can’t believe this is happening.  You and Fluttershy are finally getting married.  This is just so exciting,” she said.

“Yeah, it is,” I responded, and I started to feel light headed.  I fell on my knees, and Twilight rushed to my side.

“Matthew, are you alright?” she asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine, it’s just that… I’m getting married.  I figured I would get like this, you know, like all light headed and uneasy.  I guess I’m just a little nervous is all.”

“You have every right to be nervous, but everything will be fine Matthew.  All of your friends will be up there with you, along with Rainbow Dash and me.  And you and Fluttershy will be the center of attention.  Don’t worry,” she said.  Her words helped me to calm down, and her voice was pretty soothing.  I smiled at her and thanked her.  I started to revel in the past, the really long ago past.

“Can you believe all this?  Just 13 years ago, I was an average guy who had given up on life.  And now, here I am, in Equestria, a world I could only dream to live in, getting married.  Not only that, but I’m considered a hero now.  Man, I really should be thanking you for fucking up that spell Twilight.”

“What spell?” she asked.  “Oh, you mean the spell that sent Fluttershy to your world.  Yeah, well, I guess if that hadn’t happened, we wouldn’t be here today, huh?”

“Yeah, you’re right,” I said.  I took a moment to just think.  I took a deep breath.  I got up, gave myself a good look in the mirror, and looked to Twilight one more time.  “I’m ready.”

As per the normal custom, I took my place at the altar.  I’m just going to call wherever it was that we would be standing the altar just to make things easier for me to write.  Celestia was there to preside over the wedding, along with Luna, and even Cadence.  I had met with her twice, and she was a really fun pony to be around.  Being able to make love is a kick ass power, let me tell you.  The rest of my friends were there as well.  Pinkie, Applejack, and even Spike, stood on my side, along with Twilight.  Rarity was on the other side where Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash would be.  Now, we waited.

Soon enough, wedding music started to play.  I was surprised to find that it was the same music used for Earth weddings.  Although, I guess I shouldn’t have expected any different.  Fluttershy walked in with Rainbow Dash at her side.  Rainbow looked pretty amazing in her dress, but she was like a shadow when compared to Fluttershy.  She was the most beautiful thing in the room.  I started to cry a bit at the sight of her.  She was absolutely beautiful.  She took her time getting to the altar, but I was fine with that.  Not once did she take her eyes off of me, and I did the same.

She stepped up to the altar, and we faced each other.  I took her hands, and we didn’t take our eyes off of each other.  Celestia started to speak.

“Mares and gentlecolts, we are gathered here today to witness the unity of the two souls that stand before us, Fluttershy and Matthew.  The love between these two has shown me a great many things, and for that, I am proud to preside over this occasion.”  Celestia took a moment to smile at each of us.  Then, she started the vows.  But, Fluttershy and I were thinking the exact same thing.  As if on cue, we both put our index fingers to Celestia’s mouth to silence her.  We joined hands once again, and simultaneously said…

“I do.”  Celestia simply smiled.  She understood that we knew the vows and all that garbage.  We just wanted to be married already.

“Then, by the power invested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife.”  And with that, Fluttershy and I shared the kiss that would seal our marriage.  Everyone in attendance cheered for us.  It was such a great moment, but that kiss wasn’t the best.  The best kisses with Fluttershy were the ones when we were alone, and right then, we had a pretty big crowd cheering for us.  But, even still, it was a great moment, one that I will never forget.

When we let go of the kiss, Fluttershy and I smiled at each other.  She started to walk down from the altar, and she made me follow.  We ran outside, and before I knew it, we were both flying through the air.  Everyone followed us out.  Then, Fluttershy remembered something important (at least, important for you women that are reading this.  I could give two shits).

“I have to throw the bouquet,” she said to me.  I gave her a smile and raised an eyebrow, but simply laughed.  We were in the air, so throwing it up wasn’t necessary.  She threw the bouquet a bit higher anyway, and of course, Rarity made sure she caught it.

“MINE!” we heard her shout out from below.  We both laughed at her.  She waved back at us, and she was joined by the rest of our friends, who smiled up and waved.  We waved back to them and flew off into the sky.

It felt just like our dreams, flying in the sky.  Sharing moments like this with Fluttershy was the greatest thing ever.  I loved her with all of my heart, and she loved me all the same.  I honestly don’t think there could be any more of a perfect couple.  And if there is, I don’t wanna hear about them.

Fluttershy and I spiraled in and out of each other, gracefully flying through the air.  We joined together, and we shared our three favorite words at the same time.

“I love you.”

We flew back down to the Canterlot party area (poor naming for the win), where a huge party had been set up for us.  We walked through the crowd to the center of the dance floor and waved to everypony.  The rest of our friends greeted us with a huge group hug.

“Congratulations you two!  Ah don’t think ah ever seen a more perfect couple,” Applejack said.

“YEAH!  BEST WEDDING EVER!” Pinkie shouted out, which sent us all into laughter.  Rainbow greeted me with her hoof.  I pounded it with my fist, and gave a little jazz to make it a little more special.  We both laughed.  Rainbow then went to give Fluttershy a huge hug.

“Good job ‘Shy,” she said, and I felt myself starting to get teary eyed.

“Aw, Matthew, are you crying?” Rarity asked.

“Well, yes, I am.  I’m an emotional person, and just hearing Rainbow Dash say that is really heartwarming,” I said, and Rarity giggled a bit.  Then, I heard some music start to play.  A pony started to speak on the microphone.

“Alright, everypony, it’s time for the bride and groom to share their dance on the dance floor,” the pony spoke.  I just got curious and looked over to see who the pony was.  It was, as everyone on Earth knows her, Vinyl Scratch (just felt like sharing).  I took Fluttershy’s hand and our friends vacated the center of the dance floor.  Slow music started to play, but I wasn’t dancing.  I looked to Vinyl.

“Hold on, if I’m dancing, I’m dancing to a good song.  Hey, Twilight, grab the mic, you’ve got a song to sing,” I said.  At first, Twilight looked confused, but then, she knew what I was talking about.  A familiar tune from Season 2 of the show started to play.  It was “Love is in Bloom,” the perfect song for Fluttershy and me.  Now I could dance.

After about 2 minutes of just Fluttershy and me dancing, our friends joined us.  Twilight was still singing, but she was joined by some backup singers, which made the whole song even better.  This really was the best wedding ever, but hey, it was my wedding after all, so of course it would be awesome.

The song finally ended, and everyone cheered.  We all sat down, had some cake, shared a ton of laughs, and overall just enjoyed ourselves.  Then, Rainbow decided to make a toast.

“Hey, everypony, I’d like to make a toast!  To Matthew and Fluttershy!  They are truly my best friends, and I don’t think I would be the same pony as I am today without them!  We all love you two, and we all wish you the best of luck for the future!  To Matthew and Fluttershy!”  Everyone repeated her last line, and then, they started chanting something else.  They wanted one of us to make a speech.  Why?  I don’t know, these ponies are very sentimental.  I decided I might as well make a speech.

“Alright, alright, I’ll make a speech, even though I’m not one for this kind of thing.  Well, I guess I really owe everything I have today to Fluttershy.  She’s the most important thing in my world, and I would do anything for her.  Many years ago, I didn’t really care about love.  I did love someone, but she was out of my reach.  I didn’t think too much of it, and I really gave up on trying to find love.  Soon enough, I gave up on life entirely.  Were it not for the day that I found Fluttershy, I would not be here today, in fact, none of us would be here today.  And for that, I thank you Fluttershy, and I want you to know that I will always love you.  Thank you,” I finished, and everypony cheered for me.  Fluttershy stood up and gave me another kiss.

The rest of the night went on, and before I knew it, the party was over.  Everypony went home.  The girls and I took a train back to Ponyville.  Once we got there, we all said goodnight and went to our respective homes.  That night, Fluttershy and I decided to have another celebration (it had been a while since we last did it, so I think it’s fair to say we were allowed to do so).  After about an hour (yes, I’m serious), we fell asleep, cuddled together.  We shared what would be the greatest dream ever.  The funny thing is that it was the same dream we always shared.  But tonight, it just felt a lot more special.  We just flew together, and everything was perfect.  Now, my life was truly perfect.

And there you have it, the last seven years of my life.  Well, technically eight, because it’s been one year since the wedding.  I decided on waiting one year to start writing in this old journal again.  The way I wrote everything may not make it seem like it was eight years, but just trust me when I say that it was.  Your brains will be thankful.  But, now you know everything that I hinted when I started writing about this, well, act of my life.  I guess you could call it that.  Now you know why I’m a hero in Equestria, and now you know where my relationship with Fluttershy has gone.  I’m living the greatest life anyone or anypony could hope to live.  Oh, and just so you’re on the right track with ages, I am now 32 years old, and therefore Fluttershy is 29 years old.

I am currently in bed with Fluttershy.  She is already asleep, cuddling against me.  Like I wrote at some point, she is adorable when she is like this.  I’m getting pretty tired myself, so I’m gonna put the journal away for a while.  Now, don’t worry, my story isn’t done yet.  I once told you that as long as I’m here, this story will continue.  I have a long life ahead of me, with the girl of my dreams living in the world of my dreams.  My story will last until the very end.  The story of Fluttershy and me.

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