Jaze had his arms around Evelyn again. The two were sharing a deep passionate kiss. His whole body wasting tingling like it was asleep, but there was no loss of sensation. He at once wanted to pull away to see the love of his life and never move again. After a short eternity, Jaze could feel her begin to pull away. He looked into her beautiful green eyes until they began to change; taking on a purple hue. Slowly, Evelyn changed into Trixie before his eyes. Jaze’s mind was swirling in as many directions as it could and him have the ability to keep breathing. His heart was beating so hard that it hurt. Slowly did Trixie start to lean forward into Jaze’s arms. She looked up into his eyes and…

Jaze opened his eyes to the sound of birds brightly singing, roughly pulled from his dreams by a conscious that did want to believe what his subconscious was telling him. He sat up and cradled his head in his hands, trying to force the image of the dream from his mind. He got up, got dressed, and opened the door to his room. The soldier was momentarily thrown off by the door at the end of the hall; it had been a week since the room had been completed and that door added.

Jaze considered waking Trixie, but decided to let her sleep for a while longer. It was his turn to cook breakfast anyways. His sprits high, he bounced into the kitchen. He had been cooking for several minutes, delicious smells wafting through the house, when he heard the click of a doorknob. The soldier looked behind him to see Trixie walk into the kitchen, her mane mussed up from the night’s sleep.

“Morning, Trix,” Jaze said with a smile, “How are you this fine day?”

“I’ll be better once I shower and get some of that exquisite smelling food.” She answered as she yawned.

“Well, feel free to take a shower. The food won’t be done for a few minutes more.” Trixie nodded and left to take her shower. Jaze continued cooking, making a veritable feast for the two. He felt that any leftovers they had could be frozen for later. Today was going to be a good day, he could feel it. Trixie soon returned from her shower and the pair sat down to enjoy the spread.

“So, what’s on the agenda for today?” Trixie asked between bites.

“Applejack doesn’t need me today, but Ditzy’s asked me to help her deliver packages today. There are a lot of large, heavy things she has to deliver to Canterlot today so she enlisted me.” He set his fork down and looked to the dusky blue unicorn, “Do you to go to Canterlot later today?”

“Why, what’s up?”

“Oh I just thought that you might enjoy a day on the town. Besides, we can get more of the decorations for your room there, if you wish.”

“That sounds wonderful. It’s a date.” Jaze looked down to hide his suddenly burning face. He was still confused about his own feelings; he had been since that night on the roof. He hoped that he got his head on straight soon, he did not like feeling like a pubescent kid again.

“Okay then, I’ll swing by after I’m done and we can set off.”

“I’ll see you then.”

Jaze quickly finished his breakfast and helped clean the dishes. With a jaunty wave and a smile to his housemate, Jaze set off towards Ditzy’s place on the other side of Ponyville. There seemed to be more ponies in town today than usual, all talking in excited whispers. He might have stopped to learn what all the fuss was about if he had the time, but he was already running a little behind and had to run. He hoped that Ditzy’s sweet nature extended into work hours.

When he arrived at her gate, he saw her adopted daughter Sparkler working in the fruit garden. “Hey Sparkler, is your mom still here?” He called out to the young unicorn.

“Yes Mr. Armand,” she called back “she’s inside waiting for you. The gate’s open, just go on in.”

“Thank you,” the young man said as he pushed open. When he stepped inside the house, he was greeted by the amazing smell of fresh blueberry muffins. “Hello, Ms. Doo?” he called, “Are you here?”

“Yes, in kitchen here.” Jaze could not help but smile hearing the mare’s speech. When he had first arrived he had had trouble understanding her. He could tell she was intelligent; the cross-eyed mail mare just seemed to find it difficult to get words to come out in the proper order. But in the months he had been here, the soldier noticed that her speech had been improving. Ditzy had an iron will and Jaze could not help but admire her for her dedication to her fillies and the fact that she never gave up on anything she tried. It was only recently that he had learned her story and it made him admire her more.

“So, how many parcels do you need help with?” It was not the first time that Jaze had helped Ditzy before and he was a little worried about how long it would take.

“Not many, few must be delivering.”

“Awesome, that means we’ll probably get done in a few hours.” Ditzy nodded an affirmative and led the young soldier around to where she had stored the parcels before she could deliver them. The pair loaded the parcels into a wagon and Jaze set off with Ditzy for the train station, the young man pulling the wagon behind him. It was slow going, pulling such heavy cart, but the soldier would not have had it any other way. He had taken to challenging his strength, trying to find its limits. No matter how tough the ordeal, he never backed away. Even so, he was glad that he did not have to pull the cart all the way to Canterlot and gladly took the rest offered by the train ride.

Ditzy knocked on the door of one of their last stops in the capital for the day. Jaze was covered in a sheen of sweat from lugging the cart around behind him. They had dropped off all kinds items, from Octavia’s freshly tuned piano to a new anvil for the local blacksmith. He would merely smile and ask where the next house was. Several times the gray pegasus had offered to take a turn pulling the wagon but Jaze would not allow it. The young soldier had not realized until now just how hard the mail mare had to work and made a silent vow to assist her in any way he could.

“Hello, special deliverings!” Ditzy called through the door.

“Hello, there you are Ditzy. I have been waiting forever for that sculpting block!” a mare’s voice called back, “Hurry, my customer has paid good money for this and he wants it by week’s end!” Jaze locked the brake so the wagon wouldn’t roll on the slight incline as he unloaded a stone block almost the same size as a small pony and carried it into the workshop. Straining a little under the weight, he carefully set it down under the watchful eye of the proprietor. As soon as it touched the floor Jaze heard a sigh of relief. “I’m sorry for being so waspish; it’s just that this is a very important client and I need the reputation.”

“No worries ma’am,” the soldier-turned-mailman replied with a sincere smile, “everypony’s allowed to get a little agitated then and again.”

“Still, let me make it up to you both,” she tossed two small bags of bits to Jaze, “here, a tip for being so understanding.”

“Thank you ma’am but…”

“No buts; now go. I need to get to work.” With that, the sculptor shoved him out the door and pushed it shut firmly. The young man simply laughed and handed the bits to Ditzy. She looked at the bags then back to Jaze.

“One bag is being yours; I can’t be taking your monies.” She said with a questioning look.

“You need that more than I; you have two young fillies to support.” He offered a kind smile, “Don’t worry, this is what I want. I really don’t need the money.” It was true, the generous monthly allowance given to him by the Princesses sat mostly untouched in a drawer in his room. This small bit of money would serve him no purpose but to collect dust, but for the single mother it would be a great boon.

A tear of gratitude welled in the gray pegasus’ eye, “Thanking you muches, Jaze.” He gave a smile and a nod as he turned to the cart once more. He was just in time to see a young foal pulling at the brake. The child’s parents did not seem to be anywhere around and he was soon to be flattened by the cart, which had begun to slowly inch forward as the brake was released.

Jaze leapt over Ditzy, startling her into flaring her wings, and landed next to the foal. He grabbed the youngling and pulled him back just as the wagon began to roll. The quick soldier dove in front of the wagon to try and stop it before it could gather any momentum. It would have worked if he had not twisted his ankle on the landing and began to fall, hitting his head on the corner of the wagon on the way down. He blinked to clear his suddenly blurry vision, and fighting to stay conscious. He did, however, manage to stop the cart; by that time Ditzy had realized what happened and rushed to put the brake on for the dizzy young man. A young couple came rushing out of a nearby house, eyes searching for their missing foal.

“There he is!” the mother cried when she spotted her child and rushed to gather the confused foal in her hooves.

The father walked over to Jaze, who was slumped over on the ground trying to make his head stop spinning, “I’m sorry for the trouble my colt caused. Are you going to be okay there son?”

“Yeah, I think so,” He pressed a hand to where his head had struck, it came away bloody, “that is going to leave a mark.”

“We only took our eyes off him for a second!” the young mare cradling her foal cried.

“I understand, that is all the time they need,” he slowly climbed to his feet, “I have cared for youngsters before.”

“But you’re hurt…”the father said.

“It’s nothing, I’ve had worse.”

“I’ll bet you have, hooligan.” a superior, politely-insulting voice said from behind. Jaze turned to see an upper crust stallion staring at him, “That is why we should not allow aberrations like you into the city.”

“I apologize good sir,” Jaze replied respectfully as he gave a slight bow of his head, “we shall be leaving the city as soon as our business is finished.”

“Good, be on your way quickly then,” Ditzy chose that moment to come around the wagon to check on Jaze, “Oh look, another aberration, the town idiot. It’s probably her fault that the wagon almost went down the hill. Will you all just leave this fair city and stop causing trouble?” Ditzy cast her eyes to the ground, ashamed in front of the high society pony.

Jaze fixed the snobbish pony with glare known to make battle hardened soldiers go weak in the knees. All pretense of politeness dropped from the soldier’s voice, “I’ll not have you insulting a friend of mine like that. She is at least as intelligent as you, probably more so.”

“Jaze, don’t be fighting.” Ditzy said quietly.

“Okay, I’ll let it slide,” the soldier’s gaze slid from the snob’s, who let out a sigh of relief. For just a moment, the pony had seen Jaze for what he was. There had been no mercy in that glare and everypony who had seen it was glad it had not been directed at them.

“Let’s going now.” Ditzy moved to take the cart, but Jaze took it up without a word. Even with his forehead pouring blood, he refused to make her pull the cart. The stunned mail mare could only shake her head at the stubborn human.

As they continued to deliver the parcels, Jaze noted that Ditzy seemed to be a little downtrodden. “What’s the matter?” he asked worriedly.

“Does it hurted bad?” Ditzy asked as she looked at the wound on Jaze’s head.

“It hurts a little, but not too much.” He gave a reassuring smile, “Like I said, I’ve had worse. Much worse.”

“It being my fault. Sorry.”

“Don’t let that pompous idiot get to you.” Jaze said fiercely, “You’re better than him and shouldn’t have to put up with rot like that.”

“I be knowings that. But I’m blaming for not watch cart.”

“Not true, I could have watched the cart better. Or that couple could have watched their foal better. Everypony was to blame for that almost accident, so really nopony was to blame.” Ditzy looked up to Jaze’s smiling face, “Now stop worrying about something that isn’t your fault and let’s finish these deliveries.” Maybe, a voice in the soldier’s mind scolded, it’s time you took you own advice.

Jaze parked the cart next to Ditzy’s little house. She walked inside and returned with a small bag of her freshly baked muffins, “For you, for helpings me.”

“Thanks a lot, but you didn’t have to do anything for me.”

“Be stubborn not.” She gave him a thankful grin, “Now goings home and get clean up.”

“I think I will.” Jaze waved his good bye and set off for home. As he passed through town, he noticed that the activity from earlier had not settled down. Again, he would have liked to know what was going on, but he just wanted to get home and clean himself up before going back to Canterlot. His head was still pretty sore from the blow but he saw no reason to call off the trip. Besides, Trixie had seemed excited to go into the city and Jaze did not want to deny her that just because of a small bump on the head.

The soldier picked up his pace; he was anxious to get home and back to Canterlot. That was what his mind was saying, but that was not why his heart was singing. As he neared the house, he could smell something amazing in the air. Trixie had obviously decided to make them lunch before they left on their little trip. He started walking faster; he had only just realized how hungry he was. I wonder, he thought with slight amusement, what she’ll think of this nice little cut. As he pushed the door open, he knew it wouldn’t take long to find out.

“Hello Jaze, welcome…” Trixie’s voice puttered out as she took in the wound on his head, “What the hay happened to you?”

Jaze told her all that had happened in town that day, “And that’s about it.”

“That’s terrible! Are you okay, though?”

“Oh sure, did you forget I’m a soldier?” Jaze said with a cheery wink. He pulled the sleeve of his shirt p and pointed to a long scar on his shoulder, “Look at this, got that during a battle not too long ago. Bullet grazed me while I was being an idiot and standing still. That hurt far worse than a little bump on the head.”

“Really, that hurt worse?” A confused look crossed her face, “Jaze, what’s a bullet?”

“That’s a small piece of metal moving very fast. It is part of the main way humans wage war.”

“I see,” her expression was one of pity, “I’m sorry that you had to go through with something so painful.”

“Hey, don’t sweat it. It’s a small price for me to pay to keep my people safe. It’s just part of being a soldier. One day, I may have to die for them and I’m okay with that. If by my death I can save even one person, it was worth it.”

“Don’t say things like that!” Trixie admonished, “You’re life is worth just as much as anypony else’s. Think how sad your friends would be if you let yourself die.”

“I don’t plan to throw my life away. But I understand what is expected of me, and I have come to terms with the potential that I may have to lose my life to save something more valuable.”

“Can we just change topics? I don’t want to think about you dying right now.”

“Sure. Why don’t I get cleaned up, then we’ll eat and you can tell me what kind of magic you’ve learned from Twilight.”

Jaze went into the bathroom to shower off the sweat of the day and to tend to the cut on his head. Freshly showered and bandaged, he and Trixie sat down to a hearty lunch. The excited unicorn told him all she had learned from Twilight, including Twilight’s special teleportation spell. After much coaxing from the interested soldier, she demonstrated her new found talent; teleporting across the room and back. Jaze wore a small smile at seeing his friend so excited about what she was learning.

Jaze leaned back in his chair, “I think we should get going; we have a lot we need to do.”

“Sounds good,” Trixie replied eagerly, “Let’s go then.” The pair left the house in short order, ready for a day on the town. But as they were passing through Ponyville to catch the next train, two young colts stopped them.

“Look! It’s the ‘Great and Powerful’ Trixie.” They turned to see Snips and Snails sauntering over to them.

“Yeah, Trixie.” Snails said, following the smaller unicorn’s lead.

“What are you doing back in town? You got us in a lot of trouble!”

“Yeah, trouble,”

“You should just leave now! We don’t need you making trouble today, or any other day.” Snips continued to throw insults and accusations at Trixie, and tears had begun to well in her eyes as the insults piled on.

“But I…” the dusky blue unicorn tried to defend herself from the onslaught of insults.

“No, don’t start trying to sweet talk us. Just go home and leave us alone!”

“Yeah, leave us alone.” The pair wore satisfied smiles as Trixie’s eyes welled with tears and she bolted out of town.

Jaze fixed the two with a steely glare, causing the smiles to be replaced with worried frowns, “You two ought to be ashamed of yourselves! There was no call for being so heartless! No get out of here before I drag you back to your parents for a solid beating.” Jaze left the two stunned unicorn colts and ran after Trixie.

He had been searching around Ponyville for a few minutes before he found her, quietly sobbing behind a large tree. “Hey, Trixie, there’s no need to cry.”

“Yes there is, everypony thinks that but only the children don’t have the decency not to say it to my face.” The unicorn said fiercely, tears rolling down her cheeks.

“No they don’t, look at Twilight and Rainbow Dash and the others. They’re your friends, they want you here.” He reached down and gave her a comforting hug. “I want you here, too. Those two are just foolish kids, don’t let them get to you.”

“But they’re right! I am nothing but trouble. You’ve had to go out of your way to help me, and so has everypony else. I’ve made terrible mistakes and now they are coming back to haunt me.”

“Forget about your past mistakes. Today is today and dwelling in the past will get you nowhere fast.”

“That’s easy for you to say.” Trixie said, a sarcastic sneer on her face, “You’re Mr. Perfect. You always know what to say, and what to do. You don’t have to deal with things like I have to.” By the end of her little speech, her voice had morphed from one of sorrow to one of anger.

“Is that what you think?” Jaze said as his own blood started to boil, “Do you really think there are no mistakes in my past that aren’t just as bad as yours?”

“I doubt it, you never mention any. You hardly talk about yourself at all. You’ve probably never done a thing wrong in your life.”

“I’ve let the ones I love die right before my eyes.” The soldier’s voice was like ice, cold and unforgiving. “And I thank you for drudging up such painful memories.”

Sorrow, and shame, shone on Trixie’s face, “Jaze, I’m…”

“No, don’t you dare say you’re sorry!” Jaze yelled at her in a voice of white hot anger, “You don’t know what sorry is! Every day, every damn day, I have to get out of bed and face the fact that I let those I loved die. Me! No one else but me! And you have the nerve to tell me that you’ve got it bad! Well wake up honey, someone else always has it worse than you!” His voice took on that coldly angry tone again, “Good day Ms. Trixie, I’m going home.”

Jaze spun on his heel and left the teary eyed unicorn beneath the tree. His heart was pounding in barely contained rage. For a moment, he wished that Equestria had more crime so someone might try to mug him. He hated himself for think that but he could not help it. He was just so angry! How dare she, he thought in ire, how dare she say something like that. She doesn’t know the meaning of the word “mistake”.

He continued to fume all the way back to the house he shared with “that unicorn”, as he was currently thinking of Trixie. He was still agitated as he threw himself on his bed to stare at the ceiling. Try as he might, he could not get himself to calm down enough to think logically. He stayed on his bed, silently raging at Trixie for an hour. Slowly, he finally managed to start calming down. And as he did, he realized what he had done.

“Oh god, can she ever forgive me?” He asked himself quietly, “Why did I have to say those things to her? What the hell was I thinking? I am so freaking stupid!” He shouted the last at the ceiling. As he lay there, he tried to find some way he could make it right again. While he was still trying to collect his thoughts, a knock came at his door. “It’s open,” he called, knowing who was on the other side of the portal.

Sure enough, the door opened to reveal Trixie. Her face was still streaked with tears. Without a word, she walked over and sat next to Jaze, who kept his eyes riveted to the ceiling. He did not want to look at her; to see what he had so callously done. For her part, Trixie had trouble looking into the soldier’s eyes; never before realizing how much he had had to deal with in his past life. The minutes passed in awkward silence as each fumbled for a way to speak with more harsh words.

“Jaze,” Trixie started, he could still hear the tears in her voice, “I just want to apologize for how I acted. It was thoughtless of me to assume that nothing bad ever happened to you.”

“Don’t apologize,” said, almost in tears himself, “I should be the one to say I’m sorry. I knew you were just angry and lashing out. I shouldn’t have let my anger get the best of me like that. Can you forgive me?”

“If you can me.” She held out her hoof, “Friends?”

Jaze gathered her in a hug, which she was quick to return, “Friends.”

“I’m glad that you don’t hate me.” Trixie muttered in Jaze’s arms.

“I could not hate you, no matter what you did.”

“In that case, there’s something I want to get off my chest.” She said in a bashful voice

“And that is?” the soldier asked.

“I think…” They were interrupted by somepony pounding on the front door, “Oh, now who could that be?”

“Let’s go find out.” Jaze said as he broke their hug. They walked into the living room where they could hear Twilight yelling through the door.

“Jaze, Trixie! You have to come outside and see this! It is so amazing!” She was yelling at the door.

“Alright, don’t get your tail in a wad. We’re coming out.” Jaze called as he opened the door.

“Look up there, in the sky!” the excited purple unicorn exclaimed. Jaze looked over to see a slightly worried cyan pegasus standing beside Twilight.

“Hey Dash, what’s up?”

“That is,” she said with a worried glance to the sky.

As one, Jaze and Trixie looked to the sky. It took him a few seconds of searching to find what had his friends all bothered. When he did find it, it was so obvious that he wanted to slap himself for not finding it earlier. It was a meteor, falling from the heavens that looked like it would land somewhere in the expanse of the Everfree.

“Isn’t strange? It should have burned up already because it’s so small but it appears to be slowing down.” A confused look interrupted Twilight’s rant, “Why would it be slowing down? That doesn’t make sense.”

“It’s slowing down because it isn’t natural.” Jaze said; a dark look on his face. He had seen sights like this many times during his time with the StarSide Marines, and he rarely liked them. “‘Don’t jump to conclusions marine.’” He closed his eyes as he quoted Admiral Gaston quietly to himself, “Find out exactly what you know before you take action. Binoculars, I need binoculars.” The terrified soldier dashed back into the house, his mind wanting proof of what his heart already knew.

While he was inside, the rest of his friends showed up outside to talk about the strange object in the sky. Nopony seemed to have noticed Jaze’s reaction to the anomaly, except for Trixie. Warning bells were going off in her mind, could this have something to do with Jaze’s life as a soldier?

Jaze was soon back outside, a pair of high-tech binoculars in his hands. He quickly pushed the specs to his face and zoomed in on the mystery in the sky. The binoculars scrubbed the image clean and gave his mind the proof his heart didn’t need. “No,” he whispered as fell to his knees. For in the glasses he had seen something he had feared since he had arrived on the planet: a Cye troopship, ready to disgorge a load of deadly androids on to the planet with one goal, to kill anything that breathed.