So turns out I was able to pay for the house myself, without any help. Yeah, apparently I keep blowing prices here out of proportion. And according to Mayor Mare the house Corey chose, which a two-story two bathroom three bedroom with an average square footage of two-thousand three-hundred with the average of cost of sixty to one-hundred dollars per square foot. Which amounts to one-hundred seventy-two thousand and five-hundred dollars roughly. That the house he chose was worth seventy-five thousand bits, I think one bit equals one dollar, that’d be really helpful to know. And she explained that that’s the average cost of a house of this caliber.

Maybe I should keep in mind that these house don’t have things like: electricity for things other than lighting and water, or modern appliances. Yeah, that explains things.

Overestimating things aside, I helped Corey and Brit move into their new home since they weren’t as adept as I am in magic. Meaning I carried everything for them in my magic. There wasn’t much to move since they already got started before they asked for my help. Just a bed and some boxes filled with miscellaneous things. Nothing much. And right after that Pinkie somehow found out and threw a housewarming party. Nothing unexpected when it comes to Pinkie Pie being herself. After the party I decided to head home and spend the rest of the day, which was nothing more than a few hours after sundown, admiring my upgraded body. At this point I should be impervious to all forms of ailment. Even having my brain destroyed since all the info stored there is basically stored all over my body. I’m like a living supercomputer- holy shit if I managed to get my hands on a quantum chip or computer… Oh I need to make one last visit home at some point…

Y’know what? I think I’m perfect the way I made myself now. I mean, I’m technically immortal, magic may make me immortal too, but… whatever. Anyway, I just found out I have all the money I want by pony standards -good enough for me-. I live on a world that I can singlehandedly help kick-start its technological era. I am best friends with some of the most powerful beings on this planet, and I think I’m just as powerful as those ponies. I have the possibility of going back to my home planet and take it over with these new powers. I have a full, adventure-filled future ahead of me with infinite possibilities, waiting for me to take it. And I am going to just that step, by, step.

But right now, I’m just gonna admire my body. I love my new eyes too… If I manage to combine magic and tech… Nah, I’ll let the ponies in charge of that do it on their own.

“Ember?” I tear my eyes away from the bathroom mirror and look at the closed door.

“Yeah?” I answer.

“Oh, just seeing if you were here or not.” It was Chrysi.

“Alright.” I wonder what she’s been up to. Not that I’m suspicious or anything. I’ve just always wondered what she does when she’s alone. *Eh, I shouldn’t pry into other people’s personal lives.* I walk out the bathroom and head to the living room. Chrysi’s sitting on the center couch next to Spark, Spark is scratching Chrysi behind her ear, and my dogs are sleeping in a pile in the corner. A normal setting if I’ve ever seen one.

“So nothing interesting happened today?” I ask.

“Nothing much besides that housewarming party. We’ve been here watching t.v. all day.”

“Wow. Today’s been a boring day. Actually... Compared to what we’ve gotten used to as ‘boring’ around here. Today is fucking dull.”

“At least you’ve been productive today.” Spark said.

“Yeah, but I was thinking there would be something I could do. I know I still have things to take care of, like the changelings, but other than that, I got nothing to do.”

“Well, I guess all you can do now is sit down and watch some t.v.” Spark said with a smirk.

“Whatever you sarcastic android.” I begrudgingly take a seat next to her.

*Knock knock* Someone knocks at my door.

“I’ll get it.” I say as I get up and answer it. It’s Rainbow, and she has this hesitant, yet slightly embarrassed look on her face. “Rainbow? What’cha doing here?”

“Heeyy Ember.” “I was thinking… The table said that me and Pinkie need to go to the griffon kingdom… And I was wondering if you...” She’s having trouble asking what I think she’s going to ask. Oh how delicious this is! I’ve always loved seeing the high and proud who think they don’t need any help be reduced to ask for it. Especially Since it’s Rainbow Dash; the pegasus that always gets the job done, the pegasus that can take on a dragon, is asking a mere human to do something with her, despite whether she thinks she and Pinkie can do it, and she has a hard time asking. “I was wondering if you… wanted to come with us?”

…

…

What?

“What? Why?” I ask genuinely confused.

“Well...” She scratches a hoof to the back of her neck. “I didn’t want it to be just me and Pinkie. I was thinking we could use another friend, or something...” She’s lying, that’s obvious. I wonder…

“Then why not ask Applejack to come with you two?”

“She’s busy at the barn.”

“Rarity?”

“Working on dresses.”

“Fluttershy?”

“She doesn’t want to go.” Well, no arguing with Fluttershy I guess.

“Twilight?”

“She said she can’t go because ‘The map only called for you two’.” As if that should matter. Since when does a fucking table map dictate who goes where?

“So I was a last resort?” I ask blankly.

“No!” She flails her forehooves at me. “It’s just… are you up for it or not?” She asks with a bit of scorn.

“Well, when you put it like that. No.” I close the door.

“Wait!” She shouts before the door fully closes.

“What?”

“... Please?” She adopts the puppy face. Pathetic. If it weren’t for the way she said please I would’ve told her to fuck off.

“Hmmmm… Alright.” But because she said please in the most pathetic way I’ve seen anyone beg. I just had to agree out of spite. “Not like I got anything better to do. What should I bring with me?”

“Twi said to bring a lot of bits. She said bits help us find out what happened or whatever.” She rolls her eyes.

“Gotcha. Anything else?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Alright. Also, where do I meet you guys?”

“Meet us at Twi’s place as soon as ya can.” Rainbows says before she flies off.

“Fucking proud cunt.” I mutter. I close the door and walk back inside. “Spark? Can you keep an eye on the dogs?”

“Sure, but what for?” She said from the living room.

“I’m gonna go on a trip to the griffon kingdom with Rainbow and Pinkie. Wanna join?” I lean into the room and ask.

“Mmm no. I’m ok with being here.”

“Chrysi?”

“Nah. I’m good.” She responds without taking her eyes off the t.v.

“Alright. I’m just gonna grab my bag of bits and I’ll be off, I shouldn't be gone for more than a day.” *If I remember the episode correctly.*

“Ok.” I go to my room and grab my bag of bits that I keep in my very secret compartment and head out to go meet Rainbow and Pinkie at Twi’s Castle. “See ya!” I shout to them.

“Be safe!” Chrysi said.

“No promises!” I sout back before I close the door and take off towards the castle.

...

“Hey Rainbow, hey Pinkie.” I call out as I land a few yards from them.

“Hi Emby!” Pinkie chirps back and waves.

“You ready to go?” Rainbow asks.

“Yeah. Let’s go.” Both of them nod at me and we head off towards the train station. We get our tickets, wait for the specific train to get here, get in the small damn thing -seriously it’s like Shaquille o'neal getting into a Ford Focus-, and from there we just sat in our isle.

It’s been three hours. Three, fucking, hours. And the only thing I’ve been able to do to pass the time was stare out the damn window. Rainbow and Pinkie had their own hijinks, like Pinkie using all the bits they had to buy all the snacks from the snack cart. Good thing she got all the snacks with their bits. Buts besides that I hardly payed any attention to them. How was I able to you ask? Well, when I was younger, and when I was a pathetic loner. I learned a special ability that allowed me to ignore the outside world. I like to call it, ‘Tunnel Vision’. Basically I concentrate on one thing and not let anything distract you. It’s more difficult than it sounds. But that quickly wore off since there weren’t any annoying people around. Well, there’s Pinkie and Rainbow, but they managed to keep calm and quiet. While that probably saved my sanity, it left me bored out of my mind.

“Hey Rainbow. You know how much longer it’ll be before we get to whichever train station we’re going to?” She looked up thoughtfully.

“Uuuuuhh… shouldn’t be a few more minutes.” The train starts to slow down. “Or maybe now.”

“I shouldn’t ask you those kinds of questions.”

“Yeah? Well buck you too.” I grab my bag and prepare to get up as the train continues to slow to a stop. When it does the three of us; and I mean the three of us, it was only me, Pinkie, and Rainbow that got off the train. Didn’t help that the few ponies left in the train gave us weird looks. Didn’t care, I’m here because two ponies wanted me to come along for whatever that table map wants those two ponies to do here.

Anyway, we get off the trail, and right in front of us is a mountain with a trail leading up to some point up the rock.

“We have to go up that trail?”

“Yup.” Rainbow answers.

“Want to skip the trip?” I ask.

“That’d be awesome.”

“Alright, just hold on. Especially you Pinkie.”

“Okie-!” I teleport the three of us to the highest point of the trail I could see from the bottom. “dokie-lokie!” She pauses. “Hey!”

“Hehe.” I chuckle. “Gotcha!”

“*Gasp!* You actually surprised me! Nopony surprises Pinkie Pie!”

“I’m no pony.” I retort. “Come on, let’s go do that thing the map wants you two to do. Whatever the hell that is.” I walk up the trail and they soon follow. The path was long, but we eventually got to some landmark showing that we were going in the right direction, on top of what I though was the crest of the hill we were walking up to. Looks like some kind of archway acts as some kind of entrance.

I don't know why, but the thing reminds me of something that belongs to a shitty version of Harry Potter.

“Oh good, we’re almost there.” Then Pinkie said something about bringing books back to Twilight or something like that, can’t remember.

What I do remember though, is the look of pure disbelief when we got our first looks at the ‘Proud Griffon Kingdom’. Which is more like a dilapidated farm-looking town, with houses looking better as ruins of a proud kingdom.

“This… is it?” I ask.

“So this is why the map didn’t want Twilight to come along.” Pinkie said rather subdued by the sight before us. Makes sense, this place was looking pretty pathetic. Heh, a griffin just fell off a tree with the branch it was laying on.

“But this is exactly why the map brought us here! We need to help these griffons!” She said trying to lighten things up.

*I thought she had a things against griffons.*

-Correction, she has a thing against one griffon.-

*Riiiight.* “Then what do we do to help them?” I ask.

“Hmm… Maybe we can ask them?” Pinkie suggested.

“Not a bad idea.” I said.

“I don’t know…” Rainbow said uncertainly.

“Well, we can always look for a library.”

“Ugh...”

“It’s either that or we ask them.”

“Fine!” She shouted. “We’ll go to the library!”

“Be quiet!” A random griffon shouted.

“Whatever!” Rainbow shouted back. Nothing came back from the out-of-sight griffon. “Let’s go.” Rainbow said before she walked off. Me and Pinkie just looked at each other before joining her. We both knew Rainbow wouldn’t be… comfortable here, but damn. Never expected it to be that bad. I mean that for a pony. If that was any other human it’d be whole different story. Gotta keep in mind these ponies are a bit more… sensitive than my people. So the three just walked in silence. Until I heard her let out a short, stifled gasp.

“Rainbow? What’s...” The question died in my throat when I looked at what she was.

It was Gilda, and she’s standing by a large cart with a furnace, and is she selling crappy looking… bread things? The fuck are those things? They look like expired blocks of tofu.

“Gilda.” Dash spat. The griffon in turn, having not looked in our direction yet. Spun her head towards us in a surprised manner, then her face hardened.

“Dash.” She said.

“And Pinkie!” The party mare cheered. An awkward bit of silence filled the space between us until Rainbow broke it.

“What are you doing here?” Really Dash? You seriously just asked a griffon whether she lives in the griffon kingdom? How are you this dumb?

“Uh, maybe because I live here?” Gilda sarcastically shot back. “Besides, I’m trying to sell these scones so I can get enough bits to move of this dump.” Oh, those things are scones. She’s a horrible baker. And Ramsey would have her head on a stick if he was here. “Wanna try one?”

… I’m done talking to myself now.

“No.” Rainbow firmly declined.

“You had me at scones!” Pinkie said. Oh god, is she really going to try one?

“Five bits.” The griffon said. Pinkie then smiled sheepishly as she turned to me. Knowing what could happen if I said no, I handed her five bits.

“Thanks Emby!”

“Anytime.” I turn back to Gilda, and she had this look as if I had two heads and two pairs of wings. She looked really, really confused, and she was staring at me.

“The pluck are you?” She asked.

“Human. And you’re Gilda?” She raises a brow and nods. “Ah, I’ve heard many things about you.” I hear Pinkie munch on the scone, a quick glance told me it tastes worse than it looks.

“Like what?” From the corner of my eye I can see Rainbow glaring at me. Mouthing ‘shut the buck up’.

“Just things.” I said. Gilda kinda glared at me for a second.

“Whatever. What are you ponies doing here anyway?” Ok, I really don’t like the way she said ponies. The way she said is just like what you would expect some old racist prick to say things that don’t need, or want, to be said.

“We came here because the map told us to!” Pinkie Answered. Gilda gave this confused look. I would too if I barely knew this pink mound of pure energy.

“We came by to help you guys out with bringing the griffon kingdom back to it’s former glory.” Rainbow said unenthusiastically.

“Help? We don’t need any help! We’re fine just the way we are!” A loud crash and a squawk conveniently comes from some unseen source.

“Trust me when I say that it’s better for everyone if you just let them help you guys out.” I said.

“And why should I listen to you?” The griffon harshly asked.

*So it’s gonna be like that huh? Alright I’ll play this game.* “Because if ya don’t I’ll tear you wings off and break your beak in half.”

“Ch'yeah right!” She took a defensive stance, though she kept her wings tucked. “You don’t scare me!” I teleported and crouch os I’m face-to-face with her.

“You sure about that?” She flinched and moved her head to bite me. But before she could get close, or even open her beak. I grab her beak and hold her head in place. She starts squirming to get loose from my grip. Even going as far as clawing my outstretched arm, but that had little to no affect on me. It annoyed me more than anything. And entertaining since I didn’t much more than heavy scratching. I would like to say light scratching but the feeling was more borderline painful.

And the funniest bit was when she realized that her wings were gripped firmly in her magic and the wounds she made on my arm quickly sealed up. Not Deadpool quick but more near Wolverine’s speed.

“Am I scary yet?” I calmly asked her. Just then she noticed my eyes, and my mechanical looking irises, -I didn’t turn them red yet, I decided to hold off doing that- and her pupils shrank.

Since her beak was currently held shut by my hand she said yes by ‘mhm’ing.

“Good. Now, I better get any more shit from you.” I let go of beak and wings and step back. “Oh, and just so you know.” I unfurl my wings. “I can fly too.” I tuck my wings back, turn in some random direction, and walk away.

“You two do whatever it is you’re gonna do. I’m gonna walk around for a bit.” I tell them as I walk away.

“That wasn’t very nice.” I heard Pinkie mutter.

“Come on Pinkie. You know how Ember is! And to be honest, I kinda saw this coming.“ Rainbow actually predicted something? Wow, that’s a first.

“I know, but that still wasn’t very nice.”

“Hey, uh, sorry to interrupt your little lover’s spit. But who the pluck is that guy?” Gilda asked.

“That was just Ember being Ember when somepony’s a flankhole to him.” Nice one Dash.

“Ugh, whatever. He was being an asshole.” That got me to freeze in my tracks. “Not me.” Oh, you want some more? Alright you pile of bird shit.

“You really shouldn’t of said that out loud.” Pinkie said worriedly.

“What? Why?” I snap my fingers and I disappear in a flash of light.

“Because he heard that.” Rainbow answered. I reappear right in front of Gilda.

“You wanna run that by me again?” I look down at her. I maintain a straight face with a slight frown despite the fact that I really want to laugh.

“Schreee!” She let out a shrill cry that changed tone and she leapt up to swipe one of her claws across my face.

Of course, that never happened.

I grab the offending claw and, in one smooth motion, turn around and slam her into the ground. Much like someone using a sledge hammer to drive a large spike in the ground to mark a corner of a building. Her hitting the ground cause a thin cloud of dust to jump up.

“Ember! What did you do!?” Rainbow yelled.

“I body slammed the fuck out of her.”

“But why!?”

“I wasn’t just gonna let her claw my face off.” I turn to leave. “I’m going back to the train station. I’ll be waiting for you two there.” I teleport there, walk inside the little building, find a bench to sit on, and sit in it. The… Griffon, I thought it’d be a pony, spares me no second glances as I took my seat while setting my bits on my lap.

*Hey Ruby, you know how to wake someone up from a sleeping spell? And can you tell when someone’s nearby?*

~Yes, and yes. Why do you ask?~

*’Cause I’m gonna need you to wake me up when Pinkie and Rainbow are back. Can you do that for me?*

~Yes, I, can!~ Ruby said enthusiastically. Ruby must really love being useful with an answer like that.

*Thanks, also wake me up is anyone gets within three feet of me. I don’t trust that griffon.*

~Of course.~ I snap my fingers and fall into oblivion as the sleeping spell takes effect.

I’m jolted awake and blankly look left and right.

And that fucking griffon was trying to get to my bag of bits. The fucker froze when I looked at him.

“You son of bitch.” He scrambles for a hasty retreat but I catch him in my magic. I then force him to face me. “I fucking knew you would try to steal my fucking money.”