My changeling friend returned the next morning. With a massive grin on his face.

"It worked Dan!"

I hugged him as he leaped to me. "Awesome. To bad they can't respond..."

"Yeah..." That's when a letter appeared in front of me in a burst of light. Ebony jumped back, surprised. As did I.

I jumped back even further when a short green laser flew by my head and hit where the letter had first appeared, luckily, gravity had taken care of that and pulled it down out of the way. The laser hit the wall and sent small shards of rock tumbling down the side of the cave. Thankfully, the side hit was not the side our house was implanted in. I looked back at him, his horn was smoking and he was looking at me guiltily.

"One," I said. "That was awesome. Two, That's a pretty good reaction time you have there. Three, why was A LASER your reaction?!"

"I... panicked." He said, smiling nervously.

"Yeah, sure. Whatever. No harm done I guess." I looked over to the wall of the cave. There was a very small crater and dark burn marks around it, a small pile of rock-shards had been created on the floor in front of the wall hit. "Well, almost no harm done. Let's check this letter."

"No harm done?! Dan, I could have hit y-"

"Yeah! You COULD have hit one of my AMAZING drawings!!" I said sarcastically. He cast an eye to the etchings on the walls I had made, still slightly disturbed by their contents. "Dude, it's fine. I don't care if you do it again, just as long as it doesn't hit anyone. It looks pretty cool." He rolled his eyes.

I picked up the letter, unrolled it and sat down, allowing the changeling to rest his head on my shoulder so he could see too. The page was completely blank, except for a square, black void covering the most part of the scroll. We both blinked, looked at each other, then looked back at the letter.

"Is... is this like... supposed to mean something?" I asked. He shrugged. "Like... what could a black box even mean? A war declaration?"

"No idea" He answered, his voice vibrating my shoulder.

Then Celestia appeared in the black void. "Hello, Da-" She was cut off as Me and Ebony both screamed.

I dropped the scroll and it rolled up on the floor. I stood and backed away from it, it was like I had found a spider on my hand or something. Ebony did the same.

"Would you mind picking that scroll up? It took me a long time to make." Celestia said, her voice was muffled. I looked to Ebony, he nodded cautiously.

"Err, sure." I picked it up, backed against the wall, so Celestia could not see much of the cave and opened the scroll. Ebony didn't join me. Celestia was giving me a worried look. "What do you need this time?" I asked, trying to sound as busy as possible. She looked me up and down.

"Dan... your so... thin! What happened?"

"Er, you know. The usual. Near starvation, living out in the wilds, gathering what food we can. You know, that kind of thing." She flinched at the word 'we'.

"You can... come back, if you want. You know..." She looked a little ashamed.

"Only if Ebony can come with me, and he can continue his life as a guard, or he can just live with me. I don't care. But I am NOT leaving him here." She looked pained. Ebony gave me a look, though I was focused on Celestia, so I didn't see the feeling behind it.

"Dan, he's a-" I slowly began to close the scroll. "Dan wait! Please, we can talk about this!" I opened the scroll up again. "Please come back, Dan."

"As I said, I'm bringing Ebony with me if I'm coming back." I looked around the cave. I looked at our little house. I looked at Ebony, sorting through some of our more useless possessions. "But... I don't really want to come back anyway."

"...What? Why? You can bring the ch- er, Ebony with you if you want! Why would you want to stay out there?!"

"I like it here, Ebony likes it here. We built this house ourselves, you know." I shrugged, "I feel a commitment." I said, slightly jokingly.

"...You BUILT a HOUSE?"

"Well, it's only one room, but it's served its purpose. I mean YEAH we had to share body-heat just so I didn't freeze to death for the first week or so, but we've got sheets now. It's all homey now. I mean..." I turned the scroll round and pointed it at the house, making sure 'The equality hole' was visible. Ebony was also in the frame, he looked up rather scared from the supplies he was sorting through just outside the door. "...Look at it, isn't it cute?" Celestia remained silent, I couldn't see her face unfortunately, but I imagine it was priceless. "...Oh and the house looks nice too!" Ebony rolled his eyes. I turned the paper back around, I caught Celestia mid-eye-roll.

"Hm, if it wasn't 'no gurls allowed' I might have come for a visit." She said, in a half-serious tone.

I paused for a second. "You know where we are?"

"No, I was joking."

"Good, we are not accepting visitors. Well, I wouldn't mind seeing Chrome or Feather again. Say, how's Chrome doing? With Luna that is?" Celestia grimaced.

"They... are happy, I'll give you that. Cadence is coming to Canterlot in a couple days, I told her about what you did to those two, she's rather happy with you. She'll be disappointed if your not here when she get's here. Please just come back. I'll give you AND your friend a guest room, just please, come back."

"No, this guy is staying with me no matter what. We'll take the same room, thank-you-very-much."

She sounded hopeful, "So you'll come back?"

"Maybe, what do you think Ebony? Should we go back down to Canterlot?" I said 'down to' to throw Celestia off our location.

"Erm, I don't think I'd be comfortable in a place where..." He looked at the back of the scroll. I completely understood

"Okay," I looked back to Celestia. "Your going to apologize for practically traumatizing him, mmk?"

She paused. "...Okay, I can do that."

"And mean it."

She didn't respond as I walked over to the door of our house and sat next to Ebony, pointing the screen at us with one arm, and using the other to hold him. She sighed.

"Ebony," He flinched. "I'm sorry for scaring you earlier. I will admit to being skeptical about your story, but if it's true, you have been a very loyal guard. I sincerely apologize, and hope that we can perhaps one day act as if that day never happened." Ebony smiled. Warily.

"A-apology accepted, Your highne-" I hit him, stopping him mid-sentence.

"Nope, your not her's anymore. We are our own. Address her as a pony, not as a god." I said to him. Celestia growled.

Ebony looked at the scroll with fear, Celestia looked at him with at least some sympathy. "I- I accept your apology... C-Celestia." He flinched as if he had been stabbed. Celestia also looked hurt. But it was shared hurt. Exactly what I wanted. I need them to bond over what little they could, even if it's pity.

"Okay, you two." I said. "Ebony, you want to ditch this place and head on back? I guess we can leave everything here, in case we need it again."

"S-sure." Ebony said. Celestia nodded happily.

"I await your return." She said as she faded out of the void. I rolled up the page, then folded it a could times and shoved it into the journal in my pocket.

"We are staying here tonight, we leave tomorrow." I announced.

"Why?"

"If we return today, Celestia will be able to work out where this place is based on how long we take to get there. We leave tomorrow, at dawn. Leave everything here, make sure its inside though."

"Okay, makes sense." He said, nodding.

"Good, also, once we get there, if anything goes wrong, like, 'I need to get out of here' wrong; come here. Don't go back to get me, for anything. Just come here, okay? Wait here for a week at most. If I don't show up in that time, assume that I am dead or imprisoned, don't try and save me, just go undercover in Ponyville. Okay? "

He nodded grimly.

***

That night, once everything was inside the house... we realized something.

I looked into the house, and saw very little space. "Erm... maybe we didn't think this one through. Where are we going to sleep?"

"Hmmm" Ebony thought, it was getting cold out. From what I could tell it was early Autumn at least. "We could just squeeze in? Or we could... well, YOU could brave the cold for the last night."

I smiled. "You know... I wouldn't mind sleeping outside for the last night."

He smiled awkwardly. "...with me right?"

"Of course, I wouldn't survive without your body heat, man. Why are you so..."

He straightened himself, (not exactly the best term, considering what I was thinking at the time.) "N- nothing. Just, you know... I don't want you to... I-"

That was going nowhere. "Dude, it's fine. We can have our little 'self discovery' talk when we get back to the city."

"Oh... okay?" He was thrown off by my wording for whatever reason.

That night he gripped me rather tightly, more than usual. Granted it was during his sleep, but still. He was acting strange. Maybe he's just scared of going back to Celestia.

***

And thus began our 25th, and last, day in the cave.

I didn't mention what he did during the night.

We both said our goodbyes to the house we had both grown to love in a strange way, and set off down the tracks. He hovered beside me as I walked.

"Dude, thats really cool." I said, gesturing to his wings.

"What? I'm just flying. You've seen me do it before haven't you?"

"Not for this long before, no. Their all buzz-y and... awesome."

"Well, errr..." He paused awkwardly. "Thanks?" It was then I remembered something about wings.

"Oh! Sorry, I forgot about Equestria's thing with wings being 'all private' and stuff."

"Nah, man." He's really sounding like me. "It's fine, you're from a whole 'nother world, I understand it'll take a while to change." His flying seemed a little scew-iff after that.

"Yeah, it'll take me a while to change. You're lucky, you can change much quicker than me, I mean, that's why they call you a ch-"

"Don't. Even." I blinked, it was like I was looking into a mirror.

"Dude... you've really picked up like... so many of my mannerisms over the last 30 days or so. You know that right?"

"...I guess I have." Something caught his attention. "Oh! There's Canterlot. Should I... you know..."

"Yeah, yeah, just not the guard. Like a err, I don't know. Imagen yourself as a pony and turn into that."

He thought for a second and turned into a blue stallion with dark-grey hair and tail.

"Meh, good enough." He looked to me with pride-filled eyes. "Generic color scheme though." His smile faltered. "And your cutie-mark is the same as the guard's." Two black lines like the number 11. He looked at his flanks then looked up at me, his gaze turning determined.

"No." He shed his facade. "I'm not doing this, they asked for me, it's me they'll get."

"Damn dude. You sure?" I asked, slightly taken a-back by his change of tone.

He didn't look very confident, but steeled himself by saying, "Yes." Staring straight ahead.

We walked up to the main gates of the city.

The guards sitting either side absolutely freaked when they saw Ebony. All readying spears and making a formation infront of the entrance.

I sighed. "Ebony." I said, holding out my arms, he took the hint and hovered above them, then landed in them. I turned him over so I was holding him the way you would a human, or a newborn child. The guards seemed slightly disarmed, but didn't leave their positions. I walked towards them until walking another step would skewer me on one of their weapons.

"I am Dan," I said in my most regal voice. Time to test if this works. "Insubordinate hero, Defender and Medical specialist. I request entry to this city." The guard in front of me stared at me.

"You. You are Dan?" I nodded. "THE Dan." I nodded. 'The Dan'... never thought I would hear that. His eyes widened. "R- Really?" They all lowered their weapons.

"Yeah? What do you want? A name tag? I am literally the only of my kind here, how did you not recognize me?"

He shifted slightly, along with the rest of the guards. "They never told us you weren't a pony, just... 'different'."

"Well, now you know. And spread that information throughout the guard please. I don't want to have this problem again." They all nodded and the one I was looking at ran into a booth of some kind on one side of the gates, then came out with a red ticket in his mouth.

"Shish 'ill eh' oo' ashess shor teday." I blinked at him, he rolled his eyes and spat it out into the floor. "This will get you access for today. It'll let you in anywhere, by tomorrow the information will be around the guard, so you won't need it."

"Aw, thanks man." I crouched and awkwardly picked it up with Ebony still in my arms. As I leaned forward to pick it up, Ebony and the guard had there faces put very close to each other's. They both just stared. I stood up, noticed what had happened and laughed. "Dude, it's fine. This is a friend of mine." I said, juggling Ebony in my arms slightly. I knew I would not get a response from him other than 'but he's a-' so I walked past them all, letting their confused and shocked stares burn the back of my skull.

We were walking through the streets of Canterlot, I was still carrying Ebony, enduring the many very scared and worried looks when a little filly walked up to me, I looked down at the filly, peeking over Ebony to even see her. If being approached by a child wasn't weird enough...

"Did you kill it?" The unicorn filly asked.

I was shocked to say the least. "N- no, I didn't kill him! This is just a friend of mine. Ebony say hi!" Ebony stirred from his half-sleep.

Ebony looked down at the filly, with an expression that matched her's. Completely terrified. "Err... Hi?" He waved a hoof awkwardly.

The fillies jaw dropped. She stared at him for a couple seconds, before calmly turning around. Then bolting in the other direction. Ebony sighed.

"Hey, it could have gone worse." I reassured. I was true, but it could have been much better.

The guards at the palace gates reacted in a similar fashion to the first batch of guards, but backed away when I flashed the card. When we got to the throne-room doors and disarmed the guards, an idea occurred to me.

"Hey, can you cast shape-shifting magic on other things?" I asked.

"No. why?"

"Aw, shame. I wanted you to disguise as me, and disguise me as you."

"...Why?"

"To show Celestia that... never mind." The guards were giving me looks and I didn't want any trouble.

I looked at the now repaired doors, I could tell they have been carefully crafted back into their original shape, after being kicked down a couple times and bust of the hinges by Luna. There really was some talented modeling on those doors. Someone out there probably spent hours of concentrated work to restore them to their former glory. So ornate. So delicate.

I kicked them in.

Or at least I tried to. My foot hit it and the doors did nothing, they didn't even budge. My ankle stang in response. The guard walked over to me, a smug grin on his face.

"Their leg-proof now." He said. What.

"Leg... proof?"

"Yeah, there's wards on the doors now. They block strong impacts from all things considered legs by the user."

"Wow, that's pretty specific." I said, slightly impressed.

He nodded. "Took the Princesses all day to make it." His smugness intensified. "Looks like your going to have to enter like a normal pony for once."

"Nah, I don't do pony." The guard shrugged and walked back to his post.

"Well," He said. "You're not going to get in without opening it in a civilized manner anymore."

I gave him a determined look. "Ebony," I said, not breaking eye contact with the guard. "Could you step down for a second." The guard became very wary.

Ebony stepped off of me and I backed against the wall opposite the door. "Dan, what are you-" Ebony squeaked as I ran past him and straight up punched the doors. It hurt, a lot. I was now bleeding, but it was worth it. The doors flew open and stopped on the inside wall. I turned to the guard.

"Yeah, yeah..." He mumbled, I just smiled and sucked the blood collecting on my knuckles.

I looked into the room and found Luna and Chrome, both sitting on Luna's throne, Chrome was sitting across Luna's lap, they both looked like deer that were surrounded by 10 different sets of headlights. I walked in slightly and Ebony followed me, the door slowly swung shut behind me and him.

"Is now a bad time to come back from a month-long holiday? I mean, I could come back some other time..." I said jokingly as I approached them. Both their faces lit up. Chrome leaped off of Luna and pounced me into a hug.

With his eyes squeezed shut, "Dan, missed you so much dude, where were you?!" He cried happily into my very dirty clothes.

"You know, living in a cave. With a friend." He looked up to ask me a question but froze as his eyes set on Ebony. He slowly back off of me.

He was shaking slightly. "Wh- wh- who is that?" He said pointing at Ebony. I opened my mouth to answer, but Ebony somehow mustered his courage for once.

"I'm Ebony Towers. I was one of Dan's guards." Chrome looked completely broken.

He eventually managed to speak. "So your the pony we heard in the background of the recording..."

"Yeah," I said. "Celestia didn't tell you WHY I left?"

"No, she just said you and her had a 'disagreement' and you left."

I snorted. "Disagreement is one word for it."

Luna stood from her throne. "Celestia told me. Sorry for not telling you Chrome, I didn't want to burden you, it's quite a serious matter." Chrome nodded understandably.

"But really," He said. "What happened?"

"Let's get everyone together for that, I would hate to repeat this story more than once." I said, Luna agreed with me, so she sent off some magical thing that apparently 'told Celestia and Feather about where we were and why.' It worked, but I was suspicious. If that kind of magic exists, why couldn't they find me in a cave a couple kilometers away.

Celestia and Feather came in at the same time. Their little conversation was cut short when they saw Ebony, who quickly hid behind me. Celestia froze. While Feather did the opposite. She turned into a wall of hooves and yells as she lunged at the changeling, but inevitably hit me. I was trying to restrain her, but I was failing, my worn shoes sliding backwards on the marble flooring. The only thing stopping her from getting straight through me was Chrome, who had latched onto her as well, holding her back legs. Ebony fled to the very back of the room, hiding behind Luna's throne.

I yelled Feathers name multiple times, but the fire in her eyes never faded. We struggled against each other for about 30 seconds before Chrome seemingly had enough. "FEATHER! SNAP OUT OF IT YOU MANIAC!" He yelled as he reared up and jabbed her with both of his front hooves at once, hitting the 'pressure point' as Chrome called it, on both sides of her chest. Feather let out a short scream and fell to the ground. She rolled onto her back and looked up at Chrome, gasping for air for a couple seconds.

Chrome's expression shifted as he slowly approached her, instantly sympathetic. He helped her up with a hoof. "Relax. The changeling's with Dan. He's been living with him for the last month or so, I think you can trust him." The princesses just watched, shifting as if they wanted to say or do something, but they stopped themselves.

Feather sighed and turned to me. "Dan I-"

"It's fine." I cut her off. "You okay now?" She nodded, looking at the floor, exhausted. "Okay. Ebony?" I looked back, he peaked round the large dark chair. "Come over here, we've all gotta talk." He slowly made his way over, still staying behind me, whatever courage he had earlier was now shattered.

Me and Luna explained the basics of what happened. Celestia stayed quiet. Luna corrected me sometimes and I corrected her on some points. I also explained what we did in the cave all that time, and how we survived. Feather barely tore her eyes off Ebony for the most part, excluding the surprised glances she gave me, at a couple facts I listed.

"So..." Chrome said, once we finished our story. "You two are..." he looked between me and Ebony. "...together?"

I looked to Ebony. He looked at me. "I don't... think so." Ebony gave me an equally uncertain look. I looked back to the group, who were now staring at us. "It was more of a survival thing. You know? 'What happens in the Cave; stays in the Cave'." I chuckled slightly. They all looked rather pained.

"You slept together. For a month. Even after you got sheets." Luna said.

"Yeah. And you snuck into my room while I was alone, then refused to leave. To the point where I had to physically push you out of the room." Everyone stared at Luna.

"You just... surprised me is all." She blushed slightly. Chrome didn't look particularly happy.

Ebony gasped slightly. Everyone snapped their neck towards him. He flinched. "What was that, Ebony?" I asked.

"N-nothing just... are you and..." He pointed between Chrome and Luna. They both nodded happily. "Oh, that explains it."

"Explains what?" Chrome and Luna said at the same time.

"I could.... there was... I could taste it..." He practically shriveled into a ball on the floor while saying that, due to the strange looks he was getting from everyone but me.

"Leave the poor guy alone." I said, diverting their attention and allowing him to recover slowly. "He can't help it, and anyway..." I nudged him in the side. "You get used to it after a while."

"You get used to him tasting love? Did you do that during the 25 days you were away?" Chrome asked with a shit-eating grin.

"Yes." They all froze. "How do you THINK I fed him?" Chrome's mouth dropped.

There was a long awkward silence. But I stood my ground, I would not give them the satisfaction of looking even a little ashamed. Keeping someone alive the only way you can isn't something to be ashamed of anyway. I decided now was a good time to bring up something I had been meaning to mention.

"Celestia?" She looked at me with a seriousness that didn't match my tone. "Do you mind if me, Chrome, Feather, Luna and Ebony go out for something?"

"What do you mean?" First words she had said in that room so far. "'Go out for something?'" The rest looked confused as well.

"Well, I thought, as Ebony WILL be staying here. You guys should get to know him. Going out together will do that. And seeing the Princess with him will make the ponies feel more comfortable around him, so maybe he could go out without me carrying him. Figuratively. And literally." They all looked at each other awkwardly. None of them wanted to do it, but they knew turning me down was not a good idea.

"Question." Celestia said, drawing everyone's attention. Amazingly, she waited for me.

"...Yes?"

"Why was I not on the list?"

I gave her a deadpan stare. "I didn't think you would like to sit at the same table as a CHANGELING." I said, sort of harshly.

"And yet you invite Feather?" Feather looked to Celestia, shocked. Not all you thought she was huh?

I was going to say something when Ebony spoke up. Just what I wanted. "It's okay... C-Celestia. You can come if you... want to." Everyone looked at him surprised, even me.

Celestia and Ebony shared a look. One side, frightened yet determined. The other, shocked and paralyzed.

"Welp." I said, clapping my hands together. "Now that that's all sorted out, I say it's time we all get some shut-eye and prepare for tomorrow."

"Dan..." Chrome started, confused. "It's not even noon yet. And you didn't even ask us if we even wanted to go. Or tell us where we were going."

"Oh, yeah... the cave probably messed up my body's internal clock or something... how about The Shadey? Like... now?" Upon hearing the bar's name, Celestia shot a narrowed eye at Luna, who looked away, innocently.

"No." Celestia said. "I have nothing against leaving now. But I will not go to that-"

Luna cut her off. "It'll be perfect." She grinned at Celestia, who snarled while her sister's eyes were closed.

Chrome shuffled slightly. "You still didn't ask us if we wanted to come, or if we even could."

"You're here, right now, right?" I said.

"Yeah?"

"Then you can be somewhere else, right now. Let's go." I picked up Ebony and left the room, trusting that they would follow. They did.

Once we got to the bar... well. To be honest, I don't remember much of that night...

Updated: 08/11/15
-Fixed grammar/spellings
-Made conversations easier to follow

Haha, aw man. Making these chapter names is getting harder and harder.

And so is the formatting. But it's worth it... wait... wait, yeah I guess it is?

Well at least this keeps me busy with something. Even though I DO have assignments to finish... Meh, education can wait.