"Welcome. Eight, be there." He said as we parted ways.

Shining continued walking and I turned around and walked in the other direction. My eyes locked onto the shops either side of the street.

Now's for the harder part of today.

I headed about the city, looking into every shop I passed. Until, about half an hour later, I found what I was looking for. A crafts shop, luckily it doubled as a smithy, so I didn't have to go searching for one of those too. I headed in. The old-looking pony behind the desk gave me a bored look.

"This ain't a fashion shop." He said, as if he had said it hundreds of time already.

"I know, how good are you at metal and magnets? Like shaping and stuff?" I asked as I walked in and stood on the other side of the desk.

He blinked, perking up slightly. "Only the best son, what do you need?"

"An odd request." He nodded and pulled out a note-pad, pencil held in his mouth. "I need a solid iron block, 10cm by 4cm by 4cm. About 4 meters of copper thinned into a strong yet malleable wire. Around 10 small cylindrical magnets, diameter of 1cm, height of 1.5cm. A larger magnet, 5cm by 5cm by 7cm. 10 separate 2 meter long wires that have a steel cores and are wound with nickel plated steel wraps. A small pile of iron screws and a couple small rectangular sheets of Iron, 0.3 cm's thick, I can cut those myself. Can you do all that?" He finished writing everything. Looked over the list then looked up at me and blinked.

"What in Celestia's name do you need these for? Nickel plated steel wraps? That's incredibly specific and... obscure." He said, looking at the list, slightly worried.

"Just a project of mine, if it works, you'll be sure to hear about it. Eventually." He looked at me in suspicion. "Plus, if it works I will also be coming back here with a very similar order."

"Son, you are going to make me a very rich stallion if you keep this up. I can get this done by the beginning of next year. You can pay then, or now, either way that'll be 432 bits."

"Oof, that's hefty. I'll pay you when it's done." He gave me a suspicious look. "Don't worry dude, I'm a friend of the princesses. If I can't pay it by then, they can."

He beamed. "Well, thank you for the business son. It's rather slow-going here. Every pony comes in here thinking I make 'accessories' or 'jewelry'. Feh, your order; that's a REAL job."

"Heh, your welcome. Say, you wouldn't have happened to hear about a song called 'My Feather' would you?"

He hummed for a second. "Yeah, I think that's the one my wife keeps going on about. Why?"

"Just know that the sooner you get this order done, the sooner more of that will be made."

He blinked in confusion. "Okay? I don't see how magnets and wires can make anything similar to that, but..." He shrugged. "Business is business."

"Sure is, thanks man." I waved as I walked out. He nodded to me as I left.

Where the hell am I going to get 432 bits?!

I continued walking about the outside world, with that thought plaguing the back of my mind.

I caught sight of Chrome's old place. It was still wound in police tape. Nice to know they're still working on that.

I turned away from it, don't want to go back there really. I saw a glint of light which alerted the side of my mind I was very thankful to have. Free money! I walked over to the area I saw the flash from and sure enough, there was a bit. Just sitting there, on the ground. Maybe I WILL have those bits ready.

I crouched down the pick it up, but my hand bumped into a hoof. I looked up to find a filly attempting the same thing I was. She flinched back when I saw her. I recognized her as the one me and Eb had bumped into as we came back from the cave.

"Sorry, is that yours?" I asked her, pointing at the coin.

"No... is it yours?" She asked in response. She didn't sound overly confident.

"No..." We both just looked at the coin.

"...You can take it, it's fine." She said, turning around and beginning to walk away.

"Wait!" She stopped and turned around. "Look, I'm friends with some very rich pe- ponies. You probably need this more than I do, take it." I picked it up and held it to her.

She looked at it for a second, then her eyes squinted, her tongue stuck out the side of her mouth and the coin floated half way to her in her magic. She looked at it and gasped in joy, it dropped, and so did her happy expression. She sighed and tried again, but the coin never left the ground. She eventually started picking at it with her hoof, unable to pick it up.

"Let me get that." I said, being the good Samaritan I am, I wiped the coin clean and placed it on her head. "There." She beamed at me and walked off, the coin somehow staying put as she skipped away.

I was about to walk away, before a voice behind me stopped me. "That was nice of you, Dan." I whipped my body around, only to find Celestia, very close. Inches from my face. I legit screamed and fell over backwards. Landing on my bad-arm's elbow. The impact traveled up my arm and pushed my shoulder upwards painfully.

I rolled onto my side to take any weight off of it and held it with my good arm.

"Celestia... the hell were you doing there?!" I groaned through the rather unpleasant pain.

"I came to tell you that Feather has been found."

"Oh, great. Could you, I don't know, Help me?!" I was pretty sure I aggravated the fracture I sustained from Luna's punch.

"Uhg fine. But only because you asked so nicely." She said sarcastically. My arm lit with magic and the pain dissipated somewhat. "There, pain's suppressed and the bone's back into it's proper position if it was disturbed at all."

"So," I said as I stood. "What about Feather? She okay?"

"Oh thanks for fixing my arm Celestia." She said, mockingly.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. What about Feather? Is. She. Okay?"

She sighed. "She's fine. Turns out she camped up and a wind blew the com-scroll away, that's why when we tried to contact her nothing happened. The team are sending her back, then they are going to be working on finding Dawn."

"They better find her. I have plans, and I need her."

"...Plans? Hm?" She asked with a slightly concerned yet curious face.

I waved a hand and smirked. "Nothing you should worry about."

"Dan, I worry about everything."

"Yeah, I know. And it's really annoying sometimes. Anyway, you got 500 bits on you that I can borrow?"

She blinked. "Dan, why would you possibly need that much money?" She saw the look on my face. "What did you buy?" She said in a disapproving tone.

"Oh, just some things from the smithy. Again, it's nothing for you to worry about. I just need the money before the end of the year."

She gave me a stern look. "Dan, if you want money, you have to do what everypony else does, work."

"I can't get a job here! Look at me, I'm so flimsy!" I swayed my arms to emphasize the point.

She rolled her eyes. "Dan, you kicked my personal guard."

"...And?"

"He has been trained his entire life. You were the first thing to every lay a hit on him. He usually just feigns an attack and sees the pony's reaction and judges their worth that way."

I blinked "...Oh. So your saying I would make a good guard?"

"Of course not, anypony could just pick you up and throw you out of the way." I rolled my eyes. "I'm saying that you could fit in rather well in the military."

"ERR, NO."

"Why not?"

"I have only ever met four ponies that are in the military. Two of them almost died in a desert and one of them turn up dead, hung from the ceiling."

"...That's only three."

"Oh yeah, and Twilight's brother. Just met him. Also what's the time?"

"You met The Captain? You two get along?"

"Yeah, sure. Whats the time?" I said impatiently.

"Uhg, it's..." She looked at the sun. "Seven thirty-six."

"I'm not even going to ask how you did that, cause I need to go."

"Where?" She asked as I walked away.

"Out." Is all I said, I didn't even turn around. I had to find and pick up Ebony.

I got to our room without any trouble. That changed when I opened the door.

A pillow hit my face. Then fell limply to the floor.

I looked about the room, the whole place was covered in pillows, cushions and other soft objects, including Steve, Chrome, Luna and Ebony. They were all wielding pillows and gasped when they saw me. Steve attempted to hide the pillow, which he was childishly whacking ponies with, behind his back as soon as he noticed me.

I sighed. "Ebony. Play-times over, we gotta go."

They all 'aww'd like children being kicked out of a toy store at closing time. "Go? Where?" Ebony asked, putting down the pillow.

"You wouldn't want to miss our double-date now would you?" They all gawked in complete silence. Ebony blinked. "Come on then!" Ebony buzzed over to the door and stepped out. "You guys keep going if you want, but if you break anything I will find out, personally, what wings look like without feathers on them." They all flinched at the thought, I tried not to think of the human equivalent to what I just said. And with that, I closed the door and started walking back to the gates.

"So... double date?" Ebony asked as we walked.

"Yep, and be on your best behavior. These two are probably the worst when it comes to changelings. If we can make it through tonight, we can make it through anything."

"...Who are they?"

"You'll find out." I said, grinning smugly and shrugging.

We got to the gates slightly early, so we talked for a while, before the other two appeared, exiting from the palace.

Cadence rushed towards us when she noticed us waiting. "It's so nice to see you again, Ebony!" She said as she picked him up in her magic, brought him to her and hugged him, then placed him back down. He was completely frozen.

"So this is... Ebony." Shining observed.

Ebony's right hoof was rapidly tapping the ground and he was staring at Shining.

"...Is he okay? Or is that normal?" He asked me.

I laughed. "I told him that if he saluted, I would assault him with bug-spray for the rest of the evening."

The couple could not withhold their small smirks. "That stuff actually work?" He inquired, only have-joking.

"I don't think so, but I don't think he want to find out for sure." I said, with my own smirk.

Ebony shook his whole body, closed his eyes and breathed slowly. Then opened his eyes, trying to maintain calm. "Hello Cadence, S-..." He had to force his mouth to speak "S- Shining Armor." His hoof got half way up before he gasped and put it back down.

Ebony's fear was no longer at a comical level, and I think Shining noticed. Shining walked over to Ebony and put a hoof on his shoulder. "Ebony," He blinked. "I'm not your Captain anymore, relax."

Ebony sighed. "Thank you Sir- er- Sh- Shining."

"Wow, training must be rather ruthless if it left this much of an impression." I said as Shining returned to his spot beside Cadence.

"Yes... It is rather... vigorous..."

"Uhg, You three!" Cadence groaned in half-mock frustration. "We're going to be late if you don't hurry up."

Eventually we started walking to where ever we were going. Me and Ebony walked next to each other, behind the other two, who were doing the same. But about half way there they both split slightly and slowed down, surrounding us. Leaving the arrangement from my left to my right being: Shining, Me, Ebony then Cadence.

I could tell Ebony was thankful to have Cadence instead of Shining.

We all made small-talk as they guided us to what turned out to be a very fancy restaurant. An equally fancy pony greeted us at the door.

"What can I do for you... four." He hesitated when he saw me and Ebony. We were a rather strange crowd. We were getting quite a few looks from ponies mid-meal, but most of those were reserved for Cadence.

"Table for four, plus the usual." Shining answered. The fancy pony led us to our table, it was semi-circular, the curved area was inside an alcove in the wall and the straight edge of the table was flush with the wall itself. We all sat and shuffled along, allowing each other room to sit. The order was now Shining, Cadence, Me then Ebony. Shining and Ebony being on the edges of the curve. I could tell Ebony didn't like being on the outside, but I figured it would do him good to get used to the ponies looking at him, not like that was ever going to stop being an issue. Plus, most of them were to busy analyzing Cadence.

Another worker came by and placed a large bottle of red wine in the center on the table, to which we all helped ourselves too. Guess that was what 'the usual' was.

"So." Cadence said once we where all sat and comfy. "Why don't you two tell Shiny how you two met? I will warn you though," She said, turning to Shining. "It might be a bit too romantic for you." Shining and I rolled our eyes and shared silent conversation that consisted of faces. It basically translated to:

"Is it really?"

"Nah it's not, your wife is just crazy."

"Oh okay, and yeah, I know. She's insane."

Me and Ebony explained how I basically pretended to offered him sex to lure him out of the public eye. The fact that he accepted earned him a look from Shining, to which Ebony smiled sheepishly. Then we explained how Celestia found out. I didn't tell them what I told Celestia that day, I told them it would probably traumatize them.

"Oh come on. I've seen some stuff Dan, I'm sure I can handle it." Shining said.

"Oh yeah?" I said. He nodded confidently. "Make Celestia cry with one word, then we'll talk." All three of them gasped. A couple eaves-droppers also covered their mouths in shock, they got back to their meals after I glared at them though.

"You really did that?" Ebony asked me.

"Yeah." I said shrugging. "So, as I was saying..."

I continued the story without interruption until I got the message we recorded.

I was explaining the contents of the message and how we got it there when I heard something. It was a drum-beat.

"Arg, Slipknot, get out of my head!" I said, thudding the side of my skull trying to concentrate.

"Err, what just happened?" Shining asked. Confused, maybe even scared.

I sighed. "It happens sometimes when I think about songs, and the message contained a song, that I sung. Turns out I am super-conductive to music-magic, so I could just perform any song at any time without even having to feel the emotion like you ponies have to."

"Hm, pretty cool. Continue." I did so, luckily I managed to focus enough to keep the rest of the song from playing, I might have got in trouble if anything made by anyone like Slipknot or Five-finger-death-punch came out of me in a place like this. But it would be funny.

Near the end of my tale the waiter came by and took our orders.

Shining and Cadence both ordered some kind of salad I can't remember the name of because I didn't care.

"Er, do you serve meat here?" I asked. Two of the table's inhabitants blanched.

"No sir, we don't." The waiter responded

"Hm... anything then, just something without flowers or hay in it. Can't eat that stuff. Plus, can I get a beer? Wine really ain't my thing."

"Certanly sir." He turned to Ebony. "And you."

Oh shit, didn't think this one through did we. "I... I can't..." Ebony stuttered, but Shining saved him.

"He'll have the same as me." Shining said from across the table.

The waiter nodded and left.

Ebony looked to Shining, who shugged innocently. Cadence glared at Shining. "What? I just wanted a little extra." He said.

Ebony looked a lot less confused. "Oh, so YOU are going to eat that. Okay, I thought for a second I was going to have to..." He trailed off.

I hit his side. "Don't worry, I'll give you something when we get home." He smiled at me. Cadence knew what I meant, as I had explained it to her. However, Shining didn't know how it worked yet, so got the complete wrong idea. His face reddened slightly and Ebony gave him a strange look. Cadence noticed Ebony's face and followed his gaze to Shining.

She thudded him on the shoulder. "He means love you idiot."

Shining blinked. "Oh... so that's how... oh okay."

Ebony looked even more confused. "What did you think he meant?" He asked shining, who blinked.

"Don't mind him." I said to the couple across from us. "He's innocent."

They smiled, Ebony just shrugged and downed an entire glass of wine, then refilled it with practiced ease.

"Woah there. You want to remember this night right?" Shining laughed.

Ebony snorted. "Alcohol has barely any effect on us, it would take an entire bottle of this stuff to get me even tipsy."

Shining responded as a waiter handed me the beer I ordered, it was still sealed with the cap and it came with its own opener, but I had other ideas. "Huh, impressive. Anything else you guys can do?" He asked, only somewhat warily.

I took that moment to lift up one of Ebony's hooves and use one of the holes to pop the top of my beer and take a sip. "Thanks Eb." I said as he glared in only somewhat legit annoyance. The other two laughed.

"Aw, if only I could do that. It'd be so useful..." Shining said.

Cadence gave him an annoyed look. "But you never drink anything with that kind of cap."

"Yeah, only because it's so much work to open them, if I could do that..." He looked into the distance in fake aspiration "...Oh it'd be amazing."

There was a moment of silence as the waiter came by, suspending four plates and a new bottle of wine in his magic. They were all set in front of the correct pony, changeling and human. Then he left, without a word. During that moment I accidentally locked eyes with a pony standing outside, across the street. I looked away to make it look like an accident, when I looked back he was gone. Weird. I put a slightly larger number into the 'protect the changeling-o-meter' in my brain.

"Your kidding." I said as I looked at the thing on my plate.

The others noticed what was on my plate. "What IS that?" Shining said.

I blinked. "It's... it's a pizza... I gave the facility I woke up in the recipe. Guess it spread." I said, shrugging and taking a slice. "Don't know why it's in a fancy place like this though, this is slob-food where I from."

Shining leaned in "I wouldn't say that if you want it to stay on the menu."

I looked around the room and got a couple distasteful looks. "Ah, yeah. Meh, I can make these at home anyway." I dug into my unexpected pizza, the two across from me had some from of salad, just green stuff. While I had glorious reds and yellows. Ebony just looked at his plate of leaves until Shining swapped his quickly emptied plate with Ebony's full one.

I snorted. "I don't know how you guys can survive on that stuff."

The two looked at each other slightly uneasy. "Yes, we didn't realize you ate meat. We would have gone somewhere where they serve that." Cadence said.

"Nah, it's okay guys. It would have made you uncomfortable. Plus, this place has pizza! And pizza is probably the greatest thing to ever come from my species." I said, slightly louder so that the waiters could hear it.

"So you eat meat, what meats?" Shining asked.

"Oh, just this morning I had a plate of... ah what was it?" I asked Ebony.

"Hm... I think it was 'Cow, chicken, pig, rabbit, turkey and duck'." He listed, with his seemingly superior memory.

"Yeah, all of those." They both flinched. "Oh yeah, and pony." It looked like they had just been shot. "Guys, it's okay. It wasn't THAT good." I snorted. "But it was still pretty good" I mumbled just loud enough for them to hear.

"That's... nice." Shining said, in a voice uncharacteristically quiet.

"If anything, it's a good thing. So if I ever get thrown out of Equestria for whatever reason; I can just live in the woods and hunt pony travelers." They both gave me terrified stares. "Guys, I'm joking." They both exhaled. "I don't even know how to skin a pony let alone cook one." They both looked like they were about to faint. "Jesus guys, you're so easy to play with."

And with that I had finished my pizza. It was actually pretty damn good, considering things. Shining had finished both plates of green stuff. While Cadence simply pushed what remained of her meal away from her. I think I put her off her meal.

As we were waiting for the waiter I caught another glimpse of that pony from before, inside the restaurant. PROTECT THE BLOODY CHANGELING LEVEL AT 999. I leaned over to Shining. "Be ready." I said. I leaned back into my chair. Preparing myself for... something. They all looked at me like I was insane, they had no context.

Shining collapsed, dropping his wine glass out of his magic. It smashed against the table as he fell into his chair, Cadence rushed closer to his side. I was about ask what happened when I saw a flash of light behind Ebony, in my peripheral vision.

No, not a flash, a reflection.

I slammed Ebony's face onto the table with a sickening crunch, revealing a dark grey pony behind him, with a large blade in some contraption that let it sit on the end of his hoof. The light from one of the lamps nearby had reflected off of one of its large, well-cleaned sides. He froze when he saw me. I balled my legs up under me on the seat and extended them, launching myself at him. I tackled him head on. He attempted to slash as me with his scarily large blade, but I caught it in my hand, and I mean literally IN.

It was going in through my palm and out the other side, the sharp edge facing upwards towards my fingers. He flipped onto his back due to the impact of me hitting him. His head narrowly missed the table behind him as he fell. He began shaking his knife violently, trying to break it free from the bones. Lucky he hit my bad arm's hand, Celestia's pain-killing spell was still in effect. That didn't mean it was not still agonizing, though.

I landed on top of him, knees on his stomach. I used my free hand to wail at his nose. But seemed to have no effect on him, he was like rock. Adrenaline in my veins and blood down my arm I pushed my impaled hand forward, towards the ground by his neck causing the blade to hover over his throat, he pushed my shoulder back with his other hoof. He almost pushed me off of him, but I shifted my weight onto my good hand and grabbed his free hoof, pinning it to the ground above his head.

The blunt end of the blade ripped further into my hand, until it reached the bone in my wrist, then it stopped, allowing it to inch closer to his throat. His back legs flailed violently, but with my weight on his stomach he could not reach me with them. I got his blade about an inch from his throat. He head his head sideways, trying to distance himself from his own weapon's edge.

He suddenly rolled, bringing me with him, dragged by the knife tangled in the bones of my hand. Instantly the roles were reversed, he was on top of me and pushing the blunt edge of the knife towards me, trying to do a hook-ing action to catch my throat with the end and rip it out. I pushed back with my impaled hand, he had almost his full weight on it. I could feel every grind and movement of the metal against my bone. I put all of my energy into pushing the knife back up towards him; I had to use both hands to hold it up. And even then; it was getting closer.

Then. A realization. ...Dark colors...Access to weapons...Hates changelings...I knew who this was now.

"This is for what you did to Chrome, mother-fucker." I said in a quite voice.

I stopped pushing against him for a split second, the knife hurtled towards me. His entire body falling as he had most of his weight on the knife. I took this moment of free-fall to use my good palm to push at the blunt edge of the knife and rotate my skewered hand, pointing it away from me, and aiming it straight up, the handle of the knife impacted with the ground beside my neck, along with his hoof. His eyes widened as he fell onto the knife. It slid all the way in, a sharp bump appeared on the skin on the back of his neck where the knife had gone almost all the way through.

He fell limp on top of me, pinning my still stabbed hand between the hilt of the blade and his bleeding throat. I breathed deeply, realizing that in my concentration I had held my breath. I took a second to re-coordinate myself then put my free hand on his chin and pushed, rolling him over. I pulled the knife out of his throat with the hand that was still connected to it. I stood, knife still fully inserted into my right palm. I hope he didn't have any blood infections...

Everyone in the restaurant was gone and I was completely covered in blood. He had leaked all over me when I cut the veins in his throat. Not to mention my blood, pouring from my hand in rapid drips, more like a stream really. I turned. Our table was still occupied. Ebony was face-down on the table, where I had left him. Clear-green fluid leaking from his face. Shining was slumped in his chair completely passed out. And Cadence was staring at the body, the knife, me then back to the body every split-second, she was hyperventilating slightly.

I sighed. Tapped her on the shoulder. She gained some lucidity. "Go... get... help." I said, before laying down on my back across our table. I removed my belt and tied it tightly around the base of my shoulder, to slow the blood-loss that was slowly setting in. I raised my arm, pointing at the ceiling so that gravity would also help slow it down. The blood flowed down my arm and soaked that side of my shirt in seconds. It didn't seem anything I did slowed it down at all. I looked at Cadence to see she was already gone. I let my neck relax and turn my head towards the body. The cutie mark was a black box, with a red fire inside.

"Forge..." I said to myself.

The pain began to lash at my mind as my adrenaline wore off, though still repressed by the spell, it was enough to practically immobilize me. I retracted my arm from the air, as keeping it up their was now too painful. I put my wrist to my stomach so the knife missed my body, and I constricted my arm with my good hand. I could not bandage the hand at all, it had a knife obstructing the wounds, and I've always heard removing the knife was a bad idea.

I tried, I figured if it came out easily it would not do any damage and allow me to wrap it in something. I slowly sat up and reached for the hilt. As soon as my hand touched the handle pain shot up my arm.

I sighed. "Nope... that's... too much..."

I laid back down and resumed my previous position, with my arm across my stomach.

The door slammed open. I had no energy anymore, so I didn't look up. I just hoped it was help. Nothing else.

Luckily, it was. I heard a familiar gasp. My body was lit in magic and I felt the pain fade slightly, my energy coming back to me. I sat up to find Celestia standing there, with Shining and Ebony both hovering in her magic next to her, and Cadence standing behind her, still staring in horror.

I smiled at her. She gave me a serious look, more like a glare than anything. Now what not a time for words.

She picked me up in her magic and we where teleported to what I recognized as a room in the infirmary, she placed all three of us on beds next to each other. There were medical teams by each bed. They rushed to me and positioned me in the bed and put a mask over my nose and mouth. My vision was already fading as it was, the mask only sped up the process I looked to Ebony, he was still out. His face was practically crushed. I reached a hand to him, but I could not reach him. My arm fell limp as I lost consciousness.

Updated: 08/11/15
-Fixed grammar
-Fixed contingency problems
-Fixed some dialog problems
-General fixes

Yep, this is a thing that happened.

Might put another one up tonight, not sure. This is pretty tiring and I just got a bunch'a new games to complete.

I didn't like just having Forge being 'out there' or being 'captured'. So this just kind of... happened. As I said before (i think) Most of this story is complete improvisation so far. The only planned event was Feather leaving and Dan being able to do that music thing he does. I made up the rest as I went along.

Only one or two chapters left before I have to start making new stuff. Hopefully I can write them at a decent pace, would not want to keep those 10-or-so, who have this thing tracked, waiting for too long.