I open my eyes, slowly and lazily, expecting an onslaught of pain, but there was none.

I rubbed my eyes and sat up from my laying position, to find myself on the street corner again. I was dreaming again. I stood, wobbling slightly and made my way over to the nearest wall, so I could take some of the weight off of my stiff legs.

"Ah, you are finally awake." Luna said, seemingly from nowhere before a portal appeared and she stepped through it, taking a position in front of me.

I blinked, still not all there. "Awake?"

She looked about the dream-world. "Well... sober I guess."

I rubbed my face with a hand, attempting to scrape off the horrible early-morning feeling. I sighed. "What do you want... and why am I here?"

She began to walk around me, I could not be bothered to turn my head to follow her. "You are here because you are presumably still passed out, but have only recently become sober enough to create comprehensible thoughts. And I want you to wake up, no one knows where you are right now."

She stopped walking, ending up back in front of me. I lazily looked up at her. "And how do you intend on doing that?" She narrowed her eyes slightly and a crossbow appeared in between us. She held it in her magic and pointed it at me. I looked down at the arrow aimed at my face. "Seriously?"

She stayed silent for a couple seconds.

She shrugged. "Yeah."

It was like being smacked 'round the face. With a brick. Being held out of the side of a moving train.

I jolted upright, throwing the well-knitted blanket off of me and onto the floor. I immediately regretted the sudden movement and held my head in my hands, shielding my eyes and ears from the harshness of the dim, silent room. I sat and recuperated myself over the span of what felt like an hour.

Once I had had enough, and felt as if there was a chance I could move without giving up; I stood. I almost fell forwards into the door, but put caught myself by putting my hands on the door. I blinked when I saw my hands, they were red and bruised. Both feeling rather sensitive.

I leaned back onto my feet and stood upright. I began checking the rest of my body. A couple tender bits here and there, but nothing too bad. The worst spot was my stomach, it pained me to even touch it. Upon lifting my booze-stained t-shirt, I found a large, round bruise, just under my ribs. I hid it back behind my shirt and rubbed my burning hands together, taking a look around the room.

It seemed to be a spare bedroom of sorts. No extra luxuries, generic color schemes and the distinct smell of a room that was never used. Stale, cold air and settled dust. Despite that, the place was reasonably clean. There was the bed I had woke up on, a large cupboard and a small desk that housed a large mirror.

I walked over to the mirror and checked my face. No bruises or cuts... I looked down at the desk's surface, it had many multicolored and circular stains. Paint bottles? Dyes? Looks like these were left by cups, or bottles. Perhaps the person who owns this place used to be a painter...

...The person who owned this place...

The thought repeated in my head as the realization hit me, I had never been in this room before. I had no idea where I was. I quickly made my way over to the small, thick curtains concealing the window. I flinched at the light, but I had to know where I was.

I tentatively opened the curtains, revealing some very mottled glass. There was no way to open the window. I could barely see past the blinding light, or the distortion of the glass. But from what I could tell, I was in a City, most likely and hopefully Canterlot. From the color and direction of the light, it must have been early morning. Which would explain the heavy thudding in my head as I closed the curtains.

I looked over to the door, just a regular wooden door. I walked over and slowly put pressure on the handle. It went all the way down with little resistance or noise. When I pushed forward, the door remained still. I pulled, the door, again, remained motionless. I knelt down and looked into the gap between the handle and the door frame. I could see two pieces of metal, one that retracted when the handle was pressed down, the other remained. There was a keyhole under the handle, level with the second piece of metal.

Great, locked. I could always kick it down if I get desperate, the door doesn't look that hard.

I dreaded the thought though. Kicking something? In that state? With that headache? No way.

I took another look about the room. Nothing of interest. It all looked so unassuming. I had to find a key, if there was one. Or perhaps ...a weapon?

I looked for the all the common hiding places. Windowsill, nothing there. Under a plant pot, no plants in here. In cupboard, nothing but clothes, no false back-panel. On the back of the mirror, nothing. There were no rocks near the door either. I ran out of smart ideas and began searching literally every surface.

Eventually my search led me to the bed, it had drapes falling from the mattress, leading to the ground. I laid on the floor and lifted the fabric, peering under the bed. There was nothing there. I laid my head sideways against the wooden floor in defeat. I closed my eyes, relishing the cold wood's embrace. I nearly fell asleep, but I stopped myself. Got to keep going, I might find som-

I froze once I had opened my eyes. The new, lower perspective I had revealed something to me. One of the short, wooden floor-boards was slightly raised at one end. It cast a small shadow onto the floor due to the light scattering through the drapes on the other side of the bed, which were under the window.

"You've got to be kidding me..." I mumbled as I crawled into the tight space under the bed and pried the floorboard up, placing it next to the hole it created. Inside was a fairly small red, metal box. Similar to a tool box. It had a small handle on top and a clip on its longest side, hinges on the side opposite it.

I carefully retracted the box from the hole, then exited the space under the bed. With box in hand, I sat on the bed. The box was relatively heavy. I sat on the side of the bed and set the box on my lap. The box, now in the dim light of the room, was slightly rusty. I opened the latch on the front of the box after some difficultly and opened the top, revealing what looked like a small collection of letters, newspaper clippings and... medals.

I lifted a random piece of paper.

"Congratulations, your son/daughter has been accepted into the Royal Equestrian Military Force's 'Level One' Training Facility. Please fill out and return the slip on the bottom of this letter to authenticate and confirm their decision to join."

The bottom of the page looked as if it had been cut with a rushed pair of scissors. I set the small slip of paper down on the bed next to me and picked another one out of the box.

"Congratulations, your son/daughter has been accepted into the Royal Equestrian Military Force's 'Level Two' Training Facility. Please fill out and return the slip on the bottom of this letter to authenticate and confirm their decision to advance."

I placed the paper on top of the other one sitting on the bed. I picked up the next one down.

"Congratulations, your son/daughter has been accepted into the Royal Equestrian Military Force. They will begin their first year later this month (Your son/daughter has been informed of the exact date.) Please give your consent by filling out and returning the slip on the bottom of this letter. Please be aware that once the slip is returned, if you give your consent, your son/daughter's advances and choices within the Royal Equestrian Military Force will be their responsibility and your consent will no longer be required."

Under the last page was a letter in an unsealed envelope. I picked it up and carefully took the letter out.

"Dear Mom, Dad.

"I don't have much time, so I will keep it brief. I'm heading out later today, I will be sure to write to you when I get back. It will be my last mission after all! Can't wait to get back to you guys, it's been what? Two years since I was last home? It feels like it's been a lot longer than that.

"Missing you. See you soon!

"-Your little soldier."

I found myself becoming a little emotional as I picked another page.

"It is with great sorrow we would like to inform you that your son/daughter has been reported as MIA. For more information, please show this letter to the nearest Royal Equestrian Military Force official building."

I placed it onto the growing pile beside me as I picked up the next one down. This one seemed a lot more fresh, not hardened or yellowed with age as much as the others were. The logo's and writing on the new page seemed different too. There must be a couple year's difference between this one and the last.

"It is with great sorrow we would like to inform you that your son/daughter has been reported as KIA. The search patrols you requested have returned with nothing and will now cease. For more information, please show this letter to the nearest Royal Equestrian Military Force official building."

I put the page on top of the others. I looked back into the box. There were no papers left, only medals and a large object wrapped in black cloth, it covered the bottom of the box.

I removed the medals one by one, none of them had any words on them, but each had a unique and beautiful design. Eventually all that was left was the cloth. I carefully wrapped my hands under it and placed it on the bed. I lifted the box from my lap, placed it on the floor and stood. I turned and looked at the dark cloth, there was a thin string stopping the cloth from unwrapping.

In the base of the box seemed to be a deed or permit of ownership of some kind. It was covered in a very fine print and was stamped with the seal of the 'R.E.M.F.'.

I pulled on the string, and the knot fell undone. This caused the cloth to fall away from the object it hid.

Or should I say, objects.

There was a sword, and a hammer. Both looked as if the base of their handle had been snapped off, there were many shards left in the cloth. I thought about why this was, until I saw a couple inscriptions on the two handles.

The sword's handle read "E" before leading into the jagged remains of the handle.

The hammer's handle read "IE" leading away from the shattered end.

I realized then, what this was. This was not a 'sword and a hammer'. This was Ellie. Dawn's signature weapon from fifteen years ago. The one Feather had mentioned in her confession of her past. It was supposed to be - 'a short blade on a long handle' with 'a small hammer-like ballast' on the end. It seems, either during the explosion or since, it had broken in two.

If I had to guess, after seeing the two pieces, 'Ellie' must have been almost a full meter long back when it wasn't broken. Most of that meter was taken up by the handle, the thing was practically a spear with a large, kukiri-sized, knife on the end instead of a simple 'pointy bit' as I would put it.

I quickly wrapped the weapon back up and placed it back in the box, along with the papers, making sure to put them back in the right order, when I realized just what I had been reading through.

This must be Dawn's house... Or her parent's house... oh god I hope I don't get in trouble for this. If it wasn't already apparent enough; I felt like a scared child who had just found his father's secret magazine collection.

I started picking up medals, after picking up the first one and placing into the box, I went for another one. Little did I know, the colored ribbon was sitting underneath another medal. As I tore the medal from the bed, it whipped the ribbon from under the one resting on it. I watched helplessly as it tumbled off of the bed and clattered to the ground. I peered over the bed, it was unharmed but had made a tremendous noise.

I scuttled around the bed and retrieved it. I put it in the box, along with the remaining medals. I closed the box up and tried my hardest to close the latch, but where it had rusted, it didn't seem to want to close properly.

I shrugged and slid it under the bed, I soon followed it. I placed the box back into the hole and slid the small floorboard back over the top of it.

The tumblers in the lock on the door began to shift and click.

My body jolted in shock, slamming my head on the bottom of the bed. I quickly retracted myself from the bed and stood upright, ingoring the headache which just got a lot worse. As I stood the door swung open.

"You okay up here?" Dawn said from the doorway sweetly. Her long shadow cast into the room, caused by the large window behind her, revealing the still rising sun.

I blinked and squinted at the light. "Y-yeah. Everything's... could you close that door please?"

Her eyes widened and she quickly shut the door behind her. "So sorry, sometimes I forget some ponies have more trouble with 'a couple drinks' than I do. Though, you had a lot more than a couple. You doing okay? I heard something."

I slumped in relief as the light was blocked behind the door. I found myself looking at the bed and quickly corrected myself. "Er, yeah, everything's fine."

She raised a concerned yet suspicious eyebrow. "And the noise? I'm sure I heard something."

I blinked at her, trying to think something up. "Oh, I err..." Metal object! Metal object! Metal object! "I... dropped my knife." I said, pointing to one of my knifes. Both of which were luckily still there after my night of forgotten adventures. I smiled at my quick thinking.

Dawn looked suspicious, but smiled. "Oh, okay. Sorry the door was locked, I was planning to wake you up myself, to make it easier on you. I didn't plan for you to wake up this early."

I laughed slightly, sending a pain through my aching head. "It's okay. I wasn't planning on having Luna come into my dream and shoot me with a crossbow to wake me up either. Apparently, no one knows where I am. She was worried."

Dawn covered her mouth with a hoof. "I have not been out today... and I ignored all the knocks on the door. Oh they must be so worried!" She began making her way to the door.

"Wait," She stopped as I spoke. "Why'd you ignore the door?"

She turned to face me, but then looked at the floor. "I was busy." She looked up at me, when she met my inquisitive look she sighed. "This is my parent's old house. They owned it years ago, but they both... passed while I was missing. No one owned the house when I got back, so it was given to me. I was searching because... because the guard told me they had requested to keep a couple belongings of mine, after I was declared dead... So far all I have found is the usual parent stuff... Birth certificate... Baby photos... School reports... A couple letters I sent them from my early military years..." She chuckled slightly and shook her head. "I was so scared... I also found my own... Death certificate. That's... still kind of freaky. But I haven't found everything yet and some of the spots were very creative." She noticed me looking rather tense. She assumed it was because I was uncomfortable or something. "Oh, sorry. I shouldn't be mumbling on to you, I'm sure you have friends to talk to and stuff."

She turned and began to open the door. I blinked and rushed over to her, stopping her from opening the door with a hug, which I had to kneel to administer comfortably. She shut the door, turned slightly and returned the hug. "I'm already talking to a friend, Dawn." I said, feeling her shake slightly. I pulled back, but remained on one knee, making myself eye-to-eye with her. There was a warbled smile on her face. "Dawn, I wasn't going to tell you. But I don't think I could handle keeping this from you for very long." I stood and slid under the bed, and retrieved the box. "I found this under the floor, while looking for a key. It has your-"

I was cut off when Dawn jumped at me, tackling me into a hug. This was not the first time she had done this, so I remained standing. I had to settle for a one-handed hug, as the other held the box by my side. "I am so sorry Dan! You weren't scared were you?" She said as she pulled out of the hug.

I huffed. "Dawn, if I have learned anything from being whisked away into another world, it's that, for whatever reason, there is a piece of my brain that is always prepared to tackle the weirdest of situations. Anyway, this is like... the third time I've woken in a room that I didn't fall asleep in."

Her eyes drifted from me to the box. "Did you... look in it?"

I sighed. "I did. I was looking for a key, but got a bit distracted. I'm sorry for snooping around in your things, I didn't know where I was until I reached the bottom of the box."

She tilted her head. "Why's that? There a picture or something in there?"

I smiled and set the box on the bed. "How 'bout... you find out. And I'll go tell everyone I'm okay while you're rooting through this thing."

She nodded happily. "You sure you're okay to go out?"

I waved to her as I left. "I'm fine." I said as I walked out of the door.

I took a couple wrong turns, but I eventually found some stairs, and then a door that led to the outdoors. I quickly made my way to the palace, then to the throne room. It took me longer than usual, but once I got my bearings back I was well on my way.

As I approached the throne-room doors, I noticed the guards either side eyeing my intently as I walked towards the door. I gently kicked the doors open, allowing me to slip in.

One guard mumbled darkly as he threw a bit across the doorway, it was deftly caught by the other guard, who grinned evilly. "Called it." He whispered as he pocketed the coin.

The door fell shut behind me and I was met with Celestia, who had teleported to me. She was a little too close for my liking.

"I want answers." She said, simply.

I shrugged. "Discord sent me half an hour back in time. You can probably work out the rest."

She nodded. "Yes, I can. You okay this morning? Nopony has seen you."

I waved a dismissive hand. "I'm fine. Dawn took me home... I guess. I forgot to ask her what happened, we were caught up in something."

"I'm not surprised you don't know what happened. You had a LOT last night. Even Ebony was slightly concerned." She said, smirking.

I thought for a second. "Yeah, er, you probably know..." I lifted my shirt, revealing the large bruise. "How'd I get this?" I pivoted my hands slightly, showing the knuckles. "And these?"

She blinked in shock. "I have no idea... Though... you did leave for a while. You said you had a 'challenge to take care of'. We were all rather tipsy, so we let you go. You came back a couple hours later then left again rather quickly, we assumed you were fine and just came back to say goodbye or something. I was meaning to ask you what you meant by that."

I thought for a second.

--

"Is that a threat?"

"More of a challenge if anything."

--

I blinked. "How many guards were there attending the palace yesterday?"

She gave me a weird look. "784 on duty, 3 wrote in sick, 5 in the infirmary."

"And today?" I asked.

"754 on duty, 2 wrote in sick, 26 in the infirmary. Why?" She narrowed her eyes, realizing what might have happened.

My eyes widened. "Yeeaahh..." I looked down at my knuckles. "Yeah, I think I took on the guards."

She put a hoof to her face. "Dan, I swear... look, I'll go tell everyone you're okay. You go to the infirmary and apologize to those guards... and check they're okay, we don't need you being charged for any more murders. Two's enough, don't you think?"

I rolled my eyes. "Fiiiiine."

I turned around and began my trip to the infirmary. About a minute of walking later, a note pad slapped the back of my head.

"Sup Viss." I said without even turning around. I heard the note scribble a couple times, then it began to the float in front of me, matching my speed as I continued walking.

It read, "Celestia says you will be able to see me in the next couple days. Also, I saw what you did."

I smiled. "Can't wait to actually see you. Plus, 'what I did'? You mean the guards?"

The note flipped to the second page. "Yes."

I sighed. "I was drunk, I don't even remember it. Please tell me I was awesome, and not fumbling about."

The note was scribbled upon. "You did very well. Though you took a lot of hits, you shrugged them off completely until one hit you with their hind leg. Then the pink one took you in."

I nodded. "I suspected that's what that was." I said, rubbing my stomach and instantly regretting it. My hand moved back to my side very quickly, just touching the skin was like being stabbed. And I knew what they felt like now. "You mind if I call you Viss? It's a lot easier."

The note flipped to another pre-written page. "I don't mind."

"Heh, thanks. Welp, this is my stop." I said as I approached the infirmary's doors. "See ya' Viss." I said as I walked backwards through the doors.

The note-pad stayed still a couple meters from the door. It flipped to the back page. "Very funny."

I laughed as the door's closed in front of me.

Time to go find out what drunk-me's like in a fight.

Updated: 12/11/15 (this update is brought to you by bus wifi!! Bless the person who invented this)
-Fixed grammar
-Fixed some contingency issues

Added a little to Dawn in this one. I am so sorry for these titles, they're terrible.

Sorry about not getting this out faster, I've had stuff that needs doing lately. You know how college can be. I am trying to make these longer to make up for my slow-ness.

But anyway, its 3:30am about time I put up a new chapter. I won't have one up tomorrow, probably. Maybe the next day, so stay tuned. Also, a new blog post is going up soon-ish. It will detail some things concerning this fic. Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow, basically I'll be taking some time off once I hit Chapter 30. More will be explained there, if you feel the need to know. It's for the good of the fic, I assure you.