Chapter 5: Humble Heroes

Several hours had passed since Cantor’s latest outburst: the kind of explosive anger that had sadly grown to be second nature to the alicorn. However, even during those few hours of trying out many different types of firearms, the precarious stallion seemed to be keeping his promise and suppressing his emotional strain towards using devices that would not only kill a pony, but that would make an awful mess in doing so. It was when he had practiced with the four different types of weaponry that it was time to leave the shooting range for that day as the sun had begun to hide itself behind the horizon, and Cantor had been right in thinking that this arena played host to the most beautiful of sunsets, despite the lingering truth that this was a place where killing was tried and tested to be made easy, and that nopony gave this point a second thought.

It appears there are four main types of combat weapons under development in Equestria at the present moment, buckshot guns, whose kick was enough to bruise the upper foreleg with the first shot as it spat thousands of tiny ball-bearings with mind-shredding force, the single shot, bolt action, and wickedly penetrative displacement rifles, rapid-fire submachine guns, and a fairly new prototype weapon the scientists were still making improvements on: a laser-based weapon that fired high – powered beams of light which (as proved) could cut an inch or, if hit right, two into the solid rock face.

By the time the princess had reached her destination in one of the higher levels of the base, night had fallen. It was around ten o’ clock by now, and with the help of raising the moon, the much younger (though it didn’t make a difference) princess Luna declared that she was exhausted, and had become a little irritable as a result. It was very rare to see Luna act like the princess she was. Not that this was a bad thing, rather, the mare of night very occasionally used her lunar guards to do… anything. Granted, she didn’t do her own washing, she had her meals cooked for her and it wouldn't be uncommon to have somepony go ahead and run her a hot, bubbly bath every night. Other than that, she was rather independent, but with the stresses today: the searing heat, meandering around a seemingly endless military base, and not to mention Cantor’s earlier display, she was just about ready to collapse.

After Luna had ordered her sister’s protection to escort her back to the castle rather bluntly, Celestia and Cantor had reached a wooden door – much smaller in comparison to the others scattered throughout the facility, and also much less imposing; whereas the rest of the doors around the swarming labs were solid steel, powered by hydraulics and usually guarded by two or more armour-clad unicorns, this one could be, if summed up in a word, ‘humble’. It was made of some kind of light wood with a slight honey tinge to it. It had an air of a hospital about it: neat, clean, practical, but unlike a hospital’s doors, there were no windows, no posters or notes of any kind. There wasn’t even an indication as to the room’s purpose.

The two white alicorns stood rather awkwardly side by side in the thin white hallway. The glaring lights and cold steel walls of the labs had changed at some undecided location along the way, and now the two ponies stood in silence before the unsuspicious door, bathed in harsh light from the thin lampshades jutting from the walls at either side of the corridor. It had only taken a dozen or so minutes to reach this point, and the scenery had changed greatly besides the walls, the lights, and indeed, the doors. The floor had become taken over by a thin black carpet which felt prickly underhoof, and pictures of ‘famous’ ponies hung on the eggshell walls. Needless to say, princess Celestia’s portrait appeared more than once, but since she didn’t take much notice to her own life accomplishments, neither did Cantor. Nor did he question these questionable feats of magical finesse Celestia had apparently performed over her many, many years.

Celestia and Cantor stood in silence for a moment or two. Unwanted tension built between the two before the tall mare broke the silence with her divine voice.

“Behind this door are the eight other ponies that will be joining your voyage with you.” Celestia spoke, keeping a note to restrain the volume in her voice.

Cantor said nothing, but followed the princess towards the door at the end of the hallway; the only door in the entire hallway…

The white mare raised her hoof to the wood and rasped several times. Cantor gave her a confused and humbled look as if to say: “You need to knock?” as a very masculine, but an unmistakable female voice called from inside.

“Who is it?” Came the muffled voice from the other side of the varnished door.

“It is princess Celestia again, I have a friend I wish for you all to meet…” Celestia responded, her wavy mane spreading its many colours across much of the wall as she held her ear close to the door.

A choir of scraping, shuffling and stomping came from behind the wall before it finally halted, and the same voice called out again. “Alright, your majesty, you can come in.”

Celestia’s horn glowed a pale gold and her magic shrouded the door in a big square cape of light. The door swung open effortlessly, the only sound it made was a slight crackle from the plastic draft excluders that ran around the doorframe as they separated from the gloss-coated wood. The room ahead was really rather dark, the only light coming from a small table lamp in the middle. A metal bunk bed resided in each corner of the darkened space, providing sleeping arrangements for the eight ponies within. The dull green blankets were tightly folded under the mattresses, which looked about as soft and cushiony as a block of iron.

Cards lay scattered around the table lamp seemingly in no direct manner as some wagerless game raged between two individuals. A couple of sturdy – looking wooden chairs had been clumsily pushed back under the folding table, and had apparently knocked over a glass of water, the contents of which were now slowly dripping to the worn floorboards below. The walls too, were wooden, giving the room the appearance of a log cabin. Even here, the subliminal scenario withheld it’s cosy persona as if it were in the middle of nowhere, halfway up a snow thrashed mountainside. In fact, the only thing missing was a fireplace and a large bearskin rug.

“Good evening, your majesty.” Said a dark grey pegasus in a voice not unlike that of the one which answered the door. She was extremely well built, not to the extent that one could refer to her as a bodybuilder, yet her muscles were more defined than even Applejack’s. Her unkempt blonde mane was raised above her eyes by a white elasticated headband with a single red strip running through the centre, as if the pale red colour were bisecting two of the same side from one another. She wore a light pink belt-looking accessory around her left canon. The silver heart-shaped buckle glinted brightly – even in this ridiculously low level of light. Her eyes were a deep gold and just the sight of them alone sent a shiver down Cantor’s spine. She was staring straight at Cantor, whether she was trying to be intimidating or not, the male alicorn couldn’t stop himself from shuffling his hooves in response to the mare’s chilling stare.

The equine inhabitants had formed some kind of gangway relative to the princess, though the celestial mare barely stepped through the door as she had no intention of staying a long while. Her shimmering mane lit the room significantly, like a giant blue and green candle. Everypony present (except Cantor) gave a modest bow to the newly arrived princess that lasted a few seconds before they stood up straight upon their own accord.

“Good evening to you, too, Faith.” Celestia replied, smiling warmly towards the muscular grey mare, whose attention snapped upwards to the dark purple eyes which appeared even dimmer in the absence of light. “How are you all feeling?” Asked the princess.

A collective murmur of positivity rose up briefly before it was decided that eight ponies talking at once wasn’t so smart and they returned to their hush.

“We’re very good, princess.” The pegasus mare who was deemed Faith affirmed with a slight smile. Her attention rapidly turned from Celestia back to Cantor, the white stallion’s body tensed as the needlepoint stare returned to him. “Who’s he?”

The princess placed her hoof over Cantor’s back, and her physical presence put him at ease. “This is Cantor.” Celestia spoke, drawing all eyes to the stallion by her side. “He is the captain of Equestrian Explorers One.” She said, shooting the stallion in question a trustworthy wink.

“Equestrian Explorers One?” Cantor asked with a smirk, stretching his neck out to look Celestia in the eye more closely.

Cantor couldn’t tell, but he was confident in the assumption that princess Celestia was blushing. “It’s the name of the spaceship, Cantor…” the princess said, sounding as if she were admitting it. “It’s a… generic name…” She added, trying to pass off some of the awkward tension in a yawn.

Faith said nothing, just continued shooting uneasy glances Cantor’s way. Celestia quickly caught on to this and spoke up. “Something the matter, Faith?” She asked, capturing the pegasus’ attention, yet the grey mare continued to stare at the new stallion, taking in all of his features: his deep orange eyes laced with fire, his long, ragged mane and the fact that he somehow had both wings and a horn; the former of the two were so large that they crossed over behind his back. She couldn’t see his cutie mark, but something in the stallion’s heavy eyes told her that it was far more austere than his appearance.

“I…” Faith began, seemingly lost for words. “There’s another one?” She asked, keeping her light gold eyes directly in line with Cantor’s.

“Another one?” Celestia asked, glancing at Cantor, who simultaneously looked up at her as she did so. “What do you mean?”

“I thought it was only you and your sister who were alicorns…” She said softly in her rough, powerful voice, with a barely traceable sense of wonderment; something which could be mistaken for disappointment, implying this mare was either not easily impressed, or that she was rather vacant to surprises.

“Actually, Faith,” Said Celestia, turning back to the eight ponies, the gangway they had formed had rapidly dissolved into a small crowd around the two newcomers. “There are others, only five, to be exact, but they’re not relevant at the moment; Cantor here, however, is.” She nudged her alicorn friend forward gently, but he tripped over his hooves and lurched forward, stopping mere inches from the iron gray face of the coltish mare. Faith reeled back slightly with an expression of shock, one leg raised off the ground slightly and her muzzle crumpling a little in distaste towards Cantor’s unexpected movement.

As if nothing had happened, Celestia continued to speak whilst a blushing Cantor allowed his eyes to become distracted on things that otherwise would have gone unnoticed such as the knots in the wood in the floorboards. “I have brought Cantor here so that you all can have some time to get to know him better, after all, he is your captain, and launch day is approaching quickly… You should all have enough time to get to terms with one another.”

The princess started to slowly back out of the room until only half of her remained on either side of the door. “I would have brought him to visit sooner, but Cantor is a very busy pony…”

“Ha!” Cantor laughed briefly before stifling the short outburst in his throat and he forced a calm and concise expression, putting more weight on his left legs as he spoke. “Yeah… that’s me…” He complied with a strange type of modesty. Neither Celestia, nor any of the eight ponies there laughed. They didn’t even smile. Cantor seemed to shrink into himself like a tortoise would as his blush returned. Everypony found more humour in this than in his previous attempt at comedy, and even though he was embarrassed, he noticed Faith wearing an amused smile.

Celestia stared thoughtfully at Cantor for a while before she slowly began to speak again. “Yes, well…” The princess mused softly, backing out of the doorway until she was back into the clinical whiteness of the hallway lights. Cantor turned about to watch her leave and resisted the urge to follow her. “I’ll leave you ponies alone to chat about your trip.” Celestia continued, gripping the door with her golden magic but not closing it just yet. “You can get back home from here, right, Cantor?” She asked, raising an inquisitive eyebrow towards the alicorn.

Cantor jumped the tiniest bit as he snapped back from a deep thought. “Uh… Y- yeah.” He answered, not really hearing Celestia’s question, but hoping that ‘yes’ would be an acceptable answer.

Celestia’s head fell to the side and she stared at the bottom of the doorframe briefly. All of a sudden, she looked extremely tired, and what was even more of a worry, she actually looked her age. “Sorry to drop you off and leave like this, Cantor.” The princess sighed before her speech mutated into a small yawn. “But I have some very important matters to attend to back at the castle. I trust you understand?”

“Of course, princess.” Cantor replied with a warming smile. “So… should I bid you good evening?”

“Very well…” The alicorn mare replied, rotating on her hooves and glancing behind her to accept the farewell wishes from the adoring crew, something she had still not been able to accept without blushing a tad.

“Good night, your majesty!”

“Have a nice evening, princess!”

“Great to see you again, your majesty!”

…

Cantor couldn’t see how all this was necessary, but after all, he and Celestia were close enough to be called family; and nopony saw Luna act like this or even ask for praise. Regardless, the young alicorn stallion played his respectful part. “Good night, princess! Have a pleasant sleep!” Even though he spoke with much sincerity, Cantor couldn’t help but snicker a little at the seldom spoken words.

A few more moments passed until everypony had said good night to the princess and she took another short moment to allow the words to sink in. “Thank you, everypony. You sleep well yourselves.” She closed the door halfway with her bright magic as she added “Play nice” to her parting words and shut the door quietly. The only sound it made was a little click as the latch slid shut, and then the silence fell upon the room like a ton of bricks, or maybe even two tons of bricks, Cantor didn’t care, the only thing going through his mind was whether the looks the ponies around him were giving were inquisitive, or spiteful. His only connection to the outside world was the muffled clopping of Celestia’s golden shoes as she meandered back towards her home. And even that soon melted into the pressing silence around. Cantor decided that he may as well be on a different planet right now, and he took a step backwards, closer to the door.

“So!” The pony named Faith began, walking towards Cantor in a heavy fashion, her pair of dull silver dog tags clinking loudly against each other as she stepped. “You’re our captain, are you?” She encroached, beginning to circle Cantor, assessing him.

Cantor didn’t know whether her question was real or not, so he decided that it was safer to let the thought go and allow Faith to continue musing him over while the other ponies there simply watched and listened.

The pegasus mare ground to a halt at Cantor’s left side, staring in astonishment at his leviathan wings. “Whoa…” She gasped in genuine awe, running her hoof along the lengthy feathers before unfolding Cantor’s wing in a big sweeping movement. Several of the other ponies shared in Faith’s reaction as the huge wing kept going and going until it nearly touched the wall. Faith let the monster of a wing go and it slowly curled back into the very uncomfortable stallion’s side. Daring a movement, Cantor shuffled the wing around in it’s socket to re-align the feathers. All the while, he never took his eyes off of the mare who never moved her eyes away from him.

For a long time, Faith stood there, staring, calculating with her eyes narrowed and her mouth slightly agape. Cantor could almost see the information flitting behind her eyes as she thought. The mare (who by now had wordlessly proven that the unofficial hierarchy placed her comfortably as the leader of this little group) glanced towards Cantor’s flank, just able to see his broken shield cutie mark with the six coloured circles standing proud in front of it in the shadowed room.

“Let’s get something straight…” Faith huffed, stepping towards Cantor until their noses almost touched. Even though Cantor was a little taller than Faith, he still found himself intimidated by, and hopelessly lost in those two golden eyes staring up at him. “Just because you have wings and a horn…” She rattled, her eyebrows accentuating her words. “Doesn’t make you any better than the rest of us.”

“Okay.” Said Cantor sheepishly, finding himself being backed into the wall by the pegasus as she slowly but menacingly approached.

“And just because you’re friends with the princess doesn’t give you any special privileges over the rest of us.” Faith added with a permanent scowl. Cantor’s rump hit the door and his head began to fall to the floor where his backside remained risen as the intense young mare bore down on him.

“Okay.” Cantor winced again, swallowing heavily after his chin hit the floorboards.

“And just because you’re a rare piece of eye candy, don’t think we're dying for a taste of you.” The grey mare finished, frowning down upon Cantor, breathing slightly heavily and calculating her next actions based on the stallion’s response.

“…'Eye candy'?” Cantor responded with a bewildered expression, holding his dumbfounded stare until Faith walked away and flew up to the top bunk nearest to Cantor, perching at the foot of the bed to watch the alicorn slowly stand up.

The male alicorn examined the faces watching him, taking into account their unique features. His eyes stopped, however, when they passed the dark, thoughtful figure of the biggest pony he had ever seen. “Oh, my…” Cantor said in a voice only audible within his head as the enormous earth pony stepped up to him. The dark red stallion wasn’t as tall as princess Celestia, but he wasn’t far off at all. Enormous muscles bulged out from under his pelt as if he had been stuffed with watermelons. He was taller than three ponies stood on each other's shoulders, and his head alone was roughly the same size as Cantor's torso.

Cantor suddenly knew exactly how an ant would feel looking up at a pony, or indeed, a pony staring up at a hydra, or a dragon, or maybe even the dreaded ursa major! In fact, Cantor favoured his chances with the ursa than with this great beast of an equine.

“Howdy.” He said in a voice deeper than the ocean, thrusting his humungus exposed hoof Cantor’s way. The alicorn flinched a little before gingerly taking the black maned stallion’s outstretched limb. His white covered hoof appeared completely swamped by the earth pony’s own one. The dog tags tightly wrapped around this stallion’s rock solid neck jangled quietly as he shook Cantor’s leg. “Don’t mind Faith, there…” He spoke slowly with a southern sounding accent, glancing up at the mare on the bed and smiling to himself. “She jus’ gits that way when she likes somepony…”

Faith huffed and turned towards the wall, folding her forelegs around her chest. The big red pony chucked lightly and slowly. “Mah name’s Tyrenol Redgates, but mah friends jus’ call me ‘Red’…”

“N- nice to meet you… Red…” Said Cantor shakily, not fearful towards the huge stallion, but nevertheless, shaken as to the reality of just how big a pony could get. One would be allowed to act this way towards Big Macintosh, but compared to Red, even the farm – hardened workpony would have his work cut out for him. Cantor quickly brought his hoof back to the floor and managed to turn his attention from Red’s great brown eyes to the other ponies which had made a horseshoe shape around him.

“Hey, guys!” Cantor greeted cheerily, taking in the features of the other ponies. It was discovered then that the oversized Red was the only earth pony there. The alicorn took one more glance towards the sulking Faith sat atop her bed and sighed. “What was her problem?” He thought to himself, just before a pair of giggling mares (whose age could barely class them as such) recaptured his attention.

Two lilac unicorns, both with green eyes and dark purple hair were beaming into each other’s eyes and tittering like fillies. When they caught sight of Cantor’s stare, they quickly quietened down; however their faces still reflected benign amusement. One would be forgiven for mistaking the two ponies for some kind of mirror trick: they were both identical height and build, their coats were exactly the same colour and they both had intelligent green eyes of impeccably alike hue. The only differentiating feature the pair possessed were the brightly coloured bandannas they wore around their necks. The mare on the left wore a royal blue one and the pony to her right, who was presumably her twin sister, wore a bandanna died an intense blood red.

“Hi!”
“Hi!”
Both mares cried simultaneously, weirding Cantor out to say the least.

“My name’s Titter.” Boasted the mare with the blue necktie, her sentence immediately followed by the mare on her left.

“And my name’s Flitter.” Affirmed the red dressed pony. Even her smile was identical to the mare next to her.

“We’re twins!”
“We’re twins!”

“I figured…” Cantor mumbled, squinting through one of his eyes for a while, trying to find some flaw in their appearances to set them apart. But alas, he found none, and his slightly parted, interrogator lips curled into a broad grin. “It’s great to meet you two!” He happily replied, hoping to overcome the disturbance caused by their uncanny resemblance to each other.

The two young mares then took the insanity to a whole different level, and began to speak in cannon with one another to form flowing and understandable sentences.

“We got into this space programme-“

“-Because our special talent-“

“-Is being able to read each other’s minds-“

“-And know exactly-“

“-What the other is going to say next!”

"And we can do this-"

"-Even when we're miles away from each other!"

Cantor’s heart skipped a beat and his eye twitched slightly as his brain failed to process what had just happened… Cantor saw two ponies talking, but heard only one voice. At first he thought it was just plain weird, then for a brief moment, he was amused by the pair. But now, once again, he was downright confused towards how such a feat was possible. Nevertheless, it was decided, a special talent was a special talent.

The twins pressed their flanks together and a perfect heart was formed in the middle, one half was green, one half was yellow. Who’s body each colour belonged to was out of the question; Cantor had already gotten the mares’ names muddled.

“Neat, huh?”
“Neat, huh?”

Titter and Flitter both said, their gaze drawn to their sisterly bond, to their perfectly in tune eyes, then back to Cantor, who once again, wore an expression that depicted his entertainment in the form of a bemused grin. The two girls laughed and stepped away from each other, allowing enough time to be overtaken by two frightful stallions, every part of their being – except their blood red eyes was completely jet black.

Cantor’s eyes widened a little then grew to the size of saucers when the dark unicorn opened his mouth, his white teeth seeming something more than white against his black lips, black face, and black hair.

“Nice to meet you, Captain.” The pitch black unicorn spoke, his voice smooth, slow and tempting, yet strangely, despite his appearance and body language, he didn’t come across as sinister at all. The two exchanged a less than friendly hoofshake before the pegasus mercenary stepped forward and copied his comrade’s action.

“How do you do?” Asked the pegasus as a form of greeting, his emotionless face doing little to set aside Cantor’s anxiety.

“Um… fine… I’m good, thanks…” Replied the white alicorn, scratching the back of his head roughly with the hoof neither of the death coloured ponies had touched. He tried to assert himself by brandishing his previous smile, but its emotional aid went unheard amid the red eyes and distasteful grimaces. “Please, call me Cantor; I don’t really go for ‘sir’ or ‘captain’… I don’t really like… you know… putting ponies below me…” He added, speaking carefully so as to avoid the risk of offending someone.

“Very well.” Answered the black pegasus, though the way in which he spoke still made it sound as if Cantor had given the request as an order. “It’s a pleasure to meet you… Cantor.” He finished slowly, shooting the alicorn a frightful wink before he receded next to his unicorn partner.

The pair made a move to skulk off back to the shadows when Cantor caught them off guard.

“Um… Question…” The alicorn asked, extending his bottom lip and blowing a tuft of rusty hair away from his eye. The two permanently shadowed ponies turned around, looking sceptically towards Cantor. Neither said a word, but their looks enticed Cantor to go on. “Are you two like… twins too?”

The pair of black ponies connected their blood red eyes for a moment, then laughed haughtily, the pegasus flapping his unearthly black feathers a little as he chuckled. “No, we are not brothers, we are just…” The unicorn began to explain, passing the sentence over to the pegasus beside him.

“…Good friends.” The pegasus finished, locking eyes with his ‘friend’ before going on to explain further. “The reason we are almost identical is because our government treats us as numbers, not individuals like here in the Empire.”

“Oh, and what government would that be?” Cantor enquired, raising his eyebrows nosily and poking his head forward.

The pair of black ponies broke their seemingly romantic eye contact to stare at Cantor. “That is none of your concern.” Answered the unicorn, his brow forming into a miniscule frown.

Cantor took offense to this and found feelings of angst towards both the equines. “I think it is of my concern.” Said the alicorn, his unpredictable anger rising up before he remembered his promise and held down his demon with thoughts of his friends.

The unicorn spoke for himself and his accomplice, all the while shooting icy daggers towards Cantor. Everypony else, even Red, said nothing, but watched and listened in silence. “We come from a very remote area of the Vlaamperdian Badlands, a wasteland where secret military tests are undertaken.” His attention turned upward, towards the dark grey pegasus atop the bunk bed, her forelegs still crossed, but at least she was now watching. “I’m sure if you ask around, you’ll find that some of the technology here was developed in Vlaamperdia.”

Faith blasted the unicorn with a forbidding grimace, but he only smiled and continued, his shocking eyes returning to Cantor’s. “We were brought as foals and injected with artificial pigments which made our coats and manes blacker than black, so as to become far more stealthy when navigating dimly lit areas.”

Cantor frowned. “And are your eyes naturally red?” He asked, appreciating that it was a possibility. After all, one of his friends he had failed to keep in touch with after the gala had red eyes, but her eyes were more relatable to rubies, something precious and rare rather than the cold, dark rocks belonging to these artificial ponies.

“No.” The pegasus answered, taking a step closer to Cantor. “They’re a very thin plastic film that slides under the lens of the eye.” A dirty grin of his own spread across his face. “Think of them as… permanent contact lenses…”

“Why do you have those?” Cantor enquired, no longer feeling fretful before the pair, rather, the alicorn felt indebted to suck as much information out of them as possible.

“Intimidation.” The unicorn replied dryly. And once again, Cantor took offense. That was until, the deathly black unicorn turned to the now adamant Faith – who was sat on her haunches with her forehooves free. “Of course… we’re not the only ones who were bought into the army…” He continued in an ill tone, staring at the grey mare with a godless smile. Faith’s slightly vacant expression tightened into a ferocious black look.

“Heh, heh, yeah!” The sinister pegasus continued his unicorn accomplice’s tormenting, like two bullies taking it in turns to pick on a filly in the playground. “Our girl, Faith here was taken in by Celestia because her parents didn’t want her.”

Like a bullet, Faith shot from the top bunk to the male pegasus’ face, hatred seeping through her gritted teeth. “Take that back!” She ordered, but the offensive pegasus merely grinned even more.

“What’s wrong?” The pegasus asked, burning his harassment deeper into Faith’s steel hard heart, prodding the tip of her muzzle with his hoof. “Is little Faith all upset that her mommy and daddy never wanted a worthless, pathetic little filly like you?”

Faith knocked the black hoof from her nose and darted her own hoof forward, straight towards the pegasus’ face. The vile pony winced, but when Faith’s speeding punch came within an inch of his face, something invisible blocked the contact, and a huge circular shockwave of pure turquoise light reverberated into the room, filling it momentarily with an eerie green glow. The grey mare’s hoof bounced off of the forcefeild with an electrical sounding boom and a huge red stallion forced his way between the two winged rivals.

“Okay, that’s enough. Break it up, you two!” Red snarled, glaring at the black pony some distance below him.

The red eyed pegasus snorted and turned away. “Bitch…” He muttered, dragging his hooves along the floorboards until he reached the corner of the room harbouring his bunk. The identically hued unicorn followed, quietly whispering to his equal and glancing over his shoulder at the now less than sturdy looking Faith.

Faith too, turned about and made her way towards the plain wooden door, scuffing the ground with her back hooves in little bucks. “Asshole…” She grumbled, tearing the door open and flooding the room with light. Everypony except Faith winced and rubbed their eyes in response to the massive transition of darkness. The heart stricken pegasus half-looked over her shoulder, just enough so that Cantor could see the corner of her eye. “I’m going out for some air.” She growled, ears pinned behind her head as she trudged out of the room, slamming the door with a mighty crash that rattled the floorboards and made the iron beds squeak.

Cantor, being the tentative stallion that he was, began to make his way towards the door to follow Faith, but a solid red barricade stopped his progress. The alicorn peered upwards and into the gentle brown eyes of the crimson leviathan pony, his face depicting a mixture of concern, sympathy and forbidding.

“Let ‘er go, kid.” Red spoke, his overly relaxed tone doing little to steer Cantor from his objective.

“Look…” Cantor began, stepping quickly around the earth pony’s leg, which happened to be as thick as a tree trunk. “I’m not sure how you all treat this kind of thing here, but back in Ponyville, we listen to each other’s problems.” The alicorn reached the door and pulled it open. Upon first inspection, Faith was already gone. “You can do what you want.” Cantor said, catching all the ponies in the surf of his vision. “But I’m going after her." He turned his attention to a particular corner of the room. "And you two!” He yelled, standing on tip-hooves in order to connect with the jet black pair, who were sat on the bottom bunk of their bed. Once conversing quietly, now locked in fiery subordination with their suddenly more threatening leader. “Don’t think you’re off the hook: I want a chat when I get back!”

The couple turned from Cantor to one another, exchanging concerned looks before returning to their previous conversation of whispers. The dull orange maned alicorn turned around, facing the bright white hallway and peering over is shoulder at Red. Aside from a misused look of encouragement, the massive red pony merely closed his eyes and nodded gently. Cantor acknowledged the gesture with his own, before dashing from the room, allowing the door to swing shut freely. His scraggly, rusty tail streamed behind him like a bemused lick of flame as he rounded the corner in pursuit of the dishevelled grey mare.

It wasn’t quite a rooftop. It wasn’t quite a balcony. Instead, it was… something. Maybe a cross between the two. Maybe it was neither; something completely different, a class of it’s own… To a certain heart-slit pegasus, however, it didn’t matter: it was merely a place she went to be able to see the sky, count the stars… get some air. The night (predictably) was dark, the wind chilly, and the mountains, just a little creepy. The gold maned mare closed her tear-sodden eyes and took a long inhale through her nostrils, smelling the mineral water which had condensated on the stone floor beneath her. Her deep breath ended with a sigh, which inevitably turned into another stifled sob.

“Did I do something wrong?” She asked the thin pink band around her leg, the silver buckle still managing to gleam brightly in the bluish moonlight. “Was I… Was I not what you wanted?” She attempted to blink back more tears, yet only succeeded in making more fall. Two drops of sorrow rolled down her nose and perched on her lips. Their saly taste – a reminder of her sadness – came into the mare’s mouth as she continued her monologue to herself. “Was it because I was too weak? Because you couldn’t support me?”

Another tidal wave of grief crashed down on the lost pegasus and she collapsed into her forelegs, her golden eyes pouring with heartbreak. “Why didn’t you love me? Why am I not allowed a normal life?” Her breaths became shaking bleats of torment and her whole body convulsed as she once again poured her feelings back into herself, trying to at best recycle her agony for another time.

She was so enveloped within her own dejection, that even her heightened senses failed to alert her to the alicorn entity that had recently joined her atop the mesa-like outpost. He slowly approached, being as silent as possible, but a little more recklessness probably wouldn’t have startled the pegasus anyway. He took no notice of the starlit sky; the only object he had his kind orange eyes on was the shattered mare perched somewhere near the edge of the clearing, sobbing quietly, but forcefully into her arms.

“Faith?” Asked the white stallion, the icy air blowing his rust coloured hair about his face was refreshing in lieu of the stuffy corridors of the underground facility.

The young mare snapped her head upwards, but did not turn around. She stared over the valley’s expanse and challenged herself to cease her crying, all the while putting on a false expression of anger to aid in her makeshift persona. “What do you want?” She grumbled as coldly as the air around her, knowing full well who it was who had spoken.

Cantor shrugged in an unseen attempt at lightening the atmosphere. He took several soft paces towards the mare before he stopped and casually answered her question. “I just… want to… talk, you know?” He said, listening to the winged creature’s ragged breaths that she was failing so miserably to cover up.

“Yeah, well…” She spat, her voice croaky and frail. She hastily corrected herself and straightened out her back, taking on far more of a composed posture to try and play off her suffering. “Yeah, well…” Faith tried again. “I don’t want to talk to you.”

Without a single sound, somehow without even moving, Cantor was by Faith’s side. She snapped her head away, staring into the dust, noticing the numerous dark blotches where her tears had stained the earth. She already knew that the alicorn beside her was wise to the fact that this highly trained, rock hard, careless super soldier had been broken down by just a few words and a smattering of memories. She could feel her nose seeping, but she resisted the urge to sniff, for she could only hope to hold on to whatever dignity she had left.

“Faith…” Cantor spoke with a voice barely more than a whisper. He was certain the pegasus had heard him, and that she was now attempting to ignore his aid. In a tone he reserved only for the love of his life, Cantor used the one sentence that always gave his company the power to raise their head. “Faith, look at me…”

Finally giving in to the stallion, the heartbroken mare sniffled loudly and peered around, catching sight of something she only very rarely saw within Celestia. She raised her head and could feel an unconscious smile creep onto her face. She gazed into those two deep amber orbs and re-evaluated her initial response to the stallion. Those hypnotising eyes grew closer as Cantor lowered himself into the same position as Faith by her side, never braking eye contact, not for a second. Whatever hardships she was feeling before, however alone she thought she was, every last drop of bad energy was absorbed into those two majestic eyes of fire.

“I’ve only just met you…” Cantor began, his eyes never leaving the two wonderful pools of gold. “And I can already tell that you are an amazing pony who would stand up to the world without a fear in your heart.” Faith nodded silently. Her tears had ceased, but the last two droplets fell from her bloodshot eyes as she blinked them away in some attempt at a response. Cantor’s warming smile fell into a gentle frown and he pouted ever so slightly in concern. “And yet… here you are.”

Faith looked away and sighed, filling her blood with fresh oxygen, waking her up a treat. “I don’t know…” She sighed again, which transformed halfway into an unpredicted yawn. “What Deathwing said… I-“

“I’m sorry, who?” Cantor interrupted, reigniting the pegasus’ eye contact.

“Deathwing…” Faith repeated, raising her eyebrows in collaboration before they fell into a heavy scowl. “That black pegasus merc bastard.”

Cantor clucked his tongue in soiled amusement. “Well that’s an original name…” He muttered, feeling slightly prejudice after saying what should only be kept as a thought out loud.

“What?” Asked Faith, leaning around to get another look at Cantor’s fiery eyes that somehow seemed to glow in the night.

“Nothing.” The alicorn quickly replied, biting his lip as he did so. “What’s the unicorn's name?”

“Black Haze.”

“Figures…”

“What?” The mare asked again, finding a smidgen of humour in the conversation, her smile returning shortly.

Cantor shook his head and exhaled loudly, stretching his wings out above him so that they towered over the ponies. Faith stared up in amazement, silently mouthing “Wow…” As the enormous mass of feathers deflated to the sides of the white pony.

"Is... is it hard?" Faith questioned gently as she observed Cantor's lengthy quills settle neatly in place.

"What?" Cantor replied, feeling a yawn coming on as he stared over the expanse of Equestria. Far away in the distance, he could see the dim glow of Ponyville flickering ever so slightly against the baron hills and mountains which saturated this particular part of the world.

"You know..." Faith clarified after Cantor finished a cumbersome yawn. "Being an alicorn..." Her tone suggested she didn't regard the topic with due care, yet her sinsere brow let Cantor know that her concern was just.

The stallion rolled his head back slightly, gazing momentarily into the starry sky. For the first time in a while too long, Cantor relished in the sheer beauty the night could bring. The moon capped the frigid mountain tips with a silver sheen, the light reflecting off the sparse snow just enough to give the valley tops the illuion of glowing. His head resided further, until most of his vision was composed soley of stars, and indeed, planets. One planet in particular was on his mind, however. It was an invisible pinprick of light amongst a sea of black, a beacon which was unseen to anyone who dared even to wonder. Cantor couldn't see it, but he knew it was there: Absencicy, the 'new Equestria'. Many theroies and estimations had been spread around about the new world, some say that the dusty looking planet was where the Gods resided. This brought about new assumptions that Absencicy was indeed paradise, and that the ponies lucky enough to visit would be blessed with infinite knowledge and sirenity.

The most intreging prediction established (to Cantor at least) was the talk of life being a strong possibility in this world. Twilight Sparkle, and even Celestia herself had agreed that Absencicy accomidated the correct properties for life to exist. However, it was made clear that any form of intelligent life, let alone sentient, was unlikely. The most advanced organism Cantor could expect to find would be bacteria and other microbes. Regardless, Cantor had proposed that this was at least a start, and that given the evidence that life, even the smallest and simplest of life, would undoubtably prove that something could live outside of Equestria. Cantor for one, couldn't wait, and even though he had been with his shipmates for less than ten minutes, he could already tell this was going to be an amazing adventure.

The alicorn's thoughts suddenly dissolved into Faith's previous question, and it seemed as though his conciousness returned to him, strangely so, as it was clear it had never really left. She was wearing a sympatheic look, as if what she had just asked had somehow upset or hurt her new... captain.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you." She quickly said, her face partially obscured by two thin strands of straw coloured hair which poked out over her headband.

Cantor breifly shook his head, relinquishing some of the tight atmosphere with a slight smile. "No, no. It's fine, my mind just tends to wander..." He chortled a little, but Faith barely held up a grin, her expression showing a mild state of bewilderment.

"To answer your question..." He said, pondering the pros and cons briefly. "No, it's not hard being an alicorn." He paused for a moment, furrowing his brow in silent contemplation as he turned his gaze out over the voluminous starscape and continued. "There's... obviously some ponies who judge me before they've met me..." Faith simply laid there, not breathing a word of response. Cantor was the first alicorn she had seen other than Celestia and Luna: it was only several minutes ago that she discovered that there was in fact others besides the two rulers in the entire world, and now she felt a strange connection with this new stallion, a connection she couldn't quite put her hoof on, it was an unreadable concoction of respect, wonder and kinship that she had very rarely felt towards others. Whether Cantor felt the same way about her, however, was impossible to descover without actually asking, but given the circumstances, there were probably a lot of ponies that felt the same way towards him. She decided to leave it at that, and not persue her concious train of thought any longer. Faith meerly sank into herself, fluffing her feathers for warmth and listening intently to try and decypher whatever mysteries this new companion sustained within the reposing aura he appeared to permanently radiate.

Cantor took a deep breath, tasting the summer as he did so, and continued. "I know everyone judges everyone with first impressions and stuff, but some ponies just... take one look at me and go "Oh, look! Another up-tight, self-concerned, all powerful alicorn who expects everyone to fall at his hooves and worship the ground he walks on!"..." He turned back to Faith, who was looking at him in a way only his very closest of friends ever did when they were conversing a heavy topic. "It's not like that." Affirmed Cantor, shaking his head slightly as he did so. "It's never been like that. But still, there are a few ponies that take an instant hatred to me, they say things like: 'We don't want your kind.', or they say that 'only the princesses have the right to have wings and a horn.'... Some even wish me dead..." He bowed his head complacently to the dust below him and began tracing little circles in the ground with his hoof. "Even after I saved them all..."

Fiath frowned, tilting her head to the side and shuffling the tiniest bit closer to the stallion, though he didn't seem to notice. "You... 'saved them all'?" She asked, catching a glimpse of luminosity within the alicorn's hauntingly deep eyes.

"Oh, yeah." Cantor giggled, flicking a pebble over the edge of the cliff, listening to it never hit the ground, seeming to fall for eternity and become part of the night. Cantor finished his private laugh, turning to face the grey mare and elabourated his point. "I guess it should have been kind of a nessecity to mention that I saved the world."

Faith threw her head back and bellowed mightily, her guffaws echoing loudly off of the cliff face as Cantor meerly smiled cordually in response and waited for the pegasus to finish. It took Faith a good three minutes to finally calm down, and after the first thirty seconds, it became unclear as to the subject that was keeping her so amused. The exausted pegasus brought her head back down from the sky and struggled to open her eyes. She was breathing remarkably heavily through a huge beaming grin which stretched from ear to ear, slowly catching her breath back after getting a little carried away. After all this time living in an underground millitary base, one could forget the importance of a good laugh. The heaving mare sat up straight and wiped a small joyful tear from the corner of her eye before finally turning back to the alicorn who had set her off, who also happened to be wearing a mildly maniacal expression that nearly threw her back into another fit of laughter.

Faith slowly brought herself around to speak after wiping both eyes dry with the back of her hoof. "Really?" She asked dumbfoundedly. "You saved the world?" The sceptical grey mare pointed a hoof accusingly towards Cantor, who stared at it for a short while before replying.

"...Yeah." He affirmed, letting his smile fade slightly into a somewhat more serious expression. "It's probably a little hard to believe, but-"

"I'll say!" Faith butted in, laughing to herself breifly before allowing Cantor to continue.

"Well... I don't know how to prove it to you, but, if you ask Celestia, she'll tell you the same." Answered Cantor, a sudden heavy wave of immodesty and guilt breaking into his mind as he did so. He decided it best to change the conversation topic, and hopefully find out a little more about the pony who he could tell he would be seeing a lot of in the foreseable future. "Um..." He began, attempting to instill some sort of solemness into his tone as he did so. "About what that other pegasus said... you were 'bought' into the army..." Faith hung her head and her eyes seemed to darken as Cantor said this. "...What did he mean?"

"Ahhhh...." Faith sighed heavily, shaking her head from side to side vigarously as if she were trying to remove liquidatios memories from her hair. "It's a long story... I've lived here for as long as I can remember..." Though she was speaking aloud, it seemed to Cantor as though she was producing more of a monologue to herself than anything else. "When I was a little filly, less than a year old, my parents dropped me off at the gates of Canterlot castle. Celestia, she... took me in and uh... raised me as her own in this facility..." She exhaled deeply, her expressionless face proving difficult for Cantor to know whether she was upset or not.

"How have I not heard about you before?" Cantor enquired, leaning forward to catch a glimpse of Faith's gold eyes. "Celestia and I are pretty much family. Why hasn't she told me about you?"

"Dunno." Faith answered simply, turning away from Cantor to gaze up at the slither of moon which still provided enough light to enable relatively easy vision. "Maybe she..." She frowned at the sky, staring intently into the inky blackness as she wracked her brains for an explaination. "I really don't know." The mare finally said, openly admitting defeat. "But, I'm sure she has her reasons. After all, I only found out about you ten minutes ago..."

"Yeah..." Sighed Cantor, following Faith's gaze into the impossible distance, re-evaluating the connection with a cold wind that had picked up. A little too cold for a summer's evening, he thought. So, using forgotten magic, he eased off the harsh wind to a gentle breeze, an ability that he always treasured with being unique. Though it was harsh at times when ponies would instantly despise him for his looks, or even worse: fear him for the sheer power he possesed, Cantor could always set his mind at ease with the serene idea that there were more than enough others in this big, wide world he lived in to care about him and see him for who he was, rather than what he was, or what he could do. With such a simplistic task as changing the wind, one can also change another's perspective of one's self by removing a shroud of discrimination as easily as turning on a light forged in the hearts of the proud and the living.

"The only thing I have to remember my parents by is this..." Faith spoke up, presumably enough out of nowhere, her voice somewhat alien to Cantor's deep thoughts. The alicorn shuddered a little as his contemplation aura melted from his horn and dissipated around his body. He blinked several times before looking to his right, noticing the small pink chocker Faith was now cradling in her hoof. Without breathing a word, Cantor shuffled the tiniest bit closer, now able to feel the warmth coming from the female pegasus' body. He discovered himself to be captivated by the shiny silver buckle in the love heart shape Faith was staring into. It's immaculate surface bore no scratches or stains. It was little; 'insignificant', but still, one of the most perfect articles Cantor had ever felt so lucky to cast his eyes upon.

Faith slowly rolled the band around, taking it's whole length into consideration before she continued. "When the guards found me and took me to Celestia, all that came with me was a note that said: 'Hello, my name is Faith. Please take care of me.'." Her vision became wavy at this point, as if she were staring at the world through a swimming pool. She held up the pink band slightly, not daring to look at Cantor as the thought of somepony seeing her cry again would destroy her rock hard persona. "And, then there was this... bracelet, too..." She added quietly, expertly masking the loneliness in her heart.

Cantor spent a long while staring towards Faith, reading her body language, noticing how she never looked his way even once. Anypony could see that she was hurt, and had been hurting for a long time, but only a select few could confide with her: Cantor included. "You know..." The alicorn began, smiling warmly, despite himself. "I'm not even biologically related to anyone in this entire universe." The mare beside him quietened her breathing and turned her ears about to listen, but still kept her head safely turned away. "Yeah, I um... I'm something called a 'human' from a universe intricately linked to this one." His eyes glazed over, and he stared blankly at the floor below him. "I'm not special." He added, staring past his concious mind and into the realms of imagination. "Just very lucky..."

Faith shuddered and sobbed, alerting Cantor to reality - this reality - at once. With sympathetic commiseration, Cantor peered over at the pegasus who appeared to have lost it and begun crying. But upon closer inpection, the reflective stallion could see that she was indeed laughing. Tears relentlessly poured from her eyes, but still, she bore a huge smile of exctasy.

"Oh, wow!" Cried Faith when she was spent laughing; a much shorter stint than before, but she was still rather short of breath. "Something like that makes saving the world sound almost believeable!" She laughed again, two glistening tears rolled down each cheek as she did so, soaking into her fur before they reached her chin.

Cantor failed to set himself aside from a smile, and shared in the mare's barely convincing happiness. "Well..." He began, more in tune with a tired sigh than a definative voice. "It's true as well..."His grin dropped and his face fell into the upmost seriousness. Faith caught the expression, and prompty quietened down; she was reunited with those eyes of pure blaze that burned chills into her soul. She sat up straight, bit her bottom lip gently and opened her heart to Cantor, as if something within his cataclysmic stare was forcing out her hidden emotions.

"You and I are alike." Cantor started, his rich amber eyes never faltering even once. "We are both alone in a world of beauty, but so connected in the knowledge that we have friends we can look upon as family. It just goes to show that the circumstances of your existance are irrelivant; but it is what you are willing to do with the gift of life that determines who you are."

Faith paused her breath for a fleeting moment as the words she had just heard sank in. She slowly began to nod her head in agreement, then sped up the movement as she finally found her voice. "Yes." She simply said, unable to break the eye contact with one of the very few ponies in her life who truly cared for her. "I understand completely. You're saying that even though we are alone in the world in terms of relatives, the best thing we can do would be to not forget our pasts, but create a future we want to remember." Cantor raised his eyebrows and nodded with a satisfied expression.

"...Thank you, Cantor." The suddenly contented mare spoke after an all too long pause, turning once again to the night sky and (rather ironically) seeing the pitch darkness in a new light. "Thank you for this conversation. I really appreciate that you'd go out of your way to help me out."

As Faith's eyes dreamily closed, completing her sterile expression, Cantor too, became contented with the environment. More specifically, the new company in this environment. "That's what friends are for." Qiupped the stallion quietly, though loud enough to alert Faith to his intensity yet again. She turned away from the billions of tiny eyes set in the black stained sky, and traded them insead, for only two, which still happened to hold all the mystery and grace of the world above. Her cheeks blushed gently as she slowly leaned inward. Cantor mirrored her movement, to the extent where the two pony's lips were slightly parted and their eyes just began to close when a vicious grumbling set the pair aside.

Cantor sat back up straight, clutching the source of the interrupting noise (namely his stomach) and stared down at his white belly. Faith giggled with an enormous sense of innosence and touched her hoof to her lips demurely in an act of extreme uncharacterism. Unbeknownst to Cantor, witnessing this particular mare act this way was nothing short of a miracle. But after all, the alicorn had had more than his fair share of miracles in his breif stint in Equestria.

"Right! Well, I suppose we should get to the canteen, then." Yapped Faith after clearing her throat. She shakily rose to her hooves, her athletic body seemily paralysed for a moment before she regained her effortless control. Cantor followed suit, and allowed the sustainable pegasus mare to lead him from the cliff, opening the remarkably narrow door which was carved straight into the rock itself. She re-entered the glaring white halls of her home, and desisted in waiting for the white alicorn to follow her in before she took off.

Cantor suddenly experienced a swelling of guilt within his upper chest, but he couldn't pinpoint exactly where it was. Nor could he diagnose a reason for this strange sense of pain. He promptly dissmissed the thoughts, and soon enough, the tight knot in his chest seemed to fade into the subconcious. With a personal sigh, Cantor took one last glimpse of the gorgeous night sky before he steadily pulled the door shut with his bright indigo aura, returning the stillness and calm to the late hour, as if it were inside, with the deserted halls and silent offices.

"Okay, so, why are we back here?" Faith enquired as she stepped through the bland wooden doorframe and back into the darkened room which harboured the explorer's bunks. The room appeared just as dark - or maybe even darker than the last time Cantor had been there, but the change was so insignificant that he didn't bother creating a dilema about it. The grey pegasus with the golden eyes entered first, the sound of her hard hooves on the worn floorboards was doubled as Cantor followed soon after, the two ponies' hair bore almost a halo from the light shining on the back of their heads coming from the pristene white lights bouncing off the clinical walls of this part of the facility.

Closing the door swiftly behind him, returning the room to it's dull, yellow-shifted light, Cantor couldn't help but relish in the private thought of how cosy all of this seemed. Nearly everypony was present, the unmistakable Red, the identical pair of lilac unicorns, who were lounging sleepily on a bunk bed, the one with the blue scarf draping her hooves over the end of the top bunk and staring down at her sister on the bottom bunk. The twins were idly conversing, as were all the ponies there until Cantor re-entered with Faith, or Faith re-entered with Cantor. There resided another two ponies in the far corner of the room, their faces barely visible and their features hidden. Cantor could see that one was a pegasus, and the other was a unicorn, but it certainly wasn't the two mercinaries who had driven Faith away; the pegasus was a creamy white colour and the unicorn sat beside the winged pony was a rich tone of blue.

Not finding a place to sit, and not wanting to propose disconcern by taking a seat on the floor, Cantor remained standing. Faith fluttered up to her bed to the right of the stark door, hanging her back hooves over the rim of the matress and staring quizically down at Cantor.

"That was fast..." Bespoke Red, slowly as ever as he hoisted his mighty body from the floor and made his way over to Cantor, who was still rather sceptical about how comfortable he should feel around this beast of a pony. "Usually, when Faith 'goes out for some air', she's gone fer a good hour or so." His face bore a look of impressed kinship; obviously the stone coloured mare was a good friend of his, and even though Red never mentioned it, Cantor could tell that he was mighty grateful. "What did ya say ta make 'er come strollin' back so quick?" He finished with a small wink in Faith's direction, who returned the gesture with a curt, but still rather bashful smile.

"Just some things..." Cantor replied indefinitevely, keeping his eyes on the mare above him.

It was at that moment when the two unannounced ponies decided to cross the room to greet their alicornian captain. It became clear that the magnolia pegasus was a mare, and the unicorn who accompanied her, a stallion. The blue-coated unicorn wore a head of silvery-green hair and two eyes of a rich turquoise-teal. The midnight purple-eyed mare that accompanied him had a dark mane of chestnut and each held a respectable posture. It was plain to see that these two ponies were well educated, or at least were raised within the highest of society - enough so to challenge royalty, you might say.

The unicorn opened his mouth to speak, and the expected voice was that of a very upper class citizen: droning, deep and long enough exposure to such a sound could easily cause ear damage. However, this was gladly not the case. "My word!" Exclaimed the stallion in a jolly 'old-colt' tone. He stole Cantor's hoof from the floor and shook it vigorously. "I've always considered the possibility of other alicorns besides the princesses, and might I say you certainly are quite a specimen to prove my theories correct!"

Cantor offered a slightly embarrassed "Thanks" after the ecstatic blue pony finally released his hoof, though the relief was short lived, as just a few fleeting seconds after he had finished, he began encircling Cantor, making unintelligible mutterings as he did so.

"My, my, your wings certainly are your best feature!" The stallion quipped happily, eying the broad feathers up and down.

"Really?" Asked Cantor, craning his neck to get a better look at what the dangerously curious pony was doing.

"Oh, my, yes..." Continued the unicorn, seemingly fascinated by the simple white feathers. "Ever so sorry to ask, and by all means feel free to say no, but... could I perhapse... pluck one?..."

Cantor simply stared as a response, not forbidding, or intimidating, rather, he was bewildered by how enthralled somepony could be over a simple wing. "Only a small one, mind you, I wouldn't want to disrupt your flight pattern by taking one of your..." He parted some of the folded feathers to reveal the full length of Cantor's largest primary, nearly six feet long and a few inches thick near the tip. "...One of your magnificent primaries..."

Sharing in the doctor's startled silence for a short while, though not by the same means, Cantor quickly collected his thoughts and found the words to reply. "Yeah... of course... go right ahead."

Without so much as a second of warning, Cantor felt one of the feathers near the pit of his wing jerk out. He felt a slight twitch of pain, no more than what could come from stubbing a hoof, but in a second, it was gone. The unicorn cradled the feather as if it were something precious and thanked the alicorn supplier many times on his retreat to the small round wooden table in the centre of the room.

"Uhh... no problem..." Replied Cantor, still rather lost as to what had just happened. He found that he needed to do a quick run-through in his mind of what went on. A questionably paedophilic unicorn had effectively praised his wings and then stolen one of his feathers. "Stranger things have happened..." Cantor discretely mused to himself as the cream coated pegasus shyly trotted over to introduce herself.

"Hey." She simply said in a fair tone. She spoke quietly, as if holding her words, but she failed to come across as timid in the slightest. "My name is Cloud Nine... You'll have to forgive my husband there, he-"

"Aha!" Came a mighty exclamation from elsewhere in the room. All the ponies turned to see the fanatical blue unicorn tilting Cantor's feather around in front of the shadeless light bulb with wildly excited eyes. He noticed his fellow equines all curiously staring at him, so to connect in a way, he hurriedly beckoned them all over with big sweeping hoof movements. "Come, come!" He called, and everypony obeyed.

The deep blue stallion perched on the edge of the frail-looking wooden chair and was admiring the white quill from many a different angle. assuming everypony was gathered around, he continued without casting a glance about. "I've read a lot about alicorn anatomy, but this is really the first time I've had a real live specimen to examine!" He cried with the deepest of foalish elation.

Cantor shot a worried look at Cloud Nine, but she wavered off the tension by rolling her sky-blue eyes in a comical fashion with a dismissive smile.

The still unnamed stallion continued his enthusiastic incitement with a worryingly wide grin. "A long time ago, I read that alicorn feathers differ greatly from feathers of normal pegasi."

"How so?" Enquired Cantor, peeking over the stallion's shoulder for a better look.

"Well..." Started the unicorn, still twiddling the feather around in the light. "Whereas a pegasus feather is... a- a feather, alicorn feathers bear a considerable amount of ambient magic, you know... the natural flow of magic that allows unicorns to channel magic with a certain degree of instinct."

Cantor didn't bother asking any further. He didn't want to know how or why there was magic in his feathers, after all, there were many things others had told him about equine anatomy that he would have otherwise never considered, and these facts hadn't influenced or changed his life hugely. What harm could a stray nugget of seemingly pointless information do anyway? Cantor merely dismissed the thought and leaned ever closer to the 'special' feather.

"Can you see how this feather sparkles and shines?" Asked the unicorn enthusiastically, sounding as if he were showing his collection of rare jewels to a young foal.

Cantor observed his unnaturally shed quill, and sure enough, it appeared to be coated with glitter as points of light bounced from it's surface in multiple areas. It was a strangely awesome sight, seeing such beauty in something he had produced for somepony else’s enjoyment.

"But... my wings don't sparkle like that..." Cantor gently argued back, pulling his wing around him and staring down onto it, taking careful notice of how it didn't shine.

"No." The deep blue stallion answered back rapidly, waving the feather comically in the air as he did so. "The magic running through your feathers can be seen as another life force... a... 'second blood', if you will... When an alicorn feather is lost, it seems, this ambient magic leaks out, back into the air, giving off this shine... thus completing the wonderful cycle of life..." He stared dreamily into space for a moment, considering philosophical questions before he snapped back to Cantor, thrusting the feather towards the alicorn's face in an accusing manner, using the quill like some kind of pointer.

"Are you aware of the stardust theorem, Cantor?" The unicorn asked harshly, making the white stallion feel rather agitated over concerned.

"No, but I'm sure you're going to tell me." Cantor sighed in response, trying not to sound too rude, and failing horribly.

"It is rumoured that when an alicorn dies, their body transforms into pure magical energy which dissipates back into the atmosphere and makes way for another alicorn life." The unicorn explained, leaving the table unannounced to proceed to rummage through a footlocker at the end of his bed.

Originally finding little interest in the matter - or at least having tuned-out to what the unicorn was saying, Cantor began to breathe a whole new air of concern. "So... what you're saying, is that there's only a certain amount of alicorns that can exist - or at least live - at one time?" He responded, finding a new stir of emotions within himself.

"It's just a theory. In all honesty, nopony has ever actually witnessed the death of an alicorn..." The blue pony answered, finding whatever it was that he was looking for in his box with a triumphant "Ha!"

The now worryingly enthused stallion closed the lid on his locker with a loud bang and fumbled about re-scrambling the three-digit combination lock. He turned around and began walking towards Cantor, grasping a very curious looking pot in his hoof. "There are many, many, many mysteries surrounding alicorns and the like..." He said darkly, holding the clear tube with it's black rubber cap above his head. "We can learn so much from the most basic of elements..." Continued the suddenly intimidating unicorn as he bore down upon Cantor, subliminally forcing the alicorn slowly backwards. "Could I perhaps harvest just a little of your magical eliman?" He asked, yet could not be seen awaiting a reply.

Further and further, he backed Cantor into the wall, all the while, brandishing the long, slender tube with the black article over one end. Now the piece was a little closer, Cantor could confirm that this thin was some kind of suction device. "My magical what?" Begged the alicorn, halting his backward momentum to try and regain authority. Thankfully, the unicorn stopped his approach too.

"Your eliman! The material which collects around your horn when channelling magic." Answered the blue pony in a raised, almost growling voice, bordering on a shout. If he had asked pretty much any other way, Cantor would have obliged, but simply because of how overbearing this equine came across, Cantor felt the overwhelming need to resist.

"N- no. I'd really rather you didn't." Cantor refused, understandably a tad scared towards this stallion's approach.

"But we can learn so much." The daunting blue unicorn insisted, pressing the device onto the tip of Cantor's horn, but the alicorn quickly ducked away.

"Guys..." He worriedly called out, using his eyes to plead with the five other ponies for sustenance. The unicorn's wife trotted rapidly across the room to aid Cantor and prise her husband from the poor alicorn.

Cantor persisted to shrink into the floor until Cloud Nine wrapped her hooves around the deep blue stallion and gently tugged him away.

"Darling..." She softly said in an eerily soothing voice, the sound seeming to reduce her husband into a deep contemplation. "You're scaring ponies again." She added in a whispering tone, stroking the unicorn's rather tense back.

The now dishevelled looking pony tightened his grip on the eliman-harvesting instrument and his breath caught in his throat. He stared long and hard at the device with his teal-green eyes, recollecting all what had been done. At first, he felt disgusted with himself for allowing his unquenchable thirst for knowledge reach dangerous levels once again. But this accusation rapidly changed to pity. For himself, and for Cantor. This new alicorn didn't know what was going on... Thinking about it, the godlike creature didn't even know his name.

Shaking his head in lieu of his self-absorbed diligence, the peppermint maned stallion put on a less than modest smile and extended his hoof towards Cantor once again.

"I'm... I'm dreadfully sorry for my behaviour just then." He said with an obviously forced, yet surprisingly disarming smile. He shook his head again, but this particular movement could very much be regarded as a twitch. "I'm Blue Bolt, and I'm one of your field physicians for this space exploration programme." He raised his eyebrows kindly: an invitation for friendship, to start again from the beginning.

"...Nice to meet you..." Cantor slowly replied, gingerly making contact with Blue Bolt's hoof and taking the lead in shaking it gently. Blue's smile became far more genuine all of a sudden, and he looked as if he had just won first prize in a contest, despite Cantor's awry enthusiasm.

"Um..." Asked Cantor, releasing the doctor's hoof, his heart rate relatively normal after his 'minor ordeal'. "Celestia mentioned there were two paramedics... who's the other one?" He scanned all the ponies, certain that it was neither Red, nor the twins, nor Faith; the grey pegasus seemed far too rash and impatient for medical attention of a higher degree than applying a bandage, the pair of lilac unicorns, who had now joined onto the group and were silently observing the events unfold were obviously far too young for such practices, and the scarily oversized Red needed no further explanation. That only left one other the job at hoof could belong to...

"That would be me." Came the response from the magnolia coated mare who stepped forward from her flushed husband's side.

"Oh." Cantor replied with a just hint of alarm. "Talk about a family business..." He joked, and received the first collective laugh from this group of ponies he had had all night. The pride he felt for making them laugh was visible in his face in the form of an accomplished smile and slightly rosy cheeks.

"Quite." Cloud Nine returned with a quiet scoff. "Well... Just the two of us can't really be classed as a family, but we're hoping to... 'expand' after this little trip." She and Blue met each other's eyes in a psychological embrace, something Cantor could happily confide with.

The royal blue unicorn reverted to the previous subject, feeling as though he owed Cantor an explanation as an extended part of his apology. "Could I just... clarify something, if I may..." He said whilst staring at Cantor. The alicorn raised his eyebrows to wordlessly urge him to continue, however this silent gesture took a little while to process within Blue Bolt's brain.

"... ...Oh, right!" He suddenly cried, his cheeks becoming a healthy tone of red in which he did not try to hide. "About earlier: how I acted... I'm sorry." He apologised again, hanging his head slightly.

"No problem!" Cantor replied with a gleeful smile. "It's fine." He affirmed, causing the unicorn to share in his contentment.

Once his brief grin was spent, Blue Bolt's face settled back to serious. "The reason for my actions is simply this: I have a mental disorder."

"Blue!" His wife scolded him, shooting daggers from her eyes at him. She quickly turned to face Cantor, who appeared rather excluded from the conversation all of a sudden in light of Cloud Nine's discipline. "It's not a disorder, Cantor." She clarified, smiling gently with her eyes half lidded: a face which held regalement. "Think of it more as a..." She once again met her husband's eyes, the couple trying to figure out how to portray this 'aliment'.

"...An ataxia of morals." Blue Bolt confirmed, receiving a satisfied nod from Cloud. He reformed eye contact with Cantor to further explain his terminology. "You see, my special talent is that everything I see, everything I read, and everything I learn... Every. Singe. Thing... I remember perfectly." He turned side on, displaying his cutie mark to Cantor. The emblem fixed to the pony's flank depicted a large pink brain with two lightning bolts skewed toward the centre at either side of it. "If you check, and I'm certain this is true, the square route of seventeen point six - four is definitely four point two." He smiled darkly. "No rhyme intended."

Cantor's eyes widened in a cocktail of surprise and homage. "Really?" He asked, stunned. "You remember... everything!?"

Blue Bolt nodded, and with a strong sense of shame, clarified his problem. "Yes." He answered, blinking slowly and finding features upon the blank walls to keep himself from confronting the alicorn visually throughout. "But because of this, I have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and research to the extent where it just isn't right." He sighed, and begrudgingly returned his teal eyes to Cantor's blazing hot spheres. "Seeing an alicorn like you, I just..." His body shivered and he produced a growl that suggested he was becoming aroused at the thought of expanding his knowledge. "I can learn so much!"

At this point, he seemed to realise he was getting away from himself again and quickly re-evaluated his posture. "But having this talent is what supplied my wife and I with a placement in this odyssey."

Cantor quipped his eyebrow briefly before responding. "I'd hardly call it an 'odyssey'..." He said with an unintentional, yet pure sense of modesty.

Blue chuckled, closing his eyes and relishing in the amusement for a few seconds. "By all means, Cantor I take what I said back; this is indeed far more than an odyssey!" He yapped enthusiastically, appearing to be the most excited about this project than pretty much everypony combined. "This right here, is history in the making!" He began, occasionally glancing to the other ponies with sharp eyes as he spoke. "We will be the first ponies ever, to travel further than the moon, the first ponies to traverse other worlds and explore the stars. Imagine what our children will say, and our children's children! They will tell of the time when their great ancestors first set hoof in alien soil and returned as heroes, who will have their names flushed through the minds of ponies down through generations. Though our bodies shall die, our memory will not, and this, what some would see as an 'odyssey' - a mere adventure, no less, will be the first quantum leap to the answers to all of the unanswerable questions of life!" He finished out of breath, and with much passion burning fiercely within his eyes. Any doubt of this pony's fanaticisms were demolished by the vehemencious manner in which he spoke.

"Cool it, brainy..." Faith, who now was lying down on her bed with her forelegs hung over the end spoke up, laughing to herself at the blue pony's expense.

"I'm sorry..." Blue muttered, his cheeks growing rosy above a reserved smile. "But I'm just so excited to be a part of this."

Faith scoffed. "Really? I never would have thought!" She jostled, sending the whole group into a smattering of chortles and guffaws.

The moment of hilarity passed quickly, and the atmosphere seemed somewhat more up-spirited than previously. And though the laughter ended, silence failed to haunt the room as Cantor was straight on the ball with his next question.

"So, Red..." He began, shifting the crimson stallion's attention away from the still flushed-looking unicorn to him. "How did uh... how did you get involved with all this?"

"Ya have ta ask?" The enormous pony replied, sending another wave of laughter Cantor's way. Red waited for his shipmates to settle down before continuing. "Nah, really though... I was jus' an honest work horse back Falabellia way, tendin' ta tha land, buildin' houses, haulin' goods, ya know... the usual stuff..." Cantor found that he had to agree, not that he could pull a cart of rocks to save his life, but standing in front of a pony who looked as if he could effortlessly pull three, the much smaller alicorn felt compelled to nod his head.

Red took a mighty breath of air, filling his lungs (which were probably the size of Celestia's royal airship, each.) and continued. "One day, some pegasi in shinin' golden armour who called themselves Celestia's royal guards came an' asked if I wanted to come on this little space exploration mission." His persona changed from completely serine to anxious as his train of thought continued. "Now I'm not one fer figurin', so I didn't really know what they was talkin' about. But, I suppose word got around about me, an' about how strong I am, and they jus' wanted me ta tag along fer the ride..." He tilted his huge head to the side, as if he were reasoning with himself in his mind. (Presumably the tiniest part of his body). "Mah initial reaction was ta say 'no'; see I wanted ta stay in mah home town, help out ever'pony like usual, but mah daughter said she'd never forgive me if I let this once in a lifetime opportunity get away from me. Like I said, I'm not one fer figurin', but it don't take a lot a' supposin' to know that somethin' like this don't come around every day."

The huge red stallion turned his respectful brown eyes back to Cantor, something behind them showed pure, untainted joy. "I love mah daughter; I'd never want ta leave 'er, but she said she'd never fergive me if I didn't go through with this." He laughed, his deep, booming voice making it difficult to find humour in his chuckle. "The whole town said I'd be stupid not to go, an' I'm not sure I could afford ta loose any more sense anyways..." He inserted, this time receiving a ruckus of laughs from all the other ponies. "So," He continued, not quite allowing everypony to fully finish their amusement. "Here I am."

"Wow..." Sighed Cantor, for a moment reflecting on his future with Twilight: at one point in his life, he knew, he would more or less be at this stage... minus the muscles...

Cantor decided to then turn to Faith, who appeared to jump a little when the white stallion looked at her. "I already know how you got into the army, Faith..." He said with a chuckle. The grey mare rolled her eyes around to the ceiling and waited for Cantor to finish. "But how'd you get into this whole... space thing?" Blue Bolt huffed discretely.

Faith yawned and stretched her feathery appendages outward until they cracked. She sat up somehow straighter than straight and twisted her upper body. It was plain to see that the pegasus was very hungry and tired, yet in her mind, nopony knew. In her mind, nopony cared. "I... Uh..." She tried to speak halfway through yawning, but deemed it impossible to say anything other than 'I' in this state. She politely waited until she had finished before she took a second attempt. "I got in because I'm pretty much the best soldier on the planet." She said with not an ounce of modesty.

"Really?" Cantor replied, cocking his eyebrow and dipping his head to the side, mocking the pegasus a little.

"Mh, hm." Faith affirmed whilst nodding her head, where she wore a very accomplished expression. "I've got a dead eye; I can hit a target up to three miles away."

"Oh, right." Responded the alicorn, sounding as if he were still not impressed. Truthfully, he was; extremely impressed, but for one reason or another, he felt more like winding Faith up than appreciating her accomplishments. All in the name of fun, of course.

"And that's without a scope." She added, frowning down triumphantly at Cantor, who still wore a smug look upon his face.

"That's nice..." He cooed playfully, not finding it too difficult to speak through the amazing facts.

"Well, 'Mr. saved-the-world'..." Said Faith curtly, though she now retained Cantor's degree of jest. "What do you do?" At this point, Cantor's eyes fell to the floor and he became unnecessarily fidgety. "Why are you on the team? Why are you captain? What's your special talent?" She continued to pry, each question making Cantor feel more and more uncomfortable. For now it was the time to tell these ponies - or better yet, show these ponies who he really was: what he could really do, and prove inevitably why he was indeed captain.

For a moment, Cantor was at a loss for words. He didn't want these ponies to hate him for being so many things they were not. He dreaded the thought of losing friends because of his near infinite power. He despised the looming assumption that he would want to put himself above ponies by simply being who he was. And he certainly didn't want to get on the wrong side of Red...

Out of seemingly nowhere, Cantor had the idea to treat his knew friends to dinner, seeing as though he was new and all. "Besides." Thought the alicorn to himself as a mischievous smile spread across his face. "That would be the best way to show them my abilities..."

Catching Cantor's curious expression after his few seconds of silence, Faith grew anxious towards what he was actually going to do. ”What?" She asked, leaping from the bed to land without so much as an 'oof' next to Cantor.

With his awry smile, now seeming to be a permanent fixture on his face, Cantor spoke softly, yet not at all quietly. "Who's hungry?" He asked, his question being met by a plethora of agreeable grumbles from everypony's mouths and stomachs.

"I said we should go to the mess hall!" Huffed Faith in frustration. "Because we've been ponsing around in here, all the food'll be gone!" The pegasus said angrily, making for the door.

She had her back turned to Cantor when he next spoke, but what he said made her pause her progression to the door.

"What's your favourite food?" Queried the alicorn, scrambling Faith's thoughts somewhat, causing her to turn back around and face him.

"What?" She asked in confusion, the agitation about being kept from food clear in her voice. "Why'd you want to know that?"

Cantor put on a sly grin. "I take it the food here isn't all that special..." He asked, still shooting that bemused look toward the grey mare.

She laughed. "No! It's fucking terrible!" Affirmed the pegasus, none the wiser as to what Cantor was doing. "But anything'll do when you're as starving as I am."

"Well... What's your favourite?" Cantor asked again, his lopsided smile beginning to cross into the realms of caring.

"Well..." Faith began to ponder, but her brain was unable to collaborate with it's body so starved of food. "Oh, I don't know!" She gave up quickly with an angry tone. "Can we just go and get some food? I'm fucking hungry! I haven't eaten since breakfast, and that was at six in Celestia's damn morning!" She once again turned with a huff to face the door and rush outside, fearful in the knowledge that she may have had to go a whole day eating nothing but a couple slices of toast. Once again, she made her move to exit, and once again, Cantor stopped her.

"How does pizza sound?" He hurriedly asked, halting the famished pegasus in her tracks and making her turn to face him once again. The expression she was giving was one of anger over confusion, but it was plain to see that what he had just said had intrigued her.

"What?" She asked again, agitated. "Cantor, if we don't get down to the kitchens now, everything will be gone. And right now, I’m hungry enough to eat a horse!" She felt she was expected to try and leave again, but because of this thought, and the feeling that the white stallion was up to something, she decided to stay.

"What topping do you like?" Cantor encroached further, completely ignorant to Faith's aggravation.

"Aghhh!" Faith half-sighed, half-growled. "Pineapple. Why?" By now, getting to her dinner was of lesser priority than getting away from Cantor. It became a matter of principle, the fact that this stallion was keeping her from her food was more annoying than the gnawing hunger in her stomach, and now actually spacing herself from him could be regarded as a victory in it's own right.

"Pineapple okay with everypony?" Cantor asked, turning his head, but not really looking over his shoulder at the other ponies. A smattering of agreeable mumbles rose up from behind him, and he couldn't contain his cock-sure grin of anticipation as he placed the stout table lamp onto the floor, leaving the round wooden surface bare and smooth.

The already rather exasperated Faith became even more restless towards Cantor's present actions, but she disregarded her angst, as she was now certain that there was no food left in the canteen anyway, she might as well stay here and see what this alicorn was up to.

Cantor gently sat himself down in front of the table with an inextinguishable smile and closed his eyes in deep concentration. His mane and tail suddenly took on an appearance not unlike that of one of the princesses'. However, his mane did not shine with the multi-hued bands in which Celestia's did. Nor did this new hairstyle depict the contrasting shades of blue imprinted with hundreds of tiny stars like princes Luna's did. Instead, the white stallion's mane shined brightly with the golden light of day. His suddenly living mane billowed around his head and seemed to grow disproportionally in relation to the size of his body. His fluid tail gave the alicorn the appearance of sitting atop a cloud of light, and the transition from a seemingly normal pony to this godlike creature was so astoundingly unpredicted and strange, that it seemed almost instantaneous, despite the whole scene stretching across several seconds.

Cantor's horn blazed and pulsed a deep violet as he worked his impossible magic. A large part of him did not want to have to show off like this; he felt as though he were putting ponies below him, which he made blatantly clear some time ago that this was far from his objective. Every opposing point in the alicorn's mind could be justified by a good cause. For instance, having this ability put him comfortably within the scripts of a god, yet what he was doing with the power to create life, generate matter from pure nothingness, and indeed make a pizza from thin air, he was doing for his friends and the benefit of others. And that just might make it alright.

Faith's jaw fell way past what it physically could, and her pupils expanded enormously. She felt two very strong emotions tugging her apart at this moment: one was wonderment. Not necessarily towards the appearance her new friend had taken, rather, she was awestruck purely down to the fact that what this stallion had said earlier was true. The fact of the matter was that nopony could just make food appear out of thin air; this was purely common knowledge, but given the evidence that this impossible feat was happening right before her huge eyes, it struck her that Cantor was telling the truth: he did save the world, he was from another world, no... a different universe!" There was no clear reason for him to lie to her about these things, but the reality of such an impressive past seemed... impossible. Yet here she was, watching somepony she had known for less than an hour do something which was just that.

The other sensation was the heavy sensation of guilt pounding on her heart. This pony had saved the world. Therefore, he had saved her. All she did was laugh at him when he told her who he was. The subconscious thought stirred up apologetic urges, but the grey pegasus quickly dispelled these thoughts from her head and simply decided to join her equine companions in stunned awe.

She couldn't even find the mind to think, let alone piece together words to justify her expression. All she could bring herself to do was stand perfectly still, breathless as a large yellow disc formed upon the tabletop.

For what seemed like days, the ponies stood there, amazed and sceptical about what they were seeing. It was forgivable to assume this was a dream, but the reality was concrete, and this event was as real as it needed to be.

A minute or so passed, and eventually, Cantor's silky hair began to deflate and relinquish it's heavenly glow. The light in the room diminished until the petite lamp on the floor was the only source. The alicorn's ragged orange hair fell back into it's haphazard style along his neck with a slight whip, and his eyes flew open, revealing the telltale signs of the anxiety he now felt. He was found to be slightly out of breath, and his legs were unresponsive for a large fraction of time before he found the co-ordination to stand.

Rising to his hooves, all of his thoughts and assumptions were obscured by Faith's incredible expression. Cantor, despite himself, couldn't help but laugh at the mare's enormous eyes and wide open mouth. She was the pinnacle of astonishment, and Cantor would give anything to have a camera right about now, certain of the knowledge that he would never see this pegasus' face in such a way ever again.

He was the only pony laughing though, and it didn't take him long to realise this. Casting a worrisome glance around, Cantor could see that every single equine was mimicking the grey pegasus' expression, and it seemed that this wasn't going to change without his help.

"So yeah, I mean... help yourself..." Cantor stated, gesturing towards the sizeable pizza with his hoof. For one reason or another, this seemed to bring everypony out of their trance.

"That's it?" Asked Faith bluntly, sounding rather annoyed above anything else. "That's your special talent!? Making food!?" She huffed angrily and stomped her forehooves into the worn wooden floor, her mix of emotions coming out as aggression. "What good is that!?"

"I-" Cantor began to reply, but was interrupted by a telltale voice behind him. He turned around to see a very enthused looking Blue Bolt, stood before the magical food stuff, chewing rapidly.

"My word!" Said the enthralled blue stallion with his mouth full, declaring his intention to comment before he spoke. Cantor took a step towards him, noticing how his eyes were closed in delicious bliss. Everypony turned to Blue; often the voice of wisdom whenever arguments were concerned to hear his verdict.

He finished chewing his food before continuing, and when he spoke, he did so with the upmost citiment. "My word!" He repeated, a lot louder than before. "That was one of the most astounding things I have ever seen! You must show me how to perform this spell!"

Cantor hated to crush Blue's enthusiasm, but thankfully, Red began to query Cantor's spell before the alicorn could breathe a word.

"So... you can make any an' many a foods usin' jus' yer magic?" Asked the red pony, content with the knowledge that he could decipher what was going on, how this food came to be.

"No..." Answered Cantor with an unamused sigh, wondering what a waste of power this talent would be if it were solely used for making food stuffs, though the surprise was evident on the alicorn's face when he realised that, day to day, generating artificial food was pretty much all his ability was used for. "Well, mostly yes." Cantor corrected himself, smiling guiltily in the midst of his thoughts. "I mostly use this power to quickly make food for my friends back in Ponyville, but I can make... pretty much anything you can think of as long as I know how it works and what it's made of."

Faith became less than a little flustered and began to rant about Cantor's position on the team once again. "I can't believe this!" She huffed, encircling Cantor in the room. The alicorn turned as she walked, keeping his eyes fixated on hers as she attempted to poke holes in Celestia's logic. "You're the captain of the first ever space exploration mission with no prior military experience, be that combat or survival, and that title puts you in charge of eight other highly trained and versatile ponies who have each been in the army for over six months..." She paused abruptly and began to stare Cantor down. "I don't care what Celestia says, giving somepony with as little training as you the responsibility of a nine-pony trans-stellar exploration and research unit is downright insane!"

The pegasus spoke her mind, as she always did, never afraid of what other ponies may think of her. Nor would she lose much sleep over the potential loss of a friend. There was no doubt she cared for others and wanted to protect them, but it could simply be put that having her whole life as practically an experiment, she found it difficult to understand what true friendship meant, despite having a parental figure who’s kind words and wise lessons could bring even the darkest of souls into the light. This was Celestia's job, her right, and her duty, and no matter what anypony could say, no matter how many digs and taunts she received, the progression of the equine race; the survival of the planet rested solely on her and her sister's shoulders. If one were to sit down and analyse everything Celestia did and said, they would notice that everything which has happened in her life has happened for a reason, and that she had justified her good and bad decisions beautifully, including putting Cantor in charge.

Cantor took offense to Faith's tone, and argued back with renewed force. "I guess being the most powerful pony alive doesn't count for much in your eyes, then?" He sulked, tipping his head accusingly at Faith, who didn't react any more than raising her eyebrows. "The reason Celestia put me in charge of this... nine-pony, trans-whatever job, is because I have magic more powerful, more complex, than anything that has ever lived." He jeered at the pegasus, jabbing his hoof harshly at her. "This cutie mark, this picture right here..." He began, turning side on to show off the emblem on his flank. "It's not a special talent, it's not a unique power, it's a legend, a prophesy. It means sacrifice, that's the broken shield, and these coloured dots, I don't know if you can tell, but they’re the elements of harmony, a source of infinite energy that even I can't control." He was becoming out of breath in light of his rant, but the only thing the other ponies in the room were doing was tearing off pieces of pizza and watching the argument unfold, being entertained way more than they felt they should be. "Six of my friends, together, have also saved the world. Twice, as a matter of fact. Using the elements of harmony - including my own - I would be far beyond the script of a god. This is why I'm Captain, and this is the reason ponies hate me as soon as they see me."

He tilted his head downward and to the side, lost in deep, therapeutic monologue. "...I don't need this power... I don't want it... Not if it means loosing everything I love. You know what they say: absolute power corrupts absolutely..."

For a brief second, the alicorn fell into a depressive state of mind, his head a mess of dark thoughts about his magical abilities bringing about his own demise, when all of a sudden, for seemingly no reason, these ghastly thoughts darted from his concious thought.

Cantor began to aimlessly wave his hoof about in the air trying to emphasise his points, but all he managed to do was look the fool. "And another thing." He said. "Just because I can create matter from thin air doesn't equate for anything; I found out I could do that because of pretty much an accident, so don't go thinking I put myself above any of you just because of that."

"Ha!" Faith gave a very force laugh. "Don't worry, I won't!" She replied sarcastically.

"What's that tone for?" Cantor replied after taking mild offense.

"I never put you above me for a second. Don't worry about that."

"Good. That's what I like to hear."

"Good. I'll keep it that way."

"Good."

"Fine."

"Alright."

"Fine!"
"Fine!"

The two finished barely a hair's width apart, their muzzles practically end to end as they stared each other down ferociously. They could have locked eyes all night if it weren't for Red's placid intervention.

"Ya know..." He began, holding his nose proudly in the air as if he were making an intelligent observation. Cantor and Faith managed to break apart their intensifying stare to get a better listen to the red pony's words of wisdom. "They say the ones who fight the most get along the best..." He finished with the bringing down of his humungous head to make eye-contact with the two, his calm brown eyes doing failing for a setback to his speech. "Now shake hooves an' make up so we can all have a bit o' this pizza."

Not daring a glance at one another in the fear that something else could escalate, Cantor and Faith closed the distance between each other with their hooves and shook once, firmly, before descending towards the table with the steaming circular bread loaded with rich red tomatoes, golden-brown cheddar and the all important pineapple, slightly caramelised, of course.

"So... you can make... any food?" Asked Titter, or Flitter, Cantor couldn't tell. His only aid was the red necktie she was wearing, but this failed to bring him any closer to which mare was which.

"Y- yes." The alicorn answered, using a quick slashing spell princess Luna had taught him a while ago to dissect the round food into seven separate pieces. "Anything." He affirmed, levitating a buxom triangle of pizza towards his mouth. A long, thin strand of cheese trailed from the end as he did so.

"You can make oranges?" Asked the first unicorn's sister, rocking back and forth slightly on her hooves.

"Yes." Replied Cantor after he nearly guided the pizza into his mouth.

"Meringue?" The other unicorn twin asked with eager eyes.

"Meringue falls under anything, yes..." Cantor answered bleakly, hovering his slice of pizza beside his face, waiting for the couple of pale lavender unicorns to finish their oblivious questioning.

"Trifle?" Enquired the pony with the blue necktie, her enthusiasm as untainted as a filly's.

"Yes..." Cantor droned, feeling the heat leave his dinner by his head.

The sister with the crimson neck bandanna stroked her chin with her hoof and frowned half-heartedly at the floor. "What about... carrot cake?"

Cantor sighed, rolling his eyes as he spoke. "Yes again..."

"How about..." The blue-scarfed unicorn began, her eyes drifting upwards as she contemplated the possibilities.

"Girls." Cantor interrupted, holding up his hoof to quieten them down. "Anything you can think of, anything at all, I can make." He said with purpose, before adding. "Except plants and flowers... I'm not too good with those..."He glanced to the side, rather embarrassed and ashamed that he was not as perfect as some ponies expect him to be. And he felt isolated in the knowledge that there was no other pony alive who could teach him how to use this temperamental force called magic to such a degree.

Cantor made a move to finally take a bite of his pizza, when, predictably, he was drawn into conversation with the cool and calm red mercenary.

"Can ya' show us?" Red asked after taking one bite of pizza which reduced the slice by half, only needing to chew two or three times before swallowing.

"What?" Cantor replied, giving up on eating his food until the promise of silence was evident.

"You know." The earth pony reinforced, jerking his great brow up as he spoke. "Makin' stuff; what other stuff can ya' make?"

Once again, the alicorn let out a slightly displeased sigh. "I told you, anything you can think of, I can make. And it's not just food, either."

Everypony fell into a complacent silence, and, for the third time, a grumbling sigh passed Cantor's lips as he realised he was about to become a performing act for these ponies. "It's going to be a long night..." He mumbled under his breath, finally placing the triangle - shaped food into his mouth, his thoughts suddenly consumed by the looming fact that the cheese was too thick. "Oh, well..." He thought with yet another disheartened exhale. "Nopony's perfect..."

The night wore on, the remarkable (or so it seemed to one particular blue unicorn) Cantor had 'performed' many a task for the six other ponies, even going as far as replacing their hard sprung mattress with a feather-stuffed one, the least he thought they deserved after partaking in such a herculean job. At first, he felt like a cheap cabaret, showing off practiced spells, wowing his audience and what not. But after a short while, the white stallion seemed just as - if not more entertained with his own exploitations than the ponies around him, and pretty soon, he began to join them in thinking of new and, in a word, 'interesting' objects and items to conjure up out of thin air.

The whereabouts of the two obsidian-coated mercenaries was discarded amongst the other equines, who deemed that particular piece of information pointless to the group, and soon, the couple of red-eyed specialists went completely out the metaphysical window. The 'late evening' dragged on into the wee hours of the morning before anyone even noticed. It was only when Cantor went outside to check on the time when he discovered it to be a little past two o' clock in the morning. He burst back into the room, far more exasperated than need be, exclaiming the atrocious concept of time he held, not so much for his own negligence, but being conscious of the fact that he had left a mare with foal alone for so much time frightened him greatly; she would not be happy.

Cantor refrained from breathing a word to any of his new friends about Twilight, and instead tried to re-assure himself that some time alone might be good for the purple unicorn, but deep down in his mind, he was certain that Twilight Sparkle was going to be over-inquisitive as usual regarding exactly why he was home so late. Though he didn't want to face the lavender mare with scrambled hormones and a precarious temper, he could not bear ignore her a second longer.

Cantor burst into the even darker seeming bunkhouse from the bright white halls of the outside, oblivious to the temporary blindness as his eyes struggled to catch up with the drastic change in light.

"It's two in the morning!!!" Cried the alicorn, obviously very flustered, unlike the other sum of ponies in the room, who drearily peered up from the table of many foods and items to meet his perplexed amber eyes.

"So?" Asked Faith, looking up from her royal flush she currently had several tangerines hanging on in her card game with the cream pegasus mare sat a little off from opposite from her across the table.

"So!?" Cantor replied in a frightful tone. "I've got hurricane drills in the morning!" He said, beginning to pace back and forth between the dull-quilted beds. "Do you know how hard it is to make winds of over three-hundred miles per hour!?"

Cloud Nine's ears suddenly pricked up, and she quickly averted her eyes from the banana she was slowly peeling with great care. "You're in the weather team?" The cream coated pegasus asked, raising her fair eyebrows provocatively. "Which branch?"

"All the branches." Cantor answered hastily, his pacing distracting his thought-harassed brain from speaking with due concern. "I pretty much am the active weather co-ordinator for Ponyville..."

Cloud stared blankly for a moment before responding. "...I... I don't understand..." She said, cocking her head slightly, her uninformed notion receiving a gruff and obviously flustered sigh from the pacing alicorn.

"It's a long story." He clarified as he continued to pace as Twilight would whenever she had 'mislaid' a book or rare tome; continuously shuffling, re-tracing her steps until she discovered whatever it was that she was looking for.

Catching the misshapen expression from Cloud Nine, the white stallion promptly apologised for being so blunt. "Sorry..." He continued quietly, though he didn't make any attempt to halt his movement. "I mean... I have to be up early in the morning, and I'm sure you all do too, so to keep any of us from getting into trouble for being up at this time, I suggest we all get to bed as soon as possible." He hung his head shamefully and snorted briefly at the inevitable future. "But I think for me, it's a little too late to avoid trouble..." He concluded, his voice heavy with all mannerisms of unpleasant emotions.

"I'll tell you about my job some day, Cloud." Added the white pony, giving a really rather 'too modest' grin before he ended his welcome. "I should be getting home." The alicorn's impossibly powerful horn began to pulse a deep indigo as the image of the interior of Ponyville library came into view next to instantly, and in perfect clarity. "And I suppose you all should get to bed." He smiled and laughed in lieu of his upcoming 'joke'. "Come on, it's bed time!" Cantor cooed in a soft, mock-worthy voice. "If you stay up any longer, you'll be all cranky in the morning, so get some sleep..." Unsurprisingly, his ridiculous behaviour spouted no laughs, and seeing as though he had once again made a fool of himself, he made this his queue to leave.

"See ya, guys." Called the alicorn, the purple glow from his horn flickering off the walls like some kind of magenta candle. His response was met with a compilation of farewell calls, sounding much like it had done when Celestia left, though the good night goodbyes were considerably less formal than the ones used several hours ago.

When everypony had said their bit, Cantor left without so much as a fizzle, though a little of his aura scattered around the room for a short few seconds, trailed by a feint purple streamer as the little points of energy fled randomly outwards before fading into the air, returning the bunk-room to it's usual darkened silence and dim lighting.

The unicorn wearing the blue scarf, known only to those who had had her name imprinted into their brain as Flitter, turned to her sister with a troubled expression. "What a weird guy..." She proposed with a slight frown.

"Uhh, I don't know..." Titter replied with a barely visible blush across her nose. "I think he's kinda cute."

"Ugh!" Sighed Faith brutishly, letting her hooffull of cards fall face down on the fruit-ladened tabletop, turning around in her chair to catch a better look of the lilac unicorn's green eyes. "Not you too." Huffed the grey mare, not realising what she had said until it had left her mouth. Before anypony had the time to make a comment, before they even had the time to think of one, Faith turned back to her game with a lopsided grin and laid her hoof down, presenting the set of cards that won her the game quite literally, hooves-down.

"Ahh..." Sighed Cloud Nine, as she dropped her own cards lazily to the table and observed her smug opponent pull several tangerines toward her. "I thought I had that one in the bag..." The magnolia pegasus said with a defeated smile. Faith wasn't fully aware as to how she was going to eat all of these fruits before they went bad, but one thing she was certainly pleased of was that she had won them: they were hers.

Ponyville library was (as always) dead silent; even more-so now that it was the middle of the night, when even little colts' and fillies' parents should be in bed asleep. The inhabitants of the oversized treehouse, one purple dragon and one purple unicorn, however, were among the world of the waking, despite being as still and as quiet as the sleeping. Spike had taken himself off to bed, but, among other things, he was restless due to the navy-mane mare's absence. He wrapped his toasty blue blanket around his scaly body and attempted to get some sleep, but despite his heavy eyelids and mild headache, the adolescent dragon just couldn't drift off.

Twilight sparkle stood a little off from the middle of her library floor, waiting for her stallion to return. But hugs and kisses were not first on the list of what she wanted to do to him when he arrived. She cast her eyes from the slightly worn looking red door to her decorative cuckoo clock positioned neatly above it. Two-o-five. She breathed a very displeased snort and returned to looking directly in front of her. The silence was imposing, tangibly so, and the lavender mare had long ago become aware to every possible sound available: the quiet tick - tock of the clock, the steady sound of the library waterworks... she had even began to speculate the possibility of mice when the scratching within her walls began, and her predictions were confirmed when she saw a tiny brown rodent dart along a sparsely populated bookshelf nearer the top of the library.

With as little warning as possible, a white stallion flashed into existence directly in front of her face with a quiet little pop. He caught sight of Twilight's big purple eyes no sooner than he had arrived and began to scream in fright. His cry only lasted a second before he jammed a hoof into his own mouth to silence himself.

The unexpected shock of the lavender mare being in such close proximity as soon as he teleported quickly faded, and he managed to pull his hoof from his mouth along with a relived sigh. "How do you do that?" He asked, remembering in perfect clarity the first time he had teleported to directly in front of Twilight and nearly had a heart attack.

Completely discarding Cantor's question, Twilight replied with her own. "A bit late, aren't we?" She asked with displeased, half lidded eyes, her tiredness evident in her face, and in the way she spoke.

Cantor pulled away from Twilight and took several steps backward for some breathing space. "Yeah... sorry, Twi..." The embarrassed alicorn replied, scratching the back of his head gently to disperse some of the awkwardness. He had hoped to return quietly, maybe have a late night cup of tea, then slip silently into bed with Twilight and hopefully be up early enough to make her breakfast in bed to apologise for being out so late. Obviously this plan was out of the window.

"Why the heck are you back so late?" Asked Twilight accusingly. "What were you doing?"

Cantor stopped scratching his head and found the decency to make eye contact with the pregnant mare. "I was just meeting the other ponies who are going into space with me in Canterlot."

"Are there any mares?" Twilight asked, her tone forceful and as accusing as her expression.

"What?" Cantor responded, hearing the question perfectly, but curious as to Twilight's intention with it.

"Are there any mares on the team with you?" The lavender mare repeated slowly, becoming quickly agitated.

Cantor frowned in confusion and shrugged his shoulders casually. "Yeah. Why?"

Twilight rolled her eyes and put on a very fake, provocative smile, turning away and walking towards her pale cream sofa with a heavy step. "Oh, that's nice." She said in an overly sarcastic tone to the point where it was plain rude. "I'm sure you had lots of fun around a bunch of well-toned army girls." She planted herself on the sofa and sat there with discomfort, finding anything to look at apart from Cantor, who had followed her and taken the seat beside her.

"What do you mean?" He asked, once again knowing exactly what Twilight meant, but unclear as to exactly why she thought about it.

Twilight huffed loudly, looking at all the books on the tall hardwood shelves to distract her from the stallion's presence to her right. "You know what I mean." She replied curtly. "You're looking up other mare's skirts because I'm getting fat and disgusting, and not good enough for you, and... and that feels awful to me..." She was close to tears, but the very fine line between anger and frustrated sorrow held strong.

Cantor stared aghast, unsure as to how to approach this mare's statement. If it had been Rainbow Dash, or even Rarity who had come out with this, the alicorn would have known how to respond, but in these uncommon cases of Twilight's oppression, Cantor didn't even know what to think, let alone what to say or how to say it.

"Twilight..." He began, gobsmacked towards what he had just heard. "How can you say that?" To say he was surprised was a given; a far more accurate term would be saddened, maybe even to the extent of being disappointed.

"How many other mares are there? How many other ponies do you want to rub the wrong way?" The unicorn with the scrambled thoughts continued to interrogate, all the while looking furiously at the skirting at the foot of the wall and trying to maintain an empowered voice.

Cantor reeled his head back in aversion, frowning down upon Twilight although she could not see him. He found himself to be far more disgusted with how Twilight was putting herself down rather than how she was speaking to him right now.

"Twilight." The alicorn began sternly. "Don't start putting-"

"How many?" She interrupted, leaning backwards and burying her head into the soft pillows nearer the top of the cushy sofa.

"Why do you need to know?" Cantor returned, holding his forelegs outwards in a submissive manner.

"Well why don't I?" The agitated mare shot back, folding her front legs over her cumbersome bump in her well-rounded belly. "Do you have something to hide from me?"

"I'm-" Cantor began, cutting himself short before he began to raise his voice. He closed his eyes and let out a frustrated, yet calming sigh. He recalled the names of his shipmates for a number of seconds before answering. "Four." He said with distinction. "There are only four other mares in my crew. Happy?"

"Names." Said Twilight curtly, her emotions completely focused on anger and petulance.

The white stallion grumbled a sigh before complying with Twilight's 'demands'. "There's Titter and Flitter who are barely older than Scootaloo." Anger flared from his heart and he next spoke through clenched teeth. "Cloud Nine's FU-" Once again, Cantor cut himself short, briefly allowing his building anger simmer down, noticing how it was much, much harder to do the second time around. "...There's Cloud Nine, who’s married. The only single one there is Faith."

"Oh, that must have been nice." The purple unicorn spat, glancing over her shoulder just enough to give Cantor an eyeful, but not enough to make any real contact.

"The hell's that supposed to mean?" Cantor replied with just as much, if not more viciousness.

"You know damn right what it means!" Twilight yelled, turning her whole body around to stare straight at the stallion. Her eyes were bloodshot from tiredness, and her vision suddenly became a blurry screen of frustrated, confused, misguided tears. "How do you think it feels!?" The suddenly exasperated Twilight Sparkle cried, her voice finally breaking, allowing the many croaks and hoarse shouts of infuriated depression to flow forth at an uncontrollable rate.

"You don't know how it feels!" Twilight shouted, her voice bordering on a scream as her eyes poured with tears. Cantor flinched, and whatever anger or aggravation he was holding before dissipated immediately as the usually calm and collective mare before him broke down as a result of his own carelessness. "You don't know what it's like to look at yourself in the mirror every morning, stare down at yourself in the bath every night and see a disgusting, fat, bloated body, when all of your friends are nice and thin and beautiful!" Twilight's voice was fraught with desperation and hopelessness, often cracking and loosing direction as she got all of the pent up rage from her system.

Cantor could only stare and listen, horrified that Twilight - especially Twilight would speak of herself in such a way. What concerned him more, though, was the fact that these ghastly feelings had been concentrating inside the young lavender unicorn for some time, and he was too dense, too stricken with his own problems and worries that he had neglected Twilight's own strife. Cantor merely sat there, staring into those red-streaked, watery eyes wondering how in Equestria it could come to this, and right at a dire time when a major part of Equestrian history was about to be written.

Twilight Sparkle continued to become more and more flustered as her de-pressurisation continued, her tone getting increasingly desperate whilst staying lost in the realms of massive anger and self-pity. "Every day... Every day, it gets worse: the thought of you looking at other mares, wondering what life would be like if you hadn't chosen me! I have nightmares about coming home and finding you in bed with some flirt from Ponyville that keep me awake for hours on end worrying whether they're true or not!" She stopped, staring with the greatest intensity at Cantor with wild eyes as she took in short, shaky breaths before resuming her purge of emotion with a dampened soul. The dishevelled mare hung her head, letting her eyes fall dimly to the wooden floor below. Teardrops rained from her lips and her nose and landed upon the floor with a quiet 'tap'.

Twilight sucked in a breath, biting he bottom lip to prevent herself from wailing in sorrow and spoke softer. "Look at me..." She sighed, her spirit shattered and her will trampled. "Look at this..." The bereaved unicorn said, rubbing her distended stomach with a face of apathy. "Then look at you..." Twilight continued, staring again at Cantor with renewed tears, her face falling into the pinnacle of depression. "...You're handsome, strong, funny, brave, kind... I'm... I'm not... good enough... for you..." Her tear-sodden face slowly fell down into her hooves and she began to quietly, but by no means weakly cry, squeaking her last sentence through the bitter tears of loss. "...Not any...more..."

Not feeling anything other than remorse, and not knowing at all what to say to resolve the situation, Cantor shuffled closer to Twilight, her timid little sniffs and sobs only fuelling his desire to make her feel better. He steadily wrapped his forelegs around this heartbroken pony, feeling her wet face against his shoulder seep frigid tears into his coat. The alicorn half-expected to be pushed away, or rejected in some similar manner, but it seemed as though Twilight Sparkle still had some heart left to want to get better. Cantor began to slowly curl his huge white wings around the mare too, slowly stroking the tips of his feathers along her back to tickle her fur and make her shiver a little, urging her to hug back. But she didn't. The slightly larger white stallion then began to slowly cradle Twilight from side to side, planting gentle, but meaningful kisses atop her head whilst whispering "Shhh..." Soothingly into her ear.

For several more minutes, the pair sat there, trying to mentally configure who would speak first. Spare the occasional sniff, or hiccup of dolefulness, Twilight had calmed down, her steady, warm breath replacing the cold, painful tears as she revelled in the sensation of such a tender embrace. They could have sat there for hours, days, even. But if that were the case, they knew that this whole mess could never become sorted out, and eventually, though still a little prematurely it seemed, Cantor and Twilight separated, though they never broke eye contact, slowly moving away from each other until they were hoof-in-hoof, their bodies parted by means of only the most intimate embraces, their souls uniform in each other's eyes to the extent that they were one.

"Twilight..." Whispered Cantor, giving Twilight that intense stare he wore only when the time was right - such as now. "You. Are. Perfect..." He continued, shaking on the unicorn's hooves with every word to illustrate his point that much more along with his uncannily intense tone. Twilight did nothing but listen, trying to find some way to fault this stallion; trying to work her way around his words to stab herself in the heart again. But Cantor was having none of this. Like many times in the past, he watched Twilight melt into his will, fall under his command. He could feel her body relax as her pupils dilated and her flow of tears gradually stopped. At this point, the supernatural stallion assured himself that Twilight was indeed 'his', and that it was his duty to make her realise just how special she was in light of her undeniable compassion and empathy for letting somepony as average as him be a substantial part in her life.

Cantor slowly took a breath and squeezed Twilight's hooves tighter, his deep amber eyes blazing with the essence of some intense flame. "You are the best thing that has ever happened to me, and don't ever, ever say you're 'not good enough'... You're a very smart, talented, amazing mare, Twilight... but that is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard you say, because we both know that that is a huge lie."

The troubled purple mare had destroyed her ego in doubting herself. Even just a second of this self-depreciation on her part destroyed the stallion she loved, and she knew this. If even now, Cantor was overlooking his hurt; doing everything in his power to make her feel better, then maybe she actually did mean something to him: maybe what he was saying was true: maybe she really was 'good enough' for him. Twilight knew Cantor would hate it being said that way, so she left it in mental thought, the same mentality that the alicorn was now moulding with the assumption of ease.

"For starters..." Cantor began in a slightly brighter voice, a quaint smile forming on his lips in an attempt to show that he cared greatly, but that the matter was nothing to become so worried and depressed about. "You're not fat, and you're certainly not ugly... You're pregnant. That's al there is to it." His hoof rose upwards and stroked Twilight's chin lovingly, lifting her head and her spirits. "It's one of the most beautiful things a mare can do with her body." He said with an encouraging smile which nearly allowed a grin to surface on Twilight's face too. "I really doubt I need to tell you how babies are made, but given the circumstances, I suppose I need to..." He chuckled, and a slight smirk appeared on the lavender pony's face.

"When a mummy and daddy love each other very much..." He said, causing Twilight to giggle a little, then try and hide it, which made the urge to laugh even harder to suppress. "I don't need to explain procreation to you, Twi. But you seem to have forgotten that the reason you're getting larger is because there's another life growing inside of you; a product of our love..." He rolled his eyes to the side and sighed with humour, shaking his head slightly and smiling. "Ah, it sounds so mushy when I say it like that, but it's true..." He turned to face Twilight, who, in the brief time their spiritual contact was bent, had looked away and was now staring at nothing in particular for no particular reason. Maybe she still felt as though she was not up to Cantor's intensity: the thought of another session with those fiery eyes sent shivers through her entire being.

Her bemused concentration, however, was unpredictably broken when she felt her head being turned back toward her stallion, back into his bright orange eyes that always seemed to become even more striking whenever he sustained this mood. It was only now that Twilight realised her drowsiness, and her eyes fell to a half-lidded position, her lips falling slightly parted as she began to drift off. Her view of the tentative alicorn became increasingly darker, but her hearing stayed strong. She leaned back into the soft, warm cushions with a smile which could only be described as tranquillity itself. Making a half-hearted attempt to stay awake, Twilight felt the sofa dip inwards as Cantor himself reclined backwards, bringing his face to the same level as hers, taking in the legendary dozy stare which suited this mare so amazingly well.

"I know I say it every day, but it's what I live for..." The alicorn spoke with his most soothing tone, watching the last little bits of Twilight's eyes disappear behind their lids.

"...I love you, twilight Sparkle." He whispered. "You know that, right?"

But she had already fallen asleep, her serine smile undying upon her beautiful, perfect face.