I managed to almost get asleep with the memory of the interrogation wrapped around me like a protective cocoon before I broke.

"That shouldn't have worked." I threw a thread bare blanket over myself.

"That was probably the best day of my life." In Equestria, but I wasn't going to say that out loud.

I felt my face burn with red when I thought about what had happened. "Never thought I would enjoy it so much..." It was addictive, two people going at each other with each one trying to dominate the other in a twisted game of primal intent. Trying to wrestle free what they were holding back, forcing them to give up what they thought I wouldn't.

I never thought an interrogation would be so... fun is a bad word to describe it, but it still fit.

The harsh scent of fear in the air, the copper of blood, the acting and my partner, both taking turns having as much fun as possible. Listening to the screams and only wondering distantly what every one on board thought we were doing... The endorphin rush...

Wow. I made that sound really dirty.

And I got to spend time with my crush. Though, just thinking the word crush made me feel childish. My face burned darker when I remembered what she smelt like and recalled what she had felt like.

Damn. I sound really creepy.

I blame Malice.

Which would've been the last thing I thought before sleeping if I hadn't realized what I had thought.

I hadn't heard from Malice the entire day. The spidery bane of my mental existence hadn't once spoken up.

Which really worried me.

But maybe it shouldn't. Maybe I should be happy that I can't hear him or he got tired of fucking with my head.

It really hit me right there that I was living the absolute weirdest thing I could easily imagine. A zebra from another world who is crushing on a griffon and somehow has souls or something living is his head along with a tophat wearing spider.

What the actual fuck is wrong with my life?

I ignored what little bit of rationality I was stubbornly trying to cling to and pushed my concerns about the spider away from me.

This world favored the bold.

With nothing really resolved, and a bit of doubt in my mind on what had happened that day, I went to sleep with memories of feathers gently floating through my head.

Needless to say, I slept well.

You might say I slept very well.

----

I wandered into the cargo hold the next day to help search through the various loot we had obtained off of the ludicrously easy to kill dogs.

Which worried me. If slavers were that easy to take out what was to stop a sufficiently motivated human from coming into Equestria and literally taking it all over? I mean, he or she would have to assemble a semi massive army and arm them with basic tech, but if it was that easy why hadn't it already happened?

Or... maybe it was happening. A human warlord, getting technology to ransack the country side.

It wouldn't even be that hard...

I shook my head. I needed to worry about me, not daydream about some other human with a cooler airship going around beating things up.

Hm. Wonder how big of a nerd the hypothetical human would be.

My eyes shot wide as a set of talons pricked my back, making me fall out of my thoughts. "Eh?" I asked, looking at Cata.

"Do your part. Get a weapon." She muttered, her eyes looking back down at the pile.

Swords, chipped and scratched, an axe, dull and almost useless. A bow, string probably needing replaced. A few sets of tattered stained and rotting armor, fit to be burned.

I looked over the three new arrivals to the ship. They were quiet, keeping to themselves. I was expecting them to be more... vibrant, less of a background character and more of perky happy ponies wanting to get a taste of adventure. You know, the comic relief of the omniverse? They were supposed to provide a bit of humor as we laughed at their attempt to make something of themselves until they proved themselves in a dramatic combat scene or slowly...

I was getting off topic and I was liable to bleed if the looks Catastrophe was sending me were anything to go by. "Yeah yeah."

Nothing of any real value and I managed to keep my cliche ridden thoughts from overcoming my concentration for a long time.

I turned to the griffon to see if she had seen any intrinsic value in the slavers remains that I hadn't. "Any luck?"

She smiled lightly. "All I found was a knife." She hefted a thin blade, very thin.

I nodded. "Let me see that."

She shrugged and gave it to me. "Say... what do you plan to do about your island? By what that dog was screaming I would say that something fucking scary is on it." I realized, just shortly after I met her, that her swearing was barely conscious. It was more of a speech quirk than any real expression.

The knife was an old knife. Really old. The blade itself was barely half as inch wide and looked mismatched to the stocky grip on it. It looked well polished, and sharp. It seemed like it had once been bigger than it was now, like the loving hands of dozens had carefully sharpened it, each use of the grindstone shearing off another bit of it.

In a way, it was like me. The hands of fate that guided my path had slowly been shearing off parts of me as well, leaving me feeling sharp and jagged.

Woah. Getting philosophical.

I finally spoke after she cleared her throat. "I plan to survey it. See what is occupying it." I looked back at her and smiled. It was such a stupid plan. There was no way it could go...

The only warning I had was a tingling sensation in my legs before I collapsed on the ground, my body losing the ability to respond to my thoughts. I fell against the pile of weapons and felt my mouth move to grip the knife tightly.

I stared into her eyes, my mind alight with the fire of passion. She smiled lightly and we both knew that we should share in the moment, nothing more, nothing less. "You're hot." There was a light purring and it filled my ears with the pleasant rumblings.

I mumbled, my green wings just barely visible from the corner of my eyes. Catastrophe sat next to me, her beak lightly nipping at my neck...

Sharp.

Pain.

My leg.

It hurts.

It's wet.

I can taste the knife.

My blood.

It's in my mouth.

It tastes like copper.

I can...

Taste the pain...

"-Hold him down!"

"What did you DO?"

"I don't... we were talking..."

"-ary! Hurry up! Do something!"

"-Trying to."

"It's everywhere. It's everywhe-"

"-et the knife out of his mou-"

"I'm trying!"

It hurts.

Help

me

I feel so cold.

I'm still here.