“Brace yourselves!”

“What for––Agh! Jesus, what the fuck was that?!”

“Fucking Hermann’s payload just went up! I lost all control of the systems!”

“What do you mean the payload went up?”

“What the fuck do you think I mean? It fucking blew up! I’m switching to manual!”

“Holy shit, holy fucking shit what are we going to do now?!”

“We’re going to fucking live that’s what!”

“How?! It’ll be a fucking radioactive wasteland down there!”

“Lilly, calm the fuck down, that’s why Don had us put the suits on––”

“Deploying parachutes––GAh! Fuck! Oh shit! Everyone hold on!”

Ringing. All I could hear was a sharp ring tearing through each of my ear drums as I leaned forward and cradled the sides of my helmet. The sharp noise obscured everything by such a high margin I wasn’t even able to hear the sounds of my own groans as I undid my harness and crumpled to the metal floor. When I opened my eyes I could hardly make out my surroundings, yet I could see a blinding light peering through an opening in the side of one of the walls.

Still cupping the side of my head with one hand, I used the other to drag myself over to the door. Faintly, as my hand came into view with each pull forward, I saw that I was in some kind of pressurized jump suit, and the fog appearing in front of me showed the helmet I was wearing had some kind of visor. On it I could hardly make out what looked to be colored shapes and possibly digits, yet no matter how hard I tried to focus on them, I was unable to tell what they were.

The ringing in my ear slowly faded as I reached the opening and I was blinded by the light piercing through. I could hear myself groan as I shielded my face and forcibly pulled myself out of the metal tomb I had found myself in and fell a good few feet onto the ground right shoulder first. Crying out I gritted my teeth and rolled onto my belly and looked upon my surroundings and gawked when my eyes fell upon the source of all this light.

At the edge of the horizon it was as bright as the rising sun itself. As I quickly scrambled onto my knees I crawled forward and wiped the blowing dust off of my helmet and gazed with terrified awe upon the massive glow of a colossal, flaming mushroom cloud.

The sharp cracks of a hoof banging on my door snapped me out of my dazed stupor and I whipped my head around to gaze at my door. Taking a breath I gazed down at my table and noticed that I had fallen asleep in the middle of one of my journal entries. I sighed slightly and mumbled something as I tossed the quill I didn’t own to the side and closed the journal that also didn’t belong to me and shoved it to the edge of the table I had built with my beautiful carpentry skills.

Getting up I walked over to other end of the shack I had built back when my carpentry skills weren’t the brightest and undid the grass tied lock I had made last night. After undoing the knot I opened the door and grimaced when the bright, morning light blinded me.

“I’m not interested in butt marks okay,” I mumbled as I poked my head out and blinked just as I noticed Twilight gazing up at me with a confused look. “Oh...it’s you,” I grumbled.

Twilight shook her head as she disregarded my starting words and looked up at me with a smile. “Spike said you wished to see me?” I took a breath and momentarily broke eye contact as I tried to recall ever wanting to speak to Twilight.

“...”

Twilight tilted her head like a confused dog.

“...”

“Uh...is this a bad tim––”

“Shush your face, I’m thinking,” I silenced her with a firmly planted finger on her lips.

Twilight blinked and remained silent.

After a few moments I smiled lightly and nodded my head. “Yes I do recall actual.” I pushed my door open all the way, lightly smacking her snout due to her standing too close. Twilight yelped a little and stepped back and blushed a bit. “Please, c’mon.” I gestured for Twilight to come into my abode, yet the unicorn remained hesitant. “Or is my shack too filthy for your kind?” I cracked an eyebrow at her.

Twilight’s blush darkened and she shook her head. “S-sorry, Isaac...it's just that. This is the first time you’re allowing me to come inside.” She looked at me, her face seemingly touched by my simple offer to have her come inside.

“Yeah.” I nodded then said, “But if you’re just going to sit here and cry or something, this might be the last time.”

Twilight briskly shook her head then smiled. “Sorry.” She slightly bowed to me like some kind of Japanese business man before trotting inside, to which I then closed the door and turned to follow the unicorn.

“Feel free to uh...sit down and uh...” I gestured to the table I had expertly crafted, on it was the journal I didn’t own and some eggs I had stolen and cooked from the yellow one when she wasn’t looking. “Feel free to eat whatever your kind eats...like uh, eggs. You guys eat eggs right? I always forget this shit.” I looked at Twilight who seemed to be more interested in the poorly built home I had constructed in my early days.

Good thing I had planned on expanding soon, maybe then I could possibly rework some bits. “Oh uh...” Twilight looked at me. “I don’t eat eggs often but yes. We ponies can eat eggs.”

“Well I knew ponies could. I just didn’t know if you hornies prefer some kind of...pizazz or some shit added to it,” I said and gestured the second half with some mighty fine jazz hands.

Twilight snorted and shook her head, seeming to have not taken any offense she looked at me with a smile. “No, we unicorns can eat everything earth and pegasai ponies eat. Now what you're thinking of is Rarity, she probably wouldn’t touch these.” As if to prove her point, Twilight levitated a plain omelette over and took a bite out of it. Her face grimacing momentarily as she chewed and swallowed it.

I chuckled. “I don’t have any spices to add to the flavor and uh...that’s been there since last night.” I smirked as Twilight’s face turned a slight shade of green and she nodded before levitating the egg back to its original resting place. Chuckled and gestured towards my other chair. “Have a seat.”

Twilight nodded and obliged, taking a seat on my perfectly constructed dining chair, I sat across from her on my poorly designed, but suitable stool. “You’re probably wondering why I requested you to come.” Twilight simply nodded her head and I took a breath. “Well there’s a few reasons why I had you come...Twilight’s your name right?” This seemed to shock the mare as she leaned back partially in shock.

“Yes, yes it is.” She nodded and leaned forward.

I smiled. “Okay the, Twilight...first I want to ask you an important question.”

Twilight smiled widely and she nodded. “Okay, what do you want to know?”

“Why do you care about me?” Twilight reeled back as if I had just punched her in the face and she gawked.

“Uh...because...eh...uh...” She had completely fallen into gibberish, for a few moments she verbally tried to compile her thoughts before finally shaking her head and taking a deep breath. “Isaac...” She started slowly and looked at me. “I care about you because I am the Princess of Friendship. It’s my job and right to try and befriend and help those no matter who they are or what their background is.”

I snorted.

Twilight cocked her head at me and frowned. “What’s so funny?”

I shook my head. “O-oh nothing, I uh...just couldn’t get over the title. I never heard of a Princess of Friendship, it uh...just kinda came from left field.” I took a breath as Twilight rolled her eyes and sighed. “But...so you, a horny, is the Princess of Friendship?” Twilight nodded. “And cause of that, you think me: an asshole who just wound up here and is an utter prick to everyone, has the potential to be your friend?” I pointed at Twilight.

“Well of course, Isaac. Yes you can be brutish or kind of mean, but...” Twilight took a breath. “You’re not evil and everypony can always come around like look at us now, we’re talking or look at Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie the three of you are friends.” Twilight sighed once more as she tried to gather up her words. “Isaac, the reason why I helped you get out of jail is because I think I can make you a better pony––”

“Person.” I interjected.

“Sorry?” Twilight raised an eyebrow.

“You can help make me a better person,” I corrected her.

Twilighted nodded. “Thank you.”

“But what if I don’t want your help?” I asked Twilight who looked at me with wide eyes.

“Uh...I...” She bit her lower lip. “That would make me feel rather ashamed that I could not help you make any friends.”

“But what if I don’t want friends?” I asked and leaned forward.

“Then I would pity you.” Twilight looked up at me.

I blinked and leaned back. “You would pity me?”

Twilight nodded quietly and took a breath. “Isaac, when I found you crying deep within the Everfree, all I could think about is giving you a hug and comforting you.”

“And when you tried that I punched you in the face.”

“Correction, you tried to punch me in the face.”

I chuckled. “Well maybe next time you should let someone know you’re trying to help them before sneaking up on them and smothering them with your wings.” Twilight blushed and looked away silently. I chuckled and took a deep breath before looking up at Twilight. “Look, Horny...Twilight, I just wanted to thank you for getting me out of jail.” Twilight glanced back up at me just as I leaned back and rubbed the back of my head. I could feel the blush burning on my cheeks as I found what I was saying rather...embarrassing. “And I wanted to...apologize as well for ruining that party you guys threw for me I just, I was still angry about what you did to me and well...I just really fucking don’t like your unicorns.” I said bluntly.

“And why is that?” Twilight asked me.

I froze. “...”

Twilight leaned forward and looked at me more closely. “Please, Isaac, if something happened to you in the past. Just, you don’t need to talk about it, but I can assure you, I’m not like Rarity or a lot of the Canterlot Unicorns. I try not to judge ponies based upon the appearances or actions, and I certainly do not act upon my judgements. So please, just tell me, I’ll even keep it secret, why don’t you like unicorns or magic?”

“I don’t know.”

“Eh?”

I looked up at Twilight, my eyes wide and I could feel my hands shaking. “I-I don’t know why.”