Still not entirely sure what just happened, I moved back to my spot on the ground next to the tree. Twilight was still in the cage, and it appeared that she was beginning to get uncomfortable. To myself “I’ll leave her in for another twenty minutes before I pull her out.” Lying back against the tree I noticed a bright flash to my right before a rather large box poofed into existence with a note attached to it. Reaching over for it, I realized that it must be a package from Hermes’ delivery services. “Guess he is serious about delivery anywhere” I muttered to myself before reaching over to grab the letter first. Opening the Letter I read

‘Dear Magos,

Please find enclosed your order. I modified it to your specifications, but I’m still not sure what you wanted one of these things for. I took it to a range to test it, and I felt like it almost ripped my arm off. I made sure to give you two gross of shells. If you need more for some crazy reason just let me know.

Good doing business with you.

Frederick Chase

P.S. don’t tell Annabeth that I’m still messing with stuff like this. You know she will kill me for getting involved again. Keep safe, and good luck with whatever you are doing.”

Reading the letter a few times my face broke into a huge grin, reaching down I hefted the package up to get it open. The thing was massive from everything it held. I can only imagine that it must have cost close to a hundred drachma to send this thing to me. “Remind me to send him a big tip with my next order,” I said to myself, ripping off the packaging I pulled out the two ammo boxes filled with rounds. “Pretty cool of him to put a full two gross in with this. Good thing I got him so much celestial bronze.” lifting one of the shells out of the case just put it into perspective how much this thing weighed.

Placing the heavy shell back into the ammo case I moved to open the gun case. I put my hands on both sides with my thumbs on the clasps, slowly I let out a breath as I clicked open the case to finally get a good look at my brand new, customized Thunder .50 bmg. The most substantial handgun ever made. Of course only in America could a gun manufacturer decide that they wanted to make a ‘hunting pistol’ that fired .50 caliber rounds, designed to be in a sniper rifle.

I hefted the massive hand cannon up and gave it a once-over. I looked down the sides and barrel to see the masterwork of scrolling that Fred had etched into it. The bronze and silver filigree making it sparkle in the light. I will admit that I got this thing mostly because I thought it would be badass to have one. But at the same time, I knew that I also wanted to go out and shoot it.

Lifting myself off the ground, I walked over to the cage and opened it. “Good work today Sparkles. We are done for the day, go on home and grab a shower. I would encourage you to spend the rest of the day relaxing. We will be doing the same thing tomorrow morning.

She groaned before noticing the pile of stuff where I had been sitting as well as the hand cannon in my right hand, pointed at the ground. “Um… Magos? What is that thing?”

I looked down at the Thunder and smirked “This Sparkles, is a human technological wonder. This is the Thunder 50 BMG hand cannon. It has a muzzle velocity of 2,895 ft/s with a total 14,895 ft.lbf. Or if you want to get technical 20,195 J. I think I will name her Guinevere.” My smile could have cracked my face. I have been waiting on this thing for over a year now. At this point, I didn’t even know if Fred knew where I was. But at this moment I was ecstatic.

Twilight looked confused still “um… that sounds like you are naming off the specifications of a crossbow.” she gave a nervous chuckle, “but the numbers that you just rambled off are impossible. There is no way that that thing would be able to make a bolt go that fast. It would shatter from the force.” She said that with confidence.

I nodded, “you would be absolutely correct were this thing firing bolts. However, Guinevere doesn’t fire bolts. She fired bullets. Now go get a shower, and if you are fast, you can watch me test it out before I go see what it is that Pinkie and Rainbow have planned for me.” For some reason, Twilight face lit up with a blush at that comment, and it seemed almost as if she were going to ask to come too. I kept an eye on her, as she made her way to the treehouse to make sure she got there safe, but at the same time started to manipulate the raw magic in front of her to see if she could notice.

She made it to the door without saying anything, so I figured that she would need more practice before she would be able to notice slight variations in the magic around her. Twenty minutes later found us walking out of Ponyville as we made our way out to a clearing that was far enough from the village that I didn’t think that it would cause any issues.

About halfway there, low and behold Pinkie found us.
Jumping in front of me seemingly from nowhere Pinkie appeared “Hey Twi, hey Maggi. What are you two up to?” Her bright blue eyes seemed to sparkle as her happy attitude and smile seemed to infect Sparkles and me.

Holding a fist out to her to bump, which was apparently a prevalent form of greeting here I responded “I’m just off to try out a new item that I just got. Sparkles here wanted to see if what I told her about it is true. Feel free to come if you’re interested. I haven’t forgotten about you wanting to go somewhere with me today.” I kept walking but decided to add “And feel free to invite Rainbow as well.” That seemed to light a fire under her, and she zipped off without saying another word. Shaking my head and laughing to myself I commented under my breath “Sometimes that Mare scares me.”

As Twilight and I got to the point that I felt like would be the best place to test out Guinevere, I was shocked to find that Pinkie and Rainbow were already there waiting. Dumbfounded I commented aloud “w-what in the? I didn’t tell you where I was going. H-how?”

From the side Twilight placed her hand on my arm, turning to look down at her, she spoke “Don’t try to understand her. Even I have given up on trying to figure her out. You will only break your mind trying to figure it out.” She had an almost haunted look in her eyes, so I took her for her word.

Turning back to the two I decided to just ignore the fact that somehow Pinkie had both found Rainbow and managed to beat me to the meeting point without even knowing where I was going. “Well good to see you both. Not sure how you made it here before us but that doesn’t really matter.” I pulled out a couple of Target slips that I had in my back pocket before looking out to see some tree in the distance. Point to one I spoke to Rainbow “Hey Rainbow, could you do me a favor and stick this to that tree over there?”
Rainbow took the sheet from me and looked out at the tree, speaking to me Rainbow said “You sure you want me to put this out there. That has to be over 300 yards from us. What are you going to do?”
Nodding I replied to her “It will be just fine. I just want to test out my new toy and a spell that I have been working on for a while.”
Rainbow shrugged and made to move before looking over her shoulder and commenting “you know you can call me RD.” She smirked and zipped away to hang up the target. In just a few moments she was already back, smirking. “So hot stuff, what are you going to show us?”
My ears tinged a little red at her comment, but I decided to let it go. There was no way that she was flirting with me. All the women of this place are way out of my league, damn all the guys of this world were out of my league too. Well, that was a depressing thought. Shaking my head, I responded “Well as I told Twilight” I pulled Guinevere from her case “this is Guinevere. She is my Thunder .50 BMG hand cannon. As for what I am doing. I am giving her a test run.”

I closed my eyes to help me concentrate on folding the myst into the form of an invisible scope. I had been playing around with the idea of a scope spell for a while now. But at this point, I think I had it nailed. The scope would give me a perfect look down the barrel without me having to have my face anywhere near it. It was almost as if there was a tiny camera on the end of the barrel and the screen was hooked up to my right eye, wherever the barrel was currently pointed, is where my right eye was looking.

Opening my eyes together was a mistake, as doing so gave me two different views that my brain was trying to force together. Quickly before the sight could make me sick, I shut my left eye. “Fuck that wasn’t a view that I enjoyed!” I blurted out loud, now holding my stomach in an attempt to keep it steady. I shook my head and got my bearings back before I aimed the end of the gun down range at the target.

Amping up the myst a bit more I found it increasing the magnification of my view to the point that it felt like the target was only a few feet away from me. Smirking to myself I shouted out “Fire in the hole” then turned my head to the left and right before repeating myself. Leaning back I commented “by the way, this thing is really loud. So you may want to cover your ears.” Calming my breath, I exhale slowly before I began to squeeze the trigger.

https://youtu.be/nMkiDguYtGw?t=15s

<start at 15s>

The shot rang out and caused all three of them to jump in the air, but what scared them was when the tree that my target had been pinned to began to fall over. Turning my spell off I opened both eyes and looked down rage, “Damn… This bitch has a hell of a kick.” Grinning I looked back at the three mares and felt my heart twitch with regret, all three of them had a split second look of horror on the faces before they notice me turning to them as the looks quickly left their faces.

Rainbow recovered quickly and shouted out “What the buck was that?!”

Sparkles shook herself and gave me a forced grin “I guess you weren’t kidding when you told me all that statistical data. Um… If you don’t mind me asking, where were you going to be storing that thing? I… I uh….I’m not sure how I feel about something like that being stored in the treehouse while Spike is home.

I realized that I had made them uncomfortable and that niggling little voice the back of my mind spoke up ‘here you go again, ruining everything before you can even start. You didn’t give enough forethought, and now she wants you gone.’ Shaking the thoughts from my mind, I responded: “Don’t worry about it Sparkles, my trunk will keep it plenty safe.” She didn’t look convinced so I figured that I would just show them. Flicking the back open so I could discharge the shell I popped it out and tossed it in the air for a bit as it cooled down. “Just follow me, and I will show you.” We made our way back to where I had left the ammo crates before we walked back to the Treehouse.

I was trying to walk with confidence, but at the back of my mind I couldn’t help but feel like they might just want to get away from me. Looking up in the sky to judge the position of the sun I noticed that it was much later in the day than I had expected, likely close to 4 pm.

As we trudged down to the basement, I set everything down next to my truck before I squatted down to open it in the right way. Turning back to the three mares behind me “My trunk is a little bigger than you think, and quite a bit more secure.” Flicking the two hidden switches that were next to the regular ones in just the right way I flipped the trunk open, standing up I picked up one of the ammo crates by the handle and stepped down onto the ladder rung as I began to climb down. Keeping an eye on the shocked faces of the mares as I descended.

Calling up the ladder “Feel free to come down, and don’t worry about the other crate. I can grab it in a bit.”

Twilight looked over to Pinkie with a questioning look, only to find that she was already on here way down the ladder. Giving herself a couple of good slaps to the cheeks to syke herself up she walked over to start climbing down and muttered “please don’t let him be a guy version of Pinkie. One is all I can take.” what scared her though was a quite, yet familiar voice that seemed to whisper in her ear. “One Pinkie is all this universe can handle.” She looked around to see if Pinkie was playing a prank, only to find Rainbow waiting for her to descend the ladder.

“Come on egghead, I wanna see what he has down here, don’t you?” Rainbow accused

“Of course I do Rainbow, Just give me a moment.” Twilight shot back.

Dropping the Ammo box down on one of the shelves I noticed my remote for the sound system and I decided to hit play to see what I had left in there.

https://youtu.be/60LLKmpgzRM?t=17s

<start at 17s>

I chuckled to myself before muttering “I must have been thinking about her last time I was down here listening to music.”

Pinkie jumped up next to me before asking “who were you thinking about?”

Sighing I responded “My birth giver, this song is called Hate. I felt like it expressed my thoughts on her quite well.” I was so bitter at the thought that I didn’t notice how her eyes seemed to go flat after I had said that. However, I noticed that my mood shifted to my ever-present depressed state. The thoughts of worthlessness hit like a train. I could almost feel the air grow thicker. Looking around the room, I took in everything that I had collected over the years.

Trophies from various monsters that I had killed, bits of tech that I had collected and given to the Hephaestus kids to tinker with, and all of it, my entire life's collection I would have traded away to have someone that I could have come home to. A parent, my father. Someone that I know she could have saved if she really cared about him.

Twilight and Rainbow had been looking around with wide eyes as they listened to the dark music. Rainbow was drawn to the weapons, Twilight to the trophies. Turning to me Twilight asked “um… Magos? What is this?” She pointed to a Griffon Tallon that was sitting on my shelf.

Shrugging I respond “nothing really, I won that back a few years ago when I had to fight a griffon. It was causing problems in a populated area, and I was sent to deal with it. Why?”

She looked almost horrified “Griffon’s are sentient here. They live in Griffonia.”

My face paled “shit, um sorry. They aren’t sentient back where I am from. At least no more than any other monster is.” I could tell that she was still nervous and wanted to leave. “Hey how about we get out of here. And as you can see this is a safe place for me to store Guenevere, no one can get in here but me, okay. I’ll go up last after everyone is up there okay?” They all nodded. I waited a moment after the three of them had climbed up before I moved to follow them.

I wished I had waited longer as I heard them talking.

Twilight whispered, “how can he just have something like that sitting on a shelf?”

Rainbow responded “hey I still think he is cool, but I have to admit it was a little creepy to see that. I have a friend that is a griffon, and I know she wouldn’t be too thrilled by that.”

Luckily, or perhaps unluckily Pinkie didn’t say anything. I decided to grunt as I made my way up to them, just to let them know that I was coming up. Turing to them I couldn’t judge their faces, so I spoke “hey I know that we were supposed to hang out today, Guess things got carried away with other stuff. I’m feeling kinda tired, would it be okay if we postponed things a bit? I am still a little wiped out from the move and party.” I swear that I saw Twilight breath out a sigh of relief, that potentially imagined action seemed to twist my gut further.

I realized that I'm just imagining things right now. Over my life, I have been able to notice the signs of a low day beginning to form. Pinkie spoke up “It’s okay Maggie, My parties are super fun. We can always have fun later right?” there was a look of understanding in her eyes.

Smirking I nodded “Absolutely. As for now, I think I’m going to get a nap in.” They all nodded and walked out of the room. Now alone I decided to fall into the bed and let the scent of lavender calm my mind as I drifted off to sleep.

I awoke suddenly without realizing what time it was. Turning over and groaning I spoke to myself “Fuck, I hate depression naps. I always feel like shit when I wake up from one.” Looking down at my music player I notice it reported that it was three a.m “Just love the ten-hour depression naps too.” I bitterly laughed to myself. “Well too awake to keep from going back to bed. Might as well go for a walk around” Feeling inspired I jumped down into the trunk to grab my keyboard.

After leaving the house, I walked around the outskirts of Ponyville before I noticed a hill overlooking a pond. Dragging myself to the top, I sit down and pulled my keyboard over my legs before I began to play a piece that I felt fit my mood wonderfully.

https://youtu.be/S1T3UF1vhSk?t=4s

<Start at 4s>

Each note seemed to strike a chord with me. I was never good enough to write my own music, but this composer was able to capture my feelings without ever having known me. So enraptured with the song I never noticed the sound of wings or a figure landing behind me. Not until the final note did it become apparent to me that I was not alone anymore.

“Twas a sad melody. For what reason did thou place such a piece?” the unknown mare said.

I chucked now realizing who it was that had snuck up on me “weren't you supposed to be taking lessons on modern speech Princess Luna?” I turned back to confirm that it was, in fact, Luna who had snuck up on me “not to say that you are unwelcome of course. Although I am intrigued as to why you felt like gracing me with your companionship on this beautiful night.” She seemed to blush at my comment. I was confused at first before I remembered that Celestia had informed me that Luna was the goddess of the night and that she composed each night herself. At least now that she returned.

“We...I am trying to improve our...myself. But you did not answer our...my question. Why play such a sad piece of music?” She responded.

I turned back to look at the moon before I responded “I apologize for tainting your night with such sorrow. I should repay you with a song that doesn’t feel so down. As for why I was not feeling all that great for a bit. Just a low point, but I’m fine.” I thought about it for a moment before remembering a different song that would hopefully raise the mood. “I know a better song to play. It was written by a famous composer. It is called Clair de Lune, or Moonlight.”

I began to play.

https://youtu.be/CvFH_6DNRCY?t=7s

<start at 7s>

I loved this song, it was one of my all-time favorites, As I played, I looked up at the full moon. The same full moon that I had looked at every night since being here. This was not Hecate's moon. No this was Luna’s moon, and for that reason, I was finally able to truly love its light.

I didn’t see Luna’s face as I played, I never took the chance of looking back, else I might have seen her eyes begin to water as I played the piece. The notes seemed to sing with new life in the presence of the goddess they might as well have been composed for. I swayed with each passing flow of the notes.

As I finished the song I let out a sigh before speaking, not once looking back at her “You know Princess Luna, all my life, whenever I looked up at the moon at home. I always felt bitter.” I heard a sharp intake of air behind me “you may not know this, but the one that gave birth to me is the goddess of the moon back where I come from. So in a way, I am a child of the moon. But up until I came here, the moon always seemed to mock me. It was the favored one, not me. Never me.”

Turning back to look at her I continued “But here, this moon is yours. It maintains its full nature. It is a piercing light that keeps even the darkest of nights from consuming it.” turning back to look back up at her moon I finished “It really is beautiful, your night sky. Maybe one day you can make it as beautiful as it’s creator?” I heard a pop and looked back to see that she was gone.

“Good job dumbass. You're going to have to write her an apology letter for being such a creep.” Shaking my head back and forth I looked back up at the moon. “At least I can live with this moon looking over me.”

__________________________________________________

Miles away in Canterlot
__________________________________________________

Luna runs through the halls of the palace to Celestia’s chambers, her face a deep crimson, almost to black. Bursting into her room, Luna leaps to the bed before shaking her sister “Tia wake up, I have to talk to you.”

Celestia woke with a start from being so roughly handled “What, pray tell, would require you to wake me up so early sister.” her face turned to worry “is something wrong?”

Luna blushed a deeper shade and shook her head “Nay dear sister. I am simply...I...I don’t know where to begin.”

Celestia looked into her eyes before placing her hands on her sister’s “Just start from the beginning, Lulu. what happened.”

Luna launched into a description of what had happened, starting from the moment that she had noticed that Magos had left the dreamscape and finished as he gave her his last words “And then sister, he...well he asked if it would be possible to make our night sky as beautiful as it’s creator. We… I mean I am not sure how we should feel about this kind of compliment. It has been many hundreds of years since last we were paid such a compliment. Not since before…”

Celestia wrapped her sister in a hug, already knowing what she was going to say. “It’s okay Lulu. I’m not sure what was meant by it. Magos was raised to pay compliments like that to gods and goddesses in fear of reprisal. But from what you described, it does not sound like that was the reason for him doing so. As I have come to believe, there is much about Magos that we do not know. But I feel as if it is something that both of us would love to find out.”