Author's Notes:

Part 3/3 of the Changelings
Songs included:
Five Finger Death Punch- My Own Hell
Creed- What If and My Own Prison

Brian decided to leave on Sunday when he figured the school would be empty. Once he arrived on the other side, Discord was waiting with a black Mustang car and drove home.

“Ah. Home sweet home.”

Once at home, he shut off his cellphone for privacy and headed downstairs. He removed a guitar and amplifier from the bag and decided to start playing. A few songs that came to mind were Five Finger Death Punch’s ‘My Own Hell’; Creed’s ‘What If’ and ‘My Own Prison’. The only song of the three that stuck out was ‘What If’; but Brian loved the guitar rift and wanted to play it, while the other two summed up his situation.

Later as he was getting hungry, he decided to head to the store for a few things. He figured eggs, pancake mix, milk and cereal would be the easiest things to make and quickly rode to the store and back, hoping not to be recognized.

“Good evening. Will this be all for you,” the cashier asked

“Yes that's it.”

As he paid and headed out to his car, Brian spotted Applejack’s hat and wanted to make sure she didn't see him. It wasn't to be rude by not seeing his friends, but he just didn't want them to know what happened at home.

“Tomorrow, I'll head to the extreme-sports park I heard about. That might help,” he thought

The next morning he drove over early and paid the cost for admittance and headed to the motorcycle track. After getting changed in black armor, he was given a motorcycle to use.

Riding around to get used to the feel, he rode over some of the dirt jumps to reintroduce himself before speeding up and performing tricks over the jumps.
Although the tricks were simple in the way of just kicking his feet left and right off the bike, to perform can cans and nac nacs, it was helping to clear his head. Wanting a challenge, he decided to try a couple backflips. While he wasn't trying to show off, some of the other riders were watching and actually applauded his run. He was unaware of two of his friends were in attendance and watching.

“Hey Dash, doesn't that rider in black remind you of Brian,” Sunset asked

“Now that you mention it, it does remind me of him,” Rainbow Dash replied

Brian saw two of his friends and wanted to leave because he really didn't want to talk about what happened.

“Hey, Brian,” Dash yelled

“Yo.”

“Never knew you rode,” Sunset said

“Told you years ago.”

“What are you here for,” Dash asked

“Personal reasons,” he said before riding off

He decided to head to the mall the next day to get out. Taking precautions, Brian withdrew a roll of black tape and proceeded to tape his arms up to just below the elbow before throwing an a t-shirt and sweatshirt before heading out.

“Huh, a card shop. Looks promising.”

Upon heading inside, the store was covered with shelves around the perimeter with rows of tables in the center. As he looked around, Brian saw plenty of trading cards and decided to buy some.

“Good afternoon. Looking for anything in particular,” the shopkeeper asked

“May I get two Magic (the Gathering) Commander decks and a booster box of the latest set please?”

“Of course. The total will be $150. Would you like card sleeves for your decks? I'll give you them for free,” the shopkeeper asked

“Yes please. A set of black and blue, if you don't mind.”

After leaving the store, he checked out a few others that were promising and bought a few books Twilight would find interesting about this world's history. Octavia would receive a few new music books so she could learn some of his favorite songs. Vinyl would also receive a few Dubstep CDs to broaden her selection. Having been at the mall for a while, he decided on heading home to relax. Once he reached the door, Brian reached in his bag and pulled out one of his demonic butterfly sword as he noticed the door was unlocked.

“SURPRISE,” Pinkie shouted as he walked inside

Waiting inside the living room was Pinkie, and although he liked seeing his friends, the elimination of 250 changelings still weighed heavily on his mind. He pointed the blade at her and gestured towards the open door.

“Pinkie, please go. I'm sorry, but I'm not in the mood for a party.”

“Not even a little one,” she asked sadly “By the way, nice sword.”

“Not right now. I've got a lot on my mind.”

“Perhaps another time,” she said as she left

Once he left, Brian removed the tape on his arms and decided to jump in the shower before playing a few games. He made sure not to sign in on his Xbox account so no one could track him.

“How many know I'm here? Actually, I don’t even want to look at my phone to see the messages they've sent me,” he said out loud

After a few hours of playing, he actually lost track of time and ended up quitting some time in the early hours of morning.

“Is that really the time? Four in the morning? Fuck. I'm just going to crash out here.”

He shut the game off and decided to just sleep on the couch. Due to his extensive late night videogame session, Wednesday was a bust as he didn't have anyone to do, so he just decided on continuing the game from his last checkpoint and finished it early that evening, just in time for dinner.

“That was fun. Perhaps tomorrow I head to the gym. I think there's supposed to be a place that has mixed martial arts.”

Before heading to bed, he threw some gear into his duffel bag including a change of clothes, MMA trunks and gloves. The next morning when he woke, he threw the bag next to him and headed to the dojo.

“You're new. You know anything about martial arts,” a fighter asked as Brian approached

“I do. I'm a black belt in karate and 2nd dan in taekwondo. It wasn't here that I was taught.”

“Good luck,” the fighter said “By the way; I'm Mack.”

“Brian.”

Once he got changed, Brian headed to one of the heavy bags to work on his kicks when he was approached by Mack.

“Interesting ink you have. What's the meaning,” Mack asked

“I'm good at art. When I was 18, I got it done,” Brian lied

“Want to try a sparring match,” Mack asked

“Sure.”

One of the other fighters served as referee for the fight. Mack tried to go in for a takedown as Brian stopped him with a kick to the back of the head before wrenching an arm behind Mack.

“I give. No one has ever beat me that fast,” Mack said

“The last match I had was in high school. I fought a student from Crystal Prep, Blueblood. I choked him out using a modified rear-naked choke.”

“Modified? How so” Mack asked curiously

“My elbow was at his throat for safety. I really didn’t need him passing out, or worse.”

Brian fought against four other fighters and had each of them finished in moments. He knew that if he wasn’t thinking about the massacre, the fights would be different.

“Damn. You have hard kicks. I'm surprised you didn't break something,” one of the fighters said

“Sorry. Guess I have some pent up aggression that I'm finally letting out.”

“It's alright. We all get that way every now and again,” Mack said

“You! It's been too long. You kicked my ass at the Friendship Games and I want payback,” Blueblood said

“Let's go.”

Blueblood charged in to punch Brian and received a kick to the abdomen before Brian locked a triangle choke on him.

“Tap.”

“Fuck you,” Blueblood said

Brian released the hold and dropped his opponent on his stomach before grabbing an arm and wrenching with the intent to possibly break it.

“Give up or else.”

“You wouldn't,” Blueblood said

“In the mood I'm in; yeah, I would.”

To his relief, Blueblood was smart enough to actually tap out before receiving any damage. After that fight, he got changed and left before anything happened. After heading somewhere to get lunch, he headed home to relax by playing games.
“Perhaps Rock Band or Guitar Hero might be good,” he said

● CANTERLOT HIGH SCHOOL ●

“So, Brian's back in town. Why didn't he tell us,” Sunset asked

“I heard from Blueblood about them sparring at that MMA gym. He mentioned something about being in a foul mood and almost breaking Blueblood’s arm,” Rarity said

“And when we spotted him at the motocross park, he was performing tricks, but didn’t speak much,” Dash said

“I wanted to surprise him by waiting for him in his living room, but he had a knife and told me to leave. He said no to having a party,” Pinkie said sadly “Who says no to a party?”

“Well, you did illegally enter his home. The knife was probably the same he's shown us before,” Sunset said

“I don't think so. This was black and it seemed different,” Pinkie replied

“Different how,” Dash asked

“I can't explain it. His sword just felt like it wasn't normal,” Pinkie said

“So what do we do. We can't just barge in demanding he tell us,” Twilight asked

“We let him tell us if he's ready. Something's bothering him, and I'm not sure if we can help him,” Sunset replied

“Why not? He's our friend. Whatever it is, we can help with,” Pinkie said

“Maybe not. Shining told me about some of his friends who were diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. What if Brian did something that's similar and can't talk about it,” Twilight suggested

“Well, I'm going to stay here and see when he leaves,” Sunset said

● BRIAN ●

“Let's see. Heads, keep quiet on this, Tails, I spill my guts,” Brian said pulling out his trick coin

He flipped it and the coin landed on its side. As his rule was one flip determines the outcome, a coin on the edge meant let fate decide. For now, he would keep quiet, but when he returned, everything would come out.

After the coin flip, he decided on playing RB3 so he could use his Pro guitar controller. Having played a couple songs on his guitar the other day, the game would give him something different to do.

“I'm cutting my visit short and I'm heading home tomorrow,” he decided

After finishing the rest of the pancake mix off with dinner, he decided on heading to the backyard to sleep. Huginn and Muninn were waiting for him and as Brian threw his sleeping bag on the ground, his guardians actually stood on either side of him as he slept. Friday morning, he made an omelet to finish off the rest of the food he bought and headed off to the portal.

“Sunset, are you sure you need to spy on Brian? You are the school's guidance counselor, couldn't you help him,” Luna asked

“He's been avoiding us all week. Twilight mentioned PTSD, and if Brian has it, nothing we do may help,” Sunset said

While Sunset was preoccupied with Luna, Brian's departure went unnoticed as he returned home. The week helped; but in the end, he had to live with his decisions he made.

“Welcome back. Did the trip help,” Octavia asked

“It was alright, but it didn't help. I did see our friends, but I couldn't tell them about this. All I can do is live with my actions.”

“And I didn't tell them, like you asked. It's up to you to tell them,” Twilight said

“I'm going back on Halloween there. It's on October 31, a day after Nightmare Night here in Equestria. I'll spill my guts then.”

“You're going to do WHAT,” Twilight asked

“Spill my guts; in other words tell them everything. I have a total of 303 deaths attributed to me with 250 changelings, 50 club patrons, Lucy, ‘Jack the Ripper’ and Dusk.”

“What do you think they'll say when they find out you're a,” Twilight started

“Murderer? I'll explain the reasoning behind it. Besides, if I hadn't already visited Hell already, that would definitely give me a first-class ticket.”

“If you think that is the best course of action, I'll support it,” Twilight said

“And you know I will always love you, no matter what,” Octavia said kissing him

“Oh, these are for you,” he said removing the bags

“Wow! A history book based on the other side! Thank you,” Twilight said hugging him

“Music books featuring you kind of music? I can't wait to learn these,” Octavia said kissing her husband

“Ah, Vinyl. These are yours.”

“New music from the other side? Nice,” Vinyl said with a hoof bump

“What's the last bag,” Twilight asked

“A card game I played when I was human. It's called Magic the Gathering. I have two full card decks and a box that can be used to alter the decks.”

“You'll have to show me how to play,” Twilight said

“Some time later I will.”