In the history of humanity, we have always wondered that out there in the universe if there was other intelligent life out there, we had wondered if we are alone out here but we weren't. Humanity always wondered about so many things, mostly about things about life, the future, and ourselves. Me? I always wondered how the hell do I let myself get into situations where I screw myself over on purpose, or how I always lash out at everything but I know the answer to both.

I just never cared about anything or anyone after what happened on Luna Colony.

My eyes were casted downward toward the sea beneath the three of us, Mirias simply clinging to my head since she could do absolutely nothing in this situation but watch, the dragoness on the other hand kept a tight and firm grip on my arms and the occasional yank to cause pain and discomfort while finding it amusing to give off a low chuckle. Looking up I see my eye candy for the flight, nice tits, but my arms were incapacitated at the moment, my goal so close and yet so far away as a man can take only so much teasing before they snap but me, I just want to know why a reptile would even need such a thing. Yet another mystery I would have to write in my journal about the different species of New Earth.

The flight towards wherever we are going has been dragging on throughout the day and has now entered the beginning of the night as I looked to the west as I saw the moon began its ascension towards the middle of the sky, the moonlight gleaming off her now dull scales but still brought out an outline of her figure for me to see even in my tired and crippled condition.

Few times I caught her eyes looking down at me and each time our eyes connected she would squeeze my arms tighter or a few times, let me go only to catch me and laugh at it off before resuming her flight back up to cloud level and toward what I can only guess is her lair. I can tell that she is pissed off at me, and like most women that I have met, they never tell me why or even give me a clue as to what I did was wrong, but this time I knew for sure why she was angry with me.

'It's not like that bastard had it coming...he did try to eat me, burn a town down to the ground and kill everyone in it...sure I may have gone a bit overboard and made him explode from the inside out and dragged his skull roughly half way across the world and put it on display at a few towns, but come on there is no way in hell that I was gonna let myself get eaten!'

You know it could be worse...she could have dropped us in the middle of the ocean and left us to drown to never be found again.

'That is true...I just hope I can get us out of this in one piece...I very much like to keep my limbs attached to me as much as possible and in the best condition I can get them to be in.'

I just want to try one of those apple pies you have been thinking about the past few days now.

'If we can get out of this in one piece, and you don't annoy me to much...I'll get you a slice.'

My little chat with myself came to an end when I felt myself free falling for the fifth time this day and my eyes finally caught onto something that signified my salvation from being dragon food, the largest fucking mountain to ever be randomly placed in England, rivaling Mount Kilimanjaro except that it isn't a volcano and that a large cave was carved out facing the east, and the fact that it rises slightly above the clouds so that's a plus in awesome hideouts.

It took only a few minutes for us to reach the dragon's den and before long she flew in with her wings at full length before tilting back to allow the wind to rapidly slow her down with the momentum swinging us below her as I felt her crushing grip let go to fling us across the den and into a pile of gold coins and gems.

As my body collided with the now obvious hoard I turned to face my captor to see that at first she was still angry at me before it broke down to a frown than before long into a glare, her tail was thrashing behind her, flicking side to side the same way a cat does when it has its prey trapped in a corner and is about to play with it. I didn't have the strength to stand up so instead I opted to get to one knee and with my semi-good arm I brought it to rest on my thigh, trying to give myself the impression that I still had some fight left in me but we both know that I wasn't going anywhere.

The dragoness simply stared at me before leaving me alone, my body way to weak to fight her let alone try to make an escape attempt from her lair and down from what a I saw, a steep ass mountain. I stayed in that kneeling position for the greater part of five minutes before shutting my body off and fell over in a heap and shut my eyes just to see what would happen next, my body was too tired to keep working on fumes and damages and my mind was starting to fray and act up again so catching a short and quick nap was in order.

My nap only lasted a few minutes until I felt something sharp jabbing my gut, awakening me from my slumber to see a fish skewered on a stick suddenly thrust into my face and I only had to look up at her to see that this was for me and that the tuna fish that she easily held with both hands since the damn fish was easily as big as she was, the fish on a stick however was roughly six inches long and two inches wide...a small fry compared to the jumbo sized beast of a fish she caught.

I looked at the fish on a stick than to her before reaching out slowly to grab it and when my fingers wrapped around the stick her tail gave it some slack before uncurling around it and in that moment I felt her scales and like any other scales I had felt which was only from the time I pat Spike on the head for taking the blame of taking the last cookie from the cookie jar...which I had to bribe him with a sapphire to take the blame, were ungodly smooth as eggs but this chick's scales...really are fucking smooth as eggs and when she knew that I felt her scales that tail of hers slashed at my hand and grazed the true metal gauntlet beneath the leather and fur covered one above it but only glanced at it before going back to her part of the lair to enjoy her probable four course meal.

I unlike most people who would try to gut it if they were on a deserted island instead of chowing down on it immediately which would send her a tip that I am hiding something but in my moment of hunger since living off dried mushrooms and bread and other snacks I was able to get my hands on sorta addled my mind but damn it I was hungry for any kind of meat so with as much grace as a drunken sailor I removed my right glove with my teeth, spat it out then proceeded to cook the fish till it was a nice crispy fish stick.

And it was delicious.

Next Day

My sleep was moderately good considering that I am still weak as a kitten and that my ribs are still hurting me but all things aside I am just happy to be alive and in one piece, except that my scout armor is no longer on me and that my left arm has been crudely fixed by the dragoness by fusing the snapped metal struts together, and also that my fish on a stick is laying on the ground next to a raggedy bucket and an equally raggedy wash cloth.

'I guess she wants me to start cleaning her shit...at least she had the decency to give me something to clean it with and a breakfast as well.'

Quickly devouring my meager fish meal I placed the bucket in the crook of my left hand and the rag in my right, my footsteps slightly heavy from my metallic boots which thankfully were still on along with my N7 armor, glad to know that she didn't try to forcefully remove it from me in the middle of the night to add to her hoard. Starting my cleaning by going to the entrance of the cave and working my way inward, the very first thing I came upon was the most practical of dragon lairs from what I can guess was skeletons of varying creatures she caught, and all of them seem to be I guess poses of sorts to scare of trespassers or interlopers, and from how dirty and sun bleached they are it more than likely means that these have been in place for a long time.

Giving them a light dusting to give the appearance that these are somewhat recent look to it, and once that was done I made my way inside humming a light tune to help pass the time as I saw random bits of treasure she has acquired over the years, strange looking pony armor, pony-related statues, gryphon-related things, different kind of gems that have fused together to form strange and sparkly combinations, even something that I thought that would never fit in the front entrance of the cave.

"How the fuck did she manage to get the statue of liberty's head in here!" I shouted as I just stood there jaw open, thumb up the ass look on my face, sitting right there, with torches surrounding the crown, in all of its green rusted glory, Lady Liberty's head. How it managed to get back to Earth I don't know, how she even managed to carry or drag that heavy fucking thing all the way up here also don't know, how she even managed to squeeze that large ass head inside is a mystery that I will never try to solve.

Looking at the giant green head filled me with joy to see something of humanity that survived the ages to still be in mostly one piece and to see it right in front of me, so I gave the head a salute, let only one manly tear loose, and returned to my cleaning, not even going to bother disturbing the maiden of freedom's head peaceful slumber.

Resuming my cleaning once I left the head alone I came to the rest of her grand hoard, statues of various types, random piles of gold coins scattered about that I only dusted the exterior, even more piles of gems and gold, and something that I had truly expected to see but in a much larger and much more rounder shape, a throne, a dusty...dirty...throne.

"If my drill instructor can see the state of this place, his head would explode I shit you not." I said while dragging my finger across the surface of the plus-human sized throne and yanked off half an inch of solid dust still clinging to my finger. I only had to shudder once to realize that this was going to take more time than anything else I had ever cleaned, even my bathroom took up less time than this thing.

3 Hours Later

Sitting down on the now spotlessly cleaned throne, I let out a sigh of relief as I just cut loose on the throne and relaxed till I felt like jelly, not even caring for the fact that a shadow has started to form above me and before long a heavy sack falls in my lap and as my eyes open to see what the hell just hit me I fall over as the chair goes backwards making me roll off with the sack, the opening of it spilling out gems and coins onto the floor.

I only had to take a look at her than the loot to know that she took it from someone, somepony or whoever the hell she got it from, and that she wants me to take it back to the rest of her swag pile for me to sort and count. I was wondering for a while as to why she needed so much gold and gems that I asked a question that everyone should have known since dragons existed.

"Why do you collect all of these blasted gems and gold? What the hell are going to do with all of them? Buy something? Trade it in for something better? Just collect it to stare at it all day in amazement of your wealth?"

She only smirked as she grabbed what I presumed to be a normal sized diamond, showed it to me for a few seconds as my eyes glazed over at its beautiful sparkly surface only to have it turn to shock as she eats the whole thing in a matter of seconds.

'Well there goes about six thousand credits down the toilet.'

After she ate it she gave me a glance with a deep smirk written on her face as she saw my expression of shock that she just ate a gemstone that has the highest hardness on the gem scale, and that she just ate it as if it was rock candy. The gem itself could have been crafted into four power pylon couplings for my N7 armor, and she just eats it.

'I guess that old Earth saying is true...I do need to construct more pylons....my current ones are gonna bite the bullet at this rate.'

Returning to my cleaning of her vast treasure reserves she showed me my next cleaning project, and in all accounts I wish she hadn't. She showed me the room where she keeps all of her gold in its many forms, and it was a site that would make the richest people in the galaxy green with envy, there was hills, valleys, platues of gold everywhere, the room itself was massive enough to fit four Kodiaks side-by-side and on top of one another...and if I was a thief this would have been my biggest score ever.

"Start sorting." she said before walking off, her tail smacking me in the back making me stumble into the room. I only had to turn around to see her shutting the door in time for what she had to say to sink in.

"Wait what?"

Following Week

Thump! The sound of something dropping onto my chest as I was once again rudely awakened by the dragoness holding me captive, and this week of being held on this mountain has done me little good, being fed was one of the good things, having my ribcage actually fixed by strange dragon magic is another. The bad things though...being forced into an indentured services, cleaning each and every piece of swag she has, and of course, counting all of her bits and gems and sort the two apart and categorize her gems...oh god that was hellish, but what she is asking me now, the questioning.

"Why?" the dragoness said, the first question she has ever asked me as I sighed a bit before getting up and walked over to the cleaning closet to grab my supplies to start on my forced cleaning of the treasure piles.

Sighing a bit and not even looking at her I said "Because it was him...or the town with everyone in it..." as I grabbed the wash cloth from the bucket and started to dust her swag, the most expensive thing that I think that is in her hoard is the solid gold statue of a mini dragon with its wings fully splayed out, something that I totally want on my coffee table in the living room.

Her eyes looked at me for a while before looking at the wall to my left, my eyes followed hers to see a portrait hanging there by a single thick heavy-duty nail, my eyes looked at it a while before looking back at her, connecting the dots rather quickly it was her family portrait and in it was seven dragons, her parents, and herself with four other siblings. I did not know if her other family members were alive but from how hard she was staring at me I can safely guess not that many are still roaming this earthly plain of existence. Each of the dragons in the portrait appear to be young, my guess was that this is an old piece cause the little dragons look just about Spike's size and age...hatchlings or just really small dragons, either way I can hazard a guess that the dragon holding me here is roughly over 100 years old...or less I didn't really see any pictures on dragon heights as they age in a book while in Canterlot.

While still looking at the portrait studying the different dragons in the framework before my weight catches up with me and pulls me down to the granite floor in a heap, the dragoness snickers at my predicament but still carrying the same scowl look on her face, and it wasn't before long she started playing the game of twenty questions with me.

"Did you at least give him a proper burial rite before you took his skull as a trophy?"

"Ma'am...I buried what I could beneath the sands before glassing the surface of it...the breeze covered the mock tomb with fresh sand after I left it alone." technically not a lie but with how badly I made his body explode and how far it scattered, I managed to bring at least more than 75% of his body back to be buried...for a fact I do know that his tail is placed in the Laughing Coconut bar as a trophy for all to see since I got my last alcoholic drink from that place...besides my whisky bottle that is thankfully still inside of my satchel.

She looked at the ground for a minute or two before asking me again, her scowl still present but it has lessened...only a little. I looked at my armor resting in a pile near her hoard, she took my scouting gear as 'her' treasure while she left me in my N7 armor, saying that she rather have me wear some sort of protection when she wanted to beat my ass for killing her father, I know that if I recovered enough I could kill her, but something was telling me not to, that she is not really my enemy, more like someone that has a common goal to something that we both will need...that or my conscious is putting me in the passenger seat every now and than without me knowing.

"Did he tell you why he attacked that little village at all during the fighting?" she said as I heard a slight ting of hope her voice but it quickly died down when she finished, probably knowing the answer already.

"No, I was busy sleeping outside when I heard a roar followed by flames, and when I brought him to the ground he didn't say anything but roar in my face." all true, that dragon could have said something as to why he was doing this...that and take a bloody breath mint since his breath was strong enough to gag a maggot.

'Now that I think about it...I probably smell like feet wrapped in leathery burnt bacon...'

She looked back at the ground before moving to a large nest made of leaves, grass, bought or stolen blankets and quilts and laid down on top of it while still keeping a watchful eye on me.

"Do you know why I brought you here?"

I only had to look at her before recalling the height of the mountain and how high we are away from the ground, thinking on the odds of me actually leaping off the mountain, using biotics to slow my fall and landing on my legs to lessen the impact it would do to my body and escaping the pissed off dragon was astronomically slim to none.

"I can think of a few reasons...but if this is about me killing your father...than that is one...another would be adding a one-of-a-kind species to your to growing hoard...you needed someone to talk to since you look lonely...your hungry...or you are just doing this for sick kicks to see how long it would take me to get off this mountain in one piece...that or any combination of what I just said." I coughed out the last part, my ribcage was now starting to get on my nerves and staring up at the ceiling wasn't helping it either, nor was the dragoness simply watching my every move as we both sat in silence.

It was only after a few minutes that the silence ended when she muttered something before speaking up, a slight sniffle in her words but a sniffle nonetheless that I heard.

She only had to look me in the eyes, which is quite hard in my current position, but she managed it anyways and I saw a stray tear running down her face, the tear drop sizzling away from the heat her body is giving off. The look of pain held for so long and for no one to tell...I know feeling, but the feeling of somebody's hands wrapped around their throat...not so much. I didn't know what was going on until I felt my feet point downwards and that my breathing was abruptly halted along with a feeling of a pair of scaly hands clenched tightly around my neck, the usual thing that happens when I anger someone that is smart enough to know it was me.

"When I first heard that my father has been killed...I was so angry...I just wanted to find his murderer and bring the same pain they brought to him.", very much like every other person that tried to come after me but each one failed and ended up six feet under with a bullet to the head, "..but thinking back to when my father left us...leaving mother and my siblings to fend for ourselves...I was sort of happy.", sort of like how I felt after I joined Alaria's gang and found a family with them, "..but the pain of never telling him that I was sorry for not telling him sooner that I forgave him...for knowing that he was doing it to make sure that we had enough to eat...and to grow....but he left us alone without even saying goodbye or stopping by to check up on us...", the one thing my father never told me before I put a bullet in his head, not once has he told me why he betrayed everyone to keep his own skin for how much blood must be spilt just to keep yourself alive for your own sake. It was only after she stopped talking that she finally broke down and started to cry in earnest on my shoulder as she set me down from her neck crushing grasp.

As soon as she released her death grip on my neck I feel back onto the stone floor and started coughing up a storm from almost having my throat crushed by an emotional wreck of a dragon. My first plan of action was to wait for her to fall asleep or pass out, second was to get the fuck off this mountain with all of my gear, some of her gold, and also that small dragon statue cause that shit is coming with me regardless of the consequences and lastly, get home and just finish of Kara's bottle of booze and go to sleep, than go to visit my grave and leave an ominous sign.

I was hoping that she would pull herself together and stop the waterworks but sadly she didn't, instead she took to using me as a security blanket and wrapped herself around me like a cobra would do to its meal, and by wrapped I mean she completely covered me with her tail, arms, legs, wings and all, and I now know what it is like to be a burrito. Meaty on the inside and a leathery exterior that can be easily removed if you have the time to pick it apart.

At the six hour mark into the late afternoon/ early night I finally heard the sound of her snoring directly on top of me, snoring that is followed by small traces of smoke and embers flying out of her nostrils, the smoke I can deal with since I have grown used to choking smell of fire but the embers nearly set my already growing beard on fire.

During the untangling process on accident my head bumped into her bust and I swear they felt smooth as eggs and was worth the cheek grazing but I had important matters at hand, I had to get out of here and off this mountain and return home. Moving quietly through the cave I found the small golden statue and took it off its post before moving back to my furred armor and donned it for the second time, still getting used to the useless fixed metal arm and that this armor doesn't exactly breath well so sweating like a marathon runner during the hottest day in summer was a huge problem. Smelling like a pig I can handle, I did it several times before, but smelling like feet wrapped in leathery burnt bacon is something else entirely.

Taking everything that I would need for the journey north and up another mountain I grabbed a piece of tuna that the lass left behind, oddly enough the damn thing hadn't start to rot or get the attraction of flies. Taking a bite out of the fish and with a small grin I started to creep out of the cave and over to the edge of the mountain. Looking over I saw a few clouds drifting below and beneath them was the Everfree Forest, laughing at my current predicament, but not for much longer.

Tapping my Omni-tool I searched for something to fit the bill for the action I am about to partake in and as I found it I gave it a five second delay before sliding over the edge, feet first and sitting on my ass to prevent myself going end over end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sG5YwPtetk

That first ten seconds going down the mountainside was amazing for me, the wind going into my helmet and slightly pulling it upward, the feel of freedom to be finally free from that dragon, and also the feeling that I got away with a pretty sweet gold statue. But after those ten seconds were up I finally realized that I had nothing to slow myself down with, even with an Omni-blade it would barely slow me down to not eat shit upon impact with the ground.

What I didn't know was that at five minutes sliding down the mountain I finally gave up with holding my arms up and just let it scrap along the rocks and pebbles as the sliding kept going on and on until I finally felt like I got past the halfway point on the mountain. Looking back I see exactly how fucking big this thing was, it was huge, and by the time I looked back down I realized that I was wrong about being half way down, I was actually reaching the tree line by the time my head turned to look down.

And also in time for me to slam feet first into a large pile of mud that has gathered at the base during the week I spent in that bloody cave. Upon impact with the mud it exploded everywhere and nothing was spared from the fallout from it, mud covered bushes, trees, a squirrel that was not so lucky at the time, and even a passing bird was not spared from the wet dirt barrage, myself on the other hand look like I just crawled out of a mud bath and not once bothered to clean myself off.

What I didn't know was that among the mud splattered zone that I created, amongst the dripping mud and scurrying of fleeing animals, a single pony was standing there, wondering what exactly created that mudsplosion as the pony in question slowly crept closer until finally I popped out of it waving my arms about flinging mud everywhere again as the mud finally shot out of the exposed parts of my helmet as bubbles formed up before popping alongside a guttural roar. The pony, sadly faint of heart and incredibly timid let out a small 'meep' before turning tail and galloping off into the forest while I stumbled about trying to get my bearings and also to stop the dizziness that made my eyes bounce around in my skull.

Stumbling forward and creating an even larger mess I finally came upon a tree, circling around to the other side I started to clean myself off my wiping my arms and legs on the bark before scrapping off whatever was left on me, along with taking off my helmet, banging it against the tree to dislodge any mud or twigs or whatever the hell might have gotten stuck to it during the residual fallout but once I was 'moderately' cleaned up I checked to see if anything was damaged, bent, or mud covered and gave an affirmative nod as nothing was too messed up or dirty, only a small speck of goop landed on my new table trophy.

You know she is going to find you for stealing that statue of hers, and more than likely beat your head in for doing it.

'Let her try, she knows that I have earned this statue for putting up with her bullshit and her forced hugging. Their are only a few people who can successfully force me into a cuddle, and those people are....ehh forget it.'

Oh come now, you can tell me who it is...its that Rarity isn't it?

'No...definitely not her, Spike would be pissed and I am not having an angry young dragon on my case, I was thinking somewhat of Kara, that girl is like a thick blanket whenever she latches onto me when I go to bed first...something about her peoples culture I guess.'

Oh yeah....now I remember....something about the females acting like the thick heavy blanket when their mate or Alpha is asleep...yeah...but she should know that your not hers or her Alpha right?

'Well I did give her an option of going back to her clan of dogs or come with me for a better life a year and a half ago, I can safely guess though that being the runt of the pack must have given her not much of a choice to decide on what to do. But than again she has been fairly happy since she moved in with me, sure she can cook meat pretty damn well, makes excellent bacon and jerky...and alright I admit it, she gives some damn good cuddles.'

Knew it.

'What? It's not my fault that I am always the first one to go to sleep! I get tired working my ass off doing paperwork and whatever the hell that needs to be done, being in an office is boring as fuck and not once is it ever fun, and the only time it was fun was when I was training those guards up at Canterlot and going down that mountain in a wheelchair and getting a lift back up...and the fact that she is so damn soft, warm and fluffy. Seriously is everything in this future of Earth a walking teddy bear? Like seriously, everything is softer here besides the usual hard ass objects...like hooves.'

As I walked through the somewhat haunted woods I came onto what I think was a cottage of sorts, way the fuck away from the tops of roofs of a nearby town which I had to safely guess was Ponyville, but taking a look at the cottage and the scampering of wild critters into and out of, I can assume that this was Fluttershy's abode...if I can call it that, the damn thing was for some reason floating in the air and rotating.

"Nope. Not even going to question this world anymore." I turned around from the rotating cabin and went straight to the town, and after a short discussion with myself I changed the coloring of my eyes to an oaky brown color as to not alert anypony that it was me, I only had to really hope that I don't run into Pinkie...that girl will kill my cover faster than saying something ungodly stupid at a rich person's party.

Before I had a chance to even lay a foot on the bridge to town, Pinkie somehow with whatever cosmic-bending powers she has at her disposal, appeared in front of me and started to speak at a rate that would make even the most fastest of rappers on Earth, and by god does this girl talk. And just as quickly as she came she jumped into the air and like a fart in the wind disappeared from view leaving a temporary afterimage, how that mare is able to leave one the world will never know...unless I can capture her and use whatever scientific tools I can get my hands on.

As I walked toward the town square I started to take notice that every single pony that I walked by was looking right at me before turning their heads to whisper to the pony next to them, more than likely whispering about me but I ignore them and walked to the stands to see if anything has changed while I was gone or to see if anything new has been added. Sad to say that nothing has changed besides the clock tower being refitted with a better looking clock, all the carts and stands are fully stocked and the ponies seemed to be more lively and happy...I guess they didn't like my presence after all.

Walking over to the apple stand I saw that their was Applebloom tending to the merchandise along with a filly that I have never seen before, and my stay here was always included to be followed by the little ponies as they asked me questions, but this filly looked rather bored or just unamused at the prospect of tending a fruit stand. This filly looked almost like Scootaloo except for the different mane and eye color and also she is missing wings, and is also acting as chipper as her. As the filly looked up to see who was approaching I tilted my head down to look at her and when our eyes met, we just stared at each other for a good five minutes until finally we both coughed and looked away from each other and before long Applebloom came over and started to ask me what I wanted.

"10 apples, any color." I said with a curt tone that would hopefully kill any chances of her finding out who I am. It only made her more inquisitive by her standing on the stand and nearly falling over the front before remembering my order and bringing up 10 assorted apples, a mixture of red, green and yellow. Before Applebloom can even ask me about the price of the apples I dropped off twenty bits, placed the apples into my satchel and walked off without giving her a chance to give back any change.

Once I had left the market I went to check on a few of my friends, to see if they have moved on or at least attempted to, and the first I went to was close enough to see was Rarity's boutique, and I thought that I would never enter that place again after being told to hold still for two hours for measurements. When I opened the front door the little bell on top let off a near quiet jingle which was odd since it is usually loud enough to wake up the cat she has and make it run out the door whenever I enter, but this time there was nothing. Looking around the interior of the shop I was met with silence but as I moved deeper into the store I heard the sounds of soft chatter and giggles and against my own better judgment I kept going until I was at the door, pressing up close to it as I could to hear what was on the other side but still not being able to pick out the voices besides Rarity's.

What I did not know was that the door I was leaning against was not locked and that it was left slightly open, and once I placed some pressure on it with my body leaning against it I slowly pushed it open, leaving me standing there to see Rarity in a very expensive dress that she made or bought somewhere, and sitting across from her tea table, was Applejack in similarly expensive dress but instead of wearing her cowpony hat that she is known for, she is instead wearing a bonnet, and in her hooves, a tea cup.

We just simply stared at each other for what felt like hours and when I think I finally had enough of the creepiness I slowly backed away while pulling on the doorknob and pulled it with me till the door was closed, and I promptly turned around slowly and walked out wondering what I just saw.

Taking a stroll back through the market and over to my home I found that the mailbox was loaded with fresh mail and upon opening it I found that it had only three letters in it, one from the town mail mare Ditzy, an unmarked letter and lastly one from Canterlot Royal Guards, probably for the funeral that will take place in a few days. Leaving the last two letters in the mailbox I place the one from Ditzy in my satchel and scampered off to the edge of town, giving it a quick inspection and finding it still mostly the same I pry open the letter and started to read the contents.

"Hello Sir or Madam...blah blah blah ...you are invited to the wedding between Ditzy Doo and Time Turner....event will take place in Ponyville City Hall...blah blah blah...one month from April 1st.....hope to see you there." I quickly skimmed through the letter while heading to the Everfree forest and once I had finished reading it I looked up and looked back at the letter before blinking in surprise.

'Ditzy is single?'

Apparently so.

'Huh...well when this is over I guess we can go and give her our blessings...'

Is this another reminder that you can't have a normal life anymore because having only two humans alive means that we are hereby extinct?

'No, humanity was already extinct when the first caveman figured out that the pointy end of the stick can be used to kill animals and people. I am actually happy that she finally found someone to be happy with, that's all.'

Are you sure that is just it? I know that whenever you looked at a family playing with their children or that you see a child with their family in general makes you regret being alive sometimes. You know you can talk to me or someone to try and get rid of these feelings.

'Your not my therapist, get off my ass.'

You just gotta learn to let things go man, that's all you gotta do sometimes, just let things go.

'I will let it go when I need to let it go. Now drop it.'

During my talk with my other half I somehow bumbled my way back to the canyon that had that rickety old as fuck wooden bridge, and time has not been too kind to it, the rope looked like it has been frayed but it is still barely held together, the wooden planks are broken in several places and there are some gaps and also that there is at least two skeletons of what I believe to be diamond dogs and one small manticore skeleton all the way on the other side.

How the manticore made it over without collapsing the bridge is beyond me, how it managed to even get passed the two dogs makes me worry that that species is just one stones throw away from being full on feral minded retards with nothing but meat and gems on the mind.

Minding the first corpse on the bridge I slowly and gingerly made my way across, keeping my footing even as I stepped on the brittle planks and praying to god that I don't step through one. About half way across I stepped on a plank that had the audacity to split in half on me, sending my left foot right through it as I went face first into two crumpled chipped boards before the bridge finally snaps and careens itself to the other side followed by the sound of ropes groaning and snapping from the weight overload.

Snapping my head up I began to hobble climb my way up with just one arm, using my other has an anchor to securely hold a plank in place and just before I got to the top, the bridge finally gives and I had to leap and stab the anchor into the cliff side to keep myself alive and not from falling to my death, or be barely alive and get eaten by something large or starve...or any of those three options sounded terrible in my head.

Huffing and puffing and also swearing at every single thing that I can set my eyes on, I swore at the sky, the tree, the random acorn on the floor, and lastly at the bridge that just now exploded into wooden shrapnel and rope pieces as it hit the very bottom of the chasm. Looking back at the chasm below I realized that falling to that wouldn't have killed me, just leave my legs a bit banged up but still manageable, but my destination was the old castle and see if I could pass off as a lone dog to be taken in by the ones there, and hopefully, none of them still know my smell or the way I sound.

During my lonesome walk toward the castle I started to smell the stale stank of decay and rot, the scent was thick in the air and the closer I got to the castle the stronger the smell became, and as I got to the front gate I saw what it was. Bodies.

Bodies as far as my enhanced eyes can see. The bodies of the dead dogs were all over the place, they were hanging on the castle gates, on and over tables, mounted on their own pikes, half buried in the mud and covered in ivy, their skeletons exposed along with internal organs and whatever the hell is inside our meaty bodies. Just taking a look at them strewn about has already ruined my lunch of two stale mushrooms and tuna fish chunk, but what really caught my eye was the lack of bodies of the attacking force...or as I can tell if they were even the same species cause I just spotted two manticore bodies dead next to each other, their fur burnt off from what I can guess was oil dropped on from above before getting torched.

Walking into the courtyard I can clearly see that this was of a one-sided battle that the dogs clearly lost, and since Fluttershy told me that when manticores get hungry, they get real mean and they don't stop chasing their prey till its rather in their jaws dead, or in their jaws dying. Looks like these puppies pissed off the beasts of the forest big time to have all of them completely wiped out and in such a gory fashion. I know that my hands are not completely clean of matters such as this but I only wipe out bands of thugs, bandits, pirates and raiders but to go after mothers, sons and daughters, even the elderly is just something that I just don't condone.

As I stepped over the threshold of the front double doors leading into the lobby of the palace I felt an eerie presence and it sent the same spine tingling sensation as the first time I went through those doors but this time it was a lot more cold and a lot more painful...probably had something to do with the smell of death that is now in both inside and outside of the castle.

Stepping gingerly over the rotting bodies of both diamond dogs and what little of the manticores that got slain, my boots squelching in the river of blood that seems to be flowing freely through the corridors, the walls are covered in blood splatters and claw marks, whatever decorative bits and bobs that were on display are no long recognizable and were completely destroyed. Looking at all of the bodies of the dog I can still see the looks of horror and pain written on their faces or whats left of them along with the pure terror in their eyes, their faces mauled and mutilated as I looked at face after face until finally I couldn't stomach it anymore and went to a corner and puked out whatever I had in my stomach contents all over the floor before a second round came along and followed after the first, spitting whatever was left in my mouth I wiped the stuff on my left shoulder before moving on to the basement to see if anything has survived, and hoping if something survived this hellish feral assault was a long shot.

Turning on my blade and keeping it ready I found the same stairs that I once took down to the basement, and followed the growing river of blood down and down until I hit the end of the line and found that even death doesn't spare the young and helpless. I saw, fighting in the middle of the slave pens, four manticores, fighting over a small body, each one latched onto the chest and pelvis, the head bobbing back and forth before the beasts finally ripped the corpse apart and swiped at each other and retreated to their own corners of the chamber, eating their slain morsel with delight.

A single tear slid down my face as I saw the one manticore that held the head and right arm, its segment being gnawed on and as it turned its meal about I saw the poor face of the victim, a young face, fresh of any aging...barely over three years old by the looks, and still being held in its tiny paw, was a poorly stitched blanket with the words 'papa' stitched into it.

I left that chamber with a new coat of red on the walls and ceiling and what remains I could carry back to the courtyard and laid it down in a small clearing before going back down to remove whatever bodies were left of the dogs and carried them back up as well.

By the time the moon was already cresting over the center spire of the dead castle I had all the bodies that I could bury under the dirt and with crude wooden tombstones signaling where I had given their final rest and hoped it would be enough to give them their last amount of peace.

"When does this end...."

You killed before Roran, but that was just business....but not this or the time here...this is different...and it ends when all of our enemies are dead...

Walking back down the halls, my blade now put away to be simply replaced by my Talon as I moved through the halls and left behind the soft squelching noises of my boots on blood stained carpets and the echoes of the my revolver going off followed by a thud of a dead manticore. It was only after the sixth kill that I realized that I was not even making a sound and came to the fact that I was changing to something that I never wanted to become, a pacifist and from the sights of blood and death that I was creating left and right I almost dropped my gun in disgust but I forced my grip on it to keep it in place before using the barrel to lift up my helmet and placed the still burning hot barrel on my neck to force myself to grit my teeth in pain and to force back the inklings of change away to the dark corners of my mind.

"This land is getting to me...trying to make me weak to the truth of the world....I...I won't let that happen...I just won't let that happen." I said through grinding teeth as I placed my gun back in its holster and walked back to the place where my fate as a pony was decided by my captors, the throne room....the blood crusted...drenched....throne room.

My slow shuffling walk back to that room was met with the smallest amount of resistance by the heavy doors but with enough strength the twins finally give and I stumbled back into the room, the room that has only two corpses resting within its thick walls.

The corpse of the alpha male manticore, and the corpse of the alpha male diamond dog. The dead manticore's body is covered in deep gashes, lacerations, severed claws and a wing, and lastly an eye barely hanging on by a tendon. The dead dog's body on the other hand has claw marks raking up and down his body, his stomach eaten out by a lucky bite as his armor was cleaved apart by the claws of the beast before him, his throat slashed as a drip dried blooded dagger lie by his paws, his body resting on the throne, his last act alive before death claimed him.

Stepping over to the dead alpha dog I gave him a quick scan to see if he set himself up as his last trap against either the manticores or a rival clan or just the treasure hunter that was able to stomach the decay of everything in this fucked up place, and with a grunt of appreciation he wasn't rigged to his chair, only held their by the crust of his dried up blood. Glancing around one last time I gingerly picked up his body, in my head I still hated the bastard for passing me off as a gem slave when we first met but I know it was not personal, just a means to an end that didn't end well for him or the other 274 other dogs that he led to complete annihilation. On my way back to the rest of the graves I dug I felt a shiver race up and down my spine yet again, turning around to see what exactly is causing it but to see nothing but wisps of shadows clinging to the corners of the vast throne room, the wisps themselves are staying to the darkest parts to the corners, afraid to leave its safety. I thought it was just my imagination and that my head was starting to lose the shell off the nut again and I knew I had to see Discord soon to help me organize my mind...something I never liked doing ever since I first met him.

Digging another trench into the ground I took a small break by looking up at the moon in the sky, it was full and it was oddly blue and that old phrase came to mind 'Once in a blue moon', but it was nice to look at even though I am standing in a graveyard of the recently deceased, devoured and killed.

Taking a moment I breathed deeply before exhaling out the smell of stank breath, coughing a bit from my own smell as I turned back to the castle and walked back to the throne room, the black smoke wisps were not normal that was for sure but I also had to see if they weren't just ghosts that have left something behind, something that they regretted in their life before it was abruptly ended by the beasts of the forest.

Watching the shadowy wisps writhe and twist around each other as I stepped closer to them and as I was about roughly three meters from either corner they started to slither up the walls toward the center of the ceiling, trying to get away from me perhaps or just that the spirit doesn't want to be touched. Walking to the throne I saw that their was a large hole in the wall behind it that reached the ceiling, allowing a large chunk of the moon to be seen along with its glow to sink into the room to bathe it in a silvery blue light, taking a step to the throne I tried to turn it around but the base wouldn't budge so I put a little more force into it but the damn thing still didn't move so I went a little extreme trying to rearrange the bloody chair. Taking off my left glove to reveal the four hooked claws attached to the metal skeletal frame of my left arm, and unknowingly showing the wisps above me that my left hand was prosthetic, but taking a deep breath I moved the hooks into position on the left side of the chair and with my right hand it gripped the lower right side and with the first tug I heard the bottom crack and the second tug resulted in the throne finally being uprooted from its cemented spot and finally shifted around to face the moonlight and once it was firmly in its new position I just plopped my fat ass on it and just stared off into the distance while I fumbled for a cigarette and once I had it I placed it loosely between my lips and lit it with my thumb and didn't even bother to exhale the smoke until it was enough to create a short billowing fog.

Turning my head to get a look at the wisps of black smoke I saw that they moved down to my left side to get a better look at my left hand, and smirking a bit as I rolled up the sleeve to reveal the entire left arm up to my shoulder blade, showing the wisps that my entire left arm was nothing more than a husk of its former self until I can get back to Canterlot to get it back...and finally be able take a real shower and not smell like shit.

It was at that moment that the wisps crept over to me that something was amiss but by the time I realized it I was already to late to stop it. The shadowy wisps slowly and gently wrapped itself around my metallic arm, almost seemingly getting a feel for it before slithering up the framework toward my chest and one particular tendril moved up to my face to gently rub a cheek and it was right there that I saw an eye open up at the center of the stalk, a single turquoise eye looking up at me, the eyes were just like Spike's except for them being completely different colors, but the sight of a disembodied eye was enough for me to stare at it for a while before shifting my gaze to the lone tendril caressing my face.

When the shadowy tendril was rubbing my face I felt the gaze of the eye intensify before slowly receding away, and before long I felt something stab at my skull, at first I just thought it was Mirias just taking her meal right now but when I felt it starting to dig into my memories was when I realized that it was the thing slowly attaching itself to my arm, but before I could even react I heard a voice that was not my own echo within my mind.

You are not like the rest.....

I looked at the eye before looking over at the manticore corpse before removing my helmet with my right hand and placed the removed helmet on the floor near my boots. I gave the eye a smug grin before resuming my stare at the moon as I muttered something but the voice caught it.

"I am different from them entirely by being a different species...sadly when their is only two of my kind left and that we are doomed to be extinct...eh I regret nothing."

You are strange...and yet you are not afraid of me? Why is that? from what I am hearing, the voice is obviously female, something that I should have known since the male/female ratio is redonkulous here in ponyland.

"Because, even I have been pretty much exiled for my crimes and sent away to rot alone, but I escaped from that lonesome road of a prison cell...sadly it wasn't enough to escape this mess...sixteen million years of a prison sentence...fucking Harbinger..."

So you have heard of Us...and yet you are not afraid...everypony has and always will be afraid of us...

"Just because practically everyone is afraid of you doesn't mean there is someone out there that isn't. Take a look at me for instance, everypony is afraid of me, mostly the ponies up in Canterlot, but I am still here because I have my uses...and working for Celestia has its perks." I said as I started to fiddle with my helmet, picking off flakes of mud that was clinging to the fur scruff that was on the rear neck section, trying to clean it up.

You work for her...and what do you see in my oh so loving sister hmm?

"Well, first off I see someone who works their ass off on a regular basis just to keep the system working, someone that hardly takes any time off from work, a caring leader that thinks of her citizens as her children, a scolding mother when we 'I' screw up or do something really stupid, a pony with enough problems and stress that could sink a dreadnaught...and also some pony that I hope I can get to know better....maybe take out on a dinner...erm...forget the last two." I said to cover up what was spilling out of my mouth, my feelings for that mare starting to resurface, first time was when I was in Discord's so called 'lair', that dude really has a good way to spin words around when he wants to mess with you.

So you met my sister than....that tyrant still ruling Equestria with her iron hoof and what perks could their be for working for her.

"Well, there is sometimes living at the palace, that place makes some pretty damn good food, I get to mess with the guards since I trained a few of them with what I know, than there is Discord, my favorite pass time partner in crime and also table hockey opponent...also being in her presence is a good one...along with walking behind her and watching that flank jiggle like jelly..."

I could have sworn that the lone eye turned sly as the feminine wisp spoke again, You have become infatuated with my sister haven't you? And because of her flanks no less? Is she still eating cake all the time and not working out to remove that extra weight she has gained?

I came to Celestia's defense at that rude comment, "Hey! She is not a tyrant, and...maybe I am...and besides I was stuck as a statue for so long that I practically didn't care as to what species I get attracted to...and besides...I like ladies with a little jiggle in their step..." and as soon as I said that I knew that I had made a mistake cause that eye was closed and I could have sworn that I heard her chuckling. "Please don't tell anyone that I said that...especially to Celly...I would never hear the end of it if she finds out...in fact I wont hear the end of it if anyone finds out."

The eye just stares at me before I saw what I thought was its wisps changing shape, slowly forming into what I think was a pony's body but vastly incomplete, more along the lines of rough shape and outlines as it sat next to me, now staring at me with both eyes and that I saw the rough shapes of her wings and horns starting to form but her body was still just that of smoke wisps.

"So...Moony-" at that she looked at me with hints of anger but I ignored it and continued where I left off, "-did you have something to do with the manticores completely overrunning this place and killing every single man, woman and child?" I said as I stared at her for moment before looking away and sighed as I pulled out my cigarette and puffed another smoke cloud out before putting it back in.

No, I have been skulking around my own home ever since those dogs came in and took over, and since I am still too weak to do anything about them I was forced to let them to stay...and even if I had enough power to reconstruct my body I would be in no condition to face them, so I was forced to give in and let them to stay. I could tell from her tone that she loathes this dogs, that she hates them so much that the tension in her tone could be easily sliced in half with a butter knife.

You may not be like those...vermin that took residence in my home, but you are still like them, I can feel your anger and hatred for them. You hate them because they remind you of something from your past...of something similar to them. she said without me even having to say a word, she knew exactly what my thoughts were on roughly all of them.

Taking the cigarette out of my mouth to exhale another cloud I burn out the small stub and flicked out the gaping hole in the wall before speaking up, "I hate those mutts because when I first met their kind, they had me as a captured slave, so I broke out of my cell with the others and killed pretty much every single one that was in my path, second encounter I allowed myself to be taken hostage to break more ponies out, but their is always a price to be paid for each escape...death has always followed me, and it doesn't make a difference to me on whose life must be taken to escape...but now that I saw what happened here..." I take a look back to see the corpse, just the sight of it sort of made me angry that all of this was done by just a few wild beasts, and the sight of the dead beast made me a bit hungry for meat.

These dogs have always been a pest to Equestria ever since we moved here...I am surprised that they haven't killed themselves off yet...and good riddance once they do die off.

"Last time I heard that your plan to take over Equestria was bound to destroy all life on the planet." I said with a smirk as Nightmare Moon backed off a bit from her starting tirade, "An Eternal Night? What a joke, that would have killed everything on the planet, one side would have froze to death while the other would have been burned alive. Did you not take into account of what would happen if one side of the world had to much of the other? Too much of the sun would make the plants wither and die, the water to boil and evaporate and also for whatever is alive on the surface to die from heat exhaustion, heat stroke and hyperthermia and be practically burnt to a crisp. And way too much of the moon would have froze all the water over, the plants to freeze and snap, death by hypothermia, frostbite and being turned into a corpsicle. Your rule would have resulted in the end of all life on the planet if you hadn't been stopped."

I...I would have known...I...I wouldn't have known....I just wanted everypony to love my night...was that to much to ask my sister? Just to let the night last a bit longer so my ponies could appreciate the night I worked so hard to create for them...was it really that hard for my sister to just do for me? she started to cry but it was more on the lines of soft sobbing but for some reason that I can't explain or that I don't want to, I had to put people at ease, I never knew why I was so good at it, even back when I had to tell parents that their son or daughter was killed in the line of duty.

Moving over a bit I started to gently pat her back before slowly pulling the shadow mare over to me as I used my hollow arm to give her a hug and strangely enough it was able to touch her body.

She starts rambling and venting, and I let her go off, realizing how long she has been keeping these feelings in. If my stupid, senile, old fool of a sister had listened to me about letting the ponies to enjoy my night I wouldn't have become so jealous and became what I am! If she had listened to me than I would have still been with her instead on the bucking moon banished away from my subjects and then the gryphons, maybe we would have stood a ghost of a bucking CHANCE!......If I had the time to only think things through, things would have been different.

Nightmare Moon kept this up for at least a couple hours eventually even though she knows I was listening attentively, she trails off, fixing me with one of the sweetest looks probably any pony have ever seen grace her ebony-looking features which to me would have been even better if Celestia ever gave me one of those looks. You really care about all this... she said softly, startling me a bit. Of course I care because after all I sort of went through the same she as well, and I sort of agreed to stick around with her since she still held my left arm in her shadow's grip, and I don't consider something as easy as listening to her talk her problems out any trouble at all, even though she did pretty much nearly killed an entire planet with a moon...something that I thought was overkill if I ever wanted to wipe an enemy off the map.

"Yeah...I do...you went through hell because of what you believed in...I went through hell because I had to...now both of us are just seeking out some sort of redemption...even to redeem ourselves in the eyes of those that despise us."

It was only after the moon cresting near the horizon on the other side of the castle did Nightmare Moon realize that the sun was approaching that she let go of my arm and moved towards the dark corner of the throne room before fading back into the background to resume her hiding from the rest of the world, but before she completely faded away she spoke one last time to me.

If you harm my sister in any way or make her cry or break her heart, I will shatter your dreams and haunt your nightmares and you will never have a peaceful sleep ever again. Take care of her...and please try to get the ponies to love my night....

And with that last message she simply faded from view before the sun even had a chance to let a single ray of light breach into the throne room, and moments later the sun slowly rose over the hole, filling the chamber with warmth and light and before long the view of the sun. As soon as the sun filled the chamber I pulled myself away from the chair and walked toward the hole in the wall to see the mountain that is holding Canterlot off in the distance, and knew that I had roughly two weeks before the day of my funeral to prepare myself and hopefully, that everyone that is in attendance don't try to kill my right away or get in my face trying to figure out how I am still alive for I will not explain something that would take a few days to go through with a certain purple unicorn and white alicorn...and maybe a certain miss matched friend and furry sleeping partner.

Taking one last look back at where Nightmare Moon was and waved good bye to see her eye form up and than close before I walked over to the gap, climbed over it and started to work my way around the castle and towards Canterlot.

The walk alone will be long and tedious but the bushes filled with strange fruit, nuts, berries and the meat from a dead deer that I found killed by a strange purple plant, half of it seemed to have been eaten by the deer and any life around it which was strange as hell since the only plants that I knew that killed other living creatures was the Venus Flytrap...but this was just absurd.

Taking a tentative step towards the blooming death plant I kept a fair distance from it, wondering what was the major cause of death to the deer and a few ideas of how came to mind, first idea was that the plant was giving off an aroma of sorts that anything alive within a certain distance that took a whiff of it would die, second idea was that it was constantly releasing spores into the air and that when inhaled it would cause the breather's lungs to just die or something, or maybe that when it smelled the plant it just had a heart problem and keeled over. Who knows.

Looking at the plant once more I took in its features and took a snapshot of it for future reference and to see if Twilight knows whatever the hell this thing is cause for all I know it could be the world's deadliest plant and that every botanist would want a piece of it or maybe the whole thing, but what I do know of this damn lavender colored plant is that it kills without discretion. Taking off my glove again from my left hand I gingerly made my way over to the corpse, holding my breath in case it was any of the proximity airborne theories I had at the moment, and with fast reflexes I sunk three metal claws into the deer carcass and pulled back to get it away from the death flower and with one last yank I tore off a chunk of rib meat and an unlucky rib.

Taking the hopefully not poisoned meat from my bloodied hooks and looking it over to see if there are any signs of discoloration from what the lethal flower may have done to it but smiling a bit happily I found nothing wrong with it, except that it wasn't cooked and turned into beef jerky or a rib sandwich, but the sandwich will be for another time...if I had it. Walking over to my hastily constructed camp consisting of my satchel and myself I put the shredded meat back on my hook fingers and found decent amount of twigs, branches and dead leaves to make a small fire, an as soon as the fire started to grow in size I moved my left arm to be directly over the flames and every minute or two I turned the and around to cook the other side, and only when I thought that the meat was thoroughly cooked did I munch down on it. And it was amazing.

"Eh, and Kara said I never knew how to cook." I chuckled to myself as I smelled the delicious meat a few times before I noticed that the smell was gone and along with it the meat. Looking back at the body I shrugged to myself as I used the rib I got and took the liberty of turning it into a toothpick and once I was satisfied that my teeth were picked clean, I moved over to the fire and put it out with a quick Snap Freeze, admiring the frozen fire before it melted from the sun as I strolled past the death flower and continued my walk toward Canterlot.

That changeling friend of yours left you...I think it was when you were going down that mountain that she took flight and left. Not sure where she went but she better not get us into trouble by getting caught.

'What is the worse that can happen? What can she possibly do to get us in an even bigger hole that we are in?'

She can get caught by rather our friends and interrogated, caught by the royal guards and interrogated, get killed and we would have to explain that to Chrysalis, or she takes the form of some random pony, get caught in the act of any kind, and than say that she was with you and well...bad things in general to be precise.

'I know she won't spill the beans on us...after all we are her only reliable food source that won't panic as she feeds...even though she needs to stop using her fucking fangs on me, I am tired of picking scabs off my head...and getting a proper haircut is gonna be bitch with those things.'

Do ponies even get haircuts?

'Fuck should I know...probably since their manes and tails have to be kept in order...they would look pretty damn funny if they just went around like moving blobs of fur and hair.'

Our mental rant was cut short as my footing was immediately interrupted by my foot not stepping on anything but air and falling forward face first into a pile of blue flowers, but luckily my armor kept me safe from whatever those little bastards were going to my already fucked and fragile body, picking myself up and taking a sample of the plant seeing how it wasn't giving off any radiance of death or any other sign of impending doom nearby. Dusting myself off I resumed my walk to Canterlot unimpeded but only to stop for the night to set up a simple camp consisting of only a fire pit, a bedroll, and of course my crossbow rigged to point directly over my body with a row of tripwires crossing over me. For safety reasons of course.

My sleep was uneventful besides the nightmares that came to haunt my dreams, and like every other night when I go to bed it's always the same damn nightmare of my colossal failures of me not being able to save the ones I love...but what was really different about this dream was that the person in this one was...blurred from view and it was more of a peaceful dream than the hellish nightmares I am used to.

I wake up to a wonderful sight. A dead cockatrice impaled to the tree by all twenty bolts from my crossbow, and it is still trying to look at me with its eyes to turn me back to stone, good luck with that you feathery beast. Moving out from underneath the dead fowl I pull the bolts out from the feathered meat sack and once each and every single bolt was removed I promptly threw the dead bird away from my makeshift camp before breaking it down and scattering the fire pit around before leaving again for Canterlot.

So how about that apple pie?

'Later when we get to Canterlot, I highly doubt there is a pie store out here in the middle of bumfuck nowhere.'

Hey you might never know.

Sighing quietly I trudge on through bushes, shrubs and tall grass, my mood staying the same sour level until I hit something familiar.

"Memorial Hill...you haven't aged a bit...except that the tree looks a bit....wilted."

Well the summer season is approaching, so it could be the steadily rising heat?

'That just sounds stupid, its spring, spring weather is warm and cool, its probably just that the rain hasn't been entirely faithful for this area, that or the dead is causing it to die because of the ghostly influence being placed upon it.'

Okay now that is a stupid idea.

'Shut up, ghosts are real, I spoke to a few already, and if they weren't real than I was just speaking to myself, which is what I am doing right now.'

Haha very funny.

'Yea I know, I should be a comedian in my off time.'

Looking at Canterlot I can see that there was a strange purple bubble surrounding it and every five minutes it would ripple from the top of it as it makes its way downward like water wobbling on a still moving lake. At first I was just watching it shine and ripple for a few minutes but when I saw a bird smack into it I realized that it was a force field...a magical force field that nothing can go in or out.

'I am just glad that it isn't a plasma fence, I saw that shit in action on Omega and I am not getting burnt to nothing for touching it.'

Starting the trek up the mountain I came across a group of ponies pulling merchandise and other goodies to the pony capital by cart, and when they see me they wave me over and we all walked together slowly up the mountain, the path is clear enough and the only thing that kept me occupied was talking to the traveling merchants about what the local happenings and to hear any news that came and went from Equestria.

"I heard that Princess Celestia is greatly depressed over the death of a recent friend....heard that they are holding some sort of gathering to commemorate his actions or something. I also heard that this thing is gonna be big cause he apparently is a hero also for savin some far off kingdom, also heard that this stallion saved two groups of ponies. He sounds like a real hero." The old stallion to my right said as we crested over a ledge near the middle of the mountain, the city was another hour of walking, this oldie was starting to ramble as I tuned it out and started to hum a little tune and as I saw the bottom of the magic field get close to my head I tapped it with my hand and felt it get lightly zapped and thrown back.

Looking at my hand I found that it was tinted slightly purple from the field and that it had a tingly feeling to it, at first I thought it was just me but as we kept walking I realized that it had a prolonged effect as my hand kept tingling from the weak nerves in my hand reacting to the electrical shock they have received.

It was only after we got to the entrance of Canterlot that I realized why I still felt that tingly feeling. There was Shining Armor standing near the entrance to the capital talking to the main gate guards and also to a group of ponies who just now trotted past the front gates, and as we get close to the barrier we were stopped and told to state our business.

The four ponies I was traveling with said "Business purposes." and when it came to me, I had to think for a few seconds before saying "To pay respects to a friend of mine whose memorial is taking place in a few days.", the guards looked me over before they told me to go stand by the wall for a pat down. I found the thought of a pony patting me down for illegal substances to be funny as hell since they didn't have any hands to do a proper pat down and that their hooves would just press things over while they search.

I agreed to the search and when I placed the palm of my claw hand on the wall than moved to place my other hand on the wall I felt something patting me down until I turned my head to see that it was a pair of ghostly hands and I muttered under my helmet a string of curse words against them but kept up my illusion that I was just a diamond dog paying respects to the dead. It was only after the pat down came to my thighs that I tensed up as I felt a few pounds get lifted off me, my satchel removed as it was levitated away from me and placed on the ground and before long my crossbow was also removed from my possessions and was passed to a guard to inspect.

"Huh...a crossbow, I heard of gryphons with these but I never saw one like this...metal stock and bow...is that string made of wrapped metal? I wonder how this dog got his dirty paws on this kind of military grade gear...and take a look at his armor, looks like some sort of organized dog military uniform...maybe he is from Barkelona? Hey dog where you from?" one of the stallion guards said as they kept patting me down, the one that was searching my satchel gagged back before pulling out some pieces of meaty jerky that I saved and placed it back in to keep searching.

I kept my mouth shut for a while, waiting for them to do something, that was until one of them tried to take my helmet off as I quickly smacked it back down and growled at them, they backed away from the growl and one brought a spear to my face and ordered me to take off my helmet, Shining Armor was watching it all unfold.

"I prefer if you don't touch my helmet pony. And no I am not from Barkelona, never been there before. Now I would like if you stop messing with my stuff and give it back to me." I said and I articulated each word to them, clearly surprising the guards that a 'diamond dog' has the capacity to speak with normal intelligence in his voice besides the 'dumb-as-a-sack-of-hammers' usual dogs.

When I spoke up the same guard with the spear tried to lift my helmet up with his spear but as it barely moved an inch I moved faster than any of them could react by snatching the spear from his hooves and breaking it on his helmet before jumping and rolling to my satchel and placed it back on the belt but was promptly raised in a smaller shield sphere.

"Private Smiles and Private Velvet, return to your posts, I will deal with our guest." Shining said as the two gave a salute while the one I smacked upside the head with his own spear glares at me while I give a smug grin under the safety helmet.

As they returned to their respective posts I was lowered to the ground and was given back my effects and oddly enough Shining Armor apologized to me for the way his guards acted towards me, now if only he can apologize to me for all the times I kicked his ass at poker and called me out as a cheater or when my trained guards beat his in the training grounds.

"No damage done besides being manhandled...now I must find a place to stay for the next five days, any good hotels or inns here in the pony capital?" I said with my altered tone, keeping myself on my toes to ensure everything is working fine, not wanting to alert anyone that the person they thought dead was actually alive and walking among them until the day of reckoning.

I was directed to stay at the Diamond Deluxe Hotel, apparently the best place to stay in all of Equestria, from what Shining told me was the service, the five star food they served and also the magically treated hot tubs and ever soft beds and pillows, and a place that fine is expensive but the gems and bits I still have should be enough to cover for four days.

When I entered Canterlot for the first time I realized that I was here not as an instructor for the royal guards or as a person of importance, but instead as a civilian, and for me it was both amazing and annoying. The uptight nobles had their noses up as soon as they saw me and those that are a step or few below them were avoiding or walking around me, but the common ponies actually came close to me or accidentally bumped into me and apologizing. I only give them a quick apology for bumping into them before carrying on my way or when their is an uptight noble giving me lip or talking down on me as if I was inferior I just take off my left glove and show the still blood crusted claw beneath it, they shut up right quickly with that little display along with those that saw it happen.

As I get to the hotel a young colt wearing a bellhop uniform opens the door and I promptly give him a ten bit tip for no real reason but the colt just stares at me a while before looking in his hoof to see the money than back at me before I kept walking to the front desk, and at that front desk was a mare wearing what I can think up as a secretarial dress with the little glasses and when I get to the desk her eyes barely move an inch as I see her lips move a bit before speaking up.

"Welcome to the Diamond Deluxe Hotel how may I help you sir?"

"I am looking for a room to spend the next four days in, are any rooms available?" I said while keeping my right hand on my crossbow, not letting it leave my grasp after what those pony guards did to me.

It only took a few moments for her to look at the ledger placed before her and she leans back off her padded cushion and grabs a key with her teeth from a slot in the wall behind her and places the key down in front of her, the number on the key read '404'.

"Four Day's and Nights would be two hundred bits, upfront or over the time you are spending here." my response was to unstrap the small money satchel that was tied to my left side and dropped it on the counter, and the sound of a heavy bag filled with coins and gems and the top of it open to let a few bits drop out and roll around before falling over from the lack of momentum and speed.

"Take the correct amount than have it sent to my room." I said before grabbing the key and walked toward the stairs and made my way up to what I can guess was my room.

The few times I stayed in a hotel was in a disguise for either the Alliance or for Cerberus, and each time I spent in one it always ended before I could fully enjoy the services, but this time I was going to enjoy it even if it kills me...metaphorically speaking.

'Nice room, I hope the showers in this place has enough water and soap for this raggedy man...huh mini fridge sweet.'

Taking a quick look around the room I dropped all three of my satchels down on the floor by the bed and tossed my helmet between the two large pillows on the bed before darting to the bathroom to give it my approval, and approval it gets. The porcelain floors and walls matches the typical hotel layout, but the large bathtub in the center is something that would be more placed outdoors as a hot tub, but than again ponies are smaller than me and more than likely think this is pretty much suitable for them.

Going back to the front door I put up the 'Do Not Disturb' sign and quickly wrote under it with my claw 'For the love of god, do not open this door under any circumstances unless you are dropping off my money or if you have a death wish, if you are here to drop off the money just open the door by 25 degree's and drop it inside on the floor.' and with that I closed the door before putting the proverbial tool of death aimed and primed by tripwire.

Thinking that everything is safe for now I promptly stripped myself of both sets of armor and my under clothes and went straight to the bathroom and turned the water on maximum hotness to kill the dirt and grime from my body and also to make sure I don't smell like feet wrapped in leathery burnt bacon. Closing the bathroom door behind me I crawled into the tub and wincing as the boiling hot water comes into contact with my cuts and scrapes that I have accumulated over the few months I was reanimated back to life. Taking a look at my left arm I grabbed at the shoulder pieces holding the partial clockwork socket and pulling on three hardpoint pins the skeletal limb disconnects and clatters to the porcelain floor.

Grabbing the shampoo bottle that they have left out for me to use, the sweet scent of strawberries slightly linger from the now open bottle as I squeezed the contents out on top of my head and let it settle for a few scant seconds before rubbing it into my scalp and started to dig it in deep enough for it to come into contact with my skin and than finally rubbing it in and taking a deep breath before dunking my head in the water and scrubbing the shampoo out and came back up for air before grabbing a stick with soap placed at the end of it, my guess it was for ponies that weren't a unicorn, but for me it serves it an easier purpose.

With the soap in hand I started to scrub the filth off my skin and with a zealous fervor to kill off what I can only guess was a thick layer of dirt, mud, blood, sweat and stank on my body and with the way my scrubbing was going it was as if I gave the soap an extermination order on uncleanliness.

After a few minutes of hard scrubbing and swearing from the pain it brought but I pushed on through until finally I no longer smelled like someone just keeled over and was already starting to rot from the summer heat, and prompting one more dunk in the heated water before pulling myself out and drying off with the pony sized towel they have available for me to use. It was when I was drying myself off that I heard a heavy thunk followed by an even louder shriek and I knew that I had to hurry before hotel security would arrive and see my naked ass getting dressed.

As I hurriedly donned my N7 armor and left my skeletal arm back in the bathroom and as I heard the door getting knocked on by what I can only think as armored hooves I jumped into my scout armor and just as the door was opened by owner of the hotel and flanked by two royal guards and the maid that apparently almost got shot by the bolt.

"Excuse me sir, but did you just try to kill one of my staff members?" the stallion said with a slightly French accent and in a fluid fashion that sounds like it was well rehearsed.

"No, because if I wanted to kill somepony than they would have already been dead, I left a sign out on my door that clearly said 'Do Not Disturb', what part of it did that maid not understand?" I barked out as the owner looks at the maid who gave a sheepish smile before giving a sad downcasted frown.

The stallion looks at me again before looking at the maid let out an explosive sigh and motioned for the two security guards to take the maid away and as he turned and left I walked over to the door and pulled out the bolt and looked it over to make sure it was still fire able and indeed it was, going back to the ammo clip that rested underneath partially in the center and re-inserted the bolt back into its home.

Poking his head back inside one last time he spoke before closing the door, "Sorry for the inconvenience sir.", leaving me alone to my own devices as I looked at the grandfather clock in the room to see that it was 4:06pm and that the sun was still high enough in the sky to not warrant an early sleep. Taking the time I still have left I grabbed my money satchel and gave it a few experimental jingles to see if the ponies at the front desk took more than what was said and I thought it over and shrugged as I looped it back into place along with my spare bolts and crossbow. Locking the door behind me and placing the key inside my bolt satchel to drive away any suspicions that it was located there in the event I get robbed.

Getting robbed in Canterlot was non-existent apparently as I realized from the fact that the presence of the royal guards was pretty much everywhere and that this was the capital of ponyland and not once have I ever heard of a crime going on that a pony has ever committed, so my guess that ponies are unable to commit crimes or are just so happy to never really need to do one in the first place.

But it was from the lack of crime or just my own paranoid self that I thought that all of the guards were watching and following me everywhere I went, I went to five separate bars, two clubs and even fancy clothes store, and every time I left the building I would always see a pair of guards waiting out front and the funny part was when I left the clothing store I had only two items with me, and it was a fancy suit that I had to get specially tailored and sized, and the other was a top hat, one that I had always wanted since I came here.

Walking back to my room I placed my two lone bags on the floor and went to the window to see the moon rise off in the distance and when it was clearly dark outside did I decide to see if this place had a real night life.

Going back downstairs I left the hotel to see what I can find that is normally closed or not even mentioned during the day and sooner or later I found what I was looking for, a real nightclub, neon lights and everything, even an authentic bouncer was there at the front door. This bouncer was a diamond dog and when 'he' saw me, I am assuming that it is a he at the front door, he gave me a strange look before unhooking the rope inside and seemingly odd enough I just shrugged it off and walked inside, the ponies that were waiting in line all groaned and called out what that was all about but the bouncer only laughed it off and resumed his duty.

The outside of the nightclub made it look like it has some semblance of order but as soon as I passed the threshold of the doorway it turned into a chaotic, unorganized party house that I quickly grew fond of. Inside, every single pony was dancing, drinking, laughing and chasing tail as if there was no tomorrow and I was soon in the middle of it as I drank ponies, gryphons and dogs alike under the table, placing bets on ponies wrestling in the corner and throwing my money at a gryphon for winning, I even ended up slapping a mare on the flank when I had too much to drink but that slap to the flank was met with a slap to the face by her tail and that was when the cat calls started, and drunk me being drunk me I joined in before I realized that I was too drunk to even do anything so I called it a night and returned to my room.

Next Morning

The morning after my night of wild partying I woke up to the third world's worst hangover in my history, and not once was there a chaser to be ingested or a spell to be casted to alleviate the horrid throbbing headaches and I had only one thing to say on this matter.

"I think I am going to throw up."

I stayed in my room the entire day, I rather tear my room apart than tear apart any pony that got in my way of my horrible migraine.

2 Days till Funeral

Today, when I woke up I found out that my room was raided by the maids, the smell of sweat and body odor was gone and was replaced by the smell of roses and sweet mint, and I know what that it was mint because I was able to taste it in the air, and that mint was good enough for me to lick my lips in hunger. The rumbling in my gut told me that my body requires food and I was not going to be doing much today except explore the city and keep my fuel gauge topped off by sampling what this city has to offer.

First stop was the local donut joint for coffee and a muffin, the owner whose name was simple enough to remember, Donut Joe, and by god the coffee they served was just like the same brand served to the officers on the Presidium, spot on match and brewed to perfection. The same can be said about the muffin, damn good shit.

Lunch was served at the Gourmand and it was top notch for being able to provide meat on its menu, even though the pony who brought it over was green on the cheeks and was trying hard not to throw up so I saved the waiter the trouble by not eating till he left my sight, which did me little good when I saw him nearly lose it. Was totally worth it.

Dinner on the other hand...how a gryphon fucks up bacon I will never know and will never ever find out because I was thrown out of his diner when I said that the food looked like shit, tasted like shit, and above all else, that I could probably cook better than the ones working there. When I was thrown out I was not told politely to get the hell out, no four gryphons picked me up and hurled me out of there like a Frisbee and not once did I apologize for saying the truth. I thought my stomach was gonna tear itself inside out for how bad the food tasted.

Once I got back to my room just went straight to bed after four bottles of wine in my system and with half a wheel of cheese laying on my nightstand.

Dreamland

A strange green tank was in the middle of a dark, dank room, I was standing in front of it and floating inside was a brain and at first I just thought that this was some person's creepy ass experiment but when the damn thing started to glow and said a word I nearly shit myself.

"Well, well, look who finally dragged themselves in out from the artic storm. And where have we been, hmm? Crawling through glaciers and corpses again?"

"Are you my brain?" I just had to ask that because I was at the moment, trying to figure out if I was stoned out of my mind or just shitting bricks out of sheer stupidity.

"Ah, lovely, figured that one out have we? Would you like a cookie?"

"No need to be sarcastic...smartass, meeting your own brain is odd as hell." I grumbled out the 'smartass' part since I rather not piss myself off.

"Yes, well believe me the same can be said for you. Good lord did you at least take a shower before you even came back home?", I just gave him a deadpanned stare as the words sank in to me.

"Yes, because getting shot at, almost eaten and almost killed many times throughout the world, yes taking a shower was my top priority."

"Well, I see sarcasm hasn't eluded you just yet. Fine, perhaps at this very moment isn't the best time, but it is the principle of the thing that matters."

"Oh fuck you, why are you being such a dick?"

"Oh, as if I am this so called, quote, dick, unquote. You are the one responsible for all the mishaps and near-death experiences we have to go through on a regular basis."

"But what about us? Don't you want to be reunited again, what about all the fun times we had together?"

"I think of so many different reasons to not want to return to that empty head of yours."

"Fine, than what I can do to make it fair for the both of us?"

"Well if you want me back that badly, let me lay down some ground rules. First, showers! Actual showers with strong soap and thick loofas. Second, regular check-ups. Regular, mind you, and from a licensed and reputable doctor."

"Okay, I can do those two easily, since that last job we did together went south...literally. Anything else?"

"Thirdly, you need to listen to me more. That means stop listening to your dick and your heart for once, and listen to the thing that is working overtime to keep the two of us alive. Promise me that, and I will return back into your head."

I only mumbled obscene thoughts and words for a good solid minute before finally letting out an explosive sigh.

"Fine....I promise. Now get back in here...I can already feel myself wanting to shove something soft and squishy inside my head to make up for the lack of a brain."

1 Day till Funeral

"The fuck did I eat for that crazy fucking dream..." I grumbled out as I slowly opened my eyes to see the sun slipping through the blinds of the window behind me and the sounds of birds chirping told me that it was somewhat around the morning, and as for the morning I simply rolled out of my bed and ignored my N7 armor as I shoved it under the bed and only put on my scouting gear, looking at my crossbow I disarmed it and also hit it under the bed along with the bolts. Grabbing what I need for the day I took off the sign on the doorknob and went down to the lobby and out the front door to the streets.

It was when I noticed that the streets were empty that I thought today was a lazy day or something for all the ponies but when I started to walk down the streets did I realize it was the exact opposite of a lazy day.

Today is the duelist tournament that is taking place at the palace, and seeing how almost all of Canterlot was empty and that today was mildly cool I decided to see what the fuss was about along with seeing who was the best with their long thin sword.

At that comment I snickered to myself at the dirty pun that I just made and was now planning on using it to a few stallions that will be participating at the event.

It was only when I arrived at the arena did I realize that this was the type of dueling where the two ponies would be wearing the full fancy getup of the white uniforms and wire made helmets. I hated those things in basic training but by god did those helmets suck ass, they offered absolutely no protection from the blunt ends of the shaft, and not once did I not feel the impact of the blows, I felt everything and that shit hurts. But looking at the ponies wearing it now, it looks just plain ridiculous and seeing the two pick up what I thought were large thin metal toothpicks, they might as well be seeing that they don't look like they can even punch through wet tissue paper.

One thing I hate about the rich ponies is that they think that they are above everyone that is not as rich as they are and live in Canterlot but the one thing I love about them is that they all have a thing for gambling, and I put that part of them to the test as I started a gambling ring at the beginning of the round.

It was by the final round that I lost my ass in the betting pool. I placed half of my earned bits on the Blueblood's opponent, Fancy Pants, and the match was a close tie but somehow that bastard prince got the upper hand and won. I had to leave half of my earnings behind and took what was left from my pot before I left the lower part of the stands to return to the hotel for the night, but this time I had something else planned.

Upon returning to my hotel room I locked my door and placed the bed in front of it before moving towards the window for the next step of my night exploring.

Opening the window to the outside world I looked out to see if there was any patrolling guards roving about or any ponies in general and was happy to find none lumbering about and giving a short prayer I climbed out the window with my room key and money satchel before finally jumping off the side and landed with a thud on the cobblestone road, taking a look around to see if any pony came to look for the source of the noise I moved through the streets and came upon something that never wanted to see unless I was with a date or was ungodly smashed on booze.

An Opera House.

I walked up to the building and looked to see what was playing, and I shit you not they were playing Pagliacci and I may not be the fan favorite of the musical arts but what not many people know is that I am a fan of a very select few operas, Don Giovanni was one of them alongside Hamlet and Pagliacci, oddly enough whenever they were present on Earth or on the Citadel I had to come up with an excuse to ditch my teammates to see it.

Going up to the ticket booth I found out that they had only one ticket left and it was well worth the 50 bit price tag it came with it but as I said was well worth it. Grabbing the ticket I entered the building and went straight to my seat which was all the way in the back, at the very edge so practically everyone had to move by me if they had to go in or out of their seats for something. A minor annoyance but if they were anything like me than I would have shot them for ruining my view. Moving up the isle I glanced around to see who was here that I could possibly recognize and I saw that Fancy Pants and his wife Fleur de Lis, I saw a few of the Wonderbolts sitting in a balcony row, Photo Finish was sitting in the very front row with her camera crew, and I even saw that one minotaur that tried to teach Fluttershy to be assertive in the back middle. Looking up in the balconies to see who else was sitting in the VIP seatings I saw Princess Luna and sitting next to her was Celestia, but her face was clearly bored, and if not just down right depressed, my guess that she is going to be reminded that my death has happened and that we never said good bye on the day I left on that train to head up north. What I did not like that was sitting in that balcony was Blueblood sitting in front of the two alicorns but at a lower elevation and sitting next to him was a pony that I had never seen before or have even heard of, he was wearing what I can guess was the most expensive tailor-made suit on the planet, being covered in gems of all kinds, even his larger-than-normal top hat is gem studded, he looked fatter than any other pony I have ever seen, I could clearly see that he just let himself go after so many years of probably no exercise or better yet, sitting on his fat ass all day.

And I wanted to kill this pony with extreme prejudice for no real reason.

I felt a pang of anguish and agony at the sight of my princess that visibly hurt by my death but if I revealed myself now, in front of all these ponies and just say 'Oh hey, I am alive and the first thing I did is go see an Opera with you unknowingly here as well.' and I know that shit won't fly straight with her so for now I just have to be sneaky and not let her notice me. Quickly taking my seat at the edge seat I quickly slumped down to make myself look shorter from a distance and also because I can tell that some one was watching me.

During the play, about roughly half way through it I stood up out of my seat and hurriedly went to the concourse and looked around in a panicked fashion to see the stairs that lead upwards to the balcony booths and very quietly snuck to each booth and cracked the door open to see who was in them, finding one empty I took a mental note that I will return to it later hopefully to watch the rest of the play but for now I returned to booth spying.

Silently moving to the next booth I found out that the Wonderbolts that was staying for the show was Fleetfoot, Soarin, Surprise and Spitfire, and all four was not wearing their spandex uniforms and goggles but instead was wearing their set of fancy attire that they probably wear when going out. Next booth was the most uptight of uptight assholes I had ever seen along with the most fruity of fruits, Hoity Toity and by god the flamboyancy was strong with this one, sadly sitting next to him was the self proclaimed 'Pony of Pop' Sapphire Shores and both were sitting awfully close to one another but I ignored the two and closed the door quietly before getting to the one that I had wanted to get to.

Standing by the royal doors was two guards and both of them I recognized as the ones I had trained, and both of them were standing absolutely still and neither of them even blinked as I walked up to them, and just as they moved their eyes to look at me I grabbed my crossbow and threw it at the nearest one who caught it with his magic before he took the metal stock to the face, breaking his nose and knocking him out in the progress when I punched the crossbow to put a lot more force and pressure on the tossed weapon to his muzzle. The other guard never had a chance to defend herself as I whipped the crossbow around and practiced my golf swing on her by cracking the stock against her jaw and without a doubt cracked it and also knocked her out cold.

Leaving the two unconscious guards behind I cracked the door open just a bit to see who else was along with the princesses but my limited view only showed me the two alicorns and thinking the coast was clear I squeezed on through and slowly closed the door behind me, and just as I did that it was at my favorite part of the opera where Canio does his short aria and I was intently listening in at this point and while the pony actor said his lines in whatever was the pony equivalent of Italian while I silently mouthed the words in English.

"Di agire mentre io sono in una frenesia non sapendo che cosa sto dicendo o facendo."

'To act while I'm in a frenzy not knowing what I'm saying or doing.'

"Ma devo farlo. Sforzatevi ... non sei un uomo?"

'Yet I have to. Force yourself...aren't you a man?'

"Tu sei il clown ... Vesti la giubba e sbiancare il viso, la gente paga i loro soldi e vogliono ridere e se Arlecchino ruba Columbine lontano da te ... ridi, pagliaccio ... e tutti potranno applaudire voi."

'You're the clown...put on your costume and whiten your face, the people pay their money and want to laugh and if Harlequin steals Columbine away from you...laugh, clown...and everyone will applaud you.'

"Fai uno scherzo della vostra angoscia e lacrime. Fai una smorfia di dolore e le vostre singhiozzi."

'Make a joke of your anguish and tears. Make a wry face from grief and your sobs.'

"Ridi, pagliaccio ... sul tuo amore infranto. Ridi la tristezza che sta avvelenando il tuo cuore."

'Laugh, clown...at your shattered love. Laugh at the sadness that's poisoning your heart.'

And it was during this one part that I felt a lone tear slide down my unshaven face, down the beard that I have been growing and splatter on the metallic mesh of my helmet and I also heard the sobs coming from both princesses but what almost caused my cover to be blown was that I almost gave off a feral growl of anger as the unknown stallion moved to Celestia's side and tried to comfort her, and I just wanted to rip his head off for even getting close to her but I had to restrain myself for if I kill him now, and pretty much everypony finds out that I am alive and that I just killed a pony for real reason than I can expect my ass to me launched to the sun, and being burnt to a crisp is something I only wanted to experience twice.

Backing away slowly I gave off a faint growl and crawled back out through the door and went back to my seat down below, gingerly stepping over the two knocked out guards in the process before finding my seat and taking it back just in time for the opera to end and as everypony started to clap their hooves I got back up and started to leave with the crowd, trying to keep myself slightly above them to blend in. It worked for the most part until I got outside to see that there was the paparazzi and by the gods they were just like the ones back in my time except smaller and had the old fashioned light-bulb camera's.

Pushing my way through the crowd of ponies I met some stiff resistance but they reluctantly moved aside for me and as I got to the other side I heard someone call out for me, not using my name but instead calling me a diamond dog. Now I would be happy that my disguise was working flawlessly but I was now scared shitless as the one calling for me was not a regular pony, no the one who called for me was actually the princess of the night, Luna, and the paparazzi ponies all turned to look at me now, and I was like a deer caught in a pair of headlights.

And a disaster was imminent.

"We have heard that a diamond dog was in our fair city but nopony has told us that the same would be so interested in the artistic arts of drama. So tell us all what has brought you to Canterlot?" said the night princess as Celestia lifts her head to look at me along with the rest of the camera wielding poines.

Thinking a bit on what to say I shuffle a bit on my feet and tilt my head to the left before speaking up. "Well princess of the night, I came here to the pony capital to pay my respects to the human that gave me a second chance at life that was almost taken away from me." I said in my disguised voice, trying my best to bullshit my way out of this situation that I somehow got caught in.

The silence that followed was quickly cut short when Celestia finally said something, her voice partially saddened from being torn up about my 'death', "You knew Roran? How did you two meet? What is your name?", the way she said that was as if me and him are recent friends or something but the truth was I am him, so I had to keep up with the lying express.

"Knew him? Not really, and we met back in Castle Dead...not sure what its real name was but it was in the middle of that manticore infested forest below next to this mountain, we met when he was placed in the cell with me and many other ponies and a changeling. It was because of him that we all managed to escape by leaving through the red room and over a cliff into the lake. And just between the few of us here, my name is Sloan." I said which was clearly a lie but also the truth of the matter at hand.

It was their turn to ask me something but one of the paparazzi ponies beat them to the punch.

"What are you wearing and what is it made out of?" the one that said that was wearing a cheesy looking fedora hat and had a notepad and pencil in his hooves and mouth.

"I am wearing old clan's hunting armor...and it is made of manticore leather and metal plates we traded for from other clans." I lied through my teeth, just rolling with it since I partially know their culture from what Kara has told me the few times I talked about that topic and the few times she even wanted to talk on such topic.

At that moment a breeze rolled by and made my empty left arm sway in the wind and the way it moved visually told everyone that it was empty, boneless and that it has clearly gone missing in some fashion, and it was Luna who was the first to ask what happened and also why I am still wearing my helmet when I am clearly talking to royalty.

"Well...princesses, reason for my arm is that a bloody manticore ate it...damn shame to but I got its head, and as for the helmet...well the manticore wasn't very picky about its meal so it tried to rip my head off, instead tore my face up to the point of it being nothing more than poorly melded meat and fur. It will heal eventually...but eating like I am hurts like hell." I said and the gasps and murmurs of the crowd was what caused a few of the paparazzi to bumrush me and started to pester me about the things I have seen, what I have done and anything they never knew about Roran, e.g. me.

I answered only a few questions before I told them I had to get going, and when they started to follow me was when I was starting to grow annoyed by the fact they are just following me around but even more annoyed that they are taking pictures and are still trying to get me to answer their questions. It was at that point that I grabbed my crossbow and pointed it at the first camera I saw and let loose one bolt, the shot going clean through the device and bouncing off the cobblestone walls of some building before it skidded down a dark alley, the action alone was enough to make them to stop following me.

When I got to my room at the hotel I found that it has been cleaned up and a small apology letter was by my bed and I gave it a quick look over and placed it back before I stripped myself of my armor again before placing the 'Do Not Disturb' sign on the door again along with placing the table in front of the door to give me some breathing room in the event I get raided. Slipping under the covers of the bed I sighed quietly before turning off the lamp and shut my eyes to enter the land of dreams.

Dreamland

The beats was jamming and the people were having fun, the Purgatory was still in business even though everyone was rather dead, or in my case, dreamscaping it. Moving to the front I found an old friend waiting for me with two shots in his hands and a grin on his face.

"So good of you to join us once again Lt. Roran, how goes your time in the land of the living?" Shepard said as he handed me a shot glass filled with what I can hope was ryncol because I could use a strong drink.

"Well Shepard, this sometimes happen when I sleep so eh...and so far it is going great, I helped end a rebellion with a new species so far not recorded by the ponies, I killed a dragon, and I got myself a new suit of armor and a technologically advanced crossbow from said species. In all a good time for being back for a few months." I said back as I downed the shot and raised a hand at the bar for another.

It was in that short silence that brought up a question I always wanted answered by him.

"You know...whatever did happen to the Citadel once the Crucible fired? You never really told me what happened to it." I asked as I downed the next two shots that went my way.

"It blew up." he simply said as he stared down at the still full shot glass in his left hand.

"Whoa whoa whoa huh?" I said while almost choking on the fifth ryncol shot.

"I can already tell this is going to end badly for me." he said as he slowly tried to scoot away from me as I stared at the counter both confused and trying to figure out what exactly he said.

"What do you mean the Citadel blew up?" I said slightly drunk but mostly pissed off. Shepard just says it blew up again and that was when I blew up.

"Fuck. Aw fuck, fuck, fuuuuuuuuuuuuck!" I shouted as I slammed my fists on the counter for each word I forced out of my lips. I slumped down in my stool as it started to sink in.

I let out an overly explosive sigh as I asked Shepard again, "Okay...so who was left?" what he said clearly wasn't the right answer.

"Are you shitting me? Than where was the Normandy?" his reply was a short shrug and a sigh.

"Wait, they crashed on a crappy planet with no way off till the Alliance remnants found them? God they must have smelled like hot sick and a dead body."

"Oh I am sorry, I thought humanity's best and brightest alongside the rest of the galaxy could have stopped the Reapers from completely fucking over everything in existence. Do you, do you have any idea what that alone has already done to my psyche..." when I felt the tap on my should was when I looked over at Urta than back to Shepard.

"Hold on someone wants to talk to me." I said before turning to my old squadmate, "What I am very busy right now chewing Shepard's ass off." as I said that I felt a sharp sting across my face as Urta's hand goes across my face and she just looked at me as if I did something wrong.

"Sorry." I hastily said as I turned back to Shepard, "Sorry 'bout that....what? Just rebuild humanity's legacy? Real fucking original asshole, got any leads on in that cybernetic head of yours?" I brought one hand to his neck as I partially strangled him while taking his drink and downing it in seconds.

"Just get your ass out of here...I am gonna go out now and...fuck it just see the sights...enjoy the night while it lasts cause the dawn is fastly approaching." I said before closing my eyes and slumped onto the counter before snoring, signaling everyone that I am now officially passed out drunk. A sign that it was time for me to wake up.

Day of the Funeral, April 1st

As the dawn early lights gleamed through the partially closed curtains I grumbled loudly to myself, my body refusing to get up as I forced my eyes to open up just a crack and in that moment I let out a yawn, my arm stretching out till its mechanical joint made a simulated pop sound before I sagged back into my sleeping position but the sun's rays was pestering my eyes and it was only when I checked my internal clock that it was only 34 minutes till the funeral began that I got out of bed, didn't even bother to make myself look presentable but I did use a bit of the air fresheners to make myself not smell like a rotting corpse in the desert sun.

After putting on both sets of armor and pretty much everything else that I brought with me, I grabbed my skeletal left arm and reinsert it back into its socket, and with a bit of an experimental shake it holds firm to its place, and after that I went down to the front desk of the hotel and turn in my room key before heading out toward the palace, and to the rest of my friends.

My walk to the Canterlot Palace was something short of uneventful but upon arriving at the front gate did I realize that the whole event was a big deal, even larger than I had previously thought. All of the people that was probably at my funeral was there, all the girls were at the front door was now just let it, the dogs that I saved and recruited was also there, seemingly waiting on someone of their group to show up, even Discord was there, he was just floating on by the diamond dogs before just pushing the doors in and floated off down the colossal halls.

I stood by the gate for a few seconds before making my way up to the front door and was stopped by the two guards, one was holding a clipboard with what I can clearly see is a list of names, and right at the bottom of that list, right below Rainbow Dash's name, was my false name, and right as I said that was my name they lifted their spears and separated to grant me access.

When the two raised their spears to let me in, I gave the pair a curt nod before walking in and upon entering the palace I realized that I have no idea where to go and the last group to enter has already been out of sight long enough for me not to see them so I am officially lost without even moving an inch.

Lucky for me a servant was walking by and managed to direct me to the field where the funeral was taking place and as I exited the palace to the rear of it and stepped to where everyone has gathered that was when they started to find their seating and directed their attention to the front, and when the last pony sat down I scuttled my way to an empty seat, somewhat near the front with the other diamond dogs and I was praying to whoever was listening in, praying that my cover doesn't get blown this easily.

As I sat down on the small cushions provided to us I watched Katherine walk up to the podium and started the little speech thing for these types of memorials, since she was sometimes the one to kick start it, and is also the one to end them with an ending speech, and just like before she thanked us for coming and for remembering a fallen hero, who is very much still alive and is amongst them but is refusing to speak up out of respect for the one talking and also is waiting for the right moment to reveal the truth.

As the ponies, dogs and gryphon went up and said a few words about me before coming back to take their seat, I was paying close attention to when it was my friends turn to speak up about me, and the things they said about me...was what I somewhat didn't even know how they felt about me.

The first of my friends to go up was Discord, and this was what he had to say about me, "Equins, gryphons, canines...before lies a fallen hero, a dear friend, a one-night-stand, our dear Roran, a man I knew far longer than anyone in this garden, for more than 4,000 years we kept each other company in the solitude of statues, and in those years we got to know one another, pick at each others brains, laugh and joke with each other, but what he has taught me...was that no matter what people say about you, you can always change who you are even when the change might be painful to go through with." and when he floated over to his throne of candy did Twilight Sparkle make her way to the podium, or that I think it was her...hard to tell since the last time I saw her she didn't have a weird crown thingy on her head, hoof-shoes or was larger than her friends and had wings...in fact I think that this is an imposter failing badly...or just Mirias trying to bring laughs to everyone's faces.

"When I first met Roran I was excited that there was life beyond our own in the universe and even more so that they were friendly, and the more we learned from one another is that he learned throughout his life as a trial-and-error, and not once did he ever give up when he was determined to go after his goals, even when one such goal was grisly and I was a witness to it...and-" her speech kept going until it finally ended, I slowly started to move my hand to my helmet, covering half of the front somewhat in shame that I am forced to hear my friends speak about me and I can't do a thing to let them know that I am still alive yet.

And as the day went on did I feel more and more like shit, everyone saying something good about me, the things they said only made me feel worse.

"Roran saved us from being slaves, Roran turned my life around along with my brothers and sisters as we are no longer like the lesser minded of our old selves, he helped improve the readiness of the guards and taught us how to protect ourselves from any possible threats, he saved our little filly, rescued me from getting eaten, taught me how to live again." and just when I thought it was over, I saw Celestia, wearing a pony version of the funeral dress and face mask, she spoke quietly at first before speaking up for all of us to hear.

"Roran...he taught all of us many things...but he also gave us a chance...a chance to learn things that we once never knew of....a chance to live again when we were at our lowest point in our lives....and above all else...he gave us a chance at a family...a few are trying to start one, and it was because of him that you made that last push....we...I just wish he was here...to be with us again...if even for a moment." and it was at that point that her sister had to gently pull her away, Celestia started to weep as she was helped back to her seat and before anyone else made a move toward the podium, I finally stood up and swiftly moved forward.

Once I was up at the podium did I start, and once I got started I was determined not to stop for anyone.

"For those that knew Roran, they only saw him for who he was, a hero, someone to look up to for guidance, a friend, and above all else, a man with a checkered past that not many knew of besides Discord and his old teammates. When I first met Roran, him and I were at each others throats until we made an agreement of sorts to hold each others secrets till the end of our days, and it is about time I say his since I know mine are soon to follow." I cleared my throat for what I am about to do, fully knowing that this was now or never.

"Roran was an asshole to many people, he had anger, drinking and drug issues let alone social problems and was a threat to society for his actions, the crimes he had committed in his time were terrible at best but for all of his atrocious acts he tried his best to redeem himself even when the odds were always being stacked against him. Even before when he was told who his real parents were, he wanted nothing more than to kill them for abandoning him to his fate as an orphan at Armstrong City, but when he met his mother for the first time he changed that action from wanting to murder his family, to wanting to protect it with an over zealous pride that not once faltered. And with the death of his family happening one at a time it broke my--his mind till it was at the breaking point, but he moved on. He told me that when he was turned to stone from partial disintegration, he said that it was a chance for him to begin again when the world has changed...and to let go of his past when the time is right."

"Roran was a man turned into a monster, he killed for people that abused him, that broke his mind and molded it into whatever they saw fit, his masters abused him till they saw nothing more than a broken machine that had seen far to many repairs and was nothing like its former self. But like we said, the past, the hard part of it is letting go of it, let alone letting it sleep, because the past never sleeps, it is just lying in the darkness for the right moment."

It was that that point when Katherine got out of her seat and for a reason that I did not know, she pulled out her pistol, a Predator and when I saw the barrel pointing at my right kneecap I moved my right hand on instinct and pulled out my Talon revolver and placed it into my left hand and had my back facing the crowd as my right hand was by my side. My skeletal left hand weakly holding the heavy pistol in its place by the glove's rough material kept it in place as the trigger finger held firmly in its place as we both stood in a standoff.

Katherine and I stared at each other, waiting for one of us to make the first move but it was her that spoke first when I had expected her to kneecap me or worse aim for my heart.

"You...who are you to say such things, who are you to say that my friend is a monster and how did you get a hold of his gun!" Katherine yelled out as I saw the target laser on her pistol activate and was now pointing firmly at my heart, right where my armor plating will protect me hopefully enough to make it look like a weak shot if it connects properly.

"Really Katherine, I thought that you would have figured it out first...or Discord but both of you have always been slow to figure it out. And everyone else here in attendance, his friends should be piecing it together unless their minds have turned to cheese." and when I said that I clearly saw Rainbow Dash being held back by Applejack and the purple alicorn, a few of the royal guards were also holding each other back along with the diamond dogs doing the same for their own.

"What are you than, some sort of Cerberus agent that was in a stasis pod like the old races that tried to outlast the Reapers...or are you simply a machine disguised as one of us that has been re-wired by the Reapers....tell us!"

I just stare at Katherine for a while before slowly tilting my head to the rest of the ponies, dogs, and everyone else, before unlatching the helmet straps that kept it secure to the armor's neck coverings before slightly lifting it up but I stopped myself.

"All of you should really respect the dead, especially a dead hero." my voice changing half way through as I came back to my real tone, and with that I gripped the bottom of the helmet before slowly pulling it upwards till my head was exposed to the outside world, and everyone gasped in shock, even Katherine who dropped her pistol from the surprising revelation and Hilo'Jaa who was at the moment was about to throw a stun grenade and the thing was still being loosely held.

I grabbed the revolver in my left hand before dropping it, the gun clattering onto the ground as I stepped off the podium and made my way to the crowd, all of them staring at me until I stopped in front of Celestia, letting it take in what I am and I kneeled before her, waiting for her judgement for what I have done.

Celestia's eyes wavered a bit as she stares at me and before I can react, she bolted up to her hooves, taking a short running step and dived towards me. Her wings wrapped around my neck as she tackles me to the ground, and I happily reached around her to wrap her in a big hug. I laid there for a couple minutes as she softly sobs the remnants of her sorrows into my shoulder, but she herself eventually breaks the hug. Sitting on top of me, she let me free from the hug, but the both of us just stayed there until finally we spent enough time on the ground and got up but still staying close to one another. "Thanks, Roran," she sighs, still sobbing a bit, wiping her eyes of any moisture onto my shoulder. "I needed that... for months."

It was only after that we got up off the ground that we both noticed that pretty much every single being in the garden area was looking at us with an extremely large array of expressions, each face different from the one next to them as the both of our faces started to blossom red, mainly Celestia as I was turning red because I completely forgot about everyone around me.

"Erm...uhh...uhh...." I was stuttering for an answer but failing at that I knew that none will come, and Celestia was acting the same way until finally Pinkie Pie, the little law-defying devil herself popped up behind us and pulled us together into a hug and confetti shot out of bum fuck nowhere and that was the last straw for me on trying to understand the pink mare of how she manages to do well...everything.

"This is amazing! My bestest buddy is back from the great party in the sky and now we can all have a 'Glady ou are not dead' party! And there will be cake and balloons and all sorts of party favors! Oh can there be punch and soda! Please oh please let there be punch and soda, I have been a good filly all year! Oh can we also have ermph-" she muffled out as I gently closed her mouth with my good hand, weakly looking at her before quietly saying to her that she was killing the moment that we were sharing.

That was when everyone started to come up to me and we three were pulled into a large group hug, every single pony besides the guards came up to me and hugged what they could get their hooves on followed by the diamond dogs and the two gryphons, and even Luna and Discord was hugging us. The only one that was left out was Twilight and her friends except for Pinkie Pie who was wedged within the group hug, and Twilight was just staring at me confusedly at first before turning into inquisitive stare, her horn starting to glow its lavender hue as she prepared herself for something.

It was during that hug that I was pulled out of by a powerful telekinetic grip and was pulled into a knelling stance in front of Twilight who was glaring at me, her eyes were smoldering with a stare that I had never seen before, a stare of hatred born of something most foul. She took a step forward as her mane started to smoke a bit, small embers rising from it as her stare intensified.

It was at that moment when I thought that she was just checking to see that if I was a changeling was when she shot out a purple beam from her horn right at me, and in my knelling position I created an angled biotic shield to deflect it away from everyone, and it was the color of my biotics that stopped her from doing it a second time.

"If you really are the real Roran, than you would know what the password is in the emergency that the changelings attack us and are starting to take the forms of everypony present." Twilight said with an evil grin, expecting me to not know the correct answer but I replied back with an even larger grin.

"The password is Double Hay Bacon Western Cheeseburger with a side order of large hay fries and a chocolate shake." I said with a shit-eating grin as Twilight's jaw drops open in surprise but the thing that cuts off my victorious grinning was my stomach growled loudly and it reminded me that I didn't eat shit this morning, "Now that I am think about it......I really want one of those right now..." I said again as my stomach growled a second time but louder and everyone stopped what they were doing to look at me while I sheepishly looked away.

Twilight continued to look at me for a while, her jaw still hanging open but she quickly recovered and regained her posture before she mumbled something to herself until she said what she had on her mind, "Okay, that is correct but what is the safe wo-"

"The safe word is 'Banana'."

At that moment I honestly thought she was going to blast me without warning but she lowered her stance and ever so slowly moved closer to me before pulling me into a hug followed by the rest of her friends, Discord, Luna and Celestia, Hilo'Jaa and Katherine and Kara, and I was stuck in the middle of it but I could care less about my privacy being invaded on by my closest friends and my mare. During that hug I let out a soft sigh and just let myself fall into their warm embrace, my head falling onto Kara's shoulder, my cheek feeling the silky smooth fur and I just sigh again before moving my right hand trying to hug someone but being in the middle of a hug pile I didn't have much of a chance to get anyone in particular besides Twilight since everyone else was hugging around the two of us.

It was after a while that we all broke apart from the hug and moved on into the dining hall which was promptly fixed because of my 'arrival' but everybody was abuzz with questions for me, all of them saying what someone else said or asked, everyone was simply ecstatic about my journey back home. As we entered the dining hall I found out rather quickly that this was going to be a feast of the ages, on the table was plates upon plates upon bowls of food, a variety of the stuff was lined up and scattered about the long table and to my surprise there was actually enough seats for everyone, the aroma coming off the food was enough to make my mouth water and quiver with hunger.

When we started to take our places I waited for Celestia to take her spot and I sat between her and Luna, Discord was being himself so he decided to be upside with his own plate and glass being the same as him, Twilight and her friends were to my left, sticking close to Celestia while my friends and accomplices were on Discord's side. As we started to eat I was having some trouble getting a grip on my fork, my hand was shaking something fierce and I had no clear idea as to why it was doing that but as I finally managed to get my fork to the plate did the questions begin and it came from Celestia first.

"Roran...we all thought you had died back at the Crystal Empire when the crystal heart was placed back on the pedestal? We searched every pile of snow for you and we couldn't even find a trace of your body...what happened and how are you back?"

I let out a shallow sigh, not entirely sure on how to come up with a proper response for it but I just let the first thing come to mind out, "Celly...I have no clear idea on how I got out of there, when I died I was in the waiting room for the afterlife and I met my father there, we talked and I was let in to Heaven and Hell, it was...an odd experience to say the least." letting that hang in the air a bit I gingerly lifted up the fork up to my mouth, the lettuce leafs getting close to my lips but my shaking grip finally gave way and my fork clattered to the plate before I brought my arm to my chest in an attempt to stop the shakes.

Fluttershy was the first to pick up on the shaking and actually raised her voice a bit to be heard over the sounds of everyone else chatting about me. "Um...Mr. Roran...your right arm...its shaking...are you okay?"

Looking down at my right arm to still see that it was shaking still than back at the buttercup colored mare, my eyes gazing back to my two friends who were busy talking to themselves but when they heard about the shaking from Fluttershy they stopped their little chat to turn their heads and gazes to my right arm to see the shakes.

"Not really Flutters...not really. I was this close to getting killed by my friends on a suspicion that I was Cerberus...I know I sometimes said that I am not afraid of anything, but dying still scares the shit out of me, and getting killed by my two best friends because of a miscommunication issue is causing me to be a bit unstable at the moment." I said while the shakes continue to course through my right arm, the staggering limb being unresponsive to anything and it takes a few minutes and a healing spell from Celestia that it stops for the moment.

Hearing my two friends apologize to about the 'almost murdered you in front of everyone' was a bit of a shocker, I expected Katherine to just say sorry and move on and Hilo'Jaa to say sorry in a much more exaggerated but instead they did a quiet apology and moved on.

"So buddy of mine, where were you all this time than? I know that a few weeks ago that I felt something watching me, and I just thought it was ol' sunbutt keeping an eye on me but it was you, wasn't it?"

"Ya, that was me watching you Discord...and I was pretty much going up from Africa, the Middle East and Europe...through deserts, forests and hills I marched through it all alone most of the way, sometimes with the company of other travelers, but through my travels I came across other races that have came to occupy the countries of the past...new races that are different from what we know of...and one of them is beyond Equestria in the terms of technology and architecture." and when I said the key words 'New races' and 'Beyond Equestria', Twilight's ears perked up and I knew that I had her undivided attention as I instantly felt her eyes burning a hole in my forehead.

Before she could even have a chance to say anything I pulled out a small folder out from my armor and tossed it across the table as she catches it in her magic, levitating it over her plate and when she opened it she found what she was more than likely hoping for, a full report on my findings.

"Don't say anything Twilight, just say nothing, ask me questions later...much later."

"Roran, you still haven't told us how you are back from the dead." Celestia said with a flat tone, her gaze now on me and the room was dead quiet, no one was breathing too loudly to be heard, and I felt all eyes on me.

Staring at my wine glass, my hand moving over to it, picked it up and swirled the red contents within the crystal glass chalice before drinking it down in one go, my eyes still remained fixated on the glass.

"Two people brought me back from the dead, Death, and your old rival whom Shining and Cadence removed from Canterlot. Chrysalis tried everything in her magical arsenal to raise me from the dead and Death took his sweet time to bring me out from the grave to continue working for him."

"Chrysalis! Why would she-"

"Celestia...please just listen. She brought me back not to be used as a meal for her people, but to speak to her mother...the creator of her entire species was from my era. At first I thought that the changelings were nothing but insect ponies but when I met her mother...I found out the true origins of their kind, the rachni evolved and stayed as themselves to survive. Half of the rachni became the first changelings but were not perfect and only when they caught a few ponies did the next generation of changelings become what they are, instead of feeding on well, the flesh of anything alive they instead feed on emotions, and oddly enough human emotions proved to be like a long lasting meal to them. Chrysalis also said that she is sending or has already sent a representative to discuss a truce between the two of you. I openly suggest you take it.", all hell broke loose at that.

"Why the buck would you agree with that Roran!" "She tried to take over Equestria!" "She is evil and would enslave everypony to feed her changelings!" "She is a big ol' meanie mean pants!" "Eh, I just hate her cause she is green." "Wow, racist much Kat?" "What? I just hate the color green, and by god she is a walking testament to everything I hate, bugs, green and crazy." "So like you?" "Oh kiss my ass."

I raised my good hand, somehow silencing them as I spoke over them "The reason as to why I am supporting the truce is that it will be a win-win solution to the constant disappearances and the fighting between the two races. Chrysalis will receive any prisoners that Equestria has to be a stable food source and the monthly food leeching from me, and she will remove all of her disguised changelings from Equestria and any that enter must not be hidden from sight. They get their food and we don't have to worry about getting taken at night to be their food source, that and we have an ally that can shape shift into anything to be spies. So see, a win-win."

"So how did you manage to get Chrysalis to even agree to such a thing? Because I know that she would never agree unless there was something of equal value that she would gain from the treaty."

"The reason why she agreed to this was that I threated to set my armor's power core to critical levels that would kill me, her and/or her mother." I calmly stated as I looked around the table till my eyes caught onto a very tasty look platter of cheese wedges.

"Your kidding right?" Luna said quizzically as I took a nibble on a cheese wedge that was calling my name.

"Yes. I am not a diplomat, if she wanted to have made a change to it than she would have said so but since she was toying with me and was getting free meals out of my unconscious state I decided that the penalty of death to her and her mother along with the probability of her hive would set her straight. I don't make deals unless it is for my benefit or if it is to complete the objective for the mission. We can breathe easy for now until she finds a loophole, which would be hard at the moment." as everyone started to simmer down I grabbed a second and third cheese wedge along with a bottle of wine as I refilled my glass and that was when I felt a chill creep up my spine as I slowly brought the glass to my lips.

I stared at my wine glass for a few moments, my eyes watching the red liquid ripple with each motion, my eyes not even moving away from the simple wave ripples until I felt a wing slowly wrap itself around my left shoulder, my head turned to see Celestia pulling me into a partial hug, her head resting on my shoulder and it wasn't before long that the sounds of giggling and barely suppressed laughs start to rise in the dining hall.

"So..." Luna said as she looked at the two of us while Pinkie and Dash were trying hard not to rip on me, or to start doing the whole 'Me and Celestia sitting in a tree' crap cause I had to listen to that shit way to often on my ride to the Citadel, "Roran, how long have you and Celestia been seeing each other?" at the mere mention of me going out with Celestia I nearly gagged on my drink and coughed some of it back into my glass as Celestia quickly withdrew her wing back and her face was blushing brightly.

'Bloody déjà vu moment...'

Looking at Celestia to see her face still red and Luna was in a giggling fit, and seeing how I was partially tipsy from the wine I gently grabbed Celestia's left wing and placed it back around my shoulder with a smile before speaking up, "Well...I think it was two Hearts and Hooves days ago...before I left for the Crystal Empire. And we are not officially together, more like just two friends being really close....erm...I forgot what that term was..."

"You mean colt and marefriends Roran?" Twilight said as I placed my glass down on top of a cheese wheel.

"Uh...I guess..." I turned to Celestia who was looking at me before giving a small nod, blushing even more before placing a light kiss on my cheek, in turn making me blush, and it received a bit of help from the wine I was drinking.

"Roran and Celestia sitting in a tree, k.i.s.s.i.n.g., first came love, second came-" Pinkie and Dash said together and before they could finish I placed both in a Stasis bubble, the look on my face was clearly written with not amused.

"They will never find your bodies if you finish that song." flatly saying as I grabbed a thin knife and cut my cheese wedge into small chunks before placing them on a few assorted cracks, my mind musing on the fact that it now looks like something that would be served at a fancy dinner party, but seeing how I am quite literally at one I laughed it off mentally.

After a few minutes of playful banter, ludicrous questions and a few pranks on one another did the day start to draw to a close but one question that was brought up made everyone listen in to what I had to say.

"Well...being dead sorta sucks, and is sorta awesome. Sure you can't speak to your living friends ever again unless your a ghost, which they would think they are being haunted and mind you that I did do that a while I was dead recently...sorry about the bubble bath incident Twilight." as I said the bubble bath incident part Twilight started to chuckle nervously while blushing slightly. What I did was basically fill her tub with the entire bottle of bubble soap, and right when she got in I made it look like a Brute and quite literally and possibly scared the living shit out of her cause she fell out of the tub face first before running out of the bathroom with a towel around her flank. I was laughing for days in Hell.

"Anyways as I was saying, when you are dead you are basically just waiting in the sky looking down at everyone, and trust me the main past time in the waiting room is sitting on a cloud watching everyone live their lives. Oh, and while you are there sitting and watching an angel, or in a few cases for me a devil, would come up to you and basically study your case file and see whether or not you make it into Heaven, cause if you don't make it you get an express ticket to Hell, and let me tell you about Hell...its horrible."

"Whats it like? For Hell I mean, I heard that its nothing more than a giant underground cave filled with boiling hot lava, little demons and monsters torturing the souls of the damned...right?"

"Actually Rainbow Dash, Hell is more like a giant office building, every single demon, imp, monster etc. are sitting in a cubical, working away on useless paperwork that never gets approved of and the souls of the damned are basically the ones that have to read through each and every single piece of paper and send it to the proper demon it needs to go to. In all it is a very, very, very boring ass place to be. Its not the lava that scares me about that place, its the piles of paperwork that I have backed up waiting for me back there." I visibly shuttered at the thought of returning back to hell again cause I know for a fact that if I do go back there for any reason that stack of paperwork would just fall on top of me like an avalanche.

Picking through my plate of crumbs, cheese bits and small flakes of what I can guess was meaty bits of some creature that was served the lunch or dinner or whatever the hell it is starts to die down, everyone started to come to me to give me a hug, saying that they are happy to know that I am alive and well, a few of them punched me for dying in the first place and those same also hugged me tighter than the rest before punching me again, Discord on the other hand had a pie waiting for me and I saw it coming but knew that he at least deserved this one.

Whipping the pie bits off my face I turned to see who else was left and noting that pretty much everyone but the staff, a few guards, a giggling dark alicorn and a blushing white alicorn, and myself. As to why Luna was giggling like a little schoolgirl confused me for a while until I felt the wing that was on my left arm let go and drop back to its owner's side as I watched Celestia take off her crown and placed it on top of the table and when I looked back at Luna to see what she was giggling at I was only directed by her hoof towards me, and when I looked at myself I turned my head to Celestia which was by than right in my face, her lips puckered up and I pretty much moved into the kiss. Sadly the kiss was more like one-sided as Celestia did all the work and when she figured out that I was a bit surprised by the semi-bold act and she pulled back to try it a second time which received much better results as I kissed her in return for the botched first but this time it was perfect as lips connected and the giggling from Luna kept on going as we ignored her childish antics.

I knew about when a pegasus gets aroused their wings slowly and/or quickly unfurl to their full lengths and throb slightly from the blood flow like any other male genitalia, but what I forgot was that Celestia had wings also. And when we started to get into our kissing, her wings slowly began to unfurl and when they reached their full lengths I was pretty damn surprised by it because I heard the softest of pomf noises and when I opened my eyes to see what it was, low and behold was her wings, fully extended in all of its glory, and as we got into our kiss the sounds of someone gasping followed by a dozen more draws us out from each others embrace as we turn to see what was the commotion.

Turning to see who made the gasp we both saw Twilight standing there agasp and as the door was pushed open by the others more gasps could be heard, and like a domino effect everyone that was in attendance besides the dogs were just flabbergasted by the sight of me kissing the solar princess, and in the heat of the moment and in my somewhat addled mind I gently moved my right hand under Celestia's chin, turned it to face me again, than placed a wet kiss right on her lips. The results was something that I did not expect to happen, her wings closed when she saw everyone looking at her but the sudden kiss made them shoot back out and that her front hooves moved to my shoulders and pretty much held my ground as her weight almost threw me off balance but I held myself as her weight barely moved me, but the prying eyes of over twenty people was making me a bit uncomfortable but I could care less about what they think. But one person amongst the crowd, Discord, started making cat calls and Celestia and I just mentally rolled our eyes before we broke it off and odd as it is, left abruptly by teleportation, and by abruptly I mean I gave Discord the middle finger while Celestia charged up her horn and made us both vanish as Discord stuck his tongue out at me.

When we re-appeared we were in Celestia's chambers, her room was just the way it was when I was last in here, except it was a bit darker...and had a hell of a lot more dust on the mirror. It was during that moment of silence that I lowered my guard, both physically and mentally that Celestia asks me the armor-piercing question that I have avoided so long by everyone I met.

"Roran, you surprise me at every turn...you have lost everything in a war that destroyed everything in existence, your friends are gone and scattered, everything has turned against you and yet you keep moving on through the worst the world has to offer....how do live with yourself as everything falls apart around you?"

"Celly...sometimes the person who tries to keep everyone happy is always the most lonely person, so never leave them alone because they will never say that they need you...and for all these years I tried to my best for every single person back than and every pony in Equestria safe and happy, and yet you were the only one that was able to bring a real smile to my face." I said as her wings started to once again wrap itself around me, pulling me in to her body as I eventually felt her fur on my face and before long I felt the softness envelope my back until I saw past her head to see a pure white ceiling and only a slight tilt of my head to see that we are both in her room, the same room where I almost confessed...before I was shipped off to the Crystal Kingdom.

We stayed like that the entire night, wrapped around the other in a hug until we slowly started to fall asleep, Celestia on top of me with my face buried in soft velvety fur. A fine way to die a few would say but because of the way my face was facing, I only was slightly smothered.

Next Morning

When the sun shone through the windows, I awoke to the coldness of the room, no soft pony to hold onto as the night before but the sounds of a faucet running told me that Celestia was in the bathroom, tending to herself as I laid on the bed motionless, staring at the ceiling, my mind contemplating the last part of the question over and over again.

'How do you live with yourself?'

And the answer is simple.

"I never truly did live with myself..."

And no one was around to hear the truth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkPaRsRJKgg#at=17

End of Arc 2

Outpost B-11

*Objective Updated*