Princess Celestia Solaris kept her eyes on Chancellor Gregory Graystone as he walked through the streets ahead of them, leading them up through the levels of Griffonstone towards his house. She was a few hoofsteps away from him, just observing him with some curiosity. The way the various creatures around him greeted him spoke volumes about his character. Everyone who saw him waved at him, called out to him with a friendly manner, and in the occasional instance, giving what could only be called a friendly insult, which Gregory returned with an insult of his own.

She marveled at a few of the interactions, as it appeared that Gregory knew a few of the citizens of the city a bit more than most. He asked one griffon couple how their new cubs were doing, expressed concern for an older griffon’s gout, and even greeted a younger griffoness named Gia, informing her of the location of her apparent partner, someone named Gallus. The way he teased the young griffoness and what he told her to say to this Gallus told her most everything she needed to know.

He was a personable ruler. Down to Equus. Beloved by the griffons and dragons she saw. She did see a couple of ponies who he greeted, but they were more focused on Celestia and the others following behind her. She saw fear along with anger directed towards her and the ponies behind her. It hurt to feel those eyes on her, but as the leader of Equestria, she knew she deserved the blame for everything that had happened.

She continued watching Gregory, observing his own unique style of ruling. He was not above them, it seemed. He didn’t seem to want to be. It appeared as if he just wanted to be another one of the crowd.

Her attention was kept solely on him as they continued down the street. She might not have been an expert on human body language, but it appeared to her that he was holding back some emotions as he interacted with the city folk around him. She’d actually been hoping to tell him about the events of the past five years first, but it seemed that the unusually angry zebra mare had done that already. She was glad, however, that he seemed calm enough to give them a chance to tell their side of the story.

As the group moved up the city levels, Celestia noticed that the houses here looked bigger than the ones below. The houses in the lower levels were designed more for single griffons but in the upper levels there were larger structures where families seemed to live. She saw more young cubs running around playing and laughing as well as more couples. Celestia wondered if, in the time he had been on Equus, Gregory might have found love. The one griffoness who had kissed him on stage certainly seemed to like him well enough for that to be a possibility. He’d definitely seemed surprised by it, though.

Finally, not wanting to walk in silence for the entire trip, she moved closer until she was walking beside him on his right. Taking a deep breath, she asked, “So, Chancellor, how long have you been on Equus?”

He was a bit startled by the sudden question, but looked up at her with a raised eyebrow. “Equus? You mean Gaia? The planet we’re on?”

She nodded. “Yes, my little ponies call the world Equus. It’s been called that for about eight to nine hundred years.”

Nodding in understanding, Gregory replied, “I’ve been here since September 27^th,” he replied.

“And how did you traverse from your world to ours?” she asked.

He frowned and tensed up. Lowerin his voice, he cupped his hand around his mouth and aimed his voice towards her, whispering in a harsh tone, “Please don’t mention that I’m from another world. As far as these griffons know, I’m from a very far away place. If they knew that I was from another dimension entirely, there’d be too many questions for me to answer. Only one griffon knows where I’m really from.”

Celestia was a bit surprised by this, but figured she’d get an answer as to why he was so reluctant if she was patient. “My apologies,” she said. “How did you come here, then?”

She saw him visibly relax. “Where I’m from, there is absolutely no magic,” he said, “but we are fairly more advanced technologically than here. I found a secret hidden document that described a means to create a portal from my place to here. I decided to do it for fun since my old life was boring anyway, and imagine my surprise when it actually worked! I send a camera on a long sturdy tripod through the portal just to see, and it recorded a few scenes of Ponyville.”

She could almost feel the tension of the ponies behind her rising at the mention of the destroyed town, but kept her calm. “But if your portal ended up there, why did you appear here?”

Gregory shrugged. “You’ve got me,” he said. “There was only information on how to make the portal. It was a one way thing, so it’s not like there were people coming back to describe what they experienced.”

Celestia felt another presence walking up, and a purple alicorn was walking on Gregory’s left, looking up at him with a mixture of curiosity and guilt. “Are you saying…there could be more humans on Equus?” she asked.

“Now that, I can’t say,” he shrugged. “The portal wasn’t just designed with Gaia in mind. It was meant to be able to teleport humans from our world to various other worlds. Humans have been on Gaia before, but that was many hundreds of years ago, at least according to Dragon Lord Ember.” Before anyone else could speak, Gregory held up his hand. “I can understand you all being curious, but we’ll discuss things better in private and away from curious ears.”

Twilight nodded and walked back, but Celestia remained by his side. “How do you like living here?” she asked.

Gregory’s smile was powerful enough to be infectious, even to Celestia. “It’s an amazing city,” he said. “Sure, when I got here, it was pretty much falling apart, but three months can do a lot if someone’s got the right motivation.” He suddenly looked a bit sheepish. “I think I played a small part in that motivation, if I’m honest.”

“How so?” Celestia asked.

“Well, from what I’ve been told by some of my friends here,” he began, “they saw me after work cleaning up what remained of the old library. I wasn’t expecting anyone to help me, to be honest. I’d just told my first friend in this world something hard for her to believe and figured she needed some time to process, so I went out and stumbled onto the old library. I started working on cleaning it up just as a means to have something to do, but after a while Gallus came along and without me asking started helping, then a griffoness named Greta came, then a bunch of other griffons appeared and started helping. I made it a habit after the shift at my first job in this world ended to go around and try and help clean buildings up or help to restore them. Griffon pride seems to be a really powerful thing.”

So that’s it, Celestia thought, looking at the human with a renewed sense of wonder. He leads by example as well. Takes the reins, as it were. “That is quite an inspiring tale,” she said.

Gregory then did something she didn’t expect. He scoffed, then turned to her. Lowering his voice, he said, “I will admit that part of my initial motivations for helping this city was purely for the sake of helping. On my first full day here, I heard about Jason Wright and what he did to Equestria. Honestly, a part of me was afraid that if the griffons knew what species Jason was, they’d look at me differently. But I was reassured by some of my new griffon friends that many griffons didn’t look at species, but deeds. And I saw that daily. Eventually that fear went away.” He chuckled self deprecatingly. “Now I feel stupid whenever I think about my assumptions. Assumptions make an ass out of you and me, after all.”

Celestia nodded in understanding at that. She could understand that fear, but was impressed that Gregory had managed to overcome it with the help of friends. “I am glad to hear you overcame such a worry,” she said.

“No kidding,” he said as he turned and walked down a somewhat narrower side road which Celestia noted was nearly empty of anycreature. “We’re almost there.” Gregory began looking up at the sky, as if he was searching for something. “I hope she doesn’t do anything stupid today…”

“Who are you looking for?” Celestia asked.

“Ah, I’m looking for-” And just at that moment, a massive creature flew past them only a few feet above them, sending a large gust of wind down the side road which blew up some of the snow piled up on the sides. “Damn it, Daenerys, you naughty girl! I said no showing off! Remember what happened last time!?” Gregory shouted up at the massive flying creature which was high in the air but descending towards the end of the street where Celestia’s alicorn eyes saw a large double gate. He turned to Celestia. “My house is at the end of the street. Please excuse me. I have a misbehaving drake to scold.” So saying, he reached into his pocket, pulled out a large set of keys and ran towards the end of the street. Unlocking the gate, he threw them open and rushed inside, shouting something up at the now landed draconian creature that he’d called Daenerys.

“W-What was that?” Spike asked in alarm. “I’ve never seen a dragon like that before.”

“That’s because it’s not a dragon,” Celestia explained. “That creature is called a drake. They’re wild creatures who live in the Dragon Lands. They are like dragons in that they can fly and breathe fire, but I’ve never heard of anycreature keeping one as a pet.”

“I-It didn’t look l-like that drake was a pet,” Fluttershy’s soft voice said unexpectedly.

Celestia turned to find the butter colored pegasus looking forward at the open gate that they were approaching. “How so?” she asked.

“Maybe I’m wrong,” Fluttershy said, “but it looked to me like he was treating her more like a friend than a pet.”

Celestia had to agree. Just the fact that Gregory had sounded exasperated by the behavior of this Daenerys seemed to her to indicate how close the two of them must have been. She was still nodding when Spike ran ahead, an eager look on his face. Twilight spread her wings and flew after Spike, a look of worry on her own face. Celestia had to admit, she was worried about the young dragon as well, but knew that despite the broken relationship between her former student and the young dragon Twilight cared about Spike’s safety in her own special way.

However, when Spike and Twilight both reached the gate and stopped and stared, that was when Celestia began speeding up. She heard the ponies behind her do the same. However, she realized once she reached the gate that she needn’t have worried. They were just staring in utter astonishment at what they saw before them.

Gregory lived in what could only be described as an utter mansion. Surrounded by a large stone wall, Celestia took in the house which Gregory lived in, completely dumbfounded that someone who’d only arrived three months ago could live like this. If her eyes weren’t deceiving her, the main house as well as a large structure with two wide open doors where the drake was now sitting were both freshly constructed. The mansion itself had levels, plenty of windows and chimneys, and a cobblestone walkway through freshly planted grass that surrounded the house. All save for a large tree that looked quite similar to the Griffonstone Library that they had seen. It, too, had its own doorway along with windows and a couple of chimneys. The tree itself had no leaves currently because of the season, but it was obvious that it could hold plenty if need be.

Near the large building where Daenerys was sitting stood Gregory, talking to the drake in a stern tone. She couldn’t hear much of what was said, but it sounded like he was dressing down the draconic being. Daenerys was simply rolling her pink eyes and snorting out smoke before she suddenly lunged at Gregory, flicking her tongue out to lick his face. This caused the human to fall to the ground, then put his hands on the young drake’s cheeks. Celestia heard him laughing after a few seconds before he slowly stood, said something to her, then patted her on the side of the cheek. Seemingly satisfied, the drake came out of the large barn, spread her majestic wings, and shot up into the air, soon to become nothing more than a bright white speck in the sky.

As the other ponies trudged into the yard and gaped in disbelief at the house, Gregory rushed back towards them. When he returned, Celestia noted that he wasn’t as out of breath as anyone else would be. “Ah, sorry to run off like that,” he said. “Daenerys there is still less than a year old. She’s a bit willful. Anyway, welcome to my house. Please follow me. We’ll talk better inside out of the cold. And not a moment too soon,” he added, looking up just as a few flakes of snow began falling. “Looks like we might be in for a snowy evening.”

“This is quite a house you have,” Celestia observed as they all headed down the stone pathway towards the double front door.

“Yeah…honestly, it’s way too much for someone like me,” he said. “It was a gift from the council AND the city to me. It was so big, in fact, that I asked some of my friends to move in with me. They love it.”

Celestia could feel the ponies behind her falter at that. What did it say about them that another nation of creatures would welcome in a human while hers actively feared and shunned outsiders? “It is quite a sight,” she admitted.

“If I had my way, I’d want a much smaller place,” he said, “but if you refuse a gift from a griffon without them saying it’s okay, it’s seen as incredibly rude.” At that point, they’d reached the front door. He pulled out his keyring again, stuck the key in the lock and opened the doors. “Welcome to my crib,” he said as he stepped aside and gestured for them to head in. “Ladies first.”

Celestia nodded in gratitude at him as she entered and walked down the small hallway towards the main room, which spread out before her so that even she didn’t feel claustrophobic. As the others filed in and stared in astonishment at the room before them, Celestia heard Rainbow Dash mutter, “Nice place.”

“This is just the living room, Miss Dash,” Gregory said from behind them all. “Please take a seat on any of the couches. I’ll turn on the furnace and try and start a fire.” With that being said, he walked to a teak oak door in one corner of the room and opened it, pulling out the same small black device from before and touching it. A bright cool light shone out of it and lit his way as he descended down sturdy sounding stairs.

“It’s a good thing Rarity’s not here,” Twilight said softly as she took a seat at one of the couches.

“What’s gotten into her, anyway?” Rainbow asked as she took another seat. “It’s like she’s forgotten everything that we did.”

“I can only guess what’s going through that young mare’s mind,” Celestia said, “but she and I will be having words later tonight, of that you can be sure,” she added as she took a seat next to the large chair. Looking at the fireplace, she noticed a few logs sitting at the side. Wanting to be a bit helpful, she lifted them up with her magic and set them in the fireplace itself. She was about to cast a small fireball spell to ignite the fire when Spike walked up, took a deep breath, and breathed some fire at the logs themselves, making them burst into instant flames. As he walked over and sat next to Celestia, she said, “I could have done that.”

“Yeah, but the magic here is a lot lower than in Equestria,” he replied, “so why waste it?”

Celestia nodded. She’d known that the natural mana field in Equestria was much higher than elsewhere in the world, but hadn’t known that Spike knew. Then again, she had to remind herself of the books she’d seen him reading earlier, and it was likely that there was something in one of them about it. “Well, thank you Spike,” she said, habitually spreading a wing to put around him, but stopping herself, wondering if that was too familiar too soon.

Her question was answered when he moved slightly closer and looked up at her. “I don’t mind,” he said softly.

Warmed by this, she put her wing around him gently and felt him lean against her. Just then, Gregory came back up, the same black rectangular device in his hand. He tapped it as he came out of the basement and the light went off. She saw him staring at the fire with a raised eyebrow, then looked back out at the ponies and dragon in the room. “You didn’t have to go to all that trouble, but thank you nonetheless,” he said gratefully. “Now, before I sit down can I get you all anything? Water? Tea? Juice of some kind?”

“Some water will be alright for us,” Celestia said.

“Great, let me get that for you,” he said, heading into a neighboring room. The ponies remained silent, staring either at the ground, into the fire or at the table in front of the couches. A few minutes later, Gregory came out, carrying a large tray with glasses and a pitcher of clear water which he put down on the table. He began pouring each of them a glass before pouring one for himself and sitting on the chair. “Alright,” he said after he took a sip of his water before putting it down on the small table with an oil lamp on it beside his chair, “so I hope you don’t mind if I get right down to business.”

“Please do,” Celestia said, and she felt the other ponies tense up.

He took a deep breath, then a serious look came over his face as he leaned forward. “I’ll be blunt. I’ve heard some things from Zecora earlier today. And not just about the treatment of Jason Wright, but about the way ponies treated her after his invasion and the destruction of Ponyville which caused her to leave the Everfree Forest. Things that I need to confirm. I’ll repeat what she told me first, and then I would like your side of the story.”

Celestia was inwardly surprised. It made sense that Zecora would have heard about Jason after the invasion, but something about the way Gregory mentioned Zecora’s treatment after the invasion gave her pause and sent chills down her spine. “Could you tell us what she told you about Jason Wright?” she asked.

“Only this: that five years ago another human showed up in Equestria and went to Ponyville where he was beaten, abused and starved by all the ponies there,” Gregory said. “She mentioned also that he lived in a cave and that his main abusers were the Elements of Harmony.”

The mood in the room immediately darkened as every one of the ponies sitting down looked anywhere but Gregory. All save for Celestia, who never took her eyes off of Gregory. Just as she was about to nod, she heard Twilight, who had sat beside Spike, say in a trembling voice, “I-It’s true.”

Gregory slowly looked at the fledging alicorn. “What did you say?” he asked softly.

Twilight finally lifted her head and looked up at Gregory with tears running down her cheeks. “It’s true,” she repeated a bit louder. “Almost everypony in town treated him extremely poorly. I was the first. He…he tried coming to me to become friends, and I just slammed the door in his face.”

“Ah bucked ‘im in the chest fer no reason,” Applejack said with an emotionless voice as she looked down at her water. “Ah broke his ribs.”

“I stayed away from him,” Pinkie Pie said, sounding like she was about to break down.

“I was so scared of him I ran away whenever I saw him,” Fluttershy said in a voice barely above a whisper.

“I…shot lightning at him and struck him a couple times,” Rainbow Dash whimpered.

Gregory’s hands, which were folded, clenched with each confession as he looked around the room. Celestia could tell he was trying very hard to restrain himself as he slowly turned back to Celestia. “I won’t ask what Rarity did since she’s not here, but I can somewhat guess,” he said after a few seconds. “So it seems Zecora was right…”

“I wasn’t immune either,” Celestia said. “I was the one who sent him to Ponyville, and I immediately forgot about him. Young Spike here is the only innocent one here. He had no idea that Jason was even in the town.”

Gregory looked at the young dragon for a bit, then looked back at Celestia. “I see. Well then, all I have to ask is this: why?”

Celestia paused. It had been the very same thing she’d asked of Twilight the moment that Jason had placed the Elements of Harmony in the same cell as her on the day Discord was killed. She could remember her harsh shrieks…

“Why, Twilight!? Why!? Why would you do such an awful, horrible thing!? Why would you turn your back on everything I thought you’d learned!? If even half of what Mr. Wright says is true, it’s no wonder he committed these acts! Any creature that went through what he did would go insane, it’s a wonder he didn’t lash out against the citizens of Ponyville two years ago! So why!?”

“It was Discord,” Applejack said, and Celestia was brought out of her reverie by how bitter the orange earth pony mare sounded. “He affected us all so we would abuse Jason fer no reason other than for laughs.”

Twilight immediately looked over at the Element of Honesty. “Applejack, remember what I said-”

“Ah know, ah know,” Applejack snapped, looking up at Twilight. “Ah’m not sayin’ were blameless! We did it too!”

“He was a monster,” Fluttershy said. Once more, Celestia was stunned by the utter hostility and hatred in Fluttershy’s voice. She turned only to see the Element of Kindness glaring at the table like she was trying to set it on fire. “He played with our heads and brought our prejudices and fears closer to the surface. Yes, we were the ones who abused Jason, I won’t deny that. But like Twilight said, he just gave us the tiniest nudge. He could have stopped at any time, even after Tirek, but he didn’t!”

To Celestia’s surprise, Rainbow Dash moved forward and tried putting one of her wings, which she hadn’t seen the cyan pegasus use once, around her old friend, but Fluttershy just pushed her away. Not hard, but forcefully enough that it seemed Rainbow got the message and returned her wing to their natural stance. In a weak voice, Pinkie spoke next. “We took his happiness from him…his smile…”

Celestia noted an alarmed look passing over Gregory’s face as he looked at Pinkie. She watched as he sized up the weakened looking pink mare. After a few moments, he pried his eyes away and slowly looked at each of the ponies. “Is there anything else?” he asked in a neutral voice.

“Yes,” Applejack said. “Two years ago, Jason…he tried to hang himself using mah rope.” Celestia noted a blank look appear in the mare’s eyes. She knew that look very well. She’d seen it in the eyes of the guards who had worked tirelessly to bring order back to Canterlot after not only Chrysalis’ first invasion but after Jason’s invasion as well. “It broke. Ah tried chasin’ after him and helpin’, but ah fell and hurt mahself, immediately forgettin’ why ah was in the forest.”

Gregory, to Celestia’s confusion, simply nodded in understanding. “Just like any sapient creature, humans can only take so much before we crack,” he said. “Is that everything?”

“There’s one more thing,” Celestia said. When Gregory’s attention was back on her, she continued. “During Jason’s attack on Canterlot, he somehow managed to incapacitate Discord. However, when he was freed, he was made temporarily mortal and vulnerable. Jason discovered him when he was visiting myself and the Elements in the Canterlot dungeons. He had a new type of weapon with him and was about to use it to end Discord’s life after learning the truth about what he did when there was a struggle for control of the weapon. In the confusion, it went off and Discord was struck with the bullet. He died there.”

Celestia noted his reaction to the word bullet. There was silence in the room before he exhaled slowly. “Discord’s dead, then?” he asked. When Celestia nodded, Gregory leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, presumably to calm himself. Eventually, he straightened in his seat, opened his eyes and looked at them all. “So to recap, five years ago, Jason Wright appeared on Gaia, presumably the same way that I did and for the exact same reasons, went down to Ponyville to meet the ponies he’d admired from afar from my world, was shunned, ignored, abused, beaten and nearly killed because of Discord’s spell affecting the prejudices of all the ponies in town, and after three years he tried killing himself, failed, and took revenge two years later by capturing Canterlot and burning down Ponyville. Am I getting anything wrong so far?”

Celestia shook her head. “No, you’re right.”

Gregory turned away, staring into the fire and frowning as he looked deep in thought. A half minute passed and Celestia was about to ask if he was alright, when the next words that came out of the human’s mouth chilled her. “That could have been me…” After another ten or so seconds, he looked back at all of them. In a voice that Celestia knew could explode into anger at any moment, Gregory continued. “Do you know why I came to Gaia in the first place? I came because I wanted to meet everyone in this room. I came because I had nothing left in my old world and I wanted to meet and befriend everyone here. I come here in the hopes of starting a new life with the ponies I’ve heard so many good things about, and the moment I meet them, I learn this?!”

The ponies in the room flinched a bit at his sudden raise in tone except Celestia, whose ears were to her side only. She noted him stopping to calm himself. After a few moments, she said, “I’m sorry we weren’t the ponies you thought…”

He held up his hand. “Don’t apologize to me,” he said with a shaky voice, “I’m not the one you wronged. And besides, I should probably have realized that this world is much more complex than the one I’d seen.”

“How…how did you discover our world?” Twilight asked a bit hesitantly.

Gregory bit his lower lip, lost in thought. Celestia could see the man thinking deeply on whether or not to reveal something. She knew, of course, more of the truth than any of the others in the room. Jason had told her a lot about the advanced technology in his world, how a child’s entertainment depicted their world. She hadn’t really believed him until he recounted certain events he couldn’t have known about. He’d even told her, in a cheeky manner, about his knowledge of her love of cake and Luna’s use of antiquated language. She cleared her throat and looked at Twilight. “If he doesn’t wish to say, then we can’t force him,” she said.

“Thank you, your Highness,” Gregory said. “Maybe…maybe another time, I’ll share the source of my knowledge. However, there’s something else that Zecora told me that I wish to discuss, and that is her assault by the hooves of three pony assailants.”

Silence filled the room as all eyes were now locked on Gregory, each of them wearing a shocked and horrified expression. Spike was the only one who said anything. “What…?”

Gregory scanned the room, drinking in the expressions of everyone there before he sighed and said, “Judging by your shocked expressions, you didn’t know about this?”

“What did she say happened?” Celestia asked. She was angry now. Angry that her little ponies would even dare to do such a thing. Had this been three months ago, she’d have found it impossible to believe, but after everything, she was questioning everything she knew about how her ponies thought.

Gregory tensed up a bit, but to his credit stood his ground, as it were. “She didn’t say much. Only that three separate times she was attacked by three ponies and beaten. I got the impression that it was within an inch of her life, but I don’t want to assume without further information.”

The ponies around Celestia all gasped in horror. “Who…who would do such a thing…?” Fluttershy gasped.

“We would,” Applejack said in a shuddering voice.

“Would it be permissible to speak to Miss Zecora about this incident?” Celestia asked, holding her anger in so it didn’t show in her actions or voice.

“That’s up to her,” Gregory said, looking at Celestia. “She’s a Griffonian citizen now, and as such is under my protection. She’s also a close friend of mine and a really important benefactor for Griffonville. I’ve heard rumors that they might ask her to run for the mayoral position down there. But I will ask her if she’d be willing to give her testimony.”

“I would very much appreciate that,” Celestia said gratefully.

Reaching beside him, Gregory took a slow and thoughtful sip of his water, all the while staring into the fire. He quietly swallowed and put the glass down. Slowly turning to Celestia, she saw that he looked tired. Weary. She knew that look since she’d seen a more advanced version of it in the mirror every morning for the past three months. “Come to think of it, this isn’t the first time I’ve heard about ponies being aggressive. Starlight Glimmer was chased out of her own town but not before she was beaten by some of the ponies.”

“I…had heard about that,” Celestia admitted. “Those ponies were properly punished for their actions.”

Gregory opened his mouth to say something, then appeared to think better of it as she closed his mouth and nodded. “Glad to hear it.”

“Um…Chancellor?” Fluttershy said suddenly, looking up at the human with wide, pleading eyes.

Gregory turned and looked at the pegasus. “Hmm?”

“Do you think…do you think he can…that me might…forgive us? For what we did?”

Everyone held their breath as their eyes locked onto him. Even Celestia was interested to hear the answer. What better way to learn about how one human might react than by asking another, she reasoned. Once more, the human put his head in his hands and rubbed his eyes. He kept his face in his hands for a bit before putting them down. “Fluttershy, I honestly don’t know,” he said. “Every human is unique in how they deal with situations. I don’t know much about Jason other than what I’ve heard and what you’ve told me, so I can only guess. It’s possible, but then again there are humans who hold grudges for lifetimes.” He looked around at the saddened expressions. “I don’t want to give you false hope. Humans are complex beings. If he pulled out after only one week, if what I’ve been told is true, then something must have caused him to give up everything he gained with ease. Maybe it was regret. Maybe somewhere, deep down, he still felt the same love for you all that brought him to Gaia to meet you all. I honestly can’t really say. It’s all speculation at this point.”

“Thank you,” Fluttershy whispered as she retreated back into herself.

He nodded in her direction, then looked up at the ceiling. “I…have a lot to think about,” he said, suddenly sounding incredibly tired. He then looked back at them all. “However, I’d like to thank you for telling me all of this. Lesser folks in your position would have kept the truth hidden from me. It also explains why the ponies I’ve seen who were from Ponyville have acted a bit overly friendly to me. I just thought that was how they were normally.” Leaning forward, he put his head in his hands and ran both back through his long hair.

“Are you okay?” Spike, who had somehow gotten up without Celestia noticing, was now standing by Gregory’s side and looking up at the human worriedly.

Gregory looked a bit startled to see him there, but instantly relaxed. “Right now? No, I’m far from okay.” He turned back to the others. “I won’t lie, I’m really more disappointed than angry in everyone but Spike here,” he said. “The fact that the six mares I grew to love from the various stories I heard of you could be capable of this…it breaks my heart, to be honest. I don’t really know how to react right now…” After a few moments, he sighed. “If you don’t mind, I’d prefer to be alone to sort out my feelings on these new…revelations.”

“Of course, Chancellor,” Celestia said as she stood. The others followed suite.

“Oh, and before you go,” Gregory said, looking over at Celestia. Standing, he looked at her with a more serious look, “Princess, how long are you and your party staying at The Green Dragon?”

“A week,” Celestia said.

He nodded. “I’ll speak to the council, but I think they’ll agree that if you want, you would be more than welcome to stay at Griffonstone Keep. I would compensate you for the money you spent at The Green Dragon personally if you do. There are rooms there you can stay in free of charge at the keep. You’re welcome to explore the city, but I would ask that you try and stay out of trouble.”

Celestia was stunned by this. She’d expected him to be angrier than this, and she certainly hadn’t expected him to offer another place to stay. She gave him a small but grateful smile. He really did have the markings of a good leader, she said. “You are most generous, Chancellor, but we will be alright where we are.”

He nodded. “If you change your mind, please let me know and I’ll see to it that you’re all set up in comfortable rooms.”

“We will,” Celestia said before raising her head and casting the teleportation spell on everyone there but Gregory. They all appeared on the road just outside The Green Dragon.

Once they were out of the house, Spike let out a long breath. “That was…really tense,” he said.

“You said it,” Rainbow Dash muttered. “I expected him to throw us all in the dungeons.”

Celestia looked at the pegasus. “Now why would he do that? He’s not a fool, Miss Dash. If he arrested us for something that happened in my kingdom, my sister would have grounds to go to war with Griffonia.”

“Is that r-really true?” Twilight asked.

The princess of the day nodded down at her student. “What good would it do for him to arrest us for what we did to Jason? Did it happen in Griffonia? No. Now then, why don’t we all head back inside and check on Miss Belle before we try and look for this friendship problem, shall we?” She headed to the door and opened it only to nearly run into a dark crimson unicorn stallion with a black mane. “Beg pardon,” she said apologetically.

“It’s alright,” he said as he moved past, apparently in a hurry. “Pardon me.”

As he rushed off down the street, Spike watched him go. “Rude much?” he asked as he headed in with the others, closing the inn door behind him.

Rarity’s head was splitting open from the alcohol she’d had as she put the towel full of ice to her forehead and groaned in pain. She’d woken only a few minutes ago and saw that Twilight had left her a note explaining that she and the others were heading to talk to the human Chancellor. The note also explained that she’d cast a spell to flush most of the alcohol from her system, but that didn’t stop the mare from suffering from the biggest hangover she’d had in a long time. She hardly ever drank, partly because she knew just what alcohol did to her and partly because she’d always held that drinking alcohol was not a way a lady spent her time. However, she wasn’t really that kind of lady anymore, was she?

“Damn it,” she muttered as she moved the impromptu cold compress to her head, especially to her horn where the pain was the most intense. “This huuurts…I wish the griffons behind me would be quieter…” She moved over to the glass of orange juice at her side and took a sip from the straw like she was some kind of filly. She would have used her magic, but alcohol did crazy things to a unicorn’s magic.

She was so focused on nursing her hangover that she didn’t initially notice the strange pony stallion who took a seat a few swivel bar stools down from her. She only became aware of his presence when he said, in a rather pleasant voice, “What’s your best salad, barkeep?”

“That’d be our carrot salad,” the orange dragoness said as she stood behind the bar cleaning the glasses.

“I’ll take that and another glass of whatever that young mare over there is drinking for her,” the stallion said.

That got Rarity’s attention. She turned and looked over at the crimson stallion who was looking over at her with a warm smile on his lips and in those fiery red eyes of his. She gave him a small nod of gratitude. “Thank you…” she said.

He chuckled. “You look like you could use it,” he said as he jumped off of the seat and took one just one stool between them. “It can’t be easy, being surrounded by all these griffons and dragons.”

Rarity nodded in agreement before saying, “They’re so noisy…rambunctious even…”

“Yeah, well that just how they are,” the stallion said before he offered his hoof. “I’m Stone Chisel,” he said.

Rarity offered him her hoof, which he took in his own before bowing courteously to her. “Rarity Belle,” she replied.

That caught Stone’s attention. “Rarity Belle? As in THE Rarity Belle? The Element of Generosity?”

Rarity could feel a sense of pride in the recognition she was given, smiling a bit more. “Yes, that’s me,” she said.

“What are you doing out here?” he asked.

“It’s…well, my colleagues and I came out here to solve a problem of sorts,” Rarity said.

Stone looked intrigued. “What sort of problem?”

“…Hard to say,” she said. “We’re still looking for it. But with my luck lately, it has to do with that human we just met…”

Stone raised an eyebrow. “Human? There’s a human here?”

Rarity grimaced at the last memory she had of the second human she’d seen in Equestria. He looked so damned happy standing up on that stage or singing in the bar. It pissed her off. “Yes,” she grumbled, “a human. And the da-the Chancellor of this country at that.”

Stone seemed taken aback by that information, but quickly recovered and looked around the room. “Don’t these creatures know just how dangerous a human is?” he asked. “They’d so blindly make him a Chancellor here?”

Rarity took a long sip of her orange juice before a second glass was placed before her and a salad at Stone’s place. Swallowing, she glared at the other end of the bar. “I don’t know what to tell you, my good stallion,” she said. “These griffons seem to like him though, for Celestia knows what reason.”

Stone seemed deep in thought as he lifted a fork with some of the carrot salad to his lips and chewing thoughtfully. The two sat in silence for a bit, then she saw Stone pull out a small card and slid it over to Rarity. “Listen,” he said, “I’m actually a reporter from Canterlot. If you find where he is, please come by where I’m staying and tell me. I’m currently rooming at an inn a few blocks down called Gobbler’s Groggery, room fourteen. I’d love to do an interview with him.”

Rarity looked over the card. It was professional looking with his name, cutie mark (which was a hammer and chisel combo), and his office address written on it in professional ink. She slid it over with her hoof and nodded. “I…I’ll keep that in mind, Mr. Chisel.”

“Please, call me Stone,” the stallion said with a warm smile. With that, he quickly finished his meal, paid for it and her second orange juice, then stood. “I’m afraid I must be going, but thank you for this tantalizing talk. It’s rare to find a pony here with any sense of good taste and refinment,” he said.

Rarity smiled at him, blushing ever so slightly as she nodded in gratitude. “Thank you, my good stallion. Have a safe trip back to your inn.”

“I shall, and feel better soon,” he said with a wave of his hoof before he turned and headed towards the door.

Rarity turned back to her drink, smiling a bit more. It did feel good to talk to another pony, especially one as flattering as Stone had been. She looked at the card for a bit, then slowly picked it up, put it in her mouth and climbed off of the stool. Her head still hurt, so she decided it would be a good idea to return to her room and sleep some more. She reached her room, put the card in one of the drawers built into the small endtable, and collapsed into her bed, falling once more into a dreamless sleep.

“Commander! Commander come in! This is Agent O breaking radio silence! We have a Code Red! I repeat, we have a Code Red! The target has made contact with the Elements of Harmony and the Solar Princess! I repeat, the Elements of Harmony and the Solar Princess are in Griffonstone and have made contact with the target! Commander, please advise!”

For those of you wondering why the chapter has a Part 2 in the title when there's no Part 1 in this story, I refer you to A New Ending Chapter XIV: Explanations