flsh-POW

“Ack!” *thud*

“Hi Spike,” I said with a bit of an amused smile, “Sorry about that.”

The little dragon flailed from his place on the library floor, “Why couldn’t you use the front door?!” came the indignant cry as he pushed himself up, given me a mild scowl.

“Not really in the mood to deal with Ponyville right now to be honest,” I admitted, looking away briefly before turning back to him, “Is Twilight in?”

“Yes, I am,” I turned to the purple unicorn as she came from the kitchen. There was a small smile on her face, “How’d your date go?”

The thought brought an admittedly stupid if subdued smile to my face, “Good… way better than I’d feared… better than I’d really hoped to be honest.”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed briefly before widening in surprise, “I’d guess so! Since you have an earring with one of her feathers on it.”

My cheeks warmed as I shuffled awkwardly, “Ah, well, it’s just a secondary.”

“Still!” Twilight almost laughed, “Pegasus secondaries still have a lot of magic in them!” she tilted her head to the side and raised an eyebrow, both ears up and alert, “Um… did Dash put it onto an earring?”

My blush deepened, “No, ah, I did that myself… I… well, I didn’t want to get rid of it and it wouldn’t stay in my hair…”

Twilight’s eyebrows went up as she approached, “You pierced your own ear?”

“Well, yeah?” I said, cocking my head to the side, said left ear twitching some, “The main trouble is the sterilization and avoiding the major vein, but it’s not that bad really.”

“I know that, I’m just surprised you did it yourself,” her eyes focused on the thing I’d made. A little piece of gold that I’d carefully melted into a semi-teardrop shape, the point enveloping the base of feather, having been melted around it, “Most ponies don’t bother with earrings at all, stallions especially.”

“Ah, bad thing? I never got a straight answer out of nurse Redheart about whether or not there was a social stigma attached to earrings or not,” that was kind of my only concern. I’d gotten the gold loop from one of the hundreds of gifts I’d gotten as Gary and it’d taken just a little bit of fire and telekinesis done very carefully to make it work. A quick bit of painful teleportation had put it into my ear and the still hot metal had cauterized the hole.

Brutal? A bit. Painful? Yeah, but not as bad as you’d probably think. Efficient and pragmatic? Oh fuck yes. And I was many things, but I was still an accountant and businessman, pragmatism was definitely my thing whenever possible.

“No, just unusual, ponies are going to look at you funny and more worldly ones will assume you’re related to zebras somehow…” she paused with a thoughtful pout, “Then again, given you’re big, scarred up, and were once Gary, stares are going to be pretty standard.”

“Whoop-dee-doo,” I grumbled.

“Why’d you choose that ear?” Spike asked, pushing himself fully onto his feet and dusting himself off.

I waggled my still-whole left ear, the feather swishing about in a way that I actually found delightful, “I didn’t want to put too much burden on my already injured ear. It’s only been a few days since it was cut up like this and it’s not healed yet.” A bit awkwardly, I continued, “That, and if I’m going to go along with this whole herd thing, I need to be prepared to have multiple earrings.”

Twilight patted my shoulder with a foreleg, “You’ll do fine…” she gave me a comforting smile, “You said yourself it went pretty well.”

“Yeah…” I admitted in spite of the nervousness the thought of a ‘herd’ immediately brought to me.

“Were there any freakouts?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at me in curiosity.

I cringed just a bit, “Mild freakouts, good overall though.”

Spike gave me a funny look at that, his head cocked to the side even as he picked up his comic book, “That’s better than you hoped?”

Now it was my turn to raise an eyebrow, “... duh? This is me we’re talking about. I’m not exactly a whole lot better than little miss OCD here.”

Twilight rolled her eyes and gave me a small glare even as Spike snorted in amusement.

The lavender unicorn’s glare melted into a small smile rather quickly though, “Still, that’s good to hear. I’m happy you two had fun.”

“Thanks, I’m actually here for a reason other than gossip though,” I removed my saddlebags with a small exertion of will, setting them down nearby, “Could I get those few books on runic magic you have in right now?”

“Sure,” Twilight turned and headed to the shelves, her eyes scanning over the bookshelves as she got the ladder and started pushing it around, “Though if I remember correctly, you already know most of the stuff in these books off the top of your head. What are you working on?”

“I’m going to be working out some clothing-enhancement stuff for Rarity to work into her designs,” I said before shrugging as Twilight climbed the ladder, “I might be able to do it off the top of my head, but I’d much rather have a reference just to be safe.”

“Good idea, just… be careful? A miswritten runic inscription can cause a negative feedback loop or a mana vortex or-”

“Any number of bad things, I know.”

“... yes,” she grumbled around the book in her mouth as she climbed back down, “And you’re not an invincible Gary anymore.”

“Thus getting reference material,” I said with a smile.

She gave me a very unamused look at that, causing my smile to get even wider, earning an eye roll from the burgeoning archmage even as she returned to scanning the shelves for any other books that fit my criterion.

There was something else I was here for though… what was it… it was… “Oh!” Turning to the other purple being in the room, I pulled a letter from my pink vest with magic, “Spike, while I’m here, could you send this to Princess Celestia for me?”

“Sure,” he said, taking it from my magic. Turning it over in his claws and examining it briefly, he looked back up at me, “What is it?”

“A request. I don’t actually know what permissions I still have from when I was Gary.”

“What are you curious about?” Twilight asked, pausing in her perusal of the prints.

“In particular? My access to the Royal Library and my ability to requisition things,” Spike took a deep breath and blew, emerald flames encompassing the note, “I’m not expecting the blank check I had or anything, but it’d be nice to have better than average access.”

“You could always ask me, I have almost complete access to the full library.”

I made a little bit of a face at that, “Eh, that’s a bit sneakier than I’m really comfortable with. If Celestia is keeping something from me, she probably has a reason.”

Twilight made a similar look, which was honestly pretty funny, “That’s true…”

“Still, the message is away, we’ll find out one way or another in a few days.”

“Fair enough,” she smiled a bit, setting one last book into my saddlebags, “That should be the last of them though.”

“Sweet, thanks,” with a flick of will, I slung the still light saddlebags up over onto my back. I turned and found Twilight giving me a bit of an amused look, earned a cocked head and ears from me, “What?”

“I need a signature to check them out since you don’t have a library card,” she said with a far too amused smirk.

I blinked before realizing something, “... you’re going to tease me about my horrendous writing aren’t you?”

“Absolutely mercilessly.”

“What’d I do?” I whined with considerable grace and elegance.

“Aww! But you’re just so adorable when you pout like that,” her grin was teasing.

My excessively mature response was to blow a raspberry at her.

With several quick, successive, whp-crack’s I Blinked through Ponyville.

There were a bunch of different distinct sounds that teleportation could have depending on the method used and the exact magics. Most had their own strengths and weaknesses, some methods would allow someone like Twilight to jump from her home to the Apple farm in a single jump, while others could be done in rapid succession within line of sight, etc. etc.

I knew a couple versions still, one that went *POP* which involved turning the self into light and beaming yourself to somewhere else and reforming, it didn’t involve much in the way of knowing where you were going so much as your close range destination, a great emergency teleport.

I had another that went flsh-POW, this one was a more long-range, involving the slicing through of the barriers between normal reality and the Aether, basically creating a small wormhole before shoving it wide enough to go through it explosively, letting it seal behind you. You had to have a super good idea of where you were going for that to work, but it was rather efficient and long range.

The one I was using now, my whp-crack, involved turning oneself partially into energy and basically throwing it, requiring line of sight and a solid item to act as the destination, but it was something I could do rapid-fire. It was the least efficient of the three since it involved suffusing my whole body with power and launching myself, but I could do some extremely sweet parkour. If anything, it resembled the classic high speed movement in shonen’s, just with a flash of light.

Right now I was using it to bounce off of the walls and roofs of the town, avoiding the usual glares and distaste of the town as I was little more than little flashes of light before I pinpointed my next destination and Blinked again.

It was more energy intensive that I’d really be okay with in most situations, but I hadn’t really been exercising my magic worth a damn since I’d never really had to as Gary.

With a flash I solidified at the doorstep of the Carousel Boutique and gently pushed my way in before anyone could realize that I was there.

“Welcome to the Carousel Boutique, I’ll be with you in a moment!”

“No rush Rarity, just wanted to check in with you since-” there was a small swish as Rarity did her own bit of teleportation in front of me, though in her case it was more ‘gossip-senses tingling!’ teleportation than the actual, magical kind, “-I know that you’d want to know how things went.”

I had about a half seconds warning.

Her bright blue eyes swept over me and like a homing device, locked onto the small blue feather hanging from the earring. Her eyes brightened–

-here it comes-

–she took a deep breath–

-cotton swabs in ladies and gents!

–and let out an almost piercing “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeee!” that trailed off into an excited giggle.

Ow. Seriously. And I thought her idea squee was bad…

“Oh how delightful darling! It went well?”

I smiled gently as I let the cotton swabs fade and rolled my eyes, “Yes, it went well. It’s a secondary though, not a primary, just for the record.”

“It’s still wonderful to hear darling!” she tittered, prancing in place and pulling me into a quick hug, “I’m so happy for you two!”

I smiled briefly, wrapping a foreleg around her and returning the hug, softly saying, “Thanks for taking the time to help me.”

She gave me a small squeeze and I could feel her smile against my neck before pulling away, giving me a subdued smile, “It was nothing darling. I merely saw an opportunity to make two of my friends happy.”

“Still,” I said, standing there in front of her in her boutique, “Thank you for helping.”

“So~ Details?” she asked eagerly.

I rolled my eyes, “No Rarity, I’m not going to gossip about it.”

“But but but-...” she pouted at me, her lip quivering.

“No,” I said resolutely, “We had a good time, she looked absolutely fantastic, and my freak-outs were minor.”

With a sound of frustration, Rarity scowled at me, “Emeris! Please! At least something! Did you at least kiss?”

-the scent of ozone and spice flooding my nose, it was like kissing a stormcloud-

I coughed, looking away, fully aware that my face was likely a bit red.

The fashionista's eyes brightened and she gasped, a wide grin appearing on her face, “You did! Oh how delightful!” she giggled, prancing in place as I blushed brightly at her excitement, “I was worried you wouldn’t be able to!”

I coughed and admitted, “So was I… but the date went well,” a small scowl punctuated the sentence, “And that’s enough about it.”

Rarity pouted, but I narrowed my eyes in spite of the blush on my face.

Her lower lip quivered once more, her eyes tearing up.

“Rarity. No.”

She huffed, her eyes immediately clearing before she smirked sidelong at me, “Fine, I’ll ask Rainbow about it then.”

“Go for it,” I said freely, my blush slowly fading, “I just refuse to kiss and tell.”

Rarity blinked once before covering her smile with a foreleg, “That is adorable.”

Now it was my turn to pout, “What? I just don’t like to.”

The alabaster unicorn reached up and patted me on top of the head, a fair bit of a smug smile on her face, “And that’s why you’re an adorable stallion in spite of your scars.”

I scowled at her some, “This is for me not telling you more isn’t it?”

“Whatever gives you that idea darling?”

“Oh, I dunno, maybe the fact that I actually kind of know you by now?”

She smirked, “I have no idea what you mean dear.”

Rapid-fire teleportation in the Everfree would’ve been a bad idea because A). The intense, chaotic power of the local leylines throws off most magic subtly, and when you’re vaporizing yourself and reforming, a little mistake isn’t something you want. B). Teleporting without knowing your destination in a place with as many dangers as the Everfree was just asking for trouble like Poison Joke. And C). The point of the teleporting was to avoid glares and interaction with the cantankerous populace, there wasn’t any populace here to avoid.

… well, at least none that I couldn’t smack around a bit if they got rowdy.

I stepped through the barrier around my home and walked up to the door, pushing my way inside, “Mew?”

“Bark bark bark,” was my deadpan reply to the pink cat, lifting my saddlebags off my back as I kicked the door closed behind me.

He made an unhappy sound, earning a confused look from me. I found him standing over his empty bowl, which was pretty self explanatory, “Oh, so you’re a greedy gut, that’s what it is.” He gave me an unhappy little growl even as I opened the cabinet and pulled the bag of cat food down, “Oh hush, you’re a greedy gut, I filled your bowl up yesterday.”

With a pleasant smile, I went through a simple routine of settling in. Check all the windows to see if they’re still locked, check under the bed for anything, get some tea started, check behind the shower curtain, wash off my face and hooves in the bathroom, y’know, the usual stuff.

For someone a fair bit paranoid that is, but hey, it’s not paranoia if they’re actually out to get you. And I’m still in the habits of ‘They’re all out to get me’.

I was aware it was a bit silly, but it wasn’t hurting anyone and I didn’t really have a reason to deal with the anxiety that I’d feel if I didn’t check.

Settling into the chair, I pulled up some pieces of paper, a quill, and some ink before I cracked open the first of the books Twilight had pulled out for me. I set to work, looking for new runes, relations between them, and possible combinations in order to get Rarity her inscriptions.

After stuffing his face, the increasingly plump pink cat scrambled his way up onto my chair, and then onto my back, curling up under my equally pink vest.

Still, I worked, a small smile on my face as the warm ball of fuzz purred against me. Papers and blots of ink getting slowly spread out across the tabletop. My magical dexterity was still pretty crappy, and the exacting delicacy required for runes was difficult for me, but hey, I had to practice sometime, how else would I improve?

Interestingly, as I slowly went through the books, I discovered more information on ‘proper’ enchanting.

The material that was having runes placed on it didn’t really matter for the purposes of mana retention and efficiency. The material the runes themselves were made of though could. Air, or carved runes, however you wanted to think about it, were workable, but not super efficient. But things like the inlaid runes around my home could retain and channel absolutely absurd amounts of power.

Standard enchantment on the other hand dealt heavily with the material you were enchanting, metal took your infused power very differently from cloth which was very different from wood and so on. It was actually one of the reasons I had trouble with it. The material of the runes was a modifier on the efficiency and storage capacity of runic enchantments, but the process of standard enchantment was inherently different depending on the item you enchanted.

It was like the difference between coding and wood carving. A true master enchanter wouldn’t so much impose their enchantment on an item as coax out a beautifully efficient and powerful spell out of what was already there. Following the grain and ‘colors’ of the item to bring something into existence.

I sucked at wood carving.

Still, this was relaxing. Interesting research, finding correlations between runes and systems, translating and practicing the runes themselves. I was basically writing myself a little runes wikipedia without all the pomp and circumstance and high-browed language that these various wizards used.

I wasn’t a scientist, not really. I was an accountant. But I had a better grounding in serious scientific theory than a fair number of these ponies were. Not all! But there was an obvious theme here of singular geniuses pushing boundaries only for others to follow after them rather than a huge collaborative effort. There weren’t unifying systems or themes like the use of greek or latin that i was used to.

It was a haphazard mish-mash of things, where one genius would use a system that made sense to them and the terminology would stick, and then another genius would expand it further using their own terminology and so forth.

That and many of them had what I liked to call EHAD! Or “Excessive Hot Air Disorder”. Eesh. Don’t use seven big words when two or three little ones will work.

Fuck that noise.

So with some time, dedication, and motivation from frustration I basically rewrote the terminology into something a lot more understandable. Really, I was just applying the coding jargon I remembered to things, which streamlined it so much.

I mean, come on, here’s what I had to work with, stuff like Puntodecomenzar, Terminer le Point, Iam meditatio mirror and Iam meditatio imaginem.

Yeah, uh, no. Let’s go with Entrance Point, End Point, Pointer, and Referenced Point?

Bleargh.

It was a strange day that Rainbow Dash would wake up early, but she was on cloud nine today. A smile on her face and a spring in her step and flight, the occasional (extra) loop-de-loop working its way into her path.

She’d already gotten her weather work for the day done and the instructions were set out for her fellow weather pegasi. Now she was just enjoying herself, normally she’d have taken a nap by now but she felt too… giddy, to energetic and warm and fuzzy to even consider napping.

With a laugh, Rainbow Dash swooped low over Ponyville, doing a quick aileron roll that bled into a full barrel roll. Something tickled at the edges of her senses and a quick hairpin turn later, she dropped to her hooves in front of a purple unicorn, “What was that Twilight?”

“I said that I’ve got something to talk to you about,” she said, her face surprisingly serious.

In spite of the bubbly feeling in her chest, the pegasus folded her wings against her sides, “What’s up?”

Twilight shifted slightly, looking away briefly in her discomfort, “It’s something that should be a bit more private than the middle of the street…”

“Sure thing, what’chu got in mind?”

“Well, there’s this little cafe…”

“Well, okay, that’s… sheesh, that’s a long list,” she scowled, “But we’re gonna try to fix him ourselves?”

“At least at first, while following the advice of professionals,” Twilight said softly, pulling her cup of coffee closer to her, “We’re…” she paused, glancing down at her cup with a scowl before taking a breath, “Okay, I’m worried that a professional might hate him and deliberately mess up his treatment.”

“Like True Glamour cut his ear,” Rainbow Dash said, her scowl darkening.

“Yes, like that… just with his head…”

Her wings flared, a fierce gleam in her eyes, “Not gonna happen.”

The forest was quiet, eyes peeking out through the darkness. The night was moonless, the beasts prowling…

Tigers, Bears, Ursas, nagas, chimeras, manticores, camazotz, chupacabras...

But no true horrors…

My heart was beating furiously, loud in my ears, power thrumming just beneath my skin as I prowled forward.

There, a pool in a clearing, stars reflecting against its surface.

I went forward, hooves quiet on the grass and light underbrush, approaching the pool, but at the edge, I froze.

“You know that when you look into it, you’re going to appear as an alicorn.”

There was a pause as my brain caught up with the situation.

I snorted, airly waving a hoof, “T’is very likely, true.”

“Your teasing is not appreciated,” Luna deadpanned as she stepped up beside me in the… dream? Nightmare? I couldn’t tell at this point.

“Duly noted,” I said, a small smile on my face.

The princess of the night’s wings ruffled as her bright blue eyes scanned the darkness, “I must admit, you pack quite a lot of detail into this, it’s quite unsettling.”

“I saw most of these when I was on patrol tonight,” not the manticores or the Ursas, but I was familiar with them. In spite of the spikes of fear even the littlest Ursa caused. Seriously, you don’t run into something that big and not be afraid, no matter how beautiful and delightfully fuzzy it may be.

“Ah, it draws from recent memory then?”

“Yeah,” I stared at the pool in front of us, wings ruffling.

“You seem only unsettled by the various predators around us, not afraid.”

“I’ve gotten used to them,” I admitted, “I run into them a lot while I’m out in the forest on my runs. I’ve gotten a bit desensitized to them,” I paused in consideration before adding with a tilt of my head, “That and they’re not really a threat anymore. Nothing they can do can handle my magic.”

“But you’re more afraid of being Gary Stu once more than any number of monsters, aren’t you Sir Emeris?”

I flinched, my chest clenching in a sudden rush of emotions, denial, anger, fear, and I almost snapped at the princess of the moon, but I didn’t, “... yeah. I can’t think of anything natural to Equestria that scares me that much… or as… viscerally as becoming Gary Stu again.”

There was things I feared, stuff like Discord or the Princesses being truly angry at me, things like elder dragons or, y’know, simple stuff like cuddling a giant tiger whose face was almost the size of my torso. That had kinda set the oh crap meter going.

But… nothing fundamentally horrified me, nothing really gave me… well… nightmares like the thought of going back to being Gary Stu. Not now that I had friends…

“... well,” I said, realizing there was something else, “Nothing that could normally exist outside of my curse. There’s some pretty scary monsters that’d scare me more, but they’re from Beyond.”

Luna blinked once before shuddering, “I don’t believe those qualify.” her wings actually puffed out at that briefly. Creating an amusing scene of an unsettled immortal princess set against the backdrop of monsters and horrors within the Everfree forest in the middle of a moonless night.

…

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t that amusing when you really thought about it, but still, it made me laugh. Kinda. Mostly.

Yeah, okay, the Beyond wasn’t something to joke about.

“But those aren’t coming back now that the curse is fixed,” I paused as a scary thought occurred to me, my eyes widened as they darted over to the still composing princess, “Um… that isn’t a possibility right?” I had never asked that question before, I’d just, y’know, assumed…

“No, thankfully it isn’t,” she said with gratifying certainty, “You are…” she paused, scowling as if searching for the words and gesturing with a wing, “You are still a weak point in our world, but there are no longer cracks in reality around you from the botched shell formation.”

“So, no more horrors from Beyond?”

She nodded, the moon appearing in the night sky through the leaves of the trees, “That is correct.”

“Good. Then yeah, being Gary tops my list of ‘Things that scare the crap out of me,’” I said with a fair amount of cheer.

“But tis not your only fear, is it?” she asked softly, settling down on her haunches, her wings folding against her sides as she sat in the sparse grass of the dream-Everfree.

“No…?” I said, raising an eyebrow at her, “Um… is this going to turn into another ‘let’s talk about your issues’ session…?”

With a small snort, a little smile spread across Luna’s face, “No, I am more curious about what scares something like yourself. You were as powerful as my sister and I with resistances that even we do not possess due to your nature, what scares something like you?”

It was another ‘let’s talk about your issues’ session.

Heh.

I sat down, folding my wings against my back and tilting my head up, looking at the sky of the dreamscape, “Probably a lot of the same things that scare you. Being scared of messing up, scared of insulting my friends on accident, scared of being an idiot… and just because I’m resistant to the mind warping effects of Outsiders doesn’t mean I’m immune.”

My lips pressed together into a line as I tried to articulate the feelings and thoughts I knew but hadn’t really put words to.

“I… well, I wasn’t scared of things for a while there. I was basically invincible, nothing could hurt me, I thought it was just straight up the world declaring me invincible, have fun. I didn’t realize it was the magic that lets me interact with you not working… I…” with a breath, I turned my head back down, glaring at the grass beneath me, noting idly that more detail appeared in it as I focused on it, almost like textures loading in a game, “I stopped being afraid after a point. I stopped being really concerned with my own safety, it was a given, the only question was the safety of others.”

The soft brush of feathers could be felt against my shoulder, and I didn’t need to look up to know that her wing had settled against my withers, “Which you did an admirable job protecting by all accounts,” the princess said softly.

A small snort of laughter escaped me, “Yeah… never felt like that though…” I tilted my head up, looking at her sideways, “Did you know that I had to vaporize the bodies of foals possessed by Outsiders?”

Her eyes widened, and some small, dark part of me enjoyed that reaction even as the rest of me felt for her.

Luna’s mouth opened once before she closed it and composed herself, her ears drooping to the sides, “No… I did not.”

A bitter smile found its way to my face as I looked back at the ground, “Yeah… that was a thing. I… nothing could happen to me so I wasn’t a concern, it was only the safety of others. So fear was… well, not something I associated with monsters.”

With a little snort of genuine laughter, if a bit self-deprecating, I turned to her, “Predators sort of escaped that, I was actually super scared by a tiger not long after I was freed from the curse.”

She glanced at the encirclement of monsters and predators, the corner of her mouth quirking up, “I do believe that you’re past that though?”

“Lions and tigers and bears oh my, these predators once made me rather shy, chimeras and chupacabras and giant spiders oh dear, not a one of these monsters do I fear.”

…

“That’s actually a super good poem, I usually suck at that kind of crap. Could you write that down and send it to me after this? I doubt I’ll remember it upon waking.”

Her laugh was almost melodic, bring a pleasant bit of warmth to my chest at that, “Certainly Sir Emeris, I would be delighted.”

“Thanks!” I grinned broadly at her, wishing briefly I still had thumbs to give her a thumbs up for that. Then the moment passed and I shuffled a bit, a more subdued smile on my face as I looked out at the pool still ahead of us, the moon now creating a beautiful scene as its light reflected off the water, “But… well… I wouldn’t use the word ‘past that’. I’d say I’ve put them under the same new category I’ve put monsters.”

Once again I struggled for words, “I’m… afraid isn’t the word, but it’s close. I’m fearful, I’m wary, but not really afraid of them. They’re dangerous, but if I’m careful, not a threat.”

“There’s something else though I’d venture,” the alicorn of the moon and night said, giving my withers a squeeze with her wing.

There was.

I just didn’t really want to admit it.

“I’m scared of people.”

But I did. Because seriously, fuck fear. She was offering to listen.

“Sir Emeris?”

“I’m afraid of people. Some part of me is still afraid of physical contact… I’m getting over that though, I don’t flinch when someone touches me anymore at least,” I gestured at her wing with my own.

“And why do you say that?”

I blinked in confusion, “What?”

“Why are you afraid of people? What about them scares you?”

“I…” pausing, I struggled for words, trying to think of a reason, trying to put the complex mess of emotions in my chest to words and phrases, “I’m afraid of hurting them, scaring them… I don’t want to give them even more reason to disapprove of me…”

I looked up to meet her eyes, finding an intense gaze in her teal blue eyes, “Why?”

“What do you mean why? I bristled, almost snapping at the alicorn of the moon, “I hate seeing people get hurt! It’s all I saw as Gary!”

But she did not bend, her eyes locked with mine with an almost frightening intensity, “And why does their anger bother you? Why does their fear incite your own?”

Surprised, I tried to scooch back, stopped by the wing around my withers, struggling to find a reason to give her, “I–… it… it feels like being Gary all over again…”

“And how is that? How come their fear and hatred makes you feel like Gary? When all Gary was showered with was affection and adoration?”

“Because it’s not about the adoration!” I snapped, nearly trembling, though whether it was in anger of fear I couldn’t have told you, “Being Gary was about the monsters and the lack of people to talk to! Not about… adoration or affection or the ease of doing things!”

“And why are you afraid of that?” Luna pressed, and something in me cracked.

“Because I can’t be alone anymore!” I roared at her before curling inwards on myself, tears starting to flow from the corners of my eyes as I choked out, “I… I just can’t…”

Luna pulled me closer, tucking my head beneath her chin and holding me close, her warm wings wrapping around me. I leaned into the offered comfort, choking back sobs as I buried my face against her chest, tears streaming from my eyes and soaking her coat.

I didn’t bawl, I refused to, but pitiful sounds escaped my throat as I clenched my eyes shut, desperately trying to contain the flow of tears. Unconsciously, I rubbed my face against her midnight blue coat, smearing the slowly running snot and tears against the princess with a whimper.

No words were said as we sat there in the grass, tears slowly leaking from my closed eyes, my breath shuddering in my chest even as I curled up in her wings. The soft warmth enveloping me entirely in a tight hug as small sobs wrenched their way from my throat. It hurt. I hurt. I hurt all over. Acknowledging how deeply their hatred cut without glossing it over, without shoving it away…

Desperately, I pressed my face against Luna’s chest as my chest heaved with suppressed sobs, seeking whatever comfort I could get.

“I–” the word was little more than a croak, causing me to stop and swallow, trying to return some semblance of normality to my voice, “I know how to avoid that...I know how to address it, it’s… I have to talk to ponies, I have to prove that I’m not Gary, that I’m not a bad person, I have to make up for the bad things that happened while I was Gary… but it’s hard to do that…”

Luna’s wings slowly stroked my back and sides as she interjected, “And tis so much easier to simply cling to the friends you’ve already made rather than try to fix the problems with others.”

It was like someone had twisted the knife in my chest, and I nearly flinched away before burying my face back against her chest, my voice little more than a hoarse whisper, “Yeah.”

“You can’t languish in your complacency Sir Emeris,” she insisted gently, “If you truly wish to recover you must continue to make friends, ones that shall stick with you to keep you from being as alone as you fear.”

“I know… I know… I… it’s just hard… it hurts so much,” I pressed my face harder against her chest, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words… words can break my heart…”

“And that does not mean you should not try.”

“No… no it doesn’t…”

Air.

A sharp intake of breath, no smells or sounds.

I exhaled slowly as I blinked my eyes open, finding myself staring at a wall.

Sunlight was coming through my window behind me as I lay there in a warm cocoon of covers, a snoring ball of pink fuzz draped across my neck.

Another dream… with Luna? Yeah… we talked about… fears?

Hrm… was this going to be a regular thing…?

I wouldn’t complain, it’s just strange that she’d take time out of her busy schedule of patrolling the dream world and keeping the Fae in line to spend time with me in my head. I knew that time was a bit of a nebulous concept in the Aether, but it still seemed strange that she’d have the time to spend with me. It might be that she could be in multiple places at one time in the Aether… I’d have to remember to ask next time…

With a snort, I rolled over in my bed, pulling the covers tightly around me as I buried my face into my pillow, I wasn’t going to get up yet this morning. I had some more stuff to do with the runes and was going to go check with AJ about the date of our… well… date. But that was later. Right now? I was just going to lay here and not think about anything.

Yayyyy procrastination! Procrastinators unite-! Tomorrow.

I wouldn’t say that there was a spring in my step as I gave Ponyville a wide berth on my way to the Apple family farm, but I was definitely a fair bit more lively than I had been this morning. iI was going to schedule a date with Applejack, something that I was both eagerly anticipating and dreading. I was nervous. Tense. Hell, I was practically vibrating.

My date with Dash had gone so well… not perfect, but still! I mean, hell, when does anything go perfectly, especially for me? It’s not realistic to expect perfection from anything, just strive for it.

So I could definitely say I was more confident this time, less a nervous ball of fears and paranoia than I was before… not that that was saying much. I’d pushed through it but seriously…

“Hey! Emmy!”

The slow boil of my nervousness practically popped like a balloon at the sound of that voice, “Dash, hey.”

Well that sounded lame, but hey, my brain kind of shut down and a stupid grin came over my face, give me a break. There was something different about her though… what was it?

Apparently Dash agreed with me, laughing in amusement, “Hey yourself dork,“ she glided in until she was flying very slowly beside me, a grin on her face, “How’re you?”

“Good,” I replied with a matching grin, one that turned into a smirk, “Better now though.”

“Pfft-hahaha!” the beautiful pegasus curled up in laughter, somehow staying airborne as she did. In spite of the small blush on her cheeks, she smirked back at me, “That was super cheesy!”

“It made you laugh didn’t it?” I retorted and said warmly, “I’ll chalk that one up as a win.”

She slugged me lightly in the shoulder, “Yeah yeah, like I’ll let that count.”

It suddenly clicked and I stopped there on the slope of a grassy hill, “Is… is that my tie?”

With a grin and blush, Dash somehow preened midair, showing off the oversized, rose colored tie that hung around her neck, “Well, you did give it to me. I like it. I think it goes with my colors pretty well don’t you think?” It did, it matched her eyes almost perfectly.

My mouth worked silently even as my face felt like it was on fire, my heart doing a little flutter in my chest. I was embarrassed that I’d completely forgotten my tie like I had, but also supremely flattered that she’d taken to wearing it, this was completely unlike anything the ponies had done while I was Gary… it was… I didn’t even have words… “Dash…”

Her smile turned almost gentle as she landed in the grass beside me, “What? You got a feather, I got your tie.”

“Heh,” there was a swell of warmth in my chest as my mouth worked without my brains approval, “Not that… it makes you look a little silly all by itself.” Her rose colored eyes blinked a few times in confusion, making me smile affectionately even as I lit my horn, “Here.”

Encompassing the silk tie with my magic, I untied it from around her neck and began to wrap it around her right foreleg. Since the tie had been made for my significantly larger form and proportionally thicker neck, the tie ended up as a martial arts wrap that matched her eyes. Now the beautiful pegasus was hovering there with a single wrapped leg, staring at it, “There,” I said warmly, “That’s at least fifteen percent more awesome and cool.”

In spite of the small blush on her cheeks, Dash snorted, a little bit of a stupid grin on her face as she looked up at me, “Dude, leave the quantification to me. This isn’t awesome or cool.” A part of my heart fell at those words in spite of the smile on her face, but then she grinned even more, “This is, like, thirty percent more radical.”

I snickered, grinning back at her, “Okay, okay, I’ll trust the expert.”

“Damn straight.”

With a happy little hum, I considered this silliness, this adorable and likely pointless silliness that gave me tons of warm fuzzies. I might need to start getting ties to give her. ‘Cause, especially as a wrap, it’d eventually get worn away, pegasus feathers (especially primaries and secondaries) were magically resilient, but the tie wasn’t…

… unless…

“By the way,” I started walking again, keeping my eyes locked with hers, “Be sure to get a hold of me in about a week or so and I’ll add some magic to that thing to make sure it doesn’t get messed up.” I mean, that’s kind of the whole point of my studying, just because I’m doing it for Rarity doesn’t mean I couldn’t use it for other things.

“Really? Sweet,” her wings flared and she started to slowly fly beside me, “Mm, anyways, where are we going?”

“Ah, the Apple family farm,” I said, looking away a bit awkwardly, my mismatched ears twitching, “I’ve got to schedule our date.”

“Oh, right,” I glanced back at her at the casualness of her tone, completely natural… her eyes were pointed upwards as she pouted thoughtfully, “I totally forgot that you hadn’t set up anything with her…” it was then that her eyes widened briefly and her face paled, if just for an instant, her eyes falling to the ground as did my heart, “Huh.”

“Dash…” man, I knew this was a bad idea, I just knew it, I knew that herds were supposed to be normal here but that–

The beautiful pegasus flexed her now-wrapped forelimb and a happy grin spread across her face, “Well… there’s no way that AJ can beat this,” she turned to me and waggled her eyebrows as she presented the red silk.

My thought process ground to a halt even as Dash strutted mid-air, “I’ve got this bet in the bag~”

“That’s your concern?” my mouth worked without my brain again, in a bit of disbelief, “Winning the bet?”

“Uh, yeah?”

I raised an eyebrow at her.

She snorted and rolled her eyes, “Okay! Okay… I may have felt a bit insecure… just a bit! I’m too awesome to get down like that,” she looked away, her face lighting up in a bright red as she murmured under her breath, “Especially now that I’ve got you.”

A bit of the nervous tension in my chest eased even as a bit of heat came to my own cheeks, though I still felt bad about this in general, I mean, it was my fault… “Seriously, don’t worry about that. I meant what I said.”

With a smile that melted my heart, Dash bumped her shoulder against mine, “I know, and I’m not gonna let you go…” both of our faces were red at this point, but I couldn’t find it in me to care, though when Dash made a mock scary face and waved her forelegs around menacingly, “Eeeeevvvvveeerrrrrrrrr…” I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Oh no, whatever will I do?” I deadpanned.

“Not a Tartarus damned thing, ‘cause y’know you like it.”

In spite of the small squeezing in my chest, I leaned forward and bumped my muzzle against the back of her jaw, giving her a brief nuzzle as I murmured, “And don’t you forget it.”

I could feel her face practically light on fire before I pulled back from her soft coat, an inappropriately confident smile on my face as I kept walking, feeling a surge of silly pride at the small, stunned pause before she started flying after me once more.

“Y-Yeah, right!” there was a long moment as she flew beside me before she scowled through the near crimson blush on her face, “No fair by the way.”

I smirked at her, “I find that I don’t care.”

With a snort, she thumped my shoulder with a hoof once more, “Horseapple.”

Okay, I was super confident beforehand, but now? Now I was very nervous, because seriously? One chick you’re dating coming with you as you scheduled a date with another? Awkward.

Dash and I walked up to the Apple family farm, my eyes scanning over the orchard and the fields for the telltale sign of Applejack working. Also known as trees visibly shaking. Seriously, strong mare.

But it wasn’t until we were half way down the path to the main house that Dash declared, “There she is!” pointing with a hoof as she flew a bit higher. And there she was, a delightfully orange splash of color against the red of the barn as she moved towards the house, a large wagon of… something that I couldn’t identify from this distance.

Setting intercept course, Impulse only, engage number one.

While Dash lived up to her namesake and went Warp 2 over to the earth mare, I just kept my casual pace. Partially because I just wasn’t as excitable as the wonderful pegasus, and partially so I had time to gather my courage. My heart was starting to flutter in my chest in nervousness, and I was pretty sure that if I had palms still they would have been cold, clammy, and sweaty.

Slow breaths, in and out. Control it, deep inhale, slow exhale. It mattered less what you did so much as you gained control over it and yourself.

I felt like I was about to ask a girl out in freaking middle school, come on! I was past this!

…

Okay, not really, in fact, not even close, and this was a worse situation to be fair.

“–so now we’re here so you can get your chance, y’know, to fail at winning,” Dash smirked as she flew beside her.

Rolling my eyes even as Applejack scowled at her friend, I lit my horn, pushing power into the cart and lifting it off of the ground, “Where you headed?” I glanced over the hay, finally able to identify the carts contents at this range.

Her look turned a bit deadpan at my taking of the cart, though I just smiled at her as the cart hovered in my emerald green glow, “Ah was takin it to the cows.”

“Shall I come along then?” I said with a smile, gesturing in that direction. Her eyeroll almost got me to snicker as she headed that direction as Dash and I followed after, floating cart in tow.

Giving me a curious look, Applejack reached out with a hoof and lightly tapped the feather earring, “Ah’m gonna guess that this proves y’all had a good time?” she smiled.

Even though my face turned a bright shade of red, Dash landed on my back with a giggle, “Oh yeah,” I could feel her shift and a quick glance back confirmed that she was preening and fluffing herself out, a grin on her face, “It was awesome.”

In spite of the heat in my cheeks as I rolled my eyes, I still smiled, “Yes, it was… nice.” Man I felt awkward, I mean, I definitely liked Applejack, and this wasn’t all that different from other conversations that we’d had a number of times, but still… the very premise of this…

“That’s good to hear,” AJ said with real warmth and… relief? I couldn’t be sure, and cocked my head at her a bit in confusion, my ears tilting at different angles.

“Hah~” Dash didn’t seem to pick up on it though, flipping around so that her back pressed against mine, her wings pressing against my sides to keep her balanced as she lay there, “Not so good for you! Looks like I’ve got this competition in the bag!”

“Says you,” the farmmare taunted back, a smirk on her face. She shot a wink at me with those brilliant emerald eyes of hers before coming up to my side and craning her head up, likely up to my passengers ear and said in a husky whisper, “As far as Ah’m concerned, Ah’ve already won my prize.”

There was a soft sound from behind me and a quick glance over my shoulder to see Applejack’s teeth slide off of Rainbow Dash’s sky-blue ear as she finished her nibble to punctuate her whisper, and a shiver went through the weathermare on my back. I had no doubts that the entirety of the pegasus on my back heated up from embarrassment.

I would not hesitate to admit that there was a blush on my own cheeks.

With a far too amused chuckle, Applejack settled back down and walked beside me, her soft coat brushing against mine. Even as Dash sputtered, the farmmare leaned in and whispered into my ear, “Ah’d consider that worth you stealin’ m’ah work.”

“I’m not stealing your work,” I rebuffed, trying to ignore the pleasant sensation of her warm breath against my ear, “I’m helping as an excuse to talk to you.”

“Still stealin’ m’ah work.”

“Helping.” I stressed with a smile.

“AJ!”

Both of us looked to the pegasus on my back, though it was the mare beside me that spoke, “What is it sugar?”

“You,” Dash said with finality, “Are a perv.”

“Oh like you haven’t thought of it!” Applejack retorted, “Ah’d get the only mare Ah’ve met that can keep up with me and the best flier Ah’ve ever heard tell of as well as a hard workin’ stallion that’s willin’ to put his life on the line for m’ah kin! Ah call that a win whether Ah’m in charge or not.” She smiled, her tail flicking, “Ah’m still gonna try to win, but Ah ain’t gonna twist mahself into knots trying to. The fun’s almost as much in tryin’ as it is in the prize itself.”

With those words, the tension, the fear that had been constricting my chest melted, not all of it, but most.

“That… that sums it up nicely,” I said with more affection and warmth than I’d even intended, a smile on my face.

“Ugh… great… mushy stuff…” the pegasus grumbled half-heartedly, exceptionally obvious since she made no attempt to move from her place on my back.

Applejack and I shared an eyeroll at that, “Says the mare wearing my tie,” I pointed out, to the raised eyebrows of the farmmare beside me.

“H-Hey! It’s only fair!” I could picture the pout on her face without even turning around as AJ and I came to a stop in front of the pasture that contained the cows, “You got one of my secondaries so I got your tie! Fair trade and stuff.”

“So that’s what she’s wearin’?” AJ asked with a smirk as I set the cart down, the light around my horn fading and the mild mental strain fading with it.

“Mhm. Obviously it’s not mushy at all to hold on to the tie of your coltfriend,” I teased, or as Twilight might have said, smugged.

Though it drew a snicker from AJ, the pegasus responded with an extremely elegant raspberry.

When the chuckles subsided, I actually tried to get into why I’d come, ignoring the sudden clenching around my heart as I did, “Anyways, AJ, we never did schedule a time and place for our date.”

I felt Dash’s wings extend, the feathers blanketing my sides as Applejack blinked before chuckling again, “That we didn’t sugar. Did ya’ have anythin’ in mind?”

“Not really, I’m kind of not sure about what I’m doing here,” I admitted with only a bit of embarrassment and trepidation, “I don’t have the slightest clue what the rules and expectations are for herds or anything.”

“Well, um…” AJ glanced away, shuffling her hooves awkwardly evenly as she leaned up against the fence for the pasture, “This ain’t exactly normal in the first place.”

“Uh, no duh?” Dash interjected, wiggling her back against my own to get more comfortable even as her wings pressed against me like a blanket to keep herself in place and… it seemed almost to claim me as her own.

“Really?” I deadpanned. I mean, I figured that this wasn’t normal, but to garner that kind of reaction?

“Yeah, usually a mare and stallion’ll go out for a bit and get comfortable with each other before the mare invites another in or a mare gets up the courage to make a move.”

“And here we are, competin’ against one another,” Applejack confirmed as she leaned against the fence, her gaze turning towards the expanse of rolling grass hills. Her voice got a bit softer and more contemplative, “It sure ain’t normal for two mares to go after a stallion at once like this, at least without tryin’ to shove each other out.”

Huh.

“So what do you two think is best here?” I asked, this was as much about them as it was myself and I really wasn’t sure how to go about this.

“Um…” I felt Dash shift on my back as Applejack looked over my shoulder, the two were likely sharing a glance as they thought about it and communicated in some way that I wasn’t exactly privy to.

“Well, Ah’d think that we’d each go out with you by ourselves before we declared a winner, it’d make it a bit more normal…”

“And easier on you big guy,” I felt Dash’s head rest against the back of my neck gently, actually comfortingly, and if it’d been possible, I’d have shot her a look of appreciation, “Considering how much trouble you had handling how awesome I was by myself, both of us at once is probably more than you can handle.”

Despite the teasing in her tone, the way she pressed against me and the gentleness in her tone assured me she was actually concerned.

AJ actually looked surprised at that for a moment, “That too!” she shook it off and pushed off of the fence, quickly coming over and pressing a hoof against my shoulder, “Ah don’t want to push ya too hard… Ah kinda forget sometimes that this is so hard for ya’.”

I gave her a gentle smile in spite of the small clenching around my chest, “It’s alright, I’ll say when things get too much, just… just give me some time and space, I’ll get there.”

“Still. Y’er m’ah friend first, possible coltfriend second.”

“Um… excuse me?”

The three of us ponies blinked and turned to the voice, finding several of the cows at the edge of the fence, looking at us awkwardly, “Um, we do so hate to interrupt but, could you pass the hay please?”

“Ah… yes, sorry,” I murmured, lighting the hay on the cart up with my horn and flexing my magical muscles to lift it up over the fence to them, setting it out, “Very sorry about that, we got caught up in our conversation.”

“It’s quite alright, we didn’t really want to interrupt, but we felt it was a bit ruder to just walk between you to get it…”

“It’s alright Annabelle, Ah’m sorry that we got caught up like that, it won’t happen again.”

“Applejack, you’ve taken care of us plenty well, there’s nothing to apologize for. Thank you for the hay.”

“You’re welcome.”

The cows took only a few moments to throw the bales of hay over their shoulders and head off, leaving the edge of the pasture and quietly gossiping amongst themselves. Even I, with my mediocre hearing and messed up ear could hear some of the gossip being focused around us, particularly Applejack’s unusual but not entirely unexpected choice of herdmates.

So… that had been a thing.

I coughed awkwardly to break the silence that had settled over us, Dash having shifted to instead drape herself across my withers and stare off after the departing cows in the same sort of surprised and stunned confusion that the rest of our little group were under, “So… about scheduling that date.”

Applejack cleared her own throat, “Yes, right. Pinkie plans to hold your party in a day or two, so we’d better leave the date for after that… mess.”

“Good idea.”

I yawned, flipping my way through the book before me, it was midday as I lay there in the Carousel Boutique. Rarity’s fainting couch was actually pretty comfortable to be honest.

Rarity was busy with a commission of hers at the moment, but after this one she’d be free to talk with me about a couple of the possible runic designs I’d been able to throw together over the past few days.

Pinkie’s party was supposed to be soon, Applejack and I having left the specifics of our date off for now while we waited for Pinkie’s party to, as the farm mare so elegantly put it, ‘Probably go over like a heated mare in the guard’s locker room.’

As much as I wanted to trust and believe in Pinkie, I was seriously dreading the upcoming party.

Rarity passed by, muttering to herself as several bolts cloth and scissors and rolls of thread floated along beside her as she worked. A small smile appeared on my face at that, and I returned to flipping through the book in front of me, double checking them against my notes that I had unfurled beside me as well as the prototypes I’d thrown together.

I’d still had a few outfits and bolts of cloth in the storehouse of gifts that I’d gotten from Gary’s ‘fans’. I actually still had a fair number of things there… hell, I had to actually take an inventory one of these days. Organizing things was pretty different from taking an inventory. I’d just thrown together a few very basic outfits and items with runes colored onto them.

Things had only blown up in my face once yesterday! And I’d even kept my eyebrows!

Mind you, most of the explosions (generally minor) I’d encountered were only explosions in the broadest sense. Usually the item would catch fire rather than actually go boom. But sometimes I messed up when writing the runes themselves, which caused bad things to happen. Usually explosions. One time it’d turned the fabric into woven water.

I had no clue how the flying fuck that’d happened, so don’t ask me.

If I had the chance, I’d ask Celestia or Luna about that because I hadn’t the slightest doubt that Rarity would be all over cloth made of woven water as something to wear. … not that I could blame her, it was pretty awesome.

Maybe I could help Rarity figure out an outfit suiting their (in my opinion, best) titles, Dawnbringer and Nightbringer. Cliche? Sure. But undeniably awesome in their literal accuracy.

My flipping back and forth between my prototype, notes, and the book in front of me was interrupted by the door popping open, my head and ears snapping up as I quickly looked over at the opened door.

-if it’s a normal resident I’ll teleport out-

Pinkie. Ah.

-didn’t want to hurt her business-...

“Sup Pinkie?”

“Emmy! There you are!” with an audible ‘zip’, Pinkie did that pseudo-teleport she sometimes did right up in front of me, my head craning back just a bit as her hoof quickly came up to boop me on the nose, “You’re it!”

“... I’m it?”

“You’re it!” she beamed.

“... okay. Could you please explain why I’m it?”

“Well you see, I’ve been looking for you for a while now to talk to you but I couldn’t find you at the library or at your house or at the farm or Fluttershy’s or at Sugarcube Corner but that’s where I started looking since that’s where I was at the time but you weren’t in any of those places so I started to think of it as a game of tag since I’m really good at tag and if I’m really good at tag and I’m it but you’re the only other pony playing then I’ll be really good at finding you! So I found you! And now you’re it!”

… how she could do that in a single breath would always baffle me.

“... seems legit. So why did you want to talk to me?”

“ I wanted to be super-duper sure that you would be available in two days for the party!” the pink earth pony practically vibrated at that last word. Wait, no, no practically about it, she had. Huh.

Despite the cold hand of fear that grasped at my heart at the mention of the party, I nodded, “Sure, that’ll work. No more serious damage, no more things getting in the way, let’s rumble.”

She grinned brightly, “Yay! This party is going to be awesome!” her voice went high pitched at the tail end of her sentence, making me cringe just a bit even as she swept me up into a hug before zipping back out of the Carousel Boutique.

I blinked a few times before shrugging and getting back to what I was doing, making a mental note of the date.

“Emeris, did I hear someone come in?”

“Pinkie’s scheduling my ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party the day after tomorrow.”

“Ah! Delightful, I have just the thing to wear. I’ll be just a minute dear.”

“Take your time, Rarity, no rush.”

Rarity hadn’t finished up another tie for my outfit, so I was gonna be rolling out without one.

Wraps, check.

Button up shirt, check.

Earring, check.

Courage, not check.

So not check.

I took a slow breath as I fiddled with my outfit again with my magic. Today was the day of the party, and despite having spent all of yesterday attempting to gather my gumption and determination for today and I’d failed spectacularly. In spite spending the entire day in solitude, cuddling my cat and just playing around with runes… I was still struggling to get myself to leave.

I trusted Pinkie, I trusted the others, but I was scared… I was scared of confrontation and having to deal with this. It had to be done, I had no doubt about that, Twilight had got it right, but… ugh, that didn’t mean I wanted to do it.

“Mew…?”

“Yeah yeah,” I grumbled, glancing down at the pink cat beside me, “I know, get on with it already.”

It was with no small amount of trepidation that I walked towards the town, a cold claw of fear clenching around my heart as I kept putting one hoof in front of the other.

I approached the line of houses that marked the edge of the town, and from this approach I couldn’t see any ponies. Like… any ponies.

Oooookaaayyyyy…

I flicked my ears about, listening as my eyes scanned the houses. Where was everyone…?

… I’m guessing at the party. Well shit.

I moved through the empty streets towards the Sugarcube Corner, knowing full well that the tension in my chest was mounting in spite of my best attempts to control my breathing and heart-rate.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I totally understood why I felt scared and nervous. Even best case scenario where things went wonderful this was going to be awkward and uncomfortable for me since I wasn’t exactly a people person in the first place. But to be under the scrutiny of so many ponies that obviously didn’t like me? Sure, there were ponies that treated me fine outside of the girls like the Cakes, but they were mostly family of the Element Bearers. The best I’d really dealt with otherwise was cold indifference.

Then my ears caught the murmur of a crowd. Welp.

Following the sound was easy, it was on my original course. Tally ho.

I turned a corner and found what looked to be the entire adult population of Ponyville arrayed in the street.

Block party!

The entire crowd went quiet.

…

Okay, not a block party.

Shit.

I swallowed under the stares of the crowd that had a line of sight towards me. There was a banner above of ‘Welcome to Ponyville Emeris!’

Pinkie, did you have to invite fucking everyone?

In spite of the trembling of my chest, I clenched my teeth and walked forward towards the doors of Sugarcube Corner, hoping that the girls were there and not interspersed with the crowd. The ponies parted around me, leaving a bubble of emptiness around me, their gazes locked on me in glares even as I moved through the street.

I should run.

I had to at least give this a shot.

I shouldn’t be here.

Come on, I can do this.

It really said something that a few whispers were able to cut through the near silence. I couldn’t understand them, but the emotion behind them was clear. Distaste, disgust, disbelief, and a lot of other unpleasant ‘dis’ words.

“Emmy wemmy!”

I almost teleported away at the cry, but I restrained myself even as a pink missile glomped me, the party pony actually swinging around my neck twice like a pinwheel due to her momentum and my tense stability.

“You made it!” the froofy haired pony grinned up at me while hanging from my neck by her forelegs.

“Hey Pinkie,” I was able to deadpan, as I kept walking, Pinkie’s rear hooves dragging along the ground as I did, ponies maintaining distance from us, “It’d be wrong not to come to my own party, so you shouldn’t be surprised that I’m here.”

“It’s still good that you made it!” she grinned and pointed with a forehoof, “The rest of the girls are over near the door of the Sugarcube Corner.”

So right where I expected, well at least that was good… with a deep breath, I pushed on through, ignoring the increased intensity of the glares sent our way as I made a beeline for the entrance of Pinkie’s job. It took very little time for the crowd to part enough to reveal the entrance to the corner, and standing there was the rest of the ‘Mane Six’, Rarity, Fluttershy, Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash…

Big Mac also stood nearby, and I took a bit of comfort in that in spite of the hostility around me.

“Hey,” some part of me really appreciated the fact that I wasn’t the only one here who wasn’t totally on board with this idea and was on my side. Applejack and Twilight both looked pretty nervous, and Rainbow Dash didn’t look much better. Fluttershy was a surprise, though she was basically cowering from the sheer number of eyes and attention that was now being directed our way, not that I could blame her. Rarity on the other hand was practically bristling, at least for her.

Both the alabaster unicorn and sky blue pegasus had a sharpness to their eyes as they challengingly locked gazes with those around us.

While a part of me was super happy about that, most of me felt like that was a bad way to go about this…

“Alrighties!” At some point, Pinkie had left her place as a cling-on and instead (somehow) gotten on top of Sugarcube Corner, “Now that the guest of honor is here we can get this party started!”

She pulled a string, and the hidden party cannons went off, confetti and streamers and the funny little hats flying into the air, and judging by the faces of everyone...

… that… didn’t work worth a damn.

Hoo boy.

There was a long moment of silence as the confetti slowly fell to the ground, Pinkie posing atop Sugarcube Corner. But as the last bits of paper hit either dirt or ponies backs, a soft but angry rumble could be heard starting in places in the crowd.

“Pinkie…” I muttered, “I’m not sure about this…”

“Why are we throwing another party for him?!”

I flinched, my heart starting to thunder in my chest as I looked for the source of the cry off to the right, unable to find it in the throng of ponies as Pinkie spoke over the crowd, “We threw parties for Gary! But never Emmy!”

Dash left the ground with a powerful flap of her wings, “Yeah! He isn’t that pony!”

“I sure don’t see any difference!” came a different voice from the left, and I flinched again, backing up.

“Hey!” Applejack stepped up beside me, her eyes fierce, “He’s plenty different from Gary!”

“That’s what he’d want you to say!” came another call, and I flinched away.

Twilight stepped up, raising her head high, “He didn’t want any of this! The curse is gone!”

“Is that what he told you?” someone from crowd called. With each of their cries, the hostility of the crowd slowly built, mutterings passing amongst them and increasing in intensity and anger. Like a fire where every accusation was a log added to its roar.

“I know that he hated it! That effect! The curse! It’s gone!” Twilight shouted.

“Looks to me more like the Princesses just weakened him!” came a cry from the right, was… was that True Glamour? “Now he’s just tricking you first before going for the rest of us!”

’No...’ I shuffled back, my breath coming as little more than shuddering gasps, ’This… this isn’t what I want…! This is exactly what I was afraid of!’

“That’s not true! This isn’t like before! We’re not being compelled to do anything!” Twilight shouted at the crowd, desperately looking around, “I th–”

“I bet he can’t control as many ponies as he could before so he’s focusing on the Elements!”

There were cries of ‘Yeah!’ and ‘I bet!’ from the crowd as I recoiled, a strangled, “No…” working its way from my throat, feebly shaking my head.

“No!” Twilight yelled, eyes wide, “I promise it isn’t! I thought he was doing that too! I thought the same thing! But that’s not it! He was never the monster you think Gary was–”

“She’s being controlled!”

“Yeah!”

“What?! No! I’m not be–!”

“We’ve got to get them away from him!”

“Yeah!”

“Keep the Elements away from that monster!”

“Now see here!” came the booming voice of Big Mac, the massive stallion’s head raised high as he stepped up beside me, “Ah don’t know what y’all did when ya’ talked to him, but that ain’t fair! He ain’t done anythin’ wrong!”

There was a short pause as a ripple of hesitation went through the crowd, but then a cry went up from the right, “He’s got him too!”

“Oh no!”

“Hey! He’s saved my little sister!” Applejack shouted, trying to stop the rising tension and anger.

“Like he ’saved’ everyone from all those things before?!” came another shout from the one on the left, almost snarled, “The bastard hasn’t changed a bit!”

“He almost died doing it!” Applejack screamed, desperately trying to stop the rising flames of anger. A ripple of surprise went through the crowd, shock appearing on a number of faces as Applejack continued, “When did ya’ ever hear about Gary gettin’ hurt?! Never! Gary couldn’t be hurt when he was fighten! Emmy saved m’ah sister and almost died doin’ it! And he didn’t regret a thing! He ain’t a bad pony!”

For the briefest of moments, I thought that Applejack, that wonderful mare, had stemmed the tide.

But then came a cry from off to the right, “Maybe he should have died!”

The dam cracked.

“How many ponies died ‘cause he was around?!” I whimpered, shuffling back, my heart… it was slowly breaking.

“Do you have any idea what my foal said and wanted to do with him?!” ’No...’

“So what if he almost died! It’s the same problem! Just now only Ponyville has to suffer!” ’I didn’t want people to suffer…’

“Get rid of him!”

“Get lost!”

The girls and Big Mac closed ranks around me, my heart surging with affection… but the emotion only made me feel like I was being torn in two. Dash flew upwards, angrily gesturing at the crowd that filled the street, “Hey! No way! There’s no way we’re about to let you get rid of our friend!”

“Get away from him! He’s controlling you!””

“No! He’s not! That’s what we’re trying to tell you! Look at him! Does he look like he’s in control here?!” Twilight shouted, pointing at me, making my head jerk towards her.

Twilight, I know I probably don’t look the best but do you really think it’s a good idea to bring attention to me?! They fucking hate me! I love you all but they loathe me!

There was a brief pause in the crowd but another call, this time from the left, “He’s just afraid ‘cause he’s been found out!” The dam stretched and strained.

“Yeah!” I had to get out of here… I couldn’t stay here! But I couldn’t get away… pressed up against the wall like this, surrounded by bodies… I had no line of sight to anywhere and I didn’t dare teleport blind with so many ponies in the streets, I might teleport into someone!

The crowd began to press closer and the horns of Twilight and Rarity lit up, the girls gritting their teeth even as shouts came from the crowd, “Get away from that monster!”

“Girls! Move! Let me get away! They want me gone! I’ll go!” I shouted at the girls.

“No way!” Dash shouted over the din, her eyes fierce as she hovered above our little group.

“Rainbow’s right darling! This is your home as much as ours! They’re not going to run you off if we have anything to say about it!”

“Are you insane?! He’s obviously controlling you!”

“Are you bucking stupid?! We’re trying to tell you that he isn’t!”

“They’re too far gone! Get them! We’ll get them away from him and take him out!”

*Crck*

The horns of Rarity and Twilight shone brightly as the prepared for the mass of bodies as Applejack, Big Mac, and Rainbow Dash all getting in front of the others to shield them from the mob. Pinkie watched in horror as the party she’d set up disintegrated even as Fluttershy’s eyes started to narrow as she began to step up from behind Emeris’ larger form.

But Fluttershy froze as she watched a change come over Emeris. One that only one of their number had seen anything like before, but Dash was facing the oncoming crowd.

”NO!”

There were screams and yelps as the street between the crowd and the circle of the mane six almost exploded, both groups flinching back as massive swords plunged into the dirt between them with enough force to shake the ground beneath their hooves.

The girls and Big Mac flinched backwards as an emerald star suddenly blazed in their midst, and turned to find Emeris had changed.

Fluttershy had watched it happen, what had once been cowering and trembling in fear had instead become barely restrained fury, ready to pounce as he shook in anger. His normally soft, lazy gray-green eyes had hardened, his pupils shrinking to pinpricks as his eyes had shifted to bright green… starting to glow even in the daylight.

“Don’t you fucking dare!” he roared, his head held menacingly low as tongues of bright green flames pushed their way through the cracks in his teeth with every exhale, ”I don’t fucking care what you say about me but don’t you fucking dare touch a single fucking hair on their heads!”

A wave of fear went through the crowd as they shuffled back from the jagged wall of blades. Unnoticed by all was the light slowly leaving. The sky was slowly darkening in time with the darkening of Emeris’ horn, the originally brightly blazing horn instead becoming darker and darker.

“Emeris…” Dash softly said in shock.

”I don’t care what you do to me! I deserve a lot of it!” Emeris’ eyes widened in horror, his voice softening as several tears leaked from the corners of his eyes, “So many bad things happened because of me…” But then something cracked, his eyes becoming fierce once more and shining like menacing green flames even in the day, his horn suddenly shrouded in darkness as he bellowed, ”But I won’t stand by as you threaten people whose only crime was to be nice to me! I won’t! I fucking refuse!”

Many in the mass of ponies flinched, stepping back, more than a few mutterings and whispers of “Monster…” passing through their ranks.

In spite of the fear running through her, Applejack stepped closer to the large unicorn, “Emeris, it’s okay…”

“No! No it’s not!” he snarled, his blazing green pupils slowly expanding to encompass his entire eye, the pinpricks of his pupils frantically darting back and forth between the gaps in the blades, “You’ve done nothing wrong and they’re threatening you! I won’t fucking stand for it!”

The sun shone in a nearly black sky, Emeris eyes the brightest thing in the town.

“G-G-Get away from that monster!” came a cry from the crowd.

Emeris nearly exploded, a terrible wind surging outwards from him as tendrils of darkness pouring from his horn, his eyes wild, “You want to talk about monsters?! How about y’all?!” tongues of emerald flame licked at the corners of his mouth as phantom blades faded in and out of existence above them, causing cries of fear to come from the crowd, “How about the monsters that threatened their friends just because they defended someone?!”

Worry spiked in the hearts of the mane six as the twisting gusts of wind tugged at their manes and coats, surging with every shuddering exhale of the menacing unicorn.

“I withstood the hatred, I took it, I accepted it!” Emeris’ voice was comparable to the royal Canterlot voice in his fury, causing the crowd to flinch backwards, “Because for all that burden, I could take it! I’m responsible for all the pain and suffering caused by Gary’s presence and I fully intend to make up for it! But again and again I was rebutted, I was refused in my attempts to make up for it!” Black flames began to sprout from his hide, his horn entirely encased in them as his eyes blazed, “I took it! I accepted it because no one else deserves it!”

“Em!” Rainbow Dash landed beside her coltfriend, reaching out but recoiling at the flames, so cold that they burned, “It’s okay, it’s alright–”

“No! No it isn’t!” the unicorn snarled, the tears from his wild eyes beginning to shine with a bright purple light, “It’s not fucking okay! It’s not! It’s not okay that they threaten you! It’s not okay that they hate you! I won’t stand for it! I won’t! They can say whatever they want about me! But the moment they threaten any of y’all! All bets are off!” The wall of swords cracked as more blades began to phase into existence, his tears igniting when they fell to the dirt beneath them, each drop a flash of flame.

Twilight leapt in front of the much larger unicorn, “Emeris! Stop!” wild eyes that burned a bright green locked with her lavender ones and Twilight fought the urge to flinch, instead holding his gaze, the airborne weapons fading. There was fear, rage, and something else in those eyes, his pupils tiny spots of darkness in the pools of solid green, “Emeris, we’re okay, you’re scaring ponies.”

“They should be scared!” he roared, and Twilight almost flinched backwards at the burst of emerald flame that came from his lips. Twilight suppressed a shudder of fear at his visage as his vest caught flame; black flames nearly shrouded his form, his already massive form seeming even larger than normal as it loomed over her, his eyes blazing a solid sickly green as glowing streaks of purple drew lines down his face, tracing the scars on his left cheek, “They dare threaten people I care about and they make an enemy out of me!”

But the burgeoning archmage stood her ground, “They didn’t threaten us! It’s okay! I promise!”

“Bullshit!” he snarled, and despite none of the ponies knowing what that phrase meant, its intention was obvious. The black sky suddenly bristled with swords like fangs and claws, if only for an instant, and cries of fear went up through crowd, “They threatened you and the girls and I won’t stand for it!” the wind surged outwards from him, kicking up dirt and debris.

“Em–”

Whatever Twilight had meant to say was interrupted by two explosions of power, drawing the attention of everypony present.

“It’s the Princesses!”

“We’re saved!”

The cry went up through the crowd as the alicorns of night and day hovered there above the street, each garbed in their battle armor. Celestia’s barding a brilliant copper metal and Luna’s a shining golden, both encrusted with gems of many kinds.

It could not be seen from those on the ground, but they did not do anything immediately not for appearances or any real desire to, but rather out of shock.

Celestia had seen the darkening of the sky from Canterlot, and the surge of black magic had even woken Luna from her slumber, the sisters had assumed that something terrible had attacked Ponyville in order to provoke Emeris to such lengths…

Without a word between them, the two princesses sprung into action, “Emeris!” Celestia blazed with power, her normally beautiful mane and tail instead blazing like solar flares, “Stand down!”

“C-Celestia…” Emeris had frozen, still trembling in place, the sky regaining a hint of its normal color as the flames licking his coat guttered. But he grit his teeth and the flames surged again, his eyes burning, “They threatened the girls!”

“Emeris, it’s okay, we’re here.” Luna said softly, landing within the circle of blades.

“Sir Emeris, you were given the task of protecting Ponyville!” Celestia’s voice was hard as her blazing eyes held Emeris’ own, and every pony scrambled to get out from between them as the princess of the sun floated down on the outside of the haphazard circle of blades, “Have you forsaken this?”

“They gave up that protection when they threatened my friends!” he snarled, the black flames surging. The mane six stared, startled not only at his anger with the princess, but at his size. He normally stood almost a full head taller than Applejack, but now he stood nearly level with the approaching Luna.

“Emeris… do you think that we’d let something happen to them?” Luna gently asked, slowly approaching, her wings and head held out low as she kept her eyes locked on the unicorn in front of her, “We are here, we shall allow nothing to harm them, you have our word.”

The pinpricks of darkness in the blazing pools of green swung to the princess of the night, the black flames guttering once more, “Luna…” he said in a trembling voice.

“Sir Emeris, stand down,” came the command from the princess of the dawn, causing said ponies eyes to jump back to her as she added in a gentler tone, “Your power is not needed now.”

The black flames faded into wisps in the air as the sky began to return to its normal blue. Luna’s teal eyes swept to those of each of the mane six, flicking between their eyes and the trembling form of Emeris.

Twilight was the first to make the connection, stepping closer to the larger unicorn and gently reaching out with a foreleg to press it against his shoulder. The dark green unicorn flinched at the contact, his head snapping towards her with wide eyes, and Twilight said softly, “It’s okay… we’re safe, the princesses are here.”

Rainbow Dash was the next, landing beside her coltfriend, draping a wing over his withers, “Emmy, it’s okay we can handle ourselves even on a bad day, but with the princesses here you don’t need to worry about a thing. Promise.”

Applejack pressed the length of her body from shoulder to hip against Emeris’ own, “Sugar, it’s okay, you can go easy now.” the mares could actually feel his body start to shrink in time with the green in his eyes, revealing the whites once more.

“Emeris, dismiss your blades, please,” Luna gently coaxed, slowly approaching.

Eyes still glowing met hers, “L-Luna… I–… I can’t…”

“You’re not alone Emeris, I promise you this. Please, dismiss your blades.”

With each breath sending trembles through his form, Emeris glanced back at the wall of swords. Swallowing, he closed his eyes, his horn flashing a dark green and the weapons shattering, the fragments fading into mist. The brilliant purple glow of his tears flickered and faded, Twilight quickly stepping up and pressing her face against the underside of his chin, the length of her horn gently resting against his neck.

“Darling, easy, we’re here…” Rarity pushed herself up onto her hind legs and pressed her forelegs against the larger unicorn’s back, adding herself to the press of bodies, “Your friends are here.”

Luna wordlessly coaxed Fluttershy around in front of the group as Celestia paced around the group, maintaining the circle that the blades had formed as her mane and tail returned to their normal multi-spectral forms.

“E-Emeris…?” the butter-yellow pegasus softly ventured, causing his green eyes to open and get trapped in her Stare, “It’s okay… it’s okay… just relax… we’ll take care of everything…”

“Fluttershy…” Emeris whimpered, having returned to his normal size, the sky it’s normal blue once more.

Luna’s horn flashed midnight blue and an intense bolt of magic thumped into Emeris’ head. The unicorn’s eyes rolled back and he swayed in place even as Luna fired another stun bolt into him, the second bolt finally knocking the unicorn unconscious. His large form starting to slump, only to be caught by his friends, the mane six gently lowering him to the ground.

Silence reigned in the street as the friends worriedly checked over their friend, glancing amongst themselves over his unconscious form. It was only after a long minute of this that the two princesses let out sighs of relief.

“Is… is it done…?” someone from the crowd tentatively asked, “Is it over?”

“Yes,” it was Luna that spoke, “Sir Emeris is unconscious and shall remain so for several hours.”

“What?!” came a cry from the crowd, “You didn’t kill that monster?!”

There was a flash of flames as Celestia’s mane and tail were once again consumed in solar fire, but it was with an almost unerring calm that she turned back to the crowd. “No, I did not kill my knight. Now, my little ponies…” her voice was calm, but carried an undercurrent of anger that didn’t go unheard, “Somepony is going to have to explain to me just how my friend and your protector decided that you were enough of a threat to warrant black magic.”

Twilight started to speak, but a midnight blue hoof was gently pressed against her mouth. Glancing over, she found princess Luna slowly shaking her head.

The crowd shifted around nervously, each member looking to another to explain the situation to the blazing princess.

“Well?” the Dawnbringer asked, standing high over the crowd that filled the street.

“He knew we were going to expose him!” came a cry from the left.

Celestia’s eyes snapped over to the sound of the voice, searching the crowd for the source, “And what, pray tell, were you about to expose? His love of sugar cookies?”

There was some nervous laughter in the crowd, but a shout came up from the right, “How about how he’s tricking you?!”

The princesses’ intense gaze swept towards the voice, “And how is he doing that?”

“He’s taking control of the Elements of Harmony!” the other voice shouted, distinctly male and from the left.

Luna spoke from her place sitting beside the unconscious Emeris, the large unicorn practically swaddled in ponies, “The Element Bearers have no traces of magic upon them.” What went unspoken and unheard by all but her sister was the residual effects of being so close to powerful black magic.

Celestia suppressed the small smile at the sight in spite of the situation. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were pressed against his back and stomach respectively, his head laying on Twilights’ forelegs as the lavender unicorn worried over his still smoking horn, Fluttershy was pressed against his neck and using her wings to help Rarity brush away the ashes of his vest.

Turning back to the crowd, the princess of the sun announced, “Emeris has used no magic upon the Element Bearers to sway them to his side, no magic other than that of friendship."

Her eyes hardened, “But I know Emeris, I have known him since the first day he appeared here in our world. I know him well enough that I have no doubts that he tried to extend a hoof in friendship to you—even if you had smacked it away.” Her wings extended to their full length as her voice slowly rose in volume, “He considers his duty to you to be more important than his own life and has since he first arrived. So I ask again, why would he consider you a threat?”

The throng of ponies shuffled uncomfortably, some at the edges starting to turn, but a line of golden power traced around the streets, keeping the town from escaping their admonishment.

The silence that hung over the crowd was almost palpable, their beloved princesses’ disapproval an oppressive weight. But then the pony in the left of the crowd spoke up once more, “Because he’s a monster and we were trying to keep him away from the Element Bearers!”

“And who speaks?” Celestia demanded, “This is the second time I have heard you speak for the crowd! Come forth so I can hear your grievances properly!”

There was a moments murmuring before the crowd worked and shifted like a living thing and the pony that had been speaking was shoved out in front, a stallion with a light tan coat and brown mane stumbling out from the leading edge of the crowd. Wide green eyes stared up at the intimidating form of princess Celestia, “And to whom do I speak?” Her voice was gentle, but it carried over the almost silent crowd.

“Davenport… your highness,” he said nervously.

“So, Davenport, would you please explain to me why you believe Emeris is a monster that needed to be kept away from the Element Bearers?” while the princesses’ voice was not accusatory, her eyes and stance were uncompromising, no falsehoods would be tolerated.

“Princess, you must know what happened while he was still an alicorn!” the earth pony pleaded desperately, “The kinds of things he made us say! Even foals like my friends! The things she said were horrifying to come out of a little fillies mouth!”

“I am aware of this, and it was something that I can assure you that Emeris had no control over, it horrified him as much, if not more than yourselves,” Celestia said, her voice loud and clear, even though she addressed the pony in front of her, “In the early months of his time here it was more than once that I had to comfort him as he lost his lunch at the things he had heard from honest ponies like yourself or had nearly had done to him.”

“But how do you know he’s not lying?!” the pony cried out, “After my friend gave him a small cut he convinced Rarity to ruin her business–”

“That’s a bucking lie!!” shouted Rarity, leaping to her hooves, her eyes fierce, “True Glamour cut off his ear! She cut it in half! Right in front of me! After insulting him and refusing him service!”

While Davenport seemed surprised by this, Luna spoke to the alabaster unicorn, “Rarity, that is enough.”

Rarity flinched at the admonishment, but gathered herself quickly, glaring defiantly at Luna before sweeping the glare across the crowd, “I won’t be quiet when he’s lying! She didn’t just cut him! Emeris is missing half of his right ear now!” Surprised mutters sprung up through the crowd.

“Rarity Belle!” this time, Luna’s tone brooked no argument. Rarity cringed and looked away with a scowl.

After a moment’s quiet Celestia spoke once more to the earth pony before her, “Davenport, were there any other reasons you called Emeris a monster?”

“I–… he–…” looking about frantically, Davenport searched for another reason, “H-How do you know he’s not just tricking you?!”

Celestia’s eyes hardened, “While I am no more infallible than any other pony, I have not the slightest doubt of his character. I gave him a choice not too long ago, to have his wings and horn chopped off or fight me and die. Do you know what he chose?” She let the question hang in the stunned silence, allowing her audience to absorb the magnitude of the statement, “He begged me to allow him to run far away, not because he feared me… I’m not certain even I could have subdued him while he was an alicorn. But because any fight between us would have devastated the landscape and city around us. Even as I bore down on him with my power, he only sought escape.”

“This is a pony that fought horrors that even Luna and I dared not,” the blazing solar prominence that was her mane and tail flared, nearly flaming jets, “And he did so without hesitation because he felt they were his responsibility, a product of the terrible curse that plagued him,” her voice slowly rose as she spoke to the crowd, “The same curse that caused ponies to act in such a terrible way around him.”

“At any point he could have simply left, he could have fled and enjoyed the power and gifts his curse granted him, and he would have been exactly the monster you say if he had. He had power comparable to my own!” the solar flames flashed brightly and everypony took a half step back at the heat, “There was nothing that Luna or I could have done if he’d decided that the problems in Equestria were ours and not his. But he didn’t! He took the burden upon himself willingly.”

“Emeris is a pony who spent two years alone! He was alone, fighting terrible monsters, and did so without ever harming a pony! Despite repeated attempts by the very ponies he protected to rape him!”

Celestia’s chest heaved as she steadied her breathing once more, her eyes intense as her hair slowly calmed, instead a simple curling tongue of flame rather than the violent solar flare it had been before, “I spoke with him often, afraid that he was the very monster you claim, that he was trying to trick me and worm his ways into your hearts and souls… but at every turn, even in his weakest moments, he fought for you, he put your safety and happiness before his own, and freely threw himself at my mercy. Were it possible, he would have geas’d himself to me, sworn on his very soul and magic, but despite trying to, he could not, his curse would not allow it.”

“He chose the horror of having his wings burnt off,” every pegasus in the crowd flinched at that, “He chose it over allowing you to suffer under his curse. It is because of this, because of this strength of character and devotion to his fellow ponies that I have named him a knight of Equestria, and gave him the task of protecting Ponyville.”

“B-But he threatened us! With swords! And-and the sky darkened!”

“And I know Emeris well enough to know that he would not do such unless pressed into a corner and provoked,” Celestia said without hesitation, “So I ask for a third time, why would my knight consider his charges a threat?”

The crowd flinched backwards almost as one, and glances were exchanged between the throng of ponies as each hoped another would step up. But it was Davenport that spoke, his voice trembling in his admission, “W-We were going to get him away from the Element Bearers and run him out of town…”

“So every pony in Ponyville, each having made it known that they hated or were hostile towards him, made steps towards ripping him away from his friends, possibly violently. His first friends in years that could easily be hurt in the press of bodies, all while threatening him and backing him into a corner where he couldn’t run.”

“H-Hey! That’s not what happened!” came a cry from the crowd.

Celestia whirled on the sound, her mane and tail flaring up brightly as she shouted, “But is that what he would have seen?!”

Ponyville’s masses had nothing to say to that, whimpers coming from more than a few in the street. Celestia scowled at her subjects, “I am disappointed in you. I must apologize, my little ponies, for I have made a mistake, I had not realized that you were as unaware of his plight as you were… but I am very disappointed in your reaction.”

The golden ring around the streets pulsed once before it faded, Celestia’s eyes closing as she took a slow breath, her mane and tail both returning to their multicolored states as she folded her wings once more. When she opened her purple eyes once more, she spoke in a calmer, if uncompromising tone, “Return to your homes, reflect upon your actions. And if you have any other concerns, come to one of the Element Bearers, come to the guard, have a letter sent to my sister or I… do not simply stew on your hate! You are better than that!”

Catching herself, she took a steadying breath, “Now go.”

The town went.

Twilight lay beside her mentor, both of them watching Applejack and Rainbow Dash fuss over Emeris’ unconscious form, the group safely ensconced in the Sugarcube Corner. Fluttershy and Rarity both sat on either side of a despondent Pinkie, the party mare disheartened by the absolute mess the party had become.

“Princess?”

The Cakes were quietly bringing out refreshments for the group, having helped get the blankets and pillows that Emeris’ large form had been laid on.

“Yes, Twilight Sparkle?”

Big Mac had returned to the Apple family farm to look after the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who had been left with Granny Apple by their respective families in case the party had… well… turned out like it had.

“What…” the purple unicorn swallowed before turning back to Celestia and softly asking, “What happened out there? I’ve never seen magic like that.”

Celestia was quiet for a long moment, her helm sitting on the floor beside her as she watched her sister wave her horn over Emeris a few times. Eventually, she responded to Twilight, “It is magic that I’d hoped you would never have to see. It was black magic, powerful black magic at that, but unfocused and uncontrolled.”

Twilight’s head jerked to her mentor, barely keeping her voice as a whisper, “I- I know you said it was black magic earlier but I thought you were exaggerating!” at the shake of Celestia’s head, Twilight gaped, “B-But–! Where did Emeris learn that?! I didn’t–…” she trailed off, trying to organize her thoughts.

“Even though it was as Gary, Emeris was exposed to and learned large swaths of black magic in his search for the source of his curse,” the princess said softly, “Is it so surprising that he retained some of his knowledge of it even now?”

With a nod of her head, Luna turned from the unconscious form of Emeris and towards the door, the royal sisters sharing a nod before the princess of the moon left the building and took off. Somepony had to return to Canterlot to ensure things were running smoothly, and this… this was Celestia’s responsibility.

“But… Princess, I was in his head,” Twilight said, “There’s dark magic in there, sure, but… nothing like that. He knows of black magic, but… that’s different from knowing black magic. I mean–… Princess, he darkened the sky!”

The Dawnbringer's head hung briefly, her ears drooping for just a moment before she turned to her student, “It was instinctual… the same way a pony may spontaneously create a spell that aligns with their special talent…”

“Emeris instinctively used magics that related to his…” the purple unicorn finished, staring agape. She blinked a few times before hurriedly asking, “Y-You knew Emeris had a talent for black magic?!”

Celestia shook her head, “My sister and I suspected based on his cutie mark, but we did not know until today’s events confirmed it.”

Twilight turned, staring at the unconscious unicorn, “Emeris’ special talent is black magic…”

“Luna and I believe it is more complex than that, but that is a significant portion of it, yes.”

“But…” Twilight turned back to her mentor, her voice still a whisper, “He darkened the sky, nopony but Luna or yourself should be able to do that!”

“Had I chosen to, I could have brought the day back to its full strength even from Canterlot, but the sky darkened as he drew in power from it and doing so would have weakened him,” turning her gaze back to the subject of their conversation, Celestia shifted her legs beneath her some, “Luna and I both assumed that he was fighting something terrible and powerful, a remnant of his time as Gary that had been missed… and that weakening him then could mean his death…”

Twilight glowered at the floor as she grumbled, “That’s not entirely wrong.”

Celestia flinched slightly at that before sighing, “No… I suppose it’s not.”

The two of them lay beside one another, the bakery filled with the soft sounds of Fluttershy and Rarity comforting Pinkie as Applejack and Rainbow Dash quietly fretted over Emeris’, the sounds of the Cakes working in the kitchen audible in the quiet.

Several minutes passed in the quiet before Twilight spoke again, “What do we do now…?”

“We convince ponies that Emeris is not the monster they believe, my sister and I must decide upon the proper way to handle Emeris’ talent for black magic…” she trailed off momentarily, “And I must apologize to him as well, it was my ignorance of the feelings of Ponyville that caused this to happen.”

A pleasant warmth–

With a grunt, my eyes cracked open and I blinked.

What–

“Princess! He’s waking up!”

My eyes clenched shut at the abrupt sound, and with a groan I rolled onto my stomach. What the fuck had happened…?

“Thank you Rainbow Dash, I must ask for some time with him alone.”

What? Princess Celestia? Yeah, she’d been here, I remember that…

“Are you sure…?”

“Yes, I am quite certain.”

There was a shuffling sound as I blinked my eyes open. I remembered things going wrong, I remembered the crowd… threatening to take my friends away… I remembered being angry… so impossibly angry… A hint of creeping horror worked its way into my heart. What… what had I done?

“Okay… just… be sure he’s okay, alright? I wanna talk to him myself when you’re done.”

“Certainly, Rainbow Dash.”

Vision returned to me in time to watch the sky-blue pegasus start to walk out of a door. She cast a glance back at me, meeting my eyes and giving me a sheepish smile, doing pretty good at hiding the concern in her eyes as she gave me a wave before walking out the door.

Where… where was I? What the fuck was going on? I glanced around and quickly found the large form of Celestia walking up to me. Blinking, I realized that I was swaddled in a little fort of blankets and pillows that was warm and comfortable… and I was in Sugarcube Corner…? “P-Princess…?”

“Emeris…” her voice was gentle as she lay down in front of me, tucking her legs beneath her body and folding her wings against her sides, “It is good to see that you are awake.”

“What…? What happened?” I asked, settling on the seeming most important question in the flurry of them that rattled in my head. Celestia’s armor of Orichalcum was not far off, mountain copper touched by the might of the sun… what had made her wear that…?

“The party that was thrown nearly became a riot, the crowd made an attempt to take you away from the Element Bearers who were quite resolute in staying by your side,” a small smile graced her lips before being overwhelmed by a more melancholy look, “You did not react well. You protected the Element Bearers from the tide of ponies and gave them quite a scare with black magic. My sister and I arrived and were able to calm you and the situation. We had to knock you unconscious.”

“I–…” I swallowed, trying to force down the concern and fear that welled up inside of me, “I didn’t hurt anyone did I?”

“No, you did not.”

A sigh of relief escaped me, taking with it a large part of the tension that had built, leaving me to almost slump back down to the blankets and pillows beneath me, “Good…”

There was a long moment of silence before Celestia spoke again, “Emeris, I have to apologize to you.”

Now that had my attention, in spite of my still drowsy state and my confusion, I looked up at the princess curiously with an eloquent, “Huh…?”

The princess of the sun, the freaking Dawnbringer herself, hung her head, “I must apologize, because it was my actions and choices that led to this situation. It was my ignorance that caused you so much trouble. And in spite of that, I asked you to defend the very ponies that disliked you so freverently.”

“Celestia…” I murmured, trying to sort out the sudden tumultuous mess of emotions that caused.

Anger, sadness, frustration, affection, concern… what a mess...

“Emeris… my little pony… I am sorry... I am so sorry that my manipulations have caused you such pain…”

“Celestia,” I said again, this time my voice much stronger, “Stop. You don’t have anything to apologize for.”

She shook her head, “No, I do. I should have known better.”

“How?” I inquired, “You said it yourself, you didn’t know.”

Purple eyes locked with mine, “But I should have figured it out. Between my sister and I we should have realized what was going on and addressed it.”

I opened my mouth to contradict her, but found I couldn’t, with a sigh I looked away. My chest aching from the mess of emotions flowing through me.

“It is because of my machinations that you were hurt, and for that, I am sorry,” she said gently, sadness resonating in her voice.

“Celestia… I work for you freely… I’ve put my reins in your hands, I trust you to make better decisions than I would, and you consistently do… just because you made a mistake…” I shook my head, and held tightly to what I felt was the most important emotion that bubbled in my chest, that spark of warmth, “Celestia, if I didn’t forgive you for a mistake, what kind of person would I be? I’ve made plenty of them myself.”

It was almost imperceptible, but I could see the powerful princess relax at those words, just a bit, a small smile appearing on her face, “You are far too forgiving my little pony.”

No… in this case, it wasn’t just me being forgiving, “Celestia… I know you made a mistake and did something wrong, I know you caused me harm… but…” that most important emotion in this case, that one I focused on, “But I love you, and you forgive family when they make mistakes.”

Celestia’s eyes went wide, and her mouth worked silently for a long moment as the words hit her.

It was true, in my own, twisted way, I loved her. Despite the two years of reprimands, of manipulations and paranoia, of distrust and command… I loved her like she was another mother. A mother figure that I hadn’t had in years.

“Emeris…” she said softly before reaching out with her wings and pulling me close to her chest, dragging the covers with her, “My little pony…”

Without hesitation, I buried my face against her soft white coat, tears starting to flow from my eyes as I fumbled around with my forelegs, grabbing on to her and hugging her tight. Hot tears began to land against my neck and withers as her chin pressed against the top of my head, her warm chest heaving with small, barely contained sobs.

Her forelegs encircled me, hugging me close as we both cried, tears flowing freely as we quietly sobbed against one another. I couldn’t have told you why we were crying… an admission of affection long overdue? A desperate need for love? Forgiveness asked for and given? I don’t know… but it felt right.

As I pressed my face against her coat, tears staining the stark white, I knew that Celestia never would or even could replace my mother, but nor was she trying to. She was filling a role in my life, she was taking up duties that none other would or could as part of her relationship… of our friendship… just as I was doing for her.

So… as we lay there, hugging each other tightly as we quietly cried, I felt better.

The purpose of the party had been to introduce me to Ponyville properly… to start and build relationships…

I’d… I’d like to think we accomplished that…

Celestia and Luna, Applejack and Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Fluttershy, Pinkie and even Twilight… they’d helped me.

With a choked sob, I began to bawl against her chest, a smile on my face.

I’d cried out for help… and they’d helped me.

Not someone, not just anyone… my friends.

Author's Notes:

Welcome to the end of Consequences of Unoriginality! IT’S THE FINAL COUN- *cough*, sorry, the final chapter! This isn’t the end of the adventures of Emeris Fillson in Equestria, but it’s the end of this section of it. This story was, fundamentally, about the consequences of his time as Gary Stu, about his making of his first friends and dealing with the feelings of the populace of ponyville, and about him getting the help he so desperately needed in the prologue. Things that he’s finally gotten here in this chapter.

But this brings Consequences of Unoriginality to a close! I still have tons of stuff to write though, but it’s going to be in an upcoming story, Consequences of Darkness. Stay tuned for when it drops!

But on to the specific things about this chapter! I’m actually super happy with it! Not everything, the build-up to the crowd starting to go for getting the Element Bearers away from Emeris didn’t feel organic to me, not as much as I envisioned it originally at least, but I’m super proud of some of the lines in here, as well as a number of the things I called back to! There’s actually a point in this chapter where Emeris outright contradicts things he said earlier in the story, and there’s subtle reasons for it, he doesn’t even realize that he’s doing it because he’s so messed up!

I’m not ultra happy with how assured and gung-ho Applejack appears about the relationship, and leaving the relationship between Applejack, Emeris, and Rainbow Dash on this note leaves a bad taste in my mouth as an author. But given her pride, stubbornness, and the situation, I couldn’t figure out a way to organically work in her doubts and hesitation about this herd. She has them! But I couldn’t figure out how to make those come across while within Emeris’ PoV.

Cookies (and possible spoilery-tidbits) to anyone that can catch all of the foreshadowings I’m harking back to here! Bonus points if anyone can guess my favorite line in this chapter!

Major thanks to my pre-readers/editors/whatever the hell you call their multi-faceted jobs! This story wouldn’t really have been possible without them and their efforts! Special thanks to Aburi who's been with me since… hell, chapter three I think, calling out my stupid crap and helping me when my ideas fumbled in execution!

So what’s your favorite part of the chapter? Of the story as a whole at this point? What’s been your least favorite?

Anyways, as always, comments and critiques are appreciated! Never hesitate to call me out on stuff you think is stupid or wrong or contradicts canon! I’m all for it! It’s how I improve!

Anyways, Autobots, transform and roll out!