A few hours later

“…And that brings us up to date” In the library of Twilight Sparkle, Kickback sat in the centre of his closest friends to explain his tragic story of how he became what he is today. They gasped every now and again as their faces held a constant look of attention towards the hooded stallion.

“You killed that dragon?” Rarity asked in a shocked voice. Kickback nodded.

“So all this time…all this time, you’ve been lying to us” Applejack said with an aggravated tone as she laid down on her side, in pain of her broken leg. Kickback stared at the ground, awaiting the verbal punishment and discrimination that he thought he deserved.

“I would’ve never thought-…” Lyra started before trailing off.

“That’s…you can’t-…so, what exactly are you?” Twilight said, still getting over his story.

“I’ve asked myself that same question, over and over again, all I can tell ya is that I’m not what I look like…” he answered, little over a whisper.

“Can you show us?” Dash suddenly asked out of nowhere causing Kickback to shoot up and look at her in surprise.

“I don’t think-” he started.

“I think you should” Vinyl commented.

“But-”

“Yes, I would like to see this” Twilight added. Kickback looked between the group and sighed.

“Fine…” he replied, more to himself due to the volume and tone. He stood up to his hooves and lifted his front right leg, ponies around stared in anticipation at the stallion to see whatever he might do.

Kickback’s body slowly swarmed created a wave of tendrils that made their way over to his limb, the continued to stare. Soon a small haze of black and red made it’s way to the tip of the stallion’s hoof before suddenly, his leg expanded, not like his leg got bigger but instead was a hand, two fingers and a thumb. The whole thing was dark as segments of it glowed red. Kickback looked down at his appendage with a blank look as ponies around gawked in terrified curiosity at the thing. He slowly closed his palm and felt rage, he didn’t know why but he just felt angry looking at himself with everypony of whom he grew quite fond of staring aswell, he felt angry but sad also. Quickly, tendrils spiralled around his limb and soon his hoof was back in place, he sat back down and waited.

“That. Was. Awesome” Dash commented as she stared wide eyed at the stallion, he smirked at her before gazing back down.

“Ah dunno what to think…” Applejack said in a cold tone.

“Nor do I” Rarity added.

“C’mon everypony, ya can’t look past the fact that he saved the town!” Vinyl spoke up, Kickback almost couldn’t believe it at first, she was defending him, he knew she bit of a crush on him but he thought everypony would hate him after what happened.

“Yeah, not to mention it’s not his fault, ponies took advantage of him!’ Dash added, Kickback tilted his head to look up at the hovering pegasus then to the unicorn, he felt something, an obligation maybe.

“Besides-” Vinyl’s next sentence was cut off.

“No…” Kickback said, cacthing everypony’s attention.

“It’s easy not to look at that…it’s easier to know that, I’ve lied to all of you” he continued.

“You’re forgettin’ that you saved Rarity from that dragon” Applejack said.

“Ah just never would’ve thought that the stallion ah shared a bed with, would turn out like this” she said. Each pony turned to her in confusion before several sly and nervous grins were plastered upon their faces.

“When?” Dash asked with a nudge of her ’elbow’.

“In the second chapter, silly” Pinkie said, Dash and AJ just looked at her in confusion before shrugging her off.  

“I’m sorry I mislead you all to think I’m just some normal stallion” he said with a fake chuckle “And now…I will leave you” he added. Everypony in the room now stared in confusion and shock as to what the hooded colt just said.

“What-…what do you mean?” Lyra asked, somewhat worried.

“Yeah, what do you mean by that?” Dash added, Kickback continued to stare at the floor in depression.

“I mean…I’m going, I’m leaving town as soon as possible which in this case could be right now” the stallion answered, everypony remained silent.

“I was actually going to months ago…but then-…I started to care, I think that’s what happened…I began to care about this town, about you, about you all, so I stayed and prayed this wouldn’t happen but I guess it had to” he explained, some of their faces he could swear had tears beginning to well up, especially the DJ’s.

“So what!? You’re just gonna get up and leave!?” Vinyl shouted, now visibly sad and angry.

“You’re just gonna leave town!? You’re just gonna leave us!? Your friends?!? You’re going to leave m-” she cut herself off as she knew where she was heading.

“Kickback, ah think ah speak for all of us that we don’t want ya to go” Applejack spoke up, catching everypony’s attention.

“Yeah, just because you’re different, doesn’t mean you have to leave” Dash added with a encouraging smile. Slowly, Kickback’s head rose up.

Three Days Later

“So when do you think you’ll be back?” came out from the smiling lips of the same white coated, blue maned mare who wubbed the night away as she released our protagonist from a long goodbye hug as she rested her hooves on the stallion’s shoulders, he smiled down at her.

“Most likely a couple of months, maybe a year or two…Vinyl, I’m sorry…but have to find her” Kickback replied causing the mare’s happy expression to falter, he slowly put a hoof to her chin and raised her head to meet his gaze, his calm, dark green eyes that he always wore.

“But don’t worry, I’ll be back” he smiled at her, which in turn caused her to moved forward and kiss him on the cheek’. He looked up at the mares bashing her and smiled friendly, Vinyl then let go completely of the stallion and trotted back to the group as another, the same orange mare stepped up, everypony thought it was appropriate to just let his closest friends step up and say goodbye personally.

“So, ya really going” Applejack said with a sigh.

“Seems that way” he replied with a chuckle. Applejack and Kickback wrapped their hooves around each other in synchronisation and just held each other subtly.

“Ah’m gonna miss ya partner”

“I’ll see ya when I get back, AJ” after that they separated, Rainbow took this as a sign for her turn and bolted over in front of the stallion, she always liked how he would never flinch no matter how close she stopped in front of him.

“Hey…” she said, a little awkwardly, not being the most emotionally comfortable pony in Equestria. Kickback just smiled at her, not feeling the tension or anything that was happening, she also liked that about, although that’s probably what everypony liked about him, his calm attitude…every mare, to be specific.

“Well, I hope you’ll be even more cool by the time I get back” he said with a  chuckle, the overall mood of the colt was enough to drive her over the edge into doing something, she only thought Pinkie would do.

“I’m gonna miss you!!” she cried out, sulking as she squeezed him in a soul crushing goodbye hug.

“Yeah, me too, Dash” he choked out as he lightly patted her on the back. Rainbow released him and wiped her face with a hoof, she hadn’t shed any tears but her eyes were definitely foggy. Kickback stood on the edge of Ponyville with the eight mares in a group looking at him with sad smiles. Kickback had no need for a bag or anything of the sort to carry things, all he asked was to keep the suit, a request, Rarity was happily willing to allow. He looked at each of them, four unicorns, two pegasi, two earth ponies and smiled at each one before raising a hoof back to his neck and flipping his hood upon his face, he smirked under it and turned.

“Well, I’ll see you all later, goodbye everypony” he said, gazing at his path. He took a step forward and began to walk, in the background he could here the sounds of salutations towards him, the ponies waved at the trotting colt and continuously said their goodbyes. Once he was out of sight though, many of them had gone home but not the three mares that had known Kickback well…not too well, the thought of him lying to them was the last thing they thought about him, he had been around little over a year, in that much time, attachments can be made.

“C’mon you two…he’ll be back before ya know it” Applejack said as she looked between the DJ and athlete as she could only imagine that she wore the same sad expression.

“Y-yeah, c’mon, let’s go” Dash said, placing a hoof upon Vinyl’s shoulder and tugging lightly on it to bring her back to consciousness.

“Alright” the white mare let out and followed the other two back into Ponyville.

A Week Later

Kickback had made it back to where he never thought he want to be, Manehatten. The stallion thought that maybe his sister had returned home and was hopefully doing alright for herself, Kickback explored the familiar concrete canyons of the city and found Dana’s home in no time. He cautiously knocked on the door, no answer. Kickback tried again, slightly irritated and knocked harder and faster. The door suddenly swung open to reveal a pink mare with a red mane, she looked at the colt at the door with a confused look, he removed his hood in respect before beginning.

“Hey, is there a mare by the name of Dana here?” he asked, the mare looked at him blankly before a sad look was strewn across her face.

“Oh her, yeah, she doesn’t live her anymore…she…she died a year and a half ago” the mare explained. Kickback froze and stared at her in disbelief before she then realised she was talking a stranger.

“Who are you?”

“My name is…Kickback, I’m…Dana’s brother” he said.

“Oh well, I’m sorry about that, I heard she was a nice mare…would you like to come in?” she said, Kickback, not really caring accepted the offer.

“Thanks…” he said, little over a whisper.

“Why don’t you have a seat?” she gestured to a couch as he slowly took steps into the familiar house. Kickback complied and sat down uncomfortably. The mare then trotted into the kitchen, leaving the stallion alone.

“Sh-she’s gone…I don’t believe it” he said, not caring if he was talking to himself when another pony was around.

“Well…looks like they’re gonna see me way earlier than I thought” he added in a low tone, the mare then walked up to the stallion and sat down beside him.

“Who?”

“I have friends in Ponyville…and I said I was gonna be a while but it’s only been a week and I see no reason to be here anymore”

“Oh, okay, do want something to eat or drink?”

“No thanks…”

“Okay, oh by the way, I’m Crystal” she said, Kickback gave out a slight chuckle, for reasons he didn’t know.

“Well…I supposed I’ll get out of your mane, it was nice to meet you, Crystal” he said as he started getting to his hooves, the pink mare placed a firm hoof on his back, leaving Kickback to look down at her in confusion.

“Please stay, I was actually kinda getting lonely…and you look like you need a friend right now” Crystal said, Kickback slowly sat back down and gave the mare a friendly smile, of which she gladly returned.

“Thanks…” he replied calmly.  

Meanwhile

Ponyville was being rebuilt, damages were nothing too serious thanks to how brief the attack was…thanks to a single colt, of which nopony dared to speak of. The entire town knew what the saw, they may have known how or why but they definitely knew that whatever happened last week, wasn’t natural. It tokk time for ponies to even act normally again, not much but it was definitely a while. Applejack was in the south orchard, bucking apple tree after apple tree, not evening muttering a sigh. Her last words were going to be to him but they weren’t her last words…thanks to him. She forgot what she was going to say though, she really was close to the colt during that year, ever since that fateful day in the market.

Twas morning, Octavia had made herself some buttered toast and sat at the table, waiting for her unicorn companion to wake up. Octavia was afraid that she wouldn’t and for the third time that week, just lock herself in her room all day. The cellist had told the stallion at the centre of her friend’s troubles not to give her a reason to dislike you and yet this happens. The grey mare heard all about the attack and how Celestia didn’t even know in time to stop it and didn’t send her guards or even deal with it personally. She also was told that the Elements of Harmony had nothing to do with the queen of the changelings death but rather a lone stallion, the next part she couldn’t believe.

Vinyl laid awake and stared at the ceiling, she managed not to think about him for a couple of days but the thought bursted right back in. The DJ liked the stallion, really, really liked him, despite her first impression being so childish and just plain out forward, over time, Kickback grew on her. Never she would’ve thought her crush would be able to do or be something like that but as it turns out, he was.

Lyra’s outlook on Kickback was changed the most. The green unicorn sat down on her couch as her cream coated friend was out shopping, she wanted to look past his biology and history and just remember the stallion she liked. She tried to remember him without the suit, maybe doing that will provide a better image of him. She tried to piece him together in her mind, dark red coat, black and white mane, long tail, dark green eyes…and a calm smile. She managed and a relieved smile crossed her muzzle but soon it faded away, the next thing she saw in her mind was the stallion again, glowing red eyes, half visible under the hooded he adorned and a malicious grin crossing his muzzle as he stood on his back two legs and…Lyra quickly shook it off and rested uneasily.

In Manehatten

Crystal broke into a laughing fit at something Kickback couldn’t quite pin point but went with it anyway.

“So, you know DJ PON-3?” she asked, the stallion looked at her blankly before realisation hit him.

“Oh, you mean Vinyl? Yeah, I know her…she’s…my best friend” he said, a little unsure of himself, saying those words was new to him partially and he spoke with a chuckle.

“You’re best friend’s a famous DJ? You are so cool” she said, Kickback just smiled calmly at her.

“So…you live alone here?” he asked, Crystal wore a blank look but Kickback could see that she was sad.

“Y-yeah, I do, it’s alright though, get’s pretty lonely sometimes…” she said, now staring at the only other pony in the house, he met her gaze and sat still.

“Yeah, I bet…”

“Kickback…do you have somepony special in Ponyville to go to?” she asked, Kickback looked a way and pondered, did he? He had never thought about full on romance with somepony, sure he knew about some mares’ feelings but he pretended he didn’t know…or care. Kickback had always though love would never be an option for him, it probably still isn’t but it certainly could be for a certain white mare. That’s thoughts took a turn, in the past year, he had almost had a close moment with every mare, ranging from Dash, to Vinyl, to AJ, to Rarity and even to Lyra. The clothed stallion thought on a bit too long and that caught Crystal’s attention.

“Kickback?”

“Uhhh…yeah, what?” he shook his head, getting out of his thoughts.

“I asked if you had somepony special waiting for you?” Kickback thought briefly again as he stared into her eyes, he didn’t want to say ‘no’ or ‘yes’ to this question fore he did not know…the perfect answer.

“I don’t know…I don’t think so…no, I don’t” he said, his tone slightly dropping lower as he came to a conclusion, his old conclusion, he couldn’t be with a mare, not now at least. That’s when he noticed the time, he had spent hours talking with the pink mare, well she did most of the talking due to his nature but it still shocked him.

“Oh, well in that case…” she said as she scooted closer to the only colt present.

“I guess…” she continued to move closer, nearing his side with each unfinished phrase. Crystal was now leaning up on his suit, she noticed more intently that he was wearing clothing and frowned.

“You can take off your jacket…” she said, a little bit of hope in her voice. Kickback would’ve declined such a thing, ever since Rarity had made his attire, he had grown quite fond of it, like it was just the perfect thing for him but that look the mare was giving him was compelling and he found himself stripping his upper layer off his torso and legs, revealing his white shirt underneath. Crystal then moved in and slowly unbuttoned the collar to reveal the stallion’s upper chest. He just stared at her, wondering where she was going with this and how should he react, just like everyday of his new life, he just let things happen, not caring very much about anything other than himself and his history but now he did. He spoke the truth, talking to his friends, Kickback really did care for them and now that he was away from them, he felt something, something he hadn’t before: responsibility. It was a nagging feeling, as if he were to just let what would most likely happen, happen, he would regret it and want to take it back. Kickback then pondered why he would feel such a way, was it just because he had dear friends at home or was it what most ponies go through in their normal love lives, was it loyalty? The stallion knew that a particular DJ had a thing for him but still at this moment, he didn’t know what any other mare thought of him entirely, he had an idea that they felt the same way but what could he do? All the while he was quickly toying with these notions, Crystal stared at his thoughtful look with a concerned one.

Kickback continued to think about everything at this point, how he thought each pony he knew thought about him, what happened last week, what was going on now, his dead sister, his future, everything that was now an unplanned blur. So lost in thought he was that he didn’t notice after a quick moment that a soft and warm sensation was being applied to his face, Kickback’s eyes widened at the now identifiable and familiar feeling, a kiss. Never did he notice Crystal’s face lean into him whether slow and timid or quick and predatory, either way he hadn’t seen her coming. He then noticed that she had set his jacket to the far end of the couch but that was the least of his worries at this point. Her red mane tickled his cheek as she began to slowly pry open his mouth with her own but stopped when she found that he was completely motionless, she pulled back and looked into his eyes with a saddened expression.

“Ummm, s-sorry…it’s just been so long since…” she didn’t finish her sentence as she continued to stare at the scarlet colt, he stared back, albeit slowly, a calm look was being plastered on his face along with a small smirk. She didn’t know what a reaction like that meant, she just stared at the only colt of whom she found interesting for at least a couple of months as he looked back at her.

“It’s alright…” he said in a reassuring tone despite what he was feeling. Kickback stood up slowly and was about to walk to the other side of the couch to grab his jacket but was stopped by the pink mare as she jolted upwards and stared intently at him.

“P-please stay…” she said, her voice quivering slightly due to such a request.

“It’s been so long since I’ve had good company and…I kinda like you…so, will you stay a while?” she seemed to be begging, Kickback was reluctant but gave into her pleading. He sat back down as did Crystal.

“Alright, I’ll stick around a bit…” at that, Crystal wanted to squeeze him into her embrace but held her stance…for a moment. Kickback was wrapped in her hooves as she smiled weakly but happily, her head rested on his strong shoulders as her long, red mane brushed along his face. He looked down at her and chuckled before caringly patting her on the back, she took that as a sign of how kind-hearted he was…little did she know. Next Chapter: "For Celestia's Sake Bro, Put Some Bucking Clothes On" Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 49 Minutes