The door to the large red structure opened as an orange hoof prodded it aside. Applejack’s head poked in, hoping to find the same stallion lying there on the hay stack and not standing above her brother. Her look was one of confusion and relief as she noticed the barn was empty when it came to pony life.

“…Kickback?” she asked, hoping to get a response.

“Up here” an slightly accented voice called from above. Applejack poked her head out of the door way and looked up. There he was, standing on a wooden protrusion, the same one as her cousin, the one that was afraid of heights. She smiled up at him as he returned the gesture, then it hit her.

“What in the hay are ya doin’ up there?” she asked in confusion.

“Nothing, just a great view” he said casually. Applejack felt her cheek’s warmth for a moment, the implications were vague and surely he wasn’t talking about her…was he? She thought to herself. Kickback looked down at her and smirked before jumping off the building’s extension and landing in front of Applejack, she stared at him in shock for a moment but his calm smile was more than a little infectious, she found herself smiling back.

“’Morning”

“G’morning” he replied happily. Days seemed to go at the same pace after that, fortunately it had been a week since Kickback had to kill anything, that fact made him feel…better. His feeling of slight normality returned as he spent more time with his friends in this town. Everyday he’d see most of eight equines that he had met on the first day, every now and again he make another friend or just simply meet another pony. When he had Colgate for the first time, he had inquired about relations to his friend, Lyra. She had mentioned that they were cousins, that she was a dentist and she was a harp player. Now the mail mare, she was different. Not so much different as to be referred to as an outcast but more as she was bazaar, her crossing eyes, her goofy grin and her love of muffins were all quite in her own way adorable but nonetheless she was an alright mare. Roseluck, according to her, barely knew either of them despite her own appearance. Cheerilee, the local teacher was nice enough but looked nearly identical to another that he saw at his party that looked like she had a bit of a drinking habit. All this made him think about the similarities in some ponies, some just looked like they were recoloured from another pony but he decided to leave that alone. It seemed as if his friends didn’t notice too much that he was without a home of his own, most days one of them would allow him to crash at their own house, exceptions being of Rainbow Dash due to her cloud home. Applejack and Rarity became the only hospitable ponies after a while, which was nice to have somepony that would take him in, even if he didn’t really want to be but didn’t not want to be either. Kickback was always a live in the moment and go with the flow type of stallion, maybe that’s how he was before his little biology change or maybe deep in viral mind he just doesn’t care about the future whether distant or instant, he would just live in the moment.

Twilight had mentioned she is the personal student of Princess Celestia and studying (of all things) friendship in Ponyville. He now felt a slight fear of her when she mentioned her brother was not only captain of the royal guard but was married to the princess of the crystal empire…wouldn’t that make her the emperor? Kickback thought. If his secret were to be revealed to the intelligent unicorn of which Pinkie told a story of how she solved a theft of several baked goods, so she probably could solve a lot of things, she would take it to her brother or even the princess.

Speaking of which, Luna visited him occasionally in his dreams, sometimes it was so real, others felt like she wasn’t even there and just his mind projected her in his dreams. When she around though, Kickback felt at ease, she would wipe clear his nightmares with her own presence and stay with him ’till the sun came up.

Eventually he had been told of the small group of fillies that the sisters of both AJ and Rarity were apart of. He had cringed when the so called “Cutie Mark Crusaders” asked about the mark on his own flank and in the end, they still didn’t get a story. He found their antics either annoyingly adorable or adorably annoying but more leaning to the word annoying as to their sheer volume when it came to almost every they did. A week and a half had past by this point.

“That. Was. Awesome!” Vinyl Scratch exclaimed as she walked next Kickback on this ironically cold summer night. He smiled at her as they trotted, he looked back at the building they had left to find that the sound of “Woo-ing” could be heard and the lights shone brightly in the night. Vinyl Scratch had initially asked him out to a party that she herself was invited to as entertainment, she had insisted on Kickback doing something on stage as well, an action that he could’ve done without. He ended up playing a comedic mixture of over twenty songs

“Night…” she said as she closed the door. Kickback was left dumbfounded at the action and just stood there. Finally, he colleted himself and began to trot back into town. A month had passed and soon it was Autumn or Fall, which ever you prefer. Kickback had shrugged off the DJ’s gesture as he fell asleep that night. Luna continued to visit him in his dreams nearly every night, keeping the nightmarish memories at bay. Kickback found that Pinkie’s party throwing antics was actually an obsession, five days a week she through a party, either at random or to celebrate something, some times the most unrelated event possible e.g. Her neighbour’s father’s brother’s nephew’s sister’s cousin’s former roommate’s birthday.

“What does that make you, Pinkie?” Kickback asked as she explained her relationship at the party.

“Absolutely nothing!” she said gleefully, her smile never faltering, he had never seen her not smiling…as of yet. Time drug on in the fashion, some times he was asked to hang out with somepony for lunch or something. He’d always see at least one or two of his friends per day whether it was one of these organised events or if they simply just bumped into each other in the streets. Because it was Autumn, the ‘Running of the leaves’ marathon was coming up, Applejack had mentioned it to the scarlet stallion, the race intrigued Kickback, his speed was unmatched by anypony on the ground, it only made sense to compete. When the day came to, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Twilight could be seen at the starting line, the two athletic ones stared each other down as the stallion drew closer.

“Ah told ya I’m gonna win this time, hooves down” Applejack said as she glared at the cyan pegasus.

“Nuh uhh” Rainbow retorted childishly. Kickback squeezed in between them, their stern faces were replaced by confused then glad looks as they gazed up at him.

“Sup you two?” he greeted.

“Ah just told this no good cheatin’ featherbrain, that ah am gonna win this thing” Applejack said with a smirk.

“And I was just telling this lying farm girl, that that’s all bull and I’M gonna win” Dash said sternly. Kickback could only smirk at the childish behaviour of the two mares, he then noticed Twilight next to them.

“Didn’t think you’d be here, Twilight” he said towards the lavender unicorn on his right , she turned to him in surprise.

“Oh, hello, Kickback, are you racing today?” she asked. Kickback nodded at her before turning his head forward.

“Ready!” a voice chimed in from above, Kickback looked up to see Pinkie and Spike in a hot air balloon hovering over them. Spike’s initial first impression was less than charming the day the scarlet stallion met him but he kept to himself. “Get Set!” Pinkie added. Each competitor got down, Kickback looked between the orange and cyan mares and smirked before looking straight ahead.

“Just so you know…neither of you are winning this day” he said, letting his cockiness get the best of him, they looked at him in surprised which distracted them from Pinkie’s final word.

“GO!” Kickback took off with every other pony that was racing. Rainbow and AJ were left dumbfounded they coughed a little bit before staring at the crowd ahead of them. Kickback ran, not at his full speed just yet because when he gets to that point, the ground quakes and his bio-mass streams from his body. Despite not going all out, he easily took the lead of the pack. Applejack and Rainbow had to dodge everypony as they caught up to him, soon Kickback was far ahead of the rest with AJ and Dash neck in between the stallion and the pack behind them. Soon Applejack let out a burst of energy and sprinted ahead of Rainbow Dash, Kickback was unaware of the approaching mare, he looked back to see that she was gaining on him, actually gaining on him, he smirked as the mare pulled along side him.

“Hey, AJ” he greeted happily.

“Hey, how ya doin’ partner?” she greeted back with a smile through exhausted breaths.

“Ya not tired, are ya?” he asked, seeming to be in the most comfortable state.

“Nah” she said confidently. The two ran neck and neck as Kickback restrained himself from going all out, suddenly a cyan figure came up along his other side. Rainbow looked at the two with a determined look before looking dead ahead once more, Kickback smirked at the pegasus and began to slowly pick up his pace. The scarlet stallion had gotten ahead of the two now shocked mares and continued running. The race carried on in the same kind of way ever since that, nothing too interesting happened due to the fact that lessons were learned in the last race, unsurprisingly, Kickback had gotten first place, followed by a tie between Dash and AJ and Twilight of all ponies got a new personal record, fourth place. Next Chapter: "Would You Stop With The Head Chopping Thing Already!" Estimated time remaining: 5 Hours, 8 Minutes