Time passed into the mid season of Winter, the suit that Rarity had made for the scarlet stallion came in extra handy as it provided extra warmth in the cold months. It was then where Kickback discovered that the ponies in Ponyville absolutely loved the middle of Winter since that at the end, lots of work had to be put in, they enjoyed it to the fullest when snow was around. One day, he had run into Lyra, being that they hadn’t talked in a while, the two decided to spend a little time together. They began walking randomly through the town, talking idly, Kickback was now really warming up to everypony in this town, no pun intended, he felt good to know that if normality wasn’t an option then he could just be himself…almost completely himself. He had successfully concealed his powers through his entire stay in Ponyville, thankfully but that irritating thought that he might have to leave soon kept bugging him at the back of his viral mind.

“Do you wanna grab something to eat?” Lyra asked, Kickback was about to reply but unfortunately, one of his most childish friends had a white coat, it concealed her presence in the snow, like natural camouflage. Kickback was stopped in his tracks by a large snow ball hitting him dead square in the muzzle, he looked at the source, turning his head slowly with a playful insane look on his face, his mouth in a frown and his eyes wide open. Twas none other than Vinyl Scratch, clever filly had placed a bundle of snow upon her head as she took cover behind a snow covered shrub, she poked her head out, revealing her large, beautiful red eyes to see her victim’s face. She chuckled with a cocky smirk as she saw the clothed stallion’s face. His frown had turned to a sadistic smile as his eyes formed an angry expression, he raised one hoof to the end of his hood and threw it over his face, his eyes were half covered as he stared at the DJ whose face turned to one of confusion and fear…and excitement. Kickback lowered his hoof to the ground, all the while Lyra stood in the background like she normally does and watched the scene play out. He cradled some snow in his right hoof and smirked maliciously at the unicorn, he turned to Lyra and nodded, she didn’t quite get the gist of his gesture but remained silent as she pondered what he was going to do…and how awesome he would do it.

Kickback took a step forward, snow ball in hoof, suddenly he threw it in the air and jumped, he spun around 360 degrees and batted the snow ball with his black and white tail. The force was enough to send it going so fast, Vinyl didn’t have time to duck, she took it to the face, she fall back, when she got up, the snow ball was wrapped on her horn still in it’s spherical formation. She stared at where the stallion was…wait, was? She looked around to find that he was standing right behind her. She smirked at him as he smiled back, looking down at her. Kickback lent a hoof in order for her to get up, she gripped in and pulled herself upwards, through miscalculation or maybe not. Kickback and Vinyl’s lips had made contact a second time, even if it was an accident and only a second, a pony could count that as a kiss. She pulled away and blushed hard, Kickback didn’t know what to think, normally he didn’t think like that, emotions were in case but never really shown for the scarlet stallion, he always kept his cool, could he do that forever though? He thought to himself as he looked at the white unicorn. It then dawned on him that she might like him, what did he think though? How did he feel? Romance was never a priority lately, he had noticed that some mares in Ponyville seemed extremely affectionate to him but he never thought that somepony would have a crush on him. Those thoughts were pushed aside as he remembered one big thing about himself, he hadn’t killed anything since the hydra, his friends helped make him feel accepted and happy but he always though, he knew that if they knew everything about him, his deeds, his power, his past, they may condemn him.

As all these thoughts processed through his head, Vinyl had taken notice of his day dreaming-like state, she smiled as she cheated. Her horn glowed an eerie cyan, seven snowballs had been formed by her magic, she levitated them higher. Kickback was brought out of his daze as he took the bombarding onslaught of telekinetically enhanced snowballs. When he got up, he saw the smug face of Vinyl, he smirked at her as his instincts took hold, he retaliated. Viny; soon found out that despite her magic and ability to load up ammo faster and dish out more, Kickback’s single throws were still a match, she knew he was strong but this was ridiculous, it almost seemed unnatural to her for a single pony to be that strong. Thankfully her coat made her a hard target…or not, every time she tried to hide, he instantly found her, as if he had some kind of thermo vision. Vinyl had an idea pop in her head as she advance on the stallion’s position, he continued to assault her in their little war as she took cover form place to place, always easing in on him, eventually she had gotten close enough. She leapt from a nearby bush and tackled the scarlet colt. They tumbled down a slope in the snow, Vinyl giggling all the way as Kickback chuckled, when they came to a stop, Kickback felt hooves press down on his chest to keep him down, he looked up to see a playful look on Vinyl’s face.

“Pinned ya” she said smugly. Kickback rolled over, the two continued to tumble as a result, unfortunately his plan did not work, it could if he tried but he decide against…for Celestia knows why.

“Pinned ya again” she said even more smugly, on every word, she leaned her face closer to the red stallion with a cocky smile and half lidded eyes. Kickback chuckled threw a smirk and casually pushed her off with ease, he got back to hooves as did Vinyl, the two began to laugh together.

“Hey, Vinyl” Lyra said, apparently she had trotted to their current location as they laughed with each other.

“Wazzup, Lyra?” she greeted back.

“Not much, what about you?” she said, a little too casually.

“I was just wrestling with handsome one, here” she said with a chuckle while gesturing a hoof to Kickback, he looked at her in slight surprise or maybe it was complete surprise, hard to tell with this colt.

“Ya know, I was holding back?” he stated with a teasing smile.

“Ya know how strong I am…” he added, really she didn’t know entirely how strong he was but she did have a faint idea.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever” she replied cockily. Kickback was about to reply but was cut off by the second unicorn present.

“Are we still on for Lunch, Kickback?” Lyra asked out of no where. Vinyl found it rather rude to interrupt him…especially if he was talking to her but the stallion seemed to not care as he looked at the minty mare.

“Yeah, sure” he said casually threw a smile. Vinyl looked at him with a non-specific stare, was she surprised? Upset? Disappointed? Did she feel excluded? Maybe all of these, maybe none, the stallion remained clueless.

“I’ll see ya later, K Vinyl?” he saluted with a warm smile.

“Y-yeah, sure big guy, see ya around” she waved back with a somewhat sad tone. Kickback kept his smile as he looked at the white mare, he turned to face the green one, when he wasn’t looking, Lyra casted a glare at the DJ. Vinyl shot up in surprise as she notice the look, she remained silent as the two began to trot away. Lyra started looked ahead as Kickback turned his head back and gave the DJ a wink, she noticed and smile. The two walked into SugarCube corner, out of Vinyl’s sight, she turned and smiled happily to herself as she looked down while she walked, thinking.

“Hey Lyra, Hey Kickback, wassup?” Pinkie greeted after she had heard the bell at atop the door ring, indicating customers, she turned and grinned as she saw the red stallion and green mare enter the bakery.

“Hello, Pinkie” Lyra replied.

“Not a whole lot, Pinkie, just looking for something to eat” Kickback greeted back, Pinkie beamed at him.

“Well take your pick…we got cakes, chocolate cakes, vanilla cakes, carrot cakes, cupcakes, pound cakes, a thousand pound cakes, ice-cream cakes, the here is Mr and Mrs Cake and their two cakes: Pound cake and Carrot cake, their not for sale. We got pies, we got blueberry pies and apple pies and cranberry pies and not meat pies because we’re herbivores and this here is the symbol for pi or three point one four…*Gasp* We also got-” Pinkie was thankfully cut off by a red hoof, she followed it up to the slightly annoyed face of Kickback who disguised it with a weak smile.

“P-Pinkie…I think I’d like a muffin…the one thing you didn’t mention” he said, trying to keep his annoyance in check, he removed the hoof from Pinkie’s mouth, she beamed once more.

“I’d like the same, please” Lyra chimed in.

“Okey Dokey Lokey” Pinkie replied before zooming off and returning with a plate in her mouth where two large choc chip muffins were placed upon. Kickback reached into a legitimate place to keep money, the pocket in his jacket, he reached in and pulled out a few bits, he tossed them to the mare who took them reluctantly. She instinctively counted to see that her presumption was correct, she smiled warmly at the stallion, her look always spoke that one phrase. “You didn’t need to do this” so many mares and stallions had said that to him but eventually they expected the large tip that the stallion always gave, for what reason? They had no idea., some times, Kickback didn’t know either, was it that he hated where the money came from? All the deaths that made his wealth, was it his guilt that drove hi to simply give it away? Was his generous side kicking in as he found that he actually enjoyed the presence of this town’s civilians? Maybe none of these or maybe all, anyway, did it really matter, he was happy, everypony else was happy so what did it matter?

The two sat at a table and happily ate their little baked goods, all the while enjoying each other’s company. Little did he know that Lyra was much more fond of his presence than he thought but he was entirely unaware as the blissful taste of chocolate muffin treated his tastebuds to a nice vacation. Winter came to it’s near end after a few weeks, tomorrow was Kickback’s first official Ponyville winter wrap up, it was different because unlike Saddle Arabia, Ponyville was founded by earth pony folk, the folk that ponies thought were his, so things were done without magic. He found that idea exhausting but held his tongue. Ponies of all kinds gathered in front of the town hall, ones with dark turquoise outfits mostly consisting of pegasi, the majority were in tan vests and others were in green, Twilight in particular wore a green and blue vests with gold trimming, groups were formed. Kickback didn’t have a position and when he found that everypony was busy, he couldn’t help but feel excluded. Next Chapter: Cancer In The Cold Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 51 Minutes