“Fluttershy! Pinkie! Rarity! Go and find Ty!” I ordered after a brief moment of thought.

“Okie Dokie Lokie!” “Okay.” “But… what about Spike?” two of the three agreed in unison. Rarity seemed to have been torn about the decision.

“I… I can’t fathom the idea of little Spike being taken away by those… those brutes!” she complained.

“Hey!” the stallion complained.

“Seriously? NOT the time, Rarity!”

“I’ve got this under control, Rarity. Whatever happens, Spike will be okay. I can and I WILL make sure of that. Now go,” I ordered.

“Twilight, are you absolu—!”

“I said GO!!” I snapped, to the shock of the fashionista. “The more time you waste thinking about what may possibly happen here, the bigger the risk of Ty being taken away by the authorities becomes! Find him and bring him back here immediately!” Wordlessly, the white unicorn agreed as she, the pink Earth mare, and the yellow pegasus mare turned to head out the door. Just before they were gone, however, Rarity shot me one last look of worry. I assured her as best I could by smiling. She smiled back before hurriedly turning around and bolting out of the library.

“Okay… with that, I have the two strongest mares I know backing me up in the case that things get physical… That and this library won’t be such a mess after any possibly complicating situations. In addition, if they find him soon enough, we hopefully minimize his exposure to the public… For a given definition of 'minimize.' But now I have to focus on how to save Spike…”

“Alright you… what’s your deal? Who are you? What do you want with me?” I asked in the calmest tone I could muster, although it came out very contemptuous. I couldn't help but notice that the stallion was grinning at me.

“My name is Gillian,” he simply replied. “And nothing, Twilight Sparkle. I want nothing from you. It’s Celestia who I want something from. You’re simply the only way I can get to her in the first place. I was actually hoping you'd send some of your friends off to find your boyfriend, by the way. Makes things a whole lot easier...” He chuckled to himself.

"That's not good... at the very least, we still have them outnumbered. Plus, it's Applejack and Rainbow Dash backing me up. We should be fine. As for his intentions however..."

“What makes you think I’ll just agree to whatever nefarious scheme you’re conjuring against her?”

“Well… I DO have your little pet dragon in my possession… and you wouldn’t want anything BAD to happen to him… would you?”

“You wouldn’t DARE harm a scale on his head!” Rainbow Dash challenged, flaring her wings and readying herself for battle.

“Oh boy, I REALLY hope a fight doesn’t break out in here… I thoroughly cleaned this place FOUR times over the last week or so…”

“Ooh, feisty… But I’m sure you wouldn’t want any… unfortunate accidents to happen, would you?” the stallion known as Gillian asked with a wink towards his accomplice. The mare willed the orb holding Spike prisoner in front of us. The dragon was still trying his hardest to break free.

"I dunno why y'all are doin' this, but ya ain't gettin' past us!" A.J. boldly stated. "We'll make sure of it!"

"Applejack... how cute of you to be there for your friends," Gillian mocked. "However, as the bearer of the Element of Honesty, I'd expect you to know better than to lie..."

"Lyin'? What in the hay are y'all talkin' about? Why would I lie about anythin'? And how do YOU know what Element o' Harmony I wear?"

"Because... you WON'T hinder me from my plans. That, I can promise you. And come on, don't be so modest. You girls are more famous than you think... MUCH more famous than you think..." At that remark, he smirked.

“Okay, I’ve had just about enough of this!” Rainbow angrily stated, apparently losing her patience before moving at a blinding speed and attacking the mare.

"Ouch!!" cried the mare as she flinched in despair. Rainbow Dash was quick to flick her horn with her fore hoof, disrupting her spell and releasing Spike. Immediately, the dragon picked himself up and ran behind me. In that same instant, Rainbow entered a physical altercation with her target.

“Spike, are you okay?” I asked with great concern.

“Y-yeah… these two just came out of nowhere! They were gonna use me to try and capture you… LOOK OUT!” he shouted, pointing ahead of me. I turned to be greeted with a blast of silver energy heading directly towards me.

*SLAM* The blast hit me full force, sending me flying into the wall just beside the door, which I hit back-first. Although it surprised me and hurt quite a lot, it was far from enough to do me in. I gingerly recovered from the sneak attack, shaking my head with a newfound sense of fury.

“Twilight!" A.J. called to me as she looked back in horror before turning toward Gillian in anger. "Oh, you bet’cher flank yer gonna be payin' fer THAT…!” Applejack said to the stallion before lunging at him. As much as I’d wanted to jump into the battle, I needed to make sure my #1 assistant was as far away from danger as possible. He rushed over towards me to make sure I was okay.

“Spike, you need to get out of here. If you can, find Rarity and the others. They’re on their way to get Ty. Go to them. And whether Rainbow, A.J., and I make it back to you or not, I need you to warn the Princess. Got it?” I quietly instructed him as I cast simultaneous levitation spells on a quill, an inkwell, a sheet of parchment, and a table cloth I’d made into a carrying sack to hold the supplies. I levitated the bag to Spike before hugging him.

“I… are you sure about this?"

"Yes. If anything, it's better that you make it out before I do."

"...please stay safe, Twi…” he fearfully requested as he returned the hug.

“I will. Now go.” With that, the dragon was on his way out of the library to complete his mission.

“Now with that out of the way, I can concentrate on the scuffle going on here…” I turned my attention to the two juxtaposing fights going on. Rainbow seemed to be doing a good job keeping the mare at bay, the two rolling about the floor like animals as their hooves swung wildly at one another. Applejack’s situation, however, wasn’t quite as fortunate. Gillian had been toying with her. He was in a stationary position, placing magic shields up every time she tried to cuff him and taunting the Earth pony as she attacked, causing her to grow angrier and angrier at him. I took it as a perfect opportunity to make a move. With intense focus, I cast a spell that immobilized his hooves to keep him from moving, all the while making sure it wasn’t detected. It seemed to go unnoticed as the arrogant stallion continued to incur A.J.’s wrath.

“Applejack!” I called. “Can you move just a LITTLE to the right, please?”

“Huh?” She was thoroughly shaken out of her rage as she looked back at me. I flashed a quick wink, which she read as me having a plan. She smiled with confidence as she obeyed my order. In that instant, I powered up my horn.

“What do you think YOU’RE going to do? Hell, do you think I’ll just stand here as yo—?” I didn’t let him finish his statement before I launched a powerful magic blast at him.

*ZAP* “AAGH!” the spell hit its mark. After maybe a nanosecond, the magenta aura of my spell dissipated around him. “Oh… wow, that didn’t hurt at all. I thought you were supposed to be the strong… wait… my hooves! I can’t move!”

“You also won’t be able to use magic for a little while,” I added to his astonishment as his jaw dropped and his eyes widened. “That spell I just hit you with? It was a level two disabling spell. So while you’re not going anywhere…”

“I sure hope that was worth the amount of energy I put into it… I’m just about spent at this point… That should at least eliminate the possibility of him utilizing the portion of my magic he stole from Ty for the duration of time that spell holds for...”

“Applejack?”

“With MUCH pleasure…” the Earth mare smirked as she positioned herself in front of Gillian, facing towards me. She lifted up onto her forelegs, just about ready to buck the intruder halfway into Cloudsdale when…

“Wait!” I shouted. “Please don’t aim towards any of the library shelves…” I requested.

“Oh! Right. Pardon me. Ya might wanna open that there door an’ get clear, then…” wordlessly, I obliged, reopening the front door wide and stepping out of the way. Applejack moved behind Gillian, snickering as she did so. “Pardner… You’re about t’ find out EXACTLY what you’ll get when ya mess with a bull…”

“Comet… Comet. Comet!” Gillian shouted in a tone that sounded much like fear. Attentively, the mare heard his cries and despite being tangled with Rainbow Dash, saw her leader’s compromising situation.

“Honey!” the mare shouted from under Rainbow Dash. “Get OFF of me, you cow!” with that, the mare lit up her horn and hit Rainbow with a particularly strong blast of magic, sending her hurtling into the ceiling with a voluminous *BOOM*. The mare quickly picked herself up and raced to try and assault Applejack, but I wasn’t going to have it. Thinking quickly, I rushed toward the mare and, digging into the almost depleted reserves of my magic energy, shot a small flare at her hooves.

*POP* “Ouch!” she yelled. Despite this, she still barreled towards A.J. with intense determination. With no other choice at this point, I charged full-speed at an angle I was confident would intercept her.

*BOOM* “OOF!” *CRASH* I was too late… the cerulean mare rammed Applejack hard, sending her flying into a nearby bookshelf. The resulting impact caused books of various sizes to rain all over her and bury her. Before I could make another move myself, the mare used her magic to undo the immobilization spell I’d cast on Gillian.

"Dammit!"

“Thank you, my dear…” he said to her before turning his gaze to me. “You’re quite the strategist, aren’t you? I’m impressed. Actually, I’m more impressed than I am angry…” he trotted towards me, smiling sinisterly. “…and while we’re on the subject of anger…” he raised his hoof high, seeming as if to hit me as his smirk faded into a contemptuous, wrathful sneer. I squeezed my eyes shut and turned away, waiting for what I perceived to be the inevitable.

*SMACK* “ARGH!” My eyes shot open to see Rainbow Dash, seeming to be badly damaged and in a VERY foul mood, glaring angrily at the stallion, panting heavily. I looked over towards Gillian in surprise to see him clutching his snout.

“Don't you DARE lay a hoof on my friends!" Rainbow shouted, absolutely livid.

"How dare you!?” the mare shouted as her horn took on a glow of dark purple. In an instant, she blasted the pegasus with another attack, sending her hurtling.

*CRASH* Rainbow hit the wall behind me; and hard...

“Rainbow!” I cried with worry. I turned around and was just about to rush over to see if she was okay when…

*BOOM* I was blindsided by Gillian who rammed me, sending me rolling across the library floor. During the fall, I’d tried to stop myself, only to awkwardly straighten one of my forelegs out. I accidentally landed on it in an uncomfortable position as an enormous wave of pain shot through it. I slowly picked myself back up to stand, but I had to lift my foreleg off of the ground to accommodate for the pain pulsing through it.

“This is bad… Rainbow… Applejack… they’re both unconscious… and I’m just about out of magic and now I’m injured… What else can I do…?”

“I think I’d… like to call this little fight a draw,” Gillian stated, still holding his snout, which seemed to be leaking red. “But next time we meet, you won’t be so lucky. In fact… Comet?”

“Yes dear?” the mare answered.

“Which one of these two mares between the Earth pony and the pegasus do you think we should take as a trophy?”

“A… trophy? I thought we were here to take the unicorn in order to get to Celestia?”

“Yes, but without that dragon, she’ll have a way of knowing we’re here. It seems he’s already escaped and that’s already a compromising situation in that he’s able to send messages directly to her."

"Shouldn't we just go and fetch the dragon then?"

"Trust me hon, I'd love to do just that. But chances are he's in the middle of town, and trying to take him from there would prove disastrous; especially since my magic's been temporarily disabled..."

"Disabled??" the mare asked in shock.

"Yep. I have THIS one to thank for it," he answered, pointing an accusing hoof at me. "But anyway, the dragon's likely sent a letter already, alerting her of our presence. Buuuut, that human should likely serve as a nice distraction should she send guards here or decide to come herself. Plus, taking one of the other two would ensure that this one will come looking for us AND that our demands are met…”

“You won’t be doing ANY of that!” I screamed. “You—!”

“You can do nothing to stop us, Twilight!” he interrupted. “You’re just lucky we’re not taking you yet! Between you, these two, that wretched human and that… that… rhyming zebra…” His expression changed immediately from one of smug triumph to one of a realization.

“Zecora? What do you plan on doing with Ze—!”

“Comet: Change of plans. We take the zebra.”

“Okay... but, if I may ask… why?” Comet inquired.

“If we take the pegasus or the Earth pony, we’ll likely alert the town to them missing, and unless there's the off chance of them thinking our extraterrestrial pawn was the cause of the disappearance, we'd likely be hunted down by much more than our intended audience. On the contrary, that zebra doesn’t live in Ponyville. In fact, she lives deep in the Everfree Forest, where no one would suspect her going missing. If we take her, the town can focus on what to do with the creature I’m sure is still in the middle of town scaring the hell out of every pony he comes across! Even IF those other mares find him.” He turned his attention back to me. “As for you, my dear lavender unicorn…”

“I’ve heard enough of this convoluted plot! I need to stop them! Now!” Not wanting to waste another moment listening to the cold, calculating contemplations of the cruel couple, I took the stance of a bull and charged what little energy I had left in my horn to try and ensnare them. Unfortunately, my horn fizzled out and the magic died down due to a lack of sufficient energy as I nearly collapsed on the spot, panting heavily.

“Aw, what’s the matter? Feeling a bit tired? Maybe you should rest up. We’ve got a date tomorrow…”

“What… hah… do you mean…?” I asked, out of breath, but my anger boiling over.

“I mean that when we take your zebra friend, we want you to meet us at her dainty little hut in the forest to get her back… alone. If you don’t come by around 3:00 PM or if we even THINK you’ve brought someone else with you… let’s just say Celestia will be your SECOND most pressing concern… You'd better hope your little pet hasn't sent that letter yet...” with that, he began to laugh as he tried powering up his horn. When he realized it wasn’t working, he stopped laughing immediately. He tried once again with a comical grunt, only to fail. “Oh… Right. YOU put me under that stupid disabling spell…” I smirked in satisfaction despite my foreleg feeling like it was being squeezed like a lemon.

“That’s what you get, you arrogant jerk! You’ll have a lot more to worry about once everyone’s in tip-top shape, too…!”

“Comet, could you be a dear?”

“Of course, my sugar pie…” Comet placed a hoof on Gillian’s back, powered up her horn and with a *POOF*, they were gone.

“*Sigh* great… I need to make sure A.J. and Rainbow are okay, I need to go and find the others, I need to make sure Zecora doesn’t fall into the clutches of those rotten troublemaking villains, and I need to warn the Princess of impending danger…”

“Not to mention I have to find a way to tell Ty that I’m in heat, all the while possibly being forced to explain to everypony in town what he is, why he isn’t a threat to anypony, and why I know so much about him. Then there’s the fact I have to do ALL of that with my magic depleted and my leg sprained… Gah, I REALLY don’t need all this extra rubbish on my plate right now…!” With a mighty huff and sigh of exasperation, I moved to first dig Applejack out of the pile of encyclopedias and archaeological textbooks. Surely enough, there she was, seeming to just be waking up.

“Ah, my head… What happened t’ those no-good varmints?” she asked in a semi-daze as she was coming to.

“They’re gone… for now. Can you stand?”

“I…think so… Ooh!” she exclaimed as she clutched her head. “By Celestia’s mane, my head feels like I took a buck from Big Macintosh t’ the temple…”

“Ooh, sounds bad… stay here while I go and check on Rainbow…” with that, I stepped away from the farm mare and limped toward the injured mare sprawled out by the open front door. “Rainbow. Rainbow? Rainbow Dash! Can you hear me?” I asked, nudging her as best I could without the use of one of my forelegs. I got no response.

“Oh no, they knocked her out cold… Guess neither of them is coming with me.”

"What a way to make things harder...! Fantastic...!"

“Hey Applejack.”

“What is it, Twi?”

“Can you bring Rainbow up to my room? I’m at a bit of a handicap at the moment and I urgently need to meet up with the others. Can you stay here and watch over her and the library while I’m gone?”

“Sure thing…” she agreed as she placed her hat back on her head and trotted slowly toward me. “And while yer at it… is it okay if I sleep here tonight? My head really hurts…”

“Sure. You and Rainbow can use the guest bed you and Rarity used during our slumber party. Now I have to get going. Be back soon, okay?”

“Got it, sugar cube. Now then…” she trailed off as she wrapped a foreleg around the unconscious Rainbow. “Come along now. Y’all are in a worse off condition than I am…” the farm pony muttered as she, with considerable effort, hoisted her teammate up, making sure that she landed on her back. With that, I nodded and exited the library, making sure to shut the door behind me.

“Alright… If I’m not mistaken… that Gillian character mentioned that he transported Ty just outside of Town Hall… well, here goes nothing…” I began my awkward, painfully limping trek, occasionally whimpering in despair along the way…

“What IS that thing??”

“Where did it come from??”

“Is it dangerous??”

I was surrounded by ponies of all shapes and sizes, every single one of them gawking and staring at me as if I was from an entirely different world… which, I was. But I digress. I moved to sit up, but I refrained from standing, considering how I would likely have towered over almost everything around me. Judging by Twilight’s height as compared to my own, I’d have to say the average pony leveled at somewhere just below my waistline... if not a bit taller than that. Nonetheless, I raised a hand, causing everypony around me to go silent with intense fear.

“Uh… I come in peace. I mean you no harm,” I announced as I gently waved my hand and looked around.

“It speaks our language!?” shouted a stranger amongst the crowd.

“I ain't too sure if they call it 'English' here, but I'm sure o' one thing: Do NOT let them know who I am... at least, not now...”

“Yes. I am er… fluent in… the Equestrian dialect.”

“But how?”

“Where are you from?”

“Are you an alien?”

“Who are you?”

“What are you?” Of course, I was being hammered with question after question after question at a rate I couldn’t deliver properly articulated responses to as the crowd of ponies began to talk amongst each other about the alien that sat before them.

“Lyra! Wait, don’t go near it! It could hurt you!” I heard a voice shout from my left.

“I need to, Bon Bon! I want to see what this thing is!” the pony in question shouted back. I saw a familiar minty green, spiky-haired unicorn mare step out of the crowd and tread carefully towards me.

“Oh thank goodness, it’s Lyra. But I can’t jus' tell her who I am right here… I can’t exactly call her by her name either... Or else I might get her in trouble…”

“Hey there, strange creature,” I said in a false sense of cluelessness.

“Strange? Me? If anypony is strange here, it’s you,” she remarked.

“True. Um… wh-why do you approach me unhindered, indigenous being?”

“Because unlike everypony else here, I’m not quite so afraid of new things,” she boldly replied.

“Tha’ss good t’ know.”

“I see…”

“Plus… something about you… seems… familiar…” at that, I flinched in surprise. The unicorn mare circled around me, possibly inspecting for signs of danger. She stopped at the hand I was resting on my knee. “But it’s not your bodily form I’m picking up the vibe from… although I do find it VERY intriguing… Say something casual.”

“Somethin’ casual? Like what?” I asked, accidentally losing my mystical foreigner accent and replacing it with my usual foreigner accent. I verbally shot myself in the foot again by covering my mouth.

“Shit!”

“*GASP* I’ve got an idea of who you are!” she exclaimed, much to the shock of the audience as they spoke amongst themselves once again.

“Y-you do?”

“At least… I think I do… are you familiar with any ponies around these parts?”

“I um… I can’t say I am…” I lied.

“There you are!” shouted another voice from behind. I craned my head around to see Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy all rushing towards me. “We need to go back to the library! Twilight’s in trouble!” Pinkie informed much to my dismay; not so much because I got caught lying, but more so because Twilight wasn’t safe.

“Oh no, wha’ss goin’ on over there??”

“That meanie pants that kidnapped you was there and he took Spike and then he told us that he went back and brought you out here so then Twilight told us to come and get you so that we could bring you back to the library without anypony seeing you so nopony would panic!”

“Oh… but… we’re kinda late for the ‘nopony seein’ us’ part…” I commented as I stretched out an arm to gesture towards the crowd of bewildered onlookers. “And given that you jus’ screamed all that out, tha’ss prolly gonna make things worse…”

“Oh… oopsie!” the pink mare shot me a nervous smile. “At least I didn’t tell them your name was T—! OOP!” I clasped a hand around her muzzle so she wouldn’t screw the pooch further by blurting out my name, quickly followed by the hooves of Fluttershy and Rarity joining in.

“Goddammit, Pinkie!”

“Okayyy, le’ss jus’ go back t’ the library, huh?” I asked, visibly annoyed as I let go of the Earth pony's mouth.

“Okie Dokie Lokie!” with that, the three mares moved to help me up before we began to make our trip back to Twilight’s home.

“Wait!!” shouted Lyra amongst the clamoring bystanders. “I’m not done yet! Who are you?”

“Maybe some other time, Lyra,” I hurriedly responded before quickly slapping my hand over my mouth.

“Ohh, we need to get out of here! Now!” I ran off immediately, followed by Pinkie, Fluttershy and Rarity. We didn’t get too far away from Town Hall, but after some twists and turns, we’d managed to escape the crowd of townsfolk. We waited a few minutes before the coast was clear. Once things seemed to smooth out, we began our trek back to the library. Not even a minute later, we ran into Spike, who was out of breath and carrying a sack of some sort. Rarity didn’t hesitate to wrap him up in an enthusiastic hug.

“Oh, my little Spikey-Wikey! You’ve escaped!”

“Y-yeah…!” Spike managed to choke out. “It’s nice to see you too, Rarity…!” after a couple minutes of her squeezing him like her personal teddy bear, she eventually let him go. “How did you manage to break free of the mare that was holding you captive?”

“I have Rainbow Dash to thank for that. She hit the other mare on the horn, causing her to lose her focus on the spell holding me,” answered the young purple dragon. At that, Rarity flinched and brought a hoof to her own horn.

“Oh dear… A unicorn’s horn is such a delicate thing when there’s magic running through it… I still cringe at the memory of the time Sweetie Belle flicked my horn when I was caught snooping through her saddlebag…” the unicorn piqued my curiosity.

“And why would you be doin’ somethin’ like that, if I might ask?” I inquired.

“I… er… it’s none of your concern,” the unicorn curtly replied to my amusement, turning her head away.

“What happened with Twilight and the others?” asked Fluttershy.

“I… I dunno,” Spike answered with uncertainty. “Right after Rainbow freed me, that stallion hit Twilight with a blast of magic and sent her flying into the wall.” Hearing that instantly sent a wave of unease through my gut, which frustrated me as I gritted my teeth and furrowed my eyebrows.

“Oh, now I’m REALLY gonna beat his ass…!”

“My word! Is she alright?” asked an appalled Rarity.

“Yeah. She wasn’t too hurt by the attack. She gathered all the stuff in this bag right here before sending me out to follow you guys.”

“Aww no…” I murmured in a tone of great disquiet. “We should prolly continue back there now. No use standin’ here.”

“Twilight!” Pinkie hollered, pointing ahead of us. I wasn’t sure whether to feel relieved to see that she wasn’t captured by Gillian and Comet, or angered to see that she’d been limping and grimacing in despair, seemingly unable to place her right foreleg down. Her hair was frizzier than before and she looked to have gained a scratch or two. All of us rushed over to the injured unicorn and surrounded her.

“Are you okay, dear?” asked Rarity. “You seem to have been in quite the debacle!”

“Yeah… I’m fine…” she responded in a labored tone. “It’s just a sprain is all… I just don’t have the magic energy to heal it up right away. Nice to see you’ve retrieved our human, though,” she added, smiling at me.

“Yea, but not before the whole town got a good look at me… we gots some ‘splainin’ to do…”

“Darn… I figured as much. Gillian said he’d dragged you out into the middle of town and made sure to let everypony know where you were. I noticed that he came back in a less than well condition. What happened?”

“Yea, he came to Zecora’s hut an’ tried to teleport me here. We got into a fight before he could do it, which ended when Zecora smacked him upside the head with a stick after he got a chance to lift me up with his magic. Rather than attack her back, he said he’d be back for her then teleported me here. Hey, speakin’ o’ him… what did he do t’ you?”

“Nothing much. Just caught me with a couple of cheap shots while I wasn’t looking. He and his friend did worse to Applejack and Rainbow Dash, though… the mare managed to catch Applejack off-guard and ram her into one of my book cases when she and I had Gillian cornered. Then Rainbow prevented him from physically harming me, only to suffer a brutal attack from the mare… I think he called her ‘Comet…’ In any case, she hit Rainbow with a powerful spell that sent her hurtling towards a wall where she was knocked unconscious. I was going to check on her, but then Gillian himself took the distraction as an opportunity to sideswipe me, causing me to sprain my leg…”

“Is that right?”

“He is dead!”

“Yeah… after that, he mentioned that he was going to take Zecora. Which reminds me: Spike, did you send that letter to Celestia?”

“No. In fact, I’d just found everyone not too long ago before you came here. Should I send it now?” asked the dragon.

“Actually… no,” Twilight responded, much to the collective shock of everyone around her.

“Why?”

“I’ll explain it to you as soon as we return to the library. In which case, let’s head back. I’m not sure we should be standing out here with you in your current form, Ty…”

“Good point.” With that, we headed back to Golden Oaks. On the way there, however, I could not stand the sight of my poor filly-friend in pain. Her limping was slowing her down significantly. Despite being a bit banged up myself, I offered my assistance. “Would you like me t’ carry you, Twi? You seem t’ be havin’ a bitta trouble…”

“Actually… yes, please,” she admitted. “But are you sure? I mean, you don’t look like you’re in such a great condition yourself.”

“Maybe, but I can still walk jus’ fine... for the most part. That connivin’ Gillian ain’t do so much t’ my legs as he did t’ my head an’ chest,” I informed as I knelt down with open arms to invite the purple unicorn into my embrace. She slung her good leg around my neck, allowing me to scoop her up and pick her up in a similar manner as to how one would carry another person; my arms bent in a ninety degree angle. The only difference was that instead of one of my arms hooking upwards under Twilight’s legs, my hand cupped under her flanks. It was more or less a similar position.

“Ooh…!” the unicorn winced as I moved to stand back up. “Please be careful… I’ve got a bit of a stomach cramp, too…”

“Ooh. He hit you that hard?”

“No… it has more to do with something else… I’ll explain when we get home, okay?”

“Gotcha,” I agreed with a nod as we continued our trip. “Oh, and uh… Fluttershy?”

“Yes?” she asked.

“We… should talk. I… I think we left off on a really bad note before this whole ‘Gillian’ thing happened. I feel like uh… well, to be frank, I feel very guilty.”

“Oh! Don’t feel that way,” she gracefully responded as she took flight to pat me on the back. “I-it was… it was no big deal… right? We’re still friends?”

“Of course we are…” I smiled at her. “…but I feel like i’ss at least somethin’ you an’ I should sort out. Y’know, jus’ t’ make sure there isn’t anything that might possibly jeopardize any friendships.”

“Oh, okay. I understand. In that case, maybe we should talk.”

“If I might interject,” spoke an inquisitive Rarity. “…what exactly is it you two are going on about?” I looked down and smirked at the alabaster unicorn.

“Well wouldn’t YOU like t’ know, Miss ‘it’s none of your concern.’ One does not simply give advice without first taking it themselves, Madame.” She scowled at me, shooting me a contemptuous glance. A second later, she lightened up and giggled.

“…Touché, Ty.”

“En effet, Mon Amie.” She gasped in what seemed to be pleasant surprise at my rebuttal.

“My, such eloquence. I’m very impressed,” she commended with a bright, cutesy smile.

“Yea I figured you’d like that. No doubt about you bein’ one o’ those fancy romantic types, I guess…”

“I aim to please.”

“That’s great and all, but don’t forget who you’re REALLY supposed to be aiming to please here,” Twilight suddenly cut in with a noticeable tinge of annoyance.

“Yeah and besides; you have Twilight. Rarity’s off-limits to you,” a surprisingly jealous Spike added in, getting a laugh out of the group.

“Aww, Spike… you know I wouldn’t let anypony— or, any human, in this case— take your place…” Rarity assured the dragon, wrapping a foreleg around his shoulder and nuzzling into him.

“You right, you right. My bad. I apologize. Especially t’ you, my love,” I melodramatically professed to the mare I was holding in my arms as I brought her up close enough for me to nuzzle into her cheek, causing her to giggle.

“It’s nice to see your sense of humor’s still intact after everything that happened today,” she commented as the tree-library came into view.

“As always. But since we’ve arrived at our destination, I suppose i’ss time t’ get down t’ business, no?”

“You guessed it, sweetheart.” With that, we all walked inside the building (of course, with me having to practically crawl in) and got settled in for our discussion of the Gillian situation…