Author's Notes:

Author’s Note: Hey guys, two things I want to say real quick: The first is that this chapter is the first to contain the first action scene for the story and so I wanted to qualify it that I’m not a soldier and have never been in combat. My writing style for action tends to be a mix of movie/anime/comic styles so don’t expect much realism though I do try to make it feel like its plausible.

The second thing is that this chapter might feel a bit cut off. It was originally going to be longer but as it went through changes during the writing process I realized it was going to be freaking huge and I didn’t want to try and power through that all the way and make everyone wait longer so I cut the chapter into two parts. Now that I have that out of the way, enjoy!

“JOHN,” The word pounded through my skull like a hammer, causing my eyes to fall open. Along with it came a sense of danger almost physical in nature and without thinking I reached under my pillow and grabbed my gun. The very next second the door opened, a large Furrigen standing there with a blood encrusted knife in one hand. His eyes widened a bit in surprise at me being awake.

Before the surprise even left his face he had leapt towards me, knife hand ready to strike. Instinctive response was to save me as I raised the pistol at lightning speed, finger pulling the trigger several times in rapid succession. Inside the bedroom the loud crack of gunshots nearly deafened me; all sound being replaced by loud ringing. As the bullets tore into the assassin’s torso he jerked and twitched then fall still onto the foot of the bed.

Seconds passed as my mind raced to catch up on what was going on. Then I remembered the voice that had awoken me; my wife, Tala’keer. I threw aside the bed sheets and ran out of the room only to stop almost instantly. Lying on the floor was my wife, her green eyes now dull and lifeless and beside her the unmoving form of our little baby girl. Even as I stood there in shock some part of my mind was already assessing what I saw; Lots of blood on the ground, coming from their necks. The assassin had a knife, wouldn’t have wanted noise that could alert anyone else, slit their throats.

The shock gave way to a sort of disbelief; knowing the truth but not wanting it to be true and so for the moment unwilling to believe what I was seeing even though I had seen death so many times before. My voice came out low and strangled, “Tala? No, c’mon Tala don’t do this to me…please don’t.” Feeling like I was swimming through syrup I knelt down, reached over, and touched her porcelain face.

It was cold, completely devoid of any signs of life. Truth began to force its way through the shock and my hands began to shake. Inside my stomach seemed to fall away completely and all other senses dulled except for the image in front of my eyes which seemed to fall into perfect clarity. That image began to blur then as hot tears began to gather, form and fall down my cheeks and onto her unmoving body.

I was hit so hard by this that I didn’t even know I had gathered the both of them into my arms until I felt their cold cheeks pressing against my warm and now wet cheek. Where gunshots had rung the walls previous now they were replaced by my cries of agony and loss; cries that… were echoed as I woke up, trembling. My hands fumbled to try and grab my necklace, the one she had given me but it was in the nightstand with the other mementos.

Anger filled me and I turned around so I could punch the living shit out of my pillow and mattress. It was not the most mature response but I just needed to fucking let it out or I felt like I was going to explode. For a while all I focused on was just punching the bed as hard as I could until finally I had no more energy left for it and fell back on the bed. Looking up at the ceiling I couldn’t help but wonder how much longer I could stand being here in Equestria.

The longer I was here the harder it was becoming to keep everything together; first trying to help Windfall and letting her get closer than I should have to having a harder and harder time keeping my emotions and memories under control. This dream was just the latest example; I had certainly dreamed about my wife’s death before but that was mostly around the time she had died until I had tried to bury the memory as far down as possible. While I still had nightmares concerning her they were more of an accusatory nature; me being blamed for failing to protect them.

Now here I was, reliving the moment of her death in detail, just as I had one of my encounters with Wilhelm. There was no way I was going back to sleep after that, not with the threat of more nightmares lurking in my mind so I got up, got dressed and got armed. As quietly as I could, and having had to use stealth on more than a few occasions I could move decently silently I came downstairs, grabbed some sandwiches to go and left.

The moon was high in the sky so at least the landscape was pretty well lit as I made my way through the forest. Since nopony was up and I wanted to avoid anypony anyway I didn’t bother using the hookshot but just walked instead. This was rather similar to yesterday’s reaction to my spat with Windfall however to me that was just one of the ways I handled things. When there was a lot on my mind or I needed to get my mind off of something I either threw myself into some work as a distraction or I went somewhere peaceful to try and work things out in my head, at least as best I could do.

For me the question was the same one I had asked before; what was it about this place that seemed to cause me to lower my guard? Why had I felt the need to comfort Windfall and later Derpy? What made me more willing to help Windfall than others I had came across previously? When I had that nightmare I couldn’t shake why did I seek comfort from Windfall instead of doing what I was doing now?

Oddly enough one of the events that didn’t trouble me was when I had offered Luna some comforting sympathy. After all I really did know what it was like to do something that would horrify most people. To be honest I had done it one a pretty much daily basis for years however eventually I became numb to what I was doing. I sighed as that track of thinking brought my mind back to the death of my wife.

I’d heard that when you are grieving for a loved one you would be angry and were liable to do things you never would normally; things you’d later regret. As I crested a hill I was able to look over Ponyville and the view reminded me enough of another memory. With my wife’s death coming back to me in full force I could hardly avoid the memories that came after it. My eyes closed and I remembered.

Below me sat a small village, the businesses and houses made to look rather quaint and pleasant. A vacation resort for anyone to come, relax and escape the confines of the life they usually led. In this village was my target; one Paul Redriver. Inside a little voice tried to tell me that this was wrong because he was innocent. Even as the thought occurred to me I snorted with derision.

It had taken a little bit of digging from my old pre-marriage contacts but eventually I tracked down who had sent the assassin that killed Tala and Aietha, our daughter. Mr. Redriver in the village below was not the one who sent it but his wife Taliva Redriver, the empress of this sector of the galaxy did. The empress and her husband were taking a small vacation from their duties here or so my contacts told me.

Finding information on the empress and her husband wasn’t hard; it was fairly common knowledge what they looked like as well as some of their background. While that at least allowed me to be surer of my target when the time came to take them out finding the opportunity was not as easy. They had a palace that was pretty well defended at all times and while there’s no such thing as a foolproof defense I didn’t feel like cracking it alone was a good idea just yet.

Even if I did want to try the empress wasn’t my target yet, not for a while according to my plan anyway. She may have been the one responsible for my wife and daughter’s death but that didn’t mean I wanted her dead, yet. Killing her right away would be too quick given how I felt; after all you had to live to suffer and I fully intended on making her suffer greatly indeed. With Tala’s memory to give me ample motivation I came up with a plan to do just that.

The very first part of that plan was to make sure she lost her husband so I spent quite a bit of time looking for an opportunity to do that. I spent a lot of time in bars and pubs talking to people about Mr. Redriver, cultivating contacts within their own populace. For me the most help were the paparazzi; always trying to get the inside scoop on anything which allowed me to trade information for information.

I’d get some inside information about a hidden scandal or somebody’s skeleton closet and in return they’d let me know of anything the Redrivers were doing. Initially I was worried that the empress and her husband would learn of my presence on their world which would lead to them bunkering up as well as sending more assassins my way. My fears were never realized though as there was no public information on the attempted assassination.

Eventually my work and patience were rewarded by one of the paparazzi having learned that the empress and her husband were going to take a vacation for a while. He was thinking of going out there for some pictures or recordings to use for a juicy story. When I asked why he wasn’t already heading out there he told me that he wanted to wait until both of them were there but that right now it was only the husband.

Now I was on the hill overlooking the village and ready to put my plan into motion. I quickly checked that I had the extra gear that I brought along for this; a dart gun that attached to my gauntlet, a device designed to enhance networked signals as well as hack them, and a silencer for my pistol. Satisfied that everything was in order I walked away from the top of the hill and to a rented sky car.

Less than a minute later I had piloted it to the front of the village hotel, parked it, and got out. Outside the front door was a furrigen who was obviously security for Mr. Redriver complete with openly worn weapon and small earpiece. His dark eyes followed me as I came towards the door and he held up a hand to stop me before I entered. In a voice that came out as growls and barks but was translated by an ear implant from my time aboard the Stringent Income he said, “Hold on, I have to scan you for weapons.”

Pretending to be compliant I stood back as he took a small cell phone sized device from one pocket, held one side out to me and waved it up and down in front of me. The device beeped to announce it had found weapons on me and instantly he had a small energy pistol pointed at my face. “Drop the weapons, slowly and carefully,” He growled at me. My hands were in the air at about chest level, palms out towards him, making it look like I was ready to surrender and do as he asked.

In reality I had my hands at that height so my gauntlet was pointed only slightly up instead of straight up with the dart attachment aimed at him. I flexed my wrist a little hitting the small button trigger for the dart which flew out with a small hiss of air and into his neck. Despite its simple design it worked like a charm; the needle like barb at the end punctured his skin and the poison it was coated in dropped him immediately with no sound from him.

As soon as I had heard the hiss of the dart I was in motion so I could catch the body before it hit the ground and possible alert more guards. Looking around to make sure no one had seen it happen I hauled the body behind some hedges lining the hotel. Calling up the computer on my gauntlet I scanned his earpiece until I had found out what frequency the guards were using and sent a signal to my ear implants to act as a radio on the frequency.

With that taken care of I headed inside like I was just another hotel seeker. There were a few guards standing around the lobby however other than just following me with their eyes they made no moves. I was pretty sure at least that the guard outside hadn’t used his radio and my method of killing him had been silent so I was pretty sure I was safe. Even so I kept them in my peripheral field of view just in case.

After checking into one of the cheaper rooms on the first floor I began to get to work. No one was patrolling the corridors or anything down here so I walked around until I found a maintenance closet. Ducking inside I pulled out the signal enhancer/hacker, set it up and connected it to my gauntlet’s computer. Once it found the wireless signal the hotel’s network was using and enhance it enough to try and gain access to it I started the hacking program embedded in it.

As that was running I made my way back to my room just in case any of the guards decided to check in on the hotel residents. While there I attacked the silencer to my pistol and checked to make sure it was loaded as well as my back-up weapon, an MP7. For this mission I hoped I didn’t have to use it but if something went rather wrong and I got swarmed by guards then I wanted something to even the odds a little.

Eventually my gauntlet dinged at me to alert me that the network had been hacked so I called up the files now available to me; specifically the guest list. Looking through it I found where Mr. Redriver was staying which I copied and saved to my gauntlet. Next I called up a floor plan for the entire hotel, copied it and saved that too. With everything now in place I left my room and headed for the back of the hotel.

At the end of the corridor was an emergency exit as well as a set of stairs that could be used if the elevator stopped working. Opening the door I entered the stairwell and slowly began climbing it, pistol drawn and held pointed at the ceiling. As I neared the fourth and final floor I saw movement; a guard standing outside the door and watching the stairwell. His head swiveled down to see me as I moved into view.

To his credit he reacted swiftly; one hand headed for his earpiece and the other headed for the gun at his side. Unfortunately for him I was faster and already had my weapon in hand. A split second to bring the gun sights over him then two pulls of the trigger sent him to the floor. Breathing a sigh of relief that I had managed to kill him before he could get a call off I quickly hopped up the stairs and propped his body up against the door.

According to the layout I had acquired as well as the information on current residents of the hotel I knew that his room was closest to this stairwell. If I ended up alerting his guards then they’d flee down this stairwell, so the body will at least slow them down a little bit. Normally I’d put explosives in the stairwell so any enemy fleeing down it would end up dead however I wanted this guy alive.

That also meant that I couldn’t just leap out this door and make for his room because there would be guards standing outside and watching the halls. While I’m sure I could kill them no problem I didn’t think I could do so before they’d warn the other guards and Mr. Redriver. There also could be more guards inside his room in which case they’d either try to get him out or they’d bunker up and wait for reinforcements, neither of which I wanted.

With that in mind I went down a level, stashing my pistol again as I did and crossed over on the third floor to the stairwell on the other side of the hotel. That stairwell also had a guard in it however he was a little smarter than his fellow in the first stairwell. He leapt back as I went to fire so my bullets hit the ceiling and the guardrail instead of him so I vocalized my frustration, “Fuck!”

In my ear I heard his voice over the earpiece, “Attacker in the east stairwell, request backup.” While he was saying that he pulled out a small plasma pistol and leaned over to fire it at me, however I leaned back outside where he had a clean shot and the plasma bolt melted the metal in front of my feet. I leaned back out and fired several shots at him, not really aiming and succeeded in getting him to duck back giving me time to get out of the stairwell.

Thanks to my earpiece I heard the guards being directed to cover the back exit and the stairwell leading to it because a car was on the way. They were also calling out that they had found the guy I’d killed and that I was no longer in the stairwell but was instead back in the hallway. Whoever was in charge of the guards decided to continue with the plan to get Mr. Redriver out to the incoming car.

It was a safe assumption that their car was parked out front like mine which meant I had to get outside fast and stop the car. I also was assuming that their car would be armored just like most national leaders’ cars were so just spraying the car with bullets wouldn’t work. The only way I was going to stop that car was to actually be there when the doors opened to kill the driver which would expose me to anyone guarding the back door.

Still the only other option that I could see was the let him get away so he could hide in his palace with his wife until God only knew when. My head shook at that thought and decided I was just going to have to take the risk. I moved to in front of one of the doors and shot the area around the lock to weaken the door’s integrity then kicked as hard as I could. The wooden door easily broke away from the lock, the door jamb causing the edge to splinter as it flew inwards.

A furrigen couple stared at me with fright as they huddled on their bed. Acknowledging them with a grunt as I ran across the room I emptied the rest of my pistol’s magazine into the window. There was nothing I could do about the noise the shattering glass made and in fact I heard it called out over the radio so I just had to suck it up. Replacing my pistol with the MP7 and switching to hook shot on my gauntlet I took a few breaths while I psyched myself up then leapt out of the window.

My mind registered that I had cleared the window and I twisted my body around to look up at the roof. I brought my arm up and let the hook fly, watching it sink into the roof and felt my teeth slam together as my arm stopped but the rest of my body tried to keep falling. Even though I was no longer falling towards the ground I was now swinging forward towards the wall, which I brought my feet up to take the impact.

As I hit the wall a plasma bolt passed close enough that my cheek suddenly felt sunburned and I could feel and smell some of my hair singe. Twisting as best as I was able I pointed my MP7 at the door and pulled the trigger. The gun bucked in my hand as I fired on full automatic; it would either kill him through sheer volume of fire or it would drive him back inside either of which I was ok with though the former would be more to my liking.

Sadly it was the latter that happened but I took advantage of it to start repelling down the wall though faster than normal to keep my time exposed to a minimum. My feet hit the ground with enough force to send a shock up through my body however I was able to use the downward momentum to go instantly into a crouching position between the hedges and the wall as the hook was quickly brought back into the gauntlet and deconstructed back into nanites.

When the guard looked back out he couldn’t find me and thankfully he assumed I had gone to the roof to get a better vantage point, buying me some time. This time was used to quickly reload both my weapons and to crouch-walk towards the exit and not a moment too soon. In my ears I could hear the whine of a passing sky car coming in to land at the rear entry, Only one chance to get it right then.

It felt a little like flying as I put as much effort into an upward forward lunge as I could, left arm outstretched to grab the guard around the throat and pull him against me as a shield. My right arm swung the MP7 into the doorway as my brain quickly analyzed Guy in front is a guard, not the target, fire which I did. As the other guard pulled Mr. Redriver back into the safety of the stairwell I swung the gun around the body of my shield and fired into the car, killing the driver.

The guard I had used as a shield hadn’t even had the time to lose the look of surprise before I spun him away from me and emptied the rest of the magazine into his chest. I reached in and closed the door to the hotel so that I’d at least have some warning if they were coming out at me then turned my attention to the car. Pulling out my pistol I emptied all 15 shots into the control panel rendering it completely useless.

Angry chatter in my ear alerted me that the guards were heading now for the front of the hotel where they would commandeer one of the parked cars. A plan formed in my mind as I sprinted around the hotel, the wall now being on my right as I came into view of the parking lot. My MP7 was out and reloaded and this time I pulled out the collapsible stock so I could brace it against my shoulder.

I waited a little back from the corner of the building so that I wasn’t immediately visible as they came out en masse. Several guards split off to check both sides of the building while two other guards were escorting a hastily dressed furrigen into the parking lot. One guard cried out as he spotted me right before I shot him then began firing bursts all around the parking lot causing most of the guards to duck or dive for cover.

The two guards with Mr. Redriver sprinted for the nearest car trying to get him behind it for cover but I had switched my aim to their legs and fired on full automatic. As I fired I swept the gun in a line until it clicked empty however I had already achieved my goal as all three of them were now down on the ground screaming in pain. Pulling out my pistol I began to get to work on the rest of the guard which numbered four in total.

Two of them I dropped before they could get back to their feet again which I had to duck back behind the wall as plasma bolts from the other two began to fly my way. One of the two remaining guards kept firing as the other ran to try and drag Mr. Redriver behind a car and out of the line of fire. Risking it I moved out enough to take aim at the guard and fired off three shots before my aim was thrown by a plasma round impacting my chest.

I staggered back behind the wall though not before seeing the guard I’d shot fall to the ground and his gun go skipping forward from inertia. Intense pain and heat seared my chest and I quickly looked down where I’d been shot expecting to see a lot of blood and a nice big hole. Instead most of the blast had been ablated by the armored threading I had going through my coat and all my clothes.

Enough had gotten through that a ragged circled of flesh was pretty crisped. Thankfully there was no bleeding because the heat of the plasma had cauterized the wound. Gritting my teeth against the pain I looked around to see the final guard, gun still aimed in my direction grab Mr. Redriver under the arms and begin to drag him. He looked up to see me still up and moving and fired before he could aim gouging a hole in the side of the hotel.

Pain flared through my chest as I raised both arms to get the best firing grip I could which caused my aim to dip and the first bullet hit the pavement. His next shot was better aimed though it still feel short of hitting me however it was close enough that chips of walls sliced into my forehead causing it to bleed. My second bullet was more on target than his though and he double over as it hit him in the stomach causing bullet number three to go right into his head as it was bent down.

Wincing in pain I walked out into the parking lot which seemed eerily quiet after the firefight even with the wounded yelling in pain. Walking over to the two guards I’d taken out at the legs I ended their misery with a quick bullet to the brain before going over to the prone and panting form of Mr. Redriver. Eyes glistening with fear stared at me as I stood above him then knelt down beside him and he asked, “W-who are you? Why are you after me?”

Looking at him with hard eyes I replied, “The answer to the first is also the answer to the second question; my name is John Tracker.” A panicked sense of recognition flickered in his eyes before I slammed the handle of my pistol against his temple and he dropped unconscious to the ground. Using my gauntlet to call my car over to my side I grunted in pain and picked him up; now it was time for phase 2 of my plan.

Opening my eyes I came back to reality where I was still overlooking the town of Ponyville. It took a moment of looking around to reassure myself I was not back there. Whenever I would revisit my memories there was a sense of inevitability about where I was going even if I wished to change things. Of course if I stayed here long enough my mind would start to wander and I worried about where it would take me.

A distraction came in the form of a grumbling stomach, which I sated or at least quieted for the moment with one of my sandwiches. As I ate I walked to keep me sufficiently distracted as to not allow myself to slip back into memory; I’d had enough of that already this morning. The moon was still in the sky with no sign of the sun yet though if I kept to walking that would be changing about the time I got to Ponyville.

Doing so would leave me a lot of time to kill and I wasn’t sure what I’d do to keep myself occupied though perhaps I’d finished mapping the town out. Even then that wouldn’t take up much of the time before my shift at the martial arts studio. I shrugged; I’d just have to think of something when the time came. Once again I wished Sheeva had not sent me here because filling time was not something I had trouble doing before.

My time was spent searching for the remaining people on my list and if I couldn’t do that for whatever reason there was always a local criminal element that I could put time into dealing with. Here there was no such thing for me to deal with, at least not that I had found and I doubted I’d get a lot of cooperation if I went looking for one. Either way it was no good speculating as my thoughts were just going in circles so I concentrating on walking.

Eventually I found myself at the outskirts of Ponyville but to my dismay the moon, while lower in the sky that earlier was not yet replaced by the sun. Walking around a little longer I found a bench that was almost indistinguishable from a human made bench except that it was lower to the ground. Even so I was able to sit comfortably enough on it, which proved to be a mistake. The lack of sleep began to overtake me and my eyes ultimately lost the battle, closing of their own will rather than my own.

I stood in the shadows observing as a semi-circle of Elediel as they chanted something in their language which even my earpiece couldn’t translate. Even though I couldn’t see the center guy’s hands I knew what he held; the soul gems from my wife and daughter. The Elediel lived for millennia and with that came a terror for the unknown of death which caused them to look ways to avoid it.

What they found was the soul gem, a gem that each one of them would imprint on at birth and when they eventually died their soul would be caught and nurtured in the gem for eternity. One downside was that they could only imprint on one gem and if it got destroyed they were screwed when they died, at least from their point of view. They even made it into a worst case punishment; like death row but worse for them.

Each Elediel community had a soul chamber where the deceased’s soul gems were stored made out of materials that allowed the souls to communicate psychically with one another. For each chamber there was a cadre of priests who kept and maintained the chamber or occasionally act as a voice for the souls stored within. The same material that allowed the souls to communicate with one another allowed them to talk to the priest when they pooled together though from what I had been told that was rare.

Even though it was my wife and child they were adding to the chamber I was not allowed to be any closer to the ritual since I was considered an outsider. I wouldn’t even be allowed to see it if I hadn’t been married to Tala’keer, though even that almost wasn’t enough to let me be here for this. Tala’s father, Ele’keel was a prominent figure in the community as he was famed for having the gift of far sight, allowing him to see into the future and guide his people towards the best outcomes.

When Tala and I had decided that we were going to get married we went to her home to let her parents know and hopefully to get their blessing. He was much more understanding and accepting than I was expecting and he more or less adopted me as if I was his own son. When the priests of the chamber had tried to argue that I should not be allowed to witness the event it was he who talked them out of it though I was still made to be as far away as could be while still able to watch.

The ritual was now complete and my eyes tracked the head priest as he walked into the chamber proper to put the gems in place. I tried to feel a sense of finality about it but all I could feel was a cold pain, numbing my senses while still allowing me to feel hurt. For the last several days since she had died I had gone from that numb hurt to blazing anger at whoever had sent the assassin after me and my family.

No matter what though I didn’t cry; after years of trying to hold back any pain I felt before Tala came into my life tears didn’t come easily to me. They wouldn’t have done me any good anyway but anger, that I did know well and knew how to use it. Even as the chamber was once again sealed the flicker of anger began to burn inside me and with it I roused enough from numbness to promise Tala, our daughter and myself that I would see them avenged.

With the ritual complete the priests as well as Tala’s family as well as friends of the family began to file out. Looks of disdain were tossed my way; though whether it was because I was human or because I was dressed in my vigilante clothes instead of fine robes I didn’t know. I would have worn some nice clothes but I didn’t own any and I couldn’t bring myself to care enough anymore to go out and get some.

Her father peeled away from the other attendees and walked over to me, sympathy written on his slender, angular face. A long fingered hand rested itself on my shoulder and in a strangely sing song voice he said, “My son, as I grieve for my daughter I grieve for you.”

I wasn’t sure if there was a proper response to that and I knew he would understand that so I said, “Thank you father. I’m sorry that I failed.”

His head cocked to one side, “Failed in what?”

“That I failed to protect her.” My hands clenched into fists, “It’s my duty to look after my family and instead I’m still alive while they are not.”

Both hands gripped my shoulders now as he looked at me in sadness and gave a slow shake of his head, “No my son. You are not to blame for this. There are only two who should accept the price of the blood spilled; the one who spilled the blood and the one who sent them.”

Reluctantly I nodded, “Well the first one has paid for his crime already but the second one is still alive, for the moment anyway.”

The sadness deepened and he shook me gently, “My son please do not allow your grief and anger to so cloud your judgment. When I look ahead into the future I do not see good coming from it but only more pain.”

I disengaged myself from his hands, backing up slightly as I prepared to leave, “I’m used to pain father. What do you think I feel right now?” Turning away I began to walk out to where a ship I had chartered was waiting for me, “It’s going to give me incentive is all.”

“Wait my son,” He called from behind me, “Remember this no matter what comes; not matter how dark the days seem I’ve seen that some hope remains. Look for it when you are at your worst.”

I started awake to the sun now being up and ponies going about their business, the nearest of whom stopped to stare at me for a moment before moving on slightly faster than before. Checking the time I saw that it wasn’t that far into the morning so at least I wasn’t going to be late for work. As if thinking of work summoned him Tough Hoof walked past my bench, did a double take, then walked over to me and took a seat next to me.

He raised an eyebrow, “Did you get kicked out of your house or don’t you have a place to stay at all?”

I shook my head, “No, its just that I was having trouble sleeping so I went for a walk then sat down here and fell asleep.”

Tough Hoof nodded in understanding, “Oh, I see. Have you eaten breakfast?” With a hoof he reached into a saddlebag he was wearing and pulled out two apples, offering me one. My stomach was rumbling a bit so I took it and for a while we sat there in silence and just munched our apples. After a bit he asked, “John, from what I’ve been hearing from the other ponies around town you don’t really socialize with anypony, you come into town, walk around, eat some food from the markets, come to work, and then you just leave. With that in mind I’d like to offer for you to join me after work tonight at the pub, please.”

Unable to hold in a sigh I said, “Look Tough Hoof I’m not really interested in making friends right now.”

To my surprise he just nodded, “That’s ok but you can still come to the pub and have drink.” His hoof touched my shoulder as he continued, “Remember when I said I had been taught by a lot of different teachers, not all of who were ponies?” When I nodded affirmative he said, “When I had those teachers I was traveling all around trying to learn as much as I could of martial arts and often I left Equestria.”

I waved my hand and head around to indicate that I didn’t understand the point of what he was saying, “Why are you telling me this?”

“I’m saying that I know what it feels like to be a complete stranger somewhere. The other ponies regard you with fear because you are unknown to them, which is something I had to get over when I started traveling the world. While you may not want any friends that doesn’t mean you can’t at least feel welcome here and that’s what I’m trying to help you do. Now, what do you say?”

What he said made sense to me which warred with my desire not to make friends until finally, with a sinking feeling I said, “Alright, I’ll go with you after work tonight.” He smiled happily but said nothing, patting my shoulder with his hoof before going back to his apple. As we sat there some more I could only hope that I didn’t regret my decision later.