“Goodbye Mr. Tracker and have a good evening,” Was the farewell given to me by Mrs. Heart and accompanied by a waved hoof. I waved in return as she and Faint Heart headed away from the dojo and felt a small sense of satisfaction. The class had gone smoothly, mostly just running her through her routine and watching for signs of progress. As far as I was concerned that was about as good as it could be.

Oddly enough though there were almost no other ponies in the dojo that evening; certainly less than was normal for Tough Hoof’s class. Now that my class was done I walked over to him and inquired about it to which he replied, “Tonight is one of the nights I give my class off, let them relax and enjoy an evening to themselves. Tomorrow it’ll be back to normal, you’ll see.”

With the crowd reduced we were mostly left with busywork and some one on one sparring with the few ponies who had come in. While I didn’t know any of the names of the ponies there they at least had become more used to seeing me now. The upside of that was that they weren’t as skittish around me as most other ponies still were. One of them even asked me to demonstrate how I grappled opponents for comparison which I did, on Tough Hoof which then turned into a on the spot competition between us.

Thanks to this the other ponies were laughing, making friendly wagers and cheering us on which only drove us to try and win harder. Before we knew it the time had come to close up shop and everyone waved to one another and said our goodbyes. Even I had to admit it was the closest I had come to feeling like I had enjoyed myself in some time. Memories began to surface of other times I had felt like I had that night; a sense of camaraderie and acceptance.

However those memories led back to before I had met my wife and I didn’t want to revisit them, certainly not right then and there. Shutting down was less painful and I did just that. If it hadn’t been for the fact that I had agreed to go with Tough Hoof right after work I would have just gone home to further shut down. Since I had agreed however I found myself walking beside him down the nearly deserted streets of Ponyville.

He gave me a grin as we walked, “Looks like the other ponies are getting used to you John. If we can keep it up you’ll feel right at home in no time.”

Not if I have anything to say about it, I thought though I declined to say it out loud. How I was going to keep that from happening I had no idea as of yet since I was doing a terrible job of keeping myself from in any way becoming invested in the people here. The obvious answer would be to do something terrible that would make all the ponies so afraid of me that even the ones trying to befriend me would leave me alone.

Even as the thought came to mind I immediately dismissed it; one the one hand since I did find myself getting at least a little invested I didn’t like the idea of doing that and on the other hand the ponies themselves were rather innocent. No matter what I had already done it was still very ingrained in me that I should not harm the innocent. In addition anything I could think of doing would likely end me up in trouble with the authorities which would lead back to innocents getting hurt and me possibly losing the freedom to try and finish my mission.

Tough Hoof was starting to wonder if I was going to answer so I said, “It would be nice not to have ponies looking at me with fear.” That was at least true enough and it did the trick, causing him to nod and continue trotting forward. Eventually the buildings around us began to thin out as we neared the edge of town where a large wooden building with a straw roof stood with a mug on a wooden sign hanging out front.

Trotting up to the door Tough Hoof turned the knob with his hoof, though I still had no idea how that worked or why they even had door knobs. Even as I ducked a little to get through the door I couldn’t help but notice many things that were suited more for humans than ponies. The bar itself had barstools, the tables had chairs instead of cloth covered pills of straw like some of the restaurants in town had and the mugs had handles though they were a little larger than normal so pony hooves could fit through.

We sat at a table near the back, mostly because that was where I had made a beeline out of habit. From there I could always observe everyone around me and if trouble came through the door than I had plenty of warning. I sat in my chair, leaving my coat on without thinking as Tough Hoof hopped into the chair across from me and put his forehooves onto the table. My eyes immediately began scanning the room noting everything around me.

From the door we entered the bar sat off to the left with a staircase leading upstairs off to the left of that. A couple of the tables had groups of ponies sitting around them, a mix of mares and stallions who were all drinking, chatting and laughing though nopony was getting drunk at least not that I could see. At the bar was only one pony; a pegasus mare with dirty white fur and a very dark pink mane and tail. Her wings hid her cutie mark but it was the eyes that caught my attention more than anypony else had.

I knew the eyes of someone used to fighting and she definitely had those eyes; that kind of awareness of what was going around you while holding hardness to them because of the things you had seen. She looked up from her mug and locked eyes with me and I was pretty sure she was reading the same thing about me. After a moment we both nodded to one another in unspoken understanding and went back to what we were doing.

Tough Hoof followed me stare then turned back to grin at me while nudging me with his foreleg, “Enjoying the scenery are you?”

My eyes turned to regard him without so much as a raised eyebrow, “No.”

“Oh? Then why were you staring at that mare?”

“Her eyes held something that caught my attention, that’s all.”

“Ah.” He waited a second before going on, “Though maybe you found her attractive or something. If you’re worried I’ll judge you because of that then don’t be. Some ponies dislike interspecies relations but I’m for whatever floats your boat.”

“I’m not against it either just not interested at the moment,” Which was true, after all I had been in a relationships with nonhumans before even married one. Since I wasn’t on Earth anymore and wasn’t likely to be going back anytime soon it had been the only other option back when I still had desired friendships and companionship. Even if I still had been open to the idea of becoming romantically involved with someone I’m not sure I’d have classified the ponies in that category.

I didn’t have a problem with correlating them to animals; I had been among aliens for far too long for that to happen. However I didn’t feel a sense of attraction to them on a physical basis like I could with some other species, mostly the humanoid ones and I had no intention of getting to know any of them well enough to see if personality alone would do it. If I had to say how I saw the ponies physically I would have no real classification for how they look. For some I might have used the adjective ‘cute’ to describe the way they look while for Luna I would actually say she was pretty but in the end nothing that called to me in the same way a humanoid form could.

Before we could continue the conversation an off white earth pony mare with a liquid filled mug on a serving tray cutie mark came over and asked for our order. Tough Hoof ordered a single much of hard cider for himself and I order a mug of sarsaparilla. As she left he looked back at me with a raised eyebrow, “Not much for drinking?”

This at least I could tell the full truth on, “I’ve never been a fan of alcohol mostly because I literally gag whenever I taste the stuff. People tell me it’s an acquired taste but I have no desire to acquire that taste so I stick to what I like.”

He shrugged, “Fair enough I suppose. Now I know its only been a couple of days but how do you like the job so far?”

“It’s not too bad really. At least I think its going ok so far all things considered.”

One of his forehooves swung in my direction, “Faint Heart seems to be getting more comfortable with you, as are the rest of the guys.”

I waggled my hand in a gesture that said ‘sort of’, “Faint Heart has warmed up a little bit, enough that she is less hesitant during classes which is good. The rest of the guys who are regulars are more comfortable with me than she is but that’s likely because they’re adults and have more self confidence than she does.”

He smiled at me as our drinks arrived, “Well keep at it John. Helping her gain confidence in herself will help her and you. Once ponies see her change and they learn that you were the one to help her they’ll start to rethink the way they see you.”

Lifting my glass to my lips I said, “Maybe.” After that a pleasured sigh came unbidden from within; it had been a long time since I had access to soda of any variety and the sarsaparilla tasted very good. Sadness rose then within me and I felt my eyes water without knowing why. It took me a moment to think it through but I realized that mentally I had just made another connection back to Earth, family and my old life.

With concern Tough Hoof asked, “John, are you ok? It seems like every time I see you something has you feeling down so please don’t tell me that everything is dandy. I know you said you don’t want any friends right now but will you please at least let me help you?”

Maybe it was the current weakness I was feeling or all the recent memories constantly flashing up but either way I found myself answering without intending too, “Just remembering my old life back home. The first time I ever taste sarsaparilla was during a reenactment event near my house. One of the suttlers, that’s what we called people who dressed in period clothing and sold period wares, was selling bottles of sarsaparilla as they made it back then. It tasted really good and I remember sharing it with my two brothers and my dad.” Even more unexpectedly I added, “They’re all dead now and I haven’t been home in almost a decade.”

To my surprise he came around to a chair closer to me and sat close enough that our sides were touching. Looking into his eyes I saw sorrow, concern and sympathy and nothing more. A friendly foreleg circled my shoulder as I had done in the past when comforting a buddy and while I should have pushed it away at the moment I couldn’t bring myself to. His voice cracking with emotion he said, “John, I’m so sorry for bringing that up. Just know that you don’t have to keep facing this alone though; I’m willing to help you anytime you need it and I bet if other ponies knew they’d do the same.”

I was saved from having to answer by the sounds of the door crashing open followed by shrieks from various ponies. Quite a few weird looking dog things came running into the bar and began chasing after everypony they could find, looking for all the world like someone had let a dog pound loose in the pub. The only pony who wasn’t fleeing for their lives was the pegasus I had noted earlier who had immediately taken to flight to dodge one of the dog things then kicked it in the face with her hind hooves.

Two other dogs came, front paw-hands things outstretched to grab her to which she just raised an eyebrow and beckoned them forward with a forehoof. With a lunge the closest dog tried to grab her but she flapped backwards then while he was vulnerable she flew forward again and delivered an uppercut that smashed the dog into the bar. After that she danced in mid-air, executing a twirl that took her behind the next dog who she knocked out by slamming both her forehooves into the back of its head.

“Get her you fools! She’s only one pony,” Came the angry and disgusted cry from a dog standing near the doorway, one pony already clutched in its arm. Flanked by two large dogs I made an unconscious decision that he was the leader and so turned my attention to him. Falling back into instinctive habit my right hand pulled out my Glock knowing that the desert eagle my wife had given me would easily punch through the dog and possibly hit an unintended target.

Standing with knees bent I held the gun two handed and slowly advanced towards the dog, Tough Hoof beside me and looking ready for a fight though not without a questioning glance towards the gun. Since the dog had a pony in hand I decided to speak rather than start shooting immediately, “You, dog boy! Put the pony down and walk out of here.”

He turned towards me, blinking in surprise as he did, “Oh yeah? Who and what are you to tell me what to do eh?”

“If you don’t put the pony down I’m the guy who will be killing the lot of you.”

With a laugh he replied, “You gonna kill all of us? Spot, Rover, go grab him too. We can make him work in the mines with these ponies.” Even the ridiculousness of the names didn’t register this time as it hit me that this was essentially a slave grab causing cold anger to fill my belly. My focus tightened onto the dog, the pony he was holding and the two big dogs who were now rushing forward towards me.

Moving my arms to the left my brain quickly processed the gun lining up on the target faster than I could consciously and immediately squeezed the trigger three times. Like an old friend came the feel of the pistol kicking in my hands as did the dog’s jerking movements as the bullets tore into him. Before that even hit my thinking mind my hands had swung to the other big dog and fired three more times into him, dropping him to the floor only a few feet from my feet.

Events seemed to speed up after that as my ability to think instead of just act returned and I noticed Tough Hoof now standing a few feet further away from me, eyes wide though from fear or surprise I couldn’t tell. The leader dog had now dropped the pony that fled immediately, his hands now in the air and backing away. Stammering he begged, “H-hey now! You prove you too strong. We go now, promise!”

My only reply was to shake my head; to me it was too late as soon as I realized it was a slave grab. All the conversation had done was give me time to line up a shot right between his eyes which I took, dropping him like a stone. Looking around I saw a few other dogs were now down, knocked out by the pegasus who had been sitting at the bar. As for the rest of the dogs they were trying to flee the two of us.

I let them run towards the door until there were no ponies near them then I shot every one of them. With the fight now over things seemed unnaturally quiet like it was a horror movie when you’re waiting for the big monster to suddenly leap out and kill everyone. Nothing happened though and I felt the familiar shaky feeling of my body coming down from all the adrenaline that helps in combat.

Everypony was just staring at me while also trying to hide, even Tough Hoof though he wasn’t trying to hide, he just looked dumbfounded with his mouth working while nothing came out. Trying to avoid the awkward moment and having to see their frightened stares I put away my gun and went to leave. Tough Hoof called out to me to wait but I ignored him. The only thing on my mind at that point was putting as much distance between the ponies and I as possible.

My steps were quick as I went through town, more so if I let the looks I had been given come to mind, yet more proof that I needed to stay away from these ponies. A soft whooshing noise caused me to look up where I saw several gold armored pegasi ponies flying past me and towards the pub. I almost started running flat out at that point because if they were this world’s equivalent of police then things could get out of hand and fast.

In the recent past, the same one that I wish I could stop remembering I had killed many cops during my revenge rampage. If I was found by the ponies once they learned what I had done they would likely try to arrest me and I would resist in a likely lethal manner. Even though I had done it before that didn’t mean I wanted to do so now or that I was proud of what I had done.

The trip back to my cottage took longer than normal even with the use of my gauntlet because I kept stopping to check for pursuers. Windfall thankfully said nothing other than a quick ‘hi John’ and a wave of her hoof. I returned it to ward off suspicion and told her that I was going to bed. With a nod she bid me goodnight and went back to walking around a bit, still working on her wings and limbs.

Unlike normal I didn’t undress as I lay on my bed but stayed fully clothed and armed just in case somepony came by to try and take me away. As I lay there the stares of the ponies in the pub kept coming back and before long they led my mind down another road of memory.

My head snapped around and I tasted blood in my mouth from the force of the punch which also caused me to fall to the dirt. As I pushed myself up on my elbows I turned to face the guy who hit me; Colonel Jason Brightmoon, the rest of his merc team standing around him and all of them glaring at me. His teeth were bared and shining under the moonlight as he asked, “What the hell is wrong with you human? When you were part of my crew you had a sense of honor and morality. Now I hear that you contributed to causing an empire to fall into chaos, my people mind you and not only did you do that you killed civilians in the process? Not to mention what you did to the empress’ husband.”

Looking from face to face I saw I had no friends here, each of them already labeling me in their minds as ‘murderer, monster’. Hauling myself to my feet I found that despite wanting to explain everything to them I felt betrayed by them for this so I decided to tell them nothing and instead went with the classic, “You wouldn’t understand.”

That set him off even further and he advanced on me with fists clenched, “Don’t you dare give me that fucking lame ass excuse!” He stopped just short of pummeling me as I drew my gun and aimed it right between his eyes. I had already killed civilians, people I swore I’d never harm so what did it matter if I decided to kill someone I once considered a friend? Carefully I got to my feet, eyes never leaving him and the others just in case however all he said was, “Get out of here pup, you’ve dishonored your pack.”

My eyes opened quickly and I shook my head to dispel the last of the memory, sitting up as I did so. It had been a long time since I had thought about Colonel Brightmoon and our less than friendly encounter. I suppose the way I felt about how Tough Hoof had looked at me mirrored how Jason had looked at me when we had met after I had exacted my revenge on the empress.

First it was the memory of having kidnapped the empress’ husband and now my meeting with Jason after the whole affair had ended. Not wanting to know what I was going to remember next I tried to keep my mind blank and when that proved too hard, focused on something else. Of course that eventually stopped working too as I ran out of things to think about especially with all the other memories so close to the surface now.

He sat there panting and stinking of fear, eyes darting around and his head moving around as far as it could go. I was pretty sure he was looking for a way to escape from his current predicament in which case good luck to him because I sure as hell wasn’t going to let him escape. The room was solid wall with no windows and only one door, which I currently was leaning next to.

Every so often his eyes would wander my way and I would make a show of fingering my pistol and looking like I wanted an excuse to use it. Of course I really did want to use it but I wanted it to be done effectively and if my plan worked it would definitely make an effect. A short knock on the door followed by a low voice interrupted the moment and I opened the door just enough to see the speaker though I blocked the door itself with my body.

A young furrigen, most likely in his late teens stood there holding a palm sized silver cylinder which he held out to me, “We’re in. Tap this end to start the device and it’ll hover and record unless you give it any further instructions. As soon as it starts recording we’ll take over the broadcast signals and broadcast it to the entire empire.”

I smiled with satisfaction, one of my last smiles and thanked him before taking the cylinder and moving to stand by the wall directly in front of Paul. Even as afraid as he was he didn’t ask me what was going on, just stared at me as I followed the directions and left the device hovering there. The device lit up on one end and faced us with that end while it projected what it was recording on the wall behind it.

Before they began broadcasting I moved to in front of my prisoner and waited for confirmation of live broadcasting to come over my ear implant. Once I got it I began to speak, “Hello to the empress of all furrigen-kind I am John Tracker. A few months ago you sent one of your assassins out to kill me and as you can see he failed.” My eyes narrowed, “However he did kill my family which is why I’m here now.”

Walking to the side I gave the audience a chance to see the prisoner as I walked around to be behind him but still visible. Allowing my anger to show I went on, “I was retired and no threat to you but you couldn’t leave me alone could you? No you felt you had to remove any possible threat to you and your regime. Now I am a threat to you and it is entirely your fault. I’m not going to simply kill you as I have those I’ve come after in the past though, oh no that would be far too kind for what you did.”

“You took my family away from me Taliva and so tonight I begin my vengeance quest by taking your mate,” Without further drama I put my pistol to his head and pulled the trigger. In the confined space the gunshot was louder in a way that fit the situation perfectly. As I put my gun back in my holster I turned back to the camera, “That was just the beginning.” I strode forward as I went on, “I am going to kill everyone you love. If you built it I will destroy it. Everything you care about will be taken from you so that you will feel the same pain that I have felt since they died. Then and only then will I finally do you the mercy of killing you.”

As soon as I broke out of the memory I felt the old familiar guilt from that particular action and I found myself wondering if that was the point where I began my fall. Even as the thoughts formed within my head the old arguments began to surface as part of me tried to justify what I had done. Taliva certainly didn’t have any qualms about having my family killed why should we care that we killed hers? Just because she did it doesn’t make it right. Like what we did was right the whole time? Face it whenever we killed someone it was murder by any law anyone cares to name. Yet we justified them all and pushed it from our mind. That was because we weren’t like them, we didn’t kill innocents only people like them who preyed on the innocent.

Over and over until I thought I was going to lose it causing me to get up before I spiraled further into memory and actually did lose it. For the whatevereth time since I had arrived in Equestria I cursed it and what was happening to me while I was here. If I was to get out of here and finish my mission I needed focus. I can’t get that focus though because I was dealing with these uncomfortable emotions and now my memories kept popping up.

Windfall looked up from where she was lying on the couch trying to sleep and asked, “John is everything ok?”

I answered as I reached for the door, “I need to get some air, clear my head is all. I’ll be back.”

The sound of her hooves hitting the floor followed the sound of the door opening and soon I could see her lime green face as she cantered over, “I’ll come with you.” There wasn’t even time to try and argue against it because the sound of flapping wings grabbed my attention. Turning to face the source of the sound I saw Luna on the most Goth chariot ever pulled by two stallions with dark blue armor and bat wings with two more flying alongside coming to rest in front of my cottage.

Involuntarily my one foot moved backwards as she gave me a glare that I was pretty sure was augmented by magic to cause actual fear. Jabbing a hoof at me Luna declared, “John Tracker you are under arrest for killing several Diamond Dogs earlier this evening. You will be held under guard pending a hearing tomorrow morning where your fate shall be decided.” At a nod from Luna the two armored ponies not pulling the chariot moved towards me to try and arrest me but I was having none of that.

With reflexes honed from a decade of fighting all over the galaxy I drew and aimed both my desert eagle and my Glock. The ponies didn’t know what they were but they knew I wasn’t pulling them out without a reason so they stopped in mid-step. Luna’s eyes narrowed, “Resisting arrest John? That is not very wise of you.”

My guns jabbed towards them to emphasize my words, “I’m not going to jail Luna. I’ve had more than enough of being someone’s captive and at their mercy or lack thereof. My life has been out of my control for too long and no matter how I feel about my life I’m not letting anyone else take it away from me do you hear? I’ll kill whomever tries to do either to me do you understand?”

To my surprise her eyes softened and she said, “I do understand John. Like you I know what it is like to be captive and have no control over your own life. Nor do I desire to become a captor myself so I will give you this proposition; you come with me peacefully and I will be the one to watch over you. No guards, no prison and no chains understand?”

That was rather generous by any standards but there was one problem with it which I voiced, “What about the hearing?”

“I cannot cancel the hearing without a very good reason John however I can help ensure it is fair to you and my ponies. There is no guarantee that you will be punished anyways however if you are I promise I will make it a fair sentence for everyone involved. Can you accept that?”

“What if I don’t like the sentence and decide to fight my way out anyway?”

A sudden midnight glow around my weapons which felt like static electricity on my skin and my weapons were yanked from my hands. They came to rest by Luna’s horn which was glowing the same color, “I could have disarmed you at any point John but I am trying to be reasonable. This is your last chance to accept my offer.”

My teeth gritted as I felt like I was losing control of my life again but as I said it was a generous offer from her perspective and I doubt I could get anything better so finally I said, “Very well Luna, I accept.” Gratitude and relief crossed her features as she pointed a hoof at the chariot. Nopony made any attempts to restrain me or anything as I got into the chariot which made me feel a little easier about the affair, more so when Luna handed me back my weapons though she did ask me to put them away so her ponies wouldn’t be frightened by them.

Windfall attempted to run over and join us in the chariot but the two armored ponies made a barrier with their batwings. Luna gave her a small smile and said, “Let her through please. I’m sure she will want to see how things turn out. Please come aboard my little pony.” This she did quite promptly after the guards lowered their wings which caused her to shoot Luna a gratitude grin.

I had intended to remain standing to try and retain some feeling of control over the situation but the movement of the chariot, especially the takeoff forced me to sit down. It was rather crowded with the three of us in the chariot so we were all sitting literally together while trying not to press into the person or pony next to us. Personally I was sitting there wishing I’d had the foresight to bring some of my anti-power gear.

It wasn’t like I hadn’t fought creatures with magical powers before, as I had told Luna earlier though most of the time I knew what I was getting into and was equipped accordingly. Since it wasn’t a common enough thing I didn’t carry the stuff with me all the time but at that moment I was wishing I had it just in case. Windfall interrupted my thoughts as her head peaked around Luna with uneasy curiosity seated in her eyes, “John did you really kill some Diamond Dogs?”

Pleading the fifth came to mind as did the phrase ‘What you say can and will be used against you.’ Even as the thoughts came up I decided to tell the truth anyway because I wasn’t going to lie about what I had done, not even at the hearing and if it was going to come out anyway then her hearing about it now wouldn’t make it any worse. Heaving a sigh I said, “Yes I did Windfall, at the one pub on the end of town.”

Her eyes went even wider though as big as they are to begin with I have no idea how that is possible. After a moment of finding her voice she got out, “B-but why would you do that?”

Conscious of the fact that Luna was listening even though she was trying very hard to look like she wasn’t I answered, “To keep them from enslaving your fellow ponies. Too bad the ponies don’t seem to appreciate that fact.” All of which was true and was how I felt however it had the fortunate effect of completely killing the conversation for the rest of the ride.

The figure grinned widely, a mouth full of fangs visible in the light of the console. His hunt was finally nearing its end as the faster-than-light drive was spooling up for a jump. After nearly a year of searching he had finally found the last planet where John had been spotted and according to all sources was still on. Soon enough he would go there, find the hole where John was hiding in, drag him out and kill him.

With a chuckle the figure said aloud, “I’m looking forward to seeing you again John. It’s been so long since I last felt your body cave under my fists and I miss the feeling immensely. Even better is that I, Wilhelm will be the one who will become famous across the galaxy’s underworld for killing the dreaded Human.” Satisfaction infused his features as he contemplated the death of the human he had such hatred for.

That was not to last as an alarm sounded on his board, interrupting his fantasies. A freak cosmic storm had just formed and was headed right for him. His eyes darted about as he took in the information and tried to come up with a course of action. Trying to outrun the storm would do him no good; the storm was much faster than his little ship was. He could try an emergency jump with his FTL drive but that could tear his ship apart especially so close to a storm.

With literally seconds to go before the storm would engulf and destroy his ship he decided that a possible death was better than an assured death and hit the jump command. The ship shuddered violently and for a moment he thought it wasn’t going to work, that the ship would be caught and torn apart. However with a final shudder that slammed his head against the nearest bulkhead the ship leapt out of normal space just as the storm reached it.

We landed at the tallest building I had seen to date in Ponyville which I was informed was the town hall which is where I would wait for the hearing to start. True to her word she didn’t try to stick me in a cell or a room where she could easily keep me from escaping but instead got Windfall and I cots and set them up in the main room near the entrance. The cot was a little small for me and I was worried about the weight so when I sat I was rather careful about it.

It held though so I looked up to find Windfall lying on her stomach on the other cot and Luna sitting on her haunches flanked by her guards. We each fidgeted uncomfortable as we sat in silence, each of our gazes moving from person to person. Eventually Windfall sighed and broke the silence, “John I just do not understand you. I am trying to be your friend but I cannot understand your decisions a lot of the time.”

Luna cleared her throat, “I can understand his decisions better perhaps however that does not mean I necessarily agree with them, especially after asking him not to employ violence while here in Equestria.”

Windfall shook her head, “That’s not all I was talking about your highne-sorry, that’s not all I was talking about Luna.”

Luna’s head tilted a little to the side, “Oh? What did you mean?”

Windfall took the time to recount our previous argument about being friends and finished with, “I’ve never seen someone reject friendship that was offered like that, have you?”

To my surprise Luna’s head lowered, her ears drooping, “I have seen it before. After my return I visited Ponyville during the Nightmare Night celebration where I had hoped to make many friends and become loved like my sister was. My thought was that if I came in, stated my intentions and tried to work together with my subjects than I would accomplish my goal. Instead the ponies of Ponyville began to scream and run away every time they would see me.”

Windfall gasped softly and I have to admit that I felt anger stirring within me on Luna’s behalf. In my time away from Earth I had certainly had that happen to me back when I wanted friends and knew what it felt like. My curiosity had been piqued however so I inquired, “Why did they scream and run away from you? It can’t be because you’re an alicorn because Celestia is too and from what I’ve heard she is loved and respected by her subjects.”

Luna looked very uncomfortable with that question though to my surprise so did Windfall, who looked away from the two of us. After clearing her throat Luna answered, “Sadly, my sister and I have always been treated differently though my sister has tried very hard to rectify that.”

“That doesn’t explain why they screamed and ran from you though.”

Windfall scoffed, “Oh like you tell me everything about you John. I’m not stupid; I can tell when you evade my questions or only give partial answers.”

I fidgeted a bit then finally bit out a, “I have my reasons.” It was an unbelievably weak argument and I knew it and unfortunately so did they.

Luna just lifted her head a little in a regal glare while she gave a little hoof stomp, “What makes you think I do not have my reasons as well? If you are not willing to share with us about yourself then why should we share to you hmm? Should you find it within yourself to trust us enough to tell us your story then I shall also tell you the reason the ponies were afraid of me.” Glancing out at her moon she changed demeanor and said, “For now I think it is best if we all get some sleep. I do not suppose you would be willing to let me watch over your dreams for one night?” At my headshake she sighed, “As you wish, however please try not to wake Windfall.”

Sighing I lay down on the cot and turned to face away from the both of them though it was hard to get comfortable with half my legs sticking out over the end of the cot. Even so sleep did eventually come for me, though I personally preferred that it would decide not to.

I felt absolutely miserable as I strode down the partially lit hallways of what would have been an elementary school back home. Never before had I ever attempted something like this nor wanted to nor did I really want to even now however it had to be done. The idea had belonged to a resistance leader who really liked to screw with the emotions of his enemy which was the purpose of this mission.

My ultimate goal of revenge was to destroy everything Taliva cared about before finally killing her and that included bringing down the regime she had built. There was no way I could do that on my own so I hooked up with the local resistance, of which there were six different groups each vying for control. Since I didn’t care about any of the individual ideologies of the groups and needed all the help I could get I did work for every group; weakening Taliva and strengthening my allies with each mission.

Even though we wanted to screw with people’s emotions on this mission we still drew the line at killing children so I waited until long after school hours were over to begin. Emotional conflicts were freaking killing me though as this was a terrorist action, something I had fought against as a vigilante. Within me came another voice that argued that so long as we weren’t killing any children it didn’t matter and was necessary.

The two voices kept bickering within me as I continued to move forward through will and maybe more than a little hate for Taliva. All of this was interrupted by a voice behind me, “Excuse me sir, you can’t be here right now, the school is closed.” Turning I saw an older furrigen, his fur turning a dull grey with age and a few wrinkles appearing even through the fur on his face.

Eyes widened in recognition of me as after the execution of Paul Redriver my face was plastered all over as a wanted enemy. His voice quivered a bit as he started to back away, “Y-you, you’re.” Those were his last words as instinct took over as soon as I saw him and I charged right at him, drawing my k-bar as I did so. He tried to run but I grabbed him from behind just after he finished turning and rammed the knife into his back.

A small gasp escaped him as the air escaped from his punctured lungs and I yanked the knife back out, letting him fall where he stood. Kneeling down I wiped the blood that had gotten on my blade off on his uniform which was that of school security. Guilt hardened in my chest but I paid it no mind, focusing my mind on the memory of Tala’keer and Aietha, my daughter. My anger was stoked and it easily overrode any guilt I felt at my actions.

Leaving him where he lay I set off again heading for one of the building’s support columns in the center of the school. Upon reaching it I pulled out a large satchel that I had hidden under my coat which contained blocks of C-4 explosive and detonation caps. I firmly attached the block to the column and inserted a detonation cap, activating it and tuning it to my detonator’s frequency.

There were no more run ins with any security guards and I made my way around the rest of the school attaching explosives to various stress points. With the first part of my mission done I left the building and began part 2 of my plan. The leader I was doing this for didn’t just want me to destroy the school; they wanted it to be a big spectacle so the newshounds would be all over it and all over Empress Taliva. With that in mind the rest of my explosives went outside where they would mostly just make a large explosion not geared towards any particular outcome other than spectacle creation.

Once that was finished I headed over to a nearby alleyway behind the school where I could see what was going to happen but would have some cover from the shrapnel and blast shockwave. As I withdrew the detonator from my coat whatever conscience I still had made one last attempt to persuade me not to do this but it was in vain. One final glance at the school and I thumbed the switch.

A spectacular series of explosions lit up the night while the building collapsed in on itself in a shower of rubble and dust. The aftermath was an odd silence like the explosion had sucked out all the noise however as I walked out to survey my handiwork I began to hears voices from the other side of where the school had been. Skirting around the edges of the rubble I saw various people running and yelling in fright while others were knelt over bodies lying in the street or on the sidewalk.

I frowned, guilt hitting me in the gut as I realized I had failed to check to see that the streets were fully cleared before detonating the explosives. Even though I had timed the mission for when no children would be in school and for when the fewest people would likely be out and about that didn’t mean nobody was out at that time. Something touched my ankle as I stood there and I looked down to see a bloody hand grab my ankle.

His face looked up at me with pleading in his eyes. This close I could smell charred flesh and burnt fur as he lay at my feet. He needed help but I was the only one around at the moment, everyone else had either fled the scene or were looking after their own problems. My instincts screamed at me to help him, he was an innocent man and had nothing to do with what was going on and yet here he had been caught in the middle anyway.

Even as I thought that another thought had come to mind that began to drown out any feelings or thoughts of compassion; he wasn’t innocent, no one here was. He may not have worked directly for who I was after but he lived here and worked here and paid taxes here. Even if he wasn’t a direct employee he was a part of the system that had wronged me and it was held up by people like him. His scorched lips moved a little and he finally managed to let out a call for help.

I turned on my heel, unable to look him in the eye, “No. Not my problem.”

My eyes flew open into darkness and for a moment I thought I was still standing on that street and still smelling the charred flesh at my feet. Then my eyes adjusted and I realized I was in the Ponyville Town Hall with the first rays of sunlight beginning to pour into through the windows. As I sat up I heard the tapping of shoes on the floor and turned to find a concerned looking Princess Luna walking over to me.

“Are you ok John,” She asked. “It was obvious you were having a rather awful nightmare.”

With raised eyebrow I replied, “Obvious because you were using your powers?”

Her eyes narrowed and she sighed, “No John, I promised I wouldn’t look into your dreams without your permission and I’ve kept my promise. The reason it was obvious was because you were tossing and turning and making rather unhappy sounding noises in your sleep. There was even a few words in there, mostly the word no.” Luna sat on her haunches right in front of me, obviously intent on talking about it, “So what happened?”

While I could have just kept my mouth shut and said absolutely nothing that would have just made the situation unbearably awkward since I couldn’t leave. Given the situation I could at least tell her some general information about my dreams, “It was not so much a nightmare as a memory, one that I’d sooner forget happened. I’ve had quite a few since yesterday.”

Luna listened to me intently though when I stopped her curiosity came in, “What was the memory about?”

“You said once that you had done things you would rather your ponies not know about; things they would find monstrous yes?” She nodded sadly, no longer looking at me as I continued, “Well I’ve done my share of things that are considered to be monstrous, even to me. Yesterday’s killings weren’t even close to the worst thing I’ve ever done.” I sighed, feeling the memories weighing on me, “For some reason lately the memories of some of my worst acts have been surfacing again when I sleep.”

I felt the hardness of metal upon my knee as Luna placed a forehoof there and gave me a sympathetic smile, “I too know how that feels John. As you have said I have done things that are monstrous and even though I control dreams I cannot nor should I hide from the memories of what I have done.” Her tone changed to that one someone quoting someone or something, “If we do not learn from others’ mistakes than we are destined to make them again.”

“We have something similar back on my world; ‘those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

She nodded her agreement, “It is a wise and true saying which is why I shall not try to forget what I have done so that I may never repeat such acts again and I would say the same for you.”

I shook my head, “I’d rather just forget about it. Life hands me enough baggage to carry without constantly dredging up what I’ve already done.”

Her eyebrow came up, “And how will you keep from repeating your mistakes then? Moreover since it is so obvious that it bothers you how do you think trying to forget about it will make it go away instead of confronting it?”

If I told her why it didn’t matter I’d have to reveal my intent to kill myself and I was pretty damn sure there was no way she’d simply let it go at that and neither would Windfall at that. Crossing my arms and sitting back I said, “I have my reasons Luna. That will have to suffice for now.” Her eyes narrowed followed by a sigh as she turned to look out the window as the sun rose, quite literally moving upwards visibly until it stopped.

Once it stopped moving her gaze came back to rest on me, “The day has begun. Prepare yourself John for soon the hearing shall begin. I just hope you can explain your actions or else I will be forced to take your freedom from you again.”