Diamond Claw was sitting on his throne, looking over the mess that had been created. The griffin that had turned into goo was impossible to clean up. When a servant had finished cleaning it, she too started to cough up the same goo and ended up collapsing in a spot not too far from the original. She was turning into that same green red goo, and no one wanted to touch her. Whatever that goo was, it was infectious and they didn’t have the right equipment on hand to handle such a thing. So he was stuck with some unsightly jelly goo in the middle of his throne room, until he could find a unicorn willing to magic it away.

The featherless griffin had died at some point, and the medical staff said it was from a heavy dose of a lethal toxin they couldn’t identify. That black pony... the monsters marefriend had some dangerous spells on hoof. But she could cast them without being a unicorn, it was a mystery. He had told his medical staff to search her body for anything magical. Perhaps she was just a freak and had a horn someplace else upon her body.

Diamond Claw looked out his window and saw that the sun would soon be setting. He just hoped the ponies didn’t arrive before he could get this place properly cleaned and have the chains anchor reset inside the wall. How in the hell did it crack the wall like that? Before his arm had broken, long before he even got that far. Was it getting stronger?

The thought of that monster getting stronger sent a chill down his spine. He sent a team in to remove the bolts from its body and provide light medical aid to keep it from dying on them before Celestia could arrive... But they returned and said there were no bolts or broken bones of any kind. But how could that be?

He was sure the monster was riddled with crossbow bolts, and its left forearm had broken...For the second time actually, then hit Diamond Claw. The creature had broken that same forearm, twice, in the 6 days its been inside that cage.

How could that be? Bones take about a month to mend, how did it mend fast enough to be broken again? Let alone strong enough to pull at the chain again.

Diamond Claw was having second thoughts about keeping the creature inside the throne room any longer. Hell, he should probably have it killed while its still under the effects of the tranq, there’s no telling how much longer it will stay down until it needs a second bowl full. Its already been laying motionless for the past 2 hours. Hopefully a bowl full of the tranq will keep it down for the night. He would need to requisition more of it from his alchemists.

Diamond claw stood up from his throne and walked over to the chest containing the vials of tranq. He nodded at the guard who was standing in front of the chest, and opened only to get a grim look on his face.

“All we have left is two vials?” the griffin saluted and without turning his head responded

“Yes your majesty, I had already gone down to the alchemists, they said the last of it will be ready in the morning, to make more they require 600,000 more bits to pay for the ingredients...” Diamond Claw grunted. He never understood why Zebras charged so much for herbs that grew commonly in their lands. Perhaps he should find a way to take them over after Equestria.

“Give that monster these last two vials, hopefully it will still stay down until we get more in the morning.” Diamond walked away and went over to the wall holding the chains anchors. He looked in disbelief at the wall filled with cracks. He walked over to the right side and looked at the anchor.

Diamond claw gave it a tug himself, and could hardly move the chains anchor himself, let alone pull it from the wall. As he was about to walk away, the stone masons he called for arrived.

“Good evening your majesty what can we...” the stone workers looked over to the wall he was standing in front of and looked at the creature chained inside of the cage face down. “...Don’t tell me... that... Thing, damaged the wall like this?” Diamond nodded his head and gestured to the wall

“Indeed, it would seem the bindings anchors I had you make were insufficient in holding him back. Your stone work is weak.” The griffins masons sputtered for a bit

“B-B-But Sire! This stonework was made to withstand dragon fire and enemy siege weapons! The anchors alone weigh 200 pounds! With all due respect Sire, but that’s no simple creature, if it did in fact did this alone. Its an outright monster...” The griffins looked at the wall and to the creature again. “...We’ll see what we can do, but no promises.” Diamond just began to walk away back to his throne.

“Very well, if it fails again... I’ll have you killed. Because of your shoddy work, the creature was able to hit my royal beak.” The griffins gulped and quickly got to work with resetting the anchor in its proper place and placing a bunch of magically enhanced mortar.

Only the best, they didn’t want to die after all. Once they had it reset they went about sealing all the cracks with the magical mortar and were finished after about an hour and a half of fast paced repair work. As soon as they finished and bid their goodbys another griffin with a worried look on his face ran into the throne room.

“Sire! Sire! The Ponies have Arrived! They wish you see you immediately!” Diamond Claw gritted his teeth behind his beak in silent rage. He hoped they would come tomorrow, his throne room was still a wreck... But then again, he needed to kill Celestia and Luna followed by the creature.

Or perhaps the creature 1st... The magic resistant armor was finished. The creature seemed like a bigger threat, but none the less he would surround them all once when they came to claim the creature.

“Tell my elite guards to dawn their new armor... and lead the princesses to the throne room here. I’m sure they miss their pet monster.” The griffin bowed his head and left the room in a rush again to carry out his new orders.

Diamond Claw sat in his throne and placed his crown upon his head and his cape on his back. He needed to look the part after all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After they landed Luna took control of the situation as Celestia rested for a while. She had exerted a lot of magical power in the last 3 and a half hours and would likely need sleep to regain her full strength, but this was no time too sleep. They were about to get back a friend they had all missed.

“Children, stay close, I know this is an exciting time for all of you, but you must...” Luna was interrupted by some of the children and Pinkie Pie as they rushed past her and down the ramp to the ground.

“I wanna see the Griffin king!” shouted one of the children, Luna sighed as she used her magic to pull them back.

“Stay close or you will get lost... and don’t run off again. We are here on royal duties and must be respectful.”

“But I thought we were here to get Merry!” shouted another one of the children.

“Yes we are, but it is rude to leave our airship without proper permission for us to dock. We have to wait for the messenger to return.” The children and Pinkie Pie sighed. The rest of the mane six had gathered and were waiting beside Luna and the children.

Everyone sat down patently awaiting the return of the griffin messenger, he seemed to be taking his time as 20 minutes had past when he finally returned.

“His majesty, The King, will see you now.” Luna nodded her head and lead the way down for everypony to follow. The Messenger gave Luna an odd look as he watched all of the little ponies follow her down the ramp in an orderly fashion. “Are these... Children and mares going to be joining us?” Luna looked back at all of them and then smiled at the griffin messenger

“Yes of course, they are all here for the same reason, to pick up Merry.” The griffin raised an eyebrow

“Who is Merry?” Luna sighed

“The creature that... burned down a village.” The griffin gasped and stepped back in astonishment

“That vile monstrosity has a name?” of the mane 6 Twilight and Applejack voiced their opinions.

“He ain’t a Vile Monstrawcity!”

“He’s our friend! I would like you to speak of him with respect!” The other mares all nodded their heads in agreement. While the griffin just looked back and forth between all of the mares and the looks on their faces.

“My apologies, it would seem... Griffins and Ponies have different views upon what a monster is...” The Griffin cleared his throat. “... now if you would follow me I will take you to the throne room where King Diamond Claw is waiting with the... With Merry... If I may ask, where is Celestia?”

“Celestia is taking a short rest and will join us shortly, if you could leave some griffin here to lead her to us, that would be great.” replied Luna as she nodded her head

“Oh... well. I suppose that’s fine then.” the griffin mumbled something to himself as he leads the way to the throne room.

After a decent walk down some extravagant hallways they finally made it to the throne room. Diamond Claw was sitting on his throne. Near the back of the large room, what looked to be a large box was covered with a large red blanket sat looking oddly out of place. Golden chains could be seen coming out the back of the box from under the red cloth. The box was very suspicious, as were all the guards posted inside the room. It was probably a griffin thing thought Luna, they did have to deal with dragons. It was then she noticed another smaller box in the middle of the throne room, it also had a red cloth thrown over it. Why would he have something in the middle of his throne room?

“Luna, it is good to see you, I see you brought a large group of company...But where is Celestia?” Diamond Claw was looking around as Luna cleared her throat to speak.

“My dear sister is resting for a moment, she expelled a large amount of magic to get us here in a hurry.” Diamond Claw chuckled to himself for a moment

“In a hurry to get back your pet?” Luna cleared her throat again and raised her chin

“Merry is not our pet, he was a citizen of Equestria until... some things happened and he went missing. Have you found him?” Diamond Claw let out a low growl

“Yes we did, I’ll have you know he has killed many of MY citizens. Decent griffin folk who wanted nothing more than to live in peace... and he killed them! All of them!” Luna lowered her head a bit as did the mane 6, the children just looked up to Luna with some confusion on their faces.

“Mom, Did... Did Merry do something bad?” Luna looked down about to answer her child when Diamond Claw spoke up before she could.

“Yes, your ‘friend’ Merry killed an entire villages worth of honest griffins. Not only that, but when we tried to take him into custody he killed many of my griffin soldiers. I had told them to use non lethal force, because he seemed important to you and Celestia... In the end, only more of my citizens, MY loyal griffins died.” Twilight stepped forward with a tear in her eye

“I’m Sorry King Diamond Claw, but Merry is... Something happened to him, I know there’s no way we can make it up to you, But do you have him? Something was wrong with his brain... I wanted to try and fix it, make him normal again.” Diamond Claw raised an eyebrow at the word normal.

“You mean, he wasn’t always like that?” Twilight and the rest of the ponies all shook their heads.

“No way your uh... kinglyness. Merry was a good friend, he was calm and collected... well most of the time, but he never went outta his way to hurt somepony... unless he thought they deserved it.” Diamond Claw huffed out a bit of steam from his nostrils in anger.

“Deserved it? You mean like my sons Ezreal and Zed?” Luna’s eyes widened at that statement. The cause of this whole mess, when they went to visit Ponyville, those two arrogant griffins insisted they come along. That’s when everything went downhill.

“So you know... It was out of our control Diamond Claw. We...” Diamond Claw raised and slammed his black claw into the ground

“Enough... you can have IT back, but I expect compensation. We can discuss it once Celestia arrives...” Luna nodded her head in acceptance, she figured they would have to do something in return to keep good relations with the griffin kingdom. But now that he knew everything... things were probably going to get really bad. They would most likely have to give up land in Equestria for a colony. Hopefully they could still talk him out of settling in an area that wasn’t already occupied by ponies.

Diamond Claw got up from his throne and walked over to the large red box at the end of the throne room. He walked around the box in the middle of the room giving it a wide girth. Luna couldn’t figure out why, it seemed like he was avoiding it. As Luna neared the large red box she could hear some kind of voice singing from underneath the it, Was Merry inside? Diamond Claw grew a large scowl on his face.

“La lalalala lala la... la lalala lala... la lalalala lala...”

“How is he awake?! He can’t be awake yet!” Luna and all of the ponies couldn’t figure out what he meant by that. But Diamond Claw proceeded to rip the red cloth off revealing a huge steel cage with black bars. It was built right next to the wall and inside it was a large creature that looked like Merry sitting naked with his back to them.

“Well that big thing can’t possibly be...” It wasn’t until they saw what was left of the dragon tattoo on his back did they know it was truly him. It was so scarred it was hardly recognizable anymore.

“But... that dragon...” Some of the children wiggled their way forward to get a better look.

That’s when they saw that the golden chains were connected to Merry himself. All of the Mares were suddenly angry at him being naked and chained inside of a cage. Before they could voice their opinion, they could hear Merry was singing.

“I will never be afraid again. I will keep on fighting till the end. I can walk on water I can fly... I will keep on fighting till I die... What is this?” Luna ushered the children behind her as they just looked at him. Merry turned around to look at all of the ponies.

“Have you brought ponies to do your bidding, thinking I wont kill them as well Captain Feather Butt?” Merry smiled at them, showing the sharp canines. All of the ponies gasped, he didn’t have those teeth before. While the ponies were at a loss for words Merry spun around to face them still sitting with his legs crossed. Then he looked down to his right at an empty spot on the floor.

“No Mr. Biggels Worth. I tolded yous, I can’t pour you another... Well I don’t know if the ponies would like some Whiskey. Let me ask.” Merry turned his head up to face the ponies.

“Mr Biggels wants to know if any of you mares, fillies or colts would like some delicious Whiskey?” All of the ponies looked at each other, then the mane six and Luna looked over to Twilight. The children just had confused looks on their faces, this wasn’t the Merry that was with them for the few days at the castle.

“Twilight! Do something!” Twilight looked over to her friends and then to Diamond Claw.

“Open the door, I need to be near him for this to work.” Diamond Claw raised an eyebrow at the purple mare.

“Are you sure?” Twilight nodded her head at Diamond Claw

“I’m positive I can fix him!” Diamond Claw moved his claw to his chin in thought for a minute.

“Fine, Do what you want! Just don’t say I didn’t warn you!” Merry picked his head up as Diamond Claw raised his voice at Twilight.

“Glork did you hear that...?” Merry tilted his head down to his right shoulder and then nodded “Indeed, The soon to be dead shouldn’t talk so loud.” Twilight gulped as the cage door was opened and she walked inside. The griffin guards quickly locked the cage door behind her.

“Merry?” Merry looked up from his shoulder and over at Twilight, he gave her a critical eye.

“You didn’t bring any of that green liquid stuff? Or are you perhaps... hiding it? And how do you know my name?” Twilight shook her head

“How could you forget us? We’re your friends! From back in Ponyville... don’t you remember? What happened to you?” Merry just leaned forward putting his elbow on his knee and his head on his hand looking at her with one eye.

“Ponyville... Ponyville... So you’re a survivor from when the griffins attacked Ponyville? What are you doing here?” Twilights eyes began to tear up. He couldn’t remember her at all it seemed, and what was he talking about, griffin attack? Luna spoke up and looked over to Diamond Claw.

“What green liquid is he referring to?” She looked to one of the guards then over to Diamond Claw.

“Just a simple tranquilizer that was used in his capture, what was it called again...?” Diamond Claw looks up to his ceiling then back to Luna and shrugs. “I forget, but the Zebras use it to put to sleep attacking Tigers and other large dangerous animals.”

“You can’t be serious Diamond Claw... Did you use the dreaded Gonzo on Merry? How much have you given him?!” Diamond shrugged nonchalantly.

“Can’t be that much, I’ve only had him for about a week.” Luna grew visibly angry with Diamond Claw.

“That vile stuff destroys minds Diamond Claw!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few minutes before the ponies had arrived Merry was having a wonderful dream about a normal life in Ponyville as if nothing had happened.

“I don’t know Scoots, I don’t think Featherweight is the right one for you. Perhaps you should hold off on getting married.” Adult Scootaloo just glared at Merry, her overbearing dad.

“You just cant understand our love dad!” Merry just shook his head in disappointment

“I still think a solid earth pony would do you good. I know they can’t fly but hey, they are very dependable!” Merry just smiled at Scoots as she puffed out her cheeks in frustration.

“No way dad... Me and Featherweight are getting married, and that’s final!” Merry just put his hand on his chin in thought

“Well... I see I cant persuade you... but maybe I can talk Featherweight out of it...”

“What! Dad, NO! You will do no such thing!” Scootaloo stomped her hoof into the ground.

“Scootaloo please, if he cant even stand up for himself, what makes you think he can stand up for you? Let me just test him and...” The world suddenly rippled as a new voice entered

“Merry, wake up, I just finished the modifications to your body.”

“Did you hear something dad?” Scootaloo was looking up into the sky, and so was Merry.

“I-I.. I don’t know...”

‘’Wake the fuck up faggot.’‘

‘’‘It is time to wake.’‘’

“Merry WAKE UP!” The peaceful world shattered as Merry opened his eyes to the dark. He sat up but couldn’t see anything or anyone.

“Good, your awake finally, don’t worry much, during the modifications I took control over a lot of your body. I put your liver into overdrive so that sleeping crap they kept giving you wore off in no time.” Merry looked down at his shoulder and could see some white teeth glinting in what little light there was.

“Whats... who...” Merry shook his head and the memories of being captured returned to him. “Diamond Claw...”

“Yeah about that, let me tell you what I’ve been doing for the past 6 days. I spread myself as evenly as possible throughout your body so that it could be modified, and you know what? Your body is fucking hard as shit to modify. What should of taken me a few hours took days. Your bodies ability to regenerate was most troublesome. Its hard to deconstruct something when it starts to rebuild as its gets broken down...” Glork coughed for a moment

“But you know, being an all powerful beneficial parasite has its perks. I was able to do so much. Also your left hand is able to absorb pretty much everything. As such I used it to absorb the stone in the floor to help reenforce your bones. You probably feel a bit heavy, bu that’s because all of your bones are rather unbreakable now. I had to redesign all of your bones on the cellular level to do it, but it should work out just fine.” Merry brought his left hand up to his face, it didn’t feel any different, maybe a bit heavy, but he figured that was because he was still sleepy.

“Anyway, I turned your kidneys and liver into overdrive so that you could over come that sleeping tranq. I can set pretty much any part of your body to maximum efficiency. And not just that, I can take off the muscle limiters now. So instead of only 30% of your muscles used, you can use up to 100% of them... even when the adrenaline kicks in it was only about 60%.” The little mouth on Merry's shoulder just gave him a big smile letting the teeth glint with Merry's dark vision.

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying you’re beyond the average monster now... well when I turn it on anyway. I can stop it if I think its dangerous. I won’t let you kill yourself here. I’m part of you now, remember that little fact...”

‘’Hey! Check it! Found something good!’‘

‘’‘why don’t you sing along to it?’‘’

Basshunter- I can walk on water

“Yeah sure... don’t worry... I still love me some good music...”

“Who the fuck you talking too buddy?” Glork stopped speaking as Merry just started to sing a little tune for some reason.

“La lalalala lala la... la lalala lala... la lalalala lala... “ Suddenly Merry’s world filled with light, and it was so colorful. It was like looking through a prismatic stone. The colors of the rainbow were everywhere he looked.

“I will never be afraid again. I will keep on fighting till the end. I can walk on water I can fly... I will keep on fighting till I die... What is this?” Merry turned his head to look behind him at the voices behind him.

“Have you brought ponies to do your bidding, thinking I wont kill them as well Captain Feather Butt?” Merry just smiled at all of them.

‘’Those Ponies...’‘

‘’‘what are they doing here?’‘’

Suddenly Merry turned his head down to the right and saw what looked like a man wearing a full body suit was sitting at a bar with a drink in his hand. Merry felt like it was good, seeing the little man there. Like he had known him for years... his name was Mr Biggels Worth.

‘I say good Sir, could you pour me another whisky? I’m still frightfully thirsty. And perhaps those ponies would like a nice stiff drink as well hmm?’ Merry glanced back to the ponies and then looked back to Mr Biggels.

“No Mr. Biggels Worth. I tolded yous, I can’t pour you another... Well I don’t know if the ponies would like some Whiskey. Let me ask” Merry lifted his head and with a smile kept his eyes on them.

“Mr Biggels wants to know if any of you mares, fillies or colts would like some delicious Whiskey?” as no pony responded, Merry’s smile faded and he sighed.

“I figured nopony would want any whiskey, it is just too refined of a taste for them...”

‘’It sounds like they are talking about you.‘’

‘’‘Let them, they can do what they want! They will never take you!’‘’ Merry just chuckled to himself as he thought of it. There’s no way a couple of random ponies could take him if the griffins had trouble. Merry’s ears perked up at the voice that picked up next,

“Fine, Do what you can! Just don’t say I didn’t warn you!”

‘’Its that fucking griffin King Faggot! What is he talking about?!’‘ Merry looked up to see a purple pony standing in front of the cages door looking at Captain Feathers.

“Glork did you hear that...?” Merry tilted his head down to his right shoulder

“Those that need to die shouldn’t speak so loud...hehehe”

“Indeed, The soon to be dead shouldn’t talk so loud.” The purple pony gulped as the cage door was opened and she walked inside. The griffin guards quickly locked the cage door behind her.

“Merry?” Merry looked up from his shoulder and over at the purple unicorn, he gave her a critical eye.

“You didn’t bring any of that green liquid stuff? Or are you perhaps... hiding it? And how do you know my name?” The Purple pony shook her head

“How could you forget us? We’re your friends! From back in Ponyville... don’t you remember? What happened to you?” Merry just leaned forward putting his elbow on his knee and his head on his hand looking at her with one eye.

‘’‘she must be a survivor from the attack.’‘’

“Ponyville... Ponyville... So you’re a survivor from when the griffins attacked Ponyville? What are you doing here?” The purple pony looked sad for some reason. And she was crying, what the hell was she crying for?

“Merry...”

“How exactly do you know my name anyway? I haven’t told it to dem yet...” Merry gestured to the griffins in the room.

“Merry, I’m a friend from Ponyville, I’m... I’m going to cast a spell and have you remember, don’t worry, it shouldn’t hurt...” Merry raised an eyebrow as her horn glowed a purple color and soon after a small purple ray hit him in the head. Memories began to flood into his head. All that he had forgotten and others he had hoped to forget.

It wasn’t just his memories that came to the surface, it was also the ones of the children that he had saved from that horrible orphanage. Everything flooded into his mind at once, and it was a terrible overload. Merry fell over in a lump breathing heavily. The next sentence out of Merry’s mouth was fragmented.

“You pony sick how help brain hurt.” Merry shook his head and stuck his tongue out. “You dun right wing...” Merry growled and shook his head. “BRAIN! NO! LAZY! LEFT!” Merry grabbed at his hair and pulled on it in frustration.

“Haggle se plugh!” Some of the children laughed as Merry continued to speak gibberish. Merry looked up and to his amazement, all of the children in front of him looked like Scootaloo. Merry suddenly got a huge grin on his face as he looked at all of the Scootaloo’s in front of him. Some laughing while others had a slightly scared look on their faces.

Merry brought his hands up and placed them behind his head, effectively giving himself a set of hand ears. He took a deep breath and stuck his tongue out making a funny face at them.

“Wraggle De Flargen Sparkle! Figgle de Moon le Sun boot!” Some more of the children continued to join in the giggle fest that Merry had decided to provide. And Twilight was relieved, he seemed to have remembered who he was from the memory spell. But, something was still wrong with him.

“Merry, I’m going to enter your mind, so... hold still” Merry stopped his laughing and looked over to Twilight. He gave her a confident look with a smile plastered on his face.

“So Gangsta!” Twilight just gave Merry an odd look as he continued to look at her with his stupid smile... that same smile he had on all the time when he was in Ponyville with Scootaloo.

Twilights horn gained a huge glow to it as she touched it to Merry’s forehead. He just closed his eyes and leaned forward as she touched it to him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight opened her eyes to see an almost empty void in front of her. She could see floating rocks all around her, and each one had a door or some other object on it. She looked around at the rock she was standing on and sure enough it had a door upon it. The doors color was a pale grey. As she looked around she could see each door had a different color to it. Curious as to where the door lead she walked up to it and opened it.

Inside she saw a grass meadow with two young creatures that looked like a smaller version of Merry running around. When she walked inside, the door shut behind her, but it was still visible. She went over to them as they were playing. Twilight cleared her throat as she began to speak.

“Hi, My name is Twilight Sparkle who are you?” The two small ningans looked up to Twilight with eyes wide and mouths agape.

“A PURPLE PONY! TOMMY! IT’S A PURPLE TALKING PONY!”

“HORRY SHHIT!”

“HAHA! You said SHIT!”

“NO I DIDN’T MERRY!” The two boys continued to argue back and forth until Twilight cleared her throat. And they noticed her again

“Oh almost forgot you where here!” the sky suddenly started to darken.

“Hey Tommy, where did that bruise on your arm come from?” Tommy covered the bruise on his arm with his hand.

“Yesterday, I fell down some steps...” Little Merry just shrugged

“You gotta be more safer Tommy!” Tommy nodded his head and looked up to the sky.

“Hmm, I’m sorry, but its getting late I have to go home now Merry... I’ll play tomorrow though, for sure!” Twilight looked down and saw that little Merry was nodding his head enthusiastically

“Alright then Tommy! I’ll see you tomorrow!” they waved goodbye to each other and as the boy named Tommy disappeared the world Twilight was in suddenly began to swirl and change. As if the sands of time were being fast forwarded.

They ended with her standing next to Merry who was at a dinner table, he looked a little older and depressed.

“Mom...”

“Yes sweetie?”

“What happened to Tommy? He used to live down the street... But I don’t see him anymore...” Twilight looked to Merry’s mother, she had dark red hair and a soft motherly glow about her, it reminded her of Celestia. The smile she gave during her response reminded her greatly of Celestia as well.

“He moved, don’t worry about him Merry, he’s fine...” Merry nodded his head. And for some reason Twilight could feel herself filling up with sadness. She couldn't understand why she was suddenly feeling sad, so she looked a Merry and cast a spell on herself that Luna had taught her. When the spell was complete she could see a light grey aura surrounding Merry, it was touching her. When she moved away from it, she no longer felt sad.

Merry’s emotions were starting to influence her... Luna hadn’t told her that was possible.

“I can’t wait to meet him again...” The word ‘again’ echoed as the world suddenly broke down again and fast forwarded.

She was standing inside a small room surrounded by books and Merry was standing in front of a man that she had seen at the dinner table beforehand.

“Hey dad, do you know where Tommy moved? I wanna send him this letter I wrote!” Twilight saw his dad visibly cringe at those last words.

“Son... there’s something... I need to tell you... your mother wasn’t being completely honest last week at dinner...” A grey cloud exploded outward from Merry. Twilight broke out into tears with Merry as his father told him that his best friend Tommy had died because Tommy’s parents weren’t the best and would hurt him from time to time. And that one day the hurt was too much and Tommy didn’t make it.

Twilight had never seen Merry cry before as an adult, but seeing him like this, was too much, she couldn’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to lose a close friend. She ran out of the room and as she exited the grey door she ended up back on the rock she had started from. She looked back to the door she had just exited from and saw the door slowly closing as she could see Merry crying his eyes out in front of his father.

The grey aura Merry was emitting was pouring out of the door until it closed completely.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Mommy?” one of the colts looked up to Luna after looking at Twilight and Merry.

“Yes? What is it Ozzy?”

“Why do Twilight and Merry have tears on their faces?” Luna looked up see tears were starting to form and move down their faces.

“Because Ozzy, it would seem Twilight uncovered something from the past... and it was painful.” Luna closed her eyes and hoped Twilight would be able to handle it on her own. Fixing a shattered mind was no easy task.

The fact Twilight was crying with Merry had her worried. If she couldn’t control the emotions packed into Merry’s memories it was going to be far more difficult and dangerous to finish her job...