“Ahhh John, please don’t… okay-okay I surrender!” Daring pleaded and I laughed triumphantly.

“Alas, the mighty adventurer falls to the dominant law bringer.” I was so playfully enticed that I didn’t notice another basin of water splashing down from behind me. I gasped and kept my eyes closed to protect them from the water which would sting my vision.

“And the adventurer sneak attacks to become victorious!” She announced. We had made an absolute mess of the washroom and I really hoped that it didn’t seep through the floor and have the ponies bellow us report us to the crew.

I ended up forgetting about the whole predicament as I looked into the mare’s eyes who lay underneath me. We were both dripping wet from the water fight. She was so breathtaking that it made my heart race. I began to find it difficult to breathe again and every so often I would have to take a large and sharp breath.

“John, are you okay?!” Daring asked, worried from my sharp breathing. I suddenly became shaky and nervous, her beauty seeming to make my legs want to buckle from under me.

I shouldn’t feel this way about her. She’s been through so much heartbreak and I… I couldn’t let things become unprofessional between us. “You win.” I said quickly as I attempted to get off from overtop of her. As I managed to get off from overtop of her, my legs finally buckled from my shakiness and I collapsed.

“JOHN!” Daring gasped as she rushed over to my side. I gulped as my nervousness continued to course shakes through my body. “John, please tell me you’re okay. Do you have a medical condition or something?” She asked and I shook my head as I quickly stood up and calmed myself.

“I’m fine. Just slipped, floor’s slippery now.” I stammered as I gulped deeply. She gave me a curious look then nodded. I chuckled to myself and grabbed my gun and holster. “Well I guess we’ll have to change.” I said then slowly trotted out of the bathroom and to my own room.

As I changed I recollected on what just happened. ‘You damn fool. Shaking like that. She probably knows you like her now. What were you thinking? That it would just click? She wouldn’t even like you, probably just laugh. She said so herself, you’re not her type.’ I thought to myself then sighed as I slipped on the trench coat and dress shirt along with the pants to match them.

I trotted out of my room to see Daring in that stunning white dress. “Thought you only wore white on your wedding day?” I mused and she smirked.

“Well maybe I just decided to get married today.” She laughed back. I chuckled from the comment but deep down it kind of hurt to have her talk like that. Not sure why I was feeling for her like this all of a sudden.

We trotted out of the parlour room then proceeded down to the lower levels. Soon my thoughts about Daring subsided for the moment and finally I was able to focus. On our way past the 2nd lowest level we bumped into Elijah and Bear.

“Howdy Elijah… Bear.” I greeted and Elijah simply gave a nod of respect. “Doing a bit of touring?” I asked but Elijah kept quiet and simply trotted past me. Bear however playfully jumped to his hindlegs and placed his forelegs on my chest, waging his tail and panting happily.

“Bear!” Elijah scowled and Bear’s tail whipped between his legs and he sadly made his way back over to his master. The two left us and proceeded down the hallway. I looked to Daring with a raised eyebrow and she just shrugged then we continued on.

We didn’t bother searching the lowest level because it was just the turbine engine room and steam rooms. We search from bottom up but never found anything. We didn’t even bump into Brixie and Billy.

We reached the deck level of the ship and I noticed it was nightfall. We had reached the arctic waters of Equestria and were now going around the top part of the nation. It was rather cold but the sky was brightly lit by a full moon.

The stars sparkled about and both Daring and I proceeded to the stern tip. Again I hopped up to my hindlegs and placed my forelegs on the railing. Daring did the same but gave a chilled shiver. I quickly took off my trench coat and wrapped her in it.

She looked to me with a warm smile but then frowned as she noticed that my handgun was now in plain sight. “I have a feeling that might be a problem.” She stated as she pointed to my pistol. I looked to it and shrugged.

“I have a feeling that no-pony is gonna come out tonight. It’s too cold. I think it’s safe to say it’s just you and me out here. The crew ponies won’t be able to see the gun from the command deck. Heck they probably can’t even see us it’s so dark.” I told her and she smiled.

She snuggled into the trench coat and sniffed it. “You know… you must have some strange ability to make everything you wear smell like you.” She chuckled and I frowned.

“Okay… I don’t smell that bad… do I?” I chuckled and she giggled.

“I didn’t say you smelt bad… well not now anyway. It smells good… kind of like… strawberries.” She said with a touch of confusion.

“I do not smell like strawberries.” I said bluntly and she nodded. “Do not.” I chirped.

“Do to, go ahead and smell for yourself.” She offered. I leaned over and sniffed my own coat. Amazingly it did smell like strawberries. I sniffed my fur and it didn’t smell as strongly as strawberries but there was a hint of it.

“Oh my goddess. I smell like fruit.” I muttered in a playful tone of depression, which got a stifled laugh from Daring. “Hey… you’re lucky. You only smell like…” I trailed off, leaned over then took a long whiff of her mane. Her scent made my nose tingle and I leaned back then sneezed.

“Did you just… sniff my mane?” She gasped and I nodded. “You… you didn’t even ask. You’re not supposed to sniff a mare’s mane unless you get permission first.” She told me. I rolled my eyes, knowing she was just fooling around.

“Yeah well, like I was saying. You’re the lucky one. You at least smell normal.” I commented and she looked into my eyes.

“What do I smell like?” She asked. I thought to myself for a moment. She didn’t really smell like anything in particular, she just smelt like… Daring.

“You smell like… like you.” I told her. She gave me a friendly punch to the shoulder. “No seriously. I don’t really know what else to compare it to. You smell like… like you.” I told her and she scrunched her nose.

“Well in that case… do I at least smell nice?” She asked and I nodded. “That’s good.” She muttered to herself.

“You smell… beautiful.” I told her, sounding like an idiot for not piecing my words together. She looked to me and blushed from the comment. We just stood there and watched the stars sparkle in the sky.

Eventually I found my gaze turning back to Daring. I could see my breath and I think that’s what gave me away. “John… are you feeling alright? You’re not gonna collapse on me again are you?” She asked and I chuckled then shook my head. Hopefully not. I wouldn’t like the idea of collapsing on this deck.

“Daring I…” I trailed off my sentence, not really knowing what I was going to say. My heart began to beat faster again as I looked into her deep pink eyes which seemed to gleam in the moonlight.

“John… are you uhm… what are you doing?” She asked as I stepped towards her, though sheepishly. I brought my hoof up to put on her shoulder but she stepped back. My heart sank. “John… what ‘are’ you doing?” She asked more curiously.

“Daring… It’s not easy to say this. Please don’t take this badly but… I think… I think that I… uhm… I lo…” I couldn’t manage to spit the words out. My heart was racing and I tried to mouth out the words but I think she got the message. She put her hoof up to my mouth.

“John please… don’t. It’d kill me. I can’t.” She told me and my heart sank further. ‘Told you so.’ The voice in my head sneered. Jeeze what a cheery conscious you are.

I tried to speak but she interrupted me. “John… I can’t love you back. I won’t. Please don’t think that I’m rejecting you because of you. You’re a great stallion, but I’m not a good mare. Lucky, my first… my only ‘Real’ coltfriend, died because of me. I could’ve rescued him. I didn’t tell you but he fell and I followed him. I tried to fly him back up but I couldn’t. His legs were broken with compound fractures. Some sort of…” She trailed off and began to weep.

I tried to comfort her in a loving hug but she held me back and choked back a sniffle. “When I flew for help it grabbed me. Lucky shot it but then the beast grabbed him. By the time I got back with help, all that was left was blood. John… I’ve tried so many times to move on but… either the stallion doesn’t love me for me or… or they leave me when they found out what happened to Lucky.” She told me.

“Daring… I lo… lo…” I still couldn’t say it. It was on the tip of my tongue and I knew she knew it but I still couldn’t spit it out.

“John… please don’t make this harder for me than it already is.” She pleaded but I needed to tell her. To get it off my chest. Regardless if she rejected me or not, she needed to know that I loved her.

“DARING I LOVE YOU! I love you for who you are. I’m sorry about Lucky but I won’t judge you about what happened. I just love you so much and… I just love you, for you.” I grimaced, waiting for something bad to happen but all that happened was nothing. I opened one eye and was greeted by nothing. I looked to see Daring galloping back to the hallway doors. I could hear her sobs from here.

My heart sank further. “Fuck… I blew it.” I muttered to myself.

Third person:

In the lower levels of the Lunar Titan stood a group of stallions, ten in total. Black Mane looked at the revolver in his hooves. No matter how hard he tried he couldn’t get it to work.

“Damn thing’s probably busted.” Said the blond furred stallion. Black mane looked to his second in command.

“Haven’t you heard the legend? Only Celestia or some-pony of pure soul can use the gun. Dammit… this thing has gotta work!” Black Mane hissed as he fidgeted with the revolver but once again when he pulled the trigger it simply clicked rather then fired.

“You should pitch that thing. It’s useless. Besides, we got the gold so why the hell do you care if you don’t have the stupid revolver?” The blond stallion looked to Black Mane curiously and he was returned with a cold glare.

“Charles… this revolver is legendary. It has been enchanted in ways you’d never think possible… FUCK!” Black Mane swore as once again the revolver failed to fire. Charles Price looked to Reese.

Reese was a stone grey stallion with a purple mane that had a single pink streak through it. His cutie mark was two blades crossing which spoke for his talent perfectly. He was a blades master, one of notorious legend as well. Rather than brandish a gun like the rest of the gang, he used to razor sharp katanas as his choice of weaponry.

Charles simply chuckled. “Well Reese, you know what you gotta do man.” Charles commented and Reese nodded. The group had spotted Billy the Foal and his marefriend, Brixie, searching the ship, obviously looking for them. The group had decided the Reese should take out the group since he was the only one with a silent weapon.

Reese nodded then went to leave but Black Mane grabbed him by the shoulder and handed him a script of paper. It was old and somewhat tattered. It was a rather old map of Dodge Junction. “Give that to John… unless you kill him.” Black Mane told the oriental stallion who nodded then silently trotted away.

Elsewhere in the frozen and barren waste of icy plains, underneath hundreds of feet of ice, a lone purple glow faintly illuminated the ice. Sombra could feel the presence. He may be trapped in ice but that didn’t mean he couldn’t use his magic to manipulate the ice that trapped him in his confinement.

Author's Notes:

I have one thing to say. This story gave me one crazy ass dream last night. I had a dream about the next chapter and it felt so real, except I was a me, not John. Not gonna spoil it for you but it's INSANE!
"I'd rather be alive and poor than rich and dead at the bottom of the ocean!" I gritted my teeth.
"Lady get away from the fucking door!" I let off one barrel after another, blowing away the hinges on the door.
"Please, help me! We need to find Bear. They have him in the lower cargo bays!" I swore to myself. The ship was sinking!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o--bLEobBFY

Okay so small spoilers but nothing too big. The next chapter is gonna be unreal... If I can manage to put what I saw in my dream into words, one thing I gotta remember is that it was cold... really cold.