Your Wings Were Made For Angels

by Still Breeze

Revelations

Chapter 10: Revelations

He was brought about from the blackness by a steady electronic beeping. His eyelids peeled open, and shut again when an intense light dazzled him. The stallion turned his head to the side and opened his eyed ever so slightly once more and noticed he was on a small, darkened room. He tried to sit up from the hard surface which he lied on his back, but he couldn’t move his forelegs. Looking down, he was faced with the biggest phobia in his life.

Straps.

Leather belts were holding his arms to some sort of table. The electronic beeping became much more intense as he struggled desperately to wriggle free. He was still filthy, covered in blood and soot and he reeked of smoke and the metalalic stench of blood. A second light source came to Cantor’s attention, accompanied by a new presence in the room. A pony. As this newcomer spoke, cantor felt something simmer inside of him and begin to make it’s way to his head.

“Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?” The dark stallion remarked. That pushed Cantor’s rage over boiling point. He screamed in fury as his right foreleg tensed. Veins were visible, even under his bloody coat and the strap restraining him gave way. His hard hoof sailed through the air at incredible speeds and didn’t stop, even when it collided with this imposing stallion’s face.

The dark figure stumbled backwards with a shriek and Cantor ripped the left strap from the table. He found the little concentration to summon the magic to break the restraints on his legs. He shot to the floor, snarling through his teeth that had turned into interlocking fangs at the dark shape rubbing the end of his nose with his front hoof and moaning in pain. In an instant, Cantor was across the room and had the other stallion pinned to the wall by his neck. The alicorn’s left foreleg pressed into the stallion’s windpipe, causing him to choke.

“Where the FUCK am I!?” Cantor demanded through bared fangs.

The other pony was suspended a few feet from the floor and he clawed hopelessly at the iron arm that cut off his air. “Sir… sir…” he squeaked.

“WHERE AM I!?” Cantor bellowed in a voice that wasn’t his and punched straight through the wall to the side of the other stallion’s head with his free hoof, missing his head by inches, leaning even more forcefully into the stallion’s throat to stabilize himself.

It was only after the pony under his unusual strength began to loose power in his struggling that Cantor’s mind cleared instantly and he released the suffocating stallion. The smaller pony, who turned out to be an orange-coated unicorn gasped for air on the floor, clasping his throat.

“Oh, my god! I’m so sorry! Are you okay?” Cantor asked hastily, rushing to the unicorn’s side to help him to his hooves.

“It’s-“ The unicorn’s voice came out no more than a hoarse whisper. He cleared his throat and began again. “It’s quite alright.” He said. “We shouldn’t have tied you down.” He brought his hoof back to his nose, which was dripping blood.

“I’m really sorry…” Cantor said meekly, like a foal who had just broken something belonging to his parents.

“It’s okay; I’m a doctor.” Replied the unicorn.

“Are you?” Asked Cantor, squinting at the shadowed figure. “Am I in a hospital?” he asked, looking around the dark room.

“I’m sorry…” Began the unicorn. He had quite a boring voice whenever he spoke. “We seem to have gotten off on the wrong hoof.” The horn atop his head glowed dimly and several strip lights flickered on above. Cantor was dazzled and he shut his eyes for a moment. He slowly opened them and could now see that he was in what looked like an operating room.

“Good evening. My name is Dr. Stable. I hear your name is Cantor.” Said the unicorn, extending the hoof that was not covered in blood. Cantor could now see that he was wearing a long white coat and he had frameless glasses perched on the tip of his nose, one of the lenses now shattered. He also had a stethoscope draped casually around his neck.

Cantor took the doctor’s hoof and shook firmly. He noticed his foreleg which should have been white was a disgusting mix of black soot and dried-on blood. “You are a remarkable specimen, Mr. Cantor…”

“How do you know my name?”

“Your friend, Twilight sparkle arrived at the hospital not long after you-”

“How did I get here?” Cantor interrupted.

“Look, let’s at least sit down in my office so I can get some tissues for my nose and I can explain the whole thing.” He walked over to the open door. “Please follow me.”

Cantor followed Dr. Stable down several long corridors. Along the way, near the security room, the two passed a brown Earth pony stallion dressed in a tight light-blue shirt that showed off his muscles. He wore a utility belt around his waist and a thin black tie around his neck. Along his head, his grey hair was cut into a short mohican, that spoke for itself. He brought his hoof around and rested it on one of the instruments on his belt. The doctor looked at him and shook his head disarmingly and the guard stallion complied, returning his hoof to the floor and giving Cantor a look as if to say “I’m watching you.” And Cantor gave a look back that said “Try it.”

Cantor and Dr. Stable continued down the hallways. It was all very confusing to Cantor, his head still ached from… from…

“Why can’t I remember?” He thought. “There was a fire and… then I…” A sudden flash of remembrance flew across his mind.

“The girls!” He shouted. “Where are they!”

“You mean the three fillies?” Stable asked, stopping and turning his head slightly, but not actually making eye contact with Cantor. “They’re fine.” he answered, and Cantor sighed in relief. Now he remembered: Rarity’s house collapsed on him and he had protected three young ponies. “A few cuts and bruises, and they’re a little shaken, but no real harm done.”

“Good.” Sighed the alicorn.

“All thanks to you.” Said the doctor.

“What?” Cantor asked, picking up his pace to walk alongside the doctor.

“Sir, you have saved three innocent lives. You should be very proud of yourself.”

“Awesome!” Cantor replied, obeying the doctor and indeed feeling pretty good about himself just then.

“Quite.” Remarked Stable. “Ah, here we are.” He opened the door to his office with magic and stepped inside. Cantor followed. He looked as if he had been killed in a house fire. Except he was walking among the living. Nearly everypony he walked past gaped at his horrendous appearance.

“Take a seat, Cantor.” Dr. Stable said, gesturing towards a bench to the far wall and drawing several tissues from a box atop a filing cabinet for his nose. The alicorn complied, planting himself on the wooden seat.

“So… How did I get here?” Cantor asked, leaning forward in his chair, resting his aching head on his hoof.

“You were rushed here by the ambulance pegasi. When they found you, they said you were in pretty bad shape.”

“I was?” Asked the burnt, dirty blood-smeared stallion.

“The way they described it, it seemed as though you shouldn’t actually be alive.”

“Oh…” Was all Cantor could say.

“Another curiosity is why you are an alicorn. Are you… related to the princesses an any way?”

“No. I’m… I’m not…” Cantor replied weakly. The doctor looked dissatisfied. “Look,” Started Cantor, “We’re on the brink of something big and I really don’t want to go into it… so can we please move onto the next question?”

Dr. Stable narrowed his eyes. Behind him, the moonlight filtering through the window was cut off by the powerful hospital lights flooding the room. “Alright. I suppose that will have to do…” He slowly spoke. And Cantor sighed in relief inside his head, trying not to show it. “Mr. Cantor, if I may call you that.”

“Actually, I prefer just Cantor.” The alicorn replied, smiling.

“Alright.” Stable responded. “You certainly are remarkable, Cantor.” The doctor said, flicking through pages on a clipboard he levitated in front of him. “Torn ligaments, wing fractures in multiple places, fourth degree burns!?” Stable looked up in surprise at Cantor, and all the alicorn did was cough nervously. Stable returned to his sheet. “Deep lacerations to the back, neck, head and wings.” He paused for breath, not taking his eyes off of the paper. “Feathers torn from roots, splintered all four of your shin bones! You broke your back!”

“Well, something really heavy did land on me…”

“Cantor,” Said the doctor in astonishment, removing the broken glasses from his nose with his hoof and setting them down noisily on the table, leaning forwards in his chair. “If anypony else had even half of these injuries on the ‘lesser’ side, for them to be alive would be nothing short of a miracle. For them to be conscious is out of the question. But for them to go through something half as bad as that and be able to walk and talk is…” He thought about his next words for a second “medically impossible!”

Cantor couldn’t think of a response. Instead, he just shrugged sheepishly. “I don’t know any more than you, doc…” He answered eventually. “But why did you tie me down?”

Dr. Stable brought the bundle of tissues, already soaked in blood up to his nose again. He would later have to check if it was broken. “We knew alicorns were powerful. We didn’t want to take any risks.” Cantor frowned. “When the paramedics found you, your life signs were at a bare minimum, but by the time they got you to the intensive care unit, the gouges in your body had… begun to close…” The doctor frowned deeply in thought.

“How deep were these ‘gouges’?” Asked Cantor.

Stable had to think about how to word his response. “Think about it as if somepony got an ice-cream scoop and dug it through your flesh.”

“Ouch…” Cantor remarked.

“Indeed…” Replied Stable. A small red light blinked on the desk he was sat behind, accompanied by a female’s voice: “Dr. Stable, the bath is ready.”

“Thank you, Miss Goodall.” The doctor spoke into the speaker, pressing down on a black button with his right hoof. “Um, Cantor, you may want to get yourself cleaned up, you’re… quite a sight…” The alicorn looked down his filthy body. “We’ve run a hot bath for you, to get yourself cleaned up in. Now, if you would please follow me…” Dr. Stable said, rising from his swivel chair. “Would you like a drink?” he asked as he neared the door.

Until now, cantor hadn’t realised just how thirsty and hungry he was. “Yes, please.” He answered gratefully and the orange unicorn opened up a fridge disguised as a cabinet and withdrew two bottles of water using his magic. He floated one towards Cantor and the grateful alicorn took it with his own pale lilac aura. He tried to unscrew the cap, but that proved futile as it was far too intricate to do with the magic he had learned. He pulled the cap from the bottle, destroying the thread inside and downed three quarters of the bottle in only a few seconds. It was so refreshing; the fridge had made it ice cold and the blackened stallion could feel it’s chill running through his body.

Cantor drew the bottle away from his mouth with a loud gasp for air. “Thirsty?” Asked Dr. Stable.

“I was.” Cantor answered, wiping his mouth with a dirty foreleg. “Thanks, doctor.”

“Don’t mention it.” The dark maned unicorn replied. And with that, Cantor finished up the last of the refreshing liquid. “Would you like another?” Asked Stable, opening the fridge door again.

“Thank you, but I’m fine now.” Cantor declined politely.

“Great.” The doctor responded, taking a shallow sip from his own beverage.

Cantor and Stable walked slowly down the corridor, the sight of Cantor turning more heads. “I guess everypony knows I’m an alicorn now, huh…” Cantor asked.

“Oh, yes.” Replied the doctor. “News spreads fast. This sort of story will become global by tomorrow.” Cantor shuddered. Everypony in the world would soon know his face. He hated to admit it to himself, but. It actually felt kind of good...

“What time is it?” Cantor asked, noticing the abundance of nurses and doctors wandering around, but no patients; they were all asleep in bed.

“Uh…” Stable sighed, pulling up his left foreleg and staring at a golden watch with a brown strap fastened tightly around the leg. “Two-fifteen.”

“In the morning!?”

The two stopped walking in front of a window. They both looked outside into the night sky. “Unless the dear princesses are playing some sort of practical joke, yes, it’s two-fifteen in the morning.

“So I was asleep the entire day?” Cantor asked as they began to move again, thankful that he finally got some sleep.

Stable simply replied: “Yes.”

The two continued to career along corridors and down one anorexic flight of stairs, which proved very difficult for Cantor; he nearly tripped and fell head over hooves, much to the doctor’s stifled amusement. “Ah, here we are.” Declared Stable as they neared a closed door. “You go in and get yourself cleaned up. I’ll meet you in forty minutes.”

Cantor nodded facing the door. “Okay.” He opened it with magic and a fragrant plume of steam drifted out, moistening his coat. “I’ll see you later, doc.” He said as he walked through the doorway and into the humid bathroom. “Oh, sorry again about your nose.”

It’s quite alright.” Replied Stable, turning and trotting off down the hallway. “See you in a little while!” He called.

“Bye!” Cantor called back as the doctor disappeared through some swinging wooden doors at the end of the hallway.
Cantor gladly climbed into the piping hot bath, letting the water wash away all the grime. He slid down into the water, the oils in the soaps soaking into his body, releasing all his aches and pains.

“Ahhh…” Cantor sighed in pleasure as he raised his wings out of the water and the moisture ran down his feathers and fell back into the bath when it reached the tips. They felt just like new; the bones had fully healed themselves and the muscle that had been shredded to pieces by the bone fragments had reformed. He allowed himself several wing beats, sending pink bubbles flying into the air. Cantor returned his wings underwater and rubbed the crusty blood out of the feathers, returning them to a gleaming white. He then set to work on his body, starting with his face. He rubbed all around his head and hair with a soft round sponge, causing foam to overtake his head and soon he had to dive underwater to clear it up. This bath was much bigger than Twilight’s. “Perhaps it was a maternity bath?” Thought cantor. It was a lot wider and deeper than a regular bath and it had a more circular shape.

Cantor cleaned his chest, legs and back and thought that he was clean before he noticed one last patch of filth on his left flank. Sitting up in the tub, he rubbed at it fiercely with the sponge. Nothing happened. He tried again, and the same outcome ensued. Cantor stared at the mark for a moment before he gasped in wonderment. He held his breath as he looked at his other flank, and sure enough, there was another mark and upon closer inspection, appeared identical to the one on his left side. Even though he couldn’t tell exactly what this mark looked like, he was sure about what it was. “Oh, yes!” He shouted, hoof-punching the air. His excitement died though the moment he heard a tapping on the door.

“Everything alright in there?” A mare’s voice came.

Cantor blushed furiously in embarrassment at what that outburst must have sounded like from outside. “Yeah. I’m fine…”

“Actually, I think I’m finished.” He called out. “Why the hell did I say that?” He whispered to himself afterwards.

“Oh. Okay… I’ll be waiting outside…” came the reply. It was obvious that the pony on the other side of the door was trying to hold back laughter. Cantor sighed humorously and pulled the plug in the bath, sending the maroon coloured water racing into the drains. He watched it and listened to the gurgling for a moment before turning to find towels, hoping this kind of thing wouldn’t occur too frequently.

After drying off, Cantor left the towel folded neatly on the toilet and watched the last of the bloody water trickle away. He couldn’t help but salute playfully, for old time’s sake. He unlocked the door and opened it broadly, to reveal a certain purple unicorn sat on a hospital bench and blushing fiercely. Her eyes told Cantor exactly what she was thinking.

“Look,” The stallion started, “That didn’t happen. To be honest, I actually don’t know how it would…” He said, examining the underside of his hoof and making a pained expression.

“I didn’t say a word.” Said Twilight through an immature grin.

“Twilight…” Cantor began, lowering his hoof to the ground. “I’m… I’m…” He raised his wings halfway.

“I know.” She replied, her smile dying as she spoke. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” She asked. Her tone was desperate.

“I thought it might cause complications.” Replied Cantor, honesty evident in his voice.

“I really don’t like ponies keeping secrets from me. Especially-“ Her eyes grew in the moment she paused, “you…”

“Well it’s out now.” Cantor replied with a sigh. “Do you think we can still be friends?”

“Of course.” Twilight answered, a picturesque smile worn on her tired face. "How could we not be?"

“I can’t believe you waited for me. It’s like, what? Three in the morning!” Cantor commented as the two ambled between wards, trying to keep their voices just above whispers.

“I couldn’t possibly sleep.” Twilight responded, gazing into those orange eyes. “When they pulled you out-“ She choked and held back a sob, stopping and turning her head to the floor. “When they pulled you out,” She tried again. By now, she was crying silently, however, her tears didn’t affect her voice in the slightest. “There were… bits of your body… missing.” She sniffed “You were covered in blood and soot and your bones were sticking out of your knees. You weren’t moving. I thought… I thought you…” She sniffed again, hung her head low and let out a shaking breath. She couldn’t bring herself even to say it.

Cantor quickly checked up and down the hallway. Nopony was around. “Here.” He said, placing his foreleg around Twilight’s waist, proceeding to guide her towards another, rather conveniently placed bench. The unicorn was wiping her eyes, trying to stop herself crying. She sat down and cantor sat opposite her, but so that they were facing each other, even though Twilight looked away. He firmly held Twilight’s smaller hoof in his own. “Twilight.” He said. The mare took in a trembling breath, still covering her eyes with her other hoof. “Twilight, look at me.” He ordered, but not with the slightest hint of aggression. She complied, bringing her foreleg down and allowing Cantor to guide her face towards his. She tenderly gazed into Cantor’s deep eyes and he burned into hers.

“I will never leave you.” He spoke firmly with his brow furrowed. Not intimidating or angry. Instead, this expression showed that what he was saying was the pure truth. “I promise.” Twilight’s tears stopped and their faces drew closer to each other’s. Cantor’s hoof stayed just below Twilight’s cheek as he leaned in. Their eyes began to close and the world around them faded as in an unexpected moment of passion, a feint voice came from somewhere distant. The hallway became clear again and Cantor turned around to see who had spoke. Twilight, with her eyes closed, crashed into his solid neck.

“There you are! I went to the bathroom – like we promised…” The orange stallion spoke, his nose now clean, making his way rapidly towards Cantor. “To find an empty room!” It was clear that he was angry, but all Cantor did was smile deeply. He turned back to face the small mare. She was gently blushing, her hoof still clasped over his and she was gazing into his eyes, and he gazed right back. They could both see what the other was thinking: “This was a special moment. Even if nothing happened…”

“…And then I find you wandering around the maternity wing!” Dr. Stable continued his rant. “Miss sparkle, I don’t know if you are expecting, but until that time comes, will you please let the new mothers get their rest?” Twilight’s face reddened and she turned away smiling.

“Aw, come on, doc, we weren’t loud enough to disturb anypony!” Cantor replied.

“Never the less…” Stable continued, “I became worried when you weren’t there. And Twilight Sparkle! I thought I told you to stay in the waiting room.”

“Sorry, sir…” Twilight apologised, still wearing her wonderful grin. “It won’t happen again.”

“I should hope so…” Commented the doctor.

“Actually, Miss Sparkle, would you mind going home? I needn’t remind you that visiting hours ended… yesterday, and you should get some rest.” Stable said when the trio reached the main entrance.

Twilight first looked for answers in Cantor. “Go on, Twilight. I’m honoured that you’d wait all this time, but you do look really tired and I’ll see you tomorrow, alright?” Twilight hung her head. “I promise.” He added. Twilight looked back up with a wonderful expression of understanding. She nodded firmly. “Do you need any help home?” the gentle alicorn asked, taking a step closer to the purple mare.

“No.” Said the doctor sharply. “Cantor has to stay here. We need to run a few tests.”

“Tests?”
“Tests?”

Both Cantor and Twilight asked simultaneously. Cantor raised his leviathan wings. The tips brushed along the roof, bending the feathers horizontal. “What kind of tests?” Cantor asked, turning away from Twilight, he was large to start with. With the addition of his wings, he looked enormous and the doctor took a step back.

“Just some blood samples, maybe an x-ray.” He replied shakily. “Nothing too… sinister.”

“Alright…” Cantor replied slowly, deflating his wings and folding them behind his back.

“We’ll let you go in the morning.” Stable assured, readjusting his spare spectacles and turning to face Twilight. “If you need any assistance getting home, I could get-“

“No, no. It’s fine.” Twilight interrupted politely – if there were such a thing. “I’ll make my own way home; it’s not too far from here.” She said cheerily.

“Are you sure?” Asked Cantor.

“Positive.” She replied.

“Alright. See you tomorrow, Twilight!” Cantor called as she pushed the main hospital doors open with her head and disappeared into the night.

“Come now, Cantor,” Dr. Stable said abruptly, turning and making his way down another corridor. “We are just going to-“

“I just want you to know that being restrained like I was earlier is my biggest phobia…” Cantor whispered from behind Stable, just inches away from his ear in a horrifying voice he wasn’t sure he was even capable of. “If you ever try something like that again,” He exhaled loudly and moved even closer so his lips were almost touching the doctor’s ear, “I’ll tear this place to the ground… okay?”

Dr. Stable shuddered and swallowed nervously. “Of course…” He answered in absolute fear.

“Good.” Replied Cantor in his usual voice. “I’m glad we’re clear on something…” Though it was an empty threat, Cantor would have made the doctor’s life hell; he seemed to loose control when he was tied down, unable to move. The two stallions made their way to the room in which these ‘tests’ would be held. In silence.

Cantor sat on the examination table of the doctor’s surgery. Dr. Stable was processing the blood sample he took in another room. The alicorn’s eyes searched the room lazily. On the bight blue walls, there were posters on certain diseases and diagrams of parts of the equine body. Nestled in the corner was a tall potted plant that had clearly seen better days. The room was small. There was enough space for an examination bench and a desk opposite it. Framed certificates of Stable’s education hung proudly behind the desk and each showed some sort of large, fancy-looking signature.

“Alright, Cantor,” Said the doctor, walking through the doorway at the back of the room carrying a clipboard in front of his face with magic. He read it as he walked. “your results are back, and I must say I’m impressed…” He stopped moving and looked towards Cantor for a response. The alicorn just smiled foalishly and shrugged. “You’re the, how should I put this?... ‘Cleanest’ patient I’ve ever seen.

“What do you mean?” Asked Cantor.

“Well, there’s not a thing wrong with you. Blood sugar levels are normal, sufficient insulin, your blood pressure is regular, even after all that blood you lost. There are no impurities; no drugs of any kind. Your blood is… perfect!” Cantor clopped his hooves together. “I do hope you’ll be more careful; we don’t want to be loosing much more in house fires do we?”

“No, doctor.” Cantor replied. “If you want to take some as like a ‘donation’, I’d be happy to comply.”

“Actually, would you? You see, your blood type is also the rarest; AB negative – only one percent of the population of Equestria has it.”

“Do you have any at all?”

“No. not a drop. It’s so rare that we don’t think we need it. That changed three months ago.”

“What happened?” Cantor enquired. The doctor turned away and run his hoof around on the floor. As he spoke.

“There was a carriage crash. All the passengers and the driver were pegasi; they flew out the windows. There was one Earth pony mare on board. Nopony came back for her.” He took his glasses off and placed them on the edge of his desk. He massaged the bridge of his nose with his hoof. “She was ten months pregnant.”

“What happened then?” Cantor repeated.

“The carriage plummeted from a cliff. No survivors were expected, but the search and rescue team found her with crippling blood loss, but she was alive… only she was alive…” He brought out a box of tissues and dabbed his eyes with one as he continued. “If we had any stores of AB negative, we could have saved her.” He cleared his throat and stuffed the tissue into his coat pocket, turning around to face Cantor.

“That’s terrible.” The alicorn replied solemnly, his eyes dropped to the floor.

“Is it?” The doctor asked. Cantor looked back up and met his intense gaze. “I actually think it was for the best.” Cantor frowned in thought. “So she could be with her foal…” Doctor Stable finished.

“I see…” Cantor replied in understanding.

“Anyway!” Stable began abruptly, dispelling some of the negative vibes from the small room. “Let’s get that blood!” He then trotted to the side room and brought out an unnervingly large clear bag which sprouted a thick tube with a needle at the end.

“So, I can go in the morning, right doc?” Asked Cantor, holding out his left foreleg.

Dr. Stable took the limb and parted the hair, revealing the pale skin below. “Of course.” He said, pushing the needle into a vein. Almost instantly, the bag began to fill with blood. “My, my…” Remarked Stable. “You certainly have a pulse.” He admired the bag filling with the rare life fluid, all the while Cantor tried desperately not to burst out laughing at the doctor’s unintentional innuendo.

...

“That was fast.” Stable commented as he pulled the needle from the alicorn’s arm and gave him a small round plaster for the pinprick. But by the time Cantor had unwrapped the small bandage, the tiny hole had already closed up and the bleeding had stopped. He slapped the plaster over it anyway and stepped down from the table. Dr. Stable carried the bag of blood into a freezer room and set it down in an area marked: “AB-“ It was the only bag there.

The doctor exited the room shivering. His teeth chattered as he closed and locked the door behind him.

“Cold?” Cantor joked.

“Very.” Stable replied humourlessly. He looked to the clock. “What do you want to do?”

“Excuse me?”

“It’s five past five in the morning… You can stay here until sunrise, or if you like, you can go…”

Cantor quickly made his decision. “I think I’ll practice flying; I still need to learn how to land without falling over! Thank you for looking after me…”

“Not a problem. Just one more thing,”

“Yes?”

“We need to get your age… For insurance reasons…”

“Oh, okay. I’m sixteen.”

“Sixteen!?” Echoed the doctor in astonishment. “You’re six-teen!?”

“Yeah…” Cantor replied. “Is that a problem?”

“No, it’s just… You put your life on the line. To save the children?”

“Of course. It’s the right thing to do…”

“I respect you a great deal, Cantor. Such bravery is scarce nowadays…”

“Oh, stop!” Cantor said, his face beginning to heat up.

“I mean it.” Replied Stable. “I hope I see you again soon…” He smiled – something seldom seen from this particular pony.

“I don’t know how to take that sentence, doctor…” Cantor joked, turning around awkwardly in the small room and exiting into the bright hallway. The sky above was already beginning to brighten towards the east as the night began it’s slow retreat once more.

“Just stay out of trouble, okay?” Dr. Stable called out as Cantor ambled down the tiled floor.

“Will do!” Cantor called back. “See ya’ ‘round!”

“Goodbye, Cantor!” He replied, waving and closing the door to his office. The unicorn stallion re-read one of the parasite posters aloud to himself before dropping to his seat, exhausted. He sighed and rubbed his temples in a circular motion with the tips of his hooves, resting his elbows on the desk in front of him. “Hm.” He laughed contently in his throat. “Sixteen…” He murmured before returning his spare glasses to the end of his muzzle and began flicking through pages of paperwork in the dawning twilight of the new day.

It felt so great to be up in the sky; soaring without limits, wind pelting at his face, being in control. His back still ached from where it had broken, but given that was just under a day ago, Cantor thought it wasn’t so bad. He pulsed his wings hard, increasing the speed of his flight. He closed his eyes and opened his arms wide. They looked nothing more than stumps under his ridiculous wings. “Oh, yes!” He cried in ecstasy as a massive updraft sent him rocketing into the air, the resulting g-force sending shivers through his entire body. He soared at the height of clouds, the morning sun sending them a blazing orange colour, making them seem alive against the peachy sky above. His long orange mane and tail fluttered behind him like fire and he dove down with rapid speed.

He was still thundering over Ponyville, despite being airborne for nearly an hour. The alicorn soon became tired and instead of landing on the ground, hovered gingerly above a cloud, prodding it a few times, astonished that he could actually touch clouds. He gradually lowered himself onto the fluffy white surface. The feeling was as remarkable as flying. It was like standing on feather pillows. “It’s so soft…” Remarked Cantor in awe. “No wonder Rainbow Dash sleeps a lot.” With that said, he came over unusually drowsy. Maybe it was due to the influence of the cloud. Maybe because he hadn’t actually slept for two days, just that time where he was unconscious. He laid down atop the cloud. It was cool. Not uncomfortably cold, but refreshing… he gently closed his eyes, staring into the rising sun and sighed peacefully.

Cantor awoke abruptly, his back slamming into something hard. “Well, that’s one way to wake up.” He muttered after opening his eyes a crack and seeing clouds wafting above him. He made the quick and obvious assumption that he had fallen off of the cushy mattress. “Ogh!” He groaned as he sealed his eyes shut and returned to his feet, bringing his chest close to the ground, receiving an audible ‘crack’ from his new back that barely ached anymore. He stretched out his enormous wings, receiving not only the relaxing popping sounds, but also gasps from what sounded like a crowd of a lot of ponies.

The alicorn’s eyes shot open. All around him were ponies gawping wide-eyed at him. He did a full three-sixty degree turn and returned to where he began. There was a hushed silence among the ring of ponies stationary around him and they all held their breaths as Cantor took his. “Uh… Hi.” Saying this, the crowd erupted into gasps of astonishment and one-by-one, they began to bow. The ponies fell in quick succession until they all were facing the floor, heads bowed low and awaiting a response. “You don’t have to bow… I – I’m nopony special…” The crowd rose to standing simultaneously and instantly the moment he said this, the act creeped him out a little.

Without expectation, the great crowd of ponies rushed towards him, they became a roaring wall of questions and shouts. Without hesitation, Cantor took off into the sky, raising himself out of reach, but still able to commune.

“Who are you!?” Seemed to be the most common question heard.

“My name is Cantor!” He shouted, quelling all but two voices. He glared at the two teenage mares, destroying their conversation the instant one of them caught his gaze. “Finished?” He asked, sounding intimidating. The two mares nodded their heads rapidly, as if they were being shaken.

Several pegasus ponies were flying above the crowd that had lost it’s shape and now formed an untidy mess below. “One question at a time… please.” He asked, opening his arms out as if he were trying to embrace the air. As expected, the inaudible din started up again. “GUYS!” He yelled sharply, silencing everypony instantly. “Tell you what, I’ll ask you…” He felt kind of bad for taking the situation like this, but they deserved answers.

A multi-coloured army of forelegs raised instantly and Cantor contemplated which one to pick. Eventually, he decided on a pale orange earth pony who was waving frantically at him, to which he referred to as: “You, the pale orange pony!” He called whilst pointing.

“Um, yes…” She replied in a voice that didn’t differ too much from Fluttershy’s. “I thought the only unicorns with wings were the princesses… are you like a prince or something?”

“Well, no. I’m not a prince, but I don’t actually know about the first thing… there have been other winged unicorns, called ‘alicorns’, in the past, but I don’t know if they were all royal. Sorry…” Another barrage of hooves shot up and Cantor spoke without choosing anypony. “Look, I’m just a normal pony like you. Are there any questions that aren’t related to me being an alicorn?” A few hooves fell. “Or about where I came from?” Several more forelegs fell. “Or, about weather or not I’m related to the princess…” A vast majority of the hooves disappeared, leaving only a few ponies with theirs raised.

“What would you like to ask, dear?” Cantor said, turning to the only pegasus in the sky with her arm up, waiting patiently.

“Didn’t you save those three fillies in the fire yesterday?” The brilliant white pegasus asked, her electric blue mane bobbing up and down with her wing beats.

“Yes… that was me… actually, do you know where the owner of the house is? I’d like to talk to her.” Cantor replied softly.

“She passed out after the house exploded. The ambulance rushed her away to the hospital. I think she’s still there…” Answered the white mare.

“Thank you…” Cantor replied, turning back to the ground to see a large number of ponies had re-raised their hooves. The alicorn sighed. “Oh,” He remarked in surprise as he noticed a blonde pegasus standing out from the crowd. “You, dear,” He said towards the grey mare. She began to speak but another dark blue unicorn next to her interrupted, rattling off her question with her eyes closed and her nose in the air. The pegasus’ crossed eyes fell to the floor in disappointment and her happy smile died. The sight broke Cantor’s heart.

“Do you know whether-“

“Sorry, not you.” Cantor interrupted abruptly, his intention was to sound as rude as possible. The mail courier looked back up hopefully.

“What?” The royal blue unicorn asked in surprise, opening her eyes so she could see more than just herself.

“I meant Derpy.” He replied, looking the grey mare in one of her eyes and winking.

Derpy spoke in that adorable voice he could listen to for hours. “Did the fire make the ‘boom’ I heard yesterday?” Cantor started to reply, but his voice was drowned out by laughter from the crowd. Derpy’s face reddened and her eyes shimmered before she shut them and hung her head. The feeling of unnaceptance greeting her again like a disease, reminding her just how much of a useless pony she was.

“What’s so funny?” Cantor asked with a sincere face.

“Don’t listen to Derpy! She’s just an idiot!” Cackled the dark blue unicorn who had spoken in Derpy’s turn beforehoof.

Even though he was far away from her, Cantor could have sworn he saw a tear form around Derpy’s eye and run down her cheek. He could feel that burning sensation spitting inside him again.

“Excuse me?” He asked in disbelief. A few of the ponies below caught onto his tone and shut up immediately.

“Half the time, she doesn’t even know where she is!” The unicorn continued to bellow with laughter. Cantor was close to the brink when he saw Derpy begin to tremble. That pushed him to boiling point.

Faster than naturally possible, Cantor disappeared from the sky with a strong blast of his wings, smashing into the floor just next to the crowd of ponies who instantly stopped their shameful laughter when they saw the snarling alicorn. He landed with such force that the ground shook and four small craters appear under each of his hooves. He kept his gargantuan wings raised and stormed through the crowd, treading forcefully and snorting. Ponies parted as fast as they could as the huge alicorn thundered towards the blue bully.

The two made eye contact, Cantor’s disks of fire burned into the mare’s dark crimson ones. She backed up, out of the protective shell of ponies until her rump hit a tree slightly off the path. Her rear end stayed pressed up against the tree as Cantor pushed her face into the dirt just by glaring at her much like the effect that occurs when placing two of the same side of magnet near each other.

“Careful, I – I know self defence.” She said, putting on a brave voice.

“Well I know self offence!” Cantor snapped back, oblivious to how ridiculous that sentence sounded.

The mare’s horn lit up in an aura of deepest midnight. Cantor felt ripples of electric pain shoot through his body, making his hooves tingle. He frowned more intently and growled deeply like a dog. He felt the pain intensify, but he held on, for Derpy’s sake. This sensation lasted another four seconds before the mare stopped. Exhausted and terrified, she panted and covered her head with both of her trembling hooves. “I’m sorry…” She whimpered. Cantor calmed down at this notion; she had clearly learned her lesson.

“Don’t tell me you’re sorry.” He replied sharply.

“I’m… I’m sorry, Derpy…” She murmured. The teary-eyed pegasus stepped out from the crowd.

“I don’t think she heard you.” Cantor insisted.

“I’m sorry Derpy.” Said the mare a little louder than before, making her sorrow clear in her voice.

“Sorry for what?” Cantor asked.

“For… For calling you… an – an idiot…” She began to cry. Cantor smiled, satisfied that he had reduced her to as low as she could possibly go, destroying her self-centred ego.

“It’s okay.” Derpy simply said, her eyes showed kindness.

“I don’t think you’re an idiot, Derpy.” A light grey stallion said.

“Neither do I.” An orange maned Earth pony added.

Soon the whole crowd was chattering in agreement with one another.

“Thank you, Cantor.” Derpy said softly, nuzzling Cantor’s chest.

“Don’t worry about it.” He replied, resting his head on hers.

“Does anypony know which direction the library is?” He asked, looking back at the crowd. The white pegasus in the sky he spoke to earlier pointed to the left and shouted “That way!”

“Cheers!” Cantor replied. He flexed his wings, but before taking off, cast his gaze towards the dark blue unicorn, who was embracing Derpy and whispering something into her ear. He smiled contently, crouched down and leapt into the air, flying softly in the direction the pegasus pointed him in. Some of the other pegasi began to follow him. He turned round and smiled, though it was a hollow one. “Please don’t follow me.” He instructed softly, sending the nosy pegasi on their way. He hung in the air for a while, waiting for the ponies to disperse. “I’ll see you around, Derpy!” He called, waving goodbye to the grey mare.

“See you soon, Cantor!” She replied.

The white alicorn went to fly away, but stopped when he remembered something. He flew down to just above Derpy, blowing her mane around with the draft he was creating. “I never answered your question, did I, Derpy?”

She turned around. “Oh, no. I guess you didn’t!” She grinned.

“Well to finish,” Cantor said, “yes, that ‘boom’ was because of the fire.” Technically, this was true, but nopony needed to know any better.

“Okay, thanks…” She continued to smile. “I was just wondering because it made me drop my letters.” She scuffed at the floor whilst saying this.

“Knowing you, those letters were still probably delivered on time.” Cantor remarked with a smile of his own. “Bye, Derpy.” He called, then flew higher into the sky.

“Bye!” The blonde pegasus called back as he disappeared over the tree line, leaving Derpy the postal worker to chat with her new friends.

Twilight paced back and forth in her library. Once she had returned from the hospital, she found she couldn’t sleep. She kept trying to reassure herself that everything was fine, but she just couldn’t be certain. Her baby dragon assistant still slept soundly upstairs, though he had tried to stay awake, his little body simply couldn’t resist his rest. He snored loudly, but the thoughts flooding Twilight’s brain cancelled all noise. To try and refresh herself, Twilight had opened the windows on the ground floor, hoping to let a breeze in. however, this had been a rather still morning.

“Okay…” Twilight sighed and her pacing ceased. “Maybe a drink will calm me down…” Usually, she objected to drinking in the morning; it was something associated with the scum of society. She poured herself a very small amount of her whiskey from a bottle she kept in a cupboard out of Spike’s reach. She pursed her lips and raised the glass to her mouth when a voice from behind her made her jump.

“A little early for that, don’t you think?” Came a familiar male voice. Twilight whirled around to see Cantor leaning on the windowsill, resting his head on his hooves.

“Cantor! No, no… I was just…” She paused and stared into the golden liquid. “I had nerves…”

“Alright.” He simply replied with a smirk. “May I come in?” He asked, gesturing in the direction of the house.

“Oh, right. Sure.” Twilight responded. It was plain to see she had something troubling on her mind.

The door quickly opened and Cantor stepped inside. “Morning, Twilight.” He said looking down at the mare.

“Good morning.” She replied, returning a smile.

“So… I was wondering if you would like to come and see Rarity with me today?” He paused for a moment. “How is she?”

“She’s fine…” Twilight replied. “The explosion sent her flying backwards and she hit her head on a tree.”

“Oh… Sorry…” Cantor apologised, sending his eyes to the floor.

“Sorry… sorry for what?”

“That explosion was kind of… me.”

“You did that!?” She cried. “How?”

“I don’t know… I just sort of… did it with magic…”

“That was some really powerful spell! Why did you do it?”

Cantor looked back up, still wearing the apologetic look. “I could feel myself about to… break…” He snorted angrily. Frustrated that his actions hurt somepony. “If I had’ve gone then, the first thing to land on those fillies and kill them would have been me.” He dropped his eyes to the floor and scuffed it angrily.

“Please say I didn’t hurt anypony.” Asked cantor, feeling lower and lower the more things he said.

“Well… all of us watching fell over and Rarity hit the tree… but other than that, everypony was fine.” She smiled, this made the alicorn feel a lot better. “You know, it’s funny,” She began, still smiling, “It was raining debris for like five minutes afterwards.” She giggled, bringing Cantor further out of the dark. “Everypony in town heard it. And most importantly, you put out the fire with that explosion!”

“I did?”

“Yes!”

“But… Rarity’s house, I destroyed it.”

“It was on fire, Cantor; it was destroyed already.” She leaned in closer. “The important thing is that nopony was hurt.”

“Well, that’s good, I suppose…” Cantor murmured.

Twilight’s belly grumbled loudly. “Listen to that!” She said comically, “Are you hungry?” She asked as she made her way to the kitchen.

“Actually, I am, Twilight.” He replied.

“Would you like some breakfast?”

“Oh, yes please!” He sighed gratefully. The last thing he ate was the toast at the castle, and that was nearly a day ago. He was absolutely famished.

The white alicorn followed Twilight into the kitchen with a very heavy conscience. “I’m living a lie.” He thought. “The truth will come out sooner or later… If I don’t tell her now, will it hurt later on?” He observed as twilight placed two slices of bread into the toaster with a magical aura that was slightly more pale than it should be.

“I could’ve sworn I had more than this.” She complained, staring into the nearly empty bag.

“Fate has a way of playing things. And they always seem to turn out alright in the end. Just let things run their course; forget about the future and live for the moment. You’ll know what to do when the time comes.” Taking his own advice, Cantor felt the shroud around his soul lift.

Twilight pressed down on the lever, causing the bread to fall into the little purple box. She turned to face him. Her innocent eyes dispelling the rest of the apprehension. “There are no other secrets, are there Cantor?”

She was too innocent to know the truth. The alicorn felt a twinge of pain when he said “No.” as every cell in his body called him a liar.

“So, Twilight,” Cantor said as he, the unicorn and the dragon started on their way to the hospital. This day was colder than the one before. The sky had grown overcast, in preparation for a scheduled downpour. “Do you think all the hype will die down?”

“Hype about what?” She asked.

“About me.” The alicorn responded, looking at her.

“I’m sure it will. After all, nopony really talks about the princess, except from when she comes to town.” Her tone was reassuring.

“I hope so.” He said, returning his gaze to the dirt road ahead.

The small group walked along in silence for a few minutes as they made their way to the hospital. “Should we pick up the pace?” Asked Twilight as above them, the heavens rumbled forebodingly.

“Sure.” Cantor agreed as they increased their pace to a brisk trot. Spike hopped onto Twilight’s back as he struggled to keep up with his short legs, otherwise.

“My friends are all meeting us at the hospital to see rarity.” Twilight informed as her mane bobbed up and down with her movements.

“Right, so I think the only one I haven’t met is Rainbow Dash.” Cantor replied.

“I think you’ll like her; she has quite a feisty attitude and she’ll probably want to do some sort of flying stuff with you.” The two ponies faced each other. “Fluttershy doesn’t really like flying, so she’ll be itching to show you what she can do.” She rolled her eyes. “As she does to pretty much everypony!”

The group fell silent again and in only a few minutes they reached the hospital’s main entrance. “That was close!” Remarked Twilight as the small splattering of raindrops grew into a torrential downpour. The two ponies stood under the shelter which proceeded from the roof above them and watched the water hammer into the ground. Secretly, this was one of Cantor’s favourite weathers. A few lightning strikes later, the last one a little too close for comfort sent them scurrying inside, Spike hopped from Twilight’s soft back onto the hospital’s shiny tiled floor.

It was warm inside the hospital. Not sticky, uncomfortable-hot, but just… warm. There were nurses of all types of ponies pushing around wheelchairs with sickly-looking passengers in. All of whom gave Cantor unsettled looks. He walked by Twilight’s side as she approached the reception desk. “Can I help you?” A light gold mare with streaky blue and light blue hair, tied up quite ironically in a ponytail behind her head asked from behind the counter.

Twilight answered the question, even though the receptionist was looking directly at Cantor when she said it. “Yes, we’re here to see my friend, Rarity.” She answered. The other mare kept looking straight at Cantor, who tried to make himself look as disarmed as possible, even bending his knees to appear slightly shorter.

“Of course.” The receptionist said, still locked on to cantor and forcing a smile. “But visiting hours start in fifteen minutes.”

“Oh, do they?” Twilight asked, slightly surprised. “I was sure they started around about now.”

“Sorry, dear, they changed last night.” Said the pale gold mare, who sounded identical to the voice on the intercom Cantor heard in Stable’s office, finally looking at Twilight. “Personally, I think it’s silly to change it to such a small difference, but what can be done, right?” her smile changed to genuine as she turned to address Cantor, who had forgotten to set a limit to how low he was going to make himself and was now nearly touching the floor with his belly. The receptionist peered over the counter, looking confused and slightly humoured as Cantor smiled sheepishly and rose to his normal height.

“Hey,” She spoke. “Aren’t you the alicorn who arrived last night?”

Cantor felt like saying “Nah…” Just to humour her, but that would make him look like a real jerk. “Yes, that was me.”

“How in Equestria did you recover so quickly!?”

“I know just as well as you do, Miss…”

“Goodall. Mane Goodall.” She quickly said, nodding her head briskly.

“Miss Goodall…” He finished. “It must be something to do with me being alicorn or something…”

“Those pictures in the paper were just… ghastly!” The Earth pony said, wincing.

“Pictures?” Cantor asked, curious.

“Yes. There’s today’s paper over there.” She added, pointing towards a cluster of chairs, each small group of them pulled around a stubby coffee table. There were about four groups of chairs and tables in the large entrance room. Several magazines and newspapers lay in a neat pile atop each coffee table. “If you three would please take a seat over there and wait for the hospital to open to visitors, that would be great.”

Cantor looked towards the ‘waiting section’ where there sat nopony else. “Thank you.” Said the stallion as he, Twilight and Spike made their way over to the quiet area.

“Not a problem.” Came the reply from Mane Goodall as she returned to the paperwork on her desk.

The three visitors took their own seat around the coffee table in the far corner. The firm blue cushions on the armchairs were prickly to the bare hides of the ponies; the type of chair that quickly absorbed heat and became the most comfortable thing to sit on. The same thing could not be said for the dragon, though. His metal-hard scales feeling none of the prickles of the cheap material, but he still dented the soft sponge like the ponies.

Cantor’s eyes fell to the headline of the neatly folded paper atop the pile. ”Breaking news! New alicorn-“ But that was all he could see of the big, bold letters as the fold cut it off halfway. “No way…” Cantor remarked towards the name of the paper in the top – left corner, “Equestria Daily.” He picked up the light paper with his pale lilac – coloured aura. His humoured smile died, however, when he saw the rest of the headline. “Breaking news! New alicorn uncovered in Ponyville!” However it was not the title that made him frown; it was the letters in red beneath it.

“WARNING: Graphic images in article. Reader discretion is encouraged.” Cantor swallowed and looked to Twilight with an expression that showed a little more than ‘nervousness’. His eyes pleaded for help. The unicorn closed her eyes and nodded, shifting from the seat opposite Cantor to the one on his right.

She rested her hoof on his foreleg as he turned the first page. Twilight gasped in horror and looked away instantly, sealing her eyes from the grotesque set of pictures. All cantor could do was gawp at the double-page spread. He was petrified. Not necessarily because of the gore, but because of the fact that it was his gore. “Oh...” He winced in disgust as he saw the picture of the burnt, blood-covered face that was supposed to be his. The vibrant orange hair was matted with blood and sweat. His face, frozen in a state of pure agony, eyes sealed and mouth slightly agape was streaming with blood from a large gash that ran from his forehead, over his eye and partly down his cheek. More blood saturated his mouth and ran the length of his chin and part of his neck. Scuffs of black soot marked all down his nose as if somepony had thrown coal at him.

His face contorted in imaginary pain and he bit his teeth together when he saw an image of his front forelegs, skin completely shredded, revealing glistening muscle and sharp-looking bones erupted from where the knee joint should be. The picture showed half of his chest. It too was covered in blood, soot and matted hair. His eyes drifted to the last picture in the article at the bottom-right of page three. He gagged and shielded his eyes with his left foreleg as they began to water.

“Oh, God…” He whispered in a shaky voice. He only caught a glimpse of the image, but he saw every gruesome detail as if he had been staring at it for hours.

It was a full-body picture of the stallion laid out on his side on an operating table. The entire mid-section of his body was one-hundred percent saturated with a mixture of blood and black soot, dying his coat a disgusting shade of deep maroon. His face still held the tight expression of pure pain and his body was singed all over. But the worst part of it was that the lower half of his body was facing the opposite way to the top, his skin split open and peeled like a crimson banana, the snapped ends of his spinal chord were at either side of his body. The only things holding him together was the thin piece of skin along his belly, muscles and his digestive tract. All of which could be seen clearly as they spilled onto the table, casting their red liquid all over the surface of that too.

Cantor shivered and he felt a small hoof rubbing up and down his back, making a very good job of comforting him. Cantor remembered where the picture was on the page and covered it with his hoof, slowly returning his eyes to the article and flipping it over and resting it on his lap so the vile image was being shown only to his rear leg. He fully opened his eyes, the sight made Twilight’s heart fall apart. He had tears pooling at the bottom of his eyes and his pupils were shimmering. As he leaned forward to read the summary paragraph in bold print, a teardrop fell from his face and Twilight continued to comfort him as he read aloud:

“Early this morning, in the wake of a blazing house fire in a small town named Ponyville, an unknown alicorn – that is, a winged unicorn – was found poking death with a very short stick. As you can see from these graphic images, Dr. Stable’s quote of “He shouldn’t be alive” is easily understandable. The alicorn was rushed to Ponyville’s intensive care unit where he astounded doctors by beginning to recover at a medically impossible rate. The stallion’s back had been snapped clean in two during the fire and his body became twisted. When skilled surgeons readjusted his broken spinal chord, they were astonished at the rate in which the mysterious stallion healed. Several gouges – some as deep as two inches into his flesh – had already began to seal themselves closed and bone matter seemed to ‘melt’ to reattach the spinal column. The trained surgeons deemed it best to let the alicorn heal on his own. Equestria Daily is currently awaiting an interview with both the head doctor of the hospital and the elusive alicorn himself. Tracy Flash reports:..”

“Huh.” Cantor said, having calmed down a lot when reading the first part of the article. He levitated the newspaper away from him, keeping it facing downwards as he refolded it and placed it carefully on the pile of others. He reached around behind him and felt along his back. Strong as ever, though there was a hefty scar along the middle of it. “I’m so sorry, Twilight.” Cantor apologised to the mare who had stopped rubbing his back and now awkwardly played with her hooves.

“For what?” She asked, casting her gaze from her lap to Cantor.

“I’m sorry you had to see that… It must’ve been awful.”

“It was.” She replied solemnly.

“I can’t imagine what it would be like to see that happen to you.” His face dropped at the thought. “But everything’s fine now. Let’s just focus on Rarity.” He smiled, to his delight, Twilight returned the expression.

“It’s rainin’ harder than a monsoon in Mexicolt out there.” Declared a sopping Applejack as she stepped through the door, splashing water onto the floor. The first thing she saw was the large white alicorn. “Oh, Cantor, you’re…” Three other ponies followed and copied her astonished expression.

“I know, I know… But I’m still the same pony you all met.” He got to his hooves and approached the four colourful ponies, each of them looking clueless as how to react. “But I don’t believe I’ve met you, Rainbow Dash…”

“How do you know my name?” She asked, turning on the offensive.

“How could anypony not know the name of the fastest pegasus in Equestria?” He said with a mischievous grin.

The comment instantly put Cantor in Rainbow’s good books and she beamed with pride. “My name’s Cantor.” He said, offering his hoof to her. She took it and shook, not necessarily rapidly, but with great strength that showed her athleticism.

“Nice to meet ya’!” She chuckled.

“Are y’all like… related to the princess or somethin’?” Asked Applejack, impressed with herself for having a feeling that something about the new arrival was different, and this turned out to be true.

“No… I’m just… different…” He replied.

“So, those um… things on your back under your vest were wings?” Fluttershy then asked.

“Yes. I’m sorry I lied to you all.” Cantor replied apologetically. “But I’m sure we’re going to be good friends.”

“Of course!” Pinkie Pie yelled. “Making friends is like the best thing in the world EVER!”

“Pinkie’s right.” Applejack commented. “Look how different we all are. And we’re all friends. Aren’t we?” Everypony agreed amongst each other. Twilight and Spike now joined the group.

“Excuse me, ladies?” The receptionist piped up. Cantor raised his head above the group, looked Goodall in the eye and raised an eyebrow. “Oh, yes. And you, sir.” She added, blushing ever so slightly.

The five mares around Cantor giggled softly. Even Fluttershy.

“The hospital is open to visitors now. Do you need any directions?” She asked, leaning forward over the counter.

“Yes please. And a couple of towels would be great, thanks!” Rainbow Dash joked. The six ponies and the dragon laughed as the receptionist exited through a door from the information desk into a store cupboard. She returned to the group with four neatly folded white towels on her back and a warming smile on her face.

“Girls! I’m so glad you all could make it!” Cried Rarity from under some thin hospital blankets, raising her forearms above her head in glee. the ward she was in was not a single room, but she was still the only pony occupying one of the six beds in the room. A large vase of white lilies stood on her bedside table behind a ‘get well soon’ card. It was completely unnecessary; the injury she had received was a small knock on the back of her head that required two stitches and a bandage. That was all.

The lilies made the room wonderfully fragrant and Rarity found the smell of her favourite flowers relaxing. She needed it. Especially after the ordeal of loosing her home, her work, and nearly her sister. Cantor, being the gentlecolt he is, held the door for the five mares and Spike, closing it behind him when he entered the room. Upon catching sight of him, Rarity leapt from the bed and threw her arms around his neck, smothering his face with affectionate kisses.

“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you so much!” She exclaimed between pecking the stallion’s face, making him blush intensely. Cantor’s eyes widened as Rarity bear-hugged his neck. He looked to the group of mares for help, but all they did was nudge each other in a joking manner. All ponies except Twilight and Spike found the event hilarious. “Thank you so much for saving my little Sweetie Belle!” She cried, giving Cantor one long, loud final kiss on the end of his nose.

She let go and leapt back into bed, Cantor gasped and held his neck.

“That reminds me.” Said Applejack, stepping closer to Cantor and pecking him lightly on the cheek, a much more enjoyable means of thanks than the previous one. “Thanks a whole lot.” She said gratefully, taking her hat off and holding it to her chest as she spoke. “I don’t know what I’d do if I lost Applebloom.” She bowed, returned the Stetson to her head and stood back at Rarity’s bedside.

“That leaves just one more.” Thought cantor as he shot a glance towards Rainbow, who suddenly pretended to be fascinated by the lilies. “Perfect…” He said in his head as a small grin crept onto his face.

“So, uh, how ya holdin’ up there, Rarity?” Applejack asked, leaning in to muzzle her friend in bed.

“Oh… I’ve had better days, girls.” She clocked Cantor and Spike. “And boys.” She added.

The rain hammered onto the window. This kind of weather seemed to depress everyone, but storms made Cantor appreciate being inside even more; made it feel cosy…

“Do you know when you’re getting out?” Asked Twilight.

“The doctor says I can go today.” The bedridden unicorn answered.

“Are the kids here too?” Cantor asked, plans and ideas already beginning to formulate in his head.

“Yes.” Replied Rarity.

“Whereabouts are they?”

“Just in the next room.”

“Why not in here?”

Rarity shook her head. “That was my reaction too, the doctor said that they like to fill up the beds progressively.”

“I see…” Cantor replied. Thinking about it, that wasn’t a bad system.

“How does it feel, huh?” Rainbow Dash queried, flying just above Rarity’s bed and poking her gently in the face.

“Whatever do you mean, darling?” She asked, batting away Rainbow’s hoof.

“Now you’re the one who’s stuck in bed, and I’m the one who’s free!”

Rarity gazed out of the window at the end of the room. “I’d really rather be inside, Rainbow Dash.” She said, returning to the blue pegasus, smiling mischievously. Rainbow groaned and landed next to her bed and stepped out of the way to make room for a colourful box on wheels Pinkie had rolled into the room.

“What are you doing, Pinkie?” Rarity asked, not awaiting a response before starting to examine the contraption herself.

“It’s my ‘I hope you get well soon surprise’!” The pink mare beamed and slammed her hoof down on a button resting on top of the yellow and pink box and a ticking sound ensued.

“Oh. Please. No.” Rarity winced as the ticking coming from the machine inches from her face intensified. She prepared herself for the unpredictable event that would surely make a mess.

All of a sudden, streamers erupted from somewhere inside the small rectangular crate, sending red and blue ribbons flying into the air accompanied by the sound of a party horn. Rarity sunk her head into the pillow as around fifty bright orange cupcakes somehow poured fourth from the front of the box.

The streamers landed and Pinkie beamed at Rarity for a response. “Actually, Pinkie Pie, that did kind of cheer me up.” The white unicorn chuckled as she took a bite from one of the cupcakes. They tasted of oranges. Another fragrant taste Rarity enjoyed. The taste reminded her of summer, as did the light that filtered through the dense clouds that were now being dispersed by the weather pegasi.

“Shouldn’t you be helping with that, Rainbow?” Twilight encroached, taking a bite of her own cupcake and levitating one over to the lazy pegasus.

“Yeah, but cheering up Rarity is more important to me.” She replied, taking a bite of one of the worst flavours of things imaginable. Orange. Her face contorted in displeasure for only a second before she forced an expression of delight, chewing as few times as possible before swallowing. “They’re… great, pinkie!” She lied. Everypony and Spike who were at Rarity’s bedside took a cupcake of their own, except Cantor, who still waited by the door.

“Cool! I’m glad you like them!” The Pink mare replied before taking the remainder of the cupcakes in her arms and shovelling them into her mouth. Her cheeks looked as if they were ready to burst and then she swallowed some forty cupcakes at once. Cantor was going to ask how that was possible, but then he remembered one of the main laws in Equestria: “Whatever can’t be explained by science, chalk it down to magic. Whatever isn’t feasible even by magic… Pinkie Pie.”

“Pinkie!” Cried Twilight. “Cantor didn’t get one!”

Pinkie looked at Cantor, appalled with herself before he shook the accusation away. “Don’t worry about it. I’m not much of a fan of cakes really anyway. Especially ones with lots of frosting.” Everypony and every dragon laughed at this statement.

“No, I’m dead serious.” Cantor replied, causing the laughter to cease. “Far too sickly for my liking.” He explained.

“Wow!” Exclaimed Pinkie. “You’re the first pony I’ve met who doesn’t like cupcakes!”

“Not necessarily ‘don’t like’… but… even looking at that frosting made me feel ill.”

Everypony looked curiously at each other. Rainbow still held her once-bitten cupcake in her hoof and sought a solution.

“Yeah,” She said loudly, breaking the awkward tension. “I think I’m a little the same on this one. I’m feeling ill now. Ogh!” She clutched her stomach, making out a cramp which was barely acceptable. “You want it, Pinkie?” Rainbow asked, suddenly sounding a lot better and holding the orange sweet up for the pink mare.

Pinkie narrowed her eyes. “Throw it.” She said with a daring grin.

Rainbow Dash heaved the cupcake into the air, sending it flying down the room. Pinkie rocketed after it like a dog would for a tennis ball. She kept her eyes focused on it as she leapt high into the air with her mouth agape.

The soft cupcake fell neatly into her mouth, which quickly closed, trapping the poor desert. Pinkie Pie landed, however, not so neatly on one of the perfectly made hospital beds, sending the sheets billowing around her like a cocoon and launching the thin pillow from the mattress onto the ceiling, hitting the fan which sent it flying straight into the face of a very tired-looking Dr. Stable who had just entered the room.

“Miss Pinkie Pie!” He shouted angrily, though the threat was destroyed by the rapturous laughter from Cantor. His legs bowed and the only reason he stayed standing was because he backpedalled aimlessly around the room, obviously not trying to hold onto his fits of laughter. The alicorn soon set off the others laughing. Even Fluttershy, who had initially been scared by the doctor, began to giggle. Though it was short lived.

“ENOUGH!” He bellowed, his pupils tiny behind the frameless spectacles.

“I’ve been up all night looking after you, Cantor. I’m exhausted. I haven’t slept for thirty six hours, and I’ve got seven pages of reports to fill out. I don’t need you ponies running the risk of breaking things! Thank you kindly for the blood, Cantor, but will you all keep it down so the other patients can get their sleep!? I don’t expect to send a nurse in here to make the bed when the visiting period ends in forty five minutes.” He said through barred teeth, glaring at his wristwatch, urging it to speed up. For one reason or the other, Cantor found this whole scene absolutely hilarious and tried desperately not to erupt into laughter again.

“Now, I have to attend to the three fillies in the other room who keep using hospital equipment to try and find their cutie marks. Miss Rarity, you are free to leave with your friends when the visiting hour is up, just place your hospital gown neatly on the bed which I hope you will make and come back in a week from today to have those stitches removed.” He backed out the door, only his head remained in the room as his arm rested on the door handle. “One more thing to remember…” He said in an unnervingly calm tone, “DON’T MAKE A MESS!” He shouted and slammed the door behind him, shaking several empty glasses that lay on a trolley at the far side of the room.

“What a dick.” Cantor remarked with a lopsided smile.

“I HEARD THAT!” Came a muffled reply from the other side of the door, sending the seven ponies and young dragon into fits of carefree laughter. For that moment, Cantor forgot about the past and the future and lived for the moment.

“I would thank you… To watch your language… Around sensitive ears!” Twilight scorned light heartedly towards Cantor in-between laughs and gasps for air, referring to Spike, who was laughing just as hard as the rest of them.

“Whadd’ya mean, ‘sensitive ears’, Twilight? I’m plenty mature for all kinds of 'language'.” He protested joyfully.

“Hey, Spike, you wanna learn some new words later?” Cantor joked
.
“Yeah!” The ‘baby’ dragon replied excitedly, the laughter in the room had died down enough to be able to form decent – length sentences.

“No, he does not!” Twilight replied with a smile, though Cantor caught the subtle hint of sincerity on her voice.

“I think It had better wait ‘till much later, Spike.” Cantor returned in agreement with the purple unicorn.

“Awww!” Spike huffed as he crossed his arms in front of his chest.

The group continued to laugh as they observed Pinkie’s failed attempts at making the bed. It was rather tragic watching an Earth pony with next to no patience fondle around with a duvet and mattress. Eventually, Cantor stepped up, announcing “Let me help you, Pinkie.” He lifted the mattress from the bed’s thin metal frame and keeping with the spirit of things, stretched the bice-coloured duvet across it so tightly, it made the ‘twang’ of a lower note on a bass guitar, generating more laughs from the crowd. “Let’s see them untuck this” Cantor grinned as he lowered the tight square back onto the frame and placed the pillow at the headboard.

“You’re a laugh, Cantor!” Pinkie exclaimed, beaming gleefully. “I’m really glad we’re all friends!”

Cantor bowed modestly at the statement and his face glowed slightly pink. “Actually, I’ve been meaning to ask something.” Cantor spoke, returning to a serious tone. “To you, Rainbow Dash.”

Fear flashed across Rainbow’s face before she shook it away. “What about?” She asked.

“Nothing bad or anything,” Cantor replied, smiling, “just something that only applies to you.”

“Okay, what is it?” The cyan pegasus enquired, stepping closer to Cantor.

“We should go somewhere more private, unless you don’t mind talking about it in here.” He answered, his smile slowly fading.

“Well what’s it about?” She asked, beginning to sound a little fretful. Cantor simply raised his eyebrows, but it took Rainbow a little longer than most ponies to work out what he was implying. Her eyes widened when she realised what he was saying.
“Oh, right, yeah. Okay.”

“Let’s go on the roof.” Cantor declared, walking over to the window, looking out over a damp and sunny Equestria.

“The roof!?” Rainbow exclaimed, laughing slightly.

“Oh, I’m serious.” He replied, pushing the window open as far as it would go, soon realising that it would be quite a squeeze.

“I… I suppose…” Rainbow responded, casting a wary look towards her friends.

Cantor climbed through the window and perched perilously close to the edge. He looked back into the room and towards Rainbow. “Are you come-AAH!” The scream was short lived as it faded to the ground when the alicorn lost his footing on the slippery windowsill and fell backwards and plummeted two stories into the bushes below. When Rainbow peered through the wide-open window, at the foot of the hospital she saw the alicorn howling with laughter, the biggest wings she had ever seen in her life splayed out underneath him.

She began to laugh herself as Cantor flew back up to the window. “Let me try again.” He said whilst hovering with slow, powerful wing beats. “Are you coming?”

Rainbow laughed and flew out of the window, gloating back towards Cantor by saying “That’s how you do it.” With a sly grin.

“We’ll just be a minute.” Cantor assured the five other ponies and Spike with a calming smile. Twilight nodded and Cantor flew up to the rooftop where the Rainbow-maned pegasus waited nervously for him.

The rooftop was very windy and noisy. Air conditioning units hummed loudly, sending waves of hot exhaust air washing over the two ponies. The torrents of rain had saturated the land and now the sun was beginning to evaporate the remaining water, the smell of wet tar wafted up from the roof. Raised voices were used to overpower the hum of the air conditioners and the sound of wind rushing through their ears.

“So what’s this about?” Asked Rainbow, standing at a fair distance from Cantor so she nearly had to shout to be heard.

Remembering he was an elemental, Cantor eased off the wind to a gentle breeze. But his long orange mane still flowed past him, resembling the style of the princesses.

“Oh, I think you already know the answer to that, Rainbow.” He replied in his normal voice, very slowly approaching the blue mare.

Rainbow Dash looked to the floor, which was now the roof before replying. “It’s about Scootaloo, isn’t it?” Cantor closed his eyes and nodded, still walking towards the pegasus. “Ahhh,” She sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “I just don’t know how to approach her.”

“We’ll go together if you like.” Cantor commented warmly.

“What should I do?”

“I think you know the answer to that, too.”

She sighed once more. “But what if she isn’t… you know…”

“An orphan?” Cantor finished for her.

“Yeah.”

“Well there’s only one way to find out.”

“But what if she does have parents? What if they think I’m some kind of sicko who wants to… do things with their daughter.”

“And what if she doesn’t? Hm? What if she’s living outdoors somewhere, out there, cold, with no knowledge of anypony caring for her.” By now, Cantor had stopped walking as he had come close enough to be able to touch Rainbow Dash, who hung her head sadly. “It must be heartbreaking for her, you know.”

“How do you mean?” Rainbow asked, raising her head and becoming rigid for a second when she saw how close this large stallion was.

“Well, Sweetie Belle has Rarity. And Applebloom has her sister…” He looked Rainbow Dash deep in the eyes. “Who does Scootaloo have?”

“…Nopony.” Answered Dash after a pause.

“That can change.” Cantor began in an empowering voice. “I can tell you care about Scootaloo more than just a friend; you want to protect her.”

“That’s true.” Rainbow admitted.

“And the longer you leave that question, you’ll never know if she’s safe.” Rainbow hung her head once more, she began to loose her tough exterior and show her true, caring heart. “What if something like this happens again, but Scootaloo’s on her own. What if something happens?” Rainbow began to tear up. “And you could have stopped it?”

“It’d feel awful.” She replied shakily. “I… I don’t think I… could…” She began to tremble.

Cantor felt sorrowful for the young mare, though he knew they would set things right. “Come here.” He said, opening his right foreleg to which he slowly wrapped around Rainbow as she drew her own arms around his neck, sobbing into his shoulder in quiet little cries. “It’s alright.” He whispered, stroking her brightly-coloured mane. “You can make this work.”

By the time Rainbow’s eyes had cleared up and the two had flown back through the window, a little more successfully this time, visiting hour was nearly over and Rarity had removed her gown and was now flicking through a magazine on her bed with Twilight. “Well that took longer than expected!” Applejack declared as Cantor shut the window manually.

“We just cleared some things up.” The alicorn replied, softly nudging Rainbow Dash on the shoulder and winking.

“Rarity’s going to be staying over at the library while they build her a new house.” Twilight called, looking up from an article about the new big hairstyle in Manehatten.

“Ooh! Like a sleepover!” Cried Pinkie Pie. “Can I come?”

Twilight pondered with her hoof on her chin for a moment before replying. “You know, Pinkie, that might actually be a good idea.”

“You know me! I’m full of good ideas!” The pink pony replied with excitement.

“In fact, how would you all like to come over? That way we can all get better acquainted.” The lavender unicorn informed, turning her gaze quickly back to the magazine article as Rarity turned the page.

“I haven’t had one a’ your trademark sleepovers fer months!” Remarked Applejack enthusiastically. “I’d love to come!”

“Rainbow Dash,” Rarity called, looking up from the magazine to the shifty-looking Pegasus. “I trust you won’t be participating in the makeover?”

“Makeover?” Cantor asked, feeling as if this wasn’t such a good idea after all.

“Yes, darling, makeovers are a must for sleepovers…” Rarity affirmed.

“She called me darling…” Thought Cantor.

“Well, it does say that in the guide…” Said Twilight.

“I thought you weren’t usin’ that book anymore.” Applejack said, sounding a little annoyed.

“I’m not.” Twilight replied. “It’s just I remember a lot of what I read; that’s why I read so much. But after a few sleepovers, I realised that, for once, doing things ‘by the book’ isn’t always the best.”

“I never thought I’d hear you say that, Twilight!” Rainbow Dash laughed.

The large group of friends chatted for a while longer until the visiting period was up. Dr. Stable, who looked a little more calm now entered the room and asked everypony to leave. He explained that the hospital needed to keep the fillies in for one more day, just to be sure that they were all fine. The conversation in the hospital continued outside, Rainbow, Fluttershy and Cantor were talking about pegasus anatomy, which the young alicorn found far too interesting. Pinkie, Twilight, Applejack and a slightly damaged Rarity spoke about the sleeping arrangements that night and the baby dragon listened adamantly to the pegasus’ conversation, trying to pick up tips as he was nearing adolescence, where his own pair of wings would grow.

“Is it only you that can make a sonic rainboom?” Cantor asked the blue pegasus who was flying slowly above them.

“I’m the only pony who has.” She replied, gloating when she added “Twice.”

“Surely it’s just a speed thing. How can the colour of your hair affect physics like that?” He asked, beginning to warm to the idea of creating a rainboom of his own.

“Spitfire, one of the Wonderbolts, is the fastest pegasus alive in Equestria.” She coughed before adding “Well, fastest recorded pegasus in Equestria. She broke the sound barrier, but only I made the rainbow!” She finished with a smug grin.

“I’ll have to see if I can make something cool happen.” Cantor replied, lifting his legs slightly higher as he walked.

“Wanna try now?” Rainbow Dash asked enthusiastically.

“No. I need to get better first. A lot better, I can barely land without falling over.” Said the alicorn.

“What?” Rainbow asked, beginning to laugh.

“Well I’ve always hidden my wings. Alicorns are… Huh, I don’t actually know. Hey Twi-“ He silenced himself when he saw that the unicorn was already speaking. “I’ll ask her later. I don’t suppose you know whether alicorns can only be like royals or… gods?”

“Actually, Cantor,” Spike piped up from behind, “Alicorns aren’t only royals, but just really rare ponies. Apparently, there are five or six alicorns known about that aren’t the princesses. And now you.”

“And what do they do?” Cantor asked.

“I don’t think much…” He answered, scratching his chin. “I suppose they just want to fit in…” He looked up at Cantor to see a very confusing expression. His face showed a smile with traces of forbidding and his eyes failed to hide a glimmer of sorrow.

“Okay, then…” Cantor returned his head to the road in front. “Actually how old are you, Spike?”

“I’m fifteen.”

“Fifteen!?” Cantor gasped, reminding himself of the reaction he received from the doctor for the same sort of answer. “I don’t think the term ‘baby dragon’ really applies.”

“Oh, it does,” Spike insisted. “Dragons live for thousands of years.” He began to grow excited when thinking about theoretical ‘duties’ in life. “Twilight says in a year or so, I’ll have my wings! Then I can fly with you guys.”

“Well you’re gonna have a hard time keeping up with me!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, executing a quick loop in the air.

Fluttershy swallowed nervously. “Um, Spike?” She asked, taking a step towards the dragon. “Will you stay a… nice dragon?”

“What do you mean?” he asked, turning to face her.

“Well, what I mean is. is that… you know that I… you know how I feel towards dragons… and I was just hoping you wouldn’t be… like other dragons…” Spike looked offended and Fluttershy looked away. “But uh, you know… I think I’ll be able to manage…”

“Fluttershy!” Spike groaned with a smile. “You’re my friend, I would never be mean to my friends. And besides, who’d want to turn out like those dragons I met in the migration?” He shuddered. “No thanks…”

“Remember the other time all of us slept over?” Rarity complained, “We slept on the floor, which I’m fine about, don’t get me wrong, but it’s just… it was a bit of a squeeze.”

“That’s because, Rarity, you took up nearly the entire floor with your cushions!” Twilight argued back. “Do you have to be so… sensitive?”

“Twilight, darling, sensitive is the wrong word… I was merely… uh, I didn’t want my curlers to become loose with all you others around me, thrashing around in the night.”

“Don’t y’all think you could perhaps… not wear curlers?” Asked the orange Earth pony. “Is it really that important?”

“Why, Applejack! I can’t see how you can be so naïve!” The white unicorn scoffed. “To keep such a manedo, one has to pay massive attention to… to…”

“Detail?” Applejack asked humourlessly.

“That’s… one word…” Rarity replied coldly. Applejack smiled.

“So what kinds of games are we gonna play?” Pinkie asked, jumping softly on the edge of the pathway.

“Well, I don’t know about games, but I suppose we could play truth or dare…” Twilight affirmed.

“Oh, great! I love that game!” The pink party pony replied. “Let’s go!” She rushed off in a pink blur before returning almost instantly when she saw that nopony was following her. “Come on!” She insisted.

“We’ve got the rest of the day to play truth or dare, pinkie. There’s no need to rush.” Said Twilight with a smile.

“Ooh, I can’t wait!” The easily excitable mare declared, bouncing slightly higher as the others walked.

“I think it-“ Twilight started, but upon noticing her two friends who she had at her first sleepover bickering, she stopped.

“And I think my mane suits me!” Applejack angrily returned to Rarity.

“I never said it didn’t!” the unicorn hissed back. “I merely implied that it as unkempt!”

“Girls.” Twilight’s attempt to break it up failed.

“An’ what’s that supposed to mean?” Applejack growled, taking on a slightly aggressive air.

“GIRLS!” Twilight shouted, attracting the attention of all the ponies present and Spike. “You know what, let’s just work out the sleeping arrangements when we come to it, okay?” Applejack and Rarity glared at each other. “Okay?” Twilight repeated.

“Alright.” The orange Earth pony and white unicorn agreed in unison.

“Good.” Said Twilight. “Let’s get going…”

By the time the seven ponies and Spike had returned to the library after gathering all the supplies ‘necessary’ for a sleepover, the day had faded to dusk.
The birds had retired to their nests to feed their chicks, most ponies were at home, or travelling home to be with their family and the sun itself was drooping over the horizon, casting it’s final rays of the day and setting the sky ablaze with powerful colours of orange and peach. The seven ponies had settled down on the floor and were conversing the past few days, and the days to come. Cantor felt happy; this was the first day in Equestria where nothing bad, dangerous or hurtful happened. He was with his new friends, he was healthy and he had a lot of time to get to know them better. Everything was perfect, and what harm could come from a sleepover anyway?

The conversation topic had drifted from general gossip, to favourite books, which Twilight sparked and surprisingly Rainbow Dash joined in adamantly, defending the Daring Do series with her life as “The best books ever written by anypony ever”. Right now, the hot topic had changed to makeup, hair, and generally all the ‘girly things’ Rainbow Dash took about as much interest in as Cantor did.

“You don’t notice unless you look really close or somepony tells you.” Twilight said to Fluttershy, who hid behind her long pink mane.

“But since Gabby Gums wrote about it, everypony knows!” The shy pegasus cried in return.

“What does it matter, darling?” Rarity asked, putting a hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder. “Your tail looks magnificent and everypony thinks Gabby Gums wrote lies anyway!”

“But it’s true!” Fluttershy replied, forcing herself into a corner, her voice a little louder than intended.

“Come now, sugarcube, that whole Gabby Gums thing happened nearly a whole year ago. Nopony probably even remembers her, or them, let alone what they wrote! Jus’ let it go.” Applejack said, trying to reassure and comfort her.

“Yeah, Fluttershy,” Twilight began her part. “so what if Gabby Gums wrote about your tail extensions? Big whoop! It just goes to show that if that’s the only thing she could find out about you to write about, it shows just what a nice mare you are, since tail extensions aren’t even something to be ashamed about.”

Fluttershy turned back around with a real smile on her face. “Well, when you put it that way…” She lowered her head in a quick nod, but was intended as a grateful bow. “Thank you, girls. You always seem to know how to make me happy.”

“What are friends for?” Applejack asked, happily slapping her knee when she spoke.

Like before, the conversation had split into two main groups; one talking about girly things and the other talking about… pretty much everything else.

“I hear you two have had a lot of experience.” Cantor asked openly towards Rainbow Dash and Pinkie when the talk about parts found only on a pegasus’ body became too explicit, well, for this early on in the evening, anyway.

“What do you mean?” Rainbow asked worriedly.

Cantor looked over at the other group of mares and leaned towards the two he was talking with. “Pranks.” He whispered.

“Ohhh!” Rainbow sighed loudly whilst leaning back – too far and she toppled backwards onto the hard oak floor. Pinkie giggled from her spot. “I get ya’.” Rainbow answered, sitting back up. “What makes you say that?”

“Well I just thought we could talk about some of the pranks we’ve pulled over the years. I hear you two are quite the little tyrants…” He replied, grinning cockily.

“Well there was this one time me and pinkie both made exact replica front covers of Twilight’s most prised books, something about the history of magic. We made the front covers look just like the original ones, but then we put them over another book-“ As she spoke, her smile grew wider and wider. “Then we tore out some of the pages, glued others together and burnt a few so they looked like they had been absolutely destroyed, then we swapped them for the real ones when Twilight was out.” She burst out in rapturous laughter. “You should have seen the look on her face!” She bayed, swaying on her rear and beginning to water at the eyes. “I think she actually would’ve killed anypony who was responsible!” She went into another fit of laughter, accompanied by Cantor and Pinkie.

“What’s so funny?” Twilight demanded calmly from the other group.

Almost instantly after she said this, Rainbow heaved forward and almost shouted “Remember that time when you thought your magic books got wrecked!?”

“Very much, Rainbow.” She replied, frowning, yet trying to hold back a smile. “You two nearly gave me a heart attack!”

Rainbow began to laugh harder, by now she was running out of breath and gasping for air whenever her body allowed.

Twilight’s grin broke free. “You’ll never learn, will you?” She asked, shaking her head. The blue pegasus continued to writhe on the floor.

Twilight then returned to her conversation, subconsciously listening to the yelps of laughter gradually fade to foalish snickers and scoffs, still smiling.

“So uhhh,” Rainbow sighed, her cheeks and sides aching massively in the post-hysteria. “what kind of pranks have you done, Cantor?”

“Not many,” He replied, his own cheeks still rather sore from the laughter. “And few have actually worked.” He began to grin, “You know when you put a bucket of something on top of the door?”

“Yes?” Pinkie and Rainbow said in sync, before bashfully looking one another in the eye.

“Well I tried that one once… and it didn’t work out too good…” He continued.

“What happened?” Pinkie asked, looking back from Dash’s rosy eyes.

Cantor thought about it for a second, “Let’s just say I forgot I set it up…” He could see the gears turning behind the two mare’s eyes before Pinkie Pie burst out laughing.

“What?” Rainbow asked, looking at her pink friend.

Pinkie was too busy laughing to respond, so Cantor answered for her. “I accidentally set the trap off on myself.” He started to chuckle as Rainbow joined Pinkie laughing on the floor.

This session of laughter lasted only half as long as before, but it was still enough to make the two mares begin to feel pain from the overused lungs, their relief unaided when Cantor referred to the two as “Working their laughing muscles”, to which all three began to howl at until they were panting on their backs for oxygen. “Oh, my god!... Phew!” Said Cantor, wiping tears from his eyes.

“We gotta – we gotta teach you some stuff, Cantor!” Rainbow just about managed to say in one breath.

“Lets us three, go out on Nightmare Night and prank everypony!” Pinkie proposed. “Best prank wins!”

“Sounds like fun!” Rainbow agreed, starting to get her breath back.

“Hey, when actually is Nightmare night?” Cantor asked, receiving a puzzled look from Rainbow.

“Huh?” She asked.

“Like a day, or month…”

“The thirty-first of October, come on! Don’t tell me you didn’t know that!?”

“Oh, so months are the same…” Cantor thought aloud.

“What?” Asked Rainbow Dash, becoming even more confused.

“Nothing.” The white alicorn quickly replied. “Say, what day is it today?”

“Seventeenth of September.” She responded.

“Thanks, I’m actually so forgetful!” Cantor remarked with a nervous laugh. “Sounds good! Count me in!” He returned.

“Great!” Pinkie Pie beamed, happy that everypony liked her idea.

The conversation continued on into the rapidly approaching night, the sun had since dipped below the horizon and the night was quickly blanketing the land, marking the end of the day and making way for the birth of another. It was half-past eight in the evening and the group had huddled in a circle around a single glass bottle. The only light source came from candles burning softly around the room, casting shadows of dancing ponies all over the walls. Even Spike joined in despite his bedtime being in around an hour, he and Twilight both knew he would be far too excited to sleep.

As the empty ‘Colta-Cola’ bottle span noisily on the wooden floor, reflecting the candlelight from it’s shiny surface. Rainbow Dash intently stared at it, willing it to land on Pinkie Pie. As expected, the neck of the bottle gestured to just after Pinkie, to the worst possible pony for truth or dare: Fluttershy.

Rainbow stifled a groan. “So, Fluttershy… Truth or dare?” she asked the other pegasus, forcing a smile.

“Oh, um… I don’t know…” She replied in her adorably innocent voice.

“That’s what you always say!” Rainbow Dash cried, leaping into the air from where she sat.

“Oh. I’m sorry… Can somepony else take my turn?” She asked, bringing her head closer to the floor.

“No, Fluttershy, those are the rules.” Rainbow protested, landing on he flank softly and folding her wings away. “Just say one or the other, come on!” She urged.

“But-b-but I…”

“Come on! Truth or dare?”

“I-I don’t know.” Fluttershy said with a pleading tone, beginning to turn a powerful red.

“Just go out on a limb and pick one!” Rainbow insisted.

“Can’t somepony else-“

No!” The impatient pegasus cut off. “Truth or dare! Pick o-“

“TRUTH!” Fluttershy hollered, startling everypony there and silencing Rainbow Dash. “I’m sorry…” She apologised.

“Don’t worry, it’s my fault.” Said Rainbow, trying to reassure the shy pony laid opposite her.

“So, truth, huh? Hmmm…” She thought, pawing at her chin whilst gazing into space. “Do you… no…” She thought a little more, trying to come up with a question that wouldn’t embarrass her too much. “Have you ever… kissed another mare?...”

Fluttershy winced and hid behind her mane, blushing so intensely that the room seemed to heat up.

“Come on, RD; don’t ya’ reckon it’s a little too soon for questions like that?” Applejack sprung to Fluttershy’s defence. “How would you like it if I asked you that same question?”

“I wouldn’t mind, because we all know that I already have.” Rainbow replied composedly, discretely nudging Pinkie Pie who laid next to her.

“Well some a’ us aren’t as… outspoken… as you.” Applejack responded, pointing a hoof accusingly at Rainbow Dash. “Why not have a question like… Fluttershy,” She turned to face the yellow pegasus. “Do you favour walking or flying?”

Rainbow looked horrified. “What kind of Truth or Dare question is that!?” She cried.

“A simple one for more innocent ponies.” Applejack replied. “Well, Fluttershy?”

“I um… prefer walking, I’m not a very good flyer…” She spoke, coming out from behind her mane.

“Okay! Next question!” Rainbow declared, pulling Pinkie forward for her turn.

The pink mare slapped the bottle, sending it spinning on it’s side, each pony watched it nervously as it began to slow to a stop, the neck pointing directly at Rarity. The white unicorn sighed.

Pinkie Pie asked almost instantly. “Have you ever stuffed yourself so full of cake that you feel like your gonna explode?”
“I didn’t say truth, Pinkie…” Rarity replied. “In fact, I want a dare.”

“Okay.” Pinkie said, quickly thinking of a deviant little dare. “I dare you, to drink this entire milkshake-“ She said, pulling a ridiculously large glass of pink milk from somewhere within that unfathomable mane and placing it on the floor loudly. “All in one.” She finished, grinning evilly.

“Oh, please, you call that a dare?” Rarity scoffed, getting up and somehow grasping the glass with her forehooves. "I was rather hoping for something a little more... my style..." Everypony looked awkwardly at each other, none of them attempting to suggest what that could have meant, while still managing to assure themselves that they were all thinking in the same ball park. So to speak...

“Ready?” Rarity asked the group and everyone leaned inwards as She fell to her flank and began to guzzle the milkshake, making loud snorting noises into the rapidly emptying glass, her ladylike persona being destroyed by her seldom seen competitive side.

Cantor turned to the rainbow-maned mare beside him, who had a level of maturity that was even less than his and whispered directly into her ear: “Wow, she’s good at swallowing…” This comment drew another laughing fit from Rainbow Dash, making her clutch her sides in joyful agony.

“Damn it, Cantor!” She cried. “My muscles just stopped aching from laughing.”

“What muscles?” He asked.

“Laughing mus- Ah HA HA HA-!” She laughed even harder and punched Cantor in his arm.

“Ow, that hurt!” He complained, playfully making a pained face.

“Good!” Rainbow replied amongst laughing. “It was supposed to!” She then hit him again.

Rarity exhaled loudly in a way that sure wasn’t even the slightest bit ladylike as she finished the drink, slamming it back down on the floor and wiping the excess from her mouth. Everypony cheered softly and Rarity took a deep bow. “Thank you, thank you…” She said, regaining her refined voice, but still breathing heavily.

“Wow, Rarity!” Twilight exclaimed. “I didn’t know you had that in you!”

“I have many talents that one may be surprised to find out about…” she replied proudly, returning to her space on the floor in-between Pinkie Pie and Applejack, the former of the two ponies gently nudged Rainbow as Rarity said this, causing the immature pegasus to snort into her hoof to avoid another outburst.

“Me next!” Rarity called, leaning forward from where she sat, extending her body and reaching out with her right foreleg and just managing to strike the end of the bottle, sending it spinning once more. This time, the neck of the bottle pointed towards Cantor and he focused instantly, already deciding what he was going to choose.

“Truth or dare?” Rarity asked, looking towards the stallion who sat two ponies away from her.

“Truth.” Cantor answered indefinitely. “Who knows what kind of thing a group of girls would have me doing as dares? On the other hoof,” He thought, “Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing…”

“Alright then,” Rarity replied, half closing her eyes. “Do you have a crush on somepony?”

“Well, uh…” Cantor stammered, desperately trying not to look at The mare to his left. “Yeah, sort of…”

Everypony in the room and even spike made an “Oohhhhh!” Sound to which Cantor’s face went bright red.

“Who is it!?” Rarity demanded, leaning forward so she was as close to Cantor as possible without getting up.

“Now, now…” Cantor replied, batting the question away with his foreleg. “You asked did I have a crush, not who do I have a crush on.”

Rarity huffed and fell back to her place on the floor and Cantor smiled in relief. The bottle span many times and once Pinkie was dared to eat all of the stale bread in Twilight’s kitchen, which she did, making references to it “Just being toast.” And for the rest of the game, Cantor never requested a ‘truth question’, resulting in him being covered in makeup and his hooves were painted a brilliant red. All of this was worth it to avoid saying how he felt towards a certain purple unicorn.

The night had grown old, it was eleven-thirty in the evening and Spike had fallen asleep soon after truth or dare and was snoring in his basket beside Twilight’s bed that wouldn’t be used since it was decided that everypony would be sleeping on the floor. Not only had Spike protested about not being able to stay with the ponies downstairs, but also why he couldn’t use Twilight’s bigger, softer, warmer bed. They both knew the answer, it was because spike shed. A lot. Spike grumbled himself to sleep, which didn’t take long and soon he was in the deepest realms of his subconscious. Whilst the baby dragon slept, the ponies downstairs continued their long conversation and the topic had turned entirely to Cantor.

“So, how do you have wings and a horn?” Applejack asked, feeling slightly jealous.

“I’m an alicorn. It means I’ve got lots of power to do… pretty much anything with.” He replied, trying to think about how to bring the conversation around to him raising the sun; a feat he was rather proud of...

“Well,” Twilight said, “nearly everything...”

Something within Cantor snapped; he was fed up with living this lie and it pained him to lie to this specific group of ponies.

“Girls:” He said firmly, except he stared at Twilight as he spoke. “I’m going to show you all something, but you have to promise to listen to what I have to say afterwards.” Everypony agreed. Everypony, except Twilight. “Twilight?” Cantor asked, looking her even deeper in her beautiful purple eyes. “Do you promise?”

The purple mare closed her eyes and nodded. “I promise.” She said sincerely, but still fearfully; to hear this particular stallion talk in such a way meant he was very serious about something. She just hoped it was a good thing.

Cantor levitated a candle into the middle of the tight circle of friends before saying “Watch…” Enthusiastically. The mares complied, watching the flame of the candle extinguish and re-light. Cantor took away the flame and gave it back just as easily. Everypony watched in awe apart from Twilight, who looked as if she had just seen a ghost. The white elemental then turned to the purple unicorn, leaving the flame burning and trying to look as submissive as possible. “I know what you’re thinking, Twilight…” Her mouth was agape, forming a large ‘O’ and her eyes, still fixed on the candle, were trembling in fright. “Listen, Twilight. Whatever princess Celestia said about ponies like me, it’s true. But listen… hey.” He said, raising his voice ever so slightly to draw Twilight’s eyes back to his. Twilight turned slowly, and Cantor could tell exactly how she felt. He could see in her eyes that she was indeed terrified, but also that she was keeping her promise really well. “Listen… I. Am. Different.” He spoke with the most intense sincerity, burning his truth into Twilight’s mind.

She simply accepted him and nodded calmly. “I believe you.” She replied. “I… Believe you…” She repeated, letting Cantor know she was as serious as he was.

Cantor sighed in great relief, closing his eyes and looking to the floor. “Thank you.” He said, still looking towards the floor, watching the flame dance by itself.

Twilight nudged him and he looked back up. “But… why?” she asked, hopefully looking into Cantor’s discs of fire.

The alicorn shook his head dismissively. “I’m just… different.” Twilight looked hopeless. It wasn’t the fact that he was something that she had been taught were evil, despicable ponies, but the fact that he hadn’t told her sooner. “Listen, under that, and the fact that I am an alicorn, I’m just a normal pony.”

Twilight sighed. “Alright. But I still think we need to speak to princess Celestia…”

“Of course.” Cantor replied, “Whatever you want…” The stallion smiled.

“'scuse me, but, what the hay was all that about?” Asked Applejack, who, as well as everypony else, Cantor and Twilight had forgotten about. Both ponies chuckled.

“Should you tell them, or should I?” Asked Cantor.

Twilight smiled back. “I think you should.”

Alright…” Cantor started, taking a breath, ready to enlighten the group on his tweaked story about what he was.

“So, you can control the elements?” Rarity asked.

“Yes.” Cantor simply replied.

“All of them?” She asked again.

“Yes.” Cantor repeated.

“And this is a problem because?...” Asked the white unicorn, turning towards her purple friend.

“Princess Celestia said that the elementals – that is, what Cantor is, were extremely powerful ponies and were also very evil…” She hated herself after saying that.

“Don’t worry about it!” Cantor sighed, trying to clear the dense air. “Personally, I see it as just an extended form of magic, rather than… ‘godlike’ powers.”

“I suppose so…” Twilight agreed. “You know, that could come in very useful.” She smiled, aiding Cantor in clearing the tension.
“Exactly. This is supposed to be a sleepover, and I don’t think this is how one is supposed to go!” The stallion declared.

“Cantor’s right.” Applejack agreed. “So what if he has different magic, he’s just a normal pony and I think it’d be straight up wrong if he was excluded for it.”

“I agree with that…” Fluttershy added, casting a friendly smile towards the alicorn.

“Who wants to tell ghost stories!?” Pinkie Pie exclaimed out of nowhere.

“Actually, that’s a great idea, Pinkie.” Twilight said, climbing to her hooves and stretching out after being laid down for an hour. “Does anypony want a drink?”

“I thought you’d never ask!” Pinkie sighed.

Twilight made her way to the kitchen and asked if anypony else wanted one. A flurry of hooves shot up and initially, Cantor didn’t raise his, but seeing everypony else raise their forehooves, his biggest downfall kicked in, and he copied what the rest of the group were doing. Twilight nodded and disappeared into the darkened kitchen, reappearing a few seconds later, carrying seven bottles of pale yellow liquid in her lavender aura.

“Thanks.” Cantor said, along with the other ponies as he took one of the bottles with his own magic that was nearly the same colour as Twilight’s, only slightly more pale. “Hey, what’s this?” He asked before he looked at the label.

“Pineapple Bacolti.” Twilight replied, snapping the cap off with her magic. She brought in a bottle opener for the non-magical ponies to use.

“I’m sorry… Ba – colti?” Cantor asked, far too amused by the name.

“Yeah…” Twilight responded slowly. “Is that a problem?” She proceded to sip from her bottle.

“No, no…” Replied Cantor, “it’s just the name… it’s… interesting…” Then the alicorn swigged his drink, his mouth immediately exploding with a strong pineapple flavour, followed by the sweetness of the Alco pop and enjoying the sharp, sour aftertaste.

“That’s nice.” He commented, examining the image on the label more intently. The thin piece of paper glued onto the glass showed a red circle with a stencilled black and gold pegasus in the centre. How something like this existed in Equestria, Cantor didn’t know. He would simply need to learn to accept it, the same way he would have to accept that the day and night cycle were controlled by magical horses that made the sun and moon orbit the world. “Strange world…” He thought. “But still a perfect one…” He took another sip.

After a second and third round of the pineapple beverages with the ridiculous name, Cantor found out another one of Rarity’s ‘secrets’: This girl was a total lightweight. Though he chocked some of it down to attention seeking, she seemed slightly out of it; she was starting to slur the longer words and he thought it was hilarious. After the last round of Bacoltis, the time had passed into the early hours of the morning, but nopony seemed to notice how it flew by.

A few of the ponies had told ghost stories, to which Cantor thought were merely foal’s tales. And upon making his opinion clear, was challenged by Applejack, who so far had the best story (even though it was about the connection between strange lights in the sky and missing pigs), to “Tell a better one.”
The thought of telling ‘Cupcakes’ with different characters came to mind, but that was just sick. Instead, he told one of his favourite small ghost stories of all time…

“So you want a better ghost story, huh?” Asked the alicorn, throwing his head back and finishing off the last of his pineapple drink.

“If ya’ think ya’ can!” Replied the farm pony, shooting him a wink.

“Alright…” He replied, trying to make the following story as casual as possible. “Did you uh… did you ever hear about that thing in the papers a couple years ago?”

“’Bout what?” Asked Applejack.
“The uh, ‘incident’ at a hotel in... Bultimare?”

“No. What?”

“Well... Cantor began, thankful for the puns revolving round Earthly towns and cities being accurate. His horn lit up and all the candles in the room dimmed except for one which he levitated under his chin, casting ominous shadows across his face. “There was this family, right; the very image of a ‘happy family’: a mother, a father, a colt and a filly… Now, one day they were out travelling and got lost.”

Cantor furrowed his brow and smiled gently, creating the image of a plotting serial killer. He scanned the group, looking to see if they were falling for it. And they were eating it up. “It was getting dark and they were fearful of the streets at night, so they booked into the closest hotel they found. It was completely full apart from two rooms. Happily, the family took the booking, but the lack of space meant the parents had to share one room and the foals had to share the other.”

“Why didn’t one parent sleep with one foal?” Asked Twilight, making the logical assumption.

“I don’t know…” Cantor replied, turning to her. “They probably had some sort of problem sleeping with their young.”

“Oh…” Twilight returned.

“Anyway…” Cantor began again, “The parents had to sleep in a separate room to their kids but in the kid’s room, there was an appalling smell.”

“What smell?” Pinkie asked, her voice unusually quiet and serious.

“I can’t describe it... just… an atrocious smell.” Cantor replied. “This made them think twice about the room, but then they were faced with the choice of the bad smell and wandering the streets, full of rapists and thugs, hopelessly trying to find the way back to the hotel they initially booked.”

“What, were they like on holiday?” Rainbow Dash enquired. “In Bultimare!?”

“Yes. They lived in the countryside and wanted to know what the big cities were like…”

“So!” Cantor continued, “The family chose the hotel, but they called upon the manager to try to do something about the smell. But when he came down, he couldn’t pinpoint the stench either. He chocked it down to a bad case of damp and offered the family a discount, which they gladly accepted.” The alicorn licked his dry lips and swallowed before continuing.

“So that night, after a can of air freshener, the family eventually went to sleep and woke up early in the morning to set off and find their other hotel where they had left the majority of their money. The stallion of the family made it his duty to finally uncover the mystery source of the smell.” Cantor’s horn grew brighter as he began to wrap several pillows up in bed sheets, making a dense lump of softness. “He set about trying to find whatever was making that stench. He thought he had looked everywhere, but then he had the idea to look on the underside of the mattresses as that would be a prime place for damp. He lifted the filly’s mattress from her bed; it was clean…” The mass of pillows wrapped in blankets about the same size as a pony came into position above the group and stayed there, waiting…

“However.” Cantor spoke ominously. “When the father lifted the colt’s mattress..." Cantor chuckled darkly in his throat. "he found the source of the smell…” He extinguished all of the candles in the room except for the one under his face, which he made burn brightly, casting light over the circle of ponies but no further.

“What was it!?” Rainbow Dash begged.

Cantor delivered the punch line of his story. “The father peeled back the mattress and through the slats in the bed, he stared straight into the cold, glassy eyes of a decomposing dead mare.” With this, Cantor released his hold on the bundle of bed sheets and in the second it took to strike the floor, he noted the looks of terror on the faces of all the ponies.

The mass of sheets and pillows hit the floor with a loud thud and all the mares screamed bloody murder and scattered into the darkness. Cantor began whooping with laughter as he rolled back and shook on the floor, his cries of joy drowned out by the ear-splitting screams of the six mares who were bumping into each other in the darkness. Cantor somehow found the concentration to re-ignite all of the candles, making the pitch-black house a dim glow of yellow. After a few seconds, the screams died down and Cantor was still giggling furiously.

Spike came charging into the room, exclaiming “What’s going on!?” receiving nothing but a laughing alicorn, shortly followed by the other two pranksters in the room, collapsing and congratulating Cantor on the good story.

Cantor rose to his hooves and Twilight surged over to him and, in all good frames of mind, bucked him hard in the side, making him topple to the floor once again. “Damn it, Cantor!” She yelled, smiling uncontrollably. “That’s not funny!”

“Then why are you smiling?” He replied cheekily.

“I’m not!” Twilight shot back, forcing the grin from her face. “And Fluttershy really didn’t find it funny!” She continued, pointing to the trembling pegasus who had her face buried in the corner and was sobbing loudly.

Cantors amusement and ridiculous grin died as he got to his hooves once again and quickly made his way to the terrified pegasus. “Hey…” He said softly, laying down next to her and stroking her quivering back. “Hey, I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to scare you like that…” His tone was kind and comforting. “It’s just a ghost story, it’s not real...” The timid Fluttershy stopped crying and shaking and let out a muffled breath into her foreleg. “I’m so sorry, Fluttershy… I didn’t mean to make you upset…” He apologised, continuing to rub her back softly.

Fluttershy looked back up to Cantor and he smiled warmly, she said nothing, but cast her gaze back to where they had been sitting. Nothing sinister was there except a pile of brightly coloured pillows and some sheets. The pegasus smiled and turned back to face Cantor.

“It’s okay…” She sighed, wiping her bloodshot eyes. “I just get scared really easily…” she stood up and joined Twilight’s side, wiping her eyes and sniffling, but still smiling.

“I really am sorry, Fluttershy…” Cantor apologised again.

“I know.” Fluttershy replied. “I know you didn’t mean it…”

“Thanks…” Said Cantor. “I guess that means I win?” He asked, turning to Applejack who stood next to the door.

She laughed briefly. “Yeah! You win…”

By now, it was three – thirty in the morning and everypony’s eyelids felt like sandpaper. Twilight declared this was a good time for them to go to sleep and they all settled down to bed once Twilight had reassured Spike that “nothing was wrong; just a scary story…” The candles flickered gently on their stands and everypony except Twilight and Cantor had fallen asleep on their individual mattresses.

Cantor was keeping himself awake by making fire out of nowhere, seeing how big he could make it before it became too much. As it turned out, this wasn’t a far – away limit as he thought: his biggest flame no larger or hotter than a small campfire. The alicorn was unaware Twilight was watching him lie on his back, impossibly burning the air in front of his troubled face. The fire he had made flickered out when he heard Twilight, who lay on the mattress next to his say his name.

“Yes, Twilight?” he replied, turning to face her and hoping that she wasn’t now scared of him for his abilities.

“I- Because I’m not in my bed like I'm used to, I um, I'm quite cold...” She answered.

“Would you uh… would you like my blanket?” The alicorn asked, pulling the dark green material from his body with his hoof.

“Actually, I um…” She replied, “…Don’t worry about it.”

“No, go on…” Cantor insisted.

“Well, I was just wondering if… If it’s okay with you… that… would you sleep… next to me?...” Even in the dim light, Cantor could see the extra blood being pumped into her cheeks.

He smiled warmly. “Of course…”

Cantor then rose quietly from his bed, careful not to wake the other sleeping ponies. He pushed his own mattress up so it was touching Twilight’s before laying down again, as close to the beautiful mare as he could get without actually laying on top of her. He met her soft eyes with his and peered deep into her wonderful mind. “Good night, Twilight…” He whispered.

“Good night, Cantor…” She returned, then proceded to roll over so she was laying facing away from him. The stallion began to put his arm around Twilight’s neck when he had a much better idea. He lowered his arm to his side and extended one of is huge wings across the mare who had already fallen asleep, the heat from her rising chest warmed every feather and he relaxed his muscles, allowing his protective wing to cover her body like a blanket.

“Sweet dreams, Twilight…” He spoke so quietly it was barely a whisper in his own head before slowly dimming every candle until only one remained. Soon though, it too went out, sending a thin stream of smoke into the pitch – black tree house.

Comments

[Nightmare]

So Good And So Little Views, We Are Pleased With This , Also Are You Needed Of Editor? (If Thou Know What We Mean)

[Still Breeze]

533850 I... I'm humbled... Thank you so much for the positive feedback, but I'm afraid I don't know what you mean by editor, as in, someone who checks for grammar mistakes and such? Why does thou ask, Nightmare?

[Nightmare]

534057

Yes We Ask For That, And By Editor, Highly Experienced..... *Wisthles*.........

[Still Breeze]

534068 I would be honoured to have you as an editor, Nightmare. Where should we begin?

[Nightmare]

534076

Well First We Are Gonna Read The Story TO Check If You Write A new Chapter, Send It To Me By Pm Or Skype Or Google Docs

[Still Breeze]

534190 So... I've already uploaded the story up to chapter 15, so when I'm finished with 16, should I send it to you, or should I send you the unpublished chapters via like hotmail or something as well as the new chapters?

[Nightmare]

534269

Send Me The First ,(Skype, Fimfiction Pms, Google Docs, Gmail (maybe)) One You Have Prepared To Upload, I Check It When I'm Finished I Tell You And You Send Me The Next One You Have

[Still Breeze]

534426 Okay, will do!

[Deathpony]

yay new chapter me like this once again good chapter look forwards towards the next

[Nightmare]

534460

Well I Checked All the Posted Chapters And I Dind't See Any Issue

[Still Breeze]

538248 Eyyyyyyyy!.... Thanks, Nightmre! Thank you for taking the time to look through it! XD

[Lord Etters]

OMG Cantor high score! STRIKE A POSE! yes Twilight, We know!

[Blazing_Mane01]

My 3DS had to reload this page five times before I finished the chapter

But, it was definitely worth it! To say the least, even!

You've got some serious talent, Still Breeze! The way you describe the shipping makes mine seem so pansy. Then again, I guess I didn't tag 'romance' for a reason, huh?

It's pretty crazy to think how, after all that reading, it all took place in the timescale of a day. I actually kinda found that a little funny. Not at you, with you, btw.

This story is doing a VERY good job at making me laugh! Eatin it up!

On a different note, I wonder if Blaze and Cantor would get along? They're both alicorns, but they're both being hit on by the same mare...

[Science-Mare]

Whatever can’t be explained by science, chalk it down to magic. Whatever isn’t feasible even by magic… Pinkie Pie.”

Quote of the fucking year. I died.

[Fluffy-Boi]

“Careful, I – I know self defense.” She said, putting on a brave voice.

“Well I know self offense!”

Nice one pal~

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

The feels!

[Zapper Frost]

“I don’t know how to take that sentence, doctor…” Cantor joked, turning around awkwardly in the small room and exiting into the bright hallway. The sky above was already beginning to brighten towards the east as the night began it’s slow retreat once more.

Im lookin' at you Nurse Joy

[Stygian Tiger]

What the hell, this did feel like 20,000 words! You, sir, have a talent for this stuff

[Twilight_the_spy]

“The carriage plummeted from a cliff. No survivors were expected, but the search and rescue team found her with crippling blood loss, but she was alive… only she was alive…” He brought out a box of tissues and dabbed his eyes with one as he continued. “If we had any stores of AB negative, we could have saved her.” He cleared his throat and stuffed the tissue into his coat pocket, turning around to face Cantor.

Hospitals store O- blood for this exact reason, it's compatible with all other blood types. AB- can only give to AB- and AB+.

1987543
God what a throwback, I too used to read stories on my 3DS late at night.