//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5: Some Time to Talk 
// Story: Darkside Equestria: Redemption and Resurrection 
// by DarksideEquestria 
//------------------------------//



Tor Ironclad

That was an awkward party to say the least.

Actually, it was going fine until the other stallion of the hour showed up. I spoke to the six ponies I had met the day before. It feels kind of weird being the only stallion in a room of Fillies. What made it feel even more odd was that they were paying a lot of attention to me. I felt a little flirting coming from Miss Rarity. She even made a nice Faux-Leather jacket for me to wear. Being flirted with after having your heart broken doesn’t feel too good. You’re not too sure if you can trust yourself again. Even so, I think I enjoyed it a little bit, deep down.

Miss Pinkie Pie was bouncing around as usual and offered me a slice of delicious cake and some apple juice, both of which I accepted graciously. Miss Fluttershy was quiet but she still engaged in the conversations taking place around us, chuckling quietly along with a joke or telling a story about her experiences helping animals. As expected, Miss Sparkle asked about what brought somepony of my stature to Ponyville. I decided not to tell her about my job. We bounty hunters are looked down upon in most social circles. Instead, I told her, “I was just traveling and decided to settle down here for a bit.” It was a satisfying enough answer for her. Miss Rainbow Dash complimented me on my flying abilities as well as what she called my, “Awesome style.” Was she referring to my steel exoskeleton? I was a bit reserved about it, but even if she was talking about it, I didn’t really mind that much. 

Miss Applejack asked me if I would be willing to help on the farm some time. I haven’t worked on a farm before. “If I do, do I get to eat more of your family’s cooking?” I replied smoothly. We both chuckled at this. Mr. Spike was a very funny dragon. I had never met a dragon before, but after talking with him, I felt like all of those stories about mean dragons weren’t true. Yes, everything was going wonderful. Until two events had agitated the mood at the party. 

The first, while a much smaller event than the second, changed the mood of the party from happy and peaceful to slight surprise. I had gotten careless and went to scratch my head, but I didn't consider how difficult that would be with my hooves all ironed up and my legs having lost a large portion of their range of motion. As I lifted my hoof to scratch my head, I didn't gauge the trajectory as well as I could have and I accidentally knocked my hat off. This didn't really matter much to me, but then I heard an excited gasp. I forgot that ponies with wings and a horn aren't very common around these parts.

Miss Twilight had noticed, and was either excited or terrified by this. "Do you come here on behalf of princess Celestia?" She asked "Are you here to test me? Am I in trouble? Tell me! Please tell me!" Those were the only words I could understand out of the seemingly thousands she was saying at that point. She seemed pretty worried about it, but I didn't feel comfortable talking about the princess. Everypony else was rather surprised too. I started to panic. Had I blown my cover? The room started to darken and all of the ponies started to look grotesque. I closed my eyes, trying not to see, but no matter how tightly I shut them, the images wouldn't leave. And Miss Sparkle was still talking about the princess the entire time. I  heard the sound of a hammer hitting metal, when suddenly it all stopped.

"Tor, are you uhhh... Doin' alright?" miss Applejack asked me as she tapped my shoulder. "You looked like you were in an incredible amount of pain just now." I opened my eyes and gasped. Everything was normal again.

"Did I confuse you with all of my questions? I'm sorry, the princess is my teacher so I always get a bit worried when I think she's testing me." miss Twilight apologized.

"Ummm... That's alright. To answer your question, no I'm not connected to the princess in any way. I... Just found myself in this neck of the woods and decided to settle down." I reassured her as I put my hat back on. That was a traumatic experience to be sure. I tried to move on from that subject as quickly as possible, to return the party to the way it was before. And, lo and behold, it did go back to normal. That is, until the other stallion of the hour showed up.   

Seething Mass. Nobody actually saw him come into Sugarcube Corner, and he didn't make a single sound, but we all felt him. It was as if the air went a little colder for a second, as if something foreign and unusual was watching us. He stood quietly at the door, and seemed like he was confused about why he was here in the first place. To match that, he was a half an hour late! Miss Pinkie Pie was the first to welcome him, naturally, and offered him some apple juice. I was about to talk to him and engage in some hopefully friendly conversation when he started talking to Miss Rarity. I'll admit I was a mite bit jealous, but I quickly got ahold of myself. He seemed to really calm down, and was apparently talking to Rarity about some sort of job when his face suddenly changed, went slack. 

That was when the horse-apples hit the fan.

He had looked calm enough at first while talking to Rarity, then the look in his eye changed. It looked like he needed to say something. That may sound natural, but let me tell you, this wasn’t just any old fun fact he was about to spout out. It looked like his life depended on saying it, as if he was afraid something had would happen if he didn't. Almost that same sort of look somepony gets on their face right before something terrible happens. He whispered something into Miss Rarity’s ear, and she was extremely surprised by whatever he said. We all took a step back, not sure what had happened. He noticed our movement away from him, and frantically rushed to Miss Fluttershy.

By now he was actin really crazy, loudly calling out descriptions of events that I couldn't make sense of. I could tell something was strange about what he was saying from the other ponies' faces. Whatever he was saying was something he shouldn't have been able to know. He bore down on Fluttershy, screaming out words and spraying spit. At the end of it, both him and Fluttershy were weeping, and he kept saying he was, “afraid.” Afraid? He was afraid? By this point we were all afraid of him. Fluttershy was distraught, and the rest of the fillies looked deeply disturbed by whatever Seething Mass had screamed. Why would he be afraid? Was this somehow my fault? I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe I had misjudged him, jumped to conclusions. Miss Fluttershy was absolutely panic-stricken; she hadn't cried this much even when I almost ran her over yesterday.

As if all of this wasn't strange enough, something very odd happened. The temperature began to fluctuate in the room, one second it would be cold enough to see your breath and the next instant the very air tore into your lungs hot and dry. I watched Seething Mass and a sort of, change came over him. It’s hard to describe, but it was almost as though the shadows in the room became more numerous, suddenly every aspect of Seething was rendered in stark detail before me. Suddenly I could see the covering of hair on him that should be invisible, his outline grew from smooth to detailed, somehow clearer. I had never seen anything like it, but suddenly I could spot every individual speck of dirt, every hint of a crack in his horn. And his eyes, they seemed to explode with a detail I couldn’t even comprehend. The room felt alien, strange, and I suddenly felt as if I didn’t belong here.

As I watched a gray aura extended out from him in all directions, crawling across the floor. I thought my vision was fading at first, but sure enough everypony and everything in the room was being drained of color. As the color drained, the same strange affect rendered everything in exquisite, painful detail. Every crack in the floor, every inconsistency in the painted ceiling, millions of tiny bubbles in the apple juice sitting on the suddenly hyper-textured tablecloth, everything took on that same aspect as Seething Mass. It came in waves, radiating outwards from Seething Mass like some sort of creeping tide. I watched as the aura enveloped my filly friends, the same disturbing change overcoming them as their colors faded to a sort of mute green tinge. Soon enough everypony except Miss Pinkie Pie and me had been touched by the cloud. My mind was drawn back to the graveyard, when Seething's color shone through his normally gray coat for a moment in that fit of spontaneous laughter. 

Miss Pinkie pie tried standing up to Seething Mass for making Miss Fluttershy start crying. I was far enough away that the fog of gray hadn’t reached me yet, but somehow Pinkie could stand right next to Seething and remain her chipper pink hue. After scolding him, she then tried to comfort him, realizing that he was extremely distressed by something. Suddenly Seething reached up, quick as a flash, and gripped either side of Pinkie's head. His eyes were cold and without emotion, and this sudden movement forced me to act. My bounty hunter instincts reacted, and I leapt forward to stop him. Maybe I was wrong; maybe he really WAS a dangerous criminal! His eyes were so detailed they made Pinkie’s bright color seem, childish and fake. Seething Mass’ face twitched and a sort of sad expression came over him. He looked like he was in a lot of pain. He stopped for a moment, paused and tried to swallow, and then whispered something hoarsely into Miss Pinkie's ear.

Her face blanched and started to drain of color just like everything in the room, and she looked horrified as the details of hair and tears flushed out of her now colorless face, but all I could think of was how hurt Seething's face looked, how frightened and sad he looked. I had to do something. I thought that if I could knock him out of his current position the entire thing would stop. I realized suddenly how lonely Seething Mass looked, how completely alone. I’m surprised that I felt more concerned for him, all the other ponies were lying on the floor staring upwards vacantly, but for some reason all I wanted to do was somehow stop Seething Mass’ pain. I got ready to tackle him in an attempt to move him, but almost immediately as I had started to charge Seething Mass' head jerked upwards and his eyes locked on mine. All I could see were those frigid white pupils.




I woke up on a soft couch. Wait, wasn’t I just at Sugarcube Corner? It made no sense. That couldn’t have been a dream. It was too real. I looked around the room. It was very… Purple. I knew only three things at this point. One, I didn’t know where I was. Two, I had the most killer headache. And three, I had somehow gotten from Sugarcube corner to wherever this place was in an instant, with no memory of how. I attempted to get off of the couch and onto my hooves. This resulted in utmost failure. I got off the couch with my front hooves first, not knowing just how weak they were at the moment. As I put weight on my legs, they instantly buckled and I flipped over onto my back, causing quite a loud noise. This must have been noticed by somepony upstairs, as I heard hoovesteps on the floor above. I was still very dazed and couldn’t see straight. The headache wasn’t helping at all. I almost fell asleep on my back, but before I could, I heard a familiar voice say, “I’m glad to see that you woke up finally. You looked like you might sleep for days. Darling I’ve heard of beauty sleep, but that was just ridiculous!” It was Miss Rarity. 

She must not have seen me immediately, because after she said that, she let out a gasp that made my headache pulse in my head and galloped over to try and help me up. I was still very wobbly. After a few minutes, she helped me over to her dining table and gave me some food. I couldn’t tell what it was; I was so out of it. I just ate it and thanked her for feeding me. We sat at the table silent, me trying to gather myself and figure out my surroundings, her staring at me, waiting for a chance to speak. Well, the gathering myself could not have gone worse; I was still as dazed and confused as when I had woken up. 

Then it hit me: how did I get there? Miss Rarity was there, so she would probably know. I asked her, “Say… where am I, Miss Rarity?” “Why darling, you’re at my house, naturally!” “I guess that makes some sense.” I was still talking rather slowly, exactly as dazed as when I woke up. Why wouldn’t this go away? “But… then how did I get here?” She lowered her head in response to that question. “Something went horribly, horribly wrong at the party. The other ponies and I came to our senses shortly after that unsightly gray pony, Seething Mass, was it? Left Sugarcube Corner.” “Please be nice to him, Miss Rarity… I don’t think it was his fault. I think he’s nice, once you get to know him.” I said, almost forgetting what we had been talking about, due to my dazedness. 

“Well, If you say so, darling. Anyways, we had all come out of the shock, but you hadn’t. In fact, you were asleep! Or maybe passed out. It was actually kind of cute, really. We tried to decide where we should take you, but because none of us knew where you lived we had to have somepony take you to their home. Fluttershy couldn’t bring you to her place, she taking care of a bear and there wouldn’t have been enough room. You would have been much too heavy to carry to Rainbow Dash’s house in the sky, and Applejack is in the middle of applebucking so she wouldn’t have been able to properly take care of you. Pinkie Pie had to clean up and Twilight Sparkle told us she wanted to study what happened that night. I felt bad that responsibility for you was being tossed around like you were a ragdoll, you poor darling, so I offered to have you stay on my couch for the night, and here we are now!” She laughed, seeming slightly embarrassed.

“You know you could have just tossed me out in the street, right? That’s where I’ve been sleeping ever since I got here.” I replied somewhat gruffly. My head was just killing me. Her face grew horrified. “Oh, no deary you can't be serious! That simply won’t do! That’s so bad for your complexion, darling! The other ponies and I simply must arrange for you to stay somewhere. Honestly, sleeping in the streets is dangerous, even for somepony of your… stature. Some crook could come by and steal from you! Go lay back down on the couch, while I go and talk to the other ponies about a place to stay.” She said, kindly yet commandingly. She really looked concerned.  

Regardless of her concern,I knew that nopony would actually get away with stealing from me at night. Still, having a bed would be pretty nice. I obligingly went to the couch and lay down. I was still as dazed as I was when I had woken up. What was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I regain myself? Suddenly my scatterbrained aching head came to an odd conclusion; I have work to do! I thanked Rarity for her hospitality and darted out the door, still wobbly on my feet. I was headed to the police station to pick a job. I really don’t remember why I decided to go just then, but I’m almost positive that I wasn’t thinking straight. What would follow this simple, rash and thoughtless decision would be the worst day of my bounty-hunting career.




I got to the police station and went inside. I looked at the bounty wall, which is where I choose a criminal to search for, and nearly fell sideways trying to look it over. I chose a unicorn stallion that had killed three ponies and stole their valuables. He had a pretty good price on his head. I read that he had been seen by the edge of the forest and hassle anypony who got near the outskirts of town. As I left, I ran into Miss Sparkle. No, I mean I literally ran into her. Second pony this week! She seemed like she was actually looking for me. As dizzy as ever, I greeted her with a groggy voice and slurred speech, “Well g’mornin’ Miss Sparkle. I didn’t expect to bump into you here.” I said, helping her to her hooves. “What were you doing at the police station?” She asked, suspiciously. “Oh, you know… Just… Stuff.” She didn’t look convinced, dang she was good. 

“If you say so. Anyways, listen. Do you remember when Seething Mass turned everything gray last night?”

“I ‘spose so.” I rocked back and forth a little.

“Well the something similar happened to us when we confronted Discord! Discord is an EXTREMELY dangerous, not to mention ANNOYING creature. He rendered Princess Celestia powerless and almost ruled all of Equestria forever! This Seething Mass' stunt at that party leads me to believe that pony is connected in some way to Discord, and I was wondering if you would keep an eye on him for me. I’ve been up all night but I still need to do more research, but he’s dangerous and shouldn't be trusted to be left to his own devices. I'd watch him myself, but I need to find out more about what he did back there! Could you help me Tor?"

“Yeah, sure. I can do that. Now, I gotta get to work. It was nice to talk to you!”

I ran off in the direction of the forest. If Twilight didn't notice something was wrong with me, then her head must already been too wrapped up in thought because I was acting very strange. By some insane coincidence, I ran into Seething Mass at the edge of the forest. Not literally this time, he was pretty far away and I (barely) had enough time to stop before hitting him. He was just sitting there, staring at the train as it pulled out of town towards Canterlot, his coat and mane as grey and colorless as ever. I walked up to him, stumbling and tripping over my own hooves. I was asked to watch him, right? So, what with my brain all scrambled and all, the next logical step was to ask him to come help me with work! “Would you come with me, Mr. Seething Mass? I got some work to do, and I was wondering if you’d like to join me?” I asked him. 

Now I'm not sure how I would have responded, were I in his place, but let me tell you what I do know: the look on his face was priceless.

“Isn’t your line of work hazardous for untrained ponies?” He asked after faltering a bit. His voice sounded a bit, well, clearer for some reason, like he had more wits about him. I didn’t know that he knew what my job was. “Well usually, but I’m sure you could handle it! Besides, Miss Sparkle asked me to… Ummmm… well never mind that. Anyways, come with me.” “But that doesn’t sound safe…” He mumbled as he begrudgingly followed me. I don’t even know why he decided to come with me, I had obviously made a fool out of myself again. Why was I being so stupid? It was starting to anger me. We trudged on through the forest silently.

It wasn’t long before we found the pony I was looking for. I was less dazed than before, but my head was still pretty foggy. We were in a position where he couldn’t see us. “What do we do now?” Seething Mass asked me. 

“Oh… Uhhhhhh… I hadn’t thought of that… What do you think we should do?” 

“What do I think we should do? Isn't my job, isn’t. I mean this isn't my job. You invited me to come along, asked me to help, and now you're asking ME what to do? Didn't, if I didn't, I didn't know if I would say you..." he stopped for a moment, gathered his thoughts, and whispered again, “If I didn't know better I would say you were out of your mind! And I would know of what I spoke too, of being out of one's mind!"

“Hey, I’ve been dazed all morning for some unknown reason. Would you have been able to formulate a plan like that if you were as boggled as I am now? No! You wouldn’t have! So cut me some slack!” I said, getting louder and louder. My head was buzzing with pain. In that moment, I completely forgot what I was doing. “AND WILL SOMEPONY PLEASE HELP ME WITH THIS HEADACHE?!?” I shouted at the top of my lungs, completely blowing our cover. 

My target, a tall, slender electric blue unicorn stallion, whirled around and stared at us angrily. He knew exactly why I was there. “You should be a bit quieter when stalking somepony, you know!” he screeched, laughing maniacally. Seething glared at me and I just laughed, stumbling to my hooves as Seething joined me in a rather half-hearted charge. As we hurtled towards him, his horn started to glow and he shot off a spell faster than I could prepare my “steel chains” spell. Suddenly we stopped moving but we didn’t notice any immediate effects, although something strange did happen to my hooves. Suddenly they were heavy, very heavy. And this is coming from a guy who has steel nailed into his hooves, which I assure you is very, VERY heavy. I glanced back at Seething Mass, whose hostile gaze forced me to looked down at my own hooves. When I looked down however, the shiny steel, which was usually there, was turning (quite rapidly now) into the most detailed stone carving I had ever seen. 

But not just my “decorations” no, it was the flesh and hair underneath too! Spreading rapidly throughout my whole body while that maniac stood there, watching, laughing! I looked over at my gray acquaintance, and the same was happening to him. We both remained relatively calm, despite the fact that any regular pony would have been completely freaking out. We were just staring, with fire in our eyes at this…sociopath. We had given up on trying to actually move; we knew this spell would complete our transformation before we could get him. We were prepared for the worst, which I assumed was us turning entirely into statues and being lost and forgotten in the forest forever. It turns out, however, that this was not the case. While the target did intend to turn us to stone, he apparently did not intend to turn our heads to stone as well. We stood there for a moment, confused, waiting for the last living part of our bodies to petrify, when suddenly he spoke. “I’m so very sorry.” He sounded like an entirely different stallion than before, with a soft, almost regretful voice. How could this be cold-blooded killer that I was assigned to bring into custody? He sighed as he looked sorrowfully at us.

“I’m sorry I had to do this to you… I never wanted to go down this road, the road of villainy. You see… my family is dying of hunger. My foal has been sick since she was born. She has Hoof-eating gout. I figured if I could make enough money to pay for her medicine, we might just get by! But… well… the pharmacist kept raising the price by several hundred bits with each of my visits, no doubt trying to extort as much money as possible from me. One day I went in assuming I had enough money, but that was the day it got to the point where nopony, hardly even the richest of Canterlot’s elites, would have been able to afford the medicine! My daughter has such a rare illness that nopony else needed the medicine, nopony else saw the price raise.” He glanced over at us again, after having looked down. Seething Mass and I glared back, but we both listened attentively. It’s not as if we had anything better to do! 

He resumed speaking. “That was the day when I started… I waited near the forest and took the first opportunity I could to ambush some poor soul and take their money. It turns out that this pony was a fighter… He didn’t give up that easily… I got carried away and, well, shocked him with a little too much lightning. I’ve never forgotten that day, though there were many where the same thing happened.” His eyes were dewy at this point; half of his words were barely understandable. “I’m not asking you, or even society, to forgive me for what I’ve done… I just want you to understand my plight…where I’m coming from.” He concluded, lowering his head in shame. By now he was lying down on the ground.

This reminded me of my young life in Canterlot, helping the poor civilians. It hit a soft spot in my cold, hardened heart. Suddenly, if only for a moment, my head was clear and I had but one question for him. “Tell me, there is only one pharmacy in all of Ponyville, is there not?”

“Yes, and only one pharmacist.”

“Okay, I think we’re done here. You can run along now. Go on, get. I’ll take the heat for this one.”

“Really? I never expected to hear that…” He said surprised. As he was about to leave, he said, “I’m truly sorry, but I’m afraid I can’t de-petrify you… I haven’t learned that spell… I really hope you can come to forgive me some day.” “I have already forgiven,” I said, as kindly as I could. Seething Mass grunted harshly beside me and spoke. “I haven’t!” The unicorn looked us both slowly in the eye. “The best I can do for you is this,” He said as he walked over and turned me to face the disgruntled gray pony that I’d almost forgotten was there. “I figured you might want to talk for a while… I really do appreciate this! Honestly, I really do! You have no idea how nice it was, simply to have someone listen to you.” He said as he strutted off, with tears of joy in his eyes, holding his head proud and high. He was a new stallion now. It was obvious that he had never been given a second chance by society, but I broke his streak of bad luck. He vanished without a trace. 

Now it was just Seething Mass and I. He was standing there, I was standing here. It was uncomfortable for both parties. There was a silence that seemed to last for an eternity while we tried to avoid eye contact. It was obvious that I had royally pissed him off. I could understand why though. I brought him with me without a good reason, and ended up getting him stuck with me, for what could be forever. Gosh my headache was still terrible, and back with a vengeance. At least I wasn’t moving around and getting dizzy anymore. I attempted to break the silence with some levity. “Well, I know somepony who’s getting his bounty hunting license revoked.” It didn’t work. Total silence. ““Well that was fucking stupid.” I still wasn’t sure what that fourth word was, but apparently it was something bad. 

Another five minutes of silence passed before I heard him speak again. “You seemed to let him go pretty easily…” Seething Mass said, after apparently calming himself. “Yeah… look, I’m sorry… I know you didn’t want to be here in the first place, but I dragged you with me anyways and got us stuck in this mess.” 

“It’s fine, I guess… my life can't be any worse as a rock than as a pony.” he said, weakly attempting a smile. “But I have to ask you, I need to know, need the knowledge, this pony..? You seemed so, compassionate. Why him? You've taken down so many other ponies, almost took me down once, why did this pony draw such sympathy from you?"

“Well… the rest of my captures were psychopaths… Ponies who didn’t think what they were doing was wrong. This pony… This valiant stallion was just a guy backed into a corner, who did what he did to help somepony dear to him, when all odds were against him and there was nothing else he could do. He went to far, and he couldn’t go back so he just kept going forward.” “I am, I am a psychopath?" he replied. Well horse apples. "well, uh, I... No?"

He stared, questioning me sternly with those frosty globes. 

"Why do those less fortunate ponies affect you so?” He asked inquisitively. 

“I’ll save it for another time… It’s kind of a long story.” 

“We are going nowhere, nowhere rather soon. I hear it takes up a lot of time, going nowhere.” He pointed out. 

“Good point… But I don’t know… I’ve never told anypony my story before… How do I know I can trust you not to disown me?”He looked rather confused at that. 

"I am currently 79% rock, can't organize my own thoughts into a cohesive story of who I am, who I think I think I therefore am, and you have already suspected me of having done something illegal. Even if I did disown you, you have others who care for you, who think you matter and think you, therefore you matter because you are..." He replied.

“Yet another good point.” I somehow managed to chuckle. I suppose he was right, after all. Well, right about the half of what he said that I could understand. Still, he seemed to honestly care about my story. Something about this made me trust him even more. Trust… I hadn’t felt that feeling in quite some time. I unloaded my troubled past onto this pony’s back.

He looked at me, astounded. He seemed very surprised by my tale of hardship and woe. "The world, I, I don't understand. Celestia, Celestia wouldn't do such a thing, no, no no no, I never saw that side, never realized, is this, this "decoration" a strange occurrence? I've never heard any mention of it in the show! " I looked at him strangely. "Decorations don't happen often, but they aren't unheard of in the Canterlot circles. It takes a very odd crime and criminal for a decoration to take place. Now what show are you talking about?" his face blanked again for a moment, and I thought he was going to have another fit of manic grayness like at Sugarcube corner. 

"I, I don't know what I meant, must have been, must have been talking, nonsense, about a show, magic, magic is friendship, oh I just don't know!" his face regained its former liveliness, and his brows furrowed. 

No gray spell for now at least. I don’t understand why, but this drove me to be curious about his past too. “Well, I’ve been rambling on for ages… Why don’t you tell me about yourself?” The look on his face changed instantly. He went from shocked to depressed. I quickly tried to amend the situation. “But, if you don’t feel comfortable with telling me… you know, that’s fine too. You don’t have to tell me” 

“No, it’s not that… I just don’t really… know. I don't know. I was, in a box, in a coffin, but I didn’t feel real. I, I woke up inside underground and I couldn't remember anything at all, but thoughts would float to me out of nowhere. It was like being born, ripping out of that casket and burrowing up from the ground like some, some horrid thing. I got out. I, I knew things. I knew what birds and bunnies and air was, and I knew about Ponyville and Applejack Twilight Rarity Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, and Spike. I knew about all of them, a lot about all of them. All in the graveyard. We went back the other night, you were hunting me. " 

Yeah, that's still a bit embarrassing now, I'll admit it. Hey, he looked shifty! Then again, how would I have looked had I awoken in his stead? Jeez, buried alive? 

"I went back, back to the grave. Forgot something, apparently. I just felt I had to go back. His name is, was Picket. Picket, and he, he, he did something selfless. " here Seething Mass nodded his head at his hooves, "Don't know how, somehow my horn broke off getting out. I somehow knew I could take the horn, that I would need it for something important. I, I just KNOW things. I don’t’ know WHY, I don’t know what they are good for. At the party, knew things I shouldn't, couldn't, unless I'd seen them before somewhere. Like a show..." 

He trailed off a bit, but looked up and seemed a bit satisfied, I guess he hadn't been able to tell anypony any of this until now. I sensed it was my turn to reply. “Wow… That is confusing… But now I think I understand what happened last night better. You really weren’t trying to do what you did last night at the party… It just happened.” 

“It’s… hard for me not to tell somepony something I know but shouldn’t… Somehow, I know things about them. I knew what they would all look like, how they would act, what they have done in the past, I knew it! Before I had ever seen them! Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Applejack. Even Spike! That’s what caused me to start having that, that, that short in the system, the tears, the rip that you saw… I turned everything gray…brought something through… even you. I don't even know how, or why.”

“Hey, I don’t mind! I’m just glad that you weren’t hurt. It looked like you were really suffering there. I was worried about you…” 
“Well, thanks for your concern.”

“No problem, friend.” At the word, “Friend,” I could have sworn that I saw his color change a little from gray to green for a split instant, just a slight blotting of pale green on his shoulders and perhaps a dappling of purple in his mane. “Hey, could I tell you something?” He nodded at me. “The real reason I brought you here… The real reason we’re in this mess… Well… There was some similarity between your grayifying power and that of somebody called Discord… Somepony asked me to keep an eye on you and, well… I’ve had a headache and been in an awful daze that affected my judgment… and that lead to our current situation.”

“Was that ‘somepony’ you mentioned Twilight?” I nodded, “I thought she would do that… Oh well. Who wouldn’t, after all? I know Discord, saw what he did. He's powerful, unpredictable, chaotic, he found each of their strengths and he knew just how to reverse them. Except Fluttershy. " he smiled, knowingly. "He had to play against the rules for her. She was too kind." His head sank slightly. "She was too kind for too long..." 

We then heard an unexpected voice come from the bushes across from us. It was soft and somewhat calming. "because of your predicament, you both could now bond. Of each other's company, I see you have grown quite fond.” We saw what looked like a black and white striped pony in the bushes. Seething's eyes lit up as he whispered hoarsely, "Zecora..." The striped pony continued to speak. "Your bodies may be wreathed in stone, but inside you see your hearts have grown. I know that your head may feel quite sick," She said, as she looked at me. She must have meant my headache. “but Zecora has a remedy that will fix you up quick.” She brought over a bowl of a green, oily looking liquid. 

She put it to Seething Mass’s mouth, and he cautiously drank from it. Right before my eyes, he shed his rock as if it were only a shell! It was a miracle! We would escape this alive! She added some extra herbs to the mixture before giving it to me. I drank the rest as she instructed, and lo and behold, I was stone no longer! Plus, my headache was completely gone! “How did you know what would get rid of my headache?” I asked her. “You must sometimes find the cause to find the cure. It was Seething's graying energy that hurt your head, I’m sure.”
“But the other ponies turned gray too. Why did they seem just fine?” I asked, confused.
“But you see, little Tor, they’ve been grayed out before. Since it was your first time, it affected you that much more. Powerful magic protects them all, the magic of friendship helped them to only fall.”

She then sat down with us and introduced herself formally as Zecora. I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible, but she had me sit with her and Seething Mass for a bit longer. She had something to tell us. “In the fate of this land, a role both of you will play. What this fate might be, nopony could say. Be warned, take heed, is all I will say. Somepony’s trust will be broken, come of this what may.” With that she walked off into the forest, disappearing into the foliage. Seething Mass and I headed out of the forest, and when we reached the train tracks I took my leave of Seething Mass. I looked back at my new “Almost friend” only once as I ran out of the forest. He stared at the train again, but this time his face was less depressed and more contemplative. I galloped towards Ponyville; I had business to attend to.

My first stop was the Ponyville Pharmacy. As I walked into the store, I saw a bespectacled old pony with a pair of balanced scales for a cutie mark sitting behind a counter. I glared at him. He was the first to speak. “Hello there! Welcome to my fine establishment! I’m sure you will be able to find a cure for whatever ails you here.” “You don’t have anything that could heal my condition.” He looked slightly taken aback. “What might that condition be, if I may ask?”

“Righteous fury.” I replied

“Well, we do have some pills that can calm you down, but I will say, they’re pretty expensive.”

“That’s not the cure I’m looking for, you hack.” He looked at me confused, and suddenly froze with fear. I made sure to use my apparently permanent glare to my advantage and looked him right in the eye. I stalked up to the counter and stood to my full height. I towered above him, and he looked puny as he stared up at me from beneath my shadow. 

“I met a respectable young stallion today. He told me about his family. His poor daughter… She was very sick. It turns out you were the only one who had the medication which could make her better.”

“Well, if I do say so myself, I am the best pharmacist in all of Ponyville.” He tried to look confident, but I was much too intimidating. I decided to bring out the big guns, keep it short and sweet.

“Save it. I know what you did! You raised the prices of the medication every time you saw the poor pony! He would come in, thinking he had enough, excited to see his poor, sick girl in good health for once, and you would smash his dreams right into his face! You ruined his life, forced him to become a criminal, you sick, twisted abhorrence of ponykind! You’re the kind of pony who makes my stomach turn.” He was sweating profusely now, knowing that his jig was up. I calmed down a bit. He was terrified. I don’t like scaring ponies very much, even if it is very advantageous. My voice was calm, quiet. I knew the rapid change would make him uneasy. “I’d like to see you behind bars. I really would. I want to show you why this metal was put on me in the first place. But… seeing as my only source is a registered criminal offender… Well, let’s just say I don’t have enough of a warrant to search you. But I swear, if I find out that you’ve engaged in ‘monkey business’ ever again, I will ensure that you’re put away for a long time. A VERY long time. You understand?” 

He nodded, shaking, as I left the pharmacy. I was pretty sure that he wouldn’t do anything stupid again. Satisfied with my “lecture”, I headed to my second stop: The police station. To make a long story short, I was fired. I did let a criminal escape, after all, not to mention embarrassed the board that had certified me. My license was revoked permanently; with a business as poorly thought-of as Bounty Hunting is they couldn't afford anything but the best. But hey, I guess that’s just what happens when a nice guy like me gets into that line of work. I wandered around town, aimlessly after that. My goals were crushed within the first week of achieving them.

It was then that I ran into the seven friends I had made this week. That’s right, Seething Mass was there too, and get this, he was apologizing to them for last night! I was proud of him. Afterwards, they invited him to eat lunch with them and he awkwardly agreed. I was about to walk away and give them some privacy, but then I heard Miss Rarity call out, “Oh, Tor, Darling, there you are! We were hoping you would show up! Would you like to come to lunch with us all? We have some exciting news!” With that as my cue, I trotted over to the group. Miss Applejack commented on the dirt and twigs in my mane. "Hoo-wee! You look like you rolled in a pile of raked leaves! What have you been up to this afternoon?”

“Well… you know…” I looked at Seething Mass, who was smiling ever so slightly, “I’ve just been rethinking life.”

“Well, what gives? There anything new going on?” Miss Rainbow Dash asked me.

“Well… I got fired from my job.”

“That’s terrible! We’re all sorry.” The other ponies nodded in agreement.

“That’s fine! It really wasn’t my kind of job anyways.” I assured them.

Miss Rarity piped up, “Well, anyways, Have we got news for you, darling! We have arranged for you to stay at my house! Isn’t that nice?” She looked at me endearingly.

“Thanks! Much appreciated!” I thanked them all. Then I noticed one sad looking gray pony standing in the back. “But, uh… Isn’t there anywhere my friend Seething Mass could stay? He needs a place too.” His ears perked up at my gesture.

“Well… we have a guest bedroom at the house you could stay for a while. Or if you fancy yer privacy I suppose we do have this shed over on the farm he could stay in. You'd have to earn your keep on the farm, but you'd be welcomed as part of the family. I will say, it’s kind of cramped, what with all the machines and whatnot. But it's weather-tight and cleans in a jiffy, and it's not far from the main house. Do you think that’ll be fine?” Miss Applejack replied.

For some odd reason at the mention of machines Seething's ears perked up, and his eyes seemed to glow with excitement. I couldn't help but notice the colors seeping from his mane down to his tail, and I looked quickly and realized the other ponies saw it as well. Oddly enough, Miss Fluttershy seemed a bit, distracted, almost like she was hiding behind Miss Rainbow Dash. Evidently she hadn't gotten over Seething's somewhat insane episode yesterday. Poor thing. 

“Ma, Machines? An entire shed of, full of, my shed of, of machines? That would certainly be… adequate, certainly adequate… thank you.” Said Seething Mass. His voice quivered with excitement, his face held a large grin, and his purple mane and green coat seemed to burn away any melancholy feelings in the rest of us, that is except Miss Fluttershy who seemed on the verge of panic. Seething Mass had walked closer, now in the center of our little group. I got the feeling that Seething's thanks were intended as much for me as they were Miss Applejack. Seething glanced around at each of us, but upon seeing Fluttershy desperately trying to avoid his gaze his shoulders slumped some, and his colors faded back to the old grey from before. Applejack noticed, but just smiled softly and leaned over, punching him lightly in the shoulder, "Well then pardner, I think we have us a mighty fine deal!l Seething Mass smiled quietly and we all trotted off to go have lunch. As we trotted, I realized something. 

I may have lost a job today, but I gained a friend.