• Published 10th Sep 2019
  • 1,955 Views, 63 Comments

Gems II: Dawn of The Princesses - Pen Dragon



Barely escaping the hooves of the Order, Watcher and Celestia take refuge in Everfree City in hopes of starting over while also searching for the other three lost princesses.

  • ...
3
 63
 1,955

Chapter Nine: Resentment

Chapter Nine: Resentment


“All right, Techorse, this had better be good,” said Watcher, still as grouchy as ever.

The inventor assured him, “I promise it is. Did you miss me carrying in that ammunition earlier?”

Techorse had explained the situation at hoof to Umbra and reintroduced her to Clyde, an old friend whom she eagerly invited, citing his past work with Techorse. Now everyone in the household was gathered in Umbra’s lobby, plenty of space made for each pony with some sort of hybrid enchantment and digital technology piece put in the center, consisting of a powered globe adorned with runed gemstones.

“What is that thing?” asked Affinity, “Such a strange device.”

“Holographic magic projector,” Umbra answered, “a neat toy I picked up from a friend a while ago. It can create a solid three dimensional image of just about anything.”

Aura Lace curiously looked up and down over the machine, “Wonder what you were using it for...”

Umbra giggled, “Oh, nothing…”

“Most likely to look at inappropriate images of Watcher back when they were in school together,” Clyde said, winking at Watcher as he groaned in annoyance. “Hey, it’s a compliment my dude… consider yourself lucky that a mare like her is interested in a brute like you.”

“Clyde, enough,” said Techorse, knowing how little Watcher actually enjoyed that attention, “let’s get to it.”

“Well, I can’t exactly say that I one hundred percent believe that this hottie here is actually an ancient princess or there are three others out there, but I am willing to help, mainly because the rebels hired me to do some digging,” he explained, earning a blushy grin from Celestia, “Anyways, it might not be totally accurate, but I learned that there is another Princess located at probably the worst place in all of Equestria… Mount Chimera.”

Everypony except for Celestia and Techorse gasped as the holographic projector sprang to life, blue beams of magical energy surged from the runes, weaving an image of a large prison built as a fortress with multiple walls and a massive tower that looked at is it were above the clouds themselves.

“I’m sorry, but what is Mount Chimera? I’ve never heard of this place,” Celestia asked.

“In short,” Techorse added, “it’s one of the largest prison fortresses ever built. Hundreds of years old and still the largest example of its kind. It wasn’t built until after your original rule, though, which explains why you’ve never heard of it.”

“Well I’m sure she’s aware of Tartarus right cutie?” Clyde asked, earning a nod from Celestia while Watcher growled quietly, “Well this place makes Tartarus look like a five star hotel.”

Celestia’s already pale appearance became worse, “It’s… worse than Tartarus? How?”

“This place houses the worst of the worst, I’m talking cannibals, griffons, Minotaurs, werewolves, complete psychos who have killed, flayed, and mutilated corpses of innocent ponies to get a sick kick out of it. Many of them were caught wearing coats made from their victims,” Clyde explained in detail as the Princess of the sun shuddered, the world turning out to be even more sick and twisted than what she had imagined in her absence.

“So how come the princess is in that deathtrap? Not exactly the nicest place for an alicorn to go,” Aura Lace asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, when I was out walking into town, I came across something rather disturbing.” Clyde responded, reaching into his saddlebag and pulled out a jar that had a black oozing claw in it. “This is what’s left of a magic familiar. Now, when a familiar up and dies like this one, its head still has memories of where it has been recently. So, I had a friend of mine extract the memories from it, and it was from there that we found out this thing had seen a purple alicorn limping towards a hidden entrance of that same prison.”

“So basically, nopony knows why, just that she went there,” Watcher mumbled, “well that seems about par for the course. A lovely place full of killers, and whoever is keeping them there. However, I’m more curious about that thing you have casually in that jar. Where’d it come from?”

“A scary, wooly black ram,” was Clyde’s response.

“A ram?” Watcher responded, “Seriously?”

“I’m dead serious,” confirmed Clyde, “It’s not like you can make this crap up, Watcher.”

“A wooly black ram? Did he have multiple scars around his face?” Celestia asked suddenly, her eyes wide as she grabbed hold of Clyde’s coat.

“Woah easy there cutie… I’m not sure, but I think so.”

“It has to be Moro then… that conniving rat is still alive after all this time?!” Celestia shouted, stomping her hoof to the ground, causing it to crack.

“Hold on, who’s that?” asked Affinity, just about huffing, “First there’s this fort full of murders, now there’s a ram of some kind… what’s his part in this?”

“Well, judging from what we’ve witnessed from this puppet of his, he’s probably after the same thing.” Clyde answered. “If this Moro guy is af-”

“CLYDE!!!!” Everypony heard, before hearing a loud whacking noise against the window, as if a bird had struck it.

*THUD*

“What the hell is that?” Watcher asked, before Umbra opened the window and two little Breezies had entered the room.

“Goodness, they’re Breezies, Watcher,” Celestia responded, surprised to see them after so long, “I’m assuming these are friends of yours Clyde?”

“Sorry, I may have locked them in a cage so they wouldn’t interrupt, but it looks like that didn’t work.” Clyde answered. “This loud one is Azure Blue, and the other one beside her is her twin, Scarlet Rain. She’s not much of a talker.”

“Clyde! How could you leave us behind!? I thought we were a team!” they yelled in unison.

“Azure, I told you that this was a very important meeting and you’d just bother everypony,” he answered honestly, earning a pouty face from Azure as Scarlet flew over to Watcher and perched herself on his head.

“Hi,” She said quickly, looking over the top of his head and into his eyes so that from his perspective she was upside-down.

“Well, this is surprising, guess she’s taken a liking to you Watcher,” Clyde smirked as Watcher groaned in annoyance.

Celestia couldn’t stop herself from laughing. “Well, this ought to be interesting.”

“Well besides Breezies interrupting us, I’d like to know where this Moro character is headed, cause if he’s after the other Princesses, then we need to stop him before he gets to them.” Watcher responded, ignoring the shuffling of tiny hooves on his head.

“Based on what we’ve learned as a team, Moro appears to be taking a direct route to Mount Chimera, using the woods nearby for cover,” Clyde explained, “I’d reckon that’d be because he doesn’t know about the back entrance the princess was seen using.”

“He’s certainly powerful enough to go through the front door if he has to,” Celestia warned, “but he’d be able to locate that secret entrance quickly. Back when things were… better, he was known for his deception and using powerful magic to seize control of ponies’ minds and turn them into his Acolytes. If he reaches Twilight first, he’ll probably brainwash her into joining his cult.”

“Great, so we’ve got two problems now. The prison itself, and that guy,” Aura Lace complained, rolling her eyes, “How are we supposed to rescue the princess from that place if we’ve got that ram coming to turn us into mindless zombies too?”

“Thankfully, in his ripe old age, Moro’s not very strong at direct combat anymore, and he doesn’t appear to be traveling with any of his crew,” Azure chuckled, “also,

“Yup, and it gets better,” agreed Clyde, eager to get on with the plan, “Moro’s magic being centered around mind control means really smart and really stupid ponies are hard for him to take control of! So we’ve decided that Techorse and Watcher should move to intercept Moro, and take him down before rejoining us!”

HEY!” Watcher barked, “I’m not stupid!”

“You said it, not me,” Clyde answered, taking zero responsibility.

“I… nevermind,” continued the stallion, “if you think I’m going to work with Tech to beat up some creepy old guy that scrambles ponies’ brains, you’re the idiot here.”

“Come on, Watcher, I need your help,” said Techorse encouragingly, “I’ve got the equipment, and you’ve got that sword spell. There’s no other way to make sure we get the princess out safely than to prevent Moro from reaching Mount Chimera.”

Reading the room, Watcher could see that his friends weren’t going to let him back down. To try and avoid thinking about it too hard, he justified in his head that he really wanted to fight Moro to avoid having to put up with the terrifying inmates in the prison instead. Then he turned towards Techorse again and gave him a dirty look.

“All right, greenie. You’re following me, though. Knowing you, you’d get yourself mind controlled first,” he said, demanding control of the situation.

“Fine, I’ll stay behind you and provide fire support while you lead,” he said, before looking past Watcher to Aura Lace, “we’ll work together better that way.”

Aura Lace circled the side of her head with a long feather from her wing, indicating Watcher was being crazy. Techorse smiled a little bit too much for Watcher’s stern attitude, but he wasn’t able to turn around fast enough to catch Aura mocking him, instead only finding her with wings tucked and her eyes pointed at the ceiling.

“And I know a lot more spells than just a simple sword spell. I know a lot more.” Watcher replied sternly, glaring at Techorse before trotting past him, but not before shoving him to the side and whispering into the inventor's ear. “and I know not to trust you.”

“Watcher! Apologize to him now!” Celestia shouted, following after the tall unicorn as Aura helped Tech to his hooves.

“What did you do to piss him off?” Clyde asked, placing a hoof on his shoulder. “Oh, and you gotta tell me more about that mare that ran off with him, she’s smokin~”

“Maybe some other time, Clyde. You probably couldn’t land a princess ditching them on a date with the bill, anyways,” Techorse responded, pushing the hoof off of him and sarcastically patting him on the back with his own.

Ooooh!” Aura Lace hooted at him, Azure giggling in agreement.

“Techorse, sheesh! Your mother shoulda named you ‘Grudge’,” said the gunslinger, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, let’s gear up first thing tomorrow morning, got some new toys that’ll definitely make Techboy’s kiddie backpack look like child’s play,” Clyde smirked, “and, I got some lovely tools for you cutie. Your Aura right?”

“The ‘cutie’ stuff won’t work on me, dude,” Aura answered firmly, “aaaand I think Tech had something planned for my brother and me already. So no thanks, cowpoke.“

“Hey, respect for honesty,” he replied, “anyways, since we’ll all be splitting up, I’ll be sending Scarlet with Watcher as you guys are going to need a healer like her around.”

“Wait, she’s a what?” Affinity asked, his eyebrow raised up.

“These little gals here, aren’t just mascots you know… they are both genuine healers… they have magic that’ll heal wounds faster then you can feel the pain. They both work great together, but I have confidence everypony is going to get out unscathed, except for Techwit over there. He’s going to get his flank killed without some help.”

“Still standing here, gunpowder for brains,” Techorse said, joking.

“Hey, you haven’t forgotten I have the highest captures on the board right? And I didn’t even have these little ones with me then and got out just fine. And I know you are here… so you should leave so I can keep talking trash about you.” He whispered that last bit loud enough for everypony to hear, causing the girls to giggle in response.

“Highest… Clyde every other mission you take the employer complains because the target comes back in a zippy bag. Now that’s enough about your job,” he explained, “sorry you had to hear that, Aura.”

“Alright, alright, alright, I get the picture.” Clyde responded, “Anyways, seriously, is that hottie up for grabs, I’d like to take her to this great spot I know in town sometime and… I think I can get her to fall for me.”

“Oh Clyde, if you’re really so interested in hooking up…” Umbra droned, her horn glowing as a small black leather book floated up to in front of her face, “I’ve got several of my marefriends just eager to meet a big, handsome stallion like you! We’ve got Toasty Wishes, who’s got a few lovely cats…”

“Oh um,” Clyde commented, interrupting, “I’d love to hear Umbra but… I gotta go work on my gear before we’re all ready for the mission. Just thinking aloud about that princess is all.”

“Very well,” the unicorn answered, shutting her book again, “just let me know if you change your mind!”

Once Clyde had wandered off a good bit, Aura Lace commented, “Wow, Umbra, I thought he’d never shut up about how cute Celestia is. Are you sure you didn’t want to… you know, tell him more so he’d get Celestia away from Watcher?”

“You know I’d love nothing more than that, but there’s more to being a lady of the estate than chasing her beaux,” Umbra winked back at her, “I wasn’t about to let him hit on every single one of my friends without him having to brave… the little black book!

“Sure fixed him, for now anyways,” laughed Aura dryly, “but I’m thinking he’s gonna be persistent.”

“That’s for sure,” Techorse sighed, shaking his head, “never knows when to quit.”

“And that is something we all just love and hate about our friend Clyde,” Umbra replied.

“Sooooo… can I stay with you girls tonight?” Azure replied, surprising everypony as they had all forgotten the two Breezies were there.


Watcher continued to trot down the halls of Umbra’s mansion as Celestia gave chase, hoping to get an explanation from the stallion as to what had occurred in their meeting and his strange behavior. Celestia wanted to know, she needed to know what had been going on with Watcher as of late.

“WATCHER!!!” Celestia yelled, her voice echoing throughout the halls, causing the stallion to halt, turning his head back to see the princess breathing heavily.

“What is it now Celestia?”

“Watcher, what is wrong with you? You’ve been acting strange lately and you’ve been rude to everypony!” She demanded of the stallion, but all he could do was glare at her.

Watcher stood there, clenching his teeth for a few moments, finally giving her an answer with a firm warning through his teeth, “Are you really sure you want me to answer that?”

“I do, whatever it is, you have to stop!” she continued, not really putting any thought into it.

The stallion looked behind him at nothing in disbelief, before turning back and answering, “Here’s the thing, Celestia. I’m done. I didn’t sign up for any of this, and I’m sick and tired of being mistreated by other ponies just because I’m upset at what’s going on.”

“Then you should be telling the others you’re upset instead of crabbing at them when they try to talk to you,” argued Celestia, raising an eyebrow, “there’s no need to act so harshly! Especially with our friends such as Techorse. They’re risking their lives for you and I!”

“That’s just it, Celestia, I don’t trust that guy,” Watcher grumbled at her, “he’s working with that other guy, that bounty hunter. There’s something about him he’s not telling us. What kind of an ‘inventor’ seriously carries around that much firepower?”

“I-I don’t know… but I don’t have a reason to doubt that he cares about us and WANTS to help us!” Celestia replied, poking the stallion in the chest, barely causing him to flinch.

“He’s going to betray us,” he stated plainly and slowly as if talking to a much younger pony, “he’s clearly setting us up to take us in for a reward! A while ago I might have trusted a guy with bounty hunter friends, but not anymore. Midnight betrayed me, my crush got killed… and they’re going to kill us next.”

She snapped at him,“Techorse is not going to betray us, Watcher! Maybe he is keeping a secret, with his inventions I’d bet he’d have to. Haven’t you stopped to consider that maybe he’s been through trauma as well? He and Aura talk very often about how the Order ripped away their lives, too!”

Not wanting to hear it, he fought back, putting his hoof down, “Clearly, you’re not listening to me, and I am sick of all this drama… once you rescue this other princess at the prison and I deal with this Moro character,… I’m done.”

The mare recoiled, “But you pro-”

DONE!” he continued, pushing her back with a hoof and almost shouting in her face, “Ever since I met you, all you’ve done is mooch off of me! Do you have any idea how much I’ve lost? I’ve lost my home, my best friends, the mare of my dreams! EVERYTHING! I have nothing now. Time and time again, I’ve stuck out my neck for you, and I have nothing to show for it. All I wanted was to be somepony who mattered, who can make a difference, but nope, I all got was a princess who failed to protect...Her. Little. Ponies!

Princess Celestia shrank back, going quiet and casting her gaze to the floor. She felt a lump forming in her throat, going over those words in her head. To her, she was actively failing in her duties to protect her subjects, but had set it aside to focus on rescuing the other princesses.

“I… I just wanted to protect them,” she said, tears welling up in her eyes, “but I couldn’t even protect you. Just… go, Watcher. I wanna be alone!”

The princess cried bitterly and ran away from the stallion, leaving him standing there with a very conflicted look on his face. He wanted to reach out and call for her, but his pride wouldn’t allow it. Everything he said was indeed true, but a part of him knew that wasn’t right and was completely selfish. Gritting his teeth, he stormed off in the opposite direction, making his way towards his room, locking himself in and placing a magic barrier to keep anypony from teleporting inside.

Falling down on his bed, he groaned in annoyance as he felt his own eyes start to tear up. “Damn it… what the hell am I supposed to do?!”


The Next Day Outside Umbra’s Mansion

The sun was just above the horizon as Clyde began to set up his portable work bench and started to set down his latest equipment in hopes of outshining Techorse. Fully aware how talented his ‘rival’ was with creating gadgets that continued to surpass expectations of the wealthiest ponies around. It just made the gunslinger itch to one day out do him. And today was going to be the day that truly impressed the mares, and the inventor himself.

“Clyde, are you sure these are going to impress… the pretty princess?” Azure asked, floating beside her twin sister, he sat silently on the earth pony’s shoulder.

“You're going to lose again,” Scarlet replied bluntly, letting out a deep sigh of boredom.

Rolling his eyes at the two breezies, he was fully confident his latest gizmos would surprise everypony. “Girls, trust me, once everypony takes a good look at these tools, the guys will be impressed that they’ll literally be bowing down and that gorgeous mare Tia is going to fall head over hooves for me.”

Techorse stepped out of the estate behind them, followed closely by Aura, Affinity, and Celestia, who seemed a bit melancholy to Clyde. The stallion had a comically large metallic briefcase with him, clutched in the robotic arms coming from his saddle. Whatever was in that box was surely no match for what he had in store, though.

“Morning Techdork! And a good morning to everypony else. I see you are still using that fancy fanny pack!” Clyde jokingly responded, earning a giggle from Aura, while waiting to hear from the Princess.

“Well Clod, it’s comfy, and it’s several generations of development over those ranged sharp rocks you call bullets,” Techorse answered, “I was just about to unveil some new things I’ve been working on for our friends.”

“Hey! These are piercing rounds and you know it Techie! And I’m glad you brought your latest work, gonna make this all the sweeter when my latest equipment makes whatever you have… the last Hearth's Warming gift from your granny. Not my best insult, but you get the idea.”

“Is he normally like this?” Affinity whispered to Techorse.

“Normally he’s worse,” Techorse answered, setting the briefcase down on the dirt path below, “but he usually stops if I win one of our contests.”

“So he stops a lot,” Aura chuckled.

Anyways, if you all are done whispering behind my back, let’s get this contest… UNDERWAY!” He replied, setting down a large box on his work bench. “So since I am the guest here, it is only right for the Techbrain to go first.”

“Aw come on, let’s see what you’ve got, Clyde,” said Techorse, fiddling with the side of the case closest to him, “besides… I think the latch on the case is… stuck.”

“Oh please, I know you always want me to go first so you can just top it, but since I’m really excited to show off, I’ll pretend to believe that your latch is stuck.” Clyde responded, grinning at the shamrock colored earth pony and decided to click the small blue button on his box and it began to unfold itself, revealing many different gadgets and tools that made everypony except for Techorse stare in awe. “I’d like to introduce you to my simple, but very effective and small communication microphones. All you have to do is place one in your ear and no matter the distance you’ll be able to communicate with each. It’s very useful on a mission like the one we’ll be embarking on.”

“Oooh, little communicators!” Aura Lace said, pushing forward and grabbing one of the little gadgets with her wing, its rounded clip shape allowing her to place it over her left ear, “So how do I turn it on?”

“There is a small button on the side, all you have to do is touch it once to turn it on, and twice to turn it off.” Clyde replied, smirking as his gaze fell on his competition. “What do you have up your sleeves Tech?”

“Well I’m not wearing sleeves, but I’ve got something for Aura and Affinity in here that I think they’ll find a bit more useful than just a communicator,” Techorse answered, finally prying open the briefcase.

Inside was two foam cutouts on the top layer that protected two small necklaces, each one featuring a silver pendant in the middle with a small, orange colored switch. Techorse took the first one of these strange objects out of the case and placed it around Aura’s neck.

“Awww, jewelry? You shouldn’t have…” Clyde teased.

“Go ahead and flip that switch on it, Aura,” Techorse instructed.

Aura nodded and did as she was told, using another feather to pull the switch over. She yelped in surprise as the pendant’s circumference opened several millimeter-wide holes and black fabric spread out, covering her body rapidly and coating it in a fine, coat-tight catsuit, including her head and mouth, with only a cutout for her eyes, hooves, tail, and wingtips remaining. The look resembled a ninja outfit, but with a modernized style and a blue stripe running down her back and along her wings up to the alulas.

“That is quite impressive Techorse, how were you able to do it?” Celestia responded, breaking her silence as she inspected this new suit on Aura.

“There’s this type of trained spider changelings used to keep that make a special silk, capable of copying clothing designs that the spiders see on others,” Techorse answered, smiling, “I reached out to a professor studying them and he let me have some of the silk in exchange for building a new habitat for the spiders. From there I just had to let the spiders watch what I wanted, and put the silk they made into these pendants. All they do is eject the material out like a fishing line, and the silk does the rest naturally!”

“Interesting choice Tech, I’m very surprised how well it fits your marefriend~” Clyde replied, joking again as he began to chuckle.

“H… hey!” a red-faced Aura said, pulling the part of the suit covering her face down to expose her mouth again, “Who said anything about...”

“Oh ignore him,” Affinity said, “does this do anything else, Techorse?”

“Stops bullets and arrows,” Techorse answered happily, “it’s spider silk after all.”

“Bravo, Techboy, bravo… If that’s all you got, I have to say I’m a little disappointed, but knowing you, You are saving the best for last correct? You always have three inventions, and keep the very best saved for the end. So I think my second invention should be able to compete with that fancy suit.” Clyde said, pulling out what looked like a pair of metal claws.

Placing his hoof on one of them, they automatically clipped onto his hooves and suddenly made a peace sign that those griffons would do when passing by. “Ehm, as everypony knows, we don’t exactly have fingers or claws to grip on anything without the use of magic, but these change everything! Now I can wield my revolvers a lot easier than using those old fashioned gun clips on my saddle. And they are excellent for climbing walls.”

“And I can now do this!” Trotting up to Techorse he couldn’t help but smirk as he flicked the earth pony on his forehead with his new claws.

“Ah, I see,” Techorse said, “well, I’ve got something else here...”

“I am not wearing one of those things, Techorse,” Affinity warned him sternly, “that looks stuffy.”

“His butt won’t fit,” Aura said, smiling.

“It.. it’s not that, Aura!” her brother complained, “I have glasses. Not very compatible with a ninja outfit.”

“No worries, Affinity, I thought you might not like it, so I brought the other one as a spare for Aura. The tools I made for you are much more your style,” he said, digging through the briefcase, “here it is!”

He pulled out a harness of sorts with a boxy protrusion on the front, silver in color, which he helped fit around the pegasus stallion’s front legs and over his neck so that the box sat snugly near the start of his back. Confused as to what it was for, Techorse took an additional piece out from the suitcase, a small pair of clip-on lenses that fit over Affinity’s glasses. After hitting a button on the device, a bunch of small text prompts appeared within the pegasus pony’s vision, startling him.

“Goodness, Techorse! What’s all this information?!” he asked.

“This is a highly advanced tactical harness, Affinity,” Techorse explained, “that pack on the back of your neck contains a computer that feeds info to your glasses. It can spot enemies coming, make suggestions in projected text in your lenses, and identify objects for you. It even comes with a small solid-beam laser, but you’ve only got enough energy for about 20 shots. You can see that displayed in the top right corner.”

“Impressive Techorse… anyways I think I’m gonna check up on Umbra, I’m certain she’ll at least want to see these inventions of yours,” Celestia responded, gesturing the two stallions before taking off as Aura raised a brow at the Princess’s sudden departure.

“I may not know too much about her, but is she always… kinda depressed like this?” Clyde asked.

“She must be upset,” Azure Blue said.

“Well, she must have had a rough night… Well if you want to pause on our little contest Tech, I don’t mind,” Clyde said.

“Yeah, I’m fine with pausing,” he agreed, nodding, “I’ve got one more thing to show off, but the pony it’s for isn’t here.”

“Is it for tall, dark, and gloomy?” Clyde asked, getting a confirming nod from the Shamrock colored earth pony. “Well let’s continue after we have some breakfast, cause I’m starving.”


Celestia wasn’t quite sure what she was doing outside of Watcher’s room despite him blaming her for his misfortune. Something hadn’t been sitting right on her mind ever since she’d had time to cool down. Letting him go his own way wasn’t really an option she felt comfortable with, even though the exact words escaped her.

“He needs to know,” she said quietly, “if he still wants to leave after that… at least I can say I tried.”


Taking a deep breath, she knocked on his door gently, but she received no response from the stallion, she wasn’t sure if he was still asleep or not, but that wasn’t going to stop her from at least getting a response from him.

Knock, Knock, Knock!!!

“Watcher! It’s Celestia, can you please let me in, we need to talk?” She called out, failing to get an answer from him, Celestia’s horn began to glow brightly, detecting a massive amount of magic surrounding the inside of Watcher’s room, she could tell that his aura was indeed powerful, it gave her a sort of shiver that wasn’t unpleasant, but she could tell that it wasn’t as perfect as the stallion believed it to be.

Grinning, her horn glowed brightly as she was standing on the outside of his room one moment.

POP!

She had suddenly appeared in the center of Watcher’s room the next moment.Taking in her surroundings, she noticed the stallion resting atop of her covers, snoring quietly enough for her to hear him. Taking another deep breath and letting out a sigh of relief, she quietly trotted to the side of his bed and laid beside the sleeping stallion, she couldn’t help but stare at his sleeping face and she noticed the tear stains on his cheeks. She felt tears build up as she gently caressed Watcher’s cheek.

“I’m sorry Watcher.” She whispered. “I really am… I didn’t mean to make your life difficult, but you were the only pony who was willing to put up with me. You helped me in my time of need and I never really appreciated all you have done for me. Thank you Watcher… I really mean it.”

With all said and done, she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep beside her one true friend in this world. However, Watcher wasn’t completely asleep as he opened his eyes and stared baffled by Celestia’s words, and sudden appearance, noticing that her cheeks were rosey as tear tracks stained on her cheeks.

I want to tell her to leave, but she went through all the trouble to tell me she was sorry. I honestly don’t know what to do anymore… however I do know that she needs my help and I may not be fond of everypony here, but I’ll work with them if it means finding her friends, the other princesses, and fixing everything the Order and all those scumbags out there destroyed.’ He thought as he admired the beauty of the sleeping princess beside him.

Sleep well Tia, you’ll always be my friend too.’