Death, Sacrifice, and the man in blue

by MrTyrannousaurusX

Chapter 14: The Long Road Ahead

The old metal shower knobs squealed loudly as Levi twisted them the opposite way, killing the warm comfortable flow of water immediately, reducing it to mere droplets that fell into the bathtub. Levi immediately missed the toasty embrace of the water hitting his skin, almost instantly considering turning it back on and going for another hour. However, the smell of Twilight’s mouthwatering breakfast cooking downstairs and the scent of coffee resonating from the kitchen made Levi yearn for some food in his stomach. When his mind drifted away from the intoxicating smell traveling up the stairs into the bathroom, his ears were hit with the almost hypnotic sound of droplets of liquid colliding with the tub floor. The noise of the constant dripping was almost maddening, like the rhythmic ticking of a clock only louder, bringing droves of great annoyance to the man. He twisted both knobs even tighter than before to bring an end to the drops that threatened to drive Levi crazy and, thankfully, the dribbling ceased. Levi pushed his hair down against his scalp and slid it down, wringing out any excess water that remained after the much deserving shower and mizzling his nose. He mirrored the action with his face, rubbing any and all remnants of the easing water off his skin and left to fall to the tub below. He did the very same deed with the rest of his body, swiping off the water left behind on his torso and legs and ending with his drenched forearms. His leg hair looked like a toddler had grabbed a marker and scribbled like crazy all over them. The rings of the violet shower curtain scraped loudly against the metal bar they were being held by, greeting Levi with a very thin cloud of mist that covered the entire bathroom with no indication of leaving anytime soon.

He stepped out onto the purple mat laid outside the border of the bathtub just for him, allowing every bead of aqua he missed on his body to drop and seep into the soft fibers. Simultaneously, leaving behind large wet footprints on the once flawless carpet. Levi reached over and pulled a white towel off the silver rack to his right and put it to his damp flesh, disliking the sandpaper-like feeling of the cloth against his skin but ignoring it nonetheless. The aroma of freshly cooked eggs and perfectly brewed coffee entered his nostrils once again, making Levi long for whatever heavenly breakfast Twilight had cooked for the three of them, well, probably just him and her. Levi could hear the snoring of the small dragon with no signs of waking up anytime soon through the oak bathroom door. The picture in his head of Spike curled up in the basket he called a bed sound asleep casted a small grin to his face. After all, it was only 10AM, early for anyone else's standards, but just right for Levi’s and clearly Twilight’s as well. Levi continued sliding the rough towel up and down his flesh, leaving his skin smooth and dry as a hot summer day, as he stepped off the mat and his feet met the equally warm wooden bathroom floor. He took long strides to the marble sink, bringing the now slightly dampened cloth up to his hair which looked like he had been dunked in water just moments before. As he stood in front of the mirror which was completely fogged, allowing Levi to only see the blurry outline of his body and nothing more, he could vaguely smell the rose scented shampoo he had practically drowned his scalp in.

The temperature of the shower carried over into the rest of the bathroom, making Levi feel like he was being cooked inside of a microwave going almost as hot as it could. When not in the form of water, the heat was bordering on the edge of uncomfortable and congenial.

He wrapped the towel around his now dry neck like a scarf and swiped away a long streak of the fog that clouded the mirror, allowing him to see his reflection and bringing a confident smirk to his features. For the first time in what felt like years, not a single blemish stained his clean shaven face. The faint green streak of blood was nothing but a bad memory. His hair, once matted and greasy like he had been homeless half his life, was now restored to its former glory, brown and shiny. His emerald green eyes that once had been afflicted with a look of exhaustion and pain were now lively and bursting with vibrance. The way it always should've been. He reached up and ran his pruney fingers over his completely hairless face, his smirk growing wider at the satisfaction of his silky smooth skin. Even looking at himself made him excited like a giddy school girl to go outside and explore Ponyville the very moment he could. Now looking presentable and every pony hopefully no longer repulsed by him, he could go out and be a normal functioning person in the high-spirited town. Levi Cronell, fallen human and Ponyville resident. It had a pleasant ring to it. Levi continued the monotonous back and forth drying of his scalp, the towel against his head feeling like pavement being dragged across his cranium. He wondered how long those towels had been sitting there on that rack, a much better question would be what had happened to them to make them so dry and rough. Nonetheless, he bit the bullet and rid every last strand of his hair of any remainder of the shower.

He reached down to the seafoam green towel covering the entire toilet bowl, grabbing it and almost wincing at the asphalt-like feeling against his sensitive fingertips, and pulled it off. Underneath it lying neatly folded were the man’s dirty, grimy dark blue jeans, his blood stained white t-shirt, a pair of socks that were mostly unharmed and looked somewhat normal. The most important thing out of the articles of clothing was the royal blue dress shirt with its sleeves crossed over each other like an X on top of the rest of his clothes. Despite how rugged and tattered it was, Levi loved it like his own child. The man couldn’t combat a grin from spreading across his face once more at the sight.

The golden doorknob clicked as the lock was turned, swinging open just moments later by a brown haired man donning his signature attire. His cuff and gauntlet buttons were unfastened, causing the sleeve to swallow almost his entire hand. His shirt was also left completely unbuttoned, showing his mucky and sweat-stained white tee for all the world to see. Flagrantly, the stripe and splatter of the luminescent green blood from the long dead Timberwolf still remained on the collar of his tee, causing Levi to want to burn it just at the sight. Nevertheless, he began to button each one of his buttons and conceal the brazen mess of a shirt while slipping his feet into the warm confines of his brown loafers. He walked over to a small peg nailed into the wall and hanging on said peg was his iconic camo hat, the sunlight flowing through the window shining onto it as if to beckon him towards it. Luckily for him, he was already caught in its snare. He scooped it up off the wooden spigot and slipped it onto his freshly cleaned head of hair, relishing in the odd sense of comfort he got from sliding himself into it. Levi took another sniff of the aroma rising from the kitchen and up to his eager nostrils, almost making him stop his sleeve rolling dead in its tracks at the electrifying aroma of newly cooked eggs, ready to be devoured by a particular man in blue. His keenness for breakfast to be in his stomach almost completely consumed him and he could hardly wait for his sleeves to be fully rolled, imagining himself salivating at the holy sight of Twilight’s cooking. In another part of his mind, he hoped the nourishment would taste as good as it smelled. After all, this was a unicorn making it, who knows what magic could have altered the flavor.

Levi’s shoes clacked against the old timber stairs as he made his trek down. Each step was a split in half log that showed its bare inside for all to see, Levi almost tripped over himself admiring the rings that decorated its interior. This made him wonder all the more about who could’ve possibly built this magnificent library and how long. Years? Maybe months. The extent of unicorn magic was still a big unknown to Levi. Seeing how one managed to almost plunge Ponyville into darkness forever, the sky was most likely the limit. Levi turned the corner at the second-to-last stair and allowed the light inside the lower floor spill directly into his eyes, a stark contrast from the very natural light that occupied the entire upper level. In the center of the room was a medium length oak wooden table with two chairs on the front and back and one on the right-hand side. Sitting at the very front of the table was a tired yet enthusiastic looking Twilight who had a hot plate of her specially cooked breakfast right in front of her, smoke rising from the perfectly prepared scrambled eggs. Levi stepped down onto the final step, the clicking of his shoes against wood immediately gained the full undivided attention of the unicorn at the table who looked at him with gusto in her eyes.

“Good morning Levi!” She exclaimed, her voice being way too loud for someone who’s awake at ten in the morning, “Want some eggs?”

“Definitely,” Her horn lit up and the same electronic hum-like sound arose from it as Levi fully stepped down from the staircase and his feet met the floor of the library level. From out of Levi’s sight, a bone white glass plate with wonderfully cooked eggs smoking eggs resting on them zipped over and clattered to the table right at the seat across from Twilight. Longing for some food in his deserving stomach, Levi picked up the pace and slid the seat from where it was sitting comfortably pushed under the table, the legs scraping loudly against the floor. Levi was much more worried about harming the superb floor rather than the displeasing noise that came from it. Graciously, he took his seat at the table like he was fine dining at a restaurant rather than having breakfast with a unicorn and snaked his fingers around the fork that rested right next to his plate. Neat and organized, exactly the way Twilight likes it.

“Coffee?” Twilight asked.

“Yes, please.” Levi responded without question, the mere mention of the drink's name almost filling him with vigor. Without sparing another second, Twilight’s horn flared to life once more and, lo and behold, a lilac colored cup filled with the rich brown liquid landed safely on the timber next to him. Levi gazed into the abyss of hazel inside the glassware, the smoke rising from it almost hypnotizing him with its mouth-watering scent.

“I hope you like milk and sugar!” Twilight added like she was reading his mind minute by minute. Levi didn’t have time to make another mental comment about the magic of the unicorns, instead, he dumped all of his mental focus into savoring the blissful taste of the coffee as he brought the rim to his lips. Levi was like a moth to a flame when it came to the drink, and Twilight learned that as she watched the man down half the cup with one large swig. His taste buds were suddenly aflame with the euphoric flavor, internally thanking Twilight for bestowing it upon him with the assumption that she could read his mind. Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, the liquid practically shot him awake right away, any remnant of sleepiness was slain in that moment without hesitation. Maybe it was a placebo effect or maybe it was just that strong. Regardless, it was like he had pumped himself to the maximum with energy.

“Wow!” Levi commented much louder than he anticipated, lowering the cup safely back to where it rested originally, “That’s the best coffee I ever tasted, Twi! Did you make that?”

A small blush formed on her cheeks from the compliment. “Well..yeah, but it’s not my recipe. Thank you though”

“Then who’s is it?”

“Pinkie's.”

Surprise overruled every emotion in Levi’s brain.

“She made this?” He questioned, “Does she run a shop or something?” Levi plunged his fork into a piece of egg and practically shoved it into his mouth, exploding with flavor like he half expected.

“Not a coffee shop but a dessert shop if you will. It’s Sugarcube Corner, not that far from here,” The lilac pony answered. Levi’s mouth threatened to flood. If her coffee was this good, he could only imagine how good her pastries might be. There was no question about paying her a visit later.

“How long has she been doing this for?” He asked.

“To tell you the truth, I don’t really know, I’ve known just as long as you have, Levi.” Replied the unicorn.

“Oh right, forgot” He dove his fork into another piece of egg and repeated the action, “Have you ever been there before?”

“This morning, yeah” Levi raised an eyebrow. ‘This morning?’ He thought, ‘How long has she been up for?’ Levi decided not to question the unicorn’s sleeping habits. For what felt like the millionth time since his plummet to Equestria, he reminded himself that he barely knew the customs and cultures of the ponies and maybe waking up at the crack of dawn was their thing. But dragons though, clear as day that wasn’t the case.

“Off topic but,” He paused, raising his finger as a way to keep the conversation on hold until he swallowed a large mouthful of egg, “Do you know where Rarity’s…business is?” He had no idea what to call her little fashion kingdom, business was the only word that felt right.

“I can take you to it if you want” She offered.

“That’d be great, my shirt isn’t in its prime as you can see” He replied, motioning to his ripped two top buttons with one hand and stabbing another chunk of his breakfast with the other.

Twilight let out a small giggle. “You’re right” She stated in response, mirroring the actions of her friend to her plate of steaming breakfast. Levi could hold back a smile no longer, letting his spill out onto his face from his joyful heart. The conversation they were having made Levi feel a lot more at home than he already was, and he loved it. For a few minutes after, the air was empty completely except for the comfortable silence that dominated the library, the exact way a library should be in Twilight’s eyes. The only sounds that dared to shatter it were the chirping of elated birds outside, the chit-chat of ponies that happened to pass by the library. Occasionally, a loud whooshing sound like a jet zipping soaring through the sky would pass by them, threatening to wobble the tree each time it happened. Wind rocketed through the open windows above the bookshelves looking down on the pair as they ate like a storm was raging outside, the breeze delightfully hitting Levi’s exposed forearms. When the shooting back and forth through the air came to a very brief stop, a familiar poofing sound would be heard for a split second before the soaring began again. Despite only hearing the noise once the day earlier, he could recognize immediately which pegasus was behind it, a very particular one with vibrant rainbow hair. Levi began to contemplate going outside and striking up a conversation with the cyan pony, but before he had time to run the idea through his head, his thoughts were interrupted by the unicorn across from him. What caught the man off guard was the sudden sharp slope in her voice, how it went from normal to..whatever it was now.

“Hey, Levi?” She asked. It was the same downtrodden-esque yet curious voice that she spoke with back at Pinkie’s party the day prior, the same tone she used when she asked the question that Levi had stalled for. The very same question he assured her he would answer after the party. The same question he dreaded even now and the thought of answering it brought a great amount of dread collapsing onto his heart. ‘Gary’ The bastard's name resurfaced in his mind, bringing a sour taste to his mouth.

‘Don’t ask! Please don’t ask! Please don’t ask! Please!’

“Yeah?”

“So..you remember back at the party yesterday when I asked you about, you know, that man?”

‘Son of a bitch!’ Levi lamented mentally. Facing the inquiry head on was like facing train lights bombing towards him in a long dark tunnel. The anxiety felt as though he was staring down his death, despite the fact all he was doing was satiating the unicorn’s curiosity. As much as he wanted to, he knew he couldn’t say no. If he found his friends in a corridor with a dead body, he’d want answers too, probably a lot more aggressively than Twilight. Levi took a deep breath and attempted to calm the whirlwind of worries and stresses that ran rampant throughout his brain like a rodeo. His stomach churned. Beads of sweat threatened to form. He took one last bite of his food for most likely a while and swallowed it, probably the last good feeling he would feel before the inevitable conversation that was happening whether he liked it or not.

“You really wanna know?” He asked, hopeful that Twilight would just drop it and move on, but he knew deep down that wasn’t going to happen. Her nod that followed only sent more dread coursing through his ticker. Just the mere mention of Gary was enough to make Levi’s blood boil and talking about him, hopefully posthumously, would set fire to his crimson liquid. He let out a long sigh, slouching back in his chair that he once found comfortable now felt like a throne of stone.

“Who was he?” Twilight asked, kicking off the hell parade that was this discussion. ‘Was’ The word seemed to have no meaning to Gary at all. From what he could tell, death meant nothing to him, so it always was present tense.

Levi swallowed the lump in his throat before he opened his mouth to speak. “His…his name’s Gareth. Gareth Demonio. But everyone called him Gary.”

‘Gareth? Demonio?’ The names sounded so foreign to Twilight, it really brought out the stark differences between pony names and human names. A human named Twilight Sparkle just didn’t fit right, and a pony named Gareth Demonio didn’t sit right either. Twilight pushed the thoughts away and focused on the man across from her as he spoke, bringing the rim of her purple coffee cup to her lips and taking a swig. Twilight gave a brief nod of understanding, giving Levi the silent thumbs up to continue.

“He was a major, major, dealer back in my neighborhood, Roseville. Almost everyone that was in the business in Tuscaloosa knew him, most feared him. But no one could understand how it was like living in the vicinity of him.” Levi could almost feel the almost paralyzing fear he felt while living in his old apartment, always at constant risk of witnessing a murder or an assault outside. The more he thought about it, the more he realized how lucky he was to be in Ponyville and away from the hellhole he somehow called home.

“Living there was…terrible. The apartment I had was nice but..everything else about Roseville was the opposite. Some nights you’d hear gunshots. Some nights you’d hear two junkies fighting over whatever junkies fought for, mostly it was about where they would set up their tents or whatever. Where they were gonna shack up and smoke.” Frustration and irritation threatened to boil inside him at the memory of all the nights he got little to no sleep hearing the homeless drug addicts having screaming matches over where their “spot” was. Rarely, it would get physical, but most times it was loud and incessant barking coming from their gingivitis infested mouths over trivial things.

“Gary treated Roseville like his little village of peasants and he was the king, playing God with us,” Levi could taste the bitter venom in his words as he spoke, his eyes falling away from Twilight’s and onto the table, catching himself before he completely zoned out.

“Whenever there was a drug deal that went wrong, most times it never usually went wrong. Gary decided he wanted more than he was selling for and he would get it whether they liked it or not. He’d beat them half to death and rob them of everything they got and not have a care in the world. Some of them died, most lived, but got outta dodge as soon as they could.” Levi could almost see the surplus of news broadcasts and newspaper clippings flash in front of his eyes of the drug deals gone "wrong". He pictured the bloodied and bruised faces of Gary’s victims when they decided to show photos of their faces for whatever odd reason they add, he couldn’t help but feel incredibly guilty for them. Another feeling flickered to life when he saw those images as well, fear, as much as he hated to admit it. Fear that Levi or worse Alan could be next on the chopping block. Luckily for them, that was never the case.

“Question?” Twilight asked, taking another swig of her drink.

Levi gave her a small nod in response.

“Why did he do it?”

“Greed. Evil. Because he wanted to. Probably a mixture of those,” Levi responded in a deadpan tone, “The business changed him. He wasn’t always this psychopath who liked to hurt people…at least I hope he wasn’t.”

‘The business?’ Twilight thought, confused, wondering what this “business” that made it so abhorrent that it drove people to murder. Questions flooded her mind, but she kept them to herself. Mostly.

“One day, Me, Alan, and our other friend James decided on the brilliant plan of trying to become his partner. ‘50/50’ is what we said, ‘we could spread your product all over Alabama.’” Levi continued telling his awful tale, donning a new mocking voice when he repeated the offer he gave to the demon that day.

“He thought we were insulting him, trying to call him stupid in some way shape or form. He uh…he didn’t take too kindly to it.”

“What did he do?” Twilight asked, hesitantly like Levi was a ticking time bomb about to explode.

Levi went silent, too silent, like he had seen his family die in front of him all at once. It looked like he was too scared to speak. Twilight could only imagine what horrors had been afflicted on him to make him terrified to speak of it, but Twilight would have to imagine no longer. Levi grabbed a clump of both of his shirts, pulling them down and exposing the skin underneath while simultaneously craning his head away, like he was ashamed of what he was about to reveal to the pony. A few inches above his collarbone sticking out like a sore thumb on his caucasian skin was a small, reddish pinkish perfect circle that couldn’t have been more than a few centimeters wide. Twilight didn’t have a clue in the world what she assumed to be a scar could have been. The only scars she’d ever seen were from magic accidents and those were only in books. No book could’ve prepared her for this.

“He shot me,” He clarified like it was nothing important at all, putting his index finger over the rough skin of his wound like he was rubbing his fingertip over the gritty face of a brick. “No reason whatsoever. We didn’t provoke him or try to hurt him, he just…” He continued, releasing his grip on his clothing and allowing it to cover his flesh once more while looking down at the table sullenly.

Twilight opened her mouth to ask one of the many questions she picked from the pool of them in her brain, but was stopped by more of Levi’s terrible story that Twilight thought couldn’t get any worse. She never knew she could be more wrong.

“Back in the corridor…he tried to kill Rainbow, Twi. He took her from the hall we tried to get into and I guess threw her in the back of his car and set up in the other corridor…the one where I found him in.” A tear threatened to gush from his eye at the immobilizing fear that hit him like a train the moment he saw Rainbow in that position. It truly hurt him to see her like that knowing it wouldn’t have happened without him there. If he did pull that trigger, the blood would most definitely be on his hands. It was a scary thought, living with the guilt of that for the rest of his life. If Gary allowed him to live with it.

“We fought…it got bad quick. To tell you the truth…he almost killed me, don’t know how else to say it. He had the gun to the back of my head and was ready to just..” A dreadful silence blanketed the room, the rushing outside that had been consistent background noise had died, thrusting the man and the unicorn into complete grim quietness.

“Levi I..I’m so sorry”

“Don’t be,” He quickly rebutted, “Rainbow’s the one you should feel sorry for, not me. It’s my fault after all.”

“Don’t say that-”

“I’m just saying it how it is!” Levi retorted, meeting her eyes once again after what felt like centuries. “If I wasn’t here or if you never met me, Nightmare would have no reason to bring him back. Hell, she wouldn’t even know he existed without me!” Levi said, finishing it off with a groan and bringing his index finger and thumb to his eyes and rubbing them. The guilt he was feeling was like a herd of elephants stampeding on his shoulders. He knew that most of their encounter and Rainbow’s involvement in it was out of his control, but the rue that stirred inside him like a wrathful dragon was eating him from the inside. He thought about what apology he could say to the pegasus to make things right when the time came, if any apologies were even satisfactory enough given what happened to her. The prospect made his head ache.

“You realize that she got taken from behind a door we couldn’t even open,” Twilight pointed out, “And besides, Nightmare put an obstacle in front of all of us to stop us. Maybe..that was your obstacle. Maybe that's how she tested your abilities.”

Levi never thought of it that way. His mind flickered back to all the hurdles the ponies had to jump in order to show they were all each an Element of Harmony. Applejack consoling the frightened Twilight on the cliff, Fluttershy easing the Manticore, and Pinkie Pie laughing away fear like it was nothing. Those were all tests they had to pass which indirectly proved they were one of the elements. Then, there was Levi, who’s alleged test was to rescue Rainbow from the clutches of a maniac with a chip on his shoulder. It made a lot more sense the more thought he put into it. ‘The Element of Protection’ The thought reemerged in Levi’s head and, given the new insight that Twilight had given him, the idea that he was the seventh element began to take form in his brain. It would explain all the urges and the fire-like feeling in his chest when any of his friends were in danger, the overwhelming urge to protect them suddenly crashing onto him like a tsunami. The sudden boost of adrenaline pumped through his veins when he saw his comrades in danger. Levi didn’t really know if he liked it or didn’t, but one thing he knew for sure, the immense satisfaction that came after his companions were safe from harm was addicting to say the least.

“I guess it makes sense,” He replied, “It would answer the big boom you probably heard.”

Twilight remembered the gargantuan explosion that shook the castle where it stood and threatened to knock the group off their feet. Curiosity suddenly claimed her, wanting to know how and more importantly why the explosion occurred. “What was the big boom?” She asked, her mind beginning to race with assumptions and ideas before the man could even think about answering.

“It’s hard to explain,” Levi responded, removing his digits from his eyelids and meeting Twilight’s intrigued gaze.

“Take your time, Levi. I have all day” Twilight replied, taking yet another swig of her caffeine-filled drink.

‘Here goes nothing’ Levi thought as he prepared to try and boil down the burst of power into simple, coherent sentences. Levi took a much longer than anticipated pause with Twilight’s head still swirling with countless ideas of what happened behind the locked door. Did Gary have something to do with it? Was it the metal contraption Twilight had no clue what it could be? Was It Rainbow Dash?

“It was this…burst of..power?” Levi stated, sounding more like a question than a solid answer for the unicorn’s rushing mind. “I don't really know what I could call it but, right before he was about to kill me, there was this feeling in my chest, Twilight. It sped up my heart. A huge adrenalin rush hit me. Gosh it was…kind of an amazing feeling.” Levi explained, sparing zero details in the process.

“I slammed my hands on the ground and there was this explosion all around me. Fire went everywhere, Gary was dead and I was afraid I killed Rainbow too but..I didn’t somehow,” Levi lost the eye contact he was holding and his eyes drifted down to the table in thought, subconsciously noting all the crooked dark lines and rings that decorated its surface. “Once it was over…the pain…” Levi struggled to even say the word, not wanting to risk any more memories of the searing agony to plague his mind any longer. Just by looking at his somber expression, Twilight could tell how hard it was for Levi to recount the tale.

Levi coiled his fingers around the handle of his coffee cup and brought the rim to his lips, hoping the sweet gulp he ingested would calm his raging anxieties inside. A cloud of disappointment began to form and rumble above him when his efforts proved to be in vain. “So that’s what it was? Some power that came out of nowhere?”

She received a nod in response.

“Do you have any idea why?” He shook his head, his gaze still resting on the table as if he was studying it intently.

“Not even a little bit?” Another head shake.

“That’s..odd to say the least,” Twilight replied for lack of a better word. Calling what happened to Levi alarming would probably cause even more worries for her friend, substituting the word was the only thing she could do. “I, uh, suppose I could skim through some books and see what I could find!” She said with unwanted excitement in her tone. In her defense, she couldn’t help it, the word nearly lifted her off her hooves everytime without fail, and this wasn’t an exception. However, there was a time and a place for elation. This is usually the place, but definitely not the time.

Twilight clears her throat. “Or I could go talk to Princess Celestia about it. If you're feeling pain after using it then it’s not any magic I’ve ever heard of” She brought a hoof to her chin in thought, her eyes finding themselves affixed to the many rows of books embedded in the walls calling her name.

“I’m a human, Twi,” He pointed out, “If I did have some kind of pony magic it would probably affect me a lot differently.”

Twilight nodded subconsciously as if she was on auto-pilot, using her main focus to scan the lines and lines of books all around her. Even the mere prospect of diving headfirst into each and every one of them pumped her full of jubilee. “You’re right,” She replied, pulling herself out of her trance-like state for just a brief moment.

“But, then again, nopony knows a single thing about humans except for maybe the Princesses” She somehow managed to pull her eyes away from the euphoric collection of hardbacks and met his gaze, feeling tiny under his displeased look.

All of the sudden, small barely audible footsteps taking their time moving down the stairs split the almost complete silence in half. In a split second, every ounce of their attention abruptly shifted to a small, very clearly drowsy, young dragon while he took his time traversing down the stairs. As he emerged from the corner wall and his form became visible to the man and the unicorn, he could almost feel the longing for sleep that echoed off his being. Large, ash grey bags rested underneath both of his big green eyes like overflowing sacks. His head hung low in what looked like despair as if he was walking towards the gallows for his execution. In his claws pinned closely to his side was his white and blue-rimmed blanket that he clutched tightly in his unguis. His vibrant lime green mohawk of spikes that once sat erect on the top of his head were now a tousled mess, like a bird's nest caught in the onslaught of a tornado. His tiny feet made little to no noise against the stairs as he hopped down them one at a time, taking a very brief break in between jumps as if his brain was still fathoming the fact he was no longer asleep. His limbs moved like they were entombed inside concrete blocks, slow and more sluggish than Levi had ever seen in his entire life from anyone. In his opposite unguis held limply was a white scroll that was very distinctly opened and was lazily rolled again. Levi was more thankful than anything that something had finally thrown a wrench in their conversation and steered it in another direction, he had no idea how many more seconds he could last talking about Gary.

“Morning,” Spike yawned while simultaneously rubbing his immensely tired eye, bringing his blanket along with it up to his face, the soft fabric brushing against his scales lovingly.

“Good morning Spike!” Twilight replied with a hint of excitement in her voice that her reptilian friend was finally awake, the exact opposite of what Spike wanted to hear in his first waking hours. Spike liked calm mornings. Not filled with unicorns chirping ecstatically upon his arrival. He soon came to learn this was anything but a good traditional morning in his book.

“Hey,” Was all his brain managed to produce in his inebriated-like state, his voice like pulverized rolling stone from the sleep that once claimed him just minutes before. The very thing that Spike’s barely even functioning brain wanted more than anything in the world. “What’s for breakfast?” He asked, addressing the second most important thing, his roaring stomach. A problem no amount of blissful sleep could fix.

“Scrambled eggs! I made them just the way you like them!” Twilight chirruped. Her horn lit up with brilliant purple as another steaming plate of food levitated through the air and clattered right in front of the empty seat between the unicorn and the man. Spike dragged his feet off the final stair and landed with a grunt on the timber floor decorated with many dark lines and rings from the tree it was formed from.

“Here,” The dragon suddenly tossed the poorly rolled piece of paper up onto the table and centimeters in front of Levi, “It’s for you”

“What is it?”

“Something from Princess Celestia,” He answered with unwarranted annoyance, “I didn’t read it though, it’s none of my business.”

Spike jumped onto the oak chair, mentally cursing the stark height difference as he did so, and wrapped his blanket around his shoulders like it was the only thing keeping him alive. In fact, he looked more dead than alive. His face was plagued with so much drowsiness he easily could’ve confused him for a corpse. His eyes looked like they’d lived a lot longer than the reptile they belonged to. The only time he’d seen eyes like those were Alan’s in the hospital after…he almost immediately shoved the thought away back to the deepest corner of his mind. Levi looked down at the coil of papyrus like it was some extraterrestrial thing, as if some alien from another dimension had intentionally dropped it in his hands. Levi, for some reason, thought his interactions with the Princess of Equestria, or now one of two, were over after the disastrous celebration. Now knowing he was wrong, Levi’s mind raced like a derby of every humanly possible scenario that he could generate in his brain. He could almost feel the smoke billowing out of his ears as the cogs and wheels in his mind spun like never before.

“Levi?” The man was abruptly torn from his trance by the soothing sound of Twilight’s voice, causing Levi to jump ever so slightly at the disturbance and meet her curious gaze. Levi nodded at the lilac pony before grabbing the top of the page, sliding the what remained of the coil down and dropping the shroud of secrecy that once covered the scroll. He held onto the sides of the paper and lifted it a few inches above the table, Twilight watched as Levi’s squinted eyes ran left to right rhythmically like a robot as he read. Levi’s emerald irises went from pooled with hesitance and anticipation for something dreadful to jump out at him to soft, to relaxed once his semi-tired brain had finally processed the words written in hard-to-read cursive. Any letter that had a line protruding from it was not spared from being given an extra long, dramatic tail that looked like a ponytail hanging off it. ‘Did she write this with her hooves?’ Levi thought, making him realize the sheer extent of how little he knew about the customs of ponies.

“What does it say?” Spike asked with a much less rumbly voice as he took a draft of his coffee.

“Celestia needs me to come to her castle,” Above all else, confusion reigned supreme in his tone as he raised an eyebrow at the page, “She didn’t say what for. Just ‘’Important matters” Levi’s imagination had no limits when it came to that phrase. “Important matters” could mean absolutely anything taking the Nightmare Moon fiasco into account. Maybe they found Alan? Maybe Gary was back? Maybe…anything. Levi didn’t know whether he should be eager or worried about seeing Equestria’s loyalty, how was he even going to look Luna in the eye after what happened? After what she did. Part of him didn’t want to blame her for unearthing his trauma, but another part of him was filled with rage at the concept of seeing her again. Whatever Nightmare was, it wasn’t Luna, or any part of Luna for that matter. It was...something else, something Levi couldn’t explain. Just like Gary’s resurrection, an unexplainable phenomena.

“Twilight, how am I gonna get there?” Levi asked, pushing the invasive inquiries to the back of his mind, dropping the scroll back onto the table with a faint brushing sound as it met the wood. “Hot air balloon again?”

The unicorn gave him a small nod, lighting up her horn as the spoon gained a new, beautiful purple aura as she plunged it into the mass of eggs.

Levi thought back to the very first time he stepped foot into the general population in the overly fancy, high-society ambience of Canterlot. The white stone houses. The gold rims that bordered just about everything he could see. The marble roads ponies walked up and down on. It was all so surreal. What was equally if not more surreal was the tens of confused and occasionally horrified glares that burned into his body like lazerbeams. The prospect of going back there, especially into the castle of all places, seemed like a daunting task to fulfill. Regardless of whatever his feelings were towards the situation, he knew for certain that him visiting the Princess wasn’t a choice. After all, Celestia wouldn’t call the only one of two humans in Equestria away from home for no reason, right? Whatever the reason, there was one thing Levi had to resolve before he even thought about stepping foot out of Ponyville, His appearance. His grimy, sweat-stained, nearly repulsive appearance. There was no way possible he could show up to the Canterlot palace looking like…this. He ran out of damaging words in his vocabulary to describe whatever he looked like. Luckily for him, he had a savior whose sole purpose was to rescue people like him from detrimental fashion crises like this one. He could already see her deep blue eyes eyeing him up and down like she was a scientist studying an insect before she flew into a frenzy to fix his outlandish look. He could almost hear her pacifying voice turning into a shrill cry that’s destined to tear his ears to shreds when she laid her eyes on his disheveled clothes. He just hoped there was any way she could fix what had been done without simply tossing it out, Levi loved his clothes and the way he made himself look like they were his own flesh and blood after all.

“Twilight, where’s Rarity’s fashion shop?” Levi asked as he pushed his chair back, the loud and very unpleasant scraping sound obliterated what remained of the calm atmosphere.

“It’s over-nevermind,” Twilight pointed her hoof backward as if she was giving the man directions through the walls, forgetting the fact he had no idea where anything was in Ponyville. “Do you want me to take you to it?”

“That’d be nice, wanna come with Spike?”

“H-Huh-” Spike jolted up in his seat, his knee colliding with the underside of the table and rattling every cup and plate that rested on top of it. Spike's cheeks threatened to go red hot with searing mortification after having been rudely awoken on his blissful journey to the land of dreams. “N-No, I’m good, you all go without me”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at her friend, who sat their bleary eyed and on the verge of unconsciousness despite the caffeine he was practically pouring down his gullet. Now that she thought about it, Spike was never usually up this early anyways, so seeing him this inebriated wasn’t a surprise. “Are you sure? You look pretty-”

“Sleepy. I know,” Annoyance laced his tone from the lethargy that was teetering on the edge of swallowing him whole, wanting desperately to surrender and sleep for days. However, the coffee was the only thing blocking him from doing so. No matter how much he wanted to not feel as tired as he was, he had first-class seats on the struggle bus, and the road ahead was bumpier than ever. “Just..go on without me and…I’m gonna try and get some sleep.” Between words, Spike’s head would drop before immediately jumping back up with a small sniffle each time like he had been shocked back to life with jumper cables. It was like he was on the border of dying and his brain outright refused to let it happen and, from Levi’s point of view, he thought the dragon was having some sort of episode from his odd mannerisms. But, from one look on Twilight’s face, everything was business as usual.

Twilight’s hooves clacked against the ground almost like high heels across the old, scuffed up floor as she practically bounced off the chair and walked towards Levi, an excited grin painted on her face. Levi couldn’t help but allow her infectious smile to sprout to life on his face, he could almost feel the elation beaming from her like an industrial light bulb and gazed into her eyes shining brighter than the sun. He still couldn’t get over how odd the ponies’ eyes looked compared to Levi’s. All his life he had known human eyes that had a strict range of colors it had to abide by. The only ones he had really seen in his life were blue, brown, and hazel but on very rare occasions he would see a man or woman with eyes greener than the grass they stood on. Now, the culture shock was still hitting as hard as it was when he first encountered Fluttershy however many days ago that was, his mind was so cluttered with thoughts and ideas he couldn’t possibly pick the exact date he fell here out of them. The ponies irises were, for lack of a better word, interesting to say the least. Out of everything he had seen both fictional and the opposite, never had he seen someone's eyes be as purple like gleaming amethyst. In spite of how odd it was, they were pretty pleasing to look at, as weird as it sounded.

“We’ll be back soon, Spike!” She called out to the dragon who looked as though he was clinging to every last strand of life left in him.

“Uh-huh..” He slurred and, without another word, allowed his head to go limp and fall to the table face-first with a loud thunk. All of the cups and plates rattled like the wood had been struck with a sledgehammer when, in reality, all it was was Spike finally capitulating to the relentless army known as sleep.

Twilight snickered at her friend and raised a hoof to her mouth to conceal it as the reptile’s snoring wasted no time filling the room without exception. “I guess we should be going now.” Twilight said in a half-whisper, trying to suppress the surplus of giggles that bubbled from her heart.

“Agreed,” Levi replied, he too finding it hard to not let out even a chuckle at the actions of his surrogate roommate.

The clacking and beating of their feet against the floor blended into a single sound that was very irksome to Levi’s fragile ears like someone poking the tip of a knife into a window. He reached out and coiled his fingers around the lukewarm metal of the doorknob, eager to escape unpleasant footsteps that plagued his eardrums and slightly thrilled to finally get a good look around Ponyville without being smashed into walls like a ragdoll. ‘Soarin’’ The name rested distastefully on his mind before being quickly wiped away like a dead bug on glass. He twisted it, hearing the clicking as the intricate internals allowed the door to open, with Levi quickly pouncing on the opportunity like a lion to a dying gazelle. When the deep maroon colored passageway granted them access to the outside world and out of the clutches of the library, he was instantly greeted by the morning sun beaming down and embracing him in a warm hug, silently welcoming him to Ponyville. The scent of flowers and what smelled like honey blessed his nostrils and, hanging on one of the many branches in the library, he could hear the faint buzzing of a colony of bees hard at work doing what they did best. Making their signature thick golden ambrosia for everyone’s tasting pleasure.

Now finally out of the walls of the oak tree, Levi looked around and scanned his surroundings, taking in every little detail that he could make out. Strolling down the wide, mostly empty streets of Ponyville were several ponies of all different colors and hairstyles sauntering down the old pale gold colored dirt roads. His eyes landed on each individual stand that dotted, what he considered to be sidewalks, of every way that he could lay his eyes on. He could almost sense the ponies’ pride in their small store resonating from them like a nuclear reactor, despite it not being much and merely an ant in the grand scheme of the town, they loved it like their own child.

Love. The word had brought out a major flaw that he hadn’t really had time or the brain space to notice until now. All the thoughts that were competing for dominance inside of his head left no room for anything else. Gary, the Elements, the inevitable explanation to Rainbow, they were merciless in taking up every nook and cranny in his head. Now that some of those thoughts had been calmed, it allowed his mind to conjugate something new. As he looked around at each of the ponies walking around while simultaneously feeling embraced by the warm morning sun, a lack of a certain black haired man stood out like a dove in the night sky. A very particular man. Alan. His mind had no limits when it came to envisioning what fate Alan was subjected to in whatever part of Equestria he landed in. Maybe he too was smashed into a wall by a Wonderbolt with a ridiculous sounding name. Maybe he had been cared for by a pony. Maybe…maybe he wasn’t as lucky as Levi. The thought was saddening to say the least, the prospect of his brother being out there in the boonies of Equestria dead was almost too much to handle. Levi wanted desperately to find him and bring him here, back home, but he knew that would be near impossible. From what he could see, Equestria was utterly colossal, trying to find one man in the sheer amount of civilizations and cities that dotted the map would be like trying to find a needle in a pile of needles. That too was deeply saddening to think about. Maybe, just maybe, that was what Princess Celestia had called him to her castle for. Perhaps she found him and was ready for their reunion.

“We found your friend, Alan, was it?” He could hear her say in his head with her consoling, motherly voice. “He’s alive and well, more healthy than we thought in fact.”

Alas, he knew the possibility of that was slim to none, but fantasizing never hurt anyone before. Levi pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind for the meantime with a small shake of his head, setting his sights on the goal that he needed to complete before seeing Celestia. How was he going to look Luna in the eye after what happened? After what she put him through? Levi didn’t know and quite frankly, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was getting to Rarity’s boutique and giving his clothes a much needed repair and most likely a deep cleaning. The powerful pungent odor of sweat and grime singed his nose hairs every time he took a breath, if it was a struggle to even sniff the air with these on, he could only imagine what he smells like to other ponies around him. The stench… Levi nearly gagged at the prospect. However, as much as he wanted to shove any mention of Alan to the dark corners of his brain until later, he couldn’t shake off the worry he felt for his friend. There was, despite how much Levi dreaded it, a chance that he was dead. There was also a chance that he’s alive and well out in a forest somewhere. There were hundreds of possibilities and hundreds of chances, and Levi couldn’t decide which one he wanted to hope was reality out of the bunch. In spite of every pessimistic idea that popped into his head, he knew his brother wasn’t dead. He knew that he was out there…somewhere, alive and healthy. He knew it.

Violet’s eyes unintentionally snapped onto a small pebble skidding feet ahead of them on the sidewalk for what felt like the hundredth time, courtesy to the jet-black haired man walking beside her for the past several minutes. His shoes scuffed against the ground and threatened to ruin the shiny, nearly flawless sidewalk made out of the purest marble Alan had ever seen. His hazel eyes scanned his surroundings as he strolled down the mostly vacant walkway with his savior turned friend by his side and, like always with the Crystal Empire, the beauty never failed to stun him. Tall, charcoal black lamp posts stood high and mighty on the side of the path, their crystals as yellow as the sun rested comfortably inside the glass dome they were encased in. The road was made from pure smoky quartz that looked like dirt was turned into solid glass. The reflection of the unicorn and earth ponies alike who moseyed on down being painted on the street beneath their hooves like they were walking on a colossal mirror. The morning sun beamed down and blessed the Empire with its rays, the light glinting off the stainless marble that formed the very path that the duo moved down, taking their sweet time to soak in the spectacular world around them. The rattling of rickety old wheels that were surprisingly still intact filled the mostly quiet air. The behemoth pile of countless different fruits and vegetables slid and bumped loudly around inside the wagon like bumper cars.

Alan sent a small pebble that rested on the shiny marble sidewalk barreling down the walkway with a kick, his shoe squeaking against the pavement like running his hand across a freshly cleaned window. Alan looked down at his sub-par appearance in the reflection at his feet, not too disheveled and dirty but not too kempt and clean either, it was an even balance between the two. But certainly not a good one. He shoved his hands in his pants pockets to protect his hands from the cool breeze that attacked them, feeling his fingertips immediately coming into contact with his now useless, and probably long dead, phone. In his other pocket, much different than the feeling in his other one, was a small folded slip of paper that almost instantly caught his attention from the sudden shift in texture. He knew what it was. A blanket of guilt completely enveloped his heart at that moment. It was the recipe from “Big Ray” for the methamphetamine that could “change their lives”.

“It’s going to make you millions! Possibly even more!” He vividly recalled him saying with a bone-chilling yet simultaneously infectious laugh, “Trust me, Alan. You won’t regret it!”

His words now felt like searing hot grease burning into his brain. In truth, Alan did regret it, he regretted it more than anything he ever did in his entire life up to that point. The black haired man couldn’t quite wrap his head around the gravity of the situation he had sent crashing down onto the both of them. His actions, nobody else to blame, but him. He was the one who thrusted his brother into this strange, pony-filled world. He was the one who roped Levi into this business in the first place. He was the one who caused himself to be stranded in the middle of nowhere for who knows how long. He might´ve even caused the death of Levi for all he knew, and if that was the case, the blood would forever be on his hands. That was something he couldn’t even bear to think about.

“Alan?” The intimate voice of his unicorn friend asked, prompting the man to turn his head that hung low to the ground. “Something wrong?” She queried, his hazel eyes that shined a lot dimmer than usual met hers as they pooled with concern over his sudden downtrodden demeanor.

“I’m fine,” He answered swiftly, moving his head back to its original position, “I just gotta lot on my mind right now”

Violet knew it would be best not to question the reasoning behind her friend's sudden landslide in mood. After all, the constant dread looming over you that your actions might have caused the death of your best friend is sure to bring a wave of negative emotions with it. A wave that Alan was most certainly feeling crashing down onto him right then and there. In a way, she was intrigued to hear about what led up to that catastrophic cook that sent them to an entirely different dimension. More specifically about this “Big Ray” character that he mentioned in his short, semi-encompassing summary of the fateful tale.

He sounded unsure as he explained it, like he wasn’t entirely keen on what details were right or wrong about this supposed person that gave him the recipe. Along the way, a visible nervousness crept its way onto his normally stoic face and an invasive stutter conquered his voice unwillingly. The descriptions he gave about “Big Ray” all seemed to contradict themselves left and right. If Alan’s goal was to paint a picture in her mind of what this person looked like, all it did was make her feel like a filly trying to decipher hieroglyphics. All of the signs were practically screaming in her face that something, maybe everything, about Alan’s recounting was the biggest most elaborate lie she had ever been told. When you go to medical school for many, many, years of your life, you tend to pick up a few habits here and there. One of the many ones she acquired in her numerous moons of study was how to easily pick apart a bald-faced liar from the inside out, like she was a buzzard tearing apart its dinner. That was something Alan was unavoidably going to learn the hard way if he continued this ruse he was portraying like an act of a poorly constructed stage play.

Minutes passed as the pair continued their seemingly unending travel to the bistro Violet hailed like it was some sort of deity. The whole way there was filled with nothing but silence between the duo, a silence that was somewhat comfortable yet blended in with a tension like a rubber band stretched to its utmost limit. Despite all of the background noise that seemed to fade further and further away from them with each step they took, the tightness in the air between them refused to dissipate as if they were a soldier fighting to their final breath on the battlefield. Undeterred. Lingering. Resistant to crumbling. Exactly what the lack of sound betwixt them was. Violet fought back a sigh of relief when the small cozy looking building with bright yellow light beaming from the wide windows like the sun had been pulled from the sky and placed dead center in the diner. A metal ruby sat fixed to the wall a few inches above the door frame that had a small curtain covering the similarly sized window embedded in the door. Through the glass, the duo could see many vibrantly colored unicorn and earth ponies alike chatting away like there was no tomorrow with the hugest grins imaginable painted on their features, relishing in the sweet deliciousness of their milkshakes all the while. Violet wished her visit to the Ruby Red Cafe wasn’t so rooted in the subtle dread that came with the inevitable conversation she was going to have with her raven-haired friend; she could almost feel the weight of his lie crushing him to dust as Violet tore it apart right in front of his face. In a weird way, part of her didn’t really want to know the full truth, almost as if the veracity was going to harm her in some way shape or form.

In spite of all of her worries and doubts, the warm glow from inside the diner gleamed bright in her eyes as though it was trying to travel straight into her soul and beckon her inside. For the years she had been going there almost every night, or day depending on the mood she was in, the spell it seemed to put her under worked every time. Every time she passed it she heard the hurling and bustling of underpaid busboys scurrying around trying to give their all for their lackluster job, making her slightly pity them but also feel grateful she put in the time to go to med school. She couldn’t bear the thought of doing something like this to make ends meet. Regardless, there was some sort of alluring feeling braided within the cacophony of sound arising from the cafe while still a bit muffled by the walls. It was almost as if she was being pulled towards its inviting doors like a hoof with a fish in its mouth everytime without fail or exception. In fact, the sort of spell it put her under was no longer the thing that drew her in, she opted to willingly give into it silent demands every time. The warmth from the red hot grills in the kitchen spilled out into the main room, capturing all of the diner-goers ruthlessly in its cozy net. The feeling was addicting to the unicorn and was probably the reason she constantly came back to it. Nonetheless, excitement coursed through her faster than her own blood to show Alan the place she loved more than she could describe with words. Maybe, hopefully, they could share the love that Violet had for the cafe together.

Violet's hopes went past the clouds as she and Alan walked side by side up the decrepit looking set of stone stairs. No carpet. No coverings. No visible attempt whatsoever to make it look any less dilapidated. Just stone steps that looked like they were pulled straight out of a medieval castle. Alan’s optimism about this place being as good as Violet made it out to be nearly died right then and there. Yet, there was still a little flame inside him that encouraged the man to keep his expectations up for the place the unicorn loved so much. With a barely audible sigh, Alan conformed to the demands of the flicker of hope and resurrected his convictions, secretly hoping the inside was better than the outside.

Where the stairs ended sat an old-looking, pale yellow door with long streaks of paint missing from it. Small chips of color were gone from the almost ancient looking color, revealing small parts of the dark brown door underneath. Alan could tell strictly from the appearance of the wood that sat underneath the dying layer of pigment the years have been nothing but cruel to the diner. The doorknob, probably once gold and shiny in another life, was rusted, the brown infection spread over it like a cancer and claimed almost its entire being. A black, cloth curtain draped over the small window in the door from the inside. Judging by the outside appearance alone, it was probably for the best that it remained hidden for the meantime. Maybe it was a pony thing to enjoy going to places that looked like they once housed cavemen. Knowing he’d only been in Equestria barely a day, Alan kept his judgments to himself just in case that was the case.

Violet eagerly threw her hoof onto the knob and twisted it, a squeal suddenly bursted from the rusted internals like a pig about to be slaughtered. Alan flinched at the abrupt sound, mentally apologizing to his ears for the torment it had been unwillingly subjected too. Without hesitation, the light blue unicorn swung open the door with an impossibly wide smile painted on her face as if she was opening the door for some sort of messiah to walk through. Violet’s messiah in this case was the smell of cooked meat and soft music that was slightly muffled by the speakers on the old radio. Alan could only imagine how much they had been played over the years. With the postern now fully open and what awaited him inside no longer concealed, Alan eyes were granted access to the cafe and, in more ways than one, it was unlike anything he had ever seen before.

The floor was a checkered pattern of white and black squares made of pure crystal, the light pouring in through the windows glinting off them beautifully. The tables were made of shiny, celestial mahogany wood that reflected anything and everything. The seats on both sides of it were comfy looking burgundy leather banquettes that seemed to call his name, he could almost feel the relief cleanse the incessant aching in his bones as he sat down. In most of the booths inside sat several ponies of all different hair styles and colors and, more prominently, cutie marks. To say that Alan’s doubts were struck down instantaneously would be nothing short of an understatement.

Violet’s hooves clacked against the cafe’s radiant floor as she entered with a newfound pep in her step, the elation coursing through her resonating off of her like a nuclear reactor gone haywire. Alan stepped in fully, his shoes scraping against the concrete noisily before beginning to squeak across the lustrous, glassy diner floor like a small animal died with each step he took. He wondered how the ponies here didn’t go insane hearing that every time someone took a step. However, none of them had shoes except for him, making Alan question if he should even wear shoes in this society. Or Empire? He didn’t even know what to call this place. The culture shock still hadn’t subsided and seemed to be along for the ride, much to Alan’ disappointment. The door closed behind him, the small golden bell above the door frame rang its joyous tune throughout the cafe as a reminder to the penniless employees they had another pair to serve. In a weird way, Alan felt bad for the workers. He knew how terrible fast food jobs were back in Tuscaloosa, mainly from experience and partly from the sort of horror stories his friends and colleagues used to tell him about him. No money. No time off. No nothing. The phrase “May I take your order?” being engraved into their minds for years to come. He wondered if he would ever see those people again in his life. Did Equestria have some sort of portal back to where he and Levi came from? Did Levi already leave back to Tuscaloosa? Is he in his apartment right now waiting for him to return worried sick?

Alan had time for internal hypotheticals and “what ifs” later,now was the time for him to finally experience the heavenly diner Violet praised like a god. Internally, he hoped the outside wouldn’t be any indicator for the quality of his visit. Maybe they were renovating and had to take whatever covering was on the stairs. Maybe they were getting ready to repaint the door soon. The amount of maybes running around in Alan’s head like a rampant derby was almost dizzying.

“Violet!” He heard an animated voice call out loudly, her high pitched tone threatening to shatter Alan’s eardrums like glass. He had already heard enough ear-piercing, deafening noises to last him a lifetime and the worst part was he had only been there for less than five minutes. ‘Damn! My head!’ He complained to himself, ‘How can this get any worse? It can’t..right?’

“Hey, Emerald!” Violet’s hooves clicked against the floor like high heels once again as she trotted over to her, like her name suggested, emerald green colored friend. Her wavy seafoam green mane flowed down the side of her neck, leaving the other side bare and mostly empty. She had stunning forest green eyes like dazzling jades in her eye sockets that glistened in the sunlight. She had a short sleeve blood-red button down shirt with a small ruby shaped pin right above her shirt pocket with a small name tag dangling off it that read “Emerald B.” The absurdity of the names the ponies had never ceased to amaze him. If he had a human child and named her after some sort of object or adjective, everyone would bat an eye. However, here, it is just a normal everyday thing to meet someone named Emerald. His imagination had no limits when it came to what the B in her name could possibly be. If what he saw thus far was an indication of anything, everything was on the table. Emerald’s horn lit up with a dazzling mint color as the large silver tray she had in her hoof gained a similarly colored aura, lifting from her grasp and landing with a faint clink on one of the empty tables beside her.

The two locked into a brier yet warm embrace and, despite the length they held each other in their hooves, the platonic love resonated all the same. “Who’s your friend, Vi?” Emerald inquired curiously, releasing her light blue friend and taking a few steps towards Alan. Her green eyes meeting the raven-haired man’s as a slightly worried expression overtook his features. Despite the friendly smile she shined at him like a star that tried their damndest to calm his anxieties, his frets still reigned supreme inside him and were made painfully obvious in his face in spite of his best efforts to hide it. The only other pony he had met in this entirely new world was Violet and the mere prospect of talking to another unicorn other than her sent feelings of brood shooting into his heart like arrows. He swallowed down the nervousness boiling in his throat like a cue ball before it could get in the way of his first impression. They were the most important thing when meeting someone after all.

“Oh, this is Alan!” Violet greeted, enthusiastically. “He’s new to the Empire.”

“New, huh?” Emerald repeated, extending her hoof out in greetings to the rightfully surprised man. Alan looked down at her trotter like it was some foreign alien lifeform, astonished at the amount of hospitality being bestowed upon him by the jade colored unicorn. His mind thrust him back in time to the day, or maybe two, prior when he first made his dramatic and cornering entrance into the Empire for the very first time. The looks of utter and complete bewilderment from every pony as far as the eye could see being burned into his memory. In all honesty, he didn’t blame them. If he saw some grimy and blood stained man hobble into his apartment complex with his clothes looking as though he had narrowly escaped a tornado, he would give them an overtly weird look as well. But now, no longer being under the threat of starvation and death, he felt honored to be welcomed into the diner with such warm friendliness like she was greeting an old friend. Not some complete stranger who’s a completely different species than her and everyone around her.

“That’s me,” He replied, enveloping her hoof in his rough-looking hand and giving it a firm shake, a hint of relief braided within his voice.

“It’s nice meeting you,” She commended, “Say, how did you get to the Empire out of curiosity?”

‘Oh boy’ Alan thought worriedly in his head, the smile that was painted across his face threatened to fall like a mask right at that moment. How was he going to explain how he got there to a pony he just shook hands, or hooves, with just moments ago? ‘Yeah me and my friend we’re cooking meth and it kinda just..blew up, y’know?’ Didn’t sound applicable or even acceptable at all in the last bit. ‘I fell from the sky and cracked a wolf's head open with a giant crystal’ Didn’t sound right either. Alan loathed lying with every fragment of his being. He considered himself to be a pretty honest and moral man, albeit not perfect in the least bit, but only told lies when he felt it was absolutely necessary. Now, he had a choice to make. Either lie to make his second interaction with a pony not riddled with his past mistakes, or tell her the truth and risk..whatever was going to happen next. Alan found the former to be the better option.

“Visiting.” Alan responded a lot more unsure than he intended. All Alan received in response was a small nod from the unicorn before her hoof left his grasp and fell back to the floor, her horn liting up and the silver tray being lifted from where it sat on the table. “You’ll be over there at table six, I’ll be with you in a sec” She stated, pointing over to an empty banquette in the far corner to their right stationed against one of the two large windows Alan looked through before he entered. A small grin formed on his features at the image in his head of completely and utterly devouring whatever food the diner had in store for him. If Violet’s continuous eulogizing wasn’t just an intense bias, Alan was looking at one of his best breakfasts in years. It beat eating off-brand cereal and microwave meals at 11AM in his cold, desolate house by a landslide. As Emerald walked off to whatever waitress duties she needed to attend to, Alan and Violet moved across the glittering floor over to their table as if they were walking a path straight to the gates of Heaven which was exactly what the ground reminded him of. Each step he took felt like he was strolling down a trail of dazzling diamonds embedded below him with the pearly white entrance to the paradise above just within reach. In an odd way, the cafe felt way too fancy-like to be some place anyone can saunter into at any time and have a quick bite to eat. It looked as if it was pulled straight out of some fairy tale castle, in fact, the entire Empire looked that way.

While the pair gave the jade-green unicorn their orders in the indescribable comfort of their respective maroon leather seats, Alan leaned his head against the seat and allowed his head to tilt, aiming his eyes towards the unfathomable beauty that was the Crystal Empire. He made sure to take his time in scanning every nook and cranny of the Empire he could possibly see from the wide casement he leaned his head against, his temple being cooled by the window chilled by the light spring breeze. No matter how many times he looked at it, he still couldn’t help but become mesmerized by the gorgeous crystal that made the roads that ponies sauntered down day and night. Unable to stop himself from becoming utterly astounded at every crystal that glimmered in his eyes surrounding not only the diner, but everywhere. Not a single nook or cranny in the entire Empire was spared from being conquered by the brilliant gems, but not in a bad way, in the best way possible. While staring mindlessly out of the glass without a care in the world about the what seemed like hundreds of conversations going on around him, he slowly began to realize just how lucky he was that he fell to Equestria at the time that he did. He vividly remembered all the sleepless nights he got, commonly hearing fights and gunshots between homeless people and junkies alike fighting for whatever junkies fought for. Whether it be their “turf”, the curb they got to sleep on, who’s dirty flea-infested sleeping bag belonged to them or not, or the root of all evil in Roseville. Drugs. The very same drugs that he and Levi produced and sold.

He hadn’t yet registered how awful his life was before he had spent the night chatting with Violet about all sorts of things and really getting to know his surrogate unicorn roommate better. He hadn’t gone a night for years without hearing insults being slung around left and right just mere feet away from his front door that were, thankfully, slightly muffled by the walls, but were still loud enough to affect his sleep. If he got any at all. Sitting in Violet’s living room taking swigs of his coffee in the dead of night talking about whatever came on their minds reminded Alan of what most people consider a good life is, a life Alan never thought he’d live. But yet, here he was, sitting in a diner across from the pony that became his savior.

Out of the blue, the constant clinging of Violet’s spoon against the inside of her coffee cup as she stirred it suddenly came to an end. The abrupt change in background noise ripped Alan from his trance like a fish being yanked out of water by a fisherman, moving his head from the semi-comfortable window and to an upright position along with the rest of his body.

“So, Alan,” Spoke Violet, the aura around her horn dying and her hazel eyes meeting Alans. “I need to talk to you about something.”

The unexpected seriousness in her voice caught him off guard and, although he wanted to deny it, intimidated him for reasons he didn’t fully understand.

“Yeah, what’s up?” Alan replied, trying and fortunately succeeding in hiding his inner emotions from seeping into his voice.

“It’s about that other human you told me about back at the house..’Big Ray,’” Violet answered, unsure if this “Big Ray” character was even a human at all. In fact, she couldn’t tell what it was at all from Alan’s mangled mess of descriptions. The only image her mind came up with from his failed illustrations was a garbled-up disorder of colors and shapes. The unicorn could feel a shift in the air and, much more prominently, a shift in her friend's demeanor. His hands moved interlocked on the table to fiddling nervously in his lap in just a matter of moments and his eyes strayed far from hers, looking outside once again as if he had fallen victim to its daze once again. It was like Violet blinked and Alan had been teleported away and replaced with this nervous, anxious clutter of a man in front of her.

“Oh…yeah. What about him?” The apprehensiveness braided with his words and the lack of eye contact was practically screaming in her face that something was very wrong with Alan. She couldn’t believe she was actually talking to Alan and not some random human dictated by some malevolent force to act so…scared.

“Well…I know you were lying about him. You’re not very good at it,” Violet replied, eager to get to the bottom of whatever was troubling her companion. “And the way you were acting when I brought it up is worrying me. So I wanna know the truth.”

The assertiveness in her voice, whether it was intended or not, caused nervous cannonballs of sweat to form on his brow and travel down his forehead, somehow concerning Violet even more than she already was. Alan hated that he lied to Violet to begin with and would do anything to reverse what he had done, but he knew deep down he couldn’t. More specifically, “Big Ray” wouldn’t let him. In fact, Alan was done calling him what he wasn’t, he was going to refer to him by what he really was, the beast. That amalgamation of different animals that he couldn’t even decipher with his enticing voice that was laced with poison. However, to say the abomination had put the fear of God in him was an understatement. The things he said…the threats…his power. He wanted to reject his offer and tell him to go find someone else to intimidate, but the offer was too tempting. The reward he and Levi were going to reap was more than anything he could ever ask for. It would be foolish to turn it down and, from the way the beast was acting, he made it seem he had no other choice. But, as much as he wanted to tell his friend the truth, he knew he couldn’t. The things the creature prophesied if his true name ever got revealed were frightening to say the least. While at the same time, Alan had his doubts about the predictions the beast insisted was going to happen. The absolute absurdity of the outlandish events seemed like it was yanked straight out of a fever dream, too over-the-top and dramaticized to be anything more than a work of fiction. Simultaneously however, he felt a needle of dread poking his heart at the prospect that what the abomination said was true. Alan’s eyes met Violet’s once again as she gazed at him, a patient yet slightly irritated look in her eyes. It was only then when Alan realized how idiotic he must’ve looked staring off into space for what felt like hours, him being deep in thought while keeping Violet waiting for an answer in the real world.

Alan took a deep breath before he answered. “You want the truth, don’t ya?”

The unicorn nodded.

Before he even thought about opening his mouth to speak, Alan decided it would be best if he ran through what he was about to do in his head beforehand. On one hand, it would feel a lot better to finally have it off his chest and clear the air between him and Violet. While on the other hand, spilling the truth to her could easily ignite the beast’s eccentric prophecies to life and spell the end for Alan Sizemore as he knew it. Possibly even the entire Empire. Boldly, in spite of everything that was at risk, Alan’s sheer hatred for lying prevailed over the scarily feasible peril that could potentially arise from the decision he was preparing to make.

“You can’t tell another soul this Violet, ya understand me? ‘Cause..I don’t know whats gonna happen if you do.”

The unicorn nodded once more.

“Alright,” Alan took another deep, nervous breath as he delved into the darkness behind his eyelids, hoping to find even a microscopic shred of comfort to relieve him of his intense anxieties. The uneasiness about telling Violet the truth and nothing but the truth swirling around like an angry dragon in his heart, refusing to spare Alan from its onslaught on his emotions. Alan decided it was best to bite the bullet and soldier on through the uncomfort raging in his chest, after all, what could the truth really hurt…right?

“His name was..somethin’ weird I…”

“It was uh…” He looked deep into Violet’s eyes, the answer she was looking for all this time building up like a dam ready to explode. One thing was for certain, she couldn’t have prepared for the answer no matter how hard she tried.

“It was uh…Discord.”