Time to go

by MasterHunter55

Chapter 28: Dreams of Paradise and Paranoia

Time to go

Chapter 28

Dreams of Paradise and Paranoia

Hunter rubbed his face gingerly. “What the hell man!?”

“How dare you!” Andrew yelled.

“How dare I what? Welcome you into my home!? Why did you hit me?!” Hunter asked, still poking gingerly at his cheek.

“You left me alone! You betrayed me! You just up and left to come here, and the worst part is…” Andrews eyes had tears in them, “You didn’t even tell me!”

Hunter stopped rubbing his face and said nothing. Andrew stood over him like a bull ready to charge.

“I’m sorry.” Hunter said.

Andrew half expected Hunter to put up a fight, and now that he really hadn’t, his momentum was lost. This didn’t mean that he wasn’t going to try anyways.

“Well you should be.” Andrew said, “My life’s been hell since you left. Actually who was I kidding, it was hell even before I met you. So you have the nerve to just up and leave without telling anyone? There are people that cared about you ya know!” Andrew sat down on the floor, “and I was one of them.”

Hunter looked up and saw the tears on Andrew’s face and a part of him wanted nothing more than to console him, but the bigger part of him wasn’t so forgiving.

“Hey! My life isn’t exactly peaches and cream ya know!” Hunter shot back. “Even in this world I’m still haunted by things that I thought I’d left behind. I’ve seen the dark side of this place okay! So maybe I was just saving you from disappointment.”

“So its still bad everywhere?” Andrew said.

Hunter took a deep breath. “Yeah it still is.”

The two stallions took a moment to calm down, Andrew put the games back where they went before noticing something.

“You’re house is a god awful mess.” Andrew said.

“Hey! I’ve been in a funk lately!” Hunter protested.

“Yeah,” Andrew said, now holding his nose, “A funky smell.”

Hunter groaned and fell back onto his couch. “Lets just get you moved into your room, shall we?”

Andrew agreed and went over to start carrying his things. At that moment a blue unicorn and a black and red dragon entered through the front door.

“I hope they give me the next shift off, I could really use the…” Trixie stopped talking as she realized a stallion she didn’t know was in the house and Hunter was on his back on the couch.

“Trixie?” Andrew asked simply.

Hunter sat up quickly to acknowledge their entrance.

Michael waved Hunter a hello with a simple flick of the wrist, and then looked over at Andrew. Trixie dropped Michael on the floor and ran at the intruder.

><><

Rainbow Dash rolled over in her sleep; the clamor of the nearby house not enough to wake her

><><

“Trixie stop what you’re doing, right now!” Hunter yelled, “That’s my best friend you’re hurting!”

Trixie hit the white stallion weakly one more time with her hoof as she had been for the past minute. Andrew had managed to get his leg up in defense, and that had been enough to stop Trixie’s pitiful attack.

“What?” Trixie said, looking confused. Looking from Hunter to the stallion she was apparently attempting to stop from robbing them.

“I thought I was your best friend.” Michael said quietly.

“You are, its just Andrew’s my best friend out of a different group of friends.” Hunter said.

“I don’t understand.” Michael said.

“Well don’t hurt yourself trying.” Hunter said in his recently snyde fashion, and then turned to Trixie. “The point is, leave him be, he’s a friend, not some weirdo who decided to rob a cloud house and somehow made it up here without wings or magic.”

“Very well,” Trixie said, stepping away from Andrew, “But you didn’t have to be rude.”

“Whatever. Andrew, let’s get your things up to the room.” Hunter said, picking up a box of Andrew’s possessions and moving towards the stairs.

Andrew hesitated before picking up his all-in-one Mac. As soon as Hunter was up the stairs, Andrew looked over at Michael and Trixie with a look that asked, “What was that all about?” The two just shook their heads and Michael spoke up.

“I guess we should help you move your things, we’ll introduce ourselves later.” Michael grabbed another box from the pile and moved to the stairs. Trixie grabbed what was left with her magic and moved up the stairs. Hunter moved past them when they reached the top of the stairs, and was about to walk back down to get more boxes when he saw that they were all gone. He stepped back into the room with the others.

“Well,” Michael said, putting the box down with the box Hunter had set down first. “Since you’re going to be living in this room in our house that we until recently had no idea existed, we should probably know who you are. Andrew is it?”

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out!” Andrew said, raising his leg to shake.

“My name’s Michael, Hunter’s other best friend apparently.” Michael said.

Hunter let out a “hmm” But nothing else.

“I’m…” Trixie started.

“Dangerous.” Andrew interrupted. Michael and he laughed before Andrew said, “Just kidding, you’re Trixie aren’t you?

“That would be me! I’ve gotta say, it’s nice to have some recognition for once.” Trixie said.

“I recognized you.” Michael said.

“I mean more recognition.” Trixie said.

“Fine. Anyways, I guess now that you’ve met us, I’ll give you two time to get reaquainted.” Michael said, and he left the room with Trixie right behind him.

As soon as the door shut Hunter spoke up. “I guess I should apologize for my behavior, I recognize that I’m a jerk after it happens, but I can’t quite stop myself.”

“That didn’t really seem your style” Andrew said, sitting near his pile of possessions. “Since when did you let loose with all the rude remarks? You didn’t say a mean thing without being dreadfully sarcastic in the entire time I’ve known you.”

“Well a lot has happened in the short time I’ve been here.” Hunter said.

“Like what?” Andrew asked.

“I killed someone.” Hunter said.

Andrew’s eyes widened, but the pony said nothing.

“He was my friend and I killed him. I also killed another pony, guess I forgot about him.” Hunter said.

“You’ve been killing ponies?” Andrew asked in a hushed tone.

“I’m not just some murderer Andrew, I’m not gonna cut your throat in your sleep, don’t worry about it. I’ll tell you about it, but first I wanna know how things were at home after I left?” Hunter asked, a sudden change in his voice betraying a slight desperation.

“Oh,” Andrew’s face fell, “Well after you left I really had to focus on my FFA to keep from getting too worked up about it. If you had just moved, it would have been no problem, but you just disappeared. I talked to your mom and she said you were gone, and she wouldn’t say anything more. All she wanted was to keep the police from getting involved. She managed to get the school to think you had moved and told your family that you had run away. At least that’s what I heard from your cousin.”

“My cousin?” Hunter asked,

“Yeah, Sarah, your cousin.” Andrew confirmed.

“I didn’t think you guys talked.” Hunter said, more to himself.

“Well she told me that at least. Anyways, I managed to go to the state competitions a couple of times. It included a rafting trip that was really fun.”

“Ooo, I love rafting, we should find a place here to do that.” Hunter said.

“Getting a little off topic there bro.” Andrew said.

“Right sorry, I won’t interrupt any more, continue.” Hunter said, making a zipper motion with his hoof across his mouth.

“Anyways, I managed to win first place in the second one I entered.”

“Woo!” Hunter let out, “oops sorry.”

“Anyways, I got home from that second competition and my mother had passed away.” Andrew said, his head falling again.

Hunter let out a small gasp but said nothing.

“After she died, I went to move in with my uncle Brian and things were alright for a few days but I couldn’t take it anymore. I felt betrayed, by the world, by god, by you.” Andrew said, looking up at Hunter again, Hunter’s eyes were now averted. “So I went down into the basement and opened up my uncle’s gun closet and I pulled one out and I set it to my head.”

Hunter looked up suddenly, his attention fully on Andrew.

“Then Twilight showed up and brought me here. It was convenient because all of my things were still packed.” Andrew said, trying to lighten the mood.

“You almost killed yourself, and I was partly responsible?” Hunter asked.

“I guess a little bit, but I would probably have tried anyways just later on. I mean my mom was dead, my dad was still in jail…” Andrew tried explaining.

“Yes, but you decided that I was one of the reasons that you should end your life at that moment?” Hunter asked, his tears welling up again.

“Yes, but you know what?” Andrew asked, bold all of the sudden.

“What?”

“You kept me from doing it sooner too.” Andrew said.

“What?”

“Yeah. After my mother died I kept trying to find things that made me happy. The idea that you would return kept me happy for a short while, and then the world we’re in now helped for a little while longer, and I only watched that show because of you, you showed it to me.” Andrew said.

“Yeah, but…” Hunter started.

“No butts.” Andrew said, “You did more good than bad alright? Don’t be hard on yourself for leaving to come here. I bet you were so excited you couldn’t think straight.”

Hunter chuckled. “I guess so.”

“Well that’s the story of how I got here.” Andrew said, “So why don’t you catch me up on what I missed?”

“Well, I guess I should just start at the beginning in a room I’m sure you’ll find familiar.” Hunter said.

><><

As the final beams of light retreating behind the mountains battled the darkness that now overtook the sky, Celestia almost quivered with anticipation. She couldn’t wait for her spell to be over and for the sun to be neatly tucked away behind the edges of the world. It had been a long day. Sleep was the most prominent thing on her mind at the moment, and she just couldn’t wait until she was nestled comfortably between the silk sheet and the warm cotton comforter of her bed.

The sun finally gave up the fight and was not only gone from view, but had left the horizon completely dark if not for the stars that now dotted the sky. Celestia breathed a sigh of relief and took her leave of the celestial balcony.

“Good night sister.” Luna said briskly as she passed Celestia in the hallway.

“Good night dear sister.” Celestia said, quite drained.

The day had been quite busy for her, having to deal with a visit from almost every single ambassador from the lands around Equestria. The only dignitaries who hadn’t shown up today to speak with her about something of “Grave importance” were the ones whose lands were a little farther out. The griffon’s were apparently supposed to arrive midday tomorrow, and the ambassador for the Zebra’s was supposed to arrive sometime next week. Why all the ambassador’s had suddenly decided to converge almost at once Celestia had no idea. One complained about animals causing trouble around the outskirts of the wilderness. Another, complained that the weather was nigh uncontrollable and yet another complained that a huge swarm of bugs had come out of nowhere and destroyed valuable food supplies. The great white mare wondered just what exactly the griffons and zebra could possibly have in store for her. Celestia didn’t want to dwell on it right now however. The only thing that the great princess of Equestria wanted to dwell on was her pillow.

As soon as the Princess reached her room, her crown was set as quickly as possible on her nightstand while still attempting to look neat. The blankets were quickly cast aside, the white mare placed herself gently, yet urgently, onto the bed and with an uncharacteristic flourish of the blankets she was finally settled into bed. Soon the Princess was reveling in how nice and warm the bed was, and how soft the blankets were, and how nice and quiet the night was. There was nothing at all that could…

“They’re all connected.” Celestia said out loud to herself.

The Princess sighed heavily, couldn’t she have had this epiphany tomorrow? Now it would keep her awake for sure. The white mare decided there was no fighting it, so she once again flung the covers completely from the bed. Celestia walked towards the door, barely remembering to adorn her crown again, and immediately exited her room taking a left turn.

If she was going to get through tonight, she was going to need to visit the cafe first and foremost. Maybe Luna could aid her in her research if she wasn’t too busy sifting through the dreams of the citizens. To be entirely honest with herself, she had no idea where to start looking for an answer to bug swarms, and animal attacks, and how those two things connected to uncontrollable weather. Maybe if she started with the weather problem, she could find out how it connected to the other two.

After stopping in on the quaint 24 hour cafe that was conveniently located very near to her castle, ordering more than enough coffee to get her through the night and telling the worker that she would return for more in the morning, Celestia took flight, coffee in magical tow, and hoping to get to the library quickly so that she could get started on what was sure to take a very long time.

“I don’t know why I don’t let someone else take care of these things.” Celestia muttered to herself. Then she got an idea. As soon as she reached the library she would write a letter to her student, although, it would probably be better if she held onto it until morning. Didn’t want to force her pupil Twilight to suffer the same sleepless fate as she was.

Celestia took a slightly higher course in the air than was necessary, hoping that the brisk morning air would help ease her fatigue. A bright light grew suddenly brighter from the castle balcony, almost blinding the alicorn. After rubbing her eyes a bit Celestia recentered her vision on the balcony and the light pulsed brightly for another second before suddenly vanishing, leaving a very prominent purple stain on her vision. Celestia blinked furiously for a few seconds, and then redirected herself towards the balcony, ready for anything, and fearing everything. It took her all of five seconds to reach the edge of the balcony, and charge into the room, coffee already neatly placed on the edges of the doorway. Celestia saw the entirety of the room at once and analyzed it quickly. Luna was there and… nothing else?

“Luna! I saw a bright light from the sky and I thought… Is everything alright?” Celestia asked, returning to an elegant stance as opposed to one more battle ready.

“Of course Dear sister. We were merely setting off a veritable light show of spells to entertain ourselves.” Luna said, “We were taking a break from our normal duties.”

“Ok. I guess I should not have assumed so much.” Celestia said, sighing.

“What are you still doing awake dear sister?” Luna asked, “Normally by this time you are well into your own dreams.”

“I was just thinking about the ambassadors.” Celestia said, collecting her coffee from the doorway and taking a sip from one of them.

“Oh? What of them?” Luna asked, something in her tone suggesting that the topic wasn’t exactly her favorite by any means.

“Just that I found it odd that they should all convene in such a short time, and all with seemingly unrelated problems. Thinking about it would keep me awake the entire night, so I thought I might as well get up and do some research. If you have any free time would you be able to assist me?” Celestia asked, moving towards the balcony once more to leave.

“Ummm, actually, the time that we have allotted ourselves to taking a break is almost over, so we must be returning to our duties.” Luna said.

“Very well.” Celestia said, “I will leave you to it then. Goodbye.”

“Goodnight sister.” Luna replied.

Celestia spread her wings and with one strong flap she was airborne and on her way to the library. There had to be something there. Anything. Then Celestia stopped midair and turned around.

She had forgotten most of her coffee.

As Celestia landed she opened her mouth to address Luna but heard hushed tones coming from another individual. This was not uncommon, as it was normal for Luna to talk with one of her own guards, so Celestia thought it would be polite to just take the coffee and go.

“That was a close one, we almost didn’t hide him in time.” The second voice said.

It would have been polite to take the coffee and go.

Celestia silently stood herself right next to the doorway on the balcony to hear the conversation. Eavesdropping wasn’t normally her style, but now she was curious, and her already suspicious mood didn’t help.

“Then it is a good thing we planned for this.” Luna said, “We must not alert her of anything quite yet. That would ruin everything.”

Celestia’s mind ran through everything from birthday parties to military coups.

“Besides, this one turned out to be another unicorn, gray, and an interesting mix of hair colors, black and orange. Where are you planning to send this one?” The second voice asked, apparently talking about some third pony as if he had just appeared out of thin air, and wasn’t actually in the room.

“This one will go farther south.” Luna said, “maybe I’ll have him live in Apploosa.”

“That sounds good.” The second voice said.

Then they were both silent, either waiting for something or just busy doing something else, Celestia couldn’t tell which. The white mare decided this is probably when she should go. The princess took a very quiet step backwards, and then another, and then she knocked over one of the coffee cups. Making a not very loud, but at least noticable noise.

“What was that?” Celestia heard the second voice say. They were coming this way, she had to act fast.

Celestia grabbed all the coffee in her magical grip, jumped silently off the balcony and hovered silently below it. She could hear the steps above her as both Luna and the second pony stepped onto the balcony to investigate.

“Must’ve been a bird or something.” The voice said.

“Must’ve been.” Luna said.

Celestia waited for the steps to retreat back inside before making a wide path to the library. What could this possibly mean? Her mind couldn’t help but immediately turn to the worst, but she was hopeful. At least, she really wanted to be. The princess’s mind was in more turmoil than ever as she made her way to the library at a faster pace than usual.

Luna however, knew one thing for sure. Other than the owls that lived in the gardens, birds did not move around as such during the night, and that was no owl. Luna watched Celestia fly towards the library and knew one thing for certain.

She would have to act quickly.

><><

“And that’s about when you showed up.” Hunter said, finishing up the story of his time in Equestria. Which, now that he had put all the big events into a story like that, didn’t seem like very long at all.

“Wow.” Andrew said, looking out the lone window in his room and realizing that it was now dark outside. “Who knew there would be people like that Skull Trap in a place like this.”

“Ponies.” Hunter said.

“What?” Andrew asked, looking back in Hunter’s direction.

“You said who knew there would be people, it’s who knew there would be ponies…” Hunter said in an almost condescending tone.

“Right.” Andrew said, his eyebrows forming a somewhat concerned look on his face. “Ponies.”

Hunter sighed, “Sorry.”

“Hey. You just got done telling me what you’ve been through, I understand why you might be…” Andrew paused, searching for the right word.

“A jerk?” Hunter offered.

“Your word, not mine.” Andrew said with a grin.

“Its accurate if nothing else.” Hunter said with a huff and a turn of his face, “Everyone I work with is mad at me, the mane 6 most likely won’t forgive me for a long time, I kicked a friend of mine out onto the streets and told him not to return, and my roommates are probably sick and tired of taking care of my sorry hide all the time.”

“Well I’m sure if you ask for and earn it, forgiveness will be given to you,” Andrew said, moving over and putting a hoof on his friends shoulder, “I bet they’re just waiting for you to actually attempt to get it from them.”

Hunter sighed again. He wanted to give Andrew a reason why he couldn’t do that other than him just being a coward but he didn’t really have one. Then he perked up his head as he remembered something.

“You haven’t really met any of them yet have you?” Hunter asked.

“Twilight did bring me here.” Andrew said, “Other than that, not really no.”

“Well, you can meet them eventually I’m sure. but the first thing you should be worrying about is what you’re going to do about that mess you call a house that you’re going to be rebuilding.” Hunter said. “Do you have any plans yet?”

Andrew took a moment to think out what his first step might be. “Well I suppose first thing tomorrow I should go to the building and properly look it over and make a list of things I need to do to it from first or most important, to last and least important. Then once I know what I need to do, I need to figure out exactly what materials and tools I need, and then where to secure those things, and then I just have to… do it.”

“Okay that sounds simple in theory, but I think the securing materials and tools part is going to be the toughest. Just how do you expect to get everything you need? I mean you can stay in my house for free and eat my food for free, but I don’t see you getting the same amount of generosity from the local hardware store.”

Andrew slumped. “Oh no I didn’t even think about that.” The white pony groaned. “I have no idea how I’m going to even get started on that house if I don’t have the money for the materials.”

“I guess you could ask Luna for help. I mean, she built this house for me for free, so maybe she’ll give you a house worth of materials.” Hunter suggested.

Andrew perked up again, “Of course! That’s it!”

“I’ll ask Michael to send a message to her. Other than that, you’ll have to figure everything else out on your own.” Hunter said, standing up. “You can’t come to me for building advice, but I suppose you can come to me for an extra pair of hooves. Just a ‘point me in the right direction’ kind of thing.”

“Fair enough.” Andrew said, glad that Hunter had offered his assistance at all considering his recent mood.

“Anywho, I’ll go talk with Michael about sending that letter and I’ll leave you to situating yourself into this room.” Hunter said, heading out the door.

“Sure thing. Thanks again for letting me stay here.” Andrew said before the door closed.

Hunter hesitated on the outside of the door.

“Just like old times.”

Andrew sat in his new room. Just now having the opportunity to revel in how soft the floor was, and looked out the window. The white stallion stared out the window, taking in everything. As he focused on the beautiful landscape the reality of the entire situation started to settle in. Tears filled his eyes. Andrew walked to his new bed and laid down and looked up at the new ceiling.

“An entirely new life.” Andrew said out loud to himself. “I can’t believe this is actually happening.”

“I get a fresh start.” Andrew said. Then suddenly his mind was flooded with the reasons he would want a fresh start in the first place. The tears that filled his eyes were now overflowing onto his face, and then down onto his new cloud pillow.

“I miss you mom. I miss you so much.”

Hunter had come back up the stairs to tell Andrew that the message had been sent, but he had heard Andrew say something through the door, and the bad side of him told him to listen to what Andrew might say next. Needless to say, the sudden outburst of crying had been entirely surprising and Hunter decided it would be best if he didn’t enter the room until the next morning.

“You and me both bud.” Hunter said to himself as he descended the stairs.

“You and me both.”

><><

“Hey Hunter.” Michael said, shaking the gray stallion as he slept, not particularly expecting him to respond at all. “Luna sent a message back.”

Hunter perked up immediately, almost hitting Michael in the face with his shoulder as he propped himself up on his arm. “What did she say?” He asked in a broken voice, rubbing his eyes with his free arm.

“Oh, uh.” Michael stuttered, getting over the surprise. “Just that she has made a decision about how to deal with Andrew’s funding situation.”

“Perfect.” Hunter said, moving his feet out to sit up on the bed, “Ugh what time is it?”

“Early, the sun hasn’t even peaked yet.” Michael said, heading out of the room.

Hunter sighed, “Ugh before noon. How will I survive.”

“Good question.” Michael said under his breath as he stepped down the stairs.

Hunter moved off the bed and groggily moved down the stairs, relying on muscle memory to make sure he didn’t fall down them instead. “Where’s the letter.”

“It’s on the table, it had this card attached to it.” Michael said, presenting both the letter and the card to Hunter as he approached the table.

Hunter grabbed the letter first, looking it over slowly. Michael decided he might as well not wait and simply sat the card back onto the table.

The letter was short and sweet:

Dear Hunter,

Regarding your message that you sent in the interest of securing the supplies necessary for Andrew to refurbish his new house, We have enclosed a small card with the our seal emblazoned upon it. Should you need to purchase said supplies from the local shops, simply present this card to the owner of said shop and instruct them to send the bill to us directly. If there is anything you may need that you cannot secure at one of the shops of Ponyville, then send a message to us directly and we shall do our best to procure it for you. This card may also be used as your meal ticket as we can assume that Andrew will have no formal employment whilst repairing his domicile. Remember that we have an entire workforce at our command, and if you should desire we could send them to help you. From what we understand however, Andrew would rather avoid this if possible. In any case, we wish you both luck in your endeavors.

P.S. Do not to go overboard. If we come down to find that Andrew has not only rebuilt the house, but added onto it even two fold, then you will find yourselves repaying every bit.

Princess Luna

Hunter read the letter over three times to make sure he understood everything before examining the card resting on the table.

The card was a small like a credit card, silver, with a black crescent moon resting horizontally on its back with a line shooting out of the middle with a star at the top, The star was blue with the same color wings sprouting seamlessly off tips of the crescent moon on each side.

“Fancy.” Hunter said.

“That’s for sure.” Michael said, “So it said that this was his meal ticket, I wonder how long she’ll let him keep this.”

“Maybe she’ll have him return it as soon as his house is back to tip top shape.” Hunter said, flipping the card over to see if there was anything on the back. There wasn’t, the card was one sided.

Hunter sat down at the table to think for a minute. Andrew would most likely want his help on this, and he supposed that he wouldn’t mind a little hard work with limited company. The only problem was, he would rather not do two jobs in one day, and it was likely that Andrew would want to work on the house when he was at his own job.

“Is Andrew awake yet?” Hunter asked,

“Not sure. I haven’t bothered to check in on him, I thought that he had been through so much already that I didn’t want to disturb him.” Michael said.

“And how would you know that he’s been through any ordeals?” Hunter asked.

“He’s here isn’t he?” Michael said.

“I guess that would be reason enough to suppose that he’s dealing with some stuff, but I mean honestly, its not like you we were going through anything particularly rough.” Hunter said.

“Honestly? I wouldn’t say that. That’s not how I felt anyways.” Michael said, sitting down at the table. “Can you honestly think back and tell me that you believe you were in the best position?” Michael asked.

“I suppose not.” Hunter said, “But compared to what happened to Andrew, I feel like I just didn’t know how lucky I really was.”

“Happiness doesn’t come with circumstance. You know that.” Michael said.

“I guess you’re right. I just. I feel real bad for him is all.” Hunter said.

“If you don’t mind me asking, what happened to him?” Michael asked.

“His dad was incarcerated and his mom didn’t last long after that before she passed away.” Hunter said, finicking with the card on the table.

“Oh my.” Michael said, “How awful.”

“Yeah. Just think about how happy he is, I want you to think about his circumstances while you interact with him for just one day and you’ll know just how much he didn’t deserve any of it. Happiness sure doesn’t come with circumstances, and he shouldn’t have any of it in my opinion.” Hunter said getting up from the table and moving towards the kitchen, “But he sure has a hell of a lot of it anyways.”

“He did seem fairly cheerful when I met him.” Michael said.

“Yeah that’s Andrew all right, full of salt and pep, makes you think when you know that Twilight barely stopped him from killing himself.” Hunter said from the kitchen.

“Really?” Michael gasped. “Goodness, I mean. I never would’ve guessed, but I suppose it makes sense.”

“Pretty awful when we can understand that someone might want to end their own life huh.” Hunter said as he pulled food out of the cupboards.

Michael sat silently at the table, pondering everything that Hunter had told him, when his thoughts were broken suddenly by Hunter calling to him.

“Michael.” Hunter said, now standing at the entryway to the kitchen. “Can you hear me?”

“Oh yeah, sorry” Michael said, “Kinda spaced out for a second.”

“It’s cool, can you go check on Andrew? I want him to at least be awake. I’m gonna start making breakfast I guess and I don’t want it to go to waste.” Hunter said.

“Sure.” Michael said, getting off his chair and making his way up the stairs. The dragon was glad that he didn’t have to reach any high up knobs as he pushed softly on the cloud door to enter Andrew’s room. Despite his pushing gently, the door still made a bit of noise which would otherwise have been unnoticable. Considering the stillness and quiet of the room, it was the only noise, and seemed louder than it should have and Michael saw Andrew’s ear twitch, and him shift on the bed. Mumbling something as he did so.

Sun drifted lazily through the window and laid itself down gently on the moving boxes that held all of Andrew’s things like an army of silent fireflies setting themselves down in formation, lighting up the entire room and illuminating the dance party of dust particles that flew carelessly through the air. The air was almost still if not for the opening of the door and Andrew’s gentle breathing stirring the dusty dancers into a frenzy. Michael almost felt bad entering the room. Michael stepped slowly into the room, each step mixing fog from the cloud floor in with the dust in the air from Andrew’s boxes. Michael stepped up to the bed and saw Andrew sleeping soundly, a little line of drool seeping out of the corner of his mouth and onto his pillow, which being a cloud, absorbed it pretty well.

“Andrew. Hey Andrew. Let’s go Andrew. Andrew.” Michael said, whispering so he didn’t startle him.

Michael reached his claw out and set it gently on Andrews shoulder, and shaking him softly.

><><

Andrew found himself in his old house that he shared with his mother and father, human again, and unaware that he had ever turned into anything else. He was sitting on the couch next to his older little brother, while his youngest brother sat on his father’s knee as his father sat on a large recliner on the other side of the room. Andrew’s dad had captured the attention of him and his brothers by telling them of some camping trip that he had gone on and how he would have gotten lost if it hadn’t been for his trusty mag light flashlight. Andrew was wrapped up in the story, but if you were to ask him to retell it, he would have absolutely no idea what the story was about, or any of the events that had happened in it, all he knew was that it was interesting. Andrew could smell food being prepared in the kitchen and could hear his mom yelling comments from the kitchen to correct his father any time he made a mistake, or tried to exaggerate the story a little bit. Andrew was smiling broadly, laughter was abundant and breakfast would be ready soon. Andrew didn’t know he was starving until he smelled the bacon and eggs being made on this wonderful sunday morning. Andrew never wanted this to end. As soon as he thought that maybe he might get his wish, the door opened. Andrew looked to see who it might be and was startled to see police officers rushing into his house. They shoved his youngest brother off of his dad’s lap and onto the floor. His dad tried to resist as they wrestled him out of his chair and across the room towards the door. Andrew got up off the couch to try and help him, only to be shoved back down by one of the other officers.

“Dad!” Andrew yelled, “What do you think you’re doing you can’t do this!”

“Of course we can, this sick fuck you call your dad is going away for a long time.” The man in charge said harshly.

“He’s not a sick fuck what are you talking about!?” Andrew asked, desperately wanting to get up and help, but knowing that he would just get pushed back down again. “How long is he going away for!?”

The police chief looked at him with a dark look, daggers covered in a vile fluid that boiled his blood and chilled him to the bone at the same time as he said. “Forever.”

With that, the police left the house as suddenly as they had entered leaving the door , busted open and only hanging on one hinge. Andrew got up from the couch immediately, not remembering the sound of the police entering being enough to do that much damage to the door, but before he could reach it he heard his mom calling out to him.

“Andrew…” His mom called from the kitchen.

Andrew stopped in his tracks and turned around to face the kitchen. “Mom?”

“Hey Andrew.” His mom called again.

“Mom, they came and took dad, we have to go get him back!” Andrew yelled to his mom.

“Let’s go Andrew.” His mom called, stepping out of the kitchen just enough to beckon him to her, before disappearing behind the wall again.

“Mom we don’t have time for food right…” Andrew said, his words dying in his throat as he stepped into the kitchen. He didn’t find his mom cooking, or any food being cooked at all. What he found instead was an ambulance stretcher, a body he was sure was his mother laying in it covered in a sheet, with paramedics wheeling her out the back door.

“Andrew.” He heard his mother call to him again, but it didn’t come from the body on the stretcher, it seemed to come from everywhere.

Andrew didn’t know which he should try to save first, but his mother was right there, and she had called to him, so he had to go with her. Andrew tried following the paramedics, but another of the doctors grabbed his shoulder and wouldn’t let him pass. Andrew tried to move past him but he kept pushing his shoulder, and his nails were sharp.

“MOM! NO!” Andrew yelled, all restraint gone from his mind. Shock had taken over.

“Andrew.” A voice called. It wasn’t his mom this time, it was a man’s voice. “Andrew let’s go, Andrew.”

><><

Michael shook a little harder, hoping he wasn’t digging too hard into Andrew’s shoulder. Andrew was mumbling words but Michael couldn’t quite make them out. Then Andrew said “mom. no.”

Andrew’s eyes flew open and he sat up in bed so fast, his head almost collided with Michael’s.

“MOM!” Andrew yelled, breathing heavily all of the sudden. His eyes adjusted and he looked around quickly searching for the paramedics or his mom.

“Whoa Andrew, calm down.” Michael said, “it was just a dream. You’re back in Equestria remember?”

It took Andrew a second to register where he was, breathing heavily before laying back down in bed. Tears fell off his cheeks as he did so.

What a way to start the day.

“Hey are you alright?” Michael asked, gingerly trying to assess the situation.

Andrew took a few breaths and sat up slowly, resting himself on his right arm. “I-I’m alright.” Andrew said, his voice a little more croaky than he was expecting. “Just a-a bad dream.”

“You seem pretty shaken. Must have been pretty bad.” Michael said, “Did you wanna talk about it?”

“N-no.” Andrew shuddered. The white stallion finished sitting up, “I’m alright now” Andrew sighed.

“Alright.” Michael said. “Hey, when you feel up to it, Hunter is making some breakfast.”

“That sounds wonderful thank you.” Andrew said, giving Michael a smile before he exited the room.

“Hunter was right.” Michael thought to himself, “His capacity to seem so...okay, almost makes me worry for him.”

Michael made his way back down into the kitchen. It seemed that Hunter had been getting busy while Michael went to talk to Andrew. If smell was a physical force, the dragon would have been tossed from the room. The most prominent one being fresh blueberry muffins.

“When did you have time to make muffins?” Michael asked, breathing deep for the full effect.

“It doesn’t take that long when you buy that muffin mix stuff. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the store sold them at all.” Hunter said, flipping a few pancakes “Of course, making them from scratch would have taken at the very least about 15 minutes.”

Michael nodded and looked around at what else Hunter might have made. From the looks of it pancakes and muffins were just the beginning. The alicorn had brought out bagels and toast, butter and cinnamon, Oatmeal with brown sugar, Bananas, apples, oranges, and honeydew melon all in a fruit bowl. Hunter was pulling out all the stops.

“Uh, Hunter, are you sure we can even eat all this?” Michael asked.

Hunter stopped flipping pancakes and turned his grill off, moving the finished pancakes onto a plate.

“I just want to make sure he enjoys it.” Hunter said, and started moving everything to the table.

“He deserves it more than anyone.”

“Good morning everyone… er Pony.” Andrew said, briskly descending the stairs. “My it sure smells wonderful down here. I didn’t know you bought the entire grocery store. Or that you could even afford it!”

At this Andrew let out a nice big laugh, and Hunter offered only an unamused glare.

“I’m not poor by any means.” Hunter said, setting more plates on the table.

“Oh of course not, I’m sorry.” Andrew said.

“Besides,” Hunter said, gaining a smile, “It was only half the grocery store.”

At this Andrew once again let out gales of laughter, sweet but thick like honey, making Michael feel like Spring had just sprung. Michael also hoped that maybe in Hunter’s heart, it really had.

><><

Celestia’s investigation in the library had not gone as smoothly as she had thought. Her sister’s mysterious behavior threw her off and she started off slow, distracted, she wasn’t sure what exactly she was looking for. What did all of these events have in common, did her sister tie into them, if she did, how?

The princess was flustered, she perused the bookshelves hoping to find a book that might have all the answers as if it would pop out at her and tell her exactly what was going on and how to prevent it from continuing.

Celestia knew she had to calm down. The white mare stopped pacing the rows of shelves and took a deep breath. First she should do what she came here to do, and investigate how the many disturbances across the world might be related, then she could see if it tied to her sister in some way. The princess started pulling books off the shelves based on their relevance to each of the problems they had recently experienced. Books about parasprites, books about weather patterns, books about the behavioral studies of wildlife and any book that might relate to all three in the slightest. The princess laid down with her coffee and giant stacks of books. This was going to take a while.

><><

A whole day and she had found nothing. Celestia put the last book she had taken down back on its pile. The princess was not even one step closer to knowing what was causing all of this, or if it was even related. Celestia shook the last coffee cup she had gotten from her last break, to find it empty. The sun was making it’s way out of the sky, and she had been up for 48 hours now. Celestia had almost missed both of her meetings with the griffons and zebra. They had nothing new to report, only that the wildlife had been acting up and the weather had been strange. After said meetings she had assured them that she was doing all she could to correct the situation and then went right back to her studies. It was all she could do to actually retain any of the information she was reading. Not that she really needed to know everything there was to know about Parasprites, it had seemed that Twilight and her friends had disposed of them quite easily before. As for the local wildlife, the biggest problems were the unintelligent beasts and Twilight had sent plenty of letters telling her of her friends experiences dealing with them. If her student and her friends could deal with these “Timberwolves” and “Diamond Dogs” then they shouldn’t be much of a problem for the locals with a few guards at their aid.

Celestia got up off the floor of the library and let out an uncharacteristically large yawn. Her sister was acting strange and so was the rest of the world.

Maybe the universe was just against her.

The princess walked out of the library, throwing away all her coffee and planning to put all the books away the next day. Nothing could keep her from her bed now. The white mare had had enough of books for one week, and was ready to sleep for sure this time. Nothing could keep her from her bed. The strange connection could not be solved so easily. Nothing could keep her from her bed.

Celestia turned around in one swift motion and made her way back to the library.

“Why do epiphanies come to me when I’m most ready to sleep.” Celestia grumbled quietly. “The universe,” she thought “It must be, I just wasn’t thinking big enough, that must be how everything is connected. It’s my last lead.” Celestia walked back in the library and picked out all the books with connections to the universe, magic, science and superstition, and walked out of the library with them in tow. There was no way she could read these now, she was much too tired. So the princess would have to be satisfied with having the books ready to go when she woke up.

“That’s quite the collection sister, planning to move the library to your bedroom to save time?” Luna asked from behind her.

Celestia was too tired to keep her suspicion from leaking out and so she was wary of her sister, “What of it?”

“Nothing of it sister.” Luna said, slightly surprised by her sister’s reaction, “We were only joking.”

Celestia took a deep breath and smiled, stopping to turn and give her sister a warm face. “I’m sorry, I’m just very tired and need sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Of course.” Luna said, and then continued on her way to the tower.

“I’ll get to you later.” Celestia thought to herself. “If there is anything remaining of nightmare moon then I will know of it.”

“Pardon me princess.” A male voice from behind said respectfully.

Celestia was so lost in thought and exhausted that she almost jumped out of her skin this time.

“Oh I’m so sorry milady I didn’t mean to startle you!” The stallion said.

Celestia turned around to see who it was to find her captain of the guard bowing at her feet. “Oh that’s quite alright, is there something I can do for you Shining Armour?”

“I was just checking in to personally inform you that the preparations for the Grand Galloping Gala are almost complete, and should be ready for tomorrow evening.” Shining Armour said.

“Very good, thank you.” Celestia said as she turned back to continue down the hallway.

“I had heard… uh… That my sister might be there?” Shining said. He hadn’t seen his sister Twilight in a long time, and considering his position, this might be the perfect opportunity to do so.

Celestia had a better idea. “Actually, I had heard from her that she will be unable to attend.”

“Oh.” Shining said, his hopes shattered.

“But I have a very important job for you instead.” Celestia said.

“Of course Princess, anything you need!” Shining said, saluting.

“I will discuss the specifics with you later, but for now…” Celestia paused before turning down a different hallway. “Keep an eye on my sister.” With this, the princess was gone.

Shining put down his salute and started off down the opposite direction to find Luna. His orders were clear, and although he was sure she had her reasons, he was hoping that they were fruitless.

If Celestia was being suspicious of her sister, he could only assume the worst.

><><

Today was the day. Preparations for the Gala were complete, and Celestia had finished reading every book she could about the universe, physics, time travel, the possibility of parallel universes, etc. The princess had already set up spells in the Tower and various other places in the castle to help her keep a close eye on what might be happening behind closed doors. Then of course, she had Shining Armour tailing her sister from a distance. If she was doing anything suspicious, she would know about it soon. The doors for the Gala would open in a few hours, and the princess had her work cut out for her entertaining various dignitaries, nobles, her student and her friends, and then keeping a close eye for suspicious activity. This was going to be a long night for sure.

The books she had read this morning had been very interesting, and while they didn’t give her any definite answers she felt that had definitely given her some clue as to what might be happening. It was theorized that if the power for time travel existed, then while bringing ponies from the past to the future might not do much damage, from what she had read of the chaos theory and the example the book had made about how one out of place butterfly might have catastrophic events, it was possible that Luna may have been doing just that, but with a less direct effect on the world as a whole. It would seem that if this were true, the ponies being brought back weren’t changing things personally, just that it was causing a temporal disturbance. Every book she had read about theories on the universe, multiple universes, time travel and traveling through time and space had warned that the universe itself was very, very, dangerous, and if anything should upset the balance it could be destructive. If Luna wasn’t bringing ponies back from the future, then maybe it was possible she was pulling them from other dimensions or parallel universes.

Then again, maybe Celestia was just being paranoid. It was entirely possible that Luna wasn’t a part of anything at all. Maybe that spell on Discord was weakening. Although it seemed improbable that the spell the elements of harmony cast on Discord was wearing off, she supposed it wasn’t impossible. Celestia decided she would have to check up on the troublemaker at the next opportunity. If he was the cause behind all of this trouble, it would put her mind at ease knowing it wasn’t anything worse.

Celestia didn’t know if she could handle another Nightmare Moon incident.

><><

Luna sighed a deep breath. Celestia’s captain of the guard had been tailing her all day, but considering that she hadn’t done much other than lay in her room, leaving only for food, she was sure that it must have been just as boring for Shining Armour as it was for her.

Suspicious was to be expected after that meeting she had with her sister a few nights ago at the tower, but paranoid was not exactly where Luna thought Celestia would turn first. There must have been something else bothering her sister and Celestia was looking for an answer. That was always like her, trying to solve all her problems with one big lump solution.

Whatever the case, she was really hoping to get a few more humans to Equestria before the night was through, but if her sister had a tail on her, then she wouldn’t be able to do anything tonight. In fact, the way her sister was, she probably wouldn’t be able to do anything else until whatever it was solved itself, and who knows when that could be. Other than socialize at the party, Luna might as well have been stuck doing nothing the whole night.

“That’s it.” Luna thought to herself without making any outward motions, “If I can set up a meeting with some of the unicorns at the party, then I can get them to bring a human or two through by themselves. They know the ritual well enough, and they could replace me with a unicorn powerful enough. Who can I get like that on such short notice?”

Luna sat up on her bed and snatched up the guest list and looked at the ponies who were supposed to arrive at the gala. A lot of these guests were actually humans, and could be used in the ritual and she had enough for two at a time. The list of unicorns that were powerful enough to replace her and also already knew of humans did not exist.

“Wait.” Luna thought, “Twilight sparkle is most definitely arriving. She can replace me, but who else.”

None of the other invitees fit the criteria so Luna thought long and hard about who could arrive on time if she called for them. The only city near enough to Canterlot where someone could get an invitation now and still arrive on time was Ponyville so it had to be someone from there. Someone she’d used before. There were multiple unicorn humans there, but none of them had the magical prowess of a natural born unicorn. Maybe she would have to accept having Twilight doing it twice.

“No.” Luna thought, “The strain for the first one may be too much, she couldn’t possibly do two in a row.”

So her criteria was a non human unicorn who was powerful enough and had done this before.

“That ‘Trixie’ might work.” Luna thought.

It had to be her. There was nopony else available who came even close to being able to do the job. Luna got off of her bed, walked over to her desk and wrote a quick note, taking one of the extra tickets that her sister had given her to hand out, none of which had she used, and sent it off with a spell. If Shining told her sister about this, it would just seem like she had almost forgotten to invite someone after not seeing their name on the list.

“Well.” The princess of the night said to herself out loud. “I guess it wouldn’t be too bad to go up and socialize.”

With this she walked out of her room at a deliberately slow pace. No reason not to keep her tail two steps ahead. After all, three steps ahead was where she liked to be.

><><

“Another letter from Luna?” Michael asked, “What could it be this time?”

“You won’t know until you open it.” Hunter quipped.

Michael sent Hunter a glance that said “Shut up” without really saying it. Trixie and Andrew waited with them in anticipation over what it could be.

Michael opened up the letter and cleared his throat.

Dear Trixie….

“It’s for me!?” Trixie exclaimed, and then reclaimed her composure. “Sorry, what could she possibly want to tell me?”

“Well he’d tell you if you’d let him.” Hunter grumbled from his side of the table.

Everyone there gave him a glare.

“What?” Hunter asked defensively.

Michael cleared his throat and went back to the letter.

Dear Trixie.

You are cordially invited to the Grand Galloping Gala, and hereby receive one ticket for yourself to attend. We hope to see you there personally.

Princess Luna

“The Grand Galloping Gala?” Trixie asked, “Why would she send me an invitation now? The Gala is supposed to be tonight!”

“Maybe she forgot.” Hunter said.

“That must be it.” Andrew said, “She’s probably very busy and didn’t think to send them out until just now.”

“Well whatever her reasons, I have to get ready now! I don’t know if I even have a dress for the occasion! What’ll I wear, what’ll I do, what if everypony hates me, what if..?

Michael cut her off with a large burp that produced another letter.

“And who could that possibly be?” Hunter asked.

“Luna again.” Michael said, still coughing. The dragon quickly opened up the letter and read it.

“P.S. I almost forgot, bring whoever you like.”

Enclosed within the letter was nine more tickets.

“Wow ok.” Hunter said, “She sure isn’t picky who goes to this posh suit and dress event.”

“Well,” Andrew said, taking a swig of water before continuing, “There’s the one for Trixie, and then there’s nine more, so Michael, Hunter and I make three, that leaves us with six more extra tickets.”

“I don’t think I know six more ponies to bring.” Michael said.

“What about Twilight and her friends?” Trixie asked.

Michael looked at Hunter as if hoping to communicate that they should have guessed that Trixie wouldn’t have prior knowledge of this. Hunter returned the glance and then spoke up.

“I think they probably have their own tickets.” Hunter said.

“How come?” Trixie asked.

“Well I mean, Twilight is Celestia’s student. So it would make sense that she would be invited, and she would want all of her close friends to come with her right? So she probably got tickets for all of them.” Hunter explained.

Trixie hung her head, “Oh right.”

Michael moved to console her, “What’s wrong?”

“I just keep forgetting that Twilight is the favorite of royalty.” Trixie said.

“Hey,” Michael said adamantly, “You’re my favorite, and I might not be royalty, but that’s gotta count for something right?”

Trixie giggled. “You’re right Michael. Thanks.”

“No problem, now let’s go get you ready for the Gala!” Michael said, leading Trixie to their room and closing the door.

Hunter looked over at Andrew and let out a “Blech”

Andrew laughed and said, “Say what you want, I think its cute.”

Hunter sighed and got up off his chair. “Well are we going to get ready for this shindig or not?”

“I didn’t exactly pack for this sort of thing.” Andrew said.

“What you didn’t bring everything you owned with you?” Hunter asked, “I was told to.”

“That’s not it.” Andrew said, his expression turning neutral, “It’s just that we didn’t go to things like this that required your sunday best very often. If we did, I normally wore one of my dad’s suits, and those didn’t really belong to me, so I would’ve felt bad taking them with me.”

Hunter let the silence hang for a moment. “I understand.” The gray stallion said as he turned towards and started ascending the stairs, “But luckily for you, I have enough for three ponies to dress in full suits, and at least two more to have good shirts and pants, and then if they provide their own pants…” Hunter paused at the top of the stairs to think about how many shirts he had. “Probably ten more to be honest.”

“Well I guess that settles it then. We’ll change your last name to Penney and we’re good to go.” Andrew chuckled.

“Yes haha,” Hunter said sarcastically, now get up here and tell me which one you like best, Black, Dark Blue, or Grey.”

“I can tell you now I’d rather have the Dark Blue.” Andrew said, following up the stairs.

“Good.” Hunter said, “Then the orange tie will go perfectly.”

“Now you’re thinking with portals.” Andrew said.

Hunter laughed and then opened his closet as they entered his room.

“I was kidding of course, we should probably be more practical.” Hunter said.

Andrew agreed.

><><

Hunter left Andrew to peruse his selection of fancy clothing and took the tickets on the table to think about who to hand them out to.

He was sure that Jason would appreciate the offer, even if he refused for whatever reason, but Hunter had no idea where to even find him. Octavia would likely be there performing. Vinyl would either be there as a courtesy, or not be there because she didn’t want to go.

“Jordan’s wife…” Hunter whispered out loud.

If she wanted to go, it was the least that he could do for her. Hunter made his decision and stepped out of the house quickly launching himself into the creamy midday air. It was warm for sure, and Hunter was sweating soon, and the beads of sweat felt like bugs crawling all over him as he almost regretfully made his way over to Jordan’s, or rather his wife’s, house.

Plenty of ponies seemed to be going about their day as if nothing special was happening at all this week, and Hunter was reminded how close knit the whole party was, which was why the alicorn thought it was so strange that Luna would just give away nine whole tickets for Trixie to give to whoever. For all she knew, Trixie could have thrown them away, or given them to the highest bidder, or someone could have stolen them from her. If that was the case, then a thief would have been let in to the biggest gold mine ever. Hunter shook his his head to get all of the possibilities out of his thoughts. The grey stallion was close to the house and started his descent.

“This was it. What do I have to worry about? Lapis herself told me that she didn’t blame me, its not like she would slam the door in my face or anything. Or would she? Well I guess that’s worst case scenario.” Hunter thought as he approached the door. “Wait no, worst case is she attacks me for some reason.”

Hunter stepped up to the door and shook his head again. “Stop Hunter you’re being ridiculous.”

The stallion raised a hoof to knock and hesitated. “I hope it isn’t awkward.” Hunter took a deep breath and knocked three times. The alicorn heard a series of quick footsteps and the door opened slightly to reveal a small child.

Hunter’s heart tightened sharply in his chest.

The little filly did nothing but stare at him, waiting for him to speak, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

“Who’s at the door darling?” A voice said sweetly, getting louder as it approached the doorway.

The filly said nothing and simply stared at Hunter as the door swung open further to reveal Lapis Canvas, beautiful as the day of the funeral, or maybe a little better looking because of the lack of crying.

“Oh hello.” Lapis said. “What are you doing here?”

Her question wasn’t in malicious intent, but Hunter was doing everything he could to keep from crying already. All he could utter was, “I-is she yours?”

Lapis was confused for a second and looked at the little girl in front of her before looking back up at Hunter to answer his question “Oh, no actually,” She said, picking the little girl up and cradling her in her arms. “I’m just babysitting for a friend of mine for another hour while she goes shopping.”

Hunter let out a sigh of relief and rubbed his eyes, taking a few deep breaths to regain his composure. Jordan had never mentioned having kids, and if he had Hunter would’ve never been able to forgive himself, more than usual anyways.

“Sorry, I just, wanted to stop by to see how you were doing?” Hunter said sincerely.

“Oh how good of you.” Lapis said, “Did you want to come in?”

“Oh no I’m sorry I’m in a bit of a hurry, but I was in the area and so I’d thought I’d stop by for just a moment.” Hunter explained.

“I see. Well, I’m doing just fine thank you.” Lapis said with a smile, “my friend I’m babysitting for is my roommate now and splitting the mortgage on this place puts us both pretty stable.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” Hunter said, “If there’s ever anything you need just let me know, I’d be happy to help.”

“This girl’s a bit of a hand full I might just have to take you up on that.” Lapis said, giggling as she squeezed the filly a little tighter. Hunter chuckled along with them and almost forgot why he was really there.

“Oh one more thing before I go, I actually wanted to give you these.” Hunter said, handing all of the tickets out for Lapis to grab.

“What’s this?” Lapis said, grabbing it with her free hoof.

“Just an invitation if you’re interested.” Hunter said, unfolding his wings, “Well I had better be going now.”

“Wait an invitation to what?” Lapis asked, briefly glancing at the ticket, but when she looked back Hunter was already gone. The ruby mare walked inside and shut the door, putting the child in her arms back on the floor so she could focus on the invitation. The mare’s light blue eyes moving quickly back and forth over the tickets in her hooves.

“This stub good for one entrance to the…”

“GRAND GALLOPING GALA!?”

><><

Hunter, Trixie, Michael, and Andrew all walked boldly towards the castle after getting off of the train. Ahead of them, ponies were joining together in a musical number, that they could only guess was being led by Twilight and company. Hunter was wearing a full three piece black suit with a green shirt and black tie. Andrew was dressed in the navy blue suit and pants with an orange shirt and Blue tie. Michael was dressed in a very simple black and white suit combo that he had borrowed from Spike, Trixie was dressed in her best outfit, a dress that complimented her coat with whites and light blues and stars all over. The quad made their way up to the front door and presented their invitations to the guards and walked inside. It was as described, the decorations were absolutely stunning, the people were gorgeous, the food looked delectable, and the size of the room itself was awesome.

At the top of the stairs was Celestia herself, Twilight was already at her side, and the line to meet them was created out of the line to get in. Hunter felt like getting in line, there wasn’t really anything else to do.

“I’m gonna get in line.” Hunter said.

“Luna isn’t anywhere in sight, I’m gonna go look for her.” Trixie said, “She did invite me here I should at least say hello.”

“I’m going to sample every food item possible.” Michael said.

“I…” Andrew hesitated, “Am going to join you Michael.”

“Alright, everypony meet back here when we’re finished so we’re all together when we leave to go home.” Hunter said. The group all nodded and separated.

The waiting in line was uneventful, the food was absolutely splendiferous, and Trixie ran into a few ponies she knew and got lost in talking to them, forgetting about finding Luna.

“I didn’t expect you to come.” Luna said.

“That’s a lie.” Hunter said calmly, not turning his head or reacting. It was clear to him that the voice he heard was inside his head, but talking back out loud was easier than assuming thinking the words would work out.

“How’s that?” Luna asked, a playful spirit spilling into Hunter’s mind with the words.

“You sent Trixie a letter through Michael, and you knew Michael lived with me. Then you sent all those extra tickets and you thought I wouldn’t come?” Hunter explained.

“I thought maybe this party wouldn’t really appeal to you.” Luna said, a benevolent cynicism prickling like daggers on his scalp, “Maybe it was too much for someone so delicate as yourself.”

“If you’re referring to my depression lately, then you’ll know I’m not in the mood to be made fun of.” Hunter said.

Hunter’s head filled with laughter. “I understand. Enjoy the party, It really is the greatest in Equestria.”

“I wouldn’t miss the opportunity for the world.” Hunter said.

“Neither would I.” Luna said.

Hunter could no longer feel Luna’s presence in his head, but the lingering emotion of mischievousness put Hunter on edge. Whatever Luna was doing, Hunter wasn’t sure he liked where it was going. Eventually after almost an hour Hunter found himself at the front of the line.

“Princess Celestia, it is such an honor to meet you.” Hunter said politely, taking a bow.

“Oh I’m sorry.” The princess said, “While I feel I’ve met you before, I don’t quite remember you completely, please forgive me..”

Twilight interjected. “This is Hunter, he just recently moved to Ponyville. Princess…”

Twilight stopped mid-sentence and turned her head to look behind her. Hunter guessed that Luna had just contacted Twilight in the same way as she did him.

“Yes Twilight? Are you alright?” Princess Celestia asked, concerned and suspicious at the same time.

“I-I’m fine.” Twilight said, hesitating before looking back at Hunter and the Princess. “He’s a friend of mine.”

Hunter could tell that this wasn’t exactly the easiest thing for her to say at the moment. Friend was an overstatement.

“Well a friend of my student’s is a friend of mine.” Celestia said smiling at Hunter.

“I’m honored.” Hunter said, bowing slightly again. “Again it was a pleasure to meet you, I’ll be taking my leave now.”

Twilight and Celestia said farewell in unison and Hunter stepped off to join Andrew at the food table as the doors to the room suddenly burst open and tons of animals came running in.

“You’re going to LOVE ME!” Fluttershy yelled.

Hunter shivered before dashing towards the food, keeping an eye on Andrew and Michael to keep sight of them. As soon as he reached them, he dragged them quickly under the table to hide.

“We need to find Trixie as soon as possible.” Hunter said.

“It’s possible that she won’t go far, we can look for her as soon as it dies down and she’ll meet up with us right?” Michael suggested.

“No,” Hunter said, “When it dies down it’s possible that she’ll have to keep looking for Luna. We have to find her before she goes too far.”

Andrew poked his head out from under the table cloth. “I can sort of see her across the room.” Andrew said, “She’s hanging from some drapes to avoid the stampede.”

“Alright let’s go save her.” Hunter said.

Hunter and Michael burst out from under the table, running full speed towards Trixie with Andrew not far behind carrying the table beside him.

“You brought the table!?” Hunter asked.

Andrew didn’t answer, focusing hard on running with the long rectangular table in tow. They reached the other side of the room and positioned themselves directly under Trixie. Andrew put the table down to act as a barricade, and what was left of the animals steered clear of their position.

“Yes I brought the table.” Andrew huffed.

“Fair enough.” Michael said.

Trixie climbed slowly down and landed roughly on her hooves after a short fall. “Oof.”

“You alright?” Michael asked.

“I’m just fine.” Trixie sighed, “Unfortunately my dress is not.”

It was ruined, plain and simple. It needed to be washed already, but that wouldn’t fix all the tears she had created climbing the drapes.

“I’m sorry about your dress.” Andrew said, “It was really nice.”

“Yeah.” Trixie sighed, “It really was.”

Hunter was straight to the business. “Trixie did you find Luna.”

“No, but she did contact me.” Trixie said, still focused on the dress.

That’s what Hunter had thought. “What did she say?”

“She said not to tell anyone.” Trixie said.

Hunter froze. Was this something against them? Was Luna being extra cautious? What was really at stake here if she was?

“Did she say anything about staying with you?” Michael asked.

“uh no I suppose not.” Trixie said.

“Then we’re coming with you.” Michael said, his face determined. “And that’s that.”

“Not to be rude or anything.” Andrew said, “But I have had enough excitement… and food for one night. I think I’ll be heading back.”

“Ok.” Hunter said, “I’ll fly back ahead of these two when we leave. By the time you get home by walking I should be heading back to get you back up on our house.”

“Sounds good. goodbye everyone.” Andrew said, walking towards the exit.

The group waved goodbye and then Trixie led the way to a different part of the castle.

><><

Hunter, Michael, and Trixie had made their way to the tower where they remember first arriving when coming from the human world.

Hunter knew they shouldn’t speak out loud, but he knew he didn’t need to to share what they were all thinking. Trixie was back for more work.

The trio walked into the main room where it all happened to find a large crowd of ponies already there.

“Whoa.” Michael said, “Company.”

Twilight blinked to the front of the crowd and approached them. “I’m guessing you’re the other one that Luna mentioned.”

“And you’re the other one Luna mentioned to me?” Trixie asked.

“Yep.” Twilight nodded, “I was expecting Luna to be here, but from what I’ve heard we’re all by ourselves tonight.”

“I take it Luna wants you to retrieve some… more?” Hunter asked, glancing around.

“Yeah, she left scrolls here in the tower with some of the ponies here. They’re ready to begin the ritual.” Twilight explained.

Hunter had a very bad feeling about this.

“Alright well we should get started then.” Twilight said, moving back towards the group.

“Are you sure you should be doing this? What if Celestia is watching?” Hunter asked.

“What are you talking about?” Twilight asked, “why would Celestia be watching when she knows what’s going on?”

Hunter had a very, very bad feeling about this. Celestia definitely did not know about this, that much was certain by Twilight’s timely interruption and Luna’s mysterious actions.

“Alright well I can see you have this covered so I’ll leave you to it.” Hunter said. “I’ll head back to the house and help Andrew. You coming with Michael?”

“No. I’ll wait for Trixie.” Michael said.

“Fair enough, I’ll see you all later.” Hunter took his suit off and spread his wings and moved towards the balcony, but stopped suddenly.

“Twilight.”

“Yeah?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Yeah.”

With that Hunter took off, a small gust of wind moving through everypony’s manes because of it.

“Sheesh he’s so dramatic” Twilight huffed and moved to the center of the crowd.

><><

Celestia was in her room watching the events in the tower transpire with complete attention. That Pony Twilight introduced her to was an alicorn. It filled her with concern and it was very unexpected. The princess remembered now, the gray alicorn from Ponyville who had defeated this Skull Trap. If he was somehow involved with these suspicious activities, whatever they were, this could end up being very bad. The thing she was most upset about was Twilight however. If this Hunter was the leader of this band of ponies rather than Luna, it put her mind at ease knowing she would not have to trap her sister again, but her student wasn’t much better. Celestia had banished a student before however, and she could do it again if she had to.

There was a bright flash of light, and Twilight wobbled. The other ponies rushed to help her, but she waved them away, and stood on her own just fine. On the other side of the room Trixie had passed out from the power of it all. A small dragon was watching over her.

“A small Dragon too?” Celestia wondered just how deep this all went, and what power this group might possess, or what they were after. If they could retrieve a dragon’s egg, they were powerful indeed. The princess needed to be very careful, but first there were two ponies she needed to take care of.

Suddenly the ponies who had disappeared because of the spell returned along with two more ponies and lots of boxes. So they were bringing back ponies and supplies. Whatever was happening, it had to stop and it had to stop now, no matter the cost.

It seemed that her student and the magician Twilight had told her about were vital to the ritual. The magician pony was of no consequence to her, but she was sad to have to do this to her prized student. Celestia had expected more of her.

Twilight and Trixie must be punished.

Author's Note:

Yes I'm sorry about the length of time this took
No I'm not sorry about the cliffhanger
Thank you all who stuck around.

Comments

[JollyRogue]

Don't even tell me about a new chapter, I feel loved.

[Amethyst Blade]

Celestia is making a mistake...A mistake that a leader with thoudsands of years of experience shouldn't have made.

[MasterHunter55]

6168523 Ya know, I didn't even think about that when I made her up xD

[mtf0330]

Is new chapters coming soon? Been about 3 months.

[MasterHunter55]

6429615
I'M SORRY I HAVE TWO JOBS I GET BUSY AND FORGET T_T