> Life in Another Pony's Hooves
>  by HonorBound
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Intro
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“… and… then… they… kissed.” I muttered to myself as I typed what I said onto my computer. The story that I had begun was turning out all right, not great mind you, but not as bad as some of the stuff I’ve found online. Others seemed to like it anyway.

I’ve never been much of a writer, leaning more towards the visual arts than the written word, but something had driven me to begin writing. It probably had something to do with a theory I had come up with. Not something that could be proven, but something that I hoped to be true none-the-less.

I theorized that anything imagined existed in some form in another universe. Perhaps it was the simple desire of an artist to see their art come to life, or it was just my own desire to experience something new. It’s hard to say for sure, but I suppose that leads to what I’ve been driven to write about.

Most guys my age are into sports, or the more adult programming on TV. I’m the type that never grew out of watching cartoons. Recently there had been a television show that I’ve become enamored with, and it’s a show that was meant for little girls of all things. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic was a surprise hit with many adult men. Myself included.

It started out as a curiosity for me, but then I quickly grew into a fan. Each character was easy to relate to, especially… her. This brings me to why I’ve been lead to write. For the near non-existent chance that I could go to this world of colorful talking ponies, I decided to write a fanfiction depicting as such.

I didn’t really think that one day Celestia would come and take me away, however I did believe that it would happen to me in an alternate universe somewhere. At least he would be able to live out the dreams we would share. If it worked; awesome! If not; well… at least I got my thoughts down on paper.

That is, until one fateful night…

Well, I guess that’s enough for tonight. I thought, cracking my neck in a way that probably wasn’t healthy. I gotta get to work in the morning.

Going about my nightly routine, I brushed my teeth, set my alarm, and then lay down for bed. Finding it difficult to fall asleep right after writing, I usually lay there with my eyes closed to think about my story and the one who inspired it the most.

Sighing to myself, I contemplated how silly it was to think, and behave this ridiculous way. “I love you Twilight.” I whispered, bringing my feelings out into spoken word. 

A familiar tingle ran down my spine as I uttered those words. As if, just saying them would bring me to her.

It’s a strange sensation, and I don’t know when it actually happened, but at some point, I truly developed a crush on the purple unicorn. There are people out there who fall in love with fictional characters all the time, but they tend to be a little messed up in the head. I was a functional member of society, with a good job and a nice place to live. It didn’t seem right for me to act this way, but you can’t really choose how you feel it seems.

As sleep was just in reach, I heard a voice. A whisper at first, but it slowly became more prominent. “Do you really mean that, young one?” This caused a shot of adrenalin to rocket through me. My eyes were wide open, looking for the owner of the voice.

“Who’s there!?” I shouted into the darkness.

Nothing. My room was still devoid of all life but my own. I lay there waiting for a response that didn’t come. Lying back down, I was intent on going back to sleep.

With the adrenalin wearing off, the voice returned. “I think you know who I am, and that doesn’t change my question. Do you mean what you said?”

This can’t really be happening. This is just like my story. Her voice sounds different from the show, but who else could it be? Well… maybe if I continue with the dialog I wrote, I’ll have a chance to go to Equestria.

With that line of thinking I went with my story dialog. “Yes, I do Princess.” I said.

There was silence, leaving my uncertainty to set in.

Did I really just hear that voice? Am I dreaming? Did I go insane? Should I still go to work tomorrow morning if I’m insane, but still sane enough to know it?

Of course, my mind took that moment to remember what else I was supposed to ask. “Would you be willing to take me to Equestria?” I actually had my fingers crossed hoping the voice would return to answer me.

“It is not that simple young one. One cannot simply travel to another dimension, as solid matter does not survive the journey.” She said in an informative tone. “However, there is a way to bring your mind and soul here. You would have to, essentially, trade bodies with a pony on this side of the void. Would this still interest you?”

“I would trade just about anything for just a chance.” I had slowly begun to realize that this was probably not a dream after the explanation I had just received.

This is just like my fanfic! Though, the chance that I’ve gone insane is still on the table.

I didn’t want to move or open my eyes in case the voice in my head was, in fact, Celestia’s. “Who would I be trading bodies with?” I inquired.

“It would be somepony who wouldn’t be missed.” She answered. “Somepony who has caused more than enough hardship to ponykind, and has plagued me for longer than I would care for, and he has had no interest in improving himself.”

This is EXACTLY like my fanfic! That would mean…

“It’s Blueblood, isn’t it?” I asked for confirmation.

An awkward silence passed. “Yes. It is.” She stated in a somewhat disappointed tone.

“And would it be possible to change his cutie mark after we switch?”

“The cutie mark would change on its own, as it is linked to a ponies’ soul, not to their body.”

“Then, I agree! At least I’ll be able to pass myself off as his twin, if anything else.”

“Splendid! I was getting tired of his growing ego. Now then, all I need you to do is drift off to sleep. It will help with the transition.”

I thanked the heavens that my plan involving the fanfiction worked. Following her instructions, I felt my eyes grow heavy, and I drifted into a blissful, dreamless sleep.
> Chapter 01: Pain Of a New Body
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


I slowly woke up, as I always do in the morning. Rolling around to find a more comfortable position to fall back to sleep with. Finding that none could be had, I raised my wrist to my eyes to rub the sleep from them. I’m not sure why I decided to use my wrists and not my fingers this time around, and the delirium of sleep prevented me from realizing the obvious problem preventing me from it.

“Ugh, what time is it?” With that little bit of noise and movement my brain decided to riot against me. Immense amounts of pain pounded through my head. Instinctively my hand went to cradle my en-flamed cranium but collided with a horn, causing even more pain. As it turns out, horns are incredibly sensitive things. It felt like I was just kicked in the balls, that is, if my testicles were placed on my forehead and then stomped on repeatedly.

I was wide awake now, as I lay there holding my throbbing horn, writhing in pain. I heard someone enter the room. So I turned what little attention I had left, to look at the pony that entered. My eyes were blurred with tears, as I tried to make out the white blob of a visitor. Wiping my tears away, I tried to focus on my guest more clearly.

The pony in question was a dead ringer for Princess Celestia. However, there were differences. For instance, her white fur was more pronounced, and looked like… well, fur. Her mane was still waving to a nonexistent wind, but it looked a little more like shiny hair. Barely. She looked at me with that all knowing, motherly, look that she seemed to give to everypony in the show. Essentially, what I’m trying to convey here is that she looks the same, just more detailed.

“Ah, you’re awake already? You seem to have a strong will. A normal pony would have been unconscious for, at least, another day.”

Wait, her voice is different, not by much, but it’s still different from the show. Huh, I guess that makes sense. She’s not going to sound like the person who plays her voice from a cartoon, I suppose.

“Ugh, Princess?” My mind was having trouble working with the pain that was running throughout its entirety.

“Yes, young one?” She keeps looking at me with a tender smile and her compassionate eyes.

By this time, the pain in my horn had subsided, leaving only the migraine in my head. This allowed me to think more clearly, if only a fraction.

“Is this real, or have I gone insane?” I asked, hoping to all hope that this was real.

She chucked a little. It sounded so elegant, almost soothing to listen to. “My little pony, this is as real as anything you have known in your past life.”

Past life?

“I’m not dead, am I?” I asked, clearly forgetting about the conversation that I had with her in my drowsy state from last night.

“No, young one, you are not among the deceased. You are simply in a new body.”

My mind seemed to take this moment to come back on fully. Wait... this is different than what was written in my fic. This can’t be good.

“Princess, this is different than I had imagined it. What’s going on?”

“Oh... well, let me explain then. In order to connect to another dimension, like I did with yours, it is important to follow certain... prerequisites.” She paused, waiting for the question that she thought I would ask.

I sat silently waiting for her to continue. I’m not one to interrupt a princess when she’s telling me cool shit. Especially, when said shit allows me to live out my dreams.

Seeing as I wasn’t going to press the issue she continued to explain. “Such as, the life form on the other side of the void would have to create a sort of ‘bridge’ to follow. That ‘bridge,’ being the story you had written. After finding it I had to follow it to a tee in order to make the connection to your mind.”

“So, you’re saying that because I wrote a story about coming to Equestria, that you were able to bring me here?”

“In a way, yes.”

“Then, why did you choose me? There are tons of stories of humans coming here. What made me so special?”

“You have to understand that there are many rules governing this kind of magic, but your story was one of the few links to this world that followed all of them. The list of potentials were also limited to switching bodies with Blueblood. Getting rid of him has been one of the better decisions I have made in a very long time. Once everything was taken into account there was only a hoof full of possibilities. That being said, you were the only prospect that was not more of a pompous blowhard than my nephew had been.”

I laid there, in bed, taking in this information letting my mind connect the dots. “So, now that you no longer have to keep a connection to the other dimension, then you no longer have to adhere to my story.”

“That is true. What you have written will probably never happen in the way you had imagined it would.”

This put a bit of a cloud over my head. I may never get Twilight to fall in love with me.

“That is not set in stone.” She said with a bit of a smirk.

“Oh Hell! You can read my mind!” I nearly yell as I flop against my pillow. I instantly regretted my outburst, when my head pounded out its protest. “Ow.”

“I can, but I won’t do it often. I believe it violates a pony’s privacy. Though, my sister has not yet come to embrace that concept yet.”

Then, almost to prove her point, the walls began to shake as a loud whine was heard from a distance. “CELLLEEEEEEEE!!! STOP TALKING ABOUT MEEEEEEEE!!!!”

“See what I mean?”

I could only nod, while I cradled my poor skull. This caused the next revelation for the day. I had hooves. I was a pony now. Though, as my mind caught up to the thought, my joy soon petered away. I was Blueblood. The worst pony to ever walk on equestrian soil.

Either she read my mind again, or she could see the emotion on my face say as much. She was able to ease my tensions with a simple suggestion. “If you would like to look different than Blueblood, we have a very skilled mane dresser here at the castle. I am sure he would be willing to give you a new look.”

“Thank you, Princess. You have no idea what this means to me.”

“I have lived long enough to have an idea. Now, if you are to be Blueblood’s twin than you should start treating me more as family than royalty. So, please stop calling me princess.”

“That brings up a question. How is… was blueblood related to you? I’ve always been curious about this.”

“Oh… well… he was my nephew... in a sense.”

“So Luna…”

I was unable to finish the question I was about to ask, when Luna herself burst into the room, panting as if she had just run a marathon. “SISTER!” She bellowed far too loud for my en-flamed brain to stand. Seeing me in pain seemed to bring her out of her Royal Canterlot Voice.

With a bashful grin she continued, “We thought we hast come to an understanding about telling other ponies of that.”

Celestia seemed to ignore Luna’s worries and waved her off. “That we did, Luna. Though, being as he has come into our… little family. I believe that he has a right to know.”

At this point, I was a bit confused. “What’s the problem? I can only assume that Blue… I mean, I am one of Luna’s direct decedents.”

Both princesses stared at me. Luna had a deep blush that was just visible behind her dark blue fur. Celestia had a smirk that threatened to turn into her infamous Troll Face while she gave Luna side glances. But, before either princess could say anything my stomach decided to voice its own opinion. That opinion being, I’M HUNGRY!

I’m pretty sure that the whole castle heard it. It sounded like it had used the Royal Canterlot Voice somehow. Celestia tried to stifle a giggle, but failed at the attempt. The sound seemed to get Luna to stop blushing, but she was now slack-jawed in shock.

Celestia decided to break the silence that hung in the air. “You have been unconscious for a couple of days now. The energy your new body has used to help the transfer of your soul most likely has rendered you rather famished.”

Great. Not only does my head hurt, like it was being used as a hammer. Now my stomach is making demands of me.

I decided to get out of bed for something to eat, which turned out to be a bad idea, as I fell flat on my face. My head screamed out in pain, while I uttered a muffled “Ow.”

Neither Celestia nor Luna moved. Though, Celestia seemed concerned enough to ask, “Are you all right?”

“I’ll be fine.” I said as I got to my hooves. They were incredibly wobbly and unbalanced.

“Take it slow. Thou needest to familiarize thyself with thy new limbs.” Luna stated with concern.

I took a step forward, then another. It wasn’t too hard. It was actually a lot like crawling, except for the fact that all of my legs were the same length. The problem was that I had no strength in my muscles, which was what was making the progress to the door so slow.

The princesses simply watched, as I made my way to them. Once I neared them, Celestia spoke. “That is actually very impressive. Your mind should not have had the time to make the proper connections to your nervous system yet. In all honesty you should not be able to move your extremities.”

I would have felt a whole lot of pride at the comment, but my body was already sore from the few steps it had taken. I sat down in front of them, my front legs supporting me. “I still can’t move very well. I don’t think I’ll be able to walk to the dining room in this condition.”

“Here, let us help you with that.” was Celestia’s response. There was a flash of light, a quick nauseous feeling, and then we were in a large dining room. The table in the center of the room looked like it could seat over twenty ponies comfortably.

The three of us were clustered at the end of the table. Celestia was at the head, while Luna was to the right of her, and I was on the left. There were two guard ponies stationed at the door along with a unicorn waiter. Once we were comfortable on our velvet cushions, he trotted over to us.

“Good evening your majesties. How can I help you tonight?”

Wait, Evening? You mean it’s night time right now. God, my sleep schedule is going to be all kinds of messed up. I wonder what time it is.

“Good evening Hors D'oeuvre I would like to have a fruit salad with a banana and hay smoothie. Sister, what would you like?”

“Well, as it is still early for us, we would like to have hay pancakes with orange juice. Nephew?”

All eyes were on me. Oh Hell. I don’t know. I’m not used to the vegetarian diet that I have to adhere to now. Nothing with meat. Nothing with meat. Okay. The fruit salad and smoothie sounded good, but I want a bit more substance. Hmm, maybe…

“I’ll have a fruit salad with a Strawberry and banana smoothie, as well as a grilled cheese sandwich.”

This got the waiter to raise his eyebrow, ever so slightly. Both Luna and Celestia gave each other a look and a grin. I noticed all three reactions. “Is there a problem with that?”

“O..Of course not, your highness. I..It is just that, you usually would consider such food as b..beneath you.”

God, I keep forgetting that I’m in Blueblood’s body. I guess this is as good a time to introduce myself to the castle staff as any. I suppose the story I used in my fanfic would still work in this situation.

“I am not my brother.”

That came out a little spiteful. I hope no one noticed.

“This is the first time I have eaten in the castle for a while, as I have been traveling abroad… And, there is nothing wrong with grilled cheese.” I added in protest.

Celestia caught on to what I was doing and backed me up. “This is Prince Blueblood’s twin brother…” She looked at me expectantly for a name.

Guess I’ll go with the name I chose in my fic. It’s Honor Bound, Princess. I thought for her benefit, assuming she would just read my mind for the information.

“…Honor Bound. He will be staying with us for a while to acclimate back into pony society.”

“My apologies, sir. I meant no disrespect. I was unaware that the Prince had a brother, much less a twin.”

“It’s all right. No harm, no foul.” I got another round of odd looks from all in the room. “Sorry. It’s an expression from one of the cutlers I’ve visited in my travels.” I explained quickly, trying to rid the waiter of any more suspicion.

Hors D'oeuvre seemed to accept my explanation in stride. “Very good, sir. Your orders shall be out in a moment.” With that, he walked out of the room, to what I assumed to be the kitchen.

I don’t know if he believed me or not. If he didn’t I guess he wouldn’t say anything with the princess of the sun supporting me.

“That is quite true.” Luna piped up.

“Luna, I thought we talked about this. Stop reading other ponies minds. It violates their privacy.”

“But the minds of yon ponies are so interesting. Take the guard on the right for example. He hast been fantasizing about thy flank since we teleported in.” The stallion in question didn’t even flinch at the accusation, however there was a small blush spreading across his face.

Celestia didn’t even bat an eye at the revelation. “That may be the case, but it does not change the fact that the thoughts of others should remain their own.” She then turned her attention to the two guards. “You may leave us now.” The guards left the room promptly, the right one a little more eagerly than the left.

Poor bastard’s never gonna live this down.

Luna giggled a bit. I looked right at her and directed my thoughts to her.

If you keep reading my mind like that, I’ll make sure you regret it.

“We are certain that thou will try, however thou could not come up with anything that we have yet to see.”

“I warned you.” I then thought what Luna would find most disgusting. That line of thinking got mingled with my more... perverted thoughts, and ended with a couple of images of Luna and Nightmare Moon together. Intimately.

I could feel the smirk grow on my face as I saw a mix of emotions form on Luna’s continence. It was strange to see. It was a mix of horror and disgust, with a hint of a blush added to it. Which was impressive, considering her dark coat coloring.

Celestia was giggling a bit at Luna’s expense. “There. You see sister. Sometimes it is better not to know what a pony is thinking about.”

Before Luna could respond to her sister, Hors D'oeuvre entered with a tray of food levitated over his head. He placed a plate in front of each of us, and removed the covering that adorned each. “Dinner is served, your majesties.”

“Thank you. That will be all.” Celestia waved him away.

“As you command.” He bowed to the princesses, turned, and left us to our meal.

Once he was out of the room Celestia sighed, and shook her head. “He is a good waiter, though he takes his job a bit too seriously. He used to work with the Orange family, if I’m not mistaken.”

“The Orange family? As in, relatives to the Apple Clan?” I asked with curiosity.

“The very same.”

Interesting. I wander if he was there when Applejack went to visit as a filly.

The smell of the grilled cheese brought my attention away from my thoughts. The food looked good. Excellent, in fact. The fruit was freshly cut and placed in the bowl in an artistic pattern. The grilled cheese was perfectly browned and melted. The smoothie, well... looked like a smoothie. All smoothies tend to look the same to me. The only difference is the color, and whether or not it has whip cream.

Celestia and Luna raised their forks with their magic, and began eating. I looked at my fork then at my food again.

How, the Hell, am I going to levitate my fork. Wait, why do I even need a fork? I could just levitate the food to my mouth. That still doesn’t help me with my inability to use magic though.

Celestia noticed that I hadn’t started eating yet. “Is something the matter?”

“I don’t know how to use magic.” I tried to pick up my fork with my hoof, and it was just pushed against the table. “And, I don’t think I can pick anything up with my hooves either.”

“Ah, I suppose you wouldn’t know how to use your new body to its fullest as of yet. Vary well. I will give you a preemptive tutoring session. When using magic you must first…”

Celestia didn’t get the chance to start her lesson before Luna interrupted her. “Sister, we do not see why thou do not simply do this…” Luna lowered her horn down towards me, and shot a beam at my forehead, effectively linking our horns with a blue ray of light.

So many descriptions, theories, and procedures filled my mind all at once. I couldn’t sort them all out, they were coming too fast. Then, the pain came. The unholy wrath that was Luna’s teaching seared into my skull. My mouth opened to scream out, but no sound was made. I wanted to close my eyes, but they were locked open, unable to see anything as the information passed over and through me.

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! GOD! IT HURTS MORE THAN A HOOF TO THE HORN!!!!!!!! PLEEEEEEAAAAAAASSSSSEEE!!!! MAKE IT SSSTOOOHHOOOOOHHHOOOPPP!!!!!!!!!

“Sister, cease this at once! You are causing him great pain. His mind has yet to settle into his new body and the strain the spell you are using could have damaging effects!"

The light connecting our horns dimmed, and then dispersed. Once the force of the spell faded out, my body lost all its strength. Causing me to slump over, and I fell, face first, into my fruit salad.

I barely had enough strength to groan in pain, but I managed it.

“Are you all right?!” Celestia inquired with great concern in her voice.

I couldn’t answer. My mind was filled with the images that were transferred into it. So many thoughts swirling around like a tornado. I must have nodded unconsciously, because Celestia seemed to calm down a bit.

“’Sigh’ Good. Luna, what were you thinking, doing that to him? He is in a fragile state from the transfer. You could have seriously hurt him.”

“Twas revenge for the images he bestowed upon us. Besides, thou saw that he is well. He should be able to use his magic without any hindrance, once the information settles, that is.”

Uuuuggghhhh. Did she say I could use magic now? I think I blanked out for a second there. My head still hurts! Why do I taste pineapple? Oh... My head’s in my food. I guess I could eat like this for a bit. I don’t think the princesses will mind. My head hurts too much to move anyway.

“Luna, that is incredibly petty. We, as royalty, should be above that sort of thing.”

“Yphpha,” was my muffled agreement. The food muffling my voice.

Luna however, did not seem to share the same thoughts. “That sentiment is for our subjects. Not for those of us who art immortal.” She covered her mouth as she realized what had just left her lips.

Wait. ‘Those of us, who are immortal’? Did she just say that I was immortal!?

“I’M FUCKING IMMORTAL?!?!?!” I screamed as I sat strait up. 

That was a bad idea. My mind was already weakened from Luna’s info-beam assault, not to mention my body was still sore from the transfer I had undergone. The two problems mixing with the sudden movement was too much for me. Everything grew dark, and I passed out.
> Chapter 02: An Odd Morning
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I woke up in the same bed as last time. I was feeling better, all in all. My head was still sore, but I wasn’t in the detrimental pain that hindered me before. The sun was softly shining through the drapes covering the windows. The rays casting a soft glow to everything. I decided to take in, what is now, my room.

The whole place had a Victorian look to it. The room itself was white with a deep royal blue carpet. Mirrors adorned most of it, all angled so I could see myself in all of them. There was even one on the ceiling.

Dear God, Blueblood was vain!

It looked like there were no less than three vanities, each with its own mirror. All had a variety of care products and tools. The bed I was in was the biggest I had ever seen. It could easily fit twelve ponies. Though, I hoped Blueblood didn’t have the chance to test it out.

There were two doors on either side of the bed, and one slightly next to it. The larger of them was where Celestia had entered. The other two were smaller. I assumed them to be a closet and bathroom.

Okay. Some amazing shit has happened to me in the past couple of days.

1. I have switched bodies with Blueblood. I guess I’ll call this a good thing as I am now in the same dimension as Twilight.

2. I can now use magic. Awesome! The info that Luna shot into me must have settled. I know a lot about magic now. Though, I have a feeling that this is just a fraction of what’s out there. Luna must not have taught me everything.

Magic is a sense, just like sight, sound or touch. Something you can feel, but can shape to your will. Once the energies around your horn are aligned in a certain way, the caster releases them and they do what they were, essentially, programmed to do. The spell only works if the spell has enough power behind it, otherwise the spell fizzles and dies. Of course, this is a very loose description. The more advanced explanation would be a book in and of itself to explain.

3. Oh yeah. I almost forgot. I’m fucking immortal now! I’m going to have to watch all my, eventual, friends and loved ones grow old and die.

I take in a breath and let it out as a loud sigh. That last one had left a bad taste in my mouth.

Perhaps, I could talk to Celestia to make me mortal. I don’t think I could watch Twilight die, or any of the others die like that.

The call of nature soon came upon me, interrupting my train of thought.

Oh no. I have to pee! I hope I can move well enough to make it there. I’d hate to have to call out to somepony to help me. “Hey! I have to pee, and I can’t get up!” Yeah. That’ll go over well.

I rolled to the edge of the bed. I had to roll a couple of times to make it there because Blueblood’s bed was just that big, but I made it. Once there, I had to pause for a moment.

Okay. I can do this. My body should be well rested by now. I shouldn’t fall on my face, because my limbs can’t support me, like last time.

I prepared, then rolled the rest of the way off of my bed. Guess what happened… I fell flat on my face. “Ow.”

Evil bed! You give me nothing but grief.

I picked myself off of the soft carpet. It was a slow process, but not as slow as my first attempt. My legs shook as I walked to the door that was next to my bed. Hoping desperately, that it was the bathroom. Using my magic for the first time, I opened it.

The door swung open slowly, as it was encased in a dull blue aura. What was inside… was a huge walk in closet filled with clothes.

Rarity would love this, but it’s not what I’m looking for. One option left.

I hobbled my way to the last door opposite the entrance as quickly as I could. My body was sore from the effort it took to get there. Opening it the same way as the first, and...

Fuck! It’s another closet! Why would a pony need two huge walk in closets in their room. Need to pee! Need to pee! Sorry, but your toilet is in another castle. Stupid Mario!

I panicked. I did what anyone would do in that situation. I stumbled over to the nearest window, and threw open the curtains. My magic opened the window. I stood on the sill, and let loose the large torrent that was built up over the time I was unconscious.

“Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.” I didn’t think I would make it. Thank God, the sill is low enough for this.

I opened my eyes to look down at myself.

Well that explains why Blueblood had such an ego. It doesn’t excuse his actions, but it does explain the ego.

I gazed up and out the window for the first time. I was on the ground floor of the castle. The window looked out to a hedge maze and…there are ponies staring at me with wide eyes. There were a couple of gasps, and I’m pretty sure I heard a pony shout, “The horror! The horror!”

Aaaawwwwww shit. Um, think fast.

“Um… Morning!” I greeted with an uncertain smile, and nod of my head.

Smoooooth. Come ooooonn. Come oooonn. Hurry up. Damn, I have a huge bladder. Finally!!

I ducked into my room, and closed the window and curtains as fast as possible. I could feel the blush radiating off of my face. The muscles in my legs gave out from under me, and I collapsed onto the carpet. The simple act of trying to find the bathroom, took most of my energies to (sort of) accomplish.

Heh Heh. At least the plants outside my window are now watered.

I laid there for a bit, looking at a mirror on the other side of the room. After a while, I noticed something…

I have a cutie mark? Sweet! What is it!? What is it!?

I turned my head over to get a better look at my backside. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to think of it. It was an image of an opened book, and a heart with Twilight’s mark inside it.

So… What? My special talent is my love for reading about Twilight? Is that right? That’s really weird, if that’s right. How am I supposed to interpret this? I’m surprised that it’s not something to do with video games.

I laid there for a bit, thinking about all the possible meanings for my cutie mark, until the door to my room opened. Luna stepped in with a rather happy smirk on her face.

“Good afternoon, ‘Honor Bound’.

She has to emphasize my name like that, doesn’t she?

“Indeed we do, however that is not what has brought us here...”

“I thought we got you to stop reading other ponies minds?”

She ignored my question, and continued with her own statement. “We assume the information on magic, which we bestowed upon thee, has settled to the point where thow has use of it?”

I nodded in the affirmative. “Yes?” Where is she going with this? “Why?”

“Tis not important. We simply wished to see how you were doing.”

She’s clearly hiding something.

“We are not!”

“Stop reading my mind! ‘Sigh.’ Could you at least help me back into my bed? I used all my energies to… never mind. Just… help me out, please.”

Luna smirked. “And what is in it for us?”

“The self fulfillment of helping your, however many, greats grandson to his bed?”

‘Sigh’ “You are not related to either our sister or us. We shall tell thee what our sister wanted to explain to you the other night.” Then under her breath. “As much as we don’t want to.”

“What was that?”

Ignoring my question, Luna began her explanation. “When a unicorn masses enough magical energy into their bodies, they may become immortal. To explain said immortality, our sister and I state that the pony is related to us by blood to keep non-unicorn ponies from becoming envious, or violent. Blueblood came into existence sometime during our… absence. There have been very few ponies, which we know of, who attained immortality. Such as Star Swirl the Bearded.”

“Really? Wait… Star Swirl is immortal. If that’s true, then… where is he now? I'd love to meet him.”

“From what our sister has told us, he… died… in a failed spell attempt.” Luna looked to the ground in morning.

“But… If he was immortal then, how did he die?”

‘Sigh’ “A unicorn who is immortal cannot die of old age. Though, they can die from disease or injury. Only an Alicorn is immune to death entirely. Which is the next stage in thy development.”

…

…

“WHAT!?!?!?!?!”

My mind was all a jumble. I had a chance to become an Alicorn. I was dumbfounded by the entire notion of it. Luna saw that the gears in my head stopped moving, so she attempted to kick start my brain by telling me why she came here in the first place.

“That is why we are here. To help thee in your development to ascend.”

She’s telling me that she wants to turn me into a God. How the Hell am I supposed to take this. I’ve only been in this dimension for a couple of days, only two of which I’ve been awake for, and now she’s telling me that I’ll one day be a God. What the Hell!?

“B..But, What about Twilight? Will she be able to become immortal too?” That was what mattered to me. Not that I was immortal. I was about to throw that away. No, what mattered to me was that I might be able to spend an eternity with Twilight Sparkle.

“You mean Cele’s student? Considering the power that radiates from her. If she is not immortal already, then she soon will be. That is why Cele adopted her as her personal protege. Though, our sister has yet to inform the young mare of this fact.”

I suppose that makes sense. If Celestia were to find a unicorn who had the potential to become immortal, she would take time out of her busy day to train that pony. That’s good. I won’t have to see Twilight die after all.

“That is why we are here to continue with thy magic training.” This brought me right out of my thoughts. My eyes widened in fear.

No. Not again.

I summoned strength I didn’t know I had, and scrambled behind the closest standing mirror. “Keep away from me! You’re not going to hit me with that spell again!”

“Oh, it wasn’t that bad.” She chuckled. “Thy learned more in those seconds, than thee could have learned in a month of study and practice.”

“You give a whole new meaning to ‘Ignorance is Bliss’.” I was holding the sides of the mirror in an attempt to keep it between me and her. What I neglected to notice was that Luna could see me from the mirror sitting on the vanity behind me.

She lowered her horn, taking careful aim. “This will only hurt for a second.” I could actually hear the smile on her face. She was enjoying this.

Lucky for me, there was a knock on the door. “The presence of Princess Luna and Prince Honor Bound has been requested, by Princess Celestia in the royal throne room.” There was no doubt in my mind that the gruff voice belonged to a royal guard.

Yes! Saved by the guard! I don’t know who he is, but I want him to get a promotion for this.

“You are not getting away from this.” She told me in a cold voice. Luna directed her attention towards the door. “Very well. We shall escort ourselves there. Thank you.”

I peeked my head out, from around the mirror, to see what she was doing. She charged her horn and I got that same nauseous feeling I got the last time we teleported. The next thing I knew, we were in the middle of the throne room. Both Luna and I were sitting side by side in front of Celestia.

I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that. Even if it’s the best power ever.

“Ah, good. I am glad that you have come so promptly.” the ruler of the Sun greeted us.

“Why hast thou summoned us, sister? We were just about to teach young ‘Honor Bound’ more about magic.”

“Keep her away from me!” I waved an accusing hoof at Luna. “She wants to use that learning beam… thing on me!”

“It would be good for thou to learn more about magic. The sooner thou learn what is needed, the sooner thou can increase thy magic, and become an Alicorn.”

“But, I don’t wanna. It’s too painful. I can learn about magic on my own. It doesn’t matter how long it’ll take me. From what I understand, I have all the time in the world now.”

“Thou are not immune to death!”

“I’M NOT PLANNING ON DYING!”

“NEITHER WAS STAR SWIRL!”

I was struck silent. Not just from the Royal Cantorlot Voice, but from the emotion behind it.  There were tears in Luna’s eyes now. She turned away from me, and galloped out of the throne room. A small trail of tears following her exit. I could hear her sobs grow faint as she got further away.

What just happened?

Celestia was silent. She looked upset but didn’t try to stop her sister. She glanced away from the doors that Luna had fled through, and down to me.

“My apologies. It would seem Luna has not gotten over the news about Star Swirl yet.”

“What happened? Were they close?”

“In a way. He was the only pony, back then, to appreciate her nights.”

“Did she… love him?”

“As a friend, yes. It took a couple of centuries for myself to get over his passing. I believe she blames herself for him moving beyond the Vail. You see, Star Swirl was researching ways to save her from the Nightmare when a miscalculation caused him to lose his life. Luna learned of it just over a year ago. It took most of that year to convince her to leave the castle in fact. Shame it ended up being on Nightmare night. Though, it all worked out in the end, I suppose.”

I finally tore my attention away from the door to look at Celestia. “I can understand the despair of losing a loved one, but you two are thousands of years old. Doesn’t death get easier as time goes on?”

“Oh heavens, no. It is true; we have come to understand that normal ponies will die someday, but that does not diminish the pain we feel from their passing. Have you ever lost a loved one?”

I solemnly nodded my head. “A few.”

“And have you gotten over their deaths then? I imagine your mourning period was different each time.”

I nodded again.

“That would be because you had a different connection to each, based on how much time you spent with them. In other words, the more time you had together, the more it hurt when they were gone. Luna spent over three millennia with Star Swirl as her only friend.”

I hung my head “I…I think I understand.”

I hope Luna will be alright. She didn’t want to cause me pain; she just didn’t want me to die.

I looked back to the door. “Should we go after her?”

“She needs time to calm down. I will check on her, once my business with you is complete.”

I felt bad for Luna, but was thankful for the change of subject, as well as genuinely curious to what the princess of the Sun would want from me.

“What can I do for you?”

“I am aware that you are still weak from your transfer.” Celestia’s horn lit up. A quill and scroll came floating out from behind her. They settled in front of her and she began to write something down. “That is why I was going to have Luna help you with your physical and, perhaps magical training. However, I do not think she will be up to the task.” She finished writing and rolled the scroll up. The scroll burst into flame in front of her face.

Is she doing, what I think she’s doing?

“It would help me greatly if you were at full strength. We do not need a recurrence of your window display from earlier."

I blushed at the memory. 

She heard of that? Of course she did. She would hear about everything that goes on in the castle.

"And, your magical education, in all likelihood, is that of a yearling. I am sorry to say that I am simply too busy to help you myself…” A wisp of smoke floated into the room from an open window. It materialized into a scroll in front of Celestia. She smiled as she read its contents.

I was having trouble containing my excitement.

Is she saying that Twilight is going to be my physical therapist, and magic trainer?

“That is why I am enlisting the help of somepony very dear to me.” Her horn glowed very brightly.

I was grinning like an idiot.

This is it! This is it! I’m about to meet Twilight Sparkle.

I was shaking from anticipation. Practically bouncing with enthusiasm.

There was a flash as Celestia released the built up magic in her horn. The flash of light left me blinded for a moment.

“Honor Bound, I would like you to meet…”

Yes! Yes! Yes!

“…Spike.”

“Spike!?” My vision cleared to confirm that it was, indeed, the baby dragon standing in front of me. My face fell. Celestia had a big grin on her face.

She did that on purpose!
> Chapter 03: The Mane Dresser
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Spike stood at the foot of the throne. He seemed a bit disoriented from being teleported, but his gaze managed to notice me standing in front of him. “Hi.” He gave a little wave in my direction.

I was too dumbstruck, that Celestia had actually trolled me, to answer. 

Why would you do that to me? I thought we were cool. Wait… how is Spike going to teach me about magic?

I wasn’t able to give voice to my thoughts. While I was looking on at nothing in particular, Spike had a moment of realization and recognition. Pissed; didn’t even begin to describe what he was feeling.

“You!!!” He pointed an accusing claw my way.

“M..Me?”

“You were the pony that Fair Rarity fawned over for so long. YOU were the one she ran after at the Gala. YOU were the one who ruined her night, and YOU were the one who broke her heart!” Spike advanced on me with each accusation. The hate in his eyes sending shivers down my spine. 

Crap!

“I..It.. w..wasn’t…”

“And now YOU are going to pay for everything you did to her…” He was right in my face now. Granted, I was looking down at him, but the sheer amount of emotion he was emitting was more than enough to make him intimidating. His claw was poking my chest, causing me to wince a bit in pain. He raised his little hand up and… slapped me.

He slapped me!?

My head was angled to the side after the attack; my eyes were wide open in shock.

He actually hit me!

Spike stood there huffing a bit as the rage was boiling over. “I challenge you to a duel!” he declared.

What?

“… To the death!”

WHAT!?

“Celestia! Help me out here!”

“Leave her out of this. This is between you and me.”

Celestia decided to finally speak up, between fits of giggles, before things got out of hand. “That won’t (giggle) be necessary, Spike.”

This isn’t funny Celestia! He wants to kill me!

Spike turned his attention to the princess. “Oh course it is! He sullied Lady Rarity’s honor!”

“That is not Prince Blueblood. (giggle) It is his brother, Prince Honor Bound. (giggle)”

I can’t take this! Something needs to change.

“I’m already sick of people thinking I’m Blueblood!”

“People?” Spike questioned.

“Ponies… Whatever. My point still stands. Celestia, where is that mane dresser that you mentioned yesterday? I need to change the way I look. Sooner, rather than later”

Celestia was finally able to stifle her little giggle fit to answer. “I am sure Spike remembers where Spectrum works. He can escort you there. Now, if you’ll excuse me. I need to go tend to my sister with large amounts of comfort food.” With that, Celestia teleported away, leaving me and Spike in the throne room together.

…

…

This is kind of awkward. Guess I should say something.

“So… Umm… You know where to find this guy?”

“Huh? Y.. Yeah. Follow me.” Spike waved me on as he made his way to the door. I followed behind him, at a much slower pace. I was still weak, but for some reason, I didn’t feel worn out from just walking, like I was earlier in the day.
The guards opened the door for Spike as he got close. He looked back to me after he had passed the door’s threshold. “Come on, we don’t have all day.”

“This is as fast as I can go right now. What part of ‘physical therapist’ didn’t you understand?”

He rolled his eyes at me. “Yeah, whatever.”

Why is he being such a dick to me?

“What are you mad at now? If anything, I should be mad at you. You have yet to apologize to me, after all.”

By this time, I had caught up to him, and we were walking down the hall together.

“Apologize. For what? Hitting you? Fine! I’m Sorry for slapping you. Happy?”

Well that sure was half-assed. What’s got him all wound up?

“What’s with all the hostilities? I never did anything to you. Hell, we just met.”

“You’re related to him. That’s enough for me to not like you.” He grumbled under his breath. 

I stopped walking. Spike noticed this after a few steps and turned around to face me.

“So, you don’t like me, because I’m related to…ugh” I shuddered “…Blueblood?”

“Pretty much.”

Wow. That’s totally not fair!

“What about the princesses?” I asked.

“What about them?”

“They’re related to him. Do you hate them too?”

“Of course not! They’re, like, super nice and… stuff. Nothing like him.”

“So, why am I getting the cold shoulder then?”

Spike turned around and started walking again. “I don’t know. I just don’t like you for some reason.”

Great! He hates me, and doesn’t even know why.

I started walking to keep up with him. We walked in silence for a while longer, taking a number of corridors and hallways, until Spike stopped in front of a room.

“He should be in there.” Spike said pointing at the door.

“You’re not coming in?”

“No way! He gives me the creeps.”

“Uh huh. Fine. Stay out here then. I’ll be out in a bit.”

I went to open the door with my magic, but it swung open before I could. A guard pony walked out wearing the hundred yard stare. It wasn’t the normal ‘trained’ stare though. It was the ‘I was just scarred for life’ stare. He walked between Spike and I, not even acknowledging us.

“Good luck. You’re going to need it.” Spike warned.

Suddenly, I’m having second thoughts about this.

I swallowed my fear, and made my way inside the room. It looked like any other salon. There was a chair set up in front of a mirror, a hair dryer in the corner, and a table with a number of hair care products on it.

A voice came from the back room. “I’ll be out in a minute. Just let me clean up from the last guest.”

I sat down on the chair in front of the mirror. It felt weird sitting in a chair the same way a dog might. My tail slipped into a hole, and flowed out of the back of the chair. I looked at myself trying to imagine what I want to do to my main and tail.

I definitely need to change the color. That’s the first thing that needs to go. I guess while I’m here, I’ll get it cut. I’d like to get the hair out of my eyes for starters. 

I blew the offending strands out of my vision only to have them fall back into place. 

I guess I’ll get this guy’s opinion on the rest of it. What was his name? Spectrum? Guess he’s good with colors. This doesn’t look too bad. I doubt Celestia would hire someone who would harm anyone. I wonder why Spike was so scared.

In the mirror I saw a Unicorn pony enter through the back door. His coat was a light purple, almost pink color, and his main was a light gray. As he entered further I was able to make out that his cutie mark was a rainbow. 

“Prince Blueblood? Mmmmm, I didn’t expect for you to come here again. Though, I did enjoy the show you provided earlier in the day. I will be sure to remember it before I go to sleep, and maybe again when I wake up. Heh heh.”

“I..I’m not Blueblood.” I’m seriously creeped out here.

“Oh? You sure look like him. Hmmm. Oh! Is this a game? What are we playing, and… should we take it into the other room?” He motioned into the back room he had just come from.

I sat there never moving from my chair. My mouth hung open from what the stallion was suggesting. This can’t be real.

The stallion noticed my immobility. “Oh? Perhaps you would like to play here, then?”

This got me out of my shock. “No! I mean... no. That was not what I meant. I’m Blueblood's brother, Honor Bound.”

The mane dresser’s eyes lit up. “Brother! As in twin? Oh ho ho! Blueblood never mentioned a twin. Oh, the fun we could have together.”

“I don’t know what kind of relationship you had with my brother, but I can assure you that I don’t swing that way.”

“That’s what they all say... at first. We’ll get to that later though, for now you came in to have your mane and tail styled. Correct?”

“Y..Yes, but I don’t think I’m comf…”

“Oh, don’t be silly! I’m the best mane dresser in all of Cantorlot! If I can’t do it, than nopony could. Now what can I do for you… or to you. Heh Heh.”

“I.. I just wanted to change the way I look. M..Maybe change my mane color and get a trim, but...”

“Oh, what a wonderful idea! A complete makeover! Oooooo, this is going to be so much fun.” He did a little dance out of excitement. “Let’s see. You have the right structure. Hmmm…  Sure, why not? What do you think of this?”

Spectrum’s horn lit up and a quick flash later my mane felt different. I looked back to the mirror to see that it now looked exactly like Rarity’s. Purple curls, and everything.

“I recently saw a mane styled this way on a mare, who visited the castle, not too long ago. I think it works on you though.”

“Fascinating, but I was thinking of something a little more… masculine.”

“Oh? The brash type, eh? Vary well. How about this?” His horn glowed, and with a flash, my mane changed again. This time it took the shape and colors of Rainbow Dash’s mane.

Am I going to have to go through all of the main six’s hair styles? 

“Something darker and more reserved, please.”

“There’s just no pleasing you, is there? Fine. Let’s try this.”

I face hoofed. The next hair style was easy enough to recognize. It was Twilight's. To be honest, I looked really good with her mane. But, even I knew that that just wouldn’t be right, and more than a little creepy.

“Next.”

Another flash and… I had to face hoof again. This time it was Luna’s waving, star filled, mane.

“Oh for the love of… You know what; just make it a royal blue color. Short enough so it’s not in my eyes, and not too long in the back. My tail can be the same length that it was when I came here, just the same color blue as my mane. Let’s see how that looks.”

“Oh, you’re no fun.” Spectrum pouted. His horn lit up once more, and after the flash… I had my new look. My mane was a little messy, but that was nothing new. I was never one to take much care in what my hair did back on Earth. Simply washing it and letting it dry was enough for me.

Nice. Not too over the top, and most importantly, I don’t look like Blueblood anymore.

I smiled. “I like it. Thank you.” 

Spectrum smiled back. “That is good to hear, your highness. Now that we are done with business, let us move on to pleasure.” He began to advance on me in a predatory manner. 

It terrified the shit out of me. I scrambled, and fell out of the chair. Keeping my back to the wall at all times, I attempted to talk him out of it. “That won’t be necessary. I..I’m sure you’re very busy.”

“Not too busy for royalty.” He licked his lips “…and it’s no trouble at all.”

Shit! Not good! Not good at all! I need to get out of here!

I was shuffling to the door I came in from, trying my hardest to escape without turning around. My back end bumped into the door, making me jump a little.

“You’re not trying to leave are you? You can’t leave without one of my famous massages.”

“Nothanks! Gottago! Bye!” With that I shot through the door. I mean, literally shot through it. A hole, in the shape of a pony, was left in my wake. Spike was leaning against the wall across from the salon. 

“Spike! We need to go! Now!”

Spike looked up at me. “Shining? Wait… Is that you Honor?”

“No time to talk, need to go now.” I grabbed Spike, and through him onto my back, and galloped as fast as I could. It wasn’t too fast, but was the fastest I’ve moved sense arriving in this body.


________________________________________


Spectrum poked his head out of the hole in his door, just in time to see me round the corner.

“Awww. He didn’t get a scalp massage. Everypony loves my scalp massages. It usually leaves them all dazed for a while afterwards. I guess he really had somewhere to be.”

Spectrum chuckled to himself as he remembered what he saw earlier in the day. “Why would Blueblood do something so outrageous? He is a noblepony. They do odd things for the publicity of it. Still worth a laugh to think about, though.”

With another chuckle, Spectrum went into the back room to his desk. There were a number of board games strewn about the room. All seemed to be in different states of use. He opened a drawer, and pulled out a form to requisition a new door.


________________________________________


Spike was holding onto my neck, so he wouldn’t fall off. I didn’t care where we ended up, so long as it was away from Spectrum.

“What’s going on? Why are we running? And, why do you look like Twilight's brother?” He asked, after my pace slowed.

“He.. He was… going… to…” I was incredibly winded. I’m not sure how long I was galloping for, but it was much longer than my body was capable of. My front hooves buckled under my own weight, and I fell to the ground. Spike tumbled over me, and landed a couple feet away.

I was having trouble focusing. I could feel my heart beat at an unimaginable speed. My chest was rising and falling at a fast, but steady rate.

I think I got away from him. I can’t believe there are ponies like that working in the castle. Why would Celestia employ someone like that?

Spike picked himself up, off the floor, and walked over to me. “What was that all about!?”

“Spike, y..you were… right. He… is not… a good pony. Don’t ever… go near him… again.”

“Why? What did he do?’

“I..it wasn’t… what he did. It was… what he… wanted to do.”

“And, what was that?”

I am not having this talk with Spike. “I’ll tell you… later.”

Spike crossed his arms and grumbled. “Fine.”

I lay on the ground for a while trying to catch my breath. Spike only stood there and watched me.

“Are you going to be alright?” He asked.

I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. “This, coming from… the dragon who wanted… to kill me? Thanks. I should be fine… in a bit. I’m just not used to moving… that much.”

“What do you mean?”

Oh shit! How am I going to explain this, without talking about the whole body swap thing?

“Umm… I haven’t been feeling well. I’ve been bed ridden for a while now. This is the first time I’ve actually gotten to move around the castle sense I got here.”

I’m not lying. I’m just leaving out details.

“But, don’t you live in the castle?”

“Yes, but… let’s just say, I’ve recently done some traveling that didn’t agree with me.”

“Where did you go?”

I don’t want to lie to Spike, but I can’t tell him the truth either. I’m pretty sure Celestia would want to keep this a secret.

“I think that’s classified.”

Spike looked at me as he contemplated what I had just told him. His eyes then grew to the size of dinner plates. “Are you some kind of secret agent?” Spike began to jump around in excitement. “It makes so much sense, now! You must have been injured on a mission. You recently recovered, but you just need some help getting back into peak condition.” Spike inhaled sharply. “And, I’m the one who gets to help you! Don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me. We'll get you beck to normal in no time at all.”

In my prone state, I could only look up at him in amazement. 

Wow… He likes to jump to conclusions. I suppose, I don’t have to correct him. He seems to have warmed up to me, because of this.

“Umm… Thanks.”

I guess I could be considered a spy. I mean, if watching you and your friends’ daily lives, in a TV show, isn’t spying; I don’t know what is.

I rolled over and got to my hooves. “Now you can’t tell anypony about what was said here. Do you understand?”

Spike stood rigid, and saluted me. “Yes, sir! Oh, this is so cool!”

My stomach grumbled a little. I haven’t had a good meal yet. I guess that should be next on my list of things to do. 

“Now then, I haven’t had anything decent to eat in a while. Let’s go see what we can find.”

“I know where the kitchen is. Follow me!” Spike then started walking down the hallway. Following him as best I could, I began to think as I walked.

Yeah, this has no chance to bite me in the butt later. Guess I should just have fun with it, while it lasts. Maybe the next time I have to introduce myself I should do it like James Bond. “My name’s Bound; Honor Bound.” Awesome.

> Chapter 04: Cheering Up a Princess
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Spike and I entered the dining room. It was the same one that I had been teleported to the first time I woke up. We were originally going to go through this room to get to the kitchen, but once we saw what was going on, we realized we didn’t have to.

The long table was filled to capacity with all kinds of junk food. There was cake, jello, dumplings, doughnuts, and so much more. Our mouths were salivating, as we gawked at the spread. Before I could jump onto the table, and eat as much as I could fit into myself, I heard a faint sob coming from the other side of the wall of food.

“Do you hear that?” Spike asked, trying to find the source of the crying.

“Yeah, and I think I know who it is.”

With a heavy sigh I made my way around the table to find Celestia and Luna sitting near a, particularly large, banana split. Luna had her head buried in her arms on the table, softly crying into them. Celestia was rubbing Luna’s back with a hoof to help calm her down.

“Whoa, what happened to her?”

Spike’s little outburst brought the attentions of both Celestia and Luna to us. My eyes met Luna’s. Her face scrunched up a bit and she started to wail into her arms, all over again.

Celestia could only continue to rub Luna’s back. “Shhhhhhh, It will Be all right. You’ll see.”

I looked down to the little dragon next to me with disapproval.

“What?”

‘Sigh’ “She’s in mourning for a friend she lost.”

“Oh?” Then, my words seemed to catch up to him. “Oooooooh. So, what was that look that she gave you then?”

I lowered my head to the floor in shame. “I may have, sorta, kinda, indirectly, brought it up.”

“So, this is your fault?” Spike crossed his arms and gave me the stink eye.

“No! Not really, anyway.” ‘Sigh’ “It’s hard to explain. Let’s… just go see if we can help cheer her up.”

I trotted over to the two sisters, hoping that my presence wouldn’t make things worse than they already were.

“Are you alright, Luna?” I winced. Stupid question.

She sniffled a few times to help calm her cries of despair. Between broken sobs she was able to moan. “We only want, what is best for thee.”

‘Sigh’ “I know.”

“I thought you said this wasn’t about you.” Spike whispered to me. 

“Quiet, Spike!” I whispered back. I then brought my attention to the crying princess. “I know you just want what’s best for me, but in doing so, you would keep me from actually living.”

Luna began to calm down a little. She sniffled a few more times, and managed to look at me in curiosity. “How so?”

“Think of it this way. If you were to teach me everything that you know about magic; what would be left for me to learn on my own?”

She calmed a bit further giving a small sniffle. “Nothing, thou would already know all there was to learn.”

“Exactly. You would give me all the answers on how to become an alicorn. Correct?”

“WHAT!?” Spike exclaimed. 

“Quiet Spike! This is important.”

“But, you could be an alicorn?”

“I’ll tell you about it later, if the princesses allow it, but right now I need you to let me finish talking to Luna.”

Spike looked up to Celestia for an explanation, only for her to shush him to stay quiet. He grumbled to himself, but didn’t try to ask anything else. I looked back to the depressed princess for her answer to my earlier question.

“What thou said would be true. What are thou getting at?”

“What I’m saying, is that you would be taking away my sense of accomplishment. I think being an alicorn is something you should earn, not something that can be given away.”

“But… Thou art a novice when it comes to magic. If thou continues at this rate, thou will become mortal again.”

That’s a possibility!? I don’t want that.

‘Sigh’ “Fine. How about a compromise then? Why don’t you teach me, just enough, about magic, so I can continue being immortal. That way, I won’t die of old age before I can earn my way to become an alicorn. How does that sound to you?”

Luna looked at me with her bloodshot eyes, contemplating my proposal. ‘Sigh’ “Deal.” Her horn began to glow, and my eyes widened in horror.

Shit!!!

“No! I didn’t mean now! I’m not…”

It was too late. The beam from her horn connected with my own. That same disorienting amount of information came flooding into my brain. My body tensed up, and I squeezed my eyes closed, waiting for the ungodly amount of pain to assault my nervous system. 

…

…

It never came. I was having trouble thinking straight, but I knew I should be feeling intense pain at the moment. However, the worst I could feel was a small headache. The rush of information was flowing into me, assaulting my brain, but it wasn’t causing me any sort of major discomfort.

After a little while longer the beam faded out, disconnecting Luna and myself. I stumbled a bit and lost my balance, falling to the tiled floor. It didn’t hurt, but I was having trouble getting a hold of myself. The room kept moving around, like we were on a boat, being thrashed about in a massive storm.

Celestia was the first to ask. “Are you all right, Honor Bound?”

“I.. I think so.” I rubbed my eyes in order to see straight again.

“Will somepony tell me what’s going on!?” Spike yelled.

I lowered my head to the floor, and covered it with my hooves. “Tell him what you want. I think I’m just going to lie here, until the room stops spinning.” 

The princesses softly chuckled at me. “Very well. Spike, what you are about to learn, is a state secret. You are not to mention this to anypony. Do you understand?” Celestia asked.

“I understand princess.”

“Make him pinkie promise!” I interrupted, pointing a hoof at Spike. “Under penalty of Pinkie Pie’s wrath, you will not say a word to any living creature.”

Spike visibly shuddered at the image of an angry Pinkie Pie. “Wait… How do you know about the pinkie promise?”

Shit! I didn’t think that far ahead.

“Um... Let’s just say, that I know more than I should, and leave it at that.”

“Ah. Spy stuff. I get ya.” He winked at me.

The princesses were confused, and looked to me for an explanation. He thinks I’m a secret agent. They both nodded with an expression of understanding.

Spike shrugged. “If it’s that important; I pinkie promise, not to tell anypony what I’m about to learn. Cross my heart, and hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye.” He did the hand motions that go along with the words as he said them. 

Satisfied with the promise, Celestia continued. “Good. Now, when a unicorn develops enough magical energy; they become an alicorn.”

Spike raised his hand, like he was in a classroom getting the attention of the teacher.

“Yes, Spike.”

“Only unicorns can become alicorns? What about the other races?”

“Unicorns have been the only race, who has shown the ability to harness the necessary amount of magic, to ascend to the ranks of an alicorn. That is why this is a secret, to prevent the races from fighting among themselves.”

Spike raised his hand again.

‘Sigh’ “Yes Spike.”

“Does that mean that you and Luna were once unicorns a long time ago?”

“We were. Now, as I was saying…”

While Celestia continued to explain the secret of becoming an alicorn, Luna came over to me to ask her own questions.

“Honor Bound, Are thee sure thou will be well?”

“I’ll be fine Luna. It didn’t really hurt this time. Just a little disorienting is all.”

“We are glad to hear this. It means that thou hast settled into thyself.”

“But, you didn’t know that, before you hit me with that beam again. Did you?”

“We admit. We did not.”

WHY!!!!!! Why does she want to hurt me so much!

“Think of it as revenge for bringing up fresh wounds.” Luna nudged me in a playful manner, giggling a bit.

If her attempt at causing me extreme amounts of pain is her being playful, I don’t want to be around when she’s pissed. I need to make sure she stays happy.

“Are you feeling better at least?” I asked.

“A little. Though, we would feel better after we break one of thy legs.”

I looked up at her in horror. Luna had a grin on her face that indicated all I needed to know.

Looks like Celestia isn’t the only one who likes to troll.

My stomach decided to make itself known at that moment. It has been an undetermined amount of time since I last ate anything. The room had stopped spinning by now, and I was feeling brave enough to attempt to stand to get something to eat off the table.

I stood up with only a slight stumble, and made my way over to the smorgasbord of treats. “Were you planning on eating all of this?” I asked Luna in awe.

“We were going to attempt to, before thee had intruded upon us.”

“I’m sorry for bringing up painful memories.”

Luna looked down mournfully. “The memories are not what is painful. It is knowing that we will be unable to make any new memories with him that hurts so much.”

So, she wanted to turn me into an alicorn so she could fill the empty space that Star Swirl left behind.

“Not entirely.” She interjected.

Crap! I keep forgetting she likes to read my mind.

Luna continued. “We miss Star Swirl greatly, but we wish for all ponies, who have the capability to become alicorns, to do so. Thou does not realize how rare a pony, such as thyself, is. Even rarer, for them to actually amass enough power to become an alicorn.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I will do my best to learn what I can, so I can be one of those few. It might be a while, but I will make it there. I promise.”

“Thank you.” She nods her head to me. “The knowledge we bestowed upon thee should be accessible the next time thou wakes from sleep. For now, though, let us eat. Thou have been eyeing those donuts for a while now, and we would hate for thee to die of hunger.”

I had to tear my vision away from the tasty treats to look to Luna. 

She still seems so sad. There has to be a way to get her to smile. What would Pinkie Pie do?... Be random!

A smile spread across my face. 

“What are thou…”

“There is always time to eat.” I interrupted. I used my magic to grab two donuts, and I brought one over to me, and ate it. The other, floated over Luna’s head, and I dropped it. It landed perfectly so Luna’s horn pierced the donut’s hole. “But wouldn’t you prefer to have a little fun?”

Luna was shocked, at first. Then, she picked up a little bit of whipped cream from the banana split, and rubbed it on the end of my nose. She smirked at me. “Is this how thou intends to cheer us up?”

“Only if it works.” I licked the whip cream off of my nose, and used some magic to grab some more off of the same dessert that Luna had. I then proceeded to whip it on the end of her nose.

She giggled at my actions. “So be it.” She was smirking at me again. After looking at her in confusion, my head snapped forward from a sudden impact. I felt something gooey running down my neck. 

Did she just…

I rose my head back up, and a pie plate fell from the top of it. I looked at it in surprise.

She did! Oh, it is on now!

Before I could grab my next projectile, Celestia’s voice interrupted our fun.

“What is the meaning of this?”

Luna and I looked over to find Celestia gazing at us in disgust, while Spike was staring on, in wide eyed wonderment. We looked back to each other and grinned.

Team up?

Luna nodded. We both grabbed a morsel of food with our magic. Keeping it levitated over our heads, while we sized up our competition.

“No! Don’t you dare, Luna!” Celestia demanded once she realized what was about to happen. She was trying to back away from us in a futile attempt to get away.

Luna was the first to attack, throwing a scoop of ice cream at her sister. Celesta was able to catch it with her own magic, but was unprepared for the piece of cake I had thrown afterwards. It hit her right in the face.

She was stunned into silence. Spike on the other hand was doing a bad job, trying to stifle his giggling. I decided to put a stop to that, so I through another piece of cake at him. It smacked him in the side of the face, stunning him. He didn’t move, as it slowly slid down his face, and onto the floor.

Luna and I couldn’t help but to roll on the floor, laughing. I didn’t even notice that over half the food on the table was being levitated behind us. Luna did, though.

She leaned over to me and whispered, “Run.” She then proceeded to galloped away.

“Huh?” It was too late. I now know what it’s like to be buried alive in food. It was everywhere! I could faintly hear Luna, laughing her pretty little head off, outside of my mound of food. 

I slowly crawled out of the heap of deserts, to find Spike creeping up on Luna while she was laughing at me. He raised the punch bowl he was carrying, over his head, and dumped its sugary contents all over Luna. She gasped loudly, as the cold liquid seeped into her coat.

She turned on him, like a viper ready to strike. She brought over a glob of pudding and lobed it at Spike. Either by instinct or quick thinking, Spike breathed his fire at the projectile, which quickly evaporated into smoke.

I watched as the smoke traveled across the room, over to where Celestia had just finished whipping the cake from her countenance. She looked up at the swirling smoke in confusion; it coalesced back into pudding, and landed on her freshly cleaned face.

I couldn’t stop from laughing, so hard, my sides hurt. Spike was chuckling a bit as well. That is, until Luna brought a bowl of jello over, and dumped it onto his head.

I levitated some of the food in my pile up, and tossed it at Luna. She had just enough time to put up a force field to block the attack. The food splattered against the semi-spherical wall, and stuck there.

Celestia decided then, would be a good time to launch her own attack at Luna from behind. The pie smacked Luna in the back of the head, disrupting her magic. The food, which her force field was holding above her, came down onto her head.

We were all laughing like idiots at this point. Food was being thrown this way and that. We all needed a bath, but none of us really cared anymore. This was just too much fun.

All of us froze when we heard a loud gasp from the entryway. We froze and slowly turned our attention to the door. There stood Hors D'oeuvre, with his mouth hanging open in shock.

I bet he never thought royalty could act like this.

Celestia and Luna were quick to react. Both used their magic to remove all of the food from their coats and manes. They didn’t even look sticky anymore.

“Honor Bound, I trust you will clean this mess, which you and Spike caused, before too long.” Celestia said with an air of authority.

“Huh?”

“Once thou are done with that, We will expect the both of thou to come before us, in the throne room, for thine punishment.”

“But...”

The two alicorns didn’t even bat an eye. "No buts, You caused this mess, so you have to clean it up."

They then proceeded to walk out of the room with their heads held high, as if they had no part in the food fight a moment ago.

What just happened? And, why am I getting punished for it?

I looked over to Spike for answers, only to find that he had a similar expression of confusion on his face. We then glanced back to the door at Hors D'oeuvre. He shook his head to remove the shock from his face.

“Sirs, I do not know how you created such a mess, but as the princesses have decreed. You will be the ones to clean it up. I will go get you some cleaning supplies. One moment.”

As Hors D'oeuvre left to fetch us something to clean with. Spike and I sat in our piles of food stunned into silence. We didn’t even move until Hors D'oeuvre came back with a couple of mops and buckets, along with a few trash cans. He placed the supplies in a pile in the middle of the room.

“You have what you need. Good day.” With that he left closing the door behind him.

“Great! Look what you got us into.” Spike whined.

I proceeded to look over the mess that we were to clean. My vision came across some food left untouched on the table.

I shrugged “At least we can eat the leftovers.”

Spike sighed. “Fine. Less to clean up, I guess. Pass me some of those éclairs.”

We got up and headed to the table, and ate to our hearts content.

It is good to have something in my stomach. Especially before having to work my tail off to clean up this mess.
> Chapter 05: The Punishment
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Spike and I cleaned that entire dining room until it shined. If you were to look at it at the right angle you could actually see it sparkle in the light. Once we were done, Spike led me to one of the royal bath houses in the castle, so we could clean ourselves from the food fight. 

The place was breath taking. There were three wading pools each with its’ own little waterfall. They were fashioned into a circle around a big hot tub, which could easily fit ten ponies. The walls were all carved out of marble, while the floor was covered with an exquisite design of the princesses’ cutie marks in tile.

“Wow,” was all I was able to utter from the pure beauty of it all.

“I know, right. Me and Twilight used to come here to unwind after particularly hard study sessions, back when we still lived here. Come on. Last one in is an old rock.”

Was that a Tom reference? Huh. Guess it doesn’t matter.

Spike sprinted towards the hot tub, running along the path that divided two of the wading pools.

“Slow down Spike. There’s no hurry.” I was trotting behind him at a much slower pace.

“What? Can’t keep…” He didn’t get to finish his taunt. Spike slipped on the wet tile floor, and into one of the wading pools. He came up to the surface shortly after, flailing his little arms about.

“You OK Spike?”

‘Cough’ “I’ll…‘Cough’ …be fine. ‘Cough’ Just swallowed some water.”

I started to ease into the hot tub at this point. “Good, because you’re the old rock.” I chuckled.

“Awwww.” Spike pouted the rest of the way over. He looked to me, lounging comfortably up to my neck in water, and got an evil grin.

My eyes were closed, so I didn’t see him back up a few feet. Once he shouted “Cannonball!” I knew something was wrong. I opened my eyes just in time to see Spike drop into the water, causing a big splash. Well… big for a baby dragon. The hot liquid washed over me drenching what was above the surface.

“Spike! What the Hell!?”

Spike came to the surface, and proceeded to spit water into my face.

“Yuck! God damn it Spike! That’s gross.”

“That’s for making me clean up all that food. My claws are still sore.”

“It wasn’t a cakewalk for me either.” Oh God, did I just make that horrible pun? 


Spike chuckled a little. “Yeah well, I guess Princess Celestia will give you your… just desserts.”

I will have no part in this.

“Ugh, just stop, Spike. I don’t think I can take it.”

“What’s wrong? Is this pudding you down?”

Ugh, make it stop!

As if to answer my prayers in the worst possible way, the doors to the bathhouse opened to reveal… Spectrum.

Oh no. I groaned internally.

He came trotting in with his head held high, and a towel wrapped around his waist. He only paused a moment, when he noticed Spike and I in the hot tub. The smile that formed onto his face creeped the hell out of me.

“Mmm. So we meet again, it would seem.”

“Y…yes.” Crap! How the Hell do I get out of here? He’s blocking the only exit.”W..what are you doing here?”

“Oh, I always come here after my shift. I find it relaxing after a stressful day of working magic with my horn.”

Yeah, I bet.

While Spectrum came closer to the hot tub, Spike and I pressed ourselves closer to the opposite wall in a fruitless attempt to be further away from the pony. Spectrum removed his towel, with a little more bravado than was actually needed, and slipped into the tub.

“Ahhhhh. Oh that feels good in all the right places. There’s only one thing that could make this feel even better.”

I gulped. “W..what would that be?”

I was shivering, despite the hot water surrounding me. Spike was clinging to my neck, obviously just as scared as I was.

“Bubbles!”

I flinched at his enthusiasm, and then relaxed as the word processed its way through my head. “Huh?” was my eloquent response. 

“Bubbles?” Spike asked.

He nodded, turned around, and a moment later bubble jets, built into the hot tub, turned on.

“Mmmm, that hits the spot.” He said.

It did feel good, but I was far from relaxed. What is he playing at? I need to stay on my guard. Nothing good can come of this... What is he doing?

I don’t know why but for some reason, as soon as the jets came on, Spectrum looked like he was in his own little heaven. His tongue was lolled out of one side of his mouth and everything. Then it hit me, and the color quickly drained from my face. Oh God! I can’t see what he’s doing under the water!

“I.. I th..think w..we need to get going.”

“We do?” was Spikes response. I nudged him under the water for him to get the hint. “Oh, right! We do!”

“Awwww, so soon. But, I just got here, and… you have some things stuck in your fur. Here, let me help you with that.”

Spike and I looked at each other, then back at Spectrum. 

“No! We’re good!” I shouted a bit too loudly.

In unison, Spike and I began scrubbing the leftover food off of ourselves as fast as we could. It was coming off a lot easier than I thought it would.

Maybe the water is enchanted or something. None of the food I’m scrubbing off is floating around in the water. It doesn’t matter. The sooner I’m clean; the sooner I can get the Hell out of here.

“I was hoping we could play a quick game of ‘Find the Banana’ before you have to go.”

My eyes widened in fear at the sudden innuendo. Screw this! Gotta go! I scrambled out of the hot tub as quickly as I could. Spike grabbed onto my neck as I moved to exit. 

“Sorry, but the Princess is expecting us. Can’t keep her waiting, you know. We really gotta go.”

Spike only nodded in agreement. I inched my way around the tub. Again, I was trying to keep my hind end away from the questionable stallion.

“Aaawwww. Perhaps, another time then. You shouldn’t keep the princess waiting.” Spectrum pouted.

I didn’t wait for a better time, to sprint away, to present itself, though it was probably a bad idea to do so. About half way to the door, I slipped, and fell into one of the wading pools. I floundered a little, but regained my bearings shortly after. To be honest, I’m surprised Spike was able to hold onto my neck through the whole thing. A bit later the door was swinging closed from our semi-swift exit.


___________________________________________________________________


Spectrum sat in the hot tub alone after watching the door close.  

‘Sigh’ “Nopony ever wants to play ‘Find the Banana’ with me.”

He reached under his discarded towel to retrieve the lone fruit from its’ hiding place. Spectrum pealed it, and began to eat his tub time snack.

The jet, he was sitting in front of, continued to blow bubbles against his enflamed back muscles. 

“Aahhhh. That always feels Soooooo goooooood. Mmmmmmm, This is defiantly the best way to end the day.”

He popped the rest of the banana into his mouth, discarding the peal near his towel.  Spectrum leaned against the jet, completely relaxed. So much so, he began to slide down into the water, until just his muzzle remained above the surface.


___________________________________________________________________


I was running down the hall as quickly as I could, water droplets were trailing behind me on the carpet.

How many times am I going to have to run away from that stallion today? At least I’m clean… or reasonably so. I always feel dirty after being around that guy.

A shiver ran down my spine.

Something’s just not right about him. I should talk to Celestia about it. See what she can do.

I slowed down to a trot, reasonably certain that Spectrum wasn’t going to be jumping out at me.

“What is with that guy?” Spike exclaimed. “He always acts so strange, and what was up with that game? ‘Find the Banana’. That sounds like a stupid game, if you ask me.”

“He’s just a creep. It’s best if you’re never alone with him. Bad things will happen.”

“Like what?”

“Things, that you will probably spend the rest of your life, trying to forget.”

“Like what?”

“You ask too many questions, Spike, and that one shouldn’t be answered until you’re older.”

“How much older?”

“No idea, but I’m not answering it. Now, which way to the throne room?”

We proceeded on to where Celestia was expecting us. Speculation, as to what the punishment she was going to give us, became the main topic of conversation. Well… Spike speculated. I remained silent and listened to Spike prattle on, as he slowly spiraled into a panic attack. He was close to hyperventilating by now.

We had crossed a number of hallways and corridors on our way back to the throne room. My fur was just about dry from the walk.

“What if she banishes us, and throws us into a dungeon, in the place that she banished us to?”

“’Sigh’ Spike, in all of the time you’ve known her, has Celestia ever done that to anypony?”

Spike looked at me with a deadpan expression. “Luna just came back last year, in case you forgot.” Spike inhaled with great force. “What if she banishes us to the Moon?”

“That’s not going to happen Spike. You’ll see. She’ll probably just give us a slap on the hooves, and be done with it. I mean, she was just as responsible as us for making that mess.”

“Whatever you say, pal. Oh hay look; we’re here.” He said glumly.

I pushed the doors open to reveal the huge chamber that was the royal court. Celestia and Luna were sitting on their thrones on top of a dais. There were two guard ponies on either side of me and Spike as we entered the throne room.

We proceeded down the red carpet, that lead to the base of the platform. Celestia looked pristine and collected, while Luna was grinning from ear to ear.

What’s she so happy about?

As I walked, I admired the stained glass windows that depicted the history of Equestria. It started with the first Hearts Warming Day, the three races planting Equestria’s flag on a hill, going all the way to when the main six defeated Discord. I smiled at recognizing that one.

Of all the creatures in Equestria, I would have thought it would be Discord to bring a human, like me, here.

I was drawn out of my reverie by Celestia, clearing her throat.

“Honor Bound, you were called here today in light of a misdeed done in the royal dining room, earlier this afternoon. You are charged with assaulting royalty with food products. How do you plead?”

Needless to say; I was shocked. Assaulting royalty is a serious offence, no matter the circumstance. All of a sudden, I was wondering what the moon was like this time of year.

“B.. but, I didn’t.”

What’s going on? This is too much like a bad court drama. We weren’t arrested, so why is this happening?

“Let it be known that the accused has pled his innocence of the crime. If proven guilty the punishment shall be that much worse.”

Spike spoke up hurriedly, “I would like to plead guilty, and not be banished, and put into a dungeon in the place I’m banished to.”

Celestia smiled a little at the outburst, and nodded to Spike. “Noted. Luna, did Honor Bound attack you with food products?”

By now, Luna was no longer smiling. Instead, she was feigning distress. She raised her hoof to her forehead and as dramatically as possible she proclaimed, “Yes, dear sister. He is a monster. He just would not stop throwing those delicious treats at us, no matter how often we pleaded for him to stop. We will not be able to sleep for many nights to come, because of what was done to us. What of you, dear sister? Did he not throw those delectables at thee as well?”

“That he did Luna.”

I was speechless.

They’re ganging up on me. Why would they do this? See if I try to help Luna again.

My thoughts were interrupted in light of celestia’s verdict.

“Honor Bound, you have been found guilty of assaulting my sister and I with tasty treats.”

“I move for a mistrial!” I don’t know what made me blurt that out. Too much TV, I guess.

“Denied. In light of your actions; you are hereby banished to…” Celestia paused, giving me the time to think of all the worst places that she could send me.

Why!? I don’t understand. All I did was cheer Luna up. Was that so bad?

“…Ponyville.”

That doesn’t deserve banishment to the moon. At least she isn’t making a joke of it, by asking if I like… Wait. What did she just say? Did she just say Ponyville?!

“I..I’m sorry, but I don’t think I heard you right.” I rubbed at my ears to make my point. “Did you just say Ponyville?”

Celestia simply nodded in the affirmative. The smile she was wearing threatened to leave the confines of her face.

“I did.” Her voice had returned to being soft and kindhearted. “You are to leave the palace in the morning to live in the local library with my prized pupil, Twilight Sparkle. There; you will be her student, and learn from her the arts of magic and friendship.”

I’m gonna be living with Twilight.

The princesses noticed the goofy grin that formed in the wake of this knowledge, and giggled a bit. I was glad Spike was still sitting on my back. He would have recognized the look I had, as he, himself, has made the same look dozens of times for Rarity.

“We see that thou are pleased with thy ‘punishment’. We wished to thank thee for what thou did for us. Though, it was our sister’s idea to host this charade.”

I really don’t care if this was the biggest troll to ever be concocted. I’m just happy to finally be able to go to Ponyville.

“Wait… what just happened?” Spike asked. 

I looked back to him sitting on my back. “They just played a prank on us.”

“That is not completely true.” Celestia interrupted. “While my sister and I do not have any misgivings about your behavior in the dining room, those of the upper class will expect some form of punishment for the display from your window earlier in the day. I’m sorry, but you are not to return to the castle until further notice. They need time to forget about your transgression.”

Well… Shit. That kind of sucks, but I’m strangely OK with it.

“What did you do that got you kicked out of the castle?” Spike asked.

I blushed from embarrassment. “I may have, sorta, kinda…”

“He relieved himself from his bedroom window, in front of many dignitaries.” Luna answered for me.

“Y..you w..what?” Spike managed to say between giggles. “Why would you do that?”

“It wasn’t my fault. I was having trouble moving at the time, and there wasn’t a bathroom in my room.”

“So the next logical thing was to go out the window?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“Speaking of your mobility. You seem to be moving normally now. I take it you are no longer weak from the procedure?” Celestia asked.

Huh, I hadn’t noticed. I raised a hoof into the air and shook it a bit. It must have been all the running I’ve been doing.

“I guess not.”

“That is good to hear.” Celestia let out a very large yawn. “Excuse me. It has been a long day for me, and I think I will retire early.”

I mimicked Celestia and gave a yawn of my own. That sounds pretty good at the moment. A lot has happened today, after all.

“I think I’ll go to bed as well.”

“We shall walk thee to thy room. We have something we wish to discuss with thee.” Luna said.

“Good night, Luna.” Celestia nuzzled her sister for a moment, then teleported away to her bed chambers.

“Shall we go then?” Luna made her way from her throne to begin our trek to my room. I followed next to her. The guards opened the doors so that we could pass.

“We wished to thank thee. The last time we had that much fun was last Nightmare Night.”

“Think nothing of it. I’m just glad you’re feeling better.”

“We are still sad for the passing of Star Swirl. However, we have learned that we should not let that sadness get in the way of making new friends, and making new memories with those friends.”

I laughed a little. “That sounds a lot like a friendship report. Perhaps you should write a letter to your sister about it.”

She giggled at the realization. “Maybe we will.”

Spike stared at me for a moment. “How much do you know about us?” He asked.

“I know enough.”

I wasn’t sure if he was content with that answer or not, but he didn’t ask anything else. We stopped in front of my room’s door. 

“All else aside. We… I thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.” Luna bowed her head to me.

I smiled at her. “You shouldn’t have to bow to a friend Luna.”

I stepped forward, and put an arm around her neck in the best hug I could manage in this new body. She tensed up, but soon returned the hug.

“I’ll see you in the morning, before I leave, won’t I?”

“Yes, we would not miss it for the world.” With all she wanted to say being said, she released me and turned to walk away.

"Good night, Luna."

She looked back at me for only a moment. "Good night, Honor Bound," and I’m pretty sure I heard her utter, “and thank you,” one last time, under her breath.

I entered my room, and gazed at my huge bed.

I really am tiered.

“Dude, what’s with the mirrors?” Spike asked.

“They’re Blueblood’s.” I answered absentmindedly.

“What? Why do you have his mirrors?”

“Huh? Oh, um… He’s… repainting his room… and… needed a place to put them.”

Wow, that’s a bad lie. I hope Spike believes me.

Spike eyed me suspiciously for only a moment, and then he relaxed and shrugged his shoulders. “Ok. So, where am I going to sleep?”

I hadn’t thought of that. I looked at the only bed in the room. I guess the bed is big enough. It’s not like he’s going to try anything funny.

“We can share the bed. You stay on your side, and I’ll stay on mine.”

"Sounds good to me."

He jumped off my back, and scrambled onto the bed. I moved to my side and slipped under the covers.

Tomorrows going to be awesome.

> Chapter 06: Welcome to Ponyville
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I woke up with something rubbing against my chest. One of my eyes peeled open, so I could discover the offending source. Spike and I may have started on opposite sides of the bed, but somehow, while we slept, we inched our way to the center of it. What I found was my arms wrapped around Spike, like he was a teddy bear, and Spike was rubbing his cheek against my chest in his sleep.

I may have d’awwed for a moment, before withdrawing myself away from the sleeping dragon as quickly as I could. Spike woke abruptly from the sudden movement.

“Huh? Wha?” He managed to question. With droopy eyes, he looked up to me laying a little closer than he was comfortable with. In an instant he was wide awake, and backpedaled a couple of feet to his side of the bed.

“What the hey?!” He shouted, before putting two and two together. “Were we just…”

I interrupted him by raising a hoof, “It never happened. Let’s just leave it at that. Shall we?”

Spike considered this for a moment, but seeing my wisdom, nodded in the affirmative.

I got out of bed to make my way to one of the many mirrors in the room. Looking at myself, I used magic to get rid of my bed head.

The info Luna gave me seems to have kicked in. 

Searching my thoughts, I found that all Luna really gave me was some mental exercises that will keep my magic levels strong, as well as a few useful spells to get me started.

I smiled. I’m glad she kept her word.

I closed my eyes and concentrated on what I was going to do. My horn glowed once more. After a little while it began to pulse to the rhythm of my heart.

“What are you doing?” Spike asked.

I let out the breath I was holding, but didn’t open my eyes. “I’m doing something Luna taught me yesterday.”

My horn stopped pulsing, and dimmed to a point where you had to really look at it to find the blue glow.

“Which is?” Spike pressed.

“Some magic exercises.” I answered. “You might want to close your eyes for this next part.” I added.

Light erupted from my horn in that instant. My eyes shot open glowing brightly from the energies flowing throughout my body. I warped the aura around my horn and brought its light around me, encasing my body in the same light blue glow. I could feel my hooves lift off of the carpet as my mane and tail burst into flame. Just as quickly as it started, it stopped. With a thud, I landed back on my hooves, no worse for wear. My hair didn’t even look singed.

Wow. That was… rather invigorating actually.

“What… the hey… was that?” Spike asked, rubbing his eyes. “I’ve never seen anything like that before. That was amazing!”

“As I said, it’s just an exercise. There are cooler spells in the world.” I answered with nonchalance. Though, not many. That was really cool.

My mind came across one such spell that Luna bestowed upon me, causing me to grin.

“Like this one for instance.” My horn glowed once more, and with a flash, Spike and I were gone.

We materialized in front of Celestia, causing her to stop walking. She eyed us curiously.

Spike was holding his head while his eyes spun in their sockets. I wasn’t doing much better. I shook my head to rid myself of the dizziness, and looked at my new surroundings.

We seemed to be in the royal gardens not too far from my room. There were plenty of hedges with exotic flowers growing from them.

Best spell ever! I can’t believe it actually worked.

“I see you are awake.” Celestia says. “You also seem to have learned how to teleport.”

“Yeah, it was one of the spells that Luna taught me yesterday, and easily one of my favorites.”

“So I see. I felt you honing your power earlier. You learn quickly. Even having the knowledge to do that, I would have expected you to have a little trouble with the spell’s particular make up and design. It is a difficult spell to say the least.”

“Really?”

“Indeed. It would seem that you are rather talented, when it comes to magic. I expect great thing from you.”

Spike seemed to rid himself of his disorientation, and was looking at me in annoyance.

“That’s great and all, but why did you teleport us here? We could have just walked, you know.”

“We could have, but teleporting is so much cooler.”

Spike folded his arm and grumbled under his breath. “Not for me, it’s not.”

“Besides, I wanted to test mixing a scrying spell and the teleportation spell, so I could find Celestia.”

“And found me you have. I see you will fit right in with my prized pupil. Come.” Celestia motioned for us to follow her. “I am sure you are eager to begin your journey to Ponyville.”

Celestia lead us through the castle, to a large balcony overlooking Cantorlot. There was a chariot waiting for us, with two of the pegasi guards getting ready to take off. Spike eagerly ran towards the carriage.

“Finally! I can’t wait to get back to Ponyville.”

I rolled my eyes at the baby dragon. “Spike, it’s only been one day. You can’t possibly miss Ponyville already.”

“It’s not Ponyville I miss.” He countered.

“Oh? What is it then?”

Spike opened the door to the carriage. “None of your business.” He answered, as he climbed in.

“All right, whatever you say.” I chuckled, rolling my eyes again. I knew full well that he was referring to Rarity, though I thought it best to let him think that was still a secret.

I looked up to Celestia standing next to me. “Where’s Luna? She said she wanted to be here to see me off.”

“She will be along shortly. Luna is attending to some last minute royal business.”

There were some hoof steps approaching us, so we turned to greet our newcomers. Luna walked up with the captain of the royal guard following close behind her. He saluted Celestia after coming to a halt.

Holy Shit! It’s Shining Armor! I didn’t think I’d get to meet him before I left. I don’t know why everyone thinks we look alike. Sure, we both have white coats and blue manes, but his mane has stripes in it, while mine doesn’t. Our faces look different as well. Anyone should be able to tell us apart.

“Greeting’s sister…”

“Is this him?” Shining Armor interrupted. He didn’t even wait for an answer. He walked over to me, nostrils flared in irritation. “So, you’re the Stallion who’s going to be living with my baby sister.”

Oh, Shit.

We were about the same height. I might have been taller by an inch, but that didn’t matter. I was fully aware that he could easily kick my butt if he wanted to. I fell to my flank, as he leaned in closer to me.

“I have only one sister.” He states flatly.

Oh, shit. Oh, shit.

“If I hear that something happens to her, because of you…”

Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, shit.

“…even the slightest rumor. I’ll hunt you down to the ends of the world. Do you understand?”

I was trembling now, fully intimidated. It was all I could do to control my bladder. If you think that ponies are not capable of murder, all you had to do was look into Shining Armor’s eyes, at that moment, to know the truth. Nodding was my only response.

“Say it.” He grumbled, inching slightly closer. I could feel his breath on the tip of my snout. 

“I.. I p..promise not t..to l..let anything happen t..to Twilight.” I manage to stammer out.

Shining Armor backed away, satisfied that I wouldn’t harm his little sister, in any way. His personality did a one eighty, once he smiled at his accomplishment. “Good. Remember that promise. I’ll hold you to it.” He said with a wink that scared me more than his previous demeanor had.

The royal sister’s only watched as Shining Armor turned to face them, saluted once more, and dismissed himself to complete some other assignment.

Spike then poked his head out of the carriage, oblivious to what had just transpired. “What’s taking you so long? Let’s get a move on.” He motioned for me to get into the carriage. The dragon seemed to notice the awkward silence in the air. “What happened?” He asked, a little confused.

That brought me out of my fear induced stupor. “Uhh… Nothing, Spike. I’ll be there in a moment.”

Note to self: Do not piss off Twilight’s brother.

Spike pulled his head back into the carriage, satisfied that I’d be there in a bit.

Celestia cleared her throat to gain my attention. “I feel I should apologize for the captain of my guard. He is very protective of his sister, and would do anything for her.”

“I’ve noticed.” I grumbled under my breath.

Celestia smiled. “Do not worry about him. As long as you are kind and respectful, you will have nothing to fear.”

Somehow, that is not easing my worries any.

“Anyway.” Celestia said, changing subjects. “Take this scroll with you, and give it to Twilight when you arrive. It is a royal decree, dictating my orders and her new duties. I am sure she will be excited to teach another pony what she has learned.”

“We are sorry, that thou hast been banished from the castle.” Luna apologized. “It is the only way the nobles will forgive thy incident. Thou haven’t lived here long, however we feel it will be emptier once thou are gone.”

“It’s alright Luna. I’ll miss you too.” I said. “I may not be able to visit you, but that shouldn’t stop you from visiting me, from time to time.”

Luna perked up from this. “It certainly does not.” She said with a nod and a smile.

“Thank you both, for everything you’ve done for me. I won’t forget it.” I paused for a moment. “I’m not one for goodbyes, so I guess I’ll see you later.”

“Until we meet again.” Luna said.

Celestia only nodded, agreeing with her sister.

With all that needed said, being said, I turned to the waiting carriage, scroll firmly in the grasp of my magic.

Spike was there, impatiently tapping his fingers on the window frame with one hand, while the other was holding his head up. Once he saw that I was going to finally enter the buggy, he moved to the side, allowing me access. “About time.” He complained.

“Oh, it wasn’t that long.” I said waving him off with a hoof.

The carriage lurched forward as the pegasi began the journey to our destination. I looked out the window to find us in the air, and gaining altitude. The city of Cantorlot was below us. I could see ponies going about their daily routines, as we passed overhead.

Looking forward, I could see Ponyville in the distance. It looked the same as it did in the show. The small town was nestled between two mountains, which turned into rolling hills all around it. A river flowed around the town, as if to frame it. I could make out Sweet Apple Acers on the outskirts of town as well as the odd windmill that’s always seen from overhead.

“What’s that letter you’ve got there?” Spike asks, drawing my attention away from the approaching town.

“It’s a letter to Twilight. I’m to give it to her when we get to the library.” I answered.

“What’s it say?”

“Celestia said it outlined what Twilight is supposed to teach me.”

I looked back out the window again to find that we were almost there. The town isn’t really that far away from Cantorlot, just a couple of miles. We were coming in for a landing, already dropping below some of the taller buildings.

Many of the ponies in the streets were watching, as the chariot came in for touchdown. The pegasi pulling the carriage reared up once we came to a stop. I opened the door and stepped out into the square, Spike following me.

I looked over to our drivers. “Thanks for the lift.”

They simply nodded, and without a word took off, to return to the castle.

“Come on. The library is this way.” Spike motioned for me to follow him.

I took maybe two steps, before I noticed a small dust cloud approaching from a distance. “Uh, Spike. What is that?” I asked, pointing to the cloud in question.

Spike squinted his eyes to try to focus on the approaching anomaly. “I don’t know, but it’s coming this way really fast.”

We watched it get closer and closer. When it got to the point I was about to move out of the way of the oncoming phenomenon, it stopped. The dust settled to reveal… nothing.

“What the hay!” Spike exclaimed.

“What was…” Before I could finish my question, I was interrupted by its answer.

I was tackled from the side by a blur of pink, tumbling on the ground, until I settled onto my back with two big blue eyes in my face.

“Hi!” The bubbly pink pony greeted. “Oh my gosh, you’re new in town! What am I saying? Of course you’re new in town. I know everypony in Ponyville, and I mean everypony, but I haven’t met you yet, so that means you’re new, because if I haven’t met you, then you’re new to me, so I had to greet you, and say ‘Hi’, which I did, which is why I’m talking to you now, because you’re new, and need to be welcomed into Ponyville.” She inhaled deeply. “I’ll be right back. Don’t move a muscle.”

Pinkie zipped out of my vision, only to return with her welcome wagon. She pressed the button on the side of it, to start the contraption. The instruments popped out of the little wagon and began to play music.

Pinkie started to dance and sing, “Welcome, welcome, welcome. A fine welcome to you! Welcome, welcome, welcome. I say, ‘How do you do!’ Welcome, welcome, welcome. I say, ‘Hip, hip, hooray!’” Welcome, welcome, welcome to Poooonyyyyyvilllle tooooooodaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

During the song, I had gotten back into a sitting position. I was staring at Pinkie with slack jawed wonderment.

Holy shit! It’s Pinkie Pie. One of the main six. And, I just got the welcome song! I couldn’t help but to smile at her.

“Wait for it!” She announced.

My smile dropped. Oh Hell!

I jumped to the ground covering my head. I remember what happened to Cranky Doodle. Any minute now, the Oven is going to explode with confetti, and cake is going to shoot out of the confetti cannons. I heard the ding of the oven. 

Nothing happened. I looked up just in time, to find, confetti shooting out of the confetti cannons, and a delicious looking cake sitting in the open oven. Pinkie was laughing at my stupefied expression.

“What did you think was going to happen?” She asked with a giggle.

Before I could answer, Pinkie shoved a small piece of cake into my mouth. It was good. Really good. Probably the best cake I had ever eaten.

The cake was a soft and moist vanilla, while the frosting was a delightful chocolate flavor. My favorite. I swallowed the piece that was shoved into my mouth. Pinkie through the remaining cake into the air, and downed the whole thing, before I could get more.

She licked her lips. “Mmmm, that’s good!” Pinkie looked back at me. “What’s your name! I’m Pinkie Pie! I saw you come in with the pegasus guards, and I thought, ‘They must be bringing somepony new to town, so I rushed out of the bakery as fast as I could to greet you, so here I am. I’m sure we’ll be best of friends, because everypony is my friend, and when I say everypony I mean everymmMMMmmfffff…”

I swiftly stuck my hoof into her mouth. I like Pinkie Pie, but sometimes she just talks too much. I removed my hoof, once she stopped trying to talk through it. Spike was standing behind me doing his best not to laugh at the pink ponies antics.

“Hi, Pinkie. I’m Honor Bound.” I introduce myself.

“Oh, really? You don’t look like an Honor Bound. You look more like a JosmmMMMMffff” I frantically shove my hoof back into her mouth.

Crap! That was close. I don’t know if she was actually going to say my real name or not, but considering it’s Pinkie Pie. It’s best not to take the chance.

Spike looked at us in a bit of confusion. “What was she going to say?”

Shit! He’s asking too many questions again.

“I didn’t want her to go into another tangent.” I tell Spike, and then turn back to Pinkie. “Yes, I’m sure that my name is Honor Bound.” I say a little frazzled, while I removed my hoof once more from her mouth.

“Okie doki Loki!” Pinkie says with a smile and a nod.

I give a sigh of relief.

Oh thank God!

“Pinkie, you’re so meta.” I commented.

“No, no, no. You said it wrong.” Pinkie corrects. “You’re supposed to say, ‘Pinkie, you’re so random,’ like Rainbow Dash always says.”

I start to laugh at the energized pony, only to stop shortly after I began, when a blue pegasus with a rainbow main drops out of the sky and lands next to Pinkie, as if she was actually summoned.

“Did somepony say the most awesome name in all of Equestria?” she asked and boasted at the same time.

“Oh! Oh! That was me, Dashie!” Pinkie exclaimed waving her hoof around in the air. “Honor Bound, here, is new in town, so I just welcomed him to ponyville, but afterwards he said that I was so meta, (whatever that means) but I was all like, ‘You said it wrong. You’re supposed to say, Pinkie, you’re so random.’ Like you always say Rainbow, and that’s when you showed up.” She explained excitedly.

Rainbow only nodded. I couldn’t tell if she was actually listening to Pinkie, or just giving the impression that she was.

Spike turned to me and asked, “Why didn’t you call Pinkie random, like every other pony in town?”

“It’s not really random when you know what she’s doing.” I answer without thinking it through.

Rainbow Dash turned and glared at me. “How do you know what Pinkie’s doing? Not even Twilight knows that, and she’s the smartest pony in all of Equestria.” Dash gasped. “Are you a spy or something?” She asked.

Spike answered before I could come up with a reply. “Yeah. How did you know Dash?”

There was silence as I facehoofed.

God damn it Spike!
> Chapter 07: First Impressions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Rainbow Dash’s eyes grew large, as her suspicions were confirmed by Spike. She was on me in an instant. “Who do you work for? Are you alone? How long have you been watching us?” Each question was punctuated with a jab to my chest, and her moving further into my personal space.

Not good! Definitely, not good. Gotta think of a way out of this. I’m not going to lie to her and tell her that I actually am a spy for Celestia. There is a difference between lying to someone and letting someone believe something that’s untrue. That, and it’ll most likely cause more problems later on.  I can’t tell her that she’s part of a TV show. She’d never believe that anyway. At this point, if I were to tell her that I’m not a spy and set Spike strait on the issue, she still wouldn’t believe me. So, what should I do?

“Hey! Pay attention to me when I’m talking to you.” Dash yelled. “If you don’t start answering my questions, I might have to start getting a little ruff with you.”

I definitely don’t want that. Think damn it! My eyes shifted around looking for help wherever I could find it.

Spike was twiddling his thumbs, clearly sorry for causing the confrontation, but didn’t want any part in it. Pinkie Pie wasn’t even paying attention to us. She was probably too busy planning my Welcome to Ponyville party to focus on the goings on around her. Every other pony in the streets were going about their business, like this was an everyday thing. No one even cared that I was about to get pummeled into the ground.

I focused back onto Rainbow Dash. Her eyes told me that she was clearly set on that particular bit.

You know what? I don’t have to take this. I’m leaving.

I charged the magic to my horn. Rainbow Dash saw this and drew back her hoof in order to punch me before I could cast my spell.

Just before her hoof connected, I was gone. She lost her balance and fell to the ground, not expecting to hit nothing.

I reappeared not too far away behind a building.

I need to work on the distance part of this spell.

I watched her from behind my hiding place, as she shook her head and looked around for where I had gone. Not wanting to be discovered so soon, I pressed myself against the building.

“Well howdy there, partner.” came a southern voice.

I looked next to me to discover a cart filled with apples and an orange mare with a stetson on her head.

“Ya must be the new pony in town. Ah heard Pinkie singin’ that welcome song oh hers a little bit ago.” She eyed me up and down. “Are ya hidin’ from somepony or somethin’?” she asked.

“That obvious, huh?”

“It’s just that you’re shakin’ more than my granny on a cold day.” she answered.

In the distance we could hear Dash shouting at the top of her lungs. “You can’t hide from me! I’ll find you, and when I do, I’m gonna buck you to next Tuesday.”

Applejack looked at me funny. “What did ya do to get Dash all worked up like that?”

“It’s not my fault!” I quickly tried to defend myself. “It’s just a misunderstanding.”

My stomach grumbled, making itself known. I gave Applejack a sheepish smile. “Sorry, I guess I haven’t eaten anything today.”

“Shoot, if ya’ll were hungry, ya shoulda said so, and don’t worry none about Dash. She can get worked up over the smallest of things sometimes. The names Applejack, my family an’ Ah run Sweet Apple Acres. Bein’ new ta town, the first apple’s free.” She grabbed an apple and handed it to me.

I took the apple into my grasp, looking at it like it was some kind of rare jewel.

An apple from Sweet Apple Acers. Every brony wants to taste one of these apples. This is a dream come true. 

“Thank you, Applejack, I really appreciate it.”

“Twern’t nothin’.” she replied.

My mouth was salivating as I raised the apple to it. Sadly, before I could savor the splendor that apple had to offer, I was interrupted by a shout.

“Ah ha! There you are!” I turn to find Rainbow Dash rounding the corner of the building.

Oh crap!

“Sorry Applejack. Gotta go! Bye!”

I dropped the apple I had, and ran for dear life past the orange cowpony.

Behind me I could hear Rainbow shout, “You’re not ganna get away from me that easily! Hey!? Applejack? Lemmy go!”

I turned my head to find that Applejack had caught Rainbow by the tail and was keeping her busy, while I made my escape. 

Once I was sure I was out of Rainbow’s line of sight, I dodged into a random shop to hide from the perusing mare.

Slamming the door shut behind me, I leaned against the door to prevent anypony else from entering. Looking at my surroundings for the first time, I found that I recognized the waiting room that I was in. The two mares behind the counter only confirmed my suspicions. 

I had entered the local spa.

“Can we help you?” the blue pony with the pink mane asked.

“Do you mind if I hide here for a bit? I’ve gotten myself in a bit of a misunderstanding, and I’d like to lay low until it blows over.”

The pink one with the blue mane answered, “Not at all, you may stay in the waiting room for as long as you’d like.”

“Thank you.”

In the distance, I could barely hear a refined mare say, “Wait… I know that voice… but it couldn’t possibly be him.”

I could actually feel my pupils shrink as the white unicorn with a purple mane stepped out of the back room wearing an elegant robe.

Crap! Out of the frying pan, and into the fire. Maybe, if I’m lucky, she won’t recognize me.

Once her eyes saw me, her face contorted into that of pure rage. “YOU!” she cried out.

So much for that.

“How dare you come to Ponyville! After what you put me through at the gala, you have no right to show up like this.”

“I.. I’m not who you think I am.”

“Oh, of course you are. Did you honestly think simply changing the color of your mane would keep me from recognizing the most arrogant, pompous, most inconsiderate pony to ever grace the land of Equestria.”

There was a quiet squeak from behind Rarity. I really had to strain my ears, but I was just able to make out, “Who is it Rarity?”

Is that who I think it is?

A long, flowing, pink mane poked out from behind Rarity, covering half the face of the shy yellow pegasus. She looked over Rarity’s shoulder to get a better look at the pony her friend was yelling at.

Yay! It’s Fluttershy. She’ll help me sort this out.

Once Fluttershy got a good look at me, she shied further behind Rarity in an attempt to hide from the strange pony she didn’t know.

Rarity turned to her friend and calmly explained the situation to her. “Do you remember that night at the Grand Galloping Gala?” she rhetorically asked. “This is the blowhard of a prince I told you about.”

Fluttershy, Lily, and Lotus simultaneously turned to glare at me.

Great! I just can’t get a break today.

“But I didn’t…” I tried to explain but was interrupted by Fluttershy.

She was right in my face. Her eyes grew large as she stared into my vary soul. The expression she had wasn’t that of anger or rage. It was actually more of a face that spoke of a mother’s disappointment. The kind of face, that would cause the recipient to want to do whatever possible to please the owner. I was being reduced to a young child again, and as much as I wanted to, I couldn’t look away.

“You didn’t act vary gentlecoltly towards my friend Rarity at the Gala. Did you? I think you owe her an apology. Don’t you?”

While under the influence of Fluttershy’s intense gaze, I was feeling very mixed emotions and desires. I wanted to do whatever Fluttershy told me to do, but at the same time, I couldn’t lie to her because it might make her even more disappointed in me. So that means I couldn’t apologize for something I didn’t do.

I was shaking now, not from fear, or excitement from witnessing the Stare in person. It was simply because I couldn’t give Fluttershy what she wanted.

“I.. It wasn’t… m..me.” I managed to stammer out. 

This clearly surprised Fluttershy because she dropped the Stare right after the words left my lips. “Oh dear.” She muttered.

Free from its hold, I collapsed to the floor, breathing heavily.

That was probably… the hardest thing… I have ever had to do… in my entire life. Please God, don’t let me go through that… ever again.

“But of course it was you.” Rarity butted in. “If it wasn’t you, than who; your twin brother?”

“Actually…” I panted. “…yeah.”

“Ha! That is the worst excuse I have ever heard in my entire life. If you had come to Ponyville to apologize, then I might have accepted your apology. As it turns out that you have no intention to even admit that you did anything wrong… Girls…” She looked back to the two spa attendants sitting on the sidelines. “Get him.”

The twin spa owners had no problems siding with their most loyal customer over some stallion off the streets. Before I knew what happened, I found myself being thrown out of the spa and into the dirt road.

Rarity stood in the doorway of the establishment, looking down on me in disgust. “I don’t know why you came to Ponyville, but I recommend that you leave before one of us does something she regrets.”

Before I could attempt to explain my situation to her, a very tomboyish voice shouted from above us, “Found You!”

This is just not my day.

I look up to find Rainbow Dash closing in on me from her vantage point in the clouds.

Crap!

Scrambling to my hooves, I ran for it. In the distance I could hear Rarity yelling, “Rainbow Dash!? Save some of him for me, I’m not done with him yet!”

I wasn’t moving nearly fast enough. Dash was going to catch me in a matter of moments, if I didn’t do something soon. Looking around for anything to help in my escape of the speedy mare, I decided to dodge into an ally, off to the side, at the last second. Rainbow sped past, only to come back around with a vengeance.

Lucky for me, this ally had a lot of clothes lines in it. All were full with drying laundry hanging on them. I passed under them unharmed, but Dash was moving too fast overhead to stop or dodge the obstacles. I could hear the twang of the lines as well as a few articles of clothing being ripped, before she tumbled to the ground in a heap of cloth.

I paused for a moment, fearing that she had hurt herself. The explosion of clothing, and her heated expression, was enough to tell me otherwise. Chuckling at the lingerie hanging from Dashes ears, I redoubled my speed to get away.
In the distance, I could see the top of Twilight’s tree library poking out from behind a building.

Perfect! I should be safe once I get to the library. Twilight will help hide me, especially since I’ll be living there from now on.

Dodging in and out of other ponies’ ways, I made my way to the tree house, coming to a large intersection.

I paused, once I glanced down each street.

Rarity was charging down one avenue with Fluttershy following overhead. It looked to me that the timid pegasus was trying to calm Rarity down, but Rarity was too focused on me to pay her any mind.

“You will pay for the embarrassment you caused me!” she cried.

Looking down another path, I found Applejack coming at me with a lasso in her mouth, ready to hog tie me if necessary.

Crap! Looks like Dash convinced her that I’m the bad guy.

“Get back here, so I can pummel you!” Dash shouted behind me, as she charged.

Ahead of me, I saw Pinkie Pie hopping towards me happily humming a song. She waved to me innocently, completely oblivious to the fact that I was being chased by her friends.

My last option was the street leading to Twilight’s house. Using what little strength I had left, I teleported to the front of the local library, and opened the door in a flash. Quickly slamming the door shut behind me, only to peek out of the little window built into it, at my pursuers.

They met in the intersection. It seemed to me that they were talking with each other for a short while. Pinkie pointed a hoof to the library, than at the same time, all of them looked directly at me through the window. I quickly ducked down, hoping fruitlessly that they didn’t notice me.

“Can I… help you?” asked a very uncertain voice.

My eyes widened at the prospect of who it was standing behind me. Turning slowly, I came to gaze upon the object of my affections.

Twilight.

I found myself completely speechless in front of the bookmare. She looked me up and down trying to deduce the cause of my frantic entrance.

“Do you… need a book?” she prodded.

Shacking out of my initial shock, I realized how odd I must have been acting.

“Oh. I’m sorry. I’m Hon…”

Without warning, the door behind me flew open, with all of my pursuers tumbling into the room in a pile. I was clearly standing too close to the door, because the force, in which it opened, slammed me into the wall behind it. Effectively pinning me there.

“What is going on here?” Twilight demanded.

Dash shot out of the pony pile, and darted everywhere in her search. “Where is he? Where did he go? I swear when I get my hooves on him I’ll…”

“You won’t do nothin’ ta him til we know the truth. Ah say we hog tie him til he tells us what he’s doin’ here.” Applejack says as she crawls out from under her friends.

“Um… girls?” Fluttershy mumbles as she climbed off of Rarity. 

Rarity stands up and addresses the mares present. “I, for one, already know what he is here for. I am curtain that he simply wishes to try to get some sort of revenge, from me, for embarrassing him at the Gala. That uncouth pony has much more to answer for, if you ask me. And Dash… I won’t stop you from doing whatever you want to him.” she says with a wicked smile.

Rainbow Dash acknowledges Rarity with an evil grin and a nod.

“Girls, I don’t think that…” Fluttershy tried again.

“What are you guys talking about?” Twilight demanded.

Pinkie Pie pops out of nowhere from behind the purple mare. “Oh, there’s a new pony in town, and I need to throw him a party for being new to Ponyville, because every new pony in Ponyville gets to have a party thrown for them, and it’s always so fun and I MmMMmmfff…”

Pinkie was swiftly silenced when Twilight shoved her hoof into the pink pony’s mouth.

“I don’t think that he’s as bad as you think he is.” Fluttershy finally says a little louder this time, only still not loud enough for her friends to take notice.

The door that was pinning me to the wall, slowly swung closed. I came into full view of all the ponies in the room. Their gazes turned to me, as I fell to the floor with a thud.

Ow, my head. What hit me?

I looked up at all the ponies in the room.

Oh… Shit. This isn’t going to end well.

Before I could get off of the floor, Applejack tied me up in the blink of an eye. I was upside down with my hooves tied, and pointing in the air.

You know… This can be either really bad, or really good.

Dash landed and walked smugly towards me.

“There. Now that you can’t escape, who do you work for?” Dash asked through clenched teeth.

Not good it is then.

“Dash, darling, he doesn’t work for anypony. This is just Prince Blueblood in a pitiful excuse for a disguise.

“What? No it’s not, this is a spy, here to steal our secrets.” Dash waved an accusing hoof at me.

Pinkie Pie started giggling. “Aww, Honor Bound isn’t a spy, silly.”

“What? Of course he is. Didn’t you hear Spike earlier, when we were in the street?” Dash argued.

“Nope, he’s Celestia’s nephew, and Bluebloods twin brother, Prince Honor Bound.” Pinkie counters.

“Yeah, that’s me.” I chime in.

Wait…

“How do you know that, Pinkie?” I ask, angling my neck awkwardly to get a better look at her.

“Huh? Oh! It’s right here, in this scroll I found in the middle of the road. You know, you shouldn’t leave important papers lying in the street. You never know who might find them.” she informs me as she pulls the scroll in question out of her tail.

“Let me see that.” Rarity says as she levitates the document over to her. Her eyes darted across the paper as she read its contents. “I don’t believe it.” She whispers. “I don’t believe it.” she says once more looking right at me this time. “Another p..prince, a..and I…” Rarity’s eyes rolled back into her head, and stumbled around for a moment, before promptly fainting.

Twilight brought the letter up to her and read its contents aloud.

“To my most faithful student; Twilight,

"It has been some time since you began your studies on magic, as well as the magic of friendship. To this extent, I believe you are ready to make the transition from student, to teacher.

"The pony, who has delivered this letter, is Prince Honor Bound. My nephew, and Prince Blueblood’s twin brother. I have taken the liberty of appointing him as your new student. He is rather talented when it comes to performing new spells. Though, sadly, his duties have prevented him from learning much more than a yearling at this point.

"Take this as another assignment in addition to your friendship reports. I have the utmost faith that you will be able to teach him many things, and he may be able to teach you a few things as well.

"I look forward to hearing from you soon.

"Your mentor,
"Princess Celestia of Equestria

"P.S. I am sure that there will be no problems with him living with you. The library is big enough for one more after all.”

Once Twilight had finished reading the note, every conscious pony looked over to me lying on the floor. All had varying degrees of shock on their faces.

“Um… A little help, please?” I asked sheepishly, wiggling my hooves around to clarify what I wanted.

> Chapter 08: Introductions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The five conscious mares had different reactions to the news.

Pinkie Pie was jumping around smiling without a care in the world. 

Fluttershy was torn between caring for Rarity’s unconscious form, and joining her on the floor in a heap.

Rainbow Dash’s glare made me cringe a bit. 

She may not think I’m a spy anymore, but she clearly doesn’t like me.

Twilight was still shocked silent, reading and rereading the scroll the princess sent with me.

Applejack was the first pony to act. She was remorseful as she removed the rope from my legs. “I’m sorry, sugar cube. I plum let Rainbow talk me into joinin’ her crusade against ya. Can ya find it in yur heart ta forgive me?” She asked.

“It’s all right.” I said as I got off the floor. “I’m not one to hold a grudge, especially when nothing harmful happened.”

“Nothing harmful!” Dash yelled. “I almost broke my wing chasing after you!”

“Ya didn’t have ta chase him.” Applejack stated matter-of-factly.

“I..You.. He.. Ah horse feathers.” She grumbled, crossing her arms and looking away from me.

“I’m going to be a teacher!” Twilight shouts happily, brining all of our attentions to her. “I have so much to do. I need to change my schedule, I’ll have to come up with a lesson plan, and I’ll need supplies. A lot of supplies.” She was pacing around, as she voiced the list in her head out loud.

Applejack leaned in to whisper conspiratorially to me, “Ah don’t know what ya did ta get the princess ta make ya Twi’s student and all, but whatever it was musta been bad.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked in confusion. “I’m looking forward to this.”

Applejack looked at me like I was crazy. “Ya clearly don’t know Twi. All she does is study. Which is all yur gonna be doin’; with her bein’ yur teacher an’ all.”

I gazed over to the giddy purple mare and smiled for a moment. “I think I’m okay with that.”

The cowpony scrunched up her nose; trying to comprehend that somepony, other than her friend, would like to do nothing but study. After deciding that it wasn’t something that mattered, she simply shrugged, “Ta each their own, Ah guess.”

The front door burst open, and Spike came running in. “Twilight! I need help! Dash is chasing Honor Bound around town… and…” He noticed that all of us were sitting calmly in the library. “Oh, I guess it worked itself out then.”

Twilight didn’t even register that Spike had came in shouting. However, the noise from the door woke Rarity, startling Fluttershy by the sudden movement as the white mare bolted upright. 

“Another Prince!” Rarity exclaimed. 

She got up, and used her magic to make herself more presentable. Once she was satisfied with how she looked, she trotted over to me in the most elegant manner she could muster. “I am so sorry about the trouble my friends and I caused you. My name is Rarity.” She offered her hoof for me to kiss, batting her eyelashes in a flirtatious manner.

This can’t be good.

I took her hoof into my own, only to shake it. “Pleasure.” I greeted with a slight bow of my head.

She was a little put off by this, but continued with her introduction. “I run and own Carousel Boutique, just down the way. My dress designs have been gaining notoriety, since I began making clothes for many famous ponies over the past year, such as Sapphire Shores, and Hoity Toity.”

“That’s… nice.”

“Yes, I quite enjoy it. My brand really took off once I met Fancypants. I owe my current success to him. I swear, I thought I would go out of business after what transpired at the Grand Galloping Gala.” Rarity paused in her life story for a moment.

She turned her head to the side and blushed in embarrassment. “That is sort of why I was so upset with you, or I thought I was. You see, Blueblood, your brother, was very ungentlecoltly towards me from the moment we met. I stayed with him through most of the night, thinking he would change his attitude at any moment. One thing led to another and I ended up with cake on my face… literally. Afterwards, I may have said and done some unladylike things, though I still believe they were justified by his actions. He didn’t think so, however.”

Does she not stop talking about herself?

“He apparently decided to try to ruin my life by shunning anypony who wore my brand. This of course, made me one of the least desirable fashion designers in the business. That is, until I bumped into Fancypants. He was such a…”

I am sorry to admit that I stopped paying attention at that moment. Rarity’s voice drifted into the background creating a soft white noise, as my mind wondered.

I knew she was vain, but wow. She just couldn’t wait to tell me her life story. I wonder what she’d do if I brought up Tom. Just slip it into a conversation. ‘Oh, by the way, Tom misses you.’ Heh, heh. She’d probably deny it at first, then demand who told me.

My eyes drifted around the library. Twilight was still running around with a quill and paper following her. She was looking for whatever books she needed, making a quick mark on the parchment, once she found what she was looking for. Her eyes were focused on her goal. I was pretty sure she didn’t even know that Spike was back from Cantorlot yet. 

Rainbow Dash never took her eyes away from me. It was like she was just waiting for an excuse to knock me out. Applejack had apparently noticed this as well, and was staying close to the rainbow mare. Just in case.

Pinkie was talking to Fluttershy in her rapid fire way. Fluttershy looked like she was trying to keep up, but it was clear that she was getting more and more confused as time went on. Her eyes drifted to my own, only for her to quickly hide behind her mane.

Over Rarity’s shoulder I noticed that Spike was fuming at me, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out why.

Okay, I have to defuse this before it becomes a problem. 

“Um… I need to talk to... uh… my teacher’s assistant for a moment. Please excuse me.”

“Hm?” I’m not sure if I interrupted Rarity or not. It was almost like she was in a trance that I brought her out of. She didn’t seem upset or put out by my request, but she kept looking at me with those half lidded eyes. “Oh, but of course dear, don’t let me hold you up.” 

Ok, a little odd. I trotted around her and over to Spike. Best to play it dumb.

“Um… Hey Spike, is something wrong?” I whisper to him.

“Is something wrong?!” He repeats in a whisper shout. Loud enough to announce that he’s upset, but not enough for the other ponies in the room to hear him. “I’ve been trying to get Rarity to like me since I met her. Now, you come along, and she’s fawning all over you.”

I look back over to the white mare, catching her biting her lower lip. Noticing that my attention was on her, she gives me a flirtatious flutter of her eyes. 

Sighing heavily, I turn back to the baby dragon. “I see what you mean, but I can’t exactly do anything about it.”

Spike crossed his arms and glared at me.

“Well, what do you want me to do? I promise that I’m not interested in her. There’s somepony else I have my eye on at the moment, anyway.” I say as a watch Twilight moving from book to book in her search for more study guides on teaching.

An idea formed in my head. “Hey, how about this? I promise to help you win Rarity’s heart, if you help me get with the mare of my dreams. Deal?”

Spike eyed me for a moment. “Really?” he asked. “You’re not interested in Rarity at all?”

“Naw, she’s not my type.”

“How is that possible? She’s perfect in every way.”

I shrug, “Perfect for you maybe, but not for me.”

“Who do you have a crush on? Do I know her?”

I hesitated for a moment. Is this a good idea? Spike doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to keeping secrets. The incident earlier is proof of that. 

“Uh... I’m going to keep that to myself for now. I’ll wait until she knows me a little better.”

“Awww, come on. Not even a hint? You know who I like. It’s only fair for you to tell me who you like.”

“Fine, I’ll give you a small hint. You know her, but that’s all you’re getting.”

“What are you two whispering about over there?” Dash questioned loudly.

She’s really starting to bug me.

“Nothing that concerns you.” I retort.

“What was that?” she demands as she rolls up an imaginary sleeve on her arm in a threatening manner.

“Now settle down, Dash. If he don’t want ta tell ya what he’s talkin’ ta Spike about, he don’t have ta.” Applejack intervenes, causing Rainbow Dash to land for the first time since arriving to the library.

“Yeah!” I agree.

“And, you don’t have ta egg her on like that, neither.” she adds, turning to me.

My ears fold back in guilt.

“So, why don’t y’all shake hooves and make up.”

Both, Rainbow and I, grumble as we took each other’s hooves into our own and shook.

Pinkie Pie then jumps out from behind me. “Yay!” she cries. “Now, not only do I get to throw a ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party, for Honor Bound, but now I can make it a ‘Welcome to Ponyville Honor Bound, who is now getting along with Rainbow Dash’ party!” she declared.

I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit at Pinkie, something Dash did as well. She caught herself and stormed to the door, grumbling on the way. Before stepping outside she announced, “I need to do some flying!” and then she took off. 

“Don’t mind her, none.” Applejack said. “She’s just mad cause you were able ta evade her for so long.”

I chuckle half heartedly. “Only because of you. Thanks for that, by the way.”

“Fur what?”

“For keeping Rainbow busy, while I made my escape. I woulda been dead, right there, if it weren’t for you.”

“Aww, twern’t nothin’. Sometimes Dash can get a little gung ho when she’s after somethin’.”

She glanced around the room. “Ya know? Now that Ah know that everythin’ is fine, Ah really do need ta get back ta my apple stall. It was nice ta meet ya, Honor. See ya girls later.” She tipped her hat, and left the same way Rainbow had earlier.

Rarity let out a loud sigh, bringing my attention to her. “I suppose I should return to my shop as well. I can’t rightly deny the ponies of Ponyville my fabulous dresses forever. Now can I? It was a pleasure meeting you, despite the unpleasantness of earlier. I hope our paths cross again. Ta.” 

She blows a kiss to me, which makes me cringe slightly and instinctively look over to Spike. The purple dragon was standing next to me, his arms were crossed once more and he was glaring at me. 

I can’t have him hating me again. How to fix this? Ah!

I leaned in to whisper to him, “You know, you should be the gentlecolt here, and escort her home.”

His features grew to realization. “Hey, yeah! That’s a great idea.” he thought out loud. He ran up to Rarity, before she could make it to the door, and gave a low bow. “Excuse me malady, but would you mind if I escort you to your destination.”

“Thank you, Spike. That would be nice. I could actually use your help for a little while. I’ll be sure to give you a couple of gems as a reward.” Rarity turned to leave, but stopped a moment. “Oh, and Fluttershy? Same time, next week, for our spa date?”

The timid pegasus hunkered down into the floor, as if she were being scolded. Her eyes darted around the room to each pony present. I couldn’t be sure because of the light, but when she looked at me, I think she was blushing.

“Oh! Um… That..That would be nice.” she answered in a meek voice.

Rarity nodded her head and continued out of the library with Spike following close behind.

I looked back over to Fluttershy, who shied further away from my gaze.

I should probably keep up appearances.

“I don’t think I got your name, miss?”

“Oh…um…It’s.. Fluttershy.” She mumbled.

I honestly didn’t understand her, but rather than go through the back and forth of asking her name again and again. I decided to just pretend I heard her.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Fluttershy.”

“Wow! You actually understood what she said?” Pinkie asked, astonished. “You must have, like, super pony hearing or something, because nopony can understand the words that are coming out of her mouth when she’s mumbling like that.”

“I.. I’m sorry, but…” Fluttershy squeezed her eyes shut. “…but I need to feed my animals.” she stated so quickly that I almost couldn’t separate the words. I was left speechless as she bolted out of the tree fast enough to make Rainbow Dash give pause.

Was it something I said?

I turned to Pinkie for an explanation, and she seemed to read my mind. She wrapped her arm around my neck in a friendly embrace. “Don’t worry about it. She acts that way around most of the stallions in town.”

One of my eyebrows rose at this. “Why’s that?” I couldn’t help but ask.

Pinkie put her other hoof to her chin in thought, using me to support her weight. “You know… I have no idea!” she exclaimed happily.

We looked into each other’s eyes. She was grinning maniacally, while I was looking at her with a deadpan expression.

After a little while, the silence and the uncomfortable lack of personal space started to make me uncomfortable.

Perhaps I could use her love for parties to get her to leave. I wonder if she’s started putting my surprise party together, yet.

“Uh.. Hey don’t you have something you have to do?” I asked.

“Not that I can think of, no.”

“Really? Nothing party related?” I pressed.

Pinkie looked into the air and stuck her tongue out, in thought. “Hmmmm.” She gasped deeply, and jumped into the air in shock; staying there for a little longer than was normally possible. “I need to get back to Sugar Cube Corner. I left Bon Bon’s birthday cake in the oven!”

She landed and ran out of the library with a pink blur of color following her. I chuckled quietly to myself. Pinkie is definitely Pinkie.

The scribbling of a quill on parchment and the shuffling of books brought my attention away from the slowly closing door.

Twilight was sitting at her desk, writing something on a piece of paper while glancing at a book every so often. My eyes widened at a realization.

I’m alone with Twilight in her library! What do I do? What do I say? I wonder what she’s doing.

Focusing on the last question, I walked up behind her nervously, and asked the question that was on my mind. “What are you doing?”

She must have been lost in her own little world, because she nearly jumped five feet into the air from the sound of my voice.

“Oh! You scared me.” Twilight’s hoof rested on her chest to help calm her breathing down to more normal levels. Once she gathered herself, she answered my question. “I was writing to the princess about what I plan to teach you. I figured she would like to be kept appraised of your progress.”

“She might. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to introduce myself properly earlier.”

Twilight looked at me a little confused, then realization dawned on her. “Oh, yeah. I suppose I’m sorry as well. I got a little excited about teaching somepony else what I’ve learned about magic, that I forgot everything else.” She squared herself off to me, cleared her throat, and raised her hoof to me. “My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I guess I’ll be your teacher from now on.”

I smiled to her as a grasped her hoof to shake it. “I’m Honor Bound, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

“Finally?”

“Hmm? Oh!” I haven’t even said a dozen words to her and I’ve already got my foot in my mouth. Come on, think fast! “Um… Celestia used to give me your friendship reports after she read them. It was always the light of my day when she would give me a new one to read.”

Twilight was a little stunned. “I didn’t know that anypony else read those. You.. you liked them?”

“Definitely.”

She blushed in embarrassment. 

Phew, Close one. Though, I guess she never thought that someone other than the princess would read her reports. 

There was an awkward silence that followed. Something, that both of us weren’t too fond of. 

“So, what’s on the syllabus?” I asked, grasping for anything to move the conversation along.

“Oh!” Twilight brightened up with the topic of learning. “Well, I was planning to start off with a lesson on the concept of spells, and then we could move on to how spells work. After that, we could work on power control, and some simple spell casting. How’s that sound to you?”

“That sounds fine.” I nodded in approval. I was pretty sure I already knew the first two subjects already, but I figured it wouldn’t matter much. Besides, it was more time I got to spend with my new teacher. “When do we start?”

Twilight’s horn glowed and a couple of books levitated down from their shelves. “I’ve already cleared my schedule, so we can start right now, if you like?”

“Great!” I couldn't wait to start.
> Chapter 09: Lesson One
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight moved a book in front of me. A large symbol depicting a wisp of a sparkly magic aura was taking up most of the cover’s surface, while under the image the title was printed in extremely tiny print, to the point that I had to squint to read it.

‘Magic: The Concept of Spells for Beginners’.Huh, this seems a little big for a beginner’s book.

It was indeed large. Judging by the thickness, it was easily five hundred pages. So, unless the text inside was abnormally big with many pictures; this was going to take a while.

“This is the first book I read about magic, back when I was a filly.” Twilight informed as she sat down beside me. “I thought it appropriate to begin our lessons with it. Please turn to chapter one, so we can begin.”

I couldn’t help but have a small panic attack. She’s so close that she’s rubbing against me. Calm down. Calm down. This isn’t anything special. She just wants to share the book with me. That’s all. Think about what Shining Armor told you… Is that lavender I smell? God! I can actually smell her! 

Needless to say; I was a little distracted.

Trying to focus on something, other than the beautiful mare sitting closely beside me, I called upon my magic and flipped the tome’s cover open. My eyes widened in surprise when the magic in my horn wouldn’t fade away. Instead, it increased. Everything in the room faded away as unfamiliar thoughts and ideas flowed into my mind. Faintly, I could hear pages fluttering wildly, and a worried voice in a panic.

I wasn’t afraid. In fact, this almost felt familiar. It was different from the times that Luna had hit me with her teaching spell. Back then, it felt like the information was being forced into my head. Now however, it was more like I was absorbing it, taking it in at my own pace. Each page delivering its own bit of knowledge. Not all of it was sticking, but I was learning much faster than I would have been just by reading it normally.

Once the last page turned, my magic dropped the book that was floating in the air. It hit the ground with a thud, and the covers slapped closed. I was breathing heavily, like I had just run a marathon. Blinking my eyes to try to clear my vision, I barely noticed that Twilight was staring at me with her mouth hung open.

“What the hay was that?” she asked.

“I was… hoping… you could tell me.” I answered between gasps.

“I’ve never seen a spell like that before. What did it do?”

“I think… I just… read the book.”

Twilight’s eyes grew in excitement and wonder. “That’s amazing! I didn’t know magic like that existed. Did you cast that spell by instinct? Could you teach it to me?”

I don’t think so. It was more like my magic had a mind of its own, and wouldn’t stop until it was done.

I was having difficulty breathing, so I only shook my head in the negative.

Twilight was a bit crestfallen, but brought her hoof to her chin and thought for a moment. She eyed me up and down, studying me with an intellectual eye.

“Do you think you could do it again?” she asked.

Composing myself as best I could, I said, “I can try.”

She brought another book from the pile. “This was going to be the next book once you finished that one.” A tome, that was actually bigger than the first, settled in front of us.

‘Magic and You: A Beginners Guide to Understanding Spell Casting’. Okay, pretty straight forward. I can do this.

Steeling myself, I let the magic flow into my horn and did what I did with the first book. I opened the tome. Again, instead of my magic fading away when I wanted it to, it intensified. My eyes glazed over, and I was slightly aware that I was mumbling incoherently with the thoughts that were rising into my mind. After a short while, the book fell from my grasp and I slumped over in exhaustion. 

Twilight saw that this took a greater toll on me than the last time, and the worry was evident in her voice. “Oh my gosh! Are you all right?” She placed her hoof on my shoulder to try to comfort me.

I couldn’t enjoy the contact, or even respond to her. I was gasping for air, and I found that my muscles wouldn’t respond to my will. All I could do was focus on what I had just ‘read’ from that book.

'There are many different types of spells that exist today each with varying degrees of difficulty. Although there are new spells being developed and refined every day, all of them fall under three major groups.

'The most common of these are interaction spells. Every unicorn uses, at least, one of these spells in their day to day lives. They consist of spells that can directly influence the world around the caster. For example, levitation spells.

'Transformation spells do just that. They change one thing into something else. Few ponies are capable of this kind of magic, as it takes a lot of detailed knowledge on both the object and what it is going to be turned into. Not to mention, the amount of focus and power needed to make the transformation permanent.

'Finally, there are Enchantment spells. This is where a spell is placed on an item to be activated at a later time by some kind of trigger. These spells are even more difficult to cast as it requires two spells to be cast at the same time. The first being the enchanting spell, and the second is the spell that is being enchanted to the item.

'It is recommended that enchantments not be cast on living creatures, as the effects have varying degrees of failure. The only ponies to display the ability to cast such spells successfully, have been Princess Celestia and her sister, Princess Luna.'

Enchantment on a living pony… Princess Luna… Luna! My eyes widened as I connected the dots. Abruptly I stood up, completely forgetting my fatigue, and surprising Twilight in the process.

“God damn it Luna!” I shout out to the heavens. “I told you I wanted to do this on my own!”

If you can hear my thoughts from this distance, Luna, I’ll get you for this. Mark my words. I don’t know when, and I don’t know how, but I’ll get you.

“What does Luna have to do with this?” Twilight asked curiously.

The exhaustion overtook me, and before I could lose my balance, I plopped down onto the wooden floor with a grunt. I took a moment to catch my breath, and then sighed greatly before giving my answer.

“Apparently, our Lunar Princess doesn’t think that simply studying is good enough. She had to enchant me, so whenever I pick up a book, I’m forced to magically absorb its contents. Whether I want to or not.”

“Is the process really that bad?”

“Well… no. I guess not. Just exhausting. It’s not that I get tired from it, though; it’s that she put this kind of enchantment on me in the first place. I wanted to learn magic on my own, not by someone else’s means.”

Twilight looked at me with confusion and contemplation for a moment, before speaking, “What do you mean?”

“Luna wanted to teach me everything she knew about magic by forcing it into my mind with a spell.”

The excitement in Twilights eyes got me to smile. “The princesses can do that!? That’s amazing!” she cheered. “What I wouldn’t give to know all that they do about magic. Why wouldn’t you want that?”

“Because, it would take away my sense of accomplishment.” Twilight’s expression told me how confused she was. I sighed again as I continued, “I believe great knowledge should take time to learn, not have everything shoved in your head, all at once. How does the saying go? It’s not the destination, but the path traveled that’s important; or something like that.”

Our eyes met and my mouth decided to talk for my heart at that moment. “If I took Luna’s spell, I wouldn’t be here, right now… with you.”

I couldn’t stop the words from coming out of my mouth. They were from the heart, which are the hardest words to keep quiet. I stiffened, fearing Twilights reaction. I’m laying it on too thick! Back off! Back off!

Twilight blushed and tried to hide it by turning her head to the side, and looking away from me. “That was very poetic. I don’t think I’ve heard of that saying before. Where is it from?”

My features relaxed, and I gave an internal sigh of relief. Crisis averted. She liked it. She really is adorable when she blushes like that.

I shrugged. “I don’t really know, to be honest. I remember hearing it a lot when I was a kid.”

The purple mare looked at me in confusion once again. “That’s the second time you’ve said something odd. Earlier you said someone instead of somepony, and just now, you referred to your younger years as being a kid, when the proper term would have been foal, or maybe colt.”

Crap! Of course she would notice that. I need to be more careful with what I say around her. How do I explain this? Come on, think!

Before I could come up with a suitable excuse, Twilight gave me something to grasp onto. “I guess working at the palace; you come across a lot of cultures. Huh?”

“Uh… Yeah. I’ve kind of picked up a lot of their terms, and use them every so often. I don’t even realize that I’m doing it anymore.”

“I can understand. While I was growing up, I spent most of my time in the castle too. There was this one time, when the ambassador of the griffin kingdom and his escorts came for an audience with the princess. They stayed for an entire month. By the end of it, I was having trouble saying somepony instead of someone.”

I gave a half hearted chuckle. “Yeah… it’s a lot like that. I’m sure it’ll fade after a while, right?”

Twilight smiled and nodded in the affirmative. “Now that that’s answered, let’s get back to your lessons.”

“I guess I could read another book, but you’ll have to turn the pages for me. I don’t want to absorb anything else.”

“Actually no, that was the last book I had listed for you to read for today. We are way ahead of schedule, thanks to your ability to take in a book’s information like that.

“Speaking of,” Twilight continued. “I would like to urge you to reconsider using it for learning purposes. It has sped up my time efficiency by eight hundred percent! Not only are you finishing books much faster than you normally would, but it’s also exercising your magical powers to the point of exhaustion. This one spell is simultaneously increasing your knowledge and magical strength in one fell swoop!”

“I told you, I want to learn magic at my own pace.”

Twilight frowned, “But… what if this is your pace?” she asked.

I shook my head side to side. I don’t want to learn everything in a weekend. That’s not enough time to spend with Twilight.

The purple mare began to think of something. “All right, how about a compromise. You continue to use that spell to read, and I won’t change my schedule to accommodate for it. That way, we could finish the lessons a little early, every day, so we have more free time to ourselves afterwards. How does that sound?”

I had to think about it for a moment. I think I could do that. I wouldn’t go through the whole library in a day, and after each lesson I could spend time with Twilight outside of the classroom. Seems like a win-win to me.

“That sounds fine. So what’s next?"

“I wanted to discuss what you learned. Given your ability to absorb knowledge, this should be an interesting discussion.”

“Okay... Where do you want to start?”

“Let’s start with what was in ‘The Concept of Spells for Beginners’. What is magic?” she asked.

“It is the energies of life around a unicorn, given form, and purpose, by the unicorn's mental will.” I answer somewhat robotically.

“Good, that’s almost word for word from the book. How about a difficult one? What are the three major groups that magic fall under?”

That caused me to raise one of my eyebrows at the purple mare. “That wasn’t in the first book. It was in the other one.”

“Interesting, full knowledge of what was absorbed and when.” Twilight murmured under her breath. “Can you still answer the question for me?”

“Suuuuuure… it’s Interaction, Transformation, and Enchantment. Are... Are you trying to study me?” I asked.

Twilight looked a little ashamed. “I’m sorry, It’s just that it’s such an interesting spell. I want to learn all that I can about it, and so far you’re the only source of reference available to me. Wou… Would you mind indulging me for a moment?”

“Sure, just name it.” I shrug.

“Would you mind following me down to the basement? I would like to do a more in depth study.”

She’s going to hook me up to that computer of hers, isn’t she. Hopefully my brainwaves are the same as a pony’s.

Twilight got up from her resting place next to me and moved for a door to the right of the stairs. I already missed the warmth of her coat against mine. Reluctantly, I rose from my position and followed her down to the basement. I was still a little tired from my reading exertions, but was otherwise fine.

Descending into the dark depths of the local library, I admired all the equipment scattered around the walls.

Wow. This is some set up she has here. I don’t even know what half this stuff is. That is a big tank of… something, bubbling in there. Plenty of dials and pressure gauges. Kind of steam punk, if you ask me.

Twilight was rummaging around behind the computer she used to analyze Pinkie’s pinkie sense.

Moving closer to the Tank of boiling…whatever, I ask the question that was on my mind. “What is all of this?”

The purple mare looks up to me, then at what I was referring to, and then continued with what she was doing. “That’s the water boiler.” she answered, completely uninterested in it.

“Oh.” Not as exciting as I thought. “So, what do you want me…”

Before I could finish my question, Twilight put a helmet on me, with a hole in the top for my horn to fit into. She then hooked a couple of wires to said helmet.

“This machine will measure your magic and mental activity.” she explained as she moved about the room.

Flipping a switch on the side of her computer, the machine buzzed to life. Puffs of steam were being spat out of a whistle on the side of the computer, paper was pumped out of a slot, with some diagrams drawn on it, and all the lights would flicker on and off in a pattern.

“Okay.” Twilight levitated a random book off of a shelf and moved it in front of me. “Just read this book like you did the other two, so I can get some scientific information.”

“Do I have to?” I groaned.

“What can I give you that’ll get you to cooperate?” she asked.

I thought for a moment. “Nothing that I can think of…” I answered. Well… I’d like a kiss, but I doubt you’d be willing to give me that right now. “…How about, you’ll just owe me one? Okay?”

Twilight nodded her head in agreement. “One favor it is then.”

Satisfied, I used my magic, and opened the book in front of me. I waited for my magic to take over at any moment… nothing happened. 

“What the Hell?” I asked myself.

I closed and reopened the book again, then looked at the book floating in front of my vision to read the title to myself, ‘Daring Doo: and the Escape from Talon Peak.’

“What happened? What went wrong?” asked the confused mare across from me.

“I…I don’t know.” I answered.

“Gah! Every time I hook somepony up to this darn machine, it doesn’t work! I don’t even know why I try anymore!”

“Here let me try another book.”  I offer, as I grab a random book off the same shelf as the other one, and opened it in front of me. Again, nothing happened.

‘Daring Doo: and the Jade Dragon,’ I read from the cover page.

So… what? I can’t absorb Daring Doo books? Does it only work twice a day? This is bringing up more questions than it answers.

“This is so frustrating!” Twilight groaned, voicing my own thoughts out loud. “This is the pinkie sense fiasco, all over again. I swear, if your stomach starts to growl I’ll…”

As if on cue, my belly gave a small rumble. Twilight’s eye twitched a little.

I could feel my cheeks redden with a blush. “Heh, heh. Sorry about that. I haven’t eaten at all today.”

“You know what? Fine! This form of scientific study is clearly flawed, anyway.”

I gave her a shrug and removed the helmet from my head. “You’re just as confused as I am. I don’t get why it didn’t work. In all honesty, it should have worked.”

“It’s just my luck. That’s what it is. There’s always something keeping me from learning something profound and truly interesting.” Twilight was pouting to herself.

“Hey, hay, none of that now. Come on. Let’s go up stairs and have dinner, then we can get to the bottom of whatever this is. Okay?”

The mare let out her frustrations, with a big sigh. “Alright. I’ll be able to think more clearly with a full stomach, anyway.” she said mournfully, looking down to the floor.

I didn’t like the frown on Twilight’s face one bit. I placed my hoof under her chin and made her look up at me. “Come on, give me a smile. A mare, as pretty as you, shouldn’t frown.”

Twilight blushed, but gave me a small smile, despite herself.

I smiled at my achievement. “Good! Now, come on. I’m starving!” I turned and proceeded upstairs, Twilight following me at a distance, deep in thought. I made it all the way to the door to the next level, before Twilight said anything.

“Do you really think I’m pretty?” she asked.

I gripped the door in my magic and began to open it. “Well, of course I do. You’re very…”

My thoughts were interrupted by many voices shouting at the same time, “SURPRISE!!!!!!!”

> Chapter 10: Let's Party!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I was taken aback by the sheer volume of the verbal assault. The voices of so many ponies resonating in the tree library, and directed right at me, caused me to jump near out of my own skin. I was only slightly aware that I was now holding a wooden door that was no longer connected to its hinges in my magical grasp.

Regaining my composure, I eloquently stated my feelings on being startled so effectively. “What the Hell!?” I shouted.

Twilight walked up next to me, giggling. “It’s all right. No need to tear the place apart.” she tried to calm me down, and motioned to the door floating in my blue aura.

My ears folded back and I blushed in embarrassment. “Sorry about that.” I said as I placed the broken door against the wall.

“You can fix it later.” she said. I know that kind of shock. Pinkie can always throw a party when you least expect it.”

Yeah, even when I was expecting it, I was still surprised. Well played, Pinkie. Well played.

Said pink mare decided then to jump out of nowhere, from behind me. “Welcome to Ponyville, Honor Bound! This is your surprise, welcome to Ponyville party. Were you surprised? Huh? Huh? Were ya? Were ya?”

I rolled my eyes at the pink mare, giving her a chuckle. “Yes Pinkie. You got me good. How did you set this up so fast? We were only down in the basement for, maybe fifteen minutes.”

“Silly Honor Bound, I’m Pinkie Pie!” the pink pony exclaims like it explained everything.

“Bu.. But that’s not what I asked you.” I sputtered out.

Pinkie looked at me again in confusion. “It wasn’t? Oh! Oh! I know! You wanted to know how I got my cutie mark. It all started a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…”

“No. No. No. Wait… What? No.” I sighed loudly in frustration. “Ya know what? Never mind. It’s not important enough.”

Pinkie smiled happily. “Okie dokie Loki. You’re the guest of honor, though now that I think of it, this is your party, so wouldn’t that make everypony here the guest of Honor, but then…”

I tuned Pinkie out when Twilight leaned in, and whispered into my ear. “Good call. It’s best just to except it, and move on. It will save you a lot of aggravation. Believe me, I know.”

I gave her a nod of agreement, and then turned to all of the other ponies stuffed into the small library. It had to be filled to capacity, if not more so.

There were quite a few ponies I recognized, but just as many that I didn’t.

I noticed Lyra and Bon Bon, talking to Rainbow Dash near the center of the room.

Barry Punch was guarding the Punch bowl like it was the Holy Grail, while Cheerilee and a few other ponies were trying to get her to share with the other party guests.

Vinyl Scratch was behind her turntables, flipping her records around her head with her magic. The records were twisting and turning in an elegant ballet that showed her skill with handling them. Her head was bobbing to the beat of the song currently playing, the shades covering her eyes reflecting the crowd in front of her.

The dance floor was packed with dancing ponies, all moving to the beat of the music that Vinyl was pumping out. Spike was a prominent figure in the masses, (being the only one able to dance on two legs) doing his best to impress Rarity with his moves.

I looked back to Pinkie who still hadn’t stopped talking. “…and honestly, how can you top that?” she asked rhetorically.

“This is some party Pinkie.” I complimented.

“Thanks. It took all day to set up, and don’t get me started on how hard it was to book Vinyl Scratch. I was put on a wait list for months.” Pinkie flailed her hooves around to emphasize her point. 

I just stared at the pink party pony. My mind was frozen, and my mouth was gaping open in disbelief.

Months!? But… How??? I stopped myself from digging into the subject at my sanity’s request, and concluded with a nod, Pinkie Sense. That’s all I need to know. 

“Come on! Let’s get this party started! There’s so many ponies that you have to meet. There’s Daisy, Lilly, and Rose, they run the flower stalls in town. That’s Thunderlane, one of the weather ponies. He works under Rainbow Dash. Over there is Golden Harvest, but she likes to be called Carrot Top now. Ever since Rarity said that green was such an ugly color, Harvest started dying her mane orange. I really don’t know why, maybe we should ask her? Hey! Carrot Top, why do you…”

I silenced the pink mare with a hoof in her mouth. Carrot Top gave us an odd look before going about her business.

“That’s all right Pinkie. I’m sure I’ll get a chance to meet them all at some point. Let’s just have fun. All right?” Pinkie nodded her head in agreement, prompting me to remove my hoof from her muzzle. “All right then. First thing’s first. I need food.”

Eyeing the snack table, I made my way to the delectable delights sitting unaware of their impending demise. Grabbing a plate, I began to pile various fruits, pastries, and deserts onto it. So focused on the food in front of me, I didn’t notice that Twilight had followed me to the snack table.

Twilight cleared her throat to gain my attention. So I looked over with a half eaten sweet roll hanging from my lips. She giggled at the sight. Blushing profusely, I finished eating the pastry, and apologized.

“It’s all right.” she said. “I just wanted to tell you that we’ll have to postpone our experiments on why your magic acts so discriminatory towards certain books to another time. Enchantments shouldn’t be able to make distinctions between books, even if it’s put on a living organism.” She sighed in slight irritation. “In any case, we can’t perform any experiments while so many ponies are around. There are just too many variables to take into account, especially when Pinkie Pie’s around.”

“That’s okay. We can do it tomorrow.” I reason, as I take a final bite out of an apple that I assumed to be from Sweet Apple Acres. I gazed over to the dancing ponies on the dance floor. “Um… Would you like to, uh… maybe… dance with me?" I asked more than a little uncertain with what I was asking.

What am I doing! I don’t know how to dance! The most I’ve been able to do is a slow three step, and even then I was always stepping on my partner’s toes.

Twilight was visibly taken aback by my proposal. Her eyes shifted back and forth trying to find an answer for my question as her demeanor shifted from surprise to uncertainty.

Great! Now I’ve made her uncomfortable. Good going man.

“I… I’m sorry. You don’t have to, if you don’t want to.” I said.

Her eyes grew large, afraid that she offended me in some way. “Oh! No, no, no. Not at all. It’s just that… I’ve been told that I probably… shouldn’t dance again.”

“What are you…” Then the explanation dawned on me.

Ooooh! Her birthday dance. Yeah, I can see that, but that’s no excuse for someone to tell her not to dance again. Hell, I know I can’t dance, but that’s not going to stop me from having a little fun.

“It’s all right.” I said. “It doesn’t matter what somepony else says. Let’s go enjoy…”

I was interrupted by a very determined Rainbow Dash, who butted in between Twilight and I. “There you are! About time I found you. I need to settle something right now. Come on.”

The multicolored mare latched onto my arm and forced me to follow her. I protested at the forceful interruption of my conversation with the mare of my dreams, but nothing got through to her however. So, all I could do was to try to make an apology to Twilight over the sound of the party before I lost sight of her in the crowd.

Before I knew it, I was plopped down unceremoniously in front of a table. There were a couple of ponies sitting around it.

Across from me sat a rather familiar red stallion. He wasn’t much taller than me, but he was easily more buff. He looked at me from his position across the table, only to raise an eyebrow in question.

At the table, starting from my left, was Applejack, then Caramel, Big Mac, Lyra, Bon Bon, and then finally Carrot Top.

I looked around at the crowd of ponies surrounding those of us who were sitting. “What’s going on?” I voiced my confusion. Big Mac only looked at Dash, as if to inquire the same thing.

Rainbow Dash looked down on us with anticipation in her eyes as she hovered over our heads, and sat at an open place between Caramel and Big Mac.

“All right, Here’s the deal!” she announced to everypony present. “We’re going to play a game. Each pony has a pile of twenty pieces of candy in front of them. We’re going to go around and say things that we’ve never done before. If anypony has done what that pony hasn’t, than they eat one of the pieces of candy in front of them. The pony who eats all their candy first is the winner. Any questions?”

I looked at her irritably. “Yeah, why’d you need me here?” I asked.

Dash just rolled her eyes. “The party’s for you, duh. It’s not like we could start without you.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked more than a little confused.

Applejack spoke up before Rainbow Dash could say anything demeaning to me. “Ya know, it’s considered rude for a game ta start at a party without the pony of honor there.”

Oh… Well. That’s a nice sentiment, I guess.

“Don’t ya’ll have that there tradition up in Cantorlot?” she asked.

I shifted uncomfortably. The Hell if I know. Okay, stick to what’s true. She’s the Element of Honesty for a reason. “I don’t know, actually. I haven’t spent much time there.”

Applejack looked at me in confusion. “Yer the Prince though? Shouldn’t ya’ll know yer own traditions.”

All right, stick to half truths now, we’re going into uncharted territory. “Well… It’s just that I’ve been living in such far away lands, that I never really got to…”

“Are we gonna play or what?” Rainbow Dash interrupted my made up answer with a question.

Damn she’s impatient, but I guess she did get the attention off of me. “Yeah, sure. Go ahead and go first Dash.” I instructed.

“Fine.” she answered gruffly. “I’ve never…” she raised her hoof to her chin in thought. “…dyed my mane.” she finished. Dash eyed the table, waiting for any of us to take a piece of candy.

Carrot Top thoughtfully took a piece and ate it.

I guess I fall into this category too. I lowered my head slowly, blushing somewhat in embarrassment, and ate one of the small candies sitting in front of me. Dash gave me an evil grin.

Why is she smiling at me like that?

I was sucking on the small bit of candy in my mouth enjoying the flavor of it until I noticed that it started to get spicy. Really spicy. Really, really spicy. I looked over to Carrot Top to see if she was showing any symptoms of the hot candy. Seeing none, I realized what was up.

That little bitch! She tampered with my candy somehow. She probably wants me to go running off for some water while she laughs at me. Ya know what. I’m not gonna give her the satisfaction. I’ve had some pretty hot Mexican food before. This isn’t that bad.  I’m sure I can put up with it until the game’s over.

“So?” she asked, eyeing me up. “Need a glass of water?”

I swallowed the spicy candy, and smiled back, although a little uneasily. “No thanks, I’m good.”

She didn’t look too convinced, but didn’t say anything to press the matter. She just smiled and, nodded to Big Mac to continue the game.

He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, somepony in the audience asked the question, “So… does that mean that the prince dyes his mane?”

There were a couple of snickers heard from the crowd. My face lit up in further embarrassment.

I was going to state my case, and explain it was either dyeing my mane and tail or look like Blueblood, but I didn’t get the chance. Behind the masses a sophisticated sounding voice rang out. “And so what if he dyes the color of his mane?”

In that instant the crowd parted to reveal Rarity, dressed in her finest dress, and with her nose in the air. “I mean, really, what does it matter?”

The ponies surrounding us began to murmur to themselves, until one pony spoke up over everypony else. “Because he’s a guy and it’s considered weird for them to dye their mane?”

Rarity rolled her eyes. “That is quite possibly the most unintelligent thing that I have ever heard from a pony’s lips in my entire life. In any case, I am sure that he has a good reason for needing to dye his mane. Don’t you Honor Bound?”

While Rarity had been talking, she was walking closer and closer to me. So, once she asked me her question she was standing right in front of me with her big eyes fluttering seductively.

I nodded my head in the affirmative, as I leaned away from the fashionista. “Y..Yeah, I..I do.” I managed to say. The stammer wasn’t because I was embarrassed; it was because I was afraid that Rarity might throw herself at me at any moment.

“There! You see?” She exclaimed.

“Yeah, yeah. Can we get back to the game please?” Dash butted in, already bored out of her mind.

Rarity gave an indignant huff, “Well, if you insist. I was simply trying to spare poor Honor, here, some embarrassment.

“Eh, whatever.” Dash commented.

To my discomfort Rarity didn’t leave when the game started up again. She hung around me like one of those floozies at a gambling table.

The game continued without any major disturbances. Each pony said what they never did, and the game progressed. I have to admit that I was having trouble. Each time I ate one of my candies the fire in my mouth got hotter. My lips were horribly chapped and I was sweating like I had been sitting in a sauna for five hours. I desperately needed a drink, and I didn’t care what it was at this point, as long as it was liquid.

Lyra was in the lead with one treat left in front of her. I’m amazed at the amount of things she’s done in her lifetime. She’s eaten at least one candy for every two turns taken. I was so glad that the game was almost over. The only problem was that it was currently Lyra’s turn.

Hurry up! Hurry up! Hurry up! God she’s taking forever!

The mint green unicorn had her hoof to her chin, trying to think of a suitable thing she hadn’t done. “I’ve never… uhhhhhh… had hands?” she finally finished to my horror.

Great! Of all the stupid things she could have said.

Luckily, everypony watching the game was giving Lyra the most intense deadpan stair that has ever been witnessed. The only pony not looking at her was Bon Bon, who was too preoccupied with slamming her hoof to her face to do anything else.

In the confusion, I used my magic to quickly move a piece of candy into my mouth. I realize that doing so probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but I was sitting next to Applejack, the Element of Honesty. I didn’t want to take any chances that she could sense a lie or lack of the truth in my case. Not to mention that my mouth was, to my knowledge, literally on fire at this point, distracting me from any form of rational thought.

Sadly, my effort was for naught. The cowpony saw my maneuver from the corner of her eye. Raising an eyebrow in confusion, she leaned in closer to me, so she could whisper, “Yer kidden me?”

Crap! She saw me! Come on think. Think damn it! Crap! There’s nothing I could say to talk my way out of this mess. God, my mouth is hot! You know what? She’s a reasonable mare. Maybe, if I ask politely, she won’t press the issue. Can’t hurt to try, I guess. 

“Um… Please, don’t ask.” I asked with baited breath.

She was clearly taken back by this not being a joke, but shrugged at my request. “Whatever ya say, partner. If ya don’t want ta tell me about it. Ya don’t have ta.”

I let out a breath that I hadn’t known I was holding. “Thanks AJ. It’s not something I’m willing to talk about just yet.”

“What don’t you want to talk about, dear?” Rarity asked after she draped herself over my shoulder.

“Again, I don’t want to talk about it.” I answered with some annoyance seeping into my speech.

“Oh, please. Tell me, tell me, tell meeeee.” Rarity whined.

“Now Rarity. Leave the poor stallion alone. If he don’t want ta say, he don’t have ta.” Applejack tried to defend me.

“But lovers don’t keep secrets from each other.” the white unicorn reasoned.

I blushed at what she had said and its implications. However, not wanting to give myself away, I simply kept my mouth shut.

While we were talking, Bon Bon took her turn, allowing Lyra to win the game. Seeing that I was no longer required to stay anymore I stood up and quickly made my way over to the punch bowl, and away from the awkward situation. The fashionista looked hurt by the action, but the cowpony was just gazing at her with contempt in her eyes.

Not wanting to be pranked again with a random dribble cup, I did what any rational pony would do with a mouth that was on fire. I dunked my whole head in the large bowl of fruit punch. Drinking to my heart’s content, and much to my mouth’s relief, I emptied the entire thing. I sighed in relief when I was done. 

Using my magic, I removed the punch that had soaked into my mane and coat, so I didn’t look like I had just taken a swim in the stuff, and drank it as well. Briefly, I wandered where Berry Punch had gone from her station of protecting the bowl, but I forgot completely about it when I saw Twilight sitting alone by the dance floor. I was so entranced with her, that I failed to notice the muffled shouts from a closet for somepony to let them out or to give them a drink.

I straitened myself up and made my way over, only to be stopped by Rainbow Dash once more.

Again! What could she possibly want now?

“Hey… uh… Honor.” She didn’t look like her normal, brash self. Her ears were folded back and she was having trouble looking me in the eye as she hovered in the air. “That… That was pretty cool. How you dealt with my prank, that is. You know you’re tougher than a gryphon I know. Um… No hard feelings?” she asked as she extended a hoof in friendship.

I gave the hoof a suspicious look. “No hard feelings. As long as you don’t have a hoof buzzer on you, that is.”

Dash gave me a sheepish smile, retracted the offered hoof behind her, and then returned said hoof to offer her friendship once again.

A genuine smile came to my lips. “Yeah, no hard feeling.” I reached out and shook her hoof. “Friends?” I asked.

“Friends.” she affirmed. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve got some more pranks to pull.”

“By all means, go right ahead.” And without further ado, she zoomed off into the crowd of ponies enjoying themselves.

Well… It looks like I’m on Dash’s good side now. That’s good to know.

Returning to my goal at hand, I made my way to the depressed Twilight in front of me.

“Hey.” I said to announce my presence over the music.

“Hey.” she answered with a frown on her face.

“Okay, come on. What did I say about a mare like you and frowning? What’s wrong?”

Twilight looked up at me, then over to the dance floor, and finally settled with looking down once more. I understood what was on her mind.

“My offer still stands. Would you like to dance?” I asked.

She looked up at me in horror. “No, I couldn’t. I mean… I can’t dance… everypony will laugh at me.” she finished dejectedly.

“I don’t know how to dance either, but that’s not stopping me from asking you to join me. And, so what if they laugh at us, we’ll be having a good time doing something fun. Come on.” I offered my hoof to her.

Twilight looked around nervously for a moment, before taking my hoof, and allowing me to escort her to the dance floor.

We made our way to the center of the dancing ponies. Once there, the music changed from a beat heavy techno, to a slow romantic song. I looked up to see the cause of such a change in mood, to find Pinkie Pie walking away from the DJ. She saw that I was looking at her and she gave me a wink.

Well, I’ll be damned. I guess she knows my secret. Well of course she does, she’s Pinkie Pie. I chucked a bit in my own head at my explanation of her powers.

“Um… we don’t have to do this, if you don’t want to.” the purple mare beside me said in her best impersonation of Fluttershy.

“When did I ever say that?” I asked as I focused back on the beautiful mare at my side. She blushed a bit at that.

“All right.” She said.

We got into position and began a slow dance. I had no idea what I was doing, the only thing I could do was copy what I saw the other ponies doing around us. One stallion wrapped his arm around his partner to bring her closer, so I did the same.

Twilight gave a small, “Eep.” at the sudden closeness.

Suddenly afraid I had overstepped a boundary, I asked, “Is this all right?”

She had this most adorable blush on her face, but she only nodded into my coat that it was fine, while she closed the gap between us.

It was surprising for me to note, that it was a lot easier to dance like this, than it would have been when I was human. Ponies don’t have toes for me to step on, after all.

“Thank you.” she whispered, as she nuzzled up against me. I was shocked. It felt so good, and warm. I was floating on air.

This is great! We only actually met this morning and we’re all ready dancing like this, and she’s nuzzling me! I couldn’t be happier. This is the best day of my life!

Having fun in my body, are we?

…WHAT!?!?

> Chapter 11: Blueblood's Back?!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	My eyes widened in fear of what I had just heard in my head.

No... That’s not possible. No. It was just a stray thought that my mind came up with. That’s it! There’s no way that really happened.

Oh, but it is possible, and it did happen.

B..but the princess switched our minds. You can’t be here. You should be in my body, back on Earth. How are you here? Humans don’t have magic or the scientific knowledge to cross dimensions. What’s going on!?

“Is something wrong?” Twilight asked. “I know I’m not much of a dancer. We can stop, if you want to?”

Careful. You don’t want the pesky mare getting suspicions, now do we?

I hadn’t noticed that in the chaos of my mind, I had stopped moving. This caused my dance partner to worry about me.

“Uh... sorry,” I said, “I just got distracted for a moment.” She seemed satisfied with the hasty explanation, and leaned her head against me once more as we continued to dance. This simple act calmed my frazzled nerves, so I could think a little more clearly.

What do you want?

I want, what anypony in my position would want. I want my body back!

Too bad. I’m using it. You can go back to my old body now.

That is quite impossible at the moment, I assure you.

I doubt that. Here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to finish dancing with this beautiful mare, and then I’m going to find a purple dragon to send a letter to Celestia. She’ll teleport here, and throw you back into my body on Earth. Problem solved.

As I said before, that is not possible, as I am, no doubt, already there.

No. If you were there, then you wouldn’t be here, bugging me.

Twilight once again brought me out of my internal conversation when she sighed into me. “This is nice. I’ve never had somepony who wanted to dance with me before.”

I smiled at how cute she was being. “That can’t be true. You’re smart, skilled, and…” I looked into her eyes. They were sparkling in the light of the disco ball above us. “…vary beautiful.” I finished, while a brushed some of her hair away from her face with my forehoof.

Do not ignore me! I am royalty, and deserve to be treated as such.

The purple mare in front of me blushed and looked away from me in embarrassment. “I’m nothing special. I’m just a librarian.” she stated. “There are plenty of mare’s out there more deserving of such words then I am.”

“Twilight, you are far from just a librarian. And, if there are mares out there more deserving, than I can’t see them. You’re the only mare that I can see who fits the description.” I said with a half grin on my face.

Wow, I’ve never been this smooth before. This is working out great!

It won’t last. As soon as she finds that you are some sort of mutant ape creature, she will run for the hills.

Shut up! You don’t know that!

My purple dance partner was looking up at me, blushing profusely. However, there was more to it than that. She had a face that spoke of great bafflement, and deep thought.

“I… I need to go. I’m sorry.” Twilight apologized, as she pushed herself away from me, and ran through the other ponies in a hurry. I watched in stunned shock until she disappeared into the crowd beyond my vision.

What just happened? Everything was going so well, and…

Good riddance. Now that that is taken care of, we can move on to the point where you turn over control of my body back to me. I’ve seen excrement more beautiful than her, anyways.

That’s it! We’re getting you out of my head, right now! Where’s Spike? We’ll get Celestia down here, she’ll figure out how you got into my head, and keep you from doing it again.

I trudged through the sea of dancing ponies. My emotions were swirling around in my head. The most prominent of those being despair from Twilight running away from me, and rage that Blueblood would dare say anything bad about her. 

The worry that I had said or done something to cause Twilight to run off the way that she had, weighed heavily on my conscience. The urge to chase the purple mare through the crowd was stifling, but the need to remove Blueblood from my head had to take precedence. I’d seen and read too many movies and stories to know that it would not be a good idea to leave the matter stagnate for any longer than it needed to.

Finding Spike wasn’t that hard to do, all I had to look for was a certain white mare in a fancy dress. Said mare was talking to Fluttershy towards the side of the room. Spike was sitting patiently behind Rarity, gawking at her ‘beauty’.

“Spike! I need your help!” The two fillies and little dragon all jumped at my harsh outburst.

“Eep!” Fluttershy squeaked in a high pitched tone that actually made her sound even quieter than she normally was.

“Whoa! Dude, what’s wrong?” Spike asked.

“I must agree. Whatever has caused you such distress my dear prince?” I rolled my eyes at Rarity’s flirtatious words. Spike grumbled something under his breath, which I couldn’t make out.

I recognize that mare. She was at the Gala last year. She tried to make a fool of me!

You didn’t need her to help you in that regard, believe me.

Do not mock me you simpleton. You will treat me in a manner befitting royalty!

Not going to happen.

“Sorry.” I apologized. “I really need Spike’s help for a moment. It shouldn’t take too long.”

“Is it something we could assist in?” Rarity asked in a concerned tone.

“No… well, maybe. I don’t know. I just need Spike’s help right now and then we’ll see. Later, okay?”

“Very well, if that is how it must be, we shall await your return. Isn’t that right Fluttershy?”

The meek pegasus only nodded as she hid further behind her mane.

“Thanks girls. Come on Spike, let’s find someplace a little more quite.”

“Fine.” he groaned. “We can head up to the second floor. Nopony should be up there with the party going on.”

I lifted the little dragon up onto my back with a quick spell, and proceeded to the stairs leading up.

The sooner I’m rid of you, the better.

You will find that I am not so easy to be rid of. In the end, you will not have a say in the matter. You will give my body back to me, whether you want to or not. Make it easy on yourself, won’t you? Turn it over now, so you won’t have to suffer later.

Ascending to the top of the stairs, I ignored the annoying voice in my head, figuring that his threats were empty ones.

Spike directed me to the door that would isolate us from the noise of the party below. I opened it to reveal a room shrouded in shadow. Luna’s moon showed brightly through the window, giving the room just enough light to navigate by, but only fully illuminating what it actually touched.

Looking about, I recognized this particular room from the cartoon. “Is this Twilight’s room?” I asked.

“It’s my room too.” he responded a little grumpily. “So, what was so important that you had to tear me away from Rarity?”

“I need you to send a letter to Celestia for me.” I answered. “It’s really important.”

Spike groaned in annoyance. “Is that all this is about? Couldn’t it wait until tomorrow?”

“No Spike, it can’t. I’m afraid that the problem could escalate if we put it off any longer.”

“But, what is it?” he asked. “What’s so bad that the princess has to get involved?”

I stiffened a bit. What should I tell him?

Oh yes, tell the little demon. Tell him that you have a voice in your head. Tell him that it tells you to do things. I would love to see his reaction to that.

That was a rhetorical question. It wasn’t directed to you.

Sighing in defeat, I steeled myself and hoped for the best. “Spike, the princess did something magical to me that I will forever be grateful for. I don’t want to get into too much detail right now, but I’m afraid that something has gone wrong, and she needs to be informed as soon as possible. Okay?”

Spike nodded, and ran over to get some parchment and a quill to write with. He returned shortly; ready to pen what I needed to say. “Ready when you are.” he said.

“Thanks Spike. Alright, Dear Princess Celestia, I…” I paused, realizing that if I were to narrate my letter to Spike he would know everything. Not wanting him to find out just what the problem was yet, I levitated the materials out of his grasp so I could write the message myself.

“Ya know what? I’ll do that. Just send it when I’m done. Alright?”

The dragon simply shrugged his shoulders in indifference. “If that’s what you want.”

Settling myself on the floor, I angled myself so I could use the moonlight to see what I was going to write down. In my head, I was narrating what I wanted as I wrote it down onto the parchment. 

Dear Princess Celestia,

I am a greedy body snatcher.

I stopped what I was doing and looked at what I had just written. In plain black and white, was what the two minds in my head had narrated. Scratching out the last line, I began again.

Dear Princess Going to get hers once I get my body back.

Stop that! I mentally chastised Blueblood as I scratched out what I had written once again.

What? Let you write a letter to Princess Celestia, so she can come and try to remove me from my own body again. I think not.

Fine! Be that way. It’ll happen no matter what you try to do to prevent it.

What proceeded consisted of me trying to write the letter only for blueblood to butt into my thoughts, and cause me to write something I didn’t want to. After a number of failed attempts, I growled loudly in frustration, getting the attention of the little dragon in the room.

“I..Is everything alright?” he asked.

In a fit, I tried one more time and wrote frantically. BLUEBLOOD’S BACK! HELP! Making it through the short plea for assistance, I turned to Spike with a content sigh of triumph.

“Yes… Yes, I think that’ll be enough for her to understand the urgency of my message. Please, send this now.”

Spike grabbed the scroll, and without reading it, he rolled it up neatly in preparation for what he was about to do. Blowing a wisp of green fire onto the parchment, we watched as the fire consumed the piece of paper so there was nothing but smoke left. It drifted out of the window, and into the night sky, fading away in the distance.

We waited in silence for a few moments, as nothing happened. I was a little impatient for a response; considering the annoying voice in my head. “How long does…” I attempted to ask, but was interrupted by a bright flash in the middle of the room.

“Princess Celestia!” Spike and I exclaimed in unison, once our vision cleared. I thought I had heard another pony voice their own exclamation at the same time, but I put it out of my mind in favor of the more pressing matter at hand.

There was a soft cough from behind the white alicorn, and Princess Luna moved into our line of sight.

“A..and Princess Luna too!” Spike added. I remained silent, slightly brooding over the enchantment Luna had placed on me.

“Verily, tis well to see thee again, Honor Bound.” Luna greeted warmly. “We… I only wish that it was under more favorable conditions.”

No more favorable than when I tried to kill your sorry flanks.

“You did what!?” I exclaimed out loud, not even caring about the dragon standing next to me anymore. Celestia and Luna’s eyes grew large as they no doubt heard Bluebloods words emanate from my mind. Spike on the other hand, was looking at me like I had grown a new limb out of my forehead or something.

Oh? They never told you why they saw fit to, not only banish me from their kingdom, but from this vary dimension as well?

I physically sputtered something incomprehensible, but my mind was racing at a hundred miles a minute. But why would you try to do something so horrible. The princesses are awesome! There’s no reason for you to try to kill either one of them.

“Are you okay?” Spike asked, unaware of the conversation going on in my head.

“Oh dear,” Celestia muttered, “It is worse than I feared.”

“What is? What’s going on?” Spike asked in utter confusion.

There isn’t? After living as Celestia’s shadow for over three hundred years, I learn that she has a sister. Once more, said sister comes and takes my place at Celestia’s side to rule the country in my stead. Leaving me with nothing but a title, but no actual power. 

I wasn’t going to let that insult stand, and after some deliberation, I came to the conclusion that I could run Equestria better than either sister could. All I needed to do, was rid myself of the two little pests that were in my way.

“That is quite enough Blueblood!” Celestia reprimanded.

“Blueblood? Where? I’ll teach him a lesson he won’t soon forget.” Spike threatened with his fists raised, ready for a fight.

I’m not sure if she was feeling bad for the baby dragon being left out of the loop, or if she just didn’t want to continue my little fib anymore, but Celestia decided to clue Spike in to what was going on.

“Blueblood, or what’s left of him, is currently residing in your friend’s mind.” she explained.

“Huh?” Spike asked, dropping his guard to look up at the princess in confusion.

I coughed to gain the attention of all in the room. “Yes… well… can we please get rid of him now? It’s really weird having another voice in my head.”

“How did he get in there?” Spike asked.

“That’s what I want to know.” I answered, looking up to the princesses of both day and night for an explanation.

“I’m not sure, to be perfectly honest.” Celestia spoke. “It takes an alicorn’s worth of magical power to cross the dimensional void, and the caster cannot be the one to make the journey themselves. From what I understand, your world doesn’t have the necessary magical ability to do something of this magnitude, so that only leaves somepony on this side of the dimensional chasm.”

This is why I would make a better ruler than you, dear auntie. I am capable of thinking of things that you would never dream of.

I am quite certain that there is a version of me that now inhabits this creature’s body. However, that version is not me. Once I was caught by your insufferable guards, I knew you would not let my attempt on Luna’s life stand. I assumed you would use a mind wipe spell on me, so I used a mental spell to move all of my higher brain functions to another part of my brain to lay dormant for a few weeks. Meanwhile a construct that I created would get whipped instead of me.

Imagine my surprise when I regain my consciousness, to find, not only am I not in the castle anymore, but somepony else is using my body as their own vessel.

“Hello? Is anypony going to say anything?” Spike asked. “Why are you all being so quiet?”

“Sorry Spike. Blueblood was monologuing.” I explained.

“Yes, apologies. Though, he did shed some light on the situation.” Luna stated. “If the ruffian is simply utilizing a normally dormant part of Honor Bound’s mind, than it should be an easy matter to separate the two.”

Not likely. If you attempt to remove me from what is rightfully mine, I will ensure that this creature will not come out of it in one piece.

“And how do you plan on doing that?” I asked. “I have the higher brain functions right now.”

I may be residing in the deeper parts of the pony mind, but that is purely by choice. I have no desire to mingle my consciousness with yours, if I can prevent it. However, I will if I must in order for me to have some form of victory over these two horses.

The insult visibly shook Luna. Her older sibling extended her wing over the younger in order to comfort her.

“I have a question.” I announced. “How was Blueblood going to kill you two? From what you told me earlier, you’re immune to death."

They may not be able to physically die, but their minds and spirits are another matter entirely.

“Sadly, he is correct.” Celestia confirmed. “If it wasn’t for the Elements of Harmony, Nightmare Moon would have completely destroyed Luna by now.”

The mentioned alicorn visibly shivered under her sister’s wing. “Please, don’t mention that thing, ever again.”

“Sorry Lulu.” the solar deity apologized. She brought her attention back towards me. “As for Bluebloods method, he…”

As for my method; I was going to use a more controlled spell to enter their minds, and eat away at their fears and insecurities. Once their spirit had broken, their minds would be malleable to my every whim. Crushing their souls completely would be easy after that.

“You monster!” Luna snapped. “You have no idea how horrible something like that is.” The moon goddess seemed to be near tears at this point. Most likely reliving what happened to her with The Nightmare.

“Okay, it’s seriously annoying only getting half of a conversation.” Spike piped up. “So, from what I’ve gathered, you can’t just remove Blueblood from Honor’s head without something bad happening. Right? So, what do we do then?”

“I think I have a few ideas.” said a voice hiding in the shadows of the room. We hadn’t tried to illuminate the room by horn or candle light since we arrived, so it was still shrouded in darkness, but for the moon coming in through the window over Twilight’s bed.

“Who’s there?” I demanded.

A horn began to glow from the darkest corner of the room, illuminating the room in a soft lavender light. “The one pony whose room you’re all standing in.” stated the unicorn as she came into view.

It’s Twilight!? Oh Hell, and she heard everything about me too.

This should be interesting.

> Chapter 12: From Bad To Worse
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Twilight? What are you doing up here?” Spike asked, but paused shortly after. “Hay! It’s my room too!” he shouted in protest to her earlier claims. Crossing his arms he grumbled unhappily, “Shouldn’t you be enjoying the party, anyways?”

“I needed to do some… research on a matter that had just come up.” she explained, looking anywhere but in my general direction. It was hard to tell from the light of her horn but I was convinced that she had the faintest of blushes on her face.

“In the dark?” the little dragon pressed.

“No.” she snapped. “I was reading by candlelight until you opened the door; the resulting gust of wind snuffed it out.”

“So, why did you wait, until now, to say anything?” I asked with genuine curiosity, though my tone was uneven, showing my uncertainty on her knowing some, but not all, of the truth.

Was she trying to spy on me or something? How is she going to react to me now? Should I just come clean and tell her everything now?

Bah. Twilight always was one to eavesdrop on matters that didn’t concern her. 

Twilight visibly stiffened at the sound of my voice. “I.. I…”

“It’s all right, Twilight.” Celestia soothed her most faithful student. “You are among friends; nopony will judge you for being curious.”

I will.

Shut up.

“I’m sorry princess. I know I shouldn’t have, but… when Honor Bound said you did something magical to him, I just wanted to know what it was. He said he wasn’t happy that Princess Luna enchanted him, but he seemed incredibly thrilled for what you did for him.

“I could have asked, I know, but considering how evasive he was being with Spike, I deduced that he probably wouldn’t be willing to tell me himself.” the purple mare explained in a guilty tone of voice as she hung her head low to the ground. “Can you forgive me for listening in?” she asked looking up at all of us with hopeful eyes.

What should I say to this? Of course I’ll forgiver her. I’m not mad at her at all. Hell! I fully intended to tell her once she had a chance to get to know me better. 

Would that have actually helped things?

Well… no. I guess not.

Correct. She would have just dismissed you sooner for your trouble. Best to return my body, and go back to whatever backwater dimension that you crawled out of.

Oh, just shut up! I rubbed my head with my hoof. You’re actually giving me a headache. Let me think in peace!

While, I was pondering on what I should say, Celestia, Luna, and Spike had all given their forgiveness to the purple mare, leaving only myself to give my own. However, before I could, Luna voiced a question that Twilight had brought up in her apology.

“We are confused.” she stated. “We hath not enchanted young Honor Bound with any form of spell. Why doth thou accuse us of such?”

My head snapped up to look at her in confused astonishment, while Twilight was glancing back and forth between Luna and me in simple bafflement.

“Huh?” I vocalized. B..but I was sure that it was her. If not Luna, than who? The only other pony that could do such a thing would be… I glanced over to the solar princess in askance.

Celestia shook her head in the negative at my silent inquisition.

So, neither princess enchanted me. Who does that leave that’s capable of that kind of spell then?

Who indeed.

No. I gaped It couldn’t have been you. You’re still a unicorn. Only alicorns can successfully enchant living things. The book said so. Not only that, but I’m in control of my magic. You couldn’t have done it.

You stupid simpleton! Of course it was me! I cast that spell over two hundred years ago, in order to gain more knowledge about magic and, incidentally, the pony mind.

B..but only alicorns…

What book said only alicorns could enchant ponies?

‘Magic and You: A… 

…Beginners Guide to Understanding Spell Casting’? Really? It’s a beginners guide for Faust sake. It say’s so in the title, and it doesn’t even say ‘only alicorns can cast enchantments’. It says that only Princess Celestia and Luna have ever demonstrated a successful enchantment on a living creature.

The author of that book didn’t know about me, nor did anypony else for that matter. I have successfully kept my enchanting skills hidden, even from Celestia, for millennia, all the while increasing my own intellect in secret.

“I take it, from the long silence, that it was Blueblood, and he’s monologuing again?” Twilight concluded with confidence.

Rubbing at my cranium to try to ease my growing headache, I answered in the affirmative. “Yeah.”

“Alright, now that that is, no doubt, solved, let’s move on to the important matter at hoof.” directed the purple mare.

“You mean; how to get Blueblood out of my head?”

“That’s not the important issue on the top of my list!” she exclaimed tersely. “The matter at hoof is that you all lied to me about who Honor Bound really is.”

Twilight sounded a little broken up over my fabricated story, and I gulped at the implications of this information.

“I didn’t.” announced the little dragon in the room.

“Thank you Spike, but you weren’t the one I was talking to.”

“I..I’m…” I tried to stutter out an apology, but was interrupted by the hurt mare in front of me.

“It would have been different if it was somepony else. I would have been able to deal with it, and I might have even been able to write a friendship report about it afterwards, but this hurts so much, simply because it was you who lied to me. Why did you do it?” she asked, tears beginning to form in her eyes.

‘Because it was me who lied to her’? I.. I’m touched. Does she really care for me that much? Aww, Twilight, please don’t cry. I don’t want you to cry.

Doing my best not to grin like an idiot because she seemed to care deeply for me, I moved to answer and calm the mare in the most heartfelt way that I could muster. Sadly, however, she wasn’t finished talking yet.

“Celestia, why would you tell me that this pony was Blueblood’s brother and your nephew, if you knew that it was not true? What else have you told me that isn’t true? Am I not good enough? Do I need to work harder to be worthy of the truth? Please, tell me! What can I do to make myself worthy of you?” Twilight pleaded, as she threw herself at the foot of her mentor.

And with that, my expression fell and I was plunged into despair.

That hurts, Twilight. That really hurts. I know she wasn’t trying to, but that was really painful. Does she even care for me in any way shape or form now? Is there any way that I can fix this?

Doubtful. I warned you that this would happen. She doesn’t care for you. How could she? You’re not even a pony. You should return to your own people and leave my body in my care once again.

Celestia gave her student one of her calming smiles. “Twilight, my little pony, I’m sorry for misleading you. The only reason I wrote the words in that letter was because Honor Bound didn’t want his identity known yet.” The white princess glanced over to me, her smile growing ever so slightly. “I did so, under the impression that he would tell you when he was ready.”

Oh, come on! You’re not helping! You just told her that it was, basically, all my fault that you lied to her. This isn’t the time to troll me Celestia! I thought you were all for helping me out.

She turned her body fully to me. “You knew this would come about sooner or later, ‘Honor Bound’. There will always be pain when a lie is brought into the light. I think you have somepony to apologize to.” she said as she directed my gaze to Twilight, who was recovering from her earlier breakdown.

I hung my head in shame. Everyone in the room looking at me in expectance as I stepped closer to the mare I fell for.

I can do this. I need to do this. I can still make things right. She won’t turn me away. Right? She’ll see that I’m still the same person she met earlier today. It’s just that I wasn’t born a pony, and I know more about her than she is, no doubt, comfortable with. Aw Hell, this isn’t going to end well, is it?

It’s not going to matter much longer anyway. Might as well give up now, and walk away.

Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! You’re more of an annoyance than an actual threat. This is what really matters, right now. I need to fix this. Then, I’m going to get you out of my head with extreme prejudice. It may not be a perfect start, but it’s the only chance I have to win her heart. I will make this right, even if it kills me. 

We’ll see.

Sighing to myself, I steeled my mind, and began my apology. “Twilight, I’m sorry I’ve been keeping things from you. It’s not like I wasn’t going to tell you sooner or later. I just…” I paused to rub at my temples, as pain moved through my head once more. “I just wanted you to think I was normal, while you got to know me, and…” I winced ever so slightly as another round of pain shot through me, stronger this time around. “…and I didn’t want you to judge me for what I was, but for who I am. Can you forgive me?” I finished, rubbing my throbbing noggin.

Great! What a time to get a migraine!

Twilight wiped away the tears that were threatening to leave the confines of her eyes, and stood up from the floor. “W.. Why should I trust you now?” she asked. “You’ve lied to me on multiple occasions from the start. Why should I believe anything else you say?”

“That’s not true!” I announce, addressing the one comment that didn’t ring true to my actions. “I only lied to you about my origins, nothing more. Everything else I’ve told you was the complete and utter truth. I swear!”

“How can I believe you though? Why should I believe you? It’s all become so confusing.” she commented as she looked down to the ground to search her feelings.

“So, what were you, before all this?” questioned the little dragon, who had remained silent for most of our conversation.

“Huh?” I questioned in confusion.

“It’s just that, from how everypony is talking, it sounds like you weren’t always you.” he clarified.

“I.. um.. uh.” I couldn’t think of what to say. There were just too many negative possibilities for both telling them and not telling them. The only thing I could think of to do was look to Celestia for guidance.

She smiled her disarming smile. “If you don’t like either option, I’ve always found that it’s best to choose the truth.” she advised.

I sighed once more. I really don’t want to do this. “I may not have been…” I paused to steel my resolve before continuing. “…born a pony.” I finished.

“I gathered as much from our previous conversations.” stated the purple unicorn. “I should have picked it up sooner. How can a unicorn not know how to use magic? It’s inconceivable. Not only that, but all the times that you used the incorrect nouns when describing ponies. ‘Someone’ instead of somepony. ‘Kid’ instead of foal. It’s obvious when I think about it now.”

“Yeah, that’s all great and… stuff, but what exactly were you?” Spike pressed.

“Um… I was… h..human.” I managed to spit out. My emotions were running wild, all warring against each other. Fear of rejection, hope that she’d accept me, relief that the truth is finally out, irritation that the truth was finally out, and a foreboding dread that something bad was about to happen.

“Human?” the baby dragon tried to clarify. “What’s that?”

Yet another sigh escaped my lips. “I’m not sure where to start honestly. They’re ape-like creatures that walk on two… ah.” I couldn’t finish my description as a larger jolt of pain shot through my skull, forcing me to vocalize the growing pain. My hooves were firmly clutching my head to try to control the increase in throbbing.

What is this? It’s not like any headache I’ve ever had before.

“Are thou alright?” asked Luna in concern.

“I… I don’t know. My head hurts.” I answered.

“Oh please.” Twilight groaned. “He’s probably just faking it, so he can get out of the situation he’s dug himself in.”

Celestia wasn’t convinced that her student’s explanation was accurate. “What kind of pain are you in?” she asked.

“It feels like my brain is trying to kick its way out of my skull.”

“Pppphhhph, yeah right.” mocked the element of magic.

“Oh dear. It’s as I feared then.”

The alicorn’s concern did little to relieve my suspicion that I was in some serious danger. Twilight’s demeanor changed instantly with the worry in Celestia’s voice. “What is, your highness?” she asked. 

“It would seem that the pony brain is incapable of sustaining two minds inside one pony for an extended period of time.” she explained.

Indeed it cannot. I warned you that you would have to return my body to me, or suffer the consequences. Well, this is the consequence. If you do not vacate my body in less than two hours, your mind will be nothing more than a vegetable. However, because I am residing in the unused portions of the brain, I will remain unharmed. When all is said and done, I’ll be in control of myself once again!

“So what do we do?” Spike asked the royal ponies. “It’s not like we can just pluck him out and put him in somepony else.

“No, that would only move the problem to another pony.” Twilight surmised. “We could try using the Elements of Harmony on him.”

“Nu uh, no thank you.” I declined. “Those things are too random with how they resolve problems. I don’t want to be sealed away in stone for a thousand years.”

I must agree, the elements would most likely end up merging our minds in an attempt to create, what it sees as, harmony. I would prefer we not test this hypotheses.

Yeah, I really don’t want to be merged with you either.

“Well, what do you think we should do?” Twilight asked me.

“I don’t know!” I shot back. The pain in my head was making it difficult to think straight. It also might have been causing me to be a little short tempered.

The more you struggle, the faster the effects will set in.

“Pray tell, what effects dost thou speak of?” asked the lunar princess.

More pain, for starters, to the point where he’ll, most likely, lose consciousness. After that, his mind will slowly deteriorate, until there is nothing left. That is, of course, unless he is removed from my body and returned to his own.

Oh, fuck you in the worst possible way!

“There must be something that can be done.” Twilight spoke in a more worried tone than before.

“I don’t know what can be done.” answered the solar princess. “If we try to remove Blueblood from Honor Bound, he’ll do what he can to destroy Honor Bound’s mind in the process.”

“And if we take too long to do anything at all, then the same thing will happen.” Spike added.

Celestia turned to me with sorrowful eyes. “I’m sorry, my little pony, but it seems like there is no other way. In order to preserve your life, we must return you to your own dimension."

“Uhhh,” I moaned, the pain growing stronger as time goes on. “No, that won’t help anything.” I reasoned with a bolt of clarity. “Blueblood said that his construct is in my old body now. The same thing will happen if you return me there.”

Not likely. I designed it so that when a real consciousness is present in the same brain then the construct would fade away to nothingness, which is what will happen to you if you don’t leave soon.

“I’m sorry, but it seems to be the only way.” Celestia said.

Adrenalin was flowing freely in my veins, dulling the pain ever so slightly. “No! I don’t want to leave. This is the only place I’ve been truly happy, in a long time. There has to be another way.” I exclaimed.

Foolish human. Do you honestly prefer death over returning home?

“That place is no longer my home! It’s where I was born, but no more than that. This is my home now. This is where I want to spend the rest of my days. Be it millennia or a few minutes more. This is where I belong!”

So be it. If you are set to die here. Far be it from me to keep you waiting.

“No, don’t!” Luna exclaimed. “Please, I don’t want to lose another friend.” The princess of the night couldn’t take it any longer and broke down into sobs, leaning against her sister for support. “No more. Please.” she pleaded

You can join him, for all I care. This is only the beginning. I’ll be sure to finish the job with you once I am in control of my limbs once more. 

After Blueblood said those words my head began to pound harder than before. I could feel my mind slipping away. Darkness began to shroud my sight. Taking what little time I had left, I decided to tell the mare I love how I truly feel about her. “Twilight,” I stumbled forward a bit unbalanced. “I lo…”

I’m not sure if I got the idea across or not, but I blacked out before I could tell her about my feelings. The last thing I was aware of was the sound of magic being charged into a horn as I hit the floor with a thud.

> Chapter 13: The Voodoo That She... Did
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I awoke with a start, going from lying flat to a full sitting position in less than a second. Gasping for air like it was a valuable commodity; I took note of my continued existence.

Holy hell! I’m alive!?

I examined my hooves and the white coat that was attached to my skin. Sweat covered my body like I had just suffered from a fever induced nightmare and the only way to wake me up was dumping a bucket of cold water on me.

I raised my hooves over my head in a show of victory. And I’m still a pony! So… did I just dream all that then? I asked myself with a hoof to my chin in thought. Hey Blueblood, you’re a total douche-bag.

…


Huh. Nothing. That couldn’t of been a dream, though. That pain felt too real to be a dream, so what happened to Blueblood?

For the first time since regaining consciousness, I decided to discover where I was and examine my surroundings.

It looked like I was in some form of hovel. There were candles burning in alcoves that dotted the walls of my room. On the shelves were many bottles of different designs and colors. What space was left was designated for random masks that hung on the walls in a manner that gave the illusion that they were all looking back at me.

Well considering I’m still a pony, there’s only one place I could really be.

“Hi yah, Honor!” shouted a pink blur of pony that jumped into my vision at an angle that defied all logic and physics. 

“Holy Hell!” I exclaimed in startled surprise. 

In my pursuit to distance myself from my hyperactive assailant, I found myself losing balance, and falling off of my makeshift sleeping cot. Pain was instantly reintegrated into my noggin when I hit my head on the hard dirt floor.

Is it too much to ask to be able to get out of bed without actually falling out of bed?

Pinkie Pie loomed over my prone form and proceeded to babble on. “I’m so glad you’re awake. We all saw the princesses levitate you out of Twilight’s room all unconscious and unmoving, and Twilight was all tired with tears in her eyes, and we were all ‘gasp, what did you do?’ but you were out (not that that mattered too much, as you didn’t do anything bad) because what kind of love interest would you be if you did something like that? A bad one, that’s what, and you’re not a bad pony, because I know you, and I don’t know any bad ponies, so that means you’re not a bad pony, so something else must of happened, but what? The princesses told us that you were sick and needed immediate help, but didn’t go into any more details before leaving for some reason, so the girls and I turned to Twilight for answers. She didn’t tell us much, but she explained that the only way to save your life was to…”

The door to my makeshift bedroom burst open and an enraged zebra marched in. “If I find you in here, Pinkie Pie, I swear to Celestia you will die!” The zebra stopped her tirade to blink a couple of times at me, and then composed herself. “Ah, it is good to see you are awake; I was unsure how much more of Pinkie I could take.”

She continued to approach as she introduced herself. “Zecora, is the name I go by, I think you already know of Pinkie Pie.”

“Yeparoonie!” Pinkie confirmed. “We’re great pals. He came to Ponyville yesterday, and then we partied and he made friends with my friends so now we’re all friends, and now you’ve met, and now you’re friends, so everypony’s friends! Isn’t that great?”

“Um… yeah, we know each other.” I admitted to Zecora, giving a side glance to Pinkie who was nodding her head in an exaggerated manner.

“Pinkie is a wonderful friend, one that I would gladly defend. She may be odd and generally insane, but she does not do so to be a pain. Now let us see how you are doing, let’s hope nothing foul is brewing.”

The zebra closed in and began to examine me by looking deep into my eyes. “Are you feeling well?” she asked. “Please, do feel free to tell. I know many cures and remedies, though not all are taken with ease.”

I looked from the rhyming zebra to Pinkie Pie and back again. “Um… I feel fine actually, but what happened to Blueblood?” Then I thought a bit more about what was more important to me. “Where’s Twilight?” I demanded maybe a little too forcefully.

“Please calm down, all is alright. In the other room you will find Twilight. All her friends are here to keep her calm; you would almost think she was your mom. I don’t think she is having any fun, but you can go see her once we are done. Not all is lost, so there’s no need to pout. Now, could you please stick your tongue out?”

“So, what happened?” I asked after she was finished looking into my mouth. “The last thing I remember is Blueblood going in for the kill and passing out.”

“Twilight is the one you should ask. Now, please, let me finish my task.”

The zebra focused her examination on various areas of my skull, only stopping when she came to my horn. “It would seem the entity has been suppressed, though this isn’t the end of your quest. He still looms in the darkest part of your pony mind. To be rid of him fully, there is something you must find. Twilight has explained to me your plea, and you should find what you need in the Everfree.”

“What in Sam Hill is goin’ on here?” demanded an orange cowpony who apparently just entered the room. “Ya’ll are bein’ too loud for Honor to get his… Oh! Ya’ll are awake.” She turned her head back and called out, “Hay ya’ll, Honor’s awake! We can come see ‘im now.”

Each of the remaining main six came rushing past Applejack in an attempt to see how I was doing. The first to arrive at my side was dear Twilight Sparkle, even pushing her way past Rainbow Dash in a frenzy to make sure I was well.

“Are you alright? Are you… you? Is he gone? Please tell me I was able to save you in time.”

I was touched that she was so worried about me. Even after all that happened in the library, she still worried about me.

“Easy Twi, I’m alright. I’m still me.” I tried to comfort her.

The purple mare visibly relaxed, and then, without warning, she punched me in the face with as much force as she could muster. “Good! Don’t you ever do something like that to me ever again. You stupid, stubborn human.”

Rarity gasped. “Twilight! I realize you’re upset, but you shouldn’t resort to violence, nor should you call our prince names that none of us understand.” the white mare scolded.

Rubbing the spot that Twilight had struck, I gave Rarity a confused look, and then moved the look over to Twilight. “You didn’t tell them?” I asked.

“Tell us what, darling?” asked the white unicorn.

“It wasn’t my place to tell them. It’s yours.” Twilight said in a condescending voice.

“What are ya’ll talkin’ about?” asked the apple farmer.

With a sigh of resignation, I decided to come clean now. 

Might as well tell them now, and get it over with. 

“I’m not exactly who I said I was.” I explained.

There was a cacophony of (what!)s and (huh?)s in the group before everypony broke out into their own triad of questions and assumptions.

“Ya mean ta tell us that ya’ll lied to us?” asked Applejack.

“I knew it! I knew you were a spy! I knew it, and you still got me to trust you.” Rainbow Dash groaned in frustration. “I can’t believe I started to trust you.” she berated herself.

“So, you’re not a prince?” Rarity started out a little depressed, but shortly changed her tone to be a bit more peeved. “You just said it to try to woo me, didn’t you? Well, I never! See if I ever give you the time of day again!” she exclaimed, turning her back to me. 

“Then who are you?” Fluttershy mumbled out, but was somehow heard by all of her friends in the room over the racket they were making. All eyes were on me for my answer.

Well, here goes.

“Well… I’m actually a creature from another dimension called a human, which Celestia saw fit to exchange minds with Blueblood. She did this, so he couldn’t bring harm to her or her sister ever again. Sadly, Blueblood out-thought them, and is now rattling around in my head and is trying to retake his body to enact his revenge on the princesses.” I explained. “All at the cost of my own existence, I might add.”

All of the ponies looked at me in stone silence. After a few moments my explanation was met by a couple of different reactions.

Rainbow Dash was the first to do something. That something was to completely burst out into laughter and fall over on her side. “Bahahaha. Oh Luna, oh wow.” she gasped. “That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard since Pinkie Pie said she was going on a diet!”

“Do ya’ll expect us ta believe that?” Applejack asked.

“Yeah, imagine my surprise when Pinkie only ate three whole cakes that day.” Rainbow proclaimed.

“Hay! I’ll have you know; that diet worked wonders for my physique.” Pinkie pouted. 

And with that comment, Dash deteriorated into even more fits of laughter, clutching her sides in an effort to relieve the pain forming in her chest from not being able to breathe.

“Ah was talken’ bout Honor, Rainbow.” Applejack deadpanned.

Rarity decided, then, to put her two cents into the mix. “Why would you fabricate such a tale?” she asked. “Were we not meant for each other? Is this your way of telling me off? Was I not pretty enough? That’s it, isn’t it? I’m not pretty.” Rarity sniffed in an effort to hold back her tears. “You think I’m uglyyyyyy!” she wailed.

Fluttershy rubbed the white fashionista’s back in a vain attempt to calm her down. Zecora and Twilight were the only ones not adding to the chaos in the room. However, it was Twilight’s words that eventually ended the cacophony of voices.

“Everypony, what he said is true.” she stated. 

The room grew quiet while everyone contemplated what that meant, until Pinkie Pie spoke up. “Well, duh. Of course he was telling the truth, I mean, why wouldn’t he be telling the truth? He almost died last night because of that mean old Blueblood. Isn’t that proof enough?”

All eyes were on Pinkie, confusion and astonishment on all our faces. “What?” she asked with an innocent tone only a child would normally be capable of.

“Yeah, that reminds me. Twilight? How am I still alive?” I asked. “Blueblood was in the process on snuffing me out before I lost consciousness. What happened?”

Twilight cleared her throat for her explanation, and opened her mouth to respond, but was beaten to it by the hyperactive pink pony in the room.

“Oh! Oh! I know! I know!” Pinkie shouted as she waved one of her hooves in the air like she was a filly in school.

“Thank ya kindly Pinkie, but maybe it’s best if Twilight tells us.” The apple farmer motioned for Twilight to begin her tale while the party pony groaned in disappointment. “Go on, sugar cube. Tell us what happened.”

The librarian cleared her throat once more, and began to speak. “Well, after Honor declared that he would rather die than return to his dimension, I was left with few options. Time was short, and I didn’t know how to remove Blueblood before he destroyed Honor’s mind. Once Blueblood began actively hurting Honor, I had I fit of inspiration. I needed to stop time.” Twilight stated matter-of-factly.

There was a collective groan from the bearers of the Elements of Harmony.

“What?” Twilight asked.

“Hehehahaha, that’s what you wanted to do when you thought the world was going to end.” Pinkie giggled.

“So? It’s a practical short term solution to increase productivity in solving the problem outright.” Twilight stated.

“Huh?” asked the group of ponies in unison.

“It gives her more time to act.” I stated. Not being satisfied with that explanation, I continued over the murmurs of understanding from the other ponies in the room. “Though, I didn’t think that was possible. Even time travel has its rules that need to be followed. How were you able to stop time, while preventing yourself from being affected?” I asked, calling forth all of my knowledge of sci fi materials, and what happened in the ‘It’s About Time’ episode of the show.

“Um… yes, that’s true.” The purple mare answered, giving me a curious look. “Time magic is difficult to actually cast. After an incident with my first time spell, I became interested in learning how to stop time.”

“More like obsessed.” Rainbow Dash deadpanned.

Twilight ignored her friend’s jab and continued on. “Lucky for you, there was a scroll in the deepest parts of the Star Swirl the Bearded wing of the Cantorlot Archives that explained how to stop time in a localized area. The tricky part was to figure out how to move the field along with your body at the same time.”

“Okay, but that doesn’t explain what happened to Blueblood.” I stated.

“I believe I can answer your question, if only so we can continue on our story’s progression.” stated the only zebra in the room. “Twilight came to me in the dead of the night; in a frenzy, she explained to me her plight. About the two souls that inhabit this pony we see, and his determination in not wanting to flee. I explained I could not help her fully, that what she needed would not come easily.”

“So what happened? Ain't he alright? He seems fine now.” asked Applejack.

“I did not intend to cause any confusion, what I did was create a short term solution.  I created a potion specifically designed to target the unused places of the pony mind.”

“You gave me brain damage!?!” I exclaimed in worry.

“By Celestia’s good grace, that is hardly the case! There has been no damage to your brain, so please, allow me to explain.”

I calmed down a little, and allowed her to continue with her story.

“The pony mind is a complicated thing. I did not make my decision on a fling. I used a plant called Orchidinary. It helps make things more ordinary.”

“Huh?” I eloquently asked.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “While Blueblood was awake, the dormant parts of your mind were in constant use. Being that is not supposed to naturally occur, the potion that Zacora made reverted those parts of your mind to being dormant once more.” she explained.

“That was well said, though I am surprised that he is not dead. The potion that he had taken was meant for him to also waken. If he did not wake by the end of today I would have thought that is how he would stay. Honor Bound, you are surly blessed, because the pony named Blueblood was successfully suppressed. Now here we are; no worse for wear. Though there is an announcement that I must declare.

“What is done is not permanent. Pardon, I do not intend for this to be a determinant. All is well for a while. You have some time before things become hostile. Do not fret, there is a way in keeping this Blueblood away.”

As Zecora spoke, she took some green powder from a small sack that hung from her neck, and blew it into the air in a dramatic fashion. The green mist turned and morphed, changing into the scenes that she soon described.  

“Past the mountains and caves; over rivers and forgotten graves, there is a temple both old and vast, something long forgotten from tales long past.”

“OOoooooo, spooky!” Pinkie Pie chirped as she edged closer to me. Inexplicably, she held a bucket of popcorn in her hooves. Noticing that I was staring at her snack, she assumed I wanted some and offered it to me in a show of generosity. “You want some?” she asked.

“Um… sure.” I answered as I reached in and ate some of the overwhelmingly sugary popcorn.

The zebra witchdoctor continued her tale, completely ignoring Pinkie’s antics.

“Deep in the temple most mysterious, there is an artifact that’s very curious. To prevent you from having a relapse, you may have to deal with some traps. I know this is not a simple stroll, but it’s worth it for a gem that can manipulate a soul.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Why is there a gem that’s capable of manipulating a pony’s soul? Not only that, but why is it just sitting in an abandoned temple in the middle of nowhere?” I asked in utter befuddlement. “That just seems incredibly irresponsible to me.”

“I do not know the answer you seek, but this is the best choice to keep your future from being bleak. I am sure your friends will help you with this task, all you will have to do is ask.” she said, gesturing to the ponies in the room. 

I looked over to the mares in question. The popcorn Pinkie was holding, not a moment ago, was gone and she was waiting patiently for me to ask her and her friends for their help. Well… as patiently as Pinkie Pie could wait at least. Pinkie’s legs may not have been moving but she was somehow still jumping up and down in anticipation. Something everyone else seemed to ignore for their own well being.

“Um… do you want to help me with…” 

I couldn’t finish my question before Pinkie jumped in and shouted, “YES! Oh this’ll be so much fun. We can all sing and tell stories while on our search.” Pinkie paused for just a moment before she gasped at some realization. “I can make this a search party! Oh, I’ve never organized one of those. I’ll need cake and punch and confetti, (You can never have enough confetti) and mmffmffff.” Pinkie was silenced once more with my hoof in her mouth.

I’m beginning to wonder if she likes ponies shoving their hooves in her mouth.

“Pinkie, a search party is something else entirely, and it’s usually not a good thing.” I commented as I removed my hoof.

“Not that kind of search party.” She stated. “That kind is sad, this one is an adventure! Adventures are fun! This’ll be fun! Right girls?”

“Sure as sugar, don’t worry Honor. You’ll have me along for any heavy liftin’.” affirmed Applejack.

“It can’t be called an adventure without the fastest flier in all of Equestria, can it?” Rainbow Dash both agreed and boasted.

“I shall accompany you.” Rarity stated. “After all, if there is a gem of that kind of power, then it just has to be gorgeous!” she sat for a moment until she realized that all her friends were glaring at her. 

“Of course I’m only going because my ability to find gemstones will be most advantageous to have, would it not?” Rarity tried to save face. The other mares clearly didn’t buy it, but they let it slide to prevent an argument.

“And Fluttershy should come because we might run into a wild animal out in the Everfree.” Dash offered.

The yellow mare in question made a loud, “Eep!” and huddled into as small of a ball as possible, while she hid behind her mane. To everyone’s surprise, she withdrew herself shortly after without any encouragement from anyone, and answered, “Um… I..I guess I c..could help… i..if you really wanted me to.”

“Really?” I asked. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” I’m not one to force someone to do something they don’t want to do, especially Fluttershy. 

“I.. I’m sure. I.. I need to learn to be more a..assertive.” she stuttered.

“Thanks. I’m sure things will be a little easier with you here.” I tried to comfort. 

The last pony was the one that mattered most to me. She was sitting behind her friends glaring at me. “You seriously expect us to just pack up, and risk our lives in the Everfree for some creature that we don’t really know?” she asked.

She’s still on this? Okay, maybe I can tempt her with something.

“Um… if you come along I can tell you about my world.” I answered.

“And why should I care?” she demanded stubbornly. 

“Because, my people are easily more technologically advanced than you are.” I offered with the one thing I knew she couldn’t resist. Science!

This got the reaction that I was looking for. Twilight gave a girlish squee and began bouncing around me in glee, repeatedly shouting, “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!”

Zecora watched Twilight and I interact from a distance. She rolled her eyes at what she saw.  “You know? I no longer care about your doom. Why don’t you two go find a room?” she stated in all seriousness. 

That got Twilight to stop hopping around and blush profusely. I was blushing slightly as well, but I didn’t mind the jab at all. Her friends only paused to take in what the zebra just said before bursting out laughing along with Zecora. Shortly after, I began chuckling as well, followed by Twilight a little later.

Good feelings were had by all. It was what we really needed at this point. This wasn’t the way I wanted to tell everypony about myself, but as I looked around at all the happy and smiling faces surrounding me, it seemed that everything might just work out for the best after all.

Once the sun came up, we would begin our trek through the Everfree Forest. Little did we know, this little adventure would change our lives forever.

> Chapter 14: Into the Everfree, and My Past
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	By the time the sun broke over the horizon, we had all gathered what we would need for our journey in front of Zecora’s hut. The only thing left was for Twilight to finish checking her check list.

“Enough food to last us the trip and back?” Twilight asked. 

“Check.” Applejack answered. “We got apple fritters, apple pies, apple turnovers, apple strudel, apple…”

Twilight continued on with her list, while Applejack went on with all of the apple treats that she brought. “First Aid, in case somepony gets hurt?”

“Uh… um, check? Um… I think I brought everything we may need. Um, I can’t think of anything else that I left behind that could be of use.” Fluttershy mumbled just over a whisper.

“No kidding!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she analyzed Fluttershy’s over packed bags. “Did you bring the kitchen sink too?” she asked.

“Oh! I… I didn’t think we needed it. I’ll go and get it then. I’ll be right back.” the meek pegasus responded. Beginning to turn away, she was quickly stopped by Twilight.

“It’s alright Fluttershy. I’m sure what you brought will be enough.” she assured the flustered mare, and then continued on with her list. “Tents and sleeping bags?”

“But of course darling. Though, I was only able to stitch together three tents before the sun rose. We’ll simply have to share with somepony.” Rarity stated, eyeing me up in a seductive manner.

Yeah… that’s not happening. I’ll sleep under the stars before I share a tent with Rarity. Twilight, on the other hand, that’s a different story entirely.

“That should be fine Rarity. We’ll decide who will bunk with who once it’s a little closer to that time.” Twilight stated. “Okay, what about…”

Twilight was cut off by the energetic nature that is Pinkie Pie, or more accurately, her party cannon, as it gave off a blast of confetti. “I’m all set for this search party!” Pinkie exclaimed. She was inexplicably covered in splotches of candy and confetti in a manner that resembled pink camouflage. A deflated balloon was wrapped around her head like a bandana.

“This’ll be great! The Party Cannon is fully loaded, so let’s get this party started!” she exclaimed with another firing of the party canon to punctuate her sentence.

None of what Pinkie Pie was doing seemed to bother Twilight in the slightest. In the calmest tone she could, she said, “Pinkie being Pinkie: check.” Twilight made a check mark on her list. 

I couldn’t help but chuckle at Twilight’s disregard of Pinkie’s oddities.

I guess she’s gotten used to Pinkie since moving to Ponyville. Or maybe it’s just the chaos that is always being thrust into her life. I wonder if I’ll ever be able to get used to an adventure like this every week. Well… I better. Considering, I’m planning on being here for a while.

“Ample amount of supplies to take notes on Honor Bound’s world: check.” Twilight announced, giving me a sly smile from over her shoulder.

I gulped. Damn that’s sexy. I doubt she meant for it to be anything more than coy, but… damn that’s sexy.

A shiver ran down my body, and not the good kind that leaves you all worm and fuzzy, but the kind that just fills you with dread.

“All right! That should be quite enough. I believe we are indeed ready, so let us not tarry any longer.” Rarity announced rather tersely. “Shall we be off?”

“Yes! That was the last thing on my list so let’s head out.” Twilight stated, not noticing the look that Rarity had directed her way.

“Wait… what about Zecora? Isn’t she coming?” I asked trying to ignore Rarity’s jealous outburst.

“Do not worry about me. I shall remain in this part of the Everfree.” Zecora informed us, as she stepped out of her hut. “There are many herbs and spices that I must procure, if I am going to be able to make you your cure.”

“But… isn’t the gem the cure?” I asked. 

“The gem you seek is only part of your salvation. It shall be used in a potion of my creation. Bring it back as soon as possible, for dawdling would be very irresponsible.”

“You mean to tell me that the gem itself can’t get rid of Blueblood?” I inquired.

“The item you seek will surely help, though it cannot purge the little whelp. In a brew it must be boiled, only then will Blueblood’s plans be foiled. Be sure to return before Thursday’s eve, or your friends will surely be left to grieve.”

“Don’t worry,” I assured. “I have no intention to let Blueblood, of all ponies, kill me off. We’ll be back with this gem as soon as we can. Isn’t that right girls?”

Each of the element bearers gave their agreement in various forms.

“Darn tooten’!”

“You know it!”

“But of course.”

“Um… yes.”

“We won’t fail.”

“Oh my gosh! I’m so excited! Are you excited? Cause I’m excited. I’ve never been so excited. Well, except maybe for that one time Twilight first came to Ponyville, but honestly, how can you top that?” exclaimed Pinkie Pie who was suspiciously devoid of all candy splotches, balloons, and her party cannon was nowhere to be found.

“I’m glad you want to protect your friend, please keep him from an untimely end. I’ll meet you here by Wednesday morning, but before you go, one more warning. Beware the beasts that reside in the ruins of old. They’ve grown large and rather bold.” Zecora warned.

“We’ll be sure to be cautious. Thanks Zecora.” Twilight assured the zebra. “Alright everypony, let’s go!”

At our leader's order, we picked up our designated satchels and began our journey through the Everfree Forest while Zecora went for her own destination in the other direction.

Hmm, getting a good look at it, I can understand why ponies are afraid of this place. Hell, I’m sure a lot of humans would be terrified of it. It’s not really a forest, well… not any kind of forest back home anyway. It’s more like one of the jungles in South America that I’ve heard about.

“So…” Twilight started. “What’s your world like?”

Everypony was looking at me now in anticipation. All of them were eager to hear what I had to tell them about the wonders of where I came from.

“What do you want to know?” I asked in return, not quite knowing where to start.

“How do you…” Twilight started but only to be interrupted by Rarity.

“What I think we all would like, is to learn a little bit about this stallion from another dimension.” the white unicorn mare stated. “Could you tell us about yourself darling?” she asked, batting her eyelashes in a flirtatious manner.

There was a murmur of agreement from the other ponies in the group, except for Twilight, who groaned with frustration at not learning about some unknown sciences.

“Alright.” I hesitantly agreed. “I’m sure I’ll have to stop to explain things that you won’t understand, but I guess it’s only fair that I tell you who I really am since you’re all helping to save my life.”

“Quite right darling. So tell us, why did you agree to come to this universe? I’m sure you left loved ones behind. Friends, family… a mare friend perhaps?” the fashionista asked with baited breath.

She’s not being very subtle about her intensions. Still… the why part is a valid question.

“To be honest, I wasn’t really that happy on my world. Not to say that I was unhappy, just… I wanted more out of life... Yeah, that sounds right.”

“B..but what about your family and loved ones?” Fluttershy asked.

“I loved my parents greatly; they were always supportive with whatever I chose to do.” I answered morosely, feeling a pang of sadness with the memories of them. “But after college, I tended to move around a lot. Most of the cities that had jobs related to my degree were on the other side of the country, and I guess… I got used to not having to see them all the time.”

Twilight perked up from the mention of my education. “What did you get a degree in? Was it physics or maybe time dilation fields? You seem to be rather knowledgeable about that area of study.” she observed.

I chuckled a little. “Hardly, I’m not a doctor or anything; I just enjoy things related to science fiction. As for my degree; it’s in game art and design.”

“Games?” the purple mare asked in bewilderment. “Why would you need a degree to understand games?”

“Twilight! Games are a serious matter.” Pinkie Pie scolded. “You need to be able to keep everypony happy at the same time, while allowing the game to be competitive for all involved. It’s a lot harder than it looks. Believe me, I know.”

Pinkie was able to pull a few short laughs out of me before I could correct her. “My degree isn’t in board games or any type of party game… though; admittedly, I did have a class on them. But, my area of study was in how to make video games.”

The pink mare’s eyes lit up in awe of what I just revealed to her. “Y… You mean to tell me that there are other types of games out there? Why didn’t anypony tell me this? I could have been entertaining ponies with these games of video for years now. I’m so far behind the times! Teach me everything you know!” she begged, throwing herself at my hooves.

“Now hold on there, Pinkie.” Applejack tried to calm her friend down, but needed to ask the question that was on all of the mare’s minds. Turning to me, she asked, “What exactly is a vid-e-o game?”

“And this is where the technical stuff comes up.” I announced.

Twilight took the hint and got her notepad and quill ready.

All right, how do I explain this in a way they’ll understand.

“You have movies here, right?” I asked. There were a number of murmurs in the affirmative. “Alright, now, imagine you could control everything the protagonist did in a movie. All the while, moving closer to the movie’s end goal. That’s pretty much how a video game works.”

Not how all video games work, but that’s enough to get my point across.

“You mean to tell me that you could take an awesome movie like ‘Top Flight’ and make it so I could take control of Maverick and get him to do whatever I wanted?” Dash asked while she flew overhead.

“Well… it’s more complicated than that, but yeah, pretty much.”

“That… is so… awesome!” Dash exclaimed before turning sharply to face the purple librarian trotting on the other side of her. “Twilight, you need to pair up with him, and get that working, right now. I don’t care what it takes, but I need to be able to experience what it’s like to be Maverick in that movie.”

I definitely saw Twilight just blush at the mention of her and I pairing up. There’s hope for me yet!

“Calm down Rainbow. One thing at a time. We need to make sure Honor Bound isn’t killed by Blueblood before we can concentrate on anything like that.” Twilight stated in an effort to calm the flying pegasus down.

Twilight turned her attention to me. “Now then, could you elaborate on how your species is more technologically advanced than we are?”

I gave her a taste, and now she wants more.

“Well, let’s see…” I stalled to think of what we had on Earth that ponies don’t have in Equestria. “We have self propelled carts that we call cars, we’ve been able to land a man on the Moon, and lately we’ve been building robots and working on developing an artificial intelligence.” I summed up.

Our little group stopped walking for a moment in amazement. “Whoa.” all of them uttered in shock.

“That’s amazing!” Twilight shouted in excitement. “You Humans must have some miraculous magic at your disposal to actually achieve so many monumental feats!”

I chuckled softly to myself. “Actually no, we don’t have any magic at all.”

Everypony gasped in shock.

“Really?! I.. I mean, I knew you didn’t have any magic before, but your entire species can’t use it? How have you survived up to this point?” Twilight inquired.

“Yeah, I mean, how can you control weather without pegasus magic?” Rainbow Dash asked as well.

Giving a shrug I summed up my answer by saying, “Different dimension; different laws of physics.” Everyone listening gave me curious looks, silently asking for me to explain what I meant.

I began to walk in the direction we were headed before and answered, “Alright, where I’m from magic doesn’t exist. At least… we haven’t found any evidence of it existing. So, we’ve survived mostly from our ingenuity and cleverness. As for the weather question you asked Dash, we don’t control it. Like here, in the Everfree forest, it just… happens.”

“You… you mean that your entire w..world is like this p..place?” asked the adorable butter yellow pegasus. “It must be so… terrifying.”

“Not really.” I stated. “At least, not where I used to live anyway.”

“How so?” Twilight inquired.

“I grew up on the outskirts of a small town, a lot like Ponyville to be honest, next to a potato farm. Then went to college in a city probably about the same size as Manehattan, if not a little smaller. After that, one of the cities I worked in was named Los Angeles, which I can only assume is the Human version of Los Pegasus.”

“You mean there are parallels to our worlds?” the purple mare asked. “Does your ‘Los Angeles’ reside near Applewood?”

“We call it Hollywood but… yeah.”

“Amazing!” Twilight exclaimed. “Wait… how do you know so much about our geography?”

I don’t think they’re ready to know that they exist in my world as a TV show.

Shrugging in false indifference, I gave my response. “I’ve done my homework. I mean’ I’ve been here for weeks, what was I going to do? Stay in bed?”

I’m just not mentioning that I was unconscious for most of that time... I really don’t like keeping things from them.

“So… how far is this temple, anyway?” I asked in an attempt to change the subject.

Twilight’s horn began to glow and a rolled up map levitated out of her satchel and unfurled itself in front of her. “Let’s see… if we continue in this direction we’ll arrive at the river in about an hour. From there, we should arrive at the temple by the end of the day.”

“If it’s only goin’ ta take two days ta get the gem and get back, why are we haulin’ enough food ta last us a week?” Applejack asked.

“Because, Pinkie.” Twilight stated like it explained everything, and to her credit, it did.

As we continued to talk about various subjects, we made our way further into the forest. The trees grew more gnarled and misshapen with vines hanging low from many of their branches as if to warn that the deeper into the forest we went, the more twisted things would become.

After a while Rarity decided to bring up the one topic of her interests in an attempt to calm her nerves. “I simply must ask you about Human fashion.” Rarity stated in the hopes to learn something inspiring for her own designs.

I rolled my eyes.

Of course she does.

“Could you describe what a human dress would look like?” she inquired with hopeful eyes.

I sighed in resignation. “I guess I could. Let’s see… Most dresses from what I've seen are form fitting, with little being left to the imagination. The more extravagant ones are covered in small… not necessarily gems, but something shiny to make the dress look glittery. The only other thing I can think to describe is that most dresses have an open back to them and are sleeveless.”

“Thank you darling. Once we’re back in Ponyville I’ll begin making that dress right away. Perhaps you could take me out on the town while I wear it. Hmm?” Rarity asked.

Not happening.

“Alright!” Twilight interrupted. “As interesting as this is… If my calculations are correct, the river should be on the other side of those weeds.” she informs us. “We can take a short break here before we continue on.”

“Ooooh, goody! I hope Steven is still here.” Pinkie proclaimed.

“Who’s Steven?” I asked.

“Oh you wouldn’t know him darling. He’s a lovely sea serpent with a wonderful mustache that we met a while back when we first came here.” Rarity explained. “I’m sure by now he’s…”

We all stopped in our tracks as we found that we, apparently, weren’t the only ones to come this far into the forest.

Before us stood what looked to be a small, poorly built, shanty next to a river. There was a fire burning in a pit in front of the abode, with some pine cones roasting on a stick over it.

“Oooo, looks like Steve built a house!” Pinkie announced.

“Pinkie, you know as well as I do that the sea serpent we met couldn’t possibly fit inside something as small as that.” Twilight explained.

“Why not? He seems fine swimming in a foot of water. I’m sure he could curl up to fit snugly in there.” the pink mare defended herself.

“Pinkie, he couldn’t possibly… wait…” the studious mare paused as she seemed to remember something that she hadn’t thought about before. “How does he swim in a river that’s only a foot deep!?” she yelled.

“Does it really matter?” I asked in an attempt to calm Twilight down. “Why don’t we see if anypony’s home, and find out for ourselves?”

“That’s… very reasonable.” Twilight answered in a much calmer tone of voice. She marched up to the little shack and called out, “Excuse me, is anypony home?”

There was silence for only a moment before the underbrush behind us began to rustle around.

A small mare emerged from the shadows that the overgrowth provided. She had a blue coat and a silver mane of varying hues, and she did not look happy to see us. 

Oh no. Why is she out here?

The mare reared up on her hind legs and demanded, “Who dares invade the camp of The Great and Powerful Trixie!?”
> Chapter 15: The Argument at Camp Trixie
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	There was silence for a few moments as Trixie stood on her hind legs. The Elements of Harmony gaped at the showmare, clearly just as shocked as I was that she had taken up residents in the Everfree forest.

Trixie finally fell to all four hooves as recognition took hold of her features. 

“Oh. It’s only you.” She stated, unimpressed with our presence. “What can the Great and Powerful Trixie do to remove you from her presence?”

“Well that’s a fine how de do.” Applejack commented.

“How de do.” Trixie said sarcastically, rolling her eyes for emphasis. “Now, why are you here? I have already apologized for what happened in the past. What more do you want? Have you come to embarrass The Great and Powerful Trixie some more?”

“W.. We would never!” Fluttershy stammered in disgust of purposefully trying to disgrace somepony.

“Yeah, it’s not like you needed our help to embarrass yourself.” Rainbow Dash added as she flew overhead.

“It is not Trixie’s fault that she is so far beyond other ponies that her amazing appeal is lost on their puny perceptions of reality.” the showmare shot back.

“It’s not like that.” Fluttershy tried to defend her friends. “We didn’t even know you lived here in the… Everfree… Forest… Eep!” she squeaked the last few words out with fear as the blue mare glared her down.

“It would be wise not to lie to me. Unlike before, I have been training, and added new and more powerful spells to my repertoire.” Trixie boasted with a flurry of her hoof for emphasis.

Twilight stepped forward, standing in a more defensive stance between us and the blue mare. “You know full well that, without that amulet, you can’t hope to outmatch me.” the element of magic warned. “We only stumbled upon your camp by accident. Nothing more.”

“Doubtful.” Trixie stated in a huff. “What possible reason could you have to come this far into the forest, besides for me?” she asked.

The lavender mare adopted a smug look, happy to be able to bring her outspoken rival down a peg. “Him.” she stated, directing Trixie’s attention with a nod in my direction.

“Him?” Trixie asked. “What’s so important about him that you would travel this far into the middle of nowhere?”

“I’m…” I tried to explain, but was interrupted by Twilight.

“That’s none of your concern.” she stated rather tersely. “Just know that we need to move on, and travel to our destination as swiftly as possible.”

“You’re headed to the ruins, aren’t you?” the blue unicorn deadpanned.

“Who... Wha... How did you know that?!” Twilight demanded.

“It’s the only landmark that would require you to go into the forest instead of around it.” Trixie explained as she trotted closer to me. “Now, the only question left is as to why you would even try to go there?” she asked as she eyed me up and down, scrutinizing every detail of my physique.

Why is she looking at me like that? This feels really awkward.

“You seem to be a fine specimen of a stallion. Perhaps you would like to accompany Trixie into her abode and have her show you her tricks.” she offered in a sensual manner.

I recoiled at the thought. Not just because of what Trixie was offering me, but more because she was actually offering it to me.

This is just wrong! Ponies should not behave this way, and definitely shouldn’t be offering sex to strangers.

“He most certainly will not!” Both Rarity and Twilight exclaimed at the same time. They looked at each other in surprise for a moment, nodded, and stood united side by side against the showmare.

“Ah. So that’s the reason then.” Trixie stated matter-of-factly. “You care for him. So I am to assume that his life is in some form of danger, and the only way to save him lies in the forest?”

I began to grin like an idiot as I stared at Twilight.

Is that it? She just wanted to see if Twilight cared for me. She cares for me? Yes, yes, yes, yes…

Rarity huffed in irritation. “My love life is of no concern of yours.” she stated. “Our roles may be reversed at the moment, but in the end, he will sweep me off my hooves and into the sunset, where we will live happily ever after.”

I gapped at the white fashionista. 

She sees me as the mare and that she’s my knight in shining armor? What the fuck? Blueblood might be threatening my life right now, but it’s not like I need her to save me or anything. I’m not even royalty. Why is she so interested in me? I need to set her straight. She can’t keep pining for me like this. Besides, I made Spike a promise.

“Rarity, I…” I started, but was unable to finish because Rarity had placed her hoof over my muzzle to signify that she didn’t want me to speak.

“It’s alright, my stallion. I know you feel strongly for me, but we must not consummate our love until we are out of the forest and that poor excuse of a pony is out of your body.” she stated as she removed her hoof from my mouth.

“But that’s…”

“I know it is hard.” she continued, overdramatically raising the hoof she used to silence me over her brow, fainting distress. “It’s difficult for me as well, but we must persevere. Our love will be all the sweeter once the danger is behind us, and we are married. You can take me to your castle and we will make passionate love in the light of a beautiful sunset.”

What the Hell is she talking about? None of that is ever going to happen. I don’t even have a castle!

Glancing over to the pony that I actually had feelings for, I noticed that she was looking back at me. Silently, she seemed to be questioning whether her friend’s assumptions were true or not. I gave my answer in the form of a negative shake of my head and a minute expression of disgust upon my features.

Twilight gave me a small smile, almost unnoticeable, but quickly focused back on the showmare in front of me, glaring at her with all of her fury.

She smiled! She does like me! Yes, yes, yes…

“Your attraction to this stallion matters little to Trixie. I have no interest in him.” Trixie stated. “And for the record, I was actually referring to the only mare who can defeat Trixie in anything.” she said gesturing to Twilight.

The element of magic recoiled in surprise. “I.. I do not like him!” she stammered through her own defense.

Oh come on! Do you like me or not? This is getting ridiculous!

“Oh? Than what does it matter what he does… or who with?” she added in a sultry tone as she leaned closer to me. I took a noticeably larger step away from the unicorn.

“You cannot seduce him because… because…” Twilight struggled to find her words. Her eyes darted around, searching her mind for a reason, any reason. In a moment of clarity she had it. “He’s Celestia’s adopted Nephew and Prince of Equestria.” Twilight stated in a rush.

Wait… what?

“Huh?” both Trixie and I asked dumbly. The showmare looked at me in confusion for a moment, but deciding that an answer was more important to her, and so, asked Twilight what she wanted to know.

“Since when has Princess Celestia taken it upon herself to adopt ponies?” she asked.

“Yeah.” I added. “I mean… I’m no prince.”

“But of course you are.” Rarity defended. “Do you not live in Cantorlot Castle?” she asked.

“Well… according to Celestia’s letter, I’m to live in the Ponyville Library, with Twilight.” I answered.

The fashionista was silent for a bit, but then tried again. “But… clearly you know that you are to take Blueblood’s place?”

I shook my head in the negative. Rarity sighed, but continued to explain. “Blueblood was Celestia’s nephew, and not too distant heir to the throne. If she saw fit to try to swap the two of you, than that can only mean that she saw you fit to take his place, affectively adopting you as an heir to the throne. Honor Bound, you are the new prince of Equestria!” the fashionista exclaimed in giddy hysterics.

My hind quarters plopped down on the ground. Staring ahead of me for a moment, unblinking, I thought on what this meant for my future. Our little group fell into silence to allow me to adapt to this new information presented me.

Well…I never thought of it like that. It makes sense actually. I guess that explains Rarity’s continued infatuation with me. Damn gold digger. But, what does that mean for me and Twilight. Would she be interested in a prince? Well, I guess she’s a princess herself, considering how Shining Armor married Princess Cadence.

I was so deep in thought that I didn’t hear the first distant shout of somepony calling out a name. My ear twitched slightly at the sound of the second, but it wasn’t able to break me of my internal thoughts yet.

So, if I’m Celestia’s nephew, then what does that make me in relation to Twilight? I mean… Celestia knows that I have this crush on her, so… what? Does she really want me to hook up with her, or is it just one of her lessons to her student about something? Could this still work?

“Twily!” the pony shouted again. This time the cry was able to reach through my thoughts, jarring me into the real world of mythical talking ponies.

My misgivings of princedom shortly forgotten, I blinked a couple times to clear my vision. “Huh? What’s that?” I asked dumbly as I noticed that everyone around me was looking around for the source of the shouting. I joined them in their search, but once I heard Twilight’s nickname called out again; I knew who it was.

“Shining?” Twilight asked herself as she recognized the pony who was shouting her name. “Shining! It’s my brother everypony! Over here Shining Armor!” she shouted out, and waved her hooves around in an effort to gain her brother’s attention.

Trixie leaned towards me in a conspiratory manner. “She has a brother?” the blue unicorn asked me. “Why didn’t Trixie know of this?”

There was a quick flash of light and Shining Armor himself appeared before us in the aftermath of his teleportation spell. He looked at each of us, noting our presence, before shouting out. “They’re all right! We’ll meet you back in Ponyville.” over the tree canopy above us I could hear the wing beats of what I assumed to be pegasi guards flying away.

“What’s going on?” I asked the captain of the guard.

Shining Armor glared at me for a split second before his sister glomped him with child-like glee. Because of his stature however, he didn’t move much more than a step back to keep his balance.

“Shining!” Twilight squealed with joy. “What are you doing here?”

“Hay Twily.” Shining Armor greeted warmly. “The Princesses asked that I help keep you safe in their place.”

"Oh! So, you’re here to help us get to the ruined temple?” the librarian wanted to clarify.

“You’re going to the ruins of the old temple!?” Trixie exclaimed. “I knew you were going to the city ruins, but… the Temple!? Are you mad!?”

“So what if we are?” I asked in return, only to realize what I had inadvertently admitted to. “Going to the temple, I mean.” I corrected myself.

“So? So!? The temple in those ruins are the whole reason that they are ruins!” Trixie explained. “They’re how I learned about the Alicorn’s Amulet. The vary amulet that began to corrupt me, and turn me into something I wasn’t. No. If you value your souls, you will not venture into that place.” she warned.

“What are you talking about?” Twilight asked the showmare. “The Everfree City was reduced to ruins from the rise of Nightmare Moon. Everypony should know this.”

“That’s true, but I think that what’s in that temple is what caused Princess Luna to become Nightmare Moon in the first place.” she explained. “If you’re smart, and I know you are Sparkle, you will turn back now.”

“Tha..that’s not an option I’m afraid. We need to…” Twilight tried to say but was interrupted by her brother.

“We need to go back to Ponyville.” he said. “It’s too dangerous.”

Huh?

“What? But, we can’t. Honor Bound has to get the gem that’s in the temple. If we don’t, he’ll die.” Twilight pleaded. “You were sent here to help us, right? We can’t just turn back now, especially since we just started.”

Shining Armor’s features hardened slightly, not in an angry sort of way, but in the way that family members tend to get when they have bad news to deliver. “Twily,” he said in an almost whisper, “my orders are to keep you and your friends safe. I was never ordered to escort you to the temple.”

“What! But…”

“I know that’s not what you want to hear from me right now, but it’s too dangerous.”

No it’s not. We’re walking through a forest to get a rock from an old building. It’s not like we’re going to fight Discord or something. So…

“Why?” I asked the captain. “Why is it too dangerous? These six mares have saved Equestria multiple times, facing tyrants and gods alike. They’ve even saved you from marrying the changeling queen once. All of which had a lot more danger involved than we face now, so… what makes this so much more dangerous?”

Twilight and the others gazed at me with both humility and confusion. The captain of the guard on the other hand glared at me. “It’s different, in that, not even Princess Luna would venture into the ruins to help you.” He growled out with clenched teeth.

Why is he so pissed at me? If Luna did destroy this city we’re headed to, then I can understand why she wouldn’t want to go back to it. The regret for the devastation would be staggering. Besides, she turned into Nightmare Moon because she was lonely. So, what is his real problem?

Sensing that something was off, Twilight spoke up in an attempt to calm her older brother. “Shinning, what’s wrong?” she asked. “You’ve never acted like this before.”

He gave his little sister a soft, comforting smile. “It’s alright, Twily. I just want to keep you safe.”

“I know.” Twilight affirmed. “But, why are you so angry with Honor Bound? Did something happen back in the castle before he came to Ponyville?”

“Not that I know of?” I answered for the guard. 

Besides scaring the living Hell out of me. I finished in my head. He can’t possibly be mad at me because he thinks I broke my promise to him. Twilight’s perfectly safe, and I didn’t do anything to hurt her. It’s got to be something else. I hope.

Shining Armor cast a cold look my way before answering his sister’s questions. “Princess Celestia let slip who he is, and why he came to Ponyville.” he explained.

Oh shit! What did you do Celestia?

“You can’t trust him, Twily. He’ll say anything to get what he wants.”

Twilight looked my way in a questioning manner. Quietly she analyzed my reactions to the accusations being flung at me. “And what, exactly, is it he wants?” she asked Shining Armor.

“What most coltfriends from Cantorlot would want.” he answered vaguely, yet answering many of the other questions that had been brought up.

The purple unicorn tore her sight from me to stare at her brother in shock. “What!?” she demanded with a full blush dominating her face.

Rarity’s jaw hung open at Shining Armor’s revelation. She remained silent and didn’t faint, but I was sure that she believed that she was going to still be the ‘other mare’ in our relationship. Or rather, what relationship she had dreamt up in her head.

Trixie, again, leaned close to me in a conspiratorial manner. “So, one mare isn’t enough for you, huh?” she asked nudging me in the side.

“It’s nothing like that!” I declared in disgust of the insinuation. My outburst gained the attention of all the ponies in the area, including Shining Armor.

“It’s not, is it? Then tell us. What is it then?” he demanded. “Princess Celestia seemed to believe that you are Twilight’s ‘coltfriend’ and that ‘great things’ were about to happen.”

“Did she say those words, exactly?” I was attempting to grasp for straws to prevent just what was about to happen.
“She did.” Shining answered to my dread.

Why would she say something like that? Especially, out loud where someone like Shining Armor could hear her. She has something up her sleeve. I can feel it.

“W..why would Princess Celestia think you were my coltfriend?” Twilight whispered to herself, but her brother heard her, and thought that he might as well discover the answer.

“I don’t know, but I intend to find out.” he muttered as he began to slowly stalk up to me.

Crap!

I back peddled in an attempt to keep my distance from the overprotective brother.

“H.. hey now. T.. there’s no need to get violent.” I stuttered in fear. Shining Armor’s horn glowed and I found my back against a solid magic wall, stopping all progress of my retreat from him.

Crap! Crap! Crap!

“T… this isn’t what you think it is. Can’t we talk about this?” I pleaded as my eyes darted around for any means of escape.

Over Shining Armor’s shoulder I saw that Rarity had since fainted, and Fluttershy was trying to tend to her as best she could. Applejack was close to them, but clearly wasn’t sure what she should do.

Next to them Pinkie Pie and Rainbow dash were exchanging bets on who was going to win the fight that I seemed to have found myself in. I noticed that Trixie, herself, had just realized that there was gambling to be had, and was eagerly trotting towards the two with a single bit in her hooves.

Nopony seemed inclined to help the poor human about to have the stuffing beat out of him.

“You can talk all you like. I think I’ll just keep pounding until the truth comes out.” Shining Armor stated in a cold tone of voice.

Damn it. He’s really going to kick my ass, isn’t he? I can’t fight him. I don’t know any offensive spells to fight him with. All I really know is…

Realization dawned on me that I knew how to teleport away from the threatening pony. I began to charge my horn for that effect, but it died off with a cry from Twilight Sparkle.

”Stop it this instant!” she shouted with a stomp of her hoof. Everyone froze in place as silence permeated the area. All our eyes turned to look at the purple mare. “So what if Honor Bound is my coltfrind? Does that give you the right to accuse him of such depraved things?” she asked her brother.

Coltfriend!?

“Coltfriend!?” everypony else demanded in stunned confusion.

“Twily, what are you saying? Just a little bit ago you wanted to know why the Princess would think that you two were in a relationship, now you’re saying that you actually are?”

Twilight looked uncertain of herself. Her eyes shifted back and forth as she provided her answer. “I.. I was wondering to m..myself how s..she found out.” She lied.

She’s lying? Why is she lying for me?

“Now, if you’re not going to help me save my c..coltfriend’s life,” she stuttered out with a blush on her cheeks. “th..then, you can stay here with Trixie until we get back. Come on, Honor Bound.” Twilight said as she teleported, only the two of us, onto the other side of the river.

“If you want to help, than we’ll meet you at the ruined temple.” she shouted across the river to the remaining ponies on the other side.

I was greatly confused as to what was going on, but when Twilight began to make her way past the tree line, I followed her. Glancing back, I saw that everypony was still just as confused as I was, but none of them moved to stop us going into the forest.

We continued to walk in silence for only a moment before I had to give voice to at least some of the thought’s that were buzzing around my head.

“Twilight, what was all that?” I asked. “I mean… thanks, and all, for keeping him from beating me up, but…”

The ground below our hooves rumbled ominously, causing my focus to shift onto what was happening around us. “What was that?” I asked. A hole then proceeded to open beneath our hooves and swallowed both Twilight and I before either of us could do anything about it.

We both screamed and shouted for help as we fell into the awaiting darkness below, not knowing whether or not the other ponies across the river could hear them. I remember asking myself before hitting my head on something hard, effectively knocking me out.

Why do things always have to get more complicated?
> Chapter 16: Confessions In the Dark
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Once I regained my senses, I opened my eyes. Glancing about, I noticed Twilight was on the other side of a spacious cavern with her horn glowing to provide herself light. It looked to me like she was scouting out the area.

Moving my sore limbs under myself with a groan, I proceeded to stand up, albeit a little wobbly. The grunt that left my lips echoed across the cavern, alerting Twilight that I had regained consciousness.

“Good! You’re awake. Are you alright to walk?” she asked in a whisper.

“Yeah, I think I’m fine.” I groaned out an answer. “What happened?”

“Shhshhshh.” She shushed me in a panic. “We fell into an old Diamond Dog tunnel. It looks like it was built too close to the surface, so when we stepped onto it, the ceiling collapsed under our weight. Sadly, the hole we fell through was filled up, so I can’t tell how far we actually fell from the surface.”

“So?” I responded with a whisper. “Can’t we just teleport up? It’s not like we need to see where we’re going to do that.”

“I’ve been trying, but something is preventing me from scrying for a location.”

“Hence, the whispering.” I concluded with a theory in mind. “Alright, so, it was a trap?”

“I don’t know. Maybe? Everything seems to point in that direction, but… where are the Diamond Dogs?”

“Don’t know. Can’t we just dig our way out before they come looking for us?”

“Without knowing how much earth is above us, it could cause the cavern to collapse. I’m not sure how stable the structure is, so we should continue to whisper to prevent any cave-ins from happening.”

Seeing her logic, I realized the flaw in my theory. However, something definitely didn’t feel right about this place. “Well, we shouldn’t stay here.” I stated. “If we don’t know how far down we are, then we can’t count on the others to dig us out either.”

“That’s what I was thinking. I was able to find two tunnels that branch off in this direction.” she explained as she escorted me to where she indicated.

Not far from where I had woken up, but far enough to be obscured in shadow, were the two pathways. The one on the left continued on straight ahead, however the right path curved to the right as it progressed.

“Any idea which path we should take?” I inquired.

“Let me see.” she said absentmindedly as she removed her bags from her back. Placing them at her side, she proceeded to dig through them for something. In the process, Twilight inadvertently began to shake her rump in my direction. The movements of her tail swooshing back and forth drew my attention, and before I knew what I was doing, I was ogling her.

Sunshine, sunshine. Ladybugs awake… Wait... Oh, Hell! I’m staring at her ass!

To try to preserve some form of modesty, I began to examine the walls fervently, going out of my way to not look anywhere near Twilight. I thought that I would pop a blood vessel with how hot my face felt.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. What was I thinking! She could have seen me doing that. Damn it Twilight! Why do you have to be so accidentally sexy? Thank God her tail blocked the important bits from view…

In my intent analyzing of the walls I noticed that something was missing from them.

Hey… If these are Dimend Dog tunnels, then… where are the gems?

My train of thought was interrupted with Twilight’s own discovery. “That’s interesting.” she stated.

“What is it?” I asked. The blush on my cheeks fading with my growing curiosity as I made my way next to the mare.

In front of her, all neatly organized in their place, was a map, a ruler, a triangle, and both types of a compass. Twilight pointed her hoof at the one compass that would normally be pointing north. “It’s just that… It shouldn’t be doing that.”

True to her observation, the needle of the direction finding tool was spinning around uncontrolled. “The walls must have loadstones in them.” she concluded out loud.

“You mean like, magnets?”

“The unprocessed form of a magnet, yes.” she concurred. “Without a heading, we might as well just pick a tunnel at random for all the good it’ll do us.” Twilight grumbled.

Trying to stay positive in the situation we found ourselves in, I decided to try to make lite of it. “Well… in that case, we should take this one then.” I stated with a motion of my hoof to the path leading to the right.

“And what makes that way better than the other?”

“Because, it’s the right path. Duh.” I answered her with a stupid grin on my face.

Twilight just stared at me for a few seconds in the wake of the bad joke that I had just made. “That…” she finally said. “That has to be the worst pun that I’ve ever heard.”

“Not as bad as some of the pony and horse puns that are in this universe. I mean… ‘Windigo’. It’s a horse made of wind. Come on.” I reasoned playfully with her.

Twilight gave me a curious look before softly shaking her head, as if to shake away a nagging suspicion. “Well…” she started. “It’s as good of a path as any, I suppose.” Packing her bags once more, she placed them on her back, and we proceeded down the curving pathway to the right.

As we walked, the events that occurred above ground made their way to my mind. The realization that Twilight had claimed that I was her coltfriend caused me to slow my pace. 

Noticing my sluggish behavior, the mare turned to me and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Why did you do it?” I inquired.

She tilted her head slightly. “Do what?”

“You told your brother that I was your coltfriend. You didn’t have to do that. So… Why did you?”

Twilight blushed, and her eyes drifted down to the left to avoid eye contact with me. “Oh. That. I.. I was just trying to keep my brother from hurting you. He can be a little over protective of me sometimes.” She explained. Meeting my eyes again she continued. “I.. I didn’t mean anything by it. I mean… It’s not like somepony like you would want a know-it-all librarian like me for a marefriend.”

“Hey, hey. None of that now. You are perfect just the way you are, and…”

Well… out with it. Now’s as good a time as any. 

“…and d..don’t assume th..that I wouldn’t want you for my ma..marefriend.” I finished with a stutter in my words.

Her reaction was immediate. Twilight’s body stiffened up completely, and her eyes were glued to mine in shock. I did much the same thing, mirroring her completely. The cave was utterly silent, except for our breathing, which was beginning to pick up as both of us began our own individual panic attacks.

I did it! I told her… and now she’s so repulsed with me that she’s gone rigid. What was I thinking? Of course she’s not interested in me. Why would she be? We only actually met a couple of days ago. Now I’ve gone and ruined my chances, and she’ll end up kicking me out of the library because she doesn’t want to see me again. Or worse, she’ll sick Shining Armor on me. Though at this point I’d probably welcome the pounding he’s going to give me, and… Why is she looking at me like that?

While my breathing had continued to escalate, Twilight’s had actually calmed down to normal levels. She was now looking at me in confusion, thought the blush on her cheeks was still there.

“Is that how I look like to other’s when I panic?” she asked herself.

My breathing began to slow down because of my inability to understand her question and its relevance to my confession with her. “Huh?” I answered once I was able to.

“What? Oh! Nothing. I… um… Are you asking me what I think you’re asking me?”

“Um… Uh… That depends. What do you think that I’m asking you?”

The blushing in her cheeks had increased at that moment, and I know that my own had to be as bright as Big Mac’s hide when he gets sunburn.

“I..It sounds to me, l..like you would like to be my c..coltfriend.” she stammered out.

“Well…” I started but my throat had all of a sudden become obstructed by something, and I found speaking very difficult. Clearing it as best I could, I continued. “I...  I suppose that I do. W..Would you want to… um… go on a d..date with me?”

Twilight’s eyes left mine for a moment, finding her hooves far more interesting to her as she scuffed them on the stone floor of the cave. “I.. I’ve never had a pony ask me to be their marefriend before.” she explained. “Nor have I ever had an interest to have a coltfriend…”

Damn it! She’s going to turn me down. I should have stuck with my instincts and went with the good friend route until she got to know me enough to be comfortable to consider me as a…

“… until now that is.” she finished.

Wait… What?

The purple mare looked up to me with her beautiful eyes. A few tears were threatening to leave their confines, but she was smiling up at me. All I could do was gawk at her in disbelief.

“You were so nice to me at your welcome party that I developed what is referred to as ‘butterflies’ in my stomach. I only realized what those symptoms meant while we were dancing. Because I’ve never been too sociable, I didn’t know the first thing about flirting, let alone dating, which is why I needed to go study it so suddenly. When you and Spike came into my room, I was half way into a relationship help guide.”

“So, does that mean you…” I started to ask, but was unable to finish because I needed all of my concentration to stifle my growing enthusiasm.

“I suppose it does.” she answered.

The fuse was lit. I stood there trembling as my excitement grew.

She said yes.

Seconds ticked by and my trembling became a shudder, and that shudder exploded into a joyous exclamation of success.

SHE SAID YES!

“YES!!!!” I shouted, and jumped into the air with a hoof pump. My excited cheer echoing through the caverns that we were traveling. Making an attempt to give my new marefriend a hug, I was rewarded with a hoof to my mouth.

“Shhsshhhssh. Do you want to bring the whole cavern down on us?”

Realizing my error, I froze in an attempt to stave off the inevitable. Sadly, the damage had already been done.

The echo of my voice reverberated down the cave network and back to us. Shortly after it faded to silence, the walls around us began to rumble and shake.

Crap! This isn’t good.

“Run!” the purple mare ordered as she split off from me and into a full gallop. Keeping pace, I followed not too far behind her as rocks began to fall around us.

“You just had to yell, didn’t you?” Twilight shouted as she dodged a rather large boulder that fell into her path.

“How was I to know that it would cause a cave-in?” I countered.

“Because I told you it would!”

“I’m sorry!” I shouted over the rumbling. “I was just so happy that you wanted to date me that I couldn’t keep quite anymore.”

“That’s nice of you to say, but your enthusiasm may have just killed us!”

“We are not dying here!” I protested. “Not when I’m so close to finally…” A rock that successfully eluded my perception struck me just above my eye and to the left of my horn, cutting me off mid sentence.

“Ah!” I hissed in pain. Stumbling a moment from the disorientation, but I quickly regained my composure and caught up with Twilight before she had a chance to turn around for me.

“Are you all right?” she asked in concern, keeping her eyes ahead to watch where she was going.

“I’ll be fine.” I answered her. My head throbbed around the wound, and blood began to drip into my eye, obscuring my vision slightly, but I was well enough to run for my life, so I figured that I was fine.

“There!” Twilight shouted. “I see a light up ahead!”

“Great! Hopefully it’s the way out.”

We galloped as quickly as we could while the tunnel behind us collapsed. With a final heave, we jumped out of the passage just before the final stone fell into place at our hooves. Dust bellowed out of the opening cascading it’s debris over our prone bodies. 

Sliding to a stop on the cave floor, both of us looked over our shoulders at the blocked entrance. “That was too close.” I stated, noting that one of the boulders had fallen mere inches from my outstretched back hoof.

Twilight punched me in the shoulder, not hard enough to hurt me, but strong enough to indicate that she wasn’t pleased with me. “It’s your fault!” she cried. “I warned you that something like this could happen.”

Turning my head to face her, I began to answer, “I said I was sor…”

“You’re hurt!” she exclaimed in worry when she saw the blood.

“It’s just a scratch. It’ll stop bleeding in a minute.”

This is nothing. It’s just bleeding because I’ve been running. It’ll stop soon.  I’m sure it looks worse than it really is anyway.

She forcefully grabbed my head with her hooves to get a better look at the wound. Moving my fur around to see the skin underneath, she examined what she could before moving on to my eyes.

“What are you looking for?” I asked.

“I’m making sure you don’t have a concussion.” Her horn lit up all of a sudden, and then dimmed gradually. “Good. Your pupils are dilating properly. You should be fine.”

“That’s what I said!”

Once she released me from her hold, I began to look around to see where we were. To my sorrow, we were still underground. We found ourselves in another large cavern, though this one was lit with a number of torches mounted on stalagmites at regular intervals. Each one illuminating a part of a pathway that wound through them.

“We should still try to stop the bleeding.” Twilight stated as she began to dig through her bag to find something to patch me up. “You don’t want that to get infected.”

Someone had to of lit these. 

“Um… Twi.”

“Oh don’t give me that, ‘A stallion’s too tough’ line. I’ve heard that enough from my brother, and every time, he would whimper like a foul when Mom disinfected his cuts and scrapes.”

“No, it’s not that.” I explained. “I don’t think we’re alone.” I motioned to the torches as evidence of my theory. 

“Huh?” The purple mare glanced up from what she was looking for to notice our surroundings as well. “Oh!”

Neither of us moved a muscle in the dim light the torches gave off. The only sounds that we could hear were the crackling of the fire and the sound of running water in the distance.

“Do you think it’s safe?” I asked.

“We’re underground in the Everfree Forest.” Twilight deadpanned. “No, I don’t think it’s safe.”

“We can’t just sit here though.” I reasoned.

Forgetting about my injury for a moment, Twilight got up from her place next to me, and examined one of the torches. “These have been enchanted.” she explained. “It’s impossible to know how long they’ve been burning like this. Whoever lit them could be long gone by now.”

“Or just around the corner.” I added.

Ignoring my pessimistic outlook, Twilight bent down to analyze some of the hieroglyphs embedded in the trail. The act did not go unnoticed by me.

No! Bad brain. We are not going to ogle Twilight, even if she’s our marefriend now. She’s… Wait…

The adrenalin that had been coursing through my veins during the cave-in was nothing compared to the amount of it I was getting when I thought about realizing a dream I never expected to accomplish. My breathing got caught in my throat.

I did it! We’re actually a couple! We can actually… Crap! I have no idea how ponies go about dating other ponies. Is it the same as humans, or does it have pony rituals to it? Are there any stigmas that I should be aware of? I just don’t know! I could really use whatever book Twilight was reading at the library. Well, I guess I could just ask her. She’d understand. After all, she knows that I’m not really a pony.

Wiping some of the blood from my brow, I got up from my resting place and approached the mare that I adored. “Hey, Twi.. um… I…”

“This is amazing!” Twilight announced as she examined the path in the light of the torch. “The carvings embedded in these tiles allude to Pre-Discordian architecture. It was believed that nothing remained after Discord rose to power.”

The excited mare rounded on me suddenly with a glint in her eye. “Do you know what this means?”

I shook my head in the negative.

“It means that this could be the find of the century! No. The millennium!”

“That’s great, Twi! Hopefully that means there’s a way out up ahead.” I stated, figuring now wasn’t the best time or place to talk about dating rituals.

“There is. See these glyphs?” she directed my attention to some writing that was scratched into a stalagmite. “These are an incredibly old form of language that I’ve only seen written by the princess before.” She turned to analyze the script in the stone. “ If… If I’m right, then these are road signs.”

“Road signs? To where?” I asked in curiosity.

“I don’t know. The wording is damaged here.” she pointed out a small bit of stone that had deep scratches on it, masking the markings written. The scratches looked suspiciously like claw marks to me, and I didn’t like what that might mean. 

Time to go. I’ve seen this one before. Whatever caused those claw marks is still down here, and in all likelihood, it eats meat.

“Uh.. Twi? I don’t think we should stay here anymore.” I advised.

Turning from the hieroglyphs to face me once more, the purple mare inspected me in curiosity. “Why?” she asked with an uplifted eyebrow. Shortly after the second eyebrow climbed to the top of her brow, and her eyes grew to the size of dinner plates.

No.

I felt a warm breath on my back.

No. No. No.

“Indeed. Why leave so soon when you only just arrived for dinner?” a deep, rumbling voice asked from behind me.

Crap!

Ever so slowly, I turned my head to get a glance at the creature that had gotten so close without my knowledge. What I saw did not put my nerves to ease. My vision was obscured by rows of teeth connected to a mouth, which was just as big as I was, twisted in a grin that didn’t bode well for my well being. Beyond those horribly sharp teeth were two yellow, reptilian, eyes that bore into my vary soul.

I whimpered ever so pathetically, because what was behind me was a full grown and menacing dragon.

I hate it when I’m right.
> Chapter 17: Avoiding the Inevitable
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The ridges on the green dragon’s brow furrowed in concentration. His vision never wavered, never blinked from his prey.

Maybe he’s a good dragon. Like, he’s made out to look evil, but he’s really just a big softy.

“Um… yo?” I greeted the intimidating creature before us with a humble wave of my hoof.

Instead of giving a civilized response to my address, the dragon opened his maw and roared in my face. Hot air and spittle accosted my features, causing my hair to stand up on end. My fur matted down with the moisture that he created, and began to smell of something putrid. The force of his roar pushed me against the same stalagmite that Twilight was able to hide behind.

Okay, not friendly then. This is a problem.

“Twilight,” I uttered more calmly then the situation called for. “It’s time for more running.”

She didn’t say anything to me. Her eyes never left the dragon in front of us, she simply nodded her approval of my plan.

Finally taking the urgency that was needed to heart, I grabbed the purple hoof that was resting on the stalagmite for balance to hurry the young mare along. “Now!” I shouted as I lead the way to wherever the scratched out sign pointed to.

The large reptile lunged for us, missing his meal by mere inches. Misjudging his trajectory, he collided with the stalagmite sign, causing it to topple over onto him. This gave Twilight and I the time we need to get a head start on the brute.

“Where are we going?” Twilight asked me in fear.

I could hear the dragon rise up, the stone that had fallen on him tumbling to the cave floor. He roared once again, but it descended to a menacing, evil laugh that chilled me to the bone.

“Anywhere that isn’t here!” I shouted an answer to the mare.

“I’m having pony tonight!” the dragon bellowed, causing his voice to reverberate through the cavern. Looking above me in fear that the beast would cause another cave-in, I was unable to see a stray stone in my path, and tripped over the damned thing.

Twilight skidded to a halt, and turned to help me back to my hooves. Waving her on as I scrambled to my hooves, I yelled, “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be right behind you.”

“I’m not leaving you!” she shouted over the dragon’s horrible echo as she came to my side, completely ignoring my words. “We’ll make it out of here, together!” 

Even though we were in mortal danger, I couldn’t help but to smile at her. She was so confident, and there was no doubt in her mind that we were going to be safe. At least… none that she was outwardly displaying.

I was on my hooves by the time she had reached my side. The dragon was gaining ground quickly, and we had to act fast.

“Please tell me you know a spell to fight dragons?” I asked Twilight in a panic.

“No. Dragons are naturally immune to magic!” she informed me as we continued to run for our lives.

“What!? But… you use spells on Spike all the time!”

The purple mare gave me a confused glance, but answered me none the less. “He’s a baby dragon, he’s resistant to magic but not immune to it. I use him as a test subject because if the spell works, then I know I’ve mastered it.” She explained.

Well… Shit.

With reckless abandon, the dragon behind us barreled through the natural stone pillars that lined the path we were following. His eyes glued to our small forms as we weaved in and out of the obstacles before us. “Mine!” he roared like a greedy child.

In the darkness, a short distance from where we were running, came another roar in response to the dragon chasing us.

“You have to be kidding me!?” I exclaimed. “How many dragons are down here?”

In response to the other drake’s presence becoming known, our first pursuer doubled his efforts to capture us. Closing the gap quickly, he made another lunge to prevent us from getting away. His claw reached out for me, but just before I was within reach, I passed under an archway created by a toppled pillar. The claw that was meant to dig into my flesh left a large gash in the stone above. It slowed his attack down just enough for his claws to rend the saddle straps on my back to shreds instead of me, sparing my life for a few seconds longer.

The lost baggage was of little consequence to me, and I am not ashamed to admit that I was afraid. Not just for my life, but for Twilight’s as well. Blood was beginning to run down my face and into my eye again from the wound I had sustained in the tunnel. I glanced over to the mare that had only recently become my marefriend. Fear was plastered all over her face as she concentrated on what was in front of her.

I can’t let it end like this. There has to be something that we can do. Dragons can probably smell blood, so hiding is out. That only leaves running and fighting, but he’s faster than us, and we can’t affect him with magic. Well… let’s see how strong I am with levitation.

Spotting another downed pillar off to the side of the pathway, I decided to try something stupid. “Twilight, no matter what happens, keep running.” I ordered.

“Huh?”

“Just keep running!” I shouted while I focused all of my energy into my horn. Skidding to a halt, my hooves dug into the dirt floor with the weight of the magic I was gathering.

The dragon hesitated for only a moment, but stopped anyway with a smirk on his grotesque face. “Really? You want to try magic on a dragon?” he asked smugly. “All right. I’ll humor you. Proceed; then, you die.” he stated with a gesture of his claw.

If this doesn’t work, at least I bought Twilight enough time to get away.

“What are you doing!? I told you that dragons are immune to spells!” said unicorn demanded as she inched unsurely closer towards my side.

FUCK!!!

“Why are you still here? I told you to keep running!” I demanded through gritted teeth, not allowing my spell to falter.

“I’m not going to leave you to die alone.” she stated. “I’m pretty sure that’s not what marefriends do.”

“I’m trying to save your life!”

“But, what about yours!?

“It’s not as important as yours!” I snapped. Using all the force that I could muster, I swung the stone pillar, which I was able to levitate quietly behind the menacing dragon, like a baseball bat. It struck home with a resounding ‘crack’, and promptly shattered upon impact.

The green creature winced in slight pain, but didn’t crumple to the ground like I had hoped it would. He glared down at me, fury in his eyes. “That hurt.” he growled.

Suddenly, he reached out for us. I had just enough time to push Twilight out of the way of his claw, but not enough to dodge it myself. Snatching me up into his clutches, he brought me up to his face to look into his eyes. “That wasn’t very nice.” he stated as he squeezed me to make his point. The scales on his hands ground into my skin; causing me to flinch at the pain that they gave. It wasn’t enough to break the skin, but it was enough to make me hiss in agony.

He opened his mouth wide to, no doubt, devour his newly acquired meal. But before he had a chance to do what he wanted, a large piece of stone hit his lower jaw, forcing it closed. 

Glancing down, I was able to find that Twilight had mimicked my plan of attack. “Put him down this instant!” she shouted up at the brute. However, before he had a chance to answer her demands, she pelted him a few more times with freshly cut slabs of stone.

Her attacks were having little to no effect on the dragon. The rocks would hit his scales, and shatter into smaller pieces.

He’s got to have a weak spot. All bad guys have a weak spot. 

Thinking rationally about it, I went with the obvious. “Aim for his eyes!” I directed, only to be squeezed once more for my effort. She continued her assault, pelting the dragon with a nonstop barrage of stone to his face. In response, he rose his free hand up to protect himself from Twilight’s wrath.

So concentrated was he on the small mare, that he didn’t notice another large dragon charging him from the left. “Gimmie!” the apparent female of his kind shouted as she tackled the male one to the ground.

The shock that was delivered to the green dragon was enough for him to loosen his grip on me, allowing me to slip from his grasp. Not noticing my escape, the newcomer’s attack persisted.

Rolling around in a tussle for dominance, the two giant lizards squabbled about who would get to eat us. “These are my ponies! You got to eat the last ones!” The purple female dragon reasoned.

“I found them first!” our original pursuer contested.

“Doesn’t mean you get to eat them. We had a deal!”

“I don’t care! I’m hungry!”

“That’s because you can’t control yourself around food. It’s the pony problem all over again!”

“What was I supposed to do? Let them leave?”

“If you had, then we wouldn’t have had that pony creature trap us in these caves and take our egg!”

“Now look what you did, they’re getting away!” he shouted from under a clawed foot as he pointed in our direction. In the confusion of the booming argument, Twilight and I was able to make a good headway towards the path’s final destination.

“I think… I think I see something up ahead!” she gasped.

Past the monoliths and lights, there was a cliff that came out to a point. At that point, I could see two posts dug into the ground that was a clear giveaway that there was a rope bridge just out of sight.

Good! That’s got to lead to another tunnel that’ll be too small for them.

Breathing heavily, we doubled our efforts to reach the bridge before the dragons could catch up. 

“You’re not getting away from us!” the green one shouted before he inhaled, and blew fire at us. The heat that it radiated was so intense that the stone columns that it engulfed would deform slightly from the heat it was producing. 

I was dearly hoping that we were out of range of the fiery death, but as it got closer and closer, I found that it was anything but. It encroached upon us with a speed that could only be matched by Hell itself. Just before it had a chance to claim our lives, it struck a purple wall that split the dragon’s inferno in half. Each half diverged on a different course to our sides, creating two walls of flame.

The mare that I would gladly die for was having a difficult time. She was breathing hard and sweating profusely. Her horn flickered with her exertion, fading along with her magical wall once the fire dissipated.

“I… I can’t… do that again.” Twilight panted. Her energy reserves depleted from so much strain.

With any luck you won’t have to. Almost there! We’ll be over this bridge and…CRAP!!!!

We skidded to a halt between the two posts we were running towards, stopping just before going over the edge. Ropes hung limply from their knots attaching them to the poles, frayed from age, and swinging slowly in an unseen wind. Before us stretched a chasm so deep we couldn’t see the bottom, and there was nothing that could be considered a bridge to help us across.

All hope was quickly lost in that moment. Each of us stared blankly down at where we had expected our salvation to be hanging. Looked up to the other side of the chasm at the same time, we were able to make out an outcropping. There, in a slight mist of fog, was a building with ornate architecture that looked to me to have been built from the ceiling down.

Time seemed to slow down for me with the knowledge that death was soon upon us.

We were so close.

I glanced back the way we had come to see the two dragons rapidly approaching.

It was supposed to be the perfect life.

Turning my head to the mare next to me, our eyes met, and in them I found the moments that we could have shared together. So much laughter, fun, and heartwarming moments that were never going to happen now.

Why couldn’t we have more time?

Her eyes softened as she seemed to understand what I was thinking. A single tear escaping its confines to announce her regrets.

Even if this is all I get… I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

I scooped Twilight up into as comforting of a hug as I could muster.

If we have to die, it’s going to be on my terms. No dragons are going to eat us!

Our foreheads met in a show of affection, allowing us to look deeper into each other’s eyes. The blood from the gash on my brow matted her fur a little, but she didn’t shy away from me at all.

“I love you, Twilight.” I stated as I slowly tipped our bodies over the edge of the cliff side, only to pause at the precipice for Twilight to give her acceptance of my plan.

It’ll be quicker this way.

Both of the famished dragons noticed what I was planning to do, and jumped at us in an attempt to prevent the loss of their meals. “NO!!!” they roared reaching out with their clawed hands to snatch us up before we made our final plunge.

Twilight closed her eyes, denying me their sight, and gave a sigh. “I think I love you too.” She said as she clung to me. With a final shift she brought us over the edge.

They’re too close. We’re not going to make it!

They were within inches from our back hooves, and at the speeds they were moving, they’d be able to grab us before we passed the lip of the cliff side.

Twilight squeezed me tighter as she, must have, realized the same thing as I had. Her movement’s caused our horns to rub together, and there was a spark of energy that arced between them. It startled me at first, but the sensation continued to grow and wash over our bodies in a comforting light. Twilight’s eyes opened once more and looked into my own orbs with a blush upon her cheeks. The world around us faded to the background. Nothing else mattered in that moment, just her and me, gazing into each other’s souls. It felt like everything would turn out okay, that there was no reason to worry.

But just as quickly as it had started, it was shattered by a claw brushing against my back hoof. All at once the aura that had embraced us, condensed into a tight ball, and exploded with such force that it rattled the teeth in my mouth.

The blast of magic passed over Twilight and I harmlessly, the dragons however didn’t fare so well. They flattened up against the shockwave of the blast like they had run up against a wall. Continuing to expand, the force of whatever magic was in play pushed the couple up and away from our position. The storm of magic died down, but the dragons continued their assent up and embedded themselves into the cave ceiling.

Slipping free shortly after impact, they fell along with the stability of the cave. Stalactites were rattled loose from the domed surface, and began to fall at random intervals. This all took second place on the list of my current concerns, as we now found ourselves falling to our deaths from a foe now no longer a threat.

God damn it! Are you telling me that we really didn’t have to jump off the cliff? We could have just stood still, rubbed our horns together, and declared our love for each other to keep us safe? I call bullshit! Why couldn’t the blast save us from falling too?

The wind began to pick up as we approached our critical velocity. We already passed forty feet of free-fall, all but ensuring death once we finally hit the stone floor below. 

My eyes never left her's as we descended further to our final resting place. They were comforting to look into, flicking back and forth as she analyzed my own orbs looking back.

How many times have I put her in mortal danger now? I’ve lost count. If by some miracle I survive this, I’m going to walk up to Shining Armor and beg him to kick my ass. I deserve it at this point.

Distracted by Twilight’s eyes, and my own berating thoughts, I was ill prepared for the wet impact that we received once we reached the bottom. The buoyancy of our bodies caused me to sink further than the lighter mare in my grasp, tearing us apart slightly.

Water? Water! We’re alive!!!

I scrambled towards Twilight in a fit of joy, desperately wanting to celebrate even before reaching the surface. In the small amount of light that reached this far underwater, I could make out the silhouette of the unicorn mare surrounded by random objects.

Her saddlebags must have come undone from the impact with the water, and the loose objects were now sinking into the abyss. None of the inanimate objects mattered to me in that moment, all that mattered was the mare frantically searching for something.

Just as I reached out to embrace the purple mare, I heard a splash muffled by the water that filled my ears. Both Twilight and I turned to find a large boulder quickly sinking further into the murky depths below. Sounding a lot like rain, small pebbles began to pelt the surface of the water above us separated by explosions of larger stones making their own impacts.

Twilight grew frantic in her search for whatever it was she was looking for. Realizing that we weren’t out of danger yet, I quickly grasped the unicorn’s hoof to try to lead her to safety. Having none of it, she pulled her hoof away to linger in her search.

We can’t stay here! I don’t know what is so important, but it’s not worth your life!

Being underwater, I couldn’t ask her what was wrong, or what it was she was searching for. All I could do was try to get her to understand that we needed to find shelter from the falling stones.

In a quick maneuver, I captured Twilight in a bear grip. She struggled to free herself, and began to beat her hooves against my chest in a fruitless attempt to get me to let her go. Her thrashing about prevented me from maneuvering us anywhere, and she was insistent that she persevere in her search.

Alright, now what genius?

The smaller pebbles bounced harmlessly against our manes as the muffled sounds of larger boulders made themselves heard around us. The limited air supply in my lungs had begun to deplete, alerting me to the need to breathe sooner rather than later.

I need to calm her down.

Doing what I thought would help, I nuzzled up against her cheek in a calming motion. Her flailing slowed slightly, but she was still trying to push me away. That is… until a particularly heavy rock grazed against my shoulder, causing immense pain to course through my left side. What air remained in my lungs, quickly departed in the howl of pain I produced, which was muffled by the water around me.

Twilight stared at me for a moment in shock, before using her hooves to clamp my muzzle shut, preventing me from inhaling fluid instead of air. She did a quick look at all of the falling debris around us, like she was just realizing what was happening. Adopting a strained look, her horn began to glow with a faded lavender hue. She did a quick glance down to find what she was looking for, but not seeing it in the darkness, decided to move somewhere safer.

Grabbing my right hoof in her own, she attempted to escort me to an underwater cave opening in the side of the cliff. I was in no condition to swim, but I kicked my back hooves as well as I could to help while Twilight directed me.

The cavern tilted upwards slightly and it didn’t take long for us to brake from the water’s surface. Gasping for air, we crawled to the shore of this underground spring. Clasping my right arm close to my chest, I limped over to a stray stalagmite nearby. I collapsed onto my back, wincing with the pain that came along with the feat.

“Are… Are you alright?” the purple mare gasped in worry. She knelt down next to me to analyze the damage.

“I think… I’ll live.” I answered, glancing over at my limp appendage. There were only a few scratches on it, which baffled me as to why it was hurting so much.

Twilight placed a hoof on my shoulder and my hoof, and tried to rotate my arm. She stopped what she was doing immediately when she heard me hiss in agony. “I think it’s dislocated.” she announced. “Stay still, I read this in a book once.”

She positioned my body so my shoulder was placed strategically with the pillar behind me. Removing her empty bags, she placed one of the straps into my mouth. “Bite down on this.” she ordered. “This is going to hurt.”

With a quick buck and a loud pop, my shoulder went back into it’s proper placement in my body. The straps fell from my mouth when I gave a short scream followed by an obscenity, and I crumpled to the floor bruised and sore.

In my delirium, I rolled onto my back looking up at the cave ceiling, and my mind wandered to a couple of things. 

God that hurt! I hope those dragons were crushed by that cave in. That’ll show them not to mess with ponies. Green and purple… huh. Makes you think that they were… Oh Hell. And they said that somepony stole one of their eggs. 

“Hay Twi?”

“Hmm?” she asked as she rested next to my prone body.

“I don’t mean to alarm you, but I think we just killed Spike’s parents.”

Twilight looked at me in utter horror, until there was a melody of infuriated roars from somewhere above us.

“Op, never mind. They’re fine.” I concluded. 

The pain had begun to subside to a dull ache, and my thoughts moved to the more recent events, and got curious about what the purple unicorn was looking for earlier.

“Hey? What were you looking for under the water?” I inquired.

“Oh. I was just looking for my Element of Harmony.” she stated with no enthusiasm.

Oh! Just her Element of Harmony. That’s all.

My eyes widened in realization of what had just been lost. Both Twilight and I sat up in alarm as the same problem dawned on us. We looked at each other in shock, then back to the pool of clear water before us. 

The entrance to this alcove was clearly visible with the help of some strange luminescence reflecting inside the water, and we could both see that it was filled in with loose stone, trapping us here. We weren’t leaving the same way we had come from, and the large tiara was buried under a mountain of rubble. 

I could tell, in that moment, that we were both thinking the same thing.

FUCK!!!!

> Chapter 18: Regrouping
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“No. No. No. No. This isn’t happening!” Twilight panicked. Her hair had become frazzled and messy despite still being wet from just emerging from the pool in front of us.

“Why would you even bring something like that?” I demanded as I began to panic along with the purple mare, who was now darting left and right at the edge of the luminescent spring.

“”Princess Celestia wanted us to bring them in case something happened, and now mine’s lost forever!” she wailed in despair. 

“Like what? All we were going to do was pick up a rock. A stupid rock!” I shouted in frustration. “I don’t understand. Why would Celestia want you to bring the Elements with us? From what I know about the forest, there isn’t anything in here that the Elements would even work on anyway; so, why?” I inquired as I got to my hooves with a grunt of discomfort from my shoulder.

“I don’t know! When the Princess tells you to bring an ancient magical artifact with you, you bring the ancient magical artifact with you! There is no questioning it. You just do as she says!”

Alright. Alright. Calm down. There’s nothing we can do right now. Once we’re done with getting this gem and get Blueblood from my mind, we can come back here and take our time to dig up the Element of Magic. Not all is lost. It’s not like this is anyone’s fault, after all. 

“This is your fault!” exclaimed the unicorn, pointing an accusing hoof at me.

“What!?”

“If it weren’t for you, none of this would have happened. The Element of Magic would be safely sealed in the royal vault, and I’d be in the library studying the magic of friendship instead of being lost under the Everfree Forest, trying to understand why I fell in love with somepony who isn’t even a pony. Why couldn’t you be…”

Quietly sitting near the pond, I let Twilight continue her rant. The initial accusation stunned me, and I was worried that she hated me at first, but when she mentioned loving me off of the cuff like that, I guessed that she just needed to vent her frustrations. Allowing her to do just that, I simply watched her pace back and forth not taking anything she said too seriously. Wincing at a few choice words, I waited patiently for her to calm down enough for me to try to comfort her without getting any backlash in return.

“… it’s just so maddening!” she exclaimed. “Ever since I met you, nothing but problems follow in your wake. Each one driving me closer to my own death, yet I follow you? I must be going insane. That’s the only logical explanation. I am going completely and utterly insane.”

Rather than allow the purple mare to berate herself further, I decided to step in to brave an attempt to calm her. “Twilight. Come on. Deep breaths. You need to calm down.” I instructed as I inhaled a big breath to display what I meant, then letting the air out of my lungs with a sigh in an attempt to display calm.

She glared at me for a moment, before closing her eyes, and breathing in deeply with her hoof pressed to her chest. Shortly after, she let it out, pointing her hoof straight ahead of her. Not feeling any change, she proceeded to do this a couple more times in fast succession. The last of her breaths came much slower, and when she opened her eyes once more to look at me, she seemed like a completely different mare. 

“Whoa.” I muttered as I took in the drastic changes in her appearance. 

Her mane straightened out and fell into place on its own accord, her eyes no longer twitched at a steady pace that a clock would be able to tell time by, and her gaze was focused on nothing but me now. “You’re right. I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve that. If it wasn’t for you, I’d probably be buried with my element under all that rock right now. There’s no way we can recover it from down there.”

“I’m not going to lie. It won’t be easy, but we can still dig it up. It may take awhile, but we can still dig it up. What’s important is that we’re okay. At least… for the moment anyway.” I assured as I gazed about the small room.
Most of the cave was lit by the luminescence of the pool before us, but what the light from the pool didn’t reach, a torch positioned next to a staircase illuminated on the far wall.

“I guess the only way left is up.” I stated motioning towards the stairs leading up.

“Wait.” Twilight called out with the application of her hoof to my good shoulder. “Before we go any further, there’s something I need to know.” Turning to face her once more, she continued with her line of thought. “You haven’t told me the entire truth yet; have you? You know more than you should about my friends, me and this world. There’s even evidence that you know about the Elements. How is that possible?”

“Oh! … um… I… uh.”

Crap! She knows! I’ve been too lax with my information. What should I tell her? I should tell her the truth, but I don’t think Celestia would be happy about that, and I doubt Twilight would take the news that she’s famous well. But at the same time, she has the right to know, and I really don’t want to lie to her anymore.

I let out a breath of resignation.

I guess there’s only one thing to do then.

“Twi. What I’m about to tell you doesn’t leave this cave. Alright?”

The mare in front of me hesitantly nodded her head, clearly unsure if she really wanted to keep what I had to say a secret.

“I mean it Twi. I’m going to need you to Pinkie Promise. I don’t think your friends will be able to handle this. Well… Pinkie probably already knows, considering she’s Pinkie, but someone like Fluttershy would be mortified.”

“O..Okay. I.. I Pinkie Promise not to tell anypony.” She promised warily. Her uncertainty had changed to slight fear for the knowledge that I held.

Shifting uncomfortably on my hooves, I began my explanation. “Okay. Um… You kind of exist in my dimension.”

“Oh! Well…” she perked up with the revelation. “I suppose that makes sense. Considering there are countless realities with an untold multitude of possible outcomes to choices and stimuli that could create an endless amount of duplicate personalities and situations. That’s not that bad. I thought that you were going to say you were watching us in our day to day lives or something.”

I inhaled through my teeth.

Noticing my reaction, her eyes narrowed, and she had to ask the inevitable question on her mind. “You… you weren’t spying on us. Were you?”

“Well…” I started as a used my hooves to mimic a scale. “…yes and no?”

“What!? That’s… That’s disgusting! That has to be the most depraved, immoral, shameless, profligate...”

“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! No! Not like that!” I interrupted with my hooves raised in defense from the angry approaching mare. “You were a TV show on something we call a television. It works kind of like a movie does, by projecting images.”

Twilight stopped her approach to look at me expectantly to continue, but didn’t let up on the frown she had.

“You didn’t physically exist in my world. You were imagined by someone and drawn out on paper, and turned into a cartoon. Which are drawings ordered to work kind of like film does. You were just something someone imagined to entertain little girls.”

Her face changed to confusion and uncertainty. “Assume I believe you. Are… are you saying that you were a little girl?” she asked.

“What? No! ‘Sigh’ Look. The show became really popular with men for some odd reason that most can’t even explain properly. It was just a good cartoon. It started with the first day you went to Ponyville, and continued following you and your friends from there. Each episode would usually end with you or your friends sending a letter to Celestia on what you learned about friendship. There was nothing bad or perverted about what was shown. Alright?”

The purple mare in front of me lowered her head, and focused on the ground in front of her as she thought. All I could do was sit there and wait for her reaction, as well as any questions that she might have. Silently, she began to mumble to herself. I couldn’t quite catch what she was saying, but I think I heard the words ‘Pinkie’ and ‘Spaceponies’ before her focus shifted up to me again. “So… you know everything about me?” she asked, moving ever so slowly closer to me. Twilight’s eyes darted across my face for any inkling of a clue that I might not be telling her the truth, or withholding information from her.

“I… I doubt I know everything,” I hesitantly answered, “but I’m sure I know more than I should. I’m sorry for not telling you sooner, but you can understand why I didn’t. You would have thought I was crazy, and never would have agreed to… date me.” I mumbled the last two words in shame.

Even though she agreed to go out with me, and stated that she loved me on a couple of occasions, I still felt like anything could shatter our newfound relationship to pieces. She hasn’t known me for very long, and I haven’t given her any reason to trust me, so how could she truly love me like that? I didn’t want my knowledge of a show to mar our relationship any further.

“If… If we can...” I started. “Can we start again? I pinkie promise to always tell you nothing but the truth from now on. You can ask me anything, and I’ll answer you truthfully. I swear.”

Looking up in thought, the unicorn in front of me tapped her chin as she contemplated her options. Leveling her gaze back to me, she asked her question. “Is that why you decided to come here? To ask me on a date?” There was no stuttering or hesitation in her voice, just the yearning to know my answer.

The way she asked it brought a small smile of hope to my face. “I can’t say that it was the only reason for coming here, but it was definitely at the top of my list.”

“You know? That is either the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard, or incredibly creepy.” She stated, causing me to wince at the vocalized fears I had before actually coming to Equestria. I would have been a little more worried if not for the smile that adorned Twilight’s features. “Do I have to get a restraining order on you?” she joked, poking my chest lightly with a hoof.

My smile grew slightly with her playful attitude. “I don’t think you can.” I answered. “I have a royal letter ordering me to live in the same house as you. Remember?” Sadly, my worries quickly came crashing in to the forefront of my thoughts. “So… we’re alright. Right?” It was a simple question, but it weighed heavily on my mind.

Twilight frowned slightly, but answered. “You’re on thin ice, but…” she gave me a comforting smile. “Yeah. I think we are. We can just take things slow, so I can get to know you as well as you seem to know me. Okay?”

“Yeah. I’d like that.”

“And don’t worry. I won’t tell the girls about this. After all, I made a pinkie promise, and I’m sure you know what that means; don’t you?”

I chuckled a little. “Yeah. You get a really pissed off Pinkie Pie if you break that promise.” I answered.

“No. Well… yes, but that wasn’t what I was thinking about.”

“I know. I’m sorry I lost your trust Twi. I’ll do what I can to earn it back.”

“You’ve made a good start so far, and I know you’ll do what is right. After all… losing a ponies trust is the fastest way to lose a marefriend.” she said with a grim grin, emphasizing the last word to make her point.

From up the stairwell behind me, the far away voice of a pony yelling a single word came echoing down the passage. The word gave both Twilight and me hope that an exit was close at hoof. That word being, “Forever!” in a drawn out shout.

“Please tell me you heard that too?” I asked the wide eyed mare in front of me.

Not even taking the time to answer my question, Twilight took flight up the stairs with me following shortly after. I was able to keep a steady pace, but my shoulder was still sore from the trauma that was inflicted upon it making me to limp slightly. Normally this would be a huge hindrance to my ability to run, but being on four legs, I was able to shift most of my weight onto my other hoof to prevent any major pain.

The stairwell spiraled upwards to the left at a lazy incline. This allowed us to move quickly without stumbling or sliding along the stone surface that it was made of. After a few short minutes we came to a door at the end of our path and burst through it without any hesitation as to what might have been on the other side.

Skidding to a halt, the eyes of seven ponies shifted their attention to Twilight and I. From what I could gather with the quick glance that I got, we had just interrupted a confused and irritated fashionista chewing out a pink party pony for yelling in her ear.

Silence reigned for a short moment as everyone took in who just burst through the door that they had been resting near. In unison all of the Elements of Harmony cried out Twilight’s name with elation, and charged, crushing her in a big group hug. Each of the mares battled for dominance in an attempt to dislodge the most oxygen from Twilight’s lungs. 

Pinkie Pie was the clear victor in this endeavor.

“I was so worried that I would never see you again!” she shouted while she clung to Twilight’s torso. “My pinkie sense was going off like crazy when you went into the woods with Honor. It was mostly the twitchy tail, which was the ‘lookout for falling objects’ one, and I remembered that you always had a problem with that, and as soon as you disappeared it went off, but when we got to where you should have been, and all we found was a small hole in the ground. After that, I got another twitchy tail that was stronger than the first, and then the ground began to shake, and made my voice sound all silly, but it stopped shortly after, and I was all sad, but everypony said to ignore it and to keep going to the ruins to find you and help you. Well… Everypony except for Trixie. She came anyway because your brother told her that if she didn’t help she would be thrown in the dungeon, and…”

The mentioned blue magician used her magic to forcibly silence Pinkie’s rambling. “Silence! The Great and Powerful Trixie will not stand for such slander! She decided to volunteer her services out of the goodness of her heart.”

Rainbow Dash made a move to make a snide retort, but Trixie interrupted the attempt by restating what she had already said with a meaningful glair at the pegasus. “Out of the goodness of her heart.” The venom in her voice was palpable through her gritted teeth.

“Yes… Well… Anyway,” Rarity began in an attempt to defuse the situation, “with Trixie’s direction, we were able to make it here to the ruins much quicker than anticipated.”

“Indeed. Was there ever any doubt?” the showmare agreed. 

Without her noticing, all of the other mares nodded their heads to Twilight to signify that, yes, there were in fact doubts. While Trixie’s attention was distracted, Pinkie Pie had found that her mouth was once again free to move as she wished it, and continued with her rant like nothing had stopped her in the first place.

“Anyway, we made it to the ruins, which was a good thing because soon after I got a doozy! I was a little confused as to why the doozy seemed to be focused under us, but soon after the ground began to shake again, but not in the good way, more like the explody kind, but down. Implody? What’s it like when something explodes but it goes down? Implode?”

“Ah think the word yer lookin’ for is a sinkhole, Pinkie.” Applejack helped.

“Sinkhole! Yeah! But that’s not explody...” she paused for thought.

“Just get on with it.” the farmer facehoofed in exasperation.

“Anyway, out of that flew two dragons. Isn’t that cool! We ended up watching them fly off when I had the urge to shout ‘Forever!’ for some reason, and then you showed up. It’s so good to see you!” Pinkie exclaimed as she squeezed Twilight one more time for emphases.

The two stallions in the area sat by, not quite sure as to what they should be doing at that moment, though Shining Armor decided on taking the initiative when he noticed me on my own. Approaching calmly, maybe a little too calmly, he trotted up to me with a slight smile on his lips that worried me.

Welp… here comes the beating. I’ll keep my word though. I’ve endangered Twilight enough as is. He can punch me all he wants to.

Closing my eyes in order to not see his hooves coming, I stood my ground, ready for whatever injuries he wanted to inflict. I listened to his hoof beats until he stopped in front of me. The next thing I knew, his hoof lightly came in contact with my bad shoulder, causing me to inhale sharply and shy away from the offending object. He didn’t let me, his hoof keeping me in place for what he wanted.

“Shining! Don’t hurt him.” Twilight’s voice sounded in my ears. Clearly worried at what might happen between me and her older brother.

The royal guard ignored his sister’s pleas as his head inched closer to my own. I could feel his breath on my face. The hot air that he produced shifted the fur on the end of my muzzle.

“I… I’m sorry.” he hesitantly apologized.

“Huh?” I asked, confusion clear on my face as I opened my eyes to look at the stallion in front of me. “You… You’re not going to hit me?”

“No. I’m not going to hit you.” He confirmed.

The processes in my mind had completely seized up with the inability to comprehend why Shining Armor would not want to cause me bodily harm. This would explain the incredibly stupid question of, “Why?” that came from my lips shortly after in disbelief. Like the only natural thing for the hulking colt to do was to damage me relentlessly.

Closing his eyes, the royal guard inhaled, and let his breath out in a long sigh. “Because.” he stated. “Because Twily chose you over me. She wouldn’t have done that if she didn’t care for you. I guess my little Twily is growing up.” He mentioned as he took a quick glance to his sister. They both shared a meaningful smile with each other, until he turned back to me.

Leaning in closer to me, he whispered so none but I could hear him. “And if I find that you’re just using her, then I will hunt you down, I will find you, and I will cut off that part of you that makes you a stallion and mount it on my wall as a trophy. Do I make myself clear?”

Letting him beat me up is one thing. Letting him cut my nuts off is something completely different. Do not want!

“Crystal.” I affirmed, shuttering slightly at the image that he had painted in my mind.

Note to self: stay as far away from Shining Armor as possible in the future.

Shining’s expression changed immediately. He removed his hoof from my shoulder and exclaimed, “Great! Glad that’s taken care of! So… Trixie. Which way to the temple?” he inquired while rubbing his forehooves together in a show of cleansing them of the dirty business he concluded with me.

All of us were still clearly confused with the results of Shining Armor’s light tone, but it was only his little sister to question his motives. “Wait! That’s it? You’re all of a sudden fine with going to the temple?” she asked. “I thought you wanted nothing more than to take us back to Ponyville?”

“Oh don’t get me wrong, I do. Honor Bound and I will continue to the temple alone. The rest of you will go back to Ponyville where it’s safe.”

The bearers of the Elements of Harmony erupted into a cacophony of objections to the idea. The royal guard didn’t even bat an eye at the mares; he just sat there unmoving as they yelled their opinions.

He still wants to send them away? Wait… if they leave… it’ll just be me and him… alone… with no witnesses…

“Don’t leave me alone with him!!!!” I begged as I threw myself onto the ground at the feet of the group of mares. Said mares blinked at me in surprise.

A white hoof caressed the side of my face to comfort me. “Perish the thought.” Rarity eased. “I promise you, I’ll never let you out of my sight ever again. Nopony is going to steal you away from me.” She stated with a cold tone, taking a quick glance over to Twilight to see her reaction. The look was returned with gusto.

I looked between the silently warring white and purple mare in thought for a moment, before pleading once more for a different reason to Twilight. “Don’t leave me alone with her!!!”

The fashionista pouted, but didn’t say anything to sway my wishes on the matter. Instead, soothing words came from somewhere I didn’t expect they would. Rainbow Dash. “Hay, now. We won’t leave ya hangin’. We started this journey together, and we’ll finish it together.” she comforted. “Right girls?”

Each mare gave their agreement in their own way, from a simple nod to a rib crushing hug, but all were welcomed with delight as I felt the friendship they had for me, and in one case; love. Shining however, did not like this decision one bit.

“I am the captain of the royal guard, and prince of the Crystal Empire, and I will not stand for this!” he shouted in irritation. “I am the highest ranking official here, so when I give an order, I expect it to be followed!”

Silence reined. Everyone just stared at Shining Armor as he panted in exasperation. Only one pony dared to speak after such a scene, and it was actually the meekest of the mares here.”That’s… um… not completely true.” Fluttershy corrected. The attention shifted to her, and she paused to hide herself behind her mane before trying to reword her previous sentence. “I mean… um… that… I don’t think you are the only prince here?” she decided to make the statement a question to keep from sounding too disrespectful.

It took a moment for everyone to slowly connect the dots as to what she was referring to, but it seemed to dawn on everyone at the same time when it did.

Pinkie Pie was the first to respond with an, “Oh yeah! I completely forgot about that.”

Dash decided to follow up with an over exaggerated bow at my hooves just to rub it in the guards face. “What are your orders, my liege?” she asked.

My eyes shifted from the pegasus who had prostrated herself before me and the confused stallion to my right. The whole situation made me uncomfortable.

“What are you talking about?” Shining inquired. “He’s a noble, not a prince.”

“Nu uh.” Pinkie denied popping up in front of the guard to boop his nose. “Honor Bound replaced Prince Blueblood, so that makes him a prince now too.”

“That’s not how it works!” the stallion rejected. “Besides, that just means there are two princes here of equal authority.”

“Sorry, adopted nephew trumps married into royal family.” Dash stated. “You still lose.”

Shining raised his hoof to object, but Applejack interrupted what he was about to say. “That sounds about right ta me.” she agreed.

Another movement by him was interrupted by the blue showmare this time. “The Great and Powerful Trixie would prefer to follow a pony who doesn’t threaten her with prison.” she decided to add.

The guard lowered his hoof and slumped down in defeat. “Fine. You all can come along.” He grumbled under his breath.

“Yay!!!” Pinkie jumped up in the air shouting her joy to the heavens with confetti flying up behind her. “We’re off to find the temple! This wonderful temple of ours!” she sang with an eerily familiar tune as she led us onward in a random direction. That is, until Trixie magically picked her up, rotated her into a new direction, and placed her back down to continue with the proper course down a side street to an ominous looking building.

The two siblings stayed behind for a moment, out of earshot of the others.

“Thank you, B.B.B.F.F. It’s what the princesses would want.” Twilight showed her appreciation with a sisterly hug.

“I still don’t trust him.” he confided to her.

“I know. But you trust me, don’t you?”

He nodded his affirmative. “Of course I do.”

“Then trust me to make the right decision. Okay? He’s special, if a little misguided sometimes.”

“I don’t care how special he is. It doesn’t mean I have to like him.”

“At least try. Please? For me?” Twilight pleaded with a pout.

“I could say he’s a changeling in disguise, and smite him.”

“Shining!!”

“Alright! Alright. No promises though. If he hurts you…” he left the last words unsaid.

“I know, but I don’t want you to chase him off. He’s come a long way to be here.”

“Hay!? Are you two coming, or what?” Pinkie exclaimed from the top of the ridge that we had disappeared over.

“Coming!” Twilight answered, but turned back to her brother. “Just think about it, okay?”

Shining Armor simply grunted as he plodded along with his sister to catch up. “No promises.” he reiterated.
> Chapter 19: Inside the Temple
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“What took you guys?” Rainbow Dash demanded impatiently, tapping her hoof on the ground to show her annoyance to the two approaching siblings. “We could have been in and out by now, if we didn’t have to wait on you.”

Our group had already come to our destination only a moment ago, but decided to linger at the front gates to give Twilight and Shining Armor time to catch up to us. We hadn’t actually had to wait that long for them, but Dash felt the need to voice her disdain at having to remain in one place for any amount of time.

“Sorry, Rainbow.” The purple mare apologized. “We just needed to… come to an understanding.” Twilight said as she eyed her brother, who just sighed at her comment.

“Yeah, whatever, let’s just go inside. It’s gettin’ dark out, and Fluttershy’s scared of the dark.” the speedster stated as she gestured to the shivering ball of yellow pony huddled on the ground next to Rarity. The white mare was stroking Fluttershy’s pink mane in an attempt to calm her down, whispering in her ear that everything was alright and that nothing was going to get her.

“That wouldn’t be wise.” Trixie warned. “There are dark magics inside. It would be safer in the morning when the sun is able to disperse it with light.”

“It’s dark out here too! “ Dash countered as she moved closer to the doors. “It’s the Everfree Forest! Everything is dark here. It comes with the territory.”

“Dash we should probably listen to…” I tried to warn, but Rainbow Dash decided to open the doors regardless of what I had to say on the matter.

The aged wood groaned as it slowly granted us entry. Air rushed out of the newly opened entrance, causing it to howl like a predatory beast ready to pounce on it’s pray. Each of us shuddered at the noticeable drop in temperature, and it made my fur stand up on end.

Dash laughed feebly as she glanced back at us. “See? Nothing to be afraid of.” she said in an attempt to calm her own nerves rather than ours.

The waning light of the fading sunset cast an eerie orange glow through the stained glass windows inside the mausoleum, and reflected off of a few mirrors that sat near the entrance. Most of the shards of glass were either missing or broken from age and neglect, laying about in pieces on the floor before their respective window.

Straight ahead, sitting on a pedestal in the middle of a large room was a dark blue crystal. Surrounding the crystal, prostrate on the ground, were a group of pony skeletons. Each pony in turn lay in the same position as the one laying next to it, forming a complete circle.

“Why would these ponies die to worship a crystal?” Twilight asked more to herself than to anyone around me.

“It looks like they’re praying.” I observed.

“Who cares? Look! Isn’t that what we’re looking for?” Dash shouted. “Let’s grab it, and get out of here.”

“Wait!” Pinkie warned with a shout as she nearly tackled her pegasus friend to prevent her from entering. “Something’s not right here. My Pinkie Sense is tingling.”

“Really Pinkie? Really?” I deadpanned. “You’re going to use that line?”

“What?” she asked innocently. “My back and legs are all tingly, that means something is not right.”

I openly sighed at the silliness of the pink mare. “Fine. Whatever. So, what exactly is not right?” I asked.

“I don’t know! If I knew, it wouldn’t be something. It would be something else, and if it were something else that I knew about, then something would be right instead of not right, so my Pinkie Sense wouldn’t have sensed it, so it wouldn’t matter, but I did sense it, so it does matter.”

What?

I looked at the pink mare in confusion for a moment before turning to the rest of the group. “Did anyone else get that?” I asked. All of them answered me with confused shakes of their heads in the negative. “Good! I thought it was just me.”

Once I turned back around, I found that Pinkie had apparently ignored her own warning, and was inside the temple doors, standing in front of one of the mirrors situated in the entryway. “Oooo, this makes me look all funny.” she stated, shifting her wait around in a sporadic fashion.

“Pinkie, darling, it’s a mirror. It only reflects what is placed in front of it. You look the same as… Oh my!” Rarity exclaimed as she trotted up next to her friend in front of the mirror. Her eyes grew wide the instant she saw her own reflection. “Don’t look at me! I’m hideous!” she exclaimed, trying to cover herself with her hooves. “My mane!? Just look at my mane!”

“What’s wrong with it?” Pinkie asked, cocking her head to the side as she looked at Rarity’s reflection. “You look fine to me.”

“Are you blind!? Just look at me! My mane is disheveled. My mascara is running, and I look positively greasy! What happened to make me so, so… ugly!?”

“What are you talking about? You look fine.” I observed, keeping myself on the other side of temple’s archway. Just in case.

“I warned you. Dark magics.” Trixie clarified.

“What’s happening?” I asked the showmare without looking away from the spectacle that was unfolding before me.

“Trixie is unsure.” The unicorn shifted uncertainly on her hooves.

“What do you mean you’re unsure? You’re the one who’s been here before.” Shining Armor argued.

“Trixie believes the experience is different for everypony and it changes from mirror to mirror.”

“What did you see when you came here?” Twilight asked with a caring undertone, doing what she could to stand between her displeased brother and the showmare.

“The mirrors lie!” Trixie lashed out suddenly with a tremble in her voice. “Trixie is none of the things she saw in those… those things!” she accused with a hoof pointed to the inanimate objects.

“Calm down. We’re all friends here. There’s no reason to start a fight. We’ll just have to ignore what we see in them then.” I reasoned. “It’s just an image and it can’t hurt us. Right?”

“Not as long as it’s just an image enchantment.” Twilight informed me. “If it’s something more malevolent, like a discordant refection for example, things could be a little more difficult.”

Discordant reflection? As in Discord?

“Hmm.” I hummed as I mulled this information over. “Do you guys feel any different?” I called out to the mares sitting in front of the mirror. “Any new disposition on life, or new found hate for anything?”

“Nope!” Pinkie Pie answered with a pep in her step as she shifted to another mirror down the line.

“Other than feeling a little more disgusted than I did a moment ago, I’ll be well enough now that I know that is not what I really look like. Thank you for worrying. It means a lot.” Rarity acknowledged, keeping her eyes as far away from the image of herself as she could. “My only question is why didn’t the mirror change how dear Pinkie appeared in it?”

“What are you talking about?” Pinkie asked. “My mane was all straight like I was all sad and mopey, there were bags under my eyes like I had been partying for a week without sleep, and I was glaring at myself for some reason that I don’t really understand. It made me look funny. Not the ‘ha ha’ kind of funny, the ‘uh oh’ kind of funny, but it still gave me a giggle because I know that’s not what I look like, so I knew it didn’t matter.”

“You mean you saw Pinkamina in there!?” I gasped with a shudder. My fur stood on end for the implications of the revelation that a certain fanfic may have merit to its content.

The ponies looked at me strangely for a moment before Pinkie spoke up. “Of course I saw Pinkamina, because Pinkamina is me, and I saw me. I didn’t know you knew my real name wasn’t Pinkie. You need to tell me your real name so we’d be even. It only makes sense.”

So… these are either windows to other dimensions, or they can show you different parts of your personality. Neither of those possibilities are really a problem, so why would Pinkie’s Pinkie Sense go off if there’s nothing wrong.

“What about you’re warning?” I inquired, ignoring Pinkie’s request to know my real name. “You said something was off.”
“No. I said something wasn’t right. Completely different thing.” Pinkie corrected.

“Never mind.” I sighed, turning to the remaining ponies that were keeping their distance from the building’s interior. “It looks like they’re fine, so I guess it’s safe. Let’s grab this thing and get going.”

Hesitantly, we trotted in, doing what we could to ignore our reflections in the mirrors lining the entryway. Each step we took brought ourselves into the range of more of the reflective surfaces, making it more difficult to ignore what was in front of us.

A few steps in, I caught a glimpse of something big in the corner of my eye that didn’t have the white fur that I had become accustomed to. Letting my curiosity get the better of me, my vision shifted to look at the moving object to my right. The reflection I saw caused my eyes to widen in surprise.

Standing in all of my glory was my human body. It looked the same as when I had left it. I brought my hoof up to my face to verify that I was still a pony, and to my relief, I was.

Huh, it's been awhile since I last saw you.

Twilight noticed that I had stopped to look into a mirror, and paused to make sure I was alright. She trotted up to my side to gaze at our reflection for a moment. Her eyes noticed something on her own visage that caused her to turn to look at her back for a brief moment, but returned to me shortly after. “What do you see?” she asked with curiosity.

“It’s me.” I said, letting those words sit in the air for a bit before continuing. “The human me.” I clarified.

“Oh!” was all the unicorn could say in response.

“It’s just weird to see me like that now. I know I haven’t lived that long in this body, but… I feel like it’s where I belong.” I mused as my eyes met my human counterpart’s.  His expression saddened as he looked at me, like he was unhappy for the choices I made for my life.

“I wish I could see what you looked like, before you came here.” Twilight said as she leaned up against me.

“I’ll try to draw you a picture from memory when all this is over. It may not be perfect, but at least I can give you a basic idea.”

“Hay! Look at this!” Shining Armor exclaimed suddenly, forcing all of us to shift our focus onto him, and subsequently the carving on the wall that he was directing us to look at. My breath drew in with surprise at the visage of the pony depicted on that wall, but my mind still lingered on the short time the beautiful unicorn was leaning against my larger frame.

With all that he seemed to detest about me, I am convinced that the redirection was made by the stallion in an attempt ruin the tender moment Twilight and I were having just a few scant seconds earlier.

“My word.” Rarity gasped, bringing a hoof up to her mouth. “Is that who I think it is?”

“Ah don’t see how it could be anypony else.” Applejack answered. “The armor is pretty well recognizable.”

Fluttershy had since curled up into another ball at the hooves of Rainbow Dash in an attempt to hide herself from the pictographs on the wall, clutching onto her legs to keep the flyer grounded with her.

Dash struggled for a bit before giving a sigh in resignation. She knew when it was a lost cause, and she wasn’t about to abandon a friend in need. “Why would there be a carving of Nightmare Moon here?” she asked the question on all of our minds.

The visage of the mare of nightmares was faded in places from age, but it was easy to tell what the image was supposed to be. The mare known as Nightmare Moon was depicted sitting on a throne with her wings outstretched in a threatening manner with the moon rising up behind her. There were even indentations under her wings to indicate stars in the night sky. Around the image was some more of the ancient wording that Twilight and I found in the caves underground.

Twilight unconsciously began to read the words scribed across the wall. Her face drooped as her eyes began to move faster and faster at a frantic rate. “Oh no.” she said to herself as she continued to read a little further. “Oh no. Oh no. This isn’t good.” 

“What is it sugercube?” the apple farmer asked.

“Yeah, what’s it say?” I inquired with a bit of worry creeping into my voice.

She turned around to stare at the crystal sitting untouched on the podium in which it rested. “That’s not the gem we’re looking for.” she revealed.

Silence reigned for a few seconds as we took in her words meaning. My ears instinctively folded back against my head. “Oh.” was all I could think to say to something like that, which earned me the attention of the group.

Sensing that she was needed, Fluttershy came out of her protective bubble and shied closer to me to rub my back in a comforting gesture. “I.. It’ll be alright.” she said with more confidence than I thought she would have. “Just because that isn’t the gem doesn’t mean it’s not here. We’ll find it. Don’t worry.”

“Thanks Fluttershy.” I replied with a reassured half smile. “It’s not like we’re going to leave empty handed. Right?”

“Darn tootin’!” the farm pony agreed. “So Twi, does that there wall say where the real gem’s at?”

“Not really.” the librarian answered. “It talks about how the night should be worshiped above the sun, and that the best place to worship is in front of something called ‘The Gateway to Enlightenment’.

“Well, it seems to me that the only thing these ponies worshiped was this crystal.” Rarity stated, motioning towards the skeletons surrounding the alter in the middle of the room.

“That’s silly.” Pinkie commented as she bounced over to her friend’s side to wrap a hoof around her neck. “That’s a crystal not a gateway. Those two things are nothing alike.”

“I’m quite aware of that Pinkie. I was just…”

“If you knew that already, than why did you say it was a gateway? I can see if it was a part of a gateway, but it’s just one shard, and you can’t exactly walk through a shard of crystal. It’s surprisingly hard, you know? Not like pudding which is all soft and pliable and easy to walk through. Mmmm, pudding. Do we have any pudding left? I think I need some Cosby Juice.” the pink mare rambled.

I sighed audibly at the joke Pinkie decided to make. “Ignoring the fact that you shouldn’t even know who Bill Cosby is…”

“Who’s Bill Cosby? Does he make pudding? I bet he makes really good pudding.” Pinkie interrupted me.

I ignored the pink mare and continued on as if she hadn’t said anything at all. “…I think Rarity may be on to something. That Crystal seems to be the focal point to where these ponies were praying to, we just don’t know why it was called The Gateway to Enlightenment.”

Trixie took a hesitant step forward to try to get everyone’s attention. “I… I’ve found that it reacts to magic.” she explained with a wavering voice. Her eyes were darting from left to right in an attempt to see everything in the room at once. Her demeanor had changed to something resembling more Fluttershy than the Great and Powerful Trixie. Clearly she was not comfortable staying here any longer than she absolutely needed to.

I wasn’t the only one to notice the change in her attitude, as Shining Armor sidled up next to the mare. “What’s wrong?” he asked her with a stern tone.

“Thing’s changed when I funneled my magic into that… that thing. Trixie does not know what it is, but it is not normal.”

“Things… changed?” Twilight muttered to herself as she thought. “Of course!” she shouted as she hit her head with her own hoof when the answer dawned on her. “It’s like the crystal above the throne in the Crystal Empire. Focus enough negative magic into it, and it will change the environment around us.”

“You’ve dealt with this sort of thing before?” asked the showmare in a disbelieving manner.

“Once. I never thought that I would ever see another one of these. Let alone outside the Crystal Empire, but I guess Princess Celestia keeps one next to her throne so why wouldn’t Luna keep one as well?”

“Come on then. Do your magic thing, and let’s get moving.” Rainbow Dash ordered, flittering above us in lazy circles.

“Alright. Stand back. I don’t know what’s going to happen when it activates.” Twilight advised as her horn began to glow. She scrunched her eyes closed as she concentrated on the spell she was channeling into the solid object before her. Slowly the aura surrounding her horn turned black, and wisps of the energy she was generating began to leak from her clenched eyes.

With a scream of determination, the powerful mare hurled the negatively charged energy into the crystal sitting on the pedestal, turning it a sickly black color. A shadow crawled from underneath it in the dimming sunlight, moving slowly over its resting place and across the floor. Making its way past the skeletons resting on the floor, it moved over to the wall that depicted Nightmare moon sitting on her throne. 

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash quickly shuffled out of the way of the moving shadow for fear of what it might do if they touched the intangible substance. The darkness climbed up the wall slowly, changing what was written into something new as it progressed. The image of the slender mare on her throne changed along with the words next to her portrait.

It began with her hooves; growing in girth and musculature. Her starry tail turned into a cloak, covering a much more masculine body. As the last rays of sunlight vanished behind the horizon, the shadow had reached the tip of the horn situated on top of the unicorn’s head. Fully revealing the new figure sitting on the throne as the world outside became shrouded in darkness.

“Well Ah’ll be.” Applejack gaped in awe removing her Stetson to press it against her chest for comfort.

“But, but… that doesn’t make any sense.” Twilight said in confusion. “He never made it beyond the Crystal Empire. There is no logical explanation as to why this carving should even exist.” she finished with a stomp of her hoof for emphasis.

“Clearly, there is at least one, because… here it is.” I stated, pointing my hoof at the depicted pony glaring down at us as evidence.

“Well, duh.” Pinkie spoke up. “Who else would be able to trick Princess Luna into becoming Nightmare Moon… Besides Discord… and Queen Chrysalis… and maybe Celestia if Luna really, really made her mad, or something, but honestly that’s not really a possibility now is it?”

There was silence as we all stared at Pinkie in disbelief.

“What?” she asked in confusion. “It could have happened.”

“Regardless.” Shining Armor said. “We should stay on our guard. There’s no telling what’s ahead of us if King Sombra is involved.”

If we had been on guard instead of gawking at the King of Shadows, we would have noticed that the bones surrounding the pedestal behind us began to twitch on their own accord as soon as the sun had completely set.

> Chapter 20: Ghosts of the Past
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“So, what’s the wall say now?” I asked, seeing how the lettering changed along with the pony’s depicted form.

“Right, let me see…” Twilight’s eyes casually moved about the wall, taking in what information was to be had from the words that were magically carved into the stone before us. “Interesting… It explains here that Sombra used a form of catalyst to bring about Princess Luna’s possession by the Nightmare.”

My ear twitched towards a soft rattling sound not too far away, but my curiosity of some of Luna’s back story kept my attention held firm.

Must be some mice.

“So, it was Sombra who turned Luna? Why?” I asked for clarification.

“It says it was an attempt to gain a powerful ally to help him take over the kingdom.”

Pinkie gasped through a mouthful of popcorn that she had summoned from her tail. “Did he succeed?” she asked in a manner similar to a child being told a ghost story around a campfire.

“Well… Yes, but not as he intended.”

“What? Did she betray him or something?” Rainbow Dash inquired out of curiosity.

“No, the process was too slow. The Princesses found out about Sombra’s takeover of the Crystal Empire before Princess Luna could completely turn. It says here they were warned by the previous ruler of the Crystal Empire; Princess…” Twilight inhaled sharply as she read the name to herself.

“What? Who did Sombra take the Crystal Empire from?” asked Applejack.

“I..it was Cadence.” she said in a low tone that was almost a whisper, but was loud enough for all of us to hear.

“Yeah?” Shining Armor asked, unbelievingly. “You didn’t know that?”

“And you did?” she countered. To which he simply nodded with a half-smile on his lips. “How? She was only a teenager when she foalsat for me. There’s no way she could have been alive back then to even be the old ruler of the Crystal Empire.”

“She used an age spell to look younger. For some reason she got it into her head that all foalsitters had to be teenagers, and she really wanted to look after you.”

Huh. I guess he's into older women then.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she inquired.

He shrugged. “I honestly thought you knew. You’re the most well read pony I know of, Twily. I figured you would have already read about her rule during your studies, or maybe Cady would have told you about it, like she did me.”

Twilight crossed her hooves over her chest and huffed in annoyance. “Well, she didn’t. You’d think she would have trusted me enough with that kind of information when we came to save the Crystal Empire.”

“We were a bit busy at the time, Twily.” Her brother explained. “I’m sure that she would have told you if she thought it mattered enough.”

“Yeah. Yeah. Enough talking.” Dash interrupted, impatient with how slowly the story was moving along. “What happened with the Princesses?”

Sighing, Twilight continued with the tale written on the wall. “It says that Cadence was able to escape Sombra’s capture and made it to Equestria where Princess Celestia and Luna took her in.

“Discovering he was a threat to their kingdom, they retaliated before the effects of The Nightmare could fully take hold of Luna. They flew to the Crystal Empire themselves to subdue him with the Elements of Harmony. They only meant to purify him of his evil ways, but something else happened.”

“What? What happened?” I asked completely engrossed in the story, and doing an impressive job of ignoring the rattling sound that seemed to be a little closer now.

“Princess Luna was corrupted with the Nightmare at the time, and her thoughts were not completely her own. So, when they used the Elements in their fight, it ended up destroying Sombra’s physical body, and sealing his soul under the ice below the city. The princesses believed it was the will of The Elements. Neither of them suspected that a spirit resided in Princess Luna until it was too late, and we all know how that ended.”

“How did it end?” the bubbly pink mare asked with genuine interest as she bounced in place.

Twilight stopped to look at Pinkie with an expression that said, ‘How do you not know this?’ She quickly shook the thought from her head, and answered her friend’s question without any resistance. “She was taken over completely and turned into Nightmare Moon where she tried to create night everlasting. She was banished to the Moon for a thousand years by Princess Celestia. When she returned, we defeated her with the Elements of Harmony, and saved Princess Luna from The Nightmare.”

Twilight inhaled and let out a sigh from her long narration. “Does that answer all of your questions?” she asked her illogical friend.

“Nope! I knew all that stuff already." Pinkie giggled. "I just wanted to know why the Princess would create a temple in the middle of the city that secretly worshipped King Sombra, and not once tell anypony about it sense her return.”

The librarian blinked a couple of times while her mind processed what Pinkie had told her. Twilight turned to analyze the wall of text once more. “Huh. I don’t know. It doesn’t say why she built this place. It just says at the end here that the answers you seek will reveal themselves on the way you’ve already been.” She said, pointing to a hastily scrawled text that didn’t seem to belong with the rest of the wall.

“That’s very interesting and all, but does anypony else hear that dreadful sound coming from behind us?” a nervous looking Rarity asked.

As if her words were the final nail in our coffin, we all gulped in unison, and slowly turned our heads to find what was making the noise that I was doing my hardest to believe was only rats fighting each other for food. Sadly, my wishes were left unfulfilled.

Cornering us against the wall stood nine pony skeletons that had been previously positioned around the pedestal. None of them moved except for the bones that made up their bodies. Each bone would clatter against one another like they were constantly resisting the effects of gravity on their individual parts.

“Nopony make any sudden moves.” Shining Armor advised as he took a more defensive stance between the undead ponies and the girls.

Sadly, I didn’t hear the good captain’s orders, as I was too busy having a small panic attack about the undead existing in Equestria.

Okay! So, Equestria has Zombies. Not good! Definitely not good! Keep calm. Okay, how do we deal with them? Well, if they’re anything like the zombies back on Earth, then all I have to do is remove their heads. Easy!

Focusing my energy into my horn, I summoned all of my strength onto each and every skeleton skull, and pulled with all my might. The skulls were removed with little to no effort on my part, and because I used so much force, the skulls flew across the room and bounced harmlessly against the stone wall.

The pony skeletons remained motionless. None of them making any aggressive movements towards us, nor falling into a pile of bones as I had hoped.

Everyone just looked at me in shock, and horror.

“What?” I asked. “I took care of it.”  I motioned to the skulls that continued to roll about on the floor. We watched as they began to roll in a specific direction, making their way towards their respective bodies. Crawling up their limbs until their skulls rested in their proper place once more.

“Crap.” I muttered, witnessing how my actions did absolutely nothing.

Further contrary to Shining Armor’s orders, Pinkie Pie decided that this was the best time to scream the most ear piercing scream that she could produce from her lungs, and to dash back and forth in front of the rest of us in a panic. “AHHHHHH! Undead ponies! They’re going to get us! They want to eat our brains! Everypony for themselves!” she shouted, shacking grabbing my shoulders and shacking me to drive her point home.

I once again expected the skeletons to attack us then and there. However, they stood firm, not moving from their position for any reason Pinkie Pie gave them.

Pinkie’s screeching shortly died off as she realized that she wasn’t getting a rise out of them. “Awww, you’re no fun.” she pouted, crossing her hooves to express her dissatisfaction of being ignored.

“They’re waiting for something.” Twilight observed, eyeing one a little closer.

“Keep back, Twily!” Shining Armor warned, pulling her away from the dead pony by her tail. “You can’t trust anything that involves Sombra. There’s no telling what they’ll do if you touch them.” he said spitting his sibling’s tail out of his mouth.
“Well we can’t just sit here.” I stated.

“What would you do then? Keep tearing their heads off until they attack!?” he questioned irritably, stepping aggressively in front of me.

“No. That clearly didn’t work, but it doesn’t look like they’re going to do anything but stand there either, so we should just keep looking for what we came here for while we can.” I answered.

“You mean, ignore them? That is the dumbest thing we could possibly do right now. We need to leave and rethink…”

“Leave, where?” I interrupted the captain, pointing at the group of skeletons. “They have us surrounded. If you haven’t noticed, there’s nowhere left to go.”

“Stop it! Both of y’all are actin’ like foals. What we need ta do is calm down, and think things through.” Applejack reasoned, putting herself between the two of us to keep the peace.

Twilight nodded her approval. “That’s right. We won’t gain anything by bickering amongst ourselves.”

“But, he stated it!” Both of us whined at the same time like the little children Applejack accused us of being.

“Well, Ah’m ending it.” Applejack stated. “We’ll handle this.” With that, the orange mare pulled out her Element of Harmony and put it around her neck, followed by Pinkie, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Rarity. The five mares stood in a V shape looking confident until they realized their last friend wasn’t acting along with them.

Twilight stood off to the side, her ears pulled back against her head, and pawing against the ground with uncertainty. 

“What’s wrong sugercube? C’mon, let’s blast these varmints, find that crystal, and get outta this creepy place.”

“I… I can’t.” she moaned.

Her friends cocked their heads in confusion. “Sure you can.” Dash announced, flying over the others to be the forefront of attention. “Just put that crown thingy on your head and…”

“I lost it.” Twilight said in almost a whisper, though all of us were able to hear it clear as day.

“You lost it!?!?” all of the girls, and Shining Armor Shouted.

Dash continued after the others stopped. “How could you lose something so, so…”

“It wasn’t her fault.” I interrupted. “It was mine.”

“Yours? Why would you…”

“If he didn’t do what he did I probably would have died.” Twilight interrupted her friend once more to defend me.

“Would everypony stop interrupting me!” Rainbow Dash shouted in irritation.

“Either way, it doesn’t really matter. What’s done is done, and we can’t change it. Besides, it doesn’t look like the skeletons are going to move any time soon.” I observed, completely ignoring Rainbow Dash’s outburst.

“If we can’t fight them with the Elements, than we need to leave. You’ve put my sister in enough danger it would seem.” Shining Armor stated, approaching me in an intimidating manner.

“That’s enough! Both of you.” Twilight scolded. “I know you don’t like it, Shining, but Honor is right. They’re not moving, so we should keep looking for what we came for while we can. I may have been in danger, but it wasn’t Honor’s fault… mostly. He did everything he could to keep me safe, and then some.” She smiled a small smile that included a blush as she glanced my way clearly remembering some of the events in the caves.

The others looked at her curiously, but I knew what she must have been thinking about. Twilight shook her head to rid herself of her thoughts, and turned to me.

“However, Honor, Shining is right as well. We shouldn’t stay here for long, so we need to hurry as quickly as we’re able. We do have a time limit, remember?”

I nodded my head in understanding, smiling slightly to the mare I cared for. “Yeah, sorry Twi.”

She’s right. We don’t have time to bicker. We need to find this crystal, and fast, but there has to be a way to deal with these things. Trixie got away after all.

“Hey, Trixie. You got away from these things, right? Is there anything to worry about?” I asked.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie was not foolish enough to enter this condemned place at night. These abominations never moved when I was last here.” she answered unsteadily. Fear creeping into her voice as she cowered behind Fluttershy, who was huddled behind Rainbow Dash at this point.

Okay, they only move at night. Great! So, we just have to wait twelve hours for the Sun to come up. Enough time to scour the area. There has to be a clue somewhere. Maybe the story that Twilight read from the wall has one in it… Wait…

“That catalyst must be the gem we’re looking for!” Pinkie exclaimed in sudden understanding.

Of course, beaten to the punch by Pinkie Pie.

“Oohh, is there punch?” asked the pink mare forever interested in food.

Get out of my head!!! I shouted internally, covering my head with my hooves.

“Does it say anything about where it ended up after it was used?” Rainbow Dash inquired, ignoring Pinkie’s antics.

Twilight shook her head. “No, as I said before, it just say’s that the answers you seek will be the way you’ve already been.”

“Back where? Outside!?” Dash Exclaimed. “There’s nothing out there but ruins. Not to mention we have to deal with these dead ponies first.”

“Wh..What about th..the mirrors?” Fluttershy stuttered. “Could they be the answer?”

“Of course! Why didn’t I think of that? Fluttershy you’re a genius.” Twilight exclaimed, giving her shy friend a big hug in gratitude.

“Oh! Um… Thank you?” the yellow pegasus answered, unsure how to take the complement.

“But how are we going to get past the ‘guards’?” Trixie asked using air quotes around the word guards.

“Easy.” answered Twilight. “We’ll teleport around them.” Charging her horn with magical energies in preparation for the spell, she took her time in preparing so many ponies for transit.

The skeletons, apparently, did not take too kindly to that, and began to move closer towards us. Shining Armor realized the danger and lit his own horn to create a shield around us to give his sister time to finish her spell. “They’re making their move! Hurry, Twily.” he ordered.

“Give me a second.” She responded, closing her eyes in order to focus on what she was doing.

To my astonishment, and fear, the undead ponies passed right through Shining Armor’s shield like it didn’t even exist. “We don’t have a second, Twi.” I warned as I moved in front of the lavender mare to try to protect her from their assault.

Getting within arm’s length, the leader of the pack reached out with a bony hoof to touch my snout. But, just before it could make contact, we disappeared, only to reappear on the other side of the room.

Finding that we had moved, the skeletons’ heads, and only their heads, quickly swiveled around a full one hundred and eighty degrees to glare at us. They turned their bodies around, never once looking away from their targets, and began to advance once more.

Twilight sat behind me gasping for breath. “That took... more out of me… then I thought it would.” she panted. “I don’t think… I can cast any more… spells for a while.”

“Well, we’re boned.” Pinkie stated with all seriousness and/or ignorance of her horrible pun.

“Not funny, Pinkie!” I chastised.

Okay, it’s not safe here anymore. I hate to admit it, but Shining Armor is right. We need to go… for Twilight’s sake.

“Alright, let’s get out of here!” I announced.

“Finally!” Trixie exclaimed, bolting towards the closed doors that we had entered from.

I don’t remember anypony closing those.

The blue unicorn reared up on her hind legs, and with her hooves, threw them open. She stood there for an awkward moment with her cape fluttering behind her.

“Hay! Who stole the outside?” Pinkie asked, pointing her hoof at the open doorway.

Instead of the ruined city that we had expected to be on the other side of the entrance. There was only a staircase descending downward into the darkness of a tunnel. A torch flickered to life as soon as Trixie’s front hooves returned to the ground. A second later, another appeared. And another, each one illuminating more stairs further down the passageway until they curved around a corner.

“It must have changed… when we activated the crystal.” Twilight reasoned between breaths.

“Doesn’t matter. We need to move!” I shouted, scooping Twilight up onto my back as I made my way for the open door.

Twilight shifted her weight on top of me, but paused suddenly and gasped. “Honor! Look!” she directed with astonishment, her hoof pointing towards one of the mirrors we were passing. Keeping one of my eyes on the bones advancing upon us, I was just able to spot what Twilight wanted me to see. And what I saw caused me to stop my withdrawal outright.

The mirror was angled in such a way that one of the skeletons reflections was visible to us. However, the reflection wasn’t of some long dead pony. What we saw was a healthy brown stallion with a yellow mane, and he was wrapped in white robes which covered his cutie mark from view. His body moved with the bones steady advance, but his face was frozen in what could only be abject terror. His eyes never once moved away from some unknown object that seemed to forever float above his head, luring him towards his destination.

Further observation showed that the other skeletons were all in similar predicaments, each wearing the same robes and the same look of horror in their eyes.

Acting on a hunch, I had angled another mirror next to the first to reflect the same stallion’s reflection. But this time, his face was twisted into a ridiculous smile that normally would only have a place on Pinkie’s face.

“Are they even still alive?” I asked the mare on my back.

“I don’t know.” She answered. “But, the question we should be asking is, ‘Why are they all stallions?’”

Shining Armor finished ushering everypony else through the open door, before noticing that his sister and I were straggling behind. “What are you doing?” he asked. “We need to go. Now!”

“But, the ponies are…” I started, but Shining Armor would have none of it.

“They’re dead!” He shouted, creating a wall with his magic between the dead ponies and us. “You can’t help them now. No pony can.” With that the barrier began to move, pulling us towards the open doorway.

I tried to fight his incessant shoving, but his shield was too strong. In the end, we had no choice but to follow him down the stairs. Shining Armor closed the door behind us, and barricaded it with one of his spells.

“Come on.” He ordered. “That might not hold them for long.”

As if to emphasize his point, the undead ponies on the other side began banging on the door. Each attempt sounded stronger than the last, and the ancient wood of the door would creek and groan from the effort.

“Come on Honor. We should catch up with the others.” Twilight conceded. She sounded sad, but I couldn’t tell if it was because of losing her element, her brother’s actions, or for not being able to help the dead ponies on the other side of the door. Either way, I conceded to her wishes, and followed the stairs down.

Shining Armor snorted in irritation, watching us for a moment, before making his way down behind us.

We continued on for a bit before reaching an open archway at the bottom of the staircase that lead into what appeared to be a magical laboratory. There were beakers filled with unknown liquids long forgotten among various other pieces of equipment. Books were scattered about in a haphazard manner, full of notes and the like, for whatever experiments that were once conducted here. A thick layer of dust lay about, left undisturbed for millennia in the small room.

The others were looking about for anything that resembled a crystal of any kind. Once Twilight’s eyes rested on the room her friends were scattered about in, her eyes grew wide with excitement. All of her exhaustion was forgotten, as she literally jumped off my back to dart from bookcase to bookcase reading the spines of the books to determine what they were about.

“Fascinating! There are early notes on the Amniomorphic Spell’s development here.” Twilight observed on one bookshelf. “And over here are notes on Alicorn Magic and origin speculation. And here are a few books on beard style and care tips.” She gasped suddenly in understanding. “Do you know where we are?” the purple mare asked all of us at once.

Seeing our heads shake in the negative, she answered her own question. “This is the lost study of Starswirl the Bearded!”