> Jumper
>  by KMCA
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Impact
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ponyville was no stranger to odd occurrences. In fact, since Twilight Sparkle had moved to town it was stranger to go a week without something unexpected happening.. 

Everything from a mythical moon mare to marauding monsters have made an appearance since Twilight had been sent to Ponyville. One of the more recent ‘occurrences’ was the arrival of the human, Alex Roberts. His arrival caused a whole slew of other events, up to and including plans for a world class theatre.

And then another one arrived.



The crackle of electricity gave way to a roar of thunder as a sphere formed in mid-air, the surrounding wildlife panicked and scattered as if knowing what was coming. A body was flung from the orb, this jumper didn’t have the luxury of exiting a jump stationary and on the ground. In his four jumps all of them had thrown him violently across the sky, straight up and now straight towards the ground… head first.

He had been trained in his second reality how to react to such a situation, but that had been almost a year ago and he hadn’t been blind, disoriented and about to lose his lunch. The only reason he knew the direction he was going was because his helmet systems were beeping and telling him to pull up, it didn’t help his disorientation but he struggled to change how he was falling by moving his arms and legs to create drag.

His left leg screamed in protest but obeyed him all the same. He managed to rotate so his back would impact first, he hoped the backpack would absorb most of the impact. The armor announced impact and a moment later he felt it.


They say hitting water at high speed is like hitting concrete.  While it wasn’t like hitting a pillow, the armor and bodysuit managed to cushion my the impact with the river. I remember feeling a second stronger impact, most likely it was the bed of the river. I rolled and was pushed downstream, my vision had started to return, but all I saw was a blur, the HUD on my helmet kept flickering with icons I could only guess at. I finally managed to pull myself to the riverbank and by this point I could taste the stomach acid not only in my throat but in my mouth too. I grabbed the emergency release on my helmet and promptly emptied my stomach contents into the river.

In the past when I jumped I got sick on arrival, but this was worse, far worse. My vision remained nothing more than a green and gray blur and all the while I was releasing what felt like my internal organs into the river. I had no clue how long I was at this, it felt like an eternity and when I started dry heaving I was pretty sure I wasn’t ever going to stop.

That’s when I heard the voice, it sent a shiver down my spine. It was so familiar and yet I know I’d never heard it before. If I hadn’t been about to pass out I know I would have made the connection.

“Alex, I found them. Alex! I found a human!” I could hear hooves on the ground, I struggled over to my helmet, my left leg dragging uselessly behind me. I couldn’t leave any of my armor behind. It had saved my life too many times in a short span to just throw it away. The steps stopped right above me and a purple shape shaded me from the sun. I heard footsteps coming towards me and even a pair of wings, I clutched my helmet to my chest and let the pain I was in overcome my senses and send me off to sleep.

It wasn’t an easy sleep. I felt like I relived my life several times over that night, I kept moving from memory to memory and back again. I felt like my entire life was under examination. What made things even more interesting was that I was a spectator outside my own body. I remembered speaking to someone explaining actions and motivations to this person that was nothing more than a dark blue blur. I was fine with most of it but when it touched on a memory of the first world I landed in, I woke up screaming.

Even nearly two years later it was enough to scare me half to death, waking up from that specific memory to a dark figure over me caused me to panic, I shoved the shape away before throwing myself away from it, every instinct in my body was screaming at me to run for my life, every trained reaction from the last year and a half told me to draw my weapon and fire but I instead threw myself in the corner and curled up into a ball all hoping the creature would go away.

Of course it didn’t, it only stumbled backwards and stared at me, or I assume it stared at me. I couldn’t see the eyes, I couldn’t see anything but a black shape. I reached down towards my left leg for my sidearm only to find my hip thickly wrapped in cloth. I ripped at the cloth, taking panicked glances downwards but afraid to take my eyes off the monster for more than a fraction of a second.

It started moving towards me, slowly. I stopped reaching for the gun and balled my hands into fists, touching my thumbs to my ring fingers deployed short but wide blades from the armor plate on the back of my hands. The creature turned on the light beside the bed, it was a human being, not one of the creatures that had haunted my early days (and nights) of jumping. I could have kissed him if I wasn’t so furious with him. I settled for collapsing in relief my hands relaxed causing the blades to retract.

“If you EVER do that to me again I swear to god! I just about pissed myself I was so scared. What made you think it was a good idea to stand over me in a dark room like that?” My voice was shaking, I could feel the adrenaline ebbing in my body and it was always hard on me. I could feel my gut trying to spasm from the adrenaline letdown but I was used to it and those who saw it usually understood and didn’t rub it in.

“I’m trying to decide if I can trust you. This world is genuine paradise and I refuse to let anyone destroy that. If I have to kill you to preserve that for them, I will.” The knife changed shape, lengthening and developing a sharp looking edge. 
> On Razors Edge
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The knife looked as harmless as he did, just some middle aged guy with a harmless looking knife. But any weapon that could change its shape like that had to be dangerous and the person wielding it more so. I would have to be careful.

We stood staring at each other, neither one of us making the first move, but I felt like neither one of us wanted this fight. We would have probably stood there for hours if we hadn’t been interrupted. The door handle glowed a gentle blue before turning and opening.

“Alex darling, Princess Luna just sent a message that he should be awake n-” She froze at the scene before her, me backed into a corner, arms raised defensively. Me with my short blades no longer then the length of my pointer finger and Alex with a huge dagger. She turned that almost scowl on Alex, making him quickly sheath his blade. She turned and frowned at me, her expression as disgusted, and I sheathed my blades.

That’s when it struck me, everything looked wrong. Actually not so much wrong as different. Everything was brighter than it should be and more animated. Not moving animated but animated like a cartoon, even ‘Alex’ looked as if he had been drawn by a cartoonist. Yes, he was more detailed than your average cartoon but he still wasn’t quite right. It was like that style they used for the animated Lord of the Rings in the seventies, what was it? Oh ya, rotoscoping. Everything looked like it was a super high quality rotoscop animation.

This thought almost immediately was knocked out of my head by the realization that he had just been addressed by Rarity. The Rarity. A pony from the “My Little Pony” cartoon. I felt myself getting slightly light headed.  ‘She’s beautiful. No, not beautiful exactly, more cute in a very feminine way. She definitely didn't look this good back home, even in HD.’  I had visited four realities so far, all of them fictitious from my point of view but aside from the second one that I visited (and from my point of view had created) they hadn’t hit me this hard.

How was this even possible? It wasn’t, the science here wasn’t even real… was it? Every world obeyed the same rules and laws of science. While those rules could be bent, they couldn’t be changed or broken, right? I could see the world swimming in front of my eyes and the discussion sounded like it was underwater.

“He’s dangerous Rarity. Look at him, just look. He’s a soldier.” My head started to clear, things were coming into focus now and even my thinking seemed less muddied than before. Alex continued, angrily pointing a finger at me while facing Rarity, “If that’s not mil spec,” he grunted in frustration, “military specification equipment, the armor, the built in weapons, I don’t know what is. I know what kind of casual destruction my species is capable of. I know I have to give him a chance, but I’m not about to unleash a monster on you, sure as hell not on Dash and Scoots, not on anyone.”

“Shining Armor is a soldier, and you know he is a dear. Princess Cadence would never have married him if he was anything less. It was an wonderfully glamorous ceremony…” she sighed then clicked her tongue, “Well the second one was after we dealt with that horrible mess from the changelings.”

They were busy arguing, totally ignoring me. I couldn’t believe how detailed everything was, yes I was in a cartoon but this world was in some ways just as detailed as a real reality and yet it was still animated. For the billionth time I wondered if this was all just a dream, the last thing I remember in my own reality was hitting the pavement really hard, this could all be some coma fuelled dream. But if it wasn’t than everything I did mattered, and I wasn’t ready to die yet. I’ll die on my feet doing something good that will be remembered, I refuse to be executed for being something I’m not.

”I’m not a soldier, I was shown how to fight but I never fought for anything other than the safety of myself and those around me.” They didn’t even glance at me, I suddenly wished Pinkie Pie was here. This was turning into a show and I felt popcorn wouldn’t be out of place. I had to shake my head to clear that thought, I had no clue where it came from but I was sure I couldn’t handle Pinkie Pie yet. ‘Don’t think her name, it’s like saying Betelgeuse three times, if I do it again she’ll probably pop out from under a pillow or something.’ 

“He kills for a living, he might even do it for fun. Rarity, he could kill us in our sleep, who knows what he could do! He could even try to kill the Princess.”

First a soldier now an assassin… this guy had a wonderful way of assuming the worst about me, I briefly entertained the thought of using him for target practice. I opened my mouth to defend myself but found myself silenced by a mere glance from Rarity, I could tell she wanted me to wait until she finished, who was I to interrupt a lady anyways?

“By that reasoning Alex we should have thrown you out of Ponyville the second we saw you. But we showed you compassion and gave you the chance to prove what a gallant knight you are or were we wrong about you?” She started taking steps towards him, he stepped back towards me, as if he were suddenly wary of her.

“No of course not, but-”

“No buts Mr. Roberts! You are a citizen of Equestria now, and a Paladin as well. Helping strangers is part of that, now are you one of us or not? Show some Ponyville hospitality to the dear.” Alex flashed Rarity a glare that said they would be talking again later. He turned to me and swallowed, probably his pride, giving me a slightly embarrassed smile before extending his hand towards me.

“I’m Alex Roberts, welcome to Ponyville. These people are under my protection, as are you.” I took his hand and shook gently, I doubted I’d be winning him over any time soon but I was relatively sure he wasn’t going to slit my throat the first chance... Maybe I’ll sleep in full armor for a few weeks, just to be safe. I found the idea of him offering me protection touching but slightly ludicrous. I mean seriously? I’m wearing my own weight in armor and if something is too much for me to handle I doubt he’ll stand a better chance.

“Mathew Brennan, no rank, service or serial number. This is a modified combat flight suit. In case you didn’t notice when I shift realities or whatever you call it I typically end up more than a few metres in the air and exit at your average city speed limit. I’m not a soldier, assassin, hunter, murderer or arsonist and I even pay my taxes. Do I still deserve to die or can I have a chance to discover the magic of friendship?” I did my best to drop the bomb on him as discreetly as possible, I don’t know if he had spoken to them about their being fictional or if he even knew, either way I felt it was best to keep it quiet. The look of sudden curiosity in his eyes told me that he recognised the reference.

“You watched My Little Pony?” He sounded skeptical, not many twenty-six year old men watched that show.

Rarity rolled her eyes, “Oh, no. Not that dreadful... what did you call it? Tee Vee show? You were an aficionado as well?”

I looked at the metal masterpieces that are my boots and tried my best not to sound like too much of a fan boy. “Yes,” I chucked involuntarily as the reality of the situation sunk in, “I am, I’m kind of a hardcore fan. I would really like to know if everything is similar to the show it is at least. I’m curious how close everything is to the fanon, do the fan names match up to everyones real names, how about the fan insights, timeline? What about-” Yeah, I guess I kind of got too excited about it. But how would you be if you got dumped in a reality based off a show that always made you smile, even on your worst days? Hell I don’t think that words can express the shit eating grin I had plastered on my face.

“Darling, please! You’re sounding like Lyra does about humans, please calm down.” I blushed in embarrassment and out of the corner of my eye I could see Alex with his face buried in his hand.

“Heck I’ve even written fiction set in this universe.” Rarity gave me an uncomfortable look,

“Oh, don’t worry Rarity. Nothing I’ve written involved anything… Uncouth, or involved anyone you know.” She seemed slightly relieved, but still uncomfortable probably at the thought of someone writing the lives of ponies who may or may not exist. Little did she know that thought left me uncomfortable as well, well that and wanting to see if those characters even existed.

Alex smirked, “I’ll tell you what I learned about the show and the reality here. They skip out on a lot of stuff, change the context, reorder some of what happened, and do all kinds of editing to make it kid friendly.”

“The best example is Pinkie Pie.” I shudder at his mentions of her name and look around, expecting her to pop up at any moment. “On the show, they present her as a spastic crazy all over the place party pony. While she does love parties, did you know she prepares all the food for her parties? She also invented her party cannon. A device that can decorate a room, without using traditional magic, just really complex pony engineering. Even Twilight has a hard time following the technical stuff involved for that thing. The funny thing, most of the time, what I talk to her, she’s a smart, funny, insightful pony. But,” he chuckled, “she does tend to hop instead of walk.” 

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, “What I’m saying is, don’t rely on that damned show for much. I’ll tell you this, they’re all far better people than you would expect them to be based on nothing but the show. So, you want to know what the difference is? Everything. The personalities are kind of right, but they were only shown at their funniest, not their best.” He smiles warmly at Rarity.

Well, that answered my question and it seemed to reassure Rarity, but killed the conversation. It  was useful information, I wasn’t as well informed as I had hoped but I still had a head start. Hopefully it would be enough to keep me from making a complete idiot out of myself. 

With timing you would expect in a cartoon reality there was a knock on the door, as a side note let me just mention that hooves make for very loud knocking. Rarity trotted over to the door and opened it, out in the hallway were three ponies, two I recognised and a stallion I had never seen before. First entered Applejack, followed closely by the light blue stallion with a well groomed dark blue mane and finally, hesitantly entered Bon-Bon.

“Alex, sugarcube. Are you okay? Elusive here came to the farm and dragged me away from my bed to come make sure you were okay. Big Macintosh was not impressed with him,” she chuckled a low chuckle and flashed a warm smile to the stallion, “even less than he already was. Anyhow, he said something about you sitting here in the dark, playing with your knife and muttering something about ‘the cost of protecting innocence’. He was worried that you’d go and do something foalish and judging from that there human in the corner I’d say I got here just in time.” 

I waved and managed a small smile, “Hi.”

“Howdy” She tipped her trademark hat in my direction before looking back to Alex with an easy smile, “You didn’t do anything to tarnish the Apple name now, did you?”

“Just a misunderstanding on my part Applejack, nothing to worry about. Things just got a little heated between us, but Rarity helped bring us to our senses, right?” I got to hand it to Rarity, she understood my silent plea and attempt to save face and responded in perfect form.

“I simply brought fresh air into closed room and reminded the windows to open. They were both simply under stress, this situation can hardly be easy for either them. Now, as fabulous as I am, darlings, I still need my beauty sleep.” With a flirtatious smile she trotted out of the room, practically glowing with feminin allure. Applejack rolled her eyes at us and shot Elusive a bemused glare. She even even took a moment to make eye contact with me.

“Honestly fellas, do you think you can think with something other then your willies? Especially you, Elusive,” she gave the stallion a wink, “when y’all got me right here.”

“Hey!” We all protested in unison and treated her to glares of our own. Applejack was saved from being skewered by three sets of glaring eyes by Bon-Bon clearing her throat at the back of the room, she looked uncomfortable being there and I had a feeling she didn’t want to be here.

“Ah, that’s right. Alex, from what Elusive told me I doubt... I’m sorry sugarcube, what’s your name?” 

“Mathew Brennan, you can call me Matt or Mathew, or whatever you’d like to call me really. I’m easy that way.”

“Alrighty Mathew Brennan, I’m Applejack. Pleasure to meet you. Like I was saying I don’t think it’d be a good idea for Mathew to stay with you at your place and I ran into Bon-Bon on the way over here. We had a quick discussion and came to a conclusion. We’re going to have him stay at their place, that also bucks two trees with one hoof. He’ll have somewhere to stay where we can keep an eye on him and he’ll have two ponies close by to keep his exposure to magic down.” 

I could feel the cooling systems kick in as I began to sweat.
> Reasoning 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Are you telling me that magic exposure for humans is bad enough that we need to take safety measures? Someone get me my helmet, please.” There was a cold tone to my voice that shocked all the ponies. Alex paused for a moment before speaking.

“How about we trade, your gun for your helmet. I couldn’t draw your sidearm but I did manage to remove your tonfa.” His voice was polite and light, the ponies didn’t notice it but to me it was an obvious taunt. He held a big bargaining chip, if I agreed then he disarmed me. If I threatened him then he knew his concerns were justified. Deploying the blade on my left gauntlet I sliced through the medical gauze that had been wrapped around to prevent me from drawing it. Drawing  my sidearm I activated the user lock, no one but me could fire it now. I hesitated for a moment when he held out his hand for it but handed it over all the same. Aside from my gauntlet blades and the collapsible shield on my back I was now unarmed.

“I hope you put the safety on. I don’t want any pony accidentally firing it off. I just don’t know how effective their telekinetic fingers are at trigger discipline.”

“Just don’t lose it, now helmet please. Oh and if you can get it to shoot you can keep it.” He looked surprised that I had just handed over my sidearm. Trust has to start somewhere and since it obviously wasn’t going to start with him I figured that I would be the better man... Also I was hoping that Applejack would keep him from trying anything, she seemed to have my safety in mind.

Alex exited the room and returned a moment later with my helmet, when he held it out I took it slowly from his grip, examining the exterior for damage. Finding none I slide the helmet over my head and sighed in relief when the helmet announced contact with the armor systems. Various readouts scrolled before my eyes at a speed that still made me dizzy, the system checked for damage before examining outside conditions. A hazard icon popped up in a corner of the Heads Up Display, Unknown Radiation. I looked at the icon and blinked at it twice in rapid succession, a breakdown of everything the suit could understand was shown. I wasn’t a science genius so I stuck to the simple information. Lethal longterm levels, causes DNA damage in the form of accelerated cell aging, damage minimized but not neutralized by medical nano-machines. Too bad mine were busy trying to fix my leg, otherwise it wouldn’t bother me. Assuming I was here for six months like I had been in the last three realities I would only lose a week or two of my life if I walked around naked. With the bodysuit and armor offering some protection from the radiation I would lose only a few hours.

The ponies and Alex were starting to look concerned, I hadn’t visibly moved in over three minutes, I was about to turn on the external speakers so they could hear me but I glanced down at the estimated jump time.

Estimated time until reality shift: 50+ years.

I didn’t know how the jump timer worked but it had been perfectly accurate the last two jumps. I leaned against the wall and slid to the ground, not caring about the fact that the shield on my back cut a line through the wallpaper. I held my head in my hands, not wanting to accept the fact. I could hear everyone mocking me with their concern but only Alex was brave enough to try and shake me out of it.

“Come on kid, answer me. What’s wrong?”

I blinked at the voice icon,
“Over 50 years... How. How am I going to live here for fifty years? I have no money, I have have no skills that will earn me money and the rations in my pack will last me three weeks tops and I’ll be hungry the entire time... What do I do?” My voice sounded cold and dead over the helmet speakers which is exactly how I felt.

I heard the sounds of hooves on tile and felt someone, or rather some pony put a comforting hoof on my shoulder. I looked up into the eyes of Bon-Bon and saw the concern in her eyes, not fake or forced but genuine concern. I was grateful for my helmet as it hid my crying eyes from sight, I tried unsuccessfully tried to fight back a sniffle, but that only seemed to increase the look of understanding in her eyes.

I could see Alex tense up as I raised my hand to rest on Bon-Bons hoof. It was a simple and silent thank you. She smiled gently at me and looked me right it the eyes, how she managed that with an opaque visor between us was beyond me, but all the same I bathed in the feeling of peace that it brought me. I tapped her hoof and she backed away, holding her hoof out to me. I took it and with some effort pulled myself to my feet. 

“You know if all that armor is too heavy you could always take it off, I’m sure it’s uncomfortable.” As much as he was beginning to piss me off I had to give Alex credit, he was doing a fantastic job at trying to get my equipment away from me.

“I`m sleeping with it on until I feel safe, which considering that the last time I slept without it on I ended up with a bullet shredding my leg might take me awhile. Nice try though, ‘A’ for effort.” I gestured to Bon Bon and followed as she led me down the hall, I managed to walk with only a slight limp and set my sensors to eavesdrop down the hall towards the room I had awoken in.

“I still think this is a bad idea, a unicorn would be able to keep him under control with magic, a pegasus could always fly away if he gets aggressive... But an earth pony? With that armor on I bet he’s just as tough you or Big Mac. This is really dangerous for her, what were you thinking?”

“Alex sugarcube, look how he reacted to her. Why he was completely gentle with her, I don’t think he’d do anything to hurt her. Besides, she asked me to take him in, I think she’s hoping that Lyra will calm down about humans if she has to live with one for a week or two. Anyways I think we should be more worried about what Lyra does to him rather than what he does to her. How long do you think he’ll last before he comes running to you, begging for a less creepy place to stay.” I stopped in the hall pretending to adjust the armor on my leg, there was no way he’d be expecting me to overhear this but I wanted to know exactly what they were planning for me. The silence dragged on long enough to make me uncomfortable, what had I gotten myself into?

“Elusive buddy, you’ve been pretty quiet. What do you think about all this?”

“I don’t like anyone who makes you upset like this Alex, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so terrified of anything, and when you were sitting there just toying with your knife, well I don’t even want to know what was going through your head. If it were up to me we’d just send him away somewhere just to keep him away from you.” I’d heard enough, I deactivated the eavesdropping array and followed Bon Bon out into the night. 

I didn’t feel like I was in any danger, but neither did I feel like I was a welcome guest. Was the moment of understanding earlier just an act? Somehow I didn’t think so, and yet Applejack seemed to be convinced. Anthropomorphized  ponies or not I couldn’t be sure I had read her correctly.

Another thing I noticed is that ponies move a lot faster than a limping human. Bon Bon would slowly pull farther and farther ahead, every so often stopping and waiting for me to catch up. Her home, seemed to be on opposite end of town from the hospital I had woken up in but we made slow and steady progress. I found myself wondering exactly what she sounded like, she had four or five voices on the show and some of them had been rather different.

As we got closer to her home she started walking slower and looking more depressed. Even an alien like myself could tell that something was bothering her, when she stopped right beside a park bench instead of continuing on I dropped onto the bench and gestured beside me. I wanted to lean back but all the equipment on my back forced me to sit straight.

“Come on Bon Bon, grab a seat and tell me what’s bothering you. I promise I won’t get angry or hurt you.” I took off my helmet if only to reassure her that I wasn’t a faceless monster, I couldn’t tell if this relieved her worries or not, I was a predator with forward set eyes and a mouth with sharp teeth. Perhaps a faceless visor was the friendlier face of the two.

“Please, it’ll make us both feel better.” I put just a hint of pleading into my voice causing her to sigh and climb onto the bench, she sat down and facing me but couldn’t seem to meet my eyes, was it shame, guilt or just trying to avoid eye contact with a predator?

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I’m not bringing you home to be nice to you. I’m bringing you home to try and help me deal with my Marefriend. I think that Alex cast a spell on her that makes her obsessed with him.” She didn’t sound remotely like any of her show voices, I started chuckling at the fact that she had yet another voice. Five voices on the show and yet her real voice was different still, I couldn’t help but find that funny.

“What’s so funny?” She sounded offended, I stopped laughing immediately. There was no way that I could afford to piss her off, right now she was my only friend in this reality, I came up with an excuse faster then Rainbow Dash could fly ten feet.

“Assuming he’s from the same reality as me it’s impossible, we can’t do magic Bon Bon. We don’t even have magic like earth ponies or pegasi and to be perfectly honest I have no clue how the hell magic even works.” Bon Bon smiled at me, looking reassured and slightly mischievous.

“If that’s the case then let me apologise in advance for how Lyra reacts. She can be alittle intense but her heart is in the right place.” 

“With a name like Heartstrings it’d better be.” I muttered absentmindedly but got no response from Bon Bon. Maybe her hearing wasn’t the best. I felt the need to try and relieve her guilt.

“Sometimes it’s your intent that matters. I’ve been going through reality shifts for around two years and I’ve done some terrible things. I did them thinking that they were the right thing because I didn’t have all the facts or because I was scared. Does that make it right? No, would I have done the same thing, I doubt it but if you could go back would you? and if you did would it be for the same reasons? The best way to look at it is learn from your mistakes.” It was an excuse, but it let me sleep at night... most of the time. I felt a chill run down my spine as I remembered the screams on that fateful night. 

“You didn’t do anything wrong anyways, you’re just trying to take care of someone who is very important to you. I can’t be mad at you for that... just do me a favour and don’t hide it from me. People are always surprised how understanding I can be... Maybe ponies will too.” I got to my feet and replaced my helmet, taking comfort in the climate control and extended senses that it provided.

Bon Bon hopped off the park bench and led the way to their home. It was a mid sized house that like most of the buildings of Ponyville managed to pull of a middle ages look while somehow maintaining a light and happy feel. I could see a mint green mane with a white streak sitting with her back to the window, by the glow of her horn I guessed that she was holding something in a magical grip.

“This is my home, it’s not the best looking house in Ponyville but it’s my home and I couldn’t be happier with it.” She looked back at me with a proud grin. 

“I never had a house of my own back home, I’ll admit that I’m kind of jealous. Anyways, I think I’m ready for your crazed marefriend.” She smiles at me in a way that left me feeling like I should be afraid for my life and soul. I knew I was perfectly capable of defending myself as long as I was in my armor or rather I thought I was.
> Lyra
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I reached out and opened the door for Bon Bon, I felt that using my hands to open a dirty door knob was only the polite thing to do especially since Bon Bon would have to use her mouth.

That turned out to be a mistake, when I opened the door I was ambushed by a pale green blur aimed for my chest. How she managed to go from being completely absorbed in whatever she was doing to standing ready to pounce behind the door was a complete mystery. An impact warning flashed in my visor as she collided hoof first into my chest, according to the armor she hit with the force of a riot control weapon, knocking me off balance and sending me crashing to the path between the flower gardens.

“Hi-Alex-what-are-you-doing-here?Are-you-here-for-me-I-knew-you’d-come-for-me-eventually-I-even-dreamed-about-it-I’m-not-being-creepy-am-I?Bon-Bon-says-I-can-be-creepy-but-I-don’t-think-so-I-mean-it-would-be-creepy-if-I-had-a-dream-about-you-giving-me-your-hands-or-something-not-that-I-ever-had-a-dream-like-that-or-anything-but-I-wish-I-had-hands-like-yours-just-imagine-what-I-could-do-with-them.”  Her face was so close to my visor that it began to fog up on me, her enthusiasm was almost as terrifying as the manic gleam in her eye. I felt a cold terror in the pit of my stomach that I hadn’t felt since my first jump, I recognised it as fear for my soul rather than my life.

Bon Bon thankfully jumped in with an attempt to save me.

“Lyra, stop! That’s not Alex, you’re scaring him.”  I don’t know if it was her intent but it got the crazed mare off of me in as little time as it took her to ambush me, only now Lyra was giving Bon Bon the same close range interrogation about me, I couldn’t even keep up with the questions let alone think of answers to them . Some of them were just outrageous,
“What color fire does he breathe?” I mean honestly, what lies had Alex been telling these ponies? I can’t help but admit that convincing an entire race you could breathe fire was pretty damn funny.

I got to my feet and looked gave Bon Bon a sympathetic look that was completely invisible through my visor and tried round two with introductions.

“Lyra Heartstrings, right?” Her head whipped around so fast and nodded so vigorously that I was afraid that she was going to break her own neck,

“I’m Mathew Brennan, it’s nice to meet you.” I held out my left hand in greeting and almost withdrew it an instant later when her eyes latched onto it with a manic grin, I saw her horn light up and felt pressure on my hand, I was startled by my first interaction with telekinesis but that was overshadowed a moment later by a radiation increase notice from my armor, still non-lethal  levels but an increase from the natural environment or “buffered” levels I had experienced so far.

“Woah STOP!” It was interesting having my visor pick up the radiation, it was a field molded perfectly to my hand connected by a nanoscopic trail to her horn. Did that mean line of sight was required? Would my armor be able to block or redirect the radiation? Every question I answered about magic led to more questions.

Luckily Lyra stopped her magic quickly, the expression on her face looking like an abused puppy. Creepy stalker pony or not the expression made me feel guilty and I felt the need to explain. I knelt down so that we were closer to eye level, this was something serious that I needed to make clear.

“Magic hurts me, ok Lyra? I need you to be careful using it around me. Otherwise I’ll have to go away and find somewhere else to stay, can you do that for me?” She somehow managed to get even more sad looking, my heart couldn’t take it. I reached out and scratched behind her ears for a moment, trying to cheer up the sad little mare in front of me.

The look of devastation melted into total bliss as my fingers scratched behind her ear, I continued it for several seconds before yanking my hand back again. I realized what I had done, I had treated her like an adorable pet.

“I’m so sorry! I can’t believe I just did that, it won’t happen again.” Lyra looked hungry for more, Bon Bon however seemed surprised by the reactions of both myself and her marefriend who had been momentarily turned into a slobbering pet. I instantly hated myself for the comparison. They might not be human beings but they’re still intelligent creatures.

“How about we go inside and find me some place to sleep, I’m still really tired.”  I just wanted some peace and quiet, some time to try and piece together everything that was going on. I turned off my external speakers and growled in frustration. 

‘The first time ever I run into another person with this damnable condition he turns out to be some senile psychopath? I could have really used some help’  

It was enough to be forced into a reality that was completely different from anything you’ve ever seen before but to have someone able to explain it cursing your very existence? That just made it worse.

Bon Bon explained to Lyra about how even the low levels of magic from the world around me was dangerous and that for safety I should sleep close to them, the light in Lyra’s eyes made me swallow hard. It simply wasn’t healthy, Bon Bon had hinted Lyra needed to stop obsessing over humans and I was sure that this was the wrong way to go about it. I leaned against the wall and listened to them debate the sleeping arrangements.

“He doesn’t need to sleep between us Lyra, especially not in our bed. He can sleep anywhere in our room and be just fine.” I liked the sound of this, but Lyra was obviously having nothing of it.

“The closer he is to us the better right? Physical contact with a human Bons, it’s for its own good, I don’t want it getting sick on us I want to keep him forever.” Yeah, Plan A was sounding pretty damn good.

“No, Lyra. I don’t want to share my bed with him. Especially when it’s your week, I know how you get.” I think the best word here was ‘Eww’ I really didn’t need to know that, the world of human feminine hygiene was bad enough. I REALLY didn’t want to know how the pony version worked.

“But Bons, you know I can control myself. I mean yeah that one time at-” I activated the helmet speakers and cleared my throat, eager to stop this conversation before it went even further into the realm of too much information.

“I’d rather not share a bed with anyone if I can help it. How about-” they continued as if I hadn’t spoken, I double checked that my speakers were on, they were. I guess lovers quarrels are universal, I left the room before they could get to the making up portion. 

“He’s an intelligent creature, I won’t let him treat you like a pet! I mean let you treat HIM like a pet.” Freudian slip?

Either way I was finished with this conversation. When I walked back into the living room the radiation icon shifted from a light green to yellow. Did the presence of ponies really make so much of a difference that the radiation levels could go from short term survivable without protection to long term fatal? 

Stretched out on the low couch. I had to drape my legs over the arm of it but otherwise it was comfortable. I ran through the events of the day, trying to unwind. I’d landed without injury, the natives were mostly kind and helpful, with some very notable exceptions. I had a place to sleep, I’d deal with food in the morning and aside from that all I needed was a job. For the first time since I started jumping I thought that life was looking good. I fell asleep with that happy thought in my head.

I slept horribly as usual, the helmet systems woke me when Bon Bon and Lyra finally came out of their room, I dozed off only to awake again, Bon Bon sleeping on the floor and Lyra leaning over me, her manic expression replaced by one of simple non-stalker curiosity. She was examining all the scratches and markings of my armor. I relaxed slightly and went back to sleep. Tonight was graced with the rare gift of an only mildly terrifying dream.

When I awoke that morning I could feel a head on my chest. I was still groggy and hadn’t opened my eyes yet something about this reminded me of my last pet dog causing me to gently stroke it. It was the second time I’ve reflexively pet a pony in the last twenty-four hours. I would have probably gone on petting the pony for another minute or so if she hadn’t sighed.

My eyes shot open and my hand froze, after last night I was surprised to find that I had been petting Bon Bon rather than Lyra, her eyes were just beginning to drift open from the sudden stop of my stroking.

Our eyes met -how she keeps doing that through my visor is started to wierd me out- and I think it was a mutual decision to quietly separate before Lyra caught us, I’m sure we both thought that was a fate worse than the embarrassment of me once again petting a pony and her embarrassment at having “cuddled” with me.

“So, did you two sleep well?” Lyra purred as BonBon screamed and jumped away from me. “Don’t be ashamed Bons. It feels good, doesn’t it? I know when Alex touched my sides, it was like lightning going through me. I found that behind the left ear is the best. Matt showed me that.” She must have gone to sleep on the back of the couch like a cat. I took off my helmet to give Lyra my patented disappointed stare. Not enough to scare her but hopefully enough to convey the phrase ‘No chance in hell’.

Bon Bon struggled to keep from laughing but Lyra being just stared back. Actually she was drinking in every detail about my face like a man trapped in the desert, I shuddered.

“Why do you have a mane on your chin?” I laughed at the description.

“My beard? Come on, you can’t tell me that beards are unheard of, well it looks like Alex shaves so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised but others have them, right?” I stroked it absentmindedly, it was something I often did when I wasn’t wearing my helmet, it comforted me.

“What does it do?” Bon Bon looked at me expectantly, her eyes brimming with tears while she tried to contain her laugh, I fought a sigh thinking how similar to home this was becoming.

“It makes ponies ask silly questions.” Bon Bon lost it, she started banging the floor with her hoof and laughing like a madpony. I didn’t think it was funny, but I guess pony humour was simpler and much less dark.

“REALLY!? Can you show me how that works?” My mouth started twitching, I could suddenly see what was so funny. I joined Bon Bon in her laughter, leaving Lyra looking confused and lost. My stomach had chosen this moment to join the conversation. Lyra and Bon Bon looked at me with very concerned looks on their faces.

“You’re not going to eat your own arm are you? Alex said a few weeks ago that he was so hungry he could eat his own arm.”  I laughed at the absurdity of the lies that Alex was spreading, smiling with a broadly toothy grin.

“Well it’s either that or a horse.”
> Full circle
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I wish I could say it was silence that filled the room but it wasn’t. It was the sound of whimpering and panicked breathing, I had to look at both Lyra and BonBon before I realized that the object of their fears was none other than myself.  Bon Bon looked terrified, like I was about to bite into her right then and there. Lyra was breathing heavily and looking between her marefriend and myself, as though she blamed herself for the imminent deaths of two thirds of the occupants in the room. I could kick myself for being so completely stupid, I brought fear into this house. Not fear of uncertainty but fear of myself, fear of what I might do.

I had gone from strange new friend to the monster that feasts on the bodies and souls of the innocent. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it!” I got to my feet and followed my first instinct, I ran managing to stumble over a low table, I almost ended up on my face but somehow managed to keep my legs underneath me. I was out the door before they could do anything more than flinch at my sudden movement. It was better that I get out of there fast before they started crying in fear or worse, begged me not to kill them, if they did that I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. Yes, I had no problem being an object of fear but only to people and creatures that deserved it. For me to be an object of fear to someone… somepony that had gone out of their way to be kind to me (even if she had ulterior motives) was unbearable, especially innocent ponies.

It was early morning in Ponyville and most ponies hadn’t yet started their day. Yet here I was, already fleeing from the fear I caused. I tried to avoid the main streets but, my goal was on the other side of Ponyville. I reasoned that if I made it to the Everfree Forest then I would simply become another monster in the forest to be avoided.

As it so happens Ponyville wasn’t big enough to have an abundance of small, poorly lit alleys and I was too alien a creature to try and blend in. I simply ran trying to keep the noise of my actions to a minimum. I focused on the alerts provided by my HUD to avoid ponies, the warnings keeping me out of public sight for the most part. I just wish I was better at being able to take the information in without focussing on it. I was still either looking at the display or focussing past it on what was actually in front of me. I was told that eventually it would become second nature to take in the display without even noticing it.

The downside of running through an unfamiliar town at breakneck speeds was that you ran the risk of ending up in places you didn’t want to go, like a market full of vendors setting up for the day. With no surprise the way my luck has been running, that's exactly where I ended up. 

It seemed news of my arrival hadn’t yet become common knowledge as ponies kept greeting me with cheerful hellos meant for Alex. This only caused me to push myself even harder. My leg screamed in pain but I pushed through it knowing that the medical nanotech would kick in and dull the pain. I could already feel it fading, like a mild case of pins and needles.

I turned a corner, putting too much strain on my left leg. It buckled, sending me right onto the back of an orange and yellow pony, I landed across her hind quarters with a close up of a trio of apples. Or rather the cutie mark of them. I have to say they’re absolutely fascinating, I had the strangest urge to run my naked fingers through the design.

“Tarnation, Matt. Where’s the fire?” I shifted my weight as much as I could onto my right leg and leaned heavily against Applejack, trying to get in position to lift myself off her. My one hand on her shoulder the other on her cutie mark, I could feel the muscles under her fur and skin tighten as my hand brushed the apples on her flank.

“Uh, sugarcube. Ya might want to take yer’ hand off my cutie mark. That’s a mighty personal place to touch, and Elusive might a tad get jealous.” She stood frozen while I tried to lift myself from her back, my left leg struggling to hold my weight. She finally hit the limits of her tolerance and casually shrugged me off her back, something that shouldn’t be possible without some serious effort on her part. I fought to remain upright, my left leg shook for a moment before I could force it under control. I double checked that my helmet speakers were off before I issued what was under normal circumstances my favourite command.

I began issuing a practised stream of acronyms and abbreviations to the suit that would make no sense to someone unfamiliar with them but delivered dozens if not hundreds of commands to the system that enabled it to handle the trillions of calculations a second required to allow me to focus on where I wanted to go rather than fighting the world around me just to stay airborne.

I always thought jetpacks in sci-fi would be more fun and less ‘you have a 10% chance of dying whenever you use it.’

Blinking twice at the external speaker icon, I focused past the data to Applejack and almost did a double take, she was staring me right in the eyes. I shivered in fear before responding.

“Sorry Applejack, I was... uhh just out for a run, I didn’t mean to trip on you. I hope I didn’t scare you. You’re fine right?” She was still doing that soul staring trick and I could feel the sweat beading on my forehead as I waited for the orange farm mare to call my bluff

“It’ll take more than a simple bump in the flank to slow me down. If you need someone to talk to Matthew Brennan I’m willing to listen when yer ready to stop lying to everyp-” Shaking my head in disbelief I staggered away from her towards what I assumed was the direction of the Everfree forest, that looking through the visor trick 

My brief encounter with Applejack had brought me back to my senses, but I still didn’t want to be an object of fear. I carefully made my way out of the market, drawing  the occasional alarmed look, and one scathing scowl from a tan mare.

Once I was out the market I was free to get my bearings. Canterlot that way, check. Plains as far as the eye could see that way, check. Forest that looks like it would be crazy to venture into alone… Well process of elimination left only one direction, behind a group of houses. I looked behind me to check for flammable materials before taking off. The thrusters fired with a loud obnoxious hiss.

I realized pretty quickly that unlike other realities I didn’t have a monopoly on being able to fly, here. Ghost outlines appeared on my HUD showing me dozens of pegasi in the air, my eyes darted everywhere trying to keep track of them all I must have been distracted because a grey streak exited a window and veered in a sharp right turn that even my armor interception software wasn’t able to predict, what’s worse is that it hit my left maneuvering jet right in the sweet spot and hard enough to snap the connecting joint between the arm and backpack. So forget controlled landing, I imitated the grey streak and made a sharp right… right into a wall. 

I stuck like a strand of perfectly cooked pasta. 

Damage alerts and diagnostics scrolled through my HUD, unless I found a master mechanic there was no way in hell I’d be fixing this, the limited supply of repair nanites simply wasn’t capable of repairing such an intricate system. I groaned and fell off of the wall impacting the ground hard enough to make a human shaped crater, I decided that this world just hated me and decided that I was the perfect target for death by random circumstances, in the distance I could hear a familiar voice call out “Ooops my bad.” before flying off.

I sighed away my anger, well most of it. I was still angry but I couldn’t help but smile and accept it. Derpy was a force of nature, adorable in her own way but anger inducing if you had a first hand encounter with her.

I got to my feet once again ignoring the medical report for my leg. I could feel blood running down my leg, a sure sign that the nano sutures and bandage over my leg wound had ripped again, the bodysuit which would usually act as its own bandage was still being patched by the armor repair nanites. I can’t say I regret the injury but I need to stop stressing it like this, what I need is two or three days of bedrest, well maybe a week or two if the ‘magic’ radiation is as dangerous as my armor theorizes.

I cling to the thoughts as I struggle for the boundary between Ponyville and Everfree. I’m almost out of the town but each step is requiring more effort. Moving my left leg is sheer agony and finally half way up the hill my leg trembles one last time before giving out completely, even the muscle assist of my bodysuit couldn’t help me walk if my leg can’t even move. Even with the nano pain dampening this was some of the most intense pain I’ve ever experienced. The pain was only surpassed by the initial injury.

I rolled onto my side closed my eyes, trying to ride out the pain until the medical nano’s could fix whatever was hurting me. My breath was coming in gasps and panting and my eyes were clenched so tight that even tears weren’t escaping.

My helmet started gingerly letting off a proximity alarm, making me aware of my surroundings and what was watching. I managed to turn myself still cringing from the pain in my leg, to find Alex standing over me just staring down at me, the fire in his eyes made me want to just turn and run, but with a leg in this condition that wasn't an option

He stood there for a while longer looking me up and down of my condition, until he broke the silence, “You don’t look so good.“
> Trust
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“What, have you come to finish me off? How generous, Rarity would be proud.” I could feel a tingling in my leg, the medical nanos were doing their best to get me back on my feet, the question was would they be able to heal the damage fast enough.

I didn’t like the look in his eyes, I couldn’t be sure but it looked like he was trying to look at the gap in my armor on my back at the shoulder blade. I had lost that armor plate in combat, the repair nanotech had actually consumed what was left of it for raw materials. I could instruct them to make a new one but it was a time consuming process and I had no clue how I was going to get the diamond and raw titanium to build it from.

For now it left a gap big enough to drive a very large knife into.

“What? No! You have a timber sucker trying to chew it’s way into your back. If those things get their teeth into you for long enough they start turning you into wood. You don’t think Timberwolves are born, do you?” I couldn’t tell if he was a good actor or genuinely concerned for my well being, I voted to go for the former to be safe. My bodysuit was a layer of armor unto itself, I mean seriously we’re talking about something that’s designed to stop large caliber handguns and rifles.

“Oh sure, let me just turn my back and let you plunge a knife into it. I mean it’s not like you’ve considered killing me before and look, there’s a convenient place to dispose of the body!” I gestured towards the Everfree forest.

He opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by a pony somehow managing to sneak up on us.

"I don’t mean to interrupt but Applejack told me that Matthew Brennan looked hurt and that I should try and find him. You’re Matthew Brennan, right? If you’re not I’m really sorry and I’ll go away.” I noticed that she also looked into my visor but unlike Applejack and Bon-Bon her eyes didn’t seem to find mine but rather seemed to slide around the visor like she was being distracted by something.

“Fluttershy, hi. I’d love to chat but me and Alex here are kind of getting to know each other right now, it’s not quite safe for ponies.” She looked over at Alex and then at the knife in his hand, it earned him a hard stare, it wasn’t her famed one but it certainly conveyed a sense of dislike and a distinct lack of compassion.

She stood over me and spread her wings, even without having the show to give me a rough guide as to pony body language this one was obvious, if he wanted me he would have to go through her first.

Alex didn’t budge so she took the direct approach. Using her muzzle shoved him away from me she kept nudging him back until he was a dozen feet away from me.

“I don’t care if you want to help him Fluttershy, he could kill you in a heartbeat and I won’t let you throw your life away like that.” Alex wasn’t even trying to be quiet about his hatred for me, what I did to deserve it I don’t know but he seemed pretty committed to my suffering and eventual death.

“Alex Roberts! I’m already upset with you for killing that mommy Popping Cat, don’t make things worse by trying to stop me from helping a creature in need!” She looked ready to feed him to the wolves if he said another word, assertive Fluttershy is scary Fluttershy... What the hell is a popping cat?

“Oh, sure. The almost completely unarmed man that CAN’T EVEN STAND is such a threat, it’s not like I’m in any shape to fight or have the will or ability to fight anyone, anypony or anything.” That was mostly true, I almost wouldn’t mind killing him right now. I had to keep my cool, as long as I did I would be just fine.

Fluttershy glared at Alex with all the assertiveness she could muster, “Now either help me treat his wound or go away Alex Roberts.” Alex just stared, probably trying to decide which was the lesser evil, the dagger in his hand seemed to ripple and flow as if it too was uncertain as to what it wanted to do.

There was an awkward silence while Alex and Fluttershy eyeballed each other. This went on for three or four seconds until Alex finally broke. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, “Damn it Flutters, you know I’ll always try to do the decent thing. I may not trust this punk, but I will protect him.” 

“I’ll thank you to call me Fluttershy.”

“Sorry, Fluttershy.” He reached into a small pack on his waist and pulled out two clear glass bottles. The larger one had a bluish liquid, the small one had a thick bright green goop. My sensors flashed a warning of unknown form of biotech in the green paste.

“Zecora formulated these for me just for this kind of emergency. He drinks to blue, it’s a general pain killer and upper. The buzz will last for about two hours and the pain killing will work for about twelve. The green ointment is a disinfectant and a topical antibiotic. It will hurt like hell, even with the blue buzz. I’m willing to give this to him, he needs them more than I do, and I’ll do whatever you ask.” Alex looked sad for a moment, “I hope this can be the first step in fixing our friendship, and maybe Matt and I can settle our differences.”

“Now, help me turn him over to I can get a proper-” 

I interrupted Fluttershy, leveling my gaze at Alex, “I would prefer him to stay far away from me.”

Alex backed away, hands up to show he was capitulating.

Fluttershy sighed, then pulled at my leg with the bottom of her hoof, trying to get a better look at my leg injury hidden behind my armor causing me to jump. Unfortunately she somehow held on, the additional strain opened the wound even wider. My mouth opened up in a silent scream of pain, perfectly hidden by my helmet. I fought through it knowing that the nanotech was probably too busy healing to act as a pain suppressant.

“Oh my, all this blood. Matthew how did this happen, what did this to you? We need to get you taken care of right away, what’s this small gray streak? It looks really unhealthy.” Fluttershy rubs my exposed shoulder for a second like she’s brushing off some dirt. Had Alex been telling the truth? Nah, Fluttershy would have said something if there had been a giant something trying to turn me into a tree.

“Fluttershy, don’t touch that gray stuff. That’s a kind of…” How did one describe nano machines to a pony that probably doesn’t even understand the concept of advanced technology? That’s it, magic!

“It’s like a healing spell, millions of little creatures trying to make me better. The problem is that I keep pushing myself too hard and they can’t keep up with healing me. They’re designed to only work on me but they’re really easy to break and once they’re gone I can’t replace them.”

“Oh my, what do they look like, are they adorable? Not that all animals aren’t cute in their own ways but I’ve never seen animals so small before!” I had to chuckle at her enthusiasm for new creatures, even if they were actually machines. 

“Here, let me take the armor off so you can actually take a look at it rather than just the blood.” I blinked my way through the armor release menus for my leg armor, it was a pain to release one specific section so I decided to release the entire left leg armor system, that way the shock absorption system would release as well.

I could feel the boot portion and several smaller plates loosen for removal but the fine seam at the back of the calf plate jammed, the bottom was closed tight but the top opened cleanly. Cursing the sloppy nano-repair job and without thinking I deployed the blade in my knuckle plate to pry apart the two sides.

“Fluttershy!” I could hear Alex calling out in a panic, as my threat alarm went off. I didn’t even think, I just grabbed Fluttershy and with the element of surprise pulled her off her hooves before rolling on top of her, eliciting a squeak from her I covered her in a human shield. Unfortunately this meant that I was presenting my armorless shoulder to Alex. The threat detection system predicted the trajectory of the threat, my back would take the hit. Something didn’t add up, Alex was obviously the threat, after stupidly deploying the blade on my knuckle plate without warning he was obviously throwing that stupid knife at me, so why was the threat alarm giving me 2 alerts? 
> Interception
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I felt a heavy body throw itself on top of me, I looked at the top of my HUD to the thin strip of imagery that gave me 360 vision, it looked like I had a really messed up tree on me. It wasn’t until I saw the tiny yellow flames that the reality hit me, Alex had thrown his weapon to try and hit the timberwolf, not me. It wasn’t enough, I could see it bare it’s teeth and tilt it’s head about to go for the back of my neck. 

I slammed my head backwards I wasn’t lucky enough to headbutt it but it was enough to protect my neck, I could hear a god awful screech akin to nails on a chalkboard... times ten.

I reached for my baton, if I could get the handle portion between my armor and it’s chest I could pry it off me.

Empty thigh strap.

Fine, sidearm. I’d shoot the bastard off my back.

Empty holster, fuck. Slice it off my back?

Nope, can’t reach... Panic?

Yep, that’ll work.

“Get it off, GET IT OFF! Get this fucking thing off me!“ I could feel pressure on my left shoulder the bodysuit felt like it was about to tear. Normally I’d be collected enough to defend myself even if it was just by running a million volts through my armor (which would be a bad idea when laying on top of someone/pony you’re trying to protect) but between being caught by surprise, not being able to use my leg and almost having my head bitten off by an animated bundle of wood threw me into a panic. I felt the weapon Alex had thrown impact the monster, more the reaction to it than the actual impact. 

I felt something like an explosion on my back, green cellulose covered the back of my helmet, camera and probably everything else too. I could feel my armor being scratched by shrapnel or whatever had hit me, I could also feel a faint burning sensation as some of the shrapnel punched through my bodysuit at the shoulder. The creature stopped struggling and I rolled it off my back before rolling the other way to get off the pony beneath me.

That timberwolf isn’t going to be getting up anytime soon, half of the creature is just gone. Pieces of wood and blood are scattered in a wide radius, it looked like somebody shoved a grenade inside the thing and pulled the pin. Suddenly a shape shifting knife was looking pretty damn good to me. Especially when I’ve only got one grenade and four stun grenades left.

There was green on Fluttershy’s legs but otherwise I seem to have covered her completely, looking first to me and Alex before looking at the corpse of the wolf beside her. I could see her anger growing faster than a storm in the Cloudsdale weather factory.

Just for saving my ass I decided to return the favour to my saviour, just this once. 

“Fluttershy, I don’t see why you’re so upset with Alex, he just saved both of our lives. That wolf bit down hard enough on my helmet to dent it, if it had bitten down on my neck it would have killed me almost instantly.” I look over at Alex who seems transfixed by the exploded wolf beside us, a smear of green on his cheek.

“Thanks Alex, you saved my life, both our lives... Right?” His head drooped and he walked away, murmuring something about having to remember. Fluttershy looks conflicted as if she can’t decide whether or not her appreciation of me throwing myself on her to protect her should extend to the monster that just blew up a wolf.

“I... I’m sorry Alex for getting mad at you, but I don’t like seeing any creatures get hurt. This poor timber wolf was just trying to create a family, that’s all. I wish you could have stopped it without killing it.” She sounded sincere but Alex seemed to be in a world of his own.

“Huh? Oh, thank you Fluttershy. I have to go now, I just remembered something I have to do.” Something had hit him hard and out of nowhere, he looked like a man in some serious inner pain. I recognised the look on his face as the same one I had when I first looked in looked in the mirror after my first kill.

I don’t know how to describe it but I remember it being an almost numb feeling. You know you did the right thing and that if you hadn’t you or someone you know would have died, yet you feel guilty for it all the same. It was a sense of helplessness that everyone had to face in their own way, mine was to lose myself in a piano. As much as I want to be rid of him I can’t help but hope he doesn’t do anything stupid.

I hear a click as my calve plate miraculously separates, causing Fluttershy to jump. I give it a harsh glare and gently pull off the leg armor assembly and placed it beside me before undoing the bodysuit just below the knee joint and removing that too.

I could hear Fluttershy panting beside me as she saw the exposed wound. I had to take a deep breath before I looked at it myself. When I had last looked at the wound a week ago it had looked terrible, a gaping hole scabbed over by medical nano’s. They had kept it clean, dulled the pain and accelerated my natural healing rate so that instead of being laid up in a hospital for a month or two I was back on my feet within a week. I should only have a day or two before the skin healed over and less than a week before I am as good as new.

Now however the nano scab was gone and every gentle breeze touching the wound made me want to claw at it in pain. It was still clean thanks to the bodysuit but how long that would last was was sheer guesswork. As for the healing? It looked alot better but not as far along as it should be. The medical nano’s must be so busy that this was deemed a secondary priority.

“Oh my that’s horrible, what could possibly do that to somepony? Alex’s back was horrifying but that was just scars. This, this looks like it has you in constant agony. You poor thing! You simply must come back with me and allow me to treat you.”

“But-”

“You simply must, I can’t let you leave that to get infected. That would be just awful of me.”

“But-” 

"No buts. You march back to my house so I can take care of you right now, mister. Just, don't march too hard.” I sighed knowing that Fluttershy wasn’t going to let me go without nursing me back to health first and started to gather my good leg beneath me only to be interrupted by Fluttershy rushing in.

“Oh, never mind, I'll just carry you." She lifted me off the ground with no more effort I would need to lift a cat.

“Okay, I’ll stay until my leg is healed... but that’s it, ok?” 

“Oh, of course. I wouldn’t want to keep you away from everypony else if you’d rather spend time with them.” I reached over and gently took Fluttershy’s head in my hands.

“Fluttershy, you’re a truly kind and loving mare but I’m an independent man, that and I think Angel would get very jealous don’t you?” She giggled at the thought before flying me smoothly and gently to her home. I noticed a suspicious mint green unicorn horn sticking out of a bush. Apparently ponies are just that bad at stealth.

The entire trip to her home I could feel something in my shoulder starting to burn.
> That one phrase
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why won’t you let me see?

“These are my memories, mine! You aren’t allowed to see them.”

You let me see the other ones, why not these? What are you hiding from me?

“I’m not hiding anything, they hurt. They are the worst moments of my life and I never want to remember them again. I’m not going to relive them just to make you happy, I don’t even know who you are.”

You know who I am, I’ve seen it in your thoughts, I just need to take a quick look.

“No”

Please?

“No!”

I promise to be gentle



“NO!” I bolted upright, my hands gripping the sheets in panic, the exposed portions of my body covered in sweat. Fluttershy like always was there in seconds, holding me against her as I broke down sobbing like a child. It had been this way for the last three nights. I would sleep for two or three hours before waking up screaming before breaking down crying.

The worst part was that I had no memory of why, I would wake up screaming and then be hit by an unbelievable sense of shame, regret, anger and fear. It was too much to handle, a lifetime of terrible memories in a few seconds. No one could take that without breaking down.

And as usual it ends with me sitting at Fluttershy’s kitchen table with a mug of green tea, staring at the table and reliving terrible memories. Fluttershy tried to draw these stories out of me the first night but I think she gave up when I told her that what I was thinking about made my leg injury look peaceful.

The burning in my shoulder has been a constant pain as well, the daily nano report states that it’s fighting off an unknown biological attack. I’m not sure I like the fact that three days later it’s still not eliminated but the burning isn’t so bad now so it must be almost gone. I might have let Fluttershy talk me into removing my armor but I was still wearing my bodysuit for the moderate protection it offered me. Well all except my right forearm plate, it had about a week of power available if I just used it as medical monitoring tool.

I hope it’s sooner rather than later because despite eating more than I ever have in my life I’m still losing almost three pounds of weight a day. I would inject more of my limited supply of medic nanos but they’re probably responsible for my rapid weight loss, they need raw materials to fix things just like the armor repair systems need raw materials too.

“Fluttershy, I know you’re trying to keep me relaxed and off my feet but I’m going to go stir crazy here. I mean atleast let me get out of the bed.” The nanotech might not have healed my leg completely but it had at least repaired the muscle and nerves.

“No, you need to stay here for another week otherwise you won’t heal right.” I groaned, a week? Might as well be a month or a year, yes I could do it but without anything more entertaining than the occasional animal coming to say hello (and Angel coming to make vague threats) or bring me food and drink. I would return the kindness by gently petting or scratching whichever animal that came to keep me company, I’m sure that the hedgehogs in particular enjoyed the attention, they were far less huffy than my own had been and definitely enjoyed being scratched in the same places, every time they left Fluttershy would show up soon after with that shy smile on her face. I had to fight the urge to scratch behind her ears several times, I refused to demean any pony by treating them like a pet.

Day 4 and I’m still waking up terrified. It has to be affecting Fluttershy, she can’t be getting as much sleep as I am... not that I’m getting much more than a cat nap every few hours. I think that Fluttershy was getting close to her limit because today she brought in some reinforcements in the form of Rainbow Dash. I had just dozed off again with Fluttershy passed out on my lap (I guess she wanted to be close for when I woke up again) when there was a knock on the door. The distinct voice of Rainbow Dash called out, “Hey Fluttershy! I thought I’d come over to see if you needed any help. Alex is such a baby when he’s sick, so I figured Matt would be too.”

Fluttershy perked up immediately and true to her name fluttered over to the door, she smiled at me and for the first time since I’d started jumping I knew I’d made an actual friend.  Until now, my 'friends' have just been allies of convenience, always their  convenience but now? Who knows, after all isn’t friendship magic? 

“You’re Matthew?” She sounded like she didn’t believe it, like I had let her down by just being me.

 “Alex said you were short but really bulky, like twice his size but... You’re not much bigger than him.” I gave her a very displeased stare.

“Why thank you Miss Rainbow Dash, any OTHER put downs you’d like to greet me with? Maybe insult my intelligence?” My retort was ice cold, it could probably have even been used to make the first freezer. I waved my hand, cutting off her reply. This was Rainbow Dash, blunt honesty was part of who she was, I doubted that she was being intentionally rude.

“Sorry about that. I’m a little sleep deprived and I’m getting stir crazy. Fluttershy doesn’t want me walking any farther than the bathroom and back and I’m going to be stuck here for another week. As for Alex thinking I’m bigger than I am well, when you’re wearing armor that’s more than three centimeters thick in places you tend to look much bigger than you actually are.” I held my left and right forearms up side by side, the armored one looked almost twice the size of the unarmored one.

“Woah, that’s huge! Not even the Royal Guard wear armor that thick, how do you even manage to move in it?” I suddenly had a goal for the day, get Rainbow Dash to make the ‘So Awesome’ face.

“Here, grab a seat, I’ll tell you a bit about it.” I lowered myself painfully onto a stool at Fluttershy’s table, Dash followed suit and Fluttershy surprised us by pouring us some tea and bringing a plate of buns for us to snack on. I thanked her in a confused tone but Rainbow Dash just gave her a knowing smile, which prompted Fluttershy to squeak before flying out of the room. I just raised an eyebrow at Dash, prompting her to burst out laughing so hard that she fell to the ground. 

I couldn’t for the life of me get her to tell me what was so funny, I eventually gave up and went back to trying get her to say that one phrase.

I kept winding her up with tidbits of what my full armor was capable of, she barely believed me when I told her that I could hear a whisper a kilometer away when I had the suit configured to listen for it, but the one that finally achieved my goal was exactly what I had expected it to be, flight.

“Wait, wait, wait. YOU can FLY? Oh my gosh, oh my gosh! How fast? Can you do any tricks? Can you stand on clouds? OH MY GOSH, We have GOT to have a race!!” Dash had that need for speed look and I could tell I was on the verge of getting ‘the face’ too... Time to drive it all home.

“I’ve gone as fast as MACH 1.21, in a dive. MACH 1 is the speed of sound, about 1,225 kph. Is it the same here?” She nodes and I continue ”Anyway, that’s what you break when you do a Sonic Rainboom, right?” She gives me a confident smirk. “What interests me is that when a normal object breaks MACH one anything fragile like glass windows will break, yet from what I saw on the show, you don’t... I’m guessing that magic has something to do with that, probably the same thing that creates the rainboom and the rainbow contrail, am I right?” I see a side of her that I would have never guessed existed, she explains herself with physics and details about the magic behind it.

To say that I was shocked was an understatement, we spent the rest of the afternoon discussing the physics of flight or rather she discussed and I struggled to keep up, I had some training but I had been rushed through my courses. I had been trained to let the armor deal with the math, but I did remember a fair bit. Fluttershy joined us several times to refresh our drinks, bring us more food or try and join the conversation but her knowledge of flight was all instinct and feel. I made it clear that as long as it worked for her I didn’t see anything wrong with it. Dash however seemed to be annoyed by the yellow pegasi’s lack of flying knowledge but she didn’t say a word against her timid friend.

“You know Alex was wrong about you, you’re pretty cool. We should hang out and you can show me how you fly, I mean it won’t be as awesome as me but I mean just seeing a human fly has to be pretty cool... maybe you could lend your-”

"I had to swear an oath to never let anyone else use it. Besides, I’d rather have my soul mutilated again then let him wear this armor. I take my oaths very seriously.”

“You humans take your promises even more seriously than Pinkie takes her Pinkie Promises and just what the hay is it between you two? Is this some kind of human thing, because I don’t get it. It’s stupid!” She took to the air, flying right in close to my face, I hoped she wouldn’t do anything stupid.

I retorted, “How much would you trust someone who’s stood over you with a weapon twice only to hide it when somepony shows up?”

“Alex wouldn’t do that!”

“Oh? Were you there? No? I was, so do me a favour and don’t you dare try and tell me me what I did or didn’t see!” 

Fluttershy stepped in between us, “Matthew, Rainbow, I’m ashamed of both of you. I shouldn’t have to tell you that there is no fighting allowed here, I made that rule for the predators that need healing. I shouldn’t have to remind you two of it.”

I couldn’t help but be aware of the irony. I was, after all, an injured predator.

“I’m sorry, Fluttershy,” I reached out my hand in a fist to Dash, “Peace?”

Rainbow Dash looked at my fist for a moment as if deciding if I was worth it, then she tapped my fist with her hoof. I couldn’t help the sudden grin, I had just received my first brohoof with a real pony, despite my goal I’m sure I was the one to scrunch up my face and mutter... 

“So awesome!”
> Fluttershy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainbow Dash looked at me with an amused expression, “What was that for?”

I coughed into my hand in embarrassment only to have it turn into the real thing.

“Sorry, don’t let this go to your head but I’m kind of a fan of yours and that was kind of a fanboy moment. Basically I just high hoofed my version of a Wonderbolt.”

“Ugh, you watched that stupid show too? Just how popular was it?”

“What? You don’t like the idea of over a million people thinking that you’re super cool?”

“Well, yeah of course I do. But I don’t like them knowing all the bad stuff too.”

“Like your meltdown at the Best Young Flyers Competition?” Dash cringes at the mention of what to her was probably a terrible moment. “Trust me, you’re still the coolest pony that we were ever introduced to. Just answer me this, Daring Doo. She’s a really cool pony right? Is she perfect, no. She has flaws just like everyone else, it doesn’t make her less cool it just makes her a better person. Sorry, a better pony.”

“That stupid show just tees me off. It’s like I’ve been dumbed down to a foal. I mean yeah I did most of that stuff, but it doesn’t show why or if it does it’s the shallow or stupid reasons.”

“Dash it was made originally for little kids. People like me and probably Alex watched it because we could read between the lines. If you think that it seems preachy you should see the other stuff for kids in that age group, trust me you’d be flattered.”

“Whatever, how would you feel if you discovered that someone took your life, twisted it around, made you look like an idiot then showed it to the world.”

“Yeah, that’s why I try not to talk about it too much, besides some of the stuff that the fans write... Let’s just say you don’t want to know.” I tried to keep my face neutral so she wouldn’t push the issue.

"Yeah, I was curious, and with Twilight's help, we looked up some fanfics with me in them. My Little Dashie was sad. It was also totally weird and totally wrong," she shrugs. 

"But, some of the, what are they called? Clop? Yeah. Those were so funny and so wrong. I mean, according to them, I slept with every mare in Ponyville. Especially Applejack, that girl is straight as an arrow." 

I had taken a sip of my tea at exactly the wrong moment. I coughed before choking on it, then murphy’s law had decided I hadn’t gone far enough and somehow forced me into a spit take. Leaving Rainbow Dash covered in tea and me with my head down trying to breathe, still coughing up tea.

“You what!? Oh god! Umm... I can explain?” My brain locks up, I have no clue how to reasonably explain this away. She looks at me with an expectant look on her face, I don’t think it helped my thought process at all. I also completely missed the fact that she had just told me that Alex somehow had a working internet connection.

“Ok, I got nothing. Lay it on me Dash. At least I can try to explain it.” I felt myself blushing, how do you justify your race pleasuring themselves to the idea of a creature that actually exists.

Rainbow Dash looked at me with an odd expression, but there was no mistaking that tone of voice.

“You know, I’ve also seen some pictures. They got it all wrong.” She got a coquettish grin, ”Would you like to see the real thing?” She then flicked her tail in my face.

I paled and wouldn’t have been surprised if I’d suffered a mild heart attack. Was she flirting with me or just pulling a prank. ‘That’s a horrible prank to pull but there’s no way she was serious, right?’

“Uhh... I’m flattered Dash, but isn’t it more romantic if we wait?” Please let her be joking.

It was her turn to look stunned.

“Hey, uh Matt?” She looked really uncomfortable, it was a sign that I could relax. It had all been a cruel joke.

“Relax Dash, you aren’t the only one who can joke around you know.” I hold out my fist for another brohoof, she gives me one but it’s hard enough to hurt. I must have touched a nerve.

“Don’t worry I’ll get you back.” Her confidence sounded forced, part of me wanted to pry but I doubted she’d open up to me.

“Everyone needs a goal in life to struggle towards Dash.” I reached over and gently tapped her on the side of the head, not like an animal but I thought she could take a good ribbing. 

I was wrong, and I paid for my mistake with a hoof slapping my wrist, hard. I could feel it bruise almost instantly and I cried out in pain.

“What the hell Dash! Don’t you think I have enough injuries without you trying to break my wrist?” I held my wrist  in my right hand and worked it through it’s motions. Nothing felt broken but I knew I’d have one hell of a bruise. 

“Hooves off the merchandise, buddy. Only one guy gets to touch me now and it ain’t you.” Her nostrils flared and her hoof pawed at open air, she floated muzzle to nose with me.

“Calm the fuck down Dash, you started the joke so you don’t get to be pissed off. Besides, it was only a joke.” She looked ready to drag me kicking and screaming to the nearest cliff and throw me off.

Fortunately for the both of us Fluttershy reached between us with her hooves and pushed us apart. Dash didn’t budge but I fell back onto my stool. I hadn’t even realized that I had stood up.

“Oh my, would you look at that. Matthew seems to have had enough excitement for today. How about you come back tomorrow Rainbow Dash.” With both of her hooves Fluttershy managed to push her out the door, but Dash’s eyes stayed on me the whole time. I swear I could see a hint of tears. I’d apologize the next time I saw her.

Fluttershy followed her outside to talk. I don’t know why they talked so loud, heck they might as well have stayed in the house.

“Fluttershy, how can you stand him?”

“He’s not so bad once you get to know him. I mean as long as you don’t scare him or make him angry.”

“Yeah, well he looked pretty violent to me. I don’t think he’s safe to be around, you should get rid of him.”

“Rainbow Dash you were just as aggressive as he was. Besides, your special somepony has more blood on his hooves then he does.” That one stung, Fluttershy had no clue how much blood I had on my hands. It was more than any pony would have, that’s for sure.

“That’s not fair Fluttershy, he was protecting us. He hasn’t killed anything that wasn’t trying to hurt somepony.”

“Are you saying he has? You should see him at night Rainbow, he wakes up screaming then breaks down into tears, it’s terrible.” Rainbow Dash was silent for a minute. Something rustled in the bushes at the back of the cottage by the kitchen window.

Deciding to respect their privacy I went to investigate, it was probably just a loose chicken or something trying to sneak into the house to steal Fluttershy’s attention as every animal tried to do. Most made it no farther than the window ledge before being assaulted by Angel Bunny... That rabbit is a menace. I don’t think I’m going to get firewood again for Fluttershy. Not without her to keep him under control, or better yet a weapon to defend myself with. I’m not going to gut him but without my baton or having access to the riot setting on my sidearm I’m not going to risk what would be an extremely embarrassing death.

As I limped closer I noticed a unicorn horn sticking out of the bush, it was very quietly calling my name. 

I walk over to the window, reach out tap the horn on the tip. It squeals and hides deeper in the bush. I pulled my hand back, the tip of her horn had punched through the glove of my bodysuit and pricked my finger. Ponies were a lot tougher and more dangerous than I had believed.

“You know you’re really bad at this, if you’re going to hide you need to remember your horn, silly... Why are you hiding in a bush anyways?”

“Quick, while they’re busy you can escape.”

> The Great Escape? Ch.10
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Escape.”

“Yes. Hurry before that monster sees you!”

“Monster? Oh, Angel Bunny... He’s a monster but I’m not a prisoner here Lyra. I’ve kind of been wondering why you or Bon Bon haven’t come to visit me.” Lyra’s ears pinned back against her head but otherwise showed no sign of... whatever she was trying to hide.

“Yes, the bunny too. Now hurry up, I can hide you from them but we need to go now.” Did she mean Fluttershy? Or Dash?

“Lyra, Fluttershy is helping me get better.” I gesture to my leg, the bodysuit was off at the knee leaving the freshly bandaged leg exposed.

“She’s not forcing you to stay?” I shook my head, Lyra looked crestfallen. Her head drooped down and she couldn’t even bring herself to look at me.

“Then why haven’t you come back? Didn’t we treat you well enough?”

“Lyra, are you trained to treat bad injuries?”

“No, but I know human anatomy. I know more about humans than anypony. Ask anypony they’ll tell you that I’ve been researching humans for years, even before Alex showed up last year.” I fought the urge to reach out and lift her chin, I was pretty sure she wouldn’t think of it as me treating her like a pet but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

“How about dealing with blood, it was bleeding pretty bad when I got here and I have to change my bandages every hour and," I turned my head away, fighting to clear my mind of the memories, "the pain. Would you be able to stand touching my wound knowing that it made me want to scream in pain, could you force yourself to do that?”

“I could try and figure out how to do it without hurting you.”

“Lyra, you can’t. Even the slightest breeze hurts. But between the medicine Zecora made for Alex and Fluttershy’s help I’ll be up and moving around just fine soon enough. Now go around to the front of the house, I’ll let you in there.” 

“But, Rainbow Dash is there.”

“So?” It was hard to tell because of the bush but I think she was pawing at the ground.

“Me and Rainbow have a... history. I don’t think I can face her alone.” 

“Then don’t, I’ll be right there. I’ll make sure nothing happens... That and Fluttershy would probably throw her out if she starts anything... Wait, how long have you been in that bush?” Lyra looks at the sun for a moment before opening her mouth, I wrap my hands around her muzzle before she gets a chance to tell me. “On second thought, I don’t want to know.”

She nodded and hopped out of the bushes. Her saddlebags were packed so much that they couldn’t close properly. One looked like it was filled with papers, quills and ink, the other with more paper and her lyre. I think it was the first time I had seen her carrying her namesake.

I turned around and saw that satanic bunny sitting before me with a carrot. 

“That had better be for eating.” He stared at me and slowly chewed the vegetable. I decided to take it as a warning. ‘Why the hell am I so worried about a rabbit in the first place, this isn’t Monty freaking Python. He’s just a bully of a rabbit with a good aim when throwing carrots.’

I walked over him, determined to show him who’s boss... The little bastard tripped me. I managed to catch myself and turned back to the rabbit, I must have looked pretty angry because he ran for it.

“One of these days you’re going to end up in a rabbit stew you little rodent.” A carrot hit me in the back of the head as I shuffled towards the door. Outside I could hear arguing, this time between Lyra and Dash.

“I know it hurts you to hear this, but I’m not here for you Rainbow. Amazingly not everything is about you. I’m here to talk to Matt. He asked me to come here, and I’d rather not have that rainbow mess of yours in my face again.”

“What, you couldn’t convince Alex to be your lab rat so you’re going to try with this one? Guess what, Alex thinks he’s dangerous and he knows a heck of a lot more about humans than you do. Maybe you’ll find out just how dangerous he is and he’ll make you realize how crazy you’re being. Face it Lyra, you're no Twilight Sparkle.” I could hear Dash's jaw slam shut, but the damage had already been done.

“I’ve known Twilight a lot longer than you have Rainbow,” Her tone was colder than anything I’d ever heard from a pony, it was enough to make me step back. “I know how smart she is, and guess what, she might be a genius but when it comes to new areas of research, but she’s not any smarter than I am. As for Matthew,” Lyra glanced at me through the window with a little smile, “yeah he might be dangerous to Alex, but he wasn’t a monster to me and Bons. He’s just overwhelmed and scared Rainbow. How about with you Fluttershy? Was he a dangerous beast?” I opened the door but the two pegasi didn’t seem to notice me. Rainbow Dash was watching Fluttershy expecting her friend to support her and Fluttershy’s eyes were on the ground, I think she’d been trying to stay out of the argument.

“I don’t-” Whatever Fluttershy had wanted to say was cut off before it even got started, not that it took much to drown out the voice of the quiet pegasus.

Lyra glared daggers at Dash, “You see Rainbow, you’re just trying to start arguments again. Celestia’s flank you have an ego.” 

I sighed theatrically, knowing that if I didn’t get involved this would likely never end.

“Rainbow Dash please, just leave, I don’t want to listen to you insulting, arguing or otherwise being rude to me or my friends.” I sounded exhausted even to myself, I was just fed up with her attitude. Lyra trotted to my side giving Dash a death stare, and Fluttershy just looked uncomfortable.

“Yeah, fine. I got stuff to do anyways. Important stuff.” She looked hurt, I decided to let her leave on a positive note.

“Hey Dash?” She paused, “I would love to see you do some stunts sometime just not today, okay?” I thought it was a good peace offering. Fluttershy looked up at me with something that I interpreted as pride or admiration. Lyra on the other hand looked like I had picked Dash’s friendship over hers. 

I placed my hand on the back of her neck to cheer her up, which made Fluttershy look depressed. ‘What the hell is it with these ponies? Can’t I do anything without making those two more angry or depressed?’ The thought left me slightly scared that I didn’t belong, that all I was to them was an object to be pitied or worse, feared. 

As much as it pained me I couldn’t help but think I needed Alex’s help to figure this out. The thought of needing help from the psychotic old bastard galled me. I had to figure out a way to solve this without turning to him. Time, careful thought and, most of all, patience. 

That’s all I really needed.

> Cutie Mark Crusaders
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lyra stood smirking as Rainbow Dash took off. Fluttershy placed herself between me and Lyra, her movements eerily similar to my own when protecting someone from a threat.

“Matthew still needs his rest Lyra, maybe you could come back tomorrow.” I had expected Fluttershy to get all silent and shy now that there was a pony I assumed she didn’t know very well. Apparently not.

“Fluttershy, you’ve been fussing over me for three whole days. I don’t know about you but I need to get out before I go stir crazy. I’m going to put on some of my armor and Lyra is going to take me on a tour of Ponyville, then I’ll come back, we’ll redress my leg and I’ll stay with her and Bon-Bon tonight. I want you to take it easy, spend some time with Angel, hell, go on a date, but you need to relax and I need to get out.” I leave them outside and limp back into the house, just inside the door sits a tidy pile of metal with the left leg of my bodysuit folded on top.

Lyra and Fluttershy followed me and watched as I suited up. Fluttershy seemed nervous of me as more armor went on. It wasn't much armor, just the full leg armor, torso, and right forearm plate. It left most of my body covered only by the bodysuit. It was the bare minimum I was comfortable with I squatted down so I was eye level with Fluttershy, she didn’t meet my eyes.

“Fluttershy, look me in the eyes.” She did, her eyes were an almost unnatural shade of blue, like she’s been into the melange shade of blue. I smiled at her and she did her best to return the gesture with a nervous grin.

“Good, now what do you see? Am I a different person? Does putting on the armor make me less me?” I thought it did, but that was a technique to make it easier to change my mindset to one more capable of causing serious injury. Not something to reassure scared girls.

“This is what I need to wear to stay safe, ok? It doesn’t change anything about me.”

“But it makes you look all big and scary and intimidating.” Fluttershy looked towards her couch as if trying to establish if she could fit under it.

“You didn’t have a problem when you met me in it.” I must have sounded hurt because she seemed to be attempting to melt through the floor.

“That was because you were hurt and scared and I didn’t know that you were supposed to look different.” I sighed, I guess there’s simply no changing Fluttershy.

“Promise me you’ll never hide from me just because I’m wearing my armor. If you do it’ll hurt my feelings.” I felt a hint of guilt for manipulating her like this.

“O..kay, I promise.” She tried to look brave, but only managed to pull off a level of bravery equivalent to an abused puppy. One of these days I know I’m going to mess everything up by petting a pony just like a dog. I managed to stop myself but Lyra didn’t look pleased.

“Sorry Fluttershy, I’ll see you later.” I walked out of the room, the bodysuit and leg assembly make walking easier, even if I still limped slightly. Lyra stayed close by my side, most likely to catch me if I stumbled. 

We made it to the center of town with no issues and it was virtually identical to the show, minus the million extra subtle details that were never in the show. It was just like the second reality, the broad brush strokes were identical but the reality exceeded even my most vivid imagination. I paused in front of the town hall, it looked like it had seen better days... or a war.

My eyes were wide with wonder and tried to take in everything at once, I’m sure I must have been grinning like a kid at christmas.

“Can I take you home?” She gave me the puppy dog eyes, or was that pony eyes? I snorted in amusement.

“I don’t know Lyra, taking care of a human is a lot of work, you have to feed him, play with him, give him lots of affection, clean up his messes. It’s a lot of responsibility for a young filly, are you sure you’re up to it?” I tried to say it in the same tone my mother had when we had gotten my first dog, I think I managed to pull it off pretty well... Perhaps too well, Lyra was nodding her head so violently I was almost afraid it would come flying off.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to stay calm. I had to fight the urge to laugh but at the same time Lyra was over eager and probably dead serious. That should be terrifying, the irony of me being scared to treat them like animals and Lyra’s desire to treat me like her pet was probably what I found so funny.

“Noooo Lyra. I was...” I burst out into laughter, I couldn’t keep it together long enough to tell her I was joking, besides Lyra wasn’t stupid, she had to know I was joking, right?
 
My threat alarm tweeted from the speaker embedded in my forearm plate. The pitch told me it was a physical impact from behind, the speed and volume told me that it was imminent and probably going to hit me hard enough to knock me off my feet. If I’d been wearing my helmet it would have just shown me the threat, deciphering the audio alert took longer, I could hear a buzzing behind me, I froze as my mind struggled to identify the sound that for some reason made me want to smile.
 
Ponies scattered as if a grenade was tossed in their midst. I turned towards the sound. Why I didn’t even try to move out of the way is beyond me.
 
Hesitation can get you killed, or in this case run over by a red wagon being pulled by a pegasus filly on a scooter, as I flipped head over heels time slowed as my mind filled in the blank, it was very similar sound to what Scootaloo’s wings sounded like on the show.
 
I managed to get my hands up in time to avoid face planting in the dirt roadway. The sound of tires screeching to a stop sounded behind me.

“Oh my gosh we hit Alex! Scootaloo why didn’t cha watch where you were going!” I could name only a few ponies with a southern accent like that, and only one that would be party to turning me into a bowling pin.

 “I told you we were going too fast, Scootaloo. One of these days we’re really going to hurt somepony.” That voice could only belong to Sweetie Belle, she sounds even more adorable than she does on the show.

The rarest of sounds filled the gap, silence. If it weren’t for the fact I was on my hands and knees recovering I’d have thought I’d passed out again.

“Sapphire’s right, that’s not Alex. Lyra who is that?” Which left the obviously tomboy voice as Scootaloo... Who’s Sapphire? I hopped back to my feet, my left leg protesting but between the leg armor and bodysuit it had been protected from further injury.

“I’m Matt, I got here earlier this week. I figured small town gossip would have made the rounds by now.” I tried not to be offended, I’d gone out of my way several times in the past to stay low key, so why should I be annoyed by actually managing to pull it off for once?

“Geez are you sure you’re alright, Scootaloo hit’cha pretty hard.” Apple Bloom sounded concerned, maybe it was because I was very obviously putting most of my weight on my right leg. I spread out my weight and managed to not flinch at the pain.

“I’m fine, see? Now what are you girls up to today?” It dawned on me what I had just asked them.

“We’re trying to earn our cutie marks in mail delivery.” Oh that wasn’t so bad,

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS, MAILMARES! YAY!” Yes it was. I’ve stood in between thousands of screaming fangirls and their idol, they could have taken lessons on how to scream from these fillies.

The fourth threw me for a loop. She looked like she could be Dinky Hooves, but her eyes shone a brilliant sapphire filled with a fierce intelligence and strength of character that almost seemed out of place on a young filly. 

I found myself liking her instantly, I lowered myself to my knee so I would be closer to her height.

“I recognise your friends, but who are you little filly?” I spoke gently to her, softly. My instant affection for her something about her raised a small red flag in the back of my mind. I mean, I’d always found the pony kids to be adorable, but I didn't know her at all. Feeling sudden attachment to a pony I just met left me wondering if there was some form of magic involved. I’d have to set up the MRI in my helmet to watch for unusual or unnatural reactions.

She stared directly into my eyes with her sapphire ones. One word lingered in my mind, sapphire.

“Her name is Sapphire. She can’t talk but she can usually make herself understood. She’s the newest member of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.” I’d never heard of a disabled pony other than Derpy’s before, and even then Derpy was classified as an animation error at first.

“Hi Sapphire, nice to meet you.” I looked up at the other, better known Crusaders. Apple Bloom looked fairly neutral with just a hint of curiosity, I was slightly concerned with the look in Sweetie Belle’s eyes as it looked like she was assessing me for something, if I got dragged along for a CMC outing I would probably end up scratching my armor or worse, have to spend a few hours cleaning it. 

Scootaloo’s reaction however was the most interesting, unlike most other ponies who seemed curious or friendly she looked cautious and perhaps slightly scared, almost like she was expecting me to try and gobble her up. Despite this, she was the closest and gave me a defiant glare.

“My dad says you’re dangerous and that I should be careful around you.” Her dad sounded like a clever pony.

I smiled down at the brave little filly, “Oh, and just who is your dad?” 

Alex walked towards us from the direction of the market. I wasn’t sure what he could possibly want. “I am. I adopted this little angel about half a year ago.” 

Lyra's voice was incredulous, “Wait she calls you dad? Is it right for a filly to call one of her mothers that?” We all looked at Lyra, not having a clue where that came from. I recovered first.

I managed to say, with a slight smile, “What?”

“Isn’t Alex a female? I mean Alex has nipples, only females have nipples.” I burst out laughing.

She thinks Alex is a girl? That’s hilarious.

“What!? No, I’m a male. Human males have vestigial nipples, they don’t have any functionality.” 

“I thought you were trying to court Matt for your herd, despite it being a functional system it’s not very common. I assumed that you were trying to establish one.” Lyra sighs, ”I’m going to have to re-write the entire chapter on mating behaviours, males with nipples... kinky.” I stop laughing for a second to look at Lyra, her expression setting me off again. 

I clutch my chest as my laughter gets worse. 

Applebloom looked at Sweetie Belle questioningly, “What’s kinky mean?”

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes in frustration, “I don’t know, why does everypony think I’m a dictionary?”

Scootaloo, obviously proud of her feat of deductive reasoning, said with a grin, “I know! Maybe it has something to do with what happens when you bend a hose?” We all looked at her, not understanding. She answered our unasked question, “You know. Kink in a hose? A hose with kinks.” She could read our reactions, “No? Aww...”

Sapphire looks on curiously as if this is the secret of life, this just sets me off more. I fall to my knees clutching my chest. I manage to calm down for a moment, “Guys, guys please. There’s kids here.”

“Dad, what’s kinky? Are you and mom kinky?”

Lyra smiled, lost in her memories, “I know Rainbow could be. Me and Bons sometimes take turns pretending to be the stal-” I clamp my hand over Lyra’s muzzle to keep her from finishing that. 

“Is that like what happened with Cheerilee and Big Mac when we accidentally gave them love poison?  Like in Sugarcube corner?” Sweetie Belle squeaked out the last part, I could feel my entire insides trying to explode, I let go of Lyra’s muzzle and clutched my chest again.

“That was kind of hot.” I clamp my hand over Lyra’s mouth yet again. Too late.

Sweetie Belle’s face lit up in her own brilliance, “So if something hot happens it’s kinky?” Again, her voice squeaked on the last word and melted my heart.

“Come on girls, let’s go to sugarcube corner and ask Pinkie Pie for some kinky pastries! Maybe we can get our cutie marks in being kinky.” Scootaloo hops on her scooter and the other CMC pile in the back of the wagon, leaving Alex stunned, Lyra lost in her memories and me rolling on the ground laughing so hard that tears streamed out of my eyes.
> A walk with Lyra
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Alex runs off after the CMC in an attempt at damage control I notice a pony on the ground beside me, her bubbling laughter instantly identifiable, Pinkie Pie.

“Oh boy, that was a good laugh. I mean I didn’t catch what was so funny but just watching you laughing so hard got me started and once I get started it’s hard to stop. I mean why would you want to, right? By the way, I’m Pinkie Pie.” Without thinking I reach out a hand to shake, only to freeze with my hand extended when I stupidly realize that ponies don’t have hands.

Pinkie puts her hoof in my outstretched hand and gives it a shake, my brain catches up to my thoughts and I remember that ponies shook hooves on the show. I mentally slapped myself upside the head for starting to worry.

“Hi Pinkie Pie. I’m Matthew Brennan, but you can call me Matt or Matthew. You know I’ve been wondering why I haven’t been ambushed with a welcome party yet. I mean I’ve been here for the better part of a week now.” She seemed so calm, where is the whirlwind of energy, the need to party, the randomness?

“Well I finished planning it the second day you were here but I wanted to wait until you settled in a bit before I asked, Alex was saying that you might react badly if I just ambushed you with one. Besides it’s rude to just force a party on someone when they aren’t going to appreciate it.” 

Who is this pony and what did she do to Pinkie Pie.

“You know you’re much calmer than I thought you’d be. I was actually kind of worried about meeting you.”

She looked down, a little sadly, “Oh. You watch that silly willy show too?” She sighs and looks up at me, making eye contact, “It bugs me a little, I mean, how could I operate as an adult if I was going party crazy all the time? Don’t get me wrong, I love to party, and I can get super duper excited sometimes, but not if it will hurt somepony or cause a problem. I mean, I’m the element of laughter, right? Not the element of crazy.”

“Yeah, don’t you just hate when people make judgements on bad information. But you know what? If Pinkie “Crazy” Pie throws awesome parties, I can’t even imagine what Pinkie “sane” Pie can pull off. I’d love to have a welcome party... just nothing too exciting.” I really wanted a Pinkie Party, if I had an Equestrian bucket list it would definitely be on it.

“So casual dinner party?”

“Not so formal.”

“Dance party?”

“My leg hasn’t healed enough.”

Pinkie takes in a deep breath. I brace myself for an explosion of energy... it doesn’t come.

“A buffet with lots of different types of food and drinks with music and games in the background but plenty of seating and just ponies who’ve shown interest in meeting you or I think would like to meet you?” All in one breath. I guess some things stay true afterall, I smiled and wondered what other show traits she still had.

“That sounds great, in four days no more.” I kept a serious face, but allowed just enough play in my voice to suggest I was playing at something.

“Two days, and not a moment sooner.” She responded in a slightly playful tone that contrasted with the serious look she had on her face.

“Good, I won’t be expecting it.” We both suddenly turned and walked away, the stoic moment ruined by her giggle as she rounded the corner and began trotting merrily.

Lyra looked completely lost.

“It’s a surprise party. Now she knows when to plan it and I ‘don’t’ know when it’s going to happen.” I smiled, it was silly thing but sometimes I needed silly to keep me from losing my mind... Although the last few years had probably driven me closer to the edge than I’d like to believe.

“So you’re pretending not to know to make her happy, while she pretends that you don’t know to make you happy? Interesting.” Lyra mumbles something under her breath about diverse subjects.

I ignored Lyra’s observation and started walking again, without Lyra to guide me it was completely arbitrary if hey there’s Canterlot, I wonder what’s in that general direction was arbitrary. The second Lyra clued in that I was abandoning her she galloped to my side.

“Since we’re already on this side of town would you mind if we stopped at the music store? I need a new G string, Bon-Bon broke it fooling around. Honestly why I let that mare touch my Lyre is beyond me. Every time she touches it I have to retune it or buy new strings.” I don’t know if it’s intentional, or if it was even something that other ponies would notice but Lyra used a lot of double entendres. The part of my mind that lives in the gutter couldn’t help but be amused by it, it was almost like being at work back home.

I gesture the minty mare to lead the way, I was starting to think that today was going to be a good day.

“If you don’t mind having to drag me out of said music store.”
> Prelude
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I could hear the music store before I could see it, I could feel the bass through the soles of my feet... despite the “shock protection” of the boots and bodysuit. When we stepped into sight of the store our progress was impeded by the sonic attack emanating from the storefront. Booths were set up on either side of the store selling... no RENTING ear protection for those wanting to cross in front of the shop.

Bracing ourselves against the music like a harsh wind we slowly pressed onto our destination, or rather I pushed myself. Lyra had created a magical barrier against the noise, from behind which her mane wasn't even being disturbed... Cheater.

I gave her a harsh look as she strolled casually towards the front door only for her to stop at the threshold and pull a crystal from inside the speaker, silencing the wubs of destruction. The ear protection booths packed up and started wheeling themselves away, grumbling about not meeting their quota. Lyra treats this like it’s completely normal and continues into the shop, her magic holding the door open for me to follow.

I was surprised by the inside of the shop, from the outside I had been expecting something like a record store, something similar to what I was used to just old fashioned with records instead of CD’s. Instead I was surprised with a genuine music shop.

Instruments lined the walls, and dominated the floorspace as well. A moderately sized table had several milk crates full of records but otherwise the store was nothing but an instrument nirvana. My eyes tried to drink it all in and identify all the instruments. I could see Lyre’, harpsichords, entire display cases of harmonicas and accordions, even what looked like a disassembled pipe organ on the side wall. The air was full of the sounds of a classical record, a string quartet playing gently in the background, a very odd contrast with the music outside.

Lyra walked right up to the door labeled “DJ’s Only” and started pounding on it with a hoof. I continued my walk until I discovered man’s greatest instrument ever... The Piano, complete with a bench. I could practically hear it begging me to play

Sitting down at it, I examined the keys, wondering just how a non-unicorn could possibly play it. The answer was pegs, the keys were almost twice the length of your standard or ‘human’ piano, pegs sat halfway down the keys. If I had to guess it was to create a method to play chords, a pony would only have to adjust where on the hoof the pegs would contact the horseshoe. I couldn't imagine a unicorn needing them but perhaps the telekinesis required to hit multiple keys was too complicated even for a pony with a cutie mark for playing piano. I resolved to ask Lyra later.

I ran my hands over the keys, my fingers sticking slightly thanks to the bodysuit gloves, removing the knuckle plates and gloves at the wrist I ran my fingers over the elongated keys again. I hadn't expected them to be made of ivory and wasn't surprised that they felt off. But whatever replacement material they used was just as good, far better than the cheap plastic and metal keyboards I've been subjected to in other realities. Electronic keyboards just can never match the real thing. I ran my fingers over the keys again, this time reveling in the smooth motion. I know it’s bad form to slide your fingers along the keys while playing, but there was something about it that I enjoyed.

I could feel the keyboard practically begging me to play it, my hand was drawn to the middle C and I hummed the note before pressing the key. The exquisite note hung in the air like... well like the perfectly tuned note that it was. 

Before realized what I was doing I had sat down on the bench and started playing scales and chords, the pegs in the keys only noticeable when I hit the black keys and even that was nothing more than a minor annoyance.

I played several songs in rapid succession, starting with some simple melodies before letting my emotions guide the keys. I simply played, ignoring everything around me and focusing not on the accuracy of my music but the emotion. 

It was fifteen minutes later after finishing a piece that left my eyes full of tears that I heard something that snapped me out of my performance.

A quiet sob, looking over my shoulder I saw three mares in various states of shock.

"Umm.... Piano sounds great?"
> Dark pasts
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Three sets of eyes stared at me, I could feel each pair looking at my very soul… Each demanding a piece of it. My body tensed up as I fought the urge to fight my way out and run until I collapsed.

The purple pair demanded that I feed her more music, that I be strapped to the piano and play until I had no feelings left. She wanted my emotions.

The pair of glasses with the barely defined eyes behind them demanded that I show her something different, something with more energy. She wanted my creativity.

The pair of golden irises hungered too, but not like she was ready to tear me apart to get it. Her eyes spoke of patience and acceptance. I could see that she wanted a piece of me, but she would wait until I offered it to her. She wanted my happiness.

“Vinyl, Octavia stop! You’re scaring him.” Lyra’s hoof slammed hard against the tiled floor, breaking us out of our… Fixations.

“Oh, my. I certainly didn’t mean to come across as frightening, right Vinyl?” I witnessed the least discrete ‘encouragement’ ever. A grey hoof punching the unicorn in the leg, just above the hoof. I realize they don’t exactly have feet to be stomped on but I’ve seen charges led with more subtlety.

“Huh? Oh, yeah. Sorry dude, kinda got carried away for a second.” She had a twenty yard stare, I could practically see the wheels of creativity turning in her head.

I had to get out.

“Well it’s nice to see you and you’ve got a nice place. I’ll be sure to come back sometime when it’s not so busy.” I’m not sure how it could be with only the 4 of us here. I guess that subtlety isn’t anyones strong suit today. 

Come on Lyra, when the rest of the room screws up this bad the bar is set pretty low on how hard you need to try.

“Well, I grabbed a pack of strings. Can you put them on my tab?”

Good girl, I’m proud of you. Gold star.

“We got to go to the place for the thing.” 

And like that, it’s gone. Rest in peace creative excuses, you will be missed.

I waved goodbye, making sure to keep them in eyesight until I reached the door, memories of previous jumps not letting me forget the mistake of turning your back on someone… Something that wants what you have.

It wasn’t until Lyra closed the door that I let it out, I started panting like I’d been running for hours. I don’t even remember kneeling down. One second I was trembling and the next I was leaning forward on my knees with Lyra asking me what was wrong.

It took me several deep breaths, closing my eyes and focusing on the comfort of the armor on my body. 

Even without the helmet on, I was safe. 

Only the most dangerous weapons could damage it, I was safe. 

I’m surrounded by peace loving ponies, I was safe.

I repeated those phrases to myself to calm down, I couldn’t afford to lose it here in public.

I took one last deep breath before answering my companion.

“Lyra, there are some things out there that feed on things other than food, things that devour your very essence, your emotions, your soul. Count yourself lucky you’ve never encountered them.” Lyra sat down beside me, I kept my eyes locked on hers. The golden irises flashed with pain before a very real look of understanding locked in.

“How about snacked on before being turned into a mental slave?” Her voice surprisingly calm and casual. 

I opened my mouth to say something but the look on her face told me it would be best to just let her talk.

“During Twilight’s brother’s wedding I was going to be one of the brides maids. I guess Princess Cadence or maybe Shining remembered how I tried so hard to be Twilight’s friend in Canterlot only for her to never notice.” She shrugged but I could tell how bitter she was about it, it looked like a long story best told over a cold beer… or ten.

“But that’s not important and I need to move on. What is important is that at some point Cadence was replaced by a changeling queen, who decided that it would be a good idea to rip some of the happiness we felt for her out of bodies before…” I saw a look on her face that I never thought I’d see on a pony, it was the same haunted and tortured look I saw on my face whenever I looked in the mirror. Only in her case it didn’t look hopeless. I envied her strength and wished I had some for myself.

“Before she,” She took a deep breath before pushing through. “She violated our minds and made us do her bidding. I don’t want to talk about it, but Twinkleshine hasn’t been the same ever since. She sees a psychiatrist almost every day and she can barely bring herself to go out in public, she thinks everypony is a changeling. Doctor Emerald almost had to get a restraining order after she confronted him and his daughter and accused them of being changelings. I’m so lucky I have Bon-Bon to help keep me sane, or I would probably be just as bad.” 

I don’t know how I felt after hearing that. Jealous or perhaps guilty that up until this moment I’d assumed no one could have any clue what I’d been through, especially here.

I think we just sat there outside of the music shop for half an hour, just enjoying the quiet hustle and bustle of ponies living their lives, their safe and happy lives. Lyra broke the silence first, of course. Just sitting and watching a peaceful town was something I hadn’t done since before I left home, not that home was anywhere near as peaceful or innocent as here.

“Come on, we should get back before Bon-Bon starts worrying that one of us foalnapped the other.” I wasn’t sure if I should be offended or concerned by that, so I settled on amused.

“Well if you’re going to take me somewhere against my will you’ll need to give me a hand up.” I reached out for help only to get a confused look. I gave my hand a look then gave the same look to her forehoof.

“Oh, um… Sure.” She reached out with her hoof despite being confused, the confusion cleared as I grabbed just past her hoof and gave a gentle pull. Not enough to unbalance her but enough to get her to understand what I wanted from her.

My second pull was matched by her pulling her hoof back, I used the momentum to pull myself to my feet, my left shoulder and leg burning in protest. The leg was to be expected but the minor cut from the timberwolf should have healed cleanly by now. Then again it hasn’t even been a full day yet.

“Thanks Lyra… I know that couldn’t be easy for you.” I wasn’t thanking her for the help up, but she didn’t have to know that.

“If you ever want to do the same I’ll be more than happy to. What’s the phrase, ‘lend a hand?’” I think she actually understood, not just what I wasn’t saying but that I didn’t want to acknowledge it either. 

I think that Lyra and I are going to get along just fine. Even with her little eccentricities… Not like I’m one to talk.
> The chapter that wouldn't stay unpublished.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So, do we actually need to get back or was that just an excuse?” A cool breeze blew through my hair, a reminder that for the first time in recent memory I’ve had my helmet off for most of a day.

Walking down the street in Ponyville with Lyra was weird. Yeah I got some concerned looks but when people looked at Lyra it was definitely amused… Then again she was trotting around looking very pleased with herself. Heck, I would go so far as to say she was proud of herself. 


“Hmm? Oh, well as long as we’re back before she gets home it’s alright, unless you want to visit her store. Maybe get a treat for being a good human or did you want to stay?” 

Her tone reminded me of a proud parent. Or a pet owner… That’s hilarious, but if she tries for a belly rub I’m going to get very weirded out.

Suddenly the helmet clipped to my waist felt like some form of collar. I shook my head to clear the image from my head before choosing to focus on something else.

“I think I’m about at my limit for dealing with others for the day.” Being an introvert in a land where everyone seems to be an extrovert… This is going to be a different kind of hell.

The town was not what I was used to. It was pretty much the opposite. During my jumping so far I had yet to visit a reality less advanced than my own, in fact mine was the least advanced… Even compared to that hellhole of a first jump.

The lack of high technology made everything new and different in ways that I couldn't grasp, maybe it was the sounds, or the lack of them. No engines, no hum of power sources or artificial lighting and yet the air was full of the sounds of life being lived. Ponies haggling in the marketplace, children laughing as they played, even birds chirping as they flew around. 

It was sounds of a normal life, maybe not my normal life but normal life all the same.

Making my way off to the side of the cobblestone road, I leaned against a small shop. Resting for a moment and taking my weight off my leg, I just closed my eyes and let the sounds of the simple life envelope me, letting my ears take in the music of daily life.

Lyra joined me in silence I was grateful that she allowed me this moment, although even with my eyes closed I felt fairly certain she was paying more attention to me than the activities around us.

“What was it like?”  It threw me for a loop hearing Lyra’s voice without the intensity I had come to expect from her, even when we had spoken of our traumas she had had a sort of drive behind her voice.

“Hmm? Jumping?” I didn't like talking about it, but if she was going to be my babysitter for the foreseeable future then I might as well give her the whole picture.

“No, your home.”  

“Are we talking physically or how it feels.”

“I mean how it sounds, I grew up in Canterlot before coming here. Canterlot sounded… fuga, everything and everypony trying to imitate and add definition to every little action the Princesses take. Ponyville alternates from amabile to a capriccio folksong.” 

“I shouldn’t be surprised that a pony with a musical instrument for a cutie mark hears the world that way, but I am.” She looked surprised, like she’s had this conversation multiple times but never gotten an answer except confusion in return.

“It’s different back home, here everything has an overarching melody and everything fits together… like pieces of a puzzle. My home,” I paused, trying to figure out how to put it in words.

“My home it’s like every person writes their own parts, each part fits into a different song and there are millions of songs. Even in a city there are different melodies for different areas, each person filling parts for each area that they interact with. Ah! It’s like while warming up for a major concert, each performer practicing before the conductor arrives, each practicing a tricky or important section. Sometimes parts from different songs sound good together… Am I making any sense?”

Lyra’s ears perked up, “So you live in harmony with the world around you?” 

I hesitated for a moment. Home wasn’t that nice… I had few friends and fewer people even willing to give me a chance at a relationship, yeah I’d have rather left differently but in the end, I’m not really bothered by leaving it behind. She is my friend and deserved an actual answer.

“No, far from it but that’s what makes my home so special. It’s the fact that we have that balance. My home has a strong medical research community, a thriving arts community that I pay no attention to and above all is known for the steel mills by the lake. Despite all that there’s nature too, untamed… well maybe not untamed but it’s still a patch of nature that isn’t micromanaged by humanity. It’s something equestria is missing if you ask me, you’ve got all this wonderful nature all around you, all this beauty… but it’s all an illusion.” I had no clue where I was going with this, or how I’d gotten to discussing nature in a conversation about home, despite the proximity nature isn’t exactly the first thing you think of in a city.

“Everfree is untamed.” I couldn’t tell if she was trying to make a point or simply didn’t understand, she sounded almost defensive.

I waved off her concern, “I’m not saying let it run amuck, I’m saying allow it to thrive on it’s own terms but keep it from getting out of control. That vine can climb the tree, but don’t let it strangle it to death. Those wolves exist to keep the rabbit population down not hunt the wildlife to extinction. You know, balance. Compared to here it’s chaos, but chaos is never really absolute. If you watch any system long enough and factor in enough of the environment it’s all predictable with the right math. The wolves venture into the suburbs not to cause a panic or cause chaos, but because they have starving pups at home.” The dull throb of my shoulder reminded me that I’ve seen more wooden wolves in the wild than I have actual timberwolves… If nothing else, my life has certainly become far more interesting since I started jumping.

She had nothing to say to that. Maybe I made her realize just how fake her definition of ‘natural’ is. Either way, she was silent and contemplative for the rest of the night, much to Bon-Bon’s amusement.