> What We Are
>  by Twisted Brew
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sometimes I hate this place...

You think idly to yourself as you stare out at the falling rain. The precipitation on a hot summer day has always been welcome to you, as you typically find yourself filled with child-like wonder while you - usually - ran around in the shower like you were seven years old. However, this time around, you find yourself sitting atop a wet street bench. Your clothes are soaked and your hair is dripping water near and occasionally into your eyes. The usually inviting, youth-restoring rain now only serves as a metaphor for the predicament you have found yourself in.

You're not the nicest guy, that much you're aware of. More often than not, this is one of the first things you tell people who get too comfortable in your presence. It's only right that you give them fair warning. You know how you are and what you're about, despite many efforts to change and improve yourself. However, bad habits are hard to break. You have a tendency to be impulsive, rude, and, at times, violent. You don't mean to be as much of a righteous ass as you are, but it's almost instinctual. It was bad before you ended up in Equestria, but for some reason it's gotten harder to control while here. Friends in the old world often told you that you were more like a half-tamed animal than a human; even one of your best friend's told you outright that you have 'more animalistic tendencies than most'. You never quite understood his meaning, your personal nature just feeling natural to you. You don't think it makes you a bad guy. You're not the nicest guy, but you're not a bad guy.

Right?

Sighing, you continue to stare out at the wet canvas before you. You look down for a moment to shake your head from side to side, breaking some of the moisture from your hair and sending it everywhere else. Your thoughts continue to race with 'what ifs', thinking of how you could have done things differently, how you could have tried harder. All the while, the rain continues to assault you and soak your clothes. Maybe things wouldn't have turned out as bad if you had just- Your ears twitch as you hear someone, or rather, sompony whistle in the distance. Lifting your head, you scan for the source, finding it only a block away to your left. There in the distance, standing in front of her own little slice of heaven, is a familiar mare who you came to know as Berry. The purple pony motions for you to come over with her head. Having nothing better to do, you comply and stand up from the bench.

Berry Punch is kind enough to hold the door open for you as you trudge into the bar, your boots making audible thumping sounds as your heavy steps meet the wooden floor. You don't even get the chance to greet her when she closes the door. "I heard about what happened with you and Daisy," she says with a hint of mischievous joy. Berry has always been a sucker for rumors and town gossip. It's no surprise to you that she's already caught wind of the events, but knowing her, she's gonna pick your brain for every detail she can. You became something of a supplier to her, seeing how you're the one that ponies typically point their hooves at when something goes wrong. You're not blind to your own faults, being well aware that you are the one to blame for plenty and you're open about your mistakes. However, that's not always the case. Sometimes, ponies just point at you and you have no choice but to take the punishment. No pony ever believes you when you're innocent; The blame comes with the reputation of being a troublemaker. "You know the drill, Handyman~."

You make your way to the counter as Berry marches behind it, looking up at you expectantly as you take your usual seat in front of her. "Can you pay the toll?" you ask almost robotically as you make yourself comfortable in the small stool, mentally cursing these tiny horses for their short stature. You see the waist high mare nod her head before dipping it down, returning with a bottle of hard cider in her hoof. She sets it down in front of you, allowing you to grasp the bottle and raise it to your mouth. You lock the cap in your teeth and peel it off, spitting the bit of metal onto the counter before taking a hearty drink from it. Berry's eyes are still focused intently on you as you finally lower the bottle back to the counter. "...Toll's been paid, I suppose."

Not wanting to dwell on this any longer than you have to, you regale Berry in the tale of how your and Daisy's two month relationship came to a grinding hault not even an hour ago. You don't bother sparing the details, what with Berry being the most understanding of your situation since you arrived here roughly a year ago. In fact, she was the one who taught you most of what you know about pony society. Twilight tried, but her rambling and usage of long words way too complicated for you to even spell made absorbing any information difficult. Plus, the last thing you wanted was a history lesson every other day. Berry was straight forward and to-the-point. Hell, she was the one to point out to you that your society's gender norms were backward when compared to theirs. A lot of things started to make sense after that little revelation. You only wish she would have told you that sooner. Four months of confusion and being treated like a damsel was way too long.

"-when she got in my face, asking me why I couldn't just act like a normal stallion. I...snapped a bit. Told her that she's blind and I'm not a fucking horse." You tap your pinkie nail against the bottle in your grasp, filling in the silence with the soft 'tings' that quietly ring out as you make contact. "That's when she called me an animal and..."

"And that's when you bit her?" Berry asked, clearly having picked up on that particular segment of the story from somewhere. Or somepony.

"...yeah." Your head sinks a bit as you lift the bottle to your lips once more and drain the remainder of the liquid into your stomach before setting down the empty bottle.

Berry gives this an understanding nod before taking the empty bottle from the counter and generously offering something more sufficient. "I think this calls for something a bit more warming than plain ol' cider."

Your left hand serves as a rest for your head while the other begins to idly scratch at the counter like so many times before. Your claw marks in this spot serve as a reminder to all who come here that this very seat is something of a home to you. You can remember a time back when you would chew your nails down until your fingers were just bloody stumps. It took years to break that habit and when they finally grew out, they seemed useless. That is, until you started sharpening them. They would break every so often back at home, but since coming here it's difficult even filing them to a managable length. You've had to start using a whetstone just to keep them from getting too long. Something about how the magic here is affecting your body has made you a bit of a powerhouse by human standards. Given your lack of wings or horn, this land's latent magic treats you like a very big earth pony - or a small minotaur. Your body doesn't look any different from how it did back on earth, but you're definitely a lot stronger than you should be for someone your overall size.

You can only thank whatever god or demon is out there that the liquor still affects you the same.

At that thought, Berry places a glass in front of you. You recognize this as the same double of whiskey you usually order on some of your more stressful days. It's almost become your signature drink next to plain old beer, which is hard to come by in this cider-driven town. The mare tries to accommodate for your tastes, but it's pretty rare regardless since you seem to be the only beer drinker in this town. It's a downright shame. Sure, the cider is nothing to scoff at. But, a nice beer after a long day just isn't the same when you try to substitute it with apples.

Looking over the glass, you see her pour one for herself as well. Reaching out, you grab your beverage and lift it into the air, holding it close to Berry. "To yet another fuck up for the record books." This gets a giggle out of her as she holds up her own glass in her hoof and taps it against yours. "May the list keep growing." You add that last part a little solemnly, wishing that you could stop screwing up at every turn. It's getting harder to deal with the stress of constantly being under fire because you act more like an...animal...than a man.

With that disgruntling thought, you toss back the drink and swallow it down in a couple small gulps. You feel the warmth cascade down your throat and fill your belly, giving you a moment of peace and a feeling of warmth that is so rare it may as well be non-existent to you.

You spend the next few minutes just talking to Berry, waiting for the inevitable. Before too long, the familiar stomping of hooves and clanging metal reaches your ears. It was harder to decipher this time around, due to the rain, but once it got close enough there was no mistaking it. This is nothing new for you, happening at least once every few weeks. With a defeated sigh, you reach into your pocket to grab a bag of bits. Knowing you won't need it, not where you're going, you place the bag on the counter and start making your way for the door. "That's to clear my tab."

Berry watches you with a knowing smile, nodding as she grabs the bag and places it behind the counter. "I'll see you in a week or two." She calls out routinely. "And remember-!"

"Yeah, yeah. Don't drop the soap," you finish for her, earning another giggle from her. She's loved that joke ever since you told it to her after getting out of pony jail for the first time. Now it's a reoccuring line every time you get locked up. They usually don't hold you for too long, depending on the severity of your fuck up - or whatever it is you're being accused of. If you had to guess, you'll probably be in the cell for two or three weeks this time, seeing as this is the fifth pony you've bitten. Nevermind all the times you've clawed somepony. Some of those weren't even on purpose, but they still locked you up anyway.

You know the drill, Handyman...

Before stepping out, you pull out your keys, your wallet and the pocket knife you usually use for work. You clench your belongings in one hand as you raise them both above your head in surrender. Pushing open the door with your foot, the guards are already outside and waiting for you in the rain. You wave your clenched hand with your personal items. As is routine, they send a unicorn over to stand in front of you. The white mare stops, keeping six feet of space between you and herself. Her horn glows, coating your hand in a magenta hue. Opening your hand, the items float out of your hold and into the satchel strapped to her sides.

"Handyman of Ponyville," she begins, closing one side of her satchel with your stuff in it while levitating a set of cuffs out of the other side, "you are under arrest for disturbing the peace and assault. Need I even ask how you plead?"

The cuff closes around one of your wrists. You spin around slowly, lowering both arms behind your back, close enough that she can easily close the remaining cuff around your unoccupied wrist. "Even if I didn't do it, you'd blame me anyway," you confess with a bit of malice. "Let's just get this over with so I can go to bed and be done with today."

The whole town watches once more as you are walked down to the local jailhouse. You've gotten used to the stares of ponies ogling your walk of shame. You even pass by Daisy on the way, who glares at you with a large bandage on her shoulder. Yet another bill to pay over some stupid bullshit.. At least this one you're actually guilty for. Your eyes continue facing forward, waiting for the inevitable. The rain continues to assault your already wet clothes until you finally enter your second home for the umpteenth time since you've lived here. Kicking off your shoes at the door, knowing they won't let you keep them, you follow the mare with your belongings to your usual cell. For the most part, nothing is out of the ordinary. There is one thing that does catch you by surprise though.

Almost every time that you've been put in jail here, you're alone. Once in a blue moon, there would be another pony in one of the other cells nearby, but they never stayed long. Not to mention, you could at least recognize the pony from having either passed them by in town, or having done work for them in the past. Regardless, whether this was just a short punishment for them or their bail was posted varried, but nopony really stayed in here for longer than a day. Minus yourself, of course. This time, the body in the cell next to you is not a pony. They've definitely been here for a good while and you have no idea who they are. Not wanting to drag this out, you focus on the task at hand, and in no time at all, you're left to your own devices in your own, small, private cell. Sat atop of the bench you might as well own, you lean back and let your mind wander a bit.

Normally, during this time, you would sit around and daydream. Zoning out is the only way to comfortably pass the time and you made a habit of doing just that as a way to reflect and hopefully learn how you could have done things differently. This would be the case once more, but the unfamiliar presence is disrupting your focus. Unable to help yourself, your gaze moves over to your neighbor. It's not terribly uncommon to see members of other species in Ponyville. Granted, there is still some bias toward the non-equines, but for the most part they are accepting. At least, to species that they are familiar with.

Your eyes scan the odd figure that you definitely are not familiar with. Judging by the curves and the obvious breasts under the dirty, red vest, this creature is female and seems very canine in appearance. There's a collar around her neck that resembles her vest in color, and there's an odd smell in the air. Like musk and dirt combined into one. You have heard of some of the very few species that are still reluctant to join under the Equestrian banner of harmony, but you've never really met one in person. You can't help but to assume this to be one of them: a diamond dog, if you remember correctly. You might not have the species name completely correct, but it seems pretty obvious that whatever 'dog' race Twilight was prattling on about, this woman is a member of it. Her fur is light brown in color, her hair maybe just a touch darker than her fur. From your current angle, it's hard to make out the eyes, but they seem like and odd mix of blue and green. You're not sure what that color is called. Her ears are short enough that you can only really see the tips poking out of her medium length hair. She has a short, puffy tail poking out from under the back of her vest that slowly lifts and falls, meeting the floor with a light tap.

The dog woman sits on the floor in silence, her hind legs curled up to her chest, her head facing forward. Judging by her expression, she's bored. Considering the circumstances, you can't say that you're surprised. Her tense muscles give you the impression that she's also frustrated. No surprise there either. In fact, you're probably the only person that you know who can tolerate being in here for days or weeks at a time. It doesn't take long for the dog to meet your gaze, her eyes speaking volumes of how righteous her fury is. Likely from being caught doing whatever the hell it was that she did which landed her here. There's a brief moment where her eyes widen, as if just noticing that you were here. It reminds you a lot of the look new ponies give you when you meet them for the first time. Unlike them, she shakes that look off really quick and takes on what you assume is a more predatory gaze.

"What are you looking at?" she asks with a growl, baring her teeth at you.

Honesty has gotten me this far already, no point in stopping now. Besides, AJ would find out somehow and that's another lecture that I really don't need.

Unaffected by her attempt at intimidating you, you simply shrug and reply with the only thing you can think of. "To be honest, I'm still trying to figure that out."

The dog seems surprised at you for some reason, but her expression doesn't settle long before she returns to having her face scrunched up and flashing her canines at you. You can't say why, but something about it bothers you. You feel like you're being issued a challenge, like she's somehow saying that she's better than you. You can almost feel the hairs on your neck standing as she opens her mouth to speak once more. "How about you keep your eyes to yourself, before I make you!"

Your hands grip the stone bench you're sat upon, your nails making a horrible scratching noise as they drag across its surface, tearing fresh lines into the solid surface. You see her expression sink some as your eyes stare back into hers, your lips pulling back as an unintentional growl rumbles through your own throat. "How about you close that pretty little mouth of yours, before I come over there and rip your fucking jaw off..."

The dog's entire demeanor crumples like paper, her eyes wide and her ears lowering. A whine escapes her throat as she turns her head to look down at her knees. You can see her body trembling as she submits. If it wasn't so strangely satisfying to see her give in like that, you might feel bad for scaring her. As far as you're concerned though, she asked for it. You can deal with creatures disliking or even hating you, but nothing on this god forsaken planet will ever get away with acting like they are superior to you.

Not like that.

Daisy made that mistake.

Closing your eyes, you take a breath and move your head to face forward. As you exhale, you feel some of the stress blow away with the discarded wind. Once again, you breathe in, this time holding it for a few seconds before releasing it. This is an exercise Twilight taught you shortly after your arrival and her realizing just how temperamental you are. It helps, when you remember to do it, but it's nowhere near as relieving as your usual methods. How these creatures can remain so calm, but also spaz out over the most mindless nonsense is nothing short of aggravating to you. They stress about the littlest things while also going on as if the world is all sunshine and rainbows. Everypony is just so happy all of the time and more often than not it doesn't make any sense. Then they expect you to be just as cheery as they are and if you're not they think that something is wrong with you.

I REALLY hate this place...

"H-hey!" You open your eyes, only feeling slightly less agitated as you turn back to face the dog who suddenly had an interest in you. Her ears twitch as your eyes find her, as if being flicked before falling down flat against her head. Unlike before, she is now sitting on her knees, her entire body positioned to look directly at you. The expression on her face is significantly less aggressive, but it still doesn't do much to calm your nerves. She seems nervous now though, which is a stark contrast to how she was acting less than two minutes ago. Her more submissive look is even seeping into her voice as she speaks while struggling to keep eye contact with you. "W-who...What...I don't-"

You can see this coming from a mile away. Still a little on edge, you decide to save both yourself and her the time. "Most creatures here can't pronounce my name, for whatever reason. Something about it being too alien." This was another lecture you got from Twilight a few days after introducing yourself. Apparently the alien combination of letters and sounds doesn't quite translate here despite how simple your name actually is. Their alphabet is also nonsensical to you, looking like a bunch of scribbles; as if a four year old was trying to write in cursive, so writing your name down was just as- if not more- confusing to everyone involved. "Ponies call me Handyman. I'm a human." Before she can even ask, you add, "It's a long story. Let's just cut to the chase and say that I'm literally an alien from another planet, in another solar system, located in who-fucking-knows where."

The dog shoots you an odd look, but seems to recognize something. "I've...I've heard of humans. The elders in my pack would tell stories about them sometimes," she says with a noticeable amount of fascination, both in her face and in her now active tail. "I always thought they were-"

"Myths?" you finish questioningly. She nods, confirming your suspicions. "There's a lot of things here that were myths in my world too. But, you..." Feeling as though most of your stress has melted away, you turn your body to face her more appropriately. "...you I'm not familiar with. Closest I might have to compare you to is a really attractive werewolf. Only, I get the feeling this look of yours is pretty permanent."

The faint pink hue that forms in her cheeks isn't lost to you. You'd be lying if you said she wasn't miles more attractive than the ponies you see regularly. You've seen very few other bipeds during your time in this world and while some have their charm, your pants would combust if you claimed that you didn't miss actual breasts. It's actually pretty surprising to see a creature that has them, and more than welcomed that they're barely concealed in her one open garment. After taking a few seconds to compose herself, the dog finally speaks.

"My name is Jade," she begins. "I'm a diamond dog."

"I thought as much," you say aloud, glad to have actually remembered the species name correctly. That being said, you still knew very little about the diamond dogs and their society. Seeing how you're going to be here for a while, you might as well use this time to edjucate yourself. "Why don't you tell me a bit more about yourself? Might help to pass the time quicker."

Jade whines a bit, clearly upset about something. "B-but...I wanted to learn more about humans."

"I'll tell you all about humans," you reply, watching her excitement grow, only to see it settle as she notices your stoic gaze, "but, you gotta pay the toll first."
> Chapter 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I hate it here...

It's been a whole week now, and, judging from past experiences, you should only have one more and some change to go. It's passing by pretty quickly, thanks to the rather cute company in the cell next to yours. Jade has been nothing short of a treat after she dropped the whole Big Bad Wolf act she tried to play with you on the first day. You've spent the last week talking with her, the two of you swapping memories and stories about yourself and the species you came from. She was surprised to hear a lot of what you had to say, finding most of it unbelievable. More than that, she shared some of the tales about these ancient humans that her people apparently tell stories about. A lot of it revolved around humans being these great leaders and tamers that could command nearly any creature to serve them, so long as they could best them in a battle of dominance; Beastmasters, she called them. Her descriptions of them were definitely as human as they came, if also giving you the impression that they were brick-shit houses made of muscle that ran off of nothing but testosterone and protein. The only thing you can picture that might be close to what she is imagining is someone like Arnold Shwarzenegger with hair down to his tits, riding on the back of a manticore while David Bowie is sat atop a pegasus, made of lightning, tailing behind him.

In short: she's out of her fucking gourd.

As mad as she may seem, she's still pleasant to be around and easy on the eyes. Aside from all of that, diamond dogs themselves seem pretty put together from how she's explained it. There's a lot about her kind that is very similar to dogs or wolves in your world. They have a pack mentality and are undyingly loyal to the members of their pack. There's a pack leader, which makes sense enough on its own. The biggest and strongest dog runs the show. They look out for each other and, unlike dogs or wolves, they dig holes looking for gems. These gems are used as currency for them, which you assume must be hell on their economy, what with the constant digging and unearthing of more gems, lowering their value. However, a lot of species accept gems as a form of payment, so you assume that they only really use them to trade with other colonies and races. You'd ask for more detail on how their economy works if you cared enough to, but just the thought of trying to figure it out gives you a headache, so you let it lie.

Aside from that, she was more interested in you. After a few days of telling her about your race, she seemed less interested in your species as a whole and kept digging for answers about yourself in particular. The idea of how the other humans run things and function almost seems to disgust her, but hearing about you and how you deal with things always gets her excited for whatever reason. You can't imagine what's going on in that head of hers. With most, you would just shove her off and ignore her oddness. However, you find yourself curious about the things that are running through her mind. It could just be the proximity effect, developing a so-called connection with her since she's really the only one you can talk to during this time. That doesn't seem right though. You suppose, in some weird way, you actually kind of like her.

Unlike a lot of the ponies you know, along with their habits, Jade and her crowd just seem to make sense; which is more than what you can say about the society you've been struggling to adapt to for the last year. It's strange to think that it'll only be another few weeks before your one year anniversary of arriving here. So much time has passed by, and so fast, a fair amount of which you have spent in this very building, walking down these halls and being led to the cell that might as well have your name on a plaque bolted to one of the bars.

Once a day, you and your new friend are allowed to go the outside courtyard for some sunshine and fresh air. Of course, they take you out separately. Jade is always the first to go out and then you follow shortly after her return. The guard in front of you opens the door to where your cell is and allows you to walk in first. Staying close, the mare closes the door behind you and moves to unlock your cell. Meanwhile, your eyes scan the all-too-familiar living space, quickly resting on the excited looking dog pressed against the bars. Her little fluffy tails wags as she sees you come in, her face pressing against the bars as if trying to squeeze her head through them. There's a bright smile on her face as she watches you trail behind the guard and you notice the subtle drop in it as you walk back into your cell.

The guard pony closes you in and locks the cell door behind you. "Lunch will arrive in twenty," she says sternly, taking a step back to observe you in your entirety. "Behave and I won't feed it to you in a doggy dish."

There's a soft growling that reaches your ears as the mare says this and turns to walk away. Oddly enough, you notice that the growl didn't come from you. This has become more and more regular as of the past few days. It's not unnatural for a guard to give you lip, or for you to react with small forms of aggression. What's new is that Jade seems to be taking your place in that department. Every snark, every quip and remark that has been aimed at you has been met with a reaction from her before you could even think to.

Not feeling up to dealing with the nonsense today, you move to your bench, hearing the external door close as you turn around to rest your backside on the uncomfortable seat. As you finally sit, you hear the lock click from the door, sealing you and Jade in this room even if you somehow manage to get out of your cells. Your eyes soon wander to Jade, who is staring at the door with an almost muderous expression. After about half a minute of staring, the fur on her neck and back begin to settle. You've come to recognize this form of body language as her calming down. You watch as her tense muscles soon relax as well before she pulls away from the bars she's been standing at since you came in and moves to sit as close to you as she possibly can from her cell.

You get the feeling that she's judging you, based on the way her eyes are boring into your skull. It doesn't take long for her to begin voicing her frustrations. "I don't see why you put up with their crap." Here we go again. "How can you just let them treat you like that without fighting back?"

Time for a history lesson, I guess.

"Yeah, I tried that the first few times they put me in here. All it did was give them a reason to keep me longer and I'd rather not stick around in this place any longer than I have to." Thinking back, it was the first time they brought you here that led to you biting your first pony. The remarks the stallion made to you that day were plain and easy enough to ignore. It was when he shoved you against a wall...

That's when you finally lost it.

That pony thought he was tough, thought that no one could touch him. You proved him wrong that day, showing him just how weak he really was; how weak his flesh was and how strong your teeth were. He never came back after that day. You've never even seen him outside of the jailhouse. You like to think that he left town with a whole new outlook on life and a fear that you were coming for him. Obviously, you have no intention of actually going out and tracking him down, but it is fun to think about in your off time.

"There it is again!" Jade's voice pulls you from your thoughts, almost demanding your attention as you refocus your sights on the dog. Once again, you see her pressing against the bars, her small muzzle sticking out into your cell from between the metal rods seperating the two of you. Her expression is one of excitement and delight, which begins to fade the longer you look at her. You can see her wagging tail slow down as her face falls a bit as well. "Dammit..."

Curious, you can't help but to ask, "What are you on about now?"

Jade lets out a defeated sigh, pulling her face out from between the bars as she slowly sinks down to her knees. Her eyes never leave you, seeming to be searching for something. You can't imagine what had her so worked up just a few seconds ago, only for her to sink like a stone being dropped into a lake. "It's your eyes..."

Her tone is a lot less lively than you would think it should be, given how excited she seemed. On a side note, this is one of the few times she said something to you that just plain doesn't make sense. "You wanna elaborate on that? 'Cause right now you sound like you're about to start talking crazy."

Clearly realizing that you're not picking up what she's putting down, the dog is at least kind enough to expand on her previous statement. "I noticed it the first time we met, when you asserted yourself to me, making it clear that you were dominant," she explains, albeit a bit too cryptic for your tastes. Fortunately, she doesn't leave you hanging on the line long enough for a follow-up question. "I see it when you tell me stories about yourself and some of the experiences you've gone through, usually the ones where you've had to do the same to others that you did to me. When stories like that come up, your eyes show this sort of...primal being.

"Whenever you told me stuff about other humans that didn't involve you, your eyes were just like they are now. Blank, almost lifeless." You blink in confusion, still not quite following. Call it being simple-minded, but you've never been good at reading into people unless you were pinpointing a specific emotion or some form of hostility. "But when you talk about things like the fights you've gotten into, there's always this sudden flash in your eyes that almost reminds me of home. But it always-"

A look of realization dawns on Jade and her eyes narrow at you in an accusing manner. "You're suppressing it, aren't you?"

You feel your heart thump in your chest. "I don't know-"

"You are!" she interrupts, somehow knowing that you were going to lie. There's a lot of limits you've had to set for yourself; many of them physical because of your surprising strength in this world, but most of it has been mental. You get the feeling that she's reading this from you, but you have no idea how. "Why would you do that to yourself?" This question comes out of her in an odd mix. One one hand, she sounds angry with you. On the other, she seems genuinely upset, sad even. You're not particularly happy about the adjustments you've made to help yourself assimilate better into pony society, but what other choice do you have? You want to fit in; to not have everypony live in constant fear of you. It's a necessary evil.

Evil?

"Because I have to," you answer solemnly, feeling ashamed of yourself for having gone this far. On earth, you never cared what anyone thought of you. Hell, you even took pride in how weird you were to a degree. Those that didn't like it didn't stick around and, by your logic, weren't worth your time. You never changed for anyone, believing that if you truly cared for someone, you should accept that person for who they are and not who they can become. However, since coming here, the question has shifted from 'who' you are to 'what' you are. You didn't want to be just another monster. You feel your shoulders sag as you finally face the fact that you have done the very thing you hated others doing, changing who they are just to make others happy. "I just wanted to fit in."

Jade seems to detect how much admitting this bothers you, her body slacking and her ears drooping down as she looks at you with a mix of concern and worry. She seems to pity you, which only makes this feeling of self-loathing so much worse. "You don't belong here."

If that isn't the understatement of the century...

"Yeah, I'm well-aware of that fact." Six months of portal research and multiverse theories hadn't brought you or Twilight any closer to getting you home. What little you did discover only further proved that sending you back was next to impossible. There's too many worlds out there with too many differences. They might have been able to send you somewhere else, but there was no way to guarantee that it would be the same one you came from. There's no going back, as much as it sucks to say. You thought a fresh start in this world may have been just what you needed, but in the end you find yourself getting into even more trouble here than you did back home. "I made do at home, but there's-"

"You don't belong there either!" Jade's sudden change in tone grabs your attention in full, causing her to recoil a bit. "I-I mean...You said it yourself! Most humans didn't accept you either."

You stare at her blankly, feeling worse if anything. "If this is your attempt at cheering me up, you're doing a pretty shit job."

Jade lets out a frustrated growl, though it seems more directed at herself than you. "What I'm trying to say is that you just haven't found your place yet. The humans in your world are stupid; they don't recognize how great you really are. And the ponies here, they've never understood good leadership. They are natural-born prey, and because of that, they are afraid of you!"

They don't accept me and they never will.

As if reading your thoughts, Jade bounces in to add on to what she was saying. "But I'm not!" You raise a brow at her curiously as she continues. "You asserted yourself, which did startle me, yes. But, I'm not afraid of you. I respect you."

That...doesn't make sense...

"You gave me the smallest taste of how strong you are and I, as a diamond dog, know to respect and follow those who are stronger than me. That's just how predators like us work."

That...does...make sense.

"And you're not much different from us!" Jade holds up her paws, flashing you her strong nails in the most least threatening way she can before showing off all of the other similarities. "You have claws, strong legs, sharp teeth-" Once she's done with her short list, her paws reach up and grab onto the bars, pulling her face as close as she can without getting her head stuck. You practically feel her staring straight into your soul as her gaze locks onto its final target. "And your eyes...I can see so much of us in you every time you talk about your fights. I can tell when you're thinking about them too, because your eyes, like ours, speak to each other. They show trials, errors and the will to fight."

Why am I doing this to myself?

Jade pulls her head back, but her gaze never leaves you. Her face scrunches up into something a bit softer than anger as she shakes her head from side to side. "You don't belong here, stuck with these ponies who don't give you the respect you clearly deserve. And you don't deserve to be forced to walk around as some kind of sheep dog. You're not just some mutt meant to herd them! You're a lost wolf taking refuge in a town full of sheep and it's not right!" Her features soften, her eyes darting around the room as she clearly loses herself in some form of thought. The dog's breath hitches as her eyes find yours once more and she presses against the bars, yet again, as if to emphasize her words. "Come with me!"

Yes...

"What?" It takes you a few seconds to get your thoughts in order after all of that. Your mind feels like it's gone through the wringer twice already, and it seems to be gearing up for round three. "What do you mean? Where are you trying to get me to go?"

"With me!" she responds with haste, before finally taking the hint. "To the caves! To live with us and be wild and free, like you were always meant to!"

Take me there...

Jade seems certain that you are going to go along with her, judging by the look of glee plastered across her face and the rapidly wagging tail at her back. This is all just so overwhelming. You feel the desire to leave, to have a fresh start once more where you may finally be accepted, but it's too good to be true. It has to be. Diamond dogs are one of the very few races that will not intigrate with ponies and their idea of harmony. Even dragons are coming around and giving it a try. This is the only life you might get to have that even resembles something normal.

Jade seems to sense your inner turmoil and her demeanor falls once again. You can't help but to notice how cute she is when she gets excited and how much it bothers you that you're the reason her excitement dies as often and as quickly as it does. "I..." You struggle to speak, finding yourself at war with what you want and what seems right. You don't want to stay here anymore. This town, these ponies; you're miserable around them. There are very few exceptions to this, but if you could, part of you would torch this whole town. Burn it to the ground and salt the earth so nothing may grow. "I'll think about it..."

"What's there to think about?" Jade asks with melancholy in her voice. "I'm offering you freedom. Would you rather stay here, with every pony in this town trying to force their metaphorical collars around your neck?"

"You're one to talk," you quip at her without even thinking.

Jade takes exception to that, slipping a claw under her collar and tugging it. "Diamond dogs wear their own collars. It's a symbol to every creature out there that we are not property. We own ourselves and nothing will ever change that." She releases her hold on her collar before continuing. "Our pack leader guides us, but not a single soul out there will ever claim or control us like common house dogs; like how ponies keep trying to control you."

"Just...stop..." Your words feel lifeless even to you as they leave your mouth. Your head hangs low and you find yourself in an intense staring contest with the floor, one you are indifferent to losing over and over again. Normally the silence helps you zone out and pass the time quicker, but now it's disturbing. It feels like a cancer eating away at your brain. You have to break the silence, even if it does mean repeating old conversations. "Remind me again how you ended up in here," you say to Jade, already feeling her eyes on you. "Just humor me."

You can hear how frustrated she is with you as she decides to cooperate and tell her tale for the second time since you first met her. "Like I told you before, I was on a scouting mission with some of the other runts. It's a typical assignment for us since we're smaller and harder to spot by potential threats," she began, her words calming as she continues to recall the events with some amount of satisfaction. "We didn't realize we had stumbled into someone else's property, or that they were actually rich enough to have guards at the ready to charge after us. After a bit of scrambling around, one of my pack members, Roxy, took a tumble and messed up her leg. Tank, the final member of our squad, picked her up, but he couldn't move as fast with her on his back.

"I told them to go on ahead and let me deal with things," she concludes, leaving out much more detail than she had when she first told you this story. 

You never did ask, though you were and still are curious about it. Lifting yourself up a bit, you turn your head to face her proper. "Why do you sound so happy when you tell me about this? I'd think you'd be mad about being caught and brought here."

Jade shrugs. "Don't get me wrong; it sucks being caught. Moreso, being locked up like this," she explains plainly, her smile never wavering. "My pack is safe though and that's all that matters to me. I'll be able to return to them soon enough." The dog glances to the door, her ear flicking as the sound of hooves clopping against the floor reaches both of your ears. She leans a bit closer to the bars and whispers just loud enough for you to hear. "Between you and me, they're probably looking for a way to get me out as we speak."

You can hear the sound of keys rattling and a lock clicking before the door to the cell room opens. "Alright, mutts-" Your body instantly tenses at the mare's words, a growl leaving your throat and Jade's as you both turn to face the guard who is trotting in with two plates of food levitating in her magic. "Chow...time..." She slows to a stop, a look of fear barely etched across her face as she sees you and the dog staring her down with the rumbles of your throats stabbing at her ears. The mare shakes away her fears and takes on a more authoritative look. "So that's how it's gonna be, huh?"

With a hum, she drops the plates several feet away from your cells. "Enjoy!"

On that note, the unicorn turns tail and leaves, locking the door behind her. You and Jade both noticeably calm down once she departs and your eyes move to the dropped plates, far too out of reach for either of you to get to from your cells. You let out a sigh and raise to your feet as Jade curses the mare. "Bitch..." You make your way over to the bars, looking them over until you find the right ones. You place your hands on the bars, stopping when you hear Jade grunt. Looking back, you see the dog standing up on her two legs and walking closer to you with curiosity. "What are you doing?"

"Just watch and stay quiet."

Keeping your ears open, you make sure no pony is coming down the hall to this room. Peering at the door, you don't see any shadows on the other side. The coast is about as clear as it will get. With that in mind, you tighten your grip on the bars until your knuckles turn white and start popping. You suck in a fair amount of air through your nose before exhaling only a little bit through your mouth as you begin to pull. A faint squeaking sound reaches your ears as the metal in your hands start to warp from the pressure, slowly spreading apart like Moses splitting the Red Sea. A small breath escapes your nose as you let out a grunt, focusing to not pull against them too much. The bars continue to bend and make way until you let go and start breathing properly again.

After a quick examination of the new gap, you figure it'll be just enough for you to push yourself through. As fate would have it, you were right, meeting only a small amount of resistance as your chest is forced to pass in between the bars and you step out into the open room. With your newfound and very small sense of freedom, you walk over and crouch down to carefully pick up the plates before turning back to the cells and returning. You can see Jade is holding her breath for some reason, a ting of red showing in her face and her tail wagging like a dog with a bone. It's only now that you noticed the musky smell she typically gives off being suddenly more pungant in the air. As your gaze meets hers, she begins breathing again, panting for air like she had just come out from under water.

You decide to ignore her antics as you slip back into your cell with your plates in hand. Jade watches you with some intensity as you hold out the plate to her. She doesn't seem to even recognize that you're trying to give her the food for a few seconds before finally coming to and slowly reaching out to grab the plate from your hand. With her taken care of, you set your plate down on your bench and go about shoving the bars as back-into-place as you can. You give them a once over, figuring that unless they were actually looking for dents, no one would really notice what you had done. Security in check, you go back to you bench, sit down and grab your plate.

Picking around at whatever mush is on your plate, your eyes wander back to Jade, who is still staring at you with a dumbfounded expression and her plate her paws, but still on your side of the cell. "Th-That was..." You wait patiently for her to finish, scooping some of the slop onto your nail and holding it in front of your face. The dog lets out a heavy breath before finishing her statement. "Wow~"

While some of the ponies in town are aware that you are surprisingly strong, none know exactly how strong. Even you are lost on those details, never having a reason or a way to test yourself. You're aware of a portion of your strength, having had a few incidents which made you privy to them. Twilight had set something up to figure it out for herself way back when, but you wound up in jail that week and her schedule with the school became too hectict to try and set up another date.

"That was me trying to be careful," you say matter-of-factly, knowing you could have been much less graceful with this task.

Jade's tail begins to break the wind with how fast it's moving, an audible swishing sound breaking what little silence is between you two. "R-really?"

You nod in response, placing the slop on your finger into your mouth so you can get a taste for it. It's bitter, as always. But, it's fuel in the tank so you can't complain too much. After swallowing down the refuse they call a meal here, you expand on what you had just told Jade. "Last time I did that, I got too carried away. Took me ten minutes of fucking with it to make the bar look remotely decent."

Jade shakes her head and appears to have her wits about her again as she carefully pulls her plate into her side of the cell, being careful not to drop it as she angles the 'meal' into her area. She looks at her food for a moment while you continue to mindlessly pick at yours before she moves to the back of her cell to be closer to you. "If you can do that...why don't you just leave?"

Why am I still here?

"I'm not gonna be in here long," you say with a shrug, "Better to just wait it out rather than get myself into even more trouble. Pick your battles and all that jazz."

The rest of the day played out in its typical manner. The guard was curious when she came back to retrieve what should have been two untouched plates. Of course, you and Jade simply refused to say anything on the matter, and before long, it was time for the lights to go out.

There's a usual pattern for when night falls and the lights go out. For one, it's dark as a moonless night. Your eyes do strangely well in the dark, but even you struggle to see much in here when they shut everything down for the night. You have already reintegrated your habit of lying down to sleep on your bench while Jade has been dominating a small section of the floor in her own cell. This is the norm, how things should be. However, on this night, the dog that lays no more than seven feet from you is kicking around on the floor. It's hardly obnoxious, but it's enough to keep you awake. While you lay on your side on the cold cement, holding yourself to keep warm with your eyes closed, she lets out a huff and starts moving around. Her shuffling is short-lived, then she is on the move. Her paws lightly tap on the floor and you can easily make out that the sound is drawing nearer to your position. If not for the metal bars separating you, your guard would instantly be up. Eventually, her movement stops. Her breathing quickens and it becomes obvious that she's sniffing the air in your cell.

"Hey..." Jade whispers loudly to you. "Are you awake?"

You let out a heavy breath and respond, "Unfortunately."

"Can you come here?" she asks a bit apprehensively.

"...Why?" you ask in a similar manner, more out of caution than anything else.

"Just humor me."

Using my own words against me already..."

You let out a sigh and reluctantly push yourself into a sitting position. "What?"

"Come here," she presses, for whatever reason.

A groan escapes you as you submit and stand up, stretching your arms and legs before dragging your feet over to the bars. If you actually stopped to think about it, this is the first time you've gotten this close to her, not counting when you were giving her the plate of food earlier today. With your body feeling weak from the lack of sleep, you grab onto the bars and slowly lower yourself so that you're sitting down in front of her before replacing your arms around your torso. "I'm here..."

"Cold?"

"Yeah," you answer sleepily. "A lack of fur will do that to a man."

"Lay down."

"Why?"

"Stop being so defensive and just do it."

You let out a noise that's a mix between a growl and a groan before complying. You slump onto your side, keeping your arms tightly wound across your chest. You hear Jade shuffling around again before a strange sense of warmth hits you in the face. The next thing you know, something grabs your shoulders and pulls you closer to the bars. Your instincts kick into full gear as your eyes snap open and one of your hands grabs onto the metal rod between the two of you, locking you in place as you stare into the darkness, struggling to make out her form.

"Easy! Easy..." Jade says in a calming tone, releasing her hold on you as she explains herself. "I'm not gonna hurt you, I promise."

You can hear the sincerity in her voice, but are still unsure of whatever it is she has planned.

"Just trust me, okay." 

You hesitate for a moment, tensing a bit as her paw finds its way back to your shoulder. "You know how easily I could hurt you, right?"

Jade's paw rubs your shoulder in, what you assume is, a reassuring manner. "I know."

Without another word, Jade pulls you in close, wrapping her arms around you. The warmth of her body is pleasant, even with the distance still between you, but this whole thing is still rather off-putting. At this range, you can smell her much more deeply. Beneath the stench of mud and dirt, there's an odd musk that's oddly welcoming to your nose and serves to help calm your nerves some. The dog seems to meld with you more as your muscles relax and you soon find your own arms reaching out to wrap around her in return. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Jade's muzzle slides between the bars and presses into your neck. She takes a deep breath through her nose, humming in contentment.

"You smell nice," she says aloud as you subconsciously rest your chin atop of her muzzle. Her legs slide between the bars soon after, one sliding under your own while the other pushes to be between them. "Is that better?"

You're a little embarrassed to admit it, but it is nice. To save yourself the shame of saying it aloud, you hum in approval as your feel your eyelids growing heavy at an alarming rate. You feel you have to know before you doze off. "Why though?"

Jade presses her nose into your collar bone and breathes deeply again before replying, "Because I wanted to. Why else?"

Fair enough...

The world around you slowly begins to vanish as your body succumbs to the oncoming slumber. Before you fall completely into the realm of sleep, you feel yet another strange warmth as something hot and wet lightly presses into your neck and trails up to your chin. Too tired to acknowledge this, you ignore it as your mind finally shuts down and your body begins its attempts to recharge for the next day and what trials that may come with it.
> Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I want out...

It's nice to be out of the cell every once in a while, but it still feels wrong in here. Despite being outside, you're still in a cage. The tall brick walls and their barbed wire tops are a reminder of that. Out here, you can feel the sun on your face, you can smell the grass beneath your bare feet, you can even hear the occasional passing conversation of ponies walking by. They're too far to make out the words, but you can hear them none-the-less. It feels nice, but there's still that part of you that screams in the back of your head that this is nothing more than a taste of the real world; a false sense of freedom to keep you in line. You know in your heart that it's not wrong, but what choice do you have? You've already been here for two weeks - nearly three now - and, according to yesterday's hearing, you likely would not be tasting freedom again for the next several months. Too many chances, too many repeat offenses. They even had the nerve to hoist blame on you for those false crimes, even the ones that you were later proven innocent on. These ponies piss you off to no end.

And they know that.

Even with your so-called friends there, your pleas fell upon deaf ears. You made the mistake of lashing out again, your desire to be free overwhelming any rational thought as you cursed and screamed at the judge. You were promptly dragged out during your outburst, left in the dark for the remainder of the hearing as you were dragged back to your cell to cool off. If not for Jade being there to help calm you down, you might have broken out of your cell. Even you don't want to think about what you would have done after. Thinking back, you feel like you played right into the judge's hooves. They were just looking for a reason to keep you locked up, to contain the animal they all think that you are. While that may be true for most ponies, you know that Twilight did her best to lighten your sentence. You still feel betrayed though. You've tried time and time again to adjust, to play nice and do things by their rules. You've altered so much of yourself to try to fit in, but none of them could accept even the smallest of your shortcomings. 

Jade, on the other hand, doesn't seem to notice any of your shortcomings. You've talked out a great many issues with her, but she doesn't see how you were in the wrong. You've tried to emphasize how wrong the things you've done are, but she doesn't seem to grasp it. More often than not, she rationalizes a lot of your behaviors and compares it to how similar things are in her home. She makes it hard for you to understand why what you do is wrong. To an extent, you're not understanding how you're in the wrong either. You know what you've done isn't good, but, in your mind, the people you've hurt deservered it and Jade sympathizes with that. She understands it. Being around her has made you feel less alien, less like you're some kind of animal. Amidst all the talks and the nightly cuddling with her, you started feeling more at ease about yourself. The licking took some getting used to, but it's cute enough that you can ignore it. You feel less like a monster and more like a person when you're around her, and it feels as though she's done more for you than any single pony.

Twilight, Starlight, AJ, RD, Flutters, Pinks and even Rarity; they've all tried hard to help you out, but nothing seemed to work. Starlight served as a good counselor, of sorts, but she couldn't make heads or tails of you most of the time. Rarity, always the generous soul, helped to keep you from freezing by providing you with necessary clothing. AJ and RD served as good friends and a great form of stress relief, whether it be through work, working out or just being active in general. Pinkie was...interesting, to say the least. You know that she means well, but her antics can get annoying very fast. And the way she just pops up in places puts you on edge. Even now, you're paranoid that she will suddenly appear on your shoulder out of the blue and ask you when you want to have your next 'Got out of jail' party. Fluttershy was a beast in her own right, but she served as a source of centering yourself. She made it easier to decipher things about yourself and tried to help you to think things through before acting. So much for that. Twilight has a lot of pull, being a princess and all. It was imperative that you stayed in her good graces, but Christ can she ramble. Again, you know she's just trying to help you, but a man can only take so many lectures before he finally cracks.

All in all, they tried to help, but nothing they did made a difference. If anything, they just made you feel even more out of place.

There are very few friendships that you've managed to hold onto. The longest lasting ones were the ones with those who only saw you maybe once or twice a month. Of course, there were the very select few who could deal with you on a regular basis, but even they needed a break. You start to wonder why you're thinking about all of this so much, but conclude that it's just yet another way to help pass the time. Especially now that it seems you won't be seeing the outside world again until it's clear into winter. And when you do get out, you'll have to go back to your old place. You can hardly complain, but it's nothing to brag about either.

Being a handyman has its uses, but it doesn't supply much. Barely near enough to have your own place, less so to personalize it. You found a comfortable shelter with your previous marefriend, Daisy, for a time, but you're likely not allowed within several feet of her by now.

What did I even see in that mare?

You know what you saw; Shelter, stability, structure. All things that you knew you needed, but could not provide for yourself. It started out with her being facinated with your 'exoitic' appearance, her overall attraction to you being almost purely physical. You got along under a few circumstances, but she quickly became more and more intimidated by you and your demeanor. How the relationship lasted as long as it did is a shocker, even to you. You tried so hard to behave and keep things going. Unfortunately, you can't seem to stop screwing up, doing the wrong thing at nearly every turn. In her words, 'You're just too wild of an animal to be able to do anything right.' You feel your relaxation come to a sudden stop as you remember your argument with her. Your fists clench, knuckles popping as the event plays out in your head over and over again. Why does everyone here have to be so blind? Why are they so infuriating?

Time flies by and before you know it, you can hear the metal door connected to the jailhouse open.

"Handyman!" You crane your neck to the side to see the very same mare who cuffed you and brought you back to your cage two long weeks ago. She stands there in the open doorway, looking at you with nothing but frustration and disgust. "You have a visitor."

You're not happy that your outside time is being cut short, but it couldn't hurt to see who's coming in to harass you. With a sigh, you turn on your heels and march back into the building to get this meet and greet on the road. You're led down hallways and into a small room with a single metal table and two chairs of the same material. Sat in one of the chairs is Princess Twilight, who looks at you with a sad smile as you enter. The guard mare closes the door behind you and locks it before moving to stand beside the obstruction just outside of anyone's reach.

"It's good to see you again, Handyman," Twilight begins as you shrug and take your place in the seat opposite of her. You can tell there's something bothering her and you get the distinct feeling that it isn't going to bode well for you. Being your defense lawyer, she was likely left to handle the rest of your hearing in your absence. You notice her face scrunch for a brief moment as she sniffs the air in a very peculiar manner. Shaking her head, she seems to brush off whatever it is that's bothering her nose. "I have some news. It's...not the greatest, but it could be worse."

There's not much that you can think of to say about the matter as you place your arms on the table and lean toward the alicorn. You suppose that there's not much to say. Seeing no point in dragging this out, you offer her a nod and usher her to continue in a defeated tone. "Lay it on me."

Struggling to hold her smile, Twilight drops the facade and slumps forward a bit. Her expression says it all and her body language is strained, like she's trying to hold a stack of cinder blocks on her shoulders. Something tells you that this may be worse than you initially thought. "They wanted to give you two years mandatory...in Manehattan Penitentiary." 

No...

Twilight winces as your body responds on your behalf. The weight of the news deafens you to the horrible screeching sound coming from the table as your now curling fingers dig your pointed nails into the metal. Their sharp ends drag along the surface, carving eight solid lines down to your knuckles before finally coming to a stop. Your breathing is heavy as you almost struggle to keep a steady rhythm, your body trembling, heart pounding in your chest as your mind continues to absorb this information with nothing but rage and malcontent. For a moment, you consider miscommunication. Maybe this isn't as bad as it sounds, or you're misinterpreting what she said.

Really homing in on the alicorn, you lean several inches closer to her, most of your upper body hovering over the table as you open your ears to ensure that her response will not be misunderstood. "It sounded like you just said that they want me to spend two years...in a Manehattan prison."

Twilight's face says it all as she looks back at you with shame, disappointment and guilt prevalent on her features. "They want you in a secure location where...where you can't hurt anypony," she began, her voice barely above a whisper. Her throat contracts as she continues, as if the words themselves are choking her as they escape her lips. Through her pain though, there is hope and she is quick to aid in the recovery of the situation. "B-but we managed to work out a few issues and they're willing to give you one more chance."

I...fucking...hate it here.

"Handyman..." Twilight says in an almost pleading tone. You can still feel your tense nerves straining, fighting against you as you try to keep your cool. No matter how hard you fight though, the urge to tear this place apart brick by brick gnaws at your core. "We barely scraped by this time. I'm afraid that one more mistake, no matter how little, is all they will need. After that, they will send you away.

"I'm sorry," Twilight continues, her words doing very little to settle you. "but you need to get yourself under control."

I AM under control!

"These outbursts of yours are out of hoof. You've made significant improvement over time, don't get me wrong, but you're still on the border of being-"

"Being what!?" The words escape you before you could even register your mouth moving. You know what she wanted to say; You don't want to hear it, but part of you yearns for the words to come out of her mouth. It's almost as if you're looking for a reason to hate her and you can't seem to grasp why. You don't want to hate any of them, but with the way things have been going lately it almost feels like things would be easier if they did.

All I need is one good reason...

Twilight seems to crack a bit, taking exception to this of your many outbursts. "Of being caged up like some kind of animal!"

Finally...

A surge of electricity bursts through your being as your body moves on autopilot and you rise from your seat, ignoring Twilight calling out your name curiously as you walk over to the locked door the two of you were trapped behind. You feel your leg twitch as it lifts and heaves forward. The sole of your foot meets the door with a loud bang and the metal barrier buckles from the impact, the lock breaking, hinges snapping apart as the door is forced from its place and sails to the other side of the hallway. The door lands unceremoniously onto the floor and your legs carry you into the hallway. The sudden burst of energy you feel wavers after having vented out some of your frustration and you come to a stop after only taking four steps out. Taking a breath, you feel your nerves settle some; not by much, but the sudden urge to hurt the nearest living thing is gone now.

A shuffling to your left captures your attention. You turn to see the guard who brought you here, to this room, to this building. She scrambles to get back to her hooves, a vicious gaze locking with your person as her eyes find you. Her eyes narrow at you as she takes a defensive stance. As angry as you are, you can't find it in you to play this game with her. Your shoulders slump as you resign yourself to your fate, accepting the inevitability of your coming captivity. "I'd like to go back to my cell now..."

The mare eyes you expectantly, waiting to see what your next move is.

"Handyman!" Twilight calls out as she comes rushing out of the room, stopping at your side as she looks up at you. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to say that! I really didn't! It's just been so hard lately! The incident itself, the hearing, the entire mess I had to go through so they wouldn't send you away-"

"I know Twilight," you cut in, unable to look her in the face as you continue your staredown with the guardsmare. Part of you wanted this, but you feel so empty now. It hurts, but you did, in a way, wish this upon yourself. "I don't blame you. I did this to myself." You feel the life leave your voice, the crushing weight of hopelessness overtaking you as it coils around your form like an eager serpent preparing to devour its prey. "Thank you, really; for everything you've done. I just need some time alone right now to think."

You push past the teary eyed alicorn, taking a few steps closer to the guard, who loses her defensive stance as even she can see that you've simply given up. "My cell, please."

The guardsmare finally blinks as she turns her gaze to the purple princess standing behind you. For a second, you can swear you see her flash the alicorn with a look of sympathy. Her attention returns to you and the mare nods sternly, turning tail and leading you back to the holding room. You waste no time walking after her, eager for this meeting to be over so you can get on with your...nothingness.

"Handyman..." Twilight's voice rings out weakly from behind you.

Still, you do not dare look at her as you follow your guide. "Go home, Twilight."

Feeling oddly cold as you are led back to the place you will likely be staying for another few weeks, you slip your hands into your pockets. With your head hung low as you walk, you recall a song from your world. You can hear the words so clearly in your head, playing along with your stride almost mockingly. Something about the way it sounded, the way it was played and how the artist sang this made it feel so personal. Since coming here, you often found yourself reminiscing and replaying the lyrics in your head at times like these, where you feel you've sunken to your lowest once again. It's not an uplifting tune, but it's one you enjoy. You find yourself humming to the nonexistent symphony playing in your mind, soon reaching the end of the chorus as the guardsmare unlocks the door to the holding room and opens it.

Looking into the room, you see your cell, along with Jade, who is curled up on the floor, napping in the one right next to it. Her ear twitches as the combined steps of both yourself and the guard echo through the room while you're being placed back into your home for one last time. The door to your cell is closed as you step in and routinely march over to your bench, taking your usual seat. Your eyes move to watch the mare leaving the room. There's a moment of hesitation in her steps, a pause as she glances back at you and opens her mouth. You wait patiently for the words that never leave, watching her eyes shift and her ears fold before she closes her mouth and exits, closing the door behind her before locking it tight.

The bang from the door is enough to rouse Jade from her slumber. The dog wiggles around some before placing her arms to the floor and lifting her upper body. She lets out an admittedly cute yawn as her eyes strain to stay open in the well-lit room. Meanwhile, you've preoccupied yourself by staring down at the ground. You can still feel that constricting grasp, like your chest is being compressed from all directions. In a way, you feel you've made the worst breakthrough of your life. Twilight, one of your most loyal friends, finally spoke her mind. Even if she didn't mean what she said, it still shows that the thought is there. Deep down, even she thinks of you as some kind of animal. You begin to wonder if there's even a point to continue living on in this world. This is a pony's world after all and you're just some hairless ape dragging its feet in the hoofsteps of your spiteful, equine god. You've tried changing; you've tried to adapt to this world and its rules. You've met their royalty, befriended those you could, but nothing ever really changed on your end. Ponies have always been skeptical of you with only a few brave souls who would come up to you either out of morbid or sexual curiosity. Most of the ponies you have met either want something from you or desire your immediate departure. There are only eight ponies here who have actually tried to assist you, but even they have their limits. They have lives, jobs and family obligations. They can't be there to help you all of the time, often leaving you to wander blind and attempt to figure things out on your own. 

There's nothing left for me here.

There are no words for how much you hate this place and pretty much everything in it. As it stands, you've met virtually no one who understands you. Berry has been the most understanding, but even she is lost on a lot of your natural instincts, which are just as alien to her as your own name is to this whole planet. You're just too different. No one will ever truly understand you. You will always be made to suffer through this nightmare alone. The only one that seems to get it is-

"I don't like that look..." Jade's concerned tone reaches your ears and pulls you out of your thoughts. You weakly lift your head and look over at the dog. You notice that she is struggling to make eye contact with you, seeming to be forcing herself not to look away. "I don't know what you're thinking about, but please stop."

Jade has mentioned several times that she can tell how you're feeling simply by looking into your eyes. You weren't really sure what to make of that at first, still thinking her to be crazier than a June Bug in July. However, times like this continue to cement her words. She may not know what you are thinking, but she can use what she does see to read you to a certain degree. It shows her when you are strong and when you are weak. You can only imagine that she's seeing nothing more than a scared child waiting to either be saved or forever consumed by the darkness that they wandered into. You feel cold, lost and ready to finally break. You feel empty and hollow, like a tree filled with termites being eaten from the inside out. You want to scream and lash out and curse at the world, but you can't find the energy or willpower to do it anymore. You've been screaming into the void for so long and nothing has screamed back despite your instigation. 

Maybe I'd be better off dea-

"I said, stop it!" You blink as your senses return once more, wondering how long you've been sitting here staring at her like this. Her voice was aggressive, but not in a challenging way. You can only guess that she really wants to get you to stop zoning out. You are her only real social interaction while in this place. Must be lonely when the only source of entertainment is lost in their own world. "Are you even listening?"

"I'm in and out," you finally respond, the sound of your voice seeming to make her features drop further.

"What's going on with you?" she asks without pause, her eyes alone demanding that you answer her. "Did something happen?"

You can't help but wonder why she's so worried about your goings-on. Then again, this could just go back to you being the only one to actually sit down and talk with her. The ponies here give her about as much attention as they give you. You figure that you might as well indulge her. "Twilight came in today."

Jade's brow raises at the mention of the alicorn. "The purple, pony princess?"

You've mentioned Twilight and her friends once or twice to Jade, but aside from what little they did to help you adjust to your new life, there wasn't much to tell. "That's her."

"...And?"

Your heart pounds furiously as you recall your earlier conversation with Twilight. You can feel your leg starting to shake as you inform Jade and remind yourself of what is to come should you cross your already-paper-thin line. "They want me to go to Manehattan to serve a two year sentence. She managed to talk them out of it, but that's their plan. Just one more fuck up and I'm gone."

"No..." Jade's pupils constrict to the size of pinpricks as she hears this, her head slowly shaking from side to side as she is overtaken by the shock of the news. "That's...That's not right. Why would they want to do that to you?"

You can only shrug as you respond to this, "What can I say? Maybe it's just my charm."

The shock Jade is feeling quickly gives way for something else, something much more powerful. You see nothing but anger filling her from top to bottom. If looks could kill, her gaze would melt the bars separating the two of you. In the blink of an eye, she is standing up straight and tall. Just as quick, she lunges at the door to her cell and grasps the bars in her paws, shaking it back and forth. The door moves as far as the internal lock will allow, giving it enough wiggle for the door to bang as she thrusts it back and forth. The clanging of the metal is annoying enough on its own as she struggles against the solid structure keeping her in place.

"What are you doing?" you ask from your seat. Not for actually not knowing, but wondering why she's even trying to get out in the first place.

"I am getting us out of here!" Jade growls as she continues to force the door back and forth to no avail.

Letting out a sigh, you stand up and walk to the front of your cell, getting as close as you can to her. "You and I both know that you can't get through that door."

"I have to try!"

You can admire her tenacity, but this is pointless. "Why?"

Jade ceases her assault on the door, taking a break to catch her breath. Her paws never leave their spot, staying tightly clenched around the metal rods keeping you both in your respective cages. Struggling to catch her breath, she replies between pants, "We don't...belong...here."

You don't even have it in you to be frustrated by the situation, still pushing the matter so she can come to her senses. "There's no point. Besides, breaking out would just give them more reason to send me away before I even get out."

In a flash of movement, Jade is standing directly in front of you, her paws now grabbing onto the fabric of your shirt and tearing it a solid six inches down the middle from the neck as she pulls you against the metal rods between the two of you. Her eyes stare up into your own, the fury from before never wavering. "I will not let them take you from me!"

You blink in surprise at her words, watching her anger seep away into sadness. Tears well up in her eyes, sobs - that she is desperately trying to hold back - escaping from her in waves before she releases her hold on your shirt and wraps you in a desperate embrace. The dog buries her muzzle into your chest as she grips your body like a vice, as if fearful that you would simply vanish the moment her grip slackens. "I don't want to lose you..."

The pounding in your chest from earlier doubles as you find your arms moving between the bars to return the rather forceful hug she pulled you into. Once again, you find your mind wandering. You wonder if maybe you're not just company to her. Maybe she actually cares about you. Your so-called friends have gone through some crazy things to defend you, but this dog is the only one to attempt to break you out of jail. Feeble thought it may have been, the thought alone is comforting. She's also the only one to ever cry like this over you. The second she heard that you would be sent away, she lost it. The fact that you're not even being sent away yet means nothing beyond  the fact that you could. Then it occurs to you, the realization hitting like a freight train. How did you not see it sooner?

You wouldn't just be going away from here, from Ponville. You would be away from her, with no way to speak to the only creature to ever make you feel like you might belong somewhere. You feel your arms tighten around her as the last two weeks plays out in your head; her pretty little face, the long talks, holding each other at night. In a way, you've come to rely on this dog, her presence filling you with a bizarre form of comfort that you cannot identify. With her around, you don't feel as alone. Every corner doesn't feel as dark when she's there and you can't seem to wrap your brain around it. You haven't known her for long, but you feel a connection - one whose name eludes you. Should you be sent away though, that connection would be broken and you likely would not see her for a very long time. Your hushed whispers, the warmth of her breath on your neck as you sleep, those eyes that stare into your own and see a whole side of you that you can't even fathom; it would all be gone and there would be nothing you could do about it.

Jade's sobbing changes tune and there's an odd, wet warmth on your chest that causes you to look down. There you see that cute face again, eyes closed and soaked with tears. Small cries continue to escape her in short bursts, only to get cut off as she sticks out her flat tongue and gently licks up the center of your chest through the new opening in your shirt. Little hums escape her as she does this as well, seeming to calm her a bit. It's strange, but you find it oddly adorable and you-

I don't want to lose this.

Jade stops in the middle of her ministrations and looks up at you as she feels your arms leave her. You take a step back, examining the dog before turning and starting to slowly pace around your cell. Things have suddenly become more complicated and, for the first time in a while, you need to really think this through. Everything seems to be happening so fast, despite how all of this has been moving at a snail's pace from the beginning. Mentally cursing yourself, you push and push for an idea; something that could make it alright. However, nothing substantial comes to mind. There are simply too many variables at play here. You feel stumped, defeated as you come to a stop at the furthest end of your cell. For a moment, you consider trusting your instincts. While they haven't been the best at keeping you out of trouble, it's the only thing that feels right to you.

The door to the cell room opens before you can speak, pulling both yours and Jade's attention. A younger unicorn pony lazily trots in, her mane haphazardly tied into a ponytail. If not for the lingering stench of spiced rum coming off of her, you might have bothered to wonder why she's practically dragging her hooves during her approach. The mare makes her way directly to Jade's cell before magicing a set of keys from her hip and unlocking the door. "Alright, mutt. It's time to go."

Your eyes move to Jade, who glances back and forth between the two of you before resting her gaze on the hungover guard pony. "Go where?" she asks cautiously. "I was already outside today."

The guard grumbles in frustration before pulling the cell door open. "Back to whatever hole you crawled out of! Now let's go; I don't have the bucking patience to deal with you sniffing around for a place to piss all day."

You useless, sack of meat...

You're not sure when you had moved, but you did. Standing at the front of your cell, your hands gripping the bars, you begin to pull them apart. There's a horrible creaking sound that emanated through the room as the metal warps in your grasp. Your eyes are locked onto the mare, who is staring back at you in delightful fear. Releasing your hold on the bars, having spread them just enough to peek your head through, you lean forward and stare at her from just outside of your cell. "I will only tell you this once," you begin in a cold, soft tone. "Never. Ever. Speak to her like that."

This short interaction proves more than enough to sober her up. Even so, the mare reacts a bit more instinctively than you had expected. Dropping her keys, she turns tails and runs out of the room, slamming the door behind her. Satisfied, you retract your body back into your cell and make quick work of pushing the bars back into place. Just as you finish, you hear the door next to you close and lock. Looking over, you see Jade, still standing in her cell, a set of keys in her paw that she quickly discards. Tossing the keys on the other side of the room, the dog steps away from the now-locked door and stands in her usual spot just beside your own little cage.

"...Why?" you find yourself asking, dumbfounded by her actions.

"I already told you," Jade says genuinely, her eyes almost shining as she stares at you. "I don't want to lose you." You feel your heart pounding in your chest. Unlike the many other times in your life, it does not beat out of anger or rage. Neither frustration nor fury work their poison into your veins as you begin unconsciously closing the distance between the two of you.

"I don't care how long it takes, Beasty." Jade continues as you come to a stop in front of her, placing your hands on the bars separating you from one another. You note that this is the first time she's called you - anything, really. Not even once since being here has she referred to you as Handyman, despite having heard the guards say it several dozen times. It's a bit odd initially, but it also feels nice somehow. "I'm not going to leave here until you do."

You blink a few times in surprise, feeling a long-overdue smile grow on your normally neutral face. If the tables had been turned, you honestly feel that you would do the same. Scratch that, you would twist these bars so that the door couldn't be opened until she could come with you. That feeling fills your chest again, the one you can't quite describe. The intensity only seems to grow as the two of you stare into each other's eyes. As if being led by some unseen force, the two of you start leaning in, eyes lidding on their own. What little distance remains between your faces becomes non-existent as your lips meet gently between the bars.

The warmth in your chest explodes as your heart races enough for you to feel it in your fingertips. It doesn't occur to you that the bars between you have started to spread apart, leaving a massive gap large enough for you to reach out and pull her into your cell. Her paws run along your back for a moment before reaching down to tear away your already ripped shirt. Meanwhile, you've worked your hands onto the neck of her vest, pulling it off of her in one motion and discarding the item onto the floor. The two of you press against each other ravenously, your tongues intermingling as you begin to explore each other's bodies through what you can touch and grab. The lights in the room die, signaling the end of the day. In the cover of darkness, you and Jade simply allow your instincts to take hold and guide you through what comes naturally.
> Chapter 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is fine.

It's been nearly two weeks since your last talk with Twilight, with her informing you of your most recent predicament. More accurately, your last warning she did deliver. While it had bothered you at first and still does to a certain degree, it's been the very last thing on your mind. A pleasant change, among one other since that day. Your new bunkmate, Jade, has been keeping much closer since then. After yanking the bars apart to pull her into your cell, she had simply refused to leave your side. The guards weren't particularly happy about this new arrangement, but there was little they could do to reverse it. The few brave souls to try were reminded of how easily you could bend these surrounding metal bars, which has proven to suffice as an adequate deterrent. You have found yourself caring remarkably less about the ponies around you as well as their perception of you. It hardly felt as though they mattered. This thought has only reinforced by your newest comfort hobby. As you sit atop your stone bench, you idly move your hand back and forth, dragging your palm across the belly of the diamond dog who currently lays on her back with her head resting on your lap.

Jade hums and coos in delight at your ministrations, smiling to herself with her eyes closed as she rests on your person. This has become significantly more regular and has proved an excelent means of stress relief. You find yourself smiling much more frequently since your impromptu relationship with her suddenly blossomed like a fresh lotus in the sudden act of heat and passion. It was quite the sight for the guard who dropped by that morning, finding you both naked and tangled together on the floor like a discarded pretzle. They tried to reprimand both of you that day, but their lecturing fell upon deaf ears. Before too long, they simply gave up on trying to separate you from her. You didn't even need to threaten them, which was surprising. The only thing you had done in response to their feeble attempts was hold Jade tighter to your person and ignore them until they stopped trying all together. As a form of punishment, they had taken away your outside time, but that hardly bothered you. Now you spend all of your days like this, with Jade almost always pressed against you and you yourself grinning like a loon. Jail sucks, that goes without saying, but it seems only a minor inconvienience now. Time flies by in an almost hushed blur and it's only a matter of days when the good news reaches your ears.

"Snap out of it!" You feel your ears twitch as you look up at the guard, standing on the other side of your cell door. She has a sour expression on her face, one that reveals many layers of frustration and disgust. "About bucking time. Put your head on straight and get the hell out of here."

It's about time.

Jade snaps to attention, bolting up off of the bench and standing just a few feet shy of you. "Is it time to go?" she asks hopefully, her tail wagging uncontrollably behind her back. "Are we leaving?"

"Finally," you say aloud as you rise to your feet. For a moment, your eyes wander to the shredded shirt on the ground. You consider it for a seond before shrugging off the useless material. The metal door clicks as the lock is opened and the door swings wide with an audable creek. You hardly have a moment to react before Jade is upon you once more, holding you in a tight embrace. Not wanting to dwell here much longer, you work your arms around the dog and swoop her up off of her feet. She giggles at this, kicking lightly as you hold her.

"Beasty! Put me down!" she calls out with a laugh while you actively ignore her pleas and strut out of the room, following a few feet behind the guardmare leading you. "Stop treating me like a weak stud! I can walk just fine on my own!"

You'll never get used to this weird gender thing.

After a bit of teasing, you allow Jade to walk on her own and slowly make your way to the exit. You make a quick stop by a counter to retrieve your belongings. There's not much to recover, but you take them all the same and in mere minutes you are once again outside. The bright sun graces your eyes once more, it's warmth hitting your bare torso as the smells of your surroundings seep into your nostrils. Then, not two seconds after your departure, the sound of a cannon goes off nearby. You're unaffected by the boom and the sudden raining of confetti. It had startled you the first time, but now it was simply routine. However, your new company isn't as welcoming. The loud bark coming from behind catches your full attention, the growls that follow after high in volume and meancing in nature.

Jade jumps out from behind you, taking an agressive stance on all fours as she lands and scans the area for potential threats. Her eyes rest on a small group of ponies who reel back in shock, while one in particular lets out a small sqeak and ducks down to hide behind the canon set in front of her bubbly pink friend. You know you should have some sort of reaction to her behavior toward your friends, but you can hardly blame her. Your own reaction when first this happened wasn't too far off. It took Pinkie nearly a whole month to work out the fist shaped dent you had made on her oversized party favor.

Despite your feeling, seeing those particular ponies in fear brings you no joy. Stepping forward, you lean down beside Jade and place a hand on her head. You begin petting at her raised hairs, ushering them back down to their rightful position. "Take a breath, love. They're harmless."

Jade appears hesitant, but after glancing over yourself and meeting your gaze, she begins to settle. After nearly a full minute of staring them down, she relaxes enough to get her senses back and stands upright, you following shortly after. While she is a bit more passive, you can see the distrust in her eyes. In the blink of an eye, she wraps her arms around you from your side. You flinch a bit at her sudden movement, lifting your arms out of the way as she coils her own arms tightly around your chest. Holding you in a tight embrace, her venomous gaze doesn't dare leave Twilight and her entourage. You regard her with a curious look for a bit before turning you attention back to the startled heros of this town.

Silence fills the air for a good while, the air thick with tension. You find little comfort in seeing your so-called friends again, an odd detail you take a mental note of. You stare out at them and they stare back at you, their eyes not being shy to lock onto the dog who is clinging to your side every so often. Before the silent interaction can continue any further, Applejack decides to shatter it like a dinner plate. "Alright, ah'll be the one to say it: What in tarnation is going on here?"

They were bound to ask sooner or later.

Knowing this time would come, you had tried to prepare a response while still locked away in your cell. Alas, you couldn't seem to come up with an explaination that could convey everything you wanted them to know in just a few words. It wasn't long after that when you decided that you didn't care enough to fill them in on the details all at once. If they want to truly understand, they will have to experience it first-hand much like yourself. Until then, thie best they will get out of you is the abridged summary. "Ladies...Rainbow," Dash takes exception to your little jab and shoots you a small glare, "this is Jade, my former cellmate and current mate in general."

It's silent once more and you're getting really fed up with it. Having it be quiet is one thing, it's another when it's due to shock and ponies are staring at you with slacked jaws and eyelids looking like they could launch into the sky at any moment. More than that, know just how tense this situation is making Jade only fuels your desire to escape this situation as soon as possible. "Great talk, girls...Rainbow." The pegasus closes her jaw and begins to glare at you once more. "Let's do it again some time."

Without any further warning, you turn on your heel and begin hiking your way back into town with Jade in tow, her neck craning as she continues to stare daggers into the group. You can hear them calling out to you, but none seem willing to try and make an approach - yet another instance you decide to take note of. It's hardly within your willpower to go back or even respond to them at this time. You're fresh out of jail, becoming reaquainted with the outside world and - above all else - you desperately need a shower. As you waltz into town, ponies left and right spread apart for you like the red sea as both yourself and Jade work your way through. It doesn't take long for you to find the house you've been living at almost as long as you've been here. It's a quaint little place and the owner was willing to rent it to you for a surprisingly low price.

Fishing out your keys, you unlock the door and step into your humble abode. You and Jade have to crouch a bit to make it through the front door, but once inside it's just high enough that you can both stand upright. For the first time since leaving jail, Jade removes herself from you and begins looking around the quaint little living space. There's not much to offer; a small couch in the living room, a short kitchen, one bedroom and one bathroom. Your eyes wander to said bathroom and you begin stripping off what clothes you still have as you make your way in. "Make yourself comfortable if you can. I'll be back out in a few."

You remain in the shower probably longer than you need to, but after being gone for so long it feels well-deserved. After getting yourself cleaned up, you allow yourself a large amount of time to soak before finally killing the tap and drying yourself off. You wrap a towel aroud your waist and step back out into the living room. Glancing around, you see Jade huddled up on the couch. Her eyes are peacefully closed as she takes deep, labored breaths while her body rests upon the plush surface. You find yourelf smiling again as you turn away and go into your room to grab some clean clothes. Once dressed, you toss the towel aside and go back out into the living space to-

Someone is here.

You come to a full stop, feeling your ears shift back as they focus. Your head angles toward the door, following the source of the noise. There's a distinct sound of hoofsteps approaching. Unconciously, you take a deep breath through your nose. A familiar smell reaches you, one that steadily becomes stronger as it draws near. The steps reach your door and you hear a knocking soon follow. Blinking a few times to calm your senses, you make you way over to the door and open it. On the other side stands Twilight Sparkle, who regards you with caution and a hint of worry.

"Hi, Handyman..." Twilight begins somewhat nervously. Her muzzle scrunches a bit as sniffs the air before taking a quick peek past you and into the house.

You raise a brow at her, not so much out of confusion, but more questioningly. You're not surprised in the slightest that she has decided to drop by, moreso by her very awkward greeting. "Hi?"

"Can I talk to you for a second?" She glances behind you once more, looking unsure of herself - a very rare occurence. "In private?"

Thinking on it for a few seconds, you glance back at Jade, who is still happily napping on your couch. You let out a sigh and crouch down to step out of the house before closing the door behind you as quietly as possible. "Lead on, Purple."

Nodding, Twilight begins leading you away from your home while you follow idly behind her. After a short walk, you find yourself at a small outdoor resteraunt. She talks to some stallion in a suit before he leads you both to a table and you take your seats. Settling in, knowing that this will probably be rather unpleasant, you go about mentally preparing yourself for the worst. Meanwhile, the suited pony returns to place two salads on the table, one in front of either of you. Staring down at the small mass of green leaves and tomatoes, you sigh internally.

This vegetarian diet is killing me.

After magicing a fork into her hold and taking a quick bite from her bowl, Twilight finally speaks up. "I'm happy to see that you're doing well."

"Yeah, it's great," you coldly respond. "Can we go ahead and skip the small talk? You know how much I hate this 'beating around the bush' crap."

Twilight swallows and lets out a sigh, setting her fork back down on the table as her eyes meet you. "Always straight to the point," she says, seeming to be talking mostly to herself. "Let's just go ahead an address the elephant in the room."

"You mean the dog, right?"

"Yes! Exactly." Twilight takes a deep breath through her nose before continuing. "I suppose the...biggest question I have is just...How??"

There are a lot of ways to answer this question. At this point, you have a literal list of reasons, but most of those are reserved for 'why' rather than 'how'. "We just clicked," you simply say to her. "I spent nearly every second of every day in there with her, and the more we talked, the more it all just started to make sense."

Twilight tilts her head at this. "The more 'what' started to make sense?"

You didn't want to talk about this initially; part of you doesn't think that either you or Twilight is ready for this to be said out loud. However, you do feel as though you owe her at least that. These ponies may not be what you consider friends, but she's put a lot of time and effort into you over the course of the past year that you've been here. "That I'm not gonna make it here."

The mood shifts as you feel a sudden weight being lifted from your chest, a weight that seems to be stacking onto Twilight. "N-no! Of course you can! Y-you just need more time, that's all! With my friends and I here to help, we can mold you into the perfect stallion."

You can only imagine what her anxiety is doing to her on the inside if she's behaving like this in broad daylight. Normally, this talk of changing and molding you would lead to you becoming frustrated and - that one time - ripping a table in half. Now though, it just serves as a reminder for how out of place you are and how alien you truly feel among these colorful equines. "I'm not a stallion, Twilight. I never will be." The mare in front of you shifts uncomfortably in her seat, rubbing her hooves together like a manic scientist. "At the end of the day, I just plain-ol' don't belong here. Just look around."

Holding up a hand, you motion in every which direction, pointing out nothing in particular. "This is a pony town in a pony's world," you say as she follows your hand with her eyes. "A world that just wasn't made for me. My existence was never even in the cards, yet here I am."

Looking back to you, Twilight is quick to defend. "That doesn't mean it can't be, though!" she argues, her words finding no solace in your mind. "We can make this work. If you just try a little harder, we can-"

"No," you rudely interupt, causing her features to sink a bit.

"No?" she asks, as if to be sure she heard you correctly.

"No."

Twilight fumbles, struggling desperately to get the words out before finding her place. "What do you, 'no'? How can you just- I mean it doesn't- Why wouldn't you-!?"

"Just stop." Your words seem to work in silencing her, if only for the moment.

"I have done everything I can," you begin, feeling no little amount of frustration for having to relive all of this. "I have tried to change my attitude. I went out to make friend. I've changed my diet, my lifestyle, and even surpressed my most basic instincts to fit in here, and it's just not enough."

I will never be enough.

"I put my heart and soul into trying to adapt to live here peacefully with all of you. The harder I try though, the more it is starting to backfire on me." Feeling a familiar fire in your gut, your voice raises as you press on. "And for some fucking reason, it always comes down to me and how I need to change. God forbid anypony here sees me as anything more than an animal, or a tool, or some unique species to try and have sex with to get another notch under their belt!"

Your muscles tense, your feet pushing against the ground as you rise up from your seat and start leaning over the table as your face contorts in anger. "No! I'm the problem! I'm always the fucking problem, even when I didn't do anything wrong!" Throwing caution to the wind, you give in to the despair you've felt for so long and simply allow it to flow out of you. "But I'm the one that needs to change! Heaven forbid this whole racist town that could barely handle a fucking zebra learns to actually accept me! I'm always the one who needs to change, to do better, to meld into your society like I'm not an individual - like I'm not my own fucking person!"

At this point, you're nearly nose to nose with Twilight, who had long since started cowering at your lingering gaze that only got closer and closer to her. "Well fuck you, and fuck Ponyville!" That alone feels like you've just dropped the weight of the world off of your shoulders. Your body feels so light and relaxed now that you don't even care that ponies are staring at you from all directions. Basking in this newfound serenity, you slowly lower yourself back into your seat and take a calming breath before finishing your thought. "I don't want to hate any of you. But the longer I'm here, the more I do."

This is probably the only time you have ever watched the light die in a pony's eyes. Twilight seems almost lifeless as those final words leave you lips, as if she cannot even fathom what she is hearing. She appears dumbfounded and completely lost, while also terribly sad and even destroyed to a certain degree. "You can't mean that..."

"I wish I didn't." There seems to be nothing left of her at that as you watch her slump over some with tears threatening to escape her. With this, there's nothing left to be said. You're not sure what is to come, or even what you will do next, but you know that it won't happen here. Jade has spoken to you about her home in the past. You intend to ask her if she can take you there. On the off chance that she doesn't, you refuse to remain in Ponyville regardless. The time for you to choose you own path is long overdue and you've made your choice. "Thanks for everything, Twilight."

The alicorn doesn't react; you don't think she even has the strength to do so right now.

Rising from your seat, you take your leave and let Twilight deal with this on her own. Surely, her friends will comfort her in time. Unfortunately, that means that you won't have long to start legging it out of town before they all show up at your doorstep. You walk home in a semi-rushed pace, hoping to buy yourself some time. You are just turning the corner when you see Jade standing outside, growling at a group of ponies that are walking by. She is crouched to the ground, nose in the grass, sniffing around with a panicked look in her eyes. As you draw near, her sights land on you and she is all too eager to come running. You brace yourself for impact as she charges, leaping onto you once she is close enough. You catch her in your arms as her own find their way around you.

"By the stars, I thought I had lost you!" Jade desperately says in your ear as she rubs her face against yours. "I thought for sure the ponies showed up and took you away." It sounds like she wants to continue on this thought, but she pauses and sniffs at you curiously before leaning back to look at you, furrowing her brow in disgust. "You smell like a pony..."

"I showered earlier, remember?" you say, assuming it's just the soap that threw her off. Jade climbs off of your person and begins sniffing you up and down, grimacing unpleasantly before pressing her body against you and rubbing herself on every surface of you she can. "What are you doing?"

"I can't stand that pony stench being on you," Jade says plainly, probably expecting you to understand what her point in all of this is.

Rather than discuss the matter further, you think it best to move on to a more pressing issue. "Where did you say you lived again?"

Jade halts her rubbing and takes a step back to look at you in full view. "Underground, just past the entrance to the Everfree Forest."

"If we leave now, how fast can we get there?" you ask a bit hurriedly.

Jade blinks a few times before the realization dawns on her. On her face now is the biggest smile you've ever seen to grace her pretty little muzzle. "Y-you...you want to come home...with me?"

"And I don't want to wait a second longer." You say this with both genuine interest and desperation to leave before you find yourself with a group of mares hot on your trail.

The light that died in Twilight's eyes earlier seems to have transfered over to Jade, who throws herself against you faster than you can register. Her warm muzzle is pressed to your lips and you find yourself fairly eager to return the gesture. The kiss lasts a bit longer than it probably should, but the dog wastes no time getting herself into gear when you finally do separate. "Follow me and stay close," she says as she grabs one of your hands in her paw and tugs you along. "I have so many wonderful things to show you!"
> Chapter 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is new.

You've never ventured into the Everfree forest, for the many warnings you have received over the years made it very clear that this isn't a safe place. Keeping pace with Jade, you navigate through walls of trees and bushes. It's clear how easily someone could get lost in here; that alone is treacherous enough, nevermind the fact that there are creatures here that most likely want to eat your face as soon as they see it. Scanning the area with your eyes, you find it difficult to get a read on your current position. Meanwhile, your canine companion seems to glide through the dense mass of plant life with relative ease. Turning your attention to the diamond dog, you start to pay very close attention. It dawns on you that she isn't following any particular pattern; there's nothing around to use as a landmark, yet she moves so swiftly, as if knowing exactly where she is going and how to get there.

Angling your head to the side, you watch the side of her face. The movement is subtle, but it's there. The muscles on her muzzle appear to shift a bit almost every second, her nostrils flaring lightly with each short, quick breath she takes. It occurs to you that she isn't traveling with eyes, but with her nose. She's navigating her way through the woods on smell alone, likely following some kind of scent. You take a few sniffs of the air yourself. Your nose has become rather exceptional during your time in Equestria, however, you feel it pales in comparison to a born diamond dog. There are many smells lingering here, but nothing stands out to you as many of them are unfamiliar by default. The most notable smells you can pick up on is the general scent of the forest itself, dirt, moss and the natural musk you've come to know from Jade. You also notice a distinct lack of one particular smell that's you've gone practically nose blind to, having been around it for the better part of a year: There's hardly a hint of the smell that ponies give off. It was something you didn't really notice at first, but thinking on it a bit, the ponies here do have very distinctive smells and you can't seem to detect even the slightest whiff of it.

It's almost unnerving to you, but it's just something you'll have to learn to get used to. This is a new start with a new species; One that actually might understand you, that can sympathize with you - if everything Jade has told you is to be believed, that is. The thought alone is refreshing enough, but you're not so eager that you allow yourself to be swept off of your feet in your fantasy. There's always a chance that you came to expect too much. For all you know, you may decide to leave here as well. You silently hope that this is not the case. It would be nice to have a place you could call home and mean it with sincerity.

Your thoughts don't dwell on this too much longer as something catches your attention. Since you have been paying attention to the surrounding smells, you notice a steadily elevating change in the air. It's a familiar scent, but not something you find yourself coming to worry over. It smells of animals. More specifically, your nose is being attacked by a 'wet dog' smell that reminds you a bit of home. Wherever it is that she is taking you, this particular smell seems to intensify, giving you the impression that her den must not be too much further from your current position. This comes as a relief, as your paranoia has been growing steadily since abandoning Twilight. You're remarkably surprised that you haven't seen Rainbow flying overhead in search of you yet. The sooner you get underground, the better. The last thing you want right now is to deal with the confrontation of yet another pony who thinks you need to change.

"We're here!" Jade calls out in a voice just above a whisper. She happily trots up to a large tree stump that stands almost twice as tall as you. "Some advice, love. Diamond dogs have a lot of holes near their den, most of which don't actually go anywhere." She goes on to say as she carefully digs her claws into the broken hunk of tree bark and climbs to the top.

As she gets to the top, Jade stops and looks back at you with the ever present smile that hasn't left her face since you asked her to bring you here. "What are you waiting for? Climb up!"

You watch as she reaches the lip of the shattered wood and then heaves herself over. Her paws catch the edge and hold her up just enough to look down at you. Your eyes shift to your hands and the disturbingly sturdy nails growing out of your fingertips. Taking a breath you move in and curl your fingers before pressing them to the bark. With a bit of force, your nails slide right into the wood with ease. There's doubt in your mind as you apply pressure and press your foot into the stump. You're surprised to see how well this is actually going. The remains of the tree are hardy enough to keep you in place and your nails don't even so much as bend under your weight. As you slowly begin to climb, your feet start to slide, the smooth texture of your shoes not allowing you to get a proper grip.

A few feeble attempts at this spur you into a small fir, where you kick off your shoes before pressing only the sock covered appendage against the surface. Much like your fingers, the nails on your toes have been rather unmanageable with how sturdy they are. Their own sharp tips poke through the fabric and have no problem sinking into the wood, allowing your climb to go by much faster and with significantly more ease. As you get to the top, you find Jade still there waiting, giggling slightly at your display.

"Not much of a climber, are you?" she teases, poking the tip of your nose.

"I can climb just fine, just not used to doing it like this is all," you readily defend, having always been a great climber when it came to the trees and even a few structures on your home world. However, your nails very obviously played little to no role in any of those. This new change could prove useful though. You feel so steady and oddly stable like this.

Before you could go on to defend yourself, a pair of warm lips gently assault your own for a quick second, pulling you out of your internal monologue. As she pulls aways, Jade smiles. "Come on, I need to introduce you to Roxy!"

On that note, she releases her grip on the edge and vanishes. Your eyes widen a bit as you lift yourself to peek over the edge. You suspected that the stump was hollow, but looking over to the other side still throws you for a loop. The hole in the center of the tree stump is impossibly deep, too dark for you to see the end. For a moment, you consider that this might have been a bad idea. However, being trapped in a hole and being locked up in a Manehattan prison doesn't seem like much of a change. "Nothing ventured..."





"Handyman!" Berry yells as she pounds a hoof on the front door to the local alien's home. Word of his return had only just reached her and she was all too eager to load up her saddlebag and drop by for a surprise visit. "Wake up you lazy sack! I have a fresh set of prison jokes I wanna try out on you!"

The mare tosses her body to the side, allowing her saddlebag to fall to the ground. Several 'clinks' can be heard as it hits the grass and the mare wastes no time grabbing the bag with a hoof and shaking it around. "You hear that? That a case of cider I'm about to have all to myself if you don't open up!" Silence continues and her face scrunches as she begins sniffing around the door. "Did you get a dog? Is there a dog in there!? You know I'm allergic!"

If she didn't know any better, Berry would think that he's actively ignoring her, not unlike how she is actively ignoring all of the passing ponies who eye her curiously as she goes back to knocking heavily on the door in front of her. "Hello!?"

"Uh...Hi?"

Berry's ear twitches at the sudden voice that definitely does not belong to the person she is looking for. Furthermore, this particular voice sounds as thought it's coming from behind her. Craning her neck, she spots the culprit standing not ten hoofsteps behind her. The purple mare blinks a few times before recognizing the pony. "Hey, AJ. What's good?" she asks, turning away from the farm pony to continue her abuse on the poor wooden structure. "Open up, you big dumb ape!"

Applejack tilts her head to the side at the local pub owner's behavior. "Berry, what in tarnation are ya doin'?"

Berry stops and turns to face the farm pony. "What's it look like?" she asks plainly, as if it's obvious for the world to see. "I'm trying to get Handyman to let me in so I can poke fun at him. It's like...our only pastime."

"Uh-huh..." Unsure of if she should even really be helping Berry, who hasn't seen a day of sobriety in nearly a decade, she figures it's better than letting the mare cause a ruckus and possibly breaking down the man's door. "Last ah heard, Twi' grabbed him to have a chat at that lil' Itfilly place just across the way."

"Twilight's banging the human?"

Applejack lets out a short neigh at this. "What in the world makes you think that?"

"I don't know! You said that Twilight took him on a date," Berry replies with a shrug.

"Not a date, you drunkard!" Applejack says with just a hint of venom. Drinking is fun and all, but Berry's tendencies had worn on her nerves a long time ago. "She wants to have a chat! Ya know, a conversation!"

"Relax, filly. I'm not saying it's a bad thing," Berry counters, clearly still unconvinced. "If anything, good for her...good for him. That colt needs a mare in his life."

Look back at the human's home, the mare throws herself at the door and presses her front hooves against its surface. "You hear that, you big sod! You need to get the V!"

"Berry!" Applejack yells out, earning a few eyes of her own from the wandering populace behind her. "He's. Not. Home."

Berry looks back at Applejack before remembering what the farm pony told her earlier. "Oh, yeah! I need to go to that Itfilly place." Pushing herself off of the door, the barkeep runs past the orange mare with uneven steps. "Watch my saddlebags!"

Applejack says something in the distance, but Berry is too lost in the throws of her own eagerness to notice. She quickly makes her way to where she thinks she will find Handyman. This proves difficult, what with there nearly being two of everything since she woke up this morning. However, she soon manages to spot Twilight hunched over a table all by herself. Recalling what Applejack had told her earlier, she figures the alicorn will be her best bet at finding the man. With all of the grace of a drunken Scotsman , Berry marches on over.

"Hey!" Berry says loudly as she all but falls onto the table, supporting herself with a hoof. Shaking her head, she angles her neck to the side to face the downcast princess. "I hear you're bucking the human."

Confusion clearly breaks through Twilight's sadness as she looks over at the intoxicated mare. "What?"

"Where is he?" Berry asks, ignoring the question presented to her. "I need to test out some more jail humor on him...unless you know another pony that just got out of the slammer. I'll try them on anyone who's been behind bars. Han-ha-hand...He's just the easiest."

The conversation from earlier hits Twilight full force once more and she soon finds herself staring at the table again. She can't even place how long she's been sitting here. "I guess he's back at home right now, getting ready to leave."

"Leave?" Berrys asks, confused by the implications. "He's supposed to be here with you. I was already at his place."

Twilight blinks at this, she's suddenly focused as she looks back at Berry. "He's already gone!?"

"He's supposed to be here with you!" Berry repeats, matching Twilight's volume despite not knowing why she suddenly got so loud. "I was there, no one answered, then this orange bitch tells me that you're bucking him at this Itfilly place!"

Twilight's horn flashes and they both become clouded in a powerful, lavender glow. The world around them vanishes behind the brilliant light, and just as quickly as it had appeared, it vanished. The two mares now stand outside of the human's home while Appejack sits beside the door with wide eyes at their sudden appearance.

"Oh, horseapples!" Berry says as she dances around dizzily, trying to get her footing back from the unprompted teleportation. "I think I'm gonna be sick..."

The last thing Twilight notices is the world around her as she charges at the door and begins knocking rapidly. "Handyman! Are you in there!?" she asks aloud, before speaking to herself in frantic whispers that only Applejack seems to notice. "He can't be gone already!  He just can't be! It's too sudden!  Where would he even go? He doesn't know anypony else! Maybe he just went to stay with a friend? He can't have already left! There's no way!"

"Woah, woah!" Applejack announces herself, getting up and taking a few cautious steps toward her friend. "Slow your roll there now, sugarcube."

Twilight's hooves bend and stretch uncontrollably, nearly causing her to hop in place as her nerves go into overdrive. Without even thinking, her horn lights up and the lock on the house begins to fidget. Much to her surprise, it doesn't click. She turns her focus to the handle, which turns turns with ease when she grabs it in her magical grasp. The door opens without resistance and the three mares peek in. The small home is dark and shows no signs of life. Nothing has been moved, from what they could see.

"Finally!" Berry says as she grabs her pack and goes trotting in without a second thought. "Handyman! I can pay the toll! Where are you!?"

Twilight and Applejack glance at one another before following the mare into the seemingly empty house.

"Handyman!" Berry calls out once more as she sets the saddle bag on the floor, her eyes scanning the dark house as she begins walking around in search of her target. "Where the buck is that colt?





This is not what I expected.

Aside from knowing this place would be filled with Diamond Dogs, you weren't really sure what to expect from your initial visit. Upon entry, you found yourself in a series of winding tunnels and caves. It was dark, for the most part, with only the occasional torch mounted to the dirt walls to provide some form of light. None of this managed to surprise you. What did catch your eye was the reactions you started receiving just by being here. The first few minutes of trudging through the underground tunnels were plain enough, not to mention uneventful. When you started coming into larger areas where work was being done - or areas that served as living quarters - that's when things started to get weird. It was one thing when the groups of dogs stopped whatever they were doing to stare at you, it was something else entirely when you noticed that some of them were bowing down.

The eyes that watch you as you continue your journey are nothing like the eyes of the ponies. The equines would stare at you with fear, uncertainty and occasionally with lust. Here, though, the eyes that watch you are filled with shock and awe. It's an unnaturally massive change to your usual dynamic and you can't make heads or tails of it at first. Your mind then wanders back to what Jade had told you back in jail. To these dogs, you weren't just some monster that happened to be sentient; you were something of legend, a borderline demi-god in whatever lore they have on humans that Jade claims once had existed in a bygone era long before the arrival of all of these sentient races. Your own internal reaction to it all is probably the most shocking part of it all. At any other time in your life, if something like this was happening, you would feel confused, conflicted even. Your first thought would be that something was going on in the background and you were being set up for some kind of elaborate prank or something. Right now though, you feel a strange sense of satisfaction.

Jade continues to lead the way and you follow almost blindly as you go on to observe the strange behaviors of the dogs around you. It's only when your charge comes to a stop that your attention returns to her. Turning to face you, you notice an odd look about her as she speaks. "When we get in here, just play it cool for a bit so I can introduce you two. Whatever happens after that is up to you."

Taking a breath, Jade leads you into the largest area you've seen so far. In the darkness, you can make out several armored forms. There was a number of large dogs decorated in old and rusted iron armor. You can't make out much of their faces behind their helmets, but their bodily reactions to your entry scream uncertainty to your eyes. Looking around more, you spot yet another dog further ahead. You can only assume this to be Roxy, their leader. Judging by what you can see from your current position, she is not quite as large as the other dogs in this room. Given the lack of light, it's hard to pinpoint much in terms of color, but you can tell by how well she blends in that her fur is dark and you can see her hair resembling a mohawk. Your ears twitch at the sound of her sniffing, likely trying to get an idea of what you are.

"Once again, I owe our seer a ruby." Roxy stands upright and you take in her full height as she speaks with strength and authority. She's definitely taller than Jade, that much is plain to see. You, on the other hand, would likely be able to see her face to face. You make a mental remark of how nice it will be to have conversations where you don't have to practically stare at the ground. "I had a whole detachment ready to bring down the walls, but I was informed that your stay there would actually prove beneficial."

Roxy begins walking toward the two of you, while you and Jade come to a stop. Standing directly behind Jade, a whole head taller, you watch carefully as the pack leader closes the distance. She comes to a stop no more than nine feet away from you. "I hope she was right about that."

Jade lowers her head for a moment before looking back up at the dog in front of her. "Roxy, I have made a wonderful discovery while incarcerated by those filthy ponies." She steps to the side, allowing your entire person to be exposed while you continue to watch with your guard up. "This is Handyman, a human, like the ones from our oldest and most cherished stories."

Roxy's eyes have been locked onto you since you came in here. She takes a few steps forward and leans in, taking in every detail. You, in turn, do the same. With the distance between you reducing, it's easier to make out her appearance. Her eyes are a piercing blue, her fur significantly lighter in some areas as opposed to others. Black and white, you conclude. She has the color pattern and general look of a husky or even a malamute. 

Humming, Roxy finally speaks. "He definitely looks the part, mostly. " She sniffs at you a few times. "He reeks of ponies, which does pose some concern."

You feel Jade nudge you a bit and you take that as your que to speak. "I have very little care for the ponies," you say in hopes that it will alleviate some of her supposed concern. "I tried my hand at it with them and it's failed time and time again. Frankly, I wouldn't care if I never saw another one for the rest of my life. Hell, I'd gladly forget most of my time with them if I could."

Roxy plays it off well, but you can tell that she's still not quite convinced. "Just to be on the safe side," her attention moves to Jade, "fetch me Madam Spot. I would like her opinion on all of this. Furthermore, I want every dog in this room to leave for the time being. I need to speak to the human in private."

The guards are quick to obey, but Jade seems reluctant at first. A few seconds of silence pass before she bows her head in submission. "Yes, Roxy."

As the dogs leave, Roxy's attention returns to you. "Do not mistake my caution for disrespect," she begins, her tone sounding much more passive than it had just moments ago. "I do not wish to offend you, sir. But, I must take every precaution necessary."

"The safety and well-being of my pack in always my number one concern," Roxy goes on to say with a disturbingly visible amount of weakness. "I would never willingly choose to show disrespect to a Beast Master."

Hearing this makes it all too clear why Jade held you in such high regard shortly after meeting you. You remember a time when you thought her a simple-minded crazy. With all this, though, from Roxy's words to the reactions you received since coming here, it's becoming painfully clear just how serious her entire race is about this whole 'Beast Master' thing. With that in mind, you decide it's best to try and console her, if only a little.

"I march into your home unannounced and you apologize to me?" you say in a joking manner, "That hardly seems fair."

This gets a very faint grin out of Roxy, so you see no reason to quit now. "This is your house, hun." You say, hopefully letting her know that you have no ill intentions. "Do whatever you feel like you need to. I would never fault someone for keeping their family safe by any means."

Roxy lowers her head for a second and you wonder for a second if that counts her formally bowing to you as if you're both in positions of power. "Your words are very humbling, Beast Master. I can only hope that your relationship with our people will grow."

You ear twitches as you hear foot steps approaching from behind. You glance back to see Jade walking with a shorter, elderly dog. The older dog is wrapped in rags made up to look like a dress of sorts, she has a long stick in her hand with a curled top that she is using to keep balance as she draws near. The hood on her head does little to hide her face. Where Roxy reminds you of one of the more graceful breeds of dog, this one looks more like a bull terrier with her oddly shaped head and small eyes.

"I was already on my way here, young Roxy," Madam Spot says as she slowly makes her way to her leader's side while Jade returns to her place next to you. "I felt their arrival not long ago. I'd have been here sooner if not for these dreaded old bones of mine."

"Your timing couldn't could be better, Madam Spot." Roxy places a hand on the elderly dog when she finally reaches her side. "How are you feeling?"

"Like you owe me a ruby."

Roxy rolls her eyes at this. "Yeah, yeah. Put it on my tab."

"You know, one day I might actually make you pay up."

"If you live that long," Roxy counters with a laugh, one that this Madam Spot happily shares. When their giggling dies down, she removes her hand from the old dog and motions to you. "I know you said Jade would return with a powerful new ally, but what exactly do you make of him?"

Madam Spot faces you. You're not sure how much of you she can actually see, given the nature of her milky, white eyes. "My, oh my..." she says with a sniff. "My visions told me that this would happen, but even I had a hard time believing it."

Slowly, Madam Spot trudges forward until her nose is nearly pressed into your stomach. "I never though I'd live to see the day that a Beast Master would appear, let alone come waltzing into our home as a guest." Looking upward, she stares those - what you think are - blind eyes directly into yours. "Please, sir. Would you allow me to take your hand?"

You've heard this woman referred to as a seer, implying that she's some level of psychic if you had to guess. The idea of giving her your hand is off putting, as your not entirely sure what all will happen after the fact. She could very well dig through all of your memories and learn every weakness you have. For all you know, she could make your entire headspace into a blank canvas. "What exactly is going to happen if I allow it?"

"Our mistress here just wants to be sure you're not a threat," Madam Spot openly responds, as if knowing your reasons for being on guard. "I simply wish to look through your mind. Just enough to be sure we have nothing to fear of you. There's nothing more to it, sir. I would certainly never wish to overstep my boundaries with you. I would consider it a personal favor and a kindness to us all."

You still feel on edge about it, and it isn't long before you feel Jade press into your side, nuzzling her face into your neck in a display that causes Roxy's jaw to drop slightly. "It's okay, love," she says comfortingly into your ear. "If everything you've told me is true, then you have nothing to worry about."

Taking a breath, you steel your nerves and hold out your hand for Madam Spot to take into her own. She closes her eyes and not long after, she begins to speak. "I see so many things here...I see trials, tribulations, heartbreak…" the old dog lists, making you uncertain about this once again. "I see your struggles with the ponies, how they tried to change you...how you tried so hard to change for them. I see a cell...one you've frequented a few times, by the looks of it.

"I see a growing resentment for those ponies that tried to change you, ponies that never gave you a chance to be yourself, never took the time to learn about you. I see the same cell again and again and -" Madam Spot's eyes open in shock and she glances back and forth between you and Jade. "you're a naughty little pair, aren't you?"

You can't see it, but you can only assume Jade is blushing given the sudden rise in heat on your neck as she hides her face. Madam Spot shakes her head a bit and closes her eyes before continuing. "I see...a few nights of heated passion." Jade digs deeper into your neck at that as well. "I see just how much you actually care for her. I see how desperate you are to start over, to find a place where you belong. I see...I see a family, one that's happy to welcome you home."

That last part really pulls your attention as she releases your hand and opens her eyes. Turning around, Madam Spot faces Roxy and speaks once more with a full smile on her face. "My dear, not only do I not see him as a threat, but I feel he would make a wonderful addition to our den."

Roxy nods to the old dog and ushers her to stand beside her once more, which Madam Spot eagerly does so. "This is splendid news, indeed." Her attention shifts back to you with Jade slowly pulling herself from your person to look back at Roxy. "Is it true, Beast Master? Do you truly wish to join us in our den?"

It's all finally starting to hit you. The last year of living with ponies, all of your effort to fit in, the friends you made along the way. Even if it wasn't ideal, Ponyville was home. It sucked, but there you had a place - No. No you didn't. You had a house that you could barely call a home, you barely had friends, and most ponies that saw you would look at you with fear or disdain, if not both. The constant weight you felt since living there was beginning to lessen the further you distanced yourself from them.

You look down at Jade, seeing a warm smile on her face, one that you can't help but to return. "I do…" The dog by your side leans in kisses the point of your chin, staring at you dreamily in a moment of bliss. "...with everything that I am."

"Little Jade, who could barely talk to a stud, acquiring a Beast Master as her first love." Jade's smile falls and you watch her features contort into a clear look of embarrassment. "I have to applaud you there."

"Given some of the things I saw, there are a few things you can applaud her for," Madam Spot interjects, "Next time, though, you should try biting him."

"Okay! I think that's enough for now!" Jade suddenly announces, grabbing onto your hand and pulling you toward the exit as she starts speaking frantically. "I think it's time I gave you a full tour! You'll need to get to know the area if you're moving in, after all! We'll check out all the best mining spots, show you where we gather to eat, maybe spend a few hours digging you a room, it'll be great!"

You can't stop yourself from laughing at her sudden behavior. Even so, with as goofy as this dog is, you find yourself being in a much better headspace. More than that, you're actually looking forward to the future and what may come from all of this. Above all else, you're happy. That's something you haven't been able to say in a very long time. For the first time ever, you are thinking to yourself that everything is actually going to be alright. Not to mention you have some fresh ammunition to use against Jade now that you know she couldn't so much as speak to other guys before you came around.

This is perfect.





Roxy watches the two depart with a smile, mentally remarking to herself about how adorable they are as a couple. She's actually a bit jealous, she has to admit. Of all the creatures Jade would eventually end up with, a literal demi-god was the very last thing she would ever expect that mutt to come home with. Once the couple is gone and she is sure they're out of earshot, her whole demeanor changes. Once again, she is the leader of her pack as she turns to look down at her seer. "Alright, you old bitch; What are you not telling me?"

"Sharp as ever, I see," Madam Spot remarks, not surprised in the slightest that it was Roxy to notice that she was holding back.

"Not as sharp as the claws I'm about to smack you with." Roxy's behavior here is typical for her, as it is with most pack leaders. While she could never bring herself to actually lay a paw on the old woman, it's imperative that she remains firm for the sake of her position and the respect she maintains as alpha. "I know how you are and I know all too well how nosey you can be. What else did you see?"

Madam Spot let's out a sigh, knowing all too well that she can't keep it hidden from her. "This transition will not be the smoothest. There will be peace for a time, but it cannot last. He is very strong and that strength is growing steadily. He will be the sole event to turn the tides when it comes - and it most certainly will come."

Roxy groans at the old dog's words. "Do you ever stop being cryptic?"

"You young pups have no patience for the world," Madam Spot says with a lidded gaze. "In moments like this, all we can do is wait and see what happens. Believe it or not, the world does not turn for us; it turns on its own. Nothing ever goes according to one plan, for fate has an unbiased grudge against creation as a whole."

Roxy runs a paw through her hair, letting out a stressed breath at the seer's message. "Please, if only for just this one time, give me something I can actually work with."

"You know all too well why I can't tell you everything. Once fate has decided our path, it is not up to us to change it." Roxy lets out a growl at this, already feeling the strain of what is to come, despite not knowing what is coming. "I can, however, tell you this. There are those that will search for him. As we speak, they've begun marching out in order to find and return him to pony society."

"And..."

"They will find him."