> A Change Of Heart: Luna’s Gaze
>  by The Royal Equestrian
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1 A Sad King
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The year is 2038, a King sits on his throne, he looks out of the throne room windows looking back on his life. Despite how young he appears to be, his eyes betray his youthful body, his emerald green eyes have a tiredness about them that you would see in an old veteran, his dark brown hair slightly disheveled and his skin pale by the little sun he gets to have. His duties as king prevent him from much time outdoors.

“King O’Whelan we have news from the Region of Canada that some Orcs were trying to evade our relocation plan.” A man dressed in a very formal suit and holding papers from his report explained in a calm and professional voice. 

“Ah if it isn’t my old friend Hal, hand me the papers I’ll put them on my desk in my study later. Wanna have lunch?” King O’Whelan asked taking the papers and gesturing to Hal to join him for lunch.

“Sir I don’t know if we have the time” Before Hal was able to finish that statement O’Whelan interjected.

“No offense Hal, but I don’t wanna speak of this subject anymore, I’d like to speak to you in private, I just wanna talk as friends.” King O’Whelan stated, shutting down any chance for Hal to bring up that conversation.

“If that is what you wish Sir, then I shall accompany you at lunch.” Hal agreed reluctantly, knowing he won’t get the subject matter he came for resolved as he would like.

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So, how have you been Hal, it’s been years since we have been able to speak openly,” O’Whelan said, walking with Hal and being overall happy that his old friend can spend some time with him.

“Yes it certainly has sir, but why did you want to talk to me in private, I assume this has something to do with our relocation plan?” Hal questioned as he looked around the royal gardens, amazed at how fast it grew in the short time of its existence.

“Hal you don’t have to keep calling me by my title, I invited you out here as a friend, I don’t want to hear any more of the relocation plan, nor do I want to hear any more about politics today,” O’Whelan stated, taking a sip of his tea as he reclined in his chair taking in the warm summer breeze.

As O'Whelan and Hal sat at a table in the gardens of O’Whelan’s palace they continued to eat their lunch in silence for a few moments until O’Whelan spoke up to break the silence.

“So, Hal, how’s the family been? I heard Jane has accepted your marriage proposal, is that true?” O’Whelan asked, finishing off his tea as Hal began to speak up.

“Yeah she did, you know Douny if it wasn’t for you, me and her may have never met, I can’t begin to thank you enough,” Hal said, smiling to himself as he did so.

“Ah calling me by my first name ah, I see that you have loosened up a bit, and yeah, I remember that party like it was last night, tell her I said hello, it's been far too long since me and she spoke, and with recent events, I rarely get time off anymore,” O’Whelan said, thinking back to that fateful night, that was over 10 years ago now, oh how the years have gone by.

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

April 26th, 2028 Fredericksburg Texas.

“Ohh come on Hal, the party is gonna be fun, and all of our friends are going to be there.” O’Whelan pleaded, hoping that Hal would come with him at least once.

“For the last time Douny, I don’t want to go, plus I’m behind on my homework as it is.” Hal protested.

“Come on, I can help you with that tomorrow. This is our last year in high school. I was hoping we could get into at least a little bit of mischief before these years of ours are behind us.” O’Whelan pleaded again, putting on his brown tweed jacket.

“You're never gonna give up are you?, fine I’ll come with you for an hour or so, but after that, I’m coming back home, I do need to get this work done.” Hal reluctantly agreed as he put his face into his hands.

“Thank you, and hey who knows we may even have a bit of fun there too, ya never know.” O’Whelan teased as he grabbed everything else his going to need for the party.

When both Hal and Douny got ready they drove off to the party, (though Hal was dressed a bit more formally than what was expected from the guests).

“You're going to be wearing a white tie outfit to this party?” O’Whelan asked with a cocked brow.

“Hey, I like this outfit, plus I rarely ever get to use it.” Hal scoffed, rolling his eyes at Douny as if what he asked was somehow weird.

“Riiight, well I’m sure you're going to be getting a lot of attention in that, anyway let's just hope that you don’t spill anything on it.” O’Whelan joked, bumping Hal’s elbow with his own.

As the two got to the party they drank, played games, and told jokes. They both had a good time until a few bad actors showed up.
Hal and Douny turn to face the new people at the party, only to see what looked to them like a bunch of lowlifes harassing a girl near the entrance, what they saw were a gang of 4 orcs and a goblin.

“Can you creeps just get lost, I’m not fucking interested in any of you, least of all the damn goblin that's half your size!” The girl exclaimed, turning away from the orcs 

“Come on we just want to have some fun baby” The taller of the two orcs teased.

“Hey pal, I don’t think the lady is interested, why don’t the lot of you clear off before things get ugly,” O’Whelan warned finishing off his pint of beer.

“What’s it to ya tiny human? We’ll do what we want.” The tallest of the orcs said.

“What the hell are you doing Douny.” Hal whispered in O’Whelan’s ear.

“This is what I’m doing,” O’Whelan stated matter of factly as he picked up his empty pint glass.

Before Hal could understand what Douny meant by that, Douny raised his glass high up in the air and said “Cheers!” and slammed it over the largest orc's head knocking him out on the spot.
Started what was a small bar fight in one of their friends' dorms.

After a few moments, the fight came to a close with everyone involved either being knocked out, bloodied, or just scuffed up.

“Well, that was fun, shame about your clothes though, I’ll help pay for it since this is kinda my handy work,” O’Whelan said, patting down Hal’s jacket and shirt.

“It’s fine Douny, if anything this is more so my fault for wearing something like this to this kind of party. I only have myself to blame.” Hal shrugged, looking down at his tux to see how badly damaged it was.
It was mostly salvageable, say for the pants which had a huge cut down the right leg.

“Hey, you two!” The girl from before shouted trying to get the attention of Hal and Douny.

“Us.” They both asked, imagining that what she was about to say wasn’t going to be good.

“Yeah you two, I wanted to thank you for what you did back there, you shut them up, that’s for sure.” She thanked the two patting Douny on his shoulder.
“What are your names anyway? I don't think I’ve met ya two before.” She asked with a look of amusement.

“My name is Douny O’Whelan, and this man in the tattered tux is my best friend Hal,” O’Whelan stated pushing Hal forward as he did so.

“Glad to meet yah both I’m Jane Kelly

“Good to meet you Jane, well I’m going to get me and Hal here a few drinks, I’ll be right back,” O’Whelan said apologetically as he walked away from the two mostly doing so to give the two some space to get to know each other.
Douny would take the opportunity to get to know Jane, but right now he has his eyes set on another girl.

After that a few more drinks from Jane, Hal, and Douny, the three went home, but not before Jane got the chance to give our ragtag duo her number so they can all keep in touch.
With that, the night came to a close, and Hal and Douny went home to sleep, and Douny kept his promise when he said he would help Hal with his work.

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"It was a wild night, I still can't believe you were able to fight that big guy by yourself," Hal stated, replaying the fight back in his head again.

"Well, it isn't that hard when your first hit is with a pint glass, it's kinda hard to fight after something like that," O'Whelan replied, recreating the motion as he did so.

"But I do have to say, me and you Hal, have been luckier than most, the fact we won that fight is proof enough of that. Not to mention the position which we have now, finally being able to do some good in the world."
O'Whelan said with a small bit of hollowness to his words as he looked into the cup that once held his tea, still replaying the events that got him here in his mind.

"I couldn't agree more Douny, I can't help but think we are finally making a difference in this world." Hal proudly proclaimed raising his fist into the air to punctuate his statement.

"This is why I came to you about the relocation plan. It's the last piece of the greater whole of rebuilding this Empire of ours into something greater than even the Romans and the nations that came after it."
Hal softly said, trying to push the point home for Douny but not doing it in a way that would seem too aggressive.

"I understand that, but I just can't help but think there's a better way. But I suppose you're right, we may have to go through with it. I'll see to it that the paperwork for it will get done first thing in the morning." O'Whelan reluctantly relented, unable to put off the plan any longer than he already had 

"That's great news Douny. I'll get everything ready ahead of time. Well, it's been a lovely chat, but I really must get going, Douny, there's already a lot on my plate, and I'm already behind as is." Hal stated giving Douny a bow as he left.

"Goodbye Hal until we chat again," O'Whelan replied, giving him a wave as he left.

"I only wish there was another way around this. But a King must do what is necessary for his people, and I can't give in to weakness now." O'Whelan thought to himself. Mentally preparing himself for what he was going to have to do next.
> Chapter 2 Through Smoke And Fire
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

May 27th, 2038 Austin Texas

Douny awoke with a pit in his stomach, he can’t believe the day came when he would have to do this.`If only there was another way, but sadly there isn’t, this must be done for the betterment of the nation's people as a whole.` he thought to himself as he got up he felt like he was making a mistake doing this. Why had he been the one that had to shoulder this burden? It wasn’t like there weren’t other people more suited to the job he does. Eventually, he fully raised from his bed to get dressed and ready for the day to come.

After putting on his brown sports coat and red waistcoat he was off to his study to fill out the papers from yesterday picking up the first letter from the stack of papers.

Dear King Douny Kornely O’Whelan of Bradenton.

It has come to my attention that there has been no action on the plan that was made to move the Orcs, Goblins, Wood Elves, and Dark Elves out of the major areas of the region of Canada.
I must urge you to commit to action as soon as possible
 We have been having an increase in riots and we are even getting word that there may soon be a rebellion on our hands.
I pray that we don’t have any bloodshed and to resolve this peacefully.

Sincerely the Bailiff of Quebec Jock Lamar Levesque

`So it really has gotten that bad, shit now there is no way out of this.` Douny hissed at himself trying to get through the papers but just before he got to the next paper Hal and one of Douny’s top generals came into the study.
Hal was the one to speak up first about what was going on.

“Sir things are getting chaotic there is a massive rebellion going on in the next province we normally could handle it ourselves but they are properly equipped and are extremely well organized!” Hal exclaimed in a panic, almost unable to control his breathing

“Try to calm down Hal, General what’s going on exactly, is what Hal saying true?” Douny asked, keeping a strong stone look on his face.

“I’m afraid it is sir, we have a suspicion that the Russians have been supplying them for months under our noses.” The General stated as he snapped to attention, keeping his cool much better than Hal.

“I see. Rally the men, we will show these traitors what happens when they try to bring chaos and disorder to this Kingdom!” Douny exclaimed, slamming his hand on his desk.

“Your majesty… from what we have seen this is not an isolated group, they have men not only here but in the regions of Mexico and Canada not to mention they have enough men to make a small army.” The General replied with a bit more shakiness in his voice

“Well… I see. Then we shall treat this as a proper war then. Get all the men you can make sure that they are ready to start this civil war before the end of the week until then rally me some men we are taking the fight to those bastards near the capital. I shall be leading from the front.” Douny stated looking down at the papers and then back at the two in front of him.

“Hal I want you to come with me, I’m going to need someone who can help with the logistics of this ground operation and you're the best person I can think of to help with this,” Douny stated grabbing his colt single action from his desk and handing it over to Hal. “Take this, if things go wrong on the way to the capital for you, use it. Now… let’s get this show on the road.” Douny demanded, grabbing his M1911 from the cabinet behind him.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

May 28th, 2038, Santa Fe New Mexico,

Douny stood in front of the men he was going to lead into battle. A unit of 32 troops had been rallied for the fight to take back Santa Fe from the rebels and push them back into Arizona.

“Alright men!” Douny exclaimed to the unit. “This is where we hold them, with their numbers we can’t afford to give up any square of land, we must hold them here or New Mexico is surely going to be theirs! If we don’t hold this city, they will take Las Vegas and push to Colorado! We can’t allow that to happen, are you with me!” Douny shouted, rallying the men behind the fight. They all shouted back yes sir in reply “Alright then men let’s move, we should be getting tank support within the hour.” Douny said, looking at his watch.

As Douny and the troops moved forward Douny felt slightly uneasy about how quiet it was around them. He shook it off as just paranoia but he couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being watched. They kept moving down the road until they came across a T section Douny looked around for suitable positions for what he thought were going to be advancing troops from the front of the T section.

Almost as if God himself had damned them, the Orc and Elf troops came from below the T section giving Douny and his men very little in means of cover against the attackers.

“We need to get inside to get cover, we aren't going to last long out here!” Douny demanded one of his troops over his shoulder. The soldier gave Douny a quick nod and attempted to kick the door to the building open, it took the trooper a few strong kicks but the door eventually gave in to the punishment. “Everyone get into the building quickly!” Douny didn’t have to tell them twice before all the soldiers flooded in.

“We need anyone with a sniper and MGs to take positions on the windows, riflemen should cover the doorways and any extra windows!” Douny ordered looking at all of his troops, the looks on their faces said it all. They all felt as if today was going to be their last. All the men took their positions as ordered and started firing on the enemy combatants.

Just as Douny was going to give out more orders a round from one of the Orcs went through the skull of one of the machine gunners that was positioned by the window and hit Douny right in the chest. Douny got lucky however for the round lost a good bit of energy going through the trooper and bounced off Douny’s plate carrier knocking him to the ground with a loud thud. When Douny hit the ground he lost his pistol for a brief moment until one of his soldiers got him back up on his feet and handed him his M1911 back.

“Are you alright sir, do you need a medic!” The young soldier asked looking up and down Douny for any blood or any other signs of injury but finding nothing of the sort.

“I’m fine Corporal, my plate carrier took the worst of the hit. I’ll live.” Douny said in a shaky voice trying to keep his calm. “Though I’m more concerned with the soldier who died, may God grant him peace.”

“Sir a dark elf is preparing a spell, and by the looks of it, it could wipe us out in two hits. What are your orders?” A soldier by the leftmost window shouted as he reloaded his MG5.

“Focus fire on that dark elf if he is charging up a spell like that then we can’t afford to let him finish the damned spell!” Douny barked, looking around at all of his men. He would be damned if he was going to let any more of them die today.

As the soldiers opened fire on the dark elf they eventually killed him, but they were a bit late and the dark elf got off one of the spells and hit the middle of the building. Causing a physical divide between the soldiers splitting them up into two groups. Douny, noticing the problem, fixed it by splitting the command. Though the ambushing side wasn't faring much better they had been nearly cut down by half over the engagement.

“Master Sergeant Jackson, you are in command for the time being for your side of the building, I’ll take the riflemen on my side to find a back door to the building to get around behind them.” Douny ordered looking at the crater the dark elf had made. He then looked up to the 10 men he had in his command and waved them to follow him. “Come on men, this day isn’t done yet let's move.”

Douny and his men eventually found a door leading to the back of the building, they went down a couple of alleyways to try to get to the flanks of the ambushers, they had almost done so without being spotted but a few dark elves had managed to spot them from behind a few of the alleyways.

After that Douny and his men were on the defensive again but luckily still had a good bit of cover.

“Those bastards got us pinned sir, we can’t take much more of this!” One of the soldiers behind Douny exclaimed, but Douny ignored him trying to find a way to overwhelm his opponents.

“Soldier I don’t need to hear your bitching right now we need to stay focused otherwise we aren’t getting out of this ali” Douny was cut off when a fireball from one of the dark elves went right past him hitting one of the soldiers to his right, the soldier was dead on contact. “Or something like that will happen. Now give us covering fire me and a few men are going to try to run to the other side of this alleyway.” Douny ordered peaking over the side of the wall. The soldier looked like he was going to protest but held his tongue and followed Douny’s orders.

As Douny and a few of his men were getting ready to book it to the other side of the alleyway one of the dark elves charged up a massive spell to take out the building. This time Douny was too slow to stop it and the building came down killing anyone who was still left in there.

“We need to go right now, we need to retreat!” Douny bellowed as he ran to what is supposed to be their excretion zone, hopefully, they could make it and get everyone out of there unharmed. “Make sure you grab that soldier's body, we can’t get the ones in the building but we are taking anyone we can back, we aren’t leaving anyone behind. Douny said with finality and fire in his eyes.

“We need someone to cover our retreat sir, me and Fae Fawn will cover you all, it’s been an honor, sir.” One of the soldiers said saluting Douny for the last time. “Are you sure, we can try to find another way without sacrificing you both,” Douny said, hoping for another way to save everyone.

“The way I see it, sir, if we try to retreat without anyone covering our rear we are all going to die, better it be the two of us than anyone else, we don’t have anything worth coming back to sir.” The soldier said at attention with his voice lacking any emotion.

“You speak the truth, I only wish there was another way, you both have been great men serving at my side,” Douny said, matching the soldier's demeanor. “Alright everyone these two will be guarding our retreat everyone else on me we are getting the hell out of here right now!” Douny exclaimed looking at all of his troopers as he said it.

“You heard the King Fae Fawn, let’s show these low lives how humans and high elves fight!” The soldier shouted, racking the bolt on his MG5.

“With pleasure, these low lives will wish they never tried to rebel against us, we shall make them pay.” Fae Fawn answered, preparing a spell that would trap their enemies in electric current.

“Alright everyone double time, let's move!” Douny motioned forward with his M1911. Without any more instructions, the rest of the 9 men ran forward, dodging gunfire and bullets as they went.

After a while, the gunfire ceased and they were in the clear but just in case they just kept running to their extract zone, they still had quite a few miles to go until they made it.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

May 28th, 2038. Helicopter ride out of Santa Fe.

“With respect sir, what the FUCK was that mission.” One of the high ranking officers in the helicopter ride back let out, barely holding back his anger at the failure of a mission they had just barely survived.

“Watch your tongue your speaking to King Douny O’Whelan the King of the American Empire you should kn.” One of the soldiers tried to give the officer a tongue lashing but was cut off by Douny himself.

“I want him to speak his mind, and frankly, Sargent, you are out of place giving your higher up a tongue lashing like that, hope to God that I don’t punish you when we get back for such blatant disrespect to a higher up.” Douny shot at the soldier who seemed to shrink at Douny’s words. “Now Lieutenant, continue with what you were saying. I truly want to hear your feedback after what has happened.”

“Well sir, I just don’t get what you were thinking, I mean trying to flank an enemy force twice our full unit size, that just seems like suicide to me, and don’t get me started on our unit size, for what we were trying to do 32 men were never going to be enough.” The Lieutenant replied, keeping his cool a lot better than he had before.

“I agree with the flanking part of your argument Lieutenant, but the unit size wasn\t my fault, that was as many men as we could get on a mission like this on such short notice, trust me if I could have gotten more men for this I would have.

“Alright, I’ll give you that, this kingdom is relatively new so we don’t have much in the forms of a standing army, but still the flanking maneuver, I thought you fought in the revolution for this kingdom to be born in the first place and to see such a sloppy tactical error puts that into questioning sir.” The Lieutenant stated looking at the roof of the helicopter, just for a moment he realized what he had said but before he could correct the mistake Douny shot him a glare and began to speak.

“Lieutenant I will not be questioned about that war, and my part in it, and if you want your head to remain on your shoulders I suggest you never speak of it again am I understood.” Douny said with an almost unnatural calmness to his voice.

“Y..Y...Yes sir I shall never speak a word of it again.” The Lieutenant said sweating bullets and having a mental panic attack.

“Good, then I hope we will never have this chat again. Now all of you get some sleep. It's a long way back to the capital and I want you all to be on your A-game in case we come across any more enemy soldiers along the way.” Douny ordered them all to go to sleep.

They didn’t need any more convincing than that to get to bed after a while they were all asleep leaving Douny alone with his thoughts, all centering around the events of the day. He did find it to be a bit suspicious that the enemy knew exactly where they would be to mount an ambush like that. But Douny just waved those off as terrible luck and didn’t give it any more thought.

After a while Douny too went to sleep, it had been a long day and if he wanted to give or take any reports from the goings-on today he would need to get his energy back up. After a few moments, Douny eventually went to sleep uncertain of what tomorrow may bring.
> Chapter 3 Cloak And Dagger
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

May 28th, 2038 

Hal was walking through the castle halls, he had just gotten the report from Douny and his men. To say it didn’t go well was an understatement, he couldn’t tell why Douny had messed up something that should have been so simple. But it was over now, all they could do was plan for a counter-offensive.

“Oh hello sir, I didn’t hear you come in. Is there anything I can do for you today?” A butler said, noticing Hal coming around the corner of the hall.

“Actually yes you can, can you direct me to where General Backer is, I’ve been looking for him but I can’t find him anywhere?” Hal asked, turning to face the butler, he was a high elf who stood only a few inches shorter than Hal, dressed in an evening coat with a golden chain and pendant that had a strange emblem on it that resembled a cross, not unlike the Knights Templar but it looked slightly off in a few ways hanging from his white waistcoat.

“Right this way sir, the General has just gone into the war room, I shall lead you to it.” The high elf stated, turning around a waving Hal to follow him, Hal though unsure, relented and followed the high elf, he did check the war room, but that had been the first place he had checked, and he has been looking for a hot minute, perhaps he went in there when he wasn’t looking.

As Hal walked he noticed there weren't very many people in the castle today, which was odd because the castle was full of officers, diplomats, politicians, and other types of dignitaries. The more Hal thought about it, he didn’t see the normal guards either, something that Hal was quickly becoming unnerved by and suspicious of, though, Hal was wise enough to keep his suspicions to himself for the time being.

As they kept walking getting only within a few dozen feet of the doors leading to the war room, Hal had a feeling that he and his new high elf shofer were being followed, Hal's suspicions had proven correct, but he did nothing, all he had was a colt single action army that Douny gave him with no combat experience, nor training, no the best course of action as of now was to keep following along until he could either find an escape, or raise an alarm.

The high elf opened the double doors and turned on the lights to it as Hal walked in, in the room was who Hal could only guess was the ringleader of the operation, a high elf that both Hal and Douny knew very well, or at least they thought they did, and a table with a map and a gun on top of the map.

“Welcome Hal, so glad you could make it, I know I’m not exactly who you were expecting am I, but I assure you that what I have to say is no less important” The leader of the high elves teased, leaning his head on his wrist and giving Hal an unnerving smile.

“Well if it isn’t Alrick Fawn, I should have known, only you could execute a plan such as this without raising any alarms. What do you want?” Hal deadpanned, giving off more venom in his tone than he meant to. Something that Alrick was quick to pick up on.

“Ah you know me too well Hal, though I would watch your tone I don’t think you want pretty little Jane to get hurt do you? Would be a shame if something were to happen to her.” Alrick continued to tease, wagging his finger at Hal. “Though I do suppose we can do away with the pleasantries for now and get to the reason why I am here. You see Hal I’ve seen your little relocation plan and I think we can do something better.”

This caught Hal’s attention, the relocation plan was something that only a handful knew about only a few Bailiffs and Generals knew about it, not even someone like Alrick Fawn would know of it, or at least, they shouldn’t.

“Go on,” Hal stated simply still trying to keep his cool after the remark about his future wife.

“You see Hal, moving them out of the Empire is fine and all, but it does not help out in the long term. What I’m proposing is a more… permanent solution to our barbaric friends.” Alrick stated coldly dropping his playful act for the most part 

“I can already guess what you're going to say… and that’s genocide,” Hal stated coldly with his head down, unable to look Alrick in the eyes after his proposition.


“You make it sound so cold when you put it like that, I understand your position on it though, genocide isn’t clean in any sense of the word. But what do you expect will happen when you do move them out of the country huh? Do you think they will take that lying down?” Alrick argued, trying to get Hal to see his point of view. ”Plus it’s not like your friend Douny O’Whelan was going to follow through on the plan anyway. Look here, it’s a letter that he sent to the Bailiff of Quebec, it clearly shows his true motives.”

After hearing that, and reading the note that was the last thing Alrick needed to do to win Hal on his side.

Dear Jock Lamar Levesque

I understand your position in the region of Canada is grim, and I do sympathize with the people of Canada, but I can not follow through with such an action,
I believe there is another way to more peacefully solve this problem. I would strongly suggest that you hold out until the new plan is put into place.
Until then you have my sincerest apologies.

From HRH Douny Kornely O’Whelan.

“Well I can’t deny that this is damning evidence against King O’Whelan, but what are we going to do? We can’t just take the throne as is, he would rally an army against us, and if we assassinated him people would find the body.” Hal pointed out, trying to come up with a plan of his own on how to best remove Douny from the throne.

“You don’t have to worry about a thing Hal, just leave that to me. Now get ready for Douny’s return, he should be here within a day or two, me and my men will keep the guards and such out of the castle until then.” Alrick reassured, as he got up from his seat and grabbed his revolver from the table, and put it in it's his holster in his jacket.

“Alright I will, I shall see you then Alrick Fawn,” Hal said, feeling a bit calmer than he had been earlier. Now the only thing he had to worry about is getting in position for their plan. But that was for later right now Hal needed some rest and something to drink.

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

May, 29th, 2038, The Castile

Douny walked up to the front stairs of his castle, he knew that there was planning to do, and he didn’t want to hold it off any longer. Though Douny did have a strange feeling about today. Just in case he checked his M1911 to see how much ammo he had left in his mag. Only 2 rounds, well that wasn’t optimal, if something was to happen he would be in trouble, but he could make do he guessed.

When Douny entered the castle, he was surprised to see Hal waiting for him next to his throne.

“Morning Hal, I wasn’t expecting you to be here, can I do something for you?” Douny asked in a friendly manner, feeling a bit more at ease than he had a moment ago.

“No sir, though General Backer would like to meet you in the war room if you don’t mind?” Hal asked in his usual professional voice.

“Not at all, but I do have to ask, where is everyone, there are usually guards and other delegates around here. I don't think it’s a holiday today is it?” Douny asked, looking around the throne room expecting some kind of joke was being played on him.

“No sir I sent them home today, I wanted to make sure that no one could spy on us when you both have the meeting,” Hal said feeling a bit nervous about Douny’s questions, though Douny seemed not to notice.

“I guess that’s a pretty smart move, though I can’t say I fully agree with it though. But they will be back tomorrow so there is no need to fret over it I suppose.” Douny shrugged as he started walking to the war room. “Come Hal, I want you with me and General Backer, you are going to be in charge of logistics and I want your input on the matter.”

“Of course, I shall be as much help as I can sir,” Hal replied, giving Douny a half-hearted salute.

As they got close to the war room doors Hal went ahead of Douny to open the double doors for him. Douny walked in and tried to find the light switch; he eventually found it and flipped it on.

“Well I General Backer isn’t here, I guess we'll just have to wait for him. That man could learn to be a bit more punctual if he wants to stay a General.” Douny shrugged as he rubbed at his forehead.

“I don’t think General Backer is going to be making it, sir,” Hal stated as he pulled his revolver out. Before Douny could ask why Hal fired at him with the bullet going through his shoulder putting Douny to the ground.

Douny yelled in pain as he tried to stop the blood from coming out.

“You bastard, why did you do this huh to take my spot on the throne, I thought we were brothers you motherfucker!” Douny bellowed with anger, pain, and sadness.

“Because you wouldn’t see reason, you backed out of the plan because you care more about those dark elves and orcs than you care about your countrymen! Alrick, do what you have to do. I'm done here.” Hal replied, turning away from Douny as Alrick Fawn came out of the shadows of the bookcases

As Alrick prepared his teleportation spell Douny up.

“I am truly sorry then, for what’s going to happen to them if Alrick gets his way, and I’m sorry for what I have to do now,” Douny said solemnly, as he pulled out his 1911 and fired both rounds into Hal's chest killing him on the spot.

Douny pulled out his knife to attack Alrick but he was shot with a lightning bolt putting him back on the ground with a jolt of pain, before Douny could attempt to get back up Douny saw white and felt himself being launched in random directions.

Douny eventually hit solid ground, when he opened his eyes again he noticed he was outside, with sand under him and around him for as far as the eye could see. He didn’t know where on Earth he was, but he couldn’t stay here, not if he wanted to live.

So Douny got up and tried his best to turn his clothes into a makeshift bandage to wrap around his chest and shoulder. Once he was satisfied with his handy work he set off to find somewhere to get help.

Little did he know he was much farther away than he thought. But he would find that out soon enough.
> Chapter 4 A Brave New World
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date, unknown, Location, unknown

Douny had been walking for what seemed like hours and he still couldn’t see any sign of civilization. Which was made all the worse with the sun beating down on Douny’s now exposed skin. The extreme heat was zapping every bit of energy and strength the man had, and he didn’t think he would make it much farther at this rate.

Before Douny blacked out however, he saw what he thought was a herald of buffalo, but they looked off, a bit more round than the buffalo he remembered.

As they got closer he could have sworn he heard someone say something. But he was too dazed and exhausted to understand what it was. But he did find it odd that someone was speaking, he didn’t remember anyone else being out here before.

As the buffalo approached him he noticed that they were definitely a lot more round than he knew buffalo to be, and their faces looked oddly… human, for the lack of a better term. He also noticed they were moving their mouths as if they were speaking but he couldn’t hear them. Come to think of it Douny really couldn’t hear much of anything anymore.

Just as that realization dawned on him, he collapsed to the ground with a thud, and his vision began going dark. Just before the world fully went from him he uttered a single phrase.
“Fealltóirí damanta.” (Damned traitors, In Irish.) Douny said faintly, just loud enough for the buffalo to hear him.

With that, the world slipped away from Douny. Leaving the buffalo in a massive state of confusion.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Douny woke up again it was clear to him that quite a few hours had passed due to the sky appearing dark with stars in it, and he was in a new location. Looking down found that the makeshift bandages were gone, replaced with something a bit more suited for treating wounds, but was still not what Douny would call an actual bandage, but it served its purpose well enough because he noticed he had stopped bleeding on the ground.

“Hey you, you're finally awake.” A feminine voice said on Douny’s right.

When Douny looked to his right he noticed a campfire with buffalo surrounding it, and what Douny could only assume was a calf, though the calf did look weird from what he could see, it looked a bit small for a buffalo calf. Though Douny still failed to find where that voice was coming from.

Though it took Douny a minute he noticed that the buffalo calf was looking at him, or at least he thinks it is, he wasn’t quite sure due to how dark it is where he was at. With that realization, he put two and two together and figured it was the calf that was talking to him.

“This might be the blood loss talking but… was that you who was speaking just now?” Douny spoke with a sore throat, and a few coughs proceeding that.

“Yes… though I am surprised you speak our language considering the tongue you were using back when we found you. What was that by the way?” The female calf said, cocking its head to the side with its right ear flopped down.

“It was nothing, frankly I’m still in disbelief that I’m speaking with what I can only guess is a buffalo calf, or am I mistaken in my assumption?” Douny asked, turning himself carefully towards the calf to make better eye contact.

“You are correct, my name is Strongheart, what's your name? We have never seen anything like you before around these lands.” Stongheart asked, giving him that same look as before.

“My name's Douny, and I’m a human, King of the North American Empire, or at least, I was,” Douny replied, flopping back down on the ground, finding it a bit softer than he expected, with a quick look he found that it was a makeshift bedroll. “Where am I?”

“You’re just a few miles away from Appleloosa, a small settlement not far from here. I’m happy to meet you Douny, though I can’t say I’ve ever heard of a hu man before, nor have I heard of a North American Empire, though I haven’t seen much outside of these lands.” Strongheart replied, giving Douny a warm smile, though Douny still couldn’t see it through the dark of the night.

“That comes as a shock to me, then I can’t be in Nevada like I thought I was, or anywhere else in the midwest of the American region. Can you tell me what Nation we are in so I have a better idea of how to go home?” Douny asked, rubbing his head with his right hand trying to keep himself calm for what the calf had to say. Though nothing could have prepared him for her answer.

“We’re in the country of Equestria, not too far from Appleloosa as I said earlier, the next nearest settlement is Ponyville which is quite a ways away,” Strongheart said, as a matter of fact, nodding her head to punctuate her point.

“Your fucking with me, there is no such nation named Equestria, I should know I’ve looked at maps for a good few decades,” Douny said in disbelief, looking at the calf with a look of horror.

“I see what happened now, that knife-eared motherfucker fucked up the spell! For all I know I’m in another universe entirely just because Alrick can’t plot an assassination attempt right!” Douny yelled at no one specifically. “You know what, fuck him, if he wants to take the throne he can have it, his ass won’t last a week!”

As Douny continued his tirade, a massive buffalo with what Douny identified as an old Native American chief hat, ran forward towards Strongheart and Douny.

“Is everything alright Strongheart, I heard fighting and came as soon as I could!?” The massive buffalo exclaimed, preparing to fight off any who would hurt her.

To say that Douny was scared of the massive buffalo chief when he ran in like that was an understatement, he damn near shat himself when he saw him come in, not to mention how massive and sharp his horns were. Douny made a mental note not to piss this buffalo off.

“Everything's fine, I was just talking with the creature we saved today. He calls himself Douny and claims to be a former King.” Strongheart replied to the larger buffalo, then looked back to Douny. “Douny this is our tribe's Chief, Chief Thunderhooves, he is the one that ordered the stampede to save you from the desert.”

“Is this true, your claim to be a King I mean?” Chief Thunderhooves asked with his head tilted to his left.

“Aye I was, I’m not anymore though, two people attempted to assassinate me one of those people I considered a brother, the person I said, Alrick was his name, tried to do away with my body, it seems that he failed at the former, but succeeded in a way they didn’t expect to in the latter,” Douny explained, positioning himself to look eye to eye with Chief Thunderhooves. “Though I do apologize if I scared either of you, or anyone else in my outburst, and I’m extremely grateful for you helping me out there.”

“Don’t mention it, we couldn’t leave you out there to die, it wouldn’t be our way, though I am sorry to hear your unfortunate luck getting here,” Thunderhooves replied, giving Douny an apologetic frown offering him some water and some stew. Which Douny took without being asked, giving Thunderhooves a thankful nod.

“Don’t be sorry about that, it wasn’t your fault I’m here now, though, I will take steps to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again,” Douny replied coldly, taking greedy gulps of the water, returning some of Douny’s color to his face, though he was red due to the sunburn his body had gotten from the day in the desert.

“If you don’t mind me asking what are those steps?” Strongheart replied, giving Douny an uncertain look.

“First off, I’m never going to let someone get that close to me ever again,” Douny replied putting up his fingers as he counted to prove a point. “Second of all, always keep people at an arm's length, if my guards couldn’t be trusted to stay at the castle then I don’t think the normal run-of-the-mill Joe Schmo is going to be trustworthy, and third have a plan to escape or fight a way out of any situation.” Douny finished, then moved on to his stew when he finished his water off.

“That… doesn’t seem healthy.” Strongheart pointed out looking at Douny with pleading eyes.

“Perhaps it’s not, but it is what I’m putting in place so I don't get betrayed again. Now if you don’t mind it’s been a lovely chat that we have had but I’d best be off, could you point me in the direction of Appleloosa, and my stuff, I’ll be out of your hair?” Douny replied getting up from the bedroll, only to be immediately put back down by a pain in his shoulder and chest knocking him flat on his ass.

“I don’t think so, in the state that you're in I don’t think you would last very long out there especially not with the Tumble Coyotes out there, it’s best that you rest a while before you head off,” Thunderhooves said, helping Douny back down to his bedroll, which the wounded human didn’t protest in any way against to both Thunderhooves and Stronghearts surprise.

“As much as I hate to admit it you’re right, I don't even have a proper weapon, only a gun with no ammo for it.” Douny relented, rolling his eyes as he laid back down.

“Thank you for staying, though I do have to ask, what is a gun?” Thunderhooves asked Douny that same cocked head look that he had only moments before.

“I would explain it, but I’m far too tired to get into specifics, all I will say is that it’s a type of ranged weapon,” Douny stated, as he put his head down to go to sleep, before he did so Strongheart piped up.

“Oh like a bow?” Strongheart asked Douny with a cocked head.

“Same idea, different execution, it’s kind of like a crossbow in a way, if you buffalo have anything like that,” Douny replied, waving them off.

“We don’t have crossbows, but we understand what you are getting at,” Thunderhooves replied shortly, understanding what Douny was getting at with him waving them off.

“Come now Strongheart, let the creature rest, I’m sure he had a long day,” Thunderhooves told Strongheart, gently pushing her along with his forehooves.

Douny appreciated the gesture from Thunderhooves, and made a mental note to thank him when he got the chance, though now wasn’t that time. If he wanted to get better in any reasonable amount of time, he needed as much rest as he could get. Though that was going to be much harder now with his new sunburn.

“Alright chief, I’ll speak with you again soon Douny,” Strongheart said respectfully trying not to disturb the human too much with a loud voice.

With that Douny gave the buffalo calf a thumbs up quickly finding sleep. The last thought Douny had before going to sleep was ‘How strange is my luck to be teleported to a world like this.’ With that last thought slipping from his mind, Douny finally found sleep uncertain about what the next day might bring.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Douny woke up he saw Strongheart pulling over a rather large bag to him, the bag looked to not have much in it considering the fact that the calf was able to pull it over with little to no effort. Strongheart noticing this gave Douny a warm smile.

“What’s the bag for?” Douny asked, giving Strongheart cock-eyed look.

“This is all your stuff plus some stuff we thought you might need when you feel like you're well enough to get around on your own. I know you asked for your stuff last night so I thought to bring it to you.” Strongheart replied, still smiling at Douny as she went back to go get water for Douny to drink.

After Strongheart got the water Douny accepted it, making sure to take in as much water as he could stomach. After he was done drinking, Douny put down the bowl, sliding it back over to Strongheart.

“Hey, Strongheart was it, do you think you could do something for me?” Douny asked, looking at her, and then his bag. She nodded.

“Of course, what do you need me to do?” Strongheart replied

“Do you think you could find me a long stick or small branch?” Douny answered looking down at his bed roll and back to her “I don’t want to be bound to this bedroll the entire time of my recovery.”

“Sure thing, I’ll go get those now. Is there anything else you need?” Strongheart said, making sure she got everything before she went off.

“No, that should be all I need for now,” Douny replied shortly, grabbing his bag for when she came back with wood.

It took Strongheart a bit longer than Douny thought it would, but Strongheart made it back with the wood that he asked for. From what Douny could see, he saw a few thin long sticks and one branch that he was sure he could turn into a makeshift crutch. That thought brought a smile to Douny’s face, he was going to be able to walk around without his chest being able to stop him, or at least he hopes that the crutch will help with that.

“Thank you Strongheart, you wouldn’t happen to have some small rope or string around would you?” Douny asked a tad embraced that he didn’t think to ask for that before she left.

“We do, I’ll go fetch it for you.” The young calf answered politely, before running off to go grab the rope Douny needed. As she did so Douny measured the sticks up with the small branch, making sure that the handles he was going to put on it fit properly.

It didn’t take long for Strongheart to come back with the rope that Douny had asked for. Douny then pulled out his knife from the bag to start cutting at the sticks to give them the right size that he needed and shaved them to have a smoother grip.

The end result was what Douny could only roughly call a crutch, it was a bit unsteady but it was strong enough for what Douny needed it for, he wouldn’t need it for too long if the feeling in his chest was anything to go by.

“What is that?” Strongheart replied with a cocked head.

“This is a crutch, if I made it right, it should help me walk around without tumbling over in pain,” Douny stated, looking at his handy work once more before testing it.

To Douny’s surprise, it held better than he was expecting. This would be perfect for what he needed.

“Alright, this will do nicely, thank you Strongheart for helping me with this. Now can you lead me to Chief Thunderhooves? I’d like to give him a more formal thank you for saving me.” Douny asked, hobbling over to Strongheart noticing that she wasn’t even above his stomach in height.

“Sadly no, he went on a stampede not too long before you woke up, he probably isn’t going to be back until later on tonight,” Strongheart replied, giving Douny an apologetic look. “Also not to be rude but you're much taller than I imagined, are all your kind as tall as you are?” Strongheart asked, with that same cocked head expression as she seemed to love using.

“No, I'm just slightly taller than the average man in my world. If it means anything to you my height is 6 foot 2 inches.” Douny replied evenly, trying to set back down at his bed roll. “Though if I had to measure you in my system, I would say your… 3 foot 1 inch.”

“I’m surprised we use the same measurement system, though I am 2 foot 10,” Strongheart replied playfully.

“Close enough, I mean the average height for men from my world was 5.9 to 5.11, I was just cursed with being taller than average” Douny replied evenly as he leaned against a rock next to his bedroll.

“Why do you say that?” Strongheart asked, with the same look she always gave when she asked a question to the human.

“Well first off it’s harder to fit into smaller places. I mean really, just try to fit into a cramped space being my size, it is a quick way to get stuck.” Douny replied half-jokingly. “Secondly it also means that my body has to work harder to push blood around my body, decreasing my life expectancy, not by much, but that’s just what I’ve been told.”

“I guess when you put it like that… being tall isn’t such a great thing after all,” Strongheart replied, nodding in agreement with Douny’s points’

“Now I didn’t say being tall was all bad. It’s a bit more of a trade-off.” Douny corrected before giving her the positives.”For example, with my height, I can move faster, hit harder in a fight, and reach taller places.” Douny finished petting Strongheart on the head as he did so.

“Huh, I never really thought of it like that.” The calf replied, unsure how to take what Douny just told her.

“Yup, most don’t seem to. A lot of people in my world think that because you're taller means that you have better everything. Little do they know that isn’t the case, at all.” Douny replied, closing his eyes in deep thought.

“That doesn’t seem fair.” Strongheart pointed out tapping her hoof on the ground in front of her.

“It isn’t, but I guess that’s just the nature of things in my world,” Douny replied simply relaxing as he did so. “But hey this is a new world, hopefully, it isn’t half as shit as my old one, but I doubt I’m so lucky.”

“You shouldn’t have to worry about anything like that here. This is a peaceful world.” Strongheart reassured Douny, though it didn’t seem to work too well.

“That’s what every nation says… right before they start another damned war,” Douny stated coldly scowling as he did so. “But I guess only time will tell if the same holds true here.”

“I think this world just might surprise you Douny, this world IS peaceful, and hopefully you can make some friends here,” Strongheart replied cheerfully tilting her chin up as though what she said was the honest truth.

“Well, one of those things might be true, as I said, I’m not going to be making any friends. I see what having people that close to you can do, and I will have no part of it.” Douny said with finality in his voice, shutting down any chance for Strongheart to make any counterpoint to his statement.

“That’s not fair Douny, you should at least give this world a chance before making a decision like that.” Strongheart pleaded, but the calf's words fell on deaf ears.

“Tough, I told you how I see it, and not even God himself can change my mind on that.” Douny stated, with the level of aggression in his voice rising, “Now if there is nothing else, leave me be.”

“Douny please, this world isn’t li…” Strongheart tried to counter before Douny interrupted her with his own words.

“I told you I am NOT going to change my mind, now leave.” Douny deadpanned, giving Strongheart a look that told her to drop it.

Strongheart finally relented and left. Before she did so however she looked back to Douny with a sympathetic smile on her face.

“If it’s all the same to you Douny, I hope you're wrong about that, I truly do. I don’t want to see you shut in and deal with these problems on your own.” Strongheart said softly with a hopeful look on her face. The look was not reciprocated.

“Then you’re going to be left hoping for some time because I’ve told you what’s going to happen,” Douny replied, giving her the cold shoulder.

Just before Strongheart could say anything more on the matter Chief Thunderhooves came from the opening to the campsite with an angry look on his face.

“Those Appleloosians have gone too far this time, when we told them to move their apple orchard they responded by ordering another tree from Ponyville. We have stood by long enough. Tomorrow we rob the train of the tree and then we put out our final ultimatum.” Thunderhooves stated, slamming his front hooves into the ground shaking the ground in front of him. “Strongheart I want you there when we take the tree. You are the most agile of us.”

“But we can't, there has to be another way.” The young calf said with a look of concern on her face.

“There isn’t anything else we can do, otherwise those grounds that belonged to our ancestors will be gone forever to us. I don’t like it either but it’s the only way.” Thunderhooves pleaded, hoping Strongheart would accept, lucky enough for him, she did.

“Yes, Chief. It shall be done.” Strongheart replied, drooping as she did so.

“Thank you Strongheart, I wouldn’t ask this of you if I saw any other way to resolve this,” Thunderhooves said, kneeling down to Stronghearts eye level.

“I understand Chief, I only wish that there was another way, and that it didn’t have to happen when it did,” Strongheart replied, looking down to the ground. With that Thunderhooves left. Leave Douny and the calf alone.

“Welp I guess neither of those things was true then, I’m not making friends, and this world isn’t any more peaceful than my own,” Douny replied, spreading his hands out in a manner that told Strongheart that he was right all along. “Go ahead and prepare with Thunderhooves, this isn’t my issue.”

Strongheart nodded, not before starting daggers at Douny for his rude comment.

As Srongheart left, Douny only felt as if this world was just going to be a copy of his old one though slightly more on the fantastical side. But he didn’t let that stop him from taking a nap, though he did feel a bit guilty for being rude to Strongheart after she was being nice to him, he guessed she had it coming for pushing him the way she did before that conversation with Thunderhooves happened.

With that last thought in Douny’s head, he finally fell asleep only hoping that Strongheart would be fine when she came back.
> Chapter 5 After Action Report
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So let me get this straight,” Douny stated, looking at Strongheart as he paced back and forth. “You and a herd of other Buffalo went after a train successfully, but you didn’t think to check the cart for any stowaways until after this little raid was done?”

“To be fair it’s not like we had time to check when we were out there. They would have come back to grab their cart.” Strongheart protested, pointing to the cart behind Douny as if to emphasize her point. Her argument seemed to not count for much however as Douny proceeded to point out a flaw she didn’t see.

“And they're not going to do that now, why? We have one of their own. For all, they know we are taking hostages, and I don’t want to be here when they do.” Douny said pointing at the small purple drake. “I mean do you think that this small tribe of Buffalo is going to be able to take on dragons? Because if you do, you must be out of your mind.”

“Th…Th…They aren’t dragons, they're ponies.” The drake pointed out, a tad shaken from the sight of Douny.

“And of course the dragon talks too, why am I not surprised? My point still stands, they are going to be coming back to find him, or, at the very least, the cart you stole, and if they are anything like my kind, they're going to fight to get either back.” Douny finished, sitting down on the hook of the train cart. “This is going to be a shit show. I can already see how this is going to end.” Douny stated, putting his head into his hands to calm himself down.

“I guess I can’t keep calling you dragon, mind telling me your name? My name's Douny.” Douny looked towards the small drake who still looked a bit afraid of him but did seem to be calming down some if Douny was reading his body language right.

“I I’m Spike. What are you? I’ve never seen anything like you before.” Spike responded, looking Douny up and down cautiously as if the human was about to attack him. His fears never came true, however, as Douny just nodded in acknowledgment.

“I’m a human, I’ve gotta say though for a dragon I was expecting something a bit bigger, I mean you barely come up past my knee.” Douny joked, Spike seemed to take a bit of offense to that but saw what Douny was attempting to do.

“Well, I’m just a baby dragon,” Spike replied, puffing out his chest as he did so. “When I grow up I’m going to be much bigger and stronger.”

“That makes more sense than you being a small dragon.” Douny thought out loud, getting off of the hitch of the train cart. “But unfortunately that just brings more fuel to my claim that your friends are going to be coming for you. I don’t care that they come to get you but, I have a feeling that things are going to get ugly fast when they do get here.” Douny continued pacing back and forth in front of Spike

“I’m sending some of our Buffalo out to check on things to make sure that nothing bad happens.” Strongheart Interjected, Douny didn’t seem pleased about this action. He was going to voice his displeasure but Spike was the first to speak up.

“I want to come with them just in case some of my friends are out there looking for me.” He demanded, jumping off his seat on the train's catwalk.

“That may not be the worst idea in the world, if they do send out a small search party it may be better to do so peacefully and with Spike in tow.” Douny pointed out, looking towards Strongheart to approve of the plan.

“I would say yes but… I kinda already sent them out, you might be able to catch up with them still though.” Strongheart said sheepishly, avoiding Douny’s gaze. Spike however seemed to not want to waste time, and ran after them. He came back shortly afterward, however, when he noticed he had no idea where he was going.

“Can you tell me where they went?” Spike asked sheepishly, giving a half-hearted smile.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hours passed since Spike had left to run after the Buffalo scouting party. They were about to go out looking for him until Spike came back with the Buffalo and, from what Douny could see were two pastel-colored equines. They didn’t look like normal horses. They were even smaller than a pony on Earth.

“What’s with the horses?” Douny asked, looking at the two ponies, one was cyan with a rainbow-colored mane and a set of wings. The other one was a two-tone pink.

They both looked at Douny with confusion, though the cyan pony held more suspicion in their gaze. The pink pony seemed more curious than anything

“We aren’t horses, we are ponies.” The cyan-colored pegasus snapped, “And what are you supposed to be, last time I checked monkeys don’t talk.” She asked, giving Douny a more skeptical look.

“Of course, the colorful ponies can talk too. First of all, I’m a human, not a monkey.” Douny pointed out, counting his points on his fingers. “Second, I had no part in the abduction of your friend there, so if you want someone to hate, look elsewhere.” He then finished, giving the pegasus a look of frustration. Douny already knew this was going to be a long night.

“Guys please calm down, we shouldn't be fighting, like I said earlier this was all just a misunderstanding,” Spike said, trying and succeeding at calming the arguing human and pony down. “Good now let’s introduce ourselves. Douny, meet Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, meet Douny.” Spike finished, gesturing between the three

Douny and Rainbow shared a glance at each other sizing each other up but they soon dropped that after they both noticed they weren’t going to be trouble to each other. Rainbow Dash was going to say something to Douny, but unfortunately for them both Pinkie beat her to the punch.

“OhmygoshareyounewyoumostbenewbecauseI’veneverseenahumanbeforewhichisweirdbecauseImeetlotsofnewcreaturewithmyfriendslikethattimebackintheeverfreeand” Pinkie… let out, rambling until eventually, Dash quieted her down.

“Slow down Pinkie Pie, give the thing some breathing room at least.” She said, trying to calm down Pinkie, and surprisingly enough succeeding in her attempts.

“Oops, sorry I just got so excited about seeing somepony new.” Pinkie explained sheepishly, though still not hiding her excitement at meeting the human.

“So, Spike, why did you bring us here? I don’t see the cart anywhere and I don’t think you'd bring us out here just to meet a new friend.” Rainbow asked, looking around the campsite that was in front of them being the only source of light.

“He isn’t my friend, but I agree, why did you bring them here?” Douny asked, with a cocked eyebrow crossing his arms and leaning back some.

“Douny I think it’s time that they meet Chief Thunderhooves,” Spike answered hopefully looking up to Douny.

Douny nodded in reply, leading the ponies to Chief Thunderhooves. Douny already had an idea of what Spike was planning, and he was going to help as much as he could. He wasn’t going to let a war happen if he could prevent it.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I’m glad you brought this to my attention, Douny.” Thunderhooves thanked Douny as he rubbed his chin with his hoof. He then looked back to Little Strongheart motioning for her to his side. She noticed this and did so, giving the ponies, Spike, and Douny a small smile as she did so.

“Our tribe's story goes back centuries, the land that those Appleloosians have taken for their apple orchard was our ancestral stampeding grounds,” Thunderhooves explained with his hoof in the air as he continued. “My father ran across those lands, and his father before him, and his father before him, and his father before him.” He was about to go on like this for a while until Little Strongheart interjected.

“I think they get it, Chief.” She interjected, putting her hoof on his withers to calm him back down. “But what Chief Thunderhooves says is true, they took those grounds from us without ever asking us about it, it’s not fair,” Strongheart explained, clapping her hoof on the ground in frustration.

This perked Douny’s interest, he didn’t know why they were fighting to start with but if it was over land disputes, he was sure he could strike up a conversation for both parties to give this minor conflict a peaceful resolution.

“We could try a diplomatic mission, see if both sides can come to an agreement.” Douny thought out loud rubbing at his chin which was starting to grow hair on it. “Those settlers need the trees for food, and you guys want the land to stampede on, from this logic I don’t see why there can’t be a compromise.” Douny finished, looking at the group to see what they thought. He was pleasantly surprised when almost everyone agreed with his plan. Though the cyan mare seemed to not be on board with the plan at all.

“Why the hay should they have to give up any of that land? It was theirs first.” Rainbow snapped at Douny smacking her hoof on the ground which made a much louder sound than Stronghearts.

“Because this is a way for both parties to get something out of this whole thing without starting some stupid war over a small patch of land,” Douny replied, glaring at the rude mare. This act and Douny’s reasoning seemed to make Rainbow see reason, relenting to Douny’s logic with a huff.

“So it’s settled, we will be heading to Appleloosa later in the morning to talk this whole thing out.” Douny finished looking at everyone again seeing that all were still on board with the plan. This brought a small smile to Douny’s face, if he was lucky this would all go off without a hitch.

With all on board, everyone headed out to sleep for the night. Just before Douny left however Little Strongheart, and Chief Thunderhooves waved him over to them. Douny went over to see what they wanted hoping he didn’t just make them angry by taking charge of the conversation.

“Thank you Douny, you have helped our tribe more than you know, and for that, I am extremely grateful.” Thunderhooves thanked the human, kneeling forward as he did so. This made Douny feel a bit uncomfortable.

“It was nothing,” Douny said, waving Thunderhoove's words away. “You helped me out when I was in the middle of the desert, I think it’s only fair I help you out in return.”

“I still feel as if I should thank you for your work tonight. I fear that if you hadn’t stepped in things could have gotten way out of hoof.” Thunderhooves admitted, giving Douny a thankful look once again.

“I guess I understand that, but if we are going to have a successful mission tomorrow we all need to get some rest. Soooo… Goodnight." out of the awkward conversation he found himself in. It seemed to work however when Thunderhooves nodded in reply.

With that go ahead Douny went to his sleeping roll by the campfire resting in it when he got to it. Now he just had to think of how the opening to the diplomatic mission with Appleloosa was going to go. But he figured he could deal with that later. With that final thought out of his head, Douny drifted off to sleep, hopeful that his plan would yield some fruit in the morning.
> Chapter 6 Peace Talks
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So, does everyone understand what the plan is?” Douny asked, looking over the map of the area. Like Little Strongheart said, Appleloosa is no more than 2 miles away from where they are now. If all went well they could make it before high noon. Everyone nodded and went off doing last-minute checks on what they needed to bring, which was mostly just water, food, and tents, in case things took more than a day to resolve.

“You doing alright there Douny?” Spike asked, looking up at the human. As much as Douny was trying to hide his nervousness, the little dragon seemed to be able to see straight through his mask.

“I’ll be fine, I just need to make sure everything goes off smoothly, and things will be fine.” Douny stated, more so for his own benefit than anyone else's. This didn’t go unnoticed by the little dragon however as Spike sat down and tried to comfort Douny as best he could.

“If you say so, though, I think you should open up to someone. It can’t be healthy to bottle your feelings up.” Spike added as he looked at the man with a worried look. This action didn’t win the little dragon any favor with Douny however as the human scowled at the small dragon.

“Noted, but if you want my suggestion you should mind your business. My burdens are not your own, drop it.” Douny deadpanned at the drake, causing Spike to shrink at the human's words.

“Move on now, I’ve got enough to worry about, and I don’t need a nosy dragon being another one.” Douny finished, waving Spike away from him. This worked and Spike went away with his head down.

Little Strongheart was watching from the sidelines of their conversation. She wasn't exactly surprised to see that the human reacted the way he did, though she wished he would have been more open to the idea of venting whatever happened to him out. Though she knew she couldn’t force him to talk about it as much as she wished he would. But the situation would have to be brought up later. Right now she had to check her own supplies to make sure she had everything she needed.

After everyone had their supplies squared away, they all met up around the valley that served as an exit and entrance to the camp, with Douny leading the group alongside Thunderhooves, Strongheart, and the 2 ponies that appeared in the camp last night.

“So where does your kind come from anyway? I’ve never seen anything like you before.” Rainbow Dash asked, looking up at the man that doubled her height. Rainbow would have to admit that she was a tad nervous when near him, mostly due to the size disparity. She imagined he would easily be able to take her in a fight. Though she wasn’t exactly sure how true that would be.

“I’m from a planet called Earth. It’s very far away from here.” Douny explained, with a bit of dryness in his tone as he looked forward towards where they were headed.

“You honestly expect me to believe that? Buck, for all we know you're some kind of spy from some far away land.” Rainbow Dash pressed, not believing a word that the human said. He may be trying to act nice and peaceful but that had to be just an act.

“Quit it, we already have enough to worry about without you both arguing the whole way to Appleloosa, so please just be at the very least civil.” Strongheart pleaded, she was starting to get a headache from Rainbow’s constant bickering with the human, and it was getting on her last nerves.

They both nodded in agreement though Rainbow was a bit more reluctant to stop her questioning. But she knew she wouldn’t get any more answers today. Now that she thought about it, he didn’t look all that tough or threatening. Not to mention how he was probably badly wounded if the bandage around his exposed chest was anything to go by.

Douny however seemed to not care very much. If the pony wanted to question his motives that was her right. He didn’t much blame her either, he would probably be acting the same way if he were in her shoes.

Strongheart however didn’t really believe things were over between them quite yet. But she didn’t want to waste time on them right now, nor did she want to waste the energy needed to do so. As long as they were quiet for the rest of the walk she would be happy.

They kept walking for what seemed like an hour, the sun was as they predicted up in the middle of the sky by the time they got there. The small town was within sight. If Douny had to give an estimate it was roughly 500 to 600 meters away now. It was also at this time when most of the buffalos in the group started to set up tents for when the night came. Douny thought that was a good idea and found a place as well as put his tent up. After about 20 to 30 minutes of putting their tents up they finally were done and rallied up by the tribe Chief, and alongside him were the human and Strongheart as they planned this speech out.

“Today is a day of peace and understanding. Today we plan to make peace with the ponies of Appleloosa and hopefully find a compromise to the situation we find ourselves in.” Chief Thunderhooves spoke looking at the group that came with them. “Thanks to our new friend Douny O’Whelan we have a chance to bring peace amongst our kinds once more,” Thunderhooves said, waving his right hoof over to Douny, giving him his queue to speak, which Douny followed, nodding towards the Chief as a form of thank you.

“I have only been here for a few days, but I know how these conflicts go. It is the reason I proposed this plan last night. My kind is no strangers to conflict, we have gone to war over the stupidest of reasons. But I will not stand by and see another one happen if I feel as if I can stop it.” Douny spoke, with a look of determination in his eyes. He then pointed to the crowd to help punctuate his final point. “I do this not just for you but the generations after, a hope for a brighter tomorrow!” Douny finished, raising his fist into the air.

The crowd of buffalo seemed to be ecstatic about the speech the human gave, raising the morale of the entire group. Even Rainbow Dash seemed to be excited at hearing the speech. Now with their morale up, the job of speaking to the leadership of this town could begin.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chief Thunderhooves, Strongheart, Douny, and the 2 ponies walked into town. Almost immediately after they came into town a few more ponies walked up to them. One was orange with a blonde mane and a stetson, another was a purple unicorn with a lavender mane and a light purple stripe, and the final pony, which Douny figured was the towns speaker was a bright yellow with a 2 tone orange mane and a dark brown stetson with a high crown.

“Hello there, what can we do ya for?” The yellow stallion spoke up, looking at the small group with an unsure look on his face. There was a brief moment of silence until Thunderhooves broke the silence.

“We are here to negotiate peace, and hopefully make a compromise on the land you put your orchard on,” Thunderhooves answered, lifting his right hoof towards Douny. “This is my friend Douny, he shall be with us to help with the negotiations, as will Little Strongheart to keep things civil.” Thunderhooves then finished, giving off a hopeful smile.

This seemed to put everyone at ease, things were going great so far. If things kept up like this Douny was sure that today was going to go great. All he had to do was make sure that nothing bad happens, and make sure that the terms made were fair for both parties. Yeah, Douny was sure this was going to work. That was until the orange earth pony with the blonde mane spoke up.

“And why the hay should we speak with creatures that stole a train cart carrying one of our apple trees?” The orange mare asked, growing angrier at the thought of what they did. This got Douny to speak up.

“I’m not going to stand here and defend those actions, that was their bad, but I’m sure they are more than willing to pay for any damages and time wasted for that action,” Douny answered calmly, looking between both groups. This action slightly startled the other 3 ponies. Though the Chief and Strongheart nodded in agreement with Douny’s answer.

This got the orange pony to calm down, but Rainbow still found this to be unfair. Though one glance from Douny and Strongheart got her to remain silent about what she was going to say. This was a very fragile moment, if things didn’t go well on first contact,        then things would start going south fast.

“Alright, right this way.” The yellow stallion replied leading both groups to a town hall/

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The 2 groups were sitting at a table in the town hall for what seemed like hours. Not much conversation was made, which wasn’t surprising there was still tension in the air and Douny imagined that they wouldn’t want to speak until negotiations started properly. This did make his plans a bit harder to execute, but he would just have to roll with the punches for now.

A half an hour later and the town sheriff and the yellow stallion came in and took a seat at the table.

“So I think now we can begin, though first I think we should handle the elephant in the room first.” The yellow stallion spoke up looking toward the human. “I don’t want ya to take this the wrong way but, what are you exactly?” The yellow stallion then asked with a look of confusion in his eyes. Douny took this in stride however and humard his question.

“I’m Douny, a human from the planet Earth, though where that is I don’t have a clue. I was brought here by accident.” Douny explained, getting a curious look from the purple unicorn on the opposite side of the table. “Though I do think that introductions are in order, what are your names?” He then asked looking towards the members of the other group.

“Ma names Braeburn, this here is my cousin Applejack, and her friends Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy.” The stallion now known to be Braeburn replied with a smile on his face. Pointing to the ponies in question as he listed them off. Douny followed his lead and did the same.

“This is Chief Thunderhooves, Little Strongheart, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie.” Douny finished pointing to the members of his group. He had to admit that this icebreaker was just what they all needed to calm the nerves in the air. “So shall we begin?” Douny then asked to get the conversation back on track. Everyone nodded and prepared themselves for the negotiation.

Hours went by, the start of the negotiations seemed like nothing was going to be done about the situation. But as time went on the two groups started to better understand each other's situations. After a few more hours a solution was made. Appleloosa would make a wide enough path for the buffalo to stampede on, and give the buffalo a portion of the fruits harvested from the trees, and the buffalo would let the trees stay and the townspeople expand as needed to keep their town thriving.

“Hey, Douny was it?” Twilight asked, looking up to Douny sheepishly. This got the human's attention as he turned to face the purple unicorn.

“Yeah, what is it I thought that the negotiations were done?” Douny asked in reply, looking down at her as she spoke.

“I just wanted to ask if you wanted to come to Ponyville with me and my friends when we head out tomorrow?” Twilight asked, feeling a bit more confident now as she continued speaking with the man.

“I’d honestly like to, the desert isn’t really my style anymore. Though I don’t know where I would live there I don’t exactly have the funds to buy a place to stay.” Douny replied, rubbing the back of his head in thought. He really did want to come, but he also didn’t want to become homeless.

“You could stay with me, I do have some questions about your world and people, and you would get a place to stay there. It’s a win-win.” Twilight replied, getting a bit more excited as the conversation went along. Lucky for her the human didn’t seem to mind the exchange too much as he nodded in agreement.

“I guess that will be fine, let me just say goodbye to Thunderhooves and Strongheart,” Douny said, picking up his bag of things that he came to this world with, as he walked over to the 2 buffalo.

Things seem to be looking up for Douny. He had a place to stay now, consistent means of food and water, and he may even dare to say he is in a better state than when he was arriving here. The only downside he could really see was having to adapt to a new culture and social norms. But he was more than sure he could manage that.
> Chapter 7 Winds Of Change
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Douny approached the two buffalo, unsure as to how he was going to say his goodbyes, though he guessed it didn’t matter; it wasn't like they were friends nor did they know each other for very long. But something inside him was tugging at him to make his goodbyes have meaning to it. He couldn’t for the life of him understand why, but he guessed that it was the least he could do in exchange for their help.

“Hey Thunderhooves, Strongheart, do you have a minute? There is something I want to say.” Douny asked, looking between both of them.

“Of course Douny, what is it that you wanted to tell us?” Thunderhooves answered, giving the human an expectant smile.

“I just wanted to say thank you for taking me in as you have, I am extremely grateful. But I think now is where we part ways. Twilight has offered me a place in Ponyville and I’m going to take her up on that offer.” Douny explained, giving both the buffalo a respectful nod as he waited for their response.

It took a minute for Thunderhooves to find the words but he eventually found what he wanted to say. “I’m saddened to see you go so soon, but I understand that you have your own path to follow, as do we. But I hope this is not goodbye forever, I have a feeling we shall meet again, Douny.” Thunderhooves said, giving Douny a hopeful look.

“Maybe we will, one day.” Douny agreed, giving Thunderhooves a nod. “I think I’ve kept Twilight waiting long so I think we will have to cut this short, I wish you the best of luck Thunderhooves, and safe travels.” Douny then finished, as he walked off to meet up with Twilight, giving the two buffalos a wave as he did so.

“And the same to you, friend.” Thunderhooves added, giving the human a wave in return.

With that Douny made his way over to Twilight and her friends. If he remembered correctly they should only be a few blocks from where he is now.

Douny made it to them faster than he had thought. Though he guessed that was a good thing seeing as they were still packing up to leave. Not to be a bad guest for the pony who took him in, he decided to help her out with the packing. Though from what he could see most of what she packed were a few old books and a few scrolls.

“Oh hello there Douny, I wasn't expecting you to be here so soon. How did things go with Thunderhooves and Strongheart?” Twilight asked, taking a break from packing.

“It went pretty well honestly, though they seemed to be a bit dejected when they heard I was leaving.” Douny responded, kneeling down to help pack some of the books. That was until Twilight put up a hoof to stop him.

“Oh you don’t need to help, I was just checking everything before I packed them. I've got it.” Twilight insisted, lighting up her horn and levitating all the books and scrolls into her saddle bags.

This didn’t go unnoticed by the human, as he looked up with a bit of aww. It isn’t like he's never seen magic before but the only version of magic he was used to was the destructive types of his world. Though he remembered that humans were only rumored to have magic, that was never proven. It was at this moment that Twilight noticed the look he was giving her and decided to speak up about it.

“I’m guessing that where you're from magic isn’t really common is it?” Twilight asked, giving Douny a sheepish smile.

“No it’s pretty common though not among my kind, and the magic is never used like this.” He answered, waving to the book that was caught in her magic.

Twilight gave him a curious look though she let it be until they left. They didn’t have time right now to give each other questions.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A few moments passed as everyone got on the train. For the most part, not much was being said. Douny heard a few of Twilight's friends talking about him but they didn’t seem to be saying anything negative so he let it pass, until Twilight spoke up.

“So Douny, you said that you have magic on your world, what’s it like?” Twilight asked, giving the human a wondering gaze.

“Well it’s mostly combat spells, humans like myself however are incapable of magic. There have been rumors and superstitions about how we could, but there is very little evidence to back that up.” Douny answered simply, at one point he believed the rumors, but as he got older he saw them for what they were. Just people speaking about something they knew very little about. It annoyed him just how often people spoke about stuff they didn’t know the first thing about.

“Wait, combat magic? Why would any creature specialize in something like that?” Twilight asked, with her eyes wide open, like a deer caught in headlights.

“I’m going to guess that your kind don’t have wars that often if that question is anything to go off of. It’s mostly because war and fighting are very common where I’m from, hence why combat magic has become the most common school of magic.” Douny explained, gesturing to the air to emphasize his last point. Though Twilight still seemed shocked by the revelation.

“You would be right, The last time Equestria fought in a war was centuries ago.” Twilight explained in a slightly shaky voice and a slight chill down her spine. The thought of a war seemed so foreign an idea to her.

“Hey do you think I could get some new clothes when we get into town, I don’t want to constantly be showing off my chest the whole time?” Douny asked, gesturing to his naked chest.

“Oh I could help you with that darling, it would be my pleasure to make you a new pair of clothes, OH perhaps a nice brown suit, it would go great with your mane.” A white unicorn in the back said. If Douny remembered right her name was Rarity.

“Thank you but I don’t think I could pay you back. I don’t have money from my world on me, much less anything from this one.” Douny explained. Though Rarity raised her hoof in protest.

“Nonsense darling, you don’t have to give me a thing, making clothes for a pony in need is something I live for.” Rarity waved his argument away.

“Thank you again, though I will find a way to return the favor somehow.” Douny responded, giving the white unicorn a thankful nod.

They stayed in silence a moment more before Twilight spoke up again.

“If you don’t mind me asking.” Twilight said with a nervous laugh. “What happened to you to get that bandage around your body?” Twilight asked, pointing her hoof at the white bandage that now sported a light shade of red over where the bullet wound was.

“No offense Twilight, but I refuse to answer questions about my past at this moment” Douny deadpanned as he looked away from Twilight and out to the window.

Twilight wilted at that, her posture visibly shrank almost like she was trying to disappear. This action didn’t go unnoticed by the human as he sighed.

“Look I’m sorry if I’m coming off as a bit hostile. Just, some things have happened to me these last few days, and I’m not willing to talk about them yet.” Douny explained, hoping that his explanation would help the situation, even though he didn’t think he’d ever be willing to talk about it.

Though his attempt didn’t work as he intended, bringing the mood in the train cart down once again. With the drop in mood came the silence. No one spoke for minutes until Twilight again spoke up.

“I’m sorry Douny, I didn’t mean to pry into something personal.” Twilight said, looking down in shame.

“Please don’t blame yourself, you couldn’t possibly have known. I should be saying sorry for being standoffish as I was.” Douny explained, looking away from the window and back to the lavender unicorn.

For the rest of the trip they spoke about random topics, none of which pertained to the human or his world. Mostly about what they did in the past. Douny didn’t listen to much of it, choosing to stay silent for the remainder of the train ride to Ponyville. Though he did wonder why the naming scheme for the locations he's been at so far has been pun based. But he guessed that was just the way they liked to name things.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the train came to a stop at the train station in Ponyville, the ponies seemed to be happy to be back home, everyone grabbed their saddlebags and started heading out. Douny grabbed his large burlap sack and used the strings as makeshift straps to carry the bag into town.

It was a long ride from what Douny could see, the moon was already up with the stars decorating the sky, Douny had to say the sight was stunning,

Twilight and Douny split off from the group to head to Twilight's place, they said their goodbyes for the night and made their way there. When they got to her house Douny chuckled to himself which got Twilight's attention.

“What’s got you laughing?” Twilight asked, looking back to see Douny’s reading the sign by her house.

“It’s the name,” Douny said through muffled laughs. “The Golden Oaks Library?” He mused.

“Yeah wha… Oh, I think I see.” Twilight chuckled, figuring it out.

They both walked inside and put their things down. What Douny saw was pretty amazing. It was a hollowed-out tree with books lining the carved-out shelves. With a painting of a sun on the ceiling, and a table in the middle of the large space.

“Make yourself at home, you must be tired after today. There's a room in the basement you can use.” Twilight said as she walked up the stairs to what Douny assumed was her bedroom.

“Thanks for taking me in Twilight, it means alot, I’m going to head to bed. As you said today's been a hard one, I could use some rest." Douny thanked, heading to the stairs leading down into the basement below the library floor.

“He headed down the stairs to find the room that Twilight spoke of, it was mostly empty except for a bed, a nightstand, and a lamp on top of the nightstand. The tired man fell into the bed with little hesitation letting his body loosen up on the mattress

Before he let sleep take him he had one last thought. I think that things are going to be better here. With that Douny found himself swiftly drifting off to sleep.
> Chapter 8 Slave To The Mind
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Machine gun fire echoed over the city, spreading chaos among the scene Douny was observing with great shock and crippling anguish. He saw civilians and soldiers being chewed up by the unrelenting hail of copper and lead. The soldiers held up a flimsy resistance, but due to the approaching army, they never would have been able to do much.

After the gunfire had ceased, the attacking soldiers appeared from the left of Douny’s view. He wished he had never looked toward them. One of the soldiers stood out to Douny, he had a similar uniform being in an olive drab shirt, forest camo pants, jungle boots, an M1 helmet, and an AK74u on his chest. But what stuck out to Douny was the patch on his shoulder, it was a crown with an eagle behind it. It became even more clear when he pulled off his helmet to reveal a much younger-looking Douny behind the shadow of his helmet.

“No” was all the older Douny could weakly whisper before his younger counterpart spoke.

“The cowards are on the run, keep pushing them, we are going to burn this God-forsaken city and its people to the ground for their treasonous acts against humanity!” The young Douny ordered, looking to his men as he continued. “If they want to save the orcs and elves then so be it, let them pay the price for what they have done to us!” With that, the young Douny’s men followed the order without question.

“No, this can’t be… I won’t let this happen again.” The old Douny growled, pulling out his 1911 from the pouch that he had on him. Though when he lined up the shot and squeezed the trigger, all that came out was a metallic clunk from the hammer hitting the firing pin. Unfortunately for the older Douny his younger self heard the clank and pulled out his 1911, though as soon as it fired and the round was about to hit Douny the whole scene stopped.

Douny opened his eyes to see the frozen scene in front of him and the bullet with his name hovering in front of him. “What the hell?” The man whispered looking around him, he soon found a bright white light in front of him with another one of those ponies coming out from it. Though this one looked far different from the ones his seen so far, this one was taller and had a rich dark midnight blue coat, cyan blue eyes, with an ethereal mane with stars, and constellations on a blue backdrop, though one thing that stuck out to him the most was the fact that this pony had both wings and a horn.

“Hello, strange creature, thou art the one Twilight spoke of we presume?” The mare said in a royal tone that Douny was all too familiar with.

“Yes, I am, my name is Douny O’Whelan, and what may I call you?” Douny replied in a somewhat shaky voice, trying to calm himself down from what had happened.

“Thou may call us Princess Luna, tis a pleasure to meet you.” Luna answered, offering a hoof to shake as she kept her regal stance.

“I’m sorry if this comes off as rude but, are you real? I’m assuming that this is all some sort of dream.” Douny let out once he finally felt calmed down.

“We can understand how thou hast come to this conclusion.” Luna started, looking at the frozen scene around them. “Yes we are very real, and thou art correct that this is a dream, we were brought here by thous night terror, which I must say is most troubling,” Luna admitted, looking back to the ragged man with a small amount of concern in her eyes.

“I appreciate the help, but I would ask that if you are actually real, you not to do this again. I don’t like someone poking around inside of my head no matter how good their intentions are.” Douny said as he sighed.

“If tis what thou wishes, but I will tell thee we are keeping a close eye on thee, thou art still an unknown to this world so we must take the proper course of action.” Luna replied firmly

“I can understand that, I promise I will not be a burden on you or your people.” Douny replied, giving her a small bow.

“We thank thee for thous promise, but we are sorry to leave on such short notice, but we must attend to our duties, sleep well Mr. O’Whelan.” With that Luna disappeared into the night sky and the dream around Douny disappeared along with it.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Douny woke up on a damp pillow, he guessed it was the nightmare that made him sweat so much he made the pillow damp. But that was of little concern to him right now, for right now he was hungry he took his bag up the stairs with him and looked around for a kitchen of some kind quietly, given the fact that it was so early in the morning that the sun hadn't even come up.

His search was quickly rewarded as he found Twilight's kitchen, it was very clean, the counter was made out of similar wood as the rest of the place but with a slightly darker tent, and the stove was not too dissimilar to one you would find in the 1950s or 60s. With that Douny began cooking breakfast for Twilight, Spike, and himself, he had some things he would want to ask them, and he didn't want to have to ask and answer questions with nothing in his gullet.

Not long before Douny was done making waffles, and coffee Twilight was up and came down to the kitchen. She would be lying if she said seeing Douny's towering form didn't make her jump a little, but that quickly went away as she smelled what he made.

"What are you doing up so early, the sun isn't even coming up for another two hours or so?" Twilight asked, looking around the kitchen at what the human had made.

"I had a nightmare and woke up, I knew I wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep so I decided to make breakfast." Douny answered drowsily not looking up from his work on a new batch of waffles.

"Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. Is there anything I could do to help?" Twilight asked with concern.

"Nothing really needs to be done. Plus I'm 32 I'm more than capable of handling a little nightmare" Douny stated as he finished the last batch of waffles.

"Wait, you're only 32?" Twilight asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Yeah, I'm almost middle-aged, is that a problem?" Douny replied with a cocked brow.

" No, it's just… I thought your kind would at least match our life span given most sapient creatures on Equis do." Twilight explained with a curious look.

"Wait, what do you mean by at least match?" Douny asked, turning to face Twilight and giving her a curious look back.

"Well, ponies, griffins, and other creatures of the like tend to live for around 200 to 300 years give or take." Twilight answered, waving her hoof in a circle to emphasize her point.

"Hmm… well my kind used to only have an average lifespan of 80 to 90 years, now it's around 100 to 120 years," Douny answered the question he knew Twilight was thinking.

"That still seems incredibly short." Twilight said, looking at Douny with concern in her eyes, and her ears drooped down.

"I guess so, but it doesn't really matter too much to me, memento mori." Douny said, going back to the food he made to make himself a plate and a cup of coffee.

"What does memento mori mean?" Twilight asked, giving a puzzled look.

"It means, remember we all must die." Douny nonchalantly explained not seeing the concerned look that Twilight was giving him.

"That's really morbid Douny, who even came up with a phrase like that?" Twilight asked, with a slightly saddened look.

"A man by the name of Socrates was the one to originally come up with the concept of the phrase, so I guess it would be him." Douny explained walking over to a table on the other side of the room. Twilight got food and coffee too and went to join the man at the table.

"So against my better judgment, do you have anything else you can tell me about your world?" Twilight asked, looking at Douny with a small measure of excitement.

"I guess I could tell you about our technology and what little I know of my world's magic." Douny pondered, and when he looked at Twilight's happy face he knew that was a great place to start.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The events that got Douny to Equestria were replaying in his mind, he just couldn't understand why Hal did what he had done in the end, Alrick he could understand, he had constantly been playing political intrigue with him for as long as he could remember being king. But Hal was like a brother to him, that's why he made him his right-hand man after all, and if he couldn't trust him who could he really trust?

He even wondered if he could trust the pony who took him in. Sure, Twilight seemed friendly enough, and she didn't seem to hold any malice in her heart, but who's to say that wasn't an act? For all, he knew she was just trying to get him comfortable until she did… something.

Douny was snapped out of his train of thought by Rarity's hoof steps. He had almost forgotten that he was in her boutique, from what he could remember she wanted him to stop by to get the measurements for his new clothes. Which Douny was happy about, he didn't much care to constantly show off his wounded body.

"Are you feeling alright darling, you seem to have something dreadful on your mind?" Rarity asked, giving the ragged man a genuinely concerned look.

"It's nothing, just got a lot on my mind, I guess I haven't fully come to terms with being in another world quite yet." Douny said trying to sound as convincing as possible, which didn't seem to earn the man any points to get the mare to drop the subject.

"If something is troubling you, you can feel free to talk to anypony for help. I know you live with Twilight, I'm sure she would be glad to help you with whatever is troubling you." Rarity added, giving the man a soft smile.

"I appreciate the concern, but I don't need help with this. It's nothing that serious, trust me." Douny brushed it off, he hoped the mare would take the hint, and luckily for him she had.

"If you say so. But the offer to talk is always open." Rarity finished, as she got her tape measure to get started on her work.

The next two hours were mostly silent as Douny got himself measured. He had chosen for Rarity to make him clothes that were copies of his favorite outfit, a brown tweed sports coat, with a burgundy red waistcoat and off-white dress shirt, and a pair of khaki colored chinos for his pants. He was lucky he didn't need to go to a cobbler yet, since he still had his leather boots, which served well for decent footwear.

"Thank you Rarity, I really appreciate you helping me out with my clothes problem." Douny said, as he started to head for the door.

"It was no problem darling, now come back around this time tomorrow and I should have them ready for you." Rarity replied, giving the man a wave as he left out the front door.

As Douny had gone outside Twilight was happy to see him, she had been waiting for him since he went in. She was an escort of sorts. Most of the ponies in Ponyville really didn't trust the human. Most seemed to think he was some kind of demon from the Everfree. Which no matter how much Twilight tried to say otherwise no one besides her friends seemed to listen.

Douny had noticed the glares as well, the worst offenders by far were the pegasi, who seem to have it out for him, though they never tried anything. Mostly due to the fact that the man was a bit more than two times their height. Twilight gave him a look that seemed apologetic.

"Don't give me that look, it's not your fault that they are acting ignorant." Douny nonchalantly said, as he stretched his arms and back.

"I know, but I'm just sorry that they are acting this way, you have already been through enough stress as it is, and they seem to just want to add on to it." Twilight drooped, not being able to meet the human's eyes.

"Well, it's not affecting me at all. Trust me there were much worse treatments some people would do to outsiders back where I come from." Douny explained, giving him more flashbacks to that night when he had given those orders. "Anyway let's not let that spoil the mood, I heard that Rainbow Dash wants to see where I'm at physically, I don't know how much I can do with this busted up shoulder but I'll give it a shot." Douny added.

"Alright, but after that I want us to try to heal that wound up." Twilight said, giving no room for argument.

"Fair enough, though I would want to go to someone who can extract stuff from my body,  the wound likely still has bits of metal in it." Douny agreed, as they started walking.

"Alright, then it's a plan." Twilight finished, walking along with Douny, to RD's place.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Yeah she did, you know Douny if it wasn’t for you, me and her may have never met, I can’t begin to thank you enough. Sir things are getting chaotic there is a massive rebellion going on in the next province we normally could handle it ourselves but they are properly equipped and are extremely well organized! Because you wouldn’t see reason, you backed out of the plan because you care more about those dark elves and orcs than you care about your countrymen!." Hal's voice echoed in Douny's head, almost deafening him until his anger couldn't take it and he hit the punching bag with his leg so hard it busted off of its supports.

"Woow chill out, you just busted the chain off!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, attempting to hold the human back, which she had barely succeeded.

Douny eventually did calm back down, now that he could think clearly he agreed that he may have gone a bit overboard with the latter half of those hits. For the life of him, he could understand where those thoughts came from. One minute he was fine, chatting with Rainbow and Twilight as he went to work on the punching bag. Then the next thing he knew his mind slipped into thoughts about Hal.

"Is everything alright Douny, you went a bit out of control there for a minute?" Twilight spoke up, looking the man in the eyes with a good amount of concern bleeding from them as her ears went down.

"I'm fine, I guess I got a bit too focused and I forgot my strength." Douny replied, trying to get her to believe him, which worked on Twilight, but from what Douny could see Rainbow Dash could see right through it.

"Well if you say so, but please try to be a bit more careful. We still need to go to the hospital and I don't want you to get any more injuries before we get there." Twilight lightly scolded. "I'll be outside when you're ready, don't take too long." Twilight added, as she stepped outside.

Douny looked at the door for a moment in thought he truly didn't know what had gotten over him. But one thing he knew for certain is that whatever it needs to be put under control. Douny sighed knowing that wouldn't be an easy task in the slightest knowing himself. But now wasn't the time to think about how he was going to go about controlling that, because when he looked back to Rainbow, he knew she had some words to say about his small lie.

"What the buck actually is going on, I know it's more than just focusing too much." Rainbow demanded, giving the man a very displeased look.

"You're right, it is more than that. But I can handle it, it may take me some time but I don't need any help." Douny stated with a large amount of authority in his voice in hopes that it would stop the conversation there, unlucky for the man, the mare he was talking to was a bit of a rebel.

"First off, don't talk to me like that, it won't work." Rainbow stated counting with her primary feathers as she went on. "And secondly you obviously can't handle this yourself, just look at what you did today. It looked like you had completely lost it." Rainbow finished, fixing her gaze with his eyes to match his look.

"And who would be able to do that? I don't think any of the ponies here could help me in the slightest, much less would they want to." Douny stated matter of factly, but that seemed to only earn a confused look from the cyan pegasus.

"What do you mean by that, I'm sure plenty of ponies here would want to help you if you gave them the chance." Rainbow said, tilting her head in confusion.

All that did was earn a sigh from the human. "You obviously haven't seen how they look at me nor the passive aggressive way they treat me." Douny said, rolling his eyes. "Honestly I think the only reason they haven't run me out of town is that they might not legally be allowed to." Douny finished crossing his arms.

"Wait, they are all really doing that, why haven't you told anypony?" Rainbow said, surprised at the revelation.

"Who could I tell, even if the town's mayor were to not hate me. It would still be political suicide to go against what the public wants." Douny explained, as he massaged his right temple. "Look I'd love to stay and chat more about this, but Twilight is waiting for me out there, I'll see you later Rainbow Dash." The man finished grabbing his stuff and walked out the door. Leaving Rainbow Dash there to think about what he had said.

"Well if Mayor Mare won't help him then I guess someone has to." Rainbow Dash said to herself as she tried to come up with a plan to help the man.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For the most part, the walk to the hospital was silent; very few things between Twilight and Douny were said. Up until the latter half of the walk that is when Twilight decided to ask a few questions which started out mostly harmless. That was until a certain question that the lavender unicorn asked.

"So how was it back on Earth?"

This had soured his mood, but he kept a straight face to let everything feel fine. It wasn't Twilight's fault for asking the question, the extent of his conversations with the mare had mostly been about the technology and a little bit of the magic. But he had failed to tell her anything about the planet or the people on it, and secretly he hoped he'd never have to either.

"That's a tough question Twilight, it's also not a pleasant one to answer." Douny replied honestly as he looked up to the sky wondering if he should tell her about his world.

"Oh, I I'm sorry I I didn't m mean to" Twilight tried to back peddle until the human cut in.

"I never said I wasn't going to answer it, it's not your fault either I had been vague about my world for too long I suppose." Douny sighed, preparing himself for his explanation of his world and people. "You see Twilight, something you have to keep in mind is that in my world things are quite different. It's not all sunshine and rainbows as I've told you before war happened more often than I would like to admit. Not to mention genocide. It's not just exclusive to my kind either. The other races do it just as much, if not more often than we do given some of them are more aggressive than my race. Orcs, Dark Elves, and Goblins are such species that are more aggressive than humans, though I will say the goblins are more sneaky with it. Overall it's a mixed bag because I know now that it's not all of them that are like that, but at the time I was foolish to believe they were all thieves, murderers, warmongers and so much more. But now that I'm on Equis I feel as if it's a new path for me to take. Perhaps a form of salvation. But I can't be sure." Douny finished his long winded response which seemed to have Twilight in deep thought. Which Douny was fine with as they were only a few blocks away from Ponyville General Hospital.

They walked the rest of the way there in silence, upon seeing Twilight with the wounded human a pony in all white with a light pink mane came to get them a room to wait for a doctor as she asked the wounded human questions about his injury. Which Douny simply said he got shot and needed metal taken out of the wound itself, which confused the nurse but she would do that for the doctor since with that description he would likely get a scan from a unicorn doctor to search for metal objects in the wound.

When the doctor came in he could tell it was a blue unicorn with a white mane. He confirmed the answers to the questions with Douny and then told him what they would need to do. Which he would need to have a magical scan by the doctor to find the metal pieces in the wound and would need to get an X-ray for potential broken bones that they might need to set which the doctor told him with the recovery he could be looking at a month in there care which the Human was fine with, he really didn't have anything better to do yet anyway.

After the doctor left Douny relaxed in the hospital bed and laid down taking a small nap until it was time to go. Unlucky for him he had another nightmare and nearly sprang out of the bed scaring Twilight half to death.

"Are you okay Douny?" Twilight asked with deep concern in her eyes.

The man took a moment to breath before answering. What he saw, no he couldn't focus on that right now. He then looked at Twilight seeing that she was extremely worried, almost painfully so. He had to do something now. If what he's going through is putting people who want to help him, a stranger in such a state, then he needs to let someone help him… and that someone might just be her, he let out a sigh.

"No Twilight… no I'm not okay, I'm far from it. I can't seem to get over that fight that brought me here and it's taking a mental toll on me." Douny admitted flipping back on the bed. "I need help Twilight, and out of all the ponies I've met, I trust you the most to help me through this." He finished.

"I would be happy to help you Douny, now what is bothering you?" Twilight asked, with a slight smile that he was trusting her to help him
> Chapter 9 Road To Recovery
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

To say the workload that Luna had on her plate was overwhelming would be an understatement. Between her normal duties of trying to help ponies with their night terrors, raising and lowering the moon, establishing the Lunar Guard, trying to get back into the swing of things after her 1000-year banishment, and trying to help her sister by making a night court. She knew that things weren't going to be easy upon her return, but she would have never thought that it would be this bad, not to mention the mountain of paperwork she had to do.

Oh, and there was that new creature in Ponyville that she would have to keep an eye out for. As peaceful as he seemed on the outside when she met him, it could all be an act. It wouldn't be the first time someone tried to deceive her, but for now, she will give this human the benefit of the doubt that he is being truthful in his claims of peaceful migration.

Though to be on the safe side. "Lunar Priest Scarlet Blaze, could thou come in here for a moment?" Luna asked, looking at the door of her study as it opened revealing a stallion with a scarlet red coat, a brighter shade on his muzzle. He had a slick back white mane and tail, amber yellow eyes with cat like slits, leather bat wings with white outlining the boney sections of them and a slightly darker red for the wings themselves, though one massive identifying feature is that he was wearing slivery armor with navy blue accents and a crescent moon symbol on his chest contrasted with a black circle around it.

"Yes your grace," The red stallion asked, giving the Princess of the night a slight bow as he came in.

"We have new orders for thou." Luna said, pulling out a map and some documents. "We are tasking thee to keep an eye on a new creature in our lands, he currently resides in Ponyville, and he lives with our sister's protege Twilight Sparkle." Luna finished, sliding the document folders over to Scarlet who looked them over before giving a nod.

"Anything I need to know before I make my way over there?"

"His name is Douny O'Whelan, a strange name we must admit, his appearance similar to an amalgamation of a minotaur and a hairless small ape, which is oddly pleasing to the eye. He is also sapient, and can speak modern Equestrian." Luna then pointed to the document in front of Scarlet. "Any other information thou might need can be found in that folder."

With that Scarlet Blaze gave another bow before taking the documents, and leaving wondering to himself just what he was getting into.

🌙

Things for Douny weren't getting any better, granted they weren't getting worse but he would have thought that by now Twilight would have been able to help him a little but it seems he was wrong. Though he did appreciate how much she was trying but, unfortunately, it seemed nothing she could do was going to help him with the nightmares he was having. He thought it might be PTSD but that was ruled out due to the fact that A, he had been through worse and hadn't batted an eye at it, and B, he knew the signs and he only showed one of them, two at the very most. Though one thing that he had thought it could be is something magically induced, which Twilight agreed that it could be, but there was no way as of now to say if that was or wasn't the case.

But that didn't seem to stop the lavender unicorn as she went through every magical test she knew. Which unfortunately for Douny was strapped into several machines that he couldn't make heads or tails of what they did. Sitting in what Douny almost thought was an electric chair at first, he looked at Twilight with an unamused glare.

"Okay, how much of this is to help me, and how much of this is just for your curiosity? Douny asked, rolling his eyes with a sigh. He would definitely need a drink after this. Hopefully, he could find a bar I'm this town, and hopefully they won't immediately kick him out.

"I have to admit some of this is to quench my curiosity, but I assure you this is all very necessary to see if these nightmares you've been having are somehow magically induced," Twilight said, giving a sheepish look to the man. "Now try to get some rest, these machines will check for any magic if you have a nightmare again."

"Alright see you on the other side." Douny quipped, getting into a comfortable spot on the chair.

As the human fell unconscious, Twilight started looking through the readings, with nothing of note popping up to her disappointment. Though it was interesting seeing how his species' brain functioned as it slept, from what the readings gave his brain activity was much more active than a ponies was during rest. But aside from that nothing. A few hours had passed by and still nothing Twilight was going to turn everything off until one of the machines gave off a strange reading.

It was faint, almost undetectable, but something magical was going on in his body during rest. Sadly as quickly as it came it went away, making Twilight sigh in mild frustration. Though with that bad news came some good when Douny started coming too, he would want to know what she found; she was sure of it.

"Hey Douny, wake up, I think we found something." Twilight softly spoke, nudging the man to get up.

"Oh, what's going on?" Douny groaned, blinking his blurry eyes awake.

"One of the machines detected a small magical signature. It was very faint but I thought you might want to take a look at it."

Taking a minute Douny got up to his feet, popping some of his bones and his knuckles, he made his way next to Twilight. Looking at the chart on the machine, Douny couldn't make heads or tails of it. Giving the purple unicorn a questioning look, Twilight began explaining the chart.

"This line right here is your brain activity, it's higher than what I'm used to but I'm guessing that's normal for you." Twilight said, looking back at the human who nodded along in confirmation. "This small bump at the bottom of the chart is reading magic in your body. The whole night it was at zero until a moment before I woke you, which leads me to a theory." Douny was about the interject but before he could get a word in Twilight started going off on her tangent.

"Now I know you said before that humans don't have magic, but what if the background magic is somehow affecting you, and you keep getting these nightmares from it." Twilight was about to continue until Douny interrupted her rant.

"Or it could be nothing at all, and your machine just glitched, hell you said yourself that there's background magic, it's probably just that." Douny stated, rolling his eyes at the situation.

"That… makes a lot more sense now that you say it out loud." Twilight gave a defeated sigh before packing away all the test equipment in their containers.

"Hey don't beat yourself up over it, I honestly find it kind of reassuring that there isn't any magic affecting my dreams." Douny stated as he slumped onto the chair he had slept.

"You're right, it's just… we were this close to getting to the bottom of your nightmares and we only dug up another dead end." Twilight said, resting her head down on a table in a defeated manner.

"Honestly it's getting on my nerves too, but there's nothing we can do about it now, so let's just call it a day." Douny stated, to which Twilight gave a slight nod in agreement before the two retired from the library.

🌙

To say Scarlet was curious about this new assignment wouldn't be quite right, it's more that he's curious as to who, or what he's going to be keeping an eye on. For Luna to assign him to this job must mean that either this creature is potentially so dangerous that he requires a Lunar Priest to deal with, or he may be something of great value to Equestria. Whatever the case may be he is more than willing and able to execute his orders.

Though one of his questions is soon to be answered, as he is within a mile of Ponyville. Diving low to make sure he's not spotted by any passerby he takes the rest of the flight going through the trees until he makes it to the tree line. Once at the tree line however, Scarlet takes out a book from his saddlebags until he finds the page he was looking for and begins a chant of sorts, making him nearly invisible, and quickly makes his way to the nearest rooftop.

As he goes from rooftop to rooftop he then spots an unusual creature, undoubtedly the same one he has been tasked to keep an eye on. Keeping his distance he tails them for a good couple dozen meters until he notices some odd body language from the creature before he leans down, to speak who Scarlet assumes is Twilight. Not long after the creature stood straight again they moved to a nearby alleyway.

Even though Scarlet finds this strange he still follows them down the alley until he gets boxed in by the two. Twilight is in front of him with a look of confusion as Douny makes his way to block the entrance, assuming he hasn't been spotted yet he sneaks to the corner until the human speaks up.

"You can drop the spell now, I already know you've been following us." Douny stated giving a serious look near where Scarlet was. "I just want to know why you've been tailing us and for how long."

Now knowing his cover has been blown, Scarlet took back out the book and did a chant to undo the clocking blessing. When he becomes visible Twilight gives a surprised look, while Douny gives a confused look. Scarlet focuses on the human trying to get a better look at him.

"My name's Scarlet Blaze, I'm a Lunar Priest and commander of the Lunar Knights." Scarlet answers honestly "I was tasked by Princess Luna herself to keep an eye on you, though as of why I am not entirely sure."

"I guess that makes sense, I'd honestly do the same in her shoes." Douny shrugs. "Your surveillance of me won't be intrusive right?"

"It shouldn't be no. I'm only tasked to keep an eye on you, I don't care what you do honestly."

"Alright also what exactly are you, I've seen a lot of pony races in my time here but I've never seen one that looks like you before?" Douny questions looking Scarlet up and down.

"I'm a thestral, though most just call us bat ponies." Scarlet answered, slightly annoyed at the nickname of his species. "Though if I may ask, how did you know I was following you?"

"Trust me, when you have the profession I was in and been around in it as long as I have you become very perceptive." Douny answered, looking back on his old life for a short time. "And no I don't want to talk about it, I haven't even told purple smart over there." Douny finished, as Twilight gave him an unamused glare.

"I understand, anyway if that's all I'll be back to my duties."

"Of stalking me?" Douny raised a brow

"Yup!" The thestral joked, chuckling to himself 

With that Scarlet did his chant to become clocked himself again and flew off onto a nearby rooftop. He had to admit that this Douny wasn't all that bad of a guy, perhaps he'll have to talk with him more, and he could see what Luna meant by him not looking bad. He was honestly expecting a more brutish appearance. He was happy with what information he could gain from the conversation as well. But for now, he'll stay out of his way and watch him.

Douny didn't know what to make of this strange new pony. He seemed respectable enough, though he didn't know how to feel about being spied on. But at least his perception is as sharp as it's ever been to be able to notice that bat pony. But the questions he has will have to wait his hungry, and Twilight wanted to show him a bakery in town, if he remembered correctly it was called Sugarcube Corner. With that thought occupying his mind, he sets off with Twilight to continue their day.

🌙

Rainbow Dash was planning out what she would do to help Douny's situation with the ponies of Ponyville. She took some of the papers she wrote on in her hoof and looked them over. She had been working all night this time and still had nothing to show for it. It was honestly starting to get on her last nerve. But she also doesn't feel like she has much room to talk after Zecora came to Ponyville everyone kept away from her. Perhaps that's what's going on between Douny and them.

Though that thought about Zecora did give her a new idea. Perhaps she could get those two to meet. If anything it may make Douny not feel a bit better about the situation. Yeah, that seemed like a solid plan.

As Rainbow was writing that plan down she heard a knock at the door. Putting down her pin she got up from her table and walked to the front door and opened it to see that Applejack had come to visit.

"Hey, there AJ what's up?" Rainbow Dash asked, letting her in.

"Not that much honestly ah was thinken about that feller Douny, he seems to be doin' better and all. But the folk round her don't seem to trust em as far as they could throw em." Applejack explained with her ears drooped down.

"I've been thinking the same thing. Though I had an idea to introduce him to Zecora and see if that would help." Rainbow Dash said, handing her over the paper she was writing on.

"Ah think this'll be a good idea, but how're ya gonna pull it off?" Asked Applejack, looking over the page.

"Oh, that parts gonna be easy, I'll just invite them both over here." Rainbow Dash stated, with a look of determination in her eyes.

"Err does Douny know where ya live?" Applejack asked.

Just like that, that determined look deflated like a balloon. She honestly didn't think about that. She will have to go and see him soon to show him her places so he knows where it is. But still, the plan can work, it'll just have to be put on hold for now.

"I'll figure that part out, but in the meantime, I'll come up with some other stuff that could work if that doesn't." Rainbow Dash answered, with that determined look back on her face.

"Alright, well ah ought to be goin, the rest of the family needs me on the farm to help with the Nightmare Night tomorrow would ya be kind enough to help?" Applejack asked.

"Sure I still need someone to bounce ideas off of."

With that, the two mares went off. Rainbow Dash felt happy that she was able to come up with a plan that might help Douny. She may not have trusted him at first but he has proven that he is a good friend in her eyes. As much as he tries to act like they're not friends.

🌙

Twilight and Douny eventually got back home, they were out much later than they had thought, by the time they got home the sun was setting and the moon had come over the horizon. Aside from that conversation with Scarlet, the day was mostly uneventful. Though Twilight wanted to do one more test to see if she can figure out what was causing his nightmares, to which Douny agreed.

This test was a bit different from what Twilight had told him. Douny felt weary about it but agreed. So he prepared himself for what it would be but was confused when Twilight pulled up two chairs in her telekinesis. Douny sat on one side with Twilight sitting on the other.

"Now Douny you may not like this but this may help us figure out what's causing your nightmares." Twilight said a bit reluctantly. This put the man on edge

"Twilight, what exactly have you planned?" Douny asked, to which Twilight ignored the question, if she was going to do this she needed to go for it.

"What are your nightmares usually about?"

That question struck a nerve with the human as he gave a hard glare at the lavender unicorn. "That's none of your business." Douny deadpanned.

"Douny this is important, I've tried everything else I know to figure this out without doing this but this is our only option." Twilight pleaded.

"I don't care, me and you aren't that close for me to tell you something that personal." Douny stated flatly trying to remain calm.

"Douny it can't be that bad. Please just…" Twilight started but never finished that sentence as Douny slammed his fist into his knees.

"YOU DON'T HAVE A FUCKING CLUE WHAT I'VE FUCKING DONE!" Douny shouted as his mental dam broke as he took quivering breaths.

There was silence as Douny's eyes were closed, when he opened them he deeply regretted it. The look of utter terror on Twilight's face filled him with regret and he didn't know why. He took a few more shaky breaths to calm himself down before he got to say anything however she had already bolted off.

He honestly didn't mean to do that. What the fuck was wrong with him, how could he have lost his cool that easily. He had been through so much worse yet some minor questions were what broke his resolve. He tried to stand up but couldn't summon enough energy to follow her. So he decided to take a small rest, then after he woke up, he would leave. He knew he was no longer welcome in this place anymore.
> Chapter 10 Kindred Spirits
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Douny was walking through the Palace halls, he had just gotten over a meeting with some delegates of the new Kaiser from the New German Empire. It was a tiring conversation between them but they had eventually found a middle ground for a new trade agreement. But now he was going to relax in the Palace gardens.

As he continued to walk through the halls however he started to notice that they were getting ever so slightly darker and darker. He could have sworn it was mid-day. Eventually, the darkness became so thick and misty that he couldn't see anything which started to worry the King. This continued until he started hearing whispering from the shadows.

"Who's there!" Douny shouted with authority in his voice, which only got a giggle from the shadows which made the man pull out his flashlight. Which helped but didn't do much, only being able to see around 12 feet in front of him.

"Don't you remember us?" The shadows whispered barely audible to the panicking King. "We are the culmination of all your sins and misdeeds."

"Get away from me." Douny tried to demand with a shaky voice, taking a step back reflexively.

"We know all that you have done, you can't escape us." The shadows said giggling to themselves.

At that Douny booked it down the hall taking as many turns as possible to hopefully avoid whatever the hell was after him but the voices only grew louder and louder in response. Until the man fell to his knees. He didn't know what kind of magic this was but he begged for it to end.

"Douny."

"Get out of my head." He demanded.

"Douny."

"I said get out!" He ordered, raising his voice.

"DOUNY!"

"I SAID GET OUT OF MY DAMN HEAD!!!" Douny said with his eyes open. Noticing a red and white blur in his vision surrounded by darkness. Blinking his eyes he noticed it was the red thestral from the other day.

"What are you doing here Scarlet?" Douny said groggily.

"I saw you tossing and turning out here, then you started talking and I came to help." Scarlet Blaze said, looking at the human with worry. "Why are you out here anyways It's Nightmare Night  I thought you were going to be spending it with Twilight?" The thestral added.

Well, that explains the decorations around here, Douny thought to himself. "We got into a fight. Look, I really don't want to talk about it." Douny said, looking away from the armored bat pony.

"I'm sorry to hear that. But if you need somepony to talk to, I'm always here." Scarlet Blaze reassured the human.

"I'll live." The man added coldly.

"That may be true, but even the toughest of us need help from time to time," Scarlet reassured again with a hopeful look that earned a sigh from the downtrodden human.

"I'll think about it." He said just before one of the loudest shouts he has ever heard in his life came from his left.

"CITIZENS OF PONYVILLE WE HAVE GRACED THY TINY VILLAGE SO THAT THOU MIGHT BEHOLD THE TRUE PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT!!!"

With that, there was only one reaction the red thestral had. "Oh for buck sake." As he face hoofed.

"What the hell was that?" Douny said, looking to Scarlet for an answer.

"That was Princess Luna, which means it's going to be a very very long night helping her." Scarlet Blaze said before he left. "I'll be seeing you. I have to get some things prepared." He finished as Douny waved him off.

A part of Douny wondered why Luna was here. He could understand joining her subjects in this `Nightmare Night` which he could only assume was like Halloween, but coming to such a tiny town seemed like a weird choice to him. But what did he know, perhaps she was only here to keep a closer eye on him? But that seemed far-fetched considering the pony she sent would have been more than enough to do that. But that's none of his business he assumed so he lied back down and continued to get more rest.

🌙

After about an hour or so Douny woke up from his short rest to the sound of… sobbing. Well, that was weird, he had chosen this alleyway to sleep specifically because it looked the most abandoned. So why was someone here, not only here but crying. He chose to get up from the large box that he was sleeping in to check the situation out. Imagine his surprise seeing Luna of all ponies here. He felt a ping in his heart at the state she was in.

She was practically balling her eyes out with the number of tears he saw falling in front of her and from the clear look at her back she was slumped over with her wings dangling to the ground. Her sobs only added to the heartbreaking sight. Douny not knowing exactly what to do instead of acting on thought acted on impulse, walking over to the blue alicorn in an attempt to comfort her the action from the human caused Luna to jump not knowing anyone was there.

"Who goes there?" She asked, choking back her sobbing.

"It's only me Princess, It's me Douny. I believe we met in one of my nightmares but I have no idea if that was real or not." Douny said half-joking at that last part to try to brighten up the mood which seemed to go unnoticed by the lunar Princess.

"Twas real to be sure, but why are thou here, twas our understanding that thou were with Twilight Sparkle," Luna said, trying to choke back more sobbing, becoming a tad bit calmer.

"Long story short, me and her got into a fight, and I chose to leave so she wouldn't have to waste time telling me to leave." Douny stated, looking back to Luna who was now looking at him.

Part of him wished he didn't look at her, her face was soaked in tears, her makeup was smeared down her cheeks and muzzle, and her ears hung down like a beaten dog. The sight alone made Douny's own face bleed with empathy. Which Luna was quick to pick up on.

"We shall be fine Mr. Douny O'Whelan, twas nothing to concern thyself with." She choked back trying to give a stoic smile but failed miserably which only made Douny walk over with his box and take a seat next to her.

"Would you like to talk about it, I hear from a lot of other ponies that it helps" Douny said, looking at Luna with a hopeful smile. He was going to make this better he thought, he can't just stand by and watch something like this happen. Whatever was going on it wasn't small like Luna said it was.

Luna paused for a second, this creature she barely knew wanted to help her. But the question is should she open up about her strife especially to a stranger, one not even from this world. Perhaps her assumptions about him were wrong. There was only one way to find out but she didn't know if she had the strength to do it. Until she decided to force herself to take that chance.

"We… tried to open up to our subjects, after our actions as Nightmare Moon. It seems they still hate and fear us."Luna started choking back even more sobs as the tears almost started up again. "Ever since our return we have tried to earn their forgiveness and love but tonight has only proven one thing to us." Luna continued.

"What would that be?" Douny added as gently as he could.

"No matter what we do, our subjects will never accept us after what we have done. The worst part is that we don't even blame them for we know all too well what we had brought upon their ancestors, and we are left to our own guilt every single day." Luna answered with her tears coming back in full force this time.

Douny understood her, probably more than he even realized. With all he's done his world still hated him for it, the only reason his Empire stayed together is because of the fear invoked into all of his enemies. All the cities he burned down, all the people he murdered, and it left him with little wonder why he so thoroughly hated himself. Douny was caught out of his stupor with a question that blindsided him.

"Does… does thou hate us too?" Luna said choking on her sobs and she looked down to the ground in front of her not able to look the man in the eyes.

Douny was silent for a moment trying to process that question. When he did he finally responded. "No of course not, I mean I can't hate someone I just met," Douny said, trying to raise her spirits for what he was going to say. Which didn't work again which he mentally slapped himself for.

"I'd also be a hypocrite if I hated you for that." He started giving a sigh before he continued. "I'm no saint either, my nightmares are a constant reminder of that. I… I fought in a war I thought was righteous, but it only fueled my hate and anger. The things I did, the things I saw I regret. I was a murdering, slaving, tyrant, no better than a rabid dog who needed to be put down." Douny said with self-hatred. "But because of how cruel my world is it allowed me to live, the gods never stopped me and no one I fought was able to put me down. As much as I now wish they did." Douny finished with venom in his voice, with hatred in his eyes directed towards himself.

To Douny's surprise, Luna wasn't disgusted at him, from what he could see the emotion was sympathy mixed with relief if he was reading it right.

"We are sorry to hear that, but we know that thou are not like that now thou wouldn't have helped us in our time of need if thou were," Luna added, giving him a sad smile.

There was that look, Douny didn't know how to feel about it, nor did he think he deserved any sympathy or pity for what he had done. It's no different from giving pity to a monster in his eyes. But a small part of him wanted to hold on to this.

"I guess not but in my eyes, I'm a monster." The human finished looking towards the wall in front of them.

"Perhaps thou were, but we would like to believe that thou hast changed." Luna said getting up from next to Douny. "Come, we are heading back to Canterlot, and we'd like a friend to accompany us."

Now Douny really didn't know how to process that information, sure he had helped her but could he afford to take that kind of risk again. After a few seconds of debate he chose to follow her. This wasn't his old world anymore he reasoned, so there was no reason to hold on to those old ideas and rules anymore.

With that, the two went back to Luna's chariot to make their way to the crown jewel of Equestria, Canterlot.

🌙

"So what can I expect when we get to Canterlot? I've heard that it's the capital of Equestria but beyond that, I don't know much about it." Douny asked looking over to Luna, he had to say her mane was even more for the lack of a better word magical in person than back when he met her in the dream. It almost looked exactly like the night sky with some stylized flair.

"Tis a wonderful city filled with all manner of ponies thou shall enjoy thy time there if thou shall choose to stay." Luna said with a smile all signs of her crying gone as she cleaned herself up before going into the chariot.

"I don't really have anywhere else to go so I don't mind staying in Canterlot, though I don't know where I'd stay." Douny said, watching the land beneath them as they flew.

"We'll arrange a place in the castle for thou to stay free of charge, though in exchange we'd like to ask something of thee." Luna responded, a tad embarrassed at what she was going to ask.

"Sure, I have to make it up to you somehow for taking me in." Douny said looking over to Luna and noticed her embarrassed face.

"Can thou teach us to speak in modern Equestrian? We know our manner of speaking is very outdated." Luna asked.

"Well I don't know what the Equestrian language is but I can help and I'll try my best." Douny agreed to which Luna seemed relieved.

"We thank thee, it will not be difficult, thou are already speaking modern Equestrian." Luna said with a smile.

Douny couldn't help but smile back, though he did find it a little funny that English and Equestrian are the same languages. Perhaps this place won't be as bad as he thought.

Once they made it to the foot of the castle Douny found himself tired. He would have just asked Luna if there was already a place to sleep for him until she offered a small tour of the castle. He agreed to go on the tour, mostly since he didn't know anything about the layout of it and didn't want to find himself getting lost one day and needing to holler for help.

As they entered they found themselves in the throne room after first getting through the sizable grand hall. Which was decorated with a fine whitewash on the inside and some very intricate gold inlays, with some of the inlays even being made out of silver or platinum that made the shape of a crescent moon. There were also decorations on short pillars with potted plants with their vases having pictures in them that the human could only assume were historical or mythology that he knew nothing about.

The throne room was even more spectacular to Douny; the room had the same whitewash and gold inlay pattern but had stained glass murals depicting what must have been large turning points in Equestrias history, which made more sense to him considering how expensive it must have been. The thrones were just as decorated as the room was, though he did find it weird that there were two of them, but perhaps this country ran off of some kind of diarchy. Which would explain the banners on the walls, one being themed around the moon, most likely to refer to Luna's rule, and one that was solar themed which he could only guess had to refer to another unknown ruler to him. Either that or just some very interesting design choices.

"This is the throne room, during the day thou can find us here, as well as our sister." Luna stated with much more energy than she had hours ago.

"I was just going to ask about that, I noticed that there are two thrones, is your sister a ruler of this country as well?" Douny asked, looking over the room taking in its majesty.

"Yes, our sister is the other half of the diarchy, she controls the sun, much as we control the moon. We'd love to have thou meet her but we're sad to say that she has long since retired for the night." Luna explained, slightly disappointed that her sister wouldn't be able to meet her new friend.

"That explains the decorations, I have to say this place puts all the palaces, and castles I've been into to shame." Douny said, turning back to face Luna properly. "Perhaps I could meet your sister tomorrow, it would be a good excuse to get a good idea about how this world works considering how new I still am to it." Douny finished, putting his hands into his pockets which also reminded him that he really needed to clean them the first chance he got.

"We agree, we shall inform our sister when she wakes up, until then however would thou wish to continue the tour of the castle grounds?" Luna asked. Seeing no reason not to continue the tour the human nodded and followed Luna out of the throne room.

The rest of the tour went by relatively uneventfully, aside from a few questions like how long has Canterlot been around, what some of the murals meant, and a few others. Two of the rooms that caught his eye the most however were the dining hall and Luna's own bed chambers. The dining hall was the largest the man had ever seen it was easily 32x20 feet in diameter but it could also be much larger, not to mention how heavily decorated it was, sure it wasn't to the level the throne room was, but the dining hall was no small testament to the Equestrian's eyes for intricate design. The same could be said for Luna's bed chambers, it wasn't very large only a bit bigger than a master bedroom, but what it lacked in size it more than made up for in design the roof was a beautiful constellation of the night sky, and the floor was made up of a rich royal blue velvet. The walls were made of some kind of insulating stone that had been painted a lovely shade of blue a few shades lighter than the floor, and it had a beautiful array of platinum inlays of star constellations with the centerpiece being a beautiful looking moon.

It wasn't long after that when Luna showed him where he would be staying, it was an amazing room. It was decorated similarly to the walls in halls outside of his room though the bed was much bigger than he imagined it would be. Luna explained that they have delegates of all kinds of species so they needed to have larger or smaller beds to fit that need, and they had a minotaur bed to spare for him. Which they both chuckled to themselves about how much larger the bed is, even compared to what the human would need. Though it also did scare him a little seeing how large a creature from this world could truly be. It was a shock alone to see that Luna was closest to his height of most of the creatures here her height being around 5.8 to 5.10, but from what this bed could show a minotaur could be easily 10ft. Not only that but it shocked him to learn that there were minotaurs in this world and they were intelligent.

He made a mental note to ask about what other creatures and intelligent life there were in this world. But that would have to wait until tomorrow, his body was aching for a proper rest after today, and definitely a shower. Luna was probably just trying not to be rude considering how bad he smelled to himself. With that, he began to look around and found the door to his bathroom.

Making his way into the bathroom he noticed it was mostly all marble when it came to the stone, which he liked the look of. Taking off his clothes he noticed that he was still wearing the bandage from the hospital. Taking it off revealed that his shoulder, though still heavily scarred, and wasn't at risk of infection anymore which Douny took as a plus. Though looking closer at his body revealed other scars, cuts here and there, some from knives, most from gunshots that got a little too close for his liking. Nonetheless, he was happy to get cleaned up after the weeks he had been skipping a shower. Perhaps if he asked he could get a razor to shave the beard he had been growing since his arrival.

After taking a shower Douny went through his bag, checking if he still had everything. Confirming that he did, he got into bed to lie down, though he didn't go to bed just yet, instead choosing to process the events of the last few hours. From everything that happened between him and Twilight, his oddly vivid nightmare, he would have to make a note to ask Luna about that one, to his unlikely second meeting with Luna. Though he still didn't know about being friends with her, he hardly knew her. But he guessed that would all come in time, for now, sleep called him, and he was all too willing to answer that call.

🌙

Douny woke up to the sound of knocking, making sure he at least had some pants on. He grabbed his button-up shirt and his slacks and put them on as he made his way to the door. Standing in front of him was an armored pony whose armor appeared golden at a glance but in reality, must have been a highly brightened polished brass. The armored pony wasn't holding a weapon either but instead cleared his throat.

"Mr. Douny O'Whelan both Princesses Luna and Celestia would like you to join them for breakfast." The pony who Douny now assumed was a guard spoke, giving a slightly unsettled tone to his voice. Probably due to Douny being little over twice his height.

"Alright you can lead me there, let me just get my clothes on before I go." Douny said, as he started walking back into his room and buttoned up his shirt and zipped up his slacks, and got his socks and shoes on after. Once he was done he then walked out into the halls with the golden armored guard to make his way to the dining hall. Imagine his surprise when they moved over to a much smaller room that wasn't much bigger than a standard dining room on Earth.

"HAZA our friend Douny comes to meet us at last!" Luna cheered, raising one of her forehooves into the air.

"So this is the new friend you have been telling me so much about Lulu." The white alicorn which Douny assumed must be Celestia said, who was giving him a curious look. She seemed to trust him enough to be friendly with him, no doubt due to his meeting with Luna the other night, but still held a caution towards the human, which Douny saw as fair, to her he must have seemed strange. Not to mention what his now dirty clothes must make him look and smell like.

This alicorn looked like the polar opposite of Luna, instead of having a blur coat and stary mane. Had a pure white coat, a bright blue, pink, and green striped mane that flew in an invisible wind much like the blue alicorn next to her. She also had motherly magenta eyes which right now held a slightly suspicious look directed towards the human. Her jewelry was nothing to scoff at either being made of pure gold with some type of purple gems.

"Hello there Princess Celestia, and good morning Luna," Douny replied, giving each of them a small bow.

"There's no need for all of that, any friend of Luna's is a friend of mine, though I don't know if I caught your name, please tell us about yourself," Celestia said, motioning her hoof towards the empty seat in front of them on the small round table, which Douny moved to set in but found it slightly smaller than he'd like.

"Well, my full name is Douny Kornelly O'Whelan, I have been in Equestria for around 1 and a half months now, and I am honestly not sure about what I'm going to make of myself in this world yet." Douny openly admitted, choosing to leave out the part where he used to be a King, he didn't want to get into that, and frankly, he didn't want to be treated any differently because of his past.

"I see, though I must ask, if we could find you a way back would you choose to?" Celestia asked, giving the human a curious look."Not that we don't want you here, should you choose to stay we would be more than happy to let you become a citizen."

"Honestly, not really I don't think I'd have much to go back to. I lost too much to think about going back and having to rebuild from nothing." Douny stated as he looked up to meet Luna and Celestia's eyes. "If I have to rebuild my life anyways, I'd rather do it here and have a fresh start than back home where people are cruel." He then finished 

"We thought you might say something like that. Though I am sorry to hear of your troubles where you come from, you have my sympathy." Celestia said, with a sad look in her eyes. Luna seemed to also share though her's seemed much deeper for lack of a better term.

"Thank you, Celestia. But enough feeling sorry for myself I'm interested in you and your sister Luna?" Douny asked, now taking his turn to give a curious look to the two sisters.

"Tis a long story, one of which we don't have time to tell. But shorten it, we raise and lower the moon, and rule one half of the diarchy, and our sister Celestia raises and lowers the sun, and rules the other half of the diarchy." Luna explained, with disappointment on her face, obviously wanting to recount the history of her and her sister.

"Though this does lead us into a question, me and Luna were thinking about," Celestia said, looking back over to the human. "We were wondering what kind of job you might want to pursue now or in the future?" Celestia then asked, seeing Douny mull it over in his head.

"I was wondering, considering I used to be a fighter by trade if I could join your military?" Douny asked, which raised an alarm for Luna.

"Douny thou does not need to go so far to show thy loyalty for thou has already shown it by helping us last night." Luna protested, looking over to the human with concern.

"I understand that, but I don't think I'd be good at much else in a world like this, I'd rather just become a defender or law keeper than re-learn a new skill," Douny explained, to which Luna seemed to understand though didn't seem to like the idea too much.

"If that is how you feel then the simple question is, which branch would you prefer?" Celestia then asked, with a questioning look as if she was shocked by his choice in career path. "We have the Solar guard led by myself and my Captain Shining Armor. Or the Lunar guard which is led by Luna, and her Lunar priest, Scarlet Blaze. There are other branches but we will talk about those if or when you served long enough in either branch." Celestia explained, holding that same look from before.

"I think I'd prefer the Lunar guard, mostly because I know the leadership of that branch better. No offense Celestia." Douny answered, look at the alicorns.

"Then it is settled, we can start whenever we make your equipment, or whenever you're ready, whichever you prefer," Celestia replied, still curious about the human's choice to join the guard forces.

"I think I'd rather hold off for at least a day or two. I'd still like to get to know you and your sister better, and I doubt I'd have many opportunities to chat during training." Douny answered, rubbing the back of his neck as he did so.

"Then I think that's everything. I'm sorry to cut this short but my sister and I still have duties for today. We could meet back up at lunch if you don't mind." Celestia said, giving the human a smile.

"Sure though I'd like to get my clothes cleaned, and perhaps a new pair of clothes," Douny answered, slightly embarrassed at the state of his garments.

"We have already got extra clothes for you to wear, our sister told us that you seem to prefer wearing clothes at all times. They should be back in your room." Celestia added, her smile growing ever so slightly.

"Alright, then I'll go back and clean up and get changed. It's been nice talking to you both." Douny added as he got up to leave, with the two sisters saying their goodbyes as well.

It was a good meeting Douny admitted, noting that he would have to get used to a new form of combat, but he was lucky to have taken a few HEMA classes (Historical European Martial Arts) a few years back, so he wouldn't be entirely blind in sword fighting though not nearly skilled enough to go in as is. He was curious about Celestia though, she seemed to be more received than her sister in some ways, almost as if she was calculating everything at the start. He couldn't blame her, he was an outsider to this world, but it's how she opened up a bit more at the end that threw him for a loop. That's just something he would have to stow in his back pocket for later; however, now was time for him to get cleaned and dressed for the meeting at lunch.
> Chapter 11 Hail The New Night Guard
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The last week had been rather tiring for Douny. Between working on the design of his armor, filling out the paperwork for him to join the Lunar Guard, and trying to work out a budget for his new gear, it was rather stressful. He had thought that the Equestrian guard forces would just provide him gear, but that seemed to not be the case, he along with every other member were expected to buy any unique or extra gear themselves, and considering almost all of his kit would be unique to him, it would cost him some money.

He and the sisters worked out a decent payment plan that his first paychecks would go straight to the smithy making his armor shield and sword. Douny chose to just take a standard pony-sized spear to not have to pay any more than he already would have to. He also chose to make his own light club for policing, something light enough that it wouldn't cause permanent or life altering damage but heavy enough to knock someone out or put them to the ground.

Douny's plan to get to know the sisters who took him in also didn't go anywhere. Between both of their work and him drawing up his armor and kit, it left them all with little to no time to talk. It had gotten to the point where Douny had just chosen to get his gear today and then prepare for basic. He would have time enough to talk to them at some point but sitting around doing nothing wasn't an option either for him and getting his gear would be a good excuse to meet the blacksmith who was making his armor. Getting up from his chair he put his now cleaned tweed jacket, great coat, and flat cap on, the coat was gray and thick and the hat matched the color of his brown tweed jacket.

He made his way over to the smithy with little interruption and now found himself at a large door made of wood with bars of metal reinforcing it, and was about 14x5 feet. Which Douny found odd until he remembered the size of his bed. With some apprehension, the man pushed the door open and looked inside.

The room was plain looking, mostly having what Douny assumed in the center was a big forge, and around the edges of the room were tables with all kinds of tools, most of which the human didn't know the use of. Above those tables were poles holding all manner of things from fittings for barrels, to unfinished guard armor, and even some chains to what Douny could only assume were made for pulling something heavy.

In front of all of that was a towering minotaur who had to be at least 12 feet. He had short spiky horns and a deep brown coat though his face and hands seemed to have a more fleshy look like Douny's own hand. Still, the minotaur had far more calluses. The minotaur also had a golden nose ring and seemed to only have pants with his chest being bare showing a body that would make pro bodybuilders on Earth jealous.

"I'm assuming you are the new creature Luna has told us about." The bull spoke, turning around to face the human, his voice deep and gravelly. 

"Yes, my name is Douny." Douny said, feeling slightly nervous about the minotaur that made him feel like a dwarf.

"I must say, when she spoke of you, I thought you would be taller. But I see that you are no bigger than a calf, no offense." The minotaur said honestly."My name is Steel Horn." He then finished holding out his hand.

Douny looked at the minotaur's hand wearily, and after a few seconds of hesitation, he shook it. Unsurprisingly his grip was very firm, almost to the point of being painful. Looking over to the right he could see the majority of his finished gear on it.

It was mostly chainmail, but there were some solid pieces of protection, namely the shins and front thighs with sadly no kneecap plate though that was more for budget cutting reasons on his end. He also had a royal blue brigandine (essentially an advanced coat of plates) for his chest protection, which had a nice separate cloth loop that went over it which held a white moon where the front of the chest would be. His headgear was where he really put his budget into however, he didn't know how advanced the armor could be made so he went with a Saxon style nasal helm that went on top of a mail coif which had a mouth and nose wrap looking similar to a balaclava. Under all of this outer armor the armor in the middle was all chainmail and under that padding, the mail provided added piercing protection and the padding to protect against some kinetic blows, and to anchor parts of the armor to his body.

Next to the armor was his sword and shield, Douny opted for a falchion, he always did prefer a cutting sword over something more balanced, and he assumed it fit his personality. The sword itself was nothing fancy; the spine of the single-edged blade was about 1.2mm thick tapering to an edge that was little less than a single millimeter; it had a pointed tip but that was more for an optional jab to take his opponent off guard, he also liked the razor thin blade profile; from what he remembered back on Earth this is how men at arms used to have theirs. The guard was just a simple straight bar cross guard that had the same silvery finish as the blade. Though the most decorated part of the sword was the pummel at the bottom, it was a circular pummel which held Luna's marking on her flank.

The shield was even more simple: it was a tall kite shield with a blue cloth covering, it was all wood, say for the straps for his arms and a sling to put it on his back if needed, and on the face of the shield was the same moon that would be on the chest of his armor. The overall height and width of it being 6.2x2 feet.

"I see that my armor is ready, though I'm curious as to how you were able to get the mail done with hands as big as yours?" Douny asked looking over to the minotaur, only for a Griffin to come out from a door behind him, his feathers were brownish red, and his head fur was an odd white color, his beak was similar to that of a crow in shape but had a yellow color to it, his wings were only slightly bigger than a normal pegasus, though that may have had to do with his height, he was at least a half a foot taller than the average pony but Douny was still had good two feet on him.

"Oh this must be that creature the princesses told us about, names Jackal, I'm the one who does the smaller details that muscles over here can't do." The Griffin announced, answering the now confused human who just stared blankly at the Griffin.

"You doing alright kid, you look like you've seen a ghost?" Steel Horn asked, looking down at the human with a cocked brow.

"Yeah, I guess I just need more time to adjust to all of this. Anyway, thank you both for making this for me." Douny said, slightly embarrassed that he didn't read up on this world when he had downtime. "Also why are you calling me kid, I'm already in my late 30s?"

"Mostly due to your size, if I'm being honest, anyway you can go to the quartermaster, he should have the rest of your gear." Steel Horn said, giving a low chuckle to himself.

Douny did so, making his way to the quartermaster, if he remembered right all he needed to do was grab a spear, some bags, and paperwork for his training to start. As he made there he wondered how his new life in the guard was going to go.

🌙

A day later he had his answer, this training was hell. He falsely thought that his height would give him an advantage when it came to movement, but that wasn't the case; they were the same when it came to how fast they could move. He had originally thought it was the armor making him slower but a quick test proved that wasn't the case. Still, he was doing alright,

His trainer was very strict which he found he liked. Her name was Captain Iron Heart, her armor was pretty different from the rest of the lunar knights, though it was mostly just in color, which were in the standard blue but held silver accents around the edges of the plates.

She was as thestral much like his fellow trainees, her coat was gray with her mane being whitish grey, and her eyes were abnormal at least to what Douny knew. All the other thestrals had either amber, green, or blue eyes, but hers were a steely grey that almost matched her coat.

She originally questioned him when he arrived asking why he didn't have blued metal armor but when he explained it was budget limitations she seemed to understand.

"Alright you shitty excuses for guards listen up! Today's going to be a true test of your combat skills. I'm going to be splitting you up into teams of two! Five of you are going to defend this flag, the other five will be attacking it. This will go on for four matches and whoever loses goes to bed hungry tonight!" Captain Iron Heart barked, she picked up the flag and led the group of ten trainees to what Douny could only call a war game.

The simulated battlefield wasn't anything special from what Douny could see. It was a mockup of a small town with woods surrounding it, Douny also noted the buildings looked similar to that of Ponyville's, holding that familiar medieval aesthetic. The Iron Heart gave a gesture for them to halt and she walked away to put the flag in a random location, leaving the recruits some time to talk amongst themselves.

"You must be the one those stuck-up nobles are making a big deal over." One of the recruits said, walking over to the human with an earnest smile on his face.

"Yeah I am, I honestly didn't know that they knew about me yet. My name's Douny. Nice to meet you." Douny said offering the thestral a handshake, which the pony took in their hoof and gave him a handshake back.

"Nice to finally meet you then, names Moonlit Streak." The bat pony said, giving him a toothy grin and showing Douny their fangs which he noticed one was broken off on the right side.

"If you don't mind me asking what happened to your fang?" Douny asked with a cocked eyebrow.

"Oh that, it was an injury I got a year ago, I was playing buck ball and I took a book straight to the jaw." Moonlit said, giving a light chuckle at the tale.

"I can't say I know what buck ball is, do you mind explaining it?" Douny said, raising an eyebrow.

Just as Moonlit was going to explain the sport to the human, the recruits spotted Iron Heart trotting back to them.

"Guess you're going to have to tell me what buck ball is some other time." Douny replied, getting back in line.

"Alright, split yourselves into two teams, and come meet me up ahead, there are training weapons for this training session so leave your weapons here!" Iron Heart explained, before looking them over and walking down the dirt road and into an open space similar to a town hall of sorts.

"I guess we should get ready, you want to join me and my other friends, we'll have just enough to make up a full team then?" Moonlit Streak asked with a hopeful glint in his eyes.

"I don't see why not, just let me put my stuff up and we can get going." Douny said, grabbing his short spear and falchion and putting it into a bucket with everyone else's weapons.

After everyone put their weapons up, they all went down the street that Captain Iron Heart had gone down. The whole group formed up into two lines making it clear who was on which team.

"Alright listen up because I'm only going to say this once!" Iron Heart demanded looking between both groups to make sure everyone was focused and not mucking about. "Team one is going to defend the flag, the only rule is that you cannot move the flag or make the flag harder to spot. Team two will be attacking team one's position and try to capture the flag with two rules, you can't go out of bounds, and you can't get back up once you're down, that rule also applies to team one any questions?" Iron Heart explained, looking around to see if anyone didn't understand the rules, when she saw no one confused she smiled slightly and waved team one to follow her which they did without a word making their way to a relatively small building that looked pretty easy to defend all things considered.

The inside of the building looked pretty normal though it was still pretty small for Douny but not small enough where he couldn't fight. Though he realized that it may have been a mistake taking his shield into the building with him, it seemed to only make things harder for the man so he chose to use his shield as a barricade for the door. He pulled out his practice sword which was shorter than what he liked but perfect for this environment.

His teammates were preparing in their own ways as well. Moonlit Streak in particular was doing something Douny found ingenious using his practice spear as a rampart so when the attackers would come through they would be downed if they rushed in, and if they didn't rush would make it harder to get around. Douny did the same with his spear and the door was properly protected.

It wasn't long after Moonli Streak, Douny, and the others prepared their position that the other team went on the offensive with four of them trying to bash down the door. Once they knew that was a bust due to Douny's shield reinforcing it, they chose to try the windows only to be met with spears and swords slashing and jabbing at them pushing them away. The only thing that wasn't defended was a back door that none of the defenders had noticed, which the final member of the attackers snuck in through, catching one of the defenders off guard, and downing them quickly which Douny noticed a bit too late to react.

Once Douny left the window he was defending thinking it was clear one of the other defenders popped out of it almost downing Douny, not taking any chances on letting the attacker in he rushed them with his sword downing them in the process. Unfortunately this gave the other attacker behind him time to go for another one of his teammates to which the man was a bit too slow to defend them before the other member of his team was taken out. Taking out the attacker Douny had given his teammates a bit more breathing room, though that wasn't the case for long as the opposing team pressed them harder hoping to break through, it had almost worked until Douny ran to grab his spear from the doorway, once he had it in his hands he grabbed one of the ponies defending the window and gestured for them to move back some as he readied his spear for a throw, and just as one of the ponies attacking the window made his way to the windows seal he let the spear fly knocking the attacker out.

With only two more attackers left Douny took the advantage and grabbed his shield and went outside. Both ponies who were attacking the windows turned to face him. Moonlit Streak taking notice ran for his spear to support Douny, Douny however charged the first pony and hit them in the head with the edge of his kite shield dazing the pony and making him stager. Just as Douny was about to take the opening and go for an attack he was forced back by the attacker's friend. Now having to face a two-on-one, Douny went into a defensive stance putting his sword in wrath guard (wrestling his sword at the top of his back behind his neck) doing so to get a powerful blow for whoever was going to strike first. The pony who went for his friend's aid was the one to take the bait as he went and tried to attack the human assuming he wouldn't be able to counter where his sword was resting, only to be proven wrong when Douny pushed forward with his shield knocking the spear out of the pony's mouth, followed by a crushing strike from his sword coming downwards knocking the pony out cold.

With only one more attacker left Douny stalked forward with his sword now in fools guard (where the sword is resting near the thigh and the point of the blade is pointing behind the wielder)  being ready for another attack. Only for the man to be shocked as a spear crashed into the side of Douny's foe.

"And that's how you win a war game, buck yeah." Moonlit Streak said, pumping his hoof into the air.

"I've gotta say Moonlit, I didn't expect you to throw a spear at him," Douny said, still shocked by the action, mostly because he thought he couldn't throw a spear due to him not having a horn to levitate objects.

"Well I had to help you somehow, it wouldn't be much fun if I let you do all the work." Moonlit Streak teased, walking up to the human.

"You're going to have to tell me how you did that unless you somehow used your hoof to do it, that's impossible." Douny stated, narrowing his eyes at the bat pony, to which Moonlit only chuckled.

"That's exactly what I did, all ponies have telekinetic abilities with their hooves though it isn't as powerful as unicorn telekinesis," Moonlit explained.

"I'm not even going to ask how that's possible, let's just meet up with Iron Heart, I just want this to be over so I can sleep." Douny stated in a dry tone, slumping his shoulders as he did so.

The rest of the matches went similarly with Douny and Moonlit's team winning two out of four times making it a draw. The day ended with the group lining up in front of the Captain to which they heard the words they had wanted to hear since they started this.

"It has been a long few weeks, I honestly didn't think some of you shit stains would make it to this point!" Iron Heart stated as she looked over the group with some pride. "But I'm happy to tell you that your training as guards is done and you are now a stallion at arms in the Lunar guard. I'm sure your families would be proud to see you all now." She finished as she stomped as she finished her pacing in front of the line.

"Tomorrow will be your official ceremony to bring you into the fold. But until then you should all rest, divines know you've earned it!" She finished as she led the group back to the barracks.

Douny was happy that this had been over and was more than pleased to sleep after that fight, he only wondered what this new chapter in his life would bring.
> Chapter 12 Who Hides In The Shadows
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was a stormy night in Canterlot, everyone was either asleep or closing up shop for the night. All except for the Lunar guard who had now taken the Solar guards' patrol. The storm did make it harder to see or hear any would-be criminals, but that had never been an issue, Equestria rarely had crime, least of all its capital city. But it would be this lax in alertness that would lead to some less than savory figures mucking about in the darkness.

🌙

"I fucking hate this weather, why did it have to rain on my first fucking shift."  Douny thought, trying to relieve the frustration by massaging his temples the best he could through the chainmail balaclava. "Doesn't fucking help that this rain is going to make it a bitch to clean in the morning." He then finished his thought looking over to one of the guards next to him.

"I don't think I've seen you around, what's your name?" Douny asked, easily keeping pace with his partner, though that had mostly been because of the length of his legs.

"Oh thank Celestia, I thought you were going to be quiet all night." The strange purple and blue thestral blurted out, taking a more relaxed cadence with her hoof steps as she did so. "My name's Lunar Gaze, I've gotta say I read the reports on you, but you are a hell of a lot cuter than I thought you'd be." The Thestral mare said very… forwardly.

"Look I'm flattered but, I'm not looking for anything like that." Douny stated flatly, not giving any chance for misinterpretation.

"Worth a shot." Lunar Gaze said under her breath. "So why did a stallion like you join the Lunar Guard?" She questioned

"Well, Princes Celestia asked me what job I'd like, and because of my… experience in Marshall work fields, as I would put it anyways this job just stuck out." Douny explained, looking over to Lunar Gaze, who seemed to have a sly grin on her muzzle.

"So when you say `experience` exactly how much are we talking?" Lunar Gaze asked with a pur, getting a reaction of annoyance from the human.

"This shift can't end fast enough." Douny stated, rolling his eyes.

"Oh come on, lighten up, I rarely get to make these jokes." Lunar Gaze said, chuckling to herself as she kept watching Douny's reaction, only for mild concern to take over as he saw him sharpen his stance and reach for his homemade club. "Douny, what's wrong?"

"I don't know, but I think I see something, stand guard here and I'll check it out." Douny answered as he marched his way to an alleyway. Lunar Gaze had stayed, making sure she had her wing blades extended Incase something happened.

Before Douny could fully turn the corner he was met with a slash to his neck which his chainmail stopped. As he took a step back out of surprise the assailant booked it down the alley jumping and flying over a wall. Being unable to jump over the wall Douny called over to Lunar Gaze and pointed towards the wall in question, to which the blue and purple mare seemed to understand and took flight in search of the attacker.

Douny, not taking another chance with the situation, pulled out his falchion and looked for a way to catch up with his partner, or hopefully find another Night Guard to take flight and help her. Unfortunately, however, it didn't take Douny long to get lost in the rainy streets of Canterlot. thinking of nothing else he could do he kept going in roughly the same direction he saw the mare and attacker fly to until he heard some flapping up ahead.

When he caught up to where he heard the flapping the sight was ugly, Lunar Gaze hadn't been lucky catching the attack, finding her wounded and bleeding from a cut on the left side of her muzzle, knocked out, and a gash across the left side of her barrel a small pool of blood around her. Running to her side sword still in hand he scanned the area with his sword in wrath guard ready to swing down from his shoulder if the attacker showed up in the storming alley before sheathing his blade and getting to her side. Deciding in an instant that her life was more important than some pompous Nobles' rest he looked around to see where the closest door was, finding one on the other side of the street.

Dashing over to it, the human borderline slammed his chainmail fist on the door luckily for him he heard hoof steps coming to the door, and was opened very shortly after, revealing an exhausted mare in front of him. Only for that tired look to be turned into slight fear when she looked up at his almost covered face, any features for her being obstructed by the dark and stormy night. Taking action before she ran off, Douny took hold of the situation.

"I'm Douny I'm in service to Princess Luna in her Majesty's Night Guard, I need your help, a fellow guard was attacked and is seriously hurt I need you to get a doctor or another guard here quickly do you understand." Douny stated, with authority clear in his voice. To which the mare seemed to recognize and nodded bolting to do as the man said as he ran over to keep watch over his partner falchion now out of its sheath and in a defensive stance holding his blade in fools guard (blade being down by his left thigh ready to cut upwards) and held it quickly glancing to the wounded mare making sure she wasn't losing too much blood. Deciding the attacker was long gone now, he kneeled down putting his sword down next to him putting his hands over her wound on her barrel to stop the bleeding.

It seemed like hours passed before some kind of medical pony and a few more thestral Night Guards came down the road, to which the human let out a sigh of relief at the sight. One of the guards came up to the human looking over the situation.

"By the goddesses, what happened?" Guard asked, Douny noticing it was a stallion.

"We found someone snooping around. I went to go check it out, but something hit me and bounced off my armor, she took chase after whatever the hell attacked me, and when I found her, this happened." Douny looked over to the medical pony who was looking her over.

"Good news it looked worse than it is, but the bad news is she will need a few days to recover." The doctor stated matter of factly, as he looked over to the guards "I'm going to need you both to carry her on the stretcher and our friend here can put her on top of it."

Without another word Douny picked up Lunar Gaze and put her into the stretcher, giving her one last look until the guards took her to the hospital, after that the human took off his helmet, mail coif, and mouth wrap, and his padded coif, putting them in his helmet as he looked on at the scene before he slumped over on the wall with an overhead hang keeping him out of the rain, to which one of the few guards still around looked at him with concern.

"Hey, are you alright?" The Night Guard closest to him asked rushing over to his side.

"No… no not really," Douny stated with a dry tone, closing his eyes for a brief moment. "I'm going to report this incident to Princess Luna, we had two attacks on guards tonight, and we have a suspect who has escaped, she's gonna want to hear about it." He finished getting back to his feet and putting his headgear back on, then made his way to the Castle keeping his hand close to his falchions hilt the whole time.

Once he made it to the doors of the palace he nodded to the thestral guards, both of them looking his way.

"Who goes there?" One of the guards asked, her voice slightly confused at seeing the man back so soon.

"Loki and his merry band of bastards." Douny slightly joked more for his own benefit.

"Douny, I thought you weren't supposed to turn in until 5 AM, it's only 3 what's going on?" The other guard stated her voice concerned.

"Long story and I'm afraid I don't have much time, I need to see Princess Luna, it's urgent, I'll tell you both what happened once I have time." Douny stated, giving a tired look to both of the guardsmares.

"She's available, get inside if it's as bad as it sounds she's going to want to speak with you immediately." The guardsmares on the right side, opening the double doors to the palace letting Douny into the dry warm building.

Douny quickly made his way to Luna's observatory, he was shown the location a few times on his tours with the guards, they had shown him all the places where the Princesses might be in the palace if he ever needed to reach them. As he walked he glanced at his right hand, finding that the palm which was once a thin brown leather portion of his mail gloves, were stained crimson from the blood of his partner, everything now hitting him much much harder, once again he had let those near him down.

Beating those thoughts away with brutality he focused on his goal, thinking like that won't bring the bastard who did this to justice any sooner. Finally getting to the doors of Luna's observatory Douny knocked on the door, the knocking sounding much more aggressive than he'd liked though he wasn't sure if it was his nerves or the mail that caused that. The door opened revealing Luna who had a look of shock at seeing the man.

"Douny, we're pleased to see thee, but what hast brought thou? It had been our understanding that thous service wouldn't be over till early morning." Luna said, now fully seeing the state of the tired and now obviously socking and blood stained man. "~And what happened to thee, were thou assaulted?" She asked, finishing her bout of questions.

"Sorry Luna, but I have urgent news, just tonight me, and another guard were assaulted by an unknown suspect who managed to flee. I'm fine, my armor saved me, but Lunar Gaze wasn't so fortunate, she's getting medical treatment as we speak." Douny ranted, almost unable to control the torrent of thoughts flooding his mind like a tsunami wave.

Luna, seeing the state of her friend, walked to his side and brought a wing over his back, walking him into her observatory.

"Come Douny, thou hast earned a break from tonight's work, speak with us, it seems thou is being troubled by something." Luna gently said, walking the man over to the closest seat in the room.

The man took a seat on a chair, the seat itself felt a bit too small but he was fine with that for now, choosing to calm himself down from everything that just happened. Taking off all headgear, equipment belt, and brigandine he let himself feel more comfortable before collecting his thoughts. Once he knew what to say he just let everything out.

"I'm no stranger to war Luna, but I can't explain why after all the violence and blood I've seen, why this whole situation is weighing down on me so much. I mean fuck, I've seen people killed in front of me and I never batted an eye. But this whole situation seems to have shattered that." The man let out, cupping his head in his blooded gloves, unable to take them off due to them being attached to his mail shirt.

Hearing this brought pain to Luna's heart, her ears were folded down, and a frown on her face at hearing the man's woes, she just sat next to the nearly broken man, keeping her wing on his withers. He looked up at her tears forming in his eyes with a bloody handprint on his face. This only brought the feeling of sadness for the man to greater heights as she hugged him with her forelegs and wings, they stayed like this for a whole minute until Douny pulled away.

"Is there a bathroom here?" He asked, wiping away his tears with the mail side of his hand. Luna only pointed with her hoof to a door on the far right side of the room, to which the human nodded and took off his mail shirt leaving only his dark blue gambeson on his upper body.

Luna watched the man head over to his bathroom, after he was out of sight she looked at his gear casting a spell over it to clean the blood and water off, also putting a protection spell over it to keep it from rusting anymore.

"Poor stallion, does he truly have to take on his lot in life all by himself?" She whispered to herself, taking his helmet in her magical grasp and staring at it, putting it down with a sigh. A few moments after, Douny came back out no longer having blood on his face and looking a little better than the state he was originally in.

"Thanks, I… I really needed to clean myself up a bit. I see that you cleaned up my gear, how much do I owe ya?" Douny half-joked, adding a dry laugh.

"Tis no trouble, and don't worry about paying us, we did it to help out a friend in need, it shouldn't rust anymore we also added a protective layer to it with our magic." Luna stated, with a warm smile.

"Thank you, it means a lot to me. But I think I really must go though, I think that I'm going to go to sleep and hopefully talk to you tomorrow." Douny said putting on his gear but keeping his helmet and coifs in it.

"Have a good night Douny, may thee dreams be pleasant tonight." Luna said, giving him a kind smile and nod.

With that Douny walked off, his shoulder slack, he just couldn't wait to get to bed so he could hopefully sleep this hellish night away. Though he had to admit that Luna did help make it a little bit better at the very least. He only hoped that tonight would be a dreamless one, not sure how much more he could take today.
> Chapter 13 Things Long Left Forgotten
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Douny stirred awake, hearing knocking coming from his door. He was half tempted to tell whoever it was to go away until he heard the voice beyond the door. A voice he was sure he would never hear again.

"Douny, breakfast is ready. That friend of yours stopped by, he was wondering if you'd want to head to the park later." A feminine voice said from beyond the door. A voice he knew all too well.

"M…mom?" Douny shakely said, it was then he noticed his voice was out of pitch. Looking around the room, he no longer saw the room Luna had brought him to all those months ago, instead, it was an older one.

The floor was a rich dark brown oak, with that same wood going halfway up the wall, with the other half being a nice shade of off white. Looking over to his right the sun was coming in through a window, giving the room a warm feel to it. It was at this moment the door opened revealing his mother, she walked into the room with concern on her face.

Her skin was slightly tanned, her hair was a hint of red, and her eyes shined like emeralds, just like Douny's. Her outfit was fairly traditional, it was a maroon red dress almost like something you would see in the 60s or 70s, she had a cooking apron on, with what looked to be small splotches of pancake batter on it.

"Douny, are you alright?" She asked, a soothing tone in her voice.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm alright, I guess I just had a bad dream. What did you make?" Douny asked, pushing himself out of bed. Getting out of bed he noticed that he wasn't quite as tall as he used to be, he was only about as tall as his mom, which from what he could remember, was 5.8.

"Alright, I'll be downstairs, make sure you get ready for school." She said, giving Douny a caring smile before she walked out of the room. Douny just sat there for a few minutes, completely lost in thought at everything that just happened. Eventually, he did stand up and looked through drawers for a pair of paints and clean underwear before moving on to the closet for a shirt and belt.

After gathering his clothes, he opened his door and made his way to the shower. He noticed that the halls looked very similar to his room's walls, the main difference being that the dark oak didn't go up the walls but did have a bump lining the edge of the floor and walls. Going off of memory, Douny moved down the right side of the hall until he came to the first door to his left, he opened it turning on the lights and confirming that it was the bathroom.

Looking around the bathroom, everything was just as Douny remembered it. The roof was a nice sky blue, with white tiles going from the mid section of the shower wall down to the floor which had rougher, and smaller tiles. The rest of the room was the same as the roof's color and texture, which seemed to just be drywall. The floor was the same as the showers, probably to prevent slipping.

Sitting down on the closed toilet set Douny took a deep breath to try to calm down a bit. Nothing seemed to make sense, where was the castle, where was his gear, and where was Luna? Starting to be on the verge of a panic attack Douny's vision began to blur, his mind racing a million miles a minute, and his breathing was completely out of control it became increasingly hard to hold on to any thoughts, though, he was able to lock on to one thought, and had let that be his anchor.

"Come on ye young rebels, come list while I sing. For the love of one's country, is a beautiful thing. It banishes fear like, the speed of a flame. And it makes us all part of, the Patriots game." He shakily sang, calming down bit by bit as he did so.

"Are you alright I'm there?" His mother asked, on the other side of the door, having heard Douny from downstairs.

"Yeah, i…i it's nothing, I guess I'm just a bit paranoid right now." Douny answered, being a bit taken aback by his mother being outside the door without him so much as hearing footsteps. Having completely calmed down, Douny continued to get ready to take a shower. Today was going to be a long day.

🌙

After taking his shower, Douny left the bathroom, relying on memory again, he went down the way he came eventually finding a staircase leading down to the living room. Going down the stairs, Douny made a left going to the dining room, seeing his mom already there he took a seat in front of her. Looking at her, he saw a kind smile on her face as she looked back at him from her newspaper.

"Good morning Douny, how did you sleep last night?" She asked, putting her newspaper down for the time being to focus on her son. She still held a smile but this time it was laced with concern for her boy.

"I slept fine, just had a weird dream." Douny said. "How have you been?" Douny then asked, smiling back up at his mother who could see right through his attempt to dodge the conversation.

"Look, I'm not going to push you, but I know you're not fine. I heard the song you sang, and I remember I taught you it to help you calm down when you were stressed. So please, what's going on honey?" She asked, giving her son a heartbreaking look, making Douny cringe with guilt at the sight of it.

"I'm sorry, but I just can't tell you, it's not a big deal anyways." Douny said, looking away as he did so.

"Alright, just, please come to me if you change your mind, you don't have to go to school today either, just take some time to yourself." She said, keeping that same look she had from before. Getting up from her seat she walked around to the other side of the table next to her son, hugging him before she left, and went to another part of the house.

After she left, Douny put his head on the table, getting caught back in a deep thought of what was happening. He still couldn't make heads or tails of it, and by now he had given up trying to make sense of it. For now what he needed to do was find something to get his mind off things, just for a bit, but that was going to be much harder said than done.

Getting up, Douny made his way to the front door, heading back to the living room, to the right, Douny opened it revealing the small town they lived in. There was one major road leading in, and out of town with businesses on either side of the main street. Branching off from there were the fairly old houses, having been built back in the 80's, and surrounding their town was fairly open woods. All around a nice spot that was relaxing and nice to live in.

After taking a deep breath Douny walked outside, and went around to the back side of his house, when he made it back there he found a shed. Walking over to it he opened the door, but before he made his way in he felt an odd feeling, almost like someone was watching him, shrugging it off he went and grabbed the tools he was looking for. The tools in question were a handful of screwdrivers of different sizes, a handsaw, a power drill, and a hammer with a few bags of nails.

Taking the tools he grabbed he went to a workbench against the wall of the house, lucky for him it had a wooden awning above it, giving Douny some shade as he worked. He really didn't have anything planned out, he just wanted to build something to keep himself busy. Trying to decide what to make Douny came up with something fairly quickly, he would make furniture, hell if he did it well enough he might even be able to make some money off the side.

There was just one problem, he didn't have any wood to work with, going back to the shed he found a hatchet. Picking it up he went back outside and started heading down a path that went into the woods. Hopefully, he wouldn't have to go too far into them, but he was fine if it came to that, the woods have never been too dangerous, aside from the rare coyote, plus even if that feeling from before was right, he had an axe so he was more than capable of defending himself.

Making his way back to the shed, he picked up a wood cutting axe, and a bill hook to grab any branches that were out of his reach. The walk to the path was fairly uneventful, and for the most part, walking down the path in the woods was the same, minus a few deer and other woodland animals going about their business. A decent ways in he spotted a few trees that looked good and brought his bill hook up to pull at one of the branches, but just as he was about to do so he got that weird feeling in his gut again. Dropping his bill hook to the ground, bringing up his axe only to be met with a shadowy figure.

"Hey, who are you and why are you following me?" Douny asked, keeping his axe in a low ready position, however, there was no response other than a step forward from the strange figure.

"Do you have some kind of death wish? I asked you a question, now back off and answer it." Douny demanded, raising his axe onto his shoulder for an easy downward swing. Still, no response was given other than the creature continuing to approach.

Douny was about to charge at it until he saw more figures appearing from behind the trees around him putting fear into his soul, though he held his stance. If he was going to die, he was going to die on his feet fighting. Just as he was about to take a swing at the creature in front of him, a popping sound came from behind him, and before he could react to it a blue beam smited the first creature down in an instant. It didn't take long for a similar fate to fall the rest of them meanwhile Douny hit the deck keeping his hands over his head to protect it, after a few seconds there was silence, a long with… hoof steps, confused Douny looked over to his right where he heard them only to spot Princess Luna.

"Art thou alright Douny, by the makers why didn't thee tell us thee had these vermin in your dreams?" Luna said with concern in her voice, and worry in her eyes.

"It's fine Luna, just another nightmare to throw onto the growing pile." Douny stated patting himself off, noticing that he was back in his normal body.

"These creatures art attracted to nightmares, friend, they shouldn't be treated lightly." Luna said, putting a hoof on my chest.

"So what were they then, I just thought they were just part of my nightmares, not anything more?" Douny asked, looking over the woods.

"Not here, we'd wish to speak of these in our  observatory, if that won't be a problem?" She asked.

"Yeah sure, I'll meet you there." Douny said, as he did he felt himself being woken up, most likely by Luna's magic, and before he knew it everything faded as he came back to the waking world.

🌙

When Douny woke up he realized he was sleeping at his desk still in full kit minus the helmet and chainmail on his head. Getting the sleep out of his eyes, he made his way to the other side of his room where he kept a cup of coffee, which if he remembered correctly he got before he went and conk out on his desk. With a shrug he down the cup of coffee and made his way out of his room and to where Luna wanted to speak with him.

As he walked down the halls of the palace, he noticed it was still night out, and from where the moon was sitting it was midnight, he hadn't been sleeping more than an hour. With a grumble, he kept moving on waving to any Night Guardponys as he did so. It didn't take him long to reach the observatory, and when he did he knocked on the door, hearing Luna on the other side asking who it was, when he told her it was him she opened the doors and greeted Douny with a smile.

"Friend Douny, please have a seat, we had just ordered coffee for both of us." Luna said, walking over to the couch that she had in the middle of the observatory, to which he followed her and sat down on it.

"Why are thou still in thy kit?" Luna asked, with a tilt of her head.

"I guess when I left to head back to my room, I slept before I could get my paperwork done, and conked out on my desk." He answered, taking a sip of the coffee that Luna had ordered, which tasted heavenly.

With a suppressed giggle Luna then spoke. "Well we hate to ruin the mood, but we think thee deserves an explanation on what those vermin were in thy dreams, tis isn't a thing thee would be able to read on." Luna said, with a slightly dark and cold tone, which didn't go unnoticed by Douny.

"And why's that?" Douny asked, taking another sip of his coffee.

"We shall explain, when we were the Nightmare, or as everypony else would say, Nightmare Moon, we had fought our sister for dominance over the heavens, we had lost that fight however, but we had a failsafe in mind so to speak." Luna explained, her face turned into one of disgust and a hint of self hatred, in response Douny put a hand on her weathers to help comfort her, even though it was through a chainmail and leather glove. The attempt didn't go unnoticed by the midnight blue alicorn as she smiled at the attempt.

"And that's what is plaguing thy dreams, a creature we made out of our pure hate if we couldn't have the heavens and the ponies' love and attention, they would suffer for it, it's little wonder why they are so scared of us, it's no less than what we deserve for our transgressions." She said coldly, more towards herself than anyone else.

"Hey none of that, you're not like that, I'm not even sure I believe you and Nightmare Moon are even the same, from what I've read she seemed to be more of a foreign entity snaking its way into your mind." Douny said, looking Luna in her blue eyes.

"If it were true dear friend, if it were true, but tie not, though yes The Nightmare wasn't us, we have equal blame, for we allowed her to take over because of our hate and jealousy." She responded, trying to avert her days from the man in front of her.

"Look, I more than anyone know how hate works, trust me I am all too aware, but unlike you, I wasn't being manipulated, 90% of the time the only one making those choices was me, so please, try to forgive yourself, if not for your sake, than for me and you're sisters, I really don't want to see you like this." Douny said, moving his head around to where he would be locking eyes with Luna again,

With tears in her eyes, Luna's breaths started to hitch in her throat. "Thank thee friend Douny, thou hast no idea how much your words mean to us, we art truly proud to have somepony like thee as a friend." She said, lightly sobbing into Douny's brigandine turning that spot of it a deeper blue from her tears.

"Hey it's alright Luna, I'm here." Douny said softly, holding her against his chest, wishing he had been wearing something more comfortable for Luna's sake.

"We art sorry Douny, you truly are a kind stallion, anyways, we should get back to our duties we'd also wish for thee to stay here while thy sleeps so we can help thee if thy gets ambushed by those beasts again." Luna asked, as she got up from her seat.

"I guess so, I don't see the harm in it, let me just get into something a bit more comfortable, and I'll be back." With that, Douny got up again walking back to his room.

Luna was happy that he agreed, yes should could protect him from those nightmare creatures here, but she would still rather him stay close in case the worst happened. Not that she thought anything would, but you can never be too careful with these creatures. With that she smiled, happy that she could protect her friend both in the dream realm and if those beasts appeared in the physical realm as well.