> My Life In Ponyville
>  by Skitzo Tune
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Moving Day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Moving day came and my mom yelled from below, " Hurry up, your friend Apachie is here already." As I stir from my sleep I look at clock. It read 10:42 a.m. DAMN! I OVER SLEPT! I throw the blanket off and look in the mirror really quick. My coat was as red as ever and the black markings looked kinda cool just the same. My mane was all over the place but I didn't care. I always liked my black hair though my mom never really liked how I had a single red stripe in it. I was taller than the average pony and that gave me something to be proud of. 

I saw the picture of dad on the dresser and said, "Today is the day dad." My dad has been dead for some time now. He got sick when I was just a colt and died. His name was Blizzard Gust. And for good reason. His coat was as white as you can imagine. He had wings bigger than the normal pegasus and always brought me along whenever he flew somewhere. It makes me sad that he's not here to see me off but I know he's watching over me.

I turned away and started to get dressed in my blue, black jumpsuit, having trouble finding the holes for my wings like always, and begin to carry my suit case down the stairs. I see mom sitting and talking to Apachie about where we were moving. Mom was a light blue pegasus with white spots over her wings and a white mane and tail with a stripe of light blue. She was pretty small for having such a loud voice. Well, atleast when she wanted to have a loud voice. Her name was Sky Cloud which made me laugh sometimes cause the sky already dealt with clouds but I never really pushed the subject since I was the only one who ever thought it was funny. 

She looked over to me with a pout and said, " Red Nightingale, how you ever wake up on time is a mystery to me." 

"Its called an alarm clock mom, I just forgot to set it last night." I said with a stern look. 

"Heh." I heard coming from the direction of Apachie," You should see how late he wakes up whenever we go on vacation." 

Apachie Chief was his full name. He's a dark brown pegasus with an all black mane. He was the kind of pony that never really let anything bother him and was always laid back. He never had the right state of mind and always seemed like he was elsewhere but he tried to be focus around my parents. As a side effect to never being in the right state of mind he ate three times more than the normal pony.He was a full head taller than me and I honestly believed that the only ponies in all of Esquestria taller were the Princesses themselves. He was strong. Very strong. Which came in handy at times. Growing up we tended to get into lots of fights and we always came out on top. I trained with him whenever we had free time so I was just about as strong as he was but I could never beat him when we sparred. 

I gave him the same look I gave my mom as she said," Well this isn't a vacation. It's the beginning of the rest of your lives." 

Apachie thought about for a second. "I guess you're right Sky." 

As I walked into the kitchen I could see pancakes on the table as I heard them continue their conversation in the living room. This was bad. Mom only ever made pancakes when she was sad. Damnit. She's gonna cry us a lake when she sees us off. I finished my breakfast and come back into the living room as I hear Apachie talk about the place we're going to be living in. 

"Its a small town right outside of Canterlot called Ponyville. I have a relative that lives there and is willing to put us up until we have a place of our own." He said with a look in his eye. He was lying. I could tell because its happened before. 

Every summer for the last few years Apachie and me would save up some bits and stay somewhere new. Well last year we spent the summer in Canterlot. He said he had an aunt there willing to let us stay but when we got there I realized he had lied. I was mad but we were lucky enough to find a place to stay by, as you guessed it, getting into a fight. 

FLASHBACK

"Oh come on man it's not as bad as it seems." Apachie claimed.

I was drinking my sorrows away about not having a place to stay. Out of the corner of my eye I see this mare being hit on and looking disgusted. The pony couldn't take a hint and kept trying to hit on her. He grabbed her by the hoof and she fought. That's around the time I ran over and gave him a hoof to the face knocking him unconscious. 

I looked over and asked her, "Are you ok miss?"

She looked stunned for a second before realizing what had happened then looked at me with a scared look. "Thank you stranger." She threw her legs around my neck and hugged me. A quick one but it left me breathless.

She let go blushing. "I'm sorry. I was just frightened and didn't know what to do. I am lucky you came along when you did." 

Catching my breath I said, "No problem miss..."

"Octavia." She said. "What is your name stranger?"

"The names Red Nightingale." I said bowing down.

"But you can just call him Skitzo!" Apachie said from behind me walking towards us. 

"Ugh." I sighed

She looked at me puzzled by such a weird nick name. 

"Long story," I said in her direction. "excuse me for a moment."

I walked over to Apachie and sent a hoof right into his chest. His reaction? A smile and laugh.

"Oh come on man that's an awesome name."

"I thought I told you to drop that name. It gets ponies thinking there is something wrong with me." I said angrily.

"I wouldn't judge you so quickly." Said a voice from behind. "Not after what you just did for me."

I quickly turn back and there stood Octavia. She had followed me through the crowd. "Who is your friend?" She asked curiously.

"Apachie Chief is the name, livin' life's my game." He said with a smile on his face. 

"Interesting name. So what brings you two to this bar?" Wonder in her face.

"We're staying in Canterlot for the summer. We're on vacation." Apachie answered.

"Ya too bad we don't have a place to stay thanks to someone." I look at Apachie as he looks away pretending not to notice.

"Oh?" She said surprised. She thought for a second blushing to herself as she saw the two ponies in front of her play fighting. "Why don't you two stay with me? I have a guest room."

I stood there dumbstruck. "Are you sure about that? I mean we've only just met." 

"It's no problem. Think of it as a way for me to pay you back for you saving me." She said blushing. 

"Alright! Thanks...ummm.."Apachie said trailing off.

"Octavia." She said with a smile.

"Thanks Octa!" 

She looked at me with a confused look. "He comes up with weird nicknames. Don't pay much attention to them. I tend to tone him out when he talks most of the time." She giggled.

"Well why don't we get going? It's getting dark." She said as walked towards the door.

"See?! I told you not to worry man." Apachie said smiling like an idiot. 

FLASHBACK END

I thought to myself if not for Octavia we probably wouldn't have found a place to stay. I told my mom the same story she heard before we left so it was all a secret. I thought about that night and felt my face heating up like a pot on a stove and thought to myself, Now is not the time to think about that. 

It came close to eleven and it was about time for us to leave to Ponyville. I walked over to the two of them and asked, "You ready man?" 

Apachie said with a look of someone who was too excited. "Hay ya man. I've been waiting for your lazy flank to get out of bed."

"Well then lets go." I said. "This is it mom." 

Tears began to fall down her cheeks. I knew this was going to happen. She came over to me and hugged me tightly. "I going to miss you Gale. Take care of yourself and don't get into any fights. Make sure you don't stay in bed all day and...and...and..." she couldn't finish her sentence because she was crying so hard. I felt myself wanting to cry but I held it back. 

She let go off me and ran to the other room and came back with a present. "I got it for you the other day. I hope you like it." She said while giving it to me. 

I openned the box and saw a pair of black rimmed glasses with dark blue lenses. They looked so cool and matched my jumpsuit. I looked up at her and hugged her saying, "I love you mom."

"I love you too hunny." Tears running down both our faces now.

We let go and I walked towards the door where Apachie was waiting. I pick up my suitcase and open the door. We walk out and say, "Bye mom, I'll make sure to write." 

She said, "You better! Apachie make sure you take care of him for me." 

"No problem Sky. I'll make sure nothing happens to him." He said with a smile. 

With that we close the door and begin to walk out into the streets of Cloudsdale.

"If only she knew I'm the one that has to take care of your flank." I say out loud as Apachie starts flying over head.

"Come on Skitzo! You know you wouldn't survive a day without me." He says with that stupid smile of his.

I take off and kick him in flank and tell him, "You know I really hate that name." I gave him a dirty look.

"Ya I know. I'm gonna make sure it catches. Even if I have to tell every pony we meet to call you that." 

"I'll kill you if it ever catches." I threaten him. He just laughs as we fly towards our new lives in Ponyville.
> Homecoming
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Flying was always something I loved more than anything. I get the feeling that my father knew and hence named me after a bird. There were times where whenever I was bored I'd fly out and lay down on the roof of my home and feel the wind through my wings. And the glasses mom gave me before we left seem to keep the wind out of my eyes. Apachie looked over at me while flying and saw the glasses on me.

"Those are some pretty cool shades man. Where'd you get them?" He asked.

"Mom gave them to me before we left. They look pretty sick don't they?" I bragged.

"Ya they do but I bet they look better on me!" He yelled as he flew over towards me and pulled them off. 

He put them one and flew ahead of me to get away. It never really bothered me whenever he did something like that. We've known each other since we were colts in flight school so I know he was just teasing. It was just his way of saying he wanted a race and I wasn't one to disappoint him. "You're on!" I yelled through the cloud cover. 

It always made me smile when we raced. The wind through my wings and excitement of seeing which one of us was better. It was always back and forth between us; each loss making us try harder, each victory showing who was on top. We didn't let it get to us because we were only in it for the rush. 

We flew faster and faster towards our new home and I was beginning to catch up. Those daily workouts in my room were paying off. Then I saw a cloud high above and thought of something I read in a book once. I climbed towards the cloud and stepped on it pushing myself higher on the cloud. Another step and more speed. I was beginning to lose him but I knew I'd catch up after this. As I got to the top of the cloud I jumped off and dove down. I adjusted myself in his direction before pulling my wings closer to my body. With this I'll catch him in no time, I thought to myself. I kept up the dive feeling the sting of the water as I pushed through the clouds. He was in sight and I was coming up fast. Then out of nowhere came a multi-colored blur passed in front of me faster than I could react. Thinking I would crash I openned my wings and lost control. I passed through what seemed like a rainbow and then saw Apachie coming in to view. 

"Buck! This is gonna hurt." I said under my breath as I crashed into the stallion. 

As I crashed into him I thought to myself, Buck, did I just crash into Apachie or a brick wall?! It hurt more than being kicked in the face by a drunken pony. I tried openning my eyes to see the only thing around, the ground. The last thought that passed through my mind was, Oh Celestia have mercy on us, before we crashed creating a crater around us. 

I woke up what seemed to be a few hours later about five feet away from Apachie. I looked around and saw a town in the distance and figured, Hay that must be Ponyville. I tried standing but felt the pain of my front right leg preventing me from putting much pressure on it. 

"Damn that fall hurt a hay of alot." I said to myself.

"You're telling me." I heard from a bit away.

Apachie had come to and seemed to be standing just fine. My jaw dropped to see him walking over to me like nothing happened.

"How the hay are you even able to walk straight after that fall?!" I asked dumbfounded.

"Eh. I've fallen from higher. But I admit that hurt. Alot. Why the hay did you crash into me anyways?" He said stretching out his wings and legs. I heard popping noises making me cringe a little.

"I was diving down about to pass you when something flew right in front of me. I tried slowing down so I wouldn't crash into it and lost control." I said trying to think back what exactly it was that made me slow down. 

"Well I guess that makes sense." He said while cracking his neck with his legs. He looked over his shoulder as saw the same town I did. "Oh look. We're here." He looked back with his trademark stupid smile.

"Thats good I suppose." I took the glasses off of him and put them on. "You mind passing me my suitcase. I think I hurt myself." 

He walked over with the suitcase with a look of confusion. "What the hay do you have in there that'll help you?" 

"A first aid kit." I said openning the case and rummaing through it.

"What? Why would you have one of those on you?" He gave me this weird look like I was crazy.

"You swear with the amount of fights we get into I'm not gonna bring something to fix us up after." I said giving him a look. 

He thought about it a while processing everything in his mind giving me enough time to wrap my my ankle and hoof with a bandage. "I guess you're right man." He laughed out loud. He came over to me and picked me up and threw me across his back barely giving me enough time to get my suitcase. 

"What in the name of Equestria are you doing?" I asked him quickly becoming dizzy from the fast movement.

"Man you're hurt. I ain't about to let you hurt yourself more. I did tell you're mom I'd take care of you remember?" He said with a smile.

"You wouldn't last a second without me. I am your 'Gatekeeper of Nightmares' remember?" I said laughing as he was walking towards the small town.

"Heh, you still remember that?" He asked looking away.

"Ofcourse man how can I forget something so funny?" 

"Don't remind me man." He said shivering. "I admit without you around things would be really bad. I don't know how you do it but you seem to keep bad stuff from happening to me." He chuckled a bit. 

"It looks like we're almost there. Let me down I'm good to walk on my own." I said.

He shrugged, "Whatever floats your boat man." 

He let me down and looked over to the town. I looked up at the sky trying to catch my balance. It must of been sometime around four. I could hear Apachie's stomach growl and I looked over with a look on my face that read, Are you serious?

He looked over at me with his smile, "Man am I hungry. Lets hurry up and get into town so we can wax on some food." 

"Ya ya I know. I could hear you're stomach a mile away." I said while testing if I could walk. It still hurt but I could walk on it without much trouble. It should be better in a few days I thought to myself as I walked over to Apachie, already trying to get to town as fast as possible.

As we walk into town the first thing I notice are all the mares. I swear I think this town has a 5:1 ratio between mares and stallions. Apachie'll like that I thought. We walk over to what seemed to be a cafe and sat down. 

A waiter came up and said, "Good afternoon gentlecolts. What would you like today?"

I looked down at the menu while behind I could hear Apachie going off. "Ya can I have three hayburgers, two orders of hay fries, four salads and three lemonades." 

I looked up to see the complex look on the waiter's face, part amazed, part replused, part happy about the amount the tip would be. 

"I'll have a hay burger, a salad and a lemonade." I said handing the menu over to the waiter. 

He walked away with our order heavy one his mind. "I think you freaked him out a bit." I said laughing.

"Hey I can't control this monster of a stomach I have. I have to please it or it'll kill me." He said jokingly. 

The waiter came back with over food and let out a grunt when he set out the food. It seemed like the sheer amount of food was hard for him to carry. The waiter left shortly after turning around right as Apachie finished his first hay burger. As we ate the thought came to mind and I figured now would be the best time to bring it into the light.

"So, where do you plan on us staying this time?" 

Apachie looked at me with a surprised look on his face and a mouthful of hay fries. He gulped down what he had in his mouth and said, "How'd you know?" 

"I'm your bestfriend. I can tell when you're lying. Geez man where are we gonna stay?" I said making sure no one around could hear us.

"Hey man we'll find a place. Don't worry so much I mean come on I'm sure you can work you're "charm" on some mare. I mean hay it seems like this entire town is full of mares ripe for the picking." He said with the biggest grin he's had all day.

"Shut up about that...we got lucky..." I said looking away feeling my face start to burn.

"Ha! You got lucky my friend." He said knowing full well what happened that night.

I kicked him from under the table but it felt like kicking the side of a house. "It's getting dark and we have no where to go because of you."

"If anything we'll just camp out tonight and look around for a place to stay in the morning." He said going face first into his second salad. 

I face-hoofed. I knew there was no point in arguing with him because we really didn't have much of a choice. We finished our food and paid, the waiter happy with the size of his tip. It was dark already so we found a tree to sleep in. It was pretty big and right in the center of town to my amazement. Apachie had found a branch and organized some of the leaves into a pillow and fell asleep the second his head hit the makeshift pillow. I found a branch across from him and began thinking to myself, This is the start of our new life...and we're sleeping in a tree. 

"Great." I said sarcastically.

I found myself drifting off into sleep and adjusted myself to sleep. With the night I found myself relax from the slight pain from my hoof and let the worries of the day wash away. 

> Unexpected Development
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I awake from my sleep to drops of cold water. I keep my eyes closed from the exhaustion and begin to remember the dream I was rudely awoken from. As I piece together the fragments, I soon feel my face burning. The situation and constant talk of Octavia makes her a constant presence in my mind, whether or not I wanted her to. And, at this point, she was a welcomed entity in my mind to distract me. I'm pulled away from my delusions by more cold drops of water. As I fight my eyes open I soon realise that its raining. Hard. Curse my heavy sleeping. I look down and see that my coat, mane, and wings are soaked to the bone. It seemed the only thing keeping me warm through it all was my habit of wrapping my wings around the non-exsistant Octavia. I stood up and shook to get off all the extra water off me before flying over to Apachie. 

As I landed on the branch Apachie was laying on, feeling pain coming from my hoof, I heard him say, "No mom, the water's gone cold. I don't wanna take a shower." 

He always had the habit of talking in his sleep. "Skitzo, tell her the water's cold."

I looked to see that the spot he had chosen to sleep was mainly dry except for the constant drip that was falling onto his mane. I figured he'd be fine so I flew over and tried to fix the leaves of the tree to allow no water to come into the area where he slept. My hoof seemed to be hurting more than earlier but that was normal. I made alot of noise but ofcourse, if the rain couldn't wake Apachie up at this point, nothing would. I heard some noise coming from inside the big tree but I figured it was just some small animals living within it. 

I flew over to where Apachie was sleeping. "Skitzo, why haven't you kept in touch with Octa?" He said with a smirk on his sleeping face. 

I kicked him in the side and to no avail he continued sleeping. "Geez, talk about dead wieght." I said to myself. 

I streched out my wings and wrapped them around myself to keep myself warm. I closed my eyes and the thought of my mother came into my mind. I felt sadness well up from deep down thinking of my mom being in that big house all alone. I wanted to cry leaving her behind like that but then I remember a song she played alot after dad died. It was from her favorite rock group.


Talk to me softly,

There's something in your eyes.

Don't hang your head in sorrow,

And please don't cry.

I know how you're feeling inside,

I've been there before.

Somethings changing inside you,

And don't you know?


I felt a tear coming down my cheek as I remembered the next line perfectly;

Don't you cry tonight, I still love you baby.

This was the song that was played over and over in my home, keeping us together through the tough time. The name of the group was Ponies N' Roses. They soon became one of my favorite old rock groups from when my mother was just a philly. I can remember the music playing in the background of my memories of being young. They reminded me of my father as sad as that may be but I know he's watching over her in that lonely house. I know he's watching over me as well and that keeps my head up in times like this. I feel a smile come to my face as I play the music in my head. I soon begin falling asleep as the last few thoughts of my mother singing come into mind;


You gotta make it your own way, 

But you'll be alright now sugar.

You'll feel better tomorrow,

Coming the morning light now baby....



The next morning I woke up in what seemed to look like a hospital room. I heard the constant beep of a heart rate monitor and begin to freak out. I take off the band around my head and soon find a cast around my hurt hoof. As I pull myself off the bed I fall to the floor from the dizziness of getting up too quickly. 

A nurse came into the room and yelped a little. "Someone quick! A patient has fallen out of bed!" She yelled behind her as she came over to me trying to help me up. 

I pushed her away with enough force to get her away from me with one of my wings. "Where am I?! Where's my friend?! Where's Apachie?!" I yelled keeping the nurse away from me and trying to get on all four.

I succeedded in getting up as a few stallions came into the room. They were all wearing white and had looks of concern on their faces like they were afraid of me hurting myself. They began to walk closer to me as I walked backwards toward a corner.

As their hoofs begin to get too close I get defensive and right as I'm about to kick one of them I hear something familiar. "Hey Skitzo, you have to try one of these muffins. They're amazing."

I look up and see Apachie standing in the doorway scarfing down a muffin. "Hey nurse, I suggest you tell you're co-workers to move away from him. He's the kind of pony that doesn't go down without a fight." He chuckled, making remains of muffin come out of his mouth.

She did as he said and called off the ponies around me. I walked cautiously over to where Apachie was when I saw a purple unicorn come into the room. 

"Oh my. You're awake. Thats good. Apachie here was so worried he was almost brought to tears when we brought you here." She said.

"Oh come one Twilight you didn't have to tell him that." Apachie said looking away.

"Oh did I say something I wasn't suppose to? Well I think its better if you tell your friend how much you worry about him. Isn't that right Skitzo?" She said with a smile over her face.

I face-hoofed at the fact that he managed to get someone to call me by that horrid name. When I looked up I saw him on the floor laughing and Twilight looking confused as to why. 

"My name is Red Nightingale. Not Skitzo." I said trying to mask the annoyance in my voice.

"Oh, I'm sorry." She said walking over to me putting her hoof out to so I could shake it. "My name is Twilight Sparkle. I wish we could have have met under more...ummm...pleasant circumstances." 

I shook her hoof with my good hoof. "Nice to meet you but could one of you please explain why I'm in the hospital?"

"Oh well this morning I found you two sleeping on the branches of my house." Twilight said. "Last night while it was raining, I heard some noise. At first I believed it was just the wind but then I heard some singing. I was much too afraid to go outside so I ignored it and went to sleep. This morning I openned my window and looked around as to what could have made the noise. I saw you and your friend asleep on one of the branches. I yelled out to wake you two but only Apachie woke up."

During the conversation I walked over back to the bed as I could feel myself lose my energy that came with the adrenaline rush. 

"He woke up and and greeted me with a smile that I found strange. I thought I knew everyone in town so it surprised me when I didn't know who either of you were. He looked over to you and tried waking you up but you wouldn't budge." She continued as the nurse walked over to me and began giving me some medicine, which I refused at first but felt I had to take with my mind growing ever more unstable.

"Umm are you ok Red?" Said Twilight with worry in her voice.

"Call me Gale. And yes just a slight bit dizzy for some reason." I said sitting on the side of the bed. 

"Oh ok. Well as I was saying, he tried to wake you up but grew ever more worried that nothing was working. He pulled you over onto his back and flew over to me and asked if there was a hospital or a clinic he could take you to. I pointed him towards this clinic and he flew as fast as he could to bring you here. I was worried so I followed you two here. He was going nuts looking for a doctor to help you. When we finally found one he stayed next to you the entire time." When she said that I could see Apachie looking away while chewing on another muffin from a box he seemed to be carrying on his back. 

"Geez Twiligh you don hav o ell im everythin." He said with his mouth full of muffin.

She giggled at his obvious embarrassment for worring about me. "You shouldn't talk with food in your mouth Apachie." She said with a motherly tone. "Well he was in here the whole time never leaving your side. Well that is until he came out look for me asking if there was any place he could find something to eat."

"Ya man there's this awesome place called Sugar...Sugar..." He said, the name eluding him ever so.

"Sugarcube Corner." Twilight finished for him.

"Ya thats the name." He said laughing then looked like something had sucked the happy out of him and he hung his head low. "I didn't know if you were gonna make it man. You weren't waking up and I could feel you were like fire when I carried you over here. You remember what happened with..." He trailed off not wanting to remember the past.

"Ya." I said quickly. "I know..."

We both couldn't meet each others gaze and Twilight noticed. She was about to say something but then thought it would be better to not say anything. The next few minutes passed with awkward silence as both Apachie and I tried to push the memories from our minds. The silence was broken by the nurse asking if I was hungry and brought in a food tray. She placed the food on a small table and moved it over to the bed. "Thank you." I said. As I tried to pick up the sandwich, I remembered that my hoof was put in a cast during my sleep.

"Why is my hoof in a cast?" I asked the nurse.

"When you were brought here, we were looking you over and saw the bandage. We took it off and inspected the wound. It seems that you broke your hoof so we placed it in a cast for you." The nurse said looking over the clip board she had in her hoofs.

"What the Hay?! You broke your hoof?!" Apachie asked dropping his jaw, muffin still in his mouth.

"I guess so." I looked down at the cast. "I thought I had only sprained it in the fall but seems it was worse than I thought." I laughed. 

"Oh Dear Celestia your mom's gonna kill me." Apachie said dragging his hoofs down his face with fear obviously in his eyes.

"Don't worry about it Apachie we just wont tell her." I said, the thought of lying to my mother not a bother on my mind. In fact its better she doesn't know anyways, I thought to myself. She'd just worry her little head off.

"Neither of you should worry." The nurse said. "The healing spell should be complete by now so we'll be taking the cast off within the hour."

"See? We'll be fine now just chill out Apachie." I said while taking a bite of the sandwich the nurse had brought for me to eat. 

"Well now that we know Gale is alright may I ask why you guys are in Ponyville?" Twilight asked. 

I gulped down the food in my mouth an answered, "We're moving into Ponyville. We arrived yesterday late afternoon. We didn't have a place to stay so we decided to sleep in your tree for the night. This of course before we knew it was your home."

"You guys must not have known that it was going to rain last night." Twilight said more to herself really. 

"I didn't even know it rained last night until I woke up this morning." Apachie said finishing his last muffin.

"Thats cause I made sure it didn't rain where you were sleeping. That's probably around the time Twilight said she heard a noise. I had to adjust the leaves around us so the water couldn't get through." I said as I finished my own food. 

"Awwww. Well isn't that sweet." Twilight said with a grin I swore I'd only see on Apachie. "And you did that with a broken hoof?"

"Ya I guess so. What can I say he's my best friend. He's there for me when no one else is." I say answering her. Apachie looking around the room again from embarrassment.

Twilight giggles from watching him averting eye contact. "You're a good friend Gale. So what are you guys going to do now? You guys don't have a place to stay and its already mid-afternoon." She said with concern.

"Don't worry about that Twilight, I came prepared. I couldn't do anything because it was late last night but I planned on going to the Mayor's Office today." I said as the nurse began to take the cast off my hoof.

A look of surprise came over both Apachie and Twilight. "What the hay are you talking about Skitzo?" Apachie said giving me that same look as before, questioning my sanity.

Freeing my hoof from the cast, I move it around to see it's fully healed. I look over toward the both of them. I smile and say, "We're becoming residents of Ponyville today. That also means we're going to buy a home." 
> Tragic Past
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Authors' note: Happy New Year Everyone. I'm starting this year sick and a shot of tequila. Have a good one everyone.


I get up from the hospital bed and start getting dressed as Apachie is sitting on the floor his mouth still agape from the the words I just spoke. It seemed like he still couldn't quite process what I just said, as if what I said flew right by him. 

As I look over after finding and putting on my glasses I see Twilight pick up Apachie's jaw for him. "Really Apachie. Thats just rude leaving you're mouth open. If you leave it like that you'll end up catching a fly." She said giggling to herself. She looked over to me and said, "Well if you're going to the Mayor's office then I can help you. I was the last one to move into Ponyville so I know where it is." 

Fully dressed, I left the room with Twilight and Apachie in tow. I neared the front desk and signed myself out and paid the clinic bill. As I was paying Twilight seemed to give both Apachie and I a look of confusion. We left the clinic after I promtly thanked everyone who had taken care of me and those who had to deal with Apachie. 

"Ok why are you ponies treating this like its not slightly weird that you were in a clinic for half the day?" Twilight finally said, unable to keep her curiousity in check.

"We used to get into a lot of fights in our hometown of Cloudsdale. We ended up in the hospital quite a few times because of it." I said unphased by the question. 

"You two got into fights a lot?" Twilight said with disapproval evident in her voice.

"Well we didn't get into that many fights and they were really only fought to protect ourselves." Apachie added quickly. 

"Really? Well I don't like fighting but if you must fight to protect yourselves then I guess that's a good reason." Twilight seemed to let out a little sigh of relief. 

It seemed to me that Apachie didn't want to leave a bad impression on this mare, but then again he wouldn't want to leave a bad impression on any mare. I took the hint and decided that I wouldn't talk about our past without seeing if it was ok with him. He seemed to get along with this Twilight mare pretty well and I'm sure she thinks he's cute. It's sad that it wont work out, I thought to myself. 

"If we keep walking this way, we'll be at the Mayors' office in a couple minutes." Twilight said. 

"Thank you so much for helping us Twilight." I said. "I'm sorry that you had to deal with Apachie and myself, when I'm sure that there must have been something you would have rather been doing."

"Oh you don't have to thank me." She said blushing. "It's only natural to help someone in need. And as for me doing anything else, you shouldn't worry yourself about that. Today was just a study day and inventory." 

"Study? Inventory?" Apachie seemed confused.

"Yes. I'm Ponyvilles' librarian and personal student of Princess Celestia." Twilight said with a little tone of confidence. 

That's probably why it wont work out, I thought, its such a shame really. We continued walking and it seemed like something had hit Twilight like a lightining bolt and made here stop in her tracks. She looked over to the two of us with a look on her face like she scared to ask something.

"Is something wrong Twi?" Apachie asked giving her a nickname already.

She didn't seem to notice and continued looking nervous. "Ummm, I want to ask you two something about earlier." 

I already knew where this was headed but I played it stupid. "What do you want to ask?" I said.

"Well," she looked down before she spoke again. "I noticed you two acting a little weird earlier..."

"When?" Apachie asked with a serious tone. It seemed like he had caught on as well.

"...when you started talking about this kind of thing happening before...with somepony else." Twilight said as if fighting with herself about asking.

Apachie froze and looked away. He knew it would end like this and so did I. "Give us a moment Twilight." I said. 

I pulled Apachie away far enough so that we were able to talk without Twilight being able to hear us. I let out a sigh. "What do you want to do?" I asked Apachie.

"I...I don't know man." Apachie said with great pain on his face.

I knew what he was going through. I've had trouble trying to talk about this too. It's not exactly something we'd want to re-live. "Do you want her to know?" I asked more to myself then to him.

"Can we trust her, is what you mean right?" He said with a bit of anger in his voice. 

"Don't get mad at me man," I said trying to calm him down a bit, "we don't want everyone knowing something...this...personal." I struggled to find the right words. I looked over to Twilight as I can see she seemed to regret asking the question. She looked ashamed of herself really, like she knew she hit something sensitive.

"I know man...I know." Apachie said with sadness in his voice. "I just feel like telling someone would..." he paused for a few seconds, "...make it easier."

I knew what he felt. I thought the same thing before. I knew that it hurt trying to keep it in all the time. I could feel it eating away at me at this very moment as the memory was forever burned into my mind. I looked at him. I could see the pain in his face as I can tell he was trying his best to keep himself stable. I could see him shaking and I knew this was just as hard on him as it was on me.
I walked over and put my hoof on his shoulder. "I'll tell her the story. I think it'd be easier that way." I said trying to bring him back to reality.

He simply nodded his head. We turned back and began walking towards Twilight. She had been waiting patiently wondering to herself if it was right of her to have even asked. Apachie and I stood in front of her as she began to look down trying to avoid eye contact.

I sighed. She flinched. She's scared, I thought to myself. "We've decided that we'll tell you but on one condition."

She looked up with surprise on her face. "Really? Wh-hat's the condition?" She stammered a bit.

"You must promise to not tell anypony what you're about to hear. This is something deeply personal to the both of us and we don't wish for people to know." I sighed. "Can we trust you?"

"Yes, you can. I promise not to tell anypony what I'm about to hear." Twilight said trying to hold back the curiosity building up inside her.

I looked at Apachie and then to Twilight. I sighed once more and began.

"It was just a normal day like any other....Apachie and I were waiting for a friend of ours..."


FLASHBACK


I looked at the clock beside one of the benches in the park. "Where the hay is he? He's late."

"I don't know man. He must have gotten into a fight with his dad again." Apachie said.

Seemingly out of nowhere, I feel something crash into my side and push me into Apachie. We fall over ourselves as the dust began to settle. "Dear Celestia!" I yell as I push a red blob with wings off of me. "How many times do I have to tell you Solar Flare not to tackle me!"

The red pony with a yellow mane begins to laugh as he tries to stand on his own legs. "Come on Gale. Learn to live a little." The pony lets out a small laugh.

"Adda colt Flare! You really caught us off guard this time." Apachie says as he begins to stretch out his wings. "You really do have to work on your timing though. We've been waiting a good twenty minutes for ya."

Flare begins to open his mouth but is then stopped by a pain in his hoof. "Ow." He says.

I finally get my balance and walk over to the red pony. "Alright, where did you hurt yourself THIS time?" 

The red pony's name is Solar Flare. He's a childhood friend of both Apachie and I. His mane is as yellow as the sun and his coat is as red as heated metal. Thus prompting the name Solar Flare from his parents. He was a small pony, about five inches shorter than the average pony. He's also very weak and almost gets hurt everytime he strains himself. We met him in flight school. Apachie and I had saved him from bullies and he's been part of the group ever since. 

"I think I hurt my hoof when I crashed into you." Flare said letting out a little laugh. 

"See? This is why I tell you to stop doing these kinds of things. You just end up hurting yourself." I said as I looked over his hoof. "It's just a sprain. You're lucky it didn't break."

Apachie walked over and slung his leg across Flares' shoulders. "So Flare. What's the plan for today?" 

"I thought we could spend the day trying out some tricks. What do you guys think?" Flare asked with a big grin on his face.

Flare was like a little brother to me and I was always worried about him and his tendancy to always get hurt. He was also one of the few people I couldn't say no to and Apachie knew it. "Come on. Do you even have to ask? You know Gale's ok with anything so long as you don't get hurt." Apachie smiled his idiotic smile.

I kicked his flank, to which his response was a laugh. "Don't give Flare any ideas Apachie. Last time we had to get him out of a tree remember?" I said sternly.

"I'll be ok Gale, I promise." Flare said giving me those puppy dog eyes of his. Whenever I see those eyes I feel my heart melt so I have no choice than to let him do what he wants. 

"Ok just stop giving me those eyes." I say looking away. "I swear you're gonna be the death of me Flare."

"YAY!" Flare yelled out and hugged me. "Come on I want to try this new trick out." He started flying and soon Apachie and I were behind him. He made up for his small size with his flying. He loved flying almost as much as he loved spending time with Apachie and me. His small size made him a quick flier but he was still proned to getting hurt when trying out tricks. 

The day passed and Flare had managed to go through it all without hurting himself. Apachie was teaching him how to do a barrel roll as I watched from a cloud. 

"Ok. You all set to try it out?" Apachie asked Flare.

"Uh-huh!" Flare yelled out. 

"Alright on my mark, get set, GO!" Apachie yelled.

Flare took off into a climb for a good ten seconds then turned around and began to dive. He twisted his body and started spinning in his dive. Everything was going according to plan and I thought to myself, Hay. If he can manage to do this I'll get him something as a treat after. I looked on as he passed me on the cloud, a smile on his face was all I could see. He was having fun and that made me happy. Thats when it happened. 

Flare ended up hitting a passing bird and it threw his off balance. He soon began to lose control and couldn't get out of the dive. "Shit!" I yelled out. "Apachie!" I flew up from the cloud and met with Apachie as he had already known what to do. I flipped upside down so my sight was towards the ground. My hind legs made contact with Apachies' as he kicked down with all of his force. I shot into a dive as fast as I could imagine. Flare was coming close but so was the ground. I knew that if Flare crashed into the ground in that dive he was a goner. I dove closer and closer trying to grab hold of him. 

I wasn't fast enough to catch him as I saw the ground grow bigger with every passing second. "FLARE! OPEN YOUR WINGS!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. 

He opened his wings throwing him even more off balance but slowing him down substantially. I flew by opening my wings after passing him slowing myself down but not before hitting a tree. I crashed through the branches until I hit the ground. Buck! That hurt! I forced myself up feeling pain everywhere on my body. I soon felt something warm falling down the side of my head. I raised my hoof to touch and saw red. Shit. I'm bleeding. I didn't care though and started searching around for Flare.

"FLARE!" I yelled out. "FLARE!" 

I soon came upon Flare lying against a tree. He managed to slow himself down before the crash but still hit the ground. He skipped off the ground a few times before sliding over to the tree and hitting the trunk with is stomach. Hard.

I ran over to Flare and turned him over. "Flare! Wake up!" I yelled looking over the unconscious pony.

He openned his eyes and looked at me with a smile. "Hey Gale. I'm ok see? Just like how I promis-" He was cut off by a cough. He covered his mouth and I saw it. Blood. 

"Oh shit." I looked up and yelled, "APACHIE!" 

He was already flying down when he heard me. He flew over to us and saw what I did. "Celestia help us." He said. 

"Apachie! Quick! Get him on your back so we can get him to the hospital!" I yelled.

Apachie landed and I helped put Flare on his back. "Hey Gale. I'm getting sleepy." Flare said almost in a whisper. 

My eyes widened. "APACHIE WE HAVE TO GO NOW!" 

We took off at full speed towards Cloudsdale. "Gale." Flare said under his breath. "I'm ok see?" He said trying to smile but was stopped by the coughing. "I'm just sleepy is all so I'm gonna take a nap ok?" 

"No! You can't fall asleep yet Flare." I said almost begging. "You can't sleep yet, we have to get you to a hospital. When we get there you can sleep as much as you want but you can't sleep yet." I tried saying with tears starting to fall from my eyes trying to put a smile on my face. "Apachie! We have to go faster!"

"I KNOW!" Apachie yelled flying as fast as he could.

"Stay awake Flare. You can't sleep just yet. We have so much left to do and you can't just fall asleep on us." I tried laughing.

"I know Gale. You're always so nice to me..." Flare started.

"No don't talk like that. You're going to be ok. They're going to help you get better just stay awake." My vision began to blur from the tears. 

We were in Cloudsdale already and flying towards the hospital now in sight. "Gale, don't cry. I'll be fine." Flare coughed again even more blood coming up. "I promise." His eyes closed as we broke through the windows of the hospital.

"SOMEPONY HELP US! MY FRIENDS HURT!" Apachie yelled louder than I have ever heard him before. 

A unicorn nurse came over and looked at Flare with a scared look. "I need back up over here!" She yelled behind her as she picked up Flare's hoof. A look came on her face that broke my heart. She began to use her magic to send electricty through Flare. 

"Come on Flare wake up." I said sobbing. "Wake up please!" I got no response.

Ponies began to come into the lobby and all got down to help the nurse. Apachie was pulled away without much effort so that the doctors could help. I kneeled there beside Flare yelling, "Flare! You can't just make a promise and not keep it!" 

I shook him trying to get him to open his eyes. Nothing was working. "Get him away from here he's getting in the way." The nurse said to one of the ponies around her.

I felt them grab my hoofs and begin to drag me away. "LET GO OF ME!" I said fighting back with every fiber of my being. "FLARE! WAKE UP!" Another group of ponies came and held me down. I fought my hoof free and tried to grab Flare. "FLAAARRREEEE!!!"

I fought through the tears and saw the look on the nurses' face. She sighed. "Call it."

"FLARE! YOU PROMISED!" The ponies finally managed to fight me down. "HOW COULD YOU JUST LEAVE US..." I let the tears flow and take control, "...behind..."



FLASHBACK END



"The official time of death was five minutes after we got there." I said quietly with tears starting to form in my eyes. "But I over heard the nurse saying he had died as we crashed through the windows."

> Smooth Sailing
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apachie seemed all too still when the story was done. I could see tears falling. As I looked over to Twilight, I could see the amount of despair and sadness in her tear-filled eyes. Streams of tears were falling down her purple cheeks. Our story seemed too much for somepony like her to handle.

I paused for a few moments to let them calm themselves a bit. "The autopsy showed that Flare had three broken ribs and a punctured lung, most likely from when he crashed into the tree trunk." I said softly. 

"I'm...so....sorry..." Twilight said trying to push through the tears. " I...shouldn't have...asked.."

"Don't worry about it Twi." Apachie said wiping the tears away from his face. "We decided to tell you and we just hope that you don't make us regret telling you." He moved closer and began to whisper into her ear, "We're trusting you."

My mind was a mess as always for remembering everything so vividly. I kept my composure as my mind was focused on only one thing; Why couldn't I be faster? This single thought seemed to have control of my mind and would forever haunt me for as long as I lived but I pushed it out of my mind. 

"Well now you know. I presume this is the Mayors' office correct?" I asked Twilight.

We had slowly began walking after I finished the story and there was a tense atmosphere. "Oh. Yes it is." Twilight said wiping what tears were left lingering in her eyes. 

"Well thank you for everything you've done for us Twilight," I began to say, "I cannot begin to thank you enough for having to deal with Apachie and myself. I trust you will also keep your promise for I would hate to have to think badly of the first friend we've made in this town. Now Apachie we have business to talk with the Mayor. Lets get inside."

Apachie seemed to take the hint. "Oh, ok then. Well it was nice meeting you Twi. I hope we get to see each other again some time." He said with a smile. 

The mare seemed slightly confused. "Wait." She said quickly. "I can talk to the Mayor fo-"

"I don't want to impose. You've done more than enough for us already." I interupted. "I'm sure there are people wondering what you've been up to. Let's go Apachie." 

"See ya later Twi." Apachie said as I walked through the front door of Mayors' building, him following quickly behind.

As she watched us disappear into the building a look of bewilderment over took her face. "Oh...ok." She said sadly as she began walking to her tree home. 

I walked over to the secretary and asked if we could speak to the Mayor about moving into the small town. She told us to wait in the lobby and that she'd call us when the Mayor was ready to see us.

I sat down on one of the chairs in the lobby already knowing what was coming my way. "What's wrong with THIS one?" Apachie said with annoyance obvious in his voice.

"It just wouldn't work out between you two. I don't want to run the risk of not only you getting hurt by her but also her telling people about our past should you do something that makes her angry enough." I said picking up a magazine and flipping through the pages. 

"But this mare is different Skitzo. I can feel it. She isn't like those other mares." Apachie said defensively. 

"I wish you would stop calling me by that name." I said looking over the the article I was reading.

"Don't change the subject man." He gave me a small frown.

I sighed putting the magazine down. I moved my hoof towards my face to massage my temple. I had my eyes closed as I said, "It's too soon Apachie. We've only got here and you're already saying you like this mare? I'm sorry man but can you atleast wait before you start something that you might not be able to control?"

As I openned my eyes, I looked up and swore I was imagining things. I saw Flare in front of me for a second. The sight broke my heart and I felt a sting in my eyes. I rubbed my eyes with my hooves and when I looked up I saw Apachie giving me the same eyes Flare always gave me. 

I stood up quickly as I was about to punch him in the face from the boiling anger inside me but, the feeling was soon replaced with sadness as I dropped my hoof and looked at the ground. "Just....wait ok? Just wait until we're settled in atleast. I don't want too much on my plate right now." I said. 

"I know you're normally right about these kinds of things but she different Skitzo. I can feel it in my gut. She's like-"

"Stop. I get it." I said angrily. 

"Ok man. I'll make it work you'll see." Apachie said with a smile on his face. 

"Ya ya man. I get you." I sighed hoping that this time I was wrong, that this time he would be right.

"They Mayor is ready to see you now." The secretary said from behind her desk. "Just walk down this hallway and it's the first door on the left."

"Thank you very much." I said walking past the secretary. "Apachie come on." 

As I looked back nearing the door I caught the glimpse of the secretary looking at me. She quickly turned around blushing. "Heh, geez not even here for a full day. Celestia help us."

As Apachie made his way into the room I followed right after. We shook hooves with the Mayor. She has a light brown coat and a gray mane with stripes of white. I looked on her desk where the only thing that seemed to hint her name was a small black slate that read 'Mayor'.

"Sorry for coming by so late Miss...Mayor is it?" I said trying to hide the laughter at the irony.

"Yes and worry not. It is my job to help with what I can. So what can I help you with gentlecolts?" She said happily.

"Oh yes. Well let us start with introductions. My name is Red Nightingale but you may call me Gale." 

"And my name is Apachie Chief. Nice to meet you Miss Mayor." Apachie grinned.

"It's nice to see new faces in this town on ours." The Mayor said contently.

"I quite sure." I let out a quick chuckle. "We came to meet you to see if we can become citizens of your little town and if possible to see if you have any spare homes from which we could move into. We'll be paying ofcourse."

"Well if that is all I'll be right back with the paperwork so that you can feel right at home." The Mayor got up from behind her desk and left the room but came back quickly some papers in her mouth. "Just fill these out for me and we'll get right into it." 

"Thank you so much Miss Mayor. I also have one other question. Do you know of any place here in Ponyville hiring at the moment?" I asked before beginning to fill out the papers placed in front of me. 

"Let me find out." She said as she walked over to a file cabinet looking through the files giving me enough time to fill out the papers. It was the basic informantion really. Name, date of birth, blood type, etc. I just finished the paper work when the Mayor had came back with two pieces of paper. 

"Seems like the cafe down the road seems to be hiring and the seems the post office in town needs more hooves to get the mail delivered on time." She said placing the appilcations in front of me. 

"Thats good. I'll take the cafe job and Apachie'll take up helping the mail ponies. You ok with that Apachie?" I asked.

"Ya I'm cool with that. Flying around delivering paper seems easy enough." He said with a laugh.

"Alright, well these seem in order." She said looking at the paperwork I just finished. "Now for the home selection. We have three homes available. Two of the three have three bedrooms and two baths while the third has four bedrooms. Ofcourse the latter is a bit more expensive." 

"How much will it be for the last home?" I asked. 

"The last is seven hundred and fifty bits a month." The Mayor said.

"Ok that seems well enough. We'll be taking that one. Apachie you mind giving me my suitcase?" I said. 

Apachie pulled the case off his back and handed it over to me. I openned it and rummaged around until  found a black box. I openned it and as I did Apachies' eyes widened. "Holy hay! Where'd you get all that money Skitzo?" 

"We were moving. I wasn't about to leave without being prepared." I counted the money for the first months rent and hoofed it over to the Mayor. "Alright even with that we still have enough bits left over to buy some beds not to mention we'll be working soon." I said with relief. This was all going better than I expected. 

"Well now that thats settled I'll have my secretary show you to your new home. I hope you enjoy our little town of Ponyville." She said with a smile giving me the key to our new home.
> Insanity
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

We thanked the Mayor and left her to her work. We walked down the hall and toward the secretary and explained to her what the Mayor had asked of her. 

She began to get up from her chair when I stopped her. "Oh you don't have to take us. If you have a map of the town that would be great." I said with a smile. 

I didn't want to bother anyone with helping us. We always got by just fine with the two of us and honestly Apachie is a burden only I can handle...most of the time.

She blushed and insisted on doing the task that was given to her, one for the reason of doing her job, two for trying to find out more about the gentlecolt in front of her. "No, no. I don't want to be a bother I know how busy you must get working for Mayor and all. I couldn't possibly bring myself to bother one such as yourself." I said.

Finally she gave up due to the sheer amount of praise she was getting. She hoofed over a map of the town and I proceeded to look and learn. I raised my glasses to get a better look at the map when I heard a small sigh. I looked up to see where it came from, pretending to not know it came from the nervous looking mare in front of me. My light blue eyes seemed to have that effect of people whether I liked it or not. 

I looked down at the map and figured out where we were headed. I lowered my glasses down back down in front of my eyes. "Thank you so much for all your help. Do you mind if we take the map with us?" I asked. She just nodded her head. "Thank you again. Apachie lets go." 

We walked out the door when Apachie started laughing. "Geez man. Did you really have to show her your eyes? Hay you're the one that told me to slow down a bit." 

"I just gave her a small gift." I laughed a bit. "You know me man, I don't like people helping us. And the way she was looking at me before we went into the Mayors' office, I knew she wouldn't want to pass up the chance to spend more time near me." 

"Isn't that a good thing?" Apachie laughed.

"Man I have enough on my plate just trying to keep you in line. I don't need anything else right now on my mind. Maybe once we're settled in I'll think about other things." I said with a sigh. 

"Oh sure. You're just still caught up on Octa." Apachie said laughing and covering his face. When he didn't feel a punch or kick he lowered his hooves and looked over to me. All he saw was sadness. "Hey man I didn't mea-"

"No, you're right. I still think of her more than I should. She deserved better. I always knew she deserved better..." I interupted. "It hurt knowing that she fell for me and I couldn't do anything to make things better for her. I couldn't do anything for her. She gave us a place to lay our heads. She gave us so much for things to end the way they did...I really am the worst aren't I?" I said looking over to Apachie with a fake smile and a tear running down my cheek. 

"Hey man are yo-" he began.

"Lets get going. We need to get to our new home before it starts getting dark." I said interrupting him again. I stretched out my wings and took to the air for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. 

He soon followed knowing to drop the subject because it was still hard on me. We flew for a few minutes letting the cold dusk air calm me down. We soon saw a building that resembled a giant cupcake.

As I hovered in place, bewildered by the very sight, Apachie started. "Ya man. That's Sugarcube Corner for ya. When I saw it earlier I started drooling." He laughed trying to lighten the mood. 

I hovered lower and lower until I touched down still awestruck. "It's a giant cupcake." I said lightly laughing. 

"Hey man its kinda getting dark so why don't we get something to eat from here and we can go home after?" Apachie said with a smile on his face mainly due to the idea of getting food running through his mind.

"Heh, sure why not?" I said still amazed.

As we walk into the cupcake looking building, I'm hit with the aroma of baked goods. They smelled so good I could only begin to think of how they would taste. We walked up to the counter and looked around. I saw a clear case with cakes, muffins, cookies, and you guessed it, cupcakes lining the shelves inside. I look up to see if anyone was around. 

I look around confused to see no one was around. "That's weird." 

"What's weird?" A voice from behind me said. 

I jumped and nearly hit my head on the ceiling and fell back to the ground. Dazed, I look around to see where the voice came from and saw pink. A pink maned, pink coated mare, with a smile so big I swore something was wrong with her face. 

"Hello. Who are you? I've never seen you in town before and I know everypony in Ponyville. Oooohhhh are you guys new in town? My name's Pinkie Pie. What's your names?" The mare said faster than I could keep up with. 

"Huh?" I said trying to get back to normal. "Well you said something along the lines of Pinkie Pie so I'm guessing that's your name right?" 

"Yes! Pinkie Pie is my name and throwing parties is my game! Well I also like baking, and hanging out with my friends and singing and playing hide and seek. Oooohhhhhh are you guys here to play hide and seek?! I'm really good at playing hide and seek. I'm always the last one to be found." She managed to say all with one breath while giggling. 

I finally came back to my senses and realized I wasn't as out of it as I thought. This pony really was speaking a million words a minute. "Ummm well my name Red Nightingale and this is Apachie Chief. We just moved into town today and we came in here to get something to eat before going home." I said while getting back up, using Apachie to help. 

"Awwww so you're not here to play hide and seek? That's too bad but wait. If you guys are new in town I can throw a "Welcome to Ponyville" party! I can start preparing tomorrow and have it ready by closing and invite everypony in Ponyville to come and party the night away!" The pink mare seemed to  never run out of breath.

Oh Dear Celestia. "No, no. You don't have to do that we're just here to get some food and we'll be out of here." I grabbed a couple of muffins and cupcakes and threw them in a bag and threw something around thirty bits on the counter and pushed Apachie out the door. "It was a pleasure meeting you Pinkie Pie but we gotta run." 

Watching the door close behind the two new ponies in town Pinkie Pie started talking out loud to herself. "Hmmm, well that wasn't very nice but oh well. I have to start getting the decorations for the party. I wonder where those two are staying. Oh well I'll just ask Twilight tomorrow about those two. Maybe she knows more about them." She merely grinned widely. "Well it's closing time right Gummy?" She said to the baby aligator seemingly apearing out of nowhere in particular. It stood there blinked oddly a couple times when Pinkie Pie said, "You're right Gummy. Lets finish down here and go to bed." 

"Holy freaking Celestia!" I said still running from Sugarcube Corner pushing Apachie along with me. "I swear if I was in there any longer I would've lost my mind!"

"I don't know I liked her." Apachie said laughing knowing that Pinkie Pie was slightly crazy. "I think Twilight said something about her being one of her close friends. If she has that party tomorrow I bet Twi will be there."

"Do you hear yourself? You want to go back to a room with that blob of insanity for hours?!" I said loudly.

"Sure seems like it'd be one hell of a party if you ask me." Apachie smiled thinking of the possibilities.

"Well I'd rather not." I said flatly as we walked up to the door of our new home.

I push the key that was given to us by the Mayor through the lock and opened the door. It was dark inside and it was empty but it was rather nice. We walked in and turned on the light. The front door led into a small hall way that then opened up into a big living room. To the left I could see a counter and then the kitchen which had a perfect view to the living room. It had a sink, a stove, and a fridge. I sighed with relief. Atleast we don't have to buy a stove and fridge or else we'd be working our tails off to get this place to be nice. I threw the bag of food on the counter and made my way towards the kitchen. When I walked into the kitchen I noticed stairs and walked up them to see a hallway of doors. 

I opened the first door on my right and already knew that this room was going to be mine. It had a view of the center of Ponyville and I could see the giant tree that was Twilights' home and the town library. I looked away from the window and saw a door that lead to a bathroom. I was lucky, my room had its own bathroom. I put down my suitcase in the room and left to go back down stairs. As I reached the bottom of the stairs I could see Apachie already waxing on a muffin. 

"Geez man, I hope you left some for me to eat." I said playfully. 

"Hey, I left you some in the bag." He said not looking up from the next muffin he was about to destroy. 

I walk over to the counter and pull a cupcake out of the bag. I took a bite and found it to be amazingly good. A tad too sweet for my tastes but good nontheless. "So, when are your things being sent?" I said without looking over to Apachie.

I could hear his jaw hit the floor. "Ok you need to stop doing that or else I'm gonna start getting scared. How'd you know?" He asked amazed. 

"I saw you didn't bring anything with you. So I figured once we had a place of our own you'd send for you stuff. That's actually a really good idea. This way we wont have to buy as much stuff for the inside of the house and it'll feel more like home." I said finishing the cupcake.

"Ya but I didn't think we'd find a place so soon. Hay man how do you see these things coming?" Apachie said with bits of muffin coming out of his mouth.

"Eh, I don't know myself some times. Sometimes it's obvious, other times it's like a gut feeling. The stuff about Twilight and that are more from experience really." I said looking down. 

"I'm gonna prove you wrong about Twi. I can just feel that she's different." Apachie said with a confident grin.

"Ya ya, I know man and honestly a part of me that wants you to prove me wrong..." I said trailing off. "Well I'm full. Come upstairs you need to pick you room cause I already chose mine."

"Alrighty then." 

We walked up the stairs and reached the hallway. "The first one on the right is mine which means there are three more rooms that you can choose from. That means that one of the doors down this way must be a restroom. I was thinking about turning one of the extra rooms into a workout room. What do you think?" I said as we walked into the first door on the left. 

This room was like a small loft and as we both noticed, looked over the living room. "Ya I'm cool with that. It gives me a place my weights. This room is freaking cool. I could just fly down from here instead of using the door." 

"Ya but this room isn't as private since you're basically missing a wall." I said walking out the door and into the hallway again.

"I guess but if I ever needed that I could just go to the guest room if you catch my drift." He said laughing as he was following me. 

"Ya ya I don't need you to explain anything." I said.

The next door on the left was the bath room and the two extra rooms where right across from each other. The room on the left would be the guest room and the room on the right would be the workout room. We walked out and Apachie went off to his room.

"Alright man, well we got our new home and I'm excited and all but I also tired as hay so good night man." He said with a yawn. 

"Ya man good night." I said feeling the exhaustion from the day catching up to me. 

I walked over to my room and Apachie to his. I walked into my room and closed the door. I took one last look out the window at our new home of Ponyville. I let out a final sigh of relief and thought to myself, We did it. I walked over to my suitcase and took out a small picture of my mom and dad and placed it on the floor. I took out an extra suit of mine and folded it into a pillow. I laid down next to the picture and placed my head on my makeshift pillow. 

"Good night mom, good night dad. I love you guys." I said softly and fell asleep and let my dreams take me.
> Nightmares
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Authors' Note: I'm sorry about the recent chapters being a little later on coming out than the previous ones. I've been sick since New Years and it's really doing a number on me. Also I have an up coming MTG tournament in the area soon and I've been working on that too. I've also been trying to make the chapters longer so that you guys can enjoy yourselves more. Love you guys btw <3. Again sorry.


As I slept, I dreamt of what anypony could only say was a nightmare. 

I was there, with Flare and Apachie, as we flew to the hospital that never came into sight. It seemed like we were being held back by something. I looked behind us and saw nothing but darkness, creeping darkness. I could see it around our legs holding us in place. I could see it taking its' hold over Flare. I tried to fight it off, hitting nothing but smoke. The smoke went into his body which caused him to cough and cough. I looked over him trying to keep him awake, to make sure he was ok. Flare looked up at me with those sad eyes of his, tears falling, his face screaming out what his voice couldn't. I'm sorry. I couldn't find it in me to turn away. Another tear fell from his eyes. I'm so sorry. I felt like I was losing myself in those eyes, losing everything. I was losing my brother, I was losing my best friend, I was losing someone I loved with all my heart. I was losing my reason to be happy. Why couldn't I be faster?! How could I let this happen?! I promised I'd keep him safe! I could see with every cough, the black smoke went inside him faster. We were finally getting close to the hospital. I hugged Flare trying to block the smoke from getting into him. I didn't want to let go. I felt if I let go everything would just disappear. I could feel Flare growing colder and colder with every passing second. He wrapped his legs around me and continued crying into my shoulders.

"Gale?" He asked softly. "Why is it getting so dark? I'm scared of the dark. I can't see you anymore." 

I felt my heart get torn out of my chest and shred into billions of pieces. "It's ok Flare. Everything will be alright." I heard my own voice crack as I tried my best to hold back my tears. "I'm sorry I couldn't save you Flare. I'm so sorry. You trusted me to keep you safe and I failed." I could feel the tears falling from my eyes. "If only I was faster I could have caught you and none of this would have happened. I'm just so sorry Flare. I'm so sorry." The tears blocked out everything. I couldn't see Flare clearly, as if he was fading into nothing. I held on for dear life. "Don't go. Please don't go Flare. You can't just leave like this damnit I love you...."

I woke up in a cold sweat. I got up and let everything hit me. "CELESTIA DAMNIT!" I grabbed my suitcase and threw it across the room letting it hit the wall. I heard a break and saw that part of the suitcase had hit the window and broke a piece of it. I didn't care. The anger in me had taken control of my mind. I walked up to my door. I turned around and kicked the door as hard as I could. It went flying across the hallway and hit a few feet away from Apachies' room door. I was somewhat glad that Apachie was such a heavy sleeper cause when I stepped out of my room I didn't hear anything. I didn't care in all honesty. 

That nightmare was one that always came back every now and then ever since the accident. After the first few times I had the dreams I had realized that the dream was what I truly felt and what I wanted to say. Why I got so angry was because I never had a chance to tell him that I loved him. I never had the chance to tell him just how much he meant to me. I would have gladly given my own life if I could have just saved him. It always got me angry and the only pony that could ever hold me down long enough to calm down was Apachie. 

I walked over to Apachie's room and openned the door violently. I saw Apachie laying there on the floor, his face covered with pain. I looked over him. "It's my fault Gale." I heard him say. "It's all my fault."

I walked out of the room and punched the door frame of my room. I left a dent. My anger seemed to calm down a bit after seeing Apachie. I came to my senses and realized I had unhinged the door and it was sitting there next to Apachie's room. Great. Now I have to fix this damn door. I walked into the door way and as I bent down to pick up the door I heard the doorbell ring. I looked up with surprise. I figured it was around two in the morning when I looked out the window. What the hay are ponies doing awake at this time? 

I walked down the stairs and turned on the light outside and openned the door. I saw two mares standing outside with a scared look on their faces. One was a mare with a light purple/pink coat with a darker mane. The other was just a filly that looked exaclty like her but lighter shades. They were bother earth ponies. 

"Ummm is everything alright?" The older one asked. "We heard a window break and then a large crash." 

"I'm terribly sorry for disturbing your rest. That was me. I saw a rat running around and tried to get him out. I must have broke a few things in the process. I'm really so sorry for waking you up Miss..."

"Berry Punch." The older one said. 

"And I'm Pina Colada." The younger one said finally deciding to speak up. 

"She's my little sister. We're sorry for the bother. We were worried that someone had broken in. This house was empty for a while so I thought some bad ponies had come in the night and tried to take something if there was anything to take. I didn't expect anyone to be living here." Berry Punch said. 

"Oh yes. Sorry about that. My name is Red Nightingale but you can call me Gale. We just moved in here last night." I said with a smile.

"We?" Pina Colada said.

"Yes. My friend Apachie Chief is asleep upstairs. We're both going to be living here." I petted her head which she seemed to like.

"How can he be asleep after all that noise? No-o offense of course." Berry Punch said quickly.

"He's a very heavy sleeper. We were outside last night while it was raining and he didn't notice until morning." I said with a laugh. "I'm sorry for waking you and I would invite you in but we've only just moved in and I haven't anything to offer."

"Oh that's fine we were just worried is all." Berry Punch motioned Pina Colada to go back home. "Well it was nice meeting you Gale."

"The pleasure is all mine Miss Berry. Maybe once we've settled in I could invite you over for a...drink?" I said making eye contact.

Through the darkness of the night I could see the red of her face perfectly clear. I smiled at this. "I-I guess I' might tak-e you u-up on that." Berry Punch managed to stammer out.

"Good night neighbors." I winked over at Berry Punch. "Good night." 

Berry Punch blushed even more. "Goo-od Ni-ght." She said barely being able to speak.

"Good Night Mr. Gale." Pina Colada said waving. 

I waved back and went inside and closed the door behind me. I slumped down the door and face-hoofed. "Geez what the hay am I doing? And here I am trying Apachie to slow down a bit. Buck, things just can't go the way I want them to." 

I picked myself off the floor and shook everything out of my head. Too much was happening already. My dreams were coming back. I'm afraid that I'll end up hurting someone here. I can't have that. "That's why I can't let this happen." I said softly. 

I turned around and turned off the light outside. I walked up stairs and saw the door laying there on the floor. I picked it up with my mouth and moved it over to its spot in the door frame. I looked around and saw a small metal spike. I picked it up and went over to the door. The hinges weren't broken but I was missing a spike. I'll just get one later. I placed the spike in its rightful position. I tested the door. It seemed to drag a little but that was fine. I closed the door behind myself and saw the darkness that was my room. Little light was coming through the window and I can see the broken glass on the floor. I'll clean that when I wake up. I layed down to go back to sleep. I saw the picture of mom and dad looking at me. I was ashamed. I put the picture of the them face down. I turned over onto my back and stared at the ceiling and something caught my attention. There was a small door on top of the ceiling. I got up and got a better look and realized it had a latch on it. I stood up and flew over to it. I un-did the latch and pushed the door up. It lead to the roof and the beautiful night outside. Seems like my room is alot more interesting than I first thought. I sat down on the roof for a couple of minutes and let myself get some fresh air. I then went back into my room and laid down to sleep again. I fixed the picture of my parents and said sorry. I soon began to fall asleep knowing that no matter what happened I would never be happy ever again because I failed to save someone I loved. The thought brought tears to my eyes and I fell asleep knowing that I could never bring myself to try and be happy. 

I'm so sorry Flare.I love you.

I dreamt over her this time. I saw her beautiful face, one of pure happiness when we first me. I saw her beautiful face, one of pure sadness when I left. The look on her face killed me inside. I only wanted her to have somepony as good as she was. As perfect as she was. And she deserved it. I just wasn't good enough for her. I had too much "baggage". I could never make her happy. I wanted to think that she didn't have those feelings for me. But I wanted her to because I had the same feelings for her. I hated myself for making her fall for me. I knew that I couldn't make her happy but being around her made Me happy. I was fighting a war inside my heart. It was between my happiness and her happiness. I soon realized I loved her too much to not have her happy. I still love her and it breaks my heart to know that after what I did I can never see her again. But I guess that it's for the best. I just wish I could have explained why...she wouldn't understand...but atleast she'd know why I did what I did. 

I'm so sorry Octavia. I love you. 

I woke up the next morning in tears. I looked around and saw the sun coming over the horizon. It didn't seem like my mind wanted to let me rest at all. I got on my feet and saw the glass on the floor. I'm so destructive. I fell back on my flank and broke down. I didn't make any noise but I felt every bit of pain come up from inside. I was toying with the hearts of everypony I met so far. I couldn't save my own brother. I couldn't make the mare I love happy. I hurt anypony who tries to get close to me. 

I really am the worst pony out there. 

> Work
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author's note: Ok well, I'm sorry but the stories might be coming out even later than I thought since school is coming up pretty soon. I have to set my alarm just to enroll. No gusta. :( Oh well. Also I'd like some feedback on how the story is going. So far nopony has said anything bad about my writing so I don't know how I'm doing. I'm just throwing the story out there so I would appreciate the feedback. Love You Guys <3 :)

I got up from my moment of self loathing and went to my bathroom. It had a mirror that was bolted to the wall and from looking at it I could see the terrible state I was in. My mane looked like it was caught in a windstorm while my face looked like I hadn't got a wink of sleep. I turned to the sink and turned the faucet on. I cupped my hooves under the warm water and splashed my face with it. I'm already wet, might as well. I looked over to the shower after turning off the faucet from the sink. I openned the glazed door and stepped into the shower. I turned the faucet on and let the hot water run down my coat and mane. I extended my wings a bit so that I could properly wash them. I ran my hooves down one of my wings as I sat down on my haunches and saw a couple of feathers out of place. Must of happened during the fall. I began thinking why I ended up crashing into Apachie again and all I could remember was a blur of rainbow. How is that possible? It wasn't raining when we got here. I proceeded with fixing the feathers on my wings racking my brain as to what it could have been that made us crash. With all that had been going on yesterday and the day before I hadn't had the chance to think much about what happened. I couldn't find much of an answer other than a moving rainbow but that was just plain stupid so I stopped thinking about it and went on with my shower. I finished fixing my wings and turned off the faucet. I stepped out and remembered we just moved in so, no towels. I walked over to my suitcase, dripping water all over the floor, being careful not to step on any glass. I openned it up and pulled out a towel and began drying myself off. Once I was done I took the towel and began soaking up the extra water on the floor and found myself in the bathroom again. I stood over the sink and wrung out my towel and threw it over the shower door to hang and dry. 

I walked out of the bathroom and looked out the window. The sun was satrting to raise higher in the sky. "Eight o'clock. Maybe Eight thirty." I said out loud. 

I walked out into the hallway and opened the door to Apachies' room. He was still asleep and snoring. "Great. How the hay am I suppose to wake him up?" I said loudly hoping to wake him without much trouble. It didn't work. 

Hmmmm? That might work, I thought while looking over to the living room. I walked over to his side and began pushing him over to the side of the room that overlooked the living room. This'll wake him up I'm sure. I got him to the edge and held on to him for a bit to see if he'd wake up before I dropped him. He didn't. 

Oh well. "Bombs away!" I yelled out as I pushed him off his precarious perch. 

A few seconds passed and I heard a hugh thump. I looked over the side and saw Apachie sprawled against the floor. He started stirring wondering what just happened. 

"Did I fall off my bed again?" Apachie said mumbling with his eyes close as he sat up. 

I flew down and landed next to him. "Geez, I'd hate to see how high you have fallen from if that felt like you fell off your bed." I looked up. It was about good fifteen to twenty feet from where I dropped him.

"Hey man, I'm hungry." Apachie said rubbing his stomach his eyes still closed.

"Really? Geez alright. We'll get breakfast at Sugarcube Corner. Since we have to go to work today we wont have time to buy food for the fridge till after work so get some of your money that way you can eat when you're on break." I said looking over the map that I had left on the counter the night before. "It seems that the post office is a little bit past the Mayors' office. The cafe I'm gonna work at seems close to Sugarcube Corner so we'll meet there after work. If we both go now and work a full day we should get off around fourish so we'll have time to go to the market and buy food and other stuff we need."

"Like what?" Apachie said with a yawn, finally deciding to stand up.

"Like cleaning supplies, toothpaste, stuff like that you know. Also since you're gonna be working at the post office you might as well send for your things already." I said dropping the map back on the counter.

"Alright alright mom." Apachie said annoyed that we hadn't already gotten food.

I walked out of the kitchen and up to my room to get my saddle bag. I threw it over my back and stretched out my wings to make sure it didn't bother me. I put some money in one of the bags and walked out of my room after saying bye to the picture of mom and dad. I walked back down to see Apachie looking at the map.

"Hey man, did you know Twi's house is near the market? Maybe I'll get to see her while we're there. If not we can go to that party and see her there along with Pinkie Pie." Apachie said with a smile.

"We're not going to the party." I said as I picked up the map and placed it in one of the bags.

"What? Why the hay not?" Apachie said a bit annoyed.

"Cause we don't want the entire town knowing we just moved in. Do you know how hard that would make it for us? I'd rather let this happen slowly. Who knows what kind of trouble will happen if we go to that party." I said trying to calm him down. "Let's go. Or else we'll be late and wont have as much time as later." 

"Fine." Apachie grumbled. 

We walked out the door and out into the the morning. It was nice and not many were awake yet. We walked to Sugarcube Corner and I was relieved to find that Pinkie Pie wasn't working. 

I heard a voice from behind the counter. "Well good morning and welcome to Sugarcube Corner." said a mare. She had a light blue coat and pink hair. 

"Hey there Mrs.Cake. This here is my friend Skitzo." Apachie said with a quick laugh. I punched him.

"Oh hello. You're Twilight's friend aren't you? Apachie right?" She said.

"Yes ma'am." Apachie said with a smile.

"And Skitzo was it?" She asked me with a look hoping that Apachie wasn't serious.

"My name is Red Nightingale. You may call me Gale for short. It's nice to meet you Mrs.Cake." I said politely.

"Well it's nice to meet you two sweety. Now what can I get you two?" She asked.

"Can we have eight oat muffins and two of whatever that delicious looking confection is." I said pointing at something that was making my mouth water.

"Oh well that there is a triple chocolate chip brownie with nuts and marshmellows." She said proudly noticing that Apachie and I were so entranced by her work.

"Well then we'll have two of those if you don't mind." I could feel my stomach already kicking me. It was too early for something sweet but I didn't care. It looked so darn good. 

Mrs.Cake got everything together and put it into two brown bags. One with the muffins and the other with the brownies. "That'll be twenty four bits." 

I hooved over the money and we said bye to Mrs.Cake. We walked out and I arranged our food. Two muffins and a brownie for me and the rest for Apachie. I gave him the bag and he started waxing away. We walked past the Mayors' office and after a few blocks came to the post office. 

"Hey. Wasn't your job near Sugarcube Corner?" Apachie asked. 

"Ya but knowing you you probably would've gotten lost on the way here since niether of us know much about this town yet. I just hope you don't get lost while working that would be bad." I said laughing.

"That wont happen as long as I'm on the job." We turned in surprise to have somepony listening in on our conversation. A gray pegusus with blonde hair was standing behind us with a mail bag around her neck. Her eyes seemed to be looking in different directions which threw me off a bit.

"Whoa. You alright?" Apachie said his mouth hanging open. I face-hoofed.

"Apachie! Are you an idiot? I'm so sorry he's not completely there all the time." I said hoping the gray mare wasn't too mad.
"Oh don't worry about it. I'm guessing you two are new because most people I know don't notice much anymore. My name is Ditzy Doo and if you're worried my eyes have always been like this." She said. 

"My name is Red Nightingale and this is Apachie Cheif. You can call me Gale. Also I'm still sorry about him. He's here looking for a job and from the looks of it you work here right?" I asked.

"Yes I do. I'm the mail mare for the Ponyville." She said proudly.

"Well then would you mind taking this guy under your wing? We just moved into town and we're getting to work as fast as we can." I said. 

"Oh yes Ms.Mayor did mention you'd be dropping by." She looked away for a second. 

Apachie still had his mouth open. I punched him again. "Well then don't mind me I'll just be heading to my job now. And don't be afraid to whip him into shape. He deserves it." I said winking at the mail mare.

"Don't give her any ideas Skitzo!" Apachie said semi scared that she'd actually do something. 

She giggled. "Oh I think I have something in mind." We broke out in a laugh as Apachies' eyes went huge. 

"Oh well it was so nice meeting you Ditzy. I hope we meet again." I said.

"Me too. See you." She waved.

"See ya. Apachie don't be too lazy." I said as I began walking back towards Sugarcube Corner.

"Don't leave me here Skitzo!" Apachie said as Ditzy began to drag him into the post office. 

I couldn't help but laugh at his paranoia. Ditzy seemed nice enough, she just seemed to joke around a bit. It's a good thing that she's nice or else we would've had trouble. I walked for a couple of minutes and found myself in front of the cafe I was going to be working at. It was still morning so it wasn't that busy. 

I walked in and looked around. I walked towards the counter and asked the mare behind the counter if I could talk to the manager. She walked away for a couple minutes and came back with a stallion dressed in a black tux. 

"Hello my name is Gale. I moved into town yesterday and I asked Ms.Mayor is there was some place I could find a place to work at." I said while shaking the managers hoof.

"Yes she did mention that someone was going to come around to take the position. Well the pay is twenty bits an hour plus tips. You get three days off which can be decided later. Go into the back room and get dressed." The manager said. 

"Yes sir." I walked into the back room and got into a similiar black tux. I decided it to keep my glasses on to avoid any unwanted attention. I walked out and the manager didn't seem to mind so I kept them on. 

The work day seemed to go by rather quickly and it was soon time for me to get off. During the day I managed to get a couple of interesting looks from some mares and figured it was about time I left before they started jumping me. I walked to the back room and got undressed and timed out. As I walked out the of the back room I said good bye to the manager which seemed too busy to mind much. I hadn't had a chance to eat while working because it was so busy so as I walked through the plaza I stopped by a cart which was selling apples.

"Well 'ello there. Ah reckon you're new around these parts." Said an orange colored mare. She had blonde hair just like Ditzy. "How can I help you?"

"I was wondering if I could buy an apple. I just got off work and realized that I hadn't exactly taken the time to eat." I said with a chuckle. 

"Well Ah say that's no good. One should make sure they're good enough to work." She said throwing an apple my way.

I caught it and took a bite. "Thanks this is really good. Probably one of the best apples I've ever tasted." I said taking another bite. "How much do I owe you?"

"Ah shucks, that one's on the meh. You looked like you needed it. Names Applejack. Whats yours?" She asked grabbing an apple for herself.

"The name's Red Nightingale but you can call me Gale." I said. "I still feel like I owe ya so how about I make it up to you sometime?" 

"Hmmm, Ah reckon if you done really feel like you need to you could take me out for a drink." She said looking up at the sky. "So what brings you to our little town?"

"A friend of mine and I decided to move here and live a bit peacefully. Seems like its going according to plan so far." I said as the wind blew something under my shades and into my eye. "Ow." 

"You ok?" Applejack looked over to me when she heard my pain. 

"Aww its nothing," I said taking off my glasses," something just flew into my eye." I started rubbing my eye with my hoof.

"Here, let meh help ya." She grabbed my head between her hooves and blew into my eye. 

I blinked a couple of time from the gust of air being blown into my eye. After a few seconds my eye felt better. "Ah. Thanks Applejack that feels better." I said pulling away from from her grasp.

I didn't get an answer. Which surprised me. I looked over and saw her staring. What the hay? Oh wait. My shades! I searched for my glasses on put them on bringing Applejack out of her little trance. "Hey Applejack you ok?" I asked.

"Huh? Oh-h ya. Ahm good Ah was just thinking about something." She said looking away. 

I could tell she was lying but then again I think anyone could. She was really bad at it for some reason. I laughed a little to myself.
"Well ok then Applejack. I'm waiting for my roommate so I'll let you get back to work. How about I stop by after work tomorrow for that drink?" I asked.

"Ya. That'd be nice." She said trying to hide her blush with her hat. 

"It was nice meeting ya Applejack." I said as I walked away. 

Geez I really need to stop doing these things. 
> Feeling
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok well sorry guys about not writing anything these last two months. I've had alot to deal with and honestly I surprised I managed to even get this chapter out with everything thats been going on. I've add the links below for how Gale and Apachie look down below.I probably wont be able to have constant updates but I'll try hard enough to give you guys something. All oh my love.

http://farmeryohn.deviantart.com/#/d4rym2r
http://farmeryohn.deviantart.com/#/d4rylub




I walked away from Applejack thinking about how I manage to get myself to go out with another mare for a drink. I really need to think twice about these things. Sooner or later I'm either gonna get lynched or hurt pretty bad. I shuddered at the thought of every mare in this town with torchs and pitchforks outside our house. 

I pulled out the map of the town and was looking around to see where the market area was. I quickly realised that I had walked into the center of the market place. Hoof, meet Face. Ok. Well I found this place but now I have to walk back to Sugar Cube Corner and wait for Apachie. I took to the air and looked for the giant cake-shaped building and saw it a little ways off. I flew over towards it and enjoyed the view of the ponies below going in and out of shops and going on about their day. This place seems really nice. It's like this town is the personification of the word perfect. Heh, perfect. Right. My thoughts began to betray me. The thought of something going wrong in this town after everything we've been through so far just didn't sit right in my stomach. I pushed the thought out of my mind as I desended towards Sugar Cube Corner.

I landed and was about to step into the store when the door swung out and hit me square in the face. I fell backwards onto my haunches and my glasses fell off. I brought my hoof up to rub my snout to disperse some of the pain.

"Oh my, I'm so so sorry. Are you ok?" I heard somepony say. I swear I heard an angel talk.

I looked up and removed my hoof from my face and I think my eyes could've melted from the sight in front of me. She had walked over to me to see the damage she had done and had a worried look on her face. That pink mane, the way it covered her face, those big, beautiful, teal eyes, her yellow coat. All perfect.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to open the door and hit you. I-I just didn't see you an-and..." she said with tears starting to form in her eyes. It was tearing me apart on the inside to see this mare crying.

I broke myself away from my stare, "Oh no please don't cry, it was my fault. I shouldn't have been waiting outside of the door." I got to my hooves and brought her into a hug. "I'm sorry but don't worry about me. I'm built like a three stallions so it takes alot to hurt me." I looked down to see that she had stopped crying. 

She smiled, but soon the smile disappeared and a blush crossed her face. Her eyes darted to the right as she hid behind her mane. I soon realised why she was acting like that. Great, now I look like a really weird pony. I let go of her, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to do that. I just can't stand to see a pretty mare cry. It's just something in me. I'm sorry." 

She shrunk behind her pink mane even more as her blush grew deeper. Oh Celestia, this isn't going good. I looked around for my glasses and saw them a few feet away from us. "So ya." I walked over and picked up my glasses. "My name is Gale, what's your name?" I looked them over and was relieved to find that they weren't broken. I put them on hoping that the mare I was talking to would stop hiding behind her mane. I turned around to see her in the same position.

"My name is Fluttershimm..." she said in a high pitched voice.

"What was that?" I walked closer so I could hear her better.

"I'm Flutterhmmm..." she responeded even quieter than the first time.

"Sorry what?" I think I'm going deaf. I can't hear this mare at all. 

The next thing I heard was just a high pitched whine which couldn't be called words anymore. 

CRASH

I jumped up and turned around, "What the hay was that noise?"

There was a giant crate a few feet away from the mare and myself. I looked up to see where is came from and I saw Ditzy.

"Hey Ditzy." I said waving at the blonde pegesus. "What's with the big box?" 

"Oh this big guy here?" Ditzy said pointing towards the crate on the ground below her. "This fellas for you." 

A confused look crossed my face as I walked up to the crate and eyed it carefully. "Hey Fluttershy, didn't see you there. How are you today?" 

Fluttershy? I poked my head above the crate and looked over to see Ditzy talking to the mare. Her name is Fluttershy? Well isn't that funny? Guess it makes sense. 

"Oh hello Ditzy how are you doing? I'm doing fine I was just visiting Pinkie Pie. She asked me to come over because her pet alligator Gummy has an upset stomach. Poor little fella couldn't keep his lunch down." Fluttershy said to Ditzy in a soft, almost soothing voice. Dear Celestia this mare is cute. 

"Oh thats sad to hear. I'm doing great. We got a new set of hooves down at the post office today, which reminds me," she turned around and yelled out to me," hey Gale why don't you up that crate up already." Ditzy turned around and then was hit by a thought. "Wait did I interupt something here?"

Fluttershy shrunk back a little behind her mane and blushed. "Oh not really..."

Meanwhile, I was walking in circles around this big ol' crate. I wonder whats inside. Do I even know somepony who would send me something? Maybe Mom sent somethings. Wait she doesn't know we have a house yet. Hmmm. I wracked my brain trying to figure out who could have possibly sent me something. I tapped the crate a bit. 

TAP TAP

THUMP THUMP

WHOA! THERE'S SOMETHING IN THERE!

"Aye Ditzy! Whats in this thing?!" I looked over to Ditzy.

She laughed a bit, "Just open it and you'll find out." She winked over at me.

Hmmm, welp, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I kicked the top of the crate off and stood back prepared for something to come out and attack. Next thing I know I was staring at Apachie.

"OH DEAR CELESTIA, I THOUGHT I WAS GONNA DIE IN THERE!" Apachie yelled. He climbed over the side of the crate and hit the ground face first. He recovered and ran behind me and put his hooves over his head. " KEEP THAT CRAZY MARE AWAY FROM ME!" 

The entire time I was just laughing. She put him in a box. I fell to the ground and continued laughing.

"Oh my." Fluttershy said. 

Ditzy was laughing just as hard as I was. "Oh hay, that was so funny."

I pulled myself off the ground and wiped a tear away from my eye. "What did he do that you put him in a crate?" I asked Ditzy.

She walked over with Fluttershy. Apachie inched away. "He was doing a couple things wrong with the mail but that isn't why. He fell asleep an hour before his shift ended so I decided to punish him for it." She tilted her head to the side, closed her eyes and smiled.

"Well if thats the case he deserves to be put into a box." I chuckled. 

Apachie got up to his hooves after hearing all of our little fun. "You're agreeing with her?! She sealed me in a giant crate!"

"But you deserved it for falling asleep while working." 

Apachie opened his mouth to say something but closed it a second after. He opened it again and closed it just the same, until finally, "Damnit Skitzo, that isn't the point. The point is who does that to somepony? Man when I woke up I damn near pissed myself it was so dark in there!"

I just laughed and turned back to Ditzy and Fluttershy who were trying to stiffle a few laughs. "I'm sorry about him falling asleep on the job. I'm sure he learned his lesson after that."

"Oh don't worry about it. I was just messing with him a bit. It's been a while since anything interesting has happened at the office so this is just what I needed." Ditzy said with a smile. "Well would you look at the time. I gotta get home to Dinky. See you guys some other time." Ditzy then took to the sky and flew towards the post office.

"Dinky? Who's Dinky?" I said out loud.

"Oh that's Ditzy's daughter. She really is a good mother and her daughter is just an angel." Fluttershy spoke up. "Though Ditzy can get a little side-tracked a few times she really is a good pony." 

Ditzy came back into sight, "Sorry meant to go this way." 

I just chuckled a bit, "She really is something isn't she?"

"Oh yes she is and we love her just the same." Fluttershy said with a smile.

I looked over to her as Ditzy flew out of sight. "So your name is Fluttershy eh?"

She noticed she was talking to me and blushed. "Oh yes. I'm sorry about earlier I really am. Well it was nice umm meeting you but I do have to get back to Angel."

Piercing pain. Oh Celestia please don't let her have somepony. "Angel?" I asked expecting the worst.

"Oh, Angel is my pet bunny." She smiled, my pain faded. Thank Celestia. "He tends to not eat if I don't make him and he can get a bit rowdy sometimes but he's nice. Well sorry again but I really must be going ummm Gale right?"

I kneeled forward a bit. "Yes my lady that is my name. May I say it was an absolute pleasure meeting you Miss Fluttershy." Laying it on a bit thick aren't we? Eh, what's done is done. 

Her blush grew a deeper shade of red. "Oh yes, well bye." She said quickly and flew away in the same direction Ditzy went.

I watched her as she flew away and then heard chuckling behind me but I couldn't bring myself to pull away from her. "Damn, you got it bad. So much for the whole laying low bit you were trying to force down my throat." 

I looked back as soon as Fluttershy was out of my sight to see Apachie giving me that 'You bucking hippocrit' look with his trademark stupid grin. 

"Did you see her? She was perfect. She was shy, her mane, her beautiful face, those big eyes." 

"Hahahahaha damn I don't even think I have it that bad for Twilight." 

"....shut up."

"Well besides all that didn't you say something about getting food for the fridge back home?"

"Oh ya thats right, we need to get that done before it gets dark or else all we're gonna be doing is spending money buying food that isn't exactly good for us." I brought my gaze over to the building that I was sure to make somepony fall into a coma if they ever tried to eat anything sweet that equaled its size. 

"But I like the muffins here." Apachie walked over towards the shop and proceeded to hug the side of it. He also started nuzzling the building as well. "They're soo good I could eat them all day."

"Well isn't that okelly dokelly then!" An all too familiar voice came from somewhere I couldn't pin.

My pupils shrank as I darted my eyes back and forth trying to find the source. "Oh Dear Celestia she's around here somewhere!" 

I turned around and tried to scan the area but nothing. "You'll have to try harder than that silly Gale! I'm the best at hide and seek."

I started freaking the buck out while all Apachie was doing was chuckling to himself. 

"Dude I think I know where she is." 

"WHERE IS SHE?!"

"Awww don't be a big meanie-weanie pants Cheify." 

He pointed behind me. I turned and nothing. 

"DUDE STOP MESSING WITH ME!"

"I'm not haha. She's right there." He pointed again right behind me laughing.

I turn and nothing. Then a whisper, "I'm right here Galey-Waley."

I froze solid. A chill ran down my spine as if I was going to die. I turned my head slowly and was met by a. Giant. Grinning. Pink. Pony. SHE WAS ON MY BACK THIS WHOLE TIME?! 

"GETHEROFFGETHEROFFGETHEROFF!!!" I tried bucking her off my back but it just seemed to make it all the more fun for her.

"This-is-real-ly-fun-Ga-ley-Wa-ley-Who-a-oh!" She held on with a scary grip that made it impossible to buck her off. The entire time was nothing but giggles and laughs from Pinkie and Apachie.

I soon collapsed from all the bucking and when I hit the ground she finally figured it a good time to get off my back. "Whoa that was fun! It's ok Gale not even Applejack can buck me off and she's the strongest mare in all of Ponyville!" She finished this by standing on her hind legs and waving her fore legs in the air.

"Wow Pinkie, you're one crazy mare that's for sure." Apachie said with a smile and laugh. "What you doing anyways?"

"Oh I was about to get some streamers and balloons from my room for the partwait a minute. You tricked me Apachie you're not suppose to know what I'm doing is for you're guys' surpristhere you go again Apachie always making me say something bad." She was all giggles.

"Well aint that interesting. A surprise party aye?" Apachie chuckled.

"Surprise Party? Who said anything about a surprise party? Oh you're so silly Chiefy." 

"Pinkie, you told us about it yesterday remember?"

"I did? Oh wait you're right I did tell you about the party." She raised a hoof and made contact with the side of her head which made a knocking noise. "Silly me, how can I forget something as important as that. Hehe. Well I'm just getting somethings set up. I think this one is gonna be the bestest-most-awesomest-fantabulistic-Welcome-to-Ponyville-party we've had in a long time!"

I was laying on the ground just listening to their ramblings about a party we didn't even ask for. Apachie trotted over to me and placed me on his back. "Well that sounds great Pinkie. I'd love to stay and chat but me and Skitzo here need to buy some things for our fridge back home." 

"Okey dokey lokey then. I'll see you two guys later." She waved us off as Apachie walked away with me in tow. I was so exhuasted that I passed out with Pinkie being left as the last sight to enter my eyes. 

**********************************************************************************************************

I woke up a few hours later at home. What the hay? When did we get home? I got up of the floor and walked over towards the window. I made sure to avoid the glass on the floor and saw that it was now night time. I must have slept for a few hours. I walked out of my room and down to the kitchen to see brown empty bags on the counter. I walked over to the fridge and saw that there was bread, fruits, vegetables, assorted drinks ranging from juices to what looked like, Yup, Applejack Daniels. I pulled the bottle outta the fridge and closed it behind me. I opened the top of it and took a swig.

Ah. The burn down my throat was one I greatly appreicated and remember all too well. Its been a while my friend. I twisted the cap back on top and notice something on the side of the bottle. A note. 

It read, 'Skitzo, I knew you'd find this note. I went and bought the food stuff for the house. I met up with Twi at the market place so, ya, thats why there is actual food, you know, in the fridge. I left you at home to get some rest. I've gone with Twi to the party. You should come too, I'm sure you'll have fun. Haha also you don't have much of a choice. Notice anything missing? Well, ya, I took your shades. The party is at Sweet Apple Acres so Twi is gonna send someone to pick you up in a bit. All the homo, Apachie.'

I crumbled the letter. That son of a-

A knock came from the door. Oh, great, I wonder who that is. I walked over to the door and swung it open. Orange. 

"Well if Ahda known Ah was gonna be picking ya up I woulda said to have a drink tonigh instead of tomorrow." Applejack chuckled a bit.

Just my luck. Ok play it cool. "Well hey there Applejack, I didn't know you knew Twilight." 

"Oh ya she's one of my best friends. So," she looked at me and cringed a bit," you aint goin to tha party like that righ?"

"Huh?" I looked down to myself and saw that my jumpsuit was dirty and my mane was a mess. "Oh sorry about that, I just woke up and had kind of a rough day after I saw you last hehe." Buck this aint going good.

"How bad we talking here?"

"Well, I lost my glasses." I said finally making full eye contact with her.

She turned her head a bit, "Well that is a mighty bit bad."

"Come inside. I'll get ready and we'll leave soon. I mean if thats ok with you." 

"Sur-e, Ah'd rather be inside where its warm than freeze my flank out here." I moved out of the way so she could walk in and I closed the door behind her.

"Sorry about the emptiness, we did kinda just move in and all."

"We? You talking about that big fella Twi came in with?" She started looking around.

"Ya thats Apachie for you. Sometimes wish I could knock him over the head and beat some sense into him though."

Chuckling a bit, "Ah know how ya feel there Gale. Ah got a friend named Rainbow Dash that Ah feel the same way about. She's ah good pony though, always loyal and Ah love her to death."

"Thats nice to hear that I'm not the only one that deals with hard headed ponies."

We shared a laugh as we walked into the kitchen. "Well I'm gonna go and make myself presentable. Feel free to check the fridge for anything." 

I flew up the stair, took of my suit and hopped into the shower. Ok, you got a mare downstairs waiting for you. Gotta be quick about this, but don't just jump in, get wet, and get out. I noticed that Apachie had bought some soap while out buying groceries. Ok, maybe I wont kill him for taking my glasses. I wash myself up as best I can and get out to towel myself off. I see brushes and toothpaste. I will now proceed to thanking Twilight for being at the market place. I finish brushing my teeth and trot over to my suit case. No clean suits. Buck. Well guess I got to wear these things. I pulled out eight black bands and start putting them on my legs. Once I finished I flew down the stairs to see Applejack looking at the Applejack Daniels bottle. Wait a sec...

"Well Ah didn't think ya much of a drinker but Ah guess this proves meh wrong." She said holding up the bottle in my direction.

"I actually meant to ask you something." 

"It's about mah name righ? Well mah grand-pa's name was Applejack and he was the one who made this here drink. When Ah was born my Granny conviced my Pa and Ma to name me after him."

"Well thats a nice story." I said with a smile. "Well how do I look now eh?"

Applejack looked me over and nodded her head. "Well Ah'll say, ya know how to clean up thats for sure."

"Haha, thanks. Alright well lets get going then. I'd hate to keep everypony waiting." 

"Ahlrighty then." We walked out of the kitchen and out the front door. 

I closed the door behind me and left it unlocked. This place is too nice for people to break in, plus if this party goes the way I think it will, we'll need it unlocked. We began walking towards the edge of town and I figured it was gonna take a while so I spoke up.

"So Applejack, how far away is Sweet Apple Acres anyways?"

"It's about ah twenty minute walk from here Ah reckon. It'll be ah while. Its mighty chilly out here aint it."

"Really? I don't know. As a pegesus, we have a higher internal body temperature because we fly up high, so we don't get as cold as other ponies."

"Well ain't that nice, not feeling different on cold nights." 

Stop thinking that right now. Stop it. Right now. "Well if you're so cold you could, you know, walk closer to me so it isn't so bad. I mean only if you want to ofcourse."

Applejack seemed to blush a bit and turned away. "Ummm, Ah mean, if ya don't mind, it is gettin ah bit nippy out here."

I walked closer to Applejack and got close enough that our bodies were touching. She was freezing cold. "Hey Applejack, you're really cold. I'm gonna try and warm you up a bit."

She just nodded. I got a bit away from her and openned up my right wing. I moved back into my earlier position and wrapped my wing over her back and down her right side. I shivered slightly from how cold she was.

"Ah aint making ya cold am Ah?" Applejack seemed to be getting warmed up and started to lean against me.

"Why didn't you say anything about how cold you actually were? You could have gotten sick." I pulled her in closer with my wing.

"Ah didn't want ta bother ya. Ah mean, we're going to ah party thats for ya and Ah didn't want to ruin it none." She started to nuzzle the side of my neck.

"It wouldn't have bothered me Applejack. You should've said something sooner."

"Gale?"

"Ya Applejack?

"Ya'll can call meh AJ."

"Ok then AJ." Oh Celestia, what have I gotten myself into?

We walked the next fifteen minutes in silence with AJ nuzzling up against me for warmth, or atleast thats what I was trying to convince myself thats why. We soon saw a farm that was covered in apple trees. Heh. I can see where it gets its name from. We walked up to the barn and I could already hear the music playing inside.

"Well looks like we're here AJ." 

"It was mighty nice of ya to keep meh warm Gale. Lets get inside so you can start enjoyin your night." AJ stepped out from under neath my wing and I already began to miss the extra warmth.

"But I've already been enjoying my night AJ." I pulled her into a hug. "I don't want you thinking that you were bothering me ok?" I brought my hoof up to her chin and brought her eyes up to mine. "Ok AJ?"

"....Ok Gale..." she said softly.

"Good." I let her go from my hug and began walking to the barn door. "Come on AJ, I'm sure they're waiting for us in there so the party can really get started."

She grinned and walked over to me. We made eye contact again and just smiled at each other. She then kicked the barn door open, making everypony inside turn around and cheer. "Now lets get this here shin-dig going."

We walked in and let the barn door close behind us. This place was pretty big. It had a second floor which seemed to be where a DJ had set and playing music. The first floor was big too and there were big bales of hay around the walls so ponies could sit and relax. There were tables set up against one of the walls with punch and cupcakes. The others had an assortment of sweets like pie and brownies. There was a dance floor set up in the middle of the barn where ponies of all sizes and colors were having a great time. I scanned the area and noticed that AJ had disappeared somewhere in the crowd. I was about to begin looking for her when I saw Apachie walking towards me with Twilight behind him.

"Hey! You made it man. Almost thought you weren't gonna show up." Apachie said as he walked up. 

I punched him square in the chest. Nothing. "Where are my glasses?"

"Haha. I'll give you three choices. The first two don't count." He chuckled.

"EVERYPONY OUT THERE HAVING A SUPER-DUPER TIME?!" Somepony yelled into a microphone.

Oh Celestia no.

I turned to the DJ and saw Pinkie Pie, wearing my glasses. 

Apachie came up next to me and put his leg around my hithers. "I'm gonna kill you for this you know that right?"

"You can try," he chuckled, "but you're gonna have to get those back before you can do anything else." He pointed over to Pinkie Pie talking to the mare behind the DJ system. 

Twilight walked up on to the other side up of Apachie. "Hello Gale. Did you sleep well?"

I looked away for Apachie's sake. "Oh ya I did. I wanted to thank you for going with Apachie to the market to get all the things we need." 

"No problem, it was a pleasure. Ummm is something wrong Gale?" Twilight seemed to notice that I wasn't looking at her. 

"Don't look into his eyes Twi, you'll get lost in them." Apachie laughed out loud.

"Oh don't be silly Apachie." 

"He's right you know." I said looking over to Pinkie, trying to think of a way to get my glasses back. "Well I'll leave you two alone, I gotta get back something of mine."

Twilight followed my gaze and saw who I was looking at. "Good luck Gale, you'll need it that's for sure." 

I got out from underneath Apachie's leg and opened my wings. "Thanks Twilight." I flew off the ground and up to the second floor almost reluctantly. I landed but Pinkie and the mare with the electric blue mane didn't notice me over the music playing. I slowly walked up behind Pinkie but I let my gaze drift a little and noticed the view of the first floor. I turned slightly and let it sink in. The lights, the music, the ponies jumping up and down. Just like T.A.P. 

I sat down and let the memories of those days come back to me. T.A.P.; Together As Ponies. During our stay in Canterlot, my cousin and his marefriend came to town for the rave. I wanted to go, so they gave Apachie and I their extra tickets. Those three nights were amazing. Rave all night, sleep all day. The lights, the performers, the music, were all out of this world. The ponies that went were all dressed in bright colors, some had glow-in-the-dark bands on their legs. Others wore saddle bags, some wore necklaces with pacifiers. Even their manes glew in the dark. The last night there, I met a mare, I still kick myself in the flank for not asking her name, and she was beauitful. She had an all black mane, black eyeliner, a corset, and black fish nets. I was absolutely mesmorized by her and she noticed my staring at her while she was dancing. She called me over and when I got close enough she pulled me into a deep kiss. The rest of that night was a blur. The next morning, I woke up in a hotel room that my cousin had rented out for his stay in canterlot. There was a note on my forehead that read, "I had a great time. Hope you did too. See you next time maybe. *wink*" There was a lipstick print of her lips on the note. 

I was zoned out just staring out into the crowd with a smile on my face when something snapped me back to the present. The mare DJing started playing a song that gave me goosebumps. I know this song. 

It's a song my cousin asked me to work on before leaving Cloudsdale. I did vocals for him because he said I had the voice he had in mind for the song. Granted I thought the lyrics he came up for it were a bit weird but when I heard myself sing it, chills ran down my spine. We had been playing the music on his DJ system and got in trouble for having the music so loud. We got a ticket for distrubing the peace but, we had ponies coming up to his house asking for the name of the song after the guard left. 
I got up and flew over to the mare. 

"Hey! Pass me the mic!"

She gave me a look but I couldn't tell what it meant from behind her shades.

"Humor me!"

She shrugged and threw a mic my way. I walked over to the edge of the floor and looked over the crowd and said, "Everypony, get ready!"

Once I got everyponies attention I started:


Maybe Heaven right now is a Devil or Angel, or Way,

That wont change.

Together we vow, that our colors will sparkle the fate.

And I will find you, 

I will find you, 

I will reach you or, 

I-I-I will lose my mind,

Lose my mind,

Lose my mind,

Lose my mind, yeah.


The crowd seemed to be getting into the mood cause they were bobbing their heads up down to the beat. Their eyes closed, feeling the music. I gave myself goosebumps, so I'm sure I gave it to them too.

"Alright, I want all of ya'll jump up and down when the bass drops!"

All I heard were cheers. Guess thats a yes. Well here goes nothing.

"LET'S GO!" I yelled through the mic when the bass dropped.

All the ponies were jumping up and down going with the flow of the music. Ya, just like T.A.P. I bobbed my head up and down with the beat too. I silently thanked my cousin for introducing me to this kind of music. This feeling was like no other. I just smiled to myself and almost missed my que for the next few words.


I will lose my mind, yeah.

I will lose my mind, yeah.


I let the slowing of the music bring me into the next verse. Heh, next verse, same as the first. 


Maybe Heaven right now is a Devil or Angel, or Way,

That wont change.

Together we vow, that our colors will sparkle the fate.

And I will find you, 

I will find you, 

I will reach you or, 

I-I-I will lose my mind,

Lose my mind,

Will lose my mind,

I will lose my mind, yeah.

I will lose my mind, yeah.


I let myself catch a breathe as I fell to my haunches, just sitting there and soaking in the ending to the song. Ponies yelling and cheering, that feeling is always amazing. The DJ surprised me from behind by holding a cold glass of punch up to my neck.

"Heh, thanks. I still haven't got use to singing that song yet." I took the punch from her grasp and chugged it down, calming the burning sensation im my throat.

"Sounded amazing to me. Didn't know anyone would add lyrics to my song though.Very interesting." 

Wait her song? Well my cuz did say that the song was DJ PON-3's song. Wait, hold up...

I turned around dumbstruck by my own thoughts, "Wa-ait. You aren't..."

"Heh, DJ PON-3, at your service." She made a mock bow. "Hey did you make up the lyrics to that song?"

I couldn't talk. I was frozen stiff from being in front of one of the most famous DJ's in all of Equistria. How did I not notice earlier?! I berated myself mentally. 

"Hey dude, you alright there?" She said waving her hoof in front of my face.

"Huh, oh ya sorry I didn't know it was you or your song. I hope you're not mad at me for messing with your set or anything." I said quickly trying to piece back together the image I destroyed by asking her for a mic while she was DJing.

She just laughed it off, "Hey dude chill, I ain't mad. Hell that was amazing singing you did back there. I honestly felt like the song was missing something. So did you come up with those lyrics or what?"

Oh. My. Gosh. She liked the lyrics. I let myself have a fancolt moment in my mind. Lots of yelling. "Um, ya, actually my cousin came up with the lyrics and I sang it out for him. He said something about sending a promo to you but didn't do it because he was sure you wouldn't get it cause of all the fan mail we're sure you get." 

"Oh if that's the case then hold up." She turned around and used her magic to levitate a marker and paper over to us. She then proceed to write something on it. "Tell your cousin to mail the promo to this address. Its my home address and if I'm on the road I have friends that go to my place and forward it to me where ever city I'm at." She levitated the paper over to me. "So what's your name Mr. Singer?" She giggled.

I got up from the floor and gently bowed, "The name's Red Nightingale ma'am, you can call me Gale, and might I say its my greatest pleasure to meet you DJ PON-3."

"Get up man, haha, and call me Vinyl. DJ PON-3 is my stage name." 

I got up from my mock bow. Nothing can ruin this night. 

"OH GALEY WALEY!"

....buck. 
> Later
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why me? Why me? Does Celestia find it funny to torment me so?

When I turned away from Vinyl, I was assaulted by pink. 

Pinkie had charged towards and jumped onto me. "I didn't know you liked karaoke Galey. Hey Vinyl, can we keep it going, I'm sure everypony would love to be able to sing songs of love, and flowers, and their very special somepony."

Along with the pain of having Pinkie jumping up and down on my back while I tried to get my shades away from her, I felt the stabbing pain from the words she was saying. Special somepony...

I let my mind wander about Octavia just briefly before I forced myself to stop. You have to stop think about the past. We came here to get away from that all. 

"Sure I'm ok with that Pinkie, I was just about to get something to munch on. I'll be right back and we'll tell everypony over the mic about it." Vinyl said while passing by us to the stairs. "Oh, and also, you might want to stop teasing 'Galey Waley' so much." She just laughed at the nickname Pinkie had managed to come up for me.

Vinyl used her magic and took my shades off Pinkie and brought them over to herself. "Hey these shades are like mine." 

I stopped moving and heard Pinkie mumble something about Fluttershy and shade. I don't know what she was talking about. "Wait, really?"

"Ya. They're like transition glasses. They get darker with more sunlight and get less dark when its dark, only, the outside of them don't change so nopony but the wearer would be able to tell. They are killer help with hangovers." She chuckled at her last words.

I never noticed that. Did Mom know this when she bought them?

"That's cool. So can I have them back?"

Vinyl's face grew and evil smirk. "I don't know. Playing keep away IS pretty fun. I could understand why Pinkie was doing it earlier."

"Oh come on, not you too? Weren't you just telling Pinkie not to tease me too much?" I pointed to the pink blob of chaos on my back who had managed to get a guitar from pony knows where and was trying to figure out something that rhymed with tree. How...nevermind I don't want to know.

"Hehe, just chill Gale, I'm just messing." Vinyl used her magic and tossed my glasses over to me. 

I put them on and noticed the room didn't get any darker. Cool. 

Then I heard ponies coming up the stairs and was met with Apachie, Twilight, Aj, Fluttershy, Man is she beautiful, and two other mares who I didn't know. One was a unicorn with a purple mane and white coat and the other was a pegesus with an odd rainbow colored mane and cyan coat. Rainbow? 

"Heh, I knew you liked to sing every now and then Skitzo but damn, I never knew you were that good."

Everypony who didn't know Apachie and I looked at him confused as everypony heard the sound of a hoof meeting a face.

Vinyl and the rainbow-maned mare broke down laughing as Twilight seemed to facehoof with me. Aj and the purple-maned mare looked at Apachie, then to me, and then back to Apachie with that confused look from seconds ago. Pinkie had somehow gotten off my back and was talking to Fluttershy and saying something about where her shade was. 

"What in tarnation is he talkin about Gale? What kinda name is Skitzo anyway?" Aj said finally taking her gaze off of Apachie.

"Surely he isn't serious Applejack, it's propably just a joke between friends. Hopefully." Said the mare with the purple mane. 

The rainbow mare got up from her bout of laughter. "Oh man, that's too good. That name is so cool, but not as cool as mine." 

"Heh, well atleast that's better than 'Galey Waley'." Vinyl giggled out. 

"What's wrong with Galey Waley?" Pinkie asked starting to look sad which managed to throw me off a bit.

"Nothing Pinkie, I'm sure Vinyl didn't mean anything bad by it." Fluttershy said comforting her. She seemed to spring back to normal after that. Well, as normal as she can get anyways.

"Everypony calm down, Apachie was just kidding, weren't you?" Twilight said giving Apachie an annoyed look. Apachie seemed to be taken back by it.

"Ya, sorry girls, I was just messing with Gale a bit." Apachie said quickly. 

"Gale aye? That's still a pretty cool name though I liked Skitzo better. Oh well." The rainbow mare flew over to me and put her hoof out for a shake. "Name's Rainbow Dash, I'm Equstria's best flyer."

Rainbow Dash. Funny, it fits. Heh.

I put my hoof out and shook hoofs. "My name is Red Nightingale, Gale for short. Have we met somewhere before?"

She looks familiar for some reason. 

She seemed to get really happy by this. "Well, I did win the Junior Best Flyiers competion so ofcourse you'd see me around."

I racked my head trying to remember from where she looks familiar. Rainbow...

"Rainbow!" I shouted as the realization hit me like a ton of bricks.

"Whoa! Dude chill out." Rainbow Dash said having stumbled back a couple feet by sheer surprise. 

"Oh sorry, just I remember why you look familiar." I looked past her towards Apachie. "Sorry. Hey Apachie come over here real quick."

Apachie walked over to me and I pulled him to the side. "What's wrong man?"

"She's the reason we crashed." I said looking over to Rainbow Dash.

"You sure about that man?"

"Well it explains what happened. I mean rainbows don't just appear out of nowhere and then disappear just as fast. That and she's pretty fast according to herself, so she might have flown by us without noticing. Bam. Accident."

"Well if what you're saying is right, then she's the reason you ended up in the hospital..." Apachie started to scowl. 

"Dude, calm down, it was an accident just relax. I don't want anything bad happening here man. Not this time." I tried calming him down a bit.

His face relaxed, "Fine, I guess. But I'm making her say sorry for what she did." 

He then spun around and started walking towards Rainbow Dash. Oh shit. He walked up to her as and tapped her withers to get her attention as she was talking to Aj. I ran over to hear what he had to say.

"Oh hey man whats up?" She said eagerly.

"We need to talk." Apachie said in his serious tone. I'm pretty sure everypony could hear it since they all got worried looks.

"Ummm ok what about?" Rainbow Dash said nervously.

"Do you remember what you were doing about three days ago?"

I looked over to everypony else and silently begged for forgiveness. I saw Twilight trying to make sense of Apachie's words.

"Umm, I woke up maybe around noon, went to work for a bit, fell asleep on a cloud, oh and I ended up creaming some ponies that were racing each other." Rainbow Dash seemed to perk up a bit at her last words.

Twilight gasped finally coming to the realization I had just moments ago. 

"Really?" I saw the anger Apachie was trying to hold back. 

"Hey Apachie just forget it. It's not important just drop this before it gets worse." I said trying to get in between him and Rainbow Dash.

"What in tarnation is this all about Gale?" Aj had come in close to figure out what was going on. 

"It's nothing Aj don't worry about it ok?" I said trying and failing to push Apachie back a bit.

"Don't lie to them Gale." I heard Twilight say.

I stopped and looked down. "It's not important Twilight."

"My, my what ever are you talking about here?" The purple maned mare asked.

"Sorry but I don't just tell people I don't know about myself." I said while turning around and rubbing my muzzle with my hoof to try and relax a bit.

"Well then I guess an introduction is in order. My name is Rarity and from what I heard yours is Red Nightingale?"

"Yes."

"I must say that is a rare name if I must say so myself. Now do you mind explaining to us what it is you few are going on about?"

Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Aj stood before Apachie and I. Twilight walked over to the side of Apachie and tried to calm him down a bit. Vinyl was coming up down stairs with her drink while Pinkie and Fluttershy where off to the side watching the scene unfold. Pinkie had a confused look while Fluttershy looked a bit scared and worried.

I sighed. "Look it's not important ok, lets just get back to the party that Pinkie was nice enough to throw for us." 

"You're lying." Aj said.

"Aj...please just drop this."

"SHE PUT YOU IN THE HOSPITAL." Apachie yelled out pointing at Rainbow Dash. She looked shocked.

"WE DON"T KNOW THAT!" I yelled back at him standing my ground. Apachie flinched and backed off a little.

"What the hay?! I didn't put anyone in the hospital!" Rainbow Dash yelled out in her defense. 

"Hospital? Gale, what the hay is Apachie here talkin about the hospital?" Aj said looking worried. 

"He was admitted into the hospital two days ago after the storm. I told you about me finding them sleeping in my tree yesterday." Twilight said.

"That doesn't explain how Rainbow Dash could have possibly put Gale here in the hospital." Rarity spoke up.

"Ya, I didn't do anything." 

"Not on purpose atleast." Twilight said.

"Huh?" Rainbow Dash replied. 

"You said you 'creamed' some ponies that were racing each other. Well those ponies were Apachie and Gale here. When you passed them, you accidently caused Gale to crash into Apachie, causing them to fall to the ground. Gale ended up breaking his hoof because of it." Twilight said.

"But wait if that was them, and I passed them..." Rainbow Dash's pupils shrank, "We were so up high! If you fell, you should have more than just a broken hoof! You'd still need to be in the hospital!" 

"Are ya serious Twi? Ah mean not that Ah don't believe ya but Rainbow Dash seems to have a mighty good point." Aj asked. 

"We're built alot tougher than most ponies." I said. Everypony turned their attention towards Apachie and I. "I only broke my hoof, though at first I thought I just sprained it. Apachie just shook the fall off." 

Everypony except Twilight seemed to have their jaws hanging open. At this point I was just trying to get everything back to normal. Apachie had just kept quite after I had yelled at him. He know better than to get me mad.

"Look, whatever happened, you didn't put me in the hospital." I started telling Rainbow Dash.

"But-" Apachie said.

"Apachie!" I yelled.

He shut up. I could see Twilight flinch when I yelled out his name. I could also see Fluttershy trying to hide into the floor. Damnit, I'm only trying to fix this. 

"Look, I got hurt from the crash, I wont lie about that. But, Rainbow Dash didn't put me in the hospital. The first night we came into town, we didn't have place to sleep, so we decided to sleep in a tree." I could see a look of horror on Rarity's face. "That night it started raining and I got soaked. I'm sure that's why I ended up in the hospital. Apachie is just over reacting." I said looking sternly in his direction.

"So iffen what ya are saying is true, then ya shouldn't be up and about." Aj said looking concerned. 

"You shouldn't be out of bed so soon. You could get hurt again." Fluttershy had come close during the story and surprised us when she spoke up.

"She's right darling. No matter how tough you are I'm most definitely sure that you must be in some kind of pain if what Rainbow Dash is true. Surely a fall from that height would hurt." Rarity said.

"I didn't question any of that." I told them. "I haven't felt any pain. Like I said we," I pointed at Apachie, "are tougher than most. We've gotten use to these kinds of things. We've been hurt worse before." 

There was silence on the floor. Vinyl was shifting on her hooves uncomfortably as she could tell she came into a conversation that wasn't exactly meant for others to hear. Rainbow Dash looked sorry for her carelessess, Aj and Fluttershy both looked shocked as to how Apachie and I could be standing after such a fall, and Rarity was trying to console Rainbow Dash. Twilight was standing near Apachie and looked like she was scolding herself for not making the connection earlier. 

Rainbow Dash walked up to me looking down. "I'm really so-"

"Just forget ok?" I cut her off. "It isn't anything to me. I was just trying to figure out what happened." 

She looked like she was about to say something but was interrupted again by Pinkie jumping in and grabbing the both of us into a hug. "This is to serious for me. Come on, it's a party. Ponies are suppose to smile at parties." She pouted at the both of us. I just laughed. For once, her craziness is a good thing. 

"Sure thing Pinkie." I said to her with a smile. I looked over to everypony else. Ok I have to do something to get them out of this funk. "Hey Vinyl." she jumped a bit in surprise at hearing her name called out. 

"Hah, ya Gale?" She said after managing to calm down a bit.

"You ready for some more karaoke?" I said with a grin.

"Hay yeah I am." She smiled back at me.

"Heh, alright," I began, "who wants-" I was hit in the side by Pinkie and was tackled to the floor.

"Ooooh, Oooh, let me go first Galey, pleeeeeeeaaaaaassssseeeeeeee?!"

Ofcourse it would be Pinkie. I just chuckled a bit, "Sure, why not Pinkie?"

She started bouncing up and down on top of me, making me lose my breath with each fall.

"Ummm...Pinkie?" Fluttershy managed.

"Ya Fluttershy?" Pinkie answered with still using me as a trampoline.

"Ummm...maybe you should stop jumping on Gale...I mean if thats ok with you." 

"Hmm?" She looked down to see me gasping for air with each bounce. "Oh sorry Galey hehe." She got off of me and I began breathing at a normal pace again but I stayed laying on the ground. "Thanks again Gale for letting me go first. Here I have something for you." She pulled out a cupcake from out of no where. "I made this just for you." It had black frosting with red sprinkles all over it like the color of my coat.

She held it in her mouth above me, while looking down at me. I could smell how delicious it was. "Thanks Pinkie." 

"No problem Galey, here!" She bent down and forced the cupcake into my mouth.

Normally I wouldn't mind it, I've had lots of things forced in my face but, this time was different. It wasn't because it was Pinkie or anything like that but more along the lines of while this was going on, she kissed me. OH DEAR CELESTIA! She's kissing me!

Everypony's jaw hit the floor except for Apachie and Vinyl.

"Well that's one hay of a welcome if I have to say anything about it." Vinyl said gigglying her head off.

"Man, you waste no time at all, aye Skitzo." Pinkie's little stunt managed to get him out of his little funk and he was now laughing so hard he could hardly breathe.

I just layed there on the floor and took it until finally Pinkie came up. She licked her muzzle of all the frosting and cupcake that managed to get on her face. "Hmmmm, tasty! Did you like it Galey? Cause I did." She gave me a sultry look and then ran off with Vinyl to start the next song to sing to.

I was stunned. The mix of chocolate frosting and bubble gum was ever present in my mouth. I couldn't think straight for about a good minute. When I finally came around, I swallowed the bits and pieces of cupcake that were in my mouth. I pulled myself off the floor and looked around in a daze. Aj's and Twilight's jaws were on the floor, Rainbow Dash and Rarity were giving me devilish smirks, and Fluttershy was blushing furiously and hiding behind her mane. 

"Ummm...." I looked around nervously, "well it was a good cupcake." 

And awkward silence. Apachie was still laughing like a maniac but I was worried aobut Aj. I could already tell what was going through her mind and it wasn't good. Seeing somepony you're attracted to being kissed by one of your friends is never a good thing.

"My, my," Rarity began, which made me jump a bit, "I had no idea you were in such a relationship with Pinkie."

"I'm not." 

"There's no need to deny it sweety." 

"I'm not denying anything." I said with a scowl.

"Rare, enough. Ah think he's telling the truth." Aj said. I don't know if anyone noticed but I could see the hurt in her emerald eyes. Didn't seem like it, cause nopony said anything. 

More silence. Go away silence, you ruin everything.

Apachie walked over to me and put his foreleg over my withers. "Looks like you got another crazy one on your tail Skitzo." He just chuckled. I punched him which, like every other time, did absolutely nothing.

"Buck you." I could already feel a massive headache coming on. Celestia Damnit. Why does this have to happen now? Buck.

Twilight walked up to his side. "Well, we've learned never to question what Pinkie does but, this is weird even for her." 

"Hey, there's nothing weird about what Pinkie did. She went for what she wanted just like me." Rainbow Dash said quickly in defense of her friend.

"That aint what's weird here RD." Aj said calmly. "What's weird here is that she done kissed somepony she barely knows," she looked in my direction, "and she aint ever done something like that before." 

"Well maybe she did it...cause you know....she likes him..." Fluttershy managed to say though I could barely hear her over the music Vinyl had let playing. 

That awkward silence from before just came back and had a hold around my neck.

Suddenly the music behind us changed and we heard Pinkie start talking on the mic.

"Hello everypony!" Cheers from the crowd below was all we could hear for a short while. When it died down Pinkie started again. "How you all doing tonight? Well I hope it's great cause I'm feeling amazing. Ok, so after Gale's preformance," she stopped as the ponies started cheering again. Then she continued, "we've decided to have some karaoke fun. I'm gonna kick this party off and you guys can come up and sing love songs to your very special somepony, or maybe sing songs about life and everything in between." The ponies down stairs cheered once more and we could hear a couple coming up the stairs to get their turn at singing in front of everypony. 

"Ummm, guys," I said looking towards the stairs, "I think we should move or else we're about to get trampled." 

"I'm going with his idea." Rainbow Dash flew off the ground and hovered in the air a bit. 

Soon Fluttershy and I flew up as Aj, Twilight and Rarity stepped aside to see a crowd of ponies looking eager to sing their hearts out. Apachie was off in his own little world. The girls were worried that he'd get trampled but I knew better. 

"Umm don't you think we should tell him?" Rainbow Dash asked me. 

"Na, he'll be fine, and even if he wont be, he deserves it." I chuckled lightly.

Apachie stood strong as the first mares that ran up the stairs soon crashed into him and were soon on the ground sitting on their haunches rubbing their heads. Ya, I know the feeling heh. 

"Oh. Sorry about that ladies." Apachie helped the mares up and then moved over to where Twilight was standing with Rarity. Twilight wore a scowl as she watched Apachie wave the mares bye. Twilight began to walk away with Rarity leaving Apachie behind and he looked over to me with a 'What the hay did I do' look. I just chuckled and shrugged. 

The music started up again and we all moved over near Vinyl so we could see Pinkie sing. I felt like I shouldn't exactly be around Aj right now but if I just up and left it'd be rude to Pinkie. Damnit I'm going to have to make it through this night. 

Vinyl nodded to Pinkie. The song started off pretty fast and then slowed to a crawl. The song was slower than the one I sang and I could feel it pull me in. It gave me goosebumps when Pinkie started singing.


Rush, pull me under.

The world is at my hooves,

And it's no wonder.

Your eyes speak to me,

They tell me to be calm,

They tell me to be strong.

Swimming out so deep,

Now I can't breathe, 

And it's exactly where I belong. 

Cause it feels like the ride of a lifetime, 

And nothing's gonna save us now.

Let the waves come crashing down.

Cause it feels like I'm right for the first time, 

And everytime I take you in, 

I think my heart skip a beat again. 

I'm drowning in your looooooove.


The feeling was undescribable. This barn has the perfect acoustics cause the music just comes back to you no matter where the speakers are. I didn't realise it but I had my eyes closed. It wasn't until I felt somepony lean against me did I take notice. I opened my eyes and saw a depressed looking Aj sitting down, lean against me. I decided to take a seat and I tried to make her feel better. I looked around us and on the dance floor below us and saw other ponies just sitting down, entranced by Pinkie's singing. I looked back to see Aj's hat blocking my view of her. I picking up her hat a little with my teeth. 

I moved closer and nuzzled her. "Don't worry Aj, I don't have feelings for Pinkie ok?" 

She just nodded. "Ok" She whispered softly. I moved closer as Pinkie started the next part of the song.


Love,

It's taking over.

There is no in between, 

Till I find me some cover.

The tide is coming, 

I don't know if I can take it.

I lose my focus, 

I lose my focus.

With every breath,

I feel my inhibition breaking,

I can't control it, no no no,

Cause it feels like the ride of a lifetime,

And nothing's gonna save us now.

Let the waves come crashing down.

Cause it feels like I'm right for the first time,

And everytime I take you in, 

I think my heart skip a beat again.

I'm drowning in your loooooove.


The music took us, as it did with everypony else. The smell of apples filled my mind as the music ran through my body giving me chills. I could feel Aj shutter against me. Heh. A smile grew across mine and Aj's face. We sat there togther not wanting the moment to end. I wrapped my wing around her and pulled her in deeper. Her hoof wrapped around mine and held it tight. We sat there until the song ended and when it did we finally pulled away. I brought my wing back and she let go of my hoof. I came out from underneath her hat to catch my breath and she did too. I looked back at her to see a deep blush on her cheeks. We nuzzled each other one last time before we stood up to see everypony else in a daze from the Pinkie's singing. It seemed to me that nopony noticed Aj and I. I sighed in relief. 

"Gale..." Aj started in a whisper.

"It's ok Aj. Don't worry." She leaned against me. "We have to talk to Pinkie you know."

"Ya, Ah know but," she nuzzled my neck, "let meh just stay like this for a bit will ya?" 

"Sure Aj. Anything you want." I nuzzled her back.

I'm going to pay for this. I looked down to see Aj smiling with her eyes closed. Eh, screw it. I'll deal with it later.
> Down The Rabbit Hole
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It took a few moments for everypony else in the barn to realize that Pinkie Pie had stopped singing, but when they finally did come to, cheers erupted. In all honesty, I myself got lost in for a moment, but thanks to Aj, I was pulled out from under. Getting up from our sitting position, Aj and I walked over to Pinkie Pie as she was drinking a glass of punch to cool her flaming throat. 

"Gee Pinkie, Ah didn' know you could sing like tha, tha was amazing." Aj said.

"Ya, I didn't know you had it in you Pinkie, that was something alright." I said, agreeing with Aj.

"Ah, shucks, that was nothing compared to the other parties I've thrown with Vinyl, isn't that right?!" Pinkie yelled back at Vinyl,  who just nodded as she was suddenly busy with mares asking to sing next.

A few moments later, the rest our our little group made their way over to us, Rarity clamoring over Pinkie Pie saying something along the lines of Pinkie becoming a professional singer, Rainbow insisting she could sing better without music, and Fluttershy's attempts at what I think were suppose to be cheers. In the midst of this little moment of chaos, Aj had left my side to talk to Twilight and Apachie had started walking over towards me. I walked to the edge of the floor and looked down at the crowd as Vinyl played a song to keep the feeling going from Pinkie's singing. 

"Not half bad is it?" Apachie said, finally catching up to at the edge.

"The music is nice, it reminds me of our time in Canterlot for TAP." I replied, smiling as I was looking down at the crowd of ponies dancing and enjoying themselves. 

Apachie chuckled and took a seat next to me. "That was quite the weekend man, no worries, no rules, it was the best. So I guess you've changed your mind about this party eh?"

I sat next to him, his height contrast against mine. "Maybe, I still think it's a bad idea, introducing us as the new ponies in town, but for right now," I paused slightly, going over the most recent event with Aj, "I don't want to worry about."

"Dude, you need to learn the chill, we've talked about this before. You're attitude gets to me sometimes." Apachie said as he nudged me.

"It's not like I enjoy being like this all the time man. It's hard for us Scorpios to just let go and I know we came here to start over, but it's not going to happen over night. Just, just give me some time, time to get everything behind me before I start my life again." I said, half to Apachie, half to myself.

"We aren't going anywhere man, don't worry so much, just go with the flow, like me." He said, putting his trademark stupid grin on.

I shook my head and threw a punch which connected with his foreleg as the others made their way over to us. 

Rarity stepped forward first. "I hope we aren't interrupting anything you two."

"Not at all." I said as Apachie and I stood up and joined the mares. "I don't suspect anypony else here wants to do some karaoke?"

All but Rarity shook their heads in response to my question. "Well I had wanted to sing a piece but I fear that my taste in music isn't exactly on par with the music played for a party." She huffed.

Aj patted Rarity on her back. "Ah, don' worry abou it Rare, you'll get to sing nex time 'round."

By this time, more ponies had begun coming up the stairs in an attempt to get a turn at singing a song. I looked over towards Vinyl to see her swamped with ponies, each asking for a turn. I felt sorry for her but she had a smile on her face so I let the feeling pass for the time. With that pass of that feeling however, another replaced it, one that made itself known to everypony. My stomach growled loudly, not loud enough to be heard over the music but enough for the  group to take notice since we were close.

Rainbow laughed a bit, as did Twilight and Aj. "Dude I think you're hungry."

"I'm hungry too now that I think of it." Apachie said as he rubbed his belly with a hoof.

"Me three!" Pinkie Pie jumped up. "Singing makes me hungry."

"Well then why don't we all go down stairs, there's food and punch and all sorts of treats for us to snack on." Twilight suggested, which got an immediate response from Apachie's stomach.

"Heh, I think Apachie says yes." I say holding back a chuckle, meanwhile the rest are giggling and nodding.

Together, we all make over way past the crowd, Pinkie Pie hopping forward as the leader, followed by a hovering Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Rarity, and finally Aj, Twilight, Apachie and I. I hadn't noticed through the earlier commotion in the day, my unexpected sleep, and being brought to the party, that I hadn't eaten in hours and that I was starving. My stomach was more roaring than growling.

"When was the last you ate Gale?" Aj asked me as she heard it again.

"I think the last thing I ate today might have been the apple you gave me earlier today." I said as I looked away in embarrassment. 
Aj just chuckled a bit as we got the stairs and down to the first floor. Aj was sticking close to me and I didn't know whether to just enjoy the closeness or say something. I don't want to deal with this right now. I stopped trying to think too much into it and just walked along side her until the group had managed to maneuver through the sea of ponies between us and the snack table. Through the crowd, I was approached by a few ponies, all introducing themselves and complementing me on my singing. Among them was a blue/green mare with an instrument for a cutie mark and her friend who was a candy maker, a stallion with wings much too small for his body, and our neighbor Berry Punch. Amidst the conversations it seemed that the next pony in line for karaoke had gotten their turn to sing and with it, the crowd started dancing and shouting. Because of this I managed to get Aj and I separated from the rest of the group but she didn't seem to mind much, well she didn't seem to mind much from what I could tell. Through the sea of ponies jumping up and down, we had somehow found and bumped into my manager, who was at the time sucking face with a mare. Not wanting to intrude, I pulled Aj away quickly before he noticed the two of us. With a bit of blush on her face, Aj just coughed awkwardly after the scene and we continued our journey to the opposite side of the barn, though the journey was a bit harder on me as Aj had begun leaning on me slightly.

A few long minutes later, Aj and I had finally caught up with the rest of the group, which had already begun eating. Rarity being the to see us first, spoke up. "My my, maybe I was wrong about you having something with Pinkie Pie, because it looks like there is something more between you and Applejack." 

The rest of the group had caught on to what Rarity had noticed but Aj stopped leaning on me and answered, "Th-there ain't nothin goin on between us, A-ah was just tired from work thas all." Her eyes darted to one side as she tried to avoid eye contact.

Rarity just gave Aj a smirk and turned to Pinkie Pie. "I hope you're ok with this Pinkie, you did see him first after all."

Apachie, by this time, was laughing so hard he might have choked on the food he was eating. Pinkie Pie just hopped on over to Aj, a giant smile on her face. "I don't mind Applejack, we can share Galey Waley." She said jokingly. 

I hope she's joking.

A too quiet to be heard 'Oh my.' escaped Fluttershys' mouth and Rainbow Dash was loving every minute of the situation.

Aj was soon surrounded by Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash as they tried to make her admit that there was something going on between the two of us. "There's nothin Ah swear," but nopony believed her, so she looked to me for support, "Tell 'em Gale."

"Sorry Aj, but you're on your own for now, I'm hungry." I said as I walked passed the group of mares. "Go easy on her girls, she's pretty tired." I chuckled and walked over to Apachie, who was just picking himself of the floor from his fit of laughter. 

Twilight giggled slightly at the girls teasing of Applejack and offered a hoof to Apachie. "So is there anything going on between you two Gale?" She said as she turned in my direction as I was reaching for an apple.

"Na, there's nothing between Aj and me, she just got a bit tired getting caught up with that last song and everypony dancing, I let her lean against me for support." I said, knowing full well I was lying through my teeth.

"Ya, Gale having any sort of feelings for a mare would be like your friend Flutters over there stare down a dragon." Apachie said chuckling. I gave him the death glare but he just brushed it off.

"Well actually," Twilight started.

"Twilight, seriously, there's nothing." I interrupted. "A marefriend isn't something all that high on my priorities at the moment, and quite possibly a long while."

Twilight looked like she wanted to say more but just sighed and gave up. She walked over to her friends and tried to keep them from teasing Aj so much while I took a bite of the apple in hoof. 

"I saw you kiss Applejack." Apachie said nudging me.

I nearly choked on the apple in my mouth from the resulting flinch that came over me from Apachie speaking those words. Coughing, wheezing, and a few glasses of punch later, I managed to catch my breath. 

"You saw that?" I said clearing my throat of any left over bits of apple.

"Nooo, but judging from that reaction, I now know you did." 

"I hate you."

"I love you too Skitzo."

"I hope you die in a fire."

"All the homo."

"You say anything, so help me Celestia, I'll let Ditzy have her way with you."

"Dude, low-blow." 

"Promise."

"Ya, fine I promise."

"Good...." A sip of my punch later and another bite of my apple and I hoof bumped Apachie. A chuckle on his part and I already knew I was going to be in for a headache in the morning. 

A few moments later and the group had found its way back to Apachie and me. Aj seemed to have made it out of shark-infested waters for the time but was giving me a look like I threw her in. I should probably stay away from her for a while.

With that little problem out of the way, and a bit of food in my stomach, I decided that I had best talk to Vinyl again about her music. Sure my cousin came up with the lyrics, but I would have to be mental to try not getting connected with somepony famous. I also have to go back for that note she wrote up for me, during all the commotion with Pinkie and karaoke, I kinda forgot to get it. Making sure everypony was occupied, I snuck my way by them and once out of sight, I flew on up to the next floor. 

When I got up, I noticed that Vinyl had somehow managed to get everypony to stay in a line, or what could be called a line when at a rave. "Vinyl!" I yelled out above the loud music. 

Turning her attention away from her set, Vinyl spotted me and motioned me over behind the DJ system. "Hey Dude, over here!" I landed a bit cautiously, a load of wires and electronics aren't exactly the easiest things to walk through. "Gale, that karaoke idea Pinkie came up with is freaking awesome! Look at all these ponies!"

"Ya, I can see it! I guess even Pinkie has her moments!" The music was deafening this close but nothing a bit of yelling couldn't fix.

"Dude, you left so fast you forgot my address!" Vinyl yelled holding up the paper in her magic then placing it on the DJ system.

"Ya I know, I actually came up here to get that from you! It's kind of hard to keep focused on something during these kinds of parties!" I said, blocking the music from entering my ear with a hoof.

Vinyl just giggled. "I bet!"

I was about to ask why she was laughing until it hit me. "I didn't mean it like that!"

"Sure, sure! Hold on a minute!" Vinyl laughed a bit before diving into a saddlebag on the floor by her legs. I was beginning to wonder what she was getting cause from the sound of it, the last mare that had started singing, finished and the next mare was on her way up to grab the mic.

"Hey, Vinyl, I think somepony is coming!" I yelled down at her.

Vinyl's head shot up out of the saddle bag with a small plastic baggy in her mouth. She looked a bit surprised. Next thing I know she's giving me this look that looks like an apology. I was about to ask what was up when she closes the distance between us and shoves her tongue into my mouth. I was half stunned, half amazed, and half trying to not over think what the hay was going on. After a quick second, she backs off, but not before saying something along the lines of 'Hold that for me.' I don't know, I didn't hear her all that well over the music and the daze that I was in. Vinyl turned back to the mare that had just reached the front of her system and then she was on her way to the what I guess was now the singers platform.

A few moments in the daze, I finally managed to get my head back on my shoulders. That didn't just happen. That couldn't have just happened. Holy buck that just happened. I was about to yell out to Vinyl if she was out of her freaking mind, that is until I felt something in my mouth. Turns out that her tongue wasn't the only thing she put in my mouth. A few seconds of trying, I succeeded in getting whatever it was out and onto my hoof. 

Plastic baggy.

Vinyl turned back at me and looked really sorry, or something, I couldn't tell behind her shades and confusion right now. "Dude I'm so sorry about that, but I needed to make sure nopony saw that!" She pointed to the small baggy.

"What the hay is this?!" I yelled out, convincing myself it was because of the music and not excitement of recent events.

Vinyl used her magic to take the baggy from my hoof and opened it up revealing two little oval-shaped, pea-sized, pills. 

Buck. 

"That isn't what I think it is, is it?!"

Vinyl giggled. "Depends on what you think it is!" She levitated one into my hoof and let go. I looked from the pill to Vinyl, back to the pill, and finally back to Vinyl. She then used her magic to place her pill onto her tongue. "Down the hatch!" She yelled, her tongue out, before swallowing it down dry.

Crap.

I stood there for a few seconds, trying to decide in my mind if going down the rabbit hole was the best thing to do right now.

Red pill or Blue Pill?

I shook my head to unscramble my mind, only a few seconds left before having to make a decision. I look up to Vinyl one last time and see her just smiling so wide. 

Damn.

"Down we go...down the rabbit hole!"

Swallowed. No going back now.