FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

All right. For the sake of repetition, I will not go through the trouble of chronicling my morning rituals today. Today started like many other days. I awoke to find my beautiful lover asleep next to me and soon found myself enjoying a tender cuddle with her. And we soon sat down to have breakfast with little Scootaloo. But it was at the breakfast table that Fluttershy brought up a subject I did not expect. "James, will you be attending the Best Young Fliers Competition today?"

I had never even heard of that event, even though it has nearly been a year since I first arrived in Equestria. "Huh? Young Fliers? What's that?"

Surprisingly, it was Scootaloo who answered. "It's the most awesome event in Cloudsdale! It's where pegasi from all over gather to compete in the Cloudeseum to show off their different flying styles! And the one who scores the most points wins and gets to spend a whole day with the Wonderbolts!"

I withheld my retort for a moment while watching Scootaloo give me that big toothy grin. "Were you just repeating something Rainbow Dash said?"

Scootaloo's wings, which had sprung open in her excitement, folded while she grinned sheepishly. "Was it that obvious?"

Fluttershy let out a small giggle. "It did sound like something she would say."

I then shrugged my shoulders before replying, "Well, I had never even heard of this event until just now, so I'm not sure if I want to go... Wait, you said it's in Cloudsdale, right?" When Scootaloo gave me a nod, I shook my head. "Well, that means I obviously can't attend. Humans can't walk on clouds."

To my surprise, Fluttershy spoke up right away. "But the rest of our friends attended last time. Twilight found a spell that lets earth ponies and unicorns walk on clouds for a while and it worked perfectly."

"Cloudwalking? Huh. I guess there's a spell for everything at this rate." I retorted, only half surprised. Although the more I thought about it, the more unwilling I was to actually go. This Best Young Fliers Competition sounds like a sports event, something I have never been particularly interested in. And having a spell cast on you that lets you walk on clouds that will eventually wear off... That sounds scary. I would hate for that to happen while still in Cloudsdale. However, I withheld my words out of fear of disappointing or upsetting my lover. Perhaps I would change my mind later.

Scootaloo spoke with a smile while munching on her toast. "I can't wait for my wings to get bigger so I can compete there someday. I've never even seen Cloudsdale. But from what I've heard from Rainbow Dash, it sounds awesome!"

Fluttershy then meekly added, "Um... It's not that awesome. It's...really high up in the air. Not close enough to the ground." I could only roll my eyes at that remark. Fluttershy has never been one for heights despite being a capable flier in her own right. I would not be surprised if she was meant to be born as an earth pony, but somehow got swapped to different parents if that makes any sense.

Time passed while we engaged in polite conversation until we finally finished our plates. I then glanced at a clock on the wall and saw that it was getting fairly close to 9 AM. "Time to get going, Scoot. Don't want to be late for class, right?"

My little sister nodded before hopping down from her stool. "All right! Just let me go grab my bags!" She then trotted out of the kitchen and across the living room and into her bedroom.

"You need a hand with the dishes, honey?" I asked while gathering up my dirty dishes.

Fluttershy smiled while carrying her own dishes to the kitchen sink for cleaning. "That's OK. I'll handle the dishes. Shouldn't you be walking Scootaloo to school soon anyway?"

"Oh, right. Can't be in two places at once. Unless you're Pinkie Pie, that is." I retorted, prompting a giggle from my sweet girlfriend.

Just after I finished bringing the dirty dishes to the sink, I heard Scootaloo call out while standing next to the front door. "All ready, big brother! Let's go!"

I leaned over and gave Fluttershy a kiss on the cheek. "I'll be back in a bit, honey."

"OK. See you soon, James." She replied with a blush on her face. I hurried on out the door with Scootaloo right beside me and then jogged down the dirt path with the little rowdy pegasus by my side.

The trek to the schoolhouse went by like clockwork. Just a casual walk across the meadow and entering Ponyville from the northwest. Along the way, we made friendly banter with each other. "So, any new cutie mark escapades lately?" I asked while turning my gaze down to the pegasus filly beside me.

"Well, we tried chimney sweeping, but that didn't work out so well... We couldn't figure out how to stay up on the roofs. And we almost got in trouble when we ended up stripping the thatch off of one roof." She replied with a nervous grin. I could not help facepalming at that revelation.

Before we got much further, a familiar voice called out from the south. "Mornin', Scootaloo! Howdy, James! Wait up!" When the two of us turned to face who was calling us, we found little Apple Bloom galloping towards us. Right on schedule.

"Morning, Apple Bloom! I was wondering if you were gonna show!" Scootaloo replied before the two fillies shared a high-five together.

"Did I miss anythin'? What's goin' on?" Apple Bloom asked while we resumed our trek towards the school.

"Oh, we were just discussing your more recent escapades in searching for your talents. Something about chimney sweeping?" I retorted, wondering what kind of response the farm filly would give.

Apple Bloom's expression quickly shifted into an embarrassed grin. "Oh... That... It didn't go well. We almost got in trouble for tryin' it."

The three of us continued along, discussing all sorts of activities that they had tried in recent weeks. Eventually, the big red schoolhouse came into view. And walking up the path ahead of us was none other than Sweetie Belle. Upon seeing us, the unicorn filly broke into a gallop and headed right towards us. "Hey! Morning, everypony!"

"Morning, Sweetie Belle. Just in time, as always." I replied, reaching down and patting her on the head.

"No time ta wait now! We gotta get to class! Who knows when the bell will ring!" Apple Bloom called out before running over to the school's front door. "Let's all chat this evenin'! Will ya be there at the clubhouse, James?"

"Come to think of it, when was the last time you attended one of our meetings? Hasn't it been a few weeks?" Sweetie Belle asked while turning her gaze up to me.

Granted, I got my cutie mark quite a while back by this point. As a result, I have not been very active with the other Cutie Mark Crusaders for a while despite still being a member. Of course, I still adore those three fillies and I honestly felt a little bad at that moment as I contemplated that I had not been spending as much time with them as I would have liked to. "Man, it has been a while. When you girls meeting up at the clubhouse tonight?"

Scootaloo replied after a moment of pondering. "How about 4 PM? We'll all be there by then."

"Deal. I'll see you all there." I spoke with a nod. I was really looking forward to spending some time with my little filly friends.

"All right! We'll see you there! See you later, James!" Sweetie Belle spoke before she broke into a run. Before Scootaloo could take off though, my little sister jumped right into my arms for a quick cuddle before rushing over and following her friends inside the schoolhouse. Not three seconds later, the large brass bell on top of the structure rang nine times.

"Heh. I would say 'saved by the bell', but that show was awful." I spoke with a chuckle, glad that the girls made it inside before the bell went off. With nothing else to do, I turned around and went home. I was thinking Fluttershy was going to ask me to bring the eggs in that morning.

Once I returned home, I found Fluttershy outside tending to her little animal friends for the morning. There was a bowl full of wriggling worms on the ground with a bunch of robins taking turns plucking them up, Angel was nibbling on a carrot, and Fluttershy was in the process of bringing fish to the weasels under the bridge spanning the brook in front of our house. It felt like another wonderful peaceful morning.

"Honey, I'm home." I spoke while Fluttershy came out from under the bridge. I seemed to catch her by surprise since her wings suddenly sprang open in surprise. She did not show a look of shock on her face though, but a look of delight.

"Oh, hello! Did the walk go by OK?" She asked while fluttering up to me and nuzzling my cheek.

"Yup. Can you believe the Cutie Mark Crusaders tried chimney sweeping recently? How do you think that went?" I replied, tenderly nipping her nose to prompt a giddy squeak from her.

"Ooh, don't do that! It tickles! But...um... To that... It didn't go well?" She replied with a giggle before giving me an uneasy smile while trying to imagine the scene I had just spoken. It was rather cute to see that look on her face.

"Yeah, that's what they said. Anyway, you need help with anything?" I asked, expecting her to request that I collect the eggs from the coop. And that is exactly what she did.

"Well, I haven't gotten around to gathering up the eggs... Could you go handle that for me, please?" She proceeded to ask me, as I anticipated.

"Yes, ma'am. I'll be back in a bit." I replied before making my way around the cottage to the chicken coop.

Upon arrival, I found Fluttershy's chickens milling about in the pen. I just adore the soft clucking sounds they make. If you have been around chickens before, you know exactly what I am talking about. In any case, I looked around to make certain no one was watching before doing my usual pre egg-collecting skit for fun. "CHICKENS!!!"

I called out that word and began to run towards the pen in a rather goofy fashion just for the sake of having fun. "Pet the chicken, pet the chicken, pet the...huh?" I came to a stop when I noticed every last hen staring at me with rather annoyed expressions. Is that even possible with chickens? Regardless, those stares seemed to be saying 'Oh, come on. How about something different for once?' to me.

"What? You girls bored with me already?" I asked, rather surprised they were giving me such a look. I then glanced around, wondering what I could do to spice up my routine. I then noticed what seemed to be a patch of bare dirt near the side of the cottage, an empty flowerpot nearby with what seemed to be a pack of purple pansies next to it with the dark soil packed over the roots still maintaining the general shape of the pot it had been in. There was a short shovel sticking out of a small indentation in the ground. Fluttershy had probably just started digging, but left it alone to deal with something else. But while I observed the shovel, a silly thought popped into my head. "Ooh, that's just what I need."

I grabbed the shovel and began to dig deeper into the soil while letting out the silliest and just downright goofiest laugh I could muster. "Dig a hole, dig a hole, dig a hole, dig a hole!" But after a moment, I had another idea. Just for the heck of it, I lifted the shovel's head closer to my face and began to smack my face down into the pile of soft dirt that it held. After a few smacks, I looked back over at the obviously bewildered chickens. "I am a woodpecker!" But a few more dirt smacks to the face later, I looked at them again and spoke, "Except with dirt."

That clearly got them. The chickens began clucking and squawking in obvious laughter, as did I. I then dumped the dirt and placed the formerly potted pansies into the dirt and used the leftovers to pat it down. "OK, I better stop that. If someone catches me goofing around like that, they'll probably think I have a few screws loose." Once that little chore had been taken care of, I stepped into the pen and walked over to the coop's entrance before poking my head inside. And sure enough, I found a familiar face lounging around inside it.

"Hey there, Derpy. Haven't seen you in here for a few days." I spoke; finding the local mailmare just sprawled out on the coop's floor. However, she seemed to be feeling either really tired, or just really down.

"Oh... Hi, James." She spoke halfheartedly while her goofy eyes looked in my direction. She seemed to be in no mood to go anywhere. I just hope she had the day off if she was just hanging out here.

"Hey, are you OK? You don't look so good." I asked while reaching in and gently tussling her yellow mane.

"I'm OK... Let me help you with the eggs." Her voice carried a noticeable monotone in it. Still, I did not refuse her help. She picked up one egg at a time in her mouth and placed them in my hand before I set the egg in the pail just outside the coop.

After a few minutes, Derpy took her spot on the coop's floor again. "That's all of them..."

I honestly wanted to help Derpy, whatever her problem was. She always seemed to be genuinely happy or content whenever I normally saw her, so seeing her like this was definitely new and unsettling. However, I could clearly see she was not in the mood for conversation, so I gently stroked her head and gave her a compassionate smile. "All right. Thanks for helping with the eggs, Derpy. Take care." I then stood up and left the pen before walking around to the front side of the cottage again with the pail swinging through the air with my arm. Sure enough, Fluttershy was there waiting for me.

"You were gone for a while. Did something... Um... James? Why is there dirt on your face?" Fluttershy asked when she turned to face me. I had all but forgotten about the skit I did with the shovel.

"Uh..." I stammered, not sure of exactly how she would react to this. "I...uh...tried being a woodpecker."

"Except with dirt?" Fluttershy asked, repeating my words precisely. "Then...doesn't that make you a dirtpecker?"

I could not help letting out a boyish giggle in response. "Ugh... It would take way too long to understand."

Fluttershy then asked, "Do you mean that time I heard you say 'gravy' out of nowhere didn't necessarily mean you wanted gravy with your dinner?"

"Oh, I was wondering why you whipped up a bowl of that without including mashed potatoes!" I replied, remembering dinner from a few nights ago. Scootaloo really seemed to enjoy it though and was quick to help herself to the leftovers.

"Would you like some tonight?" My girlfriend then asked as a surprisingly amused smile spread across her face.

"Yes please. And make it smooth and creamy, if that's OK with you. Mashed potatoes are best when they aren't clumpy." I replied with a smile, the thought of some of the better cases of mashed potatoes I have eaten making me rather hungry. Fluttershy knows quite a bit about wholesome country cooking. Maybe she got some pointers from Applejack since they live relatively close to each other. "Also, what time is it?"

"Um... I think it's maybe a quarter past 9. Do you have to head into work soon... Oh! That's right! Pinkie Pie wanted me to tell you that Mr. and Mrs. Cake have given you the day off so you can come with us to the Best Young Fliers Competition! You have plenty of free time until 11:30." Fluttershy replied with more gusto than she usually shows.

Once again, the thought of attending that event crossed my mind. A sporting event. Certainly not something that is my cup of tea. I honestly was not looking forward to going. Especially if I had to rely on a temporary spell to walk on clouds. What if it wore off and I dropped right through and nopony noticed? That...would be a horrible way to die. "Uh... Right. That. Well, since you leave at 11:30, does that mean I have some time to kill?"

"Uh huh. What would you like to do? I still have some things to finish up here." Fluttershy asked while nuzzling a little brown rabbit that wandered near to her.

After a moment of thought, I had an idea. "Well, I think I would like to visit Rarity. It's been quite a while since I last visited her at this hour."

"OK then. I'll head into town and get something at Sugarcube Corner. My sweet tooth has been calling lately." Fluttershy replied, her hoof waving at the bunny as it hopped away.

"All right then. I'll see you in a little while. Take care, honey." I spoke before giving my tender sweet lover a kiss goodbye before turning and heading across the meadow and into Ponyville.

Upon entering Ponyville proper, I found many ponies just going about their business with numerous food stalls lining the edges of the streets. Just a typical Wednesday morning. Nothing of any significance occurred on my way over to the Carousel Boutique, although it took quite a while to get from one side of town to the other. I cannot recall the last time I went straight from Fluttershy's place to Rarity's in one trip without distractions.

Upon arriving, I took a peek through the window. The main workroom had various tailoring supplies here and there while several mannequins were spread out around the room with finished and unfinished attires being worn by them. Wow, I just now realized how long it has been since I chronicled a visit to that place. Anyway, while it seemed like there was much for Rarity to do, I did not see her anywhere. Perhaps she was upstairs?

I pushed the front door open and stepped inside, the door ringing the bell hanging from the opposite side of the doorway. I almost bumped my forehead on the doorway before ducking at the last second. Would not want to have a repeat of my first day all over again. I still cannot believe how painful that was.

"Hello? Rarity? Mitta?" I called out, my eyes scanning the spacious chamber before me. It would be difficult to explain how it looked, especially since this room's appearance is never set in stone. Curtains, screens, clothes hangers. I felt more like I was not inside a tailor's workshop and more like a place I would take my Grand Galloping Gala robe to be dry-cleaned.

I looked in the kitchen, the side room where I used to sleep during my first few days in Ponyville... Wow, that just makes me feel so nostalgic. It feels almost like another lifetime ago by this point. How long have I been here? Wait, I am getting off track again. I looked around the first floor in every room I could find, yet could find no trace of my beautiful friend or even Mitta. I know she would not leave her home without leaving an 'out to lunch' sign hanging from her front door, so I decided to try upstairs. I doubted she was still asleep by that point. I did not find Mitta anywhere, so I assume she had gone into town to carry out some errands.

I have to say the upstairs area does not have as much room as the ground floor, only leaving room for a few chambers. Although Rarity's bedroom undoubtedly takes up the majority of the top floor. While I walked down the short hall before me, I noticed the door to the bathroom open just a crack. And when I drew near, I heard a familiar intoxicatingly beautiful voice singing casually. "I'll be the toast of the town, the girl on the floor, I'm the type of pony everypony everypony should know..."

That was definitely Rarity singing. And while certainly not putting her best voice forward, it was still lovely to listen to. I do not think I am familiar with that song either, having only caught her rarely singing a few verses while exchanging them for melodic humming on occasion. Regardless, it did not sound as if she was doing anything I would much rather not see and do not pretend you do not know what I am referring to. It merely sounded as if she was prepping herself for the day, if the lyrics of the song she was muttering served as any indication.

I decided to draw closer and took a peek inside the room. I mean honestly, whatever she was doing must not have been terribly private if she did not have to close the door. Sure enough, I saw that gorgeous unicorn standing before the mirror above the bathroom sink while her horn was engulfed in a billowing light blue magic aura. "Hm hmmm... See how they hang onto every word that I speeeak..."

A second later, I noticed something float into view from behind her while surrounded by a matching magic aura. Was that...a false eyelash? I watched in silence as Rarity closed the eye that was closest to me while the eyelashes drew near. It was then that I noticed Rarity's eyelids seemed to have no visible lashes on them. Where were those gorgeous flashy lashes she always had? I got my answer a second later when the false lashes were applied to her closed eyelids. She then opened her eye as widely as possible while inspecting them, apparently to make certain they had been placed properly. It was then that I saw the lashes I had always known her for, though I was beginning to feel mild disappointment now that I saw that they were not natural regardless of how glorious they looked. She proceeded to compliment herself. "Oh, Rarity, such perfection in those eyes. Flawless as always."

Feeling I had watched long enough, I pushed the door open a bit more and spoke with a slight smile. "Morning, Rarity. Am I interrupting anything?"

My friend turned to face me with a mild shriek, clearly not expecting anyone to walk in on her. When she turned to face me, I saw her other eye. Unlike the other, it lacked the false lashes. In fact... They seemed bizarrely masculine since they appeared to be lacking eyelashes of any sort. "James...?! Oh... It's... Oh dear..." She then desperately tried to pull her lovely indigo mane over her left eye, hiding it from me. "You were not meant to see that..."

She seemed genuinely ashamed of herself. I then stepped forward and gently batted her gorgeously curled bangs out of the way. "You wear false lashes?" Her eye looked at me with what I assumed was fear, although that azure coloration in her eye was still quite beautiful to behold.

My friend let out a sigh of defeat. "Yes... I do. Few know of it or have simply forgotten about it by now."

"But...why? I thought you always preferred natural beauty over hiding it behind...well, whatever you call these." I asked further, knowing quite well by this point that Rarity's style and philosophy is to create ensembles that compliment the wearer and bring out his or her inner beauty. Not by covering it up with artificiality.

Rarity seemed hesitant to reply, but soon pointed towards the open doorway. "If you don't mind... Could we discuss this somewhere where we have more room? This bathroom is rather...stuffy."

I nodded in agreement and followed Rarity into the comfort of her bedroom. It seemed that she did not have much work going on in it at the time with all of her spare work supplies being neatly put away. Rarity then gently relaxed upon her bed while facing me, her face looking rather awkward with her eyelashes being virtually nonexistent on her left eye. I drew near, seeing that Rarity was looking very guilty about something. "So...why? I thought you hated hiding one's beauty. Using false lashes seems completely unlike your style."

Rarity looked away from me for a moment before letting out a long sigh. "You know me, James... I have always been seeking to become as grand as the royalty of Canterlot. Becoming a princess has been my lifelong dream. And I do this everyday to at the very least try to help me live the dream, even if just a little..."

Poor Rarity... To be that obsessed with a dream? Granted, while I cannot imagine her as a true princess, I must admit that Rarity's flashy and upper-class voice, behavior, and general lifestyle do not feel forced at all. It seems very natural for her. But hiding the real her?

I took a step forward and kneeled before her while my hands reached out to the right side of her face. She seemed mildly intimidated since she tried to pull her head away from me. "Darling, wait... What are you...?"

"Just be still for second." I spoke softly, my right hand gently cupping the left side of her face to help keep her still. She relaxed at my touch, seemingly placing great faith in me. I then gently rubbed my left hand's fingers over the lashes on the right side of her face. This clearly created some irritation for her since Rarity's eye twitched before closing. This only served to make things easier for me. Very carefully, I tugged and lifted and pulled before gently sliding the false eye lashes off. "There we go. Now it's perfect."

Rarity's eye opened once I cast the false lashes to the side of her bed, both eyes now being devoid of any obvious lashes. However, that lovely azure color in her irises remained. "You removed my lashes... Why? Now my eyes are nowhere near as breathtaking as before..." She spoke in bewilderment while her eyes pleaded with me for answers.

I replied honestly while gently caressing her face. "No, they're still breathtaking. That pretty blue eye shadow combined with your eyes' gorgeous natural colors is still beautiful to behold. You never needed those things in the first place."

My friend's eyes opened somewhat wider as she took in my words. I could notice tears beginning to build at the edges of her eyes while her look of shame seemed to intensify. "You... How can you be this accepting... No stallion I know would ever agree with you..."

"You said it yourself, Rarity. Real beauty comes from within. And with the proper ensembles, that beauty can be enhanced. But those lashes? They just hide your natural beauty and possibly even restrict it. I'll bet wearing these for so long has prevented your lashes from growing out. If you go a while without them, your lashes might start growing back. Maybe even to a level beyond what those falsies could give." I did my best to explain and lift her spirits. If you have not seen Rarity truly sad or depressed before, I will tell you this. It is a truly disheartening sight.

Soon, her tears spilled over. They streaked down her face and ruined the bit of makeup she had applied. Slowly, her forelegs reached out to me and rested on my shoulders. "Darling..."

"Hm?" I replied, not entirely certain what she was doing or what she was going to say next.

A moment passed, the two of us sharing a long gaze. Her eyes were beautiful, those two shimmering azure pools. Finally, she broke the silence and spoke loudly. "Forgive me!"

Before I had time to react, she pulled me in close and planted her lips on mine in one of the firmest and most passionate kisses I had ever received in my life. She held onto me in a tight, yet loving embrace. Her eyes were closed, the tears cascading down her face as they were squeezed out. Just...wow. What a kiss!

In all honesty, that kiss felt uncomfortably intimate and possibly even wrong. Eventually, I managed to gently pry her from my chest. "Whoa! Easy, Rarity! What was that about?"

My friend gazed at me, tears still flowing down her white face. "Forgive me... I could not contain it any longer..."

"Any longer... Wait... What are you telling me?" I asked again, feeling my body temperature rising. This scenario felt all too familiar. And besides... Her? Rarity? A mare who would only settle for a prince?

Rarity gazed at me in tearful silence for a moment before lightly patting her hoof on the bed to her left. I understood she was asking me to take a seat, which I did. Once seated, she took a deep breath to calm herself before speaking. "You are a marvel, James... Virtually every stallion I have ever known would have preferred me to remain beautiful by any means necessary. And yet...you adore my natural beauty without those enhancements. Tell me. How do you do it?"

I replied with a question of my own. "Is that why you did that just now? That felt...way too powerful to be an action brought on by a whim." The feeling of her lips pressing against mine, her tongue reaching out to me, remained fresh in my memory. She clearly was not telling me something. And I was not certain I wanted to hear the truth.

My friend seemed to take a moment to try to find the right words. "The truth of that matter... Darling... I am certain you can hazard a guess." Her left hoof rested on my hand. It was a gesture I had come to recognize all too well by this point. A gesture that basically translates 'my heart is yours'.

I looked down at Rarity, feeling anxious, yet calm at the same time if you can believe that. I felt surprisingly at peace in her presence, more so than I think I should have. I asked softly, "How long, Rarity? How long has this been building?"

Her head turned away from me, her mouth curved into a remorseful frown. "Since mere days after your arrival..."

"Go on..." I practically whispered, wanting to hear every last detail.

She sighed deeply before continuing. "I wanted nothing in return from you when you arrived. I just wanted to help you feel welcomed in Ponyville, much like all our friends wanted. Despite that, you gave me such sweet gifts in return. I still recall that amazing pie you brought to me. At first, I thought little of it. But I was still curious of your intentions. And so... I set up a test that evening. And I felt your lips upon my nose while I feigned sleep."

My face filled with stiffness and warmth. So she had been aware of that after all. And here I had all but forgotten about that night. "Uh... That was just a reflex..."

To my surprise, Rarity gave me a somber smile. "I was wondering that too. And...I feel it was at that time my heart began to open for you. And two mornings later...I found this on my hoof." She raised her right hoof, displaying the precious opal-studded silver bracelet I had purchased for her as thanks for weaving my robe for the Grand Galloping Gala. "It was then I knew what virtue you hold constant in your heart. Generosity. The same as mine."

Almost as if on instinct, my hand reached out and gently held that hoof aloft. "Yeah... I did get you this..."

Rarity's eyes closed somewhat, displaying that lovely light blue eye shadow more thoroughly. "It was then that I truly began to wonder... Were you subtlety courting me? I decided to wait to find out. And then...Fluttershy revealed her heart to you."

"I'm sorry about that... I didn't see it coming either... I guess she and I just mesh very well." I replied softly, actually beginning to feel somewhat guilty.

"James... Tell me. Were you considering wooing me back then? And if you were, why did you choose not to?" Rarity asked mournfully, her tearful eyes turning towards me.

I let out a long sigh. I would be lying if the thought never crossed my mind that day. "I'll be honest... I was considering it, Rarity... I always felt something of an attraction to you... Almost as if it was natural. But the reason I did not ever pursue a relationship with you was because...I knew you would only settle for a prince. Something I am not."

That face... I could almost see and hear her heart shatter in that expression of absolute despair and shock. Very slowly, she turned her head away from me before pounding her face into the covers below her. "Again.... Again that obsession has cost me so dearly!"

I heard her sob loudly while punishing herself in frustration. It was not the usual exaggerated whiny crying that I would sometimes hear from her when distressed or upset about something not going her way. It sounded genuinely awful and heart wrenching. It honestly hurt to watch and listen. In the hopes that I could soothe her pain, I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her to my chest. I closed my eyes, resting my face against her beautiful mane while my hand stroked her back.

With sniffling and choking on her tears, I heard Rarity continue to speak. "I swear... I tried to let go of my budding feelings once I learned that you had chosen to pursue a relationship with Fluttershy. I tried, but... I just could not... It just felt...right seeing you as the one... You and I have so little in common. I crave the spotlight while you shun it. I adore the prim and proper lifestyle of Canterlot while you favor the humble simpler lifestyle of Ponyville. And yet...I cannot stop pining for you... And I am all but certain I know why now..."

I felt her slide her hoof up my torso before gently resting it against my chest over my heart. "It's your generosity, darling... It is always there. It never fades. And I have seen the pain in your eyes when you try to repress it. It is always there, no matter what your mood may be. Just like mine..."

She was right. Of all my friends in Ponyville, I always felt very at peace in Rarity's presence. Almost like we shared an invisible connection that could not possibly be explained. I just wish I did not take this long to realize it...

"I think you're right, Rarity..." I muttered softly. It was then, for the first time in what felt like ages, that I began to wonder if I regretted my decision to pursue a relationship with dear Fluttershy.

She let out a long sigh, her tears finally beginning to slow. "I often dream... What could have been... I would have been honored to be your mare if you would have had me..."

After a moment of contemplation, I gently lifted her weeping face until she was looking right at me. "I believe you... And I think we would have gone far in a relationship. You do feel...right for me, Rarity."

Her eyes brightened only slightly. "I know... And I feel blessed you at least considered that so long ago. But...there is nothing that can be done about it now. Your heart belongs to Fluttershy now and I must honor that..."

I then gently placed my other hand on her right hoof. The one that held that precious bracelet. "I know. But I can still give you my love."

Before she could even reply, I leaned down and gently placed a kiss upon her lips. It was not passionate or long. Just a brief peck on the lips. Even so, it was enough to get through to her. She looked up at me and asked with a sorrowful yet bewildered expression. "What... How can you give... Fluttershy is your..."

I gently shushed her by placing my fingers over her mouth and doing my best to give her a tender smile. "Yes. My heart belongs to Fluttershy. And there is no way I will ever leave her. I cannot give you my heart and I cannot give you my body. But...I can still give you my love."

Rarity looked understandably confused. "I do not understand... How can you do that...while still remaining faithful to the one you have sworn yourself to?"

Very gently, I lowered her back down to the bed. At least by then she seemed to have stopped crying. "It's simple, though I won't deny it's probably not something most people can do while holding onto their integrity." I then caressed her beautiful face and spoke softly, "In the end, I just want to make good people feel happy. And I especially enjoy making others feel loved."

A faint blush spread across the beautiful unicorn's face. "You sound almost as if you speak from experience..."

I chuckled lightly at those words. "Well... I kind of do."

Showing more curiosity than anything, she crawled towards me until her forelegs were draped over my leg that was closest to her. "Would you mind explaining?"

In all honesty, it was not an easy subject for me to discuss. I was rather fearful of how my friend would perceive me. But I decided to be honest with her. "Well... Where I come from, there are devices that let others communicate with each other over great distances with text. And I don't mean writing letters and having to wait days, if not weeks, for replies. They are instant, meaning you can wait only moments for a reply."

"That...sounds almost too good to be true!" Rarity spoke a bit louder, her sorrow all but forgotten by that point.

"Well, it is convenient. As for what I did..." I spoke before letting out a sigh. "I told you about my ex lover during the Grand Galloping Gala, didn't I?"

Rarity's expression darkened as a truly sympathetic frown formed between her jaws. "How could I forget? It's such a shame that ever happened."

"Well, it was that incident that spurred me to reach out to others for any means to drown the pain. I did and 'visited' places that beforehand I would have never even considered. Eventually, when I did finally came to terms with the loss, I continued to do so, only far less frequently and with only a few people at a time." I explained further while not feeling very proud of myself in the process.

My friend nodded in understanding, allowing me to continue. "Well... Mostly due to natural preference, most of the people I spoke to were young women. And I just wanted them to feel loved and appreciated. I never spoke down to them. I never degraded them. I was as gentle and caring as I could possibly be. And it genuinely felt good to see them happy."

Rarity's face soon showed a rather proud smile at my words. "You had that much love to spread around...? Did you ever pursue a relationship with them?"

"Let's just say my previous relationship taught me to use caution in relationships that start with long distance communication. That, and I was doubtful relationships that started with random hookups would last long, so I kept myself a bit distant. Although a few did develop into strong friendships..."

It was then that I held my hand to my face, my fingers rubbing my brow at the edges of my eyes. "I just now am reminded... They were such pleasant people too. I hope they're doing all right."

Rarity reached out and gently rubbed my arm with her hoof. "I'm certain they miss you too, darling... You have more love to share than any stallion I have ever met... Making so many young ladies feel as loved and appreciated as possible while keeping your heart reserved for that one special somepony? That does certainly sound like you..." She then rested her head against my side. "You do tend to do all in your power to make us happy... No cost is too great for you."

I looked down at her while she looked up at me with a much more peaceful smile than before. "I understand what you are saying. And I feel honored that you would offer that to me. Not many have such limitless love to give..."

A slight smile creeped across my face upon hearing her words. I was not entirely certain if I could properly explain myself, so I was immensely relieved that I had done a good job of it. I then placed my hand on my friend's hoof and smiled before asking softly, "So... May I give you my love?"

Rarity replied by practically leaping at me and throwing her arms around me. "Please... Give me as much as you can spare, sweet prince."

After a brief moment of calm and gazing into each other's eyes, our faces drew even closer to each other. I felt so at peace in her grasp, I cannot describe it. Our eyes closed and lips touched. I lost complete track of time from that moment onward. All I felt was tender cuddling. The feel of her soft lips against mine. The alluring taste of her tongue. What a kiss... It felt so...right.

Before long, I finally had to pry myself away to breathe. We both let out a gentle gasp, a string of our combined saliva connecting our mouths from mere inches away. "Whoa... You're good at that... You been practicing?"

Rarity replied with a giggle, a very satisfied smile spreading across her face while a pink hue filled her cheeks. "Well... I do occasionally look through a copy of the Pony Sutra I purchased a while back."

This caught me entirely by surprise. "The.....what?!"

"Yes, the Pony Sutra! It is an ancient text that describes..." Rarity started to explain, but I cut her off before she could go into further detail.

"I know what it is if 'Sutra' is in the title! I just can't believe someone of your standards would have a copy!" I retorted suddenly, causing us both to burst into raucous laughter. Honestly, would you have guessed such a book would be popular with ponies you would likely find in Canterlot? Perhaps I should not judge...

Once the two of us had ceased our laughter, I then reached out and stroked Rarity's beautiful mane. "So... How do you feel now?"

She suddenly scooted towards me and gently leaned against me in a remarkably intimate fashion. "Very blessed... I know I will never have your heart... But knowing that you have more than enough love to share with me... You are remarkable. Simply remarkable."

I honestly felt unworthy of such praise. I could only grin in mild embarrassment. "Oh, come on. I'm not that remarkable."

My friend did not relent, reaching out with her hoof and turning my head so that I was facing her. "Humble too. Now do you see why I adore you so? I have no need for a royal prince when my true prince is here before me."

"Oh, knock it off, Rarity! You're gonna make me blush!" I could not help retorting with a louder voice than I normally use. But then a question came to mind. "Wait... Should we keep this secret from Fluttershy? I don't think we should keep this up if it's wrong..."

Rarity was quick to see the worry in my eyes and gently caressed my cheek with her hoof. "Well, I doubt we would want the entire town to know. But dear Fluttershy? Of course she should know. It's not like you are cheating on her, after all. But leave that to me, all right? I know she will understand." She then reached out a placed a brief kiss on my lips. "And she is very lucky to have you. A stallion with less integrity would likely have abandoned her for me."

"No way. I wouldn't ever leave her. I love her, no matter what my feelings are for anyone else. When I get into a relationship, I go for the long haul." I replied, finding the concept of leaving Fluttershy for another woman to be absolutely abhorrent. It would destroy her.

"I'm glad to hear that, darling. I know I have likely told you this before, but she certainly needs you. Always be there for her, all right?" Rarity spoke with a relieved grin. We then shared another tender kiss together. Man, I swear her kisses are addictive.

Feeling that it was getting late enough in the morning, I decided to stand up and let Rarity finish prepping for the day. But before she could hop down from the bed, her eyes fell upon the false eyelash I had just removed. I noticed her looking at it and asked, "So... About your lashes?"

Rarity remained silent for a moment longer before looking at me with a more somber smile than usual. "I see the wisdom in your words, dear. And trust me, I would so love to quit using these on the spot. But...I can't. Not yet."

I was only partially surprised that Rarity was stubbornly refusing to stop using them, though also somewhat disappointed as well. "Really? Why? Don't you want your lashes to grow out?"

She surprised me with a calmer smile and explained, "I do. So very much. But...I can't just yet. Everypony in town who knows me partially know me by my lovely lashes. I have a reputation and image to keep up."

"I see... Then your real lashes...?" I asked, hoping that she had a plan to finally ditch those things for a more natural look.

"Oh, don't you worry about that. I intend to let them grow in bit by bit over time. For now, I will only wear my false eyelashes when out in public and when around customers. I'm certain our friends will not mind in the slightest if I don't wear them when they are around though." Rarity explained while gently nudging the long curled lock of hair hanging by her head.

That was certainly a clever idea. Keeping face in public while allowing herself to let go when in private. But she then exclaimed, "Oh! I could also wear a pair of sunglasses at times so I can go the full day without them! I'll be sure to use some hair growth tonics to help speed up the progression of my real lashes."

"Sounds like a smart way to go about things. I can't wait to see how amazing your real natural look will be in the end." I replied while smiling. She is beautiful all over at the moment, but how much better will she look once those lashes grow in?

Rarity and I then left her bedroom and headed downstairs. Once we reached the bottom of the stairs at the edge of the main workroom, she glanced up at me and asked, "Now that I think about it, would you care for some tea?"

"Oh, absolutely. Please make mine orange." I replied, having developed a love for orange-based teas. Rarity grinned brightly before trotting into the kitchen. I decided to take a look around the workroom to see what Rarity was currently working on.

In all, she did not have that many garments placed around the room. I suppose she was having a slow week. However, I did find something hanging from a clothes hanger. It seemed to be a pure white jacket. It was very plain and even seemed incomplete. But what was obvious about it was the fact that it was clearly designed for human use. "Is this for me?"

I felt it would be a bad idea to try it on before completion, so I left the jacket alone and went to the kitchen. Sure enough, Rarity was in the process of steeping some tea in a glass kettle that bore a strong resemblance to a coffeepot. The water inside was slowly turning a shade of orange. Since steeping tea is about as simple a task as one could get, I decided to leave Rarity be and took a seat on a stool at the kitchen table.

My beautiful friend looked over her shoulder at me and batted her seemingly eyelashless eyes at me. "I'll be right there in a moment, dear."

I nodded in silence and just watched her. She seemed to be keeping an eye on the hot plate being used to heat the water inside the glass pot. While I watched Rarity, I felt a strong attraction to her much like how I explained a short while ago. So beautiful, yet so sweet and generous. I am utterly amazed she was not beating off suitors with a stick by this point.

A cheeky thought entered my mind, prompting me to slowly and silently approach Rarity. Once I was beside her, I slowly lowered myself to the ground and gently wrapped my arms around her body. She shuddered in surprise, having clearly not detected me come forward at all. When she looked back at me, her look of surprise dissolved into a very pleased smile. "It's all right, dear. Go ahead and say it."

It was honestly difficult for me to speak the words I wanted to say. Almost as if it was a strict taboo. It took a moment of reprimanding myself to make certain I understood the differences. I feel there is a difference between loving someone and being in love with someone. And I will not deny my feelings for Rarity and Fluttershy walk a very thin line between one side and the other. Rarity is right. If I had gone with her as my lover, I am certain our relationship would have been nigh perfect despite our differences. Yet at the same time, Fluttershy... I see absolutely no faults in our chemistry. In the end, she is the one I have chosen and I see no reason why that should end now. Even so, I do indeed love Rarity. However, I have the wisdom to only pursue that love so far before drawing the line. Something I was familiar with before even coming to Equestria.

Gathering my courage, I spoke the words I wanted to say. "I love you, Rarity."

I swear I saw tears building at the edges of Rarity's eyes. "And I love you too, my prince."

Rarity brought her head back to me and gave me a soft and tender kiss right on the lips. We then closed our eyes; our foreheads resting against each other's while my hands caressed her beautiful body. I heard her whisper softly to me. "I am honored that you would have enough love to share with me to this extent... Thank you, darling."

"I just want to see you happy, Rarity." I replied truthfully. I honestly wanted to see my dear friend as happy as possible.

When the two of us opened our eyes once again, we shared a long gaze before Rarity smiled in a way that almost looked like a smirk. "And I am. You've made me happier than any stallion I have ever met." However, she then looked at me with a worrisome, yet serious gaze. "But you know we cannot give each other our bodies. That is one line that must never be crossed. Understood?"

"Actually, that's pretty much what I was about to suggest." I replied with a suppressed chuckle. I suppose great minds think alike. "Although... Have you ever...?"

Rarity replied with a nervous blush on her face while flustering for a moment. "Well... I would be lying if I said I never dreamed of it!" Before I had a chance to laugh, she then pointed her hoof right at my chest and gave me a surprisingly menacing stare. "But you never heard that. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am. Understood clearly." I replied briskly while nodding my head in agreement. Rarity then gave me a pleased grin of her own before using her levitation magic to carry the glass beverage pot over to the table with a pair of mugs as well. I followed her and took a seat at the opposite end of the table.

"I must say I'm glad you recommended this tea to me, James. Who knew orange tea was so flavorful?" Rarity remarked while pouring the warm reddish beverage into our mugs.

"Most teas always tasted so bland to me without sweetener or lemon, so I was surprised there is one as tasty as this. And it's hardly sweet!" I replied, blowing gently at the surface in an attempt to cool it a bit further before taking a sip. I then asked, "Hey. Um... Before I forget, what is that white jacket you have in the main workroom? Is that for me?"

Rarity took a sip of her tea before replying, "Oh, you saw that? Well, I was planning on making that as your new attire for the Grand Galloping Gala."

The Grand Galloping Gala? But I thought Rarity already made a stunning robe for me to wear to that event. "You were? But don't I already have one?"

My friend nodded before explaining while gesturing with her hooves. "Yes, but then I got thinking. I wove that fantastic robe for you before you acquired your cutie mark. And the more I thought about it, the more it felt like that robe just wasn't 'you'. I also made certain to remember that you have a disdain for suits, so I felt a jacket would suit you best. Especially one with twin elegant tails hanging down the backside. Remember that exquisite attire you wore as a costume for Nightmare Night last year?"

"Oh, that red 'lobster tail' outfit? Yeah, I remember." I replied, though Rarity seemed baffled by my use of those two words to describe it.

"Lobster ta... What makes you say that? Actually, never mind. It will probably sail over my head. Anyway, seeing how you looked so comfortable in that outfit, I felt I should base your new attire on it. What say you?" She explained further before looking at me with a noticeably excited gaze.

"Yeah, it was kinda comfy. Even if the whole thing was just a fabrication brought on by Twilight's magic. I say go for it." I spoke with a nod. But I then asked, "But why white? And just what kinda look will you give it? The thing looked kinda bare bones out there. And now that I think about it, don't the dresses of our friends have a certain theme to them?"

Rarity spoke up with a bit more enthusiasm when she answered. "Oh, I'm so glad you asked! And yes, they do. Applejack has a refined country look to hers while Pinkie Pie is all about pink and more of a 'party' look and so forth. But for yours, I think I will be going with your affinity for peace and birds."

"Peace and.....birds?" I asked blandly while trying to wrap my head around those words.

"Yes. In particular, I plan to give your attire a look that compliments your cutie mark. The gentleness of a dove. Sounds rather poetic, does it not?" Rarity replied while grinning broadly. I could see she was quite enthralled with the idea. And it made a lot of sense the more I thought about it.

"Heh, I'm not that gentle, am I?" I asked while feeling more and more flattered the more she banged on about that.

"But of course you are! I rarely see stallions as gentle as you. It is no wonder Fluttershy felt such an attraction to you so early on." Rarity replied with not an ounce of doubt in her expression while taking another sip of her tea. "Although wouldn't you say that I still top her in terms of raw unfettered beauty?"

While she took another sip of her tea, I nodded in agreement. "Well, it'd be hard to argue with that. I'd even say you're the hottest mare in town."

I really was not expecting her reaction. She suddenly turned her head away at the last second before spewing the mouthful of tea from her mouth in a very unexpected spit-take before bringing her hoof to her mouth as a deep blush spread over her cheeks. Her eyes looked at me with a display of raw shock. "Me?! Ho... Hot?!"

I really was not certain of what to say to that reaction. I remained as still as stone, worried I may have seriously offended her. Eventually, she lowered her hoof from her face and asked, "Hot... That's a powerful term. Am I...really that gorgeous to you?"

In response, I raised my hands up. "I really meant no disrespect by that, Rarity. Honestly."

She soon calmed herself and gave me a rather flattered grin. "I know... I must say I was rather surprised to hear that out of you, darling. If that was coming from anyone else, it would have felt like simple jeering out of a desire to get in bed with me. But you... You make it sound sincere."

"That's exactly it. I would never want to insult a woman. When I say you're 'hot', I mean that in a positive manner." I explained, very relieved that Rarity had taken that compliment better than I had hoped.

My dear friend let out a giggle while continuing to blush. "I must say... I feel honored that you would call me such a thing. Only now... Uh..." She then used the levitation spell to tear a few paper towels from a roll nearby and used them to mop up the small puddle of tea on the kitchen floor. "There. It was so unbecoming of me to do that. I think the last time I did that was at Gummy's first birthday party a few years ago."

To be perfectly honest, I find it rather baffling why anyone would throw a birthday party for an absurdly aloof and oblivious baby alligator. Oh... Wait... Gummy is Pinkie Pie's pet. The only pony in town who will throw a party for absolutely anything. Enough said. "A birthday for a gator? What could have prompted you to do that?"

Rarity proceeded to explain with a rather disdainful expression while gesturing in an elegant yet exaggerated manner. "Well, I would assume since Gummy was the birthday boy, Pinkie Pie let him have the run of the place. And while I was drinking a glass of some truly fabulous punch, I happened to catch sight of Gummy lounging around in the punch bowl..."

A gator swimming in a punch bowl. The thought of that... Well... I have no comment for something like that. "O...K... You think he was clean?"

"Well, would you have risked drinking that after seeing him in there?!" Rarity replied rather loudly, clearly bothered by the memory. I could only laugh at her reaction.

The two of us made more idle chitchat, completely losing track of time. I have to say there are not many people I can just lose myself with. And Rarity is definitely one of those few. Eventually, I did end up inquiring further about the Grand Galloping Gala. "Hey, Rarity? Are you sure that we'll even be invited to the next Grand Galloping Gala anyway? I mean... Have you ever been consistently invited two years in a row?"

My friend replied with almost clairvoyant certainty. "Well, I personally have not been called there that often. I only had the opportunity to attend once before you arrived and a second time when you attended for the first time. But I can all but guarantee that you will be invited to the next. And we, as your closest friends, will surely be asked to attend too."

"You sound really sure about that. What makes you so certain?" I asked again, wondering how she could be so confident that we would receive another invite this year.

"Oh, just a little deduction, my dear." She replied with a rather smug smirk on her face while having her elbow on the table with her chin resting on her wrist. "You and Princess Luna and Nightmare Moon are very close friends. I cannot imagine them missing out on an opportunity to spend such a glorious evening with you. And with that, the next Grand Galloping Gala will be the first one Nightmare Moon attends. Don't you suppose she would want the gallant knight who saved her to be there as well?"

Gallant knight, huh? That honestly got me slightly flustered. "Oh... It would be her first, wouldn't it? Well, I can see why she would want me there."

We chatted for a moment longer before Rarity finally brought up the big event of the day. "So, darling... Will you be accompanying us to the Best Young Fliers Competition today?"

I had all but forgotten about the highlight of the day. However, sport events really do not interest me in the slightest. So I decided to be completely honest with her. "Well... To be honest with you... I'm actually strongly considering not going."

That look Rarity gave me clearly showed that she was not expecting me to turn the event down. "Not going?! Are you certain?!"

"Sorry, Rarity. I'm not exactly a sporty type of guy. I prefer other forms of entertainment." I replied, not entirely certain of how to explain myself.

"Whatever do you mean? I know Twilight has quite a bit in common with you in terms of interests, and even she attended the Best Young Fliers Competition with the rest of us a few years back. Are you certain you will not reconsider?" She asked, those beautiful azure eyes pleading with me.

It was very difficult to say no to that face. In the end, I let out a sigh. "I just don't know right now... I'll think about it some more. I can't make any promises though."

Rarity sighed, clearly hopeful that I would change my mind. "Well... I certainly hope you do attend with us. If nothing else, you should be able to explore Cloudsdale. And I am quite serious when I say there is no other city like it in Equestria."

Once again, the thought of falling off or falling through the city and to the ground far below passed through my mind. I am not certain if I have mentioned this before, but while I do not have a fear of heights per se, I do have something of a fear of falling. And falling from something as high up as a cloud...frightens me. "Heh... Sounds like something out of some type of sappy book or show for kids. Maybe something involving bears?"

"I can't say I have any knowledge of what you're referring to there, James. But to that effect, just remember that we are prepared to depart at noon. Twilight is preparing her hot air balloon to carry us there." Rarity replied while finishing off the last bit of her tea.

This information was new and quite a surprise to me, considering that I have been in Ponyville for... How long has it been now? Ten months? Maybe eleven? "Twilight has a hot air balloon? Why have I never seen it?"

Rarity replied while pouring herself another cup of tea, "Well, she seldom uses it. As for where she keeps it, I never bothered to ask. Where does she store it anyway...? That is a rather good question."

Once I finished my tea, I felt that I was on the verge of overstaying my welcome. Rarity seemed to notice too since she spoke up as I stood up. "Heading out, dear?" The tone in her voice was soft and tender. Much like when we were in her bedroom a short while ago.

I turned to face her, seeing an endearing smile on her face. "Well, I was about to. I was thinking I should see Rainbow Dash before you all take off."

Rarity motioned for me to approach her while her stare became more amorous. "Before you go... One last time?"

I could not say no to that gorgeous face. "Absolutely, m'lady."

I walked over to Rarity and got down on one knee. We reached out to each other, holding each other in a tender embrace as our lips met once again. That tender touch... Rarity's kisses are truly a type of sweet only Fluttershy can match. I soon felt her tongue reaching out to my lips. And as much as I would have loved to let the kiss go deeper, I refrained from parting my lips and pulled away from Rarity while looking her in the eye. "With all due respect, m'lady, let's not do that particular kiss very often."

Rarity pouted at me in a rather humorous fashion and asked, "But why not? Your kisses are simply marvelous and tender!"

I gently placed my finger on her lips to silence her. "Because your kisses are absolutely addictive."

She snickered and replied, "I can say the same about yours." We both got a good chuckle out of that.

Before I could release my grasp on her, an important thought entered my mind. "Wait... I know I might have already asked this, but should we keep this secret? I don't want to seem like I'm cheating on Fluttershy..."

Rarity shook her head and placed her hoof on my chest. "Well, it would probably be wise to not show such extreme displays of affection in public. It's common knowledge now that you and Fluttershy are an item. But I do feel she should know. Leave that to me. I've known her longer than you have."

"But...do you think she will understand?" I asked, now more afraid than ever that she would fear that I was planning on breaking up with her to pursue a relationship with Rarity. God, I could never do that to her...

My beautiful friend shook her head and looked at me with a more serious expression. "Darling. If I had any doubts that you would leave Fluttershy for me after offering me your love, I would not have allowed you to get this close to me." She then reached out and placed another kiss on my lips. "Your heart belongs to her. She is your betrothed. I love you with all my heart, and I am honored that you have the integrity to share your love with me while remaining loyal to your betrothed. Trust me. I will make certain she knows that your heart belongs to her and her alone."

I knew by then that when Rarity spoke with that sort of tone, she was going to fulfill that promise without any inkling of failure. I trust her. "OK, Rarity... I'm trusting you on this."

Wanting to find Rainbow Dash before the time of departure came, I finally said my goodbyes and gulped down the rest of my tea and made my way to the doorway. But before I got far, I heard Rarity call out to me. "James... Darling."

I paused and looked back at the beautiful unicorn who was looking at me with a truly grateful expression. She then spoke softly once more, "I love you..."

Hearing those words made me feel warm all over. I replied in kind with a bit of a blush on my face. "Love you too, m'lady."

The first place that came to mind was the park. If there is one place in Ponyville that would be ideal for setting up a hot air balloon for departure without making a scene, that would be the place. And since it is relatively close to Rarity's home, I did not have that far to go. I found that the park was mostly empty that day. I suppose some weekdays are busier than others.

Knowing that it would be unlikely to find a hot air balloon being prepared on any of the park's dirt paths, I tried looking in the greener areas of the park. And I did not have to look for long before finding what I was searching for. A hot air balloon sitting in a clearing with the envelope, the large inflated sack of fabric that contains the heated air, already mostly inflated. Judging by the shape, it seemed to be a standard Montgolfier balloon. At least that is what they are called where I come from. I have no idea if they share that name with those in Equestria. On the very top of the balloon was what seemed to be a yellow 'sun' of sorts evenly spread out. The rest of the balloon was a light pink with patterns in the form of elegant bending lines and swirls dotted with different shapes of stars all being made up of a darker purplish hue. The bottom of the balloon was lined with a frilled yellow brim. The basket...or is it a gondola? Well, anyway, it was secured to the inside of the envelope by four thick ropes that were colored pink. With all that pink on it, it was clearly not something more masculine men would be willing to let themselves be seen in. But with how many feminine colors I had seen on all sorts of things in Equestria by today, I am quite used to it by now. But I digress. The basket itself was curved upward at the sides, but the edge was lower on one side. Likely to allow for easier boarding. The edges that circled the top of the basket was a vibrant yellow while the entirety of the basket itself was a slightly darker hue of pink than Pinkie Pie's coat while covered in swirling patterns. Just under the lower edge of the basket in the center was a familiar yellow six-sided star that was identical to the one in the center of Twilight Sparkle's cutie mark, probably as a sign of ownership. And standing near the basket while seemingly monitoring the progression of the envelope's inflation was Twilight herself.

I decided to step forward and say hello, having not seen Twilight at all today. "Morning, Twilight. This your balloon?"

My unicorn friend turned to face me and smiled upon locking eyes with me. "Oh, good morning, James! I was just getting my balloon ready for departure."

"The Best Young Fliers Competition, right?" I asked, all but certain that she was attending too.

"Oh, you bet! The only way to get to Cloudsdale is by air, after all. I'm just making sure this is ready by the time we have to leave. It's takes a while to get these inflated, after all." Twilight replied while turning her attention back to the balloon. It was certainly smaller than those back on Earth. But maybe that is because the ponies of Equestria are generally smaller than adult humans and therefore so is almost everything else in their society.

"Well, do you happen to know where Rainbow might be right now?" I asked, wondering just where the star of the show in Cloudsdale was just before they were about to depart.

Twilight glanced at me over her shoulder and pointed in one direction. "She should be over there with Pinkie Pie. Something about making sure Pinkie's cheering is up to snuff or something like that. You know how Rainbow's ego is sometimes."

"The size of the mountain Canterlot is built on, right?" I replied, coaxing a chuckle out of the brainy unicorn. I then left her alone to focus on the task before her and went in the direction she had pointed me in to search for Rainbow Dash.

I did not go very far before hearing some shouting from my left on the over side of a thicket. "OK, now put it all together and let it all pour out!"

Just after the voice had finished calling out, I had pulled some of the branches aside to see who was on the other side. I found Rainbow Dash hovering before Pinkie Pie, who then seemed to do some sort of cheerleader routine while doing spontaneous poses in conjunction with her cheering. "R! A! I! N to the B to the O to the W! What does that make?! Rainbow! Master of the sonic rainboom! Woo!"

I could not help facepalming while snickering under my breath at Pinkie Pie's overenthusiastic cheering and posing. Cheerleading often walks a fine line between dazzling and embarrassing. And I am not certain what her cheering counted as. Regardless, I stepped out of the bushes and approached my two friends while they laughed together. Whether it was all in good fun, excitement for the upcoming event that day, or because of how silly that cheering and posing was, I cannot say.

"Morning, ladies. What's up?" I asked before they even noticed my approach.

Pinkie Pie was the first to speak up. "Hey there, James! I was just making sure my cheering was up to 100% before going with Rainbow to the competition! You think I've still got it?"

I decided to speak honestly with her. "Well, you've got the enthusiasm and volume down. Just make sure you don't play to her ego. I'd say it's big enough already." This only served to get a laugh out of both of them. I honestly cannot say if Rainbow thought I was just messing with her or that I was being honest and that she was laughing at how true it is. Although I must confess her ego has not been quite as constantly over-inflated in recent months.

"Heheh... Yeah, I guess it is. But now it's your turn!" Rainbow Dash spoke while flying over to me.

My turn? What did she mean by that? "Huh? Mine? I don't follow."

Rainbow pretty much got right up in my face and spoke, "Your cheering, of course! You always talk so softly most of the time! Have you been taking after Fluttershy?"

I gave her an amusingly annoyed glare and replied, "I live in her house. What do you think?!"

This prompted yet another giggle out of Pinkie Pie. "He's got a point there! It's no wonder they're sweethearts."

Rainbow Dash rolled her big pink eyes in a dismissive display. "OK, point taken. But you still need to work on your cheering. This way, big guy." She then flew a short distance away and behind some trees, apparently to find a spot where we were unlikely to be interrupted.

"Do I have to?" I asked, having never been pleased with having to raise my voice for anything. But before I could follow her, I felt someone tap me on my back. "Hm? Pinkie?"

Sure enough, it was Pinkie Pie. She then spoke quietly, "Here. Take this with you." She then reached behind her and seemingly pulled something out of nowhere. By now, I know better than to question how she does stuff like that, so I did not ask.

"Huh? This? Why... Oh, wait..." I replied while taking the device in hand. Trust me, you will laugh much harder if I withhold its identity until the right time.

Pinkie Pie could not help giggling madly under her breath while holding a hoof to her mouth. "You know what to do with that, right?"

"You little imp... It's brilliant." I retorted, seeing the comedic genius behind her thoughts. While I am not one for pranks, I could not pass up such an opportunity to mess with Rainbow Dash for having an issue with my preference for not speaking loudly.

Before we could converse further, we heard Rainbow Dash call out from somewhere nearby. "Yo, move it! We don't have all morning!"

Pinkie then giggled again and whispered, "I'll be watching! And make sure she doesn't see it until the right moment!"

"Got it." I replied before turning and walking towards where Rainbow Dash was waiting for me while keeping the device hidden behind my back at all times.

Once I had walked around the small cluster of trees, I found Rainbow Dash standing in the middle of a clearing. I made certain to have both hands behind my back while shambling casually towards her in a very relaxed manner so she would not think I was hiding something behind me.

"OK, let's get started." Rainbow Dash spoke while I stopped before her. She then began to hover back and forth around me while I constantly rotated myself to always be facing her. "The way I see it, you're way too reserved to let yourself go. So you need to learn to let go of your inhibitions."

"Uh huh." I replied reflexively, just taking in her words without much care. She can complain all she wants. It is just not my style to yell unless a sudden stimulus prompts me to do so.

"There are three steps you need to know for good loud proper cheering." Rainbow continued while flapping back and forth before me. Seriously, is she addicted to flying and can only stay focused on anything when airborne? "Step 1: Loss of control. Step 2: Lots of screaming and hollering. And step 3: Passion. Plenty of passion. Can you remember that?"

"I guess." I responded with a flat tone to my voice. Despite not really caring enough to follow, Rainbow seemed rather fired up and began to hover in place before me.

"Great! So now that you know the requirements for the best cheering, let's hear some!" She spoke loudly while watching me.

Having no desire to raise my voice at all, I spoke out with a normal tone of voice. "You go, Rainbow."

Clearly dissatisfied, Rainbow rolled her eyes while letting out a groan. "Oh come on. Are you even trying? Louder."

Starting to become mildly annoyed, I tried to humor her by raising my voice slightly further. "You rock."

"Louder." She spoke again, this time a bit louder herself.

"You rock!" I said again, this time fairly loudly without going so far as to yell.

Suddenly, Rainbow practically yelled in my face. "LOOOOUDEERRRR!!!"

I was actually somewhat startled by this approach and took a few steps back. "Yeesh, all right already!" I lightly pounded my chest with my left fist while coughing a little to clear my throat. I then pursed my lips and inhaled deeply as I prepared to give her the best cheer I could muster. Rainbow Dash looked on in great interest, clearly expecting my next cheer to be my best.

It was then I decided to put Pinkie Pie's prank in action. Once I had ceased inhaling, I gave Rainbow a devious smirk and pulled out the device I was holding behind my back in my right hand while pointing it right at her. A megaphone.

Rainbow's expression suddenly became one of utter... Actually, I do not know how to describe that look. Her eyes opened wide and her mouth curved downward in a humorously exaggerated frown that seemed to say 'oh snap' while she just hovered there before me. Neither of us moved or made a sound for eight seconds. I know. I counted. Eventually, it was Rainbow Dash who broke the silence. "Oh, you can't be seri..."

I did not give her the chance to finish. I let out every bit of air I had in a loud high-pitched whoop. "WOOOOOO!!!!!"

My amplified voice pretty much blew Rainbow Dash through the air away from me. Somersaulting backwards through the air, she eventually crashed right into a tree so hard; she became partially embedded in the bark. Fortunately, Rainbow is pretty hardy and only seemed dazed by the impact with her eyes rolling around in her head.

After waiting a moment to see if she was all right, I called out to her. "Too loud?!"

After shaking her head to clear her vision, she yelled back at me. "You think?!" The two of us then burst into laughter while I swear I could hear Pinkie Pie laughing herself silly somewhere behind me. If you are reading this, Pinkie Pie, well played.

Once she had removed herself from the tree, Rainbow trotted over to me. "Dang, James! That was priceless! And I thought you said you don't do pranks! We rub off on you or something since the last time?"

I took a moment to think my response over. It is true that I did not take to the prank she and Pinkie Pie pulled at me during lunch months ago very well. "Well... I guess I don't mind harmless pranks. As long as something I own or just spent money on isn't wasted or I don't get really dirty, I think I can tolerate it."

Rainbow Dash then hovered up to me and rested her foreleg on my shoulder in a casual manner. "Yeah, I get ya. I don't think you had completely relaxed since showing up in town either. If Pinkie Pie or I ever pull anymore pranks on you, we'll make sure it stays in the green. That last one was more in the yellow."

I nodded in agreement. I doubt anyone likes a salad they were going to pay for thrown in their face. However, Rainbow Dash then leaned a little closer to me with a look on her face that seemed rather mischievous. "You know... Since we're out here and nopony's looking..."

I winced at those words when I turned to look at her. That smile was way too close to my face. I muttered in return, "Um... I wouldn't. Pinkie Pie is probably watching right now."

Rainbow then turned to look in the direction that she and Pinkie Pie had been standing a few minutes ago with a rather embarrassed look on her face. "Pinkie Pie!"

In response, our silly pink friend burst out of the thicket and trotted over to us. "Hiya, Rainbow! How was the cheer?"

Our brash pegasus friend turned to look back at the tree she had just tried to make a snow angel on. "Uh... Pretty excessive, if you ask me. And was that your idea?!"

I then handed the megaphone back to Pinkie, who then stashed it in her...Pinkie Space. Do not think about that too hard. She then grinned and explained, "Uh huh! Was it a good prank?"

"Definitely didn't see it coming, that's for sure! And here I was thinking James' inner prankster had started to come out of its shell." Rainbow replied while glancing at me while I tried to avert my eyes. However, she then looked at me with an expression of excitement. "But I'd say you're ready! You wanna head to the balloon now?"

Once again, I felt that nagging feeling in my gut. I did not want to disappoint my friends, yet I really do not have any interest in sporting events at all. It was then that I had to make my choice. It took a moment of silent thought. But eventually, I faced Rainbow Dash and spoke my choice. "Uh... No thanks, Rainbow. I think I'll stay behind."

She did not take well to this at all. If anything, she seemed a little hurt by my words. "Wait... What?! Why?! This event only comes once a year!"

I then explained, "Yes, I caught onto that part. But sport events just don't interest me. They never have. And besides, I'm really not too keen about having to rely on a temporary spell to visit Cloudsdale. What if it wore off unexpectedly and I fell right through the street? And... Is there even enough room in that balloon's basket for me to fit in there with you girls?"

Pinkie Pie then held a hoof to her chin. "Come to think of it... I guess it would be pretty cramped in there. Maybe you'd fit better if you stood up the whole time?"

"Are you kidding? I would barely have enough room to fit my head in there. And wouldn't me standing up throw the basket's balance off? I might end up making the balloon drift off course. And what if someone were to fall out from the basket being tilted? Seriously, that...sounds like a bad idea." I replied, thinking things over. Standing up in a relatively shallow basket while a mile off the ground... That sounds absolutely nerve-wracking.

Rainbow seemed to try to find words to counter mine, but she never once spoke. I then continued, "I'm sorry, Rainbow. Sport events just aren't my thing. But don't let my absence stop you from having a good time, all right?"

However, this did not stop Pinkie Pie from trying to persuade me. She jumped up in front of me and started rambling rather quickly. "What're you talking about?! Cloudsdale is an awesome place! You can see how they make snowflakes, how they make rainbows, and the floor is always so soft and bouncy! I know you would love to...mmph?!" She was stopped abruptly by Rainbow Dash when she stuffed her hoof into our friend's mouth. She then shook her head, prompting Pinkie Pie to nod in agreement. When Rainbow pulled her hoof back, Pinkie Pie had fallen silent.

Our pegasus friend then looked at me with a rather guilt-inducing forlorn expression. "It's OK, James. If you don't wanna come, that's fine. But... I still want to you to at least..." She then suddenly gasped and smacked her right hoof down into her left. "That's it! A sonic rainboom!"

I have heard those two words together many times before, but I still had no idea at the time what a sonic rainboom even is. "Um... You've mentioned that several times before. What exactly is it?"

Pinkie Pie replied with a giggle before explaining, "Oh, you have to see it to believe it! That's the most amazing aerial stunt any pegasus has ever done! And Rainbow Dash is a master at performing it! How many times have you used it in the last few years? Twice?"

Rainbow could not help chuckling at the praise. "Yeah, I'd say about that much. Hay, the last time was at Princess Cadence's wedding. And I pulled that one off while ascending. Do you have any idea how hard it is to pull a sonic rainboom off while going up instead of down?!"

The exact details of the 'sonic rainboom' were still an utter enigma to me. If I had to guess, it is a phenomenon that occurs when someone breaks the sound barrier. But that is just a mere sonic boom. Is there something in Equestria's atmosphere that triggers a different effect to earn the 'rain' in its name? And more importantly, pegasi cannot fly fast enough to break the sound barrier...right?

"Uh... Sure. So a sonic rainboom is tricky to successfully pull off. But what about it?" I asked, not certain if I was following or not.

Rainbow Dash then hovered in front of me and replied while making gestures for emphasis. "It's the best move I've got! You can probably even see it happen from here in Cloudsdale! When we're about ready to come home, I'll do a sonic rainboom to let you know. Trust me, you'll know it when you see it."

That expression she was giving me was not one of pride. No, it was something more sincere. I feel that she really wanted me to attend just so she could really try to impress me with her aerial skills. There was some sort of deeper meaning behind that look she was giving me. I just do not think I can put it into words at this time.

"Well... Sure. I'll watch for it. But shouldn't you girls be heading out soon?" I replied, glancing over in the direction where Twilight and her hot air balloon were resting.

Pinkie Pie also looked in that direction for a second before looking back at me. "I guess we should go check on her."

The three of us headed back over in the direction from where I had come from. Upon arrival, we found that the entire balloon had been properly inflated. Along with Twilight, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity had also arrived and seemed to be engaged in friendly conversation. But upon glancing our way, Applejack was the first to speak up. "Howdy, y'all! All set for the trip?"

I was about to speak up, but noticed something resting upon Rarity's muzzle. It seemed to be a pair of sunglasses with teardrop-shaped lenses turned almost completely sideways. The lenses were a shade of pink and the frame was seemingly the same shade of purple as red wine. The lenses were large enough to completely cover her eyes, though I could barely see her eyes beyond their reflective sheen. "Hey, Rarity? What's with the shades?"

Rarity grinned before she removed the glasses with a levitation spell, her eyes closed. "Well, I needed something to go incognito while I walked through town to get here." She then opened her eyes again, revealing that she had foregone wearing her false eyelashes when she left her home that day. I noticed after a matter of seconds, though most of our friends were not as quick to catch on.

"Huh? Is there something...different about you today, Rarity? Did you try a new type of makeup?" Fluttershy asked while closely examining her best friend's face. I suppose since she and Rarity know each other very well, she would be the first to notice that something was off.

Our elegant friend chuckled at Fluttershy's bewilderment and looked at all of us. "No, I have not changed brands, Fluttershy. But you are right. I decided to not wear my false lashes today."

Pinkie Pie let out a loud gasp before taking a much closer look. "Wow! I didn't even notice until you mentioned it! How'd you do that?!"

Twilight then spoke up with an amused smirk. "I think it's because she didn't draw attention to it by hiding her eyes with her mane. You'd be amazed with what you can hide in plain sight if you're inconspicuous enough."

Applejack then asked, "But...uh... Why'd ya leave 'em at home? I thought you'd do anything to stay lookin' your best."

Rarity then gave me a rather intimate smile as she explained. "That would be all because of my most dear friend here. He caught me this morning while I was putting my lashes on. And after a little chat, he recommended I grow my real lashes out without my false ones impeding their growth. So from now on, I'll try to avoid using them as often as possible and let my real beauty show as my lashes grow."

Fluttershy could not help but grin at those words. "That's wonderful! I hope your real eyelashes will be just as amazing as the false ones you've always used."

Rainbow Dash then stepped forward and asked, "Wait a second, Fluttershy. You've got some really pretty lashes too. What's your secret? Are they false?"

I have to admit that while her eyelashes are not quite as extravagant as Rarity's false lashes, Fluttershy's eyelashes look quite lovely and are likely the second most elegant in my circle of friends. Or rather the most elegant when not counting the false eyelashes Rarity frequently wears. She replied while showing a slight blush, "Oh, they're all natural. I don't use anything artificial."

This got quite a shock out of Rarity since our unicorn friend since she immediately got right up into Fluttershy's face. "You don't?! Your lashes look positively gorgeous! What is your secret?!"

Applejack then asked, "Hang on. Didn't ya use tail extenders for a while? That ain't exactly natural, is it?"

This prompted a rather uneasy frown from my girlfriend. While I will admit that Fluttershy's tail is beautifully long, I never got the impression that it was artificial. And I do not believe Fluttershy has ever been one to make herself look more attractive to draw attention. If anything, she seems like the kind of person who would prefer to avoid drawing attention to herself.

Fortunately, Twilight spoke up before any accusations could be made. "Applejack, you know that was during that whole Gabby Gums fiasco. I wouldn't have been surprised if the photos in all of those articles were edited." This prompted a relieved sigh from Fluttershy.

Rainbow Dash then smirked and glanced over at Pinkie Pie. "Maybe. But there's no arguing with that article that called Pinkie an out-of-control party animal."

Our silly pink friend grinned nervously at that claim. "Hey, I've been trying to cut back on getting my groove on during big parties! Cut me some slack!" Just how did a day about attending the Best Young Fliers Competition in Cloudsdale go to talking about eyelashes and then old gossip? Heh, it is funny how things can end up when you are with friends.

Thankfully, Rainbow Dash finally reminded everypony why they were all there. "OK, enough about fashion tips! We all know why we're here, right?"

Pinkie Pie hopped right into the balloon's basket and turned to face us. "Sure do!" But she then looked at me with a less excited gaze. "Um... Are you sure you don't wanna come?"

Fluttershy, clearly not expecting those words, turned to face me. "Don't want to... Why not? I thought you wanted to go." All our friends looked on in silence, awaiting an explanation.

"Well, aside from sports events just not interesting me, I'm not so sure there will be enough room for me in that basket. I don't want the whole ride to be uncomfortable." I explained, hoping they would take my reasons well.

"The basket? Well, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy usually just fly to Cloudsdale. So that cuts the number of occupants down to four. Let's see how well you can fit in here first." Twilight explained while she, Rarity, and Applejack joined Pinkie Pie in the basket. With the whole thing being designed for use by ponies, even while standing they seemed to be very low to the floor compared to the raised edges of the gondola. Honestly, which word should I use to describe it? Basket or gondola?

"Well... OK. Make some room." I replied while stepping into the basket. My friends made room for me, but I still found that the amount of space in there was still very limited. I think it could hold no more than five ponies, and even then it would be a tight squeeze. And due to how low to the ground the thing was, I had to sit down to make certain my weight would be evenly balanced. It was not terribly uncomfortable. But when my friends started to find comfortable positions, I winced as I found Applejack's rump mere inches away from my face. And with how awkwardly close she was to me; it did not take long before my mind unwillingly began to make me wonder what might lie concealed behind her tail.

"OK, it looks like we can go after all! Everypony ready?" Twilight asked while glancing around.

I decided to speak up before anyone could disconnect the ballast that was keeping the balloon grounded. "AJ... Would you mind moving your...um..."

My farm pony friend glanced over her shoulder at me. "Huh? Move my... Oh, sorry! I'll just...whoa! Sorry, Rarity!" She replied with an embarrassed blush before turning and pushing Rarity around and nearly over the side. Our elegant friend let out a yelp and fell down onto me, bringing our faces close together.

Rarity, apparently trying to make light of the situation, spoke with a sly smile. "Well, hello, good sir. Do you come here often?" She then proceeded to bat her eyes at me despite lacking any obvious lashes.

"Very funny, Rarity. Now, if you don't mind?" I replied, hardly amused by just how uncomfortable the whole thing was. But once she was off of me, I turned and found Pinkie Pie's bushy tail in my face. Now more irritated than anything, I bit down on the thing and gave it a tug with it clasped in my teeth.

"Woo! Did somepony bring Gummy along... Oh, James! You like my tail too?" Pinkie yelped before looking back at me with her tail in my mouth. Was that the sent of bubblegum shampoo I was smelling through my mouth?

"Just please get this thing out of my face. And for the record, your tail does not taste like cotton candy." I replied in an attempt to voice my frustration while trying to be witty as well.

Finally, I had to stand up with how awkward the situation was getting for me. While there was definitely more room around me while standing, I found that there was next to no space between me and the balloon above. "Uh... Twi... Am I the only one here who thinks this is a bad idea?"

Twilight was also giving me an unnerved gaze. "Uh... I think the only safe and comfortable way for us to get you to Cloudsdale is to make sure you stand in the very center of the basket for the entire flight. And that'll take more than an hour if the wind is cooperative. But you'd have to keep your balance perfectly centered to keep the basket from tilting and moving us off course from the shift of weight. And if we get hit with any turbulence..." She went on and on while using plenty of terms that only a seasoned aviator would understand. But it was clear what she was saying. If I ended up getting thrown off balance and would have to resort to grabbing onto whatever part of the balloon I could to keep from falling out of the basket, which would be very easy for me to do when you consider my height, the risk is quite high that one of us might not make it to Cloudsdale alive.

"So... You're sayin' he can't come?" Applejack asked while looking noticeably disheartened.

"I'm sorry. If I had known just how poorly designed my balloon is for human use, I would have tried to find a bigger basket. Assuming there are any..." Twilight replied with a disappointed sigh.

In a strange combination of relief and disappointment swirling in my heart, I stepped out of the basket and onto solid ground. "Hey, don't let my absence stop you girls from having a good time. Don't worry about me and enjoy yourselves out there."

My friends did not offer any smiles at first, though Rainbow Dash was to first to give me a hug. "OK, big guy. You stay here this time. Just remember though. Watch the north sky."

Fluttershy then hovered over to me and gave me a soft kiss on my lips. "We'll come home as soon as we can, honey. I'll miss you..."

I nodded and stroked her beautiful face. "I'll miss you too. Have fun out there."

All my friends bid me a reluctant goodbye while Twilight undid the balloon's restraints. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash began to fly north while steadily ascending, the balloon beginning to rise off the ground. I do not know why, but... I felt rather sad as I watched them float away. All six of my dearest most precious friends were rising into the sky while looking down at me for as long as their vision remained unobstructed. I never looked away. Eventually, after a solid five minutes, the hot air balloon reached a remarkable distance and began to float north after Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash gave it a firm push in the right direction before flying on ahead.

"Well... I guess it's just me now." I muttered with a sigh. With my six closest friends currently not even in town... I pretty much had nothing to do. "Might as well go to work. No point in having a day off to attend the competition if I can't even attend in the first place." I said aloud before starting to make my way back to Ponyville.

The walk was quiet since I never once bumped into anyone to talk to. I reached Sugarcube Corner without incident and stepped inside. I had to step out of the way immediately upon entering to allow the local DJ get by me with a paper bag hanging from her mouth. I have never had time to really interact with her, so I know pretty much nothing about her. Did I describe her appearance in an earlier entry? In any case, I approached the counter to speak with Mr. Cake.

"Morning, Mr. Cake. Reporting for duty." I spoke softly once I was before the counter.

My boss looked up at me with a rather perplexed expression. "James? What're you doing here? I thought you and Pinkie Pie were attending the Best Young Fliers Competition in Cloudsdale today. Did something go wrong?"

"Well, aside from just not having any interest in the event itself, there was no safe or comfortable way to get me there with the mode of transportation they had available. So I stayed behind. Do you need help with anything?" I explained, actually starting to feel rather down about not being able to go.

"Um... Let me go check with the Mrs. in back. We really weren't expecting you to stay behind today." Mr. Cake replied before walking through the twin swinging doors in front of the kitchen. I could still hear him speak, albeit slightly muffled by the walls between us. "Honeybun? James couldn't go with Pinkie Pie after all. Do we need any extra help in the kitchen today?"

I then heard the motherly tone in Mrs. Cake's voice speak up. "Oh, the poor dear couldn't go? Well, let me check what needs to be done today. Hmmm..." I waited a couple of minutes before the doors leading into the kitchen swung open again. Only instead of Mr. Cake, it was Mrs. Cake this time.

"You poor dear. Couldn't go with your friends today? Well, don't you worry about a thing. Mr. Cake and I can handle the store today. You just enjoy the day off, James." Mrs. Cake explained while giving me that endearing motherly gaze of hers. Such a sweetheart.

"OK. And thanks, Mrs. Cake." I replied before she and Mr. Cake swapped places at the register again.

"All right then. Can I get you anything today, James?" Mr. Cake asked once he was standing behind the counter again.

"Not right now, Mr. Cake. I already had breakfast not too long ago, so I'm not hungry yet. I'll stop by later." I replied before turning and stepping outside. A full day to myself... Wow, it has been quite a while since I last had one like this.

I looked around, not sure of where to start. Perhaps I could go home and take a walk around the pond with... Oh wait. Fluttershy left with the other girls. Then perhaps... Darn, I cannot remember the last time I went a full day without my friends. In mere seconds, I started to feel incredibly lonely. I miss them already...

I knew I still have other friends in town, so I decided to just take a walk to pass the time and see who I would bump into first. The various food stalls set up during the morning were on the verge of being closed up and put away with noon drawing near. I suppose by then it would be a good time for me to go and try to find some lunch. However, for once, I really was not in the mood to dine alone.

Fortunately, I did not have to wait long to see a familiar face. I soon saw Mitta walk into view. She saw me before I could call out to her. In an instant, she galloped towards me. "Hi, James! How are you today?"

I kneeled down and held my dear friend in a tender embrace. "I'm OK today. Where were you? I didn't see you at Rarity's place today."

She gave me a very relaxed smile and replied, "I was just out running errands for her. Had to pick up a few tailoring supplies. See?" I then noticed a pair of saddlebags draped over her sides with each bearing one of the light blue diamonds that make up Rarity's cutie mark. They seemed to be full to near bursting with their contents.

"Looks like Rarity needed quite a bit. Should I let you get home so you can unload that?" I asked, thinking that it must be pretty heavy for her to lug around. Although I could be wrong. She is an earth pony, after all. And I do believe I have made it quite clear that earth ponies are the burliest of the three pony races.

"Yes, I probably should. Rarity wanted these delivered as soon as possible." She replied while glancing at the two bags at her sides. She then turned to me and asked, "Come to think of it, isn't it almost noon? Do you think she's left for that...um... That competition in... I'm sorry, what's the name of that city where all pegasi come from? I'm still getting used to all the names in Equestria."

It was hardly surprising that Mitta was having some difficulty taking in so much information to heart that is commonplace in Equestria, especially considering how isolated her previous home is from the rest of the world. "That would be Cloudsdale. And yes, I saw her off myself. I don't think she'll be back until this evening."

"Oh, I see. Well, that's fine. I need to do some inventory today. With Rarity gone, there should be fewer distractions." Mitta replied with a slight giggle.

"Distractions? Is she hard on you over at the Carousel Boutique?" I asked while starting to wonder if Mitta enjoys living with Rarity. She never seemed unhappy after moving in. In fact, I cannot remember the last time I ever saw a frown on Mitta's face. A far cry from the gloomy mare I first met in the Everfree Forest.

Mitta seemed to chuckle at my worry. "Oh, it's not what you think. I like living there with her. It's just that she often asks me to try on clothes she weaves. I guess you could say I'm her tester. She also asks me for opinions on some of her designs. But..." She then gave me a nervous grin. "I honestly don't know what to say when it comes to fashion. Sunny Town never had much in that category. So I just always give her a positive opinion."

I had to suppress a snicker at those words. "Heh... Well, I can't imagine Rarity making a bad design. I think it's a good idea to just have faith in her. That's why I never question her designs and just let her come up with stuff she thinks would look best on me. She knows her field better than I do."

My friend gave me a nod and replied, "Me too. I just don't know what to say when she offers me clothes, so I just let her surprise me. And I haven't been given any clothes that I didn't like."

Just before I could make a request of her, Mitta beat me to the punch. "Say, um... Would you like to meet up at the café for lunch? I have some free time for a while."

"I was just about to suggest that!" I replied, surprised our minds were on the same wavelength.

Mitta grinned and began to trot away. "OK! Save me a seat, please!" Hoping to find the café not overly busy, I hurried on ahead.

I was lucky. The café's outdoor seating area was almost filled to capacity. I managed to get the last table and pulled a stool up from nearby for greater comfort than a stack of hay could provide. The waiter came over once, but I insisted that I was waiting for someone to arrive before deciding to place my order.

I did not have to wait very long. I soon saw Mitta galloping towards me with great speed. Apparently she was in a hurry to meet up with me, probably even worried that we might not have been able to secure a table. "Hi! Was I too late?" She asked upon coming to a stop at the table. She seemed somewhat out of breath. My guess is that she ran all the way from the Carousel Boutique to the café without stopping.

"Sure did. Pull up a seat." I replied, motioning for Mitta to have a seat on the opposite side of the mushroom-like table. Did I never mention that before? The tables at the café strongly resemble mushrooms with very flat tops, each with a faded purple design dotted with a few large white spots.

While I took a menu in hand and began to browse the pages, I noticed Mitta move the pile of hay from the opposite side of the table to just a little to my right. My eyes glanced at her out of the corners without turning my head, just watching in silence. Once the hay had been moved no closer than a couple of feet away from my seat, Mitta sat down on it and looked at me with a smile. "Is this OK?"

I shrugged my shoulders, not bothered at all that she would want to sit closer to me. "Seems fine to me." We then began browsing our menus together, not a word being spoken for a minute or two.

Eventually, the same waiter as always approached our table and spoke those five words he always greets us with. "Have you made your decision?"

Mitta went first. "Yes. I would love to try the pasta with the olive oil, butter, and garlic sauce with spinach, tomatoes, and broccoli. Hold the scallops please. And with a house salad on the side and a bottle of apple cider."

I went next. "I would love the same thing, but with the scallops. I would like a side of grilled carrots, and a bottle of sarsaparilla and a glass of water." The waiter nodded and carried our menus away.

"James, why did you ask for both sarsaparilla and a glass of water? Isn't one drink enough?" Mitta asked, understandably confused by why I had ordered two drinks.

I could not help cracking a smile at that question. "I'm glad you asked. I asked for the water so I could wash down the sweeter beverage after drinking it."

Mitta tilted her head to one side just slightly while her crimson eyes gazed at me with a look of great curiosity. "Wash it down?"

"Yeah. The water neutralizes and washes away the acids in sugary drinks. It's good for your teeth. I picked that up in a magazine somewhere while I was in a doctor's office as a kid. And I pretty much hammered that bit of information into my routine." I explained without sounding like I was exaggerating at all. And yes, that little bit is all true. I recommend drinking water after consuming soda, juice, or any other sweet beverage.

"Really? I'll have to remember to drink some water when I get back home then." Mitta replied with a broad smile. I then noticed her scoot slightly closer to me. "Say, have you seen Ruby around?"

"Not today. But you know how it is. Ghosts tend to only be found when they want you to find them." I replied, prompting a slight giggle from my friend. "You two have been close for a long time, haven't you?"

Mitta nodded with a more melancholy expression. I reached out and gently stroked her back, realizing that she was imagining the dark past of her hometown. "Yes... If it weren't for her, I probably would've lost myself to my despair centuries ago. She's one of my most important friends. And probably the only one I still have from that time."

"Yeah... Your first friends tend to take up a very special place in your heart, don't they?" I replied, my thoughts going out to the six mares who probably serve as the very foundation of my life in Equestria.

"Uh huh... She's precious to me. But there is one other person who is just as important." Mitta replied, her expression brightening somewhat.

"Really? Who is it?" I asked while glancing at her out of the corner of my eye.

Mitta then reached out and held onto me in a tender embrace. "You, James. You and Ruby are my most important friends."

I felt such a warm tingly feeling inside me at those words. I replied in kind by holding my friend in an embrace of my own. She then spoke softly, her head resting on my shoulder. "You were the first friend I made since the curse was cast on Sunny Town. You saw past my hideous form and showed me sympathy I thought I would never receive. You rescued me from that horrid place... James, I don't know what I would do if I lost you."

Those words... I felt such grim power behind them. She was not joking in the slightest. If anything, my presence to her may have a 'security blanket' effect on her. My grip on her tightened and I whispered into her ear. "I won't leave you, Mitta. I promise."

Mitta whispered softly while letting out a sigh. "Thank you... I'm sorry if I sound so clingy. It's just... I'm afraid of where I would be now if I never met you. You understand, right?" I silently nodded with a small smile. She then pulled away from me and looked me in the eye. "Do you have anyone in your life like that? Someone you just can't imagine being without? A friend that somehow just seems to take precedence over all others in your heart?"

I did not take long to think of that person. Or rather, the six people who fit that bill. "I do. And they're on their way to Cloudsdale right now."

My friend just looked at me in silence for a few seconds before asking, "All of them? All six?"

I nodded wholeheartedly. "When I first came to this town, I was genuinely afraid and lost. I felt terribly out of place here. It was a new place and I had no idea what to think of the people here. My first encounter with Rainbow Dash was especially unpleasant." I then asked, "You do know I'm not originally from this world, right?"

"Uh huh... You're from some planet called Earth, right?" Mitta replied, her expression showing focus as she listened to every word I said.

"Yeah. Very different place. There aren't any people there who are like the ponies of this world. And you probably know that I am relatively...timid at times. And at the end of my first day here, those six...wonderful mares welcomed me with open arms. I was absolutely touched. I did not see it coming at all. Fluttershy was even the first person I could truly call a friend after I arrived that day. Rarity was even the first person I met who actually helped me. And things got so much better so fast after that. All because of them." I spoke softly, losing myself in the memories of that day. I honestly cannot imagine what I would do if I lost them.

Mitta sighed while showing a slight smile. "I know... I think Rarity really misses you sometimes."

I was hardly surprised to hear that, considering that she and Mitta are housemates. "Really? Do tell."

My friend went on to explain. "She sometimes tells me things that happened while you were living with her. And... I think she longs for you at times, James. Sometimes, when she thinks she's alone, I catch her just looking at the bracelet she always wears. I always leave her be when I find her like that though."

That reawakened a feeling in my heart from earlier that day. And you probably know why. "I'm not surprised. She and I had a long talk this morning before she left."

"Is everything OK with her?" Mitta asked with a look of concern.

I nodded while giving her a warm smile. "Oh, don't worry. Everything's fine between us. Never better, actually."

It was then that the waiter came back over to us with our food being carefully balanced on a tray he was carrying atop his head. Ever so carefully, he tilted it down to the table and slid the plates and even the glass of water and bottles of cider and sarsaparilla off without spilling a drop. I was very tempted to applaud at such a masterful display of balance, but withheld it in the end considering that it is likely all in a day's work for him.

Our conversation was temporarily halted by the arrival of our food. Neither of us wasted any time in digging in. We would occasionally briefly chat with each other between bites though. In all, it was a delicious meal. Everything was cooked to gourmet levels. Now you know why it is my favorite lunch spot in town.

"Mmm, that was all great. I should come by here more often." Mitta spoke after suppressing a belch.

"Yeah, great stuff. Let me know next time you want to meet up here. I always take my lunch breaks here at noon during the weekdays." I replied, chugging the rest of my water to wash down my sarsaparilla.

Mitta stood up from her hay pile and pulled a stack of bits out of her saddlebag, which she was still wearing from earlier. I did the same, pulling some bits out of my pocket and leaving them on the table along with a few extra as a tip for the clockwork service. "Thanks for dining with me today, James. I should get back home now though. Rarity left me with a list of things to do today, so I should finish it before she gets back."

I nodded and held my dear friend in my arms for one last hug. "It was a pleasure, Mitta. Take care and I'll see you later." I watched as my friend trotted away, leaving me alone once more.

Very soon, I found that feeling of loneliness sinking in again. Why? I know I have plenty of friends in town. And yet I just felt so empty... Like that way you feel when snowed in after a blizzard. You may have plenty of things around to keep you occupied while waiting for the snow to clear up or melt, but your interests just cannot focus on it.

I just took a walk through town to clear my head and try to find something to do or a friend to be with. The Cutie Mark Crusaders are still in school at the moment, so I cannot really spend time with them there. Big Macintosh never has much to say and is likely too busy minding the apple stall. In fact, he is probably in the process of packing the whole thing up for the evening. And Derpy... Oh, right.

It turns out that I caught sight of Derpy walking through town. But like before, she seemed very down about something. Her eyes showed the same depressed expression as before. Her head was hanging low and she did not seem to be very aware of what was going around her. Seeing Derpy depressed is a very... Actually, rare does not do it justice. I have never seen that mare look down about anything, especially for this long. As much as I wanted to help her, I was not certain of how to approach her. So I decided to leave her be and continue on.

After a short while of aimless wandering through town, I decided to take a stroll through the park. As it turned out, the whole place was just as lively as before. That is to say, not lively at all. I was not entirely what to feel. Disappointed, or relieved. With no one I knew around, I decided to go straight to my favorite spot. The local pond.

I found the pond to be deserted of any ponies to talk to, which was mostly fine with me. Those who visit the pond usually do it to feed the fish and relax. I marched right over to the sack of food pellets and sat down beside it. It seemed Fluttershy had recently restocked it since it was filled nearly to the brim. I reached into the sack and tossed them towards the water. Just like always, some fish leaped out of the water to catch some while the rest dropped to the water below only to be steadily devoured by the fish below.

I repeated the process a few times, though I would be lying if I said I was really enjoying myself. My boredom and loneliness steadily sank into irritation. And finally it dissolved into mild anger, though mostly towards myself. Finally, I let out a loud sigh and fell onto my back. "Oh my god. I am so freaking bored!"

My eyes watched the clouds lazily drifting overhead for a moment. "I hope you girls are having fun out there..." I muttered while sighing once more. By then, I was honestly regretting having stayed behind. I no longer cared whether or not the Best Young Fliers Competition would interest me. I just wanted to be with them.

"Is it wrong that I never get tired of being around you girls?" I asked, not really expecting an answer. My mind wandered. And out of nowhere, I had an idea. I sat up abruptly, a smile creeping across my face. "Wait a sec... What about my...armor?"

Of course. My winged armor that I had received from Celestia and Luna on the night of Nightmare Moon's return. I could use that to fly to Cloudsdale on my own! And if memory serves, I was told I am free to do with it as I please. So surely borrowing it for one afternoon would not be a problem with the royal sisters. And since the armor gives its wearer pegasus capabilities, I would not have to ever worry about falling through the clouds Cloudsdale is made out of.

"Well, guess it's time to pay Canterlot a visit." I spoke to myself while climbing to my feet. I then snatched up one last handful of food pellets and cast them to the fish in the pond before turning to leave. I made certain to check my pockets to make certain I had enough bits on hand to afford a train ticket.

I walked at a brisker pace than I usually do, hoping to get to the train station in as little time as possible. Hopefully I would not be too late since the train from Ponyville to Canterlot is pretty close to being an hour long per trip. It would probably be faster if the train was not steam powered, but it does make for a very scenic ride and is just brimming with atmosphere and a nostalgic presence... Oh, I rambled on there, did I not? Sorry. It is just that I, like most children, had quite a fascination with trains while growing up. I suppose I still do to a certain degree.

In any case, I ended up passing by Sugarcube Corner on my to the train station. By then I had gained a bit of an appetite, so I decided to stop by for a snack before continuing on my way. Upon entry, I found Mrs. Cake minding the storefront. "Oh, welcome back, James! Can I get you anything?"

"Just a moment please. I'd like to see what's out here first before I decide." I replied, my eyes scanning the display trays inside the mostly glass counter. There were cookies, muffins, cupcakes, pound cakes, and even the ever-popular chocolate drops. "Those chocolate drops really hit it off big, didn't they?"

My employer gave me a very broad grin. "Oh, they've being our #1 seller for a few months now! I rarely go a day without selling our entire daily stock. Would you like one?" I was about to reply before I noticed something off to my side. To my right at the far end of the storefront was Derpy Hooves once again. Much like the previous times I had seen her that day, she seemed absolutely miserable. She was seated on a stool while slouched over the table, her chin resting on the tabletop with her forelegs hanging straight down. She seemed oblivious to my presence.

Not wanting to alert her just yet, I whispered to Mrs. Cake. "Excuse me, but is there something wrong with Derpy over there?"

Mrs. Cake leaned over the counter to get a better look at the pegasus seated at the far end of the room. "Oh, the poor dear. She came in around ten minutes ago. She asked if she could just rest here for a while, so I gave her permission to make herself at home. She hasn't bought anything, which is a little odd since she rarely walks out of here without getting a muffin or two."

I looked over at Derpy once more. I have been in Ponyville for months now. And now that I think about it... Derpy is one of the most unconditionally happy ponies I know. Perhaps the only other pony I know you is more consistently cheerful is Pinkie Pie. This was a first that I had ever seen her looking so down. Whatever the reason, it must have been bad.

I leaned towards Mrs. Cake and whispered my order. "One chocolate drop and two blueberry muffins. For here, please."

"All right, dear. Just a moment." She replied before placing a plastic tray onto the counter and taking the items I requested out of the display case built into the counter and placing them on it. "Employees get a discount, so that'll be three bits, please."

I reached into my pocket and placed the three coins on the counter. "Thanks, Mrs. Cake. These look awesome." I could see bits of sugar sprinkled atop the muffins and could even feel a bit of heat coming from them. They must have been taken out of the oven not even thirty minutes before I arrived.

After taking the tray in hand, I quietly approached Derpy Hooves. Although I really wanted to get to Cloudsdale as quickly as possible, I wanted to at least try to cheer her up. And I know she cannot resist muffins. Once I drew near her, I placed one of the muffins on the table beside her head.

Derpy's yellow eye glanced in the direction the muffin was resting in before opening a bit wider. Her eye then looked up towards me. I gave her a small smile before asking, "May I have this seat?"

She looked back at the muffin before looking back up at me. At first, it seemed that Derpy could not find any words to speak. She did eventually give me a nod, apparently giving me permission to share the table. I then sat down across from her on another stool before placing my tray of remaining treats on the table. "Are you OK?" I finally asked. She was not even trying to touch the muffin I had just given her.

Finally, the mailmare let out a sigh. "You must think I'm just a big klutz who can't do anything right..."

I certainly did not expect that. It felt extremely out of character for Derpy to sound so pessimistic. "Derpy, that sounds more like something I would say on a day my self-esteem is at a record low. Are you OK?"

"But it's true, right?" Derpy asked again without even really looking at me.

I decided to be honest with her. "Well... You do live up to your name. You tend to be a bit of a derp from time to time."

This prompted tears to start spilling forth from her eyes. It... I honestly cannot tell you how much it hurt to see that happen to her. "So it's true... I am nothing but a klutz..."

"Derpy, listen to me." I spoke a more boldly than I usually do. This seemed to silence her since she did not speak up afterward. "You may derp things up now and again, but I cannot ever recall seeing you do it in a way that made me feel anger. Moore often than not, I either chuckled or smiled. You do it in a very endearing way most of the time. Everyone has flaws, Derpy. It's just that your flaw tends to make people grin. You're not a bad person."

My words did not seem to help cheer her up at all. She then spoke softly while her head rolled onto its side. "Well, nopony was smiling this time..."

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" I asked, wondering what had occurred. It must have been extremely bad for her to be that depressed about it.

Derpy let out a long sigh before she began to explain. "It happened this morning at the post office. I was sorting packages near a conveyor belt and... I just don't know what went wrong..." I heard her sniffle for a moment before continuing. "My boss was pretty upset. I tend to make mistakes every now and then, but he has always been really understanding and patient with me. But... It was really bad this time. I'm currently on leave for the rest of the week..."

"Well, at least you weren't fired." I spoke in the hopes of lifting her spirits. I do not know how post offices work or what happens behind the counter, but it must have been quite a mess to clean up.

"Uh huh... I'll be back to work next week... But what really made it hurt... There are a few workers there who always poke fun at me because of how clumsy I am sometimes. And this time, they really didn't hold back... I know I'm a klutz... They don't need to rub it in..."

How absolutely childish. Grown adults teasing another for a flaw she is all too aware of? Truth be told, it had been a while since I had last felt that disgusted towards. "They sound like a bunch of hacks who are lucky to have the jobs they do." I spoke bluntly.

"But they always do their jobs well..." Derpy retorted with a very glum tone. Either she was upset at herself or was simply jealous.

"Well, I would rather have you in my company than them. At least you don't judge other people for their faults." I spoke honestly while eating my chocolate drop. "You think I don't have flaws? We all got them, Derpy. The important thing is that we should always have more positive qualities than negative. And you certainly do."

Derpy's eyes opened wider before she raised her head to look at me. Her expression seemed to show a display of mild surprise. My gaze at her was stern. I was really not feeling happy after hearing that confession. Not towards her, of course, but towards the jerks who made her cry. "You...really mean that?"

"Do I look like I'm in the mood to joke around?" I replied dryly without a hint of humor in my tone.

Derpy just gazed at me for a moment before leaving her stool and walking over to me. She then surprised me by wrapping her arms around me in a tight embrace before burying her face into my chest. "Thank you..."

I stroked her mane with my spare hand to comfort her. "You're my friend, Derpy. I'm glad I can be here for you."

We stayed there for a moment. Derpy never once loosened her grip on me. And I never stopped stroking her mane. I admit now that Derpy and I certainly are not the closest of friends, but she is indeed a friend nonetheless and I do truly care for her. She is...that special little friend that you do not interact much with, but just seeing her out there puts a smile on your face.

After a few minutes, I finally heard Derpy speak. "I think I feel better now." She then pulled away from me and showed that her tears had been dried. I also happened to notice that her eyes, which had been 'derped' mere moments ago, were now both looking directly me.

"I'm glad you're OK now... But...uh... I just noticed your eyes again. You said before that they are a sort of on and off thing?" I asked, curious of exactly how her loopy eyes work.

Derpy had to suppress a giggle before she spoke, clearly in better spirits now that I had helped get her mind off of what was bothering her earlier. "Oh, I guess I should explain a bit better. You see, my left eye is completely normal. But very often my right... Oh, there it goes again!"

While she was in the middle of speaking, the large iris of her right eye began to slowly slide off to the upper left section of her eye. "Are you telling me you have no control over that?"

"That's what I meant by the 'on and off' thing a while back! My right eye just likes to wander now and then. But if I really need to focus on one thing, all I have to do is concentrate and..." Derpy explained before the iris slowly became realigned with her left. "There we go! My left eye always looks where I want, but my right just likes to wander a lot."

"In other words, it's not a lazy eye, but an adventurous eye." I replied in an attempt to be witty about it. That retort got a pretty decent giggle out of her. I then asked, "Is that a handy trait to have?"

Derpy nodded while her right eye began to wander once more. "It does. I often notice things right out of the corner of my vision that I would miss otherwise if my right eye always looked where my left does. It lets me notice things I would normally miss. Like right now... Those shoes you're wearing don't have laces."

She was not even looking down at my feet and she could see them. "Yeah, I prefer shoes without laces. That's not to say I can't tie a knot, but the laces can always come undone or even get snagged on something."

The two of us found ourselves lost in conversation while Derpy returned to her seat and began to snack on the muffin I had provided her. Eventually, she finally asked, "Say, James? You have the day off, right?"

I decided to not inform her of my intention to go to Canterlot. I would have probably been on my way up there by train at that time if I had not seen Derpy sulking in the storefront's corner. "Yeah. Mr. and Mrs. Cake gave me the go-ahead to take the day off."

Derpy then gave me an awkward smile while gently pushing her half eaten muffin around the table with a hoof. "Well... I can't go back to work for the rest of the week too... I don't wanna be any trouble, but..." She then gave me a pleading gaze and asked, "Could I just hang out with you for a while?"

I really was not expecting that request at all. But I could see why Derpy wanted my company. She was probably still feeling rather down and just wanted a good friend by her side until she had fully recovered from the incident at work that morning. Of course, I was not entirely certain I wanted to agree. I still wanted to be with my friends and get over to Cloudsdale right away. But Derpy... She clearly needed someone.

"Well... I sort of had plans... But maybe..." I muttered, trying to decide on what to do. Oh, who am I kidding. The train ride takes a while to get up to Canterlot, and then I would have to navigate the city to reach the palace, and then I would have to search the northern skies for Cloudsdale. And considering the fact that I have never seen it or even know how far away it might be, the entire Best Young Fliers Competition might be over by the time I arrive. Or maybe... Ugh, it was so hard to choose! Either way, I was going to regret some part of my decision...

Finally, against my better interests, I sighed and gave her a nod. "Sure. I'll stick with you for the day. It'll be a day with the local derp."

Derpy thankfully did not take that the wrong way and gave me a huge grin. "Thank you! Um... May I finish my muffin first before we do anything?"

"By all means, go ahead. I'll wait." I replied while watching the goofy pegasus mare devour the rest of her muffin in just a couple of bites. "So, what's first?"

"Uh... I don't know. Wanna just take a walk?" She replied with a sheepish grin. I suppose even Derpy does not get very many days of if she was not certain of what to do with her free time.

"A walk sounds fine." I replied while climbing to my feet. After Derpy and I cast out muffin wrappers into the nearest wastebasket, we stepped outside Sugarcube Corner. With most of the local food stalls having sold all their produce and closed up shop for the day at that time, the usual afternoon lull in activities had begun.

"Sooo... Where do we go?" Derpy asked while looking up at me.

"I have no idea. I guess just go wherever while taking in the afternoon calm." I replied while glancing around as a warm summer breeze blew through the air. I decided to let Derpy lead while I followed. It was a fairly quiet walk with the warm summer heat being cast upon us with hardly a cloud in the sky. I felt exceptionally relaxed. Like a slow summer day where you want to just hang out in a hammock and chill. Or maybe it was just my way of coping with not having my dearest friends around.

Every now and then, Derpy and I would break the silence with short conversation. She seemed very calm in my presence and was significantly more relaxed than when I had first seen her that day. Eventually, we entered an area of Ponyville I had never entered before. Largely because it is a good distance away from anything relevant to my daily routines, and largely because I simply had no business there. But I suddenly glanced about as a type of sound entered my ears that I had not heard for quite a while. "Is that...chiptune music?"

Derpy glanced around and pointed in one direction. "Huh? You mean over there?" When I glanced in the direction she was pointing in, I saw something I never thought I would see in Equestria. An outdoor video game arcade.

"Dang, I haven't seen a fully functional arcade in ages!" I spoke up before approaching it. Derpy stayed close behind me while I drew near. There seemed to be several game cabinets and even a crane game, though a couple of them were not in use. Since today is a school day, there were not any fillies or colts to be seen and the games were mostly being used by adult stallions. I am not one to judge though. Lots of adults play video games where I come from and I am one of them. Judging by the symphony of beeps and hums being blared from the cabinets' speakers, I suppose the games that were available were 8-bit and 16-bit. Ah, the glory days of the gaming industry... Oh, sorry. Got really nostalgic right there.

"You play video games, James?" Derpy asked while looking around with me.

"Well, I used to be a pretty obsessive gamer back in my younger days. I still used to play games frequently as an adult, though not as frequently since my interests started to broaden. I hardly play them at all today, probably because of just how distracted I am by everything else in town." I explained, my nerves getting hit with a huge nostalgia rush from the sights and sounds around me.

After a minute of looking around, I heard a voice to my left that sounded far too young to be an adult. "No! I've been at this for a full hour! I can make it..."

Derpy and I turned to face the source of the voice and found what seemed to be a young colt seated on a stool before a relatively wide arcade cabinet. Judging by the fact that it had a total of four joysticks and two buttons beside each, it was game that supports four-player co-op, as I would soon discover. Judging by the action that was happening onscreen, the game seemed to be a side-scrolling shmup crossed with a beat-em-up. Also, 'shmup' is gamer lingo for 'shoot-em-up'. The view seemed to be from the side while also having something of an isometric viewpoint since the player could move left and right as well as toward and away from the player. It seemed to have something of a medieval theme to it, understandable when you consider Equestria's society. But whatever the case, the colt's character's life bar was way in the red.

"No! Not now! No no no... Noooohoooo!!!" I heard the colt wail as his character finally dropped. Two words that always strike a bitter feeling in the heart of any gamer flowed across the screen in large red letters. GAME OVER. And he was taking it pretty hard while lightly thumping his head into the cabinet's control deck. "Not fair... I never make it past this part! I swear this game cheats!"

I decided to take a step forward. From what I could see by looking at the very top of the arcade cabinet, the game's title was 'Equestrian Heroes'. I then spoke, "Yeah, it's pretty hard to get through games like this without losing once. You pretty much just have to make sure you have enough coins on hand to keep you going."

The colt then turned to look at me and let out a yelp, apparently not expecting me to be there and more than likely because he never sees humans around. He was startled so badly that he rolled backwards off of the stool and onto his belly. "Whoa, I almost never get that reaction anymore." I spoke with a chuckle while hoping the kid did not hurt himself.

He then jumped up and pointed his hoof at me before he started barking some...really weird gibberish that I honestly cannot even try to write down. It was a language that sounded completely alien to me. I then turned to Derpy and asked, "Any idea what he said?"

Derpy raised her wings in such a way that looked like someone raising their hands while shrugging their shoulders. "I don't have a clue."

I then looked back at the kid and looked him over. I certainly had never seen him around before. Or perhaps I have seen him so infrequently that I simply do not recall having ever laid eyes on him before. He was very young, probably even the same age as the Cutie Mark Crusaders. His coat was a light shade of brown and his mane and relatively short tail seemed to be two shades of light mahogany. His eyes were a gradient shade of orange, growing from darker to brighter from top to bottom if that makes any sense. He seemed to lack a cutie mark at the time, which seems to not be unusual for the younger kids. To top things off, he was wearing a cute beanie hat on his head with alternating broad strips of red, light yellow, and light orange with a propeller of sorts on the top consisting of four flaps set vertically to catch wind. It was constantly spinning at a moderate speed. Certainly a cute little lad.

He looked at me for a moment, apparently realizing that his bizarre gibberish was not registering with me. "Uh... You don't speak Humgonian?"

"I...beg your pardon?" I asked, even more baffled by what this kid was getting at.

Derpy then stepped forward and spoke to him, apparently knowing him to some small degree. "Oh, he doesn't know anything about those comic books you read. I've never mailed anything from E.C. Comics to him, so I know." Oh, that is right. Fluttershy's house has been part of Derpy's mail route since shortly after I moved in with her. And considering that we know each other on a somewhat personal level, it is not surprising that she pays extra attention to the return addresses on anything that arrives for me.

"Oh! Hi, Miss Derpy! This your friend?" The colt asked before extending his hoof to me, apparently for a hoof shake. "I've seen you around before, mister. Wow, you're big..."

I got down on one knee so I could reach him and grasped his little hoof in my hand before briefly shaking it. "I think I may have seen you around at times too. That beanie of yours is easy to spot, now that I think about it. The name's James."

"It's cool to meet you, James! I'm Button Mash." The colt replied with a wide grin. I honestly stared at him for a few seconds without a word. Button Mash? That is his name? Well, it is rather obvious what his cutie mark will probably turn out to be! A good old D-pad. Of course, I did not tell him that. It would be more satisfying for him to figure it out on his own.

"Button Mash, huh? I think I know what your favorite activity is." I spoke with a cheeky grin on my face. But it was then I realized something. "Wait a second... Shouldn't you be in school right now?"

Button Mash wasted no time in providing me with an explanation... Button Mash... I am sorry, but there is no way anyone who is a video gamer cannot find that to be somewhat humorous to say. Anyway, he spoke, "Oh, I'm staying home since I have a dentist appointment today. But I still have an hour or two before my mom comes by to pick me up. Only... That was my last bit..."

My eyes then scanned the control deck of the arcade machine again. "Four joysticks and sets of buttons... This supports co-op?"

The little gamer colt nodded readily. "Yeah! Only I never have anypony here to play with me, so I'm always on my own. This game is tough as nails when it's just you with no backup!"

I then cracked a smirk before looking down at Derpy. She seemed to know where I was going with this and gave me a googly-eyed smirk of her own. I then reached into my pocket and pulled out a bit. "How does three player co-op sound?"

That face... Button's jaw just dropped as he looked up at me. "You mean it?! You'll play too?! I thought most adults don't play video games."

"Hey, I'm still young. And the beauty behind games like these is that anyone can enjoy them. And I practically grew up on these." I replied before moving his stool to the side so I had better access to the control deck.

"Wow! Awesome! You're cool, you know that?!" Button shouted before jumping up onto his stool.

"Save some for me!" Derpy spoke up while she sat to my left in front of the joystick and buttons that were at the leftmost edge of the control deck.

However, just before I could pass Button an extra bit to start the game with us, a voice spoke up from behind with a...remarkably sweet motherly tone. "Having fun, Button? Just remember that we have to leave for the appointment in another hour and a half."

When I turned to look at who was speaking, I saw...quite possibly the single most attractive earth pony mare I have ever seen in my life. Her eyes were a beautiful gradient shade of greenish blue. Her mane and tail were both a lovely brunette color and were tied with a red ribbon with her mane hanging down the side of her head. Her coat seemed to be a light...tan? Very light orange? I am not certain. Her cutie mark consisted of a half-filled baby bottle with a large pink heart peeking out from behind it. But more than anything... Those eyes. The way they were looking at us was just filled with such tenderness. Even before I said anything to her, I felt myself drawn to her. She must be a very sweet and likeable woman. She seemed to have a white purse hanging from her shoulder, an unusual sight since most ponies tend to use saddlebags for transporting any and all goods.

"Hi, Mom! What's up? Miss Derpy and Mr. James were about to join in for some fun!" Button Mash spoke up while looking past me and waving. That was his mother?! I may as well say it now to get it out of the way. Whoever his father is, he is one lucky stallion.

His mother let out a brief adorable giggle before speaking, "Well, hello, Miss Derpy! I didn't know you had a thing for these games."

Derpy replied in kind and explained, "Well, I had a rough morning, so my friend James is hanging out with me to try to make the day better. Have you met him?"

I remained completely silent, not certain of how to introduce myself. I admit I was feeling rather nervous in front of that gorgeous mare. I... Well, I may as well say it. Even though Rarity definitely is more attractive from a glance and Fluttershy has impressive looks that compliment her very tender nature, this mare... Everything about her just came together as an amazing whole. It was hard to not feel some form of attraction to her! And I certainly did not want to leave a bad first impression. So I waited for an opportunity to speak.

Button's mother looked at me and gave me a tender motherly smile. "Oh, I think I've seen you around a few times, but never had the chance to meet you. You're very easy to spot when you're the tallest person in town. And your name is James?"

I nodded and reached my hand out to her to shake her hoof. "It's a pleasure, Miss...uh..."

She closed her eyes for a moment as an amused giggle reverberated in her throat while she extended her hoof and placed it in my grasp. "Eleina, James. I know it's different from most other names you would normally hear in Equestria, but I hope you'll be able to remember it."

Eleina? That was certainly not a name I would expect to hear. It sounds more like a name that you would hear on Earth. "Miss Eleina? Well, it's an odd name to hear in Ponyville, but it does sound lovely. I'll try to remember it."

Button's mo... I mean Eleina gave me a sweet smile and spoke, "You're very sweet, James. It's a pleasure to meet you too. Has Button been giving you any trouble?"

I glanced back over at the colt to my right who was fidgeting with impatience. He clearly just wanted to get back in the game. I then looked back at his mother and smiled. "I've only known him for the past few minutes, but he seems like a fun kid. We were just about enjoy some three player co-op... But now that I think about it..." I then looked past Button Mash to see a forth set of buttons and joystick. "We have enough room to step it up to a four player game."

The look that spread over her face was hilarious to watch. "Me?! But... I still have some errands to run..."

Button seemed to like the idea I had though. He spoke with a huge grin, "Come on, Mom! I know you and Dad used to play stuff like this all the time!"

Derpy seemed rather surprised too and asked, "Really?! You're an old pro too?!"

Eleina seemed rather embarrassed and grinned nervously. "Well, it's true. My husband and I used to play the oldest games pretty often. But when Button came into our lives, we had to put those aside to focus on parenting."

"The really retro stuff? You don't happen to have a Brown Box in your possession, do you?" I asked, prompting baffled expressions from all three ponies.

Button, apparently casting my words to the wind, spoke up again. "Uh... Yeah, what he said! Come on, Mom! Don't you wanna play too?"

Eleina seemed to debate with herself for a moment. "Well... I think... Oh, why not? I suppose I can enjoy a quick game with you dears."

"All right, Mrs. Mash!" Derpy exclaimed while she and Eleina shared what seemed to be a hoof bump. Once she had taken her seat to Button's right, Eleina pulled six bits from her purse and divided them into two stacks. They were both placed just under the cabinet's screen. One stack for button and one for herself.

"We don't have all afternoon, so let's limit our bits to just three per player." Eleina spoke while passing one more to Button so he could start the game.

"Sounds smart to me." I replied while pulling out eight bits and making two stacks of three. I then passed one of the remaining two in my hand to Derpy. "OK, everyone. Put your game faces on."

All three of the ponies glanced at me for a second before looking back at the screen with determined eyes and confident smirks while each placed one hoof on the top of the joysticks before them. It was rather funny to see those looks on Derpy and Eleina. I could tell we were in for a fun time.

One by one, we each rolled a bit into the coin slot below the control deck. "I hope you brought you're a game today, Mr. James!" Button spoke as he started the game up with a press of a button.

"Careful, kid. I'm no noob. You're talking to a seasoned pro with probably three times as much experience under your belt than you." I replied, starting to get in touch with my inner for the first time in quite a long while. Was I making too big of a deal out of the whole thing? Sorry about that, but you would understand if you grew up on the stuff too.

"No squabbling now, everypony. We've got a game to play." Eleina spoke up with a confident grin. Her words seemed to keep Button Mash quiet. We were then brought to what seemed to be a player select screen. There were four characters to choose from, each surrounded by a tall rectangular border. The far left, which Derpy was sitting before, was red, while mine was blue. Button's, who was sitting to my right, was yellow, and his mother's was green. I tried moving the joystick, which caused the character in the window to change. This also caused one of the characters in the other three windows to change as well. Seems two players cannot play as the same character.

"Ooh, a paladin? I call dibs on this one!" I spoke up when my border swapped to what seemed to be a heavily armored earth pony stallion. He was covered head to hoof with shining silver plate armor, a great silvery gray kite shield affixed to his left foreleg while a shining silver sword with a gold crossguard was attached to his right. He seemed to be standing in a rather stalwart pose, giving a good view of his armored form. While I could make out his bold red eyes, his helmet concealed his mane. How, his tail could be seen, which was a shade of navy blue, as was the galea on his helmet, which bore a resemblance to those worn by the royal guards in Canterlot. What also surprised me was that he seemed to be standing in a bipedal stance instead of a usual quadruped stance. I suppose that should not be surprising since I know the ponies of Equestria can stand on just their hind legs and can even walk on them. I was also surprised by the detail of the image. Even though it was clearly just a sprite, the stallion before me could have easily passed for a photograph.

"Ooh, I'm liking this one! I'll take the berserker!" Derpy spoke up before making her choice. The character within the red rectangular borders before her seemed to depict a pegasus mare like her. The hairstyle of the pony was rather wild and unkempt, as I would expect from someone with the title of 'berserker'. She seemed to be in a rearing pose, her wings held high while seemingly clutching some rather hefty and gnarled bronze war axes that seemed to have heads as large as her own. Her torso and shins were covered in some rather tough looking bronze armor and greaves, though she seemed to be a more offense-oriented fighter overall due to her armor not being as thorough as my character's. She only had a read headband tied around her forehead.

"That's one mean looking mare you've picked, Derpy. What about you, Button? What's left to choose from?" I spoke up before glancing over to Button, who seemed to be having some trouble deciding on the last two choices. I also noticed a timer of sorts above the very center of the row of colored borders. It was in bold yellow numbers and was counting down. When I glanced up, it seemed to be on the number 20 before dropping down slowly. Curse these arcade cabinets and their ever-present time restrictions...

"Uh... I'm stuck between the archer and mage... I dunno what to choose!" He replied while tilting his joystick back and forth. "I always choose the berserker because I like the big axes!"

Upon catching sight of the 'archer' character, I spoke up instantly. "Button, choose the archer! That guy looks more your style!" The archer seemed to be a noticeably smaller than average pegasus stallion with an olive drab coat and a windswept orange mane and tail. Judging by his smaller stature, he must be a speedy character that would probably fit well with a younger inexperienced gamer like Button Mash and help him stay out of reach. The archer seemed to be holding a longbow in his ankle joint that seemed to be as tall as he was. A quiver of arrows was on his back while his body was wrapped in what seemed to be a flexible yet durable layer of leather armor. Atop his head was what seemed to be a type of Tyrolean flat with a very short brim with the edges at the sides curled upward with a white feather seemingly stuck in it, completing the archer's 'forest bowman' motif.

"Huh? Really?! If you say so!" Button replied before pressing a button to make his selection... Heh, a Button pressed a button. What silly irony.

"Well, I guess that leaves me with the mage." Eleina spoke without the slightest hint of dissatisfaction. The character in the green rectangular frame at the far right seemed to show a beautiful white unicorn mare with a long flowing black mane and tail. Clutched in her ankle joint was a wooden staff with a large blue orb embedded at the top. Her deep blue eyes showed a very strong allure, fitting for her 'enchanting' style of game play. I swear, I would not be surprised if Eleina herself served as the inspiration for her design. The mage even seemed to be playing to Eleina's own personality in some way. It felt as if we all had chosen the characters that best matched our personalities and styles.

"OK then, let's roll." I spoke up while the screen faded to black. We all sat still and watched the opening cinematic. It seemed to show the environment from an angle that definitely seemed to fit a beat-em-up type of game. It seemed to display a forest path with the screen scrolling to the left. The lighting seemed to show the late evening judging but the orange glow of the setting sun. However, as the area became gradually darker, and by gradual I mean at a rather breakneck descent, a handful of pixilated ponies came charging from the right while seemingly yelling in terror, their voices noticeably digitized. Shortly behind them, skeletal creatures of varying designs, though most seemed to be equine in structure, shambled across the screen and to the left while the screen followed them.

"Uh oh, we've gotta take on a bunch of boneheads, huh?" Derpy asked while looking a tad worried.

"Skeletons? How original, that's never been done before." I replied with silly sarcasm. But who am I kidding? Games like this never really get old. Especially when played with friends. Finally, the undead minions seemed to stop before what looked like the wooden gate of a forest settlement. The screen stopped scrolling as well. But just as they charged ahead, something seemed to jump down from just off the edge of the screen and blew the first skeletal pony apart with a swing of its sword. The many bones spiraled and skipped around on the screen before flickering and soon disappearing. The character in question who had just made the first move was my character, the paladin.

"Oh yeah, Sir James leads the charge!" Button shouted in glee, but he fell silent when what seemed to be the archer character swing in on a tree vine before letting go and rapidly firing off a trio of arrows that shot the skulls off the tops of a few of the skeletons before landing. Like the first one, they soon flickered and vanished.

"Nice shooting, Button! Whoa, there I am!" Derpy then called out as the berserker character leaped out of some bushes at the bottom edge of the screen and smashed both axes down into the nearest skeleton, which seemed to be that of a manticore. The poor sucker was reduced to a pile of bones and white powder before flickering away into digital oblivion.

"And now it's my character's turn." Eleina spoke with a sly smirk. The few remaining undead minions were suddenly engulfed in towers of fire before collapsing into piles of ash that soon flickered away into nothingness. The mage character herself then seemed to appear from nowhere beside the archer with a spiral of swirling wind before landing on her hooves. Just after that, the profiles of our characters appeared at the top of the screen with green health bars. I suppose that was the cue for us to begin playing. The rather blood-pumpingly awesome music that started playing definitely sounded like something out of a 16-bit machine and the pixilated characters and environments were extremely detailed. You could really see the sheer quality in effort the designers must have put into it. A shame I cannot say the same about most mainstream games these days back where I come from.

"Careful! A whole bunch of slow guys are gonna come charging at us up ahead!" Button spoke while his character charged ahead.

"Don't tell us how things will go, Button. It'll be more enjoyable if we experience it like you did the first time. Just make sure you watch our backs." I replied, not knowing what to expect despite finding myself already having fun.

As we trudged to the right, I quickly found that each of our characters had different movement speeds. The archer, being the young pegasus he seemed to be, moved along the ground at roughly twice the speed my character was moving. The mage seemed to be galloping along with serene grace, her hooded robe flapping in the breeze. Since she seems to travel light, it is no surprise she was second from the top in movement. The paladin was understandably slower than them due to being on two legs and not four, having to sacrifice speed for strong offense and defense. But I was especially surprised to see that the berserker was the slowest of the bunch despite being a pegasus. I suppose those heavy axes in her wings were weighing her down a bit. But with great loss of speed usually comes massive offensive power. And anyone can tell you that axes hit harder than swords.

Before long, more shambling skeletal creatures wandered in from the right side of the screen. As if to tell us that we had to take these out first, the screen also stopped scrolling. I suppose I got a little too into the game at that moment since I called out, "All right, lads! Have at thee!" I heard Eleina let out a little snicker at my words.

Since this was the first wave, I decided to experiment with my character's capabilities. My sword had some reasonable reach and packed some noticeable power. The paladin would perform two slashes and then end the combo with a piercing thrust that would scatter the creature's bony remains everywhere before they flickered and vanished. I also found entirely by accident that if I tried to attack a foe that was in the process of preparing to lash out, my character would do a sudden shield smack and follow it up with a deadly blow that would drop the creature instantly. A tricky riposte attack. I also found that when standing stationary, any attacks from the front that would connect would be blocked with my shield. Minor attacks did nothing, but attacks that would normally knock my character down would seemingly shave off 1% of my health bar. I also found that while being struck, I could not move and my character seemed to vibrate rapidly. That right there is probably the single deadliest flaw to the paladin. While powerful and balanced and having great defense, I could get paralyzed by harmless frontal attacks and be blindsided from behind by another enemy. This truly is not a game to be played alone.

Once I had gotten a feel for my controls, which is saying something because I extremely rarely played anything with a sturdy joystick with a large spherical top and two buttons back home, I paid close attention to Derpy's character. Whenever she took a hit, her health bar seemed to lose a bit more of its green than mine did, leading me to suspect that her less concealing armor resulted in weaker defenses. What was more, her axes had a slower speed than my sword, resulting in taking maybe a half second longer to finish a combo and leaving herself open half a second longer after it ended. Still, I could almost feel the impact of each strike. Her range was clearly shorter than mine, but it was obvious her attacks hit harder than mine as well. The smaller enemies were destroyed after only two swings instead of a full combo. And unlike my sword, which made a clean slicing sound with each hit, hers packed a rather harsh crunching sound. Like mine, her character would make a broad swing with one axe followed by another from the other axe. The finisher looked really potent, where she would bring both axes down together onto the foe in front of her and even smash the edges into the ground. The 'death' animations would also differ if that happened. Instead of being scattered all over, they would be smashed to a pile of bones and dust like in the opening cinematic. "Man, you really derped them up!"

Derpy turned to me and gave me a big toothy grin. "Yup! Looks like my derping around came in handy for once... Whoa! Close one!" She suddenly attacked another skeletal enemy that was coming up from the bottom of the screen. "Phew! My right eye noticed that one at the last second!"

"Heh, guess having an adventurous eye can be an asset!" I replied, actually rather impressed that her goofy eyes could notice things before the rest of us could.

"Yeah, take that, you boneheads! Wanna taste some arrow?!" Button Mash kept ranting while really going to town on the first wave of enemies. It was then that I was seeing the 'shoot-em-up' concepts of the game being put to use. Instead of striking up close, the archer was bombarding the enemies across the screen with a steady stream of arrows. It would seem that for the archer, the melee and projectile priorities are reversed. He could even stay focusing on one direction while continuously firing by holding the button down to fly up and down the playing field while hovering. Of course, his small size made him difficult to hit as long as he stayed on the move. But in the occasion where he did get struck, I noticed his health bar lose more green than either mine or Derpy's. I suppose the archer, being a long-range specialist and being the smallest and most fragile of the four, would naturally have the poorest endurance. However, I also saw that his small size and presumably light weight could be useful when under attack. There were times when the blows from his enemies would actually push him out of range, causing the rest of the combo to be wasted and saving him from the harder hitting final blow. I also witnessed a little trick that I would find only the archer could do. While stuck in a combo, the archer suddenly lashed out with a dagger being held in his teeth, striking the enemy five times extremely quickly and knocking it away. However, the creature was not finished off by that combo.

"Whoa, combo breaker!" I could not help exclaiming upon seeing that close call. "Just be careful there, Button. Try hanging back and giving us some fire support. Stay out of close range scuffles. Your character isn't meant for it."

"OK, got it!" Button replied quickly while moving his character away from the remaining undead minions while continuing to pepper them with arrows. He seemed to listen to every suggestion I made without objection, probably because of my greater experience in gaming. Anyway, his arrows seemed to do a bit more damage than the dagger. I suspect the archer's sub par melee skills were meant more for interrupting and pushing enemies away rather than dispatching them.

Lastly, I turned my gaze towards Eleina's character. She was being surprisingly focused and silent while playing, probably to help get her back into the feel of things since she has likely not played any sort of video game for quite a while. I found that like the archer, the mage seems to prioritize ranged combat over melee. Her attacks were clearly magic based, utilizing fire, water, wind, and lightning depending on the location of the enemies around her. Distant enemies were bombarded with fireballs, although the rate of fire was not as frequent as the arrows launched by the archer. When enemies got almost within striking distance, a wave of water would wash over them and bowl them over. If any foes managed to get right next to her, a series of lightning strikes from above would rain down on them. Lastly, if almost surrounded, a whirlwind would swirl around her to blow the enemies away. That last spell would always do very little damage, but it would at least get her out of trouble. Her melee attacks seemed to revolve around the use of her staff, causing the mage to perform a circular swing that would send enemies sprawling. Since it has the same radius as the wind spell, it seemed impractical and even inferior despite causing slightly more damage and took slightly longer to completely encircle her while the wind spell was instantaneous. At least until I noticed a blue gauge under her health bar. The use of projectile spells would cause it to decrease and be replaced with orange. Some spells cost more than others, and the lightning spell ate up the magic gauge like nobody's business. Fortunately, it did recharge fairly quickly, but I can see why the staff would be a necessary weapon should there not be enough of the magic gauge filled to perform the needed spell. From what I could see, the mage is a highly technical character that only the more intermediate gamers could use effectively. And someone with Eleina's level of experience is a perfect choice for it.

"Looking good there, Eleina. You done this before?" I asked, finding her skillful handling of the mage character to be quite remarkable for someone who has been out of action for a long time.

She glanced at me out of the corner of her eye and gave a little grin. "Oh, it's been a long time, but it's all coming back to me now... Oh, drat!" She scowled as her character was caught in an attack due to her not having enough magic power left to cast the appropriate spell. I saw then that while the mage may have more powerful projectile attacks, and surprisingly stronger defenses from what I would assume was a skintight magic barrier, she does have to be careful about her 'ammo' supplies and she is not able to break out of a combo when struck.

Very soon, the first wave had been wiped off the screen. And in the corner, a flashing yellow arrow pointed to the right with the word GO in identical yellow letters. "Well, I'd say we're all warmed up." I spoke while proceeding forward. Everyone followed after me, although Button Mash was careful to not let his speed push him ahead of the pack. Due to his lack of skill and his character's preference for ranged combat, it was imperative that he stay behind the rest of us.

After trudging ahead for a moment, some rather roguish looking pegasus ponies in black leather armor leaped in from offscreen. Button, clearly from having played to this part before, quickly got in a few shots on one that caused the enemy to collapse and flicker before vanishing. "Hey, Button Mash? Just who is the big baddie in this game anyway?" Derpy asked while struggling to land a blow on one.

"Just wait and see! You'll see it at the end of this level... Hey, get away from me!" Button replied before trying to avoid what seemed to be throwing knives being flung at him by one of the enemy pegasi.

"Hang on, I'll... Whoa, how'd I do that?!" I called out in surprise. I had been slashing away at one of the pegasi to get it out of my way so I could hurry over to Button's location and render assistance when my character suddenly charged ahead at surprising speed with shied in front, sending any enemies that were in the way flying and leaving them sprawled out on the ground a few seconds longer than when knocked down by other attacks. Derpy was quick to get in a free kill on one of them.

Button seemed equally surprised as my character barreled right into his harasser. "How'd you do that?! That was so cool!"

"Uh... I dunno! I'm pressing up, down, left, right... Whoa, there it is!" I replied while experimenting with the buttons a bit. I suppose I should describe the controls a bit more now. The joystick lets the player move in eight directions while the button closer to it is the projectile attack button while the one slightly further away is the melee attack button. Pressing both buttons together, easy even for someone using hooves, causes the player to perform a type of desperado attack that seems to shave off 5% of one's health bar. The paladin's attack was clearly a mighty shield charge that stops once he reaches the other side of the screen and sends any enemies he rams sprawling and leaving them wide open for attacks from his allies. I would eventually find that the shield charge also renders him invincible during the course of the attack. But seeing as how the attack actually does not seem to do much damage, it seemed to be more of a support move than one meant for offense. Although it did finish off the enemy I was pummeling just before using it.

"Ooh, I never knew about that! Let me see what mine does... Whoa, nice! You don't mess with masters of the arcane!" Eleina spoke as she tried to use a desperado attack as well. The mage character would become stationary before raising her staff and sending streams of blue fire in an X formation away from her. Due to the fact that it launches the flames on an odd angle, it could be tricky to properly align herself with the enemy minions to get the most out of it. "What about you, dear? What's yours?"

"Mine? Um... Lemme check, Mom. Whoa, there it goes! Boom!" Button replied before laughing in excitement as the archer character pulled out an arrow that seemed to have a red orb on the tip instead of an arrowhead. He then shot it upwards on an angle, causing the arrow to fly off the top of the screen. When it came back down, there was not one, but a dozen arrows! They scattered and hit several areas on the screen, but due to his character's position, about half of them went off the side. And upon hitting the ground, they burst into fiery explosions and successfully took out one enemy at the edge of the screen.

"Dang, now that's some real cover fire! Try doing that again from the very edge of the screen from now on!" I spoke up, having all the more fun now that we had discovered a gimmick to spice up the game play even further. "What about you, Derpy?"

Derpy then had the berserker draw in close to the last remaining pegasus and then pressed both buttons at once. "Whoa, I just derped him up big time!" The berserker went into a wild spin, the sound of her axes crushing the foe being heard in rapid succession. I suspect it must have struck the foe around ten times before she came out of the spin. The pegasus was sent sprawling before flickering and fading. Clearly an attack meant to be used when surrounded. "Is it just me, or did the game just get a lot more fun?"

"I say it's going to be nothing but a funfest from here on out!" Eleina replied while we proceeded onward. While we went on, what seemed to be a basket of fruit came up onto the path. "Hm? Is that a healing item?"

Derpy started to move her character towards it, her health bar already down to around half from taking quite a few hits from lack of speed. "Oh, goodie! I could use... Hey! Button, that was mine!" She looked at Button Mash with a very annoyed scowl after the archer character swooped over it and picked it up, but she seemed to be having too much fun to get that mad at him.

Button Mash looked back at my friend with a nervous grin. "Oops! Sorry, I panicked! I'm always hurting when I get this far, so I always pick it up right away!"

Eleina then proceeded to lecture her son while having an amused smirk on her face. "First rule of co-op, Button. The player with the least health left gets the recovery item."

"Yeah, we don't wanna end up taking out our rage on each other with some friendly fire... Wait a sec, can we even do that is this game?! Do our attacks hit each other?" I replied while trying to take a swing at Derpy to test it.

"Hey, cut that out! Wait... Hey, our attacks don't hit each other! Thank goodness!" Derpy yelped before speaking with a quick breath of relief upon finding that the paladin's sword swings did not seem to register on her character.

"OK, Mom! And sorry about that, Miss Derpy!" Button replied before backing away as a combination of darkly clad pegasi and skeletal ponies and manticore came onto the screen. He then proceeded to perform another desperado attack, launching a shower of explosive arrows down on our enemies to much greater effect this time. It seemed that when launched from the extreme left, the arrows blanket the entire right half of the playing field. Eventually, I saw that one of the enemies dropped a type of square icon. "Huh? Hey, a power-up! Uh... That's one for a scatter effect!"

"Scatter effect? You go for that, Button! Let us know what the other ones are when they show up." I replied, thinking that a scattering effect would work well with his arrows.

"You got it! Time for triple the pain, you punks!" Button called out with gusto after picking up the item. From then on, the archer would fire three arrows per shot. The extra two moved on an angle, striking enemies that were just off to the sides of him. I would eventually find that picking up two more of the same item would result in five arrows being shot and then seven. Once the scatter effect had been maxed out, everything as far as half a screen away was all but certain to get hit.

During this section of the forest level, I decided to see what kind of effect pressing the projectile button would do. It turns out that the paladin's ranged attack is a very broad wave of magical blue energy that has a very wide vertical reach, but only barely reaches further than a regular melee slash. I also found that I could not move while using it and could not really execute a combo with it despite being able to use it rapidly. It seemed that only the archer had the ability to move on the fly while shooting. Derpy seemed to get the same idea and used her character's ranged attack, which consisted of smashing both axes down into the ground and triggering a rising shockwave of thermal energy that would travel along the ground quickly for half a screen before fading. Anything that got in the way was predictably swept right off their feet. It seemed to do next to know damage though. Its main function seemed to be used for setting up combos. I suppose the paladin and berserker prioritize in melee damage while their ranged attacks take a back seat to game play, although it seems more so for the berserker.

After a few more skirmishes with the game's first baddies, we ended up getting ambushed by...wolves? "What the... What kinda wolves are those?!" I asked, seeing that they seemed to be made entirely out of branches, twigs, and a few leaves here and there. Their eyes seemed to be glowing greenish yellow lights.

"Those are timber wolves! They attack by ramming you!" Button Mash replied while scoring a few easy shots on them thanks to his enhanced range of attack. I found that they moved much faster than the earlier enemies and even moved erratically, sometimes retreating and even circling around us. Sheesh, I could almost imagine us there standing beside each other in armor and cloth, holding off the dark denizens.

A quick shield barge got one of them out of the way, allowing Eleina to finish the timber wolf off with a fireball. Upon death, it seemed to fall apart into a pile of...well...timber before flickering and disappearing from the screen. In its place was another square power-up. It seemed to show a pixilated sword with a tiny red arrow pointing up. "What does that power-up do, Button?" Derpy asked while smashing another timber wolf into kindling.

"Uh... Oh, I think you should take that one, James!" Button replied while running for his life from another timber wolf. He seemed to be just slightly faster than his pursuer.

"OK then. Let's see... Ooh, a black sword! And... Is it longer now?" I muttered before finding that taking the power-up caused the pixels that made up the blade of the paladin's sword had turned black and seemed just a tiny bit longer. I then found that my reach and attack power was indeed greater than before. Judging by how much further my melee and projectile attacks reached and how much faster my foes dropped, I think it boosted my range and power by roughly 50%. From then on, we all made an agreement. That the melee specialists, me and Derpy, would get the range and power boosters while the projectile specialists, Button Mash and his mother, would stick with the projectile volume upgrades. By the way, the berserker's axes become scary huge after picking up two of them. I would say as big as the berserker herself!

Finally, after one more ambush where a combination of every minor enemy we had encountered so far swarmed us, we found that the area was steadily becoming darker. "Are we getting close to the end, Button?" Eleina asked while she stayed just behind Derpy and me.

"Uh huh. And you're gonna be scared!" Button replied, his face starting to look a bit more apprehensive than before.

Finally, the area became very dark to the point where we could hardly see the details on the environment. And once that happened, the characters on screen came to a halt while the screen began to scroll to the right. I then heard a voice speak up. Its malevolent feminine tone sounded vaguely familiar, but the voice itself did not. "You insolent foals... You dare stand against my return?!"

In a spiraling vortex of blue, she... Oh, I just had to shout at what I was seeing. "The heck?! Nightmare Moon?! OK, that's just insulting!"

Derpy could not help but laugh. On screen was a pixilated Nightmare Moon. Since Nightmare Moon herself more than likely could not have auditioned to provide her voice for this game, the voice clearly must have belonged to another mare. As insulting as this likely was to my dear friend's public image, I must confess that the billowing of her mane and tail were beautifully animated. Eleina seemed to notice my mild frustration and giggled nervously. "Oh, don't take this the wrong way! This game has been out for a few years now, if memory serves. It was in the arcades when Button was still a toddler. Just...um...think of this as what Nightmare Moon could have been!"

"Ah, that makes sense. Well, let's put this imposter down then!" I replied, my left hand tightly gripping the joystick and my right hand's fingers lightly resting upon the two buttons near it.

To my disappointment though, Nightmare Moon cackled on screen before flapping her wings and taking flight. "My reign of eternal night will never end! Face your doom!" She then suddenly soared skyward and out of sight. A second later, the screen seemed to shake a few times in response to a few heavy thuds before something...big burst out from the right side of the screen and let out quite a roar.

"What the?! Ursa Minor?! That's a pretty breakneck rise in threat level, don't cha think?!" I retorted in response to seeing an impressively animated and large pixilated Ursa Minor standing before our character's much smaller sprites. The size of the Ursa Minor was rather accurately portrayed too. That sucker took up close to a third of the screen!

"Oh, this is gonna get fun!" Eleina spoke with a new smirk. It seemed that her inner gamer was coming out. As was ours.

"James, how about you lead the charge?" Derpy replied as we regained control of our characters. I nodded as a rather fast tempo began to blare from the cabinet's speakers that was definitely fitting for a boss fight.

"OK. Bring it, Grumpy Bear! Or you feeling too blue to put up a fight?!" I retorted while poking fun at the Ursa's naturally blue translucent body, not really minding that it couldn't hear me.

The massive bear took a wide swipe at the paladin, but I reacted in time to use my shield charge. Unlike the previous enemies, I was only able to push the creature back and leave it stunned a moment while it lowered its head as if recoiling from a blow. I suppose some enemies are just too large and heavy to knock down. I then quickly followed up with a few magic wave slashes before Derpy moved in and performed a deadly twin axe spin on the boss. There was no life meter for it, so I had no idea how much damage we were doing. All the while, Button Mash and Eleina were providing support from afar while taking care to mind their life gauges by not resorting to their desperado attacks.

A moment later, Button Mash spoke up while mashing the projectile button before him. "Hey, why did they use an Ursa Minor as the boss instead of an Ursa Major? Aren't those a lot scarier and meaner?!"

His mother replied with a bit of a chuckle to her voice. "Probably because they wouldn't be able to fit the whole thing onto the screen!" She had a point there. Ursa Majors are several times larger than Ursa Minors... And judging by the size of the one we were fighting, I suspect that particular Ursa Minor might have been a bit on the small size since most of them tower over houses.

Eventually, Button got a little too gutsy and drew in close and began to take some swift slashes at the Ursa Minor with the archer's dagger. I noticed that his health bar had dropped to less than a quarter of its maximum size with most of the gauge filled with red. Definitely not a color that means a good thing. "Uh... Button? I don't think that's a good... What the crap?!" I started to speak up, but then burst into laughter as I saw the Ursa Minor gulp the archer character down with a very unexpected animation!

"Hey! No fair! Darn it!" Button Mashed yelled while we all burst into laughter from just how random that instant death attack was.

"Oh my god, epic fail! Didn't see that coming!" I could not help yelling out. Fortunately, we managed to remain focused enough to continue the assault without letting the boss get in any free hits.

"Gah! That's what I get for not sticking with what my character's good at!" Button growled while the archer flickered back onto screen with a full health bar and the number next to the archer's profile at the top dropping by 1. "I'll use you for target practice!" He then yelled before once again peppering the Ursa with three arrows per shot. It seemed that as long as he had a spare life, the power-ups he had acquired would not disappear.

Finally, the Ursa Minor suddenly leaned back while standing on its hind legs, seemingly on the verge of collapsing. "Phew! Looks like that did... Wha...?! Hey!" I spoke up before yelping as the freaking thing fell forward and landed on top of the paladin. "Oh, come on! How cheap is that?!" Despite having every right to be mad about it, I could not help laughing along with the three ponies seated at my sides. Sure enough, the paladin reappeared at the left edge of the screen while flickering for about five seconds as my life count was reduced by 1. Our character's sprites then performed some rather entertaining victory poses, but the mage's pose caught me by surprise. She seemed to hide much of her head behind her cloak while giving us a wink. Were they seriously throwing in some sex appeal in that game? Regardless, our characters then charged off to the right of the screen while everything faded to black.

"If that's how things started out, I'm really looking forward to the rest. We got time for more?" I asked while taking a moment to flex my wrists.

"I think we have more than enough time for more. Shall we keep going, Button?" Eleina replied while turning her gaze to her son.

"Oh yeah, I've never had this much fun by myself! Let's keep going!" Button Mash replied with a grin before giving the screen a rather focused grin.

"Me too! Come on, James! Onward!" Derpy added while sounding like she was getting way too into the game as well. But can you really blame her?

The next level seemed to place our characters wading through what seemed to be the shallows of a river near the forest we had just been in. There was no solid ground. Just a layer of rippling light blue serving as the floor. Our characters did not seem to be slowed down at all, the depth of the water seeming to be only a few inches deep.

"Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink." I muttered almost instinctively. "Just how far have you gotten before getting stuck, Button? Was it here?"

"Nah, I always get stuck in the third level. I've made it to the boss a few times, but I keep getting floored! I always used the paladin though." He replied while we proceeded onward.

"Well, that explains everything. Stick with the archer, kid. You're really doing well with it." I replied while complimenting how he had only lost one life so far and even then it was due to a fluke.

"Yeah, I am doing really n... Whoa, heads up!" Button yelped as enemies seemed to burst from under the very shallow water. They seemed to be large green water snakes that would remain in place and snap at our characters before diving again and popping up elsewhere.

"Ooh, lovely! I always wanted a snakeskin purse!" Eleina spoke up with a bit of a menacing growl. Her character's water-based spells did not seem to do much to them, but the mage's lightning spells instantly fried them for obvious reasons. Upon death, the snakes would fall into the water limply before sinking out of sight somehow despite how gentle.

We soon found that the play field would have some noticeably darker patches of water. When I got curious and decided to see what would happen, my character dropped right out of sight before reappearing in the corner of the screen while flickering as if I had just lost a life. Only instead of losing a life, I had lost roughly 20% of my health bar. Derpy could not help but laugh at my curiosity taking a bite out of my health bar. "I didn't know you liked water that much, James!"

"Hey, levels with lots of water in them have such a soothing atmosphere to them. They're some of my favorites in games." I replied, finding the music that was playing through the speakers to be rather calming compared to the soundtrack that had been playing during the forest level. It even seemed to even have a mysterious foreboding to it that kept us all slightly anxious, as if letting us know that enemies could be hiding under the surface at any time.

One thing I found rather annoying to watch was that the archer character would hover over the deeper water with ease while the mage would flounder about in the water for about two seconds before sinking. At least I assumed she would sink. Eleina was always quick to get her character back into the shallows before she could sink. I found that the berserker character would sink instantly like mine too, leading me to believe that our greater offense and defense came at the cost of buoyancy in water. Poor Derpy even lost her first life that way!

I just now realized that I could literally go on for hours about how this game went. For the sake of time, I will give a brief rundown until I get to what happened in the final level. Or I will at least try to do so. The boss of the river area was what seemed to be a towering sea serpant that loomed in the backround in what was clearly deeper water and could only be attacked when his upper body came into the foreground to strike. His most troublesome form of attack was creating waves of water from now and then. Every time he came into the foreground, the patches of deep water would be changed, both in location and size. Button Mash did not have to worry about falling in, but he still could not take as much of a beating as the rest of us. I will admit that Derpy and I both lost a life during that boss fight, mostly from being knocked into the deep water more than once.

The next level seemed to take part on a volcanic mountain range. Along with various types of rock creatures and fire demons, we also had to be mindful of avalanches. I could see why Button had trouble getting through this area as the paladin. My character was not the swiftest and the boulders would often give me trouble. Even Derpy was having an easier time than me since the berserker's mighty axes could smash the boulders apart if she hit the button at the right time. I just had to be careful of when I moved and when I stood still to block a boulder with my shield. Even so, Button ended up losing the rest of his lives on this level and had to pop in another bit to get back in the game, albeit with the loss of his power-ups. The boss of this level was a large rock golem made up of numerous boulders. His melee attacks had great reach and he would at times fall apart with his remains rolling all around the screen. But the berserker's boulder-crushing axes could destroy the rolling rocks, resulting in the golem being cut down to size a bit and making his attacks less of a threat. If she ended up destroying enough of him, the boss would even panic and run all over the screen to get away from us!

"Haha, that's right, you fool! Run, I say! Run!" I could not help yelling while we all tried to chase him down. It was nothing but us laughing and jeering at the cowardice of the boss being cut down to a fifth of his original size. After a while, he would summon more rocks to bring himself back up to his original size. Even so, a few more repeats of that process and that sucker was done. Definitely one of the most entertaining bosses in the game.

The next level seemed to be a city area with plenty of random ponies running by in the foreground, background, and even right across the playing field. The town seemed to be under siege, what with all the fires and smashed wooden carts everywhere. Judging by the rather fancy designs on the buildings and that they were all white, I strongly suspect that the place was heavily based on Canterlot.

Button Mash was pretty psyched to have finally made it this far and was really fired up. "All right! I never made it this far! What's next?!"

"I see quite a few gentlemen in need of a woman's touch!" Eleina replied as the first wave of enemies marched into view. Some earth ponies clad in dark armor one would expect from the personal soldiers of Nightmare Moon.

"Just a bunch of tin cans! I'll pry them open!" Derpy spoke with a determined grin before smashing one of the soldiers into submission with a single full combo. The soldier's main means of attack were the spears they carried, which they would sometimes use with a thrusting charge that had great reach. Sometimes they would even throw them before conjuring another to replace the ones they had just tossed. Even Button Mash got hit a few times from those attacks.

Something I discovered early on was that the level seemed to be a type of bonus level and maybe even the every middle of the game. Civilian ponies would often run by and would frequently drop power-ups and even extra lives on occasion! What was more, we would sometimes find civilians being cornered by two enemy soldiers with the word 'HELP' flashing up onscreen for a second before vanishing and then repeating it. Disposing of their tormentors would cause the cornered ponies to raise their arms high while the word 'THANKS' appeared before running offscreen to the left while leaving a power-up in their wake.

With how frequent these power-ups were being dropped, I decided to make a tactical move and allow one of the enemies to finish me off since I was down to my last life. I had to specifically tell my companions to not assist me. Once the paladin was taken down, I popped in another bit to return to the game, although my power-ups had been lost. That was fine though since I quickly got them all back. Once my sword's blade had become twice as long as before while taking on a gold hue, I knew I was set for the rest of the game. Derpy even followed suit and let herself lose her last life so she could get her power-ups back with a full stack of lives ready.

I suspect we were not supposed to lose in that level since every now and then, Princess Celestia herself would swoop by and launching rays of fire from her horn at the enemies, often taking some of them out. This honestly caught me by surprise. "The heck?! Can Celestia really do that?!"

"I dunno, but she's really cool!" Button replied while picking up another power-up and boosting the number of arrows he fired with each shot to seven.

The boss at the end of this level/bonus stage was a towering minotaur with a dull blue coat and tough leather trousers while hefting a mighty war hammer in his hands. Compared to those I have sometimes seen in magazines, this one was exceptionally large and rather brutish. The head of that hammer was almost twice the size of the paladin. "Looks like it's hammer time. Let's just hope a second one doesn't show up on a raise platform." I spoke up while gripping my joystick tightly with one hand, referencing a rather infamous video game adversary from quite some time ago. If you do not know what I am speaking of, do not worry too much about it.

Poor Eleina lost her last life during that fight and certainly was not happy about having to let go of her power-ups before popping in another bit to rejoin the game, but a couple of civilian ponies rushing across the battlefield helped replenish some of them by dropping a scatter projectile power-up for her. I should also mention that by that point, Derpy's melee boost power-up effect had reached its maximum effect with the axes being the same size as the berserker's body. This increased their range and power, but also seemed to slow down her swings just slightly as well. I have to say I think the power increase for her weapons was even greater than mine since my attack speed was unaffected.

The boss attacked with broad swings of his hammer that fortunately took a while to deliver, but the range was so great that it was hard for the slower players to get out of range in time. He would even smash the hammer into the ground so hard that anyone that was nearby would take some minor damage and would be knocked down. I was even unfortunate to take a direct hit from that attack. And my shield did nothing to weaken it! That one blow knocked off half of my entire health bar. I would not be surprised if it would take the archer character out in one shot! Fortunately, my friends made certain that the next recovery item that was dropped by a passing pony was reserved for me. Eventually, the minotaur let out a bull's bellow while his coat turned a fiery red. The massive head of his hammer became engulfed in flames and would even launch waves of fire with each swing, increasing the range of all attacks. It was actually very tricky to get close enough to attack with getting fried in the process. I had to resort to the paladin's shield charge attack several times just to make an opening. I suspect that was during the last half of the battle since he eventually collapsed and flickered away not long after that. As if to add further to the bonus level theme, Celestia herself set down before us and cast a spell that gave us all an extra life and filled our health bars to their maximum capacity.

The next level seemed to be through a rather quiet mine or cave level filled with beautifully animated shimmering crystals hanging from somewhere off the top of the screen. The music even sounded rather mysterious and whimsical. The enemies in this level often burst out of the stone walls at the back or even come charging out of nowhere with rather crude looking spears with gemstones serving as spearheads. They seemed to be rather burly canine-like creatures. The burliest ones had earthy coat colors and wore tattered jackets and attacked with their mighty arms. The ones that were armed seemed to wear domed helmets that prevented us from seeing their eyes and wore rather simple metal breastplates and had rounded spaulders on their shoulders. Their coats seemed to be various hues of brown. I eventually found myself becoming skilled at using the paladin's riposte attack to counter the spear charges from the armored enemies charging in from off screen. But after observing the troglodytes who kept showing up, I thought I kind of recognized their appearances. "Hey, aren't those Diamond Dogs?"

"Huh? Yeah, I think they are! Who would've thought they knew how to fight like this?" Derpy replied while trying to stay out of reach of the spear.

"Derpy, don't worry about them! Axes beat lances! Don't you know about the weapon triangle?" I spoke while using my character's riposte attack to deal with the blatantly telegraphed spear charges.

"They do?! Lemme try... Whoa, I broke the spear! Hey, come back, fido! I thought you wanted to play!" Derpy spoke with a jeering tone after her axe strike seemed to shatter the spear being held by her enemy. He then seemed to panic and run away, though he escaped off the side of the screen before the berserker could reach him. "Oh, ponyfeathers!"

I found Eleina doing a good job of using her magic to keep the Diamond Dogs at bay, but she then started to get a little too into the whole thing. "Down boy! That's it...no! Bad dog! Down! Good boy... Now play dead!" That devious smirk... I think we were all looking at her out of the corner of our eyes in wariness.

"Wow, Mom. You're creepy." Button Mash spoke up in a more reserved tone of voice, prompting Eleina to look at us and grin sheepishly while a deep blush spread across her face.

"Sorry! I'm just...having too much fun." She replied with an adorable giggle. I have to say she is one awesome pro. Out of all of us, she had lost the fewest lives despite how complex the mage's play style is.

One part of the level included mine carts that would roll by on tracks. Attacking them would cause their cargo to spill out. Some would be gemstones, which would add bonus points to the score of whoever picked them up, some would be rocks that would roll and bounce around as temporary weapons against enemies before flickering away, and sometimes they would contain a single power-up or recovery item.

At the end of the level, we found the boss that seemed to be one particularly large Diamond Dog who was wearing a tattered jacket with the pockets absolutely loaded down with gemstones. He was carrying a large pickaxe and seemed to have a scar over his exposed chest while also wearing a miner's helmet.

"OK, big guy. Let's see who's top dog around here!" Button Mash growled before once again letting loose with a torrent of arrows. The scattering shots of seven arrows worked fine from no further than half a screen away, but the gaps between each arrow would sometimes be wide enough for the boss to squeeze through.

Naturally, the boss would attack by swinging his big pickaxe around in wide arches, but he was also a very jumpy and would often leap across the screen and smash his pick down in an overhead swing. He actually managed to land a hit or two on Button and his mother while they stayed back to provide assistance from afar.

"You naughty dog! It's time to you in the kennel!" Eleina shouted in frustration from managing to get hit. She retaliated by using her desperado attack, the boss just happening to move right into one of the crossing lines of blue fire.

At times, the boss would suddenly leap up off screen. The sound of a pickaxe rapidly striking stone would be heard before a whole bunch of small flickering black circles would start to dot the floor. "What happening there?" Derpy asked while moving her character away from one.

"He's bringing down the house! Keep moving!" I replied just before a shower of stalactites began to rain down from above at such frequency that they actually became quite disorienting because many of them would obstruct our views of our characters. I do not think either of us got out of that attack without taking a hit. In fact, there was so much going on that the arcade cabinet's processors became overloaded and began to cause the game to lag. That turned out to be a good thing for us since it gave us a little more time to react and move our characters out of the way. I doubt it would have been that way if there was only one character on screen. The game's speed returned to normal just an instant before the shower of rocky spikes ceased.

After a few more close calls, the boss's death animation occurred. The pickaxe seemed to get knocked right out of his hands and flew upwards before landing right on his head with a comical clank. His face looked really dazed for a moment before the top dog feel flat on his face while stars began to circle over his head. Only instead of stars, they were gemstones. I just had to ask, "Are Diamond Dogs really that obsessed with gemstones?"

The next level seemed to be a dungeon of sorts lined with dark stone walls and torches lining them with cobwebs in the corners of the screen at times. Judging from how things were progressing, I suspect the plot involved infiltrating Nightmare Moon's palace.

"Maaaan, I never thought we'd make it this far!" Button Mash spoke with great anxiousness. As much fun as he was having, he also looked very worried about what might happen next. I confess the levels were becoming progressively harder and the enemies were always getting the drop on us with their new attack methods. It was rare for us to end a skirmish against a new type of common enemy without taking some damage.

"It looks like we're almost at the end too. Since we've come this far, why not keep going until the credits roll?" Eleina asked while we paused onscreen for a moment to relax our wrists.

Derpy then stretched and groaned while she stood up. "Actually... Can I take a break for a few minutes? I need to get up and stretch."

I looked back at the screen while our characters remained stationary. There did not seem to be any timer to tell us to go forward. I suppose there would be no harm in leaving it be. At least as long as someone stuck around to make sure no one would bother it. "Yeah, I guess I could use a short break too. Could we ask you two to mind the cabinet while we get up and stretch for a bit?"

Eleina nodded and gave us both a smile. "Sure thing. Just please don't take too long. We don't have that much longer before Button's appointment."

Now surprisingly, Button Mash was much more enthusiastic in proceeding through the game and did not seem willing to wait. "Oh, come on! Can't we keep going now?"

"I know where you're coming from, Button. I used to be like you. But trust me, take a minute to get up and walk around. You'll feel better and more focused too." I replied, feeling slightly lightheaded myself from remaining focused on the game for too long. I suppose the best thing I can call such a feeling is a 'gaming high'.

"Oh, all right..." Button replied with a groan before getting up off his stool and beginning to trot around while browsing the other cabinets. His mother stayed right by the cabinet to make certain no one would hijack our game.

Derpy and I went over to a vending machine nearby to get us a snack. I then asked, "So, feeling any better?"

My friend replied with a big grin. "Yeah! I guess video games make for some good stress relief."

I popped a bit into the vending machine's coin slot and pressed the number combination for a bag of honey-roasted peanuts. Once I retrieved it from the bottom, I pulled the bag open and deposited half of its contents onto Derpy's upturned hoof. "Got any ideas on what you would like to do once we finish this game up?"

After munching on a few of the peanuts, she looked at me and replied, "Well... I don't know just yet. Want to just take a walk?"

"Sounds fine to me. You lead, I'll follow." I retorted after munching on some peanuts of my own. I have to say the best peanuts are those that are roasted with honey. There is just no better way to eat them.

After a good ten minutes, the four of us returned to our seats at the arcade cabinet. "All ready, everypony?" Eleina asked as she placed her hoof atop her joystick.

"I'm ready! C'mon, let's get going and take down the last boss!" Button Mash replied while already moving the archer character to the far right of the screen. Fortunately, the screen would not scroll unless we moved as well.

"Hold up, Button. Don't go to the head of the pack. Let me lead." I spoke while patting him on the head. Without arguing, he fell back and stayed behind the rest of us while we began to proceed.

The dungeon level had a rather dark and ominous tune playing with it, very fitting for an infiltration attempt. The enemies seemed to consist of stone gargoyle characters that would often masquerade as statues before breaking out of their stone shells. Other enemies seemed to be Nightmare Moon's elite troops, unicorn ponies clad in black armor that would even use levitation to launch their spears and swords at us. The paladin's shield charge would prove indispensable for countering their ranged attacks. We would also find prisoner's being contained within cells built into the back wall. Attacking the gates would cause them to escape and leave items behind before galloping offscreen. Mostly they were just recovery items, but that was fine since the enemies were becoming progressively more dangerous.

Eventually, we began to climb some stairs that seemed to enter into a hall with tall support pillars standing between tall arched windows. Button Mash seemed to have become quite excited. "All right! The final boss must be just ahead!"

However, I knew too well that a long stairwell followed by no enemies was not a good sign. If anything, I was feeling quite anxious. Even Derpy seemed wary. "Uh... James? Am I the only one who's got a bad feeling about this?"

"You're not the only one, Derpy. It's been a long time since I've felt myself sweat while playing games." Eleina replied with a noticeably uneasy expression. And boy, were we in for a surprise. After proceeding for a bit, one of the gaps between the support pillars showed not a typical window, but the profile picture of the berserker character we had seen while selecting our characters at the start of the game.

"Am I the only one thinking this isn't a good sign?" I asked, just before a ray of moonlight began to shine through the window and onto a spot on the floor. Out of the pillar of light flickered a dark figure. Once the pillar of light faded, a dark version of the berserker stood before us. It was the same sprite as Derpy's character, but was mostly black with gray highlights and red eyes.

"Hey, not fair! I'm the one playing as the berserker!" Derpy spoke with an annoyed scowl.

"It's not that! I think this boss is going to pit us against ourselves!" I replied while trying to get to the boss with a shield charge. While the dark doppelganger is a potentially overused cliché, that does not mean it cannot be used effectively.

Something I found right away was that the dark berserker boss was just as slow as Derpy's berserker. Its range was also short, allowing me to often land combos on it due to my longer weapon. But it was still no real pushover. Its attacks hit just as hard as I imagined, taking off a quarter of my character's life bar with one full combo after I drew in a little too close.

"I see what we need to do. We have to exploit our own characters' weaknesses!" Eleina spoke while peppering the boss with fireballs.

"My thoughts exactly!" I replied, finishing the boss off with a deadly riposte. Once the boss fell, it flickered out of sight. Of course, I knew we were not done yet. There were likely three more to go.

"OK, who's next?!" Button Mash called out while we marched ahead. Sure enough, the archer's form appeared in the next window before another pillar of moonlight brought forth the archer's dark shadow. "Oh, I guess it's me!"

"Why is this guy so hard to hit?!" Derpy groaned while the speedy archer constantly outmaneuvered the sluggish berserker. His main form of attack was moving vertically along the screen while launching a stream of arrows. After that, he would zigzag across the battlefield and repeat the process from the other side. I did manage to intercept him once while he was moving from one side to the other, but he broke out of the combo and knocked my character down with a dagger. The damage was rather light, about 10% of my health bar, but it was still enough to frustrate me to a small degree.

"OK, I'm gonna knock him down! Derpy, get your super attack ready." I spoke while standing ready while waiting for the archer to move into my line of fire.

"You mean that axe spin? All right!" Derpy replied while staying right behind me. When the archer moved in front of me, I used the paladin's shield barge to barrel through the arrows and floor the poor sucker. Just before he could climb to his feet, Derpy closed in and used her character's desperado attack. The spinning berserker got the most out of the attack, the archer more than likely losing most of his health. Button Mash and Eleina then managed to finish the boss off shortly after by peppering the little nuisance with arrows and spells.

"Am I the only one here who was annoyed by that boss?" I asked, feeling more than glad to have gotten it out of the way.

Eleina then reached out and rubbed her son's head with an endearing smirk. "Then that must be how our enemies feel when Button here does the same thing!"

"Aw, cut it out, Mom!" Button spoke with a laugh while nudging her hoof away. We then proceeded onward and found the next window to display the mage's form from the character select screen. Sure enough, a dark version of her rose from a pillar of moonlight that shone through the beautiful glass image.

"Looks like the bosses just added a woman's touch to the whole thing." I spoke before the dark mage began to assault us with black fireballs. However, we were quick to notice that a new gauge had appeared at the center of the top of the screen. It was black, but steadily turned white the more the boss used her magic.

"Hey, she's got a magic gauge too! When she runs out, let's gang up on her!" Button spoke up while we tried to weave around her attacks.

"Sounds like a plan! Her other spells will probably suck up more magic power if one of us gets close, but it'll probably really hurt. Wait until her magic is almost gone, and then get in there and use your dagger to hold her down, Button!" Eleina replied while managing to score a few hits of her own.

And that is exactly what happened. Once the gauge was all white, Button Mash darted in while we too hurried to close the distance. He scored a quick combo on the dark mage to knock her down while Derpy and I moved in to finish the job. It was a good thing the mage could not break out of a combo, or that fight would have likely gone on for a while.

The mage did not last long once we gained up on her. She collapsed in a heap before flickering away into nothingness. "OK! All that's left is the dark knight!" Derpy called out with gusto.

We proceeded on ahead, but when we came to the window that we were expecting to have the paladin's character select screen picture; we found the thing had been partially shattered. The music had also stopped, giving the moment a very eerie atmosphere. And before the window seemed to be a small dark form.

"Huh? Did someone beat us too it?" Button Mash asked while our characters came to a stop as the screen scrolled a little further to the right.

"This doesn't bode well..." I muttered softly. The game developers seemed to have made this moment in the game with the intention of freaking out the player. Suddenly, the dark figure stood up and its form became much more clear. A darker version of my paladin character. However, instead of red eyes, there was only a red glowing light coming form the eyehole in its helmet. "That's...creepy..."

The music had returned, but it was now a dark menacing tempo meant to either scare the player or to let us know we were in for a tough fight. Button Mash seemed genuinely freaked out. "Mom... I'm scared!"

"It's gonna be OK, Button. Just remember, all of our characters have weaknesses." His mother replied while also looking rather uneasy. That thing's glowing eye... It was the first time in the game that I felt myself get goose bumps.

"I'll go first." I spoke up before charging in and trying to land a combo. However, the dark paladin then proceeded to intercept my attack with a riposte of his own. Only unlike mine, where the paladin slashes his sword down on the enemy, this dark paladin instead impaled his sword right through me. It was a deadly blow as it took off about 30% of my health bar. "Good god...!"

This boss seemed to be the toughest of the bunch since his abilities were just as balanced as the real paladin. His shield provided a perfect frontal defense while stationary and he would sometimes use his shield charge attack to catch us by surprise. Eventually, we started to get a feel for how to take him down. The paladin's greatest weakness is that he cannot move while being attacked from the front when stationary. I managed to convince Button to get in close to attack with his dagger since the first strike was too quick for a successful counter. While stuck in one spot, Derpy would get behind him and land a deadly axe whirl to deal as much damage as possible.

Even with a pattern figured out, this boss did not drop easily. We all lost at least one life during that fight. Eleina was probably able to save us a few extra lives by using her close proximity spells to send the dark paladin sprawling while using his shield charge, which thankfully was not quite as fail proof as my own. When the dark warrior finally fell, we all let out a sigh of relief.

"Phew... I haven't gotten that fired up in a long time! That boss was crazy!" Button Mash spoke with a wheeze. I too felt a bit drained. Once more, we took a break to relax our minds and to get some water to refresh ourselves.

Judging by the fact that the next level had our characters trekking through a castle courtyard under the glow of the moon, I suspected it was the last level. And I soon found that this level was something of a boss rush. We once again found ourselves going up the same Ursa Minor from the forest level. Fortunately, it dropped much sooner this time. I suspect that the bosses in the last level have only half their health. And this time, I made certain I was nowhere near the thing when it keeled over.

We would also find ourselves going through skirmishes with other minor enemies before encountering the boss from their respective levels. Most of the enemies would even drop power-ups or recovery items, which were definitely something we needed after the duel with the dark paladin. As for the bosses... Do I really need to explain how they all went a second time? Personally, I do not think I need to go over them twice. There was no change to their attack patterns from what I could see.

Fortunately, our characters' dark doppelgangers did not reappear for this last stretch of the game. I suppose the developers felt that having us face them a second time in the level just after the one they appeared in would be rather redundant. Eventually, we climbed another long stairwell and found ourselves proceeding down another grand stone hall. The night had really settled in now that we could see the star-filled night sky through the tall windows.

"OK, I'm pumped... I'm super pumped..." Button Mash started to mutter. In fact, we had been making fairly little banter and commentary during this last stretch of the game. I suppose we were all probably tired and worn out, much like our characters must have been feeling by that point. We were focused. It was time to wrap things up.

Just after we started to proceed down the hall, I noticed the full moon starting to slowly scroll to the left in the windows. The further we proceeded to the right, the closer it drew to the center. And when the full moon finally came to the very center of the screen in the middle of a towering window, the screen's scrolling and our characters' movements stopped. Derpy gulped and whispered, "Uh oh..."

A familiar voice then spoke up from somewhere offscreen. "And so you have come." The screen then scrolled to the right, revealing Nightmare Moon seated on a throne that bore an uncanny resemblance to the throne I had seen in the castle ruins at the far end of the Everfree Forest. Ugh, just thinking of that place brought back some unpleasant memories...

"You little foals..." She spoke as she rose from her throne and spread her wings. With a mighty flap, she sprang forward while the screen scrolled with her before returning to the same location our characters were standing, the full moon still taking center stage in the night sky as a number of dark spots appeared on the moon's surface. It seemed to resemble a unicorn's head. The proverbial 'Mare in the Moon'. "My reign is absolute! Begone!"

"Time to put you in your place, your majesty." Eleina spoke with a determined smirk. She was pumped, as was Button Mash and Derpy Hooves. However, I... I was having difficulty pushing myself to want to harm her. Even if it is just a game... It was still Nightmare Moon.

The instant control returned to our characters, Nightmare Moon summoned a rain of lightning bolts onto the battlefield. We had about half a second to respond before the flickering circles on the floor were struck. Button and his mother began to try peppering Nightmare Moon with flurries of arrows and fireballs. However, Nightmare Moon had a very cool evasion trick. She would often move diagonally while remaining aloft with her wings flapping. When moving, she would have a few deep blue afterimages flickering in her wake in what I have to say was a very cool animation effect. But what would I expect from someone as awesome and beautiful as the Princess of Dreams herself?

"Whoa, she's hard to hit! Mom, gimme a hand here!" Button Shouted while he kept leaning left and right, apparently out of instinct, while his hoof kept mashing the projectile attack button while the archer character kept moving up and down the screen while trying to catch Nightmare Moon in the arcing volleys of arrows.

"I'm trying, but it looks like she's invincible when she moves! Derpy, try getting close to where she's going to move to and hitting her when she stops!" Eleina replied while managing to score just a couple of blows on the final boss while taking a few seconds to let hr magic gauge recharge after a few dozen shots.

"OK, give me a second!" Derpy spoke with a focused walleyed scowl while making the lumbering berserker over to one of the spots where Nightmare Moon had once been standing. Eventually, she returned to that spot. And when she did, Derpy let her have it with a full combo with her empowered axes. The final blow sent Nightmare Moon sprawling, but instead of climbing to her feet, she was seemingly wrapped in her glittering blue mane and tail like a shroud before seemingly warping to the other side of the screen and unwrapping herself. Unlike other bosses, I could actually hear her yelp in pain. It was rather unnerving to hear, at least to me.

Nightmare Moon began to display more of her combat prowess. A blue beam of light would extend from her horn before she would take a sudden swing with her head. Her horn apparently having become a blade of light, it would make a very long and wide swing and send anyone it struck sprawling to the ground. Button was able to get out of range in time, but the slightly slower mage did not react in time and got floored.

"That's a cheap trick! I wasn't ready!" Eleina growled while letting out a surprisingly humorous and unexpected equine snort.

I let out a laugh before replying, "Hey, she can probably do this in real life! Don't be too surprised!"

"James, what're you waiting for?! You haven't even tried to hit her!" Derpy spoke loudly while narrowly evading a light-charged tackle as Nightmare Moon swooped across the screen.

I will admit now that I was feeling torn. She was just an animated mess of pixels. And yet, I did not want to hurt her. She was still Nightmare Moon, one of the most precious people in my life. Was there a secret ending that would happen if we just lasted long enough in the fight for her to stop? No, that would just be wishful thinking. This game was clearly released a while before she was welcomed back to Equestria just a few months ago. Finally, I moved my character in her way and intercepted her next charge with my invincible shield barge before following it up with a full combo. "God, forgive me..."

Against my will, I assisted my companions in the battle against the Mare in the Moon. I just had to keep telling myself that she was not the same beautiful alicorn princess I know and love. The fight went on without much of a hitch, Button surprisingly being the one to take the least amount of damage out of all of us. Derpy and Eleina ended up losing a life at some point due to lack of speed and for Nightmare Moon frequently moving to the opposite side of the screen and catching the projectile specialists by surprise. However, once I assume we got her health down into the red, Nightmare Moon pulled off one last trick. A desperado attack of her own.

"The night belongs to me!" She shouted before hovering out of reach in the middle of the screen with the full moon just above her head. The moon then seemed to glow as her horn was engulfed in a bright glow.

"Whoa! Stay close!" I spoke up, prompting my friends to move their characters closer to mine. Shortly afterward, many bolts of lightning started raining down all at once, but in a type of grid fashion. Spots on the floor were left untouched, but then all the open spots were then struck by more lightning while the areas that had been struck were left open again. We had to be careful to alternate the places our characters were standing in to avoid getting zapped. After that, entire walls of lightning rained down onto the floor at the edges of the screen and swept inward towards us. We had to stand in the row under Nightmare Moon herself to evade it, but then had to scramble for the edges of the screen when a wall of lightning came down in that row and then parted in two directions. More and more lightning attacks followed and poor Derpy ended up losing a life, leaving her with just one left. I should also mention by that point we were all down to our last bit. We had come too far to lose by then.

Finally, the assault ceased and Nightmare Moon landed on the right side of the screen. Luckily, Eleina was standing near that spot and moved in close just in time to catch Nightmare Moon with a deadly lightning spell. The instant it struck, Nightmare Moon let out a yell as the screen seemed to go into slow motion before landing in a heap on the floor at the edge of the screen.

"All right! You go, Mom!" Button Mash yelled in glee as the fight was clearly over. We got her. The four of us had beaten the game in one fun sitting.

"Well, it seems I still got it." Eleina spoke proudly while grinning sheepishly. I have to say, she has some mad skills.

"Ooh, what's happening now? A last minute monologue?" Derpy asked as Nightmare Moon's sprite seemed to be shaking while she climbed to her knees.

"Uh... Mom? Didn't we just win?" Button Mash asked while our characters seemed unresponsive to whatever input we made with the joysticks and buttons.

"I think we did... Or is there another phase in the boss fight?" Eleina replied while seeming equally baffled. Nightmare Moon clearly was not showing any signs of actually being down for the count with how her sprite was still moving.

"Oh boy... Is she...growing?" Derpy asked while seeming noticeably intimidated. I leaned in closer to pay closer attention to Nightmare Moon's sprite.

Nightmare Moon spoke with a growl to her voice as her speech became increasingly distorted. "My reign...is...eternal!" What followed was a rather nightmarish sight as Nightmare Moon let out a wrathful distorted scream while lightning seemed to strike her body while she threw her head back. The full moon in the center of the top of the screen slowly turned an unnerving red. Her body seemed to grow to twice its previous size while her mouth hung open with fangs lining her jaws. Mane and tail surged wildly behind her; the alicorn's eyes now just a pair of glowing white orbs in her head. Her armor seemed fractured and damaged. It was especially unnerving to me, having to watch a dear friend of mine being twisted into a demonic version of herself. To make the experience even more intimidating, a new soundtrack began to play that was heavy on what sounded like digitized pipe organs.

"This...isn't good..." I muttered as our characters even backed away from her. Probably a good thing since it would give us greater distance to plan an assault.

"Whoa, that's freaky! I never knew Nightmare Moon was a monster!" Button yelled before unleashing streams of arrows the instant control returned to our characters.

"I'm telling you, she's not! I'm sure she would even find this depiction to be insulting to her image if she saw this now!" I replied while trying to get in close to score a combo.

Nightmare Moon's attacks were on a completely different level in this new form. Nothing short of the highest difficulty level for this game. Her mane would at times take swipes at us and would surprisingly knock us down. Fortunately, that seemed to be the weakest of her attacks. Unlike her natural state, she did not move around in a predictable zigzagging fashion. Her larger size made her a somewhat larger target and she would often just charge straight ahead to ram us with an impaling enchanted horn attack. In fact, I would say her larger body being easier to hit was the only upside to this change for us. Sometimes, she would not even flinch from our attacks. Most enemies would at least reel from any melee attacks being landed on them. For this boss, only combo finishers would knock her off her feet. Actually, sometimes they would only push her back. She would just get pushed back at all other times.

"She's as sturdy as a moving van loaded down with carts and pianos!" Derpy grumbled in frustration while she landed a full combo on Nightmare Moon that did not even knock her down. Which is especially odd when one considers how hard the berserker's attacks hit.

It was then that Nightmare Moon dished out a new attack on the hapless berserker. She conjured up a trail of ice spikes from the ground that extended from just in front of her and all the way over to the opposite end of the screen. That last blow was enough to take Derpy out. And with that being her last life, the berserker's fallen form flickered and vanished. This time, she did not return.

"Nuts! We lost the big girl!" Button groaned before using his character's desperado attack to rain a shower of exploding arrows onto Nightmare Moon. These seemed to do a decent amount of damage, though it was unclear just how much damage we were inflicting on this tank of a boss. It also did not help that whenever she did happen to get knocked down, Nightmare Moon would lash out with her mane and tail to swat away anyone who got too close. This made it impossible to deliver a following melee combo to her after another.

Derpy frowned while her goofy eyed glared at the screen. "Come on, take her down! Do it for me!"

"No worries, Miss Derpy. You will be aven... No! Not now!" Eleina replied while drawing in close to deliver a deadly lightning spell, but only to discover that her magic gauge was not filled enough to use it. She did not even have the means to use her potent desperado spell. Nightmare Moon responded to her close proximity and used a much more erratic version of her previous lightning spells, bringing down numerous bolts in a very erratic manner. The mage got hit several times and quickly faded from the screen, her last life used up.

"You fiend! How dare you do that to my mom!" Button yelled before darting in and scoring a quick combo on Nightmare Moon with the archer's dagger. Unfortunately, it only pushed her back instead of knocking her down. She then retaliated by using the same ice spike spell, finishing off the lightly armored archer. Button Mash let out a groan before saying a word in gibberish that I have no idea of how to spell. But I assume it translated to something like 'oh, come on, you filthy piece of broken subroutines!' or something to that effect. I suppose I could have asked, but I had the rest of the fight to focus on. Especially now that I had to do it all alone.

"Come on, James! Nail her!" Derpy cheered as the paladin remained the only one standing. With no one to back me up, I became silent and decided to play smart. Only moving when needed and trying to remain stationary to make certain my shield was ready to block any attacks. Nightmare Moon's attacks would often connect, and many would chisel away a sliver of my health with each hit, but I was at least surviving. I even managed to get in close and land a couple of riposte attacks on her by sheer luck. But even then, I could not last forever. After trying to play it safe for so long, my character's health finally turned completely red after blocking too many overly damaging attacks. And...that was my last life.

"Crap..." I muttered while letting out a sigh of tension. Now that all four characters had been taken out, the screen darkened while Nightmare Moon's monstrous sprite remained standing in one place. The word 'Continue?' appeared onscreen while a large yellow 9 began to count down.

"Do you think we should try again?" Derpy asked while we glanced at each other. We all still had one bit in reserve.

Button Mash seemed rather anxious before looking over at his mother. "Mom? Do we still have time to try again?"

Eleina seemed to quickly peek into her purse and checked what I assume was a pocket watch. "Um... We still have fifteen minutes. We should probably get... Well, what about you, James? Shall we give one last shot and see this thing through?"

I then just happened to glance up at the title of the game spread over the top of the game cabinet. Equestrian Heroes. Perhaps it was because I was still fired up from the playing, but the word 'heroes' caused me to smirk. I then glanced back and forth at my three companions and placed my hand in front of the very middle of the control deck. "For Equestria."

That caused all three of the ponies to suddenly grin or smirk before they placed their hooves over my hand and chanting together. "For Equestria!"

Just before the timer could run out, I snatched up the four remaining bits sitting just below the screen and rolled them all into the coin slot. The timer vanished and the play field lit up again. At the top of the screen above the health bars were the four shrunken profile pictures of our characters. We all selected our most fitting classes, causing them to flicker onto the left side of the screen. Eleina then spoke with a smirk, "It's time to end this, you foul mistress of the shadows!"

Before our characters could stop flickering, I hurried in and scored a quick sword combo on Nightmare Moon before I could become vulnerable. When she tried to lash out at me while I stood my ground and used my shield, Derpy came up behind me and used her projectile shockwave attack. Since our attacks have no effect on each other, it completely bypassed me and knocked Nightmare Moon off her feet. "I got your back, James! Let's derp her up!

"Have some taste of arrows, you witch! Extra crispy!" Button yelled with great enthusiasm while raining volley after volley of exploding arrows onto her. However, after nineteen uses, his health had become too low to use it again with only 5% of his health left. And it was then that Nightmare Moon displayed a rather cruel trick that made us think carefully about our strategy. The screen flashed before a lightning bolt instantly shot down from above and took the archer out. "What the?! Where'd that come from?!"

Eleina seemed to figure it out in a few seconds and explained while pressuring the boss with her fireball spells. "I think it's a tactic that forces you to not get too far away when your health gets low!"

Derpy seemed rather baffled by this and asked while managing to score a desperado attack on the boss, "What does that mean?"

While I unleashed a shield charge to barrel through the boss's ice spike attack, I thought up a way of explaining it without being redundant. "She means that the game punishes cowards who are low on health. Don't back away. Show some courage and stay close and strike!"

"Courage?! I can do that!" Button replied while moving his revived archer down to a closer distance to the boss after a few more explosive arrow bombardments.

Nightmare Moon's attacks became more erratic the longer the battle dragged on. We all lost one or two lives, but we did not back down. Our goal was to overwhelm her with sheer numbers while taking care to rely on all of our tricks, swapping between melee and projectile attacks as needed. There were times where Button Mash would serve as a decoy while I struck from below or above Nightmare Moon with my very broad projectile strike. We had to fight without power-ups, so the fight was a bit on the frustrating side.

Eventually, Nightmare Moon started using sudden shockwave attacks to send us all sprawling. And after a few times of using this tactic, she started launching beams of electrical energy from her horn that reached across the entire screen. It was really potent. No matter which type of characters it hit, the attack always shaved off a good 30% of our health. Eventually, I got bold and used the paladin's shield charge. The shield let me barrel right through the beam of lightning and ram her to disrupt the attack. Immediately afterwards, I landed a full combo on her. And on that last hit, the music stopped, the screen froze, and the area slowly darkened. We got her.

None of us spoke, though Button Mash let out a loud shout of excitement while pumping his hoof. Nightmare Moon shuddered and flashed before raising her head and letting out a distorted digitized scream. Beams of light ripped out of her body while the entire screen seemed to shake. The screen then slowly turned white before everything fell silent. When the screen started to return to normal, it showed the same room once more. However, it seemed that the moon was gone and the sky being shown in the windows was a bright blue. Dawn had come. And lying at the right side of the screen was a much smaller alicorn who I recognized instantly. "Luna...?"

The screen faded and seemed to show a type of cut scene. It showed Luna's fallen form from a closer distance before a white pony's leg stepped into the shot from the left. And judging by the golden shoe on the hoof, I knew who it was. White text flowed just under the rectangular edge of the screen within the black border. "Sister... Are you well?"

It showed a sudden close-up on Luna's eye before it opened. The view then changed to being somewhere behind her head, showing the form of Celestia standing before her. "It has been too long... The Nightmare has ended. Thanks to our heroes."

The screen then changed to a side view of Celestia reaching out and touching her sister's hoof, which was being raised to her. "All is well now..." It then showed our four characters standing beside each other in amazingly detailed pixilated glory. "Thanks to each of you. Thank you."

I felt myself relax immensely upon seeing this final cut scene. My three friends seemed very tired as well. A more uplifting tune began to play as the screen faded to black. What followed was an interesting way of wrapping the game up. A detailed profile shot of the archer slid onto screen for a moment before displaying his title and the score he had accumulated by the end of the game. The berserker came next, followed by the mage, and lastly the paladin. But then I got a surprise when the display of his picture extended to the right a bit just enough to show Luna herself come in and give him a kiss on his armored cheek, prompting a look of glee in his exposed eye. This was very unexpected and got a laugh out of all of us. What, was it a reward for being the player who dealt the final blow to the boss? What would happen if the mage or berserker finished Nightmare Moon off? Wanting to show this to Luna next time we met up, I pulled out my DSi and turned on the camera feature just in time to snap a photo of the adorable spectacle before it could fade away.

"Woo! That was a lot of fun. I'd love to do this again sometime!" Derpy spoke with a loud sigh. A second later, the high score screen came up where we could all enter three letters to identify ourselves by. Not surprisingly, Eleina had the highest score. That mare is one heck of an old pro. I was not too far behind though. Derpy had the lowest score overall, but Button Mash was not very far ahead of her, being the inexperienced spaz he is. I cannot recall what our scores were, but I am sure you could check next time you pass by the arcade in Ponyville. The high scores tend to show up onscreen after the cabinet shows a brief demo.

Eleina entered 'MOM' as her initials, probably because she is the only mother in town who is into games like this. Button entered 'MSH', clearly as a reference to the second word in his name. Derpy used 'DRP' for her initials. As for me, I was not entirely certain or what to put in for mine while being limited to just three letters. Eventually, I had an idea. I entered 'EOH' as my initials, our scores being at the very top of the list. Feel free to guess what those three letters stand for.

"Whoa... That was fun, but it really took a lot outta me. I feel like I could use a nap." Button Mash spoke up while slouching over the control deck with a very satisfied look in his eye.

"That's just your body coming down from a gaming high. You'll feel ok after a short walk. Trust me, anyone who gets too immersed in a game will get that feeling." I explained, also feeling rather drained myself.

Eleina then looked at me and gave me one of her sweet motherly grins. "It was very nice of you to play with Button, James. He almost never has anypony to play with him. And you were very good at this game too! Did you say you grew up on these?"

I nodded and turned her way. "Sure did. I think I started playing video games back when I was three years old. I didn't get my own game console until I was five, and that was a random present at a holiday party. And if there is one thing gaming has taught me over the years, it is patience."

She let out a giggle and replied, "Oh, you do need to have patience when playing some of them. And... Wait, what time is it?" Eleina then looked into her purse and let out a gasp. "Oh dear! Button, your appointment is in eight minutes! We need to get going!"

Button Mash glanced up at his mother. "Huh? Eight minutes?! OK, we better go!" He then looked back at me and stuck out his hoof for a shake. "It was awesome meeting you, James! You're the coolest gamer I've ever met! Wanna meet up here on Sunday for some more?"

It was incredibly flattering to be praised by such a cute kid. I reached out and grasped his hoof before shaking it. "It was a pleasure, Button. And sure! I have plenty of free time on Sundays. I'll be sure to bring a couple of friends along too."

"Awesome! OK, gotta go! See ya! And it was great playing with you too, Miss Derpy!" Button replied before galloping away. His mother then stood up before walking after him. However, she then stopped beside Derpy and me before giving us a bright and endearing smile. "It was a pleasure getting to spend time with you two. And thanks for being a good friend to my son. If you see us again, please be sure to say hello."

"Will do, Eleina. You take care." I replied while giving her a tender cuddle, which she returned with a smile. She also shared one with Derpy before trotting away to catch up to her son. While she left, I could not take my eyes off of her.

Derpy seemed to notice my expression and asked with a rather whimsical smirk on her face. "See something you like?"

I had to suppress a snicker upon hearing those words. "Yup. I have no idea who her husband is, but he is one lucky dude. That mare is the hottest girl in town, hands down. And that's saying something because I know Rarity." Derpy got a good chuckle out of that little quip.

"Mmhm. She does tend to get a lot of attention. She's a really nice lady too." Derpy explained once she had ceased laughing. "She's a good mom though. Button Mash just recently started attending school in Ponyville."

"Yeah, Button is a cool kid too. Pretty fun to be around. I never thought I would make friends with any kids outside of the Cutie Mark Crusaders." I replied before looking at Derpy. "Uh... Do you think that's weird? A guy being friends with a kid who might be two decades younger than himself?"

Derpy raised her wings again as if to shrug her shoulders. "I don't see anything wrong with it. Friends are still friends, right?"

"Most people would probably find it creepy where I come from. And...uh...don't ask why, all right? Touchy subject there..." I retorted while trying not to think of the concept too much.

The two of us then stood up and stretched while letting out long satisfied groans. How long had we been squatting in front of that device anyway? It felt really good to finally stand up again. I then glanced around at the other game machines. I suppose I could have checked them out as well, but I had thoroughly satisfied my gamer itch for the time being. I just wanted to take a walk and loosen myself up.

Derpy the approached me and nudged my side. "So... What's next?"

I looked down at her and asked, "Well... How do you feel?"

"Oh, I'm much better now. But...I still have nothing to do right now. Can we still hang out?" She replied while looking rather sheepish.

After that nice long gaming session, I was really enjoying myself with Derpy Hooves. I really did not want to part ways with her yet. Especially since my friends had not returned from Cloudsdale. "Sounds good to me. What would you like to do next?"

"Well... How about... Oh, I got it! Remember that sword you got on your birthday?" Derpy replied before raising her voice in some excitement.

"That wooden longsword the Cutie Mark Crusaders crafted for me? Yeah, I've got that propped up next to the stairs in Fluttershy's house. You want to try using it or something?" I retorted while thinking back to that wooden weapon. Every now and then, I take it out into the meadow to practice with it. I have yet to actually need it for anything though.

Derpy shook her head and explained, "No, I don't want to use it. But I was hoping I could watch you try using it for real. You know, seeing how you did so well playing as that knight in the game?"

"Heh, I guess I did do really well with him. OK, sure. Let's go get my sword." I replied while probably blushing from that praise. The two of us then left the arcade and headed to the far side of town. It was a fairly long walk to get back home.

After passing through Ponyville and reaching the meadow that separates Fluttershy's home from the town, Derpy seemed to stop while she peered ahead. "Uh oh..."

I stopped and looked back at her. "Something wrong?" She seemed very uneasy and pointed ahead. When I turned around and peered into the distance, I noticed what seemed to be a pegasus stallion I did not recognize walking up the slope to Fluttershy's front door. He then seemed to fiddle with the mailbox for a moment before turning and walking back down the slope and in our direction.

"Wait... Isn't our place part of your mail route, Derpy?" I asked while looking back at her.

"Uh huh... Let's just get this over with..." Derpy replied halfheartedly while trying to stay behind me. I decided to lead on, hoping that this new mailpony would not be any trouble.

Once we drew closer to each other, I saw that the stallion seemed to be wearing a brown mail satchel over his shoulder. He had a dark gray coat and a reddish brown mane and tail. His cutie mark seemed to depict a postage stamp of sorts. I cannot recall mush else about his description since he did not leave a very pleasant lasting image on me. And I will now explain why.

Before I could even say anything to the passing stallion, his ears perked up before a scowl spread across his face. "You again? What're you doing out here, you klutz?"

That was quite a rude greeting. I turned to face Derpy, who sheepishly stepped out from behind me. "Sorry..."

"Sorry, huh? I'm the one who's been assigned to pick up your slack, you know. Why can't you do anything right?! Is being useless your special talent? Useless as bubbles?!" The stallion replied with a rather angry tone, but I also swear I heard an underlying mocking tone to it as well.

Derpy could not offer a reply. She even seemed to be tearing up. The stallion continued on, his angry scowl slowly turning into a rather cruel smirk that made me feel a great bitterness towards him. "I bet you even lose packages every week too. You think the boss ever gets complaints for mail being covered in muffin crumbs? Seriously, how did a total loser like you even land a job in one of the most complex businesses in town?"

When I glanced back down at my friend, I winced when I saw that she had started cry. She had raised one hoof to her eye and seemed to be quietly sobbing while trying to look away. Those words clearly struck a nerve in her heart. "You worthless boggle-eyed freak... Hey, pal. Why don't you ditch that klutz? I'm telling you right now, she's nothing but trouble." The stallion then spoke to me with a rather smug expression.

By then, I was feeling rather disgusted with this stallion. It had been a long time since another's actions and words had left my blood boiling. I stared at him and spoke as calmly as I could. "I'll pass."

Derpy seemed to stop sobbing and looked up at me. The stallion seemed rather shocked too and asked, "Huh? No?! Are you kidding?! Look at her! Those eyes say it all, man! She's just a disaster waiting to happen!"

"And I would still rather hang out with her than you." I replied while dropping down to a knee and pulling my friend closer to me. "At least she has only one big flaw as opposed to the several you have. Putting her down just because of one chronic fault? How childish. I know eight-year-olds more mature than you."

I could see Derpy looking at me out of the corner of her eye with a truly flabbergasted expression. The stallion was no different. He could not even speak. All he did was give me one long silent stare with his mouth hanging open slightly. I then continued and spoke, "Look, I don't blame you with being upset for whatever happened this morning. But at least you're probably being compensated for the extra duty. That means more bits in your pocket, right? Treat yourself to a nice meal tonight with it or something. Give yourself a pat on the back. And for the love of god, stop rubbing her problems in her face. At least she's more mature than you and probably learns from her mistakes."

"James...?" Derpy muttered lightly before falling silent again.

I did not stop. I wanted to get everything I had on my mind off before I could be interrupted. "And you know what? Whenever I see her, I don't cringe in fear of what she might do next. I always smile. Just seeing this sweetheart here brings a smile to my face. So she's a klutz? That's fine. We all have flaws. And that's just one compared to you. Your flaws are obviously that you are very critical towards others and not nearly as accepting of their faults. That's two over one. So come back and complain once you completely iron out those faults and only after that. That reasonable enough for you?"

There was a long silence while the stallion just stared at us. And then, without a word, he just walked past us and back towards Ponyville. I have no idea what he was thinking and I did not care to find out.

"Man, I never thought I would meet another jerk in Ponyville after Diamond Tiara... Derpy? Are you OK?" I spoke to myself before noticing tears streaming down my friend's face. She did not say anything, but her blank expression turned into a crooked smile before she practically jumped at me before grabbing me in one of the tightest hugs I had received in a while.

"Thank you..." She whispered in my ear. I could not help holding her tightly in my arms as well.

"I had to say something, Derpy. You're a good person and a good friend." I whispered back while my hand stroked her folded wings.

I heard her whisper with a tearful voice, "Am I...really somepony who makes you smile?"

I decided to be completely honest to her about that. "You are. Whenever I see you around, even if I do not have a means to directly interact with you, I can't help but smile. You could be right in front of me or far away in a crowd of ponies. Somehow, I just always notice you. And when I do, I can't help but smile and feel a bit happier."

Derpy went silent for a moment before tightening her grip around me. "I feel the same way about you too... Whenever I see you going around, I also smile. You're so easy to spot and you're always so open and accepting. You never complain about other's flaws... And just being with you makes me feel better about myself. Why is that?"

I dwelled on this for a moment before finding a response. "Well, a former friend once told me that I have a 'healing personality'. Do you think he might have been right?"

The feeling of Derpy lowering her chin into my shoulder showed that she had nodded. "I think so... You're very sweet."

"I try to be." I replied quietly while holding her close. Derpy certainly might not be one of my closer friends, but she is a friend nonetheless.

A couple of minutes passed before her grip on me loosened. Derpy then pulled away from me and looked at me with a walleyed smile. Dried tears had left sodium deposits on her cheeks. "I think I'll be OK now... Hopefully the others will stop bothering me at work soon too."

I nodded and climbed to my feet. "Me too. But now that we're almost to my place, shall I go grab my sword?"

Derpy grinned broadly and started to hover in the air. "Yes please, Sir James!"

There were numerous little animals scampering about the area once Derpy and I had reached the front yard of Fluttershy's cottage. Angel seemed to be taking nap in his little house off to the left. "Seems nopony's here yet. I'll be right back out."

"OK, I'll be over here on the bridge." Derpy replied before lying down on it. I then stepped inside the cottage and saw what I was looking for. A long wooden sword propped up next to the stairs in the corner. Still, just to be safe, I tried calling out to see if anyone was home at the time.

"Honey?! Scootaloo?! Are you home?!" I called out while holding a hand to the side of my mouth. There was no answer, lowering my spirits just slightly. It was then that I was reminded of just how much I was missing my friends. But my spirits rose when I felt something small land on my left shoulder.

"Huh? Oh, Angela! At least you're here." I spoke up in delighted surprise to find my pet dove perching next to my head. I reached up and stroked her head, prompting a delighted coo from her. "You wanna watch me practice some swordplay out there?"

Angela seemed to nod in agreement. I then approached my sword and looked it over. It had been a while since I had last held it. "Man, Apple Bloom did a fine job on sanding this down. I don't think I could get a splinter from this if I tried."

I then noticed something else on the sword. With the thing turned upside-down with the blade pointing down, the round wooden pommel was sticking in the air. And hanging on it were the two fingerless black gloves Lyra had given me for my birthday. "I guess swordplay does require some extra protection for the hands."

I took the gloves and slid them onto my hands before grasping my sword's hilt and hoisting the thick wooden blade over my right shoulder. I then went back outside and slipped through the doorway with Angela in tow. Once Derpy saw us coming, she stood up and trotted our way. "Ooh, looking good! Is that how you're supposed to carry a big sword like that?"

"In all honesty, I think it would be impossible to pull a sword this long from a scabbard if it was on your back. So hoisting it over the shoulder is probably the best way to carry it around." I replied while taking a moment to gentle caress Angela's fluffed chest feathers.

"Oh, hi there, Angela! You coming to watch too?" Derpy asked upon noticing my pet on my shoulder. The little white dove let out a coo of approval while almost seeming to smile.

"Yup. She's along for the ride. Let's go." I then proceeded to lead Derpy away from the cottage to an open area very close to the Everfree Forest.

"This looks open enough. Angela, would you mind staying by Derpy while I do this? I'd hate to clock you one with this thing." I spoke to Angela, worried that one of my movements might cause her to fall off or even get hit by my sword. While certainly not sharp enough to cut anything, the sturdy hard blade could still crush her frail body. Angela seemed to understand and fluttered over to Derpy before perking atop her head.

"OK, Sir James! Show us what you know!" Derpy called out while looking very focused on me. I nodded in kind before turning to my left for extra momentum to swing the sword right from my shoulder while grasping it in just my right hand. I then lifted myself up from being dragged down by the weight to provide more momentum to swing the sword upward before reaching up and grasping the hilt with my left hand and bringing the blade down hard into the grasp with a twin-handed grip.

Derpy gave me a brief applause before I decided to exercise some more of my swordplay knowledge. Now in something of a kneeling position, I tried spinning to my right for more momentum while following with a low sweep of my sword while imagining myself striking at a foe's legs. I then rose to my feet while still turning and performed another broad diagonal sweep with my blade. I just now realized that writing about how one actually moves during swordplay is somewhat tricky. If only I had some diagrams to show the stance and the movement of the sword...

I then suddenly performed a feint, where I suddenly bent my knees while leaning backwards to pull my body back without moving my feet. Holding the blade straight, I then thrust the sword forward for a hard stab. I then pulled the sword hard to my right, imagining tearing it from the impaled foe's torso. After that, I made a wide sweep to my left that caused the sword to point behind me with the pommel facing forward. I then put that pommel to good use by jabbing it forward before following with another wide sweep to my right.

This continued for a good minute or so before I decided to stop and take a breather. Derpy immediately applauded while I approached her with my sword over my shoulder "That was really cool! Are you a retired swordsman or something?"

Retired? I almost laughed at that bit. "Not even close. I've never applied for anything combat related in my life. Besides, swords are outdated where I come from. Just relics of a bygone era, but are still universal symbols for combat and noble warriors. If only the history of the weapon was so noble..."

Derpy seemed to fail to notice the dark overtone of that last line, something I am grateful for. "Well, you really looked like you knew what you were doing. Are you sure you're not a knight?"

"Yes, Derpy. Very sure. I was just improvising right there. Still, I have years of visual training by watching and observing swordplay performed by others. I just build off of what I've seen to try to perform adequately with a blade. I do have some combat experience from when me and my friends went to stop Nightmare Moon a few months back, but I can't see myself doing stuff like that for a living." I replied while examining the blade, hoping that striking the ground with it did no harm.

"Oh, OK. Well, it's still cool that you know how to use it." Derpy replied before her eyes turned towards the forest nearby. "Hey, James? Since we're out here, wanna take a walk through the Everfree Forest?"

As odd as that request was, I held no fear for the forest and saw no harm in walking along the path inside it so long as we did not go too far. "I don't see why not. Angela, would you mind waiting for us back here?"

Angela nodded before fluttering up to me and giving me a gentle nuzzle before flying back to the cottage in the near distance. Derpy then trotted along ahead of me while we searched for the actual path that leads into the Everfree Forest. "OK, ready?"

"Lead on, Derpy. I've got your back." I replied while carrying my sword over my shoulder.

The forest was quiet with the sounds of wildlife occasionally breaking the silence. I really do not know for certain why so many ponies fear this place. I actually went out of my way to ask why while all my friends were present at one time. Plants grow, weather changes, and animals take care of themselves all on their own? Come on. Where I am from, that is how things are all over the planet. Needless to say they completely flipped out over that with Rarity even spazzing out in my face before seemingly fainting in an overly dramatic fashion.

Eventually, Derpy stopped on the simple dirt path and glanced around. "It's really peaceful out here... Wait, did you hear that?"

"Um... No, I didn't hear anything...but I am seeing something." I replied after glancing around and noticing something in the shadows not very far from us. A pair of glowing green beacons that seemed...vaguely familiar.

"Derpy... Get behind me." I spoke up, feeling myself tense up. Derpy seemed to notice the glowing lights as well and silently moved behind me. "Now...run. Let's just...run for it." I spoke softly, yet urgently. Derpy took a few steps back before suddenly turning and running back down the path. I too followed suit and sprinted with my sword over my shoulder.

"What do you think it was?!" Derpy called while glancing over her shoulder at me. She soon took to the air, probably just in case she needed to get up into a tree.

Before I could reply, I thought I heard what sounded like the clattering of wood and heavy footsteps not far behind me. When I managed to look back, I saw the same two glowing lights steadily gaining on me while a dark brownish form moved through the shadows. I then remembered that I was, in fact, armed with a fairly large weapon. "Oh, what the hell. Bring it!"

I came to a sliding stop before turning around and taking a swing with my sword. Whatever was coming did not stop in time and got smacked right across the face and also got knocked down. Now that our pursuer was closer, I recognized it right away. "Whoa. A real timber wolf?"

Just like in the arcade game I had played a short while ago, the timber wolf was a lupine creature of sorts made entirely out of various pieces of wild wood. Branches, twigs, leaves. It was just a ramshackle collection that took on the visage of a wolf, complete with wooden fangs. In all honesty, I would much rather suffer a bite from real fangs than wooden ones. The strange creature was also noticeably smaller than real wolves, but was still clearly a threat.

It shook its head to clear its vision after that blow while I took a more proper stance with the blade being held laterally before me in a defensive stance. I was not feeling as scared as I normally would be if I were unarmed. I knew I could defend myself. The wooden wolf began to slowly circle me while I constantly rotated myself to face it. Becoming rather annoyed by this creature, I made a sudden lunge forward and brought my sword down onto its head. "Piss off, mutt! I'm not in the mood for you!"

The wolf backed away again, but still did not retreat. But after a moment more of observing the predator, I noticed something I had somehow overlooked. The creature was made of wood. Just wood. "Hang on... Hey! What are you even gonna do to me?! What are you gonna get out of eating my flesh?!"

Much to my surprise, the timber wolf actually seemed to understand my words, since its glowing eyes opened noticeably wider while letting out a rather bewildered growl. I then continued and explained while holding my arms out to my sides, "You're nothing but wood1 Just wood! Trees don't get nutrition from flesh! They get it from water and soil! How would you even digest me?! Can you even taste what you eat?! Do you even have a stomach in there?! How do you timber wolves even repro... Actually, scratch that last part. I don't want to imagine that."

The creature before me seemed extremely baffled by my words and even raised a 'paw' to its head to scratch it. Apparently having no answer for me, it raised its forelegs as if to say 'I have no clue' before running back into the underbrush and out of sight. Probably to go soak in a pond for some moisture.

I glanced behind me and soon noticed Derpy standing on a branch sticking out from a tree. "Uh... What did you do?! That thing just ran away!"

I shrugged my shoulders, also baffled by numerous unanswered questions that were floating around in my head. "I guess I just overloaded the thing's mind by pointing out huge plot holes about it and its brethren. At least they would be plot holes if this was a story or tv show."

Derpy seemed to understand what I was getting at. She then asked while hovering down from her safe spot, "Now that I think about it, where did timber wolves come from?! They're just wood that's held together by some kinda spell, right? Does that mean somepony made them and just let them run wild?"

"My first guess would be Nightmare Moon back when she was still a rogue, but that yellowish green glow in their eyes tells me otherwise. A real enigma, those creatures. But how did I not come across any the first time I went through this forest on my own? Talk about a lucky break!" I retorted, thinking back to the couple of days I had to hide out in the forest. If I had stumbled onto a pack of those creatures.... Ugh, that is an unnerving thought.

Not wanting to wait around for more wooden wolves to educate, Derpy and I made a mad jog back to the entrance to the forest. "Well, I don't think I'll ever be going in there again without this sword. I gotta remember to thank the girls for this! They might've saved my life!"

Derpy paused to catch her breath and also broke out into uneven laughter. "Heh... That was kinda fun! Today's been full of lots of interesting stuff!"

"Yeah... I guess you and I are really turning a dull lonely day into something special, huh?" I replied while leaning on my sword for support.

After a moment of just shooting the breeze, we then looked up and glanced around at the sound of what sounded like a distant boom or explosion. "Whoa, what was that?"

Derpy then suddenly pointed to the north. "Over there! It's a sonic rainboom!"

I looked in the direction my friend was pointing and raise a hand to my brow. What I saw... Well, this might be tricky to describe. It seemed to be an expanding circular shockwave that seemed to be made up of a rainbow of colors. It was quite a beautiful sight, to be honest. And judging by how far away it was, that shockwave must have been numerous. "Hang on... THAT is a the result of a sonic rainboom?!"

"Yep! I heard only Rainbow Dash knows how to perform it. She's at the Best Young Fliers Competition today, isn't she?" Derpy replied while glancing up at me.

"Yeah... And she said she would do this just before they are ready to come home... Wait, already? I thought the prize for winning the competition is a day with the Wonderbolts. What counts as a day to them? One hour?" I asked, understandably baffled by them seemingly returning too early when considering the time of day. They left shortly before noon, and now it was early in the evening. All things considered, that was way too soon a departure from Cloudsdale. Maybe she did it by accident just for fun?

"Well, it's a pretty long flight to Cloudsdale from here. It'll take them a while to get back." Derpy spoke up before turning her gaze to me again. "Hey! How about you come over to my place? I still gotta thank you for a little while ago. How about I bake you some muffins?"

I looked down at the mailmare and showed a slight grin. "Muffins, you say? Sure! Just let me put my sword back and we'll get going." I then hurried over to Fluttershy's cottage and put my sword and gloves back where they were before. After saying hello to Angela again, I ran outside to catch up to Derpy and headed back into town with her.

After walking along for a short while, we came to a house that really did not stand out that much from other residences in Ponyville. "Here's my place! Come on in and make yourself at home." Derpy spoke with a big grin before letting me inside. I then proceeded to pause a moment to take off my shoes and leave them by the door. At least I assumed it would be the polite thing to do. While I did so, Derpy trotted into the first room on the left, which I assume was the kitchen. From a glance, it seemed to be a pretty nice place with an interior that seemed to fit a semi rural community. However, I then heard Derpy suddenly speak up with a rather annoyed voice. "English muffins again?! Traitor!"

What, did we walk in on a guest? I peeked around the corner and found Derpy glaring rather harshly at a familiar earth pony stallion. His mouth was frozen open while holding one half of a toasted English muffin near it that was smeared in a layer of melted butter. There was a plate on the kitchen table before him with the muffin's other half. He then spoke with a really sheepish tone of voice, although I was quick to notice a very heavy British accent in his tone. "It's...really not what it looks like, Miss Derpy... Oh, all right! It is! But you know I can't help it! I just love butter!"

Derpy, her passion for muffins apparently clouding her judgment, continued to chew the rather refined fellow out over his choice of food while hovering before him. "But English muffins aren't even real muffins! If you want muffins, you should just ask me to bake some!"

I then decided to step into the kitchen and offer my two cents. Or is the proper wording 'two bits' in Equestria? "Derpy, cut the guy a break. Just because English muffins are not technically muffins doesn't mean that they are a bad choice of food. I personally like mine toasted with a layer of butter on one half and a layer of strawberry jam on the other."

My intervention seemed to get a rather shocked expression out of Derpy, but the stallion then faced me and spoke with a rather enthusiastic smile. "Ah, yes! Very true there. Combining warm melted butter with thick jam makes for a stellar combination, doesn't it? And... Now that I think about it, have we met?"

Upon closer inspection, I recognized the stallion. His cutie mark consisted of an hourglass. Pretty easy to remember him by. His coat is a shade of tan while is mane and tail are rather spiky and cut short. His eyes seemed to be a gradient shade of azure. His only clothing was a white shirt collar with a green necktie hanging from the front. I then decided to answer his question and replied, "Well, not socially. I have seen you around now and then. Doctor Hooves, right?"

He nodded and gave me a very inviting smile. "Indeed! Although many just call me 'The Doctor' elsewhere. And I see you know Miss Derpy. You two friends?"

Derpy lost her scornful frown and smiled slightly. "Uh huh. I've known James since shortly after he showed here almost a year ago. He's a really nice guy and has been helping turn this bad day of mine around. I just brought him over to my place so I could bake him some muffins! Would you like some, Doctor?"

"Oh, I'm sure I could save some room for one. Many thanks, Miss Derpy." The doctor replied while Derpy went about the kitchen to gather up the ingredients for what seemed to be blueberry muffins. The classics. And I will say now that Derpy looks irresistibly adorable in an apron.

With nothing else to do, I pulled a stool up to the table and poured myself a glass of water from a picture on the table. Doctor Hooves wasted no time in finishing off his toasted English muffins, though he seemed to do so in a hurry as if fearful Derpy would come back over and complain some more. I finally decided to comment on it and asked quietly, "What's she got against English muffins anyway?"

He then adjusted his tie while clearing his throat. "Well, it seems Miss Derpy has quite a fondness for muffins and really seems to dislike English muffins because they are not exactly real muffins. Not certain why though. Fetish, perhaps?"

I have to say I was liking this guy the more I listened to him. He had a very pleasant presence about him. "Yeah, maybe. You don't suppose she likes to dress up as the Muffin Queen, do you?" This prompted a good chuckle out of both of us. Derpy seemed to be too focused on her own task to be paying us much mind. It also helped that she seemed to be lightly singing a song as well. Something about stars and moons and air balloons or something like that. I cannot remember the rest of the lyrics.

I went silent for a moment and just enjoyed my drink while letting my eyes glance around the kitchen. It seemed cozy and much like one I would find in a house built in a humble town like Ponyville. However, I soon noticed that the doctor was constantly giving me his undivided attention without ever once looking away. Finally, I set my glass down and asked, "Can I help you?"

He then let out a nervous chuckle. "Heheh, was my constant staring that obvious? So sorry. I was just wondering... You're not from around here, are you?"

I felt no need to hide the truth from this stallion. By then, I am sure almost everyone in town who even remotely knows me likely knows I am from another world. "Not at all. I'm from a planet called Earth."

I was not expecting the doctor's response. "Ah, Earth! It's been a while since I last stopped by there. London is certainly a fine stop, isn't it?"

London, huh? Considering his very heavy accent, I was hardly surprised... Wait a second! London?! Earth?! I set my glass down rather forcefully and spoke in a voice louder than I usually do, "Hang on! You've been there?!"

I seemed to mildly startle him with my outburst. "Hm?! Did I say that? Well, yes. I have been there. Why do you ask?"

At first, I simply had no words. Was this guy just messing with me? How in any possible way could a pony from Equestria, a land that has had absolutely no contact with any other worlds up to this point, could have ever visited my home world? After my eyes scanned him for a minute, I answered with a question of my own. "Doc, exactly what field do you specialize in? Aeronautics?"

He tilted his head to one side while looking absolutely baffled by my inquiring. "Come again? What field?"

"Yes. What kind of doctor are you? You an orthopedist? A neurosurgeon?" I replied; my eyes focused sharply on him.

He responded with a light chuckle. "Oh, that? I'm just The Doctor."

My eyes squinted a bit as I began to find myself becoming rather annoyed by his play of innocence. "Then what university did you study at?"

"Oh, no education in that manner, if that's what you're asking. I'm The Doctor. That's all you need to know." He retorted again while shaking his hoof in a dismissive manner.

By then, I was really starting to lose my cool with him and decided to be completely blunt with him. "Look, Doc. If there is one thing that you should know about me, it's that I really...REALLY hate it when people beat around the bush with me."

He then surprised me with a slightly excited smile. "Ah, you do?! Well, what else can we find out about you?" He then reached into his shirt collar and pulled out...a small silver slender device with a glowing blue light at the top. It gave off a constant whirring sound. He grasped the thing in his ankle joint and pointed it at me.

"What the hell are...?" I started to speak, but just lost myself in watching what this bizarre fellow was doing. I had no idea what was going on anymore.

"Ah, your name is indeed James. Birth date is May 25th, last name is..." He then paused before looking at me again. "Come to think of it, would you prefer me to ever mention you by your last name?"

After a moment of collecting my composure, I managed to put together a reply. "Well, considering I'm probably the only James on this planet, I don't think using my last name is necessary."

The doctor grinned and snickered lightly at my response. "Very good point there. Let's see here... Favorite foods are sushi, pastas, pretty much anything oriental... Hm, no pears. That's good. Least favorite foods are peppers, spicy foods, anything bitter, and onions top the list. And you have no dislike for pears... Well, that's one thing we don't have in common." I swear, it sounded like he was saying 'pez' to me, but I am all but certain he meant to say 'pears'. His accent was that thick.

I really could not offer any input at all. I was practically mesmerized by my own bewilderment. That device he was holding was, from what I could tell, reading me like a book. "Went through a rather messy breakup with a young lass last year. Relationship lasted for three years... My word, that's quite a long time to wait to break up with someone. Things went downhill rapidly when...accused of rape?! Good lord, that can't be right... Never once performed intercourse or forced your former lover into... I'm going into too much detail, aren't I?"

I gave the doctor a scowl. "Just be glad Derpy is a little too preoccupied to be paying much attention to your words, Doc."

"Yes, yes, so sorry. I'll just overlook that part... But by the sound of it, this last lover of yours must have really been off her rocker! All I'm seeing here shows that you are emotionally incapable of such a wretched thing. Very fine lad you are, James. What else do we got here... Strongly dislikes bullying, profanity, has unconditional hatred towards all tobacco products, low tolerance for general stupidity... Ah, and holds great value for innocence and purity." He spoke before looking at me with a warm smile. "Very nice quality right there. Not many men on Earth have that these days." He then proceeded to deactivate the device in his grasp and placed it back under his collar, his curiosity having apparently been satisfied for the moment.

The more I stared at this stallion, the more I got a very powerful nagging feeling. That was something much more to this guy than met the eyes. Like he was a cog in a much grander scheme of things that I could not even begin to wrap my head around. Finally, I just had to ask. "Doc... Who...and what are you?"

His eyes opened slightly wider at my question. "What am I? Well... I suppose I could answer that. But are you sure you really want to know?"

I could not help crack a smirk at that last question. If that...thing he just used could reveal any detail about me, he likely learned of the moment Derpy told me about him in the first place back on Hearts & Hooves Day. "Well... Considering that Derpy probably gets seizures whenever you tell her, I think I will pass on that. I have never had any seizures or migraines and I want to keep it that way." This caused the guy to burst into wild laughter, apparently amused that I had just read him like he read me.

"Oh, so true! Well, you follow your gut instinct very well, I must say!" He spoke while trying to reign in his laughter. "But yes, as to what I was saying before... You seem to greatly value innocence and purity. I have to say, that...is nothing short of a rarity on Earth these days. Especially among the male population."

I could not help letting out a long sigh at that observation. "No kidding... It seems the human race back home is obsessed with gruesome violence and warfare nowadays. It has practically taken over many forms of media. You just can't escape it anymore. Film, video games, books, you name it. It is, without a doubt, the dominant interest on the market. A far cry from how things were twenty years ago."

He too let out a long sigh and bowed his head for a moment. "I have not been back there for several years, but I believe every word you say. There were definitely some warning signs coming up about the well-being of the world at that time too. But I can tell you this, James. Even if Earth has dug itself to a new low that the people in charge of running the whole thing may or may not be able to salvage themselves from, I can promise you that there are other worlds out there that are MUCH worse."

"And I believe you, Doc. Don't know why, but I do." I retorted without much delay. Just...something about this stallion made me place a great deal of faith in him. Someone I could trust. I was even beginning to wonder if the guy is even a pony at all, as bizarre at that sounds.

He nodded while adjusting his tie once more. "Well, I can definitely see why you're so at home in Equestria. That's part of why I like spending time here. I don't think I've ever come across a world so universally pleasant as this one. No better place to just settle down and relax."

"No argument there." I replied briskly. I could have inquired about what other worlds he had been too, but decided not to. Whatever it is he does, it is probably for the best that I keep myself as far away from his workings as possible.

He then looked over at Derpy before looking back to me and speaking in a softer tone. "And another thing. You are the bearer of the Element of Humanity, eh?"

I rolled my eyes at that observation. "What did you NOT bother to read while looking that thing over?"

"Well, I didn't bother to look at the number of times you've shagged Miss Fluttershy, in case you were wondering." He spoke with a completely straight face.

"Hey! You better not have!" I barked rather loudly as my face flushed red while shocked he was bold enough to even say that out loud. Once again, he burst out laughing. Heh, I must admit he is fun to talk to.

However, The Doctor then calmed himself and spoke with a serious, yet sincere tone. "Still, you being in possession of an Element? Along with the bearers of the Elements of Harmony? That's quite an honor."

"Hey, I'm not some prophesized hero, OK? I'm just a guy who met the requirements for it." I replied once again, not feeling particularly thrilled about it. While I admit I was rather enthralled with the fact that a 7th Element exists, even if not an Element of Harmony, it never left that big of an impact on me. I wonder that is how my friends feel about being the bearers of the six Elements of Harmony.

"Right, right, no one really wants to be given a hero's burden. Something not many think about when they want to be heroes." The Doctor said with a rather calm tone. However, he then spoke, "But still, judging by what I read, you seem to be a good fit for it. I think you'll use it well in the near future, whatever the situations turn out to be."

"Thanks, Doc. You're pretty cool." I retorted while holding out my hand for a handshake.

"And so are you, Sir James." He replied before shaking my hand. I suppose he must have noticed my interest in swordplay and knightly legends if he called me that.

After a moment more, I felt the need to stand up and walk around. I then called over to Derpy and asked, "Hey, Derpy? Is it all right if I take a look around?"

Derpy, who seemed to be in the process of mixing up some muffin batter in a large bowl, glanced over at me and nodded. "Sure! Make yourself at home."

"Excuse me for a bit, Doctor." I briefly spoke to my conversation partner before standing up and stepping back out into the hall before going a bit deeper into the house. However, I did not get far before stopping in my tracks. "What the hell... Why is this here?"

Standing in the very middle of what I believe was the living room was a tall blue phone booth. And it reached nearly to the ceiling. Considering the thing's size, there was no way something that big, bigger than me even, could have been designed for the ponies of Equestria. Just above the door seemed to be a black bar with the words 'POLICE BOX' with two words stacked onto each other between the two that read 'PUBLIC CALL'. That really got my brain twisted. Was it even a phone booth at all? A type of emergency communication booth? I am not terribly knowledgeable about the history of phone booths, but it did look rather old fashioned.

After a moment of circling around the thing and finding nothing really amiss, I decided to call out to Derpy since it was her house. "Derpy?! Why is there a phone booth in your living room?!"

The one to answer was not Derpy at all. The Doctor stuck his head out of the kitchen and looked my way. "Oh, that would be mine! Be careful with it!"

Somehow, I was not surprised. I looked at The Doctor, then back at the phone booth, and then back to him. "Sooo... What is it doing in here? Is it some weird sort of...conversation piece?"

"Oh, that's just my personal means of transportation. Don't worry about it." He replied, though his response only baffled me more. A phone booth that is also a vehicle?

"Uh... Transportation? It doesn't look like it's on any wheels... And how do you even fit this thing through the door?!" I asked again after giving the booth another glance.

The Doctor seemed to get a good chuckle out of my observation. "Oh, it doesn't work like that! It... Well, how do I explain this to you in a way you will understand?" He then held his hoof to his chin while muttering under his breath, his eyes looking at nothing in particular. "Ah, I've got it!"

I listened while crossing my arms, though his explanation was...less than stellar. "Let's just say that thing there is made of and runs on wibbly wobbly timey bits. That's all you need to know."

My head tilted radically to the side while my mouth drooped into a....I can only imagine how I looked, but The Doctor looked like he was going to bust a gut at any second from looking at me. While trying to not burst out laughing, he spoke with a jittery tone. "Well... You can take a look inside it, if you want." However, his expression became rather serious. "But please, I implore you, do not touch ANYTHING. Except the door. And the rails, and the floor, and be sure to wipe your feet before going in too."

"Uh... Sure thing, Doc." I replied, prompting The Doctor to duck back into the kitchen. It was then that I was starting to wonder if the guy is a scatterbrained genius, or a mad loony. But I would be lying if I said he makes for some bad company.

I then turned and observed the blue box before me. There was indeed a handle to grasp in order for the folding door on the front to be slid open. But while I reached for it, I could feel a powerful tension. What in the world was inside that box? Did I really want to know? Did I really need to?

My hand firmly grasped the handle, but I did not pull. I actually started to sweat. Finally, I let go of the thing and backed away in a hurry. "Nope! Nope, nuh uh, not doing it, nope, not gonna break my brain, not going in there, nope, not going in, nope..." I continued on like that until I was seated back at the kitchen table with The Doctor eyeing me while his mouth showed a silly smirk.

"Didn't go in?" He asked while sipping from a mug of tea.

"Was I that obvious?" I asked, prompting another laugh from both of us.

As the minutes passed by, the room was filled with the delicious scent of blueberry muffins being baked. That aromatic scent of the batter browning and the sweeter scent of the berries mixing with it. "You visit often, Doc?"

The Doctor nodded while taking another sip of his tea. A sweet chamomile tea that I too was enjoying a cup of as well. "Oh yes, Miss Derpy and I get along quite well. I suppose her house serves as my port in the storm more often than not." I decided to not inquire about that. The less I knew about whatever his job entails, the better.

After a while, I heard the oven's hatch close. "All done! Just be careful, they're really hot!" Derpy spoke up before carrying a tin tray filled with muffins over to the table while using a potholder that was resting in her mouth.

The smell was fantastic. Even though I often smell it when working in Sugarcube Corner, the smell of homemade muffins seems to differ slightly. You have to actually work often around them in a licensed bakery to actually notice the difference more easily. "These look great, Derpy. How many am I allowed?"

My mailmare friend gave me a broad smile. "As many as you want. It's my way of saying 'thank you' for being there for me today."

"Derpy, you're a sweetheart." I replied before reaching out and tussling her yellow mane. She gave me a delighted giggle and one of the cutest faces I had seen in quite some time.

The three of us sat there, engaging in polite conversation. In all, there were a dozen muffins. I managed to eat two, as did Derpy, but The Doctor settled for just one. Probably from having already filled himself up on buttered English muffins.

"So, Doc... Does the royal family happen to know about your...line of work?" I asked in an almost jeering fashion. Just because I was unwilling to find out more about him does not mean I could not get cheeky about what I did not know. I will also say that the muffins were fluffy and even just a little moist. The muffins we make at Sugarcube Corner are almost always dry, but the little bit of moisture makes them even better and the berries are actually a little juicy. Derpy may as well be called Ponyville's local 'Muffinmancer'.

The Doctor grinned rather sheepishly in response to my question. "Ah, them... Well, I say it's best that they don't get involved. Very veeery technical and complex stuff that I'm sure they would not be able to wrap their heads around."

"We talking calculus complex or rocket science complex?" I asked in an attempt to be witty.

"Ha! Much more than that, I'm afraid! More like space-time continuum complex, if that is even a proper way of saying it. No, wait. That's not quite it... Um... Ah, now I know. It's...mmph?!" He replied while brushing some muffin crumbs from his lips just before Derpy stuffed her hoof in his mouth.

"Please don't explain it again, Doctor! My head's already starting to hurt!" Derpy spoke with a pleading voice. The Doctor nodded with a muffled grunt before she removed her hoof. I decided to not comment on the whole thing.

Eventually, Derpy placed the remaining muffins in a folded paper bag. A total of seven in all. I could even feel some of the lingering heat through the thin brown paper. "These are some of the best blueberry muffins I've had in a while, Derpy. Are you sure I can take the rest?" I asked while she pushed the bag towards me.

"Uh huh! I can always make more, so don't worry about a thing." Derpy replied while reaching out and giving me a hug. "Thanks for being there for me today. I really needed the company."

I could not help but return the favor by wrapping my arms around her. The Doctor watched with a calm smile, but also seemed to sneak another English muffin with some butter while Derpy was focused on me. Does she really give him that much flack over his favorite snack?

Once Derpy had let go of me and The Doctor had covered his tracks at the last second, I decided it was finally time to be on my way. Now that Derpy was safe and sound in her own home, and with nice company like The Doctor to be around her, it seemed like I should get going and prepare to welcome my friends back. "Well, I'm pretty sure my friends are on their way back by now. I should probably get going so I can be there when they land."

Derpy seemed to understand and gave me a smile while hanging up her apron. "Then I guess we helped fill each other's schedule, didn't we? You give your friends a hug for me when you see them!" I suppose she had a point. We both were in need of some company, and we both obliged each other. It is funny how some conflicts resolve themselves sometimes.

"I will. Thanks. And it was a pleasure meeting you, Doc." I replied before The Doctor trotted over to me.

He then extended his hoof to me for one final shake. "Yes, quite. It was ever a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I'm sure the two of us are going to be good friends for a long time."

"I second that notion." I retorted while grasping his hoof and giving it a shake. With bag of muffins in hand, I said my goodbyes and headed out the door while trying to not glance back at the mysterious blue phone booth in the living room. Best just forget I ever saw that or it will be on my mind for a while.

When I stepped outside, I found that the sun was starting to get a bit low in the sky. I then just began to walk, not entirely sure of where I was going. Scootaloo was likely with the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders over at the clubhouse. I am sure even Mitta was with them at that moment too.

My eyes scanned the northern skies. From what I could see, there did not seem to be anything there. Had they already come home and landed somewhere. "Come on, girls. Where are you?"

I began to just walk around town to pass the time while glancing up every now and then. And after a while, I saw it. An object looming in the northern sky. After waiting a few more minutes, I was able to make out more of its shape. I recognized it in a matter of seconds. A hot air balloon.

A spark of excitement filled my heart. They were almost home. In what felt like a painfully long time, I began to pace back and forth near the bridge that spanned the tiny river at the southern border of town that led into the local park. Eventually, I could make out two more shapes in the sky that seemed to be orbiting around the balloon like a pair of satellites. I immediately assumed them to be Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.

Eventually, the balloon descended even closer to the ground while still drifting south. Have you ever had to wait for a hot air balloon to come back down? Not fun. I eventually moved into the park itself. From what I could see from below, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were trying to help guide the balloon to a clearing by pulling on ropes that were attached somewhere inside the basket. I suppose Twilight was doing all she could to let as much hot air out of the top as possible to speed their descent.

They finally drew close enough for me to hear them. Rainbow Dash was speaking loudly, probably annoyed with how long it was taking to get the balloon grounded. "This is why we don't use this thing more often!"

Whatever the others said to her, I did not hear. The only reason I heard Rainbow was because she was practically yelling. Eventually, Fluttershy did look down while I waved up at her. She seemed to become flustered, apparently not sure of what to do. She seemed to decide to hold onto the rope until the balloon had been brought into a safe. Eventually, I heard Rainbow Dash call out. "OK, Twilight! Give it a yank!"

Seconds later, the balloon began to descend noticeably more quickly. I suppose Twilight had caused a vent on top to open to rapidly let the buoyant hot air out. I stumbled backward to make certain I was not in harm's way. The basket landed with a thud, revealing my four other friends. Pinkie Pie then hopped right out of the basket and onto solid ground. "Finally! I swear it always takes longer going home than it does going to Cloudsdale in the first place!"

"Uh huh. But where is... There you are!" Fluttershy added before looking my way and swooping right into my waiting arms. The two of us cuddled tightly for a moment, just lost in each other's arms. It had been quite a while since I was that happy to see my dear girlfriend.

One by one, our friends drew near. Applejack spoke up first. "Howdy, James! Miss us?"

I took a moment to look them over before speaking with a sigh. "Do you know how long its been since I've gone a full free day without being with any of you?"

Pinkie Pie then practically jumped into my arms and nearly knocked me down. Good grief, is she heavy! All that muscle in an earth pony must really weight them down. "That must mean yes!" All our friends let out a combined chuckle at her over enthusiasm.

Twilight then stepped forward and gave me a tender embrace while Pinkie's weight brought me to my knees. "It almost felt like something was missing the entire time we were there. I wish you could've come, James." One by one, my six friends came forward and held me in a big group hug. After going most of the day without spending any time with them, it felt very cathartic.

"I really wasn't expecting to feel as lonely as I did when you girls left. I can't tell you how glad I am that you're all home." I replied while trying to get my arms around as many of them as I could.

Rarity let out a long sigh while planting a tender kiss on my cheek. "As are we, darling. But hopefully you did manage until we returned."

It was then that a question popped into my head. "Hey, now that I think about it... Aren't you girls home a bit early? I thought the prize for the competition was a day with the Wonderbolts? Is a 'day' to them just an hour or two?"

Rainbow Dash backed away from me while chuckling rather sheepishly. "Uh... Yeah... About that? I kinda... Well, I threw the competition."

That sounded completely unlike her. Rainbow Dash deliberately losing in a competition? Especially with an audience? Not with her ego, she would not! "That really doesn't sound like you, Rainbow."

"Well, I did!" She suddenly barked at me while our friends released their grips on me. If anything, she seemed slightly distraught. She seemed bothered that she had lost in front of an audience, despite her intentions being deliberate.

Applejack then spoke up. "It was pretty noble why, James. Go ahead and tell 'im, Rainbow."

I listened while Rainbow Dash looked right at me. "The whole reason why I pretty much threw in the towel... I was hoping you'd come along next year to watch me mop the floor with the competition."

This hardly made any sense. She could just compete again the following year, right? "But why lose this time? You could just return for the following year, couldn't you?"

Fluttershy then spoke up in her quiet voice and explained, "Um... It doesn't work like that. The winner of the Best Young Fliers Competition is barred from participating the following year to give the other competitors a fairer chance of winning."

I almost laughed at that rule. "Really? Well, that makes sense for Rainbow. If there were no restrictions, she would have more gold medals than she'd know what to do with." This got a good laugh out of everypony, especially from Rainbow Dash herself.

In that moment, I had also thought things over in my head. "And to that effect... I would love to attend next year."

"Ooh, really?! But I thought you said you don't like those big sporting events!" Pinkie Pie asked while seemingly baffled. The other girls seemed puzzled as well, especially after I had made it so clear before they had departed.

I then decided to explain myself more thoroughly. "I did, but I had a little insight today. Even if the event itself doesn't interest me, I think I would still have a blast with all of you." I then looked toward Rainbow Dash and smiled. "And I think I would enjoy watching a good friend show what she is good at doing." Rainbow gave me a surprisingly delighted, as well as grateful, grin while a noticeable blush filled her cheeks.

Rarity then winked at me over her sunglasses. "Did you really miss us that much, darling?"

I saw no reason to hide it and let out a sigh. "I did. I just didn't know how much until all six of you were gone. I swear I'll be going next year."

Once again, I found myself on the receiving end of another group hug. This time, I was not properly prepared and ended up being dragged to the ground. Not that I minded. I almost laughed with my six dearest friends cuddling and nuzzling me.

Twilight then spoke something that I really was not expecting. "That's great to hear, James. Princess Luna and Nightmare Moon were very disappointed that you did not show up with us."

This triggered an unexpected sting in my heart. Luna and Nightmare Moon had been disappointed by my absence? And to think that I was actually going to try to attend by retrieving my winged armor... I had completely missed out on it. "They...wanted to see me?"

Pinkie Pie then jumped up and explained while wildly gesturing. "Yeah! When we told them there was no safe way to get you to fit in the basket with us, they looked really bummed out! Ooh, especially Nightmare Moon. I felt sorry for them!"

I felt genuinely bad upon hearing that and rubbed my fingers against my brow. It had been a while since I last felt that disappointed in myself. "Dang it..."

Applejack patted me gently on the shoulder while I sat up. "Easy there, pardner. It wasn't yer fault. We didn't know that balloon basket couldn't hold all of us. Besides, what happened while we were gone? Anythin' good?"

It was then that I thought back to what had happened today. Despite the immense disappointment in myself for bailing out of going and disappointing two very dear friends of mine in the process, I did end up helping another special friend of mine. And in the process, I might have made a couple of new friends. So when all is said and done... I guess today was just bittersweet. But at the same time, maybe it was for the best I did stay behind. Who can say?

"Well... Maybe it was for the best I did stay behind. It turns out somepony needed me today." I replied with a rather dull tone.

Rainbow Dash then stepped forward. "Huh? Really? Cool! Who was it?"

I then decided to get creative with my answer. "Well... It's someone who is usually around when you least expect her. But when she is there, either right in front of you or far away, you can't help noticing her. And she always makes you smile when you see her."

My friends seemed baffled by my words and all seemed to go into thinking mode to try to decipher my riddle. Eventually, Fluttershy spoke first. "Oooh, her! And she needed you?"

Rainbow Dash then let out a chuckle. "Yeah... Well, don't ask her for help when it comes to clearing up clouds. Trust me on that one." I felt it was best to not ask about whatever prompted that reply.

Rarity then lightly prodded the paper bag I had been carrying. "And I assume she gave you this? What's in here? It smells absolutely astounding."

I then cracked a grin and opened the bag. "It's exactly what you think it is. Muffins for everyone."

All of my friends grinned and inhaled deeply from the aroma wafting from the bag when I opened it. I then reached in and started handing six of the seven muffins around. Pinkie Pie even giggled while she took hers between her hooves, "Finally, some snacks! Twilight's balloon never has any snacks or in-flight movies to pass the time with."

"And how would I even show movies in that thing?!" Twilight asked with a hint of mild irritation. Maybe it was for the best I did not even try to go with them in that basket at all. She was probably driving them mad by going stir crazy halfway to their destination.

Fluttershy was about to take her muffin, but then put it back in the bag. "Actually, James... Since we're so close by, how about we visit the pond?"

"The pond? I've already been there today, but it'll be better with someone with me." I replied while folding the bag's opening shut.

"Well, it is starting to get late. I still need to get my balloon put away. Shall we all talk tomorrow?" Twilight spoke up before trotting over to her grounded hot air balloon. The envelope had completely deflated by then and was sprawled out on the ground next to the basket.

"Sounds good ta me, Twi. I'm gonna mosey on home then. See y'all later!" Applejack replied while bidding us all farewell. The rest of our friends followed suit before Fluttershy and I departed through the edge of the clearing to make our ways to the other side of the park.

The walk to the pond was quiet and uneventful while the setting sun made for a great atmosphere. Fluttershy and I engaged in simple conversation along the way to pass the time. Apparently, Pinkie Pie had indeed gotten board on the return trip and that was why she and Rainbow had been using the ropes. Not to increase the rate of the balloon's descent, but to get them home faster to escape Pinkie Pie's impatience.

The pond was exactly the way it had been when I last saw it. And it was the first time I had visited it twice in one day. My lover and I took a seat beside the sack of food pellets and tossed a bit to the fish just under the surface. And...well, I think you know what happened after that by now.

Shortly after that, I opened the paper bag I was carrying and took out the last two muffins and passed Fluttershy one. But once we began to enjoy them, she brought up something I was not expecting to hear and had almost forgotten about. "Rarity told me about what happened today at her place."

I instantly froze up. My body temperature spiked. I began to sweat. I honestly did not know what to expect from that point onward. "Uh... Yeah?"

Much to my surprise, Fluttershy did not seem angry or upset at all. Instead, she gave me a gaze that seemed more curious than anything else. "She told me all about it. And...are you sure you're all right doing that?"

"What do you mean? Are you worried that I might burn myself out or something?" I asked, not entirely certain of what she was getting at.

Fluttershy then placed her hoof on my hand. "I mean... It's amazing that you can really have so much love in you that you can share it with so many. But...do you really think you can manage that for so long without...leaving me?"

I knew then what her fears were and held her close to me, my fingers stroking her mane. "Honey... I won't ever leave you. I may have enough love to share with those I adore like Rarity, but my heart belongs to you. You are the woman I want to be with. And that won't change. Do you believe me?"

I heard Fluttershy let out a long sigh before also holding me in a tender embrace. "I do... I never doubted you, James. I felt so happy for Rarity that you could make her happy with your love. And I felt so proud of you for reserving yourself for me... I don't think...I ever met a man who could honestly do that before I met you."

I felt a smile creep across my face. I could never leave Fluttershy. I just could not allow myself to. I want to be there for her always. But I then heard her speak softly, "Rarity also told me about the girl you loved before me... I'm so sorry you went through that. You deserved so much better than her."

At that, I honestly let out a slight chuckle. "Well, if she hadn't dumped me, I would not have discovered that bit about myself. All things considered, I'm glad she left me."

Fluttershy seemed rather surprised by the fact that I was smiling at the unpleasant memories I had of my last love. "Um... You're glad she left you?"

"Of course I am. She and her family are not exactly what I would call...sane. There's a lot of abuse in both sides' histories. It's no wonder she became subtlety abusive too. I feel sorry for the poor sap she might be dating now." I explained, not feeling the slightest bit of bitterness at all. It felt good to let go of those old memories.

"Um... Wow... I didn't know she was that bad..." Fluttershy replied while looking genuinely blown away.

"It's OK, Fluttershy. I'm glad to be rid of her..." I spoke softly before gently cupping her face. "And to have you instead. You don't just act kind and sweet. You ARE kind and sweet."

She gave me a very tender smile as those beautiful strong cyan eyes began to tear up. I then continued and whispered, "You're one of the best things to ever happen to me, Fluttershy. I don't regret choosing to be with you. I know I would have been happy with Rarity and we share a very special connection, but you... I could never replace you. I'm honored you asked me to be yours."

Fluttershy squinted her eyes as the tears flowed free from her. She then planted a surprisingly passionate kiss on my lips while I did the same. In that moment, I felt...nothing but true peace. I have said it before and I will say it again. If there is an angel in Ponyville, she is Fluttershy.

"I missed being with you today..." She spoke softly once our lips separated from each other.

"I missed all of you... I swear I'll come to the next competition. I know I'll have a good time if I'm with you." I replied while resting my forehead against hers. After a while longer, I stood up and began to head back towards Ponyville with Fluttershy by my side. Before we could head home, I needed to stop by the library. I needed to apologize to Luna and Nightmare Moon for not attending before I could forget. And once that was done, it was over to the Cutie Mark Crusader clubhouse for me. I had almost forgotten that I had agreed to meet up with them there. I could only hope that they would forgive me for being so late.

What a bittersweet day. I enjoyed myself, yet was disappointed in myself either way. Still, what would have been the better choice? To have gone ahead to the Best Young Fliers Competition after all and leave Derpy to deal with her problems alone? Well, I suppose it is too late to dwell on it now. At least staying behind did allow me to be there for a friend in need. I hope Derpy is doing fine right now.

And... Oh, right. I even made a few new friends in the process. I certainly am looking forward to another romp at the arcade with Button Mash. I wonder what other titles are there right now. And his mother... Heh, I should be careful with how I think about her. But she is very sweet and a lot of fun to be with. And there is The Doctor... I still do not know what to really make of him, but he is an interesting guy. But then again... Just how many times have Fluttershy and I... No, I am not going there! That information is staying out of these journals! Still, nice guy overall.

Well, enough of that. It has been a very long day and I should prepare for bed. Good night.