"AH!" Alejandro yelled as he quickly shot up on his bed. However, the sudden movement was quickly met by the excruciating pain his body shot back at him.
"GAH-" Alex fell back into his bed from the unexpected shock.
"Try not to move, your body has a lot of burns over it." A feminine voice informed the jack.
Alex turned his head toward the voice, it was a white earth pony with pink hair.
"Agh… wh-where's Dark?" Alex asked with a pained inflection.
"He is in another room, it's best if yo-" Before the nurse could continue Alex cut in.
"Is he ok?"
The earth mare looked at the donkey, and saw a worried look on his bandaged face.
"He's yet to wake up, but he is no worse than yourself." The mare then gave him a soft frown. "So please, just try to get some rest."
"Heh… sorry, but that's not gonna happen anytime soon." Alex said under his breath.
"Well you better listen to the mare, because there's no way in he- heck that you'll get out of that bed." A familiar masculine voice said.
"Mort! It's good to see you. Do you know how long I've been out?"
"Not very long, about a few hours or so." Mort responded as he drew closer to the jack.
"You two need to stop getting hurt like this. Do you know how annoying it is to ask for sick days?" Mort says with a smile on his face.
"Pfft, sure Mort. As soon as you actually stop complaining about the food." Alex retorted.
Around this time, the nurse walked out the room and left the two friends alone. As soon as there was no sign of anyone else coming through the door, Mort closed the door.
"Ok… Alex, what the hell happened back there?" Mort asked with a very serious tone.
"It was bad, Mort. We fucked up bad dude." Alex said with shame in his voice.
"Talk to me, what happened?"
"Well, you remember how we were invited to that picnic by the mane six?"
"Yeah those six mares, yeah."
"Well, we noticed that the picnic scene was something from season 2, even though things from season 1 still need to happen."
"Ok, so the timeline of events is wacky, so what?
"Well, me and Dark recognized the events of the episode and tried to go and stop it. Considering it could cause some serious issues having a mob of ponies running around… But I forgot that Dark isn't resistant to magic like I am."
"Why does that matter?"
"Because Twilight's spell charms the viewer, and makes them obsess over a toy and since Dark has powerful magic…"
"It means he would be a dangerous threat… Damn it! I can't believe it's that purple unicorn's fault!"
"No Mort, this was on us. I should have left Dark with the others, I should have dealt with it myself…" Alex said with clenched teeth. "We just made things worse…"
"Hey! Don't talk like that! Look, you two were probably really confused at the time. If you knew what was coming then I know you guys would have done everything perfectly. But you didn't, so you two did your best."
"Mort, this was a basic problem in the show. It was stopped by-" Alex's eyes widened.
"Mort, is Celestia here?"
"The tall white princess? Yeah she went to where you two fought I think."
"Did she say why she needed to- dumb question. A better question is, do you know where she is now?"
Upon asking that question, there was a knock at the door. The two friends turn their heads to see a large gray stallion wearing royal guard armor.
"Greetings citizens, on behalf of our royal highness, we deliver on to thee, invitations to the Grand Galloping Gala." The stallion said.
The male pegasus then passed two golden tickets toward Mort before continuing his message.
"Your friend Dark has already received his ticket and received this message. Our highness will be expecting you three to accompany young Twilight Sparkle and her friends to the Gala on September 21st."
Alex and Mort started at the shiny tickets for a moment before trying to respond.
"Wait, why are you giving u-" Alex tried to question the guard, but the stallion left as fast as he came.
The donkey then stared at one of the tickets in Mort's possession for a few moments.
"What the hell was that about?" Mort asked, genuinely confused.
"I'm not sure, but something doesn't feel right… you should check with Dark, it sounds like he's probably conscious now."
"Yeah, you're probably right." Mort said before walking out of Alex's hospital room, leaving the donkey in his bed.
As he closed the door behind him, Mort simply turned to the next door across the hall, opened it and stepped inside. Honestly he was sure why they had separated the two at all.
The unicorn looked from his ticket to Mort "Adiutor already caught me up to speed, I basically almost killed Alex after being charmed, put the crusaders in danger, and caused mass destruction." he paused before continuing "What has me stumped is this" the unicorn said moving the ticket through the air.
"Alex said something similar, I assume those tickets are something special?" Mort asked with a raised brow.
Dark nodded "The Grand Galloping Gala, a get together for all of the rich nobles of this world, which apparently we have been invited to for but I suspect it is not out of the kindness of Celestia's heart."
"I mean, you guys did stop her sister from going full psycho and you guys are friends with that purple pony right? Maybe you two are overthinking it?"
"True enough, what happened is sure to affect us during the party though, we might get more attention than we bargained for."
"Hm, you're probably right. Should we just skip it then?" Mort asked genuinely unsure on what they should do.
Dark started to state the factors aloud "If we ignore it we'd definitely have Celestia looking into us in other ways, also if we go we can go help some of the Mane Six have a better time."
"It's probably best to bite the bullet on this one." Mort said as he rubbed the back of his head.
"In the meantime though, you two need to rest up. Those burns were bad, at this rate you'll have more scars than most biker gang members.
"Not gonna argue with you there Mort, I can definitely use some rest right now" Dark replied putting the ticket into the gutter of Adiutor's pages and setting the book down beside him.
The next seven weeks came and went quickly. Most of that time was spent in the hospital recovering from the burn marks and participating in physical therapy. As the dreaded night of the Grand Galloping Gala grew near, the trio began preparation for the journey to Canterlot by purchasing train tickets on the day of the Gala.
"So are you sure we don't need any fancy clothes or whatever?" Mort asked his two companions near him.
"Even if we did, we all know you wouldn't wear the dang things." Alex said with a smirk.
"We got spotlights on us already anyways, might as well be comfortable." Dark responded casually.
"Fair enough." Mort replied simply.
"So what's the plan Dark? Or are we freeha- hoofing this one?" Alex asked the Unicorn.
"Honestly I wasn't expecting to be invited here, but since we will be there I was thinking maybe we could help some of the main six or spike out with the party. How we plan to do that though…"
"Well, do you happen to have any spells to help out Fluttershy with those animals? Something like Animal Friendship or something? The animals were one of the biggest things if I remember correctly."
"Oh yeah the animals… I might have something for it." Dark acknowledged "Any ideas for the others though?"
"Hm… I really hope it isn't my bias talking, but wasn't Rarity another cause for an accident? Like knocking over a statue or something?"
"Looks like we're gonna need a babysitter for her." Dark said with an evil grin on Mort.
"Wait wait, Alex back me-" Mort looks over to see an equally malicious grin on the Donkey's face.
"Ah… jackasses…" Mort said as he sunk into his seat.
"That should leave the biggest issues solved… and that will leave me the chance to get a question of mine answered." Alex finally stated.
"You have something in mind?" Dark inquired.
"It's a question I had when I first watched the series, and now one that I feel needs to be answered even more so after the events of that night. Where's Luna? And if it's true that she and Celestia still have tension between them."
"You want to find Luna? You're sure that is a good idea after what happened at the Summer Sun Celebration?"
"Yeah, if I remember correctly she tried to kill everyone." Mort cut in.
"Look, I actually think that gives us a little bit of leeway. We get that Luna herself isn't a bad person so going up to her and showing no grudge could endear us to her. Especially because this is before anyone really accepts her." Alex argued.
Dark nodded to him "Well if you're set on trying this then the best thing I can do is draw Celestia's attention, I don't believe it'll be too hard however, I'll make a disappearance to help Flutters and it will surely draw her focus when I'm missing."
Alex gives a knowing smile before responding "For sure, it will also help us confirm that the reason she invited us was to keep an eye on you because of your magic."
"Ugh, alright then. I'll babysit 'Little Miss Perfect', Dark will go do something with Flitter or whatever, and you talk to the woman that nearly killed you two. Sounds like a grand old time."
"Oh no, it's going to be terrible, but hopefully a little less so with us around." Alex said with a sincere tone.
"Guess we're about to find out, looks like we've reached Canterlot." Dark motioned at the window toward the large city closing in on them.
"Alright then, let's get this show on the road." Mort said unenthusiastically.
From the train, Dark, Mort, and Alex walked to Canterlot Castle, all while the two of them explained some important details about Canterlot to Mort. Their arrival to the entrance of the Gala was met with dirty looks from the other well dressed attendees.
As the trio made it to the large golden double doors, they were met by a Royal Guard giving them hard stares, looking quite expectantly.
"Tickets?" The white pegasus asked the three of them.
Dark slid his into the air first, followed by Mort, and finally Alex
The pegasus quickly scanned the tickets they were holding out, before giving a begrudging nod of his head to continue inside.
As the three underdressed males walked into the main room, they were met with a sea of offended looks from the highbrow ponies around them, and the unamused gaze of Princess Celestia looking down at them. The path between them and Celestia lay empty as the Alicorn surveyed them.
"I think the 'Princess' expects us… we better go up there before this gets awkward." Dark whispered to the others.
"Agreed." Alex nodded his head.
"We shouldn't have come so early." Dark said regretfully as they climbed the stairs of impending doom.
"Too late for take backs." Mort mumbles under his breath.
Alex, spearheading the group, walked up to the Princess in order to greet her.
"Welcome to the Grand Galloping Gala you three, it's been some time has it not?" Celestia stated in a neutral tone.
"It's been a few months, yes." Alex replied politely.
"I believe it was the parasprite incident, luckily the town has been recovering quickly due to the aid given." Dark said, looking at Alex proudly.
"Ah yes, I heard that you and the mayor did a wonderful job in recovering from the attack. Which reminds me, how are you two? I heard you suffered some nasty injuries not too long ago." The alicorn princess commented as she looked first at Alex, but then turned to stare at Dark.
"We healed up alright, thank you for the concern." Alex said with a smile.
Before the conversation could continue the gallop of another pony drew all of their attention to Twilight Sparkle entering the castle.
In almost no time at all, Twilight was upon the group, greeting the princess in an excited manner. "Princess Celestia!"
"Twilight! It is so lovely to see my star student!" Celestia said, quickly shifting her attention to the purple unicorn.
Seeing as the two were speaking to each other, and noticing a line forming to greet the princess, the three friends silently elected to move away from the alicorn and her student. However, it was not lost on those who were watching their conversation, that at no point did they bow to the princess.
The trio noticed the crowds around them becoming thicker, they looked toward each other and gave a nod before breaking away quickly in different directions, it was time to put the plan into action.
Dark could feel the prying eyes of these stuck up nobles all around him, but he knew it'd be this way, drama is the only thing these people- ,er ponies, care about and he'd caused plenty of that. However the atmosphere was almost sickening, all of these rich and ignorant ponies together in one place celebrating what exactly? The destruction during the swarm? The homes lost from it and the so-called minimal aid received from Celestia? No, Dark could see where the money went. It was all around him, surrounding him. Dark shook his head, he needed to focus on the plan, one thing at a time.
It wasn't long before he reached the path to the garden where he heard creatures scatter and a familiar but disappointed voice.
"Oh Fluttershy, you're such a loudmouth" sighed the yellow pegasus.
Looks like he made it in time Dark thought to himself as he slowly made his way in making sure to not spook Fluttershy.
"I'm sure they just aren't used to ponies visiting them, it doesn't look like there is a lot of traction through these parts." the dark gray unicorn said calmly.
Fluttershy backpedaled a bit and started frantically speaking in a low tone "oh hello, sorry I didn't expect anyone else too- my name is Fluttershy, I heard you saved me and the others back at the summer sun celebration, some ponies say you're dangerous, are you going to explode this place? Oh please don't hurt the animals…"
Dark blinked, he hadn't expected her to talk about everything at the same time. "No need to worry I'm not here to hurt anything, in fact it looks like I've scared off your animals, my apologies" said the unicorn bowing his head. "If you don't mind I could try to bring at least one back."
Fluttershy nodded enthusiastically "Oh please do! I would so much like to see that meadowlark!"
She really gets vocal when it comes to the animals Dark thought to himself. Luckily Adiutor had helped him study in his free time, magic flash to his horn as he focused his thoughts on the bird.
"Becalmed…" as the spell finished the bird flew straight down and perched onto his horn.
Fluttershy came up close examining the bird with joy "I've never seen a unicorn use magic to befriend a creature before, can you do this for all animals? Oh what I would give to see the others, but I'm probably asking too much from you sorry."
"I'll do it!" This was a mistake.
"Let's see how many I can get for you!" I'm going to die doing this and if this backfires into an enrage spell I'll never hear the end of it.
"Which one should we do next? The Torcula Toucan or the Wallaroo?" It was going to be a long night, and he started to wonder how the others were faring.
Mort was livid. The former human already had a dislike of Rarity, but having to effectively watch over her and her 'date' was absolutely infuriating. What didn't help was the fact that there were shenanigans happening with all those other six ponies Alex and Dark go on about. Pinkie Pie was the one drawing the most attention, but each of them were looking more and more… disappointed? It was then that something hit him, where was Spike?
Mort glanced back at Rarity and the rich pony, only to see Rarity annoyed. Mort can spare some time looking for Spike, besides that little guy might just be all alone. The earth pony took some time to push through some crowds, afterall, he saw Pinkie do it with ease, so he could do so as well.
The stallion found himself isolated from the rest of the party near the entrance of the Gala, and standing there was Spike, looking around. It seemed like at any moment he was going to leave, and he probably was if Mort didn't speak up.
"Hey yo, Spike." Mort called out walking up to the baby dragon.
"Mort? What are you doing here?" Spike said, with a hint of surprise but also with a hint of hope.
"Me and the guys got invited to the Gala, what are you doing over here by yourself?"
"Oh, I was just. I mean I was going to. I uh…" Spike's voice petered out.
"Hey… be honest with me. Did the other's leave you here?"
"...Y-yeah…" Spike finally admitted as he gazed downward.
"Hey, look man. Why don't you just hang out with me? I'm doing some babysitting to make sure no one does anything crazy, but I'm bored. I'm sure you're bored too." Mort said as he give Spike a pat on the back.
"Yeah, yeah I guess I am." Spike said with a smile starting to form.
"Alright, come on. Let's get you something to eat kid, I know how hungry you get late into the night."
"Heh, yeah I do tend to eat a lot of snacks around this time huh?" Spike said with a smirk.
"Sure you do, but I won't tell anyone about it… this time." Mort said sarcastically.
The earth pony and baby dragon walked back into the Gala together, with matching smiles as they did so.
Alex was nervous, he couldn't pretend he wasn't. He and his friends were nearly killed by Nightmare Moon, and this was the first time he would talk to someone he related to in some aspects. As odd as it seemed, this previously fictional character was not very far away. Someone he empathized with, and now they were real. How was he going to deal with that? He wasn't sure, but he knew one thing.
Now is probably the best time to sneak away. Twilight and Princess Celestia were busy greeting the sea of ponies going to shake their hooves, Mort was babysitting the mane six, and Dark was trying his best to help out Fluttershy. If he wanted to make himself scarce, it was now, and that he did.
With just passing through a door, he was now in the rest of the castle. There were no lights anywhere else, nor were there guards. It seemed they were all situated near the party, most fortunate for the Donkey.
"Now if memory serves correctly, Luna should be on the other side of the castle." Alex whispered to himself.
Alex never really cared for the aesthetics of royalty or castles, he supposed that came from his dislike for expensive decor. As the donkey crossed far enough into the castle, he noticed the sound of hoof steps.
Alex wasn't gifted in the art of stealth but he tried his best to hide his form as he peeked around a hall's corner. To his surprise there in fact guards here, they were patrolling the doors of a single set of double doors.
"Well, I could guess what that is." Alex grumbled under his breath.
Taking another look, Alex counted about four guards, two patrolling the halls and two others standing watch by the door. Trying to find a solution to the new situation he found himself in, the donkey walked through the room to search for anything he could use. It was then a very expensive vase made its presence known, and a closed window not too far from it caught the jack's eye. With a devilish grin, the donkey started to form a devious plan to distract the guards.
After half an hour of charming creatures in the garden with Fluttershy, Dark said his goodbyes and made his way into the main hall. He could clearly see that Mort had abandoned his duty, but he couldn't really blame the guy.
Dark made his way over speaking out to them "I see it's snack time? Or rather dinner based on the amount in front of you."
Mort gave him a look of pure evil "SOOO how was your time with Fl-"
"Mort I swear to go- er goodness…" The unicorn said in annoyance
Spike looks up to the two stallions with a look of confusion as he takes a bite from his apple fritter.
"You ok Dark? You seem kinda tense." Spike said after swallowing his bite of food.
"I'm alright Spike, Let's just say these kinds of parties aren't really my thing."
"Yeah, it's not what I was expecting, that's for sure." Spike said with a slight hint of disappointment in his voice.
After a brief moment of silence, Spike spoke once again.
"Hang on, where's Alex? Did he come with you guys to the party?"
"Oh yeah for sure, He had something he needed to do for a while, I just hope it works out." Dark replied slightly worried.
CRASH! A violent crash of glass rang out in the halls of the castle, catching the attention of the guards nearby.
"What was that?" One of the earth pony stallions asked.
"It sounded like glass breaking, is a pony breaking in?" A gray pegasus responded.
With haste, the group of guards rushed into the nearby room. What they found was a window wide open, and the broken remains of a vase within reach of the window's wooden rails.
"Huh, must have been the wind by the looks of it."
"I hope the princess won't be too mad at us."
The guards quickly went to work cleaning the mess and closing the windows as the unseen Donkey managed to sneak into the room they were guarding.
As the donkey stepped past the door frame, he was pushed in as the doors seemed to close on his behind.
"Gah!" Alex shrieked as he was knocked deeper into the dark room.
"Who goes there!" A powerful voice demanded.
Alex blinked for a moment so his eyes could adjust to the darkness, and saw Princess Luna looming above him with a scowl, and an authoritative pose and magic pooling to her horn.
"I-I'm Alejandro! We've met before!" Alex stammered as he tried to defuse the situation.
Princess Luna stood there and stared at the donkey for a few seconds, before squinting her eyes and suppressing her magic.
"Why have thou'st come here?" The lunar princess demanded.
"I came here to talk with you." Alex said now with a more calm tone.
"Of what topic?"
"I just… I just wanted to know how you were doing. I didn't know what happened to you after we fell unconscious."
"You are a strange one, was I not the one who harmed you and your companions?"
"Yes, but I know that you weren't thinking straight at the time."
"How would you know? You do not know me."
"...no, not personally. But I can tell when someone is hiding their true feelings."
"And what feelings are that!" Luna said in a defensive and challenging manner.
"You felt abandoned."
The princess held still and simply looked at the donkey. She tried to hold a neutral face, but her eyes betrayed that she was shocked.
"You were angry and you felt alone. You felt like your own family didn't care about you."
Luna looked away for a moment in an attempt to better hide her reaction.
"You felt like no one was listening to you, like you weren't worth the time of day, and I can imagine… you wanted someone, anyone to care and that's the reason you became Nightmare Moon is that right?"
The alicorn wore a shocked expression as she stared back at the donkey… Only to find an equally vulnerable face to meet her own.
"And then after everything, you hate to admit… you feel like a complete failure."
Alex was crying now, it was faint, but there were single tears running down the side of the jack's face.
Silence overtook the room for a few minutes. Alex tried his best to dry his tears, but even after all this time, he struggled to have any type of control over his hooves and legs as he did with his arms.
With a normal voice, no longer the royal canterlot voice, Luna spoke.
"You aren't a normal donkey are you?"
"...No, no I am not."
"I did not think so, especially on your use of pronouns."
"Wh-what do you mean?"
"You said 'someone' or 'anyone' rather than 'somepony' or 'anypony'."
Alex looked mortified and could only lamely idle a simple. "Uhhh..."
"Why don't you sit down. I want to know who you are. Really this time." Princess Luna said as she gestured for him to sit in a nearby seat.
Alex looked at the seat for a moment and then back to Princess Luna, she looked genuine. She looked as if she understood what he was implying from his words. Alex could only sigh before relenting.
"I'm relying on you Dark…" Alex whispered under his breath.
As the night went on, the trio of Dark, Mort, and Spike simply watched as the Gala progressed. Until a certain pink pony's return was announced by her attempts to push the ponies near the DJ booth into dancing and celebrating.
Dark nudged Mort into action "That's our cue, somehow we have to stop her from causing a mess."
Mort looked at Dark with a confused look on his face. "Wha- can't you use your magic to stop her? You have some strong Telekinesis if I remember correctly."
Dark lifted a spoon up from the table in front of him "After charming eight different animals this is about all I can manage right now to be honest with you, if I'm right then trying anything on a larger scale could bring disaster."
Mort held his hoof to his face, in a thinking pose before looking toward Spike. "Hm… I think I have a plan. Hey Spike, are you still hungry?"
"Stage dive!" Pinkie Pie shouted as she jumped from the elevated platform and onto Applejack's pastry court holding a large cake. The landing flipped the cart and flung the cake far into the air, and headed straight to Rarity and her date.
"Hike!" Mort yelled as he flung Spike across the room and directly into the path of the cake.
With blinding speed, the baby dragon devoured the entire cake in a frenzy before landing at the feet of Rarity.
"Oh man… I thought a piece of cake meant it was gonna be easy…" Spike commented before burping a hearty belch… and burning the eyebrows off of Prince Blueblood.
There were gasps and shocked expressions littering the crowd as they saw the now browless stallion. The stallion quickly knocked over a silver platter's contents to see his reflection.
"How could this happen! No, I cannot allow anypony to see me like this!" Blueblood called out before storming out of the Gala.
Rarity could only look at the sprinting stallion before calling out in a huff "Good riddance!"
Without another word Rarity stormed out of the room and to a more secluded area.
The baby dragon was fast asleep on the floor after consuming the large cake, and was gently picked up by Mort with a smirk on his face.
"Now this kid knows how to live it up! Eats an entire cake, pranks a nerd, and then sleeps away his problems." Mort commented to Dark sarcastically.
"Aww, he's like a little you, you're perfect for eachother." Dark said devilishly.
"Hey! …when I find out where the weed is, THEN I'll make him a little me." Mort responded with an equally evil grin.
Before Dark could respond he heard a large figure approaching.
"Ah, I've been looking for you for quite some time now." A regal and familiar voice called out.
"Oh! Princess, to what do I owe the honor? Dark replied with a fake grin.
"Well Dark, I have come here to speak to you about a matter I have grown curious about." The tall Princess's body language seemed to loosen slightly after Dark's response.
"I see… not anything troubling I hope?"
"Not at all, I would simply like to inquire on how you learned to wield your magic? I heard you are able to conjure a myriad of different spells. Is that true?"
"It is. Well I personally gained my magical abilities through my bloodline, My family has always been intune with magic, however I'm the only one to have applied myself this openly." Dark hand scripted this over and over with Aduitor a million times before.
"I see, self taught, and from what I've heard, not half-bad. But that raises the question of… What is your family's name if I may ask?"
"My apologies, my full title is Dark Matter, of the Matter family."
"I see, and you've said you've come from Canterlot? I'm surprised I haven't heard of your family until now."
"Yes that's correct, I'm the only member of my family to move here and unfortunately the last to be able to."
"I see." The air around the two grew sullen. "Well, I would like to offer you an accord."
"Please enlighten me." Dark said cautiously, he didn't like the sound of this.
"I'm sure you've met my star pupil Twilight Sparkle, she has been classically trained in the arts of magic. Perhaps you would be willing to work with her? If your bloodline is as magically inclined as you say, perhaps she can help you in fostering your gifts, and you hers' of course."
Inner dismay hit Dark, Celestia wants to keep him under constant watch over through this, taking lessons from Twilight would give Celestia a never ending source of info on what he and the others were doing everyday.
After a small amount of pondering Dark replied "That's a very generous offer Princess, However I think I may need some time to think on this, When I'm ready is it alright if I approach Twilight on this?" he knew no wasn't an option here, the least he could do was buy time.
"Of course. Twilight is a responsible mare, I trust she will know the first steps in helping you when you are ready." For many it was nearly imperceivable, but for both Mort and Dark, they could tell that was not the answer the Princess wanted, but could not speak against it.
"Well then, I bid you two a good night." Celestia said before leaving the conversation.
"Oh man… that was intense. It felt like one wrong move and something bad would have happened." Mort whispered to the gray unicorn.
Dark slid back onto his hindquarters letting out his built up anxiety "I think that interrogation might have taken everything I had left and we barely made it through. We gotta leave Mort, find Alex, I'll wait outside."
"I- fine. Just, here." Mort gently passed the sleeping Spike to Dark. "I'll try to hunt down that jackass and meet you outside."
The two stallions nodded to each other before parting ways. As Dark half-heartedly clung to consciousness outside the Gala, he was met by the now leaving Mane Six. The majority of the mares saw his state and left him be, the exceptions being Twilight, who quickly took Spike from the unicorn, and Fluttershy. The yellow mare simply thanked the Unicorn and joined the rest of the Mares on the train ride home.
As time dragged on, Dark grew increasingly worried, that fear peaked when he saw Mort return without Alex by his side.
"Mort, where is Alex?"
"I don't know, he hasn't come out yet and he's not anywhere the Gala was taking place."
"Damn it, he must still be talking to Luna."
"Yeah, psycho-bitch… Are you sure he wasn't killed by her or something?"
"Mort, I-"
"Ok come one Mort, ease up on the Princess Luna slander will you?" Alex's voice rang out not too far from the stallions.
"Alex! Where the hell have you been! We could have really used you not too long ag-" Mort stopped mid sentence to stare at the Donkey's face.
"What? What's wrong?" Alex asked Mort with a nervous face.
"Dude, have you been crying?"
"Look, it's a long story. I'll tell you everything when we get home."
Mort looked toward Dark for his input.
The unicorn simply got up, gave Mort an uncertain look and followed the jack back home.
