Leaving the library was easy, almost a gift in a way; meeting the God of Chaos was nothing like that. It was never his intention to meet a god, or even a queen or princess or whatever ruled over this land that Amissus had started to come to resent. Although Discord had taken his side while arguing with Twilight, Twilight had won the deliberation with ease.

"You're going to have to learn to live like we do in Ponyville if you want to stay." She stated, plainly and commanding, when she knew she was close to victory.

Although he had said it at least a dozen times during their argument, Amissus told her once again "I don't want to live in Ponyville. I want to leave."

She fell back on the fact that he was still injured and still had nowhere to go. She had trapped him here. Rainbow Dash had come back to the library to return a book and asked why they were arguing.

"Amissus is staying. I'm not letting him go yet." Twilight told her, not breaking eye contact with Amissus.

"Why can't he leave?" Rainbow asked. Amissus thought that maybe Rainbow, who he had somehow hurt, was going to lean to his side too.

"Look at him Rainbow! He's half bandaged and where would he go?"

"Well, where did he come from? He must've done this before." Rainbow raised a good point, one that Twilight had overlooked.

"And where did you come from, Amissus?" Twilight asked him.

"If you would let me leave, I would find out. But obviously you feel it necessary to keep me here so I can't figure it out." He said frankly. His tone was sarcastic, but not disrespectful. He knew that he had been bested in this debate and that Twilight had control of the situation. He had to give her that respect.

"You're not leaving. Twilight's right." Rainbow said, looking through the shelves of books, although she had scanned the same bookcase three times already. Her tone sounded hopeful.

Amissus sighed "I yield. You win Twilight." He looked up at her to expect smugness from her victory but saw none. She wore a smile of kindness, not triumph. It was as if she actually believed she was helping him. "But that only brings us around to the fact that started this insanity. I still have no place to live. If I'm going to stay here in Ponyville, I'm first going to have to stay somewhere in Ponyville."

Twilight, satisfied in her victory, looked down and thought for a moment. She looked back up and around, still thoughtful, to Fluttershy, Rarity, and Discord in the corner, to Rainbow Dash flying about the bookshelves, to Spike on the tallest stair leading to her loft.

"Spike, can you get my coin purse?" She asked the dragon. Within a quarter minute, Spike came down the stairs with her bag of coins. Twilight took out a few shiny yellow coins and handed them to Amissus. "Go out for a while. I have a plan, but it'll take a few hours." Amissus took the coins and wondered what this unicorn was up to, but he didn't question it if it gave him a reason to leave. He took one of the coins and turned it over in his hoof. He couldn't read the writing but he knew it said "One Bit." It had the image of a crescent moon surrounding a sun. On the reverse side, it said "Minted in Phillydelphia" and had the image of a building that he'd never seen before. A large rectangular shape with pillars and neatly trimmed hedges behind a barred fence topped with decretive ornaments.

"What do you want me to do with these?" He asked her.

"Well, you have to pay to eat. As I said: It'll be a few hours. I'm sure you'll be hungry by then."

He nodded his head saying "Well, I'll leave you to it." And he started moving towards the door. He heard hoofsteps and Twilight telling somepony "Make sure he stays out of trouble." He opened the door and turned to close it, but he left it open as Fluttershy and Rarity also passed through the doorway.

"Where're we going for lunch darling?" Rarity asked with a smile.

…

"Three Bits a hard cider." The bartender told him. "Two for a regular cider."

Amissus gladly placed three of the golden coins in front of the bartender. She scooped them and placed them in a pouch than hung around her neck then turned to draw the brew from a stand a few steps away. The bar wasn't very crowded, but its booths still had ponies talking and drinking all around, the murmur of each conversation added to a constant pulsating humming. Amissus watched her and his eyes wandered to her side where her cutie mark was imprinted: A chilled mug with foam flowing over. It didn't bother him that he didn't have a mark like every single other pony in this town (probably because his backside was still bandaged up) but the more he looked around, the more he worried that he wouldn't be able to stay out of the public eye because of his 'shortcoming.'

"Here y'are, darlin'." The bartender slid the mug over the bar top to him. He fumbled for a few seconds with the moving mug after being dragged from his thoughts. The bartender quickly snorted with amusement before moving on to serve another stallion sitting three stools down from Amissus.

Rarity, Fluttershy, and he had walked straight across town without realizing it. Rarity and Fluttershy were talking and Amissus was simply following and generally staying quiet. When they finally did realize where they had ended up, Rarity directed them to a restaurant that she was familiar with. Bars were rare to come by in Ponyville, according to Amissus's observation whilst looking at the passing shops and buildings as they walked. Even more rarely would one find just a standalone drink-serving bar. Amissus had only spotted a single bar that was far in the distance from the road they walked. While Rarity and Fluttershy dined in the main serving hall, Amissus found a darkened room away from where many ponies sat. He didn't question his instinct to find the least populated room in a public building.

Amissus, while thinking back to this, had taken a few sips of his cider. The thick, smooth, and sweet taste of apple mixed with the tangy sourness of alcohol made his empty stomach not so hungry anymore; although his stomach did wrench when he heard "Mister Amissus! What luck to run into you here!"

He set down his glass with a hard 'ck' sound that resonated for a split second from the emptying glass before removing his hoof from the handle and using his forelegs to wall off his face from that mare who'd recognized him…Penn Swift.

"Mister Amissus, I didn't realize you were a drinker." She said.

"I didn't realize that you couldn't take a hint." He responded. He'd attempted to sound witty, but between the surprise and the oncoming haze of the cider, he found it too complicated at the moment. Penn laughed and pulled out a notepad. "Can't take a hint." He mumbled.

"I'm lucky I ran into you, I might have never seen you for an interview again."

"What misfortune that would've been."

"Indeed. Now then, you're an alicorn, is that correct?" She began her interview.

"Yes." he said with annoyance.

"You're acquainted with Their Majesties Celestia and Luna, correct?"

"No." He said flatly.

"Hmm…and how long have you stayed in Ponyville?"

"Two nights."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

He slowly looked over to the mare staring at him with a confused look, momentarily flipping backwards in her notebook. He looked her down, from her glowing horn to the cutie mark on her flank, to the ends of her hooves. Her entire body expressed confusion. Earlier, he didn't take a good look at her, but her coat was a deep teal color and her mane and tail was a blondish-orange. He wasn't compelled a second time to look at her, he was more compelled to start seeing the bottom of his mug. He lifted it again with his hoof and drank the cider down to a third empty glass. As he drank she said "According to these notes, you've been here about eight, nine days." He choked on the cider, half from surprise and half from the want to laugh. He quickly set the mug down and coughed to clear his throat of the remaining unwanted liquid.

"Eight or nine days?" He asked.

"Yes, according to a…um…Miss Rarity."

Amissus looked out into the main dining hall to Rarity's and Fluttershy's table where they sat talking and eating. Rarity looked back and waved to him in greeting. He scoffed and returned his attention to Penn.

"Apparently I'm not very aware of my past." He said to her. He knew that the unknowing sentiment ran deeper than just eight or nine days. He took the mug and lifted it to the end of its usefulness as the last drop of cider was gone.

Penn looked to where he had looked, to the main dining hall, and stared for a moment.

"Is that Hoof Pluck?!" She said, again returning to her eager voice.

"Who?" He didn't know what was happening. Was he still being interviewed?

"The most famous rock guitarist in Ponyville! I have to interview her! Sorry, here!" She tossed three golden Bits to him. "We'll pick up another time, won't we?" She paused for his answer.

He rounded up the scattered coins. "I may have something more to tell you if we see each other again. Just don't make a habit of it." He looked up after he retrieved the coins; Penn was out of the bar and halfway to Hoof Pluck's already crowded table. Amissus ordered another hard cider.

…

"Well that was absolutely lovely!" Rarity commented on the meal she had.

Along with Fluttershy and Amissus, the three of them left the restaurant as the sun started its decent. The two mares walked a little ways apart from a stumbling Amissus, who'd had three mugs of cider. He didn't like the absent-headedness he felt from so many drinks, but it was better than the feelings of resentment toward the mares who'd kept him in this town. His hazy mind reached back to the conversation with Penn Swift, his drunken mind took many moments to gather what he wanted to say.

"So Rarity." He said, his voice amazingly not slurring.

"Hmm?" She replied, looking toward him as they walked. Fluttershy also looked, as Amissus hadn't spoken for the entire half hour which they were walking.

"Eight days?" He asked, realizing the vagueness of his question too late.

"Eight days?" She repeated in a tone asking for clarification.

"That's how long I've been here. Eight days."

"Oh! Yes, that's how long." She said, not sensing Amissus's boiling bitterness. He felt that he had been lied to. Rarity was just admitting to the lie.

"Then why do I only remember being here for two days?!" Again, his burst of anger wasn't understood by Rarity and Fluttershy.

"Well…I…err…" Rarity first had to recover from the drastic change of emotion from him.

"You slept for a long time." Fluttershy's mild mannered voice, unfaltering, made Amissus rethink his tone towards these two mares, but his mind didn't want to back away from the sense of betrayal. "You didn't wake up no matter what we tried."

"Did you see that?!" He looked in the distance between two houses. Completely shadowed over pony, fading in and out of existence it seemed, was staring back at him. Its ornate armor filled out the black shadow: a crested helmet, finned shoulder plates, and a ramming spike lifted into the air. He looked farther on and saw hundreds of the shadow warriors marching on. The original figure walked away and disappeared into the legions of similar shadows. They all then dissipated into nothingness, returned to the void. Amissus hoped that this void was only his imagining.

Rarity and Fluttershy, now fully concerned rushed across the small distance that separated them. He stumbled away from them, feeling even lighter headed and legs feeling weak. That sudden burst of anger and then his strain to make out ghosts had drained the remaining alertness from his body. He slowly started to lie down, losing motivation to stay upright. "I think…I'm going to sleep this one off." He was fully sprawled out on the ground, his vision seeming to fall deeper away from light as the darkness filled the edges. His breathing was shallow and jaw slackened and numb all over his body. He could barely hear the two mare's voices as the sun stared his lesser body into darkness.