Lightning slowly opened his eyes to find himself lying on a couch, the sound of Steel humming nearby accompanied by the soft scratching of a quill nib on paper.

"Steel, what happened?" asked Lightning Flicker, looking to where the light green unicorn sat.

"Trust me on this one, you don't want to know," was all Steel said.

"What are you doing here?" Lightning managed to get his hooves under him, though his legs still shook slightly.

"Tuxedo Prism asked me to come, after you slammed your door on Crackerjack."

"Oh, yeah, I did that, didn't I?"

The door opened to reveal a young chocolate coloured stallion, dark brown and cream mane almost covering his orange eyes.

"Yeah, you did," said Steel.

"I'm not sure how much nose I've got left but I'm still the prettiest one in the room," joked the new pony.

"Prettiest? Yes, but most awesome and handsome? No, that honour goes to me," Lightning quipped in reply.

"Ok, cut it out the both of you. Crackerjack, let's just be grateful that Lightning is back on his feet and out of his dark hole," said Steel to the brown stallion

"Out and staying out? Or is this going to be a recurring thing? You can't always be around to save the day when gloomy-backstory here busts another fuse. Band-aid solutions are never clever," said Cracker, earning a stern look from Steel.

"Well, if Lightning is willing to talk about it, then yes, he will be 'staying out,' as you put it," stated Steel Script as he and Crackerjack looked expectedly at the grey pegasus.

Lightning flapped his way back to the couch and sat down heavily.

"Fine, I'll tell you. As you two know, I was once in the Special Tactics division of the army, and had just made captain, been given a squad, the lot, before Nightmare Moon's return last year. Our first assignment came from Celestia's Guards: we were to find Nightmare Moon in an attempt to recover Princess Celestia. We flew to Ponyville, that's where the Princess was last seen, she was there for the Summer Sun Celebration. Anyway, we asked around about where Nightmare Moon might've gone and found that six ponies had chased something into the Everfree, so we went in after them. We flew for a bit, but we had to land to give our wings a rest in case we needed to haul feather, and we were walking under a cliff when it gave out and fell. It missed me by mere inches but the rest of my team . . . they . . . they were . . . fuck this shit, I'm out! I'm not talking to you two anymore! Go AWAY!"

Steel Script and Crackerjack looked at each other, amazed and humbled by the events their friend had gone through.

"I had no idea, Lightning, I wouldn't have asked if I knew that remembering that would be so painful," Steel lowered his head in shame.

"Come on, Steel, we should let him calm down a bit," Crackerjack motioned towards the door, turning to leave.

"One question before you leave: where the fuck is my booze?" inquired Lightning Flicker.

"Oh, that," said Steel, "I -"

"Steel tipped it all down the sink," interrupted Cracker.

Lightning dove towards Steel, fury engraved on his features.

"Fuck you, Cracker-" was all Steel was able to say before being wrested to the ground by a furious, grey pegasus.

"How could you tip my booze down the sink like that?! That shit's expensive!"

"I didn't tip it out, I wouldn't waste good alcohol like that, especially not your cider nor your mead," said Steel, struggling to fend of the enraged Lightning.

"Then why did Crackerjack say you did?" the pegasus demanded.

"I may have suggested it as a joke, but that is all it amounted to, though why Crackerjack would say something along those lines is beyond me," both ponies looked at Crackerjack who had dissolved into gales of laughter.

"Would you two just make up already? Steel, are you sure you're fully cured because you two are bickering like a married couple," laughed Crackerjack.

"As if I would be with someone so . . . insert insult here, I'm to hung-over to come up with one," Lightning Flicker shot back.

"Try 'crazy' or 'insane.' 'Mentally unsound?'" suggested Steel.

Lightning shook his head.

"Nah, those kinds of ponies are the best, they let you do all the weird stuff in the hay."

Steel Script face-hoofed.

"Why do I know you?" he asked shaking his head.

Crackerjack pushed Steel through the door.

"We'll let you sort yourself out, I'm going home and suspect that Steel will be doing the same.

Steel used his magic to close the door while replying.

"I'll probably stick around for a bit until Lightning sorts himself out. See you around Crackerjack."

"Catch you later, Steel" called Crackerjack as he left.

Steel Script looked around for Lightning's butler, Tuxedo, only to find him coming down the hallway towards Steel.

"Is Master Crackerjack leaving?" asked Tuxedo

"Yes he is, though I wish to remain here for the time being. I may need to convince Lightning Flicker to return to the Everfree."

Tuxedo shook his head, smiling.

"You can try, but I doubt you'll succeed," he said with a chuckle.

Steel shrugged as he heard Lightning Flicker searching around in the kitchen.

He opened the door to find most of the cupboards open and a frantic pegasus rummaging through cupboards.

Lilac magic surrounded Steel Script's horn as to empty bottles floated from the ground towards him. Manipulating the flow of magic, Steel softly clinked the bottles together.

Steel looked up to see a grey blur hurtling towards the bottles.

Lightning grabbed one of the bottles, the magic surrounding it stopping his progress a little past Steel's shoulders. Biting at the neck of the bottle, Lightning desperately tried to get at the non-existent contents. Slowly realising that he had been fooled, the grey pegasus let go of the bottle to glare at the unicorn.

"Fuck you."

"I'll pass. Come on, we're going home," replied Steel, levitating his saddlebags onto his back.

"I'm not going with you, just get out of my home, get out of my town, and NEVER COME BACK!" yelled the pegasus, taking off.

Steel's head drooped in exasperation.

"Fine."

Steel Script had caught the train back to Ponyville and was relaxing in bed reading one of the old legends from before Luna became Nightmare Moon, the moon shining through the curtains, Timberwolves howling in the distance.

A knock on the door roused Steel from his scroll, not entirely sure who would be entering the Everfree at this hour. Rolling up the scroll, he made his way down and opened the door to be greeted by Tuxedo Prism, the unicorn struggling to hold onto something that seemed to be trying to fly away.

"Tuxedo, it is a surprise to see you here, and at this hour" said Steel.

"I am sorry to bother you, but I believe you left this back in Las Pegasus," replied Tuxedo, tugging on the struggling object, revealing a black tail that belonged to a grey pegasus.

Steel Script focused on his magic, creating an ethereal lilac hoof which he sent flying into the pegasus' face, knocking him out cold.

"I'll take it from here, at least now I can keep an eye on Lightning Flicker."

Levitating Lightning behind him, Steel bid Tuxedo good night and levitated the pegasus onto the couch and headed up to bed.