A New Teacher

by Sparky Brony

Rating: teen
Tags: Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Romance, Slice of Life, Human, Twilight Sparkle
Length: 48375

A fighter pilot crashes during a routine ferry flight. Saved from death by our favorite Princess of the Night. He's transported to Ponyville to give our favorite new Alicorn a lesson on a different type of magic of friendship, and that is...

A fighter pilot crashes during a routine ferry flight. Saved from death by our favorite Princess of the Night. He's transported to Ponyville to give our favorite new Alicorn a lesson on a different type of magic of friendship, and that is...

The magic of Love.

No, not a clopfic, there might eventually be a little innuendo, but I'm going that direction. More along the lines of romantic love. I hope to get some feedback on this story.

Once again, I'd like to thank my editor Jeray2000 for his excellent work editing this story. Check him out!!!

Published 2014-02-21 05:10:08 UTC
Last updated 2014-06-25 01:29:06 UTC

Chapter 2. Waking up, why does my head hurt?

My mouth is dry, not as dry as when I was in the water, I can feel something in my right arm, feels like an IV. All right, some Coast Guard cutter finally made its way out to me. I turn my head back and forth, my eyes are still pretty dry, don't think I should open them yet. I can hear voices.

"Where exactly did you find him?" A female voice asks.

"Somehow, he was on my front doorstep, he was soaking wet, but somehow, he was very dehydrated." Another feminine voice, this one was much softer than the other.

"You know, you should have taken him to the hospital." The first voice responds.

"You know as well as I do that I can't carry his weight that far, and I'm just as capable of IV hydration, Dr. Bones taught me, with some of my critters. I've helped in the hospital before, I know what I'm doing. And honestly, Rainbow, do you know anypony else who can give him the care I can?"

The other voice sounds abashed, "I guess you're right Fluttershy. You made the right choice."

Wait a moment, hospital, I'm not on a ship. How long have I been out, to make it to land already? I shake my head, anypony, and what the heck are those names, Fluttershy, Rainbow. What the hell? I try to talk, all that comes out is a croak.

"Oh, he's waking up, I'll go get Twilight, you sure you don't need me to help Flutters?" The voice, I've identified as Rainbow, says. I'm in the middle of trying to pry my eyelids open. One note, dehydration means you don't produce tears. Not very pleasant, I open my eyes to blobs of color, no definition, no focus. I sigh and close my eyes again.
"No." All of a sudden the voice known as Fluttershy sounds really nervous. "I don't think he can hurt me, he is weaker than a newborn kitten." I hear something, it almost sounds like a bird flapping it's wings as it takes off. I try a second time to open my eyes. They don't react at all.

A warm arm comes behind my head, as the very soft voice of Fluttershy says. "Drink now." And a bowl or cup is pressed gently against my lips. I drink greedily. In moments it's empty. And very quickly it's replaced with a full one, I finish it off too. My stomach is starting to complain about it. I lean back. My eyes are so heavy. I fall back asleep with a million questions. Where the hell am I? What happened? What about that weird Princess Luna apparition. Well, all those can be answered in time, I need more sleep, I need to recover.

I wake again to voices talking. "I don't know who this is, I've never seen him before." A new voice this time.

"When I found him, he was dressed in very odd clothing, it's very tough, I had trouble cutting it off of him. It didn't seem to be shaped right for his body. It had all kinds of tubes in it, especially in the lower legs." I know that voice, Fluttershy, bringer of water. I hear the sound of my flight suit being moved around. Fluttershy continues, "and look at this on the front of it."

"Hmmm," The new voice seems to be contemplating my flight suit, "It says United States Navy on one side, and the other…" more thinking apparently, "Wa…chow…ski… And what are these on the shoulder?" More sounds of movement, "Two silver bars connected together. I have never seen that symbol, nor this flag on the shoulder. Red and white bars with white stars on a blue background. I have no clue."

Huh? These people don't know what the good ole U S of A is? More than that, they don't know what a navy is? Aside from that new voice horribly mispronouncing my name. I swallow, I have moisture in my mouth again. Maybe I can talk.

"It's my name, Wachowski" I'm able to croak out. In moments the arm is back, lifting my head up. Once again a cup is pressed gently to my lips, I can feel heat from it though. This isn't water.

"There now, careful. This shouldn't be too hot, it's tea." Fluttershy's voice breathes into my ear. I sip the pleasantly warm liquid. It's liquid ambrosia. Just enough honey to sweeten without overpowering the flavor, and yet the flavor. This is the best tea I've ever drunk. And I'm a coffee drinker. I drink slowly, it's as perfect as tea can be. It doesn't beat the coffee in the officer's mess on the Nimitz, but it's excellent nonetheless. I polish off the cup quickly. I turn to the voice and slowly open my eyes. My vision is still very blurry, but I'm able to make out a yellow and pink blob, I blink my eyes and let their renewed tears work their magic. Shortly there is definition to the blob in front of me. I make out a furred yellow face, with impossibly huge blue eyes, and bright pink hair. I blink again. That face is not only not human, but… I look closer, trying to figure out what I'm seeing. That face is not human, very similar to that Princess Luna. Oh my God.

I scramble back as fast as I can move. I bash my head against something, it feels like wood, I have to get as far away from this horror as fast as I can.

"You're a horse!" I scream as I keep trying to move away.

My panic apparently infected the yellow creature in front of me, she emits a soft "meep" and backs away from me as fast as I'm trying to back away from her. I look around. There are two more of the strange creatures in front of me. One of them, with lavender fur and purple hair with a pink stripe in that hair comes forward a little bit.

"We are not horses, we are ponies. You should know that." That's the new voice from earlier. My breathing gets faster and faster. I'm trying to process everything.

"You are talking ponies, that's fucking impossible." I look at the third one, her cyan face is topped by a shocking multicolored do. I'm in a bed with three ponies in front of me. I turn around, just a blank wall. I turn back, I've got to get out of here. I dart forward. My coordination has gone to shit, I'm trying to stay on two legs, I get past them and I see the bright outline of a door, I run to it unsteadily. My legs aren't working the way they should. What did these creatures do to me? I slam into the door with all my strength, I must be pretty strong, or the door weak, I break through it without really slowing down. I'm running for all I'm worth. I can't run very well though. My limbs simply do not want to bend the way they always have.

About twenty feet past the door I trip over my feet and tumble end over end. I end up on my back, still hyperventilating. I hear a shout behind me, I try to get up, but my body just simply does not respond. I feel as though every part of me is immobilized. Somehow I'm lifted up and righted. I'm hovering in the air and I see the lavender pony come up to me. I get another look at her. My blood pressure must drop quite a bit, because all of a sudden I'm woozy. She has a horn, it's glowing. Something else really catches my eyes, she has wings tucked on each side of her body. She's an alicorn like Luna was. And the look on her face is not pleasant now. She actually seems confused, and angry.

"What is going on?" I plead with her. "I was in the water, and….hurgk" Somehow my mouth fails to work as I'm trying to talk. Let's try again, "Some pony…gach" again, I try to talk about Luna and my tongue decides to tie itself in knots. Let's try another tack. "I just punched out of my aircraft as it was crashing, and I ended up in the water, and now I'm here. I don't even know where here is." I give her my best pleading look.

She looks at me seriously. "Honestly, is this some kind of joke?" Her horn stops glowing and I drop to the ground. I'm grateful I don't face plant. I catch myself and look up at her.

"I swear to Jesus Christ himself, Miss. I am not joking with you."

"Jesus who?" She looks puzzled. Now I know I've got to be dreaming, someone who doesn't know Jesus Christ.

"I've got to be dreaming." I say out loud. "That is the only explanation, bright Technicolor ponies, one with wings and a freaking horn. I've got to be dreaming. I hit myself in the side of the head, and OUCH!!! That hurt. I look at my offending hand that's much harder than it has any right to. My eyes bug out.

"A fucking hoof? Are you fucking kidding me?" I scream at the top of my lungs.

"I don't know that word…fucking…but from how you are using it, it's a vulgar word, and I would appreciate it if you don't use it in my presence, sir." The lavender pony says, an edge of warning to her voice. I hear her. But I don't really register what she's saying, at least not immediately. I'm too busy staring at the light brown furred arm with a black hoof where my right arm used to be. I shift my weight and look at my left arm. Same deal, it's another hoof. This is too much for me to process. So my brain, it it's infinite wisdom, decides to take the easy way out. My eyes roll back and I pass out. Thanks for nothing brain.

Chapter 3. The Assignment

I rub my eyes. Hey cool, I'm back to my usual shape. I look down, I'm still in my flight suit. And I'm not thirsty or in pain. This is certainly looking up. I open my eyes. I can feel the movement of the ship. I can smell the salty air. Yes, the last day or so has been some horrible nightmare. I'm sitting on a balcony under the flight deck, in front of me is the port view from the USS Nimitz, the first United States Navy supercarrier. I must have taken a nap and had this horrible dream. I reach into my flight suit. It must be just before time for me to head for a pre-flight briefing. There they are. I pull out my Zippo and light my smoke. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh… That hits the spot.

"Why do you insist on those disgusting things?" A very familiar voice pipes up. No. It can't be. I whirl around, I don't see her. I turn back to look out at the ocean. There she is. Lounging on a cloud again. Well, I'm home and safe. I decide to do something about it.

"What's up Moonbutt." I say as I blow smoke in her general direction. Her reaction is comical. Her wings spread as her face scrunches up. I think she's mad. So I decide to continue.

"See, I'm back home, I'm on the Nimitz. In a little bit, I'm going to get in my aircraft, nod at the air boss, and I'm going to be flying. No ponies, no hooves for hands. None of that nonsense." Of course, anyone comes out and sees me talking to a freaking horse with wings and a horn, I don't know what exactly I'll do. But hey, I survived carrier landings at night, what could be worse than that. Unfortunately I'm about to find out.

Luna smirks at me. "This is a very realistic dream, I've waited long enough for you to fall into an actual sleep so I could talk to you."

You've got to be shitting me. "This isn't a dream, this is the Nimitz. I'm home, I'm on my ship." I say out of sheer stubbornness.

Again the smirk. "I assure you, Nicholas, you are dreaming. And I will make you pay for that remark." She huffs, "Moonbutt indeed." She rolls her eyes. I nervously look around. She has to be messing with me… right?

"So, you are telling me I'm dreaming of being on my ship, that I'm not actually here."

"Yes, Nicholas…"

I cut her off, "I prefer to be called Nick, you call me Nick, I'll call you Princess."

She puts a hoof to her chin in contemplation. "If you simply call me Luna, deal."

Well, if I have no choice, I put out my hand to shake, and to my surprise, she actually puts her hoof in mine. We shake and I smile at her. "Okay Luna. But if I'm not actually here, can we go somewhere else, I miss my ship already. If I'm not here for real, I'd rather not be here in my dream."

With a nod from Luna, the world turns white. All of a sudden I'm in a pure white room, with her standing before me. I turn around, a completely featureless room. Wow.

"Alright, Luna. Why am I here, why did you want to talk to me?" I don't know where this confidence came from. I should be in a corner, tucked into a ball and rocking back and forth.

"Well, Nick…" She rolls my name around in her mouth, as though she's tasting the texture of the word. "I saved you for a reason, and I brought you to my world. I want you to teach a very important lesson to somepony that is very special to my family."

I'm confused. "Why me? Luna, why not some pony from your world, why did you have to change me to a pony?" I can contemplate my transformation impassively in my dream, I have a feeling that in the waking world, it won't be as easy.

"What is the matter young man? Do you not like the body I gave you?" Luna looks at me. And in moments I feel my body position change. I'm standing on all fours, and my body feels completely different.

"What did you do to me, Luna? I look down, brown fur with black hooves. I just know that I have fur and hooves."

A giggle from her. "We will have to fix that, won't we, Nick." A full length mirror appears next to me. I glance at it and am captivated. I am obviously male. I move over to the mirror, deep red eyes stare back at me, and my hair, or would it be mane? Well, my mane is, in one word. GORGEOUS! It makes me think of fire. Red and orange in random patterns throughout my mane. I look over, I have a tail, and it continues that pattern. I have flames for hair. I grin and look back at Luna.

"My God, I'm beautiful." I close my eyes and feel my body. Wait a moment, there's more. There are muscles I've never had as a human. I experimentally move them, and in the mirror I see two wings extend slowly. I've got wings!!!!

Luna's voice purrs in my ear. "In Equestria, we don't have fighter airplanes. If you want to fly, you'll have to learn how to use those."

"So, you are telling me I'm a…what's the word… a pegasus?" I had to dredge up the name of the mythical winged horse from my younger education. That was a long time ago.

"Yes, Nick. You are a pegasus pony. And you have beautiful wings." She extends her own wings.

"Wow. And what kind of lesson am I to teach, and whom am I supposed to be teaching?"

"My sister's former student. And newest Princess. Princess Twilight Sparkle."

I roll my eyes. What crazy names do they have here. Fluttershy, Rainbow, Twilight Sparkle, Princess Luna. What is this, some kind of cartoon to sell little girls toys?

"Something funny?" She asks. Shit, she must have seen my smirk.

I cough, somehow my cigarette has survived everything and just burned my lips. I spit out the offending object and crush it out on the floor. I cough a little more. Hamming it up for the high and mighty Princess in front of me.

"Got any more smokes, I think I forgot to finish that one. It finished without me."

She laughs, "I don't know, it's your dream."

Oh yeah, it is. A new cigarette appears in my mouth, just lit. I pull a drag and politely blow the smoke away from the Princess.

"So, again, what am I supposed to teach this Princess. Uhhh, Luna?"

A new smile from her. "First I need to tell you some rules. First off, there is no divulging that you are on a mission, second of all, you are not allowed to tell anypony whom gave you this assignment. But you are to use your best judgment to accomplish your mission. I've already enchanted you to enforce those. You will find any time you try to divulge that information your tongue, or any other body part involved, will become completely dumb. So, you won't even be able to write it out. Got it?"

I nod.

"Good, now. Your assignment. You are to teach Twilight Sparkle the value of love."

I choke on my cigarette. "You can't be serious. I don't even know her." I spit my smoke out once again on the pristine floor, what happened to the one I dropped earlier? I don't think about it much as I grind the smoldering tobacco out. When I lift my hoof from the floor, all there is a clean, pure white floor. I look up at Luna.

"I'm a fighter pilot. I'm all about speed, I'm all about the conquest. I'm all about moving on. I haven't even had a steady girlfriend."

A big smile from Luna, and apparently she's a bit of an imp. And a scamp, and a miserable excuse for pony kind in general. "I think you will also be learning as you teach my sister's former student." She says to me. Talk about a fish out of water. I've got to not only learn the society I've just been rudely shoved into, but I also have to make a flying unicorn fall in love with me? I've never been interested in any kind of long term relationship. I joined the Navy for one reason, and one reason only. To fly. Flying is my passion. And now I'm stuck with this assignment.

I groan at her. "And what do I get out of doing this?"

Another smile, "You get to live, your body was found about twenty-four hours after I saved you. Well, it looks like your body, a reasonable facsimile. Good enough for you to be identified. Nick, you are dead in your world.

"And if I fail. Are you going to kill me?" This causes her head to jerk back.

"I wouldn't kill any pony for failing an assignment. You simply will fail in that. You will stay in Equestria and live your life here. It's too late for you to go home, you would have died anyway. Would you like to be sent back in time? You would certainly die there."

"No, given the choice, I would say Equestria is an improvement on death."

She chuckles. "You are waking up. Remember what I've told you, Nick. I want you to do your best. One thing I noticed in you is that when you go for something, you give everything you have. And to win Twilight Sparkles heart, you will have to give more than what you have."

Chapter 4. Waking up, AGAIN!!!

My eyes slide slowly open. I'm in a different bed. I look around. Where the hell is this? Memories of my dream crash into me and I jerk up out of the bed and fall onto the floor. I untangle myself from the covers and my new ears swivel back and forth. Searching for some sound indicating that someone heard me. After several tense seconds, I relax a bit. Luna has explained the situation, but I'm still a freaking pony. I think it's going to be a while before I'm able to contemplate that outside a dream with any level of comfort. I try to move quietly around the room. I'm not in the same room I was in before.

This is completely different. It looks like this room was carved out of a huge tree. Looking at the walls, every available space is taken up by books. I mean every book you can think of. I've never been a reader, but even I'm impressed. And this is a bedroom? I wonder what the rest of the house looks like. I trot over to the door and press my ear to it. Utter silence. I glance out the window, it's daylight, so at least one of those ponies should be up and about. I look at the door, it has a door knob, pretty convenient if you have the magic of a unicorn, I'm not putting my mouth on that. I look around the room. It's actually pretty big, there is an odd shaped set of French doors, I trot over to them, and they have more hoof friendly latching equipment. In moments the doors are open and I stride out onto a nice sized balcony. Wait a moment, this is a balcony, in a tree. I look down, I'm easily three or four stories up.

Looking around, I'm about in the middle of the tree, this thing is huge. A shadow passes over me, it's moving pretty quickly, I see the strangest thing I've ever seen in my life, at least before I came to this weird ass place. A pegasus pony, and she was pushing a cloud around. I mean seriously, a cloud is just water vapor, and this pegasus was pushing the cloud around like it had mass. I rub my eyes with my fetlock, violently shake my head, the look back up. The pegasus is gone, the cloud is no longer moving. Whew.

I turn back and stumble a bit. I look down. Oh yeah, I'm a quadruped now. I've been moving fairly easily when I don't think about it. Though I can feel that I'm a bit wobbly. I guess like a new foal, they can walk within hours of birth, and I must be an equivalent to a newborn foal in this world. Another shadow passes over me. It's that same pegasus mare. She's a light lavender with a blonde looking mane. She's got one of those pictures on her flank. I squint, it's a cloud half covering the sun. Wait a moment, she's got another cloud. I look around the sky, there are about a dozen more pegasi moving clouds. This is seriously twisting my noodle.

I sit down on my rump, time to think for a moment. These pegasi seem to find it pretty easy to fly. I have several years of flight experience under my belt…or maybe, wing… I don't know. I can out fly these little ponies. All I have to do is figure out how to get off the ground. I spread my wings, I take a moment to admire them. I look to each side, I must have a good fourteen foot wingspan, not as much as my F-18, but I don't weigh nearly as much. I move the wings slowly, trying to figure out how each movement feels. In moments I've figured out how the wings work, I can adjust nearly everything on them, I can feel the leading edge, I can feel the stiff primaries. They actually feel pretty awesome. I give them a powerful flap. I'm gratified with my hooves lifting off the balcony for a moment. My grin splits my face. I can fly without an aircraft. This is cool. I hop on the balcony railing with my wings spread. Well, all baby birds are eventually pushed out of the nest, better fly. My concentration is broken by the door back in my room opening. I look back, there's a purple and green lizard running at me. I don't wait to decipher it's facial expressions. I spring off the balcony and flap hard. In moments, I'm not only airborne, I'm accelerating. I hear something behind me as I bank to avoid the flying pegasi and their freaky cloud bank. And I take off!

I only thought I could fly before. Nothing, not me flying an old Cessna 172, not getting certified in the T-45, and eventually the F/A-18 could even compare to this. Oh God above. I will never be closer to you than I am right now. I figure out an aileron roll. Yes! A barrel roll. Even better, I pull off an old World One move, the Immelmann turn, climbing hard and spinning around in midair, allowing me to dive down in any direction I want. If I have to be a pony, this is how to do it. My grin is huge as I accelerate further. I start to climb. Straight up with every bit of strength that my wings will give me. The land opens up to me as I gain altitude. I see the town I just took off from. The mountains have a huge city carved into the side. Wow, this land that Luna has brought me to is beautiful. I stop climbing for a moment to appreciate the scenery. My wings somehow know what to do. I'm just hovering there. I can feel that the temperature has dropped quite a bit from ground level. But it doesn't bother this body in the slightest. I don't think I will ever stop smiling, so long as I can keep flying like this.

My time by myself is quickly interrupted, a light lavender face pushes itself into my field of view. I know that face. It was that pegasus moving clouds earlier. She's talking, I had better pay attention…

"…wing, you need to land."

I shake my head, "Beg pardon."

The mare shakes her head irritably. "Hey, freakwing, it's time for you to land. Twilight couldn't catch up with you, so she had me catch up. She wants you back at the library."

She called me freakwing, what the hell? I look at her wings, they are about the same as the other pegasi wings. Those wings are, extended, nearly their body length, mine are more than double that. Okay, I've got large wings for a pegasus. No problem. I smirk at the blonde mare.

"I'll go back to the library, once you catch me." I say as I fold my wings and flip my body to dive for the ground. I can feel something as I dive. There is more than the aerodynamic forces on my wings. I have to be doing something else, I'm falling faster than gravity can account for. Well, if pegasi can move clouds around, stand on them, and everything they seem to be doing, why don't they have magic to help them fly. I howl in delight as I accelerate downwards. Now, this. This is flying.

I glance behind me, the two toned blonde locks of the lavender mare are flapping in the breeze as she huffs and puffs trying to catch up to me. I'm leaving her in my contrail. Yes, this is awesome. I glance ahead, the ground is coming up quick. I had better pull out of this dive. Hard G-forces punish my body as level out. I look back, that must have been a seven or eight G pullout and I not only didn't pass out from that without a flight suit, this body seemed to do everything to keep blood where it belongs, to the wing muscles and the brain. This is a body designed to fly. I'm whooping it up as I pass over the buildings of the town I took off from. I dodge the big oak tree that I took off from, in moments I'm over a large, pleasant looking forest. After a few seconds I hear something coming in from my right. I glance to that side and only have a moment to gasp before a rainbow colored trail slams into me. I look down, the cyan mare from earlier has her hooves wrapped around me, determination in her face as she throws all my balance off.

"Get off of me, you are going to make us crash." I scream at her. With her disrupting my flight, I'm losing altitude quickly.

She looks at me, all four of her hooves wrapped around my barrel. "Maybe you should have listened to Cloud Kicker when she told you Twilight wanted you."

I'm getting more and more frantic, I'm flapping my wings harder and harder, but her weight is disrupting everything. And her wings aren't helping me either. She's using them as air brakes to slow me down.

"Get off of me you idiot, we are going to crash and die." I scream.

She chuckles at me, "Pegasi are far more resilient than you think."

With that we are just about to hit the tops of the trees. I do the only thing I can think of. I bring my wings to be a sort of protective cocoon as I crash through the branches. In moments I hit a tree trunk big enough to stop me. I fall about twenty feet to the ground.

I lay there, quite stunned, I'm able to fold my wings to my sides. Though I'm trying to breathe. The cyan mare, I finally remember her name. "Rainbow, that was dirty pool." I wheeze. Maybe I should wait a bit before I have air in my lungs to berate the mare. Rainbow, for her part, is laughing as she gets off of me. She hits me in the shoulder with her hoof.

"Thanks for being the cushion for a soft landing dude. And the name is Rainbow Dash, not just Rainbow."

I give her a dirty look. "You could have killed us both."

She flips her relatively short mane. "That's a load, dude. I just performed a text book take down of an uncooperative pegasus. Grab the pony off balance, use your wings as an air brake, and wait for them to either tire out, or crash. By the way, all you had to do to show you submit would be to fold your wings, and I would have taken over and brought you to the ground easily." She stops and smiles at me. "But this way was more fun."

I roll over and after a couple of tries, I'm up on my hooves. As I turn to Rainbow Dash, another pegasus crashes through the branches and lands heavily in front of us. It's the mare from earlier. She's breathing heavily, like she's just run a marathon. "That pony is almost as fast as you are, boss."

Rainbow looks back at me and grins. "Yes, he's fast, but no pony is faster than I am. Did I have trouble catching up to you?" She pokes me in the ribs.

I smack the offending hoof away. "Where the hell are we?"

I think Rainbow Dash is supremely amused by the turn of events. Everything she's been saying has been half laugh, half talking. "These are the white tail woods." She indicates a direction, "head that way to get back to Ponyville."

"Ponyville?"

More smiles and laughs from the cyan pegasus, and the other pegasus has recovered, and she's laughing too. "The town you just took off like a crazy pony from. That's Ponyville, it's my home, and your home, at least for now."

"Fine, can we fly there?" I ask. I get a smirk and two sets of unfurled wings in response.

"Race you home, 1, 2, 3, go." I'm half way through the limbs heading up by the time two comes out of my mouth. I hear a screamed curse as I power my way towards the appropriately named Ponyville. My head start is short lived though, that damned cyan pegasus has more speed than she knows what to do with. The other pony though, she may be a good flier, but she doesn't understand speed the way that Rainbow Dash does, and certainly not how I understand speed. I grin as I head towards the huge oak tree. I'm gaining on Rainbow Dash.

All of a sudden, she's slowing down. Oh wait, my only landing in this body was a crash landing with Rainbow Dash glomped onto me. I backpedal my wings to slow down, and I'm slowing down, but not enough. She lands gracefully right on the doorstep to the library. I, however, slam into the trunk of the gigantic tree. Goodbye consciousness. I really liked knowing you. I think as the lights dim. I really need to stop knocking myself silly.

Chapter 5. Meeting Twilight Sparkle

"I have got to stop doing this." I moan as I rub my forehead.

"What? Waking up in other ponies beds? I agree." A voice says. I think for a second, I know that voice.

"Oh, no, not that Twilight, I happen to like waking up in pretty mare's beds." I grin at her as I finally am able to open my eyes again. I'm greeted by a furiously blushing Twilight Sparkle. I grin at her, and for added flair, I waggle my eyebrows at her. I heave myself to a sitting position, and cradle my poor head in my hooves. "I need to stop crash landing."

I hear a smirk in her voice, "You do that often Wachowski?"

I look up and glare at her. "In all my years of flying, I've had three crash landings, one because both engines on my plane decided to take a shit on me, two because that damn pegasus Rainbow Dash decided to grab on to me and force me to crash, and finally when I was trying to stop while racing that little speed demon." I stand up and trot around a bit. "For crying out loud, I've crashed more as a pony than I have as a human!" I stomp my front hooves to the floor. I'm gratified with her eyes going wide. I think I just insulted her friend. I can see some anger in her eyes, she huffs a bit. Well, that's the normal reaction of women to me. This mare is apparently no exception to that rule.

"Just so you know, Sparkle, my name is Nicholas, my friends call me Nick. Please don't call me by my surname."

"Fine, Nicholas. So, do you want to explain yourself?"

Huh? I look at her quizzically.

"First off, when you woke up at Fluttershy's cottage, not only were you wearing a very odd outfit that she had to cut off, but when you woke up, you absolutely freaked out, to the point of passing out. Then, today, you wake up and decide to go out flying. And you ignore being told to come back here, requiring Rainbow Dash to retrieve you. I can see it now, you are still freaked out, but you are controlling it well."

I start trotting around the room. I have to move. I've been ADHD all my life, I know how to handle it, if I want to think, I have to move. Little miss princess here will scope out anything I'm trying to hide. So I had better come out straight with her. "Well, a little over four days ago, I took off from Pensacola Air Station in Florida, with three other pilots. We were ferrying four F/A-18 Super Hornets to Kuwait for delivery to their Royal Air Force. About midway over the Atlantic Ocean, both engines suffered compressor failures. The likelihood of both engines doing that is about a hundred million to one. I had to ditch my aircraft and punch out. I floated in the water like a bobber for two days. I passed out, and woke up in your Fluttershy's bed. I freaked out because not only was I looking at Technicolor ponies, but after I discovered that I somehow became one myself, I couldn't handle it."

I hold my hooves out at her. "These were hands, I didn't have wings attached to my body. I wasn't covered in fur. I was a human. And now I'm here." Alright, maybe my control has gone by the wayside, I suppress a sob, but I have no control of the tears that are starting to run down my face. I ignore them as best as I can. "I flew off because I've been a pilot for a long time. I started flying with my dad when I was eight years old, and I joined the Navy so I could fly fighter jets. But one thing I noticed about this transformation. Flying is even better when you are a pegasus. It was the only thing that calmed me down. I've been flying for nearly twenty years. And I think I was missing out. But just like any human aircraft, when they are on the ground, they are ungainly, hard to maneuver, and a general pain. But once in the air, they become graceful, swift, powerful. I guess I'm a lot like that."

She takes a moment to digest all I've said. She does so pretty quickly though, "I don't know any of those places that you were talking about. I don't know what humans are. Are you saying you're an alien?"

I shrug my wings. "I guess you could call me that. I had never heard of magical talking ponies until that…urk." My tongue just tied itself in knots. I guess Luna wasn't kidding when she said I wouldn't be able to talk about what happened. I breathe heavily, "until I woke up here. Hell, I don't even know the name of this world."

"This world, it's Earth. But our nation is Equestria."

"You call your planet Earth too?"

"Yes, just like Earth Ponies, those without wings or horns."

"And your nation is called Equestria?" I roll my eyes, I'm ready for plenty of pony puns.

"Yes, and we are ruled by two princesses. They are Celestia, and Luna."

I have to groan, which elicits a sharp look from Twilight. I'm pulled from my world by no less than one of their rulers. "Wait a moment, princesses? Do you have a king or queen?"

Now a smile from her, she wears her emotions on her sleeve. "No, silly. We have two princesses. At least we do now. For a thousand years Princess Celestia was the only one in charge, her sister had been banished to the moon."

That gets a reaction from me. "A thousand year banishment? How long do you ponies live?"

"Well, most of us don't make it to two hundred years. Most die at around a century of age. Celestia and Luna are alicorns, they have never told me their ages. But we know they have been alive for more than a thousand years."

I look at her, "you are an alicorn. Does that mean you will live for thousands of years?"

She looks down. "I don't know. I haven't asked. I only became an alicorn some months ago."

Now I'm really thrown for a loop. "What? You became an alicorn? I don't understand." I think my brain is broken. I sink my head back down into my hooves.

I hear a chuckle from the lavender alicorn sitting in front of me. "I was born a unicorn. I was able to create entirely new magic, which allowed me to ascend to be an alicorn. To be a princess here in Equestria, you can't be born into it, you have to earn it. Any pony with the right abilities, and the right growth and the ability to create has the potential to become an alicorn themselves. My sister-in-law was a pegasus before she was able to use the magic of love for herself to become an alicorn."

Alright, this world is weird. And now I'm stuck here. Maybe I should go and beg Princess Luna to send me back to the ocean. No, not going to do that, but it is tempting. Twilight is talking some more… Better listen.

"Well, if you aren't from this world, maybe that explains why you don't have a cutie mark."

She really needs to stop hitting me with these bombshells.

"Beg pardon?"

"You don't have a cutie mark." She points at my flank. I follow where her hoof is pointing, and I discover that my neck is far more flexible than it used to be. I see a perfectly normal flank. I look back at her.

"And?"

I think she's starting to get mad again, one of her ears twitches and so does her right eye. It's actually kind of cute. I think I'll put her out of her misery. "Umm, Twilight, I don't know what a cutie mark is."

This earns a shake of the head from her. It's like I just told her the sky was mint green with purple polka dots. "You don't have anything to show your special talent?"

I grin at her. "Twilight, many humans are born, grow up, live, and die, never knowing of any special talent. And we certainly don't have any pictures showing up on our rumps to indicate what that talent would be. I'm actually lucky, I've discovered what my talent is, I can fly, I am an awesome pilot. I love the freedom of flight. But, no, I don't have anything that indicates that."

Uh oh, lecture mode from our friend Twilight Sparkle. She's about to get really spooled up on it too when she's interrupted by a knock on the door. That same purple and green lizard sticks his head in. "Lunch is ready Twilight."

"Thank you Spike." then to me, "Are you hungry Nick?"

I start to say no, but then my stomach betrays me with a loud gurgle. "I guess the answer is yes." We get up and I follow her. "By the way Twilight, I'm a Navy pilot, I actually go by my call sign most of the time. Would you call me Rocky?" We walk down the stairs into a the main part of this gigantic tree. More and more bookshelves with books of every possible type are all around me.

"Rocky? Why are you called that?"

I smile at the memory. "Because my wingman is called Moose."

Utter confusion from Twilight. My grin gets bigger. "Rocky, the flying squirrel."

I only thought she was confused before, but now she's completely befuddled. She starts talking only to drift off after a syllable or two. Looking at me as she takes a seat and points to another seat. I sit down, my grin is huge.

"Rocky the flying squirrel, and Bullwinkle the Moose?" I prompt her.

"I have no idea what you are talking about." She finally says.

I bark out a laugh. "Geez, don't tell me you don't have cartoons in this world."

I think I've broken her brain, serves her right for what she did to me. She lays her head down on the table and starts massaging her temples with her hooves. After a few moments I finally put her out of her misery. I spend a few minutes explaining the cartoon show. After a bit she starts laughing. Her laugh is infectious. I'm laughing pretty hard myself pretty quickly.

"So, you are telling me that you and your wingman are named after a cartoon show that was popular twenty years before you were born?"

I smile at her, "Yes, Twilight. He chose the call sign first, he was the big fan of Bullwinkle. I adopted the Rocky moniker after he chose Moose. The Captain of the Nimitz loved it."

"The Nimitz? What is that?" Now I had to explain the United States Navy.

We actually ended up talking about my world for a good couple of hours. Best of all, this is the longest time I have actually been conscious since I got here. Maybe things are looking up for me.

As we continue chatting, she brings up a sore subject.

"Well, I've told you a little about my family. What about yours." She sees my reaction and continues, "have I asked something wrong?"

My ears have folded flat, and I can't help it, my head droops down. I know I have a huge frown on my face. I look at her. "No, Twilight. You haven't said anything wrong. Just my memories."

"We don't have to talk about that if you don't want to."

"No." I take a deep breath. "It's alright Twilight. I need to eventually get over it. And I've been told that talking it out is the best for healing. It's going to get a bit personal, if that's okay with you."

She moves to sit right in front of me. "I know that you just met me, Nick. So you will have to take this on faith, but I understand friendship very well, I've been studying it for over a year with my friends here. You are alone here, as an alien. And I don't know what the future holds, but I will let you know, I am your friend, for as long as you will have me as one. And you can trust me."

I scoff, "Twilight, as you said, I just met you. How can we be friends already?"

"Your best friend, you call him Moose right?" I nod, "when did you and him actually become friends, not formally by saying anything, but just that feeling inside that says in your hears, this person is my friend."

I have to think back. Might as well tell her this story. It takes a few minutes, and she starts nodding while I'm talking. As I wind down, she smiles at me. "So, when you met him in the mess hall, within a few minutes of talking to him, you had a feeling of what kind of person he was, and you knew you would be friends?"

"I guess, yeah."

"And you did end up friends, didn't you?"

"Uh huh." She responds by clapping her front hooves together.

"See, you only knew him for minutes, and you became friends. Do you see what I'm getting at?"

I look her in the eyes, I'm thinking furiously. I look to the side for a moment. Then I smile as I look into her eyes again. "Okay, Twilight, I trust you."

A big smile from her. "And so, will you tell me about your family?"

I have a thought. "Why are you so interested, Twilight?"

"You are a new pony here, Nick. I'm always looking to learn, and your story is utterly fascinating."

I sigh, "Fine, but the part about my family is to be just between you and me, okay?"

"I promise, Nick."

"Fine." I bite my lower lip, it's hard, even after four years. "I was an only child. My parents doted on me. I was adopted, because they couldn't have any children. My dad, especially, was my hero. He was a private pilot, he had served in the Air Force for years. He arranged for me to be back seat in an F-16 fighter when I was fourteen, he had been teaching me to fly since I was eight years old in his old Cessna. I will remember that day for the rest of my life. After hours of briefing and teaching me how to use a flight suit, I was on the flight line with the pilot, a friend of his, a pilot he had trained himself, and he told the pilot to make me puke. It didn't work, I was whooping it up the entire flight. I screamed in delight the entire flight. That is what cemented my absolute love of flight, that half hour of bliss. That was where I decided to become a pilot myself. Well, fast forward, I was on deployment in the Arabian Sea. I was flying CAP, that's Combat Air Patrol, when I get a call on my radio, ordering me back to the ship as soon as possible. I landed and was led to the Captain's ready room. The Captain of the Nimitz was there, along with the chaplain, he sat me down and told me. My parents." I break down, I haven't told anyone, except for Moose, what happened to them. My eyes are closed, I'm trying to control my breathing. After a few moments, a pair of arms encircle me. I grab onto her. Twilight is hugging me. I'm sobbing like a child in her embrace. Eventually, I'm able to control myself.

"There was a fire. They passed in their sleep." My mind unwillingly pulls up those horrible memories. The frantic flight halfway around the world, my dad's sister picking me up at the airport. The drive to what was left of the house. The wake, the funeral. It passed in a blur. "I never got to say goodbye. I had talked to them the day before the fire. After that, I just withdrew. I didn't talk to pretty much anybody. Even after I got back to my ship, Moose tried to get me to open up. I told him off pretty good. I did eventually apologize, but I lost a good number of friends because I stopped being a friend myself. Maybe because I isolated myself so much is why I'm here today. I rarely talk to my aunt, we were never really close. The only human I miss is Michael, Moose that is. I know the only human that will miss me being gone is him."

"I don't believe that Nick. Your Aunt, even though you didn't talk to her much, I guarantee you, she misses you."

"I guess so, but I can't do anything about it. I'm stuck here. And if I were to go back, I'm dead there already."

"So, coming here is a bit of a rebirth for you, huh?"

She moves back to her seat.

"I guess it is."

I look at her, I can't help but smile back, her smile is huge, and infectious.

"Thank you Twilight Sparkle, I never knew how much friendship meant to me. Having so few true friends back home."

"You are very welcome Nick."

"It's Rocky."

Her grin becomes a smirk, "That was your old life, you aren't a fighter pilot anymore, you are a pegasus pony now. You are Nick now."

I have to roll me eyes at that. "Fine, Twilight."

Chapter 6. Another Meeting, Another Friend?

The sun is in the far western sky, it will be down soon. I finally am able to take my leave of Twilight Sparkle's residence. I'm not fifty feet from the door to the Golden Oak's library when I hear hooves slam into the ground behind me.

"You've only been a pegasus for a few days now, how in Luna's name can you fly so fast already?"

Ugh, I know that voice. "Hello Rainbow Dash, so, you must have been napping on that cloud while I was talking to Twilight." These ponies should invent air conditioning, so it can be tolerable inside without having to open windows.

I turn to see the rainbow maned pegasus stalking towards me, an angry look on her face, and her wings spread out. The wings reminded me of a bird in a threat display, I wonder what other emotions the wings will signify for pegasi. As I am one of them now, I had better be careful with my emotions. She pushes her snout right into mine.

"I asked you a question buster." She repeats herself.

I chuckle. "I don't know, just a natural I guess. I've always had excellent balance and very good bodily control. Once I figured out how to move my wings, Everything…just…worked. I guess."

She sits down, she still looks angry. "There are pegasi who have completed junior speedster camp and can't fly like you can."

I'm starting to get irritated myself. "Well, I haven't figured out landing yet, I've landed twice as a pegasus, and both times were a crash. One of those, you caused."

Her wings finally fold back in place. She can't help it, she falls over laughing. I beginning to not like this pegasus. "My dad taught me that the hardest thing about flying is the landing. Taking off isn't that hard, and once you are in the air, it's pretty much a breeze. But landing without crashing is a learned behavior." I say defensively.

She stops laughing and sits up. "My dad taught me something like that." She stops and looks at me seriously. She starts prancing around me. Looking me up and down.

"Why don't you have a cutie mark?"

"I've been in your world for a few days." I look around, no pony is in the immediate vicinity. I look up at the few clouds, no pegasi that I can see. "I don't know if I've figured out any special talent for me to get a picture of it on my flank."

She keeps looking me up and down. "Uhh, Rainbow, you know it's rude to listen to others private conversations." She simply smiles at me. "I would appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone, or any other pony about what I told Twilight."

"Well, duh. I can keep my mouth shut. I was just taking a nap, and my cloud floated near the window. I really wasn't trying to listen in." She actually has the presence of mind to look abashed, a faint blush appears on her muzzle. Finally she sighs loudly, "I'm sorry for eavesdropping on your conversation."

I look at her hard. Is she messing with me? Or is she sincere? I finally decide on the latter. "Fine, apology accepted." I turn to go. Daisy sandwiches really didn't appeal to me, Twilight gave me a small sack of coins, saying I'll find a way to earn them, but I should get a hot dinner, she had other plans, she said she had a letter to write.

I'm walking towards one of the apparently many restaurants in this little town of Ponyville I notice that Rainbow Dash is trotting next to me.

"Can I help you?"

A smirk. "No, just decide where you want to eat already."

"I don't recall inviting you to dinner."

"I don't recall you having a choice."

I frown as I sit down on an outside café table. She plops herself into the seat across from me.

"I don't have that much money, and it's all I've got until I find a job. And somehow I've got to find a place to live."

A laugh from the cyan pegasus. "You'll be staying with Twilight, didn’t she make that clear?"

"Uhh, no, she didn't. And I don't want to impose."

"Do I have to drag her over here? I'm one of her best friends, I know that mare. She didn't say anything because she expects you there. After you eat, go back there."

"Thanks, but no thanks, Rainbow Dash. Maybe I'll curl up on a cloud, I can do that now."

"Fine, it's your funeral."

I order from the waitress when she finally appears. They have a vegetable stew that smells heavenly, I noticed the smell as I passed. Rainbow orders the same.

"You, know, Rainbow, I'm not able to pay for your meal as well."

A grin, I swear this pegasus has mastered the art of the shit eating grin. "And you aren't paying for yours as well. Consider this one on me. All you have to do is listen to me until the food arrives."

I consider her words for a minute. I looked at the prices on the menu, and the amount of money Twilight gave me, though I consider it a loan until I get some sort of income worked out, was actually quite generous. "Fine. What do you have to say, Rainbow."

"You are a good flyer. And given your time flying before you came to Ponyville." She's a smart cookie, able to talk about my situation without letting any pony know that I'm not from this world at all. "I think you would be good working for the weather bureau. The pay is pretty decent, I'll pair you with some of our better fliers, and I'll even help you with landing. You have everything else down pretty good. Oh good, that was quick." She says as two steaming bowls of a thick vegetable stew are placed in front of us. The spoons have a sort of band on them, watching Rainbow, I fit mine around a hoof, allowing me to spoon the stew into my mouth.

Wow, what a taste, I think it would be better with some venison. Then again, these herbivores would probably faint if I told them I hunted for meat back home. I polish off the stew and order another bowl. Finally, with a full stomach, I walk away from the restaurant with Rainbow Dash beside me.

"Well, if you like my idea, go ahead and meet me at town hall in the morning. Sound good?"

I shrug my wings. "Sure." She takes off like a bullet. Damn, that mare is fast. I trot through town, keeping an eye to the sky for a likely cloud, though it looks like all the clouds have been gathered together into one huge mass. The wind is starting to come up. Uh oh, a storm. As I'm walking the sky decides to open up. In moments I'm drenched. Though I notice something nice. Pegasi aren't really affected by the cold that much. The cold water really doesn't bother me. As a human, I would be shivering and miserable, as it is, I'm just wet, it's not that bad. It starts to get late as the rain keeps pounding down. I end up on the outskirts of town.

I've never flown at night or in the rain as a pegasus, and I know the dangers of doing so in an airplane. So I keep myself grounded, even though I would love nothing better to do than fly up above those clouds and sleep on top, but my practiced eye says they are about ten thousand feet up, a bit of a fly. I look around. I've trotted into a park. I find some bushes around the perimeter of the park. Well, I heard what Rainbow said, but Twilight did not say anything about me coming back after dinner, maybe she assumes I'll get a room or hotel or something. I'm trying to save that money for necessities. I can live without shelter, I've got a good resistance to cold, nice fur coat. I can handle some time out in the elements. I crawl into a bush that gives me some protection and finally curl up and fall asleep.

***

"Nick!" I hear a voice, it penetrates my sleep fogged mind. I open my eyes and pop my head up. The sun is just peeking above the horizon.

"Nick!" That sounds like Twilight. I stand up.

"Nick, where are you?" She seems upset, her voice is nearly frantic.

"I'm over here." I call out as I extricate myself from the bush. I shake my body, just like a dog, or maybe a pony, I guess. I'm still damp, but I feel fine.

Twilight runs over to me. "I've been looking everywhere for you!" She bowls me over with a hug. "I was worried! I've been searching for hours." I get a good look at her, she has dried tear tracks down her muzzle, her mane is a mess, dark bags are under her eyes.

"Oh my God Twilight, what happened to you?"

She sniffles as she lets me up. "You didn’t come back after you went for some food, I stayed up waiting for you…"

I'm not good with these hooves, but I manage to smooth her mane with it. "Twilight, that is not my home, I'm going to get a job, and look for a home, but I don't want to impose."

I get a hard hoof to the side of my face. Did she just slap me?

"You scared me Nick. As you said, this isn't your world. I thought it went without saying that you can stay with me until you get on your hooves."

I look at her. She certainly is sincere. I've never even had a girlfriend that was this worried about my welfare. I really don't know how to react to that.

I guess how stunned I am comes through to Twilight. She giggles. "Alright, just promise you won't be stupid like that again."

That elicits a smile from me. "I can't promise that, my capacity to do stupid things knows no boundaries. But, until I find a place to live, I'll stay with you. Deal?" I hold out a hoof.

She bops my hoof with hers, and giggles again. "Deal."

I stretch out my wings and yawn.

"Wow!" I hear from Twilight.

I look around. "What?"

She gently extends my wing with her magic. What an odd feeling. "Your wings are huge."

"Well, they are the ones I got when I got here. Is that a problem?"

She looks thoughtful. "I don't think so, Nick. Pegasi usually have about the same size wings, with the exception of Bulk Biceps, he has extremely small wings, yet he is actually a pretty good flier. A pegasus usually only flies with the addition of their innate magic. That magic also allows them to walk on clouds. Your wings are exceptional. You were a pilot before you came here, maybe that has some relation. Can you hover for me." She releases her magic.

I dutifully flap my wings and remain in place. It takes a lot of concentration to keep my wings slow enough for me to stay airborne without taking off like a shot. It almost feels as though I'm treading water, with slow, deliberate movements, rather than the much faster movements I've learned to fly with.

"Hmmmm…" She ponders for a moment. "You are moving your wings about half the speed any other similar pegasus would to hover like that. So, you most likely have the same magic, even though you aren't of our world. How does it feel to hover like that?"

"Kind of weird, I've only flown fast before, this is really odd for me." I can feel myself itching to truly take off and speed up. But Twilight wants to examine me, so I'll stay still. I'm looking around though, the sun is well and truly up. We are just at the edge of town, and Rainbow Dash said this morning, and to meet in the town square, so I told Twilight.

"Oh, Nick, Rainbow Dash is not an early riser. It's not even seven in the morning yet. I guarantee you, she's still snoozing, look around. There aren't any pegasi in the sky working on clearing out the remains from this storm." I concede her point, and accept her offer of breakfast.

Soon I'm sitting in Twilight Sparkle's kitchen, powering through a stack of waffles made by, I shit you not, a dragon. His name is Spike, and he was very nice while I gawked. I've never seen a dragon before. Twilight informed me he's a baby dragon, and that he's been her apprentice for over ten years.

"No offense Spike, but how are you still a baby dragon if you are over ten years old? In my world, a ten year old is nearly at puberty, and certainly couldn't be called a baby."

The small scaled dragon chuckles at me. "Dragons live for a very long time, it will be a while before I'm not a baby dragon anymore."

I turn to Twilight, "Dragons are mythical in my world. European dragon mythology has them as serpent like, and are dangerous. Oriental dragons are different, in many parts of the Orient, dragons are symbols of wisdom, strength, and beauty. And they are common here?

"Well…" She gazes fondly at Spike, "not exactly common, but there are a lot of them."

I'm blown away, from what I've been learning, almost every mythical creature lives in this strange world of Equestria.

I glance at the clock and jump up. It's almost ten in the morning, I hope I haven't missed my opportunity to get a job. I hug Twilight as I rush out the door, noticing a faint blush as I do so. I know I've got my mission from their ruler, but I've got to worry about immediate needs first. I rush out the doors of the Golden Oaks library.

Chapter 8. Pinkie Pie

"As you can see, this house has everything you need," the realtor said.

I looked around, the house was exactly what I needed, one bedroom, one bath, a spacious living room and kitchen, and it was furnished. I opened the appliances and looked around, either the previous tenant was a neat freak, or they had one hell of a cleaning service. I turned at looked at the mare. "I'll take it."

A huge smile from her. I followed her out of the house and down the street to her office. She also had an office in the town hall, just down the hall from Rainbow Dash's. After signing the paperwork and gathering the keys, I trotted by the Weather Mare's office. Rainbow Dash was sitting there, the pencil was certainly shorter than when I had left earlier, and I could tell the colorful mare was a bit frazzled.

"Paperwork is the same in every universe Rainbow Dash," I said as I poked my head in, eliciting a flaring of the wings in surprise.

"Oh, it's you."

"Yup, and I hate paperwork as much as you probably do. Add to that, you have to hold your pencil in your mouth to write, I had hands to do it, and I hated it."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, one thing they didn't tell me when I signed up to be a pilot is exactly how much time I would have to spend behind a desk filling out reports. Old Uncle Sam is fed with bits of paper apparently."

She laughed at that.

I pulled my much lighter bag of bits out and bounced it in front of her. These wings are surprisingly dexterous. "I'm hungry, how about you? Want to get away from the paperwork? My treat?"

She was out the door so fast she jumped over my head through the door and was halfway down the hall before I caught up with her.

"I'm guessing the answer is a yes."

She rolled her eyes, "Duh."

I followed her as she walked down the road. "What are you in the mood for?" I asked her.

"Fish."

That stopped me in my tracks. "Aren't you guys herbivores?"

"Duh, we're pegasi, dude."

"And that's different how? We are still ponies."

"How many other ponies do you know of that has an extra limb girdle for a third set of appendages? We are different dude. Almost every pony city has a restaurant that caters to not only pegasi, but griffons and a few other omnivorous species."

"I could kill for a beef steak wrapped in bacon."

She stopped in her tracks. "That would be murder dude. Cattle talk, we don’t eat animals that think."

"Uhh, I really didn't mean it that way, it was an expression, from home."

That earned me a punch to the shoulder. "Dude, I knew that, I had to mess with you though. That is seriously not something you would say here. A little tidbit of information for you."

"Oh," I looked down. "Well, back at home, I hunted for my own meat. I always liked venison. Do deer talk in this world?"

"Nope, in fact, you can order a venison steak if you want. I've never had that before, I don't come here regularly, but I usually just order fish."

"I get enough fish, I haven't had a venison steak in over a year."

After we arrive and are seated Rainbow Dash slaps her menu down.

"So, are you going to tell me why?"

"Why what?"

"I know you are not attracted to me, why did you ask me to have dinner with you?"

I couldn't do anything but stammer for a moment. She smirked as the waiter came up. She ordered for both of us. And she ordered exactly what I wanted. I don't know how she did that, but a venison steak cooked medium rare with a loaded baked potato was exactly what I was in the mood for. I shook my head. After the young stallion walked off with our order she turned her attention back to me.

"So?"

I looked down at the table for a minute. Trying to gather my thoughts.

"Hi Dashie!" A very excited voice says.

I look up and see pink. Not just a little pink, but an entirely pink pony. Light pink fur, darker pink mane and tail, just a whole bunch of pink, the only part of her not that is not pink are her eyes, which are a deep and vibrant blue. She's got her attention focused on Rainbow Dash.

"Oh, hi Pinkie. He's a new weather pony now. You remember being told about Nick, right?"

She bounced up and down a couple of times, "Of course I remember Nick. He's the pony that was a…mfph." Her words were muffled by a cyan hoof. She pushed Rainbow's hoof out of her mouth, and much quieter, said, "Oh, sorry." Then she turned to me.

"Well, since you are new here, I can't wait to throw you a welcome to Ponyville party. Or maybe it should be a welcome to Equestria party. Or should it be a…" her voice fades as she bounces out of the restaurant. I look over at Rainbow Dash.

"Uh…"

She smiles at my discomfit. "Well, Nick. So, why did you ask me out to dinner?"

"Can't a guy be nice?"

"Yeah, they can, and you aren't wearing a cyan flower, so anyone who's looking can see this can tell I'm not courting you. I know I'm awesome, but I have the feeling that I'm not your type. So again. Why did you ask me out?"

"Well, I was hoping for your help."

"You mean other than getting you a job, a generous bonus, and even a meal on my treat?"

I had to seize on that, "I'm paying you back for the meal."

Another smirk from Rainbow, "Come on dude, I'm not stupid."

"There is a pony I'm interested in."

"Wow, I can see why you are a pegasus. You don't go slowly. Full throttle from the time your hooves hit the ground. So, who is it? Oh, I know, the prettiest pegasus in all of Ponyville."

"You know it's not you, Rainbow Dash."

"Dude, I wasn't talking about me, I'm not ugly, but I'm too skinny. I was talking about Fluttershy."

I simply shake my head.

"So, not Flutters." She made a show of tapping her hoof on her chin.

"No, not Fluttershy."

"You haven't met AJ, or Rarity, yet. So she would have to be on the weather team. Flitter? Cloudchaser? Cloud Kicker? Blossomforth?"

"No, No, No, and No."

"Boy, you must have been busy meeting ponies between last night and when you showed up for work today."

"Nope." I smiled at her.

"So, dude, don't keep me waiting."

I felt my face growing hot. I wasn't used to saying such things out loud. "Uhhh, Twi-"

I jumped as she slammed her hoof down on the table.

At first I thought she was mad, but the look on her face was comical, she was trying not to laugh. And failing miserably at it as well.

"You, want," she laughed, "to date," she was gasping now, "purple smart?" She couldn't hold on anymore, she laughed so hard she fell out of her chair and was rocking on the floor holding her barrel with her hooves, laughing. All I could do was sit there red faced. At least I think my face was red, being covered with brown fur and all.

"I can't breathe!" She fell to new peals of laughter. I waited, none to patiently, for her laughter to die down. It took way too long for my taste.

Our food finally arrived, Rainbow Dash was still chuckling, though she had managed to make it back into her seat. I finally decided to ignore her, and took a bite of my steak. The flavor spread across my tongue. I had to close my eyes. I've noticed since I got this new body, my senses were different. Smell, hearing, eyesight, all much stronger than I ever had as a human. I have now discovered that the sense of taste was similarly enhanced. I was chewing on ambrosia. Oh my God, this is awesome. Everything else fell away as I devoured my steak. Her salmon linguini looked good, but this steak, nothing beat this food.

"I don't think I can afford to eat every meal here, but oh my God," I said finally as I swirled the last bit of potato in the juices and popped it into my mouth. I pushed my plate away and sat back. Now that was a meal.

"Well, they have a butcher shop, if you want to buy some to cook at home, this is pretty much your only source for animal protein." Rainbow Dash had finally gotten control of herself while we ate.

"I'll have to remember that."

"So, Nick," She stifles another laugh, "are you aware that as a new princess, Twilight has a line of suitors miles long?"

"No, she didn't say anything about that."

"And she's turned down every one. What makes you think you'll be different?"

I look down at the plate. I don't know what to think. After a minute or two of brooding silence, I look back up and am startled by her bright cerise eyes.

"Well, dude. It's your funeral. But if you want, I'll help you. You might just get lucky and have a lavender flower in your hair before too long."

"That is the second time you've mentioned flowers. What is so important about flowers?"

She leaned back. "You have no idea about courtship here in Equestria. When a mare asks a stallion out on a date, she typically presents him a flower the color of her coat. Pegasi sometimes offer a primary feather, but that has a deeper meaning, I'm not going to go into it now." She stops for a moment as her cheeks glow. So, blushing shows through our fur, good to know. "Well, when she offers the flower, it's his option to either wear it, usually behind an ear, or to reject it."

"What about a, uh, stallion, asking a mare out?"

"Oh, dude, I don't know where you are from, but that's really rare."

"Oh." I looked down.

"Don't worry dude, we'll figure out a way."

I looked hard at her. "Why do you want to help me?"

That question caught her unawares. She was in the middle of taking a drink of her water, my wing took the brunt of the water as she reflexively spit it out, I was lucky to get it in front of my body in time.

She coughed a bit, then looked at me. "Because Twilight is my friend. I love her as a friend."

"That's not enough Rainbow Dash, and you know it."

She sighed. "Yes, I know." Silence.

I waited as patiently as I could. But finally, "Rainbow…"

"She came to Ponyville to make some friends at Celestia's order. And she kind of fell in with us, me, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie. We just became friends so easily. But I've seen her at times, when I'm resting on a cloud. I've seen the look on her face. Sometimes, just friends isn't enough. She needs a true confidant, someone to address those things even a good friend isn't good enough for. And I want her to be happy."

"Oh," Well, that was a good reason, I guess.

Dessert offers were politely declined, I tried to pay for the meal, but once again, Rainbow Dash preempted me.

"This may not be a date, but I’m a well mannered mare pays for the meal." She said over my protestations.

We walked in blissful silence to my place. I found myself reassessing the cyan pegasus. She wasn't a jerk, she was fiercely loyal to her friends. And I discovered to my shock, she was coming to recognize me as a friend as well. Well, I've been able to make two new friends here in Equestria. Maybe it won't be all that bad.

I reach into my small side bag for my keys, then open the door. Then stop. I just used my hooves the way I used my hands. How in the hell did I do that? This world just gets crazier and crazier. Just as I get the door open, the light snaps on.

"Surprise!!!" yelled dozens of voices. I look back at Rainbow Dash, a big grin on her face.

"Dude, you are new here. For your information, everypony new gets a welcome to Ponyville party from Pinkie Pie."

"Oh." I turn back into the house, briefly wondering how everyone made it into my new house without the keys, or for that matter, how Pinkie knew where my new house was. Rainbow Dash could see the confusion in my face.

"Dude, just remember it's Pinkie Pie, and you won't go nuts trying to figure it out."

Chapter 9. A Pinkie Party

I turned from Dash to look in my new house. Some pony has been very busy, the furnishings had disappeared and the entire living room was taken up with several tables laden with food. Every kind of baked goods I could think of were making every one of these tables groan under their weight. A huge punch bowl was surrounded by cups. A complete anachronism, a wound up record player was sitting in the edge of the room, somehow filling the room with sound. And the ponies. My God, all the ponies. Over three dozen of them were there. I saw Twilight there, she was sipping punch with some other ponies, Pinkie Pie was there, so was Fluttershy. I followed Rainbow Dash over to her friends.

"Hi Dashie, hi Nick," Pinkie Pie said as she continued bouncing.

"Hi Pinkie, how do you keep bouncing? I would run out of energy in ten minutes if I tried to do what I watch you do."

She pulled me aside and whispered in my ear, "Sugar, and lots of it." She popped a cupcake into my mouth. I could swear that her hooves were empty just a second ago. I had to close my eyes as sugary bliss spread across my tongue. I was full from my meal, I looked at Pinkie Pie, or more accurately I looked at the space she had occupied half a second before. I looked around, she was across the room bouncing in front of a gray mare with eyes that went in different directions, she was picking up a small pale purple unicorn filly and spinning her around. I opened my mouth to speak.

"I know that look dude, it's Pinkie Pie." Rainbow Dash saved me from my brain exploding.

"Uhhh." I'm really quick on the uptake, aren't I?

I turned to Rainbow Dash, and accidentally tripped over another pony. I profusely apologized and helped her up. This was a pinkish purple unicorn mare, her cutie mark was three diamonds.

"It's my fault," I said.

"No, it's mine. I got in the way as you started to move. I was just grabbing some punch for my mom and sister."

I sat down, well, this is my new home, I had better get to know these ponies. "I'm Nick." I held out a hoof.

She smiled. "Sparkler." I helped her pour a few cups of the punch, I took a sip. Wow, Pinkie Pie needs to devote her entire life to cooking, she can bake the best cupcakes, and whipping up punch, Oh My God! I shook myself from the reverie as I partially extended my wing to take the cups of punch. Only to have them levitate towards Sparkler. She smiled at me and I followed her towards the gray mare.

"Here ya go mom. This is Nick."

"Yeah, he's the new pony here." I somehow found myself being lifted onto Pinkie Pie's back and was bouncing as she was bouncing up and down. She then grabbed me and set me on my hooves. "He has absolutely huge wings, and he works for Rainbow Dash." I felt my eyes bounce up and down after the rude treatment from Pinkie. I turned to the gray mare.

"I'm Derpy, you've met my older daughter, Sparkler, this is my little one, Dinky." That caused a bit of a mess in my head.

"You are a pegasus, they are unicorns."

"You've got it right." The gray mare said, looking questioningly at Pinkie.

Pinkie whispered in my ear, "My employers, the Cakes, are two earth ponies, they had two foals, a unicorn, and a pegasus. This type of thing is normal." My eyes went wide. I don't think I'm even going to get into the specifics of pony genetics.

"One of those times to roll with the punches?" I whispered in Pinkies ear.

"You silly, no pony is punching you, now you are drinking punch, but I'm not certain how you would roll with that punch." She then took a cup from Sparklers telekinesis, and then proceeded to roll on the floor a few times, somehow not spilling a drop. "Turns out, it's not easy, but you can roll with punch!" Pinkie jumped up. I turned to look at the family of a pegasus and two unicorns. I looked at Pinkie, then back at Derpy and family, then I sighed. I don't think I will ever understand that mare. I focused on Derpy.

"Pleased to meet you, Derpy, and your fine family. Welcome to my home, though I was unaware of the party until a few minutes ago." I looked out at the crowd. "Wow, there are a lot of ponies here."

Derpy smiled at me, "Of course there are, it's a Pinkie party,everypony wants to go to one of those."

I laughed, "And of course, I'm the last to know."

I chatted with Derpy for a few minutes, finding out she was my age, Sparkler was adopted and Dinky was natural, but both were hers. Watching her with them, I understood. The reason I had decided to go over to Derpy was because of Dinky. A good friend many years ago had a daughter that acted just like Dinky, so full of energy. And an extra dose of cuteness. I found this family hard to resist. I've always wanted kids, though I never found the one to make me want to settle down. No woman could compare to flying. I sighed. There were times I regretted my decisions in life. After a few more minutes I told Derpy she was welcome to visit any time she wanted to, and sincerely meant it, then I turned and made my way through the crowd. Keeping my eyes open for another Pinkie Pie encounter, I ended up back at the punch table. I was looking back at the crowd as I reached for the punch bowl, just as my hoof picked up the ladle, another hoof touched my hoof, causing me to yelp and pull my foreleg back while turning my head in that direction. I ended up muzzle to muzzle with Twilight Sparkle.

"Oh crap!" I said, way too loudly as I tumbled end over end backwards. I ended up with a ladle of punch all over my chest. I felt my face heating up.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Twilight said as she rushed over to help me to my hooves. I looked down and tried to brush off the sugary liquid. After a moment I declared it a lost cause in my head and looked up. Bumping the top of my head into Twilight's chin. I again yelped and stumbled back. This time knocking over the wind up record player. With a crash the room fell silent. Dozens of eyes were on me. I felt my face heating up even further. I swear it must have been on fire. I looked at all the assembled ponies. I looked at Twilight, her expression was utterly shocked, and, to my surprise, she was blushing.

"I'm so sorry." I moaned as I did the only thing I could think of, I rushed at a full gallop to the hallway to my bedroom and slammed the door.

Once inside the room I turned and looked at my room. "Oh, can this get any worse?" I laid down on the bed and tried to get control of myself. Everything started crashing down on me. Losing my home, my career, my life. I put my head down on the bed and sobbed. I missed the Nimitz, I missed Moose, my few friends back on Earth. I missed hands, I missed the feeling of getting in an F-18, the exhilaration of a catapult launch. I missed the little comforts of life as a human.

"Damn you, Luna, it would have been better if I had died," I sobbed into the pillows.

I have no idea how long it was that I lay on the bed, wallowing in misery, when a soft knock came from my bedroom door. "Go away!"

"Nick. It's Twilight. Can I come in?"

I froze. I sincerely liked the alicorn mare. But I was in no mood to do anything that Luna wanted at this moment. I wanted to send her away, I wanted her to come in, I really didn't know what I wanted at all.

"Please, Nick. I know you can be stubborn, but I can be more stubborn. Please let me come in."

I sighed, she hadn't even tried the handle. Though that showed how courteous she was. "Door's not locked, Twilight." My voice came out as a croak.

I heard the door open softly, I heard her hoofsteps muffled on the carpet. My eyes went wide as I felt the bed shift as she got on. I was expecting her to maybe stand at the edge of the bed and talk to me. To my surprise, she gathered me into a hug, guiding my head onto her shoulder, her wing enveloped me. The comforting touch only destroyed any semblance of order in my mind, the walls I had tried to rebuild to regain control of my emotions.

"I'm sorry Twilight for slamming my head into you. I'm sorry for making a scene. I'm so sorry," I sobbed into her soft fur. I felt myself grabbing tighter onto her as all my mental barriers crumbled. "I miss my life, I miss what little family I have left, I miss home." I was beyond words as I continued to sob. Twilight just held me as I cried myself out.

After time immeasurable I was finally able to compose myself. I finally let go of my death grip on Twilight. I pulled back and looked at her. "Thank you, my friend." I reached forward and hugged her. "I don't know what I would have done without you."
She smiled at me as I pulled back again. "How's the top of your head? You got it pretty good on my chin."

"My head is fine, I hope your chin is okay. I'm so sorry for being such a klutz with you."

She smiled and laughed at me, "I'm stronger than you think Nick."

We were interrupted by the sound of a pony clearing her throat. I looked over at Rainbow Dash, I never noticed her enter the room. With a yelp I jumped back from Twilight, momentarily forgetting the bed wasn't that wide. I tumbled to the floor. I stood up in a rush. "I'm sorry Twilight."

She smiled from the bed as she slowly climbed out of the bed. "This is your bed, Nick, I was just comforting you." She turned to Rainbow Dash. Rainbow was chewing on her bottom lip, her look was of concern, and more than a little anger, "What is it Rainbow?"

Rainbow turned to me, "Somepony is very insistent that she apologize for how your surprise party turned out, Nick." She turned her head and I saw a pink head slowly emerge into the room. With a shock I saw it was Pinkie Pie. Her hair wasn't the tangled, poufy mess that I had always seen it before. It was long and straight, and she had lost a couple of shades of her pink color. She looked as though she had a much worse time than I had.

With a big sigh, the pink mare started, "Nick, I'm super sorry that I messed up with your welcome party. I wanted you to have a fun time, and then you end up in here crying. I asked all the ponies to go home. It's all my fault and I wanted to tell you how sorry I am."

"Pinkie!" I galloped across the room and grabbed her. Oh my god she was solidly built, but I used all of my strength to pull her into a hug. "Pinkie, it's not your fault. It's mine. I'm still trying to adjust to this huge change. And I was upset that I had accidentally hurt Twilight. I've never been much for surprise parties, but I'll tell you right now, yours was the best."

Her eyes were listless as she didn't respond at all to my hug. "Nick, I should have waited until you were ready for a party. You didn't like my party."

I used my hoof to pull her muzzle to face mine, I looked into her eyes. "Pinkie, I'm trying to tell you I did like your party, I only got to meet a couple of ponies, but I need to get to know the ponies here. And you did it perfectly." I saw a spark of… something… in her eyes. "Pinkie, please. I promise you, you did nothing wrong." I stopped and smiled at her as big as I could, pouring every bit of sincerity I could muster into the smile. "In fact, you let me know any time you plan on a party, I want an invitation." I smiled even bigger. "Please?"

I watched the most amazing transformation happen right in front of me. As I was speaking, Pinkie's color became even more pink. "Promise?" she whispered to me.

"Yes, Pinkie, I swear on all that is holy, I would happily go to any Pinkie party." With those words there was an odd sound, and her hair suddenly regained all the curls it had previously. Then I was suddenly being hugged by the pink mare, and did I mention she's about as strong as three ponies?"Air, I need air, Pinkie. Please."

"You silly, air is for other ponies," Pinkie said, her voice had regained all of its previous energy. She released me anyway though and bounced out the door. I took a moment to just breathe, I'm glad Pegasi are pretty resilient, I think my human body would have had a few broken ribs from that hug.

I looked at Rainbow Dash and Twilight. "I meant it, I'm sorry Twilight for hurting you."

Two smiles beamed at me. Rainbow Dash moved up next to me and put her wing over my back and semi-hugged me with it. "Dude, I didn't think anypony could help Pinkie recover like that. You better have meant it."

I nodded enthusiastically, "I really am trying to adjust to all this. And my bumbling idiocy is what caused me to get upset. She didn't do anything wrong. I didn't know what to think of Pinkie Pie at first, but I can see that all she wants is to make her friends happy. That is always a noble goal. I like her."

Twilight laughed, "We all love Pinkie Pie, Nick. You will never find a friend more true than her."

Rainbow Dash huffed.

Another laugh from Twilight, damn that mare has a pretty laugh, "You are as true a friend as Pinkie is, Rainbow Dash." Rainbow laughs as we exit my room and head down the hall. Once in the living room I stop in shock.

"What the hell?" I look around. The tables are gone, all the furniture was back exactly where it was when I had left the house with the realtor a few hours previously. The floors were spotless, the house looked as though it had never had a party, much less one that had just ended.

I turned and looked back at Twilight and Rainbow Dash. "What the hell happened? I was expecting hours of cleanup after that party."

Rainbow Dash answered, "Dude, it's Pinkie Pie."

Chapter 10. A Trip

***Twilight Sparkle***

I slam my hoof down on the floor. "No!"

Rainbow Dash, as always hovering in the air, looks at me pleadingly, "C'mon Twilight, it will be fun, you never get out, and we all have said you need a special somepony."

I roll my eyes, "I have too much to do I have three research papers I'm working on for Princess Celestia, she's still being tight lipped when it comes to my role as a Princess, and… UGH!" I stomp my front hooves on the floor again. "I said no!"

I turn away from Rainbow Dash, I've got a million things I need to do. Levitating a quill, I dip it in ink and press it to the parchment when a cyan hoof taps the end of my horn, breaking my concentration, and causing me to lose focus, the quill drops, leaving a blur of ink on the page.

"Rainbow!!!" I holler at the infuriating pegasus. I whirl around to face her, and am confronted by her giving me her best lost little puppy dog look. That causes me to pause.

"Please, Twilight. You need time away from Ponyville, you need time away from all of us. And no, your research trips to Canterlot don't count. You need to relax, you are wound way too tight. Ponyville will survive without you for a few days. It's been months since you went to Nick’s welcome to Ponyville party. It's been nearly a year since you've gone on a date, and from what you told me, it was a disaster. You have a responsibility to do more than research and study, you need to do one thing. Unwind!"

I stopped to consider her words. "I don't need a special somepony, and anyways you don't even have one."

"Well, Fluttershy has been trying to work up the courage to ask out Big Mac. Rarity has been spending more than a little time with Fancy Pants, and Applejack has been hounding poor Caramel to spend more time with her. Some of us want to start herds of our own. I do have my eyes on a certain Wonderbolt, but he won't give me the time of day. In fact, the only pony I know that doesn't have any potential dates is the alicorn standing in front of me."

I roll my eyes again. "Don't get me started with that. Ever since I got back to Ponyville after my coronation, I've had stallion after stallion wanting to go out on a date, and more than a few mares as well. I tell them all the same thing, I'm just too busy."
Rainbow Dash chuckles, "I know one stallion, he's pretty good looking, and he wouldn't want to date you because of your status, he simply thinks you are cute."

I stop and look at her. "Are you serious? No stupid social climber?"

She lands and sits down in front of me. "I'm serious Twilight. You ask him, and have a flower ready, I'm certain he'll take it."
A date? Me? Dating? When was the last time I'd actually gone on a successful date? My mind goes over the few times I've tried spending any real time with members of the opposite gender. Most have ended in disaster, I've usually over prepared and scared them off, or my nerves got to me and I totally flub everything. I look back at Rainbow Dash.

"Fine." I can't keep the grumble out of my voice.

Rainbow Dash leaps in the air and performs a loop the loop. "Good, let's go ask him, we'll buy a flower for him on the way."

"What? Right now?

"Sure, right now."

I can't help but sputter, "But, I don't have anything planned, I don't have a picnic basket packed, I don't have anything ready to go anywhere."

She smiles coyly at me, "Twilight, I know you as well as most anypony, I've got things ready for you. You are going to spend the weekend at the beach. I've got your train tickets ready, and a few other things, and you've got that nice stipend from the castle. Spend those bits that have been gathering dust. You have more bits than you can spend. Don't worry about preparing, you would be surprised how having money makes it easy to do fun things.

"But, I can't swim. What would we do at the beach?"

"You don't have to get in the water to have fun at the beach Twilight. Play a beach volleyball game, get some sun, just have fun."

I roll my eyes. "Ugh…fine."

"Great!" Rainbow trots to the door and grabs a bag that was sitting outside. She tosses it to me. "Grab a bag or two of bits, and we can go."

Moments later we exited the Golden Oaks library, I took way too much time in Rainbow's view, to give instructions to Spike for the few days I'd be gone. But finally we are trotting down the street.

"So, who is this stallion that isn't looking to improve his lot in life by getting close to me?"

Rainbow looks coyly at me, "You'll see him soon enough."

Oh, she's going to play that game, fine. I sigh and follow the rainbow maned mare. After a while walking we end up in front of a familiar house. "Rainbow, this is Nick's house. He couldn't wait to move out of the library. It can't be him."

She smiles at me. "He's just uncomfortable relying on anypony for help. Well, actually, he hates it. He is independent, to the point of stupidity. It's something about the world he's from. Guys have got to be self sufficient, they have to make the money, they have to be in control."

"Huh, but it's a mare's job to support the family, Rainbow."

"Twilight, he's from a patriarchal society."

That stops my thinking for a moment.

Rainbow laughs, "See, I'm not an egghead, but I know some things. Him and I have talked a lot, I usually pair him with either Blossomforth or Cloud Kicker, he's getting pretty good at doing weather work. but I've had the chance to talk to him quite a bit. I take him out to eat weekly, he's been pretty isolated since coming here. We've become buddies. And he really does like you, he said you have a pretty laugh."

I feel my face burn. "Well, if he's been working with Cloud Kicker, she's probably gotten her claws into him at least once."
Rainbow looks at me. "Cloud Kicker may be after anypony, but she follows her rules for the most part, and a big rule for her is no dating friends of the boss, so she's left Nick alone. Though she did say that if you and him don't click she wants to give him a try, Blossomforth seems to like him too, so you better strike while the iron is hot."

"I don't know, are you sure?"

She nods at me. I sit down and think for a moment. Do I really want to date? I've never had much interest in spending time with any pony, while in Canterlot, I spent almost all my time studying, and since I came to Ponyville, I've spent most of my time studying, except when we've had to rush off and save the world from the likes of Discord, Queen Chrysalis, and King Sombra. I turn to Rainbow Dash.

"You know what, you're right. I do need some time away." I light up my horn and push the button for the doorbell, I can hear it's soft chime faintly. As I do, Rainbow Dash jumps up and flies straight up. In a second or two she's gone. I turn back and call after her, but to no avail, she completely ignores me. I stomp my hoof in frustration. I freeze at the sound of a throat clearing. I whirl around, face burning. There is Nick, looking completely confused.

"Ah…eh," I stutter out. Oh great Twilight, you have a pony that's genuinely interested and you can't put two words together.
He looks at me curiously, his cheeks are starting to get red.

I close my eyes, momentarily wishing I could simply disappear, but I did tell Rainbow Dash that I would try. I take a deep breath. "Hi Nick."

He looks around, clearly confused. "Uh… Hi Twilight."

***Nick***

I look at Twilight, first I get a message from Rainbow Dash that the weather team is doing well and I've been given four days off, and now I've got Twilight at my door, looking very uncomfortable. She stammers and tries to talk, but it looks like her tongue is tying itself in knots. It slowly dawns on me. She's trying to ask me out.

"Nick, I'm going to go to the beach for the weekend, would you like to join me?" Her face is red as she works through the sentence.
I stop, Rainbow and I have been talking during our weekly dinners about how best to break the ice with Twilight, and she said she would try to pry Twilight out of the library for a while. And I didn't think she would ever succeed, but then, she's here in front of me. I notice something out of the corner of my eye, Rainbow Dash is laying on a cloud, looking intently at the two of us. She's nodding her head and smiling very widely at me, encouraging me to say yes. I focus on Twilight. "Yes, Twilight, I'd love to."

"Oh, it's alright, forget I asked…" She trailed off, then looked at me with very wide eyes. "You said yes?"
"You asked me out on a date, right?"

She gulped and nodded.

"I'd love to. I like Ponyville, but it would be great to get out of town for a couple of days. It turns out, I've got a few days off, I'd love to spend those days with you."

"Oh, wonderful!" She sits back and clops her front hooves together.

"Do I need to pack anything?"

"Only what you want to bring with you. The train leaves in…" She levitates out a set of train tickets from her bag, "an hour, so we better get going."

I grab a few things and in moments I'm walking next to Twilight on our way to the train station.

"I'm guessing you are wondering why I haven't given you a flower, you have been told of that tradition right?
I look down, "I know of the tradition, I'm still a little mystified about pony courting habits. But I'll admit to some curiosity about it."

She sighs, "I don't know if I want to go as far as saying we are courting, I told Rainbow Dash that I wasn't courting you right now."

"Well, we are kind of going on a romantic weekend to the beach, Twilight."

She gives me a sidelong look, "Don't you be planning anything mister, we are going to have fun, and that's it."

I shrug my wings, "It's alright with me, Twilight, I love spending time at the beach. If I just wanted to fly, I would have joined the Air Force. I joined the Navy because I love the water as well. I wonder how well I'll be able to swim in this body."

"Oh, have fun. I can't swim."

That stops me in my tracks, she doesn't immediately notice and keeps walking. In a moment she stops and looks back at me, "What?"

"You can't swim, Twilight. Seriously?"

"I just said I can't, Nick."

I trot to catch up to her and brush her hip with mine. "Well, we will have to fix that."

It's time for her to stop in shock. "You would teach me?"

"Of course, Twilight, swimming is fun. And it's whole body exercise, it makes you feel wonderful."

"Exercise? Are you saying I'm fat?"

I stumble, and barely keep from face planting. I look at the grin on her face.

"Just kidding." I'm now the recipient of a hip nudge.

We keep chatting to the train station. And the train ride itself is uneventful. Seven hours on the train. We got a lot of talking done, along with way too many awkward silences. I actually like this mare. I'm still dithering whether or not I'm actually attracted to her. My human sensibilities kept getting in the way. Shortly after our stop was announced, I excused myself and trotted to the small restroom aboard the train car. After looking at myself in the mirror, I needed to have a conversation with myself.

"Well, Nick. Do you like her or not?" The spoken words forced me to analyze my feelings. Twilight is interesting, she's smart, she's very socially awkward, she's the kind of nerd I used to make fun of in high school. But then again, after meeting quite a few ponies, I'd say she's pretty attractive, for a pony that is. I look in the mirror, well, I'm not one to judge how attractive ponies are, but I'm drop dead gorgeous. I smile at myself. She does have a very pretty smile. I close my eyes and picture her smile, and her laugh, everything about her I find endearing. I find my heart fluttering more than usual. I sigh. "Well, Nick, looks like you've been bit." I reach over and unlock the bathroom door, immediately tripping over my hooves and face planting. I look up and see a red faced Twilight looking at me.

"You've been bit?" She asks.

"Uhhh, you heard that?" I can feel my face heat up. Can I gallop away now?

She traced a pattern with her hoof, looking very intently at the ground. She nods slightly.

I sigh, a little bit of explaining is necessary at this point I think. "Well, Twilight, a matter of months ago I was a human male, I was attracted to human females. I had never thought about being attracted to any mares. I knew I liked you." I paused for a moment. "I just don't know if I want to be with a horse for the rest of my life."

I looked up and her eyes were wide. "I'm….. a….. PONY," her tone emphasizing how much I just hurt her. I saw tears starting to form in her eyes. Has she really fallen for me this hard? Oh sweet Jesus, open mouth, insert hoof. No, scratch that, insert leg.
"Twilight, wait," I call as she whirls around to run from the train car. I don't know why, but it did stop her. She looked back at me, pain evident on her face.

I sigh, "Twilight, what I'm trying to say is…" I look down, my mind is running in circles, I know what I want to say, but pushing those words out is proving to be a monumental task, "I think I'm falling in love with you." I close my eyes. I hope I haven't ruined everything by blurting out exactly the wrong thing to say.

My hopes are buoyed by a pair of arms wrapping me in a hug and a muzzle impacting mine. I open my eyes wide, she's kissing me. Better kiss her back. She's a terrible kisser though. I put a hoof on her cheek and subtly guide her. She moans against my mouth and we kiss deeply, my eyes flutter closed as I lose myself in the kiss.

"Ah..hem, I would go to the other restroom, but it's occupied." We are interrupted by a voice. We spring back and both look at the newcomer, a unicorn stallion. He quickly moves past us and into the restroom. I look at Twilight, her face is as red as I can feel mine is.

"Perhaps we should go to our seats before our stop."

"Yes."

***

"Wow, Rainbow went all out didn't she?" Twilight said as she used her magic to open the hotel room. This wasn't the royal suite, but it was one of the nicest rooms in this beachside resort. The French doors open onto a view of the beach, and the crashing of the surf is evident everywhere. It's late summer, and I'm just blown away at how beautiful it is. I open the doors and just stand there, looking at the setting sun over the ocean. I turn, hearing Twilight open the bedroom door.

"Oh, dear," I hear from her, causing me to trot into the bedroom with her.

"What?"

"Rainbow didn't tell me it was the Honeymoon suite." She points and I follow the line of her hoof to the bed.

"Oh dear," I echo Twilight.

The bed is huge, easily a half dozen ponies could sleep on this massive thing, but it's heart shaped, and has frills everywhere. And at the foot of the bed is a large basket, with a bottle of champagne on ice and a plethora of chocolate dipped strawberries filling it. I just confessed my feeling to her, this is a first date, though I'll admit a very romantic one, and now the hotel has just one bed? Oh dear is right. I can feel my face burning, I risk a glance over at Twilight. Her face is very nearly glowing. How cute.

I awkwardly clear my throat, "Uh, Twilight. I can take the couch in the other room."

She shakes her head. "No, I'll take the couch, you can have the bed."

"Twilight, you are a princess, and more than that, you are a mare, you get the bed."

She turns to me, "Nick, it's a mare's job to take care of her stallion, remember, mares outnumber stallions by a good bit, we take care of them. I'll take the couch. No argument, understand?"

I lower my ears and head. "Fine."

With that settled, she drops her bags next to the couch and heads to the door. "I'm famished, you?"

I smile, "I would love a wonderful meal with you Twilight."

Chapter 11. Dinner and Conversation

We walk into the only fancy restaurant in this little beach side community, and I'm sporting a lavender rose behind my right ear. Twilight found it at vendor selling flowers while walking to the restaurant. I wasted no time accepting her gift. I saw how nervous she was when presenting it to me, from everything Rainbow Dash said in filling me in on pony courting customs, the presentation of the flower, or feather from a pegasus, was a stressful thing for a mare. I got a good look at the rose as she floated it to me, it was naturally that color, not dyed, and was actually quite beautiful. The maître d’ looked at us, did a double take noticing that Twilight was a princess, then did another double take noticing the flower standing out from my flame colored mane, and quickly took us to a secluded table in the back of the cozy restaurant. The only lighting was from strategically placed candles, and the booth cushions were overstuffed and very comfortable. After the initial ordering of drinks we were left alone.

"So, do others notice you are a princess and double take like that?" I asked her.

"No, I try to stay out of the public eye as much as possible. Ponyville is used to me being there, so there's not much commotion, but occasionally when I'm out of town I get some odd stares when I'm around with my friends."

I took a moment to process what she told me. "Do you not like being a princess?"

She looked at me, it seemed to take a while for her to process the meaning behind the question.

"There are good things about it, and not so good things."

Well, I caught was wasn't said there. "Can you reverse it and go back to what you were before?"

Her eyes went wide. "I wouldn't do that, Celestia has placed her faith in me."

"But it is a burden to you?"

She looked down, and slowly nodded.

"You don't wear your crown, you have a crown, right?"

She nodded, "I do, but I don't like calling attention to that. I'm no better than anypony else."

Realization dawned. "You placed Celestia on a very high pedestal haven't you?"

Her eyes snapped from the table to mine. I don't think it's possible for them to get any wider.

I placed my hoof on hers on the table, "Twilight, a leader isn't better than those they lead, they simply lead. I've been told you were a unicorn before you became a princess."

She nodded.

"You feel like that unicorn inside, you don't feel any different now that you have that title, and those responsibilities?"
"How could you know that?"

I moved my hoof to her cheek, caressing it gently. "Twilight, I had a rank in the Navy, I had responsibilities."

"But you weren't royalty."

I smiled at her, "No, I wasn't royalty, but please, listen, you just might find some parallels to help you understand what I'm saying. I'm going to tell you a story."

She smiled at me, "I'll be happy to listen to your story, Nick."

"When I was eighteen, I enlisted in the Navy. That means I wasn't an officer, I was an underling. I loved it, but I wanted to fly the jets, and I couldn't because I wasn't a flight officer. I had to take orders and do what I was told to do. I started my first tour on an Arleigh Burke missile frigate."

At her look of confusion, I described the type of ship quickly, then I continued my story.

"One day, my commanding officer came up to me, he knew how much I loved flying, and he asked me why I didn't go to college and get my degree. I told him I took a semester of college, and I hated it. It was too boring for me, and I knew I couldn't stick it out four years, no matter how much I wanted to fly. The mountain seemed insurmountable. He took me aside, told me about a program the Navy had to help enlisted men get to be officers, it was called the boot strap program. It basically compressed a degree's worth of coursework into about a year and a half. It was a hard program, but it worked out very well. I was commissioned an ensign within that year and a half. To parallel what you are going through, I went from someone who was given orders to someone who was giving the orders. Any ship I was assigned to, two thirds of the crew had to follow my orders because of the little golden bar on my lapel. I was still the same man I was a year and a half before, but I had new responsibilities, and authority, not much, but some. I climbed in rank after that, I went to flight school, I qualified on training aircraft, something that was easy for me, because I had been flying for years before I ever went into the navy."

She was just staring at me.

"Do you understand what I'm saying? You are still you, now you simply have more responsibilities. And from what you have said, the pony with the most responsibilities is Princess Celestia. She has to deal with everything nopony else can. To my mind, she's like the captain of a ship at sea. She has absolute authority, but inside, she's the same as the green ensign that just stepped onto his first ship. She has to have the authority, because of her rank, her title, but she's still a pony, just like you."

Twilight thought about what I was saying, "Nick, so what you are saying is that I'm assigning too much reverence to Celestia, and finding myself wanting because I don't feel like a princess?"

I nodded. "Exactly, Twilight."

"But she's the princess, she raises the sun, her sister raises the moon, what do I do?"

"You are a member of the royal family now, Twilight. You have royal duties, you have responsibility. And since you live there, I would think that Ponyville is your primary responsibility. You have to do the job, you have to shoulder the responsibilities that you were given."

She pondered for a moment, she's very quick on the uptake. "I think I understand, I need to embrace my responsibilities. I need to be a princess, not just an alicorn. I need to recognize the authority I've been given."

I slapped the table with my hoof, startling her. "You nailed it, Twilight." I smiled hugely at her.

I think the staff here is telepathic. The moment we stopped talking, our waiter appeared and took our orders. And in a matter of minutes, rapidly consumed by more small talk, our meal was placed in front of us. I had chosen an egg dish, Twilight was enjoying a steamed vegetable plate. The food was exquisite. Just as our plates were removed, the check was deposited in front of Twilight. With a deft hoof, I had it in front of me. Opening the small folder, I saw the sum, quite a tidy amount. But with solid gold flatware, did I expect anything different? I knew I had enough for this meal, but it would take a big chunk out of the money I had. Oh well, for Twilight, it was worth it. As I was reaching for my bit purse the bill was covered in a magenta magical aura and lifted from my hooves. I looked at Twilight to see her sticking her tongue out at me. I replied in kind. In moments the required number of bits were levitated onto the table. She promptly turned to me.

"Nick, you won't need to pay for anything, you are on a date with me, and a mare pays. That is the tradition."

I sigh, and apparently something about the look on my face sparks something with her. "Something the matter?"
I sigh again, "No, Twilight, not really. I'm having trouble adjusting to things here. It's all so different."

She lowers her voice to a near whisper, "Rainbow Dash told me that you come from a patriarchal society, is that right?"

I nod my head.

"So, family names come from the sire?"

"If by sire, you mean father, then yes."

"And royalty is the same way? A king rather than a queen, the prince inherits the throne, and any princess don't?"

"Well, to be honest Twilight, we don't have that many royal families anymore. There's the Saudi Kingdom, Kuwait, Great Britain, some more. But the largest countries really don't have a defined royalty anymore."

"Oh, really? Who is in charge?"

I smile at her. "Well, it depends on the nation. Mine, the one you saw the flag of on my flight suit, has what's called a president. The only qualifications that our Constitution defines is that the candidate be the required age, and a citizen of the nation. No matter male, female, no matter skin color."

"Skin color? How does that have any bearing?"

"Twilight, my people are not shining examples of virtue. Those with darker skin tone were once slaves. They had a very rough life. Only in the last century or so have they been able to gain equal rights with the lighter skinned people."

She looks thoughtful. "And what skin color were you?"

I haven't thought about it since I got here. I look at her. "Both."

"Huh?"

"My father was as light a skinned man as there was. My mother was on the opposite end of the spectrum."

"And what does that mean?"

"Well, I had traits of both of them, I had the dark, curly hair of my mother, and the blue eyes of my father. My skin tone was coffee with a good dollop of cream."

"That’s pretty cool Nick."

"So, tell me about you growing up."

And with that, she launched into a good portion of her life story. Her birth herd, her herd mothers, her dear father. I got the impression from what she was telling me she was a daddy's girl. She spent a lot of time talking about her time with Celestia, how the alicorn Princess taught her personally. She told me the story of her cutie mark. I was enthralled with her story, laughing when she told me what she accidentally turned her mother and father into.

My laughter finally runs out, "Remind me to never scare you, Twilight, I don't think I would like being turned into a potted plant."
She almost falls out of the booth, "Oh Nick, I've learned control from then. The only way you'll be turned into a potted plant is if I want to. So, just worry about making me angry."

I hold out my hooves in front of myself, "I wouldn't dream of it."

Shortly we are walking down a nice wooden boardwalk, the ocean on one side, and small places of business on the other. I'm just enjoying the talking and walking, without thinking I place my wing over Twilight, in response she snuggles up to me as we keep walking. What a nice feeling. I've never been much for anything to do with romance, but everything I've been doing with her tonight has been a blast. After a bit, I hear something that causes my ears to prick up.

"That sounds like oldies music," I say excitedly.

Her ears rotate for a moment to zero in on the music wafting from ahead of us, then she gives me an odd look.

I shrug my wings, "Well, in my world it's called oldies."

Shortly we are in front of a small night club, the aforementioned oldies music pouring out the front door.

"Do you want to dance with me?" I ask her.

Her ears go flat, she scrapes a hoof in front of her on the wood, and mumbles.

"What was that?"

"I'm not a very good dancer, Nick." Twilight mumbles, barely loud enough to be heard over the music outside.

I reach a hoof over to her cheek and bring her face up. I kiss her. "Well, I was able to in my last body, let's see if I still can. I'll teach you." This brings a small smile to her face. And I lead her into the club.

Chapter 12. Twilight and Nick sitting in a tree.. you know the rest

I remember the saying, dance with a woman and she's half way yours, dance well with a woman… Well, let's just say that Equestrian mares certainly fall in with human women in that respect. And I can totally dance as a pony. That was awesome! We stumble out from the club. She is kissing me as we stumble down the street. My ears rotate back as I hear the door lock click at the club. It must be late. But the drinks I've consumed really don't allow me to care. All I care about is the mare that is trying her best to walk in a straight line along with me. It won't take long to make it to the hotel, but it feels daunting. I wave to a passing taxi, and the pony pulling it ignores me. I take a deep breath, and discover something. Pegasi not only have better hearing than most ponies, but they have louder voices. Twilight rubs her ear after I holler at the rude taxi mare. She goes on her merry way as though I never existed.

"Not so loud, Nick," she whines for a moment. Then she places her hoof on the ground, "I think we can walk the rest of the way."
"C'mon Twilight, it's been a long day. I want to lay down."

"Well, I can take care of that," she says. Her horn glows and magenta magic envelopes both of us. I feel as though I'm being squeezed through a very hot toothpaste tube, and then we are in the hotel room. I feel hot. I look at myself, I'm smoking, and not in the good way. I yelp and run to the bathroom, jumping in the shower I turn the water on to full cold. In moments I'm soaked, but the smoldering embers are out. As I'm getting out of the shower, the door opens, and Twilight steps in, her eyes wide.

"I'm so sorry, I just thought it would be faster."

I smiled at her, "Twilight, I'm glad you wanted us back to the room faster, but I think it's not a good idea for us to do magic while we are drunk.

She looks down, "I know, I shouldn't have."

I reached out with a wing and brought her face up, "Twilight, I'm singed, that's it. Everything will be fine."

She sighed. "Let's get to bed."

I follow her out of the bathroom, she automatically heads to the bedroom. I smile as I head over to the couch. I curl up on it, not even bothering with a blanket. The couch at this hotel is actually very comfortable. I feel myself drifting off to sleep, only to wake up rather rudely, I feel pressure all over my body. I open my eyes and see I'm floating through the door into the bedroom. I yelp as I struggle in her magical grasp.

"Nice try buster, but I told you I'm sleeping on the couch. You take the bed."

What exactly can I do in this situation? I wanted her to be comfortable. I'm unceremoniously dropped onto the bed. I look back at her, she nods her head sharply and closes the door. Well, if I press the point, she can bring out her magic trump card once again, I'd rather not antagonize her tonight. I snuggle into the pillows. Perhaps this isn't half bad. In moments I'm in a deep sleep.

***

Why were the drapes left open? I'll admit, the windows face west, ocean view and all that, so the rising sun isn't blasting into the room, but the light level is way too high, way too early. I squeeze my eyes closed. Five more minutes, I think to myself as I shift around in the bed. Then I freeze. There is someone else in the bed with me! What the hell?

I open my eyes, well, I see the open curtains, and a bright, cheery day outside. I slowly turn over, I can feel the pressure of more than the comforter on my body, I see a lavender face as I finish turning over. Oh, I let out the breath I was holding. I move my head back to take in the alicorn princess asleep on the bed next to me. Her wing is draped over me, she's sleeping on top of the covers. Looking down the bed, I notice another set of covers were crumpled at the end of the bed. So the story forms in my head. She fell asleep on the couch and then, for some reason, she decided to come in here. She was covered but in the night she had kicked the covers off. I smiled at the adorkable form in front of me. Well, it's time for some payback. She thinks she can use magic on me to get her way, I'll show her.

I place my hoof on her cheek.

"Good morning Twilight."

Her eyes slowly flutter open, then get wide as she notices me. She rotates her head around and takes in her surroundings. Good, she wasn't aware of moving beds. This is perfect.

I kissed her, "You were amazing last night."

It took about three seconds for her to catch the implications of my words. Her eyes went wide and tears started to form. She bolts from the room, oh crap. I crawl out of the bed and steady myself on four legs. I silently thank God that I don't get hangovers, my head is clear. I trot out the door and see Twilight sitting on the couch. She's sobbing. I go and sit next to her, draping a wing over her, these things are good for more than just flying you know.

"I'm so sorry," she sobs at me. I open my mouth to respond, only to have a purple hoof placed over my lips. "I don't know what came over me last night, Nick. I took advantage of you being drunk. Just because I was drunk myself is no excuse." She hangs her head, "I'll understand if you never want to talk to me again."

I chuckle, earning me a sharp look from her. "Twilight, I'm sorry."

She cuts me off, "No, I'm the one who needs to be sorry."

I have to override her before this gets out of hand, "Twilight, nothing happened last night, I was just teasing you."

Her pupils shrink to pinpricks, uh oh, I made her mad.

"W-what?"

"I was perfectly comfortable on the couch when you used your magic to take me into the bed."

"It was the right thing to do, I've got to take care of my stallion."

I sigh, "You are fighting twenty eight years of social indoctrination on my part, Twilight. I was raised to take care of women, to be the provider, to be the protector. I'm a fish out of water here. And when you trumped me with your magic, I had to do something about it. Though I never expected you to react this way. I'm sorry Twilight."

She looked at me, the hurt evident on her face, "And what did you expect, Nick?"

"To get mad at me for taking advantage of you. But I thought you would realize I was messing with you pretty quickly."
"How did I end up in the bed with you? The last thing I remember was falling asleep on the couch, I found a spare blanket, I was nice and comfortable."

"I don't think you were that comfortable. That bead should be called a slice of heaven, it made the couch seem lumpy. I can see why you joined me. But I was asleep when you did, I woke up to you having your wing over me. It was a nice feeling, by the way," I said, watching her look away as she blushed.

I continued, "Can you forgive me Twilight?"

She leaned over to me and kissed me, yup, she's forgiven me. She pulls back from the kiss, then she punches me in the jaw, hard, with her hoof, "And that's for messing with me."

I pick myself up off the floor where I had fallen to. "Wow, what a right hook you've got there." I work my jaw around to make sure nothing is broken, "I know, I deserved that, Twilight."

She smiles like the sun at me, "Yes, you did. And I didn't turn you into a cactus, did I?"

I just grin at her as I head towards the bathroom, "Twilight, just so you know, I don't do that on the first date." I close the bathroom door and turn on the shower. In moments I'm inundated with hot water. My shower goes pretty quickly, and I've found the best way to get most of the water off is to shake. Yes, just like a dog, to get most of the water off. But make sure the shower curtain is closed when you do, otherwise you'll have a mess to clean up.

Shortly I'm back in the bedroom, struggling to preen my wings. Rainbow Dash impressed upon me very seriously how important it was to preen your wings. The natural oils produced in pegasi saliva is best for the wings. I'm lying on the bed, grumbling as I work on a particularly stubborn primary. It was itching like crazy because a new feather was growing underneath, but the old one wasn't ready to let go. I notice Twilight taking her turn in the shower. I focus on the work, even with a few months of practice, it usually takes more than an hour a day for me to preen. Rainbow said she does it in about fifteen to twenty minutes, but she has years of practice. I'm working on the tertiary feathers towards the front of my right wing as Twilight emerges from the bathroom, smelling of lilac. I inhale deeply, have I mentioned how strong pony senses are compared to my old human ones? Well, it's amazing.

I'm grumbling as I'm trying to finish up my right wing when I feel my left wing being gently extended. I turn my head and I see Twilight working on that wing. She stops for a second and looks at me, "Nick, we'll never get out of here if you are going to take forever, let me help." I nod and go back to finishing up my right wing. Shortly I'm done while Twilight has rapidly finished the primaries and was straightening a secondary feather. I lay my head down and feel what she's doing. It feels heavenly. I've had my wings done at the spa in Ponyville, but this time, it's a lot different. I notice something, this is a very intimate thing. I feel myself blush and I look over at Twilight, she's blushing as well. Soon she is done, she's had months more experience at this than I have, but it feels wonderful to have the feathers in place and aligned. As she finished I ruffled my feathers a bit and they all were perfect. My blush keeps growing.

"Twilight."

"Yes, Nick."

"That's not very common for pegasi to preen other pegasi is it?"

Her face gets even more red, "Usually parents preen their children, until they can do it themselves. But otherwise, it's mainly done by herdmates, specifically lovers, usually."

I sigh quietly, "Twilight. Why me?"

She looks up sharply, "Huh?"

"I can see you feel for me like I feel for you, I know why I've fallen head over heels for you. But that doesn't help me understand, you remember when I said I've been bitten?"

She nods.

"Well, Twilight, what I was saying is I was bitten by the love bug, it's a human expression. I can see you've been bitten as well, but I need to know, how have you fallen for me?"

I only thought her face was red before, now it's really red. I don't think it's possible for a pony to blush more thoroughly than Twilight is doing so right now. Her mouth opens, and closes. She tries to talk a second time, same results. Her face scrunches in thought. How adorable! After several seconds of me not so patiently waiting, she finally speaks, "Well, Nick. I've never really been in love before. So I really don't understand it. I've read about mating habits of ponies. I've read quite a few romance novels. I've read as much as I can get my hooves on about this. But nothing prepared me for this. You are different. You are smart, you connect with me in ways that no pony has ever before. And you fill a void that I never knew I had before."

"But why me? There are plenty of eligible bachelors in Ponyville, why did you find you had those feelings for me?"

She sighed, "I wish I knew. But from the moment I met you, a little voice said that I wanted you around me. That's why I was so hurt when you decided you wanted your own place away from me."

I open my mouth to explain, only to receive a lavender hoof gently touching my lips to keep my quiet.

"I know why now. Rainbow Dash explained it to me. Your culture, your previous life, it's ingrained upon you to be independent, to take care of yourself and those around you. You are unused to being taken care of. But I find I want to take care of you. I want to make your life as fulfilling as your very existence does for me. Plus," she smiles coquettishly at me, "you aren't exactly hard on the eyes there, Nick." Eliciting a blush from me.

I think about her words. Everything Luna had told me had really fallen to the background. I have genuinely fallen for this mare. Everything she had said to me, I found a desire to make her happy in my heart. I've had one night stands, I've had girlfriends for a short time while shore side. But what I feel for her transcends everything else. I want Twilight to be happy. I reach my head forward to kiss her, she meets me eagerly. As we kiss I start to feel a tightness in my wings, I break away and look at them, they are stiff as a board and tilted slightly forward, so, a pegasi does express emotion with their wings. I glance over at Twilight, and find her wings in the same predicament as mine. I giggle. I never giggle, but it fits how I feel.

Twilight giggles as well, "Well, I can see how you feel, and you can see how I feel. What do you want to do about it?"

Uhhh, was she just proposing something to me? I'm caught completely unsure of what to do. I think about it for a second. "Twilight, I would love to do anything you want to do. But most of all, I want to let this develop naturally. Why don't we head to the beach and have fun in the water today?"

For a moment she looks disappointed, then she brightens. "You know what? That sounds wonderful. Let's go have some fun." She moves forward and kisses me. As her lips meet mine everything else fades from my senses, it's just her and me. So, this is love. I wish I had found it much sooner in my life. But something tells me I had to go through what I've just gone through to be able to truly understand this feeling.

Chapter 13. A Day at the Beach

While the Nimitz home port was Everett Washington, I was able to spend some shore leave in Southern California. With the white sand beaches, and beautiful blue water, it was an ideal place to have fun on the shore. Well, I'll tell you, the beach that Rainbow Dash had sent both Twilight and I put those beaches in the running for second place. White sand, crystal blue water, and many, many, ponies. Though I did notice that the ponies, for the most part, stayed out of the water. The sun was gentle and warm, but not oppressively hot. It was early October, and in this part of Equestria, it was just the beginning of fall, but the days were still warm. I trotted with Twilight out onto the sand.

We had visited a beach rental booth, and Twilight had gone all out with a large beach towel, an umbrella, and various other things. She had also gotten a huge picnic basket full of food, she just smiled at me when I offered to pay for the food, and very firmly pushed my bit purse back into my saddlebags with her magic. I was getting used to having her pay for everything, but I was on the lookout for something nice to get her. I was wearing a new lavender rose behind my ear. Twilight looked very happy. Before long, we were set up, and munching on some sandwiches from her picnic basket.

"Hey, Twi, want to go swimming with me?"

She looked scared for a moment, then shook her head, "I think I want to lay in the sun."

"Can ponies even tan?"

Her brow drew down in a frown, "Tan?"

"Well, where I'm from, we don't have fur coats, when we go out in the sun, we use the suns power to tan, which means our skin gets darker."

"Really? Wow." She stopped to consider my words, "No, Nick, we will lay out in the sun for the warmth, it’s comfortable. Too much sun can get us overheating, but I can duck under the umbrella if I get too hot."

I smiled at her and gave her a kiss, "Well, don't get too hot. I'm going to enjoy the water." With that I spread my wings and took off, heading right for the water. I got a good distance from the shore and checked out the water depth. Should be right. I folded my wings and dove. With my forehooves out in front I hit the water in a graceful dive. In moments I touched the bottom, nearly thirty feet deep. I opened my eyes and looked around. Immediately noticing two things that shocked me. First, my eyes have a third eyelid, apparently pegasi have natural protection for sensitive eyes when they are flying. I've never noticed it before, but I could feel it draw closed as I entered the water. The second shock was breathing. After about thirty seconds, my lungs are usually screaming for air. I'm not even feeling any need to head to the surface for a breath. Another pleasant surprise, I'm neutrally buoyant. It takes almost no effort to stay underwater, and yet the feel, it feels very much like flying to me, I'm in my element here.

I can see why some ponies are afraid of swimming, without positive buoyancy, it would be easy to be overcome and not be able to surface easily. Well, I've been swimming longer than I've been flying. Let's see what these huge wings can do in the water. I cautiously extend my wings about half way, and flap them a bit, it's a lot more effort than when in the air, but I can see how I can make it work, several minutes of experimentation and I'm gliding through the water fairly quickly. Fast, short strokes like you see a penguin do in the water seem to be the key. I use my rear legs as a rudimentary rudder and I'm off. This is fun.

I think I've been underwater for about ten minutes when my body decides to let me know I need some air. I angle my wings and shoot up, breaking my head above the water. I take in great deep breaths for a minute, looking around. My wings are ideal for treading water. I look back at Twilight on the beach. She was at the edge of the water, apparently I scared her by being underwater for so long. She immediately brightens at my waving and waves back. I kick myself backwards underwater, snorting a bit as I go under to keep too much water from entering my nose, and I'm back underwater. With the bright sun, the water is clear, I can see the white sand at the bottom. This is amazing. I'm beginning to really like Equestria. After several minutes of swimming I find I'm pretty far out from the shore.

Well, time for another experiment. I use my legs, doggy paddle style to bring most of my body out of the water and I extend my wings out into the air, I shake them a bit to get most of the water out of them, then I flap them a bit to try to take off. I have to keep them out of the water otherwise I'll just drop back in. But after a few flaps I'm pulling my legs out of the water. I'm airborne again. A huge grin splits my face as I fully take to the air. I fly over to Twilight and land in front of her. She had some sunglasses on, and was laying on her back, I think she fell asleep while I was playing in the water. I smile, just a few months ago I just saw these ponies as animals, intelligent animals, but certainly a different species as myself. Now, after getting used to this new body, I don't really think of them as some weird alien, but just another person like me. And I've gotten a handle on beauty in this world. And by those standards, Twilight is near the top. I'm a lucky pony, I'll let you know.

But I think I'm going to have fun, I'm still dripping wet from the ocean. I glance over at the picnic basket, it's closed. Good. I move closer to Twilight, careful to not tip her off with my shadow. Time for some fun. I shake as hard as I can, giving a sleeping Twilight an impromptu shower. She yelps and jumps up.

"Nick!" she screams.

I fall over laughing. As I'm lying there, laughing my flank off, I notice something that cuts my laugh off mid chortle. I know that laugh. I glare up at a nearby cloud. "Rainbow Dash, I can hear you."

A cyan face with a prismatic mane peeks over the cloud. "That was awesome dude! You totally got Twilight!"

I hear the slight hum of Twilight's magic and before I can do anything, the cloud is enveloped by the aura of her magic, and it dissipates. Dropping Rainbow Dash, though I'll give the speed demon credit as she only smiles and let her wings bite the air as she lands next to us. I get a tail to the face as she walks up to Twilight. "He got you good, Twilight. That was fun!"

Twilight seems to be a pretty good sport about that, she shyly smiles at me then turns to her friend. "What are you doing here Rainbow Dash?"

"Well, I know you guys were going to be having fun, but I didn't want to miss out on the fun too. So, I grabbed the girls and we came out today. The rest are almost here. I flew ahead to see if I could find you guys."

Twilight lowered her voice and moved closer to the cyan mare, "But isn't this supposed to be a romantic trip?"
Rainbow Dash's smile got wider, "So, you are saying you two have made a connection here?" She looks back at me, then at Twilight. Twilight's response is a blush and to drop her head. I move over next to Twilight and pluck the rose that I had stashed on the picnic basket up, placing it behind my ear I turn to Rainbow Dash.

She starts jumping up and down, "I knew it, I knew it, I knew it. You two are perfect for each other. Well, we don't need to rescue you guys from each other, so I'll steer our friends farther down the beach and let you guys have your privacy."

"No, Rainbow. We can spend time on the beach with our friends. Nick and I are enjoying our time together, but a good time shared with friends is even better, am I right Nick?"

I smile at her. "You’ve got it Twilight. We will have plenty of time to ourselves this weekend."

She smiles at me then waves, I look over and the rest of the girls are there. Wait a moment, not just the girls, I see Big Mac's big frame there, Granny Smith is behind him, and riding on his back are three fillies. I know one of fillies, Apple Bloom, and I assume the other two are her friends. I turn to Twilight and open my mouth.

Only to get tackled by Rainbow Dash. I look up from being on my back to the overexcited pegasus. "So, am I going to totally whip your flank playing volleyball?"

I smirk at the cyan mare, "Good luck there Skittles, I'll take AJ and Big Mac, you pick any two ponies here, and we'll wipe the sand with you."

"You are so on." She jumps off of me and shoots over to Big Mac and Applejack. I get back up and again move to address Twilight.

"Wanna referee the game, Twilight? You are a princess after all."

She blushes and gets up, "I'll be happy to Nick. Let's have fun."

The first game was 5-4, with a hotly contested final point that Twilight had to award to me. And the inevitable rematch was 5-3, with Team Rainbow, her, Pinkie Pie, and Scootaloo, on top. I'll tell you, Pinkie Pie has an absolutely terrifying serve, and Scoots makes up for her small size by being wicked fast and utterly fearless. That filly face planted more times than I did learning to walk as a pony, but she made it to the ball most of the time, no fear at all.

After the games it was time for food, more beach towels had been laid out by Rarity and Fluttershy, two more baskets full of food, and we all had a wonderful lunch. Though since Twilight and I sat right next to each other, we had to endure about a million questions from her friends about us. She intertwined her tail with mine and we both patiently answered the questions. Every pony said they were happy for us. Even Big Macintosh uttered more words than I had ever hear him say before.

Eventually every pony was satisfied, and I reached over and nudged Twilight, "C'mon Twilight, time for a swimming lesson." She froze, her face a mask of fear. She shook her head very slightly. I reached forward with my hoof to her cheek. "What are you afraid of Twi?"

Her voice quavering, she took forever to respond, "I told you, I don't know how to swim."

I smiled reassuringly, "Twilight, I can see you are terrified, there is more than that isn't there?"
She sighed, then nodded. "When I was very young, I wandered away from my family, and I fell in one of the canals in Canterlot. If Shining Armor hadn't noticed I had gone off, I would have drowned, I've been afraid of water ever since."

I embrace the scared alicorn, "Mi Amore, I will be there with you the whole time. You will be safe."

"Mi Amore?"

"It's Spanish for My Love."

"I know that, silly." She put her hoof to my cheek, "you just called me your love in front of everypony here."

My ears flattened as I looked around, apparently everypony was paying attention. I looked around at them, "Yes, I'll admit I've fallen in love with this beautiful mare here." Smiles all around as I turned back to Twilight. "Do you trust me?"

She looked down for a moment, then looked back up at me, "Yes, Nick. I trust you."

"Then, let us go." I stand up and urge her to her hooves. We trot out to the water.

She's confident until the water touches her hooves.

"I don't think I can do this, Nick."

I give her a kiss, "Twilight, I was a certified lifeguard, I've been swimming almost before I could walk. I will make sure you are okay, you said you trust me right."

She sniffled a bit and nodded.

I drew her into the water, her eyes tightly shut as we walked through the waves until the water was just touching her body. When she felt the water touching her chest, she squeezed her eyes tighter. I stopped at that point and put my face in front of hers.

"Twilight, look at me."

No response.

"Please Twilight, I promise that nothing bad will happen to you." That worked, her eyes slowly opened.

"Good, now I've discovered us ponies are neutrally buoyant. That's different than being a human, we are positively buoyant, to an extent. So, underwater, it's hard to determine which way air is. You've told me that alicorns like yourself have attributes from all the pony types, right?"

Imparting knowledge is certainly one of Twilight's favorite things, she quickly loses her fear as she responds, "That is true, Nick. We typically have earth pony strength, pegasi flight, and unicorn magic, but what does that have to do with swimming?"
"Actually, a lot. I found that I could hold my breath for over ten minutes, my best in the Navy was a bit over three."

"Oh, that's simple, pegasi can store oxygen in their bodies for times when they are flying high, also it's good for a strong burst of speed, it allows your muscles to burn oxygen faster than your lungs can deliver. And your lungs are about thirty percent more efficient than any other pony race."

"Well, that was a surprise to me, but the relevance of this is that you have some of my attributes, can you hold your breath for a long time?"

The terrified look comes back, "I don't know, Nick."

I put a hoof on her shoulder, "Twilight, I'm not asking you to dive underwater. Yet, that is. First I want to work on basic swimming. Your wings are a wonderful tool in the water, I've found out. Let's use them." I crouched down and extended my wings a bit to let them support my body. "Just do what I do."

Over the next hour or so, I work to get Twilight acclimated to how fun the water can be. I supported her in deeper water to try paddling around, I'll admit, getting to hold her in my hooves sometimes made my wings hard to move, which she noticed, and her wings stiffened as well, along with plenty of blushing on both our parts.

"Geez, get a room already," Rainbow said as she hovered above the waves. Then she adroitly avoided the splash of water I sent her way with a wing. She blew me a raspberry and dropped into the water to attack me better. Of course, Twilight decided she needed to defend me, so I was holding onto Twilight for dear life in pretty deep water as she used her hooves and wings to splash Rainbow Dash. Before too long all of Twilight's friends had made it out to us and Twilight herself started to become more confident, even straying from me to swim on her own. She did discover that she could hold her breath even longer than I could, damned alicorns, they do everything.

As the sun was heading into the western sky, I found myself laying on my back, soaking up the rays and enjoying the warmth. Twilight was curled up next to me, her head on my chest. I was content, and trying not to nap while I stroked her mane. I was exhausted. After a while she shifted to have her face in front of mine.

"Thank you, Nick."

I looked at her quizzically.

"You helped me get over a pretty bad fear today, I'm still nervous, but as long as you are with me, I don't have to be truly afraid."

Chapter 14. What Happens After Kissing? Oh, yeah…

"So, how are we doing the sleeping arrangements tonight, Twilight?"

This brings up a blush, I think I know what she's thinking. Though I'm not trying to seduce her, I'm just enjoying spending time with her. I honestly want an answer to the question.

"If it would be okay with you…" she trails off and draws circles in the plush carpet of our hotel room with a hoof.
I smile at her, "Of course, Twilight, we can share a bed. It's big enough for quite a few ponies." And yet another smile like the sun from her. How could I have ever thought of her as anything but a beautiful young lady. She bounds past me and jumps onto the bed. I follow sedately. It's been a tiring day. We have all of tomorrow and will leave the following day. Apparently Rainbow Dash went all out when it comes to the arrangements. I crawl into bed, and shortly after I've gotten situated, I look over at her. She was still trying to arrange herself, I flip over and pull her into a spoon with me. I wrap my forelegs around her barrel and push my muzzle into her mane, breathing deeply I inhale her scent. And immediately have to suppress my bodily reaction, my wings immediately wanted to extend. After closing my eyes and concentrating, I was able to relax, though feeling her relax and snuggle into my forelegs caused renewed tension that took a few more moments to suppress. Though after that struggle, I was glad to relax myself and finally fall asleep.

***

I awaken to lips on mine. I open my eyes to see her closed eyes, wings extended and stiff. We've only been asleep for a couple of hours, I think. Celestia's sun is not even a glimmer on the horizon. I move to embrace her as she's kissing me and kiss her back. My eyes close as our tongues intertwine. After several minutes, or just a few seconds, I can't tell time in such a situation, I pull back a bit and open my eyes.

"Is this what I think it is?"

She blushes and nods. I put a hoof on her cheek. "You really want to?"

Have I mentioned how cute this mare is when she blushes? Well, she just got a lot cuter. I lean forward and kiss her.
"I've never done this as a pony, you know that Twi."

She nods, "Well, I've never done this at all."

I smile at her, "I'm always up for a new learning experience."

I get a very aggressive kiss in response. She breaks away, "You know I am. Maybe you can teach me some of what you learned as a human."

By the feeling of my face, I'm blushing as hard as she was. "I think I learned a few things that might apply in this situation."
She moves her body to be even closer to me as she kisses me again, I can feel my wings extend, and other parts of my body respond. This is quick, but I hope not too quick.

"I love you, Twilight." Her response is non verbal, but has the same meaning.

***

The sun is rising, I found out how long we had been asleep. We've been playing for about four hours until the sun made its appearance, so we didn't get much sleep. That is until she fell asleep on my chest. What an amazing night. I've just got to say everything is so much better when you are truly in love. I had never known how important that was until last night. Oh no, she's drooling in her sleep. Onto my chest. I suppress a chuckle, she's so cute when she's asleep. I look up at the ceiling and am just happy that I've been brought to this world.

"Sweet Celestia, it smells like a brothel in here," I hear a gravelly but feminine voice and don't have any time to react when the door opens. I glare at Rainbow Dash as she barges into the room. She notices me on the bed and trots up.

"And how would you know what a brothel smells like?" I stage whisper to Rainbow, she finally notices Twilight is sound asleep.
"Cloud Kicker, who else?" She at least lowers her voice in deference to the sleeping alicorn.

"Well, Rainbow, how in the holy bleeding hell did you get into my room?"

"I flew up to the balcony, no pony ever thinks to lock the balcony doors." I have to roll my eyes at this. "I just came to see how you two were doing. Though I didn't expect to see this."

"If you had come in half an hour ago, you would have seen a lot more than this Rainbow, we expected a little privacy."
"Privacy, schmivacy, I needed to make sure one of my best friends is okay. And I see she is." She came up close to my head and whispered in my ear, "So, did you make the first move? Or did she?"

I sniffed, "A gentleman doesn't kiss and tell, Rainbow Dash. If you want the juicy details, you'll have to ask Twilight, if you girls are into that kind of talk."

This gets a snort from her. "Oh please, she's about as uptight as any Canterlot unicorn when it comes to sex. I won't get any details from her, so I'm going to badger you until you give."

I glare at the cyan pegasus. I don't know what to say here.

"I made the move on him, he was asleep, and he was so beautiful I couldn't help myself," I hear from the formerly asleep alicorn on my chest. She raises her head and glares at her friend, "And I am not uptight about sex. I simply didn't have a frame of reference to compare." She stopped and looked at me, "And, now I do." She leans forward and kisses me, "Thank you for being a gentlestallion, Nick."

All I can do is put my hooves behind my head and smile. Twilight turns to Rainbow Dash, "If you can fly up to our balcony, you can fly back down, and make sure to lock the door behind you. Nick and I plan on being occupied for most of the day today. Though if you want to be nice, you can order us some room service before you leave. I brought a good deal of bits on this trip, take some and take the girls out to that big park, my treat. We'll catch up with you gals on the train tomorrow. Got it?"

"Yeah, I got it." She moves to the door, then stops with a hoof on the knob and looks back at us, "I'm really happy that both of you guys are happy. Maybe someday you'll add to your little herd." She ducks out as a telekinetically thrown pillow impacts the door.

"Can you believe the nerve of that mare?" Twilight huffs, "We just started and she's asking to be included in the future."

I freeze. I know that one stallion to multiple mares is the norm here, but knowing it and having it shoved in your face are completely different things. After several seconds, I'm able to start breathing again as we hear the door to the balcony slam shut. I look at Twilight, "I never even thought of that."

Uh oh, I feel a rant coming on from Twilight. She extracts herself from the covers, and she starts pacing back and forth. "For Celestia's sake, I know it's rude and selfish for a mare to take a stallion all to herself. I wasn't planning at all to be selfish. But," She stops and looks at me for a moment, a wistful smile on her face, "We just started last night and I would like to at least have some time with you before we look for another mare to join in."

"Do we have to bring another mare in, Twilight? I've told you my culture is fairly monogamous. I would have no problem at all with us being exclusive to each other."

I swear, I never thought THAT would be me inserting my hoof in my mouth, but I think it would have been better to stay silent.
"Seriously, Nick? What kind of role model would I be? I'm a princess for Celestia's sake. If we ever bring our relationship public. Not to mention how that going public would be, if it were to come across as us being monogamous, the scandal would be huge." She sat back on her haunches and used her hooves to make air quotes, "The Newest Crowned Princess, Princess Twilight Sparkle, knowing the ratio of stallions to mares, has decided to keep her stallion all to herself." She hung her head. "Celestia would be so ashamed of me."

I extract myself from the bed by the simple expedient of face planting out of the covers and move up next to her. Folding a wing over Twilight I pull her into a hug, "I don't think we'll be able to keep our relationship a secret, Twilight. But don't worry about scandals, we can deflect any questions about adding to your herd by saying we just started and are feeling out our options." I kiss her, "I'm in no hurry to add anything but you and me at this point. Let's not let those problems cloud how happy we are to be together."

She smiles and kisses me back. "You’re right Nick. I don't think any pony will expect us to be open to additions on day two of our relationship. But we will have to make a decision before too long." She breaks away completely and looks distraught. "And I haven't even told Princess Celestia about our romantic weekend. I can't have her finding out about it in the tabloids."

I have to sigh, "Twilight, when we get back to Ponyville, you can send a letter to your mentor. And we'll deal with that."
"I will," she murmured. I took the opportunity to derail her train of thought with an aggressive kiss. Which she immediately returned, then she put a hoof on my chest and pushed me away.

"Why do you have to be so contrary, Nick?"

"Uhhh? Come again." I looked at her quizzically.

"Nick, I've read everything about pony mating habits, for the first time, it's quick, it's for the mare to show that she's willing, so her stallion remains interested. You…" She trailed off, blushing.

I smiled, "Twilight, you made me feel special by deciding to…" now my face is heating, "well, you know." Now it's time for Nick to trace patterns in the carpet with a hoof. I took a moment, then in a very small voice, "I wanted you to feel as special as you made me feel."

She stomped a forehoof, "Damn it Nick." How cute, she's picking up some of my cussing. "You are not doing it right. I'm supposed to keep you interested."

I smiled at her. "Twilight, don't think for even a small fraction of a second that I'm not interested. I certainly am."
"But what if you get tired of doing all that and decide you don't want me anymore." Am I seeing tears now? Oh no, I had better nip this in the bud immediately. I move closer and hug her, bringing my freakishly huge wings into play, a hug is doubled when it's with a pegasus.

"Twilight, I am in love with you. I'm not in this relationship for sex. Though last night may make me have that as a primary reason…" I'm interrupted by a punch to the chest, "All kidding aside, Twilight. I'm in love with you. I'm not going to dump you for any reason." I put a hoof to her cheek, "you keep me interested, not what's under your tail."

She sighs and looks at me, oh no, the big puppy dog eyes look. "Are you sure, Nick?"

I nod and am assaulted with a kiss. She eventually pulls away from me. "Well, last night was fun, up for some more?"

"Are we going to go anywhere today?"

She taps a hoof to her chin, "Ummmm, nope."

We both grin as I pull her back into the bed with me.

Author's Note

Well, they are together, and yet the story isn't complete. Wonder what else I have in store for Nick and Twilight. I'll give ya a hint, Luna is not done in this story.

Chapter 15. Back to Ponyville

Have I mentioned that the room service at that beach side resort was excellent? Discrete too. The ponies that came up to deliver breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a late night snack, didn't mention anything at all. Though I'll admit, I'm going to be keeping my eyes on the newspapers here for a while just to make sure they keep their traps shut. I mean a princess and a stallion closeting themselves away in a honeymoon suite could be considered scandalous. I brought it up to Twilight who dismissed my concerns,
"We were there under Rainbow Dash's name, there is nothing official saying I was there, and in case you didn't notice, I cast a small spell whenever we were in the public areas of the hotel, it simply guarantees privacy by having ponies simply not notice us. And remember, the only pony they saw when delivering the food was you." So, I had no worries. Well, not many worries that is. I look out the windows of the train as it speeds on to Ponyville, Twilight is taking advantage of her royal privilege, we are in a private royal car. Equestria, I had never heard about this strange and wonderful land. Yet, here I am. And for the first time in my life, I'm actually happy. I have even found love. And I'll tell you, THAT is something I never thought would happen. I turn to Twilight.

"Love, I want to do some flying, I miss being in the air."

She huffs, "You are such a pegasus, every pegasus I know is claustrophobic. With the exception of one." She glanced at her friends and pulled out a train schedule, "We'll be stopping for water soon. We're about a hundred miles from Ponyville. You can make that distance pretty easily, right?"

That got a reaction from me. "That sounds awesome."

Shortly the train stops by a large tank, the steam locomotive needing water periodically to keep going. I trot towards the exit.

"Hey, Nick, what ya doin?"

"Rainbow, I'm tired of being cooped up, I want to fly for a bit."

"Oh man, I thought you would never ask."

"I didn't ask," looking back at Twilight, she encouraged me with her hooves, I know she heard Rainbow, "I, uhhhh, guess it's okay if
you want fly with me."

Once in the air I took off, I know Rainbow Dash is a speed demon, but I've got a pretty good turn of speed myself. Relishing the feelings of flight I climbed to just underneath the cloud layer. North-east is the direction I've got to go, and I'm powering at a pretty good speed.

"I'm glad to get some time to talk to you Nick." I look over and the multi-hued pegasus is flying close, and she's upside down with her forehooves behind her head.

"Rainbow, Twilight's reaction to you asking before is my reaction too."

Her wings stutter for a bit as she looks at me, surprised. She flips over and flies normal. "Twilight is your lead mare, I'd have to approach her before I ever asked you to join. I'm not asking about that. Though I know a couple other mares that have had their eyes on you." She waggled her eyes suggestively.

I roll mine, "I'm happy with Twilight, Rainbow Dash. So, if that's not why you tagged along, then why?"

She banks and I follow her naturally, "I'm talking about your job. Ya know the one where you push clouds around all day."

"And?"

"Well, with you being with Twilight, you'll be resigning, I just wanted to wish you the best of luck. I can push through the paperwork and you wouldn't even have to show up tomorrow."

"I'm not quitting my job."

That got her attention. "What? You’re with Twilight now."

"And that changes what with my job?"

She shakes her head violently, "Nick, most stallions get a job so they can meet the mare of their dreams, then quit and let the mare take care of him."

"I'm not most stallions, now am I, Skittles?"

"Don't you want to let Twilight take care of you? I don't think she told you, in fact, she didn't tell any pony. I had to dig up the info myself, but Twilight's family is loaded, I mean seriously loaded with bits. Her entire birth herd is connected to Canterlot high society. And then you add in the fact she's a Princess now, and if she chose, could spend whatever she wished of the royal treasury, and she gets a monthly stipend that's about ten times our salaries combined. You wouldn't have to work a day for the rest of your life, and that is if she didn't get another bit."

I thought about what Rainbow Dash just told me, "Rainbow, I don't care how much money Twilight has, and I know its traditional in your society to have the mares take care of the stallions. But I'm not built that way. If she brings that up, I'll have to stonewall her. I like working, I feel good working. 'Six days shalt thou work and do all thou art able; the seventh day the same, and pound the cable.' Remember Skittles, I was navy, salt water in the blood."

She started a hard climb, once again, I followed her, staying in formation. "Nick, you don't have to do that. Your life can be easy."
"I would be so bored, Rainbow. I'm actually enjoying the work. That big rogue storm a few weeks ago from the Everfree, that was a rush. I almost find myself wanting another one, just so I can pound it down."

She grumbles, I think I caught what she said, "Be careful what you wish for dude."

I smile and do an aileron roll, I know, I don't have ailerons, but the effect is the same. She mirrors my actions. This pony is a natural in the air.

We bank again and glide down to Ponyville, we are a good hour ahead of the train, I arrow for my house. Once again, Rainbow is right next to me, only moving aside so I can flare my wings and land gently, rear hooves first. I turn to her.

"I love flying. I kind of wish that I had wings before I got here, there is no feeling like flying on your own wings."

"Well, Nick, from what you've said, I wouldn't mind piloting an airplane off an aircraft carrier, that catapult takeoff sounds like an absolute rush."

I look at her, "So, why did you follow me home?"

Now it's Rainbow Dash tracing circles in the dirt with a hoof. "I've seen how you are in the air. You can really fly, Nick."

"Well, a good deal of that is thanks to you, Rainbow. You've taught me a lot."

She blushes, "I know, Nick. But I taught you things that only a pegasus should know. But your instincts in the air are more than that. You've had years of training, you can do formation flying like nopony I've ever seen. In case you didn't notice while we were flying, I was performing maneuvers and you were keeping with me better than most wingponies."

"I noticed you were doing some moves, yes."

"Well, I've been talking to some of the Wonderbolts, I'm a member of the Wonderbolts reserves. And one thing we have been told is keep an eye out for any potential new recruits."

I narrowed my eyes. "And?"

"Well, I think you would do good to attend the Wonderbolt Academy. The performance team is full of excellent flyers, but you could join the reserves like I did."

"I'm sorry Rainbow Dash, I can't do that."

She just looks at me, her eyes wide. After a moment she shakes her head, "Wait, what? Why?"

I heave a sigh as I open my door and gesture her to come in. Once I close the door and move to the living room, I gesture for her to sit as I make myself comfortable.

"Rainbow, I was a pilot, I was approved to join the Blue Angels."

"The Blue Angels?"

"They are the US Navy's performance team, only six pilots at a time are allowed in that elite squadron. I got the letter a few weeks before I went on the flight that landed me here. I was scheduled to report to Pensacola Air Force Base upon my return from Kuwait."

"Well, that's perfect then."

I waved a hoof to cut her off, "I love to fly, and with these wings on my back, I can fly whenever I want. And I assure you, I fly a lot, even if it's just hovering around like you do quite often. But that is a part of my life that is no more. I've lost a lot." I stop a moment to gather my emotions, "I have to close that chapter of my life. I'm no longer human. I'm no longer at home. What little there is left of my family thinks I'm dead, so do my friends, my commanding officer…" I trail off as I remember those I've lost. I feel a tear start to trace a path down my cheek, "all the people that meant so much to me think that I died in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean." I stop for a moment to look at her.

"But what about the life you've made here, Nick?"

I have to smile at that, "Rainbow. I am in love with Twilight. I have made a new life here. And I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. But…"

"So, getting into the Wonderbolts would be opening an old wound that you would rather leave alone?"

A sad smile from me, and a short nod.

"Okay, I understand. See you at work tomorrow?"

"You know I'll be at work before you are, Dash."

She smiles at me, "You are such a morning pony." She trots close to me as she heads to the door, "I hate mornings."

"I know you do. I'll get with Cloud Kicker and Blossomforth in the morning."

She smiles again as she heads out the door.

I flop down on my comfy sofa and close my eyes. I've got a bit over an hour until the train arrives. Twilight was planning on coming over after we got back to Ponyville. So I'll just close my eyes for a bit.

***

I snap awake. Looking around, disoriented. I must have fallen asleep.

Somepony knocks again. So, that is what woke me up. I shake my head and move to open the door, and am immediately assaulted with a hug.

"Nick, I've missed you this weekend." I look down at the unicorn filly attached to my foreleg, I look up at her big sister and mother.

"Well, good afternoon Derpy, Sparkler." I pry the enthusiastic filly off my foreleg and give her a proper hug, "And I have to say hi to you Dinky."

I swear my blood sugar goes up being in proximity to this sweet filly. "What brings you guys here?"

"You missed our weekly tea." Derpy says.

I lowered my ears, "I'm sorry Derpy. Twilight came over and suggested we go away for the weekend. I didn't get a chance to even leave a note for you. In fact, I flew ahead of the train, and when it gets here, we are going to spend some time together."

A very girlish squeal came from the gray pegasus, "You and Princess Twilight are dating?"

I smile.

"You have got to tell me everything," she says as she draws me into the living room and takes up residence on the couch, "Sparkler, could you make tea?"

Her elder daughter moved into the kitchen, and I found myself sitting on my couch with a bouncing little filly on my side and Derpy in front of me as I recounted most of my weekend, excluding private time with Twilight.

***

"Sparkler, you make pretty damned good tea." I smile at the teenager. She sits next to her mom and leans against her, getting a wing hug out of it.

"So, you and Twilight are forming a herd, huh?" Derpy asks.

"I guess so, customs here in Equestria are different than what I'm used to, but I guess that's the long and short of it." The prevailing story in Ponyville is that I was from a land outside of Equestria, as the red eyes are pretty rare in Equestria. I've done nothing to confirm or deny the story, so it remains. I don't like lying to the friends I've made here, but I've been commanded by Twilight to not divulge the rather exotic locale I hail from.

She squeals and claps her hooves, "I thought you two would be good together. I've seen you two walking around town from time to time. You two seem to fit pretty good together."

She's still smiling as somepony knocks on the door. Sparkler jumps up to get the door and we find it's Twilight.

I smile and move up to kiss her. She stops me with a hoof to the chest. "Nick, I sent a letter to Celestia and Luna responded. She wants to see the two of us in Canterlot immediately."

Chapter 16. Luna, really?

Once again I'm on the train. I look over at Twilight.

"She said immediately?" I mean come on, when I didn't run out the door towards the train station, she just picked me up in her magic and floated me along. I had to apologize profusely for some rude words I uttered in her general direction. But she deserved it, she knows how much I dislike being ponyhandled by magic. Her only saving grace? She's stressed. I mean she's got a lot of saving graces in my book, being my marefriend, but I calmed down quickly once I saw the look on her face.

She growled a little at me, stress, I have to keep in mind the stress, "Yes, Nick. Princess Luna has never summoned me to Canterlot. So the very fact she's summoned us means it's important."

"Perhaps it's something benign. Maybe she just wants to meet the new pony here in Equestria."

Twilight huffs, "Nick, shortly after you first got here I sent a letter to Celestia, talking about the new pony. This has to be different or else she would have asked for you right away."

I look at her, "Twilight, is this a fear of the unknown? You don't know what's going on, so you are stressing about it?"
She gave me a dirty look, "Nick. I don't know Princess Luna that well. After we broke the power of Nightmare Moon, I helped her some when it comes to acclimating to today's times, but other than that I haven’t spent much time with her."

I have to tread carefully. Twilight is extremely smart, if my tongue ties up on me while we are talking, she will be able to deduce that something is up. And I value my relationship with Twilight too much to allow that. "So, what happened? I was just told she was locked up on the moon for a thousand years."

She sighed, "Well, it was her, but it wasn't. She was Nightmare Moon, she wasn't the Luna she is now. Her mind was twisted, she was twisted. She wasn't the pony you will be meeting soon. She wanted the night to last forever. She envied how the ponies played during the day, and slept during her beautiful night." She sighed again. "She felt that she was irrelevant as a Princess of Night. No ponies were out at night to appreciate her work. She felt her best roles in Equestria were…" she trailed off, looking out the windows, I watched her work through her emotions, she finally murmured, "just smiling and waving."

Quite a few things that Twilight had been saying to me over the last few months just suddenly gelled, "And you are worried about you? She was corrupted, and you think it might be a possibility for you?"

Her eyes widen as she heard me. Ears standing straight up, she turns and looks at me, "Nick…" She trails off as she looks down. Finally tears start to form in her eyes as she slowly nods.

I pull her into a hug, "Twilight, There is no way that you will end up that way."

Her ears drop and she looks at me with those big puppy dog eyes, "Are you sure?"

I nod confidently, "Yes, Twilight. You have your friends, you have me. The situation is completely different."

She leans into me, "I guess you are right, Nick." She leans in harder as I wrap my wing around her. She looks out the window, "We are almost at Canterlot, we had better get ready to get off the train."

I close my eyes as I feel her warmth next to me, "A few more minutes, the train hasn't even started to slow down yet."
She sighs as she presses closer, "I think we can spare a few minutes."

***

Have I said recently that the inside of the castle in Canterlot is huge? It took us nearly ten minutes of walking just to get near the throne room. Finally we sit and wait for the day court to finish. So, I just sit there, basking in the fact I'm sitting next to Twilight. After a very frustrating wait, the doors open and a dozen or so Canterlot ponies file out, the guard gestures for us to enter. And very shortly we are standing in front of Princess Luna.

Twilight looks around, "Princess Luna, where is Princess Celestia? You don't usually hold day court."

Luna comes down from her throne, "Bah, one of the many duties I have to deal with here. Uptight nobles and their wants." She comes and sits in front of both of us. She smiles then looks serious. "My sister has been performing her duties without fail for over a thousand years. I was finally able to convince her that she should take a vacation. She has left the duties to me, and she is resting and relaxing, as far away from politics as possible."

Twilights ears drop, "For how long?"

"For the last four months."

That causes me to start. I've been in Equestria for four months now.

Twilight looks confused, "So, for the last four months, the letters I've gotten from Celestia…"

"Have been written by me, yes, Princess Twilight. She decided that making her sabbatical widespread knowledge would be…" she smiled, "inconvenient. So the nobles here have been sworn to not talk about it under the threat of royal fines, and she promised them that those fines would be steep." The smile turned evil. "And they are, the one family that tried to leak to the press found that out. I made sure the Canterlot press is aware of the situation, and is complying with her request."

I nudged Twilight, she moved forward a bit. "So, Princess, what is it you summoned me for?"

"I would say summoned is rather a strong word for what I wrote Princess Twilight. I asked you to Canterlot at your earliest convenience. You rode the first train here. I did not require that. But I do appreciate it."

Confusion reigned on Twilights face, "So, why did you want me here?"

Luna looks directly at me, "Because of him."

Oh no. "Me, your highness?"

A nod. "And your new relationship with Twilight Sparkle."

Time to tread carefully, "Um, I don't know exactly what Twilight wrote in her letter to you, Princess. But I have fallen in love with this mare."

Twilight wraps her wing around me, "And I have fallen in love with him."

Luna claps her hooves together, "Excellent." She looks at Twilight, "And have you learned anything from your feelings, for example how important love is?"

Twilight looks thoughtful, "Yes, Princess. I think I have. Cadence has told me some about the power that is love, how similar, and yet how different it is from the power that is friendship. They are very similar, but the intensity." She stops for a second and looks at me lovingly, "The intensity is amazing. I understand now how Cadence's love for my brother was able to give him power, and was able to repel the changelings. The power, the intensity, is amazing." She stops for a moment to think, "but I can't say that it's stronger than friendship, but on par with it, I would have to say. Even now, I find it hard to explain."

Luna smiles, "Just try your best, Princess."

She stops and thinks for a bit, "To truly be happy, to truly be well rounded, to know what makes your life important, you need friends, and you need to understand love."

Luna smiles hugely and once again claps her hooves together. "Wonderful, wonderful. Exactly what I wanted to hear." She looks at Twilight, "Princess Twilight, may I steal your stallion to talk to him for a little bit? I want to know more about what makes him tick."
Twilight looks nervous but nods as Luna draws me into the royal offices. After we enter she turns on me.

"Well, Nick. I brought you here. And I am happy that my plans have worked out." She giggles, "In fact, they worked out even better than my plans. Bringing you here to have Twilight and you fall in love was a stroke of genius on my part. I knew when I first saw your dreams that you would be excellent for Twilight. You are different enough to be interesting, and yet similar enough to be compatible. You were the perfect choice."

I sit down in confusion, "My dreams, I don't know, Princess. My dreams while I was drifting in the ocean probably weren't anything to go by."

"You silly human turned pony. I watched your dreams for many nights."

What? "You were watching me before the engines failed on my airplane? Dumping me in the middle of the Atlantic?"

Her smile became rather strained, "Well, uhh, yes."

I look down. "Two engines failing wasn't some horrible accident from bad quality control at GE, was it?"

A long silence.

"Well, Princess?"

A long sigh, "No, Nick. I was searching for nearly a week, and focused on you very quickly. I had to find a situation to get you here."
Her horn lights up as I leap towards her, I'm caught in her magic.

"You miserable bitch, I had a life, I was respected, I was happy in my home." I then utter a long stream of curse words that I had picked up here and there. It's the Navy man in me talking. I insulted her heritage, her mane, her horn, her cutie mark, and everything else I could think of in my rage. After several loud minutes I finally wound down.

"Am I required to hold you back again, Nicholas?"

I sigh and shake my head, her magic releases me and I drop to the floor. I stand up slowly and shake my head. "I was brought here as a plot for you to teach Twilight about love, you make me…" I'm interrupted by a muffled sob from the door, which apparently wasn't fully closed. My eyes widen. No!

I dash to the door and wrench it open. I can see Twilight running towards the doors of the throne room, her magic wrenching them open so hard one of the hinges breaks. She skids as she makes the turn and then there is a magenta flash, she just teleported.
I turn back to Luna, "Whatever you did to curse me to not revealing this stupid mission you put me on, I need you to remove it."

She sighs and her horn lights up, "Done."

"Where would she go when upset?"

Luna's face falls. "I am not certain, Nick. When she was a student here, she spent most of her time in the observatory."
I dash from the room, using my wings to aid my speed.

It took forever, and I had to ask three, yes three different ponies how to get to the observatory. I don't bother knocking. The door isn't locked, I trot in. Once I get through the doors, I can hear her, I trot up the stairs to where the telescope is, she's laying in a nook, her head on her forelegs, and I can hear her sobbing. I move up close to her and extend my wing.

"Get back, you son of a bitch." She punctuates her scream with a blast of magic, throwing me across the room. I spread my wings to control my flight and I land on my hooves, in moments I'm next to her again.

"Twilight… I'm…" Once again I'm blasted across the room, this time there is more than concussive force, I can feel my fur singed where her blast hit me. I trot back to her, slower this time.

"Twilight, I'm sorry." I say quickly to forestall another blast. In vain, I might add. Once again, I'm singed, and I think I lost a few feathers and more than a little fur in that one. I try again, I just don't get as close this time.

"Twilight, what you heard…"

She overwhelms my words, "I heard enough from you, you son of a bitch. I fell in love with you." She sobs as she says the last, then steels herself. "I gave myself to you, heart, body, and soul." My ears flatten at her volume. I might have some permanent hearing loss from this exchange. "And I find out this is a sick plot between you and Luna…" her tears overwhelm her again. I sit on my haunches, trying to think.

"Twilight, this isn't…"

Once again, I'm interrupted, "I did love you, with all of my being. And now…" She paws the ground with a hoof and snorts… "Now, I hate you."

Author's Note

I love my editor, I've been itching to post this chapter, I think it turned out really well. And he came through, I'm working on another chapter for my usual weekly update for this story. But if I get enthused about the chapter, I might post early. But Nick's life is in the toilet right now, what is he going to do to fix this problem?

Chapter 17. What do I do?

She paws the ground with a hoof and snorts… "Now, I hate you." Did she really say that? Tears spring to my eyes as I look at her.

"Twilight…"

She screams again, "Leave me alone!" I am enveloped by her magenta colored magic, then I feel like I'm being shoved very rudely through the eye of a very hot needle. My vision is gone for a few seconds, then it's back. I collapse to the ground, I'm smoking pretty badly, I don't care. I blink my eyes a few times to clear them, then they widen. I'm back in Ponyville. Right in front of my house. I rouse myself enough to shamble slowly into my home, I don't even bother to shut my door, much less lock it. I finally make it to my bed, and I collapse into it.

"Twilight…" I sob. I feel my consciousness fading, I'm so tired. "I'm so sorry." Finally I'm able to say what I wanted to say to her, too bad she can't hear it now.

I'm standing in nothingness.

"I had a feeling you would be dreaming fairly quickly, Nicholas." I know that voice. I turn away from the Princess of the Night.

"Leave me alone."

"You know I can't do that. I did this to you, and I must express my apologies."

"You wanted to apologize, you did. Now leave."

"Nicholas, I want to help you, I knew you and Twilight would be a wonderful match. You were different enough to be interesting, and similar enough for there to be some commonalities."

I huff and put my head down, my ears are down, my wings are down, even in a dream my energy level is down to zero. "Moonbutt, I really don't care. I've lost everything. I've lost the one woman I've found that I really loved," I turn and glare at her with everything I can muster, "because of you."

She rears back a bit at the intensity of my voice, "I wouldn't say that, Nicholas."

Now I've got energy, I stand up and I feel my wings spread in a threat display. "No, Moonbutt, I do say that. You are the pony that caused the perfectly good engines on my fighter to fail. You are the pony that brought me here. You are the pony that set me on this stupid quest. You are the pony that enchanted me to where I was unable to divulge what was going on, so I couldn't even tell Twilight," I trail off.

"Nicholas, Twilight will cool off, she will remember that she does love you." She stops and sighs, "I had to teleport rather quickly when I went to her and attempted to apologize. She sent a rather large ball of fire at me. Then she teleported off somewhere. I have no idea where she is now."

"Well, she hit me several times with her magic, then she teleported me to Ponyville." I lay down again, "and yet, with all of that. I miss her, already. If getting burned is what it takes to keep her around, I would gladly subject myself to it."

"Wouldn't that be rather extreme, Nick?"

I stomped a hoof on the non-existent ground. "No, it isn't. I've never known love. I've never been truly in love before Twilight. And now that I've lost her." Tears once again, damn it, I don't cry. But now, I'm sobbing, "I just want her back. I want to hold her and tell her everything is going to be okay. I want to soothe her pain, and let her know I'll always be there for her." I just completely break down crying.

After several minutes, a midnight blue wing envelopes me. I don't have the energy to do anything but continue to sob.

"Nicholas," she murmurs. I try to shake her off, but I'm too weak.

"Please, go away. She hates me. And there is nothing I can do about it." She moves her wing off of me and steps a few paces away.

"Nicholas, I know things look bleak right now. Twilight will come around."

"Go away, Moonbutt."

She looks at me sternly, "I really don't like that name, Nicholas."

"Okay, miserable bitch sounds better to me anyways."

"I guess I can live with Moonbutt for the time being then." She disappears, leaving me to my misery.

I continue to sob, I even transition to being awake without truly being aware of it. My only clue is I can feel how wet my pillow is from my tears. Hours pass.

***

My head jerks up, there was a crash. I really don't care. I lay my head down and just ignore the sound of hooves in my house.
My door slams open, "Dude, you are leaving Ponyville right now." I feel myself being lifted up and slammed into the wall.
I can hear the rage in Rainbow Dash's voice, "I can't believe I helped you, and it was all a big plot between Luna and you." I don't even react as a cyan hoof crashes into my cheek, that speed demon is strong. I find myself on the floor, my jaw in pain. I sigh.
I hear hooves on the floor. I'm picked up again, "You ass, I thought you were my friend. You were just using me to get to Twilight." Another hoof slams into my face, this time the other cheek. Once again, I'm crumpled on the floor, my wing awkwardly underneath me, it hurts. But that pain is nothing compared to the rest of the pain I feel.

I'm picked up again, and slammed against the wall, this time I actually see my assailant. Cerise eyes stare into mine.

"It's like hitting a bag of flour." She has a hoof drawn back, though most of her rage is spent. She looks intently at my face. She drops me, once again I'm unceremoniously on the floor. I just lay there, I can see her hooves.

"Nick. Say something, anything."

Several minutes pass. She just stands there, watching me lay there. It's not at all pleasant to lay there sprawled like this. But I can't muster enough volition to move to anything even remotely more comfortable. I just lay there, tears continuing to trickle down my face.

Finally, I'm able to whisper. "I'm sorry, Rainbow."

She huffs, "Ya know what, I actually believe you." She paws the ground for a moment, "You want to tell me your side?"

I find I'm able to sigh. "I'm so sorry, Rainbow."

"Dude, we've cleared up the question on whether or not Nick is sorry already. What I'm interested in is why in Equestria did you use me to get to Twilight."

I looked down, I'll try to talk. I do consider Rainbow Dash a friend. "At first, I was asking your help because of what Luna wanted me to do. Then I got to actually spend time with her."

She chuckles, "You actually fell in love with her?"

I can only nod slowly.

"Before Twilight found out what happened, when was the last time you actually were thinking about what Princess Luna wanted you to do versus what you actually felt?"

"It was about a month before you came up with the idea of having Twilight and I go on a romantic weekend together. Though where I actually realized I was truly falling in love was on the train on the way to the beach. I was in the restroom and I was trying to analyze how I actually felt, I wanted to see if I was deluding myself into these feelings, or if they were genuine."

"And they were genuine?"

I nod.

"C'mon, get up, Nick." I shift to laying on my stomach. I have all four hooves underneath me, I push, and nothing happens.

"I think I'll lie here." I feel something odd in my mouth, I work my tongue around and spit out a tooth, along with a good amount of blood.

"Oh, sweet Celestia, Nick. I'm so sorry." She helps me to my hooves, and guides me to my couch. Shortly I'm laying on the couch, she piles a few pillows so I'm somewhat comfortable. "Nick…" she looks down. "Don't worry about the job for now, take a few days off. I'll try to find a way to justify it to Cloudsdale. I really don't know what to do with Twilight. If you really do love her, all I can say is don't give up." She juts her muzzle right in front of my face, "And so help me if you are lying to me, I will make earlier seem like a light tap. You understand?"

I look at her, "I was enchanted by Luna to be unable to tell anyone what happened."

She jerks back, surprised, "Seriously? So you would have told me if you could have?"

I look down and nod, "Yes, Rainbow. I value Twilight's relationship, but I also value my friendship with you. I'm glad to have you as a friend, and thank you."

She narrows her eyes at me, "I'm not a lie detector, but I'm pretty good at telling if anypony is lying to me. And from everything I've seen since I got here, you are telling the truth." She lightly punches me in the shoulder, "Nick. We will see if something can be salvaged with Twilight."

I shake my head, "No, Rainbow. I screwed up with Twilight, and worse yet, I used you to do it. If I can get Twilight back it will be on my own merits, not from some pony helping me."

She ruffles my mane, "You are a good pony Nick." She turns to leave.

"Thank you, Rainbow Dash." I sigh, "For everything." She smiles as she closes the door behind her.

I look at the door, I don't want to get up. I just snuggle into the little nest that Rainbow built for me and just lay there.
It's hours before I fall into a dreamless sleep.

***
How many times do I have to be woken up by somepony knocking? I lift my head. But I can't muster the energy to say anything.
More knocking, then eventually the door opens, admitting a blonde mane topping a lavender face. "Hi, Nick," She opens the door fully, showing an early dawn scene outside, "Want to go for a fly?"

I turn my head away, "Not really in the mood Cloud."

She comes up and bumps a wing on my head, "Nick. I know some of what happened. Trust me, you are a pariah in Ponyville right now. Everypony loves Twilight Sparkle, and her heart being shattered like that." She shudders.

"How do you know what happened?" I whisper.

"Nick, welcome to Ponyville, everypony knows everypony and everypony knows everypony's business. That's how things are here. Just so you know, I learned from the boss. But she didn't tell me everything. She did say that she was really upset and roughed you up a bit, only to find that you really didn't have a choice in the matter."

"I did have a choice in the matter, Cloud. I could have refused to do what the Princess wanted. I could have moved out of Ponyville." Fresh tears, "I could have done something other than actually fall in love with Princess Twilight."

Her voice was soft…"But you did, did you?"

I nodded, "She was just so interesting. She was smart, she was beautiful. She wanted to help me through my transition to living here. She was a friend, and when I started feeling feelings for her, I thought that I was deluding myself, because I felt a deep seated need to do what Princess Luna wanted. Then I was looking at myself in the mirror, trying to see if those feelings were genuine." My ears fell flat, "and they were."

Cloud Kicker jumped off the couch and sat down on her haunches in front of me, "Nick. I won't pretend this is going to be easy. In fact, you might want to clear out of Ponyville for a few months until everything cools down. You are going to find ponies that are going to go out of their way to make your life harder. But, I promise, if you do, you will never have a chance with Twilight in the future, because she will see that when the pressure builds, you bail." She puts a hoof on my shoulder. "But, if you stay, I can't promise you'll get Twilight back, but at least she will know, even subconsciously, that she can count on you in a pinch. And that is a good thing."

"Cloud, I'm not moving. I'll endure what I have to endure. I have no hope that Twilight will want me back." I sniffed, and tried to stop the tears. "But I've built a life here, and if I lose some friends because of this, I'll have to live with that. But I have a job, I have friends here." I chuckle darkly, "I'm not going to be chased out of town by the rumor mill."

That gets me a punch to the shoulder and a big grin from Cloud Kicker, "That's the spirit, Nick. Now spread your wings. Let's fly."

I don't have the energy to fly, I haven't eaten much since leaving the beach side resort. I tell Cloud Kicker as much. So our first stop is to get some food at the place that Rainbow took me to that has meat. I'll tell you, that was a good way to lift my spirits.

Chapter 18. The Single Life, it SUCKS!!!

"Well, Nick. It looks like you had a pretty bad run in with the floor," Dr. Colgate said as she looked at my dental x-rays.

"Yeah, sure, Doctor."

"This wouldn't be related to the drama between you and Princess Twilight?"

I looked at her, shocked. "No, not at all."

She leaned in close to me. "Nick, you've got double shiners, you've got three teeth loose, one lost, and you have a shattered cheekbone. And you are trying to say you fell out of bed?"

After Rainbow and Cloud Kicker left, both of my eyes swelled shut. And I decided to go to the dentist for the tooth that Rainbow Dash so expertly removed. Though I'm finding her questions to be a little intrusive. Then I finally realized, gender roles in Equestria are exactly the opposite of home, I'm going to be treated like a battered woman.

I cross my forelegs and huffed, "Yes."

She rolls her eyes and looks back at the x-rays. She seems to be trying to make a decision. She finally rotates on her chair and gets close to me.

"Sweetie, this happens from time to time. A stallion gets in a relationship with a mare, and sometimes is used like a punching bag. Now, I'm not accusing Princess Sparkle of anything."

"It wasn't Twilight."

She rears back happily. "So, some pony did do this to you."

"I deserved it," I grumped.

"Nick, no pony deserves this. You shouldn't have to take this from any lover. "

Now I'm getting angry. "I haven't had any lovers in Equestria."

She smiles. "Sure you haven't."

"Honest!"

"I believe you, just like I believe those burn marks aren't the result of a unicorn spell."

I look down at my barrel, the places where Twilight's fire hit me, she didn't do anything more than singe the fur, but my ribs are bruised from the strength of the hit. "It wasn't a unicorn."

She laughs. Then points at her light blue horn sticking up through her indigo and periwinkle mane. "Nick, I'm a unicorn. I know what unicorn magic looks like.

Once again, I fold my forehooves and huff, "I told you, it wasn't a unicorn."

"An alicorn then?"

I'm not responding, you can't make me.

She smiles. "Nick, I want to help you. I know you are not in a relationship with Twilight anymore, but you are injured, and I will fix your tooth, but you need to know, you don't have to take abuse."

"I'm not abused, Doctor. Just please do your work so I can go."

"Young stallion, I don't have time for you to stonewall me. I have to know what happened."

"I've told you what I'm willing to tell you. I am paying for this appointment, I'd appreciate it if you did the job you are being paid to do."

She smiles at me. "Nick, if you have been roughed up by some mare, this behavior is simply unacceptable, ponies need to know if there is an abuser in their midst."

"Dr. Colgate, I'm not in an abusive relationship. I never was."

She rolls her eyes with a huff, "Now, you listen here. You live in Ponyville, everypony knows everypony. And the town is simply abuzz with Twilight Sparkle's heart being broken," my face falls at this, I know how hurt she is, but hearing it from somepony else really hurts me more than my cheek, eyes, and jaw combined. My dentist continues, "and then you show up in my office wanting a tooth repair, along with showing signs of being mauled by a wild beast that happens to have magic."

I have to chuckle at that, Skittles as a wild beast, that's a laugh. I know she was holding back, even as angry as she was, she still held back. I look seriously at Colgate. "I deserved what I got, and nothing you will say will change that fact."

She rears back again. "I must say, my dear, I should report to the authorities about stallion abuse." She then nudges closer. "Or you can tell me what happened and I'll keep this between you and I."

I flip out of the chair and move towards her, my wings flaring in anger. "You miserable gossip. You want the juicy details so you can gossip with your friends and add to the rumor mill in this town." I stomp a hoof on the floor. "I won't be a part of it. As far as any pony is concerned, I had a bad tumble down the stairs after I had a problem with my fireplace. And that is the last I will hear of it, do you understand?" I'm using my officer's voice at this point, the voice that always had the e-ratings on board ship snapping to. Add to that the extra lung power I've got as a pegasus pony, her ears flatten back and she wilts.

She sighs. "Very well, Nick. Please sit back in the chair, and I'll fix up your teeth. Though in your paperwork I will give you contact information for some pony that can help you if you find yourself in a situation that you find you can't handle."

I roll my eyes as I use my wings to help me back into the chair, "Won't need it."

In moments I can hear the chime of her magic. I feel my teeth become solidly connected once again, and a new tooth grows in. I'll tell you, having a tooth grow right in your mouth in seconds is a crazy feeling. Also, for added measure, the pain in my cheek very nearly disappeared. I smile at her, trust me, that hurt.

"Aaaaaand, done." She smiles back at me as I hop off the chair and move to the door.

"Thank you, Dr. Colgate."

"And, sweetie."

"Yes?" I look back at the unicorn.

"You are a cute stallion. I don't think you'll stay single for long." She finishes with a wink that makes me groan inwardly.

***

I'm on my way home from the market, my spirit needs a lift, I'm trudging along heading towards my house. Work hasn't been bad the last month or so. The weather crew has been busy preparing for the change of seasons, and I got to watch the running of the leaves. It's amazing that it takes the ponies to get the leaves to fall. This world of Equestria is strange. I briefly think of heading over to town hall to find the speed demon in her stacks of paperwork, but I can't muster the desire to do so. So, I just continue putting one hoof in front of the other.

"Hiya Nick," I hear, in addition to the sound of a party horn. Confetti falls gently to the ground around me. I look up.

"Hello Pinkie Pie," I say tiredly.

The pink mare puts a foreleg over my withers and stuffs a cupcake in my mouth. I must say, if you need a pick me up, a cupcake baked by Pinkie Pie fits the definition perfectly. "Thank you, Pinkie. I needed that."

"Anything for a friend, Nick,” she pipes happily. So, she must not have heard what was going on with Twilight, but it's been over a month.

"Oh, I heard. You broke Twilight's heart."

Huh? I didn't say that last out loud.

"No, you didn't, Nick. I just know." And she reaches into her mane and pulls out another cupcake, this time simply handing it to me.
I sit down on my haunches, I take my time with the second cupcake, though before it's done I feel the massive amount of sugar start to take effect. I look at Pinkie Pie, her familiar smile plastered on her face. And I have to say, that is the most genuine smile I've ever seen.

A long moment of silence. "So, you don't hate me, Pinkie?"

Her smile fell to a look of absolute confusion. "No, Nick. I don't hate you."

"But why? Pinkie, I broke your friend's heart." I look down. "I'm a failure as a pony."

Now it's time for a Pinkie hug, and it's a doozie. But this time, I don't mind the lack of air. I simply find it to be comforting.

She murmurs into my ear, "Nick. You messed up. I mean seriously badly messed up. And there are some ponies that I would completely avoid for a while if I were you. But I saw how much you love Twilight. It wasn't very nice of Luna and you to deceive Twilight. But I can see that you were genuine in how you felt." She pulls away so I can see her big blue eyes. "And I think Twilight knows too. But right now she's too hurt to think of anything else. She will heal, and so will you. I'm still making plans for your wedding party."

Now I feel tears in my eyes, haven't I cried enough for the last two days? "Pinkie, I betrayed her. I would have trouble trusting myself ever again if I were her." I look down. "I wouldn't trust me," I whisper.

A pink hoof cups my chin and brings my eyes back to level with hers. "Nick, you've been in Equestria for a matter of months. Something you need to learn about the magic here. True love will always win, sometimes it just takes a little longer."

I push her hoof away. "I'm sorry Pinkie. I really am. But I don't think I'll ever be able to trust in myself again." I flap my wings and hover slowly towards my house.

"Nick, please."

"Pinkie, I want to go home."

"Nick, you made a promise to me. Are you going to break your promise?" she asks quietly, stopping me immediately.

I turn and look at the pink mare. "No, Pinkie, I would never break a promise to you, or any pony if I can help it."

She smiles at me, and reaches into her mane again, bringing out an envelope. "Goodie, you said you promise to come to another Pinkie party, and I've got one going on in a week. Be there or be square." After hoofing over the invitation, she bounces off just like Pepe La Pew, humming a happy tune. I look down at the invitation.

"I can do a party." I open the envelope and scan it quickly. "A first snow of winter party, if Pinkie is throwing the party." I sigh, "I'll be there. Though I thought the first snow wasn't until closer to Hearths Warming." I roll my eyes and head to my home.

***

"Hey, Pinkie."

"Yeah, Nick?"

"Why are we having a party?"

The pink mare turns to me and giggles, "Winter just started, the first snow fell today, didn't it? And also, Nick, does there really have to be a reason?"

I think about it for a moment. Then smile. "No, not really. But this snow storm is kind of unscheduled."

That earns me a huge grin from Pinkie, and a punch to the shoulder.

"Ow, Pinkie." I rub my shoulder and grimace. "What was that for?"

She giggled again. "That was the first genuine smile I've seen from you in a week. I saw those fake smiles you were doling out. And it made me so sad. There is nothing worse than a fake smile."

I fold a wing over her. "Thank you, Pinkie Pie."

Pinkie's just because party has been going on for about an hour now. I got to play pin the tail on the pony, and a few of the other party games that Pinkie puts on. That mare knows parties. And the ponies here love her for it.

I move from pony to pony, chatting. That Pinkie knew the exact ponies to invite as well. Not a single pony that had been rude to me since the blow up with Twilight had shown up. And all the ones that have stayed friendly to me are here. I stop for a moment and look at Pinkie, she's animatedly talking to Cloud Kicker and Blossomforth. I narrow my eyes. She did this party to lift my spirits. I sigh and smile again. It does feel good to smile, even though I feel empty inside, there's a hint of something there. I move over to Rainbow Dash.

"Hey Boss. Freaky weather from the Everfree right?"

She holds her hooves in front of her in a don't blame me gesture. "I was told from on high that fighting that storm wasn't worth our time. So, we let the moisture in." She points to the snow gently falling outside. "And we get an early snowstorm." She shrugs her wings. "Oh well. We'll just warm it up a bit and let it melt. The first real big storm is still on schedule."

I grin. "Well, Boss, looks like a busy day tomorrow."

She nods and huffs. "Yup."

I look at her closely. "What's up with you, Boss?"

The only worse liar than Rainbow Dash is Applejack. And Rainbow is clearly hiding something. All I get from her is, "Nothing."

I look around at the party, the cake hasn't been brought out yet, pretty unusual for Pinkie. She's chaotic when it comes to many things, but her parties are regimental order. You know what's going to happen at a Pinkie party. And you are going to enjoy it, she knows how to get the right mix of ponies to make the party fun independent of the party favors. I look at Pinkie across the room and back at Rainbow, her lips are comically sealed. She's up to something.

I groan, "You and Pinkie have some kind of plan, don't you?"

Feigned innocence from the cyan pegasus mare. "I don't know what you are talking about."

"You don't?" I paw the ground, "Boss, don't lie to me, please?"

She looks immensely uncomfortable and remains silent.

"This was Pinkie's idea, wasn't it?"

"Of course it was my idea, all my parties are my idea," says a voice right next to me, I turn and see the pink mare standing right next to me. I've been exposed to enough Pinkie for the last few months to not let her antics bother me too much.

"Pinkie, I'm talking about your special surprise you are waiting to spring on me."

Now I know she's planning something, Pinkie can lie, she can tell you the sky is mint green and get you to believe it. But right now she's fighting her excitement. I can see the emotions warring inside her, she is certainly up to something. I look around, nothing unusual.

I sigh, "Pinkie, it's been a rough week. I don't know if I can handle a big surprise."

She wraps a foreleg around my withers. "Nick, a Pinkie surprise is always a good one. Just trust me."

I sigh once again, I don't think I can do anything to stop this train wreck.

As if on cue, the door opens and a purple alicorn trots into the party, "I don't think I'm late. I'm here at the exact time on the invitation." She levitates out the invitation and looks at it, then looks at Pinkie. "Pinkie, I'm here, but it looks like I'm late."
Pinkie bounces to Twilight. "No, Twilight. You are here exactly when I invited you to be here." This produces confusion on Twilight's features.

I, in the mean time, have made a mad dash for the back of the room. I'm trembling. I want to see her, I want to do a lot more than just see Twilight. But I don't know what to do.

I hear Pinkie raise her voice, "Twilight, I had a purpose to this party. I want two ponies who love each other to be back together." Oh horseapples, I knew it. I lower my head as most of the ponies in the room move apart, leaving a clear path between Twilight and I. I lay down and cover my head with my forelegs.

Silence.

I hear the clip clop of hooves walking up towards me.

I can feel her, she's right next to me. I don't want to move. After several moments, I crack an eyelid open, looking through my hooves, I see Twilight standing there. Her expression unreadable.

"I'm sorry, Twilight," I whisper. I'm pretty sure she heard me, her ear twitches.

I'm still cowering, I don't know what to do at all. It's all I can do to keep from wetting myself. I'm so scared to say the wrong thing, to make the wrong move. I've hurt this mare enough. I silently curse Pinkie and Rainbow for cooking this scheme up.

"I know you are sorry, Nick," Twilight says softly. Causing my ears to prick up.

"I didn't want you hurt."

A sigh from Twilight, "I know that's not what you wanted, but it happened."

I open my mouth to say something, anything, but she interrupts my aborted attempt to speak.

"But, I'm sorry, I don't know how I can ever trust you again." Tears fall from her eyes as she turns away from me.

"Twilight, please. I know you love him." This comes from Pinkie as she moves slowly forward towards her friend.

The pink mare is silenced by a look from Twilight. The pain in Twilight's voice is overwhelming, "I need to go." She gallops out of Sugarcube Corner. I look at Pinkie and give her a wan smile, I know her heart was in the right place. I gallop after Twilight, skidding on the cobblestones of the street as I head to the tree library. I guess Twilight must have teleported ahead.

My nose slams into a force field followed by the rest of me. I land heavily on the ground. Eyes spinning. Ouch.
I rub my nose and look at the force field. "Bug... meet windshield," I say as I pass out.

Chapter 19. To Mend a Broken Heart

***Twilight Sparkle***

I lay on my bed, looking out the window. Hearth’s Warming is upon us. I watch the pegasi of the weather team organizing the clouds for the first big winter blast. I keep my eye out, looking for the brown pegasus with the mane like fire. With everything that has happened, Nick still hasn't gotten his cutie mark.

I lay my head down on the bed. My friends have been updating me on him, despite my express instructions not to. Pinkie says that he's in the worst depression she's ever seen, and that it might be good for him to get on medication. Coming from Pinkie Pie, that's significant. I sigh. I didn't think Nick is the only one depressed.

"Twilight," I hear a gravelly voice whine, "You are thinking about him, go to him. Tell him how you feel."

I turn my head and glare at the cyan pegasus. "Rainbow. I haven't even sorted my feelings for Nick. The only thing I know for certain is he betrayed me. He seduced me. And he didn't do it because he fell in love with me, he did it under orders. I was a mission for him. Nothing more."

She flies off the shelf she had been perched on and slams to the floor in front of me, her wings are spread aggressively. "Twilight Sparkle. I can't believe you. That pony is in a severe depression and it's because you refuse to see him. He misses you." Her voice softens and her wings slowly fold back into place. "He loves you, Twilight."

I snort and roll my eyes. "Yeah, the same pony loves me who told me that he had trouble seeing himself with a…" my voice catches in my throat, "horse for the rest of his life."

"We're ponies, Twilight."

"Well, duh, Rainbow. I know that." I stop and look down. "He doesn't view us as equals, we are beasts to him, animals."

"I don't believe that for a moment."

I stand up, my wings are flaring in anger, I hop off the bed and advance on Rainbow, "He's not from our world, his whole life he's known humans. Like what I was when I was in that weird world through the mirror. We are animals in his view."

"Animals in his world aren't sapient, Twilight. We are."

I sigh. "I know. But I can't get past what he said, and what Luna said. I was a mission to him, and Luna is the one who set him on that mission." I move back to my bed and lay down.

"Twilight, you are almost as depressed as Nick his, please come out. That party was the last time we got you out of your home."

I snort, "And look how good that turned out."

"Pinkie has already apologized, she just wanted to help, and so did I."

"I'm tired, Rainbow Dash. Please leave me alone." I lay my head on the pillow. I glare at her when she opens her mouth to say something more. She quickly subsides.

***

I'm in some kind of starscape, I was asleep. I'm in some kind of dream world, I think. I look around. "Luna, I know you are here."

The stars coalesce, revealing a midnight blue alicorn, she silently steps up to me.

"Send me back into a regular dream, Luna. I don't want to be here."

"Child, I must talk to you."

"There is nothing you can say that I would be remotely interested in." I stomp a hoof on nothingness. "And I'm not a child."

She chuckles at me, "You gain a pair of wings and suddenly you are my equal? We may both be princesses, but you have a lot to learn before you will stop being a student."

I grumble at her as she moves up next to me. "Do you know where you are, child?" she asks gently.

I look around. "It looks like we are in deep space."

She smiles at me. "No child, we are in the realm of dreams, it's a place between the world of dreams and the world of life."

"The world of dreams?"

"Yes, it is a mirror to the waking world. It is a dangerous place, nightmares are real there, not like in a pony's dreams where we can be masters of those dreams. If you die in the world of dreams, you die for real."

"If this place is so dangerous, Luna, why did you bring me here?"

"Child, I brought you to accompany me on patrolling the dreams of our little ponies, our subjects." She waves a hoof to indicate the multitude of stars all around us. "These."

"Those are the dreams of ponies?"

She nods her head at me. "Yes, child."

I look around in wonder. There are an uncountable number of dreams that I can see. She folds a wing over me and I feel the sensation of rapid movement, in moments we are in front of a glowing sphere. She places a hoof gently on the sphere. "Touch the dream and open your mind."

I do so, and all of a sudden I am in a dream, but still aware of myself. I'm in the air with Luna, and both of us are insubstantial. I look around, Rainbow Dash is performing tricks, and flying fast.

"It's Rainbow Dash's dream."

She smiles at me. "Are you so certain, child?"

A small orange blur joins the cyan pony flying. Performing every trick in perfect unison with Rainbow, the magenta maned pegasus filly loops the loop with Rainbow Dash, grinning like mad.

"Ah, so, it's Scootaloo's dream," I say to Luna.

"And she's dreaming of her fondest wish, flying with her idol." Luna looks sad. "It's a pity that is something that cannot ever happen in real life."

I look at her in shock. "She's just a late bloomer, Princess."

Luna looks at the small pegasus filly sadly. "No, she's not. Her wings will never be able to fully cooperate with her magic, she will always be grounded. And she's going to have to realize that fact on her own, for her to be truly happy."

"But, why?" I ask, flabbergasted.

Luna sighs, "That story is not for me to tell, Princess Twilight. But Scootaloo is not the reason I brought you here tonight."
I feel my hoof withdrawing from the dream and suddenly I'm back in my own body. Luna turns to me. "If you press any further into a pony's dreams, you will join the dream and can talk to them there."

"Is that what we are going to do next, Princess?"

She shakes her head. "No. I have another plan in mind."

Another dream appears not too far from me. It starts to move under its own volition towards me, I turn and gallop away from it as fast as I can go. Luna floats along with me. "What's happening, Princess? Why is this dream following me?" It's catching up, I spread my wings and take off, now it's keeping some distance, but it's still too close for comfort.

She puts a hoof to her chin in contemplation. "This is only something I've read about. When a dream walker has strong feelings for the dreamer, or the dreamer has strong feelings for the dream walker, the dream can subconsciously be attracted to the dream walker. If you stop, you'll find out who has such strong feelings for you."

I'm starting to feel winded. "Strong feelings?" I think for a moment. "Like love, or hatred?"

She nods at me. "Maybe you should stop, and find out whom has such powerful feelings for you."

"I don't think so, how do I get out of here? Is the pony dreaming this aware of this?"

She shakes her head, then reaches out to the dream and makes a scooping motion, a pony emerges from the dream and tumbles to the non existent floor. He shakes his head hard. I gasp. I know that brown coat, that mane like fire, those beautiful red eyes. I yelp quietly and somehow make myself invisible before Nick gets to see me.

He glares at Luna, "What have I told you about leaving me alone?"

Luna glances at me, she somehow knows where I am yet I'm invisible to Nick. "I am sorry Nicholas. I wanted to look into your dreams and see how you were faring, you have had many nightmares of late. I have a responsibility to my subjects to help them through bad dreams."

He turns his back to her. "Well, you can leave me alone, Moonbutt, I don't need your help to sort through my dreams."
I choke on a laugh, Luna has never been called that around me. I can tell he's furious with her.

"Young Nicholas, you are not at peace. I want to help."

"You miserable bitch, I had a life in my home. It wasn't great, but it was a life. Then you bring me here and make me do that stupid quest of yours…" he trails off, I hear a sob.

"You are in pain child. It is time to let that pain go."

"Fuck you, Princess, with all due respect."

She rears back a little at the savageness of his words. "I can forgive you for being rude, child. But please refrain from such language."

He lifts a hoof and points it, then grumbles, "I can't even give you the finger anymore."

"I wish I could do something to help ease your pain, Nicholas," Luna murmurs.

"You can send me back to my home, to my Earth."

"I don't know if that would be wise, Nicholas. You are dead there."

"You can have me wash up on some beach somewhere. I can try to rebuild a life there."

"Nicholas, I'm not even certain whether you would regain your old form on going back there. You would likely end up as a pegasus pony in a world of humans."

He stomps a hoof. "It's better than this pain. I've lost the one mare I have truly fallen in love with…" he trails off, tears falling freely from his eyes. "I don't want to be in your world without her." He falls down, and he's sobbing. I start to move to comfort him, but I'm locked in place and receive a severe glare from Luna.

"Would you have fallen in love with Twilight without my interference?"

He's silent for a long time, he's still crying, but I sense he's trying to gather words into coherent thoughts. Finally words come out, "Honestly, I don't know. I started spending time around her because of what you wanted. If I would have spent the same time with her without your little mission," he spat that last word out, "I probably would have."

"Why?"

He glares at her. "Do I have to explain to you why I love Twilight, why I fell in love with her? Why? To fulfill some morbid curiosity you have, Princess?"

"Let us just say that I require it of you, young Nicholas."

He turns his back on her. "I'm not here to satisfy your curiosity. I have to make a brave face in public, but you dragged me out of my personal dreams, I'm not going to sugar coat things for you. Yes, I love Twilight. But I don't think she will ever feel that way about me ever again."

Luna smiles at him, then glances back at me. "I don't know if I would count Twilight out, Nicholas. I shall return you to your dream." She stomps her hoof and Nick disappears and his dream reappears, immediately moving towards me. I shriek as Luna gathers me up and then my head jerks up. I sigh in relief, I’m awake now.

"Well, Child. What do you think now?"

I look at Luna, I can see, she's here in the flesh, she must have teleported. I look down. "I don't know, Princess. What I witnessed was a very personal conversation between Nick and you." I look up at her, "are you sure of the truth of what he says?"

She puts a hoof on my withers. "Princess Twilight, you must be the one to determine whether or not you believe what he told us." She sighs and sits on her haunches. "That was one very broken pony right there."

"I'm going to have to think on this for a while. I will let you know when I figure things out." I lay my head down on the bed and close my eyes.

I feel her wing envelope me, "Take your time, child. But don't take too long. This is all part of the process of healing for him. Eventually, he will catch some pony's eye. And if she can, she will do what she can to get him, and then more hearts can be broken. From what I see, he will always have these feelings for you. It's up to you to fan the embers to flames, or to reduce them to coals."

"Thank you, Princess Luna." I really mean it, looking at her warmly. I think I've finally been able to forgive her meddling, but how do I forgive Nick?

Chapter 20. The Mares of Ponyville are CRAZY!!!

***Nick***
Flying, the one joy I still have in my life. Why does Cloud Kicker have to be here, today?

"C'mon Nick. It'll be fun."

I dive and the lilac mare follows me. She may not be as fast as the speed demon, but she's got a turn of speed when she wants to. I've seen her fly in full armor too, she's very impressive. But right now, I'm trying to get away.

"No, Cloud, I'm not interested."

"You won't be cheating on Twilight, you aren't with her anymore."

"You've got Blossomforth," I yell.

"Yeah, and if you want, she'll join in, she's already said she's willing."
I roll my eyes and pour on some more speed, she's keeping up with me.

"Once again, Cloud Kicker, not interested."

"You party pooper. You'll have fun."

Before Twilight, before I was in this cursed place called Equestria, I was a lot like the mare chasing me. I was after the conquest, after the quick fun. Not anymore, not after Twilight. I flip and dive for the ground.

I hear her huffing and puffing behind me, "C'mon Nick. Nothing's bothering you that a fun evening with a pretty pony won't fix."

I've had enough, as the ground comes up, I flare my wings and land, I hear her land behind me and I whirl around.

"Cloud Kicker, I don't know what the laws on sexual harassment in the workplace are here in Equestria." This elicits a confused look from her. Well, I've got my answer on that. I continue, "But where I come from, no means no."

Her wings fold and she looks hurt, "Nick. You never actually said no. I believe the same thing, no means no. You never actually said the word, no. You said you weren't interested, that's not actually no. Not interested means I have to step up and make you interested."

I jerk back. "Then, I'm afraid the answer is no, Cloud Kicker."

She smiles at me. "Fair enough, Nick. You don't know what you are missing. But I'll leave you alone."

I roll my eyes, "I have an idea, and in my old life, had you been human, I would have jumped at that chance." I sigh. "But now, I'm different."

"Well, duh, you’re a pony now."

"It's not just that, Cloud Kicker. I was in and out of women's lives. Now, there's just one woman I want in my life."

She looked sad again. "Nick, I hate to break it to you, but it's been three months. Chances are, she's not coming back."

Damn it, I'm not going to cry in front of this pony. "I know, Cloud Kicker. But I don't feel right pursuing other ponies."

"Nick, I would think they are pursuing you."

Her words resonate with me. Apparently there is a mental countdown among ponies when they split up. Because after three months of being collectively punished, attitudes among many of the mares here in Ponyville have taken a complete one-eighty. Applejack and Rarity have remained cool towards me. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie have remained friends no matter what. Fluttershy avoided me for months, but only recently has started saying hi to me again, though it's come out as a squeak mostly. And more than once I've found myself taking to the air to avoid earth bound mares. And the pegasi mares. They can be scary. I'm fresh meat once again, and they aren't intimidated by Twilight. So, I'm fair game as far as they are concerned. The trouble is, they are so nice about it. I've been asked out for coffee at least a dozen times in the last week, lunch at least four times, and dinner twice. Rainbow Dash has been helpful in informing me of some of these mares intentions, yet I've gotten roped into a couple of…dates. Though on one lunch date, when the conversation turned to "our foals," I beat a hasty retreat.

A lavender hoof waving in front of me snaps me from my reverie. "Equestria to Nick, ya there?"

I shake my head and look at Cloud Kicker. "Sorry. I was just thinking half the mares in Ponyville are in heat."

She laughs, hard. In moments she's laying on the ground on her back, wings splayed. I wait impatiently for her mirth to die down.

"Oh, Nick, you are so naïve. If the mares are pursuing you harder than you would normally realize, it's because they are. Surely you've smelled it. These earth pony towns are kind of weird, let me guess, the majority of the ponies after you are earth ponies. Am I right?"

I stop and think about it. Recounting the events of the last week or so, "Yeah, and one unicorn."

She chuckled again. "Nick." She moves close and folds a wing over my withers, despite me standing a bit taller than her, "Ponyville is an earth pony town. A good portion of the population go into estrous around the same time. A few weeks and any stallion not already taken will be fair game, and the girls will be pursuing."

"And how much choice does the stallion have?"

"As much as he wants, Nick. But the mares are dropping pheromones like it's nobody's business. And those stallions are certainly affected by it. As I've said, you should have smelled that. Any stallion not wanting to get hooked up takes a whiff and runs for the hills. Have you noticed some of the stallions around town have disappeared?"

"I noticed Big Mac, Caramel, and a few others are nowhere to be seen, yes. As for the smell. I haven't been smelling anything for the last week. My nose is so stopped up I can't breathe through it."

"Allergies?"

"Yeah, let's go with that."

"Well, the boys are off in the woods somewhere, to get away from the crazed mares. It'll be over in a few days."

"What about you, Cloud Kicker? Do pegasi have that?"

"Of course we do, Nick. But we don't usually align with the ponies around us, that's unicorns and earth ponies."

"What about alicorns?"

She sighs and stomps a hoof. "Nick, you've got Twilight on the brain."

I shrug my wings.

"Nick, that mare will be the death of you." She walks by me, flicking her tail in my face. "Though, if you just want a romp in the sack just for the fun of it," she turns and looks at me seriously, "I'm your mare." With that she spreads her wings and is flying away.

"Thank you, Cloud Kicker," I whisper.

***

"Hello Derpy, where are the kiddos?" I ask as I answer her knock at my door.

"They are having fun in the park."

I look seriously at the snow falling gently outside. "It's pretty cold, Derpy."

She smiles at me. "And the perfect time to make snow ponies and have snowball fights. Sparkler is watching the Cutie Mark Crusaders as well."

Ahhh, Derpy is one hell of a mother, I should have known she would make sure Dinky was safe. With four energetic foals, Sparkler is probably having a fun time playing with her sister and those foals. I move aside to let Derpy in.

In moments I've got water boiling. I put the tea kettle on the tray and transfer it to my back. Half a year in this world, and I'm moving around like a native. I smile to myself as I move into the living room. Setting the tray on the table, I hop on the couch and reach for the infuser and my cup. I've found that a little honey is all that's needed for sweetness. Since coming to Equestria, my diet is probably a hundred percent better than when I was a human. Though I have to admit, I've been spending a quite a lot of bits at Sugarcube corner, a stallion's gotta have his comfort food, right? I smile as I sit back and Derpy finishes making her cup of tea.

"So, Derpy. How has the mail delivery been the last week?"

She looks nervous and shifts around, moving her cup as though she doesn't know what to do with it. "It's been fine, Nick."

I look at her quizzically. "Derpy. We are friends, and a blind pony can see something is bothering you."

"Nothing's bothering me, Nick."

I close my eyes for a moment. I swear, women are the same no matter whether they walk on two legs, or four. After I open my eyes again, I put a big smile on my face, hoping it looks genuine.

"Derpy, we've been buddies pretty much since I got here. When I told you at my Pinkie Pie welcome party that you were welcome anytime, you came over the next day."

She nods her head.

"And we've gotten to be pretty good friends, right Derpy?"

She nods again.

"So, you can tell me what's up with you."

"I've kind of got…" she pauses and drops her voice to a whisper, "a crush."

I smile hugely. "That's wonderful Derpy. So, who's the lucky stallion?"

Her cheeks turn red as she talks to me, "Well, he's a pegasus."

I nod, encouraging her to continue.

"He's got such a beautiful mane."

I smile. "Very good for you, Derpy."

I reach down to grab a muffin. As I sit up I've got lips on mine and a gray furred face right in front of me. I just sit there. In moments she pulls away, blushing madly.

"I'm sorry, Nick. You've always been so nice to me. I know many ponies make fun of me behind my back. But you've never said anything nasty about me."

I just look at her, I may be slow on the uptake from time to time, but I never even had an inkling that Derpy felt that way about me.

"Derpy, I never badmouth my friends. And you are certainly a friend. I've only got a few true friends here in Equestria, and I'm glad you are on that list. But, Derpy, I never knew you felt that way."

"I didn't want to risk our friendship because I had a schoolfilly crush. And with you and Twilight having that break up, I thought you've been alone enough." She looks down.

I cup her cheek with my hoof. "Derpy." Oh Christ, how do I put this… I sigh, "Derpy, you and I are friends. I had no inkling that there was the potential for more. I never even considered that. So, this is a total surprise to me. I'm sorry for not responding, I was just too shocked by the situation."

I lean forward a bit. "Derpy, I'm certainly not opposed to the idea. You have been the nicest mare to me since I got here," I sigh again, and gulp a bit, "but I'm still hurting from Twilight. I don't want to hurt you because of my feelings for her," I lean in and kiss her, she enthusiastically returns the kiss, "but that doesn't mean there isn't room in my heart for my best friend. But for now, can we keep the more part on the back burner?"

She looks thoughtful for a moment. "So, I haven't ruined our friendship?"

I have to laugh. "No, Derpy, not at all. Whether you and I get together or not. I will always be your friend, so long as you'll have me as yours."

She leans against me and sighs contentedly, "I can live with that. I was so scared."

I nuzzle her. "Derpy, I never abandon my friends. You won't lose me as a friend."

She smiles again, "Thank you Nick."

We are interrupted by a knock at the door. Derpy moves to get the door while I run in the bedroom, the tea had the expected effect on me. In moments I'm back in my living room, and there's a new addition to the room, my eyes widen in shock.

"Nick, we need to talk."

Chapter 21. Conversations with Twilight

I've always hated the line, we need to talk. This time I welcome it. I glance at Derpy.

"I think I'll get going, see ya Nick." Her head is down along with her ears. I move over to Derpy and give her a hug.

"Derpy, no matter what, we are friends, understand?" I whisper in her ear. She nods and moves to the door. I close the door slowly behind Derpy then turn to Twilight.

"Tea?" I am trying to cover my terror by trying to act somewhat normal. My body is cold, I must have gone completely pale, if that is possible being a brown furred pony.

She smiles tremulously, she seems as nervous about this as I am. She nods.

I bring another cup in from the kitchen while she heats the water with her magic. In moments we are sipping our tea.

"So…" she begins.

"Twilight…" I say at the same time.

"You go first…" she says,

"No, Twilight, I think you should go first."

She blushes and puts down her tea cup. She sighs. "Nick… I need to know something."

"Umm, what is that, Twilight?"

"Why did you freak out when you found out that Luna caused you to crash, and bring you here to Equestria?"

I sigh. "Is that why you moved to the door and you heard what she said to me?"

She nods slowly. "I heard you yelling, and I wanted to see if I could help."

I look down. "Twilight. I had a life back at home. I had an absolutely awesome job, flying fighter jets off of carriers. I had friends on board ship. It wasn't the best, but for the most part, I was happy. And having it all taken away from me because Luna wanted me for a mission. I flipped out, and for hurting your feelings. I apologize."

She rears back a bit. "So, you weren't freaking out about being with me?"

"Oh, no, Twilight. I wasn't lying when I told you I love you."

She looks at me seriously. "But you think I'm an animal, a beast, like horses are in your world. You said yourself, you couldn't see yourself spending the rest of your life with a…" her voice got really small, "horse." I see tears spring up in her eyes.

"So, you think I freaked out with Luna because I found out she brought me here to fall in love with an animal?"

She looks down and nods slowly.

I scoot a bit closer to her, and put a hoof on her cheek. She surprises me by leaning into my hoof and nuzzling it. "Twilight, when I first got here, I was confused, but I learned very quickly that you ponies are nothing like the equines of my world. Not even close." I sigh and look at her. "I can only think of you one way, Twilight. As an amazingly beautiful young woman." I smile at the beautiful face in front of me. "The fact that you are a pony is irrelevant to me. I love you for the beauty inside you." I use a hoof to indicate myself. "I'm a pony myself, and it looks like it's permanent." I sigh, remembering how angry I was, "I am a little bitter at that, I was taken without consent, and I am still angry at Luna for that."

"Why do you call Luna Moonbutt?"

This question from Twilight really gets my attention. "Say what now?" I know I haven't referred to Luna that way in front of Twilight. I look at her quizzically.

"I was there when Luna pulled you out of the dream, I saw it was you and made myself invisible while you talked to her."
I cower down, just kill me now. I put my hooves over my eyes.

After a few moments I feel a wing enfold me. "Nick, I only have one question regarding that."

I'm trembling now, I did not expect my private conversation with Luna to be watched by Twilight.

"Princess Luna asked you why you fell in love with me. You refused to answer her, I'm asking you for the answer."

I look at her, my mind going a thousand miles per hour. How do you explain your emotions? I've never been good at that, and now she wants an exactly that. I suppress a sigh. "Twilight, the more time I spent with you, I found I wanted to spend even more time with you. I wanted to be the reason you smile, the reason you laugh. And for some time, I had convinced myself that I was doing it because Luna wanted me to. I had convinced myself that I was doing a mission, and that I was successful. But, I realized I truly liked you. The pony that you are. Then you showed up at my door with Rainbow's little plan to spend a romantic weekend together. Everything came down to a point right there. And then I was looking at myself in the mirror in that train car bathroom. I was thinking about you, how I felt. What I felt."

I stop for a moment to contemplate my words. Putting feelings into words can sometimes be very difficult. "Twilight, I realized there that I was falling in love with you. That the brightness of my day came from me seeing you. And on days that I didn't see you, despite being a bright sunny day, it felt grey to me. You occupied my thoughts." I stop and smile sadly. "You even occupy my dreams. I think some of my best dreams have been you flying with me."

I'm interrupted, once again, by lips on mine. I don't react for a moment out of sheer shock. Then I realize that Twilight is forgiving me. I enthusiastically return her kiss. After several long moments, she pulls back.

"Nick, I love you. You need to understand that you freaking out at Princess Luna scared me. I thought that you regretted being brought here."

I smile at Twilight. "I'm angry that I was brought here by her under false pretenses. But no, I don't regret meeting you and falling in love with you."

I get an idea and trot quickly to my bedroom, a quick pull, causing a bit of pain. Then I grab some of high quality twine and I'm back in the living room.

"Twilight. I've done some reading, and I've learned a lot about ponies and how we live. I've figured since this change is permanent, I need to get caught up on all of the customs of my new home. One chapter I found interesting was about pegasi."

She nods and smiles.

"It is traditional for a pegasus to give a flower when courting, but that tradition is relatively new. It came about when inter-tribal dating became more and more common. For the longest time after the founding of Equestria, it was not exactly taboo, but certainly frowned upon for a pony to court outside their tribe. But that all changed, now it's common for a pegasus and an earth pony, or a unicorn and a pegasus, or any number of combinations to happen. But before they gave flowers, they gave a flight feather, specifically one of the longer primaries. And I know that it's traditional for a mare to give the gift to the stallion."

She nods. "Yes, it's nearly unheard of for a stallion to present a courting gift to a mare."

"Well, I've never been one for traditions. So, I am giving you my number one primary, off of my right wing, which is believed traditionally to be the closest to the heart." I extend the twine that is holding the big brown feather to Twilight. Now it's time for me to be nervous, she can reject it, or she can accept. Everything in my heart is waiting to see her response.

She stares at me, "Nick, you know what that means to pegasi, don't you? This is far more than just courting."

I nod. "Yes, Twilight. Pegasi of old believe that the giving of this specific feather is akin to giving a piece of the soul to the one they love."

Tears once again start to form in her eyes. I nervously shift a bit, waiting for her answer. Finally, her horn lights up and the twine lifts from my hoof and around her neck. She lifts the feather with her hooves and looks at it a long time. My heart is leaping with joy at her acceptance. "Nick, I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything Twilight."

She looks seriously at me. "So, you actually love me? You want to get back together?"

I nod enthusiastically. "More than anything, Twilight. These last few months have been torture."

Her smile turns sly. "Even with all the mares throwing themselves at you? You stayed around when most of the unattached stallions that don't want to get hitched are bugging out. To the ponies here, that's you practically advertising yourself as being on the market."

"Ummm, Twilight, I was unaware of the smell, my nose was seriously stopped up, I can't smell to save my life. And more importantly, no pony told me that this time of year was coming up, back home, equines usually hit estrous in the warm months, not the dead of winter."

She laughs again, God, I've missed hearing that laugh. "Nick, we aren't equines from your world, and the estrous cycle comes a few times a year, and yes, it does happen in the winter. And about your nose…"

Her horn lights up and all of a sudden I can breathe easily through my nose. I inhale deeply and then I notice it. It's pretty weak, but there is an all pervasive musky smell that wasn't in Ponyville before. I feel it causing stirrings in me that make my wings flutter. I look at Twilight, "Are you suffering from the same… affliction… as most of the mares in Ponyville?"

She looks down. "My cycle came and ended about three months ago. It probably won't be back for over a year."

I do the mental math in my head, three months ago… no!

"So, you are saying when we…"

She nods.

"You were."

She nods again.

"And you knew?"

She shook her head. "No, a few days later I was told by Rarity that I was, I didn't believe her. She asked me when I started feeling intense feelings that way. I told her, and I assumed it was because of me spending time with you, Nick."

"So, you were doing that with me because of your biological urges?"

She jerked her head up. "No, Nick. That first night, that time was all me wanting you, in fact, I think it triggered my cycle somehow. The next day, I was insatiable."

I smiled at the memory. "Yes, you were. That was fun."

"Well, normally if a mare doesn't want foals she's got two options, staying away from stallions and using a cooler is one option."

"A cooler?"

She shudders. "Trust me, you don't want to know." I do want to know, but I can find that out later.

"And the second option, Twilight?"

"The no foals spell, cast on a mare in estrous. She can satisfy those urges and not have a foal in the process."

"And, you didn't know that you were starting your cycle when we…" I look down and my face flushes.

"No."

"So now you are?"

"Yes, Nick, I am."

"So, I'm going to be a father? In about eight months?"

She nods, she looks sad, or maybe scared.

I bowl her over in a hug, after flipping a few times I end up on my back, wings spread, with her on top of me looking shocked, I grab her cheeks and kiss the pure hell out of her. After a few seconds she returns my kiss enthusiastically.

After several minutes she pulls away. "So, you aren't upset?"

"Twilight, I am in love with you, if you have a foal, I will love it too, because it's part you." I stop for a moment to think. "And it's part me as well."

"And you won't have a problem when I'm heavy and about to give birth?"

I have to laugh. "Twilight, I'll find you beautiful no matter what. Don't you worry about that."

She collapses onto me and hugs me hard. She definitely has that earth pony strength.

"You are going to be a wonderful mother, Twilight," I whisper into her ear.

Author's Note

And so completes the story of Nick and Twilight. I do plan on adding an epilogue in the somewhat near future. My daughter is working on her own story as part of her creative writing class and wants to add elements of this story into hers. So I'll write the epilogue to tie everything together. Either way, enjoy.

Chapter 1. The Crash Landing

"Ferry flight seven to anyone who can hear me." I scream into my microphone. Moments ago, my port engine produced a muffled explosion. I'm losing altitude, every indicator in front of me is in the red, or is dead. The radio remains silent. Why in the holy hell did I volunteer to ferry some F/A-18E Hornets across the pond. I'm four hours away from land. And now I think something is wrong with my radio.

I waggle the wings a bit, I've still got some control, but my starboard engine is dangerously overheating. I think I'm going to lose it too. I look at one of the other ferry pilots. My best friend is in the other Hornet. I can see him gesticulating through the glass of the cockpit, but I all I hear over my radio is static. He is staying with me, the other two ferry pilots are continuing on. But at least Michael is with me.

"Hey, Moose, can you hear me?" Silence from my radio.

"Moose, by God, I hope you can hear me, my starboard engine is about to fail." I notice his helmet jerk in response. So, I'm transmitting, I think.

"Moose, if you can hear me, put your hand on the canopy." Dutifully his hand splays out on the glass of the plane thirty feet from me.

A muffled explosion shakes me in my chair as my only remaining engine dies. My combat ready aircraft is now officially a glider. And it's not that good at gliding. I can see the whitecaps about ten thousand feet below me. I look back at Moose.

"Moose, there is no choice now, I'm going in, I'll punch out before I hit. Try to get someone here soon. Go, catch up with the ferry flight, and get some Coastie to pull me out of this jam, you hear me?" His hand forms into a thumbs up. I look at my instruments, apparently they are operating on battery right now, I'm actually pretty close to stall speed. I push forward on the stick to keep my speed up, don't want to fall like a rock. I look over at moose. He's flipped the sun visor up on his helmet, I can see his eyes. He's scared. We are really far from land. It will be a while before any rescue effort can get to me. Well, I can float around for a while until they get here.

"Damnit Moose, get going, I'm not going to have you crash trying to save me. I'll punch out just before this brick hits the water. I'll be fine. Get going man." He pulls up and accelerates, in a minute him and the rest of the ferry flight are but specks on the cloudless horizon. Now I need to worry about more immediate problems. I have less than five thousand feet until I hit the water. It looks like the wind is whipping out there. Well, I'm a good swimmer, and I've got some survival equipment integral to my flight suit. I would rather be with my regular command, the Black Knights flying off of the Nimitz. But I got volunteered to do this ferry flight. The only reason I was looking forward to it is I was going to have four days layover in Kuwait before a scheduled C-5 Galaxy flight would take myself and the rest of the ferry pilots back to Norfolk. The Kuwaiti's have been waiting for this delivery of Super Hornets for months, and I get roped into flying these aircraft to their new owners. I've had the compressor blades on the engine fail before, and that sounded just like this did. But two engines failing within minutes of each other is pretty bad luck, even for me. I guess the techs at GE were sleeping on the job. Oh, whoops, better stop daydreaming, punch-out time is on its way. I reach up behind my head and grab the two pull loops. I take a deep breath, and yank hard. There's a short delay as the bubble canopy is blown clear by explosive bolts, then the rocket underneath my ass takes over. I'm jettisoned by the chair. The G-forces nearly cause me to black out. In moments I'm under my parachute watching my aircraft impact the water. Now, that was pretty bad, the majority of the plane heads to the watery deep, leaving some debris floating. In moments I'm in the water myself. I pull my belts off, letting the chair loose, where it quickly sinks, my survival suit inflates automatically. Now all I have to do is wait for rescue. I briefly thank God we were taking a southerly route to the Middle East, and, it's August. I don't have to worry about hypothermia.

******

It's night now. I check my watch, I've been in the water for a little over twelve hours. I don't have to work to stay afloat, but, God, I'm thirsty. I lean back in my suit a little bit and my eyes close.

The dawn wakes me up. I look around, I'm not going to be rescued soon am I? Most of the debris around me sunk hours back, I'm going to be impossible to spot, and my radio beacon doesn't give any indication whether it's working or not. Add to that, it's hot during the day in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The wind died down, so the water is calm. But I just float here. I can't do anything else. I pass the time, I don't know how, it's so boring, nothing to do. I nod off to sleep after the sun has been up for only a few hours. I think that's dangerous. I'm showing signs of dehydration.

I start awake and thrash in the water. It's a full moon, and a bright clear night sky, though I think I'm somewhat delirious from dehydration. I'm seeing things. A midnight blue horse of all things. Wait, it gets closer to me, this horse has wings, and a horn. Its mane is dark blue as well, and… are those stars in its mane? That is impossible. Wait a moment, horses don't have wings, and they certainly don't have horns jutting out the middle of their foreheads. What the hell? I'm focused with all my being on this strange vision. This horse is laying comfortably on a cloud? I shake my head, look at this lounging horse again, shake my head again, no change, it's still there.

"Horses don't fly." I say the first thing that comes to my head.

A definite feminine giggle. So this is a female horse, "I'm not a horse."

I'm struck dumb, she talked to me? How can this not horse be talking to me.
"I'm a pony, well…" She spreads her wings and looks up at her horn. "I would be called an alicorn."

"An alicorn." I'm not a very good conversationalist when I'm stuck in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, after my aircraft fails me, and I've been floating for nearly two days. I shake my head again. "Do you have a name at least?"

Another very feminine giggle. "You may address me as Princess Luna, young human."

Oh great, not only do I have to hallucinate a talking midnight blue pony with wings and a horn, she has to be a Princess. Boy, my time in church when I was younger didn't do anything to prepare me for this. Where are the singing angels, the cherubs? I'm just so tired, and so damned thirsty.

"I'm sorry Miss Princess Luna, but I'm not in the habit of conversing with hallucinations." I lean my head back and try to fall back asleep. Maybe I can just die in my sleep, anything would feel better than this.

Her voice takes a very sharp tone. "I am not a hallucination, Nicholas."

I would expect my hallucination to know my name. I ignore her. I feel something grab my head and open my eyes. Her horn is glowing, and apparently somehow that's causing my head to be forced to face her. She floats her cloud closer to me. I gaze into her impossibly large eyes. The pressure holding my head disappears as her horn stops glowing, but I'm mesmerized by her eyes. They are so beautiful. In moments it seems as though she's looking into my soul.

"So, your parents are dead, no other family, no children. You have a kind heart." She's murmuring to herself, at least I think she is, her voice is very quiet as she speaks. Her muzzle is mere inches from my nose, her eyes boring into me. After several seconds she jerks back with a happy smile.

"You are aware that you would not last the night if I do nothing, Nicholas. You are dying."

I shrug, she's not telling me anything that I don't know. The human body can only survive a couple of days without water, and salt water just dehydrates you more. Add to that the exertion and the heat. I'm in severe trouble.

She brings a hoof up to her chin. "Yes… yes, I think you will do."

Now I'm confused. Do what? "Huh?" As I said before, I'm a great conversationalist when I'm stuck in the middle of the ocean.

Without another word, her horn lights up again, and she brings it to touch my forehead. I black out. As I lose consciousness I hear her voice. "You are perfect to teach a very dear student something important."

Chapter 7. First day at a new job, in a new life, in a new world. Geez, too much new…

"Well, I'm glad you showed up." No, not from Rainbow Dash, but that pegasus that followed me earlier. Took me a moment to remember, Cloud Kicker. Her and the other pegasi for the weather team are all milling around the town square when I show up. I look around.

"Where's Rainbow Dash?"

"She's let me know what's going on, I'm in charge until she gets here." She turns back to the other ponies and shouts out directions. Pegasi start into the air and in moments it's just Cloud Kicker, another pony that was introduced as Blossomforth, and myself. I look at Cloud Kicker expectantly.

She looks over at Blossomforth and back at me. "The boss has let us know of your…" she bites her lower lip, "situation."

My eyes film over, I can feel my wings extend and stiffen in anger. How many ponies did she tell after she promised not to? "That bi…" I'm silenced by a hoof on my mouth. Cloud Kicker seems to be sympathetic.

"First off, Rainbow Dash is our boss, we are her lieutenants. She trusts us as much as Twilight Sparkle trusts Rainbow Dash. You may be a pegasus, but we have to teach you how to manipulate the weather. We are the two best to teach you Nick. First off, I'm a member of the Kicker clan."

"And?" I'm having trouble keeping my voice level.

"The Kicker clan has been part of the Royal Guard for centuries. I've probably got more relatives in the guard than you have relatives. I've got a commission to be a leader in the guard if I ever decided I wanted it, but I'm happy in Ponyville. You don't know squat about the weather, and that would cause undue talk, so the boss talked to us, and let us know that you aren't from our world. We will teach you, you've already proven yourself to be a good flier, now we are going to make you a great weather pony. Got it?"

I'll admit, her words made sense. And apparently she's not done. "And on another note, the boss pushed some paperwork through, you are now employed by the weather bureau. And when we are done for the day, she’ll be able to get you a signing bonus, actually a pretty hefty sum. You see, rookie, Ponyville gets some wild weather that we have to take care of because of the Everfree forest on our doorstep. So, welcome to the wild lands." She smiles at me.

My blood has cooled from her words, and I can feel my wings relax, only to stiffen up at her next words. "Hey, freakwing, let's get flying."

"I don't like being called a freak."

A chuckle from the grey pegasus. "Fine. Even though those wings are certainly freakish in size, what would you like to be called?"

I ponder this for a moment. I started to say my old call sign. But Twilight said that Rocky is from a life I can never go back to. So what to call myself now?"

After a few seconds Cloud Kicker apparently is getting irritated. "You know, I'm not asking you to rewrite Daring Do and the Griffons Goblet, what do you want to be called?"

"Nick, that is my name, just plain, old Nick."

Blossom and Cloud hover in place. "Nick it is, now follow us."

We take off and head towards the intimidating looking forest to the west of Ponyville.
Immediately, I find out I'm no longer in my element. We get to a low hanging cloud, maybe a thousand feet up.

"Dispel the cloud," Cloud Kicker said to me.

"Huh?" What can I say? I'm not fast on the uptake at times, I've been told it's all the testosterone.
The lavender pegasus looks at her friend, who flies off. "Alright, rookie, how do you manipulate weather where you come from?"

"We don't."

With those simple two words, Cloud Kicker stopped flapping her wings in shock. She plummeted like a stone, granted, she recovered quickly, but apparently this was a shocking thing to her.

She looks at me hard, "Rainbow wasn't kidding, was she? You are really from another world."

I shrug my shoulders.

"Well, I thought we could skip a few steps, but we certainly will have to start from the beginning. You do know what clouds are?"

This earns a raised eyebrow from me.

She chuckled. "Fine, well, we had a big rain storm last night."

"I know, I slept out in it." Another sharp glare from Cloud Kicker, but she continued. "Our job today is to clear out the clouds from the storm. Let me demonstrate." She rotated in the air and bucked the cloud with her hind legs. It promptly dissipated into mist that disappeared in seconds.

"Now you try it," she said.

Dutifully I fly over to another cloud. I rear back my hind legs, and buck it as hard as I can. It's like kicking a pillow, I look back, the cloud is still there, not even an imprint from my hooves.

I hear guffaws from above me. I shoot her a dirty look then buck the cloud again. And again… nothing. I try again, and again. This is getting monotonous. Cloud Kicker looks as though she's having fits from laughing so hard.

"You silly pony. Bucking a cloud is about attitude. You intent has to be to dispel it. Remember, magic needs conscious direction to work. If you want to land on the cloud, sleep on the cloud, you simply land on it. If you want to make a raincloud pour out, you have to intend for it to rain when you bounce on it, otherwise you might get a lightning bolt." While she was talking to me, she landed on the cloud that had so far resisted my efforts. I look at the cloud, and feel the magic. Wow, I've never noticed the magic inside me, a casual strength that I was easily using to keep aloft as I flapped my wings slowly. I play with the feeling for a moment, I can sense it channeling to my will. Hmmm. I flip around again and buck the cloud, with the thought of making the cloud go away stuck in my head, and focusing my new magic. I'm going to have to get used to this. A small part of the cloud disintegrates. Not enough for my taste, I flap over to a larger part of it, right under Cloud Kicker.

"Uhh, what are you doing?"

I buck the cloud, it's certainly different than anything else I've done before. This time, the cloud disbands, dropping a surprised lavender pegasus. With a squawk she falls a few dozen feet before recovering. She flies up to my level, shooting me a glare.

"Fine, you are a quick study. The order for today is partly cloudy skies until tomorrow. I'll take care of the sector to the north of us, you focus on this area for a while, I want one in three clouds remaining when you are done," She flies off.

I get lost in the rhythm, fly up to a cloud, buck it, making sure to channel this new feeling of magic inside me into the kick.

"Well, greetings young Nicholas." A familiar voice says. I look around in confusion. In moments I zero in on a familiar midnight blue alicorn, reclining on a cloud.

"Oh, hello there Princess Luna." I flap up to be level with her.

"What exactly are you doing?" The princess of the night asks innocently.

"Well, what exactly does it look like? I'm trying to make a living here. You dumped me in this blasted world, I've got to do something."

"You could be living of the generosity of our newest Princess, you are supposed to be teaching her the magic of love."

I frown. "I'm no mooch, and the best way to get on a woman's bad side is to be a mooch."

Her laughter is actually very beautiful. "You are a stallion, young Nicholas. You can get by on those roguish good looks, I'm certain there are plenty of mares who would be happy to support you."

"Huh?"

She pauses in her continued chuckling to look at me. "You might have been an attractive stallion in your world, don't young stallions in your world get by without having to work hard?"

"I don't know what you are talking about, Princess. Where I come from, the men do most of the work, most, not all. It used to be different, but women have come very far in the last century or so, for crying out loud, women got the right to vote over a century ago."

Her eyes widened, "Nicholas, in your world, do you have more kings or queens?"

I pause to think, "Princess, humans are very much patriarchal, though attitudes have been changing for a while now. And also, many nations practice democracy, where the people decide how things go."

This elicits a new round of giggles from Luna. "The stallions are in charge? That is priceless." She rolls on her back, laughing louder and louder. I look around at the other pegasi clearing clouds. Not a single one has noticed Princess Luna rolling around on the cloud, laughing.

"Yeah, so?"

She finally stops laughing and rolls to lay once again on her folded legs. "My dear colt, you do have horses in your world?"

I nod.

"And how do they arrange their herds?"

I had a passing interest in veterinary science before I decided to join the Naval Academy. I ponder some of the classes on equines. After a few moments my eyes go wide.

"So, you are saying the girls are in charge here?" A nod from her. "So, a pretty stallion here can get by pretty easily on his looks the way a pretty girl in my world can usually get by on her looks?" Another nod.

"And I'm supposed to be some kind of sex toy for the mares here?" I glower at her.

"Well, one specific mare, but yes. Though, if you and her decide, you can have a few extra mares in your herd."

My eyes go wide. "What are you talking about?"

"How many stallions have you seen around Ponyville?"

I thought for a moment, in fact it was quite obvious. Mares, mares everywhere. "Well, I had assumed they were working in the fields, Ponyville is a farm town, right?"

"True, and most of them are working in the fields. But the filly to colt ratio when it comes to births is about four to one. So if it were just one mare to a stallion, there would be a lot of lonely mares."

"Uhhh." Hey, what else can I say, I'm quick on the uptake, right?

"No matter how many mares though. Princess Twilight Sparkle is your goal, any more than that are up to you and her together."

I whirled around and bucked the cloud Luna was sitting on. It promptly dissipated. Though there was no satisfying squawk from the Princess, she's laying there as though the cloud still remains.

More laughter from the Princess. "Oh, Nicholas, I knew you would be entertaining. Just for your information, I'm not really here. I am peacefully asleep in Canterlot, I simply wanted to check up on you."

I shoot her a dirty look. "I'm sorry, Princess. But I'm not that kind of stallion."

Once again a laugh from Princess Luna. She seems to find me very amusing. "We shall see, young colt." And with that, she disappears. I blink my eyes and a cyan hoof is waving in front of me.

"Hey, Nick, you there?"

I shake my head. "Oh, Rainbow Dash. I'm sorry, must have been lost in thought."

"I've never seen a pegasus that out of it and still hovering. But you weren't there for a minute. Oh well, how are things going?"

I look around, and I notice the lavender shape of Cloud Kicker heading our way.

"Sorry about that, Rainbow Dash. I'll get back to work." I start to move off, only to be stopped by a cyan hoof on my shoulder.

"You guys have done a good job, some of my other fliers are getting a nice breeze going, it's summer, got to have a good breeze otherwise it will get too hot. But the cloud team should be done for the day fairly soon."

"Already? It seems as though we just started." I look at the sun. It's actually pretty far past noon. We've been working for hours.

"Yup," the rainbow maned pegasus replied, "clearing clouds can usually be done fairly quickly."

Cloud Kicker is huffing and puffing as she gets near us. "We got the clouds how you ordered them, Boss. I think it looks pretty good."

Rainbow Dash's face smoothes over. She's slipped into her 'I'm working' persona and powers directly up. I glance at Cloud Kicker and we head up to follow Rainbow. She's critically looking around.

"I think work is done for the day Cloud. You get Blossomforth and you guys have a good evening, these clouds should hold out for a couple of days, then we'll have to clear the skies for a few nice warm sunny days. I've been talking to my bosses. Nice weather for a couple of weeks, that is until our next big storm. That one is going to be a big one."

Cloud Kicker didn't need to be told twice. She turns and hollers at the other pegasi, all the pegasi on cloud duty start fluttering to the ground. I follow suit, only to have a rainbow maned companion as I'm heading to the ground.

"Have you had lunch yet?"

I shake my head.

"Good, follow me." Well, she's the boss. We land in front of town hall and I follow her in the building. She heads down the various corridors of the building, up a few flights of stairs and opens the door to an office. She rummages around for a moment and tosses me a bag. I reflexively catch it in my hooves, it's pretty heavy.

"Your hiring bonus for being recruited into the roughest weather team in Equestria."

"I don't know, from what I've seen it seems like easy duty."

She laughs, "You haven't had to be fighting a storm for over thirty hours at a time yet. The Everfree forest resists all attempts to control the weather over it, and it seems to have a mind of its own. Though the wild weather from it seems to happen in bits and pieces. Don't worry, you'll get your chance soon. You are off for the next two days, get some rest, find a place to live, and I'll meet you here then."

She picks up a pencil in her mouth and starts work on the paperwork in front of her. I try to be quiet as I leave the room.