Pony's Fury

Chapter Roman Numeral Three

Twilight had to fight from tapping her fingers against the desk in sheer boredom as she waited for the rest of the class to finish with the test. To her left, Sunset was equally bored, and Rainbow Dash balanced the writing implement the teacher had given her on the tip of her nose as she reclined in her seat. Applejack looked at her paper with a frown as she obviously checked her older calculations for errors in her seat beside Sunset.

Although she tried to force it down, a tiny voice in her head reminded Twilight of Rainbow’s ability to just pick up the information around her and take it in, making Twilight wonder if the former pegasus had been cheating. But then the louder voice that had known Rainbow longer than that said the pegasus would never cheat on something like this, her pride wouldn’t let her.

As the two opinions battled it out, Twilight looked down a few rows and frowned at the boy with the black hair drooling on his paper while like he had been since falling asleep two questions ago. Her eye twitched at the sight, but the former alicorn couldn’t be too angry with Tavi. He had been up for longer than they had last night after all, and didn’t possess metal magic to push his body to keep going like she and Sunset did, nor the unnatural stamina that hard workers and athletes Rainbow and Applejack possessed.

Still, falling asleep during a test was just…WRONG!

“Very well,” the teacher of the class, one Maestro Gallus announced a voice that always sounded like it was complaining. “If you haven’t finished your questions by now, then another minute’s worth of scribbling won’t help you, pass your papers to the left.”

Doing as instructed, Twilight took a second to check Rainbow’s figures and found them all correct, although the path her work took could have used a little more elegance. She didn’t write the whole equation, just little jots and scribbles that were obvious calculations half-done in her head.

After she handed in her paper, Twilight glanced down to see Ehran had woken Tavi up, and the teacher either didn’t notice the boy had been sleeping, or care. As they discussed something she didn’t bother to make out, Twilight turned to Rainbow. “So what did you think of the test.”

“Boring,” Rainbow moaned as she stretched her arms and legs.

Sunset snickered as Twilight felt the girl look over her shoulder. “Oh really? I would have thought you would have been all. Psst! Twilight help!”

The look Rainbow gave Sunset was the same one that the redhead usually showed to humans she thought were acting stupid. “You’re kidding right?” she asked as they got up and began to leave. “Calculating the duration of a merchant ship's voyage or tracking the taxation payments of outlying provinces is just a bunch of stupid word problems revolving around basic addition, subtraction and multiplication. If they want to challenge me, they should have asked how much rainfall reaches the ground of a level two woodland area during a class three rainstorm with a wind factor of five and average humidity rating of eight when the rain is coming from a basic type one rain cloud that hasn’t been loaded with lightning. They uh, hold twenty-two percent more water that way. Instead of using a basic chaos to harmonic order theorem equation to determine how many raindrops would be caught by the leaves and stay there by factoring in the effects of gravity and wind disruption, this might as well of been two plus two equals four.”

As the group left the room and moved into the hallway, Twilight couldn’t control herself. She spun around and pushed the rainbow haired girl that had ignited the fires of passion between her legs that cried out for a certain former weathermare to quench them. “Rainbow, you…you know what mathematical equations do to me these days,” she moaned. “Say some more.”

“Wh-what?” the shorter girl asked as Twilight licked her lips in preparation for a kiss. The whole world faded out as far as the girl with the purple hair was concerned. All that existed was her, and her mathematical beau.

“Keep it up Rainbow,” Twilight whispered. “Talk nerdy to me.”

Twilight felt someone else touch her shoulder, and the raging flames slowly quelled to a burning candle under Sunset’s magical assistance. “Save it till later Sluttish Sue,” the redhead told her. “We got company.”

The edge to Sunset’s tone made Twilight steel herself, and she looked down the hallway before frowning. Tavi and his friend were standing with the female member of his little group, Gaelle.

Gaelle Patronus Sabinus was a girl no older than Tavi. She was short, stocky, and plain, with mouse brown hair done in a braid. A small scattering of green and blue beads decorated her lanyard, that kind of clashed with the drabness of her grey robes. Despite being friendly with her, Twilight didn’t know much about her past. But, the former pony couldn’t fault her for wanting to keep her past a secret.

However, she wasn’t who held everyone’s attention, that honor belonged to the usual suspect at the Academy. It was Brencis. The arrogant young lord's dark hair was mussed and stringy after the long exam. The hulking Renzo hovered behind him and a little bit to one side, and Varien stood to Brencis's left, eyes glittering with anticipation and malice.

“You know,” Rainbow commented. “It’s really not fair that you can just dunk something in water and get it fixed around here. Makes guys like him a pain to convince its better for them to just go away…or stay in a hospital for a few weeks.”

Applejack snorted. “And how many times did that annoying ability keep you on your feet when your cute little butt kept crashing into the ground?” she snarked.

Before the two of them could get into a fight, make-out session, or just start rutting each other in the hallway, Twilight sighed and singled for them all to follow her over and stop more unnecessary violence before it could occur. However, by the time she got there, Brencis was already leaving.

Without a fight.

Or bloody nose.

“Huh,” Sunset managed.

“That was…odd,” Applejack mumbled.

“Odd nothing, he saw me coming and got scared away by my awesomeness,” Rainbow commented.

“Or maybe he’s just growing up,” Twilight commented, which got an odd look from her girlfriends. She sighed and slumped. “Okay, I’ll admit it, Rainbow’s theory is more likely than mine…for once.” Obviously, the picture in her head of doing it with Rainbow in the back of a giant chalkboard while they left complex equations related to quantum physics in their wake as they rolled around in each others grips using a sixty-nine position to engage in maximum sexual release at the same time was affecting her ability to think, even with eighty-seven point three two five percent of her emotional responses suppressed.

She cleared her throat and walked over to the group of real humans. “Hello everyone!” Twilight greeted them before turning to the boy without magic. “So Tavi, ready to go?”

“Go?” Gaelle asked. “Go where?”

Tavi cleared his throat. “Oh, Twilight had just offered to help me do something before the next test, but I’m afraid I’ll have to wait till later. I’ve got some letters to deliver.”

The real human girl raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t sleep at all last night, and you’re still running errands? To who?”

“Uh.” Tavi rummaged in his pockets until he found the envelope and glanced at the name on it. “Oh, bloody crows,” he swore with a sigh as his fear spiked for a few instants. “I'll catch up to you later.”

As he started to run down the hallway Twilight frowned. From the looks of things, and what she felt from the boy, it didn’t look like she’d be getting the relief that had brought about that daydream after all. A quick glance in Rainbow’s direction and mental please had Dashie creating a sound proof tunnel between her mouth at the rainbow girl’s head. “Something’s up. Follow him, and don’t be seen.”

“What’s going on?” Rainbow asked evenly as she looked around at the personal communication bubble. “Trouble?”

“Maybe. Tavi is heading towards the predator embassy with a forged letter from the First Lord.”

Rainbow Dash hated the Citadel. The whole place had nothing on Canterlot Palace despite the fact they were both white. The Palace was cool and magical, the Citadel was just…stupid rock that had been shaped by magic. What was worse was that it was a lot of rock, which kind of made it hard to fly at even the upper levels, and near impossible in the lower ones. Plus, being around that place made her feel weird, like there was an inch in her back she just couldn’t scratch, and her girls Wonderbolt were always on edge whenever they got near the place.

Last night had been the absolute worst. They had been underground, behind a metal door, and completely cut off from the open sky. On top of which, the creepy feeling had spread from behind her back to all over. The others had felt it too, they just…didn’t want to let it show to the humans.

So when her princess had told her to follow Tavi there, Rainbow had gathered herself up in an invisible cloak and coasted through the air slowly above him before they came to the gate of the Black Hall.

The Black Hall was a long corridor of dark, rough-quarried stone very different from the rest of the First Lord's marble stronghold. It was as if the humans were shouting ‘NOT LIKE US’. The entrance to the hall had an actual gate upon it, bars of dark steel as thick and hard as the portcullis to any stronghold. Outside the gate stood a pair of soldiers from the Royal Guard in red and blue in full arms and armor as usual. Instead of guarding the outside from invaders, they stood facing the gate.

Although considering just who was on the other end of the gate, Rainbow couldn’t blame them.

On the other side of the gate, a single candle cast just enough light to show a pair of Canim crouched on their haunches. Half-covered in their round capes, Dash could see little of them beyond the sharper angles of their armor at the shoulders and elbows as she dropped to the ground silently and adjusted her cloak to filter out her footsteps and breathing. The shape of the Canim heads was half-hidden in their hoods, but their wolfish muzzles showed, and their teeth, and the faint red-fire gleam of their inhuman eyes. Though they squatted on the floor, their stance was somehow every bit as rigid, alert, and prepared as the Aleran guards facing them.

The Canim were like the big bullying cousins of the Diamond Dogs, in Rainbow’s opinion. They were big, monstrous, too greedy to keep to their own lands, and tended to think themselves better than everyone else around them with the impolite way they acted. Rainbow understood being rude and wanting to provoke a fight, but from what she understood, the giant wolf-men were outright threatening.

Even with her human nose, Rainbow could smell the creatures. The revelation quickly made her ask Wonder for a light screen of water to cover most of her body so she wouldn’t give off a detectable scent. Having a griffon for a rather obnoxious friend and a few years as a Wonderbolt reservist had taught her how to deal with canine predators. They relied more on scent than anything.

“Guard,” Tavi said. “I bear a letter for His Excellency, Ambassador Varg.”

One of the Alerans glanced over his shoulder and waved him past. Tavi approached the gate. On the other side, a leather basket sat in its usual place on the rough floor, an arm's length away from the bars, and Tavi leaned through to drop the letter into the basket. Not even a second later, one of the Canim moved faster than any human without wind or metal magic would have been able.

But instead of grabbing the letter, he snatched the boy’s arm.

Rainbow tensed and made ready to move. Since the wolf had the human, simply electrocuting him like her first impulse said to do was out, as was simply charging in fast enough to put a hole in the creature with her bare hands thanks to the bars. So she flexed her fingers while her mind raced with possibilities. The obvious option to make the Canim drop the boy would be to take the light skin of water that covered her body and shove it down the wolf nose before giving a brief shock through it that would carry through to its lungs before taking out the other one.

In the second it took the wind user to consider her options, Tavi raised his free hand to the guards. “Wait,” he said, voice quiet as his head tilted to look at the wolf. “What do you want, Guard?” Tavi demanded, his tone impatient, peremptory.

The Cane regarded him with unreadable, feral eyes and released his wrist in a slow, deliberate motion that trailed the tips of the Cane's claws harmlessly against Tavi's skin. “His Excellency,” the Cane growled, “requests the messenger to deliver the letter directly to his hands.”

After a bit of shouting from the guards and chest thumping from the dogs, the gate was opened and the human boy was let in. For her part, Rainbow Dash let out a groan no one else could hear, and silently followed. Sure Twilight, go into the dark spooky tunnel full of man-eating wolves? What’s that, no I don’t mind, I’m Loyalty after all! Rainbow Dash thought to herself as she fiddled with her slave ring.

While the thought of giving Twilight an order never crossed her mind, the next time they did it, Rainbow promised to bring her so close to the edge, and then just leave her there for a minute or two.

The end of the hall was the only door in the place, made of some thick, heavy wood of some dark color that shone with deep red and heavy purple highlights in the light of the single candle the human had been given. Then Tavi's guard strode past him in those too-long stalking steps of a grown Cane, and drew its claws slowly down the dark wood. Whatever it was, the wood was hard. The Cane's heavy claws scraped loudly, but no indentation or mark appeared on the wood.

There was a snarl from the room beyond, a sound that had to be the dog’s primary language. The guard replied with a similar sound, though higher in pitch. There was a brief silence, then a chuckling growl, and another voice rumbled, “Send him in.” A second later, the guard opened the door and stalked away without giving Tavi a second glance. The boy swallowed, took a deep breath, and strode into the room, Rainbow flattened herself against the hall to let the guard pass, then slipped into the room after him to find that someone had blown Tavi’s candle out.

As the door closed, Rainbow closed her eyes and relied on her friends to tell her what was going on. A disturbance in the air beside her had the former pegasus moving forward past Tavi to avoid a large shape coming in from her side using her magic before she spun to face it.

Tavi turned and faced almost directly behind him. “Ambassador, I have a-”

“Be silent whelp,” the deep voice growled. “I may not be able to smell you, but I know you’re there. Come out. Now!”

The command made Rainbow tense, and she dropped her cloak before redirecting the minor air and water spirits around her into a continuous burst of lightning from her hands while she surrounded them with the screen of water that had hidden her scent. The effect lit up the room, and she opened her eyes that were still used to some light, so she wasn’t blinded by her own lightning and got her first good look at Ambassador Varg.

The Cane stood at its full height, and the ten-foot ceiling barely allowed it. Covered with fur the color of the darkest depths of night, the creature stood upon two legs, with the mass of two or three big legionaries. Its shoulders looked too narrow for its height, and its arms were longer than human proportions. Its long, blunt fingers were tipped with dark claws.

He was dressed in clothing similar to Aleran in fashion, though made with far greater lengths of cloth underneath some kind of armor that was made for wolf-people. Varg wore colors of grey and black exclusively, and over that the odd Canim-style circular cloak that draped over the back and half of the Cane's chest. Where fur showed through, thin spots and white streaks marked dozens of battle scars. One triangular ear, notched and torn to ragged edges with old wounds, sported a gleaming golden ring hung with a skull carved from some stone or gem the color of blood. A similar ring glittered amidst the dark fur covering its left hand, and at its side the Cane wore one of the huge, scything war swords of its kind.

“Rainbow? What’re you-how did you get in here?”

“I walked in through the front gate,” Rainbow told him evenly.

“But the guards-”

“Are blind and stupid, and they got snot up their noses,” the former pegasus said.

Varg stared at her for a moment, then took in a deep breath through his nose, and frowned. “You are not a demon. What are you doing here?”

The odd statement threw Rainbow off a bit, but she recovered before it did more than make her frown. “Making sure this idiot doesn’t get himself eaten.”

“Why?” the wolf growled.

“Because he’s my friend.”

“Most friends trust their comrades,” Varg relied.

Rainbow let out a snort. “I trust this idiot to get himself into trouble, especially around stupid dogs that don’t know when to heel.”

“Rainbow!” Tavi admonished her.

The dog paused for a moment. “You do not smell afraid,” he growled.

“No reason to be,” Rainbow told him as she crouched in preparation for a fight. “I’ve run into plenty of things bigger, stronger, and faster than you, and walked away just fine every time.”

Varg was silent for a moment more, and let out a loud laugh that echoed throughout the halls. “Well said girl,” he went on before he looked down at the other human. “Give me the message boy.”

Rainbow frowned at the monster. “Hey, we’re not done here!”

“Yes we are,” Varg relied as he took the paper and opened it with a swipe of his claws. “I threatened, you responded without fear in your eyes or scent on your body and wisely prepared to do battle while also taking the honorable course and letting me make the first move. You’ve proved your worth to me, and I to you by not attacking but showing that I am not afraid of you.”

The rather…odd explanation made Rainbow raise an eyebrow. “Um…okay?”

Varg nodded, then looked down at the missive. “It would seem the First Lord refuses to meet with me,” he grumbled. “Fools. It will be on your heads then.”

“What-” was all Rainbow managed to ask before another presence made itself known.

“You see, my lord,” hissed a higher-pitched growling voice from the doorway. “They have no respect for you or for our people. We should be rid of this place and return to the Bloodlands.”

The three people turned to face the doorway, where a new Cane crouched. It wore no armor, but was draped in long robes of deep scarlet. Its pawlike hands were far thinner and more spidery than Varg's, and its reddish fur looked thin and unhealthy. The muzzle, too, was narrow and pointed, and its tongue lolled out to one side, nickering nervously. “Sarl,” Varg growled. “I did not send for you.”

“Apologies, mighty lord,” Sarl said after removing his hood and giving the bigger wolf an odd grin with his teeth. “But I came to report to you that word has come, and that the change of guard would arrive in two days' time.”

“Very good, Sarl,” Varg growled. “Out.”

“As you wish, lord,” Sarl replied, baring its throat again, hunching low. The Cane backed away, scraping, and hurried back into the corridor.

“Who was-” Rainbow began, to be cut off by Varg.

“My secretary. He attends to matters beneath my notice.”

“"I-uh, I’m familiar with the concept," Tavi said, finally shaking off the weird haze he had been in for awhile.

Varg's teeth showed as its muzzle lolled open. “Yes. You would be. That is all, cub.”

“Then we take our leave, Excellency,” Tavi said as he flashed the dog-man a toothy smile for some reason, and motioned for Rainbow to lead him outside. He started to walk past Varg, but the Cane suddenly put out a heavy paw-hand and blocked Tavi's way. Tavi swallowed and glanced up at the Cane. He met the Ambassador's eyes for a moment, and Rainbow clenched her fist.

Varg regarded them, fangs gleaming, and said, “Light your candle at my fire before you go. Your night eyes are weak and that magic crackling is annoying. I'll not have you stumbling in my corridor and bawling like a puppy or agitating my guards.”

Tavi exhaled slowly and tilted his head again. “Yes, sir,” he replied before doing just that. Rainbow cut her magic, and sent the water she had collected into a nearby drainage basin.

Just before he crossed the threshold again, Varg growled, “Aleran. I have rats.”

As Tavi paused, Rainbow looked over to the thing. “Rats?”

“Rats,” Varg growled. It turned its head to look over one armored shoulder. “I hear them at night. There are rats in my walls.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow and looked over to the walls, then to the boy. “Rats? Really? How do you have rats in solid-”

“Out,” said Varg.

Tavi grabbed the girl’s arm, and hurried back into the hallway and started retreating back toward the Citadel proper before slowing down a bit. “I don’t think he was talking about actual rats,” the boy said. “And what…what in the name of the great furies were you doing in there?”

“Keeping you alive, obviously,” Rainbow told him. “Now what-”

“Wait,” Tavi said. Then, he looked down at his candle. “There’s a breeze. Can you tell where it’s coming from?”

Rainbow frowned at the question, then rolled her eyes and extended her senses. She pointed to a spot along the wall. “Over there.”

A second later, the boy rushed over to where the breeze was coming from in the wall, braced himself up against it, and pushed. A secret panel slid open, and Rainbow joined the boy to look past him at a flight of stairs going down into the darkness.

“Oh crows…the Canim have a passageway into the Deeps,” Tavi mumbled.

“Oh please,” Raise said with a roll of her eyes, a little put off by the boy’s surprise. “Everyone and their crow-begotten grandmother has a passageway into the Deeps in this town. So what?”

“Shh!” Tavi replied before he started moving down the stairs.

Rainbow groaned, and followed. Then, she heard voices that weren’t hers or the boy’s.

The first speaker was Canim-Sarl, Rainbow was sure of it. She recognized the cringing tone to its snarling voice. “And I tell you that all is in readiness. There is nothing to fear.”

“Talk is cheap, Cane,” said a human voice, so quiet that Rainbow felt tempted to use her magic to try and hear it better, even if her wind power would have been greatly reduced underground. “Show me.”

“That was not a part of our agreement,” the Cane said. There was a shivering, flapping sound, like a dog shaking its chops. “You must believe my words.”

“Suppose I don't?” asked the other.

“It is too late to change your mind now,” said Sarl, a nasty slur to the words. “Let us not discuss what cannot-” The Cane's words cut off suddenly.

Rainbow tensed. Numerous encounters with predators over the years, especially ones that could talk told her what a thing that had good nose and could talk suddenly stopped when she was sneaking nearby. “Bloody…he caught our scent, come on.”

“What?” Tavi whispered.

Using her inner wind magic, Rainbow dragged the boy behind her using as much speed as she could without tearing his arm out of its socket. Once she was back in the Black Hall, Rainbow wrapped herself in water and air again. A few seconds later, they were at the gate, and then outside. Tavi actually ran away from the place at a decent pace for once.

After they had turned a corner, rainbow dropped her cloak and bit of water. “What was all that about?”

“I…don’t know,” Tavi replied. “Something…something’s going on inside the Canim embassy. And while the First Lord is…too weak to do anything because of strange storms on the coast.”

Rainbow dropped out of the air and looked at the boy eye to eye. “Think they’re related?”

For a few seconds, Tavi got the same look all eggheads managed whenever they put all their brainpower into thinking. When he came out of it, the boy shook his head. “There’s not enough information for me to form a conclusion. I…if I knew who the other speaker was, or…crows, I don’t even know if the Canim can cause storms. We know they can use an archaic form of fury craft, but nowhere near as powerful as an Aleran’s. Plus, there’d be no way for them to know the First Lord’s limits…or the problems we’ve been having.”

“So now there’s something else, unrelated to you know who’s problem completely,” Rainbow muttered. “Really wish everyone would just take a number and wait their turn in line like in the old days.”

Rainbow waved her off before the confused boy could ask a question. “Never mind. Go get some sleep. I got to go see Twilight about some math,” she said before licking her lips. After that little encounter, Rainbow needed something else to think about.

“…huh?” Tavi managed.

“Crafting…has it’s advantages,” Twilight managed as her ‘mistress’ continued to run her finger around the inside of the former alicorn’s cutie mark. The motion made her whole leg quiver with excitement. “What was that anyway? Ten?”

The heavenly touch stopped, and Twilight let out a sigh of loss before Rainbow’s face filled her vision. Her hair was a little more matted than usual, but the sweat that covered the girl after Twilight had finished her turn had long since dissipated. “Wow you’re off, we’re up to twelve.”

Twilight gulped down the air her body demanded, and gently pulled Rainbow in for a kiss. As soon as their lips touched, Twilight’s body responded to the desire of her leash holder’s wishes that she experience pleasure, and a warm feeling of contentment filled her being while they locked lips, then lingered when the former pegasus lined up her and Twilight wrapped her legs around Rainbow’s. “Looks like Sunset’s still going to hold the record then.”

“Sure you don’t want more?” Rainbow asked as she traced a line between Twilight’s breasts. However, no intense feeling of pleasure came with it to try and bait the girl with the purple hair into further escapades. “I can do more.”

For a second, Twilight considered the offer. Thanks to her link to Rarity, Twilight’s body could strengthen itself and ignore its normal limitations that humans unconsciously set; which according to Sunset, was around twenty percent. Thanks to that, she could ignore pain, push her endurance, leap short buildings in a single bound without the need for Dashie, and even push aside her body’s natural desire for sexual contact if the situation called for it. But just because she could ignore the pain didn’t mean the damage wasn’t there. The only way to stop that problem was a full metal manifestation of self…which would kind of make sex impossible.

So, Twilight decided to err on the side of caution. “I know, and I love you for it…but I think twelve orgasms of magically assisted bliss is enough for one evening.”

“Okay, if you say so.” Rainbow sighed, then lowered herself onto Twilight, and the both rolled onto their sides to face each other. “Still need to break Sunset’s record though.”

Twilight giggled. “I could always get you off some more Ms three’s enough for me.”

“Yeah well...if you two would play fair and give me some metal magic, I’d be having twenty,” Rainbow replied before Twilight leaned forward to kiss her lightly on the lips before her face became serious. “So uh…Sunset’s…”

“Citadel with Applejack, doesn’t want us alone in there, and since crafting won’t do Gaius any good…” Twilight left the rest unsaid before she reached up and used a finger to push back a strand of Rainbow’s hair behind her ear. “Now, how’re you doing? Get it out of your system?”

Rainbow fidgeted a bit, and Twilight moved her hand down to grab onto the flying girl’s cutie mark to give it a light squeeze. “Yeah,” she admitted after a second. “I’m all…adrenalined out, or whatever. It’s just…seeing that Varg guy, getting ready to face him…kind of made me feel like…you know, me again. He wasn’t just some overgrown bully, he was a real threat and…you know.”

The slightly different feeling of Rainbow’s cutie mark, a smooth sensation with a tiny magical tingle told Twilight she had found the right place and simply traced the lighting bolt symbol. “But nothing really happened, right?”

“Yeah he just gave me some posturing mumbo-jumbo and stuff like griffons tend to do,” Rainbow replied.

Twilight sighed in relief and kissed Rainbow again. It had been a mistake to send her to look after the boy, she realized, even if nothing had come of it. She would probably need to apologize to the wolf creature at a later date, although how to do that was a question she didn’t have an answer to, other than just waiting for him to leave his hall on business.

The strange meeting Rainbow stumbled upon concerned her, but…she didn’t want to get mixed up in it either. Tavi was right in holding off judgment about whether whatever was going on in the Canim embassy and what happened to the First Lord were connected.

Oh for the simple days, Twilight told herself. Even back when the had first come to Alera Imperia, the schedule had been simple: get up, have breakfast, go to school, come home, study/homework, eat, have sex, sleep, repeat. Then when the bullies started picking on that crippled boy and Rainbow had equated him with Scootaloo, their schedule had changed to get up, have breakfast, go to school, beat up idiots, yell at girls for beating up idiots, come home, study/homework, eat, have sex, sleep, repeat. It was a simple life full of learning, love, laughter, and enough joy to numb the pain Twilight felt at the absence of her other friends.

Then the worry that this world may not link up with Equestria for several years came into her mind, and Twilight had to start making plans for their possible future, of which there were three options. The first of which was that they could simply go into some remote part of Alera and hope that the mirror would open again one day. It would drive Rainbow crazy since she doubted there would be much to do, but…it was safe.

The second option involved the path of the Cursor, one she hadn’t been aware of until Killian introduced himself to her when Twilight apparently passed a morality test he set up, as if she would have ever taken a blind man’s sack of money! Nopony would have done such a thing back on Equestria, even if he hadn’t been old and blind. With the possible exception of the Flim Flam brothers of course. But that option would put them in danger and…Twilight was starting to think the Cursor’s didn’t really have access to some secret knowledge involving Alera.

The third option was to simply take a trial by combat and become a Citizen. With the extra status that afforded, Twilight and the others could start a business or two and gain financial solvency while living in the human dominated part of Alera. All the while waiting for the gate to open. Sunset had also shown an interest in Appia, saying that it might hold a clue to why this society was so closely linked to the other ancient human civilization that fell apart thousands of years ago, or even a way home for them. A business would give them funds to pursue that option.

Then, Twilight became aware of a strange look on Rainbow’s face, and frowned. “Something wrong Rainbow?”

“Hmm? Oh, uh…just thinking about that test we took earlier today.”

With a topic like that, Twilight could help but dive in. “Oh, which one? We all studied plenty and I made those posters for you to look at while we explained things, so I-”

Rainbow shifted on the bed, and held up a hand. “No not…I wasn’t really thinking about the test but um…well…Twilight, are windigos and timber wolves…you know, furies?”

Twilight blinked at the question. It was something she had debated with Sunset Shimmer before, but she hadn’t thought Rainbow of all their family would bring it up. “Well, I can’t really speak for the windigoes since I’ve never seen one, but…I don’t really think that timber wolves could be classified as a fury,” she said before propping herself up on an elbow. “They don’t have any power over the nature around them, despite the elemental nature of their construction. They are elemental, but not like the spirits this world has.”

As her explanation finished Rainbow rolled onto her back, and Twilight waited for the question she knew was going to come next.

“Huh. Okay.”

And waited.

“Well um…thanks Twilight.”

And continued to wait.

“…why’re you looking at me like that?” Rainbow asked with worry on her face.

Twilight blinked and notice she had been giving Rainbow one of her rather manic grins, then let out a groan. “Oh come on Rainbow, aren’t you going to ask if we do have anything like this world’s elemental spirits back in Equestria?”

“Oooooo-kay,” she replied. “Do we have any elemental spirits back in Equestria?”

Twilight let out a sigh. Pillow talk with Sunset is so much more fun, she told herself. Although, she supposed that teaching was also pretty rewarding too.

Rainbow might not have been the intellectual that Sunset was, but that didn’t meanTwilight didn’t love her any less. After all, they both shared a love of reading and Twilight had to admit she had always admired Dash for her bravery and heroism. She still remembered the day she came up with the saying ‘what would a brave pony like Rainbow Dash do?’ before charging a hydra. It had become a bit of mental mantra of ‘what would a brave pony like Rainbow Dash do if she sat down and thought out her actions for ten minutes?’ after that, but the basic idea was the same. She had taught Twilight to fly, and in more ways than one…both literally and figuratively considering their newfound means of transportation that kind of scared the hay out of her…or grains, since human stomachs couldn’t digest processed grass.

But despite her oddities, Twilight loved Rainbow for the pony she was, just as much as she loved Sunset and Applejack for who they were in equal amounts. And…as much as she hated to admit it to herself, she was a little grateful for being marooned on this upside down world so that their feelings could develop into something physical. Even if their ‘obedience collar’ safety features were the primary cause of it thanks to the unheard of amounts of pleasure it allowed to them experience, the love was still there, and they had long since proven the level of trust between them was absolute.

Twilight blinked as her mind came back to reality when Rainbow Dash started looking at her funny again.

Oh right, pony explanation, the former alicorn reminded herself. “No Rainbow, what I told you to say-” Twilight cut herself off when she heard a knock at the door, and groaned. “Figures.”

“I thought Sunset and AJ where over in freaky tower,” Rainbow mumbled.

“They wouldn’t need to knock,” Twilight replied as she braced herself with more metal magic, and stood up. She looked at her nude body for a moment, then grabbed her silk tunic that had been left in the nightstand and slipped on the top of her tunic, then trotted, or jogged, downstairs to see what was going on.

As soon as she opened the door, Twilight regretted not coming down in full armor and a privacy screen between her and the man standing outside. Max took one look at the girl with the tanned skin and smiled. “Hey there Twilight, I see you’re wearing my favorite kind of outfit, almost with a hint of nothing.”

Twilight groaned, and invited the boy in with a wave of her arm. As soon as he was inside, she frowned at him. “What do you want Maximus?”

The boy cleared his throat, and actually managed to look away from her breasts. Twilight didn’t know whether to be grateful, or insulted. “Right...about that, um…you see, I need your help. I was going to get Tavi, but he’s asleep...and finals, and no crafting, and um, you and him usually tie for first place in all the um…egghead stuff when Sunset doesn’t so…”

She sighed. “Help with what?”

“There’s this um…thing tonight with a bunch of old farts that the First Lord is supposed to be at called the…um…Board…something.”

As Max lost his concentration, Twilight quickly scanned her mental schedule of events and figured out what Max was trying to remember. “The Board of Speakers of the Crafting Society?” Twilight asked with a frown as her irritation increased. In her estimation, the whole lot of them were a bunch of foolish fossils that were so caught up in their own ideas they couldn’t even begin to appreciate a new viewpoint that clearly put both their arguments into a wider view of things that validated them both and yet showed those old farts just how little they knew!

The boy nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah that’s it!” he exclaimed before coming a little more serious. “They're meeting with the First Lord to get approval for more studies of, uh…” Max squinted up his eyes. "Arthritic Beer, I keep thinking, but those aren't the right words.”

Twilight couldn’t help but giggle a little. Months of loving Rainbow and Applejack had turned her pronunciation Nazism, as Sunset like to call it, that usually had her giving a lesson in conjugation into just a little snicker when she realized just how cute they were for at least trying. “I think you mean Anthropomorphic Theorem.”

Max nodded again, in exactly the same unconcerned way. “That's it. I've got to learn all about it by the time we walk up to the palace, and you're to teach it to me.”

Outside, the evening bells began to ring, signaling the coming of twilight, and Max swore. “Crows! Come on. I've got to be there in a quarter hour!”

“Okay, what do you need to know, um do you need flash cards? Or do you want to just go with a basic lecture? Or…wait,” Twilight said as something occurred to her. If someone as important as the First Lord was attending… “You mean to say you’re going to be asking question to the board itself? Taking part in the discussions?”

Max blinked. “Um, well, maybe?” he said. “I don’t really know what it's all about, and even if you can teach me everything I need to know, I'll probably I need you to be near me hidden in a veil just in case they ask something compli-”

Twilight cut him off with an excited squeal as the million billion possibilities danced in her mind.

Vindication.

Reparation!

VENGEANCE!

“Uh, are you alright?” the boy asked.

“Alright?” Twilight asked as she flew up to meet him eye to eye. “Alright? I’m better than alright!” She grabbed onto his shirt and had a less than spectacular landing when she accidentally flew forward and down instead of just down, but managed to recover and pinned Maximus to the ground. “With your help, I can finally show those idiots just how wrong they are!”

Max gulped a second before Twilight straightened up and opened the door to shake her fist in the general direction of the assembly while sanding directly above Max. “Uh, Twilight-”

“REJECT MY THEORETICAL PAPER ON THE NATURE OF ELEMENTAL SPIRITS WILL YOU? CALL ME A NO NOTHING CRACKPOT OF A KID WHO DOESN’T KNOW A FURY FROM A FURRY, WILL YOU?”

“S-Something wrong.”

“TURN DOWN MY REQUEST FOR A DEMONSTRATION TO PROVE MY THEORIES CORRECT, HUH?”

“There’s a girl on top of me without any pants on,” Max went on in fear.

“WELL, I’LL SHOW YOU!”

“And all I want to do is get her off!”

“I’LL SHOW YOU ALL! MUA-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Twilight went on in her 'mad scientist' laugh as her little ponies responded to her enthusiasm with a bright bolt of lightning that lit up the newly made night sky.