Redemption

The familiar mild burn of the sun's light impacting my face brings me up from the ever-so-comfortable depths of unconsciousness. Giving a mild groan and a yawn, I slowly work my eyes open, giving them time to adjust for the ambient light levels. Yawning, I take stock of my situation.

Laying on my side. Yep. Pleasant warmth present. Yep. Vine Bloom? Yep. Need a shower? Yep. Nodding my head, start-up complete, I start working muscles while staying in a lounging position, not really wanting to move. Sadly, all good things must come to an end.

Retracting my wing, and replacing Vine's covering with a sheet. I swing my legs off the side of the bed and rock to my feet. Checking the time, and finding I have about an hour before breakfast is scheduled to arrive, I move to the door and engage the little lock on the door. I then pull my wire out of a pocket and lace it through the hinges, making opening the door an interesting experience at best. The room is now more or less secured, and I choose to ignore the window, because what else am I going to do about it?

Moving to the bathroom, I open the door and walk in, heading for the admittedly tiny shower. I start removing my armor, noting its condition. Most of it has the standard enchant to keep it relatively free of dirt and grime, but I should see about getting my armorall kit from the princesses so I can maintenance my gear properly. Once free of my gear, I move into the shower and enjoy the buck out of getting clean. Once that's finished, I move to the sink and inspect my face in the mirror. Still ugly as buck? Yep. Great! Facial hair? Nope. Great! Glad to know SOME good can come of being part bug!

Once satisfied with my personal grooming, namely making sure my mane isn't running rampant and there's no annoying facial facial hair growing, I reassemble my attire and exit the bathroom. Moving to the door, I disengage the lock and my own field expedient doorstop.

Moving to the bed, I tap Vine lightly on the shoulder, catching her punch out of habit, I wait until she's a little more conscious, then point her towards the bathroom. Nodding, and yawning, she stands up, shaking herself and stretching before heading into the bathroom for her own cleanliness cycle.

With her out of the way, I take the time to straighten both beds up, rearrange the various unused pieces of medical equipment, and then collapse into a chair to wait. Fortunately, I don't wait long before breakfast arrives, and I commence to murder the heck out of a bowl of oats, passing Vine hers as she comes out of the bathroom.

Breakfast finished, we start passing the time by tossing our eating utensils back and forth. While this is ridiculously easy for me, it is excellent hand-hoof coordination training for ponies, and also serves to kill time while we wait for something, ANYTHING to happen.

After awhile spent doing that, we call it quits on throwing stuff at each other and end up laying out on my over-sized bed talking about random stuff, or to be more exact, complaining about the lack of activity.

"So, think Princess Celestia would mind if we like went out for a run? Or maybe just wandered the hospital?" Vine asks, on her back with her fore-hooves held out at full extension as she just stares up at the ceiling between them.

I'm laying on my stomach, face laying in the pillow, idly flapping my wings for no reason other than to do something. "I'm afraid they would, and while I like Princess Celestia and her sister Princess Luna well enough, you should totally meet Princess Luna by the way, I think their reactions would be counter to our health and wellbeing. I've spent enough time in cages both simple and fancy, I'd rather not experience any more if I can help it," I reply, my voice muffled by the pillow.

Vine groans and rolls over, crawling onto my lower back and resting her muzzle up between my slowly flapping wings. "I like R&R as much as the next pony, but at this point, I'd kill for ... well, something to kill!" she whines. I laugh, earning a well placed hoof in my kidney, causing my laugh to turn pained but continue nonetheless.

"Sadly Vine, I don't think we'll have to kill too much, this place seems pretty calm. Likely the worst you can look forward to is some thieves and possibly smugglers," I state, lifting my head and spitting out pillow, earning a solemn nod from her.

"It's going to be weird for awhile, isn't it?" She asks quietly, I can only hum my agreement.

"Yeah, it's pretty strange here, no stormwalls, no bunkers, heck, you should see the city! Oh! I totally forgot! There was a big building there where musicians went to perform! We need to see that place first chance we get, it was awesome!" I enthuse, she only smiles, shaking her head.

"It's called an amphitheater, assuming I'm thinking of the right type of building, but yes, they are very awesome. I wonder if this place has bars, I can't wait to see you in one," She snickers.

"Ugh, is that one of those places they serve heavily-salted drinks?" I groan. "I like salt just as much as the next human, but the things you do to some good drinks should be illegal," I reply, laying my head down sideways, and drooping my wings off the sides of the bed.

Suddenly, the door blows open, resulting in myself and Vine both exploding off the opposite side of the bed from the door. Planting my shoulder against the bed's frame, I lift it up onto its side as a makeshift shield while Vine producess a handy length of metal from somewhere, probably part of one of the I.V. stands, and braces herself against the bed beside me, waiting for the rush.

"Hey! . . . oh, ummm, I'm sorry, I . . . I really messed up, didn't I?" I collapse to the ground with a shuddering breath of relief at the sound of Twilight's voice talking.

Vine on the other hand . . . yeah, she's angry. "Are you bucking STUPID? You don't just bust in like that! Give a pony some buckin' warning! Arrrrgh!" She covers her head and growls in frustration at the end.

I slowly stand, gathering Vine, I pull her up and deposit her on her gurney, and walk back to my bed, slowly lowering it back down into its appropriate position, before I confront a deeply ashamed Twilight standing in the door. Shaking my head, I give her a weak smile, which only seems to make her wilt further. "Come on, Ma'am. We don't blame you, but it'd really be best if you warned all your friends to avoid making any sudden entrances around us. I promise we'll work on our reactions, but in the meantime, old survival habits die hard," I soothe, while grabbing the bedding that was now on the floor and tossing it back on the bed for the time being.

The bed more or less taken care of, I move to the door. Pushing it closed, I pull Twilight close, eliciting a squeak from her as I wrap her in a hug. "It's okay, Ma'am. Why don't you come and tell us what made you so excited?" I soothe as I rub her just below an ear, helping her relax.

Twilight slowly steps away from me, a blush adorning her cheeks, but still manages to give me a weak smile as some enthusiasm returns to her expression. "I just received a reply from Celestia! She said it was okay with her for you to pose as a human, just, don't do anything too terribly stupid, is what she said," she says with a smile, looking kind of confused at the end, earning a giggle from Vine's direction.

Looking over at Vine, Twilight continues to frown in confusion. "What?" She asks, glancing up at me to see me shaking my head with an amused smile on my face.

"She knows me too well, eh Vine Bloom?" I snark. Vine just laughs. "Alright, I'm going to need some local anesthetic, or failing that something to dull the pain," I state, making mental preparations. "And can you ask your Princess about expediting the delivery of my clothes? I'll need something to wear that WON'T have the local ponies running around like crazy, lets save that for next Tuesday, huh?" I make another bad joke, and find myself the only one laughing at it, whatever, I thought it was funny.

Twilight blinks up at me a few times before another blush literally EXPLODES across her face. "Oh my gosh! I forgot your gear! I got a crate of it delivered and totally forgot about it because of Celestia's letter! I'm so sorry, let me go get it!" With that, her horn lights up, and with a mild crack she teleports, right then, right there. This is one smart Mare.

Sighing, I turn around and move to comfort a now very wired Vine, wrapping my arms around her, I roll my eyes and start doing a mental count. About the 20 mark, there's another crack, a flash of light, Vine shudders in my arms, eyes shut tight as she silently cries. And I stare at Twilight, murder on my mind.

To her credit, Twilight doesn't run screaming. But catching the mood, and realizing her further blunder, she only flounders for a second before bowing her head and slowly making her way OUT of the room, leaving a small crate behind.

Holding Vine close, I rock back and forth for awhile, until she calms down a bit, then I set her down on my bed, and move to lift the crate up onto the bed beside her. Finding and popping the release, I open it up, to find most of my clothes, as well as my toiletries kit inside. Lifting those up, I find my pack of protein tabs, but everything else is still being held, including my blades, my sparring gear, and my medical kit, buck.

Sighing, I set aside a pair of pants and a simple shirt, closing the crate back up, I move to Vine's side and sit on the edge of the bed, letting her lean against me, wrapping my wing around her in turn. We hold this pose for awhile, just watching the door in a companionable silence.

A few minutes later, there's a soft knock on the door, shortly followed by a very apologetic Twilight entering the room with a slightly bemused Nurse Redheart balancing a tray on her back containing a small bottle and a hypodermic needle ready for use.

Shuddering slightly, I turn around and lay out on the bed. "Alright, Vine, can you?" I ask, she nods and moves over to Nurse Redheart, she takes the needle, with a silent glare at said nurse's insistence that she administer the medication. "Nurse, please, just let her? She knows enough medicine to do this properly, plus she's one of the only ponies I'll tolerate near me with anything sharp and pointy," I ask, silently suppressing a number of unpleasant emotions.

She's not happy, but relents, and Vine hops up on the bed beside me, moving to sit on my lower back. She proceeds to put the needle in at multiple points, squeezing out the anesthetic slowly. She starts at the top of each wing where it joins my back and works her way down. Nurse Redheart blanches a little at the amount of narcotics she's putting into me, but I shake my head, stopping her from protesting, though she does NOT look happy. I think I'll owe her an explanation after this.

"Alright, you should be ready," Vine finally says. I tense my wings slightly, but don't feel anything. Nodding my head, I start focusing inwards. "Are you sure you don't want something to brace your teeth on?" Vine asks in a worried tone of voice, I just shake my head slightly.

Finding the spark inside myself, I poke it mentally, and feel it grow. Picturing the changes I wish, I push that mental image into the spark, then start feeding emotion into it. As I do, even with the narcotics dulling the nerves, I feel a slow burn start forming in my back. Pushing more power into the change, I feel the burn slowly increase into a racking pain. Forcing my jaws to release their gritting pressure, I push more energy in, accelerating the transformation, and causing my back to ignite in greenish flames.

Biting back a scream, I sit there in agony for an endless instant, and then the pain thankfully stops, and my world seems to resolidify. Resting my head on my pillow, I sit there panting, before gingerly rolling over and sitting up, the absence of wings now conspicuous to my still tender nerve endings.

Glancing at my impromptu audience, I look from Twilight's absolutely entranced face, to Nurse Readheart's semi-horrified face, and feel a weak chuckle try to make a bid for freedom. Squashing the urge, I'm too darn tired, I smile weakly instead at Nurse Redheart. "Sorry Ma'am. I have a rather unique condition that allows me to change my physical form, but involves rather massive amounts of pain as well. I've had narcotics put into me so many times, I'm all but immune to anything but massive doses, and even then, the anesthetics you saw put into me have already been neutralized," I explain, stretching my thankfully pain-free back muscles, acclimating myself to the absence of wings.

Standing up, I grab the clothes I'd laid out, walking towards the bathroom, I give Twilight a warning glance as I go, to which she ducks her head and weakly nods, prompting me to smile before I shut the door and start doffing my armor. Once I'm in some less militaristic apparel, I duck back out of the bathroom, and pop open my crate, remembering something I forgot. Finding a small bag left in my pile of clothing, I pull it open and fish out two collars. Checking them both over, I find neither one is enchanted, buck.

"Hey Twilight?" I call out, and she twitches before finding her voice.

"Yes, Redemit?" She says hesitantly, part of me goes out to the young academic, the other part still wants to smack some sense into her for scaring Vine.

"You're an experienced mage, think you could put an illusion on my eyes? It shouldn't have to last too long, just until I can get one of my specialized collars, or make another," I ask, causing her to tilt her head at me in confusion, until she remembers the yellow-irised slits I have currently, at which point she nods.

"I can do that, mind kneeling down?" she asks. I nod and go to a knee, allowing her to walk up and examine my eyes closely. Raising a hoof, she turns my head side to side, her earlier reticence buried under her professionalism making sure she does a good job, something I can respect. “What color?” she asks.

I shrug. “Eh, dull green should work. A common color, less chance of being remembered,” I state thoughtfully.

Placing her horn against my forehead, she closes her eyes as her horn lights up softly. My vision ripples, like I'm standing inside a heat wave, then after a few moments, the ripples stop and she steps back opening her eyes. Looking at me a moment, inspecting her work, she nods her head.

Standing up, I move to my crate again, folding up my under apparel, I pack it in. Glancing at Vine, I stop for a moment at the odd smile on her face. Raising a brow, I look at her questioningly.

Vine giggles. "Not your usual color, but you look good nonetheless, very scary," she giggles, and I roll my eyes. "Just one last thing . . ." she says with a smirk, twirling my collar around a hoof.

Sighing, I facepalm. "That's mine, no, I won't put it on you, now give it back," I state, somehow keeping a straight face as I reach out and grab my collar from her unresisting hoof, her face a deep crimson. Okay, yeah, can't hold it back. I bust out laughing collapsing my upper body onto the bed as I pound it lightly a few times with a fist.

Vine sits there, her mouth opening and closing without sound coming out for a second, before she wakes up and narrows her eyes at me. "Ohhhh, you're going to pay for that one!" she hisses at me, fuming. Twilight muffles a giggle behind Vine's back, her own face flushed. I can only collapse to the floor, still laughing. Vine just sighs. "Alright, you won that one. Now come oooon," she says in a slight whine with big soulful eyes, glistening with unshed tears.

I chuckle at her display, but relent. Handing her the collar, I turn around and allow her to buckle it on, making sure it's setting properly. After that, she climbs onto my shoulders and rests her head atop my own. "Alright, ready to go Alpha?" I ask in a playful voice, her only response in a happy giggle.

Looking at Twilight, I nod my head, careful not to give myself and Vine a good conk to the cranium. "Have y'all got some kind of housing arrangements set up, or do we need to figure something out?" I ask, snapping my crate closed and tucking it under an arm.

Twilight giggles a bit more, but sobers quickly at my serious tone. "Yeah, we were going to stick you out at Applejack's place, but if you can't be around other humans without having a contest of wills, we decided my place would be best," She states, turning to the door.

I nod, giving Nurse Redheart a last smile, I turn and head out after Twilight. Blanking my face, I let Vine direct me around. We get to the front desk, and surprisingly don't have to fill out any paperwork, we just head straight out . . . into a wide open stretch of terrain, little to no cover, and no weapons on us, unless Vine still has the short bar from earlier. I feel my muscles tense up, but manage to fight the mild panic attack of being outside with no protection.

Vine on the other hand, is absolutely freaking out, guess she didn't keep the makeshift weapon then. Dropping my crate and reaching up, I grab her shivering form and wrap it in my arms. Looking down at Twilight, I give a small toss of my head, telling her to move it along.

Twilight nods, grabbing my luggage with her magic, she sets off briskly down the street with me in tow.

I focus most of my attention on the shivering pegasus in my arms and making a second note to talk to the princess about some kind of counseling. Taking the occasional glance around, I'm rather surprised by the . . . varied architecture. I see everything from a gingerbread house to a regular thatched hut.

Ponies move out about all around us, the occasional human being led around on a leash or just following their owners. Most are carrying heavy materials of one sort or another. I glance around, watching them all move around without a care in the world, nopony's watching the sky nervously, no guards on the corner ready to raise the alarm. No shaken vagrants or ex-soldiers sitting on the corner, staring ahead with eyes that speak of death of the soul. I look down, keeping my eyes on the ground in front of me to suppress the jealousy of these happy, unscarred ponies.

I almost missed our destination. Glancing up at an approaching doorway, I look up, and up, and up. I stand there a second looking up at the tree, before I glance down at Twilight and raise an eyebrow. She just smiles and moves to the door, opening it up.

I step inside and admire the sheer number of books on the walls. Shelves reaching up past my head, which means anypony but a unicorn is going to need a ladder. And not a few shelves, but ranks of them. There may be more books here than I've seen swarmlings. "Huh, I figured you were an academic, I didn't think you were quite this . . . driven though."

Twilight blinks at me before staring at all the books, then laughs. "This is a library, these aren't all mine, they're here for anypony to come and read," she says in a happy tone. I nod my head as she moves to the door and flips a sign on it to show 'closed' to the outside world.

Moving in I see a handy reading nook with a couple chairs and cushions. Moving to it, I place Vine on a seat and rest beside her, stroking her mane as she looks around, already calming down. "We're not under threat of attack here. I know it's bad being outside without weaponry, but lets face it, we're not exactly safe to be around when we're armed," I state soothingly, earning a small smile.

Vine eventually stands and moves to start looking over the books in the shelves while I go to find Twilight at a desk I assume is hers, setting out a number of papers and scrolls, arranging them and then putting them away in various places and drawers.

"Question, where are we bunking down?" I ask, Twilight glances up at me obviously thinking hard.

"Well, I was going to put you in the guest room, but after that trip through town, I think you'd be more comfortable in the basement?" she questions.

I tilt my head to the side a second, then nod my head. "That'd probably be best. Who would I talk to about finding out who owns the land near the forest we were just in? I'd like to see about setting up a house at some point, preferably close to town, but with easy access to the forest. How far is the forest from here, anyway?"

She looks at me a second, then obviously realizes I have no idea what the surrounding area looks like. Nodding her head, she opens her mouth. “It's about a 45 minute walk from the library to the edge of the Everfree Forest,” She states, causing me to nod my head.

I chuckle. "Oh, wow, okay, that'll make life easy then. Still, is there any land bordering the forest that could be purchased by a private entity?" I ask, causing her to give me an odd look for a moment. "What? I can use big words too, heck, you spend long enough staring at a busy court with nothing better to do and try NOT picking them up," I quip, Twilight just shakes her head.

"Although . . . there is another problem I could use your help with," I say in a softer tone, sidling closer to Twilight, who stares at me with a confused look on her face. "It's rather personal," I add, looking around to see if Vine's nearby, because having her make more quips about it just isn't fun. Glancing back at Twilight, I find myself confused to see her looking semi-frantic. "I could use your help learning to read," I finish, causing her mouth to drop open as she does a double take.

"Wait . . . what? You can't read?" She squeaks out in a relieved tone of voice.

I raise an eyebrow. "Yeah, I didn't have time to learn before, and I'd really like to," I respond.

She holds a hoof to her chest as she takes a deep breath. I find myself growing concerned.

"Are you okay?" I ask, tilting my head to the side.

"Just fine!" She replies in an overly cheerful tone, causing me to give her a deadpan look which she studiously ignores. "I can help get you started, but there's another mare by the name of Cheerilee you'll probably want to talk to," she says reasonably. I nod my head until I think of a rather delicate point.

"Ummm, wouldn't that blow my cover?" I ask, and she facehooves.

"Right, didn't think of that," Twilight says. "Anyway, it'll have to wait today, I have some things I need to catch up on," She states in an apologetic tone of voice. I nod my head happily.

"That's not a problem, anyway, back to my original question, who would I talk to about land rights for the area near the forest?" I ask again.

Twilight stares up the ceiling a second before shrugging. "I'd say ask Mayor Mare about it," she replies, the pronunciation of those two words is so close together I'd almost think she just said the same word twice, so I find myself staring at her baffled. She just waves her hooves around in the air. "I know! Don't ask, I didn't. It's like trying to explain Pinkie Pie," She retorts to my unspoken question. I shrug my shoulders.

"Alright, where would I find the basement?" I ask. In response, Twilight points to a door by the stairs, moving to it, I open it up and shuffle down the stairs, finding the room musty, and rather cluttered, it nonetheless proves defensible, with enough room for us to sleep, and even train in. It will do just fine.

Moving back up the stairs, I start making a mental list of materials we'll need to acquire. The first item on the list being access to monetary funds. After that, bedding was a good place to start, I could sleep just about anywhere, but having something to cover the floor would be nice. And I sure as heck wasn't letting Vine Bloom sleep on the floor. She needed safety and security while she adapted into a safer environment. Heck, I did too, but I think I'm going to try it in an environment not quite so crowded. And the nearby forest sounded like an excellent place to explore, compared to my world anyway.

Shrugging off the wayward thoughts, I returned to my mental list. Adding things on as I considered the day ahead. Returning to the library proper to find Vine with her nose stuck in a book. Chuckling, I walk over and look over her shoulder. Yep, still can't read. Rubbing her shoulder by way of greeting, I ask. "Enjoying it?"

Vine Bloom looks up at me with a smile. "Yep! It's about some archaeologist by the name of Daring Do. It's rather fun to read," She replies. I nod my head and sit down beside her chair, reaching up with an arm to lay it across her shoulders, giving her a tactile sensation of security.

Watching her, I'm saddened to see that even while reading the book, her ears still constantly swivel, checking her surroundings. I find myself doing the same thing, but then, I was always a predator, and paranoia is a guard's best friend. But to see this in someone as sweet as Vine Bloom... after walking through the town today, I can truly see the damage that was caused to her spirit. And I can only weep for all the pain she's suffered. Sitting down beside her and laying my head on her side, I find myself feeling content, ready to just sit here, and listen to her heart beat as she breathes steadily, and enjoys a good book. Buck it, need to learn to read, now I'm jealous.

After about half an hour, I excuse myself, and move back to the basement. I grab Twilight along the way, much to her chagrin. Examining the room, I start planning the layout, and begin packing up the various items under her direction so I don't end up breaking something or unleashing whatever the heck it is she stores down here. This including a disturbing number of odd machines that she uses for various experiments, some of which she has planned for me, crud.

Feeling like some teenager's science experiment, I continue cleaning the room, eventually breaking out a broom and rag to start dealing with the copious amounts of dust and grime built up in the various corners of the room.

Several hours later, I shuffle out of a much neater, and definitely cleaner, basement. I see Vine talking to a juvenile dragon. Said dragon, upon seeing me, decides that he has some important business upstairs, and lights off like he actually had wings, which is interesting, because he doesn't have any. This town is weird sometimes.

Watching him disappear, and hearing a door close, one might even say slam, upstairs, I turn to Vine with a raised brow. "They have dragons in town?" I ask.

Vine Bloom shakes her head. "Apparently, he's Twilight's assistant, something about high resistance to magic and stupidity," She says, with a smirk at the last part.

"I heard that!" Twilight calls out from her desk. We both bust out laughing.

"Alright, I seriously need a shower now, the basement's ready for habitation as soon as we can find bedding," I state, heading for Twilight's desk.

"Hey Twilight, may I use your shower?" I ask. She nods and directs me upstairs to the proper location.

Nodding, and grabbing a second set of clothes, I head up. Feeling myself being watched, I glance around to see a bedroom door cracked open. While it's dark inside, I can see the little dragon peeking out. Sighing, I decide I'll just warn him now. "I'm no threat little one, but don't sneak around too much, I'm kind of paranoid right now. If you don't want to be around me fine, but if you must observe me, do it openly," After my long winded statement, the door closes, and I shake my head, poor little dragon.

Moving into the bathroom, I strip off my dirty clothes and jump into the shower. While still small, cleanliness outweighs the cramped quarters. After I'm finished, I put the clean pair of pants and shirt on before heading back down, leaving my hair as it is to dry on its own.
Coming out of the steam wreathed bathroom, I glance downstairs to see Vine and Twilight chatting, what little I hear appears to be the standard conversation I'm used to from large numbers of females, or in other words, a bunch of social nuances I neither understand nor desire too.

Coming down the stairs, I notice a few books laid out on a table, glancing at them curiously, I recognize some foal books, the sort you give to someone who's just learning to . . . oh, right, guess I should thank Twilight. Tossing her a small wave, I grab the small pile and head down the stairs into the basement.

Finding a handy crate, I sit down at a table, clearing it off, I spread the books out. Opening the first one, I find a list of the letters with pictures depicting various objects that evidently start with said letter. I lose a couple more hours as I read and compare various books together until my stomach lets me know in no uncertain terms I need food.

Coming up the stairs, I almost run into Vine who just waves at me. "Food's up!" she states happily, turning around and heading for the kitchen. I follow her and find Twilight sitting at a table set with a wide variety of foods, from flower sandwiches to a simple salad, including, I felt my eyes widen and my mouth water, a bowl of apples and oranges. Grabbing an orange, I shuck the skin with an experienced touch, passing half to Vine automatically, much to her delight. Popping a wedge into my mouth, I can't help but grin at the semi-tart watery taste.

Hearing someone approaching, both Vine and I end up watching the door. In walks the poor little dragon, upon seeing me he stops, gulping. I just shake my head and toss him a little wave, and then do my best to ignore him. He shuffles past, doing his best to stay as far away from me as possible. Moving to the table, he takes a seat by Twilight, putting her and Vine between us, I just shake my head.

"Hey Spike," Twilight says, giving him a nuzzle, he smiles, but doesn't say anything, probably still terrified of me for some reason. Eh, I'm sure he'll be fine given enough time to acclimate, otherwise, we'll be out of here just as soon as I can get alternate housing set up.

After I finish massacring the orange, I grab an apple, looking at Vine, I see her already with one in her hooves, steadily devouring it, so I don't bother halving mine and simply settle for taking a big bite and enjoying the sweet sugary taste.

While Vine and I enjoy the normally-rare fruits, Twilight just sits there, giggling into a hoof. "I thought you'd enjoy those, plus I owed you an apology from this morning, so I went and grabbed some," She states.

Wiping my face off, I grin back at her. "And I certainly appreciate the thought, thank you," I reply.

Vine nods her own agreement, mouth still full of apple as she devours the core, leaving only the stem and seeds behind.

The meal goes smoothly after that, we talk, even joke around a little bit, given a chance to unwind, Spike even gets over most of his fear at my presence. Twilight persuades Vine to go with her and the girls on some kind of get together at the bakery Pinkie works at in a week or so. I just sit there and listen, smiling as Vine talks and laughs, pretending for a time all is well with the world. Only that night will tell.

After the meal is finished, poor little Spike gets stuck with KP duty. I'm tempted to offer to help, but he still seems reticent about my presence. Instead, I retreat to the basement to study the books some more. Twilight drags Vine off to discuss something or other that involves looking at me and giggling. I find myself making another mental note to warn people about anything involving me and ribbons.

After another couple of hours, I have what I believe to be the phonetic sounds down for most of the letters involved, but I'm not particularly close to figuring out how to string them together. I'll have to get some help for this part. But it's getting late, and I'm not particularly worried about moving as fast as possible with my literacy.

Moving back up to the main floor of the library, and placing the books neatly back on the table where I got them from, I look around, trying to find Vine and/or Twilight to sort out bedding arrangements. Hearing some more giggling coming from upstairs, I make the grievous error of climbing them to investigate the noise.

Coming to what I can only assume is the doorway to Twilight's room, I poke my head in slowly, only to find a big grin on my face as I see Vine Bloom wearing a rather frilly pink dress that nonetheless accentuates her lime green coloration. Suppressing a snicker, I just continue to watch as Twilight starts applying odd highlights to her light blue mane. "Dang Alpha, I don't know who the stallion is, but you got him in the bag, and if he doesn't go willingly, let me know and I can stuff him in for you," I snark with a small smile on my face.

Twilight jumps and gives me a rather angry stare, but Vine just looks back at me and rolls her eyes. "Uh-huh, as if I needed to go this far to land a stallion. You should know better by this point, I just decided I wanted to see what regular people did for fun, you know, that doesn't involve getting drunk," she replies, obviously pointing fun at the favorite past time of soldiers everywhere. I can only shrug my general agreement with her sentiment, I don't like the feeling of inebriation, nothing feels right for hours the next day.

"Yeah, just figured I'd stop by to find out what the sleeping arrangements are, I'm feeling about ready to get some sleep, figure we can get an early morning run in without the crowds," I give Vine a significant look, causing her to hang her head, but she nods nonetheless.

"Yeah, I see your point," Vine replies, a grimace still on her face.

"Hey now, don't be like that! You look positively gorgeous, at least take off the pretty stuffs before you get so sour," I make a rather bad even by my standards joke to try lightening the mood, Vine just throws a brush at me. Twilight makes a shooing motion at me, I take the hint and duck out of the room with a smile.

Heading back downstairs, I find myself wondering where Spike's at, but I shrug it off and find a handy cushion to sit on as I wait. A couple minutes later Vine comes back down, minus the dress and assorted cosmetics. I however notice she still has the highlights in her mane, but I don't mention it. If she's finding something to unwind with, I'm sure as heck not complaining.

Twilight pulls out a pony-sized bed from what I assume is her guest room, and brings it down to the basement with her magic. Turning to me apologetically she states, "I'm sorry, I don't have a matress your size, but I do have some blankets that should serve." I wave off her apology.

"I'm fine with a little padding Ma'am. I don't mind the floor, at this point, I'd probably prefer it to a bed," I state with a grimace at the last part. Yawning, I take the bedding she hands me and gladly shuffle my way down. Laying out a simple pallet, I move to Vine's bed, making it up as well, since hands are awesome.

Moving back to my own pallet, I empty the various odds and ends out of my pockets, finding no weapons, but I still have my spool of wire, a compass, a key that doesn't fit anything anymore, heck even a few bits I had left somewhere. My pockets now empty, I lay myself out on my pallet and prepare to enjoy the buck out of a good nights sleep, yeah right, I'm betting I wake up screaming at some point.

About ten minutes later, after Twilight has headed off to bed, I feel somepony snuggle up against me, opening my eyes in the darkness, I see Vine Bloom. Shrugging, I pull her close and pull the sheets over us. Laying my head down, I let sleep take me away swiftly.